The Future of Europe

They're in the emergency holding on public debt. They should be not far behind. And then there's Ireland and Portugal also seem to be in that same mess, which leads to the unfortunate acronym of PIGS. I'm not sure who came up with that, but I started hearing about the pigs nation. What's going on with that? And then put it all together. Now, reports indicate that if they do default, it could be very serious.

And it could affect us here. It could cause the United States economy to go back into an economic depression, even more serious than we've had. Now, and aside from hearing it in the news, you might have noticed our church literature deals with this quite a bit. The latest Good News article, the latest Good News magazine, had a couple of articles on Greece's debt problems alone.

That's because Greece is part of the European Union, part of what's called the Eurozone. I'm going to look here. So if I look, I'm looking over here at the screen. I'm trying to see what I'm showing you. I have to apologize. Well, I'm not going to apologize, but just to explain. It's one of my first sermons where I've prepared a PowerPoint to go with it. So you'll see me looking back and forth. You'll bear with me. But because Greece is part of that European, you know, part of the European zone where the one currency is in use, it turns out that even a small country like Greece is tucked down in the corner.

If it defaults on its loans, then it's going to cause problems for all of Europe. And the Good News magazine recognizes the potential harm to the United States economy if there are economic problems in Europe. But have you noticed that these articles keep talking about the political ramifications? And have you wondered about that? Why talking about the politics in Europe? We've got enough problems with our own politics here. Well, there are a number of potential scenarios of what could happen with Greece. By the way, I scanned the internet for hours finding these different graphics that I could steal.

Actually, it's not stealing, it's borrowing because it's for an educational purpose. So I'm not violating any copyright laws as long as we're not making money off of this. But there are different potentialities. Perhaps Germany and the other richer countries will bail out Greece and the others once again. But it'll be a temporary fix and we'll keep hearing about it again and again. Potentially, the Eurozone could fall apart completely.

They could abandon the Euro and that would lead to a much less united Europe. Perhaps things would go back to the way they were in the 1920s. On the other hand, some of the stronger countries of stronger economies could bind more closely together and expel those with the weaker economies. That would lead to a much stronger union. Perhaps even becoming one large government. But again, you might ask, so what? Why is the church so hung up on what's going on with Europe?

Now, I say that somewhat facetiously. I think many of us know the answer. But I will say, I keep reminding myself, we have younger members of the church for whom this is not a long story that they've heard over and over again. I want you to keep in mind that what's review for some of us is new and hopefully very interesting for others. But why is the church so focused on Europe?

The answer is because it's there that we look for fulfillment of some very important prophecies. When those prophecies start being fulfilled, there's a good chance that the return of Jesus Christ will be coming soon after. So it's worth us paying attention.

To explain what I'm talking about, why the church is so long focused on what's going on in Europe, we're going to have to go to the book of Revelation. And we're going to have to answer an age-old question. Who or what is the prophetic beast? Yes, I borrowed it right off of one of our old booklets. Let's go to Revelation 13. Let's put this together. Revelation 13, verse 1. Now, remember, this is the Apostle John near the end of his life. He's on the island of Patmos, and he's been seeing visions.

We're breaking into the middle of the book. But here at one point, he sees something very unusual. He says, I stood on the sand of the sea, that is on the beach, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

Now, we're going to describe this later, but here's one rendition of what that could look like. Now, we might say, well, John, he was going senile, or he'd eaten some strange mushrooms, or of course, we don't believe that. We believe God was giving him a vision. Why it matters to us, let's skip ahead to verse 7. Now, there's more to this, but let's go to a quick answer of why we should be concerned. In verse 7, it says, it was granted to him, that is to the beast, to make war with the saints, that is us, and to overcome them.

And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life, of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the earth.

So, it matters a great deal. This beast is going to make war on God's people, and it's going to have power over all the earth. Now, you might have ascertained the fact that we're in the middle of Revelation, should indicate that this is an end-time prophecy. So, I'm not going to go into Scripture right now to show that it is, but the Scriptures that we'll look at through the course of the sermon, will lead us to see that this is the fulfillment of an end-time prophecy. But first, it would do us well to learn a little bit more about this beast.

What makes it so powerful that it will overcome the saints? Now, we've already seen... well, actually, yeah, we read that it had seven heads and ten horns. Given that this is the book of Revelation, we can almost presume that those have prophetic meaning. There was not an actual beast that looked like this that John saw, or if there was, it existed only temporarily.

But let's learn a bit more about it. Let's go back to chapter 13 and read verse 2. And you'll see it illustrated here. Now, the beast which I saw was like a leopard. So, it had the body of a leopard. His feet were like the feet of a bear. So, bear paws. The mouth was the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And when it says the dragon on my Bible, it's just across the page in Revelation 12 verse 9, reminds us that the dragon is actually Satan the devil. Now, if we go on here in verse 3, I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded.

But its deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. So, they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? He was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And he was given authority to continue 42 months.

Now, people have, over the years, and people continue to speculate, What in the world is this? John saw a creature that one artist shows it looking like this.

And theologians and serious scholars have come up with all kinds of things that it could represent. Perhaps it represents the church. Perhaps it represents a particular government. Perhaps it represents particular people.

The book of Revelation doesn't give us an explanation.

But we Christians know that the Bible interprets the Bible. So, if we want to know what it means, it would do us well to look somewhere in Scripture to find an explanation. And we can if we turn back to the book of Daniel. I'm going to go there right away. Daniel chapter 7. And by the way, I should have said this if you haven't already turned. We're going to be coming back here to Revelation and going back and forth between Revelation and Daniel quite a bit. So, if you have a marker or something you just want to stick in there that will help you, feel free to do that.

And I won't do that, so I won't be getting there too far ahead of you.

We're going to find something very similar, a similar experience that John had. And remember, John saw his beast hundreds of years after Daniel. But let's read in Daniel chapter 7. Daniel is also going to see a vision.

In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. And he wrote down the dream. So, Daniel wasn't standing on the beach and seeing a vision, but he had a dream that he was. He said, Daniel spoke and saying, In my vision by night, behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. So, John was standing on the beach, Daniel sees the sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.

The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. So, Daniel sees a lion with eagle's wings.

Suddenly, another beast, a second like a bear, was it was raised up. On one side, it had three ribs in its mouth and between its teeth, and they said to it, Arise, devour much flesh.

After this, I looked, and another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird, and the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

Now, I should mention, I told you, I scoured the internet. I was astounded how many artist renderings of these beasts there are. Lots and lots of them. As a matter of fact, I'm mentioning that now because the fourth beast, Daniel doesn't tell us what it is. He just says, I saw a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible. So, I'm going to have a few versions of what that might look like. But he says, the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong, and had huge iron teeth. In this case, it's a triceratops.

I think, I'm not sure, but...

And the devouring and breaking in pieces, trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had 10 horns.

Now, I'm going to stop there.

But do we see some similarities with Revelation 13 with these four beasts?

I hope we can.

Now, let's skip down to chapter, or to verse 15 of Daniel 7. Because so far, John saw a beast that was very unusual. Daniel has seen four different beasts. But still, what do they mean? They're just strange animals until we read verse 15. Here it says, I, Daniel, grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. And I came to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings. Or, in my margin, says, or kingdoms, which shall arise out of the earth.

So we see, beasts represent kingdoms. Or, knowing the history, we could use the term empires. Meaning ruling more than one ethnic group.

Larger government. Here, as in Revelation 13, these beasts, these kingdoms, don't get along with God's people. Let's see, I stopped short of...

In verse 18, But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever and ever.

I'm looking at the computer, yeah. Let me read a little further.

And I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was exceedingly different from all others, exceedingly dreadful. Let's see a different version. This one isn't quite as realistic, but...

It had teeth of iron, its nails of bronze, which devoured in broken pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet. And the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up before, which... before which three fell. That horn, which had eyes and a mouth, which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than its fellows. I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them. Remember, we read about the beast in Revelation 13 made war against the saints.

And this comes to an end, though. It says, until the ancient of days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High. And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Thus, he said, the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on the earth. Let me see if I have another version. Oh, yeah. Here's another version. I like this one a little better. Actually, I think this version might have appeared in one of our booklets at one time. The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth. Trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings, who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall arise after them, he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. The saints shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court shall be sealed, and they shall take away his dominion to consume it forever.

Yes.

Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms of the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom, that is, that of the Most High, is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion shall serve and obey him.

So, as I said, we see these beasts represent different kingdoms, as in Revelation 13.

But the question could be, do I have them side by side? Four beasts of Daniel 7, one beast of Revelation 13.

The similarity should be pretty clear. Now, we know that these represent four kingdoms, that, you know, governments of men. But where?

When?

All four at once?

Or at different times and places? That's something that's not told us right here. But we can get more information if we continue to look in the Bible for overlap and parallel. If the Bible interprets the Bible, we could apply that to Daniel even more so. The book of Daniel interprets the book of Daniel fairly well. Let's turn ahead to chapter 2 of Daniel.

We have a fair bit of reading and scripture in this early part, but we want to put these visions together. Daniel 2, of course, is a story of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon, a great empire, one of the first large empires in human history. And he has this troubling dream, of course. Well, I shouldn't say, of course. He has a troubling dream, but he doesn't either.

I've always wondered, did he really not remember? Or did he just tell the magicians and soothsayers that he didn't remember so that he'd tell them, you have to tell me what the dream was. And they're saying, how can we tell you what the dream was? You tell us and we'll tell you an interpretation. But he said, no, you tell me the dream and then the interpretation, then I'll know that you really have some insight. So let's pick it up in Daniel 2, because what happens is they can't tell the dream and interpretation, but God gives the revelation to Daniel. We'll begin reading in verse 31, which for me is on the preceding page.

You, O king, were watching, and behold, a great image, this great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome. The image's head was a fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, and partly of clay. Here's one artist's rendering of that. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron and the clay and the bronze and the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. The stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream. Now, we will tell the interpretation. You, O king, are a king of kings. Let me see if I've got another version of this one. This one's a little more clear.

For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength. He's speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian Empire. Wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven, He has given them into your hand as made you ruler over them. Remember, we discussed that last week. Nobody gets in a position of power without God causing it or allowing it to happen. But after you, not concurrently, but one after the other, after you will arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over the earth, and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, and as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of iron potters clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay. And the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle the seed of men, but they won't adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and will stand forever. And as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God is made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain. The interpretation is sure.

A lot of reading there, but this answers some of our questions. We can see a parallel.

Each vision that God gave to Daniel, well, God gave one to Nebuchadnezzar, and then gave Daniel the understanding of that vision and interpretation, represent four kingdoms. Now we can understand that they come sequentially. The first was Babylon. Then one would follow after that. Then another after that. Then a fourth. And we know that for this prophecy to be fulfilled as described, when the final prophecy, when it's finally done, will be at the time of Jesus Christ's return, when the kingdom is turned over to the saints.

So here, interestingly, I believe, at the time that God stopped working with Israel as a separate nation, first Israel was taken into captivity, then the kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon. When God stopped working with Israel as a nation, he gave a framework of what was going to happen until the time of Christ's return, covering hundreds, even thousands of years.

Now, a simple study of the history of western civilization will show that the next empire after the Babylonian was the Medo-Persian. After that came the Greek and then Roman. But just in case we're not sure what God was revealing, he showed Daniel more animals representing kingdoms in Daniel chapter 8. So you don't have to take my word for it. Let's go to Daniel 8.

I guess he's going to get more specific. So far, we've only identified from Scripture that the first kingdom would be Babylon.

So let's read Daniel 8.

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. And I saw in the vision, it so happened while I was looking, I was in Shushan, the citadel that was in the province of Eom. I saw the vision. I lifted my eyes and saw there standing by the river a ram that had two horns. And the two horns were high.

One was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. And I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, southward, so that no animal could withstand against him, nor was there any who could deliver from his hand. He did according to his will and became great. And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground. That goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

He came to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. I saw him confronting the ram, and he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him. So there was no one who could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore, the male goat grew very great. But when he became strong, the large horn was broken. And in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven.

Now, I'm going to skip ahead from there, because we want to go to the interpretation of this, and we'll see how it will match with what we already know. Verse 19.

Here, Daniel is being revealed some of this meaning.

And he said, Look, I'm making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation, for at the appointed time the end shall be. The ram which you saw having two horns, they are the kings of Medea and Persia, or Medea. And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors...

Actually, I don't want to go further in there, because it gets into more detail about those. But again, we know from history that Alexander the Great conquered the greatest empire that had ever been to that time.

But he died when he was young. He was only in his 30s, and he didn't have a male heir. So his four leading generals divided up his kingdom, and the four areas. Now, the two of them became more powerful than others. The two that would end up with the most influence would be the Syrian to the north and Egyptian to the south. And those prophetic names, King of the North and King of the South, would be featured prominently in Daniel 11 in that long prophecy. They'll go somewhat dormant for a while, but then be revived at the end of the age.

So the prophecies of Daniel make it clear that God was going to establish four successive kingdoms or empires. See if that's what I have next.

Put some of these visions together.

From the book of Daniel, we learn the first kingdom was Babylon, represented by the head of gold or by a lion that had wings and then stood upright. The second would be the Medo-Persian, represented by the silver chest and arms, or by the bear or by a ram. The third would be the Greek, the bronze kingdom, represented by the leopard for its speed. And therefore, we see four wings and four heads, representing the four kings that divided up Alexander's conquest. The Bible never tells us the name of the fourth kingdom.

But history makes it clear that the fourth kingdom must have been the Roman Empire. It would follow the Greek Empire. The Roman Empire was strong, authoritarian, and it did not just succeed the other empires, it absorbed them and included their territory and took from the best features or the most effective features of their culture.

So that must be why when Daniel saw the fourth beast in Daniel 7, he didn't say it was such and such animal as he did with the others, he just said it's a different kind of beast.

Let me see, do I have a...

I think it was this beast. Perhaps the same beast that John saw, having characteristics of all those were before it, had a body like a leopard, the leopard's speed. It had the paws of a bear.

And this is the animal that John saw in Revelation 13. The power of a bear's arms and claws, and the jaws of a lion to bite and tear like a lion. So I said, if you go to Revelation 13, you'll see the very beast that would encompass all of what Daniel saw. Only John saw it with all seven heads.

Daniel had seen those seven heads distributed over four beasts, remembering, of course, that the leopard had four heads.

That brings us, I believe, an answer to the question.

Who or what is the beast? It's the Roman Empire.

Took me a long time to get to that, but I wanted to show it and prove it from Scripture. Now, there are some places in Revelation where we'll see the leader of that empire, sometimes referred to as the beast. That's not wrong. Remember, when Daniel talked to Nebuchadnezzar, he said, you are the head of gold. But we know it was the Babylonian Empire that was the head of gold, represented by the lion. So whoever is leading this Roman Empire at the end of the age, which we're going to have to explain how that could be, because we know Rome felt something like 1500 years ago. That leader could also be known as the beast.

But this answer is only worth knowing if we use that information to learn what's going to happen next.

Because understanding of John's vision, saying this beast represents the Roman Empire, that doesn't mean, okay, now we're going to learn about marble statues and study Latin and great Roman literature. Now, we want to understand the prophecy of what happened to this beast, and what's meant by having a wound and then recovering.

And then one of my favorite questions, what's the deal with all those horns? All these beasts have an abnormal number of horns.

Let's turn back to Revelation 13 and reread that. Revelation 13, you're not already back there.

By the way, I believe yes. Roman Empire. Now, if John saw this, I'm not sure how their map making was at that day. I'm not sure if he would have said, oh, it's the Roman Empire, or if he would have been just as mystified by seeing this as he was by the beast. But let's see. Revelation 13, we'll read the description again. When I stood on the sand of the sea, I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns.

On his horns, ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now, the beast I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of those heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and its deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled.

Now, one of the things I'll make a point.

If six of these heads represent kingdoms that already have come and gone, the head that must have been in existence when John saw it represented that of the Roman Empire. So I believe if there's a head that receives a mortal wound, it would be the Roman Empire itself. It wouldn't make sense to say, well, the Babylonian Empire had a mortal wound and then was healed. Now, we have to be talking about Rome. Does history show that the Roman Empire, or at least its head, was ever mortally wounded and then came back?

Well, it does. The Roman Empire, after standing for approximately 500 years, fell at approximately 476 AD. But it would soon afterwards be revived. And it turns out that for centuries afterwards, many rulers in Europe wanted to model their kingdoms after Rome. Most of the rulers wanted to be Caesar.

And which, if you ever wondered, I'm embarrassed to say I studied history for years and years before I understood the meaning of the monarch of Russia. Now, they don't have a monarch, but remember they had the Tsars. Well, Tsar is just a different form of saying Caesar.

And the Kaiser in Germany is using a hard K instead of a soft C, but it means Caesar.

Now, before I go on, when it talks about all the world worshiping the beast, as in verse 4 there, it says, They worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who's like the beast? Who's able to make war with him? It had been common practice in the Roman Empire for Caesar to be worshiped as a type of god or demigod. This was to acknowledge the supremacy of the Empire, just as much as the stroke is ego. It was required, whether people liked it or not, to worship Rome, to worship the Empire.

Going on from there, I said, they worshiped the beast in its image. In verse 5, He was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. He was given authority to continue 42 months. That's 42 months after the wound and then the recovery.

If we want to understand this prophecy of the beast recovering from the wound, and if or how that fits into history, we're going to have to go back to Daniel 7. Because, as I said, I'm equating the fourth beast in Daniel 7 with this beast. So let's go back to Daniel 7.

Maybe I should have marked it.

Daniel 7 will begin in verse 23. The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms. That fits.

It shall devour the whole earth and trample and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. I want to emphasize the from, not within.

And another shall arise after them. Another that's not one of the ten, he shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings, and speak pompous words against the Most High and persecute the saints of the Most High.

Our first instinct might be to look in Roman history for a period when there were ten different kings or kingdoms that make up the empire.

Was the empire ever divided and had four main parts? Well, actually, I was looking at this map at one point and started counting. Now, there's way more than that. We don't find ten kings together in Roman history. We do find that at one point the empire would be divided into east and west and ruled somewhat separately.

Well, if we can't find ten contemporaneous kingdoms as part of the Roman Empire, should we look for ten successive ones?

As I said, the Roman Empire stood for 500 years. There were a lot more than just ten.

And the sense that I get from prophecy, and what we actually know of history, is that this won't just be ten... it'll be ten kingdoms, not individual kings. In other words, full-fledged independent governments.

That means maybe we should look into history and see if this could hold up where I emphasize that the ten horns coming from that head, meaning I think they would arise up afterwards.

This is the part where I wasn't sure if I was going to make it clear.

But let's consider what happened in history. After the fall of Rome, now Rome fell because it was attacked by what we call pagan tribes from outside. Three of them would take turns ruling what had been part of the Roman Empire. Now, as you see in the south there, the Vandals ruled much of the Empire from even before Rome itself fell. They took over the southern part from 429 and ruled there until 533.

Now, another one, the Haryalae.

As I said, I borrowed from a lot of different maps, but it would have been nice to have one uniform map with its markings, but this gives a lot of variety. And as we know, variety is the spice of life. The Haryalae ruled Rome from 476 AD until 493, and they were replaced by the Ostrogoths, who if you were looking carefully, you saw in that earlier map. And the Visigoths were lumped in there also.

They ruled from 493 to 554.

And these, we see three kingdoms ruling the Empire, but they weren't cooperating with the dragon, as we know, the dragon being represented by a great church. What would happen next is all of these are pushed aside in 554, when the ruler of the eastern part of the Empire, sometimes known as Byzantium, Justinian, regained control of most of the Empire.

So in 554, Emperor Justinian, headquartered in what's now known as Constantinople, gained control of the Western Empire, and he did so partly by reaching an agreement of cooperation with the so-called Christian Church, headquartered at Rome. He recognized the supremacy of the Pope, and thereby cemented their future. From that time forward, the Catholic Church would extend tremendous influence over all governments and what we call Europe, the sphere of the Roman Empire.

Now, if we think of the horns of Daniel 7 as representing succeeding kingdoms coming out of the original Roman Empire, then we've got the first three would have been those pagan kingdoms that we mentioned, the Vandals, Hareli, and Ostrogoths, and then the fourth could be Justinian's restored empire.

Are you following me? And if that is our explanation, that also gives us an explanation for that odd other horn. That other horn that I said was not one of the ten, but had three of them uprooted before it. The three that were uprooted could be the pagan kingdoms that had no cooperation with what we now know as Roman Catholicism. That would make that horn to be the Roman Catholic Church.

It exercised great power and influence over all the succeeding kingdoms. And it, of course, we would interpret it as a speaking, great pompous words against the Most High and persecuting the saints.

Certainly, the Roman Catholic Church has taken upon itself the ability to change teaching of times and seasons. They change what day is to be considered a holy day, and they change which days of the year are kept as holidays.

Let's go back to Revelation. We want to look at one more beast to match in here. Revelation 17 this time.

I know I would have to talk a little fast to get this in, but some of you know I sometimes speak a little fast anyway.

Revelation 17 will begin in verse 3, because we're going to see John. Daniel saw quite a few beasts. Daniel gets to see another one as well. This one's a bit different. Revelation 17 beginning in verse 3.

So, he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. There's one artist's version. This one's really scary looking.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, and having precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abomination and the filthiness of her fornication.

And on her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. Now, I found a different version. For some reason, this didn't strike me as scary, even though it's still pretty creepy.

And the symbols of Bible prophecy, a woman is almost always used to portray a church. And in this case, Mystery Babylon the Great is certainly not the true church.

The beast that the woman rides has seven heads.

Could it be that these seven heads represent the same seven kingdoms that the horns on the beast of Daniel 7 represent? I believe so. And actually, so do many scholars who have studied this. If so, we've got now 10 more horns to figure out, because if each one of these heads is equivalent to one of the horns on that beast, one of these heads has 10 horns of its own that are not the same as the other horns. We're going to come back to that a little bit later. But for now, I want to do a quick review in European history to identify which revivals of the Roman Empire might be indicated in these prophecies. And of course, I should add that other term. Starting with Justinian's restoration, it became known as the Holy Roman Empire because of that union with church.

So if we're understanding correctly... Now, let me see what I've got next. I don't want to go there yet.

If we're understanding correctly, we've accounted for four revivals of the Roman Empire. The three pagan kingdoms, the Vandals, Herirlai, and Ostrogoth, that they were then uprooted by the Roman Catholic Church with a fourth restoration under Justinian.

Justinian's revival didn't last all that long, and the former Roman Empire fell apart into numerous disunited political realms. But the general area would still be referred to as the Holy Roman Empire, the combination of church government and political government that began in AD 554.

As a matter of fact, I shouldn't make note of a mathematical thing here. We consider the prophetic principle of a day for a year. Remember, in Revelation 13, we saw that the beast would continue 42 months.

If each of those months has 30 days, and we substitute a day for a year, we come out with a period of 1,260 years. Okay, if we start at 554, 1260 years later brings us to 1814.

Now, that's a long period. Over 1,000 years, we'll see many things happen during that, and then look for something significant if something notable does happen in 1814. But before we get to that, let's catch up. It was the height of the Middle Ages when the Carolinian dynasty gained increasing prominence in what was called the Frankish territories. I've always thought I should pay more attention to that since it was named after me, but we use the term France today. They reached their peak when Charles the Great, who we know by his more Latin term Charlemagne, would be crowned Emperor by the Pope, conveniently on Christmas Day in the year 800.

That makes Charlemagne's Frankish restoration the fifth horn. So that's five. That gets us halfway there.

As with Justinian, Charlemagne's descendants let the empire fall apart in a few generations. So we would look ahead for another restoration, which would begin in the year 962. At that time, the dominance moved from the Franks to an area known as Saxony, or within the Germanic areas. Otto the Great of the Hohenstaufen dynasty this is the best map I could find for that period, but made it a German kingdom, a German dominance now of the Holy Roman Empire, that would run from approximately 962 until 1254.

This became known to the Germans as the First Reich.

Now, you might be familiar with the term Third Reich, which Hitler liked to use, but for there have been a Third Reich, there needs to be a First and a Second. The First Reich, the Hohenstaufen restoration of the Holy Roman Empire, seems to account for the Sixth Horn.

Now, of course, it weakened over the years until there was time for a transference to another area of Europe. Starting in 1273, the Austrian kingdom of the Habsburgs would gain dominance and would take over the title of Holy Roman Emperor.

We're speaking primarily of the purple regions here.

Now, this would last for about 300 years, but the empire would reach its greatest power in the early 1500s when they intermarried with the Spanish dynasty. The reason for that, the reason I say it's one of the most powerful, is Charles V of the Habsburgs would also gain control of Spain and the New World, which Spain had claimed after the discoveries of Christopher Columbus. But the long-ruling Austrian kingdom then makes the Seventh Horn.

Now, things start getting interesting. Actually, not right here in the 1500s, but this is going to last for a while until we're ready for a change.

Now, for those who study modern history, or some call early modern history, a major turning point is the French Revolution. The French Revolution began in 1789, and that's where we mark the beginning of what we call modern history. Now, for some of you, 1789 doesn't seem very modern, but considering we've been going back to the Roman Empire, it's pretty modern. The French Revolution and the wars it spawned changed all kinds of things. Tons of things changed and transferred, and it just led to a new epoch.

We look at World War I and World War II as changing so much, but really, they didn't have any bigger impact than the wars of the French Revolution.

Coming out of those wars, in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the French. He led French armies in a conquest of most of Europe, obliterating old political lines. He took on several titles, including that of Roman Emperor. He would be crowned. Actually, famously, he took the crown from the Pope and put it on himself. But Napoleon's empire is commonly acknowledged by Bible scholars to be one of the horns. We believe the eighth horn, or the eighth restoration of the Roman Empire.

Interestingly, we know he conquered most of Europe, but then he himself was conquered when he reached too far.

He was defeated by an alliance, including Great Britain, in the year 1814. He was stripped of most of his titles. Now, in 1814, he was left one title. He was named King of Elba, which was a small island out in the Mediterranean, and he was sent there in exile. He was supposed to spend the rest of his life. Now, he was there for a few months, and he escaped. He came back and tried to do a revival and led armies to try to reconquer Europe, and was famously defeated at Waterloo.

So, if you were thinking, no, it's not 1814. I know 1815 was when the Battle of Waterloo... I'm wondering, was anybody thinking that?

Just occurred to me. You probably weren't, but I was.

Napoleon was defeated two times, and partly it sticks in my head because of the Abba song.

And those of you who are Camp Heritage, I decided to make Abba's Waterloo my official camp song. So, you'll be hearing it again next year, probably not before.

Anyways, what's the have to do with Bible prophecy?

Not a thing, but in 1814, Napoleon was stripped of his title, Holy Roman Emperor, and no one resumed that title. For the first time since Justinian's restoration in 554, there stopped being a combination of Catholic Church and Roman Empire, exactly 1,260 years later. So, when Revelation 13 said the dragon would give him this power, and it would continue 42 months, there we see 42 months elapsed.

But our tale is not finished yet. There may not have been a revival of the Roman Empire with the blessing and cooperation of the Catholic Church, but there would be a 20th century revival yet to come.

In the late 1800s, you'll see the territories now that we know of as Italy and Germany. But throughout the 1800s, there wasn't Germany and Italy. Each of those territories consisted of several smaller political units that often fought amongst themselves. But over the course of that century, there was conquest and combination, and they became two separately strong nations.

Now, Italy and Germany fought against each other in the disaster of World War I.

But, following that, during the 1920s and going into the 30s, a fascist ruler in Italy arose, named Benito Mussolini. He conquered much of Northern Africa trying to restore the glories of the Roman Empire. But not many people really took him seriously when he said he was rebuilding the Roman Empire. But when he combined an alliance with Nazi Germany, the Axis, they called it, then we could see a restoration of a real empire. Notice this was a secular, some would even say a pagan restoration of the Roman Empire. Now, they did have some cooperation with the Church. Hitler actually made sort of an agreement with the Pope, and they agreed to let each other exist, actually, which I think the Pope didn't have a lot of choice in it. But Hitler knew better than to try to take out the Catholic Church.

Now, looking at this as a restoration, people might argue the point, whether it was Mussolini or Hitler. Should we look at Rome or Berlin? But either way, we could say this fascist Nazi restoration represents the ninth horn or the ninth restoration.

Now, we have enough people with us who have been alive since that time to know that we haven't had another restoration of the Roman Empire yet.

But many of you will remember that leaders of the Church of God started saying that it would happen from the time that the Axis powers were defeated, even when Germany and Italy were rubble and were being ruled by the four allied nations. Herbert W. Armstrong was saying, Europe is going to rise again. He said, Germany, which after the end of World War II was divided into East and West, he said, it's going to become united. It's going to once again rise to power and influence. And some people laughed.

Now, I will say we went through all this history without mentioning the reason that was that it's so important to our understanding of Bible prophecy. Remember, the Roman Empire was and is the beast that the Apostle John saw in Revelation 13. I'm trying to remember. Do I have? Ah, what I'm going here is that's the beast. And it seems likely that these revivals of the Roman Empire that came after 554 were also depicted by the beast that he saw in Revelation 17. But this is more important than just a passing interest in history. It matters because if everything I described in this very fast history lesson is correct, we have one more revival to come. And when it comes, it'll be the last. And shortly after that, Jesus Christ will return. That's why it's a good idea for the church to pay close attention to what's going on in Europe. Why you might read more about the Greek financial crisis than you care to know. If the beast were in Japan or if it were in South Africa, we'd have a lot of articles about Japan or South... I say South Africa, my notes are in South America, a little bigger. But wherever we see the possibility of this beast reviving again, we need to keep a close eye. And what do we see happening in Europe? What have we seen happening so far? Are we getting close or is it going to fall apart? Well, a little more history.

Soon after the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, as the nations of Europe were trying to put themselves together, the French foreign minister, a man named Robert Schumann, proposed that France, Germany, and some other countries, what he called the core countries of Europe, find a way to pool their industrial resources so they wouldn't be competing and hurting each other. So in April of 1951, six nations signed a treaty creating the European Coal and Steel Community. This was just to break down the tariff barriers or tax barriers between buying and selling things like coal and steel in heavy industry. And by the way, the first three were Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. So we have six nations. But the ECC, as it was called, was so successful that in 1958 those countries began a plan to start joining their economies in ways more than just on heavy industry. And this they would call the European Economic Community. Now, I've got a later map of it here because I'd have to have a lot of slides to show how it changed over the years. Let me just say it was very successful. It was a benefit to the nations who were involved. It was so successful that Britain wanted to join in 1963 and they were turned down by France, which I tend to root for the British and not necessarily for the France. Good old Charles de Gaulle put a veto on the Brits entering the ECC and again in 1968 vetoed it.

Now that was significant because back in the late 60s we said, well, of course, Britain will never join the ECC because we see this as the forerunner of the beast and the descendants of Israel won't be a part of it. We were looking for 10 member nations.

Now, you might say again, why 10? We've just ran through 10 restorations of the Roman Empire. Aren't we done with 10? Well, that's where we come back to that beast in Revelation 17. Matter of fact, if you're there, we can look at it. But our interpretation for this is that these seven heads each represent one of the seven horns that wasn't uprooted by the notable horn and the other. So the horns of Revelation 13 represent kings or kingdoms through the ages reviving the Holy Roman Empire. The 10 horns of Revelation 17 represent something different. Let's read Revelation 17, beginning in verse 12. The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings, okay, they're 10 kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour. That's a pretty brief time. I believe it's symbolic though, probably not a literal 60 minutes, but a brief time. As kings with the beast, these are of one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome him. Now to make war with the lamb, he has to be around. It gives me an idea. This is talking about at the time of the end.

And lamb will overcome them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called faithful and chosen. Oh, again, we'll have some interpretation here. He said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. The ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, will make her desolate naked and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Sounds like they're not going to be nice people. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose and to be of one mind, to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman which you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. Our understanding is that this tenth and final revival of the Roman Empire will consist of some sort of confederation of ten nations who will turn their power over to the larger government that makes up what we'll call the beast or the Roman Empire. I'm right there again.

Apparently, they'll turn against the church, and I don't mean they'll be against us all along, but they'll turn on the Roman Catholic Church that helped put this together, and they'll be in place when prophecy is concluded. This is part of how we know that they'll all be concurrent, not sequential. We can find a parallel back in Daniel chapter 2. As a matter of fact, let's...

If you still have your finger there, then we can look at that very quickly just to see the parallel Daniel 2 beginning in verse 40.

Once again, the fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire, will be as strong as iron, and as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, the iron crushes, and the kingdom will break in pieces, whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom will be divided, yet the strength of iron will be in it, as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. You saw iron mixed with clay, they'll mingle, but they won't adhere to one another, just as iron doesn't mix with clay. Okay, that's why I've been talking about a confederation, not a strong unification, but something that's stuck together, but not really adhering. And in the days of these kings... Now, he didn't necessarily say the days of these kings, but what we looked at here in Revelation shows there's going to be 10 kings who give their power to the beast. In the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That's, of course, represented by the stone cut out without hand smashing. It doesn't smash the whole idol, it smashes on the feet and the toes. If we represent that idol covering hundreds or thousands of years of history, the kingdom of God comes at the end of that sequence. And perhaps those 10 toes each represent the 10 horns on that scarlet beast of Revelation 17.

So these kings that are at that time will perhaps each represent one of those nations.

And they'll comprise the final revival of the Roman Empire.

Now, if it has to be 10, do I go back to this map?

We need to pay attention to what's going on in Europe. That might give us a clue of when it happens. If the European Economic Community was a predecessor to the beast, well, it ended up having too many nations. In 1971, Britain, Ireland, and Denmark did join. That brought it up to 9. Then in 1979, Greece, Spain, and Portugal joined. That brought it up well above 10. And after communism collapsed, many of the Eastern European nations joined the EEC. And, of course, now they've merged, and they're calling it the European Union because they're working towards political union. Now, I do want to say whether or not the numbers match, the power and the impact of what's this union in Europe does match prophecy. It quickly became a rival to both the United States and to what was then the Soviet Union. So it was an economic power on par with the great superpowers with the potential of equal military power.

Now, in 1988, as I said, is when the members of the European Economic Community agreed to establish one common currency, the euro, and to end all internal trade barriers by the year 2000, which they accomplished. Now, a couple of countries refused to give up their currency, notably Great Britain. And I still think there's a difference. And that brings us to our present fascination with what's going on in Europe. We wonder what's going to happen. Will Germany kick out some of the weaker nations, leading to a very strong union? And if so, is that going to get us down to the 10 that we're looking for? And of course, then when I say 10 nations, knowing that we're looking back at fulfillment over hundreds or thousands of years, we can say, well, 10 nations defined by which map? I showed you a lot of different maps here. We want to keep in mind that some nations that we think of as a unified one nation are combinations of a lot of other nations. The Netherlands consists of Holland, Zealand, and some other little lands that I have trouble remembering their names of.

But now it's one, but it used to be four or five. Germany and Italy, similarly. What's now Italy consisted of Piedmont, Sardinia, the Papal States, Sicily, all combined into one. So what I want to say is we don't want to plan whether to pack our bags or not to go to the place of safety on how many nations are in the EU. And I'm going to leave that hanging because I'm going to talk a little bit more about the place of safety and packing our bags next week. But the literature of the United Church of God commonly calls the European Union a possible predecessor to what will become the beast. Closer integration seems to be coming gradually, but I think of those past revivals, most of those came by conquest or by revolution. So personally, I look for something really dramatic to happen to bring about stronger union. Perhaps there might be some internal coup, whereas somebody with a lot of charisma and political strength takes the existing structure and makes it something that it wasn't before. And the reason I look at that is that's exactly how Hitler came to power. He was elected to office in Germany and then transformed the government they had into something very different than he took control of. I could see something like that happening in the European Union, but I'm I'm speculating. I don't know what will happen when or how, but it wouldn't surprise me to see something like that happen. But as a church, we're going to continue paying a lot of attention to what's going on in Europe. This is where the Roman Empire, which is the prophetic beast, has risen several times before, and that's where it will rise again. If we understand history and prophecy correctly, the next time it rises will be the last. So we need to watch what's happening. Let's look at a couple more scriptures. Let's go to Mark chapter 13.

I say we need to watch what's happening. Don't take my word for it. Let's see what our Lord and Savior tells us. Mark 13 verse 35.

He says, watch therefore. You do not know when the master of the house is coming. In the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he finds you sleeping. And I say this when you're reading one more article about political unification in Europe and you're thinking, oh, hum, I've been reading this.

Jesus said, you don't know when he's coming, so watch. And what I say to you, I say to all, watch. Let's turn to one more scripture. See what he also said in Luke chapter 21.

Luke 21 and verse 28. Because that's when the payoff comes. If we're watching, we'll see certain things happen.

Oh, there we go.

Now, when these things begin to happen, look up. Lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. We have an obligation and a duty to keep watch on fulfilling prophecies.

We won't always know for sure how they'll be fulfilled. And that's okay. I want to focus, as I said, I'm going to look at some of the questions that are still hanging out there next week. We won't know some things. The important thing, though, is that knowing God's plan should motivate us to live God's way, to be ready. We're the ones whose minds God has opened to understand what is written in His Word. We're a blessed and a special people, and that comes with obligations. And among them is to watch.