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This is chapter/lecture #16 in our series entitled Mystery Babylon and the Stone Kingdom. Within the previous two lectures (and certainly not to exclude many other lectures in this series) I have necessarily had to leave a number of threads of thought dangling.
We are constrained both by the length of our radio program and by the fact that audiences can only hold their attention for so long. Sadly, that attention span is increasingly shorter, the younger the listener.
Politicians and media-savvy individuals know that they need to communicate as much as possible in what is termed a “sound bite.” Sound bites are often less than a minute in length.
To me that is a very unfortunate direction in which our society is moving. Whether it is deliberate or part of the unintended consequences of living in an age of instant communications, it is undoubtedly contributing to the dumbing-down of America.
In many of my Bible study lectures, we are teaching not only—and mostly—the meat of the Word, but we are also teaching history so that our listeners and readers can verify for themselves that the Holy Bible has accurately foretold human history for millennia, and that the Bible is as accurate and up-to-date, and more so, than next week’s news broadcasts.
Now, in regard to sound bites, take that last sentence, for example. It is less than four lines long on my written page. And I daresay that some listeners, especially of the younger generations, may have a somewhat more difficult time understanding it simply because of the effort of concentration required.
In contrast, the current prevalent social communications media of tweets, instant messaging, and even most emails, voicemails and so forth require very little focused attention. All of which makes my job all the more challenging: Should I dumb it down? If so, how can I dumb it down? I don’t even like that phrase—dumb it down—but today it communicates. Or permit me to create a word for George W. Bush’s vocabulary by asking, how much can I stupidify these lectures.
We reach a certain point beyond which we cannot communicate substantive truths because the dumbed-down vocabulary, along with sound-bite attention spans, prevents it. Yes, the Holy Spirit brings understanding, but that does not mean believers need make no attempt to become literate and educated.
After all, we just concluded our study of papal Rome in which we witnessed the control they exercised over the people of Europe for over a millennium, which was made all the easier because the people were illiterate.
It was not until the invention of the printing press that the light of God’s Word began to break the shackles of the Roman church, and do you think it was just a coincidence that this was the very time that God raised up Martin Luther?
The rise of literacy among the common people, coinciding with God raising up teachers like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and many others broke the power of papal Rome. Obviously, it did not happen overnight, but it happened.
So can you see why I am concerned for the long-range outlook as our people are becoming technologically very sophisticated—knowing how to get the latest ball game scores or Hollywood gossip on their cell phones, and they can download all the latest apps in a flash, but yet they are practically illiterate when it comes to the Bible, history and government? I am quite concerned; aren’t you?
For the time being, though, I intend to continue in the manner I have been accustomed—using the occasional four-line sentence and expecting my listeners to comprehend it without my having to resort to constant sound-bites and to dumbing down the material.
Just as you can dumb down nuclear physics only so far, so it is with the Word of God. There is plenty of what we could call “Christianity Lite” out there. Unfortunately, there is not much of the Light of the Word in that type of “feel-goodism” churchianity.
Now, as we begin to bring together some of the loose threads, you will recall that two lectures ago, we traced the fulfillment of some of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation to the papacy—the little horn—and to its greatly diminished power with the expiration of the 1,260-year period culminating in the years 1866 to 1870. That is one thread.
And then in the immediately previous lecture, we concluded by quoting Daniel chapter 2 concerning the fall of Mystery Babylon. And then I said this:
“So if we are seeing or are about to see the collapse of the whole system of Mystery Babylon then it means that the stone has struck, is now striking, or is soon about to strike the image on its feet, which precipitates the fall of that great city, Mystery Babylon.
“Of course, when it falls, something has to take its place. That is the second thread. We believe that something will be God’s Stone Kingdom. But just who and or what is the stone? And what is the relationship of the stone to the kingdom which is spoken of in verses 44 & 45 of Daniel, chapter 2?”
We will begin to address that in this lecture, but let us now go back to the first thread. Papal Rome’s power was waning and it hit a milestone in the years 1866-1870. Notice, the papacy and power of Rome has not disappeared. It is still very strong, especially in what are called “the Third World” countries.
But insofar as Rome’s control over Christianized Israel, that formerly absolute control no longer exists. For the sake of any new listeners/readers, I should quickly clarify that when I use the term “Christianized Israel,” I am referring to the Anglo-Saxon, Keltic, Scandinavian, Germanic and related Christian peoples of Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, etc.—who are the literal descendants of the so-called “lost tribes of Israel.”
Now, simply because papal Rome no longer rules in the way she once did, this is not to say that Rome is not a player on the world’s geopolitical stage—she certainly is—but since the biblical prophecies in Daniel and Revelation are focused on the world empires as they pertain to Israel, and not to the Third World nations, we can state with confidence that ecclesiastical Babylon has been supplanted.
It has been supplanted by the economic power, the financial power, of Mystery Babylon; that is, the money power. If you are a life-long student of history, then surely you have noticed that history seldom falls into neat chronological packages. The century-turnover markers (such as 1600, 1700, 1800, etc.) seldom signify the beginning or end of any major eras. In other words and for example, when we speak of the Middle Ages, that is not a precise time period that all historians agree upon. We can get general agreement but not exact agreement. And so it is with the decline of ecclesiastical Babylon and the rise of financial Babylon.
One did not end at a given point in history with the other one suddenly appearing and picking up the scepter of world power at that same exact time or date. It did not and does not happen that way.
So, while we found a milestone fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the years 1866-1870 vis à vis the decline of papal Rome, there was some overlap in time as the money power was arising to a dominant position over Israel (again, Israel referring to the Christianized nations of Europe and their descendants around the world).
You will recall that several lectures back we discussed a very revealing book by Rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz. In Popes from the Ghetto, Prinz told the story of the Pierleone family of Rome who were Jewish, but who converted to Roman Catholicism simply as a means to political power.
The Pierleone family was already an enormously powerful banking family who dominated much of medieval Rome, according to Rabbi Prinz. As Dr. Prinz goes on to relate, this family then rose to the top of the Catholic hierarchy having three of them rule as popes in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Prinz also details “the power and affluence of Jewish traders and moneyers” during that period. I give you that direct quote because I want to zero in on two words. First, we do not hear the word “moneyers” anymore, but it simply meant a banker, a money-lender. Secondly, Prinz mentioned Jewish traders.
Did you know that the biblical word Canaanite means a merchant or trader? And are you familiar with the term “merchant bankers.” You still hear that phrase in some financial circles, but in common parlance, it has mostly been replaced by the term “international bankers.”
Now, of course, the term “merchant banker” means one thing in the financial world, but you and I know that our Father is very clever in having His Word encompass multiple layers of meaning, many of them hidden in “sign language,” as it were.
So, let us see what kind of signification we can find with the term “merchant bankers.” Going way back to the book of Genesis, chapter 25, with the birth of Jacob and Esau, you will recall that not only were they twins, but that they were struggling against one another, even before they were born.
They were striving against each other in the womb of their mother Rebekah?! Do you remember that? And so Rebekah inquired of God what was going on. Thus we read in…
Genesis 25:23 And the LORD [lit., Yahweh] said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
This was a prophecy of not only the two individual men that these infants became, but it was to be fulfilled in their descendants as well, and would last for centuries—yes, even for millennia, because it is still going on today.
Most people—especially the vast majority of Christians—are totally in the dark about this because they are under the misconception that the Jews, both in the Israeli state and elsewhere in the world, constitute the people of ancient biblical Israel. They do not, at least not to any substantial degree.
Just briefly consider that, since the word “Jew” derives from the name “Judah,” and Judah was only one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Or, if you want to consider the ancient Kingdom of Judah, or House of Judah, it would include the tribe of Benjamin and some of the Levites.
But in any event, the present Jewish state in the Middle East which calls itself “Israel” could not possibly represent all of Israel, but at best, could only represent the House of Judah in latter-day Bible prophecy.
I could explain that in much more depth—and I have in many lectures over the years, and more recently in my Kingdom of God lecture series (lectures 10 through 13), see here; but it would distract us from our current train of thought.
And so the point I am coming to is this: Who are these people known today as Jews? Are all of them the literal, physical descendants of the patriarch Judah, the son of Jacob-Israel?
Or are they perhaps mostly some other people who are masquerading as the biblical Israel people? And what does all this have to do with the rise of financial Babylon? Well, it is entirely connected. I would go further and state that one cannot possibly understand how Bible prophecy is being fulfilled in our era without understanding these family relationships and how they have evolved from the time of Jacob and Esau until today!
Therefore, allow me to continue. I must now do some extensive biblical and historical review here in order for you to see how this all fits and makes sense, up to and beyond the rise of financial Babylon, right up to today.
If you know the story of Esau, you recall how, as the first-born of the twins, Esau would have been entitled to inherit the birthright of the Abrahamic covenant from his father, Isaac. However, Esau despised the birthright and sold it to his twin brother, Jacob, for a bowl of lentil soup.
Later, in Genesis 36, Esau brought much grief to his parents because it says he took wives who were Canaanites. The Canaanites were a lineage of people who were under a curse ever since the time of Noah. Therefore, many of Esau’s descendants also inherited the curse.
I say “many of his descendants,” not all, because Esau did have one wife from the line of Ishmael, therefore, some offspring were obviously not Canaanites. According to the Bible, Esau’s nickname was Edom, which means “red.” And so when you hear the biblical term, the Edomites, it refers to the descendants of Esau.
You may also be familiar with the fact that, as the children of Israel came out of Egypt under Moses, they did not get too far from the far end of the Red Sea before they were attacked by the Reds. Here, the Bible calls them the Amalekites. Who are they? They are a branch of the Edomites, because Amalek was a grandson of Esau.
Fast forward to a little over a century before the birth of Jesus. At that time, a military leader of the Judah nation by the name of John Hyrcanus led the Judahites against the Reds, against the Edomites. He conquered them ca. 120 B.C.
Then, in a tactic prefiguring the Moslem conquests, Hyrcanus gave the Edomites a choice: convert or die. Most of the Red Edomites therefore adopted the religion of Judah and were absorbed into what we now call “Jewry.” This is confirmed by many Jewish sources including the Jewish Encyclopedia which states that Edom is found in modern Jewry.
In other words, these two very different types of people (as God had told Rebekah they would be) and that they would have enmity with each other for millennia, these two peoples were actually mixed into one people called “Jews” by the time of the birth of Jesus!
Here is a critically important question? Why is that fact not widely taught in Christian churches today?! Well, for one, it would certainly upset the theology and prophecy teaching of the vast majority of those churches.
Secondly, although this information is not hidden away somewhere and inaccessible, I doubt seriously that it is ever taught in Bible colleges and seminaries; or if it is mentioned, it is explained away, and therefore most ministers are simply ignorant of it.
That is giving them the benefit of the doubt. There may be more sinister reasons why this is not taught but we will not go down that trail at this time. Then there is the Khazar thread. Those among my readers and listeners who are more informed will be familiar with that connection.
But we will not take the time to go down that trail at this time either. Suffice it to say that it provides even more evidence that the majority of today’s Jewish people have very little ancestry in Judah or Israel.
I hasten to add: This does not mean, however, that individual “Jews” cannot be saved. Of course, they can, just as everyone else is able to, by faith in, and acknowledgement of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by following His laws.
Now, as we conclude this lengthy “sound bite” [grin, grin], the facts stated in the last few paragraphs should startle the average Christian who has not been exposed to them before, because as one considers the ramifications, it becomes astonishingly clear that this would put a whole new perspective on so-called “end times” Bible prophecy! We will continue from here in the next installment.