SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/4/2015
7:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Program of
the False Prophet PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
13:15-18
Message of the
verses: “15 And it was given to him
to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would
even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be
killed. 16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the
poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand
or on their forehead, 17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to
sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the
beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and
sixty-six.”
Today’s SD picks up at the highlighted portion of verse
seventeen where we see that the mark has to do with the name of the beast or
the number of his name. There seems to
be with Antichrist some kind of numbering system, although the exact
identification of that phrase is not clear.
MacArthur writes “What is clear is that everyone will be required to
have the identifying mark or suffer the consequences.”
John begins verse eighteen with the phrase “Here is
wisdom” and this could well mean that people have to weigh the benefits and or
the consequences of having this mark on them.
On one hand you will be able to eat and work and buy and sell if you
have it, but on the other hand we will see that those who accept this mark will
never be saved, so indeed this does take wisdom on the parts of those alive
during this time period of the Tribulation.
As we look at the remaining portion of the eighteenth
verse we read “Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast,
for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six,” we
know that is a difficult portion of Scripture to understand. John MacArthur writes “Perhaps no detail in
Revelation has intrigued people more than this number. There has been no end to the speculation as
to its significance and how to calculate it.
In Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, letters had numerical equivalents, and a
myriad of schemes to associate the names of historical individuals with the
number 666 have been put forth. Nero,
Caligula, Domitian, Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and a host of others
have been proposed, based on some sort of convoluted mathematical rendering of
the letters in their name. All such
speculation is futile; since the Antichrist is still to come, the number 666
cannot be associated with any historical individual. The church father Irenaeus cautioned against
speculating about the identity of the person associated with the number 666
until that person arrives on the scene.
Robert L. Thomas gives a very reasonable perspective: ‘The better part of wisdom is to be content
that the identification is not yet available, but will be when the future false
Christ ascends to his throne. The person
to whom 666 applies must have been future to John’s time, because John clearly
meant the number to be recognizable to someone.
If it was not discernible to his generation and those immediately
following him—and it was not—the generation to whom it will be discernible must
have lain (and still lies) in the future.
Past generations have provided many illustrations of this future
personage, but all past candidates have proven inadequate as fulfillments. Christians from generation to generation may
manifest the same curiosity as the prophets of old regarding their own
prophecies, but their curiosity will remain unsatisfied until the time of
fulfillment arrives.”
Now at this time I want to give a quote from my Spiritual
Diary from August 23, 2005, and the portion I want to quote is from the “Spiritual meaning for my life today: First I am not sure that anyone will
understand who this antichrist is or second, what this number 666 means before
the rapture of the Church. This being said it seems to me that it could be a
waste of time trying to figure this out, and as Pastor Burns once said that we
as believers should be looking for the return of Christ and not the
antichrist. I think that one of the
things that I can take away from these verses is that if I do not keep in the
Word of God each day reading it, and studying it that it is possible that I can
get into some wrong situations, not as bad as the ones described in these
verses, but things that can take me off of the focus to become more like my
Savior and Lord.” Pastor Ralph Burns,
who is now with the Lord, was my first Pastor that I had after receiving Christ
as my Savior and Lord and I thank the Lord for this godly man.
We need to understand that this verse says that this
number, 666, is a number of a man. The
number seven is the number of perfection, thus it is God’s number, so since man
fell short of perfection his number is six.
When we look at creation from the book of Genesis we see that man was
created on the sixth day, and in Exodus we see that slaves were freed after six
years of service, fields were to be sown for only six consecutive years as
found in Lev. 25:3. MacArthur writes “Repeating
the number three times emphasizes that this is man’s number, just as the
thrice-repeated statement ‘holy, holy, holy’ stresses God’s absolute holiness
(4:8; Isa. 6:3).”
Revelation 14:9-11 shows us what will happen to those who
worship the beast and receive his number:
“9 Then another angel, a third
one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the
beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine
of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His
anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the
holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11
"And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have
no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever
receives the mark of his name."”
In my Bible reading yesterday morning I read of the fate
of the False Prophet, and it is the same as that of Antichrist: “And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who
performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had
received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two
were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone (Rev.
19:20).”
John MacArthur finishes his commentary on this section of
Scripture and this will end our study of chapter thirteen: “This sobering passage is not intended to be
the source of fruitless speculation about its details. Rather, it stands as a warning to the
unbelieving world. It also challenges
believers to lead careful, watchful, godly lives (cf. 1 Pet. 4:7; 2 Pet. 3:11),
and to evangelize a hopelessly lost world, headed for destruction. Believers are to faithfully proclaim the
saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thereby rescue the souls of men and
women from the disaster that looms just over the horizon.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is my desire
to be able to tell others of the hope that is within me which is found in “1Pe 3:15
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a
defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you,
yet with gentleness and reverence.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to bring people onto my path
who are ready to hear of the hope that lies within me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In the wilderness” (Matthew
4:1).
Today’s Bible question: “Who was Laban’s sister?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/4/2015 8:04 AM
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