Herbert W Armstrong

   Because in many ways, the events that we are celebrating here today, events that will culminate in the fall of Babylon the Great and the establishment of the kingdom of God. These events that we are celebrating were, in many ways, prefigured by an event that happened so many hundred years ago. I would like for us this afternoon to understand more clearly the prophetic implications of the fall of ancient Babylon and to see what it portends for us today.

   To understand it in light of this Feast of Trumpets. To understand more clearly where do we stand at this critical juncture in the course of human events, in the course of the events that are prophesied right in the pages of our own Bible. Let's start out by setting the prophetic stage.

   Now, the prophetic stage is set. You may wonder, where would you start to set the prophetic stage? Well, to set the stage of events that have transpired, we would begin with Genesis 11. Genesis 11 begins the story of mankind's attempt to build his own civilization, his own government, apart from God, after the flood.

   Now, in Genesis 11, we have the story of the attempt of mankind, under the leadership of Nimrod, to build the Tower of Babel. This was the beginning of the city of Babylon. This is the tower from which Babylon takes its name.

   Babylon had its beginning a little over a hundred years after the flood. Just over a hundred years after God had wiped out humanity on the face of the earth and had only spared the family of Noah, the family had increased and now there came a point where here was an individual prepared to stir up and to lead mankind in a rebellious effort to establish their own government, their own society, their own civilization. There was the attempt to create something beginning there at the Tower of Babel.

   It was an effort of mankind, all branches of the human family working together. But the problem is, when everybody works together, apart from the direction and the leading and the inspiration of God and his spirit and his laws, the results are catastrophic. Mankind attempted to do something under the leadership of Nimrod, the Tower of Babel, the beginning of Babylon.

   It was cut short because God intervened. God stepped in and said, Now this they begin to do and nothing will be restrained from them. Let us go down and confuse their languages, confound their tongues.

   And he did, and the nations were forced to scatter out on the face of the earth as God had intended. We are introduced at that point to Babylon, introduced to the Tower of Babel. Now as we come down historically and we pick up the story of Babylon again, in the book of Daniel we pick up the story of Babylon because God shattered the empire that Nimrod sought to build a hundred years after the flood.

   God shattered the empire that Nimrod sought to build centered around the Tower of Babel. Centuries past, a civilization continued to grow up and to thrive there in the plains of Shinar, the area of ancient Babylonia, the area centered around ancient Babylon. And as we pick up the story in the book of Daniel, we find that there was an empire centered around ancient Babylon that began to come together, that became the first of four world-ruling empires.

   We have defined for us in Daniel chapter 2, we have the story of a great image that Nebuchadnezzar saw. He had a dream, a very troubling dream. In this dream he saw a great image, but it was an unusual image because the head was of gold, the shoulders and the chest were of silver.

   The thighs were of brass and the legs were of iron and the feet were of iron and clay. Now this is an unusual mixture. Normally when you see a statue, when you see a great statue or a great image, whatever it's made of, the whole thing is made of the same thing.

   But in Nebuchadnezzar's dream he saw this gigantic image set up on a plain and it was made of different things, different points, the composition of the image changed. And then, most puzzling of all, he saw a stone cut out without hands, a stone of supernatural origin that came down and smashed this image on its toes. But when it smashed the image on its toes, it didn't just crack the toes off, the whole image turned to dust and the wind just blew it away.

   And the stone became a great mountain until it filled the whole earth. Now if you had been Nebuchadnezzar and you had awakened from something like that, you'd have been scratching your head too, wondering what in the world is this? Maybe you thought it was something you ate the night before. Well, Nebuchadnezzar sensed that this dream had important implications and it was at this point that Daniel was brought to Nebuchadnezzar's attention.

   And Daniel was given the wisdom by God to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of this dream. And Daniel began to interpret the dream for him and to tell Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 2:37, he spoke to Nebuchadnezzar and he said, You, king, are a king of kings, you are a great ruler, you are a great emperor, you rule over many nations. Not simply Babylon, but a great empire of many nations put together under your rule.

   You, O king, are this head of gold. This head of gold represents the Babylonian empire that is personified by you as its king. After you, there will another kingdom arise, a second kingdom, which was what the silver symbolized.

   This was the empire of the Medes and the Persians that succeeded Babylon. And then he said another third kingdom will arise after them. This, of course, historically we know is the Greco-Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great that swallowed up the Medes and the Persians.

   And then the final fourth kingdom that was strong as iron, the Roman empire, that succeeded and swallowed up all of those that continued through these two legs all the way down to the end. And the ten toes at the bottom represent what is extant at the time when the God of heaven will set up a kingdom. In other words, the time immediately ahead of us.

   So what we have in Daniel 2 is the outline of history from the time of ancient Nebuchadnezzar, 600 years before Christ, all the way out to the time immediately ahead of us. We have a summary of over 2,500 years of the history of this world that continues right on out to the years immediately ahead of us when the God of heaven is going to intervene and set up a kingdom. So we are introduced to Babylon once again.

   It is the fountainhead from which this world's civilization springs. It had its origin with Nimrod in the Tower of Babel. We see it here personified with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire.

   Now, as we continue through the book of Daniel in chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar had another dream. And this was a most troubling dream. He said in Daniel 4:4, Nebuchadnezzar says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace, and I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

   He saw something that concerned him very much. Now, what he saw, as he begins to explain in verse 10 of Daniel 4 (Daniel 4:10), was he saw a great tree in the midst of the earth. And it was a very impressive tree.

   It was tall, it was high, it had many branches, and in the branches various birds and animals had their nests and were under it. There were many leaves and a lot of fruit. It was a very bountiful tree, a very impressive tree.

   And it says the beasts had shadow under it, and there were nests in it, and all of these things. And then he saw an angel come down and say, Cut down the tree. In verse 14 (Daniel 4:14), Cut down the tree, cut off the branches, shake off the leaves, scatter the fruit, but let the beasts get away.

   Nevertheless, don't uproot it. Don't cut it down and dig out the stump. Cut it down, cut off the branches, scatter it away, but leave the stump and the roots in the earth.

   And take a band of iron and a band of brass and bind this stump. Put a cap on this stump to protect it, bind it, and leave it there. And he was told, verse 16 (Daniel 4:16, 22), that seven times would pass.

   Seven times would pass over it. Now, Nebuchadnezzar was troubled, wondering what this was. He was told in verse 22 that that tree was symbolic of him and of the Babylonian Empire.

   Now, Nebuchadnezzar went through a very remarkable personal experience. He was warned by God through Daniel as to what this portended for him personally. He was impressed for a short period of time, but as months went by and nothing happened, he lapsed back into his old attitude.

   And one night when he least expected it and was standing there surveying the great Babylon that existed and all puffed up in his pride and vanity as to what he had accomplished, he was struck with infanity. And for seven years he roamed the fields like a wild animal. And at the end of those seven years, his sanity returned and he was restored to his kingdom.

   And he continued to rule Babylon for several years until his death. Now, Nebuchadnezzar went through an experience that had implication, that had significance not simply for him personally, but for Babylon and for the civilization that Babylon was symbolic of. And we're going to come back to that in just a moment.

   Nebuchadnezzar went through an event that taught him a lesson. His successors did not learn that lesson. Nebuchadnezzar was a different man when he came out of this experience, but several years passed.

   And when we come to the next chapter, Daniel 5, which Daniel 5 is not in chronological order, it is in the order of subject matter. It is to put next to Daniel 4 the last event of Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.

   He was the son of Nabonidus. Nabonidus was the king or the emperor of the Babylonian Empire. He had associated his son Belshazzar with him on the throne as co-ruler.

   At the time that Daniel 5 records these events, Nabonidus was elsewhere in the empire with an army. Belshazzar was sitting on the throne and holding sway in Babylon. And in Daniel 5, we pick up the story of an event that actually took place on the Feast of Trumpets in 539 B.C. The dating of that event is attested to in many historical documents.

   It is one of the most well-documented occurrences of the ancient world in terms of when it occurred. You have to understand that Babylon was, to all intents and purposes, Babylon appeared the city that was impossible to conquer. The walls of Babylon were 335 feet high.

   Do you realize how high that is? Herodotus, the Greek historian, gives us the dimensions and the information of Babylon. That's as tall as a 33-story building. They were 85 feet wide.

   There was literally a racetrack for chariots that ran around the top of the walls of Babylon. There were 100 brass gates. The Euphrates River flowed through the middle.

   Babylon was impregnable. Babylon was absolutely certain there was no way to conquer Babylon. Now, the armies of the Medes and the Persians were besieging Babylon.

   It sought to besiege it. Belshazzar thought so lightly of that. He treated it as such a trivial matter that he had a great feast.

   He had a big party. And as was often the case, these parties turned into a regular drinking bout, as we find here in Daniel 5, that Belshazzar the king, verse 1 of Daniel 5 (Daniel 5:1), made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine before the thousand. And Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem.

   Now, you know, they were sitting in there really boozing it up. And he got to feeling pretty good, and he was really going to impress all of these various individuals, the various high-ranking rulers of the Babylonian empire, as they were sitting there to laugh and to mock at this vast army of Persians that was gathered around to besiege Babylon. How ridiculous it is that anyone can think that mighty Babylon could fall.

   And so after he had boozed it up for a while, he got to feeling pretty good, and he thought, you know, I know what. Let's get the sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem in here, and we'll drink another toast to that. Because our gods are above all the other gods, the gods of Babylon.

   Well, they brought in the vessels from the temple, and they began to drink and to booze it up out of the sacred vessels that God had commanded Solomon to make for the temple. And we're told in verse 4 of Daniel 5 (Daniel 5:4), they drank wine and they praised the gods of gold and the gods of silver and the gods of brass, the gods of iron, the gods of wood, the gods of stone. I'm sure they drank a toast to each of them individually, you know.

   So by the time they got through with all of them, you can believe they had gone through quite a bit. I mean, you couldn't just toast them all at once. You'd have to start out with the gods of gold and kind of work your way down.

   Well, about this time that they were well lubricated and really in the process of tying one on, they got sobered up. I mean, if you want the absolute world's record for how quickly somebody can be sobered up, read the next verse. Because they were sitting there just really enjoying the party, and about that time, the fingers of a man's hand appeared out of nowhere.

   And it wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. Here was this hand that just appeared out of nowhere, and it began to write in great letters on the wall. And in verse 6, we're told, the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed.

   Now, if you look that up, you find that that is a rather poetic description of an accident that the king suffered about that time. He had a rather unfortunate accident. That's what it means when it says, the joints of his loins were loosed.

   I mean it. You talk about scared. He was, I don't know about scared straight, but he was scared sober, or at least about as sober as he could get, as drunk as he was.

   The joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smoked one against another. So he all of a sudden began to, he wasn't feeling nearly so great and so powerful and so important and so impressive. Things, something had thrown a damp, you know, thrown cold water all over the party.

   I mean the party was over. The party was over. And the king cried out, you know, bring somebody in here, get all the wise men in here, tell me what this means.

   Well, none of them knew. Then the queen, she was the queen mother, and she told him, she said, you know, in the days of your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, there was a man, held in high esteem by Nebuchadnezzar, one of the Jewish captives, who was the interpreter of the secrets of God. If you bring him in here, he will undoubtedly be able to tell you what this means.

   Well, Daniel came in, Daniel was brought in, and he read the writing. And the writing was, mene, mene, hekel, upharsin. Now, this phrase, which we read, and may be meaningless to us, was a reference.

   The words themselves were not unknown words. It is a reference, it is a form of the term, mene, shekel, and peres. These were weight.

   These were units of measurement. The shekel was a standard unit of measurement. There were 50 minas to one shekel.

   The peres was half of a mina, so there were 25 peres to the shekel, and there were 50 minas to the shekel, and 25 peres to the shekel. Now, that's all well and good, but you know, if you saw something written on the wall that said pounds, pounds, ounces, and tons, you may know what the words mean, that they are units of measurement, units of weight, but the word joined together that way would be absolutely meaningless to you. That's the way it was to them.

   The words were not some nonsense words. They were words that were known in the Hebrew, the Aramaic, the Babylonian language. They were units of measurement with which these people were familiar.

   But it made no sense, just these words appearing there. What was the significance? Well, Daniel told him, he said, Mene or Mina, this is a weight that is a number. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it.

   The shekel symbolizes the fact that you are weighed in the balances and are found wanting, and the peres shows that your kingdom is divided and will be given to the Medes and the Persians. And verse 30, and that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. That night.

   Because you see, what he thought was impossible occurred. Cyrus, the great of Persia, had directed that the Persian troops would dig a canal to divert the Euphrates River. And they did.

   And that night, as the party grew on, they burst the dyke and they began to drain off the flow of the Euphrates as it was going through Babylon. And the height of the river went down, down, down until finally they were able to put the army in the riverbed, march it under the great iron gates of Babylon and emerge on the other side. And Babylon fell in one night.

   One night. Belshazzar was slaughtered. Now let's look a little bit.

   Belshazzar had obviously not learned the lesson that the Most High rules in the affairs of men. This was the lesson that God had impressed upon Nebuchadnezzar. And we have the story in Daniel chapter 4 followed by the events of Daniel chapter 5. There are other events that are recounted in the book of Daniel that chronologically come in between these two events.

   But these chapters are back-to-back because they tell a continuing story. You see, what happened to Nebuchadnezzar was symbolic for Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was cut off.

   He symbolized, or the tree symbolized him. In reality, it symbolized the Babylonian Empire and it was cut off. It was cut off and it was banded by bands of iron and brass.

   The stump was left. The roots were left in the ground. The tree was cut down.

   How long was the tree left just stumps and roots in the ground? Dry stump and roots. It said seven times must pass over it. Now, what is a time in a prophetic sense? Well, let's just notice very briefly how the Bible defines its own terms.

   If we want to briefly turn back to Revelation 11, I want to illustrate the point. How long is seven times? Let's notice some things that are used synonymously here in Revelation 11. In Revelation 11:2, it talks about... let's pick up the last part of the verse.

   It says, "...the holy city shall they tread underfoot forty-two months." And in verse 3, "...I will give power to My two witnesses and they will prophesy twelve hundred and sixty days." Now, we saw forty-two months, and we saw twelve hundred and sixty days. Let's go on down to Revelation 12. Revelation 12:6, it says, "...the woman," speaking of the church, "...fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared of God that they should feed her twelve hundred and sixty days." On down a little further, in verse 14, it says, "...to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times and half a time." Now, let's notice here, we have several terms and they're used interchangeably.

   Forty-two months is how long? Well, three and a half years. Thirty-six months is three years. Six more months makes forty-two.

   So, three years and six months, three and a half years, is forty-two months. Now, twelve hundred and sixty days is forty-two thirty-day months. You can just multiply it out if you don't trust my math, but, you know, feel free, go ahead, check me out.

   But forty-two thirty-day months is twelve hundred and sixty days. So, twelve hundred and sixty days, forty-two months, three and a half years, time, times, and half a time is a prophetic term to refer to three and a half years. Twelve hundred and sixty days, forty-two months.

   Alright, when we read in Daniel 4 that seven times would pass over this tree with the stump remaining, banded with iron, the roots in the ground, but the tree cut down, that seven times would pass over it, seven is twice as much as three and a half, right? Everybody follows my math, okay. Seven is twice that much. So, if time, times, and a half a time is three and a half years, if that's twelve hundred and sixty days, then seven times is how many days? Well, add it up, just take twelve sixty and double it, and that comes out to twenty-five hundred and twenty.

   Twenty-five hundred and twenty days is the equivalent, just demonstrated right here, for seven times, or twenty-five hundred and twenty days would pass over it. Now, from a prophetic standpoint, God utilizes the symbolism of a day for a year when it comes to Bible prophecy. For instance, in Numbers 14:34, God told Israel, after the number of the days in which you search the land, even forty days, each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities for forty years.

   Over in Ezekiel 4:6, basically the same statement that is made. In Ezekiel 4:6, God says, you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed you each day for a year.

   So, in terms of prophetic implications, a day for a year is utilized prophetically. Twenty-five hundred and twenty days, the seven prophetic times that were to pass over this stump. From the time the tree was cut down and the stump was banded with iron and brass, seven times, twenty-five hundred and twenty prophetic days, or twenty-five hundred and twenty years, was to pass over this stump that was banded with iron.

   All right? Now, let's look a little further. We saw the handwriting on the wall, the meaning Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. Let's look a little further at that.

   We see that the significance is they are numbers that are weights which are to be divided. The meaning of the word peres is divide, the literal meaning. It was a term that meant division or half.

   It meant a division. Here were numbers that were weights that were to be divided. Now, the shekel was the basic unit.

   And there were fifty minas to the shekel and there were twenty-five peres to the shekel. Now, let's add up here. Mina, the first one, that's fifty.

   We want to find out how many shekels we have here. If you add up, you have fifty minas and then you have another mina. So, you've got fifty more.

   That's a hundred. And then the shekel, of course, is one shekel. That's one.

   And then you have twenty-five peres. So, you have fifty, fifty, one, and twenty-five or a hundred and twenty-six. Now, what is that? Well, just hold on.

   Let's go back to Leviticus chapter 27. And let's see. Let's notice something right here.

   Leviticus 27:25. It says, All your estimation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Twenty jiras shall be the shekel.

   Now, a smaller unit than the shekel was the jira. The shekel was the basic unit. The mina was worth fifty of them and the peres was worth half that many.

   It was worth twenty-five. So, there were a hundred and twenty-six shekels represented here if you took these numbers that were weights. But if you divide them down to the smallest unit, we're told in Leviticus 27:25 that the estimations are to be made according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

   There are twenty jiras for the shekel. So, if we have a hundred and twenty-six shekels, how many jiras would that be? We just multiply your hundred and twenty-six times twenty. Multiply that out.

   You might check me out here. Just go ahead and multiply it out. Do you notice something? Do you notice what you come up to? You come up to twenty-five hundred and twenty.

   Now, Nebuchadnezzar had had a dream and the seven times, seven prophetic times, or the twenty-five hundred and twenty prophetic days, twenty-five hundred and twenty years, was to pass over this tree after it was cut down, the stump was left, banded with iron and brass. Now we come to the time when Babylon was going to fall. We come to the night of the fall of Babylon.

   The Feast of Trumpets, 539 B.C. The handwriting on the wall because the kingdom had not learned the lesson that the king had learned. And so it fell. It was weighed and the balances found wanting.

   Its days were numbered and it was divided. The Medes and the Persians, it fell. Babylon fell.

   Well, prophetically, there were twenty-five hundred and twenty years that had to pass. Now, if you want to do a little more math, if you will start with 539 B.C., come forward two thousand five hundred and twenty years, you will find that brings you out to the Feast of Trumpets, 1982. That was exactly twenty-five hundred and twenty years later.

   It was exactly twenty-five hundred and twenty years. If you calculate it out and you come out one off from that, you have to add in the one year because there is no such thing as a year zero. The year 1 B.C. was followed by the year 1 A.D. There was no such thing as a year zero.

   So you are one off from just using regular math if you go through and calculate that up. But the Feast of Trumpets, 1982, is the date you come out to. Now, what is the significance of the Feast of Trumpets, 1982? That was seven years ago.

   That was exactly seven years ago. We are seven years down the road from the time that those seven prophetic times were up. Now, when the seven times were up, the bands of iron and brass were clipped.

   The bands of iron and brass that bound the stump. Notice what Job has to tell us in the book of Job, chapter 14. Job, chapter 14, in verse 7 (Job 14:7). It says, There is hope of a tree.

   If it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branches thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stalk thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. The tree was cut down.

   The roots were left in the ground. They waxed old. The stump was bound with bands of iron and brass seven times, 2520 years passed over that from the time that Babylon was cut down until those bands were clipped.

   And what happens when the band is clipped? Well, as Job expresses it, through the scent of water it will bud and it will bring forth boughs like a plant. The tree begins to grow again. The tree that is Babylon, because the final world-ruling kingdom, the final world-ruling kingdom that is described in the book of Revelation and in other places, is not called Persia the Great.

   It's not called Greece the Great. It's not called Rome the Great. That final world-ruling empire that Jesus Christ is going to smash when He returns is called Babylon the Great.

   Babylon the Great. Now, on the Feast of Trumpets, 2520 years ago, in fact seven years ago last night, an event occurred in Germany that was without precedent in post-war Germany. There was an abrupt switch.

   There had been an alliance governing Germany for a number of years. It was an alliance of the Socialist Party and the centrist Free Democratic Party. And they had governed Germany together for a period of several years.

   Unexpectedly, out of the blue as it were, that night the Free Democrats decided to pull out of the coalition and the Chancellor of Germany was shocked by losing a vote of confidence in his own parliament. This was on the evening that began the Feast of Trumpets seven years ago. By fourteen days later, as the Feast of Tabernacles began, on the evening that began the Feast of Tabernacles seven years ago, a new government, a new Chancellor was sworn in, the present Chancellor.

   The Christian Democratic Party, which is the official Roman Catholic Party in West Germany, we think in terms of separation of church and state, we need to understand that is not the situation in Europe. There are, in many cases, officially designated religious parties. The Christian Democratic Party, which exists in Germany and in Italy and in Spain and in several European nations, is the official Roman Catholic political party.

   It was established as such in the aftermath of World War II. There is not the concept of a division of church and state there. In many cases, there are relationships that exist between church and state.

   There was a remarkable governmental change that came about very surprisingly. And the new government that took place, or that took office, began a series of decisions that have had implications in terms of the events that have occurred with the European economic community, with decisions to move forward. Now, lost again in the events of the time, there was a matter of a few days later.

   A few days later, right after the Feast of Tabernacles in 1982, just as these bands had been clipped prophetically on the stump, Pope John Paul traveled to Spain. He spent ten days in Spain, traveling through Spain and speaking and conducting mass meetings. And on the tenth day of his trip to Spain, he made a speech on the unity of Europe.

   And he made in that speech a remarkable statement. And I want to quote it for you. He said, I, the Bishop of Rome and pastor of the Universal Church, issue to you, Europe, a cry.

   Give life to your roots. Give life to your roots. Now, a number of remarkable events occurred.

   Let's step back. We're seven years downstream from the loosing of the bands. Let's step back and let's look and assess briefly the events that have transpired in Eastern Europe.

   Now, Pope John Paul II took office or was elected as Pope, was chosen as Pope on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, 1978. If you remember the story, Pope Paul VI died. He was succeeded by an Italian prelate who took the name John Paul I. This man held office for just over one month and shockingly died.

   Everybody was caught by surprise and so the College of Cardinals had to come back into session. And on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, 1978, for the first time in 455 years, a non-Italian was elected as Pope. Pope John Paul II.

   Now, a few months later on the Pentecost weekend of 1979, he made a trip back to Poland. Not only was he a non-Italian Pope, he was a Pope from behind the Iron Curtain. You have to understand that in the aftermath of World War II, when the Russian boot was planted on the nations of Eastern Europe and the attempt was made to wipe out religion, there was a disheartenment and a disillusionment that settled.

   There were attempts to revolt. There were attempts to revolt. Poland made its attempt.

   Hungary made its attempt in 1956. Czechoslovakia made its attempt in 1968. Russian tanks each time rolled in put a stop to that foolishness in a matter of a few days.

   You see, it took Stalin three and a half years from the close of World War II to the fall of 1945, it took him three and a half years to the spring of 1949 to consolidate his hold on Eastern Europe. And by the spring of 1949, the Iron Curtain, as it was called, had rung down on Eastern Europe. All of the nations of Eastern Europe by that time had communist governments.

   So there was a three and a half year period from the close of World War II until Stalin was able to completely impose a communist government on all the nations that were east of the line where his troops had stopped in 1945 in the defeat of Hitler's Reich. So in 1949, the Iron Curtain came down on Eastern Europe. The attempt to impose Russian domination, Soviet communist domination, to wipe out the impact of religion.

   There was a disheartenment and a disillusionment that had spread that it is useless to resist. God has abandoned us. This was the attitude.

   You have to understand that to realize how exciting it was to the peoples behind the Iron Curtain when a Polish Pope was chosen. Something that was remarkable, something that no one expected. Well, a few months later on the Pentecost weekend of 1979, he returned to Poland.

   He set in motion events that by the Feast of Tabernacles, 1980, a little over a year later, there was widespread labor unrest and the first independent labor union behind the Iron Curtain in almost 40 years came to prominence. Solidarity was recognized legally right after the Feast of Tabernacles, 1980. Things continued to rock along.

   There was the threat of Russian intervention. There was the threat of Soviet troops. And as events began to unfold on the Last Great Day of 1982, just a matter of three weeks after the bands on the stump had been clipped, the government of Poland sought to reimpose complete communist rule and Solidarity was outlawed and Lex Valesa was put in jail.

   Seven years from that event, Poland has a non-communist Prime Minister. Seven years. Those seven years have seen events that have begun to unfold and we are now seeing the crumbling of what has existed behind the Iron Curtain.

   Now, let's understand a little bit of the post-war world. For many centuries in Europe, there were empires. The world was dominated by empires that ruled over many nations, many languages, many tongues.

   This was the common story. Beginning with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Period at the end of the 18th century, beginning of the 19th century, the influence of nationalism began to spread. First to Europe and out to the world.

   At the beginning of World War I, there were three great multinational empires that ruled over many different nationalities and language groups in Europe. The Ottoman Empire ruled from Turkey, that ruled over a large grouping of the Middle East and the Balkans and parts of Europe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire that ruled over much of Central Europe.

   And the Russian Empire that ruled over a great deal of Central Europe as well as the whole Russian Empire on into Asia. There were three great multinational empires that dominated Central and Eastern member states. The nations of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, portions of Romania, Austria, Hungary, various portions that were spun off to other nations were all created in the aftermath of World War I from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

   The same thing happened with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Empire changed. There was a communist revolution that overthrew the Tsar, but the empire remained mostly intact.

   A few nations were pried loose. Poland was pried loose. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia were pried loose.

   But they only stayed loose for a very short time because by 1939 Stalin made a pact with Hitler and he moved back in and he took them back. Now, the nationalism that was set loose at the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period began to spread throughout Europe and to filter out elsewhere throughout the 19th century flamed up in World War I and even more so in World War II and the aftermath of World War II. The flames of nationalism have swept around the world and we are seeing now that ingredient of nationalism taking root inside the only multinational empire left in Europe, which was Russia.

   You see, there are many, many different language groups and constituent groups that were conquered over a period of several hundred years that were forged into the Russian Empire. And these people have never looked upon themselves as Russians. They were subjects of the Russian Empire, first of the Tsar and later of the Communists, but now that the flames of nationalism have been fanned and we have come to the end of 40 years, we have come to the end of a period of trial and testing, 40 is used in the Bible, significant of trial and testing, after the establishment of the post-war world.

   We are now seeing a destabilization take place in Eastern Europe. Now, let's go on. Let's understand.

   We look at Babylon the Great. Now, we saw the image in Daniel chapter 2. We saw the head of gold, the shoulders of silver, the thighs of brass. Babylon, Persia, Greece.

   We came down to Rome, the Roman Empire, symbolized by two legs of iron that culminated in ten toes. Now, understand something remarkable about the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is symbolized by two legs.

   We have always commented on the fact that that is significant because the Roman Empire was split into the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire. Do you remember your history? It took place in the 3rd century A.D. under Diocletian, the emperor. He split the empire for administrative purposes.

   A matter of a few decades later, Emperor Constantine, who was the emperor that made Catholicism the official religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine made the split final. Rome was made the capital of the Western Empire and the ancient city of Byzantium. Constantine, being the humble sort that he was, changed its name to Constantinople.

   You never guessed where he came up with a name like that. He changed the name to Constantinople and that was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire because the empire was so vast that it was impossible to administer from one city, communications and transportation being what they were. So now the empire was officially split into an Eastern and a Western branch, the two legs.

   Now when we have followed the story prophetically of the revivals of the Roman Empire, we have only followed the revivals of the Western leg. We have only followed in our studies of prophecy the story of the Western leg. Now the reason for that is that what is prophetically significant, as we are told in Revelation 13 and Revelation 17, when we see the beast pictured in the various revivals, we see that there were seven revivals, or pictured as seven heads there in Revelation 17, on which the woman road.

   The Catholic Church only dominated the revivals of the Roman Empire that took place in the West. That that we know in history as the Holy Roman Empire, or as it was officially styled during the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. That was its official title.

   It took in most of Central and Europe, took in Germany, took in Italy, took in a vast portion of Europe. That was the only part, that was the successors though, of the Western branch of the Roman Empire, the revivals that centered on Rome, or the revivals that were dominated from Rome. But when we come down to the bottom, when we come down to that final resurrection of the Empire that is symbolized by the two feet, the ten toes, what is the obvious implication we reach? That the final resurrection involves putting the Empire back together again.

   Because unless the image was grossly distorted, you had five toes on each foot. And you had one foot attached to each leg. Have you ever seen somebody otherwise, where they had two feet attached to one leg and no feet attached to the other leg? That would be a rather unusual looking image.

   Or an image where you had two feet, but you had all ten toes on one foot and no toes on the other foot. So the obvious implication is when you get to the bottom and we find that at the end we have two feet, ten toes, and that final ten toes symbolizes the final revival of the Empire, we have not only the successors that come through the Western Empire, but we see that at the end the East comes back together. Now what many don't recognize, you see just as there was a continuation in the Western Empire, Rome fell, the Western Roman Empire came to an end in 476 A.D. The Roman Empire fell, one of the important dates probably had to be memorized in world history years ago.

   476 A.D., the fall of the Roman Empire. But see the Roman Empire was revived in 554 A.D., the Imperial Restoration under Justinian, and then the Restoration under Charlemagne, and then under Otto in the 900s, and then under the Habsburgs in the late Middle Ages, and under Napoleon finally when it collapsed in 1814. Twelve hundred and sixty years from the Imperial Restoration we follow through these revivals of the Holy Roman Empire.

   The attempt of Mussolini to revive it once more, a feeble sixth resurrection that culminated in the Rome-Berlin Axis that plunged the world into World War II, and there is a seventh resurrection yet to occur. But that seventh resurrection is the two feet, the ten toes. What happened to the Eastern Roman Empire while all these resurrections centered in Rome or dominated by Rome were going on in the West? What was happening in the East? Well, the Eastern Roman Empire, known in history as the Byzantine Empire, continued on down through the period of the Middle Ages until 1453 when the Turks conquered Byzantium, or Constantinople.

   The Turks conquered it and the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, fell just a matter of forty years before Columbus discovered America. The Eastern Roman Empire, under the rule of Emperor Constantine XII, fell in 1453. Now, that's not the end of the story because there was a matter of several hundred miles away an obscure little Grand Duke by the name of Ivan III.

   He ruled over a small territory centered around a village of wooden buildings. The buildings were of logs. It was not a very impressive city and it was not a very impressive state.

   This little grand duchy, that's what it was termed, was the Grand Duchy of Moscovy. It is the name from which Moscow comes. It was a very small little state centered around the area of Moscow, ruled by the Grand Duke Ivan III.

   Ivan III came to the throne in the 1450s and in 1472 he married. He married Sophia, who was the daughter of the last emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. And he married her and when he did, he took the title of Caesar.

   Czar. The title the Russian rulers were known as, you know, C-Z-A-R. It looks like, if you spell it out in English, it looks like Caesar.

   Well, it is the Russian word for Caesar. Moscow was then termed the Third Rome because they viewed Rome, say, originally, and then it was transferred to Constantinople and then transferred to Moscow. Ivan began a process of conquest that spread out and within a matter of a hundred years gave rise to the Great Russian State, to the Russian Empire.

   He was the beginning. He became known as Ivan the Great and he began the conquest that began the Russian Empire. And he took the title.

   He was the first Russian ruler to take the title Caesar. He viewed himself as the successor to the Byzantine Empire because you see, there was a split that had taken place in 1054. And going back, let's go back a thousand years.

   In 990, next year, they're going to be celebrating in Russia. Gorbachev is going to Rome to make arrangements for it and the Pope is then going to go to Moscow in 1990 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the establishment of Christianity in Russia. Gorbachev is going to be going to Rome to visit the Pope in a matter of a few weeks.

   And part of what they're going to be arranging is the trip the Pope is going to make to Russia to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the establishment of Christianity in Russia. Well see, Christianity was established in Russia in 990. Just a matter of a few years later, 64 years later in 1054, what was called the Great Schism took place, which was the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church.

   The Greek Orthodox Church was headquartered in Constantinople and the Roman Catholic Church of course in Rome. The Russians were Orthodox. They followed Constantinople.

   And the Czar then, when the Grand Duke of Moscow took the title Caesar, he viewed himself as the protector of the Orthodox Church. And so you had in Europe, coming all the way down to the 19th century, you had two rulers with the title Caesar. Because you see, the Holy Roman Emperors, the term in German that they used, they didn't call themselves Emperor, that's the English term.

   Their term was Kaiser, which is the German spelling of Caesar. There were two rulers in Europe for hundreds and hundreds of years, from the time of Rome all the way down to the beginning of the 19th century. There were two rulers in Europe who used the title Caesar and who viewed themselves as the rightful heir of the throne of Caesar.

   The Kaisers, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, who traced their claims of the title back through all of the various resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire all the way back to Rome. And the Caesars, or the Czars, who ruled in Moscow, who traced their claim back through Constantinople to the Eastern Empire. So you had two legs of the Empire that came down.

   One was a German-dominated, a German-Latin-dominated Western European leg of the Empire, succession of the Empire that came down. That was Catholic, that is the leg whose history is foretold in prophecy, but there was also an Eastern leg, which was the Slavic leg, the successor of Constantinople, the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire that came down, that was personified by the Russian rulers. So now we come down, and what we find is in the middle.

   You see, what we term Eastern Europe is not really Eastern Europe, it's Middle Europe. Because Europe goes all the way into Russia, all the way to the Ural Mountains. And if you look at a map, a continental map of Europe, the nations we call Eastern Europe, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, all these nations that we talk of as Eastern Europe, that's not the term that they use for themselves.

   The Germans refer to those nations not as Eastern Europe, but as Mittel Europa, Middle Europe. Western Europe is the German Latin, and Eastern Europe is the Russian Slavic, and Middle Europe is in between. And that is the area that the Russians and the Germans have fought over for hundreds of years.

   Most of the time, those nations haven't even existed on the map. They've been ruled either by the Germans or by the Russians. That's why it was no new thing when Hitler and Stalin drew a line in 1939 and all the nations of Eastern Europe disappeared from the map.

   Hitler took part of them and Stalin took part of them. The Germans and the Russians had been doing that for centuries. You just trace it back.

   Poland existed on the map. Poland existed on the map for 20 years. For 21 years.

   Poland existed on the map from 1918 to 1939. That was the length of its existence as an independent country. Because the Czar of Russia and the ruler of Germany had divided it up between themselves way back in the 1700s.

   And that had been the story. So what we're seeing in Eastern Europe is an unfolding. You see, when you come down logically and you have the two legs and you come to the final two feet and you come to the ten toes, the obvious implication is you have Western toes and Eastern toes.

   You have toes that come out of the Western realm and you have toes that are the remnants or that come out of the Eastern realm. Now, let's look very briefly. Let's look at the book of Ezekiel.

   We've kind of set the stage for some of this and I'm going to try to summarize and conclude very quickly. In Ezekiel 27, we find the description of the final great world economic combine. Notice what it says here in verse 12 (Ezekiel 27:12).

   Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches. Now, the ships of Tarshish, we have explained in the Plain Truth and other places, we have explained that the ships of Tarshish refer prophetically to Japan and to the Japanese fleet. The ships of Tarshish, Tarshish was your merchant.

   In verse 13, Javan and Tubal and Meshach, they were your merchants. Now, Meshach and Tubal is a reference very specifically that refers to Russia. Meshach is the name from which Moscow is derived.

   Tubal, that refers to the Moscow branch of the great Russians and Tubal refers to the Sebalt branch of the great Russians, the Eastern and Western branches of the great Russian people. There are three people called Russians, what are termed the great Russians, white Russians and little Russians. The little Russians are the Ukrainians, the white Russians or the Baleo Russians and the great Russians which are Russia itself.

   And there are two branches of Russia centered at Moscow and Sebalt. So we find Javan, Tubal and Meshach, they were your merchants. In verse 14, they of the house of Togarmah, which refers to the areas of Siberia and East Asia, traded in your affairs.

   In verse 15, the men of Dedan were your merchants. And we come on down. In verse 17, it refers to the land of Israel, trading there with wheat and honey and oil and various things.

   It talks about the Middle Eastern nations. It talks about all of these various things. In verse 25, the ships of Tarshish.

   And then it talks about the destruction that is going to come and the wailing in verse 32 for the destruction of the city. What you have in Ezekiel 27, you can read it at your leisure. Go through and read Ezekiel 27 and then go back and read Revelation 18 and you will find that the description John gives in Revelation 18 of the fall of Babylon the Great, many of the expressions are exact quotations that are lifted out of Ezekiel 27.

   Many of the descriptive phrases of the fall of Babylon the Great, it is a great world economic combine. It is a world economic order that is going to arise in Europe. And what we are seeing in Eastern Europe, the bands have been clipped and the tree is beginning to sprout and bud and it is beginning to grow.

   And it is going to make a great tree to fill all the earth. And it is going to include all kinds of people in. It is going to include the nations that we have viewed as behind the Iron Curtain.

   It is going to include nations all over the world, a great world economic combine worldwide. That is the description that is described when we come to Revelation 18 and it talks about all nations have been made rich. It is seemingly given the world prosperity.

   But then we find that there is a crisis that occurs. A crisis occurs in the Middle East that threatens the collapse of the worldwide economic order. The United States and Britain are involved in that.

   There is a renewed altar, a rededicated altar that is set up in Israel, a holy place where sacrifices are to be made. And there is a crisis that is precipitated in the Middle East that draws in the United States and Britain that threatens a collapse of a worldwide economic order. And in response to the crisis, we find in Revelation 17:12 that the ten horns which you saw are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but they will receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

   These have one mind and they are going to give their power and strength unto the beast. There are going to be ten nations, ten rulers in Europe representing both eastern and western Europe that will collectively combine, that will voluntarily relinquish power to a super leader for the purpose of sending in an army to resolve the problem as they see it, to resolve the threat to peace and prosperity by moving very swiftly into the Middle East and occupying the land of Israel by moving very swiftly in and occupying the United States and Britain, the Anglo-Saxon nations. Now, the problem with that ten nation combine that very quickly comes together, that emerges out of this great worldwide economic order, these ten nations, these ten rulers that give their power to the beast, because there, as you go through Revelation 17, Revelation 13, there are not only economic implications, there are religious implications, there is a worldwide unity that appears on the surface, peace, peace they say, they come together to put a stop to this threat to peace as they view it.

   But you see, Daniel tells us that these ten nations, these ten feet, these ten toes, these two feet, are composed of iron and clay. They are a mixture that will not stay missed. It's partly strong and partly brittle.

   It will not endure. It only lasts for a short time. Because you see, there is a disillusionment that comes first with the religious leader.

   It causes these nations to turn on him, and it brings things to a crisis. We have referred this morning in Revelation chapter 9 to what really describes the breakup of this worldwide economic combine. Because you see, once again, history repeats itself.

   Napoleon and the Czar of Russia were allies. And Napoleon stabbed him in the back because he didn't trust him. Hitler and Stalin were allies.

   And Hitler stabbed him in the back because he didn't trust him. And we're going to find once again, the West and the East are going to be allies. But the Germans aren't going to trust the Russians.

   And the first woe, as Mr. Lee commented this morning, describes the Western European attack on the Soviet Union. The attempt to preempt, to once again do the same thing. You see, they haven't learned.

   Hitler didn't learn from Napoleon, and the future ruler is not going to have learned from Hitler. So we have the two woes unleashed. We have the first woe, Western Europe attacking Russia, and then the counterattack that is described in Revelation 9 as the second woe.

   The breakup of this worldwide trade combine that breaks up into war. It breaks up into catastrophe. It brings us to the point that all life on this planet would be annihilated except for the fact that the God of Heaven is going to set up a kingdom because you see, at the end of Daniel 2, what did Daniel see? What did Daniel describe? This stone of supernatural origin smashed the image on its toes.

   And the ten toes were smashed. The image was smashed to dust. And Daniel said, this symbolizes the fact that the God of Heaven is going to set up a kingdom.

   In the days of those kings, the God of Heaven is going to set up a kingdom, and it will never end. The God of Heaven is going to step in. You see, the story of Genesis 11, the story of the tower of Babylon in Genesis 11, is followed by Genesis 12, which is the story of what? That is the story of a man God called out of Babylon, a man by the name of Abraham who lived in Ur of the Chaldees, which was a neighboring city to Babylon, a part of the Babylonian, of the land of Babylonia.

   God called a man out of Babylon to go out to a land that he would afterward show him, and we're told that Abraham departed. We're told in Hebrews 11 that Abraham departed for he looked for a city that has foundation, whose maker and builder is God. Abraham turned his back on the civilization that man sought to build, the civilization that was described and personified in the Tower of Babel that represented man's attempt to build a unified one world empire, a unified one world government.

   Abraham turned his back on that, and he left and went to where God showed him because Abraham looked for a city that has foundation, whose maker and builder is God. The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is followed by the story of Abraham in Genesis 12, and there are implications for us today. We're told in Revelation 18:4 referring to Babylon.

   We're told in Revelation 18, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, and the word for us in Revelation 18:4 is come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, that you be not partakers of her plagues. Just as God called Abraham to come out of Babylon, so we also are called to come out of spiritual Babylon and to turn our back. Jesus Christ prophesied in Matthew 24 as we are living through the events that are mentioned in the pages of our Bible.

   The bands have been clipped. The tree is sprouting and growing as we are living through these events and the days and weeks and months and years immediately ahead of us. The warning that Jesus Christ gave to his church in our time and our day, and brethren, if we are where we think we are in prophecy, what Jesus said in Matthew 24:42-51 apply very directly to us.

   The warnings that John gave to the church in Revelation 3 apply very directly to us. If we are where we think we are in prophecy, these things apply to us. Let him that has an ear, hear.

   Jesus said in verse 42 of Matthew 24, watch. You don't know when the Lord comes. He says verse 44, be ready (Matthew 24:42-46).

   He said in verse 45, who's a faithful and wise servant? Verse 46, blessed is that servant whom when his Lord shall come shall find him so doing. He's going to make him ruler over all his good, but in it that evil servant shall say, my Lord, delays his coming. It's way off.

   Oh, it's a long ways off. I've got time to do a lot of things. That evil servant shall say, my Lord, delays his coming.

   And the result of that, thinking that it's way off, he begins to smite his fellow servants, and he begins to eat and drink with the drunken. So we find discord and animosity inside the body. We find a worldly lifestyle.

   We find to begin to eat and drink with the drunken, to begin to blend in and sit in and be part and parcel of this world. And Jesus Christ said, the Lord of that servant is going to come and in the day when he doesn't look for him, in a time when he's not aware, and he's going to cut him asunder. That is a very important warning for us today.

   The Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13:11, he says, and know that the time, that it is knowing the time, that it is high time to awake out of sleep. Now is our salvation newer than when we believe. The night is far set, the day is at hand.

   Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. The night is far set, the day is at hand. The Apostle Paul tells us further in Hebrews 10:37, forget a little while and he that shall come will come and will not perish.

   Now the just shall live my faith but if any man draw back my soul he'll have no pleasure in it. We're not of them to draw back into prediction but of them in which to lead to the saving of the soul. Brethren, it is high time for us to awake out of sleep.

   The prophecies indicate that the warnings of God's church in the end time is going to be the tendency to go to sleep. The tendency to go to sleep at the switch right before the time comes. To begin to drift off to sleep, to be lulled into a spirit of spiritual slumber.

   Some are going to begin to smite their fellow servants. Others are going to begin to eat and drink with the drunken. That is the warning that is given to our time and our day and our people.

   That's the warning that Jesus gave to his disciples. We're told that it's time to wake up. God warns his people in the end time.

   He says, wake up. The night as far spent the day is at hand. He warns us in Revelation 18.

   He says, come out of her my people, come out of Babylon. Leave the world behind. Don't drag it into the church with you.

   Leave the world behind. And we're told to be busily so doing. Versed is that servant who when his Lord shall come shall find him so doing.

   Doing the work of God. Because we're told in Hebrews chapter 10, he that shall come will come and will not perish. Brethren, do you realize what it means? The time is literally really going to come.

   When the air is going to be split with a blast of the trumpet and the dead in Christ are going to rise up and Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth. He that shall come will come and will not perish. That time is really going to come.

   It really, really is. It's in the time ahead of us. We are right now living in the times that the prophets foresaw.

   We can't set some exact time of exactly the day or the hour. God has reserved those things into his own hands. But he is indeed blind who cannot look at the outline of what the scripture says and what we see on the world scene and what we see shaping up.

   And the warning is going out. Are we going to wake up? Are we going to come out of Babylon? Are we going to be prepared and ready and so doing? Because he that shall come will come.