Authority and Accountability

It is a principle of divine law that authority and accountability (or liability) come in equal measure. If someone is given authority, then he is accountable to God for the way that he uses his authority. The more authority he has, the more accountable he is before God. Conversely, a slave has only a small level of accountability.

When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He “chose” the nation by giving it authority, and with it an equal measure of accountability spelled out in the divine law itself. Hence, when Israel misused its authority, God brought in other nations and put Israel under their authority until Israel repented. Then God raised up a judge to set them free and to restore Israel’s authority in the world.

The purpose of Israel’s authority, of course, was to set up the Kingdom of God on the earth and to fulfill the Abrahamic call to be a blessing to all families of the earth. Israel as a whole failed to fulfill this calling, Paul says, but the remnant of grace succeeded (Romans 11:7). The problem is that the remnant of grace never actually had the authority to rule the earth throughout Israel’s history in the old land. That authority was granted to the kings of Judah, who had been granted the scepter (1 Chronicles 5:1, 2). Too few of those kings were part of the remnant of grace.

So God finally decreed a long captivity of Israel and Judah that was to last “seven times,” or 2,520 years. During this time, the authority was given to beast nations, those who desired to serve themselves and to enslave others. In short, they knew nothing of the Abrahamic calling, and even if they had heard of it, they had no intention of fulfilling that role.

One beast empire after another rose and fell in its time, in accordance with Daniel’s visions. As we have already shown, the “little horn” extension of the fourth (iron) beast was given more than half of the “seven times.” John’s revelation then shows that after 1,260 years the little horn, in the form of the beast from the sea, was to receive a fatal wound, after which time a beast from the earth would raise him back to life and restore his position as the object of men’s worship. Nonetheless, this would come at a price, for this second beast would retain hidden authority over the first in exchange for his services.

I believe that this new arrangement lasted just 200 years from the signing of the “Holy Alliance” in 1815 to the year 2014, when the judgment (decree) of God decreed the transfer of authority to the remnant of grace (the overcomers). After one year passed (October of 2015), the legal time of redemption had passed (Leviticus 25:30), and the beasts were unable to redeem themselves or their “walled city” (i.e., Babylon).

The Mercy of God

Men often complain about the judgments of God, and they seek to exempt themselves from the hardships of such slavery. While there is certainly much that the remnant of grace can do as individuals during the general time of slavery, they were unable to overturn the original divine decrees giving authority to those who are unworthy to rule the earth. The timing of this judgment was set a long time ago, and it did not end until the appointed time (2014-2015).

The good purpose of such judgment, however, is usually missed, because we are accustomed to thinking outside of the divine law. God removed authority from Israel, not so that Israel would be destroyed, but so that the liability for their failure would shift to the vessels of dishonor. To be in “dishonor” before the divine court means literally “to fail to pay, as a note.” That is, one is in dishonor if the court has a complaint against him for failing to honor a contract or debt. Vessels of dishonor (2 Timothy 2:20) are men or nations who fail to fulfill the Abrahamic calling.

Paul makes the point in Galatians 4:1-3 that collectively, we were as children prior to the time of Christ. As such, we were under guardians and tutors, lacking both the skill and the full authority to fulfill the Abrahamic calling. Israel failed on account of this character impediment. Further, there were not enough “remnants of grace” to take the reins of Kingdom government, because God intended to choose just a few from each generation for this purpose. It is only now that the full government can be established, and most of these must yet be raised from the dead in order to join with those who are alive and remain.

Meanwhile, even the remnant of grace was subjected to the dominion of beast governments. First of all, God’s purpose was to train them through persecution and by showing them examples of how NOT to rule. Secondly, God’s purpose was to shield them from the full liability inherent in such authority until they had time to grow to spiritual maturity and be qualified to rule.

For this reason, the beasts at the end of the age will be held accountable for not bringing righteousness into the earth in accordance with the Kingdom of God. It will not be the remnant of grace—nor even the believers themselves—who will be held accountable, other than their personal accountability as individuals.

The bottom line is that throughout the past, God has seen fit to shift authority to vessels of dishonor in order to spare His people until they are ready to shoulder such responsibility. For this reason, the shift in authority must come about the time of the resurrection and “change” which qualifies them fully to rule the Kingdom successfully and unendingly.

Jesus Warns the Jewish Leaders

In Matthew 21:33-40 Jesus told a parable about the vineyard—that is, the Kingdom. He makes it clear that the husbandmen of the vineyard were given authority to bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom while the Owner went on a journey (Matthew 21:33). Those husbandmen, however, refused to render Him the fruits of the vineyard. They killed the Owner’s servants (the prophets) and finally, when the Son Himself was sent, they recognized Him and plotted to kill Him as well (Matthew 21:38).

Jesus then asked the Jewish leaders how the Owner of the vineyard would judge the situation. Matthew 21:41 says,

⁴¹ They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

Jesus allowed them to judge themselves, for they did not realize until later (Matthew 21:45) that they themselves were “those wretches.” Jesus then offered them a warning, which had great significance. Matthew 21:42-44 speaks of two stones that would bring judgment upon them. (Stoning was the common method of capital punishment in that time.)

The first “stone” was the one that the builders had rejected, as per Psalm 118:22, 23. Jesus brought up this prophecy to show that the husbandmen had rejected Him as the Messiah. This explained the killing of the Son in the parable. The second “stone” was the one that was to be cut out of the mountain without hands in Daniel 2:34, 35, 44, 45, which was to crush the four empires represented by the image of the beast in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

How was this second stone relevant to Jesus’ parable and to His discussion with the chief priests and Pharisees? Jesus said in Matthew 21:43, 44,

⁴³ Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. ⁴⁴ And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

Daniel had prophesied that this stone “struck the statue on its feet… and crushed them” (Daniel 2:34). Further, we read that the entire image “became like chaff from the summer threshing floors” (Daniel 2:35). But what does this have to do with the Jewish leaders?

Jesus was warning them prophetically that if they were to obtain authority as part of the beast image, they would be ground up and scattered like dust when the great stone struck the feet of the image. In other words, if they were ever to gain power at the end of the time of the beast kingdoms, they would be held accountable for the actions of the beast itself. This, of course, is precisely what has happened, for Jesus spoke prophetically in His warning.

The Rothschilds Seek Power

The beast from the earth coincides with the rise of the Rothschilds, who were given authority as “guardians of the papal treasure.” During the past two centuries, the Rothschilds sought to gain power, so that they could obtain authority as the beast of the earth—the final beast that was to arise before the stone crushed the image.

Jesus’ warning, then, was directed against the Rothschilds themselves, along with their wealthy Jewish partners in the banking world. Revelation 13 describes this beast ever so briefly, but the Holy Spirit chose to reveal the beast by two main characteristics or achievements. The first we see in Revelation 13:13,

¹³ And he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.

This is a simple description of an atomic bomb being dropped out of a plane flying high in the heavens. To a lesser extent this also refers to missiles in general. We do not know if John had an actual vision of this, or if he was informed by a word alone, but this was fulfilled in 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The second characteristic showing the main activity of the earth beast is given in financial terms, which shows the rise of modern banking in which some aspects were invented by Mayer Amschel Rothschild himself. In Volume 1 of the book, The House of Rothschild, Money’s Prophets, page 6, Niall Ferguson says,

“Indeed, it can be argued that, by modifying the existing system for government borrowing to make bonds more easily tradable, the Rothschilds actually created the international bond market in its modern form.”

On page 17, he says,

“Not only had the Rothschilds replaced the old aristocracy, they also represented a new materialist religion. ‘[M]oney is the god of our time,’ declared Heine in March 1841, ‘and Rothschild is his prophet’.”

The church had been materialistic in many ways for a long time, of course, but under Rothschild a new form of “materialist religion” began to develop. It was centered on banking and reached a climax a century later with the advent of fiat money creation. The Federal Reserve Act was passed on December 23, 1913, 2,520 years after Babylon was organized into an empire in 607 B.C. By this new power to create money out of nothing and loan it to nations at interest, the beast from the earth gained power over the nations through debt slavery.

We will say more of this next time and how it ties in with the “mark of the beast.”