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A new prophecy video is making the rounds on the Internet. (Click here to view.)

It's footage from the recent uprising in Egypt. As you watch this segment, suddenly you see a translucent, ghost-like image of someone riding a horse. It's eerie, but nonetheless distinct. It's definitely someone on a horse. After a few seconds, the image moves forward and vanishes—seemingly into thin air.

Prophecy buffs all over the Internet have jumped on this and declared that the Apocalypse is imminent because the mysterious figure was none other than the Pale Horseman depicted in Revelation 6:8. Within hours, the image (including video footage and screen shots) was accessible on dozens of websites.

It turns out, however, that the footage was from Rachel Maddow's MSNBC coverage of street demonstrations last week in Tahrir Square in Cairo. People on horseback were in the square (click here). In this instance, a horseback rider's reflection was picked up by the camera lens while the MSNBC crew was filming through a hotel window. The nighttime lighting and the window's reflective surface are what made the image possible. I have to admit, the visual effect was pretty cool.

What hasn't been so cool, though, is the fallout from this incident over the past few days. In the online discussions, some people continue to insist that the images were supernatural—and that they were indeed the Pale Horseman of the Apocalypse (click here).

One woman even says the rider looks like a skeleton and is carrying a scythe. That's an interesting insight, especially since the skeleton-and-scythe depiction of the pale rider is nothing more than an artist's conception and isn't found anywhere in Scripture: click here. Not only that, but we've run and rerun the footage dozens of times and we don't see any skeleton. We've zoomed and we've sharpened the image. We've watched it forward and backward. We've done everything but turn it inside out. It just looks like someone on a horse.

In one discussion thread, some poor, level-headed soul tried to inject some common sense into the conversation. He pointed out that the "horseman" only moved when the camera moved, so it was very likely just a reflection. The "true believers" pounced on him like tigers on a crippled zebra. Someone known online as "Special Agent" responded, "Then, sir, I would ask, Where is your faith?"

Now wait a minute. Let me see if I understand what Special Agent is saying. If I had enough faith, I would believe that a nighttime reflection of someone on horseback in Tahrir Square was actually an appearance of the Pale Horseman of the Book of Revelation. Is that the idea?

If so, then I have bad news for these folks. Their concept of faith is flawed. Faith is not the opposite of reality—it's the ultimate reality. Faith is seeing with spiritual eyes things that are real and true—even before they're visible with one's physical eyes (Heb. 11:13).

Faith is not (I repeat, not) believing something that's not true.

Just go to the psychiatric ward of your local hospital and you'll find patients who believe (and I mean really believe) some pretty weird things. You might find someone who believes, for example, that he's a head of cabbage, or that fuzzy black spiders are crawling all over him, or maybe that the moon is made of green cheese.

When people believe these things, they're not exercising biblical faith. They're just disconnected from reality--and they need help.

Maybe you're wondering why we're even talking about this. There are actually a couple of reasons. First, this kind of silliness is a bad testimony.

In one of the "pale horseman" discussion threads, a woman says she and her son have been witnessing to her husband (the boy's father), who they say is "unsaved." They showed him the "horseman" footage from Egypt. I guess they thought he would fall under conviction and admit that this had to be something supernatural. But instead, they said he watched the video clip, then sat back and said, "You've GOT to be kidding me."

Now they're asking everyone to pray for this dad. Personally, my hope and prayer is that the Holy Spirit will help him understand that not all believers are as gullible as his family--and that he'll experience the saving grace of God in spite of all this religious meshugaas.

The second reason we're talking about this is that it highlights a widespread problem in our premil camp. Evidently, some of us have difficulty with symbolic language—especially in the Book of Revelation. The "literal-historical" interpretative grid is so deeply ingrained in our thinking as premillennialists, we sometimes forget that the Bible (especially Revelation) is full of all sorts of symbols.

When the Bible says that God hides His people under his wings (Psalm 63:7), for example, it doesn't mean He has feathers. And when it says He's our Rock (Deut. 32:4), that doesn't mean He's a chunk of granite. Literalists understand this.

When interpreting the Bible, the literalist says, "When the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense."

Whenever it's obvious that a biblical writer was speaking figuratively, we're perfectly fine with that.

The Bible employs many figures of speech—including simile, metaphor, hyperbole, metonymy, synecdoche, and ellipsis, among others.

When we feel obliged to explain everything in the Book of Revelation literally, our train has jumped the tracks (that's a metaphor, folks).

And other hermeneutic trains, where they refuse to explain anything in the Book of Revelation literally, have also jumped the tracks.

I really don't think the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are four literal guys prancing around Cairo on colored horses (white, black, red, and ashen or pale). Here's what John wrote about the pale horse:

So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth (Rev. 6:8).

What is the "plain sense" here? These sinister images point to events that will transpire during the coming Tribulation Period. They are real events, but they are often (especially in Revelation) couched in terms that are meant to be taken figuratively rather than literally.

It was routine in ancient times to seal (very often with imprinted clay or wax) important documents. That way, the scroll or book couldn't be opened without breaking the seal--something that could only be done by a person with authority greater than or equal to the one who affixed the seal in the first place. Extremely important documents might have multiple seals (we are told, for example, that the Roman Emperor Vespasian left a seven-sealed last will and testament for his successors). Here in Revelation 6:7-8, the Lamb's book/scroll is secured with seven seals which are broken one after the other (5:1ff), releasing a series of deadly judgments as it's opened.

Each of the first four seals is accompanied by a symbolic horseman. When the fourth seal is broken, the fourth (pale) horseman (representing death) rides forth and roughly a quarter of the earth's population perishes as a result of warfare, famine, and other calamities.

The figure of speech used here is personification. That is, John makes his point effectively by taking something inanimate and portraying it as being alive. So death is depicted as a pale rider on a horse (pale or ashen being the color of death).

The Holy Spirit (who inspired John to pen these words) was painting powerful images to communicate His truth. He wants us to understand something about the events that lie ahead.

Has the pale horseman arrived? Not yet.

That wasn't him in Cairo a few days ago.

We know that because a quarter of the population of Planet Earth hasn't perished.

But make no mistake about it; that fourth rider is surely coming. The other three are coming, too.

Someday, people during the Tribulation will hear those ominous hoofbeats.

Figuratively speaking, of course.