The Satanic Trinity
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· 12 viewsThe Satanic Trinity - Satan, The Beast, The False Prophet. Parody of the true Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit
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So now we have seen seven seals lead to seven trumpets. Revealing man’s action on the earth and what proceeds from the human heart from God’s perspective.
Also how God is going to deal with this alluding to God’s final Judgment of the earth and mankind.
We have seen already the actions of the trinity in heaven.
Today we are going to talk about another trinity, one that serves as a parody of the true.
The Satanic or unholy Trinity - the dragon , The Sea Beast, and The Earth Beast.
Why do I say parody, isn’t that somethings comedians and skit comedies do?
There is a definition of parody that works well here - a poor or weak imitation.
This is how we will use the word in our lesson today as we look at the Satanic Trinity a parody to the True Trinity. They are a poor imitation of the true holy trinity.
The intent of the satanic trinity is to deceive the people of the world.
Let us start with reading Revelation 12:3-4
3 And aanother sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red bdragon having cseven heads and dten horns, and on his heads were eseven diadems. 4 And his tail *swept away a athird of the stars of heaven, and bthrew them to the earth. And the cdragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth dhe might devour her child.
The Male Child, Christ
Chair bible page 831
Are you ready for the message God has for us today?
Great let’s dig in.
There is a great conflict in heaven and this chapter gives us insight into what has been going on.
There was a great battle that transpired at some point in eternity where the dragon rebelled.
We are first told in Isaiah 14:12-17
12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.
16 “Those who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms,
17 Who made the world like a wilderness And overthrew its cities, Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’
So at some point Satan rebelled and was cast out of heaven. Revelation gives us more detail through the vision of the dragon.
The Dragon - Parody of The Father
The Dragon - Parody of The Father
Verse 9 tells us exactly who the dragon is.
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
We learn in this chapter that the dragon is tying to get to the child who is born to the woman.
Look what is said - Revelation 12:4
4 And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.
The dragon does not want this child to accomplish what he is to do when he enters the world.
The dragon is ready to devour the child but is prevented when the child is saved by God’s intervention.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness where she *had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
The woman and the child are central to what has been going on. The child has an important part to play in God’s plan and I will talk about this in Pastor’s Corner podcast this week so be sure to tune in.
Next we see a song is sung.
11 “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.
12 “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”
The words of this song remind us that this whole vision is symbolic for the victory won by the death of Christ and preaching of the gospel.
In his anger the dragon turns his attention to the children of the woman described in Revelation 12:17
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
The children of the woman is the church. The seven churches of Asia.
John is telling his readers that they are part of this conflict and to not be surprised that the dragon is out to get them.
The battle has been won and the devil knows it!
N.T. Wright, “The picture John has sketched in this chapter, to encourage and warn his readers and all those who, even today, read this book, is just the opening scene.
Have you been seeing how this whole drama in Revelation applies to us?
We are still doing battle in this spiritual conflict.
Knowing his time is short the dragon stands on the shore of the sea.
The sea so often in stories is a dark place from which monsters arise!
The Beast from the Seas - the Parody of Christ
The Beast from the Seas - the Parody of Christ
1 And he stood on the sand of the seashore. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;
This is a very bizarre beast and seems to be a mesh up of the four beasts of Daniel 7:2-8.
These four bests came from the sea as well
First beast Lion with wings of an eagle
Second beast Resembling a bear
Third beast resembled a leopard with four wings
Fourth beast dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong
The standard interpretation of the beasts is four empires
Babylon
Medo-Persian
Greek Empire under Alexander, the four wings the division of the empire between his four generals after his death - Ptolemy, Antigonus, Cassander, and Seleucus
Rome - who absorbed all these into itself
So with symbolism and the symbolism of the vision in Revelation we learn that Rome is a mesh of all four, having conquered and absorbed the other three.
With all the monsters here we might miss the readers in John’s day were likely not interested in actual monsters, but in what they symbolize!
N.T. Wright, “In the first century the identification was not difficult John’s single monster has telescoped Daniels four into one, part leopard, part bear, part lion, with ten horns and seven heads. The monster is Rome.”
It seems likely the dark power of the pagan empire was given to it by the dragon.
This possibly explains why Pergamum was described in Revelation 2:13
13 ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
It the area of the seven churches it served as the center of imperial rule and cult.
There is an interesting description of the sea best given in Revelation 13:3
3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;
In my research I found that there were rumors circulating about Nero.
That Nero had not died
Or that he had indeed died, but had come back to life.
Some said that he was, is not, but is to come.
Its possible this is what is meant in the verse we just read.
Thinking about how this beast is a parody of Christ, then this would be a parody of the resurrected Christ.
4 and they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”
Gordon Fee, “Thus John perceives the whole empire as following a perverse sort of dearth and resurrection, all of which had been orchestrated by Satan himself. They worshipped the beast by asking, who is like the beast? Who can make war against it?”
Consider Exodus 15:11
11 “Who is like Thee among the gods, O Lord? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
8 O Lord God of hosts, who is like Thee, O mighty Lord? Thy faithfulness also surrounds Thee.
See how this beast seems a parody of Christ?
Jesus receives his power and authority from God the Father, the almighty.
Thus in like manner the sea beast receives his power and authority from the dragon, or Satan!
8 And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
10 If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.
Gordon Fee, “What he has offered is not simply a prophetic word about the satanic nature of Rome and its emperors, but also a clear warning to God’s people regarding what is to come for them, captivity and/or execution.”
Ending with a call for the perseverance of the saints!
The Beast from the Earth - Parody of the Holy Spirit
The Beast from the Earth - Parody of the Holy Spirit
11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.
Now a second beast arises this one from the earth, the earth beast if you will.
As the dragon mocks the Father, the sea beast mocks the Son, the earth beast mocks the Holy Spirit.
Thus rounding out the satanic on unholy Trinity.
Notice Revelation 13:15
15 And there was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
The earth best raises the beast from his mortal wound by breathing life into it, a parody of the work of the Holy Spirit in raising Christ form the dead
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
The earth best also preforms signs that closely resemble the works of the holy Spirit
13 And he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.
He also marks the enemies of God on the forehead with the number of the beast.
Mocking the Holy Spirit marking the followers of the God with the name of God and the lamb on their forehead.
3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Something I think about with the second beast is how often city after city vied with each other to build yet another temple to Rome, either to the emperor of to a member of the imperial family.
I am going to save the final verse of the chapter for Pastor’s Corner.
These three are deceivers
These three are deceivers
The point here is that these three beast symbolize the opposition faced by the church then and even now.
So often we get caught in an lie, the system Satan has used from the very beginning.
Those who belong to the lamb, who have his mark they don’t give in to the lie
5 And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.
They are just like the lamb of God, as we consider Isaiah 53:9
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
This is still remains a challenge to anyone who follows Christ.
Truth and lies may at times be hard to tell apart.
There are people in the world and in the church who want Scripture to conform to their beliefs. Who want to do this by rewriting scripture or make the false claim that Scripture is flat out wrong.
When I think about this I think about Martin Luther and his famous words during the Diet of Worms.
All along his plea was that belief comes from Scripture not councils or popes.
When he was done Chancellor Treves stated to Luther that, “You have not answered the inquiry put to you, will you retract?”
Let me read Luthers to you Luther’s response here pg. 236
If we remove Scripture the we lose the only standard by which we can define the reality of the fallen world we live in and will spend the rest of our lives never able to find our identity.
Yet in Revelation this is exactly the end game of the Satanic Trinity.
Conclusion
There you have it the Satanic Trinity - the dragon, the sea best, the earth beast, the parody of The True Trinity - The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.
Their lie is the deceitfulness of supposed power and authority and the effort and lengths they goto to protect that power and authority.
Many it seems are lead astray by the lie of the dragon and the beasts.
Ultimately it is a promise that gives nothing because we are seeing Revelation and the great spiritual conflict from victory not to victory.
Meaning despite all the efforts of Satan he has already lost the war. We are more than conquerors!
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Have you conquered Satan in your life?