Discover the truth about the end time master deception that will be so convincing that even God's people will be challenged to now the truth until something happens and it will be clear to the followers of Jesus.
SHOW NOTES
The anti-Christ
Revelation 13:11 “beast coming out of the earth”—the trinity of beasts is complete. Dragon—heaven (12:3), First beast in this chapter—sea, Lamb-like beast—earth. This False Trinity of beasts appears later (16:13) as the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet. Thus the Earth Beast is also the False Prophet.
“two horns like a lamb”—the Greek word used for lamb is in the diminutive indicating gentleness thus this beast is a parody of Jesus Christ. It is a battle between: Jesus and “Jesus,” the slaughtered Lamb & the slaughtering Lamb, the resurrected Lamb and the Beast “whose fatal wound was healed” (13:4). No mention of blasphemy for Earth Beast (cf 13:1).
The Lamb in Revelation is used 28 times for Jesus. Horns=strength and power this Beast apparently has the power of Jesus’ love, BUT then it “spoke like a dragon”—the lamb character does not last long and the beast’s true nature surfaces and it leads the whole world astray as the Dragon does (12:9; 13:14). It has authority (13:12) and power (13:15) and makes people worship the First Beast (13:12), it uses deception (13:14), force (13:16), and is evil (16:13).
13:12 “made . . . worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed”—a timing after the healing of the beast which was wounded, placing this event near the end of the world (16:14). This Earth Beast enforces worship of the worldwide political power referred to in vss. 1-10. 13:13 “And he performed great and miraculous signs”—uses religious signs, i.e. “even causing fire to come down from heaven.” Elijah called down fire from heaven to prove the authenticity of God as opposed to Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38-39). Elijah did not realize, until he met God in a cave, that a show of force does not necessarily imply that God is present (1 Kings 19:11).
Paul recognises “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14) and the “lawless one” would do the same miracles (2 Thess. 2:9) as the Earth Beast. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 NLT 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. 4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.
2 Thessalonians 2 5 Don’t you remember that I told you about all this when I was with you? 6 And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. 7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. 8 Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming (Singular).
2 Thessalonians 2 9 This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. 10 He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. 11 So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. 12 Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth.
The Earth Beast does convincing miracles to show that he is God.
The signs which authenticated the true God in the past are now used to authenticate the Dragon and his two surrogate powers.
These signs are manifest in the context of the church or the faith community and this is why the Earth-beast is also named as the False Prophet (16:13). It is deception at its best and only those who recognise the wickedness of force and deceit will be safe from this overwhelming deception.
“This land beast promotes the interests of the sea beast, just as the Holy Spirit glorified not Himself but Jesus (John 16:13-14). Also, just as the Holy Spirit performed a powerful act in bringing down “fire” from heaven (Acts 2:3), the land beast performs something similar (see Rev. 13:13). “At the end, the land beast performs a counterfeit of Pentecost! For what purpose? To prove to the world that the counterfeit trinity is the true God.” —Jon Paulien, What the Bible Says About the End-Time(Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald® Publishing Association, 1998), p. 111.” (Adventist Standard Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for April, May and June 2018 comment for May 31.)
13:14 “He ordered them to set up an image (statue) in honour of the beast (which had miraculously recovered from a fatal wound)”—this image reminds us of the Sea Beast which used force to further its ends (cf 15-16). This is a parallel of Nebuchadnezzar’s predicted future symbolized by his image all of gold rather than the image of different metals and by his threat of death (Dan 3) for those who refused to worship him or the image. Satan sets himself up as “Jesus” in his New World Order with unbridled selfishness as his Mark. Statue: Think of Saddam Hussein’s image being toppled. Sabbath, Survival of Fittest, Humanism, Capitalism, ?
“The counterfeit trinity of the Dragon, Sea-beast and Land- beast will counterfeit divine law, enforce counterfeit worship with counterfeit signs, have a counterfeit mark and a counterfeit number, is wounded to death but resurrects” (Desmond Ford, Crisis, 563). The contest is between self-sacrificing love and grasping selfishness. Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) and Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species) are two of many unabashed proponents of selfishness. It is the time of “Jacob’s trouble” when the Earth Beast appears for the last conflict.
13:15 “cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed”—execution has always been the ultimate expression of force and violence. As Nebuchadnezzar cast those who would not worship the Golden Image into the furnace, so this talking Statue or Image, will purpose to execute those who refuse to bow to it.