THE UNHOLY TRINITY

Revelation 13
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
19 March, 2000
All Rights Reserved

1. INTRODUCTION
   
   The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one of the most difficult truths in all of the Bible. It is not such a doctrine as one would invent, since it stumps even our greatest theological minds. Yet the teaching of the Bible is clear that God is one god, but has three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons share one essence, are equal in every way, and are all eternal. Yet in this mysterious three-part unity there are distinctions of function in God's perfect administration of the universe and his oversight of the program of redemption. We might even say that there is a subordination of the three persons, that is, the Son is the perfect reflection of the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. In the program of redemption, Israel primarily dealt with God the Father, the revelation of the Son was made during the New Testament era, and the Holy Spirit has a special role as the agent of Christ on earth in the church age. Having noted these functional distinctions, we must again affirm that all three persons have been active in every age, working in perfect harmony. Confused yet?
   
   In a far less grand fashion, Satan, who wants to be like God, will promote his own perverted and unholy version of the divine Trinity, consisting of himself (the Dragon), the Antichrist (the first beast), and the False Prophet (the second beast). His mimicry of God by the creation of an unholy trinity will be a pathetic presentation which will only convince those who have closed their hearts to the one true God. He will strut and crow for a brief time on earth during which he will persecute believers horribly, and then will be defeated at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the overview of the specific teaching of Revelation 13.
   
   
2. THE BEAST OUT OF THE SEA (ANTICHRIST)
   
   The chapter begins with an obscure reference to someone standing on the shore of a visionary sea: "And he stood on the sand of the seashore" (Rev. 13:1a). Some manuscripts make the person John, who is seeing the vision and writing it down. Some manuscripts make it the Dragon, who is also present in the chapter. It is not crucial to decide, since all these personages are present in the passage, implicitly in John's case, and explicitly in the case of the Great Red Dragon of chapter 12.
   
   The focus of the chapter is upon a being who comes out of that sea: "And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And 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. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed." (Rev. 13:1b-3a) This first beast is prophetically described in John's vision so that we will know certain facts about him. Speculation of commentators has run wild at this point, but we will confine ourselves to that which is definite. First, the heads and horns represent kings and kingdoms, and since they are all on the first beast, they represent a confederacy under him. Secondly, we learn that all are blasphemous in their opposition to Christ ("on his heads were blasphemous names"). Thirdly, this beast receives power to rule on earth directly from the dragon, who is Satan. Fourthly, there is some element of being resurrected, at least in a metaphorical sense (cf. Daniel 7 where this rule is described by the "fourth beast kingdom").
   
   It sounds as if this first beast is literally resurrected in his person, and so some very fine Bible scholars have argued (e.g. Van Kampen, who thinks it may be Adolf Hitler). I do not believe that the prophetic imagery must mean this. Our rule for interpretation is: "When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense." What does not make sense about a resurrected beast is that Scripture nowhere indicates that Satan has the power of life and death over human beings. It is God who numbers our days, not Satan. We then look for another sense, which the immediate context suggests is that this beast becomes the ruler of a revived kingdom which has once existed on earth, died out, and then is reconstituted for Satan's purposes in the last days. Bible scholars who take this view (e.g. Walvoord), argue that the most likely empire which will be "resurrected" from the ash heap of history is Roman. We deduce this partly from the fact that the beast (Antichrist) is prophesied to be racially Roman in Daniel 9:26.
   
   Another possible sense is that the Dragon constructs an elaborate fake resurrection for the Antichrist to mimic that of Christ. But the specifics of this "resurrection" are not as important as the effect which it has on unbelievers: "And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; and they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?'" (Rev. 13:3b-4) It's going to be the sort of display which convinces people of the preeminence of the Beast, and which will turn their political allegiance to him.
   
   Thus begins an unspeakably horrible rule which will last for forty-two months (three-and-a-half years) in the second half of the seventieth week of Daniel: "And there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies; and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And 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 slain." (Rev. 14:5-8) Christ warns us that this Great Tribulation period, which he describes in Matthew 24, will be worse trouble than has ever been seen upon the earth or will ever be seen again. Everything holy and good will be blasphemed and defiled, and even the saints of God will be trodden under foot by this human ruler who will have the very power and authority of Satan at his command.
   
   This authority deserves a further look. Satan has power over the earth to deliver to his puppet, the Antichrist, but only because God gave it to him (cf. 1 John 5:19; Job 1). Believers will have a hard time, but not because God has abandoned them to Satan. God would never do that to his children. Our victory in Christ can never be stolen from us. In fact, while the children of Satan (all unbelievers) are worshiping Antichrist, Christ's children will be standing out in sharp contrast by worshiping Christ alone. This prospect brings us into ultimate conflict with the epitome of evil on earth, and so Christ gives us sobering words by which to encourage one another: "If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints." (Rev. 13:9-10) Our trust must be in God as we live in this fallen world over which he has ultimate power and authority. The saints of the ages have been thus comforted to be patient in times of persecution. God will deliver perfect justice to all. Every wrong done to us will cause perfect retribution to be meted out to the offenders by the God described by the prophet Nahum: "A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; /The LORD is avenging and wrathful. /The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, /And He reserves wrath for His enemies. /The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, /And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. /In whirlwind and storm is His way, /And clouds are the dust beneath His feet." (Nahum 1:2-3)
   
   
3. THE BEAST OUT OF THE EARTH (THE FALSE PROPHET)
   
   So far we have seen two of the three persons of the unholy trinity, namely, the Dragon (Satan), and the beast out of the sea (Antichrist). The next verses introduce us to the third: "And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. And he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life." (Rev. 13:11-14) This second beast, whom we know to be the False Prophet according to Revelation 19:20, will seem harmless, since he has the horns of a lamb, and yet will speak with a diabolical craftiness ("as a dragon"). His job is to direct humanity to worship the first beast (Antichrist).
   
   Satan will empower the False Prophet with the ability to do stunning miracles. All believers need to take great care that they not be deceived by false authenticating miracles. The Devil has immense powers, though puny by comparison to God's almighty power, and he is going to pull out all the stops in the attempt to achieve his heart's desire to gain worship for himself. In verse four we saw that the raising up of Antichrist as an object of worship also garners worship for the Dragon. For this reason, believers both today and in the future need to exercise great discernment when they see miracles performed. Who is being glorified? What truths are being taught by the miracles? Jesus warned us that the Dragon plans to deceive as many of God's children as possible with his "lying wonders": "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect" (Mat. 24:24). This pattern of false messiahs will accelerate toward the time of the end and will culminate in the brief reign of Antichrist on the earth. Until Christ returns, we all need to be very cautious about the meaning of any miracles we may see. Let us praise God for every genuine one, and retreat from any which turn out to be false.
   
   The False Prophet also encourages the making of idols to the Antichrist to indicate loyalty to him. As one commentator observed, these images need not look like the Antichrist to perform their function. It may be that in the final decay of sin on the earth (cf. Romans 1:18-32) as mankind worships "the creature rather than the creator," self-worship will be the form of this final religion. Perhaps people will demonstrate allegiance by making idols which look like themselves! In any event, it is the allegiance to Antichrist that will matter, not how it is displayed.
   
   Many people today consider religion a game, but the False Prophet will force it upon everyone in deadly earnest: "And there was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed" (Rev. 13:15) There may be a singular image of the Beast which will be animated by the command of the False Prophet. Another suggestion is that the individual idols which everyone will make may be animated either by demons or electronic wizardry. We do not know for sure, but we know that the purpose will be to deliver the Antichrist's final ultimatum: worship him or be killed. At this point there will be a clear distinction between people who merely profess faith in Christ and those who truly believe. Those who have only a profession of faith but no genuine trust in Christ will save their own lives by renouncing him, and the genuine believers will choose death.
   
   The administration of this ultimatum will not be easy even with all the power of the Dragon at their disposal. After all, Christians are scattered over the four corners of the earth. We have trouble today performing an accurate census within our own nation, and Antichrist will discover that finding the worldwide members of "the church universal and triumphant" will be exceedingly difficult. As a means to achieve his purpose he will use a trick foreshadowed by countless heartless dictators down through world history: "And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name." (Rev. 13:16-17) This procedure of starving people out has become easy with the advent of computer-based commerce. When Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians during the Second World War, he had to use soldiers to seal the borders of the province, kill all the livestock, poison the water sources, and burn the barns and fields. The Antichrist will only have to tap a few keys on a keyboard and he will not even have to find the Christians.
   
   Most of us know that at the time of this writing the world wide web has reached critical mass for both communications and commerce. One of the great problems is security. Identity theft has become a major problem. Once somebody gets your personal ID numbers, he can ransack your finances, ruin your credit rating, and otherwise trash your life. One proposed solution is the placing of smart ID chips under the skin of every person which therefore cannot be stolen. It's already being done with pet finder systems, and the trucking industry already keeps track of its drivers with global satellite location systems. Soon it will be you! What a solution this will be for crime! We'll know exactly where everyone is twenty-four hours a day. We'll know what you bought, what stores you visited, what people you met. None of this is future technology. It can be done with off the shelf parts today. Of course, as is true with many so-called solutions to social problems, it will steal the freedoms of the law-abiding. Antichrist may do something very like this to kill believers by starving them out without ever even seeing them. If all your financial accounts are accessed with the chip, and the chip is used to start your car, open the door to your house, give you access to health care, borrow books from the library, and indentify you for everything, then the people who control the computers will control your life. When Antichrist wants to convert a Christian believer into a non-person with no rights, all he will have to do is deactivate his smart chip.
   
   The chapter closes with a pregnant warning about the identity of the Beast: "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." (Rev. 13:18) Few verses of Scripture have given rise to more fantastic speculation. All we know is that in some way this symbol will be involved with the brand placed on those who will gain the right to buy and sell by signing away their eternal destinies. Perhaps it is the symbol of the unholy trinity; since seven is the number of perfection, and therefore God, and six is the number of imperfection. Where the angels around the throne of God proclaim "Holy, holy holy!" to proclaim that this attribute is God's highest, the "thrice unholy" of the number of the Beast proclaims him to be the low point of the human race. No one ever sold his soul to the Devil more completely than him.
   
   
4. CONCLUSION
   
   Some of us might be tempted to beat the Antichrist's system by becoming survivalists. That will not be how we win over the forces of evil. In fact, Jesus has told us that we are more than conquerors as we trust in him alone for our eternal destinies. We are promised earthly defeat for a brief time (:7), but eternal victory through faith, truth, and love. Let us trust God to deliver us, not "chariots and horses." Let us remain alert by staying familiar with the teachings of Scripture on the end times, and maintaining our connection with our Lord through faithful prayer. In the end, all the glory will be his as the unholy trinity is defeated, and joy and bliss will be ours as we meet the Holy Trinity face to face!