WE WANT TO GET RIGHT BACK INTO THIS MESSAGE WE HAVE TITLED, “THE WOUNDED HEAD;” FOR I AM PERSUADED THAT MUCH OF WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT IN THE MESSAGE IS KNOCKING AT OUR DOORS ALREADY. GENTILE TIME IS SHORT; AND ALL OF THIS WILL HAVE TO MANIFEST BEFORE THE END. I KNOW THAT AS THIS VIDEO GOES OUT TO VARIOUS PLACES IN THE WORLD, THERE WILL BE CATHOLIC PEOPLE FROM TIME TO TIME THAT WILL SEE IT AS WELL AS HEAR THE CASSETTE TAPES AND ALSO READ WHAT WE PRINT IN THE CONTENDER. WHAT I HAVE TO SAY IS NOT DIRECTED TOWARD ANY INDIVIDUAL PERSON WHO WILL LISTEN TO ME; BUT I AM TALKING ABOUT THE SYSTEM OF RELIGION THAT HAS SO PERVERTED THE SCRIPTURES AND TAKEN INNOCENT SOULS CAPTIVE, THAT GOD WILL NOT TOLERATE IT FOREVER. IT IS NOT JUST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. THE METHODISTS, THE BAPTISTS, LUTHERANS AND PENTECOSTALS ARE ALL GUILTY ALIKE. MAINLY THOUGH, I AM TALKING ABOUT A SYSTEM OF RELIGION THAT MANKIND HAS BEEN MADE TO BELIEVE IS THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TAKE A LOOK AT THE RELIGIOUS WORLD TODAY AND IF YOU HAVE ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE, YOU WILL KNOW THAT WHAT YOU SEE OUT HERE IN THESE ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS IS NOT A MASS OF PEOPLE THAT ARE FOLLOWING JESUS CHRIST IN THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS AT ALL. ACTUALLY, THEY ARE MORE LIKE PAGANS LIVING IN THE 20^TH CENTURY. IF YOU GET IN THEIR WAY, THEY WILL WALK RIGHT OVER YOU. THEY WILL RIP YOU TO PIECES IF YOU DO ANYTHING TO RUFFLE THEIR THEOLOGICAL FUR, SO TO SPEAK. WELL, I AM NOT SAYING THESE THINGS JUST FOR THE SAKE OF AGITATING THE GUILTY ONES; BUT FOR THE SAKE OF ENLIGHTENING INNOCENT SOULS THAT MAY BE TRAPPED BEHIND THOSE DENOMINATIONAL BARRIERS. SO; LET US CONTINUE WITH WHAT WE WERE DEALING WITH LAST ISSUE.

MAN MADE SYSTEM OF RELIGION

Catholicism, though acclaimed to be the only true Church of the living God, is a man made system of religion structured to capture the souls of its followers, siphon their resources to enrich the vast treasures of the system and set the stage for the pope to become world ruler. That may sound strange to a lot of you; but the time is close at hand for some of you to see that very thing put into motion. Most people today could never imagine a sweet, baby kissing, peace loving pope of the Roman Catholic Church ever becoming the tyrant one such man is destined to become in the very near future. That is why God is giving those who have ears to hear the truth a chance to be ready for what is coming down the road. When you look at modern Christianity and compare it to how the first century Christians were, what they believed and the lifestyle they built their life after, you cannot help but realize something has gone wrong through the years of time since the Church had its beginning in the book of Acts. Therefore, as we look at prophecy in the light of 1992, and in the light of this article I have already read to you about the Catholic writer interviewed in a radio broadcast, we cannot just turn away from it all and expect reality to just fade away and let us go on about our everyday business undisturbed. No. Our lives are soon going to be shaken by the very things we are talking about in this message. The man who spoke of this Fatima vision and of how this present pope is looking at it is not a Protestant. He is strictly a Catholic philosopher that has been taught Catholic theology. What I heard on that taped interview caused me to know for sure that what I am looking at here in the scriptures is shortly to be world news headlines. What we have known for years, is now being confirmed by those whose system of religion will be at the forefront of all that will take place. I am carrying a grocery sack full of history books, old history books. They are histories that were printed in times when mankind in general was not against the Bible being mentioned. It is an absolute fact that a lot of historians today would like to throw the Bible away. Therefore, they write secular history much of the time with a lopsided view. On the other hand, most of these older histories acknowledge the fulfillment of scripture in certain events. In fact, one of them was printed in 1835 and include the writings of many of what we call the early reformers, such as Luther, Swingley, Huss Calvin, Knox, and men like that. All of these men had lived under that Catholic system of religion and knew how the system was supposed to have functioned; and also how the priestly hierarchy functioned within the communities and cities their diocese was in charge of. The reason I like these old histories is because those men that wrote them had lived in an hour when there was a great move of coming out from under the soul capturing influence of that old spiritual whore system. They had first hand information and experience that caused them to know how to expose the system. It is a shame that the religious movements called Protestantism today and called that because their founding fathers protested that antichrist dogma, have now fallen into the same rut as the mother system their founders came out from. Their doctrines are basically the same; and many of them today are actually patterning their so called worship services after that of the old mother system. Why? Because they no longer have the leadership of the Spirit that caused their founding fathers to protest that thing. All they have left is a form of religion and a lot of man made doctrines the apostle Paul would not touch with a ten foot pole, so to speak, if he were alive today. Saints, I am not just imagining the things I am saying to you. They are all foreshown in the Bible. What I have already read to you about the present pope and how this Catholic man writes and testifies to a modern religious world about the pope’s plans, ought to let anyone know this is not just a dream he has; it is scripturally vindicated that the Antichrist will come from his office. Whether the present pope is the actual man or not remains to be found out later; but this certain man is not afraid to sit in on talk shows and radio interviews and let his views on the whole thing be known. He is plainly voicing it to the religious world that the pope, the present pope is the one that has definitely coined the phrase (as he puts it) “The new world order.” I thought when the Gulf War was being fought and we heard President Bush in his various talks with Gorbachev, that they were the ones that cooked up this new world order agenda. No. They just picked it up somewhere, having heard it discussed. They are the ones, from a political standpoint, that are ready to help foster and execute it.

WHAT ABOUT THIS NEW WORLD ORDER?

I was reading from another man’s writings that shed even more light on what is going on in the world today. You would be surprised to know that behind the scenes, this very country we live in, the United States of America, which is now an independent and free nation, and has been for a little over 200 years, is being maneuvered by politicians into a place where the constitution our founding fathers laid out will be as worthless as last year’s news. I remember when I was drafted into the army in WW2, every person that was drafted was asked to raise his or her hand and swear that they would do everything in their power to uphold the constitution of the United States and that they would not participate, collaborate, condone, or be a part of anything that advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States of America. Many soldiers who were taken out of their places of work and out of the fields of agriculture, went off to wear the uniform for this country that somehow or other has lived and existed for almost two centuries since the founding fathers founded it under God, a nation endowed with liberty and freedom and justice for all, only to find out now that we have political leaders behind closed doors that are selling it, trading it off for a new world order that will be a charter and constitution that takes away your individuality. The day when you could be known as an American, a citizen of the United States, with a constitution guaranteeing you certain rights, is soon to be a thing of the past. I cannot give you every detail of what is going on; but behind closed doors, both in the religious realm as well as the political realm, Satan has set the agenda and set in motion a plan he will introduce to apostate Christiandom that will look like an era of tranquility, peace, brotherhood and love for all; when in fact it is none other than a Satanic plot to bring humanity under the control of Satan instead of God, as is described in the Bible Satan will rule through the Antichrist; and the Antichrist will be none other than the pope of the Roman Catholic Church. By the help of the Spirit of God, we intend to explain what we read, prophecy in the Bible concerning the beast the apostle John saw coming up out of the sea, in Revelation 13:1-18. What we are actually looking at is the revived and revised version of the old Roman Empire, with Rome still in control. We are looking at a beastly system that basically is symbolized in ten certain divisions of Europe. That is why there were ten horns seen on the beast when we read about it in Daniel 7. We realize also, that in chapter 13 of the book of Revelation, there is seen seven distinct heads on that same beast which Daniel did not see. God had no reason to show Daniel the inner workings that would take place within the governmental structure of Rome, that would in time put seven heads on the beast. When it had at one time ruled all of Europe and the Middle East as the old imperial system founded by the ancient Caesar, it only had one head, even coming on through the advent of Christ and down through the last imperial Caesar which was Nero. When he died, three histories I have in my possession tell us there was not another kinward person that could be appointed to take Nero’s place. This set in motion an opportunity for the eventual decaying of the authority of the Roman government. For centuries, up until the end of Nero’s hour, those Roman emperors had been able to crack a whip wherever their armies went. It was known that the earth trembled at the advance of the Roman army. However, when Nero died, that marked a point in time that the old imperial government that had been established by the Caesars was destined to begin to deteriorate. That is what opened the way for the ten horns and seven heads to materialize on that beast system of government. Only John saw all of that. John was allowed to be conveyed in the spirit where he could stand and watch it all materialize into its end time form and where he could watch the whole thing come to its end and redemption for mankind completed. Because John was allowed to see that old beast coming up for these last days, we are given a Biblical picture of how to look at it. Therefore, as we go back to histories which have already been written, we can learn from the written pages how the downfall of Rome came about and how out of that evolved seven distinct, major imperial powers which are symbolically referred to as heads on the beast. Each one though was weaker and less effective than the former. Rome initially got its recognition from the one gigantic head that was represented by the old Caesars from Julius and Augustus right on down through Nero. It was how they lived and functioned to build the imperial power structure that they were recognized for. That is why you cannot place these seven heads all over Europe as the Seventh Day Adventists do. They teach that they are territorial heads; but if you will look at your Bible right, they are not territories, but forms of government that has always had its seat in Rome Italy. They are symbolized as being forms of government. Anybody ought to realize if you are looking at a beast such as John described, if you could see it the way John saw it coming up in Revelation 13, you would see that it covers all the ancient territories around the Middle East; because it had the body of a leopard, feet like a bear, and a mouth like a lion. That description along with what we read in Daniel, lets us know the territories of all the other three world empires are represented in this one beast. First notice Rev. 13:2. “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as (the feet) of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Now notice Daniel 7:12, what he was told concerning the first three beast. “As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.” That explains John’s description of the beast. Babylon was represented by the lion, the Grecian empire by the leopard, and the Persian empire by the bear. Remember Daniel’s description of the fourth beast. Let us just read it. (Chapter 7, verse 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.” That was a description of the Roman Empire. Daniel 7:23 lets us know that. “Thus he (the angel) said, The fourth beast (We know that was the Roman.) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” I am showing you how scripture explains scripture when you get it together right; so let us read Daniel 7:24 so you can see what the horns are. “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; (We will show you later that this king was an ecclesiastical horn, the bishop of Rome, the pope of the Roman Catholic church.) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” Each of those four beast powers had their day of glory, so to speak, and the Roman Empire, the fourth beast, is destined to finish Gentile time. She is restored and ready for her end time role in prophecy. The head will always be Europe because that is where Rome is; but the overall body still encompassed the peoples and areas of the three former empires when John saw it rise up out of the sea. Their dominion (meaning the hour to be a controlling world power) is taken away from them; but their lives (meaning the spirit and the identity of those people) is prolonged (kept in existence) for a season and a time. That means when this beast system in these last days reaches that point in time to fulfill the last verses of prophecy of the Bible, even the Islamic element of the people will eventually have to sign an agreement with the pope of Rome. That is what Daniel 9:26-27 is pointing to, a time when a covenant is signed by many nations with the prince that shall come; and that prince will be the prince of the people that destroyed Jerusalem. It was Roman soldiers that destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. under the leadership of Titus who later became emperor of Rome himself. That is one clue we have to let us know what office the Antichrist is coming from even if we did not have anything else. Yes, when the antichrist system controlled from the papacy reaches out to spread this new world order, it will be as the modernists are now saying, Necessity will cause the Islamic world to eventually have to sign an agreement with him also. He will confirm a covenant with many nations the Bible says for one week; but God is the only One keeping time on that. Then in the middle of the week, which we know is a week of years, the Antichrist himself will break the covenant with Israel and begin an all out persecution of Jewish saints that will reach out to include Gentile foolish virgins also. That martyred multitude are what we see in the 7^th chapter of Revelation; for John was told, These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are from every nation, kindred, tongue and tribe. That means Jew and Gentile. The Antichrist and his international police force will endeavor to eliminate everyone and every thing that speaks of the true and living God; for he (the Antichrist) will be sitting in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem claiming that he is God.

SLEEPING BLIND MEN LEADING THE BLIND

We are hearing much today about this new world order. Not just from politicians, but from apostate religious leaders also and I am not just talking about Catholic priests only; but Lutheran bishops and all the rest. We are living at the threshold of the coming of Christ and preachers the world over are caught sound asleep. Some of them do not even care. In fact, they are in just as bad a shape as some of these Mafia characters in the underworld. I have to use that association to convey to you the pitiful shape denominational religion is in. It is a shame to say that one believes in Jesus, when it is so obvious that they have so little regard for the true revelation of the word of God. It has become a popular thing to identify with some kind of religious belief, just as long as one does not get too fanatical about the things of God; and most of that kind do not even consider the fact that we are living right at the threshold of the coming of the Lord. We have a lot of apostate religionists today that do not even want Jesus Christ to return. Do you know why? They are having a good time living it up. They are caught up in the rat race of this materialistic world that views and measures everything in the term of dollars and cents. That is why you see a lot of TV evangelists go berserk. It is simply because they have built a materialistic empire around the offerings and things they can build a program out of. It looks good to natural minded mankind; but in the true redemption plan of God it is worthless. Jesus Christ the Lord of glory is not glorified in any of these carnal programs; no matter how beautiful they are to the natural eyes. Their kind of programs only glorify human flesh; those who want to use all this monetary, materialistic thing to enjoy the things of this material world. Well saints, after having said this much, the question may be asked, How did this thing called the power of the papacy get to be what it is? We know the pope claims to be the successor of St. Peter, the disciple to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given; but as I have said so many times, Why is his doctrine not the same as what the apostle Peter preached? I know there is the possibility that this video may be viewed or the audio tape heard by some doctor of divinity or theologians of various degrees; but I remind you of this one thing, You may have your degrees in theology, but you are blind when it comes to looking at history and seeing the scriptures fulfilled. You think because you can look at present day current events and see certain things going on in the religious world that look like it has to be the Spirit of God at work, that it should override the picture of prophecy; but prophecy of the scriptures was never meant for educated people to monopolize nor for the Congress of the United States to vote on it. God is in complete control of all prophecy of the scriptures. He will fulfill every single one when the time is right whether we as individuals are ready for it or not. He always has some who are prepared to walk with Him though, in every age of time. Just look at all those prophecies of the Old Testament that spoke of the first advent of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and then ask yourselves, Who was ready to receive Him when He came? It was not the religious leaders of that day that first believed on Him and followed Him. They had their chance and missed it because He did not come to them like they thought He should have. I am talking about the Scribes and Pharisees who were looked to as the main body of leaders of the Jews’ religion in that day. When the time came for Jesus to come, were the priests looking for Him? You do not find that there was even one of them looking for Him. Were the Scribes looking for Him? There is no record of it in the Bible. Who was looking for Him? Men like Simeon, women like Anna, common people like the sheep herders that were watching their flocks by night. There were even some wise men somewhere in ancient Babylon that came looking for Him; but not a one of those who should have been the first were even willing to admit that this was the very Messiah their old prophets had spoken of. Those wise men were from that part of the earth that somehow or other through centuries has produced this type of men. That goes back to what I was talking about earlier in the message when I brought in that part about Buddhism. Buddha was the man that had rode all over various portions of India. We are talking about all the way back to the 5^th century B.D. when there was no such thing as Christianity. He had watched their gurus. He had watched their people who sat cross legged, with crossed arms, taking deep breaths to meditate. That portion of the world produced people who studied the stars. They will sit in caves and just meditate. The societies of India will look upon them as learned ones, enlightened ones. I tell you saints, For as long as man has been upon this earth, the devil has produced his quota of followers. No, I am not talking about those who call themselves Satan worshipers. I am talking about the many multitudes Satan has deceived. Those multitudes that worship pagan gods and idols of every sort; but know nothing at all about the ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD, the great Creator. Buddha’s hour came. He lived from 563-483 B.C., and Buddhism flourished for close to a thousand years before it began to decline. I was checking on some of these things a while ago, because at a certain point in our message, I am going to read from the histories I have of the personal experiences some of those men had. The experience they had and the things they saw equipped them with something that caused them to go out and deceive masses of people. Well, here is how you judge these things. It takes a spiritual mind of course, because a knowledge of the true God is what exposes those things that are of some other spirit. Every experience anyone has is brought about by a spirit. Therefore, if we are able by the scriptures to judge that the thing in question is not in harmony with what the Creator would do, we know it is something inspired by and projected by the devil for the purpose of deception. It is man’s nature to worship some kind of something as his god; therefore, Satan always looks for an opportunity to get attention focused on something other than worshipping the true and living GOD. When the God of the Christians became an accepted deity for Romans to worship, He was just added to the long list of gods they already worshiped. Well, we know the Holy Spirit leads people to worship only ONE GOD; so it ought to be clear to anyone that the spirit which leads people to worship any other god is that spirit of Satan, the adversary of the great Creator.

A LOOK AT THE VAST AREA OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

We brought in already that the Roman Empire has always been a city empire which did not identify any one particular race of people. The empire was identified by the fact that it was ruled from a city and that there was an imperial government seated there. Once those old Caesars took that position, it was believed by the masses that they had been placed there by the gods. The Romans were suspicious and superstitious people. They had all kinds of gods for everything. Since they were an empire that had reached out and conquered everything far and near, they had subjects with every kind of belief known to mankind in their kingdom. If you could just see a giant map stretched out in front of you that showed all of Europe and all the way over into Asia, you could see what the Roman Empire in its great day of earthly glory really controlled. When Rome first came up as the great imperial city, there was no such thing as ten nations in Europe. I have three different histories here and according to them, in the first century A.D. there was no nation called Italy. In the first century A.D. there was no nation called Spain, nor France, nor Germany, nor the Netherlands, nor Belgium, nor England, Ireland or Denmark. None of them were known. What does history call this area of the world? “Gaul”. A region of mountains, and of barbaric, ruthless cut throats. Some of them existed as tribes. Yes, they had their villages and small cities, but they were looked upon as barbarians. Some of them lived a very ruthless life; yet Rome ruled them. In Luke 3, where it speaks of Jesus of Nazareth being baptized by John the Baptist in the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberias, at about 30 years of age, do you know what the emperor of Rome, Tiberias, was doing at that time? Building a wall across a certain portion of the British Isles. Portions of it are still there today; but that place was not called England or Ireland then. In the Middle East and around that area, there were other nations that already had their identity prior to Rome’s hour. There was Greece, Mesopotamia, Persia, and many other places we have all read about; but when you look at western Europe, there was no such thing as ten nations in that area. All of that came about later. The advent of Christ began to play an important part in the future of the Roman Empire. That Roman imperial system was affected by the influence of Christianity in its then known society. From the city of Rome, on the peninsula which we call Italy today, that vast domain was ruled. In other words, even those nations that were in power before the Roman Empire existed owed their allegiance to Rome; because the Roman armies had conquered them. Some had been defeated in war and some came under Roman jurisdiction by signing leagues and pacts. However it came about, Rome was in control. Rome was in control when Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judaea. Rome was still in control when the Church was born in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost fell upon those who had obeyed Jesus’ instructions. Rome was still in power when the apostle Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, began to be led out on his missionary journeys from the regions of Antioch, which is in Syria today. He was led into the regions of Asia, which is what that whole land mass of what we call Turkey today, was called back then, Asia. Paul went right back to that area because he had been raised up in a coastal city called Tarsus. He went back to the region he had been raised up in, just like anyone would have a desire to do. We know this, it was prophesied that the apostle Paul was to be a light to the Gentiles. Let me say to the Catholic hierarchy, bishops, priests, whoever you may be. You say the pope is the successor of St. Peter. How could he be? You will find no authority for such an idea in the scriptures. It is nowhere written that St. Peter was to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Your traditions give place for many things that cannot be vindicated by the written scriptures. You will not find written, that the apostle Peter was ever in Rome; yet your traditions speak otherwise. All anyone need to do is read the scriptures to know it was the apostle Paul, not Peter, that was chosen of God to be the apostle to the Gentiles. I will call your attention to two verses in particular. In the 9^th chapter of Acts, we read the account where the apostle Paul, who was known as Saul of Tarsus, a chief figure on the Jewish Sanhedrin court at the time when Christianity was born in an upper room in Jerusalem, how he became very hostile toward this new faith. He was on his way to Damascus with a letter of authority to arrest some of those Jews living in that area that had been converted to Christianity and was struck down in the road by a great light that blinded him. Out of that light a voice spoke to him. It was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. (I say to you, it was not the virgin Mary that spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus. I will get to that point later.) You then find the Lord instructing a man named Ananias to go pray for him, that he might receive his sight and when Ananias hesitated, the Lord said, He is a chosen vessel. (Acts 9:15) Let us read it. “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” Then in Acts 13:47, we find Paul testifying of his calling, saying, “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” Catholicism wants their pope to be the successor of the apostle Peter simply because of what Jesus said to Peter in the 16^th chapter of Matthew when Peter confessed by revelation who he believed Jesus to be. In verses 18-19, you find Jesus answering Peter, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (this rock of revelation) I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” It was not Peter himself that the New Testament Church was built upon it was built upon the revelation Peter had. That revelation (that can only come by the Spirit of God) of who Jesus the Christ really is, is the rock the Church is built upon. That is why the gates of hell cannot prevail against it: Once you have it by a revelation of the Spirit, instead of from some Sunday School Bible story, there is no possible way the devil can get that revelation away from you. It is as much a part of you as the very members of your own physical body. That is where eternal security of the believer comes into the picture. Not everyone who confesses to be a Christian has eternal security never to be lost. Only those to whom the Spirit of God has been allowed to give this wonderful revelation have eternal security; and the reason for that is because what you believe is in your spirit instead of just in your head. When a person is just believing something with the mind, before it becomes a spiritual revelation, the devil can get it away from your mind by giving you something that sounds better. That thought brings me to what I want to say about one of his great deceptions concerning Mary, the mother of the man Jesus.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO PRAY TO MARY?

When I made the point that it was not Mary, the mother of Jesus, that spoke to Saul of Tarsus out of that great light, I have a reason for saying that. Catholics today are believing Mary has some important function in their prayer life and that she is speaking to various ones about various things here in the end of the age; but I want you to know that Mary is resting in Paradise, awaiting her time of resurrection with the rest of the saints and that she has no active part in anything God is saying to believers today. Those who believe she does will never take the time to indulge in the records of church history long enough to find out the facts and come face to face with the reality of the whole thing. I want you to know fur sure, the early centuries of Christiandom would never have had a thing to do with trying to elevate Mary to the position that the Catholic Church has her elevated to today. On one hand they will tell you they do not believe she is a priestess; while on the other hand they cannot pray and say a thing to God without having Mary in it. You have heard it, Hail Mary, so on and so forth, pray for us now, and one and on their prayers go. Why? Simply because of their ties to ancient paganism. Ancient paganism has always had a female goddess to run parallel to every male god they had. In certain parts of the old world where they worshipped Baal, a male god, they would have their female goddess also. What a shame! Christianity was founded by the power of God, having allowed His only begotten Son to offer His own life as a sacrifice for the sins of lost mankind: that those who would believe from the heart in what was done for them, might be saved and delivered from Satan’s devises; to still have such pagan practices attributed to Christianity. In all the teachings of Jesus, you will never find one place where Jesus elevated His mother above any other Christian woman. Furthermore, I challenge anyone to show me one place in the scriptures where Jesus Himself ever invoked any other name in His prayers to the Father. He needed the help of no female goddess or priestess to approach His heavenly Father. Why would you think then, that just because Mary was a virgin woman chosen by God, the creator of heaven and earth, that she should be elevated to such a position, when she has been dead for hundreds and hundreds of years and her body has completely decomposed? She was not raised from the dead to ascend into heaven as Catholic dogma claims. Search the histories. I have their book, The Glories of the Mother Church, written by their own bishops from Rome. They have their version of the early years of Christianity of course; but what I find most helpful to me is the writings of the antinicean fathers. That includes the writings of Barnabas that you read about in the book of Acts, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin the martyr, and many more. They were men that knew what they were talking about. You can find out from reading their writings, that wherever the Church went preaching the gospel in those first centuries of Christianity, she was always persecuted by those pagans; Rome being no exception. Yet the more it was hated and persecuted, the more the power of God moved to convict them of their pagan ignorance and cause them to find this great faith, this mystery of how the spirit of man called Jesus Christ could actually come to live in their own lives. When those apostles went out preaching the gospel, signs and outstanding miracles of every sort were manifested to vindicate that what they were saying was the truth. For the first, we will say, three centuries it was ridiculed and persecuted by all the pagan world. The church at Rome, which was not founded by an apostle, as the Catholic Church claims, was founded by some of those who witnessed what took place in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the true Church was born. You need not tell me Peter was the first bishop of the assembly in Rome. I already knew there was no scripture to back up that idea; but then, back in the late 50’s, an archaeologist digging in the Jerusalem area suddenly uncovered a grave. As they explored that find and looked at the inscription, they came to find out it was the tomb of the apostle Peter, buried near where Mary and Martha and Lazarus of Bethany had been buried. When this archaeologist (who was not even digging to find something to criticize the Catholic Church) contacted the Vatican and presented to them this finding, the reply he received was, We will have to look into this, we cannot discuss the matter now. That is the way Catholicism has always stayed in the fore front. They will play ignorant when they are put in the corner. But when they think they have the advantage of someone’s ignorance, they are ready to come on strong. It is not even proven in church history. I have the books, the writings of the antinicean fathers right on up to the fourth century. None of them show or record that Peter was ever in Rome. Therefore, those bones they say were Peter’s bones, on which St. Peter’s Bascillica is built, in all probability are just a few bones left over from some pagan that was buried in an obscure grave yard before Rome ever became a so-called Christian center.

SOME THINGS THAT ARE UNDERSTOOD BY READING HISTORY

As those first century Christians passed from the scene, those great patriarchs of the Christian faith were no longer on hand to hold a line on that true revelation the early Church carried; so various men began to come upon the scene with varying interpretations of what the apostles had written. They were not necessarily evil men; but what they were doing was antichrist, when you give it a literal interpretation. People are guilty of it all the time. Anything taught by anyone that is contrary to the true revelation taught by the apostles of Christ is literally antichrist teachings, no matter who the teacher may be. Those who began to deal with the understanding of the Godhead, really started the Church on a roller coaster ride, so to speak; for it has only been in this Laodicean Church Age that the true revelation of the Godhead has been restored to the Church. Oh yes, there were some oneness elements that thought they had it; and some of them were close, but none of them had it completely as it was originally understood until God sent a prophet messenger to this Age to untangle it and set it straight. When you have what is supposed to be the Church of the living God as mixed up as the church world has been for centuries of time, there is no way the bride of Christ could be perfected. Her garment would not be completely free of spots, wrinkles and blemishes. When you have some believing there are three persons in the Godhead, others believing there are two persons, then others believing Jesus the Christ is all there is of God, you have a very distorted picture of the Great Creator which has never been a person. He has always been a sovereign Spirit, able to take on a visible form for various reasons down through time, but never assumed any permanent bodily form for Himself. A bodily form cannot be omnipresent. It is limited to being only one place at a time. If you will just think about that, I am sure you would not want to stand in line for your chance to speak to Him in prayer. Only a spirit can be omnipresent. Jesus is looked upon as God; but you must realize it is not the man Jesus that is God, it is just that the great Creator chose the flesh of His only begotten and perfect Son to display His limitless attributes; and JESUS is the family name the great Creator chose to be called by; but the man Jesus, the person, is not God. Did He not tell believers to pray to the Father in His name? That is the reason. Jesus the man, is a person. We are ever to pray to that sovereign, omnipresent Spirit that fills all of His Creation. It is true, that Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;” but that did not mean the Father is left out of the picture. No. The true understanding of that statement is that He was given all power in heaven and earth concerning the redemption plan of the Father; because it was all designed with Him being the key figure; but the apostle Paul made it clear in 1^st Corinthians 15:27-28 that the Father, the sovereign Spirit still retained sovereignty. Notice, “For He (the Father) hath put all things under His (the Son’s) feet. But when He saith, All things are put under Him, (the Son) it is manifest (or evident) that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. (That would say to us, that the Father is excepted from the all things.) And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, (Jesus the Son) then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him (the Father) that put all things under Him, that God (that sovereign Spirit) may be all in all.” We understand this terminology of the scriptures; because we have been blessed to see the whole picture; but there are yet many well meaning people who do not see the picture clearly; so they cannot preach and teach a pure revelation. Anyhow, history reveals that there were varius squabbles among believers, concerning the essential doctrines taught by the early Church; and the thing got so intense that a Roman Emperor by the name of Constantine intervened in the matter. We will get back to this later; but right now I want to get into the events that set the stage for what John saw and wrote about in the 13^th chapter of the book of Revelation. In those histories, it tells of the squabbles that caused Nero the Roman Emperor to send troops to Jerusalem to put down a revolt; and also of the turn of events as Rome went into a decline for lack of leadership. Nero died or committed suicide in June of A.D. 68, before the Roman army got to Jerusalem to deal with the insurrection among the Jewish people. Vespasian, the Roman General chosen by Nero to lead that great army, was summoned by the Roman Senate to return to Rome to sit in the seat of the emperor. However, he was not the next to follow Nero. There were three other men that sat on that throne before Vespasian. All of them in the year 69. Galba was after Nero and was assassinated shortly thereafter. The next was a man named Otho. He committed suicide. Then Vitellius who was also assassinated, all within the year 69A.D., before Vespasian ascended to the throne. When Nero died, there was no nephew, no cousin, no uncle, nor grandson of Nero’s kinward line in existence to take the position; so that left the throne up for grabs. Those commanders over various troops were ready to step into that exalted position; but their reigns were short lived. Vespasian took the throne in 69 and established what became known as the Flavian line of emperors. He ruled until 79 and his son Titus sat in his seat for two years, then Domitian, the younger son took the throne until 96 A.D., when he was assassinated. That brings us to the year the apostle John, on the Isle of Patmos, was caught up in the spirit and allowed to view the things he wrote of in the book of Revelation. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who himself was a military leader of a group of the Jews who were trying to help put down the divisions among them, and had been having to endure a lot of attacks upon himself by those who wanted to assassinate him because of his influence when Vespasian began to break through the walls, he told his men, I feel it best that we surrender. Somehow or other, whether he had seen it in a dream or vision I do not know, but he approached Vespasian the Roman general saying to him, (It is written in the histories that he cried out to him these words.) Oh Vespasian, knowest thou not that this day thou shalt be Caesar, and thy son shall take thy place? The histories bring out that Vespasian, as he looked at him, thought he was trying to flatter him; but not too long afterward, a Roman courier came, telling Vespasian to return to Rome to assume the responsibilities of emperor of the Roman Empire. Vespasian took Josephus back to Rome with him and he was given high favors with the Roman officials. He was treated well, kept alive, and was not made a slave. In his captivity there in Rome, he wrote the great volumes of the history of the Jews leading up to the wars that brought demolition to the temple and the city. I bring all this in because I know we have a bunch of characters out here in this religious world that think this church here on Potters Lane, in Jeffersonville, Indiana knows nothing worth listening to. It is true that I did not go to Harvard; nor to Wilmore to learn how to preach. I am just a farmer boy that loves God and appreciates the grace of God that has been bestowed upon my own life. I claim no titles in this life; but I know I have a citizenship with the other saints in the household of God and I am very thankful that my heavenly Father saw fit to reveal His word to me in the measure He has. Therefore, I gladly preach and teach what he has revealed to me; but I feel no responsibility to try to force anyone to believe what I preach. I am persuaded by the scriptures that every predestinated seed of God will believe the truth in his own appointed time without anyone having to force it upon them. God has let the learned men of the world have their hour. Now He is going to show a few people of the world that He can use a few little farmer boys and maybe some fishermen, like He did to start with, to put this redemption picture together in an understandable way and wind this thing up. Jesus is coming soon, coming for those who are ready to go with Him to the marriage supper; but I assure you, He will not be taking anyone with Him that has rejected the true revelation of the word of God, no matter how important they may have been in this present life. The Bible is very specific about what He is coming back for; a Church without spot, wrinkle or blemish, or any such thing. A Church that is properly dressed in a true revelation of the word o God. He will not accept a garment of denominational traditions. If that is all you are wearing when He comes, you will end up in the great tribulation: wishing you had taken heed when the truth was preached to you.

A PECULIAR LOOKING BEAST-WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

We want to find out more about the great beast the apostle John saw and find out how it got those seven heads and ten horns. We have this chart up here, showing a beast with seven heads and with ten horns sticking out. This is just an illustration to help some of you better understand this symbolic picture here in the Bible. Open your Bible’s with me to Revelation, chapter 13. As we read it, be aware that it was John the apostle that saw all of this, the last one of the twelve apostles of Christ left alive in 96 A.D. (Verse 1) “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” When you go back to Daniel 7, Daniel said that in his dreams and vision by night, he too had seen something rise up from the sea. (2) “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. (That sea in the vision is symbolic of the great Mediterranean Sea.) (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 from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” Daniel first saw this beast with ten horns; and even though we have already spoken of it, there is yet much more to say. Around the great Mediterranean Sea, you having the setting for much Bible prophecy. As you look at it from the north side, you have western Europe. You come on around through central Europe, you hit the regions of what is called Asia, you swing southward, you come around through what is called the Middle East (the Bible land) then right on across north Africa, and you have circled a vast area around that sea. Biblically and historically, that is where the story of civilization had its roots and origin. All these empires, sooner or later, somehow or other were affected by what came from the regions around this great sea. The sea itself stands out in prophecy and symbolizes the mass of people that have gotten their existence and had their roots in time around this great sea. In other words, it is like a giant lake in the midst of an inhabited world. Something about that sea affects it, but it is symbolic. Therefore, as John stood there on the seashore in his vision, he said, “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. (Remember, that is all symbolic) and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” What a word! Blasphemy is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God. Like claiming the attributes of deity; which is exactly what this word as used here points to. What John was seeing in this symbolic picture, was a beast system that truly is abominable to God. It always has been and always will be. Saints, I hope you will bear with me as I find it necessary to repeat some things that have already been said; and as I find it necessary to again read scriptures we have already read; because we have to deal with the various elements of this great picture we are endeavoring to paint before you, one part at a time.

A WOMAN-CLOTHED WITH THE SUN

Right now, I want us to look at another chart in which we have tried to portray a scene described in chapter 12, of the book of Revelation. This scene shows a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet; and a crown of twelve stars upon her head. This scene precedes the one we have just read about in chapter 13, in John’s vision. As he stood looking at that woman, he saw something else appear in the same picture, a great red dragon standing before her, having seven heads and seven crowns upon the heads. We will read those verses that describe this scene; but I first wanted to associate the two scenes together. The woman is symbolic of the nation of Israel with her twelve tribes; and the dragon is symbolic of the embodiment of Satan in that old beastly, Roman imperial system of government. Let us read it. (Revelation 12:1-5 KJV) “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: (2) And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. (That was the nation of Israel, waiting for their Messiah to come forth; but when He did come, the religious hierarchy failed to recognize Him. Furthermore that old dragon, the devil, was right there in that old Roman imperial system, ready to devour that sinless Son of God the woman brought into the world. That is what we see symbolized in verse 3, as we continue.) (3) And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (4) And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. (5) And she brought forth a man child, (Jesus) who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.” That speaks of His ascension: after he was raised from the dead. Please notice that John saw crowns upon the seven heads, not the ten horns. Seeing seven heads, and crowns on the heads, lets us know that Satan had designed a plan to persecute the nation of Israel from before that man child (Jesus) was born all the way through; because that old Roman beast did not have seven heads when Jesus was born. The beast did not have seven heads until after 800 A.D., when Charlemagne became the seventh head. WE will try to clarify all of this somewhere in the message; so just bear with me and follow along. This panoramic view of Satan’s plan against Israel, the Bible’s centerpiece through time allows believers to see that this old dragon (Satan) had his sights set on the nation of Israel all the way through her Law Age while she waited for her Messiah to be born, right on through time until that dragon system had evolved into its final form as a beast with seven heads. Therefore, what John saw portrayed in the heaven, is how Satan has designed to embody his purpose in the earth. In the heavens he stood before the woman; but we realize that on earth that picture would be reflected through an earthly system of people, a nation. Basically it is what Rome was, in power, at the first advent of Christ; but the picture did not end there. At the time Christ Jesus was born, it was known that Israel looked for a King to come forth from her that would deliver her from her bondage to Rome and solve all her problems; and Satan did not intend to allow that to happen. Well, the woman brought forth her man child; and Satan’s bunch did kill Him; but He was not devoured. He arose from that old tomb, having conquered death, hell and the grave; and when He had fulfilled all He was ordained to fulfill in His first advent, He truly was caught up unto God, and to His throne: just like verse 5, says. Who was it that crucified Jesus on the cross of Calvary? Yes, it was the Jewish hierarchy that said Crucify Him; but keep in mind, not one Jewish hammer drove the nails in His hands and feet. The death penalty was administered by a Roman centurion, led by Roman soldiers. It was the Roman soldiers that led Jesus to Calvary. That was the spirit of the devil, called the dragon in John’s vision, down on earth in that old imperial system. That is why it said he stood before the woman. The devil knew when that first advent of Christ was brought about and the prophecies of the Old Testament went in motion, he had to act fast because the devil does not want this world to be controlled by Jesus Christ. He will offer to this world a false Christ; and most of you know already who it will be: the pope of Rome. He will not be an atheist. An atheist cannot be a false Christ. A false Christ is someone who pretends to be something, but does not have the real thing. Just remember, the dragon John saw in the heavens is now in an earthly system on earth; and Rome is where the brains of that system are. It was the first in the old Caesars; but eventually wound up in the pope of the Roman Catholic Church who still has his headquarters in Rome. I said earlier that I intend to use a lot of history in establishing the body of this message and I will use the old histories that were written by men who lived when Catholicism was in power. Catholic people in the United States of America do not know how powerful that system has been in the past. You have to go to old Spain, South America, or Mexico, where that spirit has ruled the mass of people right on through the years: to really see the results of such spiritual bondage. They used every available means to keep their subjects spiritually blind and ignorant. What the popes are saying today is altogether different from what the popes said back in the 17^th and 18^th century. When the power of the old imperial system in Rome began to weaken, there eventually came a man upon the scene in the midst of all the political turmoil and strife within Rome where the Caesars throne was that began to bring about a measure of peace and stability for a little while. That is why this kind of condition went on until we come to 325 A.D.; which was the era of Constantine, the Roman emperor that came to power in an hour when no less than six different men within the total imperial system of Rome were trying to control the vast territory of the Roman domain. That stretched all the way from the British Isles to the far regions of Persia. From one end to the other, there was nothing but trouble and turmoil; problems of various proportions on every hand. Christianity had spread throughout the Roman world. It had been persecuted by all the Roman emperors up until this hour. Thousands had been killed, martyred and used as toys to entertain a bunch of savage pagans as they watched them burn at the stake or watched them being fed to the lions, torn to pieces and tortured in every crude way known to mankind, and so forth. It was the Roman, pagan system that did it. When the hour came, history says the Roman emperor Constantine came to power when a certain man died, and he was asked to return to Rome and take over the reins of imperial government. We have explained this in other messages; but we need to have the whole story together; so let me try to put it all in an understandable format for those who have not heard it before. A lot of Protestant Bible theologians today hardly ever even talk about what those seven heads are or what they symbolize. As I said earlier, the Seventh Day Adventists will say they pertain to territories; but that could not be right, because territories themselves do not speak. For that reason, we have to understand that the heads are symbolic of some form of government that does have authority to begin to control something. Keep in mind also what we read from Daniel 7. Daniel saw the ten horns on that fourth beast. Then what did he see? He saw another little horn come up and magnify itself above its fellows. Above its fellows means above its predecessors, those that preceded it. Well, we have to find out about that little horn that seemed to powerful. It did not come upon the scene suddenly.

A ROMAN EMPEROR TAKES SIDES WITH THE CHRISTIANS

As Rome fell from being the imperial, controlling system it once had been, and those various elements of barbaric people began to get a sense of freedom and at the same time, at least by the third century, they had been visited by the then known missionaries of the church; and many of them had become Christians. The sad part is, by the third century Satan’s sinister and cunning plan of destruction of the Christian Church had taken such a toll on them, the Christians of that hour were not very wise people. There were a few that were wise, but not many. Within the realm of the Church, divisions over the Godhead had become of great concern to many. That is why we are forced to look back to the Nicaea council of 325 A.D., when we begin to speak of why the trinity doctrine of denominational churches so overwhelmingly dominates and manipulates the masses. It was what took place at the Nicaea council way over there in Asia Minor, a city located in what is called the country of Turkey today, that set the course for the Church right on into and through the Dark Ages; and it was all brought about by the emperor Constantine, that came out of Rome to establish this thing. First, let me fill you in a little more on how a Roman Emperor became involved in the affairs of the Christian Church. Naturally, he was a pagan and he had seen how the Church had been persecuted and how it had suffered because of that persecution; but it was an experience he himself had that caused him to become involved in the affairs of the Church. Let us look into one of these history books to see what the plot Satan used on him consisted of. History confirms that Constantine was doing everything in his power to calm the troubles in the far regions, when he received word to come back to Rome and take control. He knew there was an opponent seeking to keep him out; so I will turn to this history book and allow you to hear what is written about him, how he was brought to the place of taking sides with Christianity. Each of these history books carry this same thing. Constantine was aware of what the Christians had suffered; but he himself was a pagan. Nevertheless, as he was contemplating or we will say, planning his military strategy, how he would go about defeating those he must face in battle, Satan took the opportunity to pull the wool over his eyes and use him for something he was trying to accomplish. It happened way back then and it is about to happen again the same way. Satan is getting ready to pull one of the biggest tricks on our modern world of Christendom that has ever been pulled in the history of mankind. When I read to you about the miracle of Fatima, it reminded me of something one of our neighbors said to me years ago. He spoke to me of the Fatima vision. He is a Catholic man and believes what he has heard about that incident which we described earlier. Anyhow, that is why I said I am not picking on individual Catholic people. It is that system they belong to that I desire to expose; because the spirit behind that old spiritual whore system, the same spirit that would like to destroy every true Christian, if he could, gives these visions and dreams to people and they think it is God favoring them. Well, I have already read to you how this present pope was supposed to have seen the same vision those three children saw in 1917, in the place of Spain called Fatima. The present pope supposedly saw the same thing and supposedly feels that he has some special work to do in that he is made to believe he is the pope ordained by God to carry out the great work of bringing Russia back into the fold of Roman Catholicism. I just rehearsed those things so they would be fresh in your mind while I read what is written about that experience the emperor Constantine had. It lets us see how Satan plays his tricks on people. Remember, Constantine was a pagan when he had this experience. (This is history.) “Historians report that he (Constantine) prayed for light and that while marching with his forces, a miraculous cross appeared to him in the air. As he saw this cross, he saw the words, Conquer and Overcome. Such a report must have had a great affect upon his enemies. True, it might have been that greater miracles have been wrought, but the age of miracles had passed away.” (Well, we do know that in the early decades of Christianity, when they were persecuted in the pagan society, there were certain signs the true believers were known to use: either in writing a letter or communicating with someone in some other way. Many times they would draw a little cross, or a little fish. These symbols were their way of saying to the other person, I am a Christian. That became known later that it was a code; the way they identified themselves one with another. The pagan world caught on to this eventually. Not that they wanted to have a cross or anything, but it shows how the devil will work. Because of what he saw in the vision, he made it his military symbol. In the other history book I am using, it tells how he had it painted on all the shields of his troops, the sign of the cross. It goes ahead and tells also, (This was in the daylight hours, that he was supposed to have seen this; but the writer goes on and tells what happened at night.) how at night while asleep, in a vision, the Lord Jesus was supposed to have come to him and confirmed to him that if he would do this, (paint those crosses on the shields his army carried) he would win the battle. With that he set about doing exactly as he was instructed and won the battle. When the war was over, he told of this experience and then began to bring about the great conversion of those pagan soldiers. Right there began the mass conversion of Roman, pagan politicians: to accept the Christian religion as a religion they believed they would benefit by. That is why in another article we brought out, Constantine was actually the sixth man in the line of emperors that had been able to establish a realm of peace within the Roman domain. In his hour he built the city that is called Constantinople over in Turkey. Early Christianity in this part of the world flourished. He named that city after himself, Constantine, later called Constantinople. Today it is called Istanbul Turkey. Nevertheless, it remained the center of Christendom throughout the Middle East, up until after 1000 A.D. some may wonder why I am saying all of this: It is to let those that would hear this know that the time has come when true Christianity, those who have purposed to live according to the teachings of the Bible are going to narrow down to a very few ad far between. The pressures brought about by things in the world are going to close in around us and come to such a dilemma the masses of so called religious people are not going to be willing to pay the price to literally walk with God. Anyhow, as Constantine did that, (painted the crosses on the shields of his fighting men) he accepted the God of the Christians and made Christianity a state religion. That is why Christianity in the third century sighed a sigh of relief. You everyone know what happened after that. From a certain point in 3000 A.D. and right on into the fourth and fifth centuries, Christianity was running headlong into apostasy and laying the foundation for what is known today as Roman Catholicism. The foundation for that old whore system of religion was laid down way back in Constantine’s hour. The bishop of the Church at Rome little by little became a voice of authority and eventually had the title of Pope bestowed upon him. Century after century, and pope after pope took a whack at the word of God, substituting something of the church to take the place of a Bible doctrine, until after almost two thousand years, the so called Christian world is filled with all kinds of dogmas, doctrines and religious creeds. We hear a lot about the apostle’s creed; and there is no scriptural authority for such nonsense. There is no such thing in the Bible. Yet to hear the Catholic priests talk about it, the thing was supposed to have been designed by the apostles. Well, I beg their pardon, you will not find anywhere that the apostle Peter ever prayed like they do. Peter never prayed to anyone nor anything other than the eternal God.

CHRISTIANITY OR PAGANISM OR BOTH TOGETHER

As those horns began to get their position in Europe, paganism began to be pushed into the background; and this new religion (Christianity) began to be favored, Satan saw to it that as time went on, certain ideas, certain religious functions that had been going on in paganism began to be reached out to by the hierarchy of Rome; and brought into the so called Christian assemblies to be entwined within the faith of what is called the Christian faith. That is why sooner or later, here came the celibacy of the priesthood, here came the body of nunnery. They were nothing more than a type of what was called holy vestal virgins of the city of Rome. What some called Christianity became only a copy of how ancient paganism had lived for centuries. If you could go to the ancient city of old Baalbek, the capital city of Baal worship, you would see the great temple of Jupiter. Over on another side you would see a temple, I forget how to pronounce the name of it, but it is a temple pertaining to female worship. Then there is the temple of the god of wine. All of this went on in the second century A.D. First they would worship Jupiter, the male god. Then they would go worship the god of wine and get drunk. Then they would go worship the goddess of love and indulge in the sex orgies that went on in the pagan world. Roman Catholicism has not been very much above that type of thing. However, when you tell the truth about some of these things, a lot of people get very upset and say; Oh, you ought not talk like that about those holy people. Well, I say, if they were holy people, they would not have been doing the things we have been talking about. That is why I have said, Gentiles are silly people. They are! They are silly people because they think their ancestors were something special: really smart, even brilliant. If those who think that will trace their family tree back far enough, they will find that their ancestors were so duped by the spirit of Satan they knew no better than to worship Idols. Your Bible plainly tells you we are all descendants of the man God saved alive when He brought the great flood upon earth to destroy wicked mankind. Noah was that man. What does the Bible say? He had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japeth. The Bible says they each had a wife. There were no babies born to them in the ark. However, after those families came backdown on earth and God told them to go forth and replenish the earth, we know they did exactly that. We are all descendants of that one family, whether you have ever thought of it or not. Just think of it. I believe all three of those sons of Noah knew why their Dad said, Boys we have to build a boat. I believe they all helped him. They all faced the same catastrophic experience, that thing called the flood. They all heard the thunder and they all watched it rain; and they all knew why it was happening. They were all in the boat when it began to rise: so do not tell me that was such a common experience they all soon forgot why it took place. When the water was all gone and they were back on dry land, I am certain the memory of that experience stayed with them for a long time. However, as their descendants began to multiply, you everyone know how that is: they begin to loose track of the stories grandfather used to tell and before very long, they had lost the picture of it. Naturally, Satan knowing that it is the nature of mankind to worship something, he stands ready to offer them some kind of idol they can convey their worship to. What did the apostle Paul find in Athens Greece two thousand years ago? The whole city was caught up in idolatry. (Acts 17:16) “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” Saints, I want you to know, every effort anyone puts forth to worship anyone or anything is inspired by some spirit; and the Spirit of God only directs worship to ONE: the great Creator, so what is the conclusion in examining all the other deities people bestow worship upon? There is only one logical conclusion. If you are not worshipping the true and living God, you are worshipping something Satan has presented to you. Let us read a little of the sermon the apostle Paul preached to those Athenians that day. (Acts 17:22-30) “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are to superstitious. (23) For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. (They had a god for everything; and they did not want to take a chance on missing one, so they built an altar for the God that was yet unknown to them, just to be sure they had every aspect of their lives covered. Well in verse 24, Paul began to tell them something about that unknown God, so notice) God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; (25) Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; (26) And hath made of one blood (That would be Noah’s family) all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; (27) That they should seek the Lord, (Were they?) if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: (27) For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring (by creation). Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. (30) And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” God will not wink at our spiritual ignorance anymore; for He has shone the true light bright enough for all mankind to see; so we are all without excuse, if we miss it. No matter what race or what continent anyone came from: sooner or later you are all going to have to acknowledge that your ancestors got off track somewhere. We are living in 1992, and we know how to get to the moon, but just because we know how to send spacecraft to Mars, or who knows where and take pictures that are sent back to earth, does that make us smart about God? No. The smarter we get about space the more ignorant we get about God. It is a fact, just like the Bible says, among mortal man in his sinful nature, there is none that seeketh after God. He does not really want to know God in a way that is acceptable to God. He wants a God he can carry around in his pocket, or place upon a mound some place, so he can use it once in awhile when the house is on fire or something. Well, I have news for you; God is not going to be your crutch, your wheelchair, something you can turn to only when things are not going well for you. He is either going to be your Saviour, your only God, your source of every day strength, or He will one day be your judge. He is either going to be your only God or He will leave you to the other god, the god of this world order (Satan). The Bible refers to Satan as the prince of the power of the air. That is why we are moving rapidly toward some kind of development. Just as that writer said, The pope is awaiting his hour of time. He believes the same one seen in the vision which was seen at Fatima by those children, (the blessed virgin Mary, as they refer to her) will come and say to him, Your hour has come; Take over the reins of the world. Regardless of how it comes about, he (that papal office) is that little horn seen in Daniel 7. It was how the pope ruled in the Dark Ages that gave him his first description. The little horn which came up, was the same horn that took over the last form of imperial government. The last form of imperial government which was what accounted for head number seven on the ten horned beast, was taken over by the pope of the Roman Catholic Church when the pope became more powerful than the emperor; therefore, what started out as state over the church, ended up as church over the state; and the head that was wounded as unto death was that ecclesiastical head, not the old political head. When you think of those seven heads, even though we have tried to illustrate the thing with this great beast showing seven heads and ten horns, please remember that no two heads were alive and active at the same time. They came to power one at a time as time moved on. Hundreds of years passed during the process of that old Roman beast developing those seven heads. Only one was alive, functioning at any one time. Then as time passed and that one left the scene, the next one came to power to make his attempt at reestablishing the kind of rule Rome had under the old imperial Caesars. Another point we ought to make is that these certain forms of government which made up the seven heads did not end with the death of the emperor that instituted each one. The emperor Charlemagne was responsible for head number seven; but his form of rulership continued right on through to its wounding by those various men who slashed at it with the sword of the Spirit. The wounding as unto death did not happen all at once either. It took many, many decades of slashing to inflict such a wound; and it has taken many, many decades of compromising to bring about the healing of that wound; but the healing has come and that beast will soon be exercising that same power and authority Europe was ruled by for centuries under those old popes: only this end time rule of that beast will have a greater scope than before. Europe and the Middle East are not so far from the rest of the world any more. Our very generation has witnessed the healing of that wounded head; and our generation will witness the end results of that healing: for Jesus said, (after speaking of many things that were to come upon the end time generation) “So likewise ye, (Matthew 24:33-34) when ye shall see all these things, (signs of the end) know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” As we see this papal system come back for its last day go around, there will be a people on earth that are aware of the fact that his (the pope’s) position, at one time, was hurt. Even though a wound is healed, such a potential deadly wound will leave a scar that cannot be hidden. I ought to know. Physically speaking, I have suffered such a wound when my head was split open in that wreck up here on the old highway. You can see the scar on my head right now. There is no way the doctors could have bandaged me to keep me from having this scar. Yes, the would was healed; but the evidence of the wound remains even today. That is why I titled this message, “The Wounded Head.” Not to say the head is still wounded, but to say the evidence of his wounding is still present to testify of it. The power of the pope, when he comes back in these last days, to pick up right where he was cut off, will be just as diabolic as it ever was in the Dark Ages; and men like Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, and many, many more, are going to be without excuse for the contribution they have made toward that healing. Why? Because those old history books have been here to identify that beast and to tell of the deadly wound it received; and they have either been too spiritually blind to put two and two together, or too caught up in their own man made programs to do what a true servant of God is obligated to do. It matters not how rich they are, nor how much theology they have to their credit. They have failed to warn their followers of what is coming upon them. They are a perfect example of the blind leading the blind in the twentieth century. In the parable, Jesus said both will fall in the ditch. It will have the same results spiritually; both the spiritually blind, along with their blind leaders, will all be cast into the great tribulation to witness the deeds first hand of this wonderful man they have all been cuddling up to. I am talking about the pope of Rome who turns out to be the Antichrist, whichever one it is. They want to think the pope is going to continue right on being the wonderful man they believe him to be; but when the middle of that seventieth week of Daniel comes, they are going to find out he is not such a good boy after all. Satan is going to anoint him; and see that he is turned into a very bad boy. That is when Revelation 13:5, has its fulfillment. It says, “And there was given unto him (the pope, which will be the Antichrist) a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” You cannot c-o-n-t-i-n-u-e something you have not been doing already. That is why when he continues what those old popes were doing back there in the Dark Ages, before the Reformation struck such a deadly wound to that old beast headed up by those popes. This terminology means he is going to pick up right where he left off when he was wounded. The various men of the Reformation kept that wound from healing; but our generation has produced some men who have really been busy doctoring that wound, thinking they were doing some great thing. When he comes into the middle of that seventieth week of Daniel, the power of Satan is going to hit that man and cause him to think an evil thought. When he does, the world is going to cry; but it will be too late for their crying to do them any good. Either their own heads will roll in martyrdom or they will be damned to eternal death for accepting the mark of the beast. Saints, it is time we examine ourselves to see, as the apostle said, if we be in the faith; for it is later than a lot of people think.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POLITICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL

There has been a lot of material sent to me since we started this message and I want to acknowledge receipt of it at this time. All of the history books I use have been given to me and I thank God for making the necessary information available to me to vindicate those things the true Church of the living God has need to know. I must keep stressing the fact that I am not speaking against any individual person when I speak of these systems of religion in the world today. When I say the Roman Catholic Church is a spiritual whore, those are not my words. The 17^th chapter of the book of Revelation makes it unmistakably clear to any spiritual mind. It also tells us there are some harlot daughters of that old whore out here in the world and we know who they are; but when we speak of them, we are speaking only of the system of religion and not of any individual that may be or may have at one time been held captive by the system. You will understand better as we go along in this message. We are talking mainly about a system of religion that has dominated the world scene for 1500 years. I would be very simple minded not to realize there are a lot of Catholic individuals in the world today that will become hostile to things I am saying in this message; because they have been raised up in these systems never really knowing what it is like to be led by the Spirit of God into a true revelation of scriptural truth. If they as a person have had no dealings by the Spirit of God in their personal lives to really give them a hunger to know the divine, perfect will of God, rather than just having to depend on what the institution hands down to them, naturally such a person cannot help but feel personally attacked by much of what I will say; but I still have a responsibility before my heavenly Father that has called me to preach His word. I cannot be a true minister of the gospel of Christ, and at the same time compromise with the truth that can set every spiritual captive free. The old imperial head of the Roman empire, made up of that successive line of Caesars on down through Nero was strictly a political head, a political power. Likewise, those who followed later as emperor of Rome were all just political minded men using whatever advantage that seemed useful to their own personal ambition until the popes began to get into the picture. Then there began to be an ecclesiastical power along with the political power. That power not only had physical bodies under its control, but also the intangible souls dwelling in those bodies of flesh. You have always heard talk about how ruthless and degenerate the old Roman rulers were, allowing Christians to be fed to wild beasts, burning them at the stake and all such like; but how much have you heard about those old Catholic popes that were ever bit as ruthless and disregarding of the human feelings of others as any of those Caesars ever were? Well, we are talking about one of those heads on that old beast; and I dare anyone to say the great tribulation with that little horn in power will not be worse than anything mankind alive today could ever imagine. Once again, I wish to say to those that would hear this on tape or view it on video, I am not talking out of mere supposition. I have documented proof of what I am presenting to you; and I can open these history books to the very page and paragraph and read it to you. This modern age of compromising mankind cannot erase the pages of history that have already been written unless society as a whole is trying to hide something. Most of these books are very old; and that is why I trust them. I sometimes doubt these modern historians who compile modern histories for our present educational institutions to use. They are caught up in a spirit that has them trying to do away with the negative things that have taken place in days gone by. It seems that historians and politicians and such are under the control of a spirit in the earth today that is trying to erase from people’s minds every distasteful thing from past human history and turn everybody’s eyes forward to a new world age. Whether you call it humanism, a new world order, or whatever you call it, Biblically we are moving toward the hour of the antichrist that the Bible has said would be manifested and come on the world scene in the later days; and there is no possible way shutting out the past can avoid that. The Spirit of God has spoken it and it will come to pass just like every other prophecy of the scriptures has so far. Conditions now prevail and coming from various circles of the Catholic world are things that are coming together to show we are now in a decade that can well end your present lifestyle and turn the whole society upside down. The Lord will bring this whole political system to an end and the coming of the Lord will be set in motion; and all those who have made fun of people who believe the Bible, will find out those things that are written therein were one hundred percent accurate after all. To refresh our minds on our text scriptures, I would like to read the first 9 verses of the 13^th chapter of the book of Revelation straight through. John, who was the last patriarch of the apostolic Church we read about in the book of Acts, was alive on the Isle of Patmos, in exile of course, because of what he believed and stood for. He was caught up in the Spirit and when you read Revelation 4:1, you find that a voice said to him, “Come up hither and I will show thee things that shall be hereafter.” It is true John lived in 96 A.D.; but when his spirit was taken up into heaven, what he saw was no longer related to 96 A.D. That is why it was said to him, I will show thee things that shall be hereafter. Meaning after 96 A.D., and however the scenes he saw related to time. In the spirit, he was in heaven and he was being shown this earthly, panoramic scene, that to his hour would be hereafter. You and I are living in the hereafter that voice was talking about: when all of this is to become a reality; so as we read, let us see if we cannot visualize just how this thing has been brought about. “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, (exactly where Daniel saw himself in the 7^th chapter of Daniel) 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. (That is an important word, which we will discuss later.) (2) And the beast which saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon (meaning the devil) gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. (3) And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world (Listen to this, all the world) wondered after the beast. (4) And they (meaning the world) worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? (5) And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. (6) And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. (7) And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. (8) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, (meaning the beast) whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (9) If any man have an ear, let him hear.” Verse 9, though it may be short, is of particular significance because it has a message to those who do have a spiritual ear. That is the same as saying, You have been warned of what is coming; so make sure you have your own house in order. Those Jewish Christians of the first century that paid attention to the words of Jesus concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, were nowhere to be found when Titus got there. Likewise, when you see all these signs of the end approaching, get your affairs in order and look up: for your redemption draweth nigh.

THE DIVERSE BEAST OF DANIEL’S VISION

At this time, I want to cover some points that have already been dealt with to some degree, just to expand on those things we have already said. We are going to go into this portion of the message to give it a particular meaning to those that will view it on Video; but first I want to refer back to chapter 7 of the prophecy of Daniel. If you were to open your Bible and read it, keeping this in mind, Daniel saw the last world empire that was ever to rule upon the earth, rise up out of the sea. He saw also that it had ten horns. It says in his writings that this beast was most terrible, that it devoured and brake in pieces and stamped the residue under its feet. It devoured the whole earth. It also says this beast was diverse (different) from all the other beasts that had preceded it. We know historically and Biblically that the first beast system that he mentioned would have been the Babylonian Empire. It is gone forever. Then the Medo Persian Empire was next and it is gone forever. The Grecian Empire likewise. Even so, it says in the 7^th chapter of Daniel that the lives of those other beasts (beast systems, the spirit of the societies of those nations) were prolonged for a season and a time. That means while their world role as dominant empires will pass off the scene, the societies of those territories and the spirit of those people will be carried through time to be incorporated into this last beast system of world rule. Well, what about the fact that the last one was to be diverse (different) from all the others before it? In what way was it going to be different? I have read the histories written about those empires over and over, so much so that some of those things in history I know by heart. They were all military powers. They had certain political functions as to how they ruled; but basically they were political powers brought about by military conquests. In each one there was a pagan religion that stood out predominantly in the societies. When you come to the hour of the rising of Rome to take over world rule in the B.C. period, there was nothing about it being different than the others. It too was a military power motivated by political ambitions and ideas. It too had religious functions in its society. In fact, Rome had incorporated many of the pagan religions of the previous eras. This was Rome’s way of pacifying all of those within the structure of those pagan societies that were incorporated into this one great empire. Maintaining a certain degree of the social structure of their pagan religions helped calm any kind of problems that might have arisen if it had been handled otherwise. If everyone was left to choose whatever idol, temple, and religion he or she wanted, just having that choice had a certain calming affect upon the conquered societies. That is why in ancient Rome, there were temples and altars scattered all over the place; but that was not what made the 4^th beast different than those three beasts before it. It was what happened years later that made it different. This diverse picture did not happen overnight. Diverse is a word that describes what began to take place when the fall of Rome began to come about. A lot of people seem to have gotten the idea that the fall of Rome was a case where it not longer ruled the world. Well, if you look at Rome merely from a political and military standpoint today, it does not and did not from a certain point way back in time. Yet, on the other hand, it did still rule the world; but it was accomplished in a mystical way designed by Satan. This mystical way is what has thrown a lot of modern Bible scholars completely off course. When we who see from the scriptures and from history also, that the pope of Rome is going to be known as the Antichrist spoken of in the writings of the New Testament epistles, and to say so, they are ready to climb a wall. That is not true, the pope believes in God they will say. I could go them one better than that. So does the devil believe in God; but he does not reverence and worship Him. He tries every way he can to defeat the plan and purpose of God. That old pope of Rome one day will exalt himself above God; and demand that the whole world worship him; and we have already read what is prophesied about that. All those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life SHALL WORSHIP HIM. The pope’s belief in God does not make him a bit more a son of God than any stray dog you might bring in off of the street and dress up in a tuxedo and bow tie and seat in a church pew. If those popes had any respect for the great eternal God they claim to represent on earth, they would not have taken it upon themselves to change so much of His written Word that it is hardly recognizable to those who know the true scriptures well. Oh, Bro. Jackson, you ought not talk like that about such a holy man. That is merely my way of getting your attention so you will pay attention to the things I am going to read to you. I am going to read some things in your hearing that will shock your thinking ability. When we get through with this message, I doubt if anyone who reads or hears it will still believe those Roman Catholic popes are holy men.

A DESCRIPTION OF ROME’S GRADUAL EVOLUTION

Before going on with the message, I want to explain something that a lot of people have misunderstood concerning the fall of Rome. What we historically call the fall of Rome, is none other than to say that something within the interior of Rome, within its governmental structure began to take place. That terminology does not mean the city fell apart or that it got smaller. In fact, it was just the opposite of that. It was getting larger. Its metropolitan population kept getting larger. The fall of Rome was brought about after the advent of Christ, after Christianity had been preached and demonstrated within the Roman societies of the various territories of people that she controlled. By the time the 2^nd century rolled around, thousands of people had been converted out of paganism into the family of the faith of the Church of the living God. Then coming on into the hour of time when Christianity was really an influential belief throughout Rome, through the various centers of authority she had established throughout all her domain, going all the way back into the Middle East, the Christians were persecuted throughout the entire domain of Rome. Nevertheless, when the hour came that this beast was to begin to turn into a diverse beast, (different kind of beast) people in Gaul (those barbarians) began to get restless. They wanted to shake themselves loose from the old imperial power of the Caesars. Feeling that way, there was no other way to do it than to attack Rome. Rome would fight to defend its position, its recognition, and its authority; but in time that kind of unrest took a toll. More than one time Rome was attacked by large armies of these barbarians wanting to destroy that power she held over them. Rome somehow or other survived, but in her surviving, other things began to develop. That is why as Christianity began to be accepted and there were Christians all the way from the Middle East throughout that vast area, history tells us that the societies that were tired of this brutal, mass warfare, and that realized the emperors who ruled in Rome were no longer capable of doing what had been done by the previous Caesars: in the time when just the mention of Rome made the earth tremble for fear that he army would come and walk over everything; many of them began to look for an answer to their plight elsewhere. That is when a lot of those people began to look to the bishop of Rome for help. What was the bishop? He was the presiding preacher in charge of the affairs of the Church. He began to slowly influence the Christians in various areas to unite together and refuse to participate in all that condition of unrest. You have to realize, that was not done in a day’s time. At first, the societies that actually looked to those bishops for help and advice were very small in number; but it was the beginning of a tendency that eventually laid the groundwork for a time when those bishops would no longer be what once appeared to be humble leaders of Christianity. Instead, they eventually become known as popes, holy fathers. You have to study the histories to get a true picture of how this process developed. Knowing that we have other messages with all of this fully explained, keeps me from going into every detail of the process; but I want to give you a profile of the whole thing to get us over in time to what we want to deal with specifically. In other words, through the first centuries of the A.D. era of time, that old Roman beast had to go through a process of evolution. In the days of Christ and His apostles, it was a huge beast with one huge head; but in order to fulfill the picture Daniel and John saw, it had to develop seven heads in place of the one huge head and it had to develop ten horns with crowns upon them. That all sounds very mysterious I know; but that is how God hid the true revelation of prophesied events from these Bible Scholars that are only interested in teaching theories about the Bible anyhow. I suppose the best way to describe the whole picture in few words is to say, The fall of Rome, the developing of the seven heads and the developing of the ten horns was all intermingled. As emperor after emperor took that old imperial throne trying to establish another line of Caesars like the ones which one by one made up the one huge head it had until the death of Nero, general conditions of jealousy, greed and unrest made that throne a dangerous seat to sit upon. Assassination and suicide were commonplace among that long line of emperors. In the year 69 A.D., after the death of Nero, there were four different emperors that sat on that throne. In another year of time later on, there were six of them; and the end of their reign’s is recorded like this, (1) assassinated, (2) suicide, (3) slain in battle, (4) assassinated, (5) assassinated, (6) assassinated, and each of them took that throne with the same idea. They wanted to establish an effective rulership once again. Well, through all of that turmoil as the centuries passed, the beast those prophets of God had written about was slowly taking on those different characteristics the beasts before it did not have. Through those centuries of time, there were seven particular emperors who, in their reigns, established a form of rule comparable in a small way to that of the old Caesars. That is what accounts for the seven heads upon the beast; and those heads did not just suddenly develop. The first five came one right after the other between the years 96 A.D. and 180 A.D. They were recorded in history as the five good emperors. Constantine came to the throne in 306 A.D. and he accounts for head number 6; but head number seven was not formed until after 800 A.D. when a man named Charlemagne came to the throne. Well, how did the beast get ten horns with crowns upon them? That all came about through a process of many years also as various elements split off from Roman rule to establish their separate kingdoms as the authority of those emperors got weaker and weaker. Spain, Belgium, Germany, France and six other nations of people today were once a part of that one great empire. The governmental powers of those ten divisions of the old Roman empire are what make up the ten horns on that beast Daniel and John both saw. Horn symbolically speaks of power; and that is what each of those nations became: powers separate from Roman rule. Each horn (or kingdom) had its own crown. Of course, we know that some of those nations split later on so that there are more than ten nations of the European Common Market trade agreement today; but regardless of that, scripturally and symbolically, those original ten nations of the split up of the old Roman Empire are what make up the ten horns of that great beast; and they did not all suddenly form either. The total scope of the diverseness of the fourth beast Daniel wrote of took many years for it to evolve into that picture. Therefore, what we are saying is that the fall of old imperial Rome was none other than the old imperial system that had been established by the Caesars, being gradually weakened and split up into separate kingdoms. In the oncoming centuries, as it got weaker and weaker that change took place. I think of it like you would a calf. Calves are not born with horns, they develop them over a process of time. When a calf begins to reach a certain period of its maturity, you can look at the top of its head and if it is going to have horns, you will see a little button-like knot there where the horn will eventually be seen growing. Old imperial Rome was weakened because the imperial government was going through evolutionary, political changes. Out of those upheavals that arose in certain hours of time, another form of government would survive and be established as a ruling power (or horn). That is how those horns eventually began to get their own identity. I must keep stressing the fact that those horns did not sprout over night. Time produced them. Eventually they became not only territories of people, but they became people with territorial boundaries fixed, territories they had fought over and won between them and their rivalries. Breaking away and establishing their own form of political rule freed those various territories from that old imperial government of Rome; and made each of them a horn; (a political power) but they were all still a part of that old territory those Roman rulers ruled sovereignly; so they are still a part of that same old beast that ruled the world in the time of Christ. Figuratively though, the seven heads on that beast is none other that a description of the decay of that old imperial government of Rome as it went through seven distinct changes in process of time; and the ten horns are ten political governments that came about out of the breakup of that old imperial system of rule; but when you start thinking about the little horn Daniel saw raise up in the midst of the ten, that is a different story. That little horn is what I want to talk about. All of this other historical information was given just to show how and where the little horn came into the picture.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE LITTLE HORN DANIEL SAW COME UP AMONG THE TEN

Daniel said, (Dan. 7:8) “I considered the horns, (the ten) and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: (We will say some more about that plucking up by the roots later on.) And, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” As you read on down through that 7^th chapter, verse 20 says, “And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, (This was a man, a man of an office; not a political form of government.) whose look was more stout than his fellows. (Notice) “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. Well saints, we already know the ten horns were political, territorial powers; and we know that particular beast only had ten horns, yet it looks like what Daniel described was an eleventh horn rising up in the midst of the ten. That has confused a lot of Bible scholars through the years, so we ought to thank God every day for giving us the revelation of that picture. What looks like an 11^th horn on the beast, was not a territorial horn at all. It is a mystical horn. We will be referring to it as an ecclesiastical horn as we go along; because that is what it is: a power in the spiritual realm of the affairs of mortal mankind. It is true, that once those ten horns, which are people and territories, got free from the imperial political power of Rome, they were able politically to do what they wanted to do. Yet this horn, (this little horn) is a horn ( a power) that rose up and eventually surpassed them all in power. This little horn eventually became more powerful than any of the other ten and we are going to explain how this horn plucked up three of the other horns by the roots without actually destroying the identity of the three. We also have to recognize the eventuality of there being seven heads on that old beast and look at what looks like a eighth head; but in reality is part of the seventh. All of this is important to us if we are going to know what to expect a little later on in this age, so we are going to cover every bit of it; but for now, we will have to hold the rest for later.