Endurance and Faith in the Face of the Beast

``Now, he he leads it all that way. You need to know this first beast, very political. The second beast, very religious. And they're gonna unify two different worlds together. But this is a political leader. This is someone who works in the realms of kings, and halls of power and military might and things of that nature. You also need to know that that we're gonna find out in chapter 17 that there are these seven kingdoms and five have been, one is, and one is to come. [00:41:10] (27 seconds)  #StandFirmInFaith

We're gonna find this repetition. Now John is gonna use a lot of imagery that that points back to Rome. And Rome is the power that is, but he's also gonna use this language about a a nation of Babylon, which was not, but some sort of revival of it. And so all of that's gonna come together, but this individual represents someone who comes out of a a Gentile world, out of the chaos, who unifies everything together to oppose God. Now how does he do that? [00:41:41] (31 seconds)

Jesus in the wilderness looks at Satan's temptation and says no. The antichrist will say, yes. All the kingdoms of the world will be united behind him, and he will lead them to worship the devil. And that's what we see is this this emergence of this individual has that kind of authority, that kind of power, and that kind of position. [00:44:18] (28 seconds)

He says that's what's gotta happen. This individual has to arrive. This individual has to come on the scene. Well, what is he going to do? If that's who he is, what will he do? What are the actions of the beast? Well, in verse three. He has a mortal wound, but somehow it is miraculously healed. It is something that should kill somebody, but either he is resurrected or that it is healed, and it's not a death sentence for him. Now there was the idea in in John's time that Nero was going to come back from the dead. Nero had committed suicide, but it had been spread around as a rumor that he really didn't commit suicide. He just ran off. [00:45:18] (40 seconds)

In other words, if you wanna try to oppose the beast, best of luck, you can't kill him. But he can kill you. So it's a threat. It's something that says you better way this out before you just decide to come against this guy because he can't be killed. But he'll leverage all his powers to come against you. [00:46:48] (24 seconds)

And he forces this decision. This is what this antichrist does. He forces a decision. He takes away the middle ground. He takes away the compromise. He takes away the casual nature sometimes we put to our Christianity. He says, you're either for me or against me. And if you're against me, you're the enemy, and I will oppose you, and I will attack you, and and I will kill you. But if you're for me, you're gonna worship me, and you're gonna follow me, and you're gonna step fall in line. He wants to be worshipped. [00:47:24] (31 seconds)

I think Domitian is the emperor at the time that John is writing this. And and prior to Domitian, there were emperors who had led Rome. But when they died, they were proclaimed to be gods, to be worshiped as these godlike individuals. Domitian said, I don't wanna wait till I die. I wanna be worshipped now. And he gave himself a title, Ed Deus Nos three, which is our Lord and God. [00:47:55] (29 seconds)

And so this individual comes on the scene. The people of the world will worship him. The people of the world will follow him because they don't know any better. They they don't know anything else. You remember that that what we're supposed to be is these saints who are enduring and living by faith. This is something that has all the trappings of something great, but none of the substance. [00:48:30] (26 seconds)