I WILL JUST SAY A WORD TO ANYONE WHO MAY RECEIVE THIS ISSUE WITHOUT HAVING READ PART 1 AND PART 2. WE ARE DEALING WITH A SUBJECT THAT WE BELIEVE COULD HELP STRAIGHTEN UP A LOT OF CONFUSION AMONG BELIEVERS OF THIS END TIME MESSAGE OF TRUTH. BUT ONLY GOD KNOWS WHETHER THOSE WHO REALLY NEED TO READ THIS ARTICLE, WILL OR NOT. NEVERTHELESS WE ARE TAKING DANIEL’S VISIONS, AND THE VISIONS OF JOHN THE APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST, TYING THEM TOGETHER, AND FILLING IN THE GAPS WITH ACTUAL HISTORY THAT ENABLES US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT THESE SCRIPTURES PERTAIN TO. NATURALLY THAT REQUIRES PULLING IN MANY OTHER SCRIPTURES, BUT IT IS ALL FROM THE WORD OF GOD, THEREFORE WE MAKE NO APOLOGIES FOR THE FACT THAT IT IS TAKING SO MANY ISSUES OF THE CONTENDER TO GET IT ALL INTO YOUR HANDS. OUR MAIN FOCUS IS ON THE ANTICHRIST WHO WILL APPEAR IN THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL WHICH IS JUST AHEAD OF US, BUT WE HAVE SHOWN HOW CERTAIN OTHER MEN THROUGH TIME HAVE SET TYPES OF THIS ONE WHO IS YET TO COME. FURTHERMORE WHETHER YOU LIKE TO READ HISTORY OR NOT, I STILL FIND THAT IT THRILLS MY SOUL JUST TO READ IN THESE HISTORY BOOKS HOW PERFECTLY PROPHECY FROM THE BIBLE WAS FULFILLED IN CERTAIN EVENTS THAT HAVE TRANSPIRED DOWN THROUGH TIME. WE HAVE ALREADY SHOWN HOW CERTAIN MEN HAVE SET TYPES OF THE ANTICHRIST WHO IS YET TO COME ON THE SCENE, AND WE HAVE SHOWN WHERE THE ANTICHRIST WILL COME FROM, AND HOW WE KNOW THAT HE WILL HAVE TO COME FROM ROME: THEREFORE WE WILL BEGIN THIS PART OF THE SUBJECT RIGHT WHERE WE STOPPED, IN OUR LAST ISSUE. WHEN WE RAN OUT OF SPACE WE WERE READY TO START DEALING WITH THE SEVEN HEADS WHICH HAD FORMED ON THE BEAST OF DANIEL 7:7, WHEN THE APOSTLE JOHN SAW IT OVER SIX HUNDRED YEARS LATER. DANIEL SAW FOUR GREAT BEASTS COME UP FROM THE SEA, EACH ONE DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER ONES, BUT THE FOURTH BEAST WAS THE MOST TERRIBLE OF ALL. IT HAD TEN HORNS, THEN A LITTLE HORN CAME UP FROM AMONG THE TEN AND SUBDUED THREE OF THE FIRST TEN. WE TALKED ABOUT THOSE TEN HORNS LAST MONTH, AND ALSO THE LITTLE HORN, BUT WE DID NOT GET TO THE POINT WHERE WE COULD EXAMINE THE SEVEN HEADS THAT JOHN SAW ON THAT SAME BEAST. THAT IS WHAT WE WANT TO DO RIGHT NOW.

SEVEN HEADS WITH NAME OF BLASPHEMY

Open your Bibles to the 17^th chapter of Revelation, where we will begin reading with verse 8. Maybe we should read three verses from chapter 13, to get the setting. This is the aged apostle John, writing these words. Verse 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, (Remember now, we already know this beast is the old Roman empire, the fourth kingdom that was to rule the world according to the words spoken to Daniel by the angel of the Lord, and John is seeing it all the way through to its end time role in the affairs of the world) and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. (SOVEREIGN IMPERIAL UNIVERSAL RULER, This title was held by the old Caesars, and only God can rightfully hold such a title; that is why it is called blasphemy.) Verse 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: (This shows that area of the old Babylonian empire, the Medo-Persian, as well as the Grecian was all represented in this ten horned beast which had seven heads) and the dragon (the devil) gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” When you read the 7^th chapter of Daniel you find that he saw the ten horns upon the fourth beast, but he did not see the seven heads, so just hold that in your mind, and we will now go to Revelation 17:8, where the angel of the Lord is explaining John’s vision to him. “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” There is only one city in the world, which sits on 7 mountains, or 7 hills, and fulfills what is written about this one; that is Rome. That was her great pride in ancient times, that part of her was situated geographically on 7 different hills. This 9^th verse has a compound meaning though. First, it ties the 7 heads to a city that sits on 7 hills. But when you read verse 10, you find the angel declaring that there are 7 kings, or kingdoms encompassed in the overall picture. We are going to read the actual history that deals specifically with each of these kings, or kingdoms that came out of the one great Roman head. Daniel looked forward through time, and saw this great, most terrible beast, and he saw the ten horns, the ten separate kingdoms that would eventually be established within the area that would be ruled by Rome in the days of the old caesars, but he did not see how that one great Roman head would become 7 heads. That was reserved for the apostle John who was projected into the future time in his vision, so that he could look back and see all of this as though it had already happened. To John, it was as if he was living in the year 1980, and looking back through time, watching all this as it took place.

THE EIGHTH IS OF THE SEVEN

Let us read verse 10. “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. (11) And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” Remember what you read from verse 8. “The beast that was, and is not; shall ascend out of the BOTTOMLESS PIT (that is a spirit of Satan coming out of hell to live in, and rule the beast) and go into perdition,” (destruction.) In other words, John saw that same spirit of the devil that was on the ancient caesars, coming right back to that old beast system for its end time role, and then going to destruction at the appearance of Jesus Christ. The devil began to loose his power and influence which he exercised through those imperial chairs of Rome when Nero died. His death ended that long line of ancient caesars who were all related to each other. When he died, there was not a son, uncle, nephew, nor any other relative to take his place. Vespasian was in the Holy Land with his Roman army fighting the Jews, in 69 A.D. when word reached him that Nero was dead. He returned to Rome, leaving his son Titus in command of the army. But it was during the time that Vespasian was fighting in one of the cities of Northern Israel, that the Jewish historian, Josephus, surrendered to him, and when he came out to meet Vespasian, he prophesied to him saying, Vespasian, knowest thou not today, that thou shall be emperor, and thy son shall serve in thy stead? Vespasian just thought he was hearing flatteries, but before long, there came a messenger bearing the news about Nero, and extending to him a call from the Roman senate to return to Rome and take Nero’s place. Vespasian ruled awhile; then Titus ruled awhile, also Domitian, his other son, but they were military men. They could not rule with the same authority that the old Caesars ruled with.

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EXCERPTS FROM HISTORY

THE END OF THE GREAT ROMAN HEAD

69-96 AD

During Nero’s reign half of Rome was laid in ashes by a great fire, which raged for a week. But a new Rome speedily arose. It was a much finer city than the old, with wide, straight streets instead of narrow alleys, and with houses of good stone in place of wooden hovels. Except for the loss of the temples and public buildings, the fire was a blessing in disguise.

After the death of Nero the dynasty that traced its descent from Julius and Augustus became extinct. There was no one who could legally claim the vacant throne. The Senate, which in theory had the appointment of a successor, was too weak to exercise its powers. The imperial guard and the legions on the frontiers placed their own candidates in the field. The Roman world fell into anarchy, and Italy became once more the seat of civil war. The throne was finally seized by the able general, Flavius Vespasianus, supported by the armies of the East. He and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, are called the Flavian Caesars.

During the reign of Vespasian a revolt of the Jews was crushed, and Jerusalem was captured by Titus, Vespasian’s son. It is said, doubtless with exaggeration, that one million Jews perished in the siege, the most awful that history records. The Holy City, together with the Temple, was destroyed, and a Roman camp was pitched upon the spot. We may still see in Rome the splendid arch that commemorates this tragic event.

The reign of Titus is chiefly memorable for the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, two cities on the bay of Naples. After long inactivity the volcano of Vesuvius suddenly belched forth torrents of liquid lava and mud, followed by a rain of ashes. Pompeii was covered to a depth of about fifteen feet by the falling cinders. Herculaneum was overwhelmed in a sea of sulphurous mud and lava to a depth of eighty feet in many places. The cities were completely entombed, and in time even their location was forgotten. Modern excavations have disclosed a large part of Pompeii, with its streets, shops, baths, temples, and theaters. The visitor their gains a vivid impression of Roman life during the first century of our era.

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FIVE GOOD EMPERORS

Following the Flavian Caesars (that is what Vespasian and his sons were known as) was five other men who tried one by one to re-establish another line of Caesars, but as each one died and another took his place, the efforts of the former were abandoned to make way for the plans of the incumbent. These were known as the five good emperors; but not one of them ever established another line of Caesars. They were emperors, but not Caesars. Then, at the death of the last of these five men, the old Roman empire really began to crumble and lose its strength and authority. That is when the power of Satan began to diminish from the old imperial chair. I have followed the history all the way through, and every account shows that Rome got weaker and weaker as different men would be elevated to the throne, then assassinated, one after another for the next one hundred and some years, all the way down to Constantine.

For one long period they had what was known as soldier emperors, simply because they fought their way to the throne, only to rule for a short period before they were assassinated to make way for the next one. Naturally we cannot read all of the history on these, but we will try to fill in enough for you to see these seven heads on that Roman beast. Remember this as we go along through these periods of time, it is only those emperors who stood out as having authority that actually ruled men’s lives that make up the seven heads. The first five heads were these 5 good emperors, NERVA, TRAJAN, HADRIAN, ANTONINUS PIUS, and MARCUS AURELIUS. (We have history on them also.) Then you have a period of more than 100 years before the next head (No. 6) is elevated to the throne. Head number 6, was CONSTANTINE. He is the one that established the sixth form of imperial government. It was his efforts that linked church and state together for fellowship. He supposedly had a vision to which he attributed his conversion to Christianity. In the year 312 A.D. on the eve of a great battle, he is supposed to have seen a fiery cross in the heavens, and words beneath it which said, “By this sign thou shalt conquer.” He interpreted it to mean that the God of the Christians was telling him, if he would accept their God, he would win his battles and conquer. He had all his soldiers paint the sign of the cross on their shields, and when they went into battle, they won. This so filled his heart with joy that he returned to Rome psychologically converted to Christianity. He then issued a decree that the Christians should no longer be persecuted. Next he established Sunday as a day of worship, and some 12 or 13 years later, he called all the bishops of Christendom together at Nicaea, Rome to settle the great Arian controversy, and to formulate the Christian doctrine. That is where the doctrine of the holy trinity was established, and that is what laid the groundwork for the Catholic church, although at that time it was not known as the “Roman Catholic Church.”

ONE HEAD – THEN SEVEN HEADS

Before going farther let us be sure we understand what is involved here. Remember, as long as that succession of old Roman imperial Caesars continued, the beast just had one head, for as one Caesar would die the next family member in line for the office would just take over, keeping it as one great governmental head. But when Nero died and there was no family member for the authority to pass on to, that great imperial head was broken. Vespasian, nor his two sons were ever able to elevate themselves to such a place of authority. But each of the five good emperors made enough impact during their rule to be considered a governmental head. Each of them had a form of imperial government, but when the last one of them died, it was over 100 years before there was another man on that throne with that kind of authority for more than 400 years. Carlemagne of Germany was the next one, and he was head No. 7 on that old Roman beast which had only one head when Daniel saw it. In other words, Charlemagne established the 7^th form of imperial government that ruled the world after the last one of the old line of Caesars died. He loved the Catholic church which was universal throughout all Europe. He was a military man, but was also a devout Catholic. His great moment arrived on Christmas Day A.D. 800, when he went to St. Peter’s basilica (as it is now called) for Mass, and Pope Leo 3^rd, suddenly placed a golden crown upon his head, and all the people cried out, LONG LIFE AND VICTORY TO CHARLES AUGUSTUS, THE GREAT AND PACIFIC EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS, CROWNED BY GOD! He had desired to become emperor, so this was a dream come true for him. Therefore being a religious man already, and now becoming emperor, he did much in the way of blending church and state together. His efforts got the ball to rolling for another emperor after him, (Otto the Great) crowned by Pope John 12^th, in 962 A.D. These two men were the advocates and founders of what became known as the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. But what did the angel tell John? (Rev. 17:10) “Five are fallen, (the five good emperors) and one is, (Constantine) and the other is not yet come; (Charlemagne) and when he cometh, he must continue a short space, (14 years — 800-814 A.D. Now, notice that next verse,) And the beast that was, (Remember now, you must picture John as being out here in the twentieth century watching that beast rise again for its end time role) and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” First let me say this, Do not try to picture 8 heads on the beast; it never did have but 7. Here is what happened; Charlemagne established the 7^th form of imperial government, putting the 7^th head on the beast, and as time progressed the Roman pope just reached right over and took over the last form of the old imperial government. That is why it says the eighth is of the seven. Those old popes just moved right into the old Caesar’s authority and made it church over state, instead of state over church. They did not call themselves emperors; it is just that over a period of time they elevated themselves to a position where they could rule mankind with that same authority that the old Caesars ruled with. We just read a little of the history on the power of the papacy in part 2 of this message, but from that little excerpt you can see what is written about Pope Gregory 7^th. One of the things he claimed to have the authority for, was to dethrone emperors, and that is the kind of authority that exercised over mankind for hundreds of years during the period called the Dark Ages. Of course they still had emperors on the throne, but the title was about all they had; they could not go against the pope and get by with it. The popes cracked the whip and everyone else jumped. We will read some of this history now.

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EXCERPTS FROM HISTORY

THE FIVE ARE FALLEN

96-180 AD

The five rulers – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius – whose reigns cover the greater part of the second century, are sometimes called the Antonine Caesars, because two of them bore the name Antoninus. They are better known as the “Good Emperors,” a title which well describes them. Under their just and beneficent government the empire reached its greatest prosperity.

The emperor Trajan rivaled Julius Caesar in military ability and enlarged the Roman world to the widest limits it was ever to attain. His first conquests were in Europe and resulted in the annexation of Dacia, an extensive territory north of the Danube. Thousands of colonists settled in Dacia and spread everywhere the language and arts of Rome. Its modern name (Rumania) bears witness to Rome’s abiding influence there. Trajan’s campaigns in Asia had less importance, though in appearance they were more splendid. He drove the Parthians from Armenia and conquered the Tigris-Euphrates valley. To hold in subjection such distant regions only increased the difficulty of guarding the frontiers. Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, at once abandoned them.

Hadrian distinguished himself as an administrator. He may be compared with Augustus in his love of peace and in his care for the interests of the provincials. Hadrian made two long journeys throughout the Roman world. On the frontiers he built fortresses and walls; in the provinces he raised baths, aqueducts, theaters and temples. Scarcely a city throughout the empire lacked some monument to his generosity. Hadrian left behind him the memory of a prince whose life was devoted to the public welfare – the first servant of the state.

The last of the “Good Emperors,” Marcus Aurelius, was a thinker and a student, but he enjoyed little opportunity for meditation. His reign was filled with an almost uninterrupted series of campaigns against the Parthians on the Euphrates and the Germans on the Danube and the Rhine. These wars revealed the weakness of the frontiers and rapidly growing strength of the barbarians. After the death of Marcus Aurelius the empire entered on its downward course. But before passing to this period of our study, we may take a survey of the world under Roman rule, during the two centuries between Augustus and Marcus Aurelius.

THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH HEAD

180-284 AD

The period called the Later Empire covers the two hundred and fifteen years from the accession of Commodus to the final division of the Roman world at the death of Theodosius. It formed, in general, a period of decline. The very existence of the empire was threatened, both from within and from without. The armies on the frontiers often set up their favorite leaders as contestants for the throne, thus provoking civil war. Ambitious governors of distant provinces sometimes revolted against a weak or unpopular emperor and tried to establish independent states. The Germans took advantage of the unsettled condition of affairs to make constant inroads. About the middle of the third century it became necessary to surrender to them the great province of Dacia, which Trajan had won. A serious danger also appeared in the distant East. Here the Persians, having overcome the Parthians, endeavored to recover from Roman hands the Asiatic provinces which had once belonged to the old Persian realm. Though the Persians failed to make any permanent conquest of Roman territory, their constant attacks weakened the empire at the very time when the northern barbarians had again become a menace.

The rulers who occupied the throne during the first half of this troubled period are commonly known as the “Soldier Emperors,” because so many of them owed their position to the swords of the legionaries. Emperor after emperor followed in quick succession, to enjoy a brief reign and then to perish in some sudden insurrection. Within a single year ((237-238 A.D.) Six rulers were chosen, worshiped, and then murdered by their troops. “You little know,” said one of these imperial phantoms, “what a poor thing it is to be an emperor.”

The close of the third century thus found the empire engaged in a struggle for existence. No part of the Roman world had escaped the ravages of war. The fortification of the capital city by the emperor Aurelian was itself a testimony to the altered condition of affairs. The situation was desperate, yet not hopeless. Under an able ruler, such as Aurelian, Rome proved to be still strong enough to repel her foes. It was the work of the even more capable Diocletian to establish the empire so solidly that it endured for another hundred years.

Diocletian, whose reign is one of the most illustrious in Roman history, entered the army as a common soldier, rose to high command, and fought his way to the throne. A strong, ambitious man, Diocletian resolutely set himself to the task of remaking the Roman government. His success in this undertaking entitles him to rank, as a statesman and administrator, with Augustus.

The reforms of Diocletian were meant to remedy those weaknesses in the imperial system disclosed by the disasters of the preceding century. In the first place, experience showed that the empire was unwieldy. There were the distant frontiers on the provinces to be governed. A single ruler, however able and energetic, had more than he could do. In the second place, the succession to the imperial throne was uncertain. Now an emperor named his successor, now the Senate elected him, and now the swords of the legionaries raised him to the people. Such an unsettled state of affairs constantly invited those struggles between rival pretenders which had so nearly brought the empire to destruction.

Diocletian began his reforms by adopting a scheme for “partnership emperors.” He shared the Roman world with a trusted lieutenant named Maximian. Each was to be an Augustus, with all the honors of an emperor. Diocletian ruled the East; Maximian ruled the West. Further partnership soon seemed advisable, and so each Augustus chose a younger associate, or Caesar, to aid him in the government and at his death or abdication to become his heir. Diocletian also remodeled the provincial system. The entire empire, including Italy, was divided into more than one hundred provinces. They were grouped into thirteen dioceses and these, in turn, into four prefectures. This reform much lessened the authority of the provincial governor, who now ruled over a small district and had to obey the vicar of his diocese.

The emperors, from Diocletian onward, were autocrats. They bore the proud title of Dominus (“Lord”). They were treated as gods. Everything that touched their person was sacred. They wore a diadem of pearls and gorgeous robes of silk and gold, like those of Asiatic monarch. They filled their palaces with a crowd of fawning, flattering nobles and busied themselves with an endless round of stately and impressive ceremonials. Hitherto a Roman emperor had been an imperator, the head of an army. Now he became a king, to be greeted, not with the old military salute, but with the bent knee and the prostrate form of adoration. Such pomps and vanities, which former Romans would have thought degrading, helped to inspire reverence among the servile subjects of a later age. If it was the aim of Augustus to disguise, it was the aim of Diocletian to display, the unbounded power of a Roman emperor.

There can be little doubt that Diocletian’s reforms helped to prolong the existence of the empire. In one respect, however, they must be pronounced a failure. They did not end the disputes about the succession. Only two years after the abdication of Diocletian there were six rival pretenders for the title of Augustus. Their dreary struggles continued, until at length two emperors were left – Constantine in the West, Licinius in the East. After a few years of joint rule another civil war made Constantine supreme. The Roman world again had a single master.

THE SIXTH HEAD

324-337 AD

Constantine was an able general and a wise statesman. Two events of lasting importance have made his reign memorable. It was Constantine who recognized Christianity as one of the religions of the empire and thus paved the way for the triumph of that faith over the ancient paganism. His work in this connection will be discussed presently. It was Constantine, also, who established a new capital for the Roman world at Byzantium on the Bosporus. He christened it “New Rome,” but it soon took the emperor’s name as Constantinople, the “City of Constantine.”

Several good reasons could be urged for the removal of the world’s metropolis from the Tiber to the Bosporus. The Roman Empire was ceasing to be one empire. Constantine wanted a great city for the eastern half to balance Rome in the western half. Again, Constantinople, far more than Rome, was the military center of the empire. Rome lay too far from the vulnerable frontiers; Constantinople occupied a position about equidistant from the Germans on the lower Danube and the Persians on the Euphrates. Finally, Constantine believed that Christianity, which he wished to become the prevailing religion, would encounter less opposition and criticism in his new city than at Rome, with its pagan atmosphere and traditions. Constantinople was to be not simply a new seat of government but also distinctively a Christian capital. Such it remained for more than eleven centuries.

After the death of Constantine the Roman world again entered on a period of disorder. The inroads of the Germans across the Danube and the Rhine threatened the European provinces of the empire with dissolution. The outlook in the Asiatic provinces, overrun by the Persians, was no less gloomy. Meanwhile the eastern and western halves of the empire tended more and more to grow apart. The separation between the two had become well marked by the close of the fourth century. After the death of the emperor Theodosius (395 A.D.) There came to be in fact, if not in name, a Roman Empire in the East and a Roman Empire in the West.

More than four hundred years had now elapsed since the battle of Actium made Octavian supreme in the Roman world. If we except the abandonment of Trajan’s conquests beyond the Danube and the Euphrates, no part of the huge empire had as yet succumbed to its enemies. The subject peoples, during these four centuries, had not tried to overthrow the empire or to withdraw from its protection. The Roman state, men believed, would endure forever. Yet the times were drawing nigh when the old order of things was to be broken up; when barbarian invaders were to seize the fairest provinces as their own; and when new kingdoms, ruled by men of Germanic speech, were to arise in lands that once obeyed Rome.

Rome, it has been said, was not built in a day; the rule of Rome was not destroyed in a day. When we speak of the “fall” of Rome, we have in mind, not a violent catastrophe which suddenly plunged the civilized world into ruin, but rather the slow and gradual decay of ancient society throughout the basin of the Mediterranean. This decay set in long before the Germans and the Persians became a serious danger to the empire. It would have continued, doubtless, had there been no Germans and Persians to break through the frontiers and destroy. The truth seems to be that, during the third and fourth centuries of our era, classical civilization, like an overtrained athlete, had grown “stale.”

THE SEVENTH HEAD

800-814 A.D.

“THE BEGINNING OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE”

Charlemagne, the champion of Christendom and the foremost ruler in Europe, seemed to the men of his day the rightful successor of the Roman emperors. He had their power, and now he was to have their name. In the year 800 A.D. the Frankish king visited Rome to investigate certain accusations made against the pope, Leo III, by his enemies in the city. Charlemagne absolved Leo of all wrong-doing and restored him to his office. Afterwards, on Christmas Day Charlemagne went to old St. Peter’s Church, where the pope was saying Mass. As the king, dressed in the rich robes of a Roman patrician, knelt in prayer before the high altar, the pope suddenly placed on his head a golden crown, while all the people cried out with one voice, “Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans, crowned by God!”

Although Charlemagne appears to have been surprised by the pope’s act, we know that he wished to become emperor. The imperial title would confer upon him greater dignity and honor, though not greater power, than he possessed as king of the Franks and of the Lombards. The pope, in turn, was glad to reward the man who had protected the Church and had done so much to spread the Catholic faith among the heathen. The Roman people also welcomed the coronation, because they felt that the time had come for Rome to assume her old place as the capital of the world. To reject the eastern ruler, in favor of the great Frankish king, was an emphatic method of asserting Rome’s independence of Constantinople.

The coronation of Charlemagne was one of the most important events in medieval history. It might be thought a small matter that he should take the imperial title, when he already exercised imperial sway throughout western Europe. But Charlemagne’s contemporaries believed that the old Roman Empire had now been revived, and that a German king now sat on the throne once occupied by Augustus and Constantine. Henceforth there was established in the West a line of Roman emperors which lasted until the opening of the nineteenth century. The title of “Holy Roman Emperor” assumed by the later successors of Charlemagne, was kept by them till 1806 A.D.

Charlemagne’s empire was not in any true sense a continuation of the Roman Empire. It did not include the dominions in the East, over which the emperors at Constantinople were to reign for centuries. Moreover, Charlemagne and his successors on the throne had little in common with the old rulers of Rome, who spoke Latin, administered Roman law, and regarded the Germans as among their most dangerous enemies. Charlemagne’s empire was, in fact, largely a new creation.

The empire of Charlemagne did not long remain intact. So vast was its extent and so unlike were its inhabitants in race, language, and customs that it could not be managed only by a ruler of the greatest energy and strength of will. Unfortunately, the successors of Charlemagne proved to be too weak for the task of maintaining peace and order. Western Europe now entered on a long period of confusion and violence, during which Charlemagne’s possessions broke up into separate and warring kingdoms.

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BODY OF CHRIST

Now that we have the 7 heads of the beast John saw, settled in our minds, let us return to Revelation 13, for a few more remarks. You will notice in verse 1, that the word blasphemy is associated with the heads of the beast, not the horns. Those horns were symbolic of the ten various nations of Europe that had a king of their own at the head of each of them. But, blasphemy was never attributed to any of them, for those kings never did assume a title that in the eyes of God was a blasphemous title. Furthermore let us be sure we do not think of this word, blasphemy, as a curse word. It simply means that those heads (the emperors) held a title that only God has a right to hold. Only God, is a sovereign, universal ruler. Also, think back how the Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy, saying that He made Himself equal with God. That is how the word applies here. Then in verse 2, John is describing the body of the beast, and that lets us know that the body is made up of the areas of the other three beasts that Daniel saw. The leopard identified with the old Grecian empire, and feet like a bear, speaks of the Medo-Persian empire, and the mouth like a lion, bring in the areas of the old Babylonian empire, and the dragon which gave power to the beast is the devil. Daniel saw this beast going away from him through time. He saw it with one great head, and he watched it develop 10 horns, and he saw the little horn come up from among the ten, and that is where he left it. But John who types the living ministry of these last days, was projected into future time, so that he could speak of certain things as though they had already happened. That is why he spoke as he did in verse 3, where he says, “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” That was the papal head that was wounded by the reformers, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Swingley, Huss, and its final wounding was by Napoleon Bonaparte. This wounding covered a period of about 300 years from around 1500 to 1800 A.D., and the healing is taking place in the twentieth century, yet John says, I saw it. Let me read another verse; then we will go into some explanations and examples. Verse 4, “And they (the world) worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” Saints: Can you imagine any sane, educated person, if they were allowed to see Satan in his fallen state, actually falling down to worship him? Of course not. Yet John tells us that the whole world worshiped not only the dragon, but the beast as well. That is a setting of our generation. We are living in the very hour when that old beast is coming alive, coming right up out of the sea (from out of the sea of mankind.) Like we said earlier, those ten horns are ten separate kingdoms within the area that was once ruled by Rome. Now they are binding themselves back together through what is known as the European Common Market, a move which brings a body of that great beast back together again. There will come a day when those nations will all speak with one voice. That will be when God has put it in their hearts to line up behind the Antichrist to fulfill His will. (Rev. 17:17) The old papal head that had the deadly wound by the reformers and Napoleon will be completely healed by then. He will be back in power again. That is why Rev. 17:8 speaks of the beast as it does. In other words, the beast WAS, and IS NOT, and YET IS, speaks of the fact that even though there has been a span of time when there was no beast in power, it was not destroyed completely, and therefore will rule again, that same beast. Of course the individual people will not be the same, but the geographical area will be the same, and that same old spirit of Satan will be calling the shots. The eighth head that is of the seven will be a different man, but it will be that same office, for it was the power of the papacy that just moved right in and took over the 7^th form of Roman imperial rulership, that actually made that 8^th head, yet it remained to be of the 7^th, therefore it did not put 8 heads on the beast.

CHARLEMAGNE LOVED THE POPES

Let me try to further clarify these 7 heads on that old Roman beast power. When we speak of certain men, Constantine, Charlemagne, and so forth, as being a certain head on that beast, it has to be understood that these certain individuals were the ones that stood out above the rest in each of the 7 particular forms of imperial rulership. The head was the particular form of rulership, but in each of these periods a certain man stood out above all the rest, and that is the ones we have named. For instance, take Charlemagne; he only ruled for 14 years, but his form of imperial government continued right on after his death. Let me explain that. He loved the Catholic church, and did everything he could for it. If you lived within the boundary of his domain, you were a Catholic, or else. The popes loved him, and he loved the popes. Therefore we are looking at a period of time when the emperors of Rome were so tied to the Catholic church that the emperors and popes were forever patting each other on the back. When a pope would die and a new one come for his coronation, the emperor would always be there to make an eloquent speech and personally endorse him. Likewise when an emperor would die, the old pope would be right there to place the crown on the next emperor. Therefore you must see this 7^th head form of government as a period when the pope was for the emperor, and the emperor was for the pope, but the state was still over the church. However there came a time when the popes began to take the preeminence and exercise church over state. The same form of Roman government continued right on, but the popes were in the driver’s seat. That is why it says, The eighth is of the seven; they did not set up a new form of imperial rulership; they just took the upper hand over what was there already, and Satan is causing the popes to rule men’s lives like the old emperors used to do. This is that little horn that came up from among the ten horns. He did not put 11 horns on the beast for those 10 horns represented political power, and his is ecclesiastical power. Horn speaks of power, but it does not define the power. That is why, when you come to the 7 heads and you see something that looks like another head, just remember this beast is a political beast, and what looks like another head is that ecclesiastical power of the papacy which does not put another political head on the beast, even though he rules with just as much authority as the old Caesars ever did, (read your history of the Dark Ages from about the 10^th century on) and because of his ruling power and authority that makes him ahead, but he is of the seven, or seventh political form of imperial government. The head is where the brains are; thereby causing the ruling one to be called the head. Now this is the head that was wounded, and that wound was inflicted by men who began to get revelation that caused them to know that Catholicism was not according to God’s true revealed word. As men began to get revelation from the word of God, they began to protest Catholic dogma and come out from under it. It looked like Catholicism was wounded to death, but our generation has seen a great reviving of this religious system which the Bible calls a whore. The ecumenical council of churches is serving to return all of the protesting harlots back to their old mother. (CATHOLICISM) This is forming a religious system that John saw and referred to as the IMAGE OF THE BEAST. (Rev. 13:15)

BEAST SYSTEM – BEAST MAN – BEAST SPIRIT

Brothers and sisters, I hope you have been able to follow this as we have presented it. One thing that is very important to your understanding is to remember that the term beast, is used in three different ways. That old imperial system as it was when Daniel first saw it, gained the first recognition, but then the term also applies to the man who heads such a system, and certainly we do not want to forget that there is a spirit of Satan behind this man, and that term also applies to that spirit, so you have a beast system, a beast man, and a beast spirit, and if you read the scriptures carefully you will be able to make a proper application. For instance: When you read Rev. 17:8, where the beast ascends out of the bottomless pit and goes into perdition, any right thinking person knows that this would have to pertain to the spirit of that system, a spirit that comes up out of hell, does its evil work and eventually is destroyed. (Perdition means destruction.) Now some of you may ask, Why did you start out calling Roman imperialism the beast, and then start talking about Catholicism being the beast? Catholicism alone, is not the beast. The body of the beast is made up of those 10 horn nations, but the result of the papacy exercising their authority over the state, has caused Catholicism to wind up in the forefront of it all. This message will let you see that when that papal office was elevated to the place where a pope would dethrone emperors and dictate the course of governmental affairs, that put Catholicism in the forefront of all authority, and the term beast, rightly applies to that system, and the head of the system will be revealed to the world as the beast man in the middle of that last week of Daniel. That is when Satan will anoint that world renown religious leader to reveal himself as a beast. A religious man with a wrong revelation is capable of anything that the devil might tempt him to do. This son of perdition is ordained to lead ungodly, but very religious men to destruction. True people of God cannot be led to destruction, and neither will they worship this beast nor his image, but the rest of the world will worship him, all whose names were not written in the book of life from before the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8 & 17:8) How will he lead people to destruction? By claiming to be the INFALLIBLE VICAR OF CHRIST and demanding complete obedience to his word, or face excommunication from the church. Unrevelated people who actually do believe in a God who is sovereign are afraid to go against his word. They are captured souls. That man’s title is just as blasphemous in the sight of God as the old Caesar’s title was. God himself is the only sovereign, universal ruler, and each of these titles of mortal men carry that meaning.

IMPERIAL RULERSHIP – POLITICAL HEAD

Let me say a further word about the emperors of Rome. Some still do not quite understand the difference between the time when the great beast of Daniel’s vision only had one head, and the time when that same beast had seven heads. I will be brief about this at this point. As long as Rome was ruled by the ancient Caesars (in other words, as long as that royal family passed the throne on down to the next one in line) the beast only had one head. But when Nero died there was no other family member to inherit the throne, so that ended the long line of Caesars and the one great political head. From that point the seven heads began to develop on that beast. When the angel told John that 5 were fallen, that was the 5 good emperors that tried to re-establish another line of Caesars, (in other words, another royal family line to inherit the throne, one from the other, as in the days of Augustus, Tiberias, Nero and so on) but none of them succeeded in doing so. Nevertheless each of them did establish a certain form of political government that caused them to be counted as a political head on the beast. The next outstanding emperor was Constantine. There were many other men who sat on that throne before Constantine, but he was the next one that stood out as a head, (one who made a drastic change in the form of imperial rulership) and when he passed off the scene; over 400 years rolled by before Charlemagne ascended to that throne, but none of those emperors in between Constantine and Charlemagne did anything that could cause them to be looked upon as the 7^th head. It was Charlemagne’s form of imperial rulership that the popes began to exercise the authority of the papacy above. Charlemagne put the 7^th head on the beast, and made way for the 8^th, (ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT) but the 8^th is not a political head; therefore the beast remains with only 7 heads, even though an 8^th head was in control. I hope this has helped clear up these scriptures for you. The royal family of Rome was called Caesars, in Egypt they were called Pharaohs, in Russia they were Czars, and in Germany they were Kaisers, but when the last one of such a royal family dies, that does away with such a title. Rome has had emperors since Nero died, but they have never had another Caesar. Still, that blasphemous title stayed right with them, for it is the word, emperor, that means sovereign, universal ruler. By the same token the title POPE, carries the same authority. In the Roman Catholic Church it is applied to only one man at a time, and that man claims to be infallible, and as we read to you from history, that office claims the right to dethrone emperors or anyone else that he chooses, and only he has the right to change laws and so forth. Claiming such authority makes him a blasphemer. You say, But Bro. Jackson, it isn’t like that now. You wait until that head is completely healed; then if you are still around, you will see whether it is or not. It is sad to say, but there are a lot of Pentecostal preachers who know this, but they compromise and drift along with the crowd, afraid they will be branded as a fanatic if they tell the truth about what they know. Many of those preachers have even gone to Rome, had an audience with the pope, and stooped, or bowed down an kissed his ring. If that isn’t devil worship my name isn’t Raymond Jackson. Why do I say that? Simply because, only a spirit of Satan would allow and promote such as that. If those popes had the Holy Ghost; they would do what Peter did with Cornelius, “STAND UP, I AM ALSO A MAN.” No Holy Ghost filled man will ever accept worship from anyone; I say that on the authority of the word of God. On the other hand, any Holy Ghost filled person will sooner or later take a stand for truth, regardless of its affect upon their fellowship with old friends. I will say this also, We are fast approaching a day when you are going to be forced to identify with something; there will be no more middle of the road for you to travel in. Praise God! I am thankful to Him for opening my eyes and causing me to stand for truth. I could not recant now, even if I wanted to, for those Contenders have gone around the world, and all who read them, know what I stand for. I am already branded, but brother I know this, What I have taught has been from the Bible; it is not resting on some moral man’s opinions. If the authorities ever come in here and say, Why did you say that? I can just say, “That did not originate with me; I got it out of the Bible.” If it is wrong; you will have to say the Bible is wrong, I am not the first to say, The Catholic Church is a whore; (spiritually speaking) the Bible says it. I am not the first to say that Protestant churches are harlots, the daughters of the old mother church; the Bible declares it. I am not the one that attached the word, BEAST, to that system; the Bible has it written bold enough for everyone to see for himself, or herself. The fact of the matter is this, Bible truth has been stepped over for so long while men followed denominational programs, that many people are worshiping the devil already and do not even realize it. They think God is in their two to five million dollar buildings only, and that people like us are, just a group of heretics and fanatics. They have failed to take heed to the things they have heard, and therefore all the various Bible truths that God restored to His church through those men that they have named their organizations after, have escaped them completely. These are the ones who are healing the old papal head that was wounded with a deadly wound.

WOUNDED HEAD

Martin Luther preached, FAITH IN GOD INSTEAD OF THE POPE. That brought thousands of captive souls out from the ranks of Catholicism. Shortly after that another man drew his spiritual sword and began to teach, ONCE YOU ARE SAVED, YOU ARE ALWAYS SAVED: therefore John Calvin is known to be the reformer that God used to restore the doctrine of eternal security to the church. Knox taught, WHAT IS TO BE, WILL BE. That is predestination, and it is a true Bible doctrine to people who are revelated, so that they keep it in line with the foreknowledge of God. Just to think God would look down upon lost humanity, and then choose some to be saved and doom all the rest to be eternally lost is a wrong understanding of predestination. On the other hand: if you can turn to scriptures like the first chapter of Ephesians, and realize that God, through His foreknowledge knew every individual soul that would ever believe, even before He ever created the earth, then you will have no difficulty understanding how He could record every name in the Lamb’s book of life, even before the foundation of the world. It is the same with eternal security of the believer. Just shaking some preacher’s hand and having your name recorded on a denominational church’s record book does not give you eternal security. But if you ever truly are baptized into the body of Christ by the true Holy Ghost, (I say it like this only to call attention to the fact that there are many counterfeit experiences in the realm of religion) you can never be lost. Once you have that true seal, you are sealed forever, and that requires a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; just following the pope will not get that seal for you. As God restored these Bible truths back to the church: the power of the papacy over the souls of men began to diminish. The old pope and his system of church government received what looked like a deadly wound. This wound was by the sword of the Spirit, but I want to read you a little portion of history that will allow you to see how that already wounded head received a final blow from a military sword, some 300 years later. The title of this is, The wounding of the papal head by the military sword. This is from the writings of “Joseph Rickaby,” found in the Catholic Truth Society of London, called, “The Modern Papacy” P.1. IN 1793 on November 26, a convention of 17 bishops and clergy members made a decree to abolish all religion. This was under Napoleon Bonaparte. Then in the year 1797, when Pope Pius the 6^th fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave orders that in the event of his death, no successor should be elected to his office. But the pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; General Berthier entered Rome on the 10^th of February, 1798, and proclaimed a republic. The aged pontiff refused to violate his oath of office, and to recognize this decree by the French. He was soon taken out and hurried from prison to prison in France. Broken with fatigue and much sorrow, he died on the 19^th of August 1799, in the French fortress of Valence, at age 82. No wonder that half of Europe thought that the papacy was dead, by what Napoleon had done. Another Catholic writer, “Cannon Trevor” says, The papacy was dead, and among all the Roman Catholic powers, not a single finger was lifted in defense of it. The Reformation had already been going on for over 300 years, but Napoleon struck the blow that got the attention of these various Catholic writers. When Pius the 6^th died; it was more than 6 months before another pope was chosen, and he was not without his troubles from Napoleon, but he outlasted Napoleon and managed to bring about a certain amount of restoration to the Catholic church. But the old papal head received a wound that has not been completely healed yet. This came right in behind the ministry of John Wesley who rode horseback across England preaching holiness. He believed Luther’s revelation, that the just shall live by faith, but what he added to that, was that those who are justified by faith should also live separated, holy lives. (“For without peace and holiness, no man shall see the Lord.”) The new world had been discovered, and Methodist missionaries were coming here, traveling up and down the New England region, preaching the gospel to the extent that it was revealed to them, and brother, it had its affect upon human lives. From that hour of Wesley and Napoleon all the way up to W.W.I, the pope in Rome was just a figurehead; his power over human lives had been broken. During that time, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, all these vast areas that had, through the Dark Ages, been controlled by the power of the papacy, brother, they broke loose like a bunch of school children when the bell rings, and they spread their presence around the world. In history this is called the Colonial Era.

THE COLONIAL ERA

England built one of the largest maritime fleets ever known in the world, and around this world, here sailors began to set sail. The Germans went to Africa, the Portugese and Spanish went to South America, and all over this world those horns of Europe established colonial territories. England was one of the largest colonial powers in Europe. It used to be said, The sun never sets on the British flag, meaning of course, that somewhere in the world it was always daytime in an area that had a British flag flying. But World War I seemed to be a marker in time, concerning a number of things, the Colonial Era, the wounding of the Catholic head, and the restoration of the gospel of freedom, (but this gospel freedom affected mostly the new world.) That war was fought, and when the debris and rubble of it began to be cleared away, men’s hopes were focused on freedom and peace, but that hope was shattered when World War II broke out. Europe was shook and shattered, and much of it torn all to pieces, but that was God’s way of saying, Horns, Come home. I remember being in the Far East during that time. But no sooner than we got back home, we began to hear rumbles of what was happening in French Indonesia, then the Congo and North Vietnam, and on down the line. Those nations of Europe pulled their presence out of all those areas they had spread into, and the Colonial period came to an end. Do you know what happened then? Communism came right in on the heels of Colonialism. That, along with the war itself, caused those old horn nations to be compelled to unite themselves together to fight a common cause. This produced NATO, which is the military means to protect the whole European territory. Who are they protecting themselves from? Russia, of course. What does that amount to? You may ask. Simply this, Nine of those horn nations are already tied together in economic trade agreements, and the tenth is on the verge of making the reunion of the body of that old beast complete. Communism has just been a scarecrow to get the body of that old beast reunited. In other words, Communism is just a tool in the hands of God, and its purpose is to work out conditions that will fulfill the word of God. At the same time there has been a great move of unity being promoted among the ranks of religion. Therefore on the one hand you have the old political beast of Daniel and Revelation being revived, and on the other hand, spiritually, the image of that old beast is being molded together and given life. That is your ecumenical move in the religious circles, and the Charismatics are playing their part. Nevertheless this old world is standing right on the threshold of a condition that will usher in the Antichrist hour. No one wants to see another war, but the word of God must be fulfilled, and it declares that Israel will be attacked by forces from the north. God will intervene in that war and fight for Israel, but not before it has brought the world to its knees. (Read Ezekiel 38 & 39) World leaders will be more than glad to sign a peace agreement with each other, and they will all agree that the pope of Rome is the most neutral man that they can find to oversee such an agreement. The present pope may not be the one, but he is still young enough that he very well could be, if we are as close to the end as it looks like we are. He is looked upon as a humble, spiritual man, whose interest is basically in the souls of mankind, but one who could be trusted to mediate a world peace agreement because of his unique position. Believe me, Saints, that is exactly what is up ahead for this generation. I may not live to see Ezekiel 38 & 39 fulfilled, but some of our present generation who saw the little nation of Israel proclaimed a state on May 14, 1948, will live to see it, and I firmly believe that is what will usher in the Antichrist hour. When that happens the bride’s departure is close at hand, but please, Saints, Do not look for the rapture before that man of sin has been revealed. You have to step over the scriptures in order to do that, and if you have no respect for the scriptures: do not bother to look for the rapture. The rapture is only for those who are washed clean of all man made traditions, and that washing is by the word of God.

STANDING ON THE WORD OF GOD 

At this point I want to take time to fulfill a promise. I promised that we would calculate the actual days of time that it would take to fulfill the 70 weeks of Daniel, before, and after the advent of Christ. Most of you are already aware of the great controversy among those who believe Bro. William Marrion Branham was the Laodicean church age messenger. That controversy stems from statements that Bro. William Branham made in other messages, after he had already taught on the 70 weeks of Daniel, and proved by the scriptures that Jesus Christ was crucified at the end of the 69^th week, which was weeks of years. I have always been the type that, when something has been proved to me from the Bible, I will not grab hold of a statement that is contrary, regardless of who says it. That is where the trouble lies. There are a lot of people in this message who try (in vain) to hold on to every word that this prophet messenger uttered. But I just happen to be the kind of person that refuses to believe that 3 ½ years is the same as 7 years, and there are a lot of people who resent that. Nevertheless, it would not matter to me if Bro. William Branham had said ten thousand times that Jesus was cut off in the middle of the 70^th week of Daniel; he had already proved to me by the scriptures that He was cut off at the end of 69 weeks, and the Bible is what I take my stand upon. Now I have already explained how I first became interested in this subject, so I am just making these few remarks to lead into what we are going to do here. In other words, if Jesus had been cut off in the middle of the 70^th week, as some of these folks argue He was, there would have to have been 486 ½ years of prophetic time elapsed since the Nehemiah decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. What we want to do is to see if it is possible to come up with that much time. You do your best to follow me in this time calculation, and I do not believe you will ever have a doubt in your minds again, as to when Christ was cut off to fulfill Daniel 9:26.

SEVENTY WEEKS ARE DETERMINED 

Let us first go back to the 9^th chapter of Daniel, and read from verse 24, and following. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” We are not going to repeat everything that has been said already, therefore it will be to your advantage to go back to part 1, which was our July issue, and begin reading on page 5, paragraph 2, and that will bring you up to where we are going to pick up, right here. Like we said earlier, history is based upon, or recorded by the secular calendar which has 365 1/4 days to each year, and that is what we have to use here, even though we are going to be dealing with scripture that is being fulfilled according to God’s prophetic calendar, which only has 360 days to each year. Pay attention, and you will understand why we have to go about it this way.

CHRIST BORN IN FALL SEASON 

Secular history puts the Nehemiah decree into affect in the year 445 B.C., and we must start it in the month of March, which is the Jewish month, Nisan. Now we have 490 years to account for, and these secular years (SOLAR YEARS) begin on January 1, so we lose so many days of that first year down to a certain day in March, before we even begin. Then when you consider the fact that Christ (in order to fulfill scriptural types as well as scriptural facts) had to be born in the fall season of the year, that takes off some more days of B.C. time, and leaves you only 444 years and about 200 days, before the advent of Christ. We all know that the birth of Christ is what marks the dividing line between B.C. time, and A.D. time. That is why I have maintained that Christ had to be born during the fall season of the year 0-1 B.C., because the birth of Christ itself should mark the zero point in the division of time. However the Julian calendar (and that is the one history is recorded by) is so messed up, no one really knows how to go about correcting it. Many have tried from time to time, and they all come up with something different. But most of those who deal in such things have settled on the year 4 B.C., as the year that Jesus was born, only because they could not figure time backward and get any closer to the point than that. Actually in the mind of God the birth of Christ was at Zero point, but like I said already: you cannot just stop time, back it up; then start it all over again. But in trying to stretch every possibility to its limits, just to see if there is any way to come up with enough time for Jesus to have been crucified in the middle of the 70^th week of Daniel, I have satisfied myself that there is no way to squeeze in that much time between the Nehemiah decree and the crucifixion of Christ. The most time you can come up with, is 485 prophetic years when you give every advantage of extra days to that side, and you would have to have 486 ½ prophetic years for Him to have been crucified in the middle of the 70^th week, when the Bible itself tells us He was cut off at the end of the 69^th week, and when you cannot possibly squeeze in enough time to reach that far? Most of those people who claim to believe that, do not even care whether it is possible or not; they just want to say what Bro. William Branham said. That would be alright, if they would say what he said when he taught the subject from the Bible, but they prefer statements that he made later when he was not even dealing with the seventy weeks of Daniel.

B.C. YEARS SHOULD END AT JESUS’ BIRTH 

Brothers and sisters: I want to start right here, and approach this time question from a different direction, or from a different standpoint than any historian has approached it, at least to my knowledge. We can go right to the Bible and find out the age of Jesus, when He was crucified. Furthermore we know that God, the great eternal Spirit is the one that fulfilled this prophecy; and you should know that He was not keeping track of time by the various calendars of mankind. He has His own means of keeping time, and it never varies like men’s records do. The Nehemiah decree was set in motion according to God’s great plan, and the angel told Daniel, that after 69 weeks the Messiah would be cut off. Reread verses 24 and 25, in that 9^th chapter, and notice that you have a 7 week period, (49 years) then a 62 week period, (434 years) and it is after this 62 week period that the Messiah was to be cut off. We accept the word of God, that Jesus was cut off at the end of this period of time that adds up to exactly 69 prophetic weeks. We can be certain also, that in the mind of God Jesus was born at exactly zero point in time, for it is His birth that actually divides B.C. time from A.D. time. We know also, that in B.C. time, records were kept by the life and reign of certain kings and rulers. In recording the birth of Christ they used those world leaders who were living at the time of His birth. Caesar Augustus was the one who made the decree that all the world should be taxed. Cyrenus was governor of Syria, and Herod, the appointed king over the Jews by the Roman emperor, was king in Judah, at the time of the birth of Jesus. History shows that B.C. time ends somewhere around the time of the death of King Herod, but like we said, history is recorded by men’s calculations of time. It was in the 6^th century A.D. that different ones began trying to update the Julian calendar. But they could never get it worked out so the birth of Christ corresponded to zero point in time. They just had to leave the project, and say that Jesus was born somewhere between 4 & 6 B.C. Even your Scofield Bible, in the chapter that pertains to the birth of Christ has 4 B.C. at the top of the page. They just do not have records complete enough to pinpoint it. One common agreement between them though, is that Jesus was crucified in the year 32 A.D., and that adds even more confusion when you try to reconcile that with His age of 33 ½ years, and His birth in the year 4 B.C. Are you following me? The more you study these secular history dates, the more confused you get, so let us just set all this aside, and try to look at it from a different standpoint.

WHY 32 A.D. FOR CRUCIFIXION? 

The historians agree that the year 32 A.D. was the only year that the Passover occurred when Jesus could have eaten the Passover meal with His disciples, late on Thursday evening, been crucified on Friday, layed in the tomb through Saturday, and raise from the dead on Sunday morning in accordance with Bible records. In other words 32 A.D., according to secular history is the only year in that time span when those days match up with the Bible account of His death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore I believe it is justifiable for us to accept the year 32 A.D., as a beginning point for what we want to do. We are going to start with His crucifixion, and the scriptural records that we have, and figure the actual number of days involved in Daniel’s 70 prophetic weeks, and run them backward to their beginning point.

JESUS 3 ½ YEAR MINISTRY 

Open your Bibles to St. Luke 3:1, “Now in the FIFTEENTH YEAR of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pointius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Phillip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zecharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country round about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Just keep the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar in your mind, and we will drop down in verse 21. “Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. AND JESUS HIMSELF BEGAN TO BE ABOUT THIRTY YEARS OF AGE.” When was Jesus about 30? When He was baptized. Alright now, He was about 30 when He was baptized, and that had to be in the fall of the year if He ministered to that generation 3 ½ years before He was crucified. Some who desire to be contentious will say, How do we know He ministered 3 ½ years? We know He was crucified in the month Nisan, which corresponds to the last of March and the first of April on your calendar. That fluctuates back and forth over a period of 19 years before it hits exactly the same again, so we will just roughly balance it by keeping it half of March and half of April. Naturally that is in the spring of the year. But let us think for just a few minutes on what the Bible says took place after His baptism. First we find that He went into the wilderness for 40 days where He fasted, and was tempted of Satan. That takes almost 1 ½ months of our time. Then he returned to Galilee, where He was raised up in the city of Nazareth. The records show that during this time He began to choose His disciples. He went into the synagogues, in and around Galilee and Capernaum where He bare testimony to the Jews in those different places. He was also at a wedding at Cana of Galilee, where He turned water into wine. He also raised a widow’s son from the dead, in Nain. All of this occurred in the first 6 months after He was baptized. When He heard that John had been put in prison, He took His mother and His brethren and disciples and went to Capernaum. That brings our account of His life after His baptism into the spring of the year, for in just a few days they went to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. That is where He fulfilled Malachi 3, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, (COVENANT OF GRACE) whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiners fire, and like a fullers’ soap.” That means He will be a purifier, and that is the first thing He did when He reached Jerusalem; He went right into the temple with a scourge of small cords and began to drive out all those that sold sheep, oxen, doves and so forth. He turned over the tables, and poured out the money of those who sold these things in the temple, saying to them, “Make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” What was He doing that for? He was purifying the temple. That was the beginning of the three full years of His ministry. He went up for the Passover, each spring after that, and the 3^rd Passover He attended after His baptism, is when He was crucified. It would be unthinkable to say He ministered less than 3 ½ years, when all the types are 3 ½ years. Would you not say so? The two Jewish prophets of Rev. 11, will minister 3 ½ years, likewise the Antichrist will be allowed 3 ½ years, so why would Jesus have more or less? He surely did have His 3 ½ years also. I am convinced of that myself; I am just trying to say it so you will be convinced also, not just because I say it is a certain way, but because you have taken what I said and lined it up with the word of God.

483 PROPHETIC YEARS IS 173,880 DAYS 

I believe it is time for us to do some figuring now. We have established the age of Christ at the time of His crucifixion, to have been 33 ½ years, according to secular time, so jot down 33.5 and multiply it by 365.25, and that will give you 12,236 days, as the total life span of Christ. According to God’s timekeeping, that is the total number of days from point zero, to the time Christ was cut off. We will accept 32 A.D. as the secular year that Christ was crucified, for the reasons that have been explained already. Therefore what we want to do now is find out how many days are actually involved in the 69 prophetic weeks that have elapsed. When you multiply 69 weeks by 7, (7 years to each week) you get 483 years of prophetic time to account for, so jot down 483, and multiply it by 360, (that is a prophetic year) and you will have a total of 173,880 days from the time of the Nehemiah decree to the crucifixion of Christ. Now, leave that 173,880 days there, and subtract 12,236 days from it. (That is the life span of Christ.) Now you have 161,644 days left. That is your B.C. time. Regardless of what secular year the historians claim Christ was born in, there was 161,644 days of time from the decree that went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, down to the birth of Jesus Christ the Messiah. When you convert those days into secular years of 365.25 days each, you come up with 442 years, and 203 days. That 203 days is just over one half of a year. Now remember, we are accepting the year 32 A.D. as the year Jesus was crucified, so when you back up 33 ½ secular years, from the month Nisan, in the year 32 A.D., that puts you a year plus 100 and some days, back into what the Julian calendar calls B.C. time, therefore when you add that year and over 100 days, to 442 years, and 203 days, that will get you back to the secular year 444 B.C. Now it is commonly accepted that the year 445 was the year the decree went forth, but that is only because history books were written before man had an accurate means of calculating time. By the use of modern day computers, the calendar could be corrected, but what would you do with all the history that has already been written using our present calendar?

444 REPLACES 445 B.C. 

Here is what an English professor named Sir. Robert Anderson, an historian, had to say and why he said it. I will not go into all the details, but here is the result of his calculations. Using the accepted time of March 14, 445 B.C. and feeding the necessary information into the computer, the time correction that came back was 444, instead of the commonly accepted 445 B.C. Then he takes 444 years, and adds them to the 32 years of A.D. time, and gets 476 years, then breaks it down into days, and comes up with the same figures that we have over here. Therefore based upon what we have found out in all of this research, we know that there really was not 445 years back there before Christ, but even if there was, you would still not have enough time for Him to have been crucified in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th week. There is no such thing in the mind of God, as B.C. and A.D. time, overlapping, because history has already been written, it has to be left on the secular records that Christ was born in the B.C. period of time, but certainly we know it was not as far back as 4 B.C. like they claim. I feel like we have proved that, by calculating the actual days as we have. Now some of you may figure beyond what we have already, so let me say this, If you take the life span of Christ, which was 33 ½ years of solar time, and break that down into prophetic years, you will find that He was just about 34 prophetic years old. Next, I want you to do this, take the first 7 weeks of Daniel 9:25, which is 49 prophetic years, that brings you to Malachi’s prophecy, (for he prophesied in the closing days of that 49 year period.) Now add the 34 prophetic years of His life span, and see if you do not come up with exactly 483 years, which is exactly 69 weeks of Daniel’s 70 weeks, and certainly could not possibly be 69 ½ weeks.

A STAR GUIDED THEM 

There are many more things that could be said to further substantiate what we have shown you here, but I do not feel that most of you will require further proof if you have been paying attention. However I do want to get at least one other thing in the message. The only thing most of your historians failed to work at in trying to calculate this time span of 490 years, was the overall length of the life of Christ. They seemed to be interested only in working from the point of His crucifixion, but not His total life span. But here is what I want to show you, or tell you; those who did try to establish a certain year for His birth seemed to want to use the star that guided the wise men to Jerusalem to inquire about the one that was born king of the Jews. These wise men came to King Herod and said, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east. Now here is where they get the picture more confused that it is already; they try to use a certain phenomenal lineup of the stars that took place in the year 7 B.C. (I believe it was 7 B.C.) As being the star that guided the wise men. Saints: It seems to me that any historian ought to know enough to know that no star lineup would hang around in the heavens for the number of months that it would have taken those men to travel the distance they no doubt came from. Those men traveled by camelback all the way to Jerusalem; and to follow a star, they would have had to travel by night. Therefore just suppose they came from the area where Ezra and Nehemiah came from. That would have been about a five month journey, but these men were astronomers; they could have come from much farther than that, maybe even India. It is very possible that they did. I realize some will say, But, Bro. Jackson, How could anyone in India know anything about Daniel’s prophecy? Saints of God, this is why it is so important for you to know what is in the Bible. It was not the writings of Daniel that stated so emphatically that one would be born in Israel that would be king; it was the writing of Moses. In the 24^th chapter of Numbers, you will find where Balak was trying to get Balaam to curse Israel for him, but instead, he heard a prophecy to the affect that there would come a star out of Jacob, a scepter that would rise out of Israel that would have dominion, and would smite the nations, and so forth. All twelve tribes were still together when that prophecy was uttered. Therefore when those 10 northern tribes were scattered to the nations, (about 100 years before the other two tribes were carried to Babylon), they already knew that one day, there would be a king born in Israel. Some of those Jews ended up in Madras, India. That was the ones old doubting Thomas preached to when he went there. That is why I say, Those wise men did not have to get their information from Daniel’s records; they could have heard it from any of those Jews there in India, or wherever they came from. But my point is this, The star they followed had to be a supernatural star that guided them, for you will notice in Matthew 2:9 that the star they saw in the east, went before them, and came to where Jesus was and stood over the house. That is more than just a planetary lineup. Therefore you can know from that, that there is no reason to go back to 7 B.C. as a possible year for the birth of Christ. Furthermore I believe we have sufficiently shown by calculating the actual days involved in the period under consideration, that He would have been born in the fall season of the year 1 B.C. That would put it approximately 475 days into the B.C. period, and allow it to coincide with the year 32 A.D., which seems reasonable to accept as the year of His crucifixion.

THE HOLY GHOST IS THE REVEALER

Some of my critics are bound to say, What about the chart that was used back in 1971, when you printed a message on the seventy weeks of Daniel? Brothers and sisters: My only reason for using that chart was to show anyone who cared to study it that there simply was not enough expired time for Jesus to have been cut off in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week. Even using 445 B.C. as a starting point, and 33 A.D. as the year of crucifixion, we could not get more than 485 prophetic years out of it, and it would have to be 486 ½ years to put you in the middle of the 70^th week. When I hit onto the idea to figure the actual number of days involved, and run them backward, along with what we have found out about 444 B.C., and 32 A.D. it came out exactly as I had always felt it should. In other words, What is 445 B.C. in secular history, is actually 444 B.C. astronomical time. What thrills my soul though, is to know that God who is a perfect timekeeper will start that 70^th week of Daniel precisely right on schedule, (His schedule) and we already know from studying the book of Revelation, and Daniel, what that week of time consists of. Knowing what is to take place during that week of time, has always made me wonder how anyone could think that half of it has already passed. It just goes to show how Satan can blind the eyes of those who follow some man’s flesh, without any revelation themselves. Saints, I just cannot stress it enough, Please do not sit here week after week, and year after year believing mentally what I teach, without ever getting serious enough about it to seek the face of God for a revelation of what you hear. If you just follow my human flesh, regardless of what reason you may have, God will allow something to come along sooner or later that will shake you off. Do you realize that the devil has ways to talk you out of anything that really is not a spiritual revelation to you, regardless of how right it is. Furthermore, there are some who expect to receive revelation, and they have never even received the Holy Ghost; that is out of harmony with the word of God. He is the revealer, therefore he must be in you, otherwise you just learn what you hear with your human mind. Even right now, there are no doubt many people who could tell you what is written in this message, and they could do it with a great degree of accuracy, yet as far as knowing deep down in their spirit that these things are true; they do not. Naturally we are not saying that you should know all about the history we have used, but as for the seventy weeks of Daniel, and especially the 70^th week of Daniel, every true believer MUST get that straight, or you are still going to run into trouble on down the road. If in the days when Titus destroyed Jerusalem, those Christians had not known for sure what to believe, many of them would have no doubt stayed right there in Jerusalem behind those huge protective walls, and they would have been killed when those Roman soldiers finally broke through, or been taken as slaves, but history declares, that not one Christian was left in the city. They took heed to what they had heard. By the same token, if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had had nothing more than a mental understanding about the God that Daniel served, what do you suppose they would have done when King Nebuchadnezzar confronted them with an ultimatum, either worship his image, or be cast alive into this fiery furnace? There is such a decision just up ahead for millions of human souls; therefore it behooves us to know what we believe, and why we believe it. Do you think those people who have layed their Bibles aside, and based their salvation on mere statements uttered by a servant of God will have anything within them that can stand up to the Antichrist when he comes fully on the scene? The answer to that is very simple: anyone who has had no respect for the word of God when they had every opportunity to be guided by it, will certainly not have enough of God in them to stand up to that old man of sin; they will sell out for a morsel of bread and be damned. Why am I saying these things? It is my responsibility before God, to sound a warning to this generation. We are at the end, and all scriptures MUST be fulfilled. Nine nations are already in the European Common Market, and the tenth could be accepted just any time now. When that old beasts’ body is complete; you can believe that the time is short. Someone will push a button that will start a war that will bring the world to its knees. No they will not turn to God in that hour; they will turn to the pope of Rome, a man of peace who will seem to have a perfect solution for the world’s dilemma. World leaders will sign the peace and trade agreement, and the old pope will have the final word on all the agreements. Even the Moslem world in that hour will be compelled by circumstances and overall prevailing conditions, either to align with that, or else with the communistic forces of the Orient. They will not go for communism, so that puts them right in the same boat with Israel and the old Antichrist along with many others, and the last week of Daniel is on. That puts time exactly 7 years from the literal coming of the Lord, and marks the beginning of the period of time that God’s two Jewish prophets will be prophesying to Israel, smiting the earth with plagues, and warning people to flee from the beast, (They will know the truth when the world in general will be deceived). Spiritual minded people will take heed to what they have to say, but the rest of the world will hate them. That is the reason they make merry, rejoice and send gifts one to another, when the old Antichrist has those prophets killed in the middle of that week of time. They will be glad those two pests have been taken care of. Now they will not have to hear anymore about their God, nor have frogs in their beds, nor their water turned to blood. They think that will solve their problems, but what they do not know, is that the great tribulation is ushered in by the killing of those two prophets. Things will really be rough from there on out to the end. If a person has not stood for God before then, all hope is gone for that person. Those foolish virgins and Orthodox Jews that will be martyred during that time, will have already settled it in their mind to stand for their faith rather than submit to the beast in that hour.

EXTRA DAYS OF DANIEL 12 

Now open your Bibles to the 12^th chapter of Daniel. There are some extra days there, that cause a lot of people to ask questions, so we want to get that in right here. This is dealing with the time that will be left for certain things to be fulfilled from the time the Antichrist breaks the covenant, kills the two prophets, and forbids the Jews to use their temple. Beginning with verse 7, Daniel says, “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; (that is 1260 days) and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, (Jews) all these things shall be finished. (8) And I heard, but I understand not; then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he (the angel) said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed til the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; (there is nothing in them that can understand; they are completely sold out to the devil) but THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND.” The wise understand these things that are to overtake the generation because they have believed the word of God and all these things have been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. There is a definite difference between just having something taught to you, and actually receiving a revelation of that which is taught. For when you go into verses 11 and 12, you find some extra days that could get you very confused if you were without a revelation on the time that is actually allotted to the Antichrist. Notice now, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, (that is the thing the Antichrist will do exactly in the middle of the week,) and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, (This will be the abomination that all the other types pointed to. This is where the old Antichrist moves into the Jewish temple, sets himself up and demands to be worshiped as God.) There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” That is 30 days longer than the 3 ½ years that all other scripture allots to the Antichrist, and many people have asked, Bro. Jackson: Why is it worded like that: Let me read verse 12, then I want to explain it, for we have some more extra days here. “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” That gives you still another 45 days, and causes it to sound like a contradiction in the scriptures, but here is one of the places where the wise will understand and the others will not. Verse 7, which speaks of a time, times, and an half (3 ½ years, which is 1260 days of prophetic time) is in complete harmony with all the other scriptures such as Dan. 7:25, Rev. 12:14, 13:5, that allow the Antichrist these certain specified days; therefore we must conclude that from the time the Antichrist breaks the covenant and sets himself up as God, he is allowed 1260 days. Then the 30 days, and the 45 days cover the period of time that God pours out His wrath upon ungodly mankind, and the period of cleaning up the temple, and the temple grounds, and rededicating the altar. All of this will be done before Jesus takes His throne for the millennium. Once Jesus takes that throne, the millennium is in motion. In other words, the thousand years of restoration has become effective. That is why it says, “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days;” that runs time right into the millennium. Furthermore that verse is not pointing to the grace age believers who have been in glory with Jesus, and have returned with Him, to rule and reign on earth. This applies to the mortal people who have been kept alive and passed into the millennium, those who have been spared from all the plagues, and from the wrath of the beast, and have been allowed to pass into the millennium to repopulate the earth. Blessed is that person who reaches that hour of time as a mortal being. I hope you can see from this explanation, that the extra days in Daniel, chapter 12, do not contradict the other scriptures. Just remember this, Jesus will not go into that millennial temple until after all of the Antichrist’s trash has been cleared away from, and out of it.

WHERE ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? 

I will ask you to open your Bibles to the 29^th chapter of Revelation, for a little look at what takes place immediately after the Antichrist has used up his allotted time of 1,260 days. Beginning with verse 19, we will see what is taking place during the 30 days of extra time that Daniel 12:11, speaks of. I realize this will be nothing new to many of you, but for the benefit of those who may not know exactly where to place these scriptures, we need to include them in this message. I have come to know also, that many people hear certain things over and over again and again, and yet, when a little question is asked, they seem to be completely blank on the subject. That just lets me know that many people just simply do not listen to what is being said. If you were talking about clothes, money or some other materialistic thing, they would listen and remember, but when it comes to the word of God, their mind is a million miles away. I have always said, you do not have to understand ever little detail in order to have an understanding of a subject. As children of God, we can understand, if we have a desire to. I dare say, if I pulled out my wallet right now and said, I have 3 one dollar bills in here; just about every person under the sound of my voice would be able to tell you how many one dollar bills I said I had. Here is what I am getting at: some people come to church, and while the message is being preached, their mind is playing around all over creation. Physically they are in church, but their mind is somewhere else. They do not remember a thing that was preached.

AFTER 1260 DAYS OF THE ANTICHRIST 

Brothers and sisters, we are living too close to the end for our minds to be a million miles away from those things that could be beneficial to our well being. When those first bombs explode, if you are left alive, I guarantee you one thing, you are going to have your mind on something other than straightening up your dresser drawers, shining your car, and balancing your checkbook. You will be taking inventory, am I ready to meet God if the next blast gets me? Saints, there are serious times ahead. We ought to be very thankful that God has allowed them to develop very slowly, so as to give mankind an opportunity to take stock of themselves. Those who are wise are not devoting all their time to planning their next ten years in the materialistic realm. First, they are making sure that everything is in order between them and God; then if He allows them to have another ten years, they will take care of themselves.

ARMAGEDDON – THEN JUDGEMENT 

Alright now, let us begin reading. (19:19) “And I saw the beast, (let us be sure we take a good look at the word B-E-A-S-T, here in this verse. In this case we must look beyond the Antichrist himself. Naturally you can call him a beast man, but I want you to know, there is no one human individual that is ready to take on all the armies of the world. The picture here, is what will take place when Jesus comes back to the earth with all His saints, after the great tribulation has run its course, so the beast here in this verse is absolutely Europe. John saw this whole conglomeration as a beast.) And the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.” These kings and their armies of the world outside of Europe. They are all gathered here, fighting the last battle that will ever be fought, (ARMAGEDDON) when they look up to see Christ making His descent to earth. That is when they leave off fighting each other, and turn to fight against Christ and His army from heaven. As we read this next verse you will see that the word BEAST, actually goes beyond all that military might, and all that human flesh, and applies to the spirit of all of that. Let us read it. 20 “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” This is two spirits that are cast into the lake of fire immediately upon the return of Christ to the earth. One is the spirit of that overall beast system, and the other is that spirit of Antichrist that has helped bring that beast system into existence, through time. In this verse, also, you find the image of the beast mentioned. That is the World Council of Churches, and we know that there is a spirit behind all of that, but only two spirits were cast into the lake of fire. Do you wonder what happened to that other spirit? The image of the beast only had a short duration of time. By the time these events are occurring, the spirit of that image has already been incorporated into the beast itself. That is why there are only two spirits to be dealt with. If you can get the picture here; you will see Jesus with all His immortal saints descending to earth, while all those European forces along with their allies are locked in a struggle for conquest (The battle of Armageddon) with the Oriental forces that have met them there in the land of Israel. When they see Jesus descending from heaven, they naturally will not want to see His victorious conquest, so they turn on Him, only to have the two spirits cast alive into the lake of fire, and all the human flesh slain by the sword of His mouth. Do not think of that as though Jesus was walking around literally cutting people’s heads off. He is smiting them with judgment, but nevertheless, their physical existence is destroyed in that way. That is what verse 21 pertains to. “And the remnant (all the human element of those armies) were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with the flesh.” Verse 18, even includes their horses, when the fowls of the air are called to feed upon all this.

GOD’S WINEPRESS 

Now tell me, Is Jesus going to be picking up kings, generals, and leaders of those forces, and casting them into a lake of fire? Of course not; this is God’s winepress. They will fall dead one on top of the other until the blood runs to the horses bridles, according to Revelation 14:18-20. Then, when Christ brings judgment upon the nation by the sword of His mouth to end the battle of Armageddon and destroy wicked humanity, He immediately layed hold on the devil, who was the mastermind of all those Antichrist and anti-God forces, and chained him up, and cast him into the bottomless pit. By that you can see that not even the devil is cast into the lake of fire with the spirit of the beast and the spirit of the Antichrist, before the millennium. Verse 7, in chapter 20, tells us why. He is kept chained up for one thousand years while the earth is being repopulated and restored to its original state, then he is turned loose for a little season, and allowed to go out and test all those mortal beings who have been born during the time he was bound up. After he has had opportunity to deceive a great multitude of those people, and gather them to battle against the saints of God, fire comes down from heaven and devours the people, and the devil that deceived them is cast into the lake of fire. From there, the great white throne judgment is set, and every evil and wicked person from Cain all the way to this judgment hour, will be resurrected to stand before the great judge of all mankind. This is when death and hell must release the dead that they have retained, to be judged and cast into the lake of fire. By the way; this should prove that hell is not eternal, as some suppose that it is.

THE MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN

Now let us back up a little, back to the 17^th chapter of Revelation. Some have thought that the Catholic church is the beast, but I want you to see that the Catholic church is the great whore that has committed fornication with kings and potentates of the earth, and has made the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication. She rides the beast, but she is not the beast herself. Likewise, you do not just say, Europe is the beast, nor the Antichrist is the beast, without realizing that it all has to be brought together to make up the overall scope of the beast. There will come a day when Catholicism is swallowed up by the political forces of the horns of Europe, so Catholicism alone is definitely not the beast of Revelation 13 & 17, but she is the mother of harlots (PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS) and abominations of the earth, so do not get too carried away by the fact that many of her priests and nuns are speaking in tongues and sponsoring the charismatics. They are just trying to get her harlot daughters to come back home, to Rome. Those denominations are in existence for the same reason that Israel was in Babylon. God allowed those Jews to be carried away to Babylon because when they were in their own land, they allowed too many other things to crowd in between them and God. They failed to keep the word of God to the point where their revelation was destroyed. Instead of walking with God in the beauty of true joy, freedom and truth, they substituted rituals, ceremonies, and pagan ideas until God, after giving them ample warning, just had them scattered among the nations. Why did He do that? It was so they would come to realize just what they were missing, while they served as slaves to pagan Gentiles. That is also exactly why the church of the living God was scattered among denominations, or into denominations. She forgot the real joy of walking with God and fellowshipping Him in the Spirit, and it led her right into an age of darkness, coming back out of that darkness has produced all of what is called denominational Christendom, and the true element of Christianity has been scattered throughout these systems, just like the people of Israel has been scattered among the nations. Therefore in this generation, the people of Israel have been returning to their land, and the Gentile bride has been returning to the truth of God’s word. She is finding that she has not stomach to feed upon all those leftovers that the denominations are cramming down people’s throats. Every true child of God has something within them that requires fresh meat; (spiritually speaking) the message of the reformers alone, is not enough.

WHAT WAS MEANT

To you who listen to the tapes, I want to clarify a statement I made in one of the messages on this subject. I said something like; “You know how these critics are always following along, saying Bro. Jackson is not preaching the message of Bro. William Branham, (because I preach that the life of Jesus fulfilled only 69 weeks of Daniel’s 70 weeks, and there is still one full week of time left to the Jews, and I said,) They are not telling me anything, I know that.” Now what I meant was this; I do not quote from the Spoken Word books, and try to say everything exactly like he said it. I heard him preach, and God gave me a revelation in my soul, a spiritual revelation, so that I do not need to quote Bro. William Branham, word for word, I can say, The Bible says so and so, and not feel condemned for not quoting. Some of these poor souls who feel that they would be blaspheming if they did any more than quote the prophet, are under more bondage than any of those souls who are still out there in denominations. These have sat under truth, and then been recaptured by that same old denominational spirit; We only say what Luther said; we only say what Wesley said, and on down the line. What is the difference? Any man who would hold to 3 ½ years when the scriptures clearly show that 7 years remain to be fulfilled, just because Bro. William Branham said 3 ½ years a number of times, is a man without revelation. He is trying to hang on to the coat tail of a dead man. There is only one chance for all such people, therefore if they do not repent of their idolatrous ways, get on their knees and seek God, for a revelation of His word, they will go the way of all the rest who have refused to move on with God. I should not have to tell you what their end will be. If there was a way that these people could take the Bible and prove me wrong, I would be glad for them to do it, but they will not use the Bible; they can only say, But, Bro. Jackson: Bro. William Branham said thus and so. Like I said before, I know what he said; I was there. Furthermore, Brothers and sisters: every man that is called of God to stand for the truth, has a responsibility before the one who called him, to take his Bible and whatever else is available, and search out these things that cause a difference of opinion. It is not sufficient in this late hour of time just to say, I have never made a study on that subject. Saints, I do not mean to sound hard, but there is a lot at stake here as we see this old Gentile age closing out.

FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS

We are going to bring this message to a close now, for I believe you have been given enough to help you find the truth if that is what your soul is hungering for. If there are still questions in your minds, honest, sincere questions, then feel free to ask them. We will do our best to answer them, but we are not interested in striving with anyone. We stand for what God reveals to be the truth of His word, and that truth is made available to all who desire to receive it. Our Contender messages are sent, free of charge to all who request to be put on our mailing list, simply because we believe it is ordained of God, for His truth to be made available to those who hunger for truth.

In closing now, let me reemphasize something I have already said. We are living in a crucial hour of time. There is a nuclear confrontation just ahead, and some of this generation will never live to see the rapture of the bride because of it, but I pray that your desires are as mine. That is, if the bomb takes me out ahead of the rapture, Lord let my soul be ready to meet you when it happens, so that I will still go up with the others who have stood for truth. May God bless you. Amen