I originally planned to come into tonight saying as we conclude our study on the doctrine of the Antichrist. I will not begin like that with the exception of just telling you that's how I plan to begin. But I changed that plan sometime today. We have studied quite a bit as it relates to the doctrine of the Antichrist. And along the way, we've not only seen God point us to what is coming in the future, but even as we've studied who the Antichrist is, as he's depicted in the scriptures, we've gotten to see the beauty of who Christ is against the backdrop of such ugliness. We've studied Daniel 7. We've studied Daniel 9. We've studied Daniel 11. We've referenced, and it might be in one of the teachings recorded, but we talked about Jesus speaking about the abomination of desolation with respect to the Antichrist, like in Mark 13, for instance. We studied 2 Thessalonians 2, and now we come to the final book of the canon and what that book has to say about this individual, the Antichrist. Now, as I told you before, and I'll say it again tonight, The Antichrist, that title, is only found in one place in the New Testament. The word Antichrist is found in two books of the New Testament, in 1 John and in 2 John. But in 1 John, that's where that title that seems to have stuck with this individual is found. John said, you have heard that Antichrist is coming. And even now many antichrists have come. And the implication appears to be you have heard that there is one who is coming and that one will be preceded by many. That one who is coming was prophesied about in Daniel 7, yet alone other places in Daniel. That one who is coming The Apostle Paul spoke to the Thessalonians about when he was with them for only a few Sabbaths, as it seems in Acts 17, that when he was with them, he told them about things related to the Lord's coming, and he told them about the man of lawlessness who would come. So we've studied this individual, the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, the little horn, the willful king of Daniel 11, and now we come to Revelation 13, where he and his kingdom are identified as the beast. There's a lot for us to see. We're going to make our way through this text rather slowly, because I want us to soak up as much as we can, as I told you about before. And just like as we took our time through Daniel, we're going to take our time as we walk through this. Daniel 11, remember Daniel 11? We were going to talk about the Antichrist, the Willful King, and Daniel 11.36 and beyond, but I said I didn't just want to parachute down into Daniel 11.36, so we kind of took our time and we walked up to Daniel 11.36. Well, there is a sense right now in which we are parachuting down into the book of Revelation. And so as we are doing so, I wanna be all the more careful to draw things together from the book of Revelation so you can understand the interpretation that I will present to you and some different interpretations along the way to give you kind of a rounded out view of what's out there. So I turn your attention right now to verse one. Look at verse one. The verse also will be on the screen for you guys. Then I stood on the sand of the sea, And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Okay, very first thing I want you to note is a textual note. When you look at the beginning of that verse, then I stood on the sand of the sea. Earlier manuscripts, and I think the context suggests that it's not I, but it's he. So you read this this way, then he stood on the stand of the sea, and then the question becomes, who is the he? Well, you just look right back in Revelation chapter 12, and you see that he would be the dragon. the dragon, that ancient serpent of old, the devil. So the picture that I think we're seeing right here most immediately is that John, who had just had this vision about Satan as the dragon, now he sees, as better manuscripts would argue for, now he sees him, as opposed to just John being on the seashore, he sees the dragon standing on the sand of the sea. And then John says, I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. So the picture is one of Satan standing on the shore. And now whether he's just waiting or beckoning for, summoning is a word that some people use, whatever the dynamics are exactly, he's there and it's as though he's beckoning, summoning, waiting for this beast to arise. And this beast arises, interestingly, out of where? Out of the sea. Now, C has a lot of connotations, especially in the Jewish mind. And when you think of the C, you don't think of something good. Interestingly, even when there's that vision of the new Jerusalem, John says, I saw no C. See, in a Jewish mind, there are a lot of negative connotations with the C. Let me just give you some textual evidence to support that. Psalm 74, verses 13 and 14, we find that the sea, and you know this was the abode of Leviathan and sea serpents, of whom, in those verses, God has described as breaking their heads. So the sea was a place of sea serpents like Leviathan, enemies, as it were, that God slayed by breaking their heads. Well, you go on in a place like Isaiah, you got more than one reference in Isaiah that would link the sea to the nations. In Isaiah 57, for instance, verse 20, we're told, but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. A little bit earlier in Isaiah, Isaiah 17 verse 12, woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. So there's a connection between the sea and creatures like Leviathan, these dark creatures, as it were, as they're depicted to some degree in the scriptures. The nations, the restless nations. And even in Revelation 17, that's pretty apparent. We're told the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and peoples. So when you see right here that Satan is on the seashore, he's on the land as it were, he's got his feet planted. He's the one who's known as the lowercase g, God of this world. He loves having the authority that he has and things that he has as well. And there he is summoning this one or waiting for this one to come. And this one arises out of the nations. But I think it goes even deeper. because a little bit earlier, when we're first introduced to the beast, at least by the name of the beast, I think we can make a case that we see him in Revelation 6, but the first time we see the word beast used is in Revelation 11. In Revelation 11, 7, we are told that the beast ascended from the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is a reference to the abyss. So this would suggest that the beast emerges, at least it would suggest this, that the beast emerges as one empowered by demonic power. Now, one commentator, Osborne, he says, in 11.7, the beast ascends from the abyss, but here it ascends from the sea. As stated in 9.1, however, the abyss refers to the unfathomable depths of the sea, so these two images are synonymous. So I think you can make a good case for that. And I think you can nuance it a little bit, that whereas the sea could maybe represent in the abyss, doubtless, that abode of demons, right? That imprisonment place of demons where demons don't wanna go, and then the nations are kind of under the control of Satan and demons. So you can see the connection, but at the same time, you could nuance, I think, that out a little bit. This one, or this thing, I'll put it like that, this thing that arises, is described here as a beast. A beast. The word here in the Greek for that is therion. Therion. Basically means like a wild animal. That's the idea here. That this wild animal arises out of the sea. Now, one of the things that's worth noting here, two things at least. Remember when we went through Daniel? We saw how the nations, these kingdoms were described as like these animals that were kind of ravenous or kind of strange looking and so on. They weren't depicted in like beautiful ways. And here, this beast is not beautiful at all. Unless you think, you know, having seven heads and ten horns and blasphemous name on each of those heads is beautiful. This is a monstrosity. And you're going to see as I make the case a little bit later, I think this is not only connected with a kingdom, I think this is connected with an individual. So I think it's fitting here that John doesn't say, I saw coming out of the sea somebody who was about six foot something feet tall, and they had this color hair, and they had this color eyes, and so on. Because you'd be like, oh, that's interesting. This is meant to kind of provoke somewhat of a horror. It's a grotesque figure, which helps you better understand what this beast is. Something that's horrible, blasphemous, ugly, rather than just trying to fit a depiction of a given person. So I think this is very helpful. And the description is, I think, profitable to us in that regard. One thing I want you to note too, Satan stood there on the sand of the sea, he sees the beast rising up out of the sea, and then I know when some people use the word beckoning or summoning, I get that, and maybe that's what's going on, maybe he's just waiting there, but I want to remind you that ultimately the one who is in charge of the beast's arrival, the kingdom and the king that represents that kingdom, you know who that is. It's God. You remember in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses six and seven, that what restrains him and who restrains him will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way, and we saw a better understanding of that language was stepped aside. So who's ultimately in charge of the time in which this beast arises out from the sea? Is it Satan? No, it's ultimately God. The restrainer is restraining him until the appointed time that God has set. I think that's important to remember as we go through this. All right, let's get into this description here. Having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now, you might know this and you might not know this. This is a pretty familiar description. You might say, familiar of what? Or what is it familiar of? is familiar of Satan. In the very previous chapter, if you go to Revelation chapter 12, verse three, we see that that fiery dragon is described as having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his heads. So first thing I want you to note is this, the beast, there's a family resemblance. The beast is the image, you might say, of the dragon. You might say that in so many ways, as we have seen already, and as we will continue to see, in that this counterfeit unholy trinity is depicted in the book of Revelation, where you have Satan as the dragon who is like, trying to be like, the father. And you have the beast, the antichrist, the king in his kingdom that is trying to be like the son. And you have the false prophet who tries to bring glory to the beast, just like the Holy Spirit is the one who shines the light on and brings glory to the son. You have this unholy trinity. And even right here, it's as though you're supposed to know in light of the symbolism that's used here, that the beast bears the family resemblance of the dragon. And you think about that for a moment, you take a break from that ugliness, and you just think of the beauty of the true God. And you think how Colossians 1.15 tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. You think about Hebrews 1.3, where you find out that the Son is not only the radiance of the Father's glory, but He's the express image or imprint of His person. And here you have God in the sovereignty allowing, for His good purposes, this beast to come, and this beast bears the family resemblance to Satan, kind of expressed likeness to Satan. So here's one of the questions that we do well to answer. What do all these things connote? What's going on with the seven heads? What's going on with the 10 horns and the 10 crowns? So we'll kind of walk through that together. First thing I want you to know, if you have your Bible and you look back again to Revelation chapter 12, verse three, I want you to notice something. Notice the difference in where the crowns are on the dragon, as opposed to the beast. Okay, so if you go back, Revelation chapter 12, verse 3, you see that the dragon has, what, seven diadems? On where? On his head. Okay, the same word, even though diadems, they're crowns, it's the same word. Okay, but when you come to this beast, you notice that the crowns are where? on his horns. You say, well, is there any significance in that? I think so. I can't say it with definititude, but I could say it with some measure of confidence, I think. First thing I would say is this. You have, in the case of the devil, the dragon, you have seven diadems on his seven heads. You think of that number in Scripture, seven, and what do you think? Fullness. Completeness. Those are the two words that were in my mind. Excellent. Yep. So fullness or completeness. And now in the case of the dragon, he has seven crowns on his seven heads. So you get the picture of him being the one who's really in control. He's the one with authority, and we're gonna find that out a little bit later on, because he's the one that gives his authority to the beast, right? Verse two, the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And so notice it's on the heads of the dragon. So I think that's helpful to know. He's called, as we know, the lowercase g, God of this world. We know that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. 1 John 5, verse 19. But then here you see that the crowns are on the horns. And I think the idea of what's going on there is that the beast is kind of the one who is the outworking through his government administration of the dragon's power. The dragon has it. Ultimately, God is the one in control. But there's a kind of, in God's sovereignty, Satan exercises a kind of power, the lowercase g, the lowercase s sovereignty over this world. But yet that power is going to be really manifested and exercised through the ten horns of the beast. The beast is kind of like the outworking of the dragon's power. One commentator, he put it like this, that the diadems are on the horns of the beast indicates that while the dragon is the king of the evil empire, the beast is the military arm of the king. a parody of the seven horns of the lamb in 5.6. So I think that's part of the difference that we're meant to see here. As relates to the beast, one other thing I wrote and I'll just share with you, the idea is likely that he exercises his authority or the authority of the beast is expressed via 10 nations. And we'll see that as we go on a little bit further. Which by the way, remember we saw that in Daniel? And I don't know, there's a quick side note here. Just rather interesting. Sometimes if you listen to things on revelation or prophecy within the last hundred years, you often see writers, or you'll hear preachers, kind of look at current events in their own time and say, wait a minute, could this be the formation of something that we see here? One of the most popular examples of this would be the European Union. that people like watching the European Union for decades. Like, how many nations are in the European Union? How many now? Are we almost to 10? We're more than 10? Okay, what's going on here? Who's out, who's in, and so on? But I just have to say, so what I'm about to say to you, I just find rather interesting, I don't know, okay? And I haven't checked the source of the image that I saw, but nonetheless, I'm just going to put it out there. Very interestingly, supposedly, I think the origins are from the Club of Rome, I don't know, maybe like certain world leaders going back many years or people with power, who postured that it would be good to carve up the world into ten kingdoms. And at least from one image that I saw, and again, I didn't do a deep dive to say what's the official source of this and can I actually trace it back to something, very interestingly in this picture, I saw the world, from a picture supposedly from 1942, carved up into 10 kingdoms. What I found particularly interesting, in light of having just caught about two minutes or three minutes of a news conference earlier this week, where President-elect Trump was talking about Greenland and Canada, I found it very interesting that in this picture, of this map that I saw, the region of the United States was connected with Canada and Greenland. So what am I saying? There you go. Get ready. If you have that vacation, plan to take it right now or something like that. No. Which would be a bad application, by the way. A good application would be seek the Lord, draw near to Him, honor Him, and so on. That would be the right application. And do I know if that's going to actually manifest itself? Is that going to be the way it works out? I don't know. We don't have an idea. But nonetheless, I just throw it out to you because it is interesting. I want you to be aware of that. So anyway, now let's go back to this. If we look at the seven heads, the seven heads is a little bit more difficult, I think, to land on. So I'll tell you a little bit of what some have said, and I'll tell you a little bit of what I think. Some have said that the seven heads on this beast that arises are connected to seven kingdoms, sequential kingdoms that have come. Usually people say, though there are some variations to this, they say that could represent Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and then a revived Roman Empire. I'm counting with my hand because I want to make sure I didn't miss any. Some people say, you know, it's easy for us to say Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, revitalized Rome. It's easy for us to say that. But Egypt? What about Babel? Babel was a worldwide kingdom. And then some people say in response, yeah, Babel was a worldwide kingdom, but it was a small world at that point, to a degree. It was more localized at that point, that kind of reign. And these other kingdoms were diametrically opposed, at least at some point, to Israel. So it would be maybe better to have those kingdoms. I like that better. I'd lean towards that. So I'd lean towards the listing that I just gave you. However, there's something else that I'm kind of drawn to at the same time. If you count the heads of the beasts in Daniel 7, you know how many you come up with? Seven. You go through that first beast that represented Babylon, one head. You go through the beast that represented Medo-Persia, that bear that was raised up on one side, one head. You get to the leopard that represented Greece, four heads. And then you get to Rome, that Roman beast, and then the revitalized empire kind of put in there. So one of the things that makes that attractive to me is because when you look ahead, where is John going? He's going to give us a description that incorporates these images from Daniel chapter 7. So I find that rather interesting. One of the things that both those interpretations have in common, it's as though the heads, to some degree or another, are the kind of culmination of anti-God, totalitarian power that has existed at some point or another in this world. So both of those interpretations have that in common. Not to mention, you gotta say the heads, the horns, they are connoting power to some degree, right? If you saw a beast with 10 heads, it's gonna be a hard beast to take out. You take out one head, you still got six other to deal with. So it's connoting at face value power. If you look at the horns, horns in the scriptures are related to nations, more about that in a moment, but they also connote power. So I think if we're just looking at this, part of what we wanna say is that John is seeing this beast, and we wanna say everything that we're seeing is connected with this beast, And this beast is powerful. This beast is, in many ways, the collection of these anti-God regimes and powers that have existed. We're going to see that in the very next verse. Ten horns. I want to remind you of this. This calls to my mind Daniel chapter 7. Remember that fourth beast? Remember he had ten horns? Remember that little horn that was the Antichrist? Rose up among the ten? Then he put down three of them? Well, ten horns, I would argue, is describing here what it described there. In Daniel, this is what it described. Daniel said that the beast had 10 horns. Daniel 7, verse 7. And then later we are told, the 10 horns are 10 kings who shall arise from this kingdom. Daniel 7, verse 24. Now watch this. This is very important. Revelation 17, verse 12. The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings. Watch this. who have received no kingdom as of yet. That will affect your interpretation of Revelation. If you say the 10 horns on this beast are 10 rulers who haven't received the kingdom yet. So if you try to tie everything in the book of Revelation to John's time and you overlook Revelation 17, 12, you're acting as though they have received the kingdom yet. But the scripture says they haven't received the kingdom as of yet, but they received their authority for one hour. as kings with the beast. You know what that suggests, that kind of language? One hour, a brief time. 2,000 years would not be one hour. See, this is pointing to a moment, and if you're gonna have a proper interpretation of the book of Revelation, you're interweaving this all together. So if I just start telling you that these 10 horns represent these Roman emperors who have come, and I kind of choose some, and I leave out others, and I footnote what I'm saying to you, and then I don't include Revelation 17, 12, you're gonna think those 10 horns represent people who have already received the kingdom. Revelation 17, 12 says, the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have received no kingdom as of yet. But they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. This language also is somewhat reminiscent of Daniel chapter two, right, where at the end, the bottom of that statue, That represented Babylon and the Medo-Persia, and then Greece with the thighs, and then down to Rome. The 10 toes could represent, it's not as clear as Daniel 7, but maybe, could represent the 10 nations. And on these horns, 10 crowns, we talked about authority, pretty cool. Note this, by the way, when Jesus comes, remember part of the description of our Lord? How many crowns is he wearing? I don't know. Scripture says many. Many crowns. He's the one with real authority. Beautiful. Okay, last note here before we move on. And on his head's a blasphemous name. George Eldon Ladd, in his commentary on Revelation, he said the following, The man of lawlessness, 2 Thessalonians 2.4, opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Here, the beast wears the name of deity upon his head, demanding the worship of men, reference to verse 4, Revelation 13.4. So I think it's a good way to connect that image with the beast and what he's going to demand, which is that's going to be blasphemous. Because if you demand worship, you are asserting that you are God, and we know that the man of lawlessness will do that. And that brings us to verse two. Verse two, John says, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard. What does that remind you of? Daniel 7, what kingdom? Greece. His feet were like the feet of a bear. What kingdom does that remind you of? Medo-Persia. And his mouth like the mouth of a lion. Reminds you of what kingdom? Babylon. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and his authority. So one of the things I want you to see here is that this beast looks very weird. It'd be very difficult to draw this beast and say, how am I going to draw this beast? You know, okay, maybe like a leopard. I'm not sure exactly what I'm keeping like a leopard. He's going to have feet like a bear. Maybe I could pull that off. Mouth of a lion. I guess I could pull that off. But at the same time, when I look back to verse one, I know that he's got seven heads, 10 horns, and 10 crowns. So it's probably not the best exercise to try to draw this. If the Lord wanted you to know exactly what John saw, you'd have an image to behold. But you can get the message from what you're seeing. This beast incorporates elements of these kingdoms. The kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of Persia, the kingdom of Greece, Medo-Persia. You say, well, what's the dynamics that it incorporates? I don't know. I'd go back to Daniel 7. And I'd say there's a certain regality, a certain lowercase m worldly majesty, like Babylon had with having also the wings of an eagle. I'd say there was a kind of ferocity, like the bear that was raised up on one side with ribs in its mouth. It's going to have that kind of ferocity. I say there's a swiftness, a rapidity with which it conquers the world like that leopard that had four heads and wings and so on and just depicted the rapid rise of Alexander the Great's kingdom. That's what I would say the connection is. Now this is what I want to say. This is a little bit of an excursus I want to take because I think it's helpful for you. It's because of this right here. this connection to previous kingdoms that many people that I love and are washed by the blood would say, the beast is not an individual. The beast is simply a government. a governing authority, a totalitarian kind of worldwide rule. That's what the beast is. And they would say, look, those beasts represent what? If somebody was listening to me and they didn't want to hear me finish making the argument, they could rudely interrupt and say, see, you just did it. You said it represented Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece, those images of animals. Those are kingdoms. And so what I would want to say is, I would want to say this. I'd want to say, if we went back to Daniel 7, you'd see that kings, were intimately tied to the kingdoms they represented. But then let's look in Revelation as well. But first, just to give you this, I'm gonna give you some quotes from some commentators, a couple here, but it can go beyond that. I've heard it on audio, I've read it in commentary, so here are a couple of examples. One commentator, Smalley, he's quoting Mounts in his quote. The beast is a symbol of perpetual deification of secular authority. Even more, he represents the powers of evil which lie behind the kingdoms of this world and which encourage in society at any moment in history, compromise with the truth in opposition to the justice and mercy of God. Okay, so the question we then have to ask is, is this beast a symbol of a final kingdom and its king? Or, as Smalley says here, and representing Mounce's position as well, the beast is a symbol of perpetual deification of secular authority. William Hendrickson, he says the following, world dominion directly against God's people, wherever and whenever it appears in history, that is the beast. Note that last line. So he's telling you what his position is. He's saying world dominion directly against God's people, wherever and whenever it appears in history, that is the beast. So if you're taking that at face value, you'd say, this beast does not represent, according to his interpretation, then a final kingdom in so much, at least not as much as it represents perpetual tyranny directed most immediately towards the people of God. And I just would want to say, do you think that? I'm going to say, I don't think that. A, I don't think it's right to just limit this beast that John is seeing to just government or secular authorities arrayed against people of God. I think as we go through the text of Scripture in this chapter and in other chapters, we're going to see that there's a king that is also represented in this beast as well. And also, I'm going to say, I think if we just stuck with the text, we'd have to say this is really eschatological. And yes, does this beast have elements incorporating Babylon and Medo-Persia and similarities? Yes. Do totalitarian governments have elements of similarity? Yes, undoubtedly. But to just say that's all that this is saying, I think is the problem. I think this is much more pointed than that. Okay, well, let me make the case for you all. One of the reasons why I'd say that is because if we went to Daniel chapter seven, verse 17, we would find that Daniel was told, those great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which arise out of the earth. So were they kingdoms in Daniel chapter seven? Yes. As a matter of fact, the angel who told Daniel that, in Daniel 7.17, those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. He says in Daniel 7.23, the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on the earth. The Scripture's telling you. The beast and the king of the kingdom are so connected together. So when you saw Babylon, you thought of Nebuchadnezzar. When you saw Medo-Persia, you thought of Cyrus. When you saw Greece, you thought of Alexander the Great. When you see that fourth monstrosity in Daniel chapter 7, you think of the little horn, you think of the man of lawlessness, you think of the Antichrist, that's who you think of. Because the king is intimately connected to the kingdom. Furthermore, if we just went through this passage in its entirety, Revelation 13, you'd see things like this, the beast will be worshiped. Look at verse, I think it's verse four, and they worship the beast saying, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? Now, note that pronoun that comes across in our translations. In the Greek, that's duner. So it's still talking about a beast. So you can't use that to make the case and say, it very clearly says him, so that's the end of the discussion. It's not the end of the discussion. But the idea I would argue is when people worship, do people usually worship like governmental entities in a vague way? Is that the pattern we see in history? Or do people usually focus their worship on an individual? Just think of Rome. Right? It wasn't just like, we worship Rome in some sort of general way. It was connected with worshiping a Caesar. Kaiser est curios. Curios. Caesar is Lord. Domitian, I believe it was Domitian, who wanted to be called Lord and God. So I would say, just even in light of that, that this one is going to receive worship, that would make it more likely an individual, just on the basis of that fact alone. Not only that, but then you connect it with what we already know in other places of Scripture. We know in 2 Thessalonians, Chapter two, that the man of lawlessness is going to oppose all that is called God and is worshiped. He's going to sit in the temple of God, showing himself, pretending, manifesting to the people as though he is God. Okay. Furthermore, you go on in Revelation 13, you find that there's going to be an image of the beast. Is this going to be just some vague image of totalitarian power? No. Because this image is going to have a mouth. Remember, the false prophet's going to make the image of the beast speak. It's going to have a mouth. And I think, again, the idea is that there will be an individual who is going to be worshipped. I saw an article, it's on an online magazine website that I hadn't seen before, so I don't know, I'm not vouching for it, I'm just telling you an article that I saw. It's from Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights, and they had a 2019 article entitled, Is Mao Zedong Becoming the Main Deity in China? This was from 2019, I believe, or 2000, I think it was 2019. The author stated, in the new communist China, Mao worship seems to be on the rise again, as new Chairman Mao statues are erected to worship him instead of Buddhist or Taoist deities. And sadly, on the website, there was a video dated back to December 26, 2018, the 125th anniversary of Mao's birth. And you saw people bowing before statues of Mao. Video, it's like one minute and 26 seconds long, something like that. People were bowing before the statue, offering incense before the statue, paper offerings, they're kneeling and so on. And again, I just think when you're thinking of worship and an image of a man, you'd say, we're not just talking about totalitarian power excluded from an individual that represents that totalitarian power. I think that's what we see in history. I think that's what we see in Daniel 7, that Kings are connected with kingdoms. We know the man of lawlessness is going to receive and demand worship. Furthermore, if you look at the Mark of the Beast, a little bit later on in Revelation 13, we're told that the Mark of the Beast, particularly the number, is the number of what? The number of a man. It's the number of a man. We can talk more about what that is and the different interpretations of what that means. Does it just mean, you know, six creaturely as opposed to seven fullness? The more common understanding has been that a name will equal 666 using letters that equal numbers and so on. But we can go into that, Lord willing, more down the road. And finally, last point I want to make. What am I trying to do right now? I'm trying to tell you that though you have people who are great brothers and may write books and have footnotes, that doesn't mean a case is persuasive. Because you'd want to have all these points to say when you hear them say that. When you hear them say, this is totalitarian government. That has always been against the people of God whenever there's been worldwide dominion. You want to say, what about this point? And this point? And this point? And this point? And this point? And this point? Because all these points for me make me think that that's a wrong interpretation. To just limit it to that. Final point would be this. When Jesus returns, who's getting thrown into the lake of fire? The beast, he's getting thrown in, and the false prophet are getting thrown in. Now, if we just say the false prophet represents simply, simply represents, I think there's a way in which he's the front man for religious apostasy in the last days. And I think the beast is the front man for secular apostasy or just secular totalitarian tyranny against the people of God. No doubt, front man, connected to it. But to just say that it's limited to that would mean that Jesus, when he returns, he's going to throw an anti-God government into the lake of fire? I just don't think it lines up. I think we're talking about an individual. So for those reasons, that's why I say that. And I hope that just gives you an example. I'll stop shortly, but I hope that just gives you an example of how I'd want you to think critically. Because you can hear people make cases, and it sounds persuasive. It's like the proverb says, that someone who makes their point, they sound like they have a good point until somebody else comes and examines them. And those are reasons why I just don't think those points are persuasive, though I love my brothers who are washed by the blood. but nonetheless. All right, last point I'll make for tonight, and then we'll go into time of Q&A and some back and forth, and we can even look ahead to what we'll cover in the days ahead, but right now, look at the end of verse two. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. Does this call to mind anything for you all? The dragon gives him his power, his throne, and great authority. It's called to my mind the offer that Satan made to Jesus during the temptations in the wilderness. Now, I don't know of any exchange. We don't have an exchange where there was a deal made between Satan and this one who would be the beast. Well, we don't have that in the scriptures. We don't have like a conversation and so on. Movies may depict those kinds of things, but we don't have that. But we do know that Jesus was offered the kingdoms of this world. Remember that Satan, after showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you. and their glory for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish. In Luke chapter four, we see that. I think we see here somebody who's willing to do what basically all of us would be willing to do if not for the grace of God. If you had the opportunity to receive this kind of power, that you had military might behind you, and you could force people to worship you, and you could break those who wouldn't, please know, apart from the Spirit of God, you would take it. How scary is that? But our Lord didn't take that. Our Lord didn't take the easy way out. Instead, what did our Lord do? He didn't bow, because Satan in that context said, I'll give you all this if you worship me. And Jesus wouldn't do it. There was no easy road for our Lord. The road to glory was a road of suffering. Before the crown would come the cross. Jesus was not going to bypass the cross before the crown. And let me just stop here by saying this, already you could begin to see the contrast between the beast and our Savior. Our Savior has all authority on heaven and earth that's been given to him, and he didn't receive it from the dragon. He received it from the one who truly has it, his heavenly Father. And our Lord said, after he conquered death and rose from the grave, he said, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. And the way he got that was, of course, he was always truly God, but he was the captain of our salvation that was made perfect through sufferings. And the one who took on human flesh humbled himself to the lowest place, and as a consequence, the God-man was raised up to the highest place as the God-man, humbled himself to the lowest place, and was given a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.