Forboding Statues, the Image of the Beast?

Would not have expected to write a post about these statues but it seems perhaps I'm supposed to because I got such a bombardment of information about statues in a short time. Funny how that happens.

Jan Markell has mentioned that there are a number of very large statues positioned in various parts of the world that have the ability to appear as any particular person. I haven't paid a lot of attention to this so I'm afraid I can't tell you where they are or 'anything about the technology involved, or who put them up or anything. If I hear more I'll report more. She connects these statues with the Image of the Beast in Revelation 13 that the world will be required to worship or be killed. It's an interesting connection of course, definitely something to consider for those who will be going through the Tribulation period. It makes that seven-year people seed a lot closer too, that such statues are in existence.

As for my flurry of encounters with statues recently, first one of the videos of the Canadian couple in Mexico was about their visit to a very large statue of Christ that stands overlooking the city of Taxco. They name the sculptor but of course I forgot it, it's not been there very long but I forget how long etc.

It was disturbing to hear that the statue lost its head in an earthquake not long ago, and then lost its hand to a lightning strike. It's been repaired but it reminds me of the statue of the god Dagon that fell and lost its head and hand when the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines and put in Dagon's temple. The power of God caused it to fall and be broken.

But a statue of Christ? Why would God do that to such a statue? I certainly don't believe it happened by chance, God is in charge so I know it represents His displeasure. But why? Well, what else can be the explanation but that it represents a false Christ somehow or other? Represents the Antichrist. It must.

Then last night I turned on my audio Bible intending to listen to Psalms but I programmed in the wrong identifying number and got the book of Daniel instead. I decided to listen to it anyway since I havewn't heard it in quite a while. I listened until my mind started wantdering after Chapted five. It covered the statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Chapter 2, which represents the four empires from Babylon to the Roman Empire, and then the statue of gold in Chapter 3 Tthat Nebuchadnezzar had set up, commanding that everyone worship it or be killed. It ws sixty cubits or ninety feet tall. The Jews refused to worship it, and Daniel's friends Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the furnace, where they were miraculously preserved from harm.

What made me realize that I should write about statues is the fact that when I turned on the radio this morning it was into a sermon about the gold statue Nebuchadnezzar had erected. Funny little coincidence there. I don't even listen much to that Christian station these days because I don't like the styloe of music they play but I happened to set it there last night before going to sleep so when I turned it on there was the sermon about the statue in Daniel Chapter 3.

Guess God wants somebody to know about statues. The statues in the Book of Daniel are of course obvious pagan idols that we are commanded not to put before the true God in the Ten Commandments. Even the statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream which is about four empires is about their pagan religions. The Beast whose image is to be constructed according to the False Prophet, described in Revelation 13, represents a man, not only an empire. It has all the features of the empires described later in Daniel, the bear, the leopard, the lion, all of which come together in the Roman Empire representedby that Beast.

I differ from the popular end times scenario in my belief that the Antichrist, which the Beast represents, is going to be a Pope, and very likely the Pope we have now. I also think the Roman Empire continued as the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages which was both a religious and a political entity, so that the current idea that the Roman empire had ceased and needs to be reinstated for the end times drama to play out is missing this whole scenario that has been in place for centuries. The popular system is expected an unknown to emerge as the world leader, but the Protestant Reforers identified the papacy as the seat of Antichrist from scripture and I see no reason to expect anyone different, especially since this current Pope took office with quite a few signs I take to be from God, which I've described in other posts. Popes were also identified as Antichrist by hundreds of Christians before the Rewformation.

But whoever the Antichrist turns out to be, the statue of Revelation 13 is to be of him and the whole world is to be commanded to worship it or be killed. All these gigantic statues mentioned by Jan Markell are probably what she says, the forerunner of the Image of the Best, or that statue of Antichrist. And the Tribuation being that close their technology will probably figure in its ability to appear to be alive, speak and so on.
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All this is to come upon the whole world, there is no part that will escape. Those who have fled to hopeful refuge in other countries aren't going to be outside its reach, unless God permits it in some cases, and since I'm hoping for some unsaved people to be saved in that time I hope they will be protected. Some people are goign to have to survive if the prophecy of the Millennium to follow is true, that it will be populated by believers who have not yet been glorified as the Raptured Church is to be. If we take the gold statue in Daniel 3 as a type of the Image of the Beast people will be commanded to worship in the Tribulation on pain of death, maybe we can also happily expect God to protect those who refuse just as He did Daniel's friendsz in the furnace.

(Although the signs I have in mind point to a Pope, a most appropraite false object of worship keeps occurring to me: the "Virtin" Mary. She is already worshipped by hundreds of millions of Catholics, prayed to and so on. and I think it was Alexander Hislop, who wrote "THE two Babylons" who thought the Beast could be "Mary." All her apparitions, the fact that Popes have sworn fealty to her, that she is worhipped by many, that even Islam reveres her, all make her a great candidtate for at least a central figure in the Great Tribulation. Perhaps the Beast I suppose. If the Pope is the False Prophet in that case? I don't know how to put together the signs but she leaps out as a prime candidate anyway.)


Yes I stioll have question about how all this is to play out but since I don't have answers I continue to MOSTLY go alone with the popular scenario.