The Battle of Armageddon

The Battle of Armageddon

This frightening apocalyptic word “Armageddon” refers to earth’s final battle which is generally referred to as the Battle of Armageddon. But who are the contestants of this great battle of Armageddon? A fairly common reply would be “Russia, Syria, or Iran against Israel.” As the Middle East simmers toward a boiling point, and as U.S., British, and Israeli intelligence monitor closely Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb which might even be used against America. Millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even secularists are pondering, “Is the Battle of Armageddon at hand?” I believe so. Yet I am also convinced that there are massive battle of Armageddon illusions rampant everywhere. Please allow me to explain.

The word “Armageddon” appears only once in the entire Bible and is found in Revelation 16:16. If you open God’s Word and read this passage yourself along with the verses immediately before and after it, you will be amazed at what you will find and not find in regards to the battle of Armageddon. Take a look for yourself:

Revelation 16:12-21 “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

Interestingly, no place on earth actually bears the name Armageddon, and the above passage is the only mention of it in scripture and hence it is assumed that this is what scripture refers to but is it? The Greek is most commonly thought to be a transliteration of the Hebrew har megiddo, literally, “mountain of Megiddo.” Here is what Strong’s has to say about the word:

G717 Armageddōn ar-mag-ed-dohn' Of Hebrew origin [H2022] and [H4023]; Armageddon (or Har-Megiddon), a symbolical name: - Armageddon.

Strong's proposes that the Greek word Armageddon originates from the two following Hebrew words:

H2022 har har A shortened form of H2042; a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively): - hill (country), mount (-ain), X promotion.

H4023 megiddôn megiddô meg-id-done',meg-id-do' From H1413; rendezvous; Megiddon or Megiddo, a place in Palestine: - Megiddo, Megiddon.

The Mount of Megiddo is located in the plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, a valley fourteen by twenty miles in size located to the southwest of Nazareth. Here, it is thought by many, that the great final battle of Armageddon will be fought at the end of time. Is it possible this battle is symbolic? First let’s do the ground work.

Understanding Bible Prophecy

There are utterly hundreds of interpretations on Bible Prophecy and especially on the issue of antichrist and the battle of Armageddon, the key word being “interpretations.” This is the majority’s first error as we are not allowed and do not need private interpretations at all. God’s Word gives us all we need to know without any speculation whatsoever. Note the following scripture that we should impress deeply into our minds.

2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”

Also, the book of Revelation ends with a severe warning telling us not to add or take away from the prophecies written in this book or there are very serious consequences.

Revelation 22:18-19 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

If we adhere to the warning of these two scriptures then we should not go too far wrong. These verses inform us that everything we need to know about end time events will be stated in the Bible and we will not have to add extra doctrine or our own interpretations or fill in the gaps, for we are told not to add to it.

The moment you hear statements like, “this must be that country because or…”, then stop reading. If we have to add or take from what the Bible tells us, then we already have it wrong. In fact, once you understand the principles for understanding Bible prophecy, it is a lot simpler than you could imagine.

The key to understanding Bible prophecy is laid out in the principle of the following verse:

Isaiah 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:”

For example, in Revelation 13 we find a bizarre beast coming out of the sea with ten horns. Do we start making wild guesses as to what a beast is or what the meaning of the sea or water is? It is beyond the scope of this document to go into large detail here, but it is necessary to some extent, so you will know what I am going to share with you on the Battle of Armageddon will be Bible truth and not private interpretation.

A large amount of what we need to know can be found by referencing the book of Daniel. In fact two thirds of the book of Revelation can be found in the Old Testament and that is a very large key to finding our answers, “precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Note the following two verses, which are significant to understanding many key Bible Prophecies, for instance the word “Beast” occurs more than 55 times in Revelation. This verse tells us the meaning of the waters or sea in this case.

Revelation 17:15 “And he saith unto me, The waters which you sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, The fourth beast 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.”

The previous verse which was divinely given to Daniel, informs us unmistakably what a beast is in Bible Prophecy. There is no need to guess, just let the Bible explain itself.

There is always so much speculation as to what the Mark of the Beast is or more to the point who this antichrist beast power is. Many believe it to be one individual at the end of time. Is this true? No! For those who want to research and study history a little, they will be shell shocked to find out what the real truth is. You will ask yourself why more people don’t know this truth, but this is how Satan works. He starts with a small lie and perpetuates it until it gets so big that nobody will entertain the idea of it ever being wrong. Even some theologians who first hear Satan’s perpetuated lie in a traditionally accepted teaching without questioning it, tend to end up establishing their theology around that lie that becomes a mind set.

Because of the importance of the identity of the antichrist beast power and to see how the following truth could not be established without using the book of Daniel we are going to cover this topic. Understanding how Daniel and Revelation work together is a crucial part of understanding the great Battle of Armageddon found in Revelation. So let’s identify from the Bible and history who this antichrist power is.

For a very comprehensive study on who and where is the Antichrist use this link and on completion return to this web site and then proceed straight to the second page of this document on the Battle of Armageddon. If you have already read the web site who is the Antichrist, you can also go direct to the second page.

What does the Bible have to say about “Antichrist”?

Some are surprised to know that the word antichrist appears nowhere in the book of Revelation. The word antichrist occurs only five times and only in the Books of 1st and 2nd John.

• 1 John 2:18-22 – He is antichrist that denies Jesus is Christ. In John’s time there were many antichrists.
• 1 John 4:1-3 – Test the Spirits. Every spirit that denies Jesus came in the flesh is the spirit of antichrist.
• 2 John 1-11 – Those that deny Jesus came in the flesh are a deceiver and antichrist.
• Antichrist = “against Christ” or “in place of Christ”, attacking Christ’s character (Gnosticism), specifically with regard to love expressed in obedience to God’s Ten Commandments.

What is one method Satan uses to “deny” Christ?

2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15 – Appear as “apostles of Christ” but preach a “different Jesus”

Does the Bible give us a way to identify the Antichrist power?

Review Daniel 2 to get a prophetic blueprint of history: Babylon --> Medo-Persia --> Greece --> Rome --> 10 Divisions of Rome -->> Kingdom of the Stone.

Now apply the principle of repetition and enlargement to Daniel’s next vision.

Prophecy Symbols:

• Beasts – Kings/kingdoms (political powers). Daniel 7:17, 23
• Horns/heads – Subdivisions of political powers. Daniel 7:24, 8:21-22
• Wings – Speed or swiftness.
• Winds – War/Strife. Jeremiah 49:35-37
• Sea – Multitudes of people. Revelation 17:1, 15

Daniel 7:1-8 – Daniel’s vision of four beasts

• The Lion - Babylon. Wings represent conquering speed. King Nebuchadnezzar.
• The Bear - Medo-Persia. One shoulder raised above the other represents the dominance of the Medes over the Persians. The three ribs represent the three kingdoms overthrown by this kingdom - Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon. (Daniel 8:20)
• The Leopard - Greece. Four wings representing great conquering speed. The four heads represent Alexander the Great’s four generals who ruled Greece after his death – Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus and Cassander. (Daniel 8:21-22)
• The different beast - Rome. The ten horns - the divisions of Rome (Same as the toes of Chapter 2) The ten horns are the 10 divisions of the Roman Empire as it fell apart. These were the Anglo Saxons (England), Alemanni (Germany), Heruli (x493AD), Vandals (x534AD), Ostrogoths (x538AD), Visigoths (Spain), Suevi (Portugal), Lombard’s (Italy), Burgundians (Swiss) and the Franks (France).

What nine characteristics help us to identify the little horn power?

• Location: out of the 4th beast and among the ten horns (v.8) - The Papacy arose out of Rome among the ten tribal divisions of Rome
• Timing: after the ten were established (v.8) - the Papacy became a political power by decree of the Roman emperor Justinian in AD 538 which was after the emergence of the ten tribal divisions that emerged as the Roman Empire fell apart in AD 476.
• Uprooted three of the ten horns (v.8) - As the Papacy came to prominence, it influenced Pagan Roman armies to destroy three of the tribes which opposed its Christian doctrines. These three were the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Heruli. The last of these was destroyed in AD 538 when Justinian’s decree went into effect.
• Eyes and mouth of a man (v.8) - the Papacy has a man as its visible head.
• Persecutes the saints (v.21, 25) - Ever hear of the Papal persecution during the dark ages - Inquisition, etc. More than 50 million Protestant Christians tortured and killed by the Catholic Church.
• Different than the other ten horns (v.24) - the Papacy was a religio-political entity different from the kingdoms before it.
• Speak out against God (v.8, 11, 20, 25) - Verse 8 says it will utter boastful or blasphemous things. One quote of many like it from Prompta Bibliothea Canonica Juridicia Moralis Theologica appearing in the Catholic Encyclopedia Volume VI, pp. 25-29, “The Pope is of so great dignity, and so exalted, that he is not a mere man, but as it were, God and the Vicar of God. The Pope is, as it were, God on earth, chief king of kings, having plentitude of power.”
• Little Horn attempts to change God’s times and laws (v.25) - The Papacy deleted the second commandment of the Decalogue on idolatry, changed the Sabbath to Sunday in favour of sun worship and divided the tenth commandment on coveting into two parts to get back to Ten Commandments.
• Have power for a time, times, and half a time (or three and a half years, forty two months, or 1260 days - see Revelation 12:6, 14) (v.25) - Applying the prophetic day for a year principle established in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 that equals 1260 years. The Papacy lasted in primary power from AD 538 to 1798 in which year Napoleon’s general Berthier marched into Rome, deposed the Pope, and carried him into exile where he died.

How does Daniel’s vision compare with John’s vision in Revelation 13?

The table below also demonstrates how a lot of Bible prophecy can be understood by comparing Revelation with the Old Testament and the book of Daniel in particular. Again this is very important to understanding the Battle of Armageddon as the beast is Mystery Babylon who is the major player in this prophecy.

The above similarities are not a coincidence. God deliberately concealed many things like this so that they would not be seen until the time of the end. This applies to most prophecies involving the book of Daniel.

Daniel 12:4 “But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”

There has only been one power that has persecuted Christians for 1260 years and only one power had the privilege of taking out three of the ten kingdoms from the collapse of the Roman Empire. It can be no other than the Papacy on these two points alone, and as we have seen there are far more identifying points.

What was Satan’s original purpose?

Isaiah 14:12-14 “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! 13 For you have said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Satan wanted to be worshipped as God but how could he achieve that goal when no Christian in their right mind would do this. When Satan (the Dragon) gave him (the Pope) his power, and his seat, and great authority, Satan achieved his goal and got the worship he wanted and on his day in favour of sun worship as this is what God hates and Satan knew it. The big issue is who we worship and what day we worship on. Do we give Satan our allegiance and worship on his day implemented by the Papacy, or do we place our allegiance where it should belong and worship on the day that God blessed and sanctified?

Revelation 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.”

What is Satan’s purpose now?

Revelation 12:12 “Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

The Protestant Reformation

Towards the time of the end when the Bible hit the printing press, almost all the early Church fathers began to understand these prophecies and in particular the one involving the antichrist beast power. Satan obviously does not want anyone understanding Bible Prophecy and especially who the beast power is as this would give Christians the upper hand in understanding 666 and the Mark of the Beast, the battle of Armageddon and other important issues. So naturally, Satan always has many counter lies coming against this truth.

The Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s literally changed the course of history. It helped move Europe out of the Dark Ages and led to the rise of true religious freedom. Its original principles eventually found expression in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America which teaches that when it comes to religion, the governments of earth have no right to control the conscience.

True Protestantism teaches salvation by grace through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8) and the supremacy of the Bible above the visible church, (2 Timothy 3:16) above traditions, pastors, priests, popes and kings. It also teaches the priesthood of all believers (2 Peter 2:9-10) and that all people everywhere can be saved by coming directly to our loving heavenly Father through His only Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5

What did the major Protestant Reformers teach about the Antichrist? The following quotations are not indented to foster ill will toward any human being, for this would be contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ but truth is truth and that is all we can present here. Here are many comments presented by some of the most influential Christian leaders who have ever lived and what they believed about “the little horn” (Daniel 7:8), “the beast” (Revelation 13:1), and “the man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) and about Antichrist.

John Wesley (1703-1791) (Methodist): Speaking of the Papacy, John Wesley wrote, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers... He it is...that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped...claiming the highest power, and highest honour...claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, by John Wesley, pg. 110.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) (Lutheran): “Luther ... proved, by the revelations of Daniel and St. John, by the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the reign of Antichrist, predicted and described in the Bible, was the Papacy ... And all the people did say, Amen! A holy terror seized their souls. It was Antichrist whom they beheld seated on the pontifical throne. This new idea, which derived greater strength from the prophetic descriptions launched forth by Luther into the midst of his contemporaries, inflicted the most terrible blow on Rome.” Taken from J. H. Merle D'aubigne’s History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century, book vi, chapter xii, p. 215. Based on prophetic studies, Martin Luther finally declared, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520). Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.

John Wycliffe: “When the western church was divided for about 40 years between two rival popes, one in Rome and the other in Avigon, France, each pope called the other pope antichrist - and John Wycliffe is reputed to have regarded them as both being right: “two halves of Antichrist, making up the perfect Man of Sin between them.” –Ibid

Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) (Anglican): “Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.” (Referring to prophecies in Revelation and Daniel.) Works by Cranmer, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7.

John Calvin (1509-1564) (Presbyterian): “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt... I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.” Taken from Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.

John Knox (1505-1572) (Scotch Presbyterian): John Knox sought to counteract “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church.” As with Luther, he finally concluded that the Papacy was “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.” The Zurich Letters, by John Knox, pg. 199.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America): Pastor Williams spoke of the Pope as “the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself...speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the son of perdition (II Thess. 2).” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647): “There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God.” Taken from Philip Schaff’s, The Creeds of Christendom,With a History and Critical Notes, III, p. 658, 659, ch. 25, sec. 6.

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) (Congregational Theologian): “The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.” Taken from The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom’s book, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, pg. 113.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses: “Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.” Taken from All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.

Please consider the following question very carefully. Why have almost all these Churches forgotten what was known by their early Church fathers and all these other people who had no trouble in understanding what the Bible taught here? Have you given this some serious thought? There is only one answer.

Never underestimate the enemy!! He has sown more lies and deceptions into the Church today than one can imagine or what space we have to go into here. Don’t just assume because your Pastor does not teach it that it is not truth. It is this mentality that helps Satan keep his lies going. Pastors are still just people and suffer many of the same vulnerabilities as we do. Most Christians have not read their Bible from cover to cover and yet the best example we get is from the Borean Christians in the early Church. We should follow their lead so we can personally understand what the battle of Armageddon and the mark of the beast are truly about.

Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

As you have just read, all those great people understood the antichrist power to be none other than the Papacy. This following comment is no reflection on all the wonderful people in the Catholic Church but truth is truth and the truth is the Papacy persecuted and murdered an estimated 70-100 million Christians they called heretics through the dark ages for reading the Bible and keeping God’s true day of worship etc, which is why the Protestant reformation began. As part of a counter reformation from the Papacy in what was called the Council of Trent, the Papacy commissioned some Jesuit Priests to manufacture false prophecy that would take the attention off them being the antichrist beast power. The purpose of this Counter Reformation was to point the attention to someone before their time or in the distant future. Some call this the great Catholic diversion but is more commonly known just as the Counter Reformation.

The Counter Reformation

With the arrival of the printing press in the 15th century and the resulting explosion of Bibles accessible in the common language from Protestant sources, it became readily apparent to those who could now study the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation in particular, that Bible prophecy identified by symbols a persecuting apostate entity generally known as antichrist.

In this the “Historical” interpretation, the antichrist was clearly not merely a single individual, it was a system of apostasy and persecution that would hold control for over twelve centuries. The inevitable conclusion of those who studied these prophecies in scripture, before and during the Protestant Reformation, was that there was only one entity that fit all the above characteristics: the papal dynasty of the Roman Catholic Church. Is it any wonder that the Catholic Church was so violently opposed to the scriptures being available for everyone to read for themselves? There was such a stir created during the reformation that the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17 A.D.) resorted to strictly forbidding anyone to publish a book without prior censorship, and also prohibited anyone from preaching on the subject of antichrist. The intent of both Futurism and Preterism was to be diversionary, to counter or offset the Protestant Historical interpretation, and present alternatives, no matter how implausible they might be.

The result is evident from the following chart, which illustrates the three schools of interpretation regarding antichrist. Ribera’s futurism puts the antichrist into a future three and one-half literal years. Alcazar’s preterism identifies the antichrist as Nero. Both of them put antichrist outside the middle Ages and the reformation period, identified by Protestant Historicists as antichrist’s reign of 1260 prophetic years.

Now the truly amazing part of all this is that the Futurist theory dominates Protestant teaching today. About all you hear or read about today is the yet to appear antichrist, who will be unveiled in the last 3 1/2 years of Daniel’s 70th week, when he declares himself to be God in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. That scenario, as you can now see, is directly traceable back to the pen of the Jesuit Francisco Ribera who manufactured this theory for the sole purpose of diverting attention from the papacy. Note what one Protestant writer had to say over one hundred years ago:

“Accordingly, towards the close of the century of the Reformation, two of her most learned doctors set themselves to the task, each endeavouring by different means to accomplish the same end, namely, that of diverting men’s minds from perceiving the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Antichrist in the Papal system. The Jesuit Alcasar devoted himself to bring into prominence the Preterist method of interpretation, which we have already briefly noticed, and thus endeavouring to show that the prophecies of Antichrist were fulfilled before the Popes ever ruled in Rome, and therefore could not apply to the Papacy. On the other hand the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the Papal Power by bringing out the Futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies refer properly not to the career of the Papacy, but to that of some future supernatural individual, who is yet to appear, and to continue in power for three and a half years. Thus, as Alford says, the Jesuit Ribera, about A.D. 1580, may be regarded as the Founder of the Futurist system in modern times.”

“It is a matter for deep regret that those who hold and advocate the Futurist system at the present day, Protestants as they are for the most part, are thus really playing into the hands of Rome, and helping to screen the Papacy from detection as the Antichrist. It has been well said that ‘Futurism tends to obliterate the brand put by the Holy Spirit upon Popery.’ More especially is this to be deplored at a time when the Papal Antichrist seems to be making an expiring effort to regain his former hold on men’s minds.”

From Daniel and the Revelation: The Chart of Prophecy and Our Place In It, A Study of the Historical and Futurist Interpretation, by Joseph Tanner, published in London by Hodder and Stoughton, 1898, pages 16,17.

In what could only be described as a stunning reversal, Protestants have over time actually become the papacy’s greatest ally by spreading its Jesuit spawned propaganda. What irony that Protestants, who originally broke away from what they clearly recognized to be the harlot antichrist led church of prophecy, now champion the Futurist interpretation from high profile ministries. Futurism has without doubt, been successful beyond the wildest dreams of its Jesuit authors. The same applies to the Preterist interpretation of Luis De Alcazar, although to a lesser degree.

Most of you have probably heard of a supposed seven year tribulation period and a secret rapture. It should totally shock you to know that there is no scripture that specifically mentions seven years of tribulation! It simply does not exist. Previously I told you that some of the things I would share with you would shell shock you and this is one of them. This was part of the Counter Reformation from the Papacy and was manufactured by the Jesuit Francisco Ribera who was responsible for the futurist view just explained above. For more information, read “Secret Rapture”

Check everything you are told with the Bible and where relevant with history. Do not use biased Christian sources. They must be unprejudiced, unbiased historical sources or Satan will still succeed in leading you from truth. For example, Satan has many counter deceptions out there to come against truth including the lie that the Ten Horns of the beast of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are ten consecutive kings. This is all it would take to throw you from the real truth of these Bible passages. The Ten horns are ten kings and this is Bible truth as we have already seen and is unmistakably clear from the scripture below.

Daniel 7:24 “The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.”

But as for them being ten consecutive kings, this is just not possible.

Daniel 7:8 “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.”

You will note that the verse says, “a little one, which came up among them”. In order for another kingdom to come up AMONG them, they all have to exist at the same time. This matches history perfectly. Again as we have already seen, the Papacy uprooted the Vandals, Heruli and the Ostrogoths as they opposed them from coming into full power. None of these kingdoms or equivalents exists now today as a result.

For more detailed information you can read “666 and the Mark of the beast” or the “mark of the beast” for the origins of 666. Do not read these sites unless you are a Christian that wants to know truth at any cost. Daniel 7:25 also tells us that the Papacy would think to change God’s times and laws which as we have seen they did and freely admit and history proves this also. They have their own version of the Ten Commandments where the 2nd Commandment has been deleted and they changed God’s Sabbath to Sunday in honour of sun worship unknown to so many Christians today. You find the evidence of sun worship all over the place in the Papacy like the picture shown here. Why is this unknown to so many Christians? Again, Satan was created a very wise and powerful angel and he has been around for thousands of years. Does anyone think that he just might be capable of doing a good job at deceiving? The truth is never, ever easy to see. Some say that, “the truth is not always popular and what is popular is not always truth.”

“A lie can travel halfway around the world, while truth puts on its shoes.” -- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

A lot of Bible Prophecy revolves around God’s Commandments as breaking them is sin and this sin is what God hates and is detestable to Him. 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” God loves the sinner but He hates the sin. It is the battle between what is from God which is good and love and obedience versus what is from Satan which is evil and sin and disobedience. When you mention the Sabbath to many Christians you receive a multitude of different reasons as to why God made nine Commandments that are obviously eternal but apparently made a huge mistake as He added one that was apparently not a Commandment of love or eternal. Did God really foul up here? If you really love God with all your heart and want the answer to the real truth, on careful study of history and the Bible, you will find the answer to this question is No. God has more wisdom than everyone on Earth put together and did not make nine eternal love Commandments and one that was not. Would you do that? I certainly wouldn’t and I am no match for God’s wisdom. If you can accept this fact then you will understand a lot more on what so much Bible Prophecy is all about. If you are a Christian that says, “If this is so, then I want to know”, you can find the Sabbath truth on “Sabbath and Antichrist truth Revealed”

If you are a Christian that says, “it was done away with or the day was changed”, you will miss out on many of God’s blessings and knowledge of Bible Prophecy truth and so don’t bother reading the above web site. I pray that through the history and Bible facts presented here that the victory Satan has achieved through the Papacy can be seen and you will reconsider what it is you are rejecting and who is getting the glory.

We will eventually make the connection with the Battle of Armageddon and what the Bible calls “Mystery Babylon” or spiritual Babylon which is the Papacy and all the false religions that have come from her.

The rebuilt Jewish Temple - Fact or Fiction

Many of you will have noted in the comments made by our early Church fathers and the translators of the KJV Bible that the man of sin referred to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is none other than the Pope.

2 Thessalonians 2:4 “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

It is from this verse that the conclusion comes that the Jewish temple must be rebuilt so that the antichrist can sit in the temple of God. Well here comes some more of that shell shocking truth I spoke of. This was more of Jesuit Francisco Ribera’s false manufactured prophecy to make us think that the antichrist power was some individual at the end of time. The fact that this was manufactured as part of the Papacy’s Counter Reformation and that all the early Church fathers knew this was referring to the Pope should be enough, but I will touch on it lightly. Again, large percentages of the Christian populous believe this perpetuated lie.

The Pope claims to be God on Earth and puts himself in place of Christ which matches the definition of antichrist; against or in place of. Here are some quotes from the Roman Catholic Church.

“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of human flesh.” – Catholic National, July 1895

“We hold upon this earth the place of God almighty.” – Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894.

“The pope has power to change times, abrogate laws, and dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.” – Decretal De Translat. Espiscop. Cap.

“The authority of the Church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed…the Sabbath to Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” – Cannon and Tradition, p.263

“The church may by divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their person, and condemn them to flames. In our age, the right to inflict the severest penalties, even death, belongs to the church. There is no graver offense than heresy, therefore it must be rooted out.” – Public Eccliastical, Vol. 2, p.142.

The Greek word Paul used for temple in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 is “nah-os”. Here are some other scriptures that use this same Greek word.

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

We are the temple of God now. That is the Church. Here is another couple using the same Greek word;

1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?”

Matthew 26:61 “And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.”

Jesus is obviously not talking about an earthly temple in the above verse. There are many others but this should be enough to see what Paul was talking about here. Paul is a Christian Jew and knows that the temple is now the Church and if Paul were to call a rebuilt temple “the temple of God” then he would be denying what Jesus did on the cross. Paul would never call a rebuilt temple the “temple of God” because it would not be God's temple! In the next verse you will see that Jesus calls the temple of God His house or His temple.

Matthew 21:13 “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.”

But note now in the following verse Jesus said, Matthew 23:38 “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

But soon it will be their house, i.e. no longer God's temple. Why?

Matthew 27:51 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”

Jesus ended the temple sacrifices when he became the one and final perfect sacrifice. It is no longer God's temple as Jesus said in the verse above and Paul would never ever call it that either because he obviously knows it is no longer God's temple. We are the temple of God now! If Paul called it God's temple he would be saying to God that Jesus never did the job on the cross and that further sacrifices are needed.

The Pope will be seated [sitteth] in a position of power in the Church “showing himself that he is God.” Remember the Pope claims to be God on earth now. All the early Church fathers and Protestants knew this and were not deceived by Ribera’s manufactured writings because they knew who he was. Yet another truth that Satan has slowly drawn from the Church over the centuries. That is how he does it, slowly and subtly.

Now moving closer to the issue of the Battle of Armageddon. First a few more points and symbols. A woman in Bible Prophecy represents a Church and the colour blue represents God’s Ten Commandment law.

Numbers 15:38-39 “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring:”

The colours of the garments that the priests were to wear had the colours gold, blue, purple and scarlet. It is important to make note that the colour blue represents God’s law and that the Papacy thought to change God’s law. Note in the picture here that the robes of the Catholic Priests are missing the colour blue.

Exodus 28:3-6 “And you shall speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. 4 And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. 5 And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. 6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.”

In the following vision of John’s we are shown the judgment that must come upon the mother of all Churches, Mystery Babylon or spiritual Babylon. The judgement is because she thought to change God’s law and has the blood of millions of Christians the Papacy called heretics on her hands. You will note many of the same identifying marks as the beast described in Revelation 13:1 being Papal Rome. Having seen the criteria now for the antichrist power, the passage below should make perfect sense. Since a woman in Bible Prophecy represents a Church and a beast a kingdom, what we symbolically have below is a woman riding and in control of a beast. This literally would be a Church in control of a kingdom or more specifically, a Church in control of state as was the Roman Catholic Church for 1260 dark years. This is why America had in their constitution that Church should remain separate from state so that such a dreadful thing as those 1260 years of Papal persecution could not happen again, but unfortunately the Bible tells us it will happen again with the Mark of the Beast issue. Note that the woman riding the beast, like the Catholic Priest robes, is missing the colour blue. Here is a Church in control of state that has forgotten the Commandments of God and any wonder when the dragon (Satan) gave her the power and great authority. You don’t think Satan wants us obeying God’s Commandments do you? This all revolves around who we worship and more specifically God’s law which defines what sin is. The Papacy is especially famous for changing God’s Sabbath and they say that it is a MARK of their authority that they could do this and have the whole protestant world follow her.

Revelation 17:1-6 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible Albert Barnes (1798-1870) quotes the following:
“Rev 17:2 - With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication - Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. … How true this is in history need not be stated. All the princes and kings of Europe in the dark ages, and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of papal Rome.
And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication - The alluring cup which, as an harlot, she had extended to them. See this image explained in the notes on Rev 14:8. There it is said that Babylon - referring to the same thing - had “made them drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”; that is, of the cup that led to wrath or punishment. Here it is said that the harlot had made them “drunk with the wine of her fornication”; that is, they had been, as it were, intoxicated by the alluring cup held out to them. What could better describe the influence of Rome on the people of the world, in making them, under these delusions, incapable of sober judgment, and in completely fascinating and controlling all their powers?”