THE MARK OF THE BEAST AND THE COMING ECONOMIC CRISIS!
Revelation 13:1-18
INTRODUCTION: These are amazing times we are living in. If you are seven-five or older these are some of the things you have experienced in your life time. You have seen the atom split and now we have nuclear devices that can destroy our entire human race many times over. You have seen the old Roman Empire in Europe form back together in the European Common Market. You have seen space exploration. We have seen the divorce rate go from one in eight to one in two. We have seen the crime rate increase five hundred percent in our life-time. We have seen the tiny nation, Israel restored exactly as Bible prophecy foretold. We now have instant news from anywhere in the world. We have seen the invention of computers which will make it easy to abolish all money so the rulers can dictate that we all must buy sell and trade using certain code marks and numbers. We have also seen an explosion of knowledge: Daniel 12:4. The Book of Revelation uses a lot of imagery and symbols to convey spiritual truths so the teaching will stick with us.
- WHO IS THE ENEMY?
Revelation 13:1: So first, let’s identify the dragon that stood on the shore. Revelation 12:7-9. So, the dragon is the devil or Satan. The dragon on the shore calls up the beast: Revelation 13:1-2. The beast gets all his power, throne, and great authority. So, whatever the beast is he gets all his power from Satan himself. Who does this beast represent? Daniel 7:1-7: Daniel sees three beasts, or kingdoms of mankind which are all combined in this beast we have just read about. The beast out of the sea is the Antichrist: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4. Of course, this final Antichrist is not the only Antichrist that has ever lived on this earth. Satan has given his power to other earthly rulers: 2 John 7.
2. HOW DOES THE ANTICHRIST WORK?
Satan exerts a lot of pressure on people to conform to his system. Revelation 13:3: have you noticed that every January 1, since 2005 the same song has been played every New Year’s Eve, just a s the ball drops in Times Square? “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky. Imagine all the people livin for today. Oooo.” The second verse: “Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion, too. Imagine all the people, livin life in peace.” The Bible tells us with the advent of the Antichrist the pressure to conform will be greatly increased all across this earth: Revelation 13:4-10. As if this is not enough, now the dragon calls up a second beast out of the earth: Revelation 13:11-12. This second beast is going to be to the Antichrist what the Holy Spirit is to the true Christ. Just as there is a holy Trinity, there is an unholy trinity: Revelation 16:13-14. The dragon is anti-God, the beast is the anti-Christ, and the false prophet is the anti-Spirit. The false prophet is going to be a servant of Satan: Revelation 13:11: he looks harmless but he will speak like a dragon. The first beast comes out of the sea: Revelation 13:1: the sea represents nations and peoples, and kindreds and tongues. So, this first beast will probably be a Gentile. But the second beast come out of the earth, literally out of the land. The false prophet will almost surely be an apostate Jew who will be the enforcer for the anti-Christ. The false prophet will be, not only a servant of Satan but also a leader of worship: Revelation 13:12. The devil is not opposed to worship: 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Satan is not against worship, he is not against religion. Today we don’t need more worship or more religion we need more of Jesus Christ! The false prophet will also be a worker of miracles: Revelation 13:13-14. The word for miracle in these verses is a word that means “a sign miracle, a sign that proves power and authority. Remember our Lord Jesus words: Matthew 16:4. Satan can do signs and those he empowers can do sign miracles too. So many, instead of looking to the Word of God for the truth are looking for signs: Revelation 13:14-15. When the false prophet called down fire from heaven it reminds us of the great miracle that Elijah did in 1 Kings 18:22-37. If you don’t understand that Satan has power to do miracles you will be very easily deceived. Matthew 24:22-28; Revelation 16:14. Yes, the spirits of demons working miracles. We live with a dark, devilish and unholy power in this world and it is growing in darkness, devilishness and unholiness as its power raises. Why does God allow the devil to have miracle working power: Deuteronomy 13:1-3. So many today would rather see a sign or wonder than listen to the clear teaching of God’s Word! John 4:46-48; John 4:49-54.
3. THE ANTICHRIST’S END GAME!
The Antichrist and the false prophet have an end game in mind: Revelation 13:15-18. The false prophet is going to turn the entire world into a concentration camp with each prisoner numbered so he can control them. Today, in the nation of Russia another anti-Christ is ruling. Mr. Putin has put thousands of those who are protesting his war with Ukraine in prison camps all across his nation. If you protest anything Mr. Putin wants to do you are considered an enemy of the state. The same is true in North Korea and many other nations around our world today. Even in our own nation to day when you stand for the truth of simple morality in a school board meeting and refuse the evil books they want in the libraries for our children you are considered a terrorist.
The mark of the beast is a counterpart to the word of the Holy Spirit at the moment a Christians receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior: Ephesians 1:11-14. Everyone in the Great Tribulation will either have the mark of Christ or the mark of the beast upon them. Revelation 13:18. Six is the mark of a man in the Scriptures and three sixes is a man trying to make himself God.
The mark of the beast will allow the false prophet to control all the financial transactions all over the world. We are seeing the signs of the coming change in how we get paid for our work and how we use credit cards for most of our financial transactions today. The UPC “Uniform Product Code” in your supermarket is used today to restock the shelves automatically.
If you do not go along with the mark of the beast you will be declared a non-person and will not be able to buy or sell anything because all transactions will be done through the mark of the beast: Revelation 13:15-17. It doesn’t matter how much you have today, in that economy if you don’t have the mark of the beast you don’t have any money.