Image: "Desolation", 2021, roadside view, vicinity of Red Rock Lake, Lima, MT
Revelation 13:1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
Revelation 13:4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
Revelation 13:7–8 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 13:11–12 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Revelation 13:17–18 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
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If anything should set us back on our heels and make us consider the Lord saying: "I told you so", it is the beasts in this chapter when properly understood.
Here we have the "spirit of the Anti-Christ" manifested in its full, demonic, spiritual, reality.
There are two beasts with the first being the powerful incarnation of human government organized and dedicated to the task of proving to the world that it, not Jesus Christ, is humanity's true messiah. The second beast is the first beast's henchman, its "prophet", whose purpose is to proclaim the "gospel" of the first beast's messianic reality and to call people to worship that beast and not the true Christ. We can think of it as the "propaganda arm" of the first beast and its number is "666" which is the number of man. (vs. 18) Here we see man-centered religion, false humanism, that points us away from the truth of God and His Christ and substitutes a false hope and a false "salvation" centered on man's autonomous claim to exercising world dominion through godless government.
The first beast clearly and consciously presents itself in terms that the Revelation uses to describe Christ. Like Jesus, it wears "crowns" of rule over the earth. (cf. vs. 1 & Rev. 19:12) It claims to have been "mortally wounded" and yet lives, imply resurrection from the dead. (cf. vs. 3 & rev. 2:8). It was given to him to have "authority... over every tribe, tongue, and nation", clearly a worldwide dominion that is reserved for Christ alone. (cf. vs. 7 & Rev. 5:9).
In every particular, the first beast demands to be viewed as the true Messiah, the true "christ" for human beings. We may see the entire claim to a resurrection from the dead as the way that, though Jesus dealt the fatal blow to Satan and his empire in His earthly life, yet God, in His providence, has allowed human governments to "rise up from the ashes" throughout history (the sea - vs. 1) to again claim, in their various forms, that they are to be worshiped rather than Christ.
The second beast is Satan's answer to the true Church of Jesus Christ. Here we have the false prophets and priests of human-based religion serving their "master", the first beast, and, behind him, the dragon who gives him power and authority. (vs. 2) Like Christ Himself, this second beast calls for disciples of the first beast to receive a mark on their "right hand or on their forehead", thus distinguishing them as its "elect" and heirs of its promised "blessings."
This second beast is the powerful collaboration of society-wide intellectuals, Christ-denying religious figures, and political forces that proclaim that "grace" and "peace" come through man's progress in self-government, technical achievements, and philosophy. Here we have the "apologists" that preach a brand of "freedom" that is really a cloak for slavery. The power of the first beast is enormous. It controls the economy and the power of money to buy allegiance. It legislates immorality and calls "evil good." At every point, this second beast preys on ignorance and superstition. Only by true "wisdom" (vs. 18) can the people of God offset its teaching and call people to worship the one true Christ and to join with the elect from every nation in not succumbing to the false prophet's teachings.
Who can view our nation and our world today and not see these beasts at work among us? The solemn truth is that their great power is the instrument through which the dragon's rage is directed toward Christ and His people. We should note, with honest apprehension, that God tells us that those who do not worship the beast "to be killed." (vs. 15) It is not a pleasant prospect but it makes sense as we see the open denunciation of Christian teaching laying the foundation for even more outright persecution.
But, we must never despair, the Revelation teaches us that Christ will have victory over every resurrection of the beast and that His people, sustained by His Holy Spirit, will indeed see that victory and rejoice. Here is "the patience and the faith of the saints." (vs. 10)
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