REVELATION

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REVELATION

• Chapter
• Thirteen

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The Two Beasts

• V1-10
• The beast arising out of the sea

• V11-18
• The beast arising out of the earth

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(No Transcript)
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THE IDENTITY OF THE BEASTS

• There is general agreement that the beasts
  represent the person and the power of the
  Antichrist in his attempts to overthrow the
  kingdom of Christ

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THE CONTROVERSY

• Who Is The Antichrist?

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The Futurist Position

• The Antichrist is a world leader yet to arrive
  who will govern that part of the world which
  consists of the old Roman Empire. His power base
  is represented by the beast which had 7 heads and
  10 horns (the Roman Empire having consisted of 10
  regions).
• The four New Testament references to Antichrist,
  however, teach that it is a system which is in
  view as opposed to a personality 1 John 218,
  222, 43 and 2 John 7.

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The Preterist Position

• The spirit of Antichrist was found in the Roman
  Empire. These prophecies in Revelation are
  therefore past and and have no future bearing for
  the church today.
• This is the most discredited view of the
  Antichrist because he is to be destroyed by the
  second coming of Christ.

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Modern Amillenial Position

• The spirit of antichrist resides in the politics
  and governance of the world. Therefore the beast
  does not represent any one nation in particular
  but rather represents the unchristian bias found
  in all political systems. This view is
  articulated by scholars such as Herman Hoeksema
  and William Hendrickson.
• While this view has has much to commend itself it
  omits to recognise the religious nature of the
  antichrist as revealed in scripture.

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Historic Protestant Reformation Position

• The Antichrist is manifested in the office of the
  papacy.
• This is the position I accept and will therefore
  be the manner in which we will consider these
  beasts.

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TESTIMONY OF JOHN KNOX

• That the pope is the head of the Kirk of
  antichrist.
• I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of
  Satan, and the head thereof called the pope, to
  be the man of sin of whom the apostle speaketh,

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Testimony Of Martin Luther

• I am extremely distressed in my mind. I have
  not
• much doubt but the pope is the real antichrist.
  The lives and conversation of the popes, their
  actions, their decrees, all agree most
  wonderfully to the
• descriptions of him in Holy Writ.

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Testimony Of John Calvin

• I deny that see to be apostolical wherein
  naught is seen but a shocking apostasy I deny
  him to be the vicar of Christ who in furiously
  persecuting the gospel demonstrates by his
  conduct that he is antichrist I deny him to be
  the successor of Peter who is doing his utmost to
  demolish every edifice that Peter built and I
  deny him to be the head of the Church who by his
  tyranny lacerates and dismembers the Church,
  after severing her from Christ, her true and only
  head.

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Testimony Of Archbishop Cranmer

• And forasmuch as my hand offended, writing
  contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be
  punished herefore for, may I come to the fire,
  it shall first be burned and as for the pope, I
  refuse him as Christs
• enemy, and antichrist, with all his false
  doctrines.

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Defining The Antichrist

• Greek preposition anti signifies in place of
  rather than being merely against.
• He is the man of sinand the son of
  perditionof 2 Thess 2 and he is the little
  horn of Daniel 7.
• Therefore we must identify the antichrist as
  being a powerful force which opposes Christ by
  seeking to replace him on earth.

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TWO BEASTS ONE PICTURE

• The Beast Arising Out Of The Sea
• The secular power of the Papacy

• The Beast Arising Out Of The Land
• The spiritual power of the Papacy

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THE BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE SEA

• The Secular Power Of The Papacy
• V1-10

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THE SEA V1

• Represents peoples and multitudes, and nations,
  and tongues (171 15).
• Represents wickedness and evil (Is 5720).
• This beast like the 4 beasts of Daniels prophecy
  arose out of the troubled and wicked sea of
  nations.
• The Papacys secular power arose because of the
  control it usurped over the peoples that once
  consisted of the Roman Empire.

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THE BEAST V1

• 7 heads this represents the city of Rome which
  was the seat of Papal authority (ch179).
• 2. 10 horns these are the 10 kings which would
  carve up the Roman empire after its fall
  (ch1712).

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THE DANIEL CONNECTION

• Daniel 71-8
• 4 beasts appearing as a lion, a bear, a leopard
  and a monster
• The monster had 10 horns
• In the midst of the 10 horns was a little horn
  which spoke great things

• Rev 131-9
• One beast appearing as a lion, a bear and a
  leopard
• The beast has 10 horns
• Johns beast is the final revelation of Daniels
  little horn. It is clear that the power base is
  the same the 10 horns.

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The Roman Empire In The Days Of John
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WHO ARE THE TEN HORNS? V1

• When the Roman Empire collapsed northern tribes
  swept into Roman Europe and laid the foundations
  for the nations of modern Europe.
• These tribes were the Ostrogoths, the Vandals,
  the Heruli, the Almanni, the Franks, the
  Burgondians, the Visiogoths, the Lombards, the
  Anglo Saxons and the Suevi.

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THE COLLAPSE OF AN EMPIRE
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WHO ARE THESE TEN TRIBES TODAY

• 1 Almanni Germany
• 2 Franks France
• 3 Burgondonians Switzerland
• 4 Visiogoths Spain
• 5 Lombards Italy
• 6 Anglo Saxons England
• 7 Suevi Spain / Portugal

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WHAT OF THE OTHER THREE?

• 1 Ostrogoths settled within Italy
• 2 Vandals conquered parts of France, Spain and
  North Africa
• 3 Heruli had a kingdom within Italy and Austria

• 1 Each of these tribes were destroyed as the
  Papacy came into prominence.
• 2 This was the fulfilment of Daniel 78

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Ten Kingdoms Under The Papal Authority

• By the 7th Century the Bishop Of Rome had
  declared himself a universal bishop over the
  whole church.
• By the 9th century Charlemagne, King of the
  Francs, had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor by
  the Pope.
• The horrid dark ages had dawned when the Papacy
  was the dominant world power.

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THE APPEARANCE OF THE BEAST V2

• In Daniels Prophecy the beasts were a succession
  of world empires
• The lion Babylon
• The bear Medes and the Persians
• The leopard - The Greeks
• The 10 horned monster Rome
• The little horn arising out of the 10 the Papal
  Antichrist

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THE APPEARANCE OF THE BEAST

• In Johns vision this beast appears to be a sum
  of all the mighty empires which preceded it.
• This is a beast whose power base became the old
  Roman Empire
• The Papacy historically answers to this
  description because it was the Pope who stepped
  into the vacuum left behind by the fall of the
  empire and carved a secular position for the
  church.

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THE SOURCE OF HIS POWER V2

• The Dragon Or Satan
• The Antichrist is one inspired by the devil
  2 Thessalonians 19-10
• His role is to deceive as Satan did at the
  beginning.
• What Christ refused at the temptations this
  pretend Christ has accepted to the damning of his
  soul.

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THE RESURRECTION OF THE BEAST V3

• 1 The seven heads relate to the seat of the
  power of Antichrist which is Rome (179)
• 2 The fatal wounding of the beast may be
  interpreted in one of two ways
• a After Rome collapsed her power was
  resurrected by the power of the Papacy
• b The Reformation dealt Rome a fatal blow
  from which she is still recovering

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THE MIGHT OF THE BEAST V3,4,7,8

• The secular power of the beast was based upon his
  ability to demand worship (v5).
• This worship is devil inspired.
• At the zenith of his might the Papacy was the
  superpower in the world.

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THE BLASPHEMIES OF THE BEAST V5,6

• At the coronation of a new Pope the officiating
  Cardinal says
• Receive the tiara crowned with three crowns,
  and know that thou art the Father of Princes and
  Kings, Ruler of the World and vicar of our
  Saviour Jesus Christ

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THE BLASPHEMIES OF THE BEAST V5,6

• The Vatican Council of 1870 made this
  pronouncement
• We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely
  revealed that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks
  ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the
  office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by
  virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he
  defines a doctrine regarding faith and morals to
  be held by the universal Church, by the divine
  assistance promised him in blessed Peter, is
  possessed of that infallibility with which the
  divine redeemer willed that his church should be
  endowed for defining doctrines regarding faith
  and morals, and that therefore such definitions
  of the Roman Pontiff of themselves and not by
  virtue of the consent of the church are
  irreformable. But if anyone which may God
  forbid shall presume to contradict this our
  definition let him be anathema

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THE BLASPHEMIES OF THE BEAST V5,6

• Indeed, the claims of the pope to universal and
  total authority over the souls of men , over the
  church and over nations are such that he either
  is all he claims to be the vicar of Christ and
  vice-regent of God or he is the biggest
  inposter and fraud the world has ever seen.
• Lorraine Boettner (Roman Catholicism)

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THE BLASPHEMIES OF THE BEAST V5,6

• Daniel 78
• a mouth speaking great things

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THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE BEAST V7

• Notice, in the third place, his warring with the
  saints. In the Apocalypse
• we read, It was given to him to make war with
  the saints, and to
• overcome them. I will not do more here than
  remind you of the fact that,
• terribly as the saints suffered under the Caesars
  of pagan Rome, they
• suffered far more terribly and far longer under
  Papal Rome. Let the
• massacres of the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the
  Hussites, the Lollards, the
• massacres in Holland and the Netherlands, the
  massacre of St.
• Bartholomew, the massacre in Ireland in 1641, the
  tortures of the
• Inquisition, the fires of the stake kindled over
  and over in every country in
• Europe let these speak and testify to the
  fulfillment of prophecy. Yes
• the Papacy has made war with the saints, and
  overcome them, and worn
• them out, and would have totally crushed and
  annihilated them, but for the
• sustaining hand and reviving power of God. In its
  prolonged, cruel, and
• universal persecution of the saints, the Papacy
  has fulfilled this solemn
• prophecy. (Grattan Guinness In Romanism And The
  Reformation)

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THE JUDGMENT OF THE PAPACY V9,10

• The saints are encouraged to have patience
  because Antichrist will be destroyed
• This parallels the teaching of Gods word, 2Thess
  28, Rev 2010