Revelation 13

Revelation 13

In popular culture, about 99% of apocalyptic attention is focused on the last verse of this chapter. The numeric mark of the beast as 666 seems at times to have become an obsession. The mark of the beast has been predicted as everything from Social Security to popes to a computer chip and beyond.

Most people would be surprised to find that this chapter is really about two beasts. Both are agents of Satan; they are empowered by Satan to accomplish his agenda on Earth. Perhaps we will be better served to use the term monsters. Of the two, the first monster appears more terrifying. It is very aggressive, it is intimidating, it is politically powerful with crowns, it is international with seven heads, and it's a combination of predators: leopard, bear, and lion. The second beast is, relatively speaking, almost warm and cuddly. It looks like a lamb. But when it talks, it sounds like a dragon. We may be misled by folklore about what the sound is like. Rather than a roar, let’s think of Satan talking to Eve in the garden, the voice of the serpent sweet and seductive. The first blasphemes God, and the second whispers seductions. The first is the bad cop killing and sending into captivity; the second beast is more subtle with the incremental pressure of economic hardships. The first beast is seen in governmental powers and state-sponsored persecution, as in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or China, where believers die for their faith. The second beast is seen in places like academia or corporations where being a Christian presents employment, tenure, or promotion problems. One is brutal, one is subtle; one crushes, one seduces. One is easy to identify as a monster; the other sounds like it would be a friend or even a pet. Never doubt Satan uses both overt and seductive pressure to get Christians to compromise their commitment to Christ. 

For a Christian in the first century hearing about symbols of a 21st-century supercomputer that determines participation in the economy via a computer chip in our hand probably would not make any sense. In fact, if this chapter is about a literal, physical mark or chip or government agency, then it helps no one in Christian history except those living in the last moment before the end. But if we understand persecution as coming from satanic authority that operated as both political authority and as false religion and philosophy, this chapter makes perfect sense for every generation of believers. It would help both early Christians and those persecuted today to understand as believers to expect persecution from both government and religious quarters. It teaches being prepared because some will die and some will go into captivity. Faithfulness in this misery is our goal. “Here is the preservation of the Saints.”

“Lord, give me the grace to be loyal no matter the source of persecution. AMEN”