the audience’s attention while they waited for some promised revelation to make it all meaningful and to make sense. In short, he had sort of hypnotized the crowd with his many words, and held them captive as he postulated and pontificated so convincingly.
But what made him different was that he could perform miracles of healing right before our eyes. I saw a blind man receive his sight, crippled people rise up and walk, and damaged body parts restored. He was the fulfillment of Jesus’ warning that many would come in His name.9 When he claimed to be the return of Christ, I thought of the verses, “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”10
But my mind fought against what I was receiving. It was like I was caught in a vortex going round and round in my reasoning, but not able to discern the truth. How could this man do these wonderful things if he were not sent from God? He was not doing evil but good. Yet somehow I felt there was something wrong with the fellow; he focused too much on himself as being a great one. At last I could no longer puzzle over the dilemma that had risen in my mind, and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to show me what the truth was. Instantly I felt disconnected from the soft soothing flow of his words; they were like music to my ears, yet so damaging to my heart. I felt a stirring of indignation rising within me, and I wanted to scream out and wake the people. But I could not. They were mesmerized and held too tightly by his spell, and at last I just had to leave the area and walk away. I thought about this event for some time after and eventually came upon a scripture that helped me somewhat, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”11
It was stunning to think how this event applied to the supporters the Beast.
The timing of the Beast’s appearance couldn’t have been better for his play for power. After the chaos that followed the collapse of money in the world and the confusion that followed, the masses were ready for a world leader who could bring them peace and prosperity. And such a man was the Beast, a deeply “spiritual” fellow who promised the world a new beginning. The idea was conveniently interjected into their daily diet of media input. He won them with flatteries and false promises. He was a prophet of peace and plenty and a new world order, and clever enough and powerful enough to make it happen. It had all fallen into place so “naturally” that many just accepted it as the expected path of social development.
How he amassed the control of nations was not so obvious. As his power and popularity grew, so did his ego and his blasphemy of God. His rhetoric had gone so far as to openly say that he was God, worthy of the same praise and worship. He claimed to worship forces, but actually he only worshipped himself. He wasn’t even a very attractive individual, but looked like a person with too much hate bottled up within.
He won many through his policy of giving away to the common people the riches he gained from his conquests. Like a modern-day Robin Hood, he appeared to many as an answer to their prayers, declaring an end to many debts and mortgages. On the wave of approval from the population, he introduced his monetary system that promised to regulate all financial transactions so that no one could again oppress others through buying and selling of property. People owned their property for the first time. He was like an avenging angel upon the greedy executives of the earth who exacted huge incomes while their laborers remained in poverty. All of the assets that people personally held needed to be declared by a certain cutoff date or they would become worthless. Money was worthless and littered the streets. Gold, silver, and precious jewels also needed to be declared and were said to have no intrinsic value and were not to be used as an alternate form of currency. If anyone had any valuables, they were to have them appraised and converted to SOL units. The only legal currency worldwide was to be the SOL units [Digital Store of Labor] and all citizens would receive 1000 of these units as credit toward their implant chips if they signed up early. The line ups to receive this free digital cash were incredible. The source of this free money was the huge amounts of cash collected worldwide by declaring all other currency null and void and illegal to use after the cutoff date. The government even set a maximum amount of SOLs that a person could own. Having more than the allotted amount meant having to pay heavy taxes. Stock values were all but wiped out in the economic collapse. Organized crime had to find a new way of operating without cash. The new economic system was hailed by the common people as the true beginning of fair and honest government now that the flow of money could be regulated.
The two rulers had been jockeying their way into world positions for some years, but certain events had catapulted them into power: the worldwide collapse of all national currencies as the medium of exchange, several large banks folding, and stocks failing. But the real seal of world approval on them came when they brokered the seven-year peace settlement in Jerusalem. It had seemed shaky at first but it held together. These two men nursed it along for a full three-and-a-half years.
The Second Guardian had at first been in the shadows, but from the time that they negotiated the historic peace deal in Jerusalem, he became more of a public figure. I suspected that somehow he had gained access to a military satellite armed with the latest in laser equipment, because he put on a spectacular public demonstration of the power of the god of forces by bringing fire down from the sky, striking specific targets and people.
Just as the Bible predicted, at the halfway point of the seven-year covenant the Beast was killed by a deadly wound to his head, and by satanic workings and power, he was raised to life again. This man’s death and resurrection caused no small stir among religious leaders, especially since it happened in Jerusalem during a great public gathering. His healing from this deadly wound confirmed in many people’s minds that he was indeed a supernaturally gifted individual. Some claimed that his resurrection was a sign that he had been sent to the earth to usher in a new era, others said he was the long awaited messiah, others said he was Jesus returned to judge the world and bring peace. That he received a notable miracle no one could deny, and he, of course, credited his healing to the god of forces and insisted that everyone should worship his deity. That is when the saying “Who is like unto the Beast? Who is able to make war with him?” came into popular usage.12
After the assassination attempt, the Beast spoke strongly against the covenant, saying that old religious beliefs needed to be eradicated to truly make it possible for any new ideas to take hold. Everyone needed to be free to embrace an entirely new world order, and we needed an entirely new mindset to embrace a new way of doing business. His position hardened against all religions, and he declared that all religious literature be banned and burned. He declared war on religions, especially Christians, because it was supposedly a Christian extremist who had shot him in the head, claiming that he was the Antichrist. He decreed that books like the Bible were evil, perpetuating the mistakes of the past. They were homophobic, intolerant, old-fashioned, out of date, and against the principles of world peace. He proposed that everyone worship the god of forces, a god that we could see in action.
The Bible spoke of a second beast called “the False Prophet.” And we saw that, as predicted, the second beast worked to cause everyone to worship the Beast and make them receive a mark in their right hand or forehead in order to buy and sell.13 He seemed to complete the unholy trinity of the beastly government. There was Satan behind the whole scheme, acting like a father giving his power and authority to his two sons.
