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October 30, 2024
Peace Publishers LLC. Resources in fifteen categories for self-instruction, classes, sermons, and conferences. An original 21st Century Commentary on Revelation is being added. Site administrator and publisher in English and Spanish: Homer Dewayne Shappley, evangelist and author of 2,500-plus documents in both languages. Oversight: Cairo, Tennesse Church of Christ.
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Its
Ongoing
Relevancy
and
Fulfillment
REVELATION
Chapter Seven of this Commentary
Ten Dangerous Horns Are Conquered
The Seventh King-Kingdom-Beast
Comes for a "Little Time."
The Eight King-Kingdom-Beast
The Really Dangerous Little Horn
in the Offing
Real-life epic drama taking place across many centuries
and impacting vast multitudes of human beings
Act 2 of Chapter Seven
The Sign of the Seventh
King-Kingdom-Beast
Chapter 17 of Revelation
Astonishing PROPHESY for
MODERN TIMES!
Do you perhaps not have any knowledge of it?
There are SEVEN KINGS-KINGDOMS-BEASTS in this Act 2.
Five of whom have fallen; one is, and the other has not yet come.
The "OTHER" is the SEVENTH!
“The seven heads... are… seven kings. Five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain only a little while.” Revelation 17:9-10
"GULAG" - SLAVERY, INC.
The documented map of forced labor camps in Soviet Russia
“Five of whom have fallen...” The five that fell are:
1. Sumeria-Babylon
2. Egypt
3. Syria
4. Medo-Persia
5. Greece
“One is…” The Roman Empire is the Sixth King that “IS,” being the kingdom that was in power when the prophecies of Revelation were revealed at the end of the first century. The verb “IS” does not refer to our time (the 21st century), but to that “present time” when the apostle John received the prophecies and visions of Revelation. Correctly placing the apostle’s affirmation on the timeline is absolutely essential for the right application of the prophecy.
“…the other has not yet come.” This one that had not yet come when John wrote Revelation is the “seventh king.” In the prophetic language of the Bible, “king” may stand for “kingdom,” and in the rhetorical language of Revelation “beast” symbolizes “kingdom” in numerous passages.
When does the Seventh King make his appearance on the world stage?
The Seventh King had not yet come when the apostle John received the visions of Revelation during the last decade of the First Century of the Christian Age, for we are informed that “the other,” that is, the seventh, “has not yet come.”
In the sequence of the kingdoms, the Sixth King-Kingdom is the Roman Empire. It would continue as a powerful kingdom until 1555 CE, and in a debilitated state until 1806 CE. It definitely and unequivocally did not end in 476 CE. Extensive evidence fully confirming this conclusion is provided in the following document, an integral part of this commentary on Revelation.
Facts and Fictions regarding the Duration of the Roman Empire. History perverted and the errors propagated by commentators, professors, preachers, teachers, editors, and other writers, both online and in print. The highly deleterious impact of the false Narrative that says: “The Roman Empire Ended in 476 CE.”
How long does the Seventh King continue on the earth?
“…only a little while,” according to Revelation 17:10.
This parameter of “only a little while” is of the greatest importance for the correct identification of the Seventh King. He makes his entrance on the world stage sometime after the year 1806 a. d. and exercises dominion “only a little while.” He does not remain in power for long centuries, in marked contrast to the Roman and Egyptian Empires.
What is the nature of the Seventh King?
We observe that he is number seven of a group of “seven kings,” and we know from attentively reading Revelation that these “seven kings” belong to “the beast,” because they are represented by the “seven heads” of the beast. Since this “beast” symbolizes, in universal terms, the deceived secular-political power (empires, nations, republics, countries, principalities), whether idolatrous or atheistic, opposed to God and a persecutor of the saints, it is logical to infer that the nature of the Seventh King would be that of a kingdom absolutely NOT in sympathy with God, Christ or their spiritual Kingdom, setting himself against them, shackling them and persecuting them on the earth, just as the other six kings-kingdoms did.
The identity of the Seventh King
What earthly kingdom answers to this data on the “seventh king?” Reviewing the history of the world after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1806, we find a country that appears to fulfill, with amazing exactness, the projections of the prophecy about the “seventh king,” to wit: the UNION of SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS. Let us consider.
At the beginning of the 20th century, more than a century after the final demise of the Holy Roman Empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics arises, displacing the old Russian Empire, with its czar and nobility, and installs, with great violence to peoples and properties, a communist political-social-economic system.
The Soviet Union (URSS)
“The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (abbreviated: USSR). In Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик. It was a constitutional federation of socialist states, based on the communist ideology, that existed in Eurasia from 1922, until its dissolution in 1991.” www.wikipedia.org. Article “Soviet Union”
It continues “only a little while.” The Soviet Union, established in the year 1922 CE, dissolved in 1991 CE, only 69 years after it was founded. Once it came into being, it did not take very long, comparatively, for it to become great and powerful among the nations of the world, but, astonishingly, it lasted “only a little while!” Despite the enormous extension of its territories, its vast population, the abundance of its resources, and its powerful military force, including nuclear weapons, it remained in power for only 69 years! Incredible, but true. Contrasting notably, the Roman Empire lasted for 2,559 years, from 753 before Christ until the year 1806 after Christ. Data on the Soviet Union taken from the Microsoft Encyclopedia, CD-ROM, 1994.
The military might of the USSR on display during the 1990 parade.
Parade of the Young Pioneers (communist, atheist youth) in Moscow in 1972.
Above and left, military parades in Moscow in 1972.
The Soviet Union rises up like a wild beast against God and religion in general.
It officially proclaims itself an atheistic state
"Religion is the opiate of the masses." Karl Marx and the "scarlet beast."
The government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, having as its vision and guide the radical socialism of the atheist philosopher Karl Marx, author of the famous expression: “Religion is the opiate of the masses,” opposed God, forbidding and even openly persecuting religion in all its manifestations. By acting in that way, it displayed, boldly and shamelessly, the attributes of the great “scarlet beast” that rises up once and again throughout human history against the true God and human beings that profess faith in him. It turned, at times, up to two-thirds of the population of the USSR against the Creator of the universe, and enacted very severe, even brutal, measures against those refusing to deny him, particularly religious leaders, of whom even large numbers suffered martyrdom during certain stages of intense persecution.
“The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree
establishing the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic (RSFSR) as a secular state also decreed
that "the teaching of religion in all [places] where
subjects of general instruction are taught, is
forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught
religion privately." [184] Among further restrictions,
those adopted in 1929, a half-decade into Stalin's
rule, included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study [183]. Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90 percent of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed.” www.wikipedia.org. Article: Soviet Union
Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union. The long and widespread persecution of Christians in the USSR is testimony to the strong opposition of the ruling elements in that country to God the Creator, every “god” and every church or religion. In the context of this study, “Christian” includes every person who believes in Christ, God the Father being the one who determines which Christians are, in the final analysis, his true spiritual children, and which are not because they do not do his will. Matthew 7:21-23; 2 Timothy 2:19. Sadly, not everyone who loses his life because he identifies himself as “Christian” is necessarily a true “martyr of Christ,” but only those approved and received as such by God. 2 Corinthians 10:15-18. The following information is found in www.wikipedia.org, in the article: “Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Unión.”
“Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Communist Party. However, ‘the Soviet law and administrative practice through most of the 1920’s extended some tolerance to religion and forbade the arbitrary closing or destruction of some functioning churches,’ [21] and each successive Soviet constitution granted freedom of belief. As the founder of the Soviet state, Lenin, put it:
'Religion is the opium of the people: This saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class.’ [10]
Marxism-Leninism advocates the suppression and
ultimately the disappearance of religious beliefs,
considering them to be "unscientific" and "superstitious." In the 1920’s and 1930’s, such organizations as the League of the Militant Godless were active in anti-religious propaganda. Atheism was the norm in schools, communist organizations (such as the Young Pioneer Organization), and the media.”
Abandoned, ramsacked
church building in the USSR.
Marxist–Leninist atheism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and elimination of religion. Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200 priests were killed. Many more were persecuted. [11]
After the Second World War, the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church identified closely with the nationalist aspirations of the region, arousing the hostility of the Soviet government, which was in combat with Ukranian Insurgency. In 1945, Soviet authorities arrested the church's Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, nine bishops and hundreds of clergy and leading lay activists, and deported them to forced labor camps in Siberia and elsewhere. The nine bishops and many of the clergy died in prisons, concentration camps, internal exile, or soon after their release during the post-Stalin thaw. [12]
Many Protestants were apprehended under Communist rule of law, including imprisonment and execution. Vladimir Shelkov (1895–1980), the leader of the unregistered Seventh-day Adventist movement in the Soviet Union, spent almost all his life from 1931 on in prison; he died in Yakutia camp. Large numbers of Pentecostals were imprisoned, and many died there, including Ivan Voronaev, one of their leaders. [14]
In the period after the Second World War, Protestants in the USSR (Baptists, Pentecostals, Adventists and others) were sent to mental hospitals or tried and imprisoned, often for refusal to enter military service. Some were deprived of their parental rights. [14]
A number of congregations of Russian Mennonites, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other Christian groups existed in the Soviet Union. Nearly 9,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were deported to Siberia in 1951 (numbers of those missed in deportation unknown). The number of Jehovah's Witnesses increased greatly over this period, with a KGB estimate of around 20,000 in 1968. Russian Mennonites began to emigrate from the Soviet Union in the face of increasing violence and persecution, state restrictions on freedom of religion, and biased allotments of communal farmland. They emigrated to Germany, Britain, the United States, parts of South America, and other regions.”
Persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. Becoming an officially atheistic state set on eliminating religion, some government leaders of the USSR and coreligionists of the population severely persecuted the Jewish population at times. In 1917, at the beginning of the Bolshevik revolution which lead to the creation of the USSR, 50% of the worlds Jews lived in Russia -about 7 million. Many of the powerful and influential in that revolution were Jews, or part Jewish. Even Lenin himself was one-quarter Jewish. Some persecution of some Jews was more for political reasons rather than for religious ones.
Vladimir Lennin, Chairman of the Council of the Peoples' Commisar of the Soviet Union (July 6, 1923 - Jan. 21, 1924), speaks to a multitude.
“Even though many of the Old Bolsheviks were ethnically Jewish, they sought to uproot Judaism and Zionism and established the Yevsektsiya to achieve this goal. By the end of the 1940’s, the Communist leadership of the former USSR had liquidated almost all Jewish organizations, with the exception of a few token synagogues. These synagogues were then placed under police surveillance, both openly and through the use of informants.
The campaign of 1948–1953 against so-called "rootless cosmopolitans," the alleged "Doctors' plot," the rise of "Zionology" and subsequent activities of official organizations such as the Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public were officially carried out under the banner of "anti-Zionism," and by the mid-1950’s the state persecution of Soviet Jews emerged as a major human rights issue in the West as well as domestically.” www.wikipedia.org. Article: “Persecution of the Jews”
Conclusion. Following in the steps of the first six kings and manifesting the same nature opposed to God, but lasting “only for a little while,” the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics appears to be the specific country that fulfills in every detail the prophecies made with regard to the Seventh King of Revelation 17:9-10.
The date of the New York Times headline is December 9, 1991.
The Soviet Union lasted for just 69 years! Only a "little time."
How could there be a more precise, spectacular fulfillment of the prophecy on the Seventh King-Beast in Revelation 17:9-10? A prophecy proclaimed 1,827 years before it began to be fulfilled!
Just 17 simple, prophetical words. "...the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain only a little while.” In the context, a seventh King-Beast, that is, a powerful, God-opposing empire that lasts only a "little while." In a very short time of about 30 years he grows phenomenally and becomes a fearsome giant that challenges the whole world, aggressively determined to force all nations and peoples to bow to his totally secular, atheistic will. Then, some 30 years later, suddenly, begins to tremble, shake, and lose control. In 1989, he allows the Berlin Wall to be torn down and in 1991 permits nations conquered by him to become independent.
Esteemed reader, if, in 1989, you were 20 years old, or older, and living in normal circumstances, you surely would have heard the news of the fall of the Berlin Wall and, two years later, in 1991, the global-shaking news of the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. And if you knew even a little about the rise to great power of the Soviet Union and had read or heard the prophecy of Revelation 17:9-10, understanding it in its context, surely you would have thought: "Oh, my! I am witnessing the exact fulfillment of that prophecy! This is incredible, stupendous! A validation of Revelation, at least in this particular." Then, logically, go on to think: "Maybe the rest of it is also valid!" YES! My studies confirm it to be so and hope you will allow me to provide the evidence.
"This calls for a mind with wisdom," said the one who proclaimed this prophecy 1,827 years ago. If you were 20 years old in 1989 you would be 52 or 53 years old now (May 2021). And you can add to that number ever how many more years older you were in 1989. If you did not see the fulfillment of the prophecy then, are you seeing it now, and if so, where will you go from here?
Could it be you are so interested in the nations of the earth, perhaps in one particular kingdom, nation or country, that you are not even concerned enough to investigate the possible existence of another type of “kingdom” not of an earthly nature? If that is so, then it is to be deduced that you have cast your lot for the present and eternity with the kingdoms of this material, temporal world. However, it is to be supposed that such a visible and powerful sign as that of the Seventh King would strongly impact you, leading you to reason that if God visualized 1,827 years ago the rising of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, its nature and actions, and its existence for only “a short while,” then he is indeed real! And so is his Son, Jesus Christ! They really exist! And their Word is true!
As a matter of fact, from remote times they have been communicating with humanity about their own “kingdom,” called“the Kingdom of Christ and of God.” Ephesians 5:5. A Kingdom that “is not of this world” (John 18:36), “that cannot be shaken,” and that “shall stand forever.” Hebrews 12:28; Daniel 2:44; 7:27.
They clearly and forcefully explain that in order to see it and be admitted into it, you must be “born of the water,” that is, immersed in water, baptized in water, and that you must also be born of “the Spirit,” that is to say, submerged in the teachings of the Spirit, in the gospel of Christ, in the “word of the Lord” that “abides forever.” John 3:1-7; 1 Peter 1:25. Actions you may take without delay, if you so desire. And, we shall be glad to assist you in any way we can, also helping you find a congregation guided solely by the “doctrine of Christ,” (Hebrews 6:1; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 John 1:9-11), one that does not enslave to religious traditions nor exploits its members financially.
Please give the “SIGNS of the TIMES” the tremendous importance they are meant to have, making sensible decisions about your life, both present and future. Indeed, all this"calls for a mind with wisdom."
By the way, the expression"this calls for a mind with wisdom" is another of several similar ones in Revelation implicitly teaching that the prophecies and visions of the book are not beyond being understood and applied. Would you agree?
Text and Document Composition by the author Homer Dewayne Shappley. All rights reserved. The only restrictions on the use of this document are the sale of it in any format and proper identification of its origin.
Facts and Fictions regarding the Duration of the Roman Empire. The highly deleterious impact of the false Narrative that says “The Roman Empire Ended in 476 CE” on the interpretation of prophecies in Revelation and Daniel.
Category. Revelation: Its Ongoing Relevancy and Fulfillment. Commentary.