Nestled within the city of Rome itself is the world's smallest sovereign territory, Vatican City. Maintaining its own diplomatic relations with all of the world's major powers, this minuscule city-state ruled by the Roman pontiff is a full participant in international affairs. The Vatican aspires to much more, however. It seeks to return to the center stage of world politics that it occupied for so many centuries.

Let's return now to our story. As we've seen, when Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are compared, it is apparent that the "ten horns" (kingdoms) that are mentioned must have originated in the Roman Empire, which is the seventh head of the "Beast." Though Rome's ancient empire received a fatal wound with the death of the last emperor in A.D. 476, that was not the end of the story! The first three horns or kingdoms springing from the old Roman Empire--the Vandals, Heruli and Ostrogoths--were uprooted by Emperor Justinian at the behest of Rome's pope. Justinian "reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Roman pontiff, and spread among the Latins a favourable report of his pious respect for the apostolic see," i.e. the papal office (Gibbon, p. 477).

That left seven horns. Justinian would "heal" the "deadly wound" in 554 and launch the first of six historical attempts with papal sanction to revive and carry on the empire of ancient Rome. But since there were seven horns left--not just six--a seventh and final revival must be yet to come. Your life is to be profoundly affected by events yet to take place in the "Eternal City"!

The Lady of Kingdoms

Let's look at the pope-sanctioned revivals thus far. With the conclusion of the Gothic Wars in A.D. 553, Italy was left in poverty and disorder. Rome had been besieged, starved, captured and looted. Finally the Byzantine armies succeeded in reconquering Italy and remnants of the Western Empire. Justinian, already the emperor in the East, was now the restored emperor in the West. But how was he to govern this recovered territory? The answer lay in an alliance of church and state that has shaped the history of Western Europe ever since. Though secular authority in the West had collapsed, "the survival of ecclesiastical organization [under

Byzantine Empire Under Justinian

the bishop of Rome] appeared even to the emperors as the salvation of the state. In 554 Justinian promulgated a decree requiring that 'fit and proper persons, able to administer the local government, be chosen as governors of the provinces by the bishops and chief persons of each province'" (Durant, pp. 519-520).

This healing of Rome's "deadly wound" is known in history as the "Imperial Restoration." The emperors in Byzantium would continue as nominal rulers of a revived Imperium Romanum ("Roman Empire") in the West from 554 until 800. By the terms of Justinian's decree, however, the Roman popes took the real reins of government in the West--metaphorically sitting astride and riding the imperial Beast.

This remarkably parallels the prophecy in Revelation 17. The story of seven revivals is told here too--symbolized by another "Beast" with seven heads and ten horns. However, it is important to note a significant difference between this Beast and the ones described in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7. Unlike those, the Beast in Revelation 17 is ridden by a woman.

Notice what John saw: "And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (vv. 3-6). Just who is this woman?

First of all, let's see how the Bible uses the symbol of a woman elsewhere. Revelation 12 pictures a woman with a crown of 12 stars, who gives birth to the Christ child (vv. 1-5)--a clear reference to Israel with its 12 tribes, each symbolized by a star (cf. Gen. 37:9-10). Ancient Israel, God's Old Testament nation or "church" (Acts 7:38 KJV), was pictured as a woman married to God (cf. Jer. 3:14). However, Israel and Judah often "played the harlot" with other gods and national rulers (cf. Ezek. 23). Their capital, Jerusalem, is represented as the same woman (cf. Ezek. 16).

Now, the New Testament Church is the "Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16), and spiritual Jerusalem above is called "the mother of us all" (4:26). The true Church is the woman throughout the remainder of Revelation 12. John calls her "the elect lady" (2 John 1). She is to marry Christ at His return (Eph. 5:22-32; Matt. 25:1-12; Rev. 19:6-9). As "King of kings and Lord of lords" (v. 16), Church and State will be united through Him at that time. Meanwhile, the true Church is not to "play the harlot" by being politically entangled with the governments of this world. She is not to commit spiritual "fornication" in some premarital church-state arrangement. She is prophesied to remain a "little flock" (cf. Luke 12:32)--persecuted by the world (Matt. 5:10-12; Luke 6:26).

So the fallen woman in Revelation 17 is clearly a false church "with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication" (v. 2). Like an ancient temple prostitute, she grants favors to various rulers in exchange for their support of her false religion--only the favors are now political. Rather than a persecuted little flock, she is a huge church, "great" in influence, which is doing the persecuting! Just how great? Decked in royal garb, she rules over "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (v. 15)--most directly the Roman Beast.

According to Scripture, the seven heads of this Beast are "seven mountains on which the woman sits" (v. 9). Aside from meaning seven successive kingdoms, as the next verse shows, this also clearly points to the City of Seven Hills--Rome! Verse 18 says the woman "is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth." The next chapter reveals that city to be "Babylon," but its current manifestation from the time John wrote until now has been Rome. As a continuation of Babylon, Isaiah 47 calls her the "daughter of Babylon" and the "Lady of Kingdoms" (vv. 1, 5). This is clearly the same woman (cf. v. 8; Rev. 18:7).

Who else or what else could be meant but the Church of Rome? Is not this an exact parallel to the little horn of Daniel 7 that persecutes God's true Church? What other church has conducted an "Inquisition" through which multitudes--including God's faithful people--were slaughtered? Only the Roman Church has presided over such butchery.

The system is labeled "Mystery, Babylon the Great"--a perpetuation of the pagan Babylonian Mysteries, now grown great and powerful. In the next chapter we will see how it has mixed pagan elements with corrupted biblical themes to form mainstream "Christian" doctrines. Is there another "Holy Mother Church" that so perfectly fits the description of the "Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth"?

Only the Roman Church has ridden the Beast. She first rode it during the Late Roman Empire, in the days of Constantine and Theodosius. Then she is pictured riding its "seven heads"--the Roman revivals beginning with Justinian. These seven heads or kingdoms (cf. Rev. 17:10) correspond to the last seven of the ten horns of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, following the three uprooted by Catholic sanction. Let's now examine the other "heads" that followed Justinian--the heads of the "Holy" Roman Empire.

The Holy Roman Empire

In the years following Justinian's Imperial Restoration, the Eastern emperors generally focused their attention and resources closer to home. The security provided for the West by Constantinople became negligible. Meanwhile, the Carolingian dynasty, which ruled over the Franks (in modern France), was emerging as the protector of Western Christendom. To secure this role, private negotiations were held between Carolingian King Charlemagne and Pope Leo III--the results of which were made manifest in A.D. 800.

"On Christmas Day, as Charlemagne, in the [mantle] and sandals of a patricius Romanus [Roman noble], knelt before St. Peter's altar in prayer, Leo suddenly produced a jeweled crown, and set it upon the King's head. The congregation, perhaps instructed beforehand to act according to ancient ritual as the senatus populusque Romanus [senate and people of Rome] confirming a coronation, thrice cried out: 'Hail to Charles the Augustus, crowned by God the great and peace-bringing Emperor of the Romans!'

Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire

The royal head was anointed with holy oil, the Pope saluted Charlemagne as Emperor and Augustus" (Durant, pp. 468-469). After several years of dispute, the Byzantine emperor recognized the Frankish king as co-emperor. Thus the Imperium in the West passed to the second "horn" of the Beast of Revelation 13 following the three uprootings--also the second "head" of the scarlet Beast of chapter 17. Both "heads" mentioned so far--Justinian and Charlemagne--were allied with the bishop of Rome, having arisen at papal behest and with papal blessing.

Historian Will Durant explains, "Out of this intimate co-operation of Church and state came one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of statesmanship: the transformation of Charlemagne's realm into a Holy Roman Empire that should have behind it all the prestige, sanctity, and stability of both Imperial and papal Rome" (p. 468).

During the century and a half that followed Charlemagne's coronation, his empire slowly disintegrated under weak successors. By 936 the German Saxons had become the most powerful group in central Europe. In 955 Otto, Duke of the Saxons and now King of the Germans, defeated the Magyars, who were attempting to invade Western Europe from the east. Several years later he entered Italy at the request of Pope John XII to restore him to power and, in the aftermath, received the crown of the Roman Empire of the German Nation--the first German Reich--in 962.

Otto's Roman Empire of the German Nation

"Thus once again the ghost of the Roman empire was summoned to sanction the successful state building of a semi-barbarian king" (William McNiel, Handbook of Western Civilization, p. 317). The coronation of Otto the Great as emperor marked the inauguration of the third head in the continuity of the restored Western Empire.

What was the significance of Otto's revival of the Empire to his contemporaries and their successors? Note what historian Robert Hertzstein wrote in his introduction to The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages: "The Empire was understood not as a mere term, but as a universal Christian regent for God on Earth, to exist until the coming of the Anti-Christ. Like Charlemagne, Otto received his throne through the Papal claim that the Roman Church had been the only Imperial elector since the early fourth century.... The Holy Roman Empire was thus to a large extent German in its ethnic and political base, Christian in its moral justification, and Roman in its claim to legitimacy and universality" (p. viii).

In an essay titled "The Empire as a Regency for God on Earth," noted Austrian historian Friedrich Heer writes, "The task of the Empire was to be God's protagonist on earth, to fulfill His aims here, to protect Christianity and the Church, and to preserve the righteousness of God and the divine order of the universe on earth. The earthly Empire was the transitory reflection of the eternal City of God.... In the imperial symbols this claim was displayed to the whole world: with the imperial apple, filled with earth from the four corners of the world, the Emperor holds the whole world in his hand.... [The emperor] called the imperial crown corona urbis et orbis [the crown of the city, i.e. Rome, and of the globe]; he viewed himself as the caput mundi [head of the world] and as the dominator orbis et urbis [ruler of the globe and of the city]" (Hertzstein, pp. 64-65).

Otto's revived Holy Roman Empire continued for almost 300 years. Finally, with the death of Conrad IV in 1254, the Empire became so rent by rival factions that 19 years went by without an emperor. Afterward, Rudolph I was elected Emperor in 1273. He was the first of the Hapsburg family to be elevated to the imperial throne.

Holy Roman Empire and Other European Lands Under Charles V Hapsburg

The apex of this fourth revival of the Roman Imperium was the crowning of Rudolph's descendant, Charles I of Spain, as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by Pope Clement VII in 1530.Charlesruledoveravast empire. From his mother Joan, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, he had inherited Spain and all its possessions in the New World. From his father he inherited vast Hapsburg domains in Germany, Italy and Central Europe. After Charles V, Hapsburg power waned. And by the 18th century, "Holy Roman Emperor" was an increasingly empty title.

In the final decade of the 18th century, all of Europe was shaken by the French Revolution. In its wake, a man both highly gifted and supremely ambitious came to power in France. His name was Napoleon. Aspiring to far more than the French presidency or even to being a new king of France, his ambition could only be satisfied by the re-establishment of the Roman Empire with himself as emperor. As Will Durant notes, "he dreamt of rivaling Charlemagne and uniting Western Europe" (vol. 11, p. 243).

Napoleon considered himself successor to Caesar and Charlemagne. Staging a popular election that he won almost unanimously, Napoleon had the French Senate proclaim him emperor on May 18, 1804. Immediately he began negotiations with Pope Pius VII to come to Paris and consecrate him as emperor. The negotiations were successful and the coronation occurred December 2.

Meanwhile, the Hapsburgs of Austria, who maintained their claim on the title of Holy Roman Emperor, were hit hard by the successive military and diplomatic advances of Napoleon-including his assumption of the imperial title. This was particularly so when, two years after he did so, 16 princes and their states withdrew from the Hapsburg's Holy Roman Empire, formed the Confederation of the Rhine and asked Napoleon to

Napoleon's French Empire in Europe

take them under his protection as a part of his empire. The following month, on August 6, 1806, Francis II of Austria renounced his now-empty title of Holy Roman Emperor. Napoleon's European empire now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Elbe River. France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Germany and all French and Spanish New World territories--the greater part of the Americas--formed his vast empire. Napoleon thus became the fifth head of the revived Western Imperium.

Napoleon's empire was not destined to be long-lived, however. A British-led coalition brought about his defeat and abdication in 1814. This ended a period of 1,260 years since the Imperial Restoration under Justinian in 554. Thus the prophecy in Revelation 13:3-5oftheBeast'smortalwound,subsequenthealingand continuation for "forty-two months "was fulfilled (42 thirty-day "months" is equal to 1,260 prophetic "days" or actual years--see box: " Forty-Two Months"). Napoleon's abdication marked the end of an era. According to historian Willis Mason West, "so closed a government that dated from Augustus Caesar" (Modern History: Europe from Charlemagne to the Present Time, 1944, p. 377).

But according to the prophecies of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17, there were yet to be two more attempts to revive the grandeur of ancient Rome.

Forty-Two Months Revelation 13:5 says the Beast would continue for "forty-two months" after its "healing." Are these 42 literal months? Let's look at another 42-month period. Revelation 11 is wholly set in the end time (vv. 14-15). The beginning of the chapter mentions Jerusalem being trodden down by Gentiles for 42 months. We also read of God's two end-time witnesses prophesying then for 1,260 days (v. 3). These two periods are synonymous. And a little arithmetic shows that each month must be 30 days (for 42 x 30 = 1,260). This period is also 3 1/2 years (42 months divided by 12 months in a year). Since the context makes clear that the two witnesses are actual individuals who are killed and then resurrected in the very end time (vv. 7-14), we conclude that the 42 months here equals 1,260 literal days. The Beast chapter (Rev. 13), however, does not occur in such a short period. It spans centuries, from the time the Beast (the Roman Empire) receives a deadly wound (the fall of Rome in A.D. 476) and is subsequently healed (Justinian's Imperial Restoration in 554) all the way to the end time. If the 42 months of verse 5 were 1,260 literal days, the revived Roman Beast would have continued for 3 1/2 years from 554 to 558. Yet Justinian himself did not even die until 565! So there must be another explanation. Scripture shows that a day can sometimes symbolize a year in Bible prophecy (cf. Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6). So if 42 months equals 1,260 days, then a day for a year here gives us 1,260 years. Was there such a period of exactly 1,260 years of imperial continuity since Justinian's restoration? Yes--from then (554) to Napoleon's abdication and exile in 1814! This interpretation certainly makes the most sense. Back...

One More Down, One to Go

After Napoleon's collapse in 1814, Germany and Italy remained divided and powerless for the next half-century. Each was rent with internal squabbles among a number of small states and principalities. By 1871, Bismarck had succeeded in uniting all of non-Hapsburg Germany under the Prussian King, William--forming the second German Reich--while Garibaldi succeeded in uniting all of Italy under the northern Italian King of Sardinia-Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel.

Fifty years after Garibaldi's unification, a strongman rose to power in Italy with visions of restoring the grandeur and glory of ancient Rome once again. His name was Benito Mussolini. And in 1922, he led his Fascist party to power. The Fascists derived their name from the imperial Roman fasces--an ax wrapped in a bundle of rods, signifying unity and authority. It was carried in ancient times by a Roman consul as a symbol of his office.

In 1870, King Victor Emmanuel's Italian army, led by General Garibaldi, defeated the armies of the pope and captured Rome. From that time on, there was a tense standoff between the popes and the new rulers of Italy. Finally, in 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the papacy. This treaty established the papal sovereignty of Vatican City, affirmed Roman Catholicism as the only religion of Italy and made Mussolini's the first Italian government in modern history to be officially recognized by the pope.

Eager to restore "glory," Mussolini looked for places to conquer. Ethiopia, whose army had routed the Italians from East Africa in 1896, seemed a likely prospect. Mussolini's forces successfully invaded Ethiopia and Somaliland. In 1936, he pompously proclaimed that what Italians were seeing was, "after fifteen centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on the fated hills of Rome. "Mussolini then entered into an alliance with Adolf Hitler, ruler of Germany-now in its "Third Reich"--resulting in the Rome-Berlin Axis of World War II. This sixth attempt at uniting Europe by reviving imperial Rome went down in flames in 1945.

Hitler-Mussolini Axis During World War II

Revelation 17:10 makes an interesting statement about the seven heads of the Beast ridden by the woman: "There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time." Notice the time frame here. "Five have fallen," i.e. Justinian, Charlemagne, Otto, Charles V and Napoleon--spanning the 1,260 years the Beast was to continue, from 554 to 1814. Then the verse says, "one IS." But Hitler and Mussolini were not around when John wrote this prophecy. The time frame must then be reckoned from when this prophecy was to be revealed.

This parallels a statement in Daniel, a book that must be read in conjunction with Revelation to properly understand end-time events. The prophecies in these books were not meant to be understood until this modern age. Daniel recorded, "Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, 'My lord, what shall be the end of these things?' And he said, 'Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand" (12:8-10).

And indeed the meaning of these prophecies came to be generally understood by God's Church at the very time indicated--the time of the "sixth head," the Hitler-Mussolini Axis. How truly remarkable this is! Furthermore, it gives added proof that since that revival, humanity has been living in the end time. Notice also that "the other [revival] has not yet come" (Rev. 17:10). This is how Mr. Herbert Armstrong knew that another world dictator would yet emerge from a united Europe after World War II. Are you, too--like the "wise"--beginning to understand?

Many said in the aftermath of the war that Europe's day was gone. Cities, countryside and national economies were devastated throughout the continent, especially in Germany. It seemed to many that Russian Communism was the wave of the future in Europe. After all, following the war, Stalin quickly stamped the Russian boot on as much of Europe as he could. The idea of a German-led Europe playing a dominant role in world affairs was something most observers said could never again happen.

Yet in 1957, within 12 years of the war's end, a fledgling Common Market (the European Economic Community or EEC) was instituted by the Treaty of Rome. It began the next year with France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In 1967 it became the European Community (EC). Ireland, Britain and Denmark joined in 1973, followed by Greece in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986--12 nations in all. The EC was the direct predecessor of today's powerful European Union.

The process of European unification has been greatly endorsed by the Vatican. On November 9, 1982, Pope John Paul II gave a speech in Spain in which he said to Europeans, "Revive your roots"--and expressed his fervent wish for them to establish a united Europe "from the Atlantic to the Urals."

And now, what of the future? Is the European Union paving the way for the seventh and final attempt at reviving Europe's roots--resurrecting the grandeur and might of imperial Rome?

Prophecies for Our Day and Beyond

As we have learned, the seven heads of the scarlet Beast of Revelation 17 are seven successive kingdoms (v. 10)--the seven resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. We have already examined the first six. The coming seventh head is also described as "the eighth, and is of the seven" (v. 11). It is the "eighth" Holy Roman system if you count the scarlet Beast itself--that is, the original Roman Empire in the days of Constantine--as the first one.

The seven heads here correspond to the last seven of the "ten horns" of the Beasts in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. So what do the "ten horns" here in Revelation 17 represent? Verse 12: "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast." Just as "king" and "kingdom" are interchangeable in prophecy, so the Beast is the name of the coming revival of the Holy Roman Empire and of its Hitlerian leader--the individual referred to here. "These [ten rulers] are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast" (v. 13). When? "These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them" (v. 14).

So the time setting is yet ahead of us because these ten will fight against Christ at His return. Thus the ten horns mentioned here in Revelation 17 correspond perfectly to the ten toes of the great image of Daniel 2. Remember, these ten toes--five on the foot of each leg--are smashed by Christ at His return to set up the final world-ruling kingdom, the Kingdom of God (vv. 34-35, 42-44). The ten toes of Daniel 2 and the ten horns of Revelation 17 are clearly synonymous. They symbolize ten rulers who will collectively support and give their allegiance to the seventh and final resurrection of the Roman Empire.

As we know, the legs of the image in Daniel 2 represent the Roman Empire, divided into West and East. Bible prophecy focuses on the continuation of the Western Empire, the Beast ridden by the harlot. But from Daniel 2, it is apparent that the eastern leg has a part to play in the final revival. The East Roman Empire continued to be ruled from Constantinople until 1453, when the Ottoman Turks overran the city and killed the last emperor, Constantine XI.

However, that was not the end of the eastern leg. Nineteen years after the fall of Constantinople, in 1472, the pope performed a marriage ceremony between Ivan the Great, Duke of Muscovy (modern western Russia), and Zoe, niece and heir to the last Eastern emperor. "The marriage was of importance in establishing the claim of Russian rulers to be the successors of the Greek emperors and the protectors of Orthodox Christianity.... Ivan took the title Tsar [or Czar], i.e., Caesar" (Langer, p. 342). Thus, down through history, the Roman Empire has continued as two legs. There were two individuals claiming to be the successors of Caesar. In the West the form of the title was Kaiser, and in the East it was Tsar.

The tsars and the kaisers are no more. Yet remaining of their empires are numerous European nations that have their roots in the old Roman Empire. Nations whose heritage is Greek, Slavic and Orthodox derive from the eastern leg of the Empire, while those with Latin, Germanic and Catholic heritage derive from the Western Roman Empire. From among these nations will ultimately arise ten leaders who will change the face of both Europe and the world!

God's Word reveals that eventually these ten kings (or rulers) will unite. Daniel 2 shows us that they represent the end-time successors of both the western and eastern legs of the Empire--since there are five "toes" on the foot of each leg. It is surprising how closely the east-west division of Europe today--as defined by the now-obsolete Iron Curtain--matches up with the ancient imperial division. The coming ten rulers, and their leader, will form the last resurrection of the Roman Empire--the final successor and embodiment of Babylon. However, of the former Soviet bloc nations that will probably be part of the Beast, some will apparently break with the system before the end and join Far Eastern powers to actually fight against the Beast--as we'll see near the end of this booklet.

What will be the nature of the final Roman union? "And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay" (vv. 42-43). It seems that despite all the work of the globalists toward superseding national identities, the various ethnic and local rivalries will assure that this final empire remains loosely knit and short-lived. Yet while it lasts, it will be very powerful.

So before the good news of Christ's return, there is bad news ahead. The final ten rulers will give their support to a coming union of church and state in Europe that will aspire to world dominance. Johannes Haller, a popular German historian who died in 1947, stated, "In the memory of the German people the old [Holy Roman] Empire lives on as a time of greatness and splendor that must one day come to life again."

After a short interlude of apparent peace and prosperity, this system will plunge the whole world into a hellish nightmare. Without God's intervention, utter destruction would result and all mankind would perish (Matt. 24:21-22). But God will intervene--by sending Jesus Christ back to this earth (vv. 29-30).

The Bible reveals that dark days are before us. It tells us that those who remain will be compelled to receive the "mark of the beast." But it also says that those who do will face horrible torment at Christ's return. Just what is this mark? Will you have to receive it? What can you do about it now? These questions will be answered in the next chapter.

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