''And when these things begin to come to pass, the look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.'' (Luke 21:28)

The Closer We Get. . .

by

Jack Kinsella

For the purposes of today’s discussion, I intend to use the words contained in the UN General Assembly’s Defamation of Religions Resolution in the context of their English dictionary definitions.

According to the dictionary, defamation is the application of a false statement aimed at ruining someone’s good reputation.

If it isn’t false, it isn’t defamatory.

Two thousand years ago, the Bible predicted the emergence of two distinct figures that will dominate the last days before the return of Christ.

Those two figures are invariably identified as the Antichrist and the False Prophet. They represent two thirds of a Satanic unholy trinity, with Satan serving as the god-figure.

Revelation 13:1 identifies the political Beast, the antichrist, as one who arises out of the sea “having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”

The seven heads and ten crowns represent control of the world’s financial kingdoms, essentially, Western capitalist civilization.

This political Beast is pictured as the physical embodiment of three of the four great world empires of history: “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.” [13:2]

The only literal ’sea’ applicable to this vision seemingly, is the Mediterranean Sea from which all four world empires of history arguably emerged.

The Beast himself is pictured as all four world empires, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome put together. The political leader of this composite political/financial empire is the individual and personal Antichrist of Revelation.

The final world empire has a third, spiritual element, represented by the second Beast of Revelation, identified in 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.”

This Beast arises out of the ‘earth’. There is a distinction between this Beast’s origins and the Mediterranean empires of antiquity. He has two horns like a lamb, identifying him as a counterfeit modeled after the Third Member of the Trinity, the Lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ.

Like the first Beast, the second Beast speaks “as a dragon” literally, the doctrine of Satan. Notice something unique about Revelation 13:12:

“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”

You went straight to the “deadly wound”, didn’t you? Back up a bit and notice something else. This Second beast exercises ALL the power of the First Beast.

The First Beast, as we’ve seen, is the embodiment of all four of the world’s great empires and is pictured as being in control of the world’s seven largest financial kingdoms. (Group of Seven?)

In any case, the First Beast is NOT necessarily The Boss. He is just The Politician. The Second Beast exercises ALL the power that the First Beast has, PLUS — he has all this extra spiritual power.

He can heal the first beast’s deadly head wound, call down fire from heaven, and do all kinds of counterfeit miracles. So he’s no slouch.

But there’s something I want you to notice that is unique to the antichrist’s overall system and unholy Trinity.

There is but one religious system on the earth today that encompasses all three elements of society and holds them co-equal and under the control of a single authority.

Only one religious system seeks to integrate its religious laws with its political system and then impose it by force as part of its religious proselytizing campaign.

There is only one global religious system that integrates finance into its legal structure, making all three completely interdependent upon on another.

You already know which religion I’m talking about and I’ve not even named it. Which establishes the point with which we entered into today’s discussion.

If it isn’t false, it isn’t defamatory.

Assessment:

We know that the political beast is a politician and it is reasonable to assume that he will arise from one of the Mediterranean countries. But what of the religious beast?

Since Italy is an Mediterranean country and since the second beast is pictured with two horns like a lamb, the automatic and logical interpretive assumption is that he must be the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

But while the RCC is both a church and government (Vatican) and the Papacy has great power, it doesn’t have the kind of power necessary to fulfill Revelation.

It used to have that kind of power, right through the Middle Ages and into the modern Industrial Age. But it doesn’t anymore. And it is impossible to imagine it ever holding that kind of power again.

One might have been able to argue in 1492 that the RCC was the religion of the sword with the power to compel conversion on pain of death, it sounds kind of silly today.

It isn’t simply a knee-jerk identification of the latest systemic boogey-man as the system of the Beast — the Religion We Dare Not Name actually fills in many of the missing blank spaces.

The Religion We Dare Not Name is also constructed on three social pillars; economic, religious and political. It is not a faith that flourishes in a pluralistic society.

Its religious laws are deemed to be the supreme law of the world-wide community. It oversees all aspects of society; banking, politics, worship, and social.

In those parts of the world where it reigns, no person can freely opt out of the system. The penalty for conversion is death — the original 6th century code [still in force] mandates decapitation.

The antichrist confirms a peace covenant for seven years. Putting a time limit on a peace deal is foreign to Western thinking. It is even foreign to Jewish thinking.

(But it is so common to the Religion We Dare Not Name that there is even a name for it — “hudna”.)

The peace deal is abrogated at the half-way point. The Religion We Dare Not Name has a doctrine that allows this, based on a treaty made and then broken by that religion’s founder.

(They even have a name for this kind of false peace treaty — “Quriyash”.)

After he captured the city, the founder of the Religion We Dare Not Name beheaded between 600 and 900 of its defenders, according to its holy book.

That holy book is TODAY shown more reverence by American military personnel (who must wear gloves to keep from defiling it) than any other book in existence.

To this day, the very devout among the Religion We Dare Not Name proudly display what is called the “mark of prostration” — a callused spot on the forehead created by repeatedly banging it against a prayer rug five times per day.

Another important distinction is that I have absolutely no fear of naming the RCC. I won’t be denounced to some human rights court somewhere for defaming the Vatican.

The Jesuits won’t send out a hit squad to take me out for offending the Pope or blaspheming the RCC.

It is equally important to point out that I could name any European leader now in office as the antichrist. There is no legal threat and no physical threat.

On the other hand, the religion of the Beast, according to Scripture, promises both. (And in this Year of Our Lord of 2009, and in particular, when it comes to the Religion We Dare Not Name, I have plenty of reason to be careful with my words.)

Bible prophecy promises that during the Tribulation, those who refuse to worship the beast will be killed. Those who do not bear the mark on their forehead or their right hand will be excluded from society, unable to buy or sell.

It is no stretch of the imagination to say that Europe is well into its post-Christian era, while the Religion We Dare Not Name is currently the fastest growing religious system on the Continent.

Neither does it take a lot of imagination to see some kind of religious ‘merger’ whereby the Religion We Dare Not Name permits the RCC to operate under some kind of subordinate status.

There’s a name for that too — dhimmi.

There is little doubt that Bible prophecy was addressed to the generation that would witness its unfolding. For the past twenty centuries, every generation believed it could, at least, be the one that would see the Return of Christ.

But from where we sit on the timeline, if this isn’t the generation the Bible describes, then when that generation does arrive, it will have no way to identify itself.

Obviously, when one is looking at something from a great distance, the details aren’t nearly so clear as they are from up close.

For much of the past two thousand years, we’ve looked at Bible prophecy from a distance. And from a distance, one can sort of make the RCC fit, like you can make your car look better from a distance when you squint.

But after you get close enough, squinting doesn’t help. Even if you don’t want to see it the way it really is, you can’t ignore the flaws anymore.

There are flaws in the old RCC/False Prophet model that once worked for so well from a distance that are too big to ignore from up close. Not the least of which is that the next most likely candidate for the role is a Religion We Dare Not Name.

When did that happen?

Jack Kinsella is the founder of the Omega Letter