REVELATION
Chapter 13 "The Beast and the False Prophet"
INTRODUCTION:
1. Chapter 13 describes the activity of two beasts during the tribulation after the church has been raptured. (cf. II Thess. 2:1-4)
2. Both beasts are empowered by Satan (vs. 4,12).
3. In this chapter you have pictured a "trinity of evil":
a. Satan - counterfeit of God, the Father
b. Antichrist - counterfeit of Christ, the false Messiah
c. Prophet - counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, the reli- gious leader who proclaims the worship of the false Christ.
I. THE DICTATOR vs. 1-10
A. His Rise (vs.1,2)
1. The appearance of Satan
a. The word "I" in verse one is "he" according to the best manuscripts.
b. It refers back to the person of Rev. 12:17 where he is identified as Satan, the dragon.
c. The devil has by now been cast out of heaven and into the earth (12:13).
d. It suggests the beginning of the final stages of Satan's efforts in his desired overthrow of Christ.
e. He stands on the "sands of the sea".
1) Indicates his attempt to control the nations of the earth
2) "The sands of the sea" refer to nations and people. (Cf. Isa. 17:12,13; 57:20; Rev. 17:15; Dan. 7:2)
f. He will bring about the rise of the antichrist.
2. The ascendancy of the beast
a. His character
1. "Beast" is literally "wild beast" - "therion", Greek
2. Indicates the brutality and savagery of his rule
3. He is a definite personality as seen in his names:
a) Man of sin - II Thess. 2:3
b) Son of perdition - II Thess. 2:3
c) King of fierce countenance - Dan. 8:23
d) Little horn - Dan. 7:8
e) The Assyrian - Isa. 10:5-12
f) Prince that shall come - Dan. 9:26
g) Vile person - Dan. 11:21
h) Willful king - Dan. 11:36
i) Abomination of desolation - Mt. 24:15
j) Desolator - Dan. 9:27
4. Has a definite purpose
a) To crush the nation of Israel (Dan. 7:21-25)
b) To create a Gentile, one-world government (Rev. 13:7,8; 17:13)
c) To create a godless world (II Thess. 2:4, cf. Psa. 2:1-3)
1/ A blasphemer in his assumption of deity (Rev. 13:5,6; II Thess. 2:4)
2/ Tries to prove his claim of deity through satanic signs and wonders (II Thess.2:8,9)
d) He is a covenant breaker. (Dan. 9:27)
e) A leader of great intelligence - has the ability to sway men (Dan. 7:11,20; Rev. 13:5)
f) He will oppress the people with heavy taxa- tion. (Dan. 11:20)
g) He will establish a new calendar. (Dan. 7:25)
h) He will come out of obscurity. (Dan. 11:23)
i) He will take political control of the world.
1/ Peaceably at first (Dan. 9:27; Rev. 6:1,2; 17:13)
2/ Finally by force (Dan. 7:8,20; 11:38)
b. His coming - "out of the sea" (v.1)
1) As before, the sea refers to the nations and the people of earth.
2) Secondly, the sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea--called the "Great Sea". (Ezek. 47:10,15,19,20; 48:28)
3) The rise of antichrist will, therefore, come from the sea of people that surround the Mediterranean--the area of the old Roman Empire.
4) He will be a Jew from a western European nation because:
a) No Jew would accept a Gentile messiah--it is the hope of every Jewish woman, even today, that she will be the mother of the Messiah. (Dan. 11:37; cf. Haggai 2:7)
b) He rises from the Roman Empire since he will become the ruler of people who once destroyed Jerusalem. (Dan. 9:26)
c) It is interesting to note that many commen- tators who insist on this man being a Gen- tile also suggest that he may arise from the tribe of Dan--a Jewish tribe. (cf. Jer. 8:16)
B. His Resurrection (v.3) cf. Rev. 13:3; 17:8
1. The conjecture - that the antichrist will be a resurrected person
a. The persons proposed: Judas Iscariot, Nero, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin
b. The problems presented - the following arguments are from "Things to Come," by Dwight Pentecost:
1) In Revelation 13:3 and 17:8 the beast is explained as a composite kingdom. The reference to the healing seems to be the resurgence of power in the Gentile kingdom that had been dead for so long.
2) Satan is called the "angel of the bottomless pit" in Rev. 9:11, so that Rev. 17:8 does not teach that the head of the empire arose out of the abyss, but rather that the empire itself was brought about "from the abyss" or by Satan.
3) The Scriptures reveal that men are brought out of the grave by the voice of the Son of God (Jn. 5:28,29). Satan does not have the power to give life. Since Christ alone has the power of resur- rection, Satan could not bring one back to life.
4) The wicked are not resurrected until the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15). If a wicked one were resurrected at this point it would set aside God's divinely ordained program of resur- rection.
5) Since all the references to this individual present him as a man, not as a supernatural being, it seems impossible to hold that he is a resurrected individual. It would be concluded that the beast will not be a resurrected individual. (end quote)
2. The composition (vs. 1-3)
a. A comparison
1) Dan. 7:7,8 - a description of the revival of the Roman Empire in the latter times (cf. Rev. 12:3; 17:3,7)
2) Dan. 7:3-7 - also a description of the final Roman Empire seen as a composite government containing all the elements of the first three:
a) Lion - Babylon v.4
b) Bear - Persia v. 5
c) Leopard - Greece v.6
d) Nondescript beast - Rome v. 7
3) Dan. 2:31-35 - the prophecy of the rise of the four kingdoms in Nebuchadnezzar's image which corresponds to the beast vision of Dan. 7.
b. A conclusion
1) The seven heads of the beast are the seven forms of government of the original Roman Empire - i.e., kings, consuls, dictators, decimvirs, military, tribunal, imperialism as instituted by Julius Caesar.
a) It is the head of imperialism that is to be resurrected. (v.3)
b) It is the head of imperialism that is to be the last form of Gentile world government. (Rev. 17:10,11)
c) History had seen five of the forms of Roman government pass away; John was living in the sixth; the seventh and eighth (revived Rome) were yet to come. (Rev. 17:10,11)
d) "It is significant that one of the heads is wounded to death, but that the beast itself is not said to be dead." (Walvoord) Thus it is a form of government that was wounded to death.
2) The beast is a man and a government.
a) "The person is often the symbol of the government, and what is said of the government can be said of him." (Walvoord)
b) The beast is both personal and the empire itself.
C. His Reign (v.5)
1. The commencement of his reign
a. He will come forth as a "messiah" during the first 3-1/2 years of the tribulation. (cf. 6:1,2)
b. When the day of the Lord has begun (II Thess. 2:2)
c. He will come peaceably at first with solutions to the world's problems.
2. The continuance of his reign
a. "Forty and two months"
b. When he will show his evil character and designs
1) To conquer the world
2) To destroy Israel
3) To usurp the place of Christ as the world's savior
D. His Rebellion (vs.5-8)
1. His abusive assertions (v.6)
a. He speaks great things regarding himself (v.5) - "speaking great things" (cf. Dan. 7:8,11,20)
b. He speaks "pompous words" about his superior abilities (Dan. 7:8)
c. He blasphemes: Gr., from "blapto", to injure and "pheme", speech. Most usually confined to speech defamatory of the Divine Majesty.
1) God's name - the only name by which comes salvation and blessing to the world
2) God's tabernacle - signifies the holiness of God, because the Tabernacle is the place of the Holy of Holies.
3) God's people in heaven - those in whom the holiness and the glory of God have attained their full goal in heaven.
2. His absolute authority (v.4) --Because his power will be so great and far reaching, no one of the unbelieving world will have any choice but to do as he commands.
3. His aggressive action (v.7)
a. He will make war against those who become belie- vers. (cf. Acts 9:1,2)
b. He will kill many because of their faith. (v.7)
c. He will have world-wide success in taking the authority over all nations. (Dan. 8:24)
4. His abominable adoration (v.8)
a. He introduces idolatrous worship. (Dan. 9:27)
b. He sets himself up as God. (Dan. 11:36,37; II Thess. 2:4)
c. He will cause the whole world to worship himself. (v.8) -- with the exception of the saints.
E. His Ruin (vs.9,10)
1. The certainty of his judgment
a. "It is strange that almost every passage that makes reference to the activities of the beast also in- cludes a notice of his doom." (Pentecost)
b. "Scripture has solemnly recorded the end of various august evil personages. Some were overwhelmed by water; some devoured by flames; some engulfed in the jaws of the earth; some stricken by a loathsome disease; some ignominiously slaughtered; some hanged; some eaten up of dogs; some consumed by worms. But no sinful dweller on earth, save the Man of Sin, "the Wicked One," has been appointed the terrible distinction of being consumed by the brightness of the personal appearance of the Lord Jesus Himself. Such shall be his unprecedented doom, an end that shall fittingly climax his ignoble origin, his amazing career, and his unparalleled wickedness." (A.W. Pink)
2. The consummation of his judgment Ezek. 21:25-27; 28:7-10; Dan. 7:11; 8:25; 9:27; II Thess. 2:8 3. The characteristics of his judgment (vs. 9,10)
a. The law of divine retribution Cf. Ex. 21:23-25; Lev. 24:20; Dt. 19:21
b. The same manner with which one murders a believing saint will be used as the mode of execution of the perpetrator.
II. THE DECEIVER (vs.11-18)
A. His Position
1. His difference (v.11)
a. The first beast, Antichrist, will be the political ruler of the world during the tribulation who sets himself up as God. (Rev. 13:1-10; II Thess. 2:3,4)
b. The second beast will be the religious ruler who promotes the worship of the first beast and his politcal empire.
2. His description - "another beast" (v.11)
a. "Beast," as before (13:1) is "wild beast".
b. "Another" is the word used for another of the same kind.
c. He will be just as evil and foul as the first beast, but his influence will be in a different sphere.
3. His designation (v.11)
a. Having two horns like a lamb, yet he speaks like a dragon
b. "He is lamblike in that he proposes to occupy only the mild, domestic and inoffensive position of spiritual advisor. What more gentle and innocent than the counselling of people how to live and act, for the securement of their happiness! But the words are like the Dragon, in that such professions and claims are in fact the assumption of absolute dominion over the minds, souls, consciences, and hearts of men, to blind them irrevocably, and to compel them to think and act as only he who makes them shall dictate and prescribe." (Seiss)
c. The two horns more than likely represent his authority over the religious and economic spheres.
d. He is called "the false prophet"-"pseudoprophetou", Gr. (Rev. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10)
1) He preaches a false messiah.
2) He preaches "the lie". (II Thess. 2:11)
4. His derivation --He comes out of the earth, which can also be translated as "land."
a) The sea (13:1) refers to the Gentile nations from the area of the
Mediterranean; the sea of people.
b) The earth, or land, has reference to the land of Israel. (Cf. Zech. 2:12)
c) As the first beast is a Jew from a western nation, so the false prophet is also a Jew, but from the nation of Israel.
B. His Power (vs.13,15)
1. The sign of authenticity (v.13)
a. The world has always sought signs as a means of determining the authenticity of another's claims.
1) Israel - Ex. 4:8,9
2) Pharoah - Ex. 7:9
3) Scribes and Pharisees - Mt. 12:38
4) Disciples - Mt. 24:3 5) Jews - I Cor. 1:22
b. The false prophet will use fire over and over again (verb form) to seduce the Jews into believing that he is Elijah returned. (cf. Mal. 4:5)
2. The signs of authority (v.15)
a. He gives the appearance of life to the image of the first beast ("Life" is literally "breath".)
b. He causes the image to somehow speak.
3. The signs of arrogance
a. Used by Satan - II Cor. 11:13-15; II Thess. 2:9
b. Used by the Egyptian magicians - Ex. 7:10-12
c. Used by false prophets - Mt. 24:24; Mk. 13:22
C. His Purpose (vs. 12-15)
1. To promote the worship of the first beast (v.12)
2. To create a one-world religion with the Antichrist as its god (v.14)
3. To deceive the unbelieving world (v.14)
4. He has the power of death over those who refuse to worship the beast. (v.15)
5. He has authority over the economic realm to control commerce. (vs.16,17)
6. He has an identifying mark to distinguish himself. (v.18)
D. His Punishment
1. Along with the first beast, he will be defeated at the coming of Christ at the end of the tribulation. (Rev. 19:20)
2. Along with Satan and the Antichrist he will be cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:10)
3. The duration of his judgment - "forever and ever," or "unto the ages of the ages" (Gr.) - all eternity