Revelation 9:17: And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

John symbolically described the 200 million mortal combatants of Armageddon as horses.¹ The horsemen that sat on and controlled those horses are evil spirit sons of perdition that emerge from the bottomless pit at the start of the First Woe. They are empowered to kill when the four symbolic angels of the Euphrates River (bottomless pit) are loosed at the start of the Second Woe.² These evil spirits‒who are first locusts and then horsemen‒from hell use their powers of darkness³ to control the mortal armies (horses) of Armageddon.⁴

Horses are a symbol of war⁵ and John uses this symbol to describe the horses of Armageddon⁶ in a poetic chiasmus. In this Hebrew style of poetry, the first and last parts of the verse (designated by the letter A) mirror each other, and the focal point of the verse (designated by the letter B) is couched in the middle to be the focus of his message. Thus, John describes the horses of Armageddon in Revelation 9:17 as:

The lion, or king of beasts,⁷ has a variety of symbolic meanings.⁸ The lion conveys an image of strength,⁹ boldness and courage,¹⁰ deadly ferocity,¹¹ and stealth.¹² Jacob‒the patriarchal father renamed Israel‒designated the tribe of Judah as a lion's whelp when he gave his sons their patriarchal blessings.¹³ The apostle Peter identified Satan as a roaring lion who seeks whomever he can to devour.¹⁴

During Physical Armageddon, the spirit sons of perdition who are the horsemen will influence their lion-faced horses to roar their deadly trio of fire, smoke, and brimstone.¹⁵ These three weapons will be the instruments of God's deadly wrath against the wicked.¹⁶ The wicked include rebellious apostates from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose actions make them ripe for destruction as mortal sons of perdition.¹⁷

The lion-faced horses symbolize¹⁸ the mighty gentile nations of the earth¹⁹ that will gather against Jerusalem during Armageddon.²⁰ In Isaiah 29, the besieged city of Jerusalem²¹ is called Ariel, which means the Lion of God in Hebrew.²² When Jerusalem‒the Lion of God‒is overrun by the gentile nations at the end of Armageddon, Jesus Christ will appear suddenly²³ as the lion of the tribe of Judah.²⁴ He will spare the unconquered Jewish remnant in Jerusalem²⁵ and he will usher in the millennial day of peace also symbolized by a lion that eats straw.²⁶