Diabolical Duo
Notes
Transcript
I assume we are all here because we believe all the words written in the Bible.
We who are saved by the blood of Jesus are currently sealed, and heading to heaven.
It is the position of this body of Christ, that when the trumpet sounds, we who believe and sealed, will be caught up in the twinkling of an eye
To meet the Lord in the clouds.
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
I wanted establish this fact before we go on any further.
We all who believe in the Lord and have made a decision to accept His saving grace and now have repented, been baptized and live for the Lord
Those of us that fit this category, will not be around to confirm if any of these speculations from the multitude of opinions, interpretations, and commentaries are true.
Because those of us who are saved, will be watching all of this play out from the mezzanine.
We will all be hanging out in the upper room with Jesus, Amen!
So, if you believe, or make that decision to believe before you leave this building today, or at least before you die,
None of these coming nightmarish realities in this next chapter of Revelation have anything to do with you.
When last we met, we spoke learned about
The dragon, in Revelation chapter 12, the primary evil enemy of God,
Who is the dragon?
You would be surprised at some of the suggestions as to the identity of this monster.
The Bible plainly tells us who this dragon is.
9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Many believe that chapter 13 is a continence of the end of chapter 12
In the 13th Chapter of Revelation, John describes the vision he received of the arrival of what has been called by many titles, including the infamous “Antichrist.”
1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
Before we get into the chapter, let’s define what the word Antichrist actually means.
The Greek prefix “Anti” before anything suggests either “Against or Instead or In place of”
In reality, either of these prefixes can easily fit the profile of this infamous character called the antichrist,
It is important to understand the difference between the two.
For the coming person/ruler etc, will most definitely be against Christ, but the evil manifestation that propels this evil character, is it’s intention to “Take the place of” Jesus Christ, or to Rule and receive worship, “Instead of Christ”
Notice in verse one, your Bible translation probably says, “I” as if it is being told to us, through John’s perspective.
However, there is an issue with this translation as it is not the same in all manuscripts.
Some versions have a certain qualifier in the Greek that would allow it to say
“He” stood on the sand, meaning John saw the dragon, watching a beast rise from the sea.
If those that hold that view are correct, then it most certainly fit as a continuation of chapter 12’s perspective.
However, it is a minor detail and doesn’t detract from the rest of the chapter.
Whenever the word sea is used as an idiom, it always refer to gentile people.
So the beast that will rise, will rise from among the gentile people.
From:
26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
We can infer he will most likely a Roman of some kind because it was Rome that destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem,
Let’s continue,
2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
We saw this similar vision before in Daniel’s vision in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.
Albeit in reverse order for an unknown reason.
The Leopard being Alexander the great and the Macedonian Greeks, the brute strength of the Bear as Medo-Persia, and the Lion of Babylon.
Daniel’s vision was about the successive world powers after his time.
But many are convinced this coming antichrist, charismatic world leader will be one that wields the power of the revised Roman Empire.
If we remember our history, unlike the other mentioned nations, Rome was never conquered.
Rome just kid of went away, crumbling from the inside.
But the ten horns and seven heads are reemergence of the roman empire on Steroids.
With the coming little horn as the world dictator.
But he’s not alone.
The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
In the next verse we read
And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
There will be an attack on his life and he will be mortally wounded somehow.
This wound mentioned here is focused on his eye but the Prophet Zechariah tells us it may have something to do with his right eye and right arm
“Woe to the worthless shepherd, Who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm And against his right eye; His arm shall completely wither, And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”
This could possible be due to an attack from those who oppose his ruthless plans etc.
It is important to remember however, that the this antichrist won’t gain his power and influence or even his position of authority through violence.
No, he will be a very charismatic person, with a magnetic charm, that just seems to come out of nowhere,
He will have all the right answers to the social and economical problems of the world.
He’ll find a way to stop global terrorism and devise a brilliant plan for peace in the middle east, and solve the conflict between the Arab people who claim to be Palestinians, and the Jews
He’ll even find a way to allow the Jews to build the Third temple
I guarantee that if you or I were alive and present on the planet when this person comes on the scene,
He will be so brilliant and seem so genuine, it would cause us to question the whole “Antichrist” label
We would be like, “Surely the he can’t be as bad as the Bible makes him out to be. Look at all the good he is doing. Surely, he has God’s favor and interest at heart.
Who wold do such awesome things if he were so bad?
But, that is the big LIE.
His father, the devil is the father of lies
And after his period of 7 years of power, it all comes crashing down.
With his true identity and intentions not being revealed to the world until the middle of the seven years,
At some point after 3.5 years, he will flip the script of his global image and really show the world who is really is.
But that isn’t really going to matter will it?
I mean after all, the bible tells us that many will worship the dragon.
Remember, its was the intention all along.
To get people to worship the devil rather than God.
So, verse four says the people will worship the devil.
Many today here that and gasp,
“How could anyone worship the devil or anything so evil?”
Really?
Satan worship is a growing religious practice.
For the first time in the history of our country, are we dealing with the religious rights of Satanists and their wishes to place religious displays in our public places.
I know for a fact because I’ve seen it with my own eyes, the creeping in of witchcraft into main stream Catholicism.
In Latin America, satan worship is disguised as worship of the angel of death.
Slide
This was taken in front of one of the houses we visited on our mission trip last year in Mexico.
It used to be a practice that was seen as taboo.
But now, its very common to see statues and shrines erected dedicated to the angel of Death.
And that’s not just in different countries.
Its here too.
Even children are falling for this worship and don’t parents don’t realize it.
Slide
I don’t think it takes much imagination to realize we aren’t that far off already,
So after shocking the world with some fancy parlor tricks, using what ever they can, be it, AI or smoke and mirrors,
Or even supernatural powers from the dragon,
The world will easily fall into blatant satan worship.
5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
Daniel tells us this coming antichrist will speak pompous words and blasphemes.
But what I find interesting and serves as further clues as to the truth of the coming rapture, is the end of the verse, where
Among God, and His tabernacle, the antichrist blasphemes those who live in heaven.
Who do you think its referring to here?
You and I that’s right, those of us who escaped his onslaught through the grace of Jesus.
Amen!
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Notice again that it used to say, Hear what the spirit says to the churches.
It doesn’t say that anymore.
Do you know why?
Because at this point, the church is already in heaven, AMEN!
Now, we know that the coming antichrist coming alone.
He also has a sidekick.
His name is the false prophet.
11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth—by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
What Im about to say is a personal belief that others may share in part or as a whole,
That the reason the false prophet comes later at this point in the story, is because there have always been an antichrist waiting in the wing so to speak.
The devil doesn’t know when the rapture will happen either.
So, like in a chess game, he always tries to have a player in the waiting that will be able to take the antichrist position.
Meaning, every generation, I believe the devil had a qualified person in the bull pen waiting to be thrust onto the world scene in the event the rapture were to happen in that persons lifetime
Many ask, “Could the antichrist already be alive on the earth?”
Sure, the apostle John says that even in his day there were many antichrists.
But after the rapture, and whoever the devil has ready at that time comes to power,
He’ll need his sidekick, the false Prophet to force everyone alive on the earth to worship the beast.
He even forces everyone to get a brand, tattoo or a mark of some kind, marking your allegiance to the beast.
If you don’t get this mark, not only will you not be able to buy or sell, but you’ll be hunted to death unless you conform.
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
Now the number of the beast is 666.
We don’t know what his actual name will be, but we do know that if you apply an ancient practice of valuing letters numerically called Gematria,
His name will add up to the value of 666.
However, that doesn’t mean that credit cards, pin numbers, or QR codes are the mark of the beast.
It just means that his given name will add up to 666.
The mark of the beast will be a brand of allegiance,
Meaning, it mat not even be a name, it could be just a symbol of some kind,
A Logo, or graphic design dedicated to the antichrist.
Regardless of what it ends up being, we who believe in Christ NOW, will never see it.
We will be in heaven with Jesus,.
Those who get the mark will forfeit their chance to repent.
They will be forever sealed to the dragon,
And we who receive Jesus are also sealed forever, but instead of death, we are sealed to life ever after
Amen
Invitation
