Revelation 13:14-18
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Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.
Introduction
Keeping in mind that according to verse three of chapter one, we will all “keep the things written” in this book, we have seen that the three beasts of this 13th chapter of Revelation are actually nothing more than the three natural progressions of the one beast which we all are by virtue of being created on the sixth day right along with all the other beasts of the earth.
Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
It was by God’s own design that the beast made in God’s image, which was destined to eventually rule over all the other beasts, would first be designated by the number six. God created Adam on the sixth day to reveal to mankind that he was first nothing more than a mere beast, created on the sixth day, right along with all the other beasts of the earth, having by nature “no preeminence above a beast”.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
We have seen that the earthly flesh we all naturally are is symbolized by “the sea” (Rev 13:1, Rev 17:15)
Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
So our first beast in this chapter comes up out of the sea. The second beast in our progression receives “a deadly wound” and gets religion. While we are not at first told what causes this “deadly wound” we are told that this deadly wound is healed, causing all that is in us to worship this inward beast, to the extent that this second beast within us becomes a God unto himself.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
So our religious beast is symbolized as “coming up out of the earth, with two horns like a lamb.” We are not really converted in the least at this second stage of our progression. The wound that did momentarily inflict a deadly wound quickly heals, and we find that, in reality, we still hate the doctrines of the True Lamb of God. At this stage of our progression, we are told that “he speaks as a dragon” because we are, as the sons of the great red dragon, given the power to perform miracles which deceive our inward beast. We watch as our prayers are answered right there in Babylon. We are miraculously and physically blessed after we start tithing to that harlot Babylonian system. This inward deception is completely irresistible, to the extent that we are granted the power to “overcome and kill the saints.”
No one who “has two horns like a lamb” thinks of himself as a beast who “speaks as a dragon,” so we are blinded to our true state by being “given power to make fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men”.
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
A miracle is a miracle, but a miracle is not a synonym for Truth. The biblical truth is that God actually uses miracles to deceive those to whom He does not impart a love of the Truth.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The fruit of these miracles and wonders performed by the religious beast within us, before our beast who comes up out of the sea, is “strong delusion”, which causes all the earth with us, and them that dwell therein, within us, to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. How does God describe these miracles, which our second beast is given the power to do in the presence of our first beast? Here in this same chapter of 2 Thessalonians is how God describes these miracles which He gives our beast the power to perform:
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed [within you] in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let [Greek: withhold], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed [within you], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth [the knowledge of His Word], and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming [within]:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish [are perishing]; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
So what is it that distinguishes our beast, with the power to perform miracles, from our new man who “dies daily” to the “power and signs and lying wonders” of our religious beast who “shows himself that he is God” and who causes us to worship our first beast? What distinguishes these two parts of our progression is that our new man is not swayed by the miracles performed by our religious beast, and our new man has been given a “love of the truth”. Our second earthly beast is impervious, and he is completely unaffected by Truth. Our old man, our beast with two horns like a lamb but who speaks as a dragon, puts church doctrine before a love of the Truth, and seeks to destroy the True Lamb of God and the knowledge of His doctrines.
It is the doctrines of our inward beast which imparts to us “the image of the beast”, and it is our love of the Truth of the doctrines of Christ which imparts to us the image of our Creator.
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
There it is! It is our “love of the true… knowledge of Christ and His Father”, which changes our old “image” from the image of “our father the devil” into the “new man… the image of Him that created us.” As we come to “see” and “know God and Jesus Christ” we are “transformed into that same image, from glory to glory”.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Since Christ tells us “the Words I speak to you are spirit…”, it is His Words and His doctrines which “change us into the same image.” In the same way, the “image of the beast” is given to us via our faith in him and our worship of his doctrines:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Notice that “the mark of his name” and “the number of his name” are both “of his name”. In the same way, his name and his image are both the same thing. The name, number, mark and the image of the beast, are all simply the love of, and the faith in, His lies as opposed to “the love of the Truth” and faith in the Words of God.
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
This is speaking of the second part of our progression, or the second beast in our progression toward the maturing of the wild beast within us. It is only now in this verse, that we are told what caused the deadly wound which was inflicted on the beast of the first part of our progression. That deadly wound was inflicted by the only thing that “can make war with the beast.” It was inflicted “by a sword”, and that “sword [is] of the spirit, which is the Word of God.”
Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
The “fire”, which is the word of God, inflicts upon us a “deadly wound”, but “the fiery darts of the wicked” cause that deadly wound to be healed, and we are once more a healthy and rebellious beast. “The sword of the spirit… is the word of God.” The Word of God alone can inflict a deadly wound upon our first beast which comes up out of the sea of our flesh. It was the Word of God which first brought us to desire to die to our own flesh, but our religious beast caused that wound to be healed before we could be “twice killed”, and the deadly wound be once more inflicted, and our names are reinstated in God’s book of life.
We must “live by every word”, and that includes these words:
Jdg 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
“David slew Goliath… with sling and with a stone”, but he also killed Goliath with a sword, and it is only “with the sword” that our second beast will eventually be slain. That will only happen after He gives life to the image of our first beast whose deadly wound he causes to be healed, thus keeping us from entering into the kingdom of God “within us.”
1Sa 17:50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but [there was] no sword in the hand of David.
1Sa 17:51 Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
The fact that David slew Goliath, with “his [own] sword”, is a type and a shadow of each of us being judged “out of our own mouths.” Those very words are all right there in the Word of God, and they are “all ours” to be lived and kept.
Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, [thou] wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Notice the function of the New Testament symbol of our second beast in our progression toward the judgment of our old beastly man. Here is how our deadly wound with a sword is caused to be healed by our second beast within. This is the function of the beast that “comes up out of the earth.”
Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Mat 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
It is you and I who have been these scribes and Pharisees. It is each of us, in the image of our father the devil, who “in times past” have blasphemed the name of God by speaking the lies and false doctrines of our father the devil and being conformed to his image.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
It is the second beast of our progression which “gives life to the image of the first beast.” It is our second beast with “two horns like a Lamb, but who speaks as a dragon, who causes us to worship the image of our first beast. Let’s not fail to notice that it is “the image of the beast” that speaks, and causes us to worship the image of the beast, because, as we said earlier, our ‘image’ is determined by our faith in our doctrines. It is the doctrines we speak and for which we stand, which show all men in whose ‘image’ we really are. The father of our beast looks exactly like his son. They both have “seven heads and ten horns”, and it is the doctrines of our father, the doctrines of this dragon, which are spoken by us when we are in his image as this “image of the beast.”
Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
… and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
What does this mean? How does the beast which “comes up out of the earth” and causes us to worship the image of the beast, also cause us to be killed when we refuse to continue to worship the image of the beast?
If we have learned anything about this book of revelation it is that this book has been “signified unto us” (Rev 1:1), and the “killing” of those who overcome the image, mark, name and number of the beast is no exception to that rule. So what does “as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” really mean?
Before we answer that question, let us establish and remember that there is not one person on the face of the earth who is not first “overcome of the beast.” “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” There is not one person who will not first “receive his name, number and mark.”
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
“If any man have an ear, let him hear” is God’s way of telling us that very few will understand these words, because very “few… are given eyes that see and ears that hear… these mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Mat 13:10-15). Not one person in a thousand will understand that everyone’s name is first blotted out of God’s book of life, before it is replaced by receiving a second and permanent deadly wound to our old man, “the beast.”
Exo 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
Who is “blotted out of God’s book of life”? It is only those “whosoever have sinned against God”. So, who is that?
Psa 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
That explains how the spirit can say that “all that dwell upon the face of the earth shall worship the image of the beast.” All are first blotted out of the book of life, because “all have sinned” against God. This also explains how the beast is “given power to make war with and overcome the saints and all that dwell on the earth.” So when we are told that there are some who “would not worship the beast”, what we are really being told is that there are some few who will repent of worshiping the beast, and who will “overcome the beast and his mark and his image and his number and his name.”
Is that really what happens to God’s faithful? Is it true that we are all, at first, overcome and killed by the beast, before we overcome him? What do the scriptures teach?
Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
So even God’s elect must “get the victory over the beast, his image, mark and the number of his name.” Truly “all that dwell on the earth” will worship this beast in their own appointed time, and then a few will be granted to “get the victory over the beast, his image, his mark and the number of his name.”
How is this religious beast, with two horns like a lamb who speaks as a dragon, given to “kill the saints?” Here is how that is accomplished. This part of our progression is accomplished by the beast within in the exact reverse of how “Christ in us” kills and destroys the man of sin within us.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Here is what the symbolism of “killing the saints” means:
2Co 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour [smell] of his knowledge by [Greek: ‘dia‘, through] us in every place.
2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved [Greek: being saved], and in them that perish [Greek: perishing]:
2Co 2:16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
Here is Rotherham’s rendition of verse 15:
2Co 2:15 That, of Christ, a grateful odour, are we, unto God,- in them who are being saved, and in them who are being lost:
It is the saints who “receive a deadly wound” that is healed, and it is the healing of that deadly wound which is the death, or the killing, of God’s elect. “All things are ours” (1Co 3:21-22).
1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
There is not a man or woman alive who has not, at some time, hated his brother. So it is easy to see how the beast within us causes us to kill those who do not worship his image.
Christ also tells us how we go about killing those who will not worship the image of the beast:
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
“He that finds his life” is us when our deadly wound is healed, and “he that loseth his life” is us when the beast with two horns like a lamb, who speaks as a dragon, “kills us” and we become the smell of death to him and to his. It is only through dying daily and being crucified with Christ that we “find our life.”
“As many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” is no more literal than any other of the signified words of the book of this prophecy. Our death at the hands of our own religious beast is accomplished when we refuse to do what our self-righteous, religious beast wants us to do, and instead we seek what is commendable to God. We are killed by that beast when we deny the desires of our beast and seek only to please our heavenly Father, instead of pleasing ourselves, pleasing our families and pleasing our friends.
2Co 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
2Co 2:16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
That is how our beast “causes us to be killed”.
Here are many more of the details concerning how our self-righteous, religious, two-horned beast goes about killing God’s elect within us.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
The word ‘all’ is qualified with six other words, “both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond“. There is not one person who is excluded from those six categories. All men who have ever lived are either small or great, rich or poor, free or bond. There is not as much as one exception. The fact that this mark is in the right hand and in the forehead explains clearly what is being said concerning “all men” to those who are granted to “compare spiritual things with spiritual” (1Co 2:13-14). We have already discussed how it is that we all “blaspheme the name of God among the Gentiles” by the way we live our lives in rebellion against the words of the very Lord whose name we claim as ours. It is by the very life we live and the things we think in our hearts and minds, symbolized by “our foreheads”; these are the things which lead us to what we do with our “right hand.” The holy spirit reveals this to us in the shadows we are given in the Old Testament concerning the “mark” of God.
What is the “mark” of God? First we are told that the mark of God is obedience to His laws. Where does God tell us He places His mark upon us? Here is where God places His mark of our obedience to His laws:
Exo 13:9 And it [obedience] shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD’S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.
Exo 13:16 And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.
God’s mark is symbolized as being upon our hand because “with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt… for by strength of hand the Lord brings us forth out of ” our sins. But which hand of God symbolizes such strength, in the types and shadows of the Old Testament?
Exo 15:6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy [our beast, the “man of sin” within us].
Where does God tells us he has placed His mark upon us? If it is the “strength of hand” that He himself has, then that would be “His right hand.”
“All men both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, receiving a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” is the symbol of the total commitment of our hearts to the thoughts and doctrines of our father the devil, which demonstrates for all to see who is it that we worship and serve.
What happens to those who overcome that image, mark, number and name of the beast? Here is what happens to such a person.
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The mark, name, number and image, of our beast are one and all associated with our knowledge of, and faith in, the doctrines of the great red dragon who is the father of the beast within us. We are even told that when we worship the beast, we are actually worshiping the dragon.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
So we have all or none at all, and the name, number, mark and image are all one package. Notice how that is demonstrated in these two verses:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, [and] over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
So the “mark of the beast” and the “number of the beast” are both demonstrations of “his name.” The name of the beast has no more to do with whether it is Lucifer or Beelzebub than the blaspheming of God’s name has to do with how His name is pronounced. The ‘name’ of the beast, like the name of God, has only to do with what others see in us, while we all claim to be of Christ. That is what Christ meant when He made this statement:
Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
That is what Paul meant when he said this:
Rom 2:22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Rom 2:23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
Rom 2:24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
So the word ‘name’ in scripture has nothing at all to do with whether God’s name is pronounced with a Y or a J, or whether it is pronounced at all. God wants His “good name” to be respected by how we live our lives in obedience to the “things He says”. That is the meaning of “a good name”.
Pro 22:1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
Ecc 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
The image, number, mark and name of the beast, like the name of God, is recognized as being upon us by the life we are living. When we tremble at God’s Word, we will never blaspheme His name, and we will always do the things He says to do. When we fail to do that, then we automatically blaspheme God and those that dwell in heaven, and we demonstrate that we have the image, name, number and mark of the beast.
The “two horns like a lamb” of the beast that comes up out of the earth, tell us that this part of our self-centered beastly progression is cloaked in a religious experience. Another symbol of this part of the “things that are all ours” is the great harlot of Revelation 17-18.
Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
“The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies… Come out of her my people…” It is by coming out of Babylon that God’s people are considered to be “the smell of death” to those who are in Babylon, and it is by coming out of Babylon that we can no longer “buy or sell” her merchandise. While we are in Babylon, our beast with two horns causes us to prosper in the sales of her goods. When we leave “that great city”, we have gotten the victory over the image, name, number and mark of the beast. When we “come out of Babylon”, we deny that we have a will that is free from the will of God, and in doing that we are destroying “the beast with two horns like a lamb, who speaks as a dragon”, who is the same as the “man of sin, the son of perdition” who sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”.
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
The “worship of the image of the beast” of Revelation 13:15, and the worship of one’s self “sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”, is the one and same spiritual fornication and adultery in which we all indulge, at that time and place in our progression.
Put another way, our beast with two horns like a lamb, speaking as a dragon, is one and the same as our man of sin, who sits in the temple which we are, and demands our unwavering self- serving worship, of doing what we want to do and seeking just what is permissible to please ourselves, instead of seeking what is commendable to please the incoming king who destroys our two horned lamb and our man of sin within us in “the day of Christ”.
2Th 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
The gold, silver and precious stones of God are His doctrines, His thoughts and His mind.
Rev 3:13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Verse 17 describes the true worth of the merchandise of Babylon, while verse 18 contrasts Babylon’s merchandise with the true wealth of the “keeping of every word of God” (Mat 4:4), and the wealth of obeying His commandment to “keep the things written in this book” (Rev 1:3).
Revelation 3:14-18, explains it all. That which imparts to us the image of the beast is that which we value and which we so eagerly “buy and sell.” Just as our new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ”, so is our old man renewed in knowledge after the image of his father the devil. It is the doctrines, the thoughts and the mind of both God and the Adversary, which are also their gold, silver and precious stones, and it is the loss of all that “merchandise” which causes the death of both. We all choose the merchandise of Babylon and the worship of our own “man of sin”, first. However, when Christ does come into our hearts and minds, all the delicacies of Babylon suddenly are seen for their true worthlessness, and our “man of sin”, whom we have served for so long, begins to be destroyed by the brightness of the coming of Christ into our hearts and minds to claim His rightful place on the throne of our hearts.
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble [2Th 2:8, Rev 18:10-12, and Rev 3:17-18, are all one and the same, event].Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Here again is that “one event”.
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.
“He that has wisdom” is not distracted by the symbolism of the parables of Christ. The man who has wisdom, has Christ, and Christ knows by the scriptures themselves what each symbol signifies. This number is three sixes because the spiritual significance of the number six, is all mankind. Therefore:
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has a mind calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is the number of mankind, and its number is six hundred sixty-six. (CLV)
The fact that there are three sixes simply signifies the process of judgment being experienced by our beast within. Here is a link to the Biblical significance of the number three:
When our judgment is mature through keeping the things which are written in this book (Psa 139:16, ASV, Rev 1:3) our number is 666. It is only through our judgment that we can look behind us to see what God has wrought in us:
Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
This book is our judgment of the beast we all are, and it is all His work of bringing us to see the insidiousness of our self-centered ways and our unwillingness to part with all the things of our life in this world. He that has wisdom is not looking for an outward stamp on his physical right hand or on his physical forehead. Instead he is searching his own heart and asking what is commendable to better serve and glorify the new king of his new man’s heart. The number ‘six’ in all of its multiples is the number of mankind, and that is what this verse actually says:
This is the number that has been attached to Adam since the sixth day of the creation of God, when all the beasts of the earth were created, and “the son of man” was created just “a little lower than the angels”.
Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
As Ecclesiastes 3:18 tells us, mankind is a beast, and the number six, in any of its multiples, is the number which will forever be attached to mankind in the mind of “him that hath wisdom.”
As an interesting aside, sixty-six is the number which signifies our going down into Egypt, separated from the family of Joseph, the symbol of Christ:
Gen 46:26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were threescore and six; [66]
It takes Joseph and his family to bring us up to “three score and ten”.
Gen 46:27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten. [70]
Summary
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
We saw in this verse that miracles are not the same as truth, and that miracles are actually used by God to deceive us when we are not yet given to appreciate the value of Christ who is the Truth. We saw that it is that Truth, the Word of God, that was used to inflict the temporary “deadly wound” upon our first beast, who was then healed of that wound, and returned to the state of being a healthy wild beast who opposes and withstands the truths of the Word of God.
We also learned in our study of this verse, that it is our coming to the knowledge of and our faith in the Truth of God’s word which causes us to take on the image of His Son.
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
We saw that it is our “love of the true… knowledge of Christ and His Father”, which changes our old “image” from the image of “our father the devil” into the “new man… the image of Him that created us”. As we come to “see” and “know God and Jesus Christ” we are “transformed into that same image, from glory to glory”.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
In this verse we saw that our second beast, who is described earlier in our studies as a beast with “two horns like a lamb, but speaking as a dragon”, is the symbol of the time we spend in the sphere of the influence of the great harlot called Babylon the great. It is while we are in this “great city”, also portrayed as our beast with “two horns like a lamb”, that we are actually brought to worship and to take upon ourselves the “image of the beast” who was healed of his deadly wound.
We saw in this verse that just as our knowledge of and faith in the truths of the doctrine of Christ causes us to “be transformed into His image”, in the exact same manner, it is the knowledge of and our faith in the doctrines of our inward beast who literally “buys” into the doctrines of the great red dragon, which imparts to us “the image of the beast”.
In this verse we also saw that it is at this point, while having bought into the doctrines of the dragon, that we come to hate those who have overcome the image, name, number and mark of the beast and are now faithful to the Truth of Christ’s Words. It is our hatred of those truths, and our hatred of those out of whose mouths those truths are coming, that causes us to “kill” those who are no longer worshiping “the image of the beast”.
1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
We saw that this verse six times qualifies the meaning of the word ‘all’, and we saw that there is not one exception to this rule. While Christ never sinned and always resisted the temptations of His flesh, He was still in flesh which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and even He had to struggle against what was in His “forehead” when confronted with the specter of imminent death.
Luk 22:41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will [of my flesh], but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luk 22:44 And being in an agony [struggling against His flesh] he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Christ was truly “the son of man” and as such was struggling against the flesh of the first Adam, just as we do.
Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Luk 13:31 The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.
Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
Christ does not lie. He knew He was made of a woman, made under the law, and He knew what that meant, even if we do not. In the gospels He calls Himself “the Son of Man” 16 times more often, than He tells us that He is “the Son of God”. He is, of course both, but the overwhelming emphasis is upon His humanity, and His ability to identify with our pain and our struggles.
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
In this verse we learned that the merchandise of both Christ and the dragon, are their different doctrines. We learned that we all buy into the doctrines of demons before we by into the doctrine of Christ. We also learned that the mark, name, number and image of the beast are all speaking of the doctrines of the dragon, who is the spiritual father of the beast.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.
We saw that the number of mankind is six because mankind, right along with all the “beasts of the earth”, was created on the sixth day, and we learned that all the multiples of six serve only to magnify and demonstrate the fact that man without Christ is nothing more than a beast and has no preeminence above a beast.
Next week, Lord willing, we will be reminded that those who first keep the things written in this book, are those who first have their heavenly Father’s name written in their foreheads. The reason they have their heavenly Father’s name is because they have come to know Him and have begun to think as He thinks and to see that mankind must “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” and must therefore “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book”.
Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
[Updated May 22, 2023]
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