The New Rome – Part 2
TimeWatch Editorial
April 13, 2016
In part one we looked at a number of analysts who compared the United States with the old Roman Empire. We showed how their description of the similarities between these two empires was based, for the most part, upon detailed study of the political, the economic and the societal influence that they maintained across the globe. We made the point then that their description of the United States as the New Rome, was as close to the prophetic narrative of the Book of Revelation as it might have been, had they been students of the Word.
The one text that we mentioned in part one was Revelation chapter 13, which describes both Roman Papacy and the United States. Verse 1 of chapter thirteen of Revelation begins with the description of a beast that rises out of the sea and has seven heads and ten horns. The biblical interpretation of rising out of the sea is given in chapter 17 of Revelation and verse 15:
Revelation 17:15 - And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Clearly then, the beast that arises out of the sea, arises out of peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. But how do we know that this is Papal Rome? We know that because in the book of Daniel, chapters 2 and 7, there are descriptions of the rise and fall of nations. In Daniel 2 there is a dream given to king Nebuchadnezzar concerning the kingdoms of the world. The dream consists of an image of a man who has a head of Gold, breast and arms of Silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, feet part iron and part clay. These metals describe the nations that follow each other as rulers of the earth. The head of Gold represents Babylon, the breasts and arms of silver, Persia, the belly and thighs of brass, Greece, the legs of iron, Rome and the feet, part iron and par clay with the ten toes represent the divided Roman empire into the ten Germanic tribes that take control. But there is also another meaning attached to the iron and the clay. This is a description of the controlling influence of Papal Rome, because the iron and the clay here also represent the merging of church and state.
Daniel 7 repeats the line of nations, using animals to represent the attitudes and forcefulness of the same mine of kingdoms. Babylon is the lion, Persia is the bear, Greece is the leopard and Rome is the indescribable beast. From that beast rises a little horn which is the Papacy. When we reach Revelation 13, then, the first beast in verses 1 through 3 describes the Papacy who by then has absorbed all the outstanding qualities of the nations that have gone before and is described this way.
Revelation 13:2 - And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Notice that this beast is a combination of the beasts of Daniel 7 and now he is empowered by the dragon. Who is this dragon?
Revelation 12:9 - And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
So satan gives his power to this first beast of Revelation 13 and the description that follows fits the identity of the Papacy. When we therefore reach verse 11 of Revelation 13, we see the second beast rising up out of the earth, indicating that this is new territory, having two horns like a lamb. These lamblike horns represent political and religious freedom, a unique description of the United States. But America ultimately speaks as a dragon. In other words she falls under the control of the same satanic influence that controls the first beast and causes the world to worship the first beast, the Papacy.
It is therefore amazing that without the biblical arguments, brief as they have been here stated, these writers that we have quoted in part one of this article, have been able to identify the connection between the ancient Roman Empire and The United States.
Cameron A. Bowen