And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads… And the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast… It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain…
Then I saw another beast rising out of the
earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 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. It
performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of
people, 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. 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. 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, 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…
Revelation 13
Both
Daniel and John saw beasts rise up out of the sea, representing human
government rising up from among people. These governments become progressively
more evil because they increasingly abandon God’s ways in the pursuit of human
ambition. Ultimately, this leads to conflict with the people who follow God’s
ways. And so, in Revelation, the beast is worshipped almost universally and
makes war on God’s people, even to the point of conquering them.
The
beast from the land is generally thought to represent false religion. It
performs signs and wonders but, principally, it uses two tools to control
people: an image of the first beast that comes alive and the Mark of the Beast.
These
images are shocking but I suspect we might not be shocked by the reality they
symbolise. Revelation 13 makes it clear that the evil and blasphemy of the
beast and its image is accepted by almost everybody in the world and I expect that when the
Mark of the Beast is created that it will be seen as a good thing and readily
accepted by most people.
I will
explain why tomorrow, in the conclusion to this series on Babylon and the Beast.
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2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
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