If
you are following along with me we just finished chapter 12. A quick
recap of chapter 12 has Satan thrown out, and excluded from access to
heaven. If you are honest we saw a throw back in time to him lying in
wait to kill the Christ child. Unable to do that he pursues the Woman
(Israel) in attempt to kill them off. Failing that he goes after her
seed, which happens to be Israel. There is another peculiar aspect of
chapter 12 that should have caught your attention and that is:
Revelation
12:17 EMTV And
the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went off to make war
with
the
rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus.
This
last segment clearly identifies this aspect of the remnant as:
- Those keeping the commandments of God.Any decent Jew would think that they are doing that.
- And having the testimony of Jesus.Now we are in deep water.The Jews rejected Jesus, but these either have not, or they have turned to Jesus as the awaited Messiah. Depending on when they came to know Jesus as the Messiah plays heavily into the end times chronology. If they came to a knowledge and acceptance of him prior to the rapture they would not be here. So then it is safe to say they came after. Using your brain and putting the pieces of the puzzle together, you can gather that they have been:
- pursued,
- persecuted,
- seen many die around them,
- chose not to flee,
- and had someone mentor them about how they could walk through this test.
After walking
through the barrage being thrown by Satan, stepping into chapter
thirteen is like putting the brakes on. Chapter thirteen takes us
back in history and prophecy, so can we say that this
chapter is giving us the background that makes all this chaos happen.
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.
(Revelation
13:1 KJV)
John
is the person referred to when it says “I”.
The
sand of the sea is not necessarily literal but certainly can have a
correlation with Abraham, for God told him that his descendants would
be as the sands of the sea. This is another area in which we may have
made disastrous assumptions for we consistently attribute the sands
reference to Jews. But if you are paying attention then you know that
Muslims claim Abraham as their father through Ishmael. Ishmael was
not the son of promise and seems to be the basis of their anger, but
try numbering them. The promise applied no matter what direction
Abraham's seed went.
John
has the fortune to have an angel, much like with Daniel, give an
explanation of the events that John is seeing. The sea that the beast
rises out of is explained in Revelation 17:15
Revelation
17:15 EMTV Then he said to me, "The waters which you saw,
where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and
languages.
A
beast rise up out of the sea,
The
beast at this point has no definition and yet we eagerly assigned
this to some man. One of the things I noted as I journaled about
this, is that you have to keep your beasts straight. Scripture tells
us that four have attained that title.
“having
seven heads...”
In
trying to find the right words there is no shame using the words of
someone smarter. John MacArthur's commentary states:
“The
heads may represent successive world empires—Egypt, Assyria,
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the final kingdom of
Antichrist”
MacArthur
goes on to say,
“When
John wrote, the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and
Greek empires had gone out of existence; Rome still existed; and the
Antichrist's empire had not yet come.”
If we
are talking empires when we try to ascertain the heads, and I believe
we are, then we have to begin looking for some commonalities. I may
not go into that here, but hopefully touch on some possibilities.
Keep
in mind that my object is make this book understandable, as I believe
it was meant to be.
“..having
seven heads and ten horns,”
John
MacArthur says the horns represent power.
Daniel
saw the same beast.
Daniel
7:7-11 NASB "After this I kept looking in the night visions, and
behold, a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron
teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with
its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before
it, and it had ten horns.
(8) "While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn,
a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were
pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed
eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts. (9) "I
kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took
His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head
like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a
burning fire. (10) "A river of fire was flowing And coming out
from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And
myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the
books were opened. (11) "Then I kept looking because of the
sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept
looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and
given to the burning fire.
But
Daniel got an explanation of the beast.
Daniel
7:23-24 NASB "Thus he said: 'The fourth beast will be a
fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the
other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and
crush it. (24) 'As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten
kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be
different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
So
the horns actually represent ten kings. Three get taken out. What
do we have that closely resembles this level of activity? Libya and
Egypt. Is Syria the third? Do not know for sure, but it is a strong
maybe.
I
mentioned earlier that you should start paying attention to
commonalities. Although I am sure this can be defined we have the
underlying purpose behind their coalition, God decreed it to fulfill
his word.
Revelation
17:17 NASB "For God has put it in their hearts to execute
His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom
to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.
Revelation
13:1 CJB (12:18) Then the dragon stood on the seashore; (13:1) and I
saw a beast come up out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads.
On its horns were ten royal crowns and on its heads
blasphemous names.
The
focus at the moment is what is on its heads. Each head had a crown.
Let's think this through for a moment. The queen of England wears a
crown but only during ceremonies.
Some
of the countries that may fit into this beast as a head:
- Libya – Old information, valid during the reign of Muammar Qadhafi, defined the government there as: governed by the populace through local councils; in practice, an authoritarian state. Col. Qadhafi never wore a crown.
- Saudi Arabia – A major supporter of terrorism seems to be missing from the prophetic picture. They are run as a monarchy. No one here wears anything closely resembling a crown. Sharia law is exclusive to Saudi and outsiders have no rights there.
- Iran – They seem to be a major player in bible prophecy. They are called a theocratic republic. Consider what that means. Although they have a president the real leaders of the country are religious. The religion happens to be Islam and the laws are Sharia laws. Essentially the mullahs or Imams run the country.
- Egypt – Their name is actually Arab Republic of Egypt. Prior to Morsi's election as president of the country they claim to be a republic. Anyone with open eyes knows that within the last year Egypt under went a major upheaval and Andrew Morsi got himself elected. The country is now attempting to govern itself by Sharia law and one should only assume that the Imams wish to have total control.
None
of them wear crowns, but they do wear turbans.
John
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible states,
“And
upon his horns ten crowns;
which distinguishes Rome Papal from Rome Pagan; the crowns in Rome
Pagan were upon the heads, or the emperors, that resided at Rome; and
though it had ten horns, as here, and was divided into so many
provinces, which were governed by deputies, proconsuls, &c. yet
they were not kings, they had no crowns; but here the horns have
crowns on them because the governors of these ten kingdoms are
crowned kings:”
You
might think that this should force us to focus on the Vatican as the
beast, but I think that is a misdirection and some ill thought out
logic.
Daniel
shows that the human Antichrist will rise up from these ten kings
(Daniel_7:16-24);
And that this is the little horn.
Daniel
9:26 CJB Then, after the sixty-two weeks, Mashiach will be cut off
and have nothing. The people of a prince yet to come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary, but his end will come with a
flood, and desolations are decreed until the war is over.
Both
Josephus and Tacitus recorded that Assyrians within the legions
outnumbered Romans by a five to one ratio, and that at the time of
the temples destruction there were about 60,000 troops primarily of
Assyrian decent. They demonstrated no love for the Jews, and were
entirely responsible for the destruction of the temple.
So
if you are looking for the direction from which the prince will come
then you should be looking toward the Assyrian nations. These are the
nations that are surrounding and threatening Israel as we speak. And
they are Islamic controlled nations.
A
bit of a heads up. Find the book The Islamic Antichrist, by Joel
Richardson and you will get a clearer picture than I can give you.
“...and
on his heads were
blasphemous
names. “
In
Mark's gospel, chapter 3, the Jews attributed the works that Jesus
did to the devil, specifically Beelzebub
= “lord of the house”1)
a name of Satan, the prince of evil spirits (Thayer). For
this he lit into the middle of them and defined for us just what
blasphemy was.
Mark
3:22-29 KJV And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He
hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out
devils. (23) And he called them unto him, and said unto them in
parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? (24) And if a kingdom be
divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. (25) And if a
house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. (26) And if
Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but
hath an end. (27) No man can enter into a strong man's house, and
spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then
he will spoil his house. (28) Verily I say unto you, All sins
shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith
soever they shall blaspheme: (29) But he
that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness,
but is in danger of eternal damnation:
These
names on their heads are the antithesis of God (in opposition to.)
The Greek word used was blasphemia, and means: 1) slander,
detraction, speech injurious, to another’s good name; 2) impious
and reproachful speech injurious to divine majesty.
God
did not introduce himself to the father of not only Israel, but the
Arab as well (through Ishmael) by the name of Allah. He called
himself “I am”. It
is even more complicated than that, for as one translator described
it, his name sounds like breath itself.
The
Quran teaches that it is absurdity to think that Jesus Christ is the
son of God for Allah would degrade himself to partake of such an act.
Therefore Jesus is merely a good prophet, worthy of listening to, and
he did not die on any cross for he was rescued off of it before death
and lived a long, married life. Again you should be able to see the
opposition to the gospel and blasphemy.
If
this is not a man who John sees in Revelation 13:1 then what is it.
We have an idea of what it looks like, but that only makes it more
freakish. We also know that Satan brought powerful angels with him in
his first fall. The angel Gabriel had fought with a powerful angel
and another was coming. Ironically one of those angels was called the
prince of Persia (Which we now know as Iran). We also know that there
are four evil angels that are to be released, currently bound in the
river Euphrates.
So
what if this beast is really upheld by the actions of a powerful
angel, and what if his name is Allah?
I
tell you these things not to incite you riot, scare you off, or turn
you from God because you see him as filled with rage, but in hopes
that you come to him.
We
are still living in the age of grace, that time period where Christ's
blood covers our sins, therefore the only thing that puts distance
between us and the Father that longs for us is our arrogance and
unbelief.
I
equate this world to a giant adoption agency where God came to make
an adoption. Knowing full well what we were like and how many of
there were he brought the full price and paid for all of us, so that
we could be in his family. Because God is loving and wants all to
come by choice you merely have sign in agreement and get in the truck
to go home with him.
What
does it mean to sign the agreement? Not that much different from
believing. Believing means I understand that he loves me and wants
me, and that the price Jesus Christ paid that day (his life) was
enough. We have been forgiven of all sins. I cannot stress that
enough, but we have to make the decision to get on board of our own
free will. Love outside of free will is slavery and not love at all
but fear. God is love. Love put himself on the cross for you, and the
best news of all is that death could not hold him, for he is alive.
Ask
Jesus Christ to make himself real to you. He will. The rest is up to
you, run into his open arms and life with him is yours.
P.S.
I talk to much, so we will continue Revelation 13 with the next post.
