I had spent an hour in the bank with my dad, as he had to transfer some money. I couldn’t resist myself & asked…
”Dad, why don’t we activate your internet banking?”
”Why would I do that?” He asked…
”Well, then you wont have to spend an hour here for things like transfer.
You can even do your shopping online. Everything will be so easy!”
I was so excited about initiating him into the world of Net banking.
He asked ”If I do that, I wont have to step out of the house?
”Yes, yes”! I said. I told him how even grocery can be delivered at door now and how amazon delivers everything!
His answer left me tongue-tied.
He said ”Since I entered this bank today, I have met four of my friends, I have chatted a while with the staff who know me very well by now.
You know I am alone…this is the company that I need. I like to get ready and come to the bank. I have enough time, it is the physical touch that I crave.
Two years back I got sick, The store owner from whom I buy fruits, came to see me and sat by my bedside and cried.
When your Mom fell down few days back while on her morning walk. Our local grocer saw her and immediately got his car to rush her home as he knows where I live.
Would I have that ‘human’ touch if everything became online?
Why would I want everything delivered to me and force me to interact with just my computer?
I like to know the person that I’m dealing with and not just the ‘seller’. It creates bonds of Relationships.
This is not a mere child’s story written by L. Frank Baum.
What symbol does “Oz” stand for? Ounces…Gold, what is the yellow brick road? Bricks or ingot bars of gold.
The character known as the Straw Man represents that fictitious ALL CAPS legal fiction – a PERSON – the Federal U.S. Government created with the same spelling as your Christian birth name.
Remember what the Straw Man wanted from the Wizard of Oz? A brain! No legal fiction has a brain because they have no breath of life! What did he get in place of a brain? A Certificate. A Birth Certificate for a new legal creation. He was proud of his new legal status, plus all the other legalisms he was granted. Now he becomes the true epitome of the brainless sack of straw who was given a Certificate in place of a brain of common sense.
What about the Tin Man?
Does Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) mean anything to you? The poor TIN Man just stood there mindlessly doing his work until his body literally froze up and stopped functioning. He worked himself to death because he had no heart nor soul. He’s the heartless and emotionless creature robotically carrying out his daily task as if he was already dead. He’s the ox pulling the plow and the mule toiling under the yoke. His masters keep him cold on the outside and heartless on the inside in order to control any emotions or heart he may get a hold of.
The pitiful Cowardly Lion was always too frightened to stand up for himself. Of course, he was a bully and a big mouth when it came to picking on those smaller than he was. They act as if they have great courage, but they really have none at all. All roar with no teeth of authority to back them up. When push came to shove, the Cowardly Lion always buckled under and whimpered when anyone of any size or stature challenged him. He wanted courage from the Grand Wizard, so he was awarded a medal of “official” recognition. Now, regardless of how much of a coward he still was, his official status made him a bully with officially recognized authority. He’s just like the Attorneys who hide behind the Middle Courts of the Temple Bar.
What about the trip through the field of poppies? They weren’t real people, so drugs had no effect on them. The Wizard of Oz was written at the turn of the century, so how could the author have known America was going to be drugged? The Crown has been playing the drug cartel game for centuries. Just look up the history of Hong Kong and the Opium Wars. The Crown already had valuable experience conquering all of China with drugs, so why not the rest of the world?
Who finally exposed the Wizard for what he really was? Toto, the ugly (or cute, depending on your perspective) and somewhat annoying little dog. Toto means “in total, all together; Latin in toto.” Notice how Toto was not scared of the Great Wizard’s theatrics, yet he was so small in size compared to the Wizard, no-one seemed to notice him. The smoke, flames and hologram images were designed to frighten people into doing as the Great Wizard of Oz commanded. Toto simply went over, looked behind the curtain – the court – (see the definition for curtain above), saw it was a scam, and started barking until others paid attention to him and came to see what all the barking was about. Just an ordinary person controlling the levers that created the illusions of the Great Wizard’s power and authority. The veil hiding the corporate legal fiction and its false courts was removed.
The Wizard’s game was up. It’s too bad that people don’t realize how loud a bark from a little dog is. How about your bark? Do you just remain silent and wait to be given whatever food and recognition, if any, your legal master gives you?
Let’s not forget those pesky flying monkeys. What a perfect mythical creature to symbolize the Bar Association Attorners who attack and control all the little people for the Great Crown Wizard, the powerful and grand Bankers of Oz – Gold. What is it going to take to expose the Wizard and tear down the court veil for what they really are? Each of us needs only a brain, a heart and soul, and courage. Then, and most importantly, we all need to learn how to work together. Only “in toto,” working together as one Body of the King of Kings, can we ever be free or have the freedom given under God’s Law.
It’s time to find the courage to stand, defend your rights, get back onto land (correct your records) and say NO MORE to the maritime corporatocracy that’s enslaved humanity for decades.
The book of Revelation speaks of the end times and the true people of God, a Remnant Church which Satan will make war against. Satan will come against the remnant Church with everything and anyone he can use. Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” It grieves me to say that Satan has used even Christians to do this and has been so successful over the centuries that we find that what is popular is not always truth and what is truth is not always popular.
Revelation also speaks of the reward awaiting the remnant. Revelation 2:7 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” This verse tells us clearly that if we are around at the end of time, then if we want to be saved, we must be part of this remnant. The questions then are, what is a remnant, how do you become part of it, how do we identify who the remnant Church is or which Churches are part of the remnant if it is not just one particular denomination?
What is a remnant?
A remnant is a small piece of something left over from the original. It is identical to the original, but in a smaller proportion. When someone is sewing and makes clothes out of a large piece of cloth, the small left over material is called the remnant.
When the Bible speaks of the remnant Church, it likewise is referring to a small proportion of God’s people at the end of time who have clung to the unadulterated belief system, faith and doctrines of the early Christian Church. This Church will be comprised of people who have not allowed pagan ideas, days or idols to have been introduced into their belief system as it has unbeknown to many Churches.
Is this remnant Church many groups?
Perhaps the best place to start to define what the remnant is, would be to look at the original Church of Acts while the faith was still pure and untainted, then compare it with the Churches and doctrines that we see today, and then find a contemporary Church or group of believers who most closely resemble the early believers of the original Church in their actions, beliefs and lifestyles.
The birth of the Christian Church.
During His lifetime Jesus had many faithful followers. After His resurrection we read of the account where 120 of His followers were meeting together in the upper room, joined in one accord in prayer.
Acts 2:1-6“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”
That day over 3000 Jews believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and were added to the faith, and thus began the Christian Church. Peter spoke to the crowd present there that day and what he said related to not only the very beginning of the Church, but also described the remnant Church that would be there at the very end of time, just before Jesus returned. He said,
Acts 2:16-21“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
We are then told about some of the attributes and actions of the early Church. Acts 2:42-47 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.”
The Bible also describes the outward changes that had occurred to the apostles. Once they were baptized with the Holy Spirit they were given boldness to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ. Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
Acts 4:24-35“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, 30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. 31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.”
What do these verses tell us about the early Church? It shows that they were a Holy Spirit driven people. They were on fire for God. Many miraculous healings were done as a sign to the people that these men were empowered by the true God, the creator of Heaven and Earth, but the most important attribute they had, was that they were following the great commission that Jesus gave them, to go into all the world and preach the gospel of Christ. They were a mission driven Church, whose priority was to reach as many people as possible with the saving message of Jesus. They were also generous stewards, making sure that no one in their midst was left in need. They worked as a team, caring and nurturing each other as they all went forward with one accord. They believed in the Father, Son and their Holy Spirit as the Godhead but not the trinity which is a word that originated from Tertullian and a doctrine established in the council of Nicea in 325 AD. They fellowshipped with each other, breaking bread daily and worshipped in the synagogues each seventh day Sabbath staying faithful to the fourth Commandment of God to ‘Remember the Sabbath.’
In the early Church we saw the transition spoken of by Jesus, of those ordained to be called God’s chosen people. Whereas the Jews had previously been given the privilege of being God’s representative nation on earth, many of them failed in their duty of recognizing the Messiah whom God sent to them. Even though the coming of Jesus was spelt out in so many Old Testament scriptures and prophecies, the majority of the Jewish nation, and specifically the Jewish leaders, rejected Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and hence lost the right to be called God’s chosen people. Instead this privilege was given to anyone who chose to follow Jesus.
This next scripture shows clearly that of all the children of Israel only a remnant would be true to God and be saved. Only those who chose to follow God and His son, when Israel as a nation officially rejected Him, just before the stoning of Stephan, retained the right to be called God’s people.
Romans 9:26-27 “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. 27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:”
Jesus had prophesied about this transition. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus had referred to the temple as ‘My Fathers house’, but just before His death He spoke of it as their (the Jews) house, which would be left desolate. Mathew 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Jesus also made it clear that the kingdom would be given to those who demonstrated the true fruits of the Spirit and believed in Him. Matthew 21:42-46 “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.” Daniel’s Prophecy of weeks explains how and when this occurred.
In his letter to the Roman Church Paul further clarified this transition. Romans 9:6-9 “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.” The children of the promise were now those who believed in, and relied upon Jesus as their Saviour and redeemer.
This was made even clearer again in his letter to the Galatian Church. Galatians 3:26-29 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Paul sheds more light with this verse also. Romans 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
Acts 28:28 “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”
Just as only a remnant of the Jewish nation accepted Christ and became part of the true early Church, this same theme is prophesied to occur at the end of time. Even though there will be a vast number of people who profess to be God’s people (Christians), only a remnant – the ones who truly love God and obey His Commandments in the way He ordained, will be saved. Only those who have not let their belief system be influenced and adulterated by the pollution of pagan beliefs will find their place to eat from the tree of life.
God will call His people out of Babylon
At the end of time God will call His faithful people out of Babylon (the apostate Christian Churches) and into His remnant Church. Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This shows us clearly that at the present time there are many of God’s true people in the wrong Churches, due to ignorance, which God will illuminate with the truth and draw out in the last days. Specifically Babylon refers to an apostate (non-Biblically based) system, which does not follow all the Commandments of God. Sin is the transgression of the law, and Churches who teach that only eight or nine of the Commandments are relevant are teaching their children to sin. One Christian denomination removed the second Commandment relating to idol worship from their official list of the Commandments, and changed the fourth Commandment to Sunday in favour of the pagan Sun worship day. God commanded that His special Holy day of worship should be the seventh day, which is a SIGN that it is God we worship and in honour of His wondrous works of creating the world in six days. This Christian denomination claims that their authority overrides that of the scriptures and promotes the fact that they changed the Sabbath to Sunday and all the other Churches followed their decree as proof of their power. Many other denominations, which stemmed from protestant revolt against this apostate Church in the dark ages, claim to use the scriptures as their only source of doctrine but still omit to fulfil this belief, as they do not uphold God’s original Holy day of worship, but continue on keeping only nine of the Commandments. Sunday keeping has become such a tradition, that the people in many Churches have blinkers on and are ignorant of the fact that they are breaking one of God’s Holy laws. Bible prophecy tells us that at the end of time, God will shine forth the truth of His word and His Commandments to these Churches and those who love Him enough to keep His Commandments in the way He ordained, will be drawn out of these apostate systems and become part of the remnant Church, the true chosen people of God. Revelation describes the two opposing sides at the end, Babylon (the apostate Church) or in other passages referred to as a harlot woman riding a beast, and the true Church which is depicted as a woman in white. Those in Babylon get the mark of the beast and those in the remnant get the seal of God. There are no other categories, at the end of time everyone on the whole earth will be in one group or the other, which is why it is so important to find out how to become part of the true remnant and avoid the wrath of God.
Will the remnant Church be persecuted?
The early Church faced much opposition and persecution. 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: 15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: 16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”
Revelation shows that the remnant Church will also be persecuted, ostracized and killed for holding firm to their belief in their heavenly father as being the creator of heaven and earth and for obeying His Commandments. Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 20:14 “Blessed are they that do his Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Revelation also speaks of those who will endure through the persecutions, standing steadfast in their faith and not bowing down to the pressures, torture and some even unto death. Revelation 20:4 “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 2:7 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
John had previously written advice on how to overcome the world, and it ties in neatly with Revelation. 1 John 5:3-9 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments: and his Commandments are not grievous. 4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.” This plainly demonstrates that obeying God’s Commandments and having faith in Jesus as our redeemer, with the knowledge and assurance that He has given us eternal life through His great sacrifice is what will give us the strength to endure through the terrible time of persecution.
What are the characteristics of God’s remnant people?
It is clear from the verses in 1 John and Revelation that the remnant people will be obeying all of the Ten Commandments, just as the early Church did. This includes keeping the seventh day Holy as God ordained, and not the first day which is a man-made tradition. No man or Church has the authority to tamper with and change God’s law, and Jesus made it abundantly clear that not ‘one jot or tittle’ (equivalent to the dotting of an “i” or the crossing of a “t”) would in any way pass from the law. Matthew 5:18 “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Paul spoke clearly about the type of lifestyle that Christians should be living, fleeing unrighteousness, or in other words obeying the Ten Commandments. He also spoke of how we should look after our earthly bodies, because they are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul himself would have followed all of the health laws in relation to clean and unclean (healthy and unhealthy) foods which God had given to Moses for the benefit of mankind.
1 Corinthians 6:9-20“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Revelation tells us that in the end times there will be again a huge outpouring of the Holy Spirit and our ‘sons and daughters’ will prophecy. The message of the gospel will be taken to all the world. Revelation specifically speaks of three Angel’s messages that will be announced to the entire planet. Angels symbolise messengers and in fact the Greek word αγγελος (angelos) translates to both angel and messenger. These messages read as follows:
Revelation 14:6-12“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
There is obviously not going to be three literal angels flying around the skies proclaiming these messages in the end time so it must be surmised that this is going to be done by God’s end time remnant. This might or might not be so, but in either case this could be one distinguishing factor in identifying the remnant Church. It has been found that there is one denomination who is active in proclaiming and teaching these messages and has a Satellite TV channel called 3 Angels Broadcasting Network and seems to be teaching solid Biblical doctrine with no pagan influence. This may be part of a fulfilment of prophecy.
If these messages are to be given by God’s remnant Church, then they would also need to have a complete understanding of what the prophetic meaning of Babylon, beasts, the mark of the beast and the other prophetic symbols used in Revelation and Daniel mean. It would have to also interpret Bible prophecy according to the scriptures method of interpretation Isaiah 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” which is to use the Bible to interpret itself by lining up all of the prophecies which speak of the same things and putting all the jigsaw pieces together to get the complete interpretation, and not by giving private interpretations. 2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” Many Churches have private interpretations of prophecy but this is not needed or allowed. Where does it say that the Mark of the Beast will be a computer chip? It doesn’t. This is a private interpretation. The Church who actively preaches the three angels messages must understand and preach who the beast is, and what their mark is. Select for more information on the mark of the beast or what is the mark of the beast for the origin of 666 also.
The prophecies of Daniel foretell that at the end of time extra light (understanding of prophecies) will be given. Daniel 12:4 “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” This clearly shows that another characteristic of the remnant is that they have a good understanding of Bible prophecy.
What is the Testimony of Jesus?
Revelation shows us that the remnant Church will follow the Ten Commandments and have the testimony of Jesus. What does this mean?
It needs to be noted that this says the testimony of Jesus and not the testimony about Jesus. Therefore it is speaking of the words of Jesus and not what people have spoken about Him.
Jesus tells us clearly that He was sent to earth by God. John 8:42 “Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” He also made it apparent that He was obeying God’s will John 6:38 “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” and that in the hierarchy of the Godhead He was beneath and subordinate to God the Father. John 13:16 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” He reiterated again that God the Father was greater than Jesus the son. John 14:28 “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.”
Also the Bible shows us that the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy, which fits perfectly because a prophet is one who speaks on behalf of God, and everything that Jesus spoke revealed His Father to us. Revelation 19:10 “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Jesus told us that He was speaking the words that the Father gave Him to speak. John 12:50 “And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”
What did Jesus come to tell us?
Jesus came to tell us about the road to salvation. John 3:5-7 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
He came to show us that He was the only way (gate) to the Father. John 3:14-17 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Jesus also told us that He had not come to destroy the law of God, but rather to show us the perfect example of how to keep it, and not only that, but to also magnify it. Matthew 5:17-19 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
The Old Testament always informs us through the prophets what changes are coming in the future and the following scripture gives us confirmation of this. Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” So what did the prophets say would be done in regards to the Ten Commandments? It was prophesied that Jesus would Magnify the law and make it Honourable. This is certainly quite to the contrary that some are teaching today in that the law has ended. Isaiah 42:21 “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.”
He then went on to give examples of how the law would be magnified according to Isaiah 42:21. Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”
This shows plainly that Jesus intended that all who followed Him would keep all of the Ten Commandments of God, which again fits perfectly with the verses in Revelation that show that the remnant Church will follow the Commandments and have the testimony of Jesus.
Jesus also showed us that it is not what we say, but rather what we do, our fruits, that matter, because if we really love and honour Him we will be obedient to Him. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” These are sobering verses, because Jesus is talking about Christians. Some will proclaim Him as their Lord, and even claim to do miracles in His name, but because they don’t love Him enough to obey Him and follow His Commandments, they will not be saved.
The remnant Church will not only believe wholeheartedly in the truths of the words that Jesus spoke, but will also be endowed with members who will also prophesy and speak for God. Acts 2:17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:”
In Old Testament times we see many examples of where God sent a prophet to His people to try to get them back on track just before a major event. Noah prophesied for 120 years before God sent the flood. Jonah prophesied to Nineveh, which successfully turned their hearts back to God and prevented their eminent destruction. John the Baptist prophesied in the wilderness about the coming Messiah and at the end of time the remnant will prophesy to all the world in an effort to get people back on track in preparation for the second coming of Jesus.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.” The testimony of Jesus Christ is the words that he spoke and the message He gave us from the Father that will always exist to guide His people to eternal life.
What other doctrines will the remnant follow?
Just as the early Church based their doctrines solely on the Word of God and the teachings of Jesus, so too will the remnant Church rely upon these sources to test all doctrine against, to make sure it is correct.
Many Christians are oblivious to the fact that some of the belief system in modern Christian Churches actually stems from pagan traditions and beliefs rather than from the Word of God. Following are some examples of what the original Christian Church knew to be correct from their understanding of the Old Testament and from the teachings of Jesus. Many of these truths have been lost in modern Churches, but when God calls His people out of Babylon (apostasy) they will again grasp hold of these lost truths and follow God’s Word earnestly.
1. The early believers knew that when they died, they would sleep until the resurrection to life at the second coming of Jesus.
The idea that when we die people go either straight to heaven or straight to Hell is not biblically founded. Take note of what Jesus said about his friend Lazarus who had died? John 11:11-14 “These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.”
Jesus clearly demonstrated that the dead sleep. If Lazarus had gone straight to heaven Jesus would have told the disciples that he was in heaven with the Father. After Jesus raised Lazarus, nobody asked Lazarus “What was it like in heaven? Tell us about it.” No one needed to, because it was the common belief of the day that when someone died they slept until the resurrection at the last day.
This is illustrated in the Old Testament in Psalms where we are told that when we die our thoughts perish Psalms 146:4 “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
Job also made it clear that we return to dust and are no more until the resurrection Job 7:21 “And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”
The scriptures also show that we will not rise again until Jesus returns when (the heavens are no more) Job 14:12 “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.”
Paul reinforced and clarified that this was his understanding 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For 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.”
The common misconception of many Christians today is that when they die they go directly to heaven, even though the Day of Judgment has not even occurred yet. They visualize the dead Christians in heaven with the angels praising God, but the Bible makes it clear that the dead cannot praise God, their thoughts have perished and they are asleep. Psalms 115:17 “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.”
It is clear that the Bible writers all understood that the state of the dead is like being asleep only to be awakened seemingly the moment after they closed their eyes at the final trumpet when Jesus returns on the day of redemption. 1 Corinthians 15:52 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
Job made it clear that we return to dust and are no more until the resurrection Job 7:21 “And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”
Some disregard all the other scriptures showing the state of the dead in favour of a mispunctuated verse. When Jesus was dying on the cross the crucified thief right next to Him said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” The interpretation of Jesus’ response depends upon where you place a tiny particle called a comma. The fact is, commas are not inspired, but were added over a thousand years later, along with chapters and verses. Did Jesus Christ say, “I say to you, to day you will be with Me in paradise” or, “I say to you today, you will be with Me in paradise” Firstly, Jesus didn’t go to Paradise that day. He went to the tomb. Also, crucifixion is very cruel and it normally takes several days to die and so the thief did not die that day which is why they broke his legs. When they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Right after His resurrection on Sunday morning, Jesus said to Mary, “I have not yet ascended to My Father.” John 20:17. Thus on Sunday, Jesus had not yet ascended to Paradise. Paradise is in heaven where God and the tree of life are. Jesus would not contradict Himself or the rest of the Bible. He said previously that believers go to Heaven “on the last day” when He “comes again.”
The remnant Church will have this Bible truth revealed to them, and will choose to believe the Word of God, over the ‘traditional teachings’ of modern Churches. Select for more detailed information on what happens when you die.
2. Hell-fire is an event and not a place. The Bible writers believed that the wicked would be raised at the second resurrection, also known as the resurrection to damnation, which occurs 1000 years after the resurrection to life (at the second coming). They believed that the wicked would receive their judgment and then be destroyed by hellfire.
Many Christians today believe that this Hell Fire will last forever and that the wicked will be eternally tormented in pain and anguish, but this is not what the early believers knew to be the case.
There have been some misunderstood verses which have led people to this conclusion, so the only way to determine the correct meaning is to check all the relevant verses and line up the fence posts. The Bible does not contradict itself, so if the verses don’t all seem to be in agreement, then we must look to see what the majority say clearly, to check which ones we have misunderstood.
Jesus said Matthew 25:41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” He also said John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” One verse seems to be saying that the wicked will live forever in everlasting fire and yet the other verse tells us that only those who belong to Jesus will get everlasting life. If only the true followers live forever then this means that wicked will perish.
The logical conclusion then is that the everlasting fire is not actually fire that is burning forever, but rather fire which consumes with everlasting consequences. It can also be called unquenched fire, which means it will be allowed to burn until it is all burnt out.
There are over 50 other places in the Bible where it uses the word forever, but the event mentioned has finished. Just as today we often loosely use the word forever, such as “It took forever to get out of the shop” or “that lecture went on forever”, these similar types of expressions were also used in the Bible for events that lasted a long time, but not actually eternally and also for events that had everlasting consequences. For example the Bible describes the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah as eternal fire. Jude 1:7 “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” This fire is not still burning today. It had eternal consequences as the cities were forever destroyed and the fire was not extinguished or quenched by anyone. This fire was allowed to burn until it had consumed everything away and then it went out.
This is the same type of fire that “death and hell” (the Greek word used here for hell translates literally into ‘grave’) will be thrown into and the same type of Fire from Heaven that will consume the wicked after the judgment. The duration of their suffering will depend on their sentence. They will be either consumed quickly with little pain, or else have to suffer longer for more severe sins. The Bible clearly shows that they will not live forever burning in Hell, because we are told that they will be as ashes under our feet. Malachi 4:3 “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.”
Many Christians think that Satan will be thrown into eternally burning hell fire and life forever and ever, but the Bible shows that he too will be consumed and will be no more. Ezekiel 28:18-19 “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”
Yet another fence post to line up is this. Malachi 4:1 “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”
Our awesome and loving God who abounds in mercy is not going to torture and torment the wicked forever and ever in the agony of an eternally burning Hell. He will deal justly with them and they will perish for their sins. For the Wages of Sin is death (not eternal life in torment).
The ideas of a devil in a red suit with a pitchfork in the fiery bowels of the earth who will torment people for all time, again stemmed out of some ancient pagan myths, and not from the Holy Word of God. Also logically, if the devil where to live forever tormenting the wicked in hell, what sort of punishment would that be for him? He would enjoy seeing the wicked suffer.
The early Church understood that the wicked would perish, and so shall the remnant Church also be given this understanding. This is a very difficult subject so for more detailed information on this very hot topic, select the truth about Hades and hell fire.
3. As already discussed the Bible makes it crystal clear that the remnant people will be following all of the Ten Commandments, which includes keeping the Biblical seventh day Sabbath Holy as all of God’s people in the Old Testament, and Jesus and all of His disciples did. See the Sabbath day or God’s Sabbath Truth for detailed information. The following is also excellent reading on how the Sabbath was changed to Sunday through paganism and the Papal Church.
4. The Bible writer Luke makes it clear to us that He knew the Biblical timeline which went back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When quoting the genealogy of Jesus, Luke cited the names of all of the forefathers of Jesus, going all the way back to Adam. Luke 3:23-38
This uninterrupted genealogy represents approximately 4000 years, allowing for the average age of each generation. We also know that Jesus and the early Church believed in the six day creation of the world, and God put in place the seventh day Sabbath as an eternal reminder of this. It is safe to say then that no one in the early Church had any trouble in believing that their world was about 4000 years old. No one doubted the ability of our awesome creator God to create our world in six days.
It is a sad fact today that many Christians prefer to believe the doctored claims of scientists, who use fallible scientific formulas, relying on factors being constants, which other scientists have proved are variables to carbon date objects to millions of years, rather than believing in God’s Word as being true and accurate. The theory of evolution is just a ‘theory’ and yet even many Christians give more credence to it than they do to the Bible account of creation. Scientists are at a loss to explain away the many co-dependent relationships in nature, such as the Vanilla orchid, which is germinated by a specific bee that instinctively removes a little cap from within the inside of the flower to allow germination. When explorers took the plant overseas, it always died off, as no other insect knew how to germinate it. Evolutionists cannot explain away how this flower could have existed for hundreds or thousands of years, until this particular bee worked out what it must do. It would have died off in one generation. God in His wisdom created this flower and this bee to coexist.
The Bible writers and the early Church believed in the seven day literal creation and the young age of the earth, and so too will the remnant Church believe in the infallibility of the Word of God.
5. The early Church believed that Jesus was our only mediator and our High Priest who intercedes for us in the heavenly temple. 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” Unfortunately some in the Christian faith have sought to exalt Mary to the position of co-mediator, which is totally contrary to what the scriptures teach us. The remnant people will accept that Jesus is the only one who can mediate for them.
6. The early Church understood that only Jesus could forgive our sins, as He is the son of God. Today some portions of the Christian Church have appointed earthly men as priests and teach that they have the power to forgive sins, and that God will go along with them, whether they choose to forgive or not to forgive. This is a totally unbiblical doctrine, and in fact matches the Bible’s definition of blasphemy. When Jesus purported that He could forgive sins, the Jewish leaders (not knowing that He really was the son of God, and therefore did have the authority to do so) said that Jesus was committing blasphemy. Mark 2:7 “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?”
7. Idols. The early Church held strictly to the Ten Commandments and had nothing whatsoever to do with idols or idol worship. Unfortunately there are certain areas within the Christian Church today who teach that it is okay to bow before and pray to statues (calling them the representations of saints). The foot of the statue of St Peter has been kissed off and replaced six times. What many people do not know is that the statue of Peter in Rome is older than Peter himself. It was formerly the statue of the pagan god Jupiter from an old pagan temple, which was renamed to St. Peter and moved to Rome. The true remnant will abhor idol worship and have nothing at all to do with it.
8. Baptism by immersion. The early Church followed the example of Jesus by getting baptised by full immersion in water. They understood that this act was their public display to show that they had repented of their sins and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. It was only undertaken by people who had made a personal choice. There were never any instances of infant baptism or sprinkling in the Bible. The remnant Church will base their understanding of the act of baptism on the scriptures, and will personally choose to go through the waters of baptism by immersion to symbolise their death to the old life, having their sins washed away and the rebirth into the new life with Christ and His Holy Spirit as their guide. The Greek word “baptizo” for baptize actually means to “to immerse, to submerge” that is to be fully placed under the water.
9. Stewardship. The early Church acknowledged God’s ownership of this world and everything in it by faithfully returning tithes and giving offerings for the proclamation of His gospel and the support and growth of His Church. At the very birth of the Church many members actually sold everything they had and pooled their money to fund the spreading of the gospel. The true remnant will likewise be faithful in returning 1/10 of their earnings plus offerings as the Lord leads them, to God for the advancement of His kingdom.
10. Marriage. Marriage was divinely established by God in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in a loving relationship. The early Church held fast to the belief that a marriage commitment was to God as well as their spouse, and was to be between two people with the common faith. Jesus taught that the person who divorces a spouse, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. We can expect the remnant Church therefore to be comprised of people who have not remarried for unjust causes, as well as those who are single and have remained celibate, and those who have just married once and been faithful to their marriage vows. It is unfortunate that the institution of marriage among many Christians has failed to be viewed with the same significance that God gave it when He instituted it. Many have been swayed by the views of the world, where swapping partners is common practice, and the question of adultery is considered insignificant. But committing adultery, even with a new husband or wife, still constitutes the breaking of one of God’s Commandments, and we have previously seen that the true remnant will KEEP the Commandments of God.
The Remnant in Prophecy
The book of Revelation which speaks of the Remnant Church begins by saying Revelation 1:1-3 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” This book holds the words of Jesus, speaking to His people and telling them what to expect and what to look out for in the end times. The remnant Church will diligently study this book, and the other prophetic books of the Bible, and will seek to share their understanding of these prophecies with the world, to encourage them to return to the pure faith of our early forefathers.
When will the remnant Church arise?
The prophet Daniel gave us a 2300-year prophecy that spanned up to the year 1844, depicting start of the end times. Daniel 12:9-10 “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” See Daniel Bible Prophecy Study for more info.
This prophecy was in two parts. The first was seventy weeks (prophetically 490 years) and then the remaining 1810 years.
Daniel 9:24-27“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
The seventy week prophecy is a Messianic prophecy pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ. The timeline begins in 457 BC with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple. Ezra 7:8-17 informs us that the decree went out in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, so history can also confirm the accuracy of the year where this prophecy begins. Symbolic prophecy uses the following rule. Ezekiel 4:6 “…I have appointed thee each day for a year” so therefore 70 weeks = 490 days = 490 years. We know the day for a year rule is valid or the temple would have to be rebuilt in 49 days and Jesus’ ministry would have been only 3.5 days.
The seventy week prophecy is split into three sections, Seven weeks (49 years, which is the time taken to rebuild the temple), 62 weeks (434 years) till the Messiah would come. This takes us to the year A.D. 27, which is the year that Jesus was “anointed” with the Holy Spirit after His baptism and began His ministry, and finally there is another week, 7 years.
It says that in the midst of the final seven years the Messiah will be “cut off, but not for himself” (depicting how Jesus would die 3 1/2 years into His ministry) and would cause the “sacrifice and oblation to cease.” Jesus’ one time perfect sacrifice on Calvary forever nullified the need for animal sacrificial system of the Jewish temple and the whole ceremonial law that included several ceremonial sabbaths such as Passover.
What happened in the final 3 1/2 years of this prophecy? The gospel message was still preached exclusively to only the Jews, but at the end of this period, Stephen gave his final speech to the Jewish leaders telling them that Jesus was the Messiah predicted by the scriptures, but they stopped their ears, and officially rejected Jesus Christ, then they stoned Stephen. From this time on the gospel was taken to the Gentiles.
This prophecy also predicted the destruction of the temple “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” which occurred in A.D. 70, and marked the final “desolation” that Jesus Himself had predicted. The destruction of both the first and the second temple were as a direct result of the people’s rejection of and disobedience to God.
Daniel’s 2300 year Prophecy
The seventy week prophecy was cut out of the 2300 day prophecy, so the 2300 day prophecy has the same starting date of 457 B.C.
Daniel 8:14-27“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. 15 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. 16 And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. 17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. 18 Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. 19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. 20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. (speaking of the Medo-Persian power that would rule after Babylon) 21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. (speaking of Alexander the Great who would defeat Medo-Persia) 22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. (speaking of the four generals of Alexander who took over power after he died) 23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. (speaking of the Roman empire and the Caesars) 24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft 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. (speaking of the antichrist power who arises after pagan Rome and who would seek to take the place on Earth of Christ, would persecute God’s people) 26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. 27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”
This prophecy began in 457 B.C. and spanned all the way down to 1844, which is depicted as the beginning of the end times. (Daniel 12:4, 9) This is also when we would expect to see the birth of the remnant Church.
What happened in 1844?
Many amazing things happened around the year 1844. This was when Christians all over the world began to take notice of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. These prophecies began to be opened up to their understanding, but not fully. There was a world wide movement involving Christians from all denominations, who misinterpreted the “cleansing of the Sanctuary” to mean the return or “Advent” of Christ. Thousands of people from all denominations all over the world turned their eyes and hearts to God and prepared themselves for the imminent return of Christ. History called this message “SWEET” as one would call the expected return of Christ an exceptionally “sweet” message. However, Christ did not return and they soon realized that the prophecy spoke of the cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary and not the Earthly Sanctuary. This very “SWEET” message soon turned into what history called the “BITTER” disappointment.
This was a terrible bitter disappointment as they realized that they had misunderstood one small but crucial part of the prophecy. Some were so disillusioned that they left their Churches. Others though went back to diligently searching the scriptures and the prophecies, and gradually more light was given to them. The man initially responsible for understanding this 2300 day Prophecy was William Miller who was an Adventist which is a term that applies to anyone who believes in the Second Advent of Christ. Many people today wrongly call him a “Seventh-day Adventist,” but this is incorrect as he was in fact a Baptist Pastor. He was an Adventist like all the others, but was not a Seventh-day Adventist. A Seventh Day Adventist believes in the Second Advent of Christ but also keeps the Seventh Day Sabbath, hence the name.
This historical event that involved Christians from all denominations was on such a grand World Wide scale, and was so significant, that we find Jesus describes this event in Bible Prophecy in Revelation chapter 10.
Revelation 10:1-11“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: 2 And he had in his hand a little book open: [Book of Daniel] … 8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. 9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey. 10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. 11 And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Parentheses are added.
What is this little book described in Revelation chapter 10? To make special mention that the book is open implies that at some stage the book was closed or sealed. Where do we find a book like this? There are at least ten reasons we can give that prove this book is none other than the book of Daniel. They are as follows;
The book is mentioned as being little. Daniel is only comprised of 12 chapters.
Each time the book is mentioned it is said that it is “open.” This indicates that it was closed or sealed at some prior stage. The book of Daniel was to be sealed until the time of the end, Daniel 12:4, 9.
This is the only book spoken of as being sealed in the Bible.
Since the book of Daniel is sealed until the time of the end, it would be reasonable to expect that at the time of the events surrounding the time of the end, the opening of this book would be mentioned.
There is no account of the book of Daniel being opened unless this verse in Revelation is accepted. Hence the book of Daniel would be a closed book forever.
The little book in Revelation 10 is concerned with time, “time no longer.” The only other book of the Bible that specializes in time is the book of Daniel.
Daniel did not understand the oath in Daniel 12:8 but was reassured in verse 9 that the understanding would be given after the time of the end. Revelation 10 is a fulfilment of this promise.
The person that made the oath in Daniel 12:7 is described in Daniel 10:5-6 but is also the same person that makes the oath in Revelation 10. This person is Jesus Christ according to the description given in Revelation 1:13-17. This shows the closeness of Daniel 12 and Revelation 10.
With the book being open and the message being proclaimed from it shows that the message is proclaimed this side of the time of the end in 1798.
Daniel 11:35 gives a brief explanation of the papal persecution during its reign in the dark ages. According to this verse the persecution was to cease at the time of the end, which was the end of the 1260 years of papal supremacy. This ended in 1798 and thus we see that the time of the end began 1798. So from 1798 onwards the book of Daniel has been open.
The little book was initially sweet as we are told “it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey” as they believed that the Second Advent of Christ was imminent, but when they realized they had made a small error in the understanding of this prophecy in Daniel 8, it became a bitter disappointment and so “as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.” This sheds more light on who is the remnant Church as Revelation 10:11 says, “And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” This same time period after 1798 is also described in the final verses of Revelation 12. Revelation 12:17 is the last verse and says, “And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This verse refers to the same faithful group that continues preaching the prophecies of Daniel that God would raise up as His true Church, and would have the testimony of Jesus through which God would reveal to them that they should be keeping ALL Ten of His Commandments. Through much research, we found that as a result of this World wide event, a Church did emerge that does meet this criterion.
Several years later as a result of their continued careful search, God revealed the importance of returning to the faith of the early Church. He revealed to them through the testimony of Jesus (Spirit of Prophecy) the significance of keeping all of His Commandments and basing their whole doctrine on the Word alone. It was discovered by many of them that an apostate Church had changed one of the Ten Commandments of God and that this Commandment was kept by the early Church and so they as the true remnant should be also.
It was noted that Paul and the early Church kept the Commandment from the following scriptures. Acts 17:1-2 “When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,” The Jews and Pharisees which Paul was, have always kept Saturday as the Sabbath. And this was Paul’s custom since childhood. Acts 26:4-5 “The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. 5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.” In reference to the future destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Christ states in Matthew 24:20, “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.” Why would Jesus say pray that you don’t have to flee on the Sabbath if we are not keeping it anymore? He wouldn’t! The gospel of Luke states in Luke 23:56 that when the body of Christ was being prepared by His followers, “they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment.” Luke’s gospel was written 30-50 years after the cross and there is no way he would make a statement like this without telling us of a change. There was no scripture found that spoke of a change to this Commandment and Jesus said that not even a stroke of the pen will pass from the law till heaven and earth pass. The Bible makes it clear that the true Church will hold fast to the scriptures and the law of God, and that Churches who do not do this are deceived. Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” See also New Testament Sabbath keeping.
There were also many false religions which developed around this time, which promoted extra-biblical and non-biblical teachings. So as God was giving light to some of His people and birthing a remnant Church, Satan was hard at work deceiving as many as he could to lead them away from the truth of the Word of God.
Jesus reinforced this. Matthew 5:17-19 NIRV “Do not think I have come to get rid of what is written in the Law or in the Prophets. I have not come to do that. Instead, I have come to give full meaning to what is written. 18 What I’m about to tell you is true. Heaven and earth will disappear before the smallest letter disappears from the Law. Not even the smallest stroke of a pen will disappear from the Law until everything is completed. 19 “Do not break even one of the least important Commandments. And do not teach others to break them. If you do, you will be called the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. Instead, practice and teach these commands. Then you will be called important in the kingdom of heaven.” So we can determine which are true and false Churches by checking which ones follow and teach obedience to all of the Ten Commandments of God, including keeping His Seventh day Sabbath Holy.
Who is the Remnant Church Summary
To determine who is the remnant Church and whether it be one or more denominations, you will need to find a Church who have people displaying the following attributes. They must:
Be a minority, that is, a remnant.
Keep all the Ten Commandments of God including the fourth.
Be Apostolic in nature, similar teaching and belief of the apostles.
Arise after the 1260 years of Papal supremacy which is after 1798.
Have the testimony of Jesus Christ which is the Spirit of Prophecy or the Gift of Prophecy manifest through a prophet or prophets, Revelation 19:10; 22:9.
Be expecting the Second coming of Christ being the last.
Understand Bible prophecy and 666 and the Mark of the Beast issue.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit to boldly proclaim the gospel message.
Believe in the Bible as the only source of doctrine.
Believe in the once only atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
Abstain from cigarettes, drugs or unhealthy eating that damages their bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Understand that the dead sleep until the resurrection to life or resurrection to damnation.
Know that hell-fire is an event and that the wicked do not get eternal life and do perish.
Believe in the young age of the earth, and that God created the world in six days.
Believe in Baptism by full immersion of people who have repented and made their own decision to follow Jesus and partake in it.
Believe in the sanctity of marriage.
Believe that Jesus is our only mediator and that only He can forgive sins.
Believe the truth on the Godhead. (Note: The word trinity is not found in the Bible and originated from Tertullian and was a doctrine that was established by the early Catholic Church in the council of Nicea in 325 AD.) See pagan origins of the trinity doctrine. Note that the Seventh Day Adventist Church was raised by God as non-Trinitarian. See how the trinity doctrine got into the Adventist Church.
Believe in being faithful stewards through tithing and offerings.
Be prepared to endure persecution for their faith.
Be a Church that Satan is making war with, that is, incur the wrath of the dragon, eg: Many websites & people attacking it with false rumours.
Be a world wide movement. The Gospel is to be preached in all the world, Matthew 24:14; Revelation 14:6-12, so it must be a world wide movement.
God’s true remnant Church has the following to look forward to when the New Jerusalem, with the mansions that Jesus Himself has prepared for us eventually comes to rest on the New Earth.
Revelation 21:10-24“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; … 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. … 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”
This frightening apocalyptic word “Armageddon” refers to earth’s final battle which is generally referred to as the Battle of Armageddon. But who are the contestants of this great battle of Armageddon? A fairly common reply would be “Russia, Syria, or Iran against Israel.” As the Middle East simmers toward a boiling point, and as U.S., British, and Israeli intelligence monitor closely Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb which might even be used against America. Millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even secularists are pondering, “Is the Battle of Armageddon at hand?” I believe so. Yet I am also convinced that there are massive battle of Armageddon illusions rampant everywhere. Please allow me to explain.
The word “Armageddon” appears only once in the entire Bible and is found in Revelation 16:16. If you open God’s Word and read this passage yourself along with the verses immediately before and after it, you will be amazed at what you will find and not find in regards to the battle of Armageddon. Take a look for yourself:
Revelation 16:12-21 “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”
Interestingly, no place on earth actually bears the name Armageddon, and the above passage is the only mention of it in scripture and hence it is assumed that this is what scripture refers to but is it? The Greek is most commonly thought to be a transliteration of the Hebrew har megiddo, literally, “mountain of Megiddo.” Here is what Strong’s has to say about the word:
G717 Armageddōn ar-mag-ed-dohn‘ Of Hebrew origin [H2022] and [H4023]; Armageddon (or Har-Megiddon), a symbolical name: – Armageddon.
Strong’s proposes that the Greek word Armageddon originates from the two following Hebrew words:
H2022 har har A shortened form of H2042; a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively): – hill (country), mount (-ain), X promotion.
H4023 megiddôn megiddô meg-id-done’,meg-id-do‘ From H1413; rendezvous; Megiddon or Megiddo, a place in Palestine: – Megiddo, Megiddon.
The Mount of Megiddo is located in the plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, a valley fourteen by twenty miles in size located to the southwest of Nazareth. Here, it is thought by many, that the great final battle of Armageddon will be fought at the end of time. Is it possible this battle is symbolic? First let’s do the ground work.
Understanding Bible Prophecy
There are utterly hundreds of interpretations on Bible Prophecy and especially on the issue of antichrist and the battle of Armageddon, the key word being “interpretations.” This is the majority’s first error as we are not allowed and do not need private interpretations at all. God’s Word gives us all we need to know without any speculation whatsoever. Note the following scripture that we should impress deeply into our minds.
2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
Also, the book of Revelation ends with a severe warning telling us not to add or take away from the prophecies written in this book or there are very serious consequences.
Revelation 22:18-19 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
If we adhere to the warning of these two scriptures then we should not go too far wrong. These verses inform us that everything we need to know about end time events will be stated in the Bible and we will not have to add extra doctrine or our own interpretations or fill in the gaps, for we are told not to add to it.
The moment you hear statements like, “this must be that country because or…”, then stop reading. If we have to add or take from what the Bible tells us, then we already have it wrong. In fact, once you understand the principles for understanding Bible prophecy, it is a lot simpler than you could imagine.
The key to understanding Bible prophecy is laid out in the principle of the following verse:
Isaiah 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:”
For example, in Revelation 13 we find a bizarre beast coming out of the sea with ten horns. Do we start making wild guesses as to what a beast is or what the meaning of the sea or water is? It is beyond the scope of this document to go into large detail here, but it is necessary to some extent, so you will know what I am going to share with you on the Battle of Armageddon will be Bible truth and not private interpretation.
A large amount of what we need to know can be found by referencing the book of Daniel. In fact two thirds of the book of Revelation can be found in the Old Testament and that is a very large key to finding our answers, “precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Note the following two verses, which are significant to understanding many key Bible Prophecies, for instance the word “Beast” occurs more than 55 times in Revelation. This verse tells us the meaning of the waters or sea in this case.
Revelation 17:15 “And he saith unto me, The waters which you sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, 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.”
The previous verse which was divinely given to Daniel, informs us unmistakably what a beast is in Bible Prophecy. There is no need to guess, just let the Bible explain itself.
There is always so much speculation as to what the Mark of the Beast is or more to the point who this antichrist beast power is. Many believe it to be one individual at the end of time. Is this true? No! For those who want to research and study history a little, they will be shell shocked to find out what the real truth is. You will ask yourself why more people don’t know this truth, but this is how Satan works. He starts with a small lie and perpetuates it until it gets so big that nobody will entertain the idea of it ever being wrong. Even some theologians who first hear Satan’s perpetuated lie in a traditionally accepted teaching without questioning it, tend to end up establishing their theology around that lie that becomes a mind set.
Because of the importance of the identity of the antichrist beast power and to see how the following truth could not be established without using the book of Daniel we are going to cover this topic. Understanding how Daniel and Revelation work together is a crucial part of understanding the great Battle of Armageddon found in Revelation. So let’s identify from the Bible and history who this antichrist power is.
For a very comprehensive study on who and where is the Antichrist use this link and on completion return to this web site and then proceed straight to the second page of this document. If you have already read the web site who is the Antichrist, you can also go direct to the second page of this document on the Battle of Armageddon.
What does the Bible have to say about “Antichrist”?
Some are surprised to know that the word antichrist appears nowhere in the book of Revelation. The word antichrist occurs only five times and only in the Books of 1st and 2nd John.
1 John 2:18-22 – He is antichrist that denies Jesus is Christ. In John’s time there were many antichrists.
1 John 4:1-3 – Test the Spirits. Every spirit that denies Jesus came in the flesh is the spirit of antichrist.
2 John 1-11 – Those that deny Jesus came in the flesh are a deceiver and antichrist.
Antichrist = “against Christ” or “in place of Christ”, attacking Christ’s character (Gnosticism), specifically with regard to love expressed in obedience to God’s Ten Commandments.
What is one method Satan uses to “deny” Christ?
2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15 – Appear as “apostles of Christ” but preach a “different Jesus”
Does the Bible give us a way to identify the Antichrist power?
Review Daniel 2 to get a prophetic blueprint of history: Babylon –> Medo-Persia –> Greece –> Rome –> 10 Divisions of Rome –>> Kingdom of the Stone.
Now apply the principle of repetition and enlargement to Daniel’s next vision.
Prophecy Symbols:
Beasts – Kings/kingdoms (political powers). Daniel 7:17, 23
The Lion – Babylon. Wings represent conquering speed. King Nebuchadnezzar.
The Bear – Medo-Persia. One shoulder raised above the other represents the dominance of the Medes over the Persians. The three ribs represent the three kingdoms overthrown by this kingdom – Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon. (Daniel 8:20)
The Leopard – Greece. Four wings representing great conquering speed. The four heads represent Alexander the Great’s four generals who ruled Greece after his death – Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus and Cassander. (Daniel 8:21-22)
The different beast – Rome. The ten horns – the divisions of Rome (Same as the toes of Chapter 2) The ten horns are the 10 divisions of the Roman Empire as it fell apart. These were the Anglo Saxons (England), Alemanni (Germany), Heruli (x493AD), Vandals (x534AD), Ostrogoths (x538AD), Visigoths (Spain), Suevi (Portugal), Lombard’s (Italy), Burgundians (Swiss) and the Franks (France).
What nine characteristics help us to identify the little horn power?
Location: out of the 4th beast and among the ten horns (v.8) – The Papacy arose out of Rome among the ten tribal divisions of Rome
Timing: after the ten were established (v.8) – the Papacy became a political power by decree of the Roman emperor Justinian in AD 538 which was after the emergence of the ten tribal divisions that emerged as the Roman Empire fell apart in AD 476.
Uprooted three of the ten horns (v.8) – As the Papacy came to prominence, it influenced Pagan Roman armies to destroy three of the tribes which opposed its Christian doctrines. These three were the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Heruli. The last of these was destroyed in AD 538 when Justinian’s decree went into effect.
Eyes and mouth of a man (v.8) – the Papacy has a man as its visible head.
Persecutes the saints (v.21, 25) – Ever hear of the Papal persecution during the dark ages – Inquisition, etc. More than 50 million Protestant Christians tortured and killed by the Catholic Church.
Different than the other ten horns (v.24) – the Papacy was a religio-political entity different from the kingdoms before it.
Speak out against God (v.8, 11, 20, 25) – Verse 8 says it will utter boastful or blasphemous things. One quote of many like it from Prompta Bibliothea Canonica Juridicia Moralis Theologica appearing in the Catholic Encyclopedia Volume VI, pp. 25-29, “The Pope is of so great dignity, and so exalted, that he is not a mere man, but as it were, God and the Vicar of God. The Pope is, as it were, God on earth, chief king of kings, having plentitude of power.”
Little Horn attempts to change God’s times and laws (v.25) – The Papacy deleted the second commandment of the Decalogue on idolatry, changed the Sabbath to Sunday in favour of sun worship and divided the tenth commandment on coveting into two parts to get back to Ten Commandments.
How does Daniel’s vision compare with John’s vision in Revelation 13?
The table below also demonstrates how a lot of Bible prophecy can be understood by comparing Revelation with the Old Testament and the book of Daniel in particular. Again this is very important to understanding the Battle of Armageddon as the beast is Mystery Babylon who is the major player in this prophecy.
The above similarities are not a coincidence. God deliberately concealed many things like this so that they would not be seen until the time of the end. This applies to most prophecies involving the book of Daniel.
Daniel 12:4 “But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
There has only been one power that has persecuted Christians for 1260 years and only one power had the privilege of taking out three of the ten kingdoms from the collapse of the Roman Empire. It can be no other than the Papacy on these two points alone, and as we have seen there are far more identifying points.
What was Satan’s original purpose?
Isaiah 14:12-14 “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! 13 For you have said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
Satan wanted to be worshipped as God but how could he achieve that goal when no Christian in their right mind would do this. When Satan (the Dragon) gave him (the Pope) his power, and his seat, and great authority, Satan achieved his goal and got the worship he wanted and on his day in favour of sun worship as this is what God hates and Satan knew it. The big issue is who we worship and what day we worship on. Do we give Satan our allegiance and worship on his day implemented by the Papacy, or do we place our allegiance where it should belong and worship on the day that God blessed and sanctified?
Revelation 13:2 “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”
What is Satan’s purpose now?
Revelation 12:12 “Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.”
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
The Protestant Reformation
Towards the time of the end when the Bible hit the printing press, almost all the early Church fathers began to understand these prophecies and in particular the one involving the antichrist beast power. Satan obviously does not want anyone understanding Bible Prophecy and especially who the beast power is as this would give Christians the upper hand in understanding 666 and the Mark of the Beast, the battle of Armageddon and other important issues. So naturally, Satan always has many counter lies coming against this truth.
The Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s literally changed the course of history. It helped move Europe out of the Dark Ages and led to the rise of true religious freedom. Its original principles eventually found expression in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America which teaches that when it comes to religion, the governments of earth have no right to control the conscience.
True Protestantism teaches salvation by grace through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8) and the supremacy of the Bible above the visible church, (2 Timothy 3:16) above traditions, pastors, priests, popes and kings. It also teaches the priesthood of all believers (2 Peter 2:9-10) and that all people everywhere can be saved by coming directly to our loving heavenly Father through His only Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5
What did the major Protestant Reformers teach about the Antichrist? The following quotations are not indented to foster ill will toward any human being, for this would be contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ but truth is truth and that is all we can present here. Here are many comments presented by some of the most influential Christian leaders who have ever lived and what they believed about “the little horn” (Daniel 7:8), “the beast” (Revelation 13:1), and “the man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) and about Antichrist.
John Wesley (1703-1791) (Methodist): Speaking of the Papacy, John Wesley wrote, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers… He it is…that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped…claiming the highest power, and highest honour…claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, by John Wesley, pg. 110.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) (Lutheran): “Luther … proved, by the revelations of Daniel and St. John, by the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the reign of Antichrist, predicted and described in the Bible, was the Papacy … And all the people did say, Amen! A holy terror seized their souls. It was Antichrist whom they beheld seated on the pontifical throne. This new idea, which derived greater strength from the prophetic descriptions launched forth by Luther into the midst of his contemporaries, inflicted the most terrible blow on Rome.” Taken from J. H. Merle D’aubigne’s History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century, book vi, chapter xii, p. 215. Based on prophetic studies, Martin Luther finally declared, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520). Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.
John Wycliffe: “When the western church was divided for about 40 years between two rival popes, one in Rome and the other in Avigon, France, each pope called the other pope antichrist – and John Wycliffe is reputed to have regarded them as both being right: “two halves of Antichrist, making up the perfect Man of Sin between them.” –Ibid
Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) (Anglican): “Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.” (Referring to prophecies in Revelation and Daniel.) Works by Cranmer, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7.
John Calvin (1509-1564) (Presbyterian): “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt… I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.” Taken from Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.
John Knox (1505-1572) (Scotch Presbyterian): John Knox sought to counteract “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church.” As with Luther, he finally concluded that the Papacy was “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.” The Zurich Letters, by John Knox, pg. 199.
Roger Williams (1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America): Pastor Williams spoke of the Pope as “the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself…speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the son of perdition (II Thess. 2).” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647): “There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God.” Taken from Philip Schaff’s, The Creeds of Christendom,With a History and Critical Notes, III, p. 658, 659, ch. 25, sec. 6.
Cotton Mather (1663-1728) (Congregational Theologian): “The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.” Taken from The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom’s book, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, pg. 113.
A Great Cloud of Witnesses: “Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.” Taken from All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.
Please consider the following question very carefully. Why have almost all these Churches forgotten what was known by their early Church fathers and all these other people who had no trouble in understanding what the Bible taught here? Have you given this some serious thought? There is only one answer.
Never underestimate the enemy!! He has sown more lies and deceptions into the Church today than one can imagine or what space we have to go into here. Don’t just assume because your Pastor does not teach it that it is not truth. It is this mentality that helps Satan keep his lies going. Pastors are still just people and suffer many of the same vulnerabilities as we do. Most Christians have not read their Bible from cover to cover and yet the best example we get is from the Borean Christians in the early Church. We should follow their lead so we can personally understand what the battle of Armageddon and the mark of the beast are truly about.
Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
As you have just read, all those great people understood the antichrist power to be none other than the Papacy. This following comment is no reflection on all the wonderful people in the Catholic Church but truth is truth and the truth is the Papacy persecuted and murdered an estimated 70-100 million Christians they called heretics through the dark ages for reading the Bible and keeping God’s true day of worship etc, which is why the Protestant reformation began. As part of a counter reformation from the Papacy in what was called the Council of Trent, the Papacy commissioned some Jesuit Priests to manufacture false prophecy that would take the attention off them being the antichrist beast power. The purpose of this Counter Reformation was to point the attention to someone before their time or in the distant future. Some call this the great Catholic diversion but is more commonly known just as the Counter Reformation.
The Counter Reformation
With the arrival of the printing press in the 15th century and the resulting explosion of Bibles accessible in the common language from Protestant sources, it became readily apparent to those who could now study the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation in particular, that Bible prophecy identified by symbols a persecuting apostate entity generally known as antichrist.
In this the “Historical” interpretation, the antichrist was clearly not merely a single individual, it was a system of apostasy and persecution that would hold control for over twelve centuries. The inevitable conclusion of those who studied these prophecies in scripture, before and during the Protestant Reformation, was that there was only one entity that fit all the above characteristics: the papal dynasty of the Roman Catholic Church. Is it any wonder that the Catholic Church was so violently opposed to the scriptures being available for everyone to read for themselves? There was such a stir created during the reformation that the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17 A.D.) resorted to strictly forbidding anyone to publish a book without prior censorship, and also prohibited anyone from preaching on the subject of antichrist. The intent of both Futurism and Preterism was to be diversionary, to counter or offset the Protestant Historical interpretation, and present alternatives, no matter how implausible they might be.
The result is evident from the following chart, which illustrates the three schools of interpretation regarding antichrist. Ribera’s futurism puts the antichrist into a future three and one-half literal years. Alcazar’s preterism identifies the antichrist as Nero. Both of them put antichrist outside the middle Ages and the reformation period, identified by Protestant Historicists as antichrist’s reign of 1260 prophetic years.
Now the truly amazing part of all this is that the Futurist theory dominates Protestant teaching today. About all you hear or read about today is the yet to appear antichrist, who will be unveiled in the last 3 1/2 years of Daniel’s 70th week, when he declares himself to be God in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. That scenario, as you can now see, is directly traceable back to the pen of the Jesuit Francisco Ribera who manufactured this theory for the sole purpose of diverting attention from the papacy. Note what one Protestant writer had to say over one hundred years ago:
“Accordingly, towards the close of the century of the Reformation, two of her most learned doctors set themselves to the task, each endeavouring by different means to accomplish the same end, namely, that of diverting men’s minds from perceiving the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Antichrist in the Papal system. The Jesuit Alcasar devoted himself to bring into prominence the Preterist method of interpretation, which we have already briefly noticed, and thus endeavouring to show that the prophecies of Antichrist were fulfilled before the Popes ever ruled in Rome, and therefore could not apply to the Papacy. On the other hand the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the Papal Power by bringing out the Futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies refer properly not to the career of the Papacy, but to that of some future supernatural individual, who is yet to appear, and to continue in power for three and a half years. Thus, as Alford says, the Jesuit Ribera, about A.D. 1580, may be regarded as the Founder of the Futurist system in modern times.”
“It is a matter for deep regret that those who hold and advocate the Futurist system at the present day, Protestants as they are for the most part, are thus really playing into the hands of Rome, and helping to screen the Papacy from detection as the Antichrist. It has been well said that ‘Futurism tends to obliterate the brand put by the Holy Spirit upon Popery.’ More especially is this to be deplored at a time when the Papal Antichrist seems to be making an expiring effort to regain his former hold on men’s minds.”
From Daniel and the Revelation: The Chart of Prophecy and Our Place In It, A Study of the Historical and Futurist Interpretation, by Joseph Tanner, published in London by Hodder and Stoughton, 1898, pages 16,17.
In what could only be described as a stunning reversal, Protestants have over time actually become the papacy’s greatest ally by spreading its Jesuit spawned propaganda. What irony that Protestants, who originally broke away from what they clearly recognized to be the harlot antichrist led church of prophecy, now champion the Futurist interpretation from high profile ministries. Futurism has without doubt, been successful beyond the wildest dreams of its Jesuit authors. The same applies to the Preterist interpretation of Luis De Alcazar, although to a lesser degree.
Most of you have probably heard of a supposed seven year tribulation period and a secret rapture. It should totally shock you to know that there is no scripture that specifically mentions seven years of tribulation! It simply does not exist. Previously I told you that some of the things I would share with you would shell shock you and this is one of them. This was part of the Counter Reformation from the Papacy and was manufactured by the Jesuit Francisco Ribera who was responsible for the futurist view just explained above. For more information, read “Secret Rapture”
Check everything you are told with the Bible and where relevant with history. Do not use biased Christian sources. They must be unprejudiced, unbiased historical sources or Satan will still succeed in leading you from truth. For example, Satan has many counter deceptions out there to come against truth including the lie that the Ten Horns of the beast of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are ten consecutive kings. This is all it would take to throw you from the real truth of these Bible passages. The Ten horns are ten kings and this is Bible truth as we have already seen and is unmistakably clear from the scripture below.
Daniel 7:24 “The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.”
But as for them being ten consecutive kings, this is just not possible.
Daniel 7:8 “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.”
You will note that the verse says, “a little one, which came up among them”. In order for another kingdom to come up AMONG them, they all have to exist at the same time. This matches history perfectly. Again as we have already seen, the Papacy uprooted the Vandals, Heruli and the Ostrogoths as they opposed them from coming into full power. None of these kingdoms or equivalents exists now today as a result.
Read “666 and the Mark of the beast” or “mark of the beast” for even more detailed information. Do not read these sites unless you are a Christian that wants to know truth at any cost. You may also like to read this one for the origins of 666. Daniel 7:25 also tells us that the Papacy would think to change God’s times and laws which as we have seen they did and freely admit and history proves this also. They have their own version of the Ten Commandments where the 2nd Commandment has been deleted and they changed God’s Sabbath to Sunday in honour of sun worship unknown to so many Christians today. You find the evidence of sun worship all over the place in the Papacy like the picture shown here. Why is this unknown to so many Christians? Again, Satan was created a very wise and powerful angel and he has been around for thousands of years. Does anyone think that he just might be capable of doing a good job at deceiving? The truth is never, ever easy to see. Some say that, “the truth is not always popular and what is popular is not always truth.”
“A lie can travel halfway around the world, while truth puts on its shoes.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)
A lot of Bible Prophecy revolves around God’s Commandments as breaking them is sin and this sin is what God hates and is detestable to Him. 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” God loves the sinner but He hates the sin. It is the battle between what is from God which is good and love and obedience versus what is from Satan which is evil and sin and disobedience. When you mention the Sabbath to many Christians you receive a multitude of different reasons as to why God made nine Commandments that are obviously eternal but apparently made a huge mistake as He added one that was apparently not a Commandment of love or eternal. Did God really foul up here? If you really love God with all your heart and want the answer to the real truth, on careful study of history and the Bible, you will find the answer to this question is No. God has more wisdom than everyone on Earth put together and did not make nine eternal love Commandments and one that was not. Would you do that? I certainly wouldn’t and I am no match for God’s wisdom. If you can accept this fact then you will understand a lot more on what so much Bible Prophecy is all about. If you are a Christian that says, “If this is so, then I want to know”, you can find the Sabbath truth on “Sabbath and Antichrist truth Revealed”
If you are a Christian that says, “it was done away with or the day was changed”, you will miss out on many of God’s blessings and knowledge of Bible Prophecy truth and so don’t bother reading the above web site. I pray that through the history and Bible facts presented here that the victory Satan has achieved through the Papacy can be seen and you will reconsider what it is you are rejecting and who is getting the glory.
We will eventually make the connection with the Battle of Armageddon and what the Bible calls “Mystery Babylon” or spiritual Babylon which is the Papacy and all the false religions that have come from her.
The rebuilt Jewish Temple – Fact or Fiction
Many of you will have noted in the comments made by our early Church fathers and the translators of the KJV Bible that the man of sin referred to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is none other than the Pope.
2 Thessalonians 2:4 “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
It is from this verse that the conclusion comes that the Jewish temple must be rebuilt so that the antichrist can sit in the temple of God. Well here comes some more of that shell shocking truth I spoke of. This was more of Jesuit Francisco Ribera’s false manufactured prophecy to make us think that the antichrist power was some individual at the end of time. The fact that this was manufactured as part of the Papacy’s Counter Reformation and that all the early Church fathers knew this was referring to the Pope should be enough, but I will touch on it lightly. Again, large percentages of the Christian populous believe this perpetuated lie.
The Pope claims to be God on Earth and puts himself in place of Christ which matches the definition of antichrist; against or in place of. Here are some quotes from the Roman Catholic Church.
“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of human flesh.” – Catholic National, July 1895
“We hold upon this earth the place of God almighty.” – Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894.
“The pope has power to change times, abrogate laws, and dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.” – Decretal De Translat. Espiscop. Cap.
“The authority of the Church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed…the Sabbath to Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” – Cannon and Tradition, p.263
“The church may by divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their person, and condemn them to flames. In our age, the right to inflict the severest penalties, even death, belongs to the church. There is no graver offense than heresy, therefore it must be rooted out.” – Public Eccliastical, Vol. 2, p.142.
The Greek word Paul used for temple in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 is “nah-os”. Here are some other scriptures that use this same Greek word.
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
We are the temple of God now. That is the Church. Here is another couple using the same Greek word;
1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?”
Matthew 26:61 “And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.”
Jesus is obviously not talking about an earthly temple in the above verse. There are many others but this should be enough to see what Paul was talking about here. Paul is a Christian Jew and knows that the temple is now the Church and if Paul were to call a rebuilt temple “the temple of God” then he would be denying what Jesus did on the cross. Paul would never call a rebuilt temple the “temple of God” because it would not be God’s temple! In the next verse you will see that Jesus calls the temple of God His house or His temple.
Matthew 21:13 “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.”
But note now in the following verse Jesus said, Matthew 23:38 “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
But soon it will be their house, i.e. no longer God’s temple. Why?
Matthew 27:51 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”
Jesus ended the temple sacrifices when he became the one and final perfect sacrifice. It is no longer God’s temple as Jesus said in the verse above and Paul would never ever call it that either because he obviously knows it is no longer God’s temple. We are the temple of God now! If Paul called it God’s temple he would be saying to God that Jesus never did the job on the cross and that further sacrifices are needed.
The Pope will be seated [sitteth] in a position of power in the Church “showing himself that he is God.” Remember the Pope claims to be God on earth now. All the early Church fathers and Protestants knew this and were not deceived by Ribera’s manufactured writings because they knew who he was. Yet another truth that Satan has slowly drawn from the Church over the centuries. That is how he does it, slowly and subtly.
Now moving closer to the issue of the Battle of Armageddon. First a few more points and symbols. A woman in Bible Prophecy represents a Church and the colour blue represents God’s Ten Commandment law.
Numbers 15:38-39 “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring:”
The colours of the garments that the priests were to wear had the colours gold, blue, purple and scarlet. It is important to make note that the colour blue represents God’s law and that the Papacy thought to change God’s law. Note in the picture here that the robes of the Catholic Priests are missing the colour blue.
Exodus 28:3-6 “And you shall speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. 4 And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. 5 And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. 6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.”
In the following vision of John’s we are shown the judgment that must come upon the mother of all Churches, Mystery Babylon or spiritual Babylon. The judgement is because she thought to change God’s law and has the blood of millions of Christians the Papacy called heretics on her hands. You will note many of the same identifying marks as the beast described in Revelation 13:1 being Papal Rome. Having seen the criteria now for the antichrist power, the passage below should make perfect sense. Since a woman in Bible Prophecy represents a Church and a beast a kingdom, what we symbolically have below is a woman riding and in control of a beast. This literally would be a Church in control of a kingdom or more specifically, a Church in control of state as was the Roman Catholic Church for 1260 dark years. This is why America had in their constitution that Church should remain separate from state so that such a dreadful thing as those 1260 years of Papal persecution could not happen again, but unfortunately the Bible tells us it will happen again with the Mark of the Beast issue. Note that the woman riding the beast, like the Catholic Priest robes, is missing the colour blue. Here is a Church in control of state that has forgotten the Commandments of God and any wonder when the dragon (Satan) gave her the power and great authority. You don’t think Satan wants us obeying God’s Commandments do you? This all revolves around who we worship and more specifically God’s law which defines what sin is. The Papacy is especially famous for changing God’s Sabbath and they say that it is a MARK of their authority that they could do this and have the whole protestant world follow her.
Revelation 17:1-6 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3 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. 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”
Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible Albert Barnes (1798-1870) quotes the following: “Rev 17:2 – With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication – Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. … How true this is in history need not be stated. All the princes and kings of Europe in the dark ages, and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of papal Rome. And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication – The alluring cup which, as an harlot, she had extended to them. See this image explained in the notes on Rev 14:8. There it is said that Babylon – referring to the same thing – had “made them drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”; that is, of the cup that led to wrath or punishment. Here it is said that the harlot had made them “drunk with the wine of her fornication”; that is, they had been, as it were, intoxicated by the alluring cup held out to them. What could better describe the influence of Rome on the people of the world, in making them, under these delusions, incapable of sober judgment, and in completely fascinating and controlling all their powers?”
The Battle of Armageddon
Now that the foundations have been laid to understand all the Prophecy involved, we can now cover this most misunderstood topic of the battle of Armageddon. We have seen who the antichrist beast power is that thought to change God’s laws, which is the “great whore that sitteth upon many waters:” Revelation 17:1 and mystery Babylon or spiritual Babylon that is yet to receive God’s wrath for her fornication with the kings of this earth, and for all the shed blood of the saints labelled heretics that died rather than bow to the Papacy and their day of worship.
Left Behind: Fact or Fiction?
The book “Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages” is now launched. It is Book number 11 of the New York Times best selling Left Behind series. Unleashed on April 8, 2003 in the wake of a five million dollar add campaign, Armageddon is now being read around the world by Christians and secular searchers alike looking for answers in the midst of a world now at “War Against Terror.” Leftbehind.com, in its description of Armageddon’s basic story line, portrays a final remnant of scattered believers as being drawn inexorably toward the Middle East, as are all the armies of the world, when history hones in on the battle of the ages.
Although contained in well written fiction, Armageddon echoes the non-fiction theology of a small group of evangelical Bible teachers which is now eagerly being read by millions. The scene: History’s last battlefield in the Middle East. Final contestants: The Powers of Earth vs. the Jews. Nature of conflict: Military. Epicentre: A small valley northwest of Jerusalem where all the armies of the world will converge for the battle of the ages.
Supposedly, at least according to books like Armageddon, radio programs like Irvin Baxter Juniors Politics and Religion, TV networks like Pat Robertson’s CBN and Paul Crouch’s TBN, and high-budget apocalyptic films like The Omega Code, the Bible’s final prophecies will revolve around modern Israel and the blood stained city of Jerusalem. During history’s last moments, supposedly yet again the Almighty will finally pulverize Israel’s invading enemies and defend His chosen people the Jews.
The belief that God will ultimately defend Middle East Jews at the battle of Armageddon is so strongly embedded within the 21st century evangelical psyche that it has spilled over into politics and even influences U.S. foreign policy toward the Jewish State. The United States not only supports Israel as a democracy which it should but countless American citizens, including prophecy-minded, politically active Christians in Washington D.C., believe strongly that if they support Israel, God will support them. From California to New York, on radio and TV, the line is often heard, “He who blesses Israel will be blessed, and He who curses Israel will be cursed,” although this often repeated phrase is really a misinterpretation of Genesis 12:3 which contains one sentence spoken to Abraham alone, not to the Israeli nation.
As any Christian should, I long to see God’s blessing come upon both Jews and Arabs alike. The purpose of this document is not to condemn U.S. support for Israel or to try and solve a seemingly unsolvable Middle East mess, rather, its assignment is to take a second look at what the New Testament and especially the book of Revelation really says about Israel, Jerusalem and the battle of Armageddon. Is Left Behind’s blockbuster 11th book, “Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages”, correct in its assumption that God will defend modern Jerusalem during Earth’s last war? Is the current “God Is Behind Israel” theology of so many evangelical Christians really right? Or could there be something wrong with this picture?
Who is real Israel – The two Israel’s
First of all this truth has seismic implications. The New Testament actually describes two Israel’s, not just one. Paul wrote, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel” Romans 9:6. What does this text mean? Look closely. Those “of Israel” refer to people belonging to the literal Jewish nation. But just because people are “of Israel,” or Jewish, doesn’t necessarily mean they are truly Israel indeed.
To clarify, Paul said there is an “Israel according to the flesh” (1 Corinthians 10:18) and an “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16) centred in Jesus Christ. For simplicity, let’s call the first group, Israel one, and the second group, Israel Two. Israel one is composed of “Israelites … according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3-4) which refer to literal Jews who can trace their blood line back to Abraham, but who do not as yet believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
Paul wrote, “They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God” Romans 9:8. Thus Israel one, although it has a wonderful religious heritage, is made up largely of people who spiritually “are not the children of God.” In the New Testament sense, “the children of God,” applies only to those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord (see John 1:12). “The Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), or Israel Two, refers to a composite group made up of both Jews and non-Jews who believe in the Crucified one, have died to self and been born again (see verses 14-15). This group is called “the Israel of God” because it is God centred, being made up of people who have a genuine experience with the Lord. Sadly, the majority of Middle East Israelis today don’t fit this description although Jesus is working among them and many are coming to faith in Him.
Writing to non-Jews, or Gentiles, Paul wrote, “And if you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” Galatians 3:28-29. Don’t miss this, for it’s of extreme importance. This passage teaches that a Gentile, if he “belongs to Christ,” is mystically injected into “Abraham’s seed,” which according to Isaiah 41:8 is Israel. In Galatians 6, Paul summarized his doctrine by saying that anyone, circumcised or uncircumcised, who becomes a “new creature” through faith in Jesus, is now part of “the Israel of God”, verses 14-16. They belong to Israel Two. See also Romans 2:28-29.
Here’s the explosive question: Which group, Israel one or Israel Two is the focus in the book of Revelation? Is it “Israel after the flesh,” that is, modern Israel, with its present capital of Jerusalem? Millions of Bible Prophecy believing Christians think so but as we have seen, much of this misunderstanding comes from Jesuit Francisco Ribera’s manufactured futurism prophecy written for the Papacy as part of the counter reformation. So what does Revelation teach? The answer will be discovered through a deep study of God’s Word.
When we open Revelation’s mysterious pages, we discover predictions about mount Zion (14:1), the twelve tribes of Israel (7:4-8), Jerusalem (21:10), the temple (11:19), Sodom and Egypt (11:8), Babylon (17:5), the Euphrates river (16:12), and the so called battle of Armageddon (16:16). Thus Revelation uses the terminology and geography of the Middle East in its prophecies.
Once again, here is the big question: Does God want these prophecies to be applied to those literal places in the Middle East and to “Israel after the flesh” centred in modern Jerusalem (Israel one)? Or might He rather intend for a spiritual application of these prophecies to “the Israel of God” centred in Jesus Christ (Israel Two), that is, to a spiritual Israel made up only of born again Jews and Gentiles scattered around the world? Most theologians apply Revelation to Israel one and to literal Middle East locations, but is this right?
Let’s start at the beginning of Revelation. The Bible’s last book is ultimately, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” Revelation 1:1. Jesus Christ is the Source, the Centre and the Interpreter. In chapter one, John was “in the Spirit”, don’t forget this; when he saw Jesus walking “in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” (verses 10-13). The idea of “seven golden candlesticks” takes our minds back to the seven branched candlestick inside the Jewish temple before it was destroyed in 70 A.D. by Roman armies. Yet in Revelation, “the seven golden candlesticks” are clearly symbolic.
What do they represent? Explaining “the mystery,” the Interpreter declared, “the seven candlesticks which you saw are the seven churches” Revelation 1:20. Thus, in Revelation’s very first chapter, I am going to call this “Exhibit A” for it reveals a truth I wish to develop. Jesus Christ took something extremely Jewish and used it symbolically to represent His Church. As we shall see, this is the key interpretive principle to understanding the entire book.
Enter Exhibit B. In Revelation 2, in a dictated letter to “the church in Thyatira” (verse 18), Jesus reproved His people for allowing “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants…” verse 20. Jezebel was a wicked woman in Old Testament days that entered Israel and caused problems. Was Jesus saying Jezebel had been reincarnated, or resurrected, or was He literally teaching deception within Thyatira? Obviously not. A little reflection reveals that He used the word, “Jezebel,” as a symbol of an evil movement that was affecting His Church. As with the seven golden candlesticks, God’s Messiah took something from Jewish history and applied it to His Church, “the Israel of God.”
Enter Exhibit C. In Revelation 3, the Heavenly Interpreter dictated another letter to “the church in Philadelphia” (verse 7) in which He said a Christian could become “a pillar in the temple of My God,” and have a place “in the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem” verse 12. Don’t miss the significance of this. Not only did Jesus once again use Jewish imagery the temple and apply it symbolically to His Church, but He also identified another city, “the New Jerusalem,” as God’s real city. And this city will not be a remodelled earthly Jerusalem with its bullet holes covered and the blood of suicide bombers scrubbed away. This one “comes down out of heaven.”
Remember, in Revelation’s first chapter, John was “in the Spirit” (1:10) when he received his vision. In fact, throughout Revelation he was “in the Spirit” seeing different things (4:2; 17:3; 21:10). When one is “in the Spirit,” he sees through Holy Spirit eyes instead of with flesh vision eyes. Remember also, Paul described two Israel’s, one “after the flesh,” and the other “in Christ.” Again, the question is which Israel is the focus of “the Revelation of Jesus Christ”? When God’s final prophetic masterpiece of the Apocalypse talks about “Israel” (7:4), “mount Zion” (14:1), “Jerusalem,” (21:10), “the temple” (11:19), “Sodom and Egypt” (11:8), “Babylon” (17:5), “Euphrates” (16:12), and the so called “battle of Armageddon” (16:16), do these refer to literal, earthly, war-torn, fleshy places not too far from Iraq, south of Baghdad, west of Jordan, east of Tel-Aviv and north of Yasser Arafat’s headquarters?
Enter Exhibit D. The fact is, every specific reference to “Jerusalem” in Revelation concerns a “New Jerusalem” (3:12; 21:2, 10) which sits on a heavenly “great and high mountain [Mount Zion]” (21:10; 14:1), that houses “the temple of God … in heaven” (11:19; 15:5; 16:1, 17) and is the final home a victorious “Israel” (7:4) which “follows the Lamb wherever He goes” (14:4, 1). The enemy of God’s “New Jerusalem” is a “great city” called “Mystery Babylon” (14:8; 17:5; 18:2) which “sits on many waters” (17:1) of the “great river Euphrates” (16:12) until God’s wrath finally demolishes it at “Armageddon” (16:16, 19). So what’s happening here? A little reflection combined with Holy Spirit enlightenment shows that Revelation is ingeniously using the terminology and landscape of the Middle East in a unique, heavenly and spiritual sense.
Let’s look closer at “the great river Euphrates.” The Bible says, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates; and it’s water was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” Revelation 16:12. Those who interpret Revelation’s Middle East terminology literally such as in Left Behind’s 11th book, Armageddon usually apply this passage to Asian kings marching across a dry riverbed to shoot bullets at Jews at the battle of Armageddon. One well known American radio preacher suggests a Turkish dam might be the means of drying up the river. Is this really what Revelation 16:12 is about?
The literal Drying up of the Euphrates for the Kings of the East
In order to understand this prophecy, we must first study some Bible history about ancient Israel and literal Babylon. In 605 B.C., “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon” came “to Jerusalem, and besieged it” Daniel 1:1. Jerusalem was conquered and Judah was taken captive for 70 years Daniel 9:2. After 70 years, an amazing set of circumstances occurred. The Euphrates was dried up, Babylon was conquered from the east and God’s people were delivered. This history forms the background for a true understanding of Revelation 16:12.
Ancient Babylon sat on the Euphrates (Jeremiah 51:63-64). A wall surrounded the city. The Euphrates ran through Babylon, entering and exiting through two spiked gates whose bars reached down into the riverbed. When these twin gates were shut and all other entrances were closed, Babylon was virtually impregnable.
In 538 B.C., on the night of ancient Babylon’s fall, her king and subjects were drunk with wine, see Daniel 5. So were the guards and they forgot to fully close the double doors. Over 100 years earlier, God had predicted concerning Babylon and the Euphrates, “I will dry up your rivers” Isaiah 44:27. The Lord also spoke about “Cyrus,” the man who conquered Babylon, saying, “I will…open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut” Isaiah 45:1. Moreover God called Cyrus “my shepherd” and “his anointed” (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). Thus Cyrus was a type of Jesus Christ. And he came “from the east” Isaiah 46:11.
Housed in the British Museum in London lies the famous Cyrus Cylinder which describes how Cyrus, a general of Darius, conquered Babylon. Cyrus and his army dug trenches upstream alongside the river Euphrates which diverted the flowing water. The river gradually went down as it ran through Babylon. No one noticed. That night, at the height of Belshazzar’s drunken party (see Daniel 5), the water became low enough for Cyrus and his men to stealthily slip under the double doors, which had been left open. Quickly they overran the doomed city, killing the king (Daniel 5:30), and conquering Babylon. Then Cyrus issued his famous decree to let Israel go (Ezra 1). The Jews were free. Ingeniously, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” makes use of the dusty history of this ancient event and then applies it with stunning, apocalyptic force to another “Babylon,” another “Israel,” another “Euphrates,” and another deliverance from “the east.”
In the Old Testament, the battle was clearly between the literal nation of Israel and literal Babylon (Daniel 1). In Revelation, we also find a struggle between “Israel” and “Babylon” (7:4; 14:1, 8). As you well know, the majority of prophecy teachers apply this, at least the “Israel” part of it to literal Jews on the west bank. But let’s be consistent. What about “Babylon”? Does this apply to a rebuilt city south of Baghdad? Some say yes. The Bible and the evidence suggests otherwise. Jeremiah 51:26 “…but you shall be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.” Jeremiah 50:39 “…and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.”
In Revelation 17, a shiny angel beckoned to John: “Come here; I will show you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters” (verse 1). “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 a golden cup in her hand” (verses 3, 4). “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:1, 3-5). John was “in the Spirit” (verse 3) when he received this prophecy. So we must be “in the Spirit” to interpret it correctly.
The woman’s name is “Mystery Babylon.” The word, “Mystery” is significant. In Revelation 1, the true Interpreter, Jesus Christ, used the same word as He applied the Jewish imagery of “seven golden candlesticks” to His Church. In Revelation 17, the same word is applied to the enemy of His Church, to “Mystery Babylon.” And this greater “Babylon” has no application to the ancient city whose sun cracked bricks are now whitening south of Baghdad but in fact Papal Rome as previously discovered.
The Two Babylon’s
In Old Testament days, literal Babylon sat on the literal river Euphrates. In “the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” “Mystery Babylon” also “sits on many waters” (17:1), yet these waters don’t refer to the literal murky Euphrates now trickling through modern Iraq. I’ll prove it from one primary text. And this text is so explosively significant, it’s like detonating a spiritual nuclear warhead against error. John’s angel interpreter explained, “The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” Revelation 17:15.
According to the angel interpreter, the “many waters” of Revelation’s Euphrates represent “people” all over Planet Earth who now support “Mystery Babylon.” They are “drunk with the wine of her fornication” (17:2). “Wine” is obviously symbolic, as is “her fornication.” The “wine” stands for Babylon’s false doctrines, while “her fornication” applies to her unlawful union with “the kings of the earth” (17:2).
“Mystery Babylon” is also “a woman” (17:3). As seen previously, a woman in prophecy represents a church. God likens His people to a “wife” that “has made herself ready” for “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (19:7, 9). The Babylonian woman has also “fallen” (14:8). This must mean that “Mystery Babylon” in Revelation represents a globally supported church that has “fallen” away from her true lover, Jesus Christ, and from Bible truth and God’s law. Yet God still has people inside of Babylon, whom He calls, “My people.” Before the last act of history’s drama, He calls them to “come out” (18:4). Why? Because the river Euphrates is destined to run dry. So God has His children in all Churches including the Roman Catholic Church, “Mystery Babylon.”
“The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up” Revelation 16:12. Left Behind’s Armageddon and countless other theologians apply this drying up of Euphrates to a literal drying so Asian armies can shoot bullets at the Jews at the battle of Armageddon. But what does the Bible say dries up the river? Turkey? No. The Word says, “the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates.” This “vial” is one of the seven “vials of the wrath of God” (16:1). Thus, it is the wrath of God, not Turkey that dries up the Euphrates! What does it mean? Brace yourself. If the “waters” represent “people,” and if the vial of wrath falls on the water, then this means God’s wrath will finally be poured upon people who steadfastly continue supporting Mystery Babylon who thought to change God’s law.
When Heaven’s judgments fall on the swirling waters of Babylon supporting people, reality will be inescapable. They will realize they’ve been misled. Then they will “hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” Revelation 17:16. Thus their misplaced support for a false system will vanish. This is how Babylon’s water will dry up, preparing the way for “the kings of the east” (Revelation 16:12) for the great battle of Armageddon.
In Old Testament days, Cyrus came from “the east” to conquer Babylon (Isaiah 44:26-28; 46:11). The word, “east,” means “sun rising,” and the name, “Cyrus,” means, “sun.” Cyrus came not to attack the Jews, but as their Deliverer, and again, Cyrus was a type of Jesus Christ, the “Sun of righteousness” Malachi 4:2. In Revelation, God’s angels come from the east (7:2), and Jesus Himself said, “As the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” Matthew 24:27. Therefore just as Cyrus came from the east to deliver literal Israel from the clutches of literal Babylon, even so will King Jesus descend from the eastern skies with “the armies which were in heaven” (19:14) to conquer spiritual Babylon and to deliver “the Israel of God” (Israel Two) at the battle of Armageddon!
The following table demonstrates some of the parallels.
What about “Armageddon”? Surprisingly, this exact word is used only once in the Bible, in Revelation 16:16. The Word says, “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.”
Honestly, there is no literal place anywhere on Earth bearing this exact name. It’s true, there is a valley north of Jerusalem which was called “Megiddo” (Judges 5:19) in Bible days. It was a place where the armies of Israel often met foreign enemies in bloody battles. Because “Megiddo,” sounds like, “Armageddon,” millions assume this same place will be the location of a final showdown against the Jews. But is this right?
The so called “battle of Armageddon” represents the apex, the climax, the final battle in Revelation. Will it be a military battle in the Middle East? Again, let’s be consistent. Throughout Revelation we’ve seen Middle East terms like the “seven golden candlesticks,” (1:20), “Jezebel” (2:20), “Mount Zion,” (14:1), “Jerusalem,” (3:12), “the temple” (11:19), “Sodom and Egypt” (11:8), “Euphrates” (16:12) and “Babylon” (17:5) used in a Christ centred, heavenly, spiritual sense. When it comes to the “battle of Armageddon,” which is a term depicting the grand finale in the greatest apocalyptic book ever written, does it make sense for God’s last book to suddenly shift gears away from its thematic focus by pinpointing a literal, local, high tech, Middle East-based conflagration involving Russians, Chinese, Syrians, and literal Jews?
We don’t have to guess. The answer is in the context surrounding Revelation 16:16. While it is outside the scope of this document to discuss the fascinating details, here are the main points:
The battle of Armageddon involves “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” (16:14), which could not possibly fit inside the valley of Megiddo.
Revelation’s focus is “the temple of heaven” (16:17), not a supposedly soon to be rebuilt Jewish temple on earth that originated from the Papacies Counter Reformation, Jesuit manufactured prophecy.
The affects of the battle of Armageddon are global, far beyond the Middle East (16:18-20).
The primary system identified as being destroyed at the battle of Armageddon is spiritual “Babylon” (16:19), not Russia, China or Syria.
In essence, the “battle of Armageddon” depicts the final battle between King Jesus and His heavenly armies (19:11-19) against the worldwide forces of Satan referred to in the Apocalypse as “Mystery Babylon.” At the Second Coming, the devil loses, and his global kingdom comes crashing down. Jesus doesn’t need to nuke His foes, but only to use His “sharp two-edged sword” (1:16; 19:15) which represents His Word of truth (Ephesians 6:17). When Christ descends from the east, He will deliver “Israel” from the clutches of “Babylon.” But which Israel will He deliver? According to the thematic genius of the entire book of Revelation, it must be “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) centred in Jesus Christ whose home and dwelling place is the “New Jerusalem” Revelation 21:10. Read the origins of the number 666 and Catholic Church paganism for more detail on why God calls the Papal Church Babylon.
In conclusion, the Middle East remains a powder keg and the U.S. struggle against Muslim radicals like Osama bin Laden continues, and there’s no end in sight. In the midst of such a “Red Alert” environment, millions of America’s politically active Christians believe God Himself is not only behind modern Israel, but that He will finally annihilate the enemies of the Jewish State at the battle of Armageddon. Left Behind’s “Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages” proclaims this forcefully. Yet, as we have clearly seen, this doctrine is contrary to the New Testament. Beyond this, the teaching is actually harmful because it adds fuel to an already raging Arab fire. A world at “War Against Terror” does not need this. The picture shown right is the valley of Megiddo where the great battle of Armageddon is assumed to take place.
A careful study of “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” proves that Christianity’s massive “God Is Behind Modern Israel” theology is just not true. Not that God doesn’t love Modern Israel, the Israeli people, and Jewish people. But as we have seen, Revelation’s focus is not on “Israel after the flesh” (Israel one), but on “the Israel of God” (Israel Two) composed of both Jews and non-Jews (including Arabs) centred in Jesus Christ. If there was ever a time we needed not only to “walk in the Spirit,” but to interpret prophecy according to the Spirit, it’s now. So ends the illusions on the mystery of the great Battle of Armageddon.
Real peace can be found in only one place, and it’s available to Jews, Muslim Palestinians, and Christians alike. It’s found at the foot of the cross, in the heart of a Man who loves and died for the entire world. Let’s surrender our lives to Him, so we can be part of the Israel of God.
Introduction In the last few decades, a new ministry has entered the Church that claims many of us need to be delivered from curses that are affecting our lives. These ministries keep very busy as there seems to be an ongoing need of breaking generational curses due to freemasonry and other sources. The main reason for this document is to help people know who they are in Christ and the freedom they have in Christ, and to remove all fear of curses by understanding the truth of what God tells us in his Word. John 8:32 GNB says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The current teaching of many Pentecostal churches and those in various other realms of Ministry concerning generational curses has its roots in the Old Testament Law of Moses, for it was in the giving of the law that these Principles were first set forth. An unclear passage of scripture is often used to support false teachings, because when many Christians are unsure of the meaning of a passage, they are less able to discern erroneous teaching based on the verses in question. This is surely the case for the contemporary teaching on generational curses. Many popular books published in the last few decades claim that Christians are subjected to unknown curses that have detrimental effects on their lives. The writers of these books offer their special knowledge, rather than Biblical that can break these supposed curses.
In this document, we will examine the Old Testament passages and look at the Biblical facts behind generational curses, their origin, some of the false teachings, what is a curse and what is not a curse, and whether curses are still happening today and what part freemasonry plays. By careful exegesis centering around the whole counsel of God, we will see that these passages do not support the idea that Christians are cursed because of the sins of their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Using scripture, we will also clearly show that these verses do not teach that demons have the right or ability to inhabit Christians because of generational curses or that Satan has the right to inflict curses upon Christians as a result of ancestral sins. On the contrary, Christians have the blessing of Abraham because of their relationship to Christ. It is hoped through reading this study Christians who have believed this contemporary teaching will be challenged into rethinking their views on this issue.
There is no doubt whatsoever that it is possible for there to be a negative effect on our lives from past generations. However, the form this effect takes, the extent that we are being told it happens, and the almost total assumption that everyone must have a curse that needs to be broken, are problems that will be addressed in this study. There is nothing worse than mistreating or even abusing Christians by telling them they are cursed when they are not. We are then simply doing the Devil’s work for him and creating a situation that for some has been unbearable.
I heard about a person who God led through cancer and brought her out the other side with a great testimony of Him. At a meeting, she was told categorically that the reason she had cancer was because her late husband was a freemason and the disease was the result of a generational curse. Absolutely devastated she phoned for advice. No account was taken of the fact that the Lord had healed her or that He had used her in this situation. The husband was a freemason and therefore there must be a curse as a result of the freemasonry. Cancer was it. Such advice is more like divination than Christian counselling. What spirit is behind this? I would go as far as to say that this kind of advice gives the enemy glory.
Martin Yarde who has been involved in this type of ministry regarding generational curses commented the following: “This teaching can easily put people into bondage to those who claim to have the gifting or ‘anointing’ in this area. Like many similar teachings, it does in effect deny the sufficiency of the cross and can undermine a believer’s personal relationship with Jesus by making him more dependent on ‘professional’ deliverance ministers. In all this, there is a distinct lack of emphasis on the sovereignty of God. The implication is that unless the problem of generational curses is dealt with, you may miss out on God’s blessing in your life. This can lead to paranoia and endless seeking after ministry. Furthermore you can find no mention of it in the history of great revivals, when far higher numbers of people were saved and Christians seemed to end up living much more victorious lives than we do today. Those who minister… are involved in an activity of which the New Testament knows nothing.”
We must be very clear God is in charge. One of the dangers of this false teaching is that Christians are given the idea that life is a dualistic battle between them and the devil with God sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see if we get the right revelations, and make the right utterances to scare off the devil. If not, God simply lets the devil put curses on us because hundreds of years ago, unknown to us, pagan idolaters had done their thing on the property we own and faithfulness to God does not help in such a case. Likewise, if a great grandfather was a notorious sinner, we may be under an unknown generational curse, and the devil has every right to attack us, whether or not we are Christians. It is interesting that those who teach deliverance from curses quite often also push speaking with tongues as if it is the only spiritual gift and yet a real danger does exist here today.
This very sad view clearly gets us away from the central theme of the Old and New Testaments, which is our relationship with God. I for one am deeply grateful for the grace of God that brings salvation from the negative principles involved in this topic of spoken curses and generational curses. My Bible says everything we need for this life can be found in God’s Word, 2Timothy 3:16. If it cannot be found in the Word of God, then it is nothing we need to be concerned about.
What is the Meaning of the Word Curse?
The word curse evokes a variety of responses in different individuals. To many people, curses are the use of foul language or profanity. Others think of curses as nothing more than the stuff of fairy tales, with witches casting spells and turning handsome princes into ugly toads. Then there are some who see a demon behind every bush. They blame curses for every negative incident or problem they have ever encountered. At the other end of the spectrum are those who are so afraid of becoming curse conscious (putting overemphasis on them) that they become curse unconscious. And finally, there are those who will not even consider the possibility of curses. You can almost hear this person say, “curses are from the dark ages; we’re so much smarter today.” Because of the word curse being so often misused and misunderstood, I thought it would be good to start by looking at the dictionary and biblical meaning of the word curse.
There are two Dictionary definitions for the word “Curse” which are:
A profane or obscene expression of anger.
An appeal to a supernatural power for harm to come to a specific person or group, etc.
It is my understanding based on intensive research and looking for every occurrence of the word curse used in the Bible (nearly 200 KJV) that the first dictionary definition came about as a result of the second definition. People in early Old Testament times had a real fear of God’s curse coming upon them as God dealt harsh punishment to those who deserved it. This resulted in people using the words “I curse you” to people they were angry or hurt by to get retribution by putting fear into them, as people feared God’s wrath. People however cannot directly curse a Christian, as they do not have the supernatural power to do so. The curse can only come from God or Satan, and only Satan if God allows it. Consider the situation with Job in that Satan had to get permission from God before he could bring harm to Job’s family or belongings, Job 1:6-12.
Besides Job, the only other occurrence found involving curses by demonic means in the Bible was when Balak called on Balaam to curse the Israelites. Balaam, once a prophet of the true God, appears to have been one of the Moshelim (See Numbers 21:27) who had added to his poetic gift that of sorcery or divination. It was supposed that sorcerers had a power to curse persons by filling them with fear, terror, and dismay. Numbers 22:12 says, “And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” And again, without God’s authority it was not possible for the demonic realm to curse God’s children. 1John 5:18 ISV says, “We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.” Is this scripture clear enough? Jesus will protect us from the evil one and we can and should trust this promise.
This is what John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible says in regards to Numbers 22:12: For they are blessed by the Lord himself, with an irrevocable blessing, and therefore it would be vain and fruitless, as well as dangerous for him to attempt to curse them. Genesis 12:3. The Son of God, who is so far from cursing his people, that he has delivered them from the curses of the law, being made a curse for them, that the blessings of the everlasting covenant of grace might come upon them; and they are blessed of God in him, and for his sake, with all spiritual blessings. The sense is, that it was impossible for him to curse those that God did not curse.
What did God promise Abraham, Blessings or curses? Abraham was blessed to the point that anybody who came against him was cursed by God. In Genesis 12:2-3 God promised Abraham, “I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Galatians 3:29 tells us that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Praise God that if we love and obey Him, those same blessings of Abraham’s are also ours today. Anyone who attempts to pronounce a curse upon you will fail and will have to deal with God’s judgement.
Biblical Definition
The best Biblical definition I could find on the word curse was from the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (ISBE). The definition for curse is long and will take some perseverance to absorb, but it gives a necessary introduction on understanding the word curse. In the Old Testament, the (ISBE) gives three words translated as curse and in the New Testament just one for curse. As the words Imprecate and Imprecation are used a lot in the following section, here are their definitions.
IM’PRECATE, To invoke, as an evil on any one; to pray that a curse or calamity may fall on one’s self or on another person. From (Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of American English)
Curse (taken from the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, ISBE) kurs (‘alah (Numbers 5:21, Numbers 5:23, Numbers 5:17, etc.), me’erah (Proverbs 3:33; Malachi 2:2, etc.), klalah (Genesis 27:12-13); katara (Galatians 3:10, Galatians 3:13): This word as noun and verb renders different Hebrew words, some of them being more or less synonymous, differing only in degree of strength. It is often used in contrast with “bless” or “blessing” (Deuteronomy 11:29). When a curse is pronounced against any person, we are not to understand this as a mere wish, however violent, that disaster should overtake the person in question, any more than we are to understand that a corresponding “blessing” conveys simply a wish that prosperity should be the lot of the person on whom the blessing is invoked. A curse was considered to possess an inherent power of carrying itself into effect. Prayer has been defined as a wish referred to God. Curses (or blessings) were imprecations referred to supernatural beings in whose existence and power to do good or inflict harm primitive man believed. The use of magic and spells of all kinds is based on the belief that it is possible to enlist the support of the superhuman beings with whom the universe abounds, and to persuade them to carry out the suppliant’s wishes. It has been suggested that spells were written on pieces of parchment and cast to the winds in the belief that they would find their way to their proper destination – that some demonic being would act as postman and deliver them at the proper address. In Zec (Zechariah 5:1-3) the “flying roll,” with curses inscribed on it “goeth forth over the face of the whole land.” It would find its way into the house of every thief and perjurer. But it was not always possible to commit curses to writing, it was enough to utter them aloud. Generally the name of some deity would be coupled with such imprecations, as Goliath cursed David by his gods (1 Samuel 17:43). Such curses once uttered possessed the power of self-realization. It was customary for heads of families in their declining years to bless their children, such a blessing being, not simply a paternal wish that their children should prosper in life, but a potent factor in determining their welfare (Genesis 9:25). In this case Jacob seeks his father’s blessing, which was more than his father’s good wishes for his future career. Such blessings and curses were independent of moral considerations. Before moral distinctions played any part in moulding theological conceptions it was not necessary, before a spell could be effectual, that the individual against whom the spell was pronounced should be deserving, on moral grounds, of the fate which was invoked on him.
It was sufficient that he should be the foe of the author of the curse. We may assume that such curses signalised the commencement of a battle. But in process of time such indiscriminate imprecations would not satisfy enlightened moral judgment. In the dramatic situation depicted in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 27:12 f) the curse was placed on Mt.Ebal and the blessing on Mt Gerizim. But the curse was the penalty for disobedience, as the blessing was the reward for obedience. The Book of Prov (Proverbs 26:2) summarily dismisses the traditional belief – “the curse that is causeless alighteth not.” “In the discourses of Jesus we find blessings and curses. They are however simply authoritative declarations of the eternal connection between right doing and happiness, wrong doing and misery” (Cheyne).
The term – and the thing signified – plays an important part in Paul’s interpretation of the cross. In the light of the law all men are guilty. There is no acquittal through appeal to a law that commands and never forgives – prohibits and never relents. The violator of the law is under a curse. His doom has been pronounced. Escape is impossible. But on the cross Jesus Christ endured the curse – for “cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:10, Galatians 3:13) – and a curse that has overtaken its victim is a spent force…
The ISBE definition of curse just described says, “Prayer has been defined as a wish referred to God. Curses or (blessings) were imprecations referred to supernatural beings in whose existence and power to do good or inflict harm primitive man believed.”In other words, the pronouncing of curses by man was originally primitive superstition. This is not to say that a curse from God was primitive superstition, it was very real and in the form of punishment.
The ISBE also mentions the one instance in the Bible, 1 Samuel 17:43 where someone called on false gods to curse someone, which says, “And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.” Did the curse come to pass? Not only did the curse not happen but also Goliath himself was killed. Shimei also cursed David without effect and was killed. 2 Samuel 16:5 and 1 King 2:44-46. It is not advisable or sensible or wise to try and curse God’s children. The result can be catastrophic as seen in Genesis 12:3 which says, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Of the near 200 verses in the Bible making reference to the word curse, almost all regarding spoken curses by man were of one calling a curse on themselves by God if they broke an oath or were relying on God to curse the person they were cursing. James 5:12 GNB says in regards to making oaths “Above all, my friends, do not use an oath when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Say only “Yes” when you mean yes, and “No” when you mean no, and then you will not come under God’s judgment.” Job says in Job 31:30 that he had not sinned by wishing a curse upon his enemies or people intending him mischief. New Testament teaching makes it abundantly clear that the Lord does not want anyone, especially Christians, cursing themselves on oath or cursing anyone anymore. Paul said in Romans 12:14, “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.”
John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible comments the following on Romans 12:14. And curse not: to have a mouth full of cursing and bitterness, Romans 3:14, is the character of an unregenerate man, and what by no means suits one who names the name of Christ; for blessing and cursing to proceed out of the same mouth, is as absurd and unnatural, as if it should be supposed that a fountain should send forth sweet water and bitter, or salt and fresh, James 3:10. The imprecations (spoken curses) upon wicked men, used by David and other good men, are not contradictions to this rule; since they were made under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and were predictions of God’s vengeance, which in righteous judgment should fall on them, and are not to be drawn into an example by us.
The difference is that man cursing someone i.e., wishing harm to come upon them, is different from the curse of God which was punishment, or as stated above was God’s vengeance. The first intending ill wishes out of unjustifiable anger or bitterness through primitive man’s belief or perhaps even expecting God to carry through with their curse and the latter was a real curse from God. Imprecations upon evil people made by Godly men were spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and of course were carried out by God as mentioned above.
Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible on Romans 12:14 elaborates further on this: Bless, and curse not – Bless only; or continue to bless, however long or aggravated may be the injury. Do not be provoked to anger, or to cursing, by any injury, persecution, or reviling. This is one of the most severe and difficult duties of the Christian religion; and it is a duty which nothing else but religion will enable people to perform. To curse denotes properly to devote to destruction. Where there is power to do it, it implies the destruction of the object. Thus, the fig-tree that was cursed by the Saviour soon withered away: Mark 11:21. Thus, those whom God curses will be certainly destroyed; Matthew 25:41. Where there is not power to do it, to curse implies the invoking of the aid of God to devote to destruction. Hence, it means to imprecate; to implore a curse from God to rest on others; to pray that God would destroy them. In a larger sense still, it means to abuse by reproachful words; to calumniate; or to express oneself in a violent, profane, and outrageous manner. In this passage it seems to have special reference to this.
Biblically a curse from another person needs to be pronounced but the receiver has the chance to reject it and return a blessing on the person, obviously without effect, Romans 12:14. As stated in the ISBE above, primitive man believed that a curse would be passed on regardless to whether it was morally deserved. The Bible puts this belief to rest in Proverbs 26:2 WEB which says, “Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved curse does not come to rest.” Psalms 109:17 also says, “As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.” The following scripture says that God will not allow people to use Satan to bring a curse upon his children. Numbers 23:8 reads, “How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?” And Psalms 109:28 reads, “They may curse me, but you will bless me. May my persecutors be defeated, and may I, your servant, be glad.” In Old Testament times, just as a curse could be brought on yourself by disobedience, you had the chance to bring a blessing on yourself with obedience.
Some people quote scripture out of context when they say, “There is power in words, the power of life and death.” Proverbs 18:21 reads, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Some would imply therefore, that our words have supernatural power in that they can bring about calamity to someone just by speaking negative words or cursing someone. If there is power in words in this context, then couldn’t we also use words to bring good things? i.e., couldn’t we say to someone who is sick, “healing be upon you” and it would happen without divine power? What do you think? Would it work? I don’t think so, or prayer becomes obsolete. Words are powerful, but their power is natural and a result of how the hearer responds and is willing to believe them.
I think you’ll find what John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible says is more likely to be correct: Proverbs 18:21 – Death and life are in the power of the tongue, Of witnesses, according to the testimony they bear; of judges, according to the sentence they pass; of teachers, according to the doctrine they preach; of all men, who, by their well or ill speaking, bring death or life to themselves and others. Some, by their tongues, by the too free use of them, or falsehood they utter, are the cause of death to themselves and others; and some, by their silence, or by their prudent speech and prevalent intercession, secure or obtain life for themselves and others; yea, judgment at the last day will proceed according to a man’s words, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”, Matthew 12:37; the tongue is the instrument either of a great deal of good, or of a great deal of evil;
People have indeed misinterpreted the word curse throughout the Bible. Matthew 26:74 says that Peter began to curse and swear when he was denying Jesus. Peter was not trying to curse anyone, but in fact was swearing an oath that he did not know Jesus, and was wishing a curse upon himself if he was lying, so he would be believed. Many times throughout the Bible, people cursed others, but unless it was under the authority of God, I can find no evidence that the curse ever came to rest. We must be very careful on how we interpret scriptures.
It seems to me, that the way many use the word curse does not apply and maybe curse is the wrong word to use. We will use the word curse in the rest of the study, as that is the way it is often described but we will see other instances that show using the word curse is not the correct terminology.
Where did the Teaching about Generational Curses come from?
The vast majority of the teaching concerning generational curses stems from the Old Testament, more specifically first mention is from Exodus 20:5-6 and is quoted again by Moses in the second reading of the law in Deuteronomy 5:9-10. This passage in the Bible is God’s warning about the consequences of idolatry affecting the third and fourth generation and is found in the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments). It says “Thou shalt not bow down to idols, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” This is a warning about the grave consequences of worshiping other gods. The Old Testament has many such warnings as well as narrative passages that describe the horrible consequences of idolatry in the life of Israel.
Even this warning is tempered with a greater promise of God’s mercy: “But showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.” Consider the fact that the Assyrians, whose capital city was Nineveh, were well known in the ancient world for their viciousness and brutality. They were Israel’s greatest enemies for a good part of her history from the divided kingdom to just before the Babylonian captivity. They were polytheistic idolaters. Yet Jonah, when called by God to preach the imminence of God’s wrath, ran from his call. The reason, as shown in Jonah 4:1-2, was that Jonah knew that the only reason God was sending him to preach to the pagan enemies was because God was intending to show them mercy. Jonah did not want that. The Ninevites who repented clearly had evil ancestors. Their parents and grandparents had hated God and made the Jews their enemies. Yet God forgave them when they repented and His wrath was forestalled. That this special theology lesson from the mouth of Jonah came from Exodus 34:6 should tell us a lot about the meaning of the passage. God could have justly destroyed Nineveh or placed generational curses (God’s punishment) on the people in the true Old Testament Biblical sense. He chose to show His mercy.
It is said by many Bible scholars that God punishing down to the third and fourth generation, was also intended to discourage the Jews from sinning, as most lived long enough to see their children down to the third or fourth generation. Other Bible scholars have also pointed out that if the children turn to God they shall avert this punishment.
For example, John Calvin commented about Exodus 20:5 that, “When God declares that He will cast back the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of the children, He does not mean that He will take vengeance on poor wretches who have never deserved anything of the sort; but that He is at liberty to punish the crimes of the fathers upon their children and descendants, with the proviso that they too may be justly punished, as being imitators of their fathers.”
Here are two questions to ponder, “Do you think you can break a curse God placed? If yes, are you more powerful than God?” If we were still under law, no professional ministry or any of the false teachers with their ritualistic prayers have the power to break a curse placed by God. Only God himself can. He delights in breaking generational curses (His punishment) as soon as people turn to Him in repentance. A prime example is Nineveh, Jonah 3:10.
To summarize all of the above, those who rebelled against or hated God came under the curses of the covenant. See Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Those who try earnestly to keep his Commandments and love and humbly trust God, by faith, shall be blessed no matter what their ancestors did. This generational curse deliverance ministry is just nonsense.
Some may say that no one could ever keep all God’s Commandments so therefore the punishment would come upon all descendants. Did God know that his children would sometimes sin? Of course He did. Do we think that God is in the habit of making meaningless statements? I would hope not. What God was saying here is that he would NOT bring punishment or curses upon the descendants of those that loved him and did not live in willful sin. That is, they did the best they could to keep his Commandments and repent when they failed.
Proof of this can be seen with King David who committed adultery and then sent the husband of the woman he committed adultery with into battle and got him killed, 2 Samuel Chapters 11-12. David also carried out a census on the people capable of fighting, 2 Samuel 24. This was a sin as it was not the count of people that was winning the battles, but God. David took his faith from God and put it in men. So we can see that David indeed sinned badly.
So did this bring punishment onto all David’s children? Let’s look at his son Solomon. When Solomon became king, God asked Solomon in a dream, 1 Kings 3:5-14, “What would you have me give you?” Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people. God said, “Because you have asked for the wisdom, instead of long life for yourself or riches or the death of your enemies, I will give you more wisdom and understanding than anyone has ever had before or will ever have again.” God also said, “I will give you what you have not asked for, which is wealth and honour, more than that of any other king, and if you obey me and keep my commands, as your father David did, I will give you a long life as well.” So is this God’s curse coming upon Solomon? No! Wisdom, wealth, long life, sounds like a Blessing to me! Note: God said David kept His Commands. We know David didn’t do that. So what did God mean? Same situation as Exodus 20:6, God meant do your best to keep my Commandments and genuinely repent when you fail.
Does God still Curse People for their Sin?
It can be seen from Exodus 20:5-6 that God did curse down to the third or fourth generation to those who rejected him that one could refer to as a generational curse, but is this the case with the New Covenant? Following are many scriptures that show God indeed does not curse his children anymore and that such generational curses are of the Old Covenant.
In Jeremiah 31:29 and Ezekiel 18:2 it reads, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge, and as surely as I am the living God, says the Sovereign Lord, you will not repeat this proverb in Israel any more. The life of every person belongs to me, the life of the parent as well as that of the child. The person who sins is the one who will die.”
The proverb “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” is best described by the Living Bible translation, i.e.; “The children are punished for their father’s sins. As I live, says the lord God, you will not use this proverb anymore.” In other words, what this passage is saying is that the parents ate the sour grapes and it was the children that got the sour grape taste, which means that the parents sinned and the children got the consequences. More importantly, what these Bible passages are saying is that the time will come when God will no longer punish down to the third and fourth generation (generational curse teaching origin) to those who hate Him and that everyone will be accountable for his or her own sins. It is well worthwhile reading all of Ezekiel Chapter 18 at this point, which clearly shows that everyone is to be accountable for their own sins, the parents for their own sins and the children for theirs.
When will this Proverb no longer be quoted?
In Old Covenant times, the Jews were under the curse of the law and the consequences of breaking God’s law were quite severe. The consequences are detailed in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
However Galatians 3:13 says “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”
To redeem means to purchase, to buy back, to set free. And here it means just that. Christ has purchased or set us free from the curse of the law, by His being made a curse for us.
The curse of the law means that he has rescued us from the consequences of transgressions in a world of woe. He has saved us from the punishment, which our sins have deserved. The word “us” here must refer to all who are redeemed; that is to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. The curse of the law is a curse, which is due to sin, and cannot be regarded as applied particularly to any one class of people. All who violate God’s law however are exposed to its penalty. The word law here relates to the Law of Moses, that is to all the laws written down in a book by Moses but not the Ten Commandments. The law of God threatened punishment in the world forever that would certainly have been inflicted but for the coming and death of Christ.
Being made a curse for us is an exceedingly important expression. There is scarcely any passage in the New Testament on which it is more important to have correct views than this, and scarcely any one on which more erroneous opinions have been entertained. In regards to it, we may observe that it does not mean:
That by being made a curse, the Lord Jesus’ character or work was in any sense displeasing to God.
Jesus was not ill deserving. He was not blameworthy. He had done no wrong. He was holy, harmless, undefiled. No crime charged upon him was proved and there is no clearer doctrine in the Bible than that, in all his character and work, the Lord Jesus was perfectly holy and pure.
It cannot mean that the Lord Jesus deservingly bore the penalty of the law. His sufferings were in the place of the penalty, not the penalty itself.
“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” A passage is found on this in Deuteronomy 21:23. It occurs in a law respecting one who was hanged for a “sin worthy of death” Deuteronomy 21:22. The law was that he should be buried the same day, and that the body should not remain suspended over night and the reason for this that “he that is hanged is accursed of God.”
Put more plainly, Jesus’ death on the cross freed us from the consequences of sin and the Mosaic Law and all the sacrifices it entailed. When Christ died for us he said, “it is finished” John 19:30. This does not mean that we are still under the curse of the law or that we will still die for our sins. We are TOTALLY set free from both! The cause of the curse was sin, and I’m sure nobody is disputing Jesus died for sins. The prophecy of Jeremiah 31:29 and Ezekiel 18:2 was also fulfilled which says, “In those days they shall say no more, the children are punished for their father’s sins.”
Paul’s comments in Romans 3:19-24 GNB also elaborate and clarify further on God’s law which reads, “Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgment. 20 For no one is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned. 21 But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. 22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: 23 everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. 24 But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.”
In Galatians 3:8 Paul quoted Genesis 12:3 to prove that God justifies Gentiles by faith. He then says, “Therefore, those who believe are blessed together with Abraham, the one who believed. Certainly all who depend on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “A curse on everyone who does not obey everything that is written in the book of the law!” Galatians 3:9-10 ISV. Paul was warning the Galatians that to try to find blessing by going back to the stipulations of the Mosaic Law (circumcision in particular) was to put one’s self under a curse. The true blessing is obtained by faith, which was also true in the Old Testament as shown in the faith of Abraham.
We cannot ignore the Old Testament, and especially the Ten Commandment law on which so much of the teaching is based. Matthew 5:17 clearly tells us that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but rather to fulfil them. Notice verse twenty especially, where he tells them that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven their righteousness must surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus was not telling them to fulfil the law themselves. He was saying that it was impossible to do perfectly. Isaiah 42:21 says “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” We see how Jesus in the following verses shows that he has made the task even harder if we are trying to do it ourselves as He did magnify the law. We are not to reject the law but to see that the only way to obey it fully is through Christ Jesus. So does this mean we can continue to sin wilfully? Absolutely not! Hebrews 10:26-29 says, “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, … 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” This is a very serious warning we should not ignore. No Christian should want to trample the Son of God underfoot.
As for Christians under the New Covenant, our blessings are because of the love and obedient relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. As Paul said, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law of Moses so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. If you have been regenerated as are all who have true faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, then you are inheriting the blessings of God and are delivered from the curse of the law. The cause of the curse is sin. God Himself pronounced the curse. God’s wrath must be appeased. Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross has appeased God’s wrath against sin for all believers and has removed the curse. We are now blessed sons of Abraham. Even if our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents were atheists, occultists, or blasphemers, God will pour out the full blessings of the New Covenant upon us if we truly come to Him through the cross, John 14:6. Since we are under God’s Grace, does this mean we no longer have to obey the Ten Commandments? There can be no misunderstanding Paul’s response. Romans 6:14-15 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”
On the other hand, those who put their trust in man are cursed. Jeremiah 17:5 says, “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” That is the essence of the Galatian heresy. By putting people back under Law of Moses, the false teachers put them under the curse of this law. The Biblical teaching on this is very clear and it holds from Genesis through Revelation. Those who trust God are blessed and need never fear curses or supposed generational curses or need deal with the false teaching on breaking generational curses. Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.”
Are there Generational Curses in the New Testament?
Worth noting in the New Testament, there is no individual trying to curse another as in the Old Testament. There is more emphasis on not cursing others and to bless them that curse you. Jesus more than anyone else dealt with demonic cases and yet in all the records there is not one hint of “generational curses.” Indeed the one time that Jesus could have easily taught about the matter in John 9:1-3, Jesus made it clear that the “curse” had nothing to do with the past. This leads me to ask the question as to whether the emphasis that has developed on generational curses in the last few decades is real or imagined. Is it the latest fad, of which we have had so many in the past years, or is there clear Biblical teaching that shows that we are experiencing today an unprecedented revival in these areas? Twenty years ago you hardly heard about them, today just about everyone has a generational curse according to some Bible teachers.
What was Paul talking about in Galatians 3 in regards to curses? Was he talking about any curse, a generational curse or what? Interestingly these verses are very specific and what verse 10 tells us has to do with those who are seeking to live by the works of the Mosaic Law. We can even go further than this because Paul was using it to show the Galatians that having begun their life in the liberty of the Spirit, they were no longer living that way. By going back to the Old Testament Law of Moses and trying to keep it, they were calling down a curse on their lives.
In other words because of what the individual was doing, not because of what their ancestors had done they were calling down a curse. No one can be justified by the Ten Commandment Law or the Mosaic Law, for it is impossible for anyone but Christ to render perfect obedience to either law and so all would be under a curse, but Christ redeemed them from that curse in that He became the curse and fulfilled the sacrificial law, thus they could walk in the Spirit and be free to know the blessing of Abraham. However, if they chose not to live that way they would be calling a curse on themselves, very different from a generational curse.
Am I saying then that there are absolutely no instances in the New Testament where someone from a previous generation caused a curse to come on a living person? Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. As there are not too many Scriptures in the New Testament where the word curse or cursing appears, I have categorised them below.
Give blessing when cursed by another person – Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:28, Romans 12:14 Curses concerning Simon Peter – Matthew 26:74, Mark 14:71 Curse upon you, living being or an object by the Lord – Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10, Mark 11:21, Acts 23:12, 14, James 3:9, 10 Curse of works of law – John 7:49, Galatians 3:10 Christ redeems us from curse of works of law – Galatians 3:13, Revelation 22:3 Judgement for deeds or lack of – Matthew 25:41, Romans 3:14, Hebrews 6:8, 2 Peter 2:14 Curses from disbelief or preaching wrong Gospel – 1Corinthians 12:3, 1Corinthians 16:22, Galatians 1:8-9 Curses, separated from Christ – Romans 9:3
Every one of these Scriptures is to do with a living person either affected by their own actions as they live or another living person. Not one is cursed from a former member of their family as in this false generational curse ministry.
Are there Consequences for having Ancestors in Freemasonry?
As discussed previously, Exodus 20:3-6, which is re-quoted by Moses in Deuteronomy 5:7-10 are the key verses quoted regarding false teachings on generational curses and breaking them, so we will clarify further on these verses and make a few more important comments about them.
The context here is that people worship and serve other gods. The result very importantly is not an automatic curse – in fact, the word curse does not appear in these verses at all – but that the Lord is “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the third and the fourth generations of those that hate Me.” (NASB) Note: The key point being “those that hate God.”
Does this say that there is an automatic curse on future generations because one member of the family took part in Freemasonry or was a Freemason? No! What does it say then? Here are several very important points for us to notice.
There are two qualifications in order for a person to come under this punishment. First, to worship or serve other gods but also to be a person that hates or rejects God. Unless you qualify on both counts this so called generational curse teaching or breaking generational curses does not apply to you.
Indeed the next verse underlines this where the Lord will show loving kindness to thousands who love Him and keep His Commandments.
It is the Lord who does the visiting; it is not an AUTOMATIC punishment. It is what He does, not what membership or organization you belong to, or even what the Devil does, but it is what God does.
He is not saying how or what He will do but simply that He will visit or punish them for their sins. You can therefore never claim that a particular act is always the way God punishes because it does not tell us that and God is sovereign to punish, but also to forgive.
Exodus 34:6-7 or Numbers 14:18 are nearly always quoted in the same breath as the one above but again there is nothing here to say that there is an automatic curse or judgement because someone has joined a particular group or committed a particular sin. Indeed this is the Lord speaking about Himself and before He comes to the judgmental side, He talks of forgiveness and loving kindness and only then visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the third and fourth generations and as said earlier this is the origin of this false and unnecessary generational curse ministry. Again in the context of the love of God it means that it is neither certain or automatic. It will happen because God is a righteous and a jealous God, but even in judgement, He remembers mercy and His judgements are just, not automatic retribution.
Children of the Righteous are sanctified
Some teachings say that you can bring your whole family into bondage or those so called generational curses by your own mistake. The following scriptures show us that the children of the righteous are sanctified.
1 Corinthians 7:14 “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they Holy.”
Acts 16:30-31 “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Luke 17:26-29 “And as it was in the days of Noah, (A Covenant man and His family were saved) so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; (A Covenant man and His family were saved) they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
Psalms 103:17 “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.”
False Teachings on Curses
With what we have learned already from this study of the Scriptures, it will not be difficult to see the error of contemporary teachings on generational curses and breaking them. They uniformly claim that putting one’s faith in Christ alone does not break these curses. Something more is necessary. It is this “something more” that refutes everything that the Bible says about the matter and makes these teachings insidious. Both the Galatian and Colossian heresies were similar in that they claimed something more had to be added to the finished work of Christ for Christians to have fullness or to be pleasing to God.
Modern false teachers promote the same errors. For example, Neil Anderson teaches, based on the Exodus 20:4-5, that demons are passed from generation to generation and that these demons have ground in the lives of Christians because of generational sins and hence all the teaching on breaking generational curses.
To get the curse of these demonic strongholds out of their lives, Christians supposedly need to find out what they are, use utterances (called prayers in the book) to break them, and need counsellors with special knowledge of these things if they are severe cases. The words that are to be repeated are provided, including, “I cancel out all demonic working that may have been passed on to me from my ancestors… I cancel every curse that Satan and his workers have put on me… I reject all other blood sacrifices whereby Satan may claim ownership of me.”
These utterances (I would call them incantations) sound very pious and references to Christ and the cross are even given. However, there are obvious problems. One is that Exodus 20:4-5 says nothing about Satan or demons. It was God who punished covenant breakers. Another problem is that according to Colossians 2:10 we are already complete in Christ and that the principalities and powers that dominated us before we met Christ were disarmed through the cross. The reason was that the true power they had over us, our sinfulness in respect to God’s law, was taken away. Neil Anderson teaches that the demons have strongholds in our lives as Christians until we gain knowledge and command the evil spirits to go. These spirits supposedly have their places in us because of ancestral sins. Let me point out a problem with this: if the cross is the basis of victory, which Anderson admits, then why would God leave us in demonic bondage after we come to know Jesus through the cross? That is, unless we gain revelation knowledge and say the right prayers and utterances. We supposedly need Christ plus knowledge and some religious process to gain victory over the forces that are deemed to stand between us and completeness in Christ.
A fellow traveller of Anderson’s, Mark Bubeck has gone to even wilder extremes and now has a prayer to get demons off all parts of the body: “I ask You to look all through the sexual organs and function of my body for any evil spirit activity… I ask that the Holy Spirit would search out all my bones, blood circulation, nerve circuitry, muscles, tissues, glands, hair, skin and every cell for any wicked spirit activity against my physical body. Evict any afflicting, evil powers totally away from my body.” I am sure most teenagers would agree there is a demon under every pimple. Anyone who maintains that Anderson’s and Bubeck’s teachings are biblically sound needs to be able to define what the Bible does teach about demons and the believer. Gil Rugh summarizes: “Believers cannot be possessed by demons. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells us and is greater than the devil who is in the world… The Scripture is clear on this matter. Christ’s work was sufficient. There is no further deliverance that must take place. If there were, salvation in Christ would be incomplete. If the church would stop and think through its theology of Scripture we would realize that something is drastically wrong with what is being promoted by those who teach that believers can be demonised.”
Another teacher who has written a popular book on spiritual curses is Derek Prince. He also quotes Exodus 20 to show that generational curses are operating in the lives of Christians. He writes: “A person who comes from such a background is heir to a curse that may be compared to a weed planted in his life, linking him to satanic forces outside himself. This weed has two kinds of roots: one long taproot going straight downward, and other less powerful lateral roots. The taproot represents the influence of ancestors who worshiped false gods.” It is true that the Bible calls occult activity a serious sin and that God judges idolaters and occult practitioners. The problem arises when we are told that coming to Christ under the terms of the New Covenant still leaves these curses operating in our lives unless something more is done. His error here is, he writes, “Before he can enjoy true liberty and the fullness of the new creation in Christ, this weed must be completely pulled out, with all its roots.” He then quotes Matthew 15:13 about the pulling out of weeds that the Father has not planted. This passage is in the context of the disciple’s discussion of the Pharisee’s being offended by Jesus’ teaching. The disciples were told “let them alone.” God would root those plants (the Pharisees) out Himself. This has nothing to do with removing of curses that are supposedly still operating in Christian’s lives. At issue is whether coming to Christ in faith and fully trusting His finished work removes us from being under the curse of sin or whether it does not. If it does, then God is not going to allow demons to work in our lives because of unknown sins of ancestors. We were all cursed by ancestral sin, that of Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:22. But if we are in Christ, the curse of sin is removed and so this teaching on breaking generational curses becomes a distraction from real issues.
Another book by Ron G. Campbell in his book “Free from Freemasonry” wrote the following: “The authority structure we want to focus on here as it relates to curses is the family, particularly the role of the father. Take the example of a father trying to be the priest of the home. He is the “spiritual covering” and provides an umbrella of spiritual protection over his family and loved ones. When the father is disobedient and sins, the umbrella of protection is ripped. Through that rip, the adversary is then able to saturate with oppressive storms in the form of demonic curses those under this father’s authority and protection. According to Ephesians 4:27, when we sin, we open the door, or provide an entry point, for Satan. Essentially, we give him permission to oppress our loved ones. Through the unrighteousness of one in spiritual authority over others, curses can now visit to the third and fourth generation.” Is this really true? Every time the father sins Satan can do what he likes to the family or does God abdicate? Where is this taught? When he confesses that sin, does that mean the protection is put back? Does Ephesians 4:27 teach this? In a word, No, because it is not dealing with the family but rather the individual and it certainly does not say that Satan can do whatever he likes but rather that he has an opportunity, but it is no more specific than that. See 1 John 5:18.
Campbell calls this authority-engendered curse: “Exodus 34 tells us that curses pass to the third and fourth generations. Suppose a man commits the sin of idolatry. Further suppose that he and each of his descendants for four generations have three children each. This adds up to 40 descendants who will come under the curse of that one man’s iniquity. Each person, by going backward on this generational chart, again has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents and 16 great-great grandparents. This provides a total of 30 ancestors from whom curses could possibly have filtered down upon us. These are the curses that I call generational curses, and it’s not unlikely that many of us are experiencing them rather than blessings because one or more of these ancestors have unwisely opened the door to our adversary.”
What happened to the millions of people who would have had such a supposed curse in the previous two thousand years before this un-Biblical generational curse teaching was introduced by someone who listened to the wrong spirit? If the above was true, can you imagine your chance of not being cursed! And yet again it is ignored that we still read the clear statement that Christ redeemed us from these curses which were from God and not Satan. More positively, as God’s blessing goes a thousand generations, do the maths for your chances of being blessed by God!
Finally, in this contradiction of terms he also wrote: “The Hammonds remind us of a very important concept about deliverance from curses. They suggest that salvation does not automatically free us from curses, for many of God’s children remain under curses even after they are born again. Why? They have not appropriated Christ’s redemption from the curses. Jesus died for all, but all are not saved. To come to salvation, a person must repent of his or her sin and appropriate-or claim-the blood of Jesus. Although Christ is the remedy for generational curses, we must personally repent for the sin that brought the curses and then renounce the curses and appropriate His blood over these curses.” Once again one must ask why the contradiction? If the root of the curse is sin as is clearly shown above then once sin has been dealt with then the curse, the consequence must also be dealt with. If Christ became the curse, then when we accept that and believe it, the curse must be broken. Why do we make things more complicated than the Scriptures ever did? Why do we want to make doctrines fit our thinking instead of allowing our thinking to be moulded by His doctrine? Ezekiel chapter 18 says now that we are not under the Mosaic Law; we are accountable for our own sins. Didn’t we repent of all our previous sin when we accepted Christ?
One more example of this insidious teaching should show how wide spread it is. Rebecca Brown and Daniel Yoder write, “Sadly, we have found that very few Christians have any knowledge of those things that the Lord proclaims to be unclean. Thus their lives and homes are cluttered with unclean things which enable curses and cursing into their lives.” They claim we need revelations and special knowledge to get free from these curses and that Satan has legal rights to curse Christians and send demons our way if we do certain things wrong. Among them are such things as “living on cursed ground, living in cursed housing, having cursed objects,” and many others. Even circumstances beyond our control may leave Christians cursed. The subtitle for this book is “Hidden source of trouble in the Christian’s life.” Any problems we may have could be caused by unknown curses, and it is our lack of revelation knowledge that is supposedly destroying us. As with all of these types of false teachings, the Christian is left with no hope or assurance. We may be victim of unseen forces and curses no matter what our relationship with Christ is. They define the problem so that everyone is included, deny that accepting Christ effectively removes the curse, and then propose their knowledge and their therapeutic processes is the answer. Remember that 1 John 5:18 says that God protects the person who has been born of Him and the evil one cannot touch them.
Generational Curse or not Generational Curse?
Hereditary Some believe that if their parents have some kind of illness and that they get the same illness that this is a generational curse. Since generational curses came from God, and we are no longer living under law but are under grace, then this can’t be so, and God does not allow Satan to inflict such harm on his children. So, if the illness is not a curse then what is it? I think that most people would agree that there is plenty of very strong evidence to say that it is just what it is, i.e.; a hereditary illness as a result of defective or bad genetic code. As defective or missing genes are physical, one should ask for healing and for the DNA to be corrected as God intended it to be. It does not really matter which of these ways you choose to handle it, as God always knows exactly what you need before you even ask him. Prayers should not be ritualistic but from the heart. Matthew 6:7-8 says, “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.”
The other hereditary aspect is that it can be clearly seen that one’s children have certain character traits of the parents e.g.; your child has your eyes, or has your bad temper or your gift of teaching. The behaviour of your children can certainly be hereditary and or the result of exposure to negative influences and good or bad teaching. Proverbs 22:6 reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” If one’s parents had a tendency to be interested in spiritual things and got involved in witchcraft there would be a chance one or more of their children could have the same interest as a hereditary result. If the parents eventually saw the light and turned to God, likewise the children would most likely do the same with the proper upbringing. Of course, with the right Christian upbringing, they would surely go straight to God. Such hereditary things do not fit the definition of the word curse.
Lifestyle I sometimes wonder if hereditary illness is a result of not looking after our bodies properly with good nutrition and avoiding chemical additives in foods, or the results of nuclear accidents which can certainly cause deformities. God did not intend us to leak radiation into the atmosphere by atomic testing or nuclear power plant disasters or to feed our bodies with chemical cocktails. God expects us to look after the bodies he has given us, 1 Corinthians 6:19. This however cannot be the whole story since the Bible mentions people being born with problems such as being blind or crippled, and there were obviously no chemicals or nuclear radiation in biblical days. Note: John 9:1-3 also tells us that a man born blind had nothing to do with his sins or his parents.
Consider that if your father had high cholesterol and heart problems and you also grow up to have the same problems, that this is not necessarily hereditary in the true sense of the word. It could be referred to as generational in the perspective that your parents had a diet high in animal fats, and so developed high cholesterol and heart problems. Since you grew up on the same diet and became accustomed to this style of eating, that you also ended up with the same health problems. Here is a so-called generational situation that could be fixed just by correcting one’s nutrition. Such health problems are not a curse, but the consequences of bad lifestyle.
Bad Habits An earnest young woman approached her pastor prior to the Sunday morning service: “Pastor, would you pray for me?” He asked if there was something of particular concern. “Yes,” she replied, “I need deliverance from an ancestral curse.” “No,” the pastor assured her, “you do not have an ancestral curse.” “But, Pastor, you don’t understand,” she continued, “my dad had a violent temper, and I am also bothered by a bad temper.” The pastor explained that although she was reacting as her father had, it was learned behaviour and the teaching concerning ancestral curses is not scriptural. He reminded her that outbursts of wrath are one of the works of the flesh, and the Holy Spirit gives power to overcome it. Galatians 5:16-20. The young woman was relieved and happy as the truth had set her free.
I suppose one could say that the previous dietary example is an example of a bad habit in the sense that the children took on the bad eating habits of the parents and suffered the consequences. However, what we are going discuss here is more along the lines of parents that have bad habits like bad language or negative transference, such as constantly telling their child that he or she is stupid or hopeless. After many years of hearing such things, children could choose to eventually believe them. They may now need prayer and counselling to be delivered from what they have now accepted as being truth. If this were a curse, prayer would be the only solution for deliverance. As this is not the case then good counselling on its own could suffice. However, combined with prayer would obviously be the ultimate choice.
When we ponder parental influence, we understand why some believe people can be victims of ancestral curses or so called generational curses. One cannot overestimate the power of parental example. The chance to shape the character of a new human being is an inestimable privilege and an awesome responsibility. Parents can make a home a place of peace and happiness or a living hell. We should also note that bad habits are not always learned from our parents. They can also be learned from friends we spend a lot of time with. Could these be curses? No, they are just simply bad habits. God does not allow Satan to bring harm to us because of what our parents or friends have done. The good news is exposure to and practising good behaviour can also create good habits!
A Negative Perspective People have also said that generational curses such as Freemasonry could exist because, since we are still suffering the results of Adam’s sin, therefore why can’t curses come upon us from our ancestors also? If this theory is true, then it is most likely that we would suffer the consequences of sin of not only Adam, but also every single person in between. I hope this is not so, or we will be spending the rest of our earthly life in prayer and deliverance for them all!
God said to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:16-19 “I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth” and he said to Adam “Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.” However in Genesis 8:21 God says “And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.” God clearly tells us what the curses were as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin, and there is no mention of it including suffering the consequences of the sins of our ancestors.
Romans 5:17-19 GNB says, “It is true that through the sin of one man (Adam) death began to rule because of that one man. But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through Christ. 18 So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life. 19 And just as all people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way they will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.”
Paranoia People have told me that they have had prayer just in case there was something to this breaking generational curse business. There is certainly nothing in the Bible to support the need for it, or any incident of Jesus dealing with anything like this. No Christian should have to suffer the effects of any curse, generational or otherwise. If you believe they will affect you, they will. When someone says you need to be delivered from a generational curse and they pray over you, you might “feel” delivered (even though there was no curse anyway). But over time you might not be sure anymore, especially if you start seeing evidence of the so-called curse again. Next thing you know, you will be going for another “deliverance prayer.” Such a pattern only leads to bondage. The devil will have successfully robbed you of your righteousness consciousness and now you won’t be able to pray with confidence. Our prayers are answered because of Jesus’ righteousness, not because of our family or because we are good people or do good things. Many of these so called deliverance ministries feed on such people and Satan gets all the victory as this person is robbed of their peace and joy they found in Christ. These generational curse ministries are one of the many tools of the enemy.
Demonic Oppression? Other people that had trouble in their life, which was similar or the same as their parents or grandparents had been for prayer and deliverance and have found that their problems had gone, and so believed that it was a generational curse, even though there is no real scriptural backing to support this. The most likely reason for this is again simply Matthew 6:7-8 i.e.; God knew exactly what they needed even if they were praying for deliverance from something that was not the problem, does not exist, or no longer happens. Christ has set us free! Generational curses are gone and forgotten.
Let’s just say for a moment that curses or these so called generational curses as a result of Freemasonry or otherwise do happen, then we must accept that it is demonic in origin, as Christ has redeemed us from God’s curse. As a person lived to 75-100 on average, they would see the results of their sin on their descendants down to the third or fourth generation before they died of old age. So we can see the reason to why God punished to the third and fourth generation. But what about Satan? He wants nothing but harm to befall us and would delight in cursing us.
So if we are saying that we do not come under the covering of the blood of Jesus, and the Devil can bring the consequences of our ancestor’s involvement in Freemasonry onto us, then how many generations will Satan go back? As he intends only harm, if God allowed Satan to do this he would go back as far as he wants! Ultimately that would be Adam, or does God put a limit on how far back he can go? Wouldn’t that mean every single person would be cursed and need generational curse deliverance? As this is all nonsense and not scriptural, your guess is as good as mine!
Let’s try another nonsense scenario for a moment. Let’s ignore that Christ has redeemed us, and say that generational curses are from God. As it only applied to those that hated or rejected God and He blesses and lavishes his love to a thousand generations that love him, then does that mean the curse stops as soon as it hits a generation that love him? Does that mean we do not even have to accept Christ into our lives to not be cursed? What do you think? These last two examples have been included just to give one something to ponder.
What we must not do We cannot state that generational curses (Freemasonry or otherwise) exist just because we think we have seen the result, or deliverance from one. We must continue to measure the truth we believe by the unchangeable standard of the written word of God. Experience based knowledge that does not line up with the Bible always puts down the goodness of God who has indeed provided us with “everything we need for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.” 2 Peter 1:3. Let us rely on what He has provided and not on any experiences that mislead us. If deliverance is needed, why didn’t Jesus have to deal with it? This ministry has been left un-dealt with for centuries and has only recently been taught. Our loving Father would not have left us at the mercy of Satan without any Biblical teaching to combat something that supposedly exists, to what appears to now be end times?
2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” All means ALL, not what we want to include or exclude. The moment we start to ignore this we are bound to end up in real trouble. Since Proverbs 26:2 says that an “undeserved curse does not come to rest,” so then consider the following. Is suffering the consequences of what our ancestors have done deserved? Should we just ignore this scripture because we think we see generational curses? Ignoring all relevant scriptures and other factors for the moment, doesn’t this one verse say we do not suffer an undeserved curse from our ancestors? The answer to these questions seems clear. There is no support for breaking generational curses in the Bible whatsoever.
If we decide that things are happening that are not in God’s word because of prayers that have been prayed, and results we believe we have seen, then I guess we’re free to create just about anything we want. Let’s face it, even if it’s not in God’s word, if we think we have seen the results of it, then let’s conclude it must be true. Therefore, we can write books on it, make a name for ourselves and progressively introduce some new un-Biblical ministry into the Church.
Galatians 1:9 reads, “As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.” So what does this scripture say about people who say Christ has not redeemed us from generational curses? See Galatians 3:13.
As much as scripture clearly shows we do not have curses on us due to the consequences of our ancestors or curses that are spoken against us, I do believe that what people call self-curses are possible, although again this is not proper terminology. God may not protect us if we are foolish enough to keep speaking negative things on ourselves. We must be very careful of what we say about ourselves as I do believe scripture shows us that by speaking negative things about yourself that you could open a doorway for Satan to have some control in your life you would not want him to have. Proverbs 21:23 reads, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.” See also Proverbs 13:3, 16:23 and 18:7.
Ephesians 4:27 reads, “Give no opportunity to the devil.” So guard your tongue and give Satan no opportunity to have any control in your life in this manner. If you have been speaking negative things about yourself, I suggest repenting and asking God to forgive you. This does not include idle negative words not really meant. That thinking becomes more of the occult than Biblical.
Conclusion
We serve a mighty God who knows all our needs. If we pray incorrectly, God is not going to take the attitude that because we are asking incorrectly, and we have not heard what He is telling us, that our suffering can continue. He will meet our needs and answer our prayer regardless. Ultimately we must believe that God’s Word is true and complete. See 2Timothy 3:16 and Galatians 1:8.
Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible for Galatians 1:8 reads, “If your false teachers pretend, as many in early times did, that they received their accounts by the ministry of an angel, let them be accursed; separate them from your company, and have no religious communion with them. Leave them to that God who will show his displeasure against all who corrupt, all who add to, and all who take from the word of his revelation.” No matter what we believe we have seen there are probably a hundred different explanations for it, most of which has already been well covered. Another good reason I have not mentioned is what I would call the placebo effect, i.e. the power of ones own belief in something. If you believe strongly enough that you have a generational curse then you probably will need some deliverance, but not from any curse, generational or otherwise, freemasonry or no freemasonry, sinful parents or not.
It is not important to discover whether the causes of problems in our lives have their origin in previous generations. Such a quest can all too easily become a cop out from dealing with the real reasons for these problems or a way of trying to manipulate God into blessing us in certain ways. Or we might be unwilling to face the fact that God is sovereign and may have a reason for allowing some types of suffering in our lives. See 2 Corinthians 12:6-10. Instead we can rest peacefully and secure in the knowledge that God’s plans for our lives and the blessings he has for us are dependent on Him, not ourselves and cannot be thwarted by anyone or anything. Job 42:2.
Some believe that the position of the stars in the sky determines exactly what happens in their life each day and others believe that the position of the tea leaves at the bottom of their tea cup determine their future and yet others the random man made card that comes up will govern their life. Clearly these are all lies from the enemy to keep us from the truth and freedom we have in Christ. As for breaking generational curses and the fear of spoken curses, this comes from the same demonic source. To accept that your life is governed by someone else’s sin in a past life is from the occult world and is not Biblical. Ezekiel 18:19-20 says, “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. 20 The one who sins is the one who dies. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own goodness, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness.”
We need to reject as unbiblical any teaching that says that those who put their hope and trust in Christ are likely to be cursed. God has pronounced us blessed. Balaam could not curse God’s blessed people, neither can anyone else. Jeremiah 17:7 reads, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord.” That is the simple version. The false teachers are hopelessly confused and give no hope or assurance. They put us back in bondage, and thus the teachings themselves and their perpetrators are accursed according to God’s Word, Galatians 1:8.
The conclusion has to be that man is making far more of this doctrine than Scripture does and as such it could be dangerous. Unless you want to do the enemy’s work, please be cautious over what you believe and say to other Christians. And please be clear that whatever you believe and teach is built on the firm foundation of Scripture, and not individual Scriptures taken out of context, or word meanings that they did not originally have in Greek or Hebrew. We need not and cannot add to the finished work of Calvary. There is no curse on those who are in Christ. When you encounter people talking about generational curses, tell them how to receive generational blessings. Deuteronomy 7:9 reads, “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” The Blessings are far mightier than the Curse!
Deuteronomy 30:19 reads, “I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life.” The truth is, that everyone is either living under a Blessing or a Curse, either Saved or Unsaved, under Grace or under Law. We hope you have chosen the first in each case. Cast all this nonsense of breaking generational curses from you mind. Satan would love to have you in bondage forever contemplating and tormenting you with it. The Bible tells us Jesus has set you free… So believe it!
Reference endnotes: John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 2, “Exposition of the 2nd Commandment” Gil Rugh, Demonization of the Believer–An Unbiblical Teaching Exposed. Lincoln, Neb.: Indian Hills Community Church, 1994. Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker, (Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Ore, 1990) Mark I. Bubeck, Spiritual Warfare Basics. Sioux City, Iowa: self-published conference booklet, no date Derek Prince, Blessing or Curse You can Choose, (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1990) Ron G. Campbell, Free from Freemasonry, (Gospel Light Publications, 1999) Rebecca Brown and Daniel Yoder, Unbroken Curses, (Whitaker House: New Kensington, PA, 1995)
The Consequences of this False Teaching
Peggy-Sue loved God. Her favourite verse from the Bible was “If God is for me, who can be against me?” She thanked the Lord Jesus daily for his sacrifice that enabled her to come before the Father totally cleansed and pure, through his blood. Life had always had its ups and downs. When things were going well she praised God for his blessings. When she was having problems, she still thanked God for getting her through them, and for helping her to grow and develop as a person and as a Christian. She knew peace and joy in her life, and was comfortable because she felt close to God. She felt like he always had her in the palm of his hand, taking care of her.
Then one day, someone in Church told her that all of the problems that she had had in her life were due to a curse, because her great granddad had been a freemason. She was told that she had a generational curse on her life, and she needed to have deliverance from it. She would be doomed to live under this curse, unless she had prayer and had it broken off.
Suddenly Peggy-Sue felt devastated. She had thought that God was helping her through times of trouble – but now she began to wonder if he had actually been punishing her. She had thought she had a close walk with him, but maybe he hadn’t really been there for her at all. How could a loving Father, let her suffer for something that one of her ancestors had done, that she didn’t even know about? Did that mean that her mum and grandmother had been cursed as well? Maybe that was why her mum had died in a car accident. God was punishing her because there was a curse on her life.
Peggy-Sue struggled for weeks with the ‘revelation’ that she was living under a curse. She was too confused to go for prayer for deliverance. She now doubted that anything she did would work anyway. After all for years she had been under the misconception that she had a good walk with the Lord, and now she had found out that going by what she was told, this wasn’t the case.
Peggy-Sue eventually left the church, totally disillusioned.
The above story is based on a real life situation. The name has been changed.
This story demonstrates just how devastating this wrong teaching on generational curses can be. The Word of God is abundantly clear but if you’re still not convinced after reading this entire document that by God’s grace we are free from generational curses, I hope this story if nothing else will at least encourage you to open your mind enough to seriously consider if the teachings on generational curses should be presented to anyone. If it does not give God glory, but causes people to turn from their faith, and it does not get any more serious than that, we should be questioning it very seriously.
Satan’s church had its beginning at Babylon with the construction of the Tower of Babel on the plain of Shinar by the River Euphrates many generations after the deluge. At the time of the construction of Babylon at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-4), mankind had multiplied and spoken one language. Cush who was the son of Ham and grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:1, 6), helped to plan with his son Nimrod, a blueprint by which to rule the world of humanity through a wicked counterfeit religion. Nimrod was the originator of sun worship and founder of Babylon. A Bible translation called the Targum says, “Nimrod became a mighty man of sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord.”
The beginning of Nimrod’s evil plan had its origin at Babel which was later known as Babylon. This city of Babylon with a tower “whose top may reach unto heaven” was built by Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10; 11:4). They called the tower “Babel, the gate to heaven,” but God called it what it was which was, “Babel, confusion,” for there God confused the language of the people which forced them to scatter. This heaven defying group of people wanted one government to rule the world and one religion to sway the hearts of mankind. This was Satan’s attempt to defy God and His authority and the ring leader of his scheme was Nimrod. But God came down and stopped this world wide rebellion at Babel, in defiance of His command for mankind to replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1) by confusing their language into many languages so they could not understand one another’s speech. Mankind discontinued the building of Babel and were scattered to different parts of the world (Genesis 11:8-9).
Nimrod had a plan to weld together and strengthen this evil religious system and so he married his own mother who was Semiramis. She was the first deified queen of Babylon and Nimrod was the first deified king. https://www.youtube.com/embed/9IlBfGpVKtw?rel=0&wmode=transparentSemiramis was as wicked as her son Nimrod, and as much sold out to Satan and devil worship as did he. Incest was used here as a basis to unite this newly false religious system. Nimrod and his mother/wife would be greatly used by Satan in the following centuries to send countless millions and even billions of souls to hell.
Satan’s plan was to develop a counterfeit, opposition system of religion to attract worship away from the true God of Heaven. This false system had its sacrificial plan just as God had a plan of sacrifice. But Satan’s pagan worship required the offering up of human beings, which was often the sons and daughters of the worshipers. A counterfeit holy day was instituted in honor of the sun god, (Sun-day) and this was designed by Satan to rob God of his peculiar authority as the Creator of the universe as designated by His Holy day the Sabbath.
Have you noticed how occult symbols are typically reversed? Example: The occult symbol for a cross is an inverted cross. Most have never noticed that God uses the 6:1 principle. That is, you have 6 of something normal and then on the 7th something special happens. Example: God created the world in 6 days and the 7th is a special day of rest and worship. Crops were grown for 6 years and the 7th year the land was rested. Slaves were kept for 6 years and were to be set free on the 7th year. There are 6 weeks from Passover to the 7th week being Pentecost. There are 6 months from Passover to the 7th month being the Day of Atonement. Bible chronologists say we are currently approaching the end of 6000 years since creation and if Christ returns at the end of 6000 years, we will then have the 7000th year being the 1000 year millennial reign. (See Revelation 20:1-15) So 6000 years + 1000 years (millennium) = 7000 years. None of this is by chance and is God’s plan. Observe the days of the week below.
Sunday Day 1
Monday Day 2
Tuesday Day 3
Wednesday Day 4
Thursday Day 5
Friday Day 6
Saturday 7th Day Sabbath
The first six days are normal but the 7th day is the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Remember that the occult uses the reverse symbol or is the opposite (in opposition) to God. So if Sunday was Satan’s plan for a day of worship, and we have seen historically that it is, then his week would be the reverse of God’s week. Instead of being the 6:1 principle it would be 1:6. As seen from the table below, this is the case and so it is not just two days side by side. It is the occult equivalent and this is not by chance but Satan’s choice.
Sunday Counterfeit Sabbath
Monday Day 2
Tuesday Day 3
Wednesday Day 4
Thursday Day 5
Friday Day 6
Saturday Day 7
We are fast approaching 6000 years (last generation now) and if Jesus comes at the end of 6000 years we would then have a 1000 year Sabbath. A thousands years a day just as God said. 2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Six days work and the Seventh day rest. This Earth’s history may end up being a mirror image of the creation week but with a thousand years to a day. That would put a whole new perspective on the meaning of the Sabbath now that is for sure. 6000 years of working and a 1000 years of rest. God does love doing things in numbers!
Nimrod’s and Semiramis’ followers plunged so deeply into sin and the occult that they even sacrificed babies to Satan in their worship of him. This became a common practice until Shem who was one of Noah’s three sons and the great uncle of Nimrod, in his anger and wrath killed Nimrod and cut him up into small pieces as an example to others not to commit such abominable sins and not to follow such evil religious practices. (Shem was a godly man and it was through his seed the Messiah would come.)
Alexander Hislop in his book The Two Babylons said, , “the Tower of Babel was actually the worship of Satan in the form of fire, the sun and the serpent. However, Satan worship could not be done openly because of the many who still believed in the true God of Noah. So a mystery religion began at Babel where Satan could be worshipped in secret.” – Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, 2nd American ed.(Neptune, New Jersey: Loizeaux Brothers, 1959)
Because of Nimrod’s death, the followers of Nimrod and Semiramis were stunned and experienced much grief. Their religious hero was dead. They were afraid to continue in their worship of Satan for fear that what happened to Nimrod would also happen to them, so a mystery religion developed at Babel where Satan could be worshipped in secret. This is exactly what is happening in these last days. Satan is using mysteries and deceptions to deceive people into thinking that they are worshipping God when they are actually worshipping Satan.
For a short time the practices of this counterfeit religion ceased but Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, had a brilliant idea of how she could successfully revive her and Nimrod’s pagan religion and give it a new form. It was not long after the death of her husband that Semiramis became pregnant. https://www.youtube.com/embed/yoXoq4DBtu4?rel=0&wmode=transparentShe said that when Nimrod died that he went up to the sun, and the sun then became a symbol of Nimrod. She told the people that a ray of the sun had come to her and impregnated her with a child and that it was actually Nimrod coming back in a reincarnation of the sun god. The child was called Tammuz and these three were worshipped as the personification of the sun god, and this is where we find the three in one trinity doctrine originated and is where the first three came into existence. This mystery religion was nothing more than Satan worship. Read the pagan origins of the trinity doctrine for more.
“The trinity got its start in Ancient Babylon with Nimrod – Tammuz – and Semiramis. Semiramis demanded worship for both her husband and her son as well as herself. She claimed that her son, was both the father and the son. Yes, he was “god the father” and “god the son” – The first divine incomprehensible trinity.” – The Two Babylons; Alexander Hislop, p.51
So Semiramis proclaimed that her husband Nimrod was a god, and she as the wife of Nimrod was a goddess. She then announced herself to be “The Queen of Heaven” and that she should be worshiped as such. She claimed that her spirit was the moon and when she died she would dwell in the moon, even as Nimrod was already in the sun. What a devilish brainstorm inspired by Satan!
Satan was laying the foundation for every system of falsehood and error the world has ever known. They took the truth of God and turned it into a lie and “worshipped and served the creature (on a wider application also includes Satan) more than the Creator.” Romans 1:25. This system of paganism, while professing to be the true religion, is actually devil worship. It professes and claims to be the truth of God but in reality it is Satan’s masterpiece, the “mystery of iniquity.”
As Satan’s church gained momentum, Semiramis pushed this satanic religious order underground. The followers of this counterfeit religion had to take secret oaths. The secret societies (some unscriptural lodges of today) thus had their beginning. The confessionals and priesthood were set up. The followers of this pagan religion confessed their sins to their priests. (what church continued this unbiblical pagan tradition?) See also 1 Timothy 2:5, Luke 5:20-21. By so doing, Semiramis could control her followers and exercise lordship over them. She boldly and brazenly proclaimed that she and her priests were the only ones who understood the mysteries of God and that they were the only possible way to God. Because of dedication to and fear of this false religious system, the followers of this religion fearfully complied.
Semiramis and her priests of Satan were deep into the occult, magic and illusion. They were masters of lies and deception. Everywhere there were statues or idols of this mother/child cult. Semiramis was soon hailed as “The Queen of Heaven” (Ashtarte). Her symbol became the moon and her husband Nimrod, was called “Baal” (the “sun god”) and his symbol became the sun. The city of Babylon was the seat of Satan worship until its fall to the Medes and the Persians in 539 BC. At this time the Babylonian pagan priests left Babylon and went to Alexandria and Pergamos. See who is the beast that has the number 666 or the origin of 666 for more.
It should be noted that the majority of the Babylonian pagan priests went to Pergamos more so than Alexandria, so for many centuries after the fall of Babylon, Pergamos became the new seat of Satan (Revelation 2:12-13), but around 129 BC, opportunity arose for them to leave Pergamos and go to Rome and thus Rome became the final seat of Satan where he set up his church, and hence sun worship, which was practised on Sunday, was most prevalent in Alexandria and Rome by the time of Christ.
Church historian Socrates Scholasticus (5th century) wrote: “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [of the Lord’s Supper] on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.” – Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, ch. 22.
So Baal worship was in full swing. It caught on fast and spread to many parts of the world. In Egypt, Semiramis became known as “Isis”, “The Queen of Heaven.” Nimrod became known as “Osiris”, the husband/son, and frequently called “Horus” (the sun god). In Phoenicia, Semiramis and Nimrod were worshipped as or known as Ashterath and Tammuz; in Greece, Aphrodite and Eros; in Rome, Venus and Cupid, and in China, Mother Shing Moo and her child.
When the cold season began every year, they believed their sun god was leaving them. It was on December 25th that they noticed the gradual return of the sun god. So they called this day the birth of the sun. Tammuz was hailed as the son of the sun. He was idolized and even worshipped and the first letter of his name became the symbol of sun worship. Human sacrifices to the sun god were offered on this initial letter made of wood, known as the cross “T” and this “T” for Tammuz is also the true origin of Catholics crossing themselves. His birthday of December 25 was honored more and more. Satan worked many years before the conception and birth of the true Messiah to counterfeit through sun worship His miraculous conception and birth. Satan succeeded many times in leading God’s people into sin and pagan sun worship.
The true date of the birth of Christ is most likely between July and September but since the exact date of Christ’s birthday was unknown, it was suggested, “Why not call it the same date as the birth of Tammuz, which was December 25?” This was the time when the sun had reached its lowest point on the horizon and started back up into the heavens and so the sun god had come to life, so to speak. So gradually December 25 came to be known as the birthday of Christ. The Papal Church finally instituted a special mass on that day, “Christ’s Mass,” and so December 25 became “Christmas.” The yule log burning in the fire followed by the green tree lit with candles all came from the pagan worship representing Nimrod being dead, while his spirit still lived on in the sun and was alive again in Tammuz his son.
Jesus was crucified and resurrected in the spring of the year near the time of the moon festival. The devil was at work once again to bring the idea of having a celebration at the same time as the heathen but calling it “in honor of the resurrection.” And in regards to the worship of the moon goddess Semiramis, the so called queen of heaven. The cakes to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN were round and on them was cut a cross in honor of the sun god, and they were offered to the queen of heaven and today we call them “hot cross buns.” (Read Jeremiah 7:16-18). The forty days of “weeping for Tammuz” became Lent and at the close of Lent came Easter Sunday. The prophet Ezekiel was shown even greater abominations. (Read Ezekiel 8:12-18). This goddess Ishtar (Easter) came to be known as the goddess of springtime as in “new life,” or as history records it, the “goddess of reproduction.” The pagans would go to some mountain side early Sunday morning and worship this goddess as the sun was rising in the east. They gave themselves to immorality and indecency of every description. The eggs and rabbits were used as symbols of fertility and germination and hence “new life.” It all came into the Church gradually and was all blessed by the Catholic Church and given to the world. And some people wonder why God calls the Catholic Church Babylon!
“The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.” — An Essay on The Development of the Christian Doctrine John Henry “Cardinal Newman” p.373.
“It has often been charged… that Catholicism is overlaid with many pagan incrustations. Catholicism is ready to accept that accusation and even to make it her boast… the great god Pan is not really dead, he is baptized” — The Story of Catholicism p 37.
As time elapsed, stories spread worldwide about Semiramis and Nimrod as Baal worship was everywhere. (The above information on the beginning of Satan’s church and its unscriptural practices is found in The Two Babylons, by Rev. Alexander Hislop) In his book he has composed a list of names adopted in other parts of the world that can be traced back to Semiramis and Nimrod in one way or another. The list of names are as follows:
SEMIRAMIS or Ashtarte
NIMROD or Baal the sun god
Cybele (Goddess Mother) Asia
Deoius (Asia)
Fortuna (Pagan Rome)
The Boy Jupiter (Pagan Rome)
Isis (The Queen of Heaven) Egypt
Osiris or Horus (Egypt)
Isi (Goddess Mother) India
Iswara (India)
Venus (Rome)
Cupid (Rome)
Ashterath (Phoenicia)
Tammuz (Phoenicia)
Aphrodite (Greece)
Eros (Greece)
Irene (Goddess of Peace) Greece
The Boy Plutus (Greece)
Ishtar (Babylon)
The Winged One (Babylon)
Rhea (Mother of Gods)
Orion (Constellation)
Diana (Ephesian)
Bacchus (God of Party going) of Ancient Greece
Shing Moo (Holy Mother of China)
The Centaur (Greece)
Satan pulled it off well as he had the whole world trapped into some form of Baal worship. The entire world had lapsed into polytheism (worship of many gods or idols). Mankind no longer desired to serve the true and living God and to accept His scriptural plan of salvation. (Romans 1:18-32).
Around 2000 BC in Abraham’s day, Baal worship and its pagan rites had so permeated the human race that God called Abraham out from it to be the progenitor of a nation of people (the Israelites or Jews) who would be instructed by God through Moses and the prophets to be a shining light and an example of godliness to the heathen nations and reveal to them God’s scriptural plan of salvation (Genesis 11:26-12: 1-5; Exodus 19:5-6; Hebrews 11:8).
The Jews were greatly blessed by God as His chosen people, who were to serve as His representatives of godliness to those heathen nations who had become entrapped by paganism, to evangelize those godless nations and to show them God’s love. The Jews were repeatedly told that if they were to sin by serving other gods, to depart from the Lord and fail God in their mission as His representatives to those nations trapped in Baal worship, the Jews would suffer terribly at the hand of God and be dispersed into all the nations of the earth. (See Deuteronomy 4:1-40; 6:14-18; 7:6-26; 8:6-20; 10:12-20; 11:1-28; 12:28-32; 29:16-29; 30:11-20).
Before his death, Moses foretold that after his death the Jews would disobey and turn to other “gods” to worship and serve them (Deuteronomy 31:27, 29; 32:16-29). After Moses’ death, Joshua took command and led the children of Israel across the River Jordan into Palestine. The Jews were ordered to exterminate the Canaanites of the land because they were so wicked and so deeply involved in the evil practices of Baal worship, and to take the land as their dwelling to be used for the glory of God in leading the ungodly nations to God and His plan of redemption. The Jews took the land and exterminated some of the inhabitants of the land but not all. The Jews here had already begun to disobey God. They soon became weary in their conquests of Palestine and stopped fighting. Soon afterwards the Israelites departed from their worship of the Lord and started to worship and serve other gods as Moses had predicted. The Jews soon became so involved in Baal worship and its pagan practices that some of them even sacrificed their children to Satan.
Because of their disobedience to God’s command to be faithful in their worship of and service to the true and living God, the Jews would have to suffer. On many occasions God allowed the children of Israel to be captured by their enemies and to be persecuted. When the Jews cried out to God in sorrow for their sins, the Lord delivered them. The Lord raised up Judges to secure their deliverances. After each time the Lord brought about the deliverance of the captured, suffering children of Israel, the Jews would plunge back into sin and Baal worship. As time passed the Jews became even more involved in pagan worship in spite of God’s warnings and chastisements. God raised up prophets to warn the Israelites to repent or suffer more. Prophet after prophet was raised up for that purpose and many of them were executed by the Jews. In 722 BC the ten Northern tribes were captured by the Assyrians and scattered never to return, and in 586 BC the Babylonians captured Judah and Jerusalem. This was the third time Babylon came up against them but this time brought about their total destruction as everything was torn down. After the Babylonian captivity in 539 BC at which time Babylon had fallen to the Persians, the Persians granted the Jews in Babylon permission to return to Jerusalem.
Many Jews did return to Palestine during the years 539 BC, 457 BC and 445 BC. Others doubtless returned between those years and after 445 BC. Read also Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy. In 70 AD the Romans under General Titus captured Jerusalem and persecuted the Jews. The Jews final dispersion took place at this time. After 70 AD, the Jews had been dispersed into all the nations of the world to suffer. Nearly all nations who had received Jews eventually turned on them and persecuted them. The Jews have been the most hated and persecuted people in history and have suffered more than any other people. They disobeyed God and they had to suffer as God said they would.
When the Roman Empire was in power during the earthly life of Jesus and during the early Church period, the Roman Caesars were to be worshipped as gods. The early Christians were persecuted by the Romans because they would not bow down to the pagan Caesars. Satan directed this persecution of the early believers in an effort to stamp out Christianity. But instead of wiping out Christianity, persecution resulted in its growth! As more Christians were put to death, more and more Christians rose up to replace them. Satan saw that his directed persecution of the early believers would not obliterate Christianity so he moved to attack the Church from within instead of from without.
Satan devised a plan by which he would lay the foundation for and establish his own counterfeit church. Under Satan’s direction paganism would get a new face. Satan would introduce to the world his own version of a “Christian Church.” As was indicated earlier, the Caesars were worshipped as gods. As the Roman Empire was near disintegration, the pagan Caesars did not want to lose their power in controlling the world, so they decided on a plan by which to keep their power and influence in the world. The Roman Caesars simply exchanged their Roman togas for religious costumes. Thus they could control the world’s governments and their economies through religion.
After Constantine defeated Maxentius in 312 AD in a battle for the throne of Rome, Satan continued in his clever plan to build his own version of a “Christian Church.” After his ascension to the Roman Throne, Constantine issued his Edict of Toleration in 313 AD to stop the persecution of the true believers in Christ. Under Constantine the Christian Church for a time found relief from persecution. Satan had now temporarily stopped his persecution of the Christian Church from without, but he would now proceed to attack the Church from within.
Under Satan’s direction, Constantine set up the “Council of Nicaea” and presided as “Summus Pontifex”, the official title of a Pope. Constantine’s job was to mix paganism with a perverted form of Christianity to make his new religious organization look respectable. This mixture of paganism with some of the teaching of Christ was Satan’s version of a “Christian Church.” This powerful religious institution would be later used by Satan to send millions of souls to hell and to cause the deaths of many Bible believing Christians.
Many changes took place in this Babylonian pagan church. Under Constantine, the pagans were permitted to bring their statues and idols of Semiramis, “The Queen of Heaven”, and Nimrod, “Baal”, “The Sun God’, into the Church. The names were changed to the Virgin Mary, “Queen of Heaven” and little Jesus, “The Sun God.” For example: Is this Catholic image Mary and baby Jesus or is it Semiramis, “The Queen of Heaven” and son Nimrod/Tammuz? Note the pagan trident symbol from the head of what is supposedly baby Jesus and that the hand is displayed with two fingers and a thumb prominent, being another way of symbolizing the trident and is a Satanic hand sign symbolic of occult powers. This is also used by high Church officials and priests in blessings invoking the sign of the cross by motioning their right hand with two fingers and thumb casually extended. It is also found in freemasonry of which origins can be found in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church erroneously say that Peter was the first so called Pope of this Papal system but in fact it was really Constantine. So under Constantine as its first Pope, the Roman Catholic Institution as we know it today had its beginning. See also paganism in the Catholic Church and Catholic Church error and was Peter the first Pope.
The Roman Catholic Church grew in power as the people in Rome were again under the priests and each succeeding Pope. Constantine had fifty Bibles made of perverted manuscripts composed by pagan worshippers of Baal from Alexandria. Alexandria was not only the seat of Baal worship but was also the headquarters of the most liberal philosophers. Those wicked philosophers produced their own perverted version of a Bible, and fifty such copies were made for Constantine to be given to the new “Church” over which he presided. The Latin Vulgate, authored by Jerome and based on the above fifty Bibles, later became the Roman Catholic Bible, which was kept from the people so that unscriptural traditions would have greater emphasis in the minds of the followers of the Pope.
The above information can be found in the books, The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop and the Angel of Light by Jack Chick. Alexander Hislop in his book also traces Roman Catholic sacraments, ceremonies, doctrines, confessionals, priesthood, etc. back to ancient Babylonian Baal worship. Roman Catholicism is based on ancient Babylonian Baal worship and on the man made traditions of the Church fathers. Catholicism is not based on the teachings of God’s Word or on the Scriptural plan of salvation. So we find Satan had a long term plan for his church and sun worship, which was practiced on Sunday, and was initially most prevalent in Alexandria and Rome. From this pagan sun worship came both the trinity doctrine and Sunday worship. Too many people are too quick to write off the fourth Commandment as unimportant when it obviously is. Please read who is the Antichrist for the evidence and watch The god’s of Babylon for the pagan origins of the trinity doctrine.
Yahweh Messiah verses Jesus Christ, One is the truth, the other a heist. Which one should you believe, To which one should you cleave?
One is for salvation, the other a lie, Did you search or did you even try? It’s between two ends, life and death, Do pick the one that gives life’s breath.
One is from inheriting the Father’s name, The other is a pagan name and false claim. So if you really are looking for eternal life, Then choose the one that will end all strife.
It was Emperor Constantine who started Christianity. He had changed Yahweh’s Word which was insanity. Just so he could deceive the world and all humanity. This was done for control and for his own self vanity.
Nimrod and Constantine are two of the same, To deceive humanity was their whole game. This is why both of them are fully to blame And why they both will burn in the flame.
Constantine’s vision of the Cross he would sell, So in Nimrod’s paganism humanity would dwell. If Christians knew the truth surely they would yell, Because in their beliefs, they would all go to hell.
This Babylonian religion will be destroyed by the King, Yahweh Messiah to Him believers will securely cling. That’s when His people, a new song they will sing, When Yahweh ends this Babylonian religious thing.
This might or might not be so, but in either case this could be one distinguishing factor in identifying the remnant Church. It has been found that there is one denomination who is active in proclaiming and teaching these messages and has a Satellite TV channel called 3 Angels Broadcasting Network and seems to be teaching solid Biblical doctrine with no pagan influence. This may be part of a fulfilment of prophecy.
Yet I am also convinced that there are massive battle of Armageddon illusions rampant everywhere. Please allow me to explain.
Does the Bible give us a way to identify the Antichrist power?
The result is evident from the following chart, which illustrates the three schools of interpretation regarding antichrist. Ribera’s futurism puts the antichrist into a future three and one-half literal years. Alcazar’s preterism identifies the antichrist as Nero. Both of them put antichrist outside the middle Ages and the reformation period, identified by Protestant Historicists as antichrist’s reign of 1260 prophetic years.
In what could only be described as a stunning reversal, Protestants have over time actually become the papacy’s greatest ally by spreading its Jesuit spawned propaganda. What irony that Protestants, who originally broke away from what they clearly recognized to be the harlot antichrist led church of prophecy, now champion the Futurist interpretation from high profile ministries. Futurism has without doubt, been successful beyond the wildest dreams of its Jesuit authors. The same applies to the Preterist interpretation of Luis De Alcazar, although to a lesser degree.
detailed information. Do not read these sites unless you are a Christian that wants to know truth at any cost. You may also like to read this one for the 
Numbers 15:38-39 “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring:”
Revelation 17:1-6 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3 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. 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”
thought to change God’s laws, which is the “great whore that sitteth upon many waters:” Revelation 17:1 and mystery Babylon or spiritual Babylon that is yet to receive God’s wrath for her fornication with the kings of this earth, and for all the shed blood of the saints labelled heretics that died rather than bow to the Papacy and their day of worship.
In Revelation 17, a shiny angel beckoned to John: “Come here; I will show you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters” (verse 1). “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 a golden cup in her hand” (verses 3, 4). “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:1, 3-5). John was “in the Spirit” (verse 3) when he received this prophecy. So we must be “in the Spirit” to interpret it correctly.
In conclusion, the Middle East remains a powder keg and the U.S. struggle against Muslim radicals like Osama bin Laden continues, and there’s no end in sight. In the midst of such a “Red Alert” environment, millions of America’s politically active Christians believe God Himself is not only behind modern Israel, but that He will finally annihilate the enemies of the Jewish State at the battle of Armageddon. Left Behind’s “Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages” proclaims this forcefully. Yet, as we have clearly seen, this doctrine is contrary to the New Testament. Beyond this, the teaching is actually harmful because it adds fuel to an already raging Arab fire. A world at “War Against Terror” does not need this. The picture shown right is the valley of Megiddo where the great battle of Armageddon is assumed to take place.
In this document, we will examine the Old Testament passages and look at the Biblical facts behind generational curses, their origin, some of the false teachings, what is a curse and what is not a curse, and whether curses are still happening today and what part freemasonry plays. By careful exegesis centering around the whole counsel of God, we will see that these passages do not support the idea that Christians are cursed because of the sins of their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Using scripture, we will also clearly show that these verses do not teach that demons have the right or ability to inhabit Christians because of generational curses or that Satan has the right to inflict curses upon Christians as a result of ancestral sins. On the contrary, Christians have the blessing of Abraham because of their relationship to Christ. It is hoped through reading this study Christians who have believed this contemporary teaching will be challenged into rethinking their views on this issue.
They called the tower “Babel, the gate to heaven,” but God called it what it was which was, “Babel, confusion,” for there God confused the language of the people which forced them to scatter. This heaven defying group of people wanted one government to rule the world and one religion to sway the hearts of mankind. This was Satan’s attempt to defy God and His authority and the ring leader of his scheme was Nimrod. But God came down and stopped this world wide rebellion at Babel, in defiance of His command for mankind to replenish the earth (
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