Third Look at Antichrist (Rev. 13:1-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/20/2015 10:27 AM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  Third Look at Antichrist

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Rev. 13:1-10

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. 2 This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority. 3 I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery-but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast? ‘they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?’’  5 Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. 6 And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his temple-that is, those who live in heaven. 7 And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. 8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made-the Book that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered. 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. 10 Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful (NLT).”

            We will look at the last of three introductions to both chapter 13:1-10 of Revelation and these introductions have shown us a preview of who the Antichrist is by looking at, in the last two Spiritual Diaries verses from the OT prophet Daniel, but in today’s SD we will look at verses from the pen of both Paul and John and who also were describing the Antichrist in their letters they wrote.  We will also look at what our Lord said in His Olivet Discourse from Matthew 24:15-16:  “15  "Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16  then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.”  Jesus is quoting the prophet Daniel in this section, and what He is quoting happens when the Antichrist goes into the temple and blasphemes God there by declaring himself as God, so Jesus is saying when you see this to leave Jerusalem for this will be the beginning of great trouble for the Jews.

            We will now look at a rather long passage from the pen of Paul to the Thessalonians from 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10.  Just a bit of background on this section and that is there were some false prophets who either sent letters to the Thessalonians of spoke to them saying that “The Day of the Lord” was happening at that moment.  Paul’s refute of this is that if this were the case then the Antichrist would be in power and then he goes on to explain some things about the Antichrist to his readers.  “  3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4  who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”  We see in this section of Scripture that Paul describes his character “man of lawlessness” and the “son of destruction.”  We also see his career described “takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”  This means that he will break is covenant with Israel, the covenant that put the seven year Tribulation into motion.  We also see how he is destroyed by the Lord at His second coming, something we will look at in chapter 19 of Revelation. 

            We have said that this is the most detailed description of Antichrist found in the Word of God in Revelation chapter thirteen we have also seen glimpses of him in earlier chapters.  “When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them (Rev. 11:7).”  In chapter twelve we saw recorded the beginnings of Satan’s long war which is against God and also His people, and so chapter 13 logically follows which records that war’s culmination.  Chapter 12 shows Satan thrown out of heaven and chapter 13 he is described as beginning his massive effort on the earth to try and defeat God and His purposes of caring for His people so that there will be a millennial kingdom, for if Satan destroys all of God’s people then there will be no millennial kingdom.

            Sometimes we forget that Satan is a spirit and no a man running around in a red suit with horns on his head and a pitchfork in his hand.  By being a spirit he depends on man to work his dirty work on this earth.  All we have to do is look at some of the world leaders from the past and we can see how Satan used them against God’s people by having many of them killed.  In the last century between Hitler, Stalin and some of the other dictators they had around one hundred million people killed and it does not take too great of an imagination to understand that Satan was behind all of those killings.  This information, at least part of it came from a book that I am reading by Dr. David Jeremiah “I Never Thought I Would See the Day.”

            Not all of Satan’s people are possessed by demons, but some are and for sure the Antichrist will be possessed by a very powerful demon as we will learn later on in this chapter, but we have explained that there are only two types of people on earth, those that belong to Satan and those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, so Satan has many people to work with. 

            In Luke 22:3 we read these words “And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.”  Satan used Judas to betray our Lord as this verse says that he entered into Judas to accomplish this.  Satan is no match for our Lord Jesus Christ as seen when He was on earth for we see in the gospels that Jesus cast on many demons from people who were demon possessed and according to Mark 3:14-15 He gave this power to His disciples “14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons.  

            John MacArthur ends his introductory commentary with the following paragraph:  “Having been cast permanently from heaven (12:9), Satan will know that the time remaining to him is brief (12:12).  To lead his last, desperate onslaught against God, he will empower his final Antichrist.  The opening verses of this chapter reveal seven features of this ultimate dictator: his ancestry, authority, acclaim, adoration, arrogance, activity, and admirers.”  This gives us an idea of what we will be looking at in our next Spiritual Diaries. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have mentioned a book that I have read sometime back written by Warren Wiersbe entitled “The Strategy of Satan,” and in that book we see ways that Satan works in the lives of people.  We see how Satan will work in the lives of people during the Tribulation Period and we can learn from both sources so that we can avoid those ways in our lives.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to live in the love of Christ today.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mesopotamia” (Acts 7:2-3).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was told that he must witness in Rome?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/20/2015 11:12 AM

           

PT-2 of Introduction to Rev. 13 (Rev. 13:1-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/19/2015 8:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 of Introduction to Rev. 13

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:    Revelation 13:1-10

            Message of the verses:  “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. 2 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. 3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; 4 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?" 5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 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. 8 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. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 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.”

            We continue to look at who the Antichrist is by looking at different verses from the book of Daniel.  We will begin this SD by looking at Daniel 8:23b-25 which gives us another glimpse of the Antichrist and his reign of terror:  “A king will arise, Insolent and skilled in intrigue. 24 “His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree And prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. 25 “And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; And he will magnify himself in his heart, And he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, But he will be broken without human agency.”  We can see the character of the Antichrist in these verses, but we must remember that this happens “not by his own power” as stated in verse 24, for his power comes from Satan.  We also see his doom when we read that he will “oppose the Prince of princes” which is the Lord Jesus Christ and when this happens we read that “he will be broken without human agency.”  The Lord will take care of his demise. 

            Next we will look at Daniel 9:26 which speaks of the 70 week prophecy or as we have mentioned before the verse means seventy sevens so that makes the total prophecy 490 years, and in verse twenty-six we will see that the Antichrist is the “prince” to come.  “"Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”  Let us also look at verse 27 “"And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."”  This shows that Antichrist is the prince to come and that he will make a covenant with Israel for seven years (one week) and in the middle of the week, or after three and a half years he will then begin to show his true colors and that portion is called the “Great Tribulation.”  It begins with him going into the rebuilt Jewish temple and actually will go into the “Holy of holies” and perhaps will sacrifice a pig of something showing that he believes himself to be God.

            Now we have to look at another important passage from the book of Daniel and it is perhaps the most difficult chapter to understand, that is chapter eleven, but we will look at verses 36-45 “36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done. 37 “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all. 38 “But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures. 39 “He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over the many, and will parcel out land for a price. 40 “At the end time the king of the South will collide with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen and with many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them and pass through. 41 “He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. 42 “Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. 43 "But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels. 44 “But rumors from the East and from the North will disturb him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many. 45 “He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.”  My Spiritual Diaries on this section can be found by looking at Jan. 7, and Jan. 9, 2014.

            John MacArthur writes the following “According to this prophecy, Antichrist will have absolute power; he ‘will do as he pleases.’  As the leader of the worldwide false religion, he ‘will exalt and magnify himself above every god…He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers…nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all’ (vv. 36-37).  Worse, his arrogant pride will lead him to blasphemy, and he ‘will speak monstrous things against the God of gods.’  Like his evil master, Satan, Antichrist will be blasphemous, profane, and proud.  But also like his master, ‘he will come to his end, and no one will help him.’”

            We have more places to look in the Bible about descriptions of Antichrist and we will do that in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Lord has shown us in different places about who the Antichrist is and also what he will be doing, but most of all I am thankful for the promise that the church will not have to go through the time when he rules as we will be in heaven.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord by showing mercy to others, who like me do not deserve it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Joshua” (Joshua 6:26).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Stephen say Abraham was when God called him?”  I will give you a hint by saying that the meaning of the answer is “land between the rivers.”

Answer in our next SD.

6/19/2015 9:36 AM 

Introduction to Revelation Chapter Thirteen

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/18/2015 8:41 AM

My Worship Time                                         Focus:  Introduction to Revelation Chapter Thirteen

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:

            Message of the verses:  We will begin to look at the introduction to the 13^th chapter of the book of Revelation, remembering what we stated earlier about chapters 12-14 that they go back and look at the Tribulation Period through the moving of the Antichrist as the first eleven chapters were seen from the prospective of God.

            I want to copy and paste the first ten verses of chapter thirteen:  “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. 2 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. 3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; 4 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?" 5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 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. 8 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. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 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.”

            As we look at the world today we see that the darkness is growing ever so much darker.  When the things begin to happen that we have learned about in the Tribulation Period people will want to find a leader to lead them through those terrible times and a leader will emerge, a leader that we know as the antichrist.  The Bible has much to say about the antichrist from the writings of Daniel in the Old Testament to the writings of Paul and John in the New Testament, but in chapter 13 we see the most information given about this man that is given in one place in all of the Bible.  They say that you had better make sure what you wish for is what you truly want for there are times when you get what you wish for and then you wish you hadn’t gotten it and that will be the case with the antichrist a man that we saw who was riding the white horse that represented peace in the first seal judgment, but will change his spots when we look at him in this chapter and other chapters we will go over too.  John MacArthur writes “This man, often called the Antichrist, will be the culmination of a long line of would-be world conquerors.  What men like Alexander the Great and the Roman emperors in ancient times and Hitler and Stalin in modern times only dreamed of doing, the Antichrist actually will do—he will rule the entire world and receive its worship”

            What is an antichrist?  Well in the broadest sense anyone who opposes God can be called an antichrist.  “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 (1 John 2:22).”  When you think about that along with what is written in John 3:36, “"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,’” you can say that the world is divided up between two types of people, those who obey the Son by accepting Him as their Savior and Lord, and those who do not accept Him.  Believers are for Christ and non-believers are against Christ.  Jesus told the Pharisees that they were like their father the devil and we can also divide the world up by saying that those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord are children of God the Father, while those who don’t have Satan as their father.  Now I am not saying that all non believers are possessed by demons or Satan, but that they belong to him.  His kingdom is darkness as Eph 5:8 says “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”

            John MacArthur writes that “The astounding description of the Antichrist presented in the opening verses of this chapter is the most gripping, thorough, and dramatic one in all of Scripture.  However, it was not new teaching to John’s readers.  John wrote in the first epistle that his readers had ‘heard that antichrist is coming’ (1 John 2:18).  After describing Antichrist and his activity, the apostle Paul reminded the Thessalonians, ‘Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?’ (2 Thess. 2:5).  Those passages indicate that the truth about Antichrist was common knowledge in the New Testament times.”   Now if they were known in the New Testament times we can be sure that the writes of the New Testament who wrote about Antichrist got their information from Daniel, a book that we have already studied a few years back. 

            We will not begin to look back at some of the verses from the book of Daniel to help us better understand who the Antichrist is.  We begin with Daniel 7:8 which reads “"While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.”  I wrote the following from my Spiritual Diary on September 7, 2014 “Now back to the subject of the “little horn.”  Dr. Wiersbe explains that this little horn is none other than antichrist and then goes on to say:  “The Greek prefix anti can mean ‘against’ and ‘instead of.’  The final world ruler will be both a counterfeit Christ and an enemy who is against Christ.  John described the appearance of this ‘man of sin’ (2Thess. 2:3) in Revelation 13:1-10.” 

“John MacArthur describes the antichrist in five ways:  1. He is a political genius as seen in Daniel 7:8.  2. He is an intellectual genius, he is brilliant.  Look again at verse eight and in verse twenty where we see Daniel speaks about his eyes and MacArthur says that “his eyes refers to insight.  They refer to intelligence, mental ability.”  3. He will be an oratorical genius.  As we look back at Hitler we know that people would just sit around and listen to him speak for he had this type of oratorical genius, but antichrist will have even more of it.  We have been fooled in this country by a man who reads a good speech on a teleprompter.  4. Antichrist will be a military genius as seen in verse twenty-three.  He will end up devouring the entire earth, and we can think of what Jesus said about what profit a man would have if he inherited the whole earth, but lost his soul.  This will surely be true of antichrist. 5. Antichrist is a commercial genius.  In Revelation chapter eighteen we can see the kind of economic system he set up from Babylon as all the peoples of the earth are crying at its destruction.  6. The last thing MacArthur has to say about antichrist is that he is a religious genius.  Remember we have been reading about him as having a mouth that speaks boastfully, well he will eventually destroy the religious system that is on the earth and has been on the earth since Cain brought his wrong offering to the Lord, (a man centered religion), and will make himself out to be god and all of the people of the earth will believe that he is god, except those who do not receive the mark of the beast, for they will have the mark of God.”  This has given us a bit more insight into who the Antichrist is.  We know that the Antichrist will persecute the people of God as we have seen in chapter 12 of Revelation, but there is more to him than that as he will also be a religious genius, that he will make up his own religion so that all the world will worship him.  Of course this religion will be a false one, but we will learn that Satan, who is behind this world ruler has always wanted to be worshiped and so he will have his day in the sun when all the world worships the Antichrist.  Daniel 11:36-37 says “36  "Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done. 37 “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all.”  2 Thessalonians 2:4 says “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”  Antichrist will not be alone in doing all of these things, but when we look at Revelation 13:11-18 we will see that he will have a partner in crime one who is called the false prophet.

We will continue looking at the Antichrist in our introduction to chapter thirteen of Revelation in our next SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When I first became a believer and began to go to a Bible believing church my pastor said that he was not looking for the Antichrist, but he was looking for Jesus Christ.  I have to agree with that statement, but nevertheless we need to know about the Antichrist which is what we will be doing as we study this 13^th chapter of Revelation.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of Christ by showing mercy and love to those who are in need of it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “At the receipt of custom or toll” or at the tax payer’s booth.  (Matthew 9:9).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho’?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/18/2015 9:48 AM

  

 

 

Satan’s Third Attack (Rev. 12:17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/17/2015 10:41 PM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:    Satan’s Third Attack

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Rev. 12:17

            Message of the verses:  “17 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” 

            We began looking at this 12^th chapter of Revelation on the 30^th of May so that makes today’s lesson day number nineteen.  This has truly been an interesting chapter to study as I have learned many things and while listening to the first message from John MacArthur on the 13^th chapter of Revelation he mentioned that it would have been better if this last verse, verse 17 would have been in the 13^th chapter, so we will have to keep that in mind when we begin looking at that chapter soon.

            As we begin to look at verse 17 we once again have to mention how mad Satan will be when it gets to this portion of the Tribulation Period.  His anger comes because of his inability to do harm to the children of Israel who have been hidden by the Lord in a place where He will not allow Satan to get to them.  Perhaps when we read “the rest of her children” that that would mean the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, but we don’t know that for sure.  Now it can also mean the Gentile believers for all true believers are the spiritual children of Abraham, and not just the physical relatives of Abraham.  What we can do is to take this statement and believe that it is an all inclusive phrase that refers to all believers.

            John MacArthur writes the following about the word “commandments:”  “Entolas (commandments) is a word used frequently in John’s writings to refer to New Testaments commands (e. g., 14:12; John 14:15, 21; 1 John 2:3-4; 3:22-24; 5:2-3).  The ‘testimony of Jesus’ is not testimony about Him, but the testimony He gave, the truths He taught that are revealed in the New Testament.  These persecuted believers will give further evidence that their salvation is real by their obedience to the truth of Scripture.”

            We have mentioned that the first two attacks that Satan has made on God’s people will fail, and so will this third attack fail too.  We have mentioned that it is Satan’s priority to stop the promises of God to be fulfilled in the Tribulation Period and also in the Millennial Kingdom, but he will not succeeded in his efforts even though many people will lose their lives who name the name of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

            John MacArthur finishes his commentary on this section by writing “For the long-suffering people of Israel, the darkest hour lies ahead.  But it will be followed by a glorious dawn.  The elect remnant of Israel, having survived the most savage persecution in the nation’s long history, will be saved and enjoy the bliss of the millennial kingdom, ‘and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written’ (Rom. 11:26).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the things that I have learned from this 12 chapter of Revelation, especially the fact that Satan will not succeed in stopping the plans of God.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to show mercy.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The high calling of God” (Philippians 3:14).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Matthew sitting when Jesus called him to be a disciple”

Answer in our next SD.

6/17/2015 11:10 PM

           

           

Attack Two (Rev. 12:15-16)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2015 10:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  Attack Two

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Revelation 12:15-16

            Message of the verses:  “15 And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.”

            The following is a fairly long quote from my Spiritual Diary dated 08-12-05 when I looked at these verses then and what I found when I looked at that Spiritual Diary was something very similar to what I want to write today.  I will add some more comments but this quote has much of what I want to say today:  “There are times in this wonderful book that it is difficult to understand for sure whether John is giving the picture of using descriptive language that is just symbolism and that is the case here, at least, for me.  The spiritual truth that I gain from this section is that God takes care of His own people not matter how much Satan tries to destroy them, and if one looks at history one can see that the Jews have been targeted by Satan ever since they were a small family living only in the Middle East. 

            “I will give only one explanation as to what the flood and the earth opening its mouth to swallow up this flood might mean.  John could well be speaking of a flood of people, or an army that antichrist will send after these Jews, and it could be that there will be an earthquake that will happen to swallow up this army that is sent to pursue Israel.  If one looks at different Scriptures from the OT there are word pictures that describe similar things.  Isaiah 59:19 “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.”  (AV)  Numbers 16:31 “ Then it came about as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground that was under them split open; 32  and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah, with their possessions.” (NASB)  Numbers 16 speaks of the rebellion of Korah and the results of their rebellion are seen in these two verses.

            “Satan became very angry when the Lord protected Israel, so he went off to cause much trouble with the rest of the offspring of Israel.  It is possible that there will be many in Israel who did not choose to go to this place where God will care for those who have gone there and so these are the ones who Satan will try and destroy.  It is also possible that Satan will be going after the “Tribulation Saints” too, and tries to destroy them.  At any rate Satan realizing how little time he has will try and destroy as many as he can.”  Now the last paragraph is mostly about verse seventeen which we will look at in more detail in our next SD.

 

            The reason that it is believed that this is a picture and not a real flood is that when Satan is described he is described as a “serpent” and we know that this is now the form that Satan is in at this time.  This term goes back to Genesis chapter three when Satan caused the serpent to speak to Eve, but at that time the serpent did not slither on the ground like they do now, that came as a part of the cruse that God put on the earth.  So if Satan is fugitively described as a serpent then the flood that is spoken of must also be fugitively too. 

           

            God sheltered Israel from the initial onslaught so there is no reason to think that He will not do the same with this attack too.  When we look at the earth drinking up the water of the flood that came out of the serpents mouth we can go back to the passage in the book of Numbers as I mentioned in the quote from my previous SD on these verses, and that tells of what God did to Korah.  Let us look at those verses at this time from Numbers 16:28-33 “28  Moses said, "By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing. 29 “If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD." 31 As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; 32  and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.”  Now as we have been looking at the book of Revelation we have seen many earthquakes and so who is to say that this is not one of those earthquakes that will swallow up the army that antichrist sends after the Jews who are hiding in the place where God sent them to protect them.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The protection that the Lord gives to Israel during this time of the Tribulation increases my faith that He will care for me as long as He will leave me on this earth.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of Christ so that I will love others as Christ loves me and extend mercy to others as Christ as done for me.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Animal Skins” (Genesis 3:21).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the mark toward which Paul pressed?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

6/16/2015 10:38 AM

 

  

 

Satan’s First Attack PT-2 (Rev. 12:13-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/15/2015 11:00 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  Satan’s First Attack PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Revelation 12:13-14

            Message of the verses:  “13 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.”

            We looked yesterday at how the Gentiles would be helping the Jewish people during this attack by Satan, as this information came from the 25^th chapter of Matthew which was a part of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse that speaks of the Tribulation period.  In today’s SD we will look at how these verses show, (especially verse 14) how God will help the Jewish people from the attack of Satan.  “The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.”  John MacArthur writes “This is figurative language that symbolically depicts Israel’s escape from Satan’s assault.  The striking imagery of ‘the two wings of the great eagle’ is taken from Exodus 19:4: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.’  God will bring Israel to safety, just as He delivered the nation from bondage in Egypt.”

            I will now give some examples from Scripture that show that “wings” symbolizes strength:  Isaiah 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”  2 Samuel 22:11 and some others I will add speak of the wings as being speed:  “"And He rode on a cherub and flew; And He appeared on the wings of the wind.”  Psalm 18:10 “He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind.”  Psalm 104:3 “He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind;” Wings also speak of protection as we will see from Deuteronomy 32:9-11 “9 “For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. 10 “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. 11 “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.”

            We will now look at a series of verses from the Psalms which also speak of wings as being God’s protection to His people:

Psalm 17:8 “Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings.” 

Psalm 36:7 “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.”

Psalm 57:1 “Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge Until destruction passes by.”

Psalm 61:4 “Let me dwell in Your tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.”

Psalm 63:7 “For You have been my help, And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.”

Psalm 91:4 “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.”

            John MacArthur writes “Eagle translates aetos, which can also refer to the griffon, or vulture (cf. Matt. 24:28; Luke 17:37).  These large birds with enormous wings-spans serve as a fitting symbol of God’s protection and sheltering of Israel.  This is not, of course, a reference to an actual eagle with literal wings; rather, it is picturesque language depicting God miraculous assistance of the woman, so that she could fly swiftly into the wilderness to her place of shelter and safety.”

            What I am about to write has been something that has been thought of for a long time, and that is where in the wilderness could it be where God will hide His people Israel for protection from the attacks of Satan.  First of all God could hide them in plain sight and He did not want anyone to harm them they would not be harmed.  However there is a place that may people believe that God will hide Israel during this last half of the Tribulation period, and people have even gone there to hide Bibles so that when Israel gets there they will know what is going on with them.  That place is Petra, and although the place is not told to us this one does make sense.  John MacArthur writes “Some have suggested the fortresslike city of Petra, carved into the rocky cliffs of Edom between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.  Approachable only through a narrow gorge, Petra was easy to defend in ancient times.  The term ‘wilderness’ does not reveal the exact location of Israel’s place of refuge, since that term is a general one often used to describe the desolate area east of Jerusalem (cf. Matt. 3:1; Mark 1:4; John 11:54).  Jesus’ warning to flee to the mountains (Matt. 24:15-16) suggests that the place of refuge will not be in the costal plain to the west of Jerusalem, or the relatively flat Negev (desert region) to the south.  More likely, it will be in the mountainous region east of Jerusalem.  Daniel 11:41 provides further evidence for that view:  ‘[Antichrist] will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand:  Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon.’  Perhaps God will spare Edom, Moab, and Ammon, ancient countries to the east of Israel, to provide a refuge for His people.”

            The rest of verse 14 speaks of God nourishing His people for “a time and times and half a time” which speaks of three and a half years as we have seen in the book of Daniel along with Revelation.  God will protect them “from the presence of the serpent.”  It is possible and perhaps highly probable that Satan will know where the Jews are hiding, but will make him nuts as he will not be able to get to them, for God is protecting them.  Why does Satan want to destroy Israel?  Well there are more than one reason, but if he could destroy them during the time of the Tribulation or even before then they would not be there to fulfill the kingdom promises that were made to them by the Lord.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the protection that God gives to me and to every believer as there is no place safer than being in the will of God.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord so that I can show love and mercy to those that need it as God brings them onto my path.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Four.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Out of what did God make coats for Adam and Eve?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/15/2015 11:49 AM 

Satan’s First Attack (Rev. 12:13-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/14/2015 10:52 PM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  Satan’s First Attack

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 12:13-14

            Message of the verses:  “13 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.”

            I think that this chapter in the book of Revelation is probably the most difficult to understand thus far in our study of this book.  When we left out last SD we mentioned that Satan was about to make three attacks on the people of Israel and in our study today we will begin to look at the first attack.  I have also mentioned that the timing of this chapter as far as when the war in heaven went on in relations to the Tribulation is kind of up in the air.  John MacArthur states in his sermon that he thinks that there is a possibility of that heavenly battle when Satan and his angels are thrown out of heaven could happen at the beginning of the Tribulation period so that Satan will then begin to bring about the career of Antichrist as he would then have three and a half years to accomplish this feat.  It is also possible that this heavenly battle happens in the middle of the Tribulation period which gives Satan only three and a half years before the return of Christ ending the Tribulation period.  There is no way to know when this will happen as far as I understand.

            In Revelation 12:6 we read “Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”  We see the reason as to why Israel (the woman) has to go into hiding in the wilderness from verses 13-14, which are our verses for today.  We have mentioned that once Satan is thrown out of heaven that he will be very angry and will begin to persecute Israel.  John MacArthur writes “The Greek verb translated ‘persecuted’ (dioko) means ‘to pursue,’ ‘to chase,’ or ‘to hunt.’  It is used in the New Testament of pursuit with hostile intent (cf. Matt. 23:34; Acts 26:11) and thus, by implication, can mean ‘to persecute.’  Here it describes Satan’s hostile pursuit and persecution of the Jews as they flee into the wilderness (12:6; cf. 12:4-7).”

            Jesus warned the nation of Israel to expect this when he was speaking on the Mount of Olives to His disciples in what is commonly called “The Olivet Discourse.”  He says the following in Matthew 24:15-22 “15 “Therefore when you see the Da 11:31  which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. 18 “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. 21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. 22 “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

            Jesus is saying to the Jews to get out of Jerusalem when they see the Abomination of Desolation, which is when the antichrist goes into the temple and does something to cause desolation there, perhaps it could be sacrificing a pig on the altar that is found in the temple.

            When we read the highlighted words from Matthew 24:22 we see the word “elect” and this speaks of both the saved Gentiles and Jews, for we know that the nation of Israel was an elect nation that God chose and that all believers are His elect.

            The Jews will be in a desperate situation at this point of the Tribulation because of this attack from Satan, but Jesus goes on in Matthew 25:31 to describe some help that will come their way.  “31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32  "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33  and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ’Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ’For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37  "Then the righteous will answer Him, ’Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ’And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ’When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ’Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” Jesus is speaking of Gentile believers who will help the Jews as they are and have been persecuted by the Antichrist and his regime.  It seems to me that when Jesus judges the nations and He speaks to what He calls the “sheep” those who are saved coming out of the Tribulation period, that they will not know how helpful they have been to the Jews, but Jesus will reward them for their kindness to the children of Israel.  We will continue looking at this first attack on the Jews by Satan in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:   I heard a wonderful sermon on mercy at our church service this morning and when we look at what Jesus tells what those Gentile believers did for the Jews in the Tribulation period we see a good definition of what Biblical mercy is all about.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and as I live in the love of Christ I desire to be more merciful to others.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Joash” (2 Kings 11:1-3).

Today’s Bible question:  “How many of Paul’s epistles were written to individuals?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/14/2015 11:27 PM