December 21, 2011 The Devil Deceives

The Devil Deceives
Read Revelation 13

Rev 13:1 Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads; on each of its horns there was a crown, and on each of its heads there was a name that was insulting to God.

“THE BEAST from the sea and the beast from the land form a kind of evil trinity. Satan claims to be God; the antichrist is the false Christ of Satan; and the beast from the earth performs the function of an unholy spirit.
The antichrist persuades the world to worship the devil. He has a fatal wound but lives, in a monstrous imitation of the resurrected Christ of God. The second beast seeks to persuade the world to worship the antichrist by his witness in word and deed, as the Holy Spirit witnesses to God’s Christ. And through the mark of the beast (itself a parody of the seal of God) he creates a devilish imitation of the church of Christ. So John depicts the world as divided between followers of the Truth and followers of the Lie.”
And then there is the “name that was insulting to God”. Who is that? “Despite the many possibilities that the number 666 yields, it is virtually certain that the individual thereby indicated was known in all the churches addressed by John, and probably far wider. The name Nero Caesar transliterated into Hebrew from Greek yields the number 666.”
Nero pointed to himself as a god to worship. In John’s day he was the devil’s false Christ and great persecution came in his rule. Again, God shows John that for a time, in his providence, he will allow persecution on his church and his people. And he also shows he is victorious.


Pause and Consider: how vital it is to know the truth.