Greetings again Oseas,
After reviewing the whole thread, I decided to only take up a few incomplete aspects of your Posts. The first is your strong statement against what I claimed concerning the concept of the Antichrist:
A simple internet search reveals the following information from the Wiki article "Futurism (Christianity)":
"Two Catholic Jesuit writers,
Manuel Lacunza (1731–1801) and
Francisco Ribera (1537–1591), proposed the futurist view. Lacunza wrote under the pen name "Ben-Ezra", and his work was banned by the
Catholic Church. Up until the 19th century, the futurist view was generally shunned by non-Catholics, being seen as a self-defense of the papacy against the claims of the
historicist reformers.
"The Futurist view has grown in popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is currently followed by millions of Christians. However, while this interpretation is popular among
U.S. Evangelicals, it is generally rejected by adherents of
Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy,
Lutheranism, and
Reformed Christianity."
I understand that although proposed by Ribera, it was Lacunza that made the view popular. One writer, Graham Pearce adds another piece of detail in his book "The Revelation - Which Interpretation, Preterist, Continuous Historic, Futurist". He states: "Ribera, a Spanish Jesuit, presented his futurist theory in 1580. But it was the writings of a cunning Jesuit, Lacunza, writing under the false name of 'Rabbi Ben Ezra', that turned the Protestants and Non-conformists away from the historical interpretation early in the 19th century."
The other issue is your unique view of the ten toes, and this seems to be your first mention of this.
Briefly, my understanding is that the feet and toes are one entity, and represent the decline and subdivision of the Roman Empire and one book I referenced states: AD 476 Roman Empire Falls, and this is the time of transition from the Legs of Iron to the Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay. The Iron aspect is still the continuation of the Roman, but now there was various invasions by the Goths, Visigoths, Vandals etc., who merge into the territory. Daniel 7 adds detail, in that the Papacy took over three out of ten States, and these became known as the Papal States, but the Papacy lost these States in AD 1870, 1260 years after the Decree of Phocus in AD610.
As far as this interpretation of the Ten Toes being popular, Jonathan Burke in his book "A More Sure Word of Prophecy" lists some of the scholars who expounded the Feet and Toes as Rome Divided. He even claims that there were a number who anticipated the Fall or Demise of Rome before it happened and these were:
AD 180 Irenaeus, AD 185 Tertullian, AD 194 Clement, AD Hippolytus, AD 230 Origen, AD 280 Methodius, AD 300 Lactantius, AD 330 Eusebius and 7 others. He says that he could add another 24 expositors between the 6th and 13th centuries, and to list the expositors up until the 20th centuries would fill pages.
I also believe that the Ten Kings will reappear after Armageddon in Revelation 17, and these even after Armageddon will fight against Christ Revelation 17:12-14. I consider these will be Roman Catholic European countries. I asked the question of whether your view was your own personal view, or the view of the group that you associate with.
Kind regards
Trevor
