ONE OF THOSE THINGS PART 2

THEN AND NOW

                In Daniel chapter seven we see Daniel’s vision of the four great beasts that have ruled the world through time. The fourth beast was a dreadful composite beast made up of features from the previous 3 beasts and yet he stands apart from them and Daniel is constrained to go into a great deal of detail about this fourth beast.

                He has ten horns, three of which are uprooted by an 11^th horn that is little at first but become stouter than the rest. One of his features is that he will wear out the saints of the Most High. Another is that he will think to change times and laws. Another feature is that his dominion will be taken away from him and the greatness of all the kingdoms will be given to the saints. It will be an everlasting dominion that will never pass away.

                As we look back through history we can see that the early Christians rightly interpreted this fourth beast to be pagan Rome. Millions of Christians were tortured, imprisoned, even being fed to lions for their faith. Surely pagan Rome was it right?

                But then another kingdom arises that fits the same description. John the revelator picks up the same theme in His day and describes this ten horned beast. John is astonished for in Revelation 12 he sees a pure woman fleeing from the dragon into the wilderness, but the next time he sees the woman, she has become a harlot who is drunk with the blood of the saints. This woman is now riding the beast with 7 heads and ten horns.

                So, what we have is another fulfillment of the ten horned beast of Daniel 7, only this time instead of being a secular pagan kingdom; it is a kingdom that has become and evil religious entity. The Protestants of the reformation rightly pegged this evil prostitute as papal Rome and indeed we see ten kings three of them being rooted out by a little horn that becomes stout and it speaks blasphemies and it too wears out the saints of the Most High.

                Papal Rome tortured, imprisoned, burned at the stake and otherwise killed something like 60 million Messianic Jews and early Gentile Christians. Their inquisitions are a matter of record as papal Rome sought to conquer the whole world.

                So we can look at history and we can say that Daniel’s prophecies were fulfilled way back then by Pagan Rome and we would be right. But we can also look to the middle ages at Papal Rome and see that she fulfilled with great precision the ten horned beast prophecies of both Daniel and Revelation.

                However as we get close to the very end of all of these things we begin to look at features that we have previously ignored. One of these features found in Daniel 7:25 is that this beast will wield its power over the earth for just 3 ½ years. Hmmm. That doesn’t fit with either pagan Rome or Papal Rome although many of the same features apply to both.

                But there is another feature that can no longer be ignored. This 3 ½ years ends with the kingdom being turned over to the saints of the Most High and it is an everlasting kingdom in which all of the kingdoms of the world will serve the Most High God. Likewise in John’s vision of this ten horned beast, the beast and its ten kings will rise up in the end and destroy the woman that rides this beast.

                In Revelation 12 we see the woman being nourished in the wilderness for 3 ½ years. But we see the two witnesses prophesying for 1260 days which is also 3 ½ years and this 1260 days runs concurrent with 42 months during which time the third temple is built in Jerusalem and so we put it all together with Mt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 where Jesus describes the last days and we begin to realize that while a precedent and a pattern has been set in place in history first by pagan Rome and then by Papal Rome, we are now being faced in our day with a composite global kingdom that will contain all of the previous elements, but this time around it will be worldwide in scope and it will finally have the technologies to fulfill that which no previous beast kingdom could do. They will now be able to control the buying and selling of every person on the planet.

                So we can put our heads in the sand and comfort ourselves with the fact that all of Bible prophecy was fulfilled by ancient pagan Rome… or we can write it off as having been fulfilled in the middle ages by papal Rome, or we can wake up and realize that these same entities, these same beastly powers are rising up again in our time to rule the world and that this time around it will beat anything ever done in ages past.

                We can no longer write off, or spiritualize the fact that Israel has come back into its own land to fulfill end time prophecy, or that they are now selling temple coins to raise money for their third temple, or that this global kingdom is becoming a looming reality and that our world is in the exact condition described in these last days.

                So we may have been able to allegorize and sanitize prophetic history, but now in our day, prophecy must be taken literally including literal time rather than prophetic time and the most precise fulfillment of all that is said about the ten horned beast and the woman that rides it, will be fulfilled with total accuracy.

               

                We are now watching the formation of the final ten horned Beast of Daniel and Revelation and we are watching Pope Francis as he works to unite the religions of the world into one composite global religion. The Jewish temple is about to literally be built from which the coming antichrist will declare himself to be God and we are soon to witness the final 3 ½ years that will end with the arrival of the kingdom of Christ as all of the kingdoms of the world will be given to the saints of the Most High God.

                I am most definitely a futurist in my views simply because it is as plain as the nose on our faces that these final events are taking shape right before our eyes and it is exactly true what Jesus said… that prophetic events are like birth pangs that keep increasing in frequency and intensity until the final birth takes place.

                I know this is quick and dirty with not a whole lot of detail and I would have to write a whole book just to analyze the texts represented by my whirlwind tour here, but I have a point to make today.

                Bible prophecy works in ever repeating cycles. You can’t just look back in history and say, that was that… and even though Bible prophecy has been fulfilled very accurately at numerous times throughout history, I believe that we are now witnessing the final cycle, the final birth pang… the one that ends with the birthing of the sons of God for which all of creation waits with eager anticipation.

                Are we going to pray to be a part of it? Are we going to rise up by faith to become the final generation of the sons of God, or are we going to pass it off to a future generation.

                When I see the natural and physical birth pains that our planet is going through right now, the horrific storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, famines, pestilences, wars and the return of satanic idolatry along with unprecedented violence and hatred… honestly I don’t think that our world can take another delay. I believe that we are entering into the final throes of tribulation and Jesus is about to say:

“I’m coming, ready or not.” So are we among the wise or the foolish? Then has become NOW.