Rome—A Key to Prophecy

 

  • Around 1520, Luther wrote to his friend Spalatin:

"I am practically cornered, and can hardly doubt any more, that the Pope is really the Antichrist, whom the world expects according to a general belief, because everything so excactly corresponds to the way of life, action, words, and commandments." (Luther, Schriften, vol. 21a, col. 234; translated in Waddington's 'History of the Reformation', vol. 1)

  • the reformers believed the prophecy of the AntiChrist was fulfilled in Papacy
  • Known as Historicism, this was the overwhelming view of most non-Catholic Christians prior to 1900
  • Historicism is the interpretative method that assumes prophecy is fulfilled continuously thoughout history, until our Lord returns
  • However, expectations of the imminent return of Christ were dissappointed
  • Date settings by some radicals failed
  • Other views of prophecy began to arise
  • Futurism and preterism both seriously flawed

Historicist/Continuist View Revisited

 

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Examples of Historicist Interpretation in Daniel

 

  • Dan 2:31-35 Statue
  • Interpretation: Dan 2:36-45

 

  • Dan 7:2-14 Four beasts, Dan 8:3-12 – Ram, Goat
  • Dan 7:16-27 Historicist interpretation by an angel, 8:16-26

 

è Daniel sets the precedent for Historicist interpretation

 

Examples of Fulfilled Prophecy to Date

 (Sources: Chris Curry & David Heinzman, E.B. Elliot)

 

Rev 6:1-6

First Seal – White Horse - Rev: The Roman Empire at it's peak circa 180 ad also known as the "Early Empire".

Second Sea – Red Horse: During the "Terrible Third Century", civil war followed by the Germanic invasions began that collapsed the Pagan Empire (476 ad) and ravished Europe as well as the growing Islamic threat in the Middle East and North Africa. War was becoming a way of life for the "Romans" up through the tenth century and beyond.

Third Seal – Black Horse: War caused FEUDALISM (circa 1000 ad) to be instituted and adopted throughout the Empire which made oppressive taxes on the poor while supporting the lurid greed of the military leaders and nobility, not to mention the now-in-power Holy Roman Church.

Fourth Seal – Pale Horse: The Black Death spread to Europe by 1348 ad and wiped out 25-50% of the population and caused all sorts of socio-political upheavals lasting in episodes and epidemics into the 17th century.

Fifth Seal – Martyrs under Altar: The Protestant Reformation caused revolution culminating in the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire circa 1800 and released the Bible to the world, but, not without adding multitudes of martyrs to the already astounding list of Christians slain for Christ.

Sixth Seal – Earthquake, blackness, stars fell—Rev 6:12-17 - Note similarites to Mt 24:29-31 (read these scriptures)

è Most historicists put the fulfillment in the past.  Due to the similarity in language to Mt 24, it is probably future.

Sometime in the present or near future the Sign of the Son of Man will appear as the nations begin to collapse on themselves with fear and many more will recognize the end is upon us.

Seventh Seal:
Rev 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

 

Trumpets:

 

(From Elliot)

 

Trumpets 1-4 signal the fall of the Western Empire. (Rev 8:7-12)

Trumpet 1 - Gothic invasions of Alaric who overran the western empire burning the vegetation.

Trumpet 2 - Gothic invasions of Genseric who invaded via sea destroying the Roman ships

Trumpet 3 - Gothic invasions of Attila who came via the rivers and waterways pillaging

Trumpet 4 - The western empire collapses, and the line of rulers and emperors is broken

Trumpets 5 and 6 signal the collapse of the Eastern Empire. 

 

Trumpet 5 (Rev 9:1) - Signals the rise of Islam.  They were not to hurt 'any green thing' and so the Muslim armies were under strict orders to respect the land and NOT burn the vegetation.  This was, up to this point in history, foreign to how invading armies acted during war.  Their faces were 'faces like men' - that it, they all had beards....  and 'hair like women'... they had long hair which was an unusual feature up until this time.  They had 'as it were, crowns of gold'.  The Muslim invading armies of this time were distinguished by their golden turbans.  They were to last five months - or according to historicist reckoning 150 years - and thus the first Muslim invasions lasted exactly 150 years, after which they were stopped at Baghdad by the Euphrates.

 

Trumpet 6 (Rev 9:13) - Signals the invasions of Turks.  The previous armies were stopped at the Euphrates where, after a period they regrouped.  And so according to the vision, the four angels who were 'bound at the Euphrates were once again to be unleashed.  These had 'breastplates of fire, jacinth, and brimstone' - that is red, yellow, and blue - and thus the Turkish breastplates bore precisely these three colors.  The 'heads of the horses were as lions heads from which issued fire and smoke and brimstone'.  The Turkish armies were the first to use gunpowder in battle.  Their cannons mouths were in the shape of - guess what? - Lions heads, out of which issued the smoke from the gunpowder.

 

But the most significant fact of this prophecy is the time element given 'an hour, a day, a month, and a year'.  Which aggregated, Elliot shows to be 396 years and 118 days.  It was exactly this amount of time from the time the Turks were unleashed at the Euphrates river, until the fall of Constantinople and the collapse of the eastern empire (1057 until 1453)

 

Trumpet 7 – Rev 11:15, Mt 24:31, 1Cor 15:32, 1Th 4:16 – the return of Christ and the resurrection of the saints – Still future.

 

Rome in Prophecy

Dan 2:32-35

 

  • Legs of iron/feet of iron and clay – which power? History shows this is Rome.
  • Notice the final iron power, in the form of the feet of clay and iron, exists right until the statue is destroyed, by a “stone cut out of a mountain”, a reference to Jesus Christ, in Kingly power.

 

Dan 7:1-14

 

  • Note the fourth beast, Rome, is alive until the Court takes its seat, and it is judged and destroyed (v11).  The rulership is taken away from all the other beasts (v12), and given to the “Son of Man”, Jesus Christ (v.13)
  •  

èRome, in some form, would exist when Christ returns.

 

What did the early Christians expect?

 

  • Iranaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyril and Chrysotom believed that Antichrist would arise when pagan Rome was conquered and divided into 10 kingdoms.

 

Testimony of Tertullian 145-220 A.D.

"Again, in the second epistle he [Paul] addresses them with even greater earnestness: ‘For that day shall not come, unless indeed there first come a falling away,’ he means indeed of this present empire, ‘and that man of sin be revealed,’ that is to say, Antichrist, ‘the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God…And now ye know what detaineth, that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hinders must hinder, until he be taken out of the way.’ What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon its own ruins?" (Of the Resurrection of the Flesh) 

What happened in history?

 

  • The Papacy arose with Constantine in the 4th century
  • The pagan Roman power fell to invading Germanic kingdoms in the 5th century
  • The Vandals, Ostrogoths and Heruli all opposed the creed of the Catholic Church (they were Arian in belief).  They were conquered and absorbed (three horns uprooted).  This left Papacy as the supreme power.
  • Thus Pagan Rome was transformed into the Holy Roman Empire.  Satan would continue his rule through this Antichristian power.
  • Papal Rome, according to Catholic sources, reigned for twelve and one-half centuries.  It lost its power beginning with the French revolution in 1792.  In 1799 Napolean arrested the Pope and threw him in jail where he died.  The Papacy no longer has any secular power, only influential power.
  • How do we square this with the visions in Daniel showing Rome must exist when Christ returns?  If Papal Rome lost power in 1799, how can it still exist today as a major power?
  • Why hasn’t Christ returned yet?
  • èThese questions, along with date-setting contributed to Historicism’s decline in our time.

 

Rev 13:1-8

 

  • Beast rises out of the sea (wicked mankind) – see Dan 7:3
  • It also has 10 horns--note the diadems.
  • It reigns for 42 months (1260 years) – Papacy
  • One of its heads was as slaughtered, but it’s death-stroke was healed (rise of Papacy)
  • Persecutes saints, overcomes them

 

Fulfillment:

 

  • Papacy’s rise to power, its blasphemous and dictatorial reign over monarchies (diadems), and its persecution of true Christians

 

Rev 17:3-5

 

  • Note the differences from the beast of Rev 13:
    • No diadems
    • It is now full of blasphemous names
    • Has a “great harlot” riding it
    • The beast itself is an “eighth king”
    • Arises from the abyss (v.8), not the sea (as in Rev 13)
  • This is not the same as the beast of Rev 13.  This is Rome viewed at a different time.
  • Like viewing family photographs at two different periods
  • But what does this beast represent?
  • How is it also an eighth beast—that was, is not, but will be (relative to John’s time)

 

Historical Fulfillment

 

  • Rome’s 7 heads?
  • Attempting to explain them as 7 individuals (emperors) has proven futile.
  • However, if we look at them as forms of Roman government, then something very interesting happens.
  • The first five were: kings, consuls (2 chief magistrates, elected for one year), dictators, decemvirs (10 Roman magistrates), and military tribunes.  These had come and gone in John’s day.  The current form of government was by Emperors, beginning with Augustus Caesar, the sixth head.  The sixth form of government remained until Rome was destroyed by the Germanic armies.  What replaced it was the 7th head, Papacy
  • Rev 17:11:  “The wild beast that was, but is not, it is also itself an eighth king, but springs from [or is of] the seven.”  This is a puzzle.  What does it mean?
  • Must be a governmental power, and must have existed before John’s time, was not in existence when the vision was given to John, but would exist at some point in the future.  And it must somehow be identified with Rome, to agree with visions in Daniel.  It must be of the seven previous forms of government.  The solution to the eighth king must fit this prophetic lock.
  • Cannot be any individual like Nero, Hitler or Antiochus Epiphanes.  It cannot be the Papacy either.  It cannot be all world powers starting with Egypt (as the JWs believe), nor a future Antichrist individual who sits in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. None of these fit the prophetic lock.  What is the eighth king?

 

Republic of Rome

 

  • Remember the 7 forms of Roman government were: kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, military tribunes, emperors, and Papacy.  What could be of the seven, but not in existence during John’s time, yet come into existence later?
  • Rome began as a monarchy governed by kings.  However, with the rise of the consular form of government, Rome became a republic, that is, governed by elected officials.  It was the first time a major power in history had this form of government.  It remained a republic through the next four forms of government—all before John’s time (it was).
  • During John’s time, Rome was governed by emperors, and ceased to be a republic (was not).  (Julius Caesar).
  • The Republican form of government ceased to exist in any major power during the entire reign of Papacy (was not).
  • In 1792 the French revolution broke out.

 

Paul Johnson, in “A History of Christianity”, p.360 writes:

 

“Some 30,000-40,000 of the non-juring priests became exiles; anything from 2,000 – 5,000 were executed.”

 

“Formal separation of Church and State was decreed in 1795, the country became a Roman Republic in 1798, and Pope Pius VI became a French prisoner, dying at Valence in August 1799; the municipality recorded the death of ‘Jean-Ange Bisaschi, exercising the profession of pontiff’.

 

NOTE: France became a Roman Republic in 1798!  The republican form of government rises again.

 

Ernest Belfort Bax, in Sketches of the French Revolution wrote:

 

“But the work for which the Commune is most famous is the establishment of the new Cultus – the Worship of Reason. The Hébertists, as the party of the Commune were called, and among whom was Anarcharsis Clootz, were rightly convinced that deliverance from the dogmas of supernatural religion was the necessary complement of deliverance from the thraldom of privilege and wealth. In accordance with 18th century habits of thought, and especially French 18th century thought, with its classicism, the idea naturally suggested itself of initiating a worship of Reason as personified, on the ruins of God, Christ and the Virgin.”

 

 

Several celebrations took place involving:

 

  • Dressing up a woman (in one case a prostitute) as the goddess of reason
  • Pagan rituals, music and dancing established throughout France
  • Desecration of churches and church property
  • Instead of church services there were choral concerts in honor of the god of Reason and in praise of Libery, Equality and Fraternity

 

è The revived form of Roman Republican government was founded on anti-Christian and anti-Bible premises.

è The worship of Reason, and praise of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” were instituted.

è The revolutionary spirit quickly spread through Europe, and monarchies, one afte the other, fell to the god of Reason.  Roman Republicanism quickly took their place.

è The eagle, the symbol for Pagan Roman and Holy Roman Empires, was also the symbol for the French, Austrian and German Empires, as well as the United States.  The association with the Rome was understood by the founding fathers.

èAlthough the USA and Europe has strong Christian elements, much of the church now is corrupt and decadent, and is intertwined with politics, commerce and war—in my view apostate.  China alone, in their persecuted house churches, probably has more authentic Christians than the USA and Europe combined.

è The Roman Republic is alive and well in the form of modern Democratic Republics of the West.

 

Review

 

  • Rome began as Pagan Rome, governed by Kings
  • The next 5 forms of Roman government constituted a Roman Repbulic—all before John’s time (was)
  • During John’s time, Rome was governed by emperors. (was not)
  • After the emperors, Rome again appeared as Papacy—the 7th head.  The republican beast still “was not”.
  • Meanwhile, in Europe, revolutions broke out, again reviving the Roman Republic in the form of modern western democracies.  This latest and last Roman Republic will be around until Christ returns.  It was founded on the worship of Reason and the rejection of Christianity.
  • This is a shocking conclusion indeed!  If true, most of professed Christians are completely unaware of the situation.  The common idea that western democracies spread freedom and Christianity is a lie.  We have been decieved.  How so?
  • Western democracies spread a decadent and immoral culture.  Atheism, evolutionism, spiritism, worship of science, worship of reason, drugs, pornography, violence are rampant.  False Christianity has supported wars of greed, milked their flocks for money, and climbed in bed with political powers (the harlot).  She has shamed her Lord and brought disdain and curses upon the church.  True Christianity has been few and far between, and unfortunately, is painted with the same broad brush as the false.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a biblical Christian life in this world.
  • There is also an increasing attack on the bible in our time.  The Jesus Seminar wants to delete large sections of it.  The homosexual lobby wants it declared as hate literature.  Evolution and Science laughs at it as foolish fables.  Higher Criticism questions its truth.  It is removed from our schools, from our laws, from our society at every turn.  There indeed is a war going on—a war against the validity and authenticity of the bible.

 

The Two Witnesses

 

  • Rev 11:1-13
  • V.7 “..when they have finished their witnessing, the wild beast that ascends out of the abyss will make war with them and conquer them and kill them.”
  • Who are they?  I believe they are the Old and New Testaments.  An alternative view is the true church, which preaches the bible under persecution.  The bible canon was just being closed in the fourth century, when Papal Rome was rising to power.  The bible maintained a witness throughout the dark ages, by small groups of true Christians.
  • The Two Witnesses would be warred upon by the beast that arises out of the abyss, which we have shown to be the modern Roman Republic in the form of western democracies.
  • Eventually this beast will kill the two witnesses.  I see a time, not too far off, where the bible will be rendered completely irrelevant in our society.  Perhaps it will be illegal to own one, I’m not sure, but it will be killed, in the sense it will have completely lost its power to pursuade.
  • After 3 ½ days (years), it will be revived.  Somehow, it will be vindicated as from God and true.  Perhaps some startling fulfillment of prophesy will occur.  The nations will become fearful when they recognize that God is about to act.  This will open the way for the return of Christ, the ressurrection, and the judgment.
  • The bible, God’s Word, indeed will be vindicated, and Jesus Christ will return to claim his Bride, and to inaugarate God’s Kingdom over the earth.  The millenium of Godly peace and true worship will begin.
  • Jesus Christ, with his bride, the true Church, will rule this earth (Dan 2:44, 7:27)
  • Rome, in her third and final form, will be thrown into the fire, along with the false prophet who misleads the world (Rev 19:19-21)

 

What Should We Do?

 

è Let us keep separate from the world

è Heed the call to “Get out of her my people!”  - Keep separate from the world and from corrupt churches and corrupt teaching.

è Fearlessly continue to preach the biblical message of peace to our fellow man while we await patiently and with endurance for our Lord’s return.