By Michael Scheifler

Greg Bentley of Berean Beacon shared with me material by Michael Scheifler on web.archive.org. Mr. Scheifler’s website went offline for some reason. I’m glad to re-post his material to make it more easily available.

THE EMPIRES OF DANIEL AND REVELATION

EMPIRE	DANIEL 2	DANIEL 7	DANIEL 8	REVELATION 13
BABYLON Until 539 B.C.	Head of Gold vs. 32, 38	Lion – v. 4, v. 17	——	Mouth of the Lion (1 head) v. 2
MEDO – PERSIA Until 331 B.C.	Chest of Silver vs. 32, 39	Bear – v. 5, v. 17	Ram vs. 3, 20	Feet of the Bear (1 head) v. 2
GREECE Until 168 B.C.	Belly of Brass vs. 32, 39	Leopard – v. 6, v.17	He-Goat vs. 5, 21	Body of the Leopard (4 heads) v. 2
PAGAN ROME Until 496 A.D.	Legs of Iron vs. 33, 40	4th Diverse Beast vs. 7, 17	——	World power of John’s time (1 head) Rome / Dragon v.2
Europe Divided	10 Toes vs. 33, 41	10 Horns vs. 20, 24	——	10 Horns of the Beast from the Sea v. 1
PAPAL ROME Begins 538 A.D. Head Wound – 1798 A.D.	——	Little Horn vs. 8, 11, 24-25	Little Horn vs. 9-12, 23-25	Composite of previous Empires 7 headed 10 horned Beast from the Sea vs. 1-3
JUDGMENT BEGINS 1844 A.D.	——	Judgment scene vs. 9-10, 22, 26	Sanctuary Cleansed v. 14	——
UNITED STATES	——	——	——	Lamb-like 2 Horned Land Beast v. 11
PAPAL Head Wound Healed Lateran Treaty – 1929	——	——	——	Head Wound to Sea Beast Healed vs. 3,12
GOD’S KINGDOM	Stone – Mountain vs. 35, 44	God’s Kingdom vs. 13-14, 27	——	——

Rev 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.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 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.

The above verses make clear, in even superficial reading, that the Great Red Dragon is Satan. But there is another relationship that is not as readily apparent. Verse 4 is referring to the birth of Jesus, and Satan’s attempt to kill the infant Jesus. Satan however, did not attempt this act of murder on his own. He made his attempt through the power of one man on earth. This man is identified:

Mat 2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

Herod the Great, the King of Judea and Palestine was the agent Satan used in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus. It is significant to note that Herod received his office from the Roman Empire. In 37 B.C. Herod the Great conquered Jerusalem with the aid of Roman armies and made himself king.

Now notice again in Rev 12:3 that Satan is described as having seven heads, ten horns and seven crowns. This is important because it is a key to identify Satan and his agents elsewhere in Revelation:

Rev 13:1 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.
Rev 13:2 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.

Here another agent of Satan can be found. Although nearly identical in description, it is not Satan, because verse 2 says this beast power gets his power from the dragon – a clear reference to Satan. As we observed in Matthew, Satan used the power of the ancient Roman Empire to attempt the murder of Jesus. The dragon and Rome worked with the same mind toward the same goal. So in Rev 13:2 we can possibly substitute Rome for the word Dragon. Lets explore a little farther.

Note the animals that are mentioned. This is a reference back to Daniel 7. John the Revelator was looking backwards in sequence at the previous empires, to give us a time hack if you will, to identify this Sea Beast in the stream of time. The Lion (Babylon) is referred to as the head of Gold in Dan 2, the Bear (Medo-Persia) which is also the chest of silver in Dan 2, and the Leopard (Greece) the thighs of brass in Dan 2. Now there is also a fourth beast in Dan 7, to match the legs of iron in Dan 2 –

Dan 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had TEN HORNS.

This fourth diverse beast with ten horns correlates to ancient pagan Rome. Ancient pagan Rome, when it disintegrated, was followed by the divided kingdoms, which is to say a divided Europe (a condition that exists today), represented by the feet and TEN TOES of clay and iron in Dan 2.

The Winged Dragon and Rome

In 312 A.D. Emperor Constantine was about to enter into battle with his rival emperor Maxentius. Greatly outnumbered by his opponents army, Constantine on the day before the impending battle saw a vision in the sky of a cross with the words “In Hoc Signo Crucis Vinces” emblazoned about it, which means “In This Sign (the Cross) You Shall Conquer”. Constantine immediately adopted the cross as his emblem and had it put on troops and banners. The following day Constantine defeated Maxentius in the battle of Milvian Bridge. Constantine went on to declare Christianity the state religion of Rome and was himself later baptized a Christian.

In the fresco, note what is in the upper right-hand corner (and shown above). There you will see a winged serpent, or dragon. Raffaello was depicting a pivotal moment in the conversion of Pagan Rome to Christianity, the dragon he painted being symbolic of ancient Pagan Rome.

Curiously, one of the Popes adopted the winged serpent or dragon as his symbol on his heraldic shield. Here is the heraldic coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII, 1572-1585 A.D., who is most known for initiating the calendar reform in use today, the Gregorian calendar. This is something you can confirm in the book The Pope Encyclopedia by Matthew Bunsen, published by Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1995, ISBN 0-517-88256-6, page 163.

The coat of arms of Gregory XIII shown here is one of two that can be found above the doors in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican. Revelation 12 clearly tells us that the dragon is symbolic of Satan, so why did a pope use it as his symbol?

In 1582, by decree of Gregory XIII (Inter Gravissimas), 10 days were dropped from the calendar, and a new system of leap years was inaugurated.

Dan 7:25 And he [the little horn] 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.

Changing Times and Laws

The above papal medal of Pope Gregory XIII, designed by L Parm, is dated 1582, marking the year of the Gregorian calendar reform. On the reverse of the medal is a winged dragon / serpent encircling a ram’s head. As previously mentioned, the dragon is the biblical symbol of Satan (Rev 12:9). The serpent that is chasing or devouring its tail is called Ouroboros, Uroboros, or Oureboros. The ram’s head is also a satanic symbol, and is frequently associated with the Egyptian deities, such as the god Amon (Amoun, Ammun, Ammon), the king of all gods, who was also regarded as the sun god, and Khnum, who created mankind on his potter’s wheel from the mud of the Nile.

The intended symbolic meaning, however, is undoubtedly that of Aries the Ram, the first sign of the Zodiac, which symbolizes the Vernal / Spring Equinox, and Draco / Drako (or Ouroboros) the serpent depicting a cyclical returning. Pope Gregory XIII had modified the calendar specifically so that the Vernal Equinox would remain relatively constant, on or about March 21st, which is the beginning of the Zodiacal year, when the Sun crosses the Equator and enters the astrological sign of Aries. This had the desired result of returning Easter to the time specified by the Nicene Council (325 A.D.).

Wearing Out the Saints

Pope Gregory XIII, with the dragon of Satan as his heraldic symbol, was also the pope who upon hearing of the wholesale slaughter of Protestant French Huguenots, known as St. Bartholomew’s massacre, had a medal struck to celebrate the bloody event. The reverse side of the medal, shown above, depicts an angel with a cross and sword murdering the Huguenot heretics.

To his credit, while in Paris to celebrate the 12th World Youth Day on Saturday, August 23rd, 1997, the eve of the anniversary of the massacre, Pope John Paul II made a brief apology for the acts of French Catholics 425 years before, by admitting that “Christians did things which the Gospel condemns.”

A second pope, Paolo V (1605-1621) also used a winged dragon on his heraldic shield along with an eagle. In the Vatican Gardens there is a fountain called the Fountain of Towers, bearing the inscription and papal shield of Paolo V, in which the central figure of the fountain is a winged dragon centered in water spouts. Flanking either side of the fountain are fortress like towers topped by sculptures of winged dragons.

Because it somewhat resembles an altar, this fountain has also been called the Fountain of the Sacrament, or in Italian, Fontana del Santissimo Sacramento. The spray of water from the dragon’s mouth is said to imitate the rays of a sunburst monstrance.

The Transfer of Power to the Bishop of Rome.

As we established with Rev 12:4, the dragon’s agent in trying to kill Christ was ancient Rome (through Herod). With this relationship of Dragon = Rome we can see that the beast from the sea of Revelation 13 should get his power and seat and great authority from the Ancient Roman Empire, through Satan, just like Herod did. This prompts the question, did ancient Rome formally bestow its power and authority on any existing power?

A check of history will reveal the successor to the Roman emperors. With the move of the Roman capitol to Constantinople, there was a political power vacuum that was quickly and willingly filled by the Bishop of Rome-

[p. 269] Whatever Roman elements the barbarians and Arians left … [came] under the protection of the Bishop of Rome, who was the chief person there after the Emperor’s disappearance… [p. 270] The Roman Church in this way privily pushed itself into the place of the Roman World-Empire, of which it is the actual continuation; the empire has not perished, but has only undergone a transformation … That is no mere “clever remark,” but the recognition of the true state of the matter historically, and the most appropriate and fruitful way of describing the character of this Church. It still governs the nations … It is a political creation, and as imposing as a World-Empire, because the continuation of the Roman Empire. The Pope, who calls himself “King” and “Pontifex Maximus,” is Caesar’s successor.

Source: Adolf Harnack, What Is Christianity? trans. by Thomas Bailey Saunders (2d ed., rev.; New York: Putnam, 1901), pp. 269, 270. [Ernest Benn Ltd., London, has recently published a new edition of this book.]

The archetype from which the pope descends is that of the imperial Caesar, … while for the most part Italy wasn’t even a unified state – unlike France, Spain, England, Russia – that unique supreme Christian authority, purely Italian, nevertheless continued to represent the universality descended from the emperors. It is not paradoxical to say that in Italy the monarchy has continued to exist despite the expulsion of the royal House of Savoy, because the monarchical authority of the pontiff has a charisma and a national power of attraction that no president of the republic has ever been able to claim.

Source: Why the next pope needs to be Italian, by Roberto Pazzi, The International Herald Tribune Online, Monday, January 12, 2004, translated by Ann McGarrell from Italian.

One of the most famous forged documents ever was the Donation of Constantine, which it was claimed, proved that Emperor Constantine had given authority and property to the Pontiff of Rome. For many centuries the Donation of Constantine was used by the Catholic church to validate it’s claim to authority. OK, you say, but that was a forgery – it was not an authentic transfer of power to the Papacy. True. There was such a document however, the authenticity of which is not challenged even to this day. In 533 A.D. Roman Emperor Justinian in the Justinian Code declared the Bishop of Rome to have the first rank of all pontiffs, head of all Christian churches, and that he (Justinian) would exert every effort to increase the honor and authority of the Apostolic See of Rome! This was the formal transfer of power from the Emperor of Pagan Rome to the Papacy. It should be noted however, the implementation of this decree did not actually occur until 538 A.D. when a siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths was broken.

Dan 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

Rome is described in Dan 7:7 as diverse, or different from previous powers. This is because, as we have seen, the ancient Pagan Roman empire GAVE political power and religious authority to it’s successor, the Roman Catholic Church.

Note that each of the beasts in Daniel can be described as UNIVERSAL powers that dominated the world at the time. Ancient Rome also was a universal power, yet in time, the Roman empire faded. It’s clear successor is the UNIVERSAL (Catholic) CHURCH – again another universal power. Rome was the diverse fourth power because it evolved from a Pagan Political power, into a Christian religious AND political power, though still dominated by Pagan beliefs.

The “Little Horn” Power

Dan 7:8 I considered the (10) horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, …

Pope Pius IX gave this remarkable testimony:

“It is, therefore, by a particular decree of Divine Providence that, at the fall of the Roman Empire and its partition into separate kingdoms, the Roman Pontiff, whom Christ made the head and center of his entire Church, acquired civil power.” − Pius IX, Apostolic Letter Cum Catholica Ecclesia, March 26, 1860.

Source: Papal Teachings: The Church, selected and arranged by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, translated by Mother E. O’Gorman, R.S.C.J., Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, St. Paul Editions, Boston, © 1980, 1962 by Daughters of St. Paul, Library of Congress catalog card number 62-12454, par. #225, page 160.

Divine Providence indeed! Daniel had prophesied it! The phrase “little horn” indicates a “little kingdom”. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of this entity, its small size geographically. The Vatican, the headquarters for the Catholic Church located in Rome, is today the smallest independent country in the world, covering only about 108 acres in size. The papal monarchy came up among the divided kingdoms (the 10 horns), after the fall of the Rome Empire, and has had influence greatly disproportionate to its geographical size.

Dan 7:8 … before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: …

Who were these three kingdoms that were uprooted? The Heruli, Vandals, and finally the Ostrogoths. Each of them were Arian, considered heretics by the Roman Catholic Church, and were defeated by the Emperor on the Pope’s behalf.

Dan 7:8 … and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

This now should be an obvious reference to the great things and blasphemies spoken by a man of the Roman Catholic church (the Papacy), that persecuted the saints for 1260 years, changed the day of rest and tampered with the Ten Commandments and also defeated three other European political powers that followed the downfall of the Roman Empire.

Tampering with God’s Unchangeable Law.

Look at Daniel 7:25 –

Dan 7:25 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 (of the most High):
and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Note what I added in parenthesis above. The Little Horn (The Papacy) thinks to be able to change times and laws, and in context it is speaking about the times and laws of God. So has the Papacy, the Roman Catholic Church, claimed that the Law of of God, the Ten Commandments can be changed? Indeed they do. They think they have done it by changing the day of rest to Sunday! In one action they have fulfilled that portion of the prophecy of Daniel 7:25, changing both the time and the law of God.

Here is a link to the Catholic New Advent web page. Note what
they say about the Sabbath commandment
(3rd by Catholic reckoning)-

Here is a link to the

Catholic Baltimore Catechism on the Sabbath commandment. Read #353 to
#360…

Here is the General index to the Baltimore Catechism.

Note the fate of this beast in Daniel:

Dan 7:11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

This is also a reference to:

Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Continuing to follow the trail of seven heads and ten horns in the Bible leads us also to a beast in Rev 17, the same beast destroyed in Rev 19:20 as we have just seen.

Rev 17:3 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.
Rev 17:4 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:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 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.

Note the contrast of this woman with the woman found in Rev 12. In scripture a woman commonly represents a church (Jer 6:2, Isa 54:5-6, Hos 2:19-20, John 3:29, 2 Cor 11:2, Rev 19:7-8). The symbolic woman of Rev 12 represents the righteous church of believers that brought forth Jesus and is described in admirable terms. Compare that with the symbolic woman described here in Rev 17, the apostate church. Note that this church is described as the Mother of Harlots. There is only ONE Christian church that is self-described as the Mother church – the Roman Catholic Church – and her Protestant daughters are called harlots.

(To be continued.)