Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #32 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading from Revelation 13:15-17:

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

I will stop reading there.  Last time we were looking at Daniel, chapter 3, and we saw the very close parallel between that chapter and the language here in Revelation, chapter 13.  God was relating Daniel 3 to events which would take place at the end of time, especially the time of the Great Tribulation when Satan would be loosed; God would give Satan the authority to rule over the corporate churches of the world and they would take on the characteristics of Satan and that character involves deceit and lies and because of that, they are formed in the image of Satan himself – the image of the beast.  And if any would not worship the image of the beast, then they should be killed.  Satan had desired to be like God for so long and, finally, he was given his chance.  It is the time of the end and the “little season,” when he takes his seat in the corporate church and all worship going on in the congregations is now being directed toward him because God’s Spirit had departed out.  Satan is the only spirit within the churches and he is just soaking it up – he loves the adulation – and if anyone fails to worship the image of the beast, then that person should be “killed.”  It was just like King Nebuchadnezzar: “If anyone does not bow down to the golden image I have made, I will throw them into the burning, fiery furnace and kill them.”  The only problem was that Nebuchadnezzar, despite his best effort, could not kill Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.   He could not even singe their clothing; he could not even bring the smell of the fire upon them, after casting them into that burning, fiery furnace. 

God is giving His people strong encouragement and strong confidence and He is telling us, “Do not worry about Satan.  Yes, it is going to be crazy at the end of the world.  Iniquity will abound all over the earth and the restraint upon men’s sinful tendencies will be taken away.  It must come to pass.  It is my purpose and it is part of the judgment upon the world that this will happen.  But as you see the world going mad and the tremendous multiplication of sin all around you, do not fear.  Do not fear, even when it enters into the churches – into the places where there had been relative safety in the past and where you could escape the world.  It is my plan at the end that there be a falling away first.  I am going to judge the corporate body for their unfaithfulness.  As a matter of fact, judgment will begin at the house of God and there will be false Christs, false apostles and false gospels.  The things that are going on in the churches will be just as wicked and insane as the things going on in the world.  There will be speaking in tongues, falling over backwards, holy laughter, homosexual bishops, woman preachers and my Law will be trampled under foot.” 

But, again, through the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God is encouraging His people not to fear: “You will not be harmed.  You cannot be harmed, despite Satan’s best effort.  Without question, it will be his intent to harm you.  He will do all he can to harm you, but I will be there.”  The form of the visage of the “fourth person” in the fire will be there to protect you, to watch over you and to preserve you.  This is really a great source of comfort for the true believer.  Now we can look back over that 23-year Great Tribulation period and, yes, it certainly was an evil time and, yet, we were taken care of by God.  God did feed and nourish His people, spiritually, and He did bless us greatly outside of the churches and congregations.  He watched over us and Satan was not able to do the least thing to cause us spiritual harm in any way. 

Here, in Revelation 13:15, the statement was made that “as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”  In the early part of the Great Tribulation, the true believers were still in the churches and it was the time when the “spirit of error” was developing and getting worse and there was a “falling away.”  It was very obvious.  The people of God, with their new heart and spirit, desired to do the will of God and to worship God in spirit and in truth; they desired that the church they attended would also worship God in spirit and in truth.  So they went to the pastor and said, “Pastor, I am concerned about the message you preached.  It almost sounded like you were telling people to ‘accept Christ.’  It really sounded like a free will gospel and I talked to you before and you told me you believed in election.”  But the pastor would try to explain, “Believe like a Calvinist, but preach like an Armenian.”  He was probably taught that in seminary.  “We have to make the free offer of the Gospel.”  Then he would begin to offer some theological “mumbo jumbo,” justifying the error that was being presented. 

But the believer is still troubled because God said, in Ezekiel 13, that there would be those that promise life, but the heart of the righteous will be made sad, as they see that it results in strengthening the hand of the wicked:  “Sure, I will accept Christ or whatever you say I have to do.”  But to them it is a form of guarantee they are saved and, yet, there has been no change in them, but now they think they are right with God and it is basically “strengthening the hand of the wicked.”  Now it strengthens the will of the sinner to continue in his sin: “What do I need now?  I accepted Christ, so give that Gospel to someone that needs it.  I am fine and I have everything I need, spiritually.  I have salvation and the pastor assured me of that when I walked down the aisle.”  So the heart of the righteous grew sad and troubled during this time. 

The leadership in the church was also troubled; they see the child of God as the troublemaker.  They look out upon their congregation and everyone is bowing the knee, but there is “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego” refusing to bow the knee and this caused the congregation grief.  But the rest of the congregation is saying, “Look, we are bowing down, all of us together with one voice.  In unison, we submit.  We are not making trouble and we are not usurping authority.”  And that is a tragic thing because they have exalted and lifted up the authority of the corporate church, the confessions and creeds, the authority of their theologians and even Reformed writings above the authority of the Word of God, the Bible.  Whatever forms the “image” takes on and whatever erroneous spirit is being worshipped, they are all in agreement and they all submit.  So the child of God is being labeled as a troublemaker and it will not be long before the elders get together: “What are we going to do?  We cannot allow this to continue.  This individual does not understand our church – and this is our church; this is our doctrine; this is our denomination.  This is the way we have decided to worship God and if he will not do it our way, he should go somewhere else.”  Eventually, the pastor and maybe a couple of the elders will have a discussion with the man and his wife and they will ever-so-kindly suggest, “Why do you not just move along?  Why do you not see if you can find a church more to your understanding and more in line with your beliefs?” 

It is incredible how there are so many churches with so many varying beliefs.  The churches even recognize that so many churches have different beliefs, but it seems it never occurs to the people within these churches to question any of their own beliefs.  There are dozens, and dozens, and dozens of churches that teach differently and someone has to be wrong about the things they believe.  “Oh, but this is our position.  This is our denominational stance.  This has been in our confessions for hundreds of years and there is no way we are changing it.”  That is the “high place” and the “idol” that infuriated God.  That is why God gave space to the church to repent and then when He came to visit, He saw there was no repentance and they were not turning from their “high places” and the idols that were carved out of their own minds, their own doctrines and their own teachings rather than the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is the way it stayed, until it was finally time for God to bring judgment upon them and judgment began at the house of God.  Things just worsened.  No one repented.  No one turned from their evil ways and their evil doctrines.  They have continued to worship, but not the worship of the God of the Bible, but they worship the image of the beast.  “But, here is this man and his family and they will not worship with us and they will not come to an agreement with us and, therefore, we will politely ask them to leave.”   It is a very (seemingly) kind and respectful and polite form of “killing” people, which God likens to being driven out of the churches, in John 16:1-2:

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

There is a form of parallelism here.  The first statement, “They shall put you out of the synagogues,” is synonymous with the next statement says, “the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”  To be put of out of the synagogue is the spiritual equivalent of being “killed,” and the synagogues are basically the Old Testament equivalent of “churches,” and God actually uses that word in Revelation in relationship to the seven churches.  When He speaks of the “church in Smyrna,” in Revelation, chapter 2, it says in Revelation 2:9:

I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

It is a figure of the corporate church.  The churches had gone apostate and fallen away.  That happened even during the centuries of the church age while the church age was legitimately in effect.  Churches would fall away as Satan would win a skirmish.  He could not win the overall battle at that time because Christ was in the churches, but he could win a skirmish against a particular church body or a particular denomination, occasionally.  And when he did, they would become a “synagogue of Satan,” and that is what John is referring to, in John 16:2, when He says, “They shall put you out of the synagogues.”  That happened, historically, when the believing Jews or Christ were driven out of a synagogue, but that was a spiritual illustration of what would happen at the time of the end when God’s people would be driven out of the churches.  When you are put out of the synagogue, it is likened to being “killed,” because it was in the synagogue, historically, where God was worshipped by His people of Israel.  It was a very serious thing to be put out of the congregation of Israel – that was akin to being “cut off” and to be spiritually dead, in some ways, or that is how they understood it.  So that is the idea here in Revelation 13:15:

… and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Satan is the one ruling in the churches as the man of sin and, therefore, since the churches had been delivered into his hand, Satan had the authority to drive people out.  Under his ministers (his emissaries), he was developing his own rules, his own laws and his own doctrine.  If you did not adhere and fall in line and, basically, fall down and worship according to his dictates, then “there was the door.”  And in church, after church, God’s people were being driven out and, in that way, they were being “killed” because they could no longer worship in a place where these doctrines were being followed.  It was getting worse and worse, as the Great Tribulation progressed.

What a tremendous blessing it was that God (after several years into the Great Tribulation and judgment on the churches) opened up the information that it was time for the people of God to “depart out” and leave the churches and to go out into the world; no longer would they have to be under the church authority of the pastor, elders and deacons that were ministers of Satan.  No longer would God’s people have to listen to the errors of the church and, yet, dutifully go to church because God wanted them to be there in submission to church authority.  Finally, God revealed, “I do not want you there.  I do not want you in submission to church authority.  In fact, I removed all authority from them.”  The Bible does tell us that in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 34:2:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

The Lord goes on in condemnation and then it says in Ezekiel 34:9:

Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of JEHOVAH; Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

They can continue to feed the ‘goats’ and all that remain within the corporate body, numbering about two billion people in the world that are not God’s sheep.  They were the goats.  They were not the wheat, but they were the tares.  God’s people were commanded to depart out of the midst of Jerusalem and flee to the mountains and they obeyed, by the grace of God.  Again, what a wonderful blessing it was to be freed from the idea that we must worship in the churches to be obedient to God, despite the fact that the churches were a desolation, but now God’s people had the blessing of God.  They could go to their homes out in the world; they could gather together in small groups and have a fellowship, if they wanted to do so, but no longer would there be church authority.  The church age was over and the churches and congregations had come to their end.  God had caused them to cease from ruling the true flock.  Now Satan could rule over the goats and he could have the “shell” of the church – the buildings and the individuals that refused to hearken to God’s command.  God’s people were to go out and we did and we found blessing, after blessing, after blessing when we departed out of the churches.  God greatly strengthened us and comforted us through His Word; He opened up the Scriptures to an incredible degree and He opened up our understanding to see the things He had hidden in His Word until the time of the end.

Now let us go on to Revelation 13:16:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Here, we have three contrasting groups of people: “small and great,” “rich and poor,” and “free and bond.”  There are six in total and the number “six” points to “work.”  Those that did remain behind in the churches are trying to get right with God through their own works or their own efforts.  We can be sure of that because it is only God’s elect that are saved by grace, so that leaves those that are attempting to become saved through their own works. 

We can also see from these contrasting groups that is it referring to “all.”  It is all inclusive: it is “small and great” and every one in between; it is “rich and poor” and every one in between; and it is “free and bond,” and every one in between.  So it is an all-encompassing statement to indicate that no one is an exception; every one that remains in the churches will receive a “mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.”  That “mark” is the mark of the beast, the mark of Satan.  It is a mark of ownership, as the hand represents the will of the individual and the forehead is where the mind is, to indicate that these people – in their soul, their mind and their will – are owned by Satan.  They belong to Satan. 

It is just like when a rancher gathers his cattle and he brands them; he puts a mark on the cow that stands for his ranch.  It might be the letter “W” or an “M” to represent his last name or the name of his ranch, to indicate that the cattle belong to that ranch or rancher.  It is the mark of that particular ranch.  That is the idea.  Satan will put a mark on these people to indicate that they are his; they are unsaved and they are, therefore, in his kingdom of darkness, worshipping the beast.  These are his people, as contrasted with the people of God who do not receive the mark.  God’s people do not have the mark in their hand or in their foreheads, but every unsaved individual has the “mark” of the beast, spiritually speaking.