Revelation 13

Revelation 13 … We’re still in a portion of The Revelation that is a descriptive interlude, providing amplification without advancing the timeline. This will describe the second three  and  a  half  year part of the seven-year Great Tribulation. The symbolic representation is apparent, telling of two beasts with 10 and 2 horns respectively, and the ever-present dragon, representing Satan. We need to recall that this is all about things that will occur in the future, after the Church is raptured, when Christian influence and more importantly the influence of the Holy Spirit is taken out of the world. We’ve already seen some of the devastation that occurred in the first three and a half year increment. Now, in the second increment of forty-two months (13:5), Satan is fully in charge and puts the “beast,” probably the Antichrist, in charge, giving him full authority and empowerment to create one world government, one world religion (obviously a satanic religion), and one world economy. This is a dark, dark time in the end-time sequence of events, and indicates that anyone who is found faithful to God in this time will by martyred (v.7), leaving only those who deny God to live through this time and they survive by being thoroughly sold out to Satan. The second “beast” (v.11) is elsewhere called the “false prophet” (Revelation 16:13 for example), and he creates the prevailing satanic one-world religion using terroristic enforcement tactics (v.15). A part of that enforcement included the branding of everyone with the infamous “666” number, without which no one could participate in the economy that is needed for survival. This is a terrible time of oppression and control by a corrupt world government.