THE ANTICHRIST, THE IMAGE, AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST

THE ANTICHRIST, THE IMAGE, AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST

One of the major events to occur just before the return of Christ as Conquering King is the appear­ance of an indi­vid­ual called the Antichrist. Most peo­ple who have stud­ied the per­son­al­i­ty and deeds of this indi­vid­ual have total­ly mis­un­der­stood the essen­tial fac­tors asso­ci­at­ed with this person.

Many view the Antichrist, the image, the mark of the Beast, and the Beast’s alliance of nations as things that will be eas­i­ly rec­og­nized as evil and sin­is­ter. The real­i­ty is that the Antichrist and his reli­gious sys­tem of gov­ern­ment will look like the great­est and most won­der­ful reli­gious, polit­i­cal, and eco­nom­ic sys­tem the world has ever seen. The leader of this alliance of nations will appear as a dynam­ic and charis­mat­ic indi­vid­ual who will lead his alliance of nations and the world into a time of unpar­al­leled peace and prosperity.

A Great Deception

Jesus said that the decep­tion sur­round­ing the Antichrist will be so clever that only the elect of God will rec­og­nize him and under­stand his true intent and purpose:

“And they that dwell on the earth shall won­der, whose names have not been writ­ten in the book of life from the foun­da­tion of the world, see­ing the beast, that it was a thing, and is not and yet now is” (Rev.17:8 Para.). See also Dan.12:9 – 10; Rev.1:1 – 8.

All oth­ers on earth will be deceived into think­ing that this per­son is indeed a sav­ior of human­i­ty. Therefore, it is extreme­ly impor­tant to be able to rec­og­nize some of the char­ac­ter­is­tics and pow­ers that this per­son may exhib­it as he impos­es his will on the world. One must real­ize that deceived peo­ple do not know that they are deceived, and that a per­son will remain deceived unless they dili­gent­ly and hon­est­ly put forth the effort to search for and accept truth. No one on earth is immune to being deceived or caus­ing decep­tion. In fact, the Bible says that the whole world has been deceived except for the elect of God. The truth is that, there is not a per­son alive who knows every bib­li­cal truth in exact detail. Therefore, no one can total­ly rely upon anoth­er per­son for their under­stand­ing of God’s word. This is why the elect are instruct­ed to study to show them­selves approved before God and to work out their own sal­va­tion in fear and trem­bling. See 2.Tim.2:14 – 16; Eph.2:12 – 13.

Who is the Antichrist?

First let us remove some of the mys­tique about the name Antichrist. Simply put the Antichrist is an indi­vid­ual who is against the true Christ and/​or is attempt­ing to pass him­self off as the true Christ. In either case this indi­vid­ual is in oppo­si­tion to God the Father and Jesus Christ and their teach­ings. The Antichrist is the same dynam­ic and charis­mat­ic indi­vid­ual described else­where in the Bible as the Beast who is the leader of a pow­er­ful reli­gious gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem that con­trols an alliance of nations called the Beast. The Antichrist is the indi­vid­ual who has absolute author­i­ty, pow­er, and con­trol over all reli­gious, philo­soph­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and polit­i­cal aspects of peo­ple who live under his control.

It is very impor­tant to under­stand that this indi­vid­ual called the Antichrist and the Beast is not Satan the Devil, but is in Satan’s ser­vice and is a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Satan’s demon­ic spir­i­tu­al gov­ern­ment, just like the False Prophet (Rev.16:13; 20:10). The Bible clear­ly states that Satan the Devil is a mas­ter at the art of decep­tion: “He is that old ser­pent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). He has been a liar from the very begin­ning (Jn.8:44). The Antichrist is one of his most cleaver decep­tions of all time, which will deceive all but the elect of God.

Signs and Miracles

The Antichrist, who is the leader of the alliance of nations called the Beast, will ascend to pow­er accom­pa­nied by super­nat­ur­al signs and mir­a­cles and will be accept­ed as a god in the flesh by most peo­ple on earth. Notice what Jesus says about the false christs and prophets who will pre­cede his arrival as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Matthew 24:23 – 31 Paraphrased

“Then if any­one says to you, Behold, here is the Christ; or, Here he is! Do not believe it. For false christs will rise up, and false prophets. And they will give great signs and won­ders, so as to lead astray, if pos­si­ble, even the elect. Behold, I tell you before­hand. Then if they say to you, Behold, he is in the wilder­ness; do not go out. Behold, he is in the inner rooms; do not believe” (vs.23 – 26). See also Mk.13:21 – 22.

Throughout the cen­turies, many false Messiahs and false prophets have come and gone. During the time of trou­ble, at the end of the age, reli­gious decep­tion will be so intense that the only ones who will not be deceived are the elect of God who dili­gent­ly fol­low the true God. In the fol­low­ing scrip­tures Jesus describes the major events that will accom­pa­ny his arrival on earth. Jesus says that his return will not be a silent or incon­spic­u­ous occur­rence; it will be as light­ning, which is always accom­pa­nied by a loud thun­der­ous noise:

“For as light­ing comes out of the east and shines as far as the west so also will be the com­ing of the Son of man” (v27).

Jesus also describes the cat­a­clysmic celes­tial events that will take place before his return and the gath­er­ing of the elect:

“And imme­di­ate­ly after the afflic­tion of those days the sun will be dark­ened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from the heav­en, and the pow­ers of the heav­ens will be shak­en. And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in the heav­ens. And then all the tribes of the land will wail. And they will see the Son of man com­ing on the clouds of heav­en with pow­er and much glo­ry. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trum­pet, and they will gath­er his elect from the four winds; from one end of the heav­ens to the oth­er” (vs.29 – 31).

The signs that pre­cede Christ’s return are awe­some events that will occur in the heav­ens. The sun will become dark (Mk.13:24 – 26), the moon will not reflect sun­light to the earth, and the stars (Greek ‘aster’) will be moved out of their orbits. These signs will be appar­ent to every­one on earth. When Jesus returns in all his glo­ry and pow­er, his very pres­ence will dis­rupt the phys­i­cal uni­verse. See Ex.19:16 – 18; 24:17; Isa.13:9 – 13; 24:1 – 5; Joel 2:10 – 12, 30; Hag.2:6 – 7.

Every per­son alive on earth at the time of Christ’s return will be aware of these events that will occur in the heav­ens. Most peo­ple will be ter­ri­fied and fear for their lives. Some will be ter­ri­fied because they know that Christ is return­ing to destroy them, and oth­ers will be in fear because they think that the world is com­ing to an end. The mag­ni­tude of the events that will accom­pa­ny Christ’s return will be far from secret or silent; they will be ter­ri­fy­ing! All of the scrip­tures that speak of the appear­ance of the Beast leader and his Beast alliance of nations tell us that he will arrive before the events that pre­cede Christ’s com­ing. He will be alive as Christ pours destruc­tion upon the earth and its inhab­i­tants for their great wicked­ness and rebel­lion against God.

John, Peter, and Paul

The apos­tles John, Paul, and Peter warned of teach­ers and prophets who would come teach­ing here­sies and they fore­told that many peo­ple would fol­low these peo­ple and their lies. At the time John, Paul, and Peter were inspired to write their let­ters, most of the elect of God thought that the return of Christ was immi­nent. Because this was not the case, the things these apos­tles said con­cern­ing peo­ple and con­di­tions that would exist just before the return of Christ were most­ly prophetic.

John

At the close of the first age of the church and before he was shown the things that per­tained to the end of the age, the apos­tle John spoke about those who opposed Christ and what he taught about his rela­tion­ship to God the Father and the elect chil­dren of God. As we review what John says about the Antichrist, notice that he says the Spirit of God resid­ing with­in the chil­dren of God will sep­a­rate a child of God from the world, make a child of God sin­less, and reveal those who oppose and reject Christ and the Father:

“Young ones, it is the last time: and as you have heard that the Antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; where­by we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but were not a part of us, if they had been one of us, they would have con­tin­ued with us. But they went out that it should be known that they were not a part of us”(1.Jn.2:18 – 19 Para.).

John speaks of a prophe­cy that those to whom he was writ­ing already knew about. He tells the elect of God that the ful­fill­ment of this prophe­cy was already in progress at that time. He goes on to say that those who were against Christ at that time were nev­er true sons of God, and that they had revealed their true nature and pur­pose by leav­ing the true body of Christ.

“And you have an anoint­ing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I did not write to you because you did not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth” (1.Jn.2:20 – 21 Para.).

John con­firms that those who have the spir­it of God have the knowl­edge and abil­i­ty to dis­cern truth from error in spir­i­tu­al mat­ters, and that those who are liars and deceivers will be known by those who have the spir­it of God with­in them, because the spir­it of God reveals truth. See Jn.14:17, 15:26, 16:12 – 13; 1.Cor.2:12 – 13.

Because the spir­it of God reveals truth, it is extreme­ly impor­tant that each child of God dur­ing the end of this age lis­ten very care­ful­ly to what the spir­it says con­cern­ing the Antichrist and his reli­gion and gov­ern­men­tal system.

Who is a Liar?

Those who oppose Christ do not teach the truth con­cern­ing Jesus as the Creator God and Savior of human­i­ty. These peo­ple also deny the indi­vid­u­al­i­ty of the Father and the Son and they are liars in the eyes of God. The scrip­tures clear­ly show that the Antichrist will not teach the truth of God, but he will teach a lie:

“Who is the liar, but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son. Every one that denies the Son does not have the Father. The one who con­fess­es the Son, tru­ly has the Father also” (1.Jn.2:22 – 23 Para.).

The tru­ly con­vert­ed of the first age of the church under­stood exact­ly what John was say­ing con­cern­ing the Father, Christ, and the spir­it of God, because they were taught the mys­ter­ies con­cern­ing the plan of God by the apos­tles. However, this knowl­edge was lost when the ear­ly church dis­ap­peared short­ly after the apos­tle John’s death. See our study papers about the spir­it of God and Christ that resides with­in the elect of God and our stud­ies con­cern­ing the demise of the ear­ly church.

The Seed

“Everyone being begot­ten of God [the Father] does not sin, because his [the Father’s] seed [spir­it of God] abides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. By this the chil­dren of God and the chil­dren of the Devil are revealed: Everyone fail­ing to prac­tice right­eous­ness or love his broth­er is not of God” (1.Jn.3:9 – 10 Para.).

It is impos­si­ble to under­stand what John is say­ing here, unless one under­stands that the spir­it of God with­in a child of God keeps them in a sin­less con­di­tion before God the Father. As long as a child of God is seek­ing to live a right­eous life and does not will­ful­ly and habit­u­al­ly prac­tice sin, no sin is imput­ed to him. It is this same spir­it of God that reveals to the elect of God who is and who is not of God. One of the major signs of the Antichrist/​Beast is that he is a sin­ner accord­ing to the bib­li­cal def­i­n­i­tion of sin; there­fore, it is nec­es­sary for all who are called of God to ful­ly under­stand what sin is and is not, so that they will not be deceived by the Antichrist or his state reli­gion which is led by the False Prophet.

Good and Evil Spirits

In the first three vers­es of 1. John, chap­ter 4, John speaks of test­ing for evil influ­ence and he shows that a major key in this test­ing process is the under­stand­ing that Christ’s spir­it resides with­in the chil­dren of God:

“Beloved, do not believe every spir­it, but test the spir­its, whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world. By this know the spir­it of God: Every spir­it that acknowl­edges that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God. And every spir­it which does not acknowl­edge that Jesus has come in the flesh is not from God: and this is the antichrist which you heard is com­ing, and now is already in the world” (1.Jn.4:1 – 3 Para.). See also 2.Jn.v.7; Matt.24:4 – 5.

Almost all oppo­si­tion to God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the chil­dren of God comes from the evil influ­ence of spir­it-beings. Therefore, it is extreme­ly impor­tant for God’s chil­dren to be able to dis­cern the dif­fer­ence between a good and an evil spir­i­tu­al influ­ence. John says that a child of God can deter­mine if a spir­it (i.e., a spir­it being or spir­i­tu­al influ­ence) is from God or not. If a spir­it acknowl­edges that Christ has come in the flesh, it is good. If this acknowl­edg­ment is not made, this spir­it or spir­i­tu­al influ­ence is evil and it is in oppo­si­tion to God the Father and Jesus Christ.

On the sur­face it seems that the for­mu­la John gives to deter­mine the char­ac­ter of a spir­it-being or spir­i­tu­al influ­ence is sim­ple and direct, and it is. However, the key to under­stand­ing John’s instruc­tions is to under­stand what he means when he says, “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” Most peo­ple will admit that the per­son Jesus lived and was a reli­gious leader. Some will acknowl­edge that he was a prophet, and some will acknowl­edge him as the prophet­ic Savior of human­i­ty. However, very few tru­ly under­stand or will acknowl­edge him as the Creator God who became the Savior, died, was res­ur­rect­ed, and now lives in the flesh of the chil­dren of God. Another impor­tant iden­ti­fy­ing sign of the Antichrist is that he will not acknowl­edge that Christ has come in the flesh in the same man­ner as the scrip­tures teach.

Peter

“But there were false prophets also among the peo­ple, even as there shall be false teach­ers among you, who shall priv­i­ly bring in damnable here­sies, even deny­ing the Lord that bought them, and bring upon them­selves swift destruc­tion. And many [the major­i­ty of peo­ple] shall fol­low their per­ni­cious ways; by rea­son of whom the way of truth shall be evil spo­ken of” (2.Pet.2:1 – 2 KJV).

There are many things that peo­ple con­sid­er to be truth; how­ev­er, what God reveals as the way of truth is not what most peo­ple believe as truth. It is God’s way of truth that most peo­ple hate and ridicule. A num­ber of prophe­cies tell us that the Antichrist will speak blas­phe­mous things against God and his teachings.

Paul

2. Corinthians 11:3 – 4; 13 – 15

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the ser­pent deceived Eve through his sub­tle­ty, so your minds should be cor­rupt­ed from the sim­plic­i­ty that is in Christ. If any­one comes preach­ing anoth­er Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive anoth­er spir­it [an evil, lying spir­it], which you have not received, or a dif­fer­ent gospel, than the one you accept­ed” (vs.3 – 4 Para.).

During the life­time of the apos­tle Paul, those who opposed Jesus Christ were preach­ing anoth­er Jesus and anoth­er gospel. This same false Jesus and mes­sage is still being preached and taught today. The Antichrist as the leader of the Beast alliance of nations will exist just before Christ’s return and he will pro­mote him­self as a sav­ior of human­i­ty, but he will have his own decep­tive good news mes­sage for humanity.

“For such are false apos­tles, deceit­ful work­ers, trans­form­ing them­selves into the apos­tles of Christ. And no mar­vel; for Satan him­self is trans­formed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his min­is­ters also be trans­formed as min­is­ters of right­eous­ness; whose end shall be accord­ing to their works” (vs.13 – 15 KJV).

Although vers­es 13 – 15 speak of those who are coun­ter­feit min­is­ters of Christ, the same basic con­cepts apply to the Antichrist/​Beast, the False Prophet, and those who are in ser­vice to them as their representatives.

The Man of Sin

2.Thessalonians 2:3 – 11 Paraphrased

“Do not let any­one deceive you in any way: because that day will not come unless there first comes a falling away [depar­ture from the faith], and the man of sin is revealed, who is the son of perdi­tion” (v3).

An inter­est­ing thing about this man of sin is that Paul also calls him the son of perdi­tion. The word trans­lat­ed into English as ‘perdi­tion’ is from the Greek word ‘apoleia’ which refers to an ever­last­ing state of tor­ment in this con­text. The Bible clear­ly shows that wicked humans will have their life ter­mi­nat­ed with fire. No human is going to be tor­ment­ed in the lake of fire for­ev­er; there­fore, the being who inhab­its the phys­i­cal body of the Man of Sin (Son of Perdition) is not human. It is a spir­it-being who will try to deceive peo­ple into believ­ing that he is a god-being.

Deception and Arrogance

“This is the one who oppos­es and exalts him­self over every­thing being called God, or object of wor­ship; and he is to sit in the tem­ple of God, as God; in order to show that he is a god” (v4).

In his arro­gance, this pow­er­ful spir­it-being mas­querad­ing as a human will des­e­crate the tem­ple of the true God in Jerusalem by enter­ing into it and sit­ting there in defi­ance of the true God in order to prove to the world that he is indeed a god, and that the true God is no god.

“Do you not remem­ber, that, I told you these things when I was with you? And now you know the thing hold­ing him [Man of Sin/​Son of Perdition/​Antichrist] back from being revealed. For the mys­tery of law­less­ness already works: only he is hold­ing back [being held back] now, until it comes out of the midst” (vs.5 – 7).

Paul had already talked with them about the Antichrist and told them that this indi­vid­ual was being restrained from com­ing out of the mid­dle of some­thing. The thing that this indi­vid­ual comes out of, accord­ing to visions of Daniel and the apos­tle John, is the alliance of nations sym­bol­ized by the beast that came out of the sea. Therefore, it is very clear that wher­ev­er this pow­er­ful and fierce beast-like alliance of nations is locat­ed in the end of the age, the Antichrist will be there as its supreme leader.

“And then the law­less one [Man of Sin/​Son of Perdition/​Antichrist] will be revealed, whom the Lord will con­sume with the spir­it of his mouth, and he will be brought to noth­ing by the bright­ness of his [Christ’s] com­ing” (v8).

Christ will remove this law­less indi­vid­ual from pow­er when he comes to rule the earth. This is the same evil spir­it men­tioned in Daniel 7:11 who will have his phys­i­cal body destroyed and will be cast into a lake of fire in his spir­it form.

“His [the Antichrist’s] com­ing is accord­ing to the work­ing of Satan with all pow­er and mir­a­cles and lying won­ders, And all deceit of unright­eous­ness of those being lost; because they did not receive the love of the truth in order for them to be saved. And because of this God will send to them, a work­ing of error, for them to believe a lie” (vs.9 – 11).

Based on God’s word, those whom God has called to sal­va­tion should know the dif­fer­ence between good and evil; how­ev­er, many have already been delud­ed by a false Christianity and many will be deceived by Satan’s Antichrist and his reli­gious and polit­i­cal sys­tem of government.

Paul gives a dire warn­ing not to allow one’s love for the truth of God to erode. Make no mis­take, the mes­sage of the Antichrist and Satan’s reli­gious and polit­i­cal sys­tem is not truth; it is great decep­tion designed to destroy one’s oppor­tu­ni­ty to enter the Family and Kingdom of God. His mir­a­cles, signs, and won­ders will not be from the Sovereign God; they will be from Satan the Devil and are designed to deceive humanity.

The major­i­ty of peo­ple will believe the Antichrist’s mes­sage and his great super­nat­ur­al works, think­ing that they are a part of God’s plan for the sal­va­tion of human­i­ty; how­ev­er, just the oppo­site will be true.

Ten Religious Deceptions

It is high­ly like­ly that the Antichrist will come as a sav­ior of human­i­ty and attempt to coun­ter­feit some or all of the things that are proph­e­sied about the com­ing of the true Messiah. Listed below are ten things he may do to attempt to deceive humanity:

1. Demonstrate that he is the prophet­ic descen­dant of King David who is sup­posed to come to rule the world as described in Psalm 2
2. Send a false Elijah to speak of his com­ing (Mal.4:5, 6).
3. Appear to glo­ri­ous­ly return in the flesh after being fatal­ly wounded(Matt.25:31, 32; Acts 1:11; Rev.1:7).
4. Return in the clouds of heav­en accom­pa­nied by oth­er beings (1.Thes.3:13; 2.Thes.1:7).
5. Attempt to make Jerusalem the cap­i­tal of his world-rul­ing gov­ern­ment (Isa.11 & 12).
6. Establish his rule with decep­tive mir­a­cles and won­ders (Psa.69).
7. Attempt to make an alliance of nations out of the mod­ern ten tribes of Israel and the Jewish nation of Israel (Ezk.37).
8. Institute his own inter­pre­ta­tion of the Mosaic Law (Isa.66: 22,23).
9. Proclaim that he has come to bring world pros­per­i­ty (Isa.11;12).
10. Proclaim that he has come to bring world peace (Psa.96;98).

These are all things that would add valid­i­ty to his claims in the reli­gious cir­cles of qua­si-Christians and Jews. The Antichrist may attempt to coun­ter­feit some or all of the real prophet­ic signs of the return of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, in order to deceive these peo­ple and accom­plish his goal of world dom­i­na­tion for his mas­ter Satan the Devil.

Because Satan appears as a glo­ri­ous right­eous angel and his evil ser­vants mim­ic this same false right­eous­ness (2.Cor.11:14 – 15), the appear­ance of the Antichrist will fool those who do not under­stand the true mean­ing of the scrip­tures that speak about the return of Christ and the estab­lish­ment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Because the cen­tral focus of Satan’s plan is to deceive peo­ple into giv­ing their alle­giance and wor­ship to him, his ser­vant the Antichrist will claim to be god in the flesh (2.Thes.2:4). Another ser­vant of Satan, the False Prophet, will force those who are under the con­trol of the Beast’s alliance of nations to wor­ship the Antichrist/​Beast and his image; there­by, they will actu­al­ly be wor­ship­ing Satan the Devil by proxy.

There is lit­tle doubt that on the sur­face Satan’s reli­gious and gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem under the lead­er­ship of the Antichrist and the False Prophet will look very good to most peo­ple. This is why they will be very unhap­py when they see it being destroyed by Jesus Christ (Rev.18:4 – 20).

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE ANTICHRIST

This sec­tion shows a num­ber of ways by which any­one who under­stands the wor­ship sys­tem of the true God will be able to iden­ti­fy the Antichrist and his wor­ship system.

Oppressive Rule and Forced Idolatry

Although Jesus Christ and the elect of God will rule from Jerusalem with a rod of iron and exer­cise judge­ment upon the rebel­lious nations of the world (Rev. 12:5), the Kingdom of God will not be cru­el or oppres­sive, nor will Jesus or those who serve him force any­one to wor­ship God by bow­ing down before an image or rep­re­sen­ta­tion of him­self or God the Father.

God the Father’s Worship System

The scrip­tures clear­ly show that, after Jesus Christ returns, he will estab­lish his Father’s true wor­ship sys­tem. Conversely, the Antichrist and the False Prophet will oppose any attempt of the Jews or any­one else to wor­ship God as instruct­ed under his covenant with nation­al Israel and the elect of God. See Jer.31:30 – 37 and our stud­ies con­cern­ing the var­i­ous covenants and the com­mand­ed obser­vances of God.

In regard to the Father’s wor­ship sys­tem, there are some bib­li­cal facts that will help one to under­stand God’s new agree­ment with nation­al Israel:

The prophe­cies of Ezekiel and Zechariah clear­ly show that, dur­ing Christ’s rule, a tem­ple wor­ship sys­tem with a priest­hood and ani­mal sac­ri­fices will exist in Jerusalem and will be offi­ci­at­ed over by the male descen­dants of Zadok who is descend­ed from Eleazar, Aaron’s third son. See Ezk.40 – 46; Zech.14:16 – 20.

• The sac­ri­fi­cial sys­tem con­tained with­in the agree­ment with nation­al Israel and the rest of human­i­ty will be per­formed in a way that is sim­i­lar to how it was per­formed under the first agree­ment with Israel.
• The com­mand­ed obser­vances and holy con­vo­ca­tions of God will be observed by all the peo­ple on earth.

The Antichrist will do just the oppo­site of what the Creator God promis­es to do when he returns as the Messiah to insti­tute a new agree­ment with nation­al Israel. The Antichrist will stop the Jews from sac­ri­fic­ing at the tem­ple in Jerusalem and will attempt to change and/​or elim­i­nate the com­mand­ed obser­vance and holy con­vo­ca­tions of God.

THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST

In order to under­stand the wor­ship of the image of the Antichrist/​Beast we need to keep in mind that the Antichrist/​Beast and the reli­gious leader (the False Prophet) of the alliance of nations are both ser­vants of Satan the Devil and are both com­mit­ted to the goal of sub­ject­ing all human­i­ty to his absolute control.

The Wounded Head

“And I saw one of its heads as if it had been wound­ed to death; and its fatal wound was healed. And the earth admired the beast. And wor­shiped the drag­on who gave author­i­ty to the beast, say­ing, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with it?” (Rev.13:3 – 4 Para.).

After the Beast alliance of nations has been solid­i­fied, its pow­er base has been estab­lished, and the Antichrist/​Beast has secured his posi­tion of author­i­ty as the undis­put­ed leader of this alliance, some­thing extra­or­di­nary will hap­pen to either this alliance of nations or its leader. One or the oth­er will sus­tain a fatal wound.

The cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the death and res­ur­rec­tion of the alliance of nations or the Antichrist/​Beast will be an incred­i­bly decep­tive event. When peo­ple see this res­ur­rec­tion they will be aston­ished and believe that the Antichrist/​Beast is a god in the flesh.

Editor’s Note:

It is dif­fi­cult at this point in time to deter­mine exact­ly what or who the head in Revelation 13:3 sym­bol­izes, because the heads of the beast rep­re­sent both a sys­tem of gov­ern­ment as well as the evil spir­its who con­trol the sys­tem through indi­vid­u­als. What is impor­tant to rec­og­nize is that an extra­or­di­nary event will occur sur­round­ing the fatal wound of either the Antichrist/​Beast or the Beast’s alliance of nations. When this hap­pens, the leader of the state reli­gion who is the False Prophet will ini­ti­ate and enforce the wor­ship of Satan the Devil (the drag­on) through the Antichrist/​Beast and his sys­tem of government.

A State Religion

“And I saw anoth­er beast com­ing up out of the earth; and it had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a drag­on. And it exe­cutes all the author­i­ty of the first beast before it. And it makes the earth and those dwelling in it to wor­ship the first beast, that was healed of its dead­ly wound” (Rev.13:11 – 12 Para.).

There are a num­ber of impor­tant things revealed in vers­es 11 – 12 con­cern­ing the rela­tion­ship between the Beast alliance of nations, its supreme leader (the Antichrist/​Beast), and its reli­gious leader (the False Prophet):

♦The two horns like a lamb are sym­bol­ic of reli­gious authority.

• Its reli­gious teach­ings and poli­cies are that of Satan the Devil, because it speaks like the dragon.
• The sec­ond beast is sym­bol­ic of an evil state reli­gion and its leader.

Supernatural Power

“And it [the False Prophet] does great signs and even makes fire to come down out of heav­en upon the earth before men ” (Rev.13:13 Para.).

It is impor­tant to under­stand that the False Prophet and the reli­gious sys­tem that he leads will have tremen­dous super­nat­ur­al pow­ers with which to deceive peo­ple and counter the super­nat­ur­al works that the elect of God will be doing as they pro­claim God the Father’s good news message.

“And it [the False Prophet] deceives those dwelling on the earth, because of the signs which were giv­en to it before the beast; say­ing to those on the earth to make an image of the beast who has the wound of the sword, and lived. And it was giv­en author­i­ty to give a spir­it to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could speak, and might cause as many as would not wor­ship the image of the beast to be killed” (Rev.13:14 – 15 Para.).

The False Prophet has an image made that is either sym­bol­ic of the alliance of nations (the beast), its leader (the Beast), or both. This reli­gious leader empow­ers the image so that it has the abil­i­ty to speak. Then, he forces peo­ple to wor­ship it or suf­fer death for dis­obe­di­ence. This enforced wor­ship is rem­i­nis­cent of king Nebuchadnezzar’s forced wor­ship of the image that he had made.

There are many rea­sons why intel­li­gent peo­ple will wor­ship this image. The first is that if any­one does not wor­ship it they will be killed. The sec­ond is that peo­ple will actu­al­ly believe that the image is a god, a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of their god (Antichrist/​Beast), or a method through which they may com­mu­ni­cate with their god (who is real­ly Satan the Devil).

It is inter­est­ing that, when one care­ful­ly reads Daniel 3:1 – 30, it appears that only the lead­ers of the peo­ple were com­pelled to wor­ship Nebuchadnezzar’s image. However, in John’s vision, it seems that every­one under the con­trol of the beast alliance of nations must wor­ship the image.

The Plagues and the Image

“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repent­ed not of the works of their hands, that they should not wor­ship dev­ils, and idols of gold, and sil­ver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which nei­ther can see, nor walk” (Rev.9:20 KJV).

One of the rea­sons that Christ pours out plagues upon human­i­ty is to bring them to the real­iza­tion that they are rebelling against God as they prac­tice their idol wor­ship, and that they must stop this prac­tice and wor­ship the true God.

Anyone who seri­ous­ly stud­ies the Bible should under­stand that the forced wor­ship of the image(s) of the Antichrist/​Beast con­sti­tutes idol­a­try. Upon see­ing or hear­ing of this forced idol­a­try, the elect of God should under­stand that this alliance of nations and its wor­ship sys­tem is indeed the Beast of the books of Daniel and Revelation.

THE MARK AND NAME OF THE BEAST

Many who study the Book of Revelation are over­ly con­cerned with know­ing exact­ly what the mark and the name of the Beast is and how one will receive this mark and name. However, this infor­ma­tion is not essen­tial for sal­va­tion from eter­nal death. It real­ly does not mat­ter whether the mark or name is a com­put­er chip implant, a tat­too, or some oth­er thing. The impor­tant thing is to be able to rec­og­nize the Antichrist/​Beast and his state reli­gion and gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem for what it is.

It must be clear­ly under­stood that those who are called of God can­not accept the mark or give their alle­giance to the Beast so that they can par­tic­i­pate in the eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits of the Beast sys­tem, because this autho­riza­tion requires a reli­gious com­mit­ment to wor­ship the image of the Beast.

THE MARK, NAME, AND NUMBER

“And the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the freemen and the slaves, allow it [the Antichrist’s state reli­gion] to give them a mark on their right hand, or on their fore­heads: so that none can buy or sell, except they have the mark, or the name of the beast, or the num­ber of its name. Here is wis­dom. Let him hav­ing rea­son count the num­ber of the beast: for it is the num­ber of a man; and its num­ber is six hun­dred and six­ty-six” (Rev.13:16 – 18 Para.).

Throughout his­to­ry, many who have stud­ied the Bible and sec­u­lar his­to­ry have tried to deter­mine the name of the indi­vid­ual that is rep­re­sent­ed by the num­ber 666. The num­ber 666 is even record­ed as being asso­ci­at­ed with king Solomon and the amount of gold that he received as trib­ute dur­ing the height of his reign (1.Kgs.10:14; 2.Chron.9:13). There seems to be no end to the indi­vid­u­als and things that have been found to have this numer­i­cal ref­er­ence attached to them.

Even though the num­ber 666 can be attached to peo­ple, places, and things in the past, present, and future, is a full under­stand­ing of the prophet­ic num­ber 666 nec­es­sary before the appear­ance of the Antichrist and his reli­gious and polit­i­cal form of gov­ern­ment? Actually, it is more impor­tant to under­stand the prophet­ic events sur­round­ing the Antichrist and to be pre­pared to be loy­al to God and his way of life to the very end.

People have assumed that, because verse 18 says that the num­ber 666 is the num­ber of a man, this num­ber can only be attached to an indi­vid­ual. The real­i­ty is that in the Greek lan­guage, “the num­ber of a man” can also mean “a human num­ber” or “a num­ber of human­i­ty”. Although the num­ber 666 may very well iden­ti­fy a spe­cif­ic indi­vid­ual, it may also iden­ti­fy and be asso­ci­at­ed with the Beast’s sys­tem of reli­gion and gov­ern­ment. The num­ber 666 could very well rep­re­sent the apex of human per­fec­tion, because under the lead­er­ship of the Antichrist/​Beast, the mag­nif­i­cent reli­gious, gov­ern­men­tal, and eco­nom­ic sys­tem of the beast alliance of nations will appear to be the best sys­tem ever devised.

In the study of the numer­i­cal sym­bol­ism of the Bible, the num­ber 6 is clear­ly asso­ci­at­ed with human­i­ty; there­fore, the num­ber 666 appears to be the num­ber of human­i­ty. Because God the Father allows an evil glob­al sys­tem to exist before his Son’s return, the num­ber 666 could very well be viewed in the con­text of the entire reli­gious, eco­nom­ic, and gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem that is led by the Antichrist who is in the ser­vice of Satan (2.Thes 2:4).

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

It is well known in bib­li­cal and rab­bini­cal teach­ings that the phrase, “in the name of,” is used to con­nect the one hav­ing author­i­ty to the one from whom the author­i­ty comes. It is also used to con­nect a teacher with the author­i­ty and respect of his own teacher. Therefore, it is log­i­cal to assume that this same mean­ing is attached to the name of the Beast and its reli­gious gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem. The same asso­ci­a­tion will exist between the Antichrist/​Beast and those hav­ing its name or mark. See our study paper con­cern­ing the phrase “in the name of,” for details about those who have the name of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

A Sign of Allegiance

Refusal to take the mark of the Antichrist con­sti­tutes rebel­lion against him and his reli­gious and gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem, and this will not be tol­er­at­ed. All who are found guilty of this type of rebel­lion will be put to death. Everyone must com­ply with the wor­ship sys­tem that the Antichrist will insti­tute through the False Prophet, and they must wor­ship the image of the Beast. In addi­tion, every­one will have to reg­is­ter with the sys­tem and receive the mark or name of the Beast. Without the iden­ti­fy­ing mark, a per­son will not be able buy or sell or par­tic­i­pate in the eco­nom­ic sys­tem of the Antichrist’s alliance of nations. Therefore, the mark or name of the beast is a sign of one’s alle­giance to this evil per­son and his reli­gious gov­ern­men­tal system.

It is obvi­ous that there will be many unde­sir­able phys­i­cal con­se­quences for not accept­ing this mark. For those who wor­ship the true God, the threat of phys­i­cal pun­ish­ment and hard­ships for not accept­ing the mark are min­i­mal com­pared to the loss of eter­nal life for accept­ing it.

Only Two Options

“And the third angel fol­lowed them, say­ing with a loud voice, If any man wor­ship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his fore­head, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out with­out mix­ture into the cup of his indig­na­tion; and he shall be tor­ment­ed with fire and brim­stone in the pres­ence of the holy angels, and in the pres­ence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their tor­ment ascends for ever and ever: and they shall have no rest day or night, who wor­ship the beast and his image, and who­ev­er receives the mark of his name” (Rev.14:9 – 11 KJV).

When the mark of the Antichrist/​Beast is insti­tut­ed, there are only two options that a per­son who is liv­ing with­in the geo­graph­i­cal areas con­trolled by the beast sys­tem will have con­cern­ing the tak­ing of this mark. Either one takes the mark and wor­ships and serves the Beast and his image, or one does not take the mark and does not wor­ship the Beast and his image. Anyone who are in the sit­u­a­tion of mak­ing a choice con­cern­ing the mark must con­sid­er the following:

If one does not wor­ship the Beast and his image, he will be per­se­cut­ed and prob­a­bly killed. If one does wor­ship the Beast, God will per­se­cute him and prob­a­bly kill him. And if a child of God wor­ships the Beast and his image, he will lose his eter­nal life. Most of the world will be deceived by the pow­er and charis­ma of the Antichrist/​Beast and the obvi­ous ben­e­fits of his reli­gious sys­tem of gov­ern­ment. Therefore, most will will­ing­ly wor­ship his image, and take his mark that will sig­ni­fy their alle­giance to him and his sys­tem of gov­ern­ment. This will be espe­cial­ly easy to do because the death penal­ty will hang over the heads of any who refuse to wor­ship him and take his mark. Although the prospect of one sur­viv­ing the refusal to wor­ship the image and take the mark seems min­i­mal, there is hope for those who place their trust in the true God and seek his pro­tec­tion. See Rev.3:7 – 13; 7:1 – 17; 12:6, 14 – 16.

God’s Punishment

“And I heard a great voice out of the tem­ple say­ing to the sev­en angels, Go your ways, and pour out your vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noi­some and griev­ous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast, and upon them which wor­shiped his image” (Rev.16:1 – 2 KJV).

Remember that, dur­ing the rule of the Antichrist and his reli­gious sys­tem, the peo­ple of God will be pro­claim­ing the true gospel and Jesus Christ will be send­ing dev­as­tat­ing plagues upon those who take part in the Antichrist’s alliance of nations and have his mark and wor­ship his image.

“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 had wor­shiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burn­ing with brim­stone” (Rev.19:20 KJV).

The two evil spir­its that enforce the wor­ship of the image and the mark­ing of those who con­sent to be marked as a sign of their alle­giance to Satan’s sys­tem of wor­ship and gov­ern­ment will be cast into a lake of fire after the return of Jesus Christ.

The Victorious Elect

“And I saw anoth­er sign in heav­en, great and mar­velous, sev­en angels hav­ing the sev­en plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass min­gled with fire: and them that had got­ten the vic­to­ry over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the num­ber of his name, stand on the sea of glass, hav­ing the harps of God” (Rev.15:1 – 2 KJV).

Those who are called of God to sal­va­tion dur­ing the ter­ri­fy­ing times of the Antichrist’s rule and remain true to their great call­ing will receive tremen­dous rewards in the Kingdom of God:

“And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judge­ment was giv­en to them: and I saw the souls of them that were behead­ed for the wit­ness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not wor­shiped the beast, nei­ther his image, nei­ther had received his mark upon their fore­heads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thou­sand years” (Rev.20:4 Para.).

The Important Names

During the end of the age, there are two extreme­ly impor­tant names that will have a more dra­mat­ic impact on the lives of the chil­dren of God than the name or mark of the Antichrist/​Beast. These are the names of the Father and his Son. Notice what is said about these two names:

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on mount Zion, and with him an hun­dred forty and four thou­sand, hav­ing his Father’s name writ­ten in their fore­heads” (Rev.14:1 KJV).

There are only a cer­tain num­ber of peo­ple that will have the name of the Father writ­ten in their fore­heads when Christ returns.

“And to the angel [mes­sen­ger] of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he [Jesus Christ] that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens; I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it: for you have a lit­tle strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name ” (Rev.3:7 – 8 Para.).

Notice the empha­sis upon hav­ing kept Christ’s word and not deny­ing Christ’s name. It is for this rea­son that God will empow­er and use those of the Philadelphia church to per­form a great work for him in the end of the age.

SUMMARY

Although it is extreme­ly impor­tant to be able to rec­og­nize the Antichrist, his image and mark, the False Prophet, and the reli­gious gov­ern­men­tal sys­tem which they admin­is­ter for Satan the Devil when they appear on the worlds scene, it is even more impor­tant for one to be com­mit­ted to mak­ing the right deci­sions con­cern­ing one’s alle­giance to God the Father.

By B. L. Cocherell and Charles E. Barrett

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