It feels like I covered all my bases in dealing with the antichrist in the previous post, so let's move on to the rule and influence of the antichrist.
“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” Revelation 13:1-2 NKJV
The beast rises out of the sea, and the sea is the nations.
Check your focus because usage of the word nations tends to send our minds to Indonesia or Myanmar. For the Jewish audience, this reference to the sea was an allusion to the nations that surrounded Israel. Nothing has changed, and almost every nation surrounding Israel is under Islamic rule. There is an oddity in that a bizarre, multi-headed beast is suddenly referred to as a male entity, which has a throne, and Satan, himself, has given this man his power.
The question is, who gives someone evil, like George Soros, the power to bring down nations and economies?
This is one of those rhetorical questions that really does not need an answer, but hopefully, it makes you think. I suspect that the same people who empower the likes of Bill Gates and George Soros will empower this man as well.
We are told that the dragon gives the antichrist power; we have nothing that says that Satan does not empower others. Matthew's gospel recorded that Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. This time ended with Satan offering Jesus the riches and glory of the kingdoms of this world (Matthew 4:8,) so it is Satan's to give thanks to Adam, and he is capable of giving this power to whoever he pleases.
"Throne" is the Greek word thronos
and can mean (to
sit)
in a stately seat
(“a throne”); by
implication,
it means power or (concretely) a potentate.
A
synonym for
potentate
is a dictator.
How do most dictators come to power?
Through bloodshed (Most often through the death of previous leadership and those who refused to comply with the new state of things.) Isn't that what we have been experiencing over the last several years. On the plus side, we have not had to see much of the bloodshed?
Pay close attention to the words.
This idea that this coming “man” will be shot in the head is bogus.
“And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.” Revelation 13:3 NKJV
This bizarre, multi-headed beast initially represents kingdoms or authority figures that assert power over us even though we may not have voted for them. In the world of dangerous, multi-headed beasts, we have already had one sustain such a wounding. Sadly, only some of us will pay attention to this piece of history, and for the most part, you are deemed a racist fanatic if you focus on words like Muslim or Islam. This oppression allows for Islam to grow and fester right beneath our noses, and no one seems to care.
End page one.
1920s-era classic yacht previously owned by royalty.
The Empire that sustained such a mortal wound was the Ottoman Empire. This “head” was tormenting the world of the early 1920s, and many feared that it/they would take over the peace-loving existence they understood back then. One of Islam’s notable offenses during this “global” reign of terror was to board luxury ships and take “white,” well-to-do people off those ships and sell them as slaves to traders from the Northern African coast. As you might imagine, that did not settle well with many back home. Finally, with the aid of a well-armed coalition that included the United States Marine Corp. and the British military, mortally wounded, or so they thought, the head of this beast in 1924. The Ottoman Empire went silent for years, and the Martini-drinking, global vacation crowd cheered. At the time, the world breathed a sigh of relief and may have said, Thank God that oppressive power is dead.
Guess what?
Slowly, under other names, the head of this beast began to resurrect itself. It finally came back into full bloom in 1979 with the Islamic revolution in Iran.
So much for supposedly killing the beast.
If you have been paying attention to the Mideast news, then you know that Hezbollah and Hamas, both Islamic instruments of destruction funded by people with deep pockets and political ties, have been tormenting Israel for years.
Now, you may think Hezbollah and Hamas are wholly justified in their actions. But we are Bible-believing people and should have an understanding of the promises made to Abraham.
“And the LORD said to Abram after Lot had separated from him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” Genesis 13:14-15 NKJV
Regardless of your political affiliations and twisted bent toward Israel, God promised the land to His people – descendants of Abraham through Issac. When it comes to Ishmael and Esaau, their descendants, too, would become the sands of the sea.
An intriguing comparison in light of Revelation’s references to the sands of the sea.
One more thing.
Did you notice how the above scripture passages end with the word forever?
Once this promise was made, it was never rescinded.
Genesis 12:5-7 NKJV “Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6) Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 7) Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants, I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.”
Watch what happens next.
Having sustained what appeared to be a mortal wound, the beast – an empire, came back to life; “all the world marveled and followed the beast.” Revelation 13:3.
“So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" Revelation 13:4 NKJV
The question is, who is this "they" who are worshiping the beast?
It is NOT the church, for the believers will have been snatched off the earth by God when this happens. Keep in mind that people are dying under these conditions as we speak, so don't get too haughty.
Since you nor I can see the heart of the person that sits next to you in church and is now vehemently arguing with you as though they are a supporter of Islam, even worse, you have no way of knowing if they are truly a follower of Jesus Christ. My own son-in-law will tell you I don't read the Bible but make decisions as to whether the message I hear is Godly or will lead me to God. Based on this, I am not sure what he believes; therefore, he may well be one of those people who will make up the “they” who will fall on his knees to worship the beast, as I described below.
Most of the people who make up this crowd of “worshipers” are, in most cases, blinded; they will prostrate themselves in submission. How about the weak, who will submit to whatever this fool will be selling? Some will submit to Islam. It may not go so well for you if you do that, as they will probably kill you because you are weak, but if it does, it is a man's religion as the woman is subservient and easily brutalized and killed under Sharia law. The drawback is that entrance into the heaven these people are looking for only comes by spilling your own blood in Jihad.
Worshiped is the Greek word proskuneō, meaning “ To kiss like a dog licking his master’s hand, which can imply a fear-based subservience. It also carries the idea of prostrating yourself in homage.
Prostrating myself before God/Jesus seems like the finest thing I could do because He has forgiven me for so much. But, it, too, can imply submissiveness based on fear.
Homage, as defined by Webster, reads,
"In feudal law, the submission, loyalty and service which a tenant promised to his lord or superior,when first admitted to the land which he held of him in fee; or rather the act of the tenant in making this submission, on being invested with the fee. The ceremony of doing homage was thus performed. The tenant, being ungirt and uncovered, kneeled and held up both his hands between those of the lord, who sat before him, and there professed that "he did become his man, from that day forth, of life and limb and earthly honor," and then received a kiss from his lord.”
The idea that the antichrist creates a new religion and forces everyone to worship him, as we do the Father, is based on the assumption that these people, referred to as “they,” worshiped the beast, antichrist, because the beast (an empire) which they alternately see as a man, sustains this mortal wound, dies, and comes back to life.
As children, we watched cartoons that portrayed incidents just like this. What did the bystanders in the cartoon do? They said ooh, and aah, and then blindly followed this leader into some form of captivity.
We cannot find a biblical or legitimate reason to see the world following this man’s religion if he has one, or to initially worship him.
In time, he will try to make the entirety of the global population bow to him. I am making a massive assumption here because, as I have pointed out, most of our eschatological conversation should be focused on the Mideast. There is nothing dominant that should make us change our thinking.
Well, there is one thing: the idea of a sea.
The seas touch the shorelines of virtually every significant nation that plays a role in the end times. If the antichrist, like one of our recent American Presidents, has declared that he is a Muslim, then the “religion” that this man may try to make everyone follow is Islam. (If he shows up wearing a monk’s robe, he may try to push everyone to be a Catholic; at least they are not so openly violent.) Islam also advocates, through violence, that all people bow to Allah in allegiance. An intriguing way to look at life and prophecy, right?
I need to interject this.
Recently, on 07/21/23, an individual who makes Christian videos recommended that we all watch a Christian video but gave no defining terminology, so I watched a few minutes of it, clicked dislike, and turned it off. The video was the preaching of Pastor Robert Breaker. His claim to fame is that he is a proponent of the King James version of the Bible only, as it, in his opinion, is the untainted word of God.
Untainted? Not by a long shot, and as the now deceased Bible teacher Dr. Chuck Missler used to say, “the King James is filled with errors but those errors are well known and documented,” and we have pointed those out errors on multiple occasions. I pointed out one of those major issues as we looked at 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and how the Catholic church, the state church of England, in the 1500s, forced King James to rewrite and change the wording found in the Geneva Bible to reflect their disdain for those leaving the church. This action taken by the Catholic church diminished and changed our focus on the rapture and perverted the way we look at the timing of this event. I am sure this information means nothing to most of you, but it is vital, and the lack of sound and biblical wisdom feeds into the confusion I perpetually hear from the mouths of those I sit by in church – people, by the way, that will not pick up their Bibles, I know this because they tell me.
Pastor Breaker initiated his talk with a chuckle as he stated that there are a lot of false teachers out there. He continued his address by trying to define what will happen after the rapture. If you are a follower of Christ that reads your Bible, then you know that a significant player emerges after the rapture and is called the antichrist.
Pastor Breaker quickly focused on Revelation 13:3, and he seemed antagonistic as he talked about why we should take the bible literally when it says this man receives a mortal wound. (No matter the translation, it does NOT say that he receives a mortal wound.)
“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.”
Revelation 13:3
KJV
Try to picture a human with three heads, and one of them takes a bullet. You cannot because there is NO way something like this can exist. It is certainly easier to imagine a head of state being killed, but even that is morbid and goes against our moral character if we have one.
How does the Tree of Life translation convey this same verse?
“One of his
heads seemed to have been slain, but the
fatal wound was healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the
beast.”
Revelation 13:3 TLV
Can you see a common thread?
They both imply that it seemed to be dead. The King James Bible adds, “his deadly wound was healed.” And both express that many begin to follow this beast because it rises from its deadly wound, and now, in the form of a man, he is doing great signs, much like the old testament prophets did.
The Strong's concordance gives us this.
One short Greek word, hōs, and we get all this, as it were, in that manner.
“ as it were' is the transliteration for the Greek word hōs. In effect, that means we have no direct translation and, therefore, must improvise.
“his” is the Greek word hautou and has some vague meanings. It is a contraction for G1438; self (in some oblique case or reflexive relation): - her (own), (of) him (-self), his (own), of it, thee, their (own), them (-selves), they.
Perhaps this is indicative of the amount of information that we do not know about the antichrist. What we do know is that the antichrist is always referred to as he.
“deadly” is the Greek word thanatos, and it means death; however, it can mean death in a figurative sense.
We are not playing words here, as the verse itself tells us to look at this as if it had been mortally wounded.
“Wound” is the Greek word plēgē. It means, by implication, a wound, but figuratively we are to be looking for a calamity.
Calamity, according to Webster, is any great misfortune or cause of misery.
Go back to the beginning of page two, where I gave a brief explanation of how the Ottoman Empire fulfilled this role. Having been captured, outlawed, and forced to disband, certainly qualifies as a calamity for them, at least for a time.
One of the things that bothers me is how much authority and power the “bible teachers” give the antichrist.
Daniel chapter eleven is both a history lesson and an eschatological map of the end times. For example:
“His
forces
will rise up and profane the fortified Temple; they will stop the
daily offering and
set up the abomination of desolation.”
Daniel
11:31
TLV
Anyone who reads the Bible with the intent to learn knows that the antichrist will do just that but at the three-and-one-half-year mark. I am not foolish because I know that Antiochus Epiphanes did this very thing. If you understand that prophecy, to the Jew, is repetition, then you know that it just makes sense for God to have shown them this very thing on a previous occasion.
“And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Daniel 12:11 NKJV
So much of Daniel 11 speaks of Antiochus Epiphanes; however, there is a moment where there is a definite shift in power. Notice the time frame, 1290 days. If you have been doing the math, the first segment of the seven years is clearly stated as 1240 days. Because we have been fed this idea of a seven-year peace treaty, you would logically assume that the last section of time would also be 1240 days. Surprise, the antichrist seems to be the one who establishes this extra fifty days. Another surprise comes as we were prompted to see the false prophet as the one who sets up an image of the beast, the abomination of desolation, and we all seem to believe that this happens three-and-one half-years into the seven years of the covenant.
Once the temple sacrifices are reestablished 1240 days later, the daily sacrifices will cease. 1290 days later, the image of the beast will be set up in the temple. Now pay attention to something I have never understood before.
"Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days." Daniel 12:12 NKJV
"And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army."Revelation 19:19 NKJV
Revelation 19:19 does not allow for last-minute preparations, as this has been at the forefront of the beasts thinking since he came into power; and, when Jesus shows up, they are there, in the Megiddo Valley, waiting for their chance to kill the Messiah. Good luck with that.
Back to our descriptions of the beast.
“And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom by intrigue.” Daniel 11:21 NKJV
Consider how the Tree of Life version conveys this same passage.
“Then in his place will arise a despicable person, on whom royal honor has not been conferred. He will come in a time of tranquility, and seize the kingdom through intrigue.” Daniel 11:21 TLV
The terminology makes me think of King Charles 111. His mother added the title “Sir” to a tremendous number of people. Whoever it is that will step up to fill the role of the antichrist (it will not carry the title of antichrist) will have no previously known title.
Honor. The Hebrew word is hôd and means splendor, majesty, vigor, and glory.
Many, like Emmanuel Macron, are contending to hold power over the planet. Macron is contending for the title of antichrist, although he does not realize it.
Kingship - malkûth meaning rule; concretely a dominion: - empire, kingdom, realm, reign.
This has a familiarity to it. Again the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, or Barack Obama, should be excluded as they have both held the rule over a dominion.
Another clear description of the antichrist that excludes many is this statement - “on whom royal honor has not been conferred.”
Conferred is the Hebrew word nâthan and means to give or put upon him.
Because he, the antichrist, affirms the peace covenant, we seem to think he is the one that initiates it, and that is not what the scriptures tell us.
A common translation reads like this.
“he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;” NKJV
End part two.
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