Monday, February 25
Revelation 13:5 specifies a time period of persecution that we talked about in yesterday’s study. The 42 months of the beast’s activities is the same time period as the 1,260 days/years of the persecution of the woman/church in Revelation 12:6, 14. (A prophetic day symbolizes a year [Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6]. See Tuesday’s study in Lesson 7). The year A.D. 538 marks appropriately the beginning of this prophetic period when the Roman church, with the pope as its head, established itself as a church-state power that dominated the Western world throughout medieval times. The events of the French Revolution inflicted the deadly wound upon the beast in A.D. 1798, thus bringing the church’s oppressive rule and the state-empowered religion to a temporary end.
Compare Revelation 13:5-8 with Daniel 7:24-25 and 2 Thessalonians 2:2-12. In what way do the activities of the sea beast mirror the descriptions of the little horn and the man of lawlessness?
The sea beast’s activities during the prophetic 1,260 days/years are stated in terms of blasphemies. In the New Testament, blasphemy can denote a claim of equality with God (John 10:33, Matthew 26:63-65) and the action of usurping His authority (Mark 2:7). The sea beast’s blasphemies are directed “against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:6, NKJV). The dwelling of God is the sanctuary in heaven, where Christ ministers on behalf of our salvation. The sea beast seeks to negate Christ’s mediatorial work by attempting to replace it with a human priesthood that claims to administer salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Assuming these powers that belong only to God is the essence of blasphemy.
Revelation 13 points to a time of major apostasy in Christianity, which was fulfilled when Roman Catholicism claimed the position and authority of God with the pope as its head. Those who refused submission to Rome experienced persecution and martyrdom. Although today such statements are viewed as harsh, even bigoted, the present cannot erase the history, no matter how much some people wish that it would.
How can we stay faithful to prophecy about church history and yet, at the same time, be kind and cautious as we present these truths to others?
