Revelation #26 The Antichrist Revelation 13:1-10

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1 Revelation #26 The Antichrist Revelation 13:1-10 In this chapter we are introduced to the rise of Satan s superman: his incarnation. Just as Jesus is the incarnation of God, the Antichrist is the incarnation of Satan. Everything Jesus does, has done, and will do, Satan tries to imitate. Satan is a counterfeiter, always trying to imitate what Christ has done. In tracing all Satan s attempts to establish his kingdom on earth, we find everything he has and is attempting to do is a duplication of what Jesus Christ has already done. The Antichrist is Satan incarnate. In this chapter, we see the rise of two beasts and the reign of terror and destruction that will accompany them. The source of their power and authority is Satan himself. This is not too surprising because Jesus said in John 5:43, I am come in my Father s name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. I believe that Jesus was thinking about the time when Satan s messiah will come and men who have rejected Christ will receive Satan himself. Satan conjures up a man who bears all the characteristics of Satan. He is the visible expression of the invisible devil. Every line of Satan s character is faithfully reproduced in the Antichrist. This chapter describes Satan s last all-out effort on earth. It is his last drive to defeat the program of God and to establish his own kingdom. The reason for Satan s urgency is that the Lamb holds the title deed to this earth and he is about to come and take possession. Satan knows it and will make his last effort to destroy God s divine plan for humanity. At this point, humanism will reach its height with a reign of terror and brutality. This is exactly what Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-11, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now hindereth will continue to hinder until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the 1

2 working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. Tonight, as we study the Antichrist, our study will be built around his person, his power, and his purpose. Look, first of all at his person. Verses 1-2 say, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. You will remember that in one of our earlier studies we talked about the fact that when the Bible was written there were no chapters and no verses, each book of the Bible was just one long written scroll. Bible chapters and verses did not come into existence until the 1500s. They are very helpful in locating passages, but they are not inspired. At times they even cloud the information being presented. Actually, a close study will reveal that verse 1 of chapter 13 should have been part of chapter 12, for the subject is Satan and his persecution of earth dwellers. Therefore, according to the original Greek manuscript, the personal pronoun should be he instead of I, because he pictures Satan standing upon the sand of the sea. Accordingly, this portion of Scripture should read, And the dragon was wroth with the woman and Satan stood upon the sand of the sea. Satan standing upon the sand of the sea pictures his control over earth s teeming millions at an appointed time (chapter 17:5, and chapter 20:80. This control is established through the two satanically inspired beasts who come out of the sea and the earth. The first beast (the Antichrist) rises out of the sea and has seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns. This is a literal man, but demonpossessed, for he (or his power) comes out of the abyss, as seen in Revelation 17:8, for the beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. The seven heads, loaded with blasphemy, also portray the five kings who had ruled up to John s day; the sixth king who was in power at that time; and the 2

3 seventh king who will reign as the Antichrist during the Tribulation period. This is confirmed in Revelation 17:10, And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. Likewise, the ten horns also picture ten nations over whom the beast or Antichrist rules. This passage of scripture pictures the final, or seventh, world leader ruling over a confederation of ten nations during the end time. In order to understand that the ten horns are actually ten western nations each of which was part of the old Roman Empire one must study the prophecy of Daniel in chapters 2 and 7. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon in Daniel s day, had a dream. When he awakened, however, he could not recall the dream. Therefore, he called his magicians, astrologers, and soothsayers together, requesting that they both recall the dream and explain its meaning. Not one of them was able to do so, even under the sentence of death, as seen in Daniel 2:13,16,19 - And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision? Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. In verses we have one of the most important texts in the entire Bible because it reveals the history of the world from that time to our present day as Daniel explains God s vision to the king, Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of bronze, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them 3

4 away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream. Nebuchadnezzar was astonished as his dream was revealed, and shocked as the interpretation was given. Daniel told the king that he (Nebuchadnezzar), as the leader of the Babylonian empire, was the head of gold and that the two arms of silver (representing the Medes and the Persians) would soon overthrow him. Next the stomach and thighs of bronze (Greece) would defeat the Medes and the Persians. Eventually the two legs of iron (the Roman Empire, headquartered at Rome and Constantinople) would conquer the Greco Empire. These events occurred exactly as God had revealed them to Daniel and as he, in turn, told Nebuchadnezzar. Now notice something extremely important. The ten toes of iron and clay never destroyed the legs of iron the Roman Empire! Why? Because Rome fell through internal corruption. This historical fact is the subject of Edward Gibbon s great book, The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Therefore, we see that the final world power is a union to ten western nations represented by the ten toes of the great image. The iron tells us these nations were part of the old Roman Empire, whereas the clay speaks of a deterioration as the empire weakened over the centuries. Thus, the final world power will not be communism but a confederation of ten western nations under the first beast, or the Antichrist. The ten toes also coincide with the ten toes of the beast in verse 1 of our text. In the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar s dream, Daniel described the toes as kingdoms, and concluded with this statement in Daniel 2:44, And in the days of these kings (ten of them, as pictured by the ten toes) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For centuries Christians have prayed the words of the model prayer given in Matthew 6:10, Thy kingdom come. During the Tribulation hour, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of Revelation 7:3-8 will preach the gospel of the kingdom the good news that the King is about to return. And the King of glory is about to return, but only when a final confederation of ten western nations has been established on this earth. I am convinced that the present European Economic Community or Common Market has a great part to play in this picture. To get a 4

5 better understanding of how the European Economic Community fits into this picture we will need to look at some present-day events. Therefore, we need to consider that Ireland and Denmark, who are presentday Common Market members, were never a part of the old Roman Empire. This apparent problem, however, is quickly resolved when one considers the information presented in Daniel 7. Here we discover that, following the establishment of a ten-nation confederacy, another world leader arises. He takes control, ousts three nations, and replaces them with two others and his own, as seen in Daniel 7:8, I considered the horns (ten of them), and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns (original members) plucked up by the roots. This scripture coincides perfectly with Revelation 13:5. Daniel tells us in Daniel 7:24-27 that the Antichrist will conquer three of the ten nations and replace them with original members of the old Roman Empire, as well as fulfilling the prediction of blasphemy, And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High. There is no doubt about it, the Scripture is clear; a confederacy of ten western nations will be formed. Then another leader will appear, remove three nations, replace them, and rule as the Antichrist until the King of kings (Christ Jesus) returns to earth and destroys his evil empire. Therefore, it is clear that the European Common Market will grow to thirteen nations, and finally be reduced to ten at the end when the ten-toed, ten-horned confederacy is destroyed. This is the event described by Daniel as a stone cut out without hands (breaking) in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. Then Daniel 2:44-45 occurs, And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Yes, it is true, King Nebuchadnezzar s dream has come to pass throughout hundreds of years of history, and it is obvious that the present alignment of western 5

6 nations in the form of the European Economic Community is the final piece in the puzzle. Look at verse 2, And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. We have already seen that (1) Babylon, (2) Medo-Persia, (3) Greece, and (4) Rome constitute the four empires of world history. We have also learned that the revived Roman Empire, in the form of a final ten-nation confederation, becomes the end-time power block. Daniel 7 pictures these four empires as (1) a lion, (2) a bear, (3) a leopard, and (4) a beast who is a combination of the previous world powers he has conquered. The beast s empire contains a portion of each preceding empire. Actually, the only difference between the descriptions of John and Daniel is that the order is reversed in the Book of Revelation. The reason for this is simple: John is looking back to the beginning while Daniel is looking forward to the conclusion. Putting it all together, the message of the ten horns, the ten toes, and the four beasts is one and the same from different vantage points, and all picture a world dictator governing ten nations at the time of the end! This ten-nation confederacy constitutes the revival of the fourth power the old Roman Empire as typified by the fourth monstrous animal or beast. 1 John 2:18 boldly declares, Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. When John says, and as you have heard Antichrist is coming, he uses a capital A. And when he says, even now many antichrist have come, he uses a little a. John is simply saying that though many people throughout the years have had the attributes of antichrist, there is coming a man who is the devil incarnate, the son of perdition, evil personified. In our next study we will take a real close look at the identity of this beastly leader known as the Antichrist! 6