Revelation 12–14 make up one cycle of visions, just like Revelation 6 and 7 make up one contained cycle of visions about the seven seals, and Revelation 8 and 9 make up a kind of contained cycle of visions about the seven trumpets. Revelation 12–14 make up their own kind of contained cycle of visions that walks through exactly the same events as the visions of the seven seals and the seven trumpets, but once again from a different perspective, a different camera angle, using different images, different metaphors, different apocalyptic symbols, and so on to push even deeper into the truth that the Lord is revealing about His redemptive plan and purpose in the world.
It is really important to understand that when you take everything together, it seems like the way that the book of Revelation works is by stacking one cycle of visions on top of another that all tell the story of God finishing His redemptive mission, beginning with the coming of Jesus, going all the way through the very end when Jesus returns in power and glory, takes the throne of this world back for Himself, and puts everything right again.
Revelation 12 tells that whole story, but then it stops, zooms in, and hyperfocuses on one specific part of that story as we move into Revelation chapter 13. And then it’s going to get even closer, zoom in even more, in Revelation 14.
But this is all happening within one cycle of visions that tells one story of how the Lord came down from heaven in Jesus Christ and defeated the serpent, and one day will finish the work of destroying the serpent and ending all evil.
And so as we go into Revelation 13, one of the most important things to carry in as context is that this is part of the same big cycle of visions that began with Revelation 12. And this is once again telling the same story as the visions of the seven trumpets and the seven seals, but this is specifically focusing on the political side of the serpent’s war against the Lord and His people.
And you could say kind of the economic side of the serpent’s war on the Lord and His people.
The Beast From the Sea
Specifically, Revelation 13 is zooming in and diving deep into the way that the serpent influences rebellious humanity to build wicked empires that reject and oppose the God of the universe and pour out their hatred and oppression on God’s people.
And he does that in a really interesting way.
John uses this really important image. He talks about the beast that came from the sea.
Now, he’s using that same language from the book of Daniel and from all kinds of ancient apocalyptic literature that just about every first-century Jew and a lot of the first-century Christians would have grown up very, very familiar with, especially any Jewish Christian in the churches, which would have been a lot of them.
They had begun to use the term the beast to describe the Roman Empire as a whole and the emperor of Rome, Caesar. So first-century Jews and Christians sometimes referred to Rome as the beast and referred to the Roman emperor as the beast.
And here in Revelation, John takes this common term and does the exact same thing. He uses this well-known term, but he carries it forward even further.
He says, “This beast looks like every single one of the beasts that they would have grown up reading about in Daniel in some way.”
Revelation 13:1–2 says:
“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names. The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” — Revelation 13:1–2, WEB
John says essentially, in my vision, the beast in its current form looked like a leopard, just like Greece. It looked like a bear, just like Persia. It looked like a lion, just like Babylon itself. It had ten horns just like that final beast that Daniel described.
The point is this is the latest form of the beast system that the serpent has stirred up in every generation all the way from the beginning until now.
The Beast Comes From the Sea
And very specifically, he picks up Daniel’s language and applies it to the current form of the beast, to Rome, and he says that in his vision the beast came from the sea.
That’s actually really important.
We’ve talked about the fact that in the ancient Near East they would use the sea as kind of an image of chaos, death, destruction, evil, hostile powers, danger, and so forth. This was especially common in ancient Jewish apocalyptic literature that the book of Revelation is kind of modeled on.
The point being that behind each of these wicked empires and wicked rulers and wicked religious systems that oppose the Lord and attack His people, that try to destroy His people or deceive His people or derail His people or draw His people away, behind all of this are the forces of chaos and darkness and death and destruction.
And that includes the Roman Empire.
He says that the Roman Empire is taking its cues from the serpent and the forces of darkness that we have long metaphorically represented using the image of the sea.
Blasphemous Names and the Imperial Cult
He says just like always, this beast from the sea is crowned with many crowns and with blasphemous names.
Now, if you were from the seven churches, your mind would immediately have gone to the blasphemous names that the emperor of Rome had fraudulently seized for himself.
We’ve talked about the fact that the Roman Empire ran on what was called the imperial cult. You could practice pretty much whatever religion you wanted so long as your primary kind of religious devotion was the imperial cult.
But what was the imperial cult?
It was the worship of the emperor and the worship of the Roman Empire.
In the ancient Roman Empire, you were required to refer to Caesar as your lord. You referred to him as the son of God. That was another title that he kind of took for himself. You referred to Caesar as your savior. You referred to Caesar as Lord and God, bringer of peace.
You did not just submit to Caesar as a kind of human king in a human government.
You worshiped him as your god.
And if you didn’t, you would be killed.
And so the beast that came from the sea is kind of an image of this absolute power that the Roman emperor and the Roman Empire hold over the rest of the world, all the way to the point of kind of exalting themselves to godhood.
“Who Is Like the Beast?”
And in response, John’s vision here in Revelation 13 says that the world happily gives him the worship that he demands.
It says they cry out in worship:
“Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”
This is the language of worship, the language of religious devotion. They are worshiping the emperor and the Roman Empire. They are worshiping the current form of the beast.
And yet the worship they are giving him does not rightly belong to him.
It belongs only to the Lord.
And John actually makes that point in a really funny way that is really easy for us to miss because this vision of the people of the world worshiping the beast is actually modeled very specifically on one of the liturgical phrases that the ancient Israelites used to worship Yahweh.
It’s pulled from Exodus 15:11:
“Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” — Exodus 15:11, WEB
They should be saying, “Who is like You, Yahweh, among the gods?”
But instead they are saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is like Caesar? Who is like Rome? Who is like the emperor? Our Lord and Savior, our bringer of peace.”
The Roman emperor and the Roman Empire are stealing God’s worship.
And so at every Roman festival, the name of God is blasphemed. At every Roman parade, the name of God is blasphemed. At every guild feast, the name of God is blasphemed. At every public event in Rome, the name of God is blasphemed.
If you want to be a good patriotic Roman, you have to be ready on command to pledge your worship to a man and an empire who falsely claimed to be the Lord, the Savior, the God who has brought you peace in the form of Caesar.
The Beast’s Fatal Wound
But then something really strange happens.
John says that this beast who came from the sea has a head wound, a fatal head wound, but that this fatal wound heals.
Revelation 13:3–4 says:
“One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled at the beast. They worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” — Revelation 13:3–4, WEB
Now, this has been debated for years.
Every time there has been a politician who has had some kind of violence committed against him, especially against his head, there have been preachers out there speculating about whether they might be the beast. When John F. Kennedy was shot in the head, a lot of people said, “Okay, well, he’s going to come back. He’s the beast,” stuff like that.
When Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, a lot of people said, “Oh, is he the beast?” And then a lot of people had a field day over the fact that his first, middle, and last names each have six letters.
They said Ronald: six. Wilson: six. Reagan: six.
He was shot, but his wound healed.
The Nero Redivivus Myth
That is actually not where your mind would have gone if you were part of the seven churches who literally received the book of Revelation as a letter from John.
Their minds would immediately have gone to two places.
The first was something called the Nero Redivivus myth. Revelation was written either shortly before or shortly after the death of Nero. We don’t know for sure, but most scholars argue it’s one or the other.
But in either case, John basically takes this common myth associated with Nero, this common superstition associated with Nero.
One of the ways that the cult of Emperor Nero was spread was through the Nero Redivivus myth, which taught that Nero would never truly die. It was taught that he would appear to die, but that it would be an illusion and that one day he would come back.
And the Nero Redivivus myth taught essentially that Nero would return from the dead and he would wreak havoc on all of his enemies.
It was the ultimate expression of the imperial cult.
You could not live in the Roman Empire in the first century and not either live in eager anticipation or extreme fear that the Nero Redivivus myth may come true one day. If you were a Nero acolyte, then you would spend every day eagerly awaiting his revival. If you were one of the many people that he terrorized and abused and crushed, then you would pray every day to the gods that Nero would not come back.
Nero was one of the most aggressively wicked emperors ever to grace the Roman Empire, which is saying something because he had a lot of competition. But during the first century, he was one of the most brutally cruel and unjust persecutors specifically of the church.
He famously kidnapped Christians off the street, tied them to poles, and had them set on fire to illuminate the streets of Rome at night. He famously had his political enemies captured along with their families.
The first place your mind would go if you were one of these seven churches when you hear this language John is using is this common myth, this legend that one day Nero is going to return from the dead even more powerful than ever.
The Beast Keeps Coming Back
So this is kind of a pun. It’s kind of a play on this common folk horror story.
It says the beast is fatally wounded and yet it just keeps coming back.
One beast dies like Nero, but another beast just like him shows up in his place. One wicked empire crumbles to the ground just like Babylon, but another just as bad rises up in its place. Greece falls, Rome falls, and yet another beast will just rise up in their place.
Why?
Because the beast is not just a ruler.
It is not just an empire.
It is a tool in the hands of the serpent.
And so when one iteration of the beast goes down, the serpent will just do the same thing he does in Revelation 13:2 again and again:
“The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” — Revelation 13:2, WEB
He will just raise up another one.
Worshiping the Beast Is Worshiping the Dragon
And that means something very important.
It means that when the world worships the beast in whatever its current form is, they’re not just worshiping the beast.
They are worshiping the serpent who raised it up.
When people worship the Roman Empire, they are worshiping the serpent behind the empire. When they worship the Roman emperor as part of the imperial cult, they are worshiping the serpent behind the emperor. When people worship the gods of Rome that the imperial cult forces onto you, they are worshiping the serpent behind those gods.
That’s why John said in Revelation 2:13, in the letter to Pergamum where the center of the imperial cult was based:
“I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.” — Revelation 2:13, WEB
That doesn’t mean that there is literally a throne for Satan in Pergamum.
But the point is they are there at the center of the imperial cult.
And who is behind the worship of the emperor and the empire?
Satan himself.
And so the beast that comes from the sea is essentially an image that describes the way that the serpent influences rebellious humanity to build wicked empires that oppose the Lord and attack His people.
The Second Beast
And in a very similar way, John in this vision says that the serpent influences rebellious humanity to build false religious systems that draw people away from the true King and His people.
And the way he does that is by describing a second beast.
Revelation 13:11 says:
“I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.” — Revelation 13:11, WEB
And this is really interesting.
I love the way that he puts this.
He says that there is a major contrast between the way that this beast presents itself and what its true nature is.
He says the beast looks one way but is another way.
The beast looks like a lamb.
It presents itself as spiritual. It presents itself as religious. It presents itself as soft. It presents itself as gentle.
But it speaks like a dragon, like a serpent.
Its message is ultimately from Satan.
Political Power and Religious Propaganda
So this is kind of subtle.
You can essentially say that the first beast is an image of the serpent working through the brute imperial power of wicked empires like Rome.
But the second beast is essentially the serpent working through the religious propaganda machine that props up wicked empires like Rome.
And so this is a little bit confusing, but essentially the two beasts are not really two different things. The two beasts are two different images of one big system.
That’s kind of a recurring theme throughout Revelation.
It uses all these different images—the beast, Babylon, the great prostitute, and so forth—all to refer really to this one big system.
The serpent raises up wicked empires, wicked rulers, and false religions to oppose the Lord, attack His people, and draw humanity away from the truth about God.
But so in this case, you can say the first beast represents the way that these wicked empires of the earth oppose the Lord and attack His people, and the second one represents the way these wicked empires try to draw God’s people away from the truth and derail them from their mission and their calling.
And so really the entire story of the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament, one, it’s the story of the war between the serpent and the true King.
And two, the war between the beast that the serpent works through and the people of God that the true King works through.
The Second Beast Makes the Earth Worship the First
Revelation 13:12 says:
“He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.” — Revelation 13:12, WEB
Now, we speculate a lot about this verse, but if you were part of the seven churches, you were a first-century Christian reading this letter when it arrived at your church, your mind would immediately have gone not to any of the speculative stuff that Hal Lindsey and all them have dived into.
Instead, your mind would immediately have gone once again to the imperial cult.
By the authority of the Roman government, you were required on pain of death to worship the Roman emperor.
But the imperial cult wasn’t just based on threats.
It was also based on spectacle.
The Spectacle of the Imperial Cult
The ancient Roman Empire was filled with these kind of performance art pieces that were meant to make the imperial cult seem more real.
If you lived in ancient Rome, you would be constantly surrounded by little provincial priesthoods, people with titles like the high priest of Asia and so on and so forth, whose job was to run the imperial cult in their area and find creative new ways to make it more compelling and more appealing and more addictive and more exciting.
And so if you were traveling through Rome in the first century, you would discover temples in every town. You would discover altars to Roma. You would discover altars to the emperor.
You would wander into Roman festivals, processions, sacrifices, oracles, and so forth that were all designed with special effects, basically, as the simplest way to describe it.
Almost like illusions, magic tricks, basically, and stuff like that.
They actually had something called a mouth-opening ceremony that they would use whenever they unveiled a new statue of either one of the gods of Rome or the god-king of Rome, Caesar. They would build special unique statues that you would worship that were designed to actually have mouths that moved and eyes that lit up and other things like that that kind of made it look like the statue was alive.
Essentially, they were using special effects, illusions, the kind of stuff that today magicians do, but they were using it to prop up the worship of the emperor, the worship of the empire, and the worship of the smaller kind of regional gods who were part of that big system of worship.
The Signs of the Second Beast
Why does that matter?
It’s because in this vision it says that the beast from the earth performed signs.
Revelation 13:13–14 says:
“He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast…” — Revelation 13:13–14, WEB
And then in verses 14 and 15 it says:
“He said to those who dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. It was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn’t worship the image of the beast to be killed.” — Revelation 13:14–15, WEB
He essentially says that the beast that came from the earth is not only using the authority it’s been given to compel people to worship the beast who came from the sea, but is also doing what looks like signs and wonders and miracles and supernatural feats and stuff like that as a way of wowing people into worshiping him, not just by compulsion but worshiping him enthusiastically.
This lines up basically exactly with what was literally happening in Rome in the first century during the time of the seven churches.
And so while the beast who came from the sea essentially represents the wicked empires that oppose the Lord and attack His people, the beast that came from the earth basically represents the way that those empires use religious propaganda, religious trickery, and even dark spiritual forces to draw people away from the truth about God and especially to deceive God’s people and draw us away from our calling and our mission and away from the truth.
The Mark of the Lamb and the Mark of the Beast
And in all of this, just like we saw with the seven seals and the seven trumpets, in this vision we see an image of the serpent influencing rebellious humanity to viciously marginalize, persecute, and outcast anyone who remains faithful to the true King, Jesus.
But to understand what I’m talking about here, we have to remember something extremely important.
If we miss this, we will fundamentally misunderstand this vision.
And that is that all throughout God’s Word from Genesis through Revelation, there is a running theme, a running image, a running message, a running metaphor.
And that is the mark of the Lamb versus the mark of the beast.
We talked a little bit about this in chapter 7 and stuff like that, but we’re going to dive deep into it now because to understand what I’m talking about, we have to remember some really important things.
If we miss these things, we will fundamentally misunderstand this vision.
There are so many full-on false prophecies out there that exist almost entirely because people did not do their homework before getting up at a pulpit and preaching about Revelation.
What is it we need to understand in order to understand this?
It’s that all throughout God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, there is a running message, a running theme, a running image, a running metaphor, and that is that the mark of the Lamb is a sign that you belong to Yahweh, while the mark of the beast is a sign that you belong to the serpent.
And so there’s the mark of the Lamb versus the mark of the beast, or you could say the mark of Yahweh versus the mark of the serpent.
The Mark Is Not a New Future Invention
Listen really carefully to what I’m saying.
When John talks about the mark of the beast in Revelation, he is not talking about some new thing that is going to be introduced in the distant future.
He is talking about something that has been happening in some form for all of human history.
And he is talking about something that was happening right then and there in the first century among the seven churches.
We see two things all throughout God’s Word that now come into play in Revelation 13. We see two marks that both mean something very specific that is not mysterious, that is not a puzzle, that we are not supposed to speculate about.
John expected the seven churches to read about the mark of the beast and the mark of the Lamb and immediately recognize what he was talking about.
The Mark of Yahweh in Exodus
He says first there are people who belong to King Jesus, and in this vision they are represented by the mark of the Lamb or the seal of the Lamb.
When he talks about this, he is making a reference to Exodus 13.
In Exodus 13, the ancient Israelites are marked, so to speak. They represent the fact that they belong to the Lord.
You could say it’s like they’re being branded the way that you would brand cattle, even though that’s not really a flattering image.
Exodus 13:9 says:
“It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.” — Exodus 13:9, WEB
He’s saying that to the Israelites that He has just rescued from slavery in Egypt.
And He says, you have been marked by Yahweh.
The mark of Yahweh.
But He’s not talking about a literal mark, a literal brand, a literal tattoo. There’s not literally anything on their foreheads. There’s not literally anything on their hands.
It is a metaphor.
He says Yahweh rescued you from Egypt, and now you belong to Him. Your identity is someone who has been rescued by Yahweh and now belongs to Yahweh.
And that identity is like a mark on your forehead and your hands.
The Mark on the Head and Hands
That exact same metaphor is picked up once again in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
The Lord says, “You shall bind the Lord’s instruction as a sign on your hand, and they shall be like frontlets between your eyes.”
Essentially, He says, “Because I rescued you, and because you belong to Me, now your head and your heart belong to Me. Your entire mindset, worldview, attitude should be completely devoted to Me.”
And in the same way, let everything about your lifestyle, your habits, what you do with your hands, which comes from your heart, what you prioritize, what you give your time and attention and energy to and so forth, let all of that be devoted to Me like a sign on your head and on your hands.
You belong to Me.
So let Me transform everything about the way you think and everything about the way you live as an act of worship and devotion and loyalty.
The Sealed People of God
Throughout God’s Word, we see that God’s marked people, His sealed people, are protected and preserved by the Lord until their work is done.
I love Ezekiel 9:4:
“Yahweh said to him, ‘Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and who cry over all the abominations that are done within it.’” — Ezekiel 9:4, WEB
He says everyone who genuinely follows Me, who sincerely submits to Me as King and worships Me as God and throws themselves on My mercy as their Savior, who genuinely has given themselves to Me to belong to Me, they will be spared My wrath, My judgment, My condemnation.
And so the mark of the Lamb is a metaphor for belonging to the Lord, following the Lord, worshiping the Lord.
That is the mark of the Lamb.
What Is the Mark of the Beast?
Now, with that in mind, what do you think the mark of the beast is?
I’ll tell you.
At exactly the same time as all of this, all throughout God’s Word, it says if you follow the serpent, essentially, if you worship the serpent, serve the serpent by worshiping the beast and following the beast and living like the beast and devoting yourselves to the beast, then figuratively speaking, it is as if you are marked by the beast rather than marked by the Lamb.
So the point is you are metaphorically marked by whatever you worship.
You are figuratively marked or sealed, your translation might say, by whatever you serve.
And in the imperial cult, that means that just about everybody serves and worships the beast and therefore is marked by the beast.
Revelation 13:16–17 says:
“He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands or on their foreheads; and that no one would be able to buy or to sell unless he has that mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” — Revelation 13:16–17, WEB
The seven churches have just lived through exactly this.
John says they have lived through all of these things, but we tend to miss it because we don’t know what we’re looking for.
666 and 616
But in Revelation 13:18, he basically comes straight out and says it.
He says:
“Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.” — Revelation 13:18, WEB
Now, some early manuscripts say 616 rather than 666.
We actually don’t know which number it is because we have manuscripts from basically as close as you can reasonably ever expect to get to the originals that some say 666, some say 616.
But here’s the funny thing.
It actually doesn’t matter whether it’s 666 or 616.
Why is that?
It’s because we actually know basically exactly what 666 meant to the first-century Christians. And we know basically exactly what 616 meant to the first-century Christians.
And both of those two numbers meant the exact same thing to the early Christians.
The Number of Nero
You can literally read commentaries on the book of Revelation and writings reflecting on the book of Revelation from the earliest Christians that we have records of. You can read writings about the book of Revelation from really early second-century Christians who personally knew John because they were young when he was old.
You can read writings by early Christians, some of whom were personally taught by John and discipled by John.
And here is what they say about the beast:
“Oh yeah, that was Nero.”
The writers who literally knew John say John is primarily talking about Nero. John is talking about the Roman Emperor Nero.
Which makes perfect sense because early Christians frequently referred to Nero as 666 and as 616.
It was a nickname, and it was not a flattering nickname.
Gematria
So why did they call Nero 666 or 616?
It’s because they were using a form of ancient Hebrew wordplay called gematria.
Now, gematria is very misunderstood today. A lot of conspiracy theorists and stuff like that are really into gematria, but they really miss the point of gematria.
They would refer to Nero as 666 or 616 in times when they were worried that a spy for the empire or something like that might hear them or read what they’re writing, and they didn’t want to get in trouble by speaking ill of the emperor that they were legally required to worship.
This was something that the first-century Christians John wrote this letter to would immediately have picked up on and recognized.
The only reason we don’t is because we are so far removed from that situation and that context that it would never even occur to us to think of that unless we just happen to read about it.
And as a result, we make the mistake of thinking that 666 is some mysterious puzzle that we’re supposed to solve.
But John literally just said it was not.
He said:
“Calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.”
Now, if you say that to somebody, you’re essentially saying, “You have the ability to calculate these numbers and know specifically which man I’m talking about.”
He says, “This is someone you know. This is someone you’re aware of. This is someone you’ve heard of.”
That makes zero sense if John is talking about some purely distant end-times figure that won’t even show up for at least 2,000 years after them.
That would be meaningless to the seven churches.
It would be pointless to even mention that to the seven churches.
There would be literally zero value in even bringing it up to the seven churches if it had nothing at all to do with their day and time.
And it really wouldn’t make sense for him to say, “Hey, calculate this number because this is the number of a man. You know the man that I’m talking about when I use this number.”
Neron Caesar and Nero Caesar
He is saying you can do the Hebrew gematria. You can add up these numbers.
And in the case of 666, it comes out to Neron Caesar, which is one of his titles.
And if you calculate 616, it adds up to Nero Caesar, which was another one of his titles.
That is how gematria worked.
So the point being, on the one hand, it could mean I am literally talking specifically about Nero.
That is a possibility.
But at exactly the same time, it could mean I am talking about something like Nero.
Nero is an example of what I’m talking about.
Nero is an example of the beast.
Nero is what the beast looks like.
Nero is how the beast works.
Nero is how the beast functions.
Nero is the most recent form that the beast has taken.
He’s taken different forms in the past.
He will take different forms in the future.
But in every case, the beast always does something like what Nero does.
The Beast and the Economic System
And in this particular situation, the form that it took was very simple.
Nero took the imperial cult further than any previous emperor ever had. He required an even deeper, more intense worship than any previous emperor ever had in the imperial cult.
And if you were a first-century Christian in one of these seven churches, you would have exactly two options.
Either worship Nero, this false god-king over Rome, or be kicked out of all the places in society, all the parts of culture that make it possible for you to make a living.
We’ve already talked about the fact that you could not be part of a trade guild unless you openly, actively worshiped the emperor because the trade guilds required you to go to these guild feasts where you were then required to verbally reaffirm that you worship Caesar as your lord and god, your savior, your bringer of peace.
And then you would worship Caesar by taking part in a sacrifice to Caesar.
And then you would eat the food that you just sacrificed to Caesar.
And then you would worship Caesar by joining into their ritual orgy.
You would have sex with one of the underage pagan temple prostitutes.
Statutory rape of an enslaved pagan teenage temple prostitute was an act of worship to Caesar that you had to do at the guild feasts.
It was one of the ways that you worshiped the beast.
And if you said no, then you were kicked out of the guild.
“No One Could Buy or Sell”
And if you were kicked out of the guild, then you were no longer allowed to sell in the marketplaces that were guild-dominated, which was almost all of them.
And you were no longer able to buy raw materials to even build something that you could sell in one of the very few non-guild-dominated marketplaces.
You could not buy or sell, so to speak.
You were completely walled out from the economic life of the Roman Empire.
You were completely pushed out to the margins of society.
You had your ability to make a basic living taken away from you if you would not worship the beast named Nero.
The Mark Is Not a Microchip
And so it’s really important that we be very clear about this.
The mark of the beast is not just some distant future thing.
It is not a microchip that’s going to get implanted in your head or on your hand.
It is not some piece of technology in the future.
It’s not barcodes.
It’s not anything like that.
The mark of the beast literally happened almost 2,000 years ago.
And the mark of the beast will happen at some point in the future.
And the mark of the beast is happening today, right now.
The Beast Rises in Every Generation
There are wicked nations, wicked rulers that oppose the Lord and attack His people, that try to deceive God’s people, derail God’s people’s mission and calling, draw His people away from the truth and away from His will.
They essentially demand worship.
And whatever you worship, you bear its mark.
If you worship the Lord, you bear His mark, figuratively speaking.
If you worship the beast in whatever its current form is, you bear its mark, figuratively speaking.
There is no literal mark on your forehead, no literal mark on your hand.
And this is not a one-time event.
The beast rises up in some form in every generation.
And anyone who follows the beast bears his mark in any generation.
But at exactly the same time, everyone who follows the Lord bears His mark in every generation.
Those Who Bear the Lamb’s Mark Will Be Victorious
And here’s why all of that matters.
John says if you bear the mark of the Lamb by worshiping the Lamb and following the Lamb, you will be victorious.
Even if it feels like you’re losing right now, if you bear the Lamb’s mark by worshiping and following Him, you will be victorious.
Because John’s vision says that God’s people overcome the serpent’s beast warfare by visibly choosing to lose to the beast on earthly terms.
He says something really fascinating.
Revelation 13:7–8 says:
“It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.” — Revelation 13:7–8, WEB
In the short term, it looks like the beast has won.
He’s formed an empire that seems to cover the whole earth more or less, and he is being worshiped by the majority of the world.
Remember, that literally happened in the case of Rome.
Rome had the closest thing to a global government that we have ever seen in all of history. The sun basically never set on the Roman Empire, kind of like how the sun basically never set on the British Empire at the height of its reign.
And all over the empire, people worshiped Caesar as Lord and God, Savior, Son of God, bringer of peace.
The Beast Makes War on the Saints
And even more than that, it says that this beast uses this power and this influence and this worship to make war with God’s people.
And it says he wins.
It says he overcomes us.
Revelation 13:10 says:
“If anyone is for captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.” — Revelation 13:10, WEB
From a military standpoint, the beast wins.
From a legal standpoint, the beast wins.
He confiscates everything we have. He imprisons as many of us as he can. He exiles as many of us as he can, like John on the island of Patmos. He executes as many of us as he can, like Antipas from Pergamum.
The people of the Lamb have visibly lost in every earthly sense of the term.
That was literally what was happening as John was writing this.
And yet he says this is not actually a loss.
We Win by Losing
He says this is a victory.
He says this captivity, this death, this imprisonment, all of this, he says this is actually what victory looks like.
He says, “This is what faithfulness looks like, what endurance looks like, and this is how we win.”
He says:
“We win by losing.”
Behind the scenes of all this, the Lord was orchestrating His victory through what looked like our loss.
Revelation 13 says authority to make war for 42 months was given to him. Revelation 13:7 says it was given to him to make war with the saints.
And it was given to him to overcome the saints.
What does that mean?
That means the beast has no power of his own.
It means the serpent who gives the beast his power has no power of his own.
Because all of the power to make war with us and overcome us comes from the Lord.
The Beast Is on a Leash
Satan cannot do anything without the Lord’s permission.
The beast cannot do anything without the Lord’s permission.
The Lord permits the beast to overcome God’s people.
Why?
It’s very simple.
It’s because the confiscations and imprisonments and persecutions and tortures and executions and martyrdoms that the beast pours out on us are ultimately going to be the tool that the Lord uses to draw rebellious humanity to repentance and faith.
Just like we saw in Revelation 10 and 11, what brings rebellious humanity to repentance is not the judgments that God pours out as warnings.
What brings rebellious humanity to repentance is watching God’s people suffer unimaginable punishments for the sake of the gospel, but continue to proclaim it anyway.
Continue to love them anyway.
Continue to invite them to come be reconciled to God, be forgiven for their sin, be raised up out of the pit, be healed of their brokenness, be adopted into God’s family to spend eternity in the joy of His presence anyway.
The Beast Loses by Winning
This is how the world is won.
The beast loses by winning.
And we win by losing.
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