Lesson Three

Chapter 13:11-18

The Second Beast

a) Beast of the Earth—the false Prophet (13:11-18)

- While the first beast echoed the four beasts of Dan. 7:3 in “ascending from the sea,” this beast echoes the four kingdoms of Dan. 7:17 in “ascending from the earth.”

- This “other” beast parodies the description of Christ as the Lamb with seven horns in 5:6. He fits Jesus’ warning against false prophets in Matt. 7:15, “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”

- Like the Antichrist, the false prophet is the agent of the dragon and speaks with his voice. This is another parody of Christ, who speaks with the voice of the Father (John 5:25–30; 7:16–18). The “voice like a dragon” probably also refers to the same deceptive, lying words that the “ancient serpent” uses to lead the world astray (12:9). The Antichrist was given “a mouth to speak great blasphemies, and . . . opened his mouth in order to blaspheme God and to slander his name” (13:5–6). The second beast will speak with the same voice.

- This false prophet is the one who will arise from within the church and lead the “great apostasy” of 2 Thess. 2:3. First John 2:18 and 4:1–3 speak of the “many antichrists” or false teachers that have arisen to spread heresy in the church. They control the people by fear. This is an occult practice. This is why we are not to live by fear (1 Timothy 1:7). This is what is going to cause many within the Church to be deceived, during the great apostasy (1 Timothy 4:1-5)

- We are told here that the “mortal wound” was suffered by the “first beast” himself. The false prophet takes this event and “makes” all the earth-dwellers “worship” the Antichrist.

b) Mark of the Beast:

- The second beast “makes” everyone receive the mark to identify their allegiance to the Antichrist.

- Note the resulting polarity: believers are stamped with the “seal” of Christ (Rev. 7:3–4; 22:4), while unbelievers have the “mark” of the beast (13:16–17). There are no neutralities in this war; not to belong to Christ is to belong to the beast. The coupling of opposites (small, great; rich, poor; free, slave) is a rhetorical way of stressing the totality of human society (cf. 11:18; 19:5, 18; 20:12). This is certainly the satanic counterpart of the “sealing” of the saints by God in 7:2–4, another of the “great imitations” that characterize chapter 13 (Duet. 6:8).

- As the elect are sealed upon their foreheads to escape the destruction about to fall upon the earth, so the followers of the beast are to escape his wrath against the church by bearing his mark. In the final days of Antichrist it will represent the ultimate test of religious loyalty. Only those who would rather die than compromise their faith will resist the mark of Antichrist.

- Not only does the mark identify those who worship the best but also it allows them to engage in the simple commercial transactions of the day. The purpose seems to be to harass believers rather than the method by which they are to be put to death. The mark is identified as the name of the beast written in its numerical equivalent. See comments on Revelation 11:1-2a. It shows that the outer court is taken over by the pagans. This points to the great apostasy in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.

- The authority of the first beast will be executed through religious and commercial system of the second beast. This is where believers’’ faith will be tested in whom they trust more: Jesus or Mammon. Where you find your heart, you will find your treasure also (Matthew 6).

- It is not the name of the beast or the number of beast’s name that is stamped on his followers. The mark is the number of the name.

- In ancient times, letters of the alphabet served as numbers. The first nine letters were the numbers one to nine, the next nine signified the tens to the nineties, and so on.

- The name of Jesus in Greek is given as 888. In the following verse in Revelation we learn that the number of the beast stamped upon his followers was 666.

- The number of the beast is the number of a certain man. The solution most commonly accepted today is that 666 is the numerical equivalent of Nero Caesar. If this person is Nerolike, then in this sense, the use of 666 as the threefold counterpart (with 666 used similarly to “holy, holy, holy” in Rev. 4:8) to the completeness of seven and the absolute perfection of “Jesus” as 888 could well also be intended. He is “incomplete incomplete incomplete” compared to the ultimately perfect “Jesus” (888).

- In the final analysis, we must remain uncertain regarding the actual meaning of 666. But in view of the widely divergent and highly speculative solutions to the riddle it seems best to conclude that John intended only his intimate associates to be able to decipher the number.

- The Mark of the Beast is Anti-Shama. It goes against the Jewish Shama (Deut. 6:4-8). This is a prayer that is written on the forehead and hand as a symbol of devoting all your thoughts and actions to the one true God.

- The purpose of the mark is to all the beast via the Antichrist to bully the saints. To withhold commercial transactions from believers to harass them (Revelation 13:17). Similar to the way that Roman solders harassed Christian by making a choice to either: 1) renounce their faith and bow to Caesar or 2) Die in their allegiance to Christ. Near the return of Christ, Christians will lose their economic privileges and become the poorest in society, if they don’t renounce their faith. The Beast/Antichrist wants to exclude the Christians out of society.

- The name of the beast or number of his name speaks to the specific person who will be the Antichrist. Geometria is Greek meaning “to calculate.” It is the practice of using letters of the alphabet to serve as numbers i.e. roman numerals. Some scholars use this practice to say the number “666” speaks of Nero Caesar. He was a ruthless ruler during the time of early Christian persecution. However it is unlike that this is the person because he died 30 years before John wrote the book. It may be pointing to someone like Nero.

- Using Geometria to discover who the Antichrist is in the final days of the world is weak argument because there a many names that could fit the profile in history as many have already tried i.e. Martin Luther, Napoleon, Hitler, Sarah Palin.

- Others believe that “666” speaks of the incompleteness of the person, unlike the number of Jesus is “888.” Others say that the number of a man is 6 and three times, it is man trying to be like the trinity.

- The one that I find most believe is found in ancient Babylon occult practices. They were taught by the Nephilims (Genesis 6) on Astrology. According to the Book of Enoch Nephilims taught humans very much on the stars and how to use them to read the signs. One of the things they learned is the starry galaxy had 36 constellations, where each constellation represented one of their gods. Pagan priest had a magic squad with 6 rows and 6 columns, where each square had a number in it. Each row added up to 111 and each column added up to 111. In total the column and rows added up to 666. This number represented for them the number of their son God, Osiris. This is the Sun God of Egypt that God faced of with when he sent Moses to face Pharaoh. The devil is bringing back the evil that God had done away with in the flood and in Egypt in the last days. Jesus said, as it was in the days of know, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37).

c) Summary of Chapter 13

- This chapter retells the story of the same cosmic conflict but now using Daniel’s earthly animal vision (Daniel 7-12)

- John sees two beasts empowered by the dragon. One of them represents the national military power that conquers through violence and the other beast rises through economic propaganda machine. And these beasts demand full allegiance of the nations and it is symbolized by taking the mark of the beast and his number 666 on the forehead or hand.

- The nations become beasts when they resort to their own power and economic security as a false God and then demand their allegiance. This is the four horsemen theme (See Revelation 6). So Babylon was the Beast in Daniel’s day but that was followed by Persia and then Greece and then Rome in John’s day. And so it goes for any nation that acts in the same way.

- Christian is not about prosperity in this evil age, but about endurance. The race is not for the swift but those who endure to the end (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

- We don’t need to fear the evil works of Satan. God will give us strength when we deed it to endure. We don’t need to fear. We are to know that God is sovereign through all of this evil and he will give us the strength when we need it. Rather than living in fear, we need to live in faith.

- We overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony. In order for us to have a testimony, we need to go through a test and come out the other side victoriously

- The other side of the beast and Antichrist is the return of Christ and glorious age of the millennium where we will rule with Christ. But this is going to require another bible study session.