When we were last together, Emperor Constantine had seen in a dream the replica of a cross, which Jesus told him to use to replace his Roman standard. He made his new standard from gold and precious jewels, then marched with his army toward Rome and the battle with Emperor Maxentius. Demons had advised Maxentius how to win the war, but Jesus Christ had advised Constantine how to win the war.
As the battle raged on, Maxentius and his army found themselves retreating, unable to sustain against the advancing strength of Constantine and his army. Remember the trap that Maxentius plotted for the death of Constantine? Well, with no time to strategize another defense against the overwhelming power of Constantine's army, Maxentius and his army found themselves inadvertently backing onto the faulty bridge he had built to trap his enemies, because it was the closest avenue of escape to his compound in the city of Rome.
Emperor Maxentius and his army plunged into the icy waters of the Tiber River, when the bridge collapsed beneath them. The weight of his armor anchored Maxentius under the water until he drowned. This ended nearly three hundred years of Imperial Rome's persecution of the Christians. The prophecy of the ten horns - ten kings - of the sixth head of the beast was now fulfilled.
The Christians were so thrilled with Constantine's victory, they brought him to Rome to celebrate for seven days. In the market place, they erected an image of him holding a cross in his right hand with the inscription, "With this wholesome sign, the true token of fortitude, I have rescued and delivered our city from the yoke of the tyrant."
Constantine restored property to the Christians that had been confiscated during the previous persecutions. Eventually he provided government funds to rebuild the churches that Dioclesian, Maximian, and Maxentius had unscrupulously obliterated. The fervor of Christianity flourished with freedom provided by Constantine.
Emperor Constantine found it a difficult task to persuade the Roman populous to surrender to Jesus Christ. Constantine had ordered that no pagan deities be allowed to be worshiped in his kingdom, nor even their names spoken. But for centuries these people had worshiped hundreds of deities, including the Caesars, and were resistant to acknowledging only one God - Jesus Christ.
In order to accommodate the commands of Constantine, the pagans simply renamed their deities with more acceptable Christian titles. For example: Nimrod the Sun God, founder of demon worship of the Babylonian religious system, had a wife named Semiramis called the Queen of Heaven - intercessor for the people. She claimed that her son, Tammuz, was the fulfillment of the Genesis prophecy regarding the coming Messiah.
Artists of the Babylonian era portrayed her with her son on her lap, and the glory light around their heads. By the time Constantine freed the Christians, the leadership of Christianity had already commingled the paganism of Rome with Christianity. To comply with the requirements of Constantine, the Christian leadership changed the name of the Queen of Heaven to Mary, and her son to Jesus.
Semiramiis had been worshiped as Queen of Heaven, now she became Mary, who would be worshiped as Queen of Heaven - intercessor for the people. This was the beginning of Mary worship, proclaiming her to be the intercessor for mankind, rather than Jesus Christ. Artists now placed the glory light around the heads of Mary and Jesus.
It was during this time when Constantine became impatient with the persistent paganism in Rome. He moved his seat of power - capitol - to the farthest eastern portion of his empire. He renamed the city of Byzantine to Constantinople, where Christianity was practiced freely.
He left the western portion of his empire at Rome in the hands of the papacy, whom he believed would protect and preserve Christianity. He was unaware that Semiramis, the Queen of Heaven, had already evolved into Mary, Queen of Heaven in order to meet his requirements. It was during this transforming period of history that Jesus Christ, who is divine, became merely an intangible deity to be revered - but never approached - by the emerging Holy Roman Empire.
After the death of Constantine in 337 A.D., the empowerment he bestowed upon the papacy in Rome, eventually evolved into an oligarchy. This oligarchy would soon be identified with the seventh head of the seven-headed beast in our study.
The Holy Roman Empire arises with full power and authority that was granted to it by Emperor Constantine. Rome was the seat of power for the Imperial Roman Empire, and now it is the seat of power for the Holy Roman Empire, who is the mirror image of Imperial Rome. This is the fulfillment of...then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon...Rev. 13:11.
The two-horned beast merely symbolizes apostate religion and its unholy alliance with secular government. The lamb metaphorically symbolizes Christianity, while the dragon metaphorically symbolizes a serpent (Satan), who speaks for the beast. Constantine, representing the sixth head of the beast, granted power to give breath to the image of the beast...Rev. 13:15. The image of the beast is the Holy Roman Empire - seventh head of the beast.
And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed...Rev. 13:12. Wow...is this a fun riddle to solve? And we will...stay tuned.
God's sheep question the doctrines of men...sheeple follow without question.
No comments:
Post a Comment