[Chapter 13-2] The Appearance of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:1-18)
(Revelation 13:1-18)
Based
on the main passage, I will now discuss the appearance of the
Antichrist and the martyrdom of the saints. From chapter 13 we see a
beast coming up out of the sea. This Beast, which has ten horns and
seven heads, is none other than the Antichrist. The passage tells us
that on the Beast’s horns were ten crowns, and on his heads a
blasphemous name. We are also told that this Beast was like a leopard,
with his feet like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a
lion. In addition, the Dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great
authority. One of his heads was mortally wounded, but this deadly wound
was miraculously healed.
Marveled
by this, the whole world began to follow the Beast, and as he was given
authority by the Dragon, they worshiped both the Dragon and the Beast,
saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” The
passage also tells us that the Beast was given a mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies, and authority to continue his works for 42
months.
The Beast Rising up out of the Sea
What
the Apostle John saw was the emergence of the Antichrist amongst the
rulers of this world appearing in the end times. This Antichrist was the
Beast coming up out of the sea, a monster with ten horns and seven
heads.
We
must first find out whether or not this Beast is the real Beast that
will actually appear in the world. There are two main things of the
Beast that interest us: first, whether or not this Beast will actually
make his appearance in this world and kill many people; and second,
whether or not this Beast refers to the tyrannical Antichrist who would
emerge from the rulers of the world. These are some of the issues that
draw the most interest from people. Those who know about these issues
may say that they are easy to understand, but for those who are ignorant
of them, it is quite natural to be puzzled over the question of whether
or not such a Beast will indeed appear in the end times’ world and rule
over the people.
What
God speaks to us in chapter 13 is about the future appearance of a king
in this world who would be ruled by Satan. The phrase, “a beast rising
up out of the sea,” means that a king among the seven kings of the world
will become the Antichrist. The passage also tells us that ten nations
will unite around the Antichrist and rule over the thoroughly destroyed
world.
The
mortal wound of one of the Beast’s heads and its healing, on the other
hand, tells us that one of the seven kings would be mortally wounded,
but would also be healed of his deadly wound. This king would be
medically pronounced as dead, but miraculously be resuscitated to life,
and then act like the Dragon. The Dragon here refers to Satan. Like the
Dragon, the Beast would have all authority to destroy and harm people.
When the end times come, such a beastly man will make his appearance in
this world and massacre people, as monstrous as Godzilla in the movie.
With
the appearance of the servant of Satan, the world will start to dash
toward its destruction. The method by which Satan has chosen to work in
the last era is to take his atrocities to the people through his
servant. This is the same principle as God saving sinners from their
sins through His saints.
We
need to pinpoint exactly what this passage means for us. As one of the
Beast’s heads were wounded in the passage, a ruler of this world,
resuscitated from his deadly wound, will receive authority from the
Dragon and be honored by the people as if he were God. This is why we
must remember the people proclaimed, “Who is like the beast? Who is able
to make war with him?”
This
Antichrist that appears in the present passage will be respected by all
the people under the dominion of Satan and stand against God. It means
that a powerful leader will emerge in the last world and rule over it.
This leader would be one of the rulers of the world’s nations. Having
received the spirit of the Antichrist from Satan, he will emerge as a
powerful leader. The world will then come under the rule of this leader
and be reigned by him. The world will be united into a single state in
the future. The advanced nations of the present times will cooperate
among each other and extend their rule over the whole world by fronting
the powerful ruler.
In
Europe, we now have the European Union, and in Asia and Americas as
well, there are organizations that are seeking further integration of
individual states into a single political body. When such organizations
develop further, united supranational states will appear, and a very
powerful leader will emerge from such integrated states. This leader
will play the role of the Antichrist who stands against God. He would be
a charismatic leader with power to reign over and repress the whole
world as he pleases.
Why?
Because by receiving great ability and authority from the Dragon,
Satan, his wisdom would be different from that of the ordinary people,
and his thoughts would also be different from that of the latter. His
wisdom and power would reach the sky. What he says would be fulfilled
without any problem, and no one could dare to covet his place. This
period of his reign is the era of the pale horse written in Revelation
6.
The
era of the pale horse will most certainly come in the near future, and
the world will then belong to the Antichrist for a while. But those who
do not know this truth actually want to see a powerful leader like the
Antichrist to appear. The saints, however, know this truth and will be
awake in this era, and so when this time comes, they will be able to
resist and fight against the Antichrist, and be martyred to defend their
faith.
Not
many people nowadays fully respect the leaders of their own countries.
Regardless of which country they live in, people in general have some
kind of discontent with their political leaders. People throughout the
whole world wait for a strong and capable leader. Why? Because they want
a leader who can solve all the problems that are mounting in this
world, from food shortage to environmental degradation, religious
problems, economic stagnation, racial tension, and so on. When a world
leader, armed with great wisdom and power, is able to solve all the
problems, everyone in the world would honor him like God and be glad to
be ruled by him. This leader, the Antichrist who has the whole world in
his hand, will take care of everything.
We
all want a political leader whom we can respect in all aspects, but
such a wish is too great to be met, for this kind of leader can neither
arise nor come into existence in actuality. But as the Antichrist to
come solves this world’s many political and economic problems, he would
become the kind of leader whom everyone wishes for, the one who can
bring political and economic stability to the world.
When
the era of the black horse passes by and the era of the pale horse
begins, because of the plagues of the seven trumpets, the ruined world
will seek for a strong and able leader. Powerless leaders of small
countries cannot solve global problems. As such, people will look for an
absolute leader. The Antichrist will appear at this time, speaking and
acting like God. Because he would have been healed from his mortal
wounds, people would be marveled by him. As he would live again and work
as a ruler with great power, courage, determination and wisdom, people
throughout the whole world would think of him as God.
As
such, even the people of Israel would believe him to be their
long-awaited Messiah. But the Israelites will soon realize that he is a
liar and that Jesus Christ is their true Messiah, and many of them will
thus be saved. The Antichrist will hear people saying, “Who can possibly
ever stand against him?” All those who do not obey him, without any
exception, will then be killed.
When
the era of the pale horse comes, the entire world will not only suffer
greatly from the natural plagues, ravaged by the fire that burns down a
third of its forests and choked by heavy smog, but the people of the
world will also unite to come under a single ruler to serve him as their
king. The one who solves all these problems will be raised by them high
above as God.
All
these things are but among what God has planned. For these things to
come to this world, there must first be drastic global environmental
changes, and a consensus among the opinion-leaders of each nation on the
need for a centralized governing authority. Such a consensus that seeks
after this kind of ruler is now being forged in today’s era of the
black horse. The world now wants a very strong leader. As the leaders of
each nation are unable to dispel the discontent of their own people
individually, mankind is now looking for a strong leader who can solve
all the problems that they are facing.
If
you take a closer look at what is happening in this world, you would
realize that all these things are very possible to be actualized. The
prophesized leader will be extremely ferocious, a man of absolute power
and great abilities, as shown by his description as having feet that are
like the feet of a bear, a mouth like the mouth of a lion, and a face
like the face of a leopard.
This
man, receiving authority from the Dragon, will blaspheme God, his
angels in Heaven, and His saints. And he will fight against the saints
and overcome them. The Antichrist will kill the saints in his fight
against them, demanding them to renounce their faith. Because the saints
would not give up their faith at this time, they will all be martyred.
And as the Antichrist would have authority over the entire world, he
will freely kill and destroy all those who do not listen to his
commands.
Verse
8 tells us, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names
have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.” Because the Antichrist would reign as the
absolute ruler in this time, everyone who does not obey him will be
killed at his command. However, for all the saints, such a time would be
the time of their martyrdom.
From
verse 8 quoted above, the word “worship” here means to honor and serve
the one who is absolute. In the end times, the Antichrist will be
worshiped by the people on this earth like God, receiving far greater
honor than what any king had ever received before. Yet a group of people
will not worship this leader. They are none other than the “born-again
Christians.” They will not recognize the Antichrist as God, and as such,
they will not worship him and instead be killed to defend their faith.
Another Beast Coming out of the Earth
The
Antichrist also has his false prophet. This false prophet is the one
who would raise the Antichrist high, as well as threaten and kill those
who do not obey the Beast. Revelation 13:11 says, “Then I saw another
beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and
spoke like a dragon.” The second beast that appears here is the servant
of the first Beast—that is, of the Antichrist. Like the Antichrist, he
will also stand against God and kill the people of the world and the
righteous.
Receiving
authority from the Dragon, he will foster the people to worship the
Antichrist who came before him as God. Because he, too, would have
received authority from the Dragon, he will do what the Dragon wants him
to do. He will not only make the people worship the Antichrist who came
before him and kill all those who do not obey him, but he will also
perform miracles, such as bringing down fire from the sky, and even act
like the Antichrist. He will deify and idolize the Beast, who would have
been mortally wounded but revived from this wound, before everyone.
Who,
then, would do all these things? It is the prophet of the Antichrist.
His work is to make an image of the Antichrist that came before him and
have the people raise this Antichrist high above as God. To do so, he
will breathe life into this image of the Antichrist to make it speak,
and kill all those who do not worship this idol of the Beast regardless
of their number. Because the saints would be martyred by refusing to
worship the idol, a countless number of martyrs will come out at this
time.
Everyone
in the world who has not been born again, on the other hand, will
tremble before their death and end up becoming slaves to death. As such,
they will all worship the Antichrist as God. The conscientious
intellectuals may arise in a rebellion against the dictator, but they
will be quickly put down, killed by the fire that comes out of the
mouths of the false prophet and the Antichrist.
This
false prophet, having built the idol, would say, “Everyone must receive
the mark of his name or number!” He would then make it his policy to
forbid anyone who does not have this mark of the Beast from making any
kind of trade, so that everyone would indeed receive this mark of the
name of the Beast. Verse 18 says, “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
is rather straightforward. Though we think the number 666 as a
complicated thing, it simply means the name of the Antichrist, or his
number. To receive the mark of the Beast means to receive the mark of
his name on either the forehead or the right hand. It is to imprint this
ruler’s name into one’s body, numerated into a number and digitalizing
into a bar code.
This
mark would be needed everywhere whenever one tries to buy anything.
Even when you get on the bus, you would need this digital number
imprinted in your body, and without it you would be restricted. Today’s
era is this very digital age. It is an age of numbers. As everything is
translated into numbers, what were once extremely complicated have now
become extremely simple. In such an era would appear this mark of the
Beast.
The
Antichrist will make an idol out of himself and demand that people
worship him like God. The time will actually come when people would thus
be required to call the Antichrist as their “God,” praise him and call
upon his name in honor, and receive his name on their right hands or
foreheads. When such things happen, the saints will all be martyred. The
Antichrist will demand the saints to receive his mark and worship him,
saying, “So you believe in Jesus? You believe Him as your God? Throw Him
away! Bow before this image and call me God instead! Believe in me as
the one who is absolute! If you don’t, you will surely die!”
The
Antichrist will demand a single faith from the entire world. And he
will demand everyone to worship him as God. Those who do not admit that
he is God at this time will all be killed. The Antichrist will publicly
execute the saints who stand against him.
All
those whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb will
receive his mark and worship him. When we receive the remission of sin
into our hearts, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and our names are written
in the Book of Life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Because our names are
written in the Book of Life and because the Holy Spirit has sealed our
hearts, we will all be lifted up as the children of God when He calls
us.
Could
we ever abandon Jesus Christ who has saved us, and declare to the image
of the Beast that it is now our God and Savior? Of course not! No
matter how insufficient we have been before Him, our Lord came to this
earth in the flesh of a man, cleansed away all our sins by taking them
upon Himself with His baptism, and saved us by being judged vicariously
on the Cross.
Also,
because our Lord has already told us about all these things to come
beforehand, we the saints can never betray our faith during this time of
the Antichrist. Although the time of the Tribulation will come to us
and be followed by our death, we still believe that our Lord will make
us live in His Kingdom of Heaven by resurrecting and rapturing us
shortly after our martyrdom.
Because
we believe that after our rapture God will destroy this world by
pouring down His plagues of the seven bowls, and that after this we will
descend on the earth and reign over it for a thousand years, we can
never kneel before the idol. This is why the servants and saints of God
would willingly give up their lives.
The
false prophet will then try to convince us otherwise. He will try to
buy us over by saying, “Look, chaos is running rampant in this world
right now. When everyone, including all the intellectuals and scholars,
believe in and follow our supreme leader as God, how can you still go on
refusing to believe in this absolute king of ours?” But if we know and
believe in the Word of God always, we will triumph in the end by
embracing our martyrdom.
In
Revelation 14 appear the 144,000 saints who praise God in Heaven. This
tells us of the saints’ resurrection and rapture following their
martyrdom. From elsewhere in the Bible, such as what Paul told us of the
second coming of Christ or what other servants of God had prophesized
in the Old Testament, we can also find out about the rapture, with which
the saints will be lifted up to the air and join the marriage supper of
the Lamb with the Lord. To this marriage supper will enter the saints.
When
the saints have thus entered into the marriage supper of the Lamb in
Heaven, the plagues of the seven bowls will be poured on this earth,
completely laying it to waste. After this, the earth is renewed, and the
saints will then descend onto it with the Lord and reign in the Kingdom
of Christ for a thousand years to come. When we know all these facts,
could we really call the Antichrist as God, even if he throws in all
kinds of appeasement and enticements to make us bow before his image,
worship him as God, and abandon our faith in the true God? Of course
not!
As
it is written in the Bible, “faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1), the prophets
believe in what God has told them beforehand about the things to come.
The servants and people of God who believe in the Word are all priests
and prophets. By making us preach the gospel of the remission of sin to
everyone throughout the whole world, God leads many souls to receive
their remission of sin. As our Lord has saved us regardless of how
insufficient we are before Him, God has made us His people, and until
this very moment, He has loved, guided, and blessed us unchangingly.
The
Lord has not only given us the peace of our spirits, but He has also
made us place our hope in the Kingdom of Heaven by giving us the Holy
Spirit. As such, when we hear the Antichrist telling us to worship him
as God, we cannot help but resist him deep from our hearts.
We
may at first be startled by the unfolding events when we suddenly
realize that the time that God spoke of has finally arrived, but we the
saints will soon regain our composure and begin resisting the
Antichrist. “So you think you are the real God? Did you create the
universe? Did you create mankind? Are you really the lord of the
people’s souls?” These are the words with which we will fight against
the Antichrist.
When
the Antichrist kills the saints and the servants of God at this time,
we, too, would die. There can never be a change of our God to us. Faith
does not come by coercion. Nor does faith appear or disappear by the
logic of force. Far from it, the true faith in fact has even greater
power to overcome coercion. The saints will therefore be martyred, and
the Antichrist will end up losing to the saints.
When
the Antichrist makes idols in his own image and demands the saints to
worship him as God, the saints and the servants of God would shout to
him, “Are you God’s servant or Satan’s servant? Do you know the gospel
of the water and the Spirit? Do you know and believe that Jesus Christ
is God? When Jesus Christ returns to this earth, He will throw people
like you into the deepest end of hell! Do you understand, you son of
Satan?” The Antichrist and his prophet would then kill the saints, and
the saints would joyfully embrace their martyrdom for God.
Verse
10 tells us that “he who kills with the sword must be killed with the
sword.” This means that if the Antichrist kills the saints, God, too,
will throw him and his followers to the bottomless pit, as well as kill
them on this earth. When those who stand against God torment the saints,
they, too, will face even greater torments from God.
As
such, we must stand against the Antichrist with our perseverance of
faith. The duration of the saints’ persecution at this time will
altogether last for only three and a half years. But God may reduce the
saints’ persecution and tribulations, shortening their duration to just a
few months or a couple of weeks. Though the saints would be martyred,
they will live again. They will be resurrected and raptured, and they
will be blessed to reign with Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom.
When
the Millennial Kingdom comes, the beauty of the nature will reach its
height, and the saints will reign with the Lord in their holy bodies
transformed from their old flesh. They will then live happily with the
Lord in the New Heaven and Earth forever. How could we, who know and
believe in all these things, not persevere through the short-lasting
sufferings that will come to us for our faith in Jesus?
No
matter how harsh the tribulations of this time are, innumerable saints
will nevertheless be martyred, and so there is no reason why we, too,
would not embrace our martyrdom as well. As all of these things are
true, we will never surrender to the Tribulation that lasts only a short
while in this world. In a further example, even if the world were to
turn into a paradise for a hundred or a thousand years, we just cannot
surrender to the Antichrist. All these things are not far away from us,
but will come to us in a very near time.
We
must therefore preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit now, when
the world is at peace. To prepare for this time of the Great
Tribulation, we are diligently spreading the gospel of the water and the
Spirit now. In a year’s time, the gospel that we are preaching will do
the most wondrous works. Nationally and internationally, marvelous works
of the gospel will come. People may take the gospel of the water and
the Spirit lightly at first, but many who do not know the Word of
Revelation will seek and hear it and return to the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, because they would be very interested in the Word of
Revelation and would not be able to take it lightly.
Revelation
13 is the chapter of the saints’ martyrdom. When the time of martyrdom
comes, the saints will be killed by sword or shot to death. Many saints
will thus be killed at the hand of the Antichrist. But we can face our
death without any fear, for it would be the death of our flesh, not of
our faith itself. Filled by our faith and the Holy Spirit, we will shout
out the indescribable words of courage.
You
have nothing to fear, even if you are not good at speaking or are
timid. Just think of the old saints of the Early Church period. The
saints of that time did not surrender to the forces of Satan because
they were killed not alone but together, and because they were also
filled by the Holy Spirit. Just remember that Jesus already told us,
“But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should
speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;
for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in
you” (Matthew 10:19-20). To receive the Kingdom of God, could we not,
as the people of God, bear our death? We can all bear it.
This
world will be ruined completely by God’s plagues of the seven trumpets,
when an absolute tyrant called the Antichrist will reign for a while.
How then could we exchange the eternal Heaven for anything in this
world, no matter how nice it might be? When the world would have turned
into an impossible place to live, where the rivers would have turned
into wormwood, the sea into blood, and the nature laid to waste, far
less could we surrender to the beastly man who would try to make us
betray our faith.
From
the very day of our martyrdom, the only world that awaits those who
still remain on this earth would be the kind where unidentified
epidemics would be raging fiercely and crops would cease to produce
harvests, as they wither away or are wiped out by hail. In such a world,
even putting aside the matter of faith, no one would want to live any
longer.
The
Book of Revelation shows us the things to come in the future. When
today’s era of the black horse moves only a little bit further, the era
of the pale horse will actually arrive. Our Lord, in other words, will
return soon. What I am saying is not that you should give up all your
possessions since the Lord’s return is imminent. Rather, what I am
saying is that we should continue to serve our Lord until the very day
of the Antichrist’s appearance, as faithfully and unchangingly then as
now.
If
you are, by any chance, troubled or depressed now, you should no longer
worry. When you and I realize that we are to become martyrs, our hearts
will turn peaceful and calm. Since we are to become martyrs, in other
words, what greed would we have left in us? If there is one desire left
in us, it would be to preach this gospel to everyone throughout the
entire world, so that many saints will rise up in the end times, be
saved and martyred by believing in this gospel, and thereby receive the
New Heaven and Earth. I also hope that all the saints would make the
Kingdom of Christ theirs with their faith, having been nourished by
believing in this truth, and thus willingly go through all these things
that await them in the time of the Antichrist.
God
has given us His blessing of martyrdom. Not just anyone can be
martyred, and not just anyone can live for the Lord. I am only grateful
to God for giving us such a blessing, and I am only happy for the fact
that I would die for faith. Because we have neither hope nor any
attachment to this world, embracing martyrdom will be a great happiness
for us.
All
that we have to do is hope for the Millennial Kingdom and Heaven that
God has prepared for us, live our lives by uniting our efforts to preach
the gospel throughout the whole world until the day of the Lord’s
return, receive Him in joy when He returns, and just enter the place
where we have hoped for. Believe in this Word, for these are the things
that will indeed come.
We
cannot receive the mark of the Antichrist, for we are the people of the
Kingdom of Heaven. Because receiving the mark would be a matter of
personal choice, it would not be done by physical force, but by the
acceptance of heart.
Even
our children, if the gospel is found in their hearts, would embrace
their martyrdom even more boldly than the grown-ups, for they, too,
would have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. As the grown-ups confess
that Jesus is their Savior, if the Holy Spirit is found in the
children’s hearts, they, too, will most certainly confess that Jesus is
their Savior and God. The Bible tells us not to think of what to say
when we are dragged before the Antichrist, for the Holy Spirit will fill
our hearts with the words that we can speak with.
God’s
children may also fear as they are spiritually young and weak, but the
Holy Spirit in them does not fear. They will be martyred by the power of
the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Because they, too, belong to God, He
will receive their souls, permit them to have their bodies be killed,
and also reward them to reign in a better world.
God
would have filled the hearts of those who have been born again by the
water and the Spirit with His Words to speak with. Because only the
souls that have been chosen and received by God can be martyred, God
cannot but prepare their faith for His name’s sake. Just by the fact
that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts because we have
believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will all receive
the reward of the Millennial Kingdom and the glory of the New Heaven and
Earth.
In
the end times, we will all experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit
in our hearts. As we have been fated to become martyrs, when we are thus
martyred according to God’s plan, we will all go through our martyrdom
while praising, worshiping, and glorifying Him in His presence. Because
we believe in God, we follow Him only by our faith that shouts out
“Amen!” Because we know that we are to be martyred, our greed of the
flesh naturally sheds away from us, making our souls very pure.
Being
martyred, which is God’s will for us, is to receive a great blessing
and be glorified greatly. As the saints have their hope to dwell forever
in the New Heaven and Earth, they will fight against the Antichrist and
defend the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts until the
end. In this time of the Great Tribulation, all the saints, recognizing
Jesus Christ as their God and believing in their perfect salvation
given by Him, will embrace their martyrdom before God.
I thank the Lord who has given us this blessing of martyrdom.
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