The Book of Revelations Chapter 13
The Beast out of the Sea (Anti-Christ)
Verses 1-10
(1) Jewish people in Biblical times regarded the sea as a wild, frightening place. While ancient Israel under King Solomon had a navy, it was Tyre that supplied the sailors. Because ancient Israel was wary of the sea, it is used here as a figure of evil and chaos and not a literal body of water.
Because John calls him a beast and not a dragon this creature represents someone different from Satan. He forms the second part of the unholy trinity, the anti-Christ.
The Anti-Christ
We can begin by understanding what the title Antichrist means. The prefix anti can mean “the opposite of” or “instead of“
Most people have focused on the idea of the “opposite Jesus.” This has made them think that the Antichrist will appear as a supremely evil person, that as much as Jesus went around doing good, he will go around doing bad. As Jesus’ character and personality was beautiful and attractive, the Antichrist’s character and personality will be ugly and repulsive. As Jesus spoke only truth, the Antichrist will speak only lies.
This tends emphasizes the idea of the “opposite Jesus” too much. The Antichrist will instead be more of an “instead of Jesus.” He will look wonderful, be charming and successful. He will be the ultimate winner, and appear as an angel of light. In this sense the Antichrist will be a satanic messiah, instead of the true Messiah Jesus Christ.
The seven heads of the beast each had names saying blasphemy against God. This speaks of more than the beast’s message; it speaks of his character. He is a blasphemer, who speaks against God.
(2) Since the beasts of Daniel 7 represented empires more than specific men, some have thought that the beast of Revelation 13 is not a person, but a government.
With the Lion represents the Babylonian Empire, The Bear represents the Persian Empire and the Leopard represents the Greek Empire.
I don’t think this is the case as by reading through the rest of the book it clearly shows this is a man.
The Beast is worshipped as a god; but people never worship an empire.
An image is set up of the beast, and the whole world is commanded to worship it.
This beast is finally damned, as he gets sent into the lake of fire.
This world leader is really powered and supported by Satan. Through this man, Satan will express his own desire and authority. In this, the beast takes the offer that Jesus refused in the wilderness.
(3) The beast is not an ordinary man. He is called the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit and ordinary men do not come from there. One who hails from that place must either be a dead man brought up again from the dead, or some evil spirit which takes possession of a living man . . . In either case, the Beast, as a person, is an extraordinary and supernatural being. This is truly an Antichrist, who even imitates Jesus in His death and resurrection. The world will believe this, and it will add tremendously to his fame and power.
(4) As people worship this beast and bow down before his government, it may be that they do not know they are bowing down to Satan himself; but it is worship of Satan none the less. They clearly worship both the beast and the dragon, but their worship of the dragon may be unknowing.
Though Satan worship becomes more and more popular each year, it is still only a tiny fraction of people who openly worship Satan. But this is because more people expect Satan to appear with ugliness and horror. This is wrong,
14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve. 2nd Corinthians 11:4-15
The world will be amazed at the power of the beast, and will believe he is so mighty that he cannot be conquered. For a short time, the beast will look like the winner.
(5-10) Described here is the Satanic persecution during the tribulation period. Here, the main instrument of that persecution is revealed: the government of the beast will persecute and kill all those who do not bow in worship to the beast.
Take note that in verse 8 Jesus is given the title “Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made” This is to show that even during these dark times God is still in control as He knew exactly what was going to happen as Jesus was chosen as our saviour even before the world was created.
The Beast out of the Land (False Prophet)
Verses 11-18
(11-13) This beastforms the last partof the unholy trinity and is the false prophet. Like an unholy John the Baptist he will speak and bow down to both the Dragon (Satan) and the Anti-Christ (beast from the sea) and as Satan can only imitated Gods work he will call down fire like Elijah from the sky as well as perform other miracles to deceive the people.
Knowing all this, and the emphasis on signs and wonders among some Christians is frightening, as they can feel that it might be easy to be tricked into following Satan without knowing.
- In the days of the Exodus, Aaron performed miracles, and up to a point was matched miracle-for-miracle by the magicians of Egypt .
- Jesus said that some who worked miracles – even in His name – were false followers and would perish in hell.
- Jesus said that in the end times, false prophets would emerge and show great signs and wonders to deceive.
The real marks of God’s work are love and truth, and as long as we remember that we shall not be deceived by Satan’s tricks.
(14-15) The beast rising from the earth will use a deceptive, animated image as the focus point of the worship of the beast. It may seem strange to us to have the whole world give this kind of worship to the image of a man, but the governments in the twentieth century are a good example of this kind of worship, just look at Communist states like the Soviet Union or China, and their pictures of Stalin or Mao and we see a pattern that will be ultimately fulfilled by the Antichrist.
It is generally agreed by the scholars that this will be the abomination that Daniel spoke of and will be erected in the new temple in Jerusalem as a final insult to God.
(16-17) Since the ancient Greek word for mark (charagma) isn’t generally applied to people, some have taken this as a symbolic mark. But a literal mark needed to buy or sell is now days easy to imagine.
The technology to give people a mark that enables them to buy and sell in the electronic economy is available. There are many different ways it could happen, and such programs are proposed and tested constantly. The latest version I could find was by a company called ” Digital Angel” who have developed a micro chip that when inserted would be powered by the body’s own electromagnetic impulses and as they claim could be used to check our health and wellbeing at all times as well as if connected to a satellite network would help in missing person cases etc.
Again all Satan can do imitate God and with a Satanic parody of something God will do he imitates God’s mark upon his people.
(18) The Number 666 and The Beast
7 is the Holy number because 3 is the Spiritual Number Holy Trinity and the number 4 derives its meaning from creation. On the fourth day God completed the material universe. On this day he brought into existence our sun, the moon, and all the stars . Their purpose was not only to give off light, but also to divide the day from the night on earth, thus becoming the of time as days seasons etc.
So 3+ 4= 7
Also 3×4= 12 which is used in completeness in the Bible, 12 Disciples 12 Tribes.
Now back to 6 as this can never quite reach 7 the perfect number it always falls short of perfection so 666 is the unholy trinity, (Satan, Anti Christ and the false prophet).
You can also find 666 in Kings 10:14 as the amount of Gold talent Solomon used to get per year and it is the start of his slip from God
OR
The number can also be used in GEMATRIA which was kinda like an old code for graffiti , this comes from when they used to write on walls that 666 is a whatever.
So Cesar Nero in English this doesn’t work but in Greek it adds up to 666.
Other examples of this style of graffiti would have been found in most ancient cities with the famous one being in Pompeii as the ash clouds have saved the paint.
“I love her whose number is 545.” is found in Pompeii whose name would be Maria Belen Chapur.