Two Powers

By Júlio César Prado

The prophecy of Revelation 13 reveals that the partnership between the beast that rose from the sea and the beast that rose from the earth will result in the persecution of the faithful keepers of God’s commandments. All faithful students of Bible prophecy will agree that there has never been a time of greater urgency in the study of prophecy than now. In the times we live in, we cannot close our eyes to the changes we see taking place in politics and religion.

The American Capitalist Empire is over, and a new economic system is emerging before our eyes—a fascist economic system. The financial control of the world is in the hands of a few people. Presidents, kings, queens, and prime ministers simply act as puppets; they do not think or decide for themselves. There is a controlling power that works behind the scenes like an invisible hand, greedily and cruelly, in the universal domain.

When Jesus lived on this earth, He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Jesus named the prince of this world: “For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). Satan, the enemy of God, is the prince of this world. Biblical prophecy lifts the curtain and shows the invisible war between Michael, the Prince of Life, and Satan, the prince of this dark world.

The questions asked in Daniel 8:13 are twofold: how long would the sanctuary of God and his army, and his church, be trampled under foot? That is, when would the restoration of the Sanctuary and God’s people take place? God’s answer is also twofold. In Daniel 8:14 God answers the first part of the question, which concerns the restoration of the Sanctuary in 1844, and in Daniel 10–12, God answers the second part of the question, which concerns the restoration of God’s people.

“In the word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will.” (Education, p. 173).

In this last vision of Daniel, we may understand the true philosophy of history. Although there are many battles, there is only one war: the great war between the forces of good and the forces of evil. In the vision of Daniel chapter eleven, God lifted the veil of history and showed Daniel some realities of the unseen world – the conflict between the forces of good and evil and the struggle for mastery of the human mind.

The Prophetic Role of the United States

Joe Biden has become the oldest president in US history. With vast political experience, the Democratic president graduated in history, political science, and law. He was vice president under Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017. Before that, between 1973 and 2009, Biden served six consecutive terms as senator of the State of Delaware, where he lived almost all his life.

These years were preceded by a personal tragedy: a few weeks after his election to the Senate, his wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident. Despite considering resigning to care for his other two sons, Beau and Hunter, Biden ended up becoming the nation’s sixth-youngest senator. He remarried three years later to his current wife, Jill. It has long been his ambition to become president of the United States.

Biden ran unsuccessfully for his ticket’s nomination for the presidential elections in 1988 and 2008. In 2016, he withdrew from the candidacy following the recent death of his son Beau, aged 46, from brain cancer. Now that he has reached the highest office in the country, he is considered by some to be a moderate Democrat who is supposed to believe in the value of bipartisanship, dialogue with Republicans, and carrying on the work begun under the Obama administration. However, Revelation says that the beast that emerges from the earth (the United States) will impose false worship with an iron fist. And those who refuse to worship in a politically correct way will be threatened with death!

Knowing the future is the desire of every human being, but no matter how hard we try, we cannot predict the events of even the next ten minutes. Biblical prophecy is fascinating because it proposes to unveil the future and answer the most disturbing human questions. The Apocalypse says that at the end of time, the beast that rises from the earth (the United States) will make an image of the beast that rises from the sea (the Vatican) and force the whole world to worship him.

According to biblical prophecy, anyone who refuses to worship the image will be killed or at least be banned from carrying out economic activities. The Middle Ages of European history were a time of papal supremacy. The pope had the power to set up and remove kings, and it was the duty of European governments to enforce the doctrine and moral order of the papacy.

About: Julio Cesar Prado is a journalist.