The ‘beast that ascends from the bottomless pit’ and the Two Witnesses/Prophets–Part 1
“The holy city shall they tread underfoot forty and two months. And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth . . . And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottlomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified . . . .
The end of “a time, and times, and half a time”is the “the time of the end” of Daniel 12:9.
From Facts of Faith by Christian Edwardson, pp. 52-60, Southern Publishing Association, Nashville 8 TN, 1943:
“The little horn of Daniel 7: 8, 25, was to reign for ‘a time and times and the dividing of time.’ This same ‘time, and times, and half a time’ is also mentioned in Revelation 12: 14,
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER SEVEN – Part 21 Unbroken Apostolic Succession of the Papacy?
According to Webster’s Student Edition Dictionary (1976), papacy includes four things: “1. the position or authority of the pope 2. the period during which the pope rules 3. the line of succession of popes 4. the government of the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the pope.” It is important to remember these 4-point definition whenever referring to the papacy. Moreover, it is essential to remember that not one single or any particular pope is the papacy or the beast, even the president is the presidency or a senator the senate itself, etc. This would expose many false interpretations. For instance, while he was still alive, it was claimed that Pope John Paul (the first Polish pope) was the “last pope,” who was allegedly going to usher in the “New World Order” for the Church of Rome, with Gorbachev for Russia, and George Bush Sr. for America!
To be God on Earth: “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” – Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894.
To be Jesus Christ Himself” “The pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but He is Jesus Christ Himself hidden under the veil of flesh.” – The Catholic National, July 1895. “The Priests are the Parents of God,” St. Bernard.
“Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and on earth and of the lower regions [infernorum; the fiery place].’ – Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, “Papa,” [the pope], art. 2, 1772-1777 ed. Vol. 6, p. 29.
The book The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White is not alone in referring to the Roman Catholic Church more succinctly as the “Roman Church” or the “Church of Rome” or the “Romish Church.” The Protestant Reformers said the same. This Monday, the 20th, the secular press also referred to it as such. The AFP reported May 20, 2015, which the TheGuardian (Nigeria) repeated the next day, saying, and we quote: (emphasis mine):
“Pope Urges Chinese Catholics’s Allegiance to Rome
“Pope Francis called Wednesday on Chinese Catholics to remain attached to the ‘rock’ on which the Church in Rome is built, in a move expected to rile Beijing. ‘Ask Mary to help Catholics in China….to live spiritually united to the rock of Peter on which the church is built,’ the pontiff said in his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square.
The recent Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, declared a Holy Year by Pope Francis will open December 8, 2015 on “the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception” and concludes a year later “with the liturgical Solemnity of Christ the King on Nov, 20, 2016.” It says further, “On that dayaswe seal the Holy Door, we shall be filled, above all, with a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for having granted us an extraordinary time of grace”. . . .“The granting of indulgences as a traditional theme of the Jubilee year is expressed in section No. 22. (For fuller details, see NEWS.VA Official Vatican Network. http://www.news.valen/news/summary-of-the-misericordiae-vultus-bul-of-indiction.
he who would search for pearls, must dive below.”- John Dryden
If today’s Christian mainstream only knew half of what and how the Christian Bible has survived and flourished till now, and why it has been the object of calumny and so much mysterious hatred, listen to what Lord Byron said: “The best of prophets of the future is the past.” In short, history will repeat itself. Study and fall in love with your Bible now. The days of liberty to heed its instructions and obey God’s immutable Decalogue according to the dictates of conscience through the Holy Spirit, are numbered.
“In the sixteenth century the Reformation, presenting an open Bible to the people, had sought admission to all the countries of Europe. Some nations welcomed it with gladness, as a messenger of Heaven. In other lands the papacy succeeded to a great extent in preventing its entrance; and the light of Bible knowledge, with its elevating influences, was almost wholly excluded. In one country, though the light found entrance, it was not comprehended by the darkness. For centuries, truth and error struggled for the mastery.
