When the book was opened, and the first four seals were broken, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse emerged. One interpretation has the figure on the white horse representing Christ, with the rider on the red horse war, the black horse famine, and the pale horse death. The fourth horseman, death, ruled over a quarter of the earth through war and famine. Bible experts such as Hal Lindsay, author of The Late, Great Planet Earth , believe that we have already entered into the last times as prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Like the Bible and Nostradamus, his book has been a best seller, with more than 25 million copies sold since it was published in the early 1970's.
Famine threatens ever larger portions of the globe despite increased food production.
And thousands die each day from a host of preventable diseases, Aids, and even more dreaded afflictions, such as those wrought by the Ebola virus as dramatized in the film, Outbreak. Skin cancer is also becoming epidemic as the ozone layer continues to break down. When the fifth seal was opened, all those who had been slain for the word of God appeared. The stars fell from the sky, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. The angels came and marked the foreheads of the 144,000 who would be preserved on the day of tribulation.