The Return of the King of Kings Part 11

               “You, O king, were watching and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome.  This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, and partly clay.
                “You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
                “This is the dream, Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.  You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all – you are this head of gold.
                “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.  And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.
                “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.  And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.  As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
                “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
                Daniel 2:31-44
 
The above verses are the details Daniel revealed to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar regarding a dream the king had.  Much like the beasts described in Daniel’s other prophetic vision, the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream describes the world empires in terms of parts of a statue of a king.  As Daniel describes, the gold head is the Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar.  The silver chest and arms are the Persian Empire that defeated Babylon.  The bronze belly and thighs are the Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great that conquered Persia.  The legs of iron are the Roman Empire.  The stone that strikes the feet and collapses the entire statue is Jesus.
 
It is interesting to note that just as the statue had two legs of iron, Rome reached a point of division into a Western and Eastern Empire, with the Western Empire being based in Rome and the Eastern Empire based in Constantinople (modern Turkey).  A division also occurred in the religion of the empire (after it converted to Christianity) with the West following the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the East establishing the Orthodox Christian Church.  Both cultures claimed to carry on the mantle of Rome.  The German title Kaiser means Caesar, as does the Russian title Czar. 
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In the year 800 Pope Leo III bestowed upon Charlemagne the title Emperor of Rome and crowned him with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.  This crown was used to crown several of the Holy Roman Emperors.  Napoleon Bonaparte received the Iron Crown in 1804 when he was consecrated by Pope Pius VII and became Emperor of France.  Napoleon founded the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown in 1805.  Emperor Franz I of Austria re-established the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown after it had collapsed following the defeat of Napoleon.  The Austrian Empire endured until World War I ended it in 1918.
 
Hitler attempted to revive the notion of a Roman Empire.  The term “Third Reich” represents Hitler’s belief that his Nazi regime was a continuation of the Holy Roman Empire.  The assertion being that the original Holy Roman Empire was the First Reich and the unified German Empire that emerged under Otto Von Bismark was the Second Reich.  The German Empire and Nazi Germany both used the Iron Cross as a symbol and medal of honor. 
 
As far as the East goes, the claim of Russia as successor to the Eastern Roman Empire was asserted when Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, married Sophia Paleologue, the niece of Constantine XI, the last Eastern Roman Emperor.  The coat of arms of the last imperial dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire with its double-headed eagle is also very similar to the coat of arms of the Russian Empire.  This same symbol was adopted as the coat of arms of the Russian Federation in 1993 following the fall of the Soviet Union.  The coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation also incorporate a double-headed eagle.
 
The reality of a Western and Eastern division persisted throughout the history of Europe and continues to our current time.  Indeed, the aftermath of World War II gave rise to the Iron Curtain, separating Western Europe from Communist Eastern Europe.  Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, there still persists a Russian sphere of influence over the East while the West is united in the form of the European Union and NATO (though the West has extended its influence further east).
 
So what we see is a divided Roman Empire that never really ended, but just transitioned into different states of being over the centuries.  Throughout it all you have references to “iron”.  And it continues into our present time.
 
In 1950 the groundwork for the European Union was laid with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community.  This was just two years after Israel officially became a nation.  Both events were made possible by World War II.
 
In 1957 The Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community.  This paved the way for greater political integration, which eventually led to the modern European Union.  I would also note that some of the symbology of the EU, both on some of its currency and in sculptures, depicts the consort of Zeus, Europa riding a bull (the form Zeus took when he first encountered Europa, according to mythology).  This serves as a not so subtle link to the imagery of John’s vision of a woman riding a beast.
 
There are two points to make in regard to the EU, however.  First, it currently has 25 member nations, which greatly exceeds the ten described by John and Daniel.  Second, its capitol is in Brussels, not Rome.
 
I believe we will see a restructuring of the EU in the very near future.  We already have the Brexit movement underway in which Great Britain is trying to leave the EU.  Once this is accomplished, other nations could follow.  However, I think the key event that will drive a reorganization of the EU will be the Rapture.  I think the chaos that follows that event will be a game-changer.  I think when all is said and done, the strongest ten nations will unite and form the final empire described by John and Daniel.  They will also move their capitol to Rome.
 
One must also take into account the clay that is mixed with iron in the feet and toes of the statue Daniel described.  I believe this is a reference to the growing Muslim population in Europe.  Just as iron does not mix with clay, so to are we seeing conflict between the native populations of Europe and the increasing Muslim population.  After the rapture, the population of Europe will be a mix of atheist/pagan native Europeans and Muslims.  I believe any remaining Jews will flee to Israel.
 
I also think that there will be enough of an apostate Catholic leadership remaining to form the basis of a new pagan religion that will rise to power alongside this ten-nation kingdom.  I am not saying that all Catholics are apostates.  I am saying there are most likely Cardinals who care more about power than Christ who have lost their way and will be left behind after the Rapture.  Pope Francis himself has issued some worrisome statements that make one question his belief in the exclusivity of Christ as the means for salvation.
 
Why do I think the Catholic Church will serve as the basis for the final pagan religion?  Throughout its history the Catholic Church has shown itself to be more concerned with political maneuvering than Christian doctrine.  It also has bestowed a level of deification on the Virgin Mary that is very much in-line with the goddess worship of pagan religions.  Indeed the Roman Catholic Church borrowed from several pagan traditions in order to quickly transition the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity.
 
But most of all there is this from the vision of John:
 
                “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.  And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
                Revelation 13:11-12
 
The description of two horns like a lamb creates the impression that the religion is Christian in appearance, but the doctrine is Satanic.  I believe the Catholic Church is the best candidate to carry forward the trappings of Christianity after the Rapture, while transforming into something Satanic in the name of political expediency.
 
Based on the imagery that John describes, it sounds like what happens is that a ten-nation confederation comprised of elements from the ancient Roman Empire will rise to power.  In doing so, they will embrace a pagan religion that will be in constant conflict with the growing influence of the Muslim religion in Europe.  Not long after their rise to power, a strong leader will take over their confederation.  He will at first work to bring peace among the competing groups, but he will ultimately proclaim himself to be god and he will be affirmed by the false prophet (the Second Beast described by John).  This false prophet will most likely be an apostate Pope.  At this point, the ten-nation kingdom will renounce the pagan religion and wipe out all those who practice it so as to have no competing claims to the godhood of the Antichrist.  This is what John describes in the vision of the Harlot being made desolate.  I will describe the rise of the Antichrist in greater detail in the next post.
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