Read Revelation 17 at Bible Gateway.
revelation 17, mystery babylon the great
revelation 17, seven heads of the beast
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part two
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part three
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part four
The horns we have identified so far, include:
Constantine the Great, 306-337
Theodoric the Great, 488-526
Justinian the Great, 527-565
– Gregory the Great (pope Gregory I, 590-604), not one of the ten, but growing up among them
Charles the Great (Charlemagne), 768-814
Otto the Great, 936-973
Charles V, 1516-1556
Napoleon Bonaparte (reigned as First Consul of France from 1799, and Emperor of the French, 1804-1815), during the French Revolution (1789-93, map), as France was awash with the blood of royals, nobles, and Roman clergy, and unfortunately, just as many commoners who fell out on the wrong side of competing political factions, the crowned heads of Europe waged war against France, from 1792-1802, in an attempt to contain the Revolution, the anarchy, and the bloodshed within France’s borders and not spread to their own countries (brief history of the Revolutionary Wars). Napoleon commanded many of these campaigns as general for France. In 1799 he took over the French Republic in a military coup; in 1804 he summoned the pope to Paris, to crown him Emperor of the French; Napoleon famously took the crown out of the pope’s hands and crowned himself in Notre Dame cathedral. This marks the first time since Charlemagne that a state asserted its authority as superior to the Roman church or office of the papacy. In 1806, Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, the image of the beast that had ruled for a little more than one thousand years.
The Napoleonic Wars were fought from 1799-1815 as Napoleon sought to establish a new Roman Empire with himself as Emperor (map with Napoleonic French Empire at its greatest extent, occupied and contested territories are in light blue; more history of the Napoleonic Wars).
In the war against the Lamb, the French Revolution as a worldview, overthrew the idea that faith could embody truth; Revolutionary France was officially atheist, Bibles and church books were banned and burned, churches closed, and the practice of any faith but devotion to the goddess reason, in the revolutionaries’ words, was prohibited. Himself an atheist, Napoleon did eventually restore relations with the Roman church and pope, although with their authority greatly weakened. Atheism as a philosophy, and the idea that nothing spiritual and religious can contain truth, is from the French Revolution and it is still waging war against the Lamb today.
In the wake of the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, which was known in Germany as the First Reich, in 1871, the German nobles created out of the confederation of the German states, the German Empire, or Second Reich, with Wilhelm king of Prussia as Emperor (map).
Kaiser Wilhelm II (German Emperor, or Kaiser (from Caesar), 1888-1918), grandson of Queen Victoria of England on his mother’s side, and grandson of German Emperor Wilhelm I, first emperor of the new German Empire, on his father’s side.
During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological and scientific giant, receiving more Nobel Prizes in science than Britain, France, Russia and the United States combined. It was a great power, with the most powerful army in the world, and its navy went from negligible to being second only to the British Empire in less than a decade. — German Empire, Wikipedia
When the German Empire made an alliance with the Austrian Empire and Italy, called the Triple Alliance, the allied territories covered a vast area of Europe not seen since the French Empire of Napoleon (map). its growing power frightened France on its west side, and Russia on its east side, who themselves allied together with Britain, called the Triple Entente, to serve as a counter balance.
When the Austrian Empire declared war on Serbia in 1914, for a Serbian national’s assassination of the Archduke of Austria, Russia was obligated by the Triple Entente to in turn declare war on Austria. Then the German Empire was obligated by the Triple Alliance to declare war on Russia, which in turn obligated France and Britain to declare war on the German Empire. Thus began World War I (more on the history of WWI), which drew in the Ottoman Empire on the side of Germany, or the Central Powers, and the United States and practically everyone else on the side of Britain, or the Allied Powers (map). World War I was the first global war fought on nearly every continent.
Germany lost the war in 1918. Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate, Prussia was no more, Austria was greatly reduced and new nations made out of her former territories, and the terms of the peace imposed by the victors left a bitter taste in the proud Germans’ mouths.
In the war against the Lamb in this period, I have guesses but nothing definite. Revolutionary Russia came on the heels of WWI in 1917, modeled after the French Revolution, with the same disastrous results, war, bloodshed, poverty, totalitarianism, and atheism as the state religion. Millions subsequently perished. Antisemitism in Europe was brewing and the outcome of the war is tied to that. That the League of Nations was instituted in its wake is tied to the war against the Lamb. That Palestine — an old Roman province — was carved out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire — not Judea, not Samaria — is tied to the war with the Lamb. I am currently researching the pope of this era and his relationship and ties to the Emperor. The benefit of hindsight will clarify much for us.
Adolf Hitler (chancellor of Germany, 1933-1945), established the Third Reich in Germany as a totalitarian state under Hitler’s Nazi Party. In order to recover territories he considered belonged to a greater German or Aryan people, Hitler launched World War II, which was the second war fought across the globe on nearly every continent. Europe under Nazi domination covered the greatest territory yet of any empire of one of the horns of the Roman beast (map).
In the war with the Lamb, Hitler murdered six million Jews in the gas chambers of the concentration camps, the greatest devastation inflicted on the two witnesses yet. I am currently researching the pope of this era and his relationship and ties to Hitler. The benefit of hindsight will clarify much for us.
So up to 1945, there have been nine horns of the Roman beast. A tenth is yet to come. All of the horns, except for Napoleon, have been German, or from the ancient territory of the Goths (proto- Germans). There is actually a tenth empire in Europe today, uniting all the various states into one political entity: the European Union (map). Is it a coincidence that the strongest state in the European Union, with the strongest economy and dollar, is Germany? Is it a coincidence that the parliament building for the entire European Union is located in Strasbourg, today in France, but as its name indicates, for centuries a German territory and city? Is it furthermore a coincidence, that when this edifice was built, it was intentionally constructed on the model of an unfinished Tower of Babel? (2016 Update: Original link posted in 2011 now broken; replaced with this 2015 article.) While the church waits for the building of a third temple in Jerusalem, I would look well to Germany and the EU for the tenth and final horn before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
My opinion!
(November 2016 Update: The Tenth Empire Indentified and Operating.)
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Christine’s book The Revelation of Jesus Christ Revealed, based on these studies but greatly expanded, is now available at Revelation Revealed Online. You may also be interested in reading the Book Extras and joining in on the Discussion.
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