SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2015
9:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Antichrist’s
Ancestry PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
13:1
Message of the
verse: “1 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.”
We continue to look at the ancestry of the Antichrist in
this SD. We have looked at chapter six
in the book of Revelation earlier this year and we stated that the rider of the
first horse represented peace as it showed a rider on it with a bow, but with
no arrows to shoot. We also stated that the
man who would do this would be Antichrist, so from that lesson we know that he
is a man, but during the middle of the Tribulation Period he will go into the
temple and commit a great blasphemy against the Lord and this will begin all of
the troubles for the Jews and also for those who are true believers. What caused this great change in him? He will be possessed by a very strong and
powerful demon which comes up out of the abyss is the answer that John
MacArthur gives. Some think that he will
be possessed by Satan, but more likely by one of Satan’s powerful demons who up
until that time has been kept in the abyss.
Now we have also learned that this man will be a very gifted orator,
similar by more effective than even Hitler was, and he will not need a
teleprompter to aid him with his speeches.
As far as him being possessed by a demon let’s look at Daniel 8:24 “"His
power will be mighty, but not by his own power, And he will destroy to an
extraordinary degree And prosper and perform his will;He will destroy mighty
men and the holy people.” Now let’s look
at verse 25 “"And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed
by his influence; And he
will magnify himself in his heart, And he will destroy many while they
are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, But he will be broken
without human agency.”
According to John 8:44 which states “"You are of
your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is
no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for
he is a liar and the father of lies,” we see that those who have not accepted
the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers are children of Satan, but not all are
like Satan even though they are lost and under his kingdom. However the Antichrist will be Satan’s
complete child that is he will do Satan’s bidding on earth more than any other
person in history. We can see his family
likeness when we compare the what we read in verse one of chapter thirteen with
Rev. 12:3 which reads “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a
great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven
diadems.” Both the Antichrist and Satan
have similar descriptions.
In our last SD when I quoted from a SD that I did in
August of 2005 I stated that horns symbolize power. Now we see that he has ten horns and this
fits the imagery of the fourth beast in Daniel 7:7, 24 “"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.” “’As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom
ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be
different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.” Now I have always been taught that these ten
horns are ten kingdoms and many believe that they are from Europe, for Europe
is where the old Roman Empire was and many believe that Europe will be from
where the Antichrist comes from. The
reason for this is what we read in Daniel chapter 9: 26 "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.” We see in this verse that the prince to come
is the Antichrist and he will come from the people who destroyed the city and
the temple and that was Titus who eventually became the emperor of the Roman
Empire. Now while listening to a sermon
by John MacArthur from this section from the early 1990’s he stated that the
world could be divided up into ten different regions and I have heard this
before too, but not sure if this is what this text means. I lean more on the revived Roman Empire which
will somehow have ten nations involved in it and this is where the Antichrist
will come out of. Now the Roman Empire
actually circled the Mediterranean Sea so there is a large part of the world
that he could come out of. As far as the
seven heads these represent seven different empires and we will look at this
again when we get to Revelation 17.
John MacArthur writes “Daniel described this final
coalition, headed by Antichrist, in Daniel 2:41-44, ‘41 "In that you saw the feet and toes,
partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but
it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed
with common clay. 42 “As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of
pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.
43 "And in that you saw the iron
mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men;
but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with
pottery. 44 "In the days of those
kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed,
and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an
end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.” This
section of Daniel chapter two is the interpretation of a dream that
Nebuchadnezzar had in which Daniel interpreted it for him, and in the dream
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the statute that he saw was actually different
empires that would come into the world and this part speaks of the last empire
which will be headed up by the Antichrist.
This final kingdom will be crushed by the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in
verse 34 and also 45, “"You continued looking until a stone was cut out
without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and
crushed them.” The stone here is the
Lord Jesus Christ who will crush his empire when He returns from heaven as
described in Revelation 19.
John MacArthur concludes by writing “The ten diadems
(royal crowns) indicate the horns’ regal authority and victorious power. John also noted that on the beast’s heads
were blasphemous names. Like many of the
Roman emperors and other monarchs before them, these rulers will blasphemously
arrogate divine names and titles to themselves that dishonor the true and
living God. They will follow the pattern
of their master, Antichrist, ‘who opposes and exalts himself above every
so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of
God, displaying himself as being God’ (2 Thess. 2:4).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is my desire
to live and act like my Savior who is indeed the opposite of what we have been
talking about in this SD.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Approximately 1600 years”
Today’s Bible
question: “When the midwives failed to
do as he directed, what did Pharaoh decree?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/22/2015 10:36 AM
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