Introduction
Politicians have used fear and the promise of security to pave the way for unlawful and unconstitutional policies. To an uncomfortable extent, we have ourselves to blame for allowing fear and panic to cloud our judgement and for supporting the words and actions of unreasonable men in the name of patriotism and self-preservation.
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, recent US presidents seem to be taking them all.
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The Image of the Beast Worship
by Doug Krieger
What is it about vast swaths of humanity during the past century of time who gave their all to a charismatic leader only to be sorely disappointed in the outcome of their commitment because their champion turned out to be a sordid dictator who took all their rights – stole their person – violated their sacred trust – and utterly destroyed their hopes and aspirations of a better tomorrow?
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I’ll tell you what it is – it is nothing more than man’s predisposition to surrender their own future to someone who can redefine success in terms of projecting the will of the leader upon the followers who are only too willing to let someone else be responsible for leading them out of their own failure and despondency. This is precisely what galvanized the German people around Adolf Hitler. Imagine, for a moment, economic disarray, internal terror, moral debauchery, political disrepute – confusion upon confusion – and all this in the backdrop of that awful Treaty of Versailles which imposed itself as an interminable hammer upon the fragile egos of a proud people – they were ripe for deliverance, for someone to rescue them from their despair. The more they saw in Hitler their answer – the more they began to reflect what he said they “really” should be and were! Alas! They became the IMAGE OF THE BEAST. Don’t think that we’re so intelligent that something like this can’t happen again – it not only can, but it most definitely will and in the most unlikely environment – the heartland of the West! May I suggest that you carefully read this material – why? Because its unraveling most likely will affect you directly … it’s time to discern the times! |
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Within Revelation 13 the Beast, previously known in the earlier half of Daniel’s Seventieth Week as the Antichrist; and the Second Beast, known as the False Prophet, occupy center stage, along with the “institution” instigated by the False Prophet known as the “Worship of the Image of the Beast.” This Image of the Beast was concocted as a result of the False Prophet’s efforts to “deceive those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth (aka “earthlings”) to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived” (Revelation 13:13).
Therefore, the people – the deceived earthlings – are the ones who make this Image of the Beast under the inspiration of the Second Beast, aka The False Prophet. Then the “People’s Image” undergoes a metamorphosis when the False Prophet “was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Rev. 13:15). Thus is instituted the “Worship of the Image of the Beast” which the deceived earthlings made, which came to life and spoke when the False Prophet infused his breath into the Image of the Beast.
In our previous discussions we have examined how, as well, that the “ministry of the False Prophet” – who mimics the ministry of the Holy Spirit – includes, not only those elements surrounding the Image of the Beast, but an economic system which, during the final 3.5 years of the Seventieth Week of Daniel, is implemented whereby “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave” would “receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads” so that “no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:17).
Here we have a rather unpleasant arrangement for the masses of the people of the earth who will not accept the mark on their right hand or foreheads, or the very name of the Beast or the number of his name (which in the next verse is clarified as “the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666”), for then there will be implications in refusing to accept any one of these three options – i.e., you will not be able to “buy nor sell” – starve to death – or eke out an meager existence elsewhere!
The imagery is overwhelming – and there are just as many interpretations regarding these matters as the tally of his number: 666!
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Backgrounder of the Image of the Beast
The Imperial Cult of Rome, established under Augustus Caesar (Jesus being born under his reign) demanded a cultural form of Emperor Worship by Rome’s subjects. This Imperial Cult was cultivated and protected by the Praetorian Guard, also established under Augustus (whose name once was Gaius Octavius but was changed by the Roman Senate on 17 January 27 BC to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus; aka Augustus Caesar). After Julius Caesar’s assassination in 45 BC much interior squabbling for Rome’s supreme leadership ensued until Gaius Octavius defeated Mark Antony of Cleopatra fame at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. By 29 BC, after Antony and Cleopatra’s apparent suicide, Gaius Octavius returned to Rome and became, in his own words: “Master of all things!”
Many expositors affirm that John, the Revelator, and his expressions of the “Beast” (and his “Beast Nation”) and the “Second Beast” are naught but unequivocal allusions to the Empire, the Emperor and the religious institutions which developed around the State’s ultimate insistence to worship a deified Caesar – thereby maintaining greater control of her subjugated populous.
Since the people of ancient Rome were altogether predisposed to Emperor worship in the first place – the fall of the Roman Republican form of government and the establishment of the dictatorship with the trappings of the Roman Senate as but a rubber stamp of sorts, handling the more mundane domestic issues of the day – could now be exercised via the fidelity of one’s citizenship or slave status in the Empire (not the Republic). The “cult” gained credible traction in maintaining the power of the State.
The Greeks with all their philosophies and democracy – such as they were – were unable to project EMPIRE. Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great broke up in many splintered fiefdoms almost immediately after Alexander’s untimely death in Babylon at the age of 33. Frankly, the Greeks, although they had as many or perhaps more gods in their pantheon, could never take religion very seriously due to the humanistic tendencies wrought by their inquiring minds and philosophies – besides, the Romans viewed them as lightweights, effeminate – having inordinate portions of “levitas” (levity) lacking gravitas; furthermore, the equivocating Greeks could never adequately govern an Empire without Roman absolutes – absolutes which in Greek agnosticism simply, by definition, could not exist.
Rome understood the role that religion could play in maintaining and expanding Empire (not just as a mystical toy of some Oracle in Delphi – although Rome used her as well) – hence, the Emperor Cult wherein worship of the Emperor would do the trick – and there would be no monkey business about it!
I digress, but briefly, to acclaim “American Democratic Globalism” is perhaps the new religion of Empire projection – it gets a bit testy in the Islamic World, but, nevertheless, seems to be a blend of Grecian compromise and Roman administrative fidelity, generously flavored with commercialism and a semblance of military intrusion.
“The imperial cult, by the end of Augustus’ reign, was evident in all aspects of the Roman Empire. Augustus managed to successfully manipulate aspects of the Hellenistic cult created by Alexander to appear as a unique Roman institution. In doing so, he incorporated the cult into the daily religious and political practices of Rome, making it a vital part of his imperial rule.
“Augustus never forced the Roman people to worship him as a god, but as a potential god in conjunction with the Roman state. He slowly introduced the Roman people to the idea of a ruler cult in the guise of traditional Roman practices, such as the worship of the genius. The forum Augustum was a prime example of the many different ways Augustus was able to successfully institute the idea of an imperial cult into Roman public and private life. After Augustus, the cult was firmly implemented in the Roman Empire, and was used by successive emperors as a way to maintain control of the Roman state.” (The Foundation of the Roman Imperial Cult, Katherine Crawford St. Olaf College).
So, “The One” who would be “master of all things” demurred in becoming a god but delighted his imperial subjects wherein together they could evolve – Emperor and Empire – reaching their full god-like potential…he, Augustus Caesar, the Master of All Things; and they, his reflection, the image of his majestic (aka, Augustus) reign…Ah! What GENIUS is this!
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DAS VOLK – THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST
I still do not think we’re getting this yet – therefore, allow me to reiterate and go back into our archives to clearly portray what it means to “Worship the Image of the Beast” and the consequences for not coming to terms with the Image of the Beast:
“To understand the appeal, the absolute, mesmerizing, and intoxicating drive behind Hitler’s success, one must go beyond the inequities of the Versailles Treaty and delve into the mysterious association that Herr Hitler placed upon the Christian religion. Don’t think that Adolf was way off into some cultic, overtly demonic world of fantasy and influence. True, the occult most assuredly was deeply engaged in his thinking and outlook—but the use of legitimate Christian imagery was his forte. He both understood the need to mobilize the masses and the religion that alone could sway their fidelity to his cause.
“Furthermore, throughout his declarations and apparent pontifications, is a unique ability to uplift and galvanize the German people—to so highly esteem them and to generate within them the self-esteem that would produce a people whose image of whom they really were would be unalterably changed and transformed into what was enunciated by der Fuhrer. They became transfixed and transported into another state of mind and being—from despair and rejection, to an exhilarating euphoria and total acceptance. They could BE ALL THAT THEY COULD BE and then some. Here is no buffoon strutting upon the stage of German dejection and riveting the German mind and will upon himself—no, no, no!
The real destiny of Man is something that ordinary men could not conceive and would be unable to comprehend, even if given a glimpse of it.
Adolph Hitler:
“Our revolution is a final stage in an evolution that will end by abolishing history. It is my ultimate aim to perform an act of creation, a divine operation, the goal of a biological mutation which will result in an unprecedented exaltation of the human race and the appearance of a new race of heroes, demi-gods and god-men.
“My party comrades have no conception of the dreams that haunt my mind or of the grandiose edifice of which the foundations, at least, will have been laid before I die. The world has reached a turning point, and will undergo an upheaval which the uninitiated cannot understand.” (Adolph Hitler – The Genesis of the Übermensch)
Völkisch dreamers would never be able to produce the “Image” to which Hitler alluded – not in a thousand years! Germans who sought after Lebensreform or “Greenies” of a New Age would be inept to create such an image. What was needed would be the TRIUMPH OF THE WILL – the “German Will” who would forge a New Germany whose ultimate expression would be the GENESIS OF THE ÜBERMENSCH.
Hitler’s ÜBERMENSCH necessitated deliberate, unmitigated action both within and without the Third Reich. To “exalt the human race” one would have to renounce the old and embrace the New Germany. Yes, a mystical vision of a “new universe” was mandatory – Germans had to be lifted out of their humiliation and into the fresh air of a new humanity!
“And Hitler knew that this vision – this union with the ultimate – could only be achieved by the race of ‘demigods and god-men’ – and it was this that motivated all the concern about the purity of the Aryan race that formed an essential part of Völkisch philosophy – because only the Aryan ‘god-man’ could achieve the ultimate purpose of creation.” (Ibid.)
“I teach you the übermensch.
Man is something that shall be overcome.
What have you done to overcome him?”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
“The concept of Übermensch (Overman, Overhuman, Above-Human, Superman, Super-human) is a concept first found in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The German prefix über can have connotations of superiority, transcendence, excessiveness, or intensity, depending on the words to which it is pretended. Mensch refers to a member of the human species, rather than to a male specifically. The adjective übermenschlich means super-human, in the sense of beyond human strength or out of proportion to humanity. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)” (Ibid.).
The philosopher of the Übermensch determined that Christianity’s “other-worldliness” was wholly out of alignment to “this worldly” realities of the modern world. The “Kingdom of this World” is NOW! Jews, naturally, would, therefore, be the object of disgust in that their testament appeared as “this worldly” to the uttermost and in direct competition to “the meaning of the earth” – i.e., the Übermensch. Nietzsche blasted those who promised a better here-after and claimed that such aspirations drew hearts and minds away from the earth.
Those who turned away from a “this worldly” Weltanschauung glower in their unhappiness and dissatisfaction and are, consequently, no earthly good – Christianity, therefore, was an immense obstacle – a fatalism which had to be renounced or converted to a new imagery wherein “Gott mit uns” would triumph in bringing about a New Millennium with a New Germany in the lead! Forget the preacher who proclaims “this world is not my home” – HEIL HITLER – who brings you a New Earth while it is yet day!
“My teaching is hard.
Weakness has to be knocked out of them.
In my Ordensburgen a youth will grow up before
which the world will shrink back.
A violently active, dominating, intrepid,
brutal youth –that is what I am after.
Youth must be all those things.
It must be indifferent to pain.
There must be no weakness or tenderness in it.
I want to see once more in its eyes the gleam of pride
and independence of the beast of prey….
In this way I shall eradicate the thousands of years of human domestication.
Then I shall have in front of me the pure and noble natural material.
With that I can create the ‘New Order’ – mankind born anew.”
— Adolf Hitler
An IMAGE is beginning to evolve – but every true dictator needs a propaganda machine to do his bidding – Hitler had to be properly “packaged” for the impact he sought to portray to the German people… conforming them to his IMAGE would be left to the Propaganda Meister of the German Reich, Joseph Goebbels. The reorientation of the German people must be deliberate, dramatic and doggedly determined until DAS VOLK: The Image of Adolph Hitler emerged!
“Always, whenever anyone thinks of the Führer, this deep love swells up from within. This love alone justifies the words: ‘Hitler is Germany – Germany is Hitler.’ Never has a man been closer to the hearts of the people than this man, who himself has come from the people. He is not an outsider, but was born one of the people. He has felt the deprivation of the people, and he has lived the life of the people. If today someone were to ask the name of the unknown German soldier, the whole German nation would answer: Adolf Hitler!
“He was the conscience of the nation. The suffering and the defiance of a downtrodden nation cried out from his lips and in him the will of all of Germany to live became word and deed in the hour of the country’s deepest humiliation. Adolf Hitler has never said a word that the nation was not thinking in its heart of hearts. He has never done anything that the entire nation did not want to do. He was not, is not, and never will be a dictator forcing his personal opinion or his desire for power upon the nation. He really is just the Führer, and that is the highest praise one can give any man….
“Herein lies the secret of the indestructibility of Adolf Hitler and his work – the guarantee that the road he has taken cannot be altered. For it is no longer the man Adolf Hitler, it is no longer his works and no longer the road he has taken that expresses itself in him. It is the German nation itself that expresses itself in him. In him the nation loves itself, in him it follows its most secret desires, in him its most daring thoughts become reality. Every single person feels this and because of it Adolf Hitler is a stranger to no one, and no one is a stranger to the Führer. Works and farmers speak with him; Nobel prize winners and artists, warriors and dreamers, happy men and despairing men speak with him, and each and every one hears his own language, he understands and is understood in return. Everything is natural and self-evident, and no one is shy before this great man. No one is ordered to follow. No one is courted, but everyone is called, just as one would be called by his own conscience. He has no choice but to follow, should he not want to be guilty and unhappy in his own heart. Thus, what must happen happens voluntarily, and no nation on the face of this earth has more freedom than the Germans.
“Hitler draws strength from new works, just as the people draw strength from the sight of him. This becomes especially clear when German youth and the Führer are face to face. Anyone who has been with the Führer for any period of time, who has accompanied him for days and weeks and months, has a store of unforgettable images.” (The Führer and the German People, by Dr. Otto Dietrich, as part of the book: Adolf Hitler, A Chilling Tale of Propaganda, as Packaged by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, translated by a team of translators under the supervision of German Language Services in Seattle, Washington, Courtney Searls-Ridge, Director – Printed in Croatia, 1999 from the 1936 Edition, pp. 19-21)
The consequences of resisting this tide of the National Socialist Man – the Übermensch – das Volk – was not only immediate ostracism but, most likely, a concentration camp – in a phrase: Resistance is Futile!
Notwithstanding miniscule resistance, the vast majority of the German population was 100% behind the Führer and was mesmerized by his charisma. The introduction of the Übermensch as a philosophical ideal via Nietzsche became a cultural and scientific possibility well within the grasp of the techno-deutschlanders from whence idealistic, but corrupted, leadership like Hitler, et al, were wont to lend a helping hand at eugenics and “hybrid technologies” which literally would produce the demigod-like “creatures” of a higher human order – a sort of “fearless brainiac soldier” possessing immense strength and talents on loan from the State. Gene-splicing and the drive beyond Manchurian candidacy – ever upwards and onwards until some form of computerized bio-synchronicity “breeds” TECHNO-MAN. This bionic masterpiece is far more within reach than you may surmise.
“The science of synchronicity can be defined as the knowledge and study of how energy-matter (EM) as a system comes together, reacts, interacts, develops and evolves and moves about to create increasingly complex systems of organization and the resultant coherent interaction among the various systems.” (THE ATOMIC-MOLECULAR FOUNDATIONS OF A SOCIAL CHEMISTRY, Emergent Culture) …sounds ambiguously benign, doesn’t it, that’s what you think!
Tom Horn, Peter Goodgame, Steve Quayle, LA Marzulli and other writers in the ethersphere have taken the findings in Revelation 9:7-12 to a whole new level of techo-hybrid possibility – past, present and future catastrophic reality. Is this what the Image of the Beast shall produce? Is this what Hitler and Nietzsche had in mind? This author has no doubt the corruption of the species is at the core of a devilish plan to subvert the human race – to forever “mark” them for “utter destruction” – make no mistake about that present phenomena; however, to reach the masses, as Hitler did, requires the making of an Image that is much more accessible to the people and, overall, more “reasonable sounding” – although mocked by some, would be considered far more legitimate “for the hour” or given crisis.
Our images of superheroes enthrall – then tend toward the human and transform themselves into their characters on an “as needed” basis. Those “synchronicitically-designed” beings described in the Revelation are far more sinister in appearance – but Biblically-speaking – what constitutes the Image of the Beast in direct counter-distinction to the Image of Christ…for isn’t this the true juxtaposition?
Again: The False Prophet through rank deception and grandiose fabrication – much like the most recent film entitled NOW YOU SEE ME – interestingly enough the film, staring Morgan Freeman, pits an elite FBI squad in a game of cat and mouse against “The Four Horsemen,” a super-team of the world’s greatest illusionists. “The Four Horsemen” pull off a series of daring heists against corrupt business leaders (take your pick) during their performances, showering the stolen profits on their audiences while staying one step ahead of the law. Here’s the point of their magical escapades: The closer you look the less you’ll see!
Wasn’t Hitler’s meteoric rise to power amidst worshipful throngs mesmerized by his Image – his words, ideas and wonderment? People were transported into a Hitlerian stupor by his handlers. Indeed, the False Prophet shall “perform great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men” to “deceive those (lit. “my own people”) who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived” (Rev. 13:13-14).
The superficial notion that a statue of Hitler would suffice the “worship of the Image of the Beast” – is altogether amateurish in its understanding. No, no, no! This is far more spectacular than a literal statute or, at best, a Wizard of Oz moving knobs behind a curtain while projecting a holographic image – this involves people, masses of people who become the “projected Image” of their adoration.
Therefore, the Second Beast-False Prophet – who, by the way, survives the destruction of the Harlot of Revelation 17; and the utter desolation of that Great City found in Revelation 18, Babylon the Great – consequently, to surmise that the False Prophet is somehow an easily identifiable, present religious construct such as the Roman Catholic Church (a fairly easy target with her Pope and all) cannot possibly be the object of this falsehood … unless, of course, the Pope pulls off the caper of the Last Days by being devoured by the Beast and then shows up again in Revelation 19 wherein we read:
“And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and WITH HIM THE FALSE PROPHET WHO WORKED SIGNS IN HIS PRESENCE, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev. 19:19-20).
No, the False Prophet, winds up with Hitler in a bunker somewhere in Berlin! The two are inseparable and appear united in their flagrant defiance until they are captured and tossed into the lake of fire burning with brimstone…dispensed with somewhat unceremoniously, considering their nefarious earthly performance, having extended their mutual hallucinations, fabrications, and general deceit and lies – along with unfathomable persecution of the saints nigh 3.5 years until in furious and uncontrollable destructiveness have (the two of them and their “kings of the earth”) the incredible chutzpah to come against Jerusalem – literally against Him who sat on the horse and against His army (Talk about DELUSIONS OF GRADUER now burst on his sight – nothing like living the lie to such an extent that you become utterly self-absorbed in the lie until you’ve lost all semblance of reality! – Ref. Revelation 19:19)…grief, this sounds like Hitler ordering around imaginary armies from his bunker during his last days before he received an apparent wound in the head – as if he didn’t have one already!
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“Frau Schmidt, I noticed that Helmut, unlike my Gerhardt, hasn’t been showing up at church for the Hitler Youth meetings – I also noticed that in celebration of the Führer’s birthday you didn’t hang your flag from the balcony as did all the rest of your patriotic neighbors. Helga, do you have a problem or is it just me that notices this lack of enthusiasm – don’t be surprised if others aren’t noticing the same…be careful, you could be getting a visit soon … a little inspiration might go a long way for Gerhardt’s sake.”
You see, people watch, observe, discuss, wonder, confirm and then one day someone knocks at the door or picks you off the street. Don’t think Das Volk isn’t watching – they are encouraged to be on the alert – especially, after 9/11 and more so after the Boston bombings; after all, good citizenship is citizenship that looks out for others and isn’t that what Homeland Security tells us to do? I mean, how many times do they have to tell us?
Odd, isn’t it, that what appears eerily reminiscent of Big Brother watching would be New York’s Jewish community or the Jewish Federations of North America partnering with Homeland Security … “IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!”
People do the strangest things when their “security” and “safety” are at stake – but, then again, someone’s got to do it, right?
What appears altogether benign and innocent – like not saluting when a good ‘ole Heil Hitler moment comes around – or putting your hand over your heart when the National Anthem is sung…I mean, where’s the respect folks? No pressure, of course, you might be depressed at the moment, and we can understand that – or there might be something else going on “in there” that deserves further notification, as in: Hello in there – is anyone home?
Yes, “getting with the program” – especially when that “program” is so awe-inspiring and obviously “genuinely cares for the masses” – I mean, again, it’s for our own good … and isn’t it about time to come out of our alienated shells and commence the celebration of the dream? Why, haven’t you heard how much the present leadership has done or intends to do for YOU? Stop being a prune and get on the bandwagon – it’s a great ride and besides, you deserve it!
Indeed, was it an evil psychosis which enveloped the German Nation – fueled by centuries of cultural and theological anti-Semitism – or was it more psychotic than cultural? Did the masses yearn for the personification of their disgust – to vent their anger and malicious behavior? This has been debated for decades by astute observers in, for example, the most fiendish expressions of the Third Reich, such as the Holocaust itself:
“Germans’ anti-Semitic beliefs about Jews were the central causal agent of the Holocaust. They were the central causal agent not only of Hitler’s decision to annihilate European Jewry…but also of the perpetrators’ willingness to kill and brutalize Jews. The conclusion of this book (Daniel Goldhagen’s Ordinary Men or Ordinary Germans) is that anti-Semitism moved many thousands of ‘ordinary’ Germans — and would have moved millions more had they been appropriately positioned — to slaughter Jews. Not economic hardships, not the coercive means of a totalitarian state, not social psychological pressure, not invariable psychological propensities, but ideas about Jews that were pervasive in Germany, and had been for decades induced ordinary Germans to kill unarmed, defenseless Jewish men, women, and children by the thousands, systematically and without pity.”
“I by no means agree with much of Lucy Dawidowitzc’s (Text: War Against the Jews) formulation. I have never said and do not hold the view, that the German people were deranged by a delusional mass psychosis.” (Goldhagen, Ordinary Men or Ordinary Germans) (Taken from: The Psychology of Perpetrators)
Here we have two academics arguing over whether or not the Holocaust was ostensibly induced by cultural beliefs or hypnotic mass psychosis. This author embraces both wherein the Germanic predisposition toward hatred of the Jew was more than fertile soil for a mass psychosis of behavior inciting the people to murder millions – it’s just that plain and crudely simple. The ember was there and the match stick found it and boom: FIRE!
One thing is imminently clear – Das Volk (The People) – the vast majority – were fused into what Hitler called: “ein Volk ein Reich ein Führer” – One people, one nation, one leader!
If you’ll kindly notice the placement of the words were indicative of how “things flowed” – first the Image of the Beast (ein Volk) – next the worship of the Image of the Beast (ein Reich) – and, finally, the source from whence all streams flowed: ein Führer – the Beast himself and the “worship of the Beast!”
As the Spirit of Christ was infused into the disciples in that room – and as the Holy Spirit clothed the disciples from on high with power whereupon they became One People, One Kingdom, with one Head, even Jesus Christ – even so, the False Prophet fully intends “to tell those who dwell on the earth” (i.e., the “earthlings” – those who make their attachment to earthly things priority in their lives) “to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived” (Rev. 13:14).
This False Prophet’s “propaganda machine” – speaking throughout the globe – will galvanize the earthlings in the most rapacious fashion that they will become the very expression of the Beast – his IMAGE! The making of this IMAGE will be stunning, swift and nigh miraculous in that we read:
“The coming of the LAWLESS ONE is according to the working of Satan, with ALL POWER, SIGNS, and LYING WONDERS, and with ALL UNRIGHTEOUS DECEPTION among those who perish (aka, “the earthlings”), because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved…and for this reason God will send them a STRONG DELUSION, that they should BELIEVE THE LIE, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:9-12).
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But there’s an invidious connection – “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on the foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16-17).
Ah, just as we, as members of His One Body have been “sealed” (Strong’s 4972 – sphragizo – “to stamp with a signet or private mark for security or preservation”) by the Holy Spirit – Ephesians 1:13; II Cor. 1:22 – even so, does the False Prophet mimic the same upon the worshipers of the Beast!
What is this “mark” – it is upon one’s right hand (what you do) or/and upon your forehead (what you think) … is it a RFID – a Radio Frequency Identification – the infamous CHIP? I’m not saying it is or isn’t – but what I am saying is this: What marks you – brands you – as one of His – is the Mark of the Holy Spirit. You may roam the range but buster, if you’re His, you’ve been branded! Even so, those branded by the False Prophet know their own – they belong to the Beast and constitute the Image of the Beast…they bear the MARK OF THE BEAST.
No doubt, it’s something more than “spiritual markings” – in that without it you cannot “buy or sell except one who has the mark.” Therefore, its economic ramifications are staggering. Is it monetary? Is there a chip implanted as a possibility so indicated and constituting perhaps your “ration card” or account information in a New World Order cashless society? There’s enough written on this topic to fill the Library of Congress!
One thing is most certain – anyone bearing the Seal of the Holy Spirit is going to stand out like a sore thumb…just like ole August Landmesser apparently lost in the crowd with folded arms, while all around him the famed Nazi salute was obsessing everyone …but not ole August – he just stood there glaring at the little artist from Vienna; frankly, I’m not impressed! Now, let’s not put words in Herr Landmesser’s mouth….
The Number of the Beast – the Number of a man – 666
“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). O.K. class, it’s time to “calculate the number of the Beast.” Calculate? In Greek it is the word psephizo (Strong’s 5585 meaning “to compute” or literally meaning to count with pebbles, to compute, calculate, reckon…by metonymy (a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated), a vote from the use of ‘pebbles’ for this purpose in order to secure a “verdict”). Ah, yes, the plot thickens…how should we “calculate” – just how do things add up? You’ve already given me the answer: 666 or is it 600, 60 and 6? (the latter). So, where’s the calculating? Is it embedded in the ultimate answer – like who runs around with this number emblazoned on their shirt or skin (now-a-days)?
What is extremely important to notice about “calculate the number of the Beast” is this: We are enjoined to take our pebble and to “cast our vote” in order to secure a verdict – the “candidate” with the most pebbles wins – he gets the verdict! Do you catch what is going on here?
Above is a most fascinating display of Ancient Greek art on voting with pebbles via “secret ballot.” What we are being told is to calculate – to vote with our pebbles concerning the “disposition” of the Beast. We’re given the answer as the “number of a man” wherein the “tally of the vote, the pebbles” is 666. What we are obliged, even obligated to do, is to vote, in order to ascertain the verdict, which must reach 666; once it does we will recognize it as the “number of a man” – and, again, in so doing we will have been able to reach a verdict at this calculation for it reveals the Beast.
I find the word “verdict” (i.e., the “outcome of the vote”) to be especially potent in that the book of Revelation is the cosmic courtroom wherein the Judge of all the Earth intends to do right by securing testimony from His witnesses who are called upon to testify AGAINST the Beast in order for a verdict to be so rendered: GUILTY AS CHARGED… “Has the jury reached a verdict?” “Yes, Your Honor:
The jury votes unanimously: Guilty as charged ON ALL COUNTS before this honorable and divine bar of universal justice!”
“This Greek wine cup (seen in the graphic above) from the 5th century B.C. offers one of the earliest depictions of voting in art. As the Trojan War rages, Greek chieftains are forced to choose between the competing claims of heroes Ajax and Odysseus to a momentous prize, the armor of the fallen warrior Achilles. So they do what comes naturally to the fathers of democracy. They vote.
“The small dots on either side of the pedestal in the detail shown above represent stones heaped in two mounds for Odysseus and Ajax. The number of pebbles on Ajax’s side, at right, falls short of the more politically savvy Odysseus’s by one, causing Ajax to grasp his head in despair. This loss is the back story for the tragic scene portrayed inside the cup, where we see Ajax fallen in agony on his sword.
“Voting with pebbles? Even allowing for artistic license, it seems the Greeks really did it this way. Voters deposited a pebble into one of two urns to mark their choice; after voting, the urns were emptied onto counting boards for tabulation.
“The principle of secret voting was established by at least the 5th century B.C., and Athenians may have used a contraption to obscure the urn into which a voter was placing his hand. In ancient Greece a pebble was called a psephos, which gives us the dubious term psephology, the scientific study of elections.
[Please note: psephizo “calculate” (NKJV) or “count” KJV is from Strong’s 5586, psephos, meaning pebble.]
“Another modern word, ballot, preserves this ancient history of bean-counting: it comes from medieval French ballotte, a small ball.” (Voting with the Ancient Greeks by Annelisa Stephan, Ancient World, Antiquities, Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, November 6, 2012.)
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NOTE:
The above post is based on FRAGMENTS from this articler:
WORSHIPING THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST
by Doug Krieger