Part Five

Both the Beast from the Sea and the scarlet-colored Beast (Rev. 17) are identical. Both have:

(1)   7 heads

(2)   10 horns

(3)   names of blasphemy

The Beast from the sea has 10 crowns on his 10 horns. This would indicate his power over the 10 kings of the divided Latin Roman Empire. His father, the dragon, has 7 crowns on his 7 heads. This symbolizes Satan's rule over the city of 7 hills which, in turn, rules the Roman Empire. As the god of this world, the dragon rules. Yet prophecy is not concerned with all of Satan's dominion. The Holy Spirit focuses only on his rule over the Western Latin Roman Empire. Both father and son are seen as rulers of that same empire at different times in history. The father sends the son to implement his master plan of deception. The son of Satan will deceive the world and false Christians into believing that he is God's anointed, meaning Christ in the Greek, sent by God to rule His Church. To aid in this grand deception Satan will empower him to perform signs and lying wonders which will elevate his son to a position greater than the God of all gods.

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW THE SON OF SATAN TO RULE AND REIGN?

Has it every occurred to the reader that nothing happens in God's creation which does not have a wise purpose? Where is the wisdom in God's eternal decree that Satan unleash his Antichrist upon an already deceived and enslaved world? After all, there is no debate over Satan's rule of the earth dwellers.

THE PURPOSE OF THE ANTICHRIST IS TO TRY THOSE WHO PROFESS CHRIST

History is the outworking of God's eternal decrees. All that comes to pass is that which God has ordained before the foundation of the world. Nothing happens by chance. (The study of evil and its relationship to the decrees of God is outside the scope of this teaching.) Even heresies are decreed by our holy and just God: For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest to you. Paul, speaking by the Spirit, has just dropped a bombshell. Heresies will and must come. Their purpose is to separate the wheat from the chaff, as John the Baptist foretold. He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. The Lord is presently purging His floor. He is using the Antichrist as His means by which to separate the true Christian from the false; the wheat from the tares; the faithful from the unfaithful; the truthful from the liars; the blessed from the cursed; the holy from the profane; the Elect from the reprobate. Deuteronomy 13 also confirms this principle:

     If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder; and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you [i.e., is testing you], to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (vs. 1-3.)

The Lord has ordained angels for the task of first gathering together the tares, then binding them into bundles to burn them. In order to successfully accomplish such a task, the angels, who are saints commissioned and called by God for this specific mission, (cf. Rev. 14:6-13; 19:10), must be discerning in determining who are the tares. The Holy Spirit has given us vital information by which we may judge.

(1)   II Thess. 2:10-12.

The context is the Man of Sin. Those who perish do so because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. The truth taught in this passage is the truth of the true identity of the Man of Sin. To believe the Man of Sin is a model Christian ruler is to not believe the testimony of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, the facts of history and the united witness of the saints of God through the ages. To believe the Man of Sin is yet to come is to not believe the testimony of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, the facts of history and the united witness of the saints of God through the ages. To believe the Man of Sin is a model Christian ruler is to believe the lie. To believe the Man of Sin is yet to come is to believe the lie. To believe the lie is to love the lie. To love the lie is to hate the truth. To hate the truth is to hate Jesus, who is the truth. Verse 13 confirms the promise of God that the Elect will believe the truth. (Cf. Matt. 24:24 - the Elect will not ultimately be deceived by him.)

(2)   Rev. 13:8

The context is the Beast from the sea. He is the same person as the Man of Sin. This we have proven earlier. Those who worship the Beast, (i.e., those who condone, approve, obey and honor him, rather than denounce, detest, separate from and repudiate him), are not saved. No one is saved whose name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, (cf. Rev. 20:15). We are being given a measuring rod by the Holy Spirit which we are to use to test a Christian's profession. How does he view the Beast? Please note the next verse, verse 9. "If any man have an ear, let him hear." This is a hard saying which few can hear.

In the early Church the prevalent heresy attacked the Deity of Christ and the Triune Godhead. Then, in the 2^nd Millennium, the Man of Sin appeared. The Antichrist attacked Christ in so many different areas, in so many different ways, by such cunning that, if it were possible, even the Elect would be deceived. The Beast from the sea is viewed as the persecutor and murderer of the saints. As such he had the authority to decree persecutions and executions. This authority is signified by his 10 crowns. To denounce the Beast was tantamount to denouncing the Roman Emperor. Death would be your reward. History proves millions of Christians preferred death to compromise. They lost their lives to save them.

The Man of Sin is still in our midst disguised as a model Christian ruler who claims to love and serve Christ. In Matt. 24 & Matt. 7 we are told that many shall come in the name of Christ with an orthodox profession of His Deity and Lordship, (Jesus is the Christ and Lord, Lord), yet be deceivers. These orthodox professions are not enough to prove one a son of God in the last days. Their relationship with the Antichrist is the final test.

(3)   Rev. 17:8.

The context is Mystery Babylon, her character, her location, her relationship with the kings of the earth, and her relationship with the scarlet-colored beast. It is this writer's contention that the scarlet-colored Beast is seen after the great tribulation, when he was the persecutor and murderer of millions of saints for centuries on end. In this chapter the false church is highlighted in her ecumenical, adulterous persona. The scarlet-colored Beast is peaceful for the moment, allowing the woman to fornicate with the kings of the earth. Yet we are told in verse 8, that the Beast that was, [the persecutor of the saints], and is not, [now the persecutor of the saints because of loss of power]; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit [to once again persecute the saints], and then go into perdition [because Christ will come to judge him]. And they that shall dwell on earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

In the previous stage of the Beast, seen in Rev. 13, the Beast is viewed as warring openly with the saints. One would think in those days it would be an easy matter to discern the true identity of the Beast. The murderer is the Beast. The victims are the saints. Yet the Beast had innumerable members of his body and in the body of his false church to carry out his will to kill. They could not discern they were on the wrong side, fighting against the true God and His people. Today the same phenomena holds true.

The vast majority of Evangelicals refuse to consider the wild ravenous character of the Beast. They see a kindly old Christian man who wears scarlet robes, carrying a crucifix shepherd's staff emulating the Good Shepherd. Apostate Evangelicals today either publicly drink from the cup of the Antichrist's mistress, the Mother of Harlots, willfully closing their eyes to Scripture, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the facts of history and the corroborating united testimony of the saints through the ages, or they remain passive and silent, refusing to denounce him as the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, the Beast. Silence is assent to the cause of Satan. These traitors of Christ's Body claim the Antichrist to have either come and gone, or that he is yet to come. In both cases, they say he is not here. By so doing they deny Scripture, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the facts of history and the corroborating united testimony of the saints. Jesus promises that those who deny Him will He also deny.

Those who partake of the first resurrection are called beheaded, holy and blessed, not because of their drinking from the cup of the Antichrist, not because of their silent assent to the Antichrist, not because of their denial that he is the Antichrist, but because of their open opposition to the Antichrist whom they identified as being in their midst. This present writer asks the reader, Which resurrection would you prefer? The first resurrection or the second?