Volume 2, Issue 4
3 Nov 2016
 The nightmarish image of Nebuchadnezzar had a head of gold, which the Prophet Daniel clearly identified as representing Nebuchadnezzar himself (Daniel 2:38). Of course, the head of gold is also to be understood as representing Babylon, the world’s first great Gentile world power, over which Nebuchadnezzar reigned. The fact that the head of gold represented both the king, Nebuchadnezzar, and his kingdom, Babylon, lends itself to the possible interpretation of the infamous beast of the book of Revelation representing both the individual leader of the end-time world and the end-time world’s final Gentile superpower, over which the beast will reign.
As we stated at the conclusion of our last issue of Piecing Together Bible Prophecy, much to the chagrin of modern-day Americans, especially America’s evangelicals, our own country is currently morphing into something positively beastly, blasphemous, and nightmarish. Although you may recoil at the very suggestion of it, finding it personally objectionable, it is nonetheless obvious to any objective observer that today’s America is not only antichrist, but now leading the world in an all-out-assault on Christ and all things Christian. Therefore, it is my contention, despite its unpopularity and the ire I’ve incurred from others as a result of it, that the beast of Revelation, which represents the world’s end-time world power and world ruler, is America and an American president.
To really understand the significance of Babylon, the head of gold of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image, as well as the significance of all subsequent Gentile world powers, including the ultimate and final Gentile superpower at the end of time, we must go back to the beginning of time. Unbeknownst to the vast majority of inhabitants upon planet earth, all one needs to know to understand what is going on in the world today can be learned in the first chapters of the Bible’s book of Beginnings. Genesis, which means “beginnings,” teaches us in two of its initial chapters everything we need to know about what is wrong with our fallen world.
In this issue of Piecing Together Bible Prophecy, we will look at the first of these two important chapters. Genesis chapter 3 is undoubtedly the darkest chapter in all of the Bible, not to mention the most tragic tale ever told. Here, in this biblical chapter of inestimable importance, we are told about the Fall of man.
Man was created to live by the Word of God. For instance, both Moses and Jesus taught that man does not live by bread alone, but must also live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). While physical sustenance is necessary to sustain physical and temporal life, it is spiritual sustenance that sustains spiritual and eternal life. Man was created to trust God as the final arbiter of good and evil and to trust God’s Word as the only trustworthy authority for faith and practice. As long as man was willing to do so, he could freely eat of the tree of life and live forever.
On the other hand, there was another tree in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was the only tree in the garden of which man was prohibited by God from partaking. In fact, God warned man that on the day he partook of the forbidden fruit of this deadly tree he would “surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Although Adam and Eve began to die physically on the very day they ate of the forbidden fruit of this deadly tree, they immediately died spiritually, just as God had warned, thanks to being instantly estranged from God, because of their sin.
Partaking of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil meant that man would live by his own wits rather than by God’s Word. He would live by what he thought rather than by what God’s Word taught. He would live by his opinion rather than by the oracles of God. He would, in fact, usurp the place of God in his life by deciding for himself what was good and evil. He would crown human reason as the final arbiter of good and evil and dethrone divine revelation as the sole authority for faith and practice.
No longer looking to God’s Word as the only trustworthy authority as to what he should believe and how he should behave, man rebelled against God, going his own way rather than God’s way. As a result, he separated himself from God and subjected himself, as well as all of God’s creation, to corruption, which is the inevitable consequence of separation from God. This explains why God expelled man from the Garden of Eden so that he could not eat of the tree of life and live forever. Corrupt man was no longer a fit companion for the incorruptible God, nor was he an acceptable recipient of God’s eternal life.
It is no coincidence that our original parents, Adam and Eve, were tempted to usurp the place of God in their lives by the serpent, the original rebel against God who attempted to usurp God’s throne in Heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15). Just as Lucifer’s attempt to usurp the place of God got him thrown out of heaven, Adam and Eve’s attempt to usurp the place of God got them thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Furthermore, this explains why all unregenerate men are destined for eternal separation from God in everlasting fire, which our Lord taught was originally created for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). It is fallen man’s choice to join in league with fallen angels in an attempt to usurp the place of God that dooms fallen man to the eternal abode of fallen angels, who were the original instigators of rebellion against God.
All one needs to know to understand the spiritual darkness of our present-day world can be discovered underneath the dark shade of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As Jesus taught in Mark 10:18, the only good is God and apart from God there is no good. Therefore, no matter what man tries or how hard he tries, there is no possibility of him ever producing anything good apart from God. On his own, man is only capable of producing inevitable evil, which is the inevitable product of the absence of God, who alone is the source of all good. As it has been astutely observed, “The biblical doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy that has been empirically proven by thirty-five hundred years of recorded human history."
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Don Walton
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