The second beast in Revelation 13 is a messianic beast. It has two horns like a lamb, claiming to be chosen by God to rule the world. This beast has many manifestations. We have already shown some history of the Roman Church, which openly teaches that God has given it authority to rule the world. They base their claim on a supposed “apostolic succession” from Peter.

But others challenge their claim. We saw in our last issue how the Dragon Court of European royal families claimed a “messianic-bloodline,” based on a supposed physical descent from Jesus through Mary Magdalene.

There is another powerful organization known as the Masonic Order that wields great power in world affairs. They are best known for sponsoring the French Revolution in 1789-1793 and have been a major power since that time.

Finally, there is Jewish messianism, for they too believe that they are chosen to rule the world. Their power in past centuries was largely limited by the Roman Church, but certain wealthy Jews attained great power over the various European monarchs by means of monetary loans. This power eventually frightened the monarchs, and one by one the nations of Europe expelled all Jews. This is a good example of how the majority of Jews were made to pay for the deeds of a few.

In the 1800’s, largely through the influence of a new Jewish banking houses of the House of Rothschild, Jews were given freedom as citizens. From then on, their proportion of power has increased steadily to the point where they are today the dominant—though not the only— power. Jewish messianism has received huge support from the Protestant evangelical movements.

But the one spirit that permeates all of the above to one degree or another, which gives all these messianic movements a common thread, is their obsession with the occult. Each one of these sought to find the technological secrets of the ancients by which they were able to construct the tower of Babel and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The ancient writings spoke of a white powder gold that allowed the Egyptian Pharaohs and others to overcome gravity and to attain longevity and perhaps even immortality itself. This is ultimately what the occultists sought to re-discover, believing that its discovery would lead to deification and power.

In case such a substance could really be produced by alchemy, none of the competing powers could allow the others to obtain the “secret” first. So they all explored alchemy and other occult sciences and magic in order to be the first to make the discovery.

So let us now go back and look at the development of the occultish secret societies that exist today.

The Jewish Cabala

The old mystery religion of Egypt, even before the days of Moses, was monotheistic. The priests believed that all the deities of Egypt were just expressions of the one God. But they kept this a secret from the general public, allowing them to believe in many gods. Such is the nature of a mystery religion that seeks to keep truth hidden.

The secret of monotheism was not proclaimed to the public until the reign of Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton). He was later proclaimed a heretic for revealing priestly secrets.

About the influence of the Jewish Cabala, (Mrs.) Nesta Webster’s Secret Societies and Subversive Movements says on page 6,

“According to Fabre d’Olivet, Moses, who ‘was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,’ drew from the Egyptian Mysteries a part of the oral tradition which was handed down through the leaders of the Israelites. That such an oral tradition, distinct from the written word embodied in the Pentateuch, did descend from Moses and that it was later committed to writing in the Talmud and the Cabala is the tradition of many Jewish writers.”

This tells us that the Talmud and Cabala contain teachings that Moses’ supposedly received from the Egyptian mystery religion. It presumes that Moses himself was the head of just another mystery religion, where he taught some things for public consumption, but privately believed different things.

No doubt Moses did study all the “secrets” of the Egyptian religion. But to assume that Moses remained in agreement with their doctrines even after leading Israel out of Egypt suggests that Egypt’s religion was foundational to the real truth. It is to say that the writings of Moses do NOT contain the real truth, but (at best) only truths written in code. For this reason Jews are told not to read the Bible apart from the Talmud. If one assumes the Bible to be a mere code book, and its historic record is not to be taken at face value, then Judaism becomes a mystery religion.

Those who take this further into the mysticism of the Zohar are ultimately drawn into the religion of Egypt to learn the codes that Moses supposedly used.

This is far different from teaching types and shadows—although one might consider that to be a type of divine “code” as well. God instituted a sacrificial system, where the lambs stood in for the true Lamb that was to come later. The meanings were no doubt hidden in those days until Christ came to fulfill these types and shadows. But Moses was not attempting to hide the truth from the people. It was simply too early for Christ to come, and so the animals represented Christ until He should come.

Mrs. Webster says on page 32,

“This claim to a possession of a secret oral tradition, whether known under the name of gnosis or of Cabala, confirms the conception of the Gnostics as Cabalists and shows how far they had departed from Christian teaching. For if only in this idea of ‘one doctrine for the ignorant and another for the initiated,’ the Gnostics had restored the very system which Christianity had come to destroy.”

No wonder Jesus said that the rabbinic traditions made void the law of God (Matt. 15:6). The Jewish Cabala is really the foundation of a Jewish mystery religion.

The Jewish Cabala, including the “Zohar ha Sephir,” was an oral tradition that was finally written in the late thirteenth century. Mrs. Webster writes on page 9,

“The first date at which the Zohar is definitely known to have appeared is the end of the thirteenth century, when it was committed to writing by a Spanish Jew, Moses de Leon, who, according to Dr. Ginzburg, said he had discovered and reproduced the original document of Simon ben Jochai; his wife and daughter, however, declared that he had composed it all himself. What is the truth? Jewish opinion is strongly divided on this question, one body maintaining that the Zohar is the comparatively modern work of Moses de Leon, the other declaring it to be of extreme antiquity.”

Whatever its origin, there is no doubt that the Cabala soon had a great influence on the majority of rabbis as well as other philosophers who were able to read it. The Enlightenment was about to take Europe by storm, and much of it was fueled by a pent-up reaction to papal oppression.

The philosophers of the Enlightenment reacted against the papacy by looking for truth in the texts of ancient mystery religions. These sought for truth primarily in the Cabala, for it was accessible to them through Jewish rabbis living in Europe.

The Templars had already introduced Gnostic thought into Europe. Now the Cabala provided additional ideas as men formed their secret societies. We should also add that in those days there was some justification for forming secret societies, for the papacy often persecuted those who thought differently. One could not freely explore any area of thought, whether good or evil.

Mrs. Webster tells us the connection between Gnostic thought and the Cabala on pages 28, 29,

“M. Matter is therefore right in saying that Gnosticism was not a defection from Christianity but a combination of systems into which a few Christian elements were introduced. The result of Gnosticism was thus not to christianize the Cabala, but to cabalize Christianity by mingling its pure and simple teaching with theosophy and even magic.”

Gnostic doctrines began to permeate the Church, and its influence is still felt today in both Catholic and Protestant circles. The so-called “New Age” movement is based upon it as well and is empowered by thousands of organizations, sometimes in secret and sometimes openly.

The Elitism of the Cabala

One of the most important concepts taught in the Cabala (as well as the Talmud) was the idea that an elite race was called to rule the world. Webster says on p. 13,

“According to the Zohar, ‘all Israelites will have a part in the future world,’ and on arrival there will not be handed over like the goyim (or non-Jewish races) to the hands of the angel Douma and sent down to Hell. Indeed the goyim are even denied human attributes. Thus the Zohar again explains that the words of the Scripture “Jehovah Elohim made man” mean that He made Israel. The seventeenth-century Rabbinical treatise Emek ha Melek observes: ‘Our Rabbis of blessed memory have said: “Ye Jews are men because of the soul ye have from the Supreme Man (i.e., God). But the nations of the world are not styled men because they have not, from the Holy and Supreme Man, the Neschama (or glorious soul), but they have the Nephesch (soul) from Adam Belial, that is the malicious and unnecessary man, called Sammael, the Supreme Devil’.”

This idea that the Jews alone can be called “men” has its counterpart in the idea that all non-Jews are “beasts.” This is the underlying idea foundational to Judaism even today. Webster then says on pages 15 and 16,

“But in the teaching of the later synagogue the philosophy of the earlier sages was narrowed down to suit the exclusive system of the Jewish hierarchy, and the ancient hope of a Redeemer who should restore Man to the state of felicity he had lost at the Fall was transformed into the idea of salvation for the Jews alone under the aegis of a triumphant and even an avenging Messiah. It is this Messianic dream perpetuated in the modern Cabala which nineteen hundred years ago the advent of Christ on earth came to disturb.”

Rev. 13:11 speaks directly to such false messianism as this. It is a dragon that has two horns like a lamb. It pretends to be the fulfillment of the Lamb of God, but it speaks like a dragon. False messianism has taken many forms. There is Jewish messianism, of course, but the Roman Church also had laid claim to its own form of exclusive Latin messianism.

Likewise, monarchs from many nations have founded ruling dynasties in hopes of eventually ruling the world. Some try to base their claims biblically, while others do not. But the idea is not limited to any one family or group. But they all have one factor in common: they all believe they are people of privilege, that they are better than other men, and that they have a right—even a divine right—to be served by others. This is Monarchial messianism.

In the French Revolution of 1789, this new beast came to the forefront of history. It expressed itself in different ways and in competing ideologies. Everyone, it seems, wants to rule the world, but few people want to subject their own wills to Jesus Christ. Ultimately, only the overcomers will be qualified to rule the world, for they will rule by the love of God, not by the love of power and wealth. They, like Christ, come to serve, not to be served.

The primary difference between true Messianism of the Bible and the false messianism of these false religions is that God’s “elite” (the overcomers) are people who are motivated by the interests of God. The “elite” of the false religions are self-serving. It is not so much their philosophy that is wrong, for they are intelligent enough to know that they must appear to be benevolent. But in actual practice, it always ends in bloodshed and violence in their attempt to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The Jesuit Order

The “Society of Jesus” (Jesuits) in the 1700’s had become a serious threat to the monarchs of Europe. Their organization practiced a form of mind control that was to be imitated by other organizations ever afterward.

The Society of Jesus was a highly disciplined group of men who were taught to obey orders and not to question the morality or wisdom of those orders. Malachi Martin, himself a Jesuit, wrote in his book, The Jesuits, p. 162,

“And so was born what can be rightly called Jesuitism, the complete subjugation of all a man is, thinks, feels, and does to a practical ideal achievable in the world around him, in absolute obedience and submission to the mind and decisions of the Roman Pope, the Vicar of Christ.”

There were three grades in the Jesuit Order under the Father-General. They were the Lay Brothers, the Spiritual Coadjutors, and the Professed Fathers. The lower orders were often men of good character, who sincerely believed that to follow the Church was to follow Jesus Himself. But in order for a Jesuit to move up in rank, he had to be found “worthy,” that is, he had to prove that he was really under the mind-control of his masters in the upper grades.

Ultimately, there was only one sin—to disobey an order, for Martin himself writes,

“Every Superior was to be obeyed as the representative of Christ. Obeying this representative, you were obeying Christ; you were doing the will of Christ.” (p. 196)

“You do not merely do what you are told without showing any overt opposition. Nor do you merely choose to will as your Superior wills, to do willingly what he commands. Now you agree mentally with your superior, you have obedience of the intellect. Unconditionally, you think like your Superior ‘so far as only the surrendered will can sway the intellect.’ This highest form is what Ignatius calls ‘blind obedience . . . the voluntary renunciation of private judgment.” (p. 197)

Further, he quotes Ignatius himself (p. 197) saying, “I must be as a dead man’s corpse without will or judgment.”

This is the apex of the doctrine of submission to men. Malachi Martin treats this as a Christian virtue. But it is the ultimate doctrine pictured by King Saul, when the people rejected the rule of Christ and wanted to be ruled by men. There is no higher form of King Saul than what Martin shows us about the Jesuit Order.

Jesuits were required to take certain vows as they rose in the ranks of the Order. Malachi Martin tells us that there were four vows. The fourth vow was taken only by the Professed Fathers, and since Martin himself had not reached that level, it is possible that he did not know of its contents. However, we do find it in the Congressional Record of Feb. 15, 1913, House Bill 1523. This is quoted in Burke McCarty’s 1924 book, The Suppressed Truth about the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, pages 15, 16,

“I _______, in the presence of Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . my ghostly Father, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus . . . declare and swear that his holiness the Pope, is Christ’s Vice-Regent, and is the true and only head of the Catholic or Universal Church throughout the earth; and that by the virtue of the keys of binding and loosing, given to his Holiness by my Savior, Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths, and governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation, and that they may be safely destroyed.

“. . . . I do now renounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince or state named Protestant or Liberals, or obedience to any of their laws, magistrates or officers. . . .

“I do further promise and declare that I will have no opinion or will of my own, or any mental reservation whatever, even as a corpse or cadaver but unhesitatingly obey each and every command that I may receive from my superiors in the Militia of the Pope and Jesus Christ.

“. . . . I do further promise and declare that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants, and Liberals, as I am directed to do to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor condition, and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants’ heads against the wall, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race.

“That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poison cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard, or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the person or persons whatsoever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Faith of the Society of Jesus.”

Obviously, such a terrible vow made the various monarchs nervous, when they realized that they too could be assassinated by the Jesuits if they did not remain loyal to the papacy. The rigid Jesuit discipline made them a powerful tool in the hand of the popes as they sought to retain power over the monarchs of Europe. One by one, the nations of Europe expelled the Jesuits in the 1700’s. Martin writes on page 215,

“Between 1759 and 1761 all Jesuits in Portugal and its overseas dominions were arrested, transported by royal navy ships, and deposited on the shores of the papal states in Italy. All Jesuit property—houses, churches, colleges—was confiscated.”

France was next to do this in 1762. In 1767 the same occurred in Spain and the Spanish dominions in America. Naples, Parma, and Austria followed suit. When the Cardinals met to elect a new pope in 1769, the Bourbon family made it clear they would accept a pope only if he agreed to disband his army—the Jesuit Order. The Roman Church did not want more states to break with Rome as England had done in 1534 (See Part 8.). So the agreement was made. The Church had lost a huge power struggle.

The new Pope reluctantly abolished the Jesuits on July 21, 1773. Then the French Revolution from 1789-1793 overthrew the Roman Church in France. It was the fatal wound inflicted upon the first beast after 1,260 years. But yet the Church came back to life, and the second beast gave its authority to the first, as Rev. 13:12 indicates.