''And THEN Shall the End Come''

For the first two years of the Bush presidency, the liberal left has consistently attempted to highlight links between George Bush and the Money Trust. Since the fall of the Iraq regime, reams of documents have detailed Saddam's payoffs. But where is the media now?

Last week, the London Daily Telegraph began reporting that George Galloway, a Laborite Member of Parliament and an anti-war voice featured by several American media outlets, received millions of dollars in the past few years from Saddam Hussein.

It was reported by the mainstream press because it was all over the newspapers. It is a blockbuster of a story, including all the seamier elements; treason, payoffs, spies, lies and intrigue. What happened to the story?

In the May 5 Weekly Standard, Stephen F. Hayes summarized the story and added that American politicians also received cash: Rep. Jim McDermott, so memorably featured from Baghdad attacking President Bush as a liar last fall on ABC’s This Week, accepted $5,000 for his legal defense fund from Shakir al-Khafaji, a Saddam supporter (and contractor with the Ba’athist regime) who arranged his Baghdad trip. Shouldn't this be of some media interest?

But if you get your news from ABC, you didn't hear much about McDermott or Galloway. Or from CBS, NBC, as well as CNN, NPR, Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report.

But the outlets most responsible to follow the money trail to Galloway and other anti-war voices are the outlets who promoted them on American airwaves.

Before Galloway's millions were uncovered, he was ABC's favorite British politician.

Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer highlighted a soundbite of Galloway’s House of Commons remarks as “a wake-up call for me, listening about the view of Americans.” Galloway denounced how “this born again, right-wing, Bible-belting, fundamentalist, Republican administration in the United States wants war.”

NBC News spotlighted several British leaders debating Iraq, which included Galloway’s take on Bush: “The British people have seen the President, heard the President, and they think they’re estimating him just about right as not a man that we would want to be at the wheel of the car as we drive along the edge of a cliff with ourselves sitting in the back seat.”

On February 26, 2003, Nightly News also used Galloway’s “born-again, right-wing, Bible-belting” comment.

It would be one thing if the media were simply presenting an opposing view. That is what journalists are supposed do.

But for months and months, Scott Ritter was on every television news program, denouncing the Bush administration and loudly protesting Saddam's innocence. Every network had employed Ritter, at one time or another, as a paid analyst on Iraq, since his high profile resignation from UNSCOM. Ritter offered his resignation in 1998 amid much fanfare, since he then alleged Saddam was hiding a massive weapons program.

But then the story broke that Ritter had been arrested twice for soliciting young girls on the internet. Ritter vanished from the American airwaves, both as a color commentator on the news programs, AND as the subject of major news story.

Ritter's mysterious about-face concerning Iraq became less mysterious after evidence surfaced that Ritter got lots of money and plenty o' percs from the Saddam regime.

Add to that the new bribery revelations that show Galloway was a tyrant-paid flack, like Ritter, and the fact that neither was a sincere anti-war spokesman.

Still, ABC all but endorsed Jim McDermott for re-election on the airwaves when McDermott denounced the Bush administration from Baghdad.

So, the media was taken in by Saddam and his liberal dispensation of US cash to unscrupulous public figures that used them to advance the enemy message. Why aren't they angry at being used by Saddam? Why is the media giving Saddam's clandestine spokesmen a pass now?

I've noted that the unpaid spokesmen, (the 'useful idiots'); anti-war spokespersons like Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and all the rest of the liberal left make the nightly news now ONLY in the context of their 'free speech' being violated.

No follow up stories on where the liberal left was wrong, or where the administration might have been right. Instead, when the media turns its attention to Iraq, it is in the context of how the US is refusing to submit to the UN's authority and why that is such a bad thing.

The US victory in Iraq made history and the Iraq battle plan will be a required course of study at every military academy in the world for generations, say analysts. But if you assessed the war through the eyes of the mainstream media, you could only conclude that we were losing the war (until it was won) and that the US is now losing the peace.

There's been little media coverage of what went right in the war. There were no hordes of Iraqi refugees streaming across borders into neighboring countries. The only economic damage the expected influx of refugees ultimately incurred on Jordan, Turkey or Kuwait was the cost of building refugee camps that were never needed.

There were no tens of thousands of body bags necessary for either American troops or civilian casualties. There were no reports of errant bombs missing military targets and hitting baby milk factories or civilian air-raid shelters.

The oil fields were not sabotaged, the environment wasn't damaged, chemical weapons were not deployed, and the Arab world has not risen up en masse. Despite media efforts to prove the contrary, most Iraqis were glad to see the fall of Saddam and DID embrace the coalition as liberators rather than occupiers.

This gets very little attention in the mainstream media, because it favors the current conservative administration.

Just like the negative stuff about liberal darlings France, Germany, Russia, the UN, -- or Saddam's paid liberal spokesmen -- is largely ignored or quickly dropped from the news cycle.

We are living in the last days. The Bible says that one of the first signs is that of deception. The first thing Jesus said when asked of the signs of His coming was "Take heed that no man deceive you."

The theme of endtimes' deception is further developed, with Paul warning of a 'great deception', the Apostle John outlining the systematic deception of the antichrist and false prophet as the Tribulation unfolds, until ultimately, "deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast" (Revelation 13:14).

It is by the power of Satan, the Deceiver, that the antichrist comes to power in the last days.

It was only a few decades ago that Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America.

It was only a few years ago that Bernard Goldberg was blacklisted by the mainstream press after writing a book called "Bias" that exposed the liberal bias at CBS from the inside.

Emboldened by the weak reaction, the masks are coming off. The agenda-driven media grows more obvious, protests of innocence grow less apologetic and more defiant.

The Bible says that the deception of the last days will be global. And it will come at a time when the Gospel is simultaneously preached to the whole world. Neither was possible at any time in history until this generation.

Thanks to CNN, most of the world believes that the US is the bad guy in Iraq, Saddam is a victim, Iraqis hate America for invading them, and that it is the US who is really imposing suffering on the Iraqi people in order to control their oil.

At the same time, thanks to the internet, the Gospel is being preached in every corner of the earth.

The Omega Letter, for example, has subscribers in South Africa, Kenya, Bahrain, Australia, New Zealand -- just to name a few. And from there, who knows? Anywhere that anybody can get email, anyplace on earth.

It is our mission to document signs of the coming of the King for His Church. We find two undeniable signs here. The first is a global information system so powerful that it could deceive the whole world.

The second is the simultaneous ability to take the truth of the Gospel to the whole earth. Jesus outlined the signs of the times, point by point in the Olivet Discourse, but He paused at one point and said, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet" (Matthew 24:6).

He went on to describe the wars, ethnic unrest, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, saying they would be the 'beginnings of sorrows'. Jesus spoke of Christians being delivered up for execution, such as is happening in places like the Sudan and Ethiopia. He spoke of 'being hated by all nations for His Name's sake'.

America is at war with the Islamic fundamentalists because the Islamic fundamentalists declared a jihad against the 'Christian Crusaders' and the 'Zionists'. America and Israel.

Everybody else backs the Arabs, and by extrapolation, tacitly support the Islamists. Do you see the pattern?

Jesus spoke next of false prophets and deception, saying that, as the time approaches, sin will be so rampant, 'the love of many shall wax cold'.

Wars, rumors of wars, famines, persecution, earthquakes, sin, betrayal -- sound familiar?

But, after outlining all the signs of His coming (or, the headlines of this morning's newspapers, one could argue) but before He begins to describe the Tribulation Period, Jesus pauses again in Matthew 24:14, and says, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and THEN shall the end come."

The antichrist

Most Christians today are taught that the antichrist is alive right now, and that he is about to break forth onto the world scene as a brilliant yet wicked world leader.

Although the antichrist is perhaps the most popular figure in the current prophecy scene, he is also the most misunderstood.

The problem is that premillennial authors focus their attention on Daniel’s little horn, Paul’s man of sin, and the beast in Revelation, yet ignore the passages of Scripture which actually discuss antichrist.

There are only four passages of Scripture which expressly mention “antichrist,” all in the epistles of John (1 Jn. 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 Jn. 7).

John corrects the false notion of antichrist that had arisen among Christians in his own day; he declares that antichrist is not something far off in the future but a present reality.

Second, he says that antichrist is not a single individual but a large group of people.

Third, he defines antichrist not as a person (a coming world leader) but as a current movement: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour” (1 Jn. 2:18).

Many Christians in John’s day had heard that antichrist (singular) was coming. John responded by saying that even now many antichrists (plural) had arisen. The verb “have arisen” or “have come” (gegonasin) indicates that these antichrists arose in the past and were still present.

The presence of these antichrists proves that “it is (present tense) the last hour” (2:18).

Thus it is evident that John (who wrote the book of Revelation) rejected the idea of a future, singular antichrist; instead, he warned Christians of a heretical movement (or movements).

There are many antichrists. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 Jn. 7). “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” (1 Jn. 2:22). “‘These antichrists who have arisen,’ says John, ‘belonged to us, but they were not of us.’

In other words, they took up the Christian position, they claimed they were Christian, they professed to be teachers of the Christian Church, and yet they have been separated from the Christians in order that it would be clear to all that they were not of them.

In other words, they claimed to delight in the true religion and yet they destroyed it.” [Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking with God: Studies in I John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1993), p. 100.]

John focused the attention of his readers upon one, or perhaps two, heretical movements.

The first, probably Gnostic in origin, denied the real humanity of Jesus Christ (2 Jn. 7).

The second, probably Jewish in origin, denied that Jesus was the Messiah (1 Jn. 2:22). “John clearly applies the conception of the one antichrist (ho antichristos) to the generic tendency to promote lies about the identity of Christ.” [Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall Have Dominion (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1992), p. 373]

“Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 Jn. 4:3).

“Antichrist is not an individual, malevolent ruler looming in our future. Rather, Antichrist was a contemporary heretical tendency regarding the person of Christ that was current among many in John’s day.” [Gentry, p. 374]

2. The beast

Another greatly misunderstood figure from the Bible is the beast of Revelation. The beast, unlike the antichrist, is at least a real political leader. The problem with most modern interpretations seeking to identity the beast is that the many textual indicators given by John to identify the beast are ignored in favor of the futurist, revived Roman emperor idea.

In the book of Revelation the beast is identified as both an empire and as a leader of an empire.

The empire is without question the Roman empire of John’s own day.

In Revelation 13 John is standing on the sand of the sea and observing a beast rising up out of the sea. The beast has “seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority” (Rev. 13:1-2).

John describes the very same animals alluded to by the prophet Daniel to describe three of the four great world empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece (Dan. 7:1-6). The fourth empire, which has all the beast-like features of the other empires (only much worse), is none other than the Roman empire (Dan. 7:7).

In Revelation 17:12 John declares that the ten horns are ten kings; they are the leaders or governors of the ten imperial provinces.

In Revelation 17:9-10, John identifies the seven heads as both seven hills (a place) and seven kings (individuals). In the ancient world Rome was known as the city of seven mountains.

John, standing on the edge of the Mediterranean sea, looks in the direction of Rome and sees a beast coming out of the sea. Rome was a world empire that had authority over all peoples and nations (Rev. 13:7); that was the culmination of the four empires in Daniel, an empire that was satanic to the core (v. 2); and that existed on seven mountains (v. 9).

Following are some other features about the beast.

1. The beast was not only an empire but was also a man (Rev. 13:18).

John says that the beast had a blasphemous name on its heads (v. 1).

The Roman Caesars were worshiped as gods. Roman emperors were referred to as: Sebastos (one to be worshiped), divus (god) and even Deus and Theos (God). [David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance, An Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Fort Worth, TX: Dominion, 1987) p. 328]

Nero’s coins said “Savior of the world,” and Domitian was referred to as “our Lord and our God.”

John gives a number of specific indicators that identify the beast, all of which point not to someone over 2,000 years in the future, but to an emperor still living in John’s own day: Nero.

Revelation 17:10 says, “There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.”

John specifically says that the sixth king is presently ruling. Who is the sixth king? None other than Nero, the first great persecutor of Christians.

Following is a list of the Roman Caesars: 1. Julius (49-44 B.C.), 2. Augustus (31 B.C.-A.D. 14), 3. Tiberius (A.D. 14-37), 4. Gaius (Caligula, A.D. 37-41), 5. Claudius (A.D. 41-54), 6. Nero (A.D. 54-68), 7. Galba (A.D. 68).

John said that the sixth king was ruling when he wrote; this king would be followed by a seventh who would rule for only “a short time” (Rev. 17:10).

This was fulfilled to the letter: Nero was followed by Galba who ruled for only three months before he was assassinated.

2. John gives another identifier of the beast: a number.

“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666” (Rev. 13:18).

Why does not John just say who the beast is? Why does he speak cryptically? John was writing from Patmos where he was exiled by the Romans. The church was being persecuted systematically by the Roman state under Nero.

John identifies the Roman emperor but he does it in such a way so that he protects the church from reprisal if the letter is intercepted by the Roman authorities.

Almost every church in the Roman empire contained both Jews and Gentiles. The Jews living in John’s day used their alphabet for both sound symbols (phonetics) and numerical values. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet had a numerical value.

A Hebrew spelling of Nero’s name found in documents contemporary with the writing of Revelation is Nrwn Qsr, which equals exactly 666. [The number 666 in some ancient manuscripts of Scripture is actually changed to 616. The difference surely is no accident of sight made by an early copyist. The numbers 666 and 616 are not similar in appearance in the original Greek—whether spelled out in words or written out as numerals. Textual scholars agree: it must be intentional. Although we cannot be absolutely certain, a strong and most reasonable case may be made for the following conjecture. John, a Jew, used a Hebrew spelling of Nero’s name in order to arrive at the figure 666. But when Revelation began circulating among those less acquainted with Hebrew, a well-meaning copyist who knew the meaning of 666 might have intended to make its deciphering easier by altering it to 616. It surely is no mere coincidence that 616 is the numerical value of ‘Nero Caesar,’ when spelled in Hebrew by transliterating it from its more common Latin spelling” (Gentry, pp. 376-77)]

3. Another indicator is the beastly image itself.

Nero truly possessed a wicked, bestial nature. He was even referred to as a “beast” by his contemporaries. [The pagan writer Apollinius of Tyana, a contemporary of Nero, specifically mentions that Nero was called a “beast” (ibid., p. 377). Nero may have acquired the nickname “the beast” from some of his perverse activities. Nero was a sadistic pervert who was hated and feared, even by the pagan Romans.]

“Nero, who murdered numerous members of his own family (including his pregnant wife, whom he kicked to death); who was homosexual, the final stage in degeneracy (Rom. 1:24-32); whose favorite aphrodisiac consisted of watching people suffer the most horrifying and disgusting tortures; who dressed up as a wild beast in order to attack and rape male and female prisoners; who used the bodies of Christians burning at the stake as the original ‘Roman candles’ to light up his filthy garden parties; who launched the first imperial persecution of Christians at the instigation of the Jews, in order to destroy the Church; this animalistic pervert was the ruler of the most powerful empire on earth.” [Chilton, p. 329]

4. John said that the beast would make war upon God’s saints.

“The Beast is said to ‘make war with the saints and to overcome them’ (Rev. 13:7).

In fact, he is said to conduct such blasphemous warfare for a specific period of time: 42 months (Rev. 13:5).

The Neronic persecution, which was initiated by Nero in A.D. 64, was the first ever Roman assault on Christianity, as noted by Church fathers Eusebius, Tertullian, Paulus Orosius, and Sulpicius Severus, as well as by Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius.” [Gentry, pp. 377-78]

Nero’s assassination by the sword on June 8, A.D. 68, ended the bloody persecution of believers. Note that Nero’s persecution of Christians lasted 42 months, exactly as prophesied by the Apostle John in Revelation 13:5.

3. The mark of the beast

Is everyone soon to receive a bar code on his forehead and/or right hand in order to buy and sell goods? Is the government going to force people to have a computer chip inserted in their right hand for identification purposes? While these things are possible, they have absolutely nothing to do with the mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation.

In the Old Testament God spoke of total allegiance to Him and His law as a putting of the law on the forehead and on the hands: “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Dt. 6:8).

In Revelation, those who are faithful to Christ, “the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4), are said to have “His [the Lamb’s] Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1).

John also refers to it as a seal: “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads” (Rev. 7:3).

The Lord tells the church at Sardis: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem...” (Rev. 3:12).

Even after the second coming John says, “His name shall be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:4).

In the old covenant “Aaron bore on his forehead the name of the Lord inscribed on the crown on the front of the priestly mitre.” [Meredith G. Kline, Images of the Spirit, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), p. 54.]

It is obvious that having the name of Christ (or God the Father, Rev. 14:1) on the forehead is not meant to be taken literally but is representative of allegiance to God, ownership by God, and even the presence of God the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the mark of the beast should be viewed as “the Satanic parody of the ‘seal of God’ on the foreheads and hands of the righteous.... Israel has rejected Christ, and is ‘marked’ with the seal of Rome’s total lordship; she has given her allegiance to Caesar, and is obedient to his rule and law. Israel chose to be saved by the pagan state, and persecuted those who sought salvation in Christ.” [Chilton, p. 342]

The mark of the beast is a counterfeit of God’s seal on His people. Those who give their allegiance to Caesar and the Roman state have social respectability and the benefits that go with it (economic, political, religious, etc.).

The Roman state demanded total allegiance to Caesar; everyone was required to make an offering of incense unto Caesar as God. “All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life...” (Rev. 13:8).

But Christians refused to worship the beast and thus were persecuted unto death and became economic and social outcasts. The mark of the beast reflects a wicked heart that worships and serves Caesar.

“The imagery no doubt comes from the practice of branding slaves with the mark of their master.” [Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, The Book of the Revelation, pp. 153-54.]

Christians are slaves of Christ; all others are slaves of Satan.

Revelation 13 focuses on the Roman empire and the beast—Nero Caesar.

Things look very bleak for the church in chapter 13, but in chapter 14 the prophet focuses his attention upon Christ and His people.

Those who persecute the church, who worship the beast, will receive their due:

“If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever” (Rev. 14:9-11).

But Christians are blessed: “‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them’” (v. 13).

Although these words should comfort Christians of all ages, they were written specifically to comfort believers suffering the persecution of Nero—the Beast.

This truth is confirmed when the many time indicators within Revelation are considered.

John wrote, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place.... Blessed is he who reads...for the time is near.... The Lord God...sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place” (Rev. 1:1-3; 22:6).

Five times Jesus Christ declared, “I am coming quickly” (2:16; 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20); He was referring to His coming to judge apostate Israel and their Roman accomplices in the persecution of the church (this judgment occurred in A.D. 67-70).

But He promised to spare a faithful first-century church from the coming conflagration: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” (3:10).

The purpose of the references to the millennium, the second coming, the final judgment and the eternal state is to give persecuted first-century Christians a glimpse of the church’s glorious future.

The significance of the book of Revelation *to its first-century audience* must no longer be ignored. ~~~ Brian Schwertley

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