The Anti-Christ Revelation 13 Last week, we looked at Daniel 9 and the last three verses speak about the anti-christ but; if you just read that passage you don’t get an awful lot of information about him; so turn to Revelation 13 and we’ll see more of what the scripture but; first I want to tell you a story.
A man was driving down a country road and he saw a sign that said, “Talking dog for sale.” Well, he did a u-turn and drove back and saw a farmer standing in the middle of the field. So, he said, “I saw your sign, do you really have a talking dog for sale?” And the farmer said, “Yes, I do, do you want to see him?” And the guy said, “Sure, where is he?” And the farmer said, “He’s in the back of the house.” And the man said, “You’re not kidding are you?” and the farmer says, “No, come on in and I’ll show him to you.”
So, they went in the house and there was the dog. The man looked at him and said, “Dog, can you talk?” And the dog said, “Absolutely.” And he said, “Have you talked all your life?” And the dog said, “Sure.” So, the man said, “Well, what did you do? Did you sit in the backyard and talk to yourself or did you just talk to the farmer?” And the dog said, “No, I used to work for the FBI and I would hang around street corners and find out who was selling drugs and where. I was there for several years and then the FBI gave me to the CIA and they shipped me overseas and I worked in different countries as a spy and reported on conversations I heard when no one expected I was listening.”
And the man looked at the farmer and said, “Do you really want to sell this dog?” And the farmer said, “Absolutely.” And he said, “Why do you want to sell him.” And the farmer said, “Because that dog is a liar. He never did any of those things he said he did.” So, you see, its one thing to talk the truth but it’s another thing to do it.
A couple of weeks ago, as we went through Daniel chapter nine and as I said this passage speaks volumes to those who are familiar with the entire Bible but it’s not all that clear if you’re only focusing on this specific passage. So, I want to direct your attention to Revelation 13 and there we’ll pick up on what I call a biographical sketch of the anti-christ. And remember this is the apostle John speaking.
“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. (Now, listen carefully because this next section takes us back to Daniel 7) 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. 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. 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? 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. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
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. 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.
If any man have an ear, let him hear. 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.
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.”
You will remember a few weeks ago when we looked at the four beasts that came up out of the sea in Daniel 7 and the fourth was so terrifying, so ferocious and so hideous that Daniel couldn’t even think of a living animal he could use to describe it. The one thing that stood out about this animal was; it had iron teeth and it said it crushed and devoured everything in its path. It was also described as having ten horns and when we come to Revelation 13 we find that these ten horns are said to be ten kings and from these ten kings one rises up and takes the power of three of the others and he becomes the leader of the ten. And we know, from this and other scriptures that he who takes this position is referred to as the little horn and the little horn is the anti-christ and the word ‘anti’ in Greek means in stead of and so, he’s going to rule instead of Christ beginning with the ten kingdoms; which many people believe is the European Common Market and from there he’ll go on to rule the rest of the world as well.
And let’s face it, if someone came along and had the answers to the economy, the ecology and the food problems of the entire world then everybody is going to say, just relax and let him do whatever he wants.
So, if he’s alive today; the anti-christ may be some non-descript individual you wouldn’t even notice but some day he’s going to be in total control of the entire world.
Now, you probably think, how could that ever happen? Did you know that before Adolph Hitler began in politics he was a wallpaper hanger who lived in a flop house but when he got excited about politics and started talking in a coffee house everybody turned and listened to him? It was like from that moment on; he had a charisma that drew people in. And from there he got involved in politics and ran a very small party called the Nazi’s but listen; they only got 2.6% of the national vote in the 1928 German Election and that means that 97% of the Germans didn’t want anything to do with him. His party was considered to be a fringe party like the Green Party is today but five years later Hitler was the Chancellor of Germany! So, how could this have happened?
Well, just before this time, the Weimar government was the party in power but they were considered to be too weak to rule and a lot of them were into widespread corruption and this had upset most of the German people who really wanted respect for law and order.
And then, a major economic crisis finally opened the door for a change and when the government failed to do anything about it the people were sick of all this moral confusion and chaos they’d been exposed to. After all, they had been affected by the Wall Street Crash and five of the major German banks went under and from its former position of being a great nation Germany actually became the weakest in Europe and it was considered to be worse off than most African countries.
There were thousands of unemployed people standing in bread lines where they’d receive a tiny handout that would hardly feed their families, and because of this, many people either committed suicide or ran away and abandoned their families. So, because of their economic situation they were crying out for a strong leader who would lead them out of this world of political confusion and in the 1932 election Adolph Hitler put himself forward as the strong and decisive leader the people were looking for. And as many have said, the Nazi Party offered the order, the discipline and the authority that everyone wanted.
But listen, it was economic catastrophe that turned the Nazis from a party 97% of Germans rejected in 1928 to a major party in just 4-5 years. The banking and business community were looking for stability, security and a return of confidence and they saw Hitler as a strict no-nonsense disciplinarian who could give them exactly what they wanted. But, as someone wisely said, “Beware of what you’re looking for, you just might find it.”
Well, the lesson in all this is; because of economic instability, the people wanted a strong leader; and they were prepared to do anything he wanted them to do. And I believe that the same thing is going to happen again but this time; the leader not going to be quite as nice as Adolph Hitler.
I So, we’ll begin with the anti-christs description and the source of his power. And it says, a beast rose up out of the sea. And what this describes is; an economic and political system that just seems to come out of no where and when you think about something coming up out of the sea it’s like a monster and it says; he has seven heads, ten horns and ten crowns. And then it tells us the seven heads are seven kings who rule over ten nations and then one of them will somehow take control of three others and eventually the rest of them as well. Now, listen, this doesn’t make an awful lot of sense to us now but it’ll be perfectly clear to those who are reading this passage when it happens.
This empire is characterized by blasphemy; which is to say the whole thing is an insult to God. It’s controlled by a secular humanistic philosophy that says; we don’t need God we can handle our problems ourselves.
This kingdom is described with animal imagery with a leopard who is swift moving, the bear who is powerful and the lion who is authoritative and this empire basically combines all the distinguishing characteristics of the great world empires from the ancient world but the leader of this kingdom is no one less than Satan himself.
Verse 3 speaks of the head that was healed. It says, “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.” And there are two ways to look at this. The first and most common is that an assassination attempt will bring the anti-christ who may serve in one of these European countries in a minor capacity to the attention of the whole world. I mean, if you can tap into the world’s emotion through television and the internet you can control their hearts.
Do you remember Jim Brady who was the press secretary for Ronald Reagan? Now, this is my opinion but I’m sure Jim is a nice guy but he was the most boring press secretary and most people simply endured him but when Ronald Reagan was shot, so was Jim Brady, and all of a sudden he was front page news in every country of the world. And they actually passed the Brady Bill which made everyone apply for five days before they could get a handgun permit. And in a sense Jim Brady changed the law of the United States; and how did he do this? By getting shot in the head!
Well, you can see the same thing happening to the anti-christ but it says he’s going to be stabbed with a sword and everyone will rally around him out of sympathy but it’s going to appear that he’ll be supernaturally healed and then everyone will treat him like he’s some kind of superstar.
And then the second suggestion is; that the role of the emperor which has been dead for a long time is going to be restored in the person of the anti-christ. And just as the believers in the first century had to offer a pinch of incense and say Caesar is lord in order to get a work permit or they’d be killed; then those who refuse to submit or worship the anti-christ by pledging allegiance to his system and receiving the mark on their right hand or forehead will also lose their lives. It could be either or a combination of these two.
And the response of the people is in verse 4 where they’ll worship the beast and say there’s no one like him and no one has more personal appeal. He’ll be someone with absolute charisma. Listen, he’s going to be like the Beatles were to their fans.
My sister went to see the Beatles when they were in Maple Leaf Gardens and she said, “You couldn’t hear a word they sang or anything they played because the entire audience was screaming hysterically from the minute they walked on stage. And she said that at one point, the Beatles just banged on their instruments and laughed because no one could hear them anyway. That’s the kind of charisma the anti-christ will have except he’ll have a lot more.
He’s going to be a great speaker and with this ability he’s going to build a political platform. It says, he’ll say great things and blasphemies. I think he’ll come up answers to problems that nobody ever thought of or suggestions for world catastrophes that are going to absolutely amaze everyone; and in response they’ll not only follow him but they’ll trust him like they should have trusted God.
And when it says he blasphemes God and His name that tells us he’s going to attack the very character of God and he may do this by pointing to the various judgments that are taking place during the tribulation and either question God’s power to stop them or His compassion for allowing them.
And then it says he’ll attack the tabernacle or the faith of the Jews and I’m sure he’ll talk about how all of this is nothing more than a waste of time and money because after all, God didn’t help the Jews during World War II and He won’t help them now. And then it says, he’ll even attack those who are in heaven and this probably refers to the raptured saints and he’ll claim they’ve either run away because they were cowards or they’re hiding out of disloyalty to him. Then again, this could also be an attack on the doctrine of the resurrection because he could be saying, “the dead are dead” and since this is all there is, you should get all you can out of life cause there’s nothing else to come.
Then verse 7 says; he’ll use his power to make war with the saints and to overcome them which tells us that every believer who stands for his faith will pay with his life. And it’s interesting to see that he’s preoccupied with the saints. You see, he can’t enjoy all the power that he has because their very presence reminds him of his coming judgment. And then it says that power was given him over everyone else in the world because everyone who’s not a believer is going to be committed to him and his program. So, Satan is going to do on earth what he couldn’t do in heaven and that’s to have everyone worship him.
And then, God says in verses 9 and 10, “If any man have an ear, let him hear. 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.” Now, first this is an invitation to the unsaved but, notice that this invitation; like all the invitations of the Bible; is to individuals. It says, “If any man’ and everybody comes to Him; one at a time. We might go forward as a group or accept the Lord with our families or friends but the commitment we make is always an individual one.
And this also a warning to the unsaved where it says, “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity, he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.” So, no one is going to get away with anything but they’re going to get everything they give and eventually everything is going to come out in the wash.
II And then second, in verse 11 it says, “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; (Now, remember this is a second beast that is very much like the first one except he came out of the earth rather than the water) and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (O.K. he looks like Jesus but speaks like the devil) And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.”
Now, this second beast seems to be much more kind and personable than the first but what he is; is the epitome of a wolf in sheep’s clothing because he exercises the same kind of demonic power and the same kind of authority as the first because he’s empowered by the same source.
He sounds like some kind of religious leader but he has all the political power of the first. So, what he says goes and what he says is; that everyone should treat the first beast like he’s God.
And listen, this guy is really amazing because it says he does miracles like Elijah did, by bringing down fire out of heaven and I really think he does these things because when it says he deceives them; I don’t think that the miracles were the deception but they were the means of the deception. And then I want you to notice that there’s something really strange here; because it says, “those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.” So, he can do all these things but he can’t do them without his presence. (And don’t ask why he can’t because I don’t know.)
And then we see that the biggest miracle he does is to get the people to make an image of the beast and somehow he has power to give life to this image so that it will speak and then he causes everyone who doesn’t worship this image to be killed. I know this sounds too far fetched because we know that no one can make a human out of a machine, right?
Let me read an article that just came out on August 13 and it was in several news carriers. It says, “Meet Gordon, probably the world’s first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue stitched together from cultured rat neurons. Gordon’s primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.
Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP. This "multi-electrode array" serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.
Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.
This cutting edge research is the first step to examine how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data. The key aim is that eventually this will lead to a better understanding of development and of diseases and disorders which affect the brain such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke and brain injury.”
So, the experiments which are going to be fulfilled in this passage; have already begun. And when you think about the fact that the antichrist will be attacked in the head with a sword; that’s where they’ll get the brain tissue for this machine.
Now, this passage seems strange because rather than worshipping the beast himself, the second beast has them worshipping an image of the first and as I thought about this I thought that what he was doing was getting the people who’ve worshipped the beast to go one step further away from God and worship an image of the false god they were worshipping in the first place. In other words, these people are totally committed idolaters.
So, he uses supernatural power from the devil and then makes everyone worship him on pain of death. And the reason he does this is because he can’t tell if someone is worshiping or just going through the motions, so, he produces a test. And if you’re loyal to the anti-Christ and truly worship him, you’ll take your stand by accepting his mark and proving your loyalty and this mark will not only demonstrate your allegiance but it’ll also allow you to participate in the economy.
Verse 17 describes this where it says, “It’s the name of the beast or the number of his name.” And somehow this is going to be a mark of both personal commitment to the system and ownership by the beast because everyone who wears this will be saying, “I belong to him and I’m committed doing his thing his way.”
And somehow this mark is going to be a passport for trade. And when you think about it, we are heading for a cashless society. When I was young I remember how everyone got paid in cash. All the coal minors came home with an envelope filled with bills and coins. And then when I started working I got cash from the candy store owner but when I went to the railroad we got a cheque and every Thursday or Friday and everyone would line up at the bank and deposit or cash their cheque.
Now, most companies have a direct deposit system and you never see your money. Today, most of our bills are paid by automatic withdrawal and you can do all of your banking day or night at home by using your personal computer. And as they say, the less cash, the less crime. And let’s face it; if there was no cash then the world of crime would come to a crashing halt. I mean, drug dealers, bandits, prostitutes and loan sharks all deal with cash.
And even with the debit cards we use now, there’s no such thing as a bad cheque or any store having to worry if people are overspending because their machine lets them have the money right away. The only problem would be if someone got your number and stole your card but the anti-christ is going to have a system that’ll stop all that because your security number will be imbedded in either your forehead or your right hand and anywhere in the world it will be accepted and no one can use your number unless you’re present.
Imagine, no one can rob you, you can’t abuse your credit, no one can abuse social programs and even convicts, whether they’re in prison or even escaped can be controlled by simply zeroing in on their number. And when you look at all the benefits it actually looks like the answer to all of our problems but when you see who’s in charge you realize that the answer is the problem.
There are all kinds of ideas and speculations around who the antichrist is or will be and many take the numbers 666 and use some kind of Roman numerals or letter substitutions to figure out who this is but; do you know what the problem is? You can make it be whoever you want or whoever you don’t like.
John F. Kennedy was America’s first Roman Catholic President and people actually believed when he was speaking he spoke on behalf of the pope and just to prove it; people point to the 1956 Democratic convention, where Kennedy received 666 votes. And then when he was shot in the head in Dallas, there were a lot of people waiting for this deadly wound to heal but; he’s still dead. Unless of course you believe the National Enquirer who wrote that he got sick of the political life and is now living on a private island.
And then there’s Mikhail Gorbachev who was the first Russian leader to support the rights of the people and maybe the fact that he was born with that mark on his head caused a few people to wonder.
Some have even suspected Prince Charles for being the antichrist because he not only has ancestral links to the Roman Empire but it’s also reported that he’s a vegetarian, which would also explain why the antichrist is going to stop the daily animal sacrifices in the Jewish Temple.
And then when Ronald Reagan and his wife moved to California, their house number was, you guessed it, 666, so they had it changed to 668.
You see, you can go on and on about anyone famous or anyone you don’t like but it’s important to keep in mind that the antichrist isn’t going to be revealed until after the rapture, so, to name anybody before that would be pure speculation.
Here’s an idea I just found last week and it actually makes some sense and it’s found in Isaiah 66:6, “Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the LORD repaying his enemies all they deserve.” According to Isaiah, there is something that’s going to happen in Jerusalem and some believe that this is the abomination that causes desolation which is another term for describing something that’s absolutely horrible in the sight of God.
And when you think about it, the antichrist and his armies are going to surround Jerusalem and they’ll cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease and then the antichrist will set up the abomination that causes desolation which could be the setting up of himself as god to be worshipped and when he performs this detestable act, it’s very likely that the Jewish priests will become infuriated and they’ll resist him and his armies and this could be the beginning of the persecution of the Jews during the second half of the tribulation.
And don’t forget that Jesus said this would be a time of unprecedented tribulation and persecution, it’ll be worse than anything since the beginning of creation and the reason it’ll be so bad is that anyone who doesn’t accept and submit to the antichrist is going to be slaughtered like an animal.
It’s also possible that John gave us another clue when he said, “the number of the beast, is man’s number.” The system of numbers that are used to identify the chapters and verses in the Bible were placed there by man and they weren’t part of the original text. Therefore the 66:6 of Isaiah is a human invention and it could be part of the answer to the riddle.
So, this could be a biblical explanation of what the mark means but whatever it is; Satan is going to have this mark on the forehead or hand of everyone who is loyal to him.
There are even some Christians who’ve said that the idea of a beast describes a concept rather than a person but in Revelation 19:20, both the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, and God doesn’t cast systems, governments and ideologies into hell, he casts individuals there. So, these are clearly people.
Conclusion
How soon will it be until the antichrist will be revealed? According to II Thessalonians 2:3, he will be revealed right after the rapture and the rapture could happen at any moment! The signs of the times are everywhere, especially with the Jewish people who have been back in the state of Israel since 1948.
So the antichrist may be living somewhere in the world right now, ready to be revealed but you wouldn’t know it because he’s not going to be revealed until after the rapture.
When I was in Bolivia, Glennie Wry wanted to take a small group of us up to a mountain top location where they used to worship gods and back then they had a system where a person could volunteer to be sacrificed and during the next year they could have anything they wanted whether it was sex, food or anything else but at the end of the year they’d be killed and their beating hearts were offered to the gods on this particular mountain. But, in order to get up there we had to drive up this extremely dangerous one lane road and it was about seven miles long and we kept going until we got to the top and found out we were on the wrong mountain. We had made a simple wrong turn at the base of the mountain and had to go all the way down and then all the way back up again. And that’s the price of taking the wrong road.
Ronald Reagan told the story about how when he was young his aunt took him to a shoemaker to have a pair of shoes made. And the shoemaker said, “Ronnie, do you want round toe or square toe?” And Ron couldn’t make up his mind, so the shoemaker said, “Well, I’ve got to make the sole and heel, so, why don’t you drop in a week and let me know.” A week later Ron hadn’t come back because he couldn’t make up his mind; whether he wanted round or square toes. (You know, it’s the old predicament. If you can’t or don’t want to make up your mind just ignore it and hope somehow it’ll take care of itself.)
A few days later the shoemaker saw him on the street and said, “Have you decided about your shoes yet?” And he said, “No, I haven’t.” And the man said, “Well, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” And when Ronald Reagan received his new shoes there was one round toe and one square one. And he said, “I learned a very important lesson and that was; not to let others make decisions for me.” If I don’t make decisions someone else will make them for me.
And the same is true about this matter of salvation; because if I don’t make a decision then I’ve already made one.
