(Comments and questions are welcome below)
The two charismatic figures that charm and subtly delude the mind of the world in the end times are portrayed by the apostle John in Rev.13 as "beasts," a metaphor for ungodliness as well as a synonym for Babylonianism, which basically means unification (Rev.14:8,17:5,18:2).
When the last--and most influential--antichrist enters the world stage, he will encounter no opposition as the true church will have been already raptured (1Thess.4:17). Spiritually conscious Christians, whose names are written in heaven, would never worship any human, in any manner (Rev.13:8). "Christians" left behind, who were spiritually asleep, will remain un-invested in reading the Bible and suffer condemnation in the unprecedented horror of the Great Tribulation, the last three and one-half years of human history (Mt.25:1-13).
The figurative language of the apocalyptic literature is explained in chapters 2, 7, 9 and 11 in the prophetic Book of Daniel, wherein the "sea" is humanity; "horn" is a leader of people; "leopard" is the Western world, rooted in Greek culture (third empire); "bear" is Islam or legacy of the Medo-Persian empire; and the "mouth of a lion" is Satanic speech, clever rationalization that devours the hearts and minds of anyone who does not resist him. Unlike Jesus, who came to divide (Mt.10:35), Satan is a unifier, master of Nimrod, King of Babylon, who was the first socialist dictator.
So the picture in Rev. 13:2 is that of a two-colored (half-cast?) Westerner, but who furtively stands as a Muslim and exercises the unbridled power of Satan, since during the Great Tribulation the Holy Spirit will loosen His restraint (2Thess.2:7), though still make salvation possible to the few who endure persecution by religious and political bodies (Rev.7:14). The "Dragon," of course, is Satan, identified in the preceding chapter, who currently operates from the airways, through his minions on earth (Eph.2:2).
Now if half-cast-Bible-mocking-but-professing-Christianity-yet-Islam-extolling President Barack Hussein Obama is not the "first beast" then whoever does serve Satan as the harbinger of the Antichrist will be very much like this eloquent wolf in sheep's clothes, whose rationale for opposing conservative theology is irresistible to those unprotected by right knowledge of the Holy.
While all that oppose Jesus' teaching are antichrists, I do not say that Obama is the antichrist; for the last antichrist will be Jewish--Israel will only accept a Jew as its Messiah.
President Obama flashes the shahada (declaration of Islamic
faith) to the Muslim delegates of the US-African Leaders
Conference in Washington DC, August 2014.
Conference in Washington DC, August 2014.
What is Babylonianism?
In a very real sense, Babylonians
were the first organized liberal democrats, a humanistic and permissive society, intractably bent on unification. These socialists idolized anything that evoked pride, which God hates (Prov.8:13). As in Rome later,
all gods were welcome, except the real God, whose truth was--and still is--invariably received with demonic rage by the lost. The more rightly God is represented, the greater the rage, today most visible in the pathological hatred of President Trump. Actually it is not the man they hate so much as it is Christ Who dwells in him.
Babylonian ideology remains the basis for most religions today, in particular the ecumenical "church," referred to as a whore in apocalyptic literature for embracing humanistic traditions into its worship and teaching: it is centered in Rome and called "Babylon," the city and system that is yet to fall (Rev. 14:8;17:15).
In short, Babylonianism is any humanistic entity that will use all
available means to unify against the perceived threat of theism.
Pieter Bruegel's Tower of Babel and the European Union's Parliament
headquarters in Strasbourg. The EU has a Babylonian flag.
What is the Mortal Wound"?
One of the first beast's seven heads (a seventh part of his power) receives a mortal wound. To the amazement of the world, the "beast"--both a person and a Vatican-approved unifying system--survives an injury that has always been fatal (who else but the papacy sanctioned kings and martyred the saints? Rev.17:2,6). The wound may be political, but far safer it is to interpret Scripture like a child. We are not given to know the exact nature of the wound. But again, Satan, ever the jealous imitator of Jesus, makes for a resurrection of his own through his choicest servant.
What is the Mark of the Beast?
Satan
is not ignorant of Scripture. He likes to imitate God and thus will
impose his mark on the unsaved, just as God foretold that He will write
His name on the foreheads of His children, in heaven (Rev.3:12; 9:4;
14:1).
The
mark of the second beast may
well be a computer chip implant to replace cash and credit cards that can be
lost. As President Ronald Reagan warned,
Marxists like to use the
health care system as a Trojan horse to pass on something that
increases people's dependence on government. That cancer has been linked
to RF technology is of no consequence to Marxists; so expect the leftist
media, education department, Hollywood and other liberals to give
its full approval for such use of the technology. I
anticipate the government will pretend to be democratic and tout
receipt of the mark as voluntary, all while making it impossible to buy
or sell anything without the more convenient system.
According
to Jesus, acquiescing to the mark is counted as worship
of the beast (Rev.14:9,10) and results in eternal condemnation,
regardless of one's belief.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchip implants--on the dorsal
aspect of the hand--are considered "human upgrades" and already utilized in
socialist countries, like Sweden, France and Germany, voluntarily...at first!
What Does 666 Mean?
During the period Scripture was penned, lower case letters were used to signify numbers: alpha was 1, beta was 2, gamma was 3, etc. The numerical signature (gematria) of the beast, identified as 666, is then calculated either as a name--in Greek only--which letters add up to six-hundred and sixty-six, or, equally valid, as 19th century NT Greek scholar E.W. Bullinger posits, the superlative of the symbol for the number six.
Iranaeus, c. AD 180, understood that the number "according to the reckoning of the Greeks" was six-hundred and sixty-six. He may be correct; but the so-called "church fathers" by no means were good theologians: Iranaeus, already misguided by developing church tradition, erroneously argued that Jesus lived past His "fiftieth year." Early 4th century historian Eusebius regarded as mythical Papias'assertion that the Kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on earth (Rev.21:2ff). Papias was a "hearer" of John.
In the canonical Books of the Bible, the number one consistently symbolizes unity, two symbolizes difference, three symbolizes completeness. All instances of 40 in Scripture relate to hardship: 40 lashes of the whip, 40 years in the wilderness, 40 days of fasting and being tempted by the Devil.
Six is the number of man, who was made on the sixth day, one number short of perfection, and one day short of God's rest. Six symbolizes man's nature to rationalize, to reason against God. The original script employed the stigma, which means 'mark', especially one made by a branding iron on a slave. John would also have been aware that 666 was associated with pagan worship of the Devil, centered in Rome, and entrenched in Babylonianism. Interestingly, 666 is also the sum of Rome's Latin characters for numerals.
When interpreting ancient literature, important to know is the custom of the time to iterate as a means of expressing emphasis. Thus, 6 as a symbol of man's proclivity to rationalize is intensified by 66; and 666 is complete rationalization. The Babylonianism of the antichrist will utterly justify a godless system of unity in world government. Both interpretations are credible.
666 from the Codex Vaticanus, c.AD 350. The six hundred and
sixty-six can also be read as three sixes.
Which of the Two Beasts is the Antichrist?
opposed to Jesus' teaching as worship of Satan by proxy (Rev.13:4).
When Will Jesus Return?
Jesus will return precisely when least expected, firstly in the air at our rapture (1Thess. 4:16,17) then on Mt. Moriah to end the final war (Mt. 24), certainly not when the growing number of false prophet predict His return. The sober Christian's prophetic calendar is not one of months and years but one of foretold events. To the best of my knowledge, virtually all the prophesied events that precede Jesus' imminent return have already taken place. Below are a just few:
- Two-thirds of the world's population of Jews was "cut off" in the holocaust (Zech. 13:8). Hitler exterminated 6 million when the world's population of Jews was 9 million.
- Behind every entity describing itself as united--e.g. labor union; communist party; Union Theological Seminary; Unity-Unitarian, United Methodist and United Church of God--we see demonic influence. The existence of The United Nations, actually a welfare organization, is harmonious with Dan. 7:7-9. The Melbourne University Christian Union even has a "Godless Theist."
- Rome, formerly the center of Babylonian worship, remains Catholic, which term denotes 'universal' and, however unwittingly, continues to persecute genuine Christians in one form or another (Rev. 17). I am persuaded that without the restraint of secular government, evangelicals like me would be mercilessly tried, tortured and burned alive for supposed heresy, which ungodly laws are still on the books in the Vatican
- After some 2,000 years, Israel's homeland was restored on May 14, 1948. Jews, scattered in the diaspora of A.D.70, could not have been gathered from the "four corners of the world" back to their homeland before Gorbachev, under pressure by Ronald Reagan, dismantled the iron curtain (Is. 11:12).
- Israel--metaphorically the fig tree--spread forth its branches in the six-day war, taking the Golan Heights, West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza strip and Sinai Peninsula (Lk. 21:29-32).
- That good will be called bad, and bad will be called good is self-evident (2Tim. 3:1-5). Muhammad Ali and Michael Jackson especially glorified the expression. The movie industry, never portraying Christianity in a positive light, routinely has the viewer cheering for the criminal.
- The growth of the apostate "church" is unquestionably realized. Pulpit failure is most visible in the existence of an almost entirely Marxist media and education system (Mt. 24:10). The rise of denominationalism (lit. 'away from the Name') in the last century evidences fulfillment of Paul's conveyed warning (2Tim. 4:3; 2Thess. 2:3).
- The prophecy of society being like that in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah (Lk. 17:24-37) is realized in the existence of LGBTQIA, which stands for the unity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex and asexual and/or allies. Expect more letters to be added as God strengthens the confusion of those already judged (2Thess. 2:11).
- Individual responsibility will be replaced by atheistic collectivism, wherein all must conform to the oligarchy's perception of fairness, or be vindictively labeled as "divisive" and "uncooperative." Paradoxically, while science discovers new formulas, everything is being unified: not only in politics but in music, art, even automobiles are looking similar. Once the make and model of a car could be identified a half-mile away.
- With greater frequency of disease, famine, pestilence and natural disasters, the world is increasingly travailing, like a woman about to give birth (Is. 26:17; Jn. 16:21; Mt. 24:8).
- Hatred has become pervasive and increased to an inflammable level as the "love of many" has surely "waxed cold" (Mt. 24:12). Is there a greater hatred of humanity than legalized abortion?
- The predicted "rumors of wars," differentiated from "wars," seems to me modern terrorism, where spasmodic attacks are reported to members of a victimized society (Mt. 24:6).
- I think the Gospel has been virtually preached to the entire world (Mt.24:14).
Believers (Christ's bride) who take in "oil"--figurative of right Bible
doctrine--will recognize the Bridegroom's call and meet Him
before the church age ends.
doctrine--will recognize the Bridegroom's call and meet Him
before the church age ends.
How to "Watch" for Christ's Return
So how does the true church, the betrothed "bride of Christ," avoid spiritual slumber and heed Jesus' warning to "watch" for His coming, even though it is to occur when unexpected (1Thess.5:6)? I would say become aware of and guard against tolerating (at the voting booth) those who support the intractable and accelerating movement toward Babylonianism: the continuing shift leftward to global unification; gender neutrality; prohibition of sex gender pronouns; persecution of logic; political correctness; so-called diversity to eradicate individuality; and the imposing rules in social media, where the masses are blindly herded into the pavilion of collective thinking.
Watching equates with resistance to such insanity as the global push for "equality." No price can be put on any human, but are we all equal intellectually in the domain of work? Should the unmotivated employee be paid as much as the innovative hard worker? The madness of the unifying dynamic in leftism is proudly featured daily in the news; for instance, recently a unisex hair salon in Stroud, England was forced to remove its ad, "This is a busy, friendly, small salon, so only happy, friendly stylists need apply" because the local job center considered the word "happy" as discriminatory. Taking down the ad is tantamount to not watching for Christ's return. The foretold persecution of Christianity comes in many flavors and also affects moderates ("Nicolaitans" in Scripture).
The Greek term that Paul used for "watch" denotes action: the duty of every saved Christian is not only to look out for but also warn brethren of approaching danger. Together they actively resist the work of the enemy; otherwise faith without works is dead (Jas.2:20,26). That liberals have so much power in government reflects the profound spiritual slumber in the church and abysmal failure of the pulpit. The consequence of such dormancy is pronounced in the most terrifying piece of literature man will ever read: viz. Mt. 7:21-24.
As
the middle of the political spectrum moves leftward, the difference
between liberals and conservatives is becoming increasingly blurred. Today, JFK would barely fit into the Republican party as many therein would view him as too conservative. A
short 100 years ago, the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
would have been convicted for treason: just as pride precedes the fall,
so passivity precedes loss of freedom.
Fear not the ignorant criticism of being "divisive" and resist Marxist Babylonianism that seeks to make us all as "one," for there is no such thing as neutrality with God (Mt. 12:30).
Live as if Jesus were coming today.
God is able to preserve His truth (Is.40:8). The Holy Bible is
the only reliable source of information we have about God and His teaching.
Some food for thought: are we the generation mentioned in Mt.24:32-34 that witnessed Israel extend its branches (borders) in June of 1967?
