Revelation Chapter 13: 1-4
“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. 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. 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?’”
I pray that you all had a wonderful time of celebration with your families as you recalled the birth of our Lord and Saviour. I know that many do not celebrate Christmas, and I respect that. I grew up in a culture that only focused on His birth; there were no mentions of paganism or any other rituals, only Jesus. I guess I was blessed to have that kind of upbringing. To us it was simply a time set aside to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, no setting of dates and no pretense.
We will turn our attention back to the book of The Revelation of Jesus once again. Over the two weeks that we took a break, a lot has happened in the area of prophecy. The most attention-getting one for me was the announcement that the US would be pulling out of Syria. At this current time, Russia is entrenched in Ukraine and expanding its influence into the area that would include Syria, Lebanon, Iran and into the Middle East, and there are relationships with Turkey that will begin to forge the foundations of the armies from Ezekiel that will attack Israel in the last days.
The return of our Lord is clearly on the horizon; the church age is rapidly coming to an end. The culture of the West and US is also on the way out. I saw a short video yesterday that talked about the rise of effeminate men in the fall of all major societies of the past. This speaker, Camille Paglia, made the point that the rise of homosexuality and then men becoming more effeminate was the precursor to the fall of many societies; in particular she mentioned the fall of the Roman culture. This was echoed by Roberto Di Mattei, a Roman Catholic historian who found the same thing in the course of his research.
If this is the case, the end of the Western culture is at hand. From the shores of Western Europe to the shores of the “New World,” we are seeing the end of the West as we know it; the church is not far behind. There is a consistent rise of very effeminate-looking pastors coming into the modern churches. Their preaching is not full of fire and brimstone; there is no power in their delivery of the truth. They water down everything so as not to offend, and as such, not to cause any lasting effect in the life of the listener.
Many of our churches are concerned with your feelings rather than your growth in the Lord. This is the world that will breed room for the rise of the anti-Christ and his ways. This is the stage that is set for the rise of the man of sin. The acceptance and, more accurately, the pushing of the homosexual agenda is flat out killing us; it is destroying all of us in the name of progress. But if history is true, then we are not progressing at all; we are in a state of fall.
Romans 1:22 states that when a people turn against God, they will think they are wise; pride kills; and in fact they are fools. In Romans 1:32, it tells us that they will suffer the judgment of God. They cannot escape, our culture cannot escape, and the fall is imminent.
An Amalgamation of past Regimes, Revelation 13:1-2
This beast that John sees rising out of the sea (referring to people) is the final earthly kingdom of the anti-Christ headed by a very powerful man. This beast is an amalgamation of the previous empires that ruled the world: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and now the final empire. This final empire will be made up of parts of the Greek, Medo-Persian and Babylonian Empires as we see described here. Of course, all of these empires also ruled in Babylon at one time or another.
Now I must interject here a bit of an observation; the Roman Empire never really went out of existence. It is here among us in the Vatican City under the guise of the Roman Catholic Church, taking in billions of dollars per year in revenues for the past 1,000 years. That Roman Empire has reaches to the far corners of the earth; they are accepted in the UN, in governments all around the world and, for the most part, have envoys in just about every nation. The RC churches certainly have power in the Muslim world and in the European world; they have established avenues for the ruling of the world right now.
Just as an aside, the Muslim and Catholic religions control close to 50% of the world population and many of the governments already. This should be alarming to many, but too many are blind to the signs of the times that are upon us.
This beast, this final beast, has “great authority” and power bestowed upon him by the Dragon, whom we know to be Satan. This is the final push of the battle that began in the Garden of Eden when we sinned in Adam. Satan has worked and worked to get the earth to this point, beginning with the tower of Babel and on to where we are now. In the process of history, he has tried to kill off the Jews, even focusing on Jesus at his very birth, as we were told in the last chapter. This final kingdom is fierce and ruthless. There is no compassion and no pity for mankind. There is no concern for “collateral damage” – the cost of ruling is simply worth it – kill all that get in the way and all that refuse to submit.
We have seen movies about this for decades, and we/I have been entertained, not even once thinking that this could become truth. There will be no place to hide, nowhere to run and no opportunity to plead your case.
I was just talking to a man who is involved in construction here in the Toronto area; he was telling me of a community that is beginning to be built, an investment of some $20 Billion. One of the tech giants has signed on and invested; I will not say that company. This development will include housing, malls and industry, but the most interesting thing is that there will be an area where you can charge your phone simply by walking in that area. The man in me goes wow! But the Christian in me goes, oh my! They will know where you are all the time. All of the technology that we use every day will be used against us in the future, and what was once a convenience will become our worst enemy.
We are told in the book of Daniel, chapter 2:41-42 about the 10 toes of the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream. They are made of clay and iron; they are together but the alliance is not strong. In Daniel 7:19-20 we see this prophecy:
“Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet; and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.”
This is fulfilled here in Revelation 13. This beast with the ten (10) horns on its head signifying kingdoms is “exceedingly dreadful” and pompous. Very full of itself. The anti-Christ will be full of pride, and so will his earthly kingdom. Recall from Revelation chapter 12 that this is all for show on earth. Satan was permanently kicked out of heaven and can never ascend to the throne of God or be like the Highest. This is simply the death throes of his kingdom, and he intends to take as many as he can with him. His rage is obviously not a righteous rage but that of a defeated combatant who cannot accept defeat.
Sadly, the men and women on the earth who worship Satan, the beast or any of his cohorts are so blind that they cannot see that they are worshipping dead and defeated powers. Those of us who are saved know that Satan was defeated before the fight started, and his demise was made complete 2,000 years ago when Jesus arose from the grave after three days and nights.
An Apparent Resurrection, Revelation 13: 3-4
We are told in verse 3 that the beast is mortally wounded and then appears to come back to life; after this the world “marveled” and then followed the beast. We are told in Daniel 8:23-25:
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; He shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive; He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; and he shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without human means.”
This prophecy tells us some interesting things about the anti-Christ; he will be able to understand “sinister schemes” (verse 23); he will use “cunning” to cause deceit and prosper.
I have read a few ideas about the apparent resurrection, and it would appear that this is some kind of misdirection or deception. This man, the beast, will be able to deceive people right to their faces and will fool the whole world into thinking that he too has the power of resurrection. Satan will try to mimic Jesus at every turn, but this is just a trick. Only Jesus has the power to lay down His life and then take it up again. It is amazing that the world will find this resurrection plausible, but they daily deny Jesus’ resurrection.
This will only solidify his place on the earth’s stage at the time, and the people will fall for the act, then worship him. They will grant him the honor of omnipotence, a blasphemous act on the part of the people. A defiant fist shaking in the face of God. “Who is able to make war with him?” The answer is Jesus. But even before that, Michael, one of the Arch Angels, was able to kick Satan out of Heaven. My, oh my! He could not even defeat Michael, but now the earth thinks he is god and not even the Highest can make war with the beast. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
Every day I read comments from people that claim to be atheists but talk about God all the time. They just can’t shut up about Him. They love to make fun of Christians and, in the act of doing so, always have to mention God or Jesus. These people know that God is real, and they think that if they keep telling the lie long enough it will become true and God will stop existing. HA! Fools! This is what the Bible calls them. These are the same fools who will worship the beast and give him power to conduct his rampage here on earth. A defeated beast who is masking his defeat by putting on a show for the mere humans on earth who deny the God that the beast knows face to face. He is truly the master of lies.
Jesus is coming to make war with the beast (Revelation 19:11). Satan will be defeated and imprisoned for 1,000 years. Today, we offer people all around the world the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. He died for your sins—the innocent dying for the guilty; He was resurrected from the dead and is ready, willing and able to grant you salvation and eternal life. Trust in Jesus today! You are a sinner and you need a Saviour. Jesus is the ONLY WAY!
2 Corinthians 6:2 “For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’”
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