|
Revelation you can Understand
Bible Revelation
Chapter 13
Busy attacking
the Christian world as we discussed in chapter 12, I believe that
this chapter 13 covers the Christian era we are in from Jesus to now
and will go into the future. So we have the beast rising out of the
sea with ten horns, seven heads and ten diadems as we discussed in
chapter 12. It could be, the seven heads are nations such as Egypt,
Assyria, Babylon , Medo-Persia, Greece , Rome and the seventh I
believe deals with this Church era where no one is a complete
kingdom of the earth, like we know Rome was, being the last to
dominate the earth.. There is no
nation that can be called universal. The United States of America is
the most powerful on the earth as I pen these words 2009 yet it
shares other nations which are powerful. 10 horns with their power
given
to the beast, could be in our Church era so somewhere in our time or
in the future there can be ten nations that are dominated enough to
be in a position to be given power to the beast. Now, we know diadems
are crowns, if you like authority, power. In chapter 12 there were
seven diadems, but here we see ten diadems so here in chapter 13
there could be as discussed earlier ten horns ten nations and here
in chapter 13 they give their authority to the beast. Ten horns, or
as we believe ten nations in the Christian era can be correct, because
no one nation dominates, but we can see in our time, nations who are
becoming powerful, so we can say, ten nations in our Christian era
give their power to the nation which ten diadems suggest. The
interesting question is, who the ten nations will be. Could
be China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, that just leaves another
five nations to find. We do not know, where the power bases will be
in the future. It is possible for ten nations to rise up and give
their power to the beast in the future. Notice how these nations are
blasphemous towards God.
With the beast was like a
leopard, speed agility, its feet like a bears, strong, and mouth
was like a lions mouth, ripping ability to tear to pieces. So the
heads, horns, diadems likened to the beast rising out of the sea and
the dragon, Satan gave his power, his throne and great authority to
the beast. As we read earlier, the beast are the nations we are
discussing.
One of the heads had a mortal wound but was healed. This could one
of the nations was severely wounded, mortal as though it was dead,
but the mortal wound was healed. This could be a picture of the
future where the ten nations rise up, Satan gives them power but one
nation something happens, a disaster of some kind, but that nation
is healed. So powerful are the nations that the whole earth followed
the beast (The beast feeding itself building up getting stronger,
looking at itself in wonder and awe). That fits in with ten of the nations are powerful and the
rest of the earth, other nations give homage to the ten nations.
(The make up of the ten nations could be different to what we might
think in the future, but we do know they are nations who hate God,
our God.). The whole world is in awe saying “Who is like the beast.”
Now in verses 5-10 we see here the ten horns went out of control
being haughty and blasphemous for about three and half years
attention here being haughty and blasphemous to those in heaven,
that is directed to God's place.
That would suit Satan, the
dragon, because he had nations attacking God and they were allowed
to attack the saints and to conquer them. That means the ten nations
had the upper hand with God's people. I guess they would have
started persecuting God's people. It appears the ten nations had
control over every nation on the earth (those not part of the ten
nations) and the people on the earth
submitted to the beast (ten nations) all those who had not been
written in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. Simply put,
that means the whole world was under the beast (ten nations) and people worshiped
it (them) except God's people, because their names were written in the book
of life.
In verses 9-10 we have a hint
that this time is going to be horrendous a time of extreme unrest
and persecution because we are told “If any one has an ear, let him
hear” and we read here the same words as in Jeremiah 15 :2 Israelite
people did not know what to do, because Jerusalem was about to fall
and people were calling to God but God said these words we read next
in Revelation 13 : 10. “If any one is to be taken captive, to
captivity he goes: if any one slays with the sword with the sword
must he been slain. Finished saying “Here is a call for the
endurance and faith of the saints
So we can
clearly deduce, there is a time coming when the whole world
will be controlled by the beast (10 nations) who had their power from Satan the
Serpent. You can imagine, Satan would have seduced the ten
nations, that peace would be everywhere once they were in control. But Satan is a
liar, so you can imagine the world will be going
through a period of severe persecution against the Christians,
and as the
text tell us, the saints are conquered. Probably, the
Christians will be
suppressed, oppressed, but most still fighting for Jesus
Christ. and I am sure there will be other nations who will be attacking
the beast (even though they are not Christian), not being fully under the
control of the beast.. But here the Christians are conquered, maybe
conquered where some would recant and deny Jesus Christ, but as it
has happened in the past, true Christians whose name is written in
the book of life will conquer in death, rather then deny their faith.
Right now as we stay immersed
in verses 9-10 we are in the midst of a terrible time for the earth
and for the saints, but it appears that a saviour began to rise in
this turmoil, the verses 11-18 a beast rose from the earth it had two
horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. Having a like of the
lamb these two nations or people who arose appeared to be harmless
like a lamb, maybe like a wolf dressed like a lamb to deceive
people. These two nations has immense power like the first beast so
great are their signs, miracles , it appeared they were even making
fire come down from heaven to the earth in the sight of men. It may
not a literal fire coming down but the effect the beast over men is
such that to people it was as if fire was coming from God. It could
also be that the beast made people think God was causing things to
happen. Maybe fire can be anger more then the usual purification we
know in the Bible. And it was as though the beast could speak such,
was the effect of the beast. It could be that this beast had given
an appeared peace
on the earth so it appears as though some divine
intervention in mankind so that people are tricked to pay homage to
a people, nation, maybe similar to what the Israelites were supposed
to be, a nation of priests. So they give homage and there is a sting
because God's people the same as the first beast written in the book
of life refuse to pay homage to the second beast so they are killed.
A time of delusion for a people, small and great, rich and poor,
free and slave to be marked on the right hand or the forehead. Once
again this marking is not an actual mark on the hand.
the fact that they decide the beast , nation or
people is valid and doing wonderful things people turn their minds
towards the beast giving allegiance to the beast. And the beast is
in a position that the Christian people are persecuted and killed
and the Christian people are unable to buy or sell unless they had
the mark of the beast.
Previously we said people
could not buy or sell unless they had the mark of the beast. Their
name or number was to be on right hand or the forehead. There is a
mystery with verse 18 of chapter 13 the name of the beast or number.
No one can agree what the number means 666
We are now up to chapter 13 of
Revelation and you will note that most of the thirteen chapters we
can understand their meanings. Of course others may disagree with
the interpretation of some of the material but that is life. Now we
will move into chapter 14 and we see a great event on Mount Zion
stood the Lamb, son of man, with him a hundred and forty-four
thousand who had his name and his Fathers name on their foreheads.
The scene we see, a great number of Christians the number is immense
because in chapter 7 where twelve tribes of Israel total twelve
thousand from each tribe numbering to one hundred and forty-five
thousand represents the total of Christians who........
Bible Revelation
Chapter 1
2 & 3
4
5
6 7
8
9 10
11
12 13
14
15&16
17&18
19
20
21 & 22
|