As we have stated numerous times in the course of this Study, the book of Revelation is first and foremost a spiritual book. It is a book of spiritual realities communicated by means of signs and symbols. You will not read the fulfillment of its prophecies on the pages of Newsweek magazine, but you will see them manifest in the lives of men and women who walk with God and in the great accomplishments of the kingdom of God on earth. The word of the Lord in its spiritual meaning does not describe for us the carnal warfare between nations. For what have wars between nations to do with the kingdom of God? God does not conquer by carnal weapons, therefore the warfare between nations has nothing whatever to do with the kingdom purposes of God! This is where people go astray in their thinking. They suppose that God acts politically or militarily. Oh, no! The battles beheld in spirit by the eagle-eyed seer of Patmos signify spiritual combats, combats between light and darkness, between spirit and flesh, between Adam and Christ, between the carnal mind and the precious mind of Christ, between truth and error, between righteousness and evil, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Babylon, between life and death. A man must experience this combat within himself to become a spiritual conqueror and possess the promised land. Our Lord, when in the world, carried on such spiritual warfare in an infinitely greater way than others, overcoming the compounded powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil, opening up the way to victory and triumph for all who are willing to follow Him into the lifestyle of the kingdom of God.
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"John saw the horses and they that sat on them. This meant victory! The old Roman conquerors, when celebrating a brilliant conquest, rode down the avenues of the Imperial City upon a snow-white steed, and received the plaudits of the people. The Lord is described in the Revelation as the Word of God emblematically riding on a white horse; it is the image of aggressive action, of a prosperous conquest over His foes. And those who follow Him are the armies of heaven, all of them riding upon white horses! The horse in scripture represents strength, and fearlessness to accomplish its task. Long millenniums ago the war-horse was described thus by the patriarch Job: “He paweth the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrightened; neither turneth he back from the sword. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage…he saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting” (Job 39:21-25)."