Originally written for August 14, 1998, this paper was revised in February of 2001, with an Addendum on April 24, 2014.
A NEW VERY SERIOUS FIND IN PROPHECY: This is not my regular monthly teaching letter. I have been studying a subject lately which I think needs to be addressed. I have reservations about even getting into this subject as it has to do with prophecy. If I don’t write what I have discovered recently, I will be condemned, and if I do write about it and it is proved to be wrong, I will be condemned. I have discussed this situation with several people in the last few days and they are advising me to make what I have found known. Now right from the start, before I begin, I want you to know I am not a prophet! I don’t even pretend to be one. I have, though, studied much on the subject. I really never understood prophecy very much until I heard the fourteen audio tape series on Revelation by Bertrand L. Comparet. The sound on the tapes that I originally bought was so bad that I could hardly hear them. By running the signal through a good equalizer, clearing up the noise to some extent and using a pair of head phones, I could barely make out what was being said. The next thing I decided to do was to type out all of these tapes on paper. It took me several months to do this, but I finally got it done. I can tell you this: when you type every word out, as I did, you learn a lot more than just listening to the recordings. There were many words that I was unfamiliar with, and had to look up; many reference materials were reviewed to find out what he was talking about, and I researched people and places he named. There were words for which I could not find the spelling. I now own a much improved set of these tapes, but #13 needs a little work on it to make the sound a little clearer. I will probably offer this set of tapes sometime in the future on my study aids list. At the time, Comparet was the very best on prophecy I had ever heard. [Note: I no longer offer any audio recordings of any kind!]
Next to Comparet was a person by the name of William V. Fowler, and in 1980 his address was Rt. 3, Box 486-B, Coeur d’ Alene, ID 83814. He wrote a little booklet called End Time Revelation. This book was one of the very best I ever purchased for my library on prophecy. But in his book, he made a miscalculation on the fall of Babylon as a religious, political and monetary system which we still have with us today. He predicted that our present Babylonian system would fall in 1982. On everything else in his book he is pretty much correct and right on the money. I think that I have discovered his error in calculation which caused him to arrive at the date 1982. I suppose there were a lot of people who read his book and put him to considerable ridicule for nothing happening in 1982, and probably tried to debunk his whole work. I will tell you that I value this booklet very highly, and if I couldn’t get another copy, I would not part with it for any amount of money! Though there are many subjects in his book, I am going to zero in on this one in particular. In order for you to understand what it is all about, I will have to quote from pages 121 to 125. If you are unfamiliar with the rest of the prophecies in Daniel, you may not understand about this one. Fowler subtitles this section of his booklet:
“NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S MADNESS Daniel 4 is a proclamation made by Nebuchadnezzar confessing that, in fulfillment of a prophetic dream, he had been mad for a time, behaving like a beast and eating grass like an ox. However, there are certain peculiar features that do not fit in with this personal fulfillment of the prophecy.
“In his dream Nebuchadnezzar had seen a tree that provided food and shelter for all; the beast of the field made their home under it, while the birds of heaven dwelt in its branches (Dan. 4:10-12):
“‘10 Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. 11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of the earth: 12 The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and it was meat for all: the beast of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.’
“Then, by Divine decree, the tree was cut down, leaving only a stump in the earth, and ‘seven times’ were to pass over it (Dan. 4: 14-17):
“‘14 He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off the leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beast get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches: 15 Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beast in the grass of the earth: 16 Let his heart be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. 17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in his kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men’.
“Daniel explained that the tree represented the king under whose rule all people and nations prospered. When the tree was cut down, this signified that Nebuchadnezzar was to become insane for a period of ‘seven times’, during which he would become like a beast, and eat grass like an ox (Dan. 4:20-25).
“‘20 The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; 21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beast of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: 22 It is thou, O king. that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. 23 And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beast of the field, till seven times pass over him: 24 This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king: 25 That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.’
“All this we are told, came to pass, and at the end of the set period Nebuchadnezzar returned to his right mind, and his kingdom was restored to him.
“This explanation of the dream, however, is not entirely satisfactory. One peculiar feature left unexplained is that the stump of the great tree was to be left with a band of iron and brass (Dan. 4:15, 23).
“‘15 Nevertheless leave the stump of the roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beast in the grass of the earth ... 23 And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beast of the field, till seven times pass over him ....’
“The stump or tree represents Babylon, the band of iron represents Imperial Rome, and the brass portion of the band represents The Grecian Empire. So the stump with the band represents three of the kingdoms that were to be cast down by the Sons of God. For some time I was wondering why just three kingdoms were represented here instead of four, (the other being Medo-Persia). Today my Father made it quite clear. All four kingdoms were to be destroyed by the Sons of God, and by the time of the end when the understanding of the vision was to be fully understood one of the kingdoms would already have been destroyed, that of the Medo-Persia, or the SILVER portion of the body of the beast.
“History records that a nomadic tribe of people fought the Medo-Persia Empire for 800 years and weakened the empire so that finally it fell from within. We know that the Northern Tribes of Israel were these nomadic tribes. Therefore, one is down, leaving three to go. The rise of Mohammedism in ancient Persia today, Iran, does not mean that Persia is rising again, only Mohammedism.
“A second peculiarity is the mysterious term used in regards to the time factor, namely, seven times. This is usually taken to mean seven years but, if that is what was meant, the prophecy does not say so. The context does not give the slightest hint as to how long a ‘time’ is in this connection, but just says that ‘seven times’ passed over him. Some scholars have assumed that a ‘time’ meant a literal year in this case the king was insane for 7 years, but this assumption can be proven to be erroneous. Nebuchadnezzar himself gives us a clue on one of his great cuneiform inscriptions in which he records 4 years as the period when he ‘did not rejoice ... did not build.’
“In view of these peculiarities a number of scholars have regarded the prophecy as allegorical. The ‘seven times’ may represent the great prophetical ‘seven times’ which equals a period 2,520 years. In the book of Leviticus a period of ‘seven times’ of punishment would follow Israel’s apostasy from God. (Reference the Chapter on the Abrahamic Covenant), and we noted that this was a period in Bible Chronology of 2,520 years. A Bible ‘time’ means a year of 360 days of 12 zodiacal periods of 30 days. Bible students are aware that ‘days’ or prophecy must usually be read as ‘years’ especially when the national life of Israel is concerned. ‘I have appointed thee each day for a year’ was the time-measure given by the Spirit of God to Ezekiel. This agrees with the twelfth chapter of Revelation where by comparing verses 14 and 6 it is shown that a prophetic ‘time’ consists of 360 days, so that ‘a time, times and half a time’ is equivalent to 1260 days. The madness also may well represent the maladministration of the world by the Jewish powers. The ‘seven times’ indicate that there is a time limit placed on world powers. [underlining mine]
“The great tree represents the Babylonian Empire. When Babylon displaced Egypt as the world’s greatest power, she took on the role of the great tree, and so Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, ‘The tree that thou sawest ... It is thou, O King, that art grown and become strong” (Dan 4:20-22).
“‘20 The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; 21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beast of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: 22 It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.’
“But immediately the tree was hewn down, the birds and the beasts were told to get away from under it, and only its stump was left standing in the grass while a period of ‘seven times’ passed over it.
“In the original version the sentence passed on the tree was ‘... let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth: Let his heart be changed from man’s and let a beast’s heart be given unto him....’ (Dan. 4:15-16):
“‘15 Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beast in the grass of the earth: 16 Let his heart be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.’
“Daniel explained that this meant, ‘They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen’ (verse 25), and finally, we are told that, ‘he was driven from me, and did eat grass as oxen’ (verse 33). Now grass in prophetic symbolism, represents the mass of the common people: ‘All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field’, wrote Isaiah (40:6-7). And again he says, ‘... surely the people is grass.’ (40:7). Consequently, Nebuchadnezzar’s peculiar behavior in eating grass symbolized the changed character of his empire. It was to be no longer a benevolent protector of smaller nations, as Egypt had been, but a predatory power, feeding on the common people.
“That is, in fact, what all the great beast empires of the world have been. They were founded and established by military conquest whose main objective was to plunder, rob, and hold to ransom the common people of the weaker nations, and this was followed by the systematic collection of tribute or taxes from the conquered masses.
“THE FALL OF BABYLON: The fifth chapter of Daniel gives an account of what took place in Babylon on the night when the city fell. Belshazzar, the king’s son, and co-regent in Babylon, was holding a feast, blasphemously misusing the gold and silver vessels taken from the temple of Jerusalem. Suddenly writing appeared on the wall, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsim’ which Daniel interpreted, ‘God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.’
“History records that the Medes and Persians gained entrance to the city by diverting the river Euphrates, so that the river bed became dry where it ran through the walls. In the Book of Revelation the final fall of the Babylonian system is heralded by the mystical drying up of the river Euphrates, ‘that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Rev. 16:12) (Not just diverting the river, this final fall of Babylon the river will be dried up, and river will mean the race of people will be dried up).
“Now it is interesting to note that the four words written in Chaldaic (Aramaic) when translated into Hebrew would read Minah, Minah, Shekel, Peres, which were Hebrew weights. The Gerah was the smallest weight, and the total of the above weights expressed in Gerahs, is 2,520 as shown below:
ARAMAIC HEBREW
Mene Minah 1000 Gerahs
Mene Minah 1000 Gerahs
Tekel Shekel 20 Gerahs
Upharsin Peres 500 Gerahs
(Peres means ‘division’ – in this case, the division of the Minah, i.e. half a Minah). Thus we have the ‘seventimes’ period illustrated in a hidden form. The fall of Babylon was 539 B.C., subtracting that from 2520 we get 1982 when adding the one and one quarter years, conversion factor (from B.C. to A.D.) you come to the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s madness 1982 ....” [Back to myself]:
As 1982 came and passed and there was no fall of the Babylonian political, monetary and religious systems, William V. Fowler realized that he somehow had made a miscalculation in his understanding of this prophecy. In the later additions of his booklet he made a “Revising Statement” as follows:
“REVISING STATEMENT: In the original works of this book I stated that the Kingdom of Yahweh might be established in 1982, give or take a year or two. .... It is my extreme joy to see into the time schedules and mysteries of Yahweh-Jesus. However I must confess the glass is not always clear, and man too often fills in that which he cannot clearly see. Forgive me for being guilty of this, but I praise my Father for that which he has allowed me to see.” [Back to myself]:
A NEW CHALLENGE FOR ME: A few days ago, I had reason to look up this book which I have had for a long time. I wasn’t really looking for this particular subject, but ran across it when I was looking for something else in his booklet. When I reread this passage above, the thought came to me: “I wonder where he went wrong in his calculation as his hypothesis seemed quite reasonable.” The idea kept nagging at me, so I finally decided to see what I could find, and see if there was some factor that wasn’t being considered. I started through my several reference books looking up everything I could find on Nebuchadnezzar (The 5 volume Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, the 4 volume Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the 3 volume Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia and a 2 volume work called Insight On The Scriptures, along with some other references). After I had read quite a bit on Nebuchadnezzar, I could see that I would have to check out everything I could find on Belshazzar. By this time I was finding out that Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, with a person known as Nabonidus as the direct son of Nebuchadnezzar. In other words the line went form Nebuchadnezzar to Nabonidus to Belshazzar. A very short statement from The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, under “Belshazzar”:
“Nebuchadnezzar is named as the father of Belshazzar (5:11, 18); this does not contradict the Babylonian text which refers to Belshazzar as the son of Nabonidus, since the latter was a descendant of the line of Nebuchadnezzar and may well have been related to him through his wife.
Finally, as I was reading about Nabonidus in Insight On The Scriptures (it's a long story), I found that there is a “Nabonidus Chronicle”, a clay tablet that can be found in the British Museum today. The story found on this clay tablet puts an entirely different light upon the time that Babylon officially came to an end. We do know the well recorded fact that the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon on the night of the feast of Belshazzar in 539 B.C. But according to the inscription on the Nabonidus Chronicle, this was not the end of the fighting. Let’s read what is recorded on this clay tablet. This is from Insight On The Scriptures, volume 2, page 460:
“Although column 4 of the Chronicle is badly broken, scholars have concluded from what remains that the subject was a later siege of Babylon by some usurper. The first such siege of Babylon that followed Cyrus is thought to have been the uprising of Nebuchadnezzar III, who claimed to be a son of Nabonidus, Nidintu-Bel. He was defeated in the accession year of Darius I late in 522 B.C.E.”
With this newfound evidence, it makes it an entirely different ball game. Babylon, and especially the Nebuchadnezzar family, were not defeated completely until late 522 B.C. This would be the date that the “tree” would be fully fallen whose “stump” could begin to be passed over “seven times.” Let’s try this date out for size: 2,520 minus 522 = 1998 (1999+ adjusting for the B.C. to A.D. conversion plus other unknown factors). Have we or haven’t we arrived? Being my ministry’s first year, I really don’t know! I have presented the evidence and you will have to decide! One thing for sure, we don’t have very long to wait and see, do we?
“THREE GENERAL VIEWS OF PROPHECY:
“There are three general views of interpretations of the prophecy of the book of Revelation (some say four).
• The Preterist Theory.
• The Historical Interpretation
• The Futurist Theory.
The preterist view places all prophecy in the past and proclaims every prophecy was fulfilled in or prior to the year 70 A.D. They claim that the Second Coming of Yahshua has already happened among all the other foretold events in the Book of Revelation. Most scholars place the writing of the Book of Revelation about 93-96 A.D. Now if John wrote his book in 93 A.D., how could it all be fulfilled by 70 A.D.? The best definition I ever heard of a preterist, is one who was too lazy to study history. In his book, The Rapture Of The Saints, Rev. Duncan McDougall, M.A. explains the origin of the preterist theory:
“Alcazar, a Spanish Jesuit, started the idea that the Apostle John could not possibly foretell events which were to happen hundreds of years after his own time; that he was writing merely about what was happening in his own day, and that his Antichrist was probably the Emperor Nero or some other early persecutor. The theory has been adopted by German rationalists, and finds favor with the modernists in the churches today.”
The historical interpretation views Revelation as a panoramic view of history from the first century to the Second Coming of Yahshua the Messiah. As the Book of Revelation is written mostly in symbols, the key to understanding properly interpreted symbolism is to connect them with the historical events as they happen. The historical method can be the only true interpretation of the Book of Revelation. The reason the historical interpretation was repudiated is because, once the Bible was printed, it could be clearly seen that the Church of Rome, along with the pope, represented much of the fulfillment of John’s vision. This put the heat on the Church of Rome. To counter this heat, two Spanish Jesuit priests promoted the preterist theory and the futurist theory of Revelation. Alcazar promoted the preterist view and Ribera promoted the futurist view. The one put all prophecy in the past and the other projected all prophecy into the future. Today we have all kinds of preachers and teachers promoting both of these false views, and the people are really eating it up.
The futurist view projects all Bible prophecy into the future. They believe in a “rapture”, a future “antichrist”, that the Roman Empire will be reestablished, and either 3½ or 7 years of tribulation (they call it: “Daniel’s 70th week” or “half week”). In his book, The Rapture Of The Saints, Rev. Duncan McDougall, M.A. explains the origin of the futurist view:
“Ribera, another Spanish Jesuit, went to the other extreme and propounded the theory that the whole Book of Revelation related to events to take place just at the time of Christ’s Second Coming, and therefore still in the future. The Antichrist was to be a World-Dictator who would appear at the end of this dispensation. ... For 250 years, from 1580 to 1830, the idea of an individual personal Antichrist to appear sometime in the future was the recognized teaching of the Church of Rome.”
Now if you are teaching anything other than the historical interpretation, you are carrying water for either Alcazar or Ribera, with the blessing of Rome! The futurists get their 3½ years of tribulation from Daniel 7:25 (They say this is the Antichrist and he will rule for three and a half literal calendar years of tribulation.):
“Dan. 7:25 ‘And he shall speak great words against the most High, and wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time’.”
At this time, I will return to William V. Fowler’s booklet, End Time Revelation, p.127, and let him explain what this passage is all about:
“SYMBOLICAL PROPHECIES: The second half of Daniel comprises four prophecies, each relating to particular places. The first two, in chapters 7 and 8 are symbolical, but the last two, in chapters 9 and 12 are in plain language. Both of the symbolical prophecies are concerned with ‘little horns’ representing powers that arise out of two of the beasts that represent great empires of history.
“THE LITTLE HORN OF THE FOURTH EMPIRE, Chapter 7: Daniel had a dream in which he saw four great beasts, the fourth having ten horns among which an eleventh little horn sprang up. In the interpretation we are told that the four beasts represent four kingdoms or empires, and the ten horns are ten kings or kingdoms that arise out of the last empire. None of the empires are named but it is widely assumed that they are the same as the four empires represented by the parts of the metallic image in chapter 2. The four beasts, and the ten horns of the fourth beast serve only to introduce, identify and locate the little horn that forms the main feature of this prophecy. This clearly represents a person of power hostile to the children of Yahweh for we are told that it ‘made war with the saints’, and would prevail ‘for a time, two times, and a half a time’ (verse 25, R.S.V.). As we have previously shown, this is equivalent to 1,260 prophetic ‘days’ or years.
“To identify the ten horns of the fourth beast which was the Roman Empire, one has but to examine history which records that ten kingdoms arose after A.D. 476 in the western half of the Roman Empire while the eastern half continued to flourish. History also reveals that Justinian at the head of the Eastern (Roman) Empire at Constantinople subdued three of the ten kingdoms which were established in the western half of the Roman Empire after the fall of Imperial Rome. These were the Vandals whose kingdom had been established in north Africa, the Ostrogoths who had established a kingdom in Italy, and the Alemanian kingdom north of Italy. ‘And he shall be diverse from the first, and shall subdue three kings’, (verse 24). Justinian, as head of the civil government, united the interest of the church and established the Temporal Power of the Papacy which clearly fulfilled the prophetic little horn by dominating Europe for 1,260 years until curtailed by Napoleon, (538 A.D. to 1,798 A.D.).
“‘And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws’, (Dan. 7:25). Justinian’s best known work was as codifier and legislator. He greatly stimulated legal studies, and set up a commission under Tribonian which issued the codex, the digest, and the institutes. (Originally introduced in Dec. 534 A.D., and completed in 538 A.D.). The second edition of the codex contained Justinian’s own laws known as the Novels (Novellae Constitutions). One need only read the utterance of Pope Innocent III in the thirteenth century and his immediate successors to recognize the fulfillment of speaking “great words against the Most High.” Study the history of the inquisition with its massacres, martyrdoms and every kind of persecution to substantiate this interpretation. (See Halley’s Bible Handbook, chapter on Church History, pp. 757-804).
“If our understanding of the identity of the little horn is correct then it follows that the Papacy is represented in Dan. 8:20. “... they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end,” (Dan 8:26). The process is still continuing, and will only be completed by our Lord at His coming, when the kingdom ‘... shall be given to the people of the saints (Israel, white race) of the Most High’ (Dan. 8:27). This is reiterated in Rev. 19:20 when the false prophet (who is the head of the false ecclesiastical system, known today as the ‘Ecumenical movement’, probable heir of (Roman Catholicism) is defeated by Christ at His return, and cast into the ‘lake of fire’.” [Back to myself]:
I could go on and quote Fowler’s “The Little Horn Of The Greek Empire”, and “Mohammed Was The Little Horn” (more of Daniel’s prophecy), but the purpose here is to show that Daniel 9:25 has nothing to do with a “future Antichrist.” That just blew away the futurist view of the “mark of the beast”, so it must have a different meaning! ...
The main object of this Supplement Teaching Letter is to inform you of the critical period we may be in at this very time, and an understanding of what the seven times passing over of Nebuchadnezzar’s stump may mean. As I said before, I am not a prophet, and I can only study and research what the prophets prophesied. I have now placed this information in your hands and you will have to critique it for yourself. I don’t know if this might line up with the Y2K problem coming up or not. Remember what William V. Fowler said at the end of his statement, “when adding the one and one quarter years, conversion factor (from B.C. to A.D.) you come to the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s madness.” It would seem that the end of this Babylonian system could come sometime late this year or there might be a correction factor to figure in. Y2K may be irrelevant as the bottom might fall out of the economy before the year 2000.
(Note: 2-10-2001: There are still unanswered questions about Y2K. Are there still underground oil-line computer chips which may not be working and causing our present energy crisis? Also, the way the economy looks at the updating of this letter, it appears we might be going in for the plunge.)
The question in my mind is: Will the Jews bring in Gog and Magog to reinforce their control before the Y2K problem starts? Whether it is a complete world monetary crash caused by a top heavy economy, or a complete computer shutdown such as Y2K, the results would be the same. If the Jews are going to use the Mongolians to back up their power position, it would seem that they would make their move before the computers shut down. Since all shipping, railroad lines and dockyard loading facilities are run by computers, it would seem they would make their move before Y2K. (2-10-2001: Obviously they didn't make a move before Y2K.)
I have studied Ezekiel 38 and 39 extensively, and I can tell you there are translation problems. I am only going to point out one of these translation problems, at this time, and it is Ezekiel 38:9:
“Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.”
If you will study the Hebrew in this verse, you will find it means they will come under cover (covertly) to enter the land. My scenario is they will be loaded aboard ships in container cars in Asia and be brought into the shipyards of our west coast and be transferred to railroad flatcars without being seen. They will proceed from Seattle, San Francisco and San Pedro California to Wyoming and converge near Flaming Gorge and the Green River, and make their way into the Rocky Mountains over the old Union Pacific railway near the old Oregon Trail, pretty much parallel to where Interstate 80 is today. Somewhere in this mountain pass, Yahweh will stop them. The reason I believe it might happen this way is because there is no other way they could get that many men and that huge amount of equipment into the country as described in these two chapters.
Most Bible scholars believe that this invasion will have to come from the north, or over the north pole (verse 15). The reason Ezekiel describes it this way is because at the time of his prophecy, Gog and Magog was located north of him. There is no way that Gog and Magog, with all their men and equipment, are going to march, drive or fly over the north pole! [End of 2-10-2001 comment]
ADDENDUM: April 24, 2014: The reader will notice that I wrote the above materials August 14, 1998 and February, 2001. This February, 2001 date would be seven months before the Twin Financial Towers were taken down on September 11, 2001. I am not going to conjecture how, or by whom they were taken down, but assert they very well may have fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a tree, when felled, “seven times” (2,520 years) would pass over the stump.
No sooner had the Twin Towers been taken down than there was an outcry to reestablish the Espionage Act of 1917, which in effect would abrogate the rule of law established by the framers of the United States of America’s Constitution. With the resulting Patriot Act, they loosened the chains of the United States of America’s Constitution to allow our leaders to become tyrants! Since 9/11, the three branches (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) are no longer restrained by the Constitution. [Now from the website “A Daily Independent Global News Hour” we read, in part]:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/18/inside_obamas_orwellian_world_where_whistleblowing
“National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake faces 35 years in prison on espionage charges for alleged unauthorized ‘willful retention’ of five classified documents. ‘Espionage is the last thing my whistleblowing and First Amendment activities and actions were all about,’ Drake said recently in a public speech. ‘This has become the specter of a truly Orwellian world where whistleblowing has become espionage.’ According to The New Yorker, the Obama administration has used the Espionage Act of 1917 to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national security leaks – more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous administrations combined. We play excerpts of Thomas Drake’s first public comments and talk to former Justice Department whistleblower, Jesselyn Radack ....”
“AMY GOODMAN: A new exposé by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker magazine has revealed more details about the Obama administration’s crackdown on whistleblowers. The article focuses on former National Security Agency analyst Thomas Drake, who’s being prosecuted for leaking information about waste and mismanagement at the agency. Drake was the source for a Baltimore Sun series on the NSA’s overspending and failure to properly maintain its large trove of domestic spy data.
“Drake faces 35 years in prison for espionage but isn’t actually accused of spying. Instead, he’s accused of holding on to classified documents in his basement that he says he didn’t know were classified. His trial is set to begin next month in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
“Overall, The New Yorker magazine reports, the Obama administration has used the Espionage Act of 1917 to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national security leaks – more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous administrations combined. Gabriel Schoenfeld of the Hudson Institute said, ‘Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history – even more so than Nixon.’
“Drake received the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling last month. In his acceptance speech, he criticized the prosecution of whistle blowers.
“THOMAS DRAKE: Truth tellers, such as myself, are those who are simply doing their jobs and honoring their oaths to serve their nation under the law of the land. We are dedicated to the proposition that government service is of, for, by the people. We emphatically do not serve in order to manipulate on behalf of the powerful, nor to conceal unlawful, illegal or embarrassing secrets from the public, because truth does matter. Truth may be inconvenient. It may cause embarrassment. It may threaten the powers that be and their unlawful activities, but it is still the truth. I have but this one life to live ....”
“THOMAS DRAKE: I have already paid a frightfully high price for being a whistleblower. But worse still lies ahead of me. Although I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and faithfully upheld the law of the land over a public service career spanning more than 20 years, I now stand before you as a criminal defendant, with my own life and liberty very much at stake, in a public trial set to begin on 13 June in Baltimore, Maryland.
“My case is centered on a government prosecution bent not on serving justice, but on meting out retaliation, reprisal and retribution for the purpose of relentlessly punishing a whistleblower. Furthermore, my case is one that sends a most chilling message to other would-be whistleblowers: not only can you lose your job, but also your very freedom.
“The government made my cooperation with official investigations a criminal act. It is now apparently a federal crime to report illegalities, malfeasance, fraud, waste and abuse perpetrated by our own government. The government is making whistleblowing a crime. They are making dissent a crime, especially when it embarrasses the government and calls the government to account ....
“The fact remains that the heart of my case rests directly on whistleblowing and First Amendment activities involving issues of significant and even grave concern in terms of government illegalities, contract and program malfeasance, as well as fraud, waste and abuse, protected by the Constitution, case law and statutes. And yet the government is censoring and criminally prosecuting protected communications I made in furtherance of government investigations, and doing so under the Espionage Act. Espionage is the last thing my whistleblowing and First Amendment activities and actions were all about. This has become the specter of a truly Orwellian world where whistleblowing has become espionage.”
“AMY GOODMAN: That was Thomas Drake, who faces 35 years in prison for espionage. I want to talk about Thomas Tamm. He is the former U.S. Justice Department attorney who helped expose the Bush administration’s domestic warrantless eavesdropping program that intercepted private email messages and phone calls of U.S. residents without a court warrant. Thomas Tamm and Thomas Drake have a lot in common. They both blew the whistle on malfeasance and illegality at the National Security Agency. However, Drake still faces 35 years in prison, while Tamm is no larger the target of criminal inquiry. I asked Thomas Tamm recently on Democracy Now why he believes the charges against him were dropped.”
“THOMAS TAMM: I mean, it’s very difficult to prosecute someone such as myself, recognizing that what I did was reveal something that was against the law. And I also believe that it would have been a problem proving the case against me, because President Bush, the day after that article was published, basically acknowledged that the program existed. In fact, he almost seemed like he was proud of the fact that there was warrantless wiretapping, you know, to supposedly protect the country. In my opinion, he revealed more classified information than I ever did. And the bottom line is, as we mentioned earlier, I didn’t turn over any documents, I didn’t reveal any sources. And really, the bottom line is, I don’t think I ever broke the law.”
“AMY GOODMAN: That was Thomas Tamm. Jesselyn, tell us why Thomas Drake is receiving such different treatment.”
“JESSELYN RADACK: I think – I mean, interestingly, Thomas Drake landed on the government’s radar screen as part of the massive million-dollar ongoing leak investigation, that it launched after the publication of the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prizewinning story on warrantless wiretapping. I think, basically, you know, it defies any meaningful reason that people like Tom Tamm, who admitted to being sources for the Times, are not prosecuted – not that I want Tom Tamm to be prosecuted. Neither he nor Drake should be prosecuted. But it goes to why they’re going after Drake. And I think that they feel they need to bring home a scalp as a result of this sprawling investigation that has eaten up the time of five full-time prosecutors and 25 FBI agents. And it certainly is deserving of a little oversight by Congress and some auditing by the GAO. I think that’s why they’re going after Drake. I think they also like the Drake case because they can go after him without having to go after or implicate or target a reporter. I think that’s another reason. For whatever reasons, I mean, it really is perplexing why they’re doing this, why the Obama administration, in particular, is doing this.”
“AMY GOODMAN: I mean, you have this differential treatment. Former Bush administration officials, if we all remember, John Deutch, the former CIA director, who had classified information at home, Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, both faced much less stringent punishment after taking classified documents home without authorization. Even Sandy Berger, Clinton’s national security adviser, smuggled classified documents out of a federal building, reportedly by hiding them in his pants or his socks. What about this differential treatment?”
“JESSELYN RADACK: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s selective prosecution and, I would argue, an abusive prosecution. First of all, you don’t – I mean, you have people like Bob Woodward publishing books with much higher-level, tippy-top classified information, not [no audio]. And then you have other people who have taken home classified information, on purpose, who get a slap on the wrist. And then you have Tom Drake, who is alleged to have taken home classified information, but we’re talking about five very innocuous pieces of information that were only deemed to be classified after they were seized from his home and after the government did a forced classification review of them. I mean, it’s definitely selective and, I think, quite vindictive.”
“AMY GOODMAN: Also from Jane Mayer’s explosive piece in The New Yorker, she quotes Mark Klein, the former AT&T employee who exposed the telecom company wiretaps, also dismayed by the Thomas Drake case. Mark Klein says, ‘I think it’s outrageous. The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies [got] immunity. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.’ Jesselyn Radack?”
“JESSELYN RADACK: Right, that is absolutely correct. Again, you would think as part of the ‘we’re going to look forward, not backwards, at wrongdoing,’ that that would preclude – I mean, if that precludes going after the people who engaged in torture and warrantless wiretapping, then it really adds insult to injury to be going after a whistle [no audio] break, who blew the whistle on secret domestic surveillance programs that were selected over cheap, effective programs that had built-in privacy protections to protect U.S. citizens. And it sends a very chilling message to whistleblowers, on whose back Obama was elected. Obama was elected in part based on revelations that were brought forth by whistleblowers revealing torture and electronic eavesdropping. So it’s really a slap in the face that this is being done to Drake. But more than that, it’s the clanging of jail doors, because they’re trying to put him away for the rest of his natural life, which is completely unacceptable.
“I urge everybody to take a closer look at this case. And we have a petition on change.org – just type in ‘Tom Drake’ – calling for some desperately needed congressional oversight here, because there has been none.”
“.... JESSELYN RADACK: I was an ethics attorney at the Justice Department, so I’m really laughing over the last segment about John Ashcroft now being an ethics counsel for Blackwater. But I had advised not to interrogate a U.S. citizen without his counsel, and parenthetically, not to torture him. I didn’t think my advice was particularly radical, but the Justice Department sought to put me under a criminal investigation and refer me to the state bars and put me on the no-fly list. However, that pales in comparison to what is being done to Tom Drake, who they’re threatening to imprison for telling the truth.”
“AMY GOODMAN: And interesting, it was John Ashcroft, the attorney general, under whom you worked, who said he was given full access to an attorney, when in fact you understood that he was interrogated without an attorney, though his father said he had one for him.”
“JESSELYN RADACK: All public records support that he did, in fact, have an attorney and that he was tortured and interrogated, even though he signed a plea agreement saying that he would never sue for being tortured. It’s clear that he had an attorney, and they were not allowing him access to James Brosnahan. That’s [the] name of the attorney who had been retained to represent him.
“In a similar kind of way, Drake tried to cooperate with the government and tried to report high-level criminal wrongdoing at the NSA. And again, instead of investigating that criminal wrongdoing that led to one of the greatest scandals of my generation, instead they have chosen to go after Tom Drake, Tom Tamm, Russell Tice, people who were blowing the whistle on that misconduct, although people who engaged in it have gotten off scot-free, and laws have been passed to protect those lawbreakers.” [From USA Today we read in part]:
“When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details this month on the government’s collection of Americans’ phone and Internet records, one select group of intelligence veterans breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thomas Drake, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe belong to a select fraternity: the NSA officials who paved the way.
“For years, the three whistle-blowers had told anyone who would listen that the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data from U.S. citizens. They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and managing the very data-collection systems they say have been turned against Americans. When they became convinced that fundamental constitutional rights were being violated, they complained first to their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight committees and, finally, to the news media.
“To the intelligence community, the trio are villains who compromised what the government classifies as some of its most secret, crucial and successful initiatives. They have been investigated as criminals and forced to give up careers, reputations and friendships built over a lifetime ....” [Back to ,myself]:
HOW 9-11-2001 MAY BE A MILE-MARKER IN PROPHECY: It only seems reasonable that Daniel’s prophecy of “seven times over the stump” of Nebuchadnezzar would have both a starting and an ending date! If 9-11-2001 A.D. is that ending date, it would have more significance than we first imagined, for it appears at 9/11 that we White citizens of the United States of America, lost the protection that our Constitution affords us, for no longer are the three branches of our government subject to checks and balances as the framers’ intended. These being lost for the last 13 years, I doubt whether we’ll ever get them back before the Second Advent of our Redeemer, Yahshua the Christ. How long, and what kind of persecution we will have to suffer in the meantime, I do not know! The immediate future appears quite dim indeed, for the Obama administration renews these “emergency powers” every few months to make sure his “emergency powers” don’t expire! Jettison Babylon now, as time and means will allow!
