CHRISTIAN MEDIA RESEARCH

s a Bible prophecy teacher and writer, one of the most common questions I'm asked concerns the future. Most people simply want to know what is going to happen as the end of the age comes about.

Over the years, I've learned there are practically endless permutations concerning just how world events play out, but there is always a pattern, and a logic that validates the Scriptures. Unfortunately, these frequently come into focus after the fact. Furthermore, on many occasions, I end up wondering why I didn't see a particular facet of prophetic fulfillment before the fact, because the Spiritual patterns are always present.

Having said that, I'd like to summarize one possible outcome, and project it onto Barack Obama. In order to do that, some background on previous prophetic analysis -- and predictions -- is in order. First and foremost, we see the big picture. On the global scale, the idea of the so called New World Order is widely misunderstood, and prophecy teachers are among the worst prognosticators on the planet.

Most talk endlessly about a global order, with the Antichrist on the top of the food chain. Usually, we hear about this one world system, complete with mark of the beast technology, and invariably, it's presented as though the Beast (Revelation's title for the evil power) conquers everything. Contrary to the pop prophetic worldview sensationalized by the morons who put out Left Behind, and other pulp drivel of a similar nature, the last years of this age continue in conflict.

In his 11th chapter, the prophet Daniel tells us things boil down to two factions, the Northern and the Southern powers, demarcated on a geo-political basis. The Northern king, clearly associated with the Northern Command, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Group of 8 industrialized Northern democracies, is the aggressor.

The North is opposed by the Southern power, which is now comprised of resource rich, Socialist and Islamic despots, yoked together through an intense aversion to the ways of the North. Although many are already entangled in the financial snarl generated by the North, The geo-political Southern nations (as opposed to the geographic South) detest the globalist economic tentacles of the North, as seen in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

With this base definition in hand, we recognize America as the "king of the North" described in the prophecy, and to a certain extent, the predictions also apply to whichever leader is presently in power. Thus Barack Obama looms large in Bible prophecy.

Threading through the sequence of events in Daniel, we also see a parallel structure which repeatedly sequences progressive kingdoms which have a rise, fall, and rise again cycle. The "fall" of such kingdoms is seen in Revelation where the Beast has seven heads, and each of them successively receives a "deadly wound."

The cycle of seven has been repeated, as the sixth kingdom in a "set," invariably encounters the Spiritual power seen in the LORD, represented as the kingdom of God (the seventh), or the eternal rest (read Sabbath) that can only be found in God. The pattern is renewed when the sixth kingdom -- representing the epitome of earthly power -- collides with the kingdom of God (symbolized by the Sabbath, or the number seven), and when the two collide, man produces a synthesis of government and God, which is seen in the number eight.

"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition" (Revelation 17:11).

In Old Testament examples, the eighth day is actually the first day of the new week, and represents new beginnings. Thus, the eight starts the cycle over again. This cyclical pattern, known as the 6,7,8 Cycle, provides us with the broad steps which predict what will occur in our time.

In the Old Testament timeline, the six Gentile world kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome ran into Jesus Christ -- the seventh:

"...in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed..." (Daniel 2:44)

Thus, the sixth kingdom, Saturn worshiping, pre-Christian Rome, collided with the Gospel of Jesus (the seventh kingdom), to produce the synthesis known as The Holy Roman Empire. This is, of course, the Dialectical formula of thesis versus antithesis equals synthesis.

The Holy Roman, as the eighth, began the count again as Imperial Spain, the British Commonwealth, Soviet Union, Third Reich, and America recapitulated the pattern with a Christian veneer. Thus, we expect to see America, as the sixth, collide with another manifestation of Christ as the seventh, to produce the Antichrist system as the eighth.

Since we have identified the White Horse, Red Horse, Black Horse, and Pale Horse of Revelation as adjacent perspectives of Britain, Russia, Germany, and America (kingdoms 3, 4, 5, & 6), the phenomena following the Pale Horse (in the seals of Revelation) is seen as the martyrs of Jesus -- another manifestation of the seventh. What is anticipated is that America will collide with God (something already occurring), and America receives the "deadly wound" as a result.

One of the primary prophetic patterns described in the present work is covered at some length in the book THE 6,7,8 CYCLE.