Realization of Prophetic Visions
By Philip Mark Ames
Seven Heads
The leaders of the wicked
spirits are the seven most powerful and intelligent of God's adversaries. Each,
by his actions, has acquired the names Devil and Satan, in addition to any other
names he may bear. Each of these seven is of the class of spirit beings called
cherubs. These seven Satanic cherubs are the seven heads of the dragon as seen
by the Apostle John. Each head wears a diadem, the official sign of kingly
authority. Although they were created righteous, each willfully turned against
God.
An example of all seven is
seen in Ezekiel 28:11-19 Here, one of the Satanic cherubs is addressed as the
king of Tyre.
It is revealed that he had been in Eden, the garden of God. He had been anointed by God to be a
king. He had been set or appointed over a certain earthly realm. He had then
turned away from faithfulness to God, and had become wicked. He had also
gathered great riches for his earthly subjects. This chapter of Ezekiel was written
several years after Nebuchadnezzar had broadened the Neo-Babylonian Empire,
having conquered Assyria, The seaport city of Tyre had long been an independent city,
subject to no foreign rule. It was a center of commerce, gathering much wealth
from all the surrounding nations. But Tyre's
invisible Satanic king had seen in Babylon
a greater potential for wealth and power. So Babylon became the capital city of his world
empire. As king of Babylon,
this same Satanic cherub is addressed in Isaiah 14:4-20 as Lucifer, the shining
one.
Actually, all seven of these
cherubs had been appointed by God to be kings over the earth. This was before
they turned against God. But, having anointed them and set them in their
positions of authority, God has allowed them to fulfill their term of office.
Readers familiar with the Biblical history of Israel will remember that God dealt
similarly with Saul, the first human king of the Israelites. He was a very
humble and righteous man when God anointed him; but he later became very
wicked, even seeking to kill David, whom God had anointed to succeed Saul as
king. Nevertheless, neither God nor David acted to end King Saul's reign
prematurely. (I Samuel 9 through II Samuel 1) Incidentally, Saul was a picture
of Satan in this regard, even as David was a picture of Jesus.
Each of those seven anointed
cherubs has held sway over territories inhabited by God's chosen people, Israel.
The first to do so was the one who ruled over the Egyptian Empire. I will call
him Devil King #1. At the time of the Exodus, God used Moses to greatly
humiliate him. God also at that time appointed the holy archangel named Michael
to lead and protect His people. When Moses died, Michael disputed with the
devil over the body of Moses; he then buried it where it could never be found.
(Jude 9; Deuteronomy 34:5-6) Shortly thereafter, Michael appeared to Joshua,
presenting himself as the captain of God's armies. (Joshua 5:13-15. See also
Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1)
Many years later, after the
nation of Israel
had passed its peak of glory and righteousness, civil war broke out resulting
in a division of the kingdom. Sometime after that, Devil King #2 led his
Assyrian Empire into warfare against the Israelites. The ten-tribe kingdom of Northern Israel was conquered, captured,
and scattered. But, when the same Devil King attempted to take the southern kingdom of Judah, God intervened. He sent His angel
(possibly Michael) to destroy in one night an army of 185,000 Assyrians. Northern Israel had forsaken the one True God; so God
forsook them. But the kingdom
of Judah was at that time
still faithful to God, so their angelic prince Michael protected them. (II
Kings 17-19)
Eventually, the people and
kings of Judah
turned away from true worship. They became even more wicked than their northern
kinsmen had been. Meanwhile the Assyrian Empire grew weak; Devil King #2 had
fallen from the throne of world dominance, being succeeded by Devil King #3.
This third Satanic prince was the one called Lucifer. He had as his subjects
the Chaldeans. Their capital city was Babylon.
Under the leadership of #3, King Nebuchadnezzar utterly destroyed Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom of Judah.
He killed thousands of Jews. Many others were led captive to Babylon. One of the first captives was the
man named Daniel, who be- came a prophet of God. It was to Daniel that God
revealed the existence of the next three spirit rulers over world empires.
(Dan. 10:12-13, 20-21; 9-26)
Devil King #4 ruled the
Medes and Persians. They conquered Babylon and
permitted the restoration of Jerusalem
by the Jews. After many more years, their empire fell to Alexander the Great.
Devil King #5 was the prince of the Greeks. He was the invisible power behind
Alexander. After Alexander's death, the Hellenic Empire was divided into four
major kingdoms. All of these were eventually swallowed up by the Roman Empire.
Devil King #6 led his
subjects, the Romans, to world domination. He, then, is the spirit prince who
was ruling when Jesus was on earth. He was the devil who tempted Jesus in the
wilderness. In fact, he offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world as a
reward for one act of worship to him. In refusing the offer, Jesus did not deny
that the Devil was the world ruler.
By the time the Apostle John
received the Revelation, there were five Devil Kings who had fallen from the
throne of world ruler. The sixth one was then ruling. There remained only one
that had not yet arrived upon the throne. According to Revelation 17:10, when
the seventh finally arrived he would remain for a short while,
But Devil King #6 was to
remain in power for a long time. In fact, before his Roman
Empire dissolved, he had already developed his new religious
empire. As one of the four winds of heaven, he was the first to bring forth a
beast from the sea of human thought. His creature was the Catholic Lion, as
explained in Part I of this Book.
The last four of the seven
Satanic cherubs are identical with the four winds or spirits of heaven referred
to in Daniel The last four of the seven Satanic cherubs are identical with the
four winds or spirits of heaven referred to in Daniel 7:2. Devil King #6
produced Catholicism. Devil King #4 inspired Mohammed, causing the great
bear-like thought-creature to emerge. And Devil King #5 prompted the rise of
the four-headed Protestant leopard. These statements are based upon a
comparison of the ancient Persian, Hellenic, and Roman empires with the modern
Moslem, Protestant, and Catholic religions, respectively.
Devil King #7 did not come
to the throne until the thirteenth century. At that time, he led Genghis Khan
and the Mongols to such great territorial conquests as the world had never
before seen. That empire lasted only about 200 years. But in the descendants of
its citizens, and in the same region of the earth, this clever angel has
brought forth a great ideological kingdom. Being the fourth wind of heaven, he
is responsible for the rise of the cruel and terrible fourth beast, Communism.
Written by: Philip Mark Ames - - -
© 1975 Philip Mark Ames. All rights reserved.