In
Revelation 13, through the eyes of John we are privy to the things that shall
come to pass in the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy. In Daniel 7:3, “four beasts came up out of
the sea.” These four beasts are representative of the four successive forms of Gentile rule,
which are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome. Rome fell in A. D. 476. Since
that time she has not been a significant power, but she will rise again to become
a world power through the ungodly alignment of the European Union and the
United Nation and under the leadership
of the Antichrist. All of this will take
place after Christ has come back for his Saints.
The
last sentence of the above paragraph should be accepted as a dire warning to those
who have refused to accept Christ as their Savior, and with exceedingly great
joy to those who are awaiting his return. It is the belief of many that when the
tribulation began the Saints will be at home with their Lord. Seeing that the conditions are ripe for a
worldwide transition of power, the question is when will Christ return to claim
his Saint?
As
we have often stated, that as the end of the church age draws near, Jews and
Gentiles will become wicked as never before on the face of the earth (Isaiah
60:2). The authority of God will be
challenged , God’s laws will be changed.
Once godly nations will join with the heathen nations in open rebellion
against the Lamb of God (Revelation 19:19) and they will fight against
Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2). Therefore,
the earth must be cleared of evil and ungodly men before the Lord Jesus comes
back to reign in glory, with His Church.
To
stress a point, Christ is nowhere said to come with the clouds to gather the
Church out of the earth. On the contrary, the saints go up in the clouds (I
Thessalonians 4:17). God provides a royal carriage to convey the saints from
the earth to meet the Lord in the air and the church will become a part of the
“clouds”. In this essence, he is
preparing his army to return and fight against the evils of this world, the
great battle will not be won until he has gathered the wheat into his barn and
burned the fields.
After
the true Church have been caught up, leaving the Apostate Church behind, the works
of the Holy Spirit will be complete.
Once the Holy Spirit has departed the world will be ripe for the rule of
the Antichrist, but his rule will be for a season. He will come promising prosperity and
peace. The changes will not be sudden,
as the groundwork is already being laid and the message of peace, change, and
prosperity has began to emulate throughout the land.
Christians
should not be looking for the revival of Rome, nor for the Antichrist; the
bride of Christ should be looking for the coming of the bridegroom. After the Rapture, or by what other name we describe
the events of portrayed in (1st
Thessalonians 4:16-17), this super-human Beast will emerge and working miracles.
He will cry peace and prosperity as he attempts to mimic the Kingdom of
God. The working of these miracles such
as making fire come down from heaven, will change this ungodly conflagration of
Churches and nations into a one world government in a very short time.
Revelation
13:1-10 “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of
the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and
upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto
a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth
of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great
authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his
deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they
worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the
beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? 5
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and
power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his
mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the
saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,
whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that
leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the
saints.”
In
Revelation 13; the symbology of the Bible shines brightly. The sands of the sea are representative of a vast
multitude of people. God told Abraham
that He would multiply his seed as the sands of the sea. In Revelation 20:8
God’s army is referred to in number as “the sands of the sea.” Thus the sands
of the sea represent multitudes; the sea itself represents unrest and turmoil
among the masses.
Daniel
visions play an important role in helping us identify these Beasts in
Revelation 13. Daniel was an outstanding personality and Jesus spoke of him in Matthew and declares
that he was a prophet. Daniel had the gift of understanding and interpreting
dreams. As a prophet, God revealed to him the entire course of “the times of
the Gentiles.” The prophecy of Daniel is mainly concerned with things that shall
befall the people Israel in the latter days (Daniel 10:14).
One
of the many problems with the interpretation of Revelation is that often too
much is read into a verse, and other times too much are discarded. There are two bases of interpretation of the
scripture, one is based upon the knowledge of good and evil, (a merism which is
indicative of all the knowledge of the world) and the other is based upon the
Knowledge of God. The knowledge of good
and evil does not instruct us in the path of righteousness, it gives mankind
the power of choice. Man’s access to the
vast knowledge of good and evil allows him to shape or change the Word of God
to suit his circumstances.
\
The
prophecies of The Book of Revelation are not to be explained based upon our
knowledge of good and evil or the knowledge of man. The knowledge of good and evil is based upon
the knowledge of science. Science
cannot accept the existence of a metaphysical God, the legalistic and
scientific conditions cannot be met. Man
makes a choice based upon his knowledge.
Reading or studying the Book of
Revelation without a proper use of biblical symbology is also a lesson in futility. The first verse of the book informs us that the
message was signified by an angel. To
understand the book we must understand the signs. In Revelation 1: 11-17, John is using signs
or symbols to describe the Son of God in his metaphysical state. In Revelation 1: 20, the meaning of the signs
and symbol unfold. Here is an example and the meaning of some of
the symbology used in Revelation 13. • Beast = Kingdom / government / political power, (Daniel 7:17, • Heads = Major
powers/rulers/governments (Revelation 17:3) • Horn = King or
kingdom, (Daniel 7:24) And the ten horns
out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: • Crown = A Glorious
Ruler or Rulership, (Proverbs 16:31)
A
simple analogy to understanding the interpretation of the Holy Scripture, especially
the Book of Revelation is comparing it to a cup of lemon juice. Harsh to the taste and unfit to be used as a
breakfast of dinner drink. But, if we
add the right amount of water, sugar and ice we have a drink that will suit the
taste of the most discriminating person.
The
ancient Gospel of “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand”, as well as the
ancient prophecies of the return of Christ to establish his Kingdom here on
earth, is no longer an acceptable message to be presented to our younger
generation. There is a new
indoctrination that focuses on the love of God and Heaven is just a place we
all go to be with God. This new watered
down version of the Holy Scripture with the right amount of sugar and Ice added
to suit our taste, no longer support the prophecies of Revelation. Words like Pre- Millennial, Post-Millennium
and outdated are used to invalidate the book.
Jesus’ message to the churches has been cast aside, and the church said “amen”.
As
this once Godly nations and its many different spiritual institutions digress
into the final state of apostasy as prophesied in the book of Revelation, the prospect of a one world government looms
on the horizon. The players seem to have
been identified, and the conditions seem to be ripe for the beast to rise up
out of the sea. A beast rising up out of
the sea is symbolic and indicative of a new nation rising up out of the midst
of confusion. There is an ethnic divide through
the world today that is being manipulated in order to bring about lawless
conditions and worldwide instability.
Once worldwide confusion prevails the beast of Revelation 13 will
emerge.
If
the Beast or Antichrist is preparing to make his appearance, the prayers of the
righteous should be, “Lord, when are you coming to get us?” (1st
Thessalonians 4:16-17) Rather, we spend
our prayer time asking for richness,
glory and peace on earth. When the disciple asked Jesus to teach them
how to pray, a key instruction was, “let you Kingdon come, on earth as it is in
Heaven.” (Luke 11:2) The signs are indicative
of a world out of control. The ethnic
divide is tearing not only this country but the world apart. There are wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes
in different places. There are dark
clouds on the horizon. Is God about to
pour out his wrath that he has been storing up?
The hope of the Church is to be safe in the arms of Christ, the same as
it was in the day of Noah, when the tribulation come.
To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment