Signs of the End of the Age
The Systems of the Beast, Part 2

Studio Session 95
Sam Soleyn
01/01/2006

We are talking about the systems of the global kingdom that Satan uses to crush and devour the whole earth, as Daniel says in Daniel 7 and as has been repeated in Revelation, chapter 13. One of the mistakes, I believe, that previous commentators have often made is that they have perceived this global kingdom to be a geographic kingdom—that is the model of human kingdoms which has to do with the reign of a king over a certain geography. So they have divided the world—these commentators on Scripture and on this particular point—often have divided the world into ten regions or divisions. Well as I said earlier on, when John speaking says, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. Whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” and also said—the same John—John 3:16 said, “For God so loved the world…” and the Greek term for world in both cases as John used it is the term “kosmos,” then we have a problem. (Inserted – actual verse—“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” – I John 2:15) (Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’” – John 3:16)

Either God loves the world and we, like him, should love the world or whoever loves the world, the love of God is not in them because God doesn’t love the world. Like I said, the word used in both cases is the word, “kosmos.” In the understanding of the usages of the term it is not difficult at all to understand how one word could have several different meanings. Even the word “world,” in English… if you were to say, “I have been traveling in the world,” you would understand that I have been moving about over the face of the planet. On the other hand if I were to say, “Certain teenagers that I know live in their own world,” you would understand that I meant something by the word “world” that was quite different from the world I had been traveling in. The same thing is true with the Greek terms for kosmos. One usage is: God loves it because it is a reference to humanity; God loves people. Another usage is as it refers to the geography: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” meaning the world belongs to God. Why? Because He is the Creator of the geography. He is the one who said, “And let the dry land appear,” so it is his world.

There is another usage however of the word, “world” (kosmos) and it is when John says, “Do not love the world nor the things of the world. Whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Clearly he is speaking about a different world than either the geography or humanity—that’s the important point. You must see that this usage of the term world is different from either a reference to geography or a reference to humanity. Furthermore, this “world” has a creator who is different from the Almighty because this world is different from the worlds that the Lord made. In reference to the Lord’s world—to humanity and to the geography—He is the Lord; He is the creator. But in reference to this world that Satan has made, he is the “kosmokrator.” If he is the maker of this world then the meaning of this “world” could not be either a reference to humanity or the geography because both of those, as the world, already have a maker—and that is the Living God.

So the kosmos we are told not to love is a reference to something other than humanity or geography. What is it? It is an alternative to God—alternative to putting your trust in God. You began to see the operation of the kosmos immediately after man sinned. Before man sinned his needs were met and he was protected. His physical needs for food, shelter and for clothing… all of those things were met and his need to be protected did not exist. He was naked and vulnerable and he was neither afraid nor ashamed. The moment he sinned, what did he do? The moment he sinned, he clothed himself and hid… did he not? Where did he get the idea from to clothe himself and to hide? What was he afraid of? Why would he hide? You hide because you are afraid; you are afraid of someone more powerful than you.

Moments before, it never entered their minds to hide or to be afraid. Moments before, they ate of the tree, they were naked and it didn’t bother them; they were unashamed. Why would they hide? Why would they clothe themselves? Clothing themselves and hiding are indications of very important changes in their perceptions, in their mindsets. I might offer to you this reality: The Scriptures said that God warned man that if he ate of the tree, in the day he did he would sin and because of that he would die.

The devil came along and said to him: “Let me explain to you what the truth is. No, if you eat of the tree your eyes will be opened, you will know good and evil and you will live forever.”—directly contradicting God. (Inserted – actual verse—“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” – Genesis 2:16,17) (Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” – Genesis 3:4,5)

Now before they ate of the tree they could see that the tree was pleasing to the eye, so they could see with their physical eyes, and before they ate of the tree they were naked and not ashamed. When God came into the garden they were not afraid because they fellowshipped with God, and in this arrangement there was no need to provide for themselves or to protect themselves. So the eyes of their spirits were open. Man has spirit, soul and body according to I Thessalonians 5, verse 20 and following. (Inserted – actual verse—“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – I Thessalonians 5:23)

The eyes of their flesh—the eyes in their heads—could see the fruit on the tree and it was pleasing. The eyes of their spirits fellowshipped with God. They had enlightenment and understanding—concepts associated with vision or seeing. What remained closed were the eyes of their souls, so God said, “Don’t eat of the tree because if you do the eyes of your souls will be opened and you will begin to make decisions that will cause you to stray away from me and because of that you will surely die because you can’t maintain yourselves. You are creatures; I am your Creator. Only in fellowship with me can the creature maintain his existence.” This is the crux of the matter.

Satan comes into the garden and he lies to them, convinces them that the eyes of their souls needed to be opened so they could begin to make all of the right decisions for themselves because the decisions they were making now were not right. You know the story: They gave in, they ate, their eyes were opened and immediately paranoia set in. You can infer from the fact that they clothed themselves and hid, you can infer from that, a fundamental change in their mental state. Prior to that God came into the garden and they were not afraid. Prior to that they showed up to meet with God, they were naked and they were not ashamed. The difference was made when the eyes of their souls were opened because something was unlocked in the human being that now caused him to view everything differently.

That is the thing that Satan exploits. He exploits the desire of humans to survive. He subverts how they plan for their own survival and he subverts their understanding of their resources—the resources necessary to survive—these three things known variously in the Scriptures as: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. In short, if you find yourself “playing God,” then you are confronted with three things: number one, the need for survival; number two, a plan for survival; and number three, the necessary resources to survive. These are the three things that the soul is occupied with and they are so dominant that they can be compared to, and properly called “lusts”: the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes; and the pride of life.

The desire to survive, above all else; the vision that you bring—what is your plan to accomplish your goal of surviving; and the third, the pride of life—what do you have that you can use to accomplish that, how can you get there, what are your resources—these are the three things. The kosmos—the thing that Satan created—was a way for the human to be able to accomplish these three goals without needing to trust God: that’s what it is. And these things have been working their way through history ever expanding, ever moving forward, ever graduating until finally they will show up as a beast with seven heads and ten horns. What is the jump from there—from the garden—to the end of the age? You can readily see that the end of the age is the full compendium and summation of everything that began in the garden. The events of the garden are like seed form. The end of the age is the crop in all of its fullness.

What herds people into these systems—to trust in these systems? Initially, supplying your need was a matter of sewing fig leaves together, and protecting yourself was simply a matter of hiding. But mankind—as his departure from God expanded through the centuries and millennia of his rebellion against God—became not only increasingly paranoid but further and further distanced from God. And with more and more people on the planet, the need to supply each one personally took on the need for systems to do it. The need to defend yourself, as the issues of one’s survival became increasingly complicated, took on the need for systems. Satan always had these systems in mind, but man did not always see his need for a systemic approach.

Consider today our obsession with global security—the need to be secure. Is every individual capable of securing himself against indiscriminate killings such as were perpetrated in this country on September 11? No. Those innocent people in the Pentagon and in the World Trade Center buildings in New York literally hardly knew what hit them. So they can’t protect themselves. But now, looking in the aftermath of these things, looking at how to accomplish this, the nations have coalesced to create systems by which this might be done.

A system effectively looks at every aspect of a process, examining where that process is flawed and seeking to fix the holes in the process. That is why, you see, Satan’s kingdom is systemic. It offers protection and provision on a global basis for whoever adheres to it, but the philosophical foundation of the whole thing is rooted in the trust in what you could do—what we could do as human beings—not only individually but especially collectively. That is why the world that he has created is systemic; it is not geographic. He is not the creator of the geography, therefore his kingdom could not be comprised of the geography, but frankly he doesn’t need to control the geography if he can control the systems that control human life.

An example: Let’s say, as some people did in Y2K (the year 2000), some people bought underground condominiums in remote areas such as the deserts of Utah. How well are you going to do in a remote condominium if your need for communication—you need to talk with someone on the telephone—exists? Unless you plan to lead the life of a complete recluse, you are going to have to depend in some way upon these systems. You know of remarkable examples of how people who are traveling across the country—and no one would know exactly what their location would be—that these people could be tracked down because they made a telephone call using their cellular telephone from some place where they were. And they could be identified with a GPS—a global positioning satellite—and could be found if they were staying in a motel within a certain radius. You could collect the date of people checking in, in motels, based upon the use of credit cards and find the person. Send out the state police to give them the message. That has been done, to my knowledge.

The point is: You do not have to control the physical geography if you control everything upon which human life depends. These systems are meant to be complete renditions of that particular need. If you have a need to communicate, and the system of communication is globally linked, then you must give up your privacy—the privacy of your location; the privacy of perhaps your identity—you must give it up in order to participate. And that is what this system is about: it is about controlling people. That is what this kingdom will be. There are many such systems now, but eventually they will coalesce into seven integrated systems. These seven systems will be ruled over by ten kings.

For the first time in the history of mankind we understand a global king—that is: a king over a global system. You can pick almost any of these systems upon which human life depends and already you can begin to see some clearly dominant persons whose reach and control is global. Now I am convinced that none of these present international figures are necessarily these kings of which the Scriptures speak because none of them absolutely controls all of the thing. It is possible some of them could become that, but none of them presently are. But we are, for the first time, seeing global men and women in specific fields. For example in the field of defense—military defense—two or three names will immediately spring to your mind of people who, when they speak in locations in the Middle East or in Africa or in Europe or in North America, will have the credibility of a global standing.

In the field of electronics and communication, computers, there are two or three men—men and women—whose names immediately spring to your mind who have that kind of clout globally, and when they go to a foreign location they are received with all of the same presence and dignity and accommodations as a king—as a crowned head of state—would ever be received. They have the same exact protocols. We are seeing the phenomenon of global kings rising over systems… over systems. These systems at present include such things as: energy, transportation, trade and commerce, banking and the financial systems, culture and entertainment, military and eventually religion. Religion is the big one because it will produce the spokesman who opposes God.

Note this small reference here in the book of Revelation, the 17 th chapter, verse 12. This will almost cause your skin to crawl, understanding what we have been saying. This is almost cryptic beyond imagination. “ ‘The ten horns you saw’” this is Revelation17:12, “ ‘The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.’” What else will they do? “ ‘They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.’” (Inserted – Revelation 17:12-14)

These kings will not all rule for a long period of time; they will not all be ruling for a long period of time before the one who comes, comes. They will all be ruling when the little horn arises because he will overthrow three of them. Now you will also note that this kingdom and its kings—all of the ten kings—will be ruling contemporaneously. It will not be one after another after another; they will be ruling contemporaneously. Why? Because when the little horn comes he will overthrow three reigning kings. That means that all ten of them will reign together. Here is wisdom: You have seven heads; ten horns. That means after you have put one horn on each of seven heads you still have three left over.

If a horn arises and overthrows three kings that means that horn will arise on a particular head—you don’t come up on “this” head and overthrow a king “over here.” The king is overthrown on the head that this thing arises on. That means that six horns will be on six heads and the seventh head will have four horns. It is on this head of four horns that this one horn will arise. When he does, he will overthrow three, [this] means he will keep one. These seven heads are seven systems, they are what all of the systems come down to eventually—seven integrated systems—so that you can’t buy or sell, you can’t move, you can’t make war again, you can’t do anything without the permission of the beast.

But the one head that produces the spokesman for the whole operation of the beast is the religious head. And its figure—the ruler—will blaspheme God; rail against the angels who remained faithful to God; and decree war against the saints. (Inserted – actual verse—“The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.” – Revelation 13:5-7)

He will come up with a different theology. The four horns on this one head are the four great world religions. When he comes up, they will consent to his rule—all four of them—because he will be the fulfillment of what they acknowledge that he is. He will overthrow the four great religions of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, and Islam. The only other ruler that will be left with him is the false prophet. He will be a Christian and he will convince the Christians to throw their lot in with the beast. The one speaking blasphemy, part of the blasphemy he will speak is that he himself is the Lord who has returned. And the Christians will be seduced into believing that. Now surely you want to continue this study with me, so I hope you will join me as we continue on. I’m Sam Soleyn; God bless you.

Scripture References:

I John 2:15
John 3:16
Genesis 2:16,17
Genesis 3:4,5
I Thessalonians 5:23
Revelation 17:12-14
Revelation 13:5-7