The Antichrist Revealed (Revelation 13:1–10) | Coronation (Part 25)

Transcript

JRNT 524
THE ANTICHRIST REVEALED
REVELATION 13:1-10
4/26/2026
JESSE RANDOLPH

Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin, Henry Kissinger, FDR, JFK, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, The Pope, John MacArthur. What do each of those individuals have in common? Each at one time or another, has been accused of, or thought to be the Antichrist.

Like Rapture date-setters who are certain that the Rapture was going to come in 1988, so certain in fact, that they could have given you 88 reasons, there has never been any shortage of those who are sure that they know who the Antichrist is, or who the Antichrist will be. For instance, if you were to go to this little online retailer called Amazon today, you would find there are quite a few folks who are very certain of who the Antichrist is and if you’re willing to just part with $20 to $25 of your hard earned dollars, they’ll let you in on the secret.

Here are some of their book titles: The Beast System Unleashed. AI, the Antichrist, and the End Times. The Rapture, the Antichrist and the Tribulation: An End Times Countdown and What Happens Next. The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast. Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times: What the Bible Says and What the Future Holds. The Final Roman Emperor, the Islamic Antichrist, and the Vatican’s Last Crusade. Chasing Antichrist: Discover What Every Protestant Reformer Knew about the Antichrist. Alien Antichrist: The Terrifying Truth about UFOs and Aliens, Antichrist, and the End of Days. Apocalypse 2027: (and here’s the subtitle) Antichrist Unmasked, Scriptural Case for the Global Antichrist. And there are a couple more. Interview with the Antichrist: His Hour Has Come and then The Antichrist Contender: Wake Up America and Smell the Satan. There are literally hundreds of books like those with equally fanciful titles, over-promising and under-delivering on who they insist the Antichrist will be.

Now that tracks because throughout history church history, specifically, there has been that great fascination, see that list of names I read off at the beginning, over who the Antichrist is and who the Antichrist will be. Now when it comes to the topic of the Antichrist who he is his traits, his characteristics what he will do and so on, as with anything we need to ask ourselves the question, well what does God’s Word say? Does the Bible say anything about the Antichrist being a sitting American President or a Russian czar or AI-driven or Bill Gates? No. The Bible says no such thing.

Does the Bible say anything about how we are, and by that, I mean Church Age Believers, how we are going to interact with this figure the Antichrist? The answer to that question is also no. In fact, what we do know from a very straightforward, chronological, you could even say dispensational reading of the Scriptures, is that we as Church Age Believers, will not have any relationships or relations or dealings with the Antichrist. Why? Because by the time he comes, we will have already been taken out of this world through the Rapture. We’re not going to face the delusion and the deception and the false worship he brings to the earth, and we praise the Lord for that. So, while it’s important, of course, that we work our way through tonight’s text as we see what it says about this figure known as the Antichrist, it’s also important to keep our study of this text in proper Biblical balance.

I’ve got to say, I will never understand why otherwise Biblically balanced men suddenly lose their minds and turn into wild-eyed conspiracy theorists when it comes to the Antichrist. Without a doubt, studying prophecy is important and studying prophetic words like those in our text tonight about the Antichrist is important. Because when we study prophecy ultimately what we’re doing is we’re studying God and we’re studying God’s faithfulness to His promises. We’re studying in this context his faithfulness to future promises or promises which have yet future fulfillment. But there can come a point where we get so worked up as Church Age Believers, about a figure who we will never encounter, that we lose sight of the faithfulness to which God is calling us today, right now.

I’m going to put a challenge out to you to make sure that your theological priorities are in line. If you’re able to rattle off your 12 favorite theories about who the Antichrist might be but are unable to articulate a Biblical defense for the Trinity, heads up. If you have deep-seated convictions as to whether the Antichrist will be a Jew or a Gentile, but you don’t have deep-seated convictions about the necessity of the virgin birth of Christ and you can’t articulate a Biblical basis for why the virgin birth actually occurred, look out. It might indicate that you’re theological priorities are askew. They are out of line and I’m saying that by the way as a card- carrying Biblicist, a card-carrying fundamentalist and dispensationalist.
But ultimately, we do want to be Biblicist. We do want to have all aspects of what the Scripture reveals for all of life and godliness in their proper order and priority.

So, with that let’s get into our text for this evening. We’re going to be in Revelation 13 which does have something to say about this figure, this actual figure who will come known as the Antichrist. He’s identified here as this beast. We’ll get to that in verses 1-10.

Let’s look at 13:1-10, “And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain fatally, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?’ And there was given to him a mouth speaking great boasts and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. And it was also given to him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the Saints.”

Over the course of these next two Sunday nights, we’re going to be introduced to these two ungodly men who, along with the dragon, Satan, are going to play an important role in the events of the second half of the Tribulation. These three are sometimes called the unholy trinity. The dragon, the beast, and the false witness, Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. They are called that because in many ways they seem to be counterfeiting the actual Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In the actual Trinity, the First Person is God the Father. In the unholy trinity, it’s the great red dragon, Satan. In the actual Trinity the Second Person of the Godhead is Lord Jesus Christ. In the unholy trinity that we’ll be looking at tonight, his imitation is this first beast, the Antichrist. In the actual Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. His imitation in the unholy trinity Revelation 13 which we’ll get to next Sunday night, is the False Prophet.

What we see happening through the workings of this unholy trinity is Satan’s last and great effort to deceive the people of the earth during the second half of the Tribulation. During this 3 ½ -year window where he will be willfully and maliciously attempting to pull out all stops in his effort along with the witness and along with the beast, to dethrone God and to destroy His Saints. As we’ve seen over and over these past two Sunday nights, Satan has been at war with the woman, Israel, going back to time in memorial. He’s been at war with her Child, the Messiah, going back through many different centuries of history. Well in the portion of Revelation 13 that we’ll be in tonight, verses 1-10, we’re going to see through John’s vision, this encounter between Satan and these two Satanically empowered individuals. First the Beast, known as the Antichrist, and then next Sunday night we’ll get into again the False Witness. The Antichrist is called by a variety of other names in the Scriptures. I won’t even go through the whole list here tonight, but one of them is the prince who is to come in Daniel 9:26. He’s called the man of lawlessness and the son of destruction in II Thessalonians 2:3. Other translations have that as the man of sin or the son of perdition.

But to get our bearings here again as I mentioned earlier, we’re in the second half of the Tribulation as these events unfold. The church has been Raptured. God’s wrath has been progressively pouring out on the earth. It’s been pouring out in the forms of seals and trumpets up to this point. We haven’t yet gotten to the bowls. Last week we saw that Michael the Archangel, in Revelation 12, has just overthrown the dragon, Satan, the first person of the unholy trinity, and that’s lead to Satan being cast forever out of heaven.

So now what will happen at this point in the Tribulation, is that the earth is going to become this scene of increased chaos and carnage, as Satan who is acting now in extra murderous hatred is going to work through these two agents of evil, these two ministers of deception and destruction, the Beast, the Antichrist and the False Witness.

Now it’s not like it will only be at this phase of the Tribulation that Satan will operate this way. It’s not like he hasn’t been trying to dethrone God and cause dissention and deceit all throughout history. He has. That’s been happening for centuries now ever since his fall. We’ve seen over the past couple of Sunday nights that this is a long-raging battle. But even then, in the age in which we live, the Church Age, the era before the rapture, there has always been this major factor present which prevents Satan’s efforts from fully taking root. And that’s the presence, the restraining presence of the Spirit, the restrainer, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God I believe is the Restrainer who’s mentioned in II Thessalonians 2, and He is the One who is preventing Satan’s plans right now, from taking root fully and developing before their time. II Thessalonians 2:6 says that there is One who restrains him now. That I believe again is a reference to the Holy Spirit. In other words, as long as the Holy Spirit has special residence on earth as He indwells Believers today in the Church Age, evil will be restrained to a degree on this planet in the time in which we live. But when Believers are Raptured, when we’re caught up to heaven, the Spirit’s special residence is going to, in conjunction with that, be removed from this earth as will His restraint upon evil. Then the removal of the Restrainer, that’s going to play a part in this increasingly intense series of events during the Tribulation which will take place on earth.

Now one other important thing to note before we start weeding through this text and getting through it, is a matter of terminology that I think is just as important to straighten out.

In our day today, the Church Age, though the person of the Antichrist has not officially appeared on the scene, we are reminded at various places in the New Testament that the spirit of antichrist is here today. I John 2:18. John is reminding the Christians of his day. “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour.”

John then says I John 2:22, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” The Apostle John emphasizes that the spirit of antichrist is present even in his day in I John 4:3 where he says that “every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

So, there is such a thing as the spirit of antichrist and that spirit of antichrist does exist in the world today. Not only that when we went back through Revelation 6, we were studying at that point the opening of the seals of judgment at the very start of the Tribulation. We did see that it would be the spirit of antichrist which would be behind the white horse of judgment mentioned in Revelation 6:2 when that first judgment seal is broken and that white horse goes out with a “bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out overcoming and to overcome.” That will be the spirit of antichrist behind that white horse before the actual antichrist even shows up on the scene. So, there is a spirit of antichrist which exists in the world today and which will exert power and authority at an earlier phase of the Tribulation. But here in Revelation 13, we are introduced for the first time to the actual Antichrist. This is where he officially arrives on the scene. Again verse 1. (Revelation 13:1) “And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.”

Satan, the dragon is depicted here as standing on the sand of the seashore. As he’s doing so John says here, verse 1, “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea.” Now the first thing we want to address in our text is what to make of this sea and seashore language. The dragon here is depicted as standing on this seashore while the beast is depicted as coming up out of the sea. That language is clearly differentiating between those two figures because one is on the seashore and one is actually in the sea, coming out of the sea. These are not the same figure. These are rather distinct figures. So, what do we do with that sea and seashore language? What’s meant by it? Well, we have to remember that this is a continuation of a scene that began all the way back at the beginning of Revelation 12 where John made clear that what he was seeing in this vision, a woman clothed with the sun, the great red dragon, that what he was seeing was symbolic.

This is a continuation of John’s vision. However, at this point, John’s vision is entering this new phase centered on this beast that’s arising from the sea. So again, what is the sea alluding to then? What is it pointing to? Some have said that the sea represents the great mass of humanity from which great forces of evil will arise during this part of the Tribulation. Others have said that the sea is pointing to the literal Mediterranean Sea, the localized body of water that John would have been looking out at from His dungeon on Patmos. Others believe that John has in view here when he mentions the sea, the entire system of oceans which cover the earth, not merely the Mediterranean Sea.

A better view, I think is that the word sea here is referring to the abyss, which we’ve already seen is the place from which demonic powers opposed to God including the beast arise. Listen to this from Revelation 11:7, we covered this a few weeks ago. “And when they have finished their witness, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them.” Did you hear that? The beast comes out of the abyss it says. That beast, this beast is also in Revelation 17:8 later in the book described as coming out of the abyss. “And when they have finished their witness, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them.” So, the beast I believe taking all of the Scriptural references new account, taking symbolic usage into account in this section of Revelation, when it says he’s coming out of the sea it’s saying he’s coming out of the abyss, the domain of evil, wicked spirits.

Next, we’re given this description of him. Still in verse 1, where it says, he’s described as having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. Ten horns. Seven heads. Ten diadems. There is a ton to unpack there and I will do my best in a few very brief minutes here, to explain what others have done over the course of several hundred pages and multi-week sermon series.

What is all of this representing? Well for starters, let’s start with a preliminary question one which has long been debated. That question is, is this depiction in verse 1 that of an individual, a king, a ruler, an emperor? Or is this a depiction of an entity, an empire, a kingdom, a nation, a confederacy? I think the answer is both. I think this language is depicting a single ruler the Antichrist, who at the same time very much representative of the entity which he rules. In other words, this is describing a world ruler and also that over which he rules. It’s describing an emperor and the empire over which he rules.

How do I get there? Well for starters the beast here is very clearly presented in language which portrays him as an individual. Throughout this chapter, he is referred to repeatedly with personal pronouns. His heads, his horns, his feet. Those signifies that this is an individual, a person being referred to. Another reason I arrived that this is an actual person is that the second beast in Revelation 13, the false prophet who we’re going to look at next week is very clearly presented as an individual. So, I believe the logical symmetry of this passage as a whole, would suggest that the first and second beast, not just the second beast, would be individuals. So, in one sense the beast is an individual. An individual who is still future, a person who will rule the world essentially during this second half of the Tribulation.

But there is another sense in which this language represents a future kingdom and a future empire. Look at the language of verse 1 again here. “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems.” Now on the one hand that language connects this beast, the Antichrist to Satan the dragon. Because if you look back at Revelation 12:3 we see this language. “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.” So, there we have Satan described as having multiple heads and horns and diadems. Here in our passage the beast, the Antichrist has horns and heads and diadems.

Well, this beast identifies not only with Satan back in Revelation 12, but he also identifies with another vision given to the prophet Daniel back in Daniel 7. In fact, go and turn with me back to the book of Daniel 7. We’ll pick it up in Daniel 7:1. The heading I have here, the non-inspired heading given by the LSV translators says the vision of the four beasts. “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his head as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and said the following summary of the matter. Daniel answered and said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.” Here come the descriptions of the four beasts. Verse 4, “The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; and a heart of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one in the likeness of a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus, they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.” Now look at this in verse 7. “After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, fearsome and terrifying and extraordinarily strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.”

Daniel’s vision consisted of these four beasts representing four great nations each striving for supremacy and we just saw it. The first was like a lion, the second was like a bear, the third was like a leopard, and the fourth was this unnamed animal, but very strong. Now it’s that last beast mentioned in Daniel 7:7 which seems to be the same beast mentioned in our passage, in Revelation 13:1, and the major clue is the common reference in the two passages to these ten horns, the ten-horn connection.

I’m back to Revelation 13:1 now. What are the seven heads of this beast signifying? Well in Revelation 17:10 we’re told explicitly that these are seven kings. We can deduce that those seven kings represent seven successive world empires. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and then finally, a regime represented by these ten simultaneous kingdoms or these ten horns. Those ten horns represent a confederation of ten nations which will arise at this point of the Tribulation under the domination and the rulership of Satan, the great blasphemer.

So, the beast here is a king and the beast here also represents a kingdom he embodies a kingdom which many believe to be a form of a revived Roman Empire. We’re told here it’s a ten-nation kingdom, hence the horns and the ten royal diadems which sit upon each. We’re also told as we keep reading on here in verse 1, that on the heads of this beast were blasphemous names. The Roman emperors of old, they would blaspheme the true God by designating themselves to be god and demanding worship of themselves rather than worship of the one God.

Well, this man this beast the Antichrist, he will do the same. In fact, we’re told of him, in II Thessalonians 2:4, that he “exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, exhibiting himself as God.” We’re also told of him prophetically in Daniel 11:36 that “he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak astonishing things against the God of gods.”

Now we’re going to see more of his blasphemy when we get to verses 5 and 6. But for now here in verse 1, that’s how we’re introduced to this beast, this agent of Satan, this ruler of this seventh monarchy, this powerful ruler of ten kingdoms. Now this description rolls on of this beast. It carries over into verse 2 where John says, “And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.” Again, that’s drawing from that same vision of Daniel chapter 7 which we just turned where we saw the vision of those three different beasts. The beast that John saw in this vision is a composite of the beasts that Daniel saw in his.

This final evil kingdom which will be ruled over by the Antichrist during this part of the Tribulation, will have elements of those three rulership’s or kingdoms that Daniel saw back in his vision. Meaning this future kingdom will have the ferocity of a lion as ancient Babylon did. It will have the strength of a bear as Medo-Persia did. It will have the swiftness of a leopard as Greece did. This coming empire, the empire of the Antichrist, will have elements of each of those, as did some of those ancient empires. But this future empire of the antichrist during the Great Tribulation will be far more imposing and far more dread-inducing than any of those empires of old.

The reason for this is that the coming world empire of the Antichrist will not only be part lion, and part bear, and part leopard. It will be part dragon. It will be Satanically empowered. It will have not only the majesty of the lion and the power of the bear and the quickness of the leopard, but it will come with the wickedness that comes with having these seemingly unrestrained power of Satan behind it as well.

Speaking of which look at this language at the end of verse 2. “And the dragon (Satan) gave him (him being the Antichrist) his power and his throne and great authority.” So great as the power of the Antichrist at this point of the Tribulation as that power will be, this beast will be operating under delegated authority. He will, throughout his reign be the tool or the agent of someone else namely, Satan.

Remember, we’re talking about a counterfeit trinity here, an unholy trinity. So as Jesus is depicted in Revelations 3:21 as sharing the Father’s throne, sitting on His Father’s throne, the beast, the Antichrist is depicted here as sharing the throne of the dragon, of Satan. The Antichrist as Satan incarnate, will accomplish what he accomplishes as we’re told in II Thessalonians 2:9, “in accord with the working of Satan.”

Well as we turn to verse 3, we come to a new scene in this account. Verse 3 says, “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain fatally, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast.” This is a fascinating passage. One which depicts the beast as suffering some sort of mortal wound and then being healed. As with the case with several topics in the book of Revelation, there are a number of different views offered on what is going on in this passage. For some here, they viewed the beast not so much as an individual figure but as a future governmental regime during the Tribulation that they believe will fall. That’s the reference to the head being slain fatally, but then it revives and for some they view that historically. They look at it like, well the Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D. and it will one day be reconstituted. It will come back and be regathered in the end of days. That’s the wonderment that’s caused here in verse 3. So that’s what they are seeing is an empire wide fall and and an empire wide regathering. Now the trouble I have with that view really comes down to the second sentence in verse 3. It says with “the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast.” The question I always have when I see that is would the revival of the Roman Empire during the days of the Tribulation, all those thousands of years later by that point, really cause people to marvel and now follow the reconstituted ruler of the Roman Empire? And this is where I argue against that, would this language be fitting much better with and individual, a man dying and coming back to life.

Well, that leads to the second view. The second view would say that this is not about the reconstituted Roman Empire, but this is rather about an individual who seems to suffer a mortal wound and who seems to be dead, but he’s actually faking it. Kind of the swoon theory about the resurrection and the resurrection of Christ. The way this argument goes is that there’s no way that the beast or the Antichrist could actually die and actually come back to life, because the only one who can bring anyone to life, or give life is the author of life, God Himself and Satan has no power to restore the Antichrist back to life. So therefore, this beast could not have actually died. It must have only looked like death.

Well, it is true that God is the author of life and it is true that only God can raise the dead. But the problem with that view is that it seems to ignore the reality that God has historically and does give Satan on occasion delegated authority. We saw that last week or the following where we studied and we went into Job chapters 1 and 2 where God even delegates to Satan authority to do what God wants him to do. So, the reality is that God could give Satan this ability to bring the actual dead beast back to life, the dead Antichrist back to life, if He chose to do so. That’s the third view. That’s the view I hold which is that the beast will actually die, that’s the reference to wound here, the fatal wound, and he will actually be brought back to life during the Tribulation. God will give Satan the ability to bring this beast back to life. This going to end up being really one of Satan’s masterpieces of deceit. He’s this counterfeit god and just as he attempts in a number of ways to imitate Christ’s death and resurrection, he’s going to attempt to mimic the death and the resurrection of Christ through this beast.

Note the parallels back in Revelation 5:6. John had this vision he says of a Lamb standing, as if slain. And then here we have this vision of this beast where John says one of his heads, it has been slain fatally, it’s as if it has been slain fatally. But then he says his fatal wound was healed. Now having taken in that scene as John recounts it in this vision, end of verse 3, “the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast.” So being under this spirit of delusion and having watched the beast die only to rise again and thinking that somehow the beast’s death and revival is more real, or worthy of believing than Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection, they marvel and they follow after the beast. Then because of the stunning nature of that event, their praise and their worship are depicted as going up further and further the food chain of evil. Look at verse 4, “And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” Now this is describing evil and wickedness and apostasy at its peak. As Satan whose entire aim since his fall has been to be like God. That goes back to Isaiah 14:14 where there’s that quote, “I will make myself like the Most High.”

Well he will at this point draw the worship of the world toward himself as a whole, as the peoples of the world at this point of the Tribulation, having seen the beast, the Antichrist die and having seen the beast, the Antichrist come back to life, are not only now marveling and wonder but they’re worshiping. It’s stated plainly here, “They worshiped the beast and they worshiped the dragon.”

They take the language of Scripture that Saints across the ages, Old Testament Saints, New Testament Believers, Christians that we have used as kindling in our prayers and praise. Like the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:11, where he says, “Who is like You among the gods, O Yahweh? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, fearsome in praises, working wonders?” Or the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 113:5-6, “Who is like Yahweh our God, the One who sits on high, the One who brings Himself low to see the things in heaven and on the earth?”

Those are the words that fuel the prayers and the praise that we offer in this age, but those in the Tribulation at this point, those who worship the beast, those who worship the dragon, they will twist those words and apply those words to the beast, to the Satanically-empowered Antichrist instead. Look at their perverse and twisted words in verse 4, “‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?’” Well for those who are throwing out those questions the answers are implied. These questions are rhetorical. The answers are baked into those questions. The answer to both is no one. No one is like the beast. No one is able to wage war with him. To the ones who ask those questions in verse 4 as they see it, there is no one greater in the world, no one more worthy of worship than the beast. As they see it notwithstanding the preaching of the two witnesses that have happened up to this point, notwithstanding the miracles they’ve already seen, notwithstanding the judgments they’ve already witnessed, notwithstanding the proclamations of woe they’ve heard from heaven, they will choose Satan. They will choose the one who is long been in rebellion against God, and they will bank on the fact that they think Satan will ultimately prevail. In their view if Satan is capable of resurrecting this beast, the Antichrist, then he can also be trusted to finally have victory over the actual God and to grant them eternal life and power and so they worship him.

Now the questions that are asked here in verse 4, who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him, those questions ultimately aren’t answered here in chapter 13, but they will be answered later in the Tribulation when those who worship the beast are described in Revelation 17:14, “as going to war with the Lamb.” That text says, “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called the elect and faithful.” In other words, the Lamb is more than ready and more than up to the task of facing the beast on the battlefield and ultimately defeating him. But we’re not there yet, that time comes later. Here at this point in the Tribulation, it is the beast who will appear to have the upper hand. Despite his apparent success at this point in the Tribulation, the text of Revelation 13 tells us that his success will be short-lived. Look at verse 5, “And there was given to him a mouth speaking great boasts and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.”

So, during this 42-month period, this 3 ½ year period in the second half of the Tribulation, the Antichrist is going to enjoy uncharted support and worship, and he’ll use this time to speak eloquently with great boasts it says. That’s consistent with the words of Daniel 7:8 where in speaking of what he calls the little horn; he says that this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great boasts.” This Antichrist, the beast, will also use this time to engage in an unrestrained campaign of blasphemy. Look at verse 6, “And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

We’ll get to verse 6 in just a moment but before we do, I want us all to look at this language here in verse 5. “And there was given to him a mouth speaking great boasts and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.” Whatever this evil agent of Satan speaks, his boasting and his blasphemies, the duration of his time even to be able to do so, forty-two months, note that it was all given to him. Who has given it to him? Who gave those things and those abilities to him? Well, we know that Satan is the intermediate source. In fact, we’re told in verse 4 that Satan gave his own authority to the beast, to the Antichrist. But what these passive verb forms also indicate is that while Satan is the intermediate source of the Antichrist’s power and strength, God is the ultimate source. This is all in other words going to happen according to God’s plan. All of this will happen as God sovereignly delegates His power to these forces of evil to bring about His own divine purposes on earth. So, while (the Antichrist) might be the most persuasive and compelling mouthpiece for Satan who has ever lived in the history of the world; ultimately, we know that he will be on God’s leash.

As one commentator puts it in reference to the Antichrist, He was given a mouth, and it was a really big one too. With that big mouth, let’s consider the nature of the blasphemies which will come out of it. Again verse 6, “And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.” Now you note there the blasphemies which will spew out of this beast, the Antichrist, will have four dimensions to them. First, his blasphemies will be directed toward God, Himself. This will be in accord with Daniel 7:25, “He opened his mouth in blasphemies against God.” That is what it says here in verse 6, that links up with Daniel 7:25 which in speaking of the coming prince, the coming Antichrist, it says “he will speak words against the Most High.” So, by blaspheming God, the Antichrist will be expressing his unbelief, his irreverence and his desire to topple and overthrow the one true God. Foolishly he thinks that he’s able to do so, but God isn’t harmed, God isn’t mocked, God isn’t even touched or impacted by the beast’s blasphemies.

Second, the Antichrist will blaspheme His name, meaning the name of God. He will blaspheme all that God is, all that God stands for. He’ll defame God’s holiness, His love, His mercy, His grace, and so on. But again, God is not mocked.

Third, the Antichrist will blaspheme His tabernacle, God’s tabernacle. His heavenly dwelling place, His throne room where He and His holy angels reside, the place from which true justice and true righteousness are dispensed.

Fourth, at the end of verse 6, the beast will blaspheme those who dwell in heaven. Having this all-consuming and satanically fueled hatred of God, the beast will have no concerns with speaking not only evil of God, but of God’s people.

God’s people by this point will already be safe in heaven, we’re talking about the church. But no one can snatch them from His hand. That won’t matter to the beast. The cup of the beast’s iniquity will be so full that he’ll curse and and he’ll blaspheme them, anyway. He’ll seek not only to wreak havoc on the earth, but he’ll also seek to rattle the cages of those who are in heaven. It’s not going to work of course because those who are in heaven by this time have already been sealed, already been delivered, already in possession of their eternal inheritance. But that won’t stop the Antichrist from trying during these 3 1/2 years of delegated authority which God, through Satan, has allowed him.

Well speaking of his delegated authority, the beast’s delegated authority, a look at verse 7, “And it was also given to him (note that language again) to make war with the Saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.” Note that expression two different times there. It was given to him. This tells us once again, that whatever the beast will do, he does only through Satan’s power and ultimately by God’s permission. And then reading on it says, “it was also given to him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.”

That expression that the beast will make war with the Saints and that he will overcome them is referencing the fact that he will kill them. This is speaking yet again of martyrdom during the Tribulation. For those who have put their faith in Christ during the Tribulation, there will be some like the faithful in Israel who will make their way off to the wilderness but there’ll be some who are left behind. There’ll be some who aren’t of Israel who don’t go off to the wilderness who hear the Gospel, who have read the Gospel somewhere and who respond to the Gospel at this point during the Tribulation and many of them will die. Not all of them. Some will escape death and some we know will live to see the end of the Tribulation and actually enter into the millennial. But many will die and the beast is described here as overcoming them. Which again means he will kill them.

Now there’s a bit of irony here because the beast is mentioned as the one doing the overcoming when we know that in the end, it will be the martyrs, those who are the true victors, who are the true overcomers. The ones who die are the overcomers. In fact, we just saw last week, in Revelation 12:11 this language, “And they overcame him, because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witness, and they did not love their life even to death.”

Well though they, these murdered Believers, are the true overcomers, the beast at this point in our passage is described temporarily as overcoming. But even then, again all of this will take place directly under the control of God as it says in verse 7, it was given to him, it was given to the beast, even to do what he does in killing those at this point of the Tribulation. And I want you to note his language as well. It says and he will be given “authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.” That’s first of all in fulfillment of Daniel 7:23 where the final beast is described there as devouring the whole earth and treading it down and crushing it. But what else does every tongue and tribe and nation language sound like to you? Sounds like the types of people Christ died for. The entire collection of those for whom He died. Revelation 7:9-10, John reports this in his vision. He says, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

We know and we praise the Lord for the truth that Christ came for and He saves people from every tongue and tribe and nation. The Antichrist, it says here in Revelation 13:7, will be given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. What this is really communicating is that what countless emperors and kings and warlords of ages past have lusted for, world conquest. The Antichrist will have albeit for a short period, 42 months, 3 ½ years before the Lord yanks the leash and pulls the plug. And the Antichrist we see as we read on, will have vast worldwide support. He’ll have this cross-cultural following during this time. Verse 8 says, “And all who dwell on the earth will worship him.” As we’ve seen before that expression, all who dwell on the earth, earth dwellers, in Revelation, it refers to unbelievers. The Saints having been Raptured are in heaven. Many of the faithful in Israel at this point in the Tribulation will have fled the wilderness as we saw last week. Well, that leaves those who dwell on the earth, meaning the average unbeliever during the Tribulation and they verse 8 it says, will worship Him. They’ll worship the beast.

The idea that these are unbelievers is further supported by what comes next, where the expression all who dwell on the earth will worship him is qualified with these words. “Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain.” Those are the ones who will worship Him. Those who worship the beast, whether Jew or Gentile, by doing so will prove that their names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that their names are not written in God’s roster of the redeemed. That’s mentioned several different times in the book of Revelation. That is in contrast to those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from eternity past. Those individuals whose names are found in the roster of the redeemed will refuse to worship the beast and as we’ll see next week, they’ll refuse to take his mark. Though it may cost them their lives, this group will recoil at the idea of what the world is doing at this time, worshiping the beast. They’ll refuse to do so.

Moving on verse 9, “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” This is a call to listen specifically to what comes next in verse 10. But I want to highlight something here before I move on from that one too quickly. That language, if anyone has an ear let him hear, ought to sound familiar because we’ve spent a lot of time a long time ago working through the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. At the end of all seven of those letters we see the words, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Now it’s easy to miss this, but we don’t have that exact wording used here in Revelation 13. We don’t have that reference to the church specifically here in Revelation 13. Revelation 2 and 3 it’s he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. But here in Revelation 13:9 it says plainly, “if anyone has an ear let him hear.”

Why is the church not mentioned? Answer? Well, the church is already gone. The church isn’t around. The church by this point, has been Raptured. There would be no purpose in mentioning the church here. The church in the Tribulation has no need to be warned or to take heed about what is to befall the earth, because the church is already in heaven having already met the Lord in the air and they’re already gathered around His throne. But for those who are left and those who are still living through the Tribulation, they are called here to listen up, to bend their ear, to pay attention to what comes next. “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” And then come these words, in verse 10, “If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the Saints.” Remember, all that we’ve been covering tonight is part of this vision of future events which John received from Jesus while on Patmos.

And the final words of this section at least, I believe are meant to be an encouragement to those who are living and persevering in the faith during the Tribulation. Those words, if anyone is destined for captivity and if anyone kills with the sword, these words are actually aimed straight at the beast and they’re aimed straight at the one who empowers the beast, namely Satan. What is being said here with those words to captivity he goes and those words with the sword he must be killed, is that the success of the beast, this agent of evil, the success that he’s going to experience during the Tribulation, will truly be short-lived. Eventually he and Satan, the one who empowers him, will get theirs.

That’s consistent with what God has said about his vindication, his justice in both the Old Testament and the New. Deuteronomy 32:35. The same God who is allowing the beast to do what he’s doing in the Tribulation, is allowing Satan to empower the beast during the Tribulation, says this all the way back in the days of Moses. Deuteronomy 32:35, “Vengeance is mine, and retribution, in due time their foot will stumble.” This is the same God who said through the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:19, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” That same God is the same God who will be existing at the time of the Tribulation, and He is saying here He will bring his own hammer of divine retributive justice on those who oppress His people then.

So, as of this point in the Tribulation, it’s very dark, it’s very ominous, it seems like the wicked are winning out. It seems like the forces of evil will prevail. It seems like those those forces of the beast and Satan are having their day and that they’re going to win. But they won’t. Because when God’s purposes are finished, this beast that we’ve been studying this evening, like Satan himself, will ultimately be thrown into the fire. Listen to these words from Revelation 19:20, “And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who did 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 (meaning the Antichrist and the false prophet) were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.”

That’s the final destination of the beast that we’ve been studying this evening. The captor will one day go into captivity, the one who has lived by the sword will ultimately die by it as he spends eternity in a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Hence these final words of encouragement in verse 10. “Here is the perseverance and the faith of the Saints.”

Well, the perseverance of those Tribulation-era Saints is going to be rooted in the same truth in which our perseverance is rooted, as church-age Saints. That is, it will be rooted in faith. Faith that in the end, the Lord will be victorious, the Lord will prevail. God wins. Let’s pray.