Wounded Head
Ephraim Frank
Israel
December 22, 2006
Shalom Fellow Israelite,
Well, today is rosh chodesh (new moon) and the 8th day of the lighting of the Chanukah candles, as well as the eve of Shabbat with the lighting of the candles that bring in that special day. All these speak of the wonderful celebration of light. So with that in mind, I would like to shed some light upon the one head of the seven-headed beast, the one that was wounded like unto death but came back to reality.
As I have pointed out in the last several letters, I believe that the beast is an image of fallen man, and his many character traits, as well as his creative and intellectual expressions. Man was created to have fellowship with Elohim and to express His divine nature, by being a temple of YHVH’s Spirit of Holiness. But after the rebellion through disobedience, man immediately took on the nature of another spiritual realm. Thus, we have been following the four ‘beastly’ images and looking at man through their manifestations. What gives credence to our deduction that the “beast,” mentioned in Revelation, is actually a reference to man himself? In Revelation it says: Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666” (Revelation 13:18). The translators prefaced the word “man” by an “a” and thus made it out to be a single person, but the Greek word which is used there - “anthropos” - is mostly used for man or humans in general. “Anthropos,” or “anthrpinos” are also used in Greek in the form of “that which belongs to man,” just as in English one would say “man’s” (e.g. “man’s shirt, man’s number”). The thrice six could speak of man being a three partite entity, who was created on the 6th day. Various sources also postulate that the number “three” symbolizes divinity, and in this case it would point to man’s effort to become like Elohim by his own effort. (“You can become like Elohim,” famous words that enticed Eve.)
In Psalm 46 it says that a man who honors himself and who is without understanding is like a beast that perishes. Such was Nebuchadnezzar, who was turned out to pasture like a beast, as he was exalting himself and worshiping the works of his hands, lacking the understanding that it is the Most High who rules over the realm of mankind (ref Daniel 4:30-32).
If we examine each of the heads, through a process of elimination we will be able to discover which of them was the one that was to be wounded like unto death. The first head that we saw was the head of the lion. That head represented man’s pride, or glory. The second head was that of the bear, whose main characteristic was self-righteousness with all the traits of good and evil. The four heads of the third beast were philosophy, arts, science, and government (democracy). The head of the fourth (unnamed) beast is described as having the mouth of lion and iron teeth, but its nature is a conglomeration of all of the above. However, which of these heads seems to have disappeared in the history of mankind, and had come back to life? The only one that fits this description is one of the heads of the Greek beast – the political system of “democracy.”
This form of government seemed to have been lost for many centuries, although it was kept in tact by one sovereign country for centuries, until it resurfaced and became more widespread. The Vatican, and all its property within the sovereign state of Italy and the city of Rome is its own sovereign state, and a body of representatives elects its head. However, Rome (or even the Vatican) was not the ultimate place that the Catholic hierarchy had in mind for their world dominion. The protectorate of this hidden government was the Order of the Knights of St. John and their Grand Master, who was the head of this European order (a foreshadowing of a European Union of sorts). Next week I will share more on this, as it unfolded before us some 8 years ago, while in the Greek island of Rhodes.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ephraim