A Number
a year, a starting point, a date. Nearly all products have a mark or a date marking the beginning of its existence. A beast will also have a starting point and in most cases an end point. There could be an exception. One was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. How do we identify a beast?
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A Connection
between Daniel and John. A common beast. Daniel knows beasts and John knows Daniel. John’s beast is like a leopard, a bear, and a lion. They all had something in common. Like the temple. The first destroyed the first temple. The second desecrated the second. The third destroyed the second. The fourth is preventing the third. Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Islam.
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A Beast
in the making. Daniel has four beasts but only two temples. Babylon destroyed the first one. Greece desecrated the second. Rome destroyed the second. Islam is preventing the third. What is in the holy place now? The Dome of the Rock. That makes four.
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A Fit
with historical events that need to be consistent with Daniel based on “ten horns”. The beasts of the Apocalypse are connected to those of Daniel. With so many candidates, how did Daniel come up with just four. It just might have something to do with the temple. Who messed with the temple?
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A Key
to understanding the Apocalypse. Daniel knows beasts. John knows Daniel. Your interpretation of what John wrote should be consistent with what Daniel wrote. Daniel understood by books the number of the years. Bible translators agree on numbers. No interpretation necessary. A good place to start. Start with big numbers.
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A Folly
according to Newton. What is your interpretation based on? The bible? Which translation? There are 59 different English translations plus revisions. They don’t agree. The differences are significant. Many are uncomfortable with the word interpretation because somehow they understand the original intent of the written word. Who or what can you believe?
A Number
or I should say the word number. Found it in Daniel and it referred to years. I then searched history to find out what happened in the year 666. Nothing. I did find Islam was getting ready to attack Constantinople the capital of a Christian empire that would last a thousand years where they reigned with Christ. Not a bad start.
A Cottage Industry
that goes beyond home bible studies. It uses private interpretation of ambiguous phases in prophecy to support a particular agenda. It ignores two thousand years of history simply because it doesn’t fit with preconceived interpretations. History is the only advantage we have over the early fathers of the Church so why not use it? How can we use prophecy to search history without first interpreting it? Numbers. Numbers and possibly colors don’t require interpretation. Start with numbers. Big numbers like a thousand.
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A Bigger Problem
compared to the problem with interpretation if you are looking for the king of the north. There are eight different words in 52 different translations: princes 24, commanders 10, officers 7, officials 5, generals 2, leaders 2, principalities 1, subordinates 1. The word prince suggests a family member unlike the other seven words which have a common meaning. Makes you wonder about words used in other parts of the bible. These are major differences in words used before you get to the problem of interpreting them. Reader beware.
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A Historian
who did not appreciate interpretation. “The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretel times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men’s curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.”
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apocalypse 