the Revised Number of the Beast

[RDR]

Okay, I just got back from the thrift store.<br><br>The author is a guy named William Barclay. More: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.william-barclay.com/books_ndsb_06.shtml">www.william-barclay.com/b...b_06.shtml</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>The book I thumbed through was Vol. 2. <br><br>I didn't buy the book. It wasn't worth the $2.00 asking price to me. <br><br>My attitude toward the Revelation of St. John of Patmos is pretty much summed up as "Que sera, sera."<br><br>Instead, I picked up Big Media honcho/Aspen Institute head/recent Aspen arrival/Hunter Thompson groupie Walter Isaacson's biography of Henry Kissinger, for $4.00.<br><br>By the way, thrift stores and secondhand book and music stores are outstanding places to encounter synchronicites. Not mere "language/name/verbal synchronicities", actual material manifestations. <br><br>For me, anyway. Yes-I. Praise the Lord. <br><br>Hmm...Christian numerology. I've never quite been able to get that to compute. I guess you might say I'm agnostic about it. <br><br>Listened to the ever wry and insightful Bill Moyers on the radio on the way home, <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>booking the case</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> on some guy named Ken Tomlinson in a recent speech featured on <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Democracy Now</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/16/1329245">www.democracynow.org/arti...16/1329245</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Oh, <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>that Ken Tomlinson</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->..current head of the CPB. <br><br>Moyers was as scathing as I've ever heard him get. Funny, too...high comedy. Although it would no doubt have been even funnier if Thomlinson had appeared to defend his positions and actions in a head-to-head debate. <br><br>What chance?<br><br>I predict that if challenged to debate Moyers in person before a live audience,Thomlinson would scurry like a roach. Some public steward of American "public broadcasting"... <p></p><i></i>

[Seventhson]

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1112&C=1177">www.religion-online.org/s...112&C=1177</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>He says the beast is the reincarnation of Nero. Caligula is identified as one of the "heads" of the beast<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"We get this specially in the picture of the Beast in the notorious thirteenth chapter of the Revelation. The beast from the sea (13:1) is Caesar-worship invading Asia Minor. The seven heads are the seven Emperors to whom Caesar-worship had been given up to that time, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. After the death of Nero there had been some months of chaos in which three Emperors had reigned for brief periods, Galba, Otho and Vitellius. They with the seven others make up the ten horns. The blasphemous name on the heads is kurios, lord, the title which belonged only to Christ and which the Roman Emperors blasphemously claimed. One of the heads had a mortal wound that had been healed. That head (13:2, 12) is the worst of all and that head stands for Nero wounded to death and resurrected, Nero Redivivus, Antichrist. The number of the beast is 666 (13:1<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> , and that is the sum total of the letters in the name Nero Caesar in Hebrew, when the letters are taken as numbers. (Greek and Hebrew had no signs for the numbers, and the letters stood for the numbers, as if in English a=1, b=2, c=3, and so on.) Such was the reputation of Nero and so strong was the Nero Redivivus legend that Nero was identified with Antichrist and with the Beast.<br><br>So then the Revelation was written at a time when the might of Rome was rising up to crush the Church, and when an Antichrist who was a reincarnation of Nero was expected to come.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br><br>Barclay also says not to take the prophecies too literally in this interesting explanation of his views on Revelation.<br><br>For ME the analogy to today's "new" antiChrist and a modern beast is more apt in many ways. But, hell, this is all mystery teaching anyway --- so who's to say for sure?<br><br>I just think that from a prophetic point of view the apocalypse of John has more analogies to today than even back then and since the apocalypse is a description of the "end days" and "end-millenial" times and describes global horrors, the analogies of Nero to Bush are justifiable. Especially the descriptions here of Nero's persecution of the righteous. <p></p><i></i>

[RDR]

Could be.<br><br>Correction taken on the Caligula thing, by the way. <p></p><i></i>

[Seventhson]

The analogies between Rome, Babylon and the USA are many as are the Caesars and the Kaisers and the Hitlers and the Bushes.<br><br>666 of one, a half 1332 of the other<br><br>On a clear day you can see forever <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

RI<br>"Fascinating stuff. Most Christian fundamentalists don't reflect on how relatively recent their orthodox eschatology is."<br><br>I could draw a pertinent analogy, which covers the same timeframe.....<br><br>"Most British subjects don't reflect on how relatively recent their State ritual is." (did you see the Queen's Speech)<br><br>All of that pomp and pageantry began with Victoria and Binyamin Disraelli. It's not centuries old, but less than 150 years. The British Monarchy was the pathfinder when it came to rebranding.<br><br>How did they do it? They used emergency legislation passed in 1848 to build an absolute monarchy. That legislation remains on the books today. That legislation explains why the British people cannot rid themselves of the much hated Blair (strong words, I know, but true)<br><br><br><br>RDR<br>"By the way, thrift stores and secondhand book and music stores are outstanding places to encounter synchronicites. Not mere "language/name/verbal synchronicities", actual material manifestations."<br><br>What you are describing is what Sir Karl Popper described as "library angels". I have experienced their activities on many occasions. They also get involved in computer searches.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[robertdreed]

I'm with Karl Popper on that one. That's how I built my library. <br><br>It's the most plausible explanation I've found for the fact that I turned up two copies of Sally Denton's rare and OOP book The Bluegrass Conspiracy in thrift stores- one hardback, and one copy that seems to be even rarer- the paperback, with photos. <br><br> If you ever find a copy of The Bluegrass Conspiracy, you should get interested enough to read the whole thing if you take a little time to read some of the material contained within the last 30-40 pages of the book. <br><br>Hey, what do you know- the book want back into print in 2001! <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595196667/qid=1116425265/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-2961082-5041721?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">www.amazon.com/exec/obido...s&n=507846</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Revised and updated, so I'll need to get a hold of it...another one I need to find for revisions and updates is the latest edition of C. Craig Copetas' book Metal Men, about Marc Rich. <br><br>drifted off-topic a bit there...my apologies. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p097.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 8/24/05 12:13 am<br></i>

[Unknown]

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