Revelation 13:11-18
I had mentioned last week that as an unsaved person we are much like Satan in our relationship to God, and I am not sure if anyone had thought about that much more but I just wanted to share a few verse before we get started today that talks about who we were pre-salvation.
Romans 3:9-18 ~ 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 5:10 ~ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
James 4:4 ~ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (Friend of the world here means that you are friends with the sin).
So this is our pre-salvation state, this is the place God finds us when God seeks us out. Knowing this makes God's grace so much sweeter than not.
The Second Beast
Revelation 13:11 ~ Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
So Satan calls up another beast to do his bidding, this one comes out of the earth. This one does not look as much the monster as the last beast which is intentional. Though it does speak like a dragon.
We have two representations of this beast here. It looks like a lamb (Jesus) and lies like the dragon (Satan). There is something fishy going on here with this beast, there is some deception.
Matthew 7:15 ~ (Jesus) “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
We know there have been many false prophets since Jesus' time, but this one is by far the greatest of them all.
12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
This beast it says exercises all authority as the first but has a different goal in which it makes people worship the first beast. How it make them we don't know. Remember the first beast had blasphemy written across it's heads and I had mentioned this could be an indication that it was implying it was God. Now the second beast is a false Christ who points to the first as god.
(similarity)
Mathew 28:18 ~ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
This is similar to what is happening with these beasts but it is false, they are a copy of the true God and the true Christ, and poor ones at that.
13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
People will see signs that appear so great that people will say “this has to be Christ” but the beast has made a mistake, it says to make an image of the first beast and we know God does not allow this.
Exodus 20:4 ~ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”
So no idols, no matter if it is of God or Satan or anything else that people think should be worshiped. We are only to worship the true God in which no one has seen His face to know what He looks like. I'm not even sure if God has a physical face at all. What are we making idols of today?
15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
There are a couple of things happening out in the world right now that are worrying many people and it is ai or artificial intelligence. This can take form in a few different ways one of which are computer generated images that look exactly like a person and speaks exactly like that person. It is so real you can't tell the difference between real and not real.
Another is robots in which, both of these things are to imitate the beast in a way that if someone would not worship it this image could even kill people for not worshiping it.
16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
People have said many things about these two verses and what they think it is, but as time has changed so has the ideas of what that could be. Some have said a physical mark such as the number 666, others have said a computer chip of sorts.
With the digital currency trend happening, I think no matter what that digital currency could be a part of it.
The dollar is slowly but surely being devalued through inflation over the last three years and I think this is intentional in order to make the transition to digital currency easier.
There are some here that can remember when our dollar was backed by gold and silver, and the government removed that backing long ago. I say what happened to all of our gold and silver, it is ours where is it? Is it still there or has it been depleted? We will never know.
18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
