SCRIPTURE READING: Revelation  13:11-18

GOLDEN TEXT:  Revelation 13:17

1. Does John see another beast with two horns like a lamb and did it speak like a dragon? (Revelation 13:11). Is Jesus compared to a lamb? (John 1:29, 36). Does Satan have ministers who transform themselves into ministers of righteousness? (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Note: The Lamb is Jesus Christ and the dragon is Satan the Devil (Revelation 12:9). This beast had two horns of a lamb and spoke like a dragon, so we have one that looks Christian and speaks devilish, one who appears as a minister of righteousness but in fact is working the Devil’s agenda.

2. Does this false prophet cause the ‘mark of the beast’ to be imposed upon all mankind? (Revelation 13:16). Are there economic consequences involved if you don’t have the ‘mark’? (Verse 17). Is the number of this beast 666? (Verse 18). What is this ‘Mark of the Beast’ and how does it work?

Let’s reflect back as if we were a First Century Christian in the Roman Empire. We would have seen persecution brought on by this beast. This whole system has been against Jesus Christ and His disciples from the beginning of the New Testament Church. In some of the cities where the seven churches were (Revelation 2-3), people had to be members of a guild that had an allegiance to some pagan god in order to have a job and work. If you were a Christian you couldn’t follow the false religious system, you couldn’t work for the guild because your allegiance would be to Jesus Christ. Since you couldn’t work, buy or sell, you would have to live in poverty. The economic consequences were severe.

This passage in Revelation 13:16-18 is looking into the future and what happened to the early Church is a model, type or image of what is going to happen to real Christian people in the future.

3. What is the punishment for a person who receives the ‘mark of the beast’ and worships the beast? (Revelation 14:9-10). First let’s look at what the ‘mark of the beast’ is not. It is not your social security card, an indelible tattoo, the number 666 on your credit card or even a computer chip in your forehead or your hand. We have to be careful in thinking that this has to be a literal ‘mark’ on your forehead or your hand or this could lead you down the wrong path in understanding this.

4. Did the apostle John, in vision, see four angels holding the four winds of the earth so that another angel could seal the servants of God on their foreheads? (Revelation 7:1-4). What is a seal? It could be like a signet ring, something that when you put hot wax on it, and you press the ring into it, it leaves a mark in the wax and you can tell whose seal or mark it is. Where does sealing in the forehead come from?

5. Did Ezekiel see six men with a deadly battle-ax in his hand and one man with an ink horn in his hand? (Ezekiel 9:1-2). The prophet Ezekiel also received a vision similar to the apostle John’s vision at the Temple of God. This was at a time when Israel had sinned and was in a state of rebellion against God, and God was ready to send His wrath and judge them. Did God begin judging with the elders and religious leaders at the Temple first? (Verses 3-6). Did God put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried over all the abominations that were done? (Verse 4). Here are people that God marks so he can recognize His own. Did God then slaughter and kill the rest of them? (Verses 5-6).

6. Did God command Israel, as they were getting ready to cross over into the promised land, to fear Him and observe and keep His Commandments? (Deuteronomy 6:1-6). Were they to internalize God’s law in their hearts and minds? (Verse 6). Were they to diligently teach God’s Commandments to their children? (Verse 7). Were they to bind God’s Commandments as a sign (a mark) on their hand and on their forehead? (Verse 8). See also Ezek. 20:10-20. The forehead and the right hand are common images in the Bible. The term frontlets between your eyes is referring to your forehead. The Commandments of God are to dominate man’s conscience and activities. The forehead is a symbol for the will and the conscientious mind in how a person thinks and the right hand symbolizes their strength, power, actions and the things that they do. This is what Verse 5 means when it says: "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength".

7. Will the Lord’s anger be aroused if we worship and serve other gods? (Deuteronomy 11:16-18). Are we to lay up God’s Words and Commandments and bind them as a sign (a mark) on our hand and shall they be as frontlets between our eyes? (Verse 18).

8. Will the beast, the Man of Sin, sit as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God? (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4). We have seen in this Bible Study that there is a ‘mark of the beast’ and a ‘mark of God’. Satan the Devil tries to counterfeit all that there is of God, including his own day of worship and holidays (holy days). He tries to look like God and in the future he posses the ‘man of sin’ and will sit in the Temple claiming to be God. The false prophet will encourage people to worship the beast and to receive his mark. People will get a mark in their hand or on their forehead, they will either get it from God or from the beast and the Devil.

9. Who do you belong to, God or the Devil? The question is, how can you tell the difference? If you have the sign of God then you can’t have the sign of the beast. We have already seen that the sign of God involves keeping the Ten Commandments, all ten of them, so we must be involved with God and having His mark and sign upon us.

10. Did God say: "My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a SIGN between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you?" (Exodus 31:12-17). Did God say that "You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you?" (Verse 14). Did God say that the Sabbath is a perpetual covenant? (Verse 16). Did God say that the Sabbath was a SIGN between Him and His people forever? (Verse 17). Is the seventh day Sabbath in memory of God creating the heavens and the earth in six days and resting on the seventh day? (Verse 17).

Who is your God? How does the world know? If you carry the ‘sign’ of the true God you will suffer from the beast, but if you carry the ‘mark of the beast’ you will suffer from God. In the future you are going to suffer, you just have to decide who you are going to honor in your suffering, God or the Devil?

(Revelation 13:11-18 NKJV) {11} Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. {12} And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. {13} He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. {14} And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. {15} He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. {16} He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, {17} and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or 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 it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

1.) See Scripture Reading

Jesus the Lamb of God

(John 1:29 NKJV) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

(John 1:36 NKJV) And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

(2 Corinthians 11:13-15 NKJV) For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. {14} And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. {15} Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

2. See Scripture Reading

3. See Scripture Reading

(Revelation 14:9-10 NKJV) Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, {10} "he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

4. 144,000 Sealed

(Revelation 7:1-4 NKJV) After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. {2} Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, {3} saying, "Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." {4} And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:

5. (Ezekiel 9:1-6 NKJV) Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, "Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand." {2} And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar. {3} Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side; {4} and the LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it." {5} To the others He said in my hearing, "Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. {6} "Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

6. Love the LORD Your God

(Deuteronomy 6:1-6 NKJV) "Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, {2} "that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. {3} "Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you; 'a land flowing with milk and honey.' {4} "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! {5} "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. {6} "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

(Deuteronomy 6:7-9 NKJV) "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. {8} "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. {9} "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

7. (Deuteronomy 11:16-18 NKJV) "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, {17} "lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. {18} "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

8. The Man of Lawlessness

(2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NKJV) Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, {2} not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. {3} Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, {4} who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

9.

10. The Sabbath

(Exodus 31:12-17 NKJV) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, {13} "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. {14} 'You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. {15} 'Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. {16} 'Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. {17} 'It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"