Bible Study Course Lesson 3 – 5
The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Babylon was built approximately 2200 BC and prospered most of the time until it was utterly destroyed in 539 BC, leaving behind an empty city never to be inhabited again (Isaiah 14:22-23, Jeremiah 50:39-40). Yet God continued to use the name in prophecies clearly intended for the end times, so obviously He wasn’t referring to the rubble heap of ancient Babylon in Iraq, but the NEW seat of the powers of Babylon. Just as Nimrod conquered literal beasts to create the first beast empire at Babel, each time a beast empire was destroyed, the conqueror became the new head of the beast. Since it inherited all the power of the former kingdom, God calls the new kingdom a son of the former kingdom – Isaiah 14:22 for instance.
A kingdom can also have “nephews”, descendants of the weaker sons of former beasts, cousins of the present beast. In this way Babylon, Egypt, and China are all brothers – sons of Nimrod’s Babel kingdom. Their descendants would be cousins, and so on. But as we’ve said, the beast in Daniel and Revelation is the Babylonian beast, the lineage of eldest sons – firstborns of Nimrod’s kingdom. Babylon’s son was the Medo-Persian empire. He exercised all the power of Babylon, and more, and built his government on top of theirs. In due time, that kingdom died and yielded its title to the Greeks, then by conquering them the Romans inherited the title of “son of Babylon”.
So when God speaks of Chaldea, Babylon, or the king of Babylon, He refers to the beast power; either one of the original seven beasts or one or more of the ten heads that were upon the seventh beast – not necessarily, or usually, in Italy. Knowing this unlocks a lot of prophecies, for instead of imagining an ancient and extinct kingdom somewhere in the Middle East, we can read “Chaldea” to be “the beast”, and “the beast” to mean “world-dominating military power”. To go the next step and understand which particular world-dominating powers in history God meant, you have to read the context of the prophecy and see what point in history God was talking about at the time.
THE HORNS OF THE BEAST
In Revelation 13:1 we see the beast with seven heads and ten horns. We know now that this beast is the same as the one called “Babylon the Great”. Since the fall of the original Babylon Nimrod built, many generations of beast sons have ruled in their father’s name, but none of them have been worthy of the title “Babylon the Great”, the title reserved for the original Babylon. None have earned the title yet, that is. In Revelation 13:3 we see that the 7th and final head of the original beast was wounded, and died. How exactly was it killed? Revelation 13:14. The first beast was killed “with the sword”. This is a simple symbol that always means “war”. So this beast lost a major war and was destroyed. But after that, there were ten horns, ten smaller kingdoms to arise from it!
We’ve already traced the beast to Rome, so when did Rome officially “die”? The Vandals sacked Rome in 455 AD. This was the first time the city had been invaded in nearly 1,000 years! (A nearly unique accomplishment in the ancient world.) But they didn’t destroy it – they only wounded it. This is the first horn (a new kingdom or dynasty) of the seventh head. Yet that wound weakened it so that it died soon after, when Odoacer of the Heruli conquered and occupied Rome in 476, effectively killing the beast. Ironically, Rome was founded by Romulus, and named after him. The last emperor of Rome was also named Romulus. So coming full circle in history, it was literally ROME (Romulus) which was conquered in 476.
But these horns of Vandals and Heruli were not a Roman government, but were barbarians governing at Rome – a pagan, non-Christian government, as was the kingdom of the Ostrogoths which conquered Odoacer and ruled from 493-554. So we have three pagan kingdoms that ruled in Rome after Rome itself was conquered. Now turn back to Daniel 7:7-8, where the Roman beast is pictured again. These first three kingdoms, here pictured as horns, were “plucked up by the roots”. Utterly destroyed! Then there was a little horn coming up among these ten horns – the papacy – who looked stronger than the rest. And he was! The Pope caused Justinian to conquer and drive out the remnants of the first two kingdoms along with the Ostrogoths, and these three kingdoms were all completely wiped out!
Plucked up by the roots, with no trace of them left in history! Justinian then reestablished or resurrected the Roman Empire – this time by Romans, not by barbarians. And the Bible pictures his resurrected Roman Empire as an utterly new beast! Justinian called his empire simply “the Roman Empire”, and his people were “Romans”, even though most of them had never even been to Italy, much less Rome! This empire, which did for a time include Italy, was ruled from the east in Constantinople, which had formerly been called Byzantium before it was changed to honor Constantine the great in 330 AD. For clarity, historians always refer to this “Roman” empire as Byzantium, as will I. It’s important to remember though that whatever we call them, the inhabitants themselves considered themselves Romans, and their empire was called Rome, even though it wasn’t based in Rome – because to them, it was resurrected Rome!
THE RESURRECTED BEAST
All the kingdoms from Babel to Rome were heads of a single beast. Rome was merely the final head on the beast that Nimrod created – one beast, called by God “Babylon the Great”, because He said the original Babylon could have done literally anything! (Genesis 11:6). In Revelation 13:11-15 we see a resurrected beast, who “exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, AND causeth the earth… to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed”. Note that the new beast – the new civil power, Byzantine Rome under Justinian – doesn’t cause the world to worship itself, but to worship the first beast – Babylon the Great! The first beast was dead, so a copy had to be created – an idol of that beast to worship! So Justinian caused the world to worship the IMAGE of that former beast. Catholic Christianity was the state religion and the only religion tolerated.
This new empire, the second beast, “looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon”. Remember, in Bible symbolism the Lamb is Jesus and the Dragon is Satan, so you should read that verse “looks like Jesus but speaks like Satan” – in other words, it seems to be holy but it actually isn’t! Because it causes people to worship, not Jesus, but the counterfeit Jesus born in the religion of Babylon! This new beast also had two horns – that means two separate kingdoms on one new beast! And after that resurrection as a single beast, the Byzantine Empire lost control of the western empire, which included Rome, and a new horn sprung up under Charlemagne, who was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.
He was hailed and recognized as emperor of the Romans in the west, but the east rejected him (they already had an empress) and crowned their own emperor of the Romans a few years later. This set up a division in Europe, with both imperial dynasties claiming sovereignty over the entire empire. In practice, it created an emperor of western Europe and competing emperor in eastern Europe; two horns on the same lamb-like beast! Both were strongly religious, to the point that the western empire ultimately started calling itself the “Holy Roman Empire”! It literally appeared like the lamb, yet did the works of the dragon! This division of emperors also set the stage for a division in the Roman church itself, and 200 years later the church would split into the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, who excommunicated each other in 1054 AD.
RETELLING THE STORY
Now that we’ve shifted to the new beast, it’s time to look at the retelling of the story of this beast, the RESURRECTED beast, in Revelation 17:3, 7-11. Notice three times the phrase “the beast which was (did exist), and is not (does not exist), and yet is (shall exist)”. The plain explanation of this symbol is in verse 10; some fell, some exist, and some have not yet come into power. See, Revelation was given to John in a series of visions; and these visions were snapshots of the world at a specific point in the future; his future. But some of them are now in our past. At the point John was seeing this vision in chapter 17, five heads of the resurrected Holy Roman Empire had fallen; one existed at that time; and one had not yet come.
Since the Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, it has been resurrected six times; on each of these heads, the woman – now called the Catholic church – sat, ruling them, guiding them, and crowning their emperors. The first was Justinian, who wiped out the Vandals, Visigoths, and Heruli, which had been the first three heads of the beast after the fall of the Roman Empire. They were not Christian kingdoms, and they were plucked up by the roots (Daniel 7:8). Daniel 7 calls these last seven kingdoms horns, Revelation 17 calls them heads; but the symbols are clearly identical. Comparing the facts of history to the symbols of the Bible, we see that each of these heads were literal resurrections of the Roman Empire, where the founders of the dynasty assumed the title and/or name of Rome and her Emperor/Caesar. You can study up on each of them to verify these facts:
Head 1: Justinian was born in modern Macedonia, which at the time was part of the (eastern) Roman Empire; and his stated goal in life was to resurrect the Roman Empire, which was accomplished in 554 AD. He was loyal to the Church, and thus “ridden by the whore”. In time he died and his heirs carried on the kingdom for quite some time.
Head 2: Then in the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne with the Roman title of Emperor, competing with the Roman Emperor ruling from Constantinople – two horns on the beast. Charlemagne was a Frankish king of Germanic ancestry who ruled over much of Western Europe. His kingdom persisted for a time, then fizzled.
Head 3: In 962 the title of Emperor was revived when the German king Otto I was crowned by Pope John XII as “Roman Emperor”. His kingdom continued longest of all, with his empire later being called the “Holy Roman Empire” to better distinguish it from the Roman Empire in the east (Byzantium). And, of course, calling your empire “holy” is always good for propaganda.
Head 4: Charles V, a Spanish king of the Austrian house of Hapsburg, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII in 1530. This constituted a major change in the balance of power in Europe, and effectively spread the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) to include Latin (Roman!) America, which was mostly owned by Spain at the time, as well as significant portions of the Far East and most of Europe.
Head 5: The next complete shift of power was when Napoleon was crowned Emperor by Pope Pius VII in 1804. Two years later the Hapsburg armies were defeated by Napoleon at Austerlitz and the Holy Roman Empire was formally dissolved in 1806, leaving Napoleon as the ruler of nearly all of Europe. Following many military failures, Napoleon was forced to abdicate the throne in 1814. “Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy” (Announcement of his abdication in Fontainebleau). While historians generally count the end of the Holy Roman Empire from 1806, Napoleon carried on the banner in spirit until 1814. This date is important because of Revelation 13:5. That was the resurrected beast, who was given power for 42 months; 42×30=1260, and using day-for-a-year symbolism means the beast would be given power for 1260 years. Justinian restored the Empire in 554. 1260 years later would have been 1814 – the year Napoleon formally renounced the position of Roman Emperor for himself and his children. What a fulfillment of prophecy.
Of course, Napoleon didn’t honor that oath, escaping a year later to lead, and lose, the battle of Waterloo; and his relatives also broke his oath and attempted to restore the empire later and were finally vanquished in 1870; but none of them prospered after that day. That was not intended to be the last head of the beast; but the end of 1260 years marked the final end of the dark ages; since then neither beast nor whore have ever wielded absolute power in the world, or even in Europe for more than a few years. No more inquisitions, no more civilization-wide oppression in the name of false religion.
Head 6: In 1871, Kaiser (Caesar) Wilhelm was crowned Emperor over the formerly divided states of Germany in a new empire. In 1870-71, Garibaldi finished uniting the fractional states of Italy into a single kingdom. Meanwhile Japan had been ruled by military generals called Shoguns for over 600 years, with only a figurehead emperor – vaguely analogous to the city-states that were united into Italy and Germany. But in 1868 there was what historians call an “imperial restoration” in Japan, with Emperor Meiji given real power again and the Shogunate abolished. This imperial restoration “provided Japan a form of constitutional monarchy based on the Prusso-German model” (Wikipedia, article “Meiji constitution”). Notice where this imperial model came from! The Prussian/German model, which had for much of the past 1,000 years been the seat of the Holy Roman Empire – the resurrected beast!
Japan borrowed the model of their empire from Germany in 1868; Germany got it from Rome; Rome got it from Babylon; thus Japan, with Italy and Germany, became one of the heads of the beast as a spiritual descendant of Babylon! The beast doesn’t have to be in Europe. It just has to be modeled after Babylon! In addition, these three empires which formed at almost the same time became the major Axis powers as they fought side-by-side in WW2 against the democratic Western powers. So they, collectively, formed a single, contemporary head of the beast from 1870-1944 when they shared each others’ fate as the head of the beast was cut off by the Allies. That brings us up to the present; there is some room for dispute about some of the heads, but in general it cannot be argued. That in itself constitutes impressive proof that the Bible was inspired, for who could have predicted in the time of Daniel that three kingdoms would be plucked up by a small ecclesiastical kingdom, then the Roman Empire would be resurrected repeatedly in different nations? No other nation in history was resurrected in such a fashion.
Head 7: As future lessons will show, the power that will rise to once more threaten the peace of the world and carry on Babylon’s legacy must come from Europe, as all former heads have – even though the “head” may spread to include half the globe. We have watched over the last 70 years as Europe has gradually melded itself into a single entity, and it is almost certain that the EU in some form will prove itself to be the 7th head. Many believed Europe could never form a union; especially when the Berlin wall was raised and the Iron Curtain lowered. Yet the wall fell and the curtain tore, and here we are – the European Union is a reality. And even though minor events like Brexit and Catalonia threaten the union, the idea of the Holy Roman Empire will not die until Jesus returns.
THE DUALITY OF TEN TOES
Why does God use horns (Daniel 7) and heads (Revelation 17) to represent the same kingdoms – aren’t heads greater than horns? How then can they represent the same exact kingdoms? Because heads and horns are relative measures of strength! A horn on a head means that the horn is smaller than the head. Smaller than that head! But the horn of a buffalo is larger than the head of a squirrel! So the strength of a head and a horn is relative to the size of the original beast. After the first deadly wound Rome received, the one which killed the first beast, it never again has been as strong as the former empires were! The sheer power administered by the HRE or the Byzantines was a pale shadow of what Babylon or Greece had once had. So these last ten kingdoms were not worthy to be called heads on the original beast! They were merely horns compared to Rome! But the beast was resurrected, as a smaller, less powerful beast – and relative to the size of that beast, the successions of HREs were worthy of being called heads! There are no contradictions in God’s symbols – you simply have to think them through!
So in some of the many versions of the beast vision, God shows the entire beast from Babylon to the end times, treating the resurrections of the Roman Empire as mere horns. But in other visions, God begins the vision with the resurrection of the Roman Empire, and treats it as a self-contained beast with seven heads and ten horns that exist simultaneously at the end time! This explains an apparent discrepancy you might have noticed if you’re paying close attention; Daniel 2 makes it clear that these ten toes – the final ten kingdoms of the beast – are destroyed only when Jesus returns. That plus the simple anatomy of toes indicates that they are co-existent kingdoms that are around when Jesus comes back.
Revelation 17:12-14 again says that the ten horns – the ten toes of Daniel 2 – have power only briefly at the very end right before Jesus returns, they have “received no kingdom as yet” (circa 1900?). And they give their power to the beast – which is why they are merely “horns”, not heads! But Daniel 7:8 says the Pope (as we have identified the little horn) plucked up “three of the FIRST horns” (of the ten). This tells us that the ten horns are consecutive – one after the other, with the FIRST three being plucked up by the Pope – which history confirms! So which is it – are the horns and heads consecutive, or concurrent? Both, of course – we just hadn’t paid enough attention to notice the simple answer. Daniel 7-8 and Revelation 12, 13:1-10 are talking about the original beast – the one that was killed with a deadly wound. It wasn’t around in the end time because it died! Only offshoots of its power survived as successive HORNS.
But Revelation 17 and Revelation 13:11-18 are speaking only of the successive kings of the new resurrected beast! So there are ten consecutive kingdoms (nine have come and gone so far) on the seventh head of the original beast (seven after the deadly wound). These last seven horns from the original beast merge with seven consecutive heads on the resurrected beast (six have come and gone so far), and on the seventh head of the resurrected beast there will be ten concurrent, co-existing kingdoms at the very end, in our future! Only in this way, can the Bible agree with itself – and “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
EIGHTH HEAD
As I’ve said many times, God’s word is true on every conceivable level. We’ve seen how the image of Daniel and all these other beasts all refer to the same kingdom, or its resurrection. And all of them agree that there are ten final kings at the end – Daniel shows us ten toes, and Revelation shows us ten horns. Revelation 17:9-10 speaks of something strange, however; it says the woman rode seven of the heads of this beast. That means, of the ten consecutive kingdoms that took over after the collapse of the Roman Empire, only SEVEN were ridden – controlled – by this woman. We know the Pope had the fourth horn (Justinian) destroy the first three horns because they never acknowledged the power of the Pope! And so the Pope, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, never rode those first horns! Since then, every single resurrection of the HRE has acknowledged at some point the supremacy of the Pope and Church – the mouth on the little horn and the woman – and obeyed them! At the point in his future (our history) the vision is displaying for John, five kingdoms have fallen, one exists, and one is not yet come – meaning at this point, John was seeing the time of reunited Italy and Germany – between 1870-1945.
The strange thing is, while the whore rode and guided the last seven consecutive heads, the ten concurrent horns at the end (the ten toes) “hate the whore” (Revelation 17:16). How can they hate the whore who rides them? They wouldn’t! That’s why you need to pay close attention and read Revelation 17:11-13. These ten horns who hate the whore are not a part of those seven heads, they belong to the eighth beast, who is born out of the seventh beast! These ten kings gain their power from the eighth beast, not the seventh! Most people who preach about prophecy ignore the eighth beast altogether, and only talk about the seven – yet the Bible is very clear there is an eighth. It also makes it clear that, alone of all these beasts, it hates the whore – the eighth beast, composed of ten kings, is not ridden by her! The whore only rode seven heads! (Revelation 17:3, 9).
That means this is a Babylonian beast that is not dominated by religion for the first time since Nimrod! A fully resurrected Babylon the great! Which is precisely what the Bible already told us in Revelation 17:8, 11 – this was (Babylon the Great under Nimrod), is not (a Babylonian beast existed then, but not a great one!) and yet is (Babylon the Great must still come!) It is this eighth head who ascends out of the bottomless pit (death) and then goes into destruction at Jesus’ return. A beast who, if God did not intervene, would hold absolute power over the entire globe (Genesis 11:6). Only in this eighth head does the full power of Babylon the Great return to the Earth after 4,000 years!
TWO FEET
As far as I know, every person who has ever attempted to explain these scriptures has missed the quite obvious fact I’m about to tell you. Ten toes require two feet! Because each foot has five toes! I know, right? Obvious! Remember the resurrected beast had two horns, the east and west Roman empires. Nebuchadnezzar’s image had two feet corresponding to those very same empires! And at the end of both these empires, right before Christ returns, are ten kings! Why is this important? Because it means there is a natural DIVISION among these ten kings – they are five kings from two different dynasties – east and west! Which means if we merge these prophecies, that the resurrected Roman Empire would have two horns/feet – Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire – and from each horn would spring five toes!
Now if you go back to read Daniel, you’ll see he told us this in the beginning! Daniel 2:40-44. “The kingdom shall be divided”; now we already saw one obvious division simply because it has two feet; this is another, internal division within the feet themselves! Because it has iron mixed with clay! This same vision tells us that the fourth kingdom was Rome, symbolized as iron. So this is a Roman kingdom – or a holy Roman kingdom – that is mixing with clay, from some other kingdom! Who could that be?
CLAY IN THE FEET
Whenever a beast empire is conquered, the conqueror becomes the new beast. Thus, when the Ottoman Turks sacked Constantinople in 1453, they conquered an empire that traced its heritage back to Babylon just as surely as Charlemagne did, and thus became a continuation of the beast itself. At its largest extent, the Ottoman Empire stretched from Budapest to Arabia, Croatia to Iraq, and included most of the north coast of Africa – which is very nearly the same as the Eastern Roman Empire, or the eastern leg of the man in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision! This comprises most of the Middle East and south-eastern Europe. But unlike the western beast, these people were ethnically different; unlike the white-skinned Europeans, these were dark-skinned Turks and Arabs. And unlike the exclusively Catholic Europeans, these were Muslims. Remember, God’s metaphors cannot be broken. So God chose iron because it was like the Romans in every possible sense. Unlike most of their enemies, they clothed their soldiers in armor of iron, thus they literally were covered in iron!
CLAY AND IRON
And not only was their kingdom cruel and unyielding like iron, but they even physically looked like iron! When polished like armor or a sword, iron looks silvery-white. When aged and kept dry so it doesn’t rust, it’s black. Which is the coloring of the light-skinned and dark-haired Roman! We know that clay should correspond to the other element in these feet, and given that the eastern half of the kingdom was conquered by, and is still mostly owned by, Turks and Arabs, it is logical to assume they must be the clay! And clay just happens to look dark and reddish, just like Arab skin! In addition, throughout much of the Middle East people lived in houses made of clay! (Genesis 11:3). And clay and iron has never gotten along! Muslim and Catholic, east and west, Arab and European have never been able to forge a stable relationship. But these feet (Ottoman Empire and Holy Roman Empire) divide into ten toes to form the final eighth head which hates the whore! Read Revelation 17:14-17.
Notice how it emphasizes that God had to put it in their hearts to agree to give their kingdom to the beast? Why would it say that, unless it is something they would ordinarily NEVER do? But it goes on to say that this happens only “until the words of God shall be fulfilled”. In other words, these ten kings, five from Europe and five from Muslim nations, uncharacteristically agree to work together under a single king, and somehow “eat the whore’s flesh and burn her with fire”… and once that’s done, and that prophecy is fulfilled, the union falls apart as it inevitably will when iron and clay are cast together! Now consider the present situation happening right now in Europe, the immigrant crisis. Millions of refugees – almost entirely Muslim, the majority men – are fleeing into a Europe which is sharply divided between an “open arms” policy and the “illegals go home” attitude of many of its citizens.
The divide is between left-leaning “brotherhood of man” beliefs and right-leaning nationalists who see the refugees as invaders and burdens on tax payers, these ideas and sharp rises in immigrant-related crimes have caused far-right movements (think Neo-Nazis) to gain unprecedented popular support. The rights and wrongs of this are far too complicated to ever unravel. The point is, that an empire of porous iron – the EU – is having immigrants of “miry clay” rubbed into the cracks and holes in it, and it is creating an unprecedented but Biblically prophesied social unrest in Europe because these two CANNOT cleave together.
Why not? Because Muslims cannot marry Catholics or Protestants! Thus they can never become “one flesh”, and heal the inherent divide in their society. Their customs – diet, days of rest, dress, prayers, and so on – form a barrier that is impossible to break down. One or the other must give way. And the tensions will rise as the abuses, real and imagined, escalate between one another – ultimately in some fashion causing the rise and fall of the 7th beast, leaving the way open for a charismatic leader to found…
BABYLON THE GREAT, JR.
The kings of the east and west make sense when comparing Constantinople and Rome, which are virtually the same latitude. But when considering the larger “empires”, the EU and the Muslim world, another comparison would make a lot more sense… the kings of the north and south! So if we can merge these two feet, two horns, east and west empires together, and can also merge in the king of the north and south, we can seam together another large chunk of prophecy from Daniel 11. Remember we’ve identified the dark king from Daniel 11:32-39 as the Roman Emperors in general, and the celibate Pope in particular. So after the break-up of the alliance of the ten kings, or perhaps to cause it, the five kings of the south (grouped as a single power in this prophecy, since they work for a single leader) back-stab the king of the north by attacking the great whore – perhaps invading Vatican city, in Rome (verse 40, the context is still the Pope who is being attacked).
While none of the ten kings liked the whore, such a foothold in Europe can’t be tolerated, so the northern five kings who by now dominate Europe counterattack and have a series of overwhelming victories over Muslim lands (Daniel 11:40-43) By this point, the rest of the world realizes that if they don’t do something soon, this beast will never be stopped – he will rule the world. So they mobilize to confront him (Daniel 11:44-45). Now compare that to Revelation 16:12-16, Revelation 19:11-21, Joel 3:9-17, Revelation 14:20, etc. See how, now that you’re looking at them in this light, these prophecies are all the same? Just retelling the same story, with details added or left out each time! Now read Revelation 9:13-19. First, read this and think about the fact that John prophesied the existence of the modern tank almost 1,900 years before they were invented. I mean, having never seen a mechanical vehicle of any kind, how would YOU describe a tank? Horses with breastplates of fire, who shoot fire, smoke, and brimstone out of their “mouths” does a pretty fair job of it.
Incidentally, helicopters are described quite well in verses 3-10. Considering John had never seen a flying machine and having nothing to compare it to but locusts and scorpions, he did quite well. Their wings do in fact sound like galloping horses! Their “hair like women” describes the moving blades on a helicopter. They do shoot missiles out of their “mouths”, and some even have shark teeth, roaring lions, and the like painted on them! But thatlittle proof of the inspiration of the Bible aside, the reason I quoted this is to call your attention to Revelation 9:14-16. Notice immediately the bridge here – the river Euphrates. These angels were preparing something to happen later – this was just getting ready for the events of Revelation 16 and 19. Notice also the 200,000,000 man army – the only places that could muster an army of that size is India and China, together with Russia; but assembling an army of that size cannot be done quietly, and news of it would leak to the king of the north – bringing “tidings out of the north and out of the east” to trouble him!
So he goes to the Euphrates, perhaps somewhere near Baghdad, to war against those nations, Jesus returns with the saints, and the combined armies of the beast-dominated world join forces against their common foe, the true Jesus – which, of course, doesn’t work – and are defeated so thoroughly the Bible compares the slaughter to pressing of grapes, which causes the blood from the slain to fill the valley to the height of a horse’s bridle!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
As I said initially, I don’t like end-time prophecy because it requires speculation. What you’ve read here is a mix of Biblical facts and well-reasoned (I think) speculation. But I don’t pretend to be better than the thousands of true Christians who have misinterpreted prophecies in the past – prophecies fail (because we misunderstand them) far more often than they are fulfilled (1 Corinthians 13:8). So I don’t like it because it may be wrong – maybe the Vatican doesn’t get invaded, maybe that verse is yet another layer of symbolism. Maybe I missed something and all the kings do indeed come from the European beast/horn/foot. As Paul said, that may all be wrong – but knowledge about the golden rule will not fail. Studying how to better love your neighbor will never prove to be a waste of time. Knowledge gained about how to better rule your spirit will not leave you disappointed when Jesus doesn’t come back on the day you calculated. This is not to say that answer isn’t in the Bible – it most certainly is. Nor do I mean to imply that I don’t believe that what you’ve read here is a very good merging of prophecy scriptures.
I say this simply to make my position – the Bible’s position – clear: Prophecy matters but not like the golden rule matters. Yet prophecy is a good way to practice your merging and harmonizing skills – and a good way to practice really believing what God said and thinking it through. To illustrate that, read Psalms 119:96. Think about what this means – David had seen many things that seemed to be perfect, but when you looked close enough all of them had a flaw. You’ve seen it yourself – the most beautiful woman has a flaw, the best fighter has a weakness, the healthiest man still dies. But David had never been able to find a flaw in God’s commandment. No matter how far you push the law, no matter how far you stretch God’s metaphors they never break (John 10:35). They are true in EVERY conceivable sense!
To show you what I mean, let’s think about this image even more. On that image were two feet; these feet correspond to the two horns of the resurrected beast. But ask the next question – what are those feet made of? Flesh, skin, and bones. So the obvious question is… how many bones? And the answer is, seven tarsal bones form the top of the feet! Five other sets of bones descend from the them, forming the body of the feet and the toes! So when the Bible said the beast had seven heads and ten horns, by knowing basic anatomy and looking at our own feet we can see that the image of Daniel had “seven head bones in each foot and ten sets of toe-bones descending from the pair of them”! Making the design of the human foot a part of the prophecy of God! True in every conceivable sense!
What’s more, with a bit of imagination, the bones that go to toward the toes even look a little bit like horns, coming off of the “head” of the “ball” of the foot! But this new “layer” of prophecy teaches us something new; Revelation told us that beast had seven heads, and we found all those heads only on one horn of the beast – the western horn. But the feet teach us that there should be seven heads on both horns! And after those seven heads rise and fall, all ten toes work together for Babylon the Great! This understanding is new to me as I write this, but preliminary research shows it should be easy to find seven heads in Constantinople, as there were several important ruling dynasties there, plus the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. What you see in the chart below is a highly tentative list, based on how Wikipedia divides the Byzantine Empire into eras. More research is indicated.
But isn’t it interesting how easily we find those answers, when you just as the right questions? And do you see now how it would be impossible to understand this without merging all the layers together – including the implied layers INSIDE the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image? Now that’s a “skeleton of prophecy”! To my knowledge, no one has ever penetrated this deeply into these prophecies. And I seldom even think about prophecy! As far as I know, no one has ever even considered there might be a separate set of seven heads on the other horn of the beast. Why not? Because I’m smarter, or God loves me more? Absolutely not! Because no one ever merged and harmonized these scriptures together!
Because no one trusted the word of God enough to BELIEVE IT! To believe that when God said “these two feet represent the beast” that He meant it in every possible sense. Prophecy is not hard You just have to think it through, and believe that God meant what He said. And if you can learn that lesson by realizing how thoroughly God planned prophecy, even to the point of designing human feet to fit, THAT matters. That will help you, even if Babylon never rises or falls again! Because if you can learn that lesson there is nothing you cannot learn.
Proverbs 14:6 (WEB) A mocker searches for wisdom without finding it, but knowledge comes easily to a person who has understanding.
~ Scroll down for a chart summarizing the information in this lesson ~
Daniel 2 Daniel 7 Daniel 8 Revelation 13 Events Fulfilled in History
Head of gold
Lion with eagle’s wings;
man’s heart was given to
it
Beast with 7 heads and 10
horns:
Babylon (625-538 BC)
Breast and arms of silver
Bear with 3 ribs in its
mouth, devours much
flesh
Ram with 2 horns, one taller
than the other, none could
stand before him
Medo-Persian Empire (528-330 BC)
Belly and thighs of brass
Leopard with 4 wings
and 4 heads, dominion
was given to it
He goat with a notable horn
between his eyes, broke the
horns of the ram, his own
horn was broken and 4 horns
rose out of it
Greek Empire under Philip, Alexander (began
333 BC), and his 4 generals
Legs of iron
Dreadful and terrible,
exceedingly strong, iron
teeth, devoured and
broke in pieces, it
stamped the residue with
its feet, had 10 horns:
Roman Empire (31 BC to 476 AD), and:
First Horn, plucked up First Horn Vandals (429-533)
Second Horn, plucked up Second Horn, deadly wound Heruli (476-493)
Third Horn, plucked up Third Horn, beast killed Ostrogoths (493-554)
Little Horn with the eyes
of a man and a mouth
speaking great things. He
destroyed the first three
horns
In the latter time a king who
understands dark sentences
shall be set up, he shall
destroy the mighty and holy
people, he shall prosper, he
shall magnify himself in his
heart, he shall destroy many
using peace, he shall also
stand up against the Prince
of princes, but he shall be
broken without hand.
Image of the Beast
The horn itself is the Roman Catholic Church,
the Image of Roman Empire government. The
mouth of the horn and the dark king is the
Papacy
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Two feet of iron and clay
Calcaneus bone
Fourth Horn
Fourth Horn /
First Head of the new beast
with 2 horns like a lamb but
speaking as a dragon
Justinian, a Macedonian, resurrects the Roman
Empire in 554, beginning the 42 months.
West Horn East Horn
Talus bone Fifth Horn
Fifth Horn /
Second Head Charlemagne, a
Frankish king, crowned Emperor
in 800.
Heraclian
Dynasty
Cuboid bone Sixth Horn
Sixth Horn /
Third Head Otto I, a German
king, crowned Emperor in 962.
Macedonian
Dynasty
Navicular bone Seventh Horn
Seventh Horn / Fourth Head
Charles V, a Spanish king,
crowned Emperor in 1530.
Komnenian
Dynasty
Medial Cuneiform bone Eighth Horn
Eighth Horn /
Fifth Head Napoleon crowned
Emperor in 1804. HRE dissolved
in 1814, ending the 42 months.
Ottoman
Empire
Intermediate Cuneiform
bone Ninth Horn
Ninth Horn /
Sixth Head Kaiser Wilhelm
crowned Emperor in 1871.
Turkish
Republic
Lateral Cuneiform bone Tenth Horn
Tenth Horn /
Seventh Head The European
Union?
ISIL?
Ten toes
Eighth Head/Ten Horns on the
Seventh Head of the resurrected
beast. Reborn Babylon The Great
with 10 contemporary kings