The Spanish Armada or World
War III?
Article originally appeared on e-Watchman in 2007
With the drumbeat of war growing more intense it seems particularly
timely to consider the ill-fated Spanish Armada of the 16th century,
at least the Watchtower Society’s perspective of it in relation to
God’s prophetic Word.
While recent developments may cause some of Jehovah’s
Witnesses to imagine that the ferocious Russian bear may now
be emerging from hibernation to renew its supposed role as the
prophetic king of the north, the truth is that the
Watchtower’s entire interpretation of Daniel, as well as their
interpretations of interrelated prophecies in Revelation, are
fatally flawed and provide Jehovah’s Witnesses with no
reliable foundation for understanding where we stand in
relation to the events foretold in prophecy and the unfolding
of future events.
Take for example the Society’s interpretation of the seventh
chapter of Daniel regarding the last-ascending little horn of
the eleven-horned wild-beast that humiliates three kingdoms
that existed prior to it. In that regard the August, 2007,
Awake has an article about the tragic misadventure of the
Spanish Armada.
The article itself is succinct, informative and accurate.
However, although the Awake does not delve into the prophetic
significance of the event that the Society elsewhere attaches
to the defeat of Spain’s naval forces more than four centuries
ago, the concluding paragraph alludes to such, saying:
“Looking back, it is evident that what happened in the summer
of 1588, when efforts at conquest by the Spanish Armada
proved unsuccessful, is very significant. Nearly 200 years
after the defeat of the Armada, Great Britain rose to world
prominence and, in time, came to have a key position in
fulfillment of Bible prophecy.”
To the unfamiliar it may seem that the article merely says
that the tragedy that befell the Spanish Armada only paved the
way for the ascension of the British Empire and that Bible
prophecy was eventually fulfilled when Britain became the
dominate power in the 19th century. While that appears to be
what the article is saying, that is not what the Watchtower
actually teaches. The Society officially teaches that the
defeat of the Spanish Armada was one aspect of the fulfillment
of the 7th chapter of Daniel regarding the three horns that
are “plucked up.” Indeed, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been led to
believe that the loss of a few dozen wooden ships with canvas
sails was the fulfillment of a major prophecy connected to the
coming of Christ.
Britain’s supremacy was confirmed by the crushing victory
over Napoléon of France in 1815 C.E. The “three
kings” that Britain thus ‘humiliated’ were Spain, the
Netherlands, and France. (Daniel 7:24) As a
result, Britain emerged as the world’s greatest colonial
and commercial power. Yes, the “small” horn grew to become
a world power! – Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy
In truth, it is not “evident” at all that the disaster that
befell the Spanish Armada had anything whatsoever to do with
the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. As the article correctly
points out, it was not so much that the British navy
defeated the Spanish Armada anyway. As fate would have it,
many more men and ships were lost to the gales that
frequently rage across the North Atlantic than were lost in
actual battle. Call it divine providence if you will, but it
was certainly not an overwhelming British victory. In fact,
when informed of the disaster that befell his Armada, the
king of Spain is reported to have bemoaned: “I sent the
Armada against men, not God’s winds and waves.”
But more than that, though, there are several insurmountable
difficulties with the Society’s interpretation.
Foremost, the prophecy specifically says that the eleventh
horn comes up among the ten and causes three of the ten to be
“plucked up” from before itself. Any reader who approaches
this prophecy with his mind unfettered by the Watchtower’s
interpretation ought to grasp the fact that the three uprooted
horns are plucked up suddenly, decisively and simultaneously;
not gradually, one at a time, over the course of more than two
centuries.
Yet, according to the Watchtower the
three horns represent Spain, France
and the Netherlands, which all fought
numerous battles and suffered naval
defeats at the hands of the British
navy over the span of more than twohundred years. Actual history belies
the importance the Society attaches
to the battle though, in that, the
loss of the Spanish Armada was merely
one naval battle and it in no way
brought about the downfall of Spain
itself. In fact, Spain lost another even more decisive naval
engagement more than two centuries later, in 1805, when the
British navy, under Admiral Lord Nelson, defeated an alliance
of the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Britain’s victory at Trafalgar did indeed establish the
supremacy of British naval power for the remainder of the 19th
century. But to emphasize the point being made here: It was
more than two centuries after the defeat of the Spanish Armada
before Great Britain became the dominate European power. And
supposedly that is when the British Empire emerged as the
“little horn.” But how reasonable is it that beast’s three
horns were “plucked up” before ever the little horn emerged?
There was more to the “small” horn than the British
Empire. In 1783, Britain recognized the independence of
its 13 American colonies. The United States of America
eventually became Britain’s ally, emerging from World
War II as the earth’s dominant nation. It still has strong
ties with Britain. The resulting Anglo-American dual world
power constitutes the ‘horn having eyes.’
What is even more absurd is that the Society claims the
little horn not only represents the British Empire but also
symbolizes the Anglo-American kingdom. But the British-
American alliance, sometimes called the ‘special
relationship,’ did not even come into existence until during
the Second World War – almost four centuries after the
Spanish “horn” was supposedly “plucked up” by the then nonexistent little horn! Or are we to assume that the little
horn has been growing and growing and growing for nearly
half a millennia now?
It should be evident that the Watchtower’s interpretation of
prophecy, while colorful and innovative, is wholly artificial.
And worst of all, by assigning the fulfillment of such
profound prophecies, which pertain ultimately to the political
developments coinciding with the glorious coming of the
kingdom of Christ, to comparatively inconsequential events of
centuries past, the Watchtower has unwittingly degraded the
All-Knowing Jehovah into a god who squanders his incomparable
powers of foreknowledge with Nostradamic predictions of
historical trivia.
The emergence of the little horn is a future event. It
signifies the appearance of the last king, otherwise known
as the 8th king, which occurs during a time of unprecedented
global tumult. The little horn will be different from all
the kingdoms that have come before it because the last
kingdom will be a world government. The humiliation of three
kingdoms is also a future event — likely symbolizing the
sudden downfall of the Anglo-American system, which
presently dominates the world. (The exact details of the
“three horns” remain to be seen.)
How does this relate to the prophecy of the king of the north
and the king of the south? Both prophecies, as well as the
13th chapter of Revelation and the 8th chapter of Daniel as
well, depict a singular political agency under Satan’s control
that brings the mighty ones of this world to ruin; dominates
all nations and speaks great and grandiose things against
Jehovah himself.
ALL PROPHECY IS HARMONIOUS
“The holy ones” persecuted by the “small” horn—the AngloAmerican World Power—are Jesus’ spirit-anointed followers
on earth. For years before World War I, the remnant of
these anointed ones publicly warned that 1914 would see
the conclusion of “the appointed times of the nations.”
When war broke out in that year, it was evident that the
“small” horn had ignored this warning, for it persisted in
harassing the anointed “holy ones.” The Anglo-American
World Power even opposed their efforts to carry out
Jehovah’s requirement (or, “law”) that the good news of
the Kingdom be preached worldwide by his witnesses. Thus
the “small” horn attempted “to change times and law.”
To illustrate: The little horn is said to be given a mouth
speaking “grandiose things”; whereas, the victorious king of
the north is said to “speak marvelous things” against “the
God of gods.” The beast of Revelation is said to be given “a
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” The
significance of Revelation is that it reveals that the beast
begins speaking great blasphemies after it recovers from a
sword stroke. Evidently the plucking up of the three horns
coincides with the death stroke upon the head of the beast.
It should be noted as well that the prophecy in the 8th
chapter of Daniel foretells that a king fierce in countenance
will “put on great airs” before Jehovah’s anointed prince and
that he will throw truth to the earth and cause deception to
succeed. Obviously all four prophecies depict the exact same
development that will bring about the subjugation of all
peoples and nations under a tyrannical world government,
including God’s people. The last king will ultimately lead the
nations into a world-ending confrontation with Jehovah’s thenruling Christ.
Significantly,
the
8th
chapter
of
Daniel
situates
the
emergence of the last king as taking place during the time of
the end. Reasonably, that is also when the three horns are
“plucked up” as well.
“IN THE TIME OF THE END…A PUSHING”
In harmony with that, the prophecy of the king of the north
and south foretells a final decisive war will erupt at the
beginning of “the time of the end,” commencing with a
preliminary “pushing.” (Interestingly, the king of the north
is destined to subjugate Egypt, Libya and the Ethiopians,
which correlates with the three horns.)
Of course, the Watchtower teaches that “the time of the end”
began in 1914. Supposedly the “pushing” between the two rival
kings began then too and continued over the course of the 20th
century. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been led to
believe that the punitive measures of the Treaty of Versailles
that were imposed upon the vanquished Germany, as well as the
Cold War stand off between the West and the USSR, were the
fulfillment of the prophecy. Presumably the collapse of the
Soviet Union brought an end to the pushing match.
Has the king of the south ‘pushed’ the king of the north
during “the time of the end”? (Daniel 12:4, 9) Yes,
indeed. After the first world war, the punitive peace
treaty imposed upon the then king of the north—Germany—was
surely “a pushing,” an incitement to retaliation.
In reality, the sudden end of the giant Soviet bloc of
nations signaled the beginning of London’s final push to
establish a global empire after first destroying democracy
and the nation-state system, once and for all. Since the end
of the USSR Europe has been ensnared, not by the tentacles
of dreaded communism, but in the sovereignty-relinquishing
schemes known as Maastricht and now the Lisbon Treaty.
Because Russia is not under London’s influence to the extent
of Europe and America, the imperial strategy is to encircle
Russia by pushing Nato to Russia’s eastern borders and
creating failed states and destabilization throughout
vulnerable nations in South Asia — creating what the AngloAmerican chess-masters call the Arc of Crisis.
The driving force pushing the nations towards nuclear
catastrophe is the ongoing collapse of the global financial
system. The financial monarchs, whose money system is now in a
terminal death spiral, are urgently committed to destroying
the nation-state system, America and Russia in particular, in
order to prevent them from acting against private financial
interests, and to lock up control of the world’s vital natural
resources and energy corridors, so as to remain on top of the
heap in the aftermath of the post crash world.
Of course, no sane person would seek to provoke a nuclear war
in order to avoid losing their grip on power; however, the
unseen power that is shoving the nations closer and closer to
the precipice are not human. The real oligarchs are maddened
demons who are intent on taking the world hostage at the
coming of Christ.
With C.T. Russell as editor the Watchtower foresaw in advance
what eventually became known as the First World War, which,
admittedly, Russell also imagined would lead directly into the
war of Armageddon. And in the lead-up to WWII, the Watchtower
also braced Jehovah’s Witnesses for the persecution and hard
times that eventually came upon them. Ironically, now though,
on the eve of the worst and must horrible war that will ever
occur, Jehovah’s Witnesses have no idea of what is about to
happen. The Watchtower has taught them that it has already
occurred. Irony of ironies: the present blindness is itself
the fulfillment of prophecy.