The American Wisdom Series

Presents
Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation

Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation is to many folks one of the scariest and most misunderstood chapters in all the Bible.

Why?

Well, the main reason is that people (including preachers and ministers) who are unfamiliar with the Word of God and the plan of God try to interpret what it says. Since they are completely unfamiliar with the symbology used to create a PICTURE to make things clearer and illustrate what's happening, they must make up stories out of their own imaginations to try and explain that which completely baffles them. And that's really scary, for that which one who claims to be a teacher or preacher says to God's children, affects their very lives and even their souls. It is a serious matter.

Here's the first beast:

Rev. 13:1
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.

[2] 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.

Before we even begin to try understand the symbolism used and what these verses mean, let's make sure we SEE the PICTURE. (Note: You can often acquire artist's conceptions of this beast at various phone booths around the country.)

Got the PICTURE? 

Then you have just seen the awesomeness of what the structure of the New World Order will look like after Satan, the dragon, is cast out of heaven and takes over. 

Now let's look at the symbolism used in the PICTURE.

1.) Who is the dragon? We just read Rev. 12:9 so there can be no doubts or guess work as to the identity of the dragon. The Dragon is Satan.

Remember also that we saw this same description of this same power structure of the dragon in the first earth age in Rev. 12:3, except that he will have 3 more "crowns" with him this time when he gets here.

2.) And what is the sea? The sea is the people of the earth from which the political system arises.

4.) And what of these names of blasphemy?  Don't forget, just as Satan will be appearing as the Messiah, though he be the false one, his angels will be with him and appearing as, and called by the name, "Ministers of Christ". Can you be more blasphemous than that?

Rev. 9:8
And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

1 Samuel 17:36
Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

Even Paul was delivered out of the mouth of the lion by the Lord who stood with him!

2 Tim. 4:17
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

Note: I thought I told you not to guess about God's Word. If you want to look ahead to verse 12 you will see that Satan himself, the supernatural archangel coming as Jesus Christ, heals the deadly wound. No problem for Slick Satan.

="And all the world WONDERED after the beast". Yes, it will be truly amazing, just marvelous for world peace!

The following quotation is from the World Book Encyclopedia.

"The League of Nations was an international association of countries which was created at the end of World War I. It grew out of the desire of the people throughout the world to prevent war forever.

The most important work of the League of Nations was the peaceful settlement of international quarrels. The Council of the League of Nations was set up for this purpose.

Unfortunately, the efforts of the Council were not always successful. For example, during 1935 and 1936 the Council failed to settle the dispute between Italy and Ethiopia. At that time Italy was trying to build up a great empire at the expense of the Ethiopians.

The failure of the Council to solve the Italian-Ethiopian dispute did much to weaken and finally destroy the influence of the League of Nations. No one really had the power to force nations to remain at peace." World Book Encyclopedia, 1953, vol. 10, pg. 4342.

Rev. 13:4 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?

My goodness, they say that now! I've heard the statement several times on talk shows: "Who is able to go against the wishes of the international community?" President Clinton even said it in his State of the Union address regarding Saddam Hussein.  How much more true it will be when Satan comes!

1 Thes. 5:1-3

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

[2] For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

[3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

And the dragon with them! Right after the NWO takes a hit!  It's the next benchmark in Bible prophecy!

[4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

[5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

[6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Isn't studying God's Word in these last days exciting? I mean here we are, present when these prophecies are coming to pass! Just think! The prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel and all the disciples of Christ wanted to know what it would be like in our day, in the final generation, the generation of the fig tree which was planted in 1948, the first born of whom are now senior citizens and received AARP cards in their right hands (No, it's not the mark of the beast! It's just a sign of aging and the advent of discounts.)!

Do you realize how blessed we are that our Father saved you and me to be born now, at the end of the 6th day, the 6,000 years of flesh man, to witness the birth of a new age?

Earlier we learned that the old serpent, the dragon, is actually Satan himself. 

So, let's continue our study of the revelation of the "Acts of the Dragon" in Rev. 13:5.

Rev. 13:5 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.

This verse means that Satan was permitted or allowed to speak and have power for 42 months. Dr. Moffat translates it:

Rev. 13:5 He was allowed to utter loud and blasphemous vaunts, and allowed to exert authority for two and forty months; (Moffat)

We also noted in chapter 12 that all prophecy pertaining to Satan and his own is given in "lunar" terminology since they are of the "night". But God's children walk not in darkness, but are children of the "day", i.e. light, and so prophecy pertaining to them is given in "solar" terminology. Here Satan, the chief "lunar-tic", is allowed 42 months (moons) to do his thing. Of course we know that Jesus overrode this time period and shortened it, else no flesh would be saved. Mark 13:20 "And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days." We learned in Rev. 9 that the shortened period is 5 months, the time of the swarming locusts.

Back to old dragon breath:

Rev. 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Rev. 13:7 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.

Mark 13:9
But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

Rev. 13:8 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.

[9] If any man have an ear, let him hear.

We learned concerning the dragon, Satan, that "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 (Rev. 13:8)."

So the obvious question must be asked? 

Do you have ears to hear?

This is an important question because the very nature of the question itself lets us know by implication that there are those who don't have them, right?

Therefore, there are two types of people who will read the rest of this 13th chapter of Revelation. Those who have "ears to hear" and those who do not.  Those who do not cannot "see" or "hear" past the flesh level and cannot understand that the tribulation is a battle for their soul, not their flesh.

When they read "kill with the sword" they think about their flesh, despite the fact that we are told in Rev. 1:16 that the "sword" is the Word of God.

When they read of "famine" they think about their bellies, despite the fact that Amos 8:11 tells us that the famine of the end times is for the hearing of the Word of God.

In fact they love to hear preachers. in our so-called Christian churches, tell them how they are going to "fly away" in the clouds to save what? Their souls? NO! They say you must be saved to be "raptured". What then? To save their flesh! Does the Rapture Theory have anything to do with other than saving their little old flesh hides? Think about it.  Did Paul tell us in Eph. 6 to put on the gospel armour to fly away or to take a stand? Even our Christian soldiers when they go off to war ask God to protect them on the front lines. They don't ask Him to fly them away so they can watch the battle from a remote place of safety. Arrrggg!

Is the Bible a book about saving your flesh or your soul? 

Should we be worried beyond that which is the instinct of natural preservation about our bodies, which are going to wither and die ANYWAY!

Here's what Jesus Christ has to say concerning the matter:

Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

This next verse in Revelation continues with the "destiny" which we just read in verse 8, just prior to the "If you can understand".

Rev. 13:10 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.

Rev. 13:10 Whoever is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes: whoever kills with the sword, by the sword must he be killed. This is what shows the patience and the faith of the saints. ( Moffat)

Rev. 13:11 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.

[12] 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.

proskuneo, pros-koo-neh'-o, Greek 4352; from Greek 4314 (pros) and a probably derivative of Greek 2965 (kuon) (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (literal or figurative) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore) :- worship.

Rev. 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

[14] 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.

[15] 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.

[16] 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:

Note: There is so much ignorance regarding God's Word for the lack of understanding figures of speech. I said before that if in the Book of Acts we found a verse that read "The apostle Paul got into hot water", there would be churches that would require members in good standing to get into a pool or tub of hot water. The scholars would discuss how much water they should get into and just exactly what degree of temperature crests the threshold from "warm" to "hot". They would cite Strong's concordance which would say that "water" means the wet stuff H2O as coming from a lake, river or the sea. But the figure of speech "he got into hot water" means he "got into trouble" and it has NOTHING TO DO WITH WATER! Do you have wisdom or not?

There are only two choices:

(1.) You either have the Seal of God in your forehead, in which case Satan can't touch you.

(2.) Or, you have the Seal of Satan in your forehead, in which case you'll do his bidding and worship him.

Here's something else to consider. If you don't know something then you don't know that you don't know it! 

That's a definition of deception.

In other words, if you are deceived then you are unaware that you are deceived. You believe a lie and stories to be truth. So, if you're running around looking for Satan's mark to be a tattoo or stamp or some microchip or a UPC code, then guess what? He's already got you captive. You already have the mark of the beast in your forehead and you don't know it! Wisdom has completely escaped you! ("That ought to make me some new friends", he said facetiously as he went to the next verse.)

Rev. 13:17 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.

In other words, if you are not a member of "the party", the NWO and his Congregation, you'll have much difficulty in commerce. 

So as a physical example: How did those who were not members of the Nazi party make out in Hitler's Germany?

But, as a spiritual example and it is what's spiritual that is important throughout eternity: Read this Live Link to- What did Jesus tell the folks from Laodicia to buy and sell?

Once Satan arrives here in person, claiming he is God, you will no longer be able to find gold "spiritual gold" (The Word of God, i.e. a accurate version of the Bible), that has been purified in the fiery furnace, much less buy it. Do you remember how Satan altered scripture to seduce Eve in the "Garden of Eden"? Well it is already being altered and he isn't even here, in person yet!  Right now his kenite descendants are working on his revised version of scripture with only his spiritual influence to guide them!  Oh, you'll be able to buy and sell bibles, but the accurate "Word of God"; that will be a thing of the past!  Tell ye your children of it! Let your children tell their children! And their children another generation!

Live Link to- The famine is coming

[18] 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.

And have you looked up 666 in Strong's?

chi xi stigma, khee xee stig'-ma, Greek 5516; the twenty-second, fourteenth and an obsolete letter (Greek 4742 (stigma) as a cross) of the Greek alphabet (intermediate between the fifth and sixth), used as numbers; denoting respectively six hundred, sixty and six; six hundred sixty-six as a numeral :- six hundred threescore and six.

One last comment. Are you familiar with the Song of Moses which we've already mentioned several times is sung by the overcomers in Rev. 15, which we will soon study. If you read Ezek. 28 you'll discover that Satan is called the king of Tyrus, which in Hebrew means "rock". How many different ways must we be told, how many vivid PICTURES must we be shown until we understand that there are two lambs, two Jesus Christs, yes there are two rocks.

Deut. 32:31
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.