From “The Sick Man”; to “The Strong Man” of Europe . . .

ISRAEL IN THE BOOK

OF REVELATION

BY

REV. L. G. A. ROBERTS

(Commander R.N. Retired)

RECTOR OF ARDLEY, BICESTER, OXFORD,

Secretary of the Imperial British-Israel Association.

WITH PREFACE BY

REV. W. M. H. MILNER, M.A., F.R.G.S. A.V.I.

LONDON:

R. BANKS & SON, 5, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.

1 9 1 1.

'Whilst Revelation xiv. 1-6 is taking place, another scene is being enacted in the Roman earth, in the Kingdom of the Beast. We have in the figure of Revelation xiii, all the nations represented in the Beast, but his last form is the peculiar one. After the wounding of one of the heads of the beast (France under Napoleon) (Rev. xiii. 3-12) his deadly wound is healed (by Germany?). Notice the remarkable language of Revelation xiii, 11 : “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.” The first beast rises out of the sea (Rev. xiii. 1), the same as seen in Daniel vii. 3, “The four great beasts came up from the sea” – i.e., they all surrounded the Mediterranean. This last, however, has progressed northwards and is represented as inland as coming up “out of the earth,” and when seen to restore the Roman Empire he has two horns. It is well known that the Germans infest Austria, and that even to-day Germany and Austria are one in objects, they are two horns united for a purpose, moreover they are lamb-like – i.e., Christian, pretended followers of the Lamb. This is their profession; as to the last characteristic, “he spake as a dragon.” We must leave our readers to consider whom this autocrat seems to point to either Prussian or Russian? It is not to be assumed that this system is yet fully developed, and we know not what intrigue with Rome may eventually bring about, but coming events have already cast a shadow before, and events hurry on at a tremendous pace. The spirit that will animate this beast is the same as he “that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.”

'This interpretation does not render void the ecclesiastical aspect of the beast thereof, for he has a dual object: one purely anti-Christian, the other political, or Rome working with any tool which her craftiness can entice to do her work.' (pp. 196-197).

'THE STRONG MAN OF EUROPE – The Throne and Country, which appears this week under new proprietorship and editorship, publishes an article by Mr. Arnold White entitled “Dare Germany go to War?” Mr. White declares that the strong man in Europe is not the Emperor William but the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. “The question of war or peace depends primarily not on the will of the German Kaiser, but on the question as to which of the two parties gains the ascendancy. If the war party, which franctically supports the world policy of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, succeeds in silencing the peace party, Germany will make war, and will be defeated just as France made war and was defeated twice in the course of the last century.” – (From the Standard, September 20th, 1911).'

(Israel in the Book of Revelation, p. 198).

From “Kulturkampf”, to mourning over her . . .

Kaiser Wilhelm (William) II

(Born 1859; German Emperor 1888-1918; died 1941)

From the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors:

“Kulturkampf conflict 1872-87 between the German government and the papacy”.

Returning back to Bishop Christopher Wordsworth (1807-85), and his work Union with Rome; the following is taken from the Tenth Edition of the said work – published three years after his death; and coinciding with the ascension, that very same year, of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the throne of the German Empire :

“The Apocalypse foretells a remarkable phenomenon, which may soon be manifested, namely that, Powers, which have destroyed the mystical Babylon, will mourn over her.

“The cause of this seemingly strange anomaly is now beginning to disclose itself. Where Ultramontanism is dominant, there the Papacy will now have acquired new force; but in other places, where Ultramontanism does not prevail, there, as is notorious, the usurpation and corruptions of the Roman Church have given a strong impetus to Infidelity. Infidelity produces Anarchy. Anarchy is impatient of all civil rule, especially of royal power. As long as kings reigned by hereditary right, or where they were allied with the Papacy, and wherever the religion of Rome had some hold over the minds of the people, there the Throne rested (though not very securely) on some religious foundation. But this foundation has almost disappeared. Many European Sovereigns are now nominees of the people. They are made and unmade by popular passion. And the Papacy is no longer confederate with them, but is arrayed against them. Can such Monarchies have any permanence? Is it not probable, that the time will soon come, when some of them may even regret their own act in destroying the temporal power of the Papacy, and, according to the prophecy of the Apocalypse, mourn over the ruins of that mystical Babylon which they themselves have laid low?”

(From, Union with Rome. “Is not the Church of Rome the Babylon of the Book of Revelation?” An Essay, by Chr. Wordsworth, D.D. Late Bishop of Lincoln; Tenth Edition, Rivingtons, Waterloo Place, London, 1888; pp. 103-104)

In the light of the above, the quote that follows below is from a small pro-German work emanating from America (purporting to be based on “the Light of Bible Prophecy”), and published in the very same year as the outbreak of the First World War; in it its Author writes the following – which supplies the historical realisation to Bishop Wordsworth's above apocalyptical dissertations, regarding things, which as he wrote, would – according to the divine revelation held within the pages of the Apocalypse – “soon come” to be :

“The Kaiser has a reputation for being a devout churchman. He has said on several occasions he believed himself appointed of God. Some years ago he said he felt he was called to do two things in his career. One was to oppose socialism, which was anarchy against governments; the other [was] to uphold the Pope of Rome, because the Pope stood for God and the Bible, and because unbelief was anarchy against God. He believed the Pope had more influence for peace than any other man in Europe. . . .”

(Quoted from: The European War in the Light of Bible Prophecy, by G.H. Gudebrod [German-American?]; 44 Court Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1914; Pages unnumbered).