Revelation Part 25, 13:1-18--"The Two Beasts"

Revelation Part 25, 13:1-18, The Two Beasts Today we answer questions so many are asking about Revelation: who is the Antichrist and what is the mark of the beast? I don’t think there’s anybody on the planet who hasn’t asked those questions at least once if they are at all familiar with Revelation. So, who is the antichrist? And who is the second beast? And what is the mark of the beast and what does 666 mean? If you’ve been with us for any length of time in our study you know that Revelation does not lend itself to exact, scientific answers. This is apocalyptic language. This book and really all of Scripture is not given to us to satisfy our curiosity about the future or to just give us more knowledge. Of course it tells us about who God is, who we are and our need for salvation in Christ. But as importantly, the Lord gave us Genesis to Revelation to show us how to live in the here and now. In Paul’s last letter to Timothy, his young partner in ministry, he gave us the reason why the Lord gave us Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16–17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. In other words, the word of God gives us knowledge about the things of God and teaches us how to train ourselves for godliness—both go hand-in-hand. Though times have changed, we really haven’t. It’s true that we are far removed from the culture in which the apostles and prophets lived and wrote. I mean, there were no cell phones back then. Or videos. I remember when 8 track tapes were popular! So, how can the Scripture help us even though it was written so long ago? Here’s a simple thing to remember whenever we read any portion of Scripture: “It is not written to us. It is written for us.” In other words, we are to do the hard work of finding out how the people who heard the prophets, the Lord Jesus, and the apostles lived, discovering God’s truth there, which does not change, accurately translate it for our day and live it out in our time. And if there was ever a passage where we needed to remember the Bible was not written to us, but for us, it is our passage for today. It seems like every generation has identified beyond question who the Antichrist is. And who doesn’t have a strong opinion about 666 and what it means? Especially in this passage, it seems that we work very hard on forgetting that John wrote this in the 1st Century to 1st Century Christians. It’s as though we read this portion of Scripture saying to ourselves, “this was written just to us, in our time. God is going to let us in on the future, with pinpoint, scientific accuracy.” Big spoiler alert: He doesn’t. But just because the Bible doesn’t give us scientifically exact details about the future does not mean this passage does not have extreme value to us. For John’s central message to them is John’s central message to us. As we go through this passage, my prayer is that we will see it clearly. In order to do that, we need to understand a little of how those to whom John wrote saw the world. How did the early Christians understand what was going on in the Roman empire? What informed them about the end of the world? What was going on between the Romans and the Temple in Jerusalem? For example, how many know of the name of the First Century Hitler and how despised he was-but how commonplace it was to mention his name? How many of us know that the early Christians read other religious writings besides the Bible? How many know the approach many Christians took to figure out some of the more puzzling riddles and ideas of the end times? Finally, how many know that there was several times where the “abomination of desolation” happened in Israel’s history, even before the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.? All these things and more make all the difference in how we get to, understand, and live out John’s central message in this passage. Since Natalie just read this chapter, let’s dive in and see what John sees and try to understand it the way John told it. John tells us in the 1st 3 verses about what the beast looks like: 10 horns, with 10 crowns and 7 heads with blasphemous names. It comes out of the sea—of humanity that is. A body of a leopard, feet of a bear and a mouth of a lion. It looks like somebody put this creature together out of some spare parts he had lying around! But do you remember what the dragon looked like chapter 12:3? A great red dragon, with 7 heads and 7 crowns, with 10 horns. Quite the similarity, but there is a major difference. The dragon is spiritual and the beast is physical. Scripture clearly tells us the dragon is unseen. But the beast is visible. This beast represents a government system and as we will see in a moment, has all the power of the dragon behind it. Something else about this beast. Daniel 7 speaks of several kingdoms. Governments. And he likens them to leopards, bears, lions and then a hideous beast. But he says they are all different. Daniel talked about 4 successive kingdoms beginning with Babylon, then Medo-Persia, then Greece and finally Rome. And this beast has been assembled with parts and pieces of all of them. Now, the beast is the physical manifestation of the dragon, with all the destructive power and satanic, blasphemous authority of all the previous kingdoms combined. In other words, this is the worst the devil can offer humanity, but as we will see, it won’t appear that way. So, if you were living in the First Century as a Christian, you would not miss the message, for the 4th successive kingdom was Rome—this is what everybody understood. How did they come to that understanding? Scripture, of course. And the apocalyptic literature they read. These writings weren’t inspired Scripture. They were more like the “Left Behind” series, or perhaps “Late Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsey. People read that stuff and it affected their outlook. And the way they were treated by Rome helped to solidify in their minds that the beast John sees is hideous and evil to the core. In vv.3-4 we see something supernatural, but not of the good side of the leger. One of the horns-powers, leaders-was killed and came back to life. Now, the people knew there was something marvelous about this. And they were amazed. They basically said, “who can stop him? If he died and rose again, he is worthy of special treatment. There’s something . . . supernatural about him.” Indeed there was something supernatural about him. In their world, apparently someone did die and rise again. His name was Nero. Not really. But it was the talk of the empire—Fake news didn’t begin with the Trump administration. Nero was a wicked, wicked man. Demanded he be worshiped as a god. Blatant homosexual. An extreme persecutor of all who called themselves Christians. Many of us have heard the horror stories about how he treated Christians, so I won’t go there. He murdered his mother. And he was nicknamed the beast. But in A.D. 68, Nero committed suicide by slitting his own throat. Everybody knew of his death, but apparently the rank and file in the empire believed he came back to life, because according to a number of Roman historians, “many people” believed he was alive, even at the end of the 1st Century, with several false Neros rising up in his name. In fact, a Third Century writer Victorinus mentioned the “Nero Antichrist Tradition” which talked about all of this in early Christian texts. So, it appears as though Rome, and Nero-evil personified-made up the beast which John wrote about. In vv.4-7 John talks about the beast’s wicked character—how hatred for God’s people was beyond vicious. Remember from chapter 12 that the dragon’s domain is now limited. He was permanently barred from God’s throne and was cast down to earth full of wrath. Also remember that God has protected Israel from the dragon and he cannot destroy her. So, the dragon has taken full control of the Emperor and the Roman system, with a vengeance to destroy “the rest of the woman’s offspring”—that would be gentile Christians. Remember that the beast, as in both the government and the emperor, was completely taken over by the dragon. Not only was the beast filled with fury to get rid of the Christians, he was also filled with lust to be worshiped. After Nero received worship, emperors after him demanded worship as well. Many citizens complied, but some refused to worship the beast. Who were they? The glorious answer is those who were truly saved. Revelation 13:8: and all who dwell on earth will worship it everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. But a little back story here. About 5 years prior to John’s writing Revelation, Emperor Domitian erected a 25 foot statue of himself in the temple at Ephesus. Again, like Nero, Domitian also demanded to be worshiped. And vv.9-10 prepares the way for the rest of the chapter—and what happens to those who refuse to worship the beast. Prison or death. There is a life altering choice to be made here. What will it be? Those who are saved—whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life will bow to King Jesus only, and probably at the cost of their lives. Imagine the intense pressure to go against the crowd who is in continual, frenzied worship of the beast! But some things don’t change. God’s people have had to make choices like this throughout history. Does this remind you of anything? How about Daniel 3, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego refused to bow down to the image Nebuchadnezzar set up? They did not bow, because they were spiritually prepared for that day. If you read their story carefully, they trained themselves unto godliness for years to prepare for that moment of resistance. Now, in vv.11-18 John sees a second beast. Who or what is that? Revelation 19:20 calls him the false prophet. This person will have all the authority of the beast which got his authority from the dragon, but will be moved with an evangelistic fervor. He will fall all over himself to promote the cause of the beast. He will be a master at getting everybody worked up into a religious frenzy, with the beast as the object of worship. And not only that, he will have powers. The people will see signs, specifically, fire come down from heaven. Again remind you of anybody? How about Elijah calling fire from heaven? Only this time, it will be the false prophet calling fire down. The false prophet will be so charismatic, so charming, but so wickedly powerful, he will rally people to actually create an image of the beast and give it life. This would be an incredible vision for John, but remember, John had no words for AI or robotics! The false prophet will convince every person under the threat of death to worship the beast. He will provide a religious motive and, combined with seductive words and extreme emotion, along with signs from heaven-all this makes for a pretty compelling reason to bow the knee to the one possessed by the dragon. This is what the devil has wanted since day 1! People made in God’s image bowing to Satan. Besides immediate death, to provide further incentive to worship the beast, the false prophet will devise a system to prolong their lives. People will need a mark, some kind of identification that declares allegiance to the beast and to conduct business, especially buying things to care for the family. Well, how did John’s readers see this? Is a physical mark of loyalty an entirely new idea, something out of the blue? Well, for decades, branding on the foreheads of slaves, but more commonly on the hand, was common practice, and used as a mark of loyalty to their masters, especially with the Jews. Other ways of showing loyalty and engaging in commerce was presenting certificates of sacrifice to the emperor. In any event, one’s life was prolonged when they “volunteered” themselves to become part of the system. Then in v.18 we see something very cryptic. The invitation is to calculate the number of the beast. This number is a number of a man. The number is 666. What is that all about? I mentioned earlier about various ways people used to decipher riddles back then, called gematria. One author tracked this down and said that this was standard practice in Jewish prophecy tradition when they would read apocalyptic literature—figuring out names by the use of gematria. So how did it work? Hebrew and Greek languages do not have actual numbers like we have. Instead letters stand for numbers. The trick here is that a person needs to know Hebrew and Greek to make it work. Of course, Jews knew both Hebrew and Greek. And when they added up the numbers / letters, guess what name they came up with? Nero. We just took a whirlwind tour of Revelation 13. So what? What does this have to do with us? A lot, not only of what will happen during the Great Tribulation in a general sense, but in how we are to live our lives today, and to get ready for persecution that is coming our way, sooner or later. We know that there will be satanically controlled governmental system one day. This one-world system has been talked about for over 100 years. With all the problems the world has, movers and shakers of the world are diligently looking to put in place a centralized governmental system. That’s what globalism is all about. Let me cut to the chase. As I have surveyed the lay of the land, I can see at least 3 systems that can become global. The first could very well be a European Union style coalition, similar to what so many of us understand the beast to be. But by the way things are going now in the EU, they have a ways to go. But everything can change in a day. The second one is not a coalition of nations but of a religion. Islam is the package. They have a ready-to-go government system called Sharia, and their goal is to make the entire world compliant to it. Of course, they have a religious system. They already have a pretty large land mass under their control. With few exceptions, they have a common enemy on two fronts: the West and Israel. And the mark John saw? Could that be the armbands or headbands every male Muslim wears? The third one is what I have recently come across. Simply put, AI is taking the world by storm. Artificial Intelligence is huge, and everybody is getting on board with it. Who hasn’t heard of Sophia? “She” was made a citizen of Saudi Arabia last October. There is also this thing called AI church. Apparently, Anthony Levandowski is creating the first church of artificial intelligence, called Way of the Future and filed papers with the IRS last May. The religion will seek to create their church membership through community outreach, initially targeting AI professionals and “laypersons who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI.” Wired magazine goes on to quote Levandowski: “With the internet as its nervous system, the world’s connected cell phones and sensors as its sense organs, and data centers as its brain, the ‘whatever’ will hear everything, see everything, and be everywhere at all times. The only rational word to describe that ‘whatever’”, thinks Levandowski, “is ‘god’—and the only way to influence a deity is through prayer and worship.” I’m sure there are more systems that can be used, but you get the idea. Islam and the church of AI definitely have spiritual underpinnings, almost a fanatical tone and in the case of Islam, definitely fanatical. And it seems to me it would be an easy matter with any of these systems to put in a mechanism where we can’t buy or sell unless we had some kind of exclusive, intentional, loyal connection to it. Before I bring this message to a close and apply it to our lives, I want to direct our attention to something going on right now, which definitely impacts the events of the Great Tribulation: the rebuilding of the Temple. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the Antichrist will take his seat in the Temple, showing himself to be God. This is what Jesus referred to as the abomination that causes desolation. When this happens, the Lord said, the Jews need to leave Jerusalem as quickly as possible. As I mentioned there were 2 abominations of desolation between the time when Jesus went back to heaven and the destruction of the Temple. So, Jesus’ prediction of the Antichrist appearing in the Temple to trigger the Great Tribulation could have happened before 70 A.D. But it didn’t. How do we know? Because Jesus has not come back yet! Now, 70 A.D. was when the Romans destroyed the Temple. Just like that, no more temple. No place for the Antichrist to take his seat in. The Jews have had no temple for the last 1948 years. So, in a sense we have been in “pause” mode when it comes to the abomination of desolation, and the revealing of the Antichrist, which will trigger the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit President Trump has accomplished more for the good of our relationship with Israel, and possibly for the rebuilding of the temple since Israel was reborn as a nation! Now, should this peace plan go through, no one knows how long it will be until the temple is built and Antichrist will desecrate it. Could be days, could be decades. But a temple is needed for the Antichrist to desecrate, and to kick off the Great Tribulation. So now, what is John’s central point, both to his readers in the 1st Century and us in the 21st? Stay at it, saints. Pay the price. It’s worth it. Remember where John is. In the spirit on the Lord’s day on the prison island of Patmos. He sees vision after vision of his brothers and sisters killed because of their faith in their crucified, resurrected Lord. Doubtless by this time he would be absolutely overwhelmed by all this. What can a son of God say to his brothers and sisters caught in the jaws of a multi-headed, multi-horned beast, tearing them apart? One would think that John would at least try to write words of compassion. Or that he would be tempted to cry out on behalf of those who are suffering so much. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, let’s look at Revelation 13:8–10 again: and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. A call for endurance and faith of the saints. Prove your worth, saints! When all around you is bowing to the beast, stand tall! Something drastic may very well happen to you, but your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. When it comes time for choices, do what Paul says: Walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called. God has called you. Now show it. But it takes more than mere resolutions to stand, especially when you are so used to not standing. Have you ever been in a situation where you are face-to-face against someone or are in a hostile crowd and you have to stand for Jesus? What is that like? If you haven’t experienced that, what do you think or feel it would be like? God’s message through John is simply endure. Be faithful. Believe his promise that he will give you the ability to withstand the difficulty. Believe his command to stand. But how will we be able to stand in that day? The key is simple. We don’t take our first stand in the big test. No, we stand in the big test because we have learned to stand in the little ones. In an athletic contest, players take the field or the court because they have learned the game one step at a time. And that is what God calls his sons and daughters to. Paul told Timothy, or rather commanded him in 1 Timothy 4:7, “Timothy, train yourself for godliness.” “Train” carries with it the idea of going to the gym and working out. Exercise yourself for godliness. That means hitting those spiritual weights. Spiritual running. Spiritual shadow boxing. Spiritual wrestling. What are those weights, that shadow boxing? These are in reality choices we make as followers of Jesus to show godliness in our lives. We know that training ourselves for godliness doesn’t start and stop on Sunday mornings in this building, right? Corporate worship and fellowship on Sundays is where we receive instruction, encouragement, and motivation to exercise ourselves for godliness when we leave this place. How about at home? Or at school? Or at work? Excellent places to spiritually work out! When you go home today, what choices will you make about what you perceive as down time? Will you consider your time with your family a time where you will serve them or be served, regardless of how tired you are? What about what programs or videos you will watch. Music you will listen to. How about your interactions between you and your husband or wife, or kids, or parents, or siblings, or others who you are with? The choices we make, the things we think about in the middle of our interactions with others, the things we say, are all a part of training ourselves for godliness. We fail in our training when we say things that do not honor the Lord, regardless of who we say them to. We fail in our training when we make the choice to watch things or listen to things that do not honor the Lord. Brothers and sisters, train yourselves for godliness in your home. When you go to work tomorrow, how will you arrive? Dressed in the righteousness of Christ, or dressed in clothing that communicates you are still of the world? You know what I’m talking about. Acting like the rest of your co-workers. Talking like them. Having the same attitudes they have. But when you are dressed in the righteousness of Christ, you are telling your co-workers, “I am working for the honor of Christ” by the way you conduct your business at your place of business. It’s those little, one decision, one word, one action, one attitude at a time, day-to-day stands we make in our training for righteousness that largely determine if we are going to stand in the more important times. If we live faithfully to the Lord in our home, that gives us courage and confidence to speak to a stranger about Jesus outside of our home. If we are training ourselves for godliness in our workplace in the little things, then we will be faithful when it counts. Like taking a stand during break time when everybody is talking about immorality and you have an opportunity to speak about being faithful to your husband or wife. And the more we have trained ourselves for godliness the more we demonstrate that we are indeed separated unto the Lord and separated from the world. And that is called holiness. And the more holy lives we live, the better equipped we are to endure and live faithfully for the Lord. And should strong persecution come, because we have trained ourselves for godliness, and live to please the Lord alone, the greater confidence we will have should we have to make a choice: either to suffer for the Lord and perhaps even die for him, or to go the way of the beast and keep our life, but ultimately lose it anyway. I praise the Lord for each of you, my dear brothers and sisters. And in the middle of your hardships and struggles, I see you clinging to the Lord, and we are getting better at serving one another. I look at us and have often asked the Lord, “How much more can we take?” Sometimes I’m tempted to say, “please let up!” But now, though I don’t like the pain, and I know that you don’t either, I’m beginning to change my prayers for us. I’m now beginning to say, “Lord, whatever it takes to help all of us in our training for godliness, bring it. But bring the strength along with it.” I have shared this prayer before but I want to share it again. It talks about how the Lord knows better than we do in what we need. It was written by a confederate soldier. I asked God for strength, that I might achieve. I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life. I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for but got everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all people, most richly blessed. This is a Christian who has been trained unto godliness. May we commit ourselves to continue or even begin to undergo spiritual training. Because it will be worth it all when we see Jesus.