Last Days Timeline, A literal interpretation of biblical prophecy, second edition by Gregory Supina - HTML preview

All spiritual covenants are like those found in true marriages and families, and motivate all God-approved works or behaviors. Even all truly just, equitable laws of all governments and all other groupings of people are built on spiritual covenants which are just like true marriage covenants between spouses and their children. Thus, since even the marriages and families of humanists cannot be bound in any kind of real unity, with true inward covenants of their spirits, neither can humanistic nations and groups of people be bound with any kind of real unity either. All humanists are doomed to perpetual divisions and strife. All humanists are destined to be loveless in broken relationships.

The New Covenant kingdom, established by the one real God through His Messiah Jesus, has always been the greatest enemy of Satan’s humanistic kingdom. But humanistic kingdom always consisted of visible kingdoms, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, and will end with the last Roman beast’s visible kingdom of seven European nations. But the latter kingdom of God began, of course, as an inner and invisible kingdom formed in the spirits of God’s elect, through the truths which God’s Holy Spirit called His elect spirits to believe and uphold. Yes, it was evidenced by outward and visible deeds of just and God-like love by these elect scattered throughout the world and history, but not recognized, because the elect were not a visibly organized and outwardly identifiable people. Yet this inner kingdom of God grew and will last forever, eventually becoming a visible kingdom of biblical Christianity during the end times, destined to inherit all the earth after the Messiah returns.

In the days of Rome’s initial fascist regime of a worshiped Caesar, our God Jesus came to “set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people” (2:44). This internal kingdom of elect spirits is God’s true Israel. Then the humanists established their own false churches and have driven biblical Christianity virtually underground for almost two millenniums. But they neither destroyed nor replaced the real Christian church, the true church of Israel. For Jesus has always continued to proclaim His loving ways to elect spirits through His Holy Spirit and His Word. Meanwhile, the blinded false churches ignored, twisted, mocked and severely underestimated God’s Word, never dreaming that Jesus could use it as an instrument to teach and train His disciples.

So Jesus’ internal kingdom of just and loving elect souls has indeed remained on earth, and has even grown exponentially throughout the centuries, although most elect do not yet recognize the Source of the truths that their hearts believe. And the most recent growth spurt of truth in the spirits of the awakening elect is a sign that the end times will begin soon, when our God Jesus will destroy Satan’s world order in His wrath, then return to Jerusalem so He can heal His elect and the earth. We saw truths and the growth of spirits during the 16th century Reformation and the 18th century revival in Great Britain and America. These and other revivals of truth never came close to equaling the vast brightness of the apostolic church, but God’s just and pure kind of love, based on truth, has been taught to many more elect spirits since those times. So the sixth seal’s revival is coming soon, when the greatest and fastest growth will take place. And this means that secular humanism, including fascism, communism and capitalism, as well as theistic humanism in fake churches, synagogues and mosques, are doomed to destruction, in only one generation after that. So the elect must leave them.

 

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Soon, the generation that lives through the eras of the sixth and seventh seals will see Jesus and His kingdom of true elect nullify the power of the fourth kingdom of the beast, and utterly destroy that evil, unjust kingdom on the day Jesus returns. All four factious kingdoms of the beast clung to and became identifiable through the beast’s religion of humanism. And the most powerful sect of that humanism, the Roman kind of humanism, will end forever on the day that Jesus returns, although traces of the other three lesser sects will endure for a millennium, until the days of Gog and Magog.

At an indeterminate time after the millennium, God will “burn” the material universe and send all human spirits that ever lived to the gates of heaven for judgment. Then the non-elect, who cannot repent, will be cast into hell, still grasping to the lies and delusions they created on earth. But the elect, whose spirits long for the truth and are more than willing to repent on that day, will be taught and trained for eternal life on the mainland of heaven, which is the only real, solid, eternal land that exists, and is the homeland where all elect spirits live even now, while those spirits perceive the life of their flesh on earth. So the elect will recognize their heavenly homes when they enter them, and rejoice in finally being able to freely dwell in them, without any of God’s restraints placed upon their previously infantile spirits. For then the elect will be all they were created to be from the beginning.

Now, before looking at more of Daniel’s prophecies, let me first exegete a prophecy of Zechariah, which he penned a few decades after Daniel’s prophecy. The reason I want to discuss it here is not because Zechariah revealed anything new, but because he confirmed where the four kingdoms fit into history, as the Messiah’s first advent drew near, and how their great corruption would enter the world. Zechariah also saw a vision of the four kingdoms after a vision about a woman of wickedness set down in Babylon (Zech. 5:5-11). That woman seems to represent the one John called the Great Prostitute sitting on the back of the beast. So Zechariah’s words from God seem to relate that false church to the four kingdoms in the same way that John’s prophecy did, and as Daniel did in a more ambiguous way (Dan. 11:30b-35). Then, after a vision of the four chariots, Zechariah provided the prophecy about the glorious advent of the Messiah, whom he called the “Branch” (Zech. 6:12-13). So, through Zechariah, God revealed how the four kingdoms will complete their destinies over a lengthy stretch of time, and how they will go out into all the world. Then, after examining these details in Zechariah’s prophecy, I will exegete some of the rest of Daniel’s end-time prophecies.

Zechariah 6:1-8 (ESV): “Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out

from between two mountains [this is better translated as ‘between two hills’]. And the mountains [or

hills] were mountains [or hills] of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second black

horses, the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong.

“Then I answered and said to the Angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my Lord?’ And

the Angel answered and said to me, ‘These are going out to the four winds of heaven of all

the earth, after presenting themselves before the Lord. The chariot with the black horses goes

toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the

south country.’ When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the

earth. And He said, ‘Go, patrol [‘walk upon, march upon’] the earth.’ So they patrolled the earth.

Then He cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set My Spirit at

rest in the north country.’”

This prophecy took place after Persia had conquered Babylon, and immediately followed after the prophecy about a woman of wickedness transported to Shinar in Babylon (Zech. 5:5-11). So that woman was obviously the false church whom John called “Babylon, the Great ... Prostitute” (Rev. 17:5). So this prophecy also seems to be related to Babylon and Persia. And this prophecy differs

 

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from the message of a previous vision, where Zechariah saw four horsemen standing among myrtle trees, who found peace on earth and comforted him about the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Zech. 1:8-17).

Nevertheless, the first vision of the four horsemen set the tone for all Zechariah’s other visions, including this eighth and final vision. For the first vision of the horsemen indicated that all eight visions would be about the history of the entire earth. All history would culminate in the glorious advent of the Messiah, which is His second advent, when He would restore Israel, make Jerusalem His home, then rule the earth as its King and High Priest. In this vision of the chariots, Zechariah affirms a previous prophecy of Daniel, made in the past, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon still ruled. And chariots were used in war; so these chariots were sent out to conquer through warfare.

These chariots were sent out from between two hills (“mountains”) of bronze, and Daniel had identified the third kingdom, Greece, as the bronze kingdom. So the two hills would represent the two kingdoms of Macedonia and Greece, after Alexander the Great from Macedonia conquered the rest of Greece, uniting it as one kingdom. Now Daniel said that third kingdom of Greece would be divided into four kingdoms after the “goat” or first king (Alexander the Great) died (Dan. 8:21-22), which is what actually happened. But this prophecy is world-wide in scope. So it does not refer to those four Greek kingdoms. Rather, it is informing us about the four spiritual kingdoms of the beast, who war against God in all the earth. And conquering all the earth begins with the Greek kingdom.

Now Zechariah did not explain what these four chariots that “come out from between two mountains” or hills of bronze represented. However, this lack of an explanation implies that all this represented what most of his devout Jewish readers would have immediately recognized them from the prophecies circulating in their synagogues. So most reading this prophecy at that time would have instantly recognized that the two bronze hills represented two great powers or kingdoms that would endure for a very long time, since bronze lasts a very long time. And they would have recalled that Daniel called the third Greek kingdom the bronze kingdom, which was divided into two areas at that time, the Greek mainland and Macedonia, including colonies in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Just a few decades before Zechariah had this vision, God prophesied about the four kingdoms of the beast through Daniel. So the Jews would have known that the four chariots represented Daniel’s four kingdoms of the beast, successively coming out from between the two long-lasting kingdoms. And they came out one after the other, indicating the passage of time. These four all belonged to Satan’s kingdom, and both mountains or kingdoms shall exist during the whole time that the four chariots exist. All four kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome will exist for a long time on earth. And the horses of the war chariots were eager or “impatient to go and patrol [Hebrew = halak, “go, come, walk”] the earth.” All four kingdoms of the beast were eager to go out and walk upon the earth, but with war chariots, to conquer and subjugate all they saw as they walked. And they are four evil religious or spiritual kingdoms, so they would subvert all the earth to their own humanistic religion.

The colors of the horses would also be significant, indicating the character of the four kingdoms. The first chariot’s horses were red. The red would be associated with blood and the first chariot would represent the kingdom that Daniel called the golden head of the beast, Babylon. And Daniel also called it a lion, so the red likely represented Israel’s blood shed by Babylon, and also the blood of other nations. The second chariot’s horses were black. This would be the Medo-Persian Empire that Daniel called the chest and arms of the beast, made of less valuable silver, and also portrayed it as a ravenous bear with a great appetite for sin. So the black might represent its iniquities. Persia was known for its great excesses in violence, sexual immorality and other sins. The third chariot’s horses were white, and this would have represented Greece, as the bronze lower torso and thighs of the

 

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beast, also portrayed as a swift and deadly leopard. White may represent how Greece portrayed itself as righteous, although it was an evil, psychopathic kingdom. Or the white horses were the kind used by confident kings riding into battle with superior forces, certain that they would be victorious. For this third kingdom, through Alexander the Great, did swiftly conquer a vast territory stretching from Indus River to Egypt. More importantly, Greece spiritually conquered the whole world through its humanistic writings, with philosophies that became the “scriptures” of the religion of humanism.

Daniel prophesied about the factious nature of the fourth Roman kingdom with the two iron legs of an idol (the eastern and western Roman Empire), and fragile feet made of iron pieces bound with soft clay. Yet this forth kingdom was to be the culmination of all the previous three kingdoms, bearing characteristics of all three. Daniel did not name any kind of creature when he described this fourth kingdom (Dan. 7:7-8), but John told us that this fourth beast would be made of parts of all three previous beasts; the lion, bear and leopard (Rev. 13:2). Thus, we assume the “dappled” or spotted horses would represent the factious nature of the fourth kingdom and, if the spots were red, black and white, they would represent a compilation of all three previous kingdoms in the fourth.

But the main emphasis of this prophecy is its world-wide scope of these four kingdoms. They are all “going out to the four winds (or spirits) of heaven (or the sky),” that is, out into every culture and language under the sky. And they do this “after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth,” or after “the Lord set Himself over all the earth” (2:5). That is, this could be a reference to the first advent of God in the Messiah, saying the four kingdoms will not spread out into all the earth until after the Messiah comes. But this reference is not clear. So, at the very least, it means that God will limit the actions of these four chariots. He will rule over the warfare of the four evil kingdoms.

Then it says the black horses and its chariot (i.e., the armies of Persia) will go “toward the north country,” and the latter kingdom represented by the white horses (i.e., the armies of Greece) will “go after them.” Then Persia primarily did conquer lands to the north of it, since there was not much of anything to conquer to the south. Persia subjugated lands all the way up to Macedonia, then west to Egypt, which all required Persians to travel the north in order to conquer them. After that, Greece conquered all those same lands through Alexander the Great. As for the chariot with the dappled horses (the armies of Rome), they were to go “toward the south country.” And, since Rome was in the north, they did most of their initial conquering in lands south of their capital (Greece, North Africa, Asia Minor). Yet all four kingdoms—as Satan’s religious, culture-shaping, law-making powers—would indeed go out into literally all the world, to alter and further corrupt “the four spirits of the sky,” that is, all the kingdoms of Satan’s world order upon the whole earth, all that sit under the atmosphere of the earth. And most of this subjugation of the world occurred after the Messiah Jesus came to establish His New Covenant church of Israel, which is the kingdom of God on earth.

God gave Zechariah this vision to expound upon the prophecies granted to Daniel, about 20 years after Daniel died. And notice how, just as the devil is forced to present himself before God, and allow his actions to be limited by God (e.g., Job 1:6-7), so too do the demonic riders of these four chariots. All spiritual and physical powers, good or evil, ultimately must submit to God. All must gain God’s permission to do whatever they do, and His judgments restrict their actions. But this text also can be translated in a different and more likely way: “These are four spirits of the sky that go out from taking a stand against the Lord of all the earth.” And, in context, this is more likely what this text meant, not something like, “[they] go out from standing before the lord over all the earth.”

Consider how the emphasis is on the horses of these chariots, not on the drivers of the chariots. And the four chariots definitely are not elect angels of God, who frequently go before God for His true

 

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counsel, eager to perform missions for Him. Also, it seems clear that the “four winds of heaven” would be better translated as the “four spirits of the sky,” where it is understood that Satan was cast down to the earth and built his kingdom of sinners on the earth. For the four war chariots seem to represent the spirits of four evil kingdoms going out to conquer, like those four which Daniel had described, which John also prophesied about. And they come from two hills of bronze on the earth, then they go out into the whole earth. Surely the context suggests they come from the one Paul spoke about, when he referred to a world-wide “ruler [with decision-making authority, dwelling in] the air/atmosphere’ (τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, see Eph. 2:2). This “ruler,” with decision-making authority over sinners, which Paul was referring to here, is Satan, “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’ (Eph. 2:2-3, ESV). Paul even may have been referencing parts of this very verse of Zechariah’s prophecy about “the spirits of the sky,” when he called Satan the “ruler ... of the air.”

And surely the context actually seems to imply that the four chariots go out to take a stand “against the Lord of all the earth.” The reason for concluding this is obscured but sound. First, look at the Angel or Messenger (Hebrew = malak, “messenger”) who spoke to Zechariah here (vv. 4-5). He seems to have been our God Jesus, since He commanded the four chariots, “Go patrol the earth,” or “Go walk about the earth,” as though He were God Himself. Then this Messenger declared, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set My Spirit at rest [Hebrew = nuach, “rest, dwell, stay”] in the north country.” But “those who go toward the north country” are the Persians, who also sent a contingent of Jews back to Israel in the “north,” to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple. And that temple was where Yahweh God promised to “rest” or “stay” or “dwell.” But the Persians were the second of Satan’s four kingdoms, and enemies of God. So this prophecy is not about four elect angels of God.

The Jews of Zechariah’s day likely would have understood this, because they knew Satan’s kingdom was on earth, below the atmosphere, and Satan was the “prince of the power of the air.” So devout Jews, who were well aware of Daniel’s prophecies, would have realized that “the four spirits of the sky” and these four chariots were related to the four successive kingdoms of Satan’s beast. They belonged to the kingdom of Satan, to the ruler of the world order who sits enthroned in the skies above the whole earth. Of course, God rules over Satan, so Satan is limited by God. Still, Satan was granted a subject kingdom after man sinned, and bears great power over the sinners in all the earth.

Notice how this mentions only three of the four chariots going out into all the earth. It does not mention the first chariot with red horses going out. So this is a major clue that the four chariots represented the four kingdoms that Daniel prophesied about, and that first chariot represented the Babylonian Empire. For Zechariah prophesied during the time of the second kingdom, while the Persian Empire was ruling, which was here represented by the chariot with the ‘black horses.’ The fact that the last three chariots went out successively in time, yet the red horses (Babylon) were not going to go out at the time Zechariah gave this prophecy, suggests that Zechariah was living after the time of the red horses (Babylon). For why else would he omit the first chariot, with the red horses?

Nevertheless, all four chariots, including the first chariot with the red horses, were “impatient to go and patrol the earth.” So this implied that all four would be involved in the conquest of the earth. And, since Zechariah did not provide any explanation for the omission of the first chariot, the reason for its omission later on, when the rest initiated their “goings out” in two directions, must have been obvious to contemporary readers. And the only obvious reason would be because the chariot with red horses must have represented Babylon, which had already initiated its “going out,” and could not initiate its “going out” after it had ceased to exist as a physical kingdom. But the “spirit” or religious

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basis for the culture and laws of Babylon still existed. As a spiritual or religious kingdom, which was still heavily influencing Persia, and would influence Greece and Rome in the future, Babylon still existed and still exists to this day. Babylon has continued its evil spiritual works throughout history in the subsequent three kingdoms represented by the three chariots, just as Daniel had prophesied.

But the first three kingdoms conquered the entire earth vicariously through the fourth Roman kingdom, because the fourth was a compilation of the previous three. As John told us this in his prophecy about the fourth beast, it “was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth” (Rev. 13:2). But the “leopard” was Greece, the “bear” was Persia and the “lion” was Babylon. So the fourth kingdom possessed the worst attributes of all three previous kingdoms which came before it, and all three were aspects of the fourth. Eventually this fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire, would carry the doctrines of the previous three kingdoms into all the world, evangelizing the humanistic religion of Babylon in all the earth. By the 20 th century, every nation on earth practiced the worship of human gods in hierarchical systems, just like all four kingdoms did.

So, from Daniel’s God-given interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue, we know that four kingdoms will successively rise up. And these four are the same four beasts Daniel saw in another vision later granted to him. Then Zechariah, a relatively short time later, also spoke about four kingdoms in a very similar way, emphasizing the world-wide influence of these four kingdoms of the beast. Always, these four are united by a common goal and purpose, to oppose God and God’s kingdom, to war against God and God’s people. God also clearly identified the first three kingdoms for Daniel, stating that they were Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. Only Rome, the fourth evil kingdom and a combination of the first three, was not identified, since it was yet unknown to the Jews at that time. God also told Daniel that the four would be allowed to rise up for an appointed time “of the end,” to be destroyed by God’s wrath, during the time of the fourth kingdom. From the Revelation granted to John, we also know that the fourth kingdom consists of evil spiritual aspects of the previous three kingdoms. So, in the fourth kingdom of Rome, the spirits or spiritual precepts of the first three kingdoms will live on until the end. And Babylon will always remain the head of the four until the end, with one factious body until the end. When Jesus returns, He will destroy the head and body of Babylon; first the fourth kingdom, then belief systems from the other three before the earth ends (suggesting that humanistic hierarchies will exist in some places during the millennium).

Each of the beast’s four kingdoms is a spiritual entity built upon a body of religious doctrines inherited from Babylon, where those original doctrines were refined, supplemented and perfected by each subsequent kingdom. Those core teachings began when the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar thought to itself, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30, WEB). First, this revealed that he considered himself to be the one and only high god controlling his own destiny and the destinies of his people. Second, it indicated that he stood at the top of a hierarchical system and attributed all the works of Babylon to himself alone. He did not acknowledge his dependence on the hundreds of thousands of equal siblings in the family of humankind, those who did the actual works of designing, planning, building and administering Babylon. And he also gave no thanks and praise to the one Creator God who miraculously created and maintained all life, who provided all the necessities that kept him and the people alive, as well as formed all that was in the building materials of that city and nation. Nor did Nebuchadnezzar repent into God’s truth, to become a humble servant of his people, but stood proud against the God who allowed him to sit at the top of that Satanic hierarchy which oppressed and enslaved his siblings. Rather, he loved the criminal system which falsely glorified only himself.

 

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So Babylon created the foundational doctrines of human worship, class systems and resistance to spiritual introspection causing godly sorrow leading to repentance. Then the second kingdom, the Medo-Persian Empire, had adopted Babylon's ways even before it took over. The moral and spiritual precepts of Babylon’s primitive form of humanism bound Persia to Babylon and linked the next two kingdoms to Babylon as well. As Persia’s glory faded, Greece was very busy syncretizing all the humanistic teachings of Babylon and Persia with its own primitive religious philosophies. By the time Alexander the Great conquered Persia and the Middle East, late in the fourth century BC, the Greeks had transformed the religion of humanism into a sleek system of apologetical and polemical doctrines. So now it was time for Satan to search for the final, most ruthless and selfishly ambitious carnal nation on earth, to become all that Babylon, Persia and Greece had been building for him.

After Greece transformed humanism into a defensible and effective religion, Rome grabbed it and eagerly applied it as they went out to crush, plunder, enslave and glorify itself in all the world. Rome was actually so heavily influenced by the Greeks that it was often referred to as the Greco-Roman Empire. But Rome was not a natural creature like the previous three. Rather, it was an entirely blind and artificial aberration consisting of unholy and poorly harmonized aspects of the previous three kingdoms, whom Satan led by a leash. It was a misshaped, factious, ravenous monster, disguised as an organized body, but mindlessly spreading death and despair in every place it touched. So that monster was the culmination of all the evils which the previous three prized and eagerly lusted after.

Then the Messiah and God came to His priesthood of the earth, just after Rome had developed its ultimate form of humanism, after it began to worship a human savior they called Caesar, in a system we now call fascism. In Rome, Satan had cemented the previous three kingdoms into one united enemy of God. So God calmly met the challenge of that devil, which He Himself had allowed to teach His elect children about the essence of evil. God came to His elect in a body of flesh, as the Messiah, the “Rock” of God, to breathe life into a seed of His earthly kingdom. But the Messiah’s kingdom would eventually grow, and the Messiah Himself would return to crush all four of those kingdoms into dust, so He Himself could lovingly serve the earth and justly rule over all its people.

Still, God permitted and predestined the four kingdoms to receive their own evil messiah, the Satan-filled man who would be called the “beast,” a man who would unite all the non-elect spirits born of Satan, and bind all the non-elect of the world together into one army to oppose God and His people. So these four kingdoms were not merely lands created by human cunning and power, but were formed through the power that God granted to loveless Satan, to reveal Satan’s desire to become his own god, which was the cause of all his lies, delusions and sins. And the purpose of these kingdoms was to train His elect to serve their family of humankind, instead of seeking to be served as gods, like the humanists did. Nor were these merely kingdoms with physical borders, which ended when they lost their corporeal power over those lands. For their real power was in the way their delusional doctrines caused their people to think only with their minds of flesh, so they would war against God.

God did not grant us all these prophecies to tell us about territorial disputes fought between four physical kingdoms, where each one supposedly ended as soon as the next one conquered it. For these are all prophecies about the last days, which have seen the physical borders of Rome fade into a vast expansion which now includes all the factious world. And the prophecies focused on the end times, which have not yet arrived. Then the main characteristic of the four kingdoms was that they were warring against biblical truths, as a spiritual or religious entity that hated the real God and His just, loving ways. Daniel and the other prophets were not prophesying about physical kingdoms fighting with swords over physical borders of physical lands. They were actually prophesying about a strictly

 

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spiritual warfare. All that is called Babylon is an evil spiritual kingdom which zealously hates God's good spiritual kingdom. And its four kingdoms are a religion, not mere lands with physical borders.

Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon shall always be the head of the beast and the beast's Roman Empire. Nebuchadnezzar formed the religious kingdom which binds together Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. And his religion was about worshiping himself, becoming the god who caused his worshiping people to serve him, and maintaining a hierarchical class system which kept his human properties organized according to how much he wanted to oppress and exploit them. Nebuchadnezzar invented this influential religion of humanism, which is common to all four kingdom and has spread into all the world. His spirit created its core doctrines, and remains the founding father and head of all four kingdoms, until all four pass away. But the father of Nebuchadnezzar is Satan, who caused that man’s human heart to believe and act upon the delusion of being a god. Satan led Nebuchadnezzar into those sins which angered God more than all the other ruthless evils he had done in his life. For his sin of striving to become his own god, as well as the god of his other siblings in the family of humankind, was indeed the worst of all his other sins, worse than the murdering and enslaving of countless equal siblings, since the sin of wanting to be a god caused the murdering and enslaving.

Remember, before Nebuchadnezzar, pagan kings, even those who called themselves gods or sons of gods, acknowledged that they had no right to do whatever they pleased for their own glory, but had to bow before and serve other superior gods. All previous kings recognized some kind of spiritual entity as their owner, god and lord. All fearfully gave most of the glory to those higher gods, praising them for all their successes, lest those more powerful gods might grow angry and smite them or their land. All those previous kings knew that far greater spiritual beings and powers ruled the destinies of all men. Even the kings who claimed to be gods themselves would fearfully and reverently make all their decisions and create all their laws in ways that would not offend their greater gods. So, for the first time in history, Nebuchadnezzar fearlessly worshiped himself as the high god ruling over his own destiny, as a power greater than that of all other gods. He did not even flinch when he refused to grant glory to any other god or gods, even after seeing the power of Daniel’s God with his own eyes.

In our day, where humanism is the world’s dominant religion and everyone commits this same sin every day in every church and everywhere else, it is difficult to see how this great sin was so bad that God then immediately afflicted Nebuchadnezzar with a consuming madness and delusions for seven years. But the people of that day, especially the Jews, would have been horrified by what he said, when he claimed that all Babylon was built by him for his own glory, without even mentioning any other god or other gods. For they would have seen how Nebuchadnezzar made himself into the god above all gods when he said such things. And Nebuchadnezzar did believe he was the god who ruled his own destiny, as well as the god who ruled over the lives and destinies of all the souls in Babylon.

Furthermore, Nebuchadnezzar did not admit that Babylon was the property of a god or gods. Nor did he acknowledging that he was the property of a god or gods, as all the former kings did. On the contrary, Nebuchadnezzar actually claimed to be the creator and ultimate owner of himself and all of Babylon, that he built all through his own power for his own glory. And he said this even though he already knew Yahweh God, the only real Creator and Owner of all men and all things. For Yahweh God had revealed His power, glory and truth to Nebuchadnezzar several times before he made those delusional claims. Also, before Nebuchadnezzar committed this sin, God overlooked the terrible sins of all the previous pagan kings, because they sinned in ignorance. Yet God did not overlook this sin of Nebuchadnezzar for two reasons: (1) he did not sin through an ignorance of God and God’s just ways, and (2) he called himself both the creator and owner of Babylon, making himself into its highest god. And, as a wanna-be high god, Nebuchadnezzar believed that he alone had the right to

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make all laws for all people, according to his own human will. By worshiping himself, he was the first true humanist, the first to worship a human being as the high god ruling over his own destiny.

Of course, when Nebuchadnezzar created humanism, Yahweh had previously convinced him, through His miracles and infallible wisdom, that He was indeed the highest God, even the only real God. Yet Nebuchadnezzar’s vain spirit in his heart obviously was never truly convinced that Yahweh ruled his destiny and the destinies of his people. His terrified mind of flesh had to acknowledge that Yahweh was the one and only God, and that all the spirits he previously called gods were not gods. But his vain spirit still believed that Yahweh was just one powerful God among may other powerful gods, and even believed that his human spirits could manipulate Yahweh. Nebuchadnezzar’s heart did not believe that Yahweh God, nor any other gods, possessed absolute control over him or his land. Rather, Nebuchadnezzar believed that he himself possessed ultimate control over his personal life and the lives of his people. So Nebuchadnezzar was a theistic humanist, just like the members of most churches are today. And the mind of Nebuchadnezzar’s spirit belonged to Satan, not to Yahweh.

Nebuchadnezzar was deluded and manipulated by Satan, compelled to heed and learn from the devil, his father. When God sees a wicked and rebellious heart, God hands that spirit over to the delusions worked by Satan. This is the worst punishment one can ever receive from God, for the worst of sins. And this was the greatest sin of Satan, at the beginning of time. It is the root of all sins, a delusional desire to be god. It was because of Satan’s own delusion that Nebuchadnezzar, created in that devil’s image, declared that he was his own highest god. Then God condemned his sin, though God Himself indirectly caused it, since God handed Nebuchadnezzar over to that delusion after Nebuchadnezzar proved that he did not love the truth. And God had to express His condemnation by punishing him, so His elect would see that Nebuchadnezzar did something very sinful and wrong. Yahweh had to illustrate that the warfare between the beast’s kingdom and the kingdom of God had now begun.

So God immediately drove this deluded, weak, slavish, mortal Nebuchadnezzar into the fields and further deluded him, to ensure that His elect knew humanism is just a delusion. Thus, the king ate grass and lived like a “beast” for seven “times,” that is, for a Sabbath of years, for seven years, until he acknowledged that only Yahweh God rules the destinies of all men (Dan. 4:31-37). God gave him seven years of bestial madness to indicate the type of his sin and its effects. And, from then on, all humanists became irrational brute beasts. Also, this seven years was a prophecy of the seven-year rule of the final beast who will dominate the world in the end times before our Messiah’s return.

All humanists worship (esteem and serve) self and other human beings as their principal gods and place their faith in the various types of salvation offered by human gods, allowing them to rule over their thoughts and lives. Usually, a humanist will worship self as one’s highest god, and let one’s mind of flesh be the only god bearing the final and ultimate authority over one's own life. After self, most will also worship a compatible group of other deluded human beings as well as a few other things like Mammon, as their secondary gods, which they esteem and serve instead of the real God. All humanists do this, without exception, since this is what defines them as humanists. Still, there are two kinds of humanists defined in the Bible. One is called a spiritual “prostitute” and the other is simply called a “beast, depending on whether the humanist pretends to worship the real God or not.

The kind called a “beast” is a secular humanist, usually a materialist, and most often refuses to acknowledge the existence of any supernatural beings or gods at all. Most are extreme polytheists, like their ancestors in ancient Rome, since they slavishly worship hundreds or even thousands of gods, such as money, status, sex, celebrities and so on. But a few are monotheists, who worship self alone, as narcissists or psychopaths. Still, most secular humanists are so deluded and irrational that

 

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they refuse to admit that their religion of secular humanism is even a religion, although their zealous worship of self and other entities is undeniable. Still, one who highly esteems and serves anyone or anything in a way that rules one’s thoughts and behaviors like a god is practicing a religion. Thus, since all secular humanists worship self in this way, as well as other humans and things, their faith is indeed a true religion. Then most secular humanists consciously deny the existence of all spiritual gods, and reject any authority or demands of spiritual gods. Thus, as a direct result, they slowly grow more and more carnal, driven solely by desires for worldly things, until they are completely bestial.

Then the kind of humanism called spiritual prostitution is a particular kind of theistic humanism which pretends to worship the God of the Bible, such as Roman Catholicism, the vast majority of Protestant denominations, most of Judaism and Islam. This used to be the largest sect in the religion of humanism, but is now being overtaken in preparation for the coming final beast. All forms of theistic humanism also worship self and other human beings. They are also all at least partially materialistic, even if they believe that denying material things to the material flesh in a material way is not materialism. But theistic humanists also acknowledge the existence of a supernatural god or gods, while spiritual prostitutes acknowledge the existence of the biblical God, although all types of theistic humanists worship humans as their primary gods while supernatural gods are merely their secondary gods, which humans can easily manipulate. And theistic humanism is usually maintained by the doctrine of a so-called human “free will,” which they believe is far more omniscient and far more rational than the wills of any supernatural gods they choose to worship, thus able to force any and every worshiped god to obey their wills when they perform a magic prayer, sacrament or ritual.

Almost all churches, synagogues and mosques preach theistic humanism and war against the God of the Bible, as sub-sects of the sect of theistic humanism, which is itself one of the two major sects of the religion of humanism. These humanists will outwardly and hypocritically acknowledge the existence of a supernatural god that humans invented in their own minds of flesh, yet will proclaim that god to be the only real God, the Creator of all existence. And some even publicly proclaim that the Bible’s God is infinitely greater than them. However, they never truly believe this. Rather, while they outwardly proclaim that they worship the omnipotent, omniscient Creator God as their “Lord,” their spirits actually place all their confidence, trust and faith in themselves, other human beings, money and so on, just like secular humanists do. Nor do these spiritual prostitutes actually believe that God’s words in the Bible are true, even when they hypocritically claim that they are true. And, if one’s heart does not believe in God’s words, then one certainly does not believe in and trust God. So those churches and synagogues say they believe in God, but possess absolutely no real faith in Him.

In reality, almost all churches and synagogues in history have labored hard at promoting spiritual prostitution, a form of theistic humanism, in their war against the real God. And they have also spent much time in making their religion into a matter of material things of the flesh, with easily seen and identifiable icons, trinkets, rituals, meetings and so on. Of course, all those outward and meaningless things make their people far more visible, because they are designed to advertise their religion. Yet the secular humanists and other pagans also see those visible thins, but are jealous of the attention those rival humanists are getting, and want to murder their siblings in competing sects of humanism. So, through their materialism, theistic humanists put a target on the backs of their people, making their people more vulnerable to persecutions. Of course, true inner faith and the worship of the real God in one’s spirit, through genuinely true principles taught in God’s Word, would eliminate much of this persecution. But the true worship of the real God is the last thing those fake churches want. So theistic humans ignore the suffering and deaths of their people, and use their time and resources to suppress, obstruct and deviously alter the real and intended meanings of God’s words, to promote

 

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their own carnal power and selfish interests. However, all their efforts cannot stop the omnipotent Holy Spirit of God from teaching the elect who are among them. So some elect learn to truly love.

Almost none of the theistic humanists—neither the so-called “Christian” churches nor the so-called synagogues—have truly worshiped the God of the Bible. Rather, almost all trust and worship human beings far more than God. Self and other human beings are indeed their highest gods. They place the most confidence and trust in man, man’s words and man’s power. They trust only men to determine their destinies. Most theistic humanists, most so-called “Christians” and “Jews,” believe that each individual saves oneself through a so-called “free will,” in exactly the same way secular humanists do. Yet it is impossible to be a true Christian or true Jew if one does not trust and worship the real God, whose Spirit teaches His words directly to one’s spirit. One cannot serve, esteem and trust in one’s sinful self or other sinful human beings more than God, then call oneself a Christian or Jew.

If one worships self or others as one’s highest gods, one actually hates the real God. But, since the religion of humanism is a lie to create self-deluding worship, which trains its disciples to deceive themselves and others, theistic humanists seldom admit the truth, that they actually hate the real God of the Bible. Nevertheless, their words and deeds, especially their violent reactions to those who proclaim real truths, reveal their venomous hatred for the real Jesus and the real heavenly Father. And their trust and worship in themselves, other humans, money and things is far greater than their trust in the man-made supernatural gods they like to call by the names of the biblical God. So, since they love themselves and other gods far more than the real God, yet publicly claim to be God’s “bride,” the true prophets and apostles called them spiritual “prostitutes.” For they are not faithful to God, but seek profit from other gods so often that their spirits have no time to be with the real God.

Theistic humanists believe that God cannot save unless certain works are done by oneself or other humans, that one must partake in magic “sacraments” or say a magic “Sinner’s Prayer” through a supposedly “free will” to be saved. If one does not do this for oneself, or choose to let esteemed men do it to them, they say one cannot be saved. They think anyone who has not said a magic “Sinner's Prayer” or has not had a magic sacrament of physical baptism forces God to send one to hell, since man is the judge of all souls in their churches, and our God Jesus is not allowed to save or judge any soul. So, to them, every other name under heaven, except the name of our God Jesus, can save anyone. Yet real salvation is only by the will, authority and judgment of the real God Jesus, that is, by His “name” alone. Even our saving faith comes from Him. His Holy Spirit teaches and trains our spirits to know and wisely apply His truths, through love from our spirits. And, as Jesus’ Holy Spirit does this work in us, our spirits cannot help but trust Him more each day. Although our brains of flesh can never produce anything but a temporary, psyched-up, fake “faith,” our spirits grow a true and permanent faith in our God Jesus and His Holy Spirit, an eternal faith that cannot ever perish.

If a one does not do these physical deeds, fake churches and false synagogues think God is not allowed to save one, and salvation is not possible. Therefore, they actually place all their faith in a human being’s will and power, but do not truly place any faith in the will and power of God. In fact, they believe that human beings control God's will. Since they think the will of a human being causes the will of God to save them, they believe man’s will is more powerful than the will of God. Because they think God’s decisions and actions are controlled by man, subject to the wills of men, they think man is the god of God, that man is a higher and greater god than God. Thus, they serve God far less than they serve themselves or other men, even less than they serve money and countless other things.

Now, whether one admits it or not, it is always one’s highest god that determines one’s whole world view, how one perceives reality—all that one calls true or false, right or wrong, good or bad, legal or

 

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illegal, and so on. But all humanists trust only their most highly worshiped human beings to tell them these things, to define what is good or evil, right and wrong, real or not real. Only other human beings are allowed to shape their thinking, world views, religious beliefs, behaviors and personal lives, and all their laws. They do all according to man’s will. They will never even consider doing God's will, as God’s Spirit speaks directly to their own individual spirits, which is His real salvation.

Humanists also believe one can own property in an ultimate way, in a way that allows one to do whatever one wills with that property, without any obligation to the true Owner, who is God. And, throughout history, humanists have even allowed people to own other people in this way, to even kill enslaved equal siblings in the family of humankind, without even asking if God willed enslavement or death. For even theistic humanists in fake churches never truly believe that God owns them and all creations. They never realize they are merely stewards of God’s property, with an obligation to use their own bodies and everything else for God’s purposes alone. Rather, all humanists want to be the sole, ultimate owners and gods of themselves and their property. Therefore, in reality, they see the real Creator God as the least of all their gods. Since they think human beings can do whatever they want with themselves and God’s creations, and that human wills control God's will—through human deeds like prayers and sacraments—they think man alone has a “free will” and God's will is an enslaved will, that God bows before and worships them. But the real God of the Bible declares that only He—the omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign God—is truly free in will and thought. God alone has a truly “free will,” completely and perfectly free from ignorance or deception, totally free from every possible kind of manipulation or influence, entirely free from every obligation and from an kind of coercion. God alone has an unaffected wisdom, with unlimited power to think and do exactly as He pleases. All human beings are slaves to misconceptions, lies, delusions, ignorance, manipulations, coercion, fear, extremely limited abilities, extremely limiting circumstance, their genetically and environmentally programmed impulses, and very much more. From all we know through God’s Word, and all we know through a truly scientific study of God’s creations, we are forced to admit that every human being who ever lived and ever will live has an “enslaved will,” and not one has ever truly had anything that could ever be considered a “free will.” So only God is God.

Since humanists trust in man alone to determine all things that affect their own destinies, they create all their own laws and do what is right in their own eyes. They utterly disregard the laws, ways and expectations of God. They never even consider what is right in God's eyes. And since this type of delusion is extremely appealing to minds of flesh, most shallow people love humanism, even though the humanistic ways and laws always result in hierarchical class systems, the oppression of most of them in virtual or actual slavery, the suppression of truth, the persecution of all who inconvenience the elite, endless violent wars and revolutions, the incessant exploitation of the majority, as well as extensive injustice causing much needless suffering and the deaths of many innocent souls. So, with its carnal appeal and false promises, humanism has slowly become the most popular religion in the world, and theistic humanism is now the real religion of almost all churches. But it is destroying the world. Fortunately, Jesus still finds the hearts of His true elect, and teaches His ways to their spirits, building an inner conscience in each one's heart. He rules both the earthly and eternal destinies of all human souls, and chose to save His elect before any were born. God does not need man to decide whom He will save for eternity. He decides by His own free will. Still, while our God Jesus teaches and trains elect spirits to love, for their salvation, most of their minds of flesh remain deceived and deluded by both secular and theistic humanists, although this delusion will dissolve in the end times.

God’s revelations of unfolding history and the last days, which God granted to the prophets and apostles, give us hope, after we finally face the truth and realize that we are not free. Through His

 

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Word, our very personal God has lovingly assured us that His kingdom will not be suppressed and driven underground by the devil forever, nor defeated by the final beast. Light has grown inside His elect throughout the centuries. Soon His kingdom will rise and prosper, in revival. Then God will come in Jesus and utterly destroy the religious kingdom of the beast. Do we understand this? Do we see that we are not free, but need to be set free? Do we comprehend the height and width and depth of what God is doing in history, how He is teaching and training our spirits for an eternal life in heaven, by making us pass through a short, dark life on earth? For now, God is allowing Satan to severely limit and enslave us, but only so we will love Him more when we are freed. After we walk through the darkness, the light of God will seem brighter. These prophecies do not simply say what will happen in the future. More importantly, they tell why pain, suffering and death exist here now.

Consider why Daniel spent his life seeking a word from God. Was this just idle curiosity? No! Daniel saw how his people walked blindly in a Satanic darkness, how they loved the delusions of Babylon and Persia, how they even evangelized that false religion everywhere they went. Living among the rulers of Babylon and Persia, among the most powerful men in the most powerful nations on earth, Daniel knew there was no hope for the world through those kingdoms, nor through the church of Israel that had adopted their pagan ways. But Daniel had seen some bright light from God, shining within his family and friends, from within some of the elect of God striving to live according to His laws, ways and teachings. Yes, even they failed and fell often. But he knew those elect loved in more just and God-like ways than the pagans. So, as he pondered the fate of the world and the utter hopelessness of the humanistic slave societies like Babylon and Persia, who seduced the church of Israel into their darkness, Daniel prayed, seeking some kind of hope for his church and the world.

Then God answered. God revealed very specific details about the fates of Babylon, Persia and all mankind, as well as the future of His own kingdom, and even about Daniel’s own destiny. All was predestined and nothing was left in the hands of men. Only He, the Creator, controlled all that was, all that is now and all that will be. Yahweh God would build up His kingdom and shine His light on earth, until He removed all His enemies and ruled the whole world. God gave Daniel rest from fear.

With this in mind, let us look again at the prophecies of Daniel. After God gave the dream of a statue to Nebuchadnezzar, and granted its interpretation to Daniel, God repeated the same message again, with different symbolic figures representing the four kingdoms and the Messiah. Likewise, Jesus repeated this message to John, in the Revelation centuries after this, to confirm the words of Daniel, but with some details added and some omitted. The beast that Daniel prophesied about is exactly the same beast John saw in his visions from Jesus, the same beast Jesus described in the Revelation. In the following Scriptures, compare the prophecies of Daniel with those of John. But, when you do this, realize that they also described a growing polarization of the people in the world, in a hopeful and encouraging way. For while it says the darkness grows more black and spreads, it also says that the end of that evil draws nearer, as the light grow brighter and spreads among God’s elect children.

Daniel 7:2-14 (ESV): “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven

were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from

one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings . Then as I looked its wings were

plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man,

and the mind of a man was given to it [This ‘beast’ is Babylon, the beginning of humanism.]. And

behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear . It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs

in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ [This is the rapacious

Medo-Persian Empire.] After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard , with four wings

 

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of a bird on its back. [This is Alexander the Great with the four generals or ‘wings,’ who established the

four Greek kingdoms after he died.] And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast [the Roman Empire], terrifying

and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces

and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before

it, and it had ten horns [‘horns’ represent rulers who bear the power to threaten, harm and kill]. I

considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one,

before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn

were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days took His seat; [The ‘Ancient of Days’

is God, including the Father and Jesus, who is one with the Father, for Jesus was also in the beginning.] His

clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery

flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before Him; a

thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the

court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the

great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body

destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their

dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son

of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was

given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should

serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His

kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

A few decades after Daniel gave this prophecy, we saw Zechariah also use the phrase, “the four winds of the sky,” and both prophecies are obviously about the end times, indicating the world-wide scope of these prophecies. These end-time prophecies are not merely about local events, in the Mediterranean Basin, as some like to imagine. Then the “great sea,” which is stirred up by “the four winds,” figuratively refers to all the common people of the world, all who are swayed by every foolish wind of doctrine, that is, the general population of earth. As all the people on earth are agitated by false teachings, the four beast rise up from among them. The ‘four winds of the sky blow in every direction, to manipulate the thoughts of all the wicked masses literally everywhere on earth, stirring them up to cause them to follow the beast into destruction and God’s eternal condemnation.

Of course, God’s Spirit will awaken many elect spirits among the world’s people, and those elect will not be driven by the winds or spirits of false doctrine, not in their appointed times after the sixth seal’s revival. In fact, most elect on earth will be spiritually separated from the non-elect before the beast arrives, sanctified during the great revival and through repentance during the initial plagues of the seven seal’s era—although some elect will remain unrepentant in the Great Prostitute until God calls them out, just before the beast destroys that false church. And there there will be some elect who will not repent until the judgment day. Still, the vast majority of souls who end up worshiping the final beast will be the non-elect, and Satan shall awaken many of their spirits, transforming them into psychopaths who harm and kill for their own profit and pleasure, including many of God’s elect.

These four “beasts” are the same four kingdoms that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream about the image or idol. And they are the four chariots seen later in Zechariah’s vision from God. The first and head of the four is Babylon, with the “wings” of multiple “eagles,” it was a kingdom with many

 

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subordinate subject kings who faithfully did its bidding, taking it wherever it wanted to go. But those “wings” were “plucked off, and this first beast “was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.” So it remained the beast it was in the beginning, but stood up and thought like a man, which indicated that beast’s exposure to the truths and wisdom of God. And, as soon as this beast was influenced by God, the pagan subject kings were no longer faithful, and were plucked off, which eventually caused this beast’s demise. For those “wings” were kings of lands which became the Medo-Persian empire, who rose up against Babylon.

The second beast was the Medo-Persian empire, consisted of two rival kings. But this beast “was raised up on one side,” meaning the Persian king later ruled the entire empire. Persia was likened to a bear with “three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’” So the “three ribs” seem to be the remains of conquered Media and Babylon, as well the Persia itself, all ruled through violent terrorism. And Persia would go out to conquer many other lands, where it would mercilessly slaughter tens of thousands, often publicly impaling and skinning many through a vindictive kind of terrorism. They were as ruthless as Rome, but Rome also learned from Persia to let the people live in peace as long as they bowed to their lords and paid the taxes, only applying their horrifying torture tactics if they needed to terrorize the people back into complete submission.

The third Satanic kingdom is the Greek Empire, which very swiftly expanded under the conquests of Alexander the Great. Then it was split into four kingdoms or “wings” after Alexander died. And it was not only a leopard, but also one of the four heads of the whole beast, where each of those four heads represented Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. But Daniel did not mention that “dominion was given to” this whole four-headed beast until that third kingdom of Greece had risen up. For Greece refined and disseminated the doctrines of humanism through its religious philosophies that created the foundation for all secular and theistic forms of humanism existing to this day. And now those various factious forms of Greek humanism, particularly Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism, have become the dominant religions of the world. Based on the precepts of Greek humanism, which always governed the hearts and minds of Satan’s fourth kingdom of Rome, most or all the laws in all lands have now been very negatively influenced. For most are hierarchical class systems which serve and esteem humans as worshiped idols, then oppress and subjugate through financial systems and through the terrorism of unjust laws with excessive penalties enforced by militaristic police systems.

The fourth beast was “terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong.” This was the Roman Empire, which has conquered the entire world by this time. And it does not merely conquer, but also destroys all whom it conquers, because it is greedy and selfish, psychopathic in its desire to leave nothing for anyone who does not bow before it. So it was described as a beast with “great iron teeth” who “devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet.” It originally had “ten horns,” in the early days, where all ten are controlled by Satan, who will walk upon the earth in the human body of the final beast come from the “sea” of common people, and with the attributes of the previous three kingdoms (the Greek “leopard,” the Persian “bear” and the Babylonian “lion”). And the ten “horns” will come from seven “heads,” that is, from seven cultural national identities, to make war against God and His people (see Rev. 12:3-17; 13:1-2). But, by the time the final beast is a “little horn,” and not yet the ruler of of all seven nations, “three of the first [ten] horns were plucked up the roots,” never to exist again. So, when the beast takes over, he will be the eighth “horn” or ruler, replacing the previous three (Rev. 17:11). Therefore, the fourth beast’s kingdom of Rome will be characterized by ten rulers of seven nations, but will eventually have only eight rulers eventually.

So Daniel was definitely prophesying about exactly the same beast that John prophesied about in the Revelation from our God Jesus, for Yahweh who revealed all this to Daniel is Jesus who revealed all

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this to John. But Daniel provided some additional details about the man called the beast, who began as a “little horn” with less power than seven bigger horns, who soon usurps the power of the other horns. This final beast or horn had “eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.” So he saw the how the ways of God were beneficial to human beings, and knew the weaknesses of human beings, but rejected God’s ways nevertheless, and used human weaknesses to his own selfish advantage. Then he spoke “great things,” primarily about himself, so those “whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 17:8, WEB), who are called the non-elect, would worship him as their only god and savior, as their lawmaker and guiding father.

But our God Jesus will cause His elect to resist the machinations of the beast and even war against him, until a great final battle in Israel. Then our God Jesus will return to the earth and cast the beast alive into hell’s fire (Rev. 19:20). Of course, earthly flesh cannot exist in the spiritual realm, not even in dark emptiness of hell. So, on the way to hell, that beasts body will be transfigured into an eternal body made of a spiritual substances, and the beast’s body will forever be “burned with fire” (Dan. 11b), within the spiritual space-time continuum of hell. His demonic delusions of being a god will forever burn with painful ungratified lusts within his soul. Then all the non-elect who followed and worshiped the beast will be destroyed on that same day, when Jesus returns, and all of them will also be eternally “burned with fire” in hell after the judgment, since not one will repent on that final day.

On the day of His return to the earth, Jesus will remove the Roman beast, along with his people and Roman ways of terrorism. But, “as for the rest of the beasts [Babylon, Persia and Greece], their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” So there will be some forms of Satanic humanism present on the earth, but it will be practiced by individuals and groups, not by governments or authorities of any kind. And Satan, along with all his demons and non-elect minions, will be gone, leaving those humanistic doctrines without any power. So those highly weakened and ineffective false teachings and traditions of the previous three kingdoms will continue to “live,” but only “for a season and a time” (or until the end of an “appointed time”). Jesus will allow them to “live” for a millennium of His personal rule on earth. Then Jesus will allow Satan to return for a long enough time to raise up more non-elect souls who will attempt to govern a people according to the humanistic ways of Babylon, Persia and Greece. So they will gather in places called Gog and Magog (possibly modern Georgia in Russia) and march down to Israel, to rebel against Jesus, attempting to murder Him and take over the world. This will teach His elect to truly see the inevitable effects of those other forms of humanism, and reject them. Then Jesus will destroy Gog and Magog, remove Satan and his minions from the earth, and restore the earth for an indefinite period of time, until He gathers up all who died in the past and raptures all the living up to the gates of heaven for judgment.

Only the destruction of Gog and Magog will eliminate the last remnants of the first three kingdoms, that is, the religious, social, political, economic, legal and military systems of Babylon, Persia and Greece. Then the delusions and lies of their humanistic doctrines will never again plague the elect, and all the earthly lessons about Satan’s preferred religion will be shared by all the elect on the last day at the gates of heaven. So all the elect who ever lived will be able to see through the often subtle lies and false reasoning of humanism, and look in horror at their methods of unjust terrorism, and all the sufferings and deaths caused by that religion. So none of the elect will ever again dare to practice any of its ways, nor strive to be human gods ruling over hierarchical class systems of other living souls of any kind. Rather, all will become priests like Jesus, serving all life for the good of each life.

Daniel 7:21-27 (ESV): “As I looked, this horn [i.e., the beast is this ‘horn’ or power, after he comes

to rule the fourth kingdom] made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of

Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when

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the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said: 'As for the fourth beast, there shall be a

fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour

the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces.

“As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after

them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall

speak words against the Most High, [The beast hates and slanders the real God.] and shall wear out

the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they [the

‘saints’] shall be given into his hand [into the beast’s hand] for a time, times, and half a time.

“But the court shall sit in judgment, and his [the beast’s] dominion shall be taken away, to be

consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of

the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most

High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey

them.'”

When God permanently etched a vision of the four kingdoms and the beast into Daniel’s mind of flesh, the mind of his spirit became “anxious” and “alarmed.” So he went to one of those standing in the vision, and asked Him what he saw (Dan. 7:15-16). But there were only two Persons standing in his vision. One was the “Son of man,” who approached the other Person called the “Ancient of Days.” And the “Ancient of Days” granted the “Son of man” authority over humankind, “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples nations and languages should serve Him” (Dan. 7:13-14a). Also, this “dominion” given to the “Son of man” was eternal, neither able to “pass away” nor be destroyed.” Thus, the only two Persons there were God, the Messiah Jesus called the “Son of man” or “Son of humankind” (because He is God who came to humankind in a body of human flesh), and God the Father, who is the “Ancient of Days.” So Daniel was asking Jesus to explain what he saw.

So our God Jesus further explained the meaning of the vision, partly by proving new visions, where Daniel then saw how the beast “made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom” (7:21, ESV). The only time when God, the Most High, comes with His judgment is during the end times, during the eras of the sixth and seventh seals. And the time when the elect become “saints” (that is, sanctified and set apart for God’s purposes) begins during the great revival of the sixth’s seal’s era. So the beast’s war with the “saints of the Most High” will begin only when that beast receives power over the fourth kingdom of Rome for seven years, then only last until our God, the Most High, returns to the earth to destroy the beast and that beast’s entire fourth kingdom of Rome. And the latter Scriptures expound on this event, telling us that the “Most High” and “Ancient of Days,” who is Yahweh God, will actually be Jesus descending to the earth. So this prophecy and the latter prophecies are actually declaring that Jesus is Yahweh God, who shall destroy the beast and his fourth kingdom when He returns. Jesus and the Most High are the one God.

Jesus told Daniel, “As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on the earth [i.e., the fourth after the three kingdoms Daniel knew about, after Babylon, Persia and Greece, so the fourth is Rome] , which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down and break it to pieces” (7:23, ESV). Since all four kingdoms are the enemy of God, they are all actually evil spiritual kingdoms, that is, based on an anti-God religion which is humanism, both theistic and secular humanism. So it is not only by physical force that the Roman kingdom will “devour the whole earth,” although that religion surely does practice violent terrorism to control it subjects in its highly divided and bickering factions. Rather, Rome will “devour” through the delusions and lies of

 

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its religion of humanism, through its moral and spiritual philosophies and precepts that propagandize its oppressive hierarchical class systems, a fabricated “need” for “strong” psychopathic human gods, the terrorism of its unjust legal systems with its excessive punishments, the economic systems which maintain submission among those “loyal” to the elite while punishing and killing all others, as well as its many other evils. And Rome did indeed devour “the whole earth” by the 20th century. Now there is not one corner of this planet which lacks the extremely negative influence of the narrow-minded little “box” of mental perceptions developed through Roman humanism. In our day, apart from the influences of our God in some of His elect, all concepts of life and faith remain tainted and corrupted by Roman humanism in every other religion. Rome has trampled down every population on earth, forcing all souls into an empty, futile existences. And it has broken the world into warring, rebellious factions to the point where it is impossible to find peace anywhere in this world. Directly and indirectly, through the elite powers and greed of Roman humanism, the whole earth is perishing.

This “war” of the beast is not only against God and His created principles or truths, but also against His “saints,” who speak the truth. And those “saints” are the elect who have been made “holy” (i.e., Hebrew = qaddish, meaning “holy” or separated from the others for God’s purposes). In other words, those “saints” are the elect whose spirits will be taught and trained by Jesus to speak His truths and do His works on earth. They will be the Jewish and Gentile Christians whose spirits were “sealed” and saved by God during the eras of the sixth and seventh seals. So the beast will be able to succeed in persecuting them and “prevail” against them until Jesus returns. Later Daniel indicates that the beast “shall wear out the saints of the Most High … and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time” (7:25, ESV). This means the persecution will last for three and a half years, until Jesus returns, since a “time” (Hebrew = iddan) refers to a “set time; technically a year.” So this refers to the last half of the beast’s seven-year reign, although he will also kill many before then too.

But, in Daniel’s vision, the beast’s power only lasted “until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High [i.e., by the Most High, who is Jesus], and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom” (7:22, ESV). This refers to the millennium that John’s Revelation from Jesus prophesied about, when Jesus rules the earth with the saints. This thousand years will allow some forms of humanistic teachings from the previous three kingdoms (i.e., from Babylon, Persia and Greece) to exist until the rise and fall of Gog and Magog, when those last forms of humanism will be exposed and eliminated from the earth, leaving the saints to live without any of that false religion’s influences for an indefinite period of time, until the earth ends. For some freedom or “judgment” will be granted to the saints, and they will not be forced to eliminate all forms of hierarchical humanistic systems when Jesus returns, although they will be disciplined by Jesus and not allowed to practice any kind of injustice. This is interesting, since human beings, even after their spirits are awakened and Jesus walks on earth, will require a full thousand years before they can all learn to walk entirely according to the minds of their spirits, until their spirits manage their lives well enough to speak and do what the Holy Spirit of Jesus tells them to say and do, and no longer need human authorities in hierarchies to tell them what to say or do, no elders to judge their words and actions. It suggests that human populations learn very slowly and gradually about God and His ways, so the process of God teaching and training their elect spirits cannot be expedited.

When it says the fourth kingdom “shall be different from all the [other three] kingdoms,” it meant that Roman humanism coerced everyone in their kingdom to believe and uphold all its theologies and philosophies. Unlike Babylon, Persia and Greece, Rome was not merely passive about whether or not their subjects adopted all the major precepts of their religion. Rome actively persecuted any who did not believe in and strictly adhere to their political, economic, military and social systems or

 

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traditions, to their Roman theistic or secular forms of humanism. As pagans, and later as a fake “Christian” kingdom, Rome forced everyone to worship their elite human gods in their class systems, and would severely persecute or brutally murder anyone who did not do so. But the other three kingdoms only concerned themselves with the maintenance of order and collecting the taxes.

Rome was to devour the “whole earth,” not just the parts of the earth near Israel. And Rome has indeed accomplished this in our day. For centuries, the fourth kingdom’s religion of humanism has trampled down the world, breaking it into warring factions, fracturing it into unjust, oppressive pieces. It formed imperialistic European nations, capitalistic North America, and the communist nations of far-off lands like China, as well as other dictatorships, fascist nations and other humanistic lands and religions all over the world. All these have now evangelized humanism to the whole world. They converted all nations to Roman humanism, primarily by coercing all thoughts into a Middle Platonic and Neoplatonic framework (which includes many and varied theological and philosophical works of Romans and Greeks, including Aristotelian and other concepts). Naturally, all the Roman humanists have also warred against one another too, from the very beginning, although they all follow and preach exactly the same humanistic religion and practice exactly the same exploitative, destructive works as all the others. For all of them want to be gods like their hellish father, where each individual fights to gratify one’s own desires of one’s own proud and greedy flesh, and each elite god is willing to stab a “greater” human god in the back to steal that one’s status, power and income. So, with Roman humanism teaching all to be selfishly served, instead of selflessly serving all through love, this humanistic world cannot possibly every be united in peace, without injustice.

Again this prophecy repeats a sign that will help us recognize the fourth kingdom in its initial form during the end times, as physical empire consisting of seven different ethnic populations with ten rulers, before the beast inherits this kingdom. God repeats: “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings [i.e., ten elite rulers with autocratic authority] shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings” (7:24, ESV). So, in the end times, which will begin soon, we must watch for seven European nations (likely contiguous) uniting to form an empire with ten rulers who all act like “superiors” governing “inferiors” through a harsh and terrorizing justice system. Then, at some point in time, the beast will eliminate three of the ten “horns” or rulers to become an eighth ruler. Yet this beast will soon rise in power and take over the entire new physical Roman Empire. However, he will only be able to govern it all for seven years.

This prophecy outright states that the saints will not have dominion over the earth until the Most High destroys the fourth kingdom and the beast, that is, until our God Jesus returns. Therefore, all who even think about establishing a theocracy on earth, especially one based on a Roman type of hierarchical class system, are delusional and oppose God’s Word. Rather, the prophecies suggest the opposite, that Roman humanistic powers will trample and negatively influence the church, which is exactly what we seen in almost all churches from the second century until today. And Rome being able to overcome the saints will last until after the revival of the church in the era of the sixth seal.

The beast “shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law” (7:25a, ESV). And the beast’s Roman humanism has surely worn out the saints, through his constant propaganda against God and against the teachings of God’s Word. By his “words against the Most High,” Rome exhausts Christians and all the elect who speak the truth, although never with any real evidence and logic against the truth, merely with much forceful repetition, suppressing noise and peer pressure. The irrational, unjust and very destructive humanistic lies and delusions are evangelized so incessantly, arrogantly and intensely that they easily coerce most elect into compromising on the truths of God’s Word. Few are able to stand up to them.

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The beast’s kingdom “thinks” or hopes to change the “times” of God’s prophecies, and will not give up trying to overcome God and the sanctified elect, whose spirits have learned real truths from the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Until the day of his bitter end, the beast and his kingdom will try to destroy every child of God, all forms of biblical Christianity, the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem where our God Jesus will reside, as well as every just, equitable, wise, loving “law” established by God. In the same way humanists have always hoped to change the prophesied “times” about their four evil kingdoms, and nullify the limitations that God’s laws places upon their murdering ruthlessness, they will continue to do so until the last of them has perished. Each new generation since the days of Nebuchadnezzar has sought these changes through their desires to become their own gods. And each new generation has said, “We are not like the last generation. We are far more advanced and have progressed in power and knowledge beyond them.” Yet, inwardly and in every way that truly makes a difference, each generation of humanist has a heart filled with the same cheap and dirty garbage as the previous one. New generations of humanists are slightly altered hybrids of their parents, but still parasites like them, who multiply until they destroy their hosting societies. They all act in foolish and self-destructive ways, making new and equally unjust laws that directly oppose God's loving, wise, effective laws. And there will never come a time when the non-elect will give up humanism.

The last two millenniums have seen an endless, futile changing of the times and laws by one foolish generation of humanists after another. More recently, secular humanists invented religious and completely unscientific doctrines of evolution, which they have used as the foundation for doctrines of ruthless Nazism, Communism, and Capitalism. But, whether or not God develop the universe and life in six phases of what we perceive to be six 24-hour days, or in six time periods equivalent to what we would experience as billions of years, it remains obvious that God designed and created the intricately balanced and harmonized universe and the systems of life in it. Yet humanists want no creator god, or an impassive god who allows them to be their own gods. So they cling to the totally irrational delusion that plants and animals “chose” to evolve into what they became, and believe that the material space-time continuum is conscious, a genius that designed and maintains its existence.

Clearly, it is irrational to say that something which does not exist can be its own designer and creator, since a being with knowledge and power is required to design and create, and a non-existent thing does not possess a mind, knowledge or power. And existing life does not have sufficient knowledge or power to redesign and recreate itself into anything better than what it was to begin with. So the material space-time continuum did not design, create and choose to maintain its own very delicately balanced system, and life did not design and create its own ability to thrive in the various environments on earth, in intricately balanced and fragile ecosystems. But the humanists have used these irrational, fabricated religious doctrines as the foundations of their evil political, economic and military systems since the 19th century, as well as to change the laws of God so they can promote things like their extremely exploitative “sexual revolution,” which forces many mothers to choose between murdering their own babies in abortions or destroying them and themselves more slowly through a life of extreme poverty and hardship. And all these speculations of humanists are merely slight variations of doctrines from Middle Platonism, the foundation of Roman humanism.

From the beginning, Roman humanists have attempted to make a host of extremely destructive changes to the laws of God, which are clearly written in His spiritual and material creations, as well as in His Word. And their primary motivation for doing so is the same as that of their father, Satan. Their chief motivation is to become their own gods. But, to believe that one is one’s own god, one must delude oneself into thinking that God does not exist, or that God does not love and serve His creations as a personal God, that God is impassive and unconcerned like the god Plato invented. For

 

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humanists must believe there will be no negative consequences for the lies they tell and the sins they do to make themselves into their own gods, even into the gods of the siblings they can subjugate and pretend to own. Yet the Creator God does truly exist. And He not only controls the destinies of all men and all existence, but has designed His creation in such a way as to cause only His laws and ways to be truly effective and beneficial for all, in a way where all thrive and find abundant lives.

Consequently, the man-made laws and ways of humanists, which nullify and oppose the immutable spiritual and even material laws of God, are all ineffective or worse, very often leading to utter destruction, devastated lives, suffering and death. God designed His material creation to teach and train the spirits of elect. So His laws reflect His loving, just, equitable and wise attributes, and an elect spirit that learns to spontaneously love and embrace His laws also learns to love Him and all the other spirits created in His image. And, when the elect suffer in the flesh from lawlessness and evil, they learn to hate and avoid that lawlessness and evil. Thus, by the end of the judgment day, when all the elect can learn all the lessons taught throughout earth’s history, they will be prepared to enter heaven, where they will serve all the life there, laboring beside their heavenly Father and oldest Brother, Jesus. But non-elect spirits born of Satan’s spirit cannot learn to just love, because their spirits are loveless like their father’s spirit. So God’s design of His spiritual and material creations, and the hands of God Himself, cause them to pay the consequences of their lawlessness. The lies and sins they practice, to artificially feel like gods at the expense of others, will destroy them in the end.

Still, in spite of the vast empirical evidence of how their lies and sins destroy even themselves, the foolish beast and his non-elect humanists continue to convince themselves that they can win against God and make themselves into gods. They become so deluded that they actually think they can remain unjust and loveless without negative consequences, and can stop Jesus, their Creator and God, from returning to destroy them. So the beast’s kingdom will persecute the saints, and many will be given into the hands of that beast for three and a half years. And the expression, “a time, times and half a time” is defined as three and a half years later in the book of Daniel (Dan. 12:7,11). When it says the saints are “given into his hands,” it means the beast will kill them during the last half of his seven-year reign, many elect Jews and Gentiles, even many elect who do not yet know Jesus.

Because the Scriptures clearly define the beast as the quintessential secular humanist who hates the real God, he will persecute all who are associated with God through the truths they believe and act upon, all the elect, all who are inwardly true Jews and Christians, all who reject humanism. For the beast’s hatred of God and truth will come from his spirit, as it did from Hitler, Trump, Stalin and other humanistic destroyers. Yet, although their spirits inherently hate God, and they cannot stop their spirits from hating God, they are not innocent, since they know what their lies and sins do to others. So God's court in heaven “shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end” (7:26, ESV). Our God Jesus will send plague after plague upon the beast and his kingdom, until Jesus personally comes to His kingdom and utterly destroys the beast’s Roman Empire. And there will be no love lost for any of that beast’s kingdom after it is gone.

After this, Jesus will rule the earth, together with His faithful elect, during the millennium and for an indeterminate amount of time after the millennium, as well as in heaven after that. For “the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (7:27, ESV). As mentioned, some forms of humanism will be allowed to exist until the end of the millennium, but without any power to act against the loving, equitable, just laws and ways of God. Jesus will not allow humanists to pretend to be god, to hold any power to esteem themselves above others through deluded and unjust thoughts. But humanists

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never allow any true freedom or justice of any kind. So, at the end of the millennium, Jesus will allow Satan to return to the earth for a short season, and let that devil raise up a generation of his non-elect children, who will apply the remaining doctrines of humanism to rebel against Jesus. The armies of Gog and Magog will be formed, hierarchies of plundering and enslaving fools, to expose the evils of the remaining sects of humanistic religion. But, by then, the elect will also be spiritually mature enough to understand why and how humanism caused that rebellion. So the folly of the last remnants of humanism will be utterly rejected by the elect eternally, on earth and in heaven above.

Theistic humanists in fake churches and synagogues may borrow words from the Scriptures, so they can falsely claim to worship God. But the real God provides freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, while none of those humanistic fake churches and synagogues do. In reality, humanists only provide the “freedom” to become like themselves, and will only respect or tolerate other humanists of the same sect. When it comes to real Christians, or anyone else who sees and exposes any truths the humanists hate, those loveless souls will always oppose and persecute those elect. Humanism always strives to force its utterly foolish, destructive, oppressive delusions and lies on everyone else, through censorship to suppress the truth. For humanism is Satan’s religion, designed solely delude human beings into falsely believing they can become gods of themselves and other siblings in the family of humankind. Thus, our God Jesus will destroy every form of humanism in the end. Then all the elect will walk according to the taught and trained thoughts of their spirits, conforming to the image of their heavenly Father and oldest Brother, so they can express our Creator’s just love and His true freedom that takes responsibility for loved ones. This cannot happen yet, however, since the elect are still humanistic and unjust. Only when we learn to serve only God’s will, not our own wills, can this just love exist on all the earth.

Daniel 8:19-25 (ESV): “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of

the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw

with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of

Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken,

in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with

his power.

“And at the latter end of their kingdom [i.e., long after the Greco-Roman Empire began], when the

transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles,

shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful

destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who

are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own

mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise

up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand.”

Daniel saw another vision of Satan’s four kingdoms while standing in the king’s “citadel” or palace at Susa, in a city which was an important religious and political center of Persia. That ancient city has been found and is now a valuable archaeological site in south-west Iran. At the time, Daniel would have been looking at the pagan gods of Persia, adorning every wall and conveying the moral or spiritual precepts of Persia. So Daniel would have been wondering how God could allow such evil to exist on the earth, because the Persians prayed to those pagan gods for the power to crush other innocent nations in senseless wars for greedy gain, and capture their people to serve as their slaves.

Now Daniel had seen the Persians take over the devil’s first kingdom of Babylon, and was there when it happened. So, in this vision, he saw what would occur in the last three of the four kingdoms.

 

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The second kingdom, the Medo-Persian empire, was represented in this vision by a ram with two horns, and was so powerful that none could stop it from conquering wherever it went. But a male goat from the west, with only one horn, eventually defeated and trampled the ram, breaking the two horns of the Medes and Persians. This goat represented the united kingdom of Greece while led by Alexander the Great. But the goat’s one horn broke, and four horns replaced it, representing the four largest Greek kingdoms after Alexander died. Then Daniel wanted someone to tell him what this vision meant. So one like a man (Jesus) told His messenger, named Gabriel, to explain it. And Gabriel said, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end” (8:17, ESV).

After Daniel stood up, Gabriel more specifically explained the vision, all the horrors that the last three evil kingdoms would inflict upon the earth: “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end” (8:19, ESV). The “appointed time of the end” begins with the predestined time that God set for the end of the beast's fourth kingdom during the sixth and seventh seals’ eras, and the end of the beast’s seven-year reign, when God’s plagues progressively tear down all the humanistic governments of the world. Then the remnants of the evil traditions and influences from the previous three kingdoms (Babylon, Persia and Greece) shall also be eliminated at the end of the seventh seal’s era, that is, when Gog and Magog will be destroyed at the end of the millennium of Jesus’ rule over all the earth. And all four of those kingdoms must be destroyed, since all of them have incited the full “indignation” or wrath of God.

Then Gabriel explained, “As for the ram that you saw with two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia” (8:20, ESV). Originally, Media and Persia had two related by rival kings, until one defeated the other. So they were one kingdom, one “ram.” Both nations are together became the second of the devil’s four kingdoms. For the Median Empire was ruled by the grandfather of the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, until Cyrus conquered the Medes in the sixth century BC. Since one family ruled both empires, they are both considered to be only one kingdom ruled by one dynasty.

Then the goat which defeated the ram was described in this way: “And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king” (8:21, ESV). So the third Satanic enemy of God is Greece. No other interpretation is possible. Alexander the Great is obviously the “great horn” between the eyes of the goat, and is considered to be the first king of the Greek Empire, since he united all the Greek city states, including his homeland of Macedonia, making Greece into a true empire through his conquests of Egypt, Persia, Israel and other lands in the fourth century BC.

Then Gabriel told Daniel, “As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power” (8:22, ESV). After Alexander died, his empire almost immediately split into four smaller empires, since his generals bickered with one another and each took over a part of his conquered territories. These four were the kingdoms of Greece, Macedonia, Egypt (called the Ptolemaic Empire) and parts of Persia (called the Seleucid Empire). The last two, the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires would oppress Israel and war against God more than the others, but all four were oppressive humanistic kingdoms who suppressed the truth.

Rome is not mentioned by name, because the name of “Rome” was not known to Daniel or anyone else at that time. So Gabriel described that fourth kingdom in this way: “And at the latter end of [the Greek] kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles [i.e., political intrigues], shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints” (8:23-24, ESV). This refers to the greatest king of the fourth kingdom, the final king of the spiritual Roman Empire, who is the beast of the end times. And he will have

 

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great power, but from Satan’s spirit, not from his own human spirit. For the final beast will be a body of a man with the spirit of Satan controlling and empowering him. And Satan also manipulated and controlled all the Roman emperors and rulers throughout history, all the fascists and dictators who established unjust kingdoms functioning according to the oppressive terrorism of Roman humanism.

The transgressions of the Greek humanistic kingdoms reached their limit when the Seleucid Empire began to forbid the Jews to read the Scriptures and practice their faith. In God’s eyes, this was a serious transgression, because God had appointed Israel to be the priests of the entire world, and God would not tolerate any attempt to destroy His true priesthood for the world. The persecution of the Jews by the Seleucids resulted in Israel’s rebellion against them, called the Maccabean Revolt (c. 167 BC). That war ended with the Jews gaining independence for a time, but under constant threats from the Greeks. So the Jews eventually sought aid from Rome, but Rome seized control of Israel in about 63 BC. Later, Rome defeated the Greek Ptolemaic kingdom of Cleopatra in about 31 BC, which made Rome the dominant world power, usurping Greece to become Satan’s fourth kingdom.

The demonic psychopathy of Roman humanism eventually spread throughout the world, although it was sometimes tempered by biblical concepts, which also spread throughout the world, especially after the time of the Messiah’s first advent in AD 28. Of course, the world was always foolish and lawless, confused and self-contradicting, self-destructive and irrational. But Rome multiplied those evils to the extreme throughout the last two millennia, so that the entire planet is now teetering on the brink of collapse. The dominant world religion of Roman humanism has been so destructive that it would destroy everyone on earth with itself, if God did not intervene. And this is why God will send the plagues of the sixth and seventh seals to stop them. Arrogant lawlessness, violent crimes, wars and resulting despair are now thriving everywhere on earth. If these humanistic governments continued to rule the earth for few more decades, the entire population of the world would perish.

So the correcting eras of the sixth and seventh seals will be necessary. And, considering the fragile state of the world now, those end times must be imminent as well, very likely to begin within a few decades. The sixth seal’s era will only last about 20 years, but divide the elect and non-elect through a revival. Then, not long after the seventh era begins, a new physical Roman kingdom of seven ethnic European populations and ten rulers will form. Then the final beast will rise up to rule it all for seven years. At the end of his reign, the beast will unite what is left of the secular humanists on earth, just after God sends the army of 200 million to kill a third of mankind. “By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes [or “Ruler of rulers,” who is our God Jesus], and he shall be broken—but by no human hand” (8:25, ESV). In the end, Jesus will cast the beast, and Satan in him, directly into hell, without any further judgment needed.

This beast, who is so great in his own mind that he will demand blind loyalty and worship, will be very “bold” against God, against God’s people, and against God's immutable laws and ways. He will be extremely deluded and destructive, like all of the other humanistic despots of the past. Yet he will also be very charismatic and intelligent, well able to deceive his useful dupes with his rhetoric and false logic, and an expert in detecting and nullifying political intrigues or “riddles.” Clearly, since he will come to his Roman kingdom “when the transgressors have reached their limit,” he will be able to handle difficult political, economic, religious and cultural conflicts in cunning ways that previous transgressors could not overcome. So he will be a high-functioning psychopath who can adeptly read the thoughts and feelings of others, without empathy, but with an acute understanding of what people want or need, and with enough intelligence to manipulate them all. He will be the perfect kind of Roman fascist leader, “strong” in his ruthlessness, yet able to unite all his useful dupes effectively.

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This final beast will be coming soon, within a few generations, and the wise will be able to easily recognize him. For Satan has raised up many little anti-Christ’s in his image throughout history. And the same kind of Roman kingdom that was in the beginning has spread everywhere on earth now, with the same kind of Roman fascists leading them now as there were in the past. So all who read the news or history will be able to identify him and his Roman kingdom. The only problem is that the masses of non-elect love that kind of destroyer, and many elect remain too ignorant to know when that kind of deceiver is manipulating them. So that beast will easily rise to power when he comes, and cause untold numbers of deaths, killing any elect who have learned to speak the truth.

Nevertheless, the beast will be a mere mortal man, although his spirit shall be empowered by the spirit of Satan. God will allow Satan to grant the beast irresistible power over the minds of many non-elect spirits, making him able to effectively deceive and direct their spirits and flesh. God will even allow the beast and his minions to kill the flesh of His elect, both Christians and Jews. But the devil in the beast will always be limited by God’s power and will, restricted to words and deeds that cannot overcome the kingdom of God on earth. So only “in his own mind” will the beast “become great.” In reality, he will be just another dirty little pawn of Satan, destined for hell. The beast will be so great in his own deluded opinion that he will want to be worshiped by all people and actually will believe he can destroy our God Jesus. Yet Jesus’ alone, not an army of men, will destroy that beast.

Daniel also prophesied about a prototype of the final beast, a king of the “north,” so we would be able to recognize what that final beast would look like when he came (Dan. 11:21-35). Daniel’s prophecies revealed almost a hundred details about that prototype, who was the king of the Greek Seleucid Empire named Antiochus IV, Epiphanes (175-164 BC), as well as about the Maccabean Revolt, which would be similar to the final beast’s war against Israel. Then, immediately after this prophecy, Daniel began to describe the final beast once more, who is the king that lives even “until the time of the end,” until the “appointed time” (11:3-35). So Daniel clearly was telling us that this Antiochus IV would be very much like the future final beast, who will war against Israel during the end times (in the seventh seal’s era). The future beast will have the same attributes as Antiochus. Consequently, we can expect the beast to be a radical secular humanist like Antiochus, a worshiped fascist attempting to force all his people to blindly believe his arrogant, empty religious delusions.

Antiochus persecuted God's people, then tried to eliminate the worship of God by censorship and by terrorism. He forbade the publication or reading of the Bible, and destroyed any Scriptures he could find. So his religious oppression and censorship resembled that of countless humanistic governments throughout history. Like most humanists, he prohibited freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and freedom of speech, so all would think “rightly” and “logically,” just like him. He desecrated God's temple and set up a statue of Zeus in God's temple, presumably with his face on the statue. For he wanted to replace God, just as all humanistic leaders want to replace God. He warred against God in every way he possibly could, since he hated when God interfered with his unjust laws and ways, through his will to practice the destructive, deluded desires of his flesh. So he was just a common prototype of most humanists in history—like the ancient Greek and Roman rulers, and like the more recent rulers of the Communists, Nazis and Capitalistic secular humanists. The future final beast will be no different, willful and arrogant, ruling through violence, lies and intrigue. But the final beast will be the ultimate humanistic ruler, more Satanic, worse than Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong or other psychopathic exploiters. If we want to recognize the future beast, we should pay close attention to the prophecy about Antiochus and the Maccabeen revolt. But let me focus more on Daniel’s latter prophecy about the future beast, which follows immediately after the prophecy about Antiochus, since Daniel reveals some details about that beast which are not found in the Book of Revelations.

 

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Daniel 11:36-45 (ESV): “And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and

magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of

gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done.

He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the One beloved by women. He

shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all.

“He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know

he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with

the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall

load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.

“At the time of the end [This 'time of the end' refers to the time of the seventh trumpet in the era of the

seventh seal, not to the end of the beast's reign, since the next event occurs at the beginning of his reign.] , the

king of the south shall attack him, [The 'king of the south' will be a ruler in the Middle East, likely the

leader of Israel.] but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots

and horsemen, and with many ships. And he [Here Daniel is speaking about the beast again, during

the first half of his seven-year reign.] shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass

through. He shall come into the glorious land [Israel]. And tens of thousands shall fall. But

these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the

Ammonites. [All these places are now in Jordan.] He shall stretch out his hand against the

countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall become ruler of the treasures of

gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans [Libya is on Africa’s

north coast.] and the Cushites [Ethiopians, Sudanese] shall follow in his train. But news from the

east [possibly China] and the north [likely Russia] shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great

fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. And he shall pitch his palatial tents between

the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.”

When Daniel prophesied about times “until the time of the end,” and how the end time “still awaits the appointed time” (11:35, ESV), he referred to the years after the Maccabean Revolt and Roman occupation of Israel, up to the days when the final beast gains power. That is, Daniel summarized the centuries that would pass before and after the Messiah came, including the times which the Lord’s Revelation calls the eras of the first six seals. During those many centuries, he prophesied that “the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them [i.e., to the wise] with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white” (11:33-35, ESV). Keep in mind that the kind of wisdom Daniel spoke about here refers to the spiritual principles found in God’s Word. So, in the centuries until the final beast appears, the Holy Spirit of the Creator will grant some wisdom to some souls, who will make the people understand truths about justice, equity and God-like love. But the hardships of wars, captivity and other perils will make the wise and their people stumble. Some help will be given to them, through God and His people. Still, hypocrites will join the wise and cajole them into error through “flattery” (Hebrew = chalaqlaqqoth, “smoothness, slipperiness, intrigue”). Thus, some wise will “stumble” and fall. But the wise will recover and learn not to be swayed by pride and vanity. In the end, their failures will cause them to be “refined, purified and made white.”

Then the final beast will arrive to inherit his Roman kingdom in Europe. So Daniel describes the motives and intentions of that vain king, to help us recognize him when he comes: “And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods” (11:36, ESV). In the same way that evil souls slander the

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elect and mock the truths spoken by them, thinking they gain some kind of victory or “ownership” of them by spreading destructive lies and harming themselves in the process, the beast will do the same. That beast will “speak astonishing things against the God of gods,” and against all people of all other religions. The lies and slander he invents will be stupid and easily refuted with facts, and therefore “astonishing,” since it will come from the mouth of a supposedly intelligent human being. Yet all his lies will be believed by those who worship him and practice his religion, which clearly will be a form of materialistic secular humanism, where human spirits deny the existence of human spirits and brainwash themselves to believe that their spirits will not go to hell, so they can live for their flesh.

And it seems that this coming beast might be an existentialist, one who thinks he can define and create his own essence, one who deludes himself into thinking he is what he wills to be. But he will actually be a puppet, a total slave to his master Satan, a mere human mouthpiece used to express that devil’s slander. Even while he esteems, serves and trusts in himself as his own highest god and the savior god of his thuggish people, he will have no will of his own, certainly nothing that anyone could call a “free will.” And his vile subjects will be worse, since they will be enslaved puppets of that slave of Satan. Manipulated by the devil and doomed by the almighty God for a day of eternal damnation, that beast will simply be a deluded, irrational and mindless wretch like all the other vain despots who came before him, destined to destroy himself and his worshipers. “He shall prosper till the indignation [or wrath of God] is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done” (11:36b, ESV).

The final Roman beast “shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all” (11:37, ESV). Like most of the atheistic secular humanists of our day and the past, the beast will be very proud of his irrational thoughts and delusional perceptions of control over his own destiny, and think of himself as being much more powerful and great than he actually is. So he will ignore the doctrines about the ancient Roman gods, including Plato’s high god. And he will dismiss the teachings of the Roman Catholic church. Above all, he will utterly avoid any discussion about the God “beloved by women,” who is the God of the Bible, the God who defined women as having spirits made in His own image, the God who values all women as equal heirs of His home in heaven. For the beast will be a Roman humanist, who sees all women as possessions to be exploited for the benefit of males.

Yet, like all atheistic secular humanists, the beast will hypocritically worship a number of gods. He will esteem, serve and make great sacrifices to certain things, as his gods. Whatever sways and rules his thinking, behavior and actions will be his guiding and owning gods. The beast will devoutly worship whatever aids his selfish ambition, anything he can use to further his purposes. “He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these [other gods]. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god” (11:38-39a, ESV). The word translated as “fortresses” here comes from the Hebrew word maoz, which refers to “a place or means of safety, protection.” So the beast will worship or trust in his security and defense systems, and spend his gold, silver and other valuables to gain and maintain them. Since he esteems and places his faith in them—granting them his resources, time and service to them—he worships them and they are his gods. Then, likely because the beast will worship and be obsessed with security and defense systems, he will possess the expertise to “deal with the strongest” security and defense systems of enemies.

Thus, when the beast will claim that he does not believe in any god, he will be lying, like all the other atheistic secular humanists in history. For he will fearfully seek safety and protection through “the help of a foreign god,” from “the god of fortresses.” So he will indeed put his faith in a god, albeit an impassive god, like the god of Plato. He will spend his time, efforts and resources to esteem

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and serve that god. And remember that Daniel knew that the Scriptures declared that all pagan or foreign gods were ultimately delusions formed in minds of human flesh by demonic spirits, and those demonic spirits were all ruled by Satan. So Daniel knew this “foreign god” of the beast would be an obsession formed in that man’s mind of flesh by a demonic spirit. Thus, the beast will actually “honor” or esteem a demon as his god, even Satan himself. And Satan will help that beast overcome enemy fortresses, the security and defense systems of rival powers, including other humanistic lands.

The beast, like all humanists, will also honor or esteem other human beings. That is, he will worship other “great” psychopaths like himself, but as lesser gods, while he worships himself as his own high god, and as the highest god of his loyal dupes. So, just like all criminal secular humanist rulers in history, the beast will reward any who serve him blindly and faithfully, as his henchmen, who do his unjust works to destroy the innocent and the good who dare to oppose his deluded, evil will. “Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price” (11:39b, ESV). That is, the beast will grant authority to the unqualified dupes in his kingdom who are most loyal to him, who worship him, no matter how inept and evil they might be. None will be appointed based on God-given knowledge, wisdom or skill. Therefore, there will be much suffering and death resulting from the folly of those pretending authorities. He will also “divide the land for a price,” rather than according to an ability to effectively employ the land for the production of abundant crops, while maintaining the health of the land. Thus, much of the arable land will be wasted on vain estates for the wealthy and powerful, or ruined by exploiters, which will leave many of his people to starve. So the beast will be a psychopath who cares nothing for the welfare of his people, who will let them suffer and die solely to please his own vain desires.

After the beast takes over as the dictator of the physical Roman Empire in the end times, “the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through” (11:40, ESV). This occurs “at the time of the end,” which would refer to the last period of time before our God Jesus comes to destroy that beast and his kingdom, in the era of the seventh seal. More specifically, this would indicate the first half of the beast’s seven-year reign, if we align it with the other prophecies about the beast. The “king of the north” is the beast, who will come with “many ships,” since ships will be needed to mount an attack against the Middle East from the beast’s European kingdom. And “the king of the south,” who attacks the beast, would be the leader of some nation in the Middle East or Africa, who will attack due to the religious, economic, political and military offenses of the beast against his land. But the beast will have superior military forces and completely overcome many nations in the south, while leaving some regions untouched. Thus, the beast will choose to conquer only some nations presumably because all those nations will be Christian allies who worship Yahweh God by that time, but leave all the humanistic nations alone.

The beast “shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall become the ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train [i.e., as his captives]” (11:41-43, ESV). So the northern parts of Jordan (Edom, Moab and most of Ammon) will be spared, likely because this is a dry, hilly area which is difficult to conquer and hold, without many losses from guerrilla warfare. But the beast will take over “the glorious land,” which is Israel. He will also conquer and plunder Egypt, then take captives from Libya and lands in Sudan and Ethiopia (Cush). And “tens of thousands shall fall” in Israel and those other lands. Also, this probably would not be a complete list of all the lands the beast will war

 

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against and conquer at this time, since Daniel would have only mentioned the few nations that would suffer the most. Yet, at one point during this war, the beast will need to withdraw many of his troops.

“But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction” (11:44, ESV). This would occur when the army of 200 million from a place east of the beast’s kingdom kills a third of the earth’s population, until they are stopped at the Euphrates River. This could refer to a vast army from China or India, who will ride on “horses” that seem to be machines with weapons mounted on them (possibly motorcycles). Then the news from the north will likely have something to do with another global power, likely Russia, who seemingly will oppose the army of the east. This massive and deadly world war will “alarm” the beast, will force him to involve his own kingdom in this conflict. And that will occur sometime near the middle of his seven-year reign. To cope with the demands of huge world war, the beast will need to pull out many of his troops occupying the Middle East and Africa, so he can use them and their supplies for the great world war. This will frustrate his plans for conquest there and infuriate him, but he will have no choice in the matter. So he will show no mercy in the world war, and destroy without any regard for the number of casualties, even devoting many to destruction. This devoting many to destruction (execution and deliberate murder) likely includes his severe persecution of Christians in his land. For, while the beast is gone, the nations in the Middle East and Africa will seize the chance to take back their lands and overcome the few troops he left behind there, making him more angry.

After the world war, the beast seems to unite all the humanistic nations and individuals of the world under his banner, so he can raise up a large international army to destroy the rebels in Israel and the other lands he had previously conquered, likely so he can steal their resources. However, the world war and the process of uniting his fellow humanists will take him some time. So he will not be able to return to the Middle East until almost the end of his seven-year reign. Then he will begin his campaign by attacking Israel, the center of worship for his Christian enemies who rebelled against him. “And he shall pitch his palatial tents [i.e., army headquarters] between the sea [i.e., the Mediterranean] and the glorious holy mountain [i.e., Mount Zion, where the Jewish temple will be built again]. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him” (11:45, ESV). This place between the Mediterranean and Jerusalem is what other prophecies call Megiddo or Armageddon. And this is where the beast will be caught up by the returning Lord Jesus, then cast alive into hell. As our God Jesus descends from the sky, he will also kill all those in the beast’s international army, as well as all the non-elect on earth.

Some find the prophecy in this chapter to be confusing, since they interpret the events contiguously and as though one event occurs immediately after the other. But most prophecies focus on some main events in a timeline that can be of any length, where some of the sequentially ordered events might occur years or even centuries after the previous ones. So the only rational way to interpret the events is within the context of all the other prophecies about the same events from all the Scriptures. If we harmonize this prophecy with the Revelation and other prophecies, the events here must be about the final beast, during his seven-year reign as the dictator of the new physical Roman Empire consisting of seven nations. Because the beast will conquer the Middle East and parts of Africa during the first half of his reign, the bulk of his Roman army will be situated there. Then the beast must withdraw most of these troops from there during the middle of his reign, to use them in the world war against nations from the north and from the east. And his end is at the end of his reign.

The middle of the beast’s reign is also when he kills the two prophets in a bitter rage, in Jerusalem, and commits the abomination of desolation in the temple. And this makes sense, because he will be very angry already, since he will need to abandon his lucrative conquests in the Middle East and Africa at that time, to fight in the world war. Just after this, he also begins beheading the saints in his

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homeland. And this also makes sense, because the lands he left behind in the south seem to be the Christian nations who are allies of Israel by that time, especially Egypt and the former Assyrian lands. So the beast will want to execute all the Christians in his European lands, all who might align themselves with the Christian nations in the Middle East and Africa. But he will leave the Roman Catholic church, the Great Prostitute, until the very end, since they are humanists who will not be sympathetic to the biblical Christian nations in the south. Yet, just before his defeat at Armageddon, the beast will also burn the Roman Catholic church to the ground as well, that is, the Vatican City.

The end of the beast's reign will occur just after God pours out the seven bowls of wrath on the beast's lands, after the beast has finally returned to Israel, at the end of his seven-year reign. And he will bring a host of foreign troops with his Roman troops, assembling this massive international army between the Mediterranean and Jerusalem, in the valleys of Armageddon. It seems that Israel will also have allies then, like Egypt and the former Assyrian lands, who will be Christian by that time. So Israel and her allies will destroy some of the beast’s armies, but will need to fall back to the east and take a stand in Jerusalem and the area. Then the beast will send troops east of Jerusalem to trap Israel and her allies. But our God, the Messiah Jesus, will return before the beast can close his trap, and destroy him, with all his army. Since all the beast’s power came from human men and their weapons, not from God, every gust of wind, every rock, even all the animals and trees, will war against the beast on the day Jesus returns. But the power of Jesus, not a human hand or weapon, will strike that beast down on that day. Our God Jesus will capture him Himself, then cast him into hell.

Daniel 12:1,7,10-12 (ESV): “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has

charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since

there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone

written in the book…. And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the

stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by Him who lives

forever that it [i.e., the beast’s persecution of Jews and Christians] would be for a time, times, and

half a time [i.e., three and a half years], and that when the shattering of the power of the holy

people comes to an end all these things would be finished.... Many shall purify themselves

and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of

the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. And from the time that

the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up,

there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.”

This prophecy begins by telling Israel that Michael will arise, and he will be “a great prince” who “has charge” of Israel during the end times, while the beast persecutes the people of God, then comes to destroy Israel. This Michael will be one who stands up over and stands with Israel, one who serves the people during those dark times. So he might be a human leader or he might be an angel assigned to watch over the elect in Israel. And those times will be very bad. For Daniel had seen the Babylonian invasion of Israel, and had also heard about the Assyrian invasion in the past. So he knew that those were some of the worst times in Israel’s history. Yet the angel Gabriel told him that, in the end times, Israel would experience “a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.” The beast’s persecutions and invasion will be more ruthless and deadly than the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman invasions of the past, instigated by an demon-driven psychopath.

This is another Scripture which tells us that God will create a dichotomy among the people of Israel and the whole earth. He will separate His elect children from the non-elect children of Satan in the end times. For this prophecy begins by saying: “But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book” (12:1c, ESV). This qualifies whom God

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will deliver, meaning that it also indicates whom He will not deliver. And, of course, the “book” consists of God’s words about His children, those whom He also calls His “elect.” All human beings will be “judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Rev. 20:12c). That is, God will record the motives and intentions of elect spirits, while doing any just and loving works during their lives on earth, then give this information to His servants who will separate the elect from the non-elect. These angels will perform God’s punishment upon the non-elect. But our God Jesus Himself will lead the elect into His homeland of heaven, to serve life there with Him.

Later, this prophecy talks about many people who “shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined,” which is done by allowing one’s spirit to be counseled, taught and trained by the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Then those who purify themselves are contrasted with the wicked, and this prophecy then tells us that “none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand” (12:10, ESV). So this defines the biblical kind of wisdom as that which relates to an understanding of why and how one needs to purify oneself. Wisdom is learning how and why one’s garments of life, which display the motives and intentions of the heart regarding all matters of life and faith, must become “white,” how and why all one’s words and deeds in life need to be “refined.” Purifying is so one’s spirit can express one’s love for God and His creations. For, to all of the elect, common joy comes from helping and serving others. But their deepest joy in their hearts is granted when they can actually express God’s will for His people and His other living souls, when their elect spirits hear His truths poured into their souls, understand those principles of loving justice, then are made able to respond with words and deeds of their flesh, so they can fulfill His calling effectively.

So here we see how and why God is dividing or dichotomizing the people of the earth, separating His purifying and wise elect from the foolish, wicked, destructive, parasitic non-elect who possess no understanding of how to survive and thrive. This dichotomizing process has been working among the earth’s population since the beginning of human awareness, in the days of Adam and Eve, and has increased in power and intensity during this era of the fifth seal. But the elect will soon begin to most effectively “purify themselves” and become wise after being sealed by God during the era of the sixth seal, then continue this process until Jesus returns, and forever after that. His Bride, His priesthood of the true and universal church, shall makes herself fully ready for Jesus (Rev. 19:7-8).

But the non-elect, whose spirits were born of Satan’s spirit, shall act with increasing wickedness to the end. And we are told why the wicked become more wicked, while the elect “purify themselves.” The non-elect become more wicked because they do not understand anything about God, His Word, nothing about life or truth. Thus, they cannot act wisely to preserve themselves or anyone else, and cannot even use the resources of God’s green earth wisely, to sustain themselves and His other living creations. Only the elect are able to hear, understand and become wise, if they silence their flesh, to allow their spirits to hear the concepts of Jesus’ Holy Spirit pouring into their hearts. As Jesus told His enemies: “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God’ (John 8:47, ESV). The flesh of God’s enemies heard the physically uttered words of Jesus, but understood nothing. For His Holy Spirit did not teach the meaning of His words to their non-elect spirits. God only teaches and trains the spirits of His children about His just love.

Then the servant of God told Daniel how long the non-elect minions of the beast would be allowed to prevail against the elect. The persecution of the elect in the beast’s Roman kingdom and his war against Israel would occur “from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up” (12:11, ESV). And the beast will stop temple sacrifices and commit his abomination in the middle of his seven-year reign, when he also murders the two prophets of God. Also notice that the phrase, “a time, times and half a time” (12:7, meaning “three

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and a half years”) was used in this prophecy, referring to the last half of the beast's reign, which is a total of about 1,278 days. But Daniel was told, “there shall be 1,290 days,” about 12 days more than three and a half years, likely based on the Jewish calendar. Then he was told, “Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days” (12:12, ESV). This seems to suggest that the beast will stop the persecution of elect in his homeland once he arrives on the shores of Israel, after 1,290 days. For his intention to utterly destroy Israel and the other Christian nations will make him think he no longer needs to persecute Christians in his homeland, because they will no longer be a threat, no longer be able to support Israel and those other nations after he annihilates the homeland of Christianity and Judaism. Then he and his international army will kill and plunder Israel for about 45 days, until the 1,335 days have passed since he stopped temple sacrifices. But Jesus will return to destroy the beast and all the non-elect on earth, to “deliver” all the elect who wait upon God and survive until that day.

Now look at how the Revelation's prophecies about the beast, in a way that affirms and perfectly harmonizes with Daniel's prophecies. In the Revelation, Jesus also tells us that the beast is formed from three other creatures, who represent three previous evil kingdoms, just as Daniel did. That is, Daniel's prophesies likened the first three kingdoms to a lion (Babylon, the head), a bear (Persia) and a leopard (Greece). Then his fourth kingdom was different, and not likened to any existing creature, since it was just an artificial compilation of the first three beasts. Likewise, the Revelation does the same, and describes figurative form of the beast’s body as partly like a leopard (Greece), with the crushing and destroying feet of a bear (Persia) and the arrogant mouth (and therefore head) of a lion (Babylon). It is a compilation of the first three, joined into one creature. Daniel’s beast and the beast of the Revelation both have ten horns as well, that is, ten rulers. So both Daniel and John describe exactly the same beast. But John also reveals where all of this beast's power originates, from Satan.

Revelation 13:1-10 (ESV): “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns [The

beast’s kingdom, with ten powerful rulers of seven nations, comes from the 'sea,' which represents the masses

who seldom question the foolish, destructive, unjust ways of the world order.] and seven heads [The seven

nations whom the ten rulers govern, just as Daniel prophesied.], with ten diadems on its horns and

blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast [This is Daniel's fourth kingdom, the future new

Roman Empire, not the man called the beast.] that I saw was like a leopard ; its feet were like a

bear's , and its mouth was like a lion's mouth . And to it [i.e., to the beast] the dragon [Satan]

gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal

wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the

beast [They followed the man called the beast, not the entire Roman kingdom.]. And they worshiped the

dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying,

'Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?' And the beast was given a mouth

uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-

two months [This ‘authority’ will war against the elect for 42 months, which is three and a half years.].

“It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His

dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints

and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language

and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not

been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb that

was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he

goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call

for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

 

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This prophecy begins by describing the beast as a kingdom, not as a man. And all four beasts of the Revelation are the same four beasts in Daniel’s prophecy, but in reverse order, since the Revelation was looking back into time while Daniel’s prophecy was looking forward into time. That is, in the Revelation, John first mentions the final beast (Rome), then Greece (the leopard), then the Medo-Persian empire (the bear) and lastly Babylon (the lion). This reverse order also indicates the most immediate and apparent influences on the beast's fourth kingdom, which are naturally greatest from the most recent kingdom coming before it. Greece most deeply influenced Rome, and created the body of Rome’s humanistic precepts and doctrines. Yet, although Rome forgot the heavy influences of Persia and Babylon upon its empire, they were very significant. The seven heads of the beast will be seven European nations or cultures, who all have “blasphemous names.” All seven nations will bear “names” or characteristics which slander the Creator God. The ten diadems or crowns on the ten horns indicate absolute, king-like, despotic authority held by ten rulers governing the seven nations.

To the man called the beast, who eventually rises up to rule all of the future Roman Empire as its dictator for seven years, “the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority” (13:2b, ESV). This dragon was previously identified in the Revelation as “the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (12:9, ESV). But Satan is a selfish despot who never hands over anything to anyone. So what this actually means is that Satan will live in and do his deceiving works on earth through the human body of the beast. That is, the spirit of the beast will be Satan himself. So, in reality, the beast will be merely a puppet and slave of Satan, and Satan will control and manipulate literally all the thoughts of the beast. Satan is the “ruler of the air,” that is, the ruler seated in the atmosphere above all the earth, and God gave him all sinners for his kingdom of the secular world order. Thus, when Satan knows his time is short, that God is about to take his earthly kingdom away from him and cast him into hell, he will come to his kingdom in the body of a human man, as his kingdom’s evil messiah, something like God did at Jesus’ first advent, to try and save it from God.

The beast will become the ruler of the world order through Satan, with Satan in him, while he himself is ruled by Satan. This means the Satan-controlled beast will have tremendous power to sway the thoughts and decisions of all whose spirits are not directly ruled by Jesus. Only the mature elect, whose spirits have been chosen, awakened, taught and trained by the Holy Spirit of the High King Jesus, will remain safe from the beast’s powerful delusions and lies. And, since most people are easily overcome by the deluding power of mere human beings, to become their duped slaves, it will be very easy for the Satanic beast to get many souls to worship and serve him. But our almighty God Jesus rules over Satan’s subject kingdom of the world order. Therefore, long before Jesus allows that Satanic beast to seize power, He will first grant us His power of rational wisdom, and the knowledge of His effective principles based on just and equitable love, to most of the elect on earth, so they can resist the beast’s deceptions and persuasive false reasoning. During the sixth seal’s revival and the first parts of the seventh seal’s era, Jesus will prepare the elect for a war against that beast, and the almighty power of Jesus will stand with them, to ensure that their spirits gain victory over the devil.

Then Jesus’ prophecy tells us: “One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast” (13:3, ESV). This one head may refer to the man called the beast or to one of the seven nations of the beast, but most likely refers to both, since the beast is a ruler of one of the nations and will consider it to be his property and an extension of himself. So the “mortal wound” would probably be a physical wound to the head of the man called the beast, a wound that should have killed him, but did not. And, since “the whole earth marveled” at this, he must have miraculously recovered with all of his mental faculties intact.

 

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The prophecy literally says, “one of its heads which had been effectively wounded unto death, and its wound of death was healed” (μίαν ἐκ τῶν κεφαλῶν αὐτοῦ ὡς ἐσφαγμένην εἰς θάνατον, καὶ ἡ πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ ἐθεραπεύθη). This refers to any kind of mortal wound, and not necessarily a head wound on a human being. So it might mean that one of the seven nations belonging to the beast was “wounded unto death,” that it was destroyed by war or in the plagues sent by God. It could indicate that one of the seven European nations was so badly devastated that it looked like it was going to perish. Yet it was healed in an astounding way, becoming prosperous and healthy again through the works of the beast, as Germany was through Hitler’s ruthless government after being crushed in the first World War, and after becoming impoverished through the Treaty of Versailles.

Still, this kind of language, which uses a perfect participle to indicate that the head “had been effectively or permanently wounded unto death,” then “healed,” implies that the mortal man called the beast was the one who had a mortal wound which was healed. And the words “one of its heads” might refer to one of the heads of state, so it may not necessarily refer to a head wound. So, when the end times come and we need to identify this beast, the part of this prophecy which will be most useful is not the fact that a mortal wound of some kind was healed, but that we will see “the whole earth marvel” when they see it, then follow the beast because they saw it. The non-elect and some of the most foolish elect look for a miracle to give them hope, not for the truth. So the healing of the mortal wound, whatever it may be, will greatly impress them, and we will know the beast has come.

When the beast comes, “they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’” (13:4, ESV). When the dupes of the world esteem Satan's attributes of ruthless power, arrogant authority and loveless leadership in the beast, they also esteem Satan. When they serve the goals and causes of the beast, they also serve Satan's goals and causes. So this esteem and service of the beast is the worship Satan, together with the beast. And the same principle applies to the esteem and service, or worship, of all the other wanna-be human gods lording it over the people throughout history, like Antiochus IV, most Roman emperors, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Hitler and Trump. Those who worship those kinds of “strong” murderers also worship Satan, and have become the deluded slaves of that lying devil.

Then it says: “the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words.” The passive voice (“was given”) indicates that Satan himself will put those words in the mouth of the beast. And, from the prophecies of Daniel, we know those “haughty and blasphemous words” will be the typical irrational claims of an atheistic secular humanist. That is, the beast will be a materialist who boasts about worshiping no gods, but will worship himself and other self-serving gods with the whole of his spirit. And the loveless, unjust beast will absolutely hate the loving and just real Creator God, as well as all His elect, solely because God forms a loving and just inner conscience in those elect. So, since the elect will not approve of the beast’s lies and unjust deeds, and some will war against him, he will persecute them for 42 months or three and a half years, during the last half of his seven-year reign.

The Revelation more specifically describes the words of the beast, as well as his works, in this way: “It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all [kinds] who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life [belonging to] the Lamb who was slain” (13:6-8, ESV). Like all the other secular humanists of history, the beast will invent lies and false reasoning to slander God, to mock His home in heaven and to throw dirt on the names of the loving elect who dwell there. Then our God Jesus will allow the beast to war against the saints, against the elect whom He has sanctified

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and set apart for His purposes. Jesus will even allow the beast to conquer the saints and kill them, because the saints cannot die, because all the elect must learn that the beast’s Roman humanism is evil, and because the beast must heap up his damnation so he can be cast alive into the pit of hell.

The Revelation also emphasizes the global influence and dominance of the beast. He will only rule over seven European nations, but as the world’s greatest political, military and economic power. That is, the beast will hold sway over all who believe in the Roman sect of humanism, which perfected humanistic administration by forcing submission through terrorism, by oppressing the majority in its steep hierarchical class systems and by convincing all to worship the “strong” rulers who are willing to sacrifice the “weak” in order to make its own loyal psychopaths more prosperous and powerful. And those who believe most in the Roman sect of humanism are the loveless non-elect, who can be found in “every tribe and people and language and nation.” Therefore, “all [kinds] who dwell on earth will worship” the beast, will esteem and help the beast. Literally “everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life [belonging to] the Lamb who was slain” will at least admire the beast, even the rulers and non-elect from the nations to the east and north of the beast’s homeland, even as those lands war against the beast in the world war that kills a third of the earth’s population. For Satan’s dark deluding power will ensure that all of his brood will respect and serve him, and Satan himself will dwell within the heart of that evil beast.

Through the allowed power of Satan, the beast will be able to delude, deceive, manipulate and command everyone except God's elect children. For all the spirits born of Satan are controlled by their father, and none have any such thing as a “free will,” no power to recreate themselves into God’s elect. Since the beast will be the incarnation of Satan, all the non-elect, along with some foolish and carnal elect, will be totally duped by the beast, and follow him into their own doom. But elect spirits were born of God, and their inherent aptitudes were created in His image, so the minds of their spirits do not think like the non-elect. The elect were created, chosen and predestined for a life of God-like, just love, for a heavenly kind of life, from the beginning or foundation of the world.

Thus, when elect spirits awaken, and their spirits begin to manage the thoughts in their souls, they will spontaneously reject the beast’s ways as being vain, empty, futile, unjust, destructive and plain evil. Thus, the elect who are revived and awakened during the sixth seal’s revival will never be able to worship the beast, will never be able to esteem, serve and emulate the beast. It will not even be possible for elect spirits to become remotely loyal to the beast. But the beast definitely will demand total loyalty to himself from everyone in his kingdom, and will kill anyone who does not bow before the spirit of Satan inside him. For that is the core nature of all demonic rulers and authorities. Thus, the elect will be severely persecuted by the beast, especially after he gains an excuse to murder them during the last three and a half years of his reign, after Israel and Christian nations rebel against him.

Nevertheless, the beast obviously will not directly rule all the nations on earth, as some seem to think. For the prophets and apostles told us that he will only directly rule a mere seven nations, and only bear a strong influence over other humanistic individuals and nations after the world war sends an army of 200 million to kill a third of humankind. And the humanistic nations to the north and east of the beast’s kingdom will even war against the beast before that world war. Furthermore, Israel and the presumably Christian lands in the Middle East and Africa will also oppose the beast, probably with the help of Christian nations located far from Israel, the nations mistranslated as “coastlands” or “islands” in most English translations of the prophecies. The beast’s power to manipulate the non-elect all over the world will be very strong, but he will not become the sole ruler of the entire earth.

 

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More recently, we saw how a secular humanist named Hitler, who was simply one of the hundreds of prototypes of the beast in history, held sway over the minds of countless souls around the world, all over Europe, North America and so on. Many humanistic churches, countless academics in most universities, numerous government and business leaders in every part of the world, and many other loveless souls, all highly esteemed Hitler and his doctrines for a decade or more before the second World War. And, at that time, only loving Jews and Christians clearly saw Hitler for what he actually was, a Satanic psychopath. This is what kept the USA from entering the second world war, Hitler’s supporters in America, who are now supporting Trump. And the same will be true when the beast comes. The beast will be loved by the loveless, but will not be the world ruler sitting on a throne in the United Nations headquarters, or anything like that. Other sovereign nations will exist at that time.

Like most high-functioning psychopaths, the beast will be able to read the emotions and thoughts of a soul very well, and will be able to charm people, making them trust and love him like a father, as Hitler did with the white “Aryan” people of Germany. But he will be loveless and have no empathy for anyone. So, like all humanistic despots of the past, he will be able to easily cut the throats of those who love him, the minute they are no longer useful to him. So this beast will be a slippery character, loved and blindly defended by his dupes, easily fooling the masses into trusting him as their savior and god, but destructive to all his dupes. And it will take some teaching and training of awakened elect spirits by Jesus’ Holy Spirit to see through his friendly veneer. But the elect who recognize the beast as a psychopath will be persecuted. So, “if anyone has and ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” (Rev. 13:9-10, ESV).

Many elect will be imprisoned and “slain with the sword” (i.e., as an ecclesiastical term, the “sword” means either killed in war or executed by authorities). Therefore, God calls for the endurance of His sanctified elect to the end of their earthly lives, or until Jesus returns. Later we find out that all of the elect killed by the beast during the last half of his seven-year reign will be brought back to earth by Jesus during the first resurrection, allowed to live in bodies of flesh during the entire millennium of Christ’s rule on earth (Rev. 20:4-6). For their spirits will have been awakened during the sixth seal’s revival or during the times of the seven trumpets in the seventh seal’s era. So these “saints” will be mature disciples by the time they die, able to serve Jesus faithfully on earth during the millennium.

Most of the elect who die before the end times will not be mature enough to help Jesus during the millennium, and will not rise in the first resurrection. For most live carnal Roman lives striving for status and money, supporting humanistic churches and systems. Only the elect with awakened spirits that are personally taught and trained by Jesus’ true Holy Spirit will be able to help. As the Scriptures say, “Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!” (Rev. 20:6, ESV). And, when we understand all this, it becomes abundantly clear that the Scriptures never taught that all who faithfully attend fake humanistic churches and live self-seeking Roman lifestyles will be “raptured” into the safety of heaven before their flesh must endure any of the end-time tribulations on earth. It was a deluded lawyer who invented that myth, and another lawyer who spread that myth. For both thought in terms of Roman law, that God would take vengeance on all who were not like themselves, on all who were different from those in their humanistic churches, since only they were good people.

Now let all with just and loving elect spirits from every religion and walk of life, all those with “an ear to hear,” acknowledge the Holy Spirit of Jesus, and the concepts of truth which He pours into the minds of their spirits. And let them avoid violence and foolish, impulsive anger. Let them apply His wisdom in all they do, to nullify the works of Satan and build up the just, equitable kingdom of God on earth. But it will not be easy, for all this work is to teach and train their spirits, even at great cost

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to their flesh. For He calls these faithful ones to endure captivity and being slain with the sword. As for those in humanistic Evangelical churches, let the true elect among them give up all hope of being raptured to avoid persecution in the end times. Just as His saints could not avoid persecutions unto death during this fifth seal’s era, nor throughout history, though they were weaker and more ignorant than they will be in the end times, the saints will not avoid persecutions from the beast and other humanists during the era of the seventh seal. And John’s Revelation eliminates the possibility of any kind of pretribulation rapture. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it ever say that the faithful elect will live an easy, middle-class Roman life, then will be whisked away into heaven before their fat flesh is caused to suffer in any way. Rather, the opposite is always taught by Jesus and all of the Scriptures.

God's Word always and invariably tells the true elect that they will suffer persecution in the flesh, like lambs led to slaughter. So let us endure. For salvation saves only elect spirits and builds up His kingdom on earth. It is to educate our spirits for life in heaven, and Jesus did not come to save flesh. In fact, literally all flesh shall perish with the material universe after He grants us all spiritual bodies.

Revelation 17:7-14 (ESV): “But the angel said to me, 'Why do you marvel? I will tell you

the mystery of the woman [This ‘woman’ is the Great Prostitute.], and of the beast with seven

heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to

rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names

have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see

the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

“This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the

woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has

not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that

was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. And the

ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to

receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind and

hand over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the Lamb, and the

Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him

are called and chosen and faithful.”

John saw a vision of the beast, but was astonished and “marveled” to see “a woman sitting” on that beast. This “woman” had “a golden cup full of abominations” and her name was “Babylon, the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And she was “drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” After seeing this vision, one of the angels carrying the bowls of God’s wrath began to explain the vision to John. The woman was a false church in Rome, which is clearly the Roman Catholic church, and the prophecies about her will be further examined later. For now, look at what the angel said about the scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns under the woman, the destroying beast whom she rides without reigns on its monstrous heads, as his captive.

The seven heads of the beast are seven nations and the ten horns are ten powerful rulers. But here the ten become eight, one of whom will be the man called the beast. So this agrees with the prophecy of Daniel, which told us that the beast usurps the authority of three of the ten rulers, leaving only seven of the original ten, plus himself, as the eighth ruler. And, after this, the beast seizes power over all.

“The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction” (17:8, ESV). The expression, “was, and is not, and is about to rise” (ἦν καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν, καὶ μέλλει ἀναβαίνειν) most likely indicates: (1) the man called the beast existed as a ruler in the new European Roman Empire, which will be created during the end times, but had lost his position

 

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among the ten rulers; (2) the beast did not exist as a ruler at the time indicated in this vision, which was when ten others ruled the new Roman Empire; but (3) the beast would subsequently rise from the “bottomless pit” of hell, through Satan’s power, to take over the entire empire. And Daniel said basically the same thing, that the beast would replace three of those ten rulers to become the eighth, eventually taking over the entire empire and subduing the non-elect in the entire world order, until he was destroyed (Dan. 7:23-26). The only thing Daniel did not reveal was that the beast was one of the rulers of the future Roman Empire before usurping the three rulers and taking over the entire empire.

Now some might say there have been many prototypes of the final beast or antichrist in past history (psychopaths like Antiochus IV and Hitler). So we might say that the final beast existed in the past and “was” before he will rise to power in the end times. However, the saints have always had to contend with them in many places and at all times in history, even several little antichrists existing today, such as Trump, Putin and other fascists. John also told us: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour” (I John 2:18, ESV). So John recognized that many prototype beasts or antichrists existed in his day. Also, Domitian was likely the emperor of Rome when John penned the Revelation in about AD 96. But Domitian was a fascist, and was surely just another little beast or antichrist. So how could John say the beast did not exist at the time he was writing the Revelation? Thus, it seems that the best interpretation of the prophecy about how the beast “was, and is not, and is about to rise” must indicates that the beast was once a ruler in the new Roman Empire, lost his position when ten rulers took over, then usurped three of them and soon took over the entire empire.

The prophecy said that the beast will “rise from the bottomless pit,” that is, from hell. In other words, he will be hellish and Satanic. But he will not literally rise from hell, since not even Satan and the fallen angels with him have been cast into hell at the present time, and no human beings will enter hell until the judgment day. So demons and many human beings now belong to the dark and empty realm of hell, and have spirits bearing the attributes of hell. But no one can literally come from hell, from “the bottomless pit.” Thus, when it says the beast rises “from the bottomless pit,” it is figuratively indicating that the beast’s spirit will be loveless, empty and darkened by delusions.

Then this prophecy explains that “the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.” Only the non-elect will be impressed and even astounded at how the beast rose up again after losing his position of power to become the dictator of Rome, likely through intrigue and slander. Only the non-elect will esteem him for his evil comeback to seize power, just as secular humanists and fake Christians esteemed the previously imprisoned Hitler before the war, or in the same way false Christians now esteem the criminally convicted Trump in the USA. For this tells us why they will admire the beast so much, “because it was and is not and is to come.” That is, they will love how he fell and rose back up again, and will liken the beast to all the other so-called “great” ruthless humanistic strongmen of history, to psychopaths like Alexander the Great, Napoleon and so on, where their so-called “strength” was actually just plain lovelessness, the ability to send countless sons, brothers and fathers to die in senseless wars for the vanity and profit of those idiots.

Yet this prophecy also indicates that God has predestined His elect to serve Him, all those “whose names have … been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world.” After Jesus seals the spirits of the elect during the sixth seal’s era, He will take charge of them, teaching and training their spirits about the truth. Thus, they will see the beast realistically, as the Satanic monster that he actually is, and reject him. From the moment the world was created, God predestined all His elect to love His truth and hate the lie, and He has taught all their spirits to do this. But it is obvious that the

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vast majority of the elect suppress their spirits and live only according to their minds of flesh. Thus, most of their spirits have not yet learned enough to recognize and resist the lying words and deeds of the little prototypes of the beast currently walking among them, in their churches and governments, much less the final, Satanically controlled, charming, psychopathic beast himself. This is why we will first need the revival of elect spirits during the sixth seal’s era, long before the final beast comes.

Then the prophecy declares, “This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, on is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while” (17:9-10, ESV). Keep in mind that this must be interpreted in the historical and linguistic context in which it was written. Here the phrase ἑπτὰ ὄρη is translated as “seven mountains,” but would be better translated as “seven hills,” since ὄρος refers to any rise in the ground, anything from a small hill to a mountain. And the capital city of Rome in the first century was famous for being built on ἑπτὰ ὄρη, or on “seven hills.” So Jesus gave this prophecy by declaring that the “seven hills” of ancient Rome symbolized the seven nations or ethnic groups that would form the Roman Empire of the end times.

The “woman” is “the Great Prostitute” or false church that John previously mentioned. But she does not sit on the seven physical hills of Rome. Rather, she sits on the “seven heads,” which the “seven hills” symbolized, and are actually the seven nations or ethnic groups which form the Roman Empire of the final beast during the end times. So the false church, called “the Great Prostitute,” is directly associated with the city of Rome, and with the seven nations that form the Roman Empire in the end times. But she is only “sitting” on them, so close that she is touching them. Also, the phrase, ὅπου ἡ γυνὴ κάθηται ἐπʼ αὐτῶν, can also mean, “where the woman sits overlooking them.” So nothing here indicates that this Great Prostitute sits directly upon the seven physical hills of Rome itself. By the way, the Vatican City is indeed located within the city of Rome right now, west of the Tiber river. So the Roman Catholic church is indeed sitting on Rome, and has always been sitting on Rome. And, by the time the beast seizes control over the new Roman Empire in the end times, she will still be there.

Remember that Daniel prophesied about how the beast would remove three of the ten “horns” or kings or rulers, leaving only seven and himself. So these seven hills of Rome also represent the seven rulers or “kings” of the seven nations which will form the Roman Empire in the end times, because kings and their kingdoms were considered to be one and the same thing in the days when John wrote down this prophecy. So the beast will become the eighth “king” for a time. But the beast will take over the entire empire. So he will rule over the seven remaining “kings,” where each of those seven “kings” will likely take over the daily administrative tasks of one of the seven nations.

The prophecy also tells us that, regarding those seven “kings” and their seven nations during the end times, “five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while” (17:10, ESV). This cryptic explanation means that only six of the seven nations which will form the Roman Empire in the end times were once part of the Roman Empire at the time John wrote this prophecy, in about AD 96. Five nations or ethnic groups were once part of the Roman Empire at the end of the first century, then will “have fallen” to invasions during the interim centuries, but will rejoin the new Roman Empire when it is created. Then “one is” in the first-century Roman Empire, at the time John penned the Revelation, and always “is” in it, then will also be in the beast’s new Roman Empire. And that one must be Italy, or at least the lands associated with the city of Rome (i.e., Rome was not always the capital city of all of Italy). Then one nation was not part of the Roman Empire in John’s day, but will be part of the beast’s Roman Empire for as long as it lasts, although the beast’s Roman Empire will be destroyed when Jesus returns. That is, the

 

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beast’s Roman Empire will form in the end times, but the end times will last for only one generation, or about 40 years. Thus, the one new nation that joins it at that time will “remain only a little while.”

The European nations in the final beast’s Roman Empire probably will begin with an elected council of ten representatives, and likely would consist of contiguous lands, with some sharing a border with Italy and others sharing a border with them. Later, the representatives will become unelected “kings” or autocrats, and the beast will take over the positions of three, to become an eighth king of an eighth kingdom, which he will directly rule himself. And the beast’s kingdom likely will be the heavily populated region around the city of Rome. In turn, this may mean that only his eighth kingdom, at the heart of his empire and under his direct control, will be utterly and physically destroyed by the seven bowls of wrath during the last few months before Jesus returns. Perhaps the other seven nations will only be partially destroyed, but may be spared from total physical annihilation. But all seven will be taken away from the beast after seven years and subject to Jesus on the day He returns.

Also, although the beast will remove three leaders or rulers or kings (Dan. 7:20), those three may be reassigned to other positions on the council while the beast reigns, either as figureheads without power or as heads of government departments and ministries. For all ten seem to still exist while the beast rules, since the prophecy says, “And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast” (17:12-13). Since all ten appear to voluntarily “hand over their power and authority to the beast,” the beast likely will use political intrigue and deceptions to gain that power, but he does not murder any of them. So all ten will have positions of power in the new Roman Empire to begin with, but not as “kings” with despotic final decision-making authority until the beast comes. I repeat, the ten probably start out as elected officials, but eventually vote to “hand over power and authority to the beast,” then “receive authority” as despots for “one hour,” possibly during a crisis of some kind. And, when it says “for one hour,” it means for a very brief time. Only shortly after the beast joins them, will they hand over that power to the beast, making him the sole despot of the new Roman Empire for only seven years.

These ten rulers become puppets of the beast, agreeing with everything the beast says and does, since they “hand over their power and authority” to him. They will use their power and authority to do all the beast wills to be done. And, like every psychopathic dictator, the beast will use lies and false reasoning to justify and glorify all he thinks and does, then gather leaders who blindly believe his deceptions. He will not allow any loving souls who thinks clearly and rationally to hold any power in any of his lands, because they might disagree with him, expose his lies and folly, which will bruise his huge ego. And this again suggests that the faithful, called and chosen elect will not be whisked away in a pretribulation rapture, but will suffer in the beast’s spiritual “war” against Christ.

The doctrines of dispensationalism and its pretribulation rapture were invented by vain lawyers who knew nothing of God or the Scriptures, or real life. In the end times, during the “great tribulation,” the beast shall persecute and kill the elect. But those persecuted elect will remain faithful to the truth and to Jesus because, by the time the plagues of the seventh seal’s era begin or the beast arrives, His Holy Spirit will have spent a couple of decades preparing their spirits during the sixth seal’s era, and because they were “called and chosen” from the beginning of time. The works of Jesus will make them faithful. Jesus will grant them strong faith in His love, power and words during the sixth seal’s revival, then build up that faith by directly teaching and training their spirits throughout the years of the seventh seal’s trials too. And it will be because the elect became so spiritually mature during the end times, that those who died for their faith at the hands of the beast will be returned to the earth to dwell with Jesus during the millennium, during the first resurrection. The reason Jesus will resurrect

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these elect, but not other elect from the past, will be because those revived, awakened and persecuted elect will have become wise and loving enough to serve the earth with Him during the millennium.

As for the beast, he will also have a powerful assistant, sort of a public relations man or propaganda minister. This assistant will help the beast deceive the multitudes of non-elect, so they will worship the beast. He or she will be the “second beast,” who makes an image of the beast speak, and that image will also determine which individuals do not worship the beast, so he can kill them. Thus, the second beast will also be an internal security or defense minister for the beast’s empire. In our day, we see how the beast could do these things through technologies that are available even now. But, when John saw a vision of this and wrote down this prophecy in the first century, all this seemed like impossible magic. Now we can picture this second beast doing something like releasing individually tailored AI generated videos of the beast on a tightly controlled internet, where algorithms in the video turn on the cell phone’s or tablet’s camera. He can make it compulsory to watch those videos by assigning individual tasks or tests through them or by some other means, while also using AI to monitor and report individual responses to those videos as well. All this is possible even in our day.

After artificial intelligence reads facial expressions and other forms of input, a monitoring system could also instantly deploy security police to locations where any adverse reactions are detected. As with all dictators, all this will be done in the name of maintaining peace, order and national security. But, in reality, it will be done to maintain the autocratic control and unrivaled power of the beast over the people. And we must also remember that Daniel said the beast would worship the “god of fortresses,” that is, the god of defense and security systems. So it is surely to be expected that a psychopathic humanist like the beast would closely monitor and spy on the personal lives of his people, to supposedly “maintain law and order,” just like all the humanistic dictators have tried to do in the past with human spies, like in ancient Rome, Nazi Germany, communist countries and so on.

Revelation 13:11-18 (ESV): “Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two

horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in

its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose

mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven

to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the

beast it deceives those who dwell on earth , telling them to make an image for the beast that

was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it [the second beast] was allowed to give breath

to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause

those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it [the second beast]

causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the

right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is,

the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who

has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his

number is 666.”

This second beast rises “out of the earth,” not out of the “sea.” And the second time this prophecy mentions the word “earth” (Greek = γῆ) it qualifies that noun by adding a redundant phrase, “and its inhabitants.” This seems to signal that the first use of the term “earth” is figurative, but the second is literal. So, when it says this second beast rises “out of the earth,” it seems to use the ecclesiastical terminology used elsewhere in this prophecy, and figuratively refers to the citizens or valued people of the empire, as opposed to rising from “sea” of common people. This second “beast” may come from a privileged or elite class of educated and entitled people actively serving the beast. Unlike the beast he serves, this second beast may not rise from the common people, who blindly follow the lies

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of the world order. Since this second beast is a highly skilled propagandist and likely very familiar with the technologies required to keep the people in check, he is likely an educated expert in the art.

This second beast “had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.” The two horns might refer to two powerful assistants, with the authority to sentence “rebels” to death, or it might indicate his two powerful roles as a propaganda minister and internal security chief in the beast’s empire. This description also suggests that he will put on a lamb-like, warm, friendly demeanor, as psychopaths often do. But he will be speak as ruthlessly as Satan, the “dragon,” and his words will be a demonic deception, while he also commands the execution, and possibly torture, of very many innocent souls.

This second beast “exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence.” The “first beast” is obviously the dictator of the Roman Empire during the last seven years before Jesus returns. And this second beast will bear the authority to do anything the real beast bears the authority to do, but in the first beast’s presence, which simply means that the first beast can override any commands of the second beast. But there will not be too many commands which the first beast will oppose from the second beast, since the second will be blindly loyal to the first beast, and believe every delusion and lie that the first beast utters. For the second beast “makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.” The ruling beast is the man whose wound was healed.

This second beast will also be very spiritual in an evil way, since he or she worships the beast and all real worship is from the spirit, not from the brain of flesh. Furthermore, this second beast will be demonically controlled and empowered to certain extent, although not directly by the chief demon called Satan, who will actually dwell in the first beast. For this second beast also “performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of the people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain” (Rev. 13:13-15, ESV). Of course, making fire come down from the sky down to the earth and making an image speak could be done through bombs from aircraft and other various technologies that John was not familiar with in the first century. But the point was that these would be demonically inspired actions, spiritually evil.

A few details in the above text should be examined. For one thing, here it tells us that the beast “was wounded by the sword and yet lived” (ὃς ἔχει τὴν πληγὴν τῆς μαχαίρης καὶ ἔζησεν, or “who had the wound from the sword and lived”). Here the “sword” might indicate any weapon of war or method of execution, or may refer to a literal sword. But it suggests that this is a real “mortal wound” on the physical head of the beast, who survived it. Many have had mortal injuries to the head but survived due to the “miracle” of modern medicine. However, this still might refer to the land or nation ruled by the beast as well, since a king and his nation were treated as one and the same thing in those days.

Then notice that this second beast only performs deceiving signs “which were given to him to do in the presence of the beast” (ἃ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ ποιῆσαι ἐνώπιον τοῦ θηρίου). So the second beast can only work those signs when “allowed” to do so by the decision-making authority of the Satan-controlled first beast. The second beast is subject to the first beast and serves him with complete dedication and commitment, faithfully seeking to do all he can to promote the deceiving or seducing lies of the first beast. Now, regarding the second beast’s “great signs,” some may even be real miracles and wonders worked by real demons, and will greatly impress some skeptical and educated people, causing them to worship the first beast. So let the elect must remember that, as the Mosaic law warned us, we are not to worship anyone nor believe their words based on the genuine signs and wonders they might

 

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perform or manifest, nor by any other external criteria (again, see Deut. 13:1-5). And Jesus came to fulfill this law. Thus, we must judge all words and all men by their spiritual fruits—by how biblical, sound, wise, effective, just and loving their words and deeds truly are. If one truly glorifies God, along with His pure loving justice and merciful grace, that one is sent by God. If one is unloving, unjust, deceitful, destructive, merciless and works against God’s will, that one is sent by Satan.

We cannot serve God and the truth if we join the heartless and destructive leaders who easily impress and deceive the spiritually dull masses with “signs and wonders” designed to impress their vain and shallow minds of flesh, even if those signs and wonders prove to be genuine works of Satan himself. Nor can we afford to believe lying psychopaths who outwardly appear to be “lambs” but say and do the works of Satan, the dragon. For the injustice and evil done by those psychopaths will cause the suffering and deaths of many innocent souls, and eventually destroy their worshipers and those wanna-be human gods themselves. We must be careful to do God’s will on earth, for the good of all.

Here we can see why the second beast will make the image of the first beast speak and “cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain,” possibly by using AI generated videos and monitoring, maybe even robots to eliminate those who refuse to worship the first beast. But exactly why will this second beast be “telling the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast” (λέγων τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ποιῆσαι εἰκόνα τῷ θηρίῳ)? In John’s day, very few people possessed the skill to create a suitably flattering image or statue of a god for themselves. And, in our day, the same is true. Of course, they can copy and paste an image from the internet onto their cell phones, tablets and computers, or print it and put it on a wall. But the verb ποιέω suggests that they will be told to “make” or “create” an image through physical works, which does not seem to include an act like cutting and pasting an image. Besides, placing such an image on devices can be done automatically by those devices, or by the manufacturers of those devices. But the people can be required to do the work of downloading and updating locally and occupationally specific apps for themselves. Then the second beast, with the help of AI and a support staff, could “give breath to the image of the beast” portrayed on those apps, so the image “might even speak,” then hear, watch and assess users, automatically sending security forces to kill any individuals who do not worship him.

This might be what John saw in his vision during first century, and described phenomenologically. Instead of a household shrine or alter or lararium, the beast’s people may be commanded to obtain a personal computer app that will give each one specific instructions about their daily tasks and monitor their lives, all networked to the beast’s server. Then they must use that app each day so they can be brainwashed to esteem and serve the beast, by lies of the beast’s latest, greatest “fake news” and veiled threats every day, while being monitored through the microphones and cameras in their devices, and by AI (artificial intelligence) software which analyzes almost all their responses. This clearly indicates that all adverse reactions to the beast’s propaganda will be monitored by the beast’s secret police. If a person’s reaction is not worshipful—if anyone does not highly esteem and willingly strive to serve the beast, agreeing fully with the beast and expressing a zeal for the causes of the beast—that one will be “slain.” This implies ultimate control over the people, the kind of micro-management that all psychopathic dictators have dreamed about having throughout history.

Of course, monitoring people at this level has never been possible in all history, until now. But now it can be done. Using AI software that can discern negative facial expressions and determine whether any written or spoken comments are not pleasing to the beast, even one security employee will be able to monitor hundreds or thousands of people all at once, since the software will do most of the work. Where it once took a team of several trained professionals to spy on just one person, in a very incomplete and ineffective way, AI systems can now spy on literally millions of people at once, and

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in a very complete and effective manner. Naturally, psychopaths and the amoral will be able to fake their loyal worship of the beast in the most convincing ways, to gain benefits, while many honest, sincere people will not be able to fake it and end up being executed. So, in the end, the beast will purge his kingdom of all the most useful, honest and sincere souls, which will result in extensive corruption and inefficiency, until his absolute control and micro-management of his people will utterly destroy his entire kingdom. But the beast, like most self-worshiping psychopaths, will be too vain and stupid to think ahead that far. Yet the elect in other lands will need to realize these facts, and avoid any kind of excessive control over the lives of their people, to enable the honest and sincere.

The second beast also “causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name” (13:16-17, ESV). Then God tells us: “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666” (13:18, ESV). Therefore, our God Jesus, who gave this prophecy through John, clearly wants us to take a close look at this prophecy, and the name or number of the beast. Then we can not only identify the beast and avoid him, but also become aware of the attributes associated with Satan and all who are like the beast, for his name and number reveal his attributes.

Take note, this is a physical mark, since it is on either the right hand or forehead, and none can buy or sell without it. So it will be a means of economic control, forbidding anyone to obtain even basic necessities if they do not worship the beast and prove that they do. And it will be a security measure, forbidding rebels from purchasing necessities, supplies and arms from any who worship the beast and have the mark of the beast. This physical mark is also not likely is not a tattoo or permanent, nor an embedded chip under the skin, since it will need to be instantly removed if anyone displeases the beast. And it will be visible, since all who buy or sell, likely even privately, will need to see the mark before the transaction can occur. It will probably be obtained from some kind of government office after a security check, and have security features such as holograms and such, just like money now has, so it will not be easily forged by rebels. And the two kinds of marks, a name and a number of the beast, also suggest two basic classes of people. Traditionally, the name will likely be put on privileged or upper-class citizens, while the number will likely be put on all of the lower classes.

The fact that it is not always a number, but always relates to the name of the beast, means that it cannot be a bar code or anything that personally identifies the bearer of the mark. Even the beast will want a certain amount of anonymity among his people, for security purposes. He will not want the people to be able to identify individuals working for him, nor want to enable scams against one another by openly revealing each one’s identity. As for the mark which is “the number of its name” and “the number of a man,” God tells us that the “understanding” or interpretation of that number will require “wisdom” and must be “calculated” or figured out (Greek = ψηφίζω, “count, calculate ... interpret, figure out,” BDAG3). So this number must have a meaning which is not obvious to most who read it before the beast arrives and reveals what it means to him. Yet that number will bear a very clear figurative and symbolic meaning to the beast, relating to his identity, character and name.

Many speculations about the number of the beast have circulated over the centuries, yet most ignore the relevant information found in the text. First, we must realize that John was not a mathematician or cryptographer, and neither were the Christians for whom the Revelation was written. So we are not looking for a complex mathematical or encrypted code. Rather, since John was a theologian writing for common believers learning the spiritual wisdom of God, and the beast is also religious in a demonic way, the meaning of the beast's number likely has demonic, religious, humanistic connotations, and conveys some kind of blasphemous message, particularly one directed against

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Jesus and the Christians whom he hates so much. And this religious message is personally taught and believed by that beast, even so much that it represents his attributes, goals, aspirations and name.

Then we should also remember the criteria John gave us to help us understand its meaning. For one thing, he said it is only one number, 666, and that same number will be on all the masses who do not have his name on their hands or forehead. Yet this one number is an alternative “name” of the beast, which his worshipers physically place on their hand or forehead. Since it represents the beast's “name,” this number represents only the beast, only that one man. Therefore, this number cannot be millions of different personal SIN numbers, one for each individual who wants to buy or sell something, nor countless different bar-codes or ID numbers in microchips. John also said this number must be “calculated” or figured out, presumably by common Christian readers of this prophecy, but those who learn God’s wisdom. Thus, most wise Christians in our day should also be able to recognize the meaning of this number. Lastly, “it is the number of a man,” and the Greek (ἀριθμὸς ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν) likely means “it is the number of humankind.” So, if this number represents humankind, that is, in the eyes of the beast, then it must something the beast desires for all humankind. It would likely be the beast’s blasphemous name for his idealized version of humankind.

Now we need to “figure out” this name, by thinking as the very religious, humanistic, psychopathic beast would think. And one of the main things the beast would strive to do is ridicule the relationship of man and his Creator. Now God created mankind and all the beasts on the sixth day (Gen. 1:24-27). Thus, if anyone were to represent a human being or humankind with a number which religious people would easily recognize, it probably would be the number six. So we can start with that. Yet the beast's number repeats the six three times (666). Thus, we need to ask how three sixes would be symbolic to the humanistic beast, and to the beast's people, even to the Christians whom the beast is probably trying to mock and deride with this number. What would a series of three sixes represent?

Well, we know that the whole apostolic church believed that God related to man as three Persons, as the creating Father, the teaching oldest Brother Jesus, and the counseling Holy Spirit (which we now call the Trinity). This is the most well known use of the number three in all Christendom. And even the beast would know that. Now, if John were to represent God by a number, it likely would be 777, since seven is the number of perfection and he would use the first seven to represent the perfect heavenly Father, the second for the perfect Jesus and the third for the perfect Holy Spirit. But the humanistic beast will believe in no gods, and hate the God of the Bible most, and believe that a man is his own god, able to create his own destiny. And six is the number representing man. So the beast might use a number like “666” to that a man is his own “father” or creator of himself, his own oldest brother and guide, as well as his own counselor in all matters of life and faith. A number like 666 would indicate to the beast, and to every humanistic worshiper of the beast, that the entire trinity is the man himself, not the God of the Bible. It would be the most blasphemous number the beast could possibly invent, and would represent his whole character or name. Using 666 as his name, he would exalt himself as the triune god of all humankind, as the replacement for the God of the Christians.

If we look for the most direct and obvious meaning of the number 666, interpreted in a way that meets all the criteria—where it must be figured out, represents the beast's name, and is “the number of a man”—we may conclude that it most likely represents the beast as the triune god worshiped by his people as their god and savior. The first six would represent the human beast as the father of their nation who presides over all that occurs in their land and as the maker of all their laws. The second six would represent him as their messiah, sent to save their vile, unjust kingdom of the world order. Then the third six would represent the unholy spirit of the beast dwelling in their hearts, to counsel and guide them all. Since we know the beast delights in mocking the real God, it is certain that the

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number of his name (666) must also mock God too, very likely in this way, portraying that beast as the god of all humankind. And, since the minions of the beast will wear his number, they will partake in mocking God together with the beast. I cannot think of any better interpretation of 666 than this.

Next, look again at Zechariah’s prophecy about the beast and the four kingdoms. Zechariah was an Aaronic priest, a teacher of God’s Word, whom God sent to both rebuke and encourage His people, and prophesied several decades after the death of Daniel, after reading Daniel’s prophecies. When Zechariah returned to Jerusalem with many other Jewish captives from Persia (even with Iddo his grandfather and Berekiah his father), he became a first-hand witness of the troubles suffered by his people as they began to rebuild God’s temple, and saw their frustration leading to apostasy. So his prophecies called the Jews to repentance and he encouraged their efforts to rebuild that temple. Yet God also revealed how this return from Persia to Israel, and the rebuilding of the temple, was a sign of the future salvation of God’s true elect in the end times. Zechariah also received a prophecy about the long, incessant, world-wide spiritual conflict between Satan’s four kingdoms and God’s people, which had already begun when Babylon destroyed their temple. For centuries, the beast’s humanistic kingdoms would war against God’s true Israel, until the whole world would be cast into the conflict.

On the one side of this war was their loving High King and Creator God, who ruled His spiritual kingdom internally, by educating and training the spirits in elect hearts. On the other side, Satan ruled his four ruthless, self-serving, spiritual kingdoms through punishments and rewards of the flesh, beginning in the days of the head and originating kingdom of Babylon. The kings of Satan’s four religious kingdoms all ruled through fear, through methods of terrorism, by the power of human minds and bodies of flesh alone, employing the sword to force submission to their demands. So Zechariah explained how this conflict would last for many generations, even until the Messiah came to rule the world. He prophesied this during the time of the second rebel kingdom, Persia, during the reign of the mass murderer, Darius. And, as God spoke with Daniel, God also told Zechariah that the four kingdoms will have “lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people” before the Messiah came to save them, before the true Israel could finally rest in peace and security forever.

Zechariah 1:7 to 2:13 (ESV): “On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month [c. Feb. 15,

519 BC], which is the month of Shebat [or Shevat or Shvat], in the second year of Darius, the

word of [Yahweh] came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,

[i.e., this seems to be a scribe recording the prophecy of Zechariah.] ‘I saw in the night, and behold, a

man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind

him were red, sorrel [bay or reddish yellow], and white horses. Then I said, “What are these, my

Lord?” The Angel [This Angel is actually Jesus, our God, see also Zech. 3:1 to 4:14.] who talked with

me said to me, “I will show you what they are.” So the man who was standing among the

myrtle trees answered, “These are they whom [Yahweh] has sent to patrol the earth.” And

they answered the Angel of [Yahweh] who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said,

“We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.”

“‘Then the Angel of [Yahweh] said, “O [Yahweh] of hosts, how long will you have no mercy

on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy

years?” [This Angel appeared to Zechariah in about 519 BC, almost 70 years after Babylon destroyed Judah

and demolished the temple in 586 BC.] And [Yahweh] answered gracious and comforting words to

the Angel who talked with me. So the Angel who talked with me said to me, “Cry out, Thus

says [Yahweh] of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am

exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they

furthered the disaster.

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“‘Therefore, thus says [Yahweh], I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; [When the Jews

began to return to Jerusalem from Babylon, God was with them.] My house shall be built in it, declares

[Yahweh] of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out

again, Thus says [Yahweh] of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and

[Yahweh] will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”’ [Now Zechariah seems to write

the following words, instead of the scribe.]

“And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the Angel who talked

with me, ‘What are these?’ And He said to me, ‘These are the horns that have scattered

Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.’ Then [Yahweh] showed me four craftsmen. And I said, ‘What

are these coming to do?’ He said, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one

raised his head. And these [craftsmen] have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of

the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.’