One Hour with the Beast
Europe's set time of world domination
In the 17th chapter of Revelation (please read it) there is seen a woman seated upon a fantastic scarlet colored beast. She is a woman of ill repute, and as she is shown to us in this final book of prophecy she represents the great mass of idols that have been worshiped by humanity throughout the long history of our world. This is spiritual adultery.
The beast, or animal form upon which she is seated, represents seven great empires that have existed and ruled through time. Most of them are listed for us in the Bible, and one - the last - can be observed in our world history since the Bible was finished.
The connection between the woman and the beast should be obvious to us, because the great governments of the world have always used religion as a prop to enforce control over their people. This is why freedom of religion was such a radical new issue when our United States constitution was written.
The beast is shown as having seven heads, and these are the seven great empires that have ruled over the known parts of the world throughout the long history of man. We can now count and identify six of these empires in the books of the Bible. Almost all of them persecuted the people of God, whether it was the people of Israel or the New Testament church. The first of them was Egypt, and after that were Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. After Rome, the last and 7th head on the beast came after the discoveries of Columbus. It was the great European conquest of the newly discovered parts of the world, which we call the colonial period of world history.
The 10 horns on the beast seem to all be on the beast’s last head and represent this period of time of European world expansion. The number in prophecy for Europe is 10, and interestingly enough, there are 10 basic root languages within the European continent.
This is the way the beast is pictured for us in the broader view of world history in chapter 13. However, as time progressed, we are brought to the New Testament age, and here in chapter 17 of Revelation the first 5 of the heads of empire have come and gone and the time of the 6th head is upon us – and it is the Roman Empire. We see this in verses 9 and 10. Here Rome is seen as she is situated on the famous 7 hills, so she is clearly identified. Then verse 12 tells us that the empire that would come after Rome had not appeared as yet. This would be the period of the great European expansion of colonialism. And when that time would come we read that it would last for one hour.
Now here God gives some measurements to work with. We see that the 7th head – the great colonial period - would last for just one hour. Therefore, we need some dates that would signify a beginning point and an end. Obviously the one hour would not work in reality. The period was many centuries in length, not just minutes and hours.
The beginning point for the great European expansion over the world came at the end of the Roman period. The empire of Rome we know was in force at the time of Christ and the apostles and had had its slow beginning when the previous Greek Empire disintegrated in 323 BC. Now, how long did the empire of Rome last? It was the longest one of all.
Without going into the many details of the ups and downs of Rome, we can see the many barbarian invasions that took their toll and finally the division of the empire into two parts – East and West. This was a mortal wound that should have killed the aging empire (chapter 13). But it was revived, and in the year 800 AD a new emperor was crowned over what was called The “Holy” Roman Empire. So it continued for 1,260 days (years). These many complications are more fully explained in our new book, The Lady and the Dragon, which is available from Xlibris Publishers here in America.
For all practical purposes the Holy Roman Empire was finally finished in the year 1648 when the Treaty of Westphalia was signed by the emperor and the rebellious princes of an emerging Europe. This year began the “one hour” of the next empire period, which was colonialism and the great European expansion.
So we have a beginning date for the start of the one hour that the 10 European “kings” would spend with the beast of world empire. But now we must establish just how long this one hour would be in normal years.
We have written about codes in the Bible. Here is another code, but it requires some speculation and interpretation. The Lord Jesus explained the need for this in chapter 13 of Matthew, and it is necessary for one’s understanding of both parables and prophecies in the Bible.
So how long is a day? It is 24 hours long. And how long is an hour? It is the 24th part of a day. Now the day we are looking for is far greater than just one rotation of the earth. The word “day” is used in many ways. We sometimes say, “in that day,” meaning in some era of time. In the Bible we may read about the day of the Lord, meaning a time of reckoning that God sends from time to time upon this disobedient world.
We even might consider the day of man, meaning the whole time of man’s existence from creation until the end. And this, the longest of all days, may be the day we are looking for. There is a Christian tradition, supported by the writings of Barnabas, that the world as we know it will last for 6,000 years or 6 days, each day being a thousand years long. In II Peter 3:8 we read that a thousand years is as a day with God. Barnabas suggests that after that will come a last 1,000 year period that will be the millennial reign of Christ – thus completing one week of 7 days or 7,000 years.
Now let us make an application. The one hour with the beast is the 24th part of a day. Then what is the 24th part of the day of man, or 7,000 years? Dividing, we find that it is 291.666 years. The remainder of an infinite row of sixes is interesting because 6 is the number of man, and 666 is the number of the beast. Why 6? Because man always comes up short of God, and 7 is God’s number of perfection or completion.
Now what about the 291? Adding 291 to the year 1648 when the last era of empire began brings us to the year 1939. This is the year that World War II began. There were many things that were settled and hoped for by this last world war. Perhaps the most obvious one is the concerted efforts by the governments of the world to see that such a war should never happen again. The development of nuclear weapons is the main incentive for this.
But something else resulted from this great war, and it was the demise of colonialism. The powerful nations began to divest themselves of their colonial possessions, giving them their independence and accepting them into the community of independent states. The concept of strong nations conquering weaker ones and controlling them is no longer accepted. The Soviet Union, which was Satan’s last effort to make another head upon the beast, was the last one to go. Revelation 17:11 shows us how this last effort would fail and not come to completion. There would be no more than 7 heads upon this beast of world empire.
This appears to bring us to the end of time, does it not? God the Father, a mighty host of angels and Jesus Christ Himself appear to be standing ready to invade and take over. The resurrection of God’s saints is near. Judgment Day is approaching. A new day is about to dawn.
- Loren Wilson (This article may be copied freely.)
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