Resurrection Torchlight wrote:As for the whole earth following the beast, scripture explains better than I can:
Revelation 17:8
8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.
"Those who dwell on the earth"- sounds like it includes all earth dwellers to me.
This is related to Revelation 13:8, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
At first glance Rev 13:8 and 17:8 may seem to be saying that literally everyone on the planet will worship the Beast, but John then states that it is those “
whose names are not written in the Book of Life”. John here directs us to an understanding that it will not be literally all that dwell upon the earth that will worship the Beast, but rather, a certain group only. This should also be quite obvious to us when considering the undeniable fact that a great multitude “which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” will come out of the Great Tribulation (Rev 7:9,14).
If they come out of the Great Tribulation, they had to be in it, and while they were in it they did not worship the Beast.Why are their names not written in the Book of Life when John sees them marvel at or worship the Beast? We’ll have to go and take a look at what the Book of Life itself is a bit more closely.
It is my opinion that the Lamb’s Book of Life has itself existed since the world was spoken into existence, and that in God’s foreknowledge the names of all humanity that would be born after Adam & Eve until the last natural born individual had been placed in the Book of Life since the foundations of the world. Therefore, when someone is born, their name is already in the Book of Life, and they are what we would call “saved” from the Second Death. Thus, if a child dies, we can know in our heart of hearts that they are in the loving presence of the Father, and not separated from Him for all eternity.
Revelation 20:15 shows us in no uncertain terms, however, that “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” If we are saved from the judgment of God at birth and our names are in the Book of Life, how is it that names have been removed according to Rev 20:15? I believe that the answer is simple, and the individuals who are having their names removed a
re those who have willfully and continually resisted the Spirit of God (Matt 12:31) which convicts them of sin and draws them to Christ (John 16:8-11). It is those who have refused to have a relationship with YHWH the One True God of Israel through Messiah Yeshua. This is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, what is called the “unpardonable sin”.
We never read anywhere in Scripture about names being
added to the Book of Life. We only read about names being
removed from the Book of Life completely. Christ has promised us in His Word that all those “who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” (Rev 3:5). If this verse is true — which it is — then the inverse is also true:
He who does not overcome will have his name blotted out of the Book of Life, and Christ will not confess their name before the Father and before His angels. I believe that a name will remain in the Book of Life
up until death, and it is at the time of death that the determination is made as to whether the name remains, or is blotted out. (The thief on the cross next to Jesus barely made it! He died before Pentecost and before Christ’s resurrection, but was with Jesus in Paradise that very same day - cf. Luke 23:43).
However, there seems to be one exception to this rule, because there is one specific group that Scripture identifies as alive on the earth in the Last Days, whose names are not written in the Book of Life. It is during the time in which John sees them marvel at and worship the Beast, and I believe that this is likely because they have received the “Mark of the Beast” . Like Antichrist, the consequence is that they are now also doomed to destruction and to suffer the second death because to receive the Mark of the Beast “is a clear indication of complete rejection of Jesus Christ; it demonstrates that the possessor of the mark has reached such a place or condition of hardness that it precludes repentance or faith in Christ. Receiving the mark of the beast, then, terminates one’s chance to receive Jesus Christ. It is equivalent to death" for these people and is proof they will never receive Jesus Christ, and God knows this absolutely (
http://bible.org/seriespage/revelation- ... -book-life).
Evidence of this is brought to light when we understand that the trumpet/bowl judgments of Revelation (which are cause and effect – the same events, different perspectives being two sides of the same coin) are upon this very same group specifically (Rev 9:4 – those who “have not the seal of God”; 16:2 – “upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image”; 16:6 – those who have “shed the blood of saints and prophets”; 16:10 – “upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness”), yet despite these judgments all of them refuse to repent (Rev 9:20-21). I believe these are they who are spoken of in 2 Thess 2:9-12:
2 Thess 2:9-12, “The coming of the [lawless one] is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because
they did not receive the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this reason God will send
them strong delusion, that
they should believe the lie, that
they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Rev 17:8, “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel,
whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world …”
Resurrection Torchlight wrote:You make the connection to Islam in part because scripture tells us the method that will be used to execute the martyrs- beheading, yet this form of execution has been used by many nations for centuries. France as recently as 1977 used the guillotine as a form of capital punishment before it was abolished in the 80's.
Europe can't even bring itself to institute the death penalty, let alone by beheading. The fact that Islam is the only religious and political system on earth today that officially sanctions beheadings is just one small reason why Islam is directly related to the Beast of Revelation.
Consider the following. In chapter 5 of the book of Zechariah we read about a vision that Zechariah was given of a flying scroll and a “wicked woman”. An angel tells Zechariah that “
This is the curse that is going out over the whole land” at the appointed time (5:3,11). The Prophet Zechariah then writes that “the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, ‘Look up and see what this is that is appearing.’ I asked, ‘What is it?’ He replied, ‘It is a measuring basket.’ And he added, ‘This is
the iniquity of the people throughout the land.’ Then the cover of lead was raised, and there
in the basket sat a woman” (Zech 5:5-7). Zechariah continues, “He said, ‘
This is wickedness,’ and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed the lead cover down over its mouth. Then I looked up–and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth. ‘Where are they taking the basket?’ I asked the angel who was speaking to me. He replied, ‘To the country of
Babylonia to build a house for it. When it is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.’” (Zech 5:8-11).
Of particular interest here is the fact that this “curse” is described as a “woman” who would be set up in “Babylon” (Shin’ar). The Babylonian Empire encompassed areas of Saudi Arabia (the birthplace and spiritual homestead of Islam) to the south, to parts of Asia Minor (Turkey) in the north, and from Egypt in the west to Persia (Iran) in the east.
This area is today the epicenter of Islam. Additionally, one intriguing aspect to the “curse” that goes out over the whole land is that the word for “curse”, and even how it is pronounced, is the Hebrew word “
alah”. The Prophet Isaiah, in describing the condition of the earth at the time leading up to the Second Coming of Messiah, says that “the curse [alah] has devoured the earth, And those who dwell in it are desolate” (Isa 24:6). To dwell in the earth does not in and of itself make one “desolate”.
But the same cannot be said for those who dwell in the “curse.”Which brings me to my second point.
Some will say that "the people of the prince to come" who destroyed the temple in 70 AD per Daniel 9:26 refers to Romans, so the Beast and Antichrist of Revelation must be referring to Europe, and cannot be referring to Islam or to Muslim nations. But did you know that by the time Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 70 AD, the Legions responsible for the destruction were dominated by eastern peoples from Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor (Turkey) and that general area? This is confirmed by Tacitus, Josephus and numerous scholars and historians. Thus, although the Legions responsible for the destruction of the city and the sanctuary in 70 AD were by that time considered Roman citizens,
they were not European people. (The Wars of The Jews, History of the Destruction of Jerusalem By Flavius Josephus, Trans. William Whiston BOOK V: Chapter 13; and Soldiers, Cities, and Civilians in Roman Syria by Nigel Pollard, Ph.D, p. 115).
Prior to the turn of the 1st Century the majority of the men who served in the Roman armies were Italians. That is true. But as the Roman Empire grew it became virtually impossible for it to be manned with only Italian soldiers, so Emperor Augustus was forced to change the ethnic demographic of men who made up the Roman armies, and after the reforms were completed early in the 1st Century just a small part of the Roman army consisted of only Italian men — the Praetorian Guard. The rest of the army was expanding to be increasingly made up of citizens who were from the outer provinces far away from Rome.
In fact, Josephus records that Caesar didn't even want the temple destroyed, writing:
“And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him of this fire … whereupon he rose up in great haste, and, as he was, ran to the holy house, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in great astonishment; so there was a great clamor and tumult raised, as was natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the fire.“ (Josephus War of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 4).
The soldiers were hell bent on destroying the sanctuary, despite Caesar’s orders to put out the fire. But they hated the Jews. And as Josephus later writes, “And thus was the holy house burnt down,
without Caesar’s approbation.“
History bears witness to the very fact that the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary were almost exclusively Arab/Egyptian/Syrian/Asia Minorian, etc. and from that general area. From Tacitus in The History New Ed edition Book 5.1 Editor: Moses Hadas (Translated by Alfred Church and William Brodribb; Modern Library, 2003 NY):
“Titus Caesar … found in Judaea three legions, the 5th, the 10th, and the 15th .. To these he added the 12th from Syria, and some men belonging to the 18th and 3rd, whom he had withdrawn from Alexandria. This force was accompanied … by a strong contingent of Arabs, who hated the Jews with the usual hatred of neighbors …”
I could give more examples, but suffice to say, virtually all Roman scholars concur that the overwhelming majority of soldiers would have been Eastern provincial conscripts by the time Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 70 AD.
Today, the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary are now Muslim.
There should be little doubt that the “woman” of Zechariah 5 that would have a house built for it in Babylon directly represents the “Whore of Babylon” in Revelation 17. Over 600 years after Zechariah’s vision of the end times, John in Revelation 17 is given a vision of the future and of “the great harlot who sits on many waters … And on her forehead a name [was] written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” (17:1,5-6). Given the fact that the "people of the prince to come" are today Muslim peoples, that the “Whore of Babylon” directly represents the curse (alah), is being carried by the Beast, and is herself marked with a name upon her forehead, does it not stand to reason that the Mark of the Beast -- in fact the Beast itself -- would therefore be associated with, or directly related to, the “woman” and “curse” (alah) prophesied by Zechariah and John?
'Come now, and let us reason together,' saith the LORD ...
to see it in print... 
to the board, Mitchell!
and just wait and see what happens.