Cracking the Bible code...
Cracking the code of the Bible actually turns out to be remarkably simple.
About two thousand years ago an historian named Flavius Josephus was working under a patronage to Emperor Vespasian of Rome.
In the course of writing the history of his people, the Jews, for Rome, he basically did a recap of the Bible in his book 'The Antiquities of the Jews'. However, in the course of doing a summary of the book of Daniel, he ventured an interpretation of the vision of the second chapter, the vision of the image with the head of gold and feet of clay. Josephus concluded that there were four kingdoms represented by the different parts of the image; the head of gold being Babylon, the chest of silver being Medo-Persia, the thorax of bronze (some translations say brass or copper) Greece , the legs of iron Rome. And this understanding was accepted by the Roman Catholic church and subsequently all Christian religions up to this day. In fact, the four beasts of Daniel chapter seven are thought to match the four kingdoms of chapter two perfectly. But a closer look reveals some important details.
The Bible specifically states in Daniel chapter two that the vision of the image was given to Nebucadnezzar in his second year. And Daniel pointedly told Nebucadnezzar "YOU YOURSELF are the head of gold". (Daniel 2:37,38 and Daniel 5:18-22 support that this applied only to Nebucadnezzar and not to Belshazzar or the empire of Babylon in general) However, the vision of the four beasts was given to Daniel in Belshazzar's first year, many years after Nebucadnezzar had died, and was a prophecy of things yet to come.
Looking more carefully at Daniel chapter two yields some important clues also. In Daniel 2:45 there is revealing detail. When Daniel is enumerating the parts of the image, he makes what at first might seem to be an error in his sequencing of the elements of the image, he says; "whereas, you beheld the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold..." when actually, he should have said , "whereas, you beheld the clay, the iron, the bronze, the silver, and the gold..." Daniel here deliberately separates the iron from the clay by putting the copper (bronze) in-between. Had the the iron and clay only been a single entity or kingdom he would not have done so. But by his separating these two elements, the iron and clay, he lays down a clue to help us see that there are in fact five kingdoms, and not four.
Another clue is in verses 32 and 33. Notice that the gold, silver, bronze, iron, and the iron-clay mix are each introduced separately.
There are, in fact, five kingdoms, not four, and the first beast of Daniel chapter 7 does not match up with Babylon, but with Medo-Persia. Certainly Belshazzar did not receive the heart of a man, (Daniel 7:4) but Both Darius and Cyrus did (Darius the Mede, and Cyrus the Persian, hence the Medo-Persian empire) (a quick read of Daniel chapter 6 and Ezra chapter 1 will confirm this). Remember, the vision of the beasts was given to Daniel in Belshazzar's first year, and was describing a future event. So the four beasts match up to the last four of the five kingdoms of the image.
So, what is the key to cracking the Bible code? Very simply, there are five kingdoms in the image, not four, and the first beast of Daniel chapter 7 starts with the second kingdom of the image of chapter 2. and the vision of the image does not end with Rome and the vision of the beasts does not end with Rome, but they both end with the Soviet Union*, in it's past form, and soon-to-be reformulation.**
But that's another story.
* Compare Dan 2:41-43 with this comment
from Dorling Kindersley's World Atlas Second Edition (2002)
page 125 first paragraph. And I'm paraphrasing so as to respect
copyright law ,'The Russian Federation has more than 150 ethnic
minorities, and 21 autonomous republics. Regionalist dissent remains
a danger.' And this is not counting former Soviet Republics soon
to be forced back into the fold.
** "Reformulation" is important because
of what Daniel 7:24 says, also Revelation 17:10,11 describes
it this way 'that the beast is an eighth king but one of the seven'.
Thus it would be one of the seven previous kings in a different
formulation, but with similar or the same identity. So don't look
for the old communistic Soviet Union to come back, but
a re-formulation of a revived Soviet Union (currently called the
CIS, which interestingly,
has 10, yes ten, member nations...hmmmm......Please see
Timeline section 1).
This one should have made world-wide
Headlines:
http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/07/03/sovietproperty.shtml
(link is now dead, please see note below)
As of about June 2007, Mosnews
no longer exists. However, the essence of this news article was that
Russia had an agreement with the Paris
Club and the former Soviet republics. The agreement was that if Russia
could repay all of the Soviet Union's former debts, that Russia
would obtain full, free, and clear title to all properties
previously owned by the Soviet Union. Thus in essence creating a
de facto reformulation of the Soviet Union. This happened back in
2006, as the date of the article indicates. And in fact Russia willingly
paid pre-payment penalties of over one billion dollars for the privilege
of re-paying these debts almost a decade and a half early,
frankly, I think everyone agreed to this deal because no one thought
it was possible. But don't forget, Putin has the equivalent
of a Ph.D. in economics, which he acquired after the fall of the
Soviet Union.
see also: www.TheMoscowTimes.com (Now also a dead link .... hmmmm......)
This was an article describing the
early repayment of the loan and how they would Force everyone to comply.
Including The Ukraine. The Ukraine is to Russia as California is to the US.