Thanks, John, for your help. That's good for an old man. John turned 40 this last week. We congratulate you and wish you happy birthday. And is there cake and ice cream after the service, John? Robert Murray McShane, by the way, died before he was 30 years of age. And he died on a trip to the Holy Land. Let that be a lesson to some of you who are going there in a couple of weeks. No, we wish you well as you go to visit the land where Jesus lived.
McShane was weakened, as John indicated, and died of a fever in Egypt before he got there. His purpose in going was not to go as a tourist, but to be on a mission to the Jews, to seek to win Jews to Christ who were living at that time in Palestine. A dear man of God. Well this evening we come to Revelation, the 13th chapter. This is actually a continuation of chapter 12 where we begin to be introduced to some actors who will come across the stage of world history in the tribulation period.
That is the last days of this age. We have seen in the previous chapter that Satan, the dragon, has been cast out of heaven. And following that he initiates the greatest anti-Semitic campaign ever conceived. God supernaturally protects at least a remnant of the Jewish nation, although many will be killed. Chapter 13 begins by saying, and he stood on the sand of the sea. Some translations say, and I stood on the sand of the sea.
There's a variation in the ancient manuscripts as to which it ought to be. It could be either, but it seems to flow as well if we simply say, and he, that is the dragon spoken of in chapter 12. He stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast arising out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. And so it seems that the beast goes to the sea and they're standing on the beach.
He calls forth from the sea, the dragon rather, calls forth from the sea, the beast that is described in chapter 13. This beast is the dragon's ultimate creation. It is the consummation of his desires to rule the world. The beast is his crowning achievement, his masterpiece of deception. Admittedly, the language in chapter 13 is highly symbolic. However it causes some differences of understanding among equally godly and skillful scholars.
There are some who see the beast as theological in nature. In other words, they say the beast represents the false teachers and the heresies throughout this age. However, it seems to me that a better understanding of this beast is that it represents a political, primarily a political entity that will come together and arise as a great power on the earth in the tribulation period.
If you look at chapter 13, you notice there is a beast that comes out of the sea first, and then in verse 11 there is a beast that comes out of the earth. Two different beasts, though they are aligned and work together. The first beast is the antichrist. That is, it represents both a person and a system which is against the Lord Jesus Christ or in place of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think the best understanding of this first part of the chapter is that this beast is a political leader that will put together a coalition of powers in the tribulation period which will seek to dominate the world and persecute the saints of God and which will in fact be the puppet system of Satan. It will help us understand chapter 13 if we first go back to the Old Testament and look at a key chapter there that relates symbolically to chapter 13 of Revelation.
I'm speaking about Daniel, the seventh chapter. In this chapter, Daniel is given a vision. You will notice immediately some of the same language used in Daniel 7 as Revelation 13. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts. I'm reading from the New King James Version.
Daniel spoke saying, I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of the heaven were stirring up the great sea. So here you have this allusion to the sea once more. And Daniel sees four winds or we might say also four spirits of heaven stirring up that great sea. What does this mean? Well the sea in Daniel 7 and certainly the sea in Revelation 13, both seas represent the Gentile world. That interpretation is given in Revelation chapter 17.
The sea represents the vast masses of humanity that are Gentile. And what Daniel sees is a stirring up of the Gentile world. The four winds or the four spirits, however that may be understood in verse 1, are probably the movement of God in the nations of the world bringing to pass what Daniel sees take place. The four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.
I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it. And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear, it was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it, Arise devour much flesh. After this I looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it.
After this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked up or plucked out by the roots.
And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words or great things. Daniel's vision then takes him to a courtroom scene where a judge sits upon the throne whose name is the Ancient of Days. The judge is attended by thousands upon thousands of attendants. It is a holy scene. It is God sitting on His throne over these beasts bringing judgment to them from His throne. And again in verse 13 Daniel sees a vision. It is a vision that skips even into our future.
It is a vision of the coming of Jesus Christ to the earth and the establishment of His kingdom, the final kingdom, which will be forever and forever. Well Daniel was grieved by what he had seen. He was troubled. He asked for an interpretation. And so in verse 23 the interpretation is given. I skipped over the first three beasts. Perhaps we ought to go back and cover that as well because we do talk about that in Revelation 13.
Verse 17 says, Those great beasts which are four are four kings which arise out of the earth, or four kingdoms it might say. But the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast which was dreadful from all the others and so on.
And so he said, The fourth beast, verse 23 now, shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall arise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings.
He shall speak pompous words against the most high, shall persecute the saints of the most high, and shall intend to change the times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. Let's just stop there for a moment. Let me remind you that the first three beasts represent three kingdoms. The first one is the kingdom of Babylon. It is described in terms of royalty and power.
Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon, is probably one of the most powerful kings who has ever ruled in the Gentile world. He was a ruthless man, and yet, as you recall from the record of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by God. He was given a heart of a man, as this beast was in Daniel's vision. Following Babylon, there came another kingdom. It was the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. It was not a balanced coalition.
The Persians were more powerful, thus the bearer seemed there off balance. A fierce and ferocious kingdom. The Medes and the Persians aligned themselves together and overcame Babylon. That happened in Daniel's day. He lived in part of that kingdom. That kingdom, too, eventually passed away and was overcome by Alexander the Great as he extended the kingdom of Greece through the Middle East and all the way over to the borders of India.
This is all a review of material that we've studied a couple of years ago in our study of Daniel. The kingdom of Greece lasted for a couple of hundred years, but it, too, finally fell to the power that arose out of Rome. The Roman Empire is the fourth exceedingly fearsome and terrible beast that Daniel saw. The Roman Empire, as you know, was never actually overthrown militarily. It simply decayed morally from within and fell apart.
Thus the Roman Empire, prophetically speaking, actually has two periods of history. One period is past to us. Of course, to Daniel it was future as he wrote these words. But to us it is past. It was that period that occurred at the conclusion of Greece's reign up through about 400 AD. Rome of course was in power when the Lord Jesus was on the earth. The establishment of the church came during the Roman Empire, but that empire fell apart.
There is, according to Scripture, to be, in the last days, a revival of the Roman Empire. If not by that name, at least that territory, that geographical area, the area that we today call Europe, will come together and coalesce and form a federation of nations, as it were a United States of Europe. And as Daniel sees the ten horns, the ten kings that will arise from this kingdom, he is actually looking into what is yet future to us. Now this is where Revelation 13 picks up the story.
Daniel sees an eleventh king come up out of the ten. He overthrows three of them, establishes himself, and becomes the leader of this empire. And that little horn that is seen in this vision in Daniel 7 is the same as the beast of Revelation 13, verses 1 through 10. It is the one, the personage that we call the Antichrist. Now let's go back to Revelation 13 with that all together, to brief a background from Daniel 7.
And notice again that John sees the dragon stand upon the shores and call out from this sea a beast who has seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. The word beast here refers to a wild beast. This is not a domesticated beast. It is one that is ruthless. It is wild. It represents, as I have said, both a man and his empire. You cannot separate a dictator from his dominion.
The seven heads, the ten horns, the ten crowns will be explained later in chapter 17. But perhaps we ought just to skip over there for the moment to look at briefly at what is said there regarding these figures. First let's look in chapter 17 and verse 12. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beasts. These are of one mind and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
And so we see here the ten horns interpreted again as Daniel saw them as ten kings or ten kingdoms. And they will be aligned in some sense with the beast who will eventually be over them and will give them power and they in turn will give their power and authority to the beast. Now let's back up to verse 9. Here is the mind which has wisdom, the seven heads, are seven mountains on which the woman sits. Now we are not going to go into detail about the woman because we will get there eventually.
But what we have here is a reference to a geographical location, seven mountains, a city of seven mountains. There are few Bible scholars who would understand this any differently than that this is an allusion to Rome which was the world power of John's day. John is seeing this prostitute, this wicked harlot who is riding upon the beast in chapter 17 and he describes the seven heads of the beast as being the seven mountains where the woman sits.
And so John is describing a city, it is the city of Rome, which is the power base for the beast. But he also says in verse 10, there are also seven kings, five have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come. There are several interpretations of this and I am not going into it tonight except to point out that the seven heads that he describes here have a couple of different symbolic meanings as he points out.
The ten crowns represent the authority and the power, the dominion of the ten rulers which are the ten horns. Now going back to Revelation chapter 13, he says that on the heads of this beast were a blasphemous name, that immediately tells us that this beast stands against God. That everything about it is anti-God and anti-Christ, it is intended to be slanderous against God and to blaspheme him.
And he says the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. Now immediately you think of what we read in Daniel 7, these are the figures of speech describing the three first kingdoms, that is Babylon, Medial Persia and Greece. They're in reverse order you notice from what Daniel saw because John is standing on the other side of them chronologically. Daniel was looking at them this way, John is looking back at them this way.
There is something of Greece, something of the Medes and the Persians and something of Babylon that come together as part of this terrible beast that is seen here. And we see that the dragon gave him his power, his throne and his great authority. And so we have the appearance of the beast. It is wild, in its picture it is a composite of the characteristics of the three empires that preceded Rome.
Perhaps John is pointing out the leopard's swiftness, it moves very quickly, it is known for its stealth and so perhaps the kingdom that is described here by this beast will be that same way. The bear is known for his strength, his raw power, his tenacity and so will the kingdom of the beast.
The lion representing Babylon pictures the absolute control of a monarch and the regal splendor that goes with one who is an absolute dictator and sovereign and so the beast likewise will be characterized in such a way. What seems to happen in these last days is that the nations will be in turmoil, particularly the nations that comprise what was the Roman Empire.
And out of that turmoil there will be a voice, there will be a cry for order, for someone who can bring things under control and these kingdoms then will come together under the authority of a powerful and charismatic ruler who will seem to be the answer to everyone's wishes and prayers. And of course he will be the Antichrist. It is very interesting to see what is happening in Europe this very week and this very year. Just two years ago everyone was proclaiming peace at last in the world.
We were going to enjoy a peace dividend, crying peace, peace when there is no peace and we have seen ethnic and religious wars break out in the heart of Europe and there is no way to control them. Centuries of hatred are boiling over into cruelty and to murder and atrocities that rival those of Hitler 50 and 60 years ago. And there really isn't an innocent party, all sides are guilty.
And the only superpower left in the world today is unable for a number of reasons to intervene and to put a stop to it. That means that it is going to continue and it means that the turmoil and unrest that is now in the eastern part of Europe is likely to spread. In the Star Tribune today there was an article regarding the fears of the people in Macedonia, the northern state of Greece.
They are quite afraid that the civil war on their border in the former Yugoslavia is going to spread down into Macedonia and into Greece. No one has an answer for what is taking place in Europe. And if they did they would have presented it by now. But eventually in the midst of all the chaos and all of the murder and all of the wretchedness and all of the economic collapse in Europe there is going to be a powerful man who will arise with the answers.
He will arise with supernatural abilities to bring things under control and he will be looked upon as the Savior when in fact the source of his power is not God, the source of his power is the dragon. And as we see here it is the Satan, this dragon who gives him his power, his throne and his great authority. This beast will be a formidable power. There will be no one like him in the history of the world. You will hear statements like this undoubtedly in that day.
The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country and the republic is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order. Without law and order our nation cannot survive. Is that Spiro Agnew? Most of you don't remember him. Is that Rush Limbaugh? No, I'll tell you who it was that said that.
Adolf Hitler. And again today's Star Tribune there is a recounting of Hitler's rise to power and how that he did it, quotes, through the democratic process. But underneath were intrigue and manipulation and blackmail until the time that he had the power that he wanted in Germany. And there will be a Hitler-like individual who will make statements compelling and inviting and attractive like he did to the Germans in the early 1930s and people will follow him.
There will be Satan working through him and deceiving the nations. Second Thessalonians 2, 9 says regarding the antichrist that he is the one who's coming is after the working of Satan. Well in verse 3 we read, and one of his heads, I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed. So we have a further description of the appearance of this beast. There are seven heads. One of them looks as though it has had a mortal wound.
Actually the Greek says as having been slain and it's the same word used of Jesus back in chapter 5 and verse 6. In other words there's every indication that there's death and at least the appearance of resurrection in that head. Now the early Christians interpreted this that Nero would be raised from the dead. Nero was one of the great persecutors of Christians and killed himself in 68 AD as I recall.
He had been basically voted out of power by the Roman Senate and they were going to execute him and so to avoid the disgrace of all of that he killed himself with a sword. But the rumor was that he didn't really die and that he was going to come back to power. Then when that became obviously a false rumor there were those who said well he's going to be resurrected from the dead and he is the one that is spoken of here.
Now in our day we've heard similar comments made regarding Hitler or regarding John F. Kennedy. Is that the meaning of this? Well it perhaps does refer to an individual who is resurrected or apparently resurrected from a deadly wound. If that in fact is the case it would complete his claim to be the Christ, the Messiah. For as Christ was raised from the dead so this counterfeit Christ would have every appearance of having been raised from the dead.
It would be one way in which the false prophet whom we will see in our next study of chapter 13 would be able to point to this man as being supernatural, as being not of this world in some sense. There are others who take this whole imagery here as being different and they say that it refers to a revival of the imperial form of government. That the head represents the imperial form that the Romans used as having died, having faded away but it's not really dead.
That it's going to come back and be the mode of government in the revived Roman Empire which the beast will use. My preference is to lean toward the first interpretation that it refers to an individual, the antichrist who will go through this wounding and apparent resurrection. Well we come then to the attitude toward the beast. It immediately begins, the world marveled and followed the beast. I think partly because of what happens here in the first part of verse 3. There is worship.
By the way there is no one who promotes religious worship any more fervently than Satan. He loves religion as long as he is the object of it. He has very cleverly devised many different kinds of religion in the world that somewhat satisfy the desire of man to be religious in his flesh. But in each of those religions Satan has put himself at the center so that though people may not recognize or realize that when they are worshiping in their religion they are worshiping demons, the power of Satan.
And that will certainly be the case of the religion of the revived Roman Empire. Notice what they say, they worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast. They worship the beast saying who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? These statements, these accolades, these acclamations of praise to the beast are a parody, a blasphemous parody of the worship of the true God.
For example in Isaiah 40 verse 25 it says, To whom then will you liken me or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One. Or Psalm 113 verse 5, Who is like the Lord our God who dwells on high? So you see there is a parody, a cheapening of those ideas and those words and an application of them to this beast. Vernon McGee said, The religions of the world are marching toward the dark day of total devil worship. I agree with him.
All of this ties together with what is said in 2 Thessalonians again, chapter 2. By the way, there really are three key texts in the Bible regarding the Antichrist. One is Daniel 7, another is Revelation 13 up through chapter 18, and the other, the third is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And there it says that this man of lawlessness, this man of sin will show himself that he is God. Remember who is the power behind him. The power broker is the dragon.
Satan loves religion as long as he is back behind there pulling the strings and receiving the worship through the object or the philosophy or whatever it is that people are bowing to. In this case it is an idol in the temple in Jerusalem that Antichrist puts there. And he shows himself that he is God and he actually performs signs, wonders, and miracles according to 2 Thessalonians 2. But they are all deceptive and they are all by the power of Satan.
Just as the priests who were in the court of Pharaoh and who sought to duplicate the miracles of Moses, so Antichrist by deception and by satanic power will be one who will do miracles and show himself that he is God. And the attitude of the world will be wonderful. Praise the beast. He will be a most attractive and bewitching personality. In verses 5 through 7 we have the actions of the beast.
He was given a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies and was given authority to continue for 42 months equals a time, times, and half a time from Daniel chapter 7 that we read earlier. This is speaking about the last half of the tribulation period when he will reveal his true character. The first half of the tribulation he comes off as a nice guy. The last half of the tribulation his beastly, his wild beastly nature is exposed.
And his proud boasting, his slander will be directed against God. You notice it says he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. So the beast is attacking God. He is attacking the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, and he is attacking God's people. And he is given authority to do this for three and one half years. That is to make war with the saints as verse 7 says.
It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Now when it says war you shouldn't necessarily get in your mind the picture of a military campaign. It is talking about persecution. It may be some military, but it is talking about persecution, seeking to put to death people who will not cooperate with his system. And for three and one half years it will be granted to him to overcome the saints. To kill them that is. Daniel 7, 21 says exactly the same thing.
These will be the darkest hours in the history of the world apart from the cross of Jesus Christ on the day he was crucified. And it will have every appearance that the antichrist will have conquered the people of God. It was granted to him also to have authority over every tribe and tongue and nation. He will extend his power far beyond the borders of Europe. And in some sense will be worldwide. This will be Satan's day. His dictator will be on the throne.
His Christ will be reigning in the world. He will be receiving worship. He will finally have gotten what he has wanted or so he will think. And the saints of God will have the appearance of having been defeated. A dark, dark hour. But he goes on to say, 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. But if anyone has an ear let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity.
He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. There is the patience and the faith of the saints. So we come finally to the announcement regarding the beast. There are a couple of ways to look at this. The way the New King James translates it would suggest that these couplets form a principle of retribution as Charles Ryrie calls it. That is that the judgment of antichrist will be equal to his crime. If he leads into captivity others and he himself will go into captivity.
He kills by the sword, he himself will be killed by the sword in a matter of speaking. But this couplet can also be translated this way. 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. If it is to be understood that way it simply means that God's sovereignty is in control. Yes? The saints of God, many of them, will die at his hand. He will seem to have overcome them.
By captivity and by the sword they will be decimated. God however is allowing all of this. God has not lost the battle. God is still on the throne. Rebellion is inevitable but God is still in control. Now frankly I don't have a preference as to which way to read it. I don't think it makes a lot of difference because either way you look at it, what is said there then forms a basis, a foundation for the endurance of God's people.
If on the one hand it means that the one who is taking them captive will be judged, that gives encouragement to the people of God. If on the other hand it simply means that yes there will be persecution but God is in control of it all still that it forms a foundation for encouragement for the people of God. Maybe there is something that we can't even see at this point in this text which the tribulation saints will see clearly because they will live in those very days.
I think that is often the case with the Word of God that things that are mysterious to us, living when we do, will be much more clear to the people living in those days when these things are coming to pass. But the point is here is the patience and the faith of the saints. God has not lost power. In the darkest hour in the history of the world except for the cross, the people of God will still have their faith to hang on to.
Their faith will still be their victory and they will endure through those dark hours and represent their Savior. And though they lay down their lives and their blood be shed, the victory is still theirs in Jesus Christ and He will come and will reign with them on the earth. We are not living in these days but we are living in days that I believe are leading to them. We are not in the tribulation but I don't think, my opinion is that we can't be far from the tribulation.
I don't think we are far from it. I am not a prophet and I am not a seer. I cannot put together any more than anybody else can the complex events that are taking place in our world. But I will tell you something. Something is happening. I have talked to a number of people in the last few weeks who have said they have never had such uneasiness as they sense right now in the events of the world including the new administration of the government of the United States of America.
We are not living in these darkest of hours but we are living in dark hours. The values that we derive from the word of God are under attack in this nation. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. God is still in control. God is still on His throne. Let us not be discouraged.
Though we may have a sense humanly speaking that is uneasy, that we are uncertain about what is taking place, we need not be afraid because God is in control and what He is doing we may not know but we know that His hand is in it, that He is in control and all of it is going to lead exactly where He wants it to. Because of that we can rejoice. We can be unwavering in our trust. We too can be steadfast in our day as will the tribulation saints in this future day.
Would you take your hymnal and turn with me to a hymn to sing? It is 486 and it says, Faith is the Victory. It is not just faith in itself but it is the object of the faith and that is what the song really means. That is the victory. Our faith rests in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the true Messiah and the true Savior of the world. And He has already won the battle because that is our faith. There is victory. Let's stand together. I would like for us to sing that first verse.