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We have seen and considered so far the result of the "War in Heaven" as it concerns Israel. (Revelation 12:13-17). Now we have to consider its further effect as it concerns the Earth at large. This effect is twofold, inasmuch as it results in the rise of the Two Beasts:
The one from the Sea (Revelation 13:1-10). The other from the Earth (Revelation 13:11-18). The description of these two, the Beast and the False Prophet, occupies the whole of Revelation 13.
After the failure of Satan's attempt to destroy the Woman...Israel, and the woman's seed, John sees him standing on the sand, or shore of the sea, as though pondering over, weighing, and forming his future plans. And while thus occupied, John sees the outcome...the Beast which rises, (as though at Satan's call), out of the sea.
For clarification, the “Beasts” spoken of in Revelation 4 are zoa, and when we went over that chapter we rendered them by Zoa, and in the singular Zoon. This beast, here in Revelation 13 is THERION, which means a wild beast, or a beast of prey.
Now, Revelation 13:1, “And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads blasphemous names.”
This is the Beast in his superhuman stage. He has already been on the Earth for 3 1/2 years, in his mortal stage. He then receives his death-wound mentioned below, in Revelation 13:3, as the seventh head, and comes up out of the Abyss as the eighth king, comprising ALL the seven heads and the ten horns. These are, in their now superhuman form, crowned. In their mortal form they were not crowned. (See Revelation 17:12).
We see them in their superhuman form, here in the Apocalypse, as we see them in their human or mortal form in Daniel. It is the whole Image of Daniel 2 in its superhuman form which we see here, rather than one of its mortal parts. IT IS THE IMAGE REVIVED AS A WHOLE. As, opposed to the Head, Chest, Arms, Legs, separately. It reaches to "wheresoever the children of men dwell" (Daniel 2:38); it affects "all that dwell upon the earth" (Revelation 13:8; 11:10; 14:6). WHEN the time for these final judgments arrives, the great stone falls. It smites the image upon the feet, it is true (Daniel 2:34); but it is immediately added, "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, and the gold BROKEN TO PIECES TOGETHER" (Daniel 2:35). MEANING, that ALL of the previous world power was NOW absorbed into the TOES. This BEAST. This is far more extended than the mere Roman or Ottoman Empire.
It takes in the whole earth; in fact, all earthly power, and all worldly dominion, in its final form. Hence, all the heads and horns of the various successive powers are here combined and united in one, forming the embodiment of all political sovereignty on earth. There is to be no other during its existence; and there will be none but The LORD Jesus Christ after it is gone.
Now, Revelation 13:2, “And the Beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority.”
We are at a LOSS to understand how this can be the Roman Empire or ANY previous world empire revived! For the Beast itself is like a leopard, Greece, as seen in Daniel 7:6. Its feet are those of the bear, Medo-Persia; and its mouth is like a lion's mouth, Babylon. Where is the Roman Empire here in any form? If the Beast be the Roman Empire, does he have himself, intact, for one of his own heads? The notion is only a venerable, but vain, imagination. Rome cannot be at the same time one of the heads, AND the whole Beast himself. "One is" it says in Revelation 17:10. This is said to be the Roman Empire. But it is added, "the other is NOT." Is this the Roman Empire, too? Clearly, Not! What we have here is the embodiment and personification of the sovereignty of the whole world under Satanic power, for "the whole world lieth in the power of the wicked one."
When we say personification, we must recognize the spirit-being from the Abyss (Revelation 17:8), the superhuman agent, through whom he works. As Satan delegates this special mission to the Beast (the fallen angel of the abyss), so does the Beast act through a human being by POSSESSION, or in some other way. God, here, takes us behind the scenes and shows us the Satanic machinery by which the whole thing is operated. While the people on earth see only a man, "the Man", the SUPER-man, they may know nothing of the power of the Abyss behind him, and out of which he comes.
This is exactly what is foretold by our Lord, in the parable of the strong man, in Matthew 12:43-45, when He tells how the unclean spirit returns to his house whence he came out, and "taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse then the first. EVEN SO SHALL IT BE ALSO UNTO THIS WICKED GENERATION."
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In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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