Anti-christ Is Here Part 2

Written by Jonathan Dantzie 2/12/08

The Anti-Christ Is Here PART 2 “…And he shall speak great words against the Most High…” Daniel 7:25 We are confronted with the most solemn warnings ever pronounced by God in the book of Revelation. We read, “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” Rev 14: 9-11 Now with such a warning message as this with consequences so grievous as these, would God be fair and just if He were to leave us to guess and speculate as to what constitutes the ‘beast, his image and his mark’? Of course not! God is Love, and He is ‘not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance’ (2 Pet 3:9; Ezek 33:11) therefore He will make it very clear as to what the ‘beast’ is, and what it means to worship it and its image, and what it means to receive its ‘mark’. An important point to remember when studying the bible especially the book of Revelation (and other prophetic books) is that the bible is its own interpreter. It is not up to man to tell us what he thinks it means but for God Himself to tell us what He means. And this can only be done when we let the bible – the Word of God – explain itself. (See. 2 Pet 1:19-21; Gen 41:15, 16; Dan 2:26-30 Jn 5:39) The rule of interpretation goes as follows, the bible explains itself, scripture compared with scripture is the unerring guide, anything short of this, is presumption, and is worthy of being called “private interpretation”, which is condemned by the bible. (2 peter 1:20) The very fact we are told not to ‘worship’ this beast proves that God is talking about a religious power. This beast that we are not to worship is represented to us in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation beginning with verse one. (Rev 14:9 Compare with Rev 13:12-14 & 3, 8) “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. 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.” Rev 13:1, 2 Have you ever seen an animal such as this in real life? Hence we know that God is speaking symbolically. God is going to make this so simple and straightforward that none will fail to see just what this beast symbolizes. It will shock some and encourage others to place their feet solidly upon the word of God. What is meant by the symbol of the sea? “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (Rev 17:15) What does a beast symbolize? To answer this we turn to the book of Daniel – also a prophetic book dealing with beast and horns and all types of symbols. We read, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.” (Dan 7:17) So a beast in bible prophecy simply means a king. We continue, and it broadens it a little further, “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.” (Dan 7:23) Here we see clearly then that a beast symbolizes a king and his kingdom! Put these two interpretations together we see a kingdom is to arise out of an area of densely populated of people, nations and tongues (different languages) are spoken. Straight away then we see that God is warning us of a religious kingdom that we are not to worship, not to worship its image and not to receive its mark! This beast is made up of four other beasts: the leopard, bear, lion, and ten horns. And in Daniel chapter seven again these same beasts are here represented. NB: all text quoted from KJV bible

Written by Jonathan Dantzie 2/12/08

“Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.” (Dan 7:2, 3) Remember, how many metals were on the image of Daniel chapter two? Four. Here also the same four kingdoms are here spoken of and God is taking the same line of events but broadening it a bit. Winds are a symbol of war and strife. (Jer 49:36, 37; Rev 7:4) Therefore these empires were to arise through much conflict and war with each other. This we know when we read the history of these four huge world empires. (Read Daniel 7:2-7) Babylon (605 BC – 539 BC): is symbolised by the lion with eagles’ wings. Wings are a symbol of swiftness. (Jer 4:13; Hab 1:6-8) Even the ancient Babylonians themselves represented their kingdom as a lion with eagles’ wings! Upon excavating the ruins of Babylon, lions with eagles wings were found all over the ancient city!

Medo-Persia (539 BC – 331 BC): is symbolised by the bear with three ribs its mouth, which raised itself up on the one side. “ Cyrus II the Great united the separate kingdoms around 539 BC. At this time, the Persians were still tributary to the Median Empire ruled by Astyages. Cyrus rallied the Persians together, and in 550 BC defeated the forces of Astyages, who was then captured by his own nobles and turned over to the triumphant Cyrus, now Shah of a unified Persian kingdom. As Persia assumed control over the rest of Media and their large empire, Cyrus led the united Medes and Persians to still more conquest. He took Lydia in Asia Minor, and carried his arms eastward into central Asia. Finally in 539 BC, Cyrus marched triumphantly into the ancient city of Babylon.”(www.wikipedia.com) The unified Medes and Persians, with the Persians first under Cyrus the Great, no doubt a fulfillment to the bear raising itself up on one side. The Grecian Empire (331 BC – 146 BC): is symbolized by the leopard with four heads and four wings of a fowl. Alexander the Great conquered very swiftly and upon his death his kingdom was eventually divided into just four divisions. Lysimachus was king over Thrace and Asia Minor, Cassander king of Macedonia, Ptolemy I Soter king of Egypt, and Seleucus I Nicator King of East Asia. The Roman Empire (146 BC – 476 AD): is symbolized by the dreadful and terrible beast with ten horns. The ten horns we saw on the beast of Revelation thirteen, what do they symbolise? “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” (Dan 7:24) When Rome fell it fell to exactly ten kings. The Germanic tribes of the north came and violently took away the territories of the Western Roman Empire. NB: all text quoted from KJV bible

Written by Jonathan Dantzie 2/12/08

4th Beast with ten horns Daniel 7:7,8,24

Daniel continues on in verse 8, “ I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. It is important we follow this carefully as this next power that is later described is the same as the beast of Revelation thirteen. Notice the following identifying marks as given by the bible. Point 1: If Daniel is considering the horns, he is considering the ten kingdoms into which the Western Roman Empire was divided, and he says, “…there came up among them another little horn…” A horn thus being a king or kingdom, a little horn would signify a little kingdom. Point 2: The fact that it came up ‘among them’ tells us that this little kingdom must come up after AD 476 because those ten kings weren’t in place till then and, Point 3: that it comes up in western Europe because that is where the ten kings are situated. Point 4: it Uproots or destroys (See also verse 24) three of these ten kings. Point 5: It spoke great things and verse twenty-five tells us it spoke great things against the Most High. (Revelation 13:5, “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies…” What constitutes great words and blasphemies according to God? “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? (Mark 2:5-8) Jesus can forgive sin because He is one with God. But when a man claims to be able to have that divine right that is blasphemy. “I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (Jn 10:31-33) Again Jesus can say such things because He is God, but when a man claims to be God or one with God that is blasphemy. It is very simple already to see which kingdom the bible is referring to. All you have to do is ask yourself which kingdom claims to have the power to forgive sins and be God? When you do that you have found the anti-Christ beast power! Daniel continues, “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Dan 7:25) Point 6: He shall be diverse or different from the ten kings. Point 7: He will wear out (war against or persecute [Rev 13:7]) God’s saints. Point 8: He will think to change God’s holy times and laws, and NB: all text quoted from KJV bible

Written by Jonathan Dantzie 2/12/08

Point 9: And He will rule for a time, times, and dividing of time. What does that mean? “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And back up to verse six it tells you what that means, “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” (Rev 12:14, 6) Therefore this kingdom is to rule for 1260 days. But remember in prophecy a day is a symbol for a year. “…I have appointed thee each day for a year.” (Ezekiel 4:6 & Numbers 14:34) So we have a total number of 1260 years that this kingdom is to rule for. Point 10: The man at the head of this kingdom has a number, and it equals to 666. If we turn to the Revelation it gives us another identifying mark. “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (666)” (Rev 13:18) Now let us review briefly the ten points of identification: 1. A Little horn / Kingdom 2. Comes up after 476 A.D. 3. It comes up among them /Western Europe 4. Uproots/Destroys 3 of the 10 kingdoms 5. Spoke Great words and blasphemies 6. Diverse 7. Wars against / Persecute & Kills God’s saints (God’s people) 8. Think to change God’s times and laws. 9. Rule for 1260 days / years 10. Man at its head has the number 666 The kingdom in question is none other the kingdom of Papal Rome, Do they fulfil all the defining marks as given by God in His Holy Word? Yes. 1. The Vatican City is the smallest independent nation in the world! Occupying a space of just 108.7 acres. 2. It was given sovereign status that gave it power to persecute the saints in the year AD 538. The Emperor Justinian gave to the Pope civil as well as ecclesiastical power. “With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius, the history of the ancient city may be considered as terminating; and with its defense against Witiges [A.D. 538], commences the history of the Middle Ages.” Greece under the Romans, George Finlay, p. 295. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & sons, 1844. “The emperor’s letter must have been sent before the 25th of March, 533. For in his letter of that date to Epiphanius he speaks of its having been already dispatched, and repeats his decision, that all affairs touching the church shall be referred to the Pope, “Head of all bishops, and the true and effective corrector of heretics.” [“vel eo maxime, quod quoties in his locis hoereticoi pullulaunt, et sentenia et recto judicio illius venerabilis sedis correcti sunt”] – “The Apocalypse of St. John.1828. “Vigilius, [AD 538] a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the Papal chair under the military protection of Belisarius. (538-554)” History of the Christian Church,” Philip Schaff, D.D., (7 vol. ed.) Vol. III, p. 327. New York; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893. 3. It occupies its place inside Italy. 4. Under the arm of Belisarius Papal Rome completely destroyed the Heruli (512), Vandals (534), and the Ostrogoths (538). 5. Do they claim to be God and have the divine right to forgive sins? "The priest does really and truly forgive sins in virtue of the power given to him by Christ." Joseph Devarbe's Catechism, p. 279. "And God himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of his priest and either not to pardon or to pardon, according as they refuse to give absolution, provided the penitent is capable of it." St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p. 27. "...the power of the priest is the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world....thus the priest may be called the creator of the Creator..." St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p 33 "The pope is supreme judge of the law of the land. He is the vicegerent of Christ, and is not only a priest NB: all text quoted from KJV bible

Written by Jonathan Dantzie 2/12/08

forever, but also King of kings and Lord of lords." La Civilta Catholica, March 18, 1871. "We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter of June 20, 1894 "All the names which in the Scriptures are applied to Christ, by virtue of which it is established that he is over the church, all the same names are applied to the Pope.” Robert Bellarmine, On the Authority of the Councils, chapter 17, 1628 ed., vol. 1, p. 266 6. It is the only kingdom where civil and religious law are united. 7. "That the church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history... It is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their sufferings." W.E.H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, vol. 2, p. 32, 1910 edition. 8. "The Pope is of so great authority and power, that he is able to modify, declare, or interpret even divine laws. The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth..." Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica", Volume V, article on "Papa, Article II", titled "Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, authority, or dominion and infallibility", #30, published in Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition. “THE THIRD COMMANDMENT. Q. What is the third commandment? A. The third commandment is: Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” From the Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine by Peter Geiermann, C. SS. R.1946. By the way if you look in your bible in Exodus the twentieth chapter and verse four you will see that the third commandment is actually, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” But the entire commandment is totally removed from the ten. They would have to do that in order to retain all the idols in their church. Therefore in order to retain the number of Ten Commandments they simply split the last commandment in two! What blasphemy. Truly in no other way can a kingdom seek to exalt itself more above God than to think to change God’s own Holy Law! 9. If we take 538 and add to that our 1260 years, we come to the year 1798. What happened to the Papacy in 1798? The French General, Berthier marched his troops into Rome whereupon they seized the Pope, declared a republic, and the NB: all text quoted from KJV bible

Written by Jonathan Dantzie 2/12/08

Pope lost his sovereign status and he was taken to France where he later died in exile. But the bible said that, “…his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” (Rev13:3) And in 1929 the Italian President Benito Mussolini signed a concordat with Papal Rome and it regained its civil authority over what is now known as the Vatican City. 10. Does the Pope have a number equaling 666? Question. "What are the letters supposed to be in the Pope's crown, and what do they signify if anything? Answer. "The letters inscribed in the Pope's mitre are these: Vicarius Filii Dei, which is the Latin for Vicar of the Son of God... Our Sunday Visitor, (Catholic Weekly),

April 18, 1915, Latin letters have numerical values e.g. V/U= 5, I= 1 and C=100. And if you take the official title of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope – Vicarius Filii Dei – Vicarius =112, Filii = 53 and Dei = 501 add them all up you have 666!! “A religion of externals is attractive to the unrenewed heart. The pomp ceremony of the Catholic worship has a seductive, bewitching power, by which many are deceived; and they come to look upon the Roman Church as the very gate of heaven. None but those who have planted their feet firmly upon the foundation of truth, and whose hearts are renewed by the Spirit of God, are proof against her influence. Thousands who have not an experimental knowledge of Christ will be led to accept the forms of godliness without the power. Such religion is what the multitudes desire.” The Great Controversy E.G. White pg. 567

NB: all text quoted from KJV bible