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CHAPTER 9

Beasts ? Isn't one enough ?

Alas, no!

10) From News 121

Revelation 13 and 17

 

CHAPTER 13
 

No, you are not seeing double: there ARE TWO (beasts)
and NO! and we ARE talking biology!

The Advertiser , Monday, August 28, 2000, p.10
Foundation, May-June 2000, July -August 1999, May - June 1998.

A matter of convenience...

What ? Size begets power, wealth and impact, in very general terms, it is often thought. So get size. Let the business amalgamate, the international operations go to absolutist lands like China, where the totalitarian overtones are being judiciously suppressed rather than acoustically removed. What does it matter if there is a 'nationalisation' of the naughty (super ?) powers, or mini-acolytes which pour in the billions ? It is, the line sometimes go, in this or that land, WRONG to have these intruders. It was not wrong when the money came, but it may become so when it stays around. Hence such people can be STRIPPED in the interests of the STATE. Simple - grand larceny can result. Who cares ? Size is SO VERY important! So it goes - sometimes, and so is the risk, always.

But we are not here to discuss commerce. Others may do so, and do so in political circles, and so consider international political co-operation as in the European Union (so much more dignified than the Common Market). What we have been seeing in our news items recently, is this, that first in Britain and then in Sweden (Ch. 5, News 113, above), MORALS are being requisitioned in the interests of ... unity internationally. Interesting is it not! That of course was ONE of the objections to this submersion of 'Protestant' Britain in a continent of so extraordinarily strong an historic Romanist temper. After all, Louis XIV was quite systematic in stripping Protestants; the Holy Roman Empire, that often exquisitely misnamed body, persecuted with army after army; Spain had the wind of an Armada idea; Inquisitions were likewise exported to Britain and had a vogue for a while, as we have also recently noted on this site (Ch. 10, News 118, esp. End-note *1).

So now, this voluntary collapse of Britain morally is just one of the reasons why many did not want the Common Market. It would expand, its octopus arms would embrace with a not so subtle, but subtle enough squeezing operation, so that the requirements of co-operation commercially would become the needs of alignment in international affairs at a broader level, even in religious dimensions. It was feared; it has come. It is still coming, and not merely in and through one institution. However, the sails are set, the twenty first century has appeared around the sides of the Bay of Humanistic Endeavour, clearly visible, with its Baying of Sheep Clad Wolves Inlet, which is very deep. But nowadays the speeds can be great, and it should not take too long to penetrate.

In Revelation 13, we see two beasts, or satanically inclined emergences of aggressive, invasive power at a collective level. The first is the social, political, commercial one; the second is specifically SPIRITUAL, with the nature of a 'dragon' and the covering of a lamb - of a religious, even moral, pleasant and agreeable, acceptable and decidedly non-DANGEROUS lamb. The deception is artful, for dragons do not in fact have sheep's clothing. This 'beast' "spoke like a dragon" , thus indicating its essential quality and nature, apart from its covering. It is Satanic (cf. Revelation's definition in Ch. 20:2). Its deceptive covering is acquired for a purpose, and the woolly look, the dress is in order to present a face or focus diverse from reality. The reality is dragon. So you have two beasts: the BEAST apparent, and the BEAST Devious. The former one hs been given authority BY THE DRAGON (and hence devil as above). The latter one SPEAKS like a dragon. They are TWO manifestations of ONE dragon, that arch-liar (John 8:44), that adversary, that accuser of the brethren, the devil.

It is time to look now at the news as we see the unravelling of the nature of this prophecy, and look carefully in the calendar of events now set before us.

Soon it will stand complete. Already it is so near, so staggeringly precise, that it is not just like a fulfilment of prophecy; it is more like computer graphics. We are seeing it HAPPEN with just that vivid intimacy which is the objective of the latest and most expensive sorts of TV picturing, often bringing into your living room, the whole unholiness of the world's drabness, with an alliance of total shamelessness and inordinate desire.
 
 

1. NEWS ?
Assuredly.

The Advertiser has this to tell us:
It is almost buried. In fact, if my wife had not told me of it, it is probable it should have been missed!
 

  • "The millenium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders starts today in New York.
  • The event will bring the leading religious figures to the United Nations for the first time.
  • The World Peace Summit will seek to co-ordinate religious and spiritual leadership as an inter-faith ally to the UN in its quest for peace, global understanding and international co-operation..." (bullets added - that is to say, the literary ones at the side).


"MY KINGDOM," said Christ, "is not of this world" (John 18:36).

THIS IS this world. It is seen in its voguish and roguish 'unity', where MANY religions get TOGETHER to help IMPLEMENT the WORLDLY program of this WORLD for its WORLDLY aspirations, and to help it to get there.

The PRINCE of this world comes, the Saviour also said, and he has 'NO PART IN ME' (John 14:30).

Again, He declared, 'NO MAN comes to the Father except by ME'. Further, 'I AM THE WAY, THE LIFE AND THE TRUTH', and yet once more, 'IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THAT I AM HE, YOU WILL DIE IN YOUR SINS' (see John 14:6, 8:24, 8:21).

What is fascinating about this is the aptitude of selection of the considerable news from Foundation which exposed rather well  some of the earlier developments, of which this year 2000 event now current news, is something of an epitome. In July-August 1999, pp. 45ff., it drew attention to the work of Bishop WIlliam Swing (Episcopalian), which noted data from Ecumenical News International (June 22, 1999), concerning the UNITED RELIGIONS movement which he spearheaded (we are moving from bullets to spears, but the movement is very progressive modishly, though of course retrogressive spiritually - however it is also progressive prophetically, being JUST what the predestination ordered as in Revelation 13).

The Purpose of the Organisation (no we are not becoming Victorian with capitals, for there is sometimes room for whimsy, and pomposity can be exposed by its sonorous exploits in many ways) "is to unite the world's religions for the global good by using peaceful dialogue and conflict resolution," it summarises.
 

  • 'I am almost the truth, or some of the truth, or at last truthful, or I mean to say, I mean well, and in composition with many others who MUST have some truth, for men are not all mad, I hope to be able to assist in conflict resolution by this world, for this world, in this world, so that the poor degraded and debased thing may be able to limp along a bit longer.'

WHO said THAT! No one, It is merely an echo. But Christ would have NEEDED to have said something like that in order to FIT IN with this multi-religious relish, which is in fact in such entire contradiction with what He in fact did say, that the concept of coalescing with that, when it is in fact a collision, suggests to the imagination a Cadillac saying to a mini-Minor: 'I say, old thing, we should get together some time, and there is no time like the present.' So they do, at 100 m.p.h., and the result is certainly a certain unity. It is less certain what one should call THAT sort of unity.

Accidents, they say, WILL happen. But here it is a matter of the will, so that it is no accident!

The objectives, as we see clearly in the Foundation article just noted, include this: an end to bomb throwing, murder and killing in many places, where religion enters in. "It's going to be a whole new world very quickly," we find the Bishop himself reported as saying. This has an element of truth, except that the term 'new' is outrageous. It is very old, and this is the core of its age like wrinkles appearing on the face of a former beauty, now aged 100. It IS different ... but more of the same. It will not because it cannot remove violence, because it is vile*1.

Its contemptible sale of Christ for the sake of psychological, political and social peer pressure and God-forsaken aspirations as old as Babel can only lead to suppression. Its absolutisms will simply mirror those, in essence, of the Russell Report of which a study was made, as a very exemplar of 'modern' thought in such fields.  For this, see Lead Us Not into Educational Temptation! and consider its implicit creed in its Ch. 11. There, in that chapter, you will find, a summary of what preceded in careful analysis of that report for government in the State of Victoria in this land. ABSOLUTISM is the essential enemy, there we learn.

It is its tentacles which wound, draw blood, afflict the earth, interlace with the relativistic homilies of organic evolution, and the humanistic surges of all-inclusive reductionism. It simply must go. It is verboten, the ultimate renegade to humanistic thought. Therefore, Its afflictions tear at the earth, and its vile ravages do not prosper. You have to get into the style of these things, as in all propaganda, to realise to the full the flow of the river of brain wash, its eddies and its rills, its thrills and its rapids.
 

  • This, then, is the sense in the setting of the Russell Report and its allies. In this genre, the general position is this: Absolutism, the ascription to God of what God has done, to the Lord of what the Lord has said: for it, this is the enemy par excellence, and blightable (first in little, but in the end, in much) are the opponents of this liberation from the Almighty! So runs this amiable meander, this little philosophy of our times. Our point must be made thoroughly however. It is PRECISELY this which is the fulfilment of prophecy. The 'IMAGE OF THE BEAST'
  • (you like formal language ? then


 

  • 'the philosophic and international projection of the power and place of authority and ultimacy deemed to reside in man and his accessible powers')


 

  • MUST be worshipped (cf. Revelation 13). Some time ago, a delightful little book, Freeway to Babylon showed various parties bowing to a shrine, or shrines, such as that of organic evolutionism. It was appealingly frank and very funny. But its topic has little humour.


The Absolute God of Word and Deed is anathema to these forces, as much as Biblical doctrine on justification was ever to Rome (cf. SMR pp. 1045, 525ff.). Truth, and the testing of it is appalling and all but irrelevant, we see in the streams which enter this river system, at length to surge into the sea of oblivion, but not oblivion from God! (Cf. SMR pp. 145ff., 208ff..)

You can see why. IF ANYTHING is true, then the contraries are not. If Christ is the ONLY way, then the others are not the way. If He alone is the door of salvation, then the others are doors to no room and are to be avoided; unless you want to become god, socially or individually, and by some sort of clever force, overcome what is, and make it different, avoiding or extricating His name, and inserting your own, or that of your group. It is often tried.

The Communists had a go, as the saying is, and they had plenty to say. Babel (Genesis 11) started it. Not surprisingly, the name is implicit in that of that Babylon (Revelation 17) which is the death mask of it, in Rome's famous religion (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 2, SMR pp. 946ff., 1057ff.)
 

  • We mention one of their obliterative dicta in reviewing the gospel in SMR (pp.. 582ff., see esp. pp. 586-587, where God was told to GO! It required only one more alphabetical letter) -


 

  • but unfortunately for them, their Babel tower, just now fallen in disgrace in Moscow, is obliterated; but God, He is for ever, and for ever the same. He never ceases His transmissions, while it is day, of the Gospel of grace. NOTHING can stop them, but as we see in Revelation 17, there will be a most systematic surge to do so, making Hitler seem almost an amateur by comparison in self-aggrandising lust for conquest of what stopped him.


The Communists ? They were not fond of God; and assuredly we can say this of their presumption, irrationality and persecution (e.g. SMR pp. 614, 448ff., 468ff., 707ff., 925ff., 1076ff., Revelation 6:9-17, 9:20, Jude 15), God was not fond of their system or its outrageous psychiatric cruelties which produced condemnation

  • from the international association of psychiatrists, and not without reason,
  • and from the pungent pen of Solzhenitsyn, who had tasted in person for time measured in decades, the barbarity of their humanistic inhumanities.

The Lord is not fond of the killing of His people or the artifices of deceit which, asserting humanitarian liberties for religion, kill freely His martyrs when they do not bow to the State as god, all-imposing, all-directing, religion-assessing and licensing, ALL for a glory in this world in ITS OWN NAME. In fact however, this is but words. You see in terms of what has endured and will endure, the same, that there is NO OTHER NAME given under heaven to man, by which he may be saved. Even THIS is less than what is written, however, at that.

The actual word of God, which judges in the end, is this: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved" - Acts 4:12. Nor is this all. The preceding verse, specified that One had been rejected who was foundational to life, religion and reality, to truth and peace. The verse before that named Him: "Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified".

The points is that it was not written, "by which he may be saved", but "by which we must be saved". That is, as to the requirement, it included all; and it was not option but necessity. There is no other option; it is God or garbage. The current movement has misplaced one item rather seriously. While they are acting as if to put the true and living God of the Bible, the Christ, Lord of glory, into the garbage, by reconstructing their old Babel type impudences in their own name, the word of God is indicative that it is those who "believe not that I am He" who are destined for that not so simple end, for the fires do not die (Mark 9). The fall of the Moscow transmission tower in its greatness and altitudinous glory is a symbol, a falling in fire.

Truth is not available for verbal winds; it requires power and reality, and insurrections of the flesh as in Communism, and now in the United Nations and in United Religions do not really alter anything, but fulfil what is written first, and then direct baggage to the LOST place, and its unlovely destiny. The world in the meantime has all the look of an unlovely destiny, and these magnificent ideas (cf. SMR pp. 611ff., 620ff., Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 1, Repent or Perish Ch. 5, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 30, Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 8) with all their paraphernalia, impedimenta, clarion calls and associated company:  they are like teflon, lasting a little while, and then a mess which complicates the problem on the pan, which, certainly, IS getting hotter.
 

·       But back to older news. In the article noted from Foundation (1999), we learned that

·       "Two years ago, delegates from 100 historic religions and 120 spiritual movements met at Stanford University to begin outlining the functions of the United Religions, with their unifying purpose"

·       including these words:

·       We "wish to create a permanent forum where the world's religions and spiritual movements will gather daily to engage in prayerful dialogue to make peace among religions".

·       "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers," is the divine command (II Corinthians 6:14). "For what communion does light have with darkness!" the apostle thunders at the command of God. PLENTY! is the United Religions answer. Just you watch this!


It is thus quite simply not merely a sell-out, but a rebellion. Hear Micah (for the Jewish nation has given us in many things a trailer, a pre-run for our re-run in the field of rebellion, and the case is therefore educative - you know the idea, ignore history and repeat it! though there are some things that could do without repetition, and if you doubt it, ask the Jews! - cf. Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 32). But Micah, this is his word from the Lord in 3:5:

"Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
Who make my people stray,
Who chant "Peace"
While they chew with their teeth.
But who prepare war against Him
Who puts nothing into their mouths.

{...Mouths were empty in context, because their minds were void of inspiration from Him, though they spat out folly and enriched themselves or their iniquitous patrons, from this world all too well - cf. Ezekiel 22:25, Jeremiah 23:14, 5:26-31, Ezekiel 13:3-16.}

Therefore you shall have night without vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination:
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
And the day shall be dark for them.
So the seers shall be ashamed
And the diviners abashed.
Indeed they shall all cover their lips,
For there is no answer from God."

In the New Testament, looking ahead to the end of this current cycle of the Gentiles, this time, we find the same thought (from Revelation 19:19-20):

"And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked designs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image."

In the same line of development, Foundation May-June 1998 noted earlier action.

"The most amazing phenomenon of all, however, is the Roman Catholic Church's active attempt to dispel the last remnants of opposition to her credibility as a bona fide Christian institution by entering into dialogue with those who previously took a strong stand against Roman error. The Evangelical and Catholics Together positional papers were unbelievably deceptive and disarming. Now, the historic contention between Reformation and Catholic beliefs regarding "Justification" has apparently been healed in the declaration that is reprinted in this issue ... The attitudes and beliefs expressed toward Roman Catholicism by non-Catholic churches and groups all over the world are incredible - almost beyond belief! The harlot is ascending. Certainly our Lord's return must be near! One cannot take Bible prophecy ... seriously without unprecedented, present anticipation of momentous events in the offing"  - p. 3.

It goes on to consider the details of the root canal job, in the teeth that bite, to which the word of God referred above. Dead teeth can bite, but need substantial reinforcement... while they ARE dying, believe me, they can HURT. It IS hurtful, and it is best for it to appear!


We looked at these apostate developments, harmonising the flat contradiction of gospel truth in Trent with current unity, even with Lutherans to hand! (cf. Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 4). Small wonder their book organisation thought The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, BECAUSE its approach to Romanism had much in common with that of Luther, COULD not receive much focus with them in their outlet! The horrid defalcation of former and famous righteousness in this liaison with Rome, either express or celebrated, makes such an anomaly as this, now all too clear!

WHY does this imminence of the return of Christ, appear from the embrace of Rome by many of the former denouncers ? HOW does this show any nearness ?

Why does Christ's personal return as in Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 4, seem near in view of the cessation by many of her exposure, the lapse from their former utter  rejection of Rome's level headed aspirations for the Pope as Lord, when there is in fact ONE LORD (Ephesians 4:4) and ONE Master (Matthew 23:8-10) and ALL you are brethren, was the codification of the matter by Jesus Christ (whose name, for some reason, is used in these synthetic, syncretistic performances! perhaps because it is better than those who abuse it!). Cessation ? indeed, it is like leaving loathing of a former boy friend and proposing instead!

Why should such shocking misalliance with Rome, such docility before the obvious teeth under the shawl of lamb's wool, signify that Christ is soon to return ? Is not the harlot to be REMOVED from the beast's back ? Is not her undignified bucking off (or some such disposal mechanism)  to be the commencement signal of much of the end ? (Revelation 17:3,13-15, cf. SMR pp. 946ff., 743-744, 955-956).

The point of course is this. WHEN the harlot, the Babylon death-mask religious power is to be removed from the beast's back (the method may be conjectured, but the fact is clear), there are two considerations that are prominent in the imagery. ONE: she is THERE, she is prominent and ALONE. The other, the removal by a beast on which one sits, is sure to be of a certain ... if not picturesque, spiralling kind, or elliptical proportion, then to express something of the native force which beasts have! Bucking is the norm.

You ARE bucked OFF, BECAUSE you are ON! You have to BE there first. In this case, being on the beast's back is far more than being on the pig's back, in the idiom. It is having a certain singular eminence of acceptance BY the beast, of being highlighted ON the beast, of being in some measure a GUIDING force TO the beast, and having no small power THROUGH the beast. That is what it is. For the bucking to proceed, the imagery indicates the preliminary situation required. THIS being now increasingly obvious, the preparation for the predicted scenario is on line, in focus, en scène, ready for Action, Lights! (or Arcs! but not de triomphe).

Thus

·       WHEN Rome seems in the hearts of the rulers of the earth, at a time when in Europe once more there is coming to be a certain eminence and synthesis of nations (as in the European Union cf. SMR pp. 902-930),

·       and when resistance is losing ground, rather than, as in the Reformation, gaining ground:

·       then is the time. There has to be a subversion, not an exposure. There has to be a world longing for, panting after, deluded by the sleights of spiritual hand of the second beast (that speaks like a dragon), in its religious unification thrust, AND a certain eminence, not, then,  on the pig's back, as the saying goes, but here rather on the beast's back, for the Babylon expressed as Rome in this dispensation, situation (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 2, pp. 21ff., Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 5, pp. 60ff.).


Let us be clear, if painfully so. If Rome were not THERE, then the Bible would be wrong. If she did not ENJOY her eminence, so likewise. If the beast were not in his eminence, then it would be too soon for her to participate in this near ultimate if degrading action. What then do we find ? There is a cocktail to be shaken to integrate the scene with the specifications; there is a building in which there need to be aligned the various predicted elements. As to that cocktail, It is NOW being shaken HEAVILY. As to that building, it is now apparent, like the Taj Mahal. It stands out. One cannot miss it. THAT is the point. HENCE this is a signal, along with the restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish control (Luke 21:44) for the return of Christ.

Now there is more. Now the "UNITED RELIGIONS" (UR) is metamorphosing into the next step of its short life plan. Out from the pupa stage is coming this insect of flight, now drying its wings in the sun, in New York, where it is indeed Summer. Now this WORLD PEACE SUMMIT of August 2000, one of such an imposing and vast congregation of the mighty in religion, is actually and explicitly to "co-ordinate religious and spiritual leadership as an inter-faith ally to the UN". That is its plan, its objective for various purposes. What does this mean in Biblical terms and imagery, so appallingly clear from the days of Daniel (e.g. Chs. 2, 7) and the writing of Revelation some 1900 years ago (as in Revelation Chs. 13,17). It means this. The second beast, dragonesque,  is beginning to do his work more formally, thoroughly. The bowing to the image of the first and apparent dragon, the political-state-social establishment,  is now to be encouraged by the propaganda of the second dragon. The UN is given UR  help. They witness as ... ONE.

Further, there must be a second dragonesque BEAST with such irrepressible vocal resemblance to a dragon, in the offing, chomping and perhaps breathing suitable flames, preferably for the picturesque side of things, or to put it more in the form of the principle involved, being fearsome, powerful and expressive of power, having indeed a certain intimidatory capacity (like some of the rulings of the UN, which Howard to his credit, has conceived from time to time as perhaps too prominent or even dominant in this nation's affairs, and now, this month,  is formally making more distant from Australia, though not without challenge). We noted something of this utterance capacity of the UN in The Other News, Appendix 1. We are now however looking beyond this to something nearer to the source.

THIS ideological formation in virility and power, this dragon-type beast, this expression in Biblical terms, of the work of the devil, it  is now showing its INTER-RELATIONSHIP with the first beast, given its power by the devil,  as an explicit and growing pathological phenomenon. This is the fulfilment of predictive prophecy; ground for warning; and, like watching a yacht race, interesting for the tactics being used. It is salutary to know these things; it is wise to realise them. BE READY! said Christ (Matthew 24:45). THIS, it is like the starter's call, On your marks! Why is it so fashionable to ignore the call ? The race WILL be run. It will soon be over.
 

·       Thus the emphasis which we have placed on the

  • UNITED RELIGIONS movement,
  • the UN,
  • the World Council of Churches,
  • the collapse of the Lutheran World Federation, the movements in the Uniting Church (The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 3),
  • the substantial paganisation of the Anglican movement (Stepping Out for Christ


Ch. 5, esp. End-note, cf. The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Ch. 1), expressed in the explicit making of Christ as only ONE way to God (Tender Times for Timely Truths -TTT - Ch. 7), as in its increasing alliance with Rome, and the
 

  • plethora of false prophets and false christs (TTT Ch. 8), which we have noted many times on this site, in various detailed respects.


All this is monumental in proportion, soaring like the Russian tower which collapsed in fire (from a functional point of view, apparently irremediably ruined), and ethically sordid like the jabbing of the arm of the wife of one of the sailors who were lost in the explosions of the Russian U-boat.

This increasingly apparent and broader-based alliance or beast, for its part,  broadcasts to many regional centres on this earth, using for the time much of the paraphernalia of Rome for leadership (cf. Repent or Perish Ch. 5, esp. pp. pp. 102ff., SMR pp. 743ff., Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 1), the vague shadowy shelter of the WCC (SMR pp. 743ff.), and as we now see quite expressly, the humanistic arms of the UN (cf. Acme: Alpha and Omega, Jesus Christ Ch. 1, SMR pp. 750Bff.). It is already beginning to transcend in its scope, not only Rome, but Moscow. Its theme is synthesis, and its result is of vast scale.
But let us revert to that jab in the arm of the outraged wife of the lost Russian submarine sailor.

As to that, this too is apposite prophetically, if not ethically or morally. The sort of power which interferes with the mind of someone who is expressing grief and outrage, instead of the meeting of that mind, is precisely the sort of chilling interference with human life which the beast is so good at, fond of, and for which it in fact gets its name. This is comparatively, but not actually, a small incident compared with the long years of astute endeavours to corrupt, corrode and make pliable the minds of many of the martyrs, first specialisation of Rome, then of the Communist bloc, that moral blockage and spiritual outrage.

This perhaps is one of the signs of the heritage left yet in Russia. There is, however, no needle which may be jabbed into the arm of the Tower which Fell, to secure its silence; and moreover, its purpose was to broadcast, not to be silenced. Its silence however is what is being broadcast, and the lesson on this emblem of Soviet, Communist glory is not lost. Yet, as we are seeing, the powers of anti-god assault do not rest. They seek to aggregate, congregate, and why not! now in NEW YORK!

Thus as the dementia of the times comes to its appointed climax, not one nation's communism, or the ersatz variety which uses the name but not the method, in China, but the whole stew of Communism, humanism, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, secularism, organic evolutionism, psychological manipulation, social engineering and the like, together with ecumenical hypnotism (words CANNOT be bent to make yes into no, however many are  employed or deployed for the purpose): these things surge together in the brisk boiling action of our day. Graham has siphoned off many into the Roman burlesque situation, of stilling the exposure of that unbiblical enormity and even forwarding it in many things (News, Facts and Forecasts Ch. 4, pp. 83ff.); Pentecostalism has done much the same for many more, making this, its 'tongues' pre-occupation, a bridge of convenience and an eminence of emotion for the acceptance of something much more substantial than the Pope (cf. A Question of Gifts Ch. VI). THAT once had enormous military power at its disposal and did not hesitate to use it. THIS is preparing for its own scenario. Each in its time. But what of Rome, for it has had quite a day ? What is the point to which we are now coming ?
 

·       It is not that one has to BE a papist (cf. SMR pp. 1042- 1088H), to be deluded by the charms of this humanistic, this-world substitute for the ONLY divine glory of Christ, something vainly arrogating from His powers of the Godhead,  His incalculable powers in express derogation of His prohibition of just that;

·       it is that communion with such idolatry is rebellion (Romans 16:17, I Corinthians 5:11). It is a specific act of dismissal of divinely given orders.

·       There is, then, a betrayal already occurring when the exposure of Rome,  is side-stepped, and communion, spiritual camaraderie, occurs. It is in this forbidden fellowship, and others like it,  that the final ditch of the age is being dug. It is deep. It is dark. It is the spiritual Netherlands, threatened not this time by sea, but by sheer depth of rebellious depravity. Indeed, they make war on Him who puts nothing in their mouths!

As to Baptist contributions to the stew, the mere reception of Graham by the Southern Baptist union of many millions is sufficient to expose its laxity for such an arch betrayal of reformation truth, drawn from the Bible. Again, in Foundation July-August 1999 we further see that the 1.5 million member union of American Baptist Churches  in June 22-25, 1999, included in their role and roll of speakers, one from the Roman Catholics. Imagine Paul, who did not give place for one hour to the circumcisionists (Galatians 2:5), having one of them address the meeting of Ephesus church for example! Why, far from this, the apostle hied off to Jerusalem to get the exposure of this evil! He in person aided in the transmission of the result to the churches. He would not 'give place' to such an error, as he put it, not for one hour.

And what more of that American Baptist Union to the point of our present concern ? This: After enormous division on the tedious and glaringly anti-Biblical topic of lesbian and homosexual involvement in all aspects of ministry, there was very pointed reference to the inclusion of this body as a founding member of both the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. The secretary of the body had himself served on the central Committee of the WCC! was a member of the executive committee of the National Council of Churches. So it does cosily along, no respecter of denominations, the road to the unity which is spurious, to the roaring of the one who is furious (Revelation 12:9-12).

Nor is this all. Now we learn that the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has decided to abolish a law which prohibited its members from being simultaneously members of the WCC or NCC! (Foundation, May7-June pp. 3ff.). Thus the allegiance to the Biblical doctrine of separation is no longer required in the NAE,  this once so special, so different and so needful body! What now is the case ? Join and believe in NO separation even from the prodigies of paganism in the WCC (cf. SMR pp. 743-744, 867-888, The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 7, pp. 135ff.).

Before we used to see large denominations exhibited the decrepitude of declension, departing from the word of God, in word or deed or both; now we are seeing whole bodies do so. The next step is the world: so that as at the first, so near the last, the discipline required to be a Christian will be considerable: yet it has always been considerable, if one "dies daily"... Less will be the help of prestige and power from bodies to which, for whatever reason, the world gives some place. This moves away like Autumn leaves in a brisk breeze. Hostilities in Russia and Communist nations generally, especially in Albania for example, have been severe, invidious, insidious at times, enraged at others. The dragon, one must realise, is to deserve the name. There have been lulls; but it is never a case of a lullaby. Ephesians 6 should remove any such illusion.

All this attests just that preparation and preliminary for NO Biblical standards, gross humanistic paganism, deception and corruption, equivocation and dispersal of doctrine which is needed to usher in the antichrist, who is actually to impress upon himself, and be impressed with the impression, that HE IS GOD (II Thessalonians 2:3-8)! It is interesting that the devil's 'messiah' takes simple form as a MAN, as we find in this epistle. We must then  think of his preliminaries... Obviously there cannot (i.e. must not, for this purpose) be ('allowed' to be) any absolute God, absolutely expressed in an absolutely true way and further, definitively expressed by His only begotten Son, for revelation and redemption coming into this world.

Thus if some one sinner has to be set up like this, and in the fulness of pride and sin declare himself, show himself, invent the character for himself of being god, and to have the scope and power to make this sort of claim in the temple, a certain preparation is needed! ABSOLUTISM would be assaulted; Biblical faith would be deprecated; unity with POWERS THAT BE would be forwarded; unification of man with man and with powers thought of would need to be achieved in some form or format; and then, in the ostensible vacuum, comes ... IT, HE! The man of sin, the masquerader, the mannequin parader, showing off the clothes ... of god. Stalin came close when imaging he would control the laws of Nature; Mao came close with his ruminative ramifications of personal glory; even Augustus had a go in Roman times. This, however, will surpass all. Its folly will be total. Its culmination will be far past Cecil de Mille in splendour. Then, of course, like all lies, it will go. In the interim however, there is panache. The matter therefore needs preparation.

This we are seeing.

It is NECESSARY therefore that all this come to pass, so that the power and the glory, snatched by Rome, but soon to be snatched back by a beast of broader back, can come to a yet more hideous imposture, with renewed power. Predictively, this time it must be something, in a worldly sense, prevailing in the earth (Revelation 13). It will not be limited in territory. Its scope rises to the heavens, and is not satisfied with less than the earth.
How violent the temper of the vile when he cannot have the hearts of the saints.
Small wonder, knowing his impending end, the devil is irascible! (cf. Revelation 12:11-12).

Possible Link

While we are dealing with pathology, let us remind ourselves of the allegory used earlier, and read once again The Wonder of the Witch from an earlier part of this site.

{In this Excerpt from News 121, this section does not appear, in order to obtain the best concentration on Revelation. For this, if you wish to follow it, follow the hyperlink above.}
 
 

Note:

*1 Revelation 17:1-5; cf. SMR pp. 946ff.. (Go to Next Section at 946.)