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| But of course, the guys who keep saying this couldn't care any less than they do now. |
Throughout the centuries, one of the greatest acts of defamation announced by the artificially contrived "Church of England" and the Baptist Heresy was that of endlessly accusing the only Church ever founded by Christ of being "the Whore of Babylon." And of course, the actual whore was the Herodian Dynasty that only remained in political power, because it leeched off of Rome's military power.
In brief review, Antipater the Udumaean (an Edomite convert)
started the Herodian Dynasty in 47 BCE, by being appointed Procurator
of Judea, by Julius Caesar. Eventually came Herod the Great and his killing of infants the age of the newly born King of the Jews. This was followed by yet another Herod; the one who killed John the Baptist and who
later mocked the Christ whom his dad tried to kill decades prior.
St. John the Apostle wrote the Book of Revelation, where within is the mention of the Whore of Babylon. Before becoming a writer of Sacred Script, John was a close apostle of Christ, present at the Last Supper, at the Crucifixion, and in the Cenacle, the night after Christ's Resurrection. Even before this, John was a devoted disciple of his first rabbi, Saint John the Baptist.
Now, it was Herod
the Great's son, Herod Antipas, who had John the Baptist imprisoned and
later put to death. John the Baptist was the one who spoke-out against
Herod's adulterous relationship with Herodias. So, Herodias manipulated
her daughter into requesting John the Baptist's head on a platter,
being that the young lady was offered any gift she wanted by Herod,
during a drunken interlude, after the young lady danced for him.
Needless to say, John the Apostle took the death of John the Baptist personally. Then a vision coming from outside of his deposition and thoughts was shown to him. He would state the scene which included a whore riding a beast in a drunken state.
Now, what caused him to know that she was a whore? None the less, the drunken state is what caused John the Baptist to die, and John perceived the drunken state in the woman he knew to be a whore. John saw the blasphemous writing on the scarlet beast. He also saw the cup the whore was holding in the vision. He saw blood in the cup. But, he felt the drunken state, as if feeling the martyrdom of his first rabbi at point blank range. To follow would be the death of numerous martyrs, at the hands of pagan Rome.
The Holy Innocents were perceived as the first martyrs of Christ, and the next martyr would be John the Baptist. Both sets of martyrs were killed by a Herod. Then Rome took over the task of killing Christians, but only from time to time.
Incidentally, in Roman signification, scarlet referred to high ranked military. Thus, the Herods were riding on the back of a military that could effectively destroy them, their reign, and their territory's infrastructure. They were was riding the very beast who was going kill them off as effectively as it put them in power.
The Herodian Tetrarchy rode on the back
of Rome, being that Herod Antipas conquered Jerusalem in 37 CE, with the
help of Rome's military. Now, historians mark the end of the Herodian Tetrarchy as 44 CE. Yet, Rome still needed a puppet dictator (a client king), for the sake of commerce & tax revenue. At that time, most of the commerce profits were now going to the Jewish elites. So, Emperor Claudius assigned Agrippa II as the king of Israel in 48 CE. The Herodian Tetrarchy was only suspended for four years, Rome got itself another "client king" soon enough. Rome continued to be the Herods' pimp.
Pro-Roman Agrippa II would then flee from Israel at the start of the Jewish Revolt of 66 CE. At the start of that revolt, 6,000 Syrian soldiers of a Roman legion were massacred by Jewish zealots. Agrippa II simply detached himself from the Herodian legacy. Rome would do the destroying of Israel as a duty to Rome, being that the zealots constituted the army during the revolt, and they indiscriminately killed Romans, thereby showing themselves to have no rules of war and no convention of civility.
In 66 CE, Gessius Flores was procurator and crazy Nero was an absentee emperor in Greece, shortly after a failed coup d'etat attempt was made upon him. Herod Agrippa II had a new job, in present-day Syria. Yet, the Jews did not have the concept of taking Roman prisoners of war. They only had the concept of massacre. So, Vespasian was sent to Israel with his son, Titus, by Nero's temporary substitute. The following year, Rome regained control of Israel. Then, in 69 CE, Vespasian became emperor. He then had his son finish the job on Israel.
Rome, like the beast it was, ended up devouring the Herodian legacy. This began with the Siege of Jerusalem, in 70 CE. The result was the destruction of the second temple, the destruction of the rest of Jerusalem, and the killing of numerous Jews. Meanwhile, Herod Agrippa II was a "client king" in a landmass that would be given to Syria upon his death. So, even that part of the Herodian Dynasty was going to be eaten by Rome. All in all, by the Year 100 the Herodians would all be history. A sovereign Israel was also history and would remain as such until 1948 CE.
In 1948, killing more immoral than that of the zealots occurred. Young Jewish men would dress-up as elderly women and plant bombs in British places of business, indiscriminately killing unarmed civilians. That which Hitler's brown shirts did to the Jews the Jews started to do to the British. And it was the BRITISH who ended up freeing the Jews from Hitler, with the help of the Yankees, French underground, Dutch underground, and Norwegian attack teams, along with a South American spy or two. (Canadians were regarded as British, at the time.) One of those Jewish terrorists became prime minister of Israel, in the 1970s.
Take note that the Book of Revelation was
written a couple decades AFTER the destruction of the Temple and all of
Jerusalem. From the 17th Chapter of the Book of Revelation comes the following:
16 "The beast and the ten horns that you saw (ROME) will hate the prostitute (The Herodian Tetrarchy). They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. (The Romans, under future emperor Titus, in 70 CE). 17 For God has put it into their hearts (the Herodian elitists) to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast (to Rome) their royal authority, until God’s words are fulfilled. (The prophetic words of the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 19:42.) 18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” (Jerusalem, of course, ruling in the spiritual sense, as opposed to the political one. Jerusalem was much older than was Rome and therefore had much more influence on the outcome of human history.)
In summary, the Book of Revelation
is a teaching that God is changeless, and because of this, history will
repeat itself. That which happened to Jerusalem in 70 CE will happen
in the future to whoever holds the mission from God that Jerusalem once
held, but which was stolen from Jerusalem by the Herod kings who were set on ignoring & dismissing that mission. It will happen at the hands of whoever holds
the power that Ancient pagan Rome used to hold --- the power of the
beast. And remember, that power originally came from Babylon.
In the 20th Century, the new beast was assumed to have been the Soviet Union, after a brief stint of Nazi German tyranny. In the 19th Century, it was assumed to have been the Napoleonic Dynasty. Before this were horrifying menaces, including the Mongols, Tatars, pagan Lithuanians, and Huns. But, they weren't considered the armies of Antichrist, because you first have to know of the existence of Christ, into order to be a undoer of Christ. Nero, for example, knew of the existence of Christians. He was an undoer of Christ's work.
The Roman Mail Route
Concerning another part of the Apocalypse, there is no reasonable doubt to its meaning: That one is the 7 letters to the seven churches. Those churches coincided with the Roman mail route. Thus, the Roman mail route was used to symbolize the route of time. In as much, those seven churches were the seven eras of Christianity. Six were yet to come.
The first era was yet to be finished. It would be followed by the Inclusive Era, where Christianity was the going trend. Then would come the Rural Era which started during the Justinian Mini Ice Age and which was saved by Ireland. Next would come the Scholastic Era of Aquinas and the such, followed by the Trenton Era (as in Council of Trent). That era still hasn't ended. It will be followed by the Philadelphia Era, meaning the Era of Brotherly Charity. This will be the Era of the Reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Then will come the era which will be met with the End of the World and the Second coming of Christ. That end is a few centuries away ... not a millennia away.
Now, Sacred Script only mentions that the exact date of the world's end is in God the Father's mind, exclusively. Yet, the same Sacred Script mentions to "watch for the signs of the times." Well, a well-informed person can deduce a general time span. In as much . . .
. . . the next thing to come, after massive upheaval, is the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Sodano, Bertone, and the child molester protector Ratzinger lied to the world in June of 2000, by stating that this triumph already came when we were all asleep. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart has not yet occurred. When it does, no news agency is going to need to tell it to anyone. Everyone will know of a true new era of worldwide peace, accompanied by really heart-touching people --- an era free of people as vengeful as was Adolph Hitler, Robespierre, Genghis Khan, and the Hannibal Barca who was filled with the hatred of ten men in his soul.
Also remember that Paul expressly wrote to "not despise prophecy, my brethren." Well, one of those incorruptible Catholic saints prophesied the Conversion of the Muslims in such a way that their devotion will put the devotion of the Church of the past to shame. Yes, a Dominican saint whose body turned out to be incorruptible prophesied that the Muslims will convert to Catholicism and make the church of the past look like the minor leagues --- like the junior varsity.
If you detest this prophecy, then take it up with the saint who made it; Louis of Montfort. He is very much capable of hearing your thoughts and even your emotions from Heaven. None the less, that widespread conversion is something else yet to come, before the Second Coming of Christ.
However, concerning prophecy & this particular generation, the one certainty is that the Great Apostasy prophesied by Paul (to the Thessalonians) will begin at the very top of the true church of Christ --- not in the fake churches that were formed in 1521 & 1534 --- and definitely not in the knock-off churches of business suit clad preachers that were seen on TV in the 20th Century. It will occur in the only church every founded by Christ 2,000 or so years ago --- the one that was established while Peter & Paul were still alive.
The Beast Coming out of the Sea was actually a fleet landing ashore, in Israel
When you read of a "beast coming out of the sea," it doesn't mean a beast is rising out of the ocean. It refers to an enemy fleet coming ashore, onto Israelite territory, after a long sea voyage. Needless to say, Rome had ships, and Rome was "the beast." Do the math here.
The Two-horned Beast Rising from the Earth
It was the devout Christians who were literally under the earth, in the catacombs. And then, when the church rose from the catacombs, on to the city streets, the hierarchy, in places, started to become corrupted. Thus came John's image of the two-horned beast rising out of the Earth (Rev. 13:1). It referred to the corruption that would occur after the permanent (not temporary) legalization of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire - - - after an era of non-corrupt clergyman conducting liturgical rites in the catacombs.
Incidentally, a Jewish priest wore a headband comprised of two horns, in his rituals. Thus came John's vision of a two-horned beast. Concerning this, the ancient Jewish religion WAS an animal sacrifice religion. This was of the Order of Aaron. Christ was said to be a priest according to the Order of Melchizedek, a priest who offered sacrifices of produce from the grain fields; not the sacrifices of animals. None the less, it was a high priest who, like a beast, sentenced Christ to death.
Even at that, Christ's priesthood came from his own divinity. He was already a priest. He didn't have to be ordained by anybody. Anyone after Christ needed to be ordained in a lineage of ordination which traces back to the original apostles. Where there is no apostolic succession, there is no priesthood. Even Paul was ordained in the apostolic line.
All
in all, the Apocalypse is NOT all that mysterious. It was heavily coded, to
spare the text from being burnt in a pagan Roman incinerator. It was heavily impacted, in that it spoke of the end. Any end can be traumatic. In as much, it is quite assured that the end of your personal world will come much sooner than the end of THE world. So, don't waste your time on Bible Belters who are endlessly telling you that the end is near. There will be no such thing as the Great Rapture. Much has yet to occur, for that the end of THE world to happen.
Oh, and concerning the annoying claim that the Roman Catholic pope is the Antichrist:
Sacred Script states that only one more Antichrist is yet to come. Now, there have thus far been 266 popes. This means that at least 265 popes were NOT the Antichrist.
In addition, amongst the first Christian churches on Planet Earth are the previously mentioned Roman Catacomb chapels. This means that Christianity was long-since in the making in Rome, for centuries. Thus, the church was NOT a creation of pagan Rome, especially in light of the number of Christians of the Church of Rome who died at the hands of pagan Romans.
Even at that, there were times during the reign of the Caesars when Christianity was publicly legal. It's just that suddenly, from time to time, Christianity was outlawed. But of course, you are dealing with unstable dictators when you are dealing with the Caesars of ancient Rome. They weren't as stubbornly consistent as were the deadly dictators of the 20th Century.
Even at that, the 20th Century dictators appeared to be inconsistently unstable, only because they kept breaking promises & violating treaties that they never intended to observe, in the first place. And remember, a treaty is law. When you sign one, you are bound by law. Dictators are lawless. A dictator's signature is worthless.
