The Counterfeit Trinity of Revelation 13 -- Amillennialism 101

“Who is Like the Beast?”–The Counterfeit Trinity of Revelation 13

Even a cursory reading of the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation reveals three distinct foes of Jesus Christ–the dragon, who stands on the shore of the sea and gives the first beast from the sea his power, throne, and authority (vv. 1-2); and yet another beast, which comes out of the earth (v. 11).  The function of this second beast (called the "false prophet" in Revelation 16:13) is to entice people to worship the first beast. 

The identity of these three figures, along with their overt blasphemy against the most high God means that what is primarily in view is not so much John’s interest in contemporary Roman history and politics (a particular emperor), but that John's vision depicts another battle in the on-going war between the two seeds (Christ and the Antichrist), in this case, the godless character of Roman rule and the empire's on-going persecution of Christians.

What is recorded in Revelation 13 reflects the fact that a dramatic turning point in the history of redemption has already taken place with the coming of Jesus Christ.  Through our Lord’s death and resurrection, the dragon has already been decisively defeated by the Messiah (cf. Colossians 2:15).  Although our salvation has been secured through Christ’s death upon the cross, and through his resurrection from the dead, the dragon is enraged by his defeat and consequently wages war upon the saints (Revelation 13:7) because he knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12).

The Book of Revelation, therefore, depicts an already defeated foe waging his last desperate efforts in a war he knows he has already lost.  In this final attempt to escape his inevitable fate, the dragon now enlists the aid of two beasts to do his bidding, one from the sea (Revelation 13:1-10) and one from the land (Revelation 13:11-18).  While the final outcome is never in doubt, the particular circumstances which bring us to the climatic end of redemptive history have long fascinated God’s people.

Critical to understanding John’s vision in Revelation 13 is his statement that the first beast has “ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name (v. 1).”  This beast “resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion.  The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.”  This immediately harkens any reader who was familiar with the Old Testament back to Daniel’s vision of a great beast in Daniel 7:7, who is ultimately slain (Daniel 7:11) and who is conquered by the son of man and his everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:13-14).  Not only does the beast of John’s vision possess military power second to none– “Who is like the beast?  Who can make war against him?” (v. 4a)–but when “one of the heads of the beast seemed to have suffered a fatal wound, the fatal wound had been healed.  The whole world was astonished and followed the beast (v. 3).”

This obvious parody of Christ’s resurrection (cf. H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John, Macmillian, 1907, lxxxiv), coupled with the military prowess and deceptive ways of the beast, gives the dragon exactly what he craves.  “Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast (v. 4b).”  Not only did men worship Satan because of the might of the beast, “they also worshiped the beast.”  Clearly, then, what is in view is a state (government) which is empowered by Satan, and which claims divine rights and prerogatives for itself.  Bauckham is quite correct when he calls this a “deification of power,” in which military power (perhaps we could add economic power as well) masks the inevitability of the beast’s destruction by Christ and his kingdom (Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy, 451).

The overtly antichristian nature of this reign of this beast can be seen in what follows.  “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months,” the forty-two months most likely a reference to the inter-advental age (Beale, The Book of Revelation, 695; Sweet, Revelation, 210-211).  Taken from Daniel 7:25b (and from Daniel 12:7), this same period of time appears in the preceding chapters of the Book of Revelation.  In Revelation 11:2-3, the Gentiles are said to trample the holy city (the church–i.e., the dwelling place of God in the new covenant–cf. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 570) for forty-two months, and for 1,260 days.  This is the same time period in which the two witnesses proclaim the gospel (Revelation 11:3).  In Revelation 12:6, John refers to the time of the protection of the woman in the wilderness (the church) as spanning 1,260 days, and then again later as “a time, times, and half a time” (v. 14).  As Beale points out, these are all references to the same period of time, indicating that the manifestation of the beast likewise “spans the time from Christ’s death and resurrection to the culmination of history”(Beale, The Book of Revelation, 695). 

This means that the beast’s efforts to oppose the gospel extends from the time of the Neronian persecution into the present, and will continue until the end of the age, when the beast is destroyed by Jesus Christ at his second advent (Revelation 20:10).

In Revelation 13, we read that the beast “opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven (v. 6).”  This is a vision of a government which not only takes divine rights and prerogatives unto itself (i.e. worship), but this government and its leaders speak great blasphemies against Christ and his kingdom.  This can be seen in the fact that the beast wears crowns with blasphemous names, thereby assuming the prerogatives of deity.  This imagery is quite significant in helping us to understand the beast’s identity.  When coupled to the obvious reference to a counterfeit Trinity (the dragon, a the first beast, and a second beast who is the false prophet), what is in view is a satanic parody of the Truine God, as well as a satanic parody of our redemption (the death and burial, the resurrection and the parousia of Christ), when the beast is killed, and then comes back to life to begin its reign of terror all over again (Beale, The Book of Revelation, 687-694; Caird, The Revelation of St. John, 161-166; Sweet, Revelation, 206-209).  

John’s point is that when empowered by the dragon, the state oversteps its bounds and deifies itself and/or its leader.  As Caird puts it, “all political power is the gift of God; but when men deify the state, either directly by a religious cult or indirectly by demanding for it the total loyalty and obedience that is due to God alone, it ceases to be human and becomes bestial” (Caird, The Revelation of St. John, 162).  What is in view then is primarily an anti-christian power, centered in the seat of government, using the resources of that government against Christ’s church in an effort to thwart the preaching of the gospel.

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For more information, Click here: Riddleblog - Man of Sin - Uncovering the Truth About Antichrist

Politics Trumps Theology and Other Stuff from the Web

John Hagee once called the Roman church "the great whore." He also called the Roman church "apostate." But now that he's endorsed John McCain, Hagee is retracting all the mean things he said about the Roman church. The first and greatest evangelical political commandment is this: "Use your influence to get the right man elected." And the second is like it. "If it will help, apologize for all of the offensive things you said beforehand, even if those offensive things are truths deeply held." Click here: Pastor apologizes for anti-Catholic remarks

Check out the introduction to the Gospel of Luke in the new ESV Study Bible! This should be a great tool. (Coming in October--h.t. to Justin Taylor) Click here: http://www.esvstudybible.org/images/excerpt-luke-intro.pdf.

Lee Irons has posted an amazing video of old folks getting "jiggy with it" during the liturgy at the church of "What's Happening Now."   There is liturgical dance, there are paper mache giants, and you can almost hear them chant "great is Diana of the Ephesians!"  Amazing what happens in churches which don't see any use for the gospel.  Click here: The Upper Register Blog » Blog Archive » Mainline madness

Finally, with the new Indiana Jones movie soon to be released, this news release cannot be a mere coincidence. Archaeologist Helmut Ziegert from the University of Hamburg, claims to have found the remains of the 10th century BC palace of the Queen of Sheba, complete with an altar which once held the long-lost Ark of the Covenant.   Click here: Lost ark 'discovered in Ethiopia' - Telegraph

An Inheritance to Israel -- Joshua 10:28-11:23

The Fourteenth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Joshua 

The Gibeonites made a very wise decision.  They heard all about what YHWH, the true and living God, had done to Israel’s enemies.  The Gibeonites knew that it was YHWH’s intention to cast them from Canaan.  In an act of self-preservation, the Gibeonites sought to make a peace-treaty with Israel before their people (the Hivites) were completely wiped out.  But the four kings who followed Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, chose poorly.  As recounted in the 10th chapter of Joshua, God gave Israel an amazing victory over these five Amorite kings who banded together and attacked the Gibeonites because they dared enter into a covenant with Israel.  Throughout Joshua’s account of the pitched battle covering more than twenty miles, which resulted in the total destruction of all those who rejected the true and living God, God is giving us a sneak preview of Christ’s second advent and that final day yet to come, when the kings of the earth once again hide in caves to avoid the glory of the Lamb.  Israel’s conquest of Canaan is a graphic picture of the day of final judgment.  But it is also a picture of our Sabbath rest, when we receive our glorious heavenly inheritance, the theme of our text.

We return to our series on the Book of Joshua and the account of Israel’s conquest of the land of promise.  We have made our way through the first twenty-seven verses of Joshua 10.  We will make our way through the balance of chapter 10 and all of chapter 11.  By the time we come to the end of this section of the narrative, we will read that “Joshua took the whole land,” including both the southern and the northern portions of Canaan.  Israel will receive the promised inheritance.  And God will keep his covenant promises to his people.  At long last, the people of Israel will have blessed rest.

Before the people of Israel can receive the promised inheritance, the Canaanites must be wiped out as YHWH commanded.  As we saw in the first part of chapter 10, YHWH had told Joshua not to fear these five kings nor any of the Canaanites–despite the ferocity of their armies–because YHWH would give them all into Joshua’s hands.  When the combined Amorite army surrounded the Gibeonites (their former allies), Joshua led Israel’s army (several hundred thousand strong) in a daring night march, catching the Amorite forces surrounding Gibeon by complete surprise.  The army of Israel then attacked and drove the fleeing Amorites some twenty miles toward the city of Makkedah.  Having been totally routed by the armies of Israel, the Amorites then fell victim to a massive hailstorm sent by God which killed more Amorite soldiers than the Israelis had killed.  It was a dramatic victory for Israel and after this remarkable day, no one in Canaan would ever remember Israel’s embarrassing defeat at Ai.

When the pitched battle between the armies of Israel and the five Amorite kings finally ended at Makkedah–more than twenty miles from where it started at Gibeon–the five kings hid in a cave.  But they were quickly caught by Joshua’s men, subjected to having their captor’s heels placed on their necks, put to death and their bodies hung on trees, and then buried in the same cave in which they had hidden.  While the first phase of the battle was now over, Joshua must press ahead to destroy seven important Canaanite cities to the south–securing that flank–before engaging yet another large Canaanite coalition to the north.  This is why this period of biblical history is known as the Conquest.  YHWH will fight for his people and the army of Israel will conquer all of Canaan in a bloody and relentless campaign.

To read the rest of the sermon, click here  

Confusing the Two Kingdoms and Other Stuff Found on the Web

It is bad enough that many preachers have never even heard of a distinction between the  "two kingdoms."  Now that election season is upon us, here's a group of tax-crusaders urging preachers to "preach" about politics in open defiance of current IRS policy prohibiting such things.  I hate the IRS as much as the next guy, but since I fear God rather than men, I'll preach the law and the gospel, and let God take care of his world, including who becomes the next president of the United States.  Never thought I'd side with tax-collectors . . .   Click here: Pastors Urged to Preach About Politics, in Hopes of Toppling IRS Ban - America’s Election HQ

OK, cynic that I am, my question is, "how does the Pope know this to be true?"  Click here: Pope: Sex can become 'like a drug' - CNN.com

I do like it, however, when the Roman church actually disciplines its erring members!  I wish the archbishops of New York, Washington DC, and Boston, had the guts to do this with a few politicians named Kennedy, Pelosi, and Guliani.   Click here: RNS Feature: "Archbishop tells Kansas governor not to take Communion"

Dottie Rambo has been killed in a bus crash--the gospel singer, not John Rambo's mother (or girl-friend, or wife, or whatever).  Her bus hit a freeway embankment in Missouri, probably due to the recent severe storms.  I'm not a fan by any stretch, but we sure sold a lot of her records back in the day when I owned a Christian bookstore.  Click here: Gospel Legend Dottie Rambo Dies in Bus Accident

Ken Samples' Latest Academy Lecture Posted

The audio from Ken Samples' most recent Academy lecture from his series, "A Little Lower Than the Angels:  The Christian View of Man - Part VI," has been posted on the Christ Reformed website (www.christreformed.org).

Here's the MP3 version -- http://links.christreformed.org/realaudio/A20080509-ViewOfMan.mp3

Here's the streaming version -- http://links.christreformed.org/real/20080509.m3u

Who Said That?

"Teachings that pointed the way beyond the dysfunction of the human mind, the way out of the collective insanity, were distorted and became themselves part of the insanity.  And so religions, to a large extent, became divisive rather than unifying forces. Instead of bringing about an ending of violence and hatred through a realization of the fundamental oneness of all life, they brought more violence and hatred, more divisions between people as well as between different religions and even within the same religion."

OK, who said that?  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please, no google searches! 

Update on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 04:24PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This quote comes from Eckhart Tolle's book -- "A New Earth 2005."  Tolle is Oprah's latest new age guru.

A Sermon for Pentecost

 
A Sermon for Pentecost.   http://links.christreformed.org/realaudio/KR20080511-WhenHeComes.mp3

Helpful Scripture Lists and Other News from Around the Web

Thanks to Nathan Pitchford, who sends along this link to a free download (pdf) of his "Categorized Scripture List" dealing with the people of God.  This list is taken from the ESV, and is very helpful for those reconsidering their dispensationalism.  Click here: http://www.monergismbooks.com/pdfs/pog_003.pdf . 

For a mere $3.95 this same material can also be purchased in an attractive booklet from our friends @ monergism.com.   Click here: What the Bible Says about THE PEOPLE OF GOD :: Booklets & Tracts :: Monergism Books.

Nathan has another very helpful list of Scriptures dealing with the doctrines of grace.  It can be found here:  Click here: What the Bible Says about THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE :: Booklets & Tracts :: Monergism Books

How about Jihad by lawsuit?  A successful business owner in the UK is being sued because she won't allow an employee in her "alternative" hair-salon to wear her Muslim headscarf.  Of course, the costs from the lawsuit will probably put her out of business.   Click here: Pajamas Media » Pig Tales, Pigtails, and Islamism

The contentless (or theologically liberal) Church of England is losing members so fast that by 2035, there will be more Muslims in the UK than Christians.  I'm surprised it will take that long.   Click here: Practising Muslims 'will outnumber Christians by 2035' - Telegraph

Finally, how would you like to have this modern day Noah living next door?  Lets just hope mated pairs of critters don't start showing up!  Click here: 'Ark' Still Awash With Unanswered Questions
 

Tonight's Academy Class

Ken Samples continues his series "A Little Lower than the Angels" -- A Christian view of man.

The lecture will be held @ Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, the lecture is free of charge, and begins @ 7:30PM.  For more information, Click here: Christ Reformed Info - Schedule of Academy Classes and Author's Forums.

The Canons of Dort, The First Head of Doctrine, Rejection of Errors, Paragraph Four

Synod rejects the error of those . . . 

IV Who teach that in election to faith a prerequisite condition is that man should rightly use the light of nature, be upright, unassuming, humble, and disposed to eternal life, as though election depended to some extent on these factors.

For this smacks of Pelagius, and it clearly calls into question the words of the apostle: We lived at one time in the passions of our flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, made us alive with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages we might show the surpassing riches of his grace, according to his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith (and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God) not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:3-9).

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The fourth error to be rejected is very popular today.  This is the idea that God elects those who, through natural ability and spiritual insight, place themselves in a position to receive grace from God.  This, of course, is utterly Pelagian, and amounts to an outright denial of sola gratia (grace alone).  It also denies the biblical teaching about election as set forth in articles one through nineteen of the Canons. 

In the Pelagian scheme, grace is merely incidental to our salvation.  Grace is understood as the communication of right information about what God requires of us, so that the creature can do (using their natural ability) what is necessary to be saved.  This road is paved with human ability, and inevitably leads to the dead-end of works-righteousness.  

Unfortunately, this very flawed idea is all-too common in American Evangelicalism.  In large measure, it was bequeathed to us by one Charles Grandison Finney, who wrote in his Systematic Theology, “Regeneration consists in the sinner changing his ultimate choice, intention, preference; or in changing from selfishness to love and benevolence; or, in other words, in turning from the supreme choice of self-gratification, to the supreme love of God and the equal love of his neighbor.  Of course the subject of regeneration must be an agent in the work” [Systematic Theology, p. 224]. 

This is simply amazing!  If we jiggle the lever in the right way, and use the right means, we don’t even need the grace of God to be saved.  According to Finney, even after the Fall, we still possess sufficient natural ability to do what God requires of us.   We must be agents and subjects in this work.

The logical consequence of this is that our salvation does not at all depend upon God.  Rather, it depends upon us.  As the Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield once remarked in response to Finney, this is not theology at all, this is ethics.  As Warfield put it, “we said that God might be eliminated entirely from Finney’s ethical theory without injury to it: are we not prepared to now say that [God] might be eliminated from it with some advantage to it.”  Sad, but true.

The denial that our salvation begins in God with his gracious decree of election leads to a host of errors and skewed practices.  Finney is the father of American Revivalism, characterized by the frontier tent-meeting and the sawdust trail.  Finney’s revivalist legacy is most clearly seen today in the countless stadiums filled with people being urged to “let God” do this, that, or the other.  Finney is also the father of the alter call and the “evangelistic meeting” which takes place apart from the normal preaching and sacramental ministry of the local church.  It was the stress upon the “new measures,” as Finney called them, that largely served to displace the sacramental and preaching ministry of the church, for the technique-oriented evangelism of modern America.  

In fact, it could be argued that the church growth movement--especially those forms which seek to entice so-called “seekers” to church by removing those things from the church service which offend them (in other words, anything distinctly Christian)--can be traced back to Finney’s new measures.  Now, however, the "new measures" come to us couched in the language of marketing and sales, target groups and demographics.  Whether it be Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, or even Billy Graham, there is no doubt that one branch of each of their respective intellectual family trees, traces back to Charles Finney.  And even if other branches in that same family tree can be traced back to Protestant forebears, these historic Protestant traits are now most certainly recessive.  No doubt, Finney’s theological family tree and familial characteristics now dominate much of the American church.

Again, we need to remind ourselves that the Bible (summarized by the Canons) does not approach this subject from the perspective that everyone is entitled to a chance at heaven, and already possesses the natural ability to get there, if only they will.  The Scriptures do not begin with human freedom, as the Pelagian argues.  The Scriptures begin with the fall of Adam into sin, and the consequences of that event upon the entirety of the human race.  To put in Dwight Moody's terms, this means that we lost our vote and our freedom in the Fall!  And because the entire human race fell with Adam, we are everything that the Scriptures say about us--dead in sin, unwilling and unable to come to Christ through the mere exercise of our will.

Therefore, we must begin this discusison where the Bible does–with the fact of human sinfulness, and with the idea clearly in our minds that no one deserves to go to heaven, and that not one of us can do anything to get there.  To start with the presupposition that unless we have free will to choose God whenever we wish, or else Christianity (and by implication - God) would not be fair, we miss the point.  God does not owe sinners anything.  And if we are thinking this way, we have imbibed way too deeply from our democratic and egalatarian culture.  We are not approaching things, as we should, from the perspective on human nature given us in the Holy Scriptures.

As we have said repeatedly throughout this series, the degree to which we argue that we contribute something to our salvation is the degree to which we deny sola gratia.  It was Charles Spurgeon who said, “he that thinks lightly of sin, thinks lightly of the savior.” 

It is really very simple.  Either God saves sinners who are dead in sin through his sovereign election, calling them forth from the grave when they could contribute nothing, or else sinners have something good within them is that not somehow tainted, corrupted, polluted our damaged by the fall.  As we have seen, the Scriptures teach the former rather than the latter.  To add anything we do to grace alone, is to deny grace alone!  You cannot have it either way. 

As Calvin puts in the Institutes, “Whatever mixture men study to add from the power of free-will to the grace of God, is only a corruption of it; just as if anyone should dilute good wine with dirty or bitter water.”  Since we are sinful from head to toe, from hair to toenail, whatever our contribution we might add to God’s grace, only can serve to pollute, not to activate the grace of God! 

And so when we look to as answers for questions like, “Why does God save this one rather than that one?” we do well to do as Canons remind us,  recall to mind the words of the apostle Paul recorded in Ephesians 2:1-10: 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It really is that simple.  God saves sinners.  God does not tell sinners what to do so that they can save themselves.