The Earthly Battle

The Great Deception

Revelation 13:1–18 (NIV)

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

Whoever has ears, let them hear.

“If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.”

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

The Dragon - Satan

The Beast - Daniel 7:3-7

Daniel 7:3–7 (NIV)

Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

“The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.

“And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’

“After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.

“After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.

The four animals represent 4 empires: Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. John saw the final beast to be more ruthless and terrible than the four others combined so His imagery was a combination of all four.

The Revelation of John, Volume 2 The Devil and the Beast (Revelation 13:1–5)

the seven heads are the seven emperors in whose time Caesar-worship became a power in the empire—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

The Role of Christians

Revelation 13:10 (NIV)

“If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.”

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

Christians are to trust and remain faithful.

The Revelation of John, Volume 2 Christianity’s Only Weapons (Revelation 13:10)

(3) There are weapons which Christians can use—and these are steadfastness and loyalty. The word for steadfastness is hupomonē, which does not simply mean passively enduring, but means courageously accepting the worst that life can do and turning it into glory. The word for loyalty is pistis, which means the faithfulness which will never waver in its devotion to its Master.

We get so caught up in the details of knowing the time, the date, the circumstances, but none of these things matter. The pursuit of these things is our desperate attempt at needing to grab control. But the Lord reminds us that He is in control so if we trust in Him, then our outcome is secure.

What harm is there in wanting to know the details? The harm comes in the trust that we have in our God. Our relationship with Him is what suffers.