D3. Revelation 13a – June 1, 2002 michael.comberiate@gsfc.nasa.gov or nasamike@nasamike.com
Scope: This first section of Chapter 13 deals with the composite Beast of the Sea. It identifies this beast and its role over the period of persecution and even to the End Times.
Symbols:
V1 Beast with 10 horns with 10 crowns & 7 heads with blasphemous name on each, and the dragon gave him his power and authority
- 7 heads with blasphemous names = an angelic (7s) power opposing God
- 10 horns and 10 crowns = pervasive Earthly secular ruling power
- Dragon gave it power and authority = An image of the Red Dragon = Roman Empire John’s time
V2 The Beast resembled a leopard = pagan Greece; feet of a bear = Persia; Mouth of Lion = Babylon
- Mentioned in reverse order from Rome to Babylon, as a flashback to connect them all to the dragon
- Each was a church-state empire teaching as doctrine the commandments of men
- This beast represents Satan’s influence on these empires from Babylon to the End Times
V3 One of the heads had a fatal wound that was healed = One of the previous empires ended then restarted
- Angel identifies this head in Rev 17:8-11, when John sees something in the “desert” (Rev 17:3)
- Rev 17:8 indicates that there was no one Satanic empire (the beast was not) at the time John is viewing him (after1798), but it will rise again (1929).
The whole astonished world followed that beast = Worldwide respect the authority of this beast throughout time
V4 Men worshipped the dragon and the beast
- They are following Satan and not realizing it
- Who can make war against this beast = It is your own empire and only a remnant recognize it as evil
V5 The Beast uttered proud words and had full authority for 42 months = the manifestation of the beast we call, “Papal Rome” 538 – 1798
- The proud words = blasphemy = claiming to have God’s authority on Earth.
- Blasphemy indicates “In place of God”, not “Against God”
- Pope claims to speak infallibly, ie “ex Cathedra” on matters of faith & morals
*V6 This beast blasphemed God (accepts worship of humans or worshiping idols as God), His dwelling place (mediates divine grace& forgives sins, in place of the mediatorial work Christ is doing in the heavenly sanctuary – see Dan 8), those in heaven (claims the power to decide who goes to heaven and who does not so that people can pray to their ancestors in place of God.)
- These things uniquely characterized the empire with the wounded head
V7 This beast was given authority over all the earth = In one form or another Satan is influencing all world governments
- He makes war against the saints = the few true believers are being persecuted in general throughout time
V8 Humans everywhere will worship the beast = people everywhere are deceived and do not understand the “truth”.
These are those who’s names are not written in the, “Book of Life” (symbolic of the elect who “know” the real God) = those who choose Death.
The Lamb, Who was slain from the creation of the world = God had His plan of salvation for humans before He created our universe. He would think Himself into our world as Christ and be killed for our transgressions.
V9 He who has an ear, let him hear = What follows is extremely important. Listen
V10 If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. = Those that have led others into captivity, will eventually be led into captivity themselves. Those who have persecuted and killed will eventually be persecuted and killed themselves.
Here is the patience and faith of the saints = Those who know the true God and trust His Plan must wait on Him
Any group that opposes God and attacks His people in the End Times takes on the characteristic of the Beast.
- We must be alert to recognize this, but in the End Times, the truth will be very obscured as we can see it happening all around us now. The goal of the evil one is to obscure the truth so that many will believe lies. This is why Christ made such a big deal about His word being the truth. Now that we have most of the keys to understanding the code book, we can use it to know the truth even when our own senses are deceiving us (Matt 24:24).
- This Book first reveals how Satan has been behind all the Church-State empires since Babylon. John the Apostle never saw those beyond the Pagan Roman empire, but we have seen the line of empires all the way to our own USA, the beast of Revelation 13:11.
- Knowing this as history, we can now believe with confidence in what this book advises us will be coming next. In the not too distant future our own altruistic USA will become an agent of Satan, obscuring the truth, mandating morality, and persecuting those who follow the true Creator. Yet I believe it will still retain its altruistic character, believing sincerely that it is doing good in this process. Because our country will fall so far from our Creator, it will lose its ability to discern truth from error and end up using its awesome powers in support of the evil forces and not the true Creator-God.
Revelation
13b – June 8, 2002 michael.comberiate@gsfc.nasa.gov
or “nasamike@nasamike.com”
V11 Then I saw another beast, coming out of
the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.
This beast appears after the time that John has been carried off into
the “desert” (Rev 17:3). The desert is
where the woman was protected in Rev 12:6&14-16. It was also after the fatal wound had been healed in Rev
13:3. This puts it after the Papacy was
restored (1929 by Mussolini), since this “head” of Satan’s Church –State
governments throughout time, had been dismantled in 1798 by Napoleon. So, it was in the New World, between 1798
and 1929. The empire, which arises on
the scene after Napoleon and before WWII as the major empire of its time, is
the USA. When Verse 11 says that, “He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke
like a dragon”, it refers to the character of the USA. It was conceived to follow the principles of
Christ, eg brotherly love. Yet, it has
morphed into another arm of Satan. The
messages we spread across the world today are quite Godless, as typified by
Hollywood, even though our intentions appear to be good. The two horns, then are Church and
State. With God they are separate (Give
to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s – Matt 22:21), but with Satan
they are combined (teaching as doctrine the commandments of men- Matt 15:9;
16:3).
V12 He exercised all the authority of the
first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the
first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. This beast from the desert acts like a false priest
pointing humanity towards following the Church-State doctrines of morality and
thus pulling humanity away from any relationship with their Creator.
V13 And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Here the USA beast acts as a prophet. The prophets of old did miracles to establish their credentials, their God-given authority. Moses and Elijah each did great miracles, and they called fire down from heaven. So this prophet must call fire from heaven. Paul tells us that the devil has the power to do miracles too. Thus we must not trust every miracle as though it were done by God. It may be the work of the enemy, the Evil One. In modern terms, this symbolic fire from heaven could be nuclear missiles, which threaten the entire world, but it certainly refers to an awesome and globally recognized power associated with a Church-State empire of the End Times.
V14 Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast, who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. V15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. V16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, V17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. The techniques of the false prophet beast are analogous to world powers, which are currently trying to organize belief as well as behavior, and when belief is organized it always produces deceit. There is nothing more deceitful than false religion. These are the weapons of Satan: He either intimidates or deceives. He has only two weapons, force and fantasy, lying and brutality, one or the other, or a mixture of both. We can see this situation developing around us now, for altruistic reasons. EG: To protect societies from terrorists, we create a new police state that ends up legislating morality as well.
V18 This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666. Regarding the number 666, here is the clue: "It is man's number." Not a man's number. It is the number associated with man. It is not an individual in view here at all. It reveals the character of the one who is talking and acting and living. If you see someone acting like God, claiming unusual powers, and teaching people that man is in charge of all things, that he can do anything, you are listening to a man, and his thinking reflects the number of man, 666. It is man's number. In the language of numbers, 666 is a triple failure to be a 777, the three-times perfect, whole, divine number. So we see that John is showing us how the devil works. He attempts to organize behavior and from that always comes violence. When any government turns totalitarian and seeks to control every deed, every act, of its citizens, it produces a violent reaction. Turn on your television sets and you will see it in every news broadcast today. What this text is saying is that when you see Satan’s influence over world powers has made them violent, then wait, endure, be patient! God will work this all out. His rules will never be set aside. Sooner or later Satan's instrument will hang himself, as Judas did; he will be caught up in his own web. And when he lies, "Think," God says, "be critical, evaluate!" When anyone acts godlike, makes pretentious claims, claims supernatural gifts and demands obedience, that is not God talking. He is not from God. It is just a man, that is all, thinking and acting like a fallen man. It is not the real Lamb -- it is only a fake lamb, so laugh at him and refuse to follow him. But be prepared to hold out even unto death! That is the message of this chapter.
Conclusion: Seek the truth by talking to God yourself. As we said in the abstract, you must begin talking to God now, especially when you are being tempted to sin, because fighting those temptations will bring you closer to the real Creator God. If you have developed a strong relationship with the Creator now, then in times when the truth has been cast down, you can know Him, and trust in Him to show you the truth. Talk to God now, when you are good or bad, happy or sad.
In this context of Rev 13, we are getting some additional info on the workings of the various manifestations of Satan's counterfeit church-state organizations throughout time. I see in this chapter several clear predictions, which have now been fulfilled. In particular, we have now seen one manifestation of the counterfeit church that persecuted the saints on earth for 1260 years, while claiming blasphemous authorities unique to God. We’ve seen this power (Papal Rome) abolished as an independent state (1798) and then resurrected again (1929) to where it is now represented in the United Nations! These now clarify that we have moved through much of the history predicted and we are on the verge of seeing a time when the USA will actually support the doctrines of the counterfeit church, whatever manifestation it appears in. This certainly includes the New Age Spiritualism that has arisen as a major force in our lifetime. More than blaspheming God, this force directs people to believe they are God and it abandons morality and any form of accountability. It would have been an abomination for most Christians in previous generations, but because we have been slowly accepting a mixture of truth and error, we can no longer know the truth and we tolerate lies.
I'm watching for the USA to altruistically endorse the basic philosophy of Papal Rome and of the apostate Protestants and of the New Age Spiritualists, much the same as we are now seeing in the movies of Hollywood. We've seen signs of this with Reagan and his wife's connections to spiritualism. I don't think the USA is going to become another Nazi regime. It's just going to endorse a new world order that altruistically intends to prevent world terrorism etc. However, in that process, the truth will be cast to the ground and those who believe in the true Creator will be outcasts. Witness the loss of the 10 commandments in public places and the growth of evolutionary thinking. We are accepting the doctrines of men in place of the commandments of God.
What this means is that we are believing lies and missing out on the truth. Hence, when we die and/or when mankind's time is over at Christ's second coming we will be counted with the tares in Matt 13:25-40 (Those who's names are not written in the Book of Life). "If you are lukewarm I will spit you out" (Rev 3:16) tells us that many will not care so they are numbered with the tares. Also, Matt 7:22,23 indicates that many will be confused into thinking they're doing good, but they really do not know God and are following something they think is good, which has pulled them away from the real Creator.
* Notes:
Blasphemy is not cursing. When you hear someone rip off a round oath that is not blasphemy. It is cursing. Blasphemy is to claim godlike powers, to claim to be
God, or to identify God with lesser persons or objects. Idolatry, for instance, is blasphemy. That is what this individual becomes guilty of. He blasphemes God by
claiming to have the powers of God, as we have seen. What did they mean when they accused Christ of blasphemy? Surely it was not cursing God. Wasn't it that they heard Him say He was equal to God? (See John 5:18; Matt 26:65; Mark 14:63-65; John 10:33-36) Also the term is used when someone usurps the unique powers of the Creator God as in saying they can forgive sins (see Luke 5:21). Both of these examples apply to the fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church.
"The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.”
Bible scholars sometimes talk about a revived Roman Empire to be made up of 10 nations who will give their authority to a single individual. This satanically
controlled man will rule in the geographic area of the old Roman Empire. That is why many people have been watching what is happening in Europe today, not only
the ferment and upheavals of Eastern Europe, but also the changes in Western Europe, the site of the old Roman Empire. There, nations are softening their
nationalistic passions and seeking to unite together in a United States of Europe. Some commentators have sought to identify this ten-kingdomed coalition with the
European Common Market, or the European Economic Community (EEC). For awhile that organization did have ten members, but it has now increased to twelve
or thirteen, so it is evident that it is not the actual revived empire, but it may be a predecessor. What is clear is that the direction of movement is toward the very
thing we read of here. There will come a coalition of nations in Western Europe.
8 June 2002
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com