September 8, 2007

• An Image of the Beast or Just Another Guy?

  I have been interested in end time prophecy like most folks but also as
  many others have considered that there is so much confusion about it
  that its really hard to tell what’s true and what’s not. Yet we are
  told by Christ in Matthew 24 to be looking for His coming. Anyway, I’m
  scratching my head right now on something Bee and I saw this morning.
  What I am about to relate I offer to you to consider and comment on
  since I’d like a few more “eyes” and “minds” considering the
  possibilities of what I am thinking.

  As we all should know by now, Osama Bin Laden has spoken again telling
  the world to convert to Islam. Yet as I read the news article over Bee’s shoulder and saw the two pictures of Bin Laden, an old one and
  the new one, in that article, I told her to capture the photos on the
  computer and superimpose them with our graphics program to see how much
  difference we could spot since my eye caught something that I couldn’t
  really identify immediately.

  
  (I would give credit to someone for these pictures but it wasn't obviously labeled in a place I know about.)
  The top row goes  left to right and the bottom row goes right to left. Both pictures of both rows on the left
  is the 100% photo of the respective people.

  We found out some pretty interesting things. This most recent photo
  seems to show a man with a smaller “hat size” i.e. smaller head around
  the turban than the previous one several years ago i.e. a more
  triangular shaped face for the earlier picture. In fact, the new guy’s face is visibly narrower
  and less triangular than the previous picture. Also, I noticed a
  drooping eyelid on the man’s right side (left one as we would look at
  it) and while the older picture is a bit fuzzy, the right eyelid isn’t
  drooping.  If one was drooping, it would be the left one. While one
  might obtain a drooping eyelid from a stroke, its difficult to alter
  the size and shape of one’s skull. Even the mouth seems different but
  that is so hard to tell given the ability for the mouth to change its
  shape. Now there even seems to be a difference in the length of his
  nose from the eyebrow to the tip of the nose. This sure does look like the same stuff of the Saddam "doubles".

  Folks, I have a strong suspicion this “new” man is not Bin Laden or the
  old one was not or both are not. So this post is a call for folks to
  take a look at this and see if its so. Line up the shoulders and the
  nose and try it. We used a 10% transparency transition step from one
  picture to the other.

  Given this, I remembered Daniel 7:8 which says…

  
  I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one,
  coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked
  out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a
  man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.  Daniel 7:8 (NASB)

  The important physical features noted here was “the eyes of a man” and
  a “mouth” speaking pompous words. Almost as if it were speaking of a
  video of a man’s head.

  Also, I remembered Revelation 13:3

  
  I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was
  healed And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;   
  Revelation 13:3 (NASB)

  How could it be that a man could appear to be slain yet be alive?
  Considering that the “man of sin” to come is a deceiver, then it might
  be possible that the real Bin Laden is really dead and we are seeing a
  “double”. It becomes even more interesting that the Bible’s wording in
  Revelation about an accomplice to the first Beast who would…

  
  He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence And
  he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first
  beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that
  he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence
  of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the
  signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast,
  telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who
  had the wound of the sword and has come to life.  And it was given to
  him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the
  beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of
  the beast to be killed. Revelation 13:12-15 (NASB)

  There would be an “image” made of the Beast by this accomplice who
  tells others to perform the “image-making”.  For us these days,
  photographs and television handles this quite well. But notice that the
  accomplice can make “fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the
  presence of men”. Now remember that these folks are “deceivers” so this
  isn’t really going to be a miracle, its going to be a “false wonder”.
  Could this “fire” be nuclear weapons? It would be “fire coming down
  from heaven to the earth in the presence of men” or something very much
  like it. Could this be a manifestation of someone called an
  “abomination of desolation” noting this person’s bent toward
  destruction? This would bring in another fellow that we know about
  who’s making such materials now who has already told us his hatred for
  Israel (Ahmadinejad) who has done everything but claim himself a
  prophet that comes before the Islamic “savior”, the Mahdi, who is
  supposed to look like everything a student of Christ’s Second Coming
  and end time prophecy would recognize as the Antichrist.

  Now if we look at II Thessalonians 2, we learn a bit more about this
  Beast and perhaps something of his accomplice as well since they work
  together.

  
  Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the
  apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son
  of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called
  god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of
  God, displaying himself as being God. II Thessalonians 2:3-4 (NASB)

  While this hasn’t been completely fulfilled, keep an eye out for this.
  Yet we could safely say that he is calling on everyone to worship
  Allah, who when carefully considered when reading the Koran, isn’t like
  the God of Israel and this book teaches that Jesus didn’t die for the
  sins of man, rejecting the Christ being the Son of God, i.e.
  anti-christ.
  
  
  And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be
  revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he
  who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then
  that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the
  breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His
  coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of
  Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the
  deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not
  receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God
  will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what
  is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the
  truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. II Thessalonians 2:6-12 (NASB)

  There is so much here that describes the character of the activity of
  the Beast and his appearance and what happens to those who have not
  received the love of the truth so as to be saved i.e. accepting Christ
  as savior and Lord. Note that the activity comes with deception and has
  the characteristics of Satan’s activity, performing signs and wonders
  that are patently false but still deceive. It doesn’t take much to
  remember the glee that was expressed in those videos of those with Bin
  Laden in those days after September 11, 2001. Is this the taking
  pleasure in the wickedness of murdering thousands of innocent people?
  Could the deluding influence be the very message that Bin Laden has
  again told the world, to convert to Islam?

  Even if we went back and considered Daniel 2 and Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
  and its interpretation that there would be a “feet and toes” aspect
  (perhaps a “kingdom”) that would arise after the fourth empire that we
  know through history to be Rome.
  
  
  "In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly
  of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the
  toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.
  As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so
  some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And
  in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with
  one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one
  another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.”  Daniel 2:41-43
  (NASB)

  From the rest of the context, we see that each of these “kingdoms” are
  worldwide in nature. This final one before, “the stone made without
  hands” crushes this final kingdom will be:

  1. A divided kingdom, some of it strong and tough like iron, some of it weak and brittle like pottery.
  2. This kingdom will be mingled throughout the world although its
  people will not adhere to the nations that they will live in and be
  committed to their own kingdom instead.

  Could this be a description of Al Qaeda, Bin Laden’s organization of death scattered all over the world?

  There would seem to be considerably more that could be brought to bear
  here especially in light of the hatred of this person and his
  accomplice for Israel and radical Islam’s expectations of the soon
  coming of this “Mahdi” who unbelievably has a description very closely
  resembling the “Beast” (Antichrist) of the Bible.

  Even the recent digging on the Temple Mount would suggest that Islam
  believes it has the right to do whatever it wants on that site and
  rejects any notion of a former Temple of the God of Israel, could be
  thought of as an abomination that “desolates” in yet another light.

  Of course, there are probably a million and one things I left out or
  did not consider with regards to this matter in such a short time but
  this is only an observation that seem to connect with a lot of things
  that are going on these days and I’d be just as pleased to have it
  affirmed or not since I’m not tied to the concept either way. It just
  seems too compelling to ignore even if this were a “prototype” of
  something to come. So I bring it to you for comment.  Mr.Vee
  
  BTW... could this be two of the seven "heads" spoken of in Revelation 13:1?

  • 1:53 pm
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