The Mark of the Beast is a loyalty oath with survival benefits. Worship or die. Receive the mark or not survive. Death by beheading (Revelation 20:4) appears to be the execution. “And he [the False Prophet] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16 KJV). Either you worship and live, or you refuse and die. You receive the mark and eat, or you refuse and die. “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:17). Antichrist purposely makes the choice obvious, for the devil knows his time is short. It is now easy to say; but, “Isn’t this the best example of sacrificing the eternal on the altar of the immediate?” May God give His martyrs the conviction and power to make the right choice! Speculation of the meaning of 6-6-6 is endless, but, since man was created on the sixth day, perhaps it means, “Antichrist is only a man-man-man?” “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (13:18).
Antichrist A Nephilim
False Prophet: Directs the Worship of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:13)
Worship director for the Great World Leader is an esteemed role, except the Antichrist is that leader, who blasphemes Almighty God (Revelation 13:6), because he receives his power from the dragon (13:4). How does the world go so horribly wrong? Why does the LORD God allow this affront on such global display? “And he [the False Prophet] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men” (Revelation 13:13 KJV). Toleration of the smallest wickedness in ourselves is the camel’s nose in the tent that brings down the house. “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1Thessalonians 5:22). If we could not tolerate such sin in ourselves now, then would not such wholesale wickedness be condoned so easily later? “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth” (James 3:5).
Yahweh is carefully teaching the world, directing our hearts back to Him. It has not been apparent to the Church that the Judge of All the Earth has been teaching His people, we must submit our case before the Courts of Heaven, before He can act. He will not unilaterally perform His will in judging the earth until He gets our agreement or sanction. He created us to walk in agreement with Him, not to function as an independent tool. “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee” (2Chronicles 20:12). When sanctioned by the Courts of Heaven, Jehovah will do what He did for Jehoshaphat and Judah. “And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped” (20:24). The world will need to know the god of the World Leader and his Prophet is not the True God, and we, His people, call upon the LORD to judge the dragon, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet.
LORD, we know it is Your desire that all should repent and none should perish, but Your Spirit will not always strive with man. You alone know, when humanity’s iniquity is full. Save such as should be saved. Honor Your holiness, love, and perfection. Fulfill all righteousness. Use the devil, the Antichrist, and False Prophet, then judge them. Save Israel. Return quickly, in Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and amen.
False Prophet: Beast Out of the Earth (Revelation 13:11)
Appearing with the religious character of a lamb, the False Prophet (Revelation 19:20) speaks like the devil, and he is no different from the Antichrist. “And I beheld another [Greek, allos, another of the same kind] beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11 KJV). He purposely directs the worship toward the Antichrist (13:12), who the world knows is empowered by the dragon (13:4). How could religion be used so zealously against the righteous? Christianity began with the martyrdom of Jesus at the hands of the unbelieving Jews. Yet, Judaism continues to be the root of the tree. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15). Typically, a prophet comes before in order to introduce the one appointed to receive the attention, just as John the Baptist came before Jesus of Nazareth. It should not surprise us to find a religious figure prior to the Tribulation with deep ties to historic anti-christianity, which especially depicts the adulteress character of the Thyatiran Church Age (representative of the center and bulk of Church History), who could answer to the description, the False Prophet (Revelation 16:13). This False Prophet would be active long before the Antichrist ascends to the throne of the World Temple in the middle of the Tribulation Week. Father, Your Son taught us to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Cause us to be those doves, as we advocate for Your Son. Cause the sting of the enemy’s objection to be thwarted by the power of Your Spirit blessing the message, preserving the messenger, but, most of all, justifying You. Return quickly, in Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.
Antichrist: Response to the Rapture (Revelation 13:10)
The sudden disappearance of people worldwide will not only be noticed by all, but must be explained by world leadership, especially by the one Christians identify as the Antichrist. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1Corinthians 15:52 KJV). If we recall the words of Jesus, “Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20), we should understand the “dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up [Greek, harpazō] together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (1Thessalonians 4:17). The Second Coming of Christ combines the Resurrection of the Saints “first,” then accompanies the harpazō of the living saints “together with them” (4:17). The nature of our translation is called a “mystery,” because much takes place in the Unseen Realm, before His return, then “every eye shall see Him” (Revelation 1:7). “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1Corinthians 15:51). This is for our encouragement, not just theological slight of hand.
The “mystery of iniquity” (2Thessalonians 2:7) has been conspiring against the Almighty, since the original rebellion. Answering the Removal of Saints worldwide would be the goal of the devil, certainly by the time of the modern rapture theory discussions, but anciently speculated due to the examples of the raptures of Enoch and Elijah.
What will be the response of the Antichrist to the Rapture?
First, the sudden removal of all the godly influence of Spirit Indwelt Saints would leave not just a moral vacuum, but a disruption of the peace due to the absence of all the godly, who have departed this world (Jeremiah 29:7). Second, Antichrist must offer himself as a leader, actively promoting and attempting to replace the world’s missing peace, requiring the cooperation of the world’s leaders. This would be in connection with the peaceful-conquering-by-displaying-power diplomacy of the First Seal Judgment (Revelation 6:2). A “king of fierce countenance” (Daniel 8:23), shall promote the demonic “craft [witchcraft] to prosper in his hand” (8:24), and will eventually proclaim his divinity, when “he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many” (8:25). Third, Antichrist will do like the New Age literature prophecies of a coming alien visitor Avatar, seeking to aid us in our evolution, overcoming poverty, disease, famine, war, political, cultural, religious, and economic division, while promoting unity through “globalism, ecumenism, personal immortality (reincarnation), pantheism (‘you will be like gods,’ Genesis 3: 15), moral relativism, and the notion that the Bible is not the word of God” (from Alien Encounters, Ch. 13 “The Cosmic Deception” by Chuck Missler).
Fourth, malcontents have been removed, i.e., by the Rapture, and are being removed, i.e., the Fifth Seal Judgment of martyrdom of post-Rapture, born-into-the-Kingdom-during-the-Tribulation Saints (Revelation 6:9-11). Fifth, global unity will be promoted through the construction of a World Temple at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. If Solomon built the Temple in seven years, Oppenheimer built the atomic bomb in less than three years, couldn’t the Antichrist complete the Tribulation Temple with all the resources of the world, in less than 3 1/2 years? “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16).
Sixth, miracles and “powers and signs and lying wonders” (2Thessalonians 2:9) will be used by the Antichrist to persuade the religious and the scientific to trust the Antichrist, and to unreasonably fight the LORD God Almighty. The inexplicability of UFOs defying the laws of physics, the paranormal activities of demon possessed individuals, all of these will increase. “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2:10-12). Seventh, it is extermination by Antichrist for any found godly, but of more significance, God’s patience has finally come to an end in finishing His Final Harvest, so He can now complete a thorough cleansing of the ungodly from the earth. “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10).
LORD, cause the Sleeping Church to awaken to the battle against the enemy. May we be praying for the success of Your Gospel, the unstoppability of Your Gospel, obedience to the Gospel, showing us who must next receive Your Message, the boldness to explain Your plan, the preparation of their hearts to repent and receive the Gospel, education of Your children, the sustenance of Your family, the overcoming of our ignorance, the hastening of Your return, the defeat of the forces of Antichrist, and the judgment of the devil and his little gods. Make us willing to witness a good confession laying down our lives, if need be. May the ideas put forth by this writer prosper, even as it is understood, if Your Spirit is making me think these thoughts, there are others thinking them, as well. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and amen.
Antichrist: Deadly Head Wound Healed (Revelation 13:3)
Antichrist surviving a deadly head wound is resurrection from the dead, but only the Almighty controls resurrection. What is going on? “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” (Revelation 13:3 KJV). If Antichrist is a human being, “having seven heads“ (13:1), as individuals represent the head of state of a government, Antichrist will certainly have one head for that current state, which will be mortally wounded, i.e., dead. Now, let us reach back to Genesis and revisit the Nephilim. KJV translates, Genesis 6:4: “There were giants [Hebrew, nephilim] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God [angelic beings] came in unto the daughters of men [yes, hybridization with human females], and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4). First, Nephilim were present before the Flood, “and also after that” (6:4), for the spies sent by Moses saw them, “giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants” (Numbers 13:33), and David slew the giant, Goliath of Gath. Second, the Hebrew expression “sons of God” (Genesis 6:4) in the OT, uniformly identifies angelic beings (Genesis 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). Third, angels lack the necessity for sexual reproduction in heaven, but does not mean they are incapable, i.e., “in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). Fourth, fallen angels “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” (Jude 1:6), when they hybrid with human females. Fifth, the Flood did not remove God’s curse from humanity, but it did eliminate all Nephilim, leaving eight spiritually righteous and physically unimpaired to repopulate the earth, i.e., “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect [Hebrew, tâmîym, physically healthful, sound, unimpaired, perfect] in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Sixth, demons of the NT are the disembodied spirits of OT Nephilim slain in the Flood, seeking habitation in a living host, i.e., “29 What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? 31 So the devils besought Him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine” (Matthew 8:29, 31).
What do Nephilim have to do with the Antichrist? It appears Satan has always desired to create his own version of the Virgin Birth, and the result will be the Antichrist. Preposterous? Outlandish? Crazy? No more than Christ coming down to become man the first time or rapturing His Church prior to His Second Coming. “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45). If we refuse God’s Spirit to teach us these things, how can we efficiently cooperate with God praying for the fulfillment of any of His other prophecies? “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
Does Antichrist actually die? Yes, but coming back from the dead, is the real issue. Remember, Christ raised the dead, and they still died a second time. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The Almighty alone is the Gatekeeper, and He alone knows how to handle the bookkeeping. Real question would be, Does God allow it? And, doesn’t the fact He tells us it will happen, Doesn’t that imply He allows it to fulfill all righteousness? “But John tried to prevent Him, saying, I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me? So Jesus replied to him, Let it happen now, for it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then John yielded to Him” (Matthew 3:14-15 NET).
Father, grant to us the simplicity of faith that we would not struggle against Your attempt to teach us of heavenly things in the Unseen Realm. Give us an understanding heart that we would be co-laborers with You as we pray for the fulfillment of prophecy. Use all the plans of the Devil against him, but to build Your Kingdom. Cause the wrath of man to praise Your name. In Jesus’ name, we pray, return quickly. Amen.
We Need A Miracle 