Thank you Bohlsen Group for sending us a copy of this book to review!
There are many theories about the end times, the anti-Christ and the mark of the beast. I have read theories of the anti-Christ being the current or future President or Pope. While the Catholic church is referenced as the “wounded head of Revelation,” the author, Ezra Celestin believes that the Beast of Revelations is not an obvious target.
The Catholic church got its “wounded head” from the reformation movement and the Protestants are still in the dark to the truth, unlike the Seventh Day Adventists. E.G. White is quoted in the first chapter saying “We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed.” Despite the obvious ties with the Seventh Day Adventist church, this book was an insightful read.
I got quite the history lesson with the fall of the Roman empire, the origins of the reformation movement, the French Revolution, and World War II. There are many Bible verses quoted to back up claims of the four great kingdoms being Babylon as the head of gold, Media and Persia are the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs are Greece and the legs of iron represent Rome in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision. Daniel’s vision of the four beasts are translated as the lion representing Babylon, the bear is Media and Persia, Greece is the leopard with four wings and four heads, and Rome is depicted as the beast with ten horns.
*spoiler alert* As for the beast itself, it’s none other than the Unites States with its calling down fire upon Japan in World War 2. Also, if you add up the number of people in the president’s cabinet, legislative and judicial branches the number comes out to 666. With the Republican and Democratic parties, the United States fits the description of the two-horned beast while the United Nations is the image of it. */spoiler*