Taking a Balanced View of Apocalypse: The Ages of the World

Taking a Balanced View of Apocalypse: The Ages of the World

INTRO

The following “way-below section“ in this entry to 365 was a commentary response thtat I gave to an article on another publication , not to dwell on “the end times” as it were, since it has been done countless times in past Catholic history by some clergy. Indeed, it is claimed that every generation thought it was the last. Ok, nevertheless, I gave a lenghty response of the attitude and approach that I have been making for some two decades of reflection, where I am now attempting to put togther a book that ties it all together in a synthesized and fully correlated theology.

FUTURISM

The gist of it is really this: currently, there are largely two extremes in mainstream apocalypse theology today: firstly, the absurd one we usually know about: dispensationalist fundamentalism, which includes FUTURISM. The other extreme, which is a common staple of modern “Catholicism”, PRETERISM.

Futurism is obviously absurd since, for example, they want St. John’s Revelation to be about things like WWIII geo-political scenarios, literal physical calamities, time periods and dates, literal physical protection for “God’s People”, a literal center of Armageddon, and so forth. And these are absurd since such things are largely asking a useless question of “where all the debris will land when a Tornado ravages a town?” Doesn’t matter; the issue is, in the case of some sort of tribulation in a world of apostasy, the horrors of whatever details occur are just symptoms of an INNER cause, the loss of faith and immorality of the world, a world that is, at least hopefully temporarily, turned away from God almost completely. Terrible things will happen, but they are brining it upon themselves. The details are not important.

PRETERISM

PRETERISM places us at the oppposite extreme, the relative beginning of Church histrory, rather than near its end. Here, there is a more scholarly rigor, since the Church says that effectively every sacred author has an audience and an agenda, so that since Apocalypse was written around mid 90’s ad in some estimates, or pre-70 ad in another way, either way, you have pagan Rome viciously assaulting the Christians in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem, all, once again, taking place effectively in the first century of the Catholic religion. This is all good at a first glance, but it is STAYING here that leaves much to be desired. WHY?

SOMETHING MORE BALANCED AND DEEPER?

IDEALISM AND SPIRITUAL HISTORICISM

Because, between these extremes of pagan Rome in the beginning of Church history and the very end which may or may not be here (in fact, for the record now, we will assert that by EWTN scholarship cited below, we are most likely NOT at the end but rather in a DRESS REHEARSAL for the end, which will be followed by a glorious age of Cathoilc peace. THEN, after THAT, laxity will be bring about the real end, but more on that later), there are a lot of, shall we say, SUB-ages of the Church history from a spiritual, or theological point of view, meaning the sub-ages are, as it were, characterized, or modeled, after doctrinal or theological principles, or properties, if you will, even if there minor exceptions to these overarching rules for these respective eras.

Consequently, we would ask, wouldn’t the most profound way of looking at Apocalypse—in addition to an intermediate view of idealism (an image of what the Church repeatedly endures in a general, cyclic sense through the ages)—if it were possible now, be to see the book as spanning this whole panaroma of ages that bridge the gap , and not only that but the reasons WHY the ages are what they are and not merely THAT they are what they are. For example, are there logical, rigorous and, again, theological models that govern these trajectories? What if the imagery thereby also involves symbolizing the spiritual charactersitics, even characteristics that involve doctrine or sacramentality, or that reference the mysterious parables of Christ, amongst many other possibilities?

Actually, the Church does say that such layers are possible, it is just that , for some reason or another, there don’t seem to be very many attempts at the final one, that is, spiritual ages, or historicism, at least not very many in USA popular theologians or celebrities that I can see. I think there are notable few, but not not many. At any rate, if we KNOW WHAT is left spiritually for the sub ages of the Church (namely, a possible chastisement, a glorious restoration of a rather broad, freely embraced Catholic Christendom [the Spiritual Reign of Our Lady of Fatima’s Heart], and finally the ultimate darkness: the Great Apostasy, Antichrist, persecution, conversion of Jews, tribulation, and then “the Second Coming” at an unknown “hour” within the great trbulation), it is definitively clear that the Church should at least TRY to look into a fusion of idealism and spiritual historicism which would give some more reasonable and profound RESPONSE TO FUNDAMENTALISM, than to just redirect them back to the early Church, leaving some almost 1700 years of profound theological and ecclesial developments between then and now abscent (and obviously, given the Book’s unbelievable complexity, a MULTI-DIMENSIONAL approach, and not a strict chronology, which was to some degree attempted in the 30’s by Father Kramer; that is, in “The Book of Destiny”, for example, seeing the woman in chapter 12 as the Church [which later wouldn’t be a problem in and of itself], but with the child caught up to the throne a great pope, rather than just using common sense: The Child caught up to heaven to rule the nations with an iron rod is JESUS, and the scene is just the ascension.) And here, what we mean is, if it was historicism, we wouldn’t read it literally from cover to cover as one long continous story. Obviously, whole sections can be their own dimension unto their own, like intermissions and stuff, while other sections might within have a direct trajectory.

For example, some of my ideas are, and pardon the length (you are more than welcome to skip down to where it says PART I if you like) certainly probably seen by others :

7 SEALS, PURGATION

The three sets of sevens (seals, trumpets, bowls) can be like the three “ways” of the saint to some extent, lived out in great historical spiritual movement, as in:

The seals themselves reflect a certain idealistic dark night of the senses, with the bad things happening therein revealing the reality of suffering and tragedy in an imperfect world that is, trying to paraphrase the Catechism somwhere, “journeying toward a climactic redemption that is being worked out already [the rider of the horse, Jesus, Who goes out to conquer the world through the Church], and not yet fully attained until the eschatological consummation.” Also, we could say, by the great Apostle, “all creation is groaning...” This is another way of saying that the details of the seals correlate quite well with the introductory apocalyptic commentary of Jesus: paraphrasing, “and you shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars…, and earthquakes, famines and pestilence shall occur in many places, but be not disturbed, such things are bound to happen, but the end is not yet.”

Indeed, the saint endures much physical suffering in the purgative way, and then, even when he emerges into the partial light of the illuminative way, some minor purgation persists here and there.

In a similar vein, through the last 2000 years or so, there has been no rest for the son of man to “lay his head”, because his church has been to hell and back, and the world within and without her has never ceased to have earthquakes, and wars, and all that other garbage, never ceased. It is part of, again, a fallen imperfect world because of sin and fallen creation as well.

TRUMPETS BLASTING ILLUMINATION OF THE WORLD

Moving on from the seals, the trumpets in short would be, expectedly, the illuminative way of the Church, where she “trumpet blasts” her teachings to the world, to bring it the Gospel. Before these scenes, we have the infamous fundamentalist staple, the “144,000” who are “sealed in the forehead” and protected from the trumpets’ effects. Now, obviously, as above, and for any person who wishes to prepare for heaven, the cross of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering must be taken up, and so, even before considering the deeper notion of what this 144K is, they will most certainly NOT be protected from LITERAL physical calamities. So then what? Well, common sense tells us that it is the ones who are faithfully following the wayfaring Church, at least by assenting to those same teachings. Why? Well, firstly, because the factored number indicates absolute fullness to the Kingdom of God [12 x12 x 1000: 12 tribes, 12 apostles, and a countless multitude from every race and tongue]. Only the CC has the fullness of Apostolicity in Peter, and here is also a real crux: ONLY GOOD CATHOLICS WHO LISTEN TO THE CHURCH IN ALL HER WISDOM WILL FIND NO SPIRITUAL HARM TO THEIR INTELLECT OF SOUL, BEHIND THE FOREHEAD, IN THE FORM OF HERESIES AND LIES, etc, PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S INFALLIBLE GUIDANCE OF THE CHURCH INTO ALL TRUTH, IN THE MAGISTERIUM, WHICH PROTECTS THE FAITHFUL’S MINDS FROM ERROR IF THEY BUT REMAIN IN FAITH OF HER VOICE.

Hence, once again, if the trumpet blasts are in some way (which would need to be probed at another time with far more space and backdrop) the proclamations of the Gospel truths though the great illumination of the Gentiles, then the faithful Catholics will be protected from error, or spiritual harm to the intellect, or “forehead”, whereas, in any age herein, any persons who resist, to whatever degree or nature, the Church’s witness at that time, will bring upon themselves the spiritual harm to the very and nature of their rejection. This is because there are consequences even in this life for not living the infallbile Gospel. These would be symbolized by the negative events that occur at each stage.

THE BOWLS, THE GREAT TRIBULATION, MARTYRDOM

The third set, the bowls, would then be martyrdom, the final way of darkness (remember, though, NOT our time but after Our Lady reigns in her great era) . Here, the world at the very end in the great apostasy does NOT repent when the bowls come, and this, I conjecture because it is presumably INCURABLE, having been given all that God can offer it this side of the end of time. Which is what? This: (unfathomable triubulation to show them their need for the fullness of Christ in all facets, His Church and Our Lady, but then GIVING them that full redemption in renewal to the Gospel, showing humanity that if they would just stop resisting the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church, they could at least have some sense of peace and relative prosperity before they radically and unforgivably, as it were, rebel in the end. Because if the world goes through all that and then throws it back in God’s face, spitting in God’s face, if you will. What more can really make them believe? For example, Hebrews 6, paraphrased: “For it is impossible for those who have once been saved, and tasted of the powers of the age to come, and then left, to come to repentance. For they are recrucifying Christ to himself.” Of course, the context is Jewish apostates, but the situation I would argue can be extended in a macro sense to humanity. Again also, “For they have not received a love of the truth, that they might not perish but be saved…” [2 Thess 2].

THE TWO WITNESSES

A couple other examples: the two witnesses can be an intermission that looks at the illuminative way in another dimension with supplemental details, as in “and if any man will harm them, in this manner must he be harmed”, just like the trumpets harm the victims who resist the “trumpet blasts of teaching”.

It can also lead into the dark night of the soul [the beast kills the two witnesses and the world celebrates their death, as if the Church had died and was no longer relevant, sound familiar?]. But they come to their feet, bringing fear to the onlookers [the chastisement begins to open the eyes of the world to its need to listen to the Church that it had mocked in the previous climax.], etc…

THE DRAGON SCENES

The dragon scenes as an intemission dimension of its own, an image of ALL of Church history mainly after the beginning ascension we saw earlier, a veritable literal spiritual trajectory from beginning to end, no exceptions, but with in some cases, more specific delineations than the mere three ways above. And why? Because if the woman IS the Church after the ascension scene, AND we update from Augustine’s certain “explaining away the millennium” to see the same millennium as symbolically the age of peace, or the UNTIIVE way of the Church, everything fits perfectly: NO NEED TO ARGUE NON-CHRONICITY.

Only a final mention if one can bear it, going back to the very beginning, the seven letters: the problem here is unlike the dragon scenes. How? Well, the dragon scenes can be really easily adapted to the ages of the Church using common sense analogies of other Scritpures and references, and simply following the big ones ages of the Church by common sense again.

THE SEVEN LETTERS

 
But the letters are just screwy. If we took them literally physically, we wouldn’t know what the hell was going on. However, again, apocalypse should be spiritual history for the most part, seeing as it is the spiritual condition of socieities and what the Church is having to contend with in her sojourn and such that makes or breaks the ages. Toward that end, the only way that I can see to suggest rigor to these rather than fall prey to ultimate eisegesis, is to observe that these letters are the only other place in Apocalypse where Satan is explicity present. Otherwise, only the dragon scenes of the last half of revelation or so have the devil. From this, I can only suggest that we should try to correlate the dragon scenes with the letters. Actually, and amazingly, it works if we apply some real deeper Catholic theology and real specifities to the dragon ages. It may sound crazy, but once one has seen the other stuff and its reasonable analysis, it really fits.

Just a snippet, one key ingredient is to hijack SJPII’s marvelous TOB and extend it into hardcore holy orders spiritual symbolism. When that happens, priests of the CC are like complete spiritual husbands to their parishes, just like Jesus marries the Church. The Orhodox also have valid husbands in this regard, but since they are in a very minor sense “separated or divorced” from the Church, the husband status is like a divorced and remarried condition. Finally—not to incriminate good Protesatnt ministers, for they are our brothers who are able to be saved by their sharing in the baptism, marriage and scriptures—nonetheless, because of the lack of FORMAL Holy orders through authentic apostolic succession, their spousal relationship, though sincere and quite likely salvific by their subjective good intentions, is unfortunately not, again, FORMAL, like a true ritual wedding of holy ordination, and so is, hate to say, OBJECTIVELY only, symbolized by committed cohabitiaton in a spiritual sense. This gives rise to an astounding way to view the “fornications” in letter three and letter four with “Jezebel”

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL AND ECCLESIOLOGY: EPIC CHRISTIAN DIVISION

[I was blessed to share an application of this theology in the same publication that I respond to below: The woman at the well has had “five husbands, and the man who was then with here was NOT her husband.” There are five great spiritual apostolic husbands, the five patriarchs. Peter in the West, then the other Four in the East. So, in a very challenging ecumenism: the woman starts out validly married to one man, Peter, the ultimate husband on earth of all Christians united to His literal Kingdom. Then the great schism: The woman “divorced Peter” and went away for the other four husbands, divorced and remarried patriarchs. Finally, she has a committed cohabitation hyperbolically, Protesantism, lacking FORMAL marriage of apostolic holy orders ritual.]

[Here, again, a HUGE disclaimer: the harsh hyperbole of these passages is NOT directed by Jesus at ProtesTANTS, who are trying to find him as best as they can and are loved by Him infintely like the rest of us, but at ProtestanTISM, which we could say, he “hates”. Jesus LOVES heretics, but HATES heresies.]

Well, for now, the following minor essay attempts to explain how the symbolism of the Genesis allegory of the days of Creation, the mysterious “beast heads kings” of Apocalypse 17, some Tradition of Augustine and Methodius of Olympus, and expansion from deeper modern knowledge of the above referenced approved private revelations, can give us a rather formidable theory of the ages of the ENTIRE Divine Plan for the world, from the Fall, all the way to the Second Coming, inclusive.

PART I

PRIVATE REVELATION: IT’S NOT THE END BUT A DRESS REHEARSAL TODAY

Yes, what I was really going to try to say after the rigmarole to keep it brief, is that there is a certain sense that with most fully approved private revelation (which involved an article way back by Colin Donovan, and which was resurrected by Women of Grace Mrs Susan Brinkman , disclaimer, they don’t necessarily agree with anything I am writing in this article, I am just personally trying to speculatively build upon with their information) , the best scenario that we can draw from them, seems to be that what we are currently in is what we could call an intermediate godless age for the church that is threatened with a conditional chastisement, but that, either way, whether we have a mitigated chastisement or preemptive repentance at this point, a great Restoration in the world of the Catholic faith will occur, where Our lady will triumph in men's hearts as in Fatima. The chastisement and age of peace are not part of public revelation at this time, because, obviously, the Church has not said if any history between pagan Rome and Antichrist is veiled in the bible in any sense.

Nevertheless, the scenario would be that only after this substantial period of spiritual peace, which is NOT public revelation btw, will there be, at an indeterminate point of time, a development of laxity, which will pave the way for the follwing, which ARE effectively public reve, or at least in the bible for most part and tradition: the great apostasy and Antichrist, within which, of course, will include the most horrific persecution of the church that ever has been or will be, followed by at some point or within which at some point the fullness of the conversion of the Jews will occur, and then succeeded by the great chastisement of unfathomable horror, and then, as it were, within this period, and in an unknown hour quote on quote, Christ will return to end human history and bring the resurrection etc.

NOT MERELY WHAT BUT “WHY?”

Of course, the completely understandable and valid question can be so what, so what, we know quote on quote WHAT is going to happen from here on out , and I would say, that's correct and the question is really not so much WHAT but WHY the ages of the world and of the church are what they are, in terms of a theological understanding of them: WHY they are occuring in what order and in what nature, as to WHY progressively God is bringing about the greatest possible good before the world radically rejects him at the end, (which seems inevitable because of the fallen nature of humanity).

In other words, having a theological and rigorous understanding of WHY the ages develop as they do, WHY God is guiding them as he does, in which MANNER he intervenes in response to each of the successive manifestations of the Fall during the world and church history, and in having this fullness of the understanding, we can understand, quote on quote, WHY the world ends when it does in terms of the ages.

And this is of course because , obviously, we have to understand the entirety of the divine plan from beginning to end and all through the middle in order to understand why the world will end as it does theologically and psychologically, and not just taking pot shots at looking at the beginning or the end with no consideration of the entire trajectory, as well as perhaps layers of cyclic fulfillment , as it were...

PART II

THE AGES OF THE WORLD and THE SABBATHS

Toward this end, just let me say, per my book that I'm still trying to develop, several ideas of which I have been blessed to have shared in homiletic pastoral review here some years ago…

That already both saint Augustine and the saint Methodius of Olympus, delineate similar ways of dividing of the ages of the world with one notable difference in Saint Methodius’ version.

In short, they both delineate five ages to the old law, and the sixth stage to the church,.

THE MILLENNIUM: AUGUSTINE, or the AGE OF PEACE?

Moving forward however, Augustine effectively conjoins the 7th and the 8th days into what we would call eternity, whereas St Methodius sees the 7th and 8th as separate dimensions, in the sense that he assigns to the seventh a quote on quote Millennium of rest, and then the 8th is eternity.

In short, now that we have a very possible amended understanding of what is taking place in the history of the church and of the world, which is to say that, not only are there TWO great phases of darkness within the age of the church—which is to say, pagan Rome at the beginning, and then the Antichrist at the end in the Great apostasy—we now have, again quite probably, a renewed view that in between these two, there is a substantial godless age that we are currently in that is going to be followed by glorious rest from most of sin and iniquity in the world, bringing a spiritual peace in which man will stop fighting with God and his church, and live in a relative solidarity with one another until their laxity emerges toward the end of the era, in which, as we just saw, the great apostasy emerges, and the world ends. And this will exactly be, quote on quote, a Sabbath like rest for humanity WITHIN human history, which is to say, on THIS side of the end of time, versus, the ultimate Sabbath, THE 8TH DAY,, which is BEYOND the eschaton in the new creation, where all humanity will rise to the public judgment, just as Christ rose on the eighth day, where evil will be utterly vanquished in the eternity of hell , never again to harm the just, who will live forever in the eternal life of the new creation.

With this renewed understanding, and in providing a certain symbolism and allegory towards this quote-on-quote Millennium of rest, we can amend Augustine's version so that there really is a seventh sub age of the world and not merely just a seventh and eighth conjoined in allegory.

But still , once again people can say so what, so what if these are the ages, how does this help us, and I agree in and of itself, it really isn't that interesting or helpful to simply know WHAT, again, the ages are but to know WHY. All I can do at this point is share what I feel is going on. ...

PART III

THE AGES OF THE WORLD AND THE WAYS OF THE SAINT

If the church is likened first to the woman in the apocalypse 12, who is an individual human person in the symbolism, in addition to the virgin, and if Saint Paul also likens the church to an individual person, namely the christ, there would be really no reason why we couldn't say that since most individual saints journey the three ways of the path of holiness (to go from beginning to perfection in maturity of Holiness and knowledge of God), how much more would each separate people of God, both of old in the hebrews, and then also the church in the new testament, journey these three great ways in a great spiritual trajectory. ...

Honestly , I don't have the space to go through these things entirely, because, as it were, you don't want an article that already seems to be developing in response.

Nevertheless, this would explain three of the sub ages of the Old law, namely the last three for the people of God of the Old covenant, namely the Hebrews, and then the three for the church,. Here, we would imagine the following:

The three ages would break down according to the three darknesses of the way:

The night of the senses

The night of the soul, and then

Martyrdom,...

As it were, then, we have that the final three great phases of darkness within human history are

Pagan Rome,

Our modern minor apostasy, and finally

The great apostasy, the age of supreme martyrdom under Antichrist at the end.

Similarly, the Jews encounter these three as well, but in an individual national sense and not in the Catholic Church sense , which is in all nations and tongues and relatively related to European civilization in the first two ages.

THE PREEMINENT AGES AFFLICTING ALL HUMANITY

 This then leaves the first TWO great ages of the Old Testament to be explained because, as we saw above, unlike the NT era, which has 3 subages, the OT has FIVE, and also because the OT ages have the last three of the five already covered by the ways of the saint.

 
In short, in several of my articles on this site, including the sacramental article on the five loaves and two fish, and then in the article on the Kings from the East and the theology of strife, I argue that there are TWO great lies of the Fall that are symbolized in the anti-sacramental quote unquote horns of the second beast of Apocalypse that comes up out of the Earth (see Apocalypse 16, 13). In a part of my theory on “the preeminent ages of the abstract world,” I argue that God cannot commence a prefiguring covenant to a remnant underdog people who will journey this way of the saint IMMEDIATELY after the fall of man, since it would be woefully premature and actually, impossible to be received. Why?

Mainly, because I argue that humanity will be so strong in the fall at the beginning that they will fall HARD, and then they will subsequently attempt to digest the below two LIES OF THE FALL enmasse, in successiion with respective Divine discipline, or supreme Intervention, before God can adequately, appropriately, and efficaciously introduce the prefiguring, wayfairing journey of saint people.

 
THE TWO GREAT LIES OF THE FALL

 What then are these two lies?

 The two great lies are simply the THE ANTITHESIS OF THE TWO GREAT REASONS WE LIVE ACCORDING TO THE CATECHISM.

 The First great reason we live is that we might know and love God in this life.

 
The rejection of this is on what we could call the anti-baptismal disposition. Here, one rejects knowing God by rejecting faith either in everything God has revealed or perhaps being indifferent to it.

Similarly, the refusal to love God is the refusal to live in a state of repentance, and faith and repentance are once again the dispositions of baptism.

The second great lie is the antithesis of the second great reason we exist , which is to be happy with God forever in the next life.

When we don't want to be with our creator in the next life, we are effectively rejecting what we can call the wedding feast of the lamb in apocalypse. This is because, we are called to marry our creator in the next life with wondrous spiritual ecstasy, mystery and love.

But when one does not wish to have this, they are necessarily living NOT for the CreaTOR in the NEXT life but for the creaTION in THIS life, which is effectively materialism. This is like a quote on quote “FIGURATIVE FORNICATION” with the creation instead of spiritually marrying the Creator….

PART IV

APOCALYPSE SYMBOLISM FOR THE TWO GREAT LIES

[interestingly here, we have that, of the seven sacraments, like in a certain sense the seven horns of the lamb in apocalypse, only these two great sacraments of baptism and marriage are retained by heretics precisely by virtue of theology of the sacramental realities that occur when the heretical rift occurs within the body of Christ.

Too, it is like the devil takes the two great sacraments of heretics that still give them some base foundational goodness, and that summarize everything that is good in a general sense for our life here, he takes them and twists them into the ultimate lies to deceive humanity.

Hence, again, the apocalypse says that the second beast from the earth has, quote on quote, two horns like a lamb but speaks as a dragon.

THE TWO PREEMINENT AGES OF THE LIES

These two great lies can then provide the understanding of why there are two great phases of sin each uniquely redeemed by God in the beginning of human history before the prefiguring Covenant commences with Abraham and the Hebrews (and which then begins to follow the path of the saint beginning with the dark night of sense in Egypt, a foretast of Rome for the Church).

Naturally, the first great lie is the antithesis of baptism, or the wickedness of Noah’s day, in which humanity mocks the message of Noah in lack of faith of the flood, and this of course by the testimony of genesis, “wicked”, or the antithesis of repentance. God responds with the flood, which we know is like a baptism of the world.

Secondly it then regresses into a certain blasphemous materialism, man seeking his ultimate fulfillment in the glorious things of this world in place of God as their ultimate fulfillment. That is, like the “harlot of Babylon,” seeking a figurative fornicating relationship to creation, instead of a beautiful, spousal relationship with the creator.

God then confounds this to break up temporarily humanity’s persistent seeking of this perverse fulfillment at babel, and chooses one remnant nation to be his special people, which can then begin the commencement of the way of the saint : The dark night of the senses of Egypt, and so forth for the Hebrew people until the Maccabees of martyrdom, in which the Jewish people will have then reached the fullness of maturity for the old covenant, meaning that it is safe, for the Messiah to enter the world most efficaciously, which is to say, in the 5th great light of human history. “Five are the ages of the Old Law”

Hope this helps , I could say more, but obviously it's already long , thanks, scott

Apocalypse 17:9-11

And the angel said to me: Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.  8 The beast, which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction: and the inhabitants on the earth (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) shall wonder, seeing the beast that was, and is not.  9 And here is the understanding that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings:  10 Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come, he must remain a short time. And the beast which was, and is not: the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction.

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