In previous writings, I've connected the corporate Christian church with the enigmatic passages dealing with the Image of the Beast - and now we can see even more layers to the ominous phenomena seen in the book of Revelation.

Regular readers of Christian Media's prophetic materials already know that when a church incorporates, it is legally defined as "an artificial person" (see Bouvier's law dictionary). They also know that such a "person" is assigned a unique 9 digit identifying number - the equivalent of a social security number for that institution. The number 9 was the sacred number of ancient Babylon, and as an inverted 6, that unique identifier is a part of another manifestation of "the number of the Beast" (Revelation 13:18).

For example, the entire US banking system is committed to a 9 digit routing number (see the middle 9 digits at the bottom of all US bank checks). When combined with the 9-digit locator known as the zip code (5 digits + 4), the system encompasses three 9's (think three inverted 6's) in which the Beast system combines your unique identification number, your financial institution, and your location. 

We Have Met The Corporation - And He Is Us

Since every major church and ministry in the country is incorporated in one fashion or another, it is significant to realize the actual word "corporation" comes from the Latin word "corpus" - meaning a body. This "body," which is an "artificial person," has a creator, and that creator is the governing legal authority that brought it into being. That "creator" is, of course, the government, for in every case it is the government that grants the creation of a corporation.

Since the one who created you is your God, government is the "god" of all corporations.  It might be noted that all organized government operates under a charter, a declaration, a constitution, or a legal document of some sort - which is the legal authority for that government's existence. In short, all governments are corporations.

This means that when a government grants a corporate existence to a church, that incorporated church has been created in the image of its creator. Furthermore, because incorporated churches continue on an ongoing basis after their creation in submission to their respective articles of incorporation (also called bylaws), they exist in continual submission to their creator - who functions as the "head" of that body. Their articles of incorporation are the formal rules of its existence - in effect, the corporation's "Scripture."

For those who doubt the incontrovertible truth that the head of an incorporated body is the government, we suggest you try operating a corporation outside of the authority of the corporation's bylaws, and you'll soon find the government will revoke the corporation, or worse. 

The Beast That Was, Has Risen Again

In prior writings, we have shown how the modern state of Israel has a definitive association with the prophecy of "the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is" passages found in Revelation. These perceptions are in parallel to the Little Horn identity found in the Old Testament.  Readers will remember the prophet Daniel's vision of the Beast included ten horns,

"....and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" (Daniel 7:8).

The volatile political conditions associated with the formation of the tiny state of Israel, amidst a veritable sea of hostile neighbors, is in view in the "little horn" passages. On one layer of fulfillment, ten Islamic powers are seen, but on another layer, the ten-fold global division of world powers is also recorded. 

We have previously dealt with the adjacent kingdoms that are said to be "plucked up" in these passages, but the intersection of these identities with the "heads" that command the beast kingdom in its description in Revelation is also of great interest. In Revelation, we again see the beast with ten horns, but the Apostle John also

"...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 13:3).

Even though the text tells us it is "one of his heads" that is "wounded to death," we later see a verse that speaks of the Beast itself

"...which had the wound by a sword, and did live" (Revelation 13:14).

Although these compound identities blur the distinction between the identity of the head that is wounded and the Beast itself, the passage helps us to see another revealing layer of the Beast's identity. Since we can tie the "wounding" of the Beast to the period when the Beast "is not" (Revelation 17:8), and Israel was "not" when Revelation was written, we can also place the period when "all the world wondered after the Beast" to the time of its miraculous resurrection.

Thus, if we look for any historical reference to a significant political or military power that was completely destroyed ("wounded to death"), then subsequently restored as a national power ("his deadly wound was healed"), the obvious candidate would be Israel.

Indeed, this identification dovetails precisely with the recognition of Israel as the Little Horn of Daniel. For instance, those familiar with the prophetic landscape presented by mainstream Christianity in America are certainly aware that prophecy teachers commonly speak of Israel's return to her historic Middle Eastern homeland in glowing and enthusiastic terms.

Enter The American Rapture Cult

John Hagee, the nationally known Christian leader, and founder of the burgeoning group Christians United For Israel (CUFI), recently spoke to thousands of Christians that assembled to honor the Jewish nation. Hagee enthralled his vast audience when he exultantly proclaimed at the top of his lungs,

"Israel Is Alive!  Israel Is Alive!  Israel Is Alive!"

While it's unfortunate that Christians are not united for Jesus, and usually do not loudly declare that "Jesus Is Alive!" the evangelistic fervor of those that see the Jewish repatriation as a positive prophetic development is growing by leaps and bounds. Many are aware that Messianic Judaism, the faulty theology that retains a primacy for the Jewish people in God's prophetic program, are surging to record levels of acceptance.

An emerging theological variant, known as "two house" theology, seeks to identify Christian believers as the "Ephraim" of the dispersed Northern Israelite tribes in an effort to meld mainstream Christianity with Orthodox (read Jesus rejecting) Jewry, into Messianic Judaism as the synthesis of the two. This thoroughly false system is also spreading like wildfire. Even the late Pope John Paul II abandoned Catholicism's long standing contrivance of "replacement theology" (which erroneously taught the "church" replaced Israel), and published his blasphemous belief in a fiction called "dual covenant" theology, in which Jews are saved under the Old Covenant, while Christians are saved under the New Covenant. 

When we view the fundamental fact the true Gospel of Jesus Christ "turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6), and declared the only truly Jewish person "is one inwardly" because he or she has come to life in Christ (Romans 2:29), we see the era of the pre-eminence of physical Israel came to a close at the cross. History records the very real fact that, as the post-crucifixion Jewish nation continued in "the overspreading of abominations, he [made] it desolate" (Daniel 9:27) through the destruction of the nation in 70AD at the hands of the Romans.

In the ensuing 19 centuries, this "Beast was not," but contemporary believers have fallen so far from basic New Testament doctrine they view the return of the physical Jews to the Middle East as a wonderful development - when in fact, the resurrection of the Christ rejecting state of Israel marks the "healing" and ascension of the Beast Spirit that "was not" prior to Israel's founding in 1948.  In short, the so-called "Christian" world has already "wondered after the Beast" (Revelation 13:3).

The Image Of The Beast

On yet another layer of Spiritual significance, we learn the False Prophet, who is clearly identified with Christianity through the metaphor of his resemblance to a "lamb," causes the world

"...to make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live" (Revelation 13:14).

When we realize the Spirit that has resided in the False Prophet throughout the age has sought to mold the "church" into a replica of the religious body that was Israel, we may see the connection. Although this analogy clearly implicates Roman Catholicism and the Papacy's counterfeit of Judaism's High Priest , the comparisons go much further.

In fact, the word "image" in the Greek is "eikonos" - meaning a copy, or replica -- and the similarities between the Christian hierarchical structures that developed in the first centuries AD were clearly relative to the pattern of the earlier Jewish synagogues and temple system.

Thus, although the "Beast" may be seen in a political sense on one level, with the "church" as a religious copy, on a purely Spiritual plane, the Jewish religious system prefigures Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical imitations. This perception helps to explain a great deal, in that a vast amount of prophecy shows the various Satanic imagery boils down to a prophetic pair that draws the world towards the dragon - the third person in this unholy pantheon.

This also helps to explain why many researchers find enormous Roman Catholic and Evangelical complicity in the Antichrist conspiracy via the machinations of the Jesuits and other incorporated denominational bodies that have been penetrated by secret societies. Simultaneously, other credible research makes a very good case for Jewish conspiratorial practices in terms of their historical influence in finance and political conflict through the age. To put it bluntly, both lines of inquiry are on target. 

This perspective places Israel into the role of the Beast, and the Papacy and all her incorporated daughters into the venue of the False Prophet who brings about an apparent end time's revival as the "Christian" churches come together in support of Israel - "whose deadly wound was healed." (Revelation 13:12)

Furthermore, Revelation tells us it is the Image of the Beast that persecutes the true believers - the real Remnant of Israel, as the Beast and its image can never tolerate the Scriptural truth that the saved body of believers is the only true "Israel of God" as defined by the New Testament.

Last but hardly least, there is the distinct possibility there is yet another layer to the deadly wound and its healing that lies directly ahead - and it is clear that America's apostate churches are firmly committed to providing the religious justification for a colossal military involvement in defense of the Beast that was - but that's a tale I'll leave for another day.

- James Lloyd

Copyright © 2007 Christian Media Network

See Also

The Image Of The Beast

The Little Horn

The Beast That Was

The Remnant Of Israel