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# Rome Establishes the Vision - Number Sixteen

The Final Test: Understanding the Symbolism of Rome and the Triple Application of Prophecy

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

September 4, 2024

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Key Takeaways

- Introduction to the Controversy
- The Misapplication of the Triple Prophecy
- Awakening to the Final Prophetic Test
- The Danger of Strong Delusion
- The Role of Uriah Smith’s Interpretation
- The Symbolism of the Head and Modern Babylon
- The Contrast Between Wise and Foolish Virgins

Those on the wrong side of this final controversy of the symbol of Rome lean upon a flawed application of a triple application of prophecy as they suggest that the three Rome’s are defined by the three Sunday laws of the years 321, 538 and the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States. In doing so they place an incorrect slant upon the rule and the prophetic history they select, as was also done in the controversy over the four insects of Joel. The four generations followed by four devouring insects in the first six verses of Joel address how God’s people are progressively decimated over four generations, and that the decimation was accomplished by Adventism’s acceptance of the theology of Rome and apostate Protestantism.

In the current controversy those who attempt to employ the Sunday law to define the three Rome’s, avoid the truth that there are actually four Sunday laws that are identified in God’s prophetic word, and that the year 321 represents the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States, and the Sunday law of 538 typifies the Sunday law which is enforced upon all the nations of the world. Four Sunday laws does not identify three Sunday laws, especially when the third manifestation in a triple application of prophecy represents the final fulfillment. The soon-coming Sunday law in the United States is not the final Sunday law, it actually marks the beginning of a series of Sunday laws as each nation on the globe progressively accepts the mark of papal authority.

Those who were awakened in July 2023 are required to understand that the prophetic test that confronts them occurs during the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and that during that outpouring one class is receiving the “oil,” and the other class is receiving “strong delusion.” The primary representation of those who receive strong delusion is represented in the very chapter where the expression strong delusion is located, and in that chapter the truth that is either loved or rejected is the truth which defines the prophetic relationship between pagan Rome and papal Rome.

The prophetic relationship between 321 and 538 is shown by the prophetic relationship between the church of Pergamos and the church of Thyatira. In the last days, pagan Rome, represented by 321 and Pergamos, is a symbol of the United States, and papal Rome, represented by 538 and Thyatira, is a symbol of Modern Rome.

The first Rome of 321 was a singular power state, and the second Rome of 538 was a dual power representing a combination of church and state with the church in control of the relationship. The third and final Rome, which is modern Rome, is a threefold power that consists of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet.

Paul taught that to not understand the prophetic and historic relationship of pagan Rome (the dragon) and papal Rome (the beast) was to manifest a hatred of the truth which brought about strong delusion. All the prophets, including Paul were more specifically addressing the last days, so the relationship between the two powers in Paul’s history represents the relationship between the three powers of Modern Rome in the last days. To reject the prophetic relationship that “forms” the threefold union of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet in the last days is to secure strong delusion for yourself.

Uriah Smith’s private interpretation of the king of the north represented a “cause” that produced an “effect.” But the class that is on the wrong side of the controversies about Rome is specifically identified as being unable to reason from cause to effect. Smith did not see that his flawed application of the king of the north would produce a prophetic platform which would lead him to also misrepresent the sixth plague, where there is a warning to keep or lose the garment of Christ’s righteousness.

As with Paul’s emphasis in Second Thessalonians, John in chapter sixteen of Revelation and the sixth plague emphasizes the necessity of understanding who the three powers who lead the world to Armageddon are. Smith’s flawed application of the king of the north provides witness to an inability to rightly apply types and antitypes.

Smith could not, or would not, apply the principle so strongly set forth in the writings of Paul that the literal before the time-period of the cross represented the spiritual after the time-period of the cross. When this principle is carefully and correctly followed it is easily demonstrated that the “king of the north” is one of many symbols that represent the spiritual “king of the north” in the last days. Seventh-day Adventists above any other people should know that one of the primary structures that prophecy is based upon is the controversy between Christ and Satan. Christ is the true King of the north, and Satan has been attempting to manifest himself as the counterfeit king of the north.

> A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Psalms 48:1–3.

Satan’s efforts to counterfeit the true King of the north, includes employing the pope of Rome as his earthly representative. Satan is antichrist, and so is the pope of Rome, who is Satan’s proxy in his work of deception.

> “To secure worldly gains and honors, the church was led to seek the favor and support of the great men of earth; and having thus rejected Christ, she was induced to yield allegiance to the representative of Satan—the bishop of Rome.” The Great Controversy, 50.

In the breakup of Alexander the Great’s kingdom, Seleucus Nicator became the first king of the north in the history represented in Daniel chapter eleven. His father, Antiochus, had been an influential leader in Alexander’s kingdom, and his son, Seleucus, was made the satrap of Babylon. A “satrap” is a governor, and when Seleucus had secured three of the four geographical areas that Alexander’s kingdom divided into, he became the king of the north.

Smith’s private interpretation and avoidance of grammatical rules led him to assume the final powers that made up Satan’s confederacy of evil in the last days were represented in prophecy as literal powers, not spiritual powers. Thus, he could not see that Seleucus Nicator as the first king of the north, the governor of Babylon, would of prophetic necessity represent the final spiritual king of the north who was the power that controlled modern spiritual Babylon.

> And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Revelation 17:1-6.

The power that governs Babylon in the last days is the papal church, and she is therefore also the spiritual king of the north.

> “The woman (Babylon) of Revelation 17 is described as ‘arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness:…and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.’ Says the prophet: ‘I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.’ Babylon is further declared to be ‘that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.’ Revelation 17:4-6, 18. The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome. The purple and scarlet color, the gold and precious stones and pearls, vividly picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by the haughty see of Rome. And no other power could be so truly declared ‘drunken with the blood of the saints’ as that church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. Babylon is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with ‘the kings of the earth.’ It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome, corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers, receives a like condemnation.” The Great Controversy, 382.

The governor is the king, and according to Isaiah, a king is a kingdom and is also the capital city of a kingdom.

> For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Isaiah 7:8, 9.

According to the witness of Isaiah, a student of prophecy who awakens in July of 2023 to a prophetic testing process must recognize the prophetic symbolism of the “head” if he wishes to be established. If he doesn’t recognize and apply the symbolism of a “head” when called for, then he is not established. Those who disbelieve are not established, and therefore Isaiah is identifying two classes of worshippers in the last days who either are established or are not established. They are the same two classes who either have the “oil,” or they don’t have the “oil.”

One class that is established and has oil, receives the message of the Midnight Cry that began to be opened up in July of 2023, or they receive the strong delusion of Second Thessalonians. Their test is the formation of the image of the beast, and the way in which the beast is formed, whether the papal beast of the Dark Ages, or its image that is formed by the United States, or the threefold union that leads the world to Armageddon. This includes the necessity of recognizing that the “head,” the “king” the ruler of the other two powers that make up the threefold union, is the papal power.

The “head,” the capital city of Judah was Jerusalem, the city that the Lord chose to place His name.

> And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. 1 Kings 14:21.

In the great controversy between Christ and Satan, Christ’s capital city, where He places His name, is Jerusalem, and Satan’s counterfeit was the literal city of Babylon that represents spiritual Babylon that great city in the last days. Satan places his name upon the head as a counterfeit of God’s city and capitol. The king that resides there is the mother of harlots who commits fornication with the kings of the earth. The mother of harlots is the papal power, and her daughters are the fallen Protestant churches, of which the premier fallen apostate church is the apostate Protestants of the United States.

Those apostate Protestants represent the Protestant horn of the earth beast, and they are connected with their mother since their rejection of the prophetic message that was unsealed in 1798. Their counterpart, the Republican horn, is connected with the kings of the earth through their relationship with the United Nations, the ten kings of Revelation seventeen. The threefold union which leads the world to Armageddon is represented by its head, where its name is placed, and spiritual modern Rome is spiritual modern Babylon. Its “head” is the papal power.

The first represents the last and whether you apply Daniel chapter two as did the Millerites, as representing four kingdoms, or as has been opened up in the last days as representing eight kingdoms, the first kingdom was literal Babylon. The Millerites would inform you the last was literal Rome. Babylon and Rome are interchangeable symbols, for they are the first and the last of a prophetic line.

In the last days the first kingdom of literal Babylon represents the eighth and last kingdom which is spiritual modern Babylon, and is also spiritual modern Rome. Upon the two witnesses represented in Daniel chapter two Babylon and Rome are interchangeable symbols.

When the papal whore is portrayed with a name on her forehead that identifies “Mystery Babylon,” it is also identifying “mystery Rome.” A prophetic “mystery” represents a truth that is so profound that it is impossible to understand the depth of the truth represented therein, especially without the influence of the Holy Spirit. But a biblical “mystery” also demands that what is revealed in connection with the mystery is a required understanding for those who seek to pass the test. This is why two witnesses in Revelation emphasize the need to understand modern Rome.

> Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Revelation 13:18.

“Wisdom” understands the number of the beast, which is the number of a man whose number is six, six, six. The “man of sin” is the head of the beast. Wisdom is an attribute of the wise virgins in the last days, and it is also a symbol of those who understand the increase of knowledge in the last days. Those who do not understand are foolish virgins and are the wicked. The “wisdom” they do not understand must of prophetic necessity be in the context of the final prophetic test, for this is when the wise and foolish virgins exist. They must understand “six, six, six.” The mind that has wisdom is also located by John in the last days in Revelation chapter seventeen.

> And here is the mind which 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 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. Revelation 17:9–11.

The “mind” that has the wisdom to understand the number “six, six, six,” is a wise virgin who has obtained the “mind of Christ.”

> For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16.

The class of wise virgins have the mind of Christ, and the foolish wicked virgins have the mind of Christ’s adversary.

> “The time has come for the true light to shine amid moral darkness. The third angel’s message has been sent forth to the world, warning men against receiving the mark of the beast or of his image in their foreheads or in their hands. To receive this mark means to come to the same decision as the beast has done, and to advocate the same ideas, in direct opposition to the word of God.” Review and Herald, July 13, 1897.

The formation of the image of the beast is the final test for the virgins of the parable, and the wise have the mind of Christ, for they have come to the same decision as Christ, for they have submitted their wills unto the Holy Spirit’s direction. The formation of the image of Christ in the wise virgins contrasts with the formation of the image of the beast in the foolish virgins. The foolish virgins come to the same decision as the beast, for they became confused upon the test question concerning the correct identification of the antichrist, who is the counterfeit king of the north and the head of modern Rome.

> “Those who become confused in their understanding of the word, who fail to see the meaning of antichrist, will surely place themselves on the side of antichrist.” Kress Collection, 105.

The foolish virgins in the testing time that is represented as the formation of the image of the beast become confused in their understanding of the word. Their confusion is premised upon misunderstanding God’s prophetic word, and failing to see the correct meaning of Modern Rome, they receive strong delusion, come to the same decision as the beast, and advocate the same papal ideas in direct opposition to the word of God, and place themselves on the side of antichrist.

We will continue these thoughts in the next article in this category.

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