Hi John
and Doves,
THE
MARK OF THE SEVENTH BEAST—Revelation 12 and 13
And another sign
appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery
red dragon having seven heads and ten horns,
and seven diadems
on his heads. (Rev. 12:3)
And war broke
out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the
dragon; and the
dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor
was a place found
for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was
cast out, that
serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the
whole world; he was
cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with
him. (Rev. 12:7–9)
Now when the dragon
saw that he had been cast to the
earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to
the male child.
(Rev. 12:13)
And the dragon was
enraged with the woman, and he
went to make war with the rest of her offspring,
who keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ. (Rev.
12:17)
I [John] saw a beast rising
up out of the sea
having seven heads and ten horns, and on his
horns ten crowns,
and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast
which I saw was like
a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear,
and his mouth like
the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his
power, his throne, and great
authority. (Rev. 13:1–2)
Then I saw another
beast coming up out of the earth,
and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
(Rev. 13:11; cf.
16:13 re False Prophet)
He [second
beast] causes all, both
small and great,
rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on
their right hand or on
their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell
except one who has the
mark or the name of the beast, or
the number of his name. (Rev. 13:16–17)
Entity
Index:
The Fiery Dragon is
the Devil and Satan, the primordial heavenly adversary of
God. (Rev. 12:3, 9; 13:2)
The Dragon’s seven heads are 7
successive realms or beast empires
empowered by the dragon.[1]
The Dragon’s ten
horns represent 10 major
powers that arise from his seven beast empires.
The seven diadems
on his heads signify
his realms ruled
by seven princely demons (cf. Dan. 10:13, 20)
Michael is the
Archangel, messenger of God, who is responsible
for Israel.
(Cf. Dan. 12:1)
The Woman birthing the male child is a metaphor
for Spiritual Israel
bringing forth Jesus Christ.
The Woman’s offspring are Jews who
keep the commandments, and Christians
who testify to Jesus.
The beast from the sea is the Dragon’s
agent, and his earthly adversary
of God.
The ten horns are ten
kingdoms/nations that are in league with the
beast. (Rev. 17:12)
The crowns on the ten horns
indicate that the ten ‘end-time’ nation/states
are sovereign and legal.
The blasphemous name equates to the idolatrous
god/s worshipped by
each historical empire.
The False Prophet rules over the seventh
beast empire and promotes
its manifesto and philosophy.
He
causes
those—whose names are NOT written in the Book of Life (Rev.
13:8; 17:8)—to
receive the mark (Rev. 13:16–18), and worship the beast (Rev.
13:8, 12).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mark of the Beast
The
mark is received by
people who commit
to the Beast, who war against the saints. It is a seal or stamp,
showing
the name of the beast,
or the number of his
name. (Rev. 13:16–18)
In
the New
Testament, the Greek word used for mark
in Revelation 13:16–18, is Strong’s No. 5480 charagma;
it refers to a seal
used by various Roman Emperors. It
could be a stamp,
impression,
sculpture, image or engraving of an idol. The seal
signified ownership by
the Emperor over whatever had been stamped with it.
Thus, many of the
beast’s seven manifestations have used a mark
that denotes ownership by the state! Slaves also bore a mark
of ownership. See Human
branding - Wikipedia
The
pre WWI Islamic
Caliphates used a mark similar
to the charagma, which they called a tughra.
It was the
Sultans personal identification mark. The young Christian boys
from the Grecian
and Roman territories (comprising the Byzantine empire), who
were abducted and
trained in Islamic jihad)—following the Muslim invasions from
the 7th
Century onward—and joined the Sultan’s standing army called
‘Janissaries’ (slave
soldiers), also bore tattoo marks showing the number
and symbol (the name)
of their military Company that belonged to the ruling
Caliph or
Sultan.
More recently, within the ranks of the
fanatical Sunni ISIS
jihadists who
fought for their short-lived Caliphate,
the mark they
gladly received, and
wore boldly is the circular Seal of
Muhammad, (viz.
a charagma). It was printed on a white background onto
the black
balaclavas or headbands worn on the
jihadist’s foreheads. It was also
printed on the black jihadist flags
the ISIS militants carried in their hands,
together with the Shahada
printed in Arabic, which is a profession of faith
and
allegiance to Allah
and his Prophet.
Similarly,
the Sunni
terrorists belonging to Hamas’ military arm
the Izz
ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who conducted the
massacre in southern
Israel on October 7, have printed on their green head-bands
the Shahada. Sometimes
the Takbir
is added—i.e., the Arabic words Allahu Akbar— meaning ‘Allah is the
greatest.’ This common slogan is uttered by terrorists
during an attack.
So,
in our
latter-day news feed on T.V. we have an audacious resurgence
of the mark of the
beast, being worn in
plain sight by Sunni
Islamist
terrorists, which shows the Seal
of Muhammad and the Shahada, both
of
which state the name
of the
god they worship, i.e.,
Allah,
as well as the name
of his prophet messenger
Muhammad (c. 570–632).
Thus,
the seventh iteration
of beast empire—empowered
by the Dragon—has appeared in our time, bearing the symbolic seal and name of the beast.
It was granted to him
to make war with the saints
and to overcome them. And authority was given him over
every tribe, tongue
and nation. (Rev. 13:7).
N.B. There are approx. 1.7 billion Sunni
Muslims, and 180–230 million Shia
Muslims in the World.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Seventh Beast
Consequently,
it
is the writer’s bible-based and historical opinion, that the seventh iteration
of the
God-opposing beast
kingdom portrayed
in Revelation 13 must be the Ottoman Empire, because it
conquered Rome (i.e., the
one that is/existed, in John’s day, Rev. 17:10).
NB. Kings must have
kingdoms!
My
reasoning is
this: after Emperor Diocletian divided the Roman Empire
administratively into
two portions in AD 286, Rome’s Imperial Insignia was moved to
Constantinople in
AD 330 during the reign of Constantine the Great. The eastern
city became the
Capital of New Rome, known as the Byzantine Empire, which
lasted for a thousand
years until AD 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Seljuk
Turks.
Subsequently, the victorious Muslim ruler Mehmed II called
himself Kayser-I Rum
(Roman Caesar). In 1457
Constantinople was renamed Istanbul, and the Sunni Ottoman Empire inherited the Roman
estate: ruling over
all the eastern hinterland of the Mediterranean Sea for four
and a half
centuries as the seventh
iteration of
the God-opposing beast kingdoms, until
it too was defeated in 1918 at the end of WWI, and finally
dissolved in
1922–1924. The Ottoman Caliphate ceased to exist!
And I saw one of his
heads as if it had
been mortally wounded, [by the sword] and his deadly
wound was healed.
And all the world marvelled and followed the beast. (Rev.
13:3, 14)
And he was given a
mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to
continue for forty-two
months. (Rev. 13:5)
Whereas
the
seventh iteration/head of the beast had been mortally wounded,
it had apparently
recovered and healed over time, then it received further
authority to continue
to exist for another forty-two months.
Therefore,
it is
no coincidence that ISIS
rose up to
declare a new Caliphate into existence during
Ramadan, on June 29,
2014; it afterward continued to act as a Muslim Caliphate
in the
likeness of the Ottoman Empire, for forty-two
months (above);
until the Caliphate (as such) was bombed
into oblivion by USA, and declared defeated by Russia
and Syria, on Dec. 9,
2017. Interestingly, the date of ISIS’s defeat as a Caliphate
occurred exactly
100 years—to the very day—from when the Turks surrendered
Jerusalem to British
General Allenby on Dec. 9th 1917 without a shot
being fired, which
led to the Ottoman defeat in 2018.
So,
after the
beast’s original seventh head (Muslim Ottoman
Caliphate) was mortally
wounded by the sword of
war during
WWI, and then healed, it was then allowed to continue
for almost forty-two
months as a revived Caliphate (from June 29,
2014 until Dec. 9,
2017), until
it too was driven off its captured and accrued land, and
driven out of its
capital cities: Raqqa
in Syria and Mosul
in Iraq; at which time it ceased
to be a Caliphate!
Note: I am reasonably certain that ISIS’ appearance
and tenure—as a
‘continuation’ of the Ottoman Empire or seventh head,
Caliphate (above)—satisfactorily
explains the scripture relating to the seventh head receiving
its mortal wound,
its demise, and its reappearance as ISIS, to continue for
forty-two months as
an Islamic Caliphate! Thus, the defeat of ISIS
signalled the
ultimate and decisive end
of the tenure of the seventh iteration of the beast as
portrayed in
Revelation 13.
However, Revelation
chapter 17 has more information
about an eighth iteration of beast identity, and I
hope to post about
that in my next letter.
Blessings to all,
Maranatha.
EAR
https://www.beastandbabylon.com
[1] The seven successive empires are Babel,
Assyria, Babylon,
Media-Persia, Macedon-Greece, Rome and the Muslim
Ottoman/ISIS Caliphate.