The Black Horseman of the Apocalypse

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

Revelation 6:5–6

In this passage we have three institutions in view:

1. A monetary apparatus used in finance
2. Commodities Transacted in commerce
3. A regulation as imposed by government

       It is often difficult to see evidence of even the clearest prophecy when one is in the midst of its fulfillment.  The trend of economic corruption involving finance, government and corporations since 1913 when counterfeiting was made legal for a single cartel of banks has since engulfed the world and all but extinguished the sound principles of fidelity and integrity as required by the righteous standard of God’s word.

       The “just weight and balance” of Godly economic principles has been replaced by the federal reserve act, allocating to a single institution the creation of “money” out of thin air.  Traditionally counterfeiting has always been a crime. Institutionalizing this corrupt practice has led to the corruption of everything it touches. 

       Once it became obvious that government could be leveraged to accomplish unethical goals, even at the expense of the people the government was charged with protecting, it became the norm to deceive and exploit rather than protect and serve.  Suitors lined up with money in fist to seduce the new prostitute.

       Could the phrase “hurt not the oil and the wine” be a metaphor predicting prohibition, which involved both oil and wine?

       Prohibition would never have been implemented if not for the efforts of John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil industrialist. Not that he cared about people’s health or the morality of drinking to excess, his motivation was purely profit-centric.

       Ford Motor Company had begun to offer an option for the model T, which allowed the carburetor to be switched over to run on ethyl alcohol. Many farmers operated stills to produce fuel alcohol from high-sugar crops or even from agricultural waste to sell to motorists. J. D. Rockefeller saw in prohibition a way to consolidate his position of dominance over the market for automobile fuel, so he pulled the right strings (i.e., lobbied campaign funding to the right politicians in congress) and the production of alcohol became illegal overnight.

       New federal agencies came on line to destroy any alcohol production enterprise anywhere they might be found, including the rural farm distillery. With his competition successfully destroyed by a complicit government, John D. Rockefeller’s product became firmly established as the industry standard fuel for the automobile. Is this, perhaps, why the color “black” is attributed to this period, because it’s the color of oil ? It may also refer to the “black” side of the accounting ledger or an allusion to the fact that these transactions are ‘backroom deals’ not transacted in the light of public scrutiny.

       the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 is another example of the exploitation of legal bribery.  DuPont’s synthetic fabrics were inferior to fabrics made from hemp, a natural fiber grown cheaply and abundantly world-wide. William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Mellon also stood to enjoy financial windfalls from the elimination of hemp.  These three lobbied congress to impose a heavy tax on hemp and congress once again played the harlot.

       The success of these and other conspirators established a template that has been leveraged repeatedly since that time. Numerous alphabet soup federal agencies now exist, each with their regulatory specialty designed to consolidate favored status for the establishment players (deep-pocket campaign contributors) while imposing punitive cost burdens on their competitors.

       The “Black Horse” of the Apocalypse, therefore, depicts a period of ruthless economic corruption and exploitation. The period in view includes the “robber barons” of the nineteenth century, central banking, contemporary corporate malfeasance including such examples as Monsanto, Enron, and Solyndra and whatever other machinations of the government/corporate/ banking alliance of greed and avarice that characterize our time.

       Numerous scripture passages come to mind, here are but two:

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.”   -  Psalm 37:1-2 

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”  -  James 5:1–6

       The counterfeit money economies of the West ruthlessly suppress individual wealth creation in favor of their command and control structure known as the “culture of corruption” and more recently as “the swamp” whereby the ‘politically connected’ escape scrutiny while everyone else must navigate a gauntlet of federal regulatory agencies designed to exact costly compliance, require exhaustive reporting and impose fines, all of which impedes profitability, rendering unsuspecting entrepreneurs unable to compete on an equal footing with the favored establishment insiders.

       Internationally, austerity mandates, sanctions, manufactured uprisings and even wars are imposed on sovereign nations to assure compliance with the purposes of these financial taskmasters.

       The “culture of corruption” of the “world” today engages in the regulatory ensnarement of honest enterprise, overseeing the destruction of the livelihoods of otherwise productive people, businesses, and governments, simply to consolidate market dominance and increase the profit margin for “the 1 percent.”