Satan doesn’t work alone, he has two helpers. The first is the beast out of the sea, elsewhere known in Scripture as the Antichrist, characterized especially by direct opposition to the people of God, and the second beast is the false prophet.

The Antichrist is full of blasphemy

13:1 “And on each head a blasphemous name.”

The Antichrist commands wide allegiance.

Verses 7b and 8: “He was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation

There are only two groups here. At the end of the day, this beast is worshiped by everybody except for one group, those who worship the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

Antichrist causes great suffering among the people of God.

verse 9: “He who has an ear, let him hear, It’s a strong, now here this, if you have any sense at all, if you’re listening at all, hear this.  What do you listen to? “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed.”

9 The scenario of vv 1–8 is not something to occur only at some future time but is happening in the midst of the seven churches. John emphasizes the present relevance of that scenario by addressing the readers with the exhortation with which he addressed them at the conclusion of each of the letters in ch 2 and 3: “if anyone has ears, let him hear!”

Verses 9 and 10 describe the response that believers are to have to the situation of deception and persecution depicted in vv 1–8. The churches of Asia are becoming spiritually lethargic, compromising, and beginning to be open to idolatrous allegiances. As in Isaiah 6, the Synoptics, and John’s seven letters, the exhortation alludes to the fact that John’s message will enlighten some but blind others within the covenant community.

The dual aspect of the command is in line with the dual destiny of the earth-dwellers and saints discussed in v 8. Those without ears will be further hardened by the exhortation. But the command to use one’s ears is intended to jolt true believers caught up in the compromising complacency of the majority. Those shaken back into spiritual reality will perceive God’s revelation in the Apocalypse and the Satanic nature of the pagan institutions to which they are ready to accommodate.

10 The exhortation in v 9 refers not only to the preceding verses but also to the decree that follows: “if anyone [is destined] for captivity, to captivity he [must] go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, by the sword he must be killed.” This a paraphrase combining Jeremiah 15:2 and 43:11. Jeremiah prophesies to Israel that God has destined them to go into “captivity” and to suffer from the “sword” as a penalty for their unbelief and sin.

The text from Ezekiel has been used in Rev. 6:2–8 with its original dual idea of punishing unbelievers and refining believers through suffering

The emphasis here, as in 6:2–11, is not on the punishment of the wicked but on the suffering of God’s people.

In 6:8 the reference to “beasts” doing the “killing” was probably an anticipation of 11:7 and of the persecuting beasts in ch. 13 Prison and capital punishment are not among the woes to come on unbelievers but only on Christians, it is referred to in 1:9; 2:10; 6:9; 11:7; 12:11; 17:6; 19:2; 20:4, though those verses are figurative.

Christians as “slain” and “killed” because of the testimony that they held (6:9–11). Although the fourth horseman generally sums up the preceding ones, his coming introduces the additional woe of “beasts of the earth.” This also suggests persecution of Christians, since (“beast”) everywhere else in the book (34 occurrences) refers exclusively to the beasts who execute Satan’s will in persecuting saints,

(1) three times these beasts are said “to kill” the saints (11:7; 13:15; 13:10, where to be “killed with the sword” refers to the same reality [6:4]);

(2) these same beasts also oppress Christians economically (as in 6:5–6);

(3) just as the beasts in ch. 13 are under the hand of the devil (12:3–13:1a, 4, 11 with 13:1b–18), so the beasts in 6:8b are the agents of the satanic spectres “death and Hades” in 6:8a;

(4) if the phrase “beasts of the earth” is precisely parallel to the first rider in 6:2, a possibility suggested above, then the equation with the “beast” is a satanic figure attempting to oppress believers either through deception or persecution

The exhortation in 13:9 was used repeatedly in the letters in chs. 2 and 3 to encourage the readers not to compromise and to bear up under the consequences of suffering for their faith .

With such discernment they should be strengthened to endure their destiny of “captivity” in prison or even death by the “sword” (13:10). Their spiritual insight should motivate them to “suffer according to the will of God” and to “entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Pet. 4:19).

Christians are to obey the state but when the state oversteps its bounds and demands religious worship of itself, then Christians are not to submit. But they are to submit to the punishments that the state decrees for this noncompliance (as 1 Pet. 2:18–20 implies).

The exhortation “he who has an ear” at the conclusion of each of the seven letters either immediately precedes or follows reference to “the one who conquers”. There this combination was intended to encourage understanding of perseverance in the midst of worldly defeat as spiritual victory.

Are we being protected from such things or protected in such things?

If you’re protected from such things, then ultimately they don’t happen to you. If you’re protected in such things, then you may suffer them and you may endure them, but you persevere and hang on and are faithful even while you suffer.

The Lord may spare us from all kinds of things as well, but at the end of the day, what you discover is that a great deal of the faithfulness in this book that is called for is faithfulness to persevere in there right in the midst of suffering.

Very often people quote, “More than conquerors.” Where does that phrase come from? Romans 8. When we use it, often more than conquerors means something like, “Oh, I can live above it all. There are those Christians down there who get stuck in the mud every once in a while, but I am more than a conqueror. But in the context of Romans 8, it’s in the context of being harried like sheep, of being persecuted all day long, of being martyred, of being opposed, of being persecuted.

“The precise shape of more than conqueror depends a great deal on the particular temptations we’re called upon to suffer, but in this context in chapter 13, the kind of afflictions this beast lashes out upon the people of God are, first and foremost, in terms of concrete, physical, malicious opposition that lead to martyrdom and death.

What is the proper response? “This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.”

At the end of the day, humanity is here divided, especially in verse 8, between those belonging to the Lamb who was slain and those who follow the beast who slays and the dragon he serves.

The Second Beast, the Beast from the Land, the false prophet

Revelation 13:11–18 

The power of Satan expresses itself in false prophets in concrete historical deception.

It’s important for us to identify this beast and his function. The first thing that is said about him is that he comes out of the earth.

The heart of the matter is this beast is the satanically inspired power to deceive men and women in concrete historical terms.

Verse 14: “Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.”

The false prophet serves Antichrist, who serves Satan, an unholy triumvirate.

The false prophet is full of deceptive power.

13:13ff “He performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.” It doesn’t say the signs were false and thus he deceived them, but that he performed signs and deceived them with his untruth.

Today, universally, there is an assumption of intrinsic human goodness. This is the more astonishing when we’ve just come through the bloodiest century in all of recorded history.

The nature of deceit catches us where we’re least looking. Today there are very, very few churches in the Western world that have come from an evangelical background that are really likely to be duped by classic liberalism. Classic liberalism is everywhere on the decline. The mainline denominations are declining. The mainline institutions are declining. Their voice in the popular media is declining.

The false prophet demands conformity.

Verses 15–17: “He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.”

All who refused to worship the beast. “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

there is some sort of economic boycott here, in totalitarian regimes, that’s a pretty standard trick of one fashion or another. In many totalitarian regimes of the left or the right, unless you toe the line, you or your children can’t go to university.

This is almost certainly referring to Ezekiel, chapter 9. That’s part of a long vision, In a fairly apocalyptic book, Ezekiel 8–11 is one long vision.

There, Ezekiel is transported in his vision from where he is in exile on the banks of the Chebar River 700 miles away to Jerusalem, where he sees in his vision all the horrible idolatry that’s going on in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is going to be destroyed because of it.

He sees in his vision that because of all of this, the mobile throne chariot he has seen already in the first chapter is parked outside the gates of the temple, and the glory of God lifts off the temple and goes and sits on this mobile chariot, which moves outside the Jerusalem walls, across the Kidron Valley, and up the Mount of Olives, which is a way of saying God has abandoned the temple.

So when the whole place is destroyed, it’s not because God couldn’t defend it, but rather because God has ordained destruction because of all of the idolatry.

In this vision, there is one particular man with a writing script, a little pen with a sack of ink powder or ink fluid, and he is supposed to go through the streets of Jerusalem and mark a sign on the forehead of all of the people of Jerusalem who have been disgusted by the evil and who have prayed for righteousness and integrity, because God wants them to be spared when the destroying angel goes through the city.

What you have is a parody of that here. Now the beast puts a mark on the forehead or the wrist of everyone who doesn’t belong to him. Thus you have a tension set up. You either have the mark of the Beast and are spared his wrath or you have the mark of the Lamb and are spared his wrath.

You either have the mark of the Beast and thus you’re saved the wrath of the Beast but you’ll face the wrath of the Lamb, or you have the mark of the Lamb and thus you’re saved the wrath of the Lamb but you’ll face the wrath of the Beast. You’re going to face somebody’s wrath.

The question is.… Whose wrath do you want to face, the wrath of the Beast or the wrath of the Lamb?

Now you hear the words of Jesus coming across the centuries, saying, “Do not fear him who can destroy your body. Fear him, rather, who after destroying your body casts body and soul into hell.” The false prophet ultimately demands conformity. Of course, there was historical pressure in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the second century just after John’s time.

In the reign of Trajan, it became official policy to make refusal to worship the emperor as god a capital offense. Ignatius, at the age of 84, was brought before the emperor. He was bishop of Smyrna. “All you have to do is offer a small pinch of incense to the emperor, and you will live.  How can I deny my God and King?” He was thrown to the lions.

Now what is this mark?

We’re told in verse 17 that this mark is the name of the beast or the number of the name. The name of the beast is the number. In English, we have one set of symbols for letters and another set of symbols for numbers

Both in Hebrew and Greek, they use letters as numbers.. That sort of game was called gematria.

Identification of the false prophet may be difficult. Verse 18: “This calls for wisdom.” Well, I should say so. “If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is a man’s number. His number is 666.”

That’s why the New Testament likewise says, “Do not be conformed to this world …” There’s the deception. “… but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You are what you think, so unless you train your mind by the Word of God, inevitably, you will instead be conformed to this world. That is inevitable.

Already in the second century they didn’t know. There’s no decisive, convincing exegesis of this number even in second-century sources, which means that it was forgotten pretty fast. Probably John’s readers knew exactly who John had in mind, but we don’t.

In view of the widely divergent and highly speculative solutions to the riddle it seems best to conclude that John intended only his intimate associates to be able to decipher the number. So successful were his precautions that even Irenaeus some one hundred years later was unable to identify the person intended. An additional 1,800 years of conjecture have not brought us any closer to a definitive answer.

Chapter 12 introduced us to the great dragon, the primary adversary of God. In chapter 13 we met the two great forces used by Satan to accomplish his nefarious plans. The stage is being set for the final encounter.

What is crucial at this point is to recognize the true nature of the struggle. While the Lamb was victorious on the cross, the full and public acknowledgment of that victory awaits a final moment. Believers live in the already/not yet tension of a battle won but not quite over.

That may be part of the providential ordering of things, precisely because the false beast is a false prophet. False prophets in the very nature of the case are hard to detect.

That is precisely why we’re called upon to be discerning, to test everything with Scripture again and again and again, especially in those areas where we are most likely to be deceived, because the pressures of our culture are all tilting in one direction or because our background is all tilting in one direction or our denomination is all tilting in one direction. How on earth can you ever hope to reform things unless you go back to Scripture again and again and again.

That’s why the New Testament likewise says, “Do not be conformed to this world …” There’s the deception. “… but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You are what you think, so unless you train your mind by the Word of God, inevitably, you will instead be conformed to this world. That is inevitable.