Rehashing Romans 7 and 8 (again)

“He is [a Christian], which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit [of the Law], and not in the letter [of the Law]; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Rom. 2:2).

For a long time I have noticed a huge disconnect between our traditional focus of the Romans chapter 7 Law and the Romans chapter 8 Spirit. As the issues were in chapter 6, the issues of chapter 7 are between obeying or abandoning ourselves to the Law of righteousness through the Spirit and obeying or abandoning ourselves to the law of sin through the flesh. Is this not the same message from chapter 8? Why have we confused Paul’s whole thought process as he spread out the science of salvation for us?

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants [Gr. doulos “slaves”] to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of [Gr. douloō “enslaved to”] righteousness.” (Rom. 6:16-18).

But how did they become abandoned to Jesus and enslaved to righteousness, and delivered from abandonment to Satan and enslavement to sin? How did they yield themselves to Jesus? They heard the gospel and their hearts surrendered to Jesus. Jesus and Him crucified for them was “that form of doctrine” that Paul preached and that they obeyed from their hearts. The Romans’ hearts were moved to love mere abstract letters, intellectual principles, and philosophical laws. Were they not moved to love a living Person who made their hearts burn within them by His love for them and love for His Father?

And, indeed has anything of the heart’s issues changed from 2,000 years ago? Can any need of the human heart ever change? All of this Saul studied in the desert, and got the victory of it while he was still wet behind the ears (see Galatians 1:11,12,17,18), as all of us still are. And the knowledge he received came “by revelation” (Eph. 3:3; Gal. 2:2), straight from the heavenly throne of “God through Jesus Christ” (Rom. 7:25).

In all of Paul’s apparent bashing the Law (and I emphasize “apparent”) we must keep in the back of our mind his exaltation of obedience to righteousness, obedience to the Law of God. Exalting the Law John perfectly agreed to, even it all of his exaltation of love. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law.” (1Jn. 3:4).

Nevertheless, the issues of chapter 8 seem not so much to be about the LAW of God versus the law of the flesh, as it is between the SPIRIT of God versus the lust of the flesh. But, is the Romans 7 and 8 switch between Law and Spirit only an appearance and not reality? How are Law and Spirit the same? Does Law transform into Spirit, as Proverbs 6:20-22 give the clue? God is a Spirit. Doesn’t His Law—His omniscient, omnipotent, redemptive will and character—become His omniscient, omnipotent, redemptive Spirit? I ask this because chapter 8 is the eternal solution for the chapter 7 age-old problem. But, exactly how is Romans 8 the solution?

Chapter 7 ends with establishing the enslavement to the Law of God in Christ as the only path to life, rather than remaining enslaved to the flesh and on the path to death. It was a war between Saul’s search for a spiritual mind rather than his spiritual hormones, his spiritual hormones wielding a major opposition to the power of the Spirit. After looking at it more closely, I believe we have not connected the two chapters together correctly, and therefore have not seen the common thread running through them both. That common thread is that Jesus is, and before creation He always was, the Word, the Spirit of the Law, “I Wisdom… Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding; I have strength…. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.” (Prov. 8:12,14). The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit in the Law, the Word of God through the Testimony of Jesus that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing our soul and spirit. The Law testifies of Him. No man spoke the Word like this Man because He was the Word.

“And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him…

And shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears:

But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.

And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.” (Isa. 11:2-5).

“I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me.” (Deut. 32:40,41).

“Out of His mouth went a sharp twoedged sword.” (Rev. 1:16).

It has been Christ’s Spirit that meets with our spirits as we comprehend Him in the written letters, as we hear His voice and see His face in His sacred scriptures (see 2Cor. 4:2-4,6). Christ is the mind of the Spirit that knows us by the spiritual mind that He quickens in us as we abide in Him by His grace toward our sinfulness, and all who join with the Lord are one Spirit with Him (see 1Cor. 2:10,11,16; 15:45; 6:17). We can say literally, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”.

It was His Spirit under the inspiration of His Father that was in the prophets of old. “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (1Pet. 1:11, cf Dan. 10:5,6). It was the Father’s Spirit in the prophets as in Jesus’ disciples, then and today, who would speak before governors and kings. It is “the Spirit of your Father” and “the Spirit of His Son” (Matt. 10:20; Gal. 4:6 cf Rom. 8:9). And it was the Son of God who has always been the Minister of the Father’s Spirit to fallen mankind. “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns [all power] and seven eyes [all knowledge], which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” (Rev. 5:6). 

Please accept the liberty I have taken in the following insertions that I borrowed from other parts of the Bible to add clarity and connection to, and to help us carry-over between, the apparently widely disparate transitional verses, Romans 7:25 and 8:1 (they are each other’s contexts). And please see with me what thought Saul of Tarsus was communicating there, even though he left words out for brevity or for whatever reason he had for doing so. For the ease of distinguishing, Romans 7 and 8 are in red font; my thoughts and other scriptures are in black font.

Rom 7:1  Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Rom 7:2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

Rom 7:3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

[Simple enough. The woman leaves one man and marries another without divorcing. This is unlawful.

And likewise, when anyone has not wrestled with the Law, with its guilt and shame and its fearful condemnation, and has not bowed to its claims—but then such a person desires to the claims to be married into Christ and to be a virgin child of God, then that person has broken the law of the kingdom, and God calls that “virgin” an adulterer. Saul is saying that such a person’s pride has never been humbled into the dust. The sharp, living Law of God has never convicted him of his dead heart and his filthy, unslain “good living”. He has skirted the curse of the Law and the discipline of the Schoolmaster of Galatians 3:24. Such a person has attempted to enter into Christ for His justifying peace by some other way than falling into the hands of the living, life-giving God. Such a person has said, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst”, “I…shall see no sorrow” (Deut. 29:19; Rev. 18:7). Before marrying into Christ that person must receive an exceedingly strong conviction of sin in order to see himself as God sees him. And then, as Saul did, he must lift up his voice to God and cry for mercy and help, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). His desperate prayer from the whole heart satisfies the Schoolmaster and moves Him to bring that person to His designated Teacher, Christ, for His justification.]

Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another [that is, the Spirit of God comes by His condemning Law slaying us, and the Spirit of Christ comes from His expired, spiritual body, quickening us], even to him who is raised from the dead, [our spirit married to Christ’s Spirit, is raised with His, to sit in heavenly places with Him, while on earth we walk with Him as Enoch walked by faith. We are, freed from our dead disposition to God’s will and to our humanistic relation to His Law, and are bound to the will of our godly, Law-loving, God-loving Deliverer] that we should bring forth fruit unto God. [“And so it is written,… the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening spirit” (1Cor. 15:45, cf John 20:19-26,30,31), and we are made a living soul, if we daily taste of Christ, who is the tree of life in the paradise of God (see Luke 23:43; Hebrews 6:4,5; Revelation 2:7].

[What may confuse people is how Saul seems like he dismisses the Law. Saul says, “…the motions of sins…were by the Law” (Rom. 7:5). And he wrote to the Corinthians, “…the strength of sin is the Law” (1Cor. 15:56). But he also wrote to the Romans, “Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law.” (Rom. 3:31). What must Saul mean by his apparent contrariness with himself? He is saying that the Law-keeping is not the cause of salvation, but certainly the result. He doesn’t conclude the disillusioned Romans 7 soliloquy of his salvation without having long wrestled with the Law, and surrendered to its powerful authority.

Rather than being confused, he must be saying that if we don’t come to Christ through the Schoolmaster, if we don’t eat of the True Vine that is continually being pruned by the Gardener, then we don’t come to Christ at all and sup with Him. And then any Law-keeping without Christ is invalid before God. Law-keeping with Christ is the power of Satan for our continued subjection to sin, and our damnation if we persist in doing so. We must first face God via His Law before we can face Christ via His purified, decimated body, all of which must happen before we can satisfy the Law and God by the life of righteousness. First we come to God, then to the great Red Heifer sacrifice who was burnt to nothing; then, after being more deeply humbled there by His accepting upon Himself the tonnage of His Father’s wrath against us, we go back to God for our confession, His examination of our humbling—and the blessing of His Spirit. Saul defends Law and grace, grace and truth, justice and mercy, because both are necessary for our salvation. Both are diametric opposites, top and bottom dead-centers in the cams of our chariot of fire that speeds us to sit in heavenly places with Christ.] 

Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. [This spiritual death is the Judge’s sentence upon everyone who is spiritually an adulterer due to seeking a relationship with Christ without first wrestling with the almighty conviction of God’s Law. They thus end with a look of religion, but remain bound to the old relation with their carnal, proud, heartless, loveless, humanistic belief system, per verse 2.]

Rom 7:6  But now we are delivered from the Law [freed from “the Law”—the satanically manipulated, abusive, impossible to obey, controlling version of God’s Law, our rebellious relation to God’s will and, through our natural, first birth, full of the world’s resistant, humanistic relation to His written Law], that being dead wherein we were held [we, in our fallen, rebellious state, our spirit that had been under the control of the accuser’s manipulations against God’s Law and Spirit, and creating in us a spirit loyal to Satan; our rebellion, bound and being slaughtered before the Law, and now delivered from Satan’s presence and power of self-indulgence and self-centeredness; we come under the control of the new presence of Jesus, His Spirit (see Psalm 139:7), and His holy power, self being slain by the vision of His self-sacrificing, spotless body]; that we should serve in newness of spirit [our new, regenerated spirit married to Christ’s holy Spirit (vs. 4)], and not in the oldness of the letter [now fully divorced from Satan’s dead spirit of rebellious humanism. We are delivered from the Law, yet we can keep the Law (“with the mind [understanding] I myself serve the Law of God”, vs. 25). The woman didn’t become dead to the law of marriage, her husband did. God ended his life, thus freeing her. When she remarries, she is right back to being under the law of marriage again, this time with a new Husband—the Spirit of Jesus, the church’s Wonderful Counselor and Comforter].

[Saul here finishes his chapter 7:2-6 introductory outline and he begins the details of his science of salvation.]

Rom 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the Law [of God] sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the Law [of God]: for I had not known lust, except the Law [of God] had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Rom 7:8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the Law [of God] sin was dead [exactly like “Where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15), and, “Sin is not imputed when there is no law.” (Rom. 5:13)].

Rom 7:9  For I was alive without the Law [of God] once: but when the commandment came [to my conscience], sin revived, and I died.

Rom 7:10  And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. [“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).]

Rom 7:11  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it [the commandment] slew me [my self-preserving measures for my comfortable living without the Law]. [Sin (and Satan) that were in Saul caused him to distort the aims and purposes of God in His Law and, therefore, to rebel against it. And because the righteousness of God and His Law had that amazing power over his self-confidence, and over his carnal hope and peace, Saul says…]

Rom 7:12  Wherefore the Law [of God] is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. [Saul is making his first step toward ultimate, total surrender.]

Rom 7:13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But [it was God making use of my condition of] sin, [so] that it might appear sin[ful], working death in me by [His commandment] which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. [God is righteous to use our sinfulness, and even the tempter himself, as His pawns (see 1Ki. 22:22; Dan. 4:35; Eph. 1:11), as He anciently used many enemies of Israel, including Nebuchadnezzar, “My servant” (Jer. 43:10), as His tools to destroy the incurably rebellious Jews and to purify the curable rebels. “If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me.” (Deut. 32:41).]

Rom 7:14  For we know that the Law is spiritual [Gr. pneumatikos “ethereal”]: but I am carnal, sold under sin [and Satan].

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate [Gr. miseō “detest”, “persecute”], that do I.

Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the Law that it is good. [Saul is not justifying himself. This is not him rationalizing away his culpability or criminality. When he consents to the Law, he is not flippantly assenting. His unbelieving heart is simply recognizing the much greater character of the Law. He is agreeing with the Law; he is unwittingly talking to the Law’s almighty Architect. Faith in Saul is struggling to be birthed. All that the determined, strong-minded, strong-willed Saul can do is to agree with God that his own corrupting, confusing, confounding, and grotesque nature from deep within his naturally, rebellious heart conceives a power that obstructs his best efforts to obey the Almighty. Saul consents that his old nature deserves to be sentenced to death.]

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [His realization is, “The Law is good”, “but sin…dwelleth in me”. But, again, this is not a flippant conclusion. Saul is wrestling with this, and determined to please God.]

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh [Saul is learning to distinguish between his yearnings, “me”, and his yearnings’ enemy, “my flesh”. He is seeing the difference between the selfish flesh and his groaning for the selfless spirit. He is envisioning the possible lively, justified saint and the current reality of a dead, unconverted soul. Saul is bowing to the requirement of making distinction between God’s heretofore illusive spiritual power that could generate the energy and effort to serve the convicting Law of righteousness, and man’s normal serving the deadening law of empty religiosity, going through the religious motions, and keeping up with conflicting human moral norms for the sake of human approval and harmony],) (I know that in me) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin [and Satan] that dwelleth in me. [He is forced to admit that he’s not an overcoming child of God. All of his Pharisee membership amounts to nothing. All of his being a Jew by nature, gives him no extra power from above to keep God’s commandments.]

Rom 7:21  I find then a law[, that is, another powerful spirit dominating Saul], that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. [This wasn’t just a statement of intellectual discovery, but a statement of reality in life. To Saul, the Law was a living force from above in everyone who God was preparing for His kingdom.]

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man: [It’s good that a sinner delights in God’s Law, but that’s not good enough. To be a victorious son of God there must be more than a delight in righteousness. There must be a new heart. Saul has a heart that has surrendered to, and delights in, the authoritative Law of the Schoolmaster, and assents to its goodness; but his heart has yet to surrender to the power of conviction and grace from Christ’s cross, per Galatians 3:23,24]              Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members [another powerful, dominating spirit, undermining my determination to do right, and weakening my will to obey the Law of God], warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin [i.e. the other dominating spirit from the previous verses 14 and 17,] which is in my members.

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death [to the rulership of sin and its attendant curse of God]? [By that helpless plea, surrender to Christ just happened in Saul. Saul made his first true prayer to God through the Minister of God’s Sanctuary. Saul’s cry into the dark was caught by Jesus and given to His Father. It was the first prayer from Saul that he made with all his heart, a true prayer of faith that went all the way to the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. For without the powerful faith of Jesus it is impossible to please God. The only Deliverer from sin was God through Christ.] 

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Wait a minute. Wait a minute!  What kind of a statement is this? What just happened?! Saul doesn’t say he is saved. But, Saul must be saved! He has peace with God! “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:1). But, how? Saul, I so identified with and with great assurance followed your desperate situation point by point when you couldn’t be what you wanted to be, expectantly awaiting the illusive mystery missing link for everyone’s transformation from the unsaved caveman existence to the saved and civilized sons of God! But you didn’t reveal your last step before having peace with God, the thing we all need most! The trail that was so plain just disappeared into the woods! How, Saul? How were you saved, so that I can do the same things and be saved, too? You jumped a giant chasm from verse 24 to verse 25, a living death to eternal life, without giving any details! Saul, I don’t see you doing any propitiatory act for your peace with God. Is this salvation without performing any sacrament? Is it a salvation without propitiating God or some other human work? Sudden conversion? Salvation out of the blue? Saul went from perfect disaster and years of failure to perfect solution and peace and joy. Saul, don’t leave my carnal, unbelieving mind hanging like this! Surely there is something I can do to help make salvation happen! Surely there’s something I’ve got to do, besides admitting to my total inability to be good, and seeking the face of God with all my heart? That’s too simple. It must be wrong. And I don’t like it. It makes me uncomfortable, and it offends me. It relies too much on God to save me and not enough on my trusty self. It requires everything of God, and not enough of me, for my transformation.

Saul’s victory comes from previously surrendering his self-will to the authority of the holy, just, and good Law of God, per verses 9 and 10, and now surrendering his heart to the mangled and Spiritless body of the Lamb of God, per verse 4.] So then with the mind [humbled, repentant, and, a mind fixated on the truth, after having taken the time to make honest analysis and assessment of his total lack in spiritual things, and now transformed by the new heaven-sent, powerful spirit of faith from the resurrected Spirit of Christ] I myself serve [Gr. douleuō “am enslaved to”] the Law of God [through the Spirit of Christ streaming from God’s Law, per verse 6]; but with the flesh [my prayer-less, thoughtless and unsurrendered reactions, that will return if ever or whenever I fall away from faith, (I serve)] the law of sin.

[Just as Saul distinguished between himself and his old, unresponsive flesh (Rom. 7:18), likewise he distinguished between himself and the Father’s power over him through Christ in him, his new, quickened spirit, the Spirit. Setting apart from himself both the spirit and the flesh, Jesus’ Spirit from above and Satan’s spirit from below, Saul acknowledged that he was only a pawn under the control of either of the two great powers contending for the supremacy of man. The new mind/spirit that enabled him to do the righteousness of God was not from himself, but an influencing power over his regenerated nature. He was no longer under the hopelessly enervating, listless Schoolmaster + self combo of constant failure, but under the energetic, freely obedient, Schoolmaster + Christ combo. His new nature was all heavenly—Christ’s righteousness—a robe sent from heaven, not a fiber of which was of any human devising. Saul’s experience here was simply putting into practice the example and lesson from Jesus’ discourse to His disciples just prior to His offering. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.” (John 15:4). “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7). “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:15-18). “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

Jesus is and has always been the Spirit of life in the Law, the Intercessor of His Father’s Law, that we by Him might live the truth, being that each word is pure and precious we might live by every word of it. As Jesus is the Truth, the Word of God, He is the “word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isa. 30:21). As Joshua led the children of Israel into the land of promise, Jesus is the Bishop of our souls who will guide His sheep into all truth (see 1Pet. 2:25). “Divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof” (14MR 23.3), Jesus is the Voice from the Law, so that “when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee” (Prov. 6:22). Jesus is the true Shepherd to the sheep who discern His voice (see John 10:4,5), who are His called and chosen and faithful (see Rev. 17:14). Jesus is “the faithful and true witness” (Rev. 3:14), and His faithful testimony is “the Spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10).

Saul, having submitted to the Law of God and then to the grace of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ now controlling his heart and will and thoughts as the life-giving “Spirit [of the Law]” (2Cor. 3:6, cf vs. 3; Luke 24:32,27), a new relation to the righteousness of the Law, the righteousness of God, was born in him. “O how love I Thy Law! It is my meditation all the day.” (Ps. 119:97). We happily, naturally, practice behaviors that our friends have. We love those practices and we do them well with exactness and carefulness and precision. Likewise, we naturally avoid practices that our friends hate, and if forced to do them we do them poorly, begrudgingly, and inefficiently.

Within the confines of the Law and the Spirit, and under His influence Saul comprehends the full gospel and can elucidate the science of salvation. Saul’s great fulfillment comes from obedience to God and His Law as Christ uses the Law to subdue his flesh. But Saul’s great challenge to obedience remains his flesh, if it stops being subdued by the Law.]

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit [that is, the Spirit of Christ giving Saul the faith of Christ. Christ’s presence is creating His Spirit in Saul. This faithful following after the Spirit of Christ comes by surrendering to the Father’s condemning Law and to Christ’s gracious, expired body. (Revelation 5:6 shows the Lamb of God who had “poured out His soul unto [an infinite] death” (Isa. 53:12), and then seven weeks later poured out His heavenly Spirit from His heavenly throne. This Law and cross double presentation removed Saul’s old spiritual paradigm that kept him under the power of his flesh, bringing him to a new relation to God and the openness to Him in Romans 7:25. now God through His only begotten Son was Saul’s authority. And Saul’s birth pangs to get to the new authority of God follows the same template as the Jews’ of Jeremiah 30 and 31, by which the new covenant was promised to all who would surrender. “And she being with Child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered…. And she brought forth a man Child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 12:2,5).

By a faith gestating under months of God’s condemning authority, Saul saw Christ and Him crucified, and he bowed his will completely. Saul received the Lamb’s eternal death dispensed in His eternal life that came with His own eternal Spirit that was eternally streaming from His infinitely purified body. In Romans 7:25 Saul received the bright red Heifer turned ashen, “the Beloved” “made to be sin for us”, and physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually cut off by His Father and children. Saul saw that by being made to be sin, Jesus was for ever “made an High Priest” “for sin” (Eph. 1:6; 2Cor. 5:19; Heb. 6:20, cf Heb. 7:28; Rom. 8:3) following the demise of the Aaronic high priesthood (see Num. 19:3; 20:26-28). Saul saw how firmly God established His promised redemption by an oath. “The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Ps. 110:4). “The word of the oath, which was since the Law, maketh the Son [a High Priest], who is consecrated for evermore” (Heb. 7:28). Now the Son “abideth a Priest continually” (Heb. 7:3), “He ever liveth to make intercession for” us (vs. 25). Since the beginning, interceding for us is all that Jesus has ever lived for].

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [Christ’s greatly needed and desired, dominating Spirit, which Saul found in the Law and the cross, anointed him to apostleship. “Thou shalt stand before Me: and…be as My mouth” (Jer. 15:19)] hath made me free [“delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (vs. 21), “delivered from [our rebellious relation to] the Law [the overpowering servitude to uncleanness and its compounded, corrupting outcome of “iniquity unto iniquity” (Rom. 6:19)], that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter” (Rom. 7:6). “Then are the children free” (Matt. 17:26), so that “then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free” (Gal. 4:31)] from the [previously dominating] law of sin and death [and from a life devoid of the divine nature of Christ. “He led captivity captive” (Eph. 4:8). Saul is now married to a better Law. He is married to a Law other than the God’s Law without His reconciled Spirit through His approved Propitiator and Mediator. Saul is married to the Law of faith coming from the Spirit of Jesus in His Ten Commandments, per Romans 7:4, 25. “The Law” (Rom. 7:9, cf vs. 10,13), “The Law [of death]”, which is “the strength of sin” (1Cor. 15:56), has transformed into “Thy Law” (Ps. 119:97), “Thy [living] Law”; and Saul is able to take “heed thereto” (Ps. 119:9). After wrestling so long and hard for “obedience unto [Gr. ‘leading to’] righteousness [as opposed to “sin unto (‘leading to’) death” (Rom. 6;16)], Saul finally has the power to obey; and he rejoices in it. He is married to the original Law of heaven that existed before sin was born in the highest covering cherub. Saul is married to the everlasting covenant, an everlasting Saviour and an everlasting science of extracting grace from the Law by abiding in the distilling, dynamic righteousness of Christ (see Deuteronomy 32:13).]

Rom 8:3  For what the [stone] Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh [without God’s Spirit], God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh [like our flesh, weakened by thousands of years of sin], and for sin [sin was in the crosshairs as His target], [Jesus] condemned sin [while] in the [(His own weakened)] flesh: [leaving us an example that we should walk in His steps]

Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh[, who distain pleasing self in any way], but after the Spirit [of Christ, whose communion and refreshing imbues the soul with power from on high for divinely backed, redoubled effort that overcomes sin. “He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)].

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh[, those who work for righteousness from their own resources, and apart from the Spirit of Christ,] do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit [who work not of their own resources, but who have wrestled with the Law until they surrendered to its infinitely high and ominous claims upon rebels, and who abide humbled, repentant, trusting in Christ for His power in them to do right—they think of, they entertain, they love] the things of the Spirit[, the things of Christ].

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded [to live without the Law and never need repentance] is death; but to be spiritually minded [in the communion of the Holy Ghost, them dwelling in Christ and Christ dwelling in them, through bowing to His Father’s powerful condemnation, and then trusting in Christ’s powerful justification,] is life and peace.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. [Through faith the spiritually minded don’t make void the Law of God. All who have bowed to His Law and who have trust in His Son are the only ones on earth who establish God’s Law.]

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. [Without faith to come to God through His Son it is impossible to please the Father. “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” (Heb. 12:7,8). The carnally minded have no part with Christ.]

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. [This scripture defines “the Spirit” as “the SPIRIT of your Father” (Matt. 10:20) and “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6) and our adopted spirit “crying, Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15, cf 1Cor. 2:11). Therefore, we can deduce: SPIRIT + Spirit + spirit = the “one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4) of the Bible.]

Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness [To be in the Spirit is to be in Christ (See Jer. 15:19;Rev. 1:10-13). The Spirit in us is Christ in us, our hope of glory. Christ is the Spirit. “…which vail is done away in [Jesus] Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord [Jesus], the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord [Jesus] is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [Jesus] is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord [Jesus], are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord [Jesus].... But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of [Jesus] Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Cor. 3:14-18; 4:3,4).

If the Spirit of Christ is in us, we are dead, our bodies are dead to sin, but we have life and our spirits. Receiving His Spirit, we are alive to righteousness].

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. [“God is a Spirit.” (John 4:24). Made in God’s image, we have a spirit as God has a Spirit. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the SPIRIT of God.” (1Cor. 2:11).]

Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:…

 [“For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.… And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.” (1Jn. 3:20,21,24).

By His SPIRIT God abides in “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6). And by His Spirit Christ abides in us. The SPIRIT of the Father imbues the Son, for Christ does nothing of Himself. Thus the Father and Son abide in us by Their one united Spirit, “the Spirit”.]

Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. [The unconverted need the redemption of their spirit. But all who have already received that redemption, still await the end of redemption, the redemption of their body, to wholly remove the presence and pull of sin in their members, when He will change their vile bodies to be fashioned like His own glorious, /

Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit [quickening our spirit] also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the [tandem Spirit + spirit] itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [“The Lord is that Spirit” (2Cor. 3:17) who lives ever to make intercession for us before God and in His Law. The Lord gives us the groanings which we cannot of ourselves generate. Therefore, we, and not a third person of the Godhead, possess those groanings, per verse 23, while we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15), while Jesus within us keeps our hearts and minds as we pray to the Father and study His Law.]

Rom 8:27  And He that searcheth the hearts [(God)] knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit [(Christ in us)], because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. [The word of God, the great Judge, is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and discerns the honesty or pretense of our thoughts and intents. And through the intercession of Christ all who bowed before the condemnation of God’s Law trusting only in the Saviour receive from Him thoughts and intents of the heart that operate according to the will of God. Everyone else God doesn’t hear, per Prov. 28:9]…

Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sabbath School Mar 19-21

Ranko Stefanovic brought our attention on the similarity of Revelation 13:8 and 17:8. This would indicate that the beast of Revelation 13 and 17 are the same beast, the first of which was the beast of Daniel 7. Therefore we can say that the beast of Revelation 17 is the beast of Daniel 7, even though the beast’s horns are interpreted a little differently by Gabriel:

Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life…from the foundation of the world.

Rev 17:8    …and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world….

Words removed from Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 to show their similarity:

Rev 13:8 of the Lamb slain

Rev 17:8    The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition:…

Rev 17:8    when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Notice that the setting of this vision is “the wilderness” (Rev. 17:3). This is a reference to the Revelation 12 prophecy, in particular verse 13-16. Even though the persecutor appears as the Dragon, the Dragon delegated and inspired the beast to do his work of persecution. We read of this beast in the next scene. We have traditionally interpreted this beast as primarily the Dark Ages Papacy. But, primarily it represents the resurrection of the Dark Ages Papacy. It most accurately describes the final version of the Papacy, the Papacy that is resurrecting today. The sea from which it arises, if viewed from the immediate context, seems to allude to the flood that the Dragon cast out of his mouth, the flood of persecutors that he cast out of his mouth, i.e. the Counter Reformation during which the newly ordained “Company of Jesus” tortured and martyred 900,000 Protestants in 200 years until Protestantism could be safeguarded by its land of refuge, America. (But the war didn’t end there, the Dragon was more enraged than ever before, vowing to get his victims and destroy their religion and national refuge (Revelation 12:17).

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard…and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” (Rev. 13:1,2). The Dragon and his beast are left high and dry in the wilderness, after Providence rescued His Protestants.

In the wilderness the beast that “was” during the 1,260 year prophecy, “is not” while left in “the wilderness” (Rev. 17:3). And “yet is” later when it ascendeth out of the bottomless pit and goeth into perdition. “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (Rev. 13:8) when he “shall ascend out of the bottomless pit” (Rev. 17:8).

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Rev. 11:7).

“And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” (Rev. 17:11).

A text that brings these two above verse together is Revelation 13:3.

“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;

and his deadly wound was healed:

and all the world wondered after the beast.” (Rev. 13:3).

When the pure church got away from her voracious predator, the Lord established her in the new continent and gave her a protective government that God blessed. Her Democratic Republic and Protestant religion became the vanguard against despotism in the world, which together overthrew her predatorial persecutor. The beast no longer “was”. But it would make a powerful comeback. Its near death and resuscitation are repeated in Revelation 17:8, except for the fourth and final phase.

Rev 17:8

1) The beast that thou sawest was,

2) and is not;

3) and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit,

4) and go into perdition:…

Rev 17:8   

1) when they behold the beast that was,

2) and is not,

3) and yet is

4)

It is the beast’s reinstatement to power that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matt. 24:15).

The abomination of desolation is restated for clarity in Daniel 11, as “the abomination that maketh desolate” (Dan. 11:31), spoken of as a “vile” (vs. 21) “king of the north” (vs. 21,40).

“And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.” (Dan. 11:31-33).

 And the above text is giving more light on the vision that it lays over—Daniel 8:10ff.

“And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.

And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” (Dan. 8:10-13).

The abomination of desolation and the transgression of desolation are the same corrupting and destructive earthly power. The abomination refers to the corrupt temptation the church fell into, and the transgression refers to the church’s act of being corrupted. And the “host” that “was given him” refers to superstitious, Dark Ages Europe, “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15), whose hearts he stole from the Prince of the host, and used them to form his beast power. The woman sat on the beast which came out of the sea.

“And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” (Rev. 17:15).

“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” (Rev. 17:10). I will explain this verse at the end of this post. But for now, this second beast of Revelation 13 receives the spirit of the Dragon, which he uses to restore the first beast with the fatal wound caused by Protestantism and its protector government.

“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.” (Rev. 13:13-16).

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” (Rev. 19:20,21).

The sword is the word of God, “It is done!” It is also the brightness of His glory. The lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone is the wrath of God against the beast-false prophet alliance against the grace and truth of the gospel. This day is the fulfillment of the 3rd angel’s message. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” (Ps. 2:4,5). The remnant are the kings and people, small and great, who are slain by the sword that will come from the mouth of Him that will sit upon the horse.

“Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.” (Isa. 28:17-19).

Per the Adult Sabbath School Quarterly, 3-20-19

“The angel explains that the seven heads are seven mountains. Some translators think that these mountains allude to the seven hills upon which the city of Rome is situated, and for this reason, they translate the Greek work oroi (‘mountains’) as ‘hills’. There are seven kings, too, who are symbolized by the seven mountains. Also, these mountains are successive, not simultaneous.

   These mountains do not symbolize individual kings, because Revelation does not deal with individual persons but with systems. In the Bible, mountains often symbolize world s powers or empires (Jer. 51:25; Ezek. 35:2,3). In biblical prophecy ‘kings’ represent kingdoms (see Dan. 2:37-39, Dan. 7:17). Thus, the seven mountains symbolize seven great successive empires that dominated the world throughout history, through which Satan opposed God and harmed God’s people.

   From John’s time perspective, five of these empires have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. While no single view has been agreed upon by all Adventists interpreters, many hold that the five that have fallen are the great kingdoms that in Old Testament times dominated and (on occasion) harmed God’s people: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, and Greece. The ‘one is’ kingdom was the Roman Empire of John’s time.

   The seventh kingdom that ‘has not yet come’ is the sea beast of Revelation 13—the papacy, which dominated and harmed God’s people—that was to come after the time of John and after the fall of the pagan Roman Empire. History has powerfully attested to the truth of this prophecy, written many centuries before the events unfolded. [But, that beast continued a long space of time. ‘And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.’ (Rev. 17:10). Because of this discrepancy the concluding interpretation of the eighth head is skewed. He calls the eighth head the same as the seventh head. And the seventh world power is put off into the distant, unrecognizable future.]

   John is further told that the scarlet beast is an eighth world power. Although it is one of the seven heads (world powers). Which of the seven? Because these heads are sequential in time, the eighth must be a seventh head that received the deadly wound. It is at the time of the eighth world power that the scarlet beast appears, carrying and advancing the goals of the harlot Babylon. Today, we live at the time of the healing of the deadly wound. This eighth world power will appear on the scene right after the end and will go to perdition.” [If the eighth head is not the seventh head, and if the medieval beast was the fifth king of the seven, then the sixth king would be the slaying power of the fifth king, i.e. Protestant America. And then the seventh king would be the apostate Protestant that is currently healing the medieval beast today, and will continue only a short space compared to the period of the papal supremacy.]

My thoughts on this interpretation:

The seventh king who continues a short time must be a relatively quick last day event. Here is my interpretation of the seven kings [remember that the setting is in “the wilderness” (Rev. 17:3), and thus the perspective of the vision, rather than Imperial Rome, is at the end of the 1,260 year papal supremacy and the start of Protestant America]:

“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” (Rev. 17:10,11).

Because the setting is the wilderness, and the seventh king is a short span of time, the puzzle pieces of this prophecy can’t be situated any other way.

(Kings)

1) “Five are fallen”: Babylon (608-538 BC),

2) Persia (538 BC-331 BC),

3) Greece (331 BC-168 BC),

4) Imperial Rome  (168 BC-476 AD),

5) Papal Rome (538 AD-1798),

6) “One is”: America, Protestant America (1620-1849). Its colonial KJV upbringing; but then its rejection of Second Advent and the Law of God, the first four trumpets; and Apostate Protestant America (1849-1999), under the influence of “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit” (Rev. 11:7, cf Rev. 9:1-20) constitutes the “king” that “is”, the 5th trumpet, 1st woe; the 1849-1999 5 prophetic month time period represents 150 years beginning at the California Gold Rush to the late 1990s stock market gold rush that ended in the 4th quarter of 1999, during which 5 prophetic month period the locusts were released from the bottomless pit to torment and later to kill “any green thing” in “the earth” (Rev. 9:4, cf Rev. 12:16,17; Rev. 13:11); the 5th and 6th trumpets are about Jesuit locusts devouring the consciences of Protestants primarily in America in order to prevent the seal in the forehead, the abomination of desolation in the holy place of Americans’ hearts place there the mark of the beast-fire and smoke and brimstone from God’s wrath, and the 5th and 6th trumpets prophecies develop Revelation 6:17-7:3 and the 3rd angel’s message (particularly Rev. 14:10 and 11),

7) “The other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space”: 6th trumpet, 2nd woe (year 2000 to some point in our near future);

8) “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth”, “and goeth into perdition” (Rev. 17:11), the finale of the abomination of desolation, a global kingdom of “blessed”, conscience-less Jesuit locusts sitting on every country’s Imperial throne, in every Roman Senate and high court, with an unconscionable Jesuit Papacy overseeing it all, and the avenged Dragon ruling over his favored earthly organization.

Because the setting is the wilderness, and the seventh king is a short span of time, the puzzle pieces of this prophecy can’t be situated any other way.

Satan was wroth with his favored earthly institution was cast down and “was not”. So he brought up a new, more determined host in the “Company of Jesus”, the Jesuits. The infernal genius from hell could not rely upon the age-old religious leaders who make mistakes in judgment, or on their state leaders who might be converted and defect to the side of the Redeemer. In order to never again be vanquished by Christ, this new Jesuit Order would be especially honed to be unmovable from their service to him. Like furniture that can’t think for itself, they do as they are told by their Jesuit overlords. This is the new papacy that will rule the world until Jesus comes to destroy them. It will be a juggernaut that no earthly power can put down. Who shall be able to stand? Who will maintain their faith in all of their duplicitous machinations and baleful brutality?

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake.

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matt. 24:9-13).

“Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My Law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation.” (Isa 51:7 ,8).

The survivors of that first time of trouble will be finally humbled beyond measure and become the 144,000 that God always wanted from His Protestants and Adventists. They will preach to the whole world.

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14).

“And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Rev. 14:5).

But don’t think that will be the downfall of the Jesuit Papacy. That will only stir up the hornet’s nest.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains….” (Matt. 24:15,16).

The Jesuit Vatican’s redoubled determination, dogged by the devil to win the war, will only be heightened. That will be the time of trouble such as never was.

“Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt. 24:17-22).

Finally will come the grand climax of the troubles that will prepare a people to stand in the day Jesus returns. Satan will impersonate Christ’s Second Advent.

“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt. 24:23-27).

Satanic hosts will descend as shining angels to a world prepared to receive them as messiahs, extraterrestrial beings, personalities from the New Age astral planes, UFOs, etc. And the left behind, waiting church will see them as Jesus and all His hosts of heaven after the 3 ½ years of rapture tribulation. Even the plagues will be falling upon the world, because Jesus is on the way. No longer having our Mediator between God and man, everyone will be stressed almost to insanity. Even the elect will feel the wrath of God upon all who have rejected Him and His Law. This Jacob’s Troubles will be Gethsemane for the 144,000 and their great multitude which no man can number. But by clinging to Jesus they will get through this final distress. They have been purified by the first time of trouble, which prepared them for the Latter Rain when they preached the gospel to the whole world. They were further purified by the Latter Rain and the great time of trouble that it spawned among the rebellious, unbelieving wicked. Now their arduous purification process is complete.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matt. 24:29-31).

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Isa. 25:9).

“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” (1Thess. 4:16,17).

“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” (Isa. 25:8,7,6).

“And so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Thess. 4:17).

The Jesuit Papacy

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” (Rev. 17:3).

Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet [indeed] is.

Rev 17:9  And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Rev 17:10  And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

 The seven heads are seven mountains: the city of Rome sat upon seven hills, which anciently were seven high places. Shortly after the flood, while scouting out the northern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, Ham and Cush’s sea-farers discovered the seven hills next to the Tiber River, and they immediately began using these high places for their occult purposes. And there was an eighth hill on the other side of the Tiber. That one, Vaticanus Mons (mount, Vatican Hill), eventually began to be used for special religious purposes to propitiate the gods in behalf of the kings and the people. There were no enemy military threats in those early days. The whole world freely belonged to Ham and Cush, to do as they pleased; and nothing pleased them more than the licentious, the lawless, the spiritualistic. They were isolated from Shem’s and Noah’s righteous government, so they had no fear of the same execution with which Shem had judged, sentenced, and executed Nimrod, their grandson and son.

The Revelation 17:9 prophecy points out that the beast that John saw was a long-lasting occultic power in the earth and would endure to the end—“the beast that was, and is not, and yet is”. It was an apostate religious power, “the great whore” supported by the beast. But it was also a political/military aggressor in the world, which we hear from the second application of the seven heads—“seven kings” (Rev. 17:10)—seven all-controlling empires. So, the seven heads represent religious and political dominions joined into one kingdom—a religio-political power that controlled the old world, but ceased its power when the true church, Protestantism, and its empire, Protestant America, escaped its corrupting, deadly clutches, and then took world dominion by the gift of Jehovah. Nevertheless, Bible prophecy shows that the old religio-political power will return to world domination when it ascends from its God-ordained detention—the bottomless pit. The desolating Vatican and her Jesuit armies will ascend because the true church and its world empire have so departed into drunken Laodicea that it is no longer worthy of providential protection from its old enemy, and it needs the purification that will come with the captivity that attends beast’s restoration from the pit to world dominance.

The blasphemous Beast power had been ascending during the fifth trumpet from 1849-1999, small at first but progressively gathering a host for revenge upon its Protestant contender for world rulership. And then after 2000, and during the sixth trumpet, it will give the mark of the Beast to everyone not sealed.

“The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” (Dan. 7:23).

In the fifth trumpet, the Beast’s kings and princes were voracious locusts that were counted in the millions, which will eventually multiply into the hundreds of millions. I have called the locusts the Society of Jesus—the Jesuit Order, the most dangerous destroyers of peace on Earth and peace with God. They are the abomination of desolation that destroy the earth under the leadership of their king, Satan. “They had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon [Destroyer].” (Rev. 9:11).

The Society of Jesus, in their all-out war to deceive the Protestantism-blessed world, and having abandoned all faith and obedience to God, worship and serve a creature instead of “the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Rom. 1:25). The popes and the Vatican—which from now onward will all be Jesuits—will stand in the holy place. A new Jesuit Vatican, that is, a Vatican of Jesuitry, open and unrestrained, will rule the world in the place of the old, more tamed Vatican that was separate from the Jesuits. The entity that was an arm of the Vatican, an army of the Vatican, an enlisted help-meet to keep the Vatican in power, will now become the Vatican. It has taken over the Vatican. Even before the old Vatican could take back global dominance, the Jesuits took dominance over the Vatican. They are no longer the servant/slave of the aims of the Papacy. They are the Papacy, for Satan’s ensured final overthrow of the old world order that Noah established, and the prophets, apostles, and reformers kept alive. Thus, Satan will break loose upon the world with devouring rage, bringing all the forces of hell to bear against the Protestant free world and the coming Latter Rain. It will be a contest that the protest has never before known in all of its revivals and reformations.

The beast that “was and IS NOT and yet [Gr. “indeed”, “nevertheless”] is” indicates the suppressed Jesuit order and toppled Vatican, both of which went down in the late 1700s until the early 1800s. By all appearances, they “were not”. Surely their overt power to persecute was cut down, even though their covert persecuting power showed itself alive and well in France’s Reign of Terror and in American wars and Presidential assassinations. And soon it will be in power again, “indeed”, in actuality. In actuality during that half century they were underground, alive and well, planning and working, but still restrained by providential protection upon their hated enemy—Bible believing Protestantism, its Protestant nation, its “pestilential” government and U.S. Constitution containing what they unceasingly called, “ravings” of liberty for the people.

And the Protestants freed from papal supremacy and persecution rejoiced.

“Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” (Isa. 14:4-9).

“Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:

Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:

With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:

By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;

Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.

They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.

Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.

Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.” (Eze. 28:2-10).

The abomination of desolation, or “the abomination that maketh desolate” (Dan. 11:31), is where a man puts himself in the place of God (see Dan. 11:36). Calling a man God and worshiping him is the ultimate blasphemy. But, doesn’t the Bible allow for calling a man God?

“I and My Father are one.

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.

Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from My Father; for which of those works do ye stone Me?

The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (John 10:30-34).

Did Jesus call us Gods? Are we Elohim? Or did He call us gods (elohim)? Is it blasphemy to be considered a god, and to accept such honor?

“Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.” (Ex. 22:28). Did God give the title and authority of divinity to earthly rulers? Absolutely not. For the sake of rebellious people God has allowed the rulers to stand in all earthly power, yes. God has given such authority and titles. But with that great privilege comes an equal accountability before Him. According to the Bible, every world leader must write his own personal copy of the Bible, study it daily, and obey it, and promulgate its teachings. Every leader who will transgress God’s laws that protect the people from their leaders, will suffer destruction from the Almighty (see Deuteronomy 17:18-20; 1Sam. 31:1-6).

Has the Vatican ever repented for its ruthless past? No, they haven’t repented because they and their king from the bottomless pit cannot repent. They made excuse for their demonic self-preservation. But, without deep repentance no one is changed. Therefore, the Papacy is bound to repeat its past violence. Like the law binding apostle Paul to his sins, the impenitent Vatican cannot escape the binding of its past.

“God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods.

How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.

But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

Arise, O God, judge the earth: for Thou shalt inherit all nations.” (Ps. 82:1-8).

“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” (Jas. 3:1).

Calling men gods was Jehovah’s tempering the right of heads of state and their governments. Divine right holds only for righteous governments, law-abiding governors whose governments make righteous laws. All forms of totalitarian government the Bible strictly forbids. Naziism, Communism, Socialism, Empires with emperor worship, etc. are strictly denounced and condemned, as Psalm 82 makes plain.

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” (Rom. 13:1-4).

James 3:1, Hebrews 13:17, and Romans 13:1-4 are the farthest thing from an open invitations for Satan to inspire a government to enslave its own people, and to conquer other nations that also have their divine right to sovereignty and national defense against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Any world power that will be an aggressor has no biblical stamp of approval. Let everyone, from the highest to the lowest, “small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Rev. 13:16), “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15), listen to the word from heaven…

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” (Jas. 5:1-6).

“Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!…

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of His hands.…

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope.…

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the Law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.” (Isa. 5:8,11,12,18,20-30).

Nevertheless, the Lord will give Satan opportunity for a little while. Jehovah will give the devil enough rope for him to hang himself. “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition….

And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” (Rev. 17:8,10,11).

The fifth trumpet bottomless pit has opened because of Jehovah’s holy people, His lack-luster Protestant Americans. Jehovah has let loose the worst scourge upon Earth’s inhabitants and will make them captives of perdition. They have given in to the wicked laws of Satan’s kingdom.

“Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.” (Isa. 5:13-17).

And after Jehovah’s people have been thoroughly humbled, thoroughly humbled in a painful Nazi captivity, then He will demolish their captors’ Nazi kingdom.

“And the LORD hath sent unto you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.

They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:

And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke Me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.

Yet ye have not hearkened unto Me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard My words,

Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.” (Jer. 25:4-14).

The Lord will desolate them by punishing them with the removal of all their liberties because they let Satan corrupt them beyond measure and make them desolate with his lawless spiritualism. They have gone too far in their rebellion against their Reformation God. Hardly a thought upon His goodness passes the minds of even the most religious of us. “The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!” (Lam. 5:16). We are no longer worthy of the good life of freedom.

Another biblical blasphemy is arrogating the right to forgive sin.

“When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

Why doth this Man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:5-7).

Didn’t Jesus give His apostles the power to give sinners remission of sin?

“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23).

No, no man can atone for sinners. All that we can do, and we must do, is pray for their conviction and repentance, and God may send us with a message of comfort from Him that He forgave the sinner.

“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isa. 40:1,2).

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us:

And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” (1Jn. 5:12-16).

Christ alone suffered the infinite tonnage of God’s wrath, which made the Sinless One, the Anointed One, more perfect, and qualified Jesus to be “made an High Priest for ever.” (Heb. 6:20). “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him; called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 5:8-10).

No mere man can stand before God without an intercessor—and no mere man can exalt himself so much as to be take the place of our great Intercessor between the sinner and the Almighty God. no mere man ever suffered the infinite wrath of damnation from the eternal God. But all who will evade the great Intercessor sent from the throne of God, either as acting as vicar, priest, or partaker of the priesthood’s propitiatory, substitutionary work, receives the mark of the beast, or the mark of Cain, who did both.

“For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1Tim. 2:5,6).

“Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 5:10) means that Jesus is a heavenly High Priest doing a heavenly work in a heavenly temple to atone and reconcile us to God in heaven.

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1Ki. 8:27).

“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

A Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man….

But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” (Heb. 8:1,2,6).

“But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Heb. 9:11,12).

“Behold the Man whose name is The BRANCH; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the LORD:

Even He shall build the temple of the LORD; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a Priest upon His throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both [Melchisedecan Temple and Davidic Throne, Priesthood and Kingdom].” (Zech. 6:12,13).

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself,

Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 6:13-20).

But, Satan and his favored earthly organization have dared to use religious doctrine to blot out Christ’s heavenly ministry of His blood, which cost Him so great sorrow for His use in our justification and sanctification. And they have substituted pagan sacraments and corrupted men in His place. This was that mysterious little horn of Daniel 7 and 8, the mystery of iniquity, the earthly power that exalted the ancient mysteries of Babylon, the son of perdition, the locusts of the Destroyer, the abomination of desolation.

“And out of one of them [‘the four winds of heaven’ (vs. 8)] came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.

And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.

And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. [Gabriel’s interpretation of this verse: “And through his policy also he shall cause craft (Heb. ‘deceit’, ‘fraud’, ‘craftiness’) to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” (Dan. 8:25).]

Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” (Dan. 8:9-14).

That same little horn would harass God and His angels, and persecute with terrorism the children of God.

“I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire.

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame….

I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom….

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” (Dan. 7:8-11,21,25,26).

At the very end, the beast that was and is not would ascend out of its prison—and has already ascended—from the bottomless pit and will soon go into perdition. “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness” (2Thess. 2:9,10), he will stand in the holy place—in the place of Christ. This antichrist will assume the trappings of divinity, thus thrusting faith out of the hearts of the world. Antichrist will stand in place of Christ.

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” (Heb. 9:24). Thus, Satan and his Jesuit counterpart, the Vicar of Christ, will pretend to be exalted into heaven itself, just before “Jesus” descends from “heaven”, bringing “the hosts of heaven” with “Him”.

“Thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas…” (Eze. 28:2).

Thus, through the traditions of men “with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14), the vile king of the north in Daniel 11 will sit in the seat of God in the glorious holy mountain between the seas (vs. 36,45), and use delusion to cause the nations of earth to bow before him. This eighth king of Revelation 17:10,11 will hold the world breathless until the masterpiece of deception and false worship will be fulfilled when Satan arrives with a contingent of his million shining angels to hold the world in his grip until the true Jesus will come to destroy them all.

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him [the vile king of the north (see Dan. 11:21-23; Dan. 8:9-11]: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” (Dan. 11:40-45).

In the earliest days of the papacy, the bishop of Rome was simply a pastor among other pastors. But eventually the structure of the church modeled that of the Roman Empire, and the church at Rome was then looked upon as needing the same prestige as the capital of the empire. Soon politicking and jockeying for power began among the bishops to obtain the office of bishop of Rome. At first, the bishops were voted in that office by the leaders and people alike. But eventually the appointment of the bishop of Rome was a matter only reserved for the priests. The people were not considered a vital part of the church politic, even though the word politic means the people. So the pope, the bishop of Rome, was exalted in the church, but the office desired more power—power over kings, which it attained by the time of the 13^th century when it reigned over the monarchs of Europe.

“In early times the bishops were elected by the people. By-and-by they came to be elected by the clergy, with consent of the people; but gradually the people were excluded from all share in the matter, first in the Eastern Church, and then in the Western, although traces of popular election are found at Milan so late as the eleventh century. The election of the Bishop of Rome in early times was in no way different from that of other bishops — that is, he was chosen by the people. Next, the consent of the emperor came to be necessary to the validity of the popular choice. Then, the emperor alone elected the Pope. Next, the cardinals claimed a voice in the matter; they elected and presented the object of their choice to the emperor for confirmation. Last of all, the cardinals took the business entirely into their own hands. Thus gradually was the way paved for the full emancipation and absolute supremacy of the Popedom.” The History of Protestantism, p. 10.

“The fortune of war very quickly turned. Henry, the man whom the Pope had so sorely humiliated, became victor in his turn. Gregory died, an exile, on the promontory of Salerno; but his successors espoused his project, and strove by wiles, by arms, and by anathemas, to reduce the world under the scepter of the Papal Theocracy. For well-nigh two dismal centuries the conflict was maintained. How truly melancholy the record of these times! It exhibits to our sorrowing gaze many a stricken field, many an empty throne, many a city sacked, many a spot deluged with blood!

But through all this confusion and misery the idea of Gregory was perseveringly pursued, till at last it was realized, and the miter was beheld triumphant over the empire. It was the fortune or the calamity of Innocent III. (1198-1216) to celebrate this great victory. Now it was that the pontifical supremacy reached its full development. One man, one will again governed the world. It is with a sort of stupefied awe that we look back to the thirteenth century, and see in the foreground of the receding storm this Colossus, uprearing itself in the person of Innocent III., on its head all the miters of the Church, and in its hand all the scepters of the State. "In each of the three leading objects which Rome has pursued," says Hallam — "independent sovereignty, supremacy over the Christian Church, control over the princes of the earth it was the fortune of this pontiff to conquer." "Rome," he says again, "inspired during this age all the terror of her ancient name; she was once more mistress of the world, and kings were her vassals." She had fought a great fight, and now she celebrated an unequaled triumph.

Innocent appointed all bishops; he summoned to his tribunal all causes, from the gravest affairs of mighty kingdoms to the private concerns of the humble citizen. He claimed all kingdoms as his fiefs, all monarchs as his vassals; and launched with unsparing hand the bolts of excommunication against all who withstood his pontifical will. Hildebrand's idea was now fully realized. The pontifical supremacy was beheld in its plenitude — the plenitude of spiritual power, and that of temporal power. It was the noon of the Papacy; but the noon of the Papacy was the midnight of the world.” Ibid. p. 11.

Now kings were humbled before the popes. Now one man was sole ruler of Christendom. But that wasn’t satisfactory. Satan wanted one man to rule the whole world, so that he himself could rule over the whole world. Satan wanted Earth to have no human ruler made in God’s image, and no nation under His constitutions that give their people inalienable rights, to be free, but rather, warred upon and decimated to the point of their capitulation, or their holocaust.

By the time of the 16^th century, popedom was challenged by the Reformation and a new force was enlisted—the holy Society of Jesus—the Jesuit Order. “At this time the order of the Jesuits was created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery. Cut off from earthly ties and human interests, dead to the claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly silenced, they knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend its power.” Great Controversy, p. 234.

Now the popes were wholly reliant on an order that required all authority and trust from the Vatican to fend off the powers of God through Protestantism. That battle has continued to this day, but with renewed fanatical zeal since the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773 and reinstated in 1814. Then in 1849 the fifth trumpet gave them new opportunity to wreak havoc in the earth when gold was discovered in California, which gave life to the lust for filthy lucre that had been lurking in the pretended uprightness and circumspection of the apostate Protestant Americans. Soon afterwards, the Adventists’ Sabbath Conferences ended with the message of soon-coming judgment and with newly understood distinctive doctrines that would give them the spiritual armor necessary for the battle against the Jesuit plan to totally obliterate the Protestants’ faith in their holy God.

But, with equal power given from the Vatican to the black pope and his army, that left the beast power with two leaders, two heads—the white pope with spiritual power to destroy, and the black pope with temporal power to destroy. Satan’s ultimate goal was to have all power concentrated in “one man, one will”, and himself over that one man, possessing that one man and working through him. Then the Vatican would perfectly mirror Satan’s kingdom of darkness, and receive his full approval and power. Then, the eighth king of the beast would have full sway over the world, as in the days of Innocent III, Julius Caesar, Ham, Cush, Nimrod, all the way back to Cain, the first great Pontifex Maximus.

Today, we have that sole holder of spiritual and temporal power. Today the Jesuits have gained control of the highest spiritual seat in the Vatican and in the hearts of a billion people. But, Satan will not be satisfied until all 7.6 billion of the world’s population will be subject to the world dominating power of Jesuitism, that wicked order which will never relinquish the “seat of God” (Eze. 28:2) until Satan arrives to impersonate Christ’s second coming. Satan can’t trust any other order to fulfill his plan. It will be a Jesuit dictator of the whole world who will announce the arrival of “Christ” to Earth. It will be the eighth head of the beast, the Jesuit Vatican and its seventh horn, the United States of Christian America lording over the Jesuit enslaved planet Earth. This Jesuit empire has ascended out of the bottomless pit and soon “shall go into perdition.” (Rev. 17:8).

“Jesuitism inspired its followers with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re-establishment of the papal supremacy.

     When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed. It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of nations. They became servants to act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind and dazzle and captivate the imagination, and thus the liberty for which the fathers had toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery.

     To give them greater power, a bull was issued re-establishing the inquisition. Notwithstanding the general abhorrence with which it was regarded, even in Catholic countries, this terrible tribunal was again set up by popish rulers, and atrocities too terrible to bear the light of day were repeated in its secret dungeons. In many countries, thousands upon thousands of the very flower of the nation, the purest and noblest, the most intellectual and highly educated, pious and devoted pastors, industrious and patriotic citizens, brilliant scholars, talented artists, skillful artisans, were slain or forced to flee to other lands.

     Such were the means which Rome had invoked to quench the light of the Reformation, to withdraw from men the Bible, and to restore the ignorance and superstition of the Dark Ages.” Great Controversy, p. 234, 235.

The following reveals the demonic, spellbinding psychology of the Jesuit order. By attaching divine will to the Jesuit masters, jesuitry creates a “prompt, joyous and persevering” assassin, Inquisitor, and disrupter of societies and nations. Combining the divine and human in each link of the Jesuit chain of command makes a Jesuit soldier 100% complicit, and joyfully so, when accomplishing all the plans of “God” and “holy” men. But, the “holy” men aren’t really holy; and “God” isn’t really God.

“‘The mainspring of the whole organization of the society is a spirit of entire obedience: “Let each one,” writes St. Ignatius, “persuade himself that those who live under obedience ought to allow themselves to be moved and directed by divine providence through their superiors, just as though they were a dead body, which allows itself to be carried anywhere and to be treated in any manner whatever, or as an old man’s staff, which serves him who holds it in his hand in whatsoever way he will.”

     ‘This absolute submission is ennobled by its motive, and should be, continues the… founder, “prompt, joyous and persevering;... The obedient religious accomplishes joyfully that which his superiors have confided to him for the general good, assured that thereby he corresponds truly with the divine will.”’”—The Comtesse De Courson, in Concerning Jesuits, page 6.” Great Controversy, p. 686.

This should give us a clearer vision of the final dark kingdom that Bible prophecies call “perdition”. The following phrases in the next paragraph all come from quotations quoted in this blog post. These abbreviated phrases characterize the kingdom of perdition that has ascended out of the bottomless pit and will crescendo into a nefarious, inhuman, humanity-wide governance that has gathered strength of wickedness for more than 4,500 years of license and blasphemy against Jehovah and His children. The following paints a picture of the brutal totalitarianism of Earth’s final, global dictatorship, in religious and governmental arenas, in social and occupational.

“Cut off from earthly ties and human interests”, “dead to the claims of natural affection”, “reason and conscience wholly silenced”, “know[ing] no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend its power”. “Uphold[ing] the banner of falsehood”, “oppos[ing] to the power of truth all the weapons of deception”. “No crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume”. “Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility” yet aim to “secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re-establishment of the papal supremacy”. “When appearing as members of their order, wear[ing] a garb of sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of Jesus, who went about doing good”. “But [concealed] under this blameless exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes”. “A fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means”. “Lying, theft, perjury, assassination,…pardonable…commendable”. “Climbing up to be the counselors of kings”, “shaping the policy of nations”. “[Establish] colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common people. “Re-establishing the inquisition”, “this terrible tribunal…set up by popish rulers”, “atrocities too terrible to bear the light of day…repeated in its secret dungeons.” “In many countries, thousands upon thousands of the very flower of the nation, the purest and noblest, the most intellectual and highly educated, pious and devoted pastors, industrious and patriotic citizens, brilliant scholars, talented artists, skillful artisans,…slain or forced to flee to other lands.” “Such were the means which Rome had invoked to quench the light of the Reformation, to withdraw from men the Bible, and to restore the ignorance and superstition of the Dark Ages.”

“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” (Dan. 7:21,22).

“But under God’s blessing and the labors of those noble men whom He had raised up to succeed Luther, Protestantism was not overthrown. Not to the favor or arms of princes was it to owe its strength. The smallest countries, the humblest and least powerful nations, became its strongholds. It was little Geneva in the midst of mighty foes plotting her destruction; it was Holland on her sandbanks by the northern sea, wrestling against the tyranny of Spain, then the greatest and most opulent of kingdoms; it was bleak, sterile Sweden, that gained victories for the Reformation.” Great Controversy, p. 235.

Neither will the Latter Rain be overcome. Behold, darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But the Lord will arise upon you. His glory will be seen on you. And hearts uncircumcised will come to your light, and kings will come to the brightness of your rising.

“Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” (Mal. 4:2).