Donald Fields (6
May 2006)
"Islam is Rev 13 beast Part
I"
First, the devil is the entity who gives his "power,
and his throne, and great authority" to the beasts of Rev. 13.
Where is this "throne" located? Daniel and Revelation
refer to geographical locations a lot. We know that two very prominent
areas mentioned throughout the Bible are Israel and Babylon. We know
that God considers Israel as his land. So does the area of the middle
east, aka Babylon, make up the "throne" of Satan?
Rev 2:13 states that Pergamos is located even where Satan's
seat is. I believe that's in modern day Turkey, Islamic middle east
Babylon territory.
Rev. 12:3 describes the devil's authority over a specific
region of the world as a beast with 7 heads, 10 horns, & 7 crowns upon
his heads.
Heads are kingdoms/Empires.
Horns are nations, kings, or individuals with authority,
and more than one nation can make up a kingdom.
Crowns are thrones. There is usually a sucession
of people who wear the crown within the empire/kingdom; the crown passes
along from person to person, but there is only one crown, or seat of justice
and government. That seat can move around, like Islam did from Bagdad
to Syria to Istanbul. As in the case of Medo-Persian, the crown may
sit on the head of one king or another of the combined Empire; i.e Cyrus
the Persian, Darius the Mede.
Which kingdoms are the 7 heads then?
This may be surprizing but I'm not going to include Egypt
or Rome, because they never placed their thrones in this area. This
is the DEVILS area of authoriy, which is not the same as this or that beast
which come from the sea (nations/peoples) or the earth. His territory
is special, and started in antiquity with Nimrod in and around the land
of Shinar, and included the rebellion at Babel and the iniquity of Ninevah.
The Bible is careful to record the events and peoples from this area of
the world, such as Nimrod, Sargon, Tiglath-Pileser, Sennacherib,
Neduchednezzar, so they must be pretty important. This is the exact
area that gave the world the various false deities (probably sourced in
the demons roaming around in Gen 6) mentioned in the Bible and in the myths
that spread from there; the handiwork of Satan.
This is the area of the world from the beginning that
worshipped the moon god, amongst others, who is still worshipped by Islam.
This moon god's name changed with the changing of the kingdoms, but perservered
nevertheless. These empires were all imperialistic and most were
ruthless and violent and all violated or ruled Israel at one time or another.
Mesopotamia (only Akkadia under Sargon became an empire)
Assyria
Babylon
Medo-Persia
Greece
Selucid
Islam
Each of these 7 kingdoms had empires at one point (Selucid
being an offshoot of the Greecian Empire), and thus each one had a crown,
one or a sucession of kings that ruled the empire. 7 crowns.
Out of these empires, there were 10 major identifyable
nations or people groups that could make up the horns and some have combined,
split up, and recombined or have been renamed at various times...(i.e.
some southern Iraqi's are now trying to rename the southern portion of
Iraq as "Sumer", the Babylonians claimed to have mixed with the Sumerians,
the Akkaidians are closely connected to the Assyrians, etc. The point
is, these are the major nations that have mixed up and ruled continuously
in this area from Babel to now.
They all worship idols. Mesopotamia is the birthplace,
or you could say "the mother" of false religions. Or the location
of the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth.
If you care to research the origins of idol worship of
every idol mentioned in the Bible, you will find they were spawned in the
middle east. It is the center of a religious system that has endured
from the days of Nimrod and Babel. God graciously confused the languages
there in order that this system be not united, or else the whole world
would have been in even worse condition. Abram was called out from
this area of the world so that the world would know God instead of idols.
Sumerians
Akkaidians
Babylonians
Hittites
Assyrians
Medes
Persians
Greeks/Selucids
Islamic Arabs
Islamic Turks
This area has always been under the authority of Satan,
and his power there is reflected in the story in Daniel where the angel
was delayed because he was fighting the Prince of Persia. So, there
must be considerable power there. Satan's throne, authority, and
power.
Keep in mind that these heads/horns/crowns belong to
Satan and do not describe other earthly beast kingdoms, those are coming
up. Also, because much of this is complex, ancient, and incomplete history,
it might not be completely accurate, but I believe it's pointing in the
right direction.
At some point in time, Satan was thrown out of heaven
to the earth. Jesus mentions this in Luke 10:18, "I beheld
Satan as lightenting fall from heaven." There are no wasted words
in scripture, Jesus wanted us to note this.
Rev 12 gives us a timeline...
1. Israel is to bring in Jesus
2. Satan has caused a third of the angels to rebel.
3. Jesus is born, crucified, and resurected.
4. Israel is dispersed into the nations.
5. Satan is expelled from heaven.
6. Israel is again said to flee into the wilderness.
So, we can see at the very least, that Satan was expelled
from heaven after Jesus was resurrected to heaven. So when
he does give his throne, authority and power to someone, it is at least
sometime after 33 AD.