Douggg said in post #63:
But before he enters that stage of his career, he will be embraced by the Jews as their King messiah.
Based on what scripture? For "anti"-Christ can simply refer to anyone who's "against" the true Christ, as in anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ (1 Jn. 2:22), or denies that Christ is the human/divine Son of God (1 Jn. 2:22b), or denies that Christ is in the flesh (2 Jn. 1:7). The spirit of antichrist (1 Jn. 4:3) has been working since the 1st century AD (2 Thes. 2:7), animating many antichrists since that time (1 Jn. 2:18, 2 Jn. 1:7). The Antichrist (the AC) won't claim to be Christ, for his antichrist denial that Christ is in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:3) will disqualify him as a mortal-flesh human (under his mistaken Gnostic doctrine) from being Christ. Instead, the non-mortal-flesh Lucifer/Satan could be the false Christ (i.e. the "Lucifer" Christ, and not the "Jesus" Christ: 1 Jn. 2:22) during the future, literal 3.5-year worldwide reign of the AC (Rev. 13:4-18), which will be in the latter half of the future tribulation of Rev. chs. 6-18.
But none of this means there won't also be multiple false human Christs who will arise during the trib (Mt. 24:24), including 1 who will be a false ultra-Orthodox Jewish Christ/Messiah. For shortly after the start of the trib, the AC could "cut" a peace treaty with a false ultra-Orthodox Jewish "Messiah" (Dan. 9:26a, 11:22-23a), promising this false Messiah and his ultra-Orthodox Jewish followers that they can keep a 3rd Jewish temple (Rev. 11:1) which they will have built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, for at least 7 more years (Dan. 9:27a).
little horn politician rising up among EU kings
The 10 kings won't all have to be European, for Dan. 7's 4th beast, or 4th "king"/"kingdom" (Dan. 7:17,23), is the ancient Roman Empire. The 10 horns/kings (Dan. 7:7,24) which come out of it could represent 10 major kingdoms/nations today which came out the former territory of the Roman Empire, which consisted not only of Western Europe, but also the Middle East and North Africa. These 10 nations could be Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, and Syria. The 10 iron/clay toes of Dan. 2:42 could represent the same thing as the 10 horns of Dan. 7:7. The Europeans could be the iron, and the Arabs and Turks could be the clay. In Dan. 2:43, the inability of the iron to mix with the clay could represent how, e.g., there are many Turks living in Germany, but they remain separated in ghettoes within German cities. Similarly, there are many Algerians living in France, but they remain separated in ghettoes within French cities.
But despite this social separation, which could endure indefinitely, the people of Western Europe on the one hand, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa on the other, could still one day put aside their political separation and become united into 1 confederation. The person who could bring this about could be the Antichrist (the AC). The arising of the "little" horn (Dan. 7:8, 8:9), which is "diverse" from the 10 major nations (Dan. 7:24), could mean the AC will arise from a little country. And the little horn arising from "among" the 10 major nations could mean the AC's country's territory used to be part of the Roman Empire. And before that, it could have been part of 1 of the 4 Diadochian Greek kingdoms which succeeded the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great (Dan. 8:8-9,21-25). The territory of these 4 kingdoms stretched from Greece over to Iran, and down into Egypt. So the AC could come from the Middle East. He could be an Arab who will come from Lebanon, from the modern city of Tyre (Ezek. 28:2, 2 Thes. 2:4).
The AC could start out by claiming to be a Baathist. After becoming the leader of Lebanon, he could peacefully gain control of a Baathist confederation of 3 of the 10 major nations (Dan. 7:24): Egypt ("toward the south" of Lebanon: Dan. 8:9), Iraq and Syria ("toward the east" of Lebanon: Dan. 8:9). This confederation could also include the minor nation of a United Palestine (i.e. a defeated Israel, "the pleasant land": Dan. 8:9). This Baathist confederation could be put together in the future by an Iraqi Baathist General who could defeat and occupy Israel and Egypt (Dan. 11:15-17; in verse 17, the original Hebrew word translated as "daughter" is "bath"), but who could then mysteriously disappear (Dan. 11:19) shortly before the AC arises on the world stage (Dan. 11:21-45). Years later, when the AC gains control over all 10 of the major nations, he could appoint kings over them (Rev. 17:12) who will defer to him, like, e.g., when Napoleon gained control over different nations, he appointed kings over them who would defer to him.
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Douggg said in post #66:
Great Babylon, in Revelation 16, is the ancient Babylon, tower of Babel, rebellion against God.
The symbolic harlot "Babylon" (Rev. chs. 17-18) represents all of mankind's corrupt political (Rev. 17:18), economic (Rev. 18:11), and religious (Rev. 18:24) systems throughout the earth (Rev. 18:3) and throughout history (Rev. 17:9-10). The 10 kings of the Antichrist's empire will destroy with fire all that "Babylon" represents (Rev. 17:16-17a) when they destroy the cities of the earth (Rev. 16:19), possibly with nukes (and possibly with Fission-Fusion-Fission, "FFF", or "666", nukes, "F" representing the number 6 in English gematria), at the time of the 7th vial (Rev. 16:17,19), which will be the final event (Rev. 16:17b) of the future tribulation of Rev. chs. 6-18, right before Jesus' 2nd coming (Rev. 19:2-20:6, Mt. 24:29-31). They could do this under the direction of Satan/Lucifer (Isa. 14:17,12), who could want to leave only a literal "scorched earth" for Jesus to return to.
Near the very end of the trib, Lucifer (employing the ancient lies of Gnosticism) could say to the Antichrist and the 10 kings something like:
"Our great battle against the evil YHWH is about to begin [Rev. 16:14, 19:19], a battle which we'll win, and so we'll be able to escape YHWH's prison house, this material universe, and return to the wholly-spiritual Pleroma. So let us now completely destroy this awful prison cell, this foul planet, and let us, as it were, completely burn up all the gewgaws which we've hung upon our cell walls. Let us burn up all our great cities, all our magnificent systems. Let us break every chain of attachment to this vile material realm, that we might more freely ascend back into our rightful place in the blessed Pleroma".
Of course this will be a total lie. For at his 2nd coming, Jesus (who is YHWH: Jn. 10:30, Zech. 14:3-4) will completely defeat the armies of the world, arrayed against YHWH (Rev. 16:14, 19:19-21). And Jesus will have Lucifer bound in the bottomless pit during the subsequent millennium (Rev. 20:1-6). And Jesus will restore ruined parts of the earth and make them like the Garden of Eden (Ezek. 36:35, Isa. 51:3). And after the millennium and subsequent events are over (Rev. 20:7-15), God will create a new heaven (a new 1st heaven: a new sky/atmosphere for the earth) and a new earth (a new surface for the earth) (Rev. 21:1). And then God will descend from the 3rd heaven in the literal city of New Jerusalem to live with saved humanity on the new earth (Rev. 21:2-4).
There could be a future, literal tower of Babel, as it were. For if science eventually detects "the God Particle" in the LHC and comes to admit that it's a non-physical particle, which science could call the "spiriton", some scientists could still refuse to believe in and submit themselves to God (YHWH), saying that the existence of spiritons (i.e. spirit) doesn't require that there's one infinite, conscious spirit-being called "God" or "YHWH". And in its subsequent experiments with spirit, science could come into contact with the evil spirit-being called Satan, or Lucifer, who could manifest himself in some high-energy experiment and claim that he's the true God of mankind and must be worshipped, so that a nascent spiritual science could be hijacked and employed by Lucifer and his worshippers as one part of their coming deception by which the world eventually will be deceived into worshipping Lucifer (the dragon) and his human son the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of the beast) (Revelation 13:4-18).
The unity of mankind that will occur at that time could be like that which occurred at the time of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:6), and there could even be an end-time equivalent to the Tower of Babel, which could be built in the rebuilt city of Babylon (in Iraq). For Lucifer could show mankind how to build there a huge tower device, a huge spiritual machine the size of the Empire State Building which will be able to send up into the sky an incredibly powerful spiritual beam analogous to a laser. Near the end of the tribulation, Lucifer could tell mankind that it will need to employ this huge weapon during an impending battle against YHWH (Revelation 16:14b, Revelation 19:19). Mixing some science fiction with some ancient lies of Gnosticism, Lucifer could tell mankind something like:
"YHWH is now heading toward the earth in his gigantic spaceship which is shaped like a Borg Cube [cf. Revelation 21:2a,16]. He's coming to enslave you and to turn you all into Borg-like automatons. But this mighty Tower Device will be able to blow his Borg Cube and him to bits with its spiritual ray. Then we can focus the Tower Device on any point of empty space until it burns in space-time a hole, a portal through which I will lead your spirits out of this vile material universe which YHWH made to be your prison, and I will lead you back up into the purely-spiritual realm of the Pleroma, where you can live in bliss as gods forever, doing as you please, just as you had done for all ages past with me before we by mistake fell into YHWH's trap of this material universe".
Before the second coming happens, Lucifer could prove the power of the Tower Device to mankind by letting the Antichrist or his False Prophet use it to blow up some large asteroids out in space, so that mankind will go into its battle against YHWH in full confidence that it will be able to destroy him. But when the battle comes the device won't work against YHWH (cf. Psalms 21:11, KJV). Instead, Jesus Christ (who is YHWH: John 10:30, Zechariah 14:3-4) will take total victory in the battle (Revelation 19:11-20:6).
The reason I think Nimrod is the beast in the bottomless pit is that unifying the earth's population in rebellion against God started with Nimrod.
Which is common to what the Antichrist beast will do in the last 42 months.
The 7 heads of the beast in its empire aspect (Rev. 13:1, 17:3) represent 7 empires (Rev. 17:9-10): Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and (possibly) Islam. The first 5 had fallen by the time of John the apostle in the 1st century AD: "five are fallen" (Rev. 17:10, 1:1b-2). The 6th (Rome) existed at the time of John: "one is" (Rev. 17:10). The 7th (possibly Islam) had not come by the time of John: "the other is not yet come" (Rev. 17:10). The empire of the Antichrist (the AC) (the individual-man aspect of the beast) will be a different, still-future, 8th head (Rev. 17:11), which will be a revival of 1 of the 5 empires which had fallen by the time of John (Rev. 17:8,10-11). It could be a revival of the empire of Babylon. The AC may claim to be Nebuchadnezzar returned, and so reinstitute the system that Nebuchadnezzar set up whereby everyone had to worship an image or be killed (Dan. 3, Rev. 13:15).
And the AC could make his world capital in the rebuilt city of Babylon (in Iraq), and build a main temple to himself (and Lucifer/Satan) there. For a temple to "wickedness" will be built in Shinar (Babylonia) (Zech. 5:8,11), and the AC is called "that Wicked" (2 Thes. 2:8). He may also claim to be Nimrod (the founder of Babylon: Gen. 10:8-10), and Hammurabi, and Asoka, et al. For the AC may claim that he's had many different "past lives" as different human rulers.
A 3rd aspect of Rev.'s beast is that it's a powerful fallen angel (referred to with a Greek masculine-pronoun "he" in Rev. 17:11) who's now literally in the bottomless pit and will literally ascend from it during the coming tribulation to spiritually empower the AC's empire (Rev. 17:8-11). This fallen-angel aspect of the beast could be the angelic prince whom Satan had assigned to spiritually empower the ancient empire of Babylon, just as Satan had assigned other fallen angelic princes to spiritually empower the subsequent ancient empires of Persia and Greece (Dan. 10:13,20). When the ancient empire of Babylon was defeated, the fallen angelic prince empowering it could have been cast into the bottomless pit. This same fallen angel could be released to empower a revival of the empire of Babylon during the AC's future, literal 3.5-year worldwide reign (Rev. 13:5-18).
The release of the powerful fallen angelic prince of Babylon from the bottomless pit could occur at the same time as the unbinding of 4 other powerful fallen angels now bound at the Euphrates river (Rev. 9:14b), who could have been bound there at the fall of the ancient empire of Babylon. When the 4 angels are released at 1 point during the coming tribulation, they will cause an army of 200,000,000 weird horse-like beings to kill 1/3 of mankind (Rev. 9:15-19). This could be done in order to make mankind completely desperate before its complete takeover by Satan and the AC mid-tribulation, when Satan himself will be cast down from heaven (Rev. 12:7-13:18).