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 Those who refuse to accept the mark of the wild beast have had constant problems. Starting in the 1930's, for example, they to fight many court battles and endure violent mobbings  and other persecutions. In the totalitarian countries, they were thrown into concentration camps, where many died.  Since the second world war, countless young men have suffered lenghty imprisonments, some even being tortured and killed, because of their refusal to compromise  their Christian neutrality.  In other lands Christians are literally  unable to buy or sell; some are unable to own property, others are raped, murdered, or chased from their native land. Why? Because in good conscience they refuse to buy a potitical part card.- JOHN 17:16.

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What does it mean to be marked on the forehead or in the right hand with the name of the wild beast?  When Jehovah gave Israel the Law he told them: "You must apply these words of mine to your heart and your soul and bind them as a sign  upon your hand, they must serve as a frontlet band between your eyes." (Deuteronomy 11:18) This meant that the Israelites  had to keep that Law constantly before them, so that it influenced all their actions and thoughts.  The 144,000 anointed ones are said to have the Father's name and that of Jesus written on their foreheads.  This identifies them as belonging to Jehovah  God and Jesus Christ. (Revelation  14:1)  In imitation,  Satan uses the demonic mark of the wild beast.  Anybody engaged in everyday activities such as buying ad selling is pressured to do things the way the wild beast does, as for example, in celebrating holidays.  They are expected to worship the wild beast, letting it rule their lives so as to receive its mark.

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 A name identifies a person. So how does this number identify the the beast? John says that It" is a man's number," not that of a spirit person, so the name helps to confirm  that the wild beast is earthly, symoblizing human government. Just as the six fails to measure up to seven, so 666-six to the thired degree-is fitting name for the world's gigantic  political system that fails so miserably to measure up to God's standard of perfection. The world's political wild beast rules  supreme under the name 666, while big politics, big religion, and big business keep that wild beast functioning as an oppressor of mankind and a persecutor of God's people.

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 The wild beast has a name, and this name is number 666, Six, as a number, is associated with Jehovah's enemies. A Philistine man of the Rephaim was of extraordinary size," and his "fingers and toes were in sixes." (1 Chronicles 20:6) King Nebuchadnezzar erects a golden image 6 cubits in breadth and 60 cubits high, to unify his political officials in one worship.  When God's servants refused to worship the image of gold, the king had them thrown into a fiery furnace. (Daniel 3:1-23) The number six falls short of seven, which stands for completeness from God's standpoint. Therefore, a triple six represents gross imperfection.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - The Mark of the Wild Beast

John now sees how Satan maneuvers the political parts of his visible organization to cause the maximum suffering for the remaining ones of the seed of God's woman.  (Genesis 3:15) He returns to describing "the wild beast" itself: "And it puts under compulsion all persons the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves they they should give these a mark on their right hand or forehead, and that nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person  having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name.  Here is where the wisdom comes in: Let the one who has intelligence calculate the number; and its number is six hundred and sixty-six." - REVELATION 13:16-18. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - The Image of the Wild Beast - Conclusion

 Since World War II,  the image of the wild beast-now manifested as the Unted Nations organization-has already killed in a literal way, for example. in 1950 a UN force took the field in the war between North Korea and South Korea. The UN force, along with the South Koreans, killed an estimated 1,420,000 North Koreans and Chinese. Similarly, from 1960 to 1964, United Nations armies were active in the Congo (now Zaire). Moreover, world leadlers, including popes Paul VI and John Paul II, have continued to affirm that this image is man's last and best  hope for peace.  If mankind fails to serve it, they insist the human race  will destroy itself. They thus figuratively cause to be killed all humans who refuse to go along with the image and worship it. - Compare DEUTERONOMY 5:8. 9. 

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 The outworking of history identifies tis image as the organization proposed, promoted, and supported by Britain and the United States and known initially as the League of Nations. Later in Revelation chapter 17, it will appear under  a different symbol, that of a living, breathing scarlet-colored wild beast havign an independent existenc.  This international body "speaks " in that it makes boastful claims to be the only one to bring peace and security to mankind.  But reality it has become a forum for member nations to exchange verbal tirades and insults. It has threatened with ostracism, or a living death, any nation or people that does not bow down  to its authority. It has actually expelled nations that fail to abice by its ideologies. At the onset of the great tribulation, militaristic  "horns" of this image of the wild beast  will fulfill its devastating role. - REVELATION 7;14; 17:8, 16. 

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 What is this "image of the wild beast," and what is its purpose?  The purpose is to promote the worship of the seven-headed wild beast of which is an image and thus, in effect, to perpetuate the existence of the wild beast. This image is contructed after the seven-headed wild beast revives from its sword stroke, that is, after the end of the first world war. It is no lifeless  statue,  such as Nebuchadnezzar  the planes of Dura. (Daniel 3:1)  The two-horned wild beast breathes life into this image so that the  image can live and play a role in world history.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - The Image of the Wild Beast

 Is this wild beast as innocent as its lamblike horns indicate? John goes on to say:"And it misleads thsoe who dwell on the earth, because of the signs that were granted it  to perform in the sight of the wild beast, while it tells those who who dwell on the earth to make an image to the wild beast that had a sword-stroke and yet revivied.  And there was granted to it to give breath to the image of the wild beast, so that the image of the wild beast should both speak and cause to be killed all those who would not in any way worship the image of the wild beast." - REVELATION 13:14, 15.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND !/Chapter Twenty Eight - The Two-Horned Wild Beast - Conclusion

 This two-horned wild beast performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven.  (Compare Matthew  7:21-23) This latter sign reminds us of Elijah, the ancient prophet of God who engaged in a contest with the prophet of Baal.  When he successfully called down fire from heaven in the name of Jehovah, it proved beyond doubt that he was a true prophet and that the Baal prophets were false.  ( 1 Kings18:21-40)  Like those Baal  prophets, the two-horned wilsd beast feels that it has adequate credentials ad sa prophet. (Compare Revelation 13:14, 15; 19:20)  Why, it claims ti have vanquished the forces of evil in two world wars, and now it stans firm against so-called godless communism!  Many, indeed, view the modern counterpart  of the two-horned wild beast as a guardian of liberty and a font of material good things.

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REVELATION IT GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - The Two-Horned Wild Beast

What can it be?  The Anglo-American World Power-the same s the seventh head of the first wild beast but in a special role!  Isolating it in the vision as a separate wild beast helps us to see more clearly how it acts independently on the world stage. This figurative two-horned wild beast  is made up  of two co-existing, independent, but cooperating political powers.  Its two horns "like a lamb" suggests that it makes itself out  to be mild and inoffensive, with an enlightened form of government to which all the world shoud turn.  But it speaks "as a dragon" in that it uses pressure  and threats and even outright violence  wherever its version of rulership is not accepted. It has not encouraged submission to God's Kingdom under the rule of the Lamb of God but, to the interests of Satan, the great dragon.  It  has promited nationalistic divisions and hatreds that add up to worshiping the first wild beast. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Two-Horned Wild Beast

 But now another wild beast comes onto the world scene.  John reports: "And I saw another wild beast ascending out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, but it began speaking as a dragon.  And it exercises all the authority of the first wild beast in its sight. And it makes the earth and those who dwell in it worship the first wild beast, whose death-stroke got healed. And iti performs great signs, so that it should make fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the sight of mankind." (Revelation 13:11-13) This wild beast has two horns, indicating a partnership of two political powers.  And it is described  as coming out of the earth, not out of the sea.  Thus, it comes out of Satan's already established earthly system of things.  It must be a world power, already existing, that takes on a significant role during the Lord's day. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Conclusion

 John now calls  upon those with discernment to listen  very carefully: "If anyone has an ear, let him hear." Then he goes to say:"If anyone is mean for captivity,  he goes away  into captivity. If anyone will kill with the sword, he must dies be killed with the sword. Here is where it means the endurance and faith of the holy ones." (Revelation 13:9, 10) Jeremiah wrote words quite similar to these in the years preceding 607 B.C.E., to show that there was no turning back of Jehovah's judgments for the unfairthful city of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 15:2; see also Jeremiah 43:11; Zechariah 11:9.)  In his time of great trial, Jesus made it plain that  his followers must not compromise when he said:  "All those who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) Similarly, now in the Lord's day God's people must hold on fast to Bible principles. There will be no final escape for unrepentant ones who worship the wild beast. All of us will need endurance, along with unshakable faith, in order to survive the persecutions and trials that lie ahead. - HEBREWS 10:36-39; 11:6.

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 This seemed like a victory for Satan and his organization.  But it could bring them no long-term benefits, since no one in Satan's visible organization had his name written in "the scroll of life of the Lamb."  Figuratively, this scroll contains the names of those who will rule with Jesus in his heavenly Kingdom.  The first names were written  in it at Pentecost 33 C.E.  And in the years since then, more and more names have been added. Since 1918, the sealing of the remaining ones of the 144,000 Kingdom  heirs has been proceeding to completion.  Soon the names of all of them will be written indelibly in the Lamb's scroll of life. As for the opposers who worship the wild beast, not one of these will have his name written in that scroll.  So any apparent victory these may have over "the holy ones " is an empty one,  merely temporary.

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 The 42 months mentioned here appear to be the same as the three and a half years during which the holy ones are harassed by a horn arising from one of the beasts in Daniel's prophesy.  (Daniel 7:23-25; see also Revelation 11:1-4.) Thus, from the latter part of 1914 on into 1918, while the warring nations were literally tearing at one another like wild beasts, citizens of those nations were pressured to worship the wild beast, to indulge in the religion of nationalism, even to be ready to die for their country.  Such pressure led to intense suffering on the part of many of the anointed ones, who felt that their higher obedience belonged to Jehovah God and his Son, Christ Jesus. (Acts 5:29)   Their trials came to a climax in May 1918, when they were 'conquered.'  In the United States, prominent officers and other representatives of the Watch Tower Society were wrongly imprisoned, and the organized preaching by their Christian brothers was greatly hindered.  Having authority "over every tribe and people and tongue and nations," the wild beast clamped down on God's work worldwide.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - Waging War Against the Holy Ones

 The wily Satan had plans for manipulating the wild beast to his own ends. John explains this: "And a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies were given it [the seventh headed beast]and authority to act forty-two months  was given it.  And it opened its mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme this name and his residence, even those residing in heaven.  And there was granted it to wage war with the holy ones and conquer   them, and authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all those who dwell on the earth will worship it; the name of not one of htem stands written in the scroll of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered, from the founding of the world." - REVELATION 13:5-8.

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REVELATIONS ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight -The Death Stroke - Conclusion

 Worship in what sense? In the sense of putting love of country ahead of love of God. Most people love the land of their birth. As good citizens, true Christias also respect the rulers and the emblems of the country where they reside, obey the laws, and make a positive contribution  to the welfare of their community and their neighbors. (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17) They cannot, however, give blind devotion to one country as against all others.  "Our country, right or wrong" is not a Christian teaching.  So Christians who worship Jehovah God cannot share in giving prideful patriotic worship to any part of the wild beast, for this would amount to worshiping the dragon-the source of authority of the beast.  They cannot ask admiringly: "Who is like the wild beast?"  Rather, they follow the example of Michael- his name meaning "Who is like God?"- as they up Jehovah's universal sovereignty. At God's appointed time, this Michae, Christ Jesus, will do battle with  the wild beast and conquer it, even as he triumphed in expelling Satan from heaven. - REVELATION 12:7-9; 19:11, 19-21.

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 Mankind has even gone beyond admiring the wild beast, as John next states:  "And they worshiped the dragon because it gave the authority to the wild beast, and they worshiped the wild beast with words: 'who is like the wild beast, and who can do battle with  it?'" (Revelation 13:4) While Jesus was here on earth, Satan claimed to have authority over all the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus did not dispute this; in fact, he himself referred  to Satan as the ruler of the world and refused to participat in the politics of that day.  John later wrote of true Christians:  "We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." (1 John 5:19; Luke 4:5-8; John 6:15; 14:30)  Satan delegates authority to the wild beast, and he does this on a nationalistic basis. Thus, instead of being united in bonds of godly love, mankind has become  divided by pride of tribe, race, and nation. The majority of people  worship in effect, that part of the wild beast having authority in the land where to happen to live. Thus the whole beasts gains admiration in worship.

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 Historian Charles L. Mee Jr., writes: "The collapse of the odd order [caused by the first world war] was a necessary prelude  to the spread of self-rule, the liberation of new nations aand classes, the release of new freedom and independence." Leading  in the developmet of this postwar era was the seventh head of the wild beast, now healed, and with the United States of America moving into the dominant role. The dual world power took the lead in advocating both the League of Nations. By the 1980's, U.S. npoloticalpower had led the more porivileged nations in creating a higher standard of living, in fughinfg sisease, an d in advancing technology.  It ha even placed 12 men on the moon. It is no wonder, therefore, that mankind in general has fiollowed the wild beast with admiration." 

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 At the same time, the Great War, as it was then called, opened the way for the United States to emerge disetinctly  as part of the Anglo-American World Power.  For the first years if the warm public opinionkept the United States out of the conflict. But as the historian Esme' Wingfield-Strateford wrote: " It was all a question of whether, at this hour of supreme crisis, Britain and the United States would sink their differences in the realization of [their]overmastering unity and common trusteeship."  As events  turned out, they did. In 1917 the United States contributed her resources and manpower to bolster the seventh head, combuining Britain and the United States came out on the winning side. 

The world after the war was vastly different. Satan's earthly system. althoug devastated by the death stroke, revived and became more powerful than ever and so won the admiration of humans because of its recuperative power.

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 For the dominant seventh head of the beast, that war was a major disaster. Along with other European nations, Britain list its young men in traumatic numbers. In one battle alone, the Battle of the River Somme in 1916m 420,000  British solidiers died, along with 200,000 French aaand 450,000 German-more than 1,000,000 fatalities!  Economically. too,  Britain-together with the rest of Europe-was shattered! The huge British Empire staggered under the blow and never fully recovered.  Indeed, that war, with 28 leading nations participating, sent the entire world reeling as if by a deathblow.  On August 4, 1979, just 65 years after the outbreak of World War I, the Economist of London, England, commented which it has not mangage to recapture since." 

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 What was the death stroke? Later, it is called a sword stroke, and a sword is a symbol of warfare.  This sworod stroke administered early in the Lord's day, must  relate to the first world war, which devastated  and drained Satan's political wild beast.  (Revelation 6:4, 8; 13:14) Author Maurice Genevoix who was a military officer during that warm said of it:  "Everyone agrees ub recognizing that in the whole history of mankind, few dates have had the importance of August 2, 1914.  First Europe and soon after almost all humanity found themselves plunged into a dreadful event.  Conventions, agreements, moral laws , all the foundations shook; from one day to the next, everythin was called into question.  The even was to exceed both  instinctive forebodings and reasonable anticipations. Enormous, chaotic, monstrous, it still drags us in its wake.--Maurice Genevoix, member of the Acadeie Francaise, quoted in the book Promise of Greatness. (1968) . 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - The Death Stroke

 Early in the Lord's day, calamity strikes the wild beast. John reports: "And I saw one of its heads as though slaughtered to death, but its death-stroke  got healed, and all the earth  followed the wild beast  with admiration." (Revelation 13:3) This verse says that one head of the wild beast received a death stroke, but verse 12 speaks as though the entie beast suffered. Why is that? Well, the beast's heads are not all in ascendsncy together. Each in its turn has lorded it over mankind particularly over God's people. (Revelation  17:10)  Thus, as the Lord's day begins, there is only one head, the seventh, acting as the dominant world power. A death stroke on that head brings great distress to the entire wil beast. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Conclusion

 The wild beast comes out of "the sea," which is a fitting symbol of the turbulent masses from which human government springs. (Isaiah 17:12, 13) This wild beast began to emerge   out of the sea of turbulen humanity away back in the days of  Nimrod  (about the 21st century B.C.E.), when a post flood system of thigns, opposed to Jehovah, first manifested itself. (Genesis 10:8-12;  11:1-9) But only  during the Lord's day has the last one  of its seven heads has fully manifested itself.  Notice, too, it is the dragon that "gave  to the beast its power and its throne and great authority." (Compare Luke 4:6) The beast is Satan's political creation among the masses of mankind. Satan is truly  "the ruler of this world." - JOHN 12:21. 

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The wild beast has  "upon its heads blasphemous names," making claims for itself that show great disrespect for God and Christ Jesus. It has used the names of God and Christ  as a sham to achieve its political ends; and it has played along with false religion, even allowing the clergy to take part in its political processes. For example, the House of Lords in England includes the bishops.  Catholic cardinals have played  prominent political roles in France and Italy, and more recently, priests have taken political office in Latin America. Governments print religious  slogans such as "IN GOD WE TRUST," on their bank notes and on their coins they claim divine approval for their rulers, stating, for example, that these are appointed  "by the grace of God."  All of this is actually blasphemous, for it attempts to involve God  in the sullied nationalistic political arena.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty EIght - Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Continue

 The wild beast has ten horns on its seven heads. Perhaps four heads had one horn each and three heads two horns each.  Moreover,  it had ten diadems or its  horns.  In the book of Daniel, fearsome beasts are described, and the numbering of their horns  is to interpreted literally. For example,  the two horns on a ram represented a world empire made up of two partners, Media and Persia, while the four horns on  goat represented  the four coexisting empires that grew out of Alexander the Great's Greek  empire. (Daniel 8:3, 8, 20-22)  On the beast that John saw, however, the numbering of the ten horns  appears to be symbolic. (Compare Daniel 7:24; Revelation 17:12)  They represent the completeness of sovereign states making up  entire political organization of Satan.  All these horns are violent and aggressive, but as indicated by the seven heads, headship, resides to only  one wold power at a time.  Similarly,  the ten diadems indicate that all  sovereign states wold exercise ruling power simutaneously  with the domiant state, or world power, of that time. 

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Moreover, why should anyone object to the Bible's saying  that it is Satan who gives the wild beast its great authority?  God is the Source of  that statement, and before him 'the nations are as drop from the bucket and as  a film of dust.'  Those nations would do better to court God's favor than to take offense at the way his prophetic  Word describes them.  (Isaiah  40:15, 17; Psalm 2:10-12)  Satan is no mythical person assigned to tormeting  departed souls in a fiery hell. No such place exists.  Rather, Satan is described in Scripture as "an angel of light" a master of deception who exercises powerful influence in general politcal affairs. - 2 CORINTHIANS 11:3, 14, 15; EPHESIANS 6:11-18.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twentu Eight - Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Continue

 Is it not shocking to identify the ruling political system with a wild beast? That is what some opposers claimed during World War II, when the status of  Jehovah's Witnesses , as an organization  and as individuals, was being challenged  in law courts around the earth.  But stop and think!  Do not the nations themselves  adopt beasts  or wild creatures as their national symbols?  For example, there are the British lion, the American eagle, the chinsese dragon, and the Russian bear. So why should anyone object if the divine Author of the Holy Bible also uses beasts to symbolize world powers? 

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 By the end of the first century C.E., however, many in this early congregation had fallen away from the truth, and the true Christan  wheat, "the sons of the kingdom," had been largely choked out by weeds, "the sons of the wicked one."  But when the conclusion of the system of things arrived, anointed Christians again appeared as an organized group.  During the Lord's day, the righteous ones were due to "shine as brightly as the sun."  Hence the Christian congregation was organized for work. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)   By then, the Roman Empire, along with  the powerful  United States of America, had the center world stage.  This dual world power proved to be the seventh head of the wild beast.

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 True, there have been other world powers in history besides the seven-just as the wild beast John saw was made up of a bod as well as of seven heads and ten horns. But the seven heads represent  the seven major powers that have, each in its turn, taken the lead in oppressing God's people. In 33 C.E., while Rome  was ascendant, Satan used that head of the wild beast to kill the Son of God. At that time, God abandoned the faithless Jewish system of things and later in 70 C.E., allow Rome to execute his judgment on that nation.  Happily, the true Israel of God, the congregation of anointed Christians, had been forewarned, and those in Jerusalem and Judea had fled to safety beyon the Jordan River. - MATTHEW 24:15, 16; GALATIANS 6:16. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty EIght - Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Continue

 It is clear, therefore, that the Author of the inspired Bible regards the political powers of the earth as beasts. What kind of beasts?  One commentator calls the wild beast of Revelation  13:1, 2 a "brute," and adds:  "We accept  al the connotatioons that Onpiov [the-ro'on, the Greek wor for "beast"] conveys, suchas that of cruel, destructive, frightful, ravenous, etc., monster." How well that describes the bloostained political system by which Satan  had dominated mankind! The seven heads of this wild beast stand for six major world powers featured in Bible history up to John's day-Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome and a seventh world power  prophesied to appear later. - Compare REVELATION 17:9, 10.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight -Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Continue

 In another vision, Daniel sees a two-horned ram that is struck down by a goat with a great horn. The angel Gabriel explains to him what it means: "The ram . . . stands for the kings of Media and Persia. And the hairy he-goat stands for the king of Greece."  Gabriel goes on to prophesy that the great horn of the he-goat  would be broken and be succeeded by  four horns. This actually happened more than 200 years later when Alexander the Great died and his kingdom ruled over by four of his generals. - DANIEL 8:3-8, 20-25. 

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 What is this freakish beast? The Bible itself gives the answer.  Before the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.E., the Jewish prophet Daniel saw visions involving ferocious beasts.  At Daniel 7:2-8 he describs four beasts coming  out of the sea, the first resembling a lion, the second a bear, the third a leopard, and "see there! a fourth beast, fearsome  and terrible and unusually strong . . . and it had ten  horns."  This is remarkably similar to the wild beast  seen by John about the year 96 C.E. That beast also has the characteristics of a lion, a bear, a leopard. and it has ten horns.  What is the identity of the huge beasts seen by Daniel?  He informs us: "These huges beasts . . . are four kings that will stand up from the earth." (Daniel 7:17) Yes, those beasts represent  "kings," or political powers of the earth.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts

 No longer are the holy hevens afflicted by the presence of Satan and his demons.  Those wicked spirits have been ousted froj heaven and confinced to the vicinity of the earth. This no doubt accounts for the  tremendous growth of spiritistic practices in this 20th cntury.  The wily Serpent still maintains a corrupt spiritual organization. But does he also use a visible organization to mislead mankind? John tells us: "And I saw a wild beast ascnding out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, but upon its heads blasphemous names. Now the wild beast that I saw was like leopard, but its feet were as thos of a bear, and its mouth was as a lion's mouth. And the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne an d its authority." - REVELATION 13:1b, 2.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Eight - Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts

 The great dragon has been cast down to earth!  Our study of Revelation makes it clear that never again will the originals Serpent or his demon followers be allowed back into heaven.  But we are not yet finished with "the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleadign the entire inhabited earth." The account next identifies in greater detail the means used by Satan to fight against 'the woman and her seed.' (Revelation 12:9, 17)  John says  of that serpentine dragon: "And it stood still upon the sand of the sea." (Revelation 13:1a) So let  us pause to examine the dragon's means of operation.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A New Nation - Conclusion

 In this way, the earth has provided sufficient relief to allow God's work to spread to more than 200 lands and produce over three million faithful preachers of the good news. Along with the remaining ones of the woman's  seed, a great international crowd of new believers is observing the commandments of God as to separateness from the world, clean morals, and love of the brothers, and they are witnessing to the Messianic Kingdom.  Their integrity answers Satan's  reproachful challenge, so that the death knell is sounded for Satan and his system of things. - PROVERBS 27:11.

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 Relief arrived  from an unexpected source: 'But the earth cam to the woman's help, and the earth opened up its mouth  and swallowed up the river that the dragon disgorged  from its mouth.   And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe  the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus." (Revelation 12:16, 17) "The earth'-elements within Satan's  own system of things-began to swallow up "the river," or "flood." During the 1940's the Witnesses gather a series of favorable decisions in the United States SupremeCourt, and from ruling power in some other lands, that upheld  freedom of worship. Finally, the Allied nations swalled up the Nazi-Facist juggernaut, to the relief of the Witneses who had suffered  under cruel dictatorships.  Persecutions did not stop altogether, for the wrath  of the dragon has contamnated  until today, and he keeps up the war against those who "have the work of bearing witness to Jesus."  In many lands, loyal Witnesses are still in prison, and some die because of their integrity. But in some of these lands the authorities from time to time relax their pressure and the Witnesses  enjoy a great measure of freedom. Thus in fulfillment of the prophecy, the earth continues to swallow up the river of persecution.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A New Nation -Cotinue

 This vicious flood of persecution  reached a high point during World War II.  In Europe some ten thousand Witnesses were incarcerated  in Nazi concentration camps, and thousands died.  Under the warlords that ruled Italy, Japan, ad Taiwan, faithful Witnesses suffered similar cruel treatment. Even in so-called democratic lands, the Witnesses were assaulted by Catholic Action groups, tarred and feathered, and run out of town. Christian assemblis were broken up and Witnesse children were expelled from school. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND VLOMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A New Nation - Continue

 The dragon did not give up!  "And the serpent disgorgedd water like a river from its mouth after the woman, to cause her to be drowned by the river." (Revelation 12:15) What is meant by "water like a river," or "a flood of water"? (The New English Bible)  Ancient King David spoke of the wicked mean who  opposeedd hin as "flash floods of good-for-nothing men"  [streams of worthless, " Young].  (Psalm 18:4, 5, 16, 17 ) What Satan now unleashes is likewise persecution by worthless or "good-for-nothing men." After 1922 Satan spewed out a flood of persecution against the Witnesses. (Matthew 24:9-13) This came to include physical violence, "framing trouble by decree," imprisonments, and even executions by hanging, shooting, and beheading. (Psalm 94:20) The debased Satan, having been denied direct access to God's  heavenly woman, set out wrathfully to attack her remaining seed on earth and to destroy them, either directly or by causing them to lose God's favor through breaking their integrity. But their resolve proved to be like that  of Job: "Until I expire I shall not take away my integrity from myself!" -  JOB 27:5.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A New Nation - Continue

How long did this respite for the seed of the woman last? Revelation 12:6says 1,260 days. Revelation 12:14 calls the period a time, times abnd a half time, in other words, three and a half times. In fact, both expressions atand for three and a half years, extending on the Northern Hemisophere from the spring of 1919 to the autumn of 1922. This was a period of refreshing  recuperation and ereorganization for the restored John class.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A New Nation - Continue

 In the wilderness, Jehovah brought forth the Israelites as a nation, providing for them spiritually and physically. Similarly, starting in 1919, Jehovah brought forth  the seed of the woman as a spiritual nation. This is not to be confused with the Messianic Kingdom that has been ruling from the heavens since 1914. Rather, this new nation is made up of the remnant of anointed  witnesses on earth, who were brought into a glorious spiritual  eastate in 1919.  Being provided now with "their measure of food supplies at the proper time," these were strenghtened for the work that lay ahead. -LUKE12:42; ISAIAH 66:8. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A New Nation

 While the first world war was being fought, Jesus' brothers faithfully kept on with their witnessing to the extent possible. This was done in the face of intensified oppostion from Satan and his vicious henchmen. Finally, the Bible Students' public witnessing was  virtually stopped. (Revelation 11:7-10) That was hwen they had an experience quite similar to that  of the Israelits in Egypt who also endured under great oppression.  It was then that Jehovah brought them swiftly, as if on the wings of eagles, to safety in the desert of Sinai.(Exodus 19:1-4)  Likewise, after the bitter persecution  of 1918-1919, Jehovah delivered his witnesses, as representing his woman, into a spiritual situation that was as safe for them as the desert was for the Israelites. This came as an answer to their prayers. -Compare PSALM 55:6-9. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A Riveal Woe! -Conclusion

 Here the vision picks up the thought introduced in verse 6, which tells us that after the birth of her child, the woman flees  into the wildernerss, away from the dragon. We may wonder how the dragon can persecute the woman since she is in  heaven, and the dragon has now been cast down to earth. Well, remember that the woman has children here on earth, her seed. Later in this vision, we are informed that Satan expresses his rage toward the woman by persecuting her seed. (Revelation 12:17) What happens to the woman's seed herebon earth may be regarded as happening to the woman herself. (Compare Matthew 25:40)   And the growing number of companions of the seed here on earth  would also experience these persecutions.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A Rival Woe! -Continue

 Since Satan's catastrophic ouster, Christ's brothers  still on earth have borne the brunt of his wrath.  John reports:"Now when the dragon ssw that it was hurled dow to the earth, it persecuted the woman that gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and a  half a time away from the face of the serpent." - REVELATION 12:13, 14.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A Rival Woe!

 Chafing because of the third woe, Satan is now intent on afflicking mankind with his own particular brad of woe. It is: "Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time." (Revelation 12:12b) Satan's ouster from heaven does indeed mean woe for the literal earth, which is being ruined by selfish humans under his control. (Deuteronomy 32:5) Even more so, Satan's policy of 'ruin or rule' brings woe to the symbolic earth, the structure of human society, as well as the symbolicsea,, the turulent mass of mankind itself.  During  the two world wars, Satan's wrath was reflected  in the wrath of the nations subject to him, and similar explosions of demonic rage continue to this datyothough not for much longer!  (Mark 13:7, 8) But terrible as the Devil's may be, they will never approach  the woeful effect hat the third woe-action by God's Kingdom-will produce on Satan's visible otganization!

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - "Be Glad, You Heavens" -Conclusion

 Anointed Christians who are counted righteous  "because of the blood of the Lamp," are continuing to bear witness to God ad to Jesus Christ despite persecutions.  For more han a hundred years, this John class has been pointing to  the great issues involved with  the ending of the Gentile Times in 1914.  (Luke 21:24. King James Version) And the great crowd are now serving  loyally by their side. None of these are "fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." as real-life experiences of Jehovah's Witnesses have demonstrated over and over again during  this 20th century. By word of mouth and by proper Christians conduct, they have conquered Satan, consistently proving him to be a  liar.  (Matthew 10:28; Proverbs 27:11; Revelation 7:9) On being resurrected to heaven how happy anointed Christians must be, since Satan is no longer up there to accuse their brothers! It is time, indeed, for all the angelic host to respond joyously to the call.  "Be glad,  you heavens and  you who reside in them!"

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - "Be Glad, You Heavens"

 The finishing of the sacred secret of God calls for Jesus to take authority in Jehovah's  Kingdom.  The way is thus opened for God to carry out his great purpose  to deliver faithful mankind. Jesus brings salvation not only to his God fearing disciples now on earth but also the countless millions of dead ones who are in God's memory.  (Luke 21:27, 28) Satan's being called  "the accuser of our brothers" shows that, even though his accusations against Job were false, he kept right on challengig the integrity  of God's earthly servants.  Evidently, he repeated on many occasions the charge that a man will give all he has in exchange for his soul.   How dismally Satan has failed! - JOB 1:9-11; 2:4, 5.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - "Be Glad, You Heavens"

 Whose voice is it that John hears? The Bible does not say: But a similar cry reported at Revelation 11:17 came from the resurrected 24 elders  in their heavenly positions, where they can now represent  the 144,000 holy ones.  (Revelation  11:18)  And since the persecuted anointed servants of God still on earth are here spoken of as  "our brothers," this statement could well come from the same source. No doubt these faithful ones can join their voice, since their resurrection would follow soon after Satan and his demon hordes had been thrown out of heaven. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - "Be Glad, You Heavens"

 John reports a joyous heavenly reaction to this stupendous fall of Satan: "And I heard a loud voice in heaven say: 'Now I have come to pass the salvation  and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!  And they conquered hin because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death.  On this account be glad, you heavens and you who resise in them.' " - REVELATION 12:10-12a.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/ Chapter Twenty Seven - War in Heaven! -Conclusion

 These and other Scriptures lead us to the inescapable conclusion that Michael is not one else but the Lord Jesus Christ in his heavenly position.  Now, in the Lord's day, he no longer merely says to Satan: "May Jehovah rebuke  you." Since this is a time  of judging, Jesus, as Michael hurls the wicked Satan  and his demonic angels down from heaven. (Jude 9; Revelation 1:10) It is the most fitting that He should be the One to do this,as He is the newly installed King. Jesus is also the Seed, promised back in Eden, who still ultimately crust the head of that original serpent, thus putting him out of existence  for all time. (Genesis 3:15) By ejecting Satan from heaven, Jesus has moved toward that final crushing. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - War in Heaven! -Continue

Who accomplish this great victory in Jehovah's name? The Bible says it Michael and his angels. But who is Michael? The name "MIchael"means" "Who is like God? So Michael must be interested in vindicating Jehovah's sovereignty by proving that no one is to be compared to Him.   In Jude verse 9,  he is called "Michael the archangel." Interestingly  the title "archangel" is used elsewhere in the Bible wyh reference to only one person: Jesus Christ. Paul says of him: The Lord himself will sescend from heaven eith a commanding call, with an archangel's voice and with God's trumpet." (1 Thessalonians 4:16)  The title "archangel" means "chief of the angels." So it is not surprising that Revelation speaks of "Michael and his angels." Other places where the Bible mentions angels subject to a righteous servant of God have reference to Jesus. Thus, Paul speaks of  "the revelation of the 

lord Jesus from Heaven with his powerful  angels."- 2 THESSALONIANS 1:7; see also MATTHEW 24:30, 31; 25:31.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - War in Heaven!

 John tells us:  "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon  and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was there a place foud for them any longer in heaven. So down the great serpent was hurled, the origninqal serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleadign  the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him." (Revelation 12:7-9)  So as a dramatic development in bringing the sacred secret of God to a finish, Satan is ejected, pitched out of heaven, and his demons are cast down with him. The  one who had misled the inhabited earth to the extent of becoming its God is finally restricted to the vicinity  of this planet, whre his rbellionvfirst began. - 2 CORINTHIANS 4:3, 4.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A Son, A Male - Conclusion

 Never would Jehovah permit Satan to devour His wife or His newborn son?  At birth, the male child is  "caught away  to God and to his throne." He thus comes completely udner the protection of Jehovah, who will take the fullest care of his newborn Kingdom.  HIs instrument for sanctifying His holy  name.  At the same time, the woman flees to a place  that God has prepared for her in the wilderness.  More details on that later!  As for Satan, the stage is now set for a momentous event that will make it utterly impossible for him ever againt threaten the Kingdom in heaven. What is that event? 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty Seven - A Son, A Male - Continue

 Now, does that expression sound familiar?  Yes, Jehovah promised prophetically regarding Jesus:"You  will break them wiht an iron scepter, as though a potter's vessel you will dash them to pieces." (Psalm 2:9) It was also prophesied regarding him: "The rod of your strength Jehovah will send out of Zion, saying:  'Go subduing  in the midst of your enemies.' " (Psalm 110:2) Therefore, the birth seen by  John closely involves Jesus Christ.  No, it is not Jesus' being born of a virgin back before the first century of our Common Era: nor could it refer to Jesus' being raised again  to spirit life in 33 C.E.  Furthermore, it is to transmigration. Rather, it is te birth of God's Kingdom in 19914 as  a reality, with  Jesus -already in heaven for close to 19 centuries -now enthroned as King. - REVELATION  12:10.

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