Times of Enmity and Suffering II
1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
2 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.
3 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.
4 People worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.
6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
7 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.
8 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.
9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
10 “If anyone is to go into captivity, in 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.
The Beast out of the Earth
11
Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a
lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
12 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.
13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.
14 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 honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
15 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.
16 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,
17
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.
18 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.
Take note here. A lot of people say when does one become a robot? At what stage of Augmented Reality does a human become a robot. They have missed God’s point here completely.
It is not at what stage of Augmented Reality one becomes a robot but rather at what point does one take away God’s rights that what is important.
The words in verse 18 “of A man” come from the Greek word ανθρωπόνημα its where we derive the word “anthropon” in the English.
Ανθρωπόνημα means the following:
- “a man’s pleasure”
- a render of service of human rights as opposed to LORD GOD Almighty’s RIGHTS
- Belonging to Human beings as contrast to belonging to GOD
- or put another way Belonging to Human beings as contrasted to the DIVINE
Its also were we get anthropoid from – Meaning Human Beings. For further information go to Dr Barry Gumm website.[1]
John’s Reflection Concerning His Time and/or All Lifetimes
Beast from the Sea – The Emperor-god
13:1-10 “a beast out of the sea…7 heads…10 horns with crowns…” “…out of the sea…”
Here is the symbol of Rome’s naval power. The control of the then world sea, with the thought of divinity. In John’s time there was no power of other nations which could stop Rome. The beast was probably Nero, and later Domitian. The ‘fatal wound” (v3) could refer to the “beast” Nero who was mad and was reported to have attempted suicide.
At that time Rome was all powerful. The dragon gave power to the beast, the Emperor-god, and men worshipped the beast, “…who is like the beast, who can make war against him?” (v4)
Also, (v5) there is reference again to authority given for 42 months (1260 days). God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the Trinity gave this authority. The devil has no power in relation to God.
Does this 42 months symbolise the actual end of History – the first 3½ years (42 months) as the Beginning of birth pangs and part of the wrath of the Devil before the Rapture?
In the lead up to the possible civil war in Rome (AD69) Agrippa was concerned about a rebellion in Jerusalem. In that year in Rome there were four Emperors – Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian (Vespasian ruled AD69-79).
The rebellion in Jerusalem occurred. Flavius Josephus (AD37-38 to early Second Century AD) was the son of a priest named Matthias. He was impressed with the power of the Roman Empire and opposed the Jewish revolt in AD66.
During the attack on Jerusalem he translated for Titus, who completed the siege on Jerusalem. Josephus comments on this in his work “Jewish War”.
Pliny records more about persecution by Rome. He comments on James’ execution (Jesus’ brother) in AD44. In AD64 Nero made Christians scapegoats for the fire. Pliny (Ephesians 10:96-97) records that by cAD112 declaring oneself a Christian was a capital offence.
So, commenting on the evil above, “all inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast…” (v8), power given by the dragon – Satan to the beast. In each Christian’s lifetime there is a beast. Here John refers to the Roman empire in his time.
Also (v8), when we keep focus on Revelation 5:5,6 – Jesus is Victorious! From the foundation of the world Jesus is to be Saviour (Matthew 1:21; John 1:1-18; 35-51).
Today as we think of totalitarian governments it is clearly seen in the media that people are to worship without question and be obedient or face serious consequences.
As in Chapter 13, Satan makes war against the woman, the child, thus against God, against Jesus and all Christians in every age until Jesus comes. So, for the saints “. patient endurance and faithfulness. (v10).
Verse 10 is a wonderful and truly difficult truth for the saints. Holy Scripture requires the Christian to love enemies. The Military Law Manual for the Commonwealth countries under the Westminster System of Government is based on Romans 12:14-13:7.
It is to do with treating enemies as yourself when they are overcome.
Beast from the Earth
John (Revelation 13:11-18) describes a second beast – “…two horns like a lamb…spoke like a dragon…”. At this time the Emperor cult was in its evil ascendency, given power by the dragon – Satan. The beast of the earth was the high priest of the Emperor cult for the Roman empire. Remember:
First beast = Power of Rome and the Emperor-god
Second beast = High priest of cult who ensures worship of Emperor-god
The
inhabitants of the earth are deceived (v14). In v15 Nero is assumed. Images of
Emperor are set up. All who refused to worship “to be killed”. All are to
submit to Satan “666” (v16-18). In John’s time this followed through to Emperor
Domitian. So, again today as the saint’s face totalitarianism, communism and
other ‘isms’ along with global UN Government reducing populations – again
“patient endurance and faithfulness” are to be followed with obedience to
Jesus.