SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2015
9:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Antichrist’s Authority
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
13:2
Message of the
verses: “2 And the beast which I saw
was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like
the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great
authority.”
In our study of Revelation at this point we are looking
as similar things that the prophet Daniel had to say about Antichrist and so we
want to look at Daniel 7:3-7 which shows the different animals that Antichrist
will be like as in this section of Daniel he is describing different kingdoms
that will arise by using animal descriptions of them so what we can conclude
from this is that the Antichrist will have these same characteristics that
these kingdoms had.
“3
“And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. 4 “The first
was like a lion and
had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it
was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human
mind also was given to it. 5 “And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it
was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth;
and thus they said to it, ’Arise, devour much meat!’ 6 "After this I kept looking, and behold,
another one, like a
leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had
four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7 “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.”
The
animal that Daniel uses to describe these different kingdoms were well know in
Palestine, so it was natural for Daniel to use them in his description of these
empires that will arise. The lion
represented the Babylonian empire. It
seems that I read somewhere that there were statutes of lions in the city of
Babylon. Medo-Persia was represented by
the bear, and then the leopard represented the Grecian Empire for they moved
with great speed. Alexander the Great
was the first ruler of this empire and he developed a new system of attacking
called the phalanx system and it was very successful by Alexander as he
conquered the known world using it. Now
we come to the last beast and this of course represents the Roman empire and
Daniel does not use animals to describe it.
John
MacArthur writes “Like the indescribable fourth beast of Daniel 7:7, which
represents the Roman Empire, Antichrist’s final empire will be a composite of
the empires that preceded it. It will
incorporate all the ferocity, viciousness, swiftness, and strength of the other
world empires. This powerful empire,
unparalleled in human history, will be Satan’s last and greatest attempt to
stop the reign of Christ. But, like all
Satan’s other attempts to thwart God’s purposes, it will ultimately fail.”
“And
the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.” We see here that Satan is giving the power to
the beast (Antichrist) so no human agency will be able to stop it, but we know
from the 19th chapter of Revelation that Jesus Christ will return
from heaven with His saints and will stop this empire with the sword of His
mouth. God’s holy angels will not
interfere in the destruction of Antichrist because of God’s supernatural
restraint to the power will be removed as seen in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the
mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so
until he is taken out of the way.” If
you want more detail on this verse look at my SD from October 14, 2014. This restraining will allow the Antichrist to
rise to power, and it is believed that this will happen in the middle of the
Tribulation Period as that is when he will get his power from Satan. Some believe that this restraint is the
Rapture of the Church which will happen before the Tribulation Period begins.
Now we have seen pictures of what will happen is a much
smaller way throughout history as we have witnessed Hitler’s power during the 2nd
world war, and then Stalin had great power during that time and after that time
too, but this will happen on a global scale and some think that this will be
hard to pull off, but remember that God is in control and the Holy Spirit
restrains the activity of Satan from accomplishing this to happen at this time
in history, but the Word of God cannot lie and since it says this will happen
it will happen.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: This comes from 2
Thessalonians 2: 13 “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren
beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for
salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.” Because of this truth all believers in the
Church Age will not have to go through the times we’re discussing at this time.
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 Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Every son was thrown into the
river” (Exodus 1:22).
Today’s Bible
question: “To whom did the Thessalonians
become examples to?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/23/2015 10:34 AM
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