The Tale of Two Beasts

Well, thank you, Caitlin. And Amanda, I think Amanda's visiting from, is it Ohio? Ohio. She's too young to remember. There was a song called Ohio when I was a kid. I remember about the Kent State thing. That dates me. It's kind of the Woodstock era, but it's one of those things, you know.

Those were intense years for the country, and certainly glad that we had a respite of peace. It seemed like for a while since then, but certainly challenges are definitely ahead of us. In our discussion of the book of Revelation, we are now at the beastly part. In fact, today's sermon might be called The Tale of Two Beasts. Take off on Charles Dickens.

And I won't say it was the best of times and the worst of times, because in this case it's going to be the worst of times and the worst of times. A very short best of times for a few wealthy elite of the earth.

But essentially, this is chapter 13. It's a culmination of quite a number of prophecies in the Bible, beginning with Daniel chapter 2, which as we mentioned before is the foundational chapter of Bible prophecy concerning the Gentile nations and the panorama of world history. Much different than, say, the prophecies about Israel, not only in Genesis, but also in the last parts of Deuteronomy, where Moses gives a panoramic discussion of the history of Israel.

But he does not give a lot of the identifiers like we have here. In this case, we have, in one case, five different witnesses in the Bible, and it's very, very important to God to give us that much information. All I can say is he really must want us to understand this chapter, because he has given us so many other chapters and so much additional information to be able to understand it, that this is vitally important. This is not something we can just gloss over and say, well, that sounds sort of strange or outlandish, or we've all seen pictures of the beast that has four heads coming out of one side, and it's got ten toes and ten heads and crowns on the toes and seven heads other places.

It's one of these things that's been illustrated many times. But it is very important that we understand this chapter. So we ended up with Chapter 12 last time on the two groups of, quote, Christians that are going to be dealt with or going to be experiencing something quite different during the time of this three-and-a-half years. Chapters 12, 13, and 14 are, for all intents and purposes, inset chapters. They do not continue a chronological flow, because they tell us what has been going on concurrently with the seven plays, seven trumpet plagues that have been going on during the three-and-a-half years of the 1,260 days.

The primary thrust of Chapter 13 now is to explain how the dragon, who was introduced for the first time in Chapter 12, makes war with the remnant of the church and goes into the place then, which the church has gone to, the place of refuge. But he goes into the chapter here about how Satan has used this beast or forms this beast to control the world and then persecute those who have not been qualified to be in that place of safety.

So we have in this Chapter 13 something that's very important, and it began in Daniel Chapter 2 in the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of this great statue, and it continued to be explained in much more detail in Daniel Chapter 7 and later in Chapters 11 and 9 and now in Chapter 12 and, of course, now here in Revelation. So this outlines how the final world empire gains absolute control over the nations. And certainly we have seen a sea change in the mind-set of the govern – those who are governing the nations of Israel the past 40 or 50 years. It is as if we have had a leadership that is determined to follow the path of the Roman Empire as fast as they can.

The basis of not only this nation, but Britain and Australia, New Zealand, the other nations of Ephraim and Asa, the basis of those nations was Christianity and a belief in the Judeo-Christian ethics and a solid firm extolling of the Bible gods were basically the King James Version that came out in 1611. And that foundation caused many blessings, resulted in many huge blessings on us as peoples.

That is now being thrust aside, as we have thrust aside God and His word and as nations, as people have lost our way as to who we are. And so we find many leaders of modern-day Israel doing all they can, it seems like, to allow this beast power to come to fruition and to take over the earth.

So in chapter 13 and verse 1, we have this vision that John continues with. He says, I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. So we have this beast that comes out of the sea. It's very important that he identifies it as a beast that comes out of the sea. And the best way we do that, of course, you can hold your place there, or you probably should put a marker in chapter 13.

Let's go back to Daniel chapter 11. I'm sorry, Daniel chapter 7, because the beasts that come into the vision of Daniel and Daniel chapter 7 come out of the sea. All four of them come out of the sea.

So this helps us identify that this vision that John sees in Revelation 13 is indeed one of the beasts. In fact, it is the fourth beast that comes out of the sea. But this is the final resurrection of it that we finally get into. In Daniel chapter 7, in verse 2, Daniel spoke, I saw in my vision by nigh, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. This is the second chapter in the Bible where these four world-ruling governments are pictured and given to us in a vision.

In the first, they were a statue, one on top of the other, gold, silver, iron. Actually, then we have iron and then clay. We have here, we have four beasts simply coming out of the sea, pictured like animals. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I watched until its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand a man. And a man's heart was given to it. The second is like a bear. The third, verse 6, is like a leopard, which had four wings of a bird.

The beast also had four heads. So we have this third beast having four heads. And then finally after this, verse 7, behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. So this last beast has ten horns and it comes out of the sea, the last one that we see in this chapter of Daniel, Daniel chapter 7.

So we have a real close identification with this beast coming out of the sea that has ten horns. Now let's look back at chapter 13 and verse 1. We need to understand these heads, horns, and crowns. And the blasphemous name, because they are all symbolic and they represent the history behind this beast at the close of the age.

At the close of the age, this beast sort of absorbs all of the categories, all of the attributes of the previous three beasts. So this beast has essentially all of these different horns. Notice the beast rising out of the sea had seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, on his heads a blasphemous name. So we have this beast that has ten crowns or ten heads. The first two had one head, the lion and the bear.

Then we have the leopard that had four, so that makes six heads totally. And then the seventh would be the fourth beast that has one head, the head of a dragon or simply a great animal, a great huge beast. So we have these seven heads then, adding up to the same number of heads that Daniel saw in Chapter 7. Three animals with one head and one that had four, which of course represented the Greek Empire and the fact that it was broken into four different parts after the death of Alexander the Great.

Now blasphemy is also here. Blasphemy includes applying others' titles and names that only belong to God. Eva Nebuchadnezzar was guilty of that, and three times God had to correct him and show him powerful miracles. And each, at least the first two times, he said, well, I admit there's only one God in heaven now, and all men should worship him.

And then he went right back to worshiping himself. So typical of human nature. So the third time, we don't have any record of what happened to him after the third time, except, of course, he was no longer in power. So we have the lion, leopard, and the bear, the beast which John saw, had all of the attributes of the lion, leopard, and the bear. And, in fact, then it became, it just says, dreadful and dreadfully strong.

The composite beast reveals that the strengths of each empire were incorporated into each of the succeeding empires. The final beast had recognizable parts of all the empires. And Daniel witnessed the beginning of the process. There were up to before distinct beasts, but John saw the end result, the final beast. Each beast had swallowed up the previous one and taken on some of its characteristics. So we have this seven heads. We have one head from the lion, one from the bear, one from the final dreadful beast, and then four that came out of the leopard that had total of seven.

And then ten horns, ten resurrections, or ten times the Roman empire would have, would then finally have its successive governments. And then the ten crowns and on his head a blasphemous name. And very likely those crowns could be the same as the ten toes of the final resurrected Roman empire, because this is the final. This is the one that comes out of the sea at the beginning of the three-and-a-half year period. In fact, before the three-and-a-half year period begins, because he's the one that enforces it.

Now, the beast which I saw was like a leopard. This is verse 2. His feet were like the feet of a bear, his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. So the dragon gives him his power. The dragon is obviously Satan the devil. So Satan the devil is the one behind this. He's the one that causes this beast to come up out of the sea and gives its power and great authority.

So Satan is allowed to do this by Almighty God. Satan could not do it unless God gave him permission, just like God gave him permission to torment Job and do other things throughout history. But we saw in chapter 12 that Satan was cast down and was not again to be allowed into heaven, and he knows he had but a short time, and so this apparently is the first thing he does.

Now, I want to read to you a list, 20 facts about the first beast. Now, you don't have to take notes on this because you would write very fast, but we will cover all of them, too, as we go through this chapter. But I think it's important that we get kind of a panoramic understanding of what this first beast will do. The important thing to understand is that he has the authority of Satan the devil behind him. He comes out of the sea, so he comes out of a place that's just, you know, a swirling sea of humanity comes out of people.

But coming out of the sea also means that you don't know exactly where he comes from. He comes up pretty much unannounced. You don't see him coming. We don't know the source of it, except that all of a sudden it is there. In fact, if you read the histories, especially of Greece and then of Rome, both were very, very unlikely nations to all of a sudden expand and control as much territory and create the empires that they did.

But that's another subject in history. Okay, 20 facts about this beast of Revelation 13. Number one, he will be a man. There will be a man in charge of this conglomerate. It will be an individual who controls this civil government of ten nations. Number two, he will rise out of the sea of humanity. Number three, he will become ruler of the territory of the seven kingdoms, symbolized by the seven heads. So the territory that he is going to control that becomes what we would call this world government, seat of government or seat of power, would be the territories controlled by the previous three or previous four world-ruling empires, going all the way from modern-day Iraq up to the British Isles and then down across North Africa and up into Eastern Europe.

He'll become a ruler of the ten kingdoms that are yet to be formed inside the old Roman Empire territory. Number five, he'll be a blasphemer. Number six, he'll revive the old Grecian Empire. The beast is like a leopard, which is in the book of Daniel symbolized as the Grecian Empire. You will also have characteristics of the Medio-Persian Empire, which is the bear, and Babylon, which was symbolized by the lion.

He receives his power, throne, and great authority from Satan the devil. Number Satan is the god of this world, and this is his last attempt to defend his territory, to defend his kingdom, because he understands that Jesus Christ is going to return, and so he has to organize a resistance movement. He has to stop the outer space invasion, so to speak. He will not be assassinated or resurrected from the dead, as taught by some. Some people teach some very strange things about this beast. We need to understand the Bible says what it says plainly, but if it does not say it, then we shouldn't add to the scriptures and say it says something that it doesn't.

All the world will wonder after him. He will be sort of an astonishing thing. People wonder. He will be sort of a new rock star type thing, the new Elvis Presley. He might be Elvis Presley resurrected, you know? People go to Memphis, and they say they can see Elvis walking around at night. I've never done it or tried it, but I don't suppose I will either.

But who knows? Certainly he will be an admired celebrity. He says he'll be given power and success for forty-two months, at least the first part of that, especially the first two and a half years.

He'll be an object of worship. Number twelve, he will be supernaturally gifted as an orator. He apparently will be perhaps something along the lines of Adolf Hitler, one of those who mesmerized audiences with his great oratory. He will defy God and claim to be God himself.

Next, he will make war on the Christians and very likely also on the descendants of Judah.

He will also be persecuting Jews and Christians, and many multitudes will be killed by him. He'll be given power over all nations inside the ten kingdoms of the old Roman Empire, but also control over most of the world. He'll be adored and worshipped by some, as if he were a god. He will have as a partner a religious leader called the False Prophet. The False Prophet is not the beast. The False Prophet is not even the Antichrist. The beast is the Antichrist, and this individual, the beast, is also the one that is the one civilly in charge. He will permit image worship of himself. The False Prophet will be later creates an image of the beast that is then worshipped, and he will cause his mark or emblem of his kingdom or of his name to be branded on his followers around the world. And, of course, if they do not agree with that, if they do not go along with it, they can then be put to death. So that's a summary of what we're going to be reading here about this beast in this chapter, this first beast. Let's begin now in verse 3. This is where the story starts to actually take shape. 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 after the beast. So one of the beast's heads is deadly wounded. He receives a fatal wound. Now, since this is a composite of four successive major kingdoms, each taking on the attributes of its predecessor, the final Roman kingdom would have ingested six heads, a single head of Babylon, a single head of Medio-Persia, the four heads of Greece. That leaves Rome with the only live head, which is the seventh. And this is the head that received, quote, a fatal wound when the Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D., when for the last time the city was sacked by the what they call a barbarian with the Visigoths and Ostrogoths and those, the various Gothic tribes that were able to come into Rome. And, of course, that was after Attila the Hun had destroyed most of the barriers of Rome up to the north, and the Rome was pretty much falling in upon itself. But that wound then was healed. It says that fatal wound was healed, and all the world wonders after the beast. So for 78 years, the area which had been controlled by the Western Roman Empire was overrun and controlled by vandals from North Africa and two tribes called the Heruli and the Ostrogoths. You may have heard of Odesern and a number of other names of those tribes that sort of ran rampant over the Western Roman Empire for about 80 years.

In 8554, Italy and Rome were reunited with the Eastern Empire by the imperial restoration under Justinian. The Roman Church began to assert itself with power and become organized in the 400s, especially the late 400s A.D. And so by the 500s A.D., the eastern half of the Roman Empire, who still called themselves Romans and had their capital at Byzantium, which lasted about a thousand years, they decided they needed to reunite the Roman Empire and take control of the West. But the power in the West was not military. The power in the West was religious. And so Justinian had to make some deals with the Pope and with the Catholic Church, or became the Catholic Church, so that he could have an agreement with them where he would cover for them, they would cover for him, and he could extend his influence and his government throughout what had been the Western Roman Empire, or most of the parts of it. So this was called the Imperial Restoration, where they controlled, with an agreement between church and state, most of the territory of what had been the Roman Empire up until the 400s. To solidify Roman power, Justinian yielded himself to the growing power of the papacy. From this point on, the Roman Empire was designated as the Holy Roman Empire because ultimate control resided within the Catholic Church.

And so this was when the beast began to be ridden by this woman, and you'll read a lot more details about that in Revelation chapter 17. So there was a great political need, and the political need was solved by a religious and political agreement. That tells us that something similar might happen in the future, when this beast, again, needs to solidify various nations and territories in that land, and may need to have an agreement with a church or with the Church of Europe that can, again, facilitate some sort of an Imperial Restoration.

So something that we need to be on the watch for, and we don't need to be pointing fingers and knelling and saying, there it is, until it actually is there. We don't want to be jumping the gun and pretending things are that aren't there yet. But nevertheless, we should be very aware of what's going on and making sure that we understand it and will recognize it when it occurs. So at this point, now we have what happens here is verse 4. They worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast saying, Who is like the beast, and who is able to make war with him?

At this point, we have the introduction of a term that's called the Antichrist. Now, what does the Antichrist mean? We've probably all heard the term. There are terms mentioned in the book of some of John's writings. He said, Antichrist is already appearing. Antichrist essentially means the one that tries to marshal the world's military and powers to stop the returning Jesus Christ. The Antichrist isn't your neighbor who blasphemes you for going to church or anybody on television or anything in the movies or TV where they do blasphemous things.

The Antichrist is essentially this beast whose purpose, doing it for Satan the devil, is to try to stop the returning Jesus Christ and to try to make it possible for Satan the devil to continue. Now, this guy is so important. This beast, this Antichrist is so important that the Bible has five different descriptions of him. You know, God said that at the mouth of two witnesses, a thing shall be established. But literally, this beast that we've just read three verses about, actually four verses, until they finally get to the point where they're worshiping the beast, is such an important guy that we need to understand. God gave us five separate witnesses, five separate places in the Bible where he is described.

And as we put all five of these scriptural witnesses together, we should have in our mind a very clear picture of what it is we're waiting for and who perhaps when he comes on the scene will be able to recognize him. That's why Jesus Christ said, the elect will not be deceived, but those who are not certainly will be. So I think it's worthwhile for us to stop for a second here in the chronology of chapter 13 or in the verses of chapter 13 and look at these other locations where God tells us about this antichrist.

So the first place I want to do is go back to Daniel chapter 7. This is the first place where we actually get some details about him. And in fact, the number of details that God gives us about this beast and his fulfilling this role are really quite striking if you were to list all of the various attributes or various things that we are given about in prophecy about him. So Daniel chapter 7 verse 8 says, "'I was considering the horns' — he's talking about the horns on this beast, these ten horns — "'and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots.' So here we have this little horn which becomes eventually a symbol of the prophet, the false prophet, the one of this called the false prophet.

And we understand that as the great heretical church of Europe, another horn coming up among them, by whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And there in this horn were the eyes, like the eyes of a man, and a mouth-speaking pompous words." So we have this other horn that comes up while this empire is getting going, and that other horn we'll read about in the second half of Revelation 13, because he is the beast that is of the earth, not the one that comes out of the sea, and that difference is very important.

Now let's drop down to verse 19. "'I wish to know the truth,' so Daniel sees his vision. He says, I want to know the truth about this fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, and it broke and devoured in pieces and trampled the residue with its feet." So Daniel wants to know this terrible, we've always pictured it as some sort of a triceratops or some sort of a ferocious dinosaur.

And he said, "'And the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before three fell, namely the horn which had eyes, and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.'" And we get into that a little bit later in Revelation 13. Then he says in verse 21, "'I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them.'" So we have this little horn that comes up amidst the ten horns.

Three are taken away, but the one horn then becomes dominant, which it did in 554 A.D. Notice he's making war against the saints and prevailing against them. We're talking about a persecution of the true followers of God. "'Until the ancient of days came, and judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.'" And so he's watching, and this persecution continues during the time of this fourth beast with this little horn that comes up among the horns, and this thing continues, this awful persecution, until the time when Jesus Christ returns, the ancient of days makes a judgment, and it's time for the saints to possess the kingdom.

And thus he said, so the answer continues, "'The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth,' not just part, and trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings which shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall arise after them, and he shall be different from the first ones." So the ten kings are the resurrections of the Roman Empire. They arise successively. We have that recorded in history.

But another one comes up among them who is different, and he kind of controls these first three resurrections, or first three governments of these horns, which we know were the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Heruli, the three kings that took over and for a period of about 40 years of peace, or actually a bit less than that, probably about 25 years of peace, were able to control what was the Roman Empire's western half.

He shall speak pompous words against the Most High. So we find this false prophet and also the beast, this tenth resurrection, this individual, speaking pompous words against the Most High, and he shall persecute the saints of the Most High. He shall intend to change times and law. Then the saint shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

That's the same saints that had the testimony of Jesus Christ, but they are not dedicated enough, not persevering enough, not whatever it is enough for them to be accounted worthy. We read in Luke 21, 36, to escape those things that come at the end.

And so those saints shall be given into his hand for three and a half years of persecution, and eventually they have to make the choice of either obeying God and dying, giving up their life, or becoming part of the beast and his power. Remember, it says they love not their lives unto death, which means they have that option. Do they love this life and their life enough to reject their God, or do they love their God enough to reject this life and look for a better life to come? He also will change times and law. It's already been done. The calendar has been changed. The days that are to be observed during the year have been changed. The weekly day of observance to honor God has been changed. So this change has already taken place, but it shall be enforced. The saint shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time, but the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion. And so he'll be seated. The court will be seated, and eventually the dominion of this beast will be taken away.

But the identifying thing we need to look at here are that from this last resurrection with 10 kings, the little horn will come up, just like it did in 554, and shall control or be a controlling part of what happens, and shall be used then to persecute the saints of the Most High for three and a half years. Now let's go to Daniel chapter 8. Daniel chapter 8, some would not put in the category of a prophecy of the beast because it primarily is about the Greek empire and about Alexander the Great. But we find here that there is a successor of Alexander the Great, because it does talk about the end time, that is an example of the beast. And if we understand the history of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Greek religion he enforced in Jerusalem, and how many of the priesthood not only turned away from the priesthood, turned away from God, but committed treason against their own nation, then I think it helps us to get a little more understanding about this beast that is coming on the scene, beast number one, the one that comes out of the seas.

So here we have Daniel chapter 8. Let's begin in verse 8.

Therefore the male goat grew very great, and when he became strong the large horn was broken, and in his place four notable ones. This is clearly understood by all as a prophecy of Alexander the Great, who became very great. He pushed to the east and to the north and to the south, won incredible battles, conquered huge amounts of territory, didn't lose a battle until he had to fight the elephants in India. And it was the armies of India that finally turned him back.

And of course he died of some sort of disease sitting in the throne room of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, probably in the very same throne of Nebuchadnezzar. But he was only 33 years old, and so his kingdom was divided up among his four generals, because Alexander had no children, no sons. So his kingdom was divided up to four notable winds, and they came up towards the four winds of heaven. So essentially they were divided up north, south, east, and west. Out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great towards the south, towards the east, and towards the glorious land. So on verse 9 we have one horn, one kingdom, that became larger, became stronger, known as the Seleucidades, or the Seleucid Kingdom. It grew up to the host of heaven and cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled on them. So this Greek general, who was a descendant of Alexander's empire, he controlled about one-fourth of it, he ended up controlling the area we know as Jerusalem, or today called Palestine, was not called it then, but called the Holy Land. And he cast down some of the persecuted Jews. He killed some, he trampled some. Verse 11, even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host, and by him the daily worship was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

So it took place in the 160s B.C. This guy's name was Antiochus Epiphanes, and the entire worship going on there was taken away. The word daily tammuth, the word sacrifices is added. The word daily tammuth also included in Leviticus things like the showbread, which was there for a week, and all of the entire worship that went on in the tabernacle. So essentially the worship of God was taken away by Antiochus Epiphanes, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. And what he did, of course, was sacrifice a swine and defile the entire sanctuary in the temple there that had been the rebuilt temple put together by Ezra and Nehemiah, and when they came back from being in captivity. And Joshua and Sarabelle before that. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily worship, and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this in prosper. Now, what does this sort of tell us prophetically? Why is this a second witness about this beast coming up? Well, because Daniel 11 and verse 40 says that at the time of the end the king of the south shall push at the king of the north, and the king of the north will come at him as a great whirlwind, and he shall occupy the glorious land and put his seat between the two seas, or his place of domination, or his place of government. And so we have another end time king of the north coming against Jerusalem at the beginning of the three and a half years, and he will do some of the same things that Antiochus Epiphanes did.

So the stories that are given to us here, the accounts in Daniel, which of course are written several hundred years, about 400 years before they took place, very specific prophecies, they do tell us that it's going to happen again in a similar way. That's why when Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 said, when you see the abomination of desolation, let him who reads Daniel understand, then it's time to flee, because this is at the beginning of the three and a half years.

Verse 13, I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, how long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices or the daily worship and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? So one holy man's talking to another, probably an angel talking to another angel, and saying, well, how long is this going to happen? How long are the people of God going to be trampled underfoot? And there will not be any worship of God, any public worship of God going on. And he said to me, verse 14, he answers Daniel. These two beings are asking each other, but they answer Daniel, 400 or for 2,300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. And, of course, the 2,300 days, we understand that in a number of ways. Some believe it's half that number because of the morning and the evening sacrifices and the way it's written, or some believe it to be 2,300 days, I think, for the most part. We have identified with the first, but we know that it's going to be just a little longer than three and a half years. That seems to be the meaning of that, that this worship would stop. Finally, there would be some real worship of God going on again. So the 2,300 days is part of a prophecy about how long the sanctuary will be defiled at the time of the end when Jesus Christ returns. So we have this vision of this ego, and it certainly is something that tells us about what's happening at the end. Let's go back and see the explanation. Verse 23. Drop over a few verses. We have this man standing on the banks called Gabriel, standing on the bank of the river, and he holds his hands up. But he said, in verse 19, let's go to verse 19 first, he said, Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation, for at the appointed time of the end this shall be.

So Daniel 8 is obviously a prophecy about the time of the end. The ram which you saw having the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia, and the male goat is the kingdom of Greece, the large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. That's Alexander. As for the broken horn and the fourth that stood up in its place, for kingdom shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power. So that took place in 323 BC at the death of Alexander. In the latter time of their kingdom, now keep in mind their kingdom is absorbed by the following kingdoms, the Persian, and then finally, of course, the Roman Empire, or the Roman Empire, absorbed all the first three.

In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise having fierce features. Now this verse 23 is a direct prophecy of the beast, of the man who will be on the scene that we've already been reading about in Revelation 13.

This is our third witness, our third description of him from Scripture. Notice, he shall have fierce features. He understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. Why is that? Because the dragon gives him his power. We already read that in Revelation 13.

His power shall be from the dragon. He shall destroy fearfully. Remember, the beast tramples, and destroys things under its feet, and takes over and conquers. He shall destroy fearfully.

He shall prosper and thrive. So for a while, the merchants of the earth, the very rich, will get even very richer, and they will prosper and do very well. But he shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people. What does that mean? He'll destroy the mighty and the holy people.

Well, he'll destroy other nations or other kingdoms that have military might. He will also persecute the holy people, which can be interpreted as those who are physically descended from Abraham, the people of physical Israel during the time of Jacob's trouble.

It can also mean, of course, very clearly, the holy people, those who are set aside by God's Spirit and truly are holy. So we're looking for a king to arise, a king of these 10 toes in Europe, during this latter time when transgressors have reached their full. So the lead-up to this king coming on this scene is a time of evil, when transgressors have reached their fullness. And we've certainly seen evil on the march in a way like we've never seen it before during the last 20-25 years. Verse 25, through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule. And Revelation says he'll deceive the whole world by miracles and by the powerful things that he does. In this case, it's called cunning. He shall exalt himself in his heart, just like Nebuchadnezzar did, walked around the temple or his big palace and said, this is a great palace, this great Babylon, that I have made by my greatness. And, of course, God struck him down for seven years. But this beast shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. So on this way to great prosperity, many people are going to be hurt and many killed. He shall even rise against the prince of princes. So this is a very important statement. This is the anti-Christ, the one who has been raised up by Satan the devil to resist the returning Jesus Christ.

And that's how you identify who the anti-Christ is in the scriptures. And he's mentioned about four different times by that very phrase. He resists the returning Jesus Christ, or in this case, rising up against the prince of princes. But he shall be broken without human means.

In other words, he'll be destroyed by the brightness of Jesus Christ's coming and the battle that takes place at Jerusalem. But it says, the visions of the evenings and mornings, which was told, is true. Therefore, seal up the vision where it refers to many days in the future.

So this second witness, third, if you want to count Revelation 13, tells us more details about this beast, this great world ruling, or this ruler of Europe that is coming fairly soon.

Now, the third place is in Daniel chapter 11, which, as you know, is a very long prophecy.

Really starts in chapter 10, but continues on through chapter 11. And then chapter 12, so it's a very long prophecy, very, very detailed. Some of the events that are given to us about the kings of the north and the south in Daniel chapter 11 are so detailed, even describes a luncheon meeting they're going to have hundreds of years later. So God knows ahead of time what's going to happen, that's for sure, and his prophecies are very much to be relied upon.

Daniel chapter 11, let's look at verse 36.

Well, I want to go back a little bit farther. Let's go back a little bit farther here. I really could read all of Daniel 11, but that would take two sermons. Verse 32, I think, is a good place to start. We're breaking into the thought here about this second Antiochus Epiphanes, because he's described also in this chapter, but in much more detail.

Here he is arriving at Jerusalem, and he's persecuting the people of God.

Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery, just like he did back in the 160s BC with the priests in Jerusalem, that he flattered them and got them to reject God and to become worshippers of Diana and the philosophy of the Greek religion, Hellenism.

It says, they shall take away the daily worship of God and place the abomination of desolation.

Jesus Christ said we need to understand that and recognize it when it happens.

Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery, but the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. The Maccabean's fulfilled this in a physical way, but this is about the very end. It says in a very clear prophecy that there will be people who know their God, and they shall be strong, and they shall carry out great exploits, meaning they would be able to obey and persevere regardless of the persecution of the beast.

Those are the people who understand shall instruct many, so they'll be teaching going on.

Yet for many days they shall fall by sword and by flame and by captivity and by plundering.

This is this three and a half year period when the beast is allowed at the behest of the false prophet to carry out great persecution of God's people. When they shall fall, they shall be aided with a little help, but many shall join to them by injury. So there will be false joiners in her, so to speak, just like Sandballot and Tobiah and others were when the walls were being built by Ezra and Nehemiah. And some of them of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, and make them white until the time of the end. So some of those who are God's people, who have a spirit, understand His truth, will die. They will fall. The purpose of it is to refine them, to purify them, to make them white until the time of the end, until the time of the resurrection.

So that group that is persecuted because they have the testimony of Jesus Christ, they win the laws of God, the commandments of God, another clear picture of what is in store.

Then the king shall do according to his own will, he shall exalt and magnify himself above every God, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished. So God, again, in this verse here, tells us this man is going to exalt himself, say magnificent things about himself, claim to be God, claim to have godly attributes, speak against the true God of gods, and he will prosper for a time. Not forever, but God will allow this beast, this system, this man controlling this system, to prosper for a time until the wrath has been accomplished. In other words, until the people who are going to be tested by that wrath, those who had the testimony and the laws of God but were not qualified for some reason, were not dedicated enough, whatever it is, that test shall have been accomplished.

He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women. He would be cruel to children, nor regard any God, for he shall exalt himself above them all. So he makes war, he conquers, and he simply has, apparently, no mercy whatsoever, very much like the Nazis in Japanese and World War II. It says in verse 38, in their place he shall honor a God of fortresses, a God of power, a God of physical buildings, a God which his fathers did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. And, of course, they're going to make an image to the beast and worship. The whole world will be forced to worship that image, and that apparently is what he's talking about here. The image will be also a God of fortresses. Now, the fourth place where we have a description or a witness of this coming Antichrist is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. So let's turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

This is a very interesting background book because it was written during Nero's deranged years, a time when Nero was doing crazy things, and the first seven years of his reign seemed to have gone according to the historians fairly reasonable. But after he murdered his own mother and did a bunch of other things that Nero did that were pretty bizarre, he began to persecute Christians, he began to do a lot of, you know, kill lots of other people around Rome, caused many, many hundreds of the elite to commit suicide. At any rate, it looked to many of the Christians like this was the Antichrist, like this was the beast, this was the man who was going to fulfill all the prophecies in Daniel. Of course, it didn't, and Paul wanted to warn people about that, about the steps of things that must happen first. So in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, he says in verse 3, Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come, unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

So he was telling people, look, there are rumors, there are people saying that Christ is already coming, or that the return of Christ is imminent. You know, maybe they had guys putting up dates on billboards like they had, we have here from time to time. He says, don't be shaken by that, because that day will not come unless there is a great falling away first.

And of course, there have been many fallings away during the history of Christianity. There have been some ever since pretty much the beginning of the church in the 50s and 60s A.D., with Gnosticism, with Siam Magus' teachings and others, and we had fallings away in our time.

But there is a greater falling away coming, and it says the man of sin is going to be revealed the son of perdition, or the one who will go into perdition. And of course, this individual is the one he's talking about. He describes him here, just like Daniel did, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped. So here we have this individual doing just what? Daniel 7, and Daniel 11, and Daniel 8 said he would do. He exalts himself above God. He calls himself God. He takes for himself all of these attributes. He's a blasphemer. But here we have something slightly different added to it. He sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

So he's claiming to be God and saying that he sits in the temple of God. Now, when this was written, there really was a temple in Jerusalem that had been rebuilt by Herod. Fantastic building, not quite as fantastic as Solomon's, but it was a beautiful building.

The descriptions of it by Josephus and others show that it was just a huge complex, very, very expensive, a lot of gold gilding on the walls and stones, the two massive columns in the front with the upturned bulls in the top that burned with oil and lit up Jerusalem all night long.

It was a fabulous building. So there was a temple when Paul wrote this. And so he says this individual is going to sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, claiming to be God and claiming to basically rule the whole world from that temple in Jerusalem. Now, the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. The Romans tore it apart. Titus didn't want them to because he wanted to use it to rededicate it as a temple to Zeus or Jupiter or somebody.

But because of the events that happened with the temple being set on fire and the gold melting going down the cracks, the Romans started tearing it apart to get to the gold. And before long, the temple was completely destroyed. So now all we have over there is essentially a temple, a building, that was built by the Byzantines as a church, but then later taken over by the Ottomans and then the Muslims.

And it's now used as a mosque, and that's where the temple used to stand. So will the new fulfillment of this, or will the fulfillment of this be something temporarily that is sitting where the temple was? Or is it perhaps a new temple built somewhere? There has been speculation that the temple is actually in Rome.

It could be St. Peter's Basilica. I'd rather doubt that, but that's an idea. There are other ideas that he sits, that somehow it's the temple of the church. I'd rather doubt that also. I think the idea or the concept that what Paul taught here is that will be in the location of the temple is probably the best understanding.

And certainly the abomination of desolation was what happened with Antiochus Epiphanes was the placing of a statue of Jupiter in the temple in Jerusalem in 167 or 172 B.C. I think it was 167. So here we have Paul simply saying, this individual is going to locate himself in the temple of God, or we could perhaps say, well, there isn't a temple now, but the location of the temple, and that might be the fulfillment of what we're looking at.

I'm not saying hard and fast for sure, yes, but it certainly seems like a very plausible understanding of it. And then he says, you know, this guy is going to show himself that he is God. This blasphemer that we've been reading about is going to claim that he is the Messiah who is bringing a peaceful earth, a thousand-year millennium of peace and harmony and prosperity to the entire world.

It will be a counterfeit kingdom of God set up, apparently from where the real kingdom of God is going to be governed from. He says, now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. Now, the restraining force has been speculated about. Some think it's the Apostle Paul that when he died, then the mystery of lawlessness came out. Really, the restraining force is simply God. God has a calendar. He has time. It is whenever God releases his control, a little bit, on the demons, and Satan is cast down to earth, and he has but a short time.

That's when that restraining is obviously taken away. Verse 7 says, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The force is teaching against the truth and at establishing a different and alternative church claiming to be the true church or claiming to be the body of Christ.

There's some indication that this mystery of lawlessness he's talking about could be the efforts of Simon Magus and his living girlfriend Luna going around the Western Roman Empire, proclaiming her to be Diana and all the other various female goddesses. At some point, we'll get a chance to go through that, and I think you'll understand a little bit more about who she was, but we don't have time for that today. But we have this mystery of lawlessness that's already at work.

Could very likely be the false church being established by Simon Magus throughout the Greek world. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. So the restraining influence will be there until he takes it out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed. Now, the lawless one, to my knowledge, has not yet been revealed. A lot of people have claimed that they saw him or they know who he is. Names used to circulate just in conjecture, and people would posit maybe it's this person or that person. But, of course, they all died, and that person was not the lawless one. This lawless one will be revealed, and that's what we have to be keen for, to recognize it when he is. Notice, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth. That's the same individual destroyed in Daniel 7 and Daniel 9 that we read about. I'm sorry, Daniel 8, who would be the one who would resist Jesus Christ, who would try to stand against the prince of princes. He'll be the one that will be destroyed with the breath of his mouth and with the brightness of his coming. Notice the coming of the lawless one. How he's going to be revealed is according to the working of Satan. Revelation 13 says he gets his power from the dragon.

With all power, signs, and lying wonders, with all murderous deception, among those who are perishing. So we have people who are perishing because they have been deceived, and this individual that's coming is going to be a great deceiver, truly a great deceiver.

So let's go back to the fifth place, then, which is Revelation 13. We've already started there, but this is the fifth description. Although Revelation 17 has some more about him, so we honestly could say there are six witnesses, but Revelation 17 is more about the beast out of the earth, not the beast out of the sea. And we'll get into that, I'm sure, in a couple weeks. So we have Revelation 13, then. We've gone through these five descriptions of the Antichrist, these five places where we have these really detailed, fairly detailed descriptions of this individual. So no one in this room should be ignorant when he comes on the scene.

If you're still alive and he's there, we should be able to just tick off all these various items that we've read today and say, that is the beast. That's the one that God warned us about, that Jesus Christ said, when we see him, it's time to flee. So very important that we understand it and we have enough knowledge to be able to recognize it when it occurs, because there will be deception, there will be efforts out there to get people to not believe it and to not make the changes in their life that need to be made.

First John, chapter 2 and verse 18, you don't have to turn there, but John said, little children, it is the last hour and you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. So the Antichrist is coming. John said it is the last hour. And of course, from his perspective, writing 1 John in the probably early 90s, late 80s A.D., the times were drawing to a close.

And he felt that perhaps Christ was coming in his time. We don't know for sure, obviously. But he did tell us that at the last hour, the Antichrist will be coming. The appearance of the one who claims to be Jesus Christ does miracles by the power of Satan and will grab control of the whole world. Now let's continue on. Verse 4. They worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast. So the beast is a form of worshiping Satan the devil.

People don't honestly say, we're going to worship Satan, but they do because they worship the beast. This is a form of Satan worship. And sometimes I think some of these false religions, these pagan religions, they really understand they're worshiping demons and devils. If you've ever been to India, I think it's obviously very obvious. One of the great Indian or Hindu gods is the goddess Kali, C-A-L-L-I, as she's got all sorts of horrible faces and ten thousand arms and legs and apparently eats people and destroys things. Well, she has a city called Calcutta.

That's the city of Kali. So her images are everywhere, but they understand that she's a demon and they worship her anyway. So there are some religions where they honestly worship demons. But in this case, they're going to believe they are worshiping the individual, the beast, but they're really worshiping Satan the devil, the dragon who gave authority to the beast.

And they will say, who is like the beast, who is able to make war with him? So he will be a very powerful individual. The god of this world will have blinded all their eyes and they will simply believe that he may be the Christ or the one who is going to come and bring peace. During the seminars that we gave during Northwest Weekend, we pointed out how a lot of these terms that are being used in religion today have the goal of ecumenicalism, of bringing all religions into believing in the same being. They use the word the one and the being and the force. And so as they've been schooled and used to these terms and thinking about them, this beast will very likely claim those, that he is the one, that he is the force, that he is the power that they've all been singing about and praising about in their various churches.

That's why it's so dangerous for us to even use the terms that false religion and that the New Age religions are using in their worship. If we use them in ours, it's a very, very dangerous minefield. He says, who's able to make war with the beast? The answer is no one, that all the world falls before him, except, of course, the Far East, because later an army of 200 million comes over against him, and, of course, he doesn't control that part of the world. He controls what was the former areas controlled by the four world-ruling governments. Verse 5 says, he was given a mouth, speaking great things, and blasphemies.

We've read of the description of blasphemies in the earlier chapters, the earlier descriptions, in Daniel. He was given authority to continue for 42 months, just as Daniel said, for three and a half years. Forty-two months, this being is given authority. He's given permission from God to continue in power, doing what he's doing for 42 months. And, of course, that's the same as three and a half years.

And that amount of time, by the way, is mentioned seven times in Scripture. It's an interesting study to go through all seven of those right out what it says and what's going to be happening during that time. So the saints are given into his hand for a time, time, and half a times in Daniel 7.25. Now he has authority given to him to do this for three and a half years, or a time, time, and half a times, 42 months.

Verse 6, this is a really interesting verse when you parse it out. He opens his mouth in blasphemy against God. So this beast, once he's in power, once he's in control, maybe even once he's centered in Jerusalem, once he's taken over, as it mentions in Daniel 11, control of Jerusalem and that part of the world, except for Ammon and Moab, the chief children of Eden. It says here, he was given authority 42 months. He opens his mouth in blasphemy against God. So once he's established in his temple or in his place of worship, he begins to blaspheme God, calls himself God. As Paul says, he's claiming that he is God or that he is the Christ. And it says to blaspheme God's name, so he says things against the true God, takes the true God's name upon himself, his tabernacle. He doesn't say that God dwells in heaven. He's going to say, God is here on the earth now, here I am, and those who dwell in heaven. So heaven has a population. Revelation talks about 10,000 times 10,000 angels, 24 elders. So there are a lot of beings in heaven. It is not a place that is desolate and without life.

There are a host living in heaven. And of course, he blasphemes those who dwell in heaven.

So he may claim that his followers are angels, or he may, who knows what it would be.

Those who are living in heaven, obviously, would be Elohim, the gods that created the heaven and the earth, God the Father and the Jesus Christ at his right hand. And he blasphemes and says things against them. So verse 7, Timo is granted to make war with the saints and overcome them.

This is about the fourth time we've read this particular phrase or this particular meaning of this phrase. So it's a very strong warning that when we see this happening, we know it has a purpose in God's mind, which is to fill the final seats in the wedding supper with those saints who are qualified to be there, and also to give us or to give the world a signal to know this is what's happening, the very, very short period of time will pass three and a half years, and then Jesus Christ is going to return. It says, authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

So there's a sort of a world government that is set up, and the nations that are still autonomous allow or have treaties with him so they can then have for a couple years a lot of prosperity, a lot of buying and selling, and a lot of, I guess, just, you know, celebrating whatever going on.

All those who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life. So the book of life is the key. People whose names are written and are still in the book of life will recognize this being for what he is. If your name has not been written there or has been written once and taken out, then the implication is that you would be deceived.

I want to go back to Luke chapter 10 and verse 20.

Jesus Christ talked about the book of life, and he told the disciples, don't be celebrating because you can do miracles or because God is doing miracles through you.

Don't be celebrating and, you know, caring on about raising people from the dead and the demons being subject to you. So there's something far more important. He says in Luke chapter 10 and verse 20, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that they trampled on serpents and scorpions, meaning that poisonous animals didn't hurt them, and of course, demons, demonic powers didn't touch them. He says, but that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. So the names are written in heaven because God has called them and put their name in his book. He also mentions in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 5, I guess we can turn over there, that a person's name can be blotted out, and that is a great danger that every Christian faces. Everyone who has been called by God, who has tasted of his Holy Spirit, Hebrews chapter 10 and also chapter 4 of the good spirit of God, the good fruits.

The danger is in not enduring. The danger is in neglecting salvation, having your name taken away or removed from the book of life. Revelation 3 and verse 5 says, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

So in this setting here, in this section about Sardis, he mentions that they were weak and that many were about to let go, but he says, but if you will hold on, if you will maintain and overcome, I will not blot out your name from the book of life. So the old idea that once in grace, always in grace, you can't be lost is simply wrong, as proven by quite a number of scriptures in the Bible, and this is simply one of the strongest, that your name can be blotted out from the book of life. But a parallel scripture with Revelation 13.8 is over in Daniel chapter 12.

Because he says the same thing, that the people who have their name written in the book of life shall also be wise and be able to understand. And that's the real key, because most people aren't going to be wise. Most people are going to be completely deceived. They will not know what is going on. They'll have their deer in the headlights look for three and a half years, and finally they'll be wondering what happened. But in Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, it says, at that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands swatched over the sons of your people. There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, since the very beginning. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who was found written in the book. So those whose names are in the book of life, it says in Revelation, will not be deceived, but will understand what is going on and make sure that their place in God's kingdom is secure. I think we're going to have to stop there, but let's finish over and back over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We stopped short of one phrase. You know, when you think about a great falling away and you think about being deceived, you think about your name being in the book of life and what each one of us must do to maintain that name there. There's a phrase that sticks out.

There's a strong warning in this historical description, history in advance, so prophetic, but historical description of this man that we've been talking about, this beast coming, that the Apostle Paul gave in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, because he mentions, brethren, not to be soon or shaken. But in verse 11, for this reason, God will send them strong delusion because they are unrighteous, because they are dwelling in unrighteousness. And the reason they have delusion is back in verse 10. With all unrighteousness and deception among those who are perishing, because the vast majority of the world will be heading towards perishing, the reason is because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. You put these verses together, and it seems to be that there are people who had their name in the book of life, but they did not have the love of God's truth, and so their name is taken away. Back in the years of 1993, 1994, 1995, many of us in the ministry laid awake at night and wondered how in the world could so many men that we have served with, teachers we were taught by at Ambassador College, men who had taught great sermons, how could they so quickly fall away or adhere to ideas completely contrary to the truth that we had been taught? Recall how talented and how just how impactful some of my teachers at Ambassador College were, and yet how quickly a few of them turned away completely from the truth and began teaching the lie, began adopting these crazy ideas that were not new, but were foisted off on us as a ministry and as a church for several years. I think the answer is in verse 10, they did not receive the love of the truth. They might have academically understood it.

They might have comprehended what the verses all meant, but they didn't love it. They didn't have their heart's desire. They didn't love God with all their heart, all their mind, and all their soul.

And so when the chants came, then to do something that they really loved, which they called freedom and they called other things, which they were not, that's the direction they went. So the question for you as you read these verses in Revelation and as we study about these two beasts is, do you have the love of the truth enough that when these things do come, you'll be accounted worthy to escape and you'll be one of those who has your names written in the book of life and it stays there.