Symbolism and allegory
The Bible is God’s word and He means for us to understand what He says, not what we would like Him to say. The Bible is constant
Satan will not succeed in controlling whole world. God intervened at the Tower of Babel and this will happen again.
Symbols
The Bible often uses mountains as a symbol representing a kingdom or an empire. Isaiah 2:2-4 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, [that] the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” God’s kingdom will be over all other kingdoms. This is understood easily by people in the west.
Rome is a city of 7 hills, but Ahmadinejad said, “Do not doubt, Allah will prevail, and Islam will conquer mountain tops of the entire world” He is speaking of the great kingdoms and governments of the west. Proper eastern allegoric usage.
Many passages confirm this of use of mountain
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Ezekiel 34:6 “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek [after them].”
-Daniel 2:35 ” Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”
From the stone that is Messiah will come God’s Kingdom
-Psalms 46:2-3 “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; [Though] the waters thereof roar [and] be troubled, [though] the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.” 46:6 “The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.”
If one reads this passages replacing mountains with Kingdoms and streams for peoples and cultures these make much more sense. In this verse in Psalms the Bible even gives the explanation. Mountains falling v2 are kingdoms falling v6
Christ spoke of having the faith of a mustard seed to move mountains, these are governments and kingdoms, what the first disciples did. Completely changing the Middle East.
Revelation 17:5 “And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
-Waters and rivers represent peoples.
The Primary source for understanding a word or a symbol is the text itself.
-Daniel 7:4 “The first [was] like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.”
-Psalm 72:8 “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
These 2 passages are saying the same thing. Daniel says Christ will rule over peoples and nations, Psalms uses streams and rivers to say the same thing. Isaiah 42:15 “I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.” Isaiah 43:2 “When thou passest through the waters, I [will be] with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
The Bible also uses symbols of heads to represent kingdoms
Revelation 17:9 “And here [is] the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.”
The kingdom is obviously ruled by a king. One cannot have a kingdom without a king. Revelation 13:3 “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.”
-One of the Kingdoms is destroyed and seems to come back to life,
Many believe the beast is a man, but it is clear from scripture that a single entity does not necessarily mean a single being.
Revelation 19:7 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
-The wife represents many people, the beast of revelation represents a group.
The metaphorical use of beast and bride are consistent of this type of use throughout scripture. The beast references in Daniel refer to kingdoms. Beast always represents group of people that follows false religion and the horn is its leader. Satan seeks to be like God, rule the earth, and have his own kingdom. This is why we see the uprising of an Islamic empire. Just as Bride waits for Christ, Islam waits for Mahdi. He will lead his followers in footsteps of Muhammad.
Qur'an 27:82 Allah even says that He will send a beast (a very
grotesque, terrifying animal) as a prophet for mankind. Allah
will create a beast from earth to talk to the
unbelievers after Allah had punished them. Ibn Abbas confirms that
the beast will come with the mast of Moses. Jalalyn says the beast
will preach in Arabic. Ibn Kathir provides a good description of
this Muslim beast. He writes:
It was also
recorded by Ibn Majah. Ibn Jurayj reported that Ibn Az-Zubayr
described the beast and said, "Its head is like the head of a bull,
its eyes are like the eyes of a pig, its ears are like the ears of
an elephant, its horns are like the horns of a stag, its neck is
like the neck of an ostrich, its chest is like the chest of a lion,
its colour is like the colour of a tiger, its haunches are like the
haunches of a cat, its tail is like the tail of a ram, and its legs
are like the legs of a camel. Between each pair of its joints is a
distance of twelve cubits. It will bring out with it the staff of
Musa and the ring of Sulayman. There will be no believer left
without it making a white spot on his face, which will spread until
all his face is shining white as a result; and there will be no
disbeliever left without it making a black spot on his face, which
will spread until all his face is black as a result, then when the
people trade with one another in the marketplace, they will say,
`How much is this, O believer' `How much is this, O disbeliever'.
And when the members of one household sit down together to eat, they
will know who is a believer and who is a disbeliever."NAME
The Bible uses a name as a declaration of faith or creed. We see the following not giving us the literal name of God, but the meaning- Everlasting father, prince of peace, etc.
Names in the East are in regard to the creed or attributes and titles of the person they signify. In this same way the name of the beast is a blasphemous declaration. This is crucial. The Harlot has names “creeds” of blasphemy. So do the followers of antichrist
DRAGON
The Dragon we know is none other than Satan Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Revelation 12:3 “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”
The Beast
The Apostle John gives descriptions of the beast. Revelation 17:3 “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
Seven heads are 7 empires that have existed. Yet they re-arise at the end. The Bible clarifies its symbolism. Revelation 17:9-11 “And here [is] the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”
There are several reasons why this cannot be referring to Rome or Europe
Called seven heads, mountains and kings. There is a city on 7 hills, but the context is wrong. How could Rome be situated on seven hills that are also seven kings, each with a name of blasphemy on it?
Insight into this fact that before Jesus returns there will be 8 empires, the 8th being antichrist’s.
At the time that it was written, 5 empires had already fallen.
1-Egyptian empire
2-Assyrian
3-Babylonian
4-Persian
5-Greek
6-Roman
After these 5 the Angel told John 1 Is, which was Rome, which ruled Middle East, Africa and Europe. This gives us the composite of the Last, and the sequence up until the 7th. This is the summary of a prophetic riddle. So we need to identify who the 7th is because it will give us the 8th. They 8th will be a resurrection or revived version of the 7th. The Beast who once was, and was not, and is the 8th. The 7th beast will come back. In John’s day the 7th did not exist, but will include them all. If we are now waiting for the final 8th what was the 7th? What followed the Roman Empire. The Revived roman empire issue is Rome was the 6th. This would mean Rome 3 times was in power, this is not biblical. Every one of the previous 6 ruled the Middle East including Jerusalem. The Bible is Jerusalem centric.
This point cannot be underscored. If we look at 1st six empires, each destroyed or consumed the prior. Who overcame the Roman Empire and in so doing became the 7th? None other, than the Ottoman Turks.
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