The False Prophet Revelation 13:7-16 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
When we finished the lesson last week, we were unable to cover all of the material on the Antichrist so we’ll finish that section and then we’ll continue with the study of the next beast which turns out to be the False Prophet.
v. 7 – when the Antichrist gains worldwide control [over all kindreds, tongues and nations], he makes war with the saints and overcomes them – it’s at this time that the Antichrist kills the two witnesses [Revelation 11:7] – his power over the saints remains until Jesus returns at which time the Lord defeats the Antichrist and the saints possess the kingdom [Daniel 7:19-22].
v. 8 – all those whose names are not written in the book of life worship the beast – if their names are in the book of life they can’t worship the beast or else their names will be blotted out [Revelation 3:5] and they wind up in hell [Revelation 14:9-11] – to learn more about the book of life, refer to our lesson on The Church in Sardis, Rev 3:1-6 which goes into a lot more detail.
The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world [Acts 2:23] – indicating that God knew from the foundation of the world that Jesus would be slain for our sins – some people read this passage and conclude that the names were in the book from the foundation of the world [see comments on Revelation 3:5] – that conclusion is incorrect
v. 9 – is the typical admonition given to the churches in Rev 2-3 [see Revelation 2:7 as an example]
v. 10 – the devil leads into captivity [i. e., 2 Timothy 2:26] and he kills with the sword [Revelation 2:10; Revelation 20:4] thus he will meet the same fate [Revelation 20:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 2:8 w/ Revelation 1:16]
The patience of the saints is to wait on the Lord to come and deal with the Antichrist and the devil [Revelation 14:12] – because there is no way that they can destroy him; but the Lord will
THE FALSE PROPHET
This beast comes up out of the earth rather than the sea [Revelation 13:1] and he represents the false prophet [the anti-type of the Holy Spirit]
v. 11 – he has 2 horns like a lamb [so he is going to represent himself as a peace lover, a gentle leader, like a pope] but he is going to speak like the dragon because he is Satanic [in other words, you cannot believe what he says because he means something totally different than what he is saying]. Hitler said in 1935, “This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future.”
v. 12 – he has all of the power of the first beast indicating that he gets his power from the same place that the Antichrist gets his, directly from the devil [Revelation 13:2] – notice that this will result in the consolidation of power into the hands of just 2 people
He causes the world to worship the Antichrist, whose deadly wound was healed [Revelation 13:3] – they will regard the healing of this wound as supreme supernatural power and will worship him because of this apparent power – the world is currently worshipping its idols [teen, music, athletic, movie, and business idols to name a few]
v. 13 – he does great wonders – 2 Thes 2:9; Matthew 24:24
He makes fire come down from heaven [which is something that couldn’t be done before (see 1 Kings 18:24-29)]
v.14 – he deceives the world by miracles – Revelation 12:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 – notice that all of this current craze over miracles in the charismatic churches is just setting the world up for a religious prophet whose miracles will persuade them that he is God’s greatest man for the age
By his deception he will convince the world to make an image of the antichrist – the world is notorious for commemorating its heroes with statues
v. 15 – the prophet will give life to the image so that it will speak [Mary idolaters have long desired to ascribe life to her apparitions – like statues crying] – so this will really convince the world to worship the beast – this image will be the marvel of evolutionists who will see life in an inorganic statue [Romans 1:23-25] – of course, an easy and probably accurate explanation for life in this image is television – we see “living” images there 24 hours a day
To convince the world to worship the image, the false prophet will threaten them with execution for failing to worship it [Daniel 3:6]
v. 16 – then he institutes the mark of the beast – a mark that is received in the right hand or in the forehead of every man, woman and child regardless of their station in life – more on this next time as we study the mark of the beast exclusively