The Beast

Remember our discussion about 1998 being The Year? Well, to recap: Jeff spoke about the The Beast & the number of the Beast. Jeff was using Jung to give some insight as to why he was sure that the Beast represented a system - i.e. Communism - Russia. Jeff referred to the revelations of Ex-KGB Major Golitsyn and Genl Jan Senja about the Soviet "Long Range" plan, begun in the 1960's in which Russia would fake its own collapse and then rise and smash America for once and for all in a nuclear war.

That's the setting: The Great Communist Deception - appropriately the highlight of this century - of many centuries.

In this context Jeff referred to the one beast of the Bible:-

Rev 13:2 "And the beast I saw was like unto a Leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear. And his mouth as the mouth of a Lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority".

13:3: "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast".

(JL: The heads may refer to various branches of it. i.e. The Russian branch being one, the Chinese, Cuba, Iraq, etc)

13:4: "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?"

The above is from the King James version of the Bible, but let's look at Young's Literal Translation which is about 100 years old:-

13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw out of the sea a beast coming up, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads a name of evil speaking,

(JL: A name of Evil speaking - interesting translation)

13:2 and the beast that I saw was like to a leopard, and its feet as of a bear, and its mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon did give to it his power, and his throne, and great authority.

13:3 And I saw one of its heads as slain to death, and its deadly stroke was healed, and all the earth did wonder after the beast,

13:4 and they did bow before the dragon who did give authority to the beast, and they did bow before the beast, saying, `Who [is] like to the beast? who is able to war with it?'

In the texts which I will proceed to quote, you will notice a LOT of stuff where the Bible speaks of THE WORLD - ALL the peoples of the world - IOW, a clear reference to TODAY's GLOBAL VILLAGE - to THIS AGE where TV & Radio enable the WORLD and the people's in it to act in unison. So let's continue: "who is able to make war with him?" - a clear reference to a Great Military power - which the Soviet Union was, prior to its fake collapse. The above is clearly a reference to The Greatest Military Power - for WHO can match him?

I am interested in the Bible's imagery of these Beasts. Yet perhaps it is very appropriate for some nations are represented by animals. The French Cockerel, the British Bulldog, the American Eagle, the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon. Is it not appropriate for the Bible to speak in terms of beasts?

NB: I will be ignoring the references to the Dragon in these texts, because at this time I have not given much thought as to who/what the Dragon might be. The 2 possibilities are: The Chinese OR perhaps the "Dragon in the sky" - i.e. a celestial body, a comet perhaps - perhaps comet Hale-Bopp? As an aside, Mother Shipton described the comet which caused upheavals as a dragon. The Bible seems to be doing the same thing in Rev 12. Some excerpts "And there appeared a great WONDER IN HEAVEN: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet....And there appeared ANOTHER WONDER IN HEAVEN: and behold a Great Red Dragon...And his TAIL DREW THE THIRD PART OF THE STARS OF HEAVEN, and did cast them to the earth".

The above is a clear reference to a CELESTIAL BODY, with a similar bent on describing it as a Dragon, because of its tail. This dragon has physical effects upon the earth's rotation by "drawing down a 3rd part of the stars of heaven and casting them down". The inference that the USSR would draw its power from the Dragon is relatively correct in the military sense because this celestial body will cause havoc upon the earth - as the Bible so clearly describes. It will trigger earthquakes, and huge ocean waves and land will rise and land will fall and "mountains will be moved into the sea". The Dragon's presence tips the scales in favour of the Leopard-beast - it gives it the chance it has waited for to destroy another beast. So keep this Earth change, celestial scenario in your mind as you read the remainder of the verses of Revelations.

Now that is the background, that is where we left off our discussion about a week ago.

Jeff, since then I have stumbled upon something quite remarkable which is in fact the OTHER HALF of the puzzle. It began this morning when I was browsing through some 2nd hand books at a charity book sale. I happened upon the 1988 book "Will America survive?" Now there's nothing special about that title. But what IS different about it is that it is a 600+ page book which was originally published in 1888 - over 100 years ago! This was merely a reprint of that SAME book. It is a book about the history of Christianity and in it the author attempts to determine exactly what Revelations is telling us.

It is amazing to see the insights this fellow had 100+ years ago. He paints a picture in which he sees a most intense struggle taking place between Good and Evil in the final days. But look at what this fellow expected to see in the final days as Satan's tactics:- "Satan's enmity...has been manifested against His (God's) followers. The same hatred of the principles of God's law, the SAME POLICY OF DECEPTION, BY WHICH ERROR IS MADE TO APPEAR AS TRUTH...and men are lead to worship the CREATURE (political system?) rather than the creator...In the great final conflict, Satan will employ the same policy, manifest the same spirit...as in all preceding ages...except that the coming struggle will be marked with a terrible intensity such as the world has never witnessed. Satan's DECEPTIONS WILL BE MORE SUBTLE, HIS ASSAULTS MORE DETERMINED. IF IT WERE POSSIBLE, HE WOULD LEAD ASTRAY THE ELECT. Mark 13:2"

It is interesting to see in this old book a chapter about "God will shake the heavens" - and the many many references to celestial phenomenon and bright objects in the sky - even to the point of mentioning a bright Star, like the Sun shining in the sky! Just what we've been talking about.

Goro - a word of caution - I am of the firm opinion that the events portrayed will be very clear and the WHOLE WORLD will see the Sign in the sky as I have mentioned before. It will not be a cross as many Christians suppose, but something of great magnitude which EVERYONE will understand - the appearance of the New Sun. And so the events in Revelations are NOT SMALL, but HUGE - the sorts of things which will make headlines on every News show, every national newspaper. The problem however is The Great Deception - for MOST will miss the significance of the signs around them. Read on and you'll see what I'm getting at.

The author of this 100+ year old book was not able to pick out the Leopard-like beast because it did not exist back in 1888. He tried to pin it on Rome and the power of the Pope. But - clearly he is wrong for the Bible says "Who can make war with him?" - thus the Bible shows us it is clearly a Great and Supreme Military power on Earth - which the Pope is not. In fact, during WWII when Churchill mentioned that they had the support of the Pope, Stalin remarked "And how many (army) divisions does the Pope have?"

However, further on in the same chapter, where the Leopard-beast is mortally wounded, and then recovers, there is reference to ANOTHER great beast. This beast DID exist back in 1888, and the author clearly knows the identity of this beast: The USA. The beast in question has 2 horns, like a lamb and rises from the earth. The author determines that this lamb-beast is the USA. I quote:-

"But the beast with lamb-like horns was seen 'coming up out of the earth.' Instead of overthrowing other powers to establish itself, the nation thus presented must arise from territory previously unoccupied and grow up gradually and peacefully. It could not then, arise among the crowded and struggling nationalities of the Old World.... One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the USA. Again and again the thought, almost the exact words, of the sacred writer have been unconsciously employed by the orator and the historian in describing the rise and growth of this nation. The beast was seen 'coming out of the earth'; and according to the translators, the word here rendered 'coming up' literally signifies to 'grow or spring up as a plant'. A prominent writer describing the rise of the USA, speaks of 'the mystery of her coming forth from vacancy' and 'Like a silent seed we grew into empire'. G.A. Townsend"

Note too the references to the Leopard-beast on the basis of it making war - and compare the imagery of a Leopard Vs a Lamb. The predator Leopard-beast and the victim Lamb-beast. These are perhaps descriptions of their national characters. The Predator and the The Victim.

But what does the Bible say further about the Leopard-beast (as I will call it so that we don't get confused about which beast we're talking of).

13:5 And there was given to it a mouth speaking great...

(The rest was cut-off, but might be searched out on DejaNews.)