Beast of Revelation.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

Chapter 4
seven heads of the Beast ridden by the woman: “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.”
Notice the time frame here. “Five have fallen,” i.e. Justinian,
Charlemagne, Otto, Charles V and Napoleon—spanning the
1,260 years the Beast was to continue, from 554 to 1814. Then
the verse says, “one IS.” But Hitler and Mussolini were not
around when John wrote this prophecy. The time frame must then
be reckoned from when this prophecy was to be revealed.
This parallels a statement in Daniel, a book that must be read in
conjunction with Revelation to properly understand end-time events.
The prophecies in these books were not meant to be understood until
this modern age. Daniel recorded, “Although I heard, I did not understand.
Then I said, ‘My lord, what shall be the end of these things?’
And he said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and
sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white,
and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the
wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (12:8–10).
And indeed the meaning of these prophecies came to be generally
understood by God’s Church at the very time indicated—
the time of the “sixth head,” the Hitler-Mussolini Axis. How truly
remarkable this is! Furthermore, it gives added proof that since
that revival, humanity has been living in the end time. Notice also
that “the other [revival] has not yet come” (Rev. 17:10). This is
how Mr. Herbert Armstrong knew that another world dictator
would yet emerge from a united Europe after World War II. Are
you, too—like the “wise”—beginning to understand?
Many said in the aftermath of the war that Europe’s day was
gone. Cities, countryside and national economies were devastated
throughout the continent, especially in Germany. It seemed to
many that Russian Communism was the wave of the future in
Europe. After all, following the war, Stalin quickly stamped the
Russian boot on as much of Europe as he could. The idea of a
German-led Europe playing a dominant role in world affairs was
something most observers said could never again happen.
Yet in 1957, within 12 years of the war’s end, a fledgling
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