Mark of the Beast -- by Rev Peter S Ruckman, Ph D -- 2d ed , Pensacola, FL, Florida, 1969 -- Pensacola, FL Pensacola Bible Press -- 1036666553 -- 270a59703f91e940c7d72c95d6980f06 -- Anna’s Archive

1 * »% By Dr. Peter S. RuckiviAN

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Copyright © 1960 by Peter S. Ruckman All rights reserved Seventh Printing . . . 2000 ISBN 1-58026-306-2 PUBLISHER'S NOTE The Scripture quotations found herein are from the text of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Any deviations therefrom are not intentional. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo- copying, recording, or any information storage, retrieval system, multimedia, or Internet system, without permission in writing from the publisher. PRINTHD IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

iHE nmiR IF IHE lEHSI By Dr. Peter S. Ruckman B.A., B.D., M.A., Th.M., Ph.D. An exhaustive study of the person and work of the Antichrist, from the view of Bible-believing Christianity. BIBLE BAPTIST BOOKSTORE P.O. Box 7 1 35 Pensacola, FL 32534

Other Materials Available By Dr. Peter S. Ruckman: * Bible Believer's Commentary Series * Beginning and Advanced Bible Study Material * In-Depth Apologetics * Numerous Pamphlets on Selected Topics * Variety of Gospel Tracts * Audio Cassettes Video Cassettes * Also Available: * AV 1611 Bibles * Study Helps * Concordances * Biographies * Evangelism Material * Material by Other Authors and Speakers ** For FREE Current Catalog write: IMBLE BAPTIST BOOKSTORE P.O. Box 7 35 1 Pensacola, FL 32534

Table of Contents Preface vii The Decline of Biblical Christianity 1 2 The Mysterious Horseman, Mr. "X" 36 A Christ Who Is the Wrong Christ 51 1 3 4 Name, Rank, Serial Number? 5 The Work that Remains to be Done Epilogue 74 93 121

THE GREAT 20TH CENTURY HOAX

PREFACE One of the many words to fall prey to the tyranny of words in the twentieth century is the word "prejudice." This word, as the words "discrimination," "seg- regation," "democrat," "imperialism," "Christian," "Southern Baptist," "integration," and "religion," has come to mean something in the mind of the public that it obviously never meant in Webster's dictionary or in ten centuries of writing. Unfortunately for mankind in words have come to mean what newspaper press releases intend them to mean. This is due largely to the tremendous advancement of public communications media in the last 100 years. With this advancement has grown the mcvtdismg perversion in the meaning of words. Capitalizing on depraved man's innate curiosity either to "hear or tell something new" (see Acts 17:19-27), the INS, UP, and AP with Pravda, Tass, and Goebels' setup have developed an entirely general, new vocabulary for the common man to adopt. In this vocabulary, words no longer mean what they say. To those readers familiar with church history, this manipulation is far from being a new thing among men. However, since the vast majority of people know nothing about church history except the secondhand information passed on to them by their own religious constituency, it is hardly probable that anyone would recognize the true mother of this type of perversion. A few samples may suffice. "Imperialism" or ''Colonialism" is applied to any country that aggressively explored, settled, or dominated another country in pre-

TUB MARK OF- THE BEAST viii ceding centuries. By such a standard, of course, a "colonist" or "imperialist" should be run out of the country now, and repatriated to his original father land. However, the word in usage will never allow this interpretation, for to apply what is inherent in the words would send the Russians back to Asia Minor, the Americans back to England. Ireland, Scotland, and Germany, and the Negroes back to Africa. The words, then, are only used by a country that has been unsuccessful in exploring, settling, and dominating another country, and it is only applied to countries who have succeeded in doing so. Thus the word is misused even when it is defined correctly. Another word is ''Southern Baptist," which originally meant "Southern Baptist." Unfortunately the word no longer bears any resemblance to its construction. The official view of the Southern Baptist Convention defines the word as meaning, not Southern Baptist, but a monetary contributor to a financial program sponsored by Southern Baptists! Notice: ''What is a Southern Baptist? The term Southern Baptist does not necessarily bear doctrinal significance. What then is a Southern Baptist? He is one who cooperates with the program that is adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, even though he does not always agree with the program the convention endorses. " This remarkable and ridiculous definition is that of C. E. Matthews, Dallas, Texas, considered by all officials to be one of the outstanding in which he is leaders among "Southern Baptists." But what on earth has the man actually said? Notice in the definition, neither the word "Southern" nor the word "Baptist" is discussed, outlined, defined, analyzed, noted, tioned. The definition commented on, or even menis totally connection with the word the separated from any man is attempting to define. In short, private interpretation has extended to

PREFACE the place in ix Matthews' thinking where he thinks that an invented definition which is unrelated to the words he is using is a Southern Baptist truth. There is no fear of his following. Eighty percent of all leaders in the Convention will swear on their mothers' graves that Matthews has given a good definition. In actuality, he has not even hypothesized a probable definition. The definition is not even remotely connected to the words about which he is talking; it is only a statement Matthews has given to make people hand over money to an organization! Goebels never did any better. To elaborate further, if the term "Southern Baptist" has no doctrinal significance and is determined only by the financial support given to an organization, then what is the difference between a Southern Baptist who ''supports the program" and a Northern Communist who supports it? Are they not both "Southern Baptists" if a Southern Baptist is ''one who cooperates with the program that is adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, even though he does not always agree with the program the convention endorses ''? At this present writing, the committees that ricochetted off the Elliot book on Genesis are wrestling with this problem. The problem is how to define a Southern Baptist on a Christian or Bible basis and still maintain a UnitedFund or Care-package basis. It has hardly occurred to anyone that the easiest realm in which to get away with this "etymological murder" is the religious realm. Nowhere is it so easy to pull something over, or put something across, than here, for it is the least expected place for the transaction to take place. Again, those familiar with church history are at a tremendous point of vantage, for they have observed the origination, rise, development, fall, and revival of a "Church" that has been dedicated for over 1,500 years to the changing of words and dcfini-

THE MARK OF THE BEAST X iions to fucct the demands of her own political organization. The outer political world has finally become aware of this successful and effective way of putting over a lie. They have utilized it to the fullest in the publicanews periodicals. Who ever heard of the AP tion of putting out a release like this: "Bible-believing Christians in Mississippi strongly resisted efforts by the Ken- nedy regime to mix the races in their universities since they are contrary to the ethics of social respectability and conduct," when they could put out a release like THIS: "Racial bigots in 'Ole' Mississippi' defied lawand-order under a Supreme Court ruling as they sought to maintain white supremacy." You see, it just depends on what you are trying to get across and who is stupid enough to believe it. As a very gullible commentator said, "An informed people is least so. an enlightened people." This It is is not in the most certainly not true that "an informed people is an enlightened people." It is only true that an "informed people" have information about something which someone gave them who wishes them to have that information. The thing is actually a rat race if it is analyzed. Bible-rejecting "Christendom" (with dictator-breeding Catholicism and atheistic-teaching Com- munism) has conspired with the AP, INS, and UP to agree that all truth is relative; there is no absolute truth except the subjective political ideologies of each group, which it has taught itself, and that to "inform" someone is to give them the facts you want them to have. An informed people is never an enlightened people unless they have impartial accounts of both sides regarding all facts given. Enlightenment cannot be debased to mean partial knowledge gained from censored material. For example, no man, even if he spent a lifetime

PREFACE xi Studying the material printed in Life, Time, Newsweek, Look, and the AP teletype in 100 radio stations, would ever be enlightened on anything that ran contrary to the subjective religious and news bias of these sources. The antics of the Kennedy regime and the Supreme Court in the last ten years is proof enough that these sources cause one to be grossly misinformed on the practical outcome of certain decisions and the actual •'working-out'' of solutions to problems. This gross mis- information always bears characteristic marks which are strikingly consistent in any generation; it is not hard to spot its birth, family tree, kinfolk, connections, affiliations, friends, and descendants. The AP. INS. and UP may be lumped right into this stock with a great assortment of animals that bear little resemblance to them on first glance. will reveal that all A closer look at the menagerie assume certain basic, fundamental propositions to be correct that the Bible has already clearly pronounced incorrect. (Interpretation is not a case in point as the passages are so clear that the only requisite for understanding them is the ability to read, which I suppose our AP. UP, and INS writers profess to have!) These mangled and perverted propositions may be stated as follows: 1. Peace and unity are the highest ideals. 2. Science is the final authority in doubtful mat- 3. People are abnormal ters. who do not conform to the world system. 4. It is all right to criticize the Bible, but it is wrong to criticize someone's religion or church. 5. It is wrong to publish sermons by Bible-believing Fundamentalists. 6. Capital punishment is unjust.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST xii The Supreme Court is morally right, no matter 7. what it decides. 8. All men are created equal. 9. The greatest threat to man is Communism. 1 0. A feeling of guilt is really only a mental prob- 1 Some Catholics are not Roman; they are Amer- lem . icafi 12. Man receives punishment in this life for his errors. 13. The pope cannot be a rascal under any cir- cumstance. On this tottery basis, the press (with the entire retinue of magazines, tracts, newspapers, bulletins, dailies, weeklies, and journals) has automatically rejected any evidence, concrete or circumstantial that would imply the propositions were incorrect. They are as- sumed to be absolute, final, authoritative social laws, established by God Himself. Notwithstanding six millennia of brutal and bloody evidence contrary to the propositions, they are accepted as "gospel truth" by the writers. One may say that they constitute the theo- and its allies in their battle to unite Bible-rejecting "Christendom'' and Christ-rejecting Paganism under a one-world system "for the betterment of man." A brief examination of the list will reveal immediately that the creed of the press could pass for the creed of nearly any Christrejecting, Bible-denying, pagan, Greek philosopher. Individual writers and commentators do not change the logical creed of the Associated Press overall tone of the creed or render it ineffectual. radicals and colorful The commentators are only allowed none are al- the liberty of complaining about details; lowed the liberty o{ exposing the attempts of the press itself to maintain these false ideals. While professing to avoid religious controversy

PREFACE xiii and partiality in religious matters the secular press has taken a religious stand so vivid and clear that at last only by muzzling the exposes of its own employees is it able to prevent detection. The information which it gives out is no longer objective information. Every article, from the midnight dateline till the last one at 11:59, shows clearly a reli- gious attitude issues and and an anti-biblical policy toward the news events of the day. This attitude and policy may be summed up as follows, without the least fear of its being in error: 1. 2. The greatest danger is Communism. The greatest enemy of Communism is Chris- tianity. 3. The greatest leader of Christianity is Roman Catholicism. 4. The leader of Roman Catholicism is the pope. 5. Therefore, the pope and his following are to be given every benefit of a doubt in the press, and under no condition are ever to be attacked, exposed, ridiculed, or diagnosed. They are immune to objective criticism or research. 6. With this immunity comes sanctuary for any idea or belief that Roman Catholicism adopts. Thus, no newspaper or magazine with national or large metropolitan circulation can safely take any 7. side in any issue but the side taken by the Catholic Church. At no time must evidence even be produced for the other side, as it has been the policy of Catholics since 1546 to forbid their adherents even to enter a building where evidence for the other side is being presented. 8. With this blinding of objective light and bind- ing of free information, the following propositions must not only be tolerated by the press writers, hut actively supported and promoted.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST xiv a. Integration. b. Government support of parochial schools. c. Destruction of the King James, AV 1611 Bible. d. e. Promotion of moderate drinking and dancing. Return to the Roman Church by all Protestant churches. f. Government aid to Roman Catholic countries. g. Absolute silence about persecutions of Protes- tants in Columbia, Spain, Italy, and Venezuela. In this fashion, the INS, UP, and a superstructure of anti-biblical AP have erected thinking along reli- gious lines which is so universal that to defy it would be to commit an act of treason. Bill Mauldin {Up Front) has written that the best rule for the newspaper cartoonist to follow is, "if it's big, hit it!" However, Bill cannot obey his dictum. In ten years of political cartooning and Pulitzer Prize winning. Bill has hit only the things anyone hits. The "big baby" he never struck a blow at — and never will, or it will cost him his job. Thoroughly indoctrinated with the standard AP, INS, and UP use of words and their meanings. Bill Mauldill has swallowed a far smoother propaganda line than Axis Sally put to the G. I.'s in the ETO. He has swallowed the vocabulary and dictionary of a press (and age) gone insane on the proper meaning of words. Who ever heard of a newspaper writer, cartoonist, editor, or columnist taking a slam at the Roman Catholic Vatican State? Is it not "pretty big"'? This brings us to the point of the preface (if prefaces are supposed to point to anything at all), and the point is: look out for a man that thinks an ''anti-Catholic view'' is PREJUDICE. The hook is in the last word. "Prejudice" means (by its "drawing "judicially OWN inherent construction) opinion on a thing"; that is, making up your mind about a thing before a prejudicial examining the evidence in relation to the thing." If a

— PREFACE XV man examines the evidence and then draws judgment, the man himself must be eliminated (by slander, arrest, insinuation, scandal, or firing) if this final judgment is contrary to the group or person holding the opinion. Hence, it is very dangerous for Northerners to talk about Southerners having a ''racial prejudice," when the word ''prejudice" indicates immediately that the Northerner has not investigated the evidence and is in no position to do so. The word prejudice does NOT describe someone who holds an opinion contrary to Life and Time magazines. The word prejudice does not describe someone who thinks a religion is a farce. No matter how many thousands of times the AP, UP, and INS may apply the word to someone who does not agree with the press' interpretation of history and mankind, the glaring fact remains that the word means what it means, and not what the press presents it as meaning. "Pre" means "before." (It has always meant this and will mean this as long as you can apply arithmetic or geometry to problems involving measurements.) "Pre" (as pro) means prejudiced has beforehand before. A man who is made a "judicial" (judg- ment) decision on a matter without examining fully the evidence necessary to reach the decision. This is what the word means. It has never meant anything else. If Pope Johnny sat "ex-cathedra" and swore by the blood of "Holy" Mary that it meant "someone who criticized his church," he would still be lying. Yet, in spite of this obvious orthographical truth, the press continues to use the words "religious preju- dice" and "racial prejudice" as applicable to anyone who speaks critically of any race or religion. And so the word is accepted today by Americans to mean "any- one who speaks against anyone's race or religion is prejudiced!" (Exactly where this puts Jesus Christ

THE MARK OF TFiE BEAST xvi Matthew 23 — rather difficuh is to say.) These prefatory remarks are entirely necessary, as somewhere down the track, this enlightening digest of the "Mark of the Beast" is bound to run into the people and when it does, the only alibi to whom it is aimed or defense that can be given will be, "Oh he is just ; prejudiced. " Now before this happens, will the reader please give careful attention to the common, plain- English meaning of words? ''Prejudice" is a judgment drawn beforehand, without adequate consideration of the facts involved. Only a man, church, group, religion, school, institution, or faction that has refused to examine the evidence can be said to be ''prejudiced'' in their opinion. No matter what may be said for either side in a matter, or against either side in a matter, the only man in the fracas, that is prejudiced, is the man who will not examine both sides. Thus, when General Walker disapproves of racemixing efforts in Mississippi, it does r\oi follow that he is "prejudiced" or "sick." This only follows if he has not had time and opportunity to carefully consider the facts involved on both sides of the issue. Since General Walker was in a position to examine these facts, it becomes necessary to eliminate him (by slander, arrest, insinuation, etc.) in order to maintain the status quo of the prejudiced opinion held by someone who did not examine the facts. To press things further, an opinion by Walter Montano or Anthony Zachello or Paul Blanchard or John Carrera about the actual practical operations of the Vatican State would not be a "prejudiced" opinion, even if the sum total of opinions stated was that the Roman Church was a hoax. This would be a "disagreeable" opinion or a "hateful" opinion or an ''unkind" opinion or a "personal" opinion, but a prejudiced opinion it is not. Not one of them drew judgment on any-

PREFACE thing without sides. xvii thoroughly examining the facts on both An opinion by Billy Mitchell, Eddie Rickenbaker, and John Glenn on the advantages and disadvantages of aerial reconnaissance is not a "prejudiced" opinion. They may disagree among themselves, and they may offend others who disagree with them, but "PREJU- DICED" is not the adjective to describe their opinions. They know about what they are talking even where they disagree due to subjective differences innate in individual human nature. Everywhere in analyzing source of authority must be taken into account. Where an authority (any authority under "prejudices," the any power) has not considered thoroughly the opposite viewpoint, there is no grounds for anything but a. prejudiced, biased opinion. Thus, the greatest religious bigots (and prejudiced heathen) that ever lived are the people that consider attacks on their religion "prejudices." Because they have never considered any other side and have been forbidden to examine the other side and have their books censored so they would not consider the other side, America today has the greatest religious monstrosity that ever perverted the meaning of words. This book is obviously an "expose" of that religious organization which Satan has and will adopt for own "Christianity." The book is not written from the standpoint of a "Southern Baptist" who is ignorant his of the facts involved. The writer has had ample time in forty-one years (twenty in the North and twenty-one in the South) to study all the publications of the Knights of Columbus, to read thoroughly a score of Catholic newspapers, to deal with Catholics in their homes, faceto-face, and also to deal knee-to-knee with a half a dozen priests for periods of more than two hours. No statement in this printing was made without ha\ing first read the Bible through fifty-seven times from co\cr

xviii TUll MARK OF^THF: BEAST cover and checking all New Testament passages in the Greek, comparing them with the official Douayto Rheims Catholic Version {Nihil Ohstat) used by the priests themselves. The Catholic Missal has been studfrom cover to cover, forty Catholic tracts have been taken from the tract-racks at St. Michaels, St. Stevens, St. Francis, and the Church of the Little Flower (Mobile and Pensacola), and of course, the standard ied works of church history, including Catholic historians, have all been consulted. The deductions therefrom may be distasteful, objectionable, un-Christian, fanatical, irreligious, sacrilegious, or non-Catholic. But! The writer claims immu- nity from such words as "bigot," "prejudice," or "bias" on the grounds that not a single sentence in this writing (that goes against the grain of Catholicism) was written without ample, concise, detailed, thorough, and faithful reference to the Bible facts involved on all sides of the question. In answer to critics who may be tempted to say, "Well, no one can really know about Catholicism until he has been a Catholic twenty-fifty years, etc.," let it be answered emphatically that no man has to be a chronic alcoholic five years to know that it will damage his body; no man has to be in ten car wrecks to know that he had better drive carefully; no man has to examine microscopically every hair on a skunk to know he is dealing with a skunk; no man has to know Hebrew or Greek to smell the stench of a translation that low rates Jesus Christ; and no combat infantryman ever had to know the number of grains in a tracer-bullet fired at him to know it did not have his best interests at heart. A happy medium is needed between knowing enough about both sides to know "whereof ye speak" and devoting a lifetime of useless research into something that has already proved corrupt a thousand times. Where Rome cannot convince a

PREFACE xix common-sense, honest researcher that she is "holy," she can always reverse the field and claim that the researcher is biased because he has not spent fifty years in the College of Cardinals studying the good points, for Rome has held as a doctrinal truth, from the beginning, that she is infallible, even when decreeing doc- trines contrary to Scripture or common sense. Rome's profession disqualifies her from being impartial on anything, and the AP, INS, and UPs' affiliation with her is rapidly disqualifying them from becoming reliable sources of information. No press that plays favorite to a group that has already publicly stated its perverseness should be taken seriously on any important issue. An AP ''news flash" on DeGaulle and the common market, that overlooks the fact that England has the only Protestant leader outside the market, is about as important and "newsy" as a bulletin on projected hoe handle production in North Dakota for 1978. No political issue in the world today that is related directly or indirectly to the end-time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation can be accurately analyzed unless due attention is given to these portions of Scripture. Any analysis neglecting to examine this data is a and prejudiced viewpoint: it cannot possibly claim to have examined both sides when the partial, biased, Vatican is the issue, stuck right between the sidelines. The common sense maxim, that operates independently from news commentators and prejudiced wire no man's (or church's) opinion on a subject is worth the powder and shot it would take to blow it to hell if that man has not examined evidence services, is that contrary and favorable to the subject. The value of the opinion then rests on the amount of time spent on the pro and con and the amount of facts summoned before drawing the conclusion. By this standard, the AP, INS,

THE MARK OF THE BEAST XX and UP, with Life, Time, Look, Post, the Journal, the New Yorker, Reader's Digest, and the Hearst syndicate, are entirely unqualified to comment intelligently on the news where it gets involved politically with the Roman Catholic Dictatorship. None spent any time on material contrary to the Roman setup, and none would dare print it if they found it! Following this common sense maxim — thorough examination of the evidence, pro and con, with assembled facts no man who ever lived in close with — colored people over a period of time would ever be able to draw a prejudiced conclusion in regard to "the results of living close with colored people"; no man who denied what a Baptist believes and what a Southerner believes could ever be called a "Southern Bap- no church that forced its communicants to join it before they were born could possibly be denominated "The Church that Jesus founded"; and certainly no man who refused to examine the evidence found in this book could intelligently make any valid contribution tist"; to the subject —the Mark of the Beast. The writer pro- fesses no personal, inspired revelation, no absolute knowledge, no infallible authority, and no wisdom to concoct a doctrine or theory which supersedes others. He modestly claims to have examined the facts relative to the subject in the light of the word of God and has listed the findings as follows. If these findings are non- Catholic, so are grape juice and the Reformation. Rev. Peter S. Ruckman B.A., B.D., M.A., Th.M., Ph.D. Pensacola, Fla., Feb. 4, 1960

CHAPTER ONE The Decline of Biblical Christianity In undertaking a writing of this nature, it is nearly impossible to begin with an enumeration of the facts. The reader has already been prepared ahead of time (by his previous religious training) to reject certain ideas which conflict with religious tradition. This is true of any treatise of a ''Biblical" nature. Since 'The Book" is the center and ground of controversy, it is rapidly becoming rejected, en toto, as a basis for fact. Bible Christianity, as it was known to the original Biblebelievers in either Testament, is at present a rare species of prehistoric animal which no longer makes up a majority. In vain are the Scriptures quoted to prove 1900 years to twist, wrest, pervert, distort, misapply, and misdirect the verses. Their work has left an indelible mark on the facts, for the religious leaders have had minds of those who look to the Book for authority. Nineteen hundred years of theological controversy over "interpretations" have gradually beaten down the resistance of the Bible-believers themselves until they are now willing to submit to an ecclesiastical authority other than the Bible. This ecclesiastical authority is, as it always has been, Roman. Therefore, in order to reorient the reader back into the true CHRISTIAN setting of study and knowledge, it is necessary to trace from the beginning the peculiar "Mystery of Iniquity," which is spoken of as a

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 2 PRESENT work during the time of the formation of the New Testament canon. For a while, we shall be able to deal with historical facts, but sooner or later, we must return to the God of history and revelation, for as Pope Gregory long ago demonstrated, you can prove anything by history. It is answered immediately, ''You can prove anything by the Bible." But this is a "half truth." The only way that you can prove anything by the Bible is to do one of three things with its contents. 1. Subtract from the verse a word or words. For example: the Campbellite method of quoting Mark 16:16 with half the verse missing or quoting 1 Peter 3:21 with two-thirds of the verse missing. 2. Adding to the verse words not found in it. For example: the addition of the word ''baptism" to the passage in John 3:5 where there is no mention of baptism, or the adding of the phrase "neither shall ye touch it" (Gen. 3:3), where God has only said, "Thou Shalt not EAT of it" (Gen. 2:17). 3. The wresting of the Scriptures from their context. This is the uniform and standard method in most cases, as it is more subtle. It can best be illustrated by the Romish lifting of John 20:23 out of context, for in the context more than twelve are present, and NONE derive their authority from Peter (see Luke 24:33 and John 20:20 with 2 Cor 2:10). Another splendid example is the Campbellite custom of withdrawing Acts 2:38 from its setting which is entirely Jewish, to Jews only (see verses 5, 14, 22, and 36), and forcing it on an unsaved Gentile as the plan of salvation. If any of the above mentioned tricks are resorted to, then it is true that "you can use the Scripture to prove anything." But if the text is left as it stands, where it stands, it can only teach one thing and that is the truth. Thus, in approaching the tremendous theme, — the ''Mark of the Beast," an investigator cannot estab-

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY lish 3 FACTS until he himself is submissive to the au- thority of the Bible as it is. This brings up a far more complicated problem: ''What is it?" To clear the ground for action, the reader must retrace not only the course of the leaders who have taught lies by adding to, subtracting from, or perverting the context, but he must also retrace the course taken by the translators themselves in gradually developing a "Bible" that is no more a Bible than "Gone with the Wind." We may as well reconcile ourselves to the fact that produced one "Bible'' for every falsehood taught from the original Bible. Every time a man added to or subtracted from the word (or the twentieth century has took the verse out of context), he was faced with the need of producing a Bible which would back up the heresy that he had invented. Such now is the situation. There is one Bible per heresy. Anyone can find a Bible to prove anything, and now there is hardly a need left for adding or subtracting or perverting. The Russellites, for example, have taught consistently that a "witness" can lose salvation by the fact that Judas lost it. This cannot be proved from an AV, for the AV states plainly that Judas was "a DEVIL." He was not a human being, although he appeared so (see Heb. 13:2; 2 Thess. 2:4). We arrive immediately at a stumbling block. To avoid the implications which run contrary to Catholic and Reformation theology, the fundamentalist or Protestant will resort to the "original Greek" to rid himself of the passage. But the Russellite will go one better: he revises the entire translation and produces the word "slanderer," where the word "devil" was in John 6:70-71, and thereby maintains his doctrine that a "Christian" can lose salvation, for did not Judas lose his (John 17:12)? The Reformed Christian Church (Holland, Michi-

the: mark of the beast 4 runs in the same groove with the Jehovah's Wit- iian) nesses. Not believing in a millennial reign on earth (and adopting the Augustinian position of a spiritual kingdom only), they are faced with John 18:36. The passage has the word ''now" in it, which strongly implies that later Christ will have a kingdom "of this world." Since the Reformed Church does not believe this, they produce their own translation, the Amplified "now" is struck out regardless of the fact that it is in all the Greek manuscripts. We thus Version, where the observe one of the most common practices in the twentieth century in full swing — the practice of defiling and aborting the word of God while calling attention to the ''original Greek. " The same version (the Amplified) goes to extreme lengths in this corrupting of Scripture when it retranslates 1 Thessalonians 2:16 to read that God is through with the Jew, ''completely and for- ever. " The reason for this perverted translation is not found in manuscript evidence. It is found in the theology taught by the Reformed Churches, which forces them to abandon the AV and make their own Bible which will condone their own pet sins. Much more could be said in regard to these practices, but these few samples will suffice to show the reader what he is up against when he determines to find out the FACTS about any given situation that is con- nected with the word of God. Two lines of people, then, can be said to be responsible for the esprit-de-corps of Bible-believing Christians today. One line is that of preachers and teachers who insist on correcting the A V because it will not line up with their church traditions (and more will be said about this line later). The other is that line of translators and "revisers" who have, under the cover of "more accurate translations," destroyed the word of God until the common man no longer knows desiring

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 5 what it is or where to find it. These two lines of corrupters must clearly be searched out, named, located, and defined before anyone will have any confidence in what the Bible actually has to say about a subject. For without this knowledge, every proof-text produced will be met with the objection, ''Oh, that's just your interpretation," or ''you just say that because you belong to such-and-such a church," or "There are a lot of ways to take that, now," etc. The Bible no longer holds any awe for its rejector, for the men entrusted with preaching and preserving it have corrupted it so badly, the common man no longer believes that it is any more "holy" than Hitler's swastika. No exposition on the "Mark of the Beast" could ever be authoritative or final without the investigator first being thoroughly enlightened about the men and the churches who have destroyed the authority of the word of God so that it is no longer considered to be an authority in dealing with FACTS. At every turn in reading the Scriptures appropriate to the subject, the sincere seeker of truth will be confronted by prejudicial opinions so thoroughly instilled into his being by brain- washing, that he cannot hope to find the truth on the subject unless he abandons himself to the authority of the word of God. Which word? To begin at the beginning, we find the corrupting influence of the scribes well under way before the first coming of Christ. Christ in Matthew 23:35 places the bounds of the canon of the Old Testament at Genesis and 2 Chronicles. Read the passage very carefully, and make sure that you understand that what you read does not have to be ''interpreted. " It is a couple oi facts which need to be noticed. "From the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" (Matt. 23:35). The death of Abel (in anv Bible)

6 THE MARK OF THE BEAST found in Genesis, and the death of Zechariah, "the son of the blessed one" (Jehoiada), is found (in any is Bible) in 2 Chronicles (2 Chron. 24:20). To this day, a Hebrew Bible, written by the Hebrews, given to the Hebrews (Rom. 3:2) by the God of Hebrews (Exod. 5:3), is written in Hebrew. This series of facts is incontestable. Whatever attitude the Catholic, Protestant, Communist, Buddhist, Taoist, the Hindu, Mohammedan, Atheist, or Pragmatist may take toward the TRUTH in those writings, one historical fact is irrefutable; and that is that Genesis to 2 Chronicles, in a Hebrew Bible, was written by Hebrews who professed to have received these oracles from God. Both Jesus and Paul bear witness to this in the New Testament passages. Now of course, there are always irascible dissenters who will object to the establishment of any kind of fact. These men will invent hypotheses and try them out, and if they work, will then announce that they are "fact" and "scientific" (1 Tim. 6:20); yet the same men will not be able to tell you what the word "science" means or from whence it was derived. In the tyranny of words and sources of information, modern day man has wholly overlooked the fact that Jesus or Paul would be far more authoritative in the field of religious literary works of the Hebrews than any living Hebrew scholar today. Driver, Gesenius, and Delitzsch admit that when the library at Alexandria burned to the ground, it destroyed thousands of valuable documents more authentic than those available today; but they will not believe Jesus and Paul, both living before that time, could be higher authorities. You see, at every turn we are faced with the problem of absolute or final authority. With the decline of Biblical Christianity facing us, the Bible has been Hatly rejected as the final authority —even where it is professed to be that authority. We shall see

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY Bible rejectors only differ in "degree." All of them have the same attitude — them place SOME AUTHORITY above the Scrip- and approach all of tures. "The AV has no Apocrypha in the Old Testament. Tradition and 'Holy Mother Church' determine what is the true Word of God/' /6 The Catholic "The Book is full of myths and legends!" The Liberal "It is supra-history. It can be 'The Word of God' occasion- The Neo-orthodox ally." "The fundamentals are there in spite of many fauUy translations like the AV." The Conservative

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 8 how true that is as we study the matter of canon. Canon (that is, the proper number of books in a real Bible) must be ascertained before there can be any discussion of Bible truth or Biblical Christianity. After all, if no one knows what a Bible is, and no one can prove that his Bible is the right one, what kind of authority would it be anyway? Face the truth squarely one time, just for diversion's sake. According to the greatest living authority on reli- gious teaching, truth, and principles, the Old Testament begins in Genesis and ends in 2 Chronicles (Matt. 23:35). At the time Jesus speaks these words, there are no New Testament books in print, Paul is unconverted, and Christ's audience is composed of Old Testament, pork-abstaining, temple-attending, bearded, sabbath- observing Jews. Not a man in the bunch, believer or unbeliever, would question the fact that the beginning of the Old Testament is Genesis and the end is 2 Chronicles. That is, the authorities themselves, who lived in and time in which the statements are made, accept them to be FACT with full knowledge of the facts and with resource to more knowledge about the facts than we have today! What is there left to questhe day tion! Again, there is always one questioner (Gen. 3:1) who has been taught from his youth that any man who is not a skeptic is insincere. This type of man will question anything and everything that deals with abso- moral standards, but will blindly accept church even analyzing it. To such a questioner, only this can be answered: 'if you are so lazy and so immoral that you cannot spend time investigating Pember, Larkin, Scofield, Sauer, Bullinger, Wilbur Smith, Harry Rimmer, and A. W. Pink, then you will simply have to grow up with a prejudiced, lopsided, lute tradition without

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 9 narrow-minded bigotism that only Aquinas, Spellman, Shaw, Marx, Freud, James, Huxley, Plato, Aristotle, and Darwin can give you." A man is what he eats, as a dietician said, and man eats words when he reads (Job 34:3. Psa. 119:103, Heb. 5:14, 1 Pet. 2:1-3). It follows, as old-age follows youth, that a man is what he reads. The opinions voiced by our young collegiates and officers of state these days are not their opinions. They are the opinions of Santayana, Maugham, Hilton, Douglas, Hemmingway, Machiavelli, Hegel, Tennyson, Em- erson, Nietzsche, Peale, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Darwin, Paine, Rousseau, Omar Khayyam, and Life magazine. You will never find a man who rejects the Bible, who wants to change it or who does not believe portions of it or who will not read it, until you find a man who has been exposed strongly to the group of books that were written by men who never accepted or Christ's or Paul's authority in matters of inspiration, canonicity, or absolute truth. To return to the corrupters of the Bible, a Hebrew Bible, then as now, begins with Genesis and ends with 2 Chronicles. You can go to any Jewish bookstore, and you will find the books laid out exactly as they are cited by Jesus Christ in A.D. 33. Further than this, our Lord even states the correct divisions into which these books are divided in a Hebrew Bible. Now, why have we gone to so much length to establish these two little truths? What difference does it make if a Hebrew Old Testament is correct in its divisions and number of books? Who cares? Doesn't the A Vend with Malachi instead of 2 Chronicles? Is it then a violation of the canon? If it is, how can we say it is the "Bible"? Do we all have to go back and study Hebrew before we can find they<:/c7A dealing with Biblical subjects? You see, the rush of thought is too great. What is

THH MARK OF THE BEAST 10 needed is a "peeling off of dense underbrush and a fresh beginning with some newly plowed ground. Instead of jumping ahead into additional perplexities (which is the Standard Operating Procedure of the intellectual mind), let us see what has been uncovered in the above two facts which will enable us to proceed safely through the maze of theological dispute erected to overthrow the authority of the Bible. 1. To a Hebrew, there are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament which, don't forget (!), is a Hebrew hook. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Kings, 2 — 1 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Haggai, Habakkuk, Zechariah, Malachi, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles. These are the exact number of books found in a King James Authorized Version, and they are the exact 2. number of books found in the Greek text (Textus Receptus) from which the King James is translated. 3. Every Bible-believing Christian in the book of Acts, up to Acts 10, was a Jew or a Jewish proselyte and could, under no condition, have accepted any more or any less books than those listed above. Now note That is Biblical and historical fact. No amount of investigation by anyone at any time has ever produced that. any evidence of any amount that would even suggest New Testament through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts did not accept thirty-nine books as the inspired ''oracles of God." The only questioners were the rejectors. To put it another way, the only questioners of the word of God that any Bible-believer in the (Gen. 3:1) are always, in any age, those who resent its authority in settling moral issues. reading Matthew 7:23 You will notice in how this is the constant issue

1 THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 1 between Christ and the Pharisees. It is the constant issue between Paul and his enemies (Acts 17:2-7). It is the issue between Stephen and the "council" (Acts 7). Regardless of attitude toward the Scriptures, the plainprinted facts testify that, in the "show down," what is wrong is that someone who believes the Book, as it stands, is up against someone who believes in a higher authority or an equal authority (of a religious nature) which contradicts the Book. Here we have a perfect point in question. What is the Bible? Well, the Old Testament is thirty-nine books. You say, "I was not raised to believe that ." or "Well, what ." or "But my church teaches that makes you think you're right and everyone else is wrong ." But these feeble protests come from someone who has failed to face up to scientific fact. Fact one. The Old Testament is a Hebrew book called the Holy Scriptures. It is written by Hebrews in Hebrew. Fact two. Jesus Christ, a Hebrew, defines its bounds at Genesis and 2 Chronicles, with three divisions (Luke . . . . . . . 24:44-45). Fact three. It is found in the Rabbinical schools in 1960, beginning at Genesis and ending at 2 Chronicles, with three divisions. Fact four. There are thirty-nine books in the He- brew Bible before Christ. Fact five. There are thirty-nine books in the He- brew Bible after Christ. There are thirty-nine books today, divided into three divisions beginning at Genesis and ending at 2 Chronicles. According to the Lord Jesus, the divisions are Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44). Notice that in the passages cited, no one is called upon Fact six. to interpret anything. The perennial slander ihat some

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 12 groups believe in "every man interpreting the Bible for himself is a heretical teaching in its own accusation. Since the Bible is self-interpreting, it is its own inter- preter! No man, church, priest, pope, or denomination was ever given the job as interpreter; for you are told over and over and over again in the body of Scripture itself that its author (the Holy Spirit) is the interpreter! Cor. 2:10-14; Dan. (See Luke 24:45: Gen. 40:8; 1 5:10-12, etc.) In the passage in Luke (Luke 24:44), Jesus names the divisions. We should not be surprised to buy a Hebrew Bible and find that the divisions are exactly as He named them and surely enough, they are! A Hebrew Bible is found with three divisions. They are called: the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nabhim), and the Writings (Kethubim). The first of — where Abel was killed, and the last of the "Writings" contain 2 Chronicles, where Zechariah was killed! (In the Hebrew Bible, Daniel is found in the "Writings" and Joshua is found in the "Prophets.") The "Writings" (Kethubim) begin the ''Law" contains Genesis, exactly where any Bible believer would expect them to begin after hearing Jesus' comment in Luke 24:44. The last section, the "Writings," begin with the Psalms. Jesus' division, then, fixes the bounds of the canon and fixes the divisions of the canon of the Old Testament. Without resorting to "interpretation" or "tradition" or "ex-cathedra hallucinations," any first man can grasp the fundamental FACT of Biblical Christianity; that Old Testament begins with Genesis, ends with 2 Chronicles, and is divided into three sec- fact is that the tions, which all Jews acknowledge as the proper divi- sion if they at all profess to believe in the inspiration of their Scriptures. So you see, if you believe that there are any more books that should be in the Old Testament, and your

3 . THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 1 church has taught you so, then obviously three things follow: 1 Your church resents the authority of Jesus Christ and desires Him. 2. to place herself on equal authority with Your church is willfully ignorant of facts and manifests blind adherence to unscientific superstition. 3. You are a sucker and fool to believe a fact- rejecting body of men in 2000 who do not have access to the information and knowledge to which Jesus Christ had access. To put it bluntly, you have blown your wages at a flat-joint on the midway of Vanity Fair, and your ideas about what should be and what should not be in an Old Testament are absolutely worthless in view of \ht facts. You and your church are as authoritative as a fouryear-old Eskimo discoursing on nuclear physics. Now, why go to the bother of establishing these facts? Well, they must be established before one can bring himself to believe the Bible, for a change, instead of the traditions handed down by men who wish to believe them. In tracing the course of the decline of Biblical Christianity, it is absolutely essential that men realize where and when the corruption began. Having man is when he runs into the source of corruption in Bible realized this, the forewarned and forearmed exegesis. That old original "corrupter" of the word of God was at work in Christ's day and in PauTs day (see 2 Cor 2:17). The first corruption, which you must see and recognize, is a group of religious leaders superimposing TRADITION over the WORD OF GOD. The outstanding proof ihai this was done is the fact, herein attested to, that somewhere down the line, someone injected, into the canon of the Old Testament, books that neither Jesus nor Paul would rccogni/c as Scripture.

14 THE MARK OF THE BEAST Who could this be? Who would add Tobit, Judith, Bel and the Dragon, 1 and 2 Esdras, the Wisdom of Solomon, Song of the 3 Children, additions to Esther, the History of Susanna, Baruch, Prayer of Manasses, and 2 Maccabees to the Hebrew Ecclesiasticus, and Old Testament, in the face of the fact that Christ never recognized one of them, and that neither Paul nor Christ ever quoted from them in citing over 200 Old Testament references? Who would do a thing like that? Would a Bible-believer do it? Would 70/7 do it? Would your ''CHURCH'' do it? What do you think of someone who WOULD do a thing like that? I mean, here is the Lord Jesus, admittedly the final and acknowledged authority in religious matters (by all Bible-believing Christians) and stating the contents and divisions of the Old Testament, and along comes someone (guess who!) and insists that he (or they) have EQUAL AUTHORITY with Christ, and 1 then use this "equal authority" to flatly contradict Jesus Christ. Whoever it was, they absolutely refused to face the glaring facts set forth by our Lord and proceeded to manufacture an "Old Testament" that wasn't ever there and never will be! The Old Testament does not contain fifty-three books! It contains thirty-nine books according to the best and most reliable authorities at the time of the completion of the canon. Josephus, who was a contemporary of the Apostles, testifies that the Jews had thirty-nine books in their Old Testament, and that at no time did any of them, who professed to believe in the authority of the Bible, ever accept the Apocrypha (the fourteen books listed above) or the Apocalyptic literature {Jubilees, Assumption of Moses, Enoch, Diatesseron, etc.). Then the student of true knowledge (Greek: gnosis, Latin: science) should realize, at the very beginning, he is going to run into

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 15 extra-canonical sources which claim, and in many cases DEMAND, as much authority as the Bible. Furthermore, religious leaders within the realm of Bible-believing "Christianity" will pay heed to these sources. The objection is raised: "Why shouldn't they? The Bible isn't the only book in the world containing truth, is it?" The objection shows shallowness and insincerity on the part of the objector. 1. The issue is not, "Are there any books outside the Bible that contain the truth?" The issue is, ''When you find an outside source that directly and flatly contradicts or denies the Bible, can it be truth?" 2. The issue is not, "How do you know there are not other books beside those found in the Bible which are just as authoritative?" The issue is, "In view of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ already told you which were authoritative, why do you fancy you know more about it than He does?" 3. The issue is not, "Doesn't the church have the right to decide what belongs in and what doesn't?" (1 Tim. 3:15). The issue is, "Why should any church be recognized as 'Christian' when it absolutely refuses to accept Christ\s authority in matters of what 'belongs and what doesn't?" Don't confuse the issue with a lot of glib thinking. The whole question (and the answer to it) resolves in whether or not you are willing to believe the Lord in' Jesus and accept what He said in regard to the matter as It is proposed, "But didn't He say that all the books in the world could not contain what Jesus did if they should be written?" (John 21:25); to which it may be answered emphatically, "No matter how many books were written, and no matter who authorized them, and final. no matter who accepted them, they certainly could in no way be connected with John 21:25 if they openly " defied the authority of Jesus Christ. That is, you can-

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 16 not go lo Scripture to justify something non-scriptural. You cannot run to the Bible and wrest out a verse to justify the authority of a teaching, book, or books which violate the authority of the Bible from whence you derived the verse. In plainer words, it is a rank act of hypocrisy and charlatanism to try to wrest the authority from the word of God by appealing to the word of God for authority to do so. It is like the pope appealing to Matthew 16:19 to get authority to bind something by a papal bull that contradicts Matthew 16:18. God does not give any man or church the power to contradict the Book through which God delegated the power. This is stealing if it is practiced. Returning to the source and causes of the decline of Biblical Christianity, two lines of corrupters are discernible in the defeat of the Bible as the accepted authority: translators and revisers who have destroyed the word of God by changing it till no one knows what it is and cares less, and secondly, preachers and teach- ers who INSIST on going to the "original Greek" to correct the AV because it will not line up with their church doctrines. We have purposely examined the canonical statements of Jesus in Matthew 23:35 and Luke 24:44 for two "lines" of corrupters. Here is one place where both meet on a common ground before the time of Christ. It is of the utmost importance, then, that any polemic on the "Mark of the Beast" be first buttressed by the fact that the Bible always has been and still is reliable. It is only the corrupters who have sold you on the impression that it is not reliable, and those corrupters begin their work by first insisting that you do not have all the the purpose of discovering the source of these Bible, and that extra-canonical, uninspired, spurious literature is as authoritative as the WORD OF GOD. Once this gross error is accepted and believed,

— 7 THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 1 then the door is wide open to thrust anything at you (or on you!) in the "name" of Christianity or Jesus Christ, whether it contradicts the Scripture or not. This is exactly what has happened to the Body of Christ in the last 1900 years; bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece, a little leaven has leavened the whole lump till, from steeple to basement, the church is infected with the leprosy of Bible rejection. This infection began with the adding of an Apoc- rypha (seven books never recognized by Jesus or Paul) into the Old Testament canon. This act was officially sanctioned at the Council of Trent (1546), and its sanctioning marks out clearly, once and forever (to the Bible-believer), who is the source of corruption. Now, there is no use sweating and going to the psychiatrist or calling out the Knights of Columbus. We are here dealing with facts. Someone has deliberately insisted that seven books belong in the Bible that are not in the Bible. No Christian in the first century ever recognized them, no New Testament writer ever quoted them, Jesus purposely cancelled them, and Paul would quote pagan poetry by unsaved men (Acts 17:28, Titus 1:12) before he would quote one book from the Apocrypha! The fount of corruption is thus discovered, and every move in the gradual decline of Biblical Christianity can be traced to this source. For example, there is not a single translation on the market today that does not take as final authority the Greek text of Nestle or Westcott and Hort and this text contains the seven books that Jesus cancelled when He marked out the canon. For example, the church that accepts these seven books has pronounced a ''divine" curse (see Prov. 26:2) on anyone who believes the canon to be what Jesus said Again (this is not evangelistic "stirring up"), there is the anathema stated in the articles of the Counit cil was! of Trent (1546). For example, every ruiKlamciUai

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 18 scholar, who corrected the Reformation Textus Receptus found in the King James Bible, corrected it from the Westcott and Hort Hesychian text, which contains the seven pagan books. For example, every anti-Christian doctrine or practice found in the Protestant church can be traced to the church that accepted these seven godless books. For example, both major Christian holidays (Christmas and Easter) are dated and observed according to the pagan traditions of unscriptural teaching. This teaching runs contrary to the words of Jesus Christ (for example, "Good Friday" instead of "Bad Wednes- day," Matt. 12:40) and never ever considers His au- showdown of strength. Though not one apostle in the Bible ever mentioned Mary's name thority in a final in prayer, and although thirty years of church history is book of Acts and not one person ever remembers Jesus' birthday, still the pagan tradition found in the goes right on and will continue on till God stops it. There is not a single heresy found in Protestantism that cannot be traced to the great monster-mother who added seven books to the Holy Bible and reduced it to a text book for religious lawyers. Get mad. It will raise your blood pressure. You look a little anemic anyway. Having discovered the source by analytical examination of the facts involved, attention should be turned to the actual linkage of names and events that run from monstrous rejection of the Bible and its replacement with a glorified telephone book where no one can occasionally "ring the right number." this first Irenaeus (130), Eusebius (340), Origen (254), Sym- machus, Aquila, Theodotian, Heracleon, Augustine, Calvin, Jerome, Aquinas, Abelard, Kant, Hegel, Del- Darwin, Tillich, Sockman, Kagawa, Driver, Wellhausen, Weigle, Dahlberg, Spellman, Nestle, Weymouth, Goodspeed, Tregelles, Tis- itzsch, Griesbach, Moffatt,

9 THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 1 chendorf, Gesenius, Trench, Strauss, Astruc, Bushnell, and Caiaphas may not seem to be a very homogeneous grouping. But all these gentlemen have two great bonds of religious affinity that make them **blood brothers** beneath the skin. Every man in the list accepted as authoritative some religious or church tradition that directly contradicted a CLEAR PASSAGE in the Bible. From Irenaeus to Bishop Oxnam. the scholarly succession can all agree about one thing — that the Bible is spurious, incom- plete, filled with fatuities, glosses, errors, fables, and contradictions, and that matters of "CANON" are DE- BATABLE, and that only someone in their own line is able to determine what should be accepted and what should be rejected. As Caiaphas and Ananias superim- posed the Talmud over the thirty-nine books, as Origen superimposed Platonic philosophy over the thirty-nine books, as Augustine superimposed a "spiritual** interpretation over the literal passages in Revelation, as Jerome and Eusebius added the Apocrypha to the original thirty-nine, as Kant and Hegel superimposed rationalism over the revelation of the Pauline epistles, as Spellman and Sheen superimposed the fiats of the popes over the words of Jesus Christ, as Aquinas and Abelard superimposed the sophistry of Aristotle over the New Testament, as Aquinas and Abelard accepted the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus as inspired (they contain the seven apocryphal books!), as Strauss and Astruc superimposed evolutionary romanticism over the doctrine of the Kingdom of God, so Weigle and Poteat today su- perimpose the findings of Christ-rejecting. Bible-denying ''scholarship** over the entire Bible. Birds of a feather tlock together (Col. 2:8: 1 Tim. 6:20). This business can be traced as casil\ as you can run a tracer back to the iiiin barrel. The men who ha\e

— THE MARK OF THE BEAST 20 been firing away at the word and puncturing it with the shells of infidelity, form a neat and regular line from the first group that elevated a Talmud to equal authority with the Scripture, to the last group that elevated the Apocrypha to the same position. The final authority, the Lord Jesus Christ, never recognized either as hav- ing any validity in regards to anything that revealed. God has (See Mark 7:2-13, and don't just note it GO READ IT!) The whole question then is a matter of authority. As the Bible loses its authority. Biblical Christianity declines. The forces bent on destroying Biblical Christianity are not only readily discernible, but they also have motive and purpose behind their desire to destroy the word of God. If we could find out what the word of God is against, we could more easily find its enemies. you can find where a general has concentrated his troops, you can find the possible avenue of attack or If the point of defense. Opposites attract. In other words, the furious, consistent, perennial, and never ending at- tempt to do away with the received text of the King James Bible (Protestants, Catholics, and Jews all coop- must have a logical purpose behind it. Why would the time, talents, money, and efforts of the greatest brains in nineteen centuries be devoted to destroying a book, unless there was something in that book that was a threat to their existence? Analyze it. Why would nineteen centuries of books, polemics, tracts, bulls, sermons, decrees, and catechisms be ordered and published with things in them denying the word or changing the word, unless there was something in the word which challenged or threatened the lives and minds erating) men attacking it? What is it in that old blackbacked Book that men hate so terribly? How can it be, of the in these last days, that the organized forces of pro- fessed Christianity itself are being mustered to rid the

1 THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 2 world of the authority of the Book? The answer is not hard to find once a person submits to the authority of what the Book says, instead of the tradition derived from itself its it by a church that makes own authority. In Revelation 17 and 18, we find a city. It is said to be "a city" (Rev. 17:18). Since it is said to be a city, it is probably a city. I realize this is difficult doctrine for a dense mind, as the scholar is always tempted to think, "But could not a city stand for something or symbolize something?" Thus, his own knowledge strangles him, and he loses the revelation. (For example, Christ says, "This is my body" at the Last Supper, and yet it is apparent to anyone that He is symbolizing His body for his real body is holding the bread!) But here we cannot take time out for our scholarly friends to keep up with things. Asimple rule of common sense would tell anyone what to do with the passage in Revelation 17:18, for in the passage, the city is symbolized by a woman! (Rev. 17:18). Both are given right in the same verse so no one would have any trouble in identifying them. Only religious prejudice could prevent anyone from recognizing the city. Let us proceed carefully, lest we be guilty of ''interpreting." For a while, let us put ourselves in place with the poor, benighted heathen in America who are taught by their leaders that they can't understand the Bible (even though many of them have college educations!) and that they need their church to So instead of interpreting, let's just read, shall we? The freedom to read has not yet vanished from the shores of America, has it? Or has it? 1. The woman in Revelation 17: 1, 3 is a city (Rev. "interpret." 17:18). 2. 17:9). This city is built on seven mountains {\<c\ .

22 THE MARK OF THE BEAST THE "VICAR" OF CHRIST? Fish mitre of Dagon, in inscriptions dated 1000 B.C. Female sex symbol and Egyptian Symbol of Life 2000 B.C. — Meaning Christ (Anointed), but Satan is a christ! (Ezek. 28). Isis, Horus, Seb = Egyptian formula (1000 B.C.), not an inscription on the cross. Clerical collar to symbolize sterility or purity, standard symbol of sun and sun worship in all pagan religions (1000 B.C.). Circular tonsure on Druid priests and priests of Bacchus (300 B.C.). Keys of Janus, "god of the hinge" (doors on houses); hence: "Cardinal" (cardo=a hinge).

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 3. 23 This city has purple and scarlet for colors (Rev. 17:4). 4. The symbol of this city is a golden cup (Rev. 17:4) 5. This city has killed martyrs and saints (Rev. 17:6). 6. This city is a political power (Rev. 17:18). 7. This city is drunken (18:3). commercial (18:15), rich (18:12), proud (18:7), mystical damned by God (11:5 \ (18:18), and 18:24). Now, if you were in that city, how would you feel? Don't you see the trouble? Where the average investigator or scientist is only looking for amoral, objective truths in the physical realm, the Bible deals with moral, absolute truths in the religious realm. The question is not, "Do we have the right interpretation?" The question is, "Having read the passage and understanding exactly what he is talking about, how would you feel if it were aimed at youT Scientists, as Nicode- mus (see John 3:1-4), are interested only in the abstracsomeone else. Note that Nicodemus did not ask, "How can /be born again?", but "How can tion that involves a man be born again?" Before we join the crowd and attempt to eliminate the passage in Revelation 17 and 18 (the scholars have thought of a hundred ways to do it!), let us consider some FACTS. read the passage, you DID identify the 1. If you 2. You identified it with no help from a lexicon or city. the "original Greek." 3. You could not have possibly identified it as New York, Washington, London, Manila, Shanghai, Hollywood, or New Orleans. full 4. You know to what the passage refers. You have knowledge of it. ANY MAN WHO EVFR READ

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 24 IT HAD FULL KNOWLEDGE OF IT. — You really have only one problem How are you going to get rid of it IF YOU DONT LIKE IT'^ The whole problem is, ''If I find something in the Bible that I object to, how can I get rid of it?" This question is the first and foremost consideration of every scholar who ever went about translating or revising the Bible, unless he believed what he was handling was the complete and absolute, authoritative, infallible word of God — as the AV translators did (see their prefatory remarks). Thus, the whole rotten mess is exposed. Under the hypocritical excuses of ''better translations," "clearer readings," "church authority," "grammatico-historico exegesis," "Christian tradition," "Talmudic authority," and "helps for the reader," the corrupters of the Bible have undertaken to rid themselves of everything in the Bible that they don't like. The methods, after all, are secondary; what needs to be considered here motive. is the Once the motive is established, the methods can be spotted for what they are — simply variations of an original plan to destroy the authority of the word of God. Revelation 17-18 is an excellent test passage. It is excellent because any reader at a glance can identify the city. Now as far as 17:7, 8, 10, 16, and 18:2-23 are concerned, there may be some confusion, but why start with confusion? Why would any honest, sincere truth-seeker desire what was plain and begin with what was obscure unless he did not like what he understood? We have laid the ax to the root of the tree, and a tree full of to reject birds it is! (Matt. 13:31-32). The decline of Biblical Christianity can be traced to ONE motive: hatred for the authority of the word. So an attack begins and is carried out meticulously and

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 25 unceasingly by the people who do not like what the book says. These people make up two classes in any and every century. 1. Preachers and teachers who insist on correcting the AV. The only tool they have to do this with is the Greek text of Westcott and Hort (or Nestle), which is an Hesychian, Egyptian type text, including the Apocrypha. 2. Translators and revisers who have revised and revised until the common man no longer knows what the Bible is, where it is, or how to get one. The motive in both cases is alike; they have found somewhere in the AV something that they understood — so they changed all too clearly and did not like it. By doing this through a period of years, the changes have become so numerous and so complex that no longer is it possible to find a truly authoritative Bible anywhere. With this decline in authority. Biblical Christianity, in the true sense of the words, has become extinct. In winding things up (before undertaking an actual study of the Bible doctrine on the Mark of the Beast, a subject of Bible prophecy —eschatology), a few short made on the methods by which the notations can be Bible haters destroyed its authority. We shall take the passage in Revelation 1 7 and 8 as a test case, although Matthew 16, John 20, Acts 2, Genesis 3, Hebrews 6, or Luke 23 would do just as well. (Actually, nearly every 1 verse has been attacked in the commentaries of Doddridge, Williams, Ellicott, Macknight, Phillips, Lange, Henry, Dummelow, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Clarke, etc.) Question the authorship o( the book. Method No. The purpose for this is to destroy the reader's confidence in the canonicity of the Book being read. In the test case (Rev. 17-18) before us, we would run to 1 . Eusebius, who leaned on Papias, and laughl thai a ccr-

V THE MARK OF THE BEAST 26 tain obscure 'Tresbyter John" wrote the book, who was not John the apostle. Bleek, Neander, Harnack, Mof- and Hohzmann subscribe to this attack, and discussion about it is too lengthy to take up here. Suffice it to say, that as most commentators, they don't know fatt, about what they are talking. Method No. 2. Attack the date of the writing of the book. The purpose here is to make any prophecy in the Book null and void by either implying the writer wrote happened (Dan. 2-9 for example) or else, better still, to prove that it all had to be fulfilled in the apostolic age and therefore could not possibly occur it after later! it Melito of Sardis (170) in the Syriac version (the Peshitta) has a note that will effectually eliminate Revelation 17 and 18 from meaning what it says. Accord- ing to this note. Revelation is written in Nero's reign, and therefore Revelation 17 and 18 refers to pagan Rome only, BEFORE THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. You see, if you really objected to Revelation 17 and 18, there is always a scholar present to show you his own interpretation so you can rid yourself of what the passage actually says. If John were exiled during Domitian's reign, then Revelation 17 and 18 is yet future. Now you've got something to chew on, You see, interpretation was not really a point in question. You understood the passage perfectly the first time you read it. You only got into trouble when you went to scholars who objected to don't you? what it said and, consequently, devoted their lives to changing it. Method No. 3. Go to the ''original'' Greek. This is the method used mainly by the Bible-believing Protestant that condemns when he finds a passage in an A his religious upbringing. In the case before us (Rev. 17-18), it would be a good idea to pick

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 27 up Nestle' s Greek New Testament and see the ''original Greek." (The reader understands, of course, that there is no such thing as the "original Greek." The "original" has never been found. If it be objected that by *'original Greek" we do not mean the "original manuscripts," but only the original "language" in which the manuscripts were written, it may be retorted, "Then you are just as much in error, if not worse, for Nestle' s text, as the Westcott and Hort text, is the classical Greek of Alexandrian scholarship, written in Italy. It is not the koine Greek of New Testament scholarship, written in Asia Minor." Nestle' s "original Greek** is built on the theory that Vaticanus. the Catholic manuscript containing the seven corrupt books, is the most perfect text. Thus, "going to the Greek" to correct the King James, AV 161L involves running to a Christ-defying pope to correct a Bible-believing Protestant translation. And who is sufficient for these things?) But to return to Method No. 3. *'How can going to the Greek enable us to get rid of the obvious implications of Revelation 17 and 18?" Answer: You go to the Greek of Revelation 22:19 and retranslate ^'BOOK of life" to "TREE of life" (see Nestle' s), and then prove that Erasmus added the ending anyway with no real Greek manuscript evidence (Reuchlin, Ir), so consequently, no one has to take the book of Revelation seriously! Was it not a disputed book in deciding the New Testament canon? Was it not disputed along with Jude and 2 Peter? Yes, it was. I wonder why? No man who ever read Jude or 2 Peter or Revelation 17 and 18 ever wondered "why" any more. They were disputed because the material found in those books in the Greek was objectionable to the men at whom they were aimed. (Thus, Vaticanus, the Greek vellum manuscript authority for all the new translations, omits Hebrews 10. Why? Read it and find out \\h\. Hebrews 10 slates that

THIi MARK 0\' THE BEAST 28 a repetition of Christ's sacrifice is futile and un-Christian.) In regard to Method No. going to the Greek in 1 3, you will find a man Corinthians 1 of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 2: 1 3 to rid himself You will find a Campbellite running to the Greek of Acts 2:38 to enforce baptismal regeneration. You will find a Funda- mentalist running to the Greek of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 to assure himself of a rapture. You will find a money- grabber running to the Greek of 1 Timothy 6:10 to make it "a root" instead of "THE root." You will find a Modernist running to the Greek of Luke 17:20 to prove everyone is a child of God. You will find a Baptist running to the Greek of Romans 8:1 in order to reenforce the doctrine of eternal security. You will find a Holiness running to the Greek of Hebrews 6:1-6 to prove you can lose it. You will find a Catholic running Greek of James 5:16 to justify confession to a priest. You will find a Presbyterian running to the Greek of 1 Peter 5:1 to put in the "presbyters." And you will find a Jehovah's Witness messing with the Greek article in John 1 1 to prove that Christ was not God. During the entire procedure, all run heedlessly along, ignoring the fact that what they are finding in to the : the Greek, to rid themselves of the English, may cross another 100 verses in the same Bible. But not knowing enough about what the Bible actually says, each is busy riding his little hobbyhorse at breakneck speed through the Bible, stomping and tearing the word of God to bits. (The Baptist will eliminate half of Romans 8:1 forgetting that 8: 13 is in the same chapter. The Jehovah's Witness will strain out the article but leave it untranslated where it occurs in the Greek I'THE Jesus"]. The Presbyterian will get the presbyters in and then elimi- The Catholic gets James 5:16 and, in so doing, spits all over Timothy nate the bishop in 1 Timothy 3. 1

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 29 2:5. Finally, the Holiness seizes Hebrews 6 and forgets whole verse which says that he cannot be saved twice! And on we go, and where we stop, nobody knows. But what is worse, nobody cares.) Method No. 4. Publish revisions in succession so people will think that it is the same Bible that is being to read the preserved. This trick is out-and-out, by far, the best method and give them a "who cares" attitude about the word of God. It accomplishes in a few years what centuries of theological debate could not. By this method, you publish a series of revisions wherein plainly discernible contradictions can be found; then by making these revisions appear to be of the same family or source, you have established the fact that the Bible does contradict itself and therefore cannot be an infallible, God-breathed authority. Anyone who has spent any time in investigating the actual texts of the Douay-Rheims, the RV, the RSV. to deceive the public ASV, and the New English Bible knows that they differ radically from the text of the King James, AV 1611. But as from where these differences are derived and how they got there, that is a fog-bound scene. The average reader takes for granted that it went something the like this: Caedmon's version, Alfred, Aelfric (950), Wycliffe ( 1 382), Tyndale ( 1 525), Coverdale ( 1 535), Cranmer (1540), Great Bible {1539), Geneva Bible (1560), Bish- ops' Bible (1569), King James (1611), Douay Version (1609), Revised Version (1885), American Standard (1901), Revised Standard Version (1952), New English Bible {\96\), etc. This looks very convincing. In case it failed lo be convincing, all the Sunday School literature publications have changed the designation oi' the Bible from Authorized Version (AV) to King James Versi()n (KJ\').

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 30 This accomplishes a dual purpose: first, it makes the A V have three letters so it will match RSV and ASV (so, KJV): secondly, it eliminates that hated word "Authorized" by simply striking it out of the designation. What we have now is no longer an ''AUTHORIZED Version" (AV). but a ''King James VERSION" (KJV). In one master stroke, the Bible corrupters rid them- From the start, their trouble was that they resented what the Book said. Their motive was they wanted to get rid of it because it selves of the despised authority. said things they didn't like. Well, the mission is completed. They have done what they set out to do. They got through the whole operation without once letting the cat out of the bag. The "cat" was the fact that none of the translations since 1885 are Bible translations. None are translated from Bible manuscripts according to what Jesus Christ defined as the Bible. Everyone of them, without exception, is a translation of manuscripts that contain the seven books that Jesus and Paul never accepted as belonging to a Bible. To be as brutal as possible, we way: "Every Bible on the market from 1885-1970 is a Roman Catholic Bible that begins with will put it this the presumption that Jesus Christ is not the final au- thority on what constitutes a Bible and what doesn't." Now there choke on it. The facts are all present. Matthew 23:35 and Luke 24:44 settle the matter it is; conclusively before the word "catholic" is coined by believer or unbeliever. It is settled in the New Testa- ment contrary to the teachings of the Council of Trent, and no amount of questioning authorship, canonicity, original Greek, or correct versions will ever alter a fact in the matter. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus (the two Greek texts chosen by all the translators since 1885) are he- retical documents palmed off as authoritative, and they are no more a "Bible" than "Aesop's Fables" or the

1 THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 3 "Tales of Canterbury." The fact that the new translations do not publish all their Greek manuscripts is only a testimony to their shameful hypocrisy. Both manu- scripts they use as the final say-so in matters of textual criticism contain the Apocrypha, and if that weren't enough, Sinaiticus contains the "Epistle of Barnabas" and the "Shepherd of Hermas." Bible? Not on your life. The ASV and RSV are not continuations of a Bibletranslating line. They are direct break-offs from the Bible line after 200 years of underground work in the critical editions (Fell, 1677; Wetstein, 1751; Walton, 1657; Scholtz, 1830; Griesbach, 1774; Lachmann, 1842; Tregelles, 1857; etc.). During the great missionary and evangelistic age when Whitefield, Luther, Zinzendorf, Wesley, Moody, Finney, Torrey, and Sam Jones were preaching, the corrupters went underground to continue their crusade begun at the time of Christ the crusade to destroy the authority of the word of God. When the /? V ( 88 -85), the ASV (1901), and the RSV (1952) appeared, they appeared as heralds of a new age of Bible enlightenment and understanding. They appeared in their self- — 1 1 appointed robes of righteousness as "easier to understand," "more accurate readings," "true to the original language," and "based on scientific research in more ancient manuscripts"; not once do they reveal their true identity which would cause their sales to drop by the thousands. This true identity is the identity of Irenaeus, Eusebius, Augustine, Constantine, Jerome, Origen, and company, who set out hundreds of years ago to destroy the authority of the word of God and incorporate into Scripture seven books which Jesus Christ purposely omitted. With a little leaven in, the whole lump can be leavened, and the old mother of harlots (Rev. 17:1-4) is found busy at her work in Matthew 13:33 leavening the whole lump with false doctrine (Matt. 16:12) until

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 32 it is fit for nothing but pig's food. The truth of the matter is iheASV, RV. and/?5Vare not ''versions" of the Bible. They are from two Greek manuscripts called ''B" and "Aleph" which were probably written in Italy (see Westcott and Hort remarks) on vellum sheets which contain all seven anti-Christian books plus the "Shepherd of Hermas" and the ''Epistle of Barnabas." They are not "Bibles." One cannot evaluate the deceptiveness of this tremendous hoax until one picks up a book like the one by H. G. Herklots. Mr. Herklots (bless his little heart) is advertised as "a graduate of Cambridge University six years in Canada as Prof, of Exegetical Theology . . . . . . Canon of St. John's Cathedral and later Director of Religious Education at the Diocese of Sheffield." With a background like this, Mr. Herklots writes a book entitled How Our Bible Came to Us, and then produces photostats of Vaticanus and Sinaiticus as BIBLE manuscripts. Think of it! How OUR Bible .... Who is the "OUR," old buddy? It isn't any Biblebeliever that ever believed what Jesus said about the contents of a "Bible"! "OUR BIBLE" has nothing to do with "Bel and the Dragon," "Tobit," "Judith," or "Hermas"! How could a man with the background Herklots has be so brain-washed that he would think our Bible is connected with this kind of nonsense? Shouldn't a man be a little more careful before he goes around saying "OUR"? Who is "OUR"? It doesn't include Jesus Christ. He fixed the canon at Genesis to 2 Chronicles with three divisions. It isn't Paul. He never quotes any of the seven books and would quote secular literature before he would make any reference to them. It couldn't be the King James translators. They left the Apocrypha out of the Old Testament. It couldn't be Wesley, Whitefield, Moody, Sunday, Torrey, Jones,

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 33 Finney, Smith, Brainerd, Carey, Judson, Goforth, Livingstone, Taylor, or any of the soul-winners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; for they all used AV 1611 or the Textus Receptus from which was taken. Who is that phantasmal "our"? Don't include the it me. "Our" Bible is not the ASV, RSV, and RV. These "bibles" are the products of Bible corrupters who had a prejudice against the AV because of what it said for example, Revelation 17 and 18. Their motive was not to produce a better Bible; otherwise they would have stuck to manuscripts that contained what Jesus said was the Bible. Their motive was to destroy the authority of the Bible that Jesus recognized and elevate themselves and their versions (which are not "Bibles") to the seat of authority. The proof is in the pudding, friend. Why change it if you already understand it, and YOU DO UNDERSTAND Revelation 17, don't you? Yes, that is the trouble; you DO understand it. You just — don't like it. Bible translating, then, ends with the King James Bible (AV). Translation of spurious manuscripts, to do away with the Bible, does continue down to this present time with a "bible" a month coming off the presses, but none of these "bibles" have anything to do with inspired literature. God knows what He revealed and how He wrote it and whom He used to write it and when it was written and why it was written. You may fool a gullible bunch of suckers who are trying to get ecumenical bait off a trotline, but you will not fool God, and you cannot force God to approve and bless something that He never intended to approve, tolerate, pro- mote, or bless. You see now why this book began with a discusMatthew 23:35 and Luke 24:44. These two verses, which deal with the earthly ministry of the Lord sion of

— THE MARK OF THE BEAST 34 Jesus, give the Bible-believer a fair and advanced warn- how to spot a Bible-corrupter. They can be ing on spotted by their desire to elevate an outside authority to equal authority with the word of God. The first move made to do this was to incorporate into the Old Testament seven books of man-made trash. To conclude our thesis, the decline of Biblical they Christianity is due to the lack of faith that people place in the word of God as a final authority. This lack of faith is due to the fact that the Bible has been so abused and perverted by its handlers that the average man no longer believes that it is sacred or holy. These handlers are men who have corrupted the word of God by two methods: one, by changing the AV to bring it in line with the pre-reformation text of apostate Roman Catholicism (this is the text of Vaticanus used by Westcott and Hort and the ASV), or two by constantly revis- ing the Bible till fifty Bibles* appear that contradict each other. Either way, the public in general, and preachers in specific, have at last become deaf to the warnings and exhortations in the Bible and have tuned their ears to the pitch of science and Rome. With such an orientation, the Bible passes among the millions from generation to generation unnoticed. There it lies on the dime- world its covers is found a store counter of nearly every nation in the $10.00 or less per copy. Within prophecy so blood-curdling and shocking that if the populace knew of it, they would rise in arms to overthrow the religious tyrant. But long, long ago, the scholars completed their disastrous and hypocritical work of undermining the Book's authority. In vain it warns; in God's eternal power that "heaven and earth shall pass away," but His word shall not. It lies like a soundless time vain * it Now 205. threatens. It lies as mute evidence to

THE DECLINE OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY 35 bomb ticking away the hours until the end-time when it will fulfill itself in all the vengeance and wrath that only a Holy God can muster. Witness the Book! It lies on your table now with folded cover, and I believe I see a little dust settling there. Can it be? Dusty or sparkling, there it lies, and between its ancient covers you will find sixty-six books: thirty-nine in the old, twenty-seven in the new. The sixty-sixth book lies just as silent and as undisturbing as the other sixty-five, yet between its first line, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:1), and its last line "Amen," there is disclosed the most terrifying and consequential subject ever revealed to man The Mark — of the Beast. Take heed how you read and what you believe. With the decline of Biblical Christianity, perhaps your name will be found among the list of those who set on corrupting the word of God because it conflicted with their traditions and opinions. I hope you are not among that number. If you are in that number, then this study will be in vain, for you also will be found in the ranks of that strange and terrifying figure who has a Number, a Name, a Sign, and a Mark, and he is not "the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26). He is a Christ of another lineage and another "gospel." He is the author of all Bible corruptions and the father of all their hearts Bible corrupters.

CHAPTER TWO The Mysterious Horseman, Mr. "X" In the sixth chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1), a gentleman comes trotting by who calls for some attention and recognition. You will find him in the second verse of chapter six; he is said to wear a crown, and he comes to "CONQUER." Now, a "conquering king" in the Bible is never a secondary or minor character. Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, Caesar Augustus, and Alexander are the type of men whom the Bible mentions as con- querors. When the Holy Spirit, speaking through the "A absolute authority of the Holy Scriptures, says, crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer," you can be certain the man so described is a star in the production; he is first he is not playing right field on the diamond. Certainly a man of such prominence can be identified. violinist in the orchestra; Remembering our first chapter in Bible orientation, let us approach the subject of interpreting Revela- tion 6:2 seriously, carefully, and above all, with a rev- erent eye open to what the Scriptures themselves SAY about this mysterious king on the white horse. Never forget that the final interpreter of the Bible is the Author Himself, and His method of interpretation is "Scrip- ture-with-Scripture." Before any lexicons, systems, traditions, or "original Greek" are called upon, and before any scholar, bishop, priest, or commentator is dragged

THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN, MR. "X" in for an opinion, let us see 37 ''what saith the Scrip- tures?'' The Scriptures ssiy plenty. They say SO MUCH as a matter of fact, that "Mr. X" on the white horse is completely unhorsed in the description. "Behold a white horse." It is not hard to find another white horse in the same book — in Revelation 19:1 1 we find him, with a rider in the saddle. The rider is described thoroughly; He is the Lord Jesus Christ. The rider in Revelation 19:1 is called "Faithful and True." He judges "in righteousness," and His name is called "The Word of God" (Rev. 19:13, John 1 1:1-3). He is "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Rev. 19:16). His armies are heavenly armies, and they are clothed in "the righteousness of saints." (Check Rev. 19:8, 14.) In all this no one has to lean on anything other than the Scriptures themselves to get the "interpretation." Nothing of an "extra-canonical" nature has to be resorted to in order to unravel the "hid- den meaning." What is written is clear. The rider of Revelation 19 is obviously the Lord Jesus Christ. The objections to the interpretation come only from those who are so ignorant of the contents of Scripture that they fail to see the connection between the comparative verses. Concordances are published to remedy this defect in the reader, but what rejector of the word of God ever spent much time in a concordance? Now, "Scripture-with-Scripture," are the riders of the two white horses (Rev. 6 and Rev. 19) identical? They appear to be so. Unfortunately, appearances are deceptive (John 7:24), and this is as scientific a statement as Millikan's prize-winning statement on atomic The wall appears to be solid, but it is not. The two riders on the two white horses appear to be structures. identical, but are they? Here we have an opportunity to exercise our eyes and our minds on what is w rittcn, and determine from the Scriptures alone the homogeneity

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 38 of the two horsemen. The rider in Revelation 6 has a crown (vs. 2). The rider in Revelation 19 has many crowns (vs. 12). 2. The rider in Revelation 6 has a how, but no sword (vs. 2). The rider in Revelation 19 has a sword, 1. but no how (vs. 15). The rider in Revelation 6 is followed by war, famine, Death, and Hell (vs. 3-8). The rider in Revela3. followed by heavenly armies (Rev. 19:14) and WOO years of peace on earth (Rev. 20:1-6). tion 19 is Conclusion? They are not the same rider. This shows, in the clearest way possible, the difference between Bible-believing ''Christian interpretation" of a passage and the traditional method of Bible- corrupting interpretation. The Bible-believer will take the time out to carefully examine every detail of a passage, believing that since he is reading the absolute word of God, it deserves careful and reverential attention. The Bible-corrupter, having assimilated 1900 years of perversion and petrification, does not look for anything other than a general truth that will fall in line with the religious teaching of his church. own denomination or More than this, the corrupter will accuse the Bible-believer of ''crass literalism'' or ''Bibliolatry'' if he prayerfully and devotedly examines every detail of a passage. Can't you see what the trouble is? The decline of Biblical Christianity has allowed a veritable galaxy of preachers, teachers, and scholars to take over the job of Bible exegesis with not one out of ten of them believing that what they are reading is of any more importance than a means of making a living! Why bother with "crowns" and ''bows" and "fine linen"; after all, isn't the whole thing symbolical? Is it not "highly figurative" and "apocalyptic" in its "IM- AGERY"? Is it? From where did you get that idea? Ah, I know! You got it by believing the ideas set forth by

—— THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN, MR. "X" 39 "woman with the leaven," of whom we spoke in Chapter One. God never told you it was ''highly figurative." You already "shot your wad" when you refused to identify the woman of Revelation 17, 18. Now it is the impossible for you to identify the white horseman of Revelation 6:2, for you have lost the key to interpreta- which is believe what you read, as you find it, where it is. The two horsemen are not the same. They are not the same because they are different. If two things are different, then they are not the same. One must resort to childish rudiments and fundamental maxims when dealing with Bible corrupters, for their minds run so fast and so eagerly to problems and reasons for not believing that they have to be straitjacketed about once every tion, other paragraph so they will not acquired, slip. let the truth, so far Instead of leaping ahead and yelling, "What are you trying to prove now?" or "Well, I was taught it meant this ..." or "So what does that prove?" or "What difference does a detail like that make; the general picture is still there," try standing still for a minute and letting this great truth penetrate you to your innermost being the riders are NOT identical. By the information given in the passages, where you find them in the AV, without perverting their meaning, structure, state that the two the cue for the versions to obscure the wording, or context, they plainly riders are NOT the same. This is plain facts. Immediately, the Amplified Version inserts crossreferences on the rider in Revelation 6:2 which run to Psalm 45, where the Lord Jesus is presented. Why was this done? The Amplified forces the reader to accept an interpretation that is not found in the verses that interpret their own meaning. Why would anyone nuikc ilic riders the same by a system of cross-references, when a

THE MARK OF THH BFAST 40 J white horse is given in both references in Revelation 6 and Revelation 19 and different information is given concerning their riders? Shades of Rome! The ruse is all too apparent. The Amplified has not inserted cross-references to give you the Bible's system of interpreting itself; the Amplified has violated an obvious reference which interprets the verse and has inserted an obscure reference which will force Revelation 6 to agree with Revelation 19, even though they do NOT agree as written. We are back in Chapter One of this dissertation. The Amplified revisers have produced a denominational farce to supersede the authority of the word of God, and they have perverted Revelation 6:2 to make it agree with the amillennial or postmillennial position that the Kingdom of Christ is here now and is spread- ing. Their motive was Satanic. They found a verse they didn't like, and they adopted a method to eliminate it. In this case, the method was to refer it to a verse that would give the reader the wrong interpretation. This is the same motive for the Catholic rejection of Revelation 17, 18. It does not concern interpretations at all; it is simply that when scholars find verses in the AV to which they object, they change them so that they will line up to what the scholars agree is correct. In this respect, the Amplified Version (from the Roman Catholic Vaticanus text) is —Westcott and Hort Greek as fraudulent a piece of work as ever hit the ''bible" market. Running exactly neck-and-neck with Roman traditionalism, the scholars have deliberately, with intentional malice aforethought, rejected the plain English of the plain AV (where they were plainly told and have inserted their own private opinion by Revelation 6:2 so a reader who checked it could accept their own false doctrine on the millennial issue. How do we know it is false? Because, silly, that the riders differ)

THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN, MR. "X" 41 they had to pervert the Bible to get it across! If it were true, what is the necessity of leading the reader astray? There is no answer to that question. Whatever may be said about the rider of Revelation 6:2, there is one thing that is certain. It is certain that he is a "dead ringer" for Jesus Christ, and so much so that for fifteen centuries he successfully deceived six major denominations (Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyand Greek Orthodox) into thinking that he was! You must admit that he is so startlingly like the Lord Jesus that he could pass off as the Lord 90 percent of the time, and no one would know the difference. This opens up another whole avenue of thought and research in regards to the mysterious "Mr. X", and that is this: ''Who, IN THE BIBLE, is the most perfect imitation of Christ?'' (Remember that war, famine, Death, and Hell will follow Him! Rev. terian, Episcopalian, Methodist, 6:4-8.) Did you notice the insertion of "in the Bible"? It is no time, now, to go outside the Bible to identify the man, until you know what the Bible says about him. Stay in the cover till you are sure of your footing. "Search the scriptures." Read them carefully, the Lord commanded (John 5:39), and mark the differences in dispensations, as Paul commanded (2 Tim. 2:15). It is absolutely certain, if you do, that you will come out at Revelation knowing that the greatest imitator of Jqs,us Christ was not David, Paul, Joseph, Moses, Thomas Kempis, Sheldon (In His Steps), or Schweitzer. The greatest imitator of Jesus Christ is a a 2:9). Ex- "KING OF KINGS'' (Rev. 19). spiritual being called Lucifer or Satan (Rev. 1 amine the evidence: 1. Satan is Jesus is the "king over all the children of pride'" (Job 41). "angel of the (;od'' ((kil. 4:14). of light'' 2 Cor. 11:11-14). "angel Satan appears as an 2. Jesus is the (

1 THE MARK OF- THE BEAST 42 3. ''God is light, and in him is no darkness at air (1 John 1:5). Satan appears as an "angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:1114) 4. Jesus is ''God . . . manifest in the flesh" ( Tim. 3:16). Satan is the "god" of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). 5. Christ has a bride, who is a city (Rev. 21:9). Satan has a bride who is a city (Rev. 17:1-9). 6. Jesus cites the Scripture in conflict (Luke 4:1- Satan cites the Scripture in conflict (Luke 4:10- 12). 11). 7. Christ preaches forty-two months (Luke 3:23; John 2:13, 5:1, 6:4, 12:1). The Beast preaches fortytwo months (Rev. 13:5). 8. Christ means ''Anointed'' (Christos, Messiah) (Acts 4:26 , Psa. 2:2). Satan is ''anointed'' as a "christ" (Ezek. 28:14; Matt. 24:5). 9. God desires worship (John 4:23-26). Satan de- sires worship (Matt. 4:8-10). If you wanted to locate the white horse rider of Revelation 6:2, you certainly could do better than a cross-reference to the ''marriage of the Lamb" in Psalm 45. Since "The entrance of thy words giveth light," the student has here stumbled on another great Christian truth revealed only in the word of God. This tre- mendous truth is that the greatest force in the universe, opposing righteousness, is a spiritual being who desires religious worship. This brings to desolation a dozen or more religious systems, for they are erected on the flimsy platform that ''since all worship or believe in some God, therefore God must exist." This naive and disastrous approach is the approach of modern science. It assumes that any god is the right one, and that there is only one. But Paul corrects this inac-

THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN. MR. "X" curate guesswork in 1 Corinthians 8:5. The world ^' is activity 43 god of this primarily religious. Hence, his sphere of '' would not be found primarily in road houses, jukejoints, beer halls, taverns, pool halls, gambling dens, dance halls, and dope pads. His primary sphere of acand influence would be in church councils, formation of catechisms, Bible translations, rituals and sacramental acts, prayer meetings, and ecumenical tivity movements!! Someone has made a horrible mistake! They have been teaching that Satan is either not there (as Christian ''Science'* or physicists teach), or that if he there, he is a big, bad "boogie-man" is like Hitler or Kruschev. Perish the thought! The Satan of Bible revelation is so far superior to Hitler or Kruschev, he wouldn't even waste time to deal with them. They couldn't/oo/ anybody. Satan's job, as revealed in Scripture, is to counterfeit by imitation (see Matt. 13:23-30, 36-42). The RSV, incidentally, fails to see this basic, primary truth of Bible doctrine, and failing to see it. they do a fantastic thing in translating the parable of the wheat and the tares. They translate (this is hard to believe!) the word "tares" as ''weeds ^' I This, of course, destroys the entire sense of the parable, for the whole teaching is based on the similarity between the tares and the wheat that was indiscernible until the fruit came! By translating ''tares" as ''weeds," the RSV has produced a "deviT' (see the tare-sower in Matt. 13:39) that does not have enough sense to fool anyone! The /?5V translators thus "show their hand." They are ob\iously gullible, deluded, foolish men who are in total ignorance of the methods of operation in the spirit realm (Eph. 5:10-15). Paul said, ''We are not ignorant of his (the DeviKs) devices" (see 2 Cor. 2:1 1 ). The sower of the good seed (Matt. 13:37) knows c\actlv what was sowed and who sowed it. hiii the ser-

THH MARK OF THF BFAST 44 vanls of the household couldn't spot cleverly done. The same situation is it — was too it found in Revela- The man is cleverly disguised as the Lord Jesus Christ. However, upon close examination in the searching light of the ''word," he appears for what he tion 6:2. is — a tarc\ not an ear of wheat. He is an imitator who Corinobeys implicitly the RSV's admonition in thians 11:1 to be ''imitators of Christ." (The Greek, by 1 the way, is "follow," as in the AV, but the RSV crowd always did teach salvation by works, so little more than this corruption could be expected from them.) The mysterious rider on the white horse in Revelation 6:2 becomes less and less mysterious the more we ride him into the spotlight of that light that is called "a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psa. 119:105). Mr. "X" is a king, but he is not the ''KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS"; he is a countermight be added that he is such an excellent counterfeit that he escaped the detection of Augustine, Origen, Jerome, Eusebius, Pope Gregory, Cardinal Spellman, Fulton Sheen, Pope Pius, Pope John, Berkhof, Hodge, Dabney, Kuyper, Calvin, Trench, Alford, A. T. Robertson, Aquinas, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, James Joyce, Kagawa, Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Stanley Jones, Dean Weigle, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Pretty good counterfeit job, eh what? feit. It The rider of Revelation 6:2 is a king; the Latin for "king" is ''Rex. " He comes to imitate Christ and to pass off as Christ Himself (2 Thess. 2:2-6). Thus, he be- comes one of the central figures of Bible revelation. One may say that he is the second most important figure in Scripture outside of the Lord Jesus Himself. This Mr. "X" is actually a hoax. He is typified by men in the Old Testament: Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Balak, Sisera, Abimelech, Ahab, eighteen Goliath, Saul, Absalom, Haman, Nabal, Jeroboam, Jii-

. . THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN. MR. "X" 45 and Nebuchadnezzar. Eighteen, six. (The Greek for '*six" is "hex.") The rider under surveillance, then, is a Rex who is a hoax, and he is spotted by a number six (hex). Did you ever study words that END in "X"? This king with the crown and the bow is the main subject of revelation, exclusive of the person and work das, Herod, Solomon, count them — three times — He is so powerful and deceptive in concealing his own person and work that, to this day, of Jesus Christ. there are not twenty books in print that give the infor- mation on him that is found in the Bible {AV 161 1). 1 He is a prince (Dan. 9:26. John 16:11). He is a king (Dan. 8:21. 23). 3. He is called a ''he goat" (Dan. 8:5.21). 4. He is called a ''little horn" (Dan. 7:8). 5. He is called "the king of the north" (Dan. 2. 11:6). 6. He is called "a king of fierce countenance" (Dan. 8:23). 7. He is called "the antichrist" the singular 8. — not "antichrists" ( as in John 4:3). (Note 1 1 John 2:18.) He is called the "man of sin" or "son of perdi- tion" (2 Thess. 2:2-4). 9. He is called the "beast" out of the pit (Rev. 17:5-9) 10. He has A NUMBER. A NAME, A SIGN, and A MARK (Rev. 13:15-18). To sum it up, he is the gentleman for whom we are looking in this thesis, and when he is revealed, we shall look for his mark. "X" marks the spot. Have you ever studied words that end in "X"'? The mysterious **X" on the white horse is a howman. That is a very important thing to note. Only two hunters are found in the Scriptures. Those two arc named, and the others are nondescript (Job 10: 16: Pro\ The only iwc^ named 6:26;Micah 7:2: and Psa. 140:1 1 ).

46 THH MARK OF THE BEAST are Esau and Niiurod. Nothing good is said anywhere in the Scripture about these men, but a great deal had is said about them (see Gen. 25:23; Mai. 1:3; Heb. 12:1517; Isa. 10:5-10; Micah 5:5-6; Isa. 23:13). Nimrod is a Hamite (Gen. 10) trying to integrate the world (Gen. 11:1) in Shemite territory (see Gen. 10-11). Legends about him are numerous, and an exhaustive treatment will be found in Hislop's The Two Baby Ions. Now, a bowman uses two fingers to pull his bow string. He uses three if he is weak or if the bow has a hard pull (say 90-100 pounds). However, from time immemorial, the sign of a bowman has been the forefinger and the index finger raised and slightly bent. This gesture (in 1960) is the infantry signal for a bayonet assault. It is the assault signal for armored tanks, and it is the Boy Scout sign of a salute. It is a bowman 's sign. The gesture is remarkable in its Catholicism. When a man or woman smokes, they have the fingers in the exact position. When a drunk asks for a jigger, the standard is ''two fingers. " These two fingers placed behind and against the upper teeth and thrust forward makes the most derisive and insulting gesture that an Italian knows. The same two fingers split make Churchill's ''V for Victory'' sign so publicized by the press in World War II. Somewhere down the line somebody has failed to notice an amazing coincidence. The coincidence is that the Roman Catholic pontiff has ordained this two-fin- gered gesture as the identifying mark of his CHURCH'S BLESSING! From the first Catholic paintings of "baby Jesus" with His two fingers uplifted to the last pope on the front of Life magazine with the same two uplifted, history bears record that the sign of the bowman is the sign of the papal blessing. It is the Latin method of a Catholic crossing himself. (By the way, the word for

— THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN, MR. "X" 47 "cross" in Latin is ''crux. " Did you ever study words that end in "X"?) I have, in my "doomsday books," clippings cover- ing a period of twenty years. In these pictures, which from newspapers and magazines, you can observe how the AP, INS, and UP photographers have are photos unconsciously (or with previous instructions) caught in the act every public figure that ever raised the two in the papal salute. I have photos of Eisenhower, Churchill, Roosevelt, Barkley, Pope John, Pope fingers Kennedy "democrats" caught in the act. I have Eddy Arnold outside an unnamed "country" Pius, and twenty church with the fingers obediently raised for the act of crossing. A cross is made by two opposing and inter''X. " There are variations of this "X," but "X" it is exactly as an arrow lies crossing and perpendicular to the bow. Try as he may, no Catholic can explain the symbol of the two raised fingers, for it was the sign of a drawn and released bowstring 3000 secting lines. It is an — years before the first Catholic ever drew a breath of air. The armed forces today inherit and understand the meaning of the sign from the mighty hunter (Gen. 10:9-10). They know what it means; it means "KILL 'EM!" We may naturally expect the rider of Revelation 6:2 to be followed by war (6:4) and Death (6:8), for he is a bowman. One of the Hebrew roots for Baal, inci- dentally, is "hairy, archer, or horseman." The antichrist is referred to thirteen times in Revelation, and there are thirteen Baals mentioned in the Old Testament. Let us corral the horse and rider of Revelation 6:2 and look a little closer yet. This "sign of the cross" with which the heathen "cross themselves" what is it'/ The cross is the instrument of a CURSE in ihc New Testament (Gal. 3:13), and death, not of glories in, life in the (Gal. 6:14). passage, is it is the instrument oi' The "cross" that i\iul some little certainly not

— — THH MARK OF THH BHAST 48 molten image hanging around his neck! The passage is an additional explanation of Romans 6, which describes in detail the death of the Christian in Christ and his and risen Saviour. image hung on the neck is equivalent to walking around with a little electric-chair hung on your shoulders, for the CROSS was the instrument of capital punishment for a criminal. To CROSS yourself, in view of the Bible information on the subject, is the equivalent of putting yourself under a curse. Hence, "cross my heart and hope to die." (You probably will! Go to the church of your choice while you can!) "I told a lie, but I had my fingers CROSSED." "He gave me the double cross." "He better hadn't CROSS me!" The rider, then, has some further identification on identification with a dead, buried, To make this an — He is a king REX. He is an imitation, therefore, a HOAX. He uses the bowman's sign of two his person. which the heathen cross themselves CRUX. He has no arrows and therefore conquers peacefingers, with —PAX. His number —Greek: HEX. And he such perfect ably (Dan. 8:25), the Latin being six, six, six is is a imitation of Christ that he fools many he is a PARADOX. Did you ever study words that end in "X"? The man speaks with the voice of God (Rev. 13:6; 2 Thess 2:3-6), Latin: VOX. He speaks from "the seat" (Rev. 2:13) which is "EX-cathedra," and as any good Christian, he will undoubtedly observe (with fervor) Christ- mas — Greek: "X" MASS. Did you ever study words that end in "X"? How about jinx, tax, jax, sax, or ax? There is no mistaking the man's religious affilia- "THE BEAST," and as such, his bride is "MYSTERY BABYLON." Now tion. In Revelation 17, he is called you know why Revelation 17-18 was picked as a testcase sampling in chapter one when discussing matters of gradual Bible corruption! Once any reader admits that he understands Revelation 17:18, 9, 3, 4, 5, and 6,

THE MYSTERIOUS HORSEMAN. MR. "X" the "dirty work" is done. 49 Never again can that reader honestly believe in the sincerity or in the ''Christianity" of Roman Catholicism. He is "ruined for life." The only hope the priest has to deceive him is to keep him out of the Bible or make him think he doesn't dare interpret it if he starts to understand it. Of course, this is the standard method taught (as Christian doctrine) to the Catholic adherent. Rome suddenly looms ominously in all her ghoulish glory. Here we have a rider who is found in eighteen types in the Old Testament. He is religious and desires worship and is so thoroughly like Jesus Christ that it is impossible to detect one from the other without the aid of the Holy Spirit. He shows up with a two-fingered salute taking over a kingdom with talk of peace. This kingdom is a direct offshoot of the ancient Roman Empire (see the material exactly in Dan. 2 and Dan. 7). He is jointly ruling with the "Woman" of Revelation 17, and there can be no doubt about her identity what- soever, for she is the original corrupter whose leaven is destined to leaven the entire lump of Christian doctrine (Matt. 13:33). We have followed her course in chapter one from the time that she added seven books to the Bible (in spite of Jesus' canonical statements) to the time where she declared her "holy papa" to be infal- when he spoke "X" CATHEDRA. Her Roman holiday is "X" MASS, and every heresy in the Proteslible tant church can be traced to her manipulations and refutations of the Holy Scriptures. We are back at that place where the motive of Bible corrupters is clearly set before us. We have discovered the real reason why men hate the word o( CkhI and why they are determined to destroy it (while professing to believe it!). It is because the book places the Roman Catholic sxstem as the root and trunk of apos-

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 50 and tJic Mother of the {greatest blasphemer who THE will ever appear on the stage of human history tasy — ANT/CHRIST. This is cause enough for a prolonged, sustained, murderous, concentrated, and unmitigated attack on the Textus Receptus, which attack Rome has never abandoned and never will abandon. Unable to destroy the authority of the AV from 1611 to 1811. Rome went underground into the revision committees and spawned forth five dozen ''Bibles," between 1885 and 1965, that are all dark-age, Catholic versions of the original Christ- defying ''Vaticanus/' Unable to burn the AV openly since 1700, Rome changed armor and destroyed it one page at a time by using the seminaries of the Protestants (Fundamental and Liberal alike) and convincing their professors that the Vatican Manuscript (minus Heb. 10, yet containing "Bel and the Dragon") was the authoritative source of Revelation. No institution on the face of this earth would have done a thing like that without sufficient cause. The cause is apparent when one reads the passages in Revelation 17-19 and the passages that deal with the white horse rider of Revelation 6:2. The cause is that the Bible has, from the start, openly attacked the Roman system as a Satan-inspired, man-made, hell-bound system of Bible perversion seeking nothing but self-exaltation and supreme control over the lives of every human being on the face of the earth. (In the name of Christ, of course! BUT WHICH CHRIST?) In the next chapter, we shall take up a study of the verses that bear on the number, name, sign, and mark of this "Christ" who is not "the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26). He comes not to bless the earth, but to VEX. His followers receive not only a mark, but a sore (Rev. 16:2), which, as anyone knows, is a POX. Have you ever studied words that end with "X".*^

CHAPTER THREE A Christ Who is The Wrong Christ The word "Christ" is from the Greek "Christos." In Hebrew you will find the transliteration "Messiah" from "Mashiach." In either case, the word means ''anointed'' or ''anointed one." This "anointing" is found in the Old Testament to refer to an act of anointing a prophet or ruler with a vial of olive oil as a symbol that he is the chosen one of God for a specific task (see Lev. 4:3, a priest; 1 Chron. 16:22, a prophet; Lev. 6:20, a high priest; 2 Sam. 22:5 1 a king; and Hab. , 3:13, Jesus Christ). What someone has failed to ob- serve is the fact that a wicked man or a demoniac being can also be "the Lord's anointed" in the sense that such a one has received permissive power from God for purposes of destruction. A vivid case in the Old Testament is the demon-possessed murderer, Saul (see Sam. 24:6, 10). Saul (as it will be brought out) is one of the most perfect TYPES of the antichrist to be found in Scripture. (A study of types, incidentally, is the place where 1 all amillennial and postmillennial theologies fall short. The Old Testament is a dead book without a knowledge of the types in it which deal with future events, and as it has been pointed out before, the Old Tcsiament contains eighteen types of the man called "ihc Beast." It also contains twenty-one types o( the Lord Jesus Christ.)

— THE MARK OF THE BEAST 52 The fact that David is afraid to kill Saul because Sam. he is *the Lord's anointed" (and he was 1 9:16) that needs prayerful meditation and study. is a fact The infidel will alibi around it a number of ways. The quickest way to say that is David, as all ancient He- brews, was religiously superstitious and had that un- nameable dread of the ''unknown" (Mana) which made him attribute divine dealings to human beings, etc., etc. This type of thing only reveals the ignorance of the infidel, and the fact that he has been reading trash written by men as stupid as himself. Another way to explain David's fear is to say that he had a complex about rebelling against authority be- cause of the etc. A third way is to say that the anointing symbolized somtihmg, and although Saul was anointed, the anointing wasn't real because Saul didn't live up to it; therefore, David's fears were groundless, etc., etc. A much more faithful method of handling the problem would be to search the Scriptures that deal with the protection and permission which God often grants or delegates to Satanic personages. In so doing, the investigator will stumble upon one of the greatest extant truths of epistemology, and a truth, incidentally, that is always overlooked (100 percent) by psychiatrists who are supposed to major in this field. This epistemology deals with methods by which a man can obtain truth and the method by which he is sidetracked or deceived in his efforts to obtain it. It hinges on the passages in Samuel 24:6, Romans 10, 13:1-3, and the 1 two first chapters of the most ancient book known to man, the Book of Job. (Job is written 1500 B.C., and Job will be found to be a contemporary of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The writer writes in the first person, showing that he is handling the stylus before Moses is born. Check Job with Genesis 46: 3, Job 6: 9 with Gen1 : 1 esis 25:3, Job 2: 1 1 1 1 with Genesis 25:2, and Job 4: 1 . The

A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 53 author of Job is found in Job 32:2-9, 15-17.) Saul is the Lord's ANOINTED. He is the Lord's anointed by PERMISSION (see 1 Sam. 8); that is, he is Sam. 8:5, 20), and as such, he holds the Old Testament pew that Ca^.s'<3r occupies in the New Testament, being chosen by the religious leaders of Israel. (See the election results in John 19:15.) Neither Saul nor Caesar were God's choice for a leader of Israel. Both were man-made choices made with an eye to world conformity and a desire to "avoid trouble" (John 12:48). Neither Saul nor Caesar were God's choice the people's choice (1 in the matter. Where the people chose Saul for his Sam. 10:23-24), God chose David for his bravery. When the test came, Saul (who measured over seven feet in stature) sat down and watched David, a young lad, go out and tackle a Hamite monster that outweighed him 200 pounds and had the "reach" on him by at least eighteen inches. The Pharisees chose Caesar in order to retain their good standing in the political world, but God chose His Son, Jesus. When the test came, Jesus saved His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21, Luke 1:69-77), while Caesar (Titus) burned their city and crucified 500 Jews outside the city walls. The lesson in both cases is clear to an open-minded man. God may give you what you want and allow you to believe what you want to beheight (1 lieve, but that does not mean that it is the truth ox that it is even worth the powder and shot it would take to blow it into Hell. God grants power and authority to personages and governments of which He does not approve. Hitler, Stalin, Alexander, Pope Gregory, Nero, Bloody Mary, Pharaoh, Charlemagne, Hannibal. Pope Leo, Scipio, Ghengis Khan, Frederick, Peter the Great, Hirohito, Pope Urban, Castro, Batiste, Trujillo, Kennedy, and Franco may all find their place in Romans 13:1-6,

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 54 where "the powers that be are ordained of God"; but none could take the passage and prove from it that they were ^odly, approved of God, blessed of God, or even AWARE of God! The passage only shows, as in the case of Caesar and Saul, that God permits them ''to be." We I can feel it! You are getting on touchy ground again see, wherever authority is the crux of the argument, there is a rebellion against it. There is within man a — natural instinct to look for a higher authority, but to reject and resent authority if that authority is absolutely sinless and holy. Hence, God will give the man what he is looking for — authoritative corruption! Second Thessalonians 2 will bring the point closer to bear as this passage points out a ruler who professes to have absolute authority. Furthermore, he is given the privilege, /rom God, of deceiving anyone who does not love the truth, and we are told in the passage (2 Thess. 2:1 1-12) that God is the Author of this delusion which damns the truth-rejector! What new doctrine is this? It is that ancient doctrine of Job 1 and 2, wherein the lid is taken off the spirit world by the revelation of God, and we are allowed to look at the peculiar operations of "the mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess. 2:7). It is called a "mystery" because none of the Greek philoso- phers were able to grasp it. Not one in the lot — Socra- Zeno, Epicurus, Plato, Sophocles, Aristotle, or Democritus ever grasped this fundamental operation tes, — of "truth and deception." All, without exception (and Hobbes, Russell, Darwin, Huxley, Spinoza, Hegel, Kant, James, Kierkegaard, Hume, Locke, and Berkley, who follow), began with the theoretical MISTAKE that there is no active, living, personal force in the universe which opposes truth and has power to defeat it where sin is involved in the life of the truth-seeker. In plainer words, the moral issue and the absolute authority on moral issues were rejected at the start, and every one of the

— A CHRIST \\'HO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 55 philosophers, from Socrates to Bernard Shaw, worked under the insurmountable handicap of having God Himself against them for rejecting His revelation concern- ing the things about which they professed to "think". Once Satan is eliminated from the thinking process as a force with which to be reckoned, then the battle is lost (Rev. 12:9. 1 1 ). The Bible clearly sets him and gives human examples of how these operations work. Saul and Caesar are notable. Second Thessalonians 2 brings this tremendous truth home with force: ''God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.** Again, it can be seen why a preliminary chapter is necessary on "The Decline of Biblical Christianit\ ." for the passage in 2 Thessalonians 2 is too hard and brutal for the "modern mind." as it was too hard and brutal for the philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The passage brings home "to roost" that terrible truth that the whole issue does not hinge on "interpretaforth, sets his operations forth, tions." "translations." or "recent discoveries." It hinges on the fact that men resent the Bible being an authority on settling MORAL issues. Note: ''had pleasure in unrighteousness." Three words are found in the passage in 2 Thessalonians 2 which disqualify it in the minds of modern man as being a valid explanation for obtaining accurate epistemology. The three words are not hard to find they are 'the TRUTH;* "a LIE/* and "LNRIGH- TEOUSNESS.*^ All philosophers and scientists (see Col. 2:8 and 1 Both groups Tim. 6:20) profess to be seeking profess to abhor a falsehood, and both groups, if put on truth. the spot, uould justify their own religion b\ \\haie\er works they could produce to prove that thc\ were luu

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 56 "unrighteous." There is a conflict here. Where the Bi- "thy word is truth" (John 17:17), Pilate retorts, "What is truth?" To which Jesus replies, "I am the truth" (John 14:6). To which philosophy and ble says, science reply; 'There is no such thing as ABSOLUTE TRUTH, all truth is RELATIVE." To which the Bible answers, "For this cause God shall send them strong BELIEVE A LIE: That they all might BE DAMNED WHO BELIEVED NOT delusion, that they should THE TRUTH " The conflict gets more brutal by the minute. Somewhere in the melee, man is wanting to believe something that isn't so and is rejecting something that is so, and upon this reciprocal action God is giving him what he wants It is — A LIE! time to choose up sides and throw mud balls. On one side of the fence, we find a group of people who believe what God said, the way He said it, as He said it. And they accept a Bible which has the number of books in it that all Bible-believers have accepted. They are those Bible-believers who accepted the Bible as the final authority! On the other side of the fence, we have an army of "truth-seekers" who have already discarded the Bible as the standard by which truths are to be judged. This army is composed of scientists, phi- losophers, educators, priests, bishops, popes, cardinals, drunken bums, dictators, seducers, cardsharks, deacons and elders, monks, communists, nuns, atheists, pragmatists, existentialists, naturalists, realists, idealists, humanitarians, dope-addicts, and so forth and so on. This motley array, in different uniforms, would not resemble an army were it not for the fact that they all swore allegiance to the same commander. They all hold an opinion, tradition, interpretation, or church authority ABOVE THE AUTHORITY OE THE WORD OF GOD. In a showdown (and if you ever had to draw and shoot, it will be in 2 Thess. 2:2-12), they will always

. A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST accept the anti-scriptural authority. 57 They are not as heterogeneous as they appear. While they profess to be "truth-seekers," the truths they are seeking are only amoral, objective truths in a physical realm, and the Bible deals primarily with moral, absolute truths in a religious realm. The problem is how to be "religious" and profess to have a "faith," while at the same time rejecting the standard by which a religion or faith is to be judged in the eyes of God. This rejection was thoroughly discussed in the first chapter of this book. Rome led the way, and the army followed (see Rev. 6:2-8). Now, what exactly does 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 mean, if it says what it means and means what it says? For variety, let us assume that here God wrote what He intended to write, the way it was supposed to have been written, and that His purpose in doing this (as in Eph. 6:10-18) was to reveal to us the method or operations involved in obtaining truth or in losing it. Lay it out where you can let it "grab you." 1 God allows certain things of which He does not approve. "Thou shalt not steal," but it goes on all the time (Luke 17:1). "Thou shalt not bear false witness," but it goes on all the time (2 Tim. 3:3). 2. In many cases God allows powers and authorities to control people and countries although He does not approve of them. Saul and Caesar in the Bible; Nero and Hitler outside the Bible. 3. Because He permits them, or allows them to have power or authority, does not mean that God has chosen them of His own directive will, nor is it any indication that God will bless them or even convert them. (See Jer. 51:20-25 for the judgment that God brings on a nation whom He has previously allowed to destroy another nation.) This "delegated" authority is the bone of contcn-

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 58 tion. The intellectual, trying to feel his way around in the haze of Jesuit casuistry or Thomistic sophistry, will "Oh yeah? Well if God is allpowerful and could have stopped it, then why did He let sin enter the world, huh ? If he knew there was going ?'' But the answer is so to be a devil, why didn't He revert immediately to . . . simple that no Jesuit or Dominican or Franciscan or Knight of Columbus could ever hope to find it. Plato never found it. Aristotle never found it. Job found it; the book of Job deals with the subject in full force. tackles that ancient problem: It ''If God could have stopped why didn 7 He? " Job has the answer, and in the book of Job we see the highest created being in the universe, it, outside of the Lord Jesus, in full operation exercising \\\'^ permissive power and delegated authority to ruin an upright man. 4. If God will allow a power to control things when this power is evil and malicious, then why would the passage in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 cause any won- derment at all? The passage merely states that God gives what a man demands and asks for. If he wants a lie, he gets it. If he will not take light (John 11:10), then light becomes lightning (Matt. 24:27). If he will not accept the truth of God, then he is exposed to a power that God has permitted to exist for the purpose of putting across a lie (John 8:44). Nothing could be plainer. The executioner is appointed (Rom. 13:1-5); he is "the minister of God," a revenger to execute wrath, etc. You don't believe it? How could you read a morning newspaper and not believe it? Why do you sit there and drivel. ''God is love," when all around you on every hand you have visible examples which prove "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29)? Here is a dead baby in a garbage can; the mother didn't want it. Why is it there? You say. "Well, ." But hold if the mother had the proper training she . . .

A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 59 You say, "Well, things like that happen, and we don't understand them, but we the phone; there is the baby. ." Wait a must have faith to believe that minute There the baby is. "But accidents happen, and we must not lose our faith in man simply because one ." Stop your foolishness! // is not ONE OR or two TWO. Here are broken homes, broken hearts, broken lives, broken bones, broken nations, death, poverty, disease, starvation, killing, shelling, and bombing, as usual, with no letup whatsoever. You say, "The trouble is that we need to get together, and we are working on it, but you 'prophets of gloom' have lost your faith in ." Are mankind, and you oppose our work so that you dead sure the cause of the trouble is not that you have lost your faith in the word of God and, upon rejecting His truth, have believed a lie in order that you might be damned (2 Thess. 2:10-12)? Are you absolutely certain? Then until you are, go easy in saying just . . . — . . . . . . that God does not permit Satanic forces to rule, lead, guide, and direct men where they desire to overlook God's word. The word reveals the operation of Satan in the moral realm. Job discloses that this operation is the direct cause of disease, loss of property, war, and death (Heb. 2:14). Once this revelation is rejected, there is no solution to the problems of life except to unite in one huge political-religious organization under the slogan, "United we stand, divided we fall"; and as the slogan is hoisted, throw the Bible out the window. For as it stands, the Bible clearly condemns the united movement (Gen. 11:1-9; Rev. 17-18), which coming substitute is the for believing the word of God. Man, then, fails to properly analyze the source and cause of his miseries. Unwilling to accept the rcvehition given by God, which deals with operations and

1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 60 methods in the moral reahn (whieh lead to results in the physical realm), men have abandoned all hope of an absolute moral authority in line with the Bible. Their only hope now is to turn to an authority that denies or perverts the Bible and get their standards from this authority. Desiring this, according to His word (2 Thess. 2), God is about to grant them their desire (Jer. 21:14). The people cried, ''Give us Saul. " God answers. 'T'd rather have you wait until my selection, David, but They insisted. They got what they asked for a king like unto the nations about them Sam. 8:5, 7, 20, 22). The people cried, "Give us Caesar!" God answered, ''My Son is your king, but if you " They insisted (Matt. 27:23). They got what insist they asked for— ROMAN DOMINATION. The unreif you insist . . . . " — . . . ( . generate seeker of truth cries, ''Give me the truth." God says. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matt. 17:5). The "seeker ' shouts, "Yeah, but what about all these other religions? Do you mean to tell me that you think that you're the only one that is right, and the rest are wrong?" God says softly, "Yea, let God be true, but EVERY MAN a liar" (Rom. 3:3-4). To which the "seeker" replies, "Well, I think there is truth in EVERY religion, and I resent you preaching against other folk's religion; and you can have it!" And the Lord replies, ''All right, if you insist, I'll send you somebody that will talk differently than my Son, and you can believe on him!" (John 5:43). And here he comes! (2 Thess. 2:1-12). Enter ''the Antichrist," the people's choice by brother, if that's Christianity, popular vote! This man, prepared of God before the foundation of the world for the purpose of taking the reins of government in his hands, is the perfection of man in his present state (going up according to Darwin, going

1 A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 6 down according to Gen. 2-3). There is more information on him in the Bible than information on the lives of Moses, David, and Paul combined. One may truthfully say that apart from the person and work of Jesus the Messiah, the main theme God is the person and work of the " Devil's Christ, who bears the titles, ''the Man of Sin, of the word of Son of Perdition, " "the Beast, " and "the Antichrist. " Far from being presented as some out-and-out Simon Legree of religious literature, the man is presented as a military and political genius, a master politician and lover, a prodigy of learning, and above all, a religious leader who commands and obtains the respect and adoration of the world. He is truly a ''CHRIST." He ''the wrong one. It must always be remembered that "Christ" is not name but a title. The Holy Spirit is careful to preserve a this truth in Philippians 2 where you are told "That at ." the NAME of Jesus every knee should bow "Jesus" is a NAME; "Christ" is a TITLE. This is well is just the . . . illustrated by the trinitarian formula of Jesus' full title, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Notice first of all the "THE" Lord, not "A" Lord (1 Cor. 12:3). Consequently, Judas never calls Him "Lord," article; Jesus is but only "Master" (Matt. 26:22, 25, 49; John 13:13, 26). He is "THE LORD," indicating that He is the Lord and Creator of the universe (see Col. 1:15-19). (Exit, the liberal!) He is the Lord JESUS. The name "Jesus" is literally "Jehovah saves," and it is the equivalent of "God with us," Immanuel (Matt. :23). The Lord Jesus 1 CHRIST. Here, at last, is the title He is the ^'ANOINTED MESSIAH" of God. Thus, "Christ" means *'anoinled" and does not necessarily have any connection with salvation or regeneration (Titus 3:5). As it has been pointed out before, Satan is a "CHRIST," but he is not a 'Mesus Christ," for Jesus means "Jehovah saves'\^

" THE MARK OF THE BEAST 62 This distinction can be observed it one follows the religious movements of the day. For example, a certain Bible-believing denomination about twenty years ago put signs out in the front of their churches in the spring- time (during revival meetings). They read, ''Jesus Christ " About five years later, they changed the signs, and all across the nation thousands of the same is the answer. churches had on their lawns at revival time, ''Christ is the answer. " In the last ten years they sponsored a TV program and called it, of all things (!), "THIS is the answer. Here we find real evolution; you go from a Saviour to an Anointed One to a neuter "THING. " There is room here for a strong delusion if anyone is interested in pulling it off. Have you ever noticed in personal work how easy it is to say, "Have you made your decision for Christ?" or "Have you received Christ?" or "Do you believe in Christ?"; and how difficult it is to say, '^Have you received the Lord Jesus?" and "Do you love the Lord You see, that ''name which is above every name" causes you to blush. It is a powerful name. It is Jesus?" a beautiful name. It is the Lord's earthly name. Hence, Holy Spirit distinguishes between "the LORD'S CHRIST" (Luke 2:26; Acts 4:26) and the ANTICHRIST (1 John 2:18, 4:3). The v^ord anti, in Greek, is the not only used for "against" or ''opposing something," but is also used in the sense of "something over against something just like "christ" of Satan. it" (Rev 6:2). This identifies the He is a perfect imitation of the real thing. Taking up his attributes in detail is a study that must wait until the exact time of his appearing can be placed. All this Bible study is tremendously confusing to the average reader anyway, for in the first place, he may have been brought up on the standard anti-Chris-

A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 63 tian teaching of Rome or the Reformation that teaches be no future period of seven years in which an antichrist will take over for forty-two months that there will (Rev. 13:1-5). Thus the issue before men is further obscured. Not only has Rome succeeded in nullifying Revelation 17 and 18 by adding books to the Old Testament, by challenging the date and authorship of Revelation, by forbidding their people to interpret it and by insisting that it is ''figurative"; but they also have gone a step further and convinced Protestants that the premillennial system of interpretation is only one theoretical ''possibil" Thus, the last chance of recovering the meaning ity. and application of the passages in Revelation 6 and 13 is lost. Fortunately for the Bible-believer, the meaning can be easily picked up by reading carefully and believing what is read. 1. It is certain that Christ is coming again. That much is certain, and even the Reformed and Catholic will buy it if they believe anything at all. One out of ten verses in the New Testament refer to this event. (See, for example, 1 Cor. 11:26; Matt. 24; Mark 13: Luke 17, John 14:1-4. etc.) It is true that relegated backwards to past much fulfillment at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, 1 Thess. 4; 2 Thess. 1; of this material is but this entirely overlooks the fact that Revelation 11:1- 4 speaks of a future destruction. (By placing Revelation's writing under Nero's reign, Rome effectually squelches the voice of the Holy Spirit in the passage.) At some time before Christ's literal coming to earth (Rev. 1:7; Matt. 25:30-40) to sit on the throne o^ David (Luke 1:30-33; Acts 2:30, 15: 15-16), Paul says, "I show you a mystery," and what follows (1 Cor. 15:49-55; Thess. 4: 13-18) is the Lord's coming FO/^ 2. 1 His saints in the AIR. This coming is clearly distin-

THE MARK OF THH BEAST 64 guishable from His coming WITH His saints (Jude 14\5) lo the GROUND (Zech. 14:1-10). We are told to study that we may rightly divide these two aspects (2 Tim. 2:15), and without proper study and proper discernment, the task of locating the Antichrist in TIME is an impossibility. 3. There is nothing remarkable about the Second Coming occurring in two installments if one remembers the circumstances of His first coming. It has truly been said, ''The one thing men learn from history is that men never learn from history. " The same diplomatic and political tricks, which lead to totalitarianism, made in every generation in exactly the same way they were made in previous genwar, or revolution, are erations. When the Lord Jesus first came, five things happened which any normal observer could have seen: a. John the Baptist was a herald of His coming (Luke 3). b. Rome was in political power at the time of His coming (Luke 2). c. Israel was unconverted, but in their homeland (Luke 1). d. Christ appeared first to believers only, at night ( Luke 2). e. He appeared later publicly to His enemies at John's baptism (Luke 3; Matt. 3). Comparing this with what will occur, we can easily "zero in" on the target: a. Elijah will herald his coming (Rev. b. Rome will be in the driver's seat politically 1 1:3-7). (Rev. 17-18). c. Israel will be unconverted, but in the homeland (Rev. 11:1-3). d. last Christ will appear to believers only before the period of Daniel's Seventieth Week starts (Dan.

A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 65 9:25-27; Rev. 11:1-5, 13:4-9). e. He will appear openly to His enemies at the end of the seven years (Joel 2; Rev. 19; Isa. 63:1-4; Matt. 24:30). This interval between His coming FOR His saints "in the air" and His coming WITH His saints ''on the Mount of Olives" is called 'The Great Tribulation" or "Time of Jacob's Trouble" (Jer. 30:7). There are over 500 verses in the Old Testament that refer to this time, which is also called "THE DAY OF THE LORD." With this system, the Old Testament becomes a living book with direct application to the future. With the the amillennial and postmillennial systems (Eusebius, Augustine, Jerome, Calvin, Pope Johnny, etc.), the Old Testament is successfully silenced so that when the Antichrist shows up, no one will be prepared to detect him for what he is. If the person and work of God' s Christ can ever be properly placed, the "Mystery of Iniquity" no longer remains a "mystery"; but if the amillennial (no thousand year reign of Christ) and the post-millennial (man brings in a thousand years of peace before Christ comes) systems are adhered to, then the Mystery of Iniquity is free to work unhindered and unchecked, for neither of these systems make any allowance for the literal fulfillment of the promises in the Old Testament which God gave to Israel. Both systems deny the honesty and the integrity of God and spiritualize the promises, thus pilfering them for the "church." The old woman with her leaven (Matt. 13:33) has now had 1900 years to set her house in order and finish ruining the Bread of Life. She has done an excellent job. Her job has been so thoroughly done, that even to this date, ninety percent of the Christians do not even know what the terms amillennial, postmillennial, and premillennial represent; and what is worse, they could care less about it.

— THK MARK O^ THH BHAST 66 Lining up the Scriptures as they stand, where they stand, written as they are, to say what they mean, you Lord Jesus has three offices Prophet, Priest, and King. These three may be matched to the Trinity. These three are found only in David in the Old Testament. The correct placing of these three offices will locate for us the time and place of the Antichrist. Moses was a king (Deut. 33:5) and a prophet Deut. will find the 18:18), but not a priest. Aaron was the priest. Samuel was a priest (1 Sam. 7:9-10) and a prophet Sam. 3:20), but not a king. Saul was a king (1 Sam. 10:24) and a prophet (1 Sam. \{)\\^),bui not a priest. David, the shepherd, born in Bethlehem and (1 anointed in the midst of his brethren (notice all three similarities to Jesus), was diking (Matt 1 :6) and aprophet (Acts 2:29-30) and a priest (2 Sam. 6: 1 8, 24:25). Jesus Christ exercised His office as Prophet on this earth (Matt. 21:12). He came to His own, but be- fore His own could crown Him as King (Matt. 21:5), they crowned Him with thorns and elected Caesar. Caesar took the crown but let the inscription stand: "THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS." Nowhere in the Bible is He ever spoken of as King over the Christian or King over the church or King over the present Gentile-Catholic world system. In His present risen and glorified state. He is said to be exercising the office of Priest at the right hand of the throne (Heb. 3:1, 8:1, 10:10-14, 12:2). At His second coming. He obviously comes, as already noted, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Rev 19). If we can find who is usurping the priesthood in this dispensation (before DanieTs seventieth week), we can find out where the false ''king'' will come from, and who will seize the throne just before the Advent of Jesus Christ (see Dan. 8:23-25).

A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 67 The usurper is not difficult to find. The first step he took was to add seven books to the Bible that are not there. His next step was to violate the teaching of Christ in Matthew 23:9 on religious titles. His third step was to put himself up as the supreme religious authority on matters of faith and practice and teach "tradition" as doctrine (Mark 7:1-13). His fourth step was to put a curse on anyone who accepted the canon of the Bible that Jesus and Paul accepted; and then, in one move after another, he built a city on seven mountains, which reigns over the kings of the earth, whose colors are purple and scarlet, whose symbol is a golden cup, who has persecuted saints and martyrs, and who has carried on 1,500 years of warfare against the Textiis Receptus of the King James Bible. GUESS WHO? The phony Christ that will show up is connected lock-stock-and-barrel to the original enemy of Bible- believing Christianity. The Bible is his only real threat of being detected, and the decline of Biblical Christianity is his surety of protection. The Bible reveals his life, person, work, religion, history, race, shape, size, back- ground, motives, intentions, and purpose in appearing. No real Bible-believer could fail to spot him. No professing Bible-believer who desired to alter theA Vcould ever find him. (Not even Scofield, who reached the impasse in Dan 7:8, 8:9-12, and Gen. 6: 1-4.) In the light of Scripture, therefore, let us analyze this fake "Christ" who will show up after the mystery of which Paul spoke — the catching away of the body of believers before Daniel's Seventieth Week. Cain. In type, the "seed of the serpent," born "of that wicked one" (1 John 3:12), who had a MARK I. which signified a murderer. II. Nimrod. His name means "the rebel/' liic thir- teenth from Adam and a builder of an inlcgralcd United Nations to glorify man. He is a Haiiiitc, whose seed had

68 THH MARK OV THE BEAST a divine curse on it, as Cain. "Nimrod" also has a root derivation of ''LEOPARD'^ (Gen. 10-1 1). Hi. Pharaoh. The one who persecuted Israel (cf. Rev. 12:1-17) and is called a "DRAGON" (Ezek. 29:3), as Revelation 12:1 -4. Plagues come on him, as Revelation 11:4-6; and his catechism is, "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." IV. Balak. The man who tries to eliminate Israel, winds up corrupting Israel with BAAL worship (Num. 22-25). His prophet is BALAAM, thus making a trinity: Father-Baal, Son-Balak, Unclean Spirit-Balaam (see Rev. 16:13). Baal is our word "bull" or "OX." Did you ever study words that end in ''X''? Lax? Paradox? Balak is a king, as the Antichrist. He is a halfbreed of Moabite extraction, the Moabites coming from the mulattoes of Lot's Hamitic wife (see Gen. 10:6, 19; 13:12; 19:15,30-38). V. Sisera. A Gentile King who is defeated at Megiddo (Rev. 16:16), which is the Armageddon of Revelation. "The stars in their courses" fight from heaven against him (Judg. 5:19-20; Rev. 19), and the man who fights him is said to be a type of Jesus Christ (see Judg. 5:12; Eph. 4:4-10). (The way the Liberal knocks out Judges 5 is by calling it "poetry," and then insisting that all poetry is figurative! The Charge of the Light Brigade is not figurative. Some people never do learn how to read sixth-grade English!) Sisera is killed by a blow on the head (Gen. 3:15; Judg. 5:26). VI. Abimelech. The man is a rebel (Judg. 9) who is killed by a blow on the head (Rom. 16:20: Hab. 3:13). VII. Absalom. This "father of peace" obtains the kingdom peaceably, by flatteries (see 2 Sam. 15:2-6; Dan. 8:25, 1 1:24). He rebels against David, a type of Christ. He is perfect in beauty (2 Sam. 14:25-26; Ezek.

A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 69 28:15) and is hairy (cf. Esau) and hangs (Gal. 3:13; Matt. 27:5) and has a memorial built to himself (2 Sam. 18:18; Rev. 13:14-15). Are you learning anything? Don't you see what the book of Revelation does to the Old Testament if you take it at face value? It opens thirty-nine books that otherwise are dead and gone. It unmasks the coming "Christ," who will pose as the Lord's Christ immediately preceding the Second Advent. VIII. Saul. He is demon-possessed, a rebel against God, a usurper of the priest's office, a popular idol, a hater of David (type of Christ), and a tall man (2 Thess. 2:2-6; Rev. 13:3-6). IX. Goliath. A tall man. He is killed by a wound in the head. Goliath comes from Hamitic background, exactly as Nimrod, Balak, and Pharaoh (note Gen. 10:6, 14). He has SIX pieces of armor (1 Sam. 17:4-7), and he is killed by David (a type of Christ). X. Ahab. He is a wicked prince of Israel (Ezek. 21:25-27) and marries a Phoenician Baal-worshipper Kings 16:31). He is opposed by the herald of the Second Advent, Elijah! Ahab has priests who wear vestments and come from the apostate tribe of Dan, (1 who called the priest, '' Father'' \\ (See Judg. 17:1-3,5, 7-13; 18:1, 6, 14-25, 28-31; and 2 Kings 10:22.) These priests hold services at 11-12 on the day of the sungod, ''Sunday, " and worship Baal by penitential acts of self-mutilation (1 Kings 18:17, 27-28). Hello, Rome, how did YOU get in here? Further, they honor the ''Queen of Heaven ' with wafers (Jer. 44:14. 19, 25), and as Phoenicians, they come from HAM (sec Gen. 10:19— Sidon,Zidon in Kings 16). XI. Jeroboam. He is a wicked prince o{ Israel (Ezek. 21:25-27), who worships Baal with the golden calves which men are to KISS (1 Kings 12:25-33; Hosea 13:2; Kings 19:18). Do you not sign 'love and 1 1

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 70 with XXX? Have you ever studied words that end in "X"y Jeroboam, as the Antichrist, had a bad 16-17— note the "IDOL"; Kings 13:4); arm {Zech. and Kaiser Bill, Hitler, and Napoleon seemed to have kisses'' 1 1 1 : picked up the thing accidentally. XII. Nabal. He is an enemy of David and, as was Herod, is killed by God (1 Sam. 25:36-38). His answer is identical to Pharaoh's except the word "David" is inserted for "Lord" (see 1 XIII. Sennacherib. Sam. 25:10; Exod. 5:2). An enemy of Israel who is struck by the angel of the Lord, as was Herod (see Acts 12:22-23; 2 Kings 19:16, 35). He attacks Jerusalem, goes away and returns, exactly as Titus in A.D. 70, Samuel 24, 26, and as the Antichrist will do in Matthew 24, thus giving exactly as Saul chased David in 1 those in Judea opportunity to "flee to the mountains" (Matt. 24:16; Psa. 11:1). XIV. Nebuchadnezzar. He builds an image (Rev. 13; Dan. 3). The image is 60 by 6 by 6 (Dan. 3:1; Rev. 13:18). He persecutes the Jewish remnant (Dan. 3:1618) using SEVEN as the ratio (Dan. 3:19). There are six instruments of music involved in idol worship, and it says six times that "he set it up" (Dan. 3:1-3, 5, 7). He is king of Babylon, and this is the last form of government on the earth at the second coming elation 17, — Rev- "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT." Nebuchadnezzar, as Pharaoh, is called a ''dragon'' (Jer 51:34; Rev. 12:1-4). XV. Haman. He is called an ''adversary, " which is the meaning of the word ''Satan" (Esther 7:6). He persecutes the Jew, as Pharaoh and the Antichrist (Rev. 12:17), and hangs, as Judas and Absalom (Esther 7:10; Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). XVI. Solomon. His number is 666 (2 Chron. 9: 13), and six lions are on six steps on one side and six on the other (2 Chron. 9:18-19). He is a kinc over Israel and a

1, A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST 7 type of Christ up to the paragraph mark in 2 Chronicles 9:13, but from here on, he changes exactly as the Antichrist changes in the middle of the tribulation to the ''Son of Perdition'' and breaks his covenant with the Jews (Dan. 9:27). XVII. Herod. He usurps God's voice ("VOX" in Latin) and is slain for not giving God the glory (Acts 12:22-23; Rev. 19:20). XVIII. Judas. He hangs, as Haman and Absalom. He is against the Lord Jesus. He is a devil (John 6:70, 71). He goes "to his own place," as Absalom (2 Sam. 18:18; Acts 1:25). He comes in the name of Christ, as a Bible-believer, and follows in Christ's steps, as Mr. Sheldon, for forty-two months. His name means "Judah A man of Kerioth." Kerioth is in Moab (Jer. 48:2, 10, 15, 24, 41). Judas is a half-breed, Hamitic Jew (Nimrod, Balak) from the Moabite line! (See comments under Balak, No. IV.) The evidence mounts. What we are looking for is a man who is a murderer at heart, but who passes off as a Christian. This man has trouble with one arm and an — eye. He is, by extraction, a half-breed, Syrian Jew. His number is 666, and he is associated with number 13. (Hence, Friday, the sixth day of the week, the thirteenth, etc.) This man is connected with the Phoenician religion of Sun-worship, which uses OXEN and long- robed priests for its propagation. This man is a ''christ'' who is a devil incarnate, completely demon-possessed, and he desires to be worshipped. He is an idolator. He is begotten of Satan. He has an affinity for African (Hamitic) ideas. The words "vestments,'' ''queen of heaven," and ''Sunday" are an essential part o( his religion. He will utilize the universal language (music) to assemble his devotees. He is a Jew-baiter aiui halci and he makes it a lifelong practice to he Christ-likc. He enters as a peaceful king. His Icltcr is uiKJoiibl-

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 72 edly "X," and his numerology will be multiples of 13. He will demand worship. He will make covenants and break them. He dies a death where his HEAD is affected (Rev. 13:3-5), and he is undoubtedly a giant in physical stature. He is a rebel who will later be symbolized by a black cat — a panther. His long-robed priests — wear black C'STYX" in Latin Did you ever study words that end in ''X"?), and they believe in doing penance for sin and addressing each other as "father." Ah, the unsearchable riches of the Authorized 1611 Version!! How unsearchable is its composition and its plain English past finding out!! We have found our man. Let us now define his NUMBER, NAME, SIGN, and MARK.

— A CHRIST WHO IS THE WRONG CHRIST THE BIBLE IS THE ABSOLUTE, FINAL, AND INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY ON THE MEANING OF SIGNS AND SYMBOLS A released bowstring: hence, a Boy Scout oath. Oath of Vatican Swiss body guards: " 'True to death. Hence — signal for a bayonet assault in the Infantry or "forward" for tank attack. Hence — Papal "blessing" for 1500 years and used in sign of cross, or "I had my fingers crossed." Thus— "V" for Victory: Constantine's "cross" in battle, and "Playboy bunny ears" — or "two fingers" for cancer or a "jigger" lnJ of whiskey. The Hippy "sign" is 4,000 years old: it is the sign of Nimrod the Negro hunter whoso name means — "rebel" or V.EOPARn'" 73

CHAPTER FOUR Name, Rank, Serial Number? Today, everyone has a number, or more properly, "numbers." "I've got your number" is no longer an idle remark. People have telephone numbers (the letters HE, GL, GA, etc., being recently replaced by three 433-5869 or 476-2749, etc.), street num- digit numbers — numbers. Social Security numbers, numbers, dial numbers, lottery numbers, and so bers, car license serial The popes are numbered. The numbers of those present in Sunday School are recorded. One statistical on. table follows another, listing the order (in numbers) of AAU champs, the heavyweight wheat exported in a fifty year period, the Oscar winners, the Davis Cup winners, the Nobel Prize winners, the salaries of teachers in elementary schools, the models of cars manufactured, the head of cattle in the stock-market, the intelligence the prize fighters, the fighters, the tons of quotient of college graduates, the number of reservists eligible for recall, the tonnage sunk in World War I, and the number of suds a box of Rinso will produce. Is it not remarkable that no one has studied the chapter and verse numbers in anAV, 161 1 Bible? In keeping with the subject the "Mark of the Beast," the Bible states, "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" (Rev. 13:18). The verse

NAME, RANK, SERIAL NUMBER? is 18, and the chapter is 13. Isn't it odd that 18 75 is composed of three sixes? HEX, HEX, HEX in Greek. Observing the verse again, it will be seen that the statement is not, ''it is the number of MAN," but, "it is the number of A MAN." (Protestants never cease to help Rome cover up the identity of this man.) Since six is the number of Man, it is argued that nothing more is present in Revelation 13:18 than the mere statement that this is "man at his best," a multiple six. This, however, only intensifies the statements made in chapter one concerning the decline of Biblical Christianity. No man who believed it would have any reason for changing "A man" to ''man," unless, of course, he objected to the obvious inference that it was A MAN! This number 666 is found in two other places in the Scripture. One is found in describing the weight of gold that came to Solomon. Strangely enough, it occurs in verse 13 (2 Chron. 9:13). The other occurrence is in describing the number of descendants of a man named Adonikam ("Lord of the Rebellion"!), and again, by sheer accident, it is found on a verse 13 (Ezra 2:13). The man, incidentally, is thirteenth in the list of names given. How quaint? But the further we go, the "quainter" it gets. In John 13:13, there are thirteen words with thirty- nine letters (if you do not count the italicized "so"), and the reference in the verse to Judas calling Christ "Mas- ter" is apparent (see Matt. 26:22, 25). ''Judas Iscariot" has thirteen letters in it. In John 13:26 (two times thirteen), Christ identifies (marks!) Judas as the traitor, whom Satan enters in the next verse. Of course, this is merely coincidence, is it not? I mean, after all, if one went through a book looking for such phenomena, anyone would find it, could they not? No, they couldn't. There is something about the chapter and \erse markings in a 1611 AV that makes one wonder whether

— THE MARK OF THE BEAST 76 Stcphanus really fooled with them or not. For example, since we are commended to count the number of the beast (and we are told that it is the number of a man), let us do just that. Let us start counting and see if we can find some connections which rejectors of the AV have not been able to find in the Roman Catholic Greek ASV (1901), RSV (1952), and RV (1885). text of the Revelation 16:13 — An unholy trinity: Beast, Dragon, False Prophet. A. The Beast: Mark 13:6, Revelation 2:13, Ezra 2:13, 2 Chronicles 9:13, 2 Kings 18:13, Acts 6:13, Timothy 1:13, John 13:13, 26; Matthew 26:65. 1 13:2, Revelation 13:6, B. All right, let's take the Dragon: Genesis 13:13, Job 26:13, Psalm 74:13; 91:13; 71:13, Isaiah 14:13, Matthew 6:13, 1 John 2:13, Deuteronomy 6:13, Luke 4:13, Nehemiah 2:13. C. All right, let's take the False Prophet: Acts 13:6, Ezekiel 13:16, Luke 6:26, Revelation 16:13. Now, let's take the kind of people that follow them: Deuteronomy 13:13, Judges 20:13, Nehemiah D. 6:6, Colossians 1:13, 2 Timothy 3:13, 1 Timothy 1:13, Joshua 6:26. E. All right, if Galatians 3:13 redeems us from the CURSE of the law, and the last book in the law is book number thirty-nine, ending with the word CURSE then Deuteronomy 27:13, Malachi 4:6, Jeremiah 26:6, 2 Kings 22:13, Acts 13:39. Look at the thirteens and multiples of thirteen. Here are forty ''coincidences" for Greek scholars. It is a phenomenon found only in a King James 161 1 Authorized Version. Of the several score chapter and verse 13's in the Bible, only 10 percent are goods and 5 percent are neutral. Eighty-five percent refer to sin, Satan, rebellion, or a curse. Pretty high average, wouldn't you say? You see, some superstitious scholar, like A.T. Rob-

NAME, RANK, SERIAL NUMBER? 77 ertson or Alford or Trench or Westcott and Hort or Thayer, might take a chance in saying the King James is only a is "TRANSLATION" (and a poor one); but there not a card-sharp, con-man, pitch-man, or dice-gaffer in a round-robin or a parley that would take the chance with the odds that these men take when they reject the AV. A professional gambler studies odds. He makes his living by them. The odds on the accidental appearances of thirteen are too great to take. Only a self-inflated scholar would take them. The first time the word ''thirteen" occurs in the Bible, it is in connection with rebel- Nimrod the Rebel is the thirteenth from Adam (see 1 Chron. 1:1-10). By a curilion (Gen. 14:4), exactly as ous stroke of fate, the revolution of 1776 was started with thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, thirteen states, and a flag that said, "DON'T TREAD ON ME." Count the letters! Go on, I dare you! They are the same num- ber as those found in "e pluribus unum"! Take out your dollar bill. Look at it. The Bible says, "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim. 6:10). Count the "ones." Counting the lettered ones as well as the numerals, you will find twenty-six (two times thirteen). You will find the eagle has thirteen stars, thirteen stripes, thirteen arrows in his left claw, and thirteen leaves in his right. There are thirteen layers on the pyramid at your left, and the Latin (I said LATIN) inscription reads "annuit coeptis" — Coincidence, of course. But after all, 13 letters. how many checks can you make out before you overdraw your account? Try 2 Corinthians \\:\3 for size; it has thirteen words in it (again, if you do not count the italicized word). Count the thirteen evils in the heart listed by Jesus in Mark 7:21, 22. Find why a man had to have forty stripes save one. Turn to Revelation 17:3 and count the number of block capital words in the w hore's count the title. Go on, count! No, do better than that —

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 78 letters in the Thirteen words, sixty-five letters title. me, why is it? Tell me why (five times thirteen). Tell Pope Angello Giuseppi Rancalli (called "John," while English-speaking people control the money) knelt be- on Maundy Thursday and went through the exercise of John 13, washing their feet. The writer of Time magazine said it was ''a legend passed down from Pope Gregory that when Gregory received thirteen men, instead of the usual twelve, in the face of the thirteenth, he saw THE CHRIST.'' fore thirteen priests Really? Which Christ? In studying A V 161 1 the Bible is numerology, we discover that not only the proper text book for finding eternal life in Jesus Christ, but it is also the standard dictionary for the original meaning of all superstitions and unexplainable things That is. hospitals, in that arise in everyday life. 1960, usually omit building a and most airports have no "Gate 13." thirteenth floor, There is no explanation for this unless a man believes what God has revealed. The word of God is not "found," and the modern day blasphemy of likening it to a small container of water, while outside is an ocean of truth in other writings, is pidity, arrogance, only indicative of the laziness, stu- and lack of sincerity found in the modern pulpit. There are things inherent in the systems of sixes, sevens, fives, thirteens, and forties in an Authorized Version that will shed far more light on what actually goes on in 1960 than a shelf-full of lexicons and interlinears. What do you suppose the South did when it put up thirteen stars in the Civil War, which is called by irrev- erent historians, "The War of REBELLION"? And what do you suppose will happen when the forty-eight cease to be fifty and become fifty-two (four times thirteen)? And why sneer at such musings if you yourself are

NAME. RANK. SERIAL NUMBER? 79 not conversant enough about the subject to give an intelligent rebuttal? The CHRIST of Revelation 13:18 is clearly connected with two numbers in Scripture: the number of man six, and the number of Satan thirteen. (Review — — briefly this peculiar occurrence of "six" in the data given on Goliath and Nebuchadnezzar in the list of types in chapter three.) For a moment, the Greek and Hebrew can bear study. As you know, every Hebrew or Greek letter has a numerical value. This is not Panin's numerics (which is an investigation that has never been properly refuted by any infidel), but the Kabala. or teaching that each letter in the alphabet has a ''number attached Beta to it." For example, in the Greek we find: Alpha 2, Gamma 3, Delta 4, Epsilon 5, Zeta 7, Eta 8, Theta 9, Iota 10, Kappa 20. Lambda 30, Mu 40. Nu 50, Xi 60, some 1 Omicron 70. Pi 80. Rho 100. . Sigma 200. Tau 300, Upsilon 400, Phi 500, Chi 600, Psi 700. Omega 800. In Beth 2. Gimmel the Hebrew they will come out: Aleph Heth Waw Zayin 8. Teth 9, 7, He 5. 6, Daleth 4. 3, 1 . Yodh 10, Kaph 20, Lamedh 30, Mem 40, Nun 50, Samekh 60. Ayin 70, Pe 80, Tsadhe 90. Qoph 100, Resh 200, Sin 300, Shin 300, Taw 400. The man we are looking for is 666, be he in English, Greek, or Hebrew. Now, an endless excursion into the possible numerical combinations of these numbers is unnecessary. Commentators from Alpha to Omega have tried to prove that since an innumerable number of combinations are possible, which can be made to prove anything: therefore, there is no real meaning to the conundrum: it is simply a figurative statement of a spiritual generality. But this will not do at all, for in the previous chapters been narrowed down. tcnccJ up, hemmed in, and boxed out until wc no louiirr ha\c lo this false christ has

THE MARK OF THE BE:AST 80 maze of numerology to find our man. We so much about this man from the Scripknow already ture given us that it is frightening, and we know in go into a which direction to look to locate the man. We shall look where the people looked when they looked on Jesus Christ. They looked at Him, and then at Caesar, and voiced their unanimous approval of the man they wanted for a leader: "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15)! Caesar shouldn't be too hard to find. The Gematria (Geometry) of the man is 666 ('Tsopsephia" in Greek). ''Latin," in Greek, is Lateinos. 30 + 1 + 300 + 5 + 10+ 50 + 70 + 200=666. The word means 'like a Latin." (Pax, crux, vox, pox, hex, styx, rex, etc.) Teitan (The word in English is "Titan," one of the names for the SUN-GOD, reverenced on SUNDAY, and whose yearly birthday is on the winter soXsiict— December 25th!): 300+5+ 0+300+ +50=666. To a Jew, the great paranoid NERO was known only as ''Neron Kesar" (the last word immediately recognizable as KAISER in German). "Neron Kesar" in the Jewish Gematria will come out 50 + 200 + 6 + 50 + 100 + 60+200=666. Romith for Rome, in ancient Hebrew, will come out 200+6+40+10+10+400=666. "Nimrod the son of Kish" (in Hebrew NMRD BN old poetic 1 1 KSH) will add to 666. "Satan" (in Chaldean) will add to 666. And VVIL DUCE (Mussolini!) will add to 666. But the best is for the last. In VV IL DUCE, we observe not only Greek and Hebrew Gematria, but LATIN numerology. The "V's" stand for 5's, the "L" for fifty, the "C" for 100, the "D" for 500. The "U" in W," for Roman PVBLIC LIBRARY). Duce, of course, is written as another letters use the "V" for "U" (as in Thus VV IL DVCE (''Long live the Duce!") is a perfect

NAME. RANK. SERIAL NUMBER? 81 666. This led McBirnie, the Scotch preacher, to identify Mussolini as the Antichrist, forgetting all along the basic, fundamental principle of Bible revelation, that the Antichrist does not come as a blustering, ranting, hell-raising warmonger. He enters peaceably on a white horse with no arrows — two fingers uplifted in a bless- ing, and this accompanied by a syrupy ''Peace, peace be unto thee. " Nevertheless, it is passingly strange that every combination of 666 points to Rome, whether pagan, papal, or Fascist. Where there is smoke, my friend, there is fire! "VICARIVS FILII DEI." This little inscription was borne faithfully on the forehead of many popes down through the centuries. Then late in the nineteenth century the college of cardinals decided that it should be shelved as quickly as possible. There was an ominous rumbling of premillen- nialism in the background. Some fanatical man named Moody and some Baptist named Spurgeon and a connamed Cronin had gotten together with ''brethren" and some more things. ''Quickly, verted priest the — quickly, now get it out of sight and tell our people that we never did wear SUCH a thing. These Protestants are slandering us!" "VICARIVS FILII DEI." It is Latin. It has a 500, a 100, two 5's, a 50, and six Fs in it. V=5 D=500 C^lOO L=50 1=1 . The "E/' the "A," the "R," the "S," and the "F" are not Roman numerals. Every letter in it that is a numeral adds up to exactly 666. Strike out the non-numerals, and all that is left is 666. Now, how long are people going to face these multiplied coincidences and go on shutting their eyes and saying, "Well, I don't believe in criticizing folk's religion"? VICARIVS FILII DEI translated means "Faithful Vicar of God" or "Vicarious (substitute) Son of God" or "Shepherd-Son of God."

THK MARK OF THE BEAST 82 There is no need for a priest to snort and bellow and try to deny it, for the titles already ascribed about to Mary and the pope far exceed this inscription. What it on earth is so terrible about ''Vicarious Son of God'' when the man wearing it has already demanded to be called "Holy Father''? The reason for ditching the in- scription was not that it called the "father" something he was not; the reason was that too many Protestants were obeying Revelation 13:18 and were counting the number of the man. Premillennialism brings with it the teaching of the seven-year tribulation with the Devil's Christ seated in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem! No wonder they started counting. Now, the summation of the evidence is that whatever the 666 stands for, it points most certainly, without any deviation, directly to Rome. Rome and Jerusalem, then, become the focal points of world history, and any analysis of world affairs will eventually have to deal with these two cities. Unbelieving Judaism today has a Mystic Bible, the "Zohar," in which it tells of the tradition that the Messiah is "underground in paradise" and is waiting to save Israel. Further, it is said that when he appears, he will appear at the ''Gates of Rome" (B. Sanhedrin 98 a.). It is true that occasionally a nation makes a bloody splash on the annals of history with a few revolutions and wars (Germany, United States, France, Russia, etc.). But in the final hand dealt, the full-house will be held by Rome, and the Jew will have a Royal Flush in the nick of time to win the game (Rev. 19). The course of the Antichrist in the end-time is clear. It is certain that he will invade Palestine (Dan. and enter Jerusalem (Rev. and defile the temple (Matt. 24) and install himself in it as a God worthy of 1 1 ) 1 1 ) sacrifice (2 Thess. 2). What is not so clear to the aver- age reader is the fact that for three and a half years

NAME, RANK, SERIAL NUMBER? 83 before he enters Jerusalem as the ''son of perdition/' he takes the papal chair as the ''man of sin''! First a pope, then a God; the step between them is so slight that the pope today reserves the title of God the Father iox\]:\m^t\i— "Most Holy Father'' (John 17:11). The "father" has a mark. It is called the "mark of the beast" in Revelation 16:2. The Seventh-day Adventist says that this mark is Sunday-observance, instituted by Constantine. A man in the second World War said it was NRA stamps. A man last year told me it was Green Stamps. Somehow all missed the point; it is the Mark of the Beast. You cannot locate the Mark till you locate the Beast. The Beast does not show up until the middle of the tribulation, or at least until after the church is caught out, so how can you identify it apart from the Beast? Who is the Beast? To begin with, he is a man. To continue, he is a man who was living before John wrote the book of Revelation, and who was not living at the time John wrote, and who is now in the bottomless pit, and who will come up out of it later and go into perdition (Rev. 17:8). At this point, the entire school of fundamental, premillennial interpreters go off on a rabbit track and stop trying to point the covey. By insisting that the Beast is the revived Roman Empire (Rev. 13:2), they lose the connection between the Beast of Revelation 13:18 and the one in 17:8. No amount of correcting seems to remedy this error. It is as firmly entrenched in the circles of premillennial scholarship as rosaries are in a Catholic high school. The oft repeated "a beast represents a kingdom" is repeated and repeated until it is forgotten that that is not all the Scriptures say about beasts; the first thing they say about beasts is that they represent KINGS (see the passage in Dan. 7:17). By continually teaching Daniel 7:23, to the exclusion o( Daniel 7:17, the premillennialists have al last arri\ cd at

. THE MARK OF THE BEAST 84 BEAST is not a the desired Catholic position that the and that, therefore, the FALSE nuuh PROPHET (the second beast of Rev. 13) is the Antichrist. This botched up mess comes from the same but a kini^clonu source as all messes (and masses!) — refusal to believe what is read, as it reads, where you find it (Dan. 7:17). The beasts represent not only kingdoms, but KINGS; ciful KINGS FIRST, kingdoms second. The Beast, then, is a man. He is a man who was living, is not living, but will come up later from the pit and go into perdition because he is the "son of perdition" (2Thess. 2:3,4). Is there such a man in the Bible? Always go to the Scripture first. A man told me five years ago the Anti- was Eisenhower; a Bible student told me three years ago it was Billy Graham. Why not just try the Scripture for a change? 1 The bottomless pit is a place of demons and has a demon-angel over it who has two names, both mean- christ ing "DESTRUCTION" (Rev. 9:1-1 1). 2. This angel is a devil, although he is not THE Devil. He is king over the pit; it is "HIS PLACE" (Rev. 9:11). 3. When he arrives, he is called the "son of perdi- tion," the son of "damnation"; being the exact Greek word the in word "perdition'' Revelation 9:11 for APOLLYON— 'Destroyer.'' 4. There is a man in Scripture who is called the "Son of Perdition" (John 17:12). 5. He has two names: one a Hebrew name, one a Greek name. He is a devil (John 6:70, 71) and goes to "his own place" when he dies (Acts 1:25). Two and two are four. The man Judas Iscariot, 6. though born of a woman (Gen. 3:15), was not a human. He, like the ten demoniac kings who will show up soon

NAME. RANK. SERIAL NUMBER? 85 (Dan. 2:43, Rev. 17:12), is of that peculiar breed that inspires men to write tales like the Inner Sanctum and Twilight Zone. As Cain, born of woman, was actually "of that wicked one" (1 John 3:12), so Judas walked, talked, ate, grew, slept, preached, worked miracles (Matt. 10:1-13) as a man; but his Creator said of him, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot" (John 6:70, 71). It is time to withdraw slightly. I hear a roar of protest from the bleachers of the Bible-believers who were tricked into thinking that the sons of God (Gen. 6) were Seth's line! Before we find ourselves involved in a detailed study of what took place in Cain's conception (2 Cor. 11:1-4), we shall "skeedaddle" back to the subject. Believe it or not, the man Judas is the only man in Scripture who will fulfill the requirements of Scripture. Appearing in history for three brief years to die as a suicide, the disembodied spirit of that DEVIL returned to his abode. As the demon-possessed pigs committed "hogicide" at Gadara (Mark 5:1-20), so this devil, who passed for a man, ended his life in suicide. His first name "Judas" is the Greek for the tribe of "Judah," from whence the Lord's Christ came. His last name is Hebrew ''ishkerioth, " "a man of Kerioth." As a SyrianJew, he fits remarkably the description of Daniel 8:2125. Notice the bad arm on the "Kerioth" (Jer. 48:25) and the bad arm on the false shepherd of Zechariah 11:17, and the DIRECT REFERENCE TO JUDAS IS- CARIOT RIGHT IN THE CONTEXT (Zech 11:10-15)! No mistake must be made at this point on identity. Judas would certainly never reveal himself as JUDAS. The Antichrist reveals himself as Jesus Christ, and then as God Himself (2 Thess. 2:1-12). The spirit is Judas' (Balaam), the body is a pope's (Balak), and the soul is Satan's (Baal). This incarnate trinity of hell will usurp

THE MARK Ol- THE BEAST 86 all three offices of the Lord (King) Jesus (Prophet) Christ (Priest); he will be the prophet, priest, and king of the last, final, all-out effort to overthrow the word of God. He will appear at Rome as a pope for three and a half years, being on ''good terms" with the Jew, and then he will break his promises and summit conference resolutions and attack Jerusalem to enthrone himself as the true God. The blood and bones of dead Crusaders bear these truths out. From the time of Christ to now, the ambition of all Western conquerors has been to retake Jerusalem and reestablish the ancient Roman empire. Call the role: Pope Urban, Frederick, Henry, Kaiser Bill, Hitler, Mussolini; all operate under "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the chil- dren of disobedience" (Eph. 2:1-3). We have the man's name in actuality, although of course he will not be taken for this when he appears. Having located the BEAST, the next problem, and the greatest one, is: ''What is the MARK of the Beast? " The man is said to have a NAME and a NUMBER and a MARK (Rev. 13:17). After searching the Scriptures through forty times fruitlessly, it suddenly occurred to me that I must be ignoring something as plain as the nose on my face. (This is usually the case when a truth is left undiscov- were talking about ''the mark of the and yet no one was producing anything that resembled anything Scriptural along the line of the subject. Suddenly in Revelation 13:2, the truth bared itself. (Truth always appears naked because Error steals its clothes!) ''The beast which I saw was LIKE unto a leop- ered.) Here, all over the country people Beast, " ard." Like Baibars, the one-eyed "PANTHER" (Zech. 11:17) who polished off St. Louis in the last dismal

NAME, RANK, SERIAL NUMBER? 87 THREE DIMENSIONAL TELEVISION ''RECEIVING 'THE KISS" OF 666!" THIS HOrVMB 15 (JNITED rrl /^^

— " THH MARK OF THE BEAST 88 crusades (1257 A.D.), THE BEAST suddenly appeared in the lines of the verse. "Beware of a BLACK cat/' -They BLACK-halled him/' ''He's behind the EIGHT slipped him the BLACK spot. " "X marks the spot." "If you can't sign your name, write 'X'." hall. "''They NIMROD-NIMUR-LEOPARD! The beast was a LEOPARD. Well, how is a leopard marked? If it is the "MARK of the beast" you are looking for, and the beast is a LEOPARD, then how is he marked? Jeremiah (Hamite!!) change 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian his skin, or the leopard his SPOTS?" A leopard is marked with black spots. When one considers it, the leopard is a perfectly integrated animal. His body is yellow-brown as an Asiatic; it has the white belly of a European; and throughout and overall are the black spots of the African. He is a melting pot of all nations. The black spot on a leopard is shaped as a Rosetta: that is, like two half-moons C, examined carefully, it will be seen BLACK LIPS pressed against the skin. (See material on Absalom and Ahab in chapter 3.) It is a kiss. This is the sign which Judas used to betray Christ; hence, 'Uove and kisses" to this day is signed XXX. Have you ever studied words that end in '^X"? so. If the spots are that they most nearly resemble two, huge For example, the leopard is a member of the CAT "cat" in Latin is "FELIX.'' The American is "LYNX." A man who is a cat-man is a family. The word for "SPHINX." Since "black" in Latin is "STYX," a blackcat (a panther is a black leopard) is a "styx feli.x. When Kennedy got into office on his daddy's bootleg money, the TV stations all ran a quaint little boosterspot telling the people to vote for the candidate of your choice, but in the choice, the "X" was always drawn on the body of an anonymous candidate named Coincidence, of course? Of course! "FELIX. "

— NAME, RANK, SERIAL NUMBER? 89 What we have here, then, is a Rex, who comes with Pax, speaking with God's Vox, ex-cathedra, celebrating X-mas and kissing (XXX) under the mistletoe, while crossing (Crux) himself so as to profess to be genuine, when he really is a Hoax and a Jinx, come to Vex and Pox the world. In reality, he is a Felix, whose Black-robed (Styx) priests are wholly given to him, and since an alcoholic is wholly given to alcohol, THEN A CAT -HO Lie IS WHOLLY GIVEN TO A CAT, SPHINX. Holy Cats! No wonder a Negro musician is called a ''Cat. " No wonder Catholic priests wcslv black. No wonder the Hamitic Sphinx is found in North Affrom where Cush's and Lot's wives came. No wonder the spurious manuscript "Vaticanus'' is an Egyptian-type text from the vellum rolls at Alexandria, EGYPT! The riddle of the Sphinx is solved! If you flew over the Sphinx in a plane and looked at the three pyramids beside him, you would see an amazing thing. For there, as plain as the sand of the desert, you would see a sphinx and three X's: X,X,X rica (Ps. 106:22) (hex, hex, hex; six, six, six); tit, tac, toe, three in a row. The top of a pyramid is a perfect X. I remember one time where someone spoke of three crosses like that, but it seems to me that it was outside Jerusalem, on the NORTH side, not south in the land of Egypt, which throughout Scripture typifies the world (Jer. 42-43). It seems too, unless my memory fails me, that I remember kneeling somewhere on Wednesday^' ''Ash and taking a black spot and putting it from the palm of my hand onto my forehead (Rev. 13:16). Yes. there can "The CAT'^ is out of the hcii^! be no doubt about it the hag (John 2:6)! held And it was Judas that I Constantine heard Satan say, quer, " '7// this sign con- and he did. The sign of the cross has always been, and will

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 90 always be, the sign of a CURSE (Gal. 3:13). EX, EX, EX. A lot of loose ends will now pull together. Here comes CUPID. He has a bow (as the rider in Revelation 6:2), but he is here for love and kisses. X, X, X. Here comes a man saying "HEIL," for HAIL or WHOLE or HELLO (which is the same as hearty, healthy, wholly, HOLY), and here is a CATholic priest teaching his catechism {did you get that? CATechism) class that the word ''CATholic" means "universally or wholly"; yet he has failed to tell them what the rest of the word means!! The only part that means universal is the "/zo//c" (holy, hail, heil, etc.). bud. How about that "Cat," TELL US ABOUT THAT ''CAT'! Tell us why Brigette was called a ''sQX-kitten.'' SEX. Did you ever study words that end in "X"? Fox, Ax, Box, Tax, Sax, Jax, Lax, Pax, Jinx, Hoax, Vex, Pox, Hex ! ! So many loose ends suddenly meet that they can hardly be grasped. The material has to be organized, so let us make three columns using the standard psychological method of learning association. The first col- — umn is X's, the second is colors, the third is countries. PARADOX PAX REX VOX peace king SEX Rev. 2:20-21 TAX VEX AX BOX Saul (i Sam. 8) a mystery voice Baal (Num. 25:18) beheaded (Rev. 20:4) buried JAX beer POX STYX a sore (Lev. 13-15) LYNX Black for sin North American cat FELIX Roman cat

NAME, RANK, SERIAL NUMBER? JINX fateful, bad luck HOAX a faker SPHINX half-man, half-cat FOX HEX name for Herod (Luke 13:32) SIX man's number EX formerly or "out of XXX Judas KISS LAX SAX FLUX loose or lazy 91 to cast an evil spell dance band (Dan. 3:3, 5) irregular flow Black symbol of night or death. Black never stands for purity, truth, honor, or bravery in any language in any nation. Black clothes on priests. Black clothes on nuns. Black cat warned against. Black-heads considered bad. Black ball is to "be eliminated." Behind the eight ball ... the eight ball is a black . . . . . . ball. Black worn by widows at funerals. Black horse in Revelation 6:5-6 for famine. Blackout is no light visible. Black and white are opposites. Black tries to become grey through integration. Black smoke used in electing popes. Black people were given a homeland title of ''The Dark Continent. " "Black" or "burnt black" is the translation of the word ''Ham'' (Gen. 10). All Ham's descendants gravitate to the equator. Africa is said to be the land of Ham (Ps. 106, 107). Africa contains Egypt, from which Israel was delivered. Africa, containing Egypt, is a type of the world in

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 92 Scripture. It is called an "iron furnace." North Africa is the location of the Pharaohs. North Africa is the location of the Sphinx. North Africa is the location of the Latin Church that blossomed later in Italy (Augustine, Tertullian, et al.). North Africa is the location of the type of text found in Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. Both these manuscripts were found in the monasteries and dwellings of black-robed Catholics. North Africa was never chosen by God to be the territory in which a single book of the Bible was writ- ten. North African, ''Egyptian" (or "Hesychian") type text, therefore, is Satanic and Catholic in origin. SUMMATION: No Bible or religion that bears these marks of identification is in any way, shape, or form connected with Biblical Christianity. No matter what the profession of "faith" is or no matter how great historical evidence is produced, the Bible has already, by its own authority, clearly defined the group that bears these marks. It is Satan's faith, Satan's Christ, and Satan's Church. We have found THE MARK OF THE BEAST.

CHAPTER FIVE The Work That Remains To Be Done If the reader has checked the Bible references given in this book (and what reader ever didlj. he has come a long way since beginning his analysis of the causes and sources invohed in the decline of Biblical Christianity. As the evidence mounts, line upon line, precept upon precept, one is fearfully aware of a desire to backtrack from the subject and take shelter again in the comforting arms of dead-orthodox scholarship and standard theological w orks. But as Pastor Robinson (Mayflower group) said. ^'The Lutherans have stopped with Luther, the Calxinists have stopped with Calvin, but I am sure God has much more precious truth to yet pour forth from His Holy Word. " These words were spoken in the earl\ part of the seventeenth century. The Baptists stop with B. H. Carroll and Spurgeon. The nondenominational groups have stopped permanently with CT. Scofield. As Christians approach the end of the tw entieth century and step into the jaws of death at Rome, their leading expositors and teachers have nothing left to give them. Having rejected the Protestant Reformation text of the AW by which they were converted to Christ (the Lord's Christ), we percei\e the pitiful spectacle of the **top" radio and T\' preachers in the land de\oting their precious time to correcting the King James by the Westcott and Hon text. Instead of prayerfully reading and waiting on Cuui

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 94 among for further light. Christians (premillennialists them) have fallen prey to "Greek scholarship" and "nuggets in the Greek New Testament," and have ceased to shed light as they were commanded. The airwaves are no longer filled with the revelation of God, but with the proud and critical voices of Bible-believers who spend half the allotted time with ." and "A more accurate ''A better reading would be ." and ''Unfortunately, the King James translation is ." ." and ''Actually, this word in the original is says ." In and "We might better read this instead of this the pitiful confusion of infidelity. Communism, Catholicism, Atheism, immorality, dictatorship, blood, death, disease, poverty, war, famine, and disaster, the Christian is doing no more in the twentieth century than convincing people that his Bible isn't any better than a broken mirror. The pope is way ahead of him; he took that for granted 1,500 years ago. Marx is way ahead of him; he took it for granted 100 years ago. And the Greek scholars are way ahead of him; they threw the Syrian-type text (Byzantine) of the New Testament out before the Reformation and adopted the vellum scrolls of the Egyp. . . . . . . . . . . tian-type text as authoritative. We are left to witness the final sham-battle of Bible-believing Christianity. To describe it, one would have to imagine Custer's last stand with a few peculiar appendages. For example, instead of firing at the Indi- we would find Custer's men busy arguing about which one had the right rifle, and several of them would be comparing rifles and checking serial numbers while the arrows and shells tlew. Sitting Bull and his Sioux ans, The dust clouds are so thick you could choke on them. The wounded are crying for water. Those less fortunate near the edge of the are slaughtering the troops. ring are being scalped alive, screaming for help. And in

— THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 95 the center stand a dozen or so men, two or three of them firing (but none of them firing at the Indians), and we hear the conversation: "Now this rifle is a modification of the Union rifle used at Bull Run." "Well, personally I prefer this newer version. Notice that I can hit that bird up there 10 out of 10." (He demonstrates and misses twice.) "But at military school, they taught us that rifling ." cannot handle .58 caliber shells because "Well you can say what you like, but when Spencer put out that repeater with a rim fire in 1863, he did as fine a job as has been done since, and OOOGHHH- - GOD!!" (The Indians shot him.) "Well after all, they really are all the same stock; I . . . mean they tell me that Enfield is getting out a version of the old Springfield ( 1860) that will really be easy to Oops, they got Henry!" "Now look at that red-skin over there! He's got a breech-loading Winchester as sure as you live and breath, and I know because he's ridden by five times within ten feet, and I had a chance to check it with the handle . . . original. Ah, oh, looks like Bill got it in the neck!" "Well, boys, let's quit arguing and all get together here now — it isn't Christian to argue. Each to his own I say. There is some good in all. Course we're 'bout out of ammo, but still, I don't believe in attacking anybody's rifle. Let's hop to it, men!!" (So they all line up shoulder-to-shoulder and begin to blaze away at the birds.) That veteran and ancient enemy of Bible-believing Christianity is as alive today as she was in 1500, and she is tremendously more powerful, having been reinforced by the threats of Communism against Capi- With a cause now to go forth in the "crusade for the free world," that old Mother o( Harlots talistic countries.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST 96 and Abominations (Rev. 17) is forging a chain that will As the Peace Corps and the Birch Society and the Red Cross and Boy Scouts rally to her cause, old Mother Rome enslave two continents before she is through. sits on the seven mountains and laughs at premillennial Bible Christianity, for every day that passes witnesses the pitiful Christians quoting the Roman authority as an authority superior to the AV of the Bible. Don't you know the College of Cardinals, with the greatest library in the world, goes into spasms when they pick up some book used as a textbook for Greek in a Fundamental, Bible-believing school in America and read: 'The priority of two at least of the three texts just noticed, to the Syrian text, is further brought to light by the existence of a certain number of distinctively Syrian readings, which prove on close examination to be due to a combination of the Western and the neutral readings All the readings which have an exclusively Syrian attestation can be easily accounted for as . . . parts of an editorial revision, AND NONE OF THEM HAVE THE STAMP OF GENUINENESS to attest the use of extraneous and PURER sources . . . leaving then the Syrian text ... a reading marked as SYRIAN OR POST-SYRIAN, by the range of the documents which attest it, It MAY BE SAFELY REJECTED AT ONCE . . was to be expected that the text of the extremely ancient common source of 'B' and 'Aleph' as a rule be preserved its . . . . . . . should Even when 'B' stands alone, readings must never be lightly rejected''? There is not a Catholic Greek scholar or a pope who ever lived who could not heartily "AMEN" this statement, for it is a statement to the effect that the King James Bible (from the Syrian Textus Receptus) can be '\safely rejected at once, " while the Douay Rheims and RSV and ASV (from the manuscript ''B" Vaticanus) ''must never be lightly rejected. "

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 97 In case you did not recognize the quotation, it is from pages 548-563 in the back of the Greek text of Westcott and Hort's edition, which is the basis of the ASV {\90\) and the standard text in every Bible-believing seminary in the United States BAR NONE! The woman got the leaven in, and it finished the lump! So what we find in America is Charlie Fuller, Dr. DeHaan, Theodore Epp, Billy Graham, and the best-ofthe-best (and I am not speaking sarcastically the cream — — of the crop of Bible-believers all are Roman Catholic in their criticisms of the AV) publicly proclaiming where all can hear, ''We do not have the word of God. Rome has it!'' Rome never had it. Before A.D. 500 Catholics had accepted seven books of man-made trash as inspired, and by A.D. 1546, they had pronounced a curse on anyone who disagreed. Vaticanus (containing the Apocrypha), for the last time, is NOT the word of God. It is not a Bible. For the love of Heaven, stop correcting a Bible {AV) with a North African manuscript written in Italy that never has been a Bible, is not a Bible, and never will be a Bible! Stop damning and destroying the body of Christ with corrections and translations and versions about which you know nothing, and about which your professors knew nothing either! You can guarantee that if Westcott and Hort, Trench, Alford, Tregelles, Griesbach, Tischendorf. Thayer, Berry, and Robertson were too stupid to detect the trap, that YOU haven't got the brains to do it! Every time a fundamentalist ''corrects" the^AV, the old pope just rolls back on his collops of fat (John was sixty pounds overweight) and roars! **A more accurate Would it really, reading for Romans 8: would be now? Do you really know what you're talking about, or did you just read the Scofield note that sa\ s that the .*' 1 . . .

THE MARK OF THE BEAST yx "TRY THIS ONE, YOUNG MAN! IT'S SO MUCH MORE ACCURATE!" / ' ya OLDS. Su/ORp OF WHY TRADE YOUR SWORD FOR A BEAN-BAG?

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 99 verse really ends with Jesus Christ and the last few words are interpolated? Isn't that about it? Did you really and truly ("cross your heart and hope to die!") examine the evidence before you undertook to correct the text by which you and your congregation were converted — the text that God used in the ministry of Moody, Sunday, Torrey, Finney, Wesley, Goforth, Taylor, Brainerd, Jones, Booth, Smith, Norris, Spurgeon, and Carey? Did you really? For example, was your professor so profound and well versed in the original that he told you the following information before he tried to tear out half the verse? 1. That the half "interpolated" is not interpolated at all, but is found in Greek manuscripts. 2. That the manuscripts that omit it are North Af- rican manuscripts, written in Italy, and one of them is under lock-and-key at the Vatican. 3. That the manuscripts that contain it are Caesar- ean, Syrian-type texts of the Textus Receptus. That the verse is correct in the English, for in the same passage at verse 13, you are told that under 4. some circumstances there IS condemnation for a Christian (Rom. 8:13)? You say you thought the word "conyou find some other kind of damnation besides eternal dam? nation when you read Romans 14 and Corinthians Or did you read either in the ENGLISH? Did you get a dictionary so as to find out that neither "condemnation" nor "damnation" refer to ETERNAL damnation in their first and basic meanings? Why then have you changed the verse, and why did Scofield usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit, Who knew what He meant to say? Prejudice? Something you don't like about demnation'' was like ''damnation.'' Well, didn't 1 1 it'.^ ROME AT WORK, UNDER COVER. 1

1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 00 For the record, the found in latter part of Romans 8:1 is Alexandrinus (5th century: nearly as old as Vaticanus); it is found in several other minor manu- found in the old Latin Vulgate; it is found in the Syriac (Peshitta), translated before Vaticanus was written; it is found in a complete Greek manuscript, Mutinensis (9th century) and in another one, scripts: it is Angelicus (9th century); and it is found in the majority of manuscripts written in the Syrian-type text that came up through the Greek Church into the Reformation, not the Egyptian-type text that came up through North Africa into the Sphinx! What did Scofield mean by '^INTERPOLATION"? Nothing was interpolated. Westcott and Hort and Nestle merely convinced the Scofield Board of Editors that the highest authority in textual matters was the Roman Catholic Church. And Scofield a ^'Brethren"! Tsk, tsk! Now, there is no use to waste the remainder of this book on matters of textual criticism and manuscript evidence. The same stunt is pulled over and over again in the Scriptures. There is not a single correction made of the AV in the twentieth century that is not a Roman Catholic correction. Time and space forbid laying out the evidence as it was just now placed on the table in regard to Romans 8:1. But John 5, John 8, Mark 16, I John 5, etc., all bear the same resemblance. The tactics are the same in every case, and they are so highly successful that now, at the end of the Church Age, the papal Pontiff has enlisted Protestant Premillennialists as volunteers to help him finish the work of wiping out the hated and despised King James 1611 Authorized Version. His troops are mobilized; they are well equipped; they have been trained for centuries; and now, before the "Man of Sin" signals the final charge, he is tremendously encouraged to find on the front row of his assault troops, fresh ''shock-troops," composed

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 1 of premillennial Bible-believers who no longer believe they have the word of God. Enter, the Beast. The exact details of his entrance have lain undetected somewhere between the covers of the Authorized Version. With Liberals, Protestants, Catholics, Conservatives, Radicals, Neo-orthodox, Fundamentalists, Reformers, and Greek Orthodox all busy doing everything in the world except reading their Bibles, the facts still lie undetected. Much has been revealed, but twice as much still lies covered. As in times past, so in the present, it remains undiscovered because of the laziness and infidelity of its readers. It's there; you can be certain of that. As we conclude this analysis of the "Mark of the it might be well to gather a few more loose Beast," ends together and theorize on the possible "means" by which the white horse rider of Revelation 6:2 will make his grand debut. Most stage entrances are set to music (Dan. 3). Music is the universal language. You may or may not have failed to notice in reading passages on the ANOINTED "christos" of Ezekiel 28:1-19, that "pipes and tabrets" are part of the equipment. You may have failed to notice also that the "sons of God" MORNING STARS (called Job 38:1-7) are singing before the creation. Anyone understands a jazz-band playing ''In in The Mood, " even if the listener does not know the title in English or even in his own language: the language of the music is SEX (with a SAX!). The language of Beethoven's ninth and Schubert's Eighth (C-major) and Tschaikovsky's Sixth are clearly understood by a man with no musical education at all. If a hillbilly in Tennessee listens through a few bars of Von Weber's ''Freischutz. Overture/^ he says, 'Thai sounds like sad

1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 02 music, kinda like a hunter in the woods." I've heard one say this! The point ot contact with any nation is music, and Benny Goodman did much better in Russia with it than Nixon did in South America without it! Man of "How can Since we have thoroughly identified the Sin with the Scripture, it is apropo to ask: Roman Catholicism capitalize on music?'' Palestrina does not exactly "send" any one. The real music of Romanticism, Humanism, and Modernism comes from Protestant Germany, following the Reformation: Bach, Gluck, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Von Weber, Wagner, Brahms, etc. But Beethoven and Schubert are Roman Catholic; don't forget that. The Roman Catholic, Adolf Hitler, loved Wagnerian music passionately. Rome can produce when she so desires — Rossini, Verdi, Puccini (Fr.). But since Roman Catholicism is a North African religion from Egypt, her ace-in-the-hole will not be Anyone who knows anything about Africa, Jamaica, and New Orleans can easily predict the course Romanism will follow. Perez, Nick LaRocca, Tony Pastor, Nick Fatool, Artie Shaw, and Johnny Guarneri are not exactly Protestant German names. Neither are Bing or Bob Crosby, Frankie Sinatra, Perry Como, Frankie Lane, Russ Columbo, or Sal Mineo. Rome's forte has never been classical. CAT-holicism is the popular religion of the unregenerate mass who classical music. believe implicitly in "mysteries," "sacraments," ''holy relics," "godmothers," and rituals. This voodoo inherit- ance is North African. It is not Biblical, nor is it Christian. No Christian in the New Testament is ever found honoring, worshipping, venerating, cherishing, or rev- erencing anything but GOD AND HIS WORD. Where the parents are commanded to be honored (Eph. 6, Col. 4), the Lord is to be put first (Luke 12:49-53).

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 03 In the peculiar admixture of medicine men, black- robed priests (Phoenicia from Africa —Gen. 10), chants, sacraments, sprinklings, incantations, beads and rattles, headdresses (Nuns!), and African rhythms, the spell is cast over the 'TAITHFUL." Watch the heathen! All heathen dance. All heathen like to undress. All heathen like to paint religious] their bodies. All heathen are extremely The universal testimonies of missionaries, who have been ''on the field" for decades, all testify to these truths. There is not a pagan religion on the face of the earth that could not be absorbed into the system and pass off, from henceforth, Roman as Christian, without abandoning a single heathen, religious practice! The financial and social conditions of ''Christian- ized" countries under the Spaniards (Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Central America, Brazil, Venezuela, etc.) prove the point. From the headwaters of the Amazon, to the broad and modern streets of Rio De Janeiro, the paint, the nakedness, the beads, the dances, and the superstitions remain. They wait patiently for the Beast to make his entrance. The problem for the Catholic, then, will be how to reinsert African jazz into the worship services without offending the dignity and pomp of the fraudulent priests. How can Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Meredith, Sammie Davis, Lionel Hampton, Cozy Cole, Martin Luther King. Bellafonte, King Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Representative Powell, Count Bassie, Joe Jones, Hotlips Page, and Benny Carter get into the act without ruining the show? They must get in. Since the pope has already adopted a pro-Arabian policy against Israel (London Tablet, citing Arab New s Agency, July, 1958) and slipped several African Cardinals into the Vatican to foment the trouble in I9S91961, it stands to reason that he is heading back to iiis homeland — Africa, the land of Ham. the proLienitor o(

1 THE MARK OF THH BHAST 04 Hagar (Gen. 13-15), the mother of the Arabians (see GaU). The holy Papa's music is African. The Latin chants, in the square note, are still heard in their dismal wails outside the walls of the Trappist Monastery near Madison, Georgia, but how can these dismal wails be con- verted to jazz? There exact, one gradual is is only one way, or to be more way, while another alternate route used in a hurry. Get the Bible out of the schools so secular education of the Protestants will teach them there is nothing wrong with the sex dances of Africa, set to jazz music. C'Animal dances" actually BUNNY hug, GRIZZLY bear, FOX trot, etc.) This being accomplished, the Protestants will have to ''jazz up" their services to keep a hold on their young people. Step No. 2. Allow ''Negro spirituals'' to be used in the Catholic services, as they are African enough to pass for ''Catholicism" and slow enough to pass for religious pomp and pageantry. Once these steps have been taken, the rest falls Step No. 1 . — The Negro spirituals begin to get more ''spirited." The Street Parade, coming back from the Catholic Graveyards on Rampart Street, proved this into place naturally. to be the normal course of events. You just ''jazz it, man, jazz it." It is a small step from ''Let My People Go, " to "Shadrach, Meschach, Abednego"; and even a " smaller step to "Look Down That Lonesome Road, and hence to "When The Saints Go Marching In, " and the show tunes of Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. As proof that I am not some crackpot fanatic talking through my stack, let it be remembered that a fifteen year-old girl jazzed up the vesper services in Erdington, England, effects. last year, with "special lighting" The service was advertised as: "No adults al-

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 05 lowed. Wear what you like. Sit where you want. " Frankie Lane's (Catholic) record blared from the porch of the Parish house to welcome teenagers. It put forth that old "Mj Friend"! Said Sally, the carhop for the vespers, *7 want a teen- Bible-believing Episcopalian anthem, age boy to sing a Negro spiritual!'' Ah! how civilized we are getting! In Norwalk, Connecticut (April, 1959), a jazz mass was performed. (Notice ''mass": a non-Christian word found nowhere in the Bible, or even suggested.) The "mass" was written by Rev. Geoffrey Beaumont, Vicar of St. George's Church, Camberwell, England. It was played by a four-piece combo. The ''Kyrie Eleison" and the ''Agnus Dei" were sung above the rhythm of a BEGUINE, a LATIN-AMERICAN DANCE rhythm. The reader must understand that Catholic priests are studying in the Episcopal schools in England with the intention of infiltrating the apostate remains of people who once believed the King James Bible (1611) was the word of God. In 1904, the British Missionary Society officially booted the AV and accepted the Roman Catholic Bible (Vaticanus) as the final authority. Thus, the Episcopal church falls prey first to the Roman plan to musically introduce the half-breed descendant of Ham. (See notes on Nimrod, Balak, Goliath, and Judas in Chapter 3.) Nor do the Southern Baptists have a dog's chance of escaping the gathering storm. Wake Forest students ''Defy Baptist dancing ban and jitterbug on the downbeat. " (Headlines, Winston-Salem, Nov. 21, 1958.) Stet- son University, a Baptist school (in Florida),* sent its formal invitations to its graduating alumni to come for "A Real Corker. By all means bring along some vintage clothes for the big dance on Saturday night," signed, Sidney H. Taylor, Pres. Alumni Assoc. * It no longer is a Baptist school.

1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 06 A man said, "What's wrong with dancing"?" Nothing, if you are so stupid that you can't read statistics. The stage, then, is being set in two wings. In the right wing, the Catholic quietly slips into his choir some integrated elements from the origin of his religion, Africa, and encourages it to sing spirituals. While this is going on, in the left wing, integration is gearing up the public school systems, evolution is turning the children into animals, and prayers are being outlawed. Consequently, government money will be diverted to parochial schools, and the great pagan high schools and universities of America will be left abandoned to their destiny, which is to become drinking, dancing, cursing night clubs for those who can afford it. Once jazz is established, not merely as a possible diversion, but as a socially-acceptable and highly-recommended ART, it can be incorporated into the Protestant churches as part of the worship. After a decade of this, the Catholic can safely take it in from the left wing, and the stage is fully decorated. Enter, the Beast. To the musically uninformed, this may seem like a prejudiced, bigoted, intolerant way of looking at things; but since the uninformed have not only failed to study the history of music, but have also failed to accept the final authority of God- given revelation, their opinion is really no more than a negative reaction to truth. Up comes the music from Jubal (Gen. 4). Its first mention is in connection with a supernatural choir, present at the creation of the solar system (Job 38). It progresses from this original holy and heavenly function to the function of a dance, set to organ music (Job 21:10-14, 22:15-17). It returns to the Heavenly function under the courses set by David (1 Chron. 25). It remains religious music in this function through the New Testament, where the Kantor becomes the monk

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 07 and Psalm becomes the chant. In the Dark Ages, this slow, mournful, cadenced, regular, and deathly music is typical of the Roman domination over the minds and souls of men. With the Renaissance and Reformation, an amazing thing happens. happens where Luther and the Gutenberg Bible first show themselves in Protestant Germany. Here, the budding genius of Bach develops, and with the Masses and Oratorios of Bach and Handel, man's creative abilities are tuned to sing the It praises of his Creator. The quotations in the ''Messiah'' are direct from the King James 1611 Authorized Ver- sion. At first, the music is used to glorify the God of Creation and Salvation, but with Gluck and Mozart (in the Italian opera-tradition!), the seeds of degeneracy appear. When Beethoven comes on the scene, the mu- no longer used to glorify God; it becomes an instrument to express what MAN feels and what MAN thinks. Under the baton of the great Humanist, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th symphonies rapidly progress to that stage where the MAN is EXPRESSING HIMSELF, sic is instead of glorifying God for the talent given to him. This movement is called the ''Romantic" move- ment in music, culminating in the works of Schubert and Brahms, and can be distinguished from the Classical style by the motive behind the composition. Beethoven expresses Beethoven: the man is the music; the music is the man. Jesus Christ and the Bible are nowhere found not even in the religious music Beethoven composed. Since the man is Gernnin, it follows, — as thunder follows lightning, that sooner or later in tlie attempt to express self, the inbred national characterisand emerge they do in the Second tics will emerge — movement of the 5th Symphony. They emerge till a man can nearly see the helmeted Storm-lrooixMs siaiuiing at attention and saluting the Swastika. I roni iicrc

1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 08 things go from Beer-sheba to Dan as the unregenerate, depraved nature of the Bible-rejecting Catholic musician seeks to express himself r£'//^/(9w.s7v. His climactic reached effort is ''Ode to Joy, " in his musical version of Schiller's wherein a human emotion is deified and elevated to a state deserving of worship. No man who ever listened to the Ninth (Choral) Symphony, in the final movement, ever failed to notice that the voices enlisted to "put the symphony across" assume the tone, the expression, and the articulation of a CHURCH CHOIR (Ezek.2S'A\-\l). The blasphemous words in the Ode are as follows: ''Joy, divine spark of THE GODS. ..we enter your sanctuary drunk with fire... all beings drink in joy of nature's breast, all good and EVIL follow her trail of roses! The worm has given bliss, and the SERAPH stands before GOD. WORLD. THIS KISS IS FOR THE WHOLE " KISS? Since when had Brother Beethoven ceased to be a musician and donned the robes of a religious interpreter? A KISS? Judas? Absalom? Baal? (See ref- erences in Chapter 3.) As Beethoven goes out in a clap of thunder, shaking his fist at God, and saying with his dying breath, "The comedy is ended!" (What a radiant "Christian testimony"! Compare 2 Tim. 4:1-12), Von Weber and Schubert (the Lied) prepare to take Romanticism off into the jungle. Now the music not only ceases to glorify God or to be dedicated to a man's self-expression, but it becomes the expression of a race or nation Germany. With this there comes the entire retinue of — spooks, gods, myths, legends, ghost stories, and fables associated with the race; and Von Weber and Wagner capitalize on it and produce a national paganism of a divine nature. You know where it culminates. It culminates in the sands of Tobruk and El Alamein, in the

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 09 snows of Minsk and Stalingrad, on the beaches of Cherbourg, and in the forests of the Ardennes and the Reichswald. Finish of Classical Protestant music. Leaving Beethoven in another direction is Brahms, the last of the classicists, whose four symphonies contain the last shred of music for music's sake only. From here on out the Modern period enters, and with it the Russian music that takes up where Wagner dropped it. Tschaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov develop a national paganism of a divine nature for RUSSIA— NOT GERMANY. This puts the handwriting on the wall for Russia. Her music follows Germany, lagging about forty years. Her end will have to follow suit. Running quickly through the Romanticists, we find music now debased to art and writing. No longer does the musician pour forth music that God put in him, he merely writes music to describe something. Hence, from 1890 and forward, the music becomes merely ''tone poems. " Even the symphonies of Grieg, Sibelius, and Mahler are in this category. Strauss, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Copeland wrap it up; and by the time we get to 1930, Classical music is gone. The pitiful composer wrings out a living by writing "novelties" for which there is no demand, and his new numbers are sandwiched into the symphony hall between Beethoven and Brahms so the audience cannot help but hear them. If it were not for their placement, nobody would stay, but (since it is you have to stay to hear Brahms No. 1 practically a Beethoven No. 10), and who will leave if they love the classics at all? By 1930, the field is swept. The granary is empty. The meal in the barrel is gone. The ammunition has run out. The pump has gone dry. Musicians are writing to stay alive and to make a living. The only 'Mciiiand" is for AFRICAN JAZZ. When the next .ercat sweep of

" I THE MARK OF THE BEAST 1 music comes, for which there is any real following, it is the big name bands: Benny Goodman, Glenn Gray, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Paul Whitemen, Glenn Miller, etc., who have orchestrated the triplet heat of the jazz, musician^ which originated with the drummer in the back-end of Catholic ''New Orleans." This music degenerated io dirty vocals under the ministry of Tommy Dorsey, who sang Frankie and Jo and the Pipers until the crowd came to listen to love songs instead of orchestration. This quickly (in the forties and fifties) collapsed into rhythm sections with one vocalist. Vocalists discovered quickly that you could sell a million records just as quick with one man screaming dirty lyrics as you could with forty pieces playing sheet" music, stock-arrangements of ''String of Pearls. You are up to 1960. "Whither away. Music?" There is only one way to go. Back to Africa. The music that is now in demand is African drums, African diction, African inflection, African breathing, and African phrasing. From Pattie Page and Kay Starr to Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney, the lyrics, words, feelings, lip-framing, breathing, and diction are Afri- German, Italian, or Irish-man, they still sing African. They have to. The Beast is setting the stage, and his orchestra is tuning up. His can. If the singer is a orchestra, as his church, bible, religion, convictions, superstitions, and sacraments, is North African. Let's have a few "Negro spirituals" next Sunday. The evidence is tangible. The Antichrist will enter to the tune of North African sex music, maturing in Latin-American countries through drum beats and incorporated into the Latin Church at a later date. When the Beast makes his entrance, heat the band. From where will he come? it will be '7r;

— 1 THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 1 As it has been remarked before, so much of the Bible has been untouched that it is impossible at this present writing to correctly gather all the details. There one thing clear from knowing human nature, however, and that is that, by far, the most effective means would be to come right down out of the air and profess is to come FROM OUTER SPACE. —Rev. 19:11-14 He tempted Christ do — Luke 4:9-12. Men now looking — Gagarin, CarpenGlenn, has been done before — Gen. 6:1-10. be done again — Luke 17:26-27. The world geared expect — 1. This is always effective (in Christ's case). to 2. are 3. ter, it for it etc. 4. It 5. It will 6. to is Interest in it outer space. 7. Any superior supernatural being showing up would be accepted as a "god" in the likeness of a man— Acts 14:11-14; 19:35. 8. This is the Bible description of an ''ANGEL" Judg. 13, Gen. 19. As the world follows the Catholic lead away from belief in the Bible as the absolute and final authority in matters of faith and practice (see Chapter 1), the ground prepared for a superhuman to show up in a flying saucer, who will side with Rome and thereby gain the is allegiance of the world. Consider the terrific repercussions this would have, if the rider of Revelation 6:2 ACTUALLY DOES float down from "outer space" and can prove it (Isa. 24:21; Eph. 6:10-13). In the first place, every scientist in the world would hail this man as the final and ultimate answer to the solution of man's problems. He would be looked upon as a "god." The appearance from space of such a man would bolster the unscientific theories ol Darw in.

1 1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 2 It would confirm 161 1 Bible is the scientist's conceit that the archaic and unscientific. It AV would indi- cate the existence of races on other planets and thereby debunk any nonsense about "God coming in the flesh to die for men,'' etc. (1 Tim. 3:16, John 3:16). And it would elevate the nuclear physicists, ballistic experts, and astronauts themselves into a worldwide place of public prominence and adoration. Science would prostrate itself at the feet of the Antichrist if he came down out of the universe. In the second place, the Catholic church would would nearly split at its sacramental seams to think that men from outer space recognized their church as the "One True Church"!! That proves it! Yes, every Catholic in the world, from Sonny Liston to President Kennedy, would shout, "I knew it! I knew it! I knew I was in the right church! I told you those Protestants were heretics! This proves it!" And swell with pride till it post-haste, overnight, the entire tradition of the Catho- Church would be made foolproof, and every atrocious outrage of her unholy and bloody history would be justified. A thousand parochial textbooks would roll off the "Holy Virgin Publishing Press" (!) that would lic present an entirely new history to the high school student. No longer would he have textbooks that over- looked the Huguenot, Waldensian, and Albigensian massacres, but he would have textbooks where these pagan debaucheries were described in block capital letters as high-points of righteous indignation and holy wrath against the "unbelievers." With a man-from-outerspace to back them up, the whole slew of winoes from Pedro Gonzales to Papa Pius would begin to make demands from the remainder of apostate Protestantism that would force them to their knees under the threat of death in the electric chair. With a Catholic population of 600,000,000 people

3 THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 1 (and growing, without birth-control, all the time!), the Antichrist would find over 1,000,000,000 people al- ready conditioned to worship a MAN, simply waiting for the right "pope" to show up. He would step into a ready-made situation, carefully prepared through a period of 1,500 years. It would be set up so that he could pronounce any myth or legend as equal (or superior) authority to the Bible, since the Catholic Church already officially declared the Apocrypha equal with the Bible. (That isn't all. At Trent [1546], a CURSE [anathema] was pronounced on ANYONE who did not accept these fourteen forgeries as inspired. Unfortunately for were officially rejected by the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the papist is in the odd position of a man professing to belong to the church which "Jesus founded on the rock," while at the same a Catholic, these fourteen time declaring, "EX-CATHEDRA," that JESUS IS CURSED! Strange situation.) The third advantage to this trip down from outer space would be that if it occurs simultaneously with the rapture, the rapture of the true Body of Christ can successfully be explained away. After all, if this "man from heaven" is able to come out of space with a revelation of other planets, and is able to enforce his authority (Rev. 13:13-16), can he not explain why several million people suddenly disappeared "in the twin- kling of an eye"? (1 Thess. 4, 1 Cor. 15). Think of the countless millions of self-righteous grace-rejectors now on the earth who believe in the Second Coming, and yet who know not anything about the Christian mystery of the Rapture before the Coming. Think of the harvest this crowd will be for the Devil, as he shows up simultaneously with the rapture and professes to be Jesus Christ returning! Handmade for his gestapo will be found a million Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses. C lunch of "Christ" (no JESUS!), Seventh-day Advcnlisis,

4 1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 1 Unity, Christian Scientists, and British Israelites who believe in the Coming, without the truth concerning it! In 2 Thessalonians 2:4-12, tion we have a detailed descrip- of the abject and miserable condition of these people who professed to believe the Scripture and then used the Scripture to deny the truth, thus laying themselves open to "strong delusion." in mind. On one dark May or June, there is a sudden roar of Get the picture clearly night in thunder that sounds like 3,000 cobalt bombs exploding simultaneously (Job 37:1-6). Lightning streaks out of the sky at an elevation over 700,000 feet, and the earth shakes under it (Matt. 24:27, Ps. 29). Houses rock, window panes burst, and the ground heaves and swells like an earthquake had hit it. In the roar, the born-again believer hears a trumpetlike voice (1 Thess. 4, Ps. 50, Isa. 26) calling, "Come up hither!" WWWWWHHAAAAAMMMMMMM! Out through the stratosphere, ionosphere, exosphere, and solar system go millions of supernatural bodies (1 Cor. 15:50-55) at about 150,000,000 miles a sec- ond. Nothing is left behind but a pool of blood where each living Christian had stood, and the graves stand open and lie silent in the dark, while the contents of thousands of them have just emptied. In the first few minutes of shock, people are screaming, searching for loved ones, dressing wounds from falling debris and flying glass; fire departments and police departments are called out; the Army and Air Force are phoning and radioing frantically to each other. Russians are yelling, "Retaliate! They threw it!" SAC and SAF and other emergency units are yelling. is it!"; and yet after the first fifteen minutes, realized that nothing has blown up, no ''This it is bombs have been dropped, and no one has died. The only trouble is that about 10,000,000 people are suddenly unaccounted

5 THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE for. While anxious eyes search the troubled skies, denly a high-pitched 1 1 sud- humming sound fills the atmo- sphere. Looking northward one sees a peculiar light, as when sunlight reflects on a capsule in orbit. The light increases in size. It disappears on the European side of the globe. Standing around St. Peter's in Rome, by the huge, BLACK, North AFRICAN SEX-symbol in St. Peter's (the EGYPTIAN obelisk), the crowd of superstitious papists wait with bated breath rosaries. and clenched A mysterious circular-shaped object, about 600 feet in diameter and 60 feet thick, slowly descends, basked in an iridescent, translucent light. The hum increases till the watchers clap their hands over their ears. Suddenly the noise ceases. The saucer has landed. As the crowd kneels, crossing themselves with the CURSE OF THE CRUX ("X"), the door opens and out steps a gigantic figure. The figure is bathed in a halo of light, and as it floats down to the ground from the door, TWO FINGERS can be seen raised, and with them the soft, droning, sonorous voice of the "CHRIST" is heard: ''PEACE be unto you!'' Those who dare raise their heads to look at the dreadful apparition are suddenly overcome with awe and reverence as they behold a figure fully ten-feet tall, a handsomely bearded face, majestic countenance, and two piercing eyes that attract like magnets those who look upon them. In this hush of holy amazement, the figure slowly and carefully makes the sign of the Cross given to Constantine and says, 'T have come back. 'Behold my hands and feet,' and see 'that it is I myself." And believing not yet for joy, the Biblerejecting, tradition -worshipping multitudes are thunderstruck to behold the ^^STIGMATA'' in the hands and feet of this ''god from heaven"! They fall down again! They pray! They cry! Thcx splutter the "Ihiil Mary'' and the ''Our Father^ \' Thcx tear tlu

6 1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 1 They twiddle their heads till the strings break! They scream with uncontrollable delight!! He has come! He has come! ^THE CHRIST IS HERE!!" Now take his mark. (Go on, sucker take it.) Not once did you have any attitude toward Bible prophecy but contempt and indifference. Not once did you or your forefathers have any regard for truth where it crossed tradition. Not once in 1,500 years did you or your ancestors have anything to say about real prophecy except, "Oh, that's just your interpretation." — All right, sucker, take the mark. There have been a hundred books written on prophecy in the last one hundred years, and none of them gave a passing salute to the infallible truth of the English Bible. While you wait for the Church, the United Nations, the Soviet Union, the National Council of Churches, or the Government to ''bring in the kingdom" with "brotherly love" and peace on earth "to men of good will" (RSV reading!), the events clearly fore- 1611 Authorized Version move right on to the predetermined end regardless of your attitude totold in the ward them, and they will continue to be fulfilled without your advice or consent. Go on; take the mark. Let him kiss you in the palm or the forehead. You always did believe in "the Christ" of Rome and never once believed in the Lord Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible. Go on; take it! Many of the details on the coming of this false Christ are still lying hidden in the word of God. Much study needs to be done in order that the world may receive a fair and full warning before the man shows show up he will! As surely as slush follows snow in the springtime, the Man of Sin is Coming. He has a name, a mark, a sigfi, and a number. There is up, but

7 THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 1 much that we do not know about him, but from our study of the Holy Scriptures which God has given us (in the form in which He intended us to have them the King James 1611 AV), we do know that: 1. His religion will be Roman Catholicism. — 2. His nationality will be Syrian-Jewish, through Ham. 3. His traditions and scriptures are from North Africa. 4. 5. He will profess to be Jesus Christ Himself. He will be in Rome 3^2 years as the ''Man of Sin." 6. He will be in Jerusalem Wi years as the ''Son of Perdition." 7. He will be an authority on science and outer space. 8. He will come peaceably, with a kiss for the whole world. 9. He will utilize African music for his "church services." 10. He will restore Baal worship, with sex-orgies as part of the service. 11. He will completely fool every Catholic and Liberal on the earth. 12. He will be connected with the numbers **6" and "13." 13. "The Cat/' and words derived from it, will identify his organization. 14. His favorite color is /?/c/c/c. He has a bad right arm and a bad right eye. 16. He will revive the ancient Roman empire. 17. He will befriend Israel and then turn on them 15. to wipe them out. 18. He will set himself up as GOD and demand sacrifice to himself. 19. His letter of identification is "X."

— I I ( 1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST S 20. He will heartily approve the Revised Version 885), the American Standard Version ( 1901 ), the Re- vised Standard Version (1952), and the next "New Bible'' shortly to be promoted by apostate Protestantism and Rome. Goodnight, dear reader, and sweet dreams. In Jesus Christ, you are headed for a glory of unsurpassing beauty and a home in heaven, beyond Alpha Draconis; and one of these days or nights the trumpet will sound "within your soul," and you "ain't got long to be here." To you, unsaved friend, let me simply say, and as simply and as childlike as I know how, read John 3:16, Romans 10:9, 10, and John 1:12, and take the Lord Jesus as your Saviour before the final curtain goes up on the last act, and his majesty the Devil appears. Return to the old-time religion. Forsake the path of God-forsaken Catholicism, and admit to God that science, art, religion, medicine, philosophy, literature, psychology, fame, travel, fortune, psychoso- matics, neurophysiology, nuclear physics, quadratic equations, integral calculus, analytic geometry, history, astronomy, electronics, finance, sports, publicity, drinks, amusements, organic chemistry, pleasures, business, hobbies, marriage, divorce, separation, houses, lands, and Rome have all failed to give you peace with God and absolute assurance of sinless cars, planes, babies, perfection at death. Come clean, my friend, and own up to your stubborn self-righteousness and take off your mask of religious humbuggery and come to Jesus AS A SINNER, trusting HIS righteousness to save you (Rom. 10:1-13). There is only one alternative: go your own way with your own religious belief, accuse the writer of propagating "hate literature," and then when your time comes and it will come, as surely as death and taxes take the mark. According to the infallible and final —

9 THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 1 1 authority which proves itself by making dogmatic state- ments on future events 1,000-4,000 years before they take place (no pope ever dared do that!), you will also accept God's damnation with it. "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge [science! !], and did not choose the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1:24-29). There are no other alternatives. All infinity and time and eternity are bound up in two responses: "Come, ye blessed" and "Depart ... ye cursed" (Matt. 25). And in the final act of the last drama, the superstitious theory of "all truth is relative" will be swept off the boards by the entrance of the Great Savior of the World, the Superman of Outer Space, the Great Lover of Mankind, the Bringer of Peace, the Arch Miracle-worker, the Vicar of Christ, the Uniter of all Religions, the Author and Finisher of Scientific Research, His Majesty THE DEVIL! "And all that dwell upon the earth shall wor- ship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear" (Rev. 13:8,9).

120 THE MARK OF THE BEAST dlNSPl RATION}) i THE GREATEST LOVER, ARTIST, POET, MUSICIAN, GENIUS, POPE, AND SCIENTIST OF ALL TIME! HIS MAJESTY - THE DEVIL a

EPILOGUE This work is obviously a clear attempt to predict future events with a degree of accuracy which Jean Dixon and Nostradamus would not care to undertake. The author's purpose in so doing is not to prove that he is a "prophet" or ''diviner" or a "seer," but merely to place in the open, publicly, in full view, the crowning evidence which proves the AV 1611 to be the infallible word of God. Thus far, scientific research, in the tradition of Darwin, Huxley, Russell, Dewey, James, Einstein, etc., has no sufficient answer to mathematical probabilities involved in such prediction. People often ask, "How do you know the Bible is the word of God?" or more naively, "Why aren't other religious 'scriptures' just as inspired?" This type of question is found among educated Americans who resent the Bible's authority, and strangely enough, they are asked with the credulous naivete of someone who actually thinks he is posing an intelligent question. No man who had done any research in "fulfilled prophecies" in the Bible would think of asking such a ridiculous question. The question is not merely ridiculous, but it shows an appalling amount of hypocrisy on the part of the men and women entrusted with teaching American youth. Surely the average educator knows that none of the ''sacred literature" of ANY religion dares make the predictions fcnind in the Old and New Testaments. Or do they'.' There is something strangely missing from the cdu-

1 THE MARK OF THE BEAST 24 cation of the average college graduate in America, and this little book is meant to fill the ''missing link." Its primary purpose is to place before the reader iht facts of truth, rejected by the Roman Catholic Church, resented by the National Council of Churches, ignored by the Protestants, and ridiculed by modern ''science." The purpose in presenting the facts is simply to call the reader's attention to the truth that ONE book is more scientific than any 400 books on "science," and the proof is in the pudding. If the events come to pass as stated herein (the first completed manuscript was in 1960), then all that our educated, religious intelligentsia can say is "good guess." If they do NOT come to pass as stated herein, then they can say, "See, I told you so." The author is not worried about the outcome, having thoroughly examined both sides of the coin before it was tossed. Often in the work, you will find random dates referred to ahead of the time of writing or printing. This is also done on purpose as the Bible is so definite on some things that there is no danger in adding 10100 years to the prediction without even bothering to think about it. In the final analysis, the mathematical probability of this book "panning out" in history is about 10 to the 91st power. No scientist would think of taking those odds on anything he ever said, thought, wrote, or experimented. So the author rests smugly and sweetly on the thought that no matter who says what, if the train comes in on time, it will be a mathematical scientific proof demonstrable by the inductive method, that the 1611 AV is not to be classed with such trite and unrealistic philosophies as those propounded by the world's other 300,000,000 books. Give it time. It will prove itself.

Dr. Ruckman's message The Mark of the Beast is an extensive study of the Antichrist, including his name, mark, number, letter, religion, race, and physical characteristics. As you will find, this information, although from sources dating back to 1520 B.C., is very current with today's events. Dr. Peter S. Ruckman B.A., B.D., M.A.,Th.M., Ph.D. THe: ZOM OF o. coii^c^oeNces VOX X SAX SEX P HEX- AX- PAX -TAX JAX BOX OX EX FOX -CRUX- DUX ? SIX -SPHINX- FELIX LYNX LAX FLUX STYX REX HOAX JINX -EX-MASS EXXON -LUX- MIX XXXXXX - - - I - - - - - - - XEROX - FIX OF S/N 5 to M It. n NUMBER: 666 MARK: BLACK SPOT SIGN: A KISS LETTER: X RACE: MOABITE FROM SYRIA NAME: JUDAS HAIL HEIL HOLY HOLLY WHOLE HALLOW HELLO HEAL HEALTH HALO HOLIC ISCARIOT RELIGION: CATho lie r WHITE HORSE KING -PRINCE GOD -LIGHT BRIDE -CITY ANGEL SCRIPTURE LION -SERPENT MESSIAH ANOINTED HANGS -42 MONTHS Pf/? 7 4 ABOUT THE COVER: This sinister looking painting is one of a collection of 208 oil and ISBN 1-58026-245-7 acrylic paintings that chronologically illustrate the Book of Revelation. The complete set is available in a single, hardbound vol- ume titled Ruckman's Apocalypse. 781580 262453 RK-2425