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NOTES From our current point of time in history the believer
should be very interested in prophesy and most definitely the fulfilment
of prophesy in our own times. The
Bible student should be well aware that God has promised the children of
Israel that the land given by Him to Abraham is to be their own. The student should also be aware that it is because of their
disobedience to the Word of God that they were taken captive on two
occasions recorded in the Old Testament as punishment for their sin.
We all should be aware that this nation found their way back to
their promised land after both times in captivity.
On the second occasion
they occupied their land prior to, and until shortly after, the Lord’s
crucifixion. On a third
occasion, during the Lord Jesus Christ’s sojourn on earth, the
children of Israel disobeyed the scripture and committed the awful crime
of crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ.
On this occasion they were not taken away captive for the simple
reason that the Romans had captured their land and they were captives in
it. After crucifying the Lord
the Jews attempted the impossible by rebelling against their captors.
As a result over a million Jewish people were slain, they were
driven out of their country, and scattered throughout the world in about
AD70. Notwithstanding the fact that the Jews believed the Old
Testament they believed that God Himself gave the land to them, yet there
was never a time, after the Romans forced them out, when they had the
remotest hope of returning to it until recently.
For nearly two thousand years they were persecuted wherever they
went, but they maintained their Jewish identity, and were not assimilated
into the other peoples’ society. They
had been scattered worldwide, every country treated them badly, and so
they could see no hope of returning to their God given country until
recently. The scriptures
prophesied the sure and positive fact that eventually they would go back
to their land but in unbelief. With
respect to the last-days, that is the days in which we live, we find that
the Jews have returned to their land in unbelief as prophesied. What is unbelief? For
the dispersed Jew’s, unbelief was the simple fact that they would not
accept the facts about the Lord Jesus Christ, for example: “And without controversy great is
the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory.” 1Tim.3:16. The Jews still wait for their Messiah to arrive in Jerusalem
and govern the world as King of Kings and Lord of all. What makes present history of great interest is that we can
read the New Testament, together with the Old Testament and we can
actually see the hand of God in government bringing things to pass exactly
as written in His Word. The Entities We will look at the prophecies
concerning the entities, both political and religious in the days in which
we live. In doing so we will
try and put them in chronological order, so that we may more easily follow
the line of prophecy. In this
order the major entities are: 1.
Israel 2.
Babylon the Great 3.
The revived Roman Empire 4.
The first Beast, the Head of the
Roman Empire 5.
The second beast the False
Prophet, the head of Israel. Israel Israel is of first importance in
that the Jews are God’s chosen people, and as we study their history we
will see the chastening hand of their God on them for their departure from
His Word and their resulting sin. The
nation begins in these words, “And he said, Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel
for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast
prevailed.” Gen.32:
28. As
we follow the scriptures, we come to the entrance of the children of
Israel into the land, which God had given them. Deut. 12:1 - 6 1 These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall
observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee
to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2 Ye shall
utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess
served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under
every green tree: 3 And ye
shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their
groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods,
and destroy the names of them out of that place. 4 Ye shall
not do so unto the LORD your God. 5 But unto
the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to
put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither
thou shalt come: 6 And thither
ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and and your
tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill
offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: 1 These instructions given to the
children of Israel were very strict and yet very simple.
They, as a nation, never kept them even to this day.
Later in the notes we will study these people a little closer with
respect to the last days. Babylon the Great So far as the Word of God speaks of this entity it
obviously has the characteristics of the original Babylon, but remember it
is a religious system. We can
say that the religion of the original Babylon was the worship of mother
and child. Nimrod was the
child, and Sumerimis the mother. The
current Babylon the Great would appear to be the Roman Catholic Church,
and as we will see later that prophecy indicates it to be so.
The scriptures indicate that this religious entity creates the
revived Roman Empire and she controls it.
We notice her latter end in the notes. The
Beast After the revival of the Roman Empire we next see the
advent of the Beast. Rev.13: 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast
rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his
horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. This
Beast comes out of the sea. This
means that in the revival of the Roman Empire, particularly after the
Lord’s coming in the air for His saints, there will be great upheaval in
the western part of Europe, that is the revived Roman Empire.
Obviously then, we who alive in these last days, will see
disagreement and disarray in Western Europe.
The sand of the sea in the above verse represents the masses of
people in that place. It is
most likely that the ten horns represent despotic power to ten European
countries revival, and the seven heads may be seven original countries out
of which they came. Alternatively,
we should consider that seven heads represent total government that is an
all powerful government. We
should be aware that if such an entity came into existence today it would
most likely be more powerful than the rest of the world combined.
Most definitely, it would be the most powerful economically.
We should consider that this event could take place at the opening
of the sixth seal. That
possibility needs more study later. There
are two strong possibilities with respect to the “names of blasphemy.”
If we consider the past Roman Emperors, we find that they
attributed to themselves the title of “God.”
First, the possibility is strong because we are clearly told in the
New Testament that, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart
from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, 1Tim.4:1.
Second, let us quite clear about this situation, where there is no
faith in God, the alternative is Satan.
We also know the scripture “And we know that we are of
God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”
1Jo 5:19. In
this situation, Satan rules the world and his appointees will do as they
are directed, and that willingly. Rev.13: 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. This verse tells us a great deal about the empire
that this individual will control. It
is interesting to note that the leopard has other parts of its body
belonging to other animals. In
the verse above the leopard has feet like a bear, a mouth like a lion, and
above all his power is derived directly from Satan, the dragon.
The Satan empowered individual has absolute power and control over
the whole world. We need to
turn to Daniel chapter 7 to find more about the character of this
all-powerful head or dictator. Daniel.7:
3 - 8 Verse 3
And
four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The
Almighty God of heaven and earth gave Daniel this prophetic vision of
which has come to pass except the fourth beast that comes into view in
verse 7 below. The
interesting thing is that all the beasts come out of the sea and each
beast is a kingdom. The sea
is probably is picture of people in agitation and rebellion with someone
arising out of the chaos to take control.
Note each represents the rise of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek,
and roman empires. Verse 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. 2 This
represents the Babylonian empire and the verse seems to indicate that it
is empowered by Satan. The
words lion, eagle’s wings, feet, and heart represent the characteristics
of the beast. History tells
us that the Babylonian Head forced people to worship an idol that he
built, and should any fail to worship the idol Nebuchadnezzar had them
thrown into a furnace to be burnt alive.
Remember that nothing can happen unless the Lord allows it.
This is a description of the first beast. Verse
5 And
behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on
one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of
it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. This
represents the Persian Empire that followed Babylon, and again we notice
that it is likened to a wild animal and having its characteristics.
Its power came from Satan, and was allowed by God. Verse 6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the
back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and
dominion was given to it. This
is the Greek Empire and has some of the character of all three above, but
is much more powerful as will see later in the notes. The uniting of four areas formed the empire, and Alexander
the Great was the powerful leader. Verse 7. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. We are now prophetically introduced to the Roman
Empire. Its power must be
noted because it is more dreadful and more powerful than anything that has
ever preceded it. It is
extremely strong, and then we see his iron teeth, the stamping feet and it
was different to all before it because it had ten heads.
From history it is recorded that the Roman Empire broke up into ten
kingdoms. Daniel Verse 8
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. This
verse is very interesting in so much that the revived Roman Empire
described in the verse above commenced with 10 horns.
In this verse, another horn comes from amongst them, and we notice
that three of the first ten horns are removed totally. It is hard to decide whether the words “before whom”
means before in time, or in front of.
J N Darby appears to have translated it as “before which”
meaning that it is in the sight of. W
T P Wolston writes, “Daniel sees the beast having ten horns; he saw
it in its original character. And what it was going later to become; but
in the book of Revelation, you will find that John sees it possessing
imperial unity, while separate kingly power existed in the ten horns”. Wolston continues by saying that the little horn is the head
of that empire. It is still
hard to determine just when this takes place, but is something that we
will see being formed in our own time.
The Beast saga will certainly be revealed at the mid-tribulation
time. Revelation 13: 3
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. The verse is very interesting in so much that it
seems to indicate political death of the Roman Empire which ceased in AD
476, and later its resurrection. The
verse states that one of the “heads” was given a deadly wound, but his
wound is healed. Many
commentators believe that there will be a time, when God in His providence
will allow this complete empire to form out of revolution and conflict,
(“out of the sea”). The
timing of this great seeming miracle seems to be the commencement of the
tribulation and the Beast takes absolute control at the mid-tribulation
point because until this time the people of Europe are unstable and are
rebellious. What is mentioned
in the paragraph above is that the revived Roman Empire begins its
existence in a weakened form thus allowing a situation to arise in which
this empire goes into rebellion and is generally ungovernable.
After three years of this political condition, the Beast takes
control. In Daniel
chapter 9: 27, we are told the beast will make a pact with Israel for
seven years, but at the mid point he will force Israel to cease their
religious worship. 3 Verse 4 And
they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they
worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?
who is able to make war with him? At this mid tribulation point, with the Beast in absolute control,
Supreme authority is given to the Beast because Satan himself has given
him superhuman powers. We
should be aware that Satan worship is wide spread in the world today, and
very much so in Europe. It is
not stated here that the Beast virtually forces the masses to worship the
Dragon, and we notice that one of the tools being used is awe concerning
the supposed miracle turns into worship of the Dragon, the Beast, and
false prophet. No son of Adam has been given such power by God
to prosecute the purposes of God. This
unholy trinity, the Beast, the Woman, and the False Prophet can and will
only carry out the purposes of Satan. Verse 5
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. Here we see that the people worship Satan and the
Beast then speaks blasphemies. Blasphemy
is “1)
slander, detraction, speech injurious, to another's good name. 2)
impious and reproachful speech injurious to divine majesty.”
The position takes place in the middle of the tribulation and will
only last 3 and a half years. We
must ever be conscious of the fact that there is no power except that of
the Lord Jesus Christ we read “I am he that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and
of death”. Re 1:18.
and also, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is
given unto
me in
heaven and in earth”. Mt
28:18* Verse 6
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. This blasphemy continues for the 42 months.
Many may ask, “Where are the christians?”
The answer is simple in the first place, prior to the rapture of
the believers there were very few. Testimony
has almost disappeared from the earth.
Therefore he is virtually preaching to the “converted”. Verse 7 - 8
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and
to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues,
and nations, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose
names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. That
almost every person left behind after the rapture is unsaved.
From these verses, it is clear that, notwithstanding the terrible
times of the tribulation, there will still be those who will be converted.
Woe betide those believers because the god of this world will use
his slaves to kill and destroy. The
Jewish people will be a particular target of this evil person. An
Overview We
have seen the historical four beasts, or world empires, in past history,
and then we saw the reemergence of the fourth beast as the Roman Empire.
However, what is great importance is what is not mentioned in the
scriptures at this time. First,
there is no mention of the United Nations.
In any case, even from the incident of the “Tower of Babel” in
the book of Genesis, we should be very aware of the fact that what God has
separated man cannot join together. One
should not be surprised then if it ceases to exist. Second,
the scriptures do not tell us what causes the European rebellion, (the
beast comes out of the sea) but that it must occur is scriptural fact.
In that case, then as we are in the last days we should see it in
our own time. Why do we say
that we are in the “last days”? We
do so because the Jews are back in their land, and that in unbelief. Third,
we should notice in the scriptures is a division of the world into two
camps the revived Roman Empire, and the Kings of the East.
One is opposed to the other and the opposition seems most likely to
be their attitude to Israel. The
revived Roman Empire is for Israel, and the Kings of the North and East
are against them. The
World’s General Condition at the Lord’s Advent. That
we can have rebellion in civilised countries such as those in Europe two
things must certainly describe the society at that time.
First, there will be no morals or ethics in that society or in the
world generally, and we read in: 4 2Timothy chapter 3: Verse.2
This
verse begins to describe man in the last days with his behaviour, and with
his nineteen different attributes. 1.
Lovers of self; (philautos) egocentric,
no thought for anyone else; everything must be made to fit their personal
plans. A look at Gal.5:19
will show that from this centre nothing but evil can emanate. 2.
Covetous; (philarguros) really
lovers of money; the connection becomes a logical outcome of the
egocentric person. Therefore,
theft presents no problem to them, they only consider themselves. 3.
Boasters; (Alazon) comes
from the stem wanderer; finally, signifying vagabond, imposter with
arrogant display, making themselves out to be what they were not.
Again thinking more highly of themselves than what they really
were. 4.
Proud; huperephanos showing
oneself above others; but really in the sense of being arrogant, and
disdainful in the worst sense. 5.
Blasphemers; (blasphemos) abusive,
evil speakers; which adequately describes the person. It definitely is not limited to slandering God. 6.
Disobedient to parents; (apeithes) unwilling
to be persuaded; hence children disobedience to parents.
This is particularly hated by God and is so evident today.
It is even taught in school as a trait to be cultivated by
children. The evidence of this is children's lack of respect for
elders, and property in general. Col.3:20. 7.
Unthankful;(acharistos) without
the desire or ability to be appreciative of anything or anyone, in which
case they will expect everything as a right, and with the above traits, at
the expense to others. This
is taught in schools as a trait to be cultivated, "always demand your
rights", even when you have none.
Responsibility is never taught. 8.
Unholy;(anosios) without
being pure from evil conduct, people with this evil characteristic have a
propensity for evil as a fixed behaviour pattern. 9.
Without Natural affection (astorgos) Without
love of kindred; particularly parents, love for children or vice versa.
Just one Greek word but meaning a lot.
It seems that more and more children are being abandoned by
parents. Even murder of
parents by children, and vice versa is not uncommon. 10.
Truce Breakers (aspondos) Implacable;
means without a truce; it presumes a state of war and the implacable one
will not enter into a truce to terminate that war.
It would seem to indicate that these people enjoy a state of
conflict having no feeling for others. 11.
False Accusers (diabolos) Slanderers;
(note the word is used of Satan, the accuser.
It is used of those who are prone to find fault with the conduct of
others, and spreading these falsehoods.
Psa.101:5. 12.
Incontinent (akrates) without
power to control their emotions or desires unable to subdue passions;
thus indicating that they have no desire to control themselves.
They have been taught to express themselves, and that without
restraint. 13.
Fierce (amereros) not
gentle; like lions, wild savage and fierce. 14.
Despisers-of-those-that-are-good (aphilagathos) without
love of good or the good; three Greek words in one which came to mean that
of the sub-heading. 5 15.
Traitors (prodotes) a
betrayer; Judas had this almost as a title, but looking at the scene today
more and more people seem to be betraying their country. When caught there seems to be no remorse, they attempt to
justify their actions. 16.
Heady (propetes) meaning,
headstrong, precipitous, rash, and reckless; with headstrong giving the
best meaning in this context. 17.
Highminded (tuphoo) puffed
up, big headed, conceited; all giving the sense of the word in this verse. 18.
Lovers-of-pleasures more than lovers-of-God
philedonos) lovers of pleasure
(phileotheos) lovers of God The
two words describe some one whose desires are for pleasure, far more than
any desire or thought of God. It
is very fitting that this should precede the last trait as, without it,
the final evil would not be seen as a complete fall into depravity, and
opposition to God. 19.
Having a form of Godliness; Denying the power thereof
(morphosis) form, outward, semblance, (eusebeis) devout,
(arneomai) denying; acting in a way contrary to what they
profess to be.
dunamis) ability, power. These
were professing christians (unsaved) whose actions were the direct
opposite of their profession, (arneomai) to act quite unlike, in this
case, their profession. It
is very interesting to note that these professors have an outward
semblance of being a christian, but their very manner of living
contradicts the professed position. Of
course they can know nothing of the power of God to change lives, and so
act as natural unsaved men, (see verse 6) using christianity as a cloak
for their evil deeds. The
characters mentioned in the above nineteen traits describes the unsaved
people in the world just prior to the Lord’s coming for His saints.
This becomes more prevalent every day.
These people are real anarchists, they are ungovernable, and
destroy every good thing of God in their path. The
Christian Witness Whereas
the world is in rebellious sin we find the Lord’s estimation of
christain witness is clearly described in Revelation chapter 3, where we
read: Rev.3 Verses
14 – 17 and 20
15.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou
wert cold or hot. 16.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spue thee out of my
mouth. 17.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have
need of nothing; and
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked: 20.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me. Here
we find virtually no christian witness in the world at all.
This is graphically indicated by the Lord’s words when He
describes Himself outside the church.
Nothing could be worse. As
much as the christian will dislike this situation he is very conscious
that the Lord’s coming is at hand.
In the verses above, we find the character of these people is evil,
worldly, indifferent, and self-satisfied.
They are utterly destitute of anything that is good. The Woman and The Beast in Revelation 17 In order to understand what the Beast is one must carefully
look at this particular chapter in the book of Revelation in which we see
its actions and associates and its end.
Although the Beast is the principal character it is significant
that the Woman is mentioned first with respect to judgement. Chapter 17 of Revelation is the description of the seven
angels with the seven vials of judgement.
Please carefully note this chapter does not describe events in
chronological order. That is
aspect is seen in chapter 14. Here
we see the judgement of God, and it is an expansion of what was mentioned
in chapter 13. 6 Rev.17 Verse 1 And
there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked
with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: Yes,
the Woman is the first to receive judgement because; from our point of
view, she brought the Beast into being.
Of course, we know that all is in the purpose of God. His enemies, and that includes Satan, can only do what He
allows them to do. It is
interesting to see the position of the Woman.
She is controlling (sitting) many nations (waters).
Historically we can see this very clearly as it is describing the
Roman Catholic Church and those who are in league with her. It is estimated that she has slaughtered over fifty one
million people in her lust for power. Verse 2 With whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been
made drunk with the wine of her fornication. History is very clear as to the actions of the Roman church
in the world and its results. Really
written history had been distorted to such an extent that it is difficult
to sort out truth from lies, nevertheless the truth can be discovered. Real history
shows that the Roman church would move into a nation and immediately try
to control the ruling authority. The
method was simple. They say,
“Do what we tell you or you will spend eternity in the lake of fire”.
Indeed they ruled by spiritual fear as well, and still do to this
very day. Adultery here is
the professing christian church having the name christian, but has nothing
more than spiritual pride and rather than obey the Lord have pandered to
the people. Of course
churches of this kind are full of idols.
All of this may be true but the Woman is infinitely more evil,
hence her judgement. Verse 3 So he carried me away in the
spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. No doubt this is an impressive sight.
The force in this verse is the fact that the Woman controls the
Beast the dominating power in the world at that time. However let us note that the glory described above is set
in a desert. This great
spectacle is set in the desert. Indeed
the world is a spiritual desert as there are no morals and no God. The seven heads show the successive forms of government as
indicated in verse 10. The
horns represent royal personages as mentioned in verse 12. Verse
4 And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication: In the previous verse we had a scarlet beast, and in this
verse we have a gloriously dressed woman.
Dressed in the worldly colours of purple and scarlet, and adorned
with gold and gems and having a golden cup in her hand. She had everything the world seeks after and admires.
The believer should not seek worldly glory as he is absolutely
assured of his portion throughout all eternity.
That is blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. The Beast is full of blasphemy and the Woman full of filthy
abominations and fornication. This
refers to idolatry and corruption and manipulation of civil authorities.
It is the opposite in every way to true christian testimony.
It is indeed Satanic. Many
would say, “This could be expected among the heathen but not among
sophisticated people”. This
statement is not true of course as above we have seen the character of the
unsaved even when only a vestige of christian witness remains. Verse 5 And upon her forehead was a name
written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. This evil woman has an inscription on her forehead; the
first word is “mystery”. In
this context it does not mean an unknown piece of information, but rather
we are having revealed to us that which has not been revealed by God
previously. This then is new
information being brought to us from God with the power of the Holy
Spirit. What we see here is the woman, who supposedly stood for God
and truth, but who is powered by Satan.
She now stands for everything opposed to God, things that are
spiritually evil. 7 In fact
compared to all the evil empires that preceded her she is infinitely
worse. Indeed she was the
most ornate of all that preceded, but not only was she opposed to God, but
also to the Lord Jesus Christ in all His capacities.
We must remember that the ancient Babylon was on the plain of
Shinar whereas this Babylon is on the Seven Hills of Rome. Verse 6 And I saw the woman drunken with
the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and
when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. As previously mentioned all that opposed the Woman and her
ambition to control the world were put to death. These numbered about fifty one million. In particular she slaughtered those who were born again
christians; just how many is not known.
There has never been nor will there ever be any change in the
attitude of this Woman. Verse 7 And
the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the
mystery of the woman, and of the
beast
that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. In this verse, the Spirit of God begins to explain the mystery of the
woman and the Beast Verse
8
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder,
whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of
the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. This is the greatest empire the world has ever seen and it is described
in four short statements. First,
let us not forget that this beast was carrying a woman, and they are both
to be revealed in this world in the near future.
Obviously, the two characters are different, but both are evil in
the extreme. The Beast is the
civil head and authority and the woman is the ecclesiastical one.
We believe the Woman is the Roman church in the zenith of her
glory, but the civil authority that comes out of the “pit of hell” and
is about to take up demonic power. Let
us notice four steps. 1.
The Beast “that was”, was that
Roman Empire that controlled Israel in John’s day. 2.
“That is not” is certainly true
in our present day as no Roman Empire exists now. 3.
However, the revived empire is about
to come out of the Abyss. 4.
We then prophetically see that it
finally goes into judgement at the end of the tribulation. Verses 9 to 13. The words in these verses leave no doubt in the mind of the spiritual
believer as to the identity of the Beast. Verse
9
And
here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains,
on which the woman sitteth. The
city of Rome has been and still is labeled the seven-hilled city.
In this verse, this city of Rome is stated to be the centre of the
woman’s power and authority. It is the place where the Papacy has been located for about
1500 years. What we should
also take careful note of is the fact that this church, over the recent
centuries, has had its power stripped to a great extent. Recent history has shown the revival of the power of the Catholic Church
notwithstanding the powerful christian revivals, particularly in England
and the United Sates in the last two hundred years. No doubt, the bible student will notice that the letter to
the church at Philadelphia and the letter to the church at Laodicea must
therefore indicate a very short period of about 200 years. That is between the times when some christians return to
obedience to the Word of God to the present day that is one of almost
total indifference to the clear path of obedience to His Word.
The christian faith and in this day been undermined by the
disobedient and ungodly. Verse
10
And
there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short
space. One commentator has said that in verse 10 we are looking at forms of
civil and political government. That
Rome is indicated in verse 9 is without doubt, and in verse 10 the seven
heads represent seven forms of government from the
rise of the fourth universal empire on through its history till its end.
8 Further, this commentator says that “five have fallen”
and are kings, consuls, Decemvirs, and Military Tribunes. The sixth, was the first Emperor Julius
who took the power covered by the old names under which the Rome was
governed that lasted until about A.D. 476.
The seventh in the verse above will come and only last for a little
while. This is described in
Rev.13: 1. OVERVIEW
OF Revelation Chapter 13:1 –10. In the chapter 12, we have an account of a war in heaven where Michael
the Archangel throws Satan and his host out of heaven and down to the
earth. This occurs three and a half years after the rapture.
The two principal characters used by Satan after the half way mark
to the rapture are the First Beast who is a gentile, and a Second Beast
who is a Jew. The
first ten verses of chapter 13 describe the first Beast who is a gentile
and is characterised by brute force. Another point to consider is that when the word Beast is used
in the passages it can mean either the political system or the head of
that system. Rev.13:1
- 2
1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2.
And the beast which I saw was like unto a
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the
mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and
great authority. The
First Beast
It is very important to clearly see the different heads.
The first Beast, in this context, is the seventh Roman head, and is
obviously to be followed by an eighth Beast. It is in the verse above that we get the appearance of the seventh.
Here we see John on the sand of the sea.
The reference to the sand and sea are very important.
The sand speaks of masses of people.
In this particular setting, it is mainly concerned with Europe just
prior to the formation of what we can call “United Europe”.
What we can see at the moment is the open European confederation
being formed, but it has no head at the moment.
This confederation seems to be built on the treaty of Rome signed
in the mid 1950’s. The sea is even more important to understand as it is describing the
state of Europe, in particular the social aspect. Socially then it is describing people in virtual rebellion
not withstanding the progress in the combined European formation.
This appears to be after the rapture. It is in this state of turmoil that a Beast arises out of this seething
mass. Let us note it is a
“Beast”, and a beast is the very opposite of a Lamb.
The difference is dramatic. The
Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God. The Lamb He could say: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Mt 11:29. We also read: “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:” 1Peter. 2:23. |