SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/3/2015
8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Program of the False Prophet PT-1
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.”
One of Satan’s strategies is to cause the governments of
the world to have a law in which believers cannot follow. When we look back at the third chapter of
Daniel we see something similar in that a statute was made of King
Nebuchadnezzar and everyone had to worship that statute or else they would
die. We read of a similar situation that
will happen in the Tribulation Period from the verses that are in our text for
today. Now as we look at current events
in our country we see something similar that just happened a week ago for now
true believer who is walking with the Lord can believe that the Supreme Court
in our country did the right thing in ruling that homosexual marriage is the
right thing as the Bible speaks out against it from the very first chapters of
the Bible when God created a man and a woman and then married them. He completely destroyed a society because of
this very act as we read latter on in Genesis.
Ok back to our verses in Revelation and I suppose that
verse eighteen of chapter thirteen of the book of Revelation is a verse that
even causal readers of the Bible know about for in it we have the famous number:
666. I don’t think we will get that far
today, but we will look at it soon to see exactly what we believe this verse
means, but first we need to begin with verse fifteen.
We have seen in our study of the OT prophets and also
from our study in the book of Psalms that when they spoke of idols they would
say that they have mouths but they do not speak, well this idol we are looking
at in verse fifteen is different than all the other idols for the false prophet
will somehow make it speak for we read that he “will give breath to the image
of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak.” John MacArthur writes “Breath translates pneuma, not zoe or bios, the Greek
words normally translated life. The false prophet will animate the image of
Antichrist so that it gives the appearance of being alive. With today’s amazing special effects
technology and robotics, that is not out of the realm of possibility. Add to that the world’s desperate need, amid
the carnage of the Tribulation, to believe in a death conqueror, and the ruse
become very believable.”
Now as I spoke of in the beginning of this SD the false
prophet will then make it law that those “who do not worship the image of the
beast to be killed.” When we go back to
the sixth chapter of Revelation we saw that there were souls under the altar
who had been slain for the cause of Christ, and probably many of those who have
been slain were done so because of their refusing of worshiping the statute of
the beast. Remember in chapters 12-14 we
go back and look at the Tribulation Period from the perspective of the
Antichrist. However we know that not all
believers would be killed from this as there will be many who go into the Millennial
Kingdom alive. However it is the goal of
Satan to kill all believers and all Jews so that the promised Kingdom for
Israel will not take place thus making God out to be a liar or One who cannot
keep His promises. This will not happen
as God will always keep His promises.
When I began to read the “Left Behind” series they made a point that
after the rapture happened that all those who were alive on planet earth only
one out of four would live until the end of the Tribulation Period. Many who do live through this time will not
be believers and will then die through the judgment of Christ when He returns
as described in Revelation chapter nineteen and also prophesied in Matthew
chapter 25 from Christ Olivet Discourse where we read from “32 "All the
nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one
another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put
the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.’”
We look at verse sixteen, a verse that speaks
of the mark of the beast, and it tells us that if you don’t receive this mark
that you will not be able to buy or sell anything, and this mark effects all classes
of people as far as the rich and the poor, the free man and the slaves, all
will be required to receive this mark and this is another way that Satan is
causing a division between those who are believers, who will not receive this
mark with unbelievers who will as Satan tires his best to kill all believers. John MacArthur writes “Mark (charagma; from charasso, ‘I engrave’) was the term for images or names of the
emperor on Roman coins. In the ancient
world, such marks (tattoos or brands) were commonly given to slaves, soldiers,
and devotees of religious cults (cf. Gal. 6:17). God sealed, with a mark on the forehead of
the 144,000 to preserve them from His wrath against the unbelieving world
(7:2-3); the false prophet marks the unsaved to preserve them from Antichrist’s
wrath against God’s people. The mark
will signify that the person bearing it is a worshiper and loyal follower of
the Antichrist. In much the same way,
the Roman emperors required their subjects to prove their loyalty by offering
sacrifices to Caesar. Those who refused,
like those who refuse to take the Antichrist’s mark, were subject to execution.”
I will conclude this SD with a quote that John MacArthur
makes from a man who lived under Bulgaria’s communist regime, which is actually
quoted in the commentary of W. A. Criswell on the book of Revelation: the
man states “You cannot understand and you cannot know that the most
terrible instrument of persecution ever devised is an innocent ration
card. You cannot buy and you cannot sell
except according to that little, innocent card.
If they please, you can be starved to death, and if they please, you can
be disposed of everything you have; for you cannot trade, and you cannot buy
and you cannot sell, without permission.”
MacArthur continues “The pressure to give in to the worship of
Antichrist will be far worse than anything ever experienced in human
history. Life will be virtually
unlivable, so the people are forced to bow to the demonized king, not prompted
merely by religious deception, but also by economic necessity.” Just a note that those of us living in today’s
society realize that there is now a chip that can be implanted under the skin
that can be scanned to see all information about a person, and many believe
that this is a forerunner of this mark spoken of in verse sixteen.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It takes a lot of
faith in the Lord to do the things that are right in life, to realize that this
is not my home for I am just passing through to realize that we are not human beings
going through a spiritual existence, but spiritual beings going through a human
existence.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord to see me through the
trying times that we live in and that I will be a bright light in the ever darkening
place that I live in.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Peter” (Matthew 18:21).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did Jesus go to be
tempted by the devil?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/3/2015 9:48 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment