The Image of the Beast and the Martyrdom of Christians

Revelation 13: 2-3 describes the first beast, the one who comes up
out of the sea, as “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,
and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of
a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great
authority.
3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his
deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.”

The first beast is like a leopard, a bear and a lion. If only one of
these animals were mentioned, then
we could say it might be just coincidence that its a beast who is
metaphoric for a kingdom in Daniel Chapter 7. But since three of the
beasts of Daniel 7 are seen here as descriptive of the first beast,
then it is referring back to Daniel 7. “The first was like a lion,
and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked,
and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a
man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
5. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised
up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it
between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour
much flesh.
6. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had
upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four
heads; and dominion was given to it.”

The dispensationalists claim these four kingdoms are the identical
same kingdoms of Daniel 2, which are the empires of Babylon, Persia,
Greece and Rome. So the lion in Daniel 7 is Babylon again, the bear is
Persia, and the leopard is Greece. The fourth kingdom in Daniel 7: 7,
the fourth beast which is dreadful and terrible would be, according to
the dispensationalists, the Roman empire.

To the dispensationalists, who want to honor physical Israel as
remaining the chosen people of God, Daniel is a “Jewish” book of
prophecy. For them, Daniel does not deal with events and kingdoms on
the other side of the Cross. Never mind that Daniel 10: 4-21 tells is
that an angel came to give Daniel the prophecy which became Daniel 11
and 12, which does give us glimpses of things in the end times, which
is on the other side of the Cross.

So the first beast is government, that is, political government, while
the second beast of Revelation 13 11-18 might be said to be
ecclesiastical government, as well as the office of the False Prophet.
The second beast is identified as having two horns like a lamb,
indicating it is Christian, but it speaks like a dragon. The second
beast makes use of the dialectic to promote and defend his positions.
The second beast does not preach the Gospel in truth by “it is
written.”

The second beast has been called the False Prophet. The False Prophet
represents many false prophets as shown in Matthew 24:11, II Peter 2:
1 and I John 4: 1. The False Prophet operates within ecclesiastical
government, that is, in the churches.

One of the heads of the first beast, which is government in our time,
not in the time of the four kingdoms of Daniel 2, is wounded to death
but its deadly wound was healed and the whole world wonders after this
beast. This fits the nation of Israel, which received a deadly wound
in 70 A.D. when the Roman army took and destroyed the temple and much
of Jerusalem, but the deadly wound was healed in 1948 when Israel
became a nation. So the first beast has more than one head, but the
head whose deadly wound was healed is important enough to be mentioned
in this broad stroke kind of end time prophecy. The head of the beast
whose deadly wound was healed is important in the prophecy.

We will see that the second beast, the False Prophet, in verse 12 is
said to cause them which dwell on the earth to worship the first
beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”And he exerciseth all the power
of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which
dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was
healed.”

To make sense out of this prophecy, we need to know what the first
beast is. If the first beast is a government which has traits like
the lion, bear and leopard empires of Daniel 7, interpreted to be
political empires on our side of the Cross, then the first beast is
similar to the British, Russian and Nazi German empires. It can be the
United States and the United Nations, or the U.S. alone as a world
beater power.

If we see the beast whose deadly wound was healed as a different head
of the beast than that head which is like the British, Russian and
Nazi German empires, that is, the U.S.,then the False Prophet leads
people to worship the nation of Israel. We can see from contemporary
history that the U.S. has given much help to the nation of Israel, and
Israel has an influence on our foreign policy and in other ways.

The two verses of Revelation 13 that tell us about the image to the
beast whose deadly wound was healed are verses 14 and 15. “And
deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them
that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast,
which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15. 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.”

The False Prophet deceives people into creating a likeness of the
beast whose deadly wound was healed.

The False Prophet, as many individual false prophets, causes those who
dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast whose deadly wound
was healed, that is, to Israel. Its the nation of Israel, but since
the nation of Israel claims to be physical Israel, the Jews, in the
modern timeline, we can say the False Prophet also causes people to
make an image to physical Israel, who dispensationalists claim to now
be a people of God and his chosen people.

An image, from the Greek eikon in Revelation 13: 14, is Strong’s
number 1504, which is said to mean,”from 1503, eiko, a copy, to
resemble, be like, statue, profile, representation, resemblance,
image.”

Some popular dispensationalist interpretations of the image of the
beast got off on the idea of a statue, and then they take verse 15
literally which says the copy of the beast speaks and kills to mean
that somehow this statue magically talks and kills people who do not
worship it. If the image of the beast is a group of people then it
makes more sense that literally members of the group can speak their
doctrine and can cause their enemies to be killed.

The image of the beast whose deadly wound was healed is a copy or
resemblance to the beast whose deadly wound was healed, that is, the
False Prophet causes others to create something which is like the
nation of Israel, and especially like physical Israel. The copy is an
ecclesiastical structure having a resemblance to ancient physical
Israel’s temple, the Pharisees, and in other ways honoring the chosen
people by becoming like them to some extent as their surrogates. This
ecclesiastical structure also honors the U.S. government head of the
beast by being incorporated as a corporation under the Internal
Revenue Service 501C(3) provision, putting it under that beast as
having its image in addition to being like the beast whose deadly
wound was healed.

The dispensationalist church honors (worships) physical Israel, or
“All Israel,” as the beast whose deadly wound was healed (Revelation
13: 12).

While dispensationists will sometimes give up their pre-tribulation
rapture theory when confronted by more than one New Testament text
which says Christ only appears at the last day (John 6: 40), at the
last trumpet (I Corinthians 15: 52) and after the tribulation (Matthew
24: 29-30), they will more often stick to their belief that physical
Israel, or “All Israel,” remain God’s chosen people. Their belief in
the supremacy of physical Israel is very important to them and they
will not give that up easily.

The dispensationalists are potentially one arm of two opposing
polarities. When two polarities clash – meet in conflict – a storm
often comes about. You could also call it metaphorically an
earthquake.
When two opposing groups become more polarized, then it is more likely
that a heightened form of spiritual wrestling will happen. One side
of the polarity is the dispensationalists having a relationship with
their doctrine about the chosen people of the Old Covenant remaining
the chosen people after the Cross. The Remnant is the other side of
the polarity and the Remnant people tend to have a love affair with
the truth of Scripture and want to defend it, and may go on the
offensive with the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God
(Ephesians 6: 17). When the Remnant is fully following the Lamb
wherever he leads, then sparks will fly and the conflict is more
intense.

The Remnant does not threaten the dispensationalist church as long as
it is not having an influence on some members of that church. As long
as the Remnant people communicate only with one another, it does not
threaten the dispensationalist church very much, even though the
Remnant people are outside the church. The church then pretends that
the Remnant does not exist.

But if the Remnant people become more anointed in the truth, are
without guile (deception) and follow the Lamb wherever he leads, know
the scriptures better, and begin to communicate more with members of
the dispensationalst church, then the Remnant is a threat. At that
point the two groups will be more polarized and the two polarities
will clash in the end time spiritual conflict.

Revelation 13: 15 says the image of the beast whose deadly wound was
healed causes “…that as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed.” Here is the connection between the image of
the beast and the martyrdom of Christians as predicted by Matthew 24:
9, Luke 21: 16 and John 16: 2.

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you:
and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” Matthew 24:
9

“And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and
kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to
death.” Luke 21: 16

“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” John 16:
2 Synagogues in Strong’s can mean churches as well as synagogues.

Daniel 11: 33 has something to say about persecution and killing of
believers. “And they that understand among the people shall instruct
many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity,
and by spoil, many days”.

“They” may mean that those who are instructed will fall by the sword,
though it could mean those who understand and do the instructing will
also fall by the sword. During the first century A.D. all the
Apostles except John were murdered.

Interestingly there is a prophecy in Deuteronomy 32: 36, a place where
such a prophecy might not be expected, that is relevant to the
martyrdom of Christians in the last days spiritual conflict. “For the
LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when
he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or
left.”

But Ezekiel 5: 1-5,12 is even more relevant, especially when put
together with Zechariah 13: 8-9.

Zechariah 13: 8-9 says “And it shall come to pass, that in all the
land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but
the third shall be left therein.
9. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine
them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they
shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my
people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”

It says a third part, not necessarily one third of all, will be
brought through a fire, refined, and they turn to the Lord who accepts
them.

Ezekiel 5: 1-5 shows us four groups who claim to be the people of God
(it says in verse 5, “This is Jerusalem.”). Here there are three
groups like Zechariah 13: 8-9, plus a small group shown in verse 3.
Ezekiel 5: 12 then deals with the fate of the three larger groups. “A
third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine
shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall
fall by the sword round about thee and I will scatter a third part
into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.”

The group who scatters into all the winds could be those who come out
of the dispensationalist church as the image of the beast, while the
other two groups stay in the church and die at some point in time from
pestilence and famine or by the sword. No mention is made in Ezekiel
5: 12 of the fate of that small group who in verse 3 are hid in ol
Ezekiel’s skirts.

Bernard

The Remnant Blog