The Complete 8-Book Guardians Adventure Saga

by Summer Lee

“You’re exactly right,” Walker said. “The Bible says, ‘No one is going to buy or sell anything unless they bear that mark.”

  “They may not need that much. So much of what we buy is based on wants, not needs. Poor people are needy, and tend to become Christians quicker than do the rich.” I looked questioningly at Walker to see if I was right. “James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote that, ‘God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom.’”

  “The tribulation will have its own set of regulations, different from any time frame.”

  “I can see that it goes from bad to worse very fast.” I took in air. “With the first horse comes the West trying to control and care for the world. But then, evil men bring war and nature brings famine. These things are here. Wars are spread throughout the world and not even called wars, but there is oppression and death. Where does it go next?”

  “The rider on the greenish horse, followed by death,” said the angel with a small change of countenance. “That horseman will sum up the work of the other three. Those horsemen were to release the power to kill: by sword, famine, plague, and by the wild beasts. Revelation 13:10 indicates persecution will come by the beast capturing and killing. There did not seem to be one to rescue from his claws. If the dictator is determined to slaughter the masses, then humans would be killed as prophesied.”

  “Comparing Matthew 24:6 with the fourth horse, I’d say the other three are part of a major destruction,” I said. “True?”

  “True.”

  I knew that the horses in the Bible were quite splendid and intelligent. We could get a picture of the heavenly horses by observing the horses on earth. I needed to know more about them. I told Walker what I planned to do. “One thing for certain is that horses are beautiful animals that have been useful in both heaven and earth.”

  “You must set aside your questions to write now,” he said, agreeing with me. “Your words must go around the world to warn people of the tribulation to come.”

  “Okay. I am about halfway through,” I said.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  As he bid me farewell, I went to my library again. With pen and pad, I wrote, “The second and third riders belong together in their mission to persecute God’s people as they have spread oppression, injustice and economic hardship throughout the centuries of the church’s existence. The evil these horsemen will release has been withheld for millennium.”

  But now, they would bring it to those who had ignored God. I got on my knees next to my bed and wept because the horses were coming:

  Galloping, galloping, galloping.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  After taking a thirty-minute break, I found Amanda again. She had been working on her report.

  “Are you writing about Hezekiah?” I asked.

  “Yes, I am,” she said cheerfully.

  “Do you want to read it to me again?” I asked shyly. “I love that story.”

  “Sure.” She gazed into my eyes. “You haven’t gotten that far in reading Isaiah, have you?”

  “No, I haven’t. But I should have time after I finish the Revelation project.”

  “The story is three places in the Bible. One is in Isaiah. This is in the Chronicles.”

  “Interesting.”

  She read: “This is a story in the Old Testament where the Assyrian king besieged Israel. He then sent officers to Jerusalem to ask what they were trusting in that made them think they could survive a siege of Jerusalem. The message said that Hezekiah was misleading them by telling them that the Lord God would rescue them from Assyria. He then said that Hezekiah was the one who destroyed the shrines and altars of worship. But that was not a bad thing. Tearing down altars was getting rid of idolatry. They were altars to idols and demons.

  “Assyria had destroyed nations whose gods could not rescue the people from destruction. He said, ‘What makes you think your God can rescue you from me? Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you! Don’t let him fool you like this! I say it again—no god of any nation or kingdom has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!’

  “Mocking God and Hezekiah with insults, the king scorned the Lord, the God of Israel. He wrote to the people, ‘Just as the gods of all the other nations failed to rescue their people from my power, so the God of Hezekiah will also fail.’ The Assyrian officials who brought the letters shouted insults about the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the pagan gods, made by human hands.

  “Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed to God in heaven. And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers. So the Assyrian officer returned to his own land in disgrace.”

  Amanda looked up. “That is all I have for now.”

  “How much more do you have to write?” I asked.

  “Not much. I am to keep it short. And then I’ll go back home.” Amanda walked over and looked out the window. “I’ll miss this place when I go.”

  “You’ll always be welcome here,” I said gently, wondering how prophetesses and, perhaps, angels, lived. I had this sneaking suspicion that the “cat” Amanda had to take care of every few days was her metaphor for the Lion of Judah, which was symbolic of Jerusalem. I smiled, thinking of how Amanda going home to take care of her “cat” was so much more than she was letting on. Every few days, I guessed she was going to Jerusalem to help the Jews get ready, if at all possible. I knew this in my heart to be the truth and began to feel more peaceful about the coming end. I briefly thought of my husband and son on their cruise and smiled, knowing they were loved by God, too.

  “Thank you, Martha, for making me feel welcome,” she said. “How is your report coming along?”

  “Just comparing horses from heaven with horses on earth,” I said gently. “The horses from heaven would have to be more splendid than horses on earth. Horse breeds on earth are loosely divided into three categories, based on similar temperaments. These are the personalities of horses on earth: spirited hot bloods with speed and endurance, cold bloods used as draft horses and ponies suitable as work horses. The ones in this prophecy are specific riding horses, and just may be similar to the ones in Europe. They appear to be hot bloods.”

  “And how do the horses in the Bible compare?”

  “I’d say that they are hot bloods.”

  “I agree.”

  “I hope I’m onto something useful, because I searched for more. I learned that there are over 300 breeds of horses in the world today, developed for many different uses. I believe this must be true for creatures used even for war in the heavens.”

  “Horses have strength, intelligence and beauty.”

  “Of course, God would want them to be his means of transportation for the messengers in the tribulation.”

  Amanda said, “I personally believe that the prophecy concerning the Four Horsemen has not been fulfilled yet.”

  I said, “I agree. That is why I will take a closer look at their mission while writing this blog. And yet, the first time that I saw Walker, he came upon a white horse.”

  Amanda raised her eyebrows. “You saw the horse? You are not supposed to be able to see these horses.”

  “Perhaps I saw it in my mind, or my heart, but not with my eyes,” I told Amanda.

  “Goodness,” she said in her otherworldly, prophetess voice. And then her voice went back to normal. “I suggest that if you have not already done so, that you make your own interpretation based on your research, rather than just taking the word of someone else,” she said. “Even me.”

  I agreed. Yet, it had been easy to find the information on the Internet, because I wanted to include material from some good Bible scholars. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John will always be a subject of concern,” I said.

  “Why do you think that God chose horses to introduce the tribulation to us?” Amanda asked.

  “You tell me,” she said. “Wha
t do you think?” she challenged me.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “The story of end time events begins radiantly with the horses, in Revelation chapter four. Here, we see God seated on His throne in heaven. It is He who is sovereign over earthly events. We have noted that only the Lamb…Jesus…is able to take the scroll from God and to break the seals to reveal its contents. Each of the four riders were summoned onto the human scene by a heavenly creature, like Cherubim. Those living beings who have higher standards than angels—are of high order. They gave the orders.”

  Amanda said, “You know that a prophet can see into the distant future sometimes.”

  “Yes. Does that include you?”

  “Sometimes, it does,” she said. “It appeared to me in a vision that the tribulation would begin when Jesus Christ opens the first seal to take ownership of the earth.”

  “Maybe that is what the Apostle John was trying to show us.” It made sense to me.

  “God is patient. Man still has time to repent as long as we are on earth. I believe saints of God will be caught away before the horses arrive on the scene.”

  “I hope you are right.”

  Amanda continued, “Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 24, to watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

  “I do know one thing. The Bible said the leaders of Israel will be killed and in one day, what we have been speaking of will all come to pass.”

  Amanda replied, “God also said that if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

  What she said was so true. Yet, my mind wandered back to when Van Stone studied a Long Count calendar from the ancient Maya culture of Central America, which showed the world ending on the date of 2012, which correlated to a 5,125-year period. The inscriptions on a Maya monument. “I was just remembering how people were interested in the carving of 2012 on Maya monuments. That date passed without the horsemen coming, as we understand it.”

  “You are right,” she said. “Authorities were concerned about stampedes during celebrations at Mayan sites, such as the one near the Yucatan state capital. Some in that cult were looking for a new era?”

  “But it has faded,” I said. “That date is gone and with it, the faithful who were disappointed and stopped believing because they thought they knew the date.”

  “Only the superstition remains.” She looked at me. “I am surprised that your research took you in that direction.”

  “I guess the hype was mostly for the movie of 2012.” I held my hands out, palms up. “It wasn’t my research that made me look at it. It was my faith in Jesus Christ.”

  She said, “The movie was ridiculous. The producers concocted ideas to suit their own fanciful imagination.”

  I shook my head. “We know fear is not the way to introduce truth to people. Giving the Word of God to people causes God to work. God’s Word is truth guiding humans to faith.” I took a breath and let it out. “Now I must find information that would help me analyze how the horses will take part in the final cataclysm.”

  Like the teams of horses in Zechariah 6, I could picture the horses in Revelation chafing at the bit, ready to go forth and win the victory.

  Galloping, galloping, galloping.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  The next morning, Amanda was sound asleep when I got my first cup of coffee. When I saw her sleeping, a bright glow on her face, I wondered again if she was prophetess or angel, or even both.

  Back in the rose garden, with my notepad full of notes and laptop in one hand, I carried a cup of coffee in the other. I would transfer the content of my notepad into my laptop. I needed to record the information I had gathered so far into my computer. This was a good way to edit at the same time.

  I wrote: “The riders on emblazoned horses in the Book of Revelation have our focus in this study. There is nothing similar in the Gospels or the Epistles. The horses arrive on the scene in Revelation 6:1 just as the seals are opened on the scroll, allowing Jesus to take ownership of the earth.

  “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have a serious mission, and they are anxious to accomplish that which they are called to do. The horses are eager as well. The scene began earlier with Apostle John having a vision of being in heaven in chapter four. He saw God the Father sitting on the throne with a scroll in his hand. It had writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals of supernatural wax. John saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud vibrating voice, ‘Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?’ The silence was so loud that it was felt across heaven. But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. The Apostle John said, ‘I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’”

  That was true. John must have felt it in his heart.

  “Jesus Christ was the one who triumphed. He did it without raising a sword. We know that he overcame Satan when he paid the price for the sins of mankind with his own blood on the cross. When Jesus said, ‘It is finished,’ he had completed the job of paying for our sins. In dying on the cross, he took our sin and gave us his righteousness.”

  I shook the cramp out of my hand and continued writing.

  “Many people think God is a big nanny in the sky who overlooks sin, because he knows we are doing our best trying to be good. However, the Bible does not teach that. It teaches that God demands perfection in heaven. Not one drop of sin will be there to contaminate heaven.

  “The price to atone for our sin is blood. Either we pay at the judgment seat with our own blood, or we get a substitute to pay for us. One catch is that our substitute has to be perfect. Only Jesus Christ is perfect. Since none of us have the ability to be perfect, the Heavenly Father asked Jesus to die in our place. Faith in him is the only way to the heart of God. Jesus took our sin and gave us his righteousness. He was our whipping boy.

  “Next, the Apostle John said in Revelation, ‘Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.

  “Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. The elders sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’”

  I read what I had written so far. It made sense. I wondered how many Christians knew that the Bible said believers would reign on earth with the Lord. If they did know, then did they understand how it will happen? I needed to explain.

  I wrote: “The Book of Revelation has the best explanation of an afterlife. I am amazed that everyone in the United States has not searched this out. It is a serious subject. We should not be guessing about the future, nor taking it for granted that we are automatically safe for eternity. The Bible teaches that we are not safe on our own merit.

  “We must remember how many times the Bible tells us that we are born in sin. Without making a positive decision to turn around, we would automatically go to hell. This is not something I made up. It is in the Bible. It is not our place to question God as to whether this is fair or not. God the Father just cannot encounter sin. God the Son had to become a human in order to deal with that issue for his Father. I hope everyone und
erstands.”

  Going back to our study, we see tribulation released onto the earth. We are now following the Apostle John in a vision he had when he was about ninety years old. God had taken him into the distant future in a heavenly experience. Next, John said, ‘Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice, they were saying: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’ Found in Revelation 5:11-12.”

  I took my empty cup back into the house for a coffee refill.

  Returning to the patio, I wrote, “Most Bible scholars say that the scroll Jesus took from his father was the title deed to the earth. I believe that is true. It possibly would have been given to Adam if he had not sinned. However, it seems that when he sinned, he gave his ownership of the earth over to Satan. This enabled Satan to have so much destructive power on the earth. As a result, Satan kidnapped all of Adam’s descendants, putting all of us at risk of being eternally lost. Adam’s disobedience brought many sorrows on earth. This will all be culminated when these passages in Revelation are fulfilled. After seven years, we will have peace at last.”

  I blew across my cup to cool my coffee and an inkling of what I must do suddenly hit me. I must blow my message far and wide, in every language that I could, but how could I do this with the short time I had, and with utter efficiency and with practicality. And then, it hit me: Prayer. I would find a simple message that fit as many peoples as I could and pray it and besides the Internet and newspapers and pamphlets, I would use God like my broadcasting system. It had to work. It had to!

  I was so excited that I put my hand to my throat. My heart was pounding like crazy. I was so happy about my idea that thoughts came wildly and I dropped to my knees and prayed for several minutes. When a peace came upon me for how I would do it, I began to relax about my mission. It was going to work. I put that thought on the back burner as I got up from my knees and tried to finish what I was writing, and still looked ahead to my plan to use prayer for my main broadcasting. Now, the task didn’t seem so impossible. I just needed to know what to say, something that would touch every heart through God.