God's Final Battle - 5
The Woman Riding The Beast
CHAPTER 5
THE WOMAN RIDING THE BEAST
The Latin equivalent of the Greek “anti” is “vicarious,” from which comes “vicar.” Thus “vicar of Christ” literally means Antichrist.
— Dave Hunt
The first strategy wielded against Christ’s newly established Church was that of open persecution and unmitigated bloodshed. In the centuries immediately following the cross, Satan hoped to stamp out the followers of the way (as the early Christians called themselves) in short order. What he discovered, however, was that this direct approach only made his problem worse.
As Tertullian famously put it, the blood of the martyrs was becoming the seed of the Church.[20]
The Devil decided upon a solution which was abominably clever. He would destroy the Church by bequeathing it with worldly blessings while quietly guiding it back into paganism. This began with Constantine in AD 313 and his gradual merging of Church and State, and culminated with the establishment of papal power over the Roman Catholic Church in AD 538.
The abominations of the Roman Catholic Church over the centuries of the Middle Ages have been widely documented by many Church historians. Persecution of true believers continued, only under the new guise of devotion and piety. Paganism and mysticism were cunningly blended into this new form of organized Christianity, diluting the moral energies of the apostolic age and reviving the ancient veneration of idols (demons).
True to form, when Satan had gotten his teeth into the Church, he began to invert everything, substituting his own cheap counterfeits for the truth. For those with eyes to see, Catholic doctrine is surely littered with many such unbiblical and antichrist counterfeits. From the worship of Mary and the veneration of dead saints to purgatory and transubstantiation the list of doctrines which contradict the plain teachings of Scripture is bafflingly long.
As I’ve said before, I have nothing against Catholic believers. Undoubtedly, there are many, and I know a good number of them. But there are also many Catholic congregants who are deceived and have not truly trusted in Christ as their savior. Instead, they have trusted the beast and perhaps the greatest of his many works-based religions; namely, Catholicism. Christ is the door. Therefore, the dragon loves to deceive humanity into seeking for other means of entry into the Promised Land. Any other means will do, so long as they ignore the one true door.
During this period of history, the Catholic Church became the new stewardess of the esoteric mysteries passed down from the ancient pagan religions. Specifically, it was after the burning of Alexandria and its library in the late third century that Rome and her so-called Church became the new seat for the occult. The examples here are many and manifold, but a few poignant ones must suffice.
In the late nineteenth century, Madame Helena Blavatsky was a well-known mystic and occultist who founded the Theosophical Society. In her books, The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled, she routinely explores the motif of the Celestial Virgin.
As the primordial humidity, whence proceeded all, Belita is Tamti, or the sea, the mother of the city of Erech (the great Chaldean necropolis), therefore, an infernal goddess. In the world of stars and planets she is known as Istar or Astoreth. Hence, she is identical with Venus, and every other queen of heaven, to whom cakes and buns were offered in sacrifice, and, as all the archaeologists know, with Eve, the mother of all that live, and with Mary.
– Helena Blavatsky (Isis Unveiled)[21]
Blavatsky explicitly links Mary to older pagan deities, each known to her followers as the Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Virgin, or the Virgin of the Sea. She goes on to link these various epithets also to Lucifer, the light-bearer and so-called morning star. For Blavatsky and like-minded occultists, it is the serpent who brings gnosis and liberates mankind from the oppression of Yahweh. They have fallen for the oldest lie in the book and have inverted the truth.
The prophet Jeremiah speaks against the Israelites’ worship of Astoreth, a far older Queen of Heaven, concluding that the result would be their own shame (Jeremiah 7:18-19, ESV).
The Catholics, in making Mary their Queen of Heaven, their Co-redemptrix, their Celestial Virgin, their morning star, are paying homage to Lucifer in a system that is hardly even subtle to the discerning mind. As we will discover in forthcoming chapters, Satan is the god of many names, and he quite often can be found wearing the cloaks of female deities when it suits his purpose. The Virgin Mary is nothing more than the sum of all the ancient pagan female deities, cunningly recast for the Church age.
Likewise, in the art of the Catholic Church, there are many nods to pagan symbolism of a far older provenance. An example are the solar disks or halos depicted on the heads of Saints, the Virgin Mary, and even Jesus himself. The use of these dates back at least as far as the ancient Sumerians, and their occurrence in pagan art is nearly ubiquitous.
So, too, pilgrimages to venerate sacred relics were a fundamentally pagan idea which was appropriated by the Catholic Church. It was based upon the long-held mystical belief that certain geographical locations are more important or sacred than others; a notion which finds no support in Scripture for the age after the cross. The fact that the relics themselves were mostly associated with dead bodies is a subtle nod to the ancient death cult we have mentioned previously. The Catholic Church was but its latest incarnation.
I had long wondered at the Catholic Church’s adoption of the pagan Sibyls, the Pythian Oracles of ancient Hellenistic society. The story seemed to be that these “vessels of truth” were examples of the Holy Spirit inspiring pagan females, much as he had inspired Jewish males in the creation of Old Testament prophecy. On the surface, it is a preposterous claim. Yet, the fact that the Sibyls had correctly prophesied numerous historical events lent a measure of credence to this view.
My curiosity vanished when I dared simply read the Sibylline Oracles themselves.[22] Their frequent references to the coming reign of Saturn was a dead giveaway to my trained eye. There is no rational way to claim that they were referring to Yahweh or Yeshua by this name. Instead, the conclusion is straightforward enough. These utterances were inspired by a spirit, yes. But it was not the Holy Spirit.
The takeaway, perhaps, is that even the dark spirits enjoy playing at prophecy. They will counterfeit and copy the creator’s masterpiece if they can. Yet their forgeries will always underwhelm.
The Sibyls are found throughout Catholic art, including in Gregorian chants such as Dies Irae and even upon the ceiling of the famed Sistine Chapel. Five Sibyls are depicted on the ceiling, but it is the Cumaean Sibyl, the font of a famous prophecy regarding the return of Apollo, whose image holds a tantalizing clue.
A clearly visible extra knuckle is portrayed, secreted perhaps by Michelangelo to depict a sixth digit bent under the palm, or to illustrate that a sixth finger had been lost or cut off at the knuckle. Either meaning is deeply occultic, and as students of history and the Bible clearly know, this ties both the Sibyl and her prophesied savior Apollo to the offspring of the fallen Watchers, the Nephilim …
— Thomas Horn (Zenith 2016)[23]
As Horn indicates, the sixth knuckle is an occult reference to the Nephilim, as ancient sources have long claimed that these giant heroes had six digits on each limb. The Bible does not disagree with this characterization (2 Samuel 21:20, 1 Chronicles 20:6).
We will revisit the Cumaean Sibyl and her cryptic prophecy in a forthcoming chapter.
It is also worth mentioning the prominence of an old Egyptian obelisk (shaft of Osiris) at the Vatican. This is not random symbolism, especially when combined with the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, which represents the womb of Isis. The hidden plan, the Master Work, has been stated openly all along, only kept just beneath the perception of the profane. The Antichrist, son of both Osiris and Isis, must be brought forth.
I find it interesting that even the word basilica conveys its own hidden meaning. Its root is the Greek word basileus, meaning king. The basilisk – a legendary reptile which may have been based on a now extinct species – also gets its name from the same root, and it was known as the king of serpents. So, basilica is the seat of the king. Or, perhaps more aptly, the seat of the basilisk, the king of serpents.
Add to this the eerie reptilian nature of the Paul VI Audience Hall in Vatican City (from the entrance you are literally looking into the eyes of a serpent, with the pope’s throne situated at its mouth) and the meaning of all the repeated symbolism is unmistakable. And all this, of course, is to say nothing of such pure coincidences as the Vatican owned and operated LUCIFER 1 telescope on Mount Graham in Arizona.
Hopefully, you have the discernment to grasp the fact that the Roman Catholic Church is an apostate church. It was set up not to serve Christ but to serve its true master, the Devil. In short, Satan set up a counterfeit church to worship himself and to lead as many of its followers as possible to hell.
This begs the question of whether or not there are clues to be found in the prophetic Scriptures warning of the rise of this false church. And indeed there are.
Understanding the rise of the Roman pontiff and his church as prophesied in Scripture requires little more than a thorough and insightful understanding of the books of Daniel and Revelation. However, most Christians are woefully confused when it comes to these prophetic books, which are of great importance to discerning the end times. And that is perhaps because the dragon has gone to great lengths to sow confusion and discord amongst believers when it comes to these texts.
If we are to glimpse anything of meaning in these books, while yet managing to avoid the sickening half-truths purveyed to the masses, we must be equipped with biblical discernment. Let us begin humbly by building brick upon brick.
Daniel Chapter 2 relates the dream of the statue, which represents the continuity of worldly kingdoms from the time of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylon to the end of the age. The peculiarity of this dream when compared to the other visions we will visit shortly is that we are gifted with the interpretation in the text itself (verses 36 through 45). This makes it an important starting point.
The statue is a unified whole, a single system, with different flavors or iterations occurring through time. And the various metals – gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay – represent kingdoms. We are told plainly that the golden head is the Babylonian kingdom. A modicum of historical understanding allows us to ascertain that the chest and arms of silver are the Medo-Persian (or simply Persian) kingdom, and the belly and thighs of brass are the Greek kingdom. The Roman empire was the fourth kingdom of iron, and interestingly the Western Roman empire was divided into ten parts as it broke up (a historical fact) as represented by the ten toes.
This dream alone would prove of little help to us, were it not for the additional visions of Daniel and John which build upon this foundational imagery.
Daniel Chapter 7 contains a vision given to the prophet himself some years later. In this night vision, four great beasts come up out of the sea. This description is strikingly similar to the first beast described in the Apostle John’s Revelation.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
— Revelation 13:1
Now, the Bible will always interpret itself, if we let it. And later on in the book of Revelation the angel speaking with John makes plain what is meant by the sea in these symbolic visions.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
— Revelation 17:15
As we will see, this view of the beasts arising out of peoples and multitudes and nations turns out to be quite coherent, especially when we compare this later to John’s second beast, which arose not out of the sea but out of the earth.
To the discerning eye, it is plain right off that the beasts of Daniel 7 relate directly to the kingdoms of Daniel 2. The first two beasts are Babylon and Medo-Persia respectively. The Leopard with four wings and four heads is the Greek kingdom spread by Alexander the Great. The speed with which Alexander conquered the known world was unparalleled at that time, and upon his death his four generals divided up his empire among themselves.
The fourth beast is explicitly described as having great iron teeth, linking it to the Roman kingdom. The beast’s ten horns are emblematic of the same reality as the ten toes of the statue; namely, the division of the great empire into ten fragmented kingdoms upon its demise.
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
— Daniel 7:8
This is where we find the first significant divergence from the statue of Daniel 2. In truth, it is simply an expansion of the vision which moves beyond what the statue conveyed. Now, we can easily see that horns are found to be kings, or kingdoms, in the Apocalypse of John (Revelation 17:12). And the meaning here is much the same.
The ten horns are the ten kingdoms which arose out of the ashes of the Western Roman empire. And it is a matter of history that three of these kingdoms were removed or displaced by the time the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church was established as the supreme moral authority by the emperor Justinian in AD 538. Given the context, it seems clear that the little horn power of Daniel was fulfilled in the papacy.
Now, I find it quite intriguing that the beasts of Daniel are represented as strange hybrid creatures; for example, a lion with the wings of an eagle. This is a curious choice given the firm linkage between such hybrid beings and the heroes of the long-ago Golden Age (the Nephilim) among ancient cultures. The centaurs, chimeras, satyrs, Minotaurs, furies, gorgons, nymphs, and other aberrations of nature in the old myths bear witness to these highly conserved ideas bubbling up from mankind’s collective subconscious. Perhaps the hybrid imagery in Daniel is meant to quietly convey that the power behind these kingdoms (beasts) is at root the same power which was behind the Nephilim.
It is worth noting what is said regarding the continuity of this overall beast system.
As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
— Daniel 7:12
Like the single statue composed of multiple metals, this prolonging of the lives of previous beasts hints at a single overall system of evil being propagated down through time. The visions of John the Revelator further confirm this interpretation.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
— Revelation 13:1-8
John’s first beast arises out of the sea – a populated area, full of nations and peoples – and seems rather familiar. His body, we find, is in fact made up of multiple beasts from Daniel 7, whose lives have been prolonged for a season and time. This seems to suggest that this new beast system retains aspects of the older kingdoms. Yet, in his totality, we find that this first beast of John’s Apocalypse is equivalent to Daniel’s little horn power. We may draw this simple conclusion based upon the shared timing clues provided in both prophecies.
In John’s account, we find that this system was given power to continue for specifically 42 months. This is not the first time this number appears in the book of Revelation.
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
— Revelation 11:2-3
From this earlier passage we may conclude that the 1,260 days is equivalent to these 42 months. The two witnesses are quite plainly the law and the prophets as represented by Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-3). In other words, they are the Word of God.
This same time period also appears in Daniel referring to the little horn. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time” (Daniel 7:25). This equates to a three-and-a-half-year period of time, which by the year-for-a-day principle (Numbers 14:34) would be equivalent to 1,260 years.
Historically, we find this time period precisely fulfilled by the Roman Catholic pontiff. As mentioned above, the papacy was placed in a position of absolute authority beginning in AD 538. And in 1798, during the French Revolution, Napoleon’s general Berthier arrested the sitting pope, Pius VI, from Rome and took him hostage back to France. The pope died in captivity shortly thereafter. While the papacy and the Catholic Church more broadly have certainly continued to exist since this time, this episode took place at the very end of the papacy’s real earthly power. Never again would it enjoy the rule it had become accustomed to during the Middle Ages.
During these years, the Holy Scriptures were clothed in sackcloth, thanks in large part to the Latin Mass which kept them hidden from the common people. Still, God never leaves the world entirely without a witness.
Interestingly, both Daniel and John also speak of this power having a mouth speaking great things, a point of continuity which should not be overlooked. Additionally, the great red dragon (introduced in Revelation 12 as Satan himself) gives the beast his power and earthly authority.
The seventeenth chapter of Revelation reintroduces us to this same first beast, but this time he has a rider.
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth … And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
— Revelation 17:1-9 & 18
Now, biblically speaking, in prophecy and vision a woman always represents the Church, or the body of believers. We see this throughout the Old Testament and also in Revelation Chapter 12. Here the woman is called a whore, so she is an apostate church.
The beast she rides is red, bringing to mind the red dragon, and curiously possesses the same seven heads and ten horns of the beast we met earlier. The woman sits on many waters and the first beast arises out of the waters, so it is plain that the woman is riding the first beast of Revelation 13.
Together, the woman and the beast represent a Church-State union, or a religio-political system. In short, we have an apostate church controlling a political kingdom. After all, the Catholic Church would have never amounted to anything at all were it not for its hordes of deceived congregants.
From the clue of the seven mountains, and the further explanation that the woman is a great city which reigns over the kings of the earth, Rome (or Vatican City, depending on your perspective) is the only logical choice. And she just so happens to be the seat of the Catholic power system.
Dave Hunt, in his monumental work, A Woman Rides the Beast, sums up the situation rather well.
Unlike any other city on earth, the Vatican is acknowledged as a sovereign state in its own right, separate and distinct from the nation of Italy surrounding it. There is no other city in history of which this has been true, and such is still the case today.
Only of the Vatican could it be said that a city reigns over the kings of the earth …
The qualifying information which John gives us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for identifying this woman, who is a city, is specific, conclusive, and irrefutable. There is no city upon earth, past or present, which meets all of these criteria except Catholic Rome and now Vatican City.
— Dave Hunt (A Woman Rides the Beast)[24]
The woman’s purple and red clothing (colors symbolizing royalty and sacrifice) is another obvious connection to the Roman Catholic Church, as her bishops and cardinals still don these official liturgical colours to this day. Additionally, there are several curious ties to the church in Thyatira spoken of in Chapter 2 of the Apocalypse. Now, the seven churches of Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 were no doubt actual physical churches of that time period, and so these letters were truly meant for them. And yet, it is clear that they also symbolize seven different stages of the Church universal as it exists throughout the Church age (we are now living in the time of the Laodicean, or lukewarm, church). And so, the letters also apply to all Christians living between Christ’s first and second comings.
A handful of astute Bible scholars have charted out the rough time periods associated with each of the seven churches. Thyatira, as the fourth church, falls during the era of papal rule. I find it fascinating, then, that this particular city was well known in the ancient world for its purple and red dyes (Acts 16:14). Additionally, Christ’s admonitions to the church warn of an adulteress Jezebel who claims to be a prophetess. And they also allude to the deep things of Satan, which many would agree is an apt description of the Catholic Church’s cunning perversion of Christianity.
The name Mystery Babylon is another interesting clue, which again shows the continuity of this evil beast system throughout time. It is in truth the same system as the Atlantean empire of old, carried on at length through Babylon, Greece, and pagan Rome, and bequeathed to the Roman Catholic Church.
The chief title of the Papal Office is Pontifex Maximus, Latin for supreme pontiff. Unsurprisingly, the roots of this title extend back to ancient Babylon. There the Babylonian priest-kings bore the title and were revered as the supreme pathfinders and bridge builders between the earthly and spiritual realms. Over time the title moved to Pergamum and then Rome, where the emperors carried the name, signifying their authority in the pagan priesthood. In the fourth century AD, it first began to be used by the bishop of Rome.
There is yet another connection between Babylon and Rome to be found in Scripture itself.
She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
— I Peter 5:13-14 (ESV)
These are the closing words of Peter’s first epistle. “She who is at Babylon” apparently referred to a church in the city from which Peter was writing. He also referenced Mark. From Colossians 4:10, we know that Mark was in Rome with Paul. Simply put, this means that Peter referred to Rome as Babylon.
I also find it interesting that Rome insists she be called the Mother Church, as distinct from a sister church, of her protestant brethren. This fits quite well with the title she is given in Revelation 17:5. Mother of harlots.
In the years leading up to the papacy’s mortal wound in 1798 (Revelation 13:3), there was already a transition underway. As we will discover in forthcoming chapters, an ancient plan for a new philosophic empire was being set in motion. Part of this bigger picture meant a change in the dragon’s tactics. The pope would go underground for a time, and secret societies loyal to the same dark lord would wield distributed power in his stead, guiding humanity down the gilded path.
To this end, Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits – also known as the Society of Jesus – in 1541 in France. He would become the order’s first Superior General, a position sometimes referred to as the Black Pope. It is important to understand that while I will mention several other secret societies throughout the coming chapters, I view the Jesuits as the granddaddy of them all. That is not to say that their esoteric knowledge and rituals originated with them. Obviously, everything was passed down from far beyond the Catholic Church’s earliest beginnings. If I am blunt, everything was passed down to them from the days of lost Atlantis and the secret knowledge of the Watchers. The Jesuits are simply among the oldest of our modern secret societies, birthed to assist with the temporary (in their eyes) transfer of power away from the pope in the post-Reformation era. They are also among the most influential, secretive, and evil of secret orders. Just because you may have heard about the Freemasons or the Illuminati more often does not mean they are more sinister. It’s the ones you never hear about that should worry you most.
Here is what Madame Blavatsky had to say of the Jesuits.
What was the origin of that order? It may be stated in a few words. In the year 1534, on August 16th, an ex-officer and “Knight of the Virgin,” from the Biscayan Provinces, and the proprietor of the magnificent castle of Casa Solar – Ignatius Loyola, became the hero of the following incident. In the subterranean chapel of the Church of Montmartre, surrounded by a few priests and students of theology, he received their pledges to devote their whole lives to the spreading of Roman Catholicism by every and all means, whether good or foul; and he was thus enabled to establish a new Order. Loyola proposed to his six chief companions that their Order should be a militant one, in order to fight for the interests of the Holy seat of Roman Catholicism. Two means were adopted to make the object answer; the education of youth, and proselytism (apostolat). This was during the reign of Pope Paul III, who gave his full sympathy to the new scheme. Hence in 1540 was published the famous papal bull – Regimini militantis Ecclesiae (the regiment of the warring, or militant Church) – after which the Order began increasing rapidly in numbers and power.
— H.P. Blavatsky[25]
Now, it is well known that most of the Protestant Reformers identified the pope not only as Daniel’s little horn power and John’s first beast (as I, too, have done), but also as the Antichrist who was to come. Yet, believe it or not, there is nothing in Scripture to link these three firmly together. Beasts, we must remember, are not individuals. They are kingdoms and powers (Daniel 7:17-18).
For my part, I am willing to admit that the pope certainly was and still is an antichrist power, backed by an antichrist system. But that does not make him the final Antichrist by any stretch. On the contrary, I believe we still await (though just barely as I write this) the final ascendance of the Antichrist, though he has had many types and forerunners throughout history.
The rise of the Jesuits and their Black Pope heralded a soon-coming end to the supreme power of the papal system. The Catholic Church and its pontiff had served their purposes to the dark lord. But to achieve his ultimate vision would require a new beast be summoned.