4th Seal explained

Revelation 6:7-8

"7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth."

NOTE: for purposes of this article,

The Surface area of the earth 510,066,000 sq km
Total land area 152,196,921 sq. km.
(Not inclusive of small islands)


Let us next consider World War II. If anything, World War II was the greater of the two wars. World War II encompassed active armed conflict in most of Asia, all of Europe, North Africa, plus other parts of the earth, and included massive tracts of ocean including all major oceans and most seas.

Consider the landmass of the following countries and regions, (as their names appear today). All of these countries experienced armed conflict on their soil from 1939 to 1945.

Please note: This is not a complete list

Russia 17,075,200.00 sq.km
China 9,596,960.00
Libya 1,759,540.00
Egypt 1,001,450.00
Turkey 780,580.00
Ukraine 603,700.00
France 547,030.00
Thailand 514,000.00
New Guinea 462,840.00
Sweden 449,964.00
Morocco 446,550.00
Japan 377,835.00
Germany 357,021.00
Finland 337,030.00
Malaysia 329,750.00
Norway 324,220.00
Poland 312,685.00
Italy 301,230.00
Philippines 300,000.00
United Kingdom244,820.00
Belarus 207,600.00
Cambodia 181,040.00
Tunisia 163,610.00
Greece 131,940.00
Liberia 111,370.00
Bulgaria 110,910.00
Iceland 103,000.00
Serbia& Mont. 102,350.00
Hungary 93,030.00
Austria 83,858.00
Czech Rep. 78,866.00
Total 37,468,845.00 sq.km.

or 25% of the world’s landmass

If you include the combatant countries of the United States of America (Hawaii) and Canada (the submarine attacks in Canadian Territorial waters) you arrive at a larger percentage.

Of all the countries of the world in 1945, only Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Vatican City remained neutral. It is accurate to say that a majority of the world was at war during World War II, not just 25%.

All the other countries of the World were at war.

Since World War II, war has been ongoing virtually unstopped in a large number of countries world wide. Here is a list.    ongoing wars in the 21st Century

And, we should not forget the many Genocides of the 20th Century. These are war on a people by their government of other national factions, not traditional war.

We should take a minute to remember the biggest and baddest ones such as:  Stalin's purges prior to World War II which left 23,000,000 dead,

Mao's purges from 1949 to1950, 1958 to1961, and 1966 to 1969  that left up to 78 million dead.

But dozens exist in the pages of the history of the 20th Century. These include such countries as Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia, Darfur, and the list goes on and on.

A list of modern genocides can be found by running a search for Modern Genocides on your favourite search engine. 

If you missed it, here again is the 3rd Podcast which is an overview.