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Evil's Right-Hand-Man - Revelation 13:11-18

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12/22/1996
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Evil's Right-Hand-Man
Revelation 13:11-18
Skip Heitzig
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66 Revelation - History's Last Chapter - 1996

The book of Revelation exalts Jesus Christ as the soon-coming Lord over the earth. Skip Heitzig explains the amazing and mysterious prophecies that form God's final word to mankind.

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We're in Revelation 13 verse 11: "Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666."

Let me give you a statement made by someone. It's a statement that rings true in many generations, including our own. This person said, "The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. The country is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order. Without law and order, our nation cannot survive." Powerful words, true words, sounds like they would be spoken by a presidential candidate or a concerned citizen when in fact they were spoken in 1932 by Adolph Hitler before he rose immensely to power. Dictators rarely take over by force. Almost always by a seemingly peaceful endeavor in the time of turmoil and tribulation, they've got the answer that people are waiting for. Now, for a moment, let's go way back to the Roman Empire because, remember, in the Roman Empire, they had a weird system where they actually worshiped Caesar as god. And there were people who carried it out by having an image that people had to bow down and worship once a year. Now how did that happen? That Caesar came to be worshiped as God. Did he walk out one day in his portico in Rome and say, hey, I've got a cool idea! Let's start a new religion--you can all worship me! That wouldn't fly. And that's not how it happened. You see, when Rome started taking over other nations, the other nations were indebted to Rome, that's how they felt, they were so thankful because Rome had law and order and the other nations were very unstable, ruled by petty tyrants, and the idea of having Rome take over was a great privilege. They thanked Rome for the law and the order and the peace, they called it Pax Romana, the Roman peace. Stable law and order government in the midst of turmoil. Later on, in Asia Minor, the people who were taken over by Rome got so enthusiastic they started worshiping the Roman Empire as an entity. But as you know, it's very difficult to worship an entity, a system. We always want to personalize it. So in Pergamos they built a statue to Caesar and they started worshiping it. Now you should understand that the Caesars were very embarrassed about this at first. The idea that somebody should worship them as God, they actually hated it. But the Roman Senate convinced the Roman emperors that it was a unifying thing because, after all, Rome has taken over many languages, many cultures, so we have a multilingual, multicultural bag of people. One unifying principle would be the worship of Caesar. So by 100 AD it was mandatory to worship Caesar and the way it was done is a religious leader, a false prophet you might say, a priest of the Roman Empire would stand in front of the bust, the image of Caesar, and everyone would put a pinch of salt or incense and worship Caesar as their god.

Of course, in Nazi Germany, as we mentioned, it sort of happened the same way. Very peaceful person came in a time of chaos. He thought clearly, he had good answers, and even the churches said Adolph Hitler was a God-sent savior to Germany. Well he wasn't God-sent. Neither will the Antichrist be God-sent or his sidekick. That's right, today in verses 11 through 18, we read about the sidekick, the right-hand man of the Antichrist. We find that the Antichrist is not alone. The Antichrist is a political ruler. He will need the help of a religious leader whom we call the false prophet. Now it is something that the people of the tribulation period will need to understand as it says in verse 9, if anyone has an ear, let him hear. In verse 18: "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate". So they will need to understand about the system and about the person and I think, because it's in the New Testament, it's the capstone of the New Testament, we too should understand. I have people around the country who, when they find out we're going through Revelation, almost feel a tinge of jealousy that they're not here to go through the book as well, because they say we've never gone through the book of Revelation as a church. And yet we should understand the future. God gave it to us. Leo Durocher when he was the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers was booed by the crowd when he pulled out a pitcher in the eighth inning in a very close game. Afterwards, the press said, what did you think of the reaction of the crowd as they booed you? Durocher smiled and he said, look, baseball's a lot like church. Many attend; few understand. May that not be said of us who have the privilege week after week to uncover the truths of the Bible and here, the book of Revelation.

Well I want to give you five things that will mark this false prophet, even as last week we looked at six things that marked the Antichrist. This is another beast; it's a different guy. Number one, his authoritative stand. Look at verse 11: "Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence". Now in this weird vision, John has already seen a beast come up out of the sea. We read about that last week. Now he sees another beast. The word another, in Greek, there are two possibilities. There are two words that are used. I can say one word and it means another of a different kind. I can use still a different word which means another of the same kind. Let's say I had a leaky pen and it gets ink all over, which I had right before the first service today. It leaked everywhere. And if I say, I'd like another pen; do I mean I want another one just like the first one? No. I want one different. So I'd use the word heteros--give me a heteros pen. A different one. Another one that's different from the first. But let's say I'm in a restaurant and I had a great hot fudge sundae. Nuts were fresh, fudge was hot, it wasn't imitation ice milk, it was real ice cream. And I scarfed it down and I said, I'd like another hot fudge sundae. Do I want a different one, one that's the different from the first? No, I want another that's just like the first one. So I'd used the word alas. Or when Jesus said I'm gonna leave you but I'm gonna send you another Comforter. He would use the term alas. I'm gonna send you a Comforter like the First. And that's the word that is used for another beast. He saw a beast rise up out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns. Here he sees an alas beast--one like the first. They're cut out of the same cloth. They have the same M.O. They want to deceive the earth, deceive the world.

This one comes from the earth, or literally the land, and often in the Bible the term the land means the land of Israel. And it could be, some scholars say, that he will be Jewish, this false prophet, this ringleader spiritually will come from Israel. Can't be dogmatic--it's just a guess. Notice he has two horns like a lamb. This is where he's a little bit different from the first. He has authority, he has the same desire to deceive, but the first one was ferocious and ominous and had seven heads and ten horns and ten crowns which speaks of political authority. This one looks like a lamb. Subtle in his approach. You might say it's a kinder and gentler beast. Still a beast, still speaks from the dragon, but it has horns like a lamb. The authority, as we said, is political not spiritual. The first beast had crowns; this one has no crowns on his head. He comes like a docile lamb which would reinforce the fact that he's a spiritual leader. Now before you say well, Skip, you're stretching it in the analogy, I'm not. Because three times in the book of Revelation this guy is mentioned as the false prophet. In fact, the same description is used of a guy who causes everybody to take a mark, everybody to worship the beast, and he is called the false prophet. And those three instances are Revelation 16:13, Revelation 19:20, and Revelation 20:10. In all three instances, he is called the false prophet. So you've got the dragon which is Satan, we saw him in chapter 12, you have the beast, the first beast out of the sea, which is the Antichrist, a political ruler, and you have the false prophet, which is the beast out of the land. So we have sort of a counterfeit trinity, don't we? And even as Jesus always pointed toward the Father, the Antichrist points toward the dragon. And even as the Holy Spirit always points toward Jesus Christ, the false prophet points the world toward the Antichrist. A satanic trinity. That's his authoritative stand.

Let's look in verse 12 at his apostate system: "And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence," that is, in the presence of the Antichrist, "and he causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." He brings together a universal worship system to deceive the world, as it says in verse 14, "And he deceives those who dwell on the earth". Now folks, the major role of the devil, if you could sum it up in one word, it would be the word deception. As we mentioned last week, he's a liar. Jesus called him the father of lies. He told lies from the beginning. He tells people lies about their origin. He tells people lies about their future. He tells people lies about themselves: you're good, you're fine, you don't need to come to Christ, everybody has their own way. He will tell you lies about God. He is a liar. And you would expect that as the time unravels and gets closer and closer to the end of the age, that there would be a proliferation of false prophets and false Christ's. Isn't that what Jesus warned us about? Matthew 24, He said many will come in My name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many and many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. So the Scripture predicts that a myriad of false prophets will come and they will proliferate to the very end of the age and consummate in the false prophet who points toward the Antichrist. He speaks like a lamb, but notice when he opens up his mouth he spoke like a dragon. In other words, he gives himself away when he talks. He comes with a lamb's authority. And it's interesting, lambs when they grow two little horns, they're like two little bumps, harmless, subtle. Oh, look at that. Can't do anybody any harm. But when he speaks, he speaks like a dragon. Just as people used to say about Adolph Hitler. When they spoke, they said it was not his own voice. This person, the false prophet, will speak the words of hell. Jesus described false prophets as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Interesting. looks like a lamb, but is a dragon in the voice.

Nathaniel Hawthorne said words, so innocent and powerful as they are standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. the false prophet will know how to combine words to sway the earth and bring together probably all the world religions, apostate Christianity, everything from Catholicism to Dead Protestantism, the Muslim, the Hindus, bring them all together, and be a go-between as the barriers are breaking down, even now, and there will be this universal worship system. So a strong religious leader as well as a political leader will arise during the great tribulation period. And just when you thought the world was getting more secular. Some may think, well the world isn't getting religious, it's getting secular. No, it's not. It is not Christian. It's getting further away in our country from Christian ethics that this country was, in many cases, founded upon. But there is a revival of spirituality like this nation has never seen and it's right now it's going on. In fact, Better Homes and Gardens did a poll and said, "62% say in recent years they have either begun or intensified personal spiritual study and activities." And Better Homes and Gardens describes that as generic spirituality--everything from prayer to God to astral projection to meditating on your navel. Any kind of supernatural thing, there's an increase. John Nesbit, who wrote Megatrends 2000, said religious belief is intensifying worldwide under the gravitational pull of the year 2000, the millennium. So as the millennium, the dawn of the New Age, is upon us, people are becoming more spiritual and it's frightening to see how they are and how it is playing itself out. for instance, Linda Evans, the actress, believes her emotional security and sense of peace is tied to her channeler and she says to McCall's Magazine, "I've tried a lot of things along the way, psychiatry, transcendental meditation, science of the mind, and I don't know yet where the answer is." Oh--bingo! The false prophet will be perfect for that type of thought. I'll tell you where the answer is, with his worldwide system. You see, folks, there's a longing in man's heart to worship something, to have some system that fulfills, that gives answers. I think Karl Marx was right when he said religion is the opium of the people. there's a built into the fabric of human beings this need, this desire, to have some transcendent truth. Something invisible, some mystical thing above and beyond themselves. There's gotta be something more than just me and just this life--what could it be? And you gotta understand that during the tribulation period they'll be looking for a deliverer. There'll be so many catastrophes. They'll be wide open for anything. And this guy comes along as perhaps the greatest false prophet ever, perhaps the greatest orator ever, wordsmith ever. He can sway the world, he can mold men's minds and thoughts, as a potter would mold so much clay. He'll be crafted, gifted.

And this prophet, once again, comes under the guise of a lamb. Perhaps this means he will come in Christ's authority. As we suggested last week, perhaps one of the greatest lies is to say, I'm the reincarnated, not resurrected, reincarnated Christ-spirit. Claiming to be Christ or the spirit of Christ, the higher self. Folks, even today under the umbrella of Christianity, there is so much deception and false prophecy and false doctrine in churches everywhere. Under the umbrella of Christianity or Christendom is the World Council of Churches, whose main desire is to compromise truth with anybody and anything. For instance, they push the non-sexist Bible. They say this Bible is sexist so they've rewritten it and they call Jesus not the Son of God, but the Child of God. And they've changed the Heavenly Father to our Father/mother because it's politically correct. A recent World Council of Churches sponsored consortium of 25 theologians in Switzerland gathered and they agreed on several points. Here are three of them. Number one, that throughout history, God has found people and people have found God in the context of various religions and cultures. Number two, all religious traditions are ambiguous, i.e., a combination of good and bad. And number three, that we need to move beyond a theology which confines salvation to the explicit personal commitment to Jesus Christ. One of their theologians from Korea, she said to the World Council of Churches, as a colleague, "I've discovered that my bowel is a shamanist bowel, my heart is a Buddhist heart, and my mind is a Christian mind." And so the Antichrist's empire will be built on political power; the false prophet comes along and builds his empire on spiritual power and they co-exist. In fact, we will read in Revelation 17 this religious system called the great harlot rides on the back of the beast. They co-exist until the mid-point of the tribulation, called the abomination of desolation, when that world system is abandoned and the worship of the Antichrist, as we see here, the worship of the beast is imposed upon the earth.

Let's look in verse 13 at a third phase, his authenticating signs. He doesn't just speak--he does things. And he performs great signs, in Greek mega-signs, megalon. "So that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived." Now consider what the vulnerability on earth will be like during this terrible time of tribulation. Catastrophe after catastrophe, disaster after disaster, and the earth is scorched, a third of mankind dies, the seas, a third of them are destroyed, the freshwater springs are wiped out, and people are in torment for five months by these hordes of locust-like demonic things that come up out of the earth. They're crying out in desperation and they're open for anything as they cry out for some purpose, some meaning, some hope. And he will dazzle people, this false prophet. He's going to dazzle all of the people who have always said, I need to see a miracle before I'll believe in anything. Ever talk to people like that? You show them the Scripture, you show them how it was written and the evidence that abounds for the Christian faith, and they'll say, show me a miracle! People are driven to see something in the supernatural realm and Jesus said in Mark 13, false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive if possible the very elect. Paul described the same thing. 2 Thessalonians 2, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders. Imagine the astonishment, what we just read. Causing fire to come down. Some pyrotechnic trick. You know, I've talked to people who say, well, you know, if God would, like, strike fire down from heaven or something, I might believe. Really? Perhaps it will happen in Jerusalem after the two witnesses are taken to heaven. I'll suggest that in just a moment.

But they call fire down from heaven, or he does. Let me suggest that this is an imitation once again of God. When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, how did He do it? Fire from heaven. When Elijah was surrounded by the ambassadors of the king to arrest him, he called fire down from heaven three times. The two witnesses used fire from heaven to destroy those who come against them in Revelation 11. In fact, John, the author of the book of Revelation, wanted to do it once. Remember he was with James in Samaria? They were kind of walking around and noticed the Samaritans didn't want to follow Jesus and so they brought up the bright idea. They said, Jesus, would You like us to maybe call fire down from heaven and kill these people for You? And Jesus, playfully, renamed them not the sons of Zebedee, which they were called by birth, but the sons of thunder. So he renamed the thunder boys. That was their nickname among the disciples of Jesus Christ. Calling down fire from heaven. The point of this text is that Satan can engineer miracles and what better way to distribute lies than by engineering a miracle? There's such a hunger today that people have for the miraculous. The problem with the hunger is they don't stop to find out what is encased in the miracle. What is the miracle leading to? What is the teaching behind the miracle? What's it packaged with? In one newspaper, there were two articles. One about a church in Pennsylvania that was crowded with people there to see a miracle. Supposedly the face of Jesus Christ appeared as an image in the altar cloth. And so skeptics and hungry miracle-goers, all sorts of people, stayed vigil for days and saw nothing. Then in the same newspaper was an article about a church in Michigan who kept vigil clinging to the notion that their deceased pastor would momentarily rise from the dead. And they waited, casket in front of the church, for days. And days. And probably got to the point that Martha did when Jesus opened up the tomb in Bethany and they said, Jesus, by now He stinketh. This isn't gonna work. Lazarus' miracle did work. That church miracle did not work.

We've read about Jesus appearing as a face in a tortilla, about Jesus' hands bleeding on the statue of the cross, or His tears coming down, shows about the paranormal are the big shows on primetime television, and what's the theme of almost all the movies these days? Would it be UFO's? That is, like, the mega theme. UFO's, life on other planets, something that we can see. Well the world is scheduled to be deceived by miracles, signs, and wonders that don't come from God. Some do; some don't. And the undiscerning, at that time, will be deceived. So we've seen, number one, the authoritative stand of this guy. He comes with the horns of a lamb. We've seen the apostate system causing people to worship the beast. We have noted the authenticating signs. Now look at verse 15: the animated statue. "He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed." I remember the first time I went to Disneyland and I saw machines move, dressed like humans. I was in the submarine and I had never seen a mermaid and, being a little kid of about ten years old, I said out loud to my embarrassment, look everybody! A lady fish! And they said, that's a mermaid. That was just an electronic gadget with plastic around it. Or going into Mr. Lincoln and seeing him get up out of his chair and move his head. Even though it looks so fake now, to me then it was so cool. Or the hitchhiking ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. Those things enamored me. And now with the advance in gadgetry and electronics, the idea of taking this image, this statue, whatever it is, and animating it is the making of an idol that lives, that people will worship.

Now there's a little bit of precedent for this back in history. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, one night had a dream. He saw a huge image. Head was of gold, silver chest, brass stomach, thighs, iron and clay all the way down. Daniel said what this simply means, Nebuchadnezzar, is you're the head of gold and you will be overthrown by other kingdoms. In the very next chapter, Nebuchadnezzar, in defiance of the dream, builds a gold image. In other words, I ain't gonna be taken over by nobody. He now demands all of Babylon to bow before the image of Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plain of Dura as part of the worship system. Of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, would not do this. It will be animated, after all we've advanced since Nebuchadnezzar's time. You've gotta make something believable so people will bow down and worship it and this will be like his greatest sign. Notice it says he was granted power to give breath. It doesn't say life. It doesn't use the word bios but the word pneuma, breath. I don't think Satan can give life. I think it's got to be some manufactured, supposed life-giving thing to this image so that people, look, it came to life, it talks, it breathes, it moves! It has power. And I think this is part of the abomination of desolation.

Now I've thrown out that term several times in this study on Revelation. Some of you are familiar with it, others of you are not. The abomination of desolation is something Daniel, the prophet, predicted thousands of years ago looking down through history. He said there's going to come a guy who will cause the abomination of desolation--the setting up of an idol, an image, in Jerusalem. Now what throws a twist into this is it's already happened--sort of. In 168 BC the Syrian leader Antiochus Epiphanes, the brother of Cleopatra, decided that now as the ruler of that part of the world, he would cause the Jews to do what he wanted them to. In 168 BC in December, 20,000 of his troops moved into Jerusalem. He killed 80,000 Jews, sold 40,000 of them into slavery. He declared that the temple was now a temple to Zeus. He went into the holy place, removed the altar of incense, set up a statue, an image of Zeus, demanded everybody worship that image, took a pig, the most unkosher animal to the Jews, slaughtered it, spread its juices all over the temple vessels. It's one thing to have an idol. That's an abomination. But the abomination of desolation, the worst thing, is to set up that idol in the central place of worship, which is the holy place of the Jews. They said this is the abomination of desolation. So you might hear that and say, ok then, that's over with, what Daniel predicted happened between the Old and the New Testaments, so it's over. Wrong. Jesus comes later and He said in Matthew 24, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let those who are in Jerusalem flee Judea. He spoke of it as yet future. It hasn't happened yet. He told His disciples and those who would follow Him to be aware of what is coming, the abomination of desolation. Now let me suggest a scenario. Probably what happens is up to this point the two witnesses have been witnessing in Jerusalem with signs and wonders, telling the people to repent and turn to Jesus Christ, and telling the Jewish nation to turn. The beast kills them, it says in Revelation 11, their bodies lay in the streets of Jerusalem for three days, Revelation 11, God raises them from the dead and they ascend into heaven and probably, in response to the rising of the dead and the ascension of these two witnesses, to grab the attention of the world now, this image is animated in the Holy of Holies in the mid-point of the tribulation becomes the abomination of desolation.

Let's move on and close in verses 16 to 18 with the final thing that characterizes him: his administrative strategy. It says, "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave," in other words, every person, "to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." notice there are three options, not one. "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666." This religious leader, false prophet, will require some identifying mark to identify the worshipers of the beast. It's a number, the right hand or forehead. Now in history this happened. Slaves were tattooed with the names or the numbers of their masters. Soldiers were tattooed or marked. People in worship cults, the mystery religions, the cult of Sable was worshiped by forcing people who worshiped that cult to have an image, a mark, put on their bodies to identify them. but in verse 17 this mark is not only a mark of worship but it's economic, it's a boycott. No one may buy or sell except the one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. You can't be involved in daily commerce unless you have this mark. Unless you have this central system in your body. Now what is this 666? What is this mark? Well it really shouldn't come to surprise us. You know, if we were preaching this sermon 200 years ago, if we lived then, the idea of everybody tied to one central system would be... but we already have it. You've got cards and on the back are little black strips with lots of information about you. You are in the computer. They know where you live. It's funny how you can go from one city to another city, you can be on the East Coast and put in your money card into a machine and up on the screen, Good morning, Skip Heitzig. It knows who you are. I feel like saying, hey, how's my wife and kids back home? Fine! Modern technology has imposed a numbering system on us. We need a Social Security number, numbers are more important to computers than names. And it's increasingly so. You may have heard of Info Pet. It's an identity tag for pets. Info Pet claims it can keep track of one billion pets to within ten feet of the current location by injecting, in a hypodermic needle, a tiny little microchip right under the skin of the pet. This has been going on. They've even tested it with some humans over in India. And it says, "Identify your pet today!" Permanent, implanted microchip device for your animal's positive identification. Well if they can keep track of a billion pets, they can keep track of billions of people. in fact, wouldn't that be the answer to the milk carton kids? The kids that are missing? There's a bill right now on the floor of the Congress. It's always being talked about. Should we inject a microchip into every newborn child? It's a health plan, they call it From Womb to Tomb. Positive identification. You could track every human being on the face of the earth. None would be lost. You'd know where they are in one central computer. And people will be compelled to be a part of this system not just to worship but to live, to survive.

Listen to what a man from Bulgaria wrote under the regime of communism: "You cannot understand, you cannot know that the most terrible instrument of persecution ever devised is an innocent ration card. You cannot buy or sell anything except according to that little card. If they please, you can be starved to death. If they please. If they please, you can be disposed, dispossessed of everything you have. You cannot trade, you cannot buy, you cannot sell without it." So do you understand, there's going to be a compelling reason to follow the Antichrist. Not just to worship but to live, to eat, to drink, tied into the system. Now what does 666 really mean? The number is given to us. It says it could be the number or his name or the number of his name. the concept, the number of a person's name, was known to ancient people. in fact, the languages of Greek and Hebrew have numeric equivalents to their alphabets. Just like we have ABC, they have alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and each letter had a number attached to it so that you could have a name, and you'd have a numeric equivalent. And there's been all sorts, throughout history, of ideas, I mean, listen, multiple thousands of guesses as who the Antichrist is by looking at their name in Greek or in Hebrew and figuring out the number. They've said it was the Pope, they've said it was Martin Luther, depends if you're Catholic or Protestant, some said it was John Knox, others said it was Henry Kissinger. Adolph Hitler because you could take his name and it's 666 and so is Caesar Nero and on and on and on. There've been multiple guesses as to who the Antichrist is. I will simply say I don't know, I don't completely understand, and yet it says right here, let him who has understanding calculate. Somebody's called to understand what it means. Before you say, I figured it out, I think what it means is the people who live during that time will be able to understand and calculate in that day and age who it is, what the system is, what it means to be involved in it, so that some and some will refuse the mark of the beast as we will see a little bit later on.

Now there's another way to spin this and I could if I wanted to, go for the next two weeks and talk about 666, 777, 888 and all the names. I don't want to do that. It's fruitless. Another way to look at this is simply this: it could be 666 means this is the ultimate man. What is the number of man in the Bible? 6. He was created on the sixth day of creation, slaves worked for six years and set free the seventh, it was the year of redemption, you'd plow the land for six years and you'd let it lay fallow for the seventh. 666, man, man, man. It's the number of mankind. This is the ultimate man. And it could be repeated three times simply as the dragon, the Antichrist, the false prophet. Or it could be to compare it to the name of God, His characteristics are often thrice given. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord our God. But here, for man, it's 666. Man at his best always falls short. The number of perfection, or God, is often seven. But man and his government are always six. Man and his system are always six. He always falls short. He never completes it. The children of the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach figured out a way to really ruffle the feathers of their dad. What they would do is they would get on the piano and they would play a song but leave off the last note. And being the meticulous composer, it would drive him nuts. He'd get up out of his chair, even if he was half-asleep, and play that final chord to complete it. You can understand, especially if you're musically inclined, what that would be like. Imagine if we were to sing Silent Night, sleep in heavenly... it'd drive you nuts! You got to hear that 'peace.' We long to have the last note played, to have the completion finally given, a suitable ending. And 666 reminds us that something is missing. And that something is someone. God's seven: Jesus Christ who will come in Revelation 19 and give the final note, the final chord, the perfect ending, and the perfect song.

Satan has a six, God is a seven, and when He comes again and we'll read about it, then we will be able to sing the song that Isaac Watts wrote, which he wrote for the Second Coming, Joy to the World, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! That's God's seven. That's God's completion.

Additional Messages in this Series

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6/9/1996
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Good News from a Bad Place
Revelation 1:1-8
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6/16/1996
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Catapulted into the Future
Revelation 1:9-20
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6/23/1996
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When Love Grows Cold
Revelation 2:1-7
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6/30/1996
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Postcard to Those in Pain
Revelation 2:8-11
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7/7/1996
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The Curse of Compromise
Revelation 2:12-17
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7/14/1996
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Corruption without Discernment
Revelation 2:18-29
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7/21/1996
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Church of the Living Dead
Revelation 3:1-6
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7/28/1996
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Body Building - God's Way
Revelation 3:7-13
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The human body has become the obsession of our modern culture. Much like the ancient Greeks, people are madly trying to fit the contemporary ideal of what is an acceptable shape and size. The church is metaphorically called the "Body of Christ" and His desire is to see it built up spiritually. The church of Philadelphia is a good model of a healthy, faithful church. Their example provides for us a template to follow in building up the Body - God's Way!
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8/19/1996
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Taking Your Spiritual Temperature
Revelation 3:14-22
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Ever since we were kids our moms stuck thermometers in our mouths whenever she suspected that we were sick. If our body temperature of 98.6 had climbed up just a few notches, it was always a good indication that an unhealthy condition was present. There is also a spiritual temperature that reveals the condition of our souls, and when the thermometer reads Lukewarm it indicates that something is wrong; it indicates the presence of danger. Let's see how Jesus, the Great Physician, treats his patient with this malady.
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8/25/1996
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Peeking into the Portals of Heaven
Revelation 4
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9/1/1996
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History's Greatest Real Estate Deal
Revelation 5:1-7
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9/8/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 1
Revelation 5:8-10
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In heaven there won’t be just three services in the morning and one at night with a midweek tacked on. There will be no need to be sensitive to time so we can go to lunch. Words will not have to be printed nor projected. Worship leaders will have no need prompting people to sing. It will be an all-consuming experience that will involve our total cooperation and enthusiasm.
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9/15/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 2
Revelation 5:11-14
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9/29/1996
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Four Riders with Bad News
Revelation 6:1-8
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10/6/1996
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The Cries of Heaven and Earth
Revelation 6:9-17
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10/13/1996
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A Blessed Interruption in a Tough Time
Revelation 7
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10/20/1996
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Trumpets of Doom
Revelation 8
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10/27/1996
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When All Hell Breaks Loose
Revelation 9:1-12
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11/3/1996
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Angels of Mass Destruction
Revelation 9:13-21
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11/10/1996
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A Big Angel with a Little Book
Revelation 10
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11/17/1996
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Two Powerful Preachers
Revelation 11:1-14
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11/24/1996
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Light at the End of the Tunnel
Revelation 11:15-19
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12/1/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 1
Revelation 12:1-6
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12/8/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 2
Revelation 12:7-17
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There aren't many people who like to fight. Confrontation is something most would like to avoid. But in the spiritual realm it's unavoidable. The question isn't, "Will I engage in spiritual warfare?" Rather, the question is, "How well will I fight?" As we saw last week, the war in the heavens makes its way to the theater of the earth. Let's see what else it entails.
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12/15/1996
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The Coming Global Leader
Revelation 13:1-10
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12/29/1996
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The Lamb Who Shepherds His People
Revelation 14:1-5
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After all that john has seen in his apocalyptic vision, seeing the docility of a lamb standing with his overcoming sheep is a welcomed sight. Although the dragon pursues god's people relentlessly, although the beasts are bent on ruling the earth, the ultimate winner will be the lamb and his followers.
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1/5/1997
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Angels Set The Record Straight
Revelation 14:6-13
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1/12/1997
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It's Harvest Time!
Revelation 14:14-20
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One of the most common ways to make a living in ancient times was to "work the land." The early rains of October/November and the soft latter rains produced the wheat and barley harvest later on. Also, when vintage season began, almost the whole village could be found in the fields harvesting the crop. Such images would also provide a poignant way of depicting the final judgment of the earth, as in this section.
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1/17/1997
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Getting Ready for the Grand Finale
Revelation 15:1-8
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1/26/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 1
Revelation 16:1-11
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We now come to the "seven last plagues" of God in the Great Tribulation that is coming upon planet earth. These judgments come in the form of "bowls" being poured out swiftly and completely-the judgment will be swift and thorough. Yet through all the mercy as Well as wrath of this awesome era, people will persist in having a hardened heart. Open your heart 'right now to these truths.
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2/2/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 2
Revelation 16:12-21
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What will the end of the world be like? What are the final events just before Jesus returns and takes over to set up His millennial reign? That's what this section tells us. There will be increased warfare activity in the Middle East, massive deception, and unheard of destructive cataclysms on earth. In the midst of foretelling these events, Jesus has a word of encouragement.
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2/9/1997
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The Coming World Religion
Revelation 17
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It was Karl Marx who stated, no doubt cynically, that religion was the opiate of the masses. The fact is, he was right-it is! People are driven to worship something or someone. This desire will be exploited to the hilt in the Tribulation period and will be under the umbrella of the world dictator-the Antichrist. What are its roots and how does it end?
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2/16/1997
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Get out of Babylon!
Revelation 18
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Someone once said, "Money can't buy you friends but your enemies treat you a little better." Though meant to be tongue-in­cheek, that won't happen when the entire world economy collapses. God's shakedown of the earth will include everything that the Antichrist's kingdom will embody, from the sacred to the secular.
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3/2/1997
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Marriage Made in Heaven
Revelation 19:1-10
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3/9/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 1
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of our capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "One far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." It is that event which we will be studying in the next two weeks. This is what all Christians of all ages have looked forward to - His return and reign of His creation.
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3/16/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 2
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of the capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "one far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." it is that event, that Christians of all ages have looked forward to-his return and reign of his creation. We will conclude our study of the return of Jesus Christ, today.
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4/6/1997
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Paradise Regained
Revelation 20:1-3
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4/13/1997
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The Devil's Last Stand
Revelation 20:1-10
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A typical question is, "Will evil ever get its reward?" What ever happened to ethics and justice? Well, we see here that God will not turn His back on this issue. He will deal with the source of all evil (the devil himself) and then judge those who revel in it. This section gives tremendous hope to anyone concerned about injustice in our world.
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4/20/1997
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Life, Death, and Resurrection
Revelation 20:5-6; 20:11-15
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5/4/1997
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All Things New - Part 1
Revelation 21:1-3
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5/11/1997
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All Things New - Part 2
Revelation 21:4-8
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"It's like nothing you've ever seen or experienced before." That's how John describes the emotional experience of heaven. So that we can relate, he tells us that all of the pain, sorrow, and moaning we've endured here won't be there. By the way, only those who want to go there will go there. Heaven is not a destination by default, reservations are made here and now!
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5/18/1997
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The City of the Future
Revelation 21:9-22:5
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There is no architect or builder like God himself. Even the patriarch Abraham "was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Heb. 11:10) he didn't find it in his lifetime. "You won't find you're "happily ever after" here either, but the New Jerusalem will be God's answer for man's longing to live in a perpetually peaceful stare.
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5/25/1997
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He's Coming - Now What!?
Revelation 22:6-21
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There are 43 additional messages in this series.
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