part 19: The image of the beast
Puzzled About Revelation, March 24, 2022
“declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’”
Introduction: Some Convictions About the Book of Revelation:
1. Revelation is the capstone of the entire Bible. Every symbol in Revelation has an OT reference. The PROPHETS all speak of the end of the age (2 Pet. 1:19-21). We need to know the WHOLE counsel of God (the Bible) if we are to properly understand Revelation.
2. God has DECLARED the END from the BEGINNING (Isa. 46:10). Jesus said on several occasions that the FIRST shall be LAST. We need to understand ORIGINS (Genesis) if we are to understand our DESTINATION (Revelation)
3. According to the Apostle Paul, though human history has a beginning and is moving to an ultimate END, it is also TYPOLOGICAL (patterns). This means that history “repeats” itself in ways that allow us to understand how God will work in the FUTURE by understanding how He has worked in the PAST. This is for our INSTRUCTION and WARNING (See 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Heb. 4:1-11).
4. God chooses people and works in ways that seem WEAK and FOOLISH according to the world’s standards. Only SPIRITUAL PEOPLE can understand SPIRITUAL TRUTH. Those who think they are “wise” by the standards of this age need to become “fools” so that they can gain TRUE WISDOM (See 1 Cor. 1:18-3:23). The next few teachings on the “image of the beast” and the “mark of the beast” are really going to put this to the test!
5. God is raising up a generation of Daniels and Esters who have a spirit of wisdom, understanding and revelation who will teach God’s people the truths that have been hidden, the mysteries of God that have been hidden. Daniel was told to seal the scroll until the time of the end. It is my conviction that as history “wraps up,” God is going to be unveiling and unrolling the scroll of prophesy, and that we are going to be understanding prophesy in ways that even the apostles didn’t understand.
6. Revelation tells us what MUST take place. We know that the Bible is true, and that these are the things that must take place before Christ returns.
Main text: Rev. 13:11-15; 14:9-13)
“Then I saw a second beast [False Prophet], coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast [Mystery Babylon] on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
. . .
A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark in their forehead or in their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.’ 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who keep God’s commands and remain faithful to Jesus. 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ’they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’”
A. The Image of the Beast:
Note: Reference to previous teaching on the UN Statue can be found here
IMAGE can also be translated ICON
Some people confuse the “beast” (mystery Babylon) with the “antichrist” (little horn). The beast represents a global government system, that will be controlled by the “little horn” in the last days.
Some find it interesting that a statue was erected outside the UN Buildings in New York in December 2021 which seemed to be a depiction of the beast in Revelation. The statue was entitled, “a guardian of international peace and security.” The statue was one of a number of art exhibits that were removed a short time later.
Q1: What is the “image of the beast” and how is it connected to the image of God?
Q2: Are people really going to be deceived into worshipping Satan?
Q3: How will people who refuse to worship the image be killed? This sounds crazy!
Q4: Why is it impossible for those who worship the image and receive the mark to repent and be saved? (Next week)
Rev 13:11: “…Second beast [false prophet/messiah]… set up an image in honor of the beast… was given power to give breath to the image… so that the image could speak… and cause all who refuse to worship… to be killed.
those who are deceived may not worship Satan directly, but will be deceived into worshipping him by worshipping the image, and through the mark of the beast. This will be a DECEPTION.
Rev 14:11: “…There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
This decision has eternal implications. Those who worship the beast and his image will suffer eternal damnation.
From the text, several questions arise for which we need to look to other Scriptures for the pieces to this prophetic puzzle:
Q1: Where in the Bible do we read of another “image” being given “breath” and coming to life?
Q2: Where do we read of the nations coming together to exalt man over God and worship the works of their hands?
Q3: What is the role of “The Nephilim” and giants in the last days?
Q4: How do all of these pieces relate to the “image of the Beast” and the great apostasy that will accompany that time period at the end of the age?
B. The Image of God
“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
. . .
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a [lit. living soul].”
Man is body, soul, spirit
C. The Tower of Babel
“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”
Satan’s temptation in the garden: you will be LIKE GOD.
Humanism: man-centered. Independence from God.
At Babel, God came down, confused their language, caused them to be scattered over the face of the earth.
The beast wants to bring the world together under one global system that will exult man in defiance of God.
D. Nebuchadnezzar’s Giant-Sized Statue
“King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. 3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it. 4 Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
Nebuchadnezzar set up a ninety-foot tall gold statue of himself to be worshipped. He called on ALL THE NATIONS to come to Babylon, TO A FESTIVAL, and to bow down before the statue. There was music, celebration.
In Revelation, it is in the WORSHIP of the IMAGE that the MARK will be given or shown. The image and the mark go hand-in-hand.
E. The Great Rebellion (Apostasy) & The Giants:
The Nephilim
“The Giant”
The world’s largest “moving” statues. They will be able to speak, play music, and communicate with the “user” and with one another, “bringing the world together as one.” (www.thegiantcompany.ie)
The giant can take on “our” image - the world’s largest “selfie”. And isn’t that the pinnacle of self-worship? The desire to worship ourselves? It brings to mind the garden of Eden, where Eve was told that she could be “like God.”
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom…”
Giants in Genesis
“When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves…4 The Nephilim (lit. fallen ones, giants) were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.”
Matt. 24:37 NKJV: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Giants in the time of Israel’s rebellion, when they refused to enter the promised land (apostasy)
“ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
A whole generation of Israelites perished in the desert and failed to enter the promised land. They had the promise, but they weren’t expecting to have to face giants, so they refused to enter in. The giants caused them to turn back in unbelief, and so they did not receive their inheritance. (Hebrews 3)
F. Satan’s Great Deception: “You Shall Be as Gods”
The worship of an image is a deception to worship Satan through the worship of man, ie, self-worship.
When we consider recent events where people have “bowed the knee” to the ICONS (IMAGES) of popular movements for things that are GREATER THAN OURSELVES (such as the Black Lives Matter movement where the fist was the symbolic “icon”) it is easy to see how close our society is to accepting the great deception.
The global elites could easily afford to set up such images as sentinals to “celebrate the human spirit.”
At these “cultural attractions” people might:
Enjoy the music
Listen to a message
Get caught up in the euphoria of the moment
Worship?
Revelation 14:11 tells us that there will be NO REST for those who worship the beast or his image, or take his mark. And Hebrews 3:11 says, “So I declared on oath in my anger, They shall never enter my rest.”
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. ”