Turn on Timer! Happy Fourth of July! [Slide 1] We are in a middle of a series entitled, Revelation: Unveiling Reality. Revelation is not about crystal balling the future. It is about unveiling reality. If you are here for the first time and wondering how this book is relevant to you, let me tell you, it is. This book is not just about the future, but it s about unveiling the past and the present. Today s topic is very relevant to our culture in America especially during the election season. It s about politics and religion. [Slide 2] Today s sermon is entitled, The Beasts, Empires, and Civil Religion. Remember, Revelation is not written chronologically. It is not what happens next that is recorded. It is what John sees next that is recorded. And that s not necessarily chronological. Chapters 2-3 were letters to the churches in Asia Minor. Chapters 4-11 are visions of heaven, the Kingdom of God, and how the Kingdom of God is going to come, including the role of the church now until Jesus comes back. Chapter 12 is not what happens after chapter 11. It is another vision of reality that Jesus reveals. Cindy preached a great sermon on chapter 12 last Sunday. It goes back to the story of the birth of Jesus from a cosmic perspective. We saw that the great red dragon, called Satan, was standing before a woman giving birth to a child to kill the child. When she does, the dragon fails to kill the child and goes after the mother, and when the dragon fails again, the dragon goes after her offspring, which is the church, the followers of the child. Now, chapter 13 tells us how Satan goes after the church. So, this is really important. Instead of working directly and alone, he works through two puppet powers, one called beast from the sea and the other called beast from the earth. They are not literally beasts, just as Satan is not literally a red dragon. They are symbols that stand for something. Who does Satan work through? We are going to find out. This is a very misunderstood part of Revelation. This is also the chapter that talks about the mark of the beast and about 666. The word Antichrist is not used here but some people see this as 1
a chapter on Antichrist. We will see that it is not necessarily a person. We ll dig into what those things mean. So, let s go to. Let s read about the first beast. [Slide 3] The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. So, this beast gets its power from the dragon. In order to understand what these things mean, we have to look at a passage that the original readers would have been familiar with: Daniel 7. In a vision, Daniel sees four beasts from the sea: a lion, bear, leopard, and a terrifying beast with 10 horns. The Daniel passage also gives us the meaning of the beasts: they stand for four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. The fourth beast is the fourth kingdom and the 10 horns are the 10 kings who will come from the kingdom. Here in Revelation, the four kingdoms are combined into one. It is one beast from the sea with the characteristics of the four beasts lion, leopard, bear, and the 10-horn beast in Daniel. So, we know that this beast from the sea stands for world s kingdoms, political systems that are manipulated by the dragon. At the time of the writing of the Revelation, it was Rome (as we will see in Revelation 17) but not just Rome. Before Rome, the beast was manifested in Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Babylon, and Greece. And after Rome, this beast is manifested in empire after empire. And it also tells us that the power of the beast from the sea comes from the dragon, meaning that it comes from Satan. This means that political powers can become pawns of Satan. [Slide 4] 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. Most commentators say that this probably refers to Emperor Nero who ruled from AD 54-68; he was one of the most terrifying Emperors of Rome. The persecution of the church under Nero was horrific. He committed suicide when faced with a coup but there were a lot of rumors that he resuscitated and recovered. There was political turmoil for several years after his death with multiple emperors coming and going. Remember, this 2
beast has 7 heads. It is the beast that survives and lives on. The emperors are the heads and the beast is the empire. The empire was shaken by Nero s death, but it survived and the world was filled with wonder when it survived. [Slide 5] 4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it? So, people worshipped Roman Empire, and said, who is like Rome? Who can wage war against Rome? They were the most powerful empire in the world. But, it s not just talking about Roman Empire. [Slide 6] 5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against God s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast all whose names have not been written in the Lamb s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. [Slide 7] 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear. 10 If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God s people. So, again, we see that this beast exercise its authority for 42 months, which means the time before the final coming of the Kingdom of God. So, we are not just talking about the Roman Empire. We are talking about all Satan manipulated political powers. The beast blasphemes God, meaning that it seeks to replace God with itself, calling people to worship it. It persecutes God s people. It has authority over every tribe, people, language and nation, meaning that it is a powerful empire. The Roman Empire ruled the known world at the time. All but the followers of Jesus ended up worshiping the emperor 3
and the empire. All but the followers of Jesus looked to the empire as the hope of the world. This was what was happening. John is writing about the state of the Roman Empire. Emperors were demanding that their subject worship him as divine and pressuring disciples of Jesus to comprise their loyalty to him. John is telling the church that the state has become a servant of Satan. Now, how do we reconcile this with what Paul said to the church about the state? In Romans 13, he says the state is the servant of God. Is Revelation inconsistent with Paul s letter to Rome? Paul wrote Romans 13 during a different time. Christians were not persecuted by the Roman Empire and they didn t require everyone to worship the emperor. In fact, he used his Roman citizenship to the advantage of the mission of God. Now, Revelation is written during the time of extreme persecution when thousands of Christians are killed if they do not worship the emperor and the empire. John, through Jesus, is telling us that political powers can be servants of God or become so corrupt that they become beasts manipulated by Satan. Remember, Paul said that the state was the servants of God not because they followed God directly, but because they administered justice. Now, John through Jesus is saying that the state has failed to administer justice, and has become war mongering, oppressive beast, an Antichrist. Now, what is the implication of this passage for us now? [Slide 8] 1. We need to see that political systems can become agents of Satan. It is not just persons that become possessed by Satan. It can be institutions, governments, systems, and organizations that can be possessed by Satan to oppress people including Christians. So, this means that we need to have a healthy suspicion of the government or putting our hopes in the government. We need to see that there are demonic forces at work in systems, political systems just as there are demonic forces at work with people. Some are more affected than others. So, I am not saying that all systems are evil or that our government is evil and demonic; I am saying that we need to understand that systemic evil exists and any government, particularly government that is 4
powerful are prone to demonic influences manifested in empire building and selfworship. This means that we need to hold on our allegiance to the state, lightly. We are not Americans first and Christians second. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God first, and Americans second. If the state is not consistent with the Kingdom of God, we are called to disobey and accept the consequences. [Slide 9] 2. We need to be careful about the idols of nationalism and patriotism. Our allegiance is to the multi-national kingdom of God, Kingdom of people from all tribes, languages, people, and nations. Often times, following Jesus gets integrated with being a patriot. We say things like God, Country and Family. Our patriotism has to be subject to our call as the people of the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, nationalism or patriotism becomes an idol. We feel better about ourselves if we are a part of a great nation. Maybe that s why president s approval rating sky rockets when he takes us to war. Nobody is going to mess with us. That s the root of the demonic influence that makes for an empire influenced by the dragon. [Slide 10] 3. We have to remember that the beast cannot be destroyed by the sword. He keeps coming back. In fact, when we try to defeat him with the sword, he will come back with greater beastliness. The only thing that defeats the beast is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, prophetic speech against evil. The only thing that defeats the beast is the sword of God that comes from the mouth of Jesus. The only thing that defeats the beast is the declaration, Jesus is Lord and living that declaration, even if it costs us our lives. Look at the text. It is not called to respond to the violence with violence, evil for evil, oppression for oppression. Instead, Jesus tells us: [Slide 12] 10 If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God s people. 5
We are called to respond with patience and faithfulness to the ways of Jesus, which is to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, do good to those who hurt us, forgive, love, and if they kill us, let them kill us. Do not defect to violence! [Slide 13] Eugene Peterson says: Killing the opposition is the sea beast s way of solving its problems. It is not ours. Ours is endurance and faith. The call of the church is to live in the faithful endurance of radical counter-culture even in the midst of horrendous violence. I know many of us think it s stupid to give up one s life in martyrdom. Instead, we believe that we have to oppose tyranny with force. I think this is a difficult issue. But, the call here at least in this book is for faithful endurance, not violent opposition. We need to remember also that there are many historical examples of the power of nonviolent martyrdom. For example, there is the story of Boris Kornfield, a Jewish doctor who had become a Christian. When he refused to cooperate in the deaths of prisoners in the soviet Gulag, he was brutally murdered. So short was his time at the Gulag that he only had time to witness to one prisoner before getting killed. That prisoner was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Christian witness against Soviet evil. He, of course, spread the message to millions, but he would not have been able to do so had God not used Kornfield to touch his life. Let s go on. The dragon doesn t just stop by infiltrating into political systems and using coercion and violence to get the followers of the Lamb to capitulate. He uses deception to accomplish his purpose. [Slide 14] 11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. [Slide 15] 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be 6
killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666. We will get into the mark of the beast and 666, but let s start from the beginning. The second beast is from the earth. It has two horns like a lamb. It performed great signs. It did miracles. It deceived people. Why does it deceive people? It is trying to get people to worship the first beast, the dragon manipulated political power. It has the power to give breath to the image of the first beast, meaning it has the power to affirm dragon manipulated political systems. The first beast cannot survive without the second beast. It puts a mark on people, mimicking the seal of the Holy Spirit that the Lamb puts on its followers. Without the mark on their right hand or forehead, people can t buy or sell and do business. If you don t buy into the program or conform to the way of the beast, you are not going to survive economically. Just as the seal on the believers is not literal, the mark on the unbeliever is not literal. So, don t worry about a literal tattoo or mark or computer chip or whatever. It s not about that. Now, who or what is this earth beast? What does it stand for? [Slide 16] Darrell Johnson put it this way: If the beast from the sea is dragonmanipulated political power and institutions, the beast from the earth is dragonmanipulated religious power and institutions. [Slide 17] Here is how Eugene Peterson put it: The land beast is, more than anything else, religious. It has a Christ-like quality; it is like a lamb (Rev. 14:11), but it is a parody, not a derivation, of Christ. Its main task is to get people to worship. In order to subvert our religious life, it uses religious means with all the trappings of the miraculous. There is, in fact, no part of life in which deceit is more prevalent than in religion (just as there is no part of life in which violence is more prevalent than in the state). Organized behavior is prone to violence; organized belief is prone to deceit. This is nothing new. Jesus told us in Mark 13 that false messiahs and false prophets would appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive. He told us to watch 7
out that no one deceive you. He said they would be like wolves in sheep clothing. The beast from the earth, dragon-manipulated religious power, represents the false prophets. True prophets lead people to worship the living God. These false prophets, the beast of the earth, lead people to worship the state. That was what was going on at the time of the writing. The power of the Roman Empire was backed up by the religious authorities in the local cities who fought to build bigger and better temples for the worship of the Roman Empire and its emperors. Now, what is this 666? There s been numerous guesses about the candidate for 666, and so who the Antichrist is. Some have said Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama. Some day John F. Kennedy because he received 666 votes at the 1956 Democratic Convention. Some say Ronald Reagan because they moved into a house with the numbers 666. The list goes on. The majority of the scholars believe that it refers to emperor Nero. The way they get to that is through something called gematria, which uses numbers to spell words. So if English had been the alphabet of the day, it works like this. [Slide 18] A=1 B=2 C=3 D=4 E=5 F=6 G=7 H=8 I=9 J=10 K=20 L=30 M=40 N=50 O=60 P=70 Q=80 R=90 S=100 T=200 U=300 V=400 W=500 X=600 Y=700 Z=800 So, Kevin and Grace would be the number: [Slide 19] K=20 G=7 E=5 R=90 V=400 A=1 I=9 C=3 N=50 E=5 484 106 This is not just a crazy system. There is evidence that the practice of gematria was wide 8
spread at the time of writing Revelation. For example, archeologists found on the wall of a cave in Pompeii the sentence: I love her whose number is 545. I, Kevin love her whose number is 106. So, if you transliterate the Greek word Neron Kaiser (which means Nero Ceasar) into Hebrew and do the gematria, it comes out to be 666. Also, if you take his Latin name, Nero Caeser, and transliterate it into Hebrew, it comes out to 616. Interestingly enough, we have a number of ancient manuscripts of Revelation that says 616. So, some people say that 666 refers to Nero. But, the problem is that you have to go from Greek or Latin into Hebrew and it gets a little confusing. And there are questions about what is the proper numeric value of each letter. Here is alternative way to view it. Many commentators view 666 as a symbol. 7 is a number that symbolizes completeness, and 6 is the number that symbolizes incompleteness. So, 777 would be absolute completeness and 666 would mean completely incomplete. It can pretend like a 7, but it is only a 6. It pretends like a lamb but it is a beast. Always falling short of the glory of God. So, John is saying that the second beast is incomplete religion. It is not the real thing. [Slide 20] Now, what is the implication for us now? We have to be careful about fusing the church with the state. What I mean is that civil religion that validates and affirms the state may be a dangerous role for the church. The history is an interesting teacher. Before Emperor Constantine, Christians were persecuted by the state. They were victims of the first beast who tried to scare the church to obey him. After Emperor Constantine, the church and state became fused. Constantine is the emperor who first claimed to be a Christian. After him, the church became the legitimizer of the Roman Empire. It sought everyone to obey the Emperor. And during that time, in the name of Jesus, so many people were killed and tortured. Think about the Crusades, the Inquisitions. The power of the church when fused with the state can bring horror to the true followers of Jesus. The church often gets trapped into thinking that the way to change the world is 9
through taking over the government, to fuse the church and the state. It sounds good but it is deceptive, and takes our focus away from building a counter cultural Kingdom of God that is based on the power of the lamb and the power of the Holy Spirit than the power of guns and the power of the state. We need to watch so that we do not fall to deception and lose our way. We must focus on the way of the lamb, and not the way of political power. It is about the power-under, the power of love, not the power-over, the power of coercion and violent. The whole collaboration between the two beasts (Dragon manipulated political power and Dragon manipulated religious power) made me think about the German church and the rise of Hitler and Nazism. I think Nazis and Hitler definitely qualifies as a beast of the sea, an evil political power and institution. How did the church respond to the rise of Hitler and Nazism? They responded in various ways: some endorsing him, some trying to ignore him, and some denouncing him. There was no unanimity in the church about Hitler. One of the few German pastors to stand against Hitler was martin Niemoller. He denounced Hitler from the pulpit, was imprisoned, and was visited by a chaplain who was shocked to find someone he knew in jail. When the doumbfounded chaplain asked Niemoller what he was doing in prison, Niemoller said why are you not in prison? The text that Niemoller and others often used to justify resisting Hitler was, our text today. It s interesting that Niemoller believed that protest and martyrdom were the only ways to oppose Hitler. He believed that that s what and other teachings of Jesus taught. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, however, believed that Hitler had to be stopped by assassination. He agreed with Niemoller but believed that God would forgive him. I want to end with the question: are you are prophet of the Kingdom or a chaplain of the state? Let s pray. Invite Prayer team. 10