Revelation 13:10-18 (a second beast)

10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17 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.

18 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.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving Your Son the Lamb for us and for all that You've revealed to us in Your Word, including Your warnings to us on sin and Your instruction on Your good and acceptable and perfect will for us. Help us to know You and Your Son and Your Holy Spirit better through our study of Your Word, and help us especially in the study of this book of Revelation that You've given us. And strengthen Your Church, including all of Your missionaries, pastors and church leaders, and all those being persecuted for Your Son's name, including in North Korea, China, Africa and Muslim lands, and Christians here who have lost their jobs for not compromising on Your Word, and keep Chinese leaders from corrupting Your Word in Chinese-language Bibles and help believers in North Korea and China, including children, to know You and meet in the truth of Your Word. Help us also as we face living in this time and place which is more and more rejecting Your Son and in which evil is so often called good and good evil, lies are called true and the truth called lies, and false accusers abound, as Satan's temporary grip on this world is increasing, and in which coldness is growing in many churches and those with the spirit of the tare and the spirit of the hireling so often have the loudest voices. Help us also to take the beam out of our own eye before trying to remove the moat from the eyes of others and to follow Your direction on how we are to live each day, not depending on our own sight or own understanding or own strength but on You, and help, too, our leaders in the world, including the Trumps and Pences, and help our nation also so that many hearts here turn back to You and many more souls are saved. We also pray for those possessed or oppressed by demons, those oppressed by man, the falsely accused and falsely convicted, those who serve and protect others, the poor and the homeless, and those addicted to substances. And also help and protect children who are being abused and children in the womb and those fighting to protect them. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

That’s something to consider. But shouldn’t it be worldwide?

I also remember reading that this verse can be interpreted as “the number of man,” without the “a.” I do believe that it likely also refers to a specific man to be revealed, but it also makes sense that “666” could be the number of man, or of men, in a sense. A three-digit number corresponds to a trinity, and there is the Satanic “trinity” of the dragon and the two beasts. There is also the body, soul and spirit of man. The antichrist spirit would try to replace the true Trinity of God with one that makes man into a god, or 666.

I interpret this to be the pope, the false prophet. The Antichrist will most likely be a Muslim from the old Assyrian Empire region. Do a word search on "the Assyrian" to get a description of the Antichrist. The Pharaoh that forgot Joseph was an Assyrian that drowned the babies trying to kill Moses. In Daniel you can find out he doesn't like women, has an eye put out and a withered hand. He speaks blasphemous words and believes in military power. It says he doesn't follow the religion of his fathers. The false prophet will most likely be a pope that tells the world this is the one we've been waiting for. He will do magic tricks by the power of Satan. By the pope telling the RCC that this is Jesus returned, about a billion RCC's will follow him as they are left behind with the church at Thyatira. The only church that escapes the Beast is the church at Philadelphia. They will be Raptured before the first seal is opened, which is the revelation of the Antichrist. The church of Brotherly Love will be in the throne room with the Lamb.

You started with the "patience of the saints" verse, which speaks of preppers that believe they have enough beans and bullets to make it the 7 years of Tribulation. You won't be able to murder people for food or rape your neighbors daughters and call yourself Christian. In fact, if you don't share your food with others, you won't be showing brotherly love. That is what is called "patience of the saints". What God is saying is at some point, in a lawless time, the saints will live in sin and they would do better to just give up and keep their works to go to Heaven. You can die to your flesh now or die in the flesh later, but you will give up your life for Christ at some point. Many Christians will be left behind to face the Beast and beheading. Only the virgins with extra oil in their vessels will be Raptured.( Mat 25) Sitting in your Lazy Boy waiting for Christ to call is NOT going to qualify you for the Wedding Feast. A foolish virgin is a pew sitter waiting to be rescued. We must die to our flesh and live for Christ. For the Whore of Babylon, they must come out of her Rev 18:4, or receive the plagues of the unbelievers. The Roman church will be required to repent and leave or suffer with the lost.

It is worldwide now, albeit in somewhat different versions. As for other meanings, that would be in keeping with the multiple meaning (shadow picture) nature of prophecy.

The main thing here is that I believe many prophecies, such as the one in question which many are waiting to be fulfilled, may already be fulfilled.

And the end of this age may nearer than some imagine.

Beasts are primarily governing entities, whatever foundation they're built on (e.g. kingdoms, republics, democracies, socialist, communist, theocracies, etc), IMHO, and that of others.

There are some who believe "666" represents Islam and the wounded beast, the fall of the Ottoman caliphate and it's revival, which we're witnessing now.

I'm clueless about the antichrist, but think "THE false prophet" may have been Mohamed.

Anti-Christ will come out of the European Union...The book of Daniel establishes with certainty that a unified Europe will rise in the end times out of the ashes of ‘the old Roman Empire’... a ten-nation alliance will emerge from Europe .... The Antichrist will then come up among this ten-nation union.

You will references as written in Daniel.....

The last Gentile world empire will be a confederation of nations (2:41-43) that will arise out of the old Roman Empire (7:7-8). And out of that confederation, the Antichrist will arise, using the revived Roman Empire as his base to conquer the world (7:8, 23-25). But this final Gentile empire will be short-lived, for it will be suddenly crushed by the return of the Messiah who will “set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed” (2:44).

Also the Vatican is playing a major role in the creation of the new European Empire, and Catholic social values, the so called “Christian Socialism” are at its heart. The present Pope has ‘repeatedly’ called for religious unity in Europe.

The old Roman Empire was also in N. Africa and the ME. In Daniel, if you look at the Metal Statue Daniel interpreted, It starts with Babylon,Persia, Greek, Rome, and what I call Rome- 2. The Jews were under the control of all of the previous empires except the old Assyrian Empire. Rome was at some time over all of the previous empires, as well as The Assyrian. All of the later day empires have ruled over Israel except the Assyrian. He will be the short horn that comes up in Daniel.

I'm not in front of my notes right now and don't relish the idea of looking up the verses involved, but if you do a word search for "The Assyrian" in Scripture, it always describes the Antichrist.

I believe in "types and shadows" in Scriptures, so Nimrod was the first type of the AC, the Pharaoh that forgot Joseph was another. Isiah 52 speaks of this Pharaoh and names him the Assyrian. Before this man, Joseph was 2nd in command of Egypt before this Pharaoh took control. If you look at the verses that speak of The Assyrian, they all have to do negatively with ruling Israel. I know the general accepted view that the AC will come out of Europe, but the Roman Empire was bigger than just western Europe. The Roman Empire consisted of all of Europe and the ME around Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and Northern Africa.

Having said all that, it is common for people to confuse verses about the False Prophet with that of the AC. The false prophet almost has to be the pope from the Vatican from Rome from Scriptures written. The world leader doesn't have to be Western European from the Vatican. The pope is the whore that rides the Beast. The Beast is the Antichrist. The pope will support the Beast, but is not the Beast. There is also a seed line spoken if in Scripture that implicates the seed of Esau. These people that came from Esau are generally Middle Eastern Muslims. God tells us Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated. The line of the Edomites includes Assyrians, and other ME countries, such as parts of Iran, Iraq, Libya, and others.

IMO, the religion that will make peace with Israel and be able to rule the world will be some form of Islam. It may be called "Chrislam", but it have to be accepted by the majority of the world, including Israel. The New World Order will have it's own religion, but IMO, it will be a more peaceful looking Islam. We can already see the world accepting Islam even in America. The cover of Sports Illustrated proves that.

This type of "guessing" always has it's exceptions, but just as Islam has Shea and Shiite variants, The New world religion will have to make the majority of the UN happy, including the pope. If it doesn't pass muster with Israel, how does he get into the temple to defile it? Israel will be swayed by the peace plan offered by the AC and believe this is a new type of Muslim. Scripture says he doesn't hold the beliefs of his fathers. he is gay so straight Islam doesn't work.( Dan 11:37)

The Roman Empire of course surrounded the Mediterranean...but as you see in this map the majority states were in what's now Europe, which was where the Power of Rome was seated......and we know the anti-Chirst will come out of a European ten league nation, which three of those will be pushed out.

In time Russia, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Algeria,Turkey will form an alliance......and as Ezekiel 38:5 tells us the first ally Russia will have is “Persia.” But until 1935, of course, Persia was the legal name of the country we know today as Iran. So we know that Russia and Iran will build an alliance to attack Israel..which Russia will go home with it's tail between it's legs to regroup for the final onslaught war....good to understand also is in the days of Ezekiel, of course, there was no Islam.........Interestingly, Egypt is not mentioned by Ezekiel as part of the Russian-Iranian alliance against Israel.

Certainly we are seeing geopolitical events unfold in recent decades and in recent years that are strikingly consistent with what the Bible describes as preparations essential for “War".....

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