You are on page 1of 8

The Beasts of Daniel and John

Chapter 4. The Beasts of Daniel and John The end time prophecies in Daniel are best seen in the light of related prophecies that are found in the Book of Revelation and find that most of these events are already history and those which remain are events that will unmistakably tell who the characters are, what they have done, what they are doing now, will do in the future and when they will happen. Understand that the Book of Revelation is also called the revelation of esus !hrist. "ere, he is the #amb, worthy to open the seven seals and the events in the vision of ohn are believed occurrences that begin shortly before esus !hrist$s time. %here Daniel &'() le* o+ with the little horn that came out from one of the four horns that reached the host of the heavens, and threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them; Revelation (,' - begins with his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth beginning the war in heaven. .o follow through on the significance of the temple as the focus of end time prophecies, Revelation !hapter (, opens shortly before the beginning of the (,/) years in 0) 1D presumably at the time of esus !hrist$s birth. "ere several significant events occurred in heaven and earth. 2irst, it is the time when the woman 3the church4 clothed with the sun with the moon on her feet and (, stars crowning her head 3(, apostles4 appeared in heaven. 5he is pregnant with a child 3 esus who is also the %ord of 67d4. Then the red dragon 35atan4 with 0 heads and () horns and 0 crowns appeared and swept a third of the stars and 8ung them to the earth and stood before the woman ready to devour the child but the child was snatched up to 67d and his throne while the woman 8ed to a place 3a desert4 where she is protected and taken cared of for (,,/) years. Thus, the church is said to be in the wilderness. !hurch is to the new covenant as temple is to the old as the place reserved for the worship of 6od. "owever, there is continuity, in that both would have meant one and the same substance, and church admi9ed the 6entiles who are not related consanguinely with the ews and did away with the sacrificial rites of the temple with the #ord$s 5upper. :otice too, that the dragon has () horns and as horns are the

pride of whosever$s head it is worn, their number is more than there are heads. 5econd, a war in heaven ensued between the angels loyal to 67d against the rebel dragon or 5atan. 1s the loyalist outnumber the rebels , to (, the rebels 3a third of the ;stars or host or inhabitants of heaven4 were 8ung to the earth. The dragon continued to make war against the %ord of 67d 3 esus4 on earth and stood at the shores of the sea from whence came the first beast. The dragon is a picture of a beast with 0 heads, () horns and 0 crowns on each head while the first beast has 0 heads, () horns and () crowns on each horn. Third, the dragon gave the first beast 3the Roman <mpire4 its authority. The Roman emperor, through his representative in udea, the =dumaean, "erod the 6reat, 6overnor of 6alilee and later >ing of udea sought to kill the child esus. "e failed to do so, but his subse?uent heirs to the throne followed his pro7Roman policies. 2ourth, the first beast gave the second beast with , horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon its authority 3Rev (@'((7(,4. During this period, the Roman empire until its revival as the "oly Roman empire 3image of the first beast4 by the pope 3second beast4, chief priest of the Roman !atholic church, the stateAs religion, gave through Roman !atholic baptism, the mark of the beast on the foreheads andBor the right hand 3priests give the mark of baptism or chrism on the forehead and on the palm of the right hand of the child being baptiCed4. :o one during these times could live normal lives 3buying or selling4 if one was not a Roman !atholic. Dnly barbarians living in the fringes of the empire were free of the mark of the beast but even this was not a guarantee that they were safe from the clutches of the beast as their womenfolk knew that their religiosity would come under scrutiny in public places like the market, where everyone converges in keeping with good marketing sense and everything is traded, not the least, gossip and fishwives$ tales. :or were they secure that their own villages would not be con?uered and anneEed to the empire$s. Those who desired to enFoy the cosmopolitan amenities obtainable within the boundaries of the empire, most especially those whose business involved in trading within the boundaries of the empire were later baptiCed in keeping with the culture of the Romans. 1s the adage goes, G hen in !ome, do as the !omans

do" The emperor derived his authority from 67d and the symbol of this authority, his crown, is set on his head by the bishop of Rome, the pope, as the representative of 67d on earth. The "oly Roman <mpire aspired to e?ual the width and breadth of the Roman <mpire, which at the height of its power encompassed the British =sles from the %est to Hesopotamia in the <ast and all of the coastlands around the Hediterranean. The Mark of the Beast. 1s the beast goes into ba9le, he will be known by his marks or uniform. Revelation (@'((7(& speaks of the one who gave the mark and who were given the mark. %hen the Roman empire 3the first beast4 fell, the pope found himself as the head of the church 3the second beast4 in the tandem of the church and state, the sole surviving authority that could unite the empire$s subFects who were all Roman !atholics. "is two horns are the %estern Roman !atholic church in Rome and the <astern DrthodoE church in ByCantium. The Roman pope, to prevent the Roman empire from breaking up, crowned kings from the former 6ermanic tribes as "oly Roman emperor to revive the Roman empire, thus healing the wound of one of its heads 3Rome4 and preventing its total disintegration. "aving done this, he now eEercised the authority of the first beast, whose image is the "oly Roman empire. "aving established itself as authority, it caused #re to come from heaven in the =n?uisition that was established to put a stop to heresy. "eretics who did not renounce their heresies were burned at the stakes. .rue, much of the doctrines of the Roman !atholic church during the ;$%&' days that the early !hristian church and saints were given over to, were sound because they were the work of the saints and the early !hristian church who continued even when given over to the Roman !atholic church. 2urthermore, authority was given the beast to get the truth out of the old and new testaments 3Rev (('@7/4 but anyone who tried to harm both by making or even inserting or taking a word of truth out of it will be destroyed. "owever, once their contribution to doctrine was made, many of them ran afoul with the Roman !atholic orthodoEy and martyred.

The mark of the beast is given to Roman !atholics during the rite of baptism when a priest marks the forehead of the child and the right hand as is wri9en in Revelation (@'(/. Thus the mark or chrism, as the Roman !atholic church calls this, was given a long time ago. Then, it was easy to ?uestion the loyalty of a non7!atholic to the "oly Roman emperor and be suspected of heresy. 5everal !hristian movements declared as heretics, ews, and Huslims who did not succumb to Roman !atholic baptism were the subFect of the !rusades. =t is for this reason that everyone who did not receive the mark could not buy or sell. Iou could not come to a public place where imperial forces were watching for fear of discrimination and persecution once you were identified as a barbarian, not being a Roman !atholic. There was absolute fear living under the feudal system then prevailing when you were not a Roman !atholic. 1ll the members of the royalty were Roman !atholics saved for those princes who would later ?uestion the authority of the Roman !atholic church but who were themselves Roman !atholics by convenience, and whose number were too few and far between. /// is the mark of the beast. / is man$s number, opposed to 0 which is the number of divinity.i / is man$s number but !hrist is not mere man but the 5on of 67d. Three /$s is in opposition to !hrist$s three characteristics' high priest, prophet and king. The anti7 !hrist possesses these three characteristics in opposition to !hrist$s by falsely assuming these characteristics of !hrist with the intention to deceive. "e was Jhannias, a common man elevated to the high priest by the 5icarii, a Roman puppet spoken of in , Thessalonians ,'(7(, in the time of the reign of "erod 1grippa ==. "e did not have the mark of the beast yet, but in the end time, the man of lawlessness will have one, even if discreetly. "e is also the pope, and the Roman emperor, his prince and underlings. 1gainst the popular view based on the #rst resurrection spoken of in Revelation ,)'- and the seventy sevens prophecy in Daniel K',-7,0 believed by so many Jrotestants concerning the rapture and the anti7!hrist who will give the mark of the beast at a future date, specifically during the ;last week to con#rm a covenant 7 such declaration

must be viewed by suspicion as part of a sinister plot to mislead !hristians, and many such ideas proliferate giving rise to false beliefs espoused by end7time !hristians who harbor weapons preparing for a literal fight with the risen dead amongst the raptured !hristians whom they call Combies and help the anti7!hrist give the mark of the beast to the remaining !hristians. The anti7!hrist 3pope4 has long given the mark 3Roman !atholic baptism4. 1*er the fall of the Roman empire, the Herovingians, who were 5alian 2ranks and :icean or %estern !hristians beginning with !lovis, allied with the Roman !atholic bishops and became protector of the papacy. =n return the pope Fustified and confirmed their kingship. The Dstrogoths and other 6ermanic tribes who were 1rian !hristians were considered heretics by the Roman !atholic church. Thus, it became politically convenient to convert to Roman !atholicism and have the support of the de facto ruler of the Roman empire by them who aspired to rule its breadth and width. %ith the aid of the state, the anti7 !hrist by enforced baptism caused the giving of the mark of the beast 3the Roman empire4 to all the peoples who fell under the Furisdiction of the empire. Because the rite of baptism was eEercised by the early !hristian church before it was adopted by the Romans who gave it its own distinguishing ritual, the mark of the beast was given soon as the church was given over to the Roman empire. The word GRomanL to describe this faith, is so obvious as to make it inconspicuous, that this faith is the faith that worships the ancient Roman empire. That is spoken of in Revelation (@'&, to wit'
8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. (Rev !"8 #$%&

The False Prophet. The following references found in Revelations (/'(,7(-M (K'(K7,(M and ,)'07() speaks of the false prophet. Revelation (/ speaks of the dragon or 5atanM the beast or Roman !atholic church and its followingM and the false prophet leading the Huslims, including the descendants

of =shmael. 1t the outset, the (ran perpleEes theologians and scholars alike, for while it holds so many of the truths of ews and !hristians, there remains some sticky issues upon which are grounded the reason for the Hiddle <ast con8ict. The ews$ unbelief in esus !hristM some of powerful and in8uential Huslims$ denial of the time of =srael$s restorationM and the maFority of !hristians$ inability to comprehend the (ran as AcategoricallyA embodying the covenant of 67d with =shmaelM although Huhammad may be the one referred to in the Book of Revelation in the !hristian Bible as the false prophet. %ho can fathom the ways of the #ord. 1s !hristians o*en say, we are but mere clay and the )ord is the potter 3 er (&'/704" That is to say that the (r*an may yet evolve its own canon as the Dld and :ew .estaments have. =ts final form may be reconciled with the much older two covenants. 1lso, that the terms used are used, e.g. false prophet, because they serve a purpose which is to define, albeit limited. "owever, if viewed as a concept, and in this particular case, to reach beyond the limits of human language in its definition, we can a9ain an understanding much like the wisdom of 6Nd. %hich is to say that one belief while true to its own set of believers is defined as the enemy of the other. The more important thing is that we gain an understanding that goes beyond the limits of doctrine or dogma of a single faith by a+ording us a view of one faith from the position of another.

i Anti-Christ, from Fausset's Bible Dictionary, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1 ! by Biblesoft" Six is next to the sacred seven, which it mimics but falls short of; it is the number of the world given over to judgment. There is a pause between the sixth and seventh seals, the sixth and seventh trumpets: for the judgments of the world are completed in six; at the seventh the world kingdoms become Christ s. !s twelve is the number of the church, so six, its half, s"mboli#es the world kingdoms broken. The radicals in Christ are C$, %, and ST &chi, rho, and sigma'; !ntichrist s monogram impersonates it, but falls short of it, Ch ( St &chi, xi, and sigma' &)))'.

You might also like