The King James Version 

A Public Domain

but that is not the main reason I use it.  I want to have a dialogue with the protestants and their preferred bible is the King James Version.  The KJV has a number of errors but they are not show stoppers unless you are looking for historical events that fulfill prophecy.  That is another post.
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.

“refined, purified, and tested”‘ 

A Unique Phrase 

in my bible and my favorite.  Search Bible Gateway for Daniel 12:10.  Then click on 
Daniel 12:10 in all English translations.  Search for the word ‘tested’ and you will find it in only one translation, the NABRE. You will find ‘tried’ in 9 translations, ‘purified’ in 30 translations, and ‘refined’ in 31 translations.  The word that most accurately describes what we are doing here is the word ‘tested’.  Our free will is being tested.
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.

he or it 

A Translation Issue

if you are looking for a beast. Your bible could have as many as 296 beasts or as few as 87.  There are 20 translations that consider the beast in Revelation 13:1 a he and 37 translations call it an it.  This is a significant difference.  Daniel 7:7 can help us here.  The fourth beast is an it in all 52 translations.  It has ten horns just like the beast in Revelation.  If your translation has a he for a beast, you are being misled.
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.

research books

A List

of books used in 20 years of research.  Over 60 books about the Apocalypse, the Byzantine empire, and Islam.  Not a complete list:

Angold, Michael ”Byzantium” St. Martin’s Press
Armstrong, Karen ”Islam – A Short History” Modern Library
Armstrong, Karen “Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet”
Augustine “City of God”
Aune, David ”Revelation” 
Baur, Chrysostomus ”John Chrysostom and His Time” 
Beale, G ”The Book of Revelation” 
Beckwith ”Apocalyse of John” 
Brown, R “The Jerome Biblical Commentary” Prentice Hall
Butler, Daniel ”The First Jihad” Casemate Publishers
Byron, Robert ”The Byzantine Achievement” 
Capponi, Niccolo “Victory of The West” Da Capo Press
Charles, R ”Studies in the Apocalypse” Wipf and Stock Publishers
Durant, Will ”Caesar and Christ” MJF Books
Emmerson, Richard ”The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages” Cornell
Esposito, John ”The Oxford History of Islam” Oxford University Press
Finkel, Caroline ”Osman’s Dream” Perseus Books Group
Ford, Josephine ”Revelation” 
Freely, John ”Istanbul – The Imperial City” Viking – Penguin Books USA
Fregosi, Paul ”Jihad in the West” Prometheus Books
Gibbon, Edward ”The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” 
Glubb, John ”A Short History of the Arab Peoples” Dorset Press
Grant, Michael ”The Roman Emperors” Barnes & Noble
Gregg, Steve ”Revelation – Four Views” Thomas Nelson Publishers
Gwynn, John ”The Apocalypse of St. John” APA – Philo Press Amsterdam
Haldon, J ”Byzantium in the Seventh Century” 
Harris, Jonathan “Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium” Hambledon Continuum
Haussig, H ”A History of Byzantine Civilization” 
Herrin, Judith ”Byzantium” Princeton University Press
Hopkins, T. C. F. ”Empires, Wars, and Battles” Tom Doherty Associates
Hourani, Albert “A History of the Arab Peoples”
Jerome “The Letters of Saint Jerome”
Johns, Jeremy “The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity”
Kaegi, Walter ”Army, Society and Religion in Byzantium” 
Kaegi, Walter ”Byzantium and the early Islam conquests” Cambridge
Krey, Philip ”Nicholas of Lyra’s Apocalypse Commentary” 
Lecky, William ”History of European Morals” 
Lewis, Bernard ”The Crisis of Islam” Modern Library
Maier, Paul ”Eusebius – The Church History” Kregel Publications
Mango, Cyril ”The Oxford History of Byzantium” Oxford University Press
Mazower, Mark “The Balkans – A Short History” Modern Library
Miceli, Vincent ”The Antichrist” Roman Catholic Books
Newton, Isaac “The Prophecies of Daniel and The Apocalypse (1733)”
Norwich, John ”Byzantium – The Early Centuries” Alfred A. Knopf
O’Shea, Stephen ”Sea of Faith” Walker and Company
Ostrogorsky, George ”History of the Byzantine State” Rutgers Univ Press
Pagden, Anthony ”Worlds at War” Random House
Palmer, Andrew ”The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles” 
Payne, Robert ”The History of Islam” Dorset Press
Pipes, Daniel ”Militant Islam Reaches America” W. W. Norton & Company
Regan, Geoffrey ”First Crusader – Byzantium’s Holy Wars” 
Reston, James “Defenders of the Faith”
Ross, Daveed ”My Year Inside Radical Islam” Penguin
Schatkin, Margaret ”Saint John Chrysostom – Apologist” 
Thompson, Leonard ”The Book of Revelation” Oxford University Press
Treadgold, Warren ”A History of the Byzantine State and Society” 
Victorinus “Commentary on the Apocalypse”
Vryonis, Speros “Byzantium and Europe” 
Whittow, Mark “The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025”
Weinrich, Willliam ”Revelation, Ancient Christian Commentary” 
Wells, Colin “Sailing from Byzantium” Delacorte Press
Worth, Roland ”The Seven Cities of the Apocalypse and Greco-Asian”
Young, George “Constantinople” Barnes & Noble Books  
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.

numbers and history 

A Key

that opens the door to understanding the fulfillment of prophecy.  Your interpretation is no better than theirs.  Stick with the literal sense and see where it takes you.  We have history that the early fathers didn’t have.  We have numbers that don’t need interpretation.  We will always have the future for those who ignore the history that doesn’t fit their interpretation.  
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.

Daniel 

A Link

to the Apocalypse.  Your views on the Apocalypse should be consistent with Daniel.  The “ten horns” ties the two together and suggests the fourth beast of Daniel is the second beast of the Apocalypse.  Babylon, Greece, and Rome all had something to do with the temple which makes them all a beast.  We shall see that the fourth beast also has something to do with the temple.
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.

Saladin 

A Little Horn 

before whom there were three of the first horns.  Saladin came out the Fatimid Caliphate, the fourth of ten Islamic dynasties, and would start the fifth, the Ayyubid dynasty.  We also have the Battle of the Horns of Hama and the Battle of the Horns of Hattin.  Saladin was involved in both of them.  He not only beat the crusaders, he beat Richard the Lionheart.  It’s a fit.  
Watch for more pieces that fit.  Blessed is the one who looks.