Main article: Key Players and Terms in Prophecy
The Fourth Part of the earth. It is unclear from scripture what “the fourth part” definitely refers to. The phrase occurs only once in prophecy, in Rev. 6:
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” Revelation 6:8
Although we cannot be exactly sure of the meaning of "the fourth part", an understanding of numeric symbols in the Bible is a great help. The number "three" has to do with completeness according to God; e.g. three days and nights in the grave, three Persons in the Trinity, etc.. The number "four" has to do with universality in creation; e.g. four directions of the compass, four rivers in the garden of Eden, etc. Therefore, if the "third part" is a division according to God’s mind, then the "fourth part" is a division according to the lines of creation.
In what way has God divided the earth according to creation? A few possibilities are; geologically the earth is divided into continents, or linguistically the earth is divided into languages. With confessedly little evidence to support my view, it could be that the "fourth part of the earth" is contained within one continent. If that is so, I suggest that this refers to the continent of Europe. This is based on the role of the seal-judgments leading to the rise of “the Beast”. Presumably the conditions created by the seal-judgments open the way for the Personal Beast to take control, it would follow that the epicenter of the fourth seal might be in Europe.
