1 00:00:03,890 --> 00:00:08,990 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:08,990 --> 00:00:13,250 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:13,630 --> 00:00:22,530 Today, who is the beast of Revelation? Ah, 666. This is a favorite topic of end-time studies, 4 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:27,390 isn't it? When I was a new Christian back in the 70s, we speculated that it might be Henry 5 00:00:27,390 --> 00:00:33,869 Kissinger or Saddam Hussein or later even Bill Clinton or now Barack Obama. What I found was 6 00:00:33,869 --> 00:00:40,250 in those early days of my faith is that it was endlessly fascinating and awe-inspiring, too, 7 00:00:40,310 --> 00:00:45,030 was that the Bible revealed what would happen in the future. And if I could just figure out what 8 00:00:45,030 --> 00:00:51,409 all these mysterious beast bowls and scrolls were, it was fun to read the book of Revelation. I also 9 00:00:51,409 --> 00:00:56,670 read and listened to everything I could lay hands on that spoke of these things. Books by Lindsay and 10 00:00:56,670 --> 00:01:02,670 LaHaye, sermons by Van Ippie and Van Der Laan, and all you needed to do to get me to sit in the front 11 00:01:02,670 --> 00:01:08,170 row of any church in a hundred-mile radius of my home was advertised, Prophecy Conference Here. 12 00:01:09,170 --> 00:01:14,150 There were a lot of them back then. I listened to the news on the radio with New Year's and watched 13 00:01:14,150 --> 00:01:19,769 the evening reports on CBS and NBC and ABC with new eyes and set my Bible next to my morning paper 14 00:01:19,769 --> 00:01:24,109 and cup of coffee that I might compare the headlines with the end times of the scriptures to see what 15 00:01:24,109 --> 00:01:30,810 was coming. Was the then, for example, forming European Union? The Ten Nations, which comprised the 16 00:01:30,810 --> 00:01:35,370 Ten Horns of the Beast from the Sea, was the Gulf War in 1991, the beginning of Armageddon? Could 17 00:01:35,370 --> 00:01:41,730 Bill Clinton's name possibly be made to add up to 666 when translated into Hebrew gematria? 18 00:01:42,510 --> 00:01:49,049 Oh, this was far more fun than doing astrological charts or deciphering the quatrains of Nostradamus 19 00:01:49,049 --> 00:01:55,790 or playing Led Zeppelin records backwards to get hidden messages like I used to do in my BC days, 20 00:01:55,790 --> 00:02:00,829 that's my before Christ days, when I was a lost worldling. Also, breathlessly watching current 21 00:02:00,829 --> 00:02:04,390 events as if the rapture would take place any moment was something that my pastor and deacons 22 00:02:04,390 --> 00:02:10,009 approved of, and they did themselves. I felt part of a special group in those days who were in the 23 00:02:10,009 --> 00:02:14,909 know, those few believers who had a kind of secret code by which to interpret the world around them, 24 00:02:15,310 --> 00:02:19,650 oracles of God in the Bible that gave special knowledge by which the future could be known 25 00:02:19,650 --> 00:02:25,909 and then prepared for it. So, dear listener, no matter how we try to deny it, there is an element 26 00:02:25,909 --> 00:02:32,909 of mystery and elitism and special knowledge that comes with immersion in and familiarity with 27 00:02:32,909 --> 00:02:39,990 end times prophecy. Inevitably, one must ask, is this near obsession that so many in the church have 28 00:02:39,990 --> 00:02:47,569 today with end times prophecy, is it healthy? How many more failed prophecies by end times quacks 29 00:02:47,569 --> 00:02:54,490 like John Hagee or Hal Lindsey or Tim LaHaye? How many of these failed prophecies will it take 30 00:02:54,490 --> 00:03:01,889 before we regain our perspective? Is the problem the Bible or maybe my interpretation of it? Or maybe 31 00:03:01,889 --> 00:03:07,830 I'm just too preoccupied with these things. Well, I certainly don't think the problem is the Bible. 32 00:03:07,830 --> 00:03:13,689 Let me get that clear first. By the Bible, we know the Lord and we find the way to salvation. 33 00:03:13,689 --> 00:03:18,689 It is Christ himself bearing witness that all of redemptive history, past, present, and future 34 00:03:18,689 --> 00:03:25,009 is owned, administered by the one who was and is and is to come, as Revelation says, and is already 35 00:03:25,009 --> 00:03:31,810 determined by him who created it. And to this, all of Revelation stands as testimony, even as the 36 00:03:31,810 --> 00:03:38,710 angel declares to John, worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Is it not? 37 00:03:38,710 --> 00:03:44,789 The testimony of Jesus is, in fact, the spirit of prophecy. Now, the modern church's misplaced 38 00:03:44,789 --> 00:03:50,349 obsession with end times prophecy stems more from the last two options I mentioned. That is an 39 00:03:50,349 --> 00:03:57,830 over-preoccupation with it, prompted in many cases by a misinterpretation of apocalyptic literature like 40 00:03:57,830 --> 00:04:03,810 Revelation. A misinterpretation of Revelation stands at the base of so much of this obsession 41 00:04:03,810 --> 00:04:09,610 and preoccupation. But pastor, you may say, how can we misinterpret Revelation? It's clear that the 42 00:04:09,610 --> 00:04:15,490 locusts of Revelation 9, for example, are armored-up helicopters, right? The text talks of breastplates 43 00:04:15,490 --> 00:04:20,490 of iron whose rotating blades are the wings like the noise of many chariots and whose tailguns hurt 44 00:04:20,490 --> 00:04:25,069 people for five months, that is, tails and stings like scorpions. And then a nuclear explosion is what 45 00:04:25,069 --> 00:04:29,990 Zechariah described when he saw the enemies of Israel with their flesh rotting while they are still 46 00:04:29,990 --> 00:04:33,589 standing on their feet, their eyes rotting in their sockets, and their tongues rotting in their mouths. 47 00:04:33,910 --> 00:04:40,250 And, of course, how will, in fact, every eye see him? That is, when Christ returns upon the clouds 48 00:04:40,250 --> 00:04:47,850 by satellite television, of course, silly. Now, when I ask my friends who believe these kinds of things, 49 00:04:49,310 --> 00:04:55,189 is that what John's first audience of believers saw and thought? Is that what you think? Many will say 50 00:04:55,189 --> 00:05:00,589 something like, well, pastor, John was seeing into the future, and he wrote about things he saw in our 51 00:05:00,589 --> 00:05:06,430 day in terms of that he was familiar with. They were helicopters that John saw, but the only frame 52 00:05:06,430 --> 00:05:10,790 of reference he could describe them in was as locusts. That's the kind of explanation I get for 53 00:05:10,790 --> 00:05:18,529 many of the phenomena of Revelation. And my response is to agree that, yes, John was writing in terms he 54 00:05:18,529 --> 00:05:24,490 could relate to his people, but those terms were equally understood by his people, and they were standard, 55 00:05:24,490 --> 00:05:32,189 well-known images of their day, not ours. Where futurists go terribly wrong is in failing to 56 00:05:32,189 --> 00:05:37,410 understand the things of John's own day, to which the image is referred. This is so important in 57 00:05:37,410 --> 00:05:43,990 interpreting Revelation. Locusts, for example, were stock images for armies, and in this case, in chapter 9, 58 00:05:44,069 --> 00:05:50,209 armies of demons. And all I ask you to do today with me is perhaps listen with fresh ears to the 59 00:05:50,209 --> 00:05:55,829 apostle John, as if you were a member amongst his first audience in one of those seven churches that 60 00:05:55,829 --> 00:06:02,310 we see in chapters 2 through 3. John did not receive his revelation in a vacuum. He was facing a beast 61 00:06:02,310 --> 00:06:10,370 himself. Every generation faces the beast. So was his flock. We face the beast of Revelation as well, 62 00:06:10,470 --> 00:06:16,790 as I will unfold for you as we move through this book. John was the victim of one of the first great 63 00:06:16,790 --> 00:06:23,589 empire-wide persecutions of the church under the Roman Emperor Nero in A.D. 64. John says, 64 00:06:23,889 --> 00:06:29,310 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and the patient endurance 65 00:06:29,310 --> 00:06:34,970 that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of 66 00:06:34,970 --> 00:06:41,930 Jesus. Oh, he with us is a brother and partner, is he not? In the tribulation, he says. There are 67 00:06:41,930 --> 00:06:46,949 tribulations, many tribulations. Dear listener, listen to that word, the kingdom and the patient 68 00:06:46,949 --> 00:06:52,370 endurance that are in Jesus Christ. We must patiently endure in our own day under tribulation. 69 00:06:52,910 --> 00:06:58,810 And he was exiled on Patmos on account of the persecution under Nero Caesar. So he had to write 70 00:06:58,810 --> 00:07:05,449 very carefully. Don't rush on this. Don't get excited, dear listener, to go on to the beast bowls and 71 00:07:05,449 --> 00:07:11,110 scrolls. What I've just described for you is an important part of the context of Revelation. 72 00:07:11,110 --> 00:07:16,949 It explains a lot. If you were captive of the beast, like John was, reading everything that 73 00:07:16,949 --> 00:07:22,410 you send out, how would you write? Might you not write in symbolic language that the beast would find 74 00:07:22,410 --> 00:07:29,949 hard to understand? This is precisely what John is doing in his apocalypse. Now I tease my friends 75 00:07:29,949 --> 00:07:36,189 that I try and foil the attempts of the NSA to spy on me by using pig Latin. For example, 76 00:07:36,189 --> 00:07:45,949 are Ibertilei, Tolensei by Bamaoei. Now all this does is illustrate in a pretty silly way the need 77 00:07:45,949 --> 00:07:52,670 to code language by the good guys to avoid detection by the bad guys. In a very real sense, 78 00:07:52,810 --> 00:07:57,050 this is what John is doing in his apocalypse. We need to understand this. The trick then becomes 79 00:07:57,050 --> 00:08:01,930 breaking the code, so to speak. And once we do this, we begin to understand Revelation. 80 00:08:01,930 --> 00:08:08,550 Its enigmatic language, the beast bowls and scrolls, was not meant to endlessly fascinate and 81 00:08:08,550 --> 00:08:14,689 preoccupy end times devotees in the 21st century, but was rather used to confuse pagan Roman authorities 82 00:08:14,689 --> 00:08:19,829 while simultaneously informing the believers who did understand the genre of Revelation. That is the 83 00:08:19,829 --> 00:08:26,410 kinder style of writing that it is. Apocalypse was a genre. It was an established mode by the time of 84 00:08:26,410 --> 00:08:31,689 Revelation. For example, Daniel, facing some of the same issues as the Apostle John, he wrote in this 85 00:08:31,689 --> 00:08:38,690 very same manner of a very similar beast. Read Daniel. Daniel was describing not some Antichrist 86 00:08:38,690 --> 00:08:46,190 figure in the 21st century, but one in his own age. That is the Greek pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes. 87 00:08:46,850 --> 00:08:53,509 Greece was the worldwide beast at the time, even as Rome was the worldwide beast, and world government 88 00:08:53,509 --> 00:08:59,190 in our own day is a worldwide beast. Greece was the worldwide beast in Daniel's day of the late 89 00:08:59,190 --> 00:09:04,629 centuries before Christ, and Antiochus Epiphanes would desecrate the temple in Jerusalem by slaughtering 90 00:09:04,629 --> 00:09:10,549 a pig on its altar, what Daniel calls the abomination that causes desolation, because it meant that the 91 00:09:10,549 --> 00:09:16,750 altar in the temple then could no longer be used until it had been re-consecrated. Dear listener, 92 00:09:16,750 --> 00:09:26,450 every generation has its beast. Daniel had one in his day. Greece. John had one in his day. Rome. We 93 00:09:26,450 --> 00:09:32,529 have one in our own day. The worldwide government attempting to be established through the United 94 00:09:32,529 --> 00:09:39,049 Nations, for example, through treaties, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, for example, all these 95 00:09:39,049 --> 00:09:45,330 things part and partial of the beast. So this particular genre, apocalypse, pioneered by the Jewish 96 00:09:45,330 --> 00:09:50,669 prophets, captured these beasts in language that would confound their enemies, but not the faithful. 97 00:09:51,149 --> 00:09:55,809 John is doing no more than this in Revelation. He's confounding the Roman authorities by using 98 00:09:55,809 --> 00:10:00,909 figures and symbols with which they were unfamiliar, but whose figures and symbols would be known to 99 00:10:00,909 --> 00:10:06,549 the faithful. This is why it is so important to understand Revelation first in terms of its first 100 00:10:06,549 --> 00:10:13,230 audience, that is, the Christians of the seven churches to whom John wrote. Not us. We can apply it 101 00:10:13,230 --> 00:10:19,350 later to us. But first we must understand it in terms of his first audience. When John interpreted, 102 00:10:19,509 --> 00:10:26,909 for example, what the beast of Revelation 13 was in Revelation 17, he fully expected them to know 103 00:10:26,909 --> 00:10:32,570 about whom he was talking. Do you remember what the angel said to John when he marveled at the great 104 00:10:32,570 --> 00:10:38,429 prostitute and the beast from the sea that she rode? John says, and I quote, but the angel said to me, 105 00:10:38,429 --> 00:10:43,269 why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and 106 00:10:43,269 --> 00:10:49,409 ten horns that carries her. Well, the angel then proceeds to interpret the symbols that John saw 107 00:10:49,409 --> 00:10:56,389 before in 13 by a new set of symbols in 17. For those of us unfamiliar with these new sets of 108 00:10:56,389 --> 00:11:00,690 symbols, Revelation just got more difficult and becomes like what Churchill said about the old 109 00:11:00,690 --> 00:11:07,490 Soviet Union. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, unquote. Well, welcome to the 110 00:11:07,490 --> 00:11:13,389 apocalypse. It has confused generations of interpreters. And while this may be the case 111 00:11:13,389 --> 00:11:18,629 for us, it definitely was not to the pagan Romans, it definitely was, I'm sorry, to the pagan Romans 112 00:11:18,629 --> 00:11:23,990 into whose hands this book might fall. In fact, the Romans probably screened the apocalypse before it 113 00:11:23,990 --> 00:11:30,750 left the island of Patmos, just as prisons screen all communications by and to inmates. For the Romans, 114 00:11:30,870 --> 00:11:36,990 it would be gibberish. However, for the Christians, the enigmatic symbols of the beast in chapter 13 would be 115 00:11:36,990 --> 00:11:42,830 clearer by the symbols, four symbols in chapter 17. This is what John is doing. Is that confusing to 116 00:11:42,830 --> 00:11:48,909 you? It shouldn't be, for the symbols in 17 were more familiar to the Jewish and Gentiles in the 117 00:11:48,909 --> 00:11:53,710 churches to which John was writing. They would just have to think a little bit further, or as the 118 00:11:53,710 --> 00:12:00,009 angel puts it, this calls for a mind with wisdom. That is, you know about who I speak, while the pagans 119 00:12:00,009 --> 00:12:08,049 don't. Do you realize this, O listener? Revelation 17 goes ahead and interprets who the beast of 13 120 00:12:08,049 --> 00:12:12,929 really is. And there's no room for doubt or ambiguity here, at least for the early church. 121 00:12:13,350 --> 00:12:19,149 They knew exactly about whom John was talking. Just because Revelation red-haver rapture teachers do not, 122 00:12:19,669 --> 00:12:26,330 and they endlessly speculate about who the beast may be, or may not be, from contemporary headlines, 123 00:12:26,330 --> 00:12:31,289 and therefore they chase their prophetic tales generation after generation, it doesn't mean that 124 00:12:31,289 --> 00:12:37,850 John's audience did not know precisely who the beast was, and into whose name 666 translates, 125 00:12:38,110 --> 00:12:44,649 because they did. John gives them no room for error. Let this point sink in for a moment, 126 00:12:44,830 --> 00:12:50,710 dear listener, for it's important for understanding the book of Revelation. John gave his first readers 127 00:12:50,710 --> 00:12:56,889 enough information for them to know exactly who the beast was while simultaneously obscuring it for 128 00:12:56,889 --> 00:13:04,389 any unintended audience, that is, the Romans, who were persecuting them. Think like one of those 129 00:13:04,389 --> 00:13:09,549 first-century believers, dear listener, a partner in John's patient endurance and tribulation, and you 130 00:13:09,549 --> 00:13:15,110 will never arrive at the true meaning of Revelation or be able to apply it to yourself or the church 131 00:13:15,110 --> 00:13:20,950 today until you first interpret it as it was intended, that is, for the first-century church. 132 00:13:21,549 --> 00:13:27,230 Until then, you will continue to chase your prophetic tale, trying to plug in helicopters and Hillary 133 00:13:27,230 --> 00:13:35,149 to locusts and Antichrist. Well, pray tell, Mr. Smarty Pants, you may say, tell us what this 134 00:13:35,149 --> 00:13:40,970 heretofore obscure and enigmatic book means, whose meaning has escaped everyone but you, right? You might 135 00:13:40,970 --> 00:13:46,429 say that, and rightly so, you would say. But the reason I am so confident in my interpretation is 136 00:13:46,429 --> 00:13:52,730 because I'm not alone in it. Many have gone before me in understanding Revelation in the same 137 00:13:52,730 --> 00:13:57,769 following manner. Now, it may not be as glitzy or as thrilling or as breathtaking as your Red Heifer 138 00:13:57,769 --> 00:14:03,370 Rapture teachers make it out to be, getting you excited about blood moons and possible Antichrist goons, 139 00:14:03,769 --> 00:14:09,009 but, dear listener, be patient. I submit to you that the interpretation I lay out for you today has 140 00:14:09,009 --> 00:14:16,629 far greater application for today than any futurist can possibly sensationalize. Number one, note with 141 00:14:16,629 --> 00:14:23,330 me, the beast from the sea. As we outlined, first of all, the beast from the sea has a long history 142 00:14:23,330 --> 00:14:28,710 in biblical interpretation. Now, I went into some detail on this last week, but let me just review 143 00:14:28,710 --> 00:14:34,230 this briefly for you. The beast from the sea has a long history in biblical interpretation and has 144 00:14:34,230 --> 00:14:39,590 application and interpretation for today, too. We have a beast today. Every generation has its beast. 145 00:14:40,490 --> 00:14:45,990 But the beast from the sea goes back to creation. When the earth was empty and void and dark, 146 00:14:46,330 --> 00:14:53,549 tofhu vabohu, as the Hebrew puts it, that is complete chaos. And God brought order by destroying the beast. 147 00:14:54,350 --> 00:15:00,070 As Job puts it in Job 26, by his power, he stilled the sea. By his understanding, 148 00:15:00,070 --> 00:15:05,730 he shouted Rahab, that is, the sea serpent, the sea beast. By his spirit, Job goes on to say, 149 00:15:05,789 --> 00:15:12,970 the heavens were made fair. His hand pierced the fleeing serpent, unquote. The beast from creation. 150 00:15:13,269 --> 00:15:18,309 Then also, the psalmist exalts in the beast's defeat in the great flood of Noah in Genesis, 151 00:15:18,570 --> 00:15:22,669 where he is a symbol for the wicked Nephilim who were destroyed from the face of the earth. 152 00:15:23,029 --> 00:15:27,409 And there, the psalmist says, you divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea 153 00:15:27,409 --> 00:15:32,370 monsters. That is, the beast from the sea. On the waters, you crushed the heads of Leviathan. 154 00:15:32,950 --> 00:15:37,149 You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness, unquote. And then, of course, 155 00:15:37,210 --> 00:15:42,309 as we have alluded to already, Daniel employs the beast from the sea to describe the demonic 156 00:15:42,309 --> 00:15:48,110 scourge to Israel, the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes. And there, Daniel says, I saw in my 157 00:15:48,110 --> 00:15:51,309 vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea, 158 00:15:51,309 --> 00:15:56,950 and four great beasts came up out of the sea different from one another. Daniel describes 159 00:15:56,950 --> 00:16:03,230 those beasts in the same manner as John in Revelation. Dear listener, John was not making 160 00:16:03,230 --> 00:16:09,129 up something new. He drew upon a rich tradition of beasts from the sea who were symbols of the 161 00:16:09,129 --> 00:16:15,250 reigning political powers of their day, even as we have one in our day who brought demonic chaos to 162 00:16:15,250 --> 00:16:21,169 an otherwise orderly world created by the good God of the Bible. As we shall see, John had a 163 00:16:21,169 --> 00:16:28,549 demonic political power in mind, too, even as I do in our own day, a demonic bestial power. 164 00:16:29,429 --> 00:16:33,750 And so John used a metaphor. He knew his fellow Christians knew. That is the beast from the sea. 165 00:16:34,429 --> 00:16:40,269 Secondly, note with me, too, from Revelation, the beast has a dual identity, first as a political 166 00:16:40,269 --> 00:16:47,750 order. The beast will have a dual identity, first one as a political order. John is careful to observe 167 00:16:47,750 --> 00:16:53,269 the beast's empire nature. He says, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. 168 00:16:53,909 --> 00:16:59,870 This refers unmistakably. Every reader would have realized this refers unmistakably to the city of 169 00:16:59,870 --> 00:17:06,210 Rome, famously built upon seven hills on the Tiber River. The bestial nature of this political order is 170 00:17:06,210 --> 00:17:12,829 identified with the Roman Empire, per se, not some future kingdom. This is the sense of the power and 171 00:17:12,829 --> 00:17:18,309 throne and great authority given by the dragon, that is Satan, over those upon the earth. All of the 172 00:17:18,309 --> 00:17:22,450 great empires of the earth have been satanically inspired, I submit to you, and we must get this 173 00:17:22,450 --> 00:17:26,650 through our heads if we are to understand the new world order with which we deal, the beast with which 174 00:17:26,650 --> 00:17:32,890 we deal, presently being established apart from Christ, satanically inspired. The apostle John knew 175 00:17:32,890 --> 00:17:39,089 this and reflected it cryptically in his apocalypse. Here for us, if only we read it with the wisdom that 176 00:17:39,089 --> 00:17:45,009 he recommends. Well, not only does the beast have an identity as a political order, but thirdly, the 177 00:17:45,009 --> 00:17:52,789 beast has a dual identity. Secondly, as a political person. Yes, because John also observes in chapter 17. 178 00:17:53,490 --> 00:18:01,710 They are also seven kings. The number seven serves a three-layer purpose here. The number seven serves as 179 00:18:01,710 --> 00:18:07,009 the number of completeness and as the identity of the Roman Empire and then as the identity of the 180 00:18:07,009 --> 00:18:14,309 embodiment of the beast in a person. Who was the personification of the beast here? Well, we know 181 00:18:14,309 --> 00:18:19,609 this without a doubt. Our first readers would have known this without a doubt. First of all, it was 182 00:18:19,609 --> 00:18:25,349 Nero Caesar. Well, how can we say this unequivocally? Because John confirms it with three different 183 00:18:25,349 --> 00:18:31,049 vectors. He confirms that the beast was a person in the form of Nero Caesar with three different 184 00:18:31,049 --> 00:18:38,269 vectors. A, Nero was the sixth Caesar reigning, as John wrote. B, Nero was the coming resurrected 185 00:18:38,269 --> 00:18:46,230 bestial king, and Nero was also the coming resurrected, or Nero was also the bestial king of 666. 186 00:18:47,710 --> 00:18:53,549 Understand this. First of all, Nero was the sixth Caesar reigning, as John wrote. Now, counting from 187 00:18:53,549 --> 00:19:01,589 Julius Caesar, Nero is number six, even as he says he is. Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, 188 00:19:01,730 --> 00:19:06,390 and it was number five, and then number six, Nero. All of the churches of Asia in chapters two through 189 00:19:06,390 --> 00:19:12,529 three would have been able to count in this manner. Nero was presently the one who is, as John calls 190 00:19:12,529 --> 00:19:18,349 him. Nero was launched, was the one who launched the persecution of the church. The warnings which ensue 191 00:19:18,349 --> 00:19:25,650 concerning his behavior, the church would be able to reference to Nero and prepare. B, then we also 192 00:19:25,650 --> 00:19:31,390 know that Nero was the coming resurrected bestial king. Harkening back to chapter 13, John refers to 193 00:19:31,390 --> 00:19:38,069 Nero as the beast that was and is not. It is also an eighth, but it belongs to the seventh. Unquote. 194 00:19:38,230 --> 00:19:43,490 Cryptic language, but not cryptic if you understand. It so clearly refers to Nero that it should be an 195 00:19:43,490 --> 00:19:47,869 open and shut case for interpreters, but alas, there are so many blind and stubborn futurists 196 00:19:47,869 --> 00:19:53,410 that the modern evangelical church has been bamboozled. Understand this, listener. Understand 197 00:19:53,410 --> 00:19:59,230 Nero became such a beast that even his depraved, debauched fellow Romans hated and feared him. 198 00:19:59,609 --> 00:20:03,849 He finally had to flee Rome, and he ended up committing suicide by stabbing himself in the 199 00:20:03,849 --> 00:20:09,089 neck, that is, a head wound, and thus fulfilled Revelation 13. One of its heads seemed to have 200 00:20:09,089 --> 00:20:14,549 a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the 201 00:20:14,549 --> 00:20:20,630 beast. Unquote from chapter 13. In the Roman Empire of John's day, this became known as the Nero 202 00:20:20,630 --> 00:20:29,049 redidivus myth. That's Latin for resurrected. The Nero resurrected myth. That is, through occult powers, 203 00:20:29,529 --> 00:20:34,710 Nero would be revived from the dead and lead a great army from the east to reconquer his former empire. 204 00:20:35,230 --> 00:20:41,670 This, of course, is an evident parody of what Christ will do. Christ, indeed, is the resurrected son of 205 00:20:41,670 --> 00:20:46,089 the father, the true resurrected son of the father, who was actually raised from the dead and will 206 00:20:46,089 --> 00:20:52,309 return in great power and glory to conquer what is his by covenant. But as a pretender, Nero will 207 00:20:52,309 --> 00:20:56,609 return from the dead, that is, according to the legend, and inspire those not written in the book 208 00:20:56,609 --> 00:21:02,009 of life to marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. That is, reigning 209 00:21:02,009 --> 00:21:07,589 presently as Nero was. He is not, that is, he will disappear for a time, apparently dead, and then is to 210 00:21:07,589 --> 00:21:13,349 come. That is, he will reappear as if from the dead. John uses the same language in chapter 13 to 211 00:21:13,349 --> 00:21:18,150 describe the world's response to the apparent healing of Nero's head wound. That is, one of its 212 00:21:18,150 --> 00:21:23,170 heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as 213 00:21:23,170 --> 00:21:31,069 they followed the beast. So, taken together, Revelation 13 and 17 paint a clear portrait of the 214 00:21:31,069 --> 00:21:39,150 beast personified. That is, Caesar Nero. And then C, we also know the third vector is that Nero's name 215 00:21:39,150 --> 00:21:47,569 computes in biblical gematria to 666. Oh, yes. Perhaps no number is more associated with evil than this 216 00:21:47,569 --> 00:21:53,829 one, right, dear listener? Try giving this number to an employee, or maybe a customer, or give it as a 217 00:21:53,829 --> 00:22:00,910 student number. They'll all recoil in horror, 666. It's the stereotypical number of Antichrist. Such 218 00:22:00,910 --> 00:22:05,470 is the irrational superstition that Revelation, Red Heifer, Rapture teachers have cast over end times 219 00:22:05,470 --> 00:22:10,269 prophecy. The problem is that even though he has looked forward to as yet to come, Caesar Nero has 220 00:22:10,269 --> 00:22:16,549 already come and gone as the beast, 666. Does this mean there is nothing to fear from a beast in the 221 00:22:16,549 --> 00:22:22,490 future? No, no. More on this in days to come. Indeed, there are still personal beasts out there, 222 00:22:22,490 --> 00:22:28,170 but not this particular one. Caesar Nero's name, when translated into Hebrew, fits perfectly the 223 00:22:28,170 --> 00:22:34,650 number 666. Many, if not all, of John's readers would be able to do this simple computation, 224 00:22:35,170 --> 00:22:40,069 as in Roman numerals, Hebrew numeral calculation was done with Hebrew letters, giving it endless 225 00:22:40,069 --> 00:22:46,289 possibility for names with numbers. Thus, they would be able to interpret Revelation 13 by means of 226 00:22:46,289 --> 00:22:53,210 Revelation 17. That is, the beast personified was Caesar Nero, the very king persecuting them at that 227 00:22:53,210 --> 00:22:59,390 very time. And by this calculation, then, the church knew of whom John spoke, but odds were that most Roman 228 00:22:59,390 --> 00:23:04,670 officials would not. It would be gobbledygook to them. So, what I'm teaching you, dear listeners, 229 00:23:04,670 --> 00:23:10,450 nothing new. It is the orthodox teaching of the church from the beginning. Your Revelation Red Heifer 230 00:23:10,450 --> 00:23:16,809 rapture teachings based upon false eschatology of premillennial dispensationalism that cast all 231 00:23:16,809 --> 00:23:22,710 prophecy into the future. This is the innovation, as I covered last week. It is the new that is not 232 00:23:22,710 --> 00:23:29,089 true. And, dear listener, if this is your eschatology, if you aspire this futurist eschatology 233 00:23:29,089 --> 00:23:35,170 obsessed with end times prophecy, your mistaken eschatology has you trapped. You're looking for a 234 00:23:35,170 --> 00:23:40,630 beast over the horizon when he's now gnawing at your ankles. You imagine how you might react to the 235 00:23:40,630 --> 00:23:45,490 persecution of the great tribulation when it is upon you now, and especially your brothers across 236 00:23:45,490 --> 00:23:50,730 the world. Look at what's going on in the world. Persecution of the church now. You wonder and you 237 00:23:50,730 --> 00:23:55,490 speculate on how the government of the beast will look when it comes after your fantasy rapture, when 238 00:23:55,490 --> 00:24:00,730 our constitutional republic has been turned already into a plywood Hollywood movie set, while the real 239 00:24:00,730 --> 00:24:06,829 government of our nation and our world is operated behind the scenes by a select set of plutocrats. 240 00:24:06,950 --> 00:24:13,390 Now. The beast is now. Wake up. Stop serving that beast. With great fascination, you debate whether 241 00:24:13,390 --> 00:24:19,670 the mark of the beast will be a tattoo like it was in the 50s and 60s, speculated, or a barcode back in 242 00:24:19,670 --> 00:24:27,690 the 80s and 90s, or now today, this mark of the beast may be an implanted microchip, right? When the devotees of 243 00:24:27,690 --> 00:24:32,349 the beast have always borne this mark when understood as John intended. It calls for wisdom, 244 00:24:32,349 --> 00:24:39,549 dear listener. Stop serving the beast. Get your wisdom on. Stop serving the beast. You, futurists, 245 00:24:39,650 --> 00:24:44,430 you throw up your hands and you assert, we can't do anything about the world except save a few souls 246 00:24:44,430 --> 00:24:49,809 in evangelism. The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Anyway, we'll be raptured out of here 247 00:24:49,809 --> 00:24:56,069 soon, right? And you rely upon your escape hatch of the rapture provided you in your futurist 248 00:24:56,069 --> 00:25:01,150 eschatology. And you absolve yourself from doing anything now. And you wonder one day when you 249 00:25:01,150 --> 00:25:07,309 wake up, where am I going? And what am I doing in this handbasket? As long as all of your eschatology 250 00:25:07,309 --> 00:25:13,910 is exclusively future, you will miss what prophecy reveals about what is unfolding now, what God 251 00:25:13,910 --> 00:25:18,950 expects of you now, and what you can do on behalf of the kingdom, your Lord and your brothers now. 252 00:25:19,390 --> 00:25:24,589 Stop serving the beast, dear Christian, with your futurist eschatology. It's not an escape hatch. 253 00:25:24,589 --> 00:25:29,289 John was not revealing what would happen to a self-centered generation in the 21st century 254 00:25:29,289 --> 00:25:34,109 as much as he was writing to his own generation to show them just how what they were experiencing 255 00:25:34,109 --> 00:25:38,769 was consistent with what happened to God's people in the past. And we can make the same application. 256 00:25:38,950 --> 00:25:44,009 There is a beast today. Stop serving the beast, dear Christian. The truth for us today is that we 257 00:25:44,009 --> 00:25:49,470 share in the tribulation, the kingdom, and the patient endurance with them. We also have the 258 00:25:49,470 --> 00:25:55,589 interpretive keys to distinguish between Satan's unfolding plan for world dominion and God's sovereign, 259 00:25:55,930 --> 00:26:01,269 ultimately triumphant plan for his dominion and kingdom. Stop serving the beast. Serve God, 260 00:26:01,369 --> 00:26:07,170 not the beast. All of this and more is here for us if we have a mind for wisdom as we interpret 261 00:26:07,170 --> 00:26:13,549 Revelation. May all of this be yours in days to come as we continue to unfold what God has for us 262 00:26:13,549 --> 00:26:20,990 now, today in the book of Revelation. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian 263 00:26:20,990 --> 00:26:27,490 Church. We meet, New Geneva Meets for Holy Worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner 264 00:26:27,490 --> 00:26:36,289 of 4th and Boulevard. Call us for more information or feedback at 523-0196. That's 523-0196.