The Man On Horseback

Strobe Talbott, our Deputy Secretary of State, believes that the United States will not exist in its present form in the 21st Century -because nationhood throughout the world will become obsolete!¹

Talbott is looking forward to a world government run by one global authority. "Within the next hundred years ... nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority," Talbott declared in an essay in Time magazine.² "A phrase briefly fashionable in the mid-20th century-'citizen of the world'-will have assumed real meaning by the end of the 21st," Talbott continued. "All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary."

So the dream of the globalists is gaining a continually higher profile in current events. President Clinton's acknowledged mentor, Professor Carroll Quigley, laid out the insider's strategic plan years ago.³ The path toward a global government -and global tyranny - seems to be looming ever more visibly on our immediate horizon.

According to Dr. Michael Coffman,⁴ United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan and the international community are planning to implement a legal structure for world government in a redefinition of the UN Charter in the Millennium Summit, to be convened in September 2000.

Yet, what does the Bible say?

The Biblical View

In Revelation 13 we learn that the time will come when no one will be able to buy or sell without pledging allegiance to a coming world leader.⁵ Most prophecy buffs assume that there will be a total world government in place at that time.

Well, not exactly. Armageddon involves a four-power conflict.⁶ And we know that there will be some regions that elude his grasp.⁷ But there will arise a World Leader with megalomaniacal ambitions.

The Man on Horseback

He makes his first appearance in Revelation 6 as a conqueror riding a white horse.⁸ (Strangely, he is carrying a bow rather than a sword. The term is toxon - toxon in the Greek, first used as a token of a covenant in Genesis 9:13. Could this be an allusion to the covenant that he enforces in Daniel 9:27?)

The Bible has much to say about this personage. Identified as the "Seed of the Serpent" in Genesis 3:15, there are over 33 allusions in the Old Testament and at least 13 in the New Testament. There is even a physical description of him in Zechariah.⁹

It is remarkable about how much is said of his career. He will be an intellectual genius,¹⁰ a persuasive orator,¹¹ a shrewd political manipulator,¹² a successful commercial genius,¹³ a forceful military leader, ¹⁴ a powerful organizer,¹⁵ as well as a unifying religious guru.¹⁶ Paul declares that he will ultimately set himself to be worshiped in the Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem:

...that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

-2 Thessalonians 2:4

("Exalteth himself above all that is called God." That includes Allah, the god of Islam. He is accepted by the world as a false Christ: Antichristo, in the Greek, means instead of Christ as well as against Christ, as we commonly assume. He apparently is initially accepted by Israel as their Messiah. And, somehow, he is also accepted by the Muslim world-perhaps as the Twelfth Imam, which they are presently anticipating. Remarkable fellow. Indeed, Satan's finest hour, it would seem.)¹⁷

Most expositors believe he will be a Gentile, as he is described as a Roman Prince.¹⁸ Some believe this leader will be a Jew,¹⁹ as he is received as a Messiah by Israel.²⁰ (However, let us remember that there are two major players in Revelation 13!)

There are many that believe he is alive today. Some believe he is genealogically related to the Merovingian line from the Franks, and thus ultimately linked to the family trees of the Habsburgs and the Houses of Lorraine, Plantard, Luxembourg, Pontzat, Montesquieu, Sinclair, Stuart, and most of the royal families of Europe. Among contemporary luminaries are Otto von Habsburg of Austria²¹ and his son Karl; King Juan Carlos I of Spain and his son Felipe; and, most notably, Charles, Prince of Wales.²² Some have even pointed to Bill Clinton as a current candidate.²³

The list goes on - and has for years. Nothing seems more quaint than the fanciful speculations of the past. And yet, as we observe the current trends in both geopolitics and technology, we can expect new speculations to gather intensity-particularly as we enter the "new millennium" of the year 2000 and beyond.

Elusive Identity?

Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians indicates that the removal of "the Restrainer" is a prerequisite condition to his public appearing.²⁴ If one regards the Restrainer as the Holy Spirit (and we do), then it seems that all this will be a post-harpazo (or post-rapture) event, and speculation is pointless and destined to failure.

Yet the march toward "global governance" - the currently vogue terminology-seems to be setting the stage for the final climax that the Bible reveals so much about. We are instructed to be aware of the "times and the seasons" and to aware of Satan's devices,²⁵ so it is very timely to study the Scriptures and to be able to recognize the "signs of the times."

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.²⁶

Film at eleven.

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This article was excerpted from our currently featured briefing pack, Behold A White Horse, from our series on The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse.