The work of the house of Joseph, part 5

The first bowl of wine was poured out upon the earth at Champaign, Illinois at our Tabernacles conference in October of 2000. The second was poured out into “the sea” (Lake Huron) at the Tabernacles conference on October 9, 2001. Together, these pointed to the beast from the sea (Revelation 13:1) and the beast from the earth (Revelation 13:11).

The beast from the sea is a religious beast, working primarily through the Roman church. In Revelation 13:5, 6 John refers back to the “little horn” in Daniel 7:8. Therefore, we know that Daniel’s little horn—the extension of Rome, the iron beast—is Papal Rome. However, Daniel saw only a single entity representing the little horn, whereas John saw a further extension of the little horn, which he described as the beast rising from the earth.

This second beast is described in economic terms. It is the banking beast that arose in 1798 after the first beast was struck down with a “fatal wound” that was later healed. The fatal wound was the French Revolution in 1789-1794, followed by the overthrow of the Papacy by Napoleon in 1798. But the wound was healed in 1804 when Napoleon reinstated a pope of his choice so that he would have a worthy man to crown him as emperor.

Napoleon took the pope captive in 1798, the same year that Nathan Rothschild was sent to London to begin his banking career. The Rothschilds practically invented the modern banking system as they rose to a position of wealth and power. Since then, the religious and banking beasts have worked together, as Revelation 13:12 prophesies.

For more details, see The Revelation, Book 5.

So our first bowl of wine in October 2000 was directed toward the economic beast from the earth. We understood that this would signal a decline in the stock market and were not surprised when this began a month later in November. By March 2000 stock traders were in a state of panic in conjunction with the second phase of our prayer campaign against the seven princes over America in our war to overthrow the golden calves.

Recall that we overthrew the Prince of Usury on March 8, 2001, causing the stock market to drop more than twenty percent by March 22.

The First Two Bowls and Revelation 13

October 9, 2001 was the seventh day of Tabernacles, where we poured out the second bowl of wine into Lake Huron, which represented “the sea” in Revelation 16:3,

³ The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.

While many have taken this literally, it is clear to me that not all life in the sea is destined for death and destruction. This is a judgment upon “The Holy See,” that is, the Papal system of Rome. If you trace the etymology of sea and See, you will see that they are connected. The sea represents jurisdiction over nations through international law—the law of the sea/See.

Those who interpret the events in the book of Revelation literally must wait continually for a future fulfillment that will never happen. John’s Revelation was written in symbols and must be interpreted as most dreams and visions are to be interpreted. Revelation 1:1 KJV says,

¹ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it [semaino, “to give a sign”] by His angel unto His servant John.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4591/kjv/tr/0-1/

A signature is not the man himself but a sign that represents him. So also there are signs of the times which represent other people, nations, spirits, and events. From the start, we are given notice that we should not interpret the book of Revelation literally, even as we were not to interpret literally the four beasts in the book of Daniel. Beasts clearly represent nations.

The book of Revelation set forth “things which must shortly come to pass.” It is essentially a history of the western nations and their interaction with the church during the past 2000 years. This was how the Protestant Reformers understood the book. It was not until the mid-1800’s that the Futurist Theory was invented by Darby, the Dispensationalist who, along with Scofield in the early 1900’s, was responsible for blinding the eyes of the Laodicean church.

Futurism puts everyone’s attention to the future and thus destroys any need to know history. But history is fulfilled prophecy, and those who know history are those who might understand Bible prophecy. I personally hated history courses in my early days until I discovered the connection between prophecy and history. That discovery changed my life, and the rest is history.

The Second Bowl: October 9, 2001

John saw that the second bowl was poured out upon the sea (Revelation 16:3), that is, upon the religious system of Papal Rome. So we understood that we should watch for judgments to emerge against the Roman church.

We did not have long to wait. The next month (November 2001) a Superior Court Judge in Boston (Constance M. Sweeney) forced the Boston archdiocese to release the information in its file about one of its Catholic priests, John J. Geoghan. Cardinal Bernard Law was forced to release the information, and by February of 2002 about 90 priests were referred to law enforcement agencies. This was the beginning of divine judgment upon the church.

According to the Boston Globe Staff on February 25, 2002,

“The archdiocese has publicly removed 10 priests since Feb. 2. The names of all 10 have been reported to district attorneys.”

“Cases involving at least 70 priests have been secretly settled by the archdiocese.”

“The floodtide of new claims against priests comes at a time when the archdiocese is already in a precarious financial condition. Church attorneys have told lawyers for plaintiffs in pending cases that the archdiocese’s insurance coverage has been exhausted.”

“Not counting the pending and future claims, the archdiocese, acting in secret, had come to terms with between 200 and 300 other victims in the last decade, according to lawyers involved in those cases. About 100 of those have been Geoghan victims.

“The Globe reported on Jan. 31 that the archdiocese agreed to secret settlements over the last 10 years that involved at least 70 priests, and the church insisted on sealed records to conceal the extent of the problem.”

On March 4, 2002 the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Cardinal Roger Mahony forced about a dozen Los Angeles priests to retire or leave their ministries as a result of their past sexual abuse of children.

On March 9, 2002 the Miami Herald ran an article with headlines: “Bishop Quits, admits abuse.” The article was about Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell. It read in part:

“The Catholic bishop who heads the Diocese of Palm Beach resigned Friday after confirming reports he had sexually abused a teenage male student at a Missouri seminary more than 25 years ago and admitting to a second ‘similar’ encounter.”

“It’s also a particularly tough—and familiar—episode for the Palm Beach diocese. Less than four years ago, O’Connell was appointed to replace disgraced Palm Beach Bishop J. Keith Symons after another sex scandal. Symons was the first U.S. bishop to resign due to sexual involvement with boys.”

“O’Connell’s past caught up with him Friday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that he inappropriately touched former student Christopher Dixon while the two were bed together after the youth sought him out for counseling as a teenage seminary student. At the time, O’Connell was rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Mo. where Dixon was a student.”

“Dixon said the abuse by O’Connell and two other priests lasted through his high school years. . . The other priests are the Rev. Manus Daly, who allegedly abused Dixon at the Hannibal seminary and the Rev. John Fischer, who Dixon said abused him at a Catholic school before Dixon entered the seminary. Daly was removed from a Marceline, Mo. church this week and Fischer was removed from the priesthood in 1993 after allegations involving other children.

“Dixon said he thought he could trust O’Connell and told him about the abuse by Fischer. ‘But under the guise of trying to help me come to terms with my own body, he ultimately took me to bed with him,’ Dixon said.”

The Roman Catholic Church has had a long and sordid history of sexual abuse going back many centuries. Almost never have these priests been prosecuted in courts of law. They have been handled by Church officials, who have seldom expelled such priests from the priesthood. They usually just move them to another location, where they are free to abuse more children.

I had heard of such cases for the many years, but only now has this actually come out into the open. Conspiracy theory has finally become conspiracy fact.

It reminds me of Jesus’ words in Luke 12:1, 2, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.” This applies to sin that has not been covered by the blood of Jesus.

On March 29, 2002 the Pope accepted the resignation of the Archbishop of Poland after he admitted molesting young priests.

On April 4, 2002 the Minneapolis Star Tribune had an article that read,

“Two men sued the Vatican and three Roman Catholic dioceses Wednesday, accusing them of covering up sexual abuse at a Catholic boarding school in Florida and an Oregon monastery.”

The article goes on to say that they expected church lawyers to argue that the Vatican has diplomatic immunity.

On April 6 the bishop in Sacramento, California confirmed that 14 priests have been accused of sexually abusing children in the past 30 years. Two of them, Javier Garcia and Jorge Moreno, fled to Mexico in 1995 to avoid being brought to trial for molesting an altar boy during the 1970’s.

In Ireland, Cardinal Desmond Connell apologized on April 7 for not taking action against pedophile priests in the past. According to USA Today, April 8, 2002,

“The order [Christian Brothers] has closed schools in Canada and Australia after admitting that its brothers abused students. The Irish government struck a deal in January with Catholic orders that ran schools and orphanages, including the Christian Brothers, requiring the church to pay $110 million into a fund for abuse victims.”

On April 18, 2002 an unprecedented subpoena was issued in a child abuse investigation. In Ohio, the Cardinal of the Cincinnati Archdiocese, Daniel Pilarczyk, was called to testify. Though he was excused from testifying for the moment, this was only the beginning.

On May 8, 2002 Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston gave a deposition before a Grand Jury. This was the first in history.

Finally, on April 23 and 24 the Vatican held a conference to come up with a policy statement in regard to these problems of sexual abuse and homosexuality in the priesthood. The Associated Press wrote this on April 25,

“After an extraordinary meeting sparked by a sex-abuse scandal, American Roman Catholic leaders agreed Wednesday to make it easier to remove priests guilty of sexually abusing minors—but they stopped short of a zero-tolerance policy to dismiss all abusive clerics.

“The American church leaders said they would recommend a special process to defrock any priest who has become ‘notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors.’ In cases that are ‘not notorious’ they would leave it up to the local bishop to decide whether such a priest is a threat to children and should be defrocked.”

USA Today wrote about this as well, adding,

“A hint of apology came in the priests’ letter: ‘We regret that episcopal oversight has not been able to preserve the Church from this scandal’.”

In other words, we regret that we were unable to keep people from finding out about these abuses. This is not an apology or even a hint of apology. This is simply a statement of regret for not being able to keep their sins a secret. They are sorry for the scandal, but not for the homosexuality and pedophilia among their priests. USA Today did a follow-up article on April 26, writing,

“Results of this week’s Vatican summit on the sex abuse scandal in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church have angered victims, saddened lay leaders and confused many Catholics. ‘It was a waste of time,’ says Patrick McSorley, victim of one of the most egregious pedophile cases involving a priest in Boston. ‘They didn’t say much about the victims. It’s just the same as before. They don’t get it’.”

The problem is that the Church redeemed these offending priests by paying off the victims of abuse. Biblical law does not offer restitution as a judgment for such sins. Secondly, the Roman Catholic Church consistently refuses to condemn homosexual relations, except when committed repeatedly by a priest with underage boys. Even then, in their recent Council in Rome in late April, they condemned only “serial” child abusers whose actions are “notorious.”

In other words, the priest would have to commit this sin multiple times before they would condemn such actions. In practice, of course, they simply did not defrock such priests, but merely transferred them to other places where they were not known—and then wrote glowing letters of recommendation to their new stations. They did not defrock them unless they were forced to do so by the news leaking out to the public. It seems that they are more interested in public relations than in dealing with the sin problem in their midst.

So by simply pouring out the second bowl of wine as a prophetic act of spiritual warfare at the feast of Tabernacles in 2001, the Roman church found itself in serious trouble. Many dioceses declared bankruptcy in the coming years, as lawyer fees skyrocketed and donations dried up. The church began to lose influence over the hearts and minds of men.

The effects of the second bowl were not limited to a single year. Divine judgment has continued to the present time, but it all began with a seemingly insignificant bowl of wine.