The Identity of the 7th Head

 The Identity of the 7^th Head

After I published my article showing the 4^th beast of Daniel 7 is not Rome, a number of people have asked who it is.  I also stated that we as SDAs have much to unlearn.  Perhaps we can unlearn while we learn.  With this in mind, let us look at some aspects of the beast.

What is the Battle of Armageddon All About?

The SDA church fails to incorporate Israel into prophecy because of a wrong Ellen White prediction made in 1856.  I’ll look at this wrong prediction in more detail some other time.  This results in many SDAs failing to read and understand the plain statements of scripture.  Put in modern terms, the battle of Armageddon is a battle between the forces of earth trying to repel and invasion from the sky.

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against the rider on the horse and against his army. (Revelation 19:19).

The beast fights against the man on the white horse and his armies.  Revelation 19:11-16 tells us quite clearly that those armies come down from heaven.  We are also told in Revelation 16:12-16 that the armies of earth were assembled at a place known as Armageddon (Harmageddon in some English translations).  This is a known place in Israel.  Some people say Armageddon is a spiritual battle but those who say this must then explain all the great detail given in the Bible in spiritual terms.  This can only lead to guessing games.  Revelation 16 also tells us this is the battle of the great day of the Lord which we call the second coming.  Revelation 19 also informs us that the man on the white horse treads the winepress of God’s wrath.  (Revelation 19:15).

Revelation 14 talks about the treading of the winepress.

 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.  Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”  So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.  And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles. (Revelation 14:17-20 emphasis is mine).

 

Outside what city is the winepress trodden? 

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. (Joel 3:13-15 emphasis is mine).

 

It should be clear that the Joel passage speaks of the same event as the Revelation 14:17-20 passage, which speaks of the same event as the Revelation 19 passage. If you read Joel 3 from 3:1, it is clear Jerusalem is the city outside which the winepress is trodden.  If you compare Daniel 11:45 and Joel 2:20, you will also see that the invading army is located in Israel.  If you read Joel 2 in its entirety, you see that the Lord has his army as well as the “northern army” driven out in 2:20.

The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it?  (Joel 2:10-11 emphasis is mine).

 

My series of articles began as an effort on my part to show the role of extraterrestrials in last day events.  While some may not wish to classify God and the host of heaven as extraterrestrials, I think I have shown conclusively that the battle of Armageddon is not a world war between human nations.  It is instead a war of the armies of earth under the control of the beast to repel and invasion from heaven led by the Messiah, the one who is to rule the earth with a rod of iron.  (See Revelation 19:15).

 

Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed [anointed in Hebrew is Messiah] saying, “Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.(Psalm 2:1-9) emphasis is mine).

 

In Psalm 2 we have all the elements we have discussed.  The rulers of earth consciously gather themselves against God and his Messiah.  They fight against the Messiah who will rule the earth with a rod of iron.  Note that the LXX rendition uses rule rather than break which is why Revelation uses the word rule.  If you continue to read the Psalm you see that God encourages the nations to accept the rule of the Messiah which agrees with Daniel 7:12 discussed in my last article that after the beast is destroyed, the other three beasts are allowed to live.

When the beast gathers the armies of earth together, the beast tells them an invasion from the sky is imminent and the people of earth must repel that invasion.  This shows that the people of earth are open to the idea of an invasion from the heavens.

What is the Territory of the Beast?

And the beast that I saw was like a leopard [Rome], its feet were like a bear’s [Greece], and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth [Persia]. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. (Revelation 13:2).

This is actually pretty straightforward.  I have put in brackets the identifications I made with the beasts of Daniel 7 in that I said the lion = Persia, the bear = Greece, and the leopard = Rome.  We are then looking at a power which extends to England in the west although technically, Rome did not conquer all of England.  It extends as far north as Germany, but not Scandinavia.  It goes as far east as Persia and to the borders with India, and it goes as far south as Egypt and North Africa, and the Sudan.  This includes both Christian and Muslim countries.  Daniel 7 tells us the beast devours.  I believe the king of the north devouring the king of the south shows us the beast acquiring all of this territory.

We learned in the last article that Babylon differs from the beast and that the beast turns on her and wipes her out.  We established this is a known geographic region which cannot include the territory of the beast.  And finally, we have the kings of the east mentioned in Revelation 16.  So in the last days we see three primary powers:  Babylon the Great, the beast, and the kings of the east.

Gog and Magog

Now we get to the prophecy of Gog and Magog which is found in Ezekiel 38 and 39.  Before we dissect this, I want to quote two passages which show conclusively this prophecy deals with end times.

Be ready and keep ready, you and all the companies that are assembled around you, and hold yourselves in reserve for them. After many days you shall be mustered; in the latter years you shall go against a land restored from war, a land where people were gathered from many nations on the mountains of Israel, which had long lain waste; its people were brought out from the nations and now are living in safety, all of them.  You shall advance, coming on like a storm; you shall be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.    (Ezekiel 38:7-9 emphasis is mine).

As for you, mortal, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood.  You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.  You shall eat fat until you are filled, and drink blood until you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you.  And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with warriors and all kinds of soldiers, says the Lord God.(Ezekiel 39:17-20).

Compare Ezekiel 39:17-20 with Revelation 19:17-18).  Both passages speak of the same event.  It is Ezekiel that gives us the identity of the 7^th head of Revelation.  All of the nations mentioned in 38-39 were known to people of Ezekiel’s time.  They refer to what we would term as Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and other nations from that area.  We also learn from Ezekiel 38 that Persia and Libya and Ethiopia form part of this army. 

Russia and the various countries around that area form a new part of the territory because none of the powers of Persia, Greece, or Rome conquered that region.    It is also clear from Ezekiel 38 that Gog is the leader of the invasion.  Since Gog is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and since these people expanded into what we know of as Russia and Ukraine and a few other Black Sea bordering nations, Ezekiel’s prophecy is very clear.

When we combine this information with the fact it is the beast who fights against God and Christ, we can now clearly see three facts.

1.       The beast consists of the territory held by the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires.  This includes much of Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, Iran, and North Africa.  It also includes Black Sea countries such as Russia, Ukraine and so forth.

2.       It is the Russian component that takes the lead.  Since each of the beast’s heads are the leaders, we can now say that Russia, or technically a Black Sea state, though Russia is the most logical candidate, with its leader comprises the 7^th head of the beast.

By this I predict that Europe and Russia, along with several countries will unite.  I do not believe this means Putin will win the current war in Ukraine.  In fact, I believe the opposite.  This is because Babylon the Great, the great prostitute rides the beast first.  This means the system of trade and economy which characterizes Babylon rules first.  I believe this means that eventually, Russia will go western.  If a post Putin regime has an open mind, this is the logical thing for Russia to do.  This is what Putin should have done all along.  Instead, Putin has alienated Europe.  Eventually, Russia will ally itself more with Europe and I would also expect many smaller countries influenced by Russia to make their own deals with Europe.

                Meanwhile, Europe will rearm itself, but they can only do this if they allow Germany to rearm itself.  Only then can Europe be a dominant military power without United States influence.  Daniel gives us much more detail about how this confederation comes about but I will explore this next time.

I will end with one final thought.  Our church either says the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 will not come to pass because Israel failed to meet the conditions of obedience, or the whole thing is spiritual.  It does this to protect Ellen White.  If you want to spiritualize Gog and Magog, you have to spiritualize all the nations listed, along with all the detail listed.  It is about time we allow the Bible to explain itself.

Notes and Commentary

One objection to my use of Revelation 14:17-20 is the obvious exaggeration around the amount of blood.  To imagine a lake of blood with a radius of 200 miles to the depth of a horse’s bridle is to imagine an impossibility.  Since this should obviously not be taken literally, the entire passage is symbolic and therefore my literal application is erroneous.   My answer to this is that the amount of blood is clearly hyperbole.  Hyperbole, especially around slaughter, is a common device in apocalyptic literature.  Many people today do not realize that an apocalypse was a well-known type of literature much in the same manner science fiction is a well-known type of literature in our time.  In such literature, such hyperbole was a known an understood device used to convey the awesome magnitude of destruction.  Those who read Revelation understood this as hyperbole.  In all such cases, the events around which the hyperbole is used are literal events.  Thus, God will literally destroy a lot of people and this destruction will be unbelievably massive in terms of scale, and will be like treading a winepress.

The Ellen White prediction I refer to is her famous 1856 prediction which reads as follows.

I was shown the company present at the conference.  Said the angel: “Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus. (Testimonies for the Church vol 1. Pp. 131-132).

The SDA church’s attempt to defend this prediction is a case of the cure being worse than the disease.