This latest outbreak, made prominent by the media frenzy surrounding the one death and and relatively few suspected cases in the United Sates, has sparked widespread discussion and speculation about its relevance to the Biblical prophecy of the seven last plagues before the return of Jesus Christ. The often referenced prophecy appears in the Apocalyptic Biblical text of the book Revelation. Specifically, the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation gives the gruesome details of those seven last plagues.
The question to be answered, therefore, is:” Is Ebola one of those seven last plagues”?
The only sure way to know is to let the Bible speak for itself. It teaches that before those last plagues fall upon the earth, the ‘Mark of the Beast’ will be enforced world wide (Revelation 13:15-17). Here, again, is much speculation; but we must also allow the Bible to explain itself in order to arrive at the right conclusions regarding both the ‘Mark’ of the beast and the seven last plagues.
In the Old Testament book of Daniel, the second chapter, we are presented with a prophetic narrative in which Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the magnificent ancient empire of Babylon, had a dream which had a profound impact on his mind; but he could not recall the dream after he awoke. His wise men and prognosticators were called upon to help him recall the dream and give him its interpretation. The were unable to do so and he ordered their execution and the destruction of their property.
There were, however, some young Jewish captives who were brought to Babylon when their homeland of Jerusalem was attacked , overtaken and destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar a few years earlier. Prominent among them was one named Daniel. Upon hearing the pronouncement of the king to destroy the so-called wise men, Daniel requested and was granted an audience with the now furious king. Daniel assured the king that there is a God in heaven who knows all things and can reveal not only the dream, but can give its interpretation also. Daniel requested time to consult with his companions and to seek their God for revelation and interpretation of the king’s dream. His request was granted, he met with his companions, they payed to their God, and returned to the king with the answers the he sought.
Daniel reported to the king: “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king” (Daniel 2:31-36). The king’s dream foretold the kingdoms that would rule the world and have an impact on God’s plan of salvation, from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Several years later, Daniel had his own dream, foretelling the very same course of history as the king’s dream; but adding more detail regarding the fourth kingdom. His dream featured four beasts and gives us the explanation of what those beasts represents. His dream zeroes in on the fourth beast, the Roman Empire, and gives some alarming detail of the work that it would accomplish as it transitions from its military/political form into its religious form. Daniel explains, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth…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: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time” (Daniel 7:17 &-25).
These are the nations that were represented by the different parts of the image of Daniel 2 and the beasts of Daniel 7:
Head of gold/Lion=Babylon
Chest of silver/Bear = Media Persia
Belly of brass/Leopard=Greece
Legs of iron/Dreadful and terrible beast=Pagan Roman Empire
Feet of iron mixed with miry clay/ Little horn=World-wide unification of state and Papal religion.
Stone cut out without hands that crushes the image =The second coming of Jesus
John, the Revelator, picks up the story in chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation. Here, God’s gives us a broad sweep of the Great Controversy from the war in heaven to the times in which we live. And then, in chapter 13, He gives us the details of the final struggle and identifies the chief players.
The chapter begins: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast” (Revelation 13:1-3).
John, looking back to the beasts/empires sees what Daniel foretold in reverse order. Whoever is this beast/power that John sees, is a combination of the powers identified by Daniel. In other words, it will have characteristics of the beasts/powers prophesied by God’s prophet in Daniel chapter 7. Here are its identification marks:
- Arose out of the divided Roman Empire (Daniel 7:8)
- Rules for 1260 years (Daniel 7:25, Revelation 12:6, 13:5) (Justinian Decree of 538 AD- 1798 AD)
- Looses power, (Napolean’s General Bertier takes Pope Pius vi prisoner, abolishes state powers ,1798)(Revelation 13:3)
- Regains state power (Benito Mussolini signs Lateran Concordat with Roman church, Feb 1929, regains state powers)(Revelation 13:3)
- Has the world wondering after it (Revelation 13:3-4)
- Persecutes God’s people (Daniel 7:25, Revelation 13:7)
- Speaks blasphemy-Claims the prerogatives of God (Daniel 7:25, Revelation 13:5-6)(Luke 5:21, John 10:30).Claims to forgive sin and to be God on earth.
- Claims the power to change God’s Holy law (Daniel 7:25)
- Professes to be Christian while practices and teaches doctrines that are patently anti-Christian
- Located on Seven Hill city (Revelation 17:9)
There is one power and one power only that meets these specifications, and that is the Roman Papacy. It is the longest, continuous ruling monarchy in the history of humanity. It is the power (Beast) to which the Biblical prophecy of the Mark of the Beast is connected.
Now that we have identified the ‘Beast’ from the Bible and supported by history, let us have the beast tell us what is its mark.
“Sunday is our mark of authority…the church is above the Bible, and the transference of Sabbath is proof of that fact” (Catholic Record, Sept 1, 1923).
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the church ever did happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed to Sunday…not from any directions noted in Scriptures, but from the church’s sense of its own power…People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become Seventh-day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy”
(Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, May 21, 1995).
Ebola, therefore, is not one of the seven last plagues; but rather another of the pestilences that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, predicted that would occur before His coming (Matthew 24:7).
He who has ears to hear , let him hear.
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