Nazarene Israelite Two House Congregation of Port Elizabeth

The Roman Empire.

Many cities in Europe were destroyed during World War II and at the end of the war about sixty million refugees existed at near starvation level.  Few people alive at that time thought Europe will become united again. But, the first step toward European unity came in 1950 when the then French foreign Minister Robert Schuman submitted a proposal for the European nations to pool their coal and steel resources. France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg accepted the proposal, and in 1952 the European Coal and Steel Community was formed. The next step was the formation of the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the European Economic Community (EEC), by the same nations on January 1, 1958.

Since then, these nations prospered, they removed the custom duties between them and a European Parliament was formed. Moving forward 76 years after the start of World War II and we are very close to where the world was about 85 years ago. The Great Depression started in 1929 and its effects caused the German nation to look for a Super-leader to help them solve their problems. This was when Hitler came on the scene and within a few short years he restored Germany to become a powerful nation, making him into a hero in the eyes of his people. Most of us are aware of Hitler’s Third Reich and its end results, but do we remember that Charlemagne’s Empire was known as the First Reich. Even though not many will admit it, but the EU leaders are at this time working franticly to re-establish Charlemagne’s Empire once again. It is only a matter of time for the next Charlemagne to come to the fore. According to the prophecy in Daniel (Daniel 11: 20 & 21) he will be a despicable man, on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred, ‘but he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue.’ This despicable person will come into power much like Hitler did. Scriptural prophecies indicate that the revived Roman Empire will arise in the same general areas of Southern, Central and Western Europe in which the original Roman Empire and all its previous revivals have existed.

From the prophecy in the book of Daniel we learned about four great empires that were to dominate the world from King Nebuchadnezzar’s time, namely the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires. Daniel also prophesied that the Roman Empire would incorporate all the most outstanding strengths of the previous empires, and that it will last from prior to Messiah’s time, until His return to rule the world from Jerusalem. Rav Yochanan who was shown a vision how this empire will survive in many forms until Messiah’s return, referred to it as a ‘beast’ in Revelation 13: 1. After the fall of the original Roman Empire, a ‘second beast’ - a religious government patterned after the first beast – arose, professing to be ‘Christian’ but sustaining many pagan practices because it was, at heart, merely paganism cloaked in so-called ‘Christian’ clothing. From past history we know that the Roman Empire received a ‘deadly wound’ when the Empire in the West was overrun by barbarians – but the ‘deadly wound’ was healed in 554 CE when it was officially restored in the west, as witnessed in Revelation 13: 3 & 4, in this way: ‘And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; (4) and they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” The first six of the seven heads of the beast that Yochanan saw stood for the Babylonian Empire with its four divisions. The only ‘head’ still existing at the time Yochanan saw this beast in vision was the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is therefore ‘one of his (seven) heads’ that was wounded to death in the vision. By the fifth century, Rome had been weakened by internal moral, social, economic and political decay. Meanwhile, beyond the Roman frontiers, the rest of Europe was in uproar. Vandals, Goths, Huns, Heruli and others were on the march. The empire could no longer defend itself against them, and Roman territory was seized on every front.

The ‘fatal wound’ was the one administered to the original Roman Empire in its last decaying stages by the barbarians who overrun it and plundered Rome. The one head died, but the beast system continued, and later the ‘deadly wound was healed’. In other words, this very ‘head’, the Roman head, was later revived and continued to exist. The Roman Empire which is symbolized by the legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel 2, is prophesied to exist when Messiah will return one day in the near future to establish the Kingdom of Elohim on earth, as recorded in Daniel 2: 33 – 35 and 41 – 44, as follows: ‘Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. (34) “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. (35) Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (41) And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. (42) And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. (43) And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery. (44) And in the days of those kings the Elohim of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. (45) Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great Elohim has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

The stone spoken about in verse 45 pictures Messiah who will finally replace the Roman Empire, as Rav Kepha also explains in Acts 4: 10 & 11, saying: ‘Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Yahshua Messiah the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. (11) “He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone.”  The stone does not, as many have assumed, represent the Xtian Church which was established in the first century CE, since the church did not in any way smash or destroy the Roman Empire. It is clear that the fourth beast of Daniel 7 and the beast of Revelation 13: 1 – 2 represent the Roman Empire and the ten horns of each beast represent ten kings or kingdoms bridging the time period from the original Roman Empire until today. We see according to Daniel 7: 8 that three of the beast’s ten horns were to be completely destroyed.  Some historians date the ‘fall of Rome’ in 476 CE, even though there was no great ‘fall’ at the time. Nevertheless, it was the year during which  the last official ‘emperor of the West’ - a mere child irregularly elevated by his father, was deposed by Odovacar, a German commander of the Roman armies in Italy, which were mostly composed of Germanic Heruli mercenaries at that time.  The power of the irresistible Roman Empire had vanished prior to this date as a result of internal moral and economic decay. Even that vestige of power which remained at Constantinople in the East was only a shadow of Rome’s former glory. This happened when the Vandals seized the granary of North Africa and greatly weakened the empire during 429 CE.

During 455 CE, they ransacked Rome itself and held it for a short period of time.  At that time the king of the Vandals made an agreement with the Eastern Roman Emperor at Constantinople – including a compact to join it by royal marriage with the emperor’s daughter – thereby ‘legitimizing’ his rule of Roman territory. In this way his kingdom became a part and continuation of the Roman system. The Kingdom of the Vandals constituted the first of the three ‘horns’.  Shortly before the death of the Vandal king in 477 CE, he made peace with ‘Rome’ and restored Sicily to the Italian government, which was now under Odovacar. The Vandal kingdom continued in North Africa until 533 CE. In Italy Odovacar, backed by the power of his Heruli soldiers, was recognized by the emperor of the East and given titles of ‘patrician’ and ‘king’. Even though his kingdom perpetuated the Roman system, it did not heal the wound – since ‘barbarians’ continued to exercise the actual power. This constituted the second horn (476 – 493 CE). Finally the third horn, the kingdom of the Ostrogoth’s came on the scene during 493 – 554 CE. The emperor in the East had informally commissioned the Ostrogoths under Theodoric to destroy the power of Odovacar in Italy. In 497 CE, he officially recognized the establishment of their rule. Nevertheless, they too were shortly driven out of Italy and disappeared. These three kingdoms (‘horns’) or governments, though independent and barbarian, consisting the Ostrogoths, Vandals and Odovacar were all Christians of the Arian persuasion; each professed to carry on the Roman Empire, and filled a transition period between the ‘deadly wound’ and its ‘healing’.

We read about a little horn in Daniel 7: 8 who caused the first three horns to be plucked up, because they did not submit to the doctrine and authority of the Roman Church. Most of the barbarians acknowledged the Arian brand of Christianity, but the Roman Church led the Italian population to hate them, and the emperor in Constantinople was influenced to act against them as a heretical sect. Most of Odovacar’s Heruli were slaughtered, chiefly at the hands of the Italian population, on a prearranged day in accordance with a well-kept secret plot. An ecclesiastical writer called this slaughter a ‘sacrificial massacre’. Next we will see how the Vandal and Ostrogothic ‘horns’ were also uprooted and destroyed at the instigation of the same ‘little horn’ as another (the fourth) horn arose. It was the fourth horn (or government) which really ‘healed’ the deadly wound and restored, or resurrected the Roman Empire. Justinian at that time was emperor of the surviving Eastern division. He sent his armies to wage war and to uproot the Vandals and Ostrogoths, mainly to expand the power of the Bishop of Rome. His general, Belisarius, quickly defeated the Vandals and soon conquered all of North Africa. He then transported his soldiers to Italy. The Italian population welcomed them as liberators. In 554CE, Justinian’s army entered Rome in triumph, bringing about what is known as the ‘Imperial Restoration’. Justinian restored to their original owners the Italian estates which the Heruli and Ostrogoths had seized, and restored as much as possible the form of Roman government. In order to clarify the law, he caused all the laws accumulated over five centuries to be collected and codified. This was the famous ‘Law of Justinian’, the ‘Roman’ law which ruled most of Western Europe throughout the succeeding centuries.

But for how long was the healed beast to continue? Elohim revealed the Scriptural day for a year principle in Ezekiel 4: 4 – 6 and Numbers 14: 34. Using this Scriptural day-for-a-year principle, we find that ’forty two months’ in Revelation 13: 5 equals 1260 days (42 times 30 days), or 1260 years – the length of time Elohim allowed the ‘healed’ beast to continue. Thus the beast continued in existence from its restoration in 554 CE to the fall of Napoleon in 1814. At the end of that time its existence was again to be interrupted – but it was not yet to be destroyed permanently. Let’s continue in history to see which governments were represented by the ‘horns’ that reigned in the territory of the Roman Empire after the ‘Imperial Restoration.’ The fifth horn was the Frankish kingdom or Charlemagne and its successors, since Italy and most of Western Europe had fallen into the hands of the Franks while the power of Justinian’s successors had greatly declined. On Xmas Day, 800 CE, the Pope crowned Charlemagne and made him the Roman Emperor. This empire was later partitioned according to the Frankish custom, among several heirs to the throne, and consequently lost its strength.

As a result, the kingdom of the Saxons comprising approximately the territory of modern Germany, began to exercise the control in Europe. In 962 CE, the Pope legitimized this control by crowning Otto (1) the Great, who assumed the crown of Italy as well, and the entire dominion becoming known as the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ – the sixth horn. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a great internal power struggle took place between the Popes and Holy Roman Emperors, finally resulting in a period without an emperor, lasting from 1254 to 1273 CE. The empire, however, still existed in 1273 its headship was assigned to Rudolf of the Hapsburg dynasty (Austrian). This was the seventh horn, which continued to rule until the time of Napoleon Bonaparte.  Napoleon conquered nearly all of Europe and overthrew the Holy Roman Empire by force. His kingdom (French) then became the short-lived eighth horn; when he crowned himself in 1804 by seizing the crown from the hands of the Pope who had travelled all the way to Paris to crown him, thus becoming emperor of France. The following year he also took the title King of Italy. But when Napoleon was crushed in 1814 by the allied armies of Britain, Prussia and other European states, the healed beast’s existence was suspended. The duration of the church-ruled healed beast had been exactly 1260 years – as had been prophesied in Revelation 13: 5.

The ‘beast’ in Revelation 17 represents the same ‘beast’ system and provides additional prophetic details about the time after Napoleon and down to our day. We see from verse 3 of Revelation 17, that similar to the ‘beast’ of Revelation 13, it has seven heads and ten horns. But we see different from the ‘beast’ in Revelation 13 a ‘woman’ sits upon or dominates this beast.  In Scriptural terminology a ‘woman’ represents a church (as may be seen from 2 Corinthians 11: 2; Ephesians 5: 23 – 25 and Revelation 12: 17). Therefore, the ‘woman’ in Revelation 17: 1 & 4 represents a great false church system!  This woman sits on or rides the ‘beast’, showing that this false church also deals in politics. It is important to note that the ‘seven heads’ of this beast which the whore rides, represent the same political powers as the last seven ‘horns’ of the beast of Revelation 13: 1-2. The heads of one beast are the equivalent of the last seven horns of the other, which is evident from the fact that the great false church was to dominate the last seven revivals of the Roman empire politically, symbolized as ‘horns’ in Revelation 13, and as ‘heads’ in Revelation 17.

Revelation 17: 8 & 10 indicate that the beast, as a government, was to cease after five of its revivals,  though only temporarily. After Napoleon’s fall, the ‘Holy’ Roman Empire split up. Each Italian, German, or Netherlands principality became independent. Italy was broken up into twelve separate little states. At this time eight of the original ten ‘horns’ of Revelation 13, five of the seven ‘heads’ of Revelation 17, had arisen and fallen. The beast then went temporarily into a non-existent condition symbolized as the ‘bottomless pit’. The sixth head pictured as existing in the end time, at which time this prophecy would be understood, was the head which began with Garibaldi in Italy and Bismarck in Germany and culminated in the Mussolini-Hitler dynasty (1870 – 1945 CE). In 1870 – 71, Garibaldi seized Rome and succeeded in uniting all the Italian states into the one nation of Italy. Italy then entered the race for colonies and acquired Libya, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland in Africa.  In 1870, Otto von Bismarck also united all Germany and defeated the French in the Franco-Prussian War. At that time the German Empire was re-established.

In 1929 Mussolini entered into an agreement with the papal see, offering the protection of the church to political rulers who promised in return to defend the church and to guarantee the authority of her teaching over the people (just as Napoleon did), defining the official relationship between Italy and the Vatican state.  In 1935 Mussolini attacked and conquered Ethiopia, adding this to Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, Libya and later Albania, and proclaiming this a resurrection of the Roman Empire. The king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, assumed the title of Emperor, though Mussolini exercised real power. Mussolini then allied himself with Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. This was the short lived ninth horn of the beast of Revelation 13, the sixth head of the beast of Revelation 17, the sixth resurrection of the empire since the ‘deadly wound’ was healed in 554 CE. It is described in verse 8 of Revelation 17 as ‘the beast that was, and is not, and yet is’. Italy was so unimportant internationally that as a mighty Roman Empire, it really ‘was not’, and yet it was, at least in name. During World War II, this weak, almost insignificant ninth horn or sixth head was defeated and destroyed and the beast dropped into the ‘bottomless pit’ for the second time.

But according to prophesy ‘there are seven kings’, and one ‘is not yet come’ (Revelation 17: 10). So one is yet to come! Yet once more the religious-political system is to revive, arising out of the symbolic ‘bottomless pit’ to form the seventh head of Revelation 17 or the tenth and final ‘horn’ of Revelation 13: 1 & 2 and Daniel 7. But what are the ‘seven heads’ of the beast called in Revelation 17: 9? There are seven literal hills on which Rome is built, symbolic of the seven kingdoms or revivals of the Roman Empire over which the Roman church was to rule. It was on May 9, 1936, that Mussolini after fifteen centuries acclaimed the resurgence of the fated hills of Rome. However, it takes a ‘mind which has wisdom’ to see beyond this symbol. Most students of the Scriptures are aware that the word ‘mountain’ is a symbol for a nation or a kingdom. Revelation 17: 10 also clearly state that these seven mountains represent kings or kingdoms. Note the words ‘one is, and the other is not yet come’ in Revelation 17: 10, proving that these revivals were to be successive kingdoms that ruled the Roman Empire after its restoration in 554 CE. As prophesied, a great religious authority sat astride each of these revivals from Justinian to Mussolini. It is therefore clear that the same religious power will dominate the seventh and last resurrection of the Roman Empire yet to come.

Continuing in verse 11 of Revelation 17, we are told that this church-dominated empire is actually called an ‘eighth’ beast, but yet it is one of the ‘seven’. This is computed as follows: the Chaldean Empire, Persia, the four divisions of Greece and the original Roman Empire adds-up to seven, as symbolized by the heads of the beast of Revelation 13. These seven heads were not dominated by religion. Pagan Rome was the seventh head and was wounded to death. Yet later Rome continued as a revived ‘healed’ beast (described in Revelation 17). Its system is called the ‘eighth’ in Revelation 17: 11 because it is different from the previous seven, that is, it has always been ridden by a fallen ‘woman’, the symbol for a great apostate church, representing a union of church and state; and yet it is part of the original seventh, and therefore ‘of the seven.’

The ten horns of the beast  of Revelation 17 represent ‘ten kings’ or nations (or blocks of nations) which will comprise the seventh, or final, resurrection of the Roman Empire. Each of these nations’ rulers will receive power to rule ‘one hour’ – a short time with the beast in its last revival and will together support and strengthen the beast. Therefore these ten ‘horns’ all exist at the same time, immediately prior to the second coming of Messiah, as indicated in Revelation 17: 14.  This verse, in agreement with Daniel 2: 44 shows that these ten contemporary ‘kings’ will rule for a short time, prior to Messiah’s return. We see from verse 43 of Daniel 2, that these kings will attempt to make their union permanent by the mixing of nationalities, by intermarrying, but they will not succeed as we are told in verse 41 ‘it will be a divided kingdom.’ The ten toes (or blocks of nation) can only stick together for a short time, as much as iron and clay will not permanently stick together. As iron and clay have different natures, so do the people of Europe. Some have the strength and cohesiveness of iron, while others are like clay which is soft when wet and brittle when dry.

The final revival of the Roman Empire, destined to occur during this century, will be a great trading and commercial power. For a short period of time it will enjoy truly fantastic prosperity. This ‘little horn’ described in Daniel 8: 9 – 11 & 23 – 25 (not the same as the ‘little horn’ in Daniel 7) represents the last king or leader of the system which began at Babylon, the coming political ruler of the ‘beast’. He will actually wage war against the ‘saints’ of Elohim and Messiah. Antiochus Epiphanes discussed in the book of Maccabees, whom many commentaries assume fulfilled this prophecy, was merely a type of this coming king. We need to understand that the ancient Babylon had long passed into history before Rav Yochanan saw these visions of a modern ‘Babylon’ and wrote the book of Revelation.  Also notice that this Babylon is represented as a ‘she’ – since it will be a church-state system, unlike the original Babylon. This prosperous modern ‘Babylon’ is called ‘Babylon the Great’ in Revelation 17: 5. It is interesting to note that the very number of the beast’s name (666) is associated in the Scriptures with great prosperity (see first Kings 10: 14 and 2 Chronicles 9: 13). Furthermore, scholars have said that there are only two common nouns in the Greek language which have a numeral value of 666. Interestingly, they are the words for ‘tradition’ and ‘prosperity’. In fact in a recent sermon we have shown that it simply means to ‘turn aside from any of the words which I command you today’ as in Deuteronomy 28: 14, transliterated in Hebrew as ‘tassur’. The gematria for ‘tassur’ being ‘tav’ = 400 + ‘samech’ = 60 + ‘vav’ = 6 + ‘reis’ = 200 totaling 666. This tells us that the Israelites who were scattered into the nations turned aside from Torah and accepted the traditions of the people amongst whom they lived in Europe. 

 Generally peaceful cooperation and economic stability among nations are considered to be beneficial and should be welcomed. However, prophesy in the Scriptures reveal that ultimately the European Union is going to be abused. The military power of a combination of ten nations or blocs of nations is going to be used in an attempt to fight Messiah at His second coming to earth (as shown in Revelation 17: 14). This sounds absolutely impossible. How will it be possible to deceive people into actually fighting against Yahshua the Messiah? The answer is simply, they will be led to do so in the name of religion. Very few people realize how the whole world has been deceived to accept a false gospel about a Messiah ‘who came to die so that people could continue to stay just like they are, without any payback’, since their savior paid once for all their Torah breaking. Soon, according to the prophecies of your Scriptures, a great ‘false-prophet’  is going to appear who will perform miracles and wonders which will sweep millions into one vast age-old religious system. In fact Yahshua our Messiah prophesied in Matthew 24: 4, 5 & 24 that in the ‘last days’, false Messiahs and false prophets would arise who would show great signs and wonders, and deceive many. We read Rav Shaul’s warning in this regard from 2 Thessalonians 2: 2 – 4 and 8 & 9, as follows: ‘That you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of YHVH has come. (3) Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, (4) who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of Elohim, displaying himself as being Elohim. (8) And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Master will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; (9) that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.’ Verse 9 tells us that this man of sin will perform great miracles by the power of Satan in order to deceive people. Satan, who has always desired to be Elohim, ruling over all, will for a brief period of time attempt to palm himself off as Elohim by placing his human instrument in a supreme religious office on earth. This man will be a performer of miracles – supposed ‘proofs’ that he is Elohim. Millions will be deluded by his mighty signs –‘lying wonders’. He will be worshipped as the ‘very Elohim’ and will apply Elohim’s own titles to Himself.

The term ‘lying wonder’ does not necessarily mean that the wonder itself is a lie. The miracle may be real enough, but will cause those who see the miracle to believe a lie – that is, causes them to believe that the agent of Satan the devil is Elohim!  This is similar to what happened in Job 1: 12 & 16 where people mistook satanically caused fire from heaven to be ‘the fire of Elohim’. We see from Revelation 19: 20 that a ‘false prophet’ will deceive those who have the ‘mark of the beast’ and who worship the ‘image of the beast’. We see that the works of the end-time false prophet or ‘man of sin’ compare closely with that of the work of the religious system pictured in Revelation 13: 11 – 17. Both perform miracles to deceive people. Both have a close working relationship with the beast and its ‘mark’. It is clear that the great ‘false prophet’ to come will be of the same religious system! Elohim will judge and condemn the religious political system of the coming Roman Empire, as Revelation 17: 5 & 6 and 18: 1 - 5, in this way: ‘And upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (6) And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Yahshua. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. (18: 1) After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. (2) And he cried out with a mighty voice saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. (3) ‘For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” (4) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues;  (5) for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and Elohim has remembered her iniquities.”’

Daniel prophesied in Daniel 7: 11 – 14 that this final beast and its religious ‘little horn’ will be completely destroyed when Messiah’s kingdom will be established, saying: “Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. (13) As for the rest of the beasts their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. (14) I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. (15)  And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Both the political and religious parts of the modern Roman Empire will suddenly be destroyed and unlike the earlier empires which temporarily survived their fall in a subordinate status.

In Isaiah 13: 1, 9 – 13, 19 Isaiah refers not only to the ancient city of Babylon on the Euphrates, but to the Babylon that will exist in the ‘day of YHVH’, when He will intervene in human affairs, in this way: ‘The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. (9) Behold, the day of YHVH is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it. (10) For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. (11) Thus I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. (12) I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. (13) Therefore I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of YHVH of hosts in the day of His burning anger.  (19) And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when Elohim overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.’  The coming destruction of modern Babylon will be so complete that the wicked will never rise again, nor fill the face of the world with cities, as is confirmed in Isaiah 14: 21 & 22, as follows: ‘Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter because of the iniquity of their fathers. They must not arise and take possession of the earth and fill the face of the world with cities. (22) “And I will rise up against them, declares YHVH of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares YHVH.’   Elohim will use the modern Medes to finally destroy modern day Babylon as witnessed in Isaiah 21: 2 & 9, in this way: ‘A harsh vision has been shown to me; the treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media; I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.  (9) Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs. And one answered and said. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”’ A second witness comes from Jeremiah 51: 11, as follows:  ‘Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! YHVH has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of YHVH, vengeance  for His temple.’  The modern Medes will come out of Russia, where they settled after they left ancient Media.

We read Elohim’s warning in Revelation 18: 4 where Elohim warns us today, saying:  If we come out of the religious system of modern Babylon and her spiritual daughters, and turn to YHVH our Elohim, He will protect us through the days of trouble that lie ahead, as we read from Revelation 12: 14 – 16, as follows: ‘And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (15) And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. (16) And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.’

Elohim has prophesied throughout His word of a rising religious-political power in Europe which will amaze this world. What very few people realize is that about ninety percent of all Scriptural prophecy refers to our generation. All the prophets prophesied about things that will occur in our time. We are living in the ‘time of the end’ or ‘the last days’. Elohim has now opened many of these prophecies to your understanding. The question is: What are we going to do about it? Are we going to be deceived to bear ‘the mark of the beast’, or are we going to continue to serve YHVH, even if we have to die doing so? Think carefully about it