| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Change your pre-selected defaults. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Add/Remove a bible from the parallel display. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Contact us with Suggestions/Requests/Complaints. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Read how to get the best out of this web Site. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  
|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How many are correct? That's right, only one. As with ANY interpretation of scripture, if the explanation does not come from the bible, then it is wrong COMPLETELY. Isaiah 8:20 Did you read that quote? HOW much light? No light So, if the explanation for a prophecy does not come from the bible, HOW MUCH LIGHT IS THERE IN such explanation? NO LIGHT! Before we can find out what the mark of the beast is, we need some prior information. The first thing we need to know is Who, or what, is the Beast? There are several beasts portrayed in the bible, but we are interested in the one that provides The Mark of the Beast Revelation 13 gives the best description of this beast. We must consider that this beast wields massive power so the prophecy is in coded symbols, otherwise it would not have survived for us to read. All symbols are explained ONLY by the Bible itself. The symbols used in SYMBOLIC prophecy are defined elsewhere in the Bible. You do not need to take someone's word for it (and MUST NOT). 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Timothy 3:16, Acts 17:11 Some say we are not to, or can not understand Revelation. The very first verse says "show unto His servants" Revelation 1:1 and two verses later in Revelation 1:3 it says "Blessed is he who reads/hears/keeps". How can you keep if you don't understand? About the beast, God says "He who has an ear, let him hear" Revelation 13:9. Do you have ears? It is the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST or "REVEALING" it can't REVEAL if you don't read! OK, Let's look at the description in Revelation 13:1-3     And I stood upon the sand of the sea,
| | Water
is symbolic of masses of people.
Revelation 17:15
| The sea he is looking at, is a large body of water representing a large mass of people. It is the people of a heavily populated area. So, John is standing on the sands which means he is not part of these people. He is an onlooker. | and saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
| | A
beast
is a kingdom or secular power.
Daniel 7:17,23
Daniel 8:20-21
| John is seeing a secular power rising from a heavily populated area. | having seven heads and ten horns,
| | This is a very cleverly used piece of text. | God has put quite a bit of meaning into this. We need to first look at other places where God used this description. In Revelation 17:3 He refers to a seven headed dragon with ten horns and ten crowns full of names of blasphemy. This beast we are looking at has seven heads, ten horns, and ten crowns, and the name of blasphemy on it's head. Sound like the same beast? Sure does. Now look at Revelation 12:3 and you see a dragon with seven heads and ten horns, but only 7 crowns. This is because in the vision in Revelation 12, three crowns have already been lost. God is bringing our attention to this beast, showing that the dragon of Revelation 17 and Revelation 12 are interchangeable with the beast of Revelation 13. As we study on, we will understand that the beast of Revelation 13 is the agent for satan. Another interesting point here is that God multi-tasks the symbology of the seven heads, but we will come back to this later. A horn is symbolic for a branch of power. Daniel 7:24 Daniel 8:5. Therefore, these ten horns are either branches of this power or branches by which it distributes it's power. | and upon his horns ten crowns,
| | These ten branches of power are all sovereign kingdoms.
| | and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
| | This power is heavily involved in blasphemy against God.
| |  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,
| and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
| | Now there is a reference to the kingdom of Medo-Persia.
| | and his mouth as the mouth of a lion:
| | Followed by a reference to the kingdom of Babylon.
| | and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
| | and finally, the kingdom of Rome gives it's seat to this power. | These four beasts (leopard,bear,lion,dragon) , are those seen by Daniel in chapter 7, but Daniel sees them in the opposite order. This is because Daniel is looking forward in history, and John is looking back. The dragon is another double use of symbolism. On one hand, it represents the dragon beast seen by Daniel, and on the other, it represents the great dragon (satan) Revelation 12:9 who is behind this mysterious power. |  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed:
| | This beast is going to have a deadly wound, but it will be revived and brought back from the dead.
| | and all the world wondered after the beast.
| | The whole world will be led astray by this power.
| |
Let's examine a few more clues starting with Revelation 13:4.  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast:
| | The
dragon
is satan
Revelation 12:9
and he has always wanted worship, right from the beginning.
Isaiah 14:13-14
satan is behind the sun god, receiving worship.
| and they worshipped the beast,
| | Another clue. The beast is a religious body. It receives worship.
| That excludes a computer in Brussels. You can not worship that. So, we have now ascertained that this power is BOTH a secular power AND a religious power. It is associated with satan (dragon) so it is his agent on the earth. | saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
| | This power is obviously very unusual.
There is nothing else like it and there is something about it that makes it difficult to wage war against.
| |  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies;
| | Here is another reference to to blasphemies against God that come from this power.
| | and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months
| | This is a symbolic time period. Symbolic time is given in the Bible in measurements of
prophetic days. | Each day represents a literal year. Ezekiel 4:6 Numbers 14:34 This period is given as forty two months. A prophetic month is 30 days and a year is 360 days. This is what it was at creation and it is the period recognised by the hebrews.
|  And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
| | Yet another reference to the blasphemy that this power utters against God and the angels in heaven. | As we have seen, this is a religious power, but not a good one. It's worship and modus operandi include many blasphemies. |  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:
| | This power is going to be at enmity with God's people, and will subdue them. | A saint is not what the average person thinks. It is not some super-Christian in heaven. It is simply someone who has given himself/herself to God. Psalms 16:3 Acts 26:10 | and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
| | This power will be worldwide.
| | Daniel also refers to this same power, and it's affect over the world.   And he shall speak great words against the most High,
| | This is yet another reference to the blasphemy flowing from the mouthpiece of this power.
| | and shall wear out the saints of the most High,
| | He refers here to the same thing John referred to when he said
it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them
| | and think to change times and laws:
| | This beast power is going to
think
to change times and laws.
| In it's own mind it will change times and laws, but these will not be backed by God and/or the bible. | and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
| | A
time
is a prophetic year.
Daniel 4:16,23,25,32
| In the Hebrew, whenever a plural has no number, it is assumed to be 2, and by the same token, if a division has no number, it is assumed to be halves. The time reference here is a time 1 year + times 2 years + dividing of time half a year making a total of 3 1/2 years. A prophetic year is 360 days which is the length of the year at creation, before the flood, and the year the Hebrews observed. 360 x 3 1/2 is 1260 days, which translates to 1260 years, the same period that John referred to. |  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
| | The entire world, except for those who belong to God, will worship this power. | It is obviously a very large religious organisation. |  If any man have an ear, let him hear.
| | If you happen to be one of those people who have ears, you should study this.
| |  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity:
| | This power will put a lot of people into captivity, but itself will go into captivity.
| | he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.
| | It will kill many by the sword, but will itself be killed by the sword. | There is a two-fold meaning here. The sword is recognised as the secular government. It also symbolises the word of God. I believe both apply in this case. | Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
| | The people of God have to hang on and have faith that God is eventually going to intervene.
| | Verse 18 of Revelation 13 gives us a clue that everyone seems to know about.  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
| | So, this is not a barcode, or some way offbeat thing. It is THE NUMBER OF A MAN.
| | Verse 17 gives us a little more insight as to what the number represents.  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
| | The number 666 is related closely to the name of the beast. | It is a numeric representation of his name. |
At this point we have probably enough clues to identify the beast, however, we have really only looked at Revelation 13. There are many places in the Bible that refer to the AntiChrist, which is the same power as the beast in Revelation 13. I think we should gather more clues so there is ABSOLUTELY NO MISTAKE in the identity. It is VERY important. Let'sook at the same beast that pops up in Revelation 17. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
| | Hmmm. Let's see.
names of blasphemy
and
seven heads and ten horns.
Sound familiar? | It should! This is the same beast we looked at in Revelation 13. | Ok. Now let us break it down, piece by piece. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:
| | In the spirit
means that John is in vision and being taken somewhere in that vision. | into the wilderness means that he is being taken into the spiritual wilderness, a time when the Bible was completely banned. He is referring to the time just after the French Revolution, when athiesm ruled and the Bible was totally banned. This fact is not important to identifying the beast, but it is helpful in understanding some side issues. This wilderness was the period when The two witnesses lay dead in the street. These two witnesses were the Old and New Testaments. The Bible was banned. | and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,
| | A
woman
in Bible prophecy is a church. A virgin is a pure church, and a harlot is a corrupt church. | Jeremiah 6:2 2 Corinthians 11:2 Ephesians 5:23-27 Ezekiel 16:15-58 Ezekiel 16:29-38 Hosea 3:1-5 We have a woman, which is a church, and we have a beast, which is a secular power, and these are together in one package. This one power is both a secular power, the beast, and a religious power, the woman riding it. This is exactly what we already saw in Revelation 13, the beast and people worshiping it. | full of names of blasphemy,
| | Again, we saw this in Revelation 13.
| |
| | having seven heads and ten horns.
| | These are the same seven heads and ten horns we saw in Revelation 13, but God is now showing He can and does multi-task His use of symbols. | The seven heads are symbolic of the powers that satan has worked through on earth, but as we shall see, He re-uses the symbology here. | However, we have more clues in this chapter. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,
| | The
woman
being the religious part of this power uses
purple and scarlet
as it's "uniform" colours.
| | and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,
| | The religious portion of the power uses a lot of gold and jewelry.
| | having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
| | There is a golden cup held in the hand that contains something that God sees as an
abomination
and He considers this to be one of the things that makes her
a harlot
(Corrupt Church). | | and filthiness of her fornication:
| | Fornication
is symbolic for idol worship, or the worship of other gods,
Hosea 1:2
so God considers this church a harlot because she is involved with other gods.
| | And upon her forehead was a name written,
| | Two pieces of bible symbology are used here. | Firstly, the Bible uses the forehead as a symbol for the mind, Ezekiel 3:8-9 and it uses a name as a symbol for the character. Isaiah 62:2 | MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
| | The mindset and character of this religion is heavily influenced by the religion of Babylon.
| | THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
| | She has children/off-shoots that are also harlots and these daughters are
women
so are corrupt churches. | The abominations of the earth refers to corruptions she has produced in the earth. | And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:
| | This church has murdered many of God's people. | Notice that there are many murdered besides martyrs. This means that many have been murdered without taking a stand. maybe this means innocent bystanders, or maybe they were just murdered by some secret means. | and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
| | John can not believe what he sees. The sight is almost unbelievable.
| | The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit,
| | Now, remember, John was taken in vision
into the wilderness,
which is the time of the athiestic communism period just after the French Revolution,
when there was a "spiritual wilderness". | At that time, the beast was, so it WAS THERE, ("was" is past tense), but at the time mentioned, it is not, which is negative in the present tense, meaning it is not there during the athiestic communism period. Even so, it will again ascend out of the bottomless pit at a future date. The bottomless pit, if you look at the original Greek, refers to the state the earth was in before creation, so most likely means that it will again rise from nothing. | and go into perdition:
| | It will again go into sin, the way it was before.
| | and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,
| | The whole earth will be captivated by this religion, with the exception of those whom God has marked to live in His kingdom.
| In other words, if you follow this religion, you will not be saved. | when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
| | Another reference relative to the period just after the French Revolution. | The beast that was (Past tense), and is not (Present tense relative to that period), and yet is (Future tense). | And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
| | The church (or headquarters) sits on seven mountains. That should narrow it down a little.
| |
There are many other clues throughout the Bible, and there are many other references to these same clues, but these are more than enough to uniquely identify the beast that provides the Mark of the Beast. I have used these (and others) to identify the beast. I can not get more than two to fit any other power, and some clues can ONLY be attributed to one power. What the actual Mark of the Beast is, will be the subject of another study that I shall do shortly. If you wish to see the power that I have found to be the beast of Revelation 13, CLICK THE GOLD LOGO BELOW 
 It helps to reinforce what you have learned by taking the optional quiz, or simply return to the menu and do the next study.   | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
