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The Tribulation Part 9: The Beast Emerges
In part 8, Satan got "shown the door" in heaven, and in his rage, began a murderous assault upon Israel. When denied that, he turns his wrath in full towards the Tribulation saints. Now as we begin part 9 of The Tribulation series, we watch as Satan’s "Masterpiece" emerges on the scene.
“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-4, NASB)
Now, one thing we are NOT going do is “try to guess who the Beast is”. Too much of that has been done already over the years, and has led the enemies of the Cross being given reason and opportunity to mock the Lord, blaspheme God and harm the cause of the Gospel. With that firmly in mind, what we will do here is discuss the attributes attributed to the Antichrist in Scripture.
First: the description of the Beast coming from "the sea” (“the sea” usually being a prophetic reference to the gentiles) seems to indicate that he would most likely be a gentile, whereas the second beast/False Prophet will come from "the earth":
"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. Daniel said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts." (Daniel 7:1-8, NASB, emphasis mine)
Revelation 17 clues us in on the meaning of the heads and horns:
"And the angel said to me,” Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:8-14, NASB, emphasis mine)
This is an excellent example of "Scripture interprets Scripture", and connects the Beast to the “Whore” later on in Revelation. The first reference to "kings" means those that have come before the beast, aka "fallen"; these have nothing to do with the 10 nations that will "rule for an hour with the beast". The term "kingdoms" refers to individual nations; we deduce that the Beast will rule a 10-nation confederation, because these kingdoms are in essence part of the Beast and are his "heads ", and the rulers are his "horns". The crowns that you see in this verse are the Greek diadēmata, meaning a crown of authority. They end up giving their power and authority to the beast, which he wields.
The "fatal wound": here, so much has been postulated concerning this one. It's a wound to one of the "heads" of the Beast, and we are told what the heads represent: seven kings and seven hills. We are not told which king it is, but if the "head" is injured and fatally but healed, then we can safely assume that it is this "king" who is injured fatally then healed. Since five of these kings have "fallen", one is and one is yet to come, we would have to the take it that it is the one who is, the one who is to come, a.k.a. the "eight king" (the one who is and now is not) that is injured in such a manner.
As for what the Beast's features indicate:
"The body of a leopard" means that the Beast is swift and agile, quick to respond to threats and hunt down his prey. "The feet of a bear" indicates he has powerful claws that rend and tear whatever they strike, showing us that a blow from him is FATAL. "The mouth like a lion" means whatever he seeks to devour will be crushed and shredded, and is always seeking more to fill that fearsome maw. This description is not of his ACTUAL attributes physically, but they represent his inner character. He may seem to be the smoothest, most honest leader the world has seen, but underneath the polished veneer lays a monster that is truly Satan's workmanship.
“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him." (Revelation 13:5-7, NASB)
The Beast will use EVERY opportunity he can get to spit on the Name of God, and dunk it in as much fecal matter as he can: his true nature is evidenced in his loathing and malice towards the God of heaven and those that are his. He will even slander the dead in Christ!!! It won't be enough to destroy them, but he must also destroy their very memory!
"All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” (Revelation 13:8, NASB)
On that note: I believe that Scripture from Zechariah also fills in important details, calling the Beast “A worthless shepherd”:
““So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. The LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.” (Zechariah 11: 7-17, NASB, emphasis mine)
Here, the prophecy Zechariah receives from the Lord contrasts the True Shepherd (Jesus Christ) vs. the False Shepherd (The Antichrist/ Beast). Foretold is the price the Pharisees would pay Judas to betray Jesus, while the Foolish Shepherd is described as having a withered right eye and arm. It’s definitely possible that a head wound could cause an eye and limb to “wither”, especially if it affected the part of the brain that controlled them. That said: this issue has been a major point of contention, and one that may not be solved before our departure in the Rapture.
Back to the point though: we need to keep in mind that the Beast will specifically target Christians and begin to systematically EXTERMINATE them IN EARNEST. This is what the vision of the dragon going after those who bore the witness of Jesus Christ meant. When you think about it, this will be THE worst time to be a Christian; most will likely die under the cruel hand of the beast, and they will die in painful ways that will probably curdle blood, yet the wicked of the world who have not repented would celebrate and relish such evil. It's not a time you want to be on this planet for; we should desire to serve the Lord, not to see how big we can make our spiritual bank accounts by suffering. If we suffer to deliberately gain riches, it's not for the Lord but ourselves:
" All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints " (Revelation 13:9-10, NASB)
Something for those who wish to be "Tribulation Saints" to think about.
Now, some of you are probably saying: "Hey, wait a second!! Didn’t God getting vengeance on the world during the last Seal Judgment for those that were martyred?! What about these folks? Don’t they get any justice?!”
God's wrath in that instance was against mankind for the saints they had killed up to that point. But the Beast at this juncture will personally hunt the saints of the Lord, showing his venomous hatred. This is before the Bowl Judgments that are coming up, so the Bowls are begin filled to the very brim by the Beast's actions.
“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men” (Revelation 13:11-13, NASB)
Now, we see the False Prophet emerge on the scene. And twisting the Prophet Elijah's contest, he will CALL fire down from heaven rather than pray for it. In this, the Beast may seem to have connotations of being religious (the lamb's horns), the fact that he will speak like a dragon is a clear indicator of where his power and authority ultimately come from.
"And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” (Revelation 13:14-15, NASB)
At this point, the Abomination of Desolation is erected in the Temple in Jerusalem, as foretold by Daniel:
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:24-27, NASB, emphasis mine)
This is reinforced by Jesus’ own words:
“Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15-16, NASB, emphasis mine)
Since “the Holy Place” is a reference to the Temple, a “wing” would have to mean a wing of the temple, not “a bird’s wing”. What we are reading here isn’t that this abomination will fly in, but that they will erect this right in the Temple and desecrate it. This verse also shows that this is the midpoint of the Tribulation, along with the earlier verse stating that the Beast would have power for 42 months (3 1/2 years). This is the halfway point for the seven year period and what a halfway point it is!
And then, the False Prophet institutes the "Mark":
"And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.” (Revelation 13:16-18, NASB)
Now, I have seen folks trying over the years to figure out what the mark is: EVERYTHING from tattoos, to RFID implants have been suggested, and many panics and rumors have happened because of it. How many over the years have tried to figure out what it is? Many will say "but we NEED to figure it out!!! It’s IMPORTANT!!!"
But we need to keep this in mind: the Mark won't be secret when people are forced to take it, and no one will be duped into taking it without knowing EXACTLY what it means: rejecting God permanently and swearing allegiance to the Beast. My suggestion is that this is God's way of saying that NO ONE on earth has the wisdom necessary to figure out what it is. But rather than knock ourselves silly over deciphering what it IS, we need to remember WHAT IT MEANS, and pass THAT on.
In Part 10, we will see an angel preach the Gospel, the 144,000, and the Great Harvest.
I bid you all peace.
YBIC,
-Sojo414
In part 8, Satan got "shown the door" in heaven, and in his rage, began a murderous assault upon Israel. When denied that, he turns his wrath in full towards the Tribulation saints. Now as we begin part 9 of The Tribulation series, we watch as Satan’s "Masterpiece" emerges on the scene.
“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-4, NASB)
Now, one thing we are NOT going do is “try to guess who the Beast is”. Too much of that has been done already over the years, and has led the enemies of the Cross being given reason and opportunity to mock the Lord, blaspheme God and harm the cause of the Gospel. With that firmly in mind, what we will do here is discuss the attributes attributed to the Antichrist in Scripture.
First: the description of the Beast coming from "the sea” (“the sea” usually being a prophetic reference to the gentiles) seems to indicate that he would most likely be a gentile, whereas the second beast/False Prophet will come from "the earth":
"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. Daniel said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts." (Daniel 7:1-8, NASB, emphasis mine)
Revelation 17 clues us in on the meaning of the heads and horns:
"And the angel said to me,” Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:8-14, NASB, emphasis mine)
This is an excellent example of "Scripture interprets Scripture", and connects the Beast to the “Whore” later on in Revelation. The first reference to "kings" means those that have come before the beast, aka "fallen"; these have nothing to do with the 10 nations that will "rule for an hour with the beast". The term "kingdoms" refers to individual nations; we deduce that the Beast will rule a 10-nation confederation, because these kingdoms are in essence part of the Beast and are his "heads ", and the rulers are his "horns". The crowns that you see in this verse are the Greek diadēmata, meaning a crown of authority. They end up giving their power and authority to the beast, which he wields.
The "fatal wound": here, so much has been postulated concerning this one. It's a wound to one of the "heads" of the Beast, and we are told what the heads represent: seven kings and seven hills. We are not told which king it is, but if the "head" is injured and fatally but healed, then we can safely assume that it is this "king" who is injured fatally then healed. Since five of these kings have "fallen", one is and one is yet to come, we would have to the take it that it is the one who is, the one who is to come, a.k.a. the "eight king" (the one who is and now is not) that is injured in such a manner.
As for what the Beast's features indicate:
"The body of a leopard" means that the Beast is swift and agile, quick to respond to threats and hunt down his prey. "The feet of a bear" indicates he has powerful claws that rend and tear whatever they strike, showing us that a blow from him is FATAL. "The mouth like a lion" means whatever he seeks to devour will be crushed and shredded, and is always seeking more to fill that fearsome maw. This description is not of his ACTUAL attributes physically, but they represent his inner character. He may seem to be the smoothest, most honest leader the world has seen, but underneath the polished veneer lays a monster that is truly Satan's workmanship.
“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him." (Revelation 13:5-7, NASB)
The Beast will use EVERY opportunity he can get to spit on the Name of God, and dunk it in as much fecal matter as he can: his true nature is evidenced in his loathing and malice towards the God of heaven and those that are his. He will even slander the dead in Christ!!! It won't be enough to destroy them, but he must also destroy their very memory!
"All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” (Revelation 13:8, NASB)
On that note: I believe that Scripture from Zechariah also fills in important details, calling the Beast “A worthless shepherd”:
““So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. The LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.” (Zechariah 11: 7-17, NASB, emphasis mine)
Here, the prophecy Zechariah receives from the Lord contrasts the True Shepherd (Jesus Christ) vs. the False Shepherd (The Antichrist/ Beast). Foretold is the price the Pharisees would pay Judas to betray Jesus, while the Foolish Shepherd is described as having a withered right eye and arm. It’s definitely possible that a head wound could cause an eye and limb to “wither”, especially if it affected the part of the brain that controlled them. That said: this issue has been a major point of contention, and one that may not be solved before our departure in the Rapture.
Back to the point though: we need to keep in mind that the Beast will specifically target Christians and begin to systematically EXTERMINATE them IN EARNEST. This is what the vision of the dragon going after those who bore the witness of Jesus Christ meant. When you think about it, this will be THE worst time to be a Christian; most will likely die under the cruel hand of the beast, and they will die in painful ways that will probably curdle blood, yet the wicked of the world who have not repented would celebrate and relish such evil. It's not a time you want to be on this planet for; we should desire to serve the Lord, not to see how big we can make our spiritual bank accounts by suffering. If we suffer to deliberately gain riches, it's not for the Lord but ourselves:
" All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints " (Revelation 13:9-10, NASB)
Something for those who wish to be "Tribulation Saints" to think about.
Now, some of you are probably saying: "Hey, wait a second!! Didn’t God getting vengeance on the world during the last Seal Judgment for those that were martyred?! What about these folks? Don’t they get any justice?!”
God's wrath in that instance was against mankind for the saints they had killed up to that point. But the Beast at this juncture will personally hunt the saints of the Lord, showing his venomous hatred. This is before the Bowl Judgments that are coming up, so the Bowls are begin filled to the very brim by the Beast's actions.
“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men” (Revelation 13:11-13, NASB)
Now, we see the False Prophet emerge on the scene. And twisting the Prophet Elijah's contest, he will CALL fire down from heaven rather than pray for it. In this, the Beast may seem to have connotations of being religious (the lamb's horns), the fact that he will speak like a dragon is a clear indicator of where his power and authority ultimately come from.
"And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” (Revelation 13:14-15, NASB)
At this point, the Abomination of Desolation is erected in the Temple in Jerusalem, as foretold by Daniel:
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:24-27, NASB, emphasis mine)
This is reinforced by Jesus’ own words:
“Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15-16, NASB, emphasis mine)
Since “the Holy Place” is a reference to the Temple, a “wing” would have to mean a wing of the temple, not “a bird’s wing”. What we are reading here isn’t that this abomination will fly in, but that they will erect this right in the Temple and desecrate it. This verse also shows that this is the midpoint of the Tribulation, along with the earlier verse stating that the Beast would have power for 42 months (3 1/2 years). This is the halfway point for the seven year period and what a halfway point it is!
And then, the False Prophet institutes the "Mark":
"And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.” (Revelation 13:16-18, NASB)
Now, I have seen folks trying over the years to figure out what the mark is: EVERYTHING from tattoos, to RFID implants have been suggested, and many panics and rumors have happened because of it. How many over the years have tried to figure out what it is? Many will say "but we NEED to figure it out!!! It’s IMPORTANT!!!"
But we need to keep this in mind: the Mark won't be secret when people are forced to take it, and no one will be duped into taking it without knowing EXACTLY what it means: rejecting God permanently and swearing allegiance to the Beast. My suggestion is that this is God's way of saying that NO ONE on earth has the wisdom necessary to figure out what it is. But rather than knock ourselves silly over deciphering what it IS, we need to remember WHAT IT MEANS, and pass THAT on.
In Part 10, we will see an angel preach the Gospel, the 144,000, and the Great Harvest.
I bid you all peace.
YBIC,
-Sojo414
