Revelation Advent -- December 17

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. (Revelation 13:11-12, ESV)

The dragon (Satan) brings up the third creature of the unholy trinity, the earth beast, who is later known as the false prophet. The earth beast counterfeits the work of John the Baptist and the prophets that speak in power through the Holy Spirit. He directs worship to the sea beast through counterfeit miracles.

God's people are marked with a seal. The beast has his own mark, the mark of the beast. It is described in Revelation as the number of a man, 666. Personally I have been curious about this number. For the first audience of Revelation, the seven churches in Asia Minor, whether Revelation was written around 90 AD (the earliest written traditions say so, and it thought so by most scholars), or written before 70 AD (a popular idea among others that study Revelation), it is very possible they thought of Emperor Nero, because of some popular ways of playing with the letters of people's names and adding up the letter values. Nero and other later Roman emperors demanded worship. The cultic emperor worship fit as a prototype for the earth beast described in Revelation. In any case, those who serve the beast take on his mark.

What is the mark like when it is applied to people? Just as the mark of God (his seal) on his people is invisible, so probably is the mark of the beast is invisible. This mark allows people to do commerce and it could take various forms throughout history. For those who crave material comfort, they can become slaves to personal credit debt. The number could be symbolized by their credit score, or credit card account numbers. As in the previous blog entry,

I think people need to think outside of the typical parameters in popular discussions, sermons, and novels on end-times. We need to ask the question, what do I desire, crave? Is it a nice home that I can't afford? New cars? Gadgets? Games? Sports? Do I control my spending, or does my spending control me? Am I tithing? Am I going beyond the tithe? If not, why not? Do I live a lifestyle that prevents me from giving to God and others? These questions can give insights to where your real treasure is.

The earth beast also has a religious tone to it. During the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church oppressed and persecuted Protestant Reformers. Martin Luther and others saw the Church of Rome as the beast. Any religion that draws people away from Christ is a form of the beast. This includes popular "civil" religion which claims that all the religious faiths of the world worship the same God, that there are multiple paths to God and heaven. This thought is the work of the earth beast, the false prophet. Groups and churches that pervert the gospel are used by the beast. Health and wealth churches have sprung up all over. Religious cults are growing, such as Scientology. All of these are forms of the earth beast.

Economics and religion -- used by the earth beast to entrap and enslave those outside of Christ. Am I saying that credit cards, Visa, Master Card are the beast? They have beast-like features that draw people to become slaves to debt. Much of their advertising is deceptive. Using credit does not give freedom, it enslaves many people. Are we to flee all credit? Not necessarily, but you need to see the snares of it. Being debt free grants a freedom that those piled under debt don't realize.

Are we to avoid dealing with false religions? Can we cooperate with common issues? For instance, the Mormon church and Roman Catholicism oppose aborting unborn infants. Can we work in cooperation with them? Yes, but recognize the entanglements and compromises.

Currently within conservative American presidential politics, some conservatives are defining tolerance to mean accepting all faiths as being valid to worshiping God. First, this isn't logically possible because these faiths have major inconsistent beliefs about God. They all cannot be valid ways of worshiping God. Further, accepting the premise that all religions are valid ways to worship God denies the words of Christ, that he is the only way to God.

This brief examination of Revelation 13 shows a major weakness with popular views that the beast is only something that happens immediately prior to Christ's second coming. Such teaching closes our eyes to the activity of the beast now. Does this mean there will be no intensification of the beast just prior to the return of Christ? No, there probably will be an outbreak of intense evil just before Christ's return, with a virulent form of the beast. But we should not close our eyes to the activity of the beast today.

Believers need to be alert today for the activity of Satan and his beasts. We cannot be complacent or side into deceptive teaching. John provides a glimpse into the deep battles going on. Satan has been defeated and soon faces destruction. Satan is furious over his defeat and is taking it out on the people of God. With these insights, believers, being strengthened and kept by God, can persevere through Satan's worst, whether it is a direct onslaught of persecution, or more subtle forms of deceptive teaching or

Revelation Advent -- December 16

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (Revelation 13:1-4, ESV)

The one God we worship is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the previous entry I mentioned how Satan counterfeits God in trying to emulate knowledge, power and authority. Satan also has fashioned a counterfeit trinity. There is Satan who counterfeits the Father, and in this passage we see Satan giving rise to the beast from the sea, the second of his perverted trinity.

At the end of chapter 12, the dragon stands on the sand of the sea. The sea, for ancient Israel, was a place of unrest and evil. The sand in the Old Testament is used to describe the descendants of Abraham. Satan is claiming lordship over all the peoples of the earth.

The beast the coming out of the sea is the image of the dragon, Satan. The sea beast (to distinguish it from the beast that comes out of the earth), has seven heads and ten horns. Instead of seven crowns that the dragon has (one for each head), the beast has ten crowns, one for each horn. The beast mimics the Son of God in that one of his heads has a fatal wound that was healed, mimicking the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The beast is an amalgam of four creatures from the book of Daniel, that represented four empires, the last being Rome. The amalgam indicates the universal nature of the sea beast. The beast has authority for 42 months, the symbolic timespan from Christ's resurrection until the time of intense evil just before Christ second coming (as seen with the two witnesses in Revelation 11). The people of the earth who do not belong to God worship the beast.

The sea beast represents oppressive power throughout the time between the two advents of Christ. At the time Revelation was written, the oppressive power was Rome. Later we will see allusions to Rome and possibly Nero. In fact, it is quote possible that one example of the fatal wound that was healed was the turmoil in Rome in the events surrounding the suicide of Emperor Nero. Rome was rife with rumors of revolution and upheaval during the years immediately after Nero's death. With Domitian, stability returned to the empire. In history, other oppressive regimes had periods of near demise followed by seemingly miraculous recovery. Examples in the twentieth century include the Soviet Union, where during the Russian revolution of 1917, the communist movement looked like it faced extermination but survived and grew, and the Communist Chinese revolution that appeared to die and then come back to life to take over China.

The sea beast can show up in many guises. There are the obvious political and military oppressive governments that persecute and suppress Christians. Islamic countries are examples of those. It can take subtler forms. It can take the form of governments usurping the authority of families in raising their children in the nurture of the Christian faith. This includes western democracies that prevent parents from homeschooling their children. Germany is one country where Christian families cannot homeschool. In the United States, various states and school districts can make homeschooling difficult and cumbersome.

Public schools are a powerful means by which the state indoctrinates its children and subjects. I am not saying Christians should not send their children to public schools. But Christian parents need to be aware that indoctrination takes place there that is not necessarily friendly to Christ.

I raise the homeschooling example not as the prime example of the beast at work today, but to get us thinking outside the usual categories concerning the beast that many Christians have. The beast is not just some outrageous power in a future seven year tribulation in The Left Behind series. The beast include powers operating today, around us, that coerce us away from Christ.

We are to watch and persevere. As we look in upcoming passages in Revelation on the earth beast and the harlot, we will see other ways in which Satan is working today. This will guide us in resisting Satan and persevering.