THE TWO KINGDOMS: THE FALLEN CHERUB, THE SEED OF THE SORCERESS, AND THE BEAST THAT RETURNS FROM THE PIT
The Mystery of Heavenly Birth, the Rephaim, the Kings of Babylon and Tyre, and the Ancient Rebellion Against the Lamb
What if the history of the kingdoms of this world is not merely the history of men? What if the kings who claimed divinity, the creatures described in heavenly visions, the dead rulers gathered beneath the earth, and the beast that was, is not, and yet returns belong to one much older rebellion? What if Scripture has preserved the evidence of a heavenly revolt whose consequences were expressed through earthly kingship, corrupted worship, the propagation of an ungodly seed, and the attempted imitation of God's power over life and death?
I propose that the rebellion described in Scripture did not end when rebellious heavenly beings were cast down. Their rebellion continued through the kingdoms of the earth, through rulers claiming divine authority, through false religious systems, and through the pursuit of a form of life and dominion that God had never granted them. I further propose that Ezekiel's anointed cherub, Isaiah's fallen king of Babylon, the beings sentenced to die like men, the dead kings of Sheol, and Revelation's returning beast deserve to be investigated as parts of this continuing conflict.
This is not a claim that every connection has already been demonstrated. It is an examination of a theory by bringing together passages that are ordinarily studied in isolation. The difficulty with examining a biblical mystery one verse at a time is that the broader pattern may disappear. Ezekiel's fallen cherub is separated from Tyre's mortal king; Isaiah's Lucifer is separated from Babylon's dynasty; the Rephaim are separated from the kings of the dead; Daniel's spiritual princes are separated from earthly empires; and Revelation's beast is treated as though its apparent return from the abyss requires no investigation of the ancient world's beliefs concerning death and restored life.
Why should these matters be separated before we have examined their possible relationship?
My argument is that Scripture presents two opposing orders. One is associated with Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, the children of God, the Lamb, resurrection, and the final removal of the curse. The other is associated with rebellious heavenly powers, proud kings, corrupted seed, the realm of the dead, sorcery, idolatry, Babylon, and the beast whose authority comes from the dragon.
The investigation begins with the question of heavenly identity. It ends with the kings of the earth gathering to fight against the Lamb. Between those events lies the question at the heart of this study: what became of the rebellious heavenly powers, and why does Scripture repeatedly describe their earthly representatives in the language of gods, beasts, fallen stars, dead kings, and corrupted seed?
I. THE MAN CHILD, THE SONS OF GOD, AND THE CHILDREN BORN IN ZION
The investigation began with an easily overlooked expression in Job 3:3, where Job curses the day of his birth and the night of his conception:
"Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived."
Job identifies himself as the man child. Now compare Isaiah 66:7, where Zion brings forth a man child, and Revelation 12:5, where the woman clothed with the sun gives birth to a man child destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. The repetition deserves investigation, especially because Revelation's heavenly woman has a remnant of her seed against whom the dragon subsequently wages war.
Isaiah makes the connection particularly striking. Isaiah 66:8 asks whether a nation can be born at once and declares that Zion brought forth her children. Here the birth of a man child is followed by the birth of a people. The imagery reaches beyond an ordinary individual birth and becomes part of a prophecy concerning Zion's offspring.
The KJV contains ten occurrences of the exact expression man child: Genesis 17:10, 17:12, 17:14; Leviticus 12:2; 1 Samuel 1:11; Job 3:3; Isaiah 66:7; Jeremiah 20:15; Revelation 12:5 and 12:13. The Genesis passages concern circumcision, Leviticus addresses the birth of a male child, and Hannah asks God for a man child in 1 Samuel. Job and Jeremiah employ the expression when lamenting their births. Isaiah and Revelation, however, introduce prophetic women whose children are connected with the destiny of God's people.
The English expression is not a secret technical term shared identically across Hebrew and Greek. Its importance emerges from the larger passages in which it appears, particularly the prophetic connection between Zion, her children, and the promised ruler of the nations.
Now consider Job 1:6, where the sons of God present themselves before the LORD, and Job 38:7, where the morning stars sing together and the sons of God shout for joy at creation. The heavenly sons of God are already present in the biblical account before the formation of earthly human societies. The question therefore arises whether the language of divine sonship, earthly birth, and eventual heavenly transformation belongs to a greater history of creation than our present human condition reveals.
Job's own words in Job 19:25–26 are equally significant. He knows that his Redeemer lives and anticipates seeing God after the destruction of his present body. The book does not give us a supernatural genealogy for Job, yet it places the mysteries of earthly suffering, heavenly beings, bodily mortality, and future restoration within one extraordinary narrative.
Psalm 87:5–6 contributes something that should not be overlooked:
"And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah."
Here the LORD Himself records those born in Zion. The preceding verse names peoples associated with Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia. A man's ordinary national origin is therefore not the only identity being discussed. God acknowledges people as belonging to Zion.
Now place this beside Galatians 4:26:
"But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."
Jerusalem above is described as a mother, Isaiah's Zion gives birth to children, and Psalm 87 declares that God Himself records those born there. Hebrews 12:22–23 then describes the heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company of angels, and the assembly of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven.
Scripture has therefore brought together heavenly Jerusalem, motherhood, birth, children, angels, firstborn status, and a register in heaven. These are not disconnected ideas. They concern the identity and inheritance of those who belong to God.
The promise of transformation makes this still more important. Luke 20:35–36 declares that those who attain the resurrection are equal unto the angels and are children of God. 1 Corinthians 15:42–49 contrasts the corruptible and incorruptible body, the natural and spiritual body, and the earthly and heavenly image. Romans 8:14–23 speaks of the sons of God, the manifestation of those sons, and the redemption of the body. 1 John 3:1–2 declares that God's children do not yet see the fullness of what they shall be. Daniel 12:3 describes the wise shining as the brightness of the firmament.
These passages make the promised transformation of God's children central to the biblical account of salvation. John 3:3–6 explains the necessity of being born again and born of the Spirit, providing the explicit biblical foundation for a birth that exceeds ordinary physical descent.
But what of those extraordinary men whose biblical descriptions or later traditions suggest some deeper relationship with the heavenly order?
II. ENOCH, MELCHIZEDEK, JACOB, AND THE QUESTION OF HEAVENLY IDENTITY
Genesis 5:24 records that Enoch walked with God and was not, because God took him. Hebrews 11:5 explains that Enoch was translated so that he should not see death. Elijah likewise departed from the earth in extraordinary circumstances in 2 Kings 2:11. These are biblical accounts in which God interrupts the ordinary human passage through death.
The later Jewish work 3 Enoch, also known as the Hebrew Book of Enoch, identifies Enoch with Metatron, an exalted angelic figure. This tradition describes an extraordinary transformation in status, clothing, glory, and heavenly function. Whether one accepts the tradition is a separate matter. Its historical importance is that Jewish religious literature contemplated a relationship between human identity and angelic exaltation far more elaborate than the ordinary distinction between men upon earth and angels in heaven.
Melchizedek presents another mystery. Genesis 14:18–20 identifies him as king of Salem and priest of the most high God. Hebrews 7:3 describes him as without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, and made like unto the Son of God.
The conventional genealogical explanation deserves to be considered, but it should not prevent us from examining why ancient interpreters became so interested in Melchizedek's apparently extraordinary identity. The Dead Sea Scroll 11QMelchizedek (11Q13) portrays him as an exalted heavenly deliverer associated with judgment, liberation, and the defeat of Belial. 2 Enoch 71–72 preserves an additional tradition concerning Melchizedek's remarkable birth and preservation, with manuscript recensions differing over details of the angelic intervention.
These sources do not replace Hebrews. They demonstrate that the identity of Melchizedek was already the subject of extraordinary interpretation.
More remarkable still is The Prayer of Joseph, preserved in fragments through the writings of Origen.
In Origen's Commentary on John, Book II, Chapter 25, commonly numbered II.188–192, a fragment of this ancient work presents Jacob declaring:
"I, Jacob, who speak to you, and Israel, I am an angel of God, a ruling spirit."
The surviving material portrays Jacob as possessing an identity before God under the name Israel, with exalted standing among the heavenly sons of God. It describes a dispute with the angel Uriel, who challenges Jacob's rank. Jacob maintains his superior position and identifies himself with the heavenly order.
The account is remarkable because it does not merely describe an angel appearing to Jacob. It portrays Jacob himself as an angelic figure whose human life is associated with an earlier heavenly identity.
The second surviving fragment, preserved through Origen's Philocalia 23.15, concerns Jacob's knowledge of the heavenly tablets recording the destiny of his descendants. A further fragmentary testimony, preserved through Origen's discussion, concerns Jacob's recognition of his earlier identity while living in a body. The surviving evidence is fragmentary, and the distinction between the ancient text's words and Origen's explanation must be preserved when quoting it.
Nevertheless, the idea is unmistakable: an ancient Jewish tradition contemplated a heavenly identity associated with Jacob-Israel.
Origen even considered the possibility that John the Baptist had a heavenly mission connected with angelic identity. He examined passages such as Malachi 3:1, John 1:6, and Luke 1:41 while exploring this question.
Now return to the KJV. Genesis 32:24 says Jacob wrestled with a man, while Hosea 12:4 calls that opponent an angel. Daniel 9:21 describes Gabriel as "the man Gabriel." Genesis 18–19 portrays heavenly visitors appearing as men, while Judges 13:6–21 describes an encounter initially understood as involving a man of God who is subsequently recognised as the angel of the LORD.
Hebrews 13:2 warns that some have entertained angels unawares. Acts 12:15 records believers saying of Peter, "It is his angel." Revelation 1:20 speaks of the angels of the seven churches, while Revelation 19:10 and 22:9 portray angels identifying themselves as fellowservants alongside God's prophets and faithful people. The Greek angelos can also designate a human messenger, as in the application of messenger-language to John the Baptist in Matthew 11:10.
These passages raise different questions about angelic appearance, heavenly office, human messengers, and resurrection, but together they establish why the relationship between heavenly and human identity deserves serious investigation.
Now consider Exodus 4:22:
"And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:"
And Hosea 11:1:
"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt."
Both passages address Israel as God's covenant people. Yet beside the Prayer of Joseph, where Jacob-Israel claims heavenly firstborn status, they invite an investigation into the relationship between individual and collective identity. Jacob bears the name Israel; the nation bears the name Israel; and the ancient prayer attaches extraordinary heavenly significance to that name.
This becomes even more interesting when we return to the children of Zion, because the biblical promise concerns not merely an isolated individual entering glory, but an entire people being acknowledged by God as His own.
The 144,000 and the measure of a man and an angel
Revelation 7:2–4 describes the sealing of 144,000 servants of God. Revelation 14:1–5 portrays the 144,000 standing with the Lamb upon mount Sion, bearing His Father's name, singing a song, and being described as redeemed from the earth and from among men.
They are further described as firstfruits unto God and the Lamb. Compare James 1:18, where believers are described as a kind of firstfruits of God's creatures.
Then Revelation 21:17 declares:
"And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel."
Here we encounter the number 144, the measure of a man, and an angel within the description of the heavenly city. The 144 cubits are a measurement, while the 144,000 are a numbered company of the redeemed, so they should not simply be declared numerically identical. But the repeated numerical structure deserves examination within John's vision of heavenly Jerusalem, the Lamb, the redeemed, and the angels.
Revelation 2:26–27 promises that overcomers will share authority over the nations and rule with a rod of iron. Revelation 12:5 describes the man child with that destiny, and Revelation 19:15 places the iron rod in the hand of Christ.
The authority belongs supremely to Christ, yet He promises a share in His rule to those who overcome. The question of the man child therefore belongs within a larger biblical account of divine sonship, heavenly inheritance, and the ultimate victory of the Lamb and His people.
Now we must examine the opposite side of this proposed history.
If the children of God belong to a heavenly order and are promised resurrection and incorruption, what became of the heavenly beings who rebelled? And why do the prophets describe earthly kings in language that reaches back to Eden, the holy mountain of God, and a former heavenly estate?
III. THE ANOINTED CHERUB WHO WAS CAST DOWN AND THE MORTAL KING OF TYRE
Ezekiel 28 is one of the central passages of this investigation, and it deserves to be read as a whole rather than divided into unrelated statements about an ordinary merchant king and a mythical heavenly rebel.
God first addresses the prince of Tyrus in Ezekiel 28:2:
"Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:"
The prince claims divine status. God answers by declaring his mortality.
Verse 9 sharpens the confrontation:
"Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee."
Why should the question of being a god or a man be so central to the judgment? Why should God repeatedly confront this ruler with his mortal condition?
Now read the subsequent lamentation over the king of Tyrus.
Ezekiel 28:12 describes a figure full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Verse 13 places him in Eden, the garden of God, adorned with precious stones. Verse 14 declares:
"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."
Verse 15 continues:
"Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."
Then comes the expulsion.
Ezekiel 28:16:
"By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."
And verse 17:
"Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee."
Let us follow the sequence without prematurely forcing it into an ordinary political explanation.
A being is described as a covering cherub. He was in Eden. He occupied the holy mountain of God. He was perfect from the day of his creation until iniquity was found in him. His heart became lifted up because of his beauty. He corrupted his wisdom because of his brightness. God cast him out, cast him to the ground, and laid him before kings.
The same chapter begins by exposing an earthly ruler who claims divine status and is explicitly told that he is a man who will die.
My proposed interpretation is that Ezekiel is revealing the relationship between a fallen heavenly identity and its expression through mortal kingship. The king's earthly claims to divinity may reflect a former heavenly privilege that has been forfeited. His punishment is not simply the loss of a crown; it is the loss of the status he believes entitles him to stand above ordinary humanity.
This is where Psalm 82:6–7 becomes extraordinary:
"I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."
Suppose Psalm 82 addresses heavenly beings who have failed in their appointed responsibility. The judgment is then not merely that corrupt human magistrates will eventually die. It is a divine sentence upon beings addressed as gods and children of the Most High: they shall die like men.
Read that beside the Tyrian ruler's claim to divinity and God's reply that he shall be a man in the hand of those who slay him.
Could mortal existence itself be part of the humiliation imposed upon rebellious heavenly powers? Could the earthly king be the visible expression of a rebellion that began in heaven? And could the persistent claims to divine authority made by ancient rulers be understood as an attempt to recover the authority forfeited through rebellion?
This is the identity question at the heart of my theory.
Was the rebellious cherub connected with the living creatures around God's throne?
Ezekiel 1:5–10 describes living creatures with the faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle. Ezekiel 10:20 expressly identifies these creatures as cherubim. Ezekiel 10:1, Psalm 80:1, and Psalm 99:1 associate cherubim with the presence and throne of God. Exodus 25:20 describes the cherubim covering the mercy seat with their wings.
Now return to the expression in Ezekiel 28:14: the anointed cherub that covereth.
The connection between the fallen figure and the heavenly order of the cherubim is built into Ezekiel's own language. It is therefore legitimate to investigate whether the rebel belonged to the same order of heavenly beings associated with God's throne, even though the four living creatures actually depicted in Revelation 4 remain faithful worshippers in that vision.
Revelation 4:7 describes four living creatures appearing like a lion, calf, man, and flying eagle. Ezekiel describes four cherubim, each possessing multiple faces, whereas John describes the four beings with individual likenesses. These are related visions, though their arrangements differ.
The Greek of Revelation distinguishes the heavenly living creatures, zōa, from the hostile wild beast, thērion, of Revelation 13 and 17. That difference matters when interpreting John's vocabulary, but it does not erase the broader question of a heavenly rebellion involving created beings. The proposed connection rests primarily upon Ezekiel 28's covering cherub, not merely upon the KJV using the English word beast in both contexts.
The traditional Masoretic Hebrew reflected by the KJV identifies the king as the anointed cherub, whereas an ancient Greek reading places him alongside a cherub. The textual dispute is real, and Lydia Lee has defended the grammatical coherence of the Masoretic identification. But the KJV's statement is unequivocal in its own wording: "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth."
We should not remove that statement from the investigation simply because a less extraordinary interpretation is available.
The question to test is whether the fallen cherub and the earthly ruler represent two stages of the same identity, or whether the earthly king expresses the dominion and characteristics of a spiritual rebel acting behind him. Both possibilities preserve the central insight that Ezekiel connects earthly kingship with a fallen heavenly order.
IV. LUCIFER, THE KING OF BABYLON, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS DYNASTY
The parallel in Isaiah 14 is too important to reduce to the isolated phrase "How art thou fallen from heaven."
The prophecy explicitly introduces a proverb against the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:4. Yet when the king's pride is exposed, the language moves dramatically into the heavens.
Isaiah 14:12:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"
Verses 13–14 describe the ruler's ambitions:
"For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."
Then comes the answer:
Isaiah 14:15:
"Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
And verse 16 asks:
"Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;"
Again, the same extraordinary sequence appears. Heavenly exaltation is claimed, a fall is pronounced, and the one who sought the throne of the Most High is exposed as a man destined for the pit.
The KJV's name Lucifer represents the morning-star language of the Hebrew taunt. It is not established as the personal surname of a Babylonian royal family. Yet the biblical prophecy plainly directs this heavenly-fall imagery against Babylonian kingship.
My argument is that the king of Babylon and the rebellion expressed through his dynasty must be examined together. The prophecy does not stop with one ruler's humiliation. It extends into the destruction of his house and descendants.
Isaiah 14:20 declares:
"The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned."
Verse 21:
"Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities."
And Isaiah 14:22:
"For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD."
Here the prophecy joins the downfall of the heavenly-aspiring ruler to the destruction of his seed and dynasty. The king, his children, his kingdom, and the perpetuation of his name all come under judgment.
This is vital to the theory because the rebellion is not portrayed solely as an isolated individual claiming too much for himself. It is expressed through continuing earthly dominion and an inheritance that God declares He will destroy.
Compare Tyre and Babylon. The king of Tyre claims to be a god and is associated in the KJV with an anointed cherub cast to earth. The king of Babylon seeks to exalt his throne above God's stars, falls from heaven, descends into the pit, and sees his descendants condemned.
Both prophecies bring together pride, heavenly imagery, earthly kingship, and mortality.
Now introduce Daniel 10:13, 20–21. Daniel encounters spiritual princes associated with Persia and Grecia, while Michael is identified as the prince standing for Daniel's people. Here heavenly conflict and earthly empire are expressly connected.
The pattern becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss as unrelated imagery. Prophetic Scripture repeatedly describes the kingdoms of the earth in relation to powers and ambitions extending beyond ordinary politics.
The theory I am advancing is that rebellious heavenly dominion continued through earthly royal structures, with the mortal king functioning as an expression of the heavenly rebellion. Whether this occurred through direct embodiment, spiritual domination, or the succession of rulers devoted to the same power remains a question for further investigation, but the association itself deserves to be confronted rather than explained away.
V. THEY SHALL MINGLE WITH THE SEED OF MEN: THE CORRUPTION OF INHERITANCE
Now we reach the language of seed, offspring, marriage, spiritual allegiance, and the perpetuation of kingdoms.
Daniel 2:43 (KJV) declares:
"And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."
The prophecy concerns the divided kingdom represented by the iron and clay of Nebuchadnezzar's image. It speaks of mingling with the seed of men, yet the union does not hold.
Who, then, are the parties represented by the imagery? The immediate interpretation concerns unstable political dominion and attempts at union. But within a wider investigation of heavenly rebellion and earthly kingship, the expression "the seed of men" deserves particular scrutiny. Daniel does not merely say that one nation conquers another; it describes elements mingling while remaining unable to cleave together.
Could this language be intended to expose the fundamental incompatibility of a dominion attempting to unite what God has not established as one? That question becomes more interesting beside Genesis 6.
Genesis 6:1–4 describes the sons of God taking the daughters of men (satan?) and mentions the Nephilim and mighty men of old. The angelic interpretation of the sons of God is ancient, and 1 Enoch 6–15, the Book of the Watchers, develops an account of rebellious heavenly beings whose unions with women produce giant offspring and disastrous corruption.
Jude 6 describes angels who abandoned their first estate and habitation and were reserved for judgment. 2 Peter 2:4–5 similarly speaks of angels who sinned, placing their judgment beside the account of the ancient world and the Flood.
Numbers 13:33 further records the spies' claim concerning the sons of Anak and the giants, using the name Nephilim. The spies' testimony has its own narrative context, but the continuation of giant traditions within biblical literature deserves examination alongside the ancient traditions of the Watchers.
Now consider Genesis 3:15:
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
God establishes enmity between two seeds. The language is fundamental to the conflict.
Matthew 13:38 identifies the good seed as the children of the kingdom and the tares as the children of the wicked one. John 8:44 speaks of those whose father is the devil. 1 John 3:8–10 distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil, placing their conduct, righteousness, and love at the centre of the distinction.
The biblical language of seed therefore operates both in the context of descent and in the context of spiritual allegiance. We must study which meaning is intended in each passage rather than assuming the same mechanism throughout.
But other prophetic expressions make the investigation still more striking.
The strange children
Hosea 5:7 (KJV) declares:
"They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions."
God's accusation is not confined to a vague complaint about bad behaviour. The prophet employs the language of treachery and offspring.
The immediate context concerns covenant unfaithfulness, and the expression strange children belongs within that prophetic condemnation. Nevertheless, the choice of language becomes important when placed alongside the recurring biblical imagery of corrupted marriage, forbidden worship, and the contrast between godly and ungodly seed.
Malachi 2:11–15 likewise condemns Judah's treachery and speaks of marriage with the daughter of a strange god. Verse 15 asks:
"And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed."
Here God connects faithfulness in marriage with the seeking of godly offspring.
Psalm 144:7–11 twice mentions strange children associated with mouths speaking vanity and right hands of falsehood. In context the psalmist seeks deliverance from foreign adversaries, yet the moral association of strange children with deceit fits the broader prophetic contrast between truth and falsehood.
Isaiah 2:6 condemns soothsaying and association with the children of strangers. Jeremiah 2:20–23, Ezekiel 16, and Ezekiel 23 develop the imagery of harlotry and corrupted covenant relationships.
What emerges is a recurring vocabulary of seed, children, strange unions, sorcery, deception, and spiritual unfaithfulness.
The seed of the sorceress and the whore
Now consider the extraordinary accusation of Isaiah 57:3–4:
"But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore."
Verse 4 continues:
"Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,"
God identifies the accused through the language of a sorceress, an adulterer, a whore, children of transgression, and a seed of falsehood.
Read Isaiah 57:5–9. The accusation proceeds into corrupt worship and illicit religious practices.
Now place this beside the strange children of Hosea, the godly seed of Malachi, the seed of the serpent in Genesis, and the mother of harlots in Revelation.
The language of spiritual parentage is not incidental. Scripture repeatedly condemns false worship through the imagery of corrupt reproduction, inherited unfaithfulness, and offspring belonging to an ungodly order.
My theory asks whether this imagery may preserve more than a moral metaphor in some of the passages concerning heavenly rebellion. Genesis 6 introduces a contested account involving sons of God and daughters of men; Daniel 2 speaks of mingling with the seed of men; Isaiah speaks of the sons of a sorceress; Hosea speaks of strange children; and Revelation presents Babylon as the mother of harlots and abominations.
The connection should be investigated as a proposed pattern of corruption extending through worship, allegiance, earthly kingdoms, and possibly the ancient traditions of forbidden unions. What Scripture clearly exposes is a false spiritual inheritance that stands against the godly seed God seeks.
And now we must ask what happens to the kings who perpetuate that rebellion when they die.
VI. THE REPHAIM: THE KINGDOM OF THE DEAD AND THE FALLEN RULERS BENEATH THE EARTH
Isaiah 14:9 provides one of the most extraordinary pictures of the afterlife in the Old Testament:
"Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations."
The Hebrew word translated dead here is repha'im, referring in this context to the departed or shades of the dead.
Who are these dead? Isaiah's own words identify them as the chief ones of the earth and the kings of the nations.
They are no longer ruling earthly territories. Their dominion has ended, yet the prophecy portrays them as assembled in Sheol, where they rise from their thrones to greet the fallen king of Babylon.
Isaiah 14:10 declares:
"All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?"
The question is devastating. The king who aspired to sit above the stars of God now enters the company of rulers who have been reduced to weakness.
And Isaiah 14:16 asks whether this is the man who caused the earth to tremble.
The king's claims to heavenly supremacy end among the dead.
Now return to Psalm 82:7: "But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."
This is where I propose a relationship between the sentence of mortality and the gathering of fallen rulers in Sheol. If exalted rebellious powers are sentenced to die like men, then the prophetic descriptions of god-claiming kings descending into the realm of the dead take on an even more severe significance.
The question is whether we are witnessing the same rebellion at different stages: a heavenly estate forfeited, earthly dominion pursued, and eventual descent into the company of dead kings.
The Rephaim throughout Scripture
Job 26:5–6 describes the dead beneath the waters and the exposure of hell and destruction before God. The Hebrew employs repha'im.
Psalm 88:10–12 questions whether God will show wonders to the dead and whether the dead shall rise to praise Him. Again the underlying terminology belongs to the language of the departed.
Proverbs 2:16–19 associates the strange woman's house with the descent to death and the Rephaim.
Proverbs 9:13–18 describes the foolish woman's invitation, whose guests are in the depths of hell among the dead.
Proverbs 21:16 says that a man wandering from the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
Isaiah 26:13–14 recalls other lords who exercised dominion over God's people and declares that they are dead and shall not rise. The word translated deceased is again repha'im.
But Isaiah 26:19 announces God's promise that His dead shall live.
This contrast is central. The oppressive lords are brought to judgment; God's people are promised life. The distinction is not merely between two groups of deceased human beings, but between the failure of rebellious dominion and the resurrection that belongs to God.
Ezekiel 31:15–18 describes the humiliation of the mighty through descent into the pit, while Ezekiel 32:17–32 portrays fallen nations, warriors, and rulers gathered among the dead.
The dead kings are therefore a recurring prophetic image, not an isolated curiosity of Isaiah 14.
The Bible also refers to ancient peoples called Rephaim in Genesis 14:5; 15:20; Deuteronomy 2:10–11, 20–21; 3:11–13; Joshua 12:4; and 13:12, including traditions concerning Og of Bashan. Their relationship to the term for departed shades requires separate linguistic investigation, rather than assuming every reference describes exactly the same beings.
Nevertheless, the underworld Rephaim of Isaiah 14 present a striking picture: the earthly kings who once terrorised the nations have become the company of the dead.
And the ancient Near Eastern documents reveal that departed kings occupied an extraordinary place in the religious imagination of the region.
VII. UGARIT, EGYPT, AND THE ANCIENT ATTEMPTS TO PRESERVE THE DEAD
The Ugaritic tablets are particularly valuable because they preserve beliefs concerning departed royal figures and the rp'um, a term related linguistically to the Hebrew Rephaim.
KTU 1.20–1.22, commonly known as the Rephaim texts, describe mysterious exalted figures summoned to an assembly, travelling in chariots and participating in a prolonged feast. Their identity remains debated, but an important scholarly interpretation associates them with deceased kings or revered ancestors.
KTU 1.161, the Ugaritic royal funerary ritual, is especially significant. It invokes departed royal figures and places the deceased within a continuing ritual relationship to the royal house. The sun goddess Shapash appears in association with the movement between the living world and the underworld. (The Queen of Heaven and The Queen of The Dead?)
J. F. Healey's 1978 study, Ritual Text KTU 1.161: Translation and Notes, is an important source for this material.
KTU 1.5–1.6, from the Baal Cycle, also concerns the struggle between Baal and Mot, the power of death, and the return of Baal in the mythological narrative.
Why does this matter?
Because the ancient world did not always imagine the deceased king as a forgotten corpse whose identity and relationship to the kingdom had simply vanished. Royal funerary traditions preserved the memory and ritual significance of dead rulers, while mythological narratives contemplated divine survival, return, and renewed dominion.
These texts are witnesses to ancient religious claims, not proof that the dead kings actually returned. Their historical value lies in revealing the ideas circulating in the world from which biblical prophetic imagery emerged.
Now compare this with Isaiah 14, where the dead kings greet the fallen Babylonian monarch, and Revelation 17, where a kingly beast is described as having existed, become absent, and returned from the abyss.
The relationship is worth examining because the concern with the dead and the continuation of royal dominion existed long before Revelation.
Egypt and the restoration of life after death
Ancient Egypt developed elaborate religious practices intended to secure continued existence after death.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Spell 89, concerns the reunion of the deceased person's ba with the body. Spell 92 concerns the opening of the tomb and the freedom of the ba and shadow to depart.
The Egyptian ba was understood as an aspect of personal existence capable of movement between realms, while funerary rituals and spells were believed to support the deceased person's continued existence.
The Egyptian religious imagination was therefore occupied not merely with burial, but with maintaining identity, restoring life, and preserving existence beyond death.
When we compare these beliefs with Revelation's portrayal of the beast, we must ask whether the beast's apparent return deliberately imitates the divine conquest of death while appealing to older religious hopes of restored life and continuing kingship.
The ancient documents establish that these beliefs and rituals existed. Their effectiveness is not demonstrated by their survival in manuscripts.
But they are valuable historical background for understanding why an apparent return from death could command extraordinary religious wonder.
VIII. SAUL, THE WOMAN OF ENDOR, AND THE BEING THAT ASCENDED FROM THE EARTH
1 Samuel 28 introduces the forbidden consultation of the dead into the biblical account itself.
Saul, abandoned by God because of his disobedience and unable to obtain an answer through the usual means, seeks a woman possessing a familiar spirit. (Inside they are ravenous wolves?)
1 Samuel 28:13 records:
"And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth."
The woman reports seeing elohim ascending from the earth. The word translated gods can be applied differently according to context, but here it appears within her description of an extraordinary apparition.
Verse 14 describes an old man covered with a mantle, whom Saul recognises as Samuel. The narrative subsequently refers to the figure as Samuel.
The importance of the passage is that Saul seeks knowledge from the dead through a forbidden practitioner, and the account presents an encounter with a figure associated with the deceased prophet.
Leviticus 19:31 prohibits seeking familiar spirits and wizards. Deuteronomy 18:10–12 condemns divination, enchantment, witchcraft, and consulting the dead. Isaiah 8:19 asks whether a people should seek unto their God rather than unto the dead on behalf of the living. 1 Chronicles 10:13–14 explicitly includes Saul's consultation of a familiar spirit among the reasons for his judgment.
The biblical condemnation is unmistakable.
And yet the account is valuable for this investigation because it shows that the attempt to consult or summon the dead was not merely an invention of later occult writers. It was a practice sufficiently known in ancient Israel to receive repeated biblical prohibition.
The woman of Endor *does not provide a demonstrated mechanism for restoring a dead ruler to a new human body. The passage instead exposes forbidden consultation and divine judgment. But when studied beside the Rephaim, the Ugaritic funerary texts, and the occult claims of later periods, it belongs in the history of attempts to deal with the departed.
Now we reach perhaps the most disturbing prophetic accusation concerning occult practitioners and the lives of other people.
IX. EZEKIEL'S WITCHES: THOSE WHO HUNT SOULS AND KEEP ALIVE THOSE WHO SHOULD NOT LIVE
Ezekiel 13:18–21 deserves far more attention than it usually receives.
God addresses women practising condemned religious deception and asks:
Ezekiel 13:18:
"Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?"
The accusation is extraordinary. The women are associated with ritual objects, the hunting of souls, and claims concerning the preservation of life.
Verse 19 deepens the indictment:
"And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?"
Consider the severity of the words. God accuses these practitioners of hunting souls, slaying those who should not die, and preserving those who should not live. The accusation involves spiritual deception and matters of life and death.
My theory asks whether these practitioners were involved in a corrupt attempt to manipulate the boundary between life and death, using their ritual practices to maintain the influence or existence of those whom God had condemned while destroying or entrapping God's own people.
The passage must be read on its own terms. It does not explicitly describe the transfer of a departed king into a new body or say that the women prolonged their own lives by consuming captured souls. Yet the language of hunting souls and falsely preserving life is sufficiently serious to demand investigation rather than being reduced to a harmless superstition.
Richard C. Steiner's Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East (2015) is valuable here. Steiner explores ancient understandings of the nefesh and offers a scholarly interpretation of Ezekiel 13 in which the women's ritual objects may have been associated with trapping or controlling wandering souls. He also considers ancient Egyptian beliefs and rituals concerning the movement of personal spiritual aspects between the living and dead.
Steiner's work gives us a serious historical and philological investigation of ideas that can otherwise be dismissed without examination.
Now place Ezekiel 13 beside 1 Samuel 28, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Ugaritic royal funerary texts, and Revelation 18:23, where Babylon deceives the nations through sorceries.
The common concern is the attempted use of forbidden spiritual practices to influence human destiny, death, and the claims to continued life.
The phrase "to save the souls alive that should not live" is especially provocative when considered alongside the boastful kings whom God has sentenced to mortality and the beast whose wound appears healed.
Could the ancient pursuit of life beyond God's judgment be one of the recurring features of the rebellion? Could the false preservation of life be a counterpart to God's genuine promise of resurrection? Could the corruption of spiritual knowledge, together with royal power and false worship, explain why the biblical prophets connect so many of these practices with judgment?
These questions belong at the heart of the investigation.
Ezekiel 13:20–21 then declares that God will tear away the ritual objects and deliver His people from the hands of these women. The decisive power belongs not to the practitioners, but to God, who exposes and overthrows their deception.
X. THE BEAST THAT WAS, IS NOT, AND RETURNS FROM THE ABYSS
Now consider Revelation 17:8:
"The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
The beast has a past existence, a period of absence, and a future emergence from the abyss.
Revelation 17:11 then declares:
"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition."
The beast is connected with a succession of kings and yet is itself described as an eighth king belonging to the seven.
Now return to Daniel 7:17, where beasts are interpreted as kings, and Daniel 7:23, where the fourth beast represents a kingdom.
A beast may represent both a ruler and the dominion exercised through him. The interpretation therefore permits investigation of a returning kingly power manifesting through a succession of earthly rulers.
Revelation 13:2 provides the crucial identification of the source of that power:
"And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."
The dragon is identified as Satan in Revelation 12:9.
The beast therefore does not possess independent divine authority. It receives its throne from the dragon.
And this is where the proposed sequence becomes particularly powerful. We have a rebellious heavenly figure associated with the king of Tyre; a fallen morning-star ruler associated with Babylon; spiritual princes associated with earthly empires; dead kings gathered in Sheol; and a kingly beast empowered by Satan, whose existence is described in terms of disappearance and return.
My theory proposes that the returning beast is the culminating earthly expression of this ancient heavenly rebellion, possibly preserving or renewing a royal dominion associated with the fallen powers.
Revelation itself establishes the return of the beast from the abyss and the connection between the dragon and earthly kingship. The precise continuity of personal identity between the cherub, the kings, and the beast remains the central mystery being investigated.
Abaddon and the angel of the abyss
Revelation 9:11 declares:
"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon."
Here Scripture expressly identifies an angel associated with kingship and the abyss.
Revelation 11:7 then describes the beast ascending from the bottomless pit, while Revelation 17:8 repeats that origin.
These passages do not name Abaddon as the beast, but they establish a close literary association between angelic kingship, the abyss, destructive powers, and the final opposition to God's witnesses.
Revelation 9 also portrays locust-like beings combining features of horses, men, lions, and scorpions. The imagery is striking when placed beside the composite creatures of Daniel and the animal-human representations found in ancient religious iconography.
Once again the question is whether John is revealing the spiritual nature of a power operating through earthly kingdoms.
The counterfeit resurrection
Revelation 13:3 declares:
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast."
The apparent recovery produces astonishment and becomes the occasion for worship.
Revelation 13:4:
"And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?"
Now compare Revelation 5:6, where the Lamb stands as though slain.
The wording of the beast's mortal wound deliberately recalls the language associated with slaughter. The Lamb's victory over death is followed by true heavenly worship, while the beast's apparent recovery produces worldwide astonishment and worship of the dragon.
This is the counterfeit resurrection at the heart of the theory: a rebellious power appears to imitate the life-giving victory belonging to Christ.
There is an additional contrast.
Revelation 1:8 describes the Lord as He who is, was, and is to come.
The beast of Revelation 17:8 was, is not, and yet is.
The imitation is striking. The beast presents an apparent victory over disappearance or death while its destination remains perdition.
The ancient Roman tradition concerning the possible return of Nero is one historical context that should also be examined, because it shows how imperial return could become an object of expectation and fear. But that historical parallel need not prevent the larger theological investigation of Revelation's depiction of recurrent beastly power.
The central issue is that the beast's return becomes an object of worship, as though its survival proves a divinity it does not possess.
XI. THE SPEAKING IMAGE, THE GODS OF EGYPT, AND BABYLON'S SORCERIES
The imitation becomes still more extraordinary in Revelation 13:15, where the second beast is permitted to give breath or life to the image of the first beast so that the image speaks and enforces worship.
The Greek word is pneuma, associated with breath or spirit.
Now compare Genesis 2:7, where God breathes into the man and he becomes a living soul, and Ezekiel 37:9–10, where the breath enters the dead and they live.
Psalm 115:4–7 declares that the idols of the nations have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, and ears but cannot hear.
Yet Revelation portrays an image that apparently speaks.
Here is a potent contrast between genuine divine life and the counterfeit animation of an image commanding worship.
The abominable beasts in Ezekiel's Temple
Ezekiel 8:10 declares:
"So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about."
The prophet is shown images within the Temple, where the elders offer incense before them. The chapter also describes women weeping for Tammuz and men worshipping the sun.
Ancient Egyptian religion portrayed gods with human and animal characteristics: Anubis with the head of a jackal, Horus as a falcon or falcon-headed figure, Thoth with the head of an ibis, Sekhmet as a lioness-headed goddess, and Sobek in crocodile form.
Ezekiel does not identify every image as an Egyptian deity, yet Ezekiel 20:7–8 explicitly condemns the idols of Egypt, while Ezekiel 23 returns to Israel and Judah's corrupt associations with other nations.
Romans 1:23 condemns the exchange of God's glory for images resembling corruptible man, birds, fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Deuteronomy 32:17 states that the people sacrificed unto devils and not to God. 1 Corinthians 10:20 likewise associates heathen sacrifices with devils, and Revelation 9:20 condemns the worship of devils and idols.
The biblical connection between idolatry and demonic worship is therefore explicit.
My theory proposes that the corrupted animal-human imagery of ancient religions deserves investigation alongside the cherubim, the fallen covering cherub, and the composite beasts of Daniel and Revelation. The issue is not whether every animal-headed statue was a portrait of an actual hybrid creature. It is whether corrupt worship appropriated or distorted imagery associated with heavenly beings and transformed it into an instrument of false divine authority.
Ezekiel 8 is especially serious because the forbidden worship is located within the sanctuary associated with God's name. False religion is not portrayed merely as something practised by distant heathen nations. It has entered the religious institution itself.
The sorceries by which Babylon deceives the nations
Revelation 18:23 declares:
"For thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived."
The Greek word translated sorceries, pharmakeia, belongs to the ancient vocabulary of magic, enchantment, and practices involving substances used in ritual contexts.
Babylon's corruption is joined to extraordinary commercial influence, religious deception, and the power of the great men of the earth.
Revelation 13:14, 16:13–14, and 19:20 associate deception with signs and false wonders. 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 describes Satanic working through power, signs, lying wonders, and the deceivableness of unrighteousness.
The historical literature preserves many examples of magical practitioners claiming to alter appearance, conceal identity, or influence perception.
The Testament of Solomon, in the account of Onoskelis preserved in F. C. Conybeare's 1898 translation, describes a spirit appearing in the semblance of a woman.
The Greek Magical Papyri, PGM XIII.270–277, preserved in P.Leiden J 395, contain a ritual seeking to change how the practitioner appears in the eyes of others. Richard L. Phillips discusses this material in In Pursuit of Invisibility: Ritual Texts from Late Roman Egypt (2009).
Augustine, The City of God, Book XVIII, Chapters 17–18, considers stories of magical transformation and the possibility that apparent changes of form were produced through deceptive appearances.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 51, Article 2, discusses angels assuming bodies, while Part I, Question 114, Article 4 examines demonic deception and apparent miracles.
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Book III, preserves a fictional account of transformation through magical ointments and incantations.
The Malleus Maleficarum, Part I, Question X, examines whether witches can make human beings appear transformed into beasts through glamour, while Francesco Maria Guazzo's Compendium Maleficarum, Book I, Chapter XIII, discusses similar demonological claims.
These texts provide evidence of historical beliefs concerning illusion, shape-changing, spirits in human appearance, and the manipulation of perception. They do not establish that such transformations actually occurred.
Yet the connection to biblical deception deserves investigation because the issue is the conflict between what appears to be true and what actually is true.
2 Corinthians 11:13–15 describes deceitful workers appearing as apostles of Christ and Satan transforming himself into an angel of light.
Matthew 7:15 warns:
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
Ezekiel 22:27 describes princes as wolves ravening the prey, shedding blood, destroying souls, and seeking dishonest gain.
Acts 20:29 warns of grievous wolves entering among the flock.
And Revelation 13:11 describes a beast with horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon.
What greater religious deception could there be than a power appearing to serve God while demanding allegiance to the authority of the dragon?
The biblical criterion for identifying such deception is supplied by Christ Himself in Matthew 7:16: "Ye shall know them by their fruits." The issue is not assigning secret nonhuman identities to ordinary people, but exposing false authority by its teachings, conduct, demands, and fruits.
The writings on soulless beings
Later esoteric writers also developed doctrines concerning supposedly soulless people.
H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Volume II, Chapter VIII, uses the expression "soulless men and women." G. de Purucker, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, Chapter 16, discusses lost souls and soulless beings, while his Occult Glossary explains the terminology within a system of spiritual principles rather than the literal absence of every form of soul.
These writings demonstrate that esoteric theories of hidden spiritual states existed. They are evidence of occult doctrine, not independently verified evidence of nonhuman persons disguised as human beings.
For this investigation, they belong to the historical study of beliefs concerning life, soul, identity, and deception, particularly when compared with the claims made in ancient magical and funerary literature.
XII. THE WHORE WHO RIDES THE BEAST: BABYLON AS THE MOTHER OF ABOMINATIONS
Now the imagery of the two mothers becomes unavoidable.
Zion is described as a mother who brings forth children. Jerusalem above is the mother of the faithful, and God records those born in Zion.
But Revelation 17:3 describes another woman:
"So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns."
And verse 5 identifies her:
"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
Babylon is explicitly described as a mother. She is also shown riding the beast.
The vision joins a corrupt religious and commercial order to the beastly power that receives its authority from the dragon.
This is why the earlier passages concerning the sorceress, the whore, strange children, and corrupted seed deserve examination alongside Revelation.
Isaiah 57:3 addresses the sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Hosea 5:7 condemns those who have begotten strange children. Malachi 2:15 speaks of God seeking a godly seed. Genesis 3:15 places enmity between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed.
Now Revelation introduces Babylon as the mother of harlots and abominations.
The recurring contrast is between two systems of belonging: one established by God and the other associated with disobedience, false worship, and rebellion.
The woman does not ride an innocent animal. She rides a beast full of blasphemous names, bearing the same seven heads and ten horns associated with the dragon's authority. Revelation 17:18 explains that she is the great city reigning over the kings of the earth.
Her relationship with kingship is therefore intrinsic to the vision.
Revelation 17:6 presents her drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus. Revelation 18:24 declares that in her was found the blood of prophets, saints, and those slain upon the earth.
Revelation 18 also portrays extraordinary commercial power, luxurious merchandise, and the merchants of the earth lamenting her destruction.
The woman is therefore associated with religion, political dominion, wealth, sorcery, and persecution.
My proposed reading is that Babylon represents the earthly religious and commercial structure through which the beastly rebellion sustains its claims to authority. She acts as a mother of corrupt worship, a partner of earthly kings, and an instrument through which the nations are deceived.
But her alliance with the beast does not save her.
Revelation 17:16–17 describes the beast's kings turning against the harlot and destroying her. The rebellion consumes its own instruments. Their common opposition to God produces no enduring covenant of loyalty.
How fitting that the power claiming to preserve its dominion through false worship should ultimately destroy the very woman who helped sustain it.
XIII. WHY THE KINGS OF THE EARTH MAKE WAR AGAINST THE LAMB
This is the question that brings the entire theory together.
Psalm 2:2 declares:
"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,"
The following verse gives their desire to cast off divine restraint.
Now consider the royal claims in Ezekiel and Isaiah. The prince of Tyre declares himself a god. The king of Babylon seeks to exalt his throne above the stars of God and become like the Most High.
The rebellion is therefore not simply opposition to a particular law or earthly government. It is a challenge to God's sovereignty.
Daniel 7:25 describes the final blasphemous ruler speaking great words against the Most High, wearing out the saints, and thinking to change times and laws.
Daniel 10 introduces the spiritual princes associated with earthly kingdoms.
Revelation 12:7–9 describes war in heaven and the expulsion of the dragon and his angels.
Revelation 13:2 declares that the dragon gives his throne and authority to the beast.
And Revelation 16:13–14 explains precisely how the kings are gathered:
"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet."
"For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Here the spiritual dimension of the final political rebellion is expressly identified. The kings are gathered through demonic influence.
Revelation 17:12–14 describes ten kings receiving power with the beast, surrendering their strength to him, and making war against the Lamb.
Why would mortal rulers attempt to fight the Lord of lords and King of kings?
Within my proposed theory, the answer is that the earthly kingship of the beast is the continuation of a much older struggle for sovereignty. The power that once sought to exalt its throne above God's stars now confronts the One whose authority it has attempted to imitate and usurp.
The confrontation is not merely between two competing earthly governments. It is the final exposure of the contradiction between created power and the authority of the Creator.
Revelation 19:19 presents the beast and the kings of the earth gathered to make war against the rider upon the horse and His army.
Now return to the beginning of the investigation. The anointed cherub is cast from the holy mountain because of iniquity. The king of Babylon falls from heaven because he sought to become like the Most High. Psalm 82 pronounces death upon those addressed as gods and children of the Most High. Isaiah gathers the dead kings into Sheol. Revelation presents the beast's apparent return and the kings who offer their authority to him.
If these passages belong to one continuing rebellion, then the final war against the Lamb represents the last attempt of created powers to escape the judgment already pronounced against their arrogance.
This interpretation gives the conflict an extraordinary continuity: the rebellion that began with the pursuit of divine status culminates in the attempted destruction of the One to whom divine authority truly belongs.
There is another connection worth retaining. Acts 4:25–28 applies Psalm 2 to the historical opposition against Jesus involving Herod, Pontius Pilate, and others. The rebellion against the Anointed was already expressed through earthly rulers during Christ's first coming. Revelation portrays its final confrontation in the language of beastly kingship and the gathering of the nations.
The same opposition to divine authority therefore runs through the biblical account, regardless of whether every ruler involved possessed an earlier heavenly identity.
But Scripture has already declared the outcome.
Revelation 17:14:
"These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."
The irony is profound. The kings who claim divine prerogatives and receive their earthly authority from the dragon gather to fight the Lamb, whose authority cannot be conferred or withdrawn by any created power.
The beast cannot grant eternal life. Its apparent return leads only to perdition. The dead kings cannot overthrow the Lord who judges the dead. The sorceries of Babylon cannot reverse God's judgment, and the destruction of God's people cannot secure an everlasting throne for their persecutors.
XIV. THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS: WHEN THE CURSE IS NO MORE
The investigation must end where the biblical promise ends: not with the apparent triumph of the beast, but with the restoration that belongs to God alone.
Acts 3:21 speaks of the times of restitution of all things.
1 Corinthians 15:51–54 describes the transformation of the corruptible into incorruption and the mortal into immortality, culminating in the victory over death.
Revelation 21:4 promises the end of death, sorrow, crying, and pain.
And Revelation 22:3 declares:
"And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:"
This final declaration brings the entire investigation into focus.
Consider the two opposing destinies.
Zion is associated with the children whom God records as His own, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the promise of incorruptible life. Babylon is associated with corrupted worship, false parentage, earthly kingship, sorcery, persecution, and a beast that appears to return from the abyss but is ultimately destroyed.
The Lamb possesses the authority to redeem and restore. The beast merely receives a temporary throne from the dragon.
If the rebellion began with created beings seeking the honour and authority of God, it ends with the complete exposure of that ambition. The king who sought to ascend above God's stars is brought down. The ruler who claimed to be a god is confronted with mortality. The kings who made the nations tremble are gathered among the dead. The beast that seemed to overcome death goes into perdition.
And the company of the redeemed stands with the Lamb.
Perhaps there is a deeper question concealed within the promise that the curse shall finally be removed. What if part of the deception of this world has been the confusion of true identity with outward power, titles, inherited dominion, and the claims of those who have sought to rule in God's place? What if the restitution of all things reveals the difference between the identity granted by God and the identities mankind has been persuaded to honour?
These are questions worth investigating, because Scripture repeatedly distinguishes between what the world acknowledges and what God Himself records.
Psalm 87 says the LORD shall count those born in Zion. Revelation describes those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. The kings of Babylon and Tyre may claim divinity, while the beast may command the wonder of the earth, but neither royal descent nor extraordinary appearance can establish an authority greater than God's.
The real issue has always been the attempt to take what belongs to the Creator and make it the possession of the creature.
The covering cherub, the fallen morning-star king, the mortal rulers who claimed divine status, the Rephaim gathered in Sheol, the sorceries that deceived the nations, the strange seed condemned by the prophets, and the beast that rises from the abyss form the proposed chain of this investigation. They invite a wider reading of Scripture in which heavenly rebellion, corrupted earthly dominion, death, and counterfeit restoration belong to one great conflict.
Some links in that chain are directly stated in Scripture; others are the identifications this theory seeks to investigate. But the central confrontation is explicit. The dragon gives authority to the beast. The kings give their power to the beast. The spirits of devils gather the kings. And the kings make war against the Lamb.
What greater exposure of false divinity could there be than to watch those who claimed to be gods assemble their kingdoms against the true King of kings, only to discover that all their thrones, rituals, inherited titles, and pretended powers over death cannot alter the judgment of the One they oppose?
God's declaration to the proud king of Tyre still stands: "yet thou art a man, and not God." His judgment upon the exalted figures of Psalm 82 still stands: "But ye shall die like men." His verdict against Babylon's dynasty still stands: "The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned."
And His final verdict upon the beast is equally certain: "goeth into perdition."
The rebellion may have begun in heaven. It may have expressed itself through the proudest thrones of the earth, through religious deception, corrupted inheritance, and the ancient pursuit of a life that God had not granted. It may culminate in a beast whose apparent return persuades the nations to worship the dragon. But none of these powers can overturn the sentence of God.
The kings may gather their armies. The harlot may sit upon the scarlet beast. The false prophet may perform lying wonders. The image may speak. The nations may marvel, and the beast may appear to have conquered death itself.
But the dead kings remain subject to God, the creature remains a creature, and no usurped throne can become the throne of the Most High.
The beast goes into perdition. Babylon falls. The curse is removed.
And the Lamb overcomes.
Historical Sources and Manuscripts for the Investigation
The following works are retained as part of the research foundation. They should be distinguished from the canonical KJV passages and cited by edition and section when preparing the final published version.
Early Jewish and Christian literature: The Prayer of Joseph, fragments A–C, particularly those preserved in Origen's Commentary on John II.188–192 and Philocalia 23.15; 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch, concerning Enoch and Metatron; 2 Enoch 71–72, concerning Melchizedek's miraculous birth and preservation; 1 Enoch 6–15, the Book of the Watchers; and 11QMelchizedek (11Q13), concerning Melchizedek's heavenly role and opposition to Belial. These works preserve ancient interpretations and traditions, not additional books of the KJV canon.
Ugaritic and ancient Near Eastern sources: KTU 1.20–1.22, the Rephaim texts; KTU 1.161, the royal funerary ritual; KTU 1.5–1.6, the Baal Cycle; and J. F. Healey, Ritual Text KTU 1.161: Translation and Notes (1978). These are particularly important for studying departed royal ancestors, divine kingship, funerary ritual, and ancient beliefs concerning the dead.
Egyptian funerary and magical texts: The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Spells 89 and 92, concerning the ba, the tomb, and the movement of the deceased; Greek Magical Papyri, PGM XIII.270–277, preserved in P.Leiden J 395; and Richard L. Phillips, In Pursuit of Invisibility: Ritual Texts from Late Roman Egypt (2009), which examines the language of invisibility and apparent transformation.
The soul and Ezekiel 13: Richard C. Steiner, Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East (2015), particularly his treatment of the women accused of hunting souls and the ancient concepts of separable spiritual identity.
Spirits, disguises, and apparent transformation: The Testament of Solomon, particularly the account of Onoskelis in F. C. Conybeare's 1898 translation; Augustine, The City of God XVIII.17–18; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, Question 51, Article 2, and Question 114, Article 4; Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Book III; Malleus Maleficarum, Part I, Question X; and Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum, Book I, Chapter XIII.
Later esoteric writings: H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Volume II, Chapter VIII; and G. de Purucker, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, Chapter 16, together with his Occult Glossary. These are useful for documenting later beliefs concerning the loss of spiritual identity and supposed soullessness, not for establishing that any ordinary human being is secretly nonhuman.
Principal biblical research passages: Genesis 3:15; 6:1–4; 14:18–20; 18–19; 32:24–28; Exodus 4:22; 25:20; Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:10–12; 32:17; 1 Samuel 1:11; 28:7–20; 2 Kings 2:11; Job 1:6; 3:3; 19:25–26; 26:5–6; 38:7; Psalm 2; 82; 87; 88; 115; 144; Proverbs 2; 9; 21; Isaiah 8:19; 14:4–22; 26:13–19; 57:3–9; 66:7–8; Jeremiah 20:14–18; Ezekiel 8; 13:18–21; 20; 22; 23; 28; 31–32; Daniel 2:43; 4; 7; 9:21; 10; 12:3; Hosea 5:7; 11:1; 12:4; Malachi 2:11–15; Matthew 7:15–16; 13:38; Luke 20:35–36; John 3:3–6; 8:44; Acts 4:25–28; 12:15; Romans 1:23; 8:14–23; 1 Corinthians 10:20; 15:42–54; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15; Galatians 4:26; 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10; Hebrews 7; 11:5; 12:22–23; James 1:18; 1 John 3:1–10; Jude 6–7; 2 Peter 2:4–5; and Revelation 1; 2; 4–5; 7; 9; 11–14; 16–19; 21–22.
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