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.

Revelation Advent -- December 15

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (Revelation 12:1-6, ESV)

Revelation 12 presents another overlay of history. This overlay unmasks the deep questions of what is behind history. Why the conflict on earth? Why is there persecution? Revelation 12 gives a glimpse of the deep conflict. Things in this world are not just the battles of politics, corporate greed, war among nations, or terrorism. The conflict is the war of Satan and his demons against God, God's angels, and God's people.

As I keep rereading Revelation, I am drawn by its imagery. The Holy Spirit working through John gives us the most striking, subtle, and deep imagery in all of world literature. Revelation 12 announces this is a great sign. The sign opens with a woman. Not any woman. This is a beautiful woman, robed with the dazzling radiance of the sun. She is standing on the moon; she wears a crown of twelve stars. The stars allude to the Old Testament of Old Covenant Israel. But the woman is pregnant, and not just pregnant, she is in the pangs of labor. Her child is the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron -- the messiah, Jesus Christ. Thus now the woman appears to be Mary. But as we read further, the woman also appears to be the church. Who is she? Israel, Mary, or the church? I think the woman is all of these. That's one of the things I like about the subtlety of Revelation. Revelation paints a breathtaking picture of the woman. In this painting there is the Old Covenant Israel, but the strokes also reveal Mary, and other strokes also reveal the church. The painting shows her to be the mother of Christ and also the mother of all who believe in Christ, and yet some other strokes she is all of God's people.

Another sign is the dragon. As beautiful is the woman, the dragon is ugly. He is red, misshapened with seven heads and ten horns. He is a counterfeit of God. His seven heads of cunning counterfeits God's wisdom and omniscience. His ten horns of power counterfeits God's omnipotence. The dragon's seven crowns counterfeits God authority. The dragon's power to sweep away a third of the stars is impressive, but it isn't comprehensive. The dragon is trying to destroy the Messiah. Who is the dragon? He is identified as Satan, the old serpent -- indicating Satan has been battling God's people since the Garden of Eden. Satan fails to devour Christ. When Satan looses the battle with Christ, he is goes to war with the woman and she flees to the wilderness. We see again the number of 1,260 days, the period of the woman's tribulation and simultaneous protection by God. As multifaceted is the imagery of the woman, so is this 1,260 days in the wilderness. It is protection of Mary from Herod who tried to kill Jesus. It is the protection of the church from Satan after Christ's ascension into heaven until the consummation of history with Christ's return.

Revelation 12 also recasts this war of the dragon with the woman with the war in heaven of with Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. Satan is cast out of heaven. He now cannot accuse God's people in heaven like he did with Job. Christ's resurrection and ascension threw Satan out of heaven.

But Satan still continues to make war against God's people. Revelation 12 shows him vomiting water out of his mouth -- trying to drown the faith of the church with deceptive teaching. God again protects her by opening up the earth to swallow the water, as God opened the earth to destroy the deceivers, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in the Old Testament (Numbers 16:31-33).

We are in a deep conflict. As the Apostle Paul says,

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12, ESV).

This conflict started even before the fall of Adam and Eve. It continues today. But Christ has defeated Satan, he is cast out of heaven. Satan is enraged over his defeat and while he will be soundly defeated at Christ's return, he continues to war against God's people. But we are protected by God. We are not protected from physical violence nor from persecution; we are protected spiritually from destruction.

As we celebrate Christ's birth 2000 years ago, we can rejoice that while we live in the tribulation of Satan's war against God, Satan already has lost the major battles and will ultimately be defeated by Christ. If you belong to Christ, you will be saved from destruction. You are protected in this wilderness