Easy symbolism

I found this cool painting in Google Images depicting part of the vision of John in Revelation 6. We studied Revelation 6 and 7 in seminary today.

All the students knew that a man on a white horse with a crown is a Good Guy. A Victor. A Conqueror.

I thought it was kind of funny - they just knew it. Just like they knew right away that the red horse and a sword symbolized blood and war and the black horse meant death and wickedness.

It reminded me of a time when my boys were little and they played with a toy castle with lots of soldiers and horses and weapons and other castle paraphernalia. The guys in the white armor were always the good guys in their play. The good guys always rode the white horses. The bad guys wore the black armor. Always. I remember asking the boys why the good guys were always the ones in white and the bad guys the ones in black. They looked at me like I was an idiot. For cryin' out loud, that's just the way it is. Duh.


I'm not having any trouble keeping everyone awake and interested and involved in the seminary lessons this week. It's exciting stuff. It's so gratifying to me to help my students work their way through the book of Revelation and to see them understand it. I really do love teaching seminary.