1. Contents/Introduction
2. Dual Nature of the Empire
3. Spiritual and Physical Geography
4. Economic Superpower: the New Beast
5. Who are the Two Superpowers of the End?
6. Physical Geography: Which Two Territories?
7. Earth-Beast: False Prophet and Money Master
8. Iron-Clay Kingdom = Sea-Earth Beasts’ Empire
9. The Kingdom shall be Divided
10. Role of Technology
11. What the Future Holds
12. Summary
Appendix 1: Modern Religions, Cultures of Darkness
Appendix 2: How Iron Continues in Today’s World
Appendix 3: Background History – Clay-Earth Bloc
Appendix 4: Eighth Head
Appendix 1. Modern Religions, Cultures of Darkness
A question here about modern cultures: since they are so secular, can we truly say they would leave a “religious” impression upon the world? Do modern industrialized nations practice some form of false religion? Several decades ago, they were, in name at least, Christian monarchies and republics.
But nowadays, that connection with the Divine has devolved into what Revelation 17-18 describes in uncomplimentary terms as resembling the wayward ways and character of a “harlot”. (This was a term applied sometimes to ancient Israel also when she fell away from the worship and ways of her God.)
In fact, history has witnessed a parade of once-loyal “brides” transforming into “harlots”. In the early days of Christianity, it was the opposite; many a “beast”-like nation (or its ruler at least) converted and became a “bride” of Christ. But as time went on, those nations and their rulers slipped into the ways of a “harlot”.
The European nations, for example, were at one time strong bastions of Christianity; then during the Middle Ages, as the Crusades and Inquisition got underway, they transformed into oppressors of other peoples and persecutors of true Christians. With the onset of the Reformation, Europe’s Christianity got back on track to some degree. After this, the Colonial Age came along and European nations again adopted the ways of a “harlot” with their greedy trading practices and exploitation of weaker nations.
Eventually, as the purity of their founding faith continues to deteriorate, nations become susceptible to a false worship system, and then a further transformation takes place: they come full circle and become “beasts” – nations/empires in which the Christian worship system has been outlawed and/or replaced by a different religious system altogether.
In fact, this has already happened. A look through 20th century history reveals that great cultures of Darkness have swept through the modern, industrialized, and Christian regions of the world and could once more sweep away the old landmarks of Christian faith prior to the return of Christ.
For example, in Europe her great Christian heritage has been uprooted by the philosophies of evolution, humanism, atheism over the last 150 years. During the 1930’s and 40’s, such philosophies, especially evolution theory and eugenics, undermined Christian faith and conviction and offered alternative world views that served as the basis for Nazi policies and demagoguery.
Although Nazism is long gone, much of the philosophical heritage that acted as a sort of breeding ground for it has continued to grow and seems now to be paving the way for the rise of a new type of “religion” that Europe now embraces, its own peculiar brand of spiritual Darkness, one we might call secular/scientific Materialism – a religion that’s against religion.
Essentially, this “religion” boils down to the worship of man and the natural world and the things and wealth that it provides. Once faith in God has been overthrown, that’s all there is left. Over the last 50 years or so, we have seen this decline in faith happen bit by bit. More and more in modern Europe, official government policies have gradually prohibited the practice of religious faith, especially Christianity. This has happened, not in great waves of obvious persecution, but in more subtle, hidden ways.
Europe harbors a great “culture of darkness” that is already working to cloud the minds and hearts of untold numbers of people – a culture that will eventually culminate in a new form of religion, one based on Materialism and on receiving the “mark of the beast”.
As for China, what Europe is becoming she is already practising officially. Atheistic communism has not died out there, as seems to have happened in Russia. China is prospering, preparing the infrastructure needed for the rise of Earth’s final empire before the coming of Christ.
Regarding Russia, for several decades as the Soviet Union, her people became conditioned to living under the cloud of atheism and under authoritarian regimes and rulers exalted into the status of demagogues. And it was similar to what existed in all the metallic and Sea-Beast empires of the past: an exaltation of the king into divine status, intended by the forces of spiritual Darkness to usurp the true worship of God.
Although in Russia the pendulum has swung away from atheist communism, it could, under a rising tide of nationalism and Chinese influence, swing back again to a similar brand of spiritual Darkness. Less emphasis maybe on Communism, but the same anti-God outlook and demagoguery could flare up again in the Russia of the future. (See Footnote: news article about rumblings of discontent and future change in Russia.)
It could be similar to what happened in Hitler Germany. After a period of humiliation post World War 1, Germany’s suppressed nationalism rose up again under the charismatic leadership of Adolph Hitler. This man was worshiped as a demagogue while the Church was either driven underground or forced to compromise with the Nazi regime.
Russia also experienced great humiliation – in the 1990’s with the fall of communism and the loss of the Soviet republics. It is easy to imagine that there is a great yearning there to return to her former superpower status… again under the leadership of a charismatic leader.
In the meantime, the supposed bastion of Christianity – America – has become a “harlot” (as outlined in Revelation 17-18) and a dreadfully poor influence and example in the world at large. As a result God will no longer protect America from her enemies as they rise up to administer the chastisement that she sorely needs.
So, as the China-Russia combine (along with some EU nations) begins to embrace the world in a unified credit system under a new charismatic leader, their conquest will bring on a new culture of Darkness. This will manifest as both the demagoguery surrounding the Antichrist and the devotion given to material prosperity and survival. It’s like an updated version of the ancient worship of Mammon and Emperor worship, adapted to our scientific age without the usual religious trappings associated with idolatry.
But, as we know from the Revelation Book, a new type of initiation rite will come into vogue, that of receiving the “mark of the beast”. (Likely, this will be implanted in or on the skin, a tattoo or microchip, without which it will be very difficult to buy or sell. But this is a big subject, beyond the scope of the present study. See post 7 in Unraveling the Mystery of the Image and post 5 in 666 and the Mark of the Beast for more information.)
So, this modern version of a worship system will spread, not just in Europe and Asia, but over much of the world. It will be a new “religion”. The difference, however, is that it will be a religion that doesn’t look like a religion.
Nevertheless, as happened before in ancient times, the Antichrist will become an object of worship – or more accurately, of political secular adulation – not only in Russia, but in much of the rest of the world; and this will come about mainly through the influence of the False Prophet. His promoting the “image of the beast” causes the world to worship the Antichrist. (Revelation 13:12, 15)
What’s new, however, is that this modern Beast, with the help of the False Prophet, also brings the world’s economic salvation. The Antichrist becomes an almighty benefactor, the source of the world’s material wealth.
The final empire will thus control the world from two directions. Nations will feel the pressure to accept the Antichrist – not only to survive his military campaigns, but also, survive economically. There will be this peculiar interplay of political-military regimes with their big business “managers”.
Now that the modern world has built the necessary infrastructure (of weapons, financial technology, media communication, and so on), this will enable the earth and sea “beasts” to conquer much of the modern world. They will have a large enough platform from which to launch the new form of emperor worship, the one that ties in with the “mark of the beast” system, the modern day version of Mammon-worship.
Revelation 13 pictures this twofold assault on the world in the symbolism of the two “beasts” from the “sea” and the “earth” (who work together). The vision of the “image” in Daniel 2 symbolizes it differently as “iron and clay” (“mixed” together).
Iron: the strong military-republican rule that ruthlessly crushes all opposition, similar to the rule of the ancient Caesar dictators, has re-appeared in modern times – in the form of Communist dictators and the German Fuehrer – and will climax with the rise of the future Antichrist demagogue. Clay: The equally ruthless economic power that forces everyone to ensure his material survival by entering the “mark-number” system.
So the coming religious state of the world: America, Christian in name but departed from the ways of God, has become what is termed in Scripture as a “harlot” and in need of chastisement. China (and perhaps Europe later on) who, as this study has proposed, represent the Earth-Beast are engaged in the worship of Materialism. Russia, as the Sea-Beast, is in the preparation stage to be led by a demagogue before whom much of the world will bow in secular adulation.
Footnote: Rumblings of discontent and future change in Russia
Russia’s rising young communists pose an unexpected new threat to Putin’s grip
By Robyn Dixon, 6 October 6 2021
Russia’s Communist Party has long been known for its compliance, never threatening the Kremlin, in return for state funding and perks. But some young communists and leftist allies did not get that memo. They are starting to behave like a genuine opposition.
….
With a generation of elders fading, a new cohort of outspoken, social-media-savvy communists is rising. They don’t wave red flags or speak in stale ideological jargon; they take issue with Putin’s regime over corruption and poverty…
“This is one of the really powerful tectonic plates in Russian politics that is beginning to shift,” said London-based analyst Mark Galeotti, an honorary professor at the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at University College London.
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