In this passage of scripture, from a person of whom "all" except as teacher of the Gentiles (sometime to their own destruction-see II Peter 3:15-16), we get a picture of the end of time; But did you notice; the end doesn’t come until first "a falling away" has taken place

During the dark ages we had a great period of falling away, like none other that time will allow, ending at a time relatively near when Christ will appear.

After or during this falling away time what happens

Now these clues, about this power, are the same descriptions given by the prophets Daniel and John when describing "the beast power", who gives "the mark of the beast", to those who have been deceived, near the end of time, that we have all herd about.

Who, or what this power is, "must be shown us from the bible" and not just speculation.

Notice what Daniel says about this power setting himself above God as Paul describes

Daniel 7:25

Notice now what John says:

"Blasphemy", "persecution of saints" and "Worship" are the same linking words that Paul used to describe this power to come near the time of the end.

Back to II Thessalonians 2:5

Here Paul is recalling a time, it appears, when he expounded undoubtedly upon those writings of Daniel; heeding even Jesus’ own warning in Matthew 24:14-15 of which I am sure he was familiar.

In verse 6 Paul says

Here, he is going on to say if I can paraphrase; "now you know what is holding back his revealing, I’ve already told you that, and have shown you that from the word".

Then he highlights what he means by "you know"

The wicked shall be revealed, and the lord will consume him at his coming.

Yet right before this Paul said what?

excuse me, I guess that’s the next two verses;

Get this now Satan will be very deceiving with "all power and lying wonders and signs". With all "deceivableness" (these are not perversions of iniquity that cause this deception, extreme sinners do not fool anyone but themselves) No, Paul is talking about religious wonders, deceiving the religious. "Who in the religious world is fooled by signs of gross iniquity", but miracles and soul music now that’s a different story.

From this then we can gather; the unrighteousness spoken of here then, is in religious matters of "worship" do you get that ? One of our key words?

"Worship"

How could this be ?

"Because they received not a love of the truth that they might be saved" it’s so simple friends. So we are talking about religious people after all, and they are deceived because they would not listen to the truth, and not just listen either, but fall in love with the truth! – now that’s an entirely different thing.

God, in verse 11 does a strange thing, he lets them go to their own delusions that they should believe a lie (religious people now !) this is almost a paradox.

"That those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in religious unrighteousness", even in "worshipping wrongly", we could add here and not be wrong.

You see, Paul is describing here a group of people near the end of time, "after the dark ages", after the wicked (deceiver) has been revealed in his time (according to Daniels prophecy), when he causes all, both great and small, to worship him and receive his mark of deception. (re-read Daniel and Johns statement above) This mark will be the last deception just prior to the coming of Jesus.

The question I pose then is; "If you don’t know what the MARK is, how do you know you don't have it" ?

Lets discuss this by going to the horses mouth- lets turn back to the prophet Daniels writings as Jesus warns us to;

Daniel 7:2-8

Here Daniel sees four beasts which according to verse 23 are the four world empires (the fourth beast being the fourth kingdom) powers that were to rule the earth. The first was in Daniels time, the forth was the last

Daniel 7:23

History plays this entire dream out friends, just as God described it back the in 605 b.c. to Daniel, and Daniel himself living under the first beasts rule also saw the second beast come on the scene, just as God predicted, so he had no doubt what God was saying would come to pass about the other beasts and powers revealed - neither should we;

History shows us there have been only four "world domineering" powers in history.

The following maps give us an idea of what areas of the world these powers assumed. Remember there were scattered people groups out beyond these boundaries but they were not powers as yet to need be conquered, and when it comes to Gods plan they have always been outside His grasps or never inclined to Him even to this day so have no implications to prophecy one way or another, just like the other named world empires have no religious influence on Godly (inc. Christ) matters. Think about it.

After Jesus went back to heaven and we plunged into the dark ages and the last of the great domineering world power was cut down (Rome), the eastern powers "Mongrels" etc. began to sweep even into the Holy Land to the great water of Europe.

The maps we are about to see show the areas of the powers described to Daniel in his dream;

Babylon Empire 606 b.c. - 538 b.c. Nebuchadnezer quickly conquered the world first, as with wings of an eagle, prophetically representing the speed of which he conquered the then known world. He was the head of this world dominion (the "lion" is still king of the Jungle), and as we know, he had a "heart" especially for Daniel and eventually his God.

Medo-Persia Empire 538 b.c. - 331 b.c. this was an alliance of two great powers that took Babylon’s seat of authority away to rule the then known world. The Meads were more powerful than the Persians during their rule so the symbolic bear is shown prophetically raised up on one side. Three divisions of the world were drawn under this empire, thus the three ribs in its mouth, representing the three nations in an alliance;

Babylon, Lydia and Egypt.

Grecian Empire 331 b.c. - 168 b.c. Alexander the Great swept onto the world scene with such speed four wings are described, the four heads on the leopard were the four generals who assumed his power over the world when he died early in his rule; Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Seleucus.

Roman Empire 168 b.c. - 476 a.d. The last power to hold world dominion was Rome, the Iron Monarchy as described in history. God describes Rome’s conquest to a tee; Dreadful, ferocious, a terror, the creator of the crucifixion as a way of punishment, and as we know she ruled right past the time of Christ.

Daniel 7:23-24

If you noticed in verses 23-24 the Ten Horns that come up on this Forth Beasts head are Ten Kingdoms that shall arise. Did this happen in fact? You bet! God is not a liar or a false prophet! Rome was divided after its fall, in 476 a.d., by ten tribes allied together, and they brought her down and divided her empire into ten kingdoms, of course. Seven of which are still on the map today.

Anglo-Saxons – England

Burundians – Switzerland

Alamanni – Germany

Suevi – Portugal

Franks – France

Lombards – Italy

Visigoths – Spain

Did you notice though that three of these kingdoms were to be plucked up by the roots by a another power that "shall arise after" the ten divide up Rome?

Verse 8 calls it a "Little Horn Power" that comes up from among them there in Europe.

And it would pluck up three kingdoms by the roots (genocide them from existence)

The three which are gone are;

Vandals

Ostrogoths

Heruli

Look at the map again and notice what areas they once ruled.

This little horn had the "eyes of a man", and it "spoke great things". (sounds like what Paul said about the wicked that was to be revealed! and friends, we will find "it is" the same power exactly, the bible writers all agree from Moses to John).

Verse 25 goes on to tell of other things this power will do and it gives a time frame of rule for this power.

Daniel 7:25

But notice verse 9 and 26, on ether sides of this text, side by side;

Notice Daniels descriptions; each time he is shown about this Little Horn Beast Power, the next verse says; and after this "The Judgment."

Verse 9-10 "the books will be opened and judgment set". Verse 26 says "the judgment" will be the last thing just before the end.

Now folks, It’s very simple to put all this into historical context; because…. "it is exactly what happened in history";

After 476 a.d. and the fall of the last world empire of Rome. This beast power of the little horn comes into power and lasts for a period of time exactly documented by God. For "a time + a times + a half a time", and then when his thrones are cast down (verse 9) "then the judgment was to begin".

So the time of this power who genocides three nations out of existence fits in sometime between 476 a.d. and 2001. That’s a period of only what? 1525 years.

Now to history; what power in the world destroyed three whole nations out of existence during this time frame?

Well, no power has done anything like that since our nation arose, not even Hitler although he would have liked to genocide the Jews .

So we have narrowed it down to about a 1300 year time frame.

Who had this kind of power during the years from 476 a.d. to say 1776 a.d.?

History tells us friends, and I am not going to pass up the opportunity to tell you right now. But first I want for you to see how the time frame God gave (a time + a times + a half a time) fits exactly the time this power was in rule. And how under this Beasts (the Little Horns) rule, it did persecute Gods saints by the multi-millions, and it still blasphemes God to this day, and it did and does set itself above God, and it did think to change times and laws dealing with "worship" the very things Paul alluded to.

I said the Prophet John also saw the things Paul described that this man of perdition would do didn’t I? And its here we can determine using the bible and the bible only how long "for sure" this time period was;

So lets turn to Revelation 13 and discover it.

Here in this vision from God, John sees a beast too, that also blasphemes God, and his tabernacle, and persecutes the saints! And in verses 5-8 he says; "all that dwell upon the earth shall 'worship' him except Gods saints".

Revelation 13:3-8

(verse 10 here and verse 12 of the next chapter are kindred) but notice verse 3 John sees this power receive a seemingly deadly wound, but the wound was healed, and after this was when all the world wondered after this beast power and were deceived. Verse five gives a time frame also, of forty-two months.

Lets compare the "time, times, and a half a time" to "forty-two months".

If a time is a year in prophecy, then this time frame of a time + a times + a half a time would = three and one half years right ?

How many months in 3 1/2 years? Why forty two exactly ! We must think in prophetic terms of years of days and months of years.

So it appears to be the same time frame as well as the same power doing the same things as we have read in all accounts so far.

But that’s not all, as we will see, all the scriptures agree my friend, and when we see this the time frame becomes carved in stone.

Look at Rev. 12:14; a woman (symbolic of the church here - Gods church obviously) goes into hiding for the same period of time of three and one half years - is this more than coincidental? Of course not, we all know how the Christians were persecuted in the holy wars during the dark ages just as predicted. But what we may not know is; who it was that was doing all of the persecuting.

We will discover it was, according to God, in all we have been reading, none other than the little horn power; the beast power we have been reading about who genocide the three nations off the face of Europe because they would not worship his religion, who was in power during this very time frame, doing these very things described by God.

Before I tell you who it is; I want you to notice Rev. 12:6 where John sees the same woman, in the same wilderness, protected by God; but look; the time frame is different, or given in different terms, now its 1260 days or 1260 prophetic days of years.

Sir Isaac Newton (the numbers man) in the 17th century discovered the equation for us; in prophecy a day is a year; thus for 1260 years, which is equal to 42 months and 3 1/2 years of days by Gods reckoning, this power would be in existence and would pluck up the three nations.

Friends as amazing as it sounds only one power can fit this time frame and the descriptions given by God; What was the time frame we said somewhere between 476 a.d. to 1776 that’s 1300 years between ?

Abraham Lincoln spoke of this power in his day and it was none other than the power of the Papacy;

Was she this power?

In 508 a.d. the Papacy (through Clovis the great, conquer for the Catholic church, and the first king of the rag tag remenance of the fallen Roman empire to convert to Catholicism) The Papacy assumed political power in the world for the first time as well as ecclesiastical. but it wasn’t until she had essentially subdued the last of the three nations (three plucked up remember through genocide) that she could attain this most prestigious position, and what started this ball rolling for her on the world front was; She was given power over all religion in 538 a.d, by Emperor Justienian, of the crumbling remnants of the Roman Empire still trying to regain power, in hopes that his alliance with her would regain him the world dominance he desired and Rome once had.

Most amazing, looking back now, after 1260 years exactly of reign over the so called religious world from 538 a.d. to 1798 a.d in that very year the Papacy was to meet with prophecy! in 1798 a.d. French General Bertheir pulled the Pope off the throne and gave her what appeared to be a deadly wound, which of as I said fulfilled prophecy to a tee again, she ruled exactly 1260 years just as the bible described, But as I was saying; its amazing, pathetic actually, that under her Religious rule we had the darkest period of time in Christian history, so much so, it’s called by religion "the dark ages". Millions of saints were persecuted during this falling away time, but few true saints were established, and the only real ones were the ones who broke away from her rule only to be burnt at the stake, as Martyrs for God, some towards the end of the period escaped to this country from her grip.

As we look around today we can say for sure, as the bible predicted, the deadly wound has fully healed, and all the world now looks up to her as the Christian leader of this whole world. After ruling exactly the period of time God predicted through prophecy, and after fulfilling all the other marks of her power, she will again receive "worship" by those of whom Paul says what ? Turn back to II Thessalonians 2:1-12 and now we can read with understanding;

II Thessalonians 2:1-12

Have we been deceived friends? into worshipping this revived power?

What about our doctrines? Are they true, truth?

Is our worship the true worship?

This is what we are talking about here folks, and I want to show you in closing what I mean, or what God means here, and what Paul is alluding to.

Turn to Daniel 7:25 and here we see one of the things this power will do during her 1260 year reign, and that is, she will think to change times and laws (of God?) Now remember we are talking about worship of this beast that causes man to receive his mark, so what laws pertaining to worship did this power change? Amazingly it’s a law dealing with time?

Daniel 7:25

Exodus 20:11

The Sabbath to Sunday change is the mark of her authority, as the Vicar of the Son of God on this earth. Look it up in the history folks this is her claim, power and influence over almost the entire human race.

"And in this one attempted change in Gods Law", "also" "is a change of time"; for the Sabbath was part of the creation week when "time" was established as one of it’s subdivisions.

Maybe this is what John saw when he saw the gospel going to the end time people (the whole world-tongue and people) there in Revelation 14:6. And notice verse 7 it refers to none other than the creation in relation to worship, and not the creation as proposed by the papacy, which says God through them has made the 1^st day Holy, but the creation of the God of time, and in time, made the seventh day of creation holy, as a perpetual covenant which has held to today.

Revelation 14:6-7

Notice how the Judgment always seems to be brought up when the beast is talked about. As you read on to verse 12 you get the full picture of the two groups; those who worship the beast and his images and those who worship God and what makes the difference.

Revelation 14:8-12

Then low and behold, it pictures Gods Saints keeping Gods Law, that includes the Sabbath (the Seventh Day Sabbath) not the beasts Sunday (first day Sabbath), verse 12.

And did you notice also something else the last day saints of God, just prior to His coming, (verse 12) will have? Another "mark" they will have the Faith of Jesus.

Of course they will have faith in Jesus, and know His Gospel, and through his power try to live it, thus having "His testimony" and not their own, as exemplified in the keeping the Ten Commandments (including the Seventh Day Sabbath) but its more; Rev. 19:10 tells us that The Testimony (rev.12:17) or gospel, of "Jesus is"; it is the "the spirit of prophecy" the interpretation of prophecy; The biblical interpretation that is (Jesus’ interpretation and not ours) of which "you" now have !

Revelation 19:10

But what are you going to do with it now that you got it?

Paul has already warned us t ll wonder after the beast, his image and his worship, and having pleasure therein, rather than believe the truth, who will fall away".

Please take this issue to heart hat there will be those who will not receive the love of the truth and will be deceived. Now I can safely add; "it will be those who wi friends, and take the following texts that I’m giving for consideration of truth, for I have been made responsible for my brothers and sisters still captive to falsehoods! by virtue of Ezekiel 3:19;

Ezekiel 3:18-19

and I take the scriptures seriously, and personally without time or purpose, for all things, as well as time, work for the Glory of God, "or" against God as the circumstances prevail.

Here are the texts dealing with our subject;

(II Thessalonians 2:8-12), (II Timothy 3:7), (II Timothy 4:3-4), (II Timothy 2:21-26), (Titus 1:13-16), (Hebrews 10:15-16), (Hebrews 10:26-31), (Hebrews 13:8), (James 2:8-12), (II Peter 1:19-21,2:1-9,3:3-18), (I John, II John, III John), (Rev. 22:14-21).

Next month a study in Daniel 8-9 "The Judgment" entitled;