Friday, August 12, 2011

Part 15:
The Beast With Two Horns

As John was telling us about the beast, which was the composite Leopard-Bear-Lion beast, he mentions another beast with “two horns like a lamb,” yet this new beast spoke “as a dragon.” The fact that this other beast has “two horns like a lamb” should say something to us. Lambs don’t have horns, so something must be wrong with this other beast. We know from scripture that the Christ is represented as a lamb, and that the dragon is Satan. So this other beast must pretend to be like a lamb, which represents Christianity, but speaks deceptively as Satan.

Revelation 13:11:And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.”

Since the Islamic Empire control of Jerusalem for 42 months, from 688 to 1967, this new beast must be about another empire that will emerge within that same time frame—an empire that has two sides to it, one Christian-like and the other Satanic in nature.

As we know from Daniel, a beast is an empire, and both Daniel and John are prophesying about Jerusalem, then this two-horned beast must appear to be Christian, but display devilish attributes, that will control and dominate the Holy Land—TWICE.

Revelation 13:12:And he [two-horned beast] exerciseth all the power of the first [Jihad] beast before him [i.e., in the sight of], and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”

According to Strong’s Concordance, “before him,” in this verse, actually means “in the face of,” or “in the presence (sight) of.” So this two-horned fake Christian beast will rule “in the sight of,” or “in the presence of,” the Leopard-Bear-Lion beast. This two-horned beast will co-exist with the first beast, which is the Islamic Empire, sometime between 688 and 1967. And since this other beast is to dominate Jerusalem twice during this period of time, two questions naturally arise: Which two times will this deceptive Christian-like beast with two horns control Jerusalem, and exactly who or what is this two-horned beast? Fortunately, both of those question can be answered at the same time by taking a look at the history of the Holy Land.

THE FIRST HORN
After Islam received its deadly wound, it still lived in Jerusalem and dominated the entire area for quite a number of years. But in the 11th Century, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to free the Holy Land from Islam. Christian knights from all over Europe captured Jerusalem and ruled in the Holy Land for about 200 years. But by the end of the 12th Century, the Crusaders were driven out of the Holy Land and the Islamic Empire ruled Jerusalem once again.

This was the first horn of the two-horned beast. It pretended to be Christian, but it exercised the power of the first beast, Islam, in that it was just as ruthless and barbaric as the first beast. The Crusaders pillaged, raped and murdered the people living in the Holy Land. They claimed to be Christians but they indeed “spake as the dragon.”

The Crusaders didn’t destroy the Dome of the Rock nor drive out the Moslems, they coexisted with them. So the Christian Crusaders were the first of the two horns “in the presence” of the 7th kingdom beast, the Islamic Empire.

THE SECOND HORN
Many years later, during World War I, another group of so-called “Christian” nations entered the Holy Land and fought in the Islamic world. Lawrence of Arabia and General Allenby (with the blessing of the League of Nations) took control of what became known as the British Mandate. The western nations, appearing “like a lamb,” then ruled in Jerusalem from 1917 to 1948. They didn’t destroy the Dome of the Rock nor drive out the Moslems, either. So the British Mandate, of the Christian world, was the second of the two horns “in the presence” of the beast. The British dominated and controlled Jerusalem until 1948, when the new nation of Israel was established.

Twice during that 42 month period, “Christian nations” did rule in the presence of Islam, the Leopard-Bear-Lion Empire. So twice the western Christian nations ruled in the Holy Land; they spoke as a dragon; and in the presence of the first beast, did exercise (in like manner) all the powers of the first beast before them.

HEALING THE WOUNDED BEAST
But that’s not all of the prophecy, the prophetic picture of the two-horned beast continues on for a while.

Revelation 13:12:And he [two-horned beast] exerciseth all the power of the first [Jihad] beast before him [i.e., in the sight of], and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”

After World War II, the Beast with Two Horns (the western Christian world) experienced accelerated growth in science, technology, industry, and economy. Not being satisfied, the greedy two-horned beast of the so-called Christian world inspired an agreement with the Moslem Oil Sheiks. They agreed to lower western oil production and buy Arab oil if the Arabs agreed to deposit that western money in western banks. This would bolster the greedy western world by having the oil and keeping the money for their own use; this is like having your cake and eating it too. So the Islamic Arabs agreed. They became wealthier, and so did the gluttonous two-horned beastly world.

However, the Arab nations have used their wealth to revitalize Islam—the healing process. They buy modern weaponry to use against their western Christian enemy. The beast with two horns “healed” the beast that had “the wound by a sword,” and the Leopard-Bear-Lion, 7th kingdom, came back to life as the 8th beast.

GREAT WONDERS
The two-horned beast does indeed perform “great signs” in the “sight of men.” About the two-horned beast John wrote: “And he [ the two-horned beast] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the [first] beast;...” (Rev. 13:13-14.)

What did the innocent in Baghdad wonder during “Desert Storm” of 1991, or the “War on Terror” of 2003? With bombs, rockets, guided missiles, smart-bombs, pyrotechnic displays, and other “fire come down from heaven” produced by the two-horned beast, would they not consider such things to be “great wonders”?

And these are not all the wonders of the western world when we consider harnessing the atom, probing beyond the stars, exploring the bottomless depths of the sea, great medical advancements, the World Wide Web, etc. Such wonders deceive many men, causing them to turn to themselves for enlightenment, instead of to God.

Indeed, the Crusaders and the British Mandate, along with the western Christian world are the beast with two horns; they pretend to be as a “lamb,” but speak by their actions as a “dragon.”