THE THRONE OF DAVID THE SEAT OF THE BEAST
THRICE OVERTURNED THRICE OVERTURNED
1. FROM PALESTINE TO IRELAND FROM BABYLON TO PERGAMOS
2. FROM IRELAND SCOTLAND FROM PERGAMOS TO PAGAN ROME
3. FROM SCOTLAND TO ENGLAND FROM PAGAN ROME TO PAPAL ROME
ULTIMATE DESTINY ULTIMATE DESTINY
To remain in its third and final resting To remain in its third and final, place until Christ comes to reign from it. resting place until Christ comes to destroy it.
Luke 1:320-33 II Thessalonians 2:8
The Futurists object to the Historist positioning of the Ten Horned Beast solely within the Western division of the old Roman Empire. They say that this is as if we had placed all the Ten Toes of Daniel's Dream Image upon one foot only, and that the Eastern Division of the Roman Empire must not be ignored. This however is not a valid objection and it is based on a very superficial study of the prophecies involved.
The Futurists assume that the two legs of Daniel's Image represent the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Pagan Roman Empire, but is this really the case? It is true that the Fourth Empire of Daniel's Dream Image is represented by the Legs of Iron, deteriorating into Feet of Iron and Clay, it is the entire course of the Empire that is so represented, not just the brief stage of twofold division representing little over a century in the entire history of Imperial Rome. Rome's predecessor the Grecian Empire is represented by two Thighs of Brass yet it never had a two fold division.
Let us also remember that when Imperial Rome conquered and absorbed the territories of the three preceding Empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece they did not become Iron or Roman. They remained Gold, Silver and Brass and all these component metals are smashed to pieces by the Fifth or Stone Kingdom. To follow Futurist teaching we would have Five Toes of Gold, Silver and Brass, but Bible Prophecy says they are all Iron and Clay, therefore the territories represented by the Ten Toes of the Image or the Ten Horns of the Beast are not to be found in those territories which were once part of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
The geographic position of the Beast System must therefore be sought within the boundaries of the Western Roman Empire, the Iron territory. The kingdoms comprising the Eastern Roman Empire, belong to the bodies of the First, Second and Third Beasts depicted in Daniel Chapter 7. Each succeeding Empire actually governed in its day of dominion the greater part of the territory of those preceding it. Nevertheless each had its own peculiar territorial area, its own body as a Beast, which never belonged to any of its predecessors. Thus the Western Roman Empire of the West had a body or territory which had never belonged to the three Empires of prophecy which had preceded it. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel that:-
"They (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece) had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged." Daniel 7:12
The Horns arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire of the Caesars, there is no gap in the visions either of the Image of Metals, or of the Beasts. The Iron Legs run right on to the Ten Toes, and amidst those Ten Horns comes up a Little Horn, which when fully developed is one and the same as the Beast of Revelation, the Papal Empire of Western Europe. Daniel gives the outline, Revelation gives us the expanded history.
Let us close this complex section by quoting from an article entitled "The Papacy and the Beast" published in the Protestant Observer of July 1912 as a rebuttal of the Futurist case:-
1. There are a variety of Wild Beasts mentioned in Daniel and the Apocalypse and it requires careful discrimination to distinguish between the otherwise confusion results.
2. There are the Four Wild Beasts of Daniel Chapter 7, four not five. By careful attention to the verbiage employed, one perceived that these Wild Beasts are regarded by God as coexistent throughout; for there is not a word in Daniel 7 about the Second incorporating the First, nor Third the Second, nor the Fourth the Third. They are simply described as "diverse from one another," Daniel 7:3.
Of these the most ferocious and important is the Fourth. It is described as "devouring, breaking pieces, and stamping the residue" ie. the other Three Beasts with its the Third being the Kingdom of Greece. No other wild beast devours, breaks in pieces or stamps with its feet on the residue of its own body. Therefore none of the residue, no part of the other Three Beasts form part of the Fourth Beast. That is obvious.
One of the mistakes made by Futurists is their confusion of the Third with the Fourth Beast. They mistakenly call the Byzantine or Grecian part of the later Roman Empire, one of Legs of the Fourth or Iron power of Daniel 2. It was the Two Legs and Two Feet in unison that formed that Power, just as the Two Arms and Breast of the figure constituted the Medo-Persian Power, and the Belly and Two Thighs, the Grecian or Third Power, or the Third Beast of Daniel 7 which was stamped upon by the Fourth.
The Byzantine or Greek part of the later Roman Power, was all along the Third Beast of Daniel and formed no part of the prophetic Fourth. Its dominion as a separate was taken away by Rome when the latter overran and conquered it centuries after the rise of the prophetic Fourth Beast or Latin Commonwealth. Its life was "prolonged" as the Byzantine Empire of the East, today it is still the Third Beast territorially, religiously and geographically.
East, today it is still the Third Beast, territorially, religiously and geographically.
3. The Head of the Figure in Daniel 2 (Babylon) denotes the Eastern most limit of the picture, whilst the toes denote the Western most limit.
4. The Seat of Power, the dominating head of the Fourth Wild Beast is never represented as Constantinople or Jerusalem, or elsewhere, but as Rome if the Futurists' supposition about an Eastern and a Western Half Empire were correct then the Western Half devoured, broke in pieces and stamped with its feet the Eastern Half of its own body. No; the Fourth Beast stamped on the other Beasts and tore them with its iron legions or "teeth." It never identified with any of the other Beasts either in Daniel or the Apocalypse. It is a grave error to confuse them together as the Futurist do, but this is exactly what the Jesuits planned they should do.
5. The Little Horn on the Head of this Fourth Power or strictly Latin-Roman Commonwealth west of the Adriatic is the Papacy, the Fourth Power itself being the persecuting, Satan inspired and Rome centred Latin Commonwealth, West of the Third Beast (Greece). This Little Horn arose as foretold among the Ten Latin Horns on the head of the Fourth Beast When that Fourth Beast assumed its final form, under an Episcopal instead of a Caesarian dynasty.
6. This Romano-Latin Commonwealth is indicated in the Apocalypse repeatedly in varying forms and epochs of its existence, but always as one Ten-Horned Wild Beast - the Fourth Beast of Daniel 7. The Papacy depicted not only as a Wild Beast, but also as the Eighth Head of the Romano-Latin Commonwealth. It is repeatedly placed in religious an ecclesiastical confederacy with another Wild Beast called the False Prophet which clerical assistant acts by the express sanction and authority of the Papacy, the Little Horn, the Eighth Beastly Head.
These two Wild Beasts (of Revelation 13) the Papal Dynasty and the Priestly Hierarchy are simultaneously destroyed by the Lord's Second Advent.
One final geographical fact we must always remember, is that since the last Roman Legions had left the British Isles in 410 AD, sixty six years before its (Romes) collapse; Britain cannot be reckoned amongst the ten nations which emerged from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.
The chronological position of this Beast, or the date when it begins to emerge and develop, will also help us to identify it with the Political Papacy or Little Horn of Daniel's prophecy. The era of the Beast's manifestation from the sea is signified by the fact that its Ten Horns are crowned but not its Heads as in the case of the Dragon. Let us look at the comparison.
DRAGON BEAST
A great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns".
Revelation 12:3 Revelation 13:1
The Dragon therefore represents Pagan Rome of the Caesars, and the Seven Forms of Government which prevailed in it:-
1. KINGS
2. CONSULS
3. DICTATORS
4. DECEMVIRS
5. MILITARY TRIBUNES
6. MILITARY EMPERORS
7. DESPOTIC EMPERORS
The Beast must therefore logically represent the era following the fall Imperial Rome in 476 AD when the Seven Heads or Forms of Government had passed away, and in its place were emerging Ten Kingdoms, within the Roman earth of prophecy, the territory of the Western Roman Empire. The crowned horns or kingdoms were:-
1. FRANKS 6. VANDALS
2. BURCUNDIANS 7 VISICOTHS
3. ALEMANNI 8. OSTROGOTHS
4. SUEVI 9. BAVARIANS
5.ALANS 10. LOMBARDS
Unlike other prophetic expositors we do not count Britain as one of the ten, since the last Roman legions had left these islands in 410 AD some six years before the downfall of Imperial Rome. Besides, even at the height of its power Rome never subdued either Scotland or Ireland.
In these Ten Kingdoms we see a further significance to the fact that the Beast arises from the sea; for in the Apocalypse seas and waters represent people and nations, and it was from the midst of these ten, that our Beast, Daniel's Little Horn, the Papacy appears.
"And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months" Revelation 13:5
The period allocated to the Political Papacy to exercise power and dominion is given on two other occasions in the Apocalypse as follows:-
A. "A thousand two hundred and three-score days." Revelation ll:
B. "A time, times and half a time." Revelation 12:1
Furthermore the same time measure is given to us in Daniel's prophecy of the Little Horn as:-
"Time, times and dividing (halving) of time." Daniel 7:25
This of itself demonstrates yet again that the Little Horn of Daniel, this Beast, and therefore the Political Papacy are one and the same.
To understand the length of time 'involved we take our key from the prophet Ezekiel who states that God has:-
"Appointed each day for a year." Ezekiel 4:6
In Bible chronology a "time" represents a period of 360 days, therefore on the basis of the above key we can state that:
1 TIME = 360 YEAR/DAYS
Therefore the expression:
TIME, TIMES (2 TIMES) AND HALF A TIME works out as the following equation:
360 + 360 + 360 + 180 = 1260 YEAR/DAYS
Likewise a period of 42 months of 30 days on the same scale also = 1260 YEAR/DAYS.
Thus we learn that the Little Horn, the Beast, the Political Papacy was to have dominion for a period of 1260 years. Now refer to page 8 of The Countdown May no. 36 for Time MEASURE 1 TO 4, to see how this prophecy was fulfilled in history.
The prophecy now goes on to state that during this period of history, this era of 1260 Years, the Political Papacy would do two things.
1. MAKE WAR WITH THE SAINTS
"And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and overcome them."
Revelation 13:7
This is an almost identical prediction to that of Daniel concerning the Little Horn of which we read:-
"And he shall... wear out the saints of the Most High" Daniel 7:25
As at this point we are dealing with the political or temporal power of the Papacy, we shall confine ourselves to examining the persecution of opponents that was carried out by wars, civil wars, uprisings and so-called religious crusades inspired by the Papacy. So widespread and numerous are the evidences of this activity by the Political Papacy that we will make a brief list and then go on to illustrate the point in depth by dealing with the Papal persecution of two major groups of Protestant Saints, the Albigenses, and the Huguenots.
SOME OF THE BEAST'S WARS ON THE SAINTS
A) 1208 AD - Tens of thousands of Albigenses (French pre-Reformation Protestants) massacred in a Holy Crusade against heresy.
B) 1237-1342 AD - Tens of thousands of Vaudois (early Italian Reformers)killed in further Crusades to stamp out heresy.
C) 1421 AD - Thousands of Hussites slain in Bohemia as the Papacy attempts to crush dissent.
D) 1488 AD - In Piedmont, Italy, an estimated 3,000 Vaudois were burned and suffocated to death in one incident alone.
E) 1546 AD - Emperor Charles V caused 50,000 Flemish and German Protestants to be hanged, burned and buried alive as he sought to extirpate heresy from the Hapsburg dominions, at the behest of the Pope.
F) 1572 AD - Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day - 60,000 French Protestants slain.
G) 1567 AD - Papal terror over the Spanish Netherlands, thousands of Protestants butchered under the rule of the Duke of Alva and his Council of Blood.
H) 1631 AD - During the Thirty Years War, another Papal inspired religious crusade, which drenched Europe in blood, some 29,000
Protestants perished at Magdeburg - Germany.
1) 1641 AD - Almost 100,000 Irish Protestants tortured and murdered in the uprising and virtual Civil War declared by the Irish Roman Catholic Hierarchy.
j) 1685 AD - An estimated 400,000 French Protestants perished in the years following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
K) 1941-44 AD -Literally hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Serbs perished at the hands of the Ustashi in the model Catholic State of Croatia, which enjoyed full diplomatic relations with the Vatican whilst being an ally of Hitler and the Axis.
Now let us turn from the general list and see how the Beast waged war
1. THE ALBIGENSES
The Albigenses were a pre-Reformation Protestant group which flourished in the south of France, somewhat similar to the Waldensians of Northern Italy. With the election of Pope Innocent 111 in 1198 AD a religious Crusade or Holy War was launched against these unfortunate folk, and their lands and wealth were offered as a reward to those who joined the campaign of genocide, just in case the offer of thousands of years remission of time in Purgatory did not prove sufficient inducement to raise a large enough force.
By 1209, the Papal armies were on the move and an era of unprecedented slaughter commenced. We read how after the Siege of the Chateau de Lavaur, the Albigensian leader was hanged, eighty of his knights beheaded, and his sister, a woman "noted for heresy," was thrown down a well and boulders hurled down upon her body. We read of the occasion when after the Battle of Castres, two Albigenses were captured, one recanted and agreed to join the Church of Rome, one did not. The response of the Papal commander de Montfort was:-
"Take them both to the stake and let them suffer death by burning. If the man who declares his willingness to reform his ways speaks the truth, his fiery death will expiate the sin against God which he has committed, and if he is lying he will suffer the penalty for his deceit."
The most dreadful event however was probably the extermination of the people of Beziers by fire and the sword in July 1209. The Albigensian stronghold having been captured the Papal Legate was asked how his soldiers might distinguish between heretics and faithful Papists in the city replied:-
"Kill them all, man, woman and child, the Lord will know His own."
The result of his ruthless command was the slaughter of some sixty thousand people. The Papal Crusaders pillaged the homes of their victims, then having massacred every living creature they put the city to the torch, reducing it to one vast funeral pillage. This ghastly butchery was carried out by "Soldiers of the Holy Cross," the armies of the Papal Beast.
A catalogue of Rome's Wars of Religion would be incomplete without a brief mention of her treatment meted out to:-
2. THE HUGUENOTS
These French Protestants had been lulled into a sense of false security by the hope that a lasting peace and mutual religious toleration could be achieved by the marriage of their leader Henry of Navarre to the sister of the French King. Tens of thousands of Huguenots thronged Paris for the wedding celebrations. On August 22nd 1572, the Church bells rang out as the signal for the Papists to rise up and slaughter their fellow citizens. The first to be murdered was the veteran Huguenot Admiral Coligny, who having been stabbed many times was thrown from his window, his head and arms cut off and his body hung by the feet from a gibbet. The head was subsequently sent to the Pope as a symbol of the Papal triumph. Throughout that dreadful night and the day that followed the Papists butchered in cold blood tens of thousands of Protestants, neither age nor sex were spared. The killings spread out from Paris over all of France until an estimated 100,000 Huguenots had perished.
When the news of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew reached Rome (the seat of the Beast) the exultation among the clergy knew no bounds. The great cannon of St. Angelo Castle thundered out its joyous salute, the bells rang from every church steeple, bonfires blazed into the night and Pope Gregory, his Cardinals and clergy went in solemn procession to the Church of St. Louis where the Cardinal of Lorraine chanted the Te Deum in thanksgiving for the extermination of the heretics. The Pope caused a special medal to be struck (see Appendix) to commemorate the Massacre which he called:-
"this great blessing to the Roman See and to all Christendom."
Speaking of the bloody killings of tens of thousands the Pope actually prayed to God:-
"We beseech Thee mercifully to continue what thou hast faithfully begun."
After a century of hard won religious liberty the Huguenots again became the victims of the Papal Beast when on October 17th, 1685, at the behest of the Pope, King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes which had given them civil and religious liberty. Pastors were killed and exiled, churches were burned, possessions seized, Protestant men sent as slaves to the galleys, women imprisoned in convents, children torn from their parents forcibly re baptized and brought up as Romanists. An estimated million fled abroad to Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, England, Scotland,
Northern Ireland and even to what is now South Africa. They took not only their precious faith, but their skills and prosperity. Thus did the persecutions of Papal Rome pave the road to the French Revolution, just as centuries of Papal Power in Western Europe and Latin America have paved the road for Marxist Revolution.
"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies... and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven." Revelation 13:5-6
Some would say that this description could not possibly fit the Papacy which to all intents and purposes operates at least openly under a Christian guise, and makes mention of the name of Jesus. The reality is that they rob our Lord of His rightful titles, styles and dignities, the Popes excelling in blasphemy by taking them as their own. Let us look at a few examples; Let us read their boastful claims.
1. Ferraris says:-
"The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that HE IS NOT A MERE MAN, BUT AS IT WERE GOD... so that if it were possible the angels might err... contrary to the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the Pope."
2. The Decretals of Gregory IX state:-
"He the Pope is said to have heavenly power and hence changes even the nature of things... can make something out of nothing... turn injustice into justice... he has the fulness of power."
3. At the Papal Coronation the Pope is told:-
"Receive this Triple Crown and know that thou art the father of Princes and the King and Ruler of the World."
4. Pope Innocent X was addressed thus at his coronation:-
"Most Holy and blessed father, head of the church, ruler of the world, to whom the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed, whom the angels in heaven adore, and the gates of hell fear and all the world adores, we especially venerate worship and adore thee."
5. In the Bull Unam Sanctam, Pope Boniface stated:-
"The Roman Pontiff judges all men, but is judged by none... to be subject to the Roman Pontiff is to every creature altogether necessary for salvation."---to be contd.
Herbert W Armstrong of the World Wide Church of God simply did
not understand the Passover or The Gospel. We even now question that he did his
so called 6 months of intensive study.
The reason is quite simply. Now over 50 years later the 4 major off shoots
keep a 14th Passover while it appears the rest about 50% keep a
15th . The arguing and bickering and heat and confusion still goes
on. If HWA knew the subject as he was supposed to have done everyone would now
know.
It appears that Herbert did not even get the 14th from
the Bible after all. From The Ambassador Report P.O. BOX 60068
Pasadena, California 91116 USA. The 90 page report headed "Bobby Fisher speaks
out;" page 68 cover's some of Herbert's Religious roots where he copied others
material.
We (The Church of God UK) suspect that Herbert got his 14th day
from "A History of the True Religion" by Dugger and Dodd page 314 and 315. And
to quote " In other words the Wilbur brethren were celebrating the annual
observance of the Lords Supper. Being on the fourteenth day, it was the same as
when Jesus ate it with his disciples. Being at night, it was the same time He
ate it." Exodus 12:1-17 is quoted on page 314.
In other words Herbert got his 14th day from another church The
General Conference of "The Church of God" (seventh day) A.N Dugger being the
Field Manager. Herbert just accepted it, he didn't study the bible, and when it
was pointed out to him that Exodus 12:1-17 didn't tie in with a 14th
night, his only solution was to tell people to OBEY ANYWAY.
The Gospel--Herbert's version and quoting from The Incredible Human Potential
page 18 1978
"I say Christ's gospel-the message he brought from God- was the advance good
news of the establishment of the Kingdom of God"
This is quite a bland all encompassing meaningless statement especially after
40 years of "Bible study"
History
In the old testament at Mount Sinai the God that rescued the 12 tribes from
Egypt said he would be their king and they would be his people. They agreed and
a nation was born.
They sinned because they did not have the spirit of God. God knew that he had
to go down on earth and die and pay the price of that sin in their place.
When Christ was on earth in Jerusalem he was THAT king. HE died and rose.
Christ then told the disciples to go to the NOW FOUND 12 tribes of Israel which
were mostly in Britain and tell them that you can now be reunited with your GOD
KING of Mount Sinai, you are the 12 Tribes of Israel.
THAT GOD CAN NOW BE REUNITED WITH THE 12 TRIBES (and
others) AS THEIR KING- all however have to repent of sin and believe.
Our free Core PASSOVER REPORT is now ready. It consists of
nearly 50 pages bound in white covers with an index.
Church of God meets at Oak Farm School Saturdays 3-5 Phone for local details