The Association of the Covenant People

The first one is simply pictured as “a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer,” and we are left to wonder about his identity. Could it be Jesus coming as King? Yes, it could be. We know that all power is given unto Him to overcome His enemies. The second one is given a much longer description which leaves us in no doubt that the rider is Jesus, majestically arrayed, approaching the earth followed by white cavalry. St. John records that he saw “a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness does he judge and make war. His eyes were a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns: and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, than with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Here, indeed, is our Lord in all His Divine splendour.

The only other Book in Scriptures which mentions white horses is Zechariah chapters one and six. Zechariah”s message is to the House of Judah and white symbolizes victory. The horses of different colours probably indicate degrees of prosperity on one hand and bloodshed on the other while those of mixed colour imply a mixture of adversity.

But all these white horses are associated with Israel and Judah. In Isaiah 63:13 we read that Israel is likened to a horse in the wilderness – here referring to Moses and the deliverance through the Red Sea. And Israel has very much been likened to a horse in the wilderness judging by the frequent appearance of horses on ancient coins. The white horse was the symbol of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The white horses carved in huge outlines on several hills in Britain are well known and are really not so mysterious as we might think. Those white horses have been sculptured on the ground to commemorate military victories.

Speaking of victories, the heavenly victory that is yet to be, is found in symbolic form in the best of England in the Temple of the Stars. The Temple of the Stars is circular in form and comprises the signs of the Zodiac. This circle is several miles in diameter and those signs are formed by the physical features of the country-side – streams, roads, lanes and hills. They can be seen from the air. They are fully described in “A Guide to Glastonbury”s Temple of The Stars” by K.E. Maltwood.

One of those signs is Sagittarius or The Archer and this archer is like the centaur – a figure with the upper torso of a man on the four legs and body of a horse. This is the archer on the white horse who goes forth conquering and to conquer. He has been unified with the horse. His form can be seen with Leo, Aries and the other signs of the Zodiac, most of them facing west. Why is this bowman mounted on a white horse monumentalized in this remarkable circle of heavenly signs? In the first instance he is Jesus and in the second instance he represents Jacob-Israel.

Of Joseph it is said in Gen. 49:24 “The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” The bow is Joseph’s sign; the men of Jacob were “lords of the unerring bow” – “The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with the bow and skilful in war.” I Chron. 5:18. “Also David bade Saul and Jonathan teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold it is written in the Book of Jasher,” .. II Sam. 1:18. In a Psalm of Thanksgiving David says, “God teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms,” II Samuel 22:35.

Continuing with this picture of an archer mounted on a white steed, it is interesting to note that Sir Walter Scott in “Ivanhoe” tells that “Above the gate was another banner of a white horse ... which indicated the rank and the nation of the deceased, by the well-known symbol of Hengist and his Saxon warriors.”

The horse is frequently found on the shields of British families, not only in a natural form hut also as a winged animal and as a sea-horse. The unicorn, to be sure, has the general form of a horse. The symbol of St. George on his white horse spearing the dragon, may he seen under the British Coat of Arms on the Gates of Buckingham Palace, a fitting place for a national emblem.