We described in our last issue the fourth bowl of wine poured out in October 2003 and the subsequent events during this past year. Pouring out a vial on “the sun” signifies judgment upon leadership, whether it is religious, political, financial, etc. So it is not surprising to see news reports in the Los Angeles Times (Sept. 13, 2004) that televangelist Paul Crouch (president of Trinity Broadcasting Network) paid $425,000 in hush money to keep Enoch Lonnie Ford from publishing his book detailing their homosexual relationship in the 1990’s.
“The alleged sexual encounter between Ford and Crouch occurred in the fall of 1996, according to Sandi Mahlow, a Tustin housewife who met Ford in a Fullerton church 10 years ago and became a close friend.
“Mahlow, 50, who helped Ford write his manuscript, said he broke down in tears after returning from a weekend spent alone with Crouch at a TBN-owned cabin near Lake Arrowhead. Mahlow said Ford told her that he and Crouch had engaged in sexual acts.
“Lonnie had a lot of bad traits; one thing he isn’t, and that’s a liar,” Mahlow said. She said she helped Ford with his manuscript for no pay, as a favor to a friend, and has no financial interest in the book…
“Despite TBN’s efforts to keep Ford’s charges secret, they surfaced in an unrelated 1998 lawsuit. A former bodyguard for TBN personality Benny Hinn testified in a deposition that during a European bus tour that year, Hinn had told a group of associates about ‘a sexual relationship that Paul Crouch had with his chauffeur.’
“The witness, Mario C. Licciardello, quoted Hinn as saying: ‘Paul’s defense was that he was drunk’.”
Rick Joyner wrote a special bulletin on Oct. 19, 2004 telling of the Kansas City Vineyard prophet, Paul Cain:
“In February 2004, we were made aware that Paul had become an alcoholic. In April 2004 we confronted Paul with evidence that he had been recently involved in homosexual activity. Paul admitted to these sinful practices and was placed under discipline, agreeing to a process of restoration which the three of us would oversee.
“However, Paul has resisted this process and has continued in his sin. Therefore . . . we now have the responsibility to bring this before the church.”
Both Paul Crouch and Paul Cain are recognized leaders in the religious world. Their exposure gives the Church another great opportunity to examine itself and to repent. As always, the primary purpose of the bowls of wine being poured out is to cause the people to repent—not to destroy them. This is clearly implied in Rev. 16:11.
In the world of politics, we might mention the death of Yassir Arafat on Nov. 11, 2004, which will affect the politics of the entire Middle East in the years to come.
This brings us to the present time and essentially ends our study of the historical fulfillment of the book of Revelation. Anything we say from this point on will be based more on projections of the future, rather than reporting events of the past.
The Fifth Bowl: 2004-2005
Rev. 16:10 says,
8 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, 11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.
In April 2004 Bob Henley and I were led to drive to Washington D.C. as a scouting trip in preparation for pouring out the fifth vial. I was led to take a jar of water from the Mississippi River near an island in Minneapolis called the Island of Peace. We were to pour out this water somewhere in Washington on April 8 to fulfill the law of spiritual warfare found in Deut. 20:10,
10 When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.
After walking the entire area and visiting each point on the pentagram north of the White House, we prayed to know which place to pour out the water. The Lord said to do so at Scott Circle. This street intersection is located on the forehead of the goat (Baphomet) directly north of the White House. On April 8, 2004 we then poured out the water there at the foot of the statue of General Winfield Scott. We spoke a warning to the beast system, admonishing it to repent and submit to the rule of the rightful Heir of all things—Jesus Christ, the King.
We knew, of course, that there would be no repentance because Rev. 16:11 says specifically, “they did not repent of their deeds.” Nonetheless, to fulfill all righteousness, it was necessary to do this, for it gave the beast system a full six months in which to repent.
Bob was unable to return with me in October, but there were twelve of us who bore witness as I poured out the wine October 6, 2004 at the same location. In essence, I stated to the beast in the name of Jesus that in view of the fact that he has not repented or submitted to Jesus Christ, He was declaring war against the throne of the beast.
The Templar-Masonic Connection
The statue of General Winfield Scott is the only one that does not give any clues as to who this man was or why he was being honored with a statue. There is only one word on the statue itself—“Scott”—and there are no signs or monuments nearby to explain it. No title, rank, or even a first name was inscribed anywhere. The only clue we had was that across the street was the General Scott Hotel. This told us that he was a general.
We had to find him on the internet. He was the longest-serving general in history (56 years) and he retired in 1861 toward the beginning of the Civil War. I believe that there was a reason why he disrespectfully appears only by the name “Scott.” I believe that it is not really a monument to the general. In fact, it was meant to be an insult to the general by stripping him of his rank and identity. It was instead a monument to Scottish Rite Masonry, and for this reason the statue is located on the forehead of the Baphomet street design just a few blocks south of the Masonic Temple. (See FFI #184, Part 15.)
Baphomet is “the god of wisdom” to high-ranking Masons. He was portrayed as having the head of a goat, but had the body of a man and breasts of a woman. He was also part dog and part bull. This was the way he was portrayed in the 19th century painting below by the well-known Mason, Eliphas Levi.
In William E. Mann’s book, The Knights Templar in the New World, p. 121 and 122, he writes:
“The Nineteenth-century occultist Alphonse Constant, a former Roman Catholic priest who took the Jewish pseudonym Eliphas Levi, wrote extensively about Baphomet as a conduit to God. According to Levi, the head of Baphomet is seen to combine the characteristics of a dog, a bull, and a goat, which are meant to represent the three sources of the pagan Mystery tradition . . . Baphomet’s androgynous nature is emphasized by one arm being mascular and masculine while the other is of a more feminine nature.”
Later, on page 185, the same author writes,
“It was determined that there exists a secret code in a number of the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Templars may have learned during their time in the Holy Land. Indeed, a noted expert on early Christianity, Dr. High Schonfield, demonstrated that if the name Baphomet was written in this code and then translated, the result would be the Greek word Sophia (meaning wisdom). From this, it can be concluded that when the Templars worshipped Baphomet, what they were really worshipping was the principle of wisdom and not some form of Satanism.”
There is no doubt that the Templars thought they had tapped into the real divine power, wisdom, and knowledge of the universe. I do not doubt their sincerity. However, in trying too hard to find “wisdom” apart from asking God (James 1:5), they sought it from other sources. And they were given a measure of it from spiritual forces that claimed to be the source of true religion but were, in fact, demonic.
Their wisdom is different from the wisdom of God. This is precisely what Paul was talking about when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:17-21,
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness [sophia, “wisdom”] of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. 18 For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom [sophian] of the wise [sophon], and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. 20 Where is the wise man [sophos]? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom [sophian] of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom [sophia] of God the world through its wisdom [sophias] did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Those who know not the gospel seek to acquire “lost” wisdom that God took away from Adam after he sinned. Their search for wisdom does give them a lot of genuine knowledge, of course, and this has historically been expressed in terms of their knowledge of architecture in building cathedrals and public buildings. But in their search for good knowledge, they have not asked Jesus Christ for wisdom, because they felt like Jesus was out to hide these things from men. Instead, they have gone to Baphomet, the false god of worldly wisdom and have identified him as the true God.
The Grand Commander of Scottish Rite Masonry in the 1800’s, Albert Pike, calls Masonry the “successor of the Mysteries” in his book, Morals and Dogma, page 22. On page 23 he writes,
“Though Masonry is identical with the ancient Mysteries, it is so only in this qualified sense: that it presents but an imperfect image of their brilliancy, the ruins only of their grandeur, and a system that has experienced progressive alterations, the fruits of social events, political circumstances, and the ambitious imbecility of its improvers.”
In other words, Masonry tries hard to imitate the Egyptian Mystery religion, and they only regret that they fall short of its “brilliancy.” The Bible, of course, has much to say about the Egyptian religion, and by no stretch of the imagination does it promote it as a true religion.
Pergamos and the Throne of the Beast
It is interesting that the fifth vial was to be poured out upon “the throne of the beast,” while Pergamos was called “Satan’s throne.” The connection is Aesculapius, the god of medicine and healing. In The Latter Rain [www.latter-rain.com/escha/pergam.htm], Jay Atkinson writes an article, saying,
“Pergamum was the famous site of the temple to Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing supposed to be the founder of medical science and immortalized in the sky as the constellation Ophiuchus. The city became the seat of Babylonian sun worship, a noble center of idolatry and demon controlled religions with splendid temples to Nature. People from all over the Roman empire came to seek healing in this pagan temple and the shrine area was inhabited by thousands of harmless snakes. On the hills of Acropolis stood resplendent buildings, statuary, palaces, and the great library as well as the temples and an altar of ‘Zeus the Savior.’ Medicine and science was worshipped here and the symbol of their worship was the serpent. The snake was carried down into our own day with a staff entwined with serpents called the caduceus, still using the snake as a symbol for the medical arts; Aesculapius is depicted holding the caduceus in his hand.”
The caduceus is, even today, the primary symbol of the medical profession. It can have either a positive or a negative connotation. On the negative side, the caduceus of Pergamos, “Satan’s throne,” referred to the serpent in the tree in the story of Adam and Eve. On the positive side, it was the bronze serpent in the wilderness under Moses. When the people looked upon that serpent, they were healed of the serpent bites (curse of sin). Num. 21:9 says,
9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
In John 3:14, 15 and again in John 12:32, 33, Jesus was compared to that serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. Some find this strange that Jesus would be compared to the serpent when He was lifted up on the cross. But in His death, He was made to be a curse for us. The bronze serpent was the antidote to the poison of the serpents that had bitten the people. That poison is sin, and the antidote was that Jesus was made a curse for us, that we might live.
Israel’s experience in the wilderness illustrates for us all the fact that sin, rebellion, and witchcraft bring judgment from the law, for that is the function of the law. That judgment is called “the curse of the law” in Galatians 3:13,
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles [ethnos, “nations”], so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The function of the law is to judge all sin and to set the standard that defines sin and righteousness. When a person commits sin, the law corrects the sinner in order to restore him back to a right relationship with his neighbors. Jesus Christ took our curse upon Himself to pay for the sin of the world. In that capacity, He made Himself a serpent.
This is the positive side to the caduceus, the serpent on the pole or tree. The priests in the temple of Aesculapius in Pergamos did not know the positive side of this, and that is why Paul had to preach Christ to the people of that city. Their serpent-worship was a counterfeit that ended up worshipping the serpent in Genesis 3, and this made them “Satan’s throne.”
Another example is when Moses threw down his rod, and it turned into a serpent (Ex. 4:3). The rod represents lawful authority. When one casts the law’s authority to the ground, it becomes a serpent to him. The law will “bite” you if you cast it to the ground. That is, the law becomes a curse to the one who despises it. Later, Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing (Ex. 7:11). Their rods represent the traditions of men which they consider to be authoritative. Moses’ serpent (staff) ate them alive (Ex. 7:12), showing that God’s law is greater than the traditions of men. This is the lesson God taught Moses and all of us.
In the painting of Baphomet by Eliphas Levi, the caduceus is portrayed in the beast’s groin area. Here, then, is the connecting link between the god of Masonry and the medical-drug system. The two come together in the Shriners Hospitals, the primary philanthropic medical arm of the Masonic Order. Masons can always point to these when the Order itself comes under criticism, as if doing good compensates for the worship of Baphomet.
During the Feast of Tabernacles this year the Vioxx scandal hit the news. British correspondent Rosie Murray-West wrote in The Telegraph on Oct. 15, 2004,
“The pharmaceutical industry routinely bribes doctors and ‘ghostwrites’ articles about drugs in major medical journals, MPs were told yesterday.
“Professor David Healy, of the University of Wales, told the Commons health select committee that as many as half the articles published in journals such as the British Medical Journal and The Lancet were written by members of the industry who had a vested interest in selling the drugs involved.
“Respected clinicians were then paid to have their names put at the top of the articles, he claimed, even though they had not seen the raw data on which they were based. . .
“He said he had been asked to put his name to an article, but had not done so. He then saw the same article bearing the name of Siegfried Kasper, from the Department of General Psychiatry at the University of Vienna. . .
“The pharmaceutical industry is reeling from the recent withdrawal of the rheumatoid arthritis drug, Vioxx, and widespread concerns over the anti-depressant Seroxat being prescribed for children.”
It is too early to know precisely how the fifth vial will affect either the Masonic Order itself, the medical system, pharmaceutical companies, or drug abuse in general. But these are the things to watch in the days ahead.
Projections: the Sixth Vial (2005-2006)
Rev. 16:12 says,
12 And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east.
Verse 16 tells us that the events of this bowl have to do with bringing us “to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon,” that is, “Armageddon.”
From now to October of 2005 we should begin to see signs leading to the event described here. The precedent for this sign has to do with the Medo-Persian conquest of Babylon in 537 B.C. In that conquest, the Persians diverted the river Euphrates that flowed through Babylon, and the army walked into the city on the dry river bed.
The seventh bowl speaks of the break-up of “Babylon” into three parts. Today, of course, we are dealing with Mystery Babylon, not the old city. However, the patterns remain and will repeat in some manner.
It is likely that Iran will be the trigger for these events some time in the next two years. Iran is modern Persia. It is quite likely that President Bush will authorize some sort of strike against Iran on the pretext that their nuclear power plant could be used to make nuclear materials for nuclear weaponry. But if we strike Iran, it appears that this will trigger the very event that the strike was supposed to prevent. It seems most probable that this would quickly spiral out of control and start a chain reaction that would leave the entire Middle East devastated.
This would also be the most likely time when Jer. 19:10, 11 would be fulfilled:
10 Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Just so shall I break this people and this city [Jerusalem], even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial.
This word concerned Jerusalem and the elders of Judah who witnessed the breaking of this jar. Jerusalem has always been repaired, though it has been destroyed many times. Perhaps it will take nuclear fallout to ensure that it will never again be repaired.
