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Welcome back, we were perusing Daniel’s prophecies of the “little horn.” As you will see, the Bible, along with a knowledge of history, clearly shows that this “little horn” grew into what we know as the institution called the papacy.
Somewhere along the way in this lecture I must make known to my dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are Roman Catholics that this lecture is not meant and should not be construed as a condemnation of all who are Roman Catholics. For heaven’s sake, I was born into a Roman Catholic family and I still have many relatives who have remained loyal Catholics.
My relatives, like millions of other Roman Catholics, love Jesus probably every bit as much as I do. I personally believe that Roman Catholics can be true Christians despite—not because of—the Roman Catholic church system.
I do not condemn them. Rather, I love them and I pray that their eyes will be opened to see that God had foretold in Daniel and in Revelation all about this great antichrist system, and He admonished believers in Him to “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
Therefore, all listeners and readers should understand that what I am teaching is done to help awaken those who love Jesus and to expose the antichrist beast system which still to this day has hundreds of millions of people under its influence.
I am striving to provide for modern audiences the same teaching and illumination that the Reformers were first given to understand five hundred years ago. Many of the Reformers were tortured and burned at the stake for opposing the beast system. Thank God, its power is waning.
This little horn, which had such a small beginning, eventually came to be the most powerful of all his fellows, i.e., all other rulers, whether kings or emperors.
How did that happen? How did this once-little horn become powerful enough to conquer God’s people for a period of many centuries?
Daniel 7:21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
Daniel 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Keeping your marker in Daniel, let us turn to Revelation 13. If you remember from our previous studies and by quick reference to your chart (here is the chart), there are no corresponding verses in the book of Revelation to correspond to the first three kingdoms in the book of Daniel.
That is due to the quite simple reason that by the time John the apostle came along, those empires-kingdoms were already history and Rome was reaching its zenith. We have also stated previously that the red dragon in Revelation 12 is symbolic of the pagan Roman empire. Then in Revelation 13, verse 2, we find a most telling description:
Revelation 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Now, while we let that hang suspended for a moment, keep a marker here and go back to Daniel 2. I remind you of a verse that I said was vitally important, verse 35:
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, …
This shows us that there is something about each empire—from ancient Babylon until today, something that continues from each empire and through each empire all down through the ages. Because from that verse, it is evident that they all still exist in some way or another when they are ultimately destroyed by the Stone Kingdom.
Let’s apply that now as we return to Revelation 13:2. Notice there that John is telling us that this new beast encompasses some characteristics from all the previous empires, empires which we recognize: the lion of Babylon, the bear of Medo-Persia, and the leopard that represented the Greek empire.
Daniel did not give the fourth empire any animal name, but John gives it the name of a mythical animal—a dragon. And in Revelation 12, verse 9, John identifies the dragon as
“… that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
We are not going to get sidetracked into a study of the devil here, but I want you to know that this is not referring to some battle involving some being called Lucifer in outer space countless millennia before Adam and Eve. This is a prophecy which was still future at the time John penned it on the isle of Patmos.
But for now, in Revelation 13:2, I want us to notice especially how accurate the prophecy is, for it says: and the dragon [ i.e., that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan] gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. Gave whom? Gave the beast that arose from the sea; namely, the papacy.
Have you ever seen an aerial photo of the papal audience hall in Vatican City? Here it is on the left.
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Does it not bear an uncanny resemblance to the head of a serpent? Coincidental? Not at all. Let’s take a look inside the hall.
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But that’s not all. Let’s take a closer look at the stage area, shall we? This first one is more recent, showing Pope Francis in the papal seat.
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And this one below is from a few years ago, showing Pope Benedict seated on the papal chair. But what is that grotesque-looking sculpture providing the backdrop for the entire stage?
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The sculpture is called “Resurrection,” but what kind of resurrection is it depicting? Is that supposed to be Jesus Christ there as the central figure in the sculpture? Let’s get a close-up view of that central figure, shall we?
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Did you gasp?!! These photos are all from open sources on the internet. Someone has drawn the red line to show the demarcation between the easily-seen-from-the-front human face and the reptilian, serpent-like, dragon-like head that forms the back half of the central figure. Is it denoting a human-reptilian hybrid? These are not mere coincidences, dear friends.
The powers-that-be (for yet a short time) know exactly what this symbolizes. Remember what a wise person/group has told the public numerous times in his anonymous posts: “Symbolism will be their downfall.” Indeed! Are you waking up? Let us continue showing Bible prophecy being fulfilled in history.
The seat of the dragon, the center of the pagan Roman empire was the city of Rome. This also became the seat of the papacy from its very beginning. And eventually, not only the seat, but the power and authority that had once been held by the pagan Roman emperors came to be held in the papacy, which is the beast that arose from the sea. Now verse 1. John says that in vision, …
Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Our heavenly Father had made a covenant promise to Abraham and to Jacob that their seed would become as numerous as the sand of the sea. Here John sees himself in vision, standing as it were, amongst the children of Israel.
And where are the children of Israel by this time? Before we answer that, we should first answer the question of what time is it in the vision John saw? It is the time when the pagan Roman empire has been overrun by the ten horn kingdoms, and the papacy is in embryonic form. So, it is four to six centuries after John died which we suppose was sometime around the year 100 A.D.
Those of us who have done some homework in this area also know that the tens of millions of Israelites from the ten northern tribes who had been carried into Assyrian captivity by 721 B.C. to the area south of the Caucasus mountains had, in these intervening centuries, been migrating primarily northward and westward, first across, around and through the Caucasus mountains, and then into and across Europe, leaving pockets of Israelites everywhere.
If you want to do some homework in that area of study, you can order from us any of several wonderful books giving myriad details about the migrations of Israel from ancient times until they are found in modern nations today.
These books include: The Story of Celto-Saxon Israel by Bennett, Missing Links Discovered by E. Raymond Capt, and four volumes by Steven Collins which we recommend the reader peruse in historical order: The Origins and Empire of Ancient Israel, Israel’s Lost Empires, Parthia and Israel’s Tribes Today. Write us for price information or view our Master Order Form.
So what John was seeing in a vision of the future was the time when Christianized Israel (the sand of the sea) would come under the dominion and domination of a beast system known as the papacy. That is when Europe in general became known as “Christendom.”
This beast would arise “out of the sea.” The sea here is the sea of people and nations which then populated the Roman earth. It was a sea of confusion and consternation out of which gradually arose this beast power known as the papacy.
We are looking at the history of this system. How long was this system to have dominance “in the earth?” We find the answer both in Revelation and in Daniel.
Revelation 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Daniel 7:25d …and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Nearly all prophecy expositors agree that these are synonymous terms: 42 months and the phrase “a time and times and the dividing of time.” A time is a year, “times” refers to two years, and “the dividing of time” is half a year. Add it all up and you get three and one-half years or 42 months.
And again, all expositors agree that the months are the Hebrew 30-day months not the mish-mish of 28 to 31-day months we have in our current calendar. Therefore, the 42 months comes out to 1,260 days. That much everyone agrees on.
But the futurists want to interpret that as literal days, whereas we historicists find that it allows the Bible to make perfect historical sense if we let a day stand for a year, as the Bible itself gives us the pattern—in Ezekiel, chapter 4, for example.
We will not turn there but you can look it up. Nor will we have time to explain the 1,260-year time frame in this chapter/blog series. Rather, I want to just lay out on the table one or two more prophetic characteristics of the papal beast before we close.
Then in the next series, we will provide the historical details both on the 1,260-year time frame and on the following characteristics. You have heard these verses numerous times, but now we come to the only phrase (underlined below) which we have not yet explained, beginning in…
Daniel 7:8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things,…
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, …
And then in …
Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
If you flip back a page to Revelation 12, verse 3, we find no mention of blasphemy there. It reads:
Revelation 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Because we are running out of time, we simply note for now that nowhere was the entire pagan Roman Empire charged with blasphemy, but only that institution, the papacy, which exalted itself to virtual equality with God. That brought God’s condemnation of blasphemy.
In the next chapter, we will give specific details of how the institution of the papacy fulfilled these verses of “a mouth speaking great words against the most High,” and how history records the exact duration of the domination of the papacy was fulfilled after 1,260 years!