Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: A strong dynamic leader who will faithfully lead this country and perhaps even the world? A leader who is unlike any we have ever known? Well, Revelation tells us that someone like that is coming. Maybe even now he's waiting in the wings. His message will be peace, but in reality, he's going to usher in the darkest hour in human history. He's the Antichrist, and he's the subject of our study on Thru the Bible as Dr. J. Vernon McGee takes us through Revelation chapter 13, verses 2 to 8. It's a tremendous message. So as you find your place on the Bible bus and in God's Word, we've got time to tell you about some great ways that God is at work, this time in the Arabic world.

Greg Lowenthal: Such an important outreach that we have to hundreds of millions of Arabic speakers, Steve, because it's such an important group. We have many ways that we reach them. Of course, you know very well the Arabic television that you and I were actually there when they finished the final episode of the five-year series. And that was a monumental milestone in the history of Thru the Bible. We had never done a project that big or complicated.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, and it was just to see the fruit that came out of that. Also in light of—and we've talked about this before—where sometimes things don't always go really well all the time in every single language. Just like your house starts falling apart and you need to make some changes. And we had some challenges in what was Arabic radio, where it was very expensive to be on and we had very little fruit coming out of it.

We were really faced with the dilemma, the desire to fling the seed. And we're not just strictly response-driven, but at some point it's like, okay, we're not getting the response, the cost here is very high. Is there a better way? And we were really praying about wisdom in what to do. And Greg, you—through a providential meeting that wasn't even scheduled—you can tell the story, but it was just wonderful the way it happened. And you came to the board early on in your tenure with us, didn't have a lot of notches on your belt in terms of successes. And we were like, "Do we do this or not?" And you really encouraged us to go forward with taking Thru the Bible, at that time called Thru the Bible Radio, now Thru the Bible, into television.

Greg Lowenthal: That's right. And now from there we have gone into many satellites. We've gone into digital. We do digital audio. We do digital video. We have an app in Arabic. And as you pointed out, Steve, we're not response-driven only, but we care about the resources that we've been entrusted with and we want to use them to their greatest effect. Let's look at some of these responses because they are very encouraging.

This is from Marian who tells us, "Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ to everyone on this page." So a digital outreach. "I love to share something from my heart. I was going through a really hard time, the kind of trouble that makes you feel like there's no way out. But from the very beginning of this trial, my heart turned to the Lord. After years of being completely lost, I found refuge in Him. And in the midst of all of it, the Qol Al-Kitab—that's the program on TV—became a huge blessing in my life."

"It taught me, strengthened me, and helped me grow closer to the Lord. Now I'm filled with thanksgiving because God brought me out of that trouble in a miraculous way. Honestly, people can't even believe what happened. Just like it's written, 'Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers.' That's Psalm 124:7. I'm still continuing the journey through Qol Al-Kitab and my heart is full of gratitude. May the Lord bless each one of you serving through this ministry. May He reward your efforts every time over and over and fill your hearts with joy as you see the fruit of the work. The Lord be with you always."

Steve Schwetz: Wonderful. And the name of that TV program translates into The Whole Book in Arabic. Now let's hear from Majid in Egypt. "I'm from Cairo. I love studying and learning more about serving the Lord. When I first reached out, I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, only that I had a deep hunger to grow spiritually. I wanted to understand God's Word and discover how to live out my faith in a way that truly honors Him."

"When you responded with resources and guidance, I felt encouraged to take my next step in the journey. As I began listening and studying, God's Word came alive to me in ways I had never experienced before. The scriptures started to make sense and I could see how every part of the Bible fits together in God's plan of redemption. Still, I found myself praying, 'Lord, I want to be used by You, but I don't know where to start.' That's when you connected me with more materials, even suggested a local Christian mentor who could walk alongside me. Through this, I've begun to sense God shaping my heart for ministry. I don't know exactly where He'll lead me yet, but I know He's preparing me to serve Him faithfully."

Greg Lowenthal: Such an encouragement. Here's a quick one from Wafa. "I've never heard about Jesus, but we thank you for this wonderful explanation. Where might I find a Bible? May God's blessings be upon the head of a friend like you." That's wonderful, and it just shows this incredible hunger in the Arabic-speaking world. Let me pray for us, Steve. Heavenly Father, I pray for the Arabic program and all the different ways that we reach that part of the world, that You would bless the ministry, that You would call many people to Yourself, and that You would bless the program as it goes out today. In Jesus' name, amen.

Steve Schwetz: Well, hop aboard as we travel to Revelation 13 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now as we come to our study today, we are back at the second verse of the 13th chapter of Revelation. And I spent a lot of time last time on introduction to this very mind-boggling chapter. We are confronted here with two beasts that are frightful, to say the least. Now I'm reading verse 2, and will you listen very carefully: "And the wild beast which I saw was like unto a panther, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority."

Now this is really a weird-looking creature. It's never been seen on land or sea or in the air. This is something that is without doubt a real spectacle. John notes that he's a composite beast, and we can begin now to formulate some very definite facts concerning Antichrist, and we'll note them as we go along. Now he combines the characteristic of the other beasts which Daniel saw in the vision in Daniel 7. And again I would like to say to you—and I regret that I can't go back to Daniel 7, but we went over that—but I trust that you'll forgive me for not going into detail because we did that in the book of Daniel.

The outward appearance was like a panther. Daniel says in Daniel 7:6, "After this I beheld and lo another like a leopard, which had on the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads and dominion was given to it." Now the panther and the leopard are the same word, by the way, and it could be either one. I like the word panther much better. Now this was Greece, the Graeco-Macedonian Empire. And Greece was noted for its brilliance and its advancement in the arts and sciences. It was noted for its philosophy, for its architecture, and for its marvelous literature, and the language itself is a wonderful language.

Now the empire of the beast then will have all the outward culture which was the glory of Greece. And it will have the feet of a bear. Now again, that reminds us of the second beast of Daniel: "Behold another beast a second like to a bear, it raised up itself on one side, it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said unto it, 'Arise, devour much flesh,'" Daniel 7:5. Now we saw this was Medo-Persia, noted for its pagan splendor as it paddled and waddled over the earth like a gargantuan. Now the empire of the beast will have all of the pagan splendor and wealth that Medo-Persia had.

Now it has the mouth of the lion, and this is the first beast of Daniel 7. In Daniel 7:4 I read: "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it." Now this was Babylonian autocracy. When Nebuchadnezzar ordered the death for the wise men, and then later on for the fiery furnace for the three Hebrew children, and even Daniel himself, his life was never quite safe. There was none to question his authority. He was the head of gold. He was an autocrat.

The man of sin will be one of the toes of the image that Daniel saw, composed partly of clay and partly of iron. He'll rule with the autocracy and dictatorial authority of Nebuchadnezzar. This final world dictator comes to his zenith under the domination of the beast, and the source of his power is found in Satan, who raises him up, empowers and energizes him for the dastardly dictatorial job that he'll do. He's the closest to an incarnation of Satan that appears in scripture. You remember that Luke said that Satan had entered into Judas Iscariot. That's in Luke 22:3.

Also Christ used similar language with Simon Peter in Matthew 16:23. And the man of sin is the incarnation of Satan. And very candidly, I think that we can say that Satan has certainly entered into him. And that is something that Paul in 2nd Thessalonians 2, verses 9 and 10, says: "Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved."

All right, now I'm coming to the wild beast, the death-dealing stroke in verse 3, and I'm reading my translation: "And one of his heads as though it had been slain unto death, and his stroke of death was healed, and the whole inhabited earth wondered after the beast." Now this verse, together with Revelation 17:8, has led many to view that Satan actually raises the beast from the dead. And I probably ought to turn to Revelation 17:8 and we'll just look at that for a moment also.

"The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." Because of these two scriptures, there are many that have taken the position that the beast is actually raised from the dead by Satan. Now friends, that cannot be. And the reason that that cannot be, Satan does not have power to raise the dead. That's just something that has not been given to him at all.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can raise the dead. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." And He says, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth them life, so the Son giveth life to whom He will," John 5:21. And then in John 5:28 and 29, "All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

Now the important thing to note here is that only the Lord Jesus can raise the dead. Now Satan can't do it. So I take it for granted that this is a false resurrection, it's a fake. And the very interesting thing is that the early church even thought it was Nero. And Augustine in his day: "What means the declaration that the mystery of iniquity doth already work? Some suppose it to be spoken of the Roman Emperor, and therefore Paul did not speak in plain words, although he always expected that what he said would be understood as applying to Nero, whose doings already appeared like those of Antichrist. Hence it was that some suspected that he would rise from the dead as Antichrist."

And they all expected Nero to be raised from the dead. Now there are others that take the view that the beast here refers to the Roman Empire, you see, over which the beast rules. And the imperial form of government under which Rome fell will be restored in a startling manner. Now I believe that, but I don't think it's a resurrection. Rome never died; Rome fell apart, as we shall see. Rome's like Humpty Dumpty that sat on the wall, had a great fall, and all the king's horses, all the king's men cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again. But Antichrist can and will put Humpty Dumpty back together again. That is the thing that he will do. And that'll be a marvelous thing, let's say.

But the Roman Empire, therefore, has not truly died. It lives on in the nations of Europe today. I think both of these views do have something to commend them. While both views have serious objections, there can be no real resurrection of an evil man before the Great White Throne judgment, and at that time only Christ will raise the dead of both saved and lost. And Christ will raise the dead who stand before the Great White Throne. That is something that is evident. He said, as we've indicated, "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice," that is Christ's. They shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.

Satan has no power to raise the dead. He's not a life-giver. He is a devil, a destroyer, a death-dealer. And the Roman Empire's to be revitalized and made to cohere in a miraculous manner under the world dictator, the beast. Yet verse 3 seems to demand I think a more adequate explanation than this. And I believe that the beast is a man who will exhibit a counterfeit and imitation resurrection. This will be the great delusion, the big lie of the Great Tribulation period. God will give them over to believe a big lie, and that's part of the big lie. You see, they won't accept the resurrection of Christ, but they sure going to have the resurrection of Antichrist and it'll be a fake.

Now his stroke of death was healed. It shows the blasphemous imitation of the death and resurrection of Christ. And the challenge will be in that day: what has Christ done that Antichrist has not done? And nobody today can duplicate the resurrection. Well, they might imitate it, but they can't duplicate it. But yet Antichrist is going to duplicate it in a way that'll fool the world. It's the big lie. We say today, Christ is risen. And so the boast is going to be in that day, so is Antichrist. The Roman Empire will spring back into existence under the cruel hand of a man who faked a resurrection, and a gullible world that rejected Christ is finally taken in by his forgery.

You see, we've now begun to get a composite picture. We saw a rider on a white horse bringing a false peace into the world. You know that in the history, recorded history of man, man has engaged in 15,000 wars, and he's signed some 8,000 peace treaties. Yet in the entire history, he has only enjoyed 200 to 300 years of true peace. And certainly G.K. Chesterton was accurate when he says one of the paradoxes of this age is it's the age of pacifism but not the age of peace. And so he comes in on a false platform of bringing peace to the world. And we in the United States, how many times have we elected a president on the platform he's going to bring peace and he took us right into a war? And that's been true of president after president. We have been a warlike nation. We're not very peaceful, by the way. In fact, it's difficult to find any neighborhood where there's real peace.

I'm going to give two quotations here that are quite remarkable. One comes from Toynbee, who's the director of studies in the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Now he gave this in 1953. He says, "By forcing on mankind more and more lethal weapons and at the same time making the world more and more interdependent economically, technology has brought mankind to such a degree of distress that we are ripe for deifying any new Caesar who might succeed in giving the world unity and peace." And that's all Antichrist will have to offer the world when he comes. He said, "I'm going to give you peace." And they all going to say hallelujah and put him in office. That's the way we do it over here, and we're supposed to be a very cultured, educated, sophisticated, civilized nation.

The world will put Antichrist in power. Now Bishop Fulton J. Sheen made this remarkable statement. Listen to it: "The Antichrist will come disguised as the great humanitarian. He'll talk peace, prosperity, and plenty. Not as a means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. He will explain guilt away psychologically, make men shrink in shame if their fellow man say they are not broad-minded and liberal. He will spread the lie that men will never be better until they make society better." And may I say that's one statement of Bishop Sheen I'll agree to 100 percent.

Antichrist is yet to come. And so what happens? Well, he's going to make himself God. I'm reading verse 4: "And they worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast saying, 'Who is like unto the beast? and who is able to war with him?'" And this is the supreme moment I think for Satan. He wants to be worshipped and the whole world is going to worship him in this period. My friend, if the Spirit of God took His hand off this world today, and off of you and me, I'm afraid that many of us would be in the position of backsliders, and if Antichrist appeared, we'd follow him like a little faithful dog following his master.

"Who is like unto the beast?" What a parody on the worship of the true God. Why they say, look, we are worshipping something more wonderful than the God of the Bible. And then in verse 5 I read: "And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months." And the only good thing here—and I'll give you the good news first—he won't be here but forty-two months reigning like this. In other words, three and a half years.

When it says a mouth speaking great things, it means he's a big-mouth fellow. Daniel mentions that concerning him. He is really going to be a big talker. He'll promise anything. And that's the reason you ought to be careful listening to anyone today on radio, including this poor preacher, or any politician or anyone else, an educator today, and news media. I want to tell you, we need to test everything that you and I hear today. Antichrist is going to have charisma. He's going to be able to talk himself into the good graces of this Christ-rejecting world.

Now verse 6 and I read it: "He opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle which dwell in heaven." Now this is the dreadful limit to which the beast goes in blasphemy. He's against Christ and His church that are in heaven. Thank God the church is not here. I do not see how anyone who studies Revelation could believe that the church is going to go through this period.

Now verses 7 and 8: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them." What are we talking about? We're talking about those that are living in the Great Tribulation period. "And there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, everyone whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain."

As Spurgeon used to say, "I'm sure glad I got my name written in the Lamb's book of life before I got here because if God had waited till I got here, I never would have got the name in." Well, I think that's a very wonderful statement and the way to explain this. This is the darkest hour in the history of the world, and the church, thank God, will not be here. Now this is something you can be thankful for, friends.

I want to say that I'm thankful that I'm not going to be here and will not be under Antichrist. I'm under Christ, and I'm not looking for Antichrist, I'm looking for Christ to come. That's the important thing, the all-important thing. Now we going to see him here as he becomes this world dictator. What are God's people going to do? Defy him? Will they be able to stand against him? Will they be able to fight him? God's going to tell them a most unusual thing to do. We'll see that next time, and until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: What's the unusual thing that God will tell them to do? Well, find out as the Bible bus rolls along, or discover it yourself when you read the rest of Revelation chapter 13, beginning at verse 9. Until then, to reach us, download our app or visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Schwetz, grateful for your company as together we travel through the Bible.

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