PROPHECY AND THE END TIMES - Pertinent today?

November 11, 2005

November 11, 2005

Hollywood liberal fantasy identifies a conservative American president as the Anti-Christ. Other somewhat-respected religious writers place the anti-christ in Europe, somewhere. Some religious pontificators would have you believe that Nero was the anti-christ and that the apocalypse is long over.

Is there any TRUTH to those claims?

If you've been reading my articles, then you should know the answer that follows that kind of question: they're all wrong.

There are two primary sources for end-time prophecy: the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. Many might say that prophecy means nothing until it is fulfilled, and certainly that is true. But God also blessed us with shadows, indicators, and symbolism for everything He does. In other words, the closer we get to a prophesied event, the clearer His prophecies become. My gift is in exhortation, not prophecy, and that means my efforts are directed at edifying those who already believe in God. Thus, my effort here with prophecy will not be to predict the future, but to show that prophecy is becoming clearer and the times are aligning along those prophetic lines. If you're not a believer, you're going to get nothing out of this. But if you are a believer, then you'll find the following details particularly comforting - invigorating, even.

Prophecy from both books need to be viewed in contrast to show how perfectly God works at hinting the future to us. Do not, however, think that God is being deliberately obtuse. He is, in fact, marvelously specific as to detail. Remember that He inspired these prophecies to men that rode around on donkeys for transport.

So Daniel has some pretty unusual prophetic dreams. I'll detail them briefly, and just link to sites that explain in complete detail so that I can focus on the ending of these visions and what they mean today.

Daniel's first vision (or interpretation of Nebuchadnezzer's dream) is of a five-part man. Briefly, the gold head refers to the Babylonian Empire, followed by the silver chest of Media-Persian Empire, followed by the brass middle of the Grecian Empire under Alexander, followed by the iron legs of the Roman Empire, and completed with the weaker iron-clay mixture of the feet which signifies the final empire ruled by the anti-christ. We know the feet represent the anti-christ because at those feet, an uncut stone (Jesus) is cast that shatters the image into dust. The uncut stone is explained by Daniel later as the kingdom of God. Daniel also explains the feet and toes as an amalgamation of the previous peoples (the Roman Empire legs) but not having the strength.

Not having the strength? Yes. In other words, the kingdom of anti-christ will be of the people of the legs - the Roman Empire - but not have the strength of the Roman Empire. So, descendants, but not as strong. The Roman Empire stretched from Britain to the border of india. That's a lot of ground to cover where anti-christ could spring from. However, Daniel had a few visions, and each one draws us closer to what this all means and from where anti-christ  will emerge. Do NOT, however, fall for the common mis-interpretation that the toes represent the European Union. They can't, and the rest of the prophecies will show you why.

Daniel's second vision (or Daniel's first vision of his own and not interpretation of someone else's) is of four different beasts. See the pic? It's self-explanatory. Don't believe any of the pseudo-hip phoney nonsense that God didn't really mean what He meant and He really lied about what the visions were. Those kind of "thinkers" just want to fit prophecy into supporting what they want God to be and represent. God didn't pull some non-sensical double-sneaky ninja-lie . These beasts are not beasts from some future fantasy concocted by an idiot Christian for the purposes of sounding intelligent to secularists. God isn't trying to impress people who don't believe in Him. The beasts are what you see here, and accepted by the majority of biblical thinkers as the only accurate representation of what God is telling us. Trying to erase history for the purposes of sounding secular and sophisticated is really just pridefully ignorant.

The important part of the four-beast vision is what grows from the fourth beast. From out of ten horns (kingdoms or kings) of the old Roman Empire will come a king (kingdom) that will uproot three others. The ten kingdoms are relevant only in number for comparison to other beasts. The Roman Empire comprised far more than ten kingdoms, but if we're looking at a certain section of the Roman Empire, then the ten figure becomes much more important. The little horn that uproots three of the others is anti-christ. He speaks great things, then Jesus returns to destroy him. Let's look a little further.

God gives Daniel another vision. It's basically the same result: anti-christ comes and then the end. Why another vision? Wasn't one enough? Or are we so stupid that we needed another? Doesn't God have a reason He does what He does? So maybe God was giving us a little more because He wanted to indicate something to those wise enough to see. The goat that crushes the ram becomes obvious in Daniel 8:20 and 21. The angel tells Daniel that the ram is Persia and the goat is Greece. Consider greece. The great horn can be no other than Alexander the Great. What about this four-horn business that comes up after Alexander? Well, if you know your history, the Greek Empire was broken up amongst Alexander's four generals. So what was God's message? Well, in the other vision, the anti-christ comes from the remains of the Roman Empire. In this next vision, the anti-christ comes from the Greek Empire after it was broken up - the little horn rising toward the south, toward the east, and toward the holy land (Israel). The only part of the four-part division that covers that territory is the Seluecid portion of the Greek Empire, covering from Eastern Turkey to Afghanistan.

The anti-christ will come from the Seluecid portion of the Greek Empire, and also the Roman Empire. That limits the geography quite a bit, as the Roman Empire did not encompass all of Seluecid's kingdom. In today's geography, that means anti-christ will come out of one of the following countries:

Turkey (a portion of)

Armenia

Syria

Iraq

Kuwait

Lebanon

Jordan

Israel

Saudi Arabia (a very small portion of)

The largest land mass of that area is Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. Looking at today's headlines, for someone to "rise up" in Iraq is almost a certainty. But would he be anti-christ? Syria's position looks just as precarious. Bashir Assad has only the most tenuous grips on power. If he loses grip, someone most certainly will supplant him, and the potential is growing. But would he be the anti-christ? Jordan faces a potential civil war with the latest bombings. Zarqawi seems bent on pushing for a hard-line Islamic state there to punish Jordan for making peace with Israel. A little more distant than the other two, but someone rising in Jordan is almst a certainty. But would he be anti-christ?

Anti-christ will not come out of America. Too bad for the hate-America crowd. Why is all this important? You'll see as you follow along.

Let's look at Revelation 13. John sees a beast rise up out of the sea (sea of mankind). It has seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads are kingdoms, as are the horn (kings, kingdoms). How is that possible? Easy - the vile one, or anti-christ, as seen in Daniel 7:8 will emerge by uprooting three of the ten kingdoms embodied in the remains of the Roman Empire and the old Seluecid portion of the Greek Empire. Three of those countries I listed above are going to merge, somehow, and ally with seven other kingdoms that were under the Roman Empire - which will include Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia. The latter country in the bible does not match present-day Ethiopia, but rather much of "Upper" Egypt and the Sudan, plus occasional cross-sea areas of Arabia. That biblical placement matches the extent of the old Roman Empire for purposes of the visions.

We also know in comparing the 11th chapter of Daniel that anti-christ will move south, down into the holy land. So, his base must be somewhere north of Israel proper, those countries being Lebanon, Syria, Armenia, and Iraq. Jordan and Kuwait make more of a "move west" invasion, rather than south. But, it is still possible.

Back to Revelation. The beast emerging out of the sea has all the elements of the various beasts Daniel saw. We have the lion, the bear, and the leopard, to denote that the beast is part of all of these. It contains all of those elements for a reason, not just because it sounds good. God is telling us that anti-christ's kingdom is going to come from those elements. Verse 3: "And I saw one of its heads as it were wounded to death, and the deadly wound was healed." NO, the anti-christ is not going to suffer a mortal head wound. The wound here to the head is referring to nations. From a nation or empire that appeared to be dead, anti-christ will resurrect that kingdom back onto the world stage. The old Assyrian Empire? The old Babylonian Empire? Those are certainly dead. To see one of those empires rise again would be a marvel to the world, would it not? We know that anti-christ will "uproot" three nations and will rule over three at once. This is a merging of three nations, so sometime in the future, three nations will merge into one as the kingdom for and of anti-christ.

In Revelation 13:11, we have another beast rise up to follow the first anti-christ beast. This one has two horns like a lamb. That is symbolic of two nations with religious overtones. But the beast speaks like a dragon. The message will sound religious, but come from Satan, and not God. This beast (alliance of two religious nations) will support the resurrected empire and cause the world to follow it. The second beast will deceive the nations of the earth into following the resurrected empire.

It is this second beast that causes all of mankind to receive the mark of the beast in their hands or foreheads. God was very specific here, through John. Not "on" their hands or foreheads, but IN. "The New Money System" is a book I read in the 1980s that detailed how technology has progressed to where we can now implant a resin chip just underneath the surface of our skin that can be imprinted with a bar-code that identifies us by national, local and social security number. Recently I heard that such chips could contain medical records, as well. The reason that the chips are implanted in both hand and head is that you might lose a hand, but you can never lose your head.

The standard international bar code already incorporates the number 666. The first 6 starts the scan, the second 6 changes the code read, and the last six stops the scan. A russian site here details the code.

Here is more from Revelation that points to my stab at Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, and more specifically, Iraq. In Revelation 17, John sees a beast, the Harlot, sitting on a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. This beast is not the Vatican. The harlot that sits on the kingdom of anti-christ (seven heads and ten horns) is separate from the kingdom of anti-christ. Upon her head is written, what? "Mystery, Babylon the great..." Not America. Nope. Written there is BABYLON. Babylon, the Babylonian Empire - they're DEAD. Is this the empire destined to rise again at the wonder of the world? What about the scarlet and purple figure? Those colors indicate religion. Throughout the Old Testament, Jerusalem is referred to as a harlot who fornicated with kings and killed the martyrs and prophets of God. Well, it's no wonder the beast hates the harlot in Revelation 17:16. Anti-christ makes a pact of peace with Israel in the tribulation and the Jewish temple is rebuilt. (Daniel 9:27 and Revelation 11:1-3) However, Islamic anti-christ hates the whore Jerusalem, the sacrifices in the temple are stopped, and anti-christ makes war in Israel. Sounds like Islamic anti-semitism comes roaring back... Islam succeeds in destroying Jerusalem, as seen in Revelation 18.

In Iraq, we are democratizing Islam. We are introducing a system of voting that has never seen face in Islam in all its history. In Daniel 11:24 the anti-christ enters peacably into power, without force of arms. Does he get voted in? He shall do what his fathers have never done - he shall scatter the riches to all his people. This sounds to me like socialism, something that has never been done by any Islamic leader before. Could this be the democracy that is flowering? Iraq would still need to uproot two other nations around it to merge into the revived Babylonian Empire of Revelation 17.

What does all this have to do with today? Islam is at war with the West. The West doesn't understand this and thinks its at war with terror. Christians knowledgable enough know that the church will restrain the emergence of anti-christ while it is here on Earth. When the church is taken away (raptured), the anti-christ will emerge (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8.) With the removal of the Christian church, only the Jewish religion will stand in the way of anti-christ. But Israel will make peace with anti-christ for a seven year period that will be broken halfway through (Revelation 11:2).

So with all of the restraint to Islam pulled away, what does the following verse mean when considering that the anti-christ and false prophet will cause the world to accept the beast's number of 666 in their hands and forheads: "And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, ...and which had not worshipped the beast, ...neither had received his mark (!*) upon their foreheads or in their hands..."

This is the point of this article: people are going to be beheaded for not taking the "mark" of the beast. What people, today, beheads others for not accepting what they're pushing? ISLAM. With Christianity removed and Jews allied with anti-christ, ISLAM is going to dominate. ISLAM will behead you for not converting and accepting anti-christ and the false prophet in pushing their new world domination. ISLAM IS GOING TO WIN. America had to go to Iraq. We had to choose Iraq as the next target in the war. America's intelligence agencies and those of the entire western world had to show Iraq as the next target. We did our part in God's plan to advance democracy in a place where no democracy has ever existed. We're setting the stage for anti-christ.

(!*) = Note that the word here is not "number" but "mark." If you have to describe a barcode, would you refer to it as a number, or as a mark? A bar-code is nothing more than a smear of thin and thick lines - a mark.

Invigorating, if you're a Christian. If the end is being structured to fulfill prophecy, as I see it, then Christians will need to be taken away as the restraining force just before the end. Our time with God approaches!

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“When the sacred months are past, kill those who join other gods wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them with every kind of ambush; but if they convert and observe prayer and pay the obligatory alms, let them go their way.” (Koran 9:5)

"When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads." (Sura 47, Verse 4)

There are NO civilians in Islamic law - all non-believers are combatants: See HERE.