Friday, November 20, 2015
3. What does it mean when the prophecy in REV 13:11 says that this new nation, even if it is America, will speak "as a dragon"?
Satan works through various governments and different religions of the earth to establish his evil kingdom and to try and crush God's church by persecuting and destroying His people.
For Satan's aim always has been to usurp God's power and throne and to force people to worship and obey him.
Satan's motivation and ambition is to be like the Most High, which title signifies the "possessor of heaven and earth."
The essential evil character of his sin is an unwillingness on the part of the creature to abide in the precise position in which he has been placed by the Creator.
Satan's ideal man, the man of sin, the anti-Christ, the pseudo-Christ will declare himself to be God, as he sits in the temple of God in 2TH 2:4.
2TH 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so‑called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
This is his desire to displace God as the sovereign one of the universe and to run it himself.
Even some of his very own angels who followed him have rebelled against him in Rev 9.
He has no sense of loyalty or love or faithfulness to any member of the human race and more than likely, the angelic race as well.
3. What does it mean when the prophecy in REV 13:11 says that this new nation, even if it is America, will speak "as a dragon"?
Apostate religion and civil government will unite in the end time to force itself upon the people's conscience.
This will be done through force, manipulation, deception, and out-right lies,( REV 12:9; JOH 8:44😉 1JO 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
A. "Exercises all the authority of the First Beast."
Could America become a persecuting power that will force people to go against their conscience, as did papal Rome which is portrayed in the first half of Rev 13?
B. "He (a reference to the second beast), makes or Causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the First Beast, whose deadly wound was healed."
The US could lead the nations of the world in forcing the worship of, and the allegiance to, the anti-Christ, the apostate church, of both pseudo Catholics, Protestants, in the religious realm, and the revived Roman empire in the political realm (Muslims).
The Bible reveals that the Second Beast will be somewhat like the first beast, it will the church mixed with the state and apostate religion working with the political power of the day.
One of the most elevated and beatified as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 2003 was a woman from Albania that they gave the name Mother Theresa.
“I love all religions. … If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there.”
“All is God — Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God.”
Chief among these biblical principles is that Christ is the only means of salvation. In John 14:6 Jesus states, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“Pseudo-pantheism” - she believed Jesus was present in everyone. She said, “When we destroy an unborn child, we destroy God.”
She was more than a Catholic, but was a Universalist, believing essentially that all religion leads to the same God.
“These people are waiting to die. What are you telling them to prepare them for death and eternity?” She replied candidly, “We tell them to pray to their Bhagwan or Guru, to their gods.”
She did a lot of good as a part of her humanitarianism and altruism, performing good deeds, but what is the use of helping people in time to live while you ignore their eternal destiny.
It is helping Satan, as the god of this world to bring in his view of Millennialism and counterfeit God's Millennium.
B. The second beast makes or causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the First Beast, whose deadly wound was healed."
He will bring in another Jesus, Spirit, Gospel, and doctrine.....but all lies mixed in with a little bit, and in some cases, a lot of, the truth.
The issue when it comes to God is always true worship. (JOH 4:23-24) -- Who will you worship and obey?
Will it be Christ your Creator and Redeemer, or the anti-Christ with his false teachings?
All this may seem impossible, but Jesus' words are always totally reliable and true, TIT 1:2, and He said these things will happen.
He foretold the rise and fall of the four world empires and the Antichrist (Daniel chapters 2 and 7) at a time when such predictions seemed outlandish and incredible.
It seemed outlandish and incredible that Noah would build an ark to save those believers from the flood.......but he did.
It seemed outlandish and incredible that man would try and build a city to God and tower of Babel when nations would become divided and different languages would emerge, but it happened.
It seemed outlandish and incredible that God would bring in the ten plagues and part the Red Sea for the Jews to leave Egypt and go to the promise land but He did.
It seemed outlandish and incredible that Jesus would walk on water but it happened!
It seemed outlandish and incredible that Balaam would have a talking as or donkey who would correct him but he did.
It seemed outlandish and incredible that Jesus would feeds over Five Thousand with two fishes and loaves.....but He did.
It seemed outlandish and incredible that Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead.....but now you know the rest of the story. It seemed outlandish and incredible that Joshua would ask God to Stop the Sun, but he did ask and God obliged.
Resurrection - It seemed outlandish and incredible that God the Father working with God the Holy Spirit and the deity of our Lord would do it......and they did!
JOH 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written.
His warning to us today regarding prophecy is, "I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe."
JOH 14:29 "And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe."
C. "The Beast will say to them who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the first beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live."
This action is a copy or image of the church-state combination that the papacy utilized at the height of her power during the Middle Ages, when millions were slain for their faith.
America will combine civil government and apostate Protestantism in a "marriage" that will support the new religion and the papacy, but most of all, the anti-Christ.
D. "And cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."
This worldwide alliance will, in the name of Christ, substitute the policeman's power for the Holy Spirit's persuasion and will force worship.