THE REDEMPTION PLAY
Table of Contents
Preface
Prologue

Act I: The Beginning

            1. Creation, Adam and Eve, The Flood

Act II: The Three Main Characters

            1. The Nations

            2. The Spirit of Empire

            3. The Chosen Nation

            4. The Ultimate Salvation of Israel

                And the Time of the Gentiles

Act III: The Beast

            1. The Colossus of Empire

            2. Babylon: The Head of Gold

            3. Persia: Chest and Arms of Silver
            4. Greece: Belly and Thighs of Brass

            5. Rome: Legs of Iron/Feet of Clay

 Act IV: The Latter Days

            1. Our Hero Appears

            2. Age of Comp. North vs. South
3. East Roman Empire vs. Islam
4. Holy Roman Emp. vs. Ottoman Emp.

            5. The British Empire

            6. The United States: "Raiser of Taxes"

 Act V: The End Times

            1. The Signs of the End

            2. The Fig Tree Buds: Israel Reborn
3. The Antichrist and the Ten Kings

            4. The King of the South

            5. Russia and Its Hordes

 Act VI: The 70th Week

            1. The Rapture

            2. Antichrist's Covenant with Israel

            3. The Abomination of Desolation:                               Pivotal Point in 70th Week

            4. The End: Most Holy is Anointed

            5. The Book of Revelation:

                The Tribulation in Detail

 Act VII: Redemption

            1. The Millennium

            2. God All, in All

                      

 

TO ANTICHRIST SECTION INTRO

THE BRIDE SECTION INTRO

TO SIGNS OF CHRIST'S RETURN INTRO


TO BORN AGAIN
SANCTIFIED
PURIFIED PERFECTED
THE CHURCH AS OVERCOMERS


SEE: PERSONAL TESTIMONIES PAGE
FOR BORN AGAIN TESTIMONIES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Act 4, Scene 2: 

The Age of
Competition:

North vs. South

 

 

      “Little children it is the last time: and as ye have heard that the antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” (1 John 2.18)

 

   The breaking up of the Beast and the appearance of our Hero, Jesus Christ, heralds the opening of a whole new age called the Latter Days. These Latter Days are an age of great mercy and wonderful salvation for individuals who seek to fit into God's will, but for the nations Latter Days are an entirely different time, a time fraught with competition and turmoil. While the Scriptures use the phrases latter days, last times, latter years, etc., to refer to the final hours of God's judgment just prior to the return of the triumphant Messiah, such phrases are also used - as the quote above from 1 John demonstrates - to describe the whole period after the coming of Christ. The term "last time" even suggests that there are no more revelations, no more chances other than the one being given through Christ. This is the last period of time, the last time God will intervene for the salvation of Man - everything - every promise will be fulfilled in this "last time".

    The prophecies of Daniel 11 are important because they provide us with a window into the Age of the Gentiles, the competition between the Northern (Antichrist) and Southern Empires, and also give us many of the details of the Antichrist's actual career. In Act 4 we have moved into a different prophetic realm. No part of the Bible is written contemporary to the time of the Latter Days, from this time on prophecy is God's only way of recording history. Since the Time of the Gentiles could not be recorded through eyewitness accounts - unlike the history of the Jews, or the Gospels, or the genesis of the Church - the only way to record the history of the Latter Days, which is the history of the evolution of the Church, the history of modern nations, and the history of the Antichrist and his ultimate end, was through the window of prophecy and Daniel 11 provides that window.

    

Daniel 11 is a Capsule of History since the Coming of Christ

            Daniel 11 does not waste time getting to the point. The shortest way between two points is a straight line and that is precisely the path chapter 11 of Daniel takes in chronicling the history of the Beast and its destiny in the Latter Days. It is a direct, simple
story which begins with Persia and traces the Empire's growth to a mature beast, Rome; past Rome's division; through its struggle to survive and compete with the antagonistic Southern Kingdom and the ongoing rivalry between the two to control the "Jewel" of the earth, the Holy Land; and on up to the "Little Horn" (the Antichrist person) himself, when the Antichrist leader and Antichrist Empire merge at the end for the final confrontation between God, Christ and Church; and Satan, Antichrist and World. Here, in just a few sentences for each, are recorded all the significant movements and wars between the Antichrist Empire and its rival, the South. The overall themes of Daniel deal with the Antichrist Empire and the person of the Antichrist. The entire book of Daniel has prophetic importance, some of which is conveyed through allegories drawn from the actual deeds of some men and serve as lessons about the Antichrist to come, while other parts of the Book of Daniel are dreams or visions which paint pictures of spirits that lurk behind the surface appearance of things. Still other parts are forecasts of history; the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian and Roman Empires are reported in advance of their happening. Daniel reveals their function and relationship to one another and how they fulfilled their roles in developing the Antichrist Empire. We are taught by the picture of the Colossal image that these four empires are really one being, with one purpose, and a quasi-spiritual body, counterfeiting the true spiritual body of Christ. Nimrod's Babylon, Pharaoh's Egypt, and the four Antichrist Kingdoms built up the "Spirit of Empire" and now Daniel 11 continues the story tracking the Satanic conspiracy through the Latter Days up to the last hours and the Beast's ultimate blasphemy and judgment.

    Daniel 11 can be divided into two distinct categories (1) the history of this age which has been fulfilled already and (2) the future of this age which is yet to be fulfilled. Most prophecy about the Antichrist and his rivals is already fulfilled and serves us as an inspiration to believe for prophecy's future fulfillment. Though it may be hard to believe at first, the truly consequential history of the heathen nations in the Latter Days is concisely traced in the 45 verses of this one chapter. As a former student of history I know this is totally preposterous to the worldly historian; yet, it is true. And I know it is offensive for modern man to be told that his story, with all of its marvelous achievements, with all of its diversity of culture, with all of its scientific enterprise (especially in this modern age) can be capsulized in just a few verses of the Bible. Yet believers are edified to learn that God sees Man's efforts as nothing more than fleeting little intrigues unworthy of the slightest nod of his quintessential history. In the plan of salvation and across the timeless expanse of eternity, the exploits of Man and his government are no bigger than a pinhead. The historical summary of Daniel 11 declares God's perspective from the light of eternity and God's only concern for Man's doings is how it plays against the backdrop of his overall redemption plan.

    

Spirit of the South Comes Full Circle in Egypt

God kept the Beast on "ice" dividing it and thereby weakening it; but to ensure that this awesome monster continued to be stymied God also allowed a rival empire of comparable power and status to compete and flourish against it. World domination was the stakes and the linchpin of domination was controlling where God's promises were centered, where the conflict between creature and Creator must ultimately be settled: the Promised Land. North - South competition has been in full gear more than 1500 years since the dividing of the Roman Empire. The competitor of this partly strong and partly weak, this divided Rome, is the other disciple of Nimrod: Egypt. The spirit prince of Rome controls the King of the North and the spirit prince of Egypt controls the King of the South. Like spiritual amoeba these empires of North and South have changed form and direction, their seats of authority being moved from one nation to another, but as an amoeba, they remain essentially the same, they are still the same spiritual principalities of Rome and Egypt. The spirit of the South was born in Egypt and by the end it will have gone full circle returning to the land of the Pharaohs when it will be the nemesis of the Beast and its plans to rule the world.

 

Summary of Chapter 11

    The South became the dominant force in the Holy Land around A.D. 650, after the division of Rome, and with the supernatural rise of Islam. Islam's successor, the Turks (the Ottoman Empire) transformed the South into a full and cohesive force in much the same way Persia added body and substance to Babylon's soul. For 1,300 years the South, under Ottoman rule, held jurisdiction over the Holy Land; the only break was during the brief and fragile success of the North's First Crusade. The South's control was not ended until World War I when the Ottoman Empire succumbed to age and corruption, finally giving way to Great Britain which took over Palestine in 1917 in accordance with Daniel 11's prophecy. Great Britain's annexation of the Holy Land marked the return of the Antichrist Empire to the Promised Land after centuries and centuries of frustration. And it also marked the beginning of the end of the Time of the Gentiles, because it was destined by prophecy to be quickly followed by the return of the Jews and their sovereign control of Israel, the sure sign of the beginning of the end for the Gentiles and this Age of the Latter Days. But more about all of these things in upcoming chapters.

    Daniel 11 further shows that the coming of the Antichrist and his end time empire comes on the heels of this northern resurgence and the subsequent return of the Jews to the Promised Land. Even with the return of the Jews to their home the Antichrist and the Roman influence remain a strong and manipulative force in Israel right to the very end. The reassertion of the Roman influence in the Holy Land during the last hours is detailed in Daniel 11 giving an account of the Antichrist's campaigns and his great deceit targeted at the Jew and God. By flattery and force, by bribery and betrayal, the Antichrist will convince unholy Jews that he is their friend and finally their "god".

    Maps 8-11 show the prophecies of this age that have already been fulfilled in the competition between the North and the South and leads into the twelfth, and last map, showing the Antichrist's Kingdom and the alliances of the end time which are put in place just before the beginning of Daniel's 70th Week, commonly called the Tribulation Period.

    

South is Lead by Spirit Prince of Egypt

   “And here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.

   And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue yet a short space.

   “And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” (Rev. 17.9-11)

 

    Most of the mountains referred to in this prophecy are easy to identify. When the prophecy was given to John about A.D. 90 Rome was the existing mountain (Empire), and obviously is the sixth. The first of all the mountains was, as Map 2 shows, Nimrod's Babylon; and the third, fourth and fifth are easy to identify. They, of course, are the head of gold, Babylon; the body of silver, Persia; and the thighs of brass, Greece. That accounts for numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. So which ancient kingdom is the second mountain? The second mountain is also pictured in Map 2 and is Pharaoh's Egypt, the same Egypt that was humbled by the exodus of God's people under the prophet Moses. This is the mountain that has the disciple of Nimrod's blasphemies as its spirit prince and is the life bearer of the occult. This is the prince that withstood Moses by the sorceries of the evil Jannes and Jambres, who were able to duplicate the first of the miracles wrought by God upon Egypt. This is the empire that built enduring monuments (pyramids) to death. This spirit is the spirit revived to compete with Rome during the Latter Days: it comes from the south and is called in the prophecies of Daniel 11 the King of the South.

    

Ptolemy Dynasty Revives South

    Daniel 11 links the Beastly empire to the Beast himself. The first four verses of the chapter review the transition of power from Persia to Greece, and the division of Alexander's kingdom into the four winds. Verse five then alludes to Alexander's foremost general, Ptolemy I who, after Alexander's death, seized the sagging kingdom of Egypt and revived it as a powerful nation. In the process Ptolemy and Egypt gained control of the Promised Land, keeping it for 120 years until 200 B.C. just as Daniel 11.5 had prophesied:

    

    “And the king of the South shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; and his dominion shall be a great dominion.”

   

    The Ptolemy Dynasty began in 323 B.C. in Egypt and stood as one of the greatest dynasties the world has ever seen. Lasting 293 years it spanned 14 unbroken generations. Ptolemy's dynasty was used to resurrect the might of the South in preparation for the Time of the Gentiles and did not meet its end until 30 B.C. when Augustus Caesar executed the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XIV.

    The South was being prepared to compete against the Northern Kingdom of the Antichrist, ironically, by one from out of its own ranks: a Greek dynasty. The Ptolemy dynasty was of Greek blood, Ptolemy reputed to be the half-brother of Alexander and bastard son of Philip of Macedonia. Ptolemy, in Egypt, and the other generals of Alexander baptized all parts of the Southern Kingdom in the spirit of the Antichrist. Ptolemy sought to spread Greek humanism throughout the empire and endeavored to make Alexandria the Capitol of Greek culture. What had been started by Alexander, to baptize the world in one spirit of humanism, was accomplished by the splitting up of the Empire into little feuding neo-Greek empires. But while they were all partaking of the same spirit of the Antichrist they were not working together in unison because they were competing for power. In essence, Ptolemy was used by God to unwittingly defect from the Antichrist Kingdom to instruct and revive the South so it could later turn on the Antichrist North.

    

Satan's Unifying Plan Foiled

    But Satan saw this potential rivalry coming and while God was maneuvering to use the spirit of the North to teach its competitor in the South; Satan was contriving a plan to stop the competition between North and South before it even got started. The tactic was the ancient one: unity. God had already prophesied about the attempted unity in Daniel 11, but Satan went boldly ahead with his "peace" plans nonetheless.

    Just prior to the Messiah's first coming, in about 40 B.C., a marriage between North and South was attempted using the beguiling Cleopatra as the South's dowry. Daniel 11.6 tells the story of the ill-fated alliance of Rome and Egypt.

    

            “And in the end of years they shall join themselves together [north-south], for the kings daughter of the south [Cleopatra] shall come to the king of the north [Julius Caesar] to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm: but she shall be given up

and they that brought her [Pompey and Caesar], and he that begat her [Ptolemy], and he that strengthen her in these times [Marc Antony].”

 

    As prophesied Cleopatra was betrayed by Rome and did not retain power. Pompey and Julius Caesar, the ones who "brought her" to Rome, were betrayed and murdered. He that begat her, the Ptolemy Dynasty, came to an abrupt end with the murder of Cleopatra's son. He that thought to strengthen her, Marc Antony, was defeated by Augustus Caesar, and Marc Antony and Cleopatra together committed suicide. The alliance was a disaster for all involved. Never again would an alliance be attempted - religious fanaticism would see to that - from now on it would be all out war for domination of the world and control of the Promised Land.

    With the attempt to cut off the fulfillment of the prophesied competition of North and South foiled, Satan was forced to turn his attention to his Antichrist North. Now it was urgent for him to keep Rome united so it could remain powerful enough to overwhelm the South, take over the Promised Land and enthrone his omnipotent man in Jerusalem as God on earth. For a time Rome seemed destined in prophecy to conquer the South and "stamp the residue under foot" while imposing the ”Pax Romana” on all. But in the appointed time, the Beast was divided and the competition of the end times, designed by God to keep the Beast at bay, took off in full scale confrontation.

    As the North was cracking in two, the South was being prepared slowly for its role, until, like an exploding bomb, it erupted with unprecedented fury onto God's quintessential scene. Appearing out of nowhere as the creation of the false prophet, Mohammed, this unparalleled movement, loaded with the gun powder of religious fanaticism, quickly shot its way across the deserts of Arabia, the Middle East and Africa, even reaching into Europe itself. In just twenty short years the Empire of Islam was born, and the Southern Kingdom had become a formidable competing empire, belligerently and successfully challenging the splintered North.

 

To Act 4: Scene 3