Misfortunes of Mankind

 

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -- Edward Gibbon 1737-1794

Enemies of God Marked Out For Destruction

      And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

Revelation 13:11-18 Those who understand the first beast to denote a worldly power, take the second to be also a persecuting and assumed power, which acts under the disguise of religion, and of charity to the souls of men. It is a spiritual dominion, professing to be derived from Christ, and exercised at first in a gentle manner, but soon spake like the dragon. Its speech betrayed it; for it gives forth those false doctrines and cruel decrees, which show it to belong to the dragon, and not to the Lamb. It exercised all the power of the former beast. It pursues the same design, to draw men from worshipping the true God, and to subject the souls of men to the will and control of men. The second beast has carried on its designs, by methods whereby men should be deceived to worship the former beast, in the new shape, or likeness made for it. By lying wonders, pretended miracles. And by severe censures. Also by allowing none to enjoy natural or civil rights, who will not worship that beast which is the image of the pagan beast. It is made a qualification for buying and selling, as well as for places of profit and trust, that they oblige themselves to use all their interest, power, and endeavour, to forward the dominion of the beast, which is meant by receiving his mark. To make an image to the beast, whose deadly wound was healed, would be to give form and power to his worship, or to require obedience to his commands. To worship the image of the beast, implies being subject to those things which stamp the character of the picture, and render it the image of the beast. The number of the beast is given, so as to show the infinite wisdom of God, and to exercise the wisdom of men. The number is the number of a man, computed after the usual manner among men, and it is 666. What or who is intended by this, remains a mystery. To almost every religious dispute this number has yet been applied, and it may reasonably be doubted whether the meaning has yet been discovered. But he who has wisdom and understanding, will see that all the enemies of God are numbered and marked out for destruction; that the term of their power will soon expire, and that all nations shall submit to our King of righteousness and peace.      

 --Matthew Henry Commentaries on Bible

Time is Everything

      Time is a little understood concept.  Time is mystical, what is it?  The number 666 is mystical.   Multitudes have tried to figure out just what it is that makes everything tick.  God has a time clock and Satan knows that his time is limited and short  The universe was created by God.  Satan has always wanted to sit on the throne of God.  He wants to present the mirage or image to mankind that he is the one who is earth's timekeeper, creator and controller.  It is God who set the earth spinning on its axis.  He holds it in the palm of his hands.  Satan continues to be the great counterfeiter, a liar from the beginning.  He is the false witness.  Satan is the foul timekeeper of the sins and souls of men  Satan is a clock/time impostor.

In the beginning, "the evening and the morning were the first day."  A day is a measurement of time, and God created it.  The day, as you know, is composed of twenty-four hours, an hour being merely a shorter measurement of time.  Since the earth can measure but twenty-four hours each time it turns on its axis.  Earth, then, has as its only means of time measurement its rotation on its axis and its circuit through its orbit.  Do you realize that were it not for this we should be without time?  Instead, it would be eternity.  Therefore, eternity has no time.  Time is manufactured.  Daniel refers to, "Time, times and half a time," which explain what time is.  It is a span measured by the completions of a full round of the earth in its orbit.  This is one time.  The repetition of it makes times.  Then what is eternity?  It has no measurement, for it is never to repeat itself like the years do.  Time is given us that we may know what part of eternity man has existed on earth.  Which do you think is the more important: time or eternity? -- Time is everything, for without it there is no eternity; still eternity is not time because it cannot be measured.  Time saved is even more important than money saved, for you cannot save money if you do not save time.  If earth, through its constant movement and change of location in the universe, represents time, then everything might represent time. Plants represent time for you can tell by its size how old a plant is.  In another form human beings represent time.  Trees represent time by their growth. The Bible represents time, for it took time for man to live the history it records, to write it, to print it, to manufacture the paper on which it is printed and the machinery that prints it, to grow and process the material for it's cover, --it all represents time.  The workman's wages represent time paid in money.  Neither gold nor diamonds are obtained without the representation of the time element being present both in the commodities themselves and in the money that people give in exchange for them. -- V.T. Houteff