Re, Richard's 17-Mar-2007 "Revelation 15 Parallel?" post:regarding the request for other thoughts:Consider that the boils were actually the black boils of what is called, "black death", "bubonic plague".And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. Revelation 16:2From:"The death rate from the plague was erratic and ranged from twenty percent to one hundred percent. For the area extending from India to Iceland, it can be assumed that between thirty and thirty-five percent of Europe's population disappeared in the three years between 1347 and 1350. This meant about 20 million deaths out of an estimated population of 70 million (see MAP)."Did these people that died, take upon themselves the mark of the beast? Many of the Reformers taught that the mark of the beast was the sign of T or (tau), standing for tammuz, which was made upon the forehead, and also the golden round wafer, representing the sun, standing for tammuz who was nimrod reincarnated, the sungod, which was placed in the hand to be eaten. And that one of the lying wonders (wonders composed totally of telling a lie) was that this round wafer actually became flesh, as in cannibalism, when it was eaten by the person. And the wine, actually became blood when it was also consumed.Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, II Thessalonians 2:9Other lying wonders included indulgences where entrance into heaven could be bought for others, and eternal hell fire which the head of the beast called down in holy "bulls", (bull is right), upon any king that would not follow his wishes. Which would condemn the king and all his subjects to eternal damnation.And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, Revelation 13:13An interesting point is the mark of the beast, the round yellow sign of the sun, was also forced upon those not belonging to the beast. And in particular those who professed to be Jews could also not engage in most money making trades as recorded from the same lecture29b above:Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries the Church issued laws that isolated the European Jew. Jews could not own Christian servants, could not intermarry and could not build new synagogues. They were, furthermore, barred from weaving, mining, metalworking, shoemaking, baking, milling and carpentry. At the 4th Lateran Council of 1215, Pope Innocent III forced the Jews to wear a yellow badge in the shape of a coin. By the following century, other outcasts such as Muslims and prostitutes were also forced to wear a similar badge. The Inquisition stepped in and in Savoy in September 1348, the first trial was held against the Jews. Their property was confiscated while they remained in jail. Confessions were obtained by torture and eleven Jews were burned at the stake. At Basle in Switzerland (January 9, 1349), several hundred Jews were burned alive in a house specially constructed for this purpose. A decree was passed that ordered that no Jew could settle in Basle for two hundred years. In February 1349, the Jews of Strasburg, numbering two thousand, were taken to the burial ground and burned at the stake en masse. And, in early 1349, at Mainz in Germany, Jews took the initiative and killed two hundred Christians. The Christian revenge was horrible -- 12,000 Jews were slaughtered.When the Black Death subsided in 1351, so too did the persecution of the European Jew. But for a year or two following the appearance of the plague, the massacre of Jews was exceptional in its extent and ferocity. Coupled with the plague, the persecution of the Jews nearly wiped out entire communities. In all, sixty large and 150 smaller Jewish communities were exterminated. Between 1347 and 1351, there were recorded more than 350 massacres which ultimately led to permanent shifts of the Jewish population into Poland and Lithuania. It is a curious comment on human nature that European men and women, already overwhelmed by one of the greatest natural calamities, should seek to rectify the situation with their own atrocities.
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:17Shalom!