The Snare

by David A Ogunde

  “These tablets you spoke of sound very interesting,” began Dr. Diaz, “and mysterious.”

  “Yes, they are quite baffling,” Pierre agreed, closeting his prior thoughts away. “At the moment we are trying to decipher the image of the principal spirit with ten horns, seven crowns and seven moons. Here.” He took out his phone and pulled up a picture he had taken of the image. Dr. Diaz tucked a loose strand of mocha-colored hair behind her ear as she peered at the photo silently.

  “Do you have any idea?” ventured the commissioner.

  “Not off the top of my head,” admitted his companion as she handed the phone back. “But I think I know a good place to start. You mentioned that this ten-horned beast has been cropping up in the dreams of your co-worker. Well, it also comes up in biblical prophetic writings; but I think you already know that,” she added with a side smile,” which is why you contacted me, in the first place.”

  Pierre didn’t meet the other’s eye but made a show of straightening his shoulders. “I just want to make sure every avenue is explored,” he said with a professional tone. “My team is in need of clues and—”

  “I understand completely,” smoothed Dr. Diaz. “You were like that even back at school.”

  “Like what?” Pierre asked, feigning more challenge than he actually felt.

  She shrugged. “You know, grasping so hard at what made sense to your mind, but still secretly wondering why it didn’t make sense to your heart. You studied to be a theologian, Pierre, trying to make sense of God and why the world is like it is. But if you seek for answers in the Bible with a skeptical mind set, you will become lost in its labyrinth. The Bible is written by the inspiration of God. To explore this Holy realm, you need to believe the Bible and believe God, Who has no reason to lie. He gave us the Bible at the cost of the blood of His own Son. To reveal Himself to us and warn us of evils to come, so we may escape them. If you don’t trust in that, then even in studying everything, you will understand nothing.”

  Pierre felt the words slip through his armor, whether he believed them in this moment or not, her gentleness, intelligence, and spirit of authority behind her words made him feel in awe; a feeling, he remembered, that was not entirely new.

  “You know I envy your husband; this is why I wanted to marry you in those days. You’re so smart and secure in your beliefs.”

  “Oh, please. Stop kidding, Pierre. You couldn’t have married anyone from what I knew you to be.”

  “Well, my eyes strayed a few times, I admit, but you were on my heart.”

  “Really. We were in completely different camps.”

  Pierre allowed himself a chuckle at the memory. “You mean you were in a different camp. You wouldn't even let a man touch you because of your beliefs.”

  Dr. Diaz rolled her eyes. “And all you men wanted was just a good time.”

  “Academic, intelligent, professional. You could have had a good time if you hadn't bugged it all down with your strict Bible view. But I guess it’s just as well. Here you are, a curator of Museum for the Bible! And here I come crawling back to you for answers.”

  “Well, let’s just keep the past in the past, shall we? And focus on what you came for.”

  Dr. Diaz stopped in front of a door and nodded to a nearby a security guard.

  . “In here is one of our newest exhibitions. It’s still being tweaked before it opens next week, but I think it might be helpful. Come on.” She opened the door. “Let’s see what the Bible has to say.”

  Chapter 71

  As Dr. Diaz flicked on the room, small, dim lights automatically turned on to greet the motion. A large digital display screen sprawled upon the wall facing them met Pierre’s eye, he read the bold illuminated text: EXPLORATION OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY. “Daniel!” he exclaimed with almost a scoff.

  Dr. Diaz threw a hand to her hip. “Now don’t tell me you are a Maccabean Theorist, Pierre. That doesn’t believe the book of Daniel is true.”

  “Well, I…,” He flustered under her challenge. Her confidence somehow making him question what he did or did not believe. “It’s just a story,” he finally blurted out. “Written to comfort the Jews going through the wrath of Antiochus Epiphanes, due to the Maccabean uprising, in 2nd century BC.”

  Dr. Diaz’s gaze cooled, and a gentle tone swathed her next words. “Why are you here, Pierre? I’ll tell you. Because you have searched through secular history, you have studied all the theological theories, you have applied all your logic and reasoning, and yet you have found no answers. Now, you know it was undeniably proven that the book of Daniel was written while the Jews were in Babylonian captivity, long before Judas Maccabee sparked the rebellion against the wicked Antiochus. So, do yourself a favor, set aside what you think you are supposed to believe and give your heart a chance to discover what it really believes. Moreover, Jesus Christ quoted from the book of Daniel and did not indicate it was written by the Maccabean or for the Maccabean. He spoke particularly about what the Jews should do when they see the abomination of desolation, written in the book of Daniel, sit in the holy place. He was speaking of the Anti-Christ.”

  She smiled and beckoned the commissioner further in and gestured toward a digital table resting in the middle of the floor. Pierre’s attention was immediately drawn to the very realistic holographic display resting above the table’s surface: A set of ancient tablets slowing spinning together. Above them a sequence of what looked like scenes of political history flashed intermittently.

  “These tablets,” Dr. Diaz explained, “are holographic representations of a tablet we acquired from the Al Hillah site of ancient Babylon. They were the inspiration for this exhibition. Some of what you’re about to see exemplifies predictions about our world history and our future.” She approached the digital table, and the holographic projections immediately disappeared as she began typing on what seemed like invisible keys on the table. Suddenly, a six-foot tall figure appeared before them. It was a prominent statue of a Babylonian-styled man whose body had been divided into four distinct, color-coded sections. Knowledge from his past studies burst into the commissioner’s mind and, as he walked toward the rendering, he knew exactly what he was looking at.

  “Head of gold,” he spoke quietly, “arms and chest of silver; abdomen and thighs of bronze; legs of iron and…”

  “Feet and toes of mixed iron and clay,” finished Dr. Diaz gently. “Yes. This is a rendition of the statue from King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as recorded in the book of Daniel.”

  Pierre noticed that the large screen he had seen when they first entered the room was suddenly bright and displaying a colorful map and text: Nebuchadnezzar’s empire and a brief history.

  Dr. Diaz made a few more taps on the digital table, and Pierre felt his stomach give an involuntary flip as the statue transitioned into one of the bizarre animal figures Sarah spoke of when she told him her dream—the great winged lion.

  “These are the creatures that Daniel saw in his own vision,” Dr. Diaz said, tapping the table again. Pierre briefly taking note of all the strange holographic creatures as they appeared and disappeared one by one. A lopsided bear with three ribs in its jaws; a leopard with four heads and four wings; and finally… He paused at the last beast, taking in the modeled interpretation. It was dragon-like, scaly and serpentine, with its ten horns rising in varied lengths like plumes from the center of its head. Though its eyes gleamed ferociously and its jaws were set open to reveal a row of large, carnivorous teeth, it gave off no frightening effect similar to the monster Sarah had described from her dreams. Or, he added, to the hulking brute of the pieced-together image gathered from the strange etchings of the third tablet fragment. He voiced his thoughts to his host.

  “True, it’s not quite terrifying, is it?” Dr. Diaz conceded warmly. “But as Daniel didn’t describe the creature except for its horns and as having teeth of iron, we really have no clue as to what he saw. It’s left up to our imaginations; and, though it seems likely it could have been a hideous mo
nster, we chose this image so as not to scare the kids.” A nuance of compassion touched her eyes. She always was one who took children and their delicate, innocent senses to heart. “I only wish your colleague’s dreams afforded her the same courtesy. From what you’ve described, the fourth beast sounds quite dreadful.”

  Pierre simply nodded and walked round to the digital table, studying the image. “And how are these all connected?” He made a circular motion with his hand to indicate the contents of the holographs they had seen.

  Dr. Diaz obliged him. “First, we have to remember that these are pieces of separate dreams recorded in the Bible. Now, your colleague - Sarah is her name? While her dream consisted of the four beasts and the statue together, the actual visions of the beasts and statue came separately to separate men. The statue was dreamt by a king of Babylon, while the four beasts were dreamt by the prophet Daniel at a later time”.

  “Yes,” Pierre recalled his early school-day studies. “The statue was dreamt by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar while the four beasts were dreamt by the prophet Daniel at a later time.”

  Dr. Diaz nodded. “Daniel interpreted the king’s dream and revealed that the four metals of the statue represented four kingdoms, starting with the king’s own at that time—Babylon, as the gold head. In Daniel’s vision of the four creatures, he is told by someone in the dream that the beasts also represent four kingdoms, presumably the same four of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that Daniel himself interpreted some 25-30 years before.”

  “So, the lion coincides with the golden head,” Pierre said, resting his chin in his hand as he put together the information. “The bear goes with the silver chest, and so on.”

  “Precisely. And since we know from scripture that Nebuchadnezzar was specifically tied to the golden head, we can safely determine that it represents the kingdom, or empire, of Babylon, which had been revived and sat in power—”

  “From about 605 to 539 B.C. before being conquered by the Medo-Persians under Cyrus the Great.”

  “This new Persian empire is represented by the silver chest of the statue as well as the bear with three ribs in Daniel’s vision. It lasted from 539 to 333 B.C. Then came the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great - 333 B.C. to 146. This is depicted by the bronze middle and thighs of the image and the leopard creature with four wings. It is widely accepted that the heads of the leopard were prophetic in showing how Alexander would die young and his four generals would then take up the rule of his kingdom. Whether this specific meaning was made clear to Daniel at the time we don’t know; but standing on the other side of a prophecy that has come to pass affords us the great honor of putting together the specifics of what God was showing would come.”

  “Wait. You believe God foretold the history of world powers to Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar?”

  “Well, they rose and fell precisely as the visions in the book of Daniel showed, revealing God's panoramic political plan for our world until He takes over the governance of it.”

  Pierre looked again at the holographic dragon. “So, this beast represented the Roman Empire, which ruled from 146 B.C. to 445 Anno Domini—almost 500 hundred years.

  “But Dr. Diaz,” he peered over to his friend, “the Roman Empire is finished. So, this couldn’t be a measure of political history in its entirety. What about the governmental systems of the last thousand years?”

  Dr. Diaz replied pensively, her bright eyes exploding with knowledge. “The physical control over an empire crawling with ancient Roman soldiers is finished, yes. But there is much more that can still be classified as such. For instance, ‘Pope’ is the title given to one in the position known as the Holy See, or the See of Rome. It’s not so much of a stretch to imagine that the citizens of the world who have placed themselves under his religious authority could constitute as being an empire, thus, in its way, a continuation of the Roman Empire.”

  Pierre frowned slightly. It did seem like too much of a stretch to be a viable explanation. Dr. Diaz read his face and offered another. “How about a broader view? Once upon a time, nations were classified as civilized or uncivilized. And now-a-days, we classify them as First thru Third world. And these First World nations, particularly the Western ones, how do they model their social classes, their politics, their oligarchies, their use of slavery to sustain favored consumers?”

  “There isn’t slavery in the Western world anymore,” the commissioner pointed out.

  Dr. Diaz shook her head and looked at her friend with a bereaved smile. “No slavery? No thriving sex trade that forcefully subjugates millions of men, women, children to the aberrant practices of their ‘owners?’ No dilapidated sweatshops where workers are paid next to nothing only so the term ‘slavery’ can’t be legally applied, though it is immorally carried out? No, my friend. Slavery is still very much alive today; it’s just been hidden from view.”

  “Alright, I can see your point. But slavery wasn’t a trait specific just to the Roman Empire. So, how can it be an indicator of it?”

  “Flour,” Dr. Diaz stated simply with an impish grin.

  Pierre puzzled for a moment before instinctively glancing down at his own neatly-pressed suit to see if perhaps there was a mark of powder upon it. Finding none, he looked up and eyed the scholar questioningly. Dr. Diaz suppressed her amusement at the commissioner’s impetuousness in matters concerning his appearance—a mannerism which had always endeared him to herself—and elucidated her obscure point.

  “If I tell you I’m going to cook something using flour and ask you to take one guess as to what it is, could you give me the correct answer?”

  Pierre was taken aback at the strange turn of the conversation and didn’t know what to say. His immediate response was to answer with “bread,” but he sensed this wasn’t going to be that easy. “No,” he finally answered in a very dignified way. “I could not guess because there are too many varieties of food that require flour.”

  “Exactly,” stated the other with a gleam in her eye. “Slavery, just by itself, is not enough to be an indicator of a sustained Roman Empire, just as flour cannot be a sure indicator of what I’m about to cook. But once I also pull out the butter, sugar, baking soda, and chocolate chips, you are probably able to get a better idea.”

  The commissioner nodded slowly, hoping he was beginning to understand what she was saying. “Okay…so, what other factors, or ‘ingredients’, if you will, are present to indicate that the Roman Empire is still prevalent in these times?”

  “To name a few: the workings of our justice systems, which are not centered around wrong or right, but around favoring classes, races, financial statuses, and who better can manipulate emotions and wield cumbersome laws that oftentimes only benefit special interest groups. Like the Roman Empire, the initial purpose for the law, as a way to maintain order, evolved into a pathway through which wealth and power could be easily accrued at the gross expense of others.

  “Then, there’s the imbedded system of social complacency—movies, television, sports, fads. ‘They don’t need to know what’s going on; just keep ‘em entertained.’ Besides the empire’s army, which was stationed all around the known world, the empire maintained its ability to unify and distract its citizens with games, sports, and, generally speaking, religion. We see the same tactics still in effect today. The world is, for the most part, still unified by entertainment—Facebook, YouTube, Soccer, Star Wars—just as the multitudes were once unified by the gladiator games and holy-day festivals. And also like then, these serve as distractions to keep the people content enough so they are unable to see or unwilling to care about what’s really going on in the world around them.

  “In short, Pierre, modernization of technology does not equal modernization of ancient systems and mind-sets. The ideals, systems, tactics, and social and global goals which drove the heart of the ancient Roman Empire are still sustaining the modern one.”

  The commissioner opened his mouth to respond, but simply closed it again as he could not grasp a th
ought coherent enough to express from the whirlwind of thoughts in his brain. Instead, tugged at his cuffs to straighten his jacket sleeves.

  “Here.” Dr. Diaz’s sharp taps dissolved the dragon figure and brought up once again the large Babylonian image. Pointing at the image’s two iron legs she said, “The two legs are the Roman Empire, which were divided into East and West in 46 AD—what we now call Eastern and Western Europe. Each of them stems down into a foot and set of five toes which you can see have changed in texture—not simply iron, but iron mixed with baked clay.”

  “What does the clay represent?” questioned Pierre. “What is mixed with the ‘Roman iron’?”

  “There are many schools of thought on that. Some say it illustrates two powers of different strengths linked together under a single banner: that the clay simply represents a binding agent, a common religion or social or political agenda, such as climate change, which holds together the pieces of iron, or the pieces of many nations and peoples.

  “To others it represents a pretend Church of Christ, also known as ‘apostate,’ which claims Christianity, but, in fact, has no relationship with Christ whatsoever. Many have indubitably pinned the Roman Catholicism with this brand. However, I am inclined to think that generalization is somewhat erroneous because judgments of a person cannot be rightly made by where they do or do not attend their worship, but by what is in their hearts. Only God Himself can perfectly see who has truly been made alive with Christ by faith. I am sure there are people who claim to be Catholics that are true members of the Body of Christ just as I am sure there are those who claim to be Protestants that are not.”