Revelation 13 - Rome rises on American power

We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net

The Roman Catholic Church wants to rule the world

The Mark of the Beast is scary as it represents those whom Satan has fooled and then captured. Satan has done his job well as there is much evil on planet Earth. This gives many the feeling that Satan is in control, and that error cannot be withstood.

But God sets a limit on evil and even uses the effects of evil to achieve His will.

Chapter 13 opens with a lovely, yet simple illustration of the limits that evil cannot go beyond: the sand of the seashore.  The sea (representing the restless masses of people) is mighty in power. Huge storms sweep up devastating waves onto the land, but the sea subsides after a while, and the sea returns to its natural limits. The seashore (representing the righteous) survives and remains to set the limits of the sea. Decent, godly people, by their good works and positive example, set a limit to corruption. It only takes a  little salt, a minority, to stop all the meat from going rotten.

REVELATION 13:1

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns,

and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The beast represents the pagan demonology and brutality of the pagan Roman empire.

The Roman empire was destroyed by the barbarians but the pagan Roman spirit resurrected to life on the ruins of the Roman Empire as the Roman Catholic Church. One historian described the Roman Catholic Church as baptized paganism.

The beast is a religious and political church-denominational power that rose to control the nations' minds and beliefs. The beast also represents the rise of human leadership to control the church until the commandments of man replace the Word of God.

For example. The Bible never asked us to celebrate the Lord's birth.

The Bishop of Rome, Julius I, introduced Christ's mass around AD 350 on 25 December (an unscriptural date) and now the Protestant daughter churches all follow the Catholic mother with their Christmas celebration. This is the only time that the Protestants celebrate a mass.

EZEKIEL 16:44   Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

Roman Catholicism is the mother church. The Protestant daughters came out from her.

The seven heads represent the seven hills that the original city of Rome was built on.

REVELATION 17:9   And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

The Lateran Palace on the Caelian Hill remains the official headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It replaced the temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on the Capitoline Hill that was the headquarters of the pagan Roman Empire.

The ten horns are ten dictators who will give their military power to the end time Pope to enable him to rule the world during the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

They are not crowned kings, but they have power as kings. They are dictators.

REVELATION 17:12   And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

"The name of blasphemy".

Blasphemy is when we contradict Scripture and take away from Scripture.

The churches have taken away the name of God. The Triune God has got no name. You cannot find one name for three People.

But God has got a Name.

EXODUS 20:7   Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain;

As the Father, God was known as Jehovah (which means Lord), and He dwelt above the Jews.

God was then manifest in the flesh when the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Christ Jesus, making Him the "Son of God". We cannot say "God the Son" as the Bible never uses this expression because God is a Spirit - God is not flesh and blood. So, the Man Jesus was not the supernatural God.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

I TIMOTHY 3:16   And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,

The supernatural Spirit that dwelt within the Man Jesus was God. Jesus was thus both Man and God. As the Son of God, Who was a Man, God dwelt with His people. Emmanuel, God with us.

MATTHEW 1:23   Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

JOHN 14:17   Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;

for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

:18   I will not leave you comfortless:

I will come to you.

Today the "Spirit of God" still dwells in the Body of Christ (which means Anointed One) Who sits in Heaven on the mercy seat.

But, in addition,

God can pour out that Spirit into the hearts of men and women who believe.

We call this an anointing or the Holy Ghost baptism. Each believer gets a portion of the Spirit. The whole church taken together over 2000 years has the fullness of God. The Bible never says, "God the Holy Spirit" because the Holy Spirit does not include the Body of Christ, Who sits as our Sacrifice on the mercy seat.

So as the Holy Spirit, God can dwell in the hearts of His people.

God was above the people as the Father. God was with the people as the Son. God is in the people as the Holy Spirit to anoint them.

Thus, the one Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is the Lord Jesus Christ.

His name is Jesus. Lord and Christ are titles. Many humans have the name Jesus too. To know which Jesus we are talking about we must use one or both titles with His name. Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus or Lord Jesus Christ.

To say that God's Name is "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" is wrong.

Three titles cannot replace a Name.

By calling "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" the Name of God, we effectively remove the Name of the Christian God.

God became a Man, and thus the human Name of God is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Water baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Spirit never died nor got buried. God the Father, never died nor got buried. Thus, water baptism has nothing to do with the Father or the Holy Spirit if they are different Persons from Jesus.

Any Name that replaces the Lord Jesus Christ as the Name of God is a grave error. As such it is blasphemy.

REVELATION 17:15

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The seashore is important in Scripture. It is the dividing line between land and sea.

The sea represents the unrighteous, restless multitudes of people who shift with the changing currents of circumstances and human opinions. The sand on the seashore was chipped off rocks at some stage by the forces of nature. Christ, the Word, is our Rock. Believers are born again of Him and remain part of His Word (Scripture).

I CORINTHIANS 10:4

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them:

and that Rock was Christ.

Thus, the sand on the seashore represents the righteous. The seashore represents the limits of the sea. God will only allow the sea (the unrighteous) to go so far in their attempts to undermine and destroy the righteous (the seashore sand). The righteous represent the limits that evil cannot go past. Your stand for the Bible does more to hold back error than what you are aware of. Early Christians were eaten by lions in the Colosseum in Rome. But for everyone that died, many pagans were so astonished by their courage and faith that they accepted the Lord Jesus. Eventually, this brutal spectacle was stopped. Another branch of evil had reached its limit. But these shocking murders had brought many pagans to salvation. A thief had to be crucified next to Jesus before he accepted salvation.

Suffering in the flesh is often the only way to get us self-centred, luxury-loving, arrogant, self-satisfied, and complacent human beings to look beyond ourselves and see our need for a Saviour.

God uses evil to jolt us awake, but He limits the spread of this evil so that it does not destroy everyone.

JOB 26:10

He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.

This Earth has its limits. An Earth day is 24 hours. Light and darkness cut each other off so that each has a limited time. The land is cut off by the sea. Life is cut off by death.

Ultimately light will replace darkness, and the sea will disappear.

Death, the sea, and dark nights are symbols of what goes wrong on Earth. These are essential for our growth. Hardship, grief, sin, error, deception, worldliness, etc. are essential to test us, strengthen us, punish us, and give us an adversary to struggle against.

Struggle is the law of growth.

Defeat and difficulty are the hammer and anvil, where our character is hammered out and made strong. When we compromise with error, we simply become wishy-washy great Tribulation fodder.

So, all that is wrong is simply an instrument that is there for a while to mould us or hammer us into the shape that God wants from our lives, not what we want from our lives.

REVELATION 21:1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

REVELATION 21:25

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day:

for there shall be no night there.

The time is coming when there will be no more sea and no more darkness.

Error and evil are temporary until they have served their purpose.

JOB 14:5

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

No one can go beyond the limits that God has set for them. Fallen human nature needs to be cut off from its natural greed and selfishness.

Each of us must learn to cope with the limits that God has set for us.

These limits are essential for our survival.

Each cell in our body is limited in terms of its size and function. Cancer is simply a cell that has rebelled against its limits, and it grows for the sake of growing. God uses evil and error to mould His church through seven different ages, but eventually, evil will be done away with. Until then, the Church must contend with and oppose the error of its age.

JEREMIAH 5:22

Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence,

which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree,

that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

But equally, good sets a limit to evil. Evil will never eradicate the truth. Believers can be dispersed, but the truth will spread due to their dispersion. Believers can even degenerate, but new ones will arise in other places. Salt limits the spread of decay. To save His children, God limits the spread and power of evil. Evil can only flow down the channels that God allows. So far, and no further.

(The Mongol horde overran Russia and eastern Europe under their military genius and general Tsubodai. The Hungarian army was eliminated. Western Europe was at their mercy because the Pope was wasting his efforts on fighting the Holy Roman Emperor, who was German. Europe had no general who could match Tsubodai. Then far away in Mongolia, the Mongol Khan Ogedei, the third son of Genghis Khan, died from excessive drinking after a brief reign of only 12 years. His eldest son Guyuk who was with Tsubodai and the Mongol army in Europe, then took the whole army back from Europe to Mongolia to participate in the election of a new Khan. Guyuk was elected as the new Khan to replace his father. Helpless Europe was saved by one man’s death that occurred far away from Europe, just at that critical moment. Thus, God pulls strings so that His will triumphs)

ISAIAH 45:7

I form the light, and create darkness:

I make peace, and create evil:

I the LORD do all these things.

AMOS 3:6

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?

shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

To create depth in a picture, an artist uses light colours for highlights and dark colours for shadows. Light and dark are totally under the control of the artist. Each light and dark colour can only occupy a certain specific portion of the picture.

To create depth of character in us, God has to paint across our lives with light and dark events. So good and evil people are used by Him to mould us and test us. Both types are totally under His control.

AMOS 3:7

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

The Bible is a Book of Prophecies, giving us clues to future events.

Revelation Chapter 13 will reveal the remorseless rise of two great powers, the Roman Catholic Church and the United States of America.

Both these powers play a key role in bringing the world into subjection to the Mark of the Beast.

I THESSALONIANS 2:6

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

God does not eradicate evil. At times He holds back His power to allow evil to develop. The evil that we have to face will be the test of our faith.

Evil will always be something that disagrees with what is written in the Bible.

Can we stay with what is written?

If we cannot, then it simply reveals that we are influenced by the flow of evil and are deluding ourselves when we say that we serve God if we do so in a way that contradicts Scripture.

II THESSALONIANS 2:7

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

The word “let” means to “prevent”.

God has not stopped evil. People will offer you a drink or a cigarette. People will swear in your presence. Then God sees what you do in response. If you bow down to the social pressure of wanting to be popular and join in with them, it simply means that you do not believe in God as deeply as you think you do

But God limits evil. God will not allow evil to wipe out the truth from planet Earth.

There will always be a remnant of true believers, even if they are isolated and rejected.

So, God is limiting the effects of evil so that the righteous can survive.

“Only he (Christ) who now letteth (prevents the full force of evil) will let, until he be taken out of the way.”

At the Second Coming of Jesus when He takes His Bride to Heaven, and the world goes into the 3.5 years of great Tribulation time when Christ’s Holy Spirit is no longer on Earth.

But when Christ catches away the Church to take them to the Wedding Supper in Heaven, then the full flood of evil will burst forth because the Holy Spirit will be removed from the Earth. If you think evil is bad now, just wait till the time of great Tribulation starts.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work”.

The denominational error was already at work in the early church. Sectarianism.

I CORINTHIANS 1:12

Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

I CORINTHIANS 1:13

Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

We are not content to be Christians. We feel that we have to take on some human opinion to be part of some denomination. We want to carry some human tags to identify with.

Denominations are the mystery of iniquity that change Scripture to fit in with human thinking.

Looking up to human leaders.

PROVERBS 24:23
These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.

JAMES 2:1
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

You can only trust what is written in Scripture.

II THESSALONIANS 2:8

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Jesus will finally destroy the man of sin who will be the last Pope together with his followers at Armageddon. Don’t you be one of them.

The mother denomination is the Roman Catholic Church. Her Protestant daughters are going back to her. Together, this ecumenical move will create the political-religious-big money organization that will be taken over by the antichrist spirit of the man of sin. If people stayed with what was written in the Bible, the antichrist spirit would never be able to infiltrate and take over the non-Catholic churches when he usurps the Papacy. But Pope, Cardinal, archbishop, Trinity, God the Son, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Monday, etc. are all unscriptural - so who cares about other unscriptural issues. Lack of Scripture opens the door to the flood tide of evil waiting to pour out over the Earth during great Tribulation.

II THESSALONIANS 2:9

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

The antichrist spirits are just too subtle for us. If you do not stay with the Bible just the way it is written, the Devil will find a subtle point to fool you. The Scripture is the only shield that we have to protect us from his subtle cunning.

Consequently, we have to choose. Be part of the vast majority, the restless sea, or be part of the minority, the clean sea sand that only believes what is written.

Calling 3 titles a name is blasphemy since it is a lie

REVELATION 13:1

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns,

and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

60-1208 THE THYATIREAN CHURCH AGE
.. and blasphemed his name, (Took "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" instead of the "Lord Jesus Christ." See.)

CHURCH AGES BOOK

He blasphemed the Name of God--changing that Name to titles and refusing to do otherwise.

Seven heads.

REVELATION 17:9

The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

A woman symbolizes a church because the true church is called the Bride of Christ.

Rome is known as the City of Seven Hills. And the Roman Catholic Church dominates the city of Rome. A place became a city when a wall was built around it. The next map shows the wall (in red) that was first built around seven hills to form the city of Rome.

Romulus set up a toll system where a trade route crossed the Tiber river. His followers built their houses on the surrounding hills. When they had built on 7 hills, they built a protective wall around the 7 hills. Any buildings that had a protective wall around them was known as a city.

The City of Seven Hills would flourish and become known as the city of Rome.

The words "seven mountains" raises a deeper spiritual issue.

Daniel saw a Gentile image whose feet of clay and iron were hit by a stone.

The image crumpled to dust and the stone became a big mountain that rose up.

The mountain represented the Kingdom of God which will be set up for 1000 years of peace with Jesus ruling as King. So a mountain represents a kingdom.

Matthew Chapter 13 has 7 parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.

These represent the 7 church ages. Each parable of the kingdom represents a church age. Thus these 7 kingdom parables represent 7 mountains that the true church had to climb. Each church age was part of the kingdom of God and thus a spiritual mountain that had to be climbed subject to the difficulties and errors of each age.

There is only one enemy of truth that has been in existence for all 7 church ages and that is the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, this church has dwelled on all seven mountains that cover a time span of about 2000 years.

Ten horns: Ten dictators with great military power.

A horn represents the power of a beast. When the final Pope rules, these ten dictators will provide the Catholic Church with their military might.

They will have their brief hour of power in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

REVELATION 17:13

These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

They are probably very different countries (possibly countries like Russia, Iran, Turkey, and China), but they unite under the final Pope's leadership, giving him their military power. He has religious control from a one-man dictatorship as Pope of the combined churches and political control because Roman Catholics are so widespread amongst the nations. The modern ecumenical move is pulling the Protestants and other non-Catholics, who are so easily fooled with Catholic beliefs and traditions, into the Catholic fold to give even more support to the end-time antichrist spirit. The man of sin will basically be unstoppable, but he is also the son of perdition or the child of hell.

So hell follows him.

JOHN 17:12   While I was with them [the 12 apostles] in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition [the apostle Judas Iscariot]; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Interesting. The son of perdition was one of the original 12 apostles, trained to be a church leader.

REVELATION 6:8   And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was

Death,

and Hell followed with him.

And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

One-quarter of the world is 2 billion killed in 3.5 years. A death rate of 11 million per week.

Hitler's awful Holocaust would be over in one week. That is unimaginable violence and terror.

The Holy Ghost is Life. When the Holy Ghost Life leaves to catch up the Bride to Heaven, then Death enters.

“And upon his heads the name of blasphemy”.

The Roman church, dominating the City of Seven Hills has made a serious mistake when it comes to the Name of God. “Blasphemy” is a very harsh word. We need to be careful here.

Pagans invented the concept of Trinity. One God in three Persons. The Roman Catholic mother church adopted this belief from the pagans. The Protestant daughters took over this belief from the Catholics. The word Trinity was always unscriptural.

This is one of the Egyptian trinities.

Three persons in their godhead. Each person had a name. Two males and a female.

The Hindu trinity of three males. Three heads on one neck. Each person had a name.

The picture below is the Catholic Trinity that is copied by the Protestants.

The Trinity God has got no Name.

The Holy Ghost has no name in Scripture. "God the Holy Ghost" is never written in the Bible.

"God the Father" is never mentioned in the Old Testament, only in the New Testament. Why? Trinitarians cannot explain.

The name "Jehovah" in the Old Testament is never mentioned in the New Testament.

Thus there are not three New Testament names for the so-called three Persons of the Godhead. Only Jesus has a name.

The Bible never says "God the Son".

Copying a Triune God from the pagans is thus full of difficulties and dumbs us down.

The Bible speaks of 'God the Father' but never says 'God the Son', or 'God the Holy Spirit'. Trinitarians cannot explain why. The expressions like 'First Person of the Godhead', 'Second Person of the Godhead', and 'Third Person of the Godhead' are completely unscriptural. Placing Christ into the Godhead as the Second Person is all wrong because Paul places the fullness of the Godhead into Christ.

God the Father is never mentioned in the Old Testament.

God had no Son in Whom He could dwell until Jesus was born. Thus, Jesus was the Son of God in Whom the fullness of God the Father dwelled and manifested Himself.

COLOSSIANS 2:8-9

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Trinity very neatly removes the Name of God.

The Father, the eternal Spirit from the Old Testament, has many Titles to describe His various attributes.  He is called JHVH or YHWH, but these words cannot be pronounced and thus are not effective names. A name is something that can be spoken. Humans added in vowels to say  Jehovah or Yahweh, but these are man-made titles that mean Lord. The Son has a Name, Jesus.

The Holy Spirit has no Name in the Bible.

The Holy Spirit is claimed to be a separate Person but has no Bible name. Not very convincing.

Now try to find One Name for all Three People. It is not possible. So, the Christian God ends up without a Name. To keep the idea of Trinity alive, the church systems replace the Name of God with three Titles: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  There is nothing wrong with these three titles, but it is a bad and dangerous mistake to say that these three titles are a Name.

Once God took on the Name of Jesus in the Book of Matthew, then the Bible never again ever mentions the word JHVH (which people call Jehovah).

When He was called JHVH (or Jehovah) in the Old Testament, then the Old Testament never ever mentioned the Name of Jesus.

Consequently, the Jehovah (JHVH) of the Old Testament became the Jesus of the New Testament.

REVELATION 13:2

And the beast which 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.

We now go into the Old Testament. Daniel saw the rise of four great world empires. The first three are mentioned here. They all ruled for a while and then were defeated and went off the world’s stage. The fourth beast was pagan Rome, but when the barbarians defeated pagan Rome, Rome “rose from the dead” as the Roman Catholic church, and as such, the spirit of Rome still rules. The legs of iron in Daniel’s image were the eastern and western Roman empires.

This solid iron changed into bits of iron mixed with clay in the feet of the image. The spirit of pagan Rome carried over into the Roman Catholic church whose denominational religion is really just baptized paganism.

But the Roman Catholic Church would combine pagan beliefs and political power with great wealth into a hybrid religion that has a veneer of Christianity. But people love unscriptural ideas and the Roman Pope would gain great worldwide authority with his claim to be sitting in the seat of Peter

Salvation belonged to the Jews in the Old Testament, not the Gentiles, until it "crossed over" into the feet of the image, that represent the seven church ages.

A second vision by Daniel saw those four Gentile empires as vicious beasts.

Babylon was the lion. According to them, Eagle wings lifted it up to heaven to hear from the gods.

As a result, the Babylonian priesthood was rated as the most authentic pagan priesthood and the Babylonian Mysteries were held in great esteem by the pagans.

“The mouth of a lion”.  But pagan Rome and the Roman church were influenced by the first three beasts, the first three world empires. Babylon was the lion. The mysteries of Babylon, like the Trinity, came from Babylon to Pergamos and then moved on to Rome.

The Babylonian high priest was called Pontiff. The Pope is still called Pontiff.  The Pope still preaches Trinity. Preaching mysteries that cannot be clearly understood is the key to getting people away from Scripture and binding them into a religious organization. Clever catchwords like Trinity and Christmas and Christmas trees will fascinate the people and stop them from realizing that these words are not even in the Bible.

Babylon was also symbolized as the head of gold. Money and wealth are essential if error is to be established so that it can endure down the ages. Grabbing for gold symbolizes the financial greed of the modern church systems.

“The feet of a bear”.  The Persian empire was the first worldwide empire. To rule it they had to have a fixed organizational structure with different ranks of rulers, governors, and managers, etc. To build up a big church organization one needed a religious hierarchy of Pope, Cardinals, Metropolitans, Archbishops, etc. None of these titles is Scriptural. Each church had to be controlled by a priest who was loyal to the Pope. One-man rule thus operated in the individual churches as well.

A big religious organization will keep itself going and cannot really be stopped by any one person. Even if many people oppose it, the organization just keeps rolling on. So, a large denomination is essential to keep error alive. The bigger the better.

Large numbers are an essential ingredient for error to survive.

Notice the modern-day churches how they base their success by pointing to their income and large membership. We are “rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing”.

“Beast which I saw was like unto a leopard”.  Leopards are quick and agile. This represents the Greeks. Mentally agile and excellent debaters, as they originated philosophy and basic education such as mathematics. Bible schools or seminaries became a quick way of trapping young converts into the thinking patterns of the denomination. They can only pass if they learn what they are taught. By the time they are qualified, they are established in the specific denominational doctrines and will spend the rest of their lives spreading their denomination’s beliefs.  Once a person has learned something, they are very reluctant to accept that they could be wrong. Can a leopard change its spots?

Churches have become experts at evading the written Scriptures. They change or ignore any Scripture that disagrees with them.

Ask a question. In Genesis Chapter 1, why did God say that the "evening and the morning were the first day"?

Why is night and afternoon left out?

Church-goers have no clue so they just ignore it as a detail. It is not important according to them.

Then why does God repeat this trivial, unimportant detail six times on the first page of the Bible? Because He says the same thing about each day.

If He repeats it six times then it is important. If we do not understand what it means then we are very ignorant and very foolish to ignore it. The foolish virgins in Matthew 25 never made it to the Supper that was prepared for them, when the Lord comes.

The foolish virgins, though saved, are not interested in finding out deeper Bible issues as they are complacently fast asleep in their churches according to the parable of Matthew 25.

MATTHEW 25:5

“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”

LUKE 18:8
Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

God is not impressed with our Bible ignorance.

“And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

From a human viewpoint, the Catholic church is a huge success. She has much power and influence. But Scripture says that the power behind this colossal church organization is the Devil.

Constantine became Roman emperor in AD 312. He then gave the Bishop of Rome the beautiful Lateran Palace as his seat of authority over the other churches. This palace was built on the Caelian hill, one of the original seven hills of Rome. What a boost to the prestige of the Roman Bishop. This is still registered as the official seat or headquarters of the Roman church, even though more than a thousand years later, they moved over the Tiber River into the magnificent Vatican buildings. At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, Constantine gave his blessing to the Catholic Trinity. His boosting of the Bishop of Rome was further amplified by the huge amount of wealth that Constantine gave to the Bishop of Rome. When Constantine moved East to Constantinople around AD 330, he left the Bishop of Rome as his strong man in the West. The papacy was fast gaining political power. In AD 378  the Eastern Emperor Valens and 20,000 Roman soldiers were killed by the Goths and Huns at the Battle of Adrianople.

Then Western Roman Emperor offered Theodosius the position of Eastern Emperor. Theodosius claimed, as a Christian, that he could not accept the title of Pontiff (high priest of the Babylonian mysteries) which had always been attached to the Roman Emperor since the days of Julius Caesar.  Theodosius called Damasus, the Bishop of Rome, by the title of Pontifex or Pontiff. Damasus won the election to the office of Bishop of Rome by murdering about 300 of his opponent's followers. Damasus was the uncle of emperor Theodosius, which also gave him a lot of political protection.

In AD 390 emperor Theodosius granted  Bishop Ambrose to have spiritual power and authority over the Roman Emperor. Theodosius did this to compensate for his massacre of 7,000 people in Thessalonica.  Theodosius then began to gain popularity with the Pope by persecuting pagans and extended this to persecuting heretics, anyone who opposed Catholicism. By about AD 450 Roman Pope Leo I claimed the right to kill heretics or Christians who disagreed with the Catholic church. The papacy was fast picking up great authority.

Roman Empire died but resurrected as the Roman church

REVELATION 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.

Barbarian kings tended to live brutal and short-lived lives. They admired the continuity of the Roman church that had survived for close to 500 years. Around AD 400 Bishop Siricius of Rome, who was the 38^th Bishop of Rome, became known as the Pope, and as the centuries went by the Bishops of Rome became insistent that only they could claim the title of Pope.  By AD 450 Pope Leo 1 demanded to be regarded as Pontiff, high priest of the Babylonian mysteries. This gave him great prestige amongst the pagan barbarians. By letting the Bishop of Rome, also now called the Pope, crown them as kings, the barbarian kings could claim far more legitimacy for their descendants to follow them as king. Previously, whoever murdered them became king. So, the Pope rose in influence and power amongst the barbarians. As the Roman Empire disintegrated, the Popes helped the people tremendously with charity, and eventually they took the lead in governing Rome and the surrounding areas (the papal states). When Pope Leo 3 crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in AD 800, the prestige of the papacy soared. Around 1200, Pope Innocent III claimed authority over the kings in Europe. The papacy had effectively picked up the authority and power that the Emperor of Rome lost when Odoacer deposed him in AD 476.

As a result, the deadly wound, the loss of pagan Rome’s political authority when the Capitoline Hill was deprived of its world-governing power, was healed.  The Popes, living on the Caelian Hill, rose to a position of political and spiritual power amongst the world’s rulers. Today the Pope is still highly influential in world affairs. The biggest-ever gathering of world leaders was at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. The Pope of course has a phenomenal spiritual authority over the 1,4 billion Catholics that are spread around the world. The Vatican is rising to world dominance as a church power (the white horse of religious deception in the First Seal of Revelation Chapter 6) and as a political power (the red horse of the Second Seal) and as a big-money power (the black horse of the Third Seal).
REVELATION 6:1
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
:2   And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Pope Nicholas 1 (858 - 67) was the first Pope to wear a crown to show his equality with kings.

The white horse of religious deception. A bow without an arrow is a bluffer, a deceiver. No Scripture for his arrow.

By 1315 this had become the Tiara or Triple Crown that was worn by Popes until 1963 when the Seven Seals were revealed.

The Pope died and the new Pope was crowned but then took off the Triple Crown as it associated him with the white horse rider.

REVELATION 6:3
 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
:4   And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Emperors and kings made their military power available to defend the Pope. The Popes also built up armies in the Dark Ages.

REVELATION 6:5   And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
:6   And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Religion became Big Business. Selling indulgences, the forgiveness of sins, enabled the Popes to build St Peter's Church and the Sistine Chapel.

Religion, politics, and money are the keys that open the door to world power.

REVELATION 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?

A beast is the symbol of a power. There is a strong urge in people to follow and look up to human leaders. Hero worship of a person is very prevalent. Film idols, singing idols, and sports idols reflect this human tendency.

The strongest spiritual power that humans have built up is the Roman Catholic church. They provide Mary and the saints as objects of devotion. They bow down to the Pope to kiss his ring. The dragon is a symbol of the Devil.

REVELATION 12:9

 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The people on Earth prefer to worship Satan rather than God. They do not want to stay with the Bible just the way it is written. They look for a church that allows them to live as they wish, dress as they wish, and earn their salvation through convenient ways that suit them.

Compromise and comfort in their pursuit of wealth is the main focus that people strive for.

The church that most people flock to is the Catholic church because it has by far the biggest number of followers. This great system can also be represented by its figurehead, the Pope.  Each President of a country, however powerful, only rules his own country. As the church's spiritual head, the Pope has followers in every country so that no leader can compare with him in terms of a globally spread-out power base. No one could declare war on the Pope because Catholics in every country would support him, including those in the country that declared war on him.

The final Pope will rule the world in great Tribulation

REVELATION 13:5

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

The Pope has great worldwide influence but the doctrines of Catholicism that he speaks out on are not based on Scripture. So, God is not impressed.

42 months is three and a half years. This is the length of great Tribulation when the man of sin, who will usurp the position of Pope at the end, dominates and crushes the world in a time of trouble that is so horrible that we cannot actually imagine it. The Holocaust during World War 2, when the Nazis destroyed 6 million Jews and 6 million non-Jews in their awful death camps, was a preview of this terrible time.

These three and a half years will be the height of papal power. It will also be the worst time on planet Earth. For those who preferred an alternative to what God requires in His Word, they will get the full force of the Devil’s wrath and evil nature in the time of great Tribulation. This intense shock will make them realize just how wrong they were.

REVELATION 13:6

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

The Pope does not stay with the Scripture. Contradicting Scripture is not just an error - it is blasphemy. Claiming that the three titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the Name of God is just totally wrong. Claiming that the Vatican with its beautiful buildings is the tabernacle or dwelling place of God is totally wrong. God dwells in the hearts of born-again people. That is His tabernacle.

2,000 years ago God lived in a Temple (the holy place) in Jerusalem (the Holy City) in Palestine (the holy land). Only God is holy. His Presence made these places holy. God left the Temple at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. In AD 70, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. So God does not live there anymore. Now He lives in the hearts of born-again people. So you can find holy people (because when they are born again the Spirit of God is within them), not some holy place. Thus neither the Vatican nor any other building can claim to be God’s tabernacle or dwelling place.

The Pope prays to departed saints. Catholics steadily offer prayers to Mary and various saints. Praying to people who have died is simply spiritualism. This reduces them to the level of witchcraft. It is just a variation of the old pagan ancestor worship. Spiritually it is very wrong.

REVELATION 13:7

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Around the year AD 400 Augustine of Hippo (in North Africa) said it was acceptable to persecute Christians who disagreed with Catholicism. Around AD 450 Pope Leo I interpreted this as permission to kill Christians who opposed Catholicism. So the killing started and grew in intensity as time went on. The Dark Ages and the Counter-Reformation that the Catholics launched after the Reformation of that bravest of reformers, Martin Luther, saw the Catholic church killing off tens of millions of non-Catholic Christians and dissenters.

Now the battle has gone over to the spiritual realm, as the Catholic model of an organized denomination under human rulership has become the model for the Protestant churches as well.

Denominational religion, based on human opinions, is the Mark of the Beast on human minds.

Brainwashing and thought-control is being stressed to get Catholics, Protestants, and other non-Catholics away from what is written in the Bible.

The mark is in the forehead, where the mind is.

The mind becomes brainwashed by unscriptural church error.

REVELATION 13:8

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

At the beginning of time, God wrote certain names into the Bible, the Lamb's Book of Life.

These are the new names that will be revealed to us when we are changed and receive a new body.

This will happen when the seven Thunders utter, shortly after the resurrection of the New Testament saints.

If your new name is written in there then you will respond to what is written in Scripture. By staying with Scripture you become part of the Bride of Christ.

If you prefer to believe something that cannot be proven from Scripture then you can be saved by receiving Christ as your personal Saviour, but you will not be part of the Bride. In the 3.5 years of great Tribulation, you will receive a severe wake-up call and have to die for your faith. One thousand years later you will be resurrected for Judgement Day. If you did not deny your faith in the years of great Tribulation you will be spared but will spend the rest of eternity living outside that great city, New Jerusalem, because that is the new home for the Bride.

We have to hear and obey the Bible

REVELATION 13:9

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

This is the comment that is made at the end of every church age in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.

Hearing what is in Scripture and believing it and obeying it is the most important aspect of modern life.

We have to choose between the Bible or the Denominational religion.

The Word or the world.

Christianity or Churchianity.

The Wedding Feast or the Beast.

Eat or be eaten.        Think of the vultures who feast on all the corpses after Armageddon.

You must choose.

REVELATION 13:10

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Patience because evil has to run its course. The cup of iniquity has to be filled up. We must wait for God’s time.

Faith only comes from hearing God’s Word.

ROMANS 10:17

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The spirit of Catholicism has enslaved so many people into different systems of organized denominational religion. The end thereof is the bottomless pit from which they can never escape.

Babylon, Egypt, and the barbarians got their ideas out of the pit of paganism. Churchianity (which is different from Christianity, in spite of their claims to be the same) is designed to pull us back into that pit of paganism.

Tens of millions of non-Catholics were killed by the Catholic church during and just after the Dark Ages.

Eventually, after usurping the papacy to acquire world domination, the final Pope will abandon the Vatican as he imitates God’s New Jerusalem by moving to Jerusalem. Then the ten dictators who will give this Pope his military power will hate the Catholic church and drop a nuclear bomb on the Vatican City. A nuclear bomb is the ultimate sword invented by man as a weapon of war. Payback time for the Catholic Church which killed tens of millions with the sword in the Dark Ages.

God never forgets the sins that we did not repent of.

This Beast is this great spiritual power of denominational religion that Satan has inspired men to build up so that he could use this church power and the church's financial muscle to rule the world.

During the Middle Ages also called the Dark Ages, while the Pope had religious power and could use the armies of the Catholic kings of Europe to exterminate his Christian opponents, then he could establish his authority.

But around AD 1750 John Wesley in England began to preach holiness and outreach in the great sixth church age of Philadelphia (which means brotherly love). This incredible man’s influence swept far and wide and suddenly the concept of getting the state to kill Christians who disagreed with you was not such an acceptable idea anymore.

By focusing on the Gospel and staying out of politics John Wesley was able to save England from the horrors of the French revolution.