What will the Beast be Like? Answers to Questions (original) (raw)

2021, What will the Beast be Like? Answers to Questions

In this article, aimed mainly at those with a Church of God background or who have an understanding that there will be a united European power in the last days, will be able to easily comprehend the arguments developed herein. For example, the Church of God’s traditional understanding of the duality of the Beast political and military power with the human leader. Commentators such as John Walvoord point out: “The identification of the head of gold with Nebuchadnezzar is a reference to the empire as personified by its ruler. As Young points out … the reference is to the king as the symbol of the empire.” (Daniel. The Key to Prophetic Revelation, p. 65) The human leader and political-military system are often used in this dual sense in Scripture. Over the centuries, there has been little knowledge of end-time events due to the confusion among the scholars of those days and their tainting with the doctrines of their church. Preter-ism and a-millennialism were the order of the day, though the Sabbatarians and others did foresee a 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth, preceded by terrible times. But only by the early nineteenth century and especially from the middle of that century on, did Millennialism and its surrounding prophetic events, begin to become more deeply researched and accepted. There continues, however, to be many false and strange ideas about the Beast. Here is just one of them – and shows one how we can be deceived. “The king of the Romans will ascend Golgotha upon which the wood of the Holy Cross is fixed, in the place where the Lord underwent death for us. The king will take the crown from his head and place it on the cross ad stretching out his hands to heaven will hand over the kingdom of the Christians to God the Father. The cross and the crown of the king will be taken up together into heaven … Then every principality and power will be destroyed that the Son of Perdition may be manifest … “Some of our learned men say that one of the kings of the Franks who will come in the last time will possess the Roman Empire. He will come at the last time and will be the last and greatest of all rulers. After he has successfully governed his empire, at last he will come to Jerusalem and will put off his sceptre and crown on the Mount of Olives. This will be the end and the consummation of the Roman and Christian empire. Immediately … the Antichrist will be at hand. The then “man of Sin” will be revealed.” (Bernard McGinn, Visions of the End, pp. 76, 86) Here the prophecies are reversed: the Holy Roman Empire and its Emperor are the true believers who hand over leadership to Christ Himself upon His return!