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Disclaimer: The following article is written by a Christian preacher, from a Christian perspective. It does not represent our views.

The Final Revival of the Roman Empire

By Peter Salemi

Source: www.british-israel.ca

                 Part One: Who, What is the Beast of Revelation?

Bible prophecy reveals events of our time and world-shaking events soon to change your life. A major world-shaking event is foretold in the symbolic language of a mysterious world-dominating wild beast. The Bible is God’s book of history, prophecy and revealed knowledge of God’s purpose and master plan for humanity from its beginning on into eternity.

But the Bible is primarily a book about the chosen nation of Israel, and other nations that have come into direct contact with Israel. We know little concerning nations, or whether there were nations on earth, prior to the great Flood. But soon after the Flood, Nimrod founded the city-states of Babylon, Nineveh and others. In due time such nations as Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, the Aramean states, Israel, Phoenicia and others developed in the Middle East.

By the end of the 7th century B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar had founded the first World empire or union of nations. The Bible does reveal the history, and prophecy from now, of the system of gentile world empires starting with Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon on to the Second Coming of Christ, as well as the history and yet future prophecy concerning Israel.

This booklet will cover the true significance of these two systems of nations, and what it means to us today, as well what is prophesied for the imminent future.

First, then, who is the mysterious wild “beast” of Revelation 13 and 17? If you have his mark, you must suffer the seven last PLAQUES ! Is he a mysterious superman world dictator yet to appear? ... Is he the Antichrist? ... or a government? ... or a church?

THE MOST important question of the hour is: What, or who, is the BEAST, the IMAGE of the beast, and the MARK of the beast spoken of in the Apocalypse or book of Revelation? Whatever this weird beast — whatever the baffling image — whatever the mysterious mark — it behooves you and me to find out! For it is those of this very present generation who shall be worshiping this beast or his image, or shall have received his mark, that will suffer the unspeakable torture of the seven last plagues! Ignorance will not excuse! “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” says the Eternal, in Hosea 4:6. And the illustration of Ezekiel’s watchman shows that those who are unaware, because they are not warned, will suffer just the same (Ezek. 33:6; and 3:18). God expects the spiritual leader of His people to be His “watchman” (Ezek. 33:7) and to warn the people. The time is at hand! The plagues of God’s wrath will soon be poured out, unmixed and undiluted — full strength upon a heedless, God-defying world, and a careless, lukewarm, indifferent Christianity!

Who Shall Suffer the PLAGUES?

Listen! John in the Apocalypse or book of Revelation describes the last warning message: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture” (Rev. 14:9, 10). This prophecy is most significant because it is revealing, in advance, events immediately ahead of us at this present time. Listen again! John, carried forward in vision into the terrible “day of the Lord,” sees these plagues beginning to fall! “And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven last plagues ... and the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image” (Rev. 15:6 and 16:2). Every sign tells us these things will happen, plunging the world into the most frantic, frenzied state of anguish ever known, almost certainly within a matter of the next several years! Those who suffer the wrath of Almighty God are described as those who worship the the beast, or his image, or have his mark. It is futile to try to imagine, as so many are doing, what the mark of the beast may be. These prophecies are real. They are imminent. Because these and other prophecies have never been understood until now, even churches, the theologians, evangelists have been ignoring prophecies in general and these imminent prophecies in particular. Too many are trying to speculate in their imaginations. But God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8). We can’t work this out in our minds. We are face to face with a stern reality, not an imaginary fairy tale! There is only one way to learn the truth. That is to study carefully, cautiously, prayerfully, with an open mind yielded to and guided by the Holy Spirit, all the testimony of all the scriptures that bear on this question. We cannot determine what the mark of the beast may be, until we have learned what, or who, the beast is! For, of course, the mark is the beast’s mark. Who, what then, is the beast?

The Bible DESCRIPTION of the BEAST

The beast, the image of the beast and the mark of the beast are all described primarily in the 13th chapter of Revelation. Notice carefully this Bible description. The apostle John was being given this message for you and me of this day. In the vision he 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.” “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” (Rev. 13:1-2). Now most of those who are teaching and preaching to others on these subjects overlook entirely this description. For this description will IDENTIFY the beast. If the beast is some mysterious superman, or antichrist, soon to appear as world dictator, he will be a peculiar-looking individual indeed, for he will have seven heads, and ten horns! Have you ever seen a man with seven heads, and ten horns growing out of one of his heads? And did you ever see a man who was like a leopard, and can you imagine a superman coming who will have the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion? And will he appear by coming up out of some ocean? Now these, of course, are all symbols. The very word beast is a symbol. And our problem is to interpret the symbols, for they stand for real, literal things. But man cannot interpret biblical symbols. And when we know what the heads and the horns are, what the feet of the bear, the mouth of the lion, and likeness to a leopard all mean, then we can know what, or who, the beast really is!

The Bible Interprets Its Own Symbols

The point we want to stress is that the Bible interprets its own symbols! If we want the truth, we must be guided solely by the Bible interpretation, not man’s interpretations and imaginations. And the Bible itself tells us what they represent! In the 7th chapter of Daniel, we find exactly these same symbols described. Here again are the beasts, the seven heads, the ten horns, and here also is the lion, the bear, and the leopard. And here the Bible tells us what these symbols represent. God had given Daniel understanding in dreams and visions (Dan. 1:17). And Daniel had a dream and a vision (Dan. 7:1) in which he saw four great beasts (verse 3). And notice, as in Revelation, the beasts came up out of the sea.

The first was like a “lion” (verse 4), the second was like a “bear” (verse 5), the third like a “leopard” (verse 6), and the fourth was so dreadful and terrible it could not be compared to any wild beast known to inhabit the earth (verse 7)! Now there was only one head described on the lion, one for the bear, one for the fourth beast — but the third beast, the leopard, had four heads

— thus making seven heads in all! And out of this great and dreadful fourth beast grew ten horns! Now notice verse 16, latter part. Here comes the interpretation of the things!

The question is, will we accept this Bible interpretation of the seven heads, the ten horns, the lion, the bear and the leopard? “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth,” is the interpretation of verse 17. And the word king is synonymous with kingdom, and used only in the sense that the king represents the kingdom over which he rules, for in verse 23 we read, “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth.” Notice also the word kingdom is used to explain the beasts in verses 18, 22, 24, and 27.

Now what do the “horns” represent? Notice verse 24: “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” Notice the ten horns, or ten succeeding kingdoms or governments, come OUT OF A KINGDOM, not out of a man, or a superman. This alone makes plain that the beast is not some mysterious personal superman yet to come. Also that the beast is not a church as some claim, for no ten kingdoms ever did, or will, come out of a church. And since “king” in these prophecies only stands for the kingdom he represents, and since the words are used interchangeably, it follows that these ten horns are ten succeeding kingdoms growing out of the fourth kingdom, which was to rule the earth!

Identification of the Kingdoms

These same four world-ruling gentile kingdoms are described in the second chapter of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldean Empire, who had taken the Jews captive, had a dream, the meaning of which God revealed to Daniel. The dream is described in verses 31-35. The king saw a great image. Its head was of gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron and its feet and toes were part iron and part clay. Finally, a stone, not in men’s hands, but supernaturally, smote the image upon his feet and toes. It was broken in pieces and was blown away like chaff. Then the stone that smashed it became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. “This,” Daniel says, beginning verse 36, “is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.” “ ... Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise” (verses 36-40).

The interpretation of the stone smashing the image at its toes is found in the 44th verse: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” The Stone is Christ and His world-ruling kingdom. The interpretation of the stone is given many places in the Bible. “Jesus Christ of Nazareth ... is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner” (Acts 4:10-11). And so we see that here are four universal world-ruling gentile kingdoms. They begin with the Chaldean Empire, which took the Jews captive to Babylon. God had promised ancient Israel that if they would keep His commandments, be His obedient nation, they would grow into a multitude of nations — or an empire that would dominate the entire earth. But for disobedience they would have to be taken captive by gentile nations (Lev. 26 and other prophecies). Ancient Israel had been tried through the generations and centuries. They had disobeyed. Now they had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, who had raised up the world’s first empire. They continue through four great universal kingdoms and out of the fourth grows ten succeeding governments. These carry to the time of the Second Coming of Christ, and the setting up of the kingdom of God to fill the whole earth and last forever.

The New Commentary on the Whole Bible, by JFB says: “The Kingdoms represented are mentioned in terms of their relationship with God. Babylon, the Head of Gold, Medo-Persia, the Breast and two arms of silver; Greco-Macedonia the belly and two thighs of brass; and Rome and its GERMANIC­SLAVIC offshoots as legs of iron and feet of clay...Although the kingdoms of different, they are essentially ONE AND THE SAME POWER [Babylon] under DIFFERENT PHASES, JUST AS THE IMAGE IS ONE THOUGH MADE WITH A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT METALS” (p.1170).

“And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

“And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

“And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay” (Dan 2:41-43).

The Clay

And what does the clay symbolize in the Bible? Notice that this is a brand new material added to this image. If you notice in the passages there are two types of clay, POTTER’S CLAY, and MIRY CLAY. Potter’s clay is adhesive where as Miry clay is not, as the Psalmist said, “I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:” (69:2). Also with the Potter’s clay, the Kingdom is “divided,” with the Miry clay, the Kingdom is “mixed” together, so there are two different events that are happening here.

So what does the Potter’s clay symbolize in the Bible? Jeremiah 18:6 says: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith YHWH. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

” So the Potter’s clay represents the HOUSE OF ISRAEL! For a full explanation of who the house of Israel is in the end time read our book The U.S.A. and the British on Prophecy. Yes the House of Israel is the U.S.A., The British, Canada, North Western Europe.

The Iron of course is the Holy Roman Empire. What is this scripture obviously telling us! The Iron with potter’s clay is NATO! The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, [House of Israel] and part of iron, [Holy Roman Empire] the kingdom shall be divided;” (Daniel 2:41). The Kingdom of Europe was divided between East and West, with NATO on one side and Russia with COMECON (Russian Satellites, their version of NATO, Eastern Europe on the other). Not to mention Germany Divided right down the middle by the Americans and the British in the West, and Russia in the East. Germany is prophesied to lead the Holy Roman Empire once again. Read our Book Germany in Prophecy For Details.

Even today, Europe is “divided” into two camps, The European Union and its Economic Alliances, and NATO. Many people do not realize that NATO is an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon [Potter’s clay] and the E.U. is a GERMAN [Iron] phenomenon. Yet Germany as well as other European Nations plays a role in both alliances so the Kingdom is “divided.”

“And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of [Potter’s] clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” This part of the verse is interesting. Its not giving us information of the Kingdom and its alliances with other nations here, but an analogy of the kingdom, notice it says “and AS the toes.” It’s an analogy of the internal relationship this alliance, the iron and the Potter’s clay has. The NATO Alliance of course has the strong, Rich, and Military Anglo-Saxon Nations, Germany, Italy as the strong part of the alliance. Then it has the weaker poorer nations in it from the eastern European block.

Barnes Notes puts it, “such a diversity in the internal constitution” that, while there would be the element of great power, there would be also an element of weakness;” The policies of each nations of NATO has shown us that they do not always agree with one another and that is it’s weakness, yet when they do agree, they take action for example to stop terrorism, or protect citizens from wars like Bosnia, and Afghanistan. And for many years protected Europe from being dominated by the Soviet Union. This is the great power it has when it agrees on policy.

What is the Miry Clay?

“...but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay...And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” (Dan 2;41,43).

Again, we know that the Iron is the Holy Roman Empire. And the strength of the Roman Empire will again prevail in Europe. A return to Fascism could likely be the scenario, or at least a right wing dictatorship. This will be the last attempt to resurrect the Roman Empire. The Miry clay has to do with the “mingling” with the “seeds of men.” What does this mean? Virtually all commentaries say that the mingling with the seed of men means marriage, or alliance with the seed of men. But they will not cleave to one another. Is there another scripture in the bible that makes this more clear? Revelation 17 provides the answer.

In Revelation 17, we read of the 10 kings which are the ten toes of Daniel 2 with the Beast, and the great ‘Whore” that sits with them. This great “Whore,” “ sitteth upon many waters:” (verse 1). The many waters it sits on the Bible interprets it as, “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (v.15). This could not mean the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages because they ruled over the Kingdom of Iron Only, meaning the Roman Empire. This is speaking of the last resurrection of the Empire when Catholicism is a global phenomenon. This happened after the rule of the Popes over Europe. The Miry Clay is only mixed with the ten toes, this shows it can only happen during the last head of the Beast of Revelation 17.

This whore, “which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” (Rev 17:18). Vatican City is a self ruling State and ambassadors come and deal with the Pope and the Papacy. It’s got its own bank, Diplomats, government, laws, guards and territories.

Now, a King and kingdom are synonymous in the Bible. Daniel 7:17, 23 shows us that. So the Catholic Church’s Kingdom consists of the multitudes of peoples it sits and reigns over, the “seed of men.” This seed of men, the Catholic Kingdom, marries the Beast and will align itself with the Beast. As Revelation 17:3 says, “I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” This is the Miry Clay, the Catholic Kingdom which consists of many peoples tongues and nations and is growing immensely in the third world!

Now the Bible says that, “they shall not cleave one to another” (Dan 2;43). Revelation 17 shows this as well, “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire” (v.16). This church/state alliance will deteriorate because of internal problems between the State and the Catholic church.

So the Miry clay is the marriage between the Beast and the Catholic Church. Isaiah 47:8 shows this whore as the daughter of the Chaldeans, and she says “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:” She is seeking marriage with the Beast and will achieve it, but will deteriorate, “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood:...And evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know how to deprecate it; And mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to expiate it; And destruction shall come suddenly upon thee, thou shalt not know [“how to escape, avoid, or be delivered ”­JFB Commentary]” (Isa 47:9, 11; JFB Commentary translation of verse 11).

After this, Revelation 18 goes through what the Catholic Kingdom has done and the merchants of the earth wail for her passing. The ten toes with the beast will fight Christ at his coming, Revelation 17:12-14. This is when the “...Stone [Christ] was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces....And in the days of these kings [ten toes] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (vv.34, 44). So the Beast, the Ten Toes [Kings], and the Miry clay is the last resurrection of the Roman Empire. The Catholic Church deteriorates from the alliance by the Ten Kings. The Beast and the Ten Kings fight Christ at his coming and are destroyed, and the Beast and the False Prophet are thrown into the lake of Fire, see Rev 19:20.

The Three Beasts

The Four Beasts of Daniel 7, correspond exactly with Daniel 2. Let’s go through them one by one:

“I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

“And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

“ 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” (v.2-4).

The Lion: “...like a lion-signifying strength and courage, and in the case pointing to Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom (Jer 4:7). The BEAST CORRESPONDS TO THE GOLDEN HEAD OF NEBUCADNEZZAR’S IMAGE...eagle’s wings-denoting the rapidity with which his kingdom rose and flourished (Jer 48:40). The lion and the eagle are both used by Jeremiah the prophet to describe Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 49:19-22). Wings...were plucked-This reminds us of Nebuchadnezzar’s period of insanity (Dan 4) when the proud self sufficient man was humbled (c.f. Psalms 49:20) a man’s heart was given-Only after Nebuchadnezzar learned that he could not succeed through his own strength, did a man’s heart replace the heart of a beast ([Dan] 4:35, 36; Psalm 9:20)” (ibid., pp.1183-84). So clearly through secular history and other scriptures in the Bible, the LION IS BABYLON!

“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” (v.5)

The Bear: “...symbolizing both the life of the Persians in their mountains and their cruelty (Isa. 13:17-18). This BEAST CORRESPONDS TO THE SILVER CHEST AND ARMS...[of the] IMAGE. Cambyses, Ochus, and other Persian princes were notoriously cruel [like the bear]...three ribs in the mouth-These probably represent Media, Lydia and Babylon who were brought under Persian control. They are represented as three ribs because they strengthened the Medo-Persian empire. Arise and devour flesh-The ribs after becoming part of the Kingdom, then urged the bear to devour even more” (ibid., p.1184).

    “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.” (V.6).

The Leopard: “Though smaller than the lion, the leopard is swift and cruel, and always ready to spring from its hiding place on its prey (Hosea 13:7). This BEAST CORRESPONDS TO THE BELLY AND THIGHS OF ...[the] IMAGE ([Dan] 2:32, 39). Alexander the Great, the king of originally a small kingdom [the Leopard], Macedonia, is represented here. He attacked the Persians, taking their empire [see Daniel 8], and making it his own; in just twelve years [the swiftness of the leopard] he conquered much of Europe and all of Asia...Four Wings-While two wings represent Babylon [on the lion], Macedonia has four because of its rapid conquests. The spots on the leopard denote the various nations incorporated into Alexander’s empire...four heads-The four heads...represent the four divisions of Alexander’s empire marked out after his death ([Dan] c.f. 8:8, 22). Macedonia and Greece went to Cassander [1st Head], Thrace and Bithynia to Lysimachus [2nd Head], Egypt to Ptolemy [3rd Head], and Syria to Seleucus [4th Head]” (ibid, p.1184). These three beasts are clearly identified as Babylon, Persia and Greece. Note: Daniel 8 clearly shows that Greece was the next empire to rule after Persia.

The Illustrations depict the first three of the four beasts that emerge from the turbulent sea in Daniel’s dream (Dan 7).

The Fourth Beast

Plainly, here are described the SAME FOUR universal world-ruling Gentile powers that are described by Daniel’s four beasts. And this dream-image identifies WHO they are. The first was Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, the Chaldean Empire, called “Babylon” after the name of its capital city, 625-539 B.C.

The second kingdom, which followed, then, we know from history was the Persian Empire, 558-330 B.C., often called Medo- Persia, composed of Medes and Persians.

All ancient history students know the third world kingdom was Greece, or Macedonia under Alexander the Great, who conquered the great Persian Empire 333-330 B.C. But Alexander lived only a short year after his swift conquest, and his four generals divided his vast empire into four regions: Macedonia and Greece, Thrace and Western Asia, Syria and territory east to the Indus river, and Egypt. So these were the four heads of the third beast of Daniel 7.

And the FOURTH KINGDOM, which, developing from Rome, spread out and gradually absorbed one after another of these four divisions — “Dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, was the ROMAN EMPIRE (31 B.C. to A.D. 476).

It had absorbed all the others, occupied all their territory, was greater and stronger than all. It included all the royal splendor of ancient Babylon, thus having the head — the strongest part — of the lion. It had all the massiveness and numerically powerful army of the Persian Empire — symbolized by the LEGS, the most powerful part of the BEAR. It was the greatest war-making machine the world had ever seen, and it also possessed the swiftness, the cunning, the cruelty of Alexander’s army, symbolized by the LEOPARD.

And thus, this fourth beast was unlike any wild beast of the earth. It was stronger, greater, more terrible, than any.

And so John, in Rev. 13, sees, not four beasts, but ONE beast. Not a leopard, but LIKE a leopard — possessing all its cunning, cruelty, and speed. But it also possessed the dominant characteristics of the two other most powerful beasts — the FEET of a bear, and the MOUTH of a lion. Daniel’s fourth beast, the Roman Empire, had absorbed and therefore it included the three beasts before it. Thus it included all seven HEADS. And John’s beast also has SEVEN HEADS. It was Daniel’s fourth beast, ONLY, which had TEN HORNS and John’s beast has TEN HORNS.

And so, if we are willing to be guided solely by the BIBLE descrip­tion of this “beast” and to let the BIBLE interpret the symbols used to describe it, we come to the inevita­ble conclusion that the beast of Rev. 13 is the ROMAN EMPIRE, of 31 B.C. to A.D. 476! Of course, many man-imagined THEORIES, widely taught and published, interpret this BEAST otherwise — some as the Roman Catholic Church, some as a mysterious, individual, superman yet to come. But these theories will not stand the Test of applying the

_{Territory of the Roman Empire}                                                                               Bible interpretation to all the symbols that describe this Beast.

Nebuchadnezzar’s image, by the TWO legs, describes the TWO DIVISIONS of the Roman Empire, after A.D. 330; West, with capital at Rome, and East, with capital at Constantinople. John also pictures this BEAST, not as a church, or as an individual man, but as a powerful GOVERNMENT having a great ARMY. For they worshiped the beast by saying: “WHO IS ABLE TO MAKE WAR WITH HIM?” (Rev. 13:4).

 The reason why Daniel saw four beasts, and John saw one beast, is for the simple reason, in Daniel’s time, these kingdoms were all enemies. In John’s time, the Roman Empire absorbed them all, and all the enemies were destroyed.

The Deadly Wound

Now let us return to our description of the beast in Revelation 13. “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. “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? “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” (Rev. 13:3-5).

The only existing head at the time John saw this beast (which included the most powerful characteristics of all the beasts symbolizing its predecessors) was that of the fourth beast of Daniel which was the SEVENTH HEAD OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE-THE HEAD OUT OF WHICH THE TEN HORNS GREW! The ten horns, as Daniel interprets, represent ten successive governments out of the Roman Empire, which were going to continue until the setting up of the Kingdom of God at the second coming of Christ.

The “deadly wound”, then, was the one administered to the Roman Empire, when, in its last decaying stages, the Barbarians overran it, ending its government in A.D. 476.

But when the 7th head of this beast received its deadly wound in 476 A.D. was that the end? No, prophecy says “his deadly wound was healed...and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months” (v.3, 5).

John sees this beast living in the days of its seventh head, the Roman Empire. And when the head of this beast was suffering from its deadly wound, his-the beast’s-deadly wound was healed. THE HORNS NOW REIGN ONE BY ONE Why? Because Daniel said, “...out of this Kingdom [after its fall]” the “ten horns grew” meaning, they were taking their position of power.

The Symbolism of the Horns

Let us now notice the symbolism of the horns of the fourth beast of Daniel 7 and of the beast of Revelation 13.

The ten horns symbolize the same thing — the ten stages of government continuing out of the Roman Empire after its fall, A.D. 476. The ten horns “out of this kingdom” (the fourth — the Roman Empire, 31 B.C. to A.D. 476) “ARE TEN KINGS that shall arise ... and the KINGDOM and the dominion, and the greatness of the KINGDOM under the whole heaven” (not IN heaven) “shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High.” (Dan. 7:24, 27.)

The ten horns, then, are ten KINGDOMS to arise out of the fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire. These kings, also called Kingdoms, continue from A.D. 476 until the time when the Stone, Christ and His Kingdom, smashes the image on its toes, and the KINGDOM is given to the SAINTS. THESE TEN

HORNS ARE ALSO ON THE SEVENTH HEAD OF THE BEAST IN REVELATION 13. THE SEVENTH HEAD OF DANIEL, WHICH IS ON THE FOURTH BEAST OF DANIEL, IS THE SAME AS THE SEVENTH HEAD OF THE BEAST IN REVELATION 13, AND OUT OF THAT HEAD, THE TEN HORNS GREW. Remember, 1st head is

Babylon, 2nd head is Persia 3rd 4th 5th and 6th head is Greece, and the 7th is Rome. And on this head were TEN HORNS. Revelation 13, there were seven heads and ten horns. The seventh head is Rome, and the ten horns grew out of this head.

Therefore, we will now show you in history and the Bible, that these horns are SUCCESSIVE KINGDOMS down through history, after the fall of Imperial Rome in 476 A.D. And that these horns ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE TEN TOES OF THE IMAGE OF DANIEL 2 which are CONTEMPORANEOUS. These successive kingdoms actually represent the LEGS OF IRON of the Image, from 476 A.D. to our time. Nine successive kingdoms have come and gone, and the tenth and final kingdom is coming very soon!

The Story of the First Three Horns

To understand the story of the first three horns were must go back into the book of Daniel to get the full history of these three kingdoms.

As the Roman Empire in the West collapsed, the leaders of three groups of barbarian invaders—the Vandals, the Heruli and the Ostrogoths—sought to succeed the Western emperors. As we shall see, each barbarian group sought and received official recognition of its kingdom from the emperor in the East as a continuation of legitimate Roman government in the West. There was another emerging ruler in the West, however, who eventually effected their overthrow and ouster-the Bishop at Rome-known as the Pope!

The Vandals (First Horn)

The Vandals invaded North Africa in 429, and several years of fighting with Rome ensued. But through a treaty in 435, these barbarians were “recognized” by the Romans as the legitimate continuation of the Empire in North Africa (cf. Langer, p. 135). Still not satisfied, the Vandals sought to expand their power as Roman successors. In 455 they even pillaged the city of Rome itself—so thoroughly that, to this day, the term “vandal” describes anyone who maliciously defaces the property of others. The Vandals left Rome with the Western emperor still on the throne—but they continued to exercise power throughout Roman North Africa. Ultimately, however, they were uprooted. “In Africa the Vandals were hated as Arian’s [by the Catholics]... but their power was not broken until the 533-548 Vandalic Wars of [East Roman Emperor] Justinian” (p. 159). In 533, Justinian would dispatch his brilliant general, Belisarius, with 500 transport ships and 92 warships to rid Africa of the Vandals. But first, two more kingdoms would be established in Italy.

The Herulii (2nd Horn)

In 476, about 20 years after the Vandals sacked Rome, the Heruli under Odoacer (or Odovacar) deposed the last West Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. This official end of the Western imperial monarchy—the end of the West Roman Empire—was Rome’s “deadly wound.” Odoacer was “recognized” by Eastern Emperor Zeno in Constantinople. as the legitimate continuation of Roman government in Italy (cf. p. 135). But he too was an Arian—a fact greatly resented by the Roman pope, who appealed to Zeno. So Zeno sent Theodoric, the leader of the barbarian Ostrogoths, as his “agent” to drive out the Heruli in 488 (p. 135). “The orthodox bishops of Italy, disliking Odoacer’s Arianism, supported the Arian invader [Theodoric] as representing an almost orthodox emperor. With their help Theodoric broke Odoacer’s sturdy resistance in five years of war, and persuaded him to a compromise peace [in 493]. He invited Odoacer and his son to dine with him in Ravenna, fed them generously, and slew them with his own hand” (Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 4, pp. 97-98). Thus, the Heruli were uprooted.

The Ostrogoths (3rd Horn)

Ostrogothic rule of Italy was accepted for a while as a necessary evil in getting rid of the Heruli. For Theodoric “maintained a formal subordination to Byzantium.... He accepted the laws and institutions of the Late Western Empire.... [And] though an Arian, [he] protected the orthodox Church in her property and worship” (p. 98). But over time, the Arian Ostrogoths became increasingly unpopular with Rome’s pope and the Catholic population. “The Catholics were attached to [East Emperor Justinian], who... trod the narrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy” (Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2, p. 477). And in 535, during Justinian’s Vandalic Wars (already mentioned), the Byzantine forces led by Belisarius arrived in Italy to drive out the Ostrogoths. The Roman population “hailed Belisarius as a liberator, the clergy welcomed him as a Trinitarian” (Durant, p. 109). This began the Gothic Wars, which ended 18 years later when Justinian’s troops finally expelled the remaining Ostrogoths from Italy.

The whole reason why these three kingdoms got uprooted from their place in the Empire, is for one reason, THE POPE AT ROME! As we read in the book of Daniel a “little horn” among the ten horns, and this little horn, “coming up among them, before whom THREE OF THE FIRST HORNS WERE PLUCKED OUT BY THE ROOTS” (Dan 7:8) The “Little Horn” is the POPE AT ROME! (More details on the Pope in prophecy later).

Now during this time, of the three horns, this did not heal the wound on the beast. For this was a government in Rome, but it was NOT A ROMAN GOVERNMENT, but one of Foreign barbarians.

These three kingdoms sweeping into the Roman territory filled the period known to history as the “transition age” (see Myer’s Ancient History, p.571). That is, the “transition” between the wound and the the healing of the Roman Empire!

Now Daniel as we have seen, saw a “little horn” coming up among these ten, before whom the first three were “plucked up by the roots.” That leaves seven horns to come. And that little Horn, Daniel 7 says “...his look was more stout than his fellows” (v.20). The PAPACY DOMINATED ALL THE HORNS TO FOLLOW, AND WILL DOMINATE UNTIL THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, see Dan 7:8-11, 21-22.

The Little Horn

Who is this Little Horn in Daniel 7? Can we positively identify that it’s the Pope at Rome? Let’s see what Bible Prophecy has to say!

The Little Horn is described as: “...eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things...even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows...and think to change times and laws:” (Dan 7:8, 20, 25). This horn was different from the other kings i.e. the horns. In what way? This horn was a RELIGIOUS LEADER AS WELL AS A POLITICIAN!

This description is the same as the mouth on the beast of Revelation 13: “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies;...And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven...And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:...And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,...” (v.5-8).

Daniel 7:21 shows that this little horn “makes war with the saints” as well. So the mouth of the Beast and the Little horn are one and the same!

Now we see in Revelation 13:11-18 another beast coming up out of the earth. This is the same description as the Little Horn as well: “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed...And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (v.11-12, 15). Of course the people who will not worship the beast or his image are God’s chosen people, so here we see this second beast making “war with the saints” just like the little horn of Daniel 7.

But notice the description of the second Beast. A beast in prophecy as we know is a symbol of a king and his kingdom. Now the lamb is a symbol of Christ, see John 1:29; Rev 5:6-14. And who is the dragon? Satan the devil, see Rev 12:9.

So this is obviously a description of a political leader proclaiming FALSE CHRISTIANITY. This is how the little horn is different from the other horns. He was a politician as well as a religious leader. Also notice that he exercises the authority of the first beast, the state Roman Empire. When Justinian fought the Vandals, the Herulii and the Ostrogoths it was at the behest of the Pope’s. As we shall see in history and Prophecy, the Roman Empire from the time of Justinian until now was a CHURCH STATE GOVERNMENT!

So in all of history who matches this description of the “little Horn” in prophecy? Who uprooted the three horns? Who is a politician and a religious leader who, as we shall see, governed the Roman Empire with the Emperors at Rome and Germany? None other that the Pope at Rome! So the Pope stands identified as the “Little Horn”!

The Woman That Rides the Beast

Now in Daniel 7, we read how the little horn plucked from the roots the first three horns (indicating succession in the ten horns and not contemporaries), and now we are left with 7 HORNS WITH THE LITTLE HORN! Now this little horn was to last until the second coming of Christ, see Daniel 7:20-22.

 This little horn has a church, state alliance with the rest of the 7 horns. Daniel writes in verse 8 that he rises “among them [the other horns].” Verse 24 also says that the little horn shall rise “after [or “beside” see Strong’s # 310-311] them [the other horns].” Then the saints will “take away his dominion” (verse 26). And of course his dominion is with the other horns as shown in verses 8, 24. So he holds a position of power WITH THE 7 HORNS! Like the second beast of rev 13 exercising all the power of the first beast! So its obvious that this little horn reigns with the LAST SEVEN HORNS UNTIL THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, PERSECUTING THE CHURCH ( Daniel 7:21-22).

Now we come to Revelation 17! Here we see a beast: “I saw a WOMAN sit upon a scarlet colored BEAST, full of names of blasphemy, HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS.” (v.3). What is the “Woman”? A Woman is a symbol of a church, see 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-27; Rev 19:7. This woman that rides the Beast, meaning it guides and has control of the state, the Roman Empire, the CHURCH STATE GOVERNMENT. This like the little horn and the second beast, which are one and the same, “exerciseth all the power of the first beast” (Rev 13:12). This “Woman” like the “little horn” and the second Beast of Rev 13 was, “...drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:” (Rev 17:6). The little horn who persecutes the saints (Dan 7:21­22), and the second beast who causes people who don’t worship the image “to be killed” (Rev 13:15). They are all one and the same. Also, since the “woman” is a church, and the second beast is a political leader who heads up a false Christian organization, then it can only mean that these all mean the same thing! So we see the Woman in a church, state government with SEVEN HEADS or kings! Obviously the seven heads ARE the SEVEN HORNS OF DANIEL 7.

The seven heads are “...seven kings: five are fallen, and ONE IS, and the other is not YET TO COME...” (Rev 17:10). This proves that the 7 horns that are left in Daniel 7 and the seven heads here in Rev 17 are NOT contemporaneous but SUCCESSIVE!

But Revelation 17:10 makes an interesting statement about the seven heads of the Beast ridden by the woman: “There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.” Notice the time frame here. “Five have fallen,”

i.e. Justinian, Charlemagne, Otto, Charles V and Napoleon-spanning the 1,260 years the Beast was to continue, from 554 to 1814. Then the verse says, “one IS.” But Hitler and Mussolini were not around when John wrote this prophecy. The time frame must then be reckoned from when this prophecy was to be revealed. All these prophecies shown were to be revealed between the 6th and seventh head of the beast!

This parallels a statement in Daniel, a book that must be read in conjunction with Revelation to properly understand end-time events. The prophecies in these books were not meant to be understood until this modern age. Daniel recorded, “Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, `My lord, what shall be the end of these things?’And he said, `Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (12:8-10).

And indeed the meaning of these prophecies came to be generally understood by God’s Church at the very time indicated the time of the “sixth head,” the Hitler-Mussolini Axis. How truly remarkable this is! Furthermore, it gives added proof that since that revival, humanity has been living in the end time. Notice also that “the other .[revival] has not yet come” (Rev. 17:10). This is how God’s people knew that another world dictator would yet emerge from a united Europe after World War II. Are you, too-like the “wise”-beginning to understand?

Now Revelation 17:11 continues and says, “And the beast which was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes to perdition.” Now what does this mean?

As we have learned, the seven heads of the scarlet Beast of Revelation 17 are seven successive kingdoms (v. 10)-the seven resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. We have already examined the first six. The coming seventh head is also described as “the eighth, and is of the seven” (v. 11). The last revival is the “eighth” Holy Roman system IF YOU COUNT THE ORIGINAL IMPERIAL ROMAN SYSTEM THAT REIGN BETWEEN 31 B.C. TO 476 A.D. Remember the 10 horns “came out of” the 4th beast, “ The fourth beast [Imperial Rome31 B.C. to 476 A.D.] shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces....And the ten horns out of this kingdom [Imperial Rome] are ten kings that shall arise:” (Dan 7;23, 24). So Imperial Rome is the first system. The first three were “plucked out” so are not counted. Then the last remaining seven horns makes 8 systems of the Roman Empire which makes the seventh, the 8th system but “is of the seven.”

What about the Ten Horns on the last head of this beast in Rev 17? “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.“These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

“These [ten kings] shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (v.12-14).

These ten kings are CONTEMPORANEOUS, AND THESE TEN KINGS ARE THE TEN TOES OF DANIEL 2. In Daniel 2 we see the Stone which is Christ smash the image on its “feet” (Daniel 2:34). And as Daniel 2:44 says: “In the days of these KINGS [ten Toes] the God of Heaven will set up a KINGDOM...” So the truth becomes plain. The woman is the Roman Catholic church which is in a church state alliance with the beast throughout its seven revivals, which is called in history the Holy Roman Empire. And on the last head of the Beast, the Ten Kings, which are the ten toes, will fight Christ at his coming, this is when the great image of Daniel 2 is smashed and God will set up his kingdom forever.

Now let’s see if secular history agrees with Bible Prophecy!

Let’s look at the pope-sanctioned revivals thus far. With the conclusion of the Gothic Wars in A.D. 553, Italy was left in poverty and disorder. Rome had been besieged, starved, captured and looted. Finally the Byzantine armies succeeded in re-conquering Italy and remnants of the Western Empire. Justinian, already the emperor in the East, was now the restored emperor in the West. But how was he to govern this recovered territory? The answer lay in an alliance of church and state that has shaped the history of Western Europe ever since. Though secular authority in the West had collapsed, “the survival of ecclesiastical organization [under the bishop of Rome] appeared even to the emperors as the salvation of the state. In 554 Justinian promulgated a decree requiring that ‘fit and proper persons, able to administer the local government, be chosen as governors of the provinces by the bishops and chief persons of each province’” (Durant, pp. 519-520).

The Second Head and the Woman

In the years following Justinian’s Imperial Restoration, the Eastern emperors generally focused their attention and resources closer to home. The security provided for the West by Constantinople. became negligible. Meanwhile, the Carolingian dynasty, which ruled over the Franks (in modern France), was emerging as the protector of Western Christendom. To secure this role, private negotiations were held between Carolingian King Charlemagne and Pope Leo III— the results of which were made manifest in A.D. 800.

“On Christmas Day, as Charlemagne, in the [mantle] and sandals of a patricius Romanus [Roman noble], knelt before St. Peter’s altar in prayer, Leo suddenly produced a jeweled crown, and set it upon the King’s head. The congregation, perhaps instructed beforehand to act according to ancient ritual as the senatus populusque Romanus [senate and people of Rome] confirming a coronation, thrice cried out: ‘Hail to Charles the Augustus, crowned by God the great and peace-bringing Emperor of the Romans!’

The royal head was anointed with holy oil, the Pope saluted Charlemagne as Emperor and Augustus” (Durant, pp. 468-469). After several years of dispute, the Byzantine emperor recognized the Frankish king as co-emperor. Thus the Imperium in the West passed to the second “horn” of the Beast of Revelation 13 following the three uprootings—also the second “head” of the scarlet Beast of chapter 17.

Both “heads” mentioned so far—Justinian and Charlemagne—were allied with the bishop of Rome, having arisen at papal behest and with papal blessing.

Historian Will Durant explains, “Out of this intimate co-operation of Church and state came one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of statesmanship: the transformation of Charlemagne’s realm into a Holy Roman Empire that should have behind it all the prestige, sanctity, and stability of both Imperial and papal Rome” (p. 468).

The Third Head and the Woman

During the century and a half that followed Charlemagne’s coronation, his empire slowly disintegrated under weak successors. By 936, the German Saxons had become the most powerful group in central Europe. In 955, Otto, Duke of the Saxons and now King of the Germans, defeated the Magyars, who were attempting to invade Western Europe from the east. Several years later he entered Italy at the request of Pope John XII to restore him to power and, in the aftermath, received the crown of the Roman Empire of the German Nation—the first German Reich—in 962.

“Thus once again the ghost of the Roman empire was summoned to sanction the successful state building of a semi-barbarian king” (William McNiel, Handbook of Western Civilization, p. 317). The coronation of Otto the Great as emperor marked the inauguration of the third head in the continuity of the restored Western Empire.

What was the significance of Otto’s revival of the Empire to his contemporaries and their successors? Note what historian Robert Hertzstein wrote in his introduction to The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages: “The Empire was understood not as a mere term, but as a universal Christian regent for God on Earth, to exist until the coming of the Anti-Christ. Like Charlemagne, Otto received his throne through the Papal claim that the Roman Church had been the only Imperial elector since the early fourth century.... The Holy Roman Empire was thus to a large extent German in its ethnic and political base, Christian in its moral justification, and Roman in its claim to legitimacy and universality” (p. viii).

In an essay titled “The Empire as a Regency for God on Earth,” noted Austrian historian Friedrich Heer writes, “The task of the Empire was to be God’s protagonist on earth, to fulfill His aims here, to protect Christianity and the Church, and to preserve the righteousness of God and the divine order of the universe on earth. The earthly Empire was the transitory reflection of the eternal City of God.... In the imperial symbols this claim was displayed to the whole world: with the imperial apple, filled with earth from the four corners of the world, the Emperor holds the whole world in his hand.... [The emperor] called the imperial crown corona urbis et orbis [the crown of the city, i.e. Rome, and of the globe]; he viewed himself as the caput mundi [head of the world] and as the dominator orbis et urbis [ruler of the globe and of the city]” (Hertzstein, pp. 64-65).

The Fourth Head and the Woman

Otto’s revived Holy Roman Empire continued for almost 300 years. Finally, with the death of Conrad IV in 1254, the Empire became so rent by rival factions that 19 years went by without an emperor. Afterward, Rudolph I was elected Emperor in 1273. He was the first of the Hapsburg family to be elevated to the imperial throne.

The apex of this fourth revival of the Roman Imperium was the crowning of Rudolph’s descendant, Charles I of Spain, as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by Pope Clement VII in 1530.Charles ruled over a vast empire. From his mother Joan, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, he had inherited Spain and all its possessions in the New World. From his father, he inherited vast Hapsburg domains in Germany, Italy and Central Europe. After Charles V, Hapsburg power waned. And by the 18th century, “Holy Roman Emperor” was an increasingly empty title.

The Fifth Head and the Woman

In the final decade of the 18th century, all of Europe was shaken by the French Revolution. In its wake, a man both highly gifted and supremely ambitious came to power in France. His name was Napoleon. Aspiring to far more than the French presidency or even to being a new king of France, his ambition could only be satisfied by the re-establishment of the Roman Empire with himself as emperor. As Will Durant notes, “he dreamt of rivalling Charlemagne and uniting Western Europe” (vol. 11, p. 243).

Napoleon considered himself successor to Caesar and Charlemagne. Staging a popular election that he won almost unanimously, Napoleon had the French Senate proclaim him emperor on May 18, 1804. Immediately he began negotiations with Pope Pius VII to come to Paris and consecrate him as emperor. The negotiations were successful and the coronation occurred December 2.

Meanwhile, the Hapsburgs of Austria, who maintained their claim on the title of Holy Roman Emperor, were hit hard by the successive military and diplomatic advances of Napoleon-including his assumption of the imperial title. This was particularly so when, two years after he did so, 16 princes and their states withdrew from the Hapsburg’s Holy Roman Empire, formed the Confederation of the Rhine and asked Napoleon to take them under his protection as a part of his empire. The following month, on August 6, 1806, Francis II of Austria renounced his now-empty title of Holy Roman Emperor. Napoleon’s European empire now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Elbe River. France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Germany and all French and Spanish New World territories—the greater part of the Americas—formed his vast empire. Napoleon thus became the fifth head of the revived Western Imperium.

Napoleon’s empire was not destined to be long-lived, however. A British-led coalition brought about his defeat and abdication in 1814. This ended a period of 1,260 years since the Imperial Restoration under Justinian in 554. Thus the prophecy in Revelation 13:3­5of the Beast’s mortal wound, subsequent healing and continuation for “forty­ two months “was fulfilled (42 thirty-day “months” is equal to 1,260 prophetic “days” or actual years—see box: “Forty and Two Months”). Napoleon’s abdication marked the end of an era. According to historian Willis Mason West, “so closed a government that dated from Augustus Caesar” (Modern History: Europe from Charlemagne to the Present Time, 1944, p. 377). But according to the prophecies of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17, there were yet to be two more attempts to revive the grandeur of ancient Rome.

The Sixth Head and the Woman

After Napoleon’s collapse in 1814, Germany and Italy remained divided and powerless for the next half-century. Each was rent with internal squabbles among a number of small states and principalities. By 1871, Bismarck had succeeded in uniting all of non-Hapsburg Germany under the Prussian King, William—forming the second German Reich—while Garibaldi succeeded in uniting all of Italy under the northern Italian King of Sardinia-Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel.

Fifty years after Garibaldi’s unification, a strongman rose to power in Italy with visions of restoring the grandeur and glory of ancient Rome once again. His name was Benito Mussolini. And in 1922, he led his Fascist party to power. The Fascists derived their name from the imperial Roman fasces— an ax wrapped in a bundle of rods, signifying unity and authority. It was carried in ancient times by a Roman consul as a symbol of his office.

In 1870, King Victor Emmanuel’s Italian army, led by General Garibaldi, defeated the armies of the pope and captured Rome. From that time on, there was a tense standoff between the popes and the new rulers of Italy.

Finally, in 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the papacy. This treaty established the papal sovereignty of Vatican City, affirmed Roman Catholicism as the only religion of Italy and made Mussolini’s the first Italian government in modern history to be officially recognized by the pope.

Hitler & Mussolini were the axis Powers of World War Two and Re­vived the Holy Roman Empire

Eager to restore “glory,” Mussolini looked for places to conquer. Ethiopia, whose army had routed the Italians from East Africa in 1896, seemed a likely prospect. Mussolini’s forces successfully invaded Ethiopia and Somaliland. In 1936, he pompously proclaimed that what Italians were seeing was, “after fifteen centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on the fated hills of Rome. “Mussolini then entered into an alliance with Adolf Hitler, ruler of Germany-now in its “Third Reich”—result­ing in the Rome-Berlin Axis of World War II. This sixth attempt at uniting Europe by reviving imperial Rome went down in flames in 1945.

The Seventh Head and the Woman

Now we come to the last revival of the Roman Empire. In the future, we will see ten kings in Europe forming WITH THE BEAST i.e. A United Germany and Austrian power, get our free booklet Germany in Prophecy, see Rev 17:12-14, probably called a United States of Europe. Since there is absolutely no trace of the last revival of the Rome-Berlin axis in World War 2, the Bible says that this last revival will come out of the “bottomless pit” (Rev 11:7). This last revival will come out of no where! Papal power will also rise once again.

The Roman Catholic Church will once again ride this beast, and bring the whole world under its sway. It will once again institute the MARK OF THE BEAST (explained later), and causes all who do not receive the mark to be killed. Now that we know what the beast is, for its the mark of the beast, not the mark of the false prophet, now we can find out what the mark is! But before we do that let’s see what the “image of the beast is”!

Part Two: What is the Image of the Beast?

Forty-Two Months

Revelation 13:5 says the Beast would continue for “forty-two months” after its “healing.” Are these 42 literal months?

Let’s look at another 42-month period. Revelation 11 is wholly set in the end time (vv. 14-15). The beginning of the chapter mentions Jerusalem being trodden down by Gentiles for 42 months. We also read of God’s two end-time witnesses prophesying then for 1,260 days (v. 3). These two periods are synonymous. And a little arithmetic shows that each month must be 30 days (for 42 x 30 = 1,260). This period is also 3 1/2 years (42 months divided by 12 months in a year). Since the context makes clear that the two witnesses are actual individuals who are killed and then resurrected in the very end time (vv. 7-14), we conclude that the 42 months here equals 1,260 literal days.

The Beast chapter (Rev. 13), however, does not occur in such a short period. It spans centuries, from the time the Beast (the Roman Empire) receives a deadly wound (the fall of Rome in A.D. 476) and is subsequently healed (Justinian’s Imperial Restoration in 554) all the way to the end time. If the 42 months of verse 5 were 1,260 literal days, the revived Roman Beast would have continued for 3 1/2 years from 554 to 558. Yet Justinian himself did not even die until 565! So there must be another explanation.

Scripture shows that a day can sometimes symbolize a year in Bible prophecy (cf. Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6). So if 42 months equals 1,260 days, then a day for a year here gives us 1,260 years. Was there such a period of exactly 1,260 years of imperial continuity since Justinian’s restoration? Yes—from then (554) to Napoleon’s abdication and exile in 1814! This interpretation certainly makes the most sense.

The Second Beast and the Image of the Beast

As we have learned, the second beast is the same as the little horn in prophecy: “...[the] second beast corresponds to the little horn” (New Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Test volume, p.788).

A few more points about the second beast. In 2 Corith

11:14 we find Satan transforming himself as an “angel of light” meaning a minister of righteousness.

According to Revelation 12:9 and 20:3, he has deceived the whole world. How? Paul tells us in II Corinthians 11:13-15. Satan has his ministers who pretend to be the ministers of righteousness, but are actually false apostles, deceitful workers, calling themselves the ministers of Christ! Therefore they claim to be Christian ministers. They are the many, not the few, because all prophecies say it is the many, not the few, who have been deceived. Satan’s main labor for six thousand years has been the deceiving of the world.

Now turn to Rev 13:11 in this context that Paul put it in: “And I beheld another beast [civil government] coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon [false Christian leader].” Notice John saw one beast, which we have proved was the Roman Empire. He now sees another beast-a different beast rise up. This beast has a lamb like-Satanic government appearing as that of Christ, or the KINGDOM OF GOD!

The second beast is also a symbol of a king. The first false Christian king, i.e. Pope was “[Popes] Zacarias (741 ­752)...Stephen II (752-757)...This was the beginning of the

PAPAL STATES, or TEMPORARY DOMINION OF THE POPES...THIS TEMPORAL KINGDOM OF THE CHURCH LASTED 1100 YEARS, till 1870...[But] his temporal power was restored on a miniature scale (1929), by MUSSOLINI [The same kingdom that took his crown then gave it back to him]...The Pope is again a Sovereign in his own LITTLE KINGDOM” (Halley’s Bible Handbook, pp.771-772, 782, emphasis theirs).

Christ did not set up a government (kingdom) at His first appearing on earth. After His resurrection, the disciples asked Him if He would at that time restore the kingdom (Acts 1:6); but He did not. The Church is not the Kingdom. Because some thought it was, Jesus spoke the parable of Luke 19:11-27 to show that He first must ascend to His Father’s throne in heaven to receive the royal power to become King of kings, to set up the world-ruling Kingdom of God. But Satan is a deceiver, and he has deceived the world into supposing his (Satan’s) system of churches is the Kingdom of God. Now notice carefully Revelation 13:12: “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him.” The first beast is the Roman Empire. Here is another government pretending to be Christ’s government, the Kingdom of God, taking, exercising, using, employing, all the power of the first kingdom. Now when? “He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (verse 12). So, it was after the deadly wound (of A.D. 476) was healed. It was healed when Justinian brought about the restoration of the Empire in the West in A.D. 554. Consequently this religious government exercised power after A.D. 554 when the Roman Empire was restored. So here we have pictured a government — a religious government — appearing as Christ’s government, masquerading as the Kingdom of God, actually ruling the civil Roman Empire after A.D. 554. The teaching in that day was that the Second Coming of Christ is fulfilled in the person of the leaders of the church. The millennium had begun.

For the entire 1260 years, the emperors acknowledged the supreme power of religion. The church was organized as a governments a dual, two-fold government (symbolized by its two horns or kingdoms — for “horns” symbolize kingdoms also — see Dan. 7:24). It embodied church government, and it also was a state or civil government, always occupying a certain amount of territory over which it, alone, ruled as an independent sovereign State in addition to actually ruling over the vast civil kingdom called the Holy Roman Empire. Even today, it is a separate, independent, sovereign state.

In most any encyclopedia, under “Millennium,” you will read the history of this very event — of how the “Holy Roman Empire” was called the “Kingdom of God upon earth.” They claimed the Millennium had arrived! As scripture says, the beast had names of “Blasphemy.”

Notice this second i.e. the religious leader commands “...saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Rev 13:14-15).

Now this ecclesiastical organization, which is a twofold government, deceived the people by saying they should make an image of the beast. Note it (Rev. 13:14) — that is how it deceived people. What is an image? Dictionaries define it as a “likeness,” or a “copy, representation, model, semblance, counterpart.” So here is a church saying, “Let us make a model, or counterpart, of the civil Roman government” — for that is what the beast is.

Where, then, did this human church government derive its present form? Notice the plain statement by British historian and statesman James Bryce that the “papal [system] itself had been modeled after the elder Empire” (The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, p. 53).

“The power of the Caesars lived again in the universal dominion of the popes.”—H.G. Guiness, “Romanism and the Reformation.”

Note also the analysis of historian Will Durant: “It became a triumphant Church by inheriting the organizing patterns and genius of Rome.... As Judea had given Christianity ethics, and Greece had given it theology, so now Rome gave it organization.... The Roman gift was above all a vast framework of government, which, as secular authority failed, became the structure of ecclesiastical rule. Soon the bishops, rather than the Roman prefects, would be the source of order and the seat of power in the cities; the metropolitans, or archbishops, would support, if not supplant, the provincial governors; and the synod of bishops would succeed the provincial assembly. The Roman Church followed in the footsteps of the Roman state” (vol. 3, pp. 575, 618-619).

This church government or organization is the IMAGE OF THE BEAST!

In fact, the “college” of Pagan Priests of the Roman civil government , of the Roman Pagan Empire, was the forerunner of the “College of Cardinals,” which today elects the Pope. Alex Hislop writes in his Two Babylons, “The College of Cardinals, with the Pope at its head, is just the counterpart of the Pagan College of Pontiffs, with its “Pontifex Maximus,” or “Sovereign Pontiff,” which had existed in Rome from the earliest times, and which is known to have been framed on the model of the grand original Council of Pontiffs at Babylon. ...title of “Cardinals”—the priests of the “hinge.” This title had been previously borne by the high officials of the Roman Emperor, who, as “Pontifex Maximus...” (pp.206, 211).

Did you read that! BABYLON, yes BABYLON! That’s why on the head of the whore that rides the beast you find: “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Rev 17:4). Yes she is a “mother” because “daughters” came out of her in “protest” and call themselves “Protestants,” yet they are still daughters. And in the future, this church will again say: “Nor shall I know the loss of CHILDREN” (Isa 47:8). They will become one, and have the world under its control, see Rev 17:5; 18:3.

Now the Pope, who actually “made” and “gave life” to this image of the beast was Stephen III: “By the time Stephen III [768-772 A.D.] became Pope, the church was thoroughly CONVERTED TO THE ROMAN EMPIRE...the Bishop of Rome LOOKED LIKE  CONSTANTINE, LIVED LIKE HIM DRESSED LIKE, inhabited his palaces, ruled over his lands, had exactly the SAME IMPERIAL OUTLOOK...” (Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ, p.61). This all happened after the healing of the wound of the Beast, during the 4th horn of Daniel, which is the first head of the beast in Revelation 17!

As portrayed in Rev 13, the large visible church demanded total allegiance to its governmental structure-the “image of the beast.” This allegiance basically amounted to idolatrous worship, because its adherents were required unquestionably to obey the church government, even if it went against the Holy Bible, and sought to “change times and laws”-which it would (Dan 7:25). Those who refused to obey the image would “cause” them to be killed (Rev 13:15). They were branded heretics “anathema” (cut off) from Christ by the church. Those branded were considered enemies of the state and were, more often than not, punished by the CIVIL GOVERNMENT, i.e. “exercised the power of the first beast,” see Halley’s Bible Handbook, p.777. THE PAPACY IS THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST!

The Little Horn Reigns for a “Time Times and Half a time

“1260 years”

Even though the Pope reigns with the Emperor in 554 A.D. at the restoration of the Empire, and given its Papal states in the 700’s A.D. all these events are a culmination of the Popes reign that fulfills prophecy. Daniel writes that the Little horn would “... speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” The authority of the Pope over Europe and the church of God was to be for a “a time and times and the dividing of time.” So even though the Pope did not reign with Justinian yet, nor receive the Papal states yet, he still had authority over the people of Europe and the church of God and was accepted as the authority before these events of Justinian and the Papal states took place. That date was 538 A.D. “Step by step, the Roman empire did indeed give its power, throne and great authority to the Catholic church...Several other Emperors besides Constantine also conceded or offered power to the Papacy” (God Cares, M. Maxwell, p.328). Its power was building up until it reached a “climax...in 538 when the armies drove out the Arian Ostrogoths out of Rome” (ibid, p.328). This hailed ‘Belisarius as a liberator, the clergy welcomed him as a Trinitarian” (Durant, p.109) This began the Gothic wars, which ended 18 years later when Justinian’s troops finally expelled the remaining Ostrogoths from Italy which fully restored the state empire and the church and state reigned together. So 538 officially gave the Popes power or authority over the Europeans and the Church of God.

Maxwell continues, “Back again to the year A.D. 538 the year when the Ostrogoths collapsed. It was out of the smoking ruins of the western Roman Empire...that the Pope emerged as the most important single individual in the West...with vast potential for political influence...Roman Catholicism [influence was] over the minds of men...” (God Cares vol.1, pp.130, 131). After this he reigned for time times and half a time. As we have seen in Scripture, it shows that a day can sometimes symbolize a year in Bible prophecy (cf. Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6). So if time, times and half a time equals 1,260 days, then a day for a year here gives us 1,260 years. Was there such a period of exactly 1,260 years that the Pope had dominion over Europe and the Church of God? Absolutely. The official end of the Pope’s reign was in 1798, EXACTLY 1260 YEARS!

During the French Revolution and under orders from the revolutionary Frees government, General Alexander Berthier issued a proclamation in Rome on February 15, 1798, informing Pope Pius VI and the People of Rome that the Pope should no longer “exercise any function. “

“Richard Duppa, a British writer who was in Rome at the time. says that the Pope was arrested in the Sistine Chapel while he was celebrating the twentieth year of his coronation. Citizen Haller. the French commissary-general, and Cervoni, who commanded the French troops in Rome under General Berthier, ‘gratified themselves in a peculiar triumph over this unfortunate Potentate. During that ceremony they both entered the chapel and Haller announced to the sovereign Pontiff on his throne that his reign was at and end...’

“ In the words of George Trevor, ‘The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence remained: and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger was stirred in its defence”’( M Maxwell, vol. 2 p.328).

So Papal power and influence ended in Europe and the church of God because of events like the Protestant Reformation, the finding of the New World, the Renaissance etc.. gave way for the church not hide in the wilderness for fear of persecution from the Roman Catholic church, and to go out and preach the gospel freely in England and America.

Now during the reign of the Pope in the 1260 year period its was prophesied that the little horn would “think to change times and laws:” The Popes during the middle ages changed times like the Calendar.

Prior to its change, it was called the Julian calendar, because it originated at the time of Julius Caesar, 45 B.C.— several years before the birth of Christ. The one change was ordered by Pope Gregory, and since then it has been called the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar was imperfect—it inserted leap years too frequently. Back in 45 B.C. they supposed the year was exactly 365 1/4 days long, and to take care of the extra one-fourth day each year, added a day to the month of February every four years. But it was found later the year was 12 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than this. Consequently, by the time of Pope Gregory, the calendar had drifted TEN DAYS away from the seasons. The Spring equinox, consequently, fell on March 11th, instead of March 21st.

In the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 740, article “Chronology,” we read: “It is to be noted that in the Christian period, the order of days in the week has never been interrupted. Thus, when Gregory XIII reformed the calendar in 1582, Thursday, 4 October was followed by Friday, 15 October. So in England, in 1752, Wednesday, 2 September, was followed by Thursday, 14 September.” So the Pope did change the times but what about the laws? What laws did he change? Well the laws of the Sabbath and Sunday, the laws of Easter and Passover, and the other festivals of God. “Sunday is our MARK of authority. The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact” (The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923) In the second century the church in Rome and in Alexandria took up the “first day of the week” Sunday and when the church in Rome received its power tried to enforce it on the whole world (see below for details).

Afterward during that time it began to “speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High,” The Catholic church branded Sabbath keeping churches as heretics and persecuted the people of God during its 1260 year reign.

The papacy acknowledges that it has persecuted, and defends such acts as a legitimate exercise of power presumably granted her by Christ. The following is from The Catholic Encyclopedia:

“In the Bull ‘Ad exstirpanda’ (1252) Innocent IV says: ‘When those adjudged guilty of heresy have been given up to the civil power by the bishop or his representative, or the Inquisition, the podesta or chief magistrate of the city shall take them at once, and shall, within five days at the most, execute the laws made against them.’ . . . Nor could any doubt remain as to what civil regulations were meant, for the passages which ordered the burning of impenitent heretics were inserted in the papal decretals from the imperial constitutions ‘Commissis nobis’ and ‘Inconsutibilem tunicam.’ The aforesaid Bull ‘Ad exstirpanda’ remained thenceforth a fundamental document of the Inquisition, renewed or re-enforced by several popes, Alexander IV (1254-61), Clement IV (1265-68), Nicholas IV (128892), Boniface VIII (1294-1303), and others. The civil authorities, therefore, were enjoined by the popes, under pain of excommunication to execute the legal sentences that condemned impenitent heretics to the stake” (Joseph Blotzer, art. “Inquisition,” Vol. VIII, p. 34). Many of the Sabbath keeping churches were branded as “heretics” and suffered death. Groups like the Albigenses and the Waldenses the Bogomils etc..

“Speak great words against the most High”- Ecclesiastical literature is replete with exhibits of the arrogant, blasphemous claims of the papacy. Typical examples are the following extracts from a large encyclopaedia work written by a Roman Catholic divine of the 18th century:

“The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God... .

“The Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions. .

“The Pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power, to whom has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of the earthly but also of the heavenly kingdom... .

“The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws. . . .

“The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth with most ample power of binding and loosing his sheep.

“Whatever the Lord God himself, and the Redeemer, is said to do, that his vicar does, provided that he does nothing contrary to the faith” (translated from Lucius Ferraris, “Papa II,” Prompta Bibliotheca, Vol. VI, pp. 25-29).

It will Happen Again-Prophecies clearly show that the persecution of the saints will continue till the second coming of Jesus Christ. We must remember the little horn arises with the successive horns, “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them [the 10 horns] another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots:..,And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them [the 10 horns]; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings” (Dan 7:8, 24). So every time one of the horns arise, there is the little horn that takes power no matter how small or large his power may be. Now he plucked the three horns by the roots and then began his uninterrupted reign for 1260 years during which the other 5 horns came and went. Then the 9th horn which was the 6th head of the Beast of Revelation 17 came which was the axis powers of Germany and Italy in World War 2, and the Pope took power once again. Then shall arise one more Revival of the Holy Roman Empire, with Germany as its state head, and the Pope as its spiritual Head once again, and it will be a church state government in Europe.

Notice what history says happened in World War 2. Mussolini, in the 6th revival of the Roman empire, gave back “...temporal power [to the Pope] [and] was restored on a miniature scale (1929), by MUSSOLINI ..The Pope is again a Sovereign in his own LITTLE KINGDOM” (Halley’s Bible Handbook, pp.771-772, 782, emphasis theirs). During World War 2 in John Cornwell’s, Hitler’s Pope, pp. 233-234 shows, that the Pope helped Hitler get into power. Pope Plus XII was in pursuit of absolute power. He helped Adolf Hitler destroy German Catholic political opposition. Pope Pius XI when he ruled the Vatican said, “After Mussolini came to power in Italy, Pope Pius XI declared: “if there is a totalitarian regime, it is the Church regime, given that man belongs wholly to the Church.” (The Vatican did not make its peace with liberal democracy until the 1960s.)” (Which Civilisation? By Michael Lind).

Pope Pius XI and Mussolini signed the conciliatory Lateran Treaty, which, among other things, restored some African countries as Italian territory, guaranteed the role of the church in the life of Italy, especially as the official religion and educator, and gave the pope’s approval for Mussolini’s dictatorship. The Lateran Treaty, also formed Vatican

City as an independent state within Italy. This action gives the Roman System precedence over all Christian religions of the world because it now has ambassadors and political influence in every major country. The agreement signed 74 years ago by Benito Mussolini and Cardinal Gaspari, on behalf of the King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius XI, restored the full diplomatic and political power of the Holy See of Rome, see The San Francisco Chronicle, July 7, 1929.

Did the Pope Persecute Christians?

In the last Revival of the Roman Empire the Pope will yield power once again.

Daniel writes, “And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.

“ I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

 ”Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom’ (vv.20-22). Scripture shows that the same horn will make war against the saints of God “UNTIL” the ancient of Days came, and judgment was give to the saints of the most high, which happens in Revelation 20:4.

Notice: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Here we see what Daniel told us, the persecution of the saints and the saints receiving judgment or power to rule.

When this little horn receives its power once again in the last revival of the Roman Empire, the persecution of the saints will begin one more time in the great tribulation. But then “the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his [little horn’s] dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” (v.26). And who are the saints? “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:2).

Part Three: What is the Mark of the Beast?

No subject has been more intriguing and baffling to our generation. Thousands of sermons have been preached on it — by professed ministers and evangelists who themselves did not know what it is! Millions have been curious. The average sermon on this subject considers one text of Scripture, only!

Only Text Usually Read This is the sole passage ordinarily quoted: “And he [the second “beast”] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a MARK in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16-17).

But there are many more passages in the Bible on this subject. Instead of looking at just one passage only, then turning away from God’s own revelation of this mystery, then use MAN’S INTERPRETATION of scripture, instead of the Bible INTERPRETING ITSELF! As Isaiah describes how the Bible is written: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” (28:9-10). The Bible is like a big jigsaw puzzle, put the pieces together and you get the whole story.

Many a preacher will tell you that the mark of the beast is some identity card that you have to wear under your skin, controlled by a huge computer in Brussels called the “Beast.” But again that’s MAN’S INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE, WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

First, from the text universally quoted (Rev. 13:16-17), notice this: “mark” is something that will be very popular — something the majority of people will be in favor of, will seek — which custom will approve as right. Everyone wants to be able to “buy or sell.” In this scriptural usage the expression “buy or sell” more literally indicates being able to buy — not that stores or those from whom one might make purchases of the necessities of life would refuse to accept the money, but that the one refusing the “mark” would not be able to buy, would not be able to earn a living, to earn a wage or salary, or to engage himself in business. The “mark of the beast,” then, has direct bearing on ability to engage in business, or to hold a job and earn a living.

Whose Mark?

Note this well! The “mark” is the mark of the “beast” the ROMAN EMPIRE! Not the mark of the church or the False prophet! This is fact number one! Keep that in mind!

Second, we have, a church depicted as the second beast, and the woman, causing people to be killed if they do not take the Mark! This church causes people to receive the MARK OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, or else they will be killed. The mark of the beast is also YOUR CHOICE TO MAKE as scripture says: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,...The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,” (Rev 14:9-10).-the seven last plagues, full force, unmixed with mercy (Rev 14:9-10). God would not pour out his wrath on people who were FORCED to take the mark! This is clearly a mark of OBEDIENCE! For the wrath of God comes upon “the children of DISOBEDIENCE” (Colossians 3:6; Ephesians 5:6).

Mark of Obedience

We begin now to see that the MARK of the beast involves a point of OBEDIENCE — whether we shall OBEY GOD, or reject the commandment of God and obey MAN’S rule. It has something to do, then, with the COMMANDMENTS OF GOD! Notice, there are, in general, two classes — one has the MARK, the other rejects it and is martyred. Notice now the description of those who refuse this evil MARK: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). In the Bible, the Commandments of God, are GOD’S MARK, in contrast to the BEAST’S MARK!

The false church persecutes the people who don’t have the mark of the Beast. These can only mean people who are obeying God, keeping God’s mark, as scripture says: “And the dragon [Satan and he gave power to the Beast] was wroth with the woman, [God’s Church] and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ [God’s Mark].” (Rev 12:17). There it is again, people yielding to God’s rule, and living by every word of God, and they are being persecuted by the Dragon.

God’s Mark

Can you prove in scripture that God’s mark is his law? Absolutely!

But first, what is a mark anyway? According to the Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, the Greek word here, charagma, means “a stamp, an imprinted mark... [used] of the mark stamped on the forehead or the right hand as the BADGE of the followers of the [Beast].... [and] the mark branded upon horses” (entry 5480). So it is probably some kind of badge or brand of identification!

Does God have a mark of identification? Yes He does! IT WAS ALSO RECEIVED IN THE FOREHEAD AND ON THE HAND!

Regarding one of God’s annual SABBATHS, we read: “And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, [Forehead] that the YHWH’s law may be in thy mouth...” (Ex 13:9). The word “sign” in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says: “owth...a signal, as a flag, beacon...MARK...(entry 226). So this word also is a MARK OF IDENTIFICATION! A flag identifies a country! GOD’S SABBATHS IDENTIFY HIS PEOPLE!

God says: “...Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign [mark, flag beacon of identity] between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am YHWH that doth sanctify you” (Ex 31:12)

Deuteronomy 6:1, 6-8, “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments...And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart...And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes [Forehead].”

Ezekiel 20:20: “And hallow my SABBATHS; and they shall be a sign between me and you...” What are God’s Sabbaths? HIS WEEKLY AND ANNUAL FEAST DAYS OF LEVITICUS 23. The Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Day of Atonement. These feasts are called Sabbaths, see Lev 23:3, 7-8, 21, 24, 28, 32, 36, 38-39. This is the SIGN OR MARK OF GOD’S PEOPLE! HIS WEEKLY SABBATH AND ANNUAL FEAST DAYS! Now since this is God’s Mark, does the Beast have his WEEKLY DAY OF REST, AND FEAST DAYS? You will be shocked when you find out what they are!

Rome’s State Religion

What was the Roman law when it came to the weekly rest day? To know the answer to this, we must find out what the STATE RELIGION OF THE EMPIRE WAS!

Notice how, in the Bible, they “worshipped the Beast” (Rev 13:4). History is full of accounts of the worship of the EMPERORS! For paganism was the STATE RELIGION. The following is from Robinson’s Medieval and Modern Times, an older College Textbook, p.7, “The worship of the Emperor: In a word the Roman government was not only wonderfully organized...everyone was REQUIRED to join the in the WORSHIP OF THE EMPEROR because he stood for the majesty and the glory of the dominion...all were obliged, as good citizens, to join in the sacrifices to the head of state AS A GOD” .

Samuele Biacchiocchi in his book From Sabbath to Sunday, points out in history, that many Emperors identified themselves with the worship of the SUN, like Emperors “Augustus (31 B.C.), and Nero (54-68 A.D.), Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), the Vespians (69-79 A.D.)” (pp.239-240). This religion was called the “Cult of Sol Invictus” the “Invincible Sun” Gastone H. Halsberghe in his monograph, The Cult Sol Invictus presents texts that shows that Sun worship was “one of the oldest components of the Roman religion” (p.26). Biacchicchi writes that the Romans, “...designated the Sun at their NATIONAL GOD, though in actuality it was an IMPORTED DEITY,” and “ ...the fact remains that it was regarded as a ROMAN GOD” (p.239). The imported deity came from Persia, as Halsberghe notes, and the Romans worshipped the “Sol Invictus of Mithra” (p.173). Mithaism was the sun worshipping cult from Persia!

“Dating from around the 15th century B.C. Mithraism emerged in ancient Persia. Mithr’ was the word not only for the SUN but also for a friend: and that seems to be how this god was originally worshipped-as both SUPREME SUN GOD [Sol Invictus] and the god of love” (Quest for the Past, p.173). This same source says that in the third century B.C. the religion became more “militaristic” and that, it was “backed by Imperial approval” (ibid., p.173).

The Emperors and the Sun god Mithra were worshipped as ONE AND THE SAME! The theology was that the Emperors were the INCARNATION OF THE SUN GOD ON EARTH: “The identification of the Emperor AS SUN GOD encouraged by eastern theology [Persia] of the KING SUN’ and by political considerations, undoubtably contributed to the diffusion of a public sun-cult” (The Mysteries of Mithra, by Fanz Cumont, p.101).

What were the weekly day of rest and the Feast days of the god Mithra?

“The ancient sources...do pinpoint on religion as the vehicle that promulgated SUNDAY [day of the Sun god] RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE...it was the so-called PERSIAN RELIGION OF THE GOD MITHRA THAT EXTOLLED SUNDAY as the most IMPORTANT DAY OF THE WEEK” (Sabbath in Scripture and History, p.314). In the first century, the seven-day “planetary week” was popularized in Rome. Origination in the “BABYLONIAN” religion, it associated each day of the week with the god attached to a particular “planet.” In Roman times, the “seven planets” were-in-week-day-order-Sol (the sun), Luna (moon), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The first day of the week belonged to the SUN see ibid., p.314-317.

What were the Feast days of MITHRA?

“DECEMBER 25TH the god’s [Mithra’s] BIRTHDAY, SUNDAY, the holy day...”(Holman Bible Dictionary, p.981). December 25th was the Feast of Sol Invictus

“The IDENTIFICATION OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR WITH THE SUN HAS A LONG HISTORY...Nero also erected outside his golden house a colossal statue of Sol Apollo with a radiant crown. The Emperor Aurelian was a devotee of the Syrian cult SOL INVICTUS...A magnificent temple was erected to Sol on the Agrippae and its dedication day (Natalis) [meaning birth] was DECEMBER 25...In the 3rd century the dedicatory inscriptions to Sol, Apollo and MITHRAS WERE SOMETIMES INTERCHANGEABLE...” (From Constantine to Julian, C. lieu and Dominic Montserrat, p.75). Notice that the Emperors with Sol and Mithra were all interchangeable, and his birth day was December 25th!

Christmas is really the Feast of Sol Invictus, the worship of the Sun god, and the Emperor of the Roman Empire. It was part of their state religion!

“Christmas was originally a Pagan festival, is beyond all doubt...the 25th of December, the day that was observed at Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth, was held at the Natalis invicti solis, “The birth-day of the unconquered Sun “(The Two Babylons, Hislop, pp.93, 98). This festival originated in “a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven;” (ibid, p.93). The son was Nimrod, and Christmas is part of the Babylonian religion.

“MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Rev 17:4).

Easter was also part of the state religion: “...under the name MITHRA...she [wife of Mithra] as Aphrodite...was called Mylitta...” (ibid, p.157-158, 264). Who is Aphrodite? “Aphrodite is primarily a descendant of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna-ISHTAR, who became ASTARTE in Phoenicia and was called ...ASHTORETH by the Hebrews...”(Myth of the Goddess, Anne Baring, pp.145-147).

Another source says: “Aphrodite. A goddess of erotic love, identified by the Romans as Venus...The Greeks always known that Aphrodite was an ASIATIC GODDESS...He [Homer, the historian] further reported that the goddess was widely worshipped in Asian lands where she was called MYLITTA by the Assyrians MITRA [female version of Mythra] by the Persians...There is little doubt that Aphrodite was originally a mother goddess...and is perhaps best known under the name ISHTAR OR ASTARTE” (Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology, pp.57, 60). Ishtar is nothing more than Easter that was celebrated by the Romans in the spring. Easter also originated in Babylon. She was Nimrod’s Mother-wife called Seneramis: “the mystic egg, [was] another emblem of Easter, the goddess queen of Babylon” (Two Babylons, p.110).

“The festival of Rome are innumerable; but five of the most important may be singled out for elucidation-viz., CHRISTMAS DAY...EASTER...and all can be proved to be BABYLONIAN” (Two Babylons, p.91).

So now the truth becomes Plain! Just like God’s Mark, the Beast, i.e. the Roman Empire has his weekly day of Rest, and Festivals!

SUNDAY, CHRISTMAS AND EASTER, THIS IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST!!

Rome’s State Religion and the Catholic Church

Origin of Sunday and the Church: Sunday was adopted by the church from the Romans around the second century B.C. As Durant says: “Christianity DID NOT destroy paganism it ADOPTED IT” (vol. 3, p.595).

In regard to the Sabbath to Sunday: Even the Jewish Sabbath, which BOTH JEWISH AND GENTILE CHRISTIANS FIRST OBSERVED ON THE SEVENTH-DAY was given up in favor of the MITHRAIC SUNDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK” (A Powell Davis, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, p.25).

Durant writes: “The serious temper of the Jewish Sabbath was transferred to the Christian Sunday that replaced it [the Sabbath] in the second century” (p. 599).

The original true apostles continued to observe the same Sabbath the Jews did—Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Indeed, the Catholic Church itself proudly admits, “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday” (James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, 1917). “The Church,” a Catholic study course tells us, “transferred the obligation from Saturday to Sunday” (Father Smith Instructs Jackson).

Does this surprise you that Sunday worship is the Mark of the Beast? We here is a more telling quote the Roman Church itself: “Sunday is our MARK of authority. The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact” (The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923).

Their “MARK of authority”? Could this have anything to do with the “mark” mentioned in Revelation 13? This fulfills the prophecy of the little horn who “changes times and laws”-God’s law, the law of the Sabbath. It is clear that the Roman Catholic church adopted paganism and put a Christian label on it!

And what about her daughter churches that came out of her in “protest.” They worship on Sunday? Are they just as guilty? The Protestant churches that came out of Roman Catholicism repudiated many Catholic teachings. Unfortunately, Sunday worship was not one of them. For though they often don’t realize it, by continuing in Sunday observance, the Protestant churches acknowledge the supremacy of the Catholic Church over the Bible. This is why the Church of Rome is happy to announce that it changed the day! Catholic Monsignor Segur wrote, “The observance of Sunday by Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church” (Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, p. 213).

The Roman Church also adopted as we have seen the feast from the Pagans and put a Christian label on it!

Christmas was “not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church” but “established in the fourth century[And] In the fifth century the WESTERN CHURCH ORDER IT CELEBRATED FOREVER ON THE OLD ROMAN FEAST OF THE BIRTH OF SOL...” (The Encyclopedia Americana, 1944, edition “Christmas.”) So it was by Papal authority that these feasts were established.

Easter-”There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament” (Encyclopedia Britiannica 11th edition, “Easter”).

This is why the second beast looks like a “lamb” but spoke as a “dragon.” He was proclaiming false Christianity! Forcing people to take the Mark of the beast and disguising it with a CHRISTIAN LABEL!

Constantine and the Mark of the Beast

The Emperor Constantine-was considered Rome’s first Christian Emperor, but he himself was still a devotee of the sun god: “In fact the Emperor Constantine’s Christianity was ambiguous. His family owed traditional allegiance to the sun god; the famous vision of the cross as he marched on Rome came to him from the sun; the sun continues to appear on his coins through the decade, and on his march on Rome; his own statue at Constantinople. bore the rayed crown of the sun god” (World’s Religions from Ancient History to the Present, Parrinder, p.175).

“Christian and MITHRAIC influences again were brought to bear on the person of another Emperor Constantine the Great (A.D. 306-337). By this time, Mithra deified light, and became popularly identified with the unconquered sun-god (Helios Sol Invictus) of the ROMAN STATE RELIGION. Of import for the future of the planetary week was Mithras position as the Titulary divinity of the reigning Emporers FAMILY...In A.D. 312 Constantine proclaiming that he would henceforth be a follower of Christ. Nevertheless, the monarch CONTINUED to perceive the Christian faith THROUGH THE EXTERNALS OF MITHRA WORSHIP. An illustration of the Emperors failure to detach himself from the pagan theology is obtained from the comment of his contemporary, the church father Eusebius, who supposedly Christianized Constantine, said: ‘He taught all armies zealously to honor the Lord’s Day [Sunday], which is also called the day of light and of the SUN.’ How significant the phrase [day of light and of the sun.’!] Was it not the armies of Rome who held MITHRA to be the light deified, the offspring of Sol, the Sun? While each planet was held to be ‘lord’ of a particular day, who but MITHRA HIMSELF WAS LORD OF THE ‘DAY OF THE LIGHT AND OF THE SUN’’’(S Douglas Waterhouse, The Sabbath in Scripture and History, p.818).

Constantine in Prophecy

The Emperor Constantine played a vital role in Biblical prophecy. He fulfilled what the Bible calls the “White Horse” of Revelation 6

Jesus Christ in Revelation revealed to John a war making-religious King who would come spreading false Christianity: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Rev 6:2). How do we know this means Constantine? If we compare scripture with scripture, we find another king described in a similar way, Jesus Christ!

In Revelation 19:11 it says: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war [conquer].

“ His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself...And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

“And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev 19:11-12, 15, 16). Notice the similarities!

Jesus                                    Man on White Horse

White Horse                               White Horse

Sword                                         Bow

Many Crowns                              Crown

This king (He must be a king since he wears a crown) that comes on a white horse is obviously copying Jesus Christ, but there are differences in his appearance. This is a false Christian King Proclaiming false Christianity!

We also have another clue in Matthew 24

In Matthew 24 Jesus shows us a sequence of events that tie up with the 6th chapter of the Book of Revelation!

This conquering kings comes and spreads false Christianity before the Great tribulation which is the 5th seal of Revelation 6 compare to Matthew 24:9-22. Who can this possibly be? No one else but Constantine, and all the other Emperors that succeeded him in the Church/State alliance because Jesus said “Many” kings would come in his name, not one, and Constantine started it all, until Mussolini who said that Catholicism was the only religion of Italy! And they proclaimed as we have noted earlier the “Kingdom of God on Earth.” A false King, with a False Kingdom of God, and the False Religion.

Constantine established the first Sunday law in 321 A.D. He ruled that everyone should rest on Sunday (Venerabili die Solis)” (Britannica 11th ed., “Sunday”).

Around 365, the Catholic Council of Laodicea ruled, “Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s Day, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found Judaizing, let them be anathema from Christ” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. 14, p. 148). As we know, this was a virtual death sentence to be anathema from Christ. If anyone was found keeping the Sabbath, they would brand them anathema, and the Papacy “caused them to be killed,” and “exercising the power of the first beast” would call the state police of the Empire began torturing him. Unless he recanted, he was tortured until he died! Laws became so strict no man could hold a job, or engage in business, unless he worked on Saturday and rested on Sunday. And the world will be so geared that it will be almost impossible for one to “buy or sell” except he receive this MARK OF THE BEAST! This continued until the Protestant Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries!

The mysterious number of the “Beast”— 666-Whose Number Is It?

Where shall we find that mysterious number 666? Does the pope, as some claim, wear it on his crown, identifying him as the beast of Revelation 13? Or must we look for it elsewhere? Here are all the scriptures speaking directly of this number: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Rev. 13:17-18). “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” (Rev. 15:2). Note These Points From these scriptures, we have the following definite points:

1.      The beast has a number and may be identified, if we have wisdom, by this number.

2.      The number is 666.

3.      We are told to count this number — that is, add it up. The same Greek word is used elsewhere only in Luke 14:28: “count the cost.”

4.      This number, 666, is the number of the beast. The only Bible interpretation of this symbol, “beast,” is a kingdom or the king who rules it and, therefore, really is the kingdom (Dan. 7:17-18, 22-24, 27). Therefore 666 must be the number of the KINGDOM, or GOVERNMENT, or EMPIRE, as well as that of the king who founds or rules it.

5.      The expression “the name of the beast, or the number of his name” makes plain that the number 666 is the number of the name of the kingdom or empire.

6.      The expression “it is the number of a man” shows we must also count this number in the name of the king, or ruler, over the kingdom identified as the “beast.”

The Founder of Rome

The founder and first king of Rome was Romulus. The Roman Empire was named after him. His name, the name of a man, also is the name of the kingdom. And every citizen in the kingdom bears the same name — a Roman. When John wrote this Revelation, telling us to count the number of the beast, he wrote in the Greek language. Consequently, we should look for this name, and the number 666, in this language recognized in the Bible, not in the Latin. We are all familiar with the Roman numerals, where letters are used for numbers. All understand that I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, etc. But many do not know that the Greek the language in which Revelation was written, this name was understood in the second century A.D. to have originally been spelled Lateinos. It signifies “Latin man” or “the name of Latium,” from which region the Romans derived their origin and their language. This word, too, signifies “Roman.” In the Greek, L is 30, A is 1, T is 300, E is 5, I is 10, N is 50, O is 70, S is 200. Count these figures. They count to exactly 666! It is indeed no coincidence that the name of the kingdom, its founder and first king, and of each man in the kingdom, counts to exactly 666! Certainly the beast stands identified!

The ancient Greek word for “the Latin speaking man” is LATEINOS

L = 30 lambda

A = 1 alpha

T = 300 tau

E = 5 epsilon

I = 10 iota

N =50 nu

O =70 omicron

S = 200 sigma

666

And Mussolini, Too: But the same numbers also branded in Latin on the man who dominated the puny sixth head of the symbolic beast. Mussolini called himself “Il Duce.” Italians shouted “Viva Il Duce!” which means “long live the chief.” Everywhere in Italy was the printed sign, “vv il duce.” The “VV” is the abbreviation used for “Viva.” A “V” is used instead of the “U” as is very commonly done. While this is a greeting, or title, Mussolini actually employed “Il Duce” as a name. It is in Latin. Count it. V is 5, V is 5, I is 1, L is 50, D is 500, V is 5, C is 100, E has no number. Now count them, and you have exactly 666! Thus this number 666 is indelibly branded upon the Roman Empire! The number 666 “...is contained in the Greek letters of Lateinos” (JFB Commentary on the Whole Bible, p.789., New Test vol.2).

Two Martyrdoms

We see in the Bible two martyrdoms that did and are going to take place in this end time, when the mark of the Beast is going to be enforced once again, Notice: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:9-10).

Here we find pictured the martyrs of the Middle Ages already dead, at the time of this vision — which is the approximate present. They know “Vengeance is MINE, saith the Lord.” They know God’s judgments against this persecuting, deceiving, false church, as described in Revelation 18, are to be the seven last plagues, poured out “in the presence of the Lamb” at the Second Coming of Christ. Read of it in Revelation 18. These dead saints are pictured as crying out to ask “HOW LONG” before the Second Coming of Christ and the seven last plagues which will avenge their martyrdom. History tells us that in the Middle Ages more than fifty MILLION were killed, many for their BIBLE faith and obedience to God instead of obedience to this church government of man and the devil. Notice, now, what must again happen before the seven last plagues and the coming of Christ! “And white robes [symbolizing righteousness and purity] were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” (Rev. 6:11). Christ will not come to take vengeance on this great false church UNTIL another great martyrdom has taken place! God will let man fulfill his own destiny until after the Great Tribulation, until the vengeance of God will take place on sinning evil mankind. And God will shortened those days for his people’s sake. Yes! In this end time the seventh and final resurrection called a “United States of Europe” will emerge enforcing this Mark of the beast through this great false church and many of the true church of God are going to be put to death for their faith, may God make us strong. But in the end we receive eternal life and receive our ultimate reward, so how can persecution even compare to our ultimate destiny that lies ahead!

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