The ten kings appear with the 8th head and reign with him. So the ten kings appear after 96 AD. after the time of the 6th head. When does the time of the 7th end, so that the 8th head can come? (The 7th head of the Roman Empire beast dies in 476 AD)
While it is true that the ten kings appear with the eighth king, why would you assume that he must have already appeared. Since the 5th trumpet has not been sounded, then that eighth king, the beast, that angel of the Abyss, could not have yet come out. These are future events which will take place during that last seven year period, which has not yet begun.
Who is the Roman Empire beast after 476 AD, the 8th head? (The image of Caesar and the Roman Empire, the Vatican and the Bishop of Rome (BoR).)
The above is an assumption on your part. Why would you interpret the as being in our past opposed to being a future event?
The time of the 10 kings begins with the death of the 7th Head (the last Caesar of the Roman Empire). 476 AD is the time when the 10 kings began, but history proves that the number "10" is not literal in that context.
Again, how can the ten kings be in the past, when it describes them along with the beast as making war with Christ when He returns to the earth to end the age and establish His millennial kingdom?
When God uses the numbers a thousand years, a 144,000, 200 million, a great a number which no man can count, a fourth, a third, 1260 days, etc., that is what He means. There is no reason to symbolize those numbers.
Did you know that I changed my opinion on the identity of the woman in Rev 17? I now believe that the harlot is the people of Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD in Roman (Babylon) captivity, but still persecuting the churches of Asia.
And you would be wrong with your conclusion. The truth can always be found in scripture, which is why it is necessary to compare and cross-reference scripture. Below is the reason why Jerusalem and her people Israel cannot be the woman who rides the beast:
Mystery, Babylon the great, the woman who rides the beast, which is that city that sits on seven hills, is destroyed so that no one will ever be able to inhabit her again, as can be garnered from the information below:
"With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.
The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again.
No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again.
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again."
Jerusalem and her people Israel will be inhabited throughout the entire thousand years:
"When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth
and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them."
Since the woman that rides the beast, who is that city that sits on seven hills, is destroyed so that no one will be able to inhabit her again and we have scripture showing that there will be people living in the camp of God's people, the city that He loves, which could only be referring to Jerusalem and its people Israel, then we can conclude that Israel/Jerusalem is not the woman who rides the beast.
Most Christians have disagreed about prophecy for 1900 years. Does that mean that we are not Christians? Because God chooses to reveal prophecy to one and not another? These things that we discuss, prophecy, they are not necessarily salvation issues.
Should we say that those who lived 1000 years ago were false teachers and not Christians, against God? Because they got their prophecies wrong? But still got their salvation issues right?
I'll let scripture answer those questions:
"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves."
"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
It was revealed at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD that Caesar was the Antichrist and that the iron of the statue in Dan. 2 was the Roman Empire.
He may have been a type of antichrist, but he was not the one who is to come, that last day ruler who will be destroyed when the Lord's return to end the age, where both he and the false prophet will be thrown alive into the lake of fire.
"Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.
The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
It doesn't say "7 years", it says 7 times. The 7 times are the same time period as the statue in Dan. 2.
It actually says, "seven weeks" or seven weeks of years. Seventy sevens have been decreed upon your people and their holy city, i.e. seventy sets of seven years.
Seven 'sevens to restore and rebuild Jerusalem = 7 X 7 years = 49 years
Sixty two sevens = 62 seven year periods = 434
seven sevens and sixty two sevens = 483 years
The last seven years which are still future:
"He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
by the angel in Dan. 12:6-7 that says, the time from the captivity in Babylon until the scattering in 70 AD is the first 3 1/2 times. (The second 3 1/2 times is from 70 AD until 1967 when Israel was restored to control over Jerusalem.)
The length of time is mentioned in Daniel as a time = 1 year, times = 2 years and a half of time = half a year = 3 /1/2 years.
That last seven year period is divided up into two 3 1/2 years periods referred to in Revelation as 1260 days, 42 months and a time, times and a half a time. These are all referring to that time period of that last seven years.
The iron does not end. Who was the iron 500 years ago?
The iron was when Rome was in its full strength. A revived or extension of that Roman rule through her religious system will come back into power with one of the future popes as the false prophet. That ten-toed kingdom will not have the same power that it did when it was pure iron and that because the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
The 10 toes are are an extension of Rome, but not a revival, because the iron does not end and then begin again. The iron has continual strength even to the end of the toes.
Well, has Rome been a power on the earth since the third century? No! Rome has not been a ruling kingdom since that time. That is why the ten-toes kingdom is mentioned as being made up of iron and partly baked clay, because it will not have the same power as it did when it was pure iron. Rome as the pure iron has ceased to exist, but will revive as iron and partly baked clay.
If you say that the iron lost it's power, when it was mixed with clay, how does it regain it's power to rule?
Rome and her religious pagan system, who's practices stem from Babylon, will regain power through the revealing of the antichrist. I believe that one of the future popes will play the part of the false prophet and will be the one performing those miracles, signs and wonders on behalf of the first beast and for the purpose of deceiving the inhabitants of the earth.
