Blessed Assurance
The Seventh Vial in Revelation 16:17-21 describes the final conflict in terms reminiscent of the defeat of Babylon the Great. The redirection and drying up of the great river Euphrates left Great Babylon open to invasion by "the kings of the East" as the apostasy of "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF [the apostate (once) Protestant] HARLOT [daughter churches] AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH [Fascism, Nazism, Communism, Islam, Zionism, capitalism, Feminism, etc.,] brought God's wrath upon the world church system under the Sixth Vial. While the apostasy of each Jewish US president from Bush I to Donald Trump has destroyed the buffer state of Iraq and dried up the Great River Euphrates, Christendom's natural border and defence, a type of the Holy Spirit, "that the way of the kings from the East might be prepared." As I write President Trump is goading Iran, Iraq, Russia and China, ignoring the fact that "God is no respecter of persons;" as He raised Nebuchadnezzar to conquer apostate Judah, He has raised Judaeo-Communism to destroy the false church and North America. The close of the Gentile dispensation will be marked by the sinking of Los Angeles and a 1,500 by 300-400 mile segment of earth's crust.
In less than three decades, a mere blink of the eye in historical terms, the USA has gone from the world's sole superpower to a massive foundering wreck that is helpless before the coronavirus it created and intent on blaming the rest of the world for its own shortcomings. As journalist Fintan O'Toole noted recently in the Irish Times (April 25, 2020):
"Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity".
Here is what Jesus prophesied of the Laodicea Church Age which dates from the 1906 Pentecostal Revival in Azusa Street, Los Angeles to the opening of the Seven Seals on Mount Sunset near Tucson, Arizona in 1963. "Because you say, 'I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that [spiritually] you are wretched, and miserable which is to be pitied, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17).
Jesus also prophesied concerning this self-appointed 'exceptional' nation which has been a global threat since 1945 and certainly since the collapse of the USSR. He identified the (once) Protestant United States as "the image unto the beast of Imperial Rome" and the apostate (once) Protestant churches as "the image unto the beast of Papal Rome." His Prophet William Branham declared the United States had rejected her last chance for national repentance in 1956/7, the jubilee of the Pentecostal Revival. "It's a million miles from being a Christian country. I don't even pray for it. How can I pray for it, and it won't repent under the mighty powers of God demonstrated before it; and denying, and closing the doors to It, and walking away? I commit it to God. And she is going further away. And now she is going to sink. Just watch what happens" (65-0718M, Trying to do God a Service without being His Will, par. 137; Hebrews 6:5-6).
"Remember the Jewish people was declared a nation at Lake Success by the UNSCOP Committee on May 6, 1946 [(UN docs. A/C.I/P.V.46-57 (May 6-13) when under shabbos goy President Harry Truman the United States voted with Jewish-ruled USSR to give non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Jews the land God promised to the Israelites]! Brother Branham said, "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to me on May 7, 1946 at Green's Mill, Indiana . . . come into the room where I was at, a Man walking. He didn't have wings; He was just a big man, had a white garment down to His feet. And He said that I was born to pray for sick people. And I told Him I was uneducated, illiterate, and I wasn't able to go. He said I'd be praying for kings and monarchs, and Message around the world, a Message that would bring the second Coming of Christ was near . . . THUS SAITH THE LORD, I said, America made her final decision in 1946. Watch, since then. She's gone, and there's nothing left but judgment and chaos" (58-0309, The Handwriting on the Wall, p. 12:99, 121, 123).
The alien banksters of the City of London that rule the United States and the world have worked under cover of the fake COVID-19 false flag black flag psyop to preserve a shaky US dollar and fractional reserve fiat banking system until they can replace it with digital currency under authoritarian collectivized government from which they can take their "pound of flesh." Economically, you can't shut down entire economies all over the world—lay off millions upon millions of people in every country on every continent, have central banks print money out of thin air to keep everything afloat—and not expect a catastrophic collapse in global growth.
Expect and prepare for deflation, global DEPRESSION and worldwide FAMINE (Jeremiah 15:2-3; Amos 8:11; Revelation 6:8; 19:17-18).
YOU must keep up-to-date with national and international news otherwise you will be unable to recognize scripture coming to pass in real time. If you are a MINISTER not following current news you cannot acquaint your congregation with "the present Truth" expounded by Brother Branham (II Peter 1:12; I John 1:7). Please open "The Revelation of the Seven Seals" to p. 168:5 – 171:2 in the old book, or p. 150:349-371 in the new book.
"And after the Church is taken away, Rome and the Jews will make a covenant with one another. The Bible said they would, with the holy people (Daniel 7:25; 8:24-25; 9:27; 12:7; Revelation 11:7; 12:14). And now notice, they'll make it, because why? This nation is going to be busted, and the rest of the world . . . is busted. You know that. If we're living off of taxes, due bills for forty years from now, where are we at? There's only one thing can happen. That's to call in the currency and pay off the bonds; and we can't do it. Wall Street owns them, and Wall Street's controlled by the Jews; the rest of it's in the Vatican, and the Jews has got the rest of it in Wall Street with the commerce of the world".
"We can't call it in. And if we could do it, do you think these whiskey guys and all these tobacco people with billions times billions of dollars a year and write off all their income tax for old vulgar pictures and things like that—go out in Arizona there and buy millions of acres of land—or thousands—and dig them big wells at fifty thousand dollars and pay it off with income tax? And they'd put you in jail if you don't pay yours. But they write it off and throw up wells and send bulldozers in."
"And what do they do? They put housing projects in there, and the next turn around with their money they made (they have got to make an investment) and put houses, projects in there and sell them for millions of dollars. Do you think them guys is going to compromise to change the currency?"
"Like this fellow down here in (What's his name?) Castro did. He done the only smart thing he ever did do then, when he destroyed the bonds: paid them off and destroyed them. Notice, but we can't do that. These guys won't let us."
"The rich merchants of the earth hold it, and then there's only one thing to do: the Catholic church can pay it off. She's the only one that's got the money; she can do it, and she will do it."
"And in doing this to get it, she'll compromise with the Jews and make a covenant, and when she makes this covenant with the Jews . . . Now, remember, I'm taking this from the Scriptures. And now, when she does this and makes this covenant, we notice in Daniel 8:23 and 25 he will cause craft to prosper (and craft is manufacturing), in his hand."
Daniel 8:22-26, "Upon the untimely death of Alexander the Great the Grecian Empire was divided between four of his generals; [Ptolemy I took Egypt, Selucius took Babylonia, Antigonus took Syria, and Antipater took Macedonia and Greece], four kingdoms will arise from his nation, but not in Alexander's power [or family, and lacking his strength and dignity]".
BEWARE because Daniel 8:23-26 has a compound revelation. "In the latter time of their kingdom, when the rebellion has reached its full measure (verses 6, 12 and 13), an insolent king, skilled in intrigue, versed in cunning dissimulation, by which he is able to conceal his purposes from both friend and foe will come to the throne." This was not President Donald Trump but General Antiochus Epiphanes ruler of Syria who was a forerunner of the 21st century Beast of Rome. "And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power" [but by Divine permission (verses 12-13; Isaiah 10:5-34)].
Brother Branham however was speaking of Rome, the fourth Gentile world Empire which succeeded the Grecian Empire and the four horns or kingdoms ruled by Alexander's generals. "People look at Rome. They look at the nation of Italy. And as they look they do not realize that Rome with her strict confines where the pope has an actual area as his domain is literally a nation within a nation; it has ambassadors and receives ambassadors. Papal false Christian Rome (she is even called the eternal city—how blasphemous) now controls by religion even more ably than when pagan Imperial Rome controlled by the pure iron of force. Rome took on a new lease of life when Constantine joined church and state and backed the union by force. The spirit that motivated pagan Rome is the same spirit that now motivates false Christian Rome. You can see that is so because you now know that the fourth empire never went out of existence; it just changed in its outer texture."
"Once the Nicene Council had swung the power of political Rome to the church, it seemed that there were no limits to which this pretender to the First Christian Church would go. The name, Christian, which originally brought persecution, now became the name of the persecutors. It was in this age that Augustine of Hippo (354-430) set forth the precept that the church ought and MUST use force if necessary to bring her children back into the fold, and that it was in harmony with the Word of God to kill the heretics and apostates. In his controversy with the Donatists he wrote . . . "It is indeed better that men should be led to worship God by teaching than that they should be driven to it by fear of punishment or pain, but it does not follow that because the former course produces the better men, therefore those who do not yield to it should be neglected. For many have found advantage (as we have proved and are daily proving by actual experience) in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterwards be influenced by teaching, so that they might follow out in act what they have already learned in word . . . whilst those are better who are guided aright by love, those are certainly more numerous who are corrected by fear. For who can possibly love us more than Christ Who laid down His life for the sheep?" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 195:1-2).
Augustine of Hippo, were he alive today, might be managing COVID-19 sorcery to transform economic prosperity to irrecoverable debt, healthy individuals to cadavers, and democratic liberty to top-down authoritarian socialism (Revelation 21:8; 22:14). The Judaeo-Roman church kingdom is the fourth and final Gentile Empire, and it will rule the entire world to the consummation (Daniel 2:40-45; 7:22; 11:21-22; Revelation 16:12-16; 19:19-20).
Romans 8:23: "And in the latter part of the four horns' reign," when their power was diminishing, and the Roman empire beginning to be established in Greece whence the Grecian kingdoms in Asia had their origin: for the bringing of Greece into subjection to the Roman power was a manifest indication of the declension of the Macedonian, or third Gentile world Empire, with its four heads, and the advancement of the fourth. This was remarkably brought to pass when Æmilius, the Roman consul, vanquished Perseus, king of Macedonia, and thereby brought all Greece under the power of the Romans in 166BC, and about the time when Antiochus profaned the temple, and set up the abomination of desolation. Before that time, the four horns, or kingdoms, had been reduced to two principal ones, Syria and Egypt. Antiochus had attempted to conquer the latter and marched toward Alexandria to besiege that city. Conquest would have made him absolute master of the whole kingdom, but in order to prevent his success Ptolemy Euergetes and his sister Cleopatra had sent ambassadors to the Romans, to beg their relief; and when Popilius was deputed by the senate to go into Egypt, he proposed terms to Antiochus which he was obliged to accept, and obey the commands of the senate. Thus both Syria and Egypt became, in some sort, vassals to Rome.
"When the transgressors are come to the full"—Here Daniel assigns the reason why God allowed these calamities to fall on His people, whose wickedness had risen to a very great height. Bishop Newton gives the following account. "The high-priesthood was exposed to sale. Good Onias was ejected for a sum of money, to make room for wicked Jason; and Jason again was supplanted for a greater sum of money, by a worse man, if possible, than himself, his brother Menelaus; and the golden vessels of the temple were sold, to pay for the sacrilegious purchase. At the same time, the customs of the heathen nations were introduced among the Jews whose youth were trained up and exercised after the manner of the Greeks; the people apostatized from the true religion, and even the priests, despising the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, hastened to be partakers of unlawful diversions. The temple was profaned under the conduct of the high-priest Menelaus; it was defiled with pig's blood, and plundered of everything valuable; and in the same year Paulus Æmilius vanquished Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, thereby putting an end to that kingdom. The Jewish religion was put down, and heathen worship was set up in the cities of Judea, and in Jerusalem; and the temple itself was consecrated to Jupiter Olympus, and his image was erected upon the very altar."
So "the transgressors were come to the full in the latter time" of the Macedonian empire when "A king of fierce countenance stood up." This was the very character of Antiochus according to Diodorus, Polybius and all the historians. "A wicked man hardens his face" (Ecclesiastes 8:1) and Antiochus was a defiant, hard and unyielding man, a master of dissimulation, able to conceal his meaning under ambiguous words, and disguise his designs from friend and foe. Thus "the transgressions were come to the full" before the Romans had commission to destroy Jerusalem and its temple. In applying "a king (kingdom or empire) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences" to Rome it indicates firm resolve based upon their being very learned and skillful in all things relating to government and its intrigues. The learning of Rome is proverbial to the present time.
"And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power." The strength of the other kingdoms consisted in themselves; whereas the Roman Empire, as a horn or kingdom of the goat, was not mighty by its own power, nor was it strong by virtue of the goat which signified Alexander's empire, but drew its nourishment and strength from Rome and Italy. There grew the trunk and body of the tree; though the branches extended over Greece, Asia, Syria, and Egypt. "And he shall destroy to an extraordinary degree. And prosper, and succeed in whatever he does, and shall destroy the warlike enemies over whom he shall triumph and the holy people [Israel]." In taking Jerusalem Rome made ninety-seven thousand Jews and Israelites captives and slew eleven hundred thousand, so they destroyed this once mighty and holy people!
Leaving Antiochus in the past we shall fix our eyes upon Rome as Daniel 8:25 opens a view to the near future: "According to his intelligence, understanding and wisdom, Rome will cause craft to prosper in his hand." As Brother Branham explained, "craft is manufacturing;" once Rome restores the US dollar to the gold standard she will be the mortgagor of all nations and the global economy will prosper by papal influence "He will magnify himself in his heart, and by [pretending] peace [and friendship] will destroy many nations" without making war, being a declared enemy, or receiving injuries from them. Since 1945 the United States has unlawfully made war over fifty times with weak foreign nations, yet not once has it declared war.
By refinancing the US dollar the Devil-incarnate last pope will preserve the Jew's paper wealth and they will restore the crooked banking system; trade will revive and the global economy will prosper in a time of peace. Unanimously acclaimed the inaugural president of one world government vicariously ruling from Jerusalem over "all the kingdoms of this world" (Matthew 4:8), Satan incarnate will restore peace by ordering the withdrawal of Russia's victorious military from mainland USA.
Paul called this incarnation "that man of sin, the son of perdition . . . who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (II Thessalonians 2:4; Isaiah 14:12-14).
Once again overcome by the pride of life, the seven headed dragon (Revelation 12:3; 13:1; 17:3, 9-18) will "rise up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without [human] hand [but by an act of God]." It was by Roman authority that Jesus was condemned to death and crucified (Daniel 8:10-11); subsequently Papal Rome's persecutions nearly destroyed the Christian religion but the Lord's House is not founded on Peter but upon the rock of revelation from Above (Matthew 16:18-19).
Daniel's vision is set "at the time of the end" (Daniel 8:17, 19; 11:35, 40; 12:4, 9). In Daniel 8:25 (9:27b; Revelation 11:3-12) we find that in the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week Rome will break her covenant with the Jews and force the mark of the beast, her trinity dogma, on pain of death. Revelation 13:11-15, current news and modern history identify the United States of America as the second beast that exercises all the power of Imperial Rome by its nuclear-armed military. Under obedience to the first beast in its Papal incarnation (Revelation 13:1-4; 18:18) the United States will form a Protestant image to Rome, unite church and state, and force the mark the beast as did the Judaeo-Roman Universal church. After it organized at the First Nicaea Council in AD325 the false church 'evangelized' the state religion at the point of a legionnaire's sword, but "Rome will be broken without hand" by Christ's Stone Kingdom "cut out of the mountain without hands," when it smites the world power on its feet (Daniel 2:34, 39-45; Zechariah 4:7).
(Lat.) Semper eadem, which means "ever the same," has always been a proud Catholic boast but neither theologically nor historically was it adequately theorized or explained. Then as now the mark of the beast is the polytheistic trinity. How can three persons be in one God? Not only is there no Bible for it, but it shows even a lack of intelligent reasoning. Three distinct persons, though identical substance, make three gods, or language has lost its meaning entirely. Ham begat Cush and Cush begat Nimrod; Cush led the people away from the true God and as the "interpreter of the gods" persuaded them to take another form of religion. He inspired them to go ahead with the tower which his son actually built. This encouragement is what brought the confusion and the division of men, so that he was both "interpreter and confuser." Cush was the father of the polytheistic system and when men were deified by men, he of course, became the father of the gods. This concept of three persons in one god is worshipped under different names by Judaism, Islam and all religions who know it not. It passed from Babylon to Imperial Rome where it was introduced into Christendom at the Hegelian dialectic of the First Nicaea Council.
Revelation 19:11-21 shows how leading His Kingdom Jesus will "Judge and make war without hand by the sharp Sword of His Spoken Word . . . And the beast [or Devil-incarnate last pope] will be taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles he was granted to perform in behalf of the beast, [such as forming a universal assemblage of Catholics at the core; grouped with them the Protestant denominations, sects and churches; grouped around them believing Jews, believing Muslims, believing Hindus, believing Buddhists (Revelation 13:12-14)]. "By such miracles he deceived those who received the mark of the beast, and them that worship the lake of Fire burning with brimstone, and the remnant was slain with the Sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."
Revelation 20:10, 14-15, "And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of Fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever . . . And death and hell were cast into the lake of Fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of life was cast into the lake of Fire".
"And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told in Daniel 8:14, 26 is truth and two thousand three hundred evening-mornings must elapse before the end of the period of afflictions permitted to be brought upon Israel before the cleansing of the sanctuary. Wherefore shut up the vision; for it shall retain its prophetic value over a long period and relates to a distant future." On the contrary John, who represents Christ's end-time Bride is told not to seal up the revelation of the Seventh Seal which has been revealed to Him because "the time of its fulfillment is nigh" (Revelation 22:10).
Notice the difference between the Old Testament seer who sees only shadows and types far removed from the final future: instead of beholding the beast, Daniel saw his forerunner, Antiochus Epiphanes. Likewise the Maccabees and Josephus saw only Judas Maccabaeus' physical cleansing of the Sanctuary three and a half years (about 2,300 days) after Antiochus apostatized the people and profaned the Sanctuary, whereas we see the future incarnate beast, not his type. These prophecies described by New Testament symbols would have been meaningless to the Old Testament saints and speak not of "the Jews' house" (Matthew 23:38) but the heavenly Sanctuary and its cleansing of the sins of our 144,000 Israelite attendants. Their revelation, repentance, mourning, regeneration and recognition of the justice of their coming martyrdom in the second half of Daniel's Seventieth Week (Zechariah 12:1 – 13:9; Matthew 27:25; Revelation 14:1-5; 15:2-4) is two thousand three hundred years beyond the trespassors Antiochus, Israel and Rome. Daniel 8:26 points us back to verses 11-19 to recognize the antitype and to understand that the "two thousand evenings and mornings" mentioned in Daniel 8:23-26 are days of years as in Daniel 7:25; 9:24-27; 12:7 and Revelation 11:3, etc.
The reason for the greater minuteness of historical facts and dates, given in Daniel's prophecies, than in those of the New Testament, is that Israel, not having yet the clear views which Christians have of immortality and the heavenly inheritance, could only be directed to the earthly future: for it was on earth the looked-for Messiah was to appear, and the sum and subject of Old Testament prophecy was the kingdom of God upon earth. The minuteness of the revelation of Israel's earthly destiny was to compensate for the absence, in the Old Testament, of views of heavenly glory. Thus, in Daniel 9:24-27, the times of Messiah are foretold to the very year; in Daniel 8:14 the times of Antiochus, even to the day; in Daniel 11:5-20 the Syro-Egyptian struggles in most minute detail. And in Daniel 9:24-27 and Exodus 12:1-6, the year, month, day and hour in which Israel's Messiah would be crucified and slain.
Passover is a memorial of the Israelites defined as an evening-until-morning overnight event to be observed once a year. Thus, evening and morning" in the chrono-specific prophecy in Daniel 8:14 and 26 does not represent a 24-hour day, nor does it have anything to do with the morning and evening sacrifices; it means a night, Passover night, the annual reminder of God's redemption of Israel which rejected the true and antitypical Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, on Calvary. I understand these two thousand three hundred years of evenings and mornings represent 2,300 Passovers wherein the sacrifice could not be conducted at Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:1-12)—Passovers God did not recognize because in rejecting the Lord that bought them Israel had filled up the measure of their iniquities and "by wicked hands crucified and slain" the real Passover Lamb (Acts 2:23).
Deuteronomy 16:5-6, "You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you: but at the place which the Lord your God shall choose to establish His Name, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the season that you came out of Egypt".
The Passover was not a religious feast or sacramental occasion but an actual sacrifice (Exodus 12:27; 23:18); hence "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (I Corinthians 5:7). No sacrifice was accepted but from the altar that sanctified it. It was therefore necessary that they should go up to the place of the altar; for though the paschal lamb was entirely eaten by the owners in their separate homes, yet it must be killed in the court of the temple, its blood sprinkled, and its inwards burned upon the altar. By confining Israel to the appointed place God kept them to the appointed rule from which they would have been apt to vary and introduce foolish inventions of their own, had they been permitted to offer these sacrifices within their own gates, from under the inspection of the priests. Furthermore, being appointed to attend where God had chosen to place His Name, they were directed to have their eye upon Him in the solemnity, and the desire of their hearts toward the remembrance of His Name, and were pointed to the place where Messiah, the true Passover, was to be slain. At even—at the season that they came out of Egypt.
Under the Old Testament God placed His Name in Jerusalem, under the New Testament His Name is in Christ, and we must come under His Blood (Matthew 11:28-30; John 5:43).
In Deuteronomy 16:12 each Israelite was to "remember that he was a bondman or slave in Egypt: and [bound under obligation] to observe and obey these statutes." So in John 18:3, 12, 24 and 28 we find "a detachment of six hundred soldiers and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound Him" under obligation to obey as one already marked "condemned," the Pascal Lamb was taken, confined and subsequently killed by the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel in the evening of Nisan 14 (Exodus 12:5-6). It was early, between cock-crowing and sunrise, 3.00 to 6.00 a.m. and Pilate having sent the band was expecting its return.
After a hurried meeting the Sanhedrim condemned Jesus to death, they led Him from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment to seek Roman authority to carry out the sentence: "and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the judgment hall in order that they should be defiled; but might eat the Passover" (John 18:28). Killing an innocent man would not in the least defile or render them unfit for eating the Passover, but to go into a house that had not been "purged of leaven," and as the residence of a Gentile was unclean, though he was the governor, would stain their hypocritical consciences—a singular scale of magnitude which saw no sin in condemning Jesus but great sin in entering Pilate's palace!
We have finished with the Grecian Empire and Antigonas so let us read Daniel 7:23-27 and focus on verse 7:25 where we will see that "The fourth beast [described in Daniel 7:19-20 and Revelation 13:1-3, is Papal Rome, a composite of the attributes of the previous three beasts or Gentile world empires]; the fourth kingdom upon earth will be diverse from all kingdoms [as it will be a church kingdom], and it will devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise [Germany, France, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Heruli, Vandals, and Ostrogoths]: and another, the pope, shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kingdoms the major German tribes of Heruli, Vandals, and the Ostrogoths." These ten nations made up the western and Holy Roman Empire then formed NATO; they will eventually ally Russia, then Vatican City State and the United States of America will be destroyed (Revelation 17:11-18; 18:1-20).
Daniel 7:25: "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and constantly harass the saints of the most High, and try to alter God's dispensations and Laws [in the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week when he begins to force the mark of the beast]: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time" or three and a half years (Daniel 9:27b; 12:7; Revelation 13:5-80). "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him".
Please open "The Revelation of the Seven Seals" to p. 168:5 – 171:2 in the old book, or p. 151:355-371 in the new book. "And he makes this covenant with the Jews, and in the midst of this three and a half years, he breaks his covenant as soon as he gets the thing wrapped up and gets the money of the Jews tied up. And when he does that, oh, my, oh, my, he's called the antichrist until the end of the Church Age, for he and his children are against Christ and the Word. This man's called the antichrist. Now, he's going to hold the money. And that's where I think he'll come in. Just a minute, while I say this, then I want to go back to it in a minute."
"He's called the antichrist and will be called the antichrist in the sight of God until the end time. Now, but then he'll be called something else."
"Now, when he gets the money all under control, then he will break this covenant with the Jews, as Daniel here said he would do it, in the midst of the last half of the seventy weeks of Daniel. And then, brother, what will he do? He will have all of the world trade and the commerce, a pact with the world, 'cause he will hold the wealth of the world completely."
"And during that time, them two prophets will rise on the scene and call that hundred and forty-four thousand. Then what will take place? Then the mark of the beast of Revelations 13 will set in, 'cause he holds all the commerce, trade and everything of the world. And what will take place then? The mark of the beast will come in that no man can buy or sell except him that has the mark of the beast. Thank God, the Church will be enjoying a great three and a half years in glory. Don't have to go through that."
"Now, notice, at the end of the Church Ages, now, he and his children are called the antichrist, 'cause anything that's against Christ is antichrist. And anything that's against the Word is against Christ, 'cause Christ is the Word. Now, he's antichrist."
"Then in Revelations 12:7-9, when Satan is cast out, the accuser . . . You want to put that down, 'cause I want to read it; we haven't got time now, 'cause it's fifteen till ten. See?"
"But in Revelation 12:7-9, Satan the spirit, the devil, which is up there now, accuser of our brethren, all right; the Church is taken up, and Satan is cast out. When the Church goes up, Satan comes down. Then Satan incarnates himself in the antichrist and is called the beast."
"Then in Revelations 13, he sets the mark down. See, when He that letteth—only now Christianity is left on the earth in its purity is because Him that letteth. You remember back here in Thessalonians? Setting upon the temple of God, calling himself God; forgiving sins on earth, and that'll go on, and iniquity shall abound and on, 'cause it won't be known yet until his time to be revealed is called. And then the Church will be caught away. And when it's caught away, then he changes hisself from an antichrist now. Oh, my, the church, the great church . . . Now, he becomes the beast. Hm. I wished I could make people see that."
"Now, remember, the antichrist and the beast is the same self spirit. There's the trinity. Yes, sir. It's three stages of the same devil power. Remember, Nicolaitane (See?), it had to be incarnate before it could be crowned. See? Now, watch this. Three stages: first stage he's called antichrist; second stage, he's called the false prophet; third stage, he's called the beast."
"Notice, Nicolaitane, the antichrist teaching that started in the days of Paul against God's Word: antichrist . . . Then he's called again the false prophet, which when the teaching become a man, he was a prophet to the teaching of the hierarchy of the hierarchy of the Catholic church. The Pope was the prophet to the false word, and that made him a false prophet."
"The third stage is a beast, a man that's crowned in the last days with every power that pagan Rome ever had, because the seven-headed beast, dragon, was cast out of heaven and come incarnate in the false prophet. Here it is; he had seven crowns, and he was cast out and throwed into the earth and the sea. All right."
"What are we saying? Who is this rider, this horse rider? You know what it is? It's Satan's superman" (The Revelation of the Seven Seals, p. 151:355-371).
Isaiah 46:9-11, "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth My counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it."
Let's read the prophecy of Jeremiah 50:35-38 concerning the manner of Babylon's defeat, "A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. A sword is upon the prophets and they shall become fools: panic shall seize her mightiest warriors. War shall devour their horses and their chariots, and all the mingled people (foreigners) that are in the midst of her shall become as women: (spiritually mingled people are in Rome's midst); her treasures shall be plundered (as will Rome). A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols." (Isn't that a picture of Rome today)?
As a prelude to Babylon's doom, the waters of the Euphrates were dried up when the army of Cyrus under Darius diverted their flow. And they marched along the river bed and under the walls to defeat the city in the climax of Belshazzar's impious feast.
That was in natural Babylon. Rome eventually succeeded to world dominion. Euphrates was the eastern frontier of her empire, beyond which lay the Parthian menace. The Parthian Empire stretched from the Euphrates to India and the Oxus (Amu-Darya) river in what was Soviet Central Asia. For centuries it was the rival of Rome, and more than once proved her match on the battlefield. Parthia once made Judea a vassal state and became part of the Persian Empire of Cyrus and Darius. They submitted to Alexander without resistance and came under the rule of the Selucid kings of Syria but eventually gained their independence.
An invasion from the EAST was something greatly feared in Israel's past; almost all of her devastators—Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians—had come from beyond the Euphrates, and in John's present as he lived under Imperial Rome. The religion of the people of the region of old Parthia today is predominantly Muslim.
Imperial Rome became Papal Rome and in Revelation 9:14 and 16:12, Jesus used Euphrates to symbolize the boundary of Papal Rome's influence. Her defence is what little fear and superstition she retains of the Gospel Message, without which she has claim to nothing, much less dominion over heaven, earth and purgatory. But psychology lingers long.
In the world, psychology counts for more than fundamentals. And in religion, people base their eternal destiny upon what they can see with their eyes and what they want to believe, rather than what they understand by faith. Brother Branham said "America's spending tax money that will not be collected for forty years. We've spent our gold reserve. We're broke. We don't have any money; and we're only living off a past reputation. This nation is living off past reputation of what the forefathers were, and that's the reason we think we'll be saved. God never respected Israel on what they had been; but on what they were. And the church is living off a past reputation it got back yonder under the ministry of the Lion Age. "We are the 'Church,' we are the 'Mother Church'." And Methodist is living off their reputation. Baptist is living off their reputation, and Pentecost is living off of theirs, "Glory to God!" A long time ago when the saints used to dance in the Spirit and "The Lord did this and that." See, all past reputation.
Here's what I think will take place: I believe the time will come when we're forced to face the issue. Instead of us changing the currency . . . What would that do to the Philip Morris? What would that do to the whiskey company? What would that do to the steel industry? What would that do to all the commerce? . . . It would break them! They'd be broke! But if we can borrow that money . . . See how smart Satan is? Then the nation sells out to the church and then church and state is united again . . . (ibid. old book, p. 504:Q28; new book p. 651:Q29).
The church's one defence is behind the Word of God, the rivers of living Water which is the Holy Spirit. Remember Babylon means Gate of God. It is an impersonation of the New Jerusalem with the water of Life flowing from it. And as the drying up of the great river Euphrates removed all restraint upon the kings of the east when Media and Persia captured Babylon, Rome's apostasy and rejection of the Word dried up the moat of the Holy Spirit, exposing her to the kings of the earth and their armies, who seek to attack the Papal Roman Empire.
Revelation 16:12, "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".
The Sixth Vial dried up what little Holy Spirit there might have been in Rome's traditions and dogma. God gave her a thousand years of Dark Ages to repent and she repented not. All she has left is political deception and intrigue. Revelation 16:13-14, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon [Satan veiled behind Imperial Rome (Revelation 12:3)], and out of the mouth of the beast [Satan veiled behind Papal Rome (Revelation 13:1-8)], and out of the mouth of the false prophet [the first Pope]. For they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the rulers of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." You see, Rome's power is not truly spiritual, it is political. She makes alliances—concordats—with the seed of men (Daniel 2:43).
Rome will bring all of the denominations together, uniting church and state as a (once) Protestant image unto the beast. We learn from Daniel 2 that the ten toes of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream are the European nations into which Imperial Rome fractured, now known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which consists of thirty apostate member states which will agree to give their power to Rome. And to "address the rise of China," NATO co-operates closely with Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, Colombia, Israel, the Ukraine, Afghanistan, countries in North Africa and other busybody nations anxious to participate in World War III, then confront Jesus at Armageddon. According to Daniel 7 and Revelation 17:12-17, "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings [preselected democratically elected dictators—prime ministers, and presidents like F.D. Roosevelt], one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the beast [when it refinances the US dollar, saving Europe from a Communist-led world government. Seven Imperial rulers—Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero and Galba, were deified; "the Devil-incarnate beast or last Pope that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition" (Revelation 13:4-8)]. "These [Jew-led European states] shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And Brother Branham (Revelation 17:1) said unto . . . . [insert YOUR name because John represents Christ's end-time Bride] . . . . "The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these [Jew-ruled European states] shall HATE the whore, [when Rome breaks her covenant with the Jewish international usurers in the midst of Daniel's seventieth week, and sides with Russia] and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with nuclear fire (Leviticus 21:9; Revelation 18:4-20). For God has put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled".
The object of the kings of the East, or once Judaeo-Communist bloc, is the destruction of MYSTERY BABYLON—Rome. And they will succeed. AFTER that "the kings of the earth and of the whole world," gathered by the three 'isms' that arose from the three Woes, will go to Armageddon.
Yes, there will come a time after the beast breaks his covenant with Israel and forces self-worship that his allies will have had enough and will hate the whore and will destroy Rome with atomic fire. Rome is lewd, and naked of the Holy Spirit. Jesus warned Bible believers in these last days, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame" like those who slumbered and slept in the pews and the foolish virgins who trim their lamps but ran out of the Spirit (Matthew 25).
This is not simply a battle against God (I Samuel 17:47; II Chronicles 20:15), it is the absolute and decisive battle wherein the coming of the Kingdom is at stake. Revelation 16:16, "And the three unclean spirits of Judaeo-Fascism, Judaeo-Nazism and Judaeo-Communism gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Revelation 19:19-21, "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of Fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant was slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."
Two popes as Jesus prophesied in Revelation 19:20 and 20:10. How late is the hour?
Now we understand from Scripture that this drying up of the river Euphrates has a twofold significance. From the Gentile perspective it is the apostatizing of Rome and her harlot daughters prior to their destruction in the lake of Fire. But there is also the Israelite perspective to be considered "if they abide not still in unbelief, God is able to graft them back into the olive tree" because the blindness of elect Israelites will be taken away after the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Romans 11:23).
Isaiah 11:10-12: "And it shall be in the day that the Gospel is publicly proclaimed that there shall be a root of Jesse—Jesus Christ—the root and offspring of David whose Name and knowledge shall stand as a permanent rallying point in view of all the nations to whom not only Israelites but an election from all nations of Adam's race shall seek and discern (John 12:32), and by conversion enter His glorious rest" (Matthew 11:28-30).
"And it shall come to pass in that day, after the close of the Gentile dispensation (Psalm 63:23; Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25), that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people Israel, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands and coastlands of the Mediterranean".
The deliverance from Egypt was not of a remnant but of the whole nation and out from one country only. And the deliverance from Babylon—one country only—recovered only two of the tribes plus the odd member of the other ten tribes who had been carried away with the Judeans from one country. So the first deliverance was neither from Egypt nor from Babylon.
This second deliverance will be in the latter days of this Messianic Age of redemption following the conversion of the Gentiles and the close of the Gentile dispensation (Romans 11:21-32).
Whence will they be gathered? From Assyria (Iraq), from Lower Egypt, Pathros (Upper Egypt), Ethiopia, Persia (Iran), Babylonia, Hamath (Upper Syria), and from countries and islands bordering the Mediterranean. To this day Israel's ten tribes live in the Muslim lands of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian Empires of North Africa and the Middle East. Isaiah does not mention the Japhetic nations of Poland, Russia, Germany, UK, France and the USA; or the huge influx of self-styled Jews from Eastern Europe to Palestine: these non-Semitic Khazars or Ashkenazim are a different racial group altogether.
"And the Lord will lift up an ensign as a signal or rallying point for the nations, and assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah scattered to the four corners of the earth".
Describing an article in Look Magazine, Brother Branham said, "And I seen them bringing thoseJewsIsraelites in . . . coming down from Egypt, coming down from all over the world . . . Iran, Iraq. "There's twelve thousand of the tribes of Gad, twelve thousand of the tribes of Asher, twelve thousand of the tribes of Reuben . . ." And where were they all standing? On Mount Sinai.JewsIsraelites—back in the homeland. There they were. They were the ones that wasn't this Wall Street crooked bunch. No, sir! It was the realJewsIsraelites" (61-0806, The Seventieth Week of Daniel, par. 149).
Isaiah 11:15-16: "And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, the eastern tongue or Gulf of Aqaba, where Moses crossed to the land of Midian (now Saudi Arabia), and with His mighty wind He shall shake His hand over the river [Euphrates], and shall smite it into seven streams that can easily be forded. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people which shall be left, from Assyria; like it was when Israel came up out of the land of Egypt".
Isaiah mentions Egypt and Assyria particularly because they were then two flourishing kingdoms which bordered upon Judea, and were by turns the great oppressors of God's people. And the ten tribes having been carried captive to Assyria, their case especially seemed desperate. But these two kingdoms stand for adverse empires in general, especially those of idolatry and superstition, which shall be either destroyed or reduced to such a state of weakness as not to be able to hinder the progress of the conversion of the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to Christ their King.
This redemption is likened to the exodus where God made a highway through the Sea. Now He will remove all obstacles that might prevent the remnant children of Jacob from returning to the Land of the Covenant for their redemption by "smiting" the barrier in Israel's northern border as once He parted the Red Sea; the Euphrates symbolizes a border and defence which could not be crossed, but whose waters were diverted.
The beast will defeat and occupy Egypt and her Muslim allies Libya and Ethiopia when they invade Israel in concert with Russia after es-Sakhra, the Dome of the Rock, and al Aqsa, the Mosque of Omar on the Temple Mount are demolished by the earthquake of Daniel 11:40-43 and Zechariah 14. This will trigger the mass exodus of non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Israeli Jews, allowing the children of Jacob to repatriate the Holy Land. MYSTERY BABYLON secures Israel by defeating the king of the South and his Muslim followers. Peace will be restored by enforcing UN Resolution 181. Jerusalem—a place holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike—will become a 'corpus separatum' administered by Rome. The kings of the East, that is east from Jerusalem and Israel over the Euphrates which runs across the north-east section of Lebanon, Syria, through Iraq, and into the Persian Gulf. "But tidings out of the east and out of the north will trouble the beast . . ." (Daniel 11:44).
In Bible times, the king of the North was Syria but in Daniel 11 it will be Russia. Old Babylon was captured by Medes from the north and Persians from the east. Eventually the king of the North will destroy Vatican City State and the USA. To Israel's east today lay Iraq, Iran and Pakistan who as Muslims account Rome and Christianity as infidels and encourage their destruction.
The purpose of our exercise this-evening was to demonstrate the fulfilled prophecies of natural Israel, Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Rome prove that God alone can declare the end before the beginning. These prophecies are now historical fact and their accuracy cannot be denied. But they are set forth as types of future events which will be declared spiritually. With the fulfilled shadow as our guide we can have an indication of the outcome of future unfulfilled Scripture. We have discovered the significance of the Old Testament symbol of Euphrates in the New. And we have identified who will play the part of the kings of the East, North and South.
But why should we choose to understand such matters? In order that we might experience that rest which passes all understanding. It is the 'unknown' that causes uncertainty and plants fear in man's heart. If we know who holds the future, and are advised on 'things to come,' and live above the reproach of the Word, we display the evidence of the Holy Spirit. This blessed assurance is consolation greater than the assurance of any man. bb960619.htm
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