Revelation 13: The Beast from Earth

[seekeroftruth]

Revelation 13:11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.​

e. Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number

OK... the first beast was given its authority by Satan. This beast gets its authority from the first beast.

It seems to be like "the Lamb" but it's not. It's a false profit.

On top of that.... it does magic... and that would appeal to a lot of people.

The easy English commentary says this.

The false prophet made an order that all people must accept a mark.​

Each person must have the mark either on the right hand or on the front of the head. It did not matter who they were. Every person must have the mark.

The mark was the name of Antichrist or the number of that name. Sometimes people used numbers instead of letters for a name. This method was called ‘gematria’. We do not know how they calculated a name. A number was equal to the name of Antichrist. That number was the mark.

Any people who did not have that mark could not trade. They could not buy from the shops. They could not sell anything. Normal life would not be possible for them.

The only people who refused to have the mark were those who trusted God. They would rather die than have the mark of Antichrist. They remained loyal to Christ even if they had to die for it.

The mark showed that the person trusted Antichrist rather than Christ.

The number of the name of the person is 666. This seems to be a puzzle. The number has a meaning. And that meaning is the name of the beast. That beast means the man called Antichrist. An intelligent person should calculate what his real name is. He should work out the name from the number.

Perhaps one day an intelligent person will be able to find the answer. We do not yet know who the Antichrist will be.

In the first letter of John, we read this. ‘You have heard that the Antichrist is coming. Even now many antichrists have come’ (1 John 2:18). Before the Antichrist comes, there will be many antichrists. Some had already come at the time when John was writing. There have been many antichrists since then. Some are working in the world today. They are people who oppose Christ. They try to destroy all that Christ has done. They are the enemies of the church and of Christians. The antichrists have the same evil purpose as we will see in the Antichrist. They hate the Lord Jesus Christ. They hate all those who belong to him.


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[happyazz]

All of that gibberish is how you were brain washed to intrepid it.

 

[littlelady]

All of that gibberish is how you were brain washed to intrepid it.

Huh? Intrepid is an interesting word you used, but did you mean interpret?

I just looked up the definition of intrepid. It's fittin'! Sorry, I misinterpreted your post. You support hc, too! She has been through more than most of us will ever know. I am sure she appreciates your support in what she believes.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrepid

 

[seekeroftruth]

All of that gibberish is how you were brain washed to intrepid it.

I put you on my prayer list happyazz. After going back to read some of your posts I see that you are missing something that only Jesus can provide for you.

I was watching a classic Billy Graham last night. He was talking about the inner peace that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can bring. I pray that you will know that peace one day soon.

You seem to be a very sad person.... jabbing at life instead of enjoying it.... I pray for peace for you.



Oh... and I also pray that you will one day be capable of understanding what is in the Bible. I know what it's like to read the verses and only see gibberish.... it's horrible.... I pray for you....

 

[TheLibertonian]

Time for a history lesson.

In 1844 an event known as "The Great Disappointment" occurred. Long story short, a baptist preacher became very popular and proclaimed that the world was going to end, as detailed in the book of revelation, much as you repeatedly do here, pointing out the similarities between the book of revelation and current events, etc. When the fated day came, people treated it as the end of the world. In one instance for a bit of schadenfreude, a man threw himself off the top of a barn at the appointed hour, assuming that the baptist interpretation of the "taking of the faithful" would occur as he fell and he would be able to experience flying before going to heaven.

In a shocking turn of events, the world didn't end. A lot of people gave away their possessions believing the world was about to end. They were quite put out.

In fact, religious scholars (and some secular) throughout history have been proclaiming the end of the world for a long, long, long time. Pre-christianity absolutely, probably pre-history, although that's obviously harder to prove.

The book of Revelations was probably written sometime in the mid 90's. As in 90 C.E./A.D.. It is a book of its time, and its language is vague.

My issue with the fundamentalist viewpoint, well, one of them, is that the bible is never taken as the thing and the whole of the thing. In my opinion, it is not enough to know the words of the bible, you have to understand when those words were written, whom they were written by, and why they were included in the canon.

And ultimately, the fact that you're reading a bible that has had about a dozen books stripped out. The apocryphal was removed from the KJV bible. But that's only in the old testament. The New Testemant in both books is exactly the same, book content wise. You know, the part with Jesus. There are certainly translation differences, since the Catholic bible goes Hebrew -> Probably Greek -> Latin -> English, whereas the KJV goes Hebrew -> Greek-> English.

Also, it's "prophet". Profits is something else, and involves Jesus driving people out of the temple over.