THE TWO WITNESSES

So let's start again where we left off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcJUIAJNW0


 Many of the tribulation saints will also have heard the gospel from the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1–13). The Bible says these two individuals “will prophesy for 1,260 days [three and a half years]” (verse 3) and perform great miracles (verse 6)


Re 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
 2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. {leave out: Gr. cast out}
 3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. {I will give...: or, I will give unto my two witnesses that they may prophesy}
 4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
 5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
 7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
 8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
 9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
 10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
 11 And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
 12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
 13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. {of men: Gr. names of men}

 (KJV)


While there are guesses and arguments about the identity of the Antichrist and the False Prophet as we've mentioned that range all over, the discussion over the two witnesses in these verses equals that guessing game.


https://www.gotquestions.org/two-witnesses.html


Question: "Who are the two witnesses in the book of Revelation?"

Answer: There are three primary viewpoints on the identity of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:3-12: (1) Moses and Elijah, (2) Enoch and Elijah, (3) two unknown believers whom God calls to be His witnesses in the end times. (1) Moses and Elijah are seen as possibilities for the two witnesses due to the witnesses' power to turn water into blood (Revelation 11:6), which Moses is known for (Exodus chapter 7), and their power to destroy people with fire (Revelation 11:5), which Elijah is known for (2 Kings chapter 1). Also giving strength to this view is the fact that Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:3-4). Further, Jewish tradition expected Moses and Elijah to return in the future. Malachi 4:5 predicted the return of Elijah, and the Jews believed that God’s promise to raise up a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18) necessitated his return.

(2) Enoch and Elijah are seen as possibilities for the two witnesses because they are the two individuals whom God has taken to heaven apart from experiencing death (Genesis 5:23; 2 Kings 2:11). The fact that neither Enoch or Elijah have experienced death seems to qualify them to experience death and resurrection, as the two witnesses experience (Revelation 11:7-12). Proponents of this view claim that Hebrews 9:27 (all men die once) disqualifies Moses from being one of the two witnesses, as Moses has died once already (Deuteronomy 34:5). However, there are several others in the Bible who died twice—e.g., Lazarus, Dorcas, and the daughter of the synagogue ruler—so there is really no reason why Moses should be eliminated on this basis.

View (3) essentially argues that Revelation chapter 11 does not attach any famous identity to the two witnesses. If their identities were Moses and Elijah, or Enoch and Elijah, why would Scripture be silent about this? God is perfectly capable of taking two "ordinary" believers and enabling them to perform the same signs and wonders that Moses and Elijah did. There is nothing in Revelation 11 that requires us to assume a "famous" identity for the two witnesses.

Which view is correct? The possible weakness of (1) is that Moses has already died once, and therefore could not be one of the two witnesses, who die, which would make Moses a contradiction of Hebrews 9:27. Proponents of (1) will argue that all of the people who were miraculously resurrected in the Bible (e.g., Lazarus) later died again. Hebrews 9:27 is viewed, then, as a "general rule," not a universal principle. There are no clear weaknesses to view (2), as it solves the "die once" problem, and it makes sense that if God took two people to heaven without dying, Enoch and Elijah, it was to prepare them for a special purpose. There are also no clear weaknesses to view (3). All three views are valid and plausible interpretations that Christians can have. The identities of the two witnesses is an issue Christians should not be dogmatic about.

                                                                                                                                                                  

https://www.gci.org/bible/rev/2witnesses

Many Christians through the ages have wondered who the "two witnesses" of Revelation 11 happen to be. The two witnesses are among the most dramatic characters of Scripture. They prophesy before the world for three and a half years (1,260 days) (11:3). During this time, they can strike the earth with whatever plague they desire, and cannot be harmed by their enemies (11:5-6). Ultimately, they are killed by the beast (11:7) but they rise to life in three and a half days (11:11). How are we to understand the two witnesses and the unusual happenings surrounding their lives?

Are they two actual people who prophesy before Jesus’ return? Do they symbolize the church in an aspect of its gospel preaching? Commentators have found Revelation 11 quite difficult to interpret and have identified the two witnesses in more than a dozen ways. Let’s see what the book of Revelation tells us.

John does not name or specifically identify the two witnesses. However, some indicators point the way towards at least their symbolic identification. Revelation describes the two witnesses as two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord (11:4). Not surprisingly, an Old Testament passage contains these images. Zechariah saw a vision of a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at its top containing seven lights. By the bowls, one on each side, were the two olive trees (4:2-3).

Zechariah asked the angel for the identity of the two olive trees. The angel’s answer was: "These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth" (4:14). That is, they are witnesses or prophets of God.

The subject of Zechariah’s book was a call to God’s people to repent (Zechariah 1:3). As did their ancient predecessors, the two witnesses wear rough sackcloth, a badge of the office of a prophet who calls people to repentance. In ancient times, sackcloth was the garment depicting mourning and contrition (Jeremiah 4:8; Matthew 11:21).

In Zechariah, the two olive trees stand beside the lampstand that has seven lights. Revelation uses a lampstand as a symbol of the church (1:20). Perhaps John was trying to tell his readers that the two witnesses were to be identified with the church, perhaps as its representatives or leaders. Through them the divine light of God reflected by the churches is made evident to the world (Matthew 5:15-16).

It’s also possible that the two witnesses are symbolically modeled after Moses and Elijah. They "have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain" (11:6). This power was associated with Elijah, whose prayer caused a terrible drought in Israel (1 Kings 17:1).

Elijah’s deed was proverbial among Jews in the first century. James mentioned the drought as an example of the power of a righteous person’s prayer (James 5:17). He said that Elijah’s prayer caused a drought of exactly three and a half years — the time referred to in Revelation in various forms. Luke also referred to the famine in Elijah’s time, and said it had a length of three and a half years (4:25). Interestingly, in 1 Kings the time of the drought is said to be "the next few years" (17:1) or about three years (18:1).

As did Moses, the two witnesses "have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague" (11:6 with Exodus 7:14-21). This recalls Moses’ role as God’s agent, who through ten plagues — including turning the Nile and the waters of Egypt into blood — brought down the most powerful kingdom of the day.

Also, like Elijah, the two witnesses can consume their enemies with fire, if they try to hurt them (11:5 with 2 Kings 1:10). This fire is said to "come from their mouths" (11:5). Such a literal occurrence would be an odd sight, indeed!

It seems clear, then, that the two witnesses are portrayed as coming in the power of both Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest prophets of the Jewish nation. The writer appears to be creating a symbolic universe for his readers in which he is making a connection between God's acts in Jewish history and through the church.

Perhaps there is a literal aspect to the fire from heaven or other elements, but we cannot neglect their metaphorical meaning. Fire coming from the mouth is a symbol used for powerful preaching. The image was used of Jeremiah’s witnessing: "I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes" (5:14).

(I would suggest there is a definite literal meaning and perhaps a symbolic one though I would agree the symbolism is also likely.  Why is it that so many on each side can't realize God does things with multiple meanings and implications as our study here has shown again and again.  The problem with symbolic meaning is that we have to realize the symbolism needs to connect with the text not with some thesis someone developed. This is a good example of exploring a symbol from the text and making a fine analysis,  Here the question is legitimate though I suspect the writer fails to see that BOTH the symbolic and the literal are possible. W) 

However, Jeremiah did not do any miraculous works. He was a prophet who spoke God’s word. That was the only "fire" that came out of his mouth. He "tormented" Judah with his spiritually sharp words, which his hearers could not bear.

We must be careful, then, how we interpret the images of Revelation. Is the preaching of the two witnesses the "fire" that "kills" their enemies by being unbearable? Or do they actually call down real fire from heaven, which is said to come from their mouth — at their request? (To repeat, it would be strange, indeed, if actual fire came from the mouth of two human beings. Yet, that would be the conclusion of a literal interpretation of this image.)

(I think I have some responsibility to suggest that things we find strange, i.e. talking mules, the sun stopped in the sky, a world wide flood, the blind healed, the dead raised, are prety much the sock and trade of our Lord. W)

In any case, the imagery of Revelation 11 is so carefully worked out to coincide with the most noteworthy accomplishments of Elijah and Moses that it cannot be accidental. John is giving his hearer - readers a message. When you think of the two witnesses, think of Moses and Elijah.

Why was he doing this? Here is one possible answer. The Jews commonly expected that Elijah and Moses would somehow "return" before the end-time (Mark 9:11). This idea was based on Old Testament texts. The prophet Malachi had written in God’s name: "I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes" (4:5). Of course, Jesus had already pointed out that Malachi’s "Elijah" was a symbol for a great prophet, in this case John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11-14). So had the Gospel of Luke (1:16).  

(Another possible answer: the guiding of then Holy Spirit. W.)

Thus, the church should have understood that "Elijah" had already come, and he was symbolic of John the Baptist. Perhaps, because of some Jewish thinking to the contrary, a question about this had arisen in the church.

In the same way, the Jews expected a Moses to come on the scene at some point in the future (John 6:14). This idea may have come from Moses’ prophecy of Christ ("I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers"), which was sometimes misunderstood to refer to Moses himself (Deuteronomy 18:18).

Christ himself seemed to play on this important symbolism. It was Moses and Elijah who appeared with Jesus in the Transfiguration (Mark 9:4). Apparently, the disciples who saw this associated the vision with the kingdom to come at the end of the age.

While I have cited these two  sources only, they tend to summarize the various ideas.  Historicists tend to see the witnesses as all those who rose against the papacy over the centuries.  This is the case of coming at the text with a thesis and making the symbol fit the preconceived notion. We've touched on many of the martyrs here and in Myth misunderstanding.   The view here:  These are two real people who will stand against the AC and the FP for the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation.  They will preach and apparently will develop a following.  

But two things of note.  The first comes from an old riddle:

https://www.riddles.com/search?word=rushed

There's a boy and his dad they got in a severe car accident. They were rushed to the hospital where they were separated into separate rooms. The Doctor went into the boys room and said I can not operate on him he is my son.

How can this be?

Now, I first heard this decades ago when there was no Grey's Anatomy on the TV.  You have to have been living a bit isolated not to know the answer is: because the doctor is his mother.  

I read commentary after commentary and never was the idea ventured that one or both might be a woman.  I suppose somewhere in the Greek something is in masculine tense, but it never reaches into any translation.  Not to diss my own gender, I suspect the main reason is that the commentaries are written by men.  The Witnesses  are referred to always in plural, acting together as one.  Which makes me think more of  Priscilla and Aquila, the couple who accompanied Paul for some of his missions.

I copy here an extensive report on their life and times with Him.  Their story is worth the space.  If it teaches nothing else, it teaches the secret of success in a Christian marriage.  The support of each  for the other. 

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2013/06/12/Aquila-and-Priscilla-A-Godly-Marriage-for-Ministry.aspx

Dr. Luke records the first meeting of the Apostle Paul with this couple in Corinth thus: “And he [Paul] found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them” (Acts 18:2). Aquila was originally from the Roman province of Pontus on the south shore of the Black Sea, called the Euxine Sea during the Roman period. His Latin name, Aquila, means “eagle.” Most likely he was a freedman living in Rome because most of the Jews living in Rome at this time were such.

We are not told where Priscilla is from, her ethnicity, or her religious heritage. Her name is a common Roman name among the aristocratic families. Luke hints at the fact that she is not of Jewish heritage because he states Aquila is Jewish, but does not refer to her as such. Whether she was a convert to Judaism, and thus a proselyte, or a convert to Christianity, we are not told. She could have been originally from Rome and Aquila met and married her in the Eternal City.

There are at least four possibilities as to how and when this couple came to faith in the Lord Jesus. First, Aquila could have heard the preaching of Peter in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost in AD 30. Dr. Luke records that there were Diaspora Jews from Pontus in Jerusalem for this festival (Acts 2:9). If Aquila heard Peter, he might have been touched by the words of the apostle and convicted by the Holy Spirit of his sin of unbelief. He realized he was a sinner, as we all are, and could not merit salvation or work for it. He realized the Lord Jesus was the Messiah of Israel who fulfilled the prophecies of His first coming to the earth. Aquila might have put his trust in the Lord Jesus as his Savior and Messiah at that time. When the festival was over, he returned to his Diaspora home in Pontus.

The second possibility is that he and his wife could have been part of the Jewish and proselyte delegation from Rome that made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Pentecost in AD 30 (Acts 2:10). This would have been another opportunity for them to come to faith. The third possibility could have been if Aquila heard the preaching of Peter on the apostle’s missionary trip through Pontus in AD 40-42 (I Peter 1:1; cf. Acts 12:17). Jerome, one of the early church fathers, states in his Lives of Illustrious Men: “Simon Peter … after having been bishop of the church in Antioch and having preached to the Dispersion – the believers in circumcision, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia – pushed on to Rome in the second year of Claudius” (1994:3:361). The final possibility might have been if they were in Rome in AD 42 when Peter arrived in the second year of Claudius. Peter could have led them to the Lord at that time.

These possible scenarios also raise some interesting questions. Was Peter invited by Aquila to minister in Pontus on his first missionary journey in AD 40-42? This would have been a follow-up ministry visit to those who had come to faith in the Lord Jesus on the day of Pentecost ten years earlier. Did Peter take Aquila with him as a disciple when he ventured to the city of Rome after his first missionary journey? If this is the case, it would account for how Aquila got to Rome. Does a “nice Jewish boy” from Pontus marry a proselyte or Christian girl from Rome after Peter introduced them to each other? Was Aquila one of the leaders in the “pro-Cephas” faction in the church at Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. 1:12; 3:22)? If so, he was being loyal to the one who led him to the Lord and mentored him. These are questions that can be asked, but Scripture is silent as to the answers.

I am looking forward to that day in Heaven when I can sit down with Priscilla and Aquila and hear their life story. I am also curious to know how they risked their neck for the Apostle Paul. It should be easy to find the mansion that the Lord Jesus prepared for them (John 14:3) because it will have beautiful Corinthian columns in front of it!

Aquila and Priscilla’s name appears together six times (Acts 18:2,18,26; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), in the Textus Receptus, half the time she is mentioned before her husband (Acts 18:18; Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19 where she is called Prisca). The name “Priscilla” is the diminutive of “Prisca.” I suspect her name was put first because she had a more active spiritual role in the church, but that is only speculation on my part.

Aquila and Priscilla in Rome – Acts 18:2

Scripture does state that Aquila and Priscilla were expelled from Rome by a decree during the days of Emperor Claudius (Acts 18:2). Most scholars date this decree to AD 49. There are some scholars, however, who have suggested AD 41 as the possible date for the expulsion (Murphy-O’Connor 1983:130-140; 1992:47-49). The Roman historian, Suetonius, wrote that “since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome” (Claudius 25:4; LCL 2:53). Whether Chrestus is another name for Christ, or the name of a Jewish rabble rouser in Rome, is debated. Dr. Luke records that Aquila and Priscilla “recently” arrived in Corinth from Rome. This would rule out the earlier expulsion in AD 41. But the record is clear; Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome.

Apparently Claudius’s decree did not discriminate between Jews and Messianic Jews, those Jews who had put their trust in the Lord Jesus as Messiah. Aquila, a Messianic Jew, and his wife Priscilla were included in the expulsion from Rome.

Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth – Acts 18:2-18

Aquila and Priscilla decided to relocate to the Roman colony of Corinth and practiced their trade of tentmaking in that cosmopolitan and Latin speaking city. They would have arrived several years before the Apostle Paul and most likely would have started evangelistic work in the city, or continued what the Apostle Peter may have started if he came through Corinth in AD 42.

In AD 52, Paul arrived in Corinth to begin his evangelistic endeavors. Silas and Timothy soon joined Paul in the work. Perhaps they had heard of the work in Corinth and came along to help. One other thing that may have attracted these three apostles to Corinth was the Isthmian Games that were held near Corinth (Acts 18:2-5).

The Apostle Paul was attracted to this couple, not only because of their common faith in the Lord Jesus, but also because of their common occupation. Dr. Luke records: “for by occupation they were tentmakers” (Acts 18:3). Both were involved in this trade which indicates that this was a family business.

There have been several suggestions as to what the “tentmaking” profession involved. Some have suggested, because Paul was from Tarsus in Cilicia, his father had taught him the trade of weaving tent cloth from goat’s hair (cilicium). Others have suggested, because the tents were made of leather, that the tentmaking involved leather working. Hiebert points out that “Paul’s father was a strict Pharisee (Acts 23:6) and thus regarded contact with the skins of dead animals as defiling, it seems improbable that he would have permitted his son to learn such a trade” (1992:29).

Aquila and Priscilla were from Rome and in the Eternal City there was a Tentmakers Associations, called in Latin collegium tabernaclariorum (Murphy-O’Conner 1992:44). Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) describes what was made of linen cloths: awnings used to cover theaters, the Roman Forum, the Sacred Way, and Nero’s amphitheaters. It was also used for awnings in houses and sails for ships (Natural History19:23-25; LCL 5:435-437).

Aquila and Priscilla would have had no problem finding employment when they arrived in Corinth or establishing their own business. Shades were needed for the construction work going on in Corinth at this time, sails for ships were in need of mending as ships crossed the Isthmus of Corinth, and tents were in need of mending during the Isthmian Games. Their workshop afforded them the opportunity for evangelism (Hock 1978, 1979).

Where the shop was located in Corinth is an open question. Murphy-O’Conner suggested it might have been in the newly built North Market located just to the north of the Archaic Temple to Apollo (1983:169). However, a careful reading of the preliminary excavation report suggests this market had not been built at this time and was built by the initiative of Emperor Vespasian after the earthquake of AD 77-78 (de Waele 1930:453).

Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus – Acts 18:19;24-28; 1 Cor. 16:19

After 18 months of ministering in Corinth, Paul decided to move his base of operation to Ephesus. He took Aquila and Priscilla to this major trading center on the west coast of Asia Minor, the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire; Rome, Alexandria and Antioch on the Orontes being larger (Acts 18:18,19). Paul left them there in order to establish the work in the city. He also promised that he would return to Ephesus after his visit to Jerusalem.

In Ephesus they established a church that met in their house (1 Cor. 16:19). This afforded them the opportunity to show hospitality to sinners and saints. One day, while attending the synagogue in Ephesus, they heard Apollos, a Jewish preacher from Alexandria (Egypt) who was eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures, but he only knew of the baptism of John (Acts 18:24-25). After the meeting, they took him aside, apparently to their home, and explained to him the finer points of the Word of God and his salvation (Acts 18:26).

Aquila and Priscilla did not have roast preacher for lunch that day, instead they had home-made apple pie on a silver platter. The Book of Proverbs says: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (25:11). I realize I am allegorizing this passage, but you get the point. They did not take him home and say, “That was a stupid sermon, don’t you know your Bible? Don’t you know what happened after John the Baptizer? Don’t you know about Jesus?” No, they brought him home, showed him hospitality by feeding him a good meal and then gently and lovingly “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (18:26).

When Paul arrived in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, he ministered in the city for nearly three years (Acts 20:31). While there, he and Timothy had a discipleship program in the School of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9; 20:31). Paul did not want to be a burden on the church in Ephesus, so he stayed and worked with Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 20:34). Some manuscripts in 1 Cor. 16:19 say, “Aquila and Prisca with whom I lodge” (Hiebert 1992:31).

In the quietness of the home, after the business of the day, the three of them discussed missionary strategy. While in Ephesus, Paul saw the importance of going to Rome. Most likely it was Aquila and Priscilla that planted the thought in his mind that the Spirit of God used to direct Paul’s ways (Acts 19:21). Several years later, Paul wrote to the Roman church from Corinth and he conveyed a more detailed and refined plan. He would stop by Rome on his way to Spain (1:10-13; 15:22-28).

Aquila and Priscilla in Rome Again – Rom. 16:3-4

The next time Aquila and Priscilla are recorded in Scripture is when they are back in Rome when the epistle to the Romans arrives in AD 58 (Rom. 16:3-5). Rome, not Corinth or Ephesus, was home for them, so they returned to the Eternal City sometime after the death of Claudius on October 13, AD 54 and Nero’s reversal of the Jewish expulsion decree. Murphy-O’Conner suggests they returned to Rome during the summer of AD 55 (1992:51).

Paul would have sent them on their way with his blessings because they would be preparing the church in Rome for his visit. Most likely they returned home via Corinth in order to visit the saints in that city. Possibly they persuaded Epaenetus to join them in the work in Rome as well (cf. Rom. 16:5b).

Paul indicates that there is a church meeting in their home (Rom. 16:5a).  A 6th century AD tradition has it that their house church was on the Aventine Hill, on todays Via Prisca (Platner 1929:65-67). This site was excavated by the Augustinian monks of St. Prisca between 1934 and 1958. Underneath the church they found a Mithraeum with an altar dating to the 2nd century AD with statues of Oceanus Saturnus and Mithras killing the bull. This is called today the Mithraeum Domus Sanctae Priscae (Richardson 1992:257-258).

When Paul instructs the church at Rome to greet Priscilla and Aquila on his behalf, he describes them as his “fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also, all the churches of the Gentiles” (16:3b,4). Paul had labored with them in Corinth and the beginning of the work at Ephesus. Paul mentions an event that is unrecorded in the book of Acts: they put their life on the line for the Apostle Paul. What they did, we do not know, but it must have been heroic because the Gentile church gave thanks. We have a hint from Paul’s writings as to the nature of this event.  He writes: “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivers us from so great a death, and does deliver us, in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” (2 Cor. 1:8-10; cf. Acts 20:19). Paul also mentioned fighting the beasts in Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:32). Exactly what the “sentence of death in ourselves” or the circumstances leading up to fighting the beasts, we are not told. Perhaps the letter carrier told the Corinthian believers when he delivered the letter to them.

Whatever they did to risk their necks for Paul’s sake might have been in the back of the apostle’s mind when he wrote earlier in the epistle to the Romans: “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:7-8).

Why does Paul mention this event in his letter to the Romans? Some Gentile believers in the church in Rome may have wanted to marginalize this Messianic Jewish couple and the church that was in their home. Paul says to greet them (the Greek word has the idea of giving them a big bear hug) and thank them for risking their lives for his sake. Paul says that even their fellow Gentiles in churches in the east have been thankful for their testimony. In essence, Paul was trying to unify the church in Rome that was divided along economic, gender and ethnic lines.

The church had been meeting in the home of Aquila and Priscilla for nearly 10 years when a catastrophe struck. The Great Fire of July 19, AD 64, completely destroyed or seriously damaged 10 of the 14 districts of Rome, including the homes on the Aventine Hill. Aquila and Priscilla may have been homeless in Rome (again), along with tens of thousands of other Romans.

(I hear the echoes of hurricane victims today, without homes, living by prayer and rainwater  in Puerto Rico, unable to phione loved ones, hoping food arrives.   In trailers and hand to mouth in Texas, hoping for a replacement for lost jobs, for lost homes.  On Florida Keys, seeing nothing where there was once a community, struggling to find transportation, laid off because no ships are coming to port there.  It has gone on for forever because of that sin thing, that sin thing that keeps pulling us back.  Do we see the destruction we have wrought by the continuation of our sin, by our refusal to repent? The power of our disobedience felt across the world in tidal waves and earthquakes and tornados.  The things God has kept in check that will suddenly be slowly unleashed when the saved are gone. And how those poor unsaved will face it with no faith only a false hope.  And how this couple those centuries ago led by the Spirit worked together, constantly together, as we are all supposed to do, as so many of us fail to do. W.)

Perhaps they saw the handwriting on the wall. There were rumors that Nero had started this fire, thus making it a government induced crisis, so he could build his Domus Aurea (“Golden House/Palace”) and engage in extensive urban renewal (Suetonius, Nero 38; LCL 2:155,157; Tacitus, Annals 15:38-44; LCL 5:271-285). He quickly blamed the Christians for starting the fire and they were soon persecuted.

Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus Again – 2 Tim. 4:19

Aquila and Priscilla, perhaps being homeless and fearing the persecution that followed the fire, presumably escaped to Ephesus. When Paul wrote his son in the faith, Timothy, who was in Ephesus in AD 67, he instructed him to “greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 4:19).

It may be instructive to note that Paul does not mention a church meeting in their house. This couple may have lost everything, and maybe in the Great Fire of Rome - their home, their business. They may have escaped with their lives, the shirt on their back, and any money they could carry. It could also be an indication that the church in Ephesus was well established and meeting in other places, thus there was no need for them to open their home.

Lessons from the Lives of Aquila and Priscilla

There are at least three lessons we can learn from the life of this godly couple who wanted their lives to be used in the service of the Lord. First, they understood the providential workings of God in their lives. Second, they experienced togetherness, some have suggested it should be “two-getherness” in their marriage. And finally, they put God first in their lives.

God’s Providence in the lives of Aquila and Priscilla

Let’s look at how the big picture may have taken shape. Perhaps we have a nice Jewish boy from Pontus who goes to Rome. He meets a nice aristocratic Gentile or Christian woman and they get married and begin to establish their lives together in Rome. Along comes Emperor Claudius and expels them from Rome so they lost their home and their business. In events like this, most people would have gotten bent out of shape by these events, but our couple may have considered that they still had each other, and that God, in His providence, may have moved them to Corinth where they met, ministered to, and eventually worked closely with the Apostle Paul in strategic missionary endeavors. Can anybody see the Hand of God here?

Nothing happens in our life by chance. We want to understand the “big picture” of our lives because God has put eternity in our hearts. We want to know the end from the beginning (Eccl. 3:11). But we don’t understand the “big picture” because we are frail, sinful, finite human beings, thus Solomon said to enjoy life, for it is a gift from God (Eccl. 2:24; 3:12-13,22; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-9). So as believers in the Lord Jesus, we must trust the Lord that He is sovereign and in control of every detail of our life. He is leading us by His Word and His providence in order that we might be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:18-30).

...

The Two-getherness of Aquila and Priscilla

When Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned in scripture, they are always mentioned together, never separately. They appeared to be inseparable. Someone once said that “togetherness is a multifaceted thing that involves every dimension of our lives. There is emotional intimacy (the depth sharing of significant feelings), intellectual intimacy (the sharing in the world of ideas), aesthetic intimacy (the depth sharing of experiences of beauty), creative intimacy (the sharing of acts of creativity), recreational intimacy (sharing activities and fun times), work intimacy (sharing in common tasks), crisis intimacy (standing together against the buffeting of life), spiritual intimacy (the sharing of ultimate concerns), and sexual intimacy. True togetherness comes as we experience intimacy in each of these areas” (cited in Harbour 1979:121).

As we examine these nine aspects of intimacy, it can be observed from the limited information recorded in the Scriptures that Aquila and Priscilla experienced at least four of them. The first, spiritual intimacy is seen in the fact that their lives centered on the Lord and His Church. They opened their home up to the local church and they entertained traveling preachers. Second, work intimacy is seen in their tent-making together. Apparently this was a family business that they were both involved in. Third, instructing Apollos shows their intellectual intimacy. They both knew the Scriptures well and they wanted to share them with others. Finally, putting their life on the line for Paul’s sake and moving for the sake of the gospel showed their crisis intimacy. I am sure if Scripture had recorded more of the lives of these two saints, we would have seen more intimacy in their two-getherness.

Aquila and Priscilla put the Lord first in their lives

When the Lord Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, He said “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things [food, clothing and drink] shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). The Apostle Paul describes Aquila and Priscilla as “fellow workers in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 16:3). We have seen that this couple was missions minded, they opened their home so that the believers could gather to remember the Lord, pray, and have fellowship as they were instructed in the Word of God (cf. Acts 2:42). They also were engaged in “secular” employment so that they were not a financial burden on the churches. Yet God blessed them with a very successful business so they could show hospitality to the saints by inviting the church in their home. For a detailed discussion of hospitality in the church, see Strauch 1993.

May there be an increase in the church of couples like Aquila and Priscilla who have a godly marriage for ministry.

Married, working together, studying the Word together, growing in Christ together, working with Paul every step of the way in tentmaking and ministry.  You never see any miracles attributed to them, but they seem to have the same "chemistry" as the witnesses.  I can see a married couple as easily as two men so long as the Spirit wills it.  I can even see it as perhaps a way of reaching everyone with their witness.   

And even if I am in error here, it provides us with the Biblical view of marriage as a partnership IN Christ even as the witnesses are a partnership IN Christ, powered by the Holy Spirit.

Whether I am correct in this insight or overstepping, the point made above is the one that matteres:  Seek First the Kingdom of God.   

I don't discount the idea the two are great men from the Israelite past, but they are never named as such.  Clearly the Holy Spirit will empower the witnesses  similarly to Moses and Elijah and we futurists seem fascinated with the idea of ancient prophets dropped directly from Heaven to die for God. The mentioned example of John the Baptist  being Elijah in spirit by The Spirit takes home the most cogent point: the Spirit can empower anyone in the way of Moses or Elijah.  The lack of names of identity implies that God is keeping them hidden from Satan and from other believers until they are there to testify.  Since  the Rapture occurs PRE Tribulation, it lends credence to theory  the witnesses are dropped in by God to start evangelizing immediately. The witnesses seem to know a lot about  the Bible and evangelizing but they could as easily be ones who convert right after the Rapture,  are filled with the Spirit for immediate service, are gifted in interpretation and evangelizing even we have pointed out the Spiritual gifts certain of us today. .  

Which brings up my next point: these are believers.  Two people who will be aware who they are.  They will know their mission.  They will know they are given a power for a short time and they will know their mission.  

We've stressed the need for all this in every Christian life.  Because, one day, God will call on each of us.  It might be in a moment on a train or plane, in an instant in an elevator, while talking at the coffee urn at break, words shared with a water or waitress, with a friend over drinks, at a quiet moment after a stressful day, in the car taking your children or someone else's home from school or a game or a party.  It might be by the way you have chosen not to swear at work, not to belittle a coworker or your bosses.  It might be by the way you have taken cares with a loved one or been kind to strangers.

But more, Christians in every country included the USA will face sanctions and prejudices more powerfully until the days ot the actual Tribulation.  These are a part of the birth pangs of the new universe, just off over the horizon of our current one, the one aching to be born again into sanctity and the perfection this one lost.    We may all face repression and persecution as so many of us already face the world over, as we have pointed out since the beginning of this blog.  We know it.  It is predicted by God an therefore it will be.  His children have faced it with hope and martyrdom across the centuries.  Our blogs have touched on that, too.  So I emphasize it here again with these two witnesses.  With a song as introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFsngpOkLaU&list=RDRFsngpOkLaU&t=29

These two know they are going to die.  For a couple thousand years God has told them that.  They are going to die and be resurrected.  They will do their jobs for Him.  They are not named here most of all because their NAMES DON'T MATTER.  They will carry His name wherever they go and it is a statement to our own egos that we want to know their names.  We want to know who these heroes or heroines are.  Since most of the  commentaries I find out there are written by men, we see them framed as men.  Since we admire those Old Testament  heroes of the faith so much, we brand them with those names, even argue about which name is correct, wanting the right one to get credit.  When God sent the Elijah of Jesus' day, he was a crazed wildman eating honeycomb and nuts and berries crying in the wilderness and to this day as we've noted in another blog on John, there are still people who claim HE was the Messiah.  We want our heroes to look like us  It has given us vulnerable spots and sometimes led us to elect the wrong people or to go to war for dictators who tell us our countries are what matter.  It has always been this way.  We chose a smiling serpent who told us what we secretly wanted to hear over God.  We chose a strong heroic looking king that we demanded instead of waiting for God to give us His David.  The world around the two witnesses with choose the AC and the FP telling them that they can be God themselves over the way to salvation and life offered by the two witnesses who will know even as Jesus knew, that their actions will lead to their deaths and believe as He believed that God will resurrect them.  

They will know they will die and they will believe they will be raised.  Like Jesus himself did.  How he chose this life to reach us all.  Max Lucado with verses added by me:

https://books.google.com/books?id=cM9tqMbUy0AC&pg=PA1692&lpg=PA1692&dq=max+lucado+about+christ+knowing+he+was+going+to+die&source=bl&ots=X8fdK1SmR1&sig=wGoMPxftJgTXkbbm7ELFCudsTJs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje8rqqpr7WAhVGQSYKHbhiDF0Q6AEISTAG#v=onepage&q=max%20lucado%20about%20christ%20knowing%20he%20was%20going%20to%20die&f=false

"We need a simple home with a single mom and an ordinary laborer.  Jesus neighbors remembered him as a worker.

Mr 6:2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. {offended: scandalized in, or, by him}

 (KJV)

"Jesus had dirty hands and sweat stained shirts and-this may surprise you-ordinary looks.

Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

 (KJV)

"He had to enter every detail of human life... experience it all himself-all the pain, all the testing-and be able to help where help was needed. 

Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

 (KJV)

"Why would Heaven's finest Son endure life's toughest pain? (Death on the cross. W) So you would know that He knows how you feel."

And knowing that about Him, the witnesses will choose to die by whatever force the Satan brings against them. 

Note here that they are dead on the streets, left for the buzzards and crows and bugs to feed on while the world that could not longer tolerate the Message of Christ celebrates that no one is wracking their consciences with the truth.  Some suggest this 3 and a half day period corresponds with the three and half years from the date of the Fifth Lateran Council declaring end to protest to the Popes until the time Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church.  This Historicist view comes from the idea that the prophets here represent the many original protestant groups from the early Catholic eras. They base the analysis on the idea that the dead bodies of many of those protesters were left with nowhere to be buried since they were denied sacred burial ground by excommunication.   I mention this since it demonstrates again the way we reach to match events to Scripture and suit our own thesis when we are faced with one simple detail that was impossible then but very possible now thanks to satellites and vast television networks:

 9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

 10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

One need only point out that no one in Australia  at that time saw any of those early Protestant dead bodies to prove that not all "nations" witnessed the terrors of the Dark Ages. Now, all peoples CAN see those bodies which was obviously impossible until the last decade or so.  Men may make all their thesis based on  their own limited knowledge, making Historicist and Preterist beliefs seem much more accurate for a time.  They could hold sway BEFORE Israel was reborn, before the advent of USSR as a world power and even when it looked like Russia was fallen.  Yet God raised them up again as He resurrected the dry bones of Israel.  As he enabled the scientific advances that  men  now bring to witness   the world wide destruction He predicted, even as that ability has increased the egos of the men controlling the weapons of that advance, into seeing themselves as gods. 

The two witnesses are real people who will evangelize a world that has lost the sense of the Voice of God, shouting at the spiritually deaf until the ears of some are opened. And their deaths will echo throughout the following  three and a half years in the lives of those they convert, in the face of the worst times in human history even into martyrdom.  Saving some despite the odds.  It says a lot about all of us that their words and acts of obedience will matter while we are arguing about their names.  We all lose focus too easily.   

Meanwhile what awaits the world after the end of the Russian battle, events  all wrapped around these main characters, forms the story of humanity's last days in our Fallen Flesh. And of God's last valiant efforts to get us home before it is too late.  Efforts partly founded in the 144,000 and the witnesses.  The  efforts are called judgements. As with any judgement, the one judged can accept the verdict and repent or just keep going.   Really, what we will spend a few future posts on will be the last hopes, the calls of God to those who never listened before.  

But , first we have to pause for a consideration of our End Times view.  

                                               YOU'RE GONNA SERVE SOMEBODY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtIEYjNZgiU

Lyrics

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
Indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

You might be a rock 'n' roll addict prancing on the stage
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage
You may be a business man or some high-degree thief
They may call you doctor or they may call you chief

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes you are
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in another country under another name

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes you are
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
Indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray
You may call me anything but no matter what you say

Still, you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

Gotta Serve Somebody lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Obo Special Rider Music

Unofficially, we all hate that song.  It grinds on us.  

In the USA, we don't believe we serve anyone. One example;  our factory has workers who are supposed to shotblast parts clean and then send them on to be finished and shipped out.  But some of those workers think it is in their best interest to run as many parts a possible and impress their supervisor with production.  Some of the larger parts load fewer into the blast chamber than the smaller parts.  Thus, unless they are closely watched and given specific orders,  those workers will ignore someone who needs a larger part run even if it is listed as a priority part.  The workers doing this don't seem to realize that keeping priority parts supplied is good for the company and therefore good for them.  They see only their own production not the bigger picture.  They also don't realize that the supervisors do pay attention to see who takes on those lower production but much needed  jobs because they are aware of the bigger picture.  

But that's just one example.  I see workers hiding behind machines or leaning into them or even walking down an aisle reading or texting on their phones.  To see something.  Facebook?  IMs?  Ball games? Porn?  Who knows?  I have seen bits of all those onscreen as I've walked by someone with their phone or just a lone phone  running on a work desk.  None of it has anything to do with work or concentrating on work.  Break times are every two hours and someone can't wait for that long to see pictures on their phone?  Pictures that are what, four or five inches big?  

Let me say I have likely wasted a lot of my life on video, too.  But not at work.  This may mean I have better priorities or it may merely mean I don't own a phone with any of the new options.  

No one is the leat bit immune to that temptation to worry about our own concerns over those of others.  

Contrast that to Jesus:

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. {fashion: or habit}

 (KJV)

From The Power Delusion by Anthony Campolo Jr.:

"In Jesus, God expressed himself in a way that is shocking.  He expressed himself as a god of love and in the process set aside power.  The story of the baby in Bethlehem's manger  is meant to be much more than the sentimental story to elicit good feelings at Christmas time.  The story expresses and demonstrates the God has chosen to come to us.

"In the birth of Jesus, entered history as a vulnerable infant."

Jesus was born with all the weaknesses you and I had as children, all the surrounding dangers, all the feelings of human weakness and the temptations.  He was exactly like us except for one thing.  Campolo again:

"He was without sin.  But He did not resist evil and live a pure life merely by depending upon Himself.  Instead, it was in dependence on the Father that He found the wherewithal to conquer the temptations of the flesh.  He was as weak as any of us, but He grew in fellowship with the Father and therein found strength to overcome the evil one."

He knew the truth of God and gave us the keys in obedience to the Father.

But human fancy saw him differently.  Some of the Gnostic. personal power, special knowledge "gospels"  showed that child  Christ as striking dead other children who mocked him and another showed him snapping his fingers to put life into model pigeons made of mud.  Concerning those human ideas, Campolo writes:

"These writings were never included in the Bible for obvious reasons.  The stories are totally out of  character with the nature of our Lord.  God did not incarnate Himself as a superboy who dazzled his peers with magic tricks.     The church fathers knew that Jesus grew up as one of us, taking on our frailties and weaknesses.  They knew that in  Jesus, God had abandoned his power and majesty in in order to present Himself as one we could imitate. If it had been otherwise, He would not have been able to ask us to be like Him."

Think on  that for a moment.  God wanted to let us see we could live in obedience to Him by acting in love in relationship to Him by the arrival of the Holy Spirit to indwell and enable us to be like him.
Like Him as that vulnerable human being, living in original flesh, aiming toward the tomorrow of perfect flesh, Final Flesh.

Meanwhile we know thr world wil say there is no one like the Antichrist.  He will say his standard is the one that can't be met yet by us.  We have to learn or grow spiritually or evolve.  

So we have the contrast as to what we are in our fallen state and how God handled the state.  And we know how the new religion which is Anti God will play out.

After the Israel battle which weakens Russia and her Islamic allies, humanity, with the Holy Spirit acting in special cases only, will seek after the strongest leader. One who is handsome and physically imposing like Saul.  The cult of physical fitness will bow to his physique.  He will  likely be "self-made" rich as we see it, though no one ever becomes rich or in any state of success without help.  We have J. G. wentworth telling everyone they should want their cash NOW!  The AC will expect everyone to serve HIM.  He will be  one who praises  peace and prosperity. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kloRI-ywfT4


The sovereignty idea sums up the  "do it ourselves" philosophy.  We think we have the power as a nation to succeed. It is a subtle denial of God as the sovereign power over all. Patriotism for the alliance that the AC forms will eventually drive the confrontation between the 200 million man army and the troops rallied by the AC.

Christians  know only God brings peace.  Only He can offer prosperity.  What we need to fill the mission He gives us.

The Addiction Network has ads telling anyone with a problem to come to them.  They feature a young man in scrubs with a stethoscope around his neck.  There is never any statement that the young man is a doctor so he probably is not.  They are taking advantage of a study that showed we will listen to someone in the proper uniform as if they are an expert.  The uniform impresses our subconscious and we listen.

The power of the AC will be his looks and the power of that will be magnified by video.  He will have the power to reach all the world thanks to the news channels and satellite coverage, internet coverage where people don't have to tell anything like the truth and they can market their own goods wrapped around whatever mythology they wish to create.  One internet show tells you the children at Sandyhook were not really killed and then sells you vitamins and survivalist gizmos.  The key seems to be to never admit to lying and never to apologize.  The egotist seems to function very well in the current media situation. 

And that links the FP to the AC: media.  THE media AS the modern idea of church.  Not somewhere where you go to mix with your brother and sister Christians but a place in your living room where you can change the channel and find a media leader telling you things yoiu want to hear with no one to challenge your ideas.  As we highlighted, the FP will set up the mark, the message, makes the AC's image the center of worship.  He carries the media torch.  The power of the media is obvious, but let me cite a single example from Entertainment Weekly, August 4, 2017.  In an article entitled  "The Woman Changing the Face of Hollywood", they feature an interview with talent agent Christy Haubegger, head of CAA's diversity initiative.  When asked about results she was seeing in an effort to bring ethnic and gender diversity she responded:

"A couple years ago I got to meet Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Prize.  I stayed up late finishing her autobiography, I Am Malala. And, in the book, she mentions Ugly Betty. talking about the fact Betty was a journalist and a young woman who made her think that she might want to use her voice.  I sent a not to (Betty executive producer) Selma Hayek in the middle of the night, like, "Oh my gosh," I said to Selma and (Ugly Betty star America Ferrera), "Don't doubt for am moment that what you do matters.  There are 7 billion people in the world and most of them will never come to the United States, but they're going to see our movies and our television. And we get to tell them what a hero looks like."   (My emphasis)

                                                                                                                                                                 

Media  HAS been telling them what a hero looks like for decades.  He's Clint Eastwood and John Wayne.  Media told our own country that one so often that having a black man's face in the White House despite all those stints by Morgan Freeman  drove many in the USA raised with that old hero face to vote for anyone reminding them of that  face again. And not vote for the female face that apparently scared them even more than the black MAN'S face.   And we arrived at the current President who repeats the platitudes of yesterday assuring the ones who voted in nostalgia that things will be "great again."

But we see that same call to the past and the great MEN that were heroes even in Europe where the French cry for an election and  hark back to  a time before their socialist party ruled, a time of isolation,  and England rushed to isolationist Brexit voting.  The US media has bombarded everyone with those heroes.

So a new media hero fitting that description will move right in very comfortingly to those who have constant media exposure which is almost all of us.

Perhaps the most telling criticism of the effect comes from Harlan Ellison who would likely shiver at the idea of being quoted by a Christian, but here goes:

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/441835-the-glass-teat

“Ours is a society so immersed in the sea of video reactions that there are little old ladies out there who know Hoss Cartwright is more real than their next door neighbors. Everyone of value to them is an image. A totem. A phosphor-dot wraith whose hurts and triumphs are created from the magic of a scenarist’s need to make the next payment on his Porsche. (I recommend a book titled Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad, for a more complete, and horrifying analysis of this phenomenon. It’s an Avon paperback, so it shouldn’t trouble you too much to pick it up.) But because of this acceptance of the strangers who appear on the home screen, ours has become a society where shadow and reality intermix to the final elimination of any degree of rational selectivity on the part of those whose lives are manipulated: by the carnivores who flummox them, and the idols they choose to worship. I don’t know that there’s any answer to this. If we luck out and we get a John Kennedy or a Leonard Nimoy (who, strangely enough, tie in to one another by the common denominator of being humane), then we can’t call it a bad thing. But if we wind up with a public image that governs us as Ronald Reagan and Joe Pyne govern us, then we are in such deep trouble the mind turns to aluminum thinking of it.” 
― Harlan Ellison, The Glass Teat

The book was published in 1983 , So this is hardly fresh news, but a horror story long in the making.

I think now of the time that TV came thundering on the scene and all those "backwoods" preachers and "Bible thumpers" we who were kids then looked down on for their decrying TV.  They howled from pulpits about this being a thing of evil.  They screamed about idolatry and we did not listen.  Now we have the return of  American Idol and the election of a reality show host to the US Presidency.  We have movies about super-heroes who were long ago dubbed "the new gods" in a comic of the same name by comic art "legend" Jack Kirby.  The visual media has always known what it was about: creating something to see that would reinforce the legends and fairy tales we found filling the void we have for the true God in our life.

 So the media prepped us for that hero.  One who performs the miracles as the Bible describes them. Leading me to post a song asking if we all might want to sort out our idea of Jesus the hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEBI0JhSzz8

 But recall that there are all those false gospels out there.   The gnostic ones.  the Devil worshiping ones.  They form the myths that draw in the False Prophet.  The FP will be preaching self power as well.  He will found his church in Medialand, where the money is.  Again HE builds the image  of the AC as god.  The image that will desecrate the alter in the temple.  The two villains in God's drama , in effect, exploit each other for power.

Recall how, many posts ago, we mentioned the relationship of the tribal chief and the medicine man in less technological societies.  The chief ruled and the medicine man gave him "magic" for war and and the hunt.  The medicine man derived power from the strength of his "magic" and the chief derived power from his own abilities and linking them to the magic. The power of the magics sometimes  seem to have come from some form of demonic influence.  In the case of the AC and the FP,  Satan IS definitely that source of power.  

The New Age has been teaching that every form of religion is acceptable so long as it doesn't teach it is the ONLY way.  It implies that witchcraft is all right so long as it is white witchcraft which deals with "good" spirits ignoring the Biblical warning to avoid all spirits save the Holy Spirit. Some sources point out it is the religions derived from Abraham, that is,  Islam, Judaism and Christianity, that need to be brought into the fold and in fact liberal branches of all three can be seen as  not very far from the New Age notions, teaching that everyone is okay and "we don't need to evangelize them".  Rob Bell's theory that no one goes to Hell comes from that corner of belief.  The Emergent Church is right there, too.  The result of twenty or thirty years of Gnostic thought   slipped into the preaching of unsaved minister, priests, preachers. They smooth the path for transition from the real church, swept up in the Rapture to the new one under the FP.  

Kyle Idleman in Gods at War summarizes the true difference between religions and the tragedy for those left with only the Devil's main disciple as the image of God:

"If someone ever asks you, "What's so special about Christianity?  What sets it apart from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or anything else?" your answer is found right here. Nowhere else do we find God in hot pursuit of people. 

"God is imagined in countless ways on this planet.  Maybe he lives in Mount Olympus, as the Greeks thought, and comes to Earth only occasionally, when he's bored.  Maybe "he" is actually an entire pantheon of gods, as the Hindus have it; maybe there are so many of them that you need a scorecard to keep track.  Maybe God is just another word for nature, as the pantheists believe, meaning that the tree outside my window is God; this chair is God; hey, you and I are God.  Maybe there is no God as such, as the Buddhists have it:the answers are supposedly within us.

"Christianity offers a view of God that is strikingly different from any other.  In Christianity , there is one God.  He is all-powerful.  He takes an active role as father to every human being.  His most striking feature is not anger or power or transcendence or even creativity but instead is his relentless all-consuming love.  No one would have just made up such a God.  The idea is too outrageous. 


...

Later, Idleman shares the story comparing sex to a birthday toy bought as a gift by a parnet only to have the parent see the child become so enamored of the toy that he doesn't spend time with the parent.  He then expands upon that idea of sex as a God in a paragraph to sum up the tragedy of worshiping anything in  this world:

"...How could a nice gift go so wrong?

"It happened because the gift became more important than the giver.  The beauty  is not meant to be so much in the thing itself, but the love that brought it about.

"This is what happens when God has to compete with his own blessings.  Sex is beautiful until it loses its spiritual context.  Food or other forms of pleasure are wonderful until they become ends in themselves.  they become gods, and the gods become tyrants and the tyrants become slave masters."

And we can double down on  that when the idols are human beings with political and economic power. 
                                                                                                                                                       

The new one idol religion will persecute all those left claiming those three religions who don't fit.  Muslims will never accept a human being as God.  What keeps them from taking the authentic will also keep them from the false. But the false will likely trip many of them into belief. Jews who accept Christ from the results of the battle and those chosen by God for the special mission of revival will never come under control.  And the new Christians will come to worship only the Lord.  Hence:

Re 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

 (KJV)

About all those saints:

https://www.gotquestions.org/tribulation-saints.html


Answer: The tribulation saints are, quite simply, saints living during the tribulation. We believe that the church will be raptured before the tribulation, but the Bible indicates that a great number of people during the tribulation will place their faith in Jesus Christ. In his vision of heaven, John sees a vast number of these tribulation saints who have been martyred by the Antichrist: “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). When John asks who they are, he is told, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (verse 14).

The tribulation will be a time of great trouble for the wicked, because of God’s judgments. It will also be a time of great persecution for the believers—or saints—because of the Antichrist’s persecution (Revelation 13:7). Daniel saw the Antichrist “waging war against the saints and defeating them” (Daniel 7:21). Of course, the saints’ eternal salvation is secure: Daniel also saw that “the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom” (Daniel 7:22; cf. Revelation 14:12–13). 

The tribulation saints will hear the gospel from several possible sources. The first is the Bible; there will be many copies of the Bible left in the world, and when God’s judgments begin to fall, many people will likely react by finding a Bible to see if prophecies are being fulfilled. Many of the tribulation saints will also have heard the gospel from the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1–13)...(More on these two next time. W.)And then there are the 144,000 Jewish missionaries who are redeemed and sealed by God during the tribulation (Revelation 7:1–8). Immediately following the description of their sealing in Revelation 7, we read of the multitudes of tribulation saints who are saved from every corner of the world (verses 9–17).

The tribulation saints will serve their Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of desperate surroundings. Faithful to the end, many of these believers will die for their faith. But in their death, they overcome; “They overcame [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11). And God will reward them: “He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:15–17). 

We praise the Lord that the great day of trouble will also be a great day of grace. Even as God is meting out His just punishment on an unbelieving world, He will be restoring Israel to faith and extending grace to all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. God has always been in the business of saving people, and that salvation will still be available during the tribulation. Don’t wait until then, however; receive Jesus now (John 1:12).

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: {power: or, the right, or, privilege}

 (KJV)


Satan keeps running his old lie at humanity and too many don't listen to John's words when they get preached at them.  Instead, they  bite like  hungry trout every time.  He has been preparing mankind since its beginning for this one final attack on God's living image. Since he can't create, he can only ape God exactly like a chimp miming a human gesture.   That the image would serve him as the world owner instead of God.  We resist God's service  and we resist science that tells us we are destroying the world for temporary profit.  Next time we discuss that creation of an environment Satan can love. Meanwhile ponder this when you consider our current life in the End Times.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcJUIAJNW0

Please pray for Puerto Rico and the people already devastated by loss from the other hurricanes that have hit the Caribbean and the Gulf.  As i write my next post about the way ego drives us, I remain in awe of the way God allows nature to remind us of how small we are and how little we can really do without Him.  

                                                      THE FALSE PROPHET


Col 2:7 Rooted and based together in him, strong in the faith which the teaching gave you, giving praise to God at all times.
 8 Take care that no one takes you away by force, through man's wisdom and deceit, going after the beliefs of men and the theories of the world, and not after Christ:
 9 For in him all the wealth of God's being has a living form,

 (BBE)





https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-our-vision-is-one-of-peace-security-and-prosperity/2017/05/21/14e5351c-3e33-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_video.html?utm_term=.d30122c7edbe

President Trump told leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council that the United States has a vision of “peace, security and prosperity,” both in the Middle East and around the world, on May 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.


1 Thessalonians 5:2


New International Version
While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
New Living Translation
When people are saying, "Everything is peaceful and secure," then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman's labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.
English Standard Version
While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Berean Study Bible
While people are saying, "Peace and security," destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Berean Literal Bible
For when they might say, "Peace and security," then suddenly destruction comes upon them, as the labor pains to her having in womb; and they shall not escape.
New American Standard Bible 
While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
King James Bible
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
When they say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains come on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 
International Standard Version
When people say, "There is peace and security," destruction will strike them as suddenly as labor pains come to a pregnant woman, and they will not be able to escape.


If you don't feel a shudder when you hear any politician spout about P and P then you haven't been paying heed to Paul's warning. Conservative Christians who heard it from liberals for years and were quick to start whispers about THEIR likely connection with wrong thinking have kept their mouths shut about Mr. Trump using the terms.  ALL of us need to think about whose side we are on: God's or our political party's.

Recall we spent one post showing the flaws of the Prosperity gospel and the risks of Dominion theology.  The False Prophet is the person who does the "selling" of a variation of that "gospel,"  Though it has been presold to a large portion of the US media churches meaning anyone keft behind will think they are being told a true message.  So we soend time now on the person iof the second beast.

The False Prophet has a long line of those preceding him.  We discussed Balam but the below article expands on the lineage.



https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-traits-of-teachers


There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)

There are no “ifs, ands, or buts” in Peter's words. It's a clear and definite statement. There were false prophets among the people (of Israel in the Old Testament). That's a matter of history. False prophets were a constant problem in the Old Testament, and those who falsely claimed to be prophets of God were to be stoned. The people rarely had the will to deal with them, so they multiplied, causing disaster to the spiritual life of God's people.

(Evaluate the accuracy of that statement when you think back on the number of TV ministries wth failings throughout their structures.)


In the same way Peter says, “There will be false teachers among you.” Notice the words “among you.” Peter is writing to the church and says, “There will be false prophets among you.” So he is not talking about New Age people on television. He is talking about people in the local church, members of a local congregation.

There is no such thing as a pure church this side of heaven. You will never find it. The wheat and the tares grow together. Warren Wiersbe writes:

Satan is the counterfeiter. . . . He has a false gospel (Galatians 1:6-9),

Ga 1:6 I am surprised that you are being so quickly turned away from him whose word came to you in the grace of Christ, to good news of a different sort;
 7 Which is not another sort: only there are some who give you trouble, desiring to make changes in the good news of Christ.
 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, were to be a preacher to you of good news other than that which we have given you, let there be a curse on him.
 9 As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man is a preacher to you of any good news other than that which has been given to you, let there be a curse on him.
 10 Am I now using arguments to men, or God? or is it my desire to give men pleasure? if I was still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
 (BBE)


 preached by false ministers (2 Corinthians 11:13-15),

2Co 11:13 For such men are false Apostles, workers of deceit, making themselves seem like Apostles of Christ.
 14 And it is no wonder; for even Satan himself is able to take the form of an angel of light.
 15 So it is no great thing if his servants make themselves seem to be servants of righteousness; whose end will be the reward of their works.
 (BBE)

 producing false Christians (2 Corinthians 11:26). . . .

2Co 11:26 In frequent travels, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from outlaws, in dangers from my countrymen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the town, in dangers in the waste land, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers;
 27 In hard work and weariness, in frequent watchings, going without food and drink, cold and in need of clothing.
 28 In addition to all the other things, there is that which comes on me every day, the care of all the churches.
 (BBE)


Satan plants his counterfeits wherever God plants true believers (Matthew 13:38).

Mt 13:36 Then he went away from the people, and went into the house; and his disciples came to him, saying, Make clear to us the story of the evil plants in the field.
 37 And he made answer and said, He who puts the good seed in the earth is the Son of man;
 38 And the field is the world; and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom; and the evil seeds are the sons of the Evil One;
 39 And he who put them in the earth is Satan; and the getting in of the grain is the end of the world; and those who get it in are the angels.
 40 As then the evil plants are got together and burned with fire, so will it be in the end of the world.
 41 The Son of man will send out his angels, and they will take out of his kingdom everything which is a cause of error, and all those who do wrong,
 42 And will put them into the fire; there will be weeping and cries of sorrow.
 43 Then will the upright be shining as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him give ear.
 (BBE)


Authentic or Counterfeit?

How would you recognize counterfeit Christianity?

In 2 Peter 1 we read about genuine believers. And in 2 Peter 2 we read about counterfeit believers. If you put these chapters side by side you will see the difference between authentic and counterfeit believers.

2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who with us have a part in the same holy faith in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:
 2 May grace and peace ever be increasing in you, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
 3 Because by his power he has given us everything necessary for life and righteousness, through the knowledge of him who has been our guide by his glory and virtue;
 4 And through this he has given us the hope of great rewards highly to be valued; so that by them we might have our part in God's being, and be made free from the destruction which is in the world through the desires of the flesh.
 5 So, for this very cause, take every care; joining virtue to faith, and knowledge to virtue,
 6 And self-control to knowledge, and a quiet mind to self-control, and fear of God to a quiet mind,
 7 And love of the brothers to fear of God, and to love of the brothers, love itself.
 8 For if you have these things in good measure, they will make you fertile and full of fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 9 For the man who has not these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having no memory of how he was made clean from his old sins.
 10 For this reason, my brothers, take all the more care to make your selection and approval certain; for if you do these things you will never have a fall:
 11 For so the way will be open to you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
 12 For this reason I will be ready at all times to keep your memory of these things awake, though you have the knowledge of them now and are well based in your present faith.
 13 And it seems right to me, as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to keep your minds awake by working on your memory;
 14 For I am conscious that in a short time I will have to put off this tent of flesh, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
 15 And I will take every care so that you may have a clear memory of these things after my death.
 16 For when we gave you news of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our teaching was not based on stories put together by art, but we were eye-witnesses of his glory.
 17 For God the Father gave him honour and glory, when such a voice came to him out of the great glory, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
 18 And this voice came from heaven even to our ears, when we were with him on the holy mountain.
 19 And so the words of the prophets are made more certain; and it is well for you to give attention to them as to a light shining in a dark place, till the dawn comes and the morning star is seen in your hearts;
 20 Being conscious in the first place that no man by himself may give a special sense to the words of the prophets.
 21 For these words did not ever come through the impulse of men: but the prophets had them from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
 (BBE)


                                                                                                                                                                  

2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them; whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it.
 2 And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name.
 3 And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them.
 4 For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged;
 5 And did not have mercy on the world which then was, but only kept safe Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he let loose the waters over the world of the evil-doers;
 6 And sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning them up with fire as an example to those whose way of life might in the future be unpleasing to him;
 7 And kept safe Lot, the upright man, who was deeply troubled by the unclean life of the evil-doers
 8 (Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes):
 9 The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging;
 10 But specially those who go after the unclean desires of the flesh, and make sport of authority. Ready to take chances, uncontrolled, they have no fear of saying evil of those in high places:
 11 Though the angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not make use of violent language against them before the Lord.
 12 But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others;
 13 For the evil which overtakes them is the reward of their evil-doing: such men take their pleasure in the delights of the flesh even in the daytime; they are like the marks of a disease, like poisoned wounds among you, feasting together with you in joy;
 14 Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy;
 15 Turning out of the true way, they have gone wandering in error, after the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who was pleased to take payment for wrongdoing;
 16 But his wrongdoing was pointed out to him: an ass, talking with a man's voice, put a stop to the error of the prophet.
 17 These are fountains without water, and mists before a driving storm; for whom the eternal night is kept in store.
 18 For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error;
 19 Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him.
 20 For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first.
 21 For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it.
 22 They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.
 (BBE)


1. Different Source—Where does the message come from?

Peter says, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:16). And then he says the false teachers exploit you “with stories they have made up” (2:3). So the true teacher sources what he says from the Bible. The false teacher relies on his own creativity. He makes up his own message. (Satan makes up the message. I would say he makes up a message the same as has always seduced:  You won't die; You can be like God; Take your prize now instead of waiting

2. Different Message—What is the substance of the message?

For the true teacher, Jesus Christ is central. “We have everything we need for life and godliness in Him” (1:3). For the false teacher, Jesus is at the margins: “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them” (2:1).

Notice the word secretly. It's rare for someone in church to openly deny Jesus. Movement away from the centrality of Christ is subtle. The false teacher will speak about how other people can help change your life, but if you listen carefully to what he is saying, you will see that Jesus Christ is not essential to his message.

3. Different Position—In what position will the message leave you?

The true Christian “escapes the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (1:4). Listen to how Peter describes the counterfeit Christian: “They promise . . . freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity, for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2:19). The true believer is escaping corruption, while the counterfeit believer is mastered by it.

4. Different Character—What kind of people does the message produce?

The true believer pursues goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brother kindness, and love (1:5). The counterfeit Christian is marked by arrogance and slander (2:10). They are “experts in greed” and “their eyes are full of adultery” (2:14). They also “despise authority” (2:10). This is a general characteristic of a counterfeit believer.

5. Different Appeal—Why should you listen to the message?

The true teacher appeals to Scripture. “We have the word of the prophets made more certain and you will do well to pay attention to it” (1:19). God has spoken, and the true teacher appeals to his Word. The false teacher makes a rather different appeal: “By appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error” (2:18). So the true teacher asks, “What has God said in his Word?” The false teacher asks, “What do people want to hear? What will appeal to their flesh?”

6. Different Fruit—What result does the message have in people's lives?

The true believer is effective and productive in his or her knowledge of Jesus Christ (1:8). The counterfeit is “like a spring without water” (2:17).  (Recall the "living water" of the SpiritThis is an extraordinary picture! They promise much but produce little.

7. Different End—Where does the message ultimately lead you?

Here we find the most disturbing contrast of all. The true believer will receive “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:11). The false believer will experience “swift destruction” (2:1). “Their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2:3).

Jesus tells us that there will be many who have been involved in ministry in his name, to whom he will say, “Depart from me; I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21). Who are these people? Surely Peter is describing them in this passage.

Don't Be Naïve

We must not be ignorant: “There will be false teachers among you” (2:1). So how do we apply this warning?

First, Peter's plain statement reminds us that the church needs to be protected. Among the many wonderful people who come to through the doors of the church each year, some would do more harm than good.

They may seem the nicest of people, but they do not believe in the authority of the Bible or the exclusivity of salvation in Christ. We welcome such people, because they need Christ as much as we do, but we must not allow them to have influence in the church.

Second, skeptics will always be able to point to hypocrisy and inconsistency in the church. They've always done it, and they always will. One of the strangest reasons for not following Christ goes like this: “I've seen people in the church who are hypocrites.” So you will not follow Christ because some people who claim to do so are hypocrites?

The existence of the counterfeit is never a good reason for rejecting the genuine. Peter essentially tells us, “Of course there are counterfeit Christians. Of course there are teachers who do the church more harm than good. What else would you expect in this fallen world? Grow up! Don't be naïve! Don't miss what's real simply because you have seen the counterfeit.”

Point to 2 Peter 2:1 the next time you meet someone hiding behind this excuse.

* * * * * * * * * *


Now use that as background for THE False Prophet:

Re 13:11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and his voice was like that of a dragon.
 12 And he makes use of all the authority of the first beast before his eyes. And he makes the earth and those who are in it give worship to the first beast, whose death-wound was made well.
 13 And he does great signs, even making fire come down from heaven on the earth before the eyes of men.
 14 And those who are on the earth are turned from the true way by him through the signs which he was given power to do before the beast; giving orders to those who are on the earth to make an image to the beast, who was wounded by the sword, and came to life.
 15 And he had power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that words might come from the image of the beast, and that he might have all those who did not give worship to the image of the beast put to death.
 (BBE)


Re 16:12 And the sixth let what was in his vessel come out on the great river Euphrates; and it became dry, so that the way might be made ready for the kings from the east.
 13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, like frogs.
 14 For they are evil spirits, working signs; who go out even to the kings of all the earth, to get them together to the war of the great day of God, the Ruler of all.

 (BBE)

Now some churches and some websites call the False Prophet and the AC the same person, a single beast.  Clearly the Scriptures don't.  They are two people.  Any other interpretation is wrong.

That's not to say those claiming the False Prophet is the Pope, whichever person it happens to be then, are wrong.  It certainly could be.  Denying and pointing fingers don't work here any better than they do with the AC.  We won't be there for him any more than for the object of his worship.

But, in  all likelihood, the FP will come from some ecumenical movement for prosperity and personal godhood.

David Jeremiah offers perhaps the best outline of the FP's description:



The second beast is the False Prophet whose task it is to point people to the Antichrist, just as the Holy Spirit points people toward Jesus Christ. Revelation 19:20 links the False Prophet with the Antichrist; they work together and ultimately will perish together. In Revelation 13:11 we are told he looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. Satan causes his False Prophet to appear like a meek and gentle lamb when in reality he has the heart of a destroyer. Jesus Himself said to beware of false prophets who "come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15). This False Prophet is the epitome of every false prophet who has ever lived.

The Antichrist and the False Prophet are paired significantly: The former's focus is politics while the latter's emphasis is religion. In the Tribulation, with the absence of true religion, a false religion will be necessary to solidify the political power of the Antichrist. Wherever you have a vacuum of true religion, political power will marry itself to false religion to give itself a mark of acceptability. Even Communism has a religion called atheism or materialism. It grieves me when I hear someone say, "one religion is as good as another," for I know that all that person has seen is false religion.

So during the Great Tribulation, Satan will use religion to unite the world under the leadership of the Antichrist.

"The False Prophet will have the power to perform great miracles. Imagine the astonishment of all on earth as great streaks of fire blaze across the sky. Perhaps it will be a part of a gigantic celebration for the Antichrist. This spectacular show may be to center attention on Jerusalem, where the image of the beast will be exhibited."

David Jeremiah
Escape the Coming Night

The False Prophet, the second beast of Revelation 13, will be the religious leader who will point people toward the Antichrist. He will be like many false prophets of our own day—dispensing what people want to hear instead of the truth they need to hear. And he will attract large crowds--false prophets usually do. But in a day of trouble like the Great Tribulation, the lamb-like preacher the people listen to will suddenly begin to manifest the deeds of a ravenous wolf.

THE DEEDS OF THE SECOND BEAST (13:13)
The False Prophet will have the power to counterfeit the miracles of God, such as calling down fire from heaven. Calling down fire from heaven was associated with the power of God in the Old Testament (Genesis 19:24; Leviticus 10:1-2; 1 Kings 18:38; and in Revelation 11:3-6). Whatever God does, Satan is the master counterfeiter. Since God often revealed Himself by fire, the False Prophet uses fire to validate his own works.

THE DECEPTION OF THE SECOND BEAST (13:14-15)
The False Prophet deceives the people into building an image which can be used as a focal point for worship of the Antichrist. I believe this image will be set up in the city of Jerusalem as a counterfeit to the temple of God. We aren't told what the image will be, but I believe it will be a large structure, not just an effigy on a coin or some similar symbol. I believe it will become a gathering place for those coming to worship the Beast.

The False Prophet's powers are not slight—he actually is able to make the image speak. Satan cannot give life; i.e., the image doesn't come alive. It only appears to be alive as a result of being able to speak. Some say it is ventriloquism; others say it will be a computer chip which speaks much as our cars and computers talk to us today. However he does it, the False Prophet makes the image seem to be alive. I can imagine people gathering at this location every day to hear what the image has to say. The media will carry the content of the image's speeches each day in the news; it will become a focal point of every person's day. I believe this image is that "abomination of desolation" Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:15. When this image is set up in Jerusalem, the disciples of Jesus will know that the Great Tribulation is about to begin. He then goes on to say that the disciples should flee Jerusalem because things are about to get much worse than they ever have before. The image of the Beast is a signal for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.


(I suspect the FP will have tech skills or will have access to people with those skills. If he were a TV evangelist, that would be well within his area of expertise.  He may already have a ministry but the Bible says he rises after the Tribulation so searching for hi now is as fruitless an enterprise as seeking the AC. W.)


THE DEMAND OF THE SECOND BEAST (13:16-18)
The mark which the Beast causes everyone to receive on their hand or their forehead is yet another attempt at counterfeiting. Remember that in Revelation 7:3 the Lord caused a mark to be put on the foreheads of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists (see also Revelation 14:1). What God does, Satan imitates by way of counterfeiting.

(The use of an electronic mark points to the FC having tech skills yet again since it is he who forces marks on everyone, has them take the mark.  Think of the nationalists now demanding America for White Americans with skin color as a qualification and the idea of a special mark to prove you are part of the AC's "country" and "race".   Modern hatred on the Left and Right in the USA offers the flash of the coming hatred. W.)

The mark (Greek charagma) refers to the Roman use of a seal or mark connected with the emperor which conveyed official sanction. So the Beast will use a charagma to identify those who are loyal to him. Those without the mark will be deemed traitors and boycotted by the commercial system the Beast controls. Those without the mark will die from exposure or starvation or illness as a result of not being able to purchase what they need. I vaguely remember the days of rationing during World War II when money wasn't enough to buy certain items. You had to have a government issued ration card because of the scarcity of some items. While that rationing was only temporary to help our country's war effort, under the Beast's reign it will be permanent. All the money in the world won't be enough to buy bread if you don't have the mark of the Beast.

We tend to think that only those without the mark will suffer—but those with the mark will suffer as well (see Revelation 14:9-11).

Re 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
 (KJV)


 People will face a choice: Reject the mark and suffer at the hands of the Beast; accept the mark and suffer at the hands of God. The choice will be to decide which is worse—to suffer the temporary wrath of the Beast but receive the eternal favor of God, or receive the temporary favor of the Beast and suffer the eternal wrath of God.

The most complex issue regarding the Beast and his mark is found in verse 18 where we are told that the number of the Beast is 666. Many fanciful observations have been made about this number. For instance, it first appears in the Bible in verse "18" which is 6+6+6. Goliath was six cubits tall, his spear's head weighed six shekels, and he had six pieces of armor. Nebuchadnezzar's statue in Daniel was 60 cubits tall, six cubits wide, and six musical instruments summoned the worshipers. These and similar observations are just that—observations. They tell us nothing about the meaning of the number of the Beast. No one knows exactly what 666 means.

(We sometimes make the assumption that because 666 is the number of the Beast that will be the mark.  Maybe, maybe not.  VIVIVI.   Or DCVI.  Those would be the Roman numerals.  It could be any mark so long it is the one required.  Something that means 666 in any language. W)

"What is portrayed is a tremendous union in which capital and labor are both subject to the control and direction of one man. Anyone who is outside that vast combination will be ruthlessly boycotted; no one will work for him or employ him; no one will purchase his produce or sell goods to him; trade and commerce will close their doors to him. Bankruptcy and starvation face such a man."

Fred A. Talford

We can say that numbers in the Bible do have significance. Just as we have seen in earlier lessons that the number “seven” is associated with the completion or perfection of God's acts, so the number "six" is associated with man (created on the sixth day, must work for six out of seven days, etc.). To triple that number (666) could simply be a way to indicate the Beast is the ultimate in human ingenuity—the best man can be apart from God. It is interesting that six will always fall short of seven. Man will always, even at his best, fall short of the perfection of God. Whatever the number 666 means, and however the mark of the Beast will be configured and applied to humans during the Great Tribulation, it will mean at least this: The evidence of man's attempt to glorify, even deify himself, as a final act of rebellion against God. Man's kingdom, instead of God's kingdom, will dominate the Great Tribulation.

I read a story once about Johann Sebastian Bach, the great German composer. He apparently was a very sound sleeper and difficult to wake up. His children discovered that the best way to waken him was to go to the piano and play a few measures of some composition but leave off the very last note or chord. Their father would instantly arise and go to the piano and strike the final chord. The one thing he could not tolerate was the incompleteness of a piece of music. It had to be brought to its proper conclusion. The great preacher, Donald Grey Barnhouse, from whom I heard that story, said he tried it in his own home. Playing "Silent Night" on the piano, he stopped just shy of the final note—then listened. Upstairs he heard his son trying to find that last note on his harmonica. Another of his children was singing the last line and adding the final note. Someone else called out, "Did you do that on purpose?"

"Six," especially "666,” reminds us that something is missing—the end of the story has not yet been told. A man whose mark is "666" will arise on the world stage for a few short moments in the future and then be judged. Like a song without a final note, the Antichrist cannot bring history to its final closure. Only the true God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, can do that. He is a "Perfect Seven," as are all who find refuge in Him for eternity.


                                                                                                                                                                  


But he will also found that new religion.  We'll spend some supposition on that next time.  Maybe something like this?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_YXSHkAahE