The
mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, Revelation 13:16-17
By Bob W. Lovelace
A respondent has stated that a lot of people are going around preaching 666 on everything. I must say that it does seem that way. I once read about a woman who had these numbers on her license plate. She was greatly distressed over being harassed by those who simply do not understand the scope of the book of Revelation and immediate context of chapter 13. Our respondent states, “They are looking for the mark even on the forehead of others,” and he asked that I write in some detail on this as well as on the “antichrists.” For our study on the antichrists please go to the Article Directory of our web site: http://www.cybertrails.com/churchofchrist or click A Study Of The Antichrists .
The Great Enemies of the Church
The benefit of identifying the great enemies of the church of Christ, as presented by John in the Revelation, is seen in that it puts the “mark” where it belongs and in its proper time frame. Primarily there are three enemies in the Revelation. We shall point them out as they appear in proper succession as Satan seeks to destroy Christ’s church.
The Devil
First, there is the Devil. ( After reading this article, should you desire to learn more about the Devil you will find some very important things men should learn about Satan at our article titled, Reply to a response on "Questions on Witchcraft" . Here, though, in Revelation Satan is introduced as a great, fiery red dragon (Revelation 12:2) who because of his great fury against Christ is cast out of heaven with his angels. Rev. 12:9 tells us after a war in heaven with Michael and his angels, “... the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” In Rev. 12:17 there is a reference to christians in the first century as "those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Satan goes to make war with them! Some of these Christians withstood Satan even to the point of death. These were martyrs who were faithful unto death (see Rev. 2:10). This means that they gave their lives for the gospel’s sake. Rev. 12:12 says, “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
One important thing that most miss at the very beginning of the Revelation is John's statement as to when the things he writes of will come to pass. Notice that he is showing Christians "things which must shortly come to pass." (Rev. 1:1) And in verse three he says, "the time is at hand." Revelation 1:3 says, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." It has always amazed me as to how so many can discuss this whole book without ever referring to this fundamental guideline. Also, at the end of the book of Revelation we find the same important point. God had shown things which must shortly take place! Rev. 22:6 says, "And he said to me, 'These words are faithful and true'; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must shortly take place."
With regard to Christians who had
given their lives for the gospel of Christ, one might refer back to Revelation
6:11-12. Here the souls of the christians
who had become martyrs are seen in Heaven under the altar that is before the
throne of God (
Two Other Powerful Enemies: the Beast of the
Sea; the Beast of the Earth
We find that Satan has help. He is not the only enemy defined in this onslaught to destroy souls and Christ’s church upon earth. In Revelation chapter 13 there are two powerful allies who join with the Devil, the great dragon. The first is the “beast rising up out of the sea” (Rev. 13:1). The other is another beast depicted as “coming up out of the earth” (Rev. 13:11).
The beast of the sea
The beast of sea in chapter 13
represents emperors of
The beast of the earth
The false prophet is depicted as the beast of the earth in Revelation 13:11. (He is identified as such in Rev. 19:20) His work with the other two enemies, Satan and the emperors, is spelled out. He possesses great power and causes the earth to worship the former beast, i.e. the beast of the sea (the emperor). Rev. 13:11-15, "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. [12] And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. [13] And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, [14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. [15] And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." The beast of the earth we are told in Rev. 19:20 is "the false prophet." Rev. 19:20 says, "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Thus the book continues until, as we will see, these enemies are overthrown and cast into a lake of fire. The beast of the earth, i.e. “the false prophet” (Rev. 19:20), deceives those of the Empire with the intent that they must worship the image of the beast of the sea. This is emperor worship! Those who refuse are to be killed.
The
Conflict comes to a close and Jesus is Triumphant!
These “three” which I have just
described form an alliance as Satan works to destroy Christ's church. The great
battle that has been building up between these forces of evil and those of God
comes to a head in Revelation chapter19. The battle is depicted in Rev. 16:16
as coming together at a place called Armageddon. “And he gathered them together
into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Rev. 16:16). People
are fascinated with the word HarMagedon: the word Har (meaning "mountain") is the first part of the
word "Armageddon" or "HarMagedon."
The second part, Magedon, is from
Dear reader, the
By this particular number being
used those to whom John wrote would recognize the “man” John has in mind. Yes, they would recognize
him! That doesn't mean necessarily that you and I today can look back and say
for sure which one or ones John had in mind. When you compare “Here is wisdom”
(
John identifies here the seven
mountains of
The ten horns (Rev. 17:12) are ten
kings who, being kings, will receive authority "with the beast." One
explanation is this describes client kings who give provincial support to the
emperor. Rev. 17:13 tells us that they give their power and authority to the
beast. And as we noted throughout, Rev. 17:14 says “These shall make war with
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King
of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” In
Rev. 17:15 the “waters” represent all the peoples and nations over which
The
Kingdom of Christ was Established during the days of the Roman Kings
The
After Jesus ascended into Heaven, when the day of Pentecost came as recorded in Acts chapter 2, the message of the Apostles was that Jesus, the Messiah, whom they had crucified had been raised up to set on His throne! (read Acts 2: 4, 29-36) On that day Jews from over the empire assembled and heard the Gospel preached (Acts 2: 5-11). Luke tells us when they heard this message, Acts 2:37-40, "…they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" In answer to the question as to what they should do to be saved Peter said unto them, Acts 2:38, "… Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [39] For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. [40] And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation."
The simple message of the Bible is
hear, believe and obey. Prior to His ascension into Heaven Jesus had given his
apostles the commission to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to whole creation (both Jew and Gentile). Before He ascended
up He said to them, Mark 16:15-16, "… Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature. [16] He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." The
proper response to hearing the Gospel of Christ preached is recorded in Acts
2:41-42, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the
same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. [42] And they
continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Those thus added by the Lord
constituted His church (Acts
Dear reader, we, the Valley