WE ENDED OUR LAST ISSUE STILL LOOKING AT THE BEASTS OF THE BIBLE; SO THAT IS WHERE WE WILL BEGIN THIS ISSUE.

Daniel saw four great beasts come up from the sea, all different from each other; and the fourth beast was the most terrible of them all. That is the one we want to look at now, after having looked at the first three. That fourth beast was destined to be the last beast system ever to rule the world before the coming of Christ. Here is what Daniel wrote concerning that fourth beast. (Dan.7:7) “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse (different) from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” What was he seeing? He saw the arising of the Roman Empire.

When you go to your secular history books you find that another city began to take shape at approximately 800 B.C. The Roman Empire started out a city empire, city oriented and city controlled. However it grew until it controlled more territory than any of the other empires before it. We must understand this, though Rome is in Italy, there is quite a distance from Rome to the uttermost areas it controlled. History allows us to know that the ancient inhabitants of Rome were not just merely the native backwoods people of the peninsula of Italy. They were immigrant people coming from Athens Greece and many of these other regions. Small areas of people, falling constantly into conflicts between what was going on in the eastern realm, as well as the western realm, just kept fleeing from one place to another; and eventually ended up in Rome, because they had heard of the life style there. They heard that Rome was a growing city; so they came to Rome. Why am I going into all of this? I am going to ask you a question to help you get the picture of what we are looking at. Why do we have so many different races of people in America today? It is because people, through years gone by, have heard of the lifestyle here in America; and of the possibility of gaining an easier way of life to provide for a family. Remember, this continent was at one time the land of the American Indians; but they have been pushed way into the background. My point is, the population of America is made up of people from all over the world. I point this out so you will listen to me portray Rome to you. As Rome grew, it pushed outward until a few years before the advent of Christ it had pushed into all these regions. It rose up in what was called the west, as a metropolitan, military city power, and it reached out through the various backwoods territories in the Bavarian area of Europe. I must also point out though, that as they spread their influence eastward to the Grecian, Macedonian areas, they did not necessarily build their empire by constantly warring with the inhabitants of those areas. They did it many times through treaties and such like. Finally there came a time, as we study the Roman Empire under the caesars, she had spread her influence all through Europe, all across the Dardanelles, all through Turkey, and all way to the borders of India, taking in all of this area right on across north Africa. What a territory. What an empire. It was all done by the caesars. In their position of authority, they were called emperors; so let us understand what the word emperor means. It is a blasphemous title. Caesar means the emperor was of that particular family of royalty. They were just like the czars of Russia, the pharaohs of Egypt and the kaisers of Germany; all of a line of kinward rulers. When the Russian revolution came, it brought an end to the czars. Likewise the caesars came to an end when Nero died. The word emperor means imperial, sovereign, universal ruler; and that designation belongs only to God. The caesars who established this great Roman Empire believed that the gods of the heavens had established their reign and their right to be the supreme power over all of the earth. That is why they would take that title emperor. It also means imperial. In other words, everything must be subject to their rule. You can recognize that old spirit today, if you keep your eyes open.

DANIEL INTERPRETING NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM

I want to leave the particular line of thought concerning the buildup of the Roman Empire; and go to king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that Daniel interpreted for him. We can go from there to get back to where we want to be, as we try to get a picture of this last world beast power coming into authority. In the days when Daniel was a young man carried off into Babylonian captivity, (you can read in the first and second chapters of Daniel what started all of this) he was faced with the task of doing something no one else could do for the king of Babylon. Daniel, along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego somehow fell into very dreadful circumstances. They were among the captives taken to Babylon when king Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem; and by a set of peculiar circumstances they had found favor with the prince of Nebuchadnezzar’s eunuchs. Well the old king had a dream, and he had called in all of his astrologers, his soothsayers (they were participants in witchcraft, nothing but) trying to get an interpretation of the dream; but to no avail. Therefore things got pretty serious for all of those fellows; because the king decreed that they should all be put to death. However God intervened and turned the whole thing around. That king, a little later, was more sensitive to God than most of our politicians are today. They will not listen to God; but they will go to fortune tellers for advice. Maybe they do not realize it; but that is the same as going to the devil for advice; because that is the spirit behind all fortune telling and palm reading and all such like. When old Nebuchadnezzar called in all his fortune tellers and soothsayers saying, I have had a dream that I do not remember; but I will give such and such to the man who can tell me the dream, and tell me the interpretation. There was not a man among them that could do that. They all said, Oh long live the king. If you will tell us the dream, then we will tell you the interpretation. That made Nebuchadnezzar angry; so he finally said something to this effect, Look here, if you are what you think you are, and you know so much, you either tell me the dream, and the interpretation, or I am going to have your head. He was really angry about their failure to fulfill his demand; so he saw no further need to have any of them around. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were counted among those fellows, so when they heard about this decree Daniel said to his fellow brothers, We had better pray; or he will get us too. They began to fast and pray; and God gave Daniel the answer. God gave him the same dream; and the interpretation of it. Daniel requested that he be given the opportunity to stand before the king, and here is how it went. (Dan 2:24) “Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.” Permission was granted, so let us go to verse 31, and follow the conversation. I can just see that old king sitting there, so angry he was almost beyond rational thinking; yet he agreed to give Daniel a chance. Just listen to how that little Jewish prophet talked to that old king. “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; (In other words, he was not looking at a dried up thing. He was looking at some great monster of an embodiment standing before him.) and the form thereof was terrible. (32) This image’s head was of fine gold, (Pay attention to this description.) his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, (33) His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. (34) Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. (35) Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. (36) This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.” As Daniel looked at him and told him that, can you not just see the look of shock that came upon Nebuchadnezzar? He was surely thinking, If he can go this far, there is no doubt he can interpret it also. He was right. Here is the interpretation. Without hesitation Daniel continued, “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Did it ever occur to you, that of all earth’s metals gold is the most valuable? Do you know what that tells me? That in that day and time when the Babylonian Empire marked the beginning of man’s progress in creating a social structure, and begin to have world dominance, God likened the quality of men, their character, the social way they went about things, and their attitude and purpose, to these metals, and so forth. Gold was the best. It was the beginning of such an era; and we can see how people were affected by that. Here, was when man really lived in the best of his ability to be sensitive to the God of heaven that had created him. That is why God placed the value of gold there. You do not look at man’s pagan or brutal means of torture or anything like that. That has followed all down through time. You must look at man from the standpoint of his quality to be sensitive. (Dan 2:37-45) “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them All. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, (the Medo-Persian) and another third kingdom of brass, (that was the Grecian Empire) which shall bear rule over all the earth. (40) And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: (This is the one that concerns us, this fourth one that lasts until the coming of the Lord.) forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. (41) And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; (Rome and Constantinople) but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. (42) And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. (43) And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. (44) And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, (His own kingdom) which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (45) Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” When Daniel got through talking to Nebuchadnezzar, what did Nebuchadnezzar do? He acknowledged the God of Daniel. What did he say? (Dan 2:47) “The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.” He acknowledged Daniel’s God; and according to his pagan ways (which was all he knew) he set about to honor Him. That is what you have to understand as you read this scripture. That pagan king was more sensitive to the God of creation than our political leaders are today. Will our leaders today acknowledge God? Does God have to blow them off the face of this planet before they will even bend their knees or bow their heads? They have heart’s today like iron. Some others are like a piece of old burnt clay. They will compromise, and do just about anything except what would be pleasing to God. That is what you have portrayed right here. The quality of these various empires was likened to these substances. This one that was likened to Gold was in the time of Daniel the prophet. Daniel lived through the Babylonian era, and right on into the Medo- Persian period which corresponded to the silver. This goes to show the quality of people, how they were affected by time and relationship to God’s purpose among mankind. It was going to deteriorate; though within that structure there were certain individuals that God used, to be sympathetic to His Jewish people. Cyrus the Great made the decree that the Jews could go home to rebuild the house of God. (Ezra 5:13) “But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon the same king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.” That lets us see, that even on into the Persian Empire God was still able to move upon those kings and find them pliable; but as time moved on, the quality of leadership deteriorated concerning sensitivity to God. Alexander the Great was represented in the brass. Notice this, gold is softer than silver, and silver is softer than brass; so as time moves on down in the image, it is getting harder. This portrays man and his nature, his ability to be flexible and realistic toward God. Therefore as we move on through time, and come through the Grecian Empire, time is in the legs; and that puts us in the rule of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire brings time right on into the era of Christianity. When we look at these legs of iron, we need to understand, it was with this kind of strong determination that the Roman Empire walked all over the known world in that hour. When her empire got so great, while she still existed within the realm of iron, she ruled the people with an iron fist. One leg signifies Constantinople, the other is Rome Italy. We know this, Christianity was born as time was moving into the leg period of the Roman Empire; and you did not profess to be a Christian, unless you had the genuine experience; for it was not a popular way.

TRANSITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

We still have a lot to look at, as we study this fourth beast. That is why I wanted to bring time through the different cycles portrayed in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; and then go on into things that really show what this beast looks like today. However for the sake of our visitors, let me say this, When we move on down through this period of time, on into the toes, the Roman Empire has already gone through many changes. That is the way you have to interpret that vision of Nebuchadnezzar. It is an image that illustrates time, where God is dealing, and how God looks upon mankind. If Daniel had gone ahead and interpreted this whole thing to him, what it all meant, I wonder what some of these politicians would be saying today? In the days of these kings, when time shows Europe, the ten horned beast brought back up, will the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Hallelujah! Time is pointing to Europe today saints. Look how this part of Europe, in one sense of the word, has been a little reluctant to go with us in this Persian Gulf episode. England and France, and a few Italians have said, We are with you; but Europe as a whole society of people, actually, in their heart’s have been reluctant to really say, We will go with you all the way. They say, we will go with you up to a certain point, but beyond that we are scared. Of course it is true, one would have to first understand some of these prophecies of the Bible, to understand the attitude and outlook of a lot of people today; but when you already know what some are destined to do in the last days, these adverse attitudes do not alarm you too much. Just remember, time is no longer here in the legs, when everything was considered iron. Time is moving down here in the toe area, and these ten toes on that image are symbolic of where time is, when this stone is going to come on the scene. That is when we look at Europe, as she comes back up. When WW2 came to a close, the European nations had fought their last territorial war that they will ever fight. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Common Market are two systems of man’s social rule that are used to bind them together. In 1988, as George Bush was speaking to NATO, what he said was almost like prophecy. He said, I envision a greater Europe. I thought, George Bush, you do not know the depth of what you have just said. Since that time the hand of God has hit that iron wall; and it has begun to crumble all to pieces. The perimeter of Russia that has stood there like a giant bear, scaring the people of Europe half to death for forty years, is no longer the threat that she has been in the past. As that bear began to dwindle in size, and as she began to pull back, Europe began to unite. Europe is blending together. Spain and Portugal have joined the Common Market; and the stage for end time fulfillment of the prophetic scriptures is set. I want to say this, and you can mark it down somewhere, Yes there are twelve nations that are members of the European Common Market, (meaning that they have a trade agreement) but the fact that there are twelve instead of ten, does not detract one iota from that which is prophesied concerning the ten horned beast. Greece, right along in here, (pointing to a map of Europe) is a member of the European Common Market; but keep this in mind, and I would like to scream this from the housetops to the church world, Wake up! Greece never was a horn in the Roman Empire. It is only a neck, linking back over here to this part of the world. When this whole thing begins to talk, and function as it is destined to do, it is going to be this European core that you will look to; because that is where time puts it. When these ten toes right here on this image correspond to the reviving and re-uniting of the ten horned beast that was, and is not, and yet it is, it lets us know where time is. It means, time is pointing to Europe. Western Europe is where the ten horns are at. I do not care how many other nations join the Common Market from central Europe, all back over in here, that only adds to the territorial body of that beast we are reading about. The horns are here, on the original ten that existed after the breakup of the old Roman Empire. God is looking at this thing from the standpoint of how Daniel and the apostle John saw it; no matter how many splinters there may eventually be. The brains do not come from here or here, or even here; the brains are over here in Rome, in the Vatican. That is why the hour will come, when Europe, those ten nations of Europe will be in such a position in the European and Middle East part of the world, that God will create the necessity for the Pope to be the moderator, or mediator, or the administrator of a world system that will promise Europe and the Middle East a time of peace, tranquility and great prosperity. The devil is working night and day, trying to thwart the plan of God; and Bible prophecy is being fulfilled every day. Everything is running right on schedule according to the word of God. The forming of the European Common Market, was an economical way to bind the ten horns together. It matters not if Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, or any of the others become a part of that trade agreement, that is only adding to the neck portion. The ten horns still have their role to play in this end time wind up. Time itself will bring in this body like a leopard; because that means all those territories that once the Grecian Empire ruled, will in this last day blend their economical agreement in with the beast power. When you watch the News broadcast’s, and hear the commentators telling what is going on in the Middle East, you just have to be somewhat amused at their lack of perception, as far as the war and the eventual outcome. They will say, We are going to have Dr. So and So, a Middle East analyst. He is an expert on the Middle East affairs. I just have to say, You poor miserable creature; there is no way you can predict the future of those Bible lands, apart from the word of God itself. I do not mean to sound like a know-it-all; but it makes me sick to hear them sit there predicting what each situation will lead to. They call them arm chair generals. Well if you will pardon my terminology, God is going to spit in their face before this is all over; because they just simply do not have the answer for tomorrow. What we have going on in this world today, is prophecy of the scriptures in the process of being fulfilled. God has to allow situations that will get everything in position, before the actual prophecy is fulfilled. That is what throws a lot of these so-called prophecy preachers off course. They see a situation developing, that comes close to what they see in the scriptures; so they just jump the gun and say, This is it. No, God does not just come close; when it comes to fulfilling prophecies of the scriptures, everything will always be exactly in place. God is absolutely precise. The beast with seven heads and ten horns, will not have eight heads and eleven horns; God does not do things that way.

A WORD TO THE WISE

I want to say something that I hope everyone of you will take as serious as anything you have ever heard me say. You and I as Christians, do not have time to play around with anything that is not absolutely vindicated by the word of God. The time of going to the church of your choice is passed; you had better settle down in the place of God’s choice; and give Him a chance to work on your carnal nature; if you have any hope of going in the catching away of the bride Church. You will never learn how to walk with God; as long as you are running everywhere looking for a church that will pacify your flesh. There are a lot of places where you can go; if you just want to be able to say you go to church every time the doors are opened; but there are not very many places where you can hear the truth of God’s word taught according to the revelation given in this age of Laodicea. Furthermore there is only one Church; and that is the Church of the living God. That is why these truths of the Bible were not written for the wise and prudent of this world, but were written for babes such as would learn. That terminology applies to all who have the true Holy Ghost, born again experience; regardless of age, citizenship, or cultural background. God’s word is so written, that it does not require a degree in theology to understand the revelation of it. All it takes is a hungry heart, a hungering and thirsting after the true things of God. No such person will remain a babe in Christ for very long; for the very word of God, when put into practice in our everyday lives, will cause us to grow up into mature Christian’s that know how to look at situations in the world we live in. God does not make us into odd creatures that need to go completely away from society in order to live a Christian life; yet He does expect us to keep ourselves apart from the ways of the world. We can live in this world without being a part of it. You just have to make up your mind about what is most important to you. Do you want to be like the world? You had better check up on yourself and find out for sure just what spirit is leading you. James wrote, “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” It is time that true children of God recognize that we are to conduct ourselves as Christians 24 hours a day, every day. Sunday morning religion will not get you one inch off of the ground in the rapture.

WHAT TIME AND CONDITIONS HAVE PRODUCED

By the grace of God, I want to show you how to understand what went on when time was coming down here toward the ankles as portrayed in this image, when it was still iron. We relate it to this, how Daniel saw that Roman Empire walk out in time. Remember, he only saw four beasts; and the fourth was to rule the world until the second coming of Christ. Rome was in power when He (Jesus) was born; and Rome will be in power again, when He comes again. Praise the Lord! That is exactly what the Bible says. Stalin is dead; so we know he will not be the Antichrist. Gorbachev is only doing what he is supposed to do; and he does not even know why he is doing some of the things he is doing. God is putting it in the heart’s of these world leaders to fulfill their part in prophecy; but they do not know that is what they are doing. Saints: I thank God, that George Bush is doing what he is. He does not know what he is doing; but he is doing something God wants him to do. Please let me say this right here, Our military men went to Korea and died like flies, simply because a bunch of politicians held them back and would not let them fight. If Truman would have given MacArthur the same authority and the same free hand that Mr. Bush gave General Schwarzkopf, History books would be telling a different story about the Korean War. Our boys were butchered like hogs, because we had a bunch of politicians in Washington that created the massacre. Then we sent our troops to Vietnam. Why? Because we had made an agreement that certain nations in the Far East was in what they call, the Southeastern National Treaty Organization. We were obligated to protect all those that were a part of our territorial protective agreement. That is what put us in Vietnam. Then when we went to protect them, the government would not go along with it. We were there for many years; and it turned into a shameful thing. Our boys were butchered in the jungles and swamps; simply because they had their hands tied by politicians. That is why I prayed, God give our boys a little favor in the eyes of the world, in this Persian Gulf war. I believe He has given the American people a chance to regain a little of their former image. In WW2, when our troops went to France, North Africa, up the peninsula of Italy, the Americans were honored in any city they went into. They were looked upon as the men who had helped free them. I was in the Philippines; and those Filipino cried for joy when we went in there. They would come and wash our clothes; just wanting to do something to show their gratitude. Since that WW2 era though, it has been, Go home Yankee, Go home, almost everywhere we have been. Those KUWAITI’S sure had little hope; before our troops went in there. They have good reason to say, American boys, you have saved our home; because it has already been made known that those Iraqui’s went in there, raped their women, took little newborn infants out of the incubators, threw them on the floor and took the incubators back to Baghdad to use in the Iraqui hospital. Our news media did not tell the whole story. They stayed too busy showing what our bombs were doing to innocent civilians in Iraq, to tell you what Iraq was doing in Kuwait. I just have to admit, it has done my heart good to watch the News Broadcasts; and see everything working so well, that our politicians kept saying would not work. God just absolutely came upon the scene, and caused everything our forces endeavored to do to work almost to perfection. I want to get back to that 4th beast of Daniel’s dream, and the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; and try to show you how to look at those things; and what to expect yet in this generation. We have preached it, and we have printed it; but when you start talking about that beast with seven heads and ten horns, a lot of people have a hard time getting a picture of it in their mind’s; so I want to make it as clear as I possibly can, especially the 17th chapter of Revelation. The angel said to John, (Rev. 17:9) “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. (talking about the woman of 17:3-4, not the woman of chapter 12) 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.” At the time the angel said that to John, giving him the vision and insight of this prophecy, we must realize that the Roman Empire had not yet evolved into what it was going to be when it would be fulfilling those things. The language the angel used telling John those things concerning the heads is not understood by everyone who picks up a Bible and reads those words. It says, There are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. At that time the Catholic Church was not even in existence. However in the natural, the Roman world knew that the imperial city of Rome sat on seven distinct hills, or mountains as it was called. That was just naturally known; it did not require a special revelation. To that though, the angel said, “and there are seven kings.” As we look at this, we could say the seven kings are seven kingdoms. Notice though, the angel went ahead to break it down, “five are fallen, and one is, and the other (number 7) is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” Notice verse 11, and then we will go to chapter 13. “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” We are going to break something down; that I believe will give people a chance to catch the revelation of these mysterious scriptures. Therefore I will ask you to go to Revelation 13. We are starting in the fifth verse. We have read this verse, but I want to read it again at the beginning of this particular phase of the message. “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him (This word power, is speaking of authority, or political recognition.) to continue forty and two months.” That is speaking of the beast man. The beast man is the same man that is referred to as the Antichrist. He has many titles. I have already given you the dictionary definition of what the word continue means; but I am going to give it to you again; because in the religious world, especially in the ecclesiastical realm where those doctors of divinity that know Hebrew and Greek, and who are looked to by the world as being the officials who ought to know something, if there is anything to be known, just seem to look right over this word. It is a pitiful state to be in; when your education has caused you to be blind as a bat. The New Testament was not written by that type of men. In the end time it is not going to be understood by that type of men either. Sometimes a simple little word in one verse, turns out to be a key that unlocks the whole revelation. The religious world knows from the scriptures that there is to be an antichrist at the end of time; but somehow or other they have lost sight of the fact that there has been an antichrist spirit running parallel with the Spirit of God right on through the centuries of Christendom; and that it has been able to get inside the Church and cloak itself in religious garb. Since WW2 we have had all kinds of preachers that have tried to convince the world that they knew who the Antichrist was. They began to say, Stalin is the antichrist, after Hitler had already committed suicide. Some said Mussolini was the antichrist; but then he was hanged. On and on went these presumptuous ideas, It is this, or that, and then as time went on, different preachers, as they watched the rise of the great Russian empire, and as she extended her perimeter out, they began to say, Communism is the antichrist. The antichrist will come out of Russia. Well remember this, Communism as we know it, in its real ideology, is anti God. It is strictly against the belief of religion. The word antichrist does not mean that it is against believing in Christ. It is a word that means anti Word, or anti revelation truth. In other words, it is a spirit that seeks to pervert your understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and give you some kind of substitution. In other words, the antichrist spirit is a religious spirit that uses the Bible; but perverts its true meaning. Therefore if this thing which is called the Antichrist, the son of perdition, the beast, the false prophet, and the mystery of iniquity is going to be properly understood, then we have to understand something about what history reveals concerning the activities of this spirit in centuries past.

The Roman emperor Constantine was not the Antichrist man; but he was definitely led and motivated by an antichrist spirit; because the end results of his so called Christian leadership, plunged Christianity very rapidly into almost total spiritual darkness. There are a lot of religious fellows today, preaching the second coming of Christ, that are looking for the manifestation of some kind of character or person here at the end time that will be the Antichrist; but they are looking in the wrong places for him. Some are believing that somewhere in the Middle East there has been a little boy born, maybe of a whore, and that the devil programmed his birth. For some unknown reason this child grows up, (programmed by Satan) and as he reaches a certain age he is anointed of Satan to fulfill what the Antichrist is supposed to do. They see him invested with all kinds of supernatural powers that will enable him to perform supernatural feats. He gains a following, and in the end time that person will slowly be introduced into the political realm of men’s affairs. Saints, the world has always had that type of person. If they were not in India, they were in Africa or somewhere else. Politicians might have stopped and looked at them and observed them in their functions, but those men never did stand out to affect world leaders, to cause them to want to worship or allow themselves to be influenced by that type of creature. This thing called the antichrist, the beast, the false prophet, and so forth, has to be understood, that it is something that has been in time all along. It is just that somehow or other it changed its disguise, or its cloak. The word continue, does not mean it is something new, that will hit the world all of a sudden. The word continue, means to pick up and go on, after an interval of time. That is why, when we talk about the seven headed, ten horned beast, we are looking at the geographical territory of western Europe. Not Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, or any of those areas. By the time this beast has completely got its body structure, and the beast is fully activated, and the man of sin is the administrator of its affairs, in its earthly function, all those ancient territories that were in the first three empires will be incorporated in it.

REVIEWING THE PROGRESSION OF TIME

The Babylonian Empire rose up, right in the country our troops have been fighting in. Right there in Babylon is where the Jews were carried off to at the beginning of that first world empire. Nebuchadnezzar had the dream about the great image; and it has been like a great hour glass down through time since. In that image is represented so much time. Here is the Babylonian Empire. (THE HEAD) Here is the Medo Persian Empire. (HIS BREAST AND ARMS) Here is the Grecian Empire. (HIS BELLY AND THIGHS) Here is the Roman Empire. (HIS LEGS AND FEET) Time came right on down through the ankles, into the feet; but later, in the foot, it becomes part iron and part clay. When we come into time here in the ten toes, and we are living in the hour of the ten toes, time is no longer here, (Pointing to chart) nor here, nor here; it is running out. Time is in the ten toes. Knowing this, and remembering Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and that he lived here right in the same country where we are fighting, tells me something. The fact that we are fighting there tells me time is running out for this Gentile world. Look how the Europeans, in time past have fought their most drastic, terrible wars; and they have lasted from six months to a hundred years; so just think of the lives of mankind that have been lost on the fields of battle in Europe. Battles have been fought around the world; but we are right back where it all started from. Iran was the Medes and Persians. From there you cross over into the Grecian territory, and on westward to the Roman. As I have already said, The Babylonian Empire was a city named empire. The Grecians and Medo Persians were not city named empires. They had a capital, but you read very little about the capital in the Bible. Shushan was the city where the palace of the Medes and Persians was; but you read very little about that city. It was a people named empire. For the Grecian Empire, the capital city was Athens; but you read very little about Athens. It is a people named empire. However when you come to the fourth empire, (the Roman) it is a city named empire. The city stands out as the focal point all through its period of time. Therefore to continue, means to go on, after an interruption. In other words, to go on with, carry on, or extend something that was already set in motion at a former time. To resume, is to pick up where you left off. That ought to tell some people, if we are looking for the antichrist, the real antichrist, the world’s false prophet, the world’s false prince of peace, then we are not looking for some new, mysterious new something to arise somewhere. We are looking for the reviving, the re-appearing, or the resumption of something that has been in existence through the ages; but reached a point in time that there was an interruption. The interruption covered more than just one generation. The generation that saw that head which was wounded unto death, is dead. Between the wounding and the healing of the wound of that particular head, are several generations. The fact that time has brought on several generations who did not live when it was a functioning, ruling beast, makes it very improbable that you will have an element of people here at the end of the age, religious wise, that is going to be wise enough to know just how to identify this beast in the scriptures. As I have said many times before, I am not an educated man, and I do not have a vocabulary that sounds like I am educated; but I will do my best to try to break my thought down so it can be understood, as we use this chart I have behind me. (We will use a little different method when we print this portion, to try and make it as clear as possible.) Through the week, this has really stood out in my mind. In my mind, I can just see how time has brought about every bit of this, from Nebuchadnezzar’s image, right on through to the end of John’s vision. This little chart is one way to help people understand what time has produced since the beginning when Rome rose to become the great imperial city power it once was. From that time, Rome was always to remain the focal point, so in time to come, people sooner or later could look and say, It is the Roman Empire restored. There have been things take place in time, that somehow or other have changed the appearance of it. It has caused history writers to sort of just stop and go back to the old records of Roman history and keep writing new histories. They have no more to go on, than I do. We have the Spirit of God to depend on, to fill in the spaces; and they have very little of anything except their own mind. Now if this beast has always been a beast, and if the antichrist has been something that has to be associated with Rome, then I have enough history to place things in their proper order. I brought the one I like to use the best, because of the way it is compiled. I have two other histories at home, and they all agree with this particular one; so I am confident that we can get what we need, to present this picture to you. Follow me in time, as we go across the Mediterranean to Italy, where we will take a look at the great city of Rome that had its origin approximately 800 B.C., long before it ever became the 4th beast power to rule the earth. It did not just bloom like a rose. It was very slow in becoming a city of such proportion. By the time of about 187 B.C., the city of Rome was becoming a city of attraction. There was something strange about the leaders in this Roman city. To be an emperor, a caesar, placed you in a relationship to the society, where you might live for twelve or twenty years, or you might wind up with a dagger in your back. Of all the empires, Babylonian, the Medes and Persians, and the Grecians, this was one city empire that the throne position was always contested for. The Roman Empire established a political system of peoples’ representation, and they called it the Roman Senate. As the vast domains were incorporated and brought into its geographical dominion, Rome adopted a political form of peoples’ representation. These men, many times, would fall into anarchy, as squabbling grew to a peak. They would align themselves with a few, in order to be able to assassinate others. I do not have time to go into all the details; but to give you a little picture of how it was, I will say this, To be an emperor in Rome you needed to be a good man with a sword; and sleep with one eye open. You better also have a good detachment of Roman soldiers that really loved you, and that were ready to defend you in case your position was contended for. We have a list of the rulers that make up the main context of the revelation we need to get from John’s vision of this beast.

We start with Pompey, as we endeavor to give you an insight of the rulers that sat upon the imperial throne in Rome, consisting of a continuous line of caesars. Here are the ones that existed down through the years to the time of Nero. He was the last of the old line of Caesar emperors. From the gradual rise of imperial Rome to the days of Nero, as you look at the lives of all these men, some of them were assassinated; and Nero committed suicide. Julius Caesar was assassinated. At one time there were three of them trying to rule together. They were all rivals at first; and then decided they would all three rule together, sort of like a triune seat of authority. Finally though, as is usually the case, anarchy fell among them. As Julius Caesar did succeed in taking the throne to become a magnificent leader, he was considered in his day the equivalent of Alexander the Great in the Grecian Empire. It was all because of his military capabilities.

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After Julius Caesar was assassinated, then we come on down to Antony, Octavian and Lepidus, which at one time were co rulers, in that the providence was divided between them. Antony committed suicide; and Lepidus only had the providence of Africa to rule over, so Octavian finally won out over the others and for himself assumed the title Augustus, thereby becoming Caesar Augustus. He is actually credited with creating the system known as the Principate; and technically he was the first Caesar Emperor of that particular system of rulership. According to Matthew’s gospel, it was during the reign of Caesar Augustus that Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem of Judaea. That allows us to place Jerusalem in here as the Christian religious center over a short period of time as Rome begins to stand out in our biblical record. Jesus was born under Augustus; but Augustus lived only a certain number of years and was replaced by Tiberias, (according to the Encyclopedia) in the year 14 A.D. In Luke’s account, the third chapter, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist at about thirty years of age. That same scripture says that in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, John came out of the wilderness and began to preach and baptize; and that Jesus came to him to be baptized. I just mention this to sort of pinpoint time; for during the reign of Tiberius, Christianity was born. Tiberius was the stepson and adopted son of Augustus; so you can see how this rulership became a family affair passed from one right down to his heir. Tiberius was still in office when Jesus was crucified; but not for long. His successor was his greatnephew Gaius, nicknamed Caligula, (which meant “Little Boots”) but he was assassinated after less than four years of rule; and his successor was his uncle Claudius who reigned for about 13 years and was murdered. His wife Agrippina had him adopt her son Nero, as his successor; and that is how Nero got into the picture. He brought nothing but shame to that position while he was in office; and after Rome burned in 64 A.D., he finally committed suicide in 68 A.D. That brought an end to that line of Imperial rulers; and there was nothing but turmoil ahead. The Roman senate sent for Vespasian to return to Rome from his siege of Jerusalem, and take over the throne; but before he could get back there, three other army commanders had already occupied that position for a few days and met an untimely end. Galba was assassinated, Otho committed suicide, and Vitellius was assassinated, all within the year 69 A.D., before Vespaesian could get back there. Well my point is, the beginning of Christendom started with Augustus and Tiberias, but then we come on down through Claudius and these others which we will endeavor to give you a little information on. Let me say this though, I know most of you who live in this country have access to most of this history; but I get letters from believers overseas who have no access to this information, and they want to know certain things; so this is the only way I know to get it to them.

FORMING OF THE SEVEN HEADS ON THAT ROMAN BEAST

Just as Jesus was baptized under Tiberias, the church was getting started in Jerusalem when Claudius came to power. He was the emperor of Rome when Agabus was in Antioch, and prophesied that there was going to be a great drought throughout all the world. (Acts 11:28) “And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.” Tiberius ruled to the year 37, and Caligula ruled from 37-41, and Claudius ruled from 41-54. Nero ruled from 54 on through to the time when the Roman army was set for the destruction of Jerusalem. Vespasian was leading that army until he got the call to come back to Rome; so his son Titus took charge of the siege and ultimately destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. When Nero committed suicide in 69 A.D., I have to believe it all fell right within the plan of God. When Nero vacated the throne, there never was another of this kind of an emperor on the throne of Rome. The Caesar era ended. Vespasian occupied the throne for 10 years from 69-79; and was looked upon with much favor; but he never was able to establish any kind of rulership that could be looked upon as a head upon that beast. Likewise his son Titus, who took over the throne upon his death and ruled Rome for 2 years until 81 A.D. when he died, never did establish anything that could be considered a head. Vespasian had another son that ascended to the throne when his brother Titus died. His name was Domitian, and he ruled until 96 A.D. when he was assassinated. That was the same year John, on the Isle of Patmos, had this vision and saw this horrible looking beast rise up out of the water. Neither one of these 3 soldier emperors were ever able to establish a predominant influence to the Roman government, as these others had up until and through Nero’s time. That is why we have three dots here on the chart. The one large dot represents the old Imperial Caesar emperors down through Nero. Then the 3 smaller dots represent the 3 Flavian emperors, that somehow or other, in Bible prophecy, were only linking chains to what was to come on later; and the next 5 dots represent the 5 good emperors, (as they are called) who actually did establish five particular forms of Roman rule, that are counted as heads upon that old beast system. Christianity was persecuted by Rome from its inception, all the way down through time to the hour when Constantine who was emperor from 306-337, was supposed to have had an experience with the Lord along about 325 A.D., and afterward decreed that Christianity would from then on be accepted as one of Rome’s many religions. He is the one that took the heat of persecution off of the Christians; but it was Charlemagne, almost 500 years later, that was instrumental in merging church and state together; and opening the door that the Bishop of Rome would one day step through, to begin to exercise dominion over the emperors themselves. As for these that were referred to as the five good emperors, do not ask me why they were called that; because they reigned between 96 and 180 A.D.; and that was the second church age when Christians were slaughtered like beef cattle by the Roman Empire; but I will say this, All three of these little history books agree upon that terminology. The second Church age was known as the age of Christian martyrdom. That is why the second horse rider of Revelation 6:4, was riding a red horse; it was an age of martyrdom, and the red represents the blood that was spilled in that great hour of persecution of Christians. In spite of all of that, secular history shows that these five good emperors were able to establish a high degree of education. In fact, one of these men, according to this record of history, was able in his hour to extend the Roman boundaries to its furthest extremities the empire ever enjoyed. He became equivalent in his hour, in the A.D. period to what Julius Caesar was in his hour, before the birth of Christ. Yet none of these men were able to be followed by that of a cousin, nephew, brother, or anything. The old line of caesars were gone; never to be duplicated. These five emperors were established during that time, to stand out above the 6 that ruled between Nero and them. The records show that when that last one, Marcus Aurelius, passed off the scene, those five had at least brought a stable kingdom wherein the imperial government was able to an extent, to hold its territorial recognition and influence. However after the death of Marcus Aurelius, the secular history says of the Roman Empire, that out in the outlying territories, rebellion began to break out. The Romans would send an army here, and send an army there; and all of this began to bring about the gradual fall of Rome. You have heard the slogan, Rome did not fall in a day, and neither was it built in a day. What we need to understand about the fall of Rome, (as the old imperial head it once was) is what that fall meant. That once imperial political kingdom that was always officiated from Rome, somehow or other, to its outlying domain, began to lose its importance. As time came on, and the outlying domain of the Roman Empire kept rising to contest Rome’s imperial authority, it brought about a further weakening of the ability of Rome to control the people. Therefore between the reign of the last of the five good emperors which ended in 180 A.D., and the reign of Constantine which began in 306 A.D., there was a period of about 126 years that saw approximately 38 soldiers emperors come and go. They were soldiers called from the field of battle to take over the throne, just as Vespasian was when Nero committed suicide. Some would reign for only a few days and would be assassinated. For instance, the year 238 A.D., had no less than 6 different men sit in that emperor’s seat. Four of them were assassinated, one committed suicide, and the other was slain in battle. When a position in a group of people, or nation, or state is contended for by two or three parties, if there is not some kind of recognized law, with a certain established process by how those ambitions may be pursued, you are going to have anarchy and assassinations of every description. The history books tell what those different general emperors went through with between the five good emperors and the emperor Constantine that finally succeeded in getting things settled down. Constantine was not the sole ruler until 323 or 324, after Maxentius and Licinius were out of the picture. After he defeated Licinius, he was able to reunite the empire and establish a form of rulership that put the sixth head on that old beast. Remember, none of those men, after the death of Nero, could legally claim to be the Caesar. None of them were related to the old family of Caesars. In the old family of Caesars, it is true, some of them were like adopted sons, or a cousin or a half brother or something like that; but they were still considered to be legal Heirs to that throne, Nero being the last one of that ruling line of emperors. Remember now, when you are looking at the seven heads on that beast of Revelation 13:1, you do not include that Imperial Caesar head in among the seven. These are heads that formed upon the beast in later years, after that Caesar head was out of the picture. Here is what John wrote. “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” The seven heads were seven separate forms of Roman rule, after the death of Nero, that stood out above the general trend of all those others; and the ten horns were ten separate kingdoms that were established as a result of the breakup of the old Roman Empire. The ten crowns, were the crowns of the kings of those ten kingdoms all within the old territorial bounds of the Roman Empire.

A LOOK AT THE CONSTANTINE ERA

Upon the recognition of Constantine as the sole ruler of Rome in 324 A.D., we have another transition period to look at. As the Roman Empire, political wise, reached this point in time from 324 to 337, when Constantine finally won out over his rivals, another great change took place. He too was rivaled by two or three other men; but he succeeded in all the rivalry, of finally gaining the appointment to be the supreme emperor of Rome. Notice now, as we bring the line in closer. Constantine stands out for one thing, because he introduced Christianity into the ranks of his army and set about to take the heat off of Christianity, which was running at a distance, parallel. However just as there were different emperors all along, so in the realm of Christianity, were there different preachers and bishops in the city of Rome. May I say this, Those bishops within the city of Rome, observing the situation, for the time Constantine existed there as emperor, (not as caesar, but as emperor) Rome was at peace. Rome was seen as the imperial city. How come Constantine introduced Christianity to the state, you may say? I will endeavor to relate the incident to you, that caused him to do that. In the Far East, there was a certain region beginning to stir up things trying to create a revolt. Constantine took a sizeable army and headed east to take care of that situation. As he began to reach the area where he knew he would soon engage the rebel troops in combat, he called upon his pagan priests to offer sacrifice according to his established practice. However in the night, he had a dream. In that dream Constantine saw the sign of the cross in the sky; and the words which said, By this thou shalt conquer, and thou shalt overcome. When he stood before his troops the next day, he first called his officers and told them of the experience. When he told the troops the dream, the sign of the cross was painted on the shield’s of his army. That was the beginning of the sign of the cross the Catholic Church has used down through the centuries of time. The Knights of Columbus and all those segments of Catholicism are known by the sign of the cross. The devil can use the cross too, you know. It was the devil’s means of execution. That is how the Romans would execute a criminal; when anyone was to be executed. They would either use the cross, or feed the condemned person to the lions. History tells that Constantine was actually saying, The God of heaven has told me: that if I will accept this Christian belief, recognized by this sign, then I will overcome. He engaged in battle, and was victorious. His victory only served to convince him completely, that the God of the Christians was on his side. Remember though, he did not abolish the worshipping of other gods he believed in; he just added one more to his long list. This was just one more he believed in. He was referred to as the God of the Christians. He did not give up anything, he just made room for one more god. Listen saints, what he saw in that dream, was not given to him by the God of the Christians; it was given to him by the spirit of the devil. The devil gave him that dream to deceive all who were void of a true revelation of the One true God. That is how Satan became embodied in a world system of religion, that has passed itself off as Christianity for the past 1600 years. When we had the chart up here, of the Babylonian Empire, that was not God’s empire; it was Satan’s empire. This was the beginning of God permitting Satan to embody himself in a world system that embraced economics, military, religion, and everything else. Why would Satan want to disguise himself in Christianity? Simply because he realized, that in spite of all that martyrdom among the ranks of the Christians, Christianity still flourished. He used a pagan, Roman emperor to set the stage for what he wanted to do. He gave him an experience, that he naturally thought came from God; so according to the records of history, Constantine ordered a mass baptism, wherein all of his soldiers were baptized. When Constantine returned to Rome he wrote a decree stating that the Christian faith would no longer be persecuted, as it had been formerly. The decree stated that it will henceforth be accepted and recognized as a true legal religion, to be practiced by those that want to practice it. Christianity was such a growing religion, and the fact that his experience had brought him to such a position, Constantine did not hesitate to speak for Christianity; even though he knew nothing at all about the new birth experience. Therefore as time passed, more and more of the Roman politicians began to embrace the Christian religion. Not out of conviction and conversion, but because of the prestige and advantage it afforded them. I hope this little sketch of history will help you see why the emperor Constantine marked the sixth form of Roman rule, and is credited with forming the sixth head on this beast. Here again are the first five. Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, the five good emperors. Each one of these tried to establish an important type of government that would continue on as the Caesar rulership had, but each one of them was independent of the others. That is why they account for five heads on the beast; because they each stood out in time. Between 180 A.D. when Marcus Aurelius left the throne, and 324 A.D. when Constantine became sole ruler of Rome, there were about 38 other men that occupied that throne; but none of them count as a head on the beast. The emperors before Constantine all hated Christianity. Christians were martyred, slaughtered in every way imaginable until Constantine had that dream and accepted the religion of the Christians. In reality he was still a pagan; but he was called a Christian. What he did, took the heat off of the true Christians; and his form of government brought things under control throughout the Roman Empire. He succeeded for a few years, then passed off the scene in 337 A.D.; but his form of government continued on. He himself was not head number six; but his form of government was. It opened up a whole new era in the Roman Empire.

THE BEAST THAT WAS AND IS NOT AND YET IS

In order to have a clear picture of all of this, you need to understand what these men represent in time; and what took place between state, (the Roman government) and the church, once the two lines came together. Follow me, I am going to give you the run down, to show you what people have to understand, as they read about the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. The first thing you need to do is, always keep it Rome; it will not change. Do you know why I can say that, with no doubt in my mind whatsoever? You can read the 7th chapter of Daniel; and find that it plainly tells you the 4th beast, with ten horns will rule until the Ancient of Days comes. You should read the whole chapter, if you are not already familiar with it; but I will read just enough to establish my point. Chapter 7, verse 20, says, “And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other (the little horn, an ecclesiastical horn, the popes) which came up, and before whom three (political horns, kings) fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. (7:21) I beheld, and the same horn (those Roman Catholic Popes, riding that beast) made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; (7:22) Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. (7:23) Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, (We all know that was Rome) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. (7:25) And he (the Antichrist, which will be the Roman Catholic Pope in that hour of time as this age closes out) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. (That is exactly 3 1/2 years of prophetic time.) (7:26) But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” In Daniel’s day, there was no way for anyone to establish this thing; but in this hour, we have history to look to; and when you put the two together, (the prophecy, and the history) you get a true picture. It has to be referring to the Roman Empire; but to understand it, you have to understand what happened to Rome. What went on in time, following the great days of these certain emperors? That is what we are going to look at now. We are going to break time down, and we are going to break the Roman government down, from the old imperial system it once was, right on down, watching it go through the various stages. Each stage got weaker and weaker as time passed. When we actually come to Constantine’s hour, that was the last stable period of Roman government, as far as the emperors were concerned. From 337 on to 800, the Roman Empire went into a total decline. The decline meant this, the emperors that sat on the throne that the caesars once sat on, were mere figureheads. They sat in the emperor’s seat; but they were men of little authority. They functioned in an office; but they were so weak and unstable, little was accomplished by them. During all of those years, there was still that constant rivalry between those that sat upon the throne and those who coveted the position. It was during the time of this decline in authoritative leadership, that the ten horns began to form upon the beast. Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Ireland and all of those that made up the ten, were territories within the framework of the once great Roman Empire, that broke away from Roman rule to set up their own kingdom during that decline in Roman leadership. In other words, As those emperors got weaker and weaker, the horns began to grow. We refuse to be ruled by Rome any longer. We heretofore cut ourselves free from Rome. It was this breakup of the old Roman Empire that formed the ten horns upon the beast. Daniel saw ten horns upon that 4th beast; and he saw a little horn come up from the midst of the ten and pluck up three of the ten; but it was the apostle John that was shown the seven heads upon that same beast. It was the apostle John, that heard the angel say, “Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, (the great whore of verse 1) and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 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.” Let me take you back to Daniel at this time; since he was the first to see this great Roman beast come up. If we can see what it was, and learn why it was not, then we can better understand what the angel meant when he said, and yet is.

THE FOURTH BEAST OF DANIEL’S DREAM

Daniel had already described the first three beasts, and we know from his description that they were territorial empires with men sitting at the head of their government’s; and the various men that sat at the head of those beast government’s are described either by the figurative symbolic wings, or the ribs, or the heads of fowl, and so forth. All of those descriptions are significant, representing the men within the particular government during its main period of time. This 4th beast was such a different looking thing though, Daniel really had to find out about it. (Verse 7) “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, (which is the Roman Empire) dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth.” You can see right there, that the way it was represented shows that time had moved into the iron part of what that great image portrayed. While we are right there, let me again remind you of what the Gold in that image stood for. Gold is one of the most valuable metals of all earthly mineral ore. It is what the economy of the world is based upon. Even when it looks like the American dollar is a sinking thing, many times a lot of people will invest in things made of gold, because it is a stabilizing element in the world’s economy. It is a metal that is flexible. You can make something with it. That characterized the quality of the man sitting at the head of the Babylonian Empire in that period of time when God gave Daniel the vision. Just think of it though saints, even though the Babylonian Empire was a pagan empire, and Nebuchadnezzar a pagan king, God could still give him a dream that would be a prophetic dream for the people of God down through the ages to be guided by. When he awakened the next morning, Nebuchadnezzar did not remember what he had dreamed; but he knew he had seen something terrible in that dream; and he meant to get the interpretation, one way or another. He first jumped on his soothsayers and astrologers and said, You tell me. They could not, unless he first related the dream to them. God permitted it to be like that; in order to bring Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the picture. When Daniel told him the dream, and the interpretation, he immediately knew he had heard from the God of Heaven. As I have already stated, My point in telling this is, God could speak to men in that realm, because they were men that would listen. Even Belshazzar, the last one in that kingdom, a man who was like some of our politicians in Washington, that would rather throw a party than to conduct the business they are there to take care of, could be brought down by the hand of God. There he was in the king’s palace throwing a big party, taking the golden vessels of the temple of the Jews and using them to drink wine, and getting drunk, Yet God was able to speak to him. The point is, Belshazzar was a man that God could speak to; because when he looked upon the wall and saw that hand writing, his knees began to knock. He knew he was in for something. It might be good if God could write on the walls of our governing bodies of men in this day and hour. How many of our politicians would pay attention to a message from God? They would probably call in scientists, physicists, psychiatrists and philosophers who would attribute such a phenomena to a defect in the plaster on the walls. Even over the Medo Persia Empire, there sat a man that had a commandment from God to fulfill. Notice what Ezra 1:1-2 says concerning that. “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” Cyrus was already a man that had been named by God in Jeremiah’s writings. Coming on down to Alexander the Great, when time had moved into the brass section of that Image, (I have already brought out how brass is less in value than gold.) there was still a quality in mankind that the spirit of God could speak to. The fact that God could give Alexander the Great a dream, before he ever got to Jerusalem, and that dream influence him on his meeting with the high priest, lets us know that through the ages, God has been able to influence the decisions of mortal mankind. When they met, fulfilling Alexander’s dream, Jannis the high priest, took Alexander the Great into the area where the priest lived and showed him the writings of Daniel, where he had been in the prophecies. That caused Alexander the Great to have great favor toward the Jewish people and give them much freedom all through his period of time. It was different with Rome though. I have not read anywhere in Roman history that the Spirit of God could speak to a pagan, Roman magistrate, governor, or general; but the devil could. He spoke to Constantine; and played a trick on the whole world. It even played a trick on Christianity. Keep in mind, had John and those men that lived in that period of time, been here in Constantine’s time, you may rest assured they would have cried out, Get away from that man! His vision was not of God! By that time though, Christianity was in its fourth century; with a different type people, and a different type of ministry. They did not have the insight and revelation held by those first century Christians. That is why iron stands out. It shows how hard it is to change the mind of man. Let me read the rest of the verse. “It devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it.” That is true. When you really read how Rome conquered and ruled, and what it put forth, it was a different type empire altogether. “And it had ten horns.” Keep in mind, Daniel the prophet, saw all this in his vision, but he was told that it was for a former time, and he knew it was to take the place, or be in the same area the Babylonian Empire had arisen. He lived when the Babylonian’s were in power; and on into the Medo Persian era, but he did not live in time of the Grecian Empire. In the dream he saw these others coming up later on in time; and as he saw that Roman Empire come up, way off in the future, he saw that giant head form on it; and then later ten horns began to make their appearance. That puts time right back where we were a little while ago, between Constantine and Charlemagne. When Constantine introduced the church to the pagan, Roman state, for the eventual purpose of a courtship between them, that Christianity was no longer going to be persecuted, but was going to be respected, here is what began to happen: From Constantine’s hour the angel marked the sixth head, as we read in the 17th chapter of the book of Revelation. His form of government marked the sixth form of Roman government, that was sufficient to be counted as a head on the beast. When he passed off the scene, again there was a repeat of the same from there to Charlemagne. From Constantine’s death in A.D.337, to A.D.800, when Charlemagne came to power, the upcoming emperors were weaker and weaker all the time. We find from reading secular history, that territories began to rise up and break away; and as they did, the ten horns were formed. In these prophetic scriptures, the horns speak of kings, or kingdoms. Each of those horns had a crown upon it; so that is what the great Roman Empire had come to, a territory divided into ten kingdoms. Then as the so called Christian people of these territories, and the pagan state began to court each other, do you know what they are beginning to do? The politicians began to look to the pope, the bishop of Rome for whatever he could do for them with his Christian religious influence. By that hour, just about all of Europe had been brought under the effect of the church, as that courtship continued. More and more the bishops begin to play an important role along with the oncoming emperors. As the emperors were getting weaker in the area of power and leadership, the church leaders were getting stronger. That tells you why we have a lot of clergymen today in high places, they are not looking for the second coming of Christ; they are looking for an important place in social recognition, and in the realm of world affairs. I just have to say this, Whatever you see clergymen doing today in that realm, you can be sure each one is an instrument of the antichrist spirit. Naturally they are doing it ignorantly, not realizing the spirit they are of. Nevertheless they are instruments of the antichrist spirit, that spirit that is against true revelation of the word of God. As for the horns, they did not all form at the same time; but John was allowed to see all ten of them on the heads of the beast; and also the crowns upon the horns, and the names of blasphemy upon the heads. Daniel saw the thing coming; but John saw it in its completed evolution. Along about 400 A.D., the horns began to grow; so by the time Charlemagne came to the emperor’s seat, the beast John saw was almost entirely formed. What remained was for the great whore of chapter 17, to be seen riding that beast; and that is the part we are going to talk about now.

THE SEVENTH HEAD, THE LITTLE HORN AND THE NAMES OF BLASPHEMY ON HEADS

We need to understand why that word Blasphemy is on the heads; and not on the horns. Charlemagne’s hour, beginning in the eighth century, marks the completion of the seven heads John saw on the beast; for his particular form of government is what formed the seventh head in time. Just the mere fact that he came to the emperor’s chair, did not put head number seven on the beast; but what he did after he came to that place of authority is what we look at. When you read in secular history what Charlemagne did, due to the fact that the church was becoming so influential in governmental affairs in Rome, you can well see that he was not like any of the other emperors that were responsible for forming a head on the beast. Charlemagne recognized the dissension that had been going on for so long, and the break away of territories; but in order to make Rome the central point of recognition, here is what he did; that played right into the pope’s hand. First of all he was blessed by the pope. Then this Charlemagne, an emperor with a sword, did something throughout Europe that was long remembered. He said, Everyone is going to become a Christian. Then with the sword and bow he went from territory to territory forcing those people to join the Roman Catholic Church. If any had not already joined the Roman Catholic Church, and they insisted on being a plain old pagan, they could expect their head to come off, or at least to be thrust through with a dagger. Throughout his reign, he married church and state. He actually began his own Christian crusade 28 years before he was acclaimed to be emperor of Rome, while he was known as Charles the Great, king of the Franks and Lombards. It was said of him, that he regarded himself as the divinely appointed Defender of the Church, and as its ruler and lawgiver also. That is what Charlemagne did. He married church and state together. Now that we know this much, we need to come to an understanding of why the angel said to John, “And the beast that was and is not, and yet is, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” Let me read about the horns, in Daniel 7:8; before we say anything else. “I considered the horns, (meaning he watched them until he saw a change take place) and, behold, there came up among them (Notice that it says the little horn came up among the ten. That lets us know the ten horns were already there.) another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: (Plucked up by the roots does not mean he destroyed their national identity on the head; it was how he treated a particular king within a certain period of time, when he, the little horn reached that place of power and authority that enabled him to do what he did.) and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” That little horn began to rise among the ten. Please take note of that. Remember also, HORN speaks of power. I will just say again right now, The ten horns were political powers, (kingdoms) but that little horn was an ecclesiastical power; which was none other than the Roman Catholic Pope, which in earlier times was known as the bishop of Rome. When you take that mouth speaking great things, it is the same mouth you see in verses 5-7, of Revelation 13, which plainly tell you he (that same little horn, though he is not called that there) had a mouth speaking great things, and spoke great blasphemies against the God of heaven. Daniel and John were both shown the same beast; but they did not both see every detail of the complete picture from Babylon to the end of Rome. Charlemagne married the church and state together by forcing the people throughout the pagan, Roman state to become Christians, whether they wanted to or not. What that did, was put the church and state on the same level; and as I said earlier, played right into the hands of the pope. Since we know that it was Charlemagne’s period that put the seventh head on the beast, I want to again remind you of that strange terminology the angel used as he talked to John. “Five are fallen, one is.” I will say this, Right here is where the angel was showing John something, as he talked to him in the 17th chapter of Revelation. Remember, as John was taken up in the 4th chapter of Revelation, when the voice said, Come up hither and I will show thee things that shall be hereafter. Then John, in the spirit, was taken into the future tense of time; and when it comes to what he saw in the 17th chapter, try to understand this, John was standing somewhere over here in the future tense, and he was being instructed by the angel who was showing him how to write this thing in such a way that when people would read it, they would not know how to put the picture together; except by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He was projected into the twentieth century, watching the thing come toward him. Daniel watched it going away from him. That is what you have to understand. John stood over here somewhere in the 20th century, where he could see this whole thing come about; and the angel was standing where he could say, “Five are fallen, (past tense) one is, (present tense) and one is not yet come.” When he comes, what did he say, he will continue for a little space. Which means he will have a short duration. Then what did he say? (17:11) “And the beast that was, and is not, (talking about the seventh) even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” When the angel said that, he was going to go right back to that old imperial authority, the way the caesars used to rule. You just did not resist that authority. Well there was a day way over here, when the popes of Rome had that same authority. Read it in history. That was the trick the devil played on the Roman Empire. First he introduced Christianity for courtship. Then he brought it for marriage. Finally the church took over completely. When the church took over, what used to be emperors back here that had authority, from there on the emperors were only figureheads. You do not read a thing about any of them. What you do read about though, is the popes that reigned in their stead, so to speak. That is what you have to look at.

AN EMPEROR CALLED THE POPE MAKER

I want to take a little time to pin down some of the statements we have made in the earlier part of the message. While it is true that the emperor Charlemagne, is credited with forming head number seven on the 4th beast Daniel saw rise to power, that to him was a beast with ten horns, it was many years after Charlemagne’s death before his form of Roman rule formed that seventh head. It was actually the latter form of it, under an emperor named Otto the Great, that really made it what we look at, when we speak of his form of Roman rule. After Charlemagne’s death, Rome again went into a further decline. He tries his best to establish a rule like Augustus and Claudius, and those first emperors had; but those ten horns had to have an opportunity to fully mature. In a political sense, they had to get complete independence from Rome, while still having that bond with Rome; in order for the prophetic scriptures to be fulfilled. (This is just my way of expressing it. Prophecy was written like this, because this is how God (through His foreknowledge) saw it coming about. I want to read to you a little sketch of history concerning Otto the Great. It will allow you to see from history, how papal authority came to be elevated above the authority of the Roman emperors. (This is history. “Otto the Great is not only to be remembered as a German king of the same race that Charlemagne was of: his reign was also noteworthy in the history of Italy. The country at this time was hopelessly divided between rival and contending peoples. The emperor at Constantinople controlled the southern extremity of the peninsula. The Mohammedians held Sicily and some cities on the mainland. The pope ruled at Rome, and in the estate of the church. (Even at this early date, the popes were already rising in power and influence.) Even the imperial title died out, and there was no longer a Roman emperor in the West; there was a pope. The deplorable condition in Italy invited interference from abroad. Following the footsteps of Charlemagne, Otto the Great led two expeditions across the Alps, assumed the iron crown of Lombardy, and then proceeded to Rome, where he secured the Pope John 12th against the latest enemies in the city. Otto’s reward was the same as Charlemagne’s. On Christmas Day, the year 962, A.D., the grateful pope crowned him Emperor. The coronation of Otto the Great seemed to his contemporaries a necessity, and a beneficial act. They still believed that the Holy Roman Empire was suspended, not extinct; and that now, 150 years after Charlemagne, the occasion was opportune to revive the name and power associated with the golden age of the Francish Emperor Charlemagne. Otto’s ardent spirit, one may well believe, was fired with this vision of imperial sway, and the renewal of the title around which clustered so many memories of success and glory. But the outcome of Otto’s restoration of the Roman Empire was not good either for Italy or Germany. It became the ruler henceforth that the man that the German nobles chose as their king, had a claim also to the Italian crown and the imperial title. The efforts of the German kings to make good this claim led to their constant interference in the affairs of Italy. They treated that country as a conquered province which had no right to a national life and an independent government under its own rulers. At the same time they neglected Germany; and failed to keep their powerful territorial lords in subjection. Neither Italy nor Germany, in consequence, could become a unified centralized state, such as was formed in France and England during the Middle Ages. The empire of Charlemagne, restored by Otto the Great, (Please take note of the fact that Otto R-E-S-T-O-R- E-D the empire of Charlemagne. That is why it can be said that the LITTLE HORN, the Pope took over the last form of Roman Imperialism. No other man after Charlemagne, was ever able to establish anything that even resembled it.) came to be called in later centuries, the Holy Roman Empire. The title points to the idea of a world monarchy, the Roman Empire, and a world religion. The magnificent idea was never fully realized. The popes and emperors, instead of being bound to each other by the closest ties, were more generally enemies than friends. A large part of medieval history was to turn on this conflict between the emperors and the popes.” Otto used the church to achieve his own purpose; but by opening that door, he allowed the devil the opportunity to have the papacy take over that 7th form of Roman political government; thereby making this 8th head (which was an ecclesiastical head) a part of the 7th, which fulfilled what John wrote in the 17th chapter of Revelation exactly. When that happened it just simply reversed the whole thing. Instead of state over church as it always had been before, it then became church over state; with the popes cracking the whip. This change did not take place suddenly; it was a gradual change that involved many popes, each one gaining a little more supremacy over the emperors than the one before. That is why it is said, that for about three centuries there were no unbelievers in Rome. Everyone was a Catholic. The pope was a (as some would say) sovereign ruler; and all the political leaders of the ten horn nations were all Catholic’s under his dominion. Knowing this, we can better understand the scripture that says, (Rev.17:8) “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, (Only a spirit can ascend from the bottomless pit; therefore we understand that the devil is the life of that old beast system.) 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.” The devil first ruled the world through those old Roman caesar’s; and right on through time in the Roman imperial system, until it came time that he could rule the world through the Roman Catholic Church system. That caused the pope to become what looked like an 11th horn upon that old beast; but in reality it was not such a horn; because this horn (power) did not establish another nation within the old Roman Empire territory. Even though this was the most powerful horn of the whole lot, it did not change the makeup of the beast; for it still had only 7 heads, and only 10 horns. Daniel saw this “eleventh horn” rise up, having eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, and it is written that he sought to change times, and laws, and seasons; therefore I want to show you from history, how this was fulfilled. Notice how the papal power ascended to a place of supremacy over the emperors, as we read a little more from history. “One might suppose that there could be no interference between pope and emperor, since they seem to have separate spheres of action. It was said, That God had made the pope, as the successor of St. Peter, supreme in spiritual matters; and the emperor as heir of the Roman Caesars, supreme in temporal matters. The former (the popes) ruled men’s soul’s; and the latter men’s bodie’s. The two sovereigns thus divided on equal terms, the government of the world. The difficulty with this theory was that it did not work. No one could decide in advance, where the authority of the pope ended, and where that of the emperor began. When the pope claimed certain powers which were also claimed by the emperor, a conflict between the two rulers became inevitable. Otto the Great, in 962 A.D., restored imperial rule in the west. Thus founding what in later centuries came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire. He made the pope to be completely recognized by all citizenry. There was no other religion allowed. Otto made the city of Rome the imperial capital. He deposed a pope who proved disobedient to his wishes; (This is why he was known as the pope maker.) and on his own authority appointed another. At the same time Otto exacted from the people of Rome an oath, that they would never recognize any pope to whose election the emperor had not consented.” At this juncture in time, the emperors had the upper hand over the popes; but later, we will see that the whole thing reversed; and the popes took over.

THREE HORNS PLUCKED UP BY THE ROOTS

I will not read all of the history that leads up to, and shows how these three horns were plucked up; for we have printed it before. I will just read enough to point you to the occasion; ant those who care to can get the rest of it out of a previous issue. Notice how the change came about. “The death of Henry the 3rd, which left the empire in weak political hands, gave the papacy a chance to escape the control of the secular powers. In 1059 A.D., a church council held at the Letern Palace decreed that henceforth, the right of choosing the supreme pontiff, (the pope) should belong exclusively to the Cardinal body, and no longer to political appointments. This arrangement tended to prevent any interference with the election of popes, either by the Roman people, or by foreign sovereigns.” All of this was designed by Satan to get rid of any obstacles that would keep him from sitting in the papal chair, being worshipped and adored through his instrument the pope. He (the devil) had ruled the world through the caesars; and now he would again rule the world through one office, the office of a man the world looks upon as the Vicar of Jesus Christ. The old pope is now worshipped in basically the same way the old caesars were. Therefore I want to read to you a little sketch that will allow you to see how this little horn began to blaspheme. From 1059 A.D., we will skip on down to the first pope that really began to blaspheme in a way that fulfills this scripture. His name was Hildebrand; but he took the name Gregory the 7th on his elevation to the papacy. He devoted all his time and talent to the advancement of the papacy, until the papacy could take full leadership of the Roman world. A contemporary document which may have been of his own composition, and at any rate expressed his ideas, contains the following statements, “The Roman pontiff alone is properly called universal ruler.” In that one statement, you find that mouth speaking great things, blasphemous things. This is that little horn Daniel saw. Not just this one, but all who follow in his footsteps. He speaks blasphemous things just like the old caesars of Rome, those emperors that claimed to be sovereign, imperial, universal rulers, a title that only God Himself can rightly claim. It is easy to see why God will judge that old whore system of religion at the end of this grace age; because she is a blasphemous, cultish system of captivity. Under the reign of those popes, it was just the opposite of what is was during the time of Charlemagne and Otto. Those emperors could remove a pope and appoint another in his place; but with the turn around, the popes cannot be touched by anyone. They claim the sovereign universal rulership title; because they rule men’s souls. Can you not see how Satan has gradually changed his disguise, from the emperor’s seat, right over to the papal seat? Let me finish reading these great swelling words of this pope. “He alone may depose a king from his throne; and he (the pope) may be judged of no one.” That is a total reversal of the way it used to be. Who did the apostle Paul appeal to, when he was falsely accused? It certainly was not the bishop of Rome. He appealed to the Caesar. His appeal was to the highest mortal authority of that time; but today, if such an appeal was to be made to the highest mortal authority, most would tell you it would have to be made to the pope of Rome. “He may absolve from their (the emperor’s) allegiance.” That means, regardless of what kind of public document the political king issue, he can end it quickly if he so desires. “The Roman Church never has erred; and never can err.” Pope Gregory did not originate these doctrines; he was just the first pope to publicly apply and enforce them. He soon issued a decree against lay investiture. It declared that no emperor, king, duke, marquis, count or any other (including the dignitaries of royal families or governments) should presume to grant investitures. This was a general decree applying to all the states of Western Europe; which was the ten horn nations. However circumstances were such that it mainly affected Germany; because the last political emperors that were ever recognized as emperors within that political sphere were Germans. That brings the whole thing down to Daniel’s vision of this little horn plucking up three of the first horns by the roots. It did not destroy them; it just broke them from trying to get free from papal authority.

FIRST HORN PLUCKED

History says this, “Henry the 4th, the ruler of Germany at this time, did not refuse the papal challenge. He wrote a famous letter to Gregory, calling him `no pope, but a false monk;’ telling him also, that Christ had never called him to the priesthood; and bidding him, `Come down from St. Peter’s throne.’ Gregory in reply, dethroned Henry as emperor, excommunicated him from the church, and freed his political subjects from their allegiance to him. This severe sentence made a profound impression in Germany. Henry’s adherence fell away, and it seemed probable that the German nobles would elect another ruler in his stead. Henry then decided on abject submission or surrender. He hastened across the Alps, and found the pope at the castle of Canosa, on the northern slopes of the Appenese. It was January, and the snow lay deep. The emperor stood for three days shivering outside the castle gate, barefoot, and clad in a course woolen shirt, the garb of a man doing penance. At last upon the entreaties of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, Gregory admitted Henry, this ruler of Germany, and granted him forgiveness.” There, you see how the first horn was plucked up. The government of that royal family was not destroyed; but they found out for sure that no territorial government was ever going to be powerful enough to stand up against the power of the pope.

SECOND HORN PLUCKED UP BY ROOTS

That dramatic scene at Canosa did not end the investiture conflict; we have other events to look at. This will let you see how horn number two was plucked up by a pope. “Thirty years after the signing of the Concordant of Worms, the emperor Frederick, called Barbarossa because of his red beard, succeeded to the throne of Italy. Frederick II, of the Hoffenstoffen Dynasty was capable, imaginative and ambitious. He took Charlemagne and Otto the Great as his models, and aspired like them, to rule Christian Europe and the church. His reign is the story of many attempts, ending at length in failure to unite all Italy into a single state under German sway. Frederick’s Italian policy brought him at once into conflict with the papacy. The popes gave their support to a league of the free citizens of northern Italy, which were also threatened by Frederick’s soaring ambitions. The haughty emperor, having suffered a severe defeat, sought reconciliation with the pope Alexander III. In the presence of a vast throng assembled before St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Frederick knelt before the pope and humbly kissed his feet. Just a century had passed since the humiliation of Henry IV at Canosa.” That gives you horn number two of the three Daniel saw plucked up by the roots; so let us go right to the third one, which we are taking right from the pages of history.

HORN NUMBER THREE PLUCKED UP BY ROOTS

A third horn was plucked up by a pope named `Innocent III.‘ History declares that the papacy reached the height of its power under him. Following some of the declarations he made, you can certainly see how he spoke against the Most High; for he, like Lucifer, exalted himself to a place no mortal man has any right to be. Therefore if God cast Lucifer down from his position for that very thing, why would He not look upon this mortal being in the same way? Just listen “Innocent announced the claims of the papacy in the most uncompromising manner. As the moon, he declared, receives its light from the sun, and is inferior to the sun, so do kings receive all their glory and dignity from the Holy See.” According to this, the pope had the right to interfere in all secular matters, and in the quarrels of rulers. “God has set the prince of the apostles over kings and kingdoms, with a mission to tear up, plant, destroy, scatter and rebuild.” Some of those popes did just exactly as that decree states; but in reality that authority belongs only to God. That was just another example of how those old popes spoke against God; comparable to what is written in the 14th chapter of Isaiah about Lucifer, wherein he (Lucifer) said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” That same old spirit was in those popes; and caused them to conduct themselves the same way. “Innocent’s claims were not just idle boasts. When Philip Augustus, king of France, divorced his wife and made another marriage, Innocent declared the divorce void; and ordered him to take back his discarded queen. Philip refused, and Pope Innocent put France under an interdict (a quarantine) and closed all businesses. From that hour all religious rites ceased. (no mass for births nor burials) There were no burials. The church bells were silent. The sick died uncared for. The dead lay unburied. Philip, deserted by his citizenry was compelled to submit.” Saints; I am sure you realize, that when Philip (that king of France) submitted to the pope, that constituted another horn being plucked up. What a joke, that men like those popes would claim to be the successors of St. Peter, the apostle to whom Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Those popes wielded so much power, there was no way anyone could resist what they determined should be. That whole church system always has been motivated by Satan. He left the emperor’s throne and has been sitting upon the papal throne ever since, in those Roman Catholic popes. The same territories that used to be ruled by the caesars, were ruled by the popes; and it was that papal head that was wounded, and then later healed. That beast head, church over state, was wounded by the Reformation; and then came right back up again, healed and restored, right back into the same position he held before the wounding, to continue on for a little short space of time. The religions of the world will go after the beast. That is why since 1948 there has been an image to that old papal system made; and it is none other than the World Council of Churches. She talks like the pope used to, and eventually the World Council of Churches will think and act and do exactly the same thing the old Catholic Church did, because the Catholic Church is a member of it. They talk of Jesus; but they do not know Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and soon coming King. They are looking for a world they can help to make better; but they are not going to make it better. When we begin to hear that the pope is now writing letters and saying what he is saying about Israel and so forth, you can rest assured, his hour is getting close. The sad part of it is, The world does not know what he (the pope) is destined to do. They will wonder after him, just like the Bible says. Before this Desert Storm War started, they would have liked for a man such as the pope to step out on the stage of time and say, Hey I have the answer to this problem in the Middle East, if you will just listen to me. That is what they were looking for; and one day there will come an hour that God will permit such a thing to take place. He will officiate a peace covenant, and be the guardian of it for 3 1/2 years. Then he (the pope, the antichrist) will personally break the covenant and start an all out persecution of the Jewish people; and the great tribulation will be in effect. All of this is prophesied in the scriptures; and it cannot possibly fail to come to pass. May God bless every one of you; and keep you in His care.

IMPERIAL CAESAR EMPERORS

Blood line Ceasars

• JULIUS
• AUGUSTUS 27 B.C-14 A.D.
• TIBERIUS 14-37 A.D.,
• CALIGULA 37-41 A.D.
• CLAUDIUS 41-54 A.D.
• NERO 54-68 A.D.

Flavian line of Ceasars

• VESPASIAN 69-79 A.D.
• TITUS 79-81 A.D.
• DOMITIAN 81-96 A.D.

FIVE GOOD EMPERORS – FIRST FIVE HEADS

THIS IS THE FIVE THAT THE BIBLE SAYS ARE FALLEN

(1) NERVA 96-98 A.D.
(2) TRAJAN 98-117 A.D.
(3) HADRIAN 117-138 A.D.
(4) ANTONINUS PIUS 138-161 A.D.
(5) MARCUS AURELIUS 161-180 A.D.

SIXTH HEAD

CONSTANTINE, KNOWN AS FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR

THE BIBLE SAYS, ONE IS, THAT ONE WAS CONSTANTINE 306-337

HEAD NUMBER SEVEN

CHARLEMAGNE

THIS IS THE HEAD THAT HAD NOT YET COME, BECAUSE CONSTANTINE’S FORM OF RULERSHIP WAS STILL IN EFFECT AT THE JUNCTURE OF TIME THIS VISION OF JOHN WAS POINTING TO.

CHARLEMAGNE LIVED FROM 742-814, WAS ROMAN EMPEROR FOR ONLY 14 YEARS; BUT WAS KNOWN AS THE FOUNDER OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, BECAUSE HE ACTUALLY MARRIED CHURCH AND STATE. HE ESTABLISHED THE 7TH FORM OF ROMAN RULERSHIP THAT PUT HEAD NUMBER SEVEN ON THE BEAST WE ARE LOOKING AT, AND YEARS LATER, WHEN THE POPES BEGAN EXERCISING AUTHORITY OVER THE EMPERORS, IT WAS STILL THIS SAME FORM OF ROMAN RULERSHIP WHICH WAS REESTABLISHED BY OTTO THE GREAT, THAT WAS IN EFFECT. IT WAS ESTABLISHED BY CHARLEMAGNE, RENEWED BY OTTO, AND TAKEN OVER BY THE POPES. THAT IS WHY THE BIBLE SAYS THE 8TH IS OF THE 7TH., BECAUSE THE POPES JUST TOOK OVER WHAT WAS THERE ALREADY.

HORNS THREE HORNS THAT WERE PLUCKED UP

1ST HORN

HENRY 4TH, KING OF GERMANY, PLUCKED UP BY THE POPE, 1077 A.D.

2ND HORN

FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, KING OF ITALY, PLUCKED UP BY POPE, 1190 A.D.

3RD HORN

PHILIP AUGUSTUS, KING OF FRANCE, PLUCKED UP BY THE POPE IN 1216 A.D.