Revelation 13, 11 through 18. Now I saw another beast of prey coming up out of the land, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he started to cause the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed. And he performs great signs, including that fire should come down from heaven upon the earth before the people. And he deceives my own people, those dwelling on the earth, by the signs that it was given to him to perform before the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. And it was granted to him to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should actually speak and should cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes everyone, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive marks on their right hand or on their foreheads, so that no one would be able to buy or sell who does not have the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man. His number is 666. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is intended for our edification and that you have blessed those who read, who understand, and who obey your word. And Father, that is our desire this morning. And so we pray for the illumination of your Holy Spirit, that your Holy Spirit would guide and direct my preaching, keep me from engaging in any error, and that you would enable us to rejoice in this portion of your wonderful provision of revelation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, a couple of people have suggested to me that I let you know up front what my conclusion will be before I start proving that conclusion. And I think it's a great suggestion. It's actually an elementary principle of communication of speaking, so I should have been doing this all along, and I will definitely do that. Secondly, it's been suggested that I keep some of the finer points of debate to the website, and I think that's a great suggestion, too, because too many details can lose some of the people here, but there's a balance of how much detail to leave out and how much detail to give, and you may not always agree with that balance, but the website is going to be a growing repository of material, and if you want to dig deeper, you can always go to the website. So let me try to tell you in two minutes, well maybe be generous, three minutes, who this beast from the land is. Many people treat this beast quite differently from the previous beast. And I think it's an odd, odd thing. They really shouldn't do this. If you've got two symbols, they're both called beasts of prey. The beasts symbolize something. Their heads symbolize something. Their horns symbolize something. You would expect there would be at least some similarities between what they symbolize. And yet in many of the commentaries, you do not see that to be the case. And that's especially the case when the Greek word for another in another beast is another of the same kind, not another of a different kind. There's two different Greek words for another. One is olos, another of the same kind, another was heteros. Okay, so this is a similar kind of a beast. Now, just as the first beast was primarily a demon, and we saw that explicitly stated in chapter 11, Just as it was primarily a demon and secondarily a kingdom and a current ruler, you would then expect that this beast is going to also be a demon who has human kingdom, a human ruler to influence, and it is. So what is the visible kingdom and the ruler? The beast from the land is the new form of Israel that emerged in A.D. 70 and after. The head of the beast is the political ruler, Herod Agrippa II, and I'm just going to be shortening that to Agrippa when I speak of him for the most part. And just as the horns of the first beast were demons who controlled rulers within the realm of Rome, you would expect the same to be true here as well, and it is. It's two demons who control the two religious leaders who remained after Jerusalem was destroyed, Josephus and Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. So between the head and the two horns you actually have the entire leadership of post-8070 Israel. All of the other leaders had been either killed or sold off into slavery. So these are the two most influential Pharisees who survived. Now those two framed what we now know to be modern rabbinic Judaism. Yohanan especially is credited with being the most important rabbi in modern Judaism because he single-handedly gave to us what is now known as Talmudism, a demonic religion that has created havoc over the last 2,000 years. It purports to be a lamb, to be biblical, to be God-given. But it has the breath of the dragon written all over it. It is occult through and through. Now, as I promised, I'm not going to take you through all 20 of the different theories of who this land beast is. I'm actually doing a spreadsheet and writing a paper, and we'll put that on the web for those of you who want to dig deeper. But I think just going through these verses in a systematic fashion will open it up pretty clearly. The very first word hints at a time connection with the previous section. It's the Greek word kai or and, and Pickering translates it as now, not as and, as if it's a throwaway, you know, just kind of a smooth connection when you're speaking. It's not a throwaway and. Many scholars have pointed out that the Apostle John used Hebrew grammar and grammatical rules many times, including one of the rules known as the Wow Consecutive. Wow Consecutive was just the use of the Hebrew word wow, which is their word for and, to indicate, okay, this is the next historical event. So it's showing historical sequence. And so the New King James is probably more accurate when it translates this as then. There could be debate on that. At a very minimum, this should not be taken as utterly unconnected to the previous section. So here is just a little bit of logic for you. If verse 5, if verse 5 of this chapter says that Titus was authorized to fight for another 42 months, and if that authorization was given in AD 70, which I think we clearly demonstrated over the last two or three weeks that it was AD 70, then it's likely that the timing of these verses is going to be somewhere around A.D. 70. Just from the flow of the text, that's what we would expect. And this is confirmed by several verses in this section. And bear with me, these are details I cannot relegate to the web or you're going to be totally confused. So let's just, let me read you some verses. Take a look at verse 12. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and he started to cause the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed. Now if the mortal wound was healed in 8069, which we have already seen that it was, And if verse 12 indicates he is worshiping a post-revival empire or emperor, there is no way that you can place this in A.D. 64 or A.D. 66 as so many preterists do. Second, notice that the beast exercises the authority of the first beast, and he does so, it says, in the presence of the first beast. Now we've already seen that the first beast was Rome, as represented by Israel in the land, by Titus in the land of Israel. So whatever's going on here has to be while Titus is in the land, but it also has to be after 8069, because that's when the beast is revived, right? So that narrows down the events of at least verse 12 to occurring between 69 and 8071. Now later verses could go on beyond that, but at least verse 12. Titus returned to Rome in AD 71 and he left the rest of the mopping up of the war to a general. Now take a look at verse 14. Notice the phrase in the middle of that sentence where it says that the second beast performed signs before the beast. And again, this narrows the time scale down to when Titus was actually present in the land. Because this is, this second beast is in the land of Israel. He's doing these signs in the presence of the beast. So again it's a very small window of time. These people must have done miracles either before Vespasian or before Titus. And we'll look at that later. And then finally look at verse 16. And he causes everyone, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive marks on their right hand or on their foreheads. Now again, there's a tiny window of time in which Jews ever had this happen to them. It didn't happen under Nero. It didn't happen when the empire fell apart between AD 68 and 69. It didn't happen in the second century under the Bar Kokhba rebellion. There was only one period of time when this happened, and it was between the years AD 70 and 74. That's the only time that this happened to Jews. What was going on was that the empire had fallen apart, and in order to consolidate loyalty, he required a loyalty oath of everyone in the empire. But he enforced this loyalty oath with particular rigor in the land of Israel. Why? Because Israel had been fighting against Caesar. Now, throughout the rest of the empire, this loyalty oath happened between A.D. 70 and 71. In Israel, between 70 and 74. So again, it's just another confirmation that verses 11 through 18 follow sequentially after verses 1 through 10. In other words, it's filling out what earlier he said, in A.D. 70 he's authorized to do another 42 months of warring. Okay, this is filling out what's going to happen during those 42 months. Well, if you take these timing clues at all seriously, you have almost ruled out all of the other alternative theories, just on the timing alone. I have saved you a whole bunch of work. You didn't have to go through all my arguments, right? So the timing alone shows that this has to be between 70 and 74. And many of the theories of who the second land beast were, the people are long gone by 8070, or they come up hundreds of years after 8074. So, for example, I think that Stuart Russell is wrong when he says that this is either the governor, Albinus, who was kicked out of office in 8064, way, way too early. or that it has to be Governor Flores who was kicked out of office in 1866. It's still too early. Now they were indeed wicked, wicked men, and I think the demonic was working through them as well, but they don't fit the time sequence here, and I think that what we've looked at so far would have to rule out anything that says it's hundreds of years into the future. So the timing alone pretty much settles the identification. So who is this beast? Well, he's called a beast of prey, just like the beast in verses 1 through 10 was. So we would expect that he is first and foremost a demon as well. The first one had explicitly been said to be so. Here, it's a little bit more hinted at, but look at the unusual language of verse 1. It seems to confirm this. Verse 1 indicates that this beast is coming up from under the land of Israel. It says, now I saw another beast of prey coming up out of the land. Now the Greek word for coming up is anabaino, which the dictionary defines as to be in motion upward to ascent. Now when you look through the Old and the New Testaments for any being, any rational creature that comes up from out of the earth, a rational being doing that, he's usually coming from the abyss. From, I don't know any exceptions, but from the abyss, from Hades, Sheol, they're all synonyms of the same thing. So, for example, 1 Samuel 28, 13 says of Samuel's spirit that it was a spirit ascending up out of the earth. Later that's specified to be Sheol. Likewise, Daniel 7.17 has the demonic beasts arising up out of the earth. And since exactly the same Greek word is used in other places in the book of Revelation to refer to demons who are explicitly said to come up out of the earth from the abyss, then that's a hint right off the bat that this is the case here. Now of course what's hinted at here is made explicit in the rest of this chapter because this beast is performing absolutely amazing, demonic, deceiving miracles. Where does he get that power? He doesn't get it from God. He gets it from Satan, from demonic power. And it's made even more explicit later in the book where the visible land beast is three times called the false prophet. Talmudism must be seen as a false prophet. There is no Judeo-Christian consensus. That is a myth that has been promoted by dispensationalism. The more you read of the Talmud, the more you realize that it has a major, major divergence from the Old Testament. I talked to a rabbi, actually, I took a class with him, became close enough friends where I was able to joke about these things without him getting offended. And he always was, you know, pushing his finger at me as well. But I told him one time after he had been pushing his finger enough times at me, I said, well, Dr., well, I won't say who it was, well, I think I'm more of a Jew than you are because I follow the Old Testament and you don't. And he said, no, no, no, no. What defines a Jew is the Talmud, not the Torah. Torah is the Old Testament. He said where Torah and Talmud come into conflict, the Talmud always trumps the Torah. And that's true from what I have seen in their writings. So one application of this passage is that Talmudism must be seen as a false prophet. In any case, most commentators connect the false prophet of chapters 16, 19, and 20 to either the beast as a whole or to one of his horns. There's debate amongst them. But either way, it represents the beast. And so I think it's significant that the false prophet in chapter 16 has prophetic, demonic frogs coming out of his mouth, just like the first beast has demonic frogs coming out of his mouth, and just like Satan has demonic frogs coming out of his mouth. So that's imagery to say that the demons behind these two horns are inferior demons that are at their command. It hints, by the way, at a hierarchy amongst demons. Some people wonder, how is it structured? It's structured like a kingdom. There's a hierarchy. There's a pecking order, so to speak, among demons. So I think it's fairly clear that like the previous beast, this beast is first and foremost a demon who comes up out of the abyss, and the two horns are first and foremost demons. But just like the first beast and the ten horns represent both demons and the rulers and kingdom that the demons controlled, we would expect the same to be true here, and it is. And this becomes very obvious in verses 12 through 18 where you've got a visible human influencing other visible humans to do something. Okay, in a bit we're gonna see that this human is Herod Agrippa II, but based on the image of the term beast in the first half of the chapter, we would expect that the demon is going to be behind a human king and a human kingdom, just like the first beast was. There's going to be parallelism. And just like Nero and Titus were the heads of the previous beast of prey, Rome, Agrippa was the political head of this beast of prey, Israel. All the other leaders, other than Josephus and Yohanan, were killed off or sold into slavery. Now the Greek word for the earth here is taste gaze and it confirms again We're talking about the kingdom of Israel. We're not just talking about any kingdom This is parallel again in terms of John's Hebraism to Haaretz the land that's used in the Old Testament as a reference to the land of Israel and And though the first beast came up from the abyss in the region of the west where Rome was, from the sea, this beast comes from the land of Israel, up from under from the abyss in the land of Israel. And you'd expect where those beasts come up respectively from the abyss, that's where the location of their kingdom is gonna be. That's where God has authorized them to go. Gotta remember, even demons have no permission to go anywhere without God's permission. They are bounded. God had bounded them, and later we're going to see, you know, at the river Euphrates, and then he allows them to come. So that word, the land, is repeated in verses 11, 12, 13, and 14, and I think those clear references to the land of Israel completely rule out all of those interpretations that say that this second beast is Rome or the religion of Rome. That's a very common interpretation out there. Rome did not have a deceptive appearance of a land. Not at all. Christians could spot the heresy of the Romans right off the bat. It wasn't even pretending to be biblical. And for that matter, Rome's religion was not imposed upon Israel. The only thing that was imposed on Israel was that they had to call Titus and Vespasian Lord. They had to wear his name on their hands and their foreheads. They had to bow down. They had to do obeisance to Caesar and his image. Rome actually was one of the most tolerant of countries or empires toward other religions. You could be any religion you wanted to be, so long as you acknowledged Caesar to be Lord, okay? Ptolemadism was willing to do so. Well, if the beast as a whole represents the kingdom controlled by the demon beast, and if the head represents the political ruler, then the only candidate king, visible king, that fits is Herod Agrippa II, and he fits perfectly. So the visible kingdom of the demon beast is Israel. Visible king or the head of the demon beast is Agrippa. And I want to talk about him a little bit before we go to the horns. Herod Agrippa II was a Jewish king who was the great-grandson of Herod the Great. He was a client king of Rome and exercised all the authority of Rome within his jurisdiction all the way along. He was totally loyal to Nero and then Vespasian and then to Titus, but he was a Jew. And surprisingly, in AD 70, even though a practicing Jew, he started to put blasphemous images of Caesar and blasphemous words of Caesar onto his coins, just like all of the Caesars had previously done. Why would a Jew do that? Now, he was probably asked to do so by his friend Titus, but we've got to ask, we've got to think through, why would a Jewish king who's seeking in some ways to please his subjects be willing to do this? He fought side by side with Titus, went to Rome to receive the honor of praetor for his efforts in the war, to receive additional territory to his rule. In other words, Herod Agrippa II plays an integral role in the story that John is weaving in this book. His sister was Berenice. She was the mistress of Titus. And they were very, very tight, very close. He was also very, very good friends with Josephus. And Josephus was constantly with Titus and with Agrippa, served their every need. And so Agrippa II was the head of the Beast of Prey Israel. He pretended to be a lamb-like devotee to Judaism. But it's obvious he was a tool of Rome and of the devil. Now the next clue is given in the second half of verse 1. And he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. Now a beast of prey with lamb's horns You know, horns of a lamb sounds very much like Christ's warning about prophets, false prophets coming like wolves, wolves are beasts of prey, wolves in sheep's clothing. And since we already saw that horns were demons working through rulers, we would expect the demonic power to be present in whoever it is that these horns are speaking about. And this is doubly so since the clause also speaks of the beast speaking like a dragon. That's the second hint that the demons would be speaking through Israel's leadership. So right off the bat, we get the impression that Agrippa II, the head, will have two false prophets who will do miracles and will deceive the people. And that is exactly what we find in history. The two key Jewish prophets who work hand in hand with Agrippa II, as well as serving Titus' every wish, were indeed Josephus and Yohanan. Let me give you a little bit of background of why God would consider these two to be demonic leaders. And it really is surprising when it comes to both of them. First of all Josephus was one of the ten generals who was fighting against Rome and he valiantly fought against Rome in the first part of the war and Yet when he is captured he completely turns around and he is an absolute devotee to Rome now If this demon took hold of Josephus at that time, you can understand it, but Josephus actually credits his complete reversal, which he himself recognizes is a complete reversal of his policies, he credits it to terrifying visions that he had. And those visions told him that he must do this. Now, I believe they were demonic visions, but he followed them. And from that point on, Josephus became totally devoted to Rome, best friends with Pitis. But if chapter 16 calls the two horns prophets, we have to ask, was Josephus a prophet? Yes. He not only claimed to be a prophet, but some of his prophecies are recorded in his histories. Mackenzie writes, when Josephus first made his prophecy that Vespasian would become emperor, Vespasian was understandably wary that it was a ploy by Josephus to save his own neck. It was only after Vespasian questioned other Jewish prisoners that he became convinced that Josephus really did have prophetic abilities. Vespasian was a hard-headed military man. He was not the kind to be taken in by a trick. Upon learning that Josephus truly was a prophet, Vespasian spared his life. Josephus became especially close with Titus. His dedication even led him to take on the Flavian name. Thus he became Flavius Josephus. Now, Josephus describes himself in the third person. He does that all through his histories, but here's what he says about himself. He says, he was an interpreter of dreams and skilled in divining the obscure utterances of the deity. Being a priest himself in a priestly descent, he was familiar with the prophecies in Holy Scriptures. At this very moment, he was inspired to understand their meaning, and seizing on the terrifying images of his recent dreams, he offered a silent prayer to God. So Josephus considered himself to be a prophet, to receive revelations from God, but of course We don't accept them as being legitimate revelations from God. In reality, he was possessed by a demon, was a false prophet, and as verse 11 words it, he spoke like a dragon. He was not a true believer. The unethical things that he does, even against Christians, is something that I think should make people realize that that is the case. The terrifying nature of his dreams hints at the dark side of his prophecies, and Golia Kornfeld, who's written one of the best archaeological backgrounds to Josephus, he says this about the specific prophecy of Josephus that I read. The prophecy was undoubtedly messianic. Josephus, when he mentioned it in his book, added that the Zealots interpreted it as a reference to the Messiah. Josephus was expanding the prophecy and attributed to himself the qualities of a soothsayer. So he calls his visions, things that have terrifying images. Gornfield says, he was obviously beset by such fears in his wakeful hours as well. He really appears to have been distressed by a demon. Now the Roman historians, Suetonius and Tacitus, speak of prophets throughout the empire. These are pagan prophets prophesying that the next emperor, they don't know who his name is, but the next emperor is going to come from Judea. Why would anybody prophesy that? All of the other emperors had come from Rome, but no, the next emperor is going to come from Judea, almost identical to what Josephus and later what Johanan prophesies. From all over the empire, Satan is orchestrating events to get Vespasian on the throne, and he uses pagan prophets and two Jewish prophets to do so. So Josephus fits the false prophet who is clothed in sheep's clothing. In other words, it's kind of biblical clothing. I represent God. But he's a ravenous wolf, and he worked hand in hand with Agrippa II, Titus, and Yohanan in getting Israel to make revolutionary changes to Judaism and to convince the people to give dual loyalties to Caesar and to God. Now, let me tell you just a bit about Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. He's the second horn. He's going to be coming up later in this book and that's why I'm giving you this background now so that it can be clear. Both of these men would have been very, very well known to any Jewish Christians who were reading the book of Revelation in the first century. They had been persecuted by this trio of men. For first century, second century the church received unbelievable persecution from the Jews. So both of these men would have been well known. It was due to both of them that the Jewish Talmudism began to become dominant. By the way, Talmudism is virulently anti-Christian. And I think we've got to recognize that. We must recognize it. So let me tell you about Yohanan. Yohanan Ben Zakkai has been considered by Judaism to be one of the three greatest rabbis of all of history. They say the greatest one was his mentor, Hillel. You've probably heard of Hillel. And then the third one was Rabbi Akiva. Now his influence in collecting the data that would later be used in the Talmud was absolutely foundational for Talmudism. Talmudism would not exist today if it was not for Yohanan. That's how influential he was. It would have died if it was not for him. Where Josephus was able to connect with the common man, Yohanan was the academic. But both he and Yohanan were committed to Phariseeism and represented the rabbinic interests. He founded a rabbinic school in Yavna with Titus's permission to promote the radically anti-Christian teachings that later, they weren't recorded at that time as he started the writing, but they later became recorded in the Talmud. And if you've never read the blasphemies that this man, Yohanan, wrote against Jesus, count yourself blessed. I was sick to my stomach when I read these demonic writings. I cannot conceive of any more perverted or hateful statements that could be written, possibly written, about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I have to tell you these things because you're not familiar with these two men. But any first century Jew, when he read the book of Revelation, click, click, click, it would have immediately registered in his mind. They would have known exactly who this was because they had suffered under these men. Now let me tell you a bit more about Yohanan that's going to be essential to interpreting these later verses. He, too, was acclaimed as a miracle-working prophet by the Jews. The famous Hillel says that he prophetically conferred the traditions of the fathers upon Yohanan as the next prophet, and both seemed to have supernatural abilities to master these things. Now, they must have also had, you know, photographic memory, because it's absolutely astounding the amount of material that they were able to hold in their head, Hillel and Yohanan. The Jewish encyclopedia references Yohanan's prophecies, including a prophecy that Vespasian would become the emperor in exactly the same words and exactly the same way that Josephus had done. He taught occultism and Kabbalistic trances. Now, unlike Josephus and Agrippa, Yohanan was a pacifist. He did not believe in fighting. Like Josephus and Agrippa, he encouraged the Jews to completely submit to the Flavian emperors Vespasian and Titus. When he saw the handwriting on the wall earlier in the war, He asked his devotees if they would smuggle him out of the city because the zealots wouldn't let anybody go out of the city. There was one exception. It was to bury the dead. And they had to be accompanied by a zealot. Well, he happened to have a zealot friend who was willing to smuggle him out of the city, get them past the guards. And they put a dead rat in the coffin so it would smell like a decaying body and everything. But once he came to the camp of Vespasian, in front of Vespasian, he arose out of the coffin. And he prophesied to Vespasian that Vespasian would be the next emperor and that the previous emperor had just died. And Vespasian said, you have just sealed your death warrant with those words. These are words of, what's it called? Treason. Yes. Words of treason. But at that very moment, one of the messengers came to Vespasian and told him, the emperor has just died. So they began investigating this guy. And the more they investigated him, the more they were impressed that he really did have prophetic abilities. And they gave him freedom just like they had given Josephus freedom. And they authorized him to establish the new Sanhedrin for Jews in the city of Yavna. Now, under Titus' oversight, he completely changed the calculations for the Jewish calendar, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel 7.25, that the little horn, that's Titus, would, quote, intend to change times and law. Did he do it? Did he do it through Yohanan? Yes, he did. In Jacob Neusner's book, he's probably one of the biggest experts on Talmudism, but in his book, First Century Judaism in Crisis, he says, Yohanan I assumed the liturgical authority formally vested de facto in the temple priests to determine the proper calendar. Second, he exercised judicial and legal authority earlier held by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. This was a radical change. So verse 11 really is discussing the newly emerging Judaism with its demonic influence, its political leader, Agrippa II, its de facto spiritual leaders, Josephus and Yohanan. By 8070, there was no other surviving leadership. The whole leadership of Israel was in the pocket of Rome, was in the pocket of that first beast who called the shots. This was a conspiracy between two demon beasts to be able to accomplish through these men the things that are now listed in the remaining verses. Now, as we go through some of these miracles, you're going to find Christians who just think, that's impossible. There's no way that demons can do miracles or that unbelievers can do miracles. And I would just caution you not to be so quick to conclude that. There are indeed miracles that Satan does. All you have to do is look at Moses. And you look at the plagues that Moses brought, the miracles that he did, etc. And even the casting down of a rod, it becomes a serpent. The witch doctors of Pharaoh were able to imitate many of those same miracles. And Satan imitates, you know, pretty much everything that God does. So here's the point. Demons do not I mean, excuse me, miracles do not prove that you should just blindly follow what some teacher has to say. Witch doctors out in Ethiopia, where my parents ministered, they performed incredible miracles, but they did it by demonic power. So the text of Exodus does not say that those magicians pretended to do miracles. That's the way many commentators take it. It says they actually did it. Those are God's words. And the same is true of the text here. Well, let's go on. Verse 2 says, he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. Now obviously there's a pecking order among demonic beasts, with the beast from the land being subservient to the beast from the sea, but that's true in the visible realm as well. The Jewish King Agrippa was an enthusiastic supporter of Titus, and Titus became his friend, gave him full authority to act during the war under him. How enthusiastic was Agrippa? I'll just give you one tiny little sample. The Jewish Encyclopedia said, He actually went so far after the capture of Jatapata, that was way early in the war, as to deliberately invite Vespasian and his army to his capital and to celebrate the occasion of the conquest of the Jews. The drunken festivities and unrestrained debauchery that ensued lasted for three weeks. He then joined the conquerors in their victorious march onward. So full-hearted was Agrippa in carrying out Titus's wishes that he was granted further territories to reign over, granted the title of Praetor. And he actually played a key role in getting Vespasian and Titus on the throne. Titus actually called him and said, we need your help to get my dad Vespasian on the throne. So it's just another way in which you can see that the demons of Judaism and Rome were working hand in glove. For the previous 200 years they had been controlling Ptolemaism really was a controlling interest as well as the Jewish bankers throughout that realm of Rome. But they were working hand in hand. You can see the demonic at work. Just as one reminder, we saw before that Herod Agrippa II's father, also named Herod Agrippa, that he and the king of Chalcis put the crown on the emperor Claudius' head. That's astounding. I mean, but you can see all of these kinds of influences that we've talked about in the past. Well, let's move on. Verse 12 goes on to say, he exercises this authority in his presence. Now there were only two Jewish characters, leaders who were constantly in Titus's presence throughout the war. It was Agrippa, the head of the beast, and Josephus, who was one of the horns of the beast. The other horn, Yohanan, was an academic, he was more behind the scenes and would be referred to. The next phrase says, and he started to cause the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed. Now I want you to notice the phrase, he started to. Prior to this time, Agrippa had not been enforcing emperor worship. Even though he was supposed to, during the first three and a half years of the war, he was supposed to be enforcing that. He didn't do it. He protected Christians. He protected Jews who didn't want to worship Caesar. And certainly, Josephus and Yohanan were not involved in doing so. Prior to this time, Agrippa's coins do not reflect emperor worship. Instead, his actions are very supportive of Judaism. He was a Jew. He read the Bible regularly. He insisted on circumcision for any suitors who wanted to marry his sisters, etc., etc. But once he was possessed by this land beast demon, things immediately changed. He immediately began to enforce what the Jewish encyclopedia calls Blind submission to the emperor. Blind submission to the emperor. Even the stamping of the coins shows a change. From the time he was possessed in 8070, he started minting coins with the emperor on one side and either a god, a Roman god or a Roman goddess on the other side and blasphemous language. That started in 8070. You've got two coins in your outline. The top two are Vespasian. with the goddess Tyche, and then there's one at the bottom with a coin of Titus with the god Nike on the other side. So Tyche and Nike. There were other coins, the god Pan that was put on there. So our view takes seriously that phrase, he started to. Now the worship of the emperor was enforced through the end of the war, and last week I read a gruesome, gruesome account that Josephus gave of how Titus' representatives, who were his Jewish representatives, it says the Jewish leaders rounded up 600 Jews who refused to worship Caesar handed them over to Titus, and said, these men are not willing to submit. And they said, but we show our submission to you. So these 600 were gruesomely tortured, and all of them refused to call Caesar Lord. And Josephus, he records it without any qualms. After all, he himself had been involved in the torture of Jews. But this was all a very, very recent development. Previous to this, Agrippa had actually protected Christians and Pella had stood up for Jews on the issue of emperor worship. But no more. And historians say, you know, why did he make such a change? They say, well, it's just to save his own neck. Who wouldn't do a change like that? But no, you see an enthusiasm in his support of Titus. I think there's a lot of evidence of the demonic there. Now, of course, the beast isn't just Agrippa. It is also the horns. And it is the change that came over Josephus and Yohanan that I find the most astounding. Everybody agrees that Josephus and Yohanan were dedicated to Judaism and thought that it was blasphemy to worship any God but the one true God. I think everybody agrees with that. So one wonders, how on earth were they able to take an oath of loyalty to Caesar, call him Lord, and bow before his image? That seems incompatible, and yet they were willing to do so. Josephus and Yohanan both considered it suicidal, you're just going to be put to death, suicidal not to bow before that image. And they tried their hardest to talk Israel into not committing the sin, what Josephus calls the sin of suicide. And by that they meant, come on guys, you're gonna die if you don't just pledge to Caesar as Lord, it's not a big deal, okay? Now Josephus gave his rationale for honoring other gods with this phrase. Our legislator, it's capital L, he's referring to God, our legislator has forbidden us to laugh at or blaspheme those who are considered gods by others on account of the very name of God given to them. I mean, that's wrong and weird. But his logic is, hey, if God says you may not laugh at any other gods, you may not blaspheme any other gods because the word God is used, then you could actually technically bow down before that God but in your heart be rejecting any idolatry and be worshiping the one true God. That was his logic. But it was Yohannan who takes the rationalizations to a very sophisticated degree. And it actually made my head hurt when I was reading through his rationalizations trying to puzzle through what on earth is he saying But he's trying to show how you can technically be involved in idolatry and the loyalty ceremonies without in any way violating the Bible's prohibition of idolatry. Yair Furstenberg wrote a very tedious essay. This was supposed to be a CliffsNotes version of this. This was tedious. Wow, very tedious. Anyway, it's called The Rabbinic View of Idolatry. and the Roman political conception of divinity. Now in this article he teases apart the detailed rationalizations of rabbis like Yohanan on how you can technically be involved in idolatry for economic reasons, yet personally reject it and not be guilty of it. Kind of like having crossed fingers, okay? For example, one of his arguments, and he had a whole bunch, but one of his arguments, he said, hey, if the Gentiles really don't believe in this idolatry, yeah, they're bowing down to it and they're calling it a god and everything, but they don't really believe in this idolatry that there really are gods, then you can bow down without any problem because they're not believing that it's a true god. And so both Josephus and Johanan used sophisticated rationalizations for getting people to be involved in what we would consider just flat-out Caesar worship. But the average Joe Blow, I think, would have had a hard time struggling through those arguments, just like you're having a hard time struggling through this, right? They would have had a hard time like, just tell me what to do. So anyway, the beast, to convince them that it's okay to follow what Yohanan and Josephus say is to do, was to do amazing miracles through these people. Okay? Verse 13, he performs great signs, including that fire should come down from heaven upon the earth before the people. Now, is there any evidence that any of those three men were moved to perform those miracles? Yes, there are, including calling down fire from heaven. Now the Talmud has a number of stories of the miracles of Yohanan such as instantaneous healings. The only one that he couldn't heal was himself. He had to have his student heal him. But he instantaneously healed many others. But let me tell you about the fire from heaven incident. On one occasion, Yohanan was riding with his student, Eliezer ben Arak, and when Eliezer asked him if he could talk with him about the chariot mysticism, which I consider to be an occult practice, but they both did it, Yohanan agreed, got off of his donkey, sat on a rock to discuss this with his student, and his student was Eliezer. Yohanan wanted to show his approval of Eliezer's mystical experiences, and here's how he did it, and I quote. As Eleazar ben Arak began to expound upon the subject, fire descended from heaven and enveloped all the trees in the field which broke forth in song." Notice the phrase, fire descended from heaven and enveloped all the trees in the field, and that was supposed to be proof that it was okay to get involved in this occult mysticism. Now, if Yohanan did that once, could he have done it again? I don't see why not. In any case, you can see how miracles like this would have duly impressed the Jews into agreeing with his rationalizations. Hey, if God does such miracles through Yohanan, maybe it's not such a bad idea to offer a pinch of incense to Caesar. After all, it's just a token, right? We don't really believe it. And otherwise, our economics is going to be completely obliterated. So it was a very impressive miracle. And as I said, the Talmud ascribes many miracles to him. But Josephus also had some very impressive miracles that he used to show God's purposes of using Vespasian. And the reason I know all of his miracles were occult is because of all of the magic, the occult magic that was involved with them. They were demonic. And I'll just give you an example. Josephus speaks of how a demon-possessed man was exorcised. That means the demon was cast out of him in front of Vespasian and Titus and tribunes and other soldiers. So this miracle very literally was done in front of the beast, the first beast. Now the method is occult. It is not biblical at all. Here's what he said. He put to the nose of the possessed man a ring which had under its seal one of the roots prescribed by Solomon. Yeah, right. And then the man smelled it, drew out the demon through his nostril, and when the man at once fell down, adjured the demon never to come back into him, speaking Solomon's name and reciting the incantations that he had composed. having already placed a foot basin full of water a little way off, he commanded the demon, as it went out of the man, to overturn it and make known to the spectators that he had left the man." So as the exorcism happened, as that water basin flipped over with no humans being anywhere near to that, Vespasian and Titus were impressed, and as they investigated further, They were able to document from others and other slaves that, yes, there are miracles performed. So I'm not going to take the time to document the other miracles performed on behalf of Agrippa and Titus to get people to worship. But suffice it to say, the two horns were masters at deception. They were prophetic wolves in sheep's clothing. And they succeeded in getting many Jews to go along with this new Talmudic reasoning for honoring Caesar. Those who refused died. Verse 14 says, and he deceives my own people, those who dwell on the earth, by the signs that it was given to him to perform before the beast. Now to get the warrior Josephus and the pacifist Yohanan on board with this emperor worship was an astounding miracle. But to get literally hundreds of thousands of Jews to engage in this emperor worship is an even more incredible deception. Very, very astonishing to me. But the fact that hundreds of thousands of Jews survived and continued to occupy the land with the full approval of Vespasian and Titus is tribute to the success of their astounding demonic work. Vespasian and Titus did not consider Talmudism to be a threat to statism. Christianity was, but not Talmudism. The Zealots were, but not Talmudism. Talmudism and Roman religion were part of the same kingdom. Okay? But notice that this went beyond worship. The beast got them to make an image. Verse 14 goes on to say, telling those who dwell on the earth, that's land of Israel, right? It's literally land, Ge'ez. telling those who dwell on the land of Israel, is what it's saying here on the earth, to make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lit. Now I believe it was Agrippa as head of Israel, the head of the beast, who gave these orders. He certainly made images of Caesar and of gods, and he did this on coins, but John Wilson's book on archeology points to two statues that Agrippa made for purposes of emperor worship. One was an image of Pan as a symbol of the emperor and the other an image of Tyche. And of course he minted coins to those. But this statue that Agrippa makes is somehow animated by the demon so that it actually talks. Now this seems so impossible to modern Christians who have been steeped in atheistical science that they say, that can't be literal. This must have been ventriloquism. Or this must have been priests who spoke through tubes into the image so that the statue seemed like it was talking, but it really wasn't. Or maybe it was hallucination. That's not what the text says. This doesn't say that the beast faked it, as most commentators claim. Verse 15 says, and it was granted to him to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should actually speak. Somehow there was breath that came out of that image and there was a voice that came out of that image. I believe that God gave permission to this demon to speak through that image something and this was highly, highly unusual. And the reason I say it's unusual is because Psalm 115 and a number of other scriptures indicate that normally speaking God did not permit demons to speak through images. That was not God's policy. He didn't want that level of deception to normally happen. But since it says here it was granted to the beast to have this power, I think God granted him, yep, go ahead, you can do that now, that this actually happened, and it helped with the deception. And to skeptics who doubt that this could happen, I would point to the Greek historian Plutarch who lived during these times. In my readings of Plutarch, I have found two separate occasions when Roman statues actually spoke, and it scared people to death. It startled everybody who was around those two statues. As a Greek historian, he's rather skeptical. He didn't see it himself, and he says he didn't believe that it happened, but he admits there were many, many witnesses, and he said even the entire Roman Senate said that it happened. So, as a good historian, he says, well, there's a lot of people who believe that it's there. Now, my point is—now, I should point out, those two accounts did not happen in Israel. They happened in Rome. But my point is, even though I have not run across any statue in Rome that's—I mean, in Israel that spoke, if There are two demonic occasions that Plutarch records, and he's the big skeptic of a statue speaking with many witnesses. Perhaps there at some point be a historical reference to a statue speaking in Israel. But history does not prove doctrine. It only illustrates doctrine. Historians only record a tiny, tiny segment of history. When the Bible says something and we already know for sure who the candidates here are, then we would say, yeah, there was a statue that actually had breath coming out of it and had a voice coming out of it to deceive the people, just like happened on the other two occasions in Rome. And then finally, the land beast made sure that those who refused to worship the image of the beast were put to death. Now Agrippa was definitely the first Caesar's enforcer. I already read you the account of 600. That was last week, I guess. So the 600 Jewish people who were tortured to death. And it was this bestial trio, this Jewish leadership that handed them over to Rome. and that included women and little children. Now every detail of this passage fits the events of AD 70 and following, and I have not read any other explanation that makes any sense out of these details. Now we're going to pick up with verse 16 next week, but let me end with some further applications of what we've already seen. First and most obvious application is that Christians should beware of what looks like Christianity, because it's using scripture and it's got Christian lingo and all of that, but has the influence of the dragon about it. Satan loves to cloak evil in legitimate garb. Sometimes he will use an honored figure like Josephus or Johanan. Those people were so honored as Bible scholars in Israel that many followed what they said blindly and were led into demonic doctrines. It's one of the reasons that cults flourish. They mix enough good in with the error that the error may seem palatable. And they do enough loving things that people automatically buy the whole package. But here's something more to home. I believe Satan uses exactly the same strategy in evangelical circles to lead people astray. Exactly the same strategy. Think of the countless numbers who have been led to embrace evolution because they like Tim Keller. They say, hey, Tim Keller believes in it. It must be OK. OK, now I'm not saying Tim Keller is the beast. Far from it. But the same reasons for overlooking error that were happening with Yohanan can also happen with evangelicals. Scripture holds us teachers to a higher standard and says we will be judged much more severely if we lead our flocks astray. And I believe men like Tim Keller have led countless people into the heresies of socialism, feminism, and other serious errors. Now sure, he's got a whole lot more sheep than just a couple little horns. I believe that he's a true believer. He's got a lot of sheepness about him, but socialism, feminism, you know, Evolution some of these other doctrines that have been coming from his pen are doctrines straight from the pit of hell They are straight from the pit of hell. And again, I'm not saying he's not a Christian If Satan could use David to number Israel if Satan could speak words through Peter to tempt Christ Satan can use any of us and that's why I constantly say do not believe what I am teaching because Phil Kaiser teaches it You've got to be your own Bereans, searching the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so. Now the second application is we need to be on guard against our own rationalization. Josephus and Yohanan were under enormous economic pressure to bow to Caesar and to call him Lord. Their economic livelihoods were on the line. Actually, their lives were on the line. And even though the rationalizations they give look silly, beyond silly, to those of us in the 21st century that look back, it made sense to them. Why? Because they wanted to believe that the rationalization was okay. They wanted to make this compromise work. Their lives were on the line. Their economics was on the line. And in the same way, we can easily rationalize when we are in the thick of pressure. But since Christians should want to avoid all deception and give no legal ground to Satan, we should pray, Lord, keep me from rationalization. I know my own heart's ability to create idols. I know my own heart's ability to rationalize. Think of it this way. If even pastors can rationalize a belief in evolution, statism, welfare, feminism, other modern issues, and claim to be totally faithful to the Scriptures, any one of us can make the same mistake. So I think we don't just point the finger out there. We say, Lord, keep me from falling into that error. Third application is that you should not assume that because a leader can do miracles that his message is sound. Now, I believe in miracles. But the biblical truth must trump everything else. Nothing but the Bible is infallible. And I know pastors who do miracles, yet deny the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and deny the inerrancy of Scripture. And when I told one of these pastors that I could no longer treat him as a Christian, could no longer go out to lunch with him because he had a heretical gospel, a heretical view of Scripture, his response was, no, my doctrine couldn't be wrong because otherwise God wouldn't perform miracles through me. See the problem with that reasoning? If his reasoning is correct, then everything that Yohanan and Josephus said must also be endorsed by God because they did miracles, right? So we need to realize just the presence of miracles is not a justification that a person is right or true. Even demons can do miracles. And people can do miracles by the Spirit and still be, not be inerrant, right? Be in error in other areas of their lives. So again, you don't buy the whole package because you see something good. My last application is the contrast between what comes from below and what comes from heaven. There are two kingdoms and two ways of life. One is wrought by an evil spirit and the other is wrought by the Holy Spirit. It is critical we not have our feet in both kingdoms. And here's how James words it. who is wise and understanding among you. Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic, For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Those are the only two alternatives, not just for wisdom, but for all of life. Live by the power that comes from below, or live by the power that comes from above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. May our vision be fixed on Jesus who is the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen. Father we thank you for your word even when it's a challenge to us. We want to be challenged. We want to grow. We want to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as Rodney preached earlier in regard to thinking and as this passage here reflects on that whole area of how easy it is to rationalize our thinking, not be gripped and transformed in our thinking by your scriptures. We realize that we could have fallen, maybe many times, in this past year. And Father, I pray that you would expose those errors, help us to confess them, to cleanse them, to move on and move further and further in the direction that you've called us to in Christ Jesus. And it's in his name that we pray.