A Study of Revelation 20 and other Related Passages
I feel much freer now that I am sure the Pope is the Antichrist.
Martin Luther
Oh, how I wish I were the Antichrist!
Percy Bysshe Shelly
I want you to hear me tonight, I am not saying that President Obama is the Antichrist. I am not saying that at all. One reason I know he’s not the Antichrist is the Antichrist is going to have much higher poll numbers when he comes.
Robert Jeffress
In Revelation 20:4 John sees the souls of the beheaded martyrs reigning a thousand years with Christ, victoriously enjoying the first resurrection. They had resisted the tyranny of the beast and refused to take his mark or worship his image. By understanding who this beast is and the nature of the mark and the image we will understand the plight and preservation of these saints. If they, even they, are victorious in Christ, what may be said for all the rest of the saints?
Apocalyptic terms such as “Beast,” “the Mark of the Beast,” and “Six Hundred Sixty-Six” often inspire more anxious speculation than confirming comfort. It is worth noting that when we hear these terms in Revelation 20:4, they are not looming over the saints like some harbinger of doom. They have been met, endured and overcome in Christ. Still, they must be understood so that we may apply God’s truth to encourage and equip the saints today. Thus, we return to Revelation 13 to nearly complete our interpretation of this text that we may understand Revelation 20 harmoniously.
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
Revelation 13:16-18
Taken in isolation, Revelation 13:16 sounds like a global economic tyranny. The scope of “all”, however has already been set by Revelation 13:11-15. The focus is on the “Land Beast” and what he does in his role as a false prophet to deceive the people of the “earth” or “land.” This means the Jews of the Land. They are the members of the Old Covenant who are under God’s judgment. The focus is not directly on the Gentiles, but on the Jews. The Sea Beast has already been discussed. The Land Beast, which represents Jerusalem under the control of the High Priest and Sanhedrin, promotes the power and worship of the Sea Beast. Why is this? We answered this last time. The Land Beast derives its Satanically empowered authority from Rome, the Sea Beast. How does the Land Beast ensure the people of the land venerate the Sea Beast? He deceives them by Temple fire, compelling all the people to participate in building the Temple unto the glory of Rome. The whole economy of Jerusalem ran through the Temple. Impoverishing sanctions on Christians were not difficult to enforce. The early Jewish Saints were easily distinguished from other ethnic Jews because Christians would not “take the mark.”
“Taking the mark,” when read in both the immediate and covenantal context, is all about worship. In Revelation 13:11-15 the emphasis is on the Land Beast getting all the people to worship the Sea Beast by means of the “image” (which is the Temple). What may have seemed like political expediency and long term investment for the sake of a far more glorious Temple, was actually idolatry of the highest order. To comprehend the impact of this blasphemy consider the shock value of changing just a couple of words in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Caesar and Empire that whosoever believed in them should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If John 3:16 serves as the most familiar verse declaring the good news of the New Covenant, than Deuteronomy 6:4 served even more so as the motto of Second Temple Judaism. Proselytes were required to recite the verse as they immersed themselves in ritual cleansing. If we will consider the verse for its anti-idolatrous theme and read it in its context, we will easily see the point in Revelation 13:16-17.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
The successful keeping of the Old Covenant required that the people of Israel, the people of the Land, would each teach his neighbor to “know the LORD.” They had to faithfully teach their children the true worship of God and all of His laws in order to keep covenant. The following verses in Deuteronomy 6 warn the Israelites, cautioning them against forgetting God and being destroyed from the face of the land should they break covenant (Deuteronomy 6:13). God’s covenant with Israel was to be on their hand and on their foreheads between their eyes (Deuteronomy 6:8). While Pharisees wore phylacteries (little boxes with tiny scripture scrolls) strapped to hand and head, they missed the point. The hand stood for everything a man did, put his hand to, reached for, and owned. The head turned, looked, processed, and valued. Everything Israel did and thought, pursued and valued needed to be in agreement with God’s covenant precepts. In John’s day, everything Israel did and thought, pursued and valued was evaluated in light of their agreements with Rome and their Temple project. John’s vision exposed their idolatry, by employing the same language of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It was as if they had rewritten the Shema:
“Hear, O Israel: The Temple of the Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the gold of the temple of Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these Caesars which support the temple today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind their authority as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
To be on board with the Land Beast meant that you had taken this blasphemous and idolatrous mark to the hand and head. To be against the Rome-supported authority and temple fanaticism of the chief priests was to live as an outlaw (Luke 22:35-38). This is why the mark of the Beast is both a name and a number, but more on that next time.
