| The Royal Marriages, Part 4: The Manchild with the Rod of Iron. The 144,000. continued And I will give power unto my two witnesses [martusin], and they shall prophesy 1260 days... And when they shall have finished their testimony [witness, marturian], the Beast that ascends out of the Abyss shall make war against them...and kill them. 11:3, 7 [Following the birth and the ascent of the manchild into heaven, and the ensuing war there,] the great dragon... that old serpent...called the Devil and Satan...was cast out into the earth, and his angels...with him...[where he] persecuted the woman who brought forth the manchild... [T]he woman...[fled] into the wilderness...for a time, and times, and a half time [= 1260 days] from the face of the serpent. ... And the dragon...stood on the sand of the sea. ... And I saw a Beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns... 12:9, 13-14, 17 - 13:1 ....and I saw a woman ["Mystery Babylon"] sitting upon a scarlet Beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. ... The Beast that you saw was [once upon Earth], and is not [upon Earth in the Apostle John's day], and shall ascend out of the Abyss and go to perdition. 17:3, 5, 8 The final end of the Beast, as we saw above (Rev. 19), is to gather together all nations to war against the Messiah and his host. He will lose that battle, and be permanently cast into the lake of fire. From the outline sketch above, we can see that the Beast is not a man, as is so often claimed, but rather the fallen angel who is presently King of the Abyss. (The Abyss is the prison house of angels who long ago rebelled against God. See 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6.) After this angel escapes from out of the Abyss to once more corrupt and ravage Earth, he is to be "given a mouth." This mouth (-piece), his spokesman, may very well be a man. A second Scriptural witness about this mouthpiece of the Beast is found in Daniel 7. Compare the underlined phrases below to those in Revelation 13 above. ...behold, a fourth beast [not the Beast, but rather, one of his seven heads]...and it had ten horns. ... [T]here came up among them another little horn, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. ... [T]he same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them... And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High...for a time, and times, and half a time [= 1260 days]. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion... Daniel 7:7-8, 21, 25-26 Here, as in Revelation 13, we see a "mouth" that pompously blasphemes God, and that persecutes and prevails over God's people for 1260 days. There is a character in the Book of Esther that allegorically foreshadows this person well: Haman. Sometime "after" Esther [allegorically = the Virgin Church] was taken into the king's palace [heaven], and Mordecai [the 144,000] began to sit in the king's gate [the 144,000 receive empowerment], Haman...the Agagite [i.e., Amalekite]...[was] advanced...and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And all the king's servants who were within the king's gate bowed and paid homage to Haman... But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage... When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath...[and] sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom... Esther 3:1-2, 5-6 Before Haman was able to fully execute his plan, Mordecai was exalted and elevated to the right hand of the king [the 144,000 come alongside Christ on Mount Zion]. Esth. 8:1-2; Rev. 14:1-5 After Mordecai received authority, he sent a message throughout the whole kingdom that upheld the rights of the Jews to their beliefs. Because of this message, "many of the people of the land became Jews." Esth. 8:8-17 After the 144,000 are exalted in the Latter Days, "the everlasting gospel" will be sent forth and preached "to every nation," Rev. 14:6-13. Undoubtedly, many people will believe the gospel message, and therefore join themselves unto the people of God. Just under nine months after Mordecai's message went out, a great battle took place that pitted the Jews and their allies against those that hated them. The Jews routed their enemies. Esth. 9:1f. In the Latter Days, sometime after the gospel message has been preached worldwide, the earth will be "reaped." Rev. 14:14-20; see also Micah 5:7-9. However, this is not the final battle (which takes place much later, in Revelation 19), nor is it the final demise of the Beast (also in Rev. 19). The "reaping" battles only mark the end of the era of the Beast's mouthpiece: ...[after] a time, and times, and half a time [=1260 days]...they shall take away his dominion. Daniel 7:25-26 Previous page Part 1, Royal Marriages b/w Return to Index Return to Index page 2 |