The 2nd Seal is predicting a period of time immediately following a time of unprecedented world peace, safety and freedom when satan will incite people and nations to rise up against each other and kill one another and will result in widespread violence and fiery bloodshed. The violence and bloodshed of the 2nd Seal are the beginning of sorrow and will usher in the remaining end time events upon the world as spoken of by Jesus and the prophets.
When we let the bible interpret itself the symbols used in prophecy unlock the mystery of the interpretation and allow us to determine the fulfillment events. The meaning of the symbols is in the bible itself, lets examine:
2nd Seal
And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
The horse and riders are personifications to help portray the surrounding symbols, the color of the horse tells us the nature of the events. The word red in the bible can mean several things:
All of these symbols could in part represent the period described by this prophecy (as discussed bellow) but the most significant symbol is that of blood which for the avoidance of doubt is further clarified by expressly stating the purpose of the red horse and rider which is to "take peace" from earth and that men should "kill one another". The color red therefore describes this period as a bloodbath of violence and conflict in the world.
The greek word 'pyrros' used to describe the color is not the normal word for red (eruthros) but is the color of fire suggesting a flickering fiery brightness of heat and ferocity. (From whence comes our word "pyrotechnics" or fireworks). This would suggest a loud and rapidly expanding splashes of violence and bloodshed across the globe, perhaps not dissimilar to the recent outbreaks of increasing extremist terror attacks (List of Terror Attacks in 2016). The violence predicted here will spread like wild fire and be outside of control in the same way that fireworks cannot be controlled once they are ignited.
The red may also represent sin, and no doubt during this period of time the world will be steeped in sin which will result in violence and war.
It is significant that the same greek word for the color red is used to describe the Dragon or Satan in Revelation 12
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads... Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.... And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
We can clearly see in this related verse that it is in fact Satan who is instigating the violence and bloodshed because he is angry at people of earth and God who has provided salvation for them, and he knows his kingdom and power is about to be taken away.
The events of the second seal are closely linked to the beginning of end time prophecy described by Jesus in Matthew 24 as the beginning of sorrow:
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation (first event), and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Furthermore this link and interpretation is also confirmed by the book Great Controversy when describing the last future events of earths history:
Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. His temptations are leading multitudes to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.
The red horse and rider therefore represent a period of wide spread violence and bloodshed instigated by Satan in an attempt to destroy and distract the people from preparing for Jesus imminent second coming.
We have already established in the 1st Seal interpretation that the correct order and movements of seals for the end time interpretation is given in the parallel prophecy in Zechariah 6, where the 3rd Seal events precede and cause the events of the 1st Seal. However the movements and order of occurance of the 2nd Seal red horse are not explicitly stated there. There are however two clues that give us a better understanding of when the second seal occurs relative to the others:
The red horse rider is allowed to "take peace" from the earth. In order to take peace there has to be peace to begin with. This suggests that the 2nd Seal follows immediately AFTER a period of relative world peace. When writing about the end times Paul also confirms this transition from peace to end time events:
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
However peace and war alternate in cycles and are recurring all throughout history, so this must be describing a special period of peace perhaps or an unprecedented period of worldwide peace, safety and freedom that will occur just before the end times. Arguably the late 19th & 20th century are the times described here and many people would agree with that assesment including the President of the United States who recently said: “We are fortunate to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history." (Obama: We’re living in ‘most peaceful’ era in human history) If indeed our time is the period of peace described here then the recent sudden rise of violent extremist terrorist attacks around the world is entirely consistent with the prophecy and we are entering into the beginning of the fulfillment of the second seal.
When Jesus describes the end time events in Matthew 24 the first major events that start the end times or period of sorrow is nations rising against one another. Nations rising against one another is another way of saying peace will be taken from the earth and their will be war and conflict. Jesus is therefore describing the events also foretold by the second seal and helping us understand that these events will kick off the end times.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Threfore the red horse described by the second seal will occur after a period of unprecedented worldwide peace, safety and freedom and will kick-off the rest of the end time prophetic events during the time of sorrow, time of trouble and great tribulation.
A sword in the Bible represents conflict and strife. It is often used to describe a time of God's judgement and most often this judgement is demonstrated by the removal of Gods restraining spirit on human passion which causes those who have rejected God to rise up against one another and kill each other in war. This is entirely consistent with the rest of the interpretation where the Dragon called the Devil is allowed to incite the nations of the world to war against one another after an unprecedented period of world peace, resulting in great bloodshed described by a great sword - demonstrating a thoroughly effective instrument of death.
The 2nd Seal represents a period of time immediately following a time of unprecedented world peace, safety and freedom when satan will instigate people and nations to rise up against each another to kill one another and will result in widespread violence and fiery bloodshed. The violence and bloodshed of the 2nd Seal are the beginning of sorrow and will usher in the remaining end time events upon the world as spoken of by Jesus and the prophets.