Revelation Chapter 13 has a lot to ponder. By all means. Go read it.
There is much I don’t know about this chapter but here’s my attempted summary.
There’s a beast and a dragon and even more numbers. The beast is an actual person…not a Disney character. This person will be some kind of world leader. (I don’t want to cause any controversy here but I’m pretty sure it ain’t Obama.) The beast (man) will survive an assassination. In that, he will actually be killed but come back to life. This makes him quite popular with Earth’s inhabitants as you might expect. (This is how I know it isn’t Obama because even if he died and came back most everyone I know would still hate his guts.) The beast will, of course, be controlled by Satan. And remember the passage from last week? Satan is real, real, mad because he knows his time is short. The beast is no fan of the church (meaning Christians) and he wages war on them. By this I mean an actual war and not just the stuff we call war now.
Are you listening to this? They’ve made their bed; now they must lie in it. Anyone marked for prison goes straight to prison; anyone pulling a sword goes down by the sword. Meanwhile, God’s holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.
Revelation 13:9-10
Then this happens.
I saw another Beast rising out of the ground. It had two horns like a lamb but sounded like a dragon when it spoke. It was a puppet of the first Beast, made earth and everyone in it worship the first Beast, which had been healed of its deathblow.
This second Beast worked magical signs, dazzling people by making fire come down from Heaven. It used the magic it got from the Beast to dupe earth dwellers, getting them to make an image of the Beast that received the deathblow and lived. It was able to animate the image of the Beast so that it talked, and then arrange that anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. It forced all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have a mark on the right hand or forehead. Without the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything.
Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It’s a human number: 666.
Revelation 13:11-18
So this second beast appears to be a flunky for the first beast. It’s confusing, ain’t it?
Anyone who doesn’t worship the beast will be killed. I don’t think this is a metaphor. I’m pretty sure these people will actually be murdered. And those people are going to be faithful Christians who will not worship a false God.
Then we finally get to ‘the mark of the beast’. I don’t know what to tell ya. The Bible calls it a riddle. I hope you weren’t looking at me for the answer.
But let me say this. I have no plans to get implanted with anything anytime soon. But the worship of the beast and the taking of the mark seem to me to be undertaken knowingly. By that I mean that I don’t believe anyone is going to be conned into this deal.
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