Dear doves,
 
  Yesterday after I wrote to the Doves I found a web site that I think explains the white horse in the first seal.  However, if you read the whole article, the auther does not believe in a rapture.....I don't know what he does with Paul's writings about the rapture, but  parts of what he is saying about interpreting the book may be right.  The article is called "Revelation explained at last".   I found it by searching in Google under the above title.  If I am understanding this article correctly, the first 5 seals have been in the process of progressively happening every since Jesus opened the seals.  There are some things that I have never heard before, and each reader will have to come to their own conclusions about whether he is correct or not but below are some quotes from the article:
 
  Jesus explained, in plain, clear language, the key events of the last days preceding and leading to the time of His Second Coming. Remember, Jesus' disciples asked Him privately, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world [age]?” (Matt. 24:3; Luke 21:7).We must briefly examine the critical Matthew 24 chapter for vital clues, which explain the symbols that we will study in Revelation. Christ gave a list of six different events that are to happen before His Second Coming. They precisely parallel what we will read beginning in Revelation 6.

First—false prophets and false Christs (vs. 5). Second—wars (vs. 6) throughout the age, culminating in the end time with world war (vs. 7). Third—famines (vs. 7). Fourth—pestilences (vs. 7). It is at this point that Christ inserted a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, in A.D. 70, because this was a forerunner, or type, of the yet future siege of Jerusalem and final “battle of Armageddon” (review Matthew 24:17-28 with Luke 17:30-36). Therefore, Matthew 24:9-28 (also Luke 21:12-24) applies to the period of A.D. 70—but only as a forerunning type of the final time of the end to which His warning refers literally!

Fifth, in Matthew 24:21-22, Christ explains that the Great Tribulation occurs. Sixth are the Heavenly Signs (vs. 29)—when the stars fall and the sun and moon are darkened. The sign of Christ's coming (vs. 30) occurs at this same time. His actual coming is right on the heels of it.

First, again understand that, beginning with chapter 6, unsealing the seven seals spans the next 15 chapters of the book. But since chapter 6 explains six of the seven seals, obviously they do not individually receive a large amount of space. The seventh seal is so important—and so multi-faceted—that God devotes much space to its complete explanation. Most of the remainder of the book is devoted to just the seventh seal!

Donna