A Beast from the Earth - Revelation 13:11-18

Okay, let me do a little bit of going back to make sure we're keeping in the big picture here. This is the layout of the book of Revelation. We've been looking at this chart here and we're right about here in chapter 13. We're going to finish that this morning. And so this is the second of the two beasts.

And so this puts us in the middle of the tribulation period, basically in the last half, and it puts us past the halfway point in the book of Revelation, at least by chapter count. We mentioned that Revelation syncopates between heaven and earth eight times. This is dealing with earthly things for the rest of this chapter and into chapter 14. is the earthly part of the syncopation that's in Revelation. And then finally we have these, during the tribulation period, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.

What we're looking at is this interlude between the second and third series, between the trumpet and bowl judgments, this interlude that starts in chapter 12 and continues on to the end of chapter 14. So 12, 13, and 14 are this interlude between these two. And in great part what these chapters, 12, 13, and 14, are doing are spelling out things that span over a period of time, usually either during all of the tribulation period or particularly, as in this case, the last half. Alright? And then, here's the other bit of detail that we get, is the Antichrist makes a treaty, Antichrist breaks a treaty, and Christ returns to reign, and we're in this last half for most of what we're looking at here. And then, let's see.

Now, this is what you had last week on the front of the handout. We have additional copies if you missed it. You have the holy trinity, the real and eternal holy trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The unholy trinity, which is an imitation for three and a half years, Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet is what we're looking at here in chapter 13. Now, with that, let's take a look.

You've got your handout and you've also got this triangle. The triangle gives us a little more detail about this unholy trinity. which there we just said was Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet. What you see in your handout is in the triangle diagram there.

So it's Satan at the top. It says chapter 13. But actually, when we put chapter 13 there, chapter 12 is all about Satan and his attack on Israel, right? So you could put chapter 12 and 13. In both places, he's called the dragon. Alright? And the bottom part of that triangle is chapter 13. The first 10 verses are the beast out of the sea, the Antichrist. And the next verses, 11 through 18, are the beast out of the earth, the false prophet. And that's what we're looking at and focusing on here this morning. Now, one of the key things, why do we have this triangle here? What's the triangle all about that we have there on the front page? Why do we have that triangle there?

Yeah? It could be that it's got an indicate 3, which is a perfect number. Okay. So you've got this triangle. It's a 3. Is it a good triangle? I guess the one on the left would be perfect perfectness and the one on the right would be perfect imperfectness. Yeah, perfect imperfectness. Good way to put it. Yeah. You've heard it said accept no substitutes. Well, this is the substitute, right? This is the imitation for three and a half years.

Now, the other thing I think to look at this is, as believers, what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit with regards to Christ in our lives? What does the Holy Spirit do with regards to Christ in our lives? Glorifies Him. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit is glorifying Christ and drawing our attention to Christ.

Right? And so, one of the things we're going to see in the imitation is this second beast has a major role in pointing everybody to the first beast, the Antichrist. So this second beast, this beast out of the earth, this false prophet, We'll keep pointing everybody, saying, look at the Antichrist. Look at Him. Do what He says. Behold Him.

In the same way, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, as we behold the Lord, we're transformed from glory to glory, and that's a ministry of the Holy Spirit to both direct us to Christ and to transform us from glory to glory. The false prophet will point to the Antichrist and have this ministry of pointing everyone towards the Antichrist. But there won't be any glorifying. There won't be any growing from glory to glory. And the impact will fizzle out after a few years. As we pointed out, this is like less than one presidential term. And it's all done and over with. It's burned out.

So verse 11 here at the bottom of page six, excuse me, the first of six pages rather. Then I saw another beast, so this is another, not the beast from the sea, but a beast from the earth, coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon.

So let's take a look at Those who have gone through the How to Study the Bible elective may recall that when we see the word another in the New Testament, we need to ask which form of another is in the Greek text. We say in English another and we don't know whether it's another of the same kind or another of a different kind.

Well, in Greek they use a different word. And we're actually accustomed to it in part. For example, we'll say heterosexual means you've got male and female. They're of a different kind. So that's the word heteros, another of a different kind in the Greek. So that's how it's carried over into our language.

Allos is another of the same kind, and that's the word that's used here So it says another beast, and it's not just another of some kind, it's another of the exact same kind. Another beast of the same kind comes out of the earth. So that's point one. It's another of the same kind, he's no better. It's another of the same kind, no improvement. If you thought the Antichrist was bad, this one's no improvement at all. It's no better. Now, John adds two more pieces of information. The beast coming up out of the earth, he says two things.

Had two horns like a lamb and spoke as a dragon. What do horns stand for? Remember? Horns stand for power. Horns stand for power. That comes out of the book of Daniel. It comes out of Zechariah, as we mentioned here. Last Sunday's handout in the Revelation series, pages 3 and 4, explain this meaning of the horns, which comes out of Daniel and Zechariah. So that makes me feel like, or I think, or I had an experience like, it is, what does the Bible say, right? It's objectively true, not subjectively true. Okay. And then this word translated lamb is the same word that is used almost 30 times for the lamb in Revelation. And who is the lamb? Christ, right? The lamb is Christ. It means a little lamb, a tiny lamb, maybe even days to weeks old. Interesting. He spoke as a dragon. Why would there be that comparison to a dragon? What's a dragon in the context of this passage?

Satan, right? So that's the comparison. We saw back in chapter 12 that the dragon is Satan. And in both chapter 12 and in chapter 20, you have multiple names given for Satan in both places, including the dragon. Okay. So John describes the beast coming out of the earth as having two horns like this little lamb, but then he drops the big one on us. The second beast is like a dragon. He is satanic. Okay. Now, he speaks like a dragon. How does a dragon speak? How does this dragon speak?

Lots of beeps. What's that? Lots of beeps. Lots of beeps. Okay. Remember, he is the father of lies. How many people like and enjoy being lied to? Do you appreciate that? A master politician. Lots of falsehood that is sold well. Lots of falsehood that sounds good for the undiscerning. Lots of falsehood that gets what he wants accomplished. But that's really all.

As far as the two horns, what power are they talking about? Two horns. Horns are power. How many horns did we talk about with the Antichrist? This one has two. Which one is most powerful? The Antichrist is most powerful and so this one has the power of backing up the Antichrist.

Part of it is just a matter of numbers. Is it referring to two of the ten or just two separate? It doesn't make reference to the original ten. What I would say is in reference to the two, that it's looking at magnitude. Because it doesn't make a specific connection with diadems and countries and things of that sort.

It's level of power. Is the lamb being the same? Two horns like a lamb. As a lamb starts to grow it gets these two horns coming up and that's obviously a male, the ram. So all of this just refers to the amount of power? Yeah. I think it's only the amount of power because there's not the parallel with the diadems the connection to the countries and all that. Verse 12, He exercises all the authority of the first beast in His presence, and He makes the earth and those who dwell in it worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed.

So what's the false prophet's job? Look at him. Look at him. Everybody look at that guy, okay? He's sort of a combination cheerleader enforcer. You know, get you real excited to follow this guy and you'd better get excited or else, okay? That's the kind of guy he is. Yes? It might be some comparison, but I would see it more as what we picture here more in the role of the Holy Spirit, that is look to Him, pointing to Him, whereas John the Baptist was more of a forerunner and then faded.

This false prophet will be there all along, pointing people to the Antichrist. This is truly a false prophet, I mean. Oh, he's the ultimate. He is the ultimate in false prophets. There is no false prophet with the potency and global influence like this one. All false prophets would be hearing from something other than God, right? Because they're false. Yeah. They're false. And this one is the ultimate. the ultimate and final false prophet. So here he is in his present. What does that mean?

First, we know that the authority of the first beast is from Satan. We also know that in verse 2, and I'm reading from the top of page 3 here, in verse 2, John describes his authority as a great authority. In this portion of last week's passage, that's the first ten verses here, we see in what authority the first beast, the Antichrist, will be given and where it comes from. From the look of things, we modern folks might say he has an authority complex. We see in this portion here that he will be given where it will be given and where it comes from.

The authority in this passage shown in this text box, Revelation 13, 2-7, the text box that you see there on the top of page 3. Notice the things that are underlined there. Great authority. Authority. In verse 5, authority. Verse 7, authority. Do you think that authority matters to these guys? Oh yeah. Authority is big time what they're all about.

Yes? Does a false prophet realize that he's false? Now that's a good question. Does a false prophet realize that he's false? What do you think? Got any insights on that? Does the false prophet step into this and think, boy, you know, I'm just going to spin lies on these people and go in there and I'm really going to pull the wool over their eyes? Or do you think there's some kind of a, you know, I'm doing the right thing and, you know?

Yeah. Last week it said that they worship the dragon, so they do. against God and turn to the dragon. So if this guy is on that team, he knows that he's following Satan, right? Yeah, here's the odd thing. Here's the odd thing. Satan himself has a massive self-delusion. He is the father of lies, and yet he deludes himself.

All this stuff goes on, and do you think they know that in three and a half years it's all over? Yeah! Here's Satan with the Lord Jesus in Christ's first coming. Remember the temptation of Christ out in the desert? Satan quoted what to Jesus every time? Scripture!

He knows this stuff's going on, and he's got this weird, crazy insanity going on, this delusion that somehow I'm going to finally pull it off. That's this weird, twisted mindset. So he asks, does he know he's false? There may somewhere back there be some realization, but there's also this spiritual insanity that says it's all fine. that somehow we're going to pull this thing off and it will come out different than what God says.

Yeah. What's really scary to me is the fact that God says numerous times in the scripture that He turned them over to. He talks about the evil that actually involves the fallen nature that every man and woman has and He just turned them over to that rebellious Satan is the epitome of. And so, it just rules. I mean, it rules a person. God turns them over to that evil.

What did Paul describe in Romans chapter 1 about verse 18? They suppress the truth. And so somewhere deep down underneath there, there's this sense of what's true, but it gets pushed down so far that they can walk around and lie to you, straight to your face, with perfect conviction. Somehow also lying to themselves that this thing is going to turn out for their betterment.

They will continue to lie as the fuse burns down and the time gets shorter. And, you know, there's this timer, this tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick, you know. It's all right here, folks. He's told you in a whole bunch of different ways, you know, just how many days it is, how many months, just how many years it is. I mean, it's told you a bunch of times.

That's how long it's going to last. It's not going to last any longer. But he somehow gets himself convinced that this is going to pay off and work out. And it won't. But he thinks it will. And he will speak with such conviction and power, and just like this passage says, authority, authority, authority, authority, and keep reinforcing that, that somehow for three and a half years it seems to work.

Yeah? It also talks about a spirit of delusion, doesn't it? That God is the second Thessalonians or something. People think that, oh well, One of the things we're going to find, we have not gotten to the passage yet, but one of the things we're going to find, and people don't understand this, people who take the mark of the beast will have no second chance. There won't be even any white throne judgment, they will go straight to the lake of fire. You won't have some second evaluation. You get the mark of the beast, there's no, you know, hey, I want this thing off of me. Or, I'm sorry, you know, it's just, you've locked in, irreversibly, your eternal destiny if you get the mark.

It's that serious. And so it's an amazingly profound, straightforward, and direct kind of thing. And the degree of spiritual lock-in commitment will, I think, astound people. Do you realize what you're doing? It likewise will take some massive delusion that this is somehow going to work out okay.

But after all, if I want to eat, if I want to buy and sell, I've got to do what this guy says. He's got the system in his grip. So I guess that's what I'm going to do. So if I've got to worship Satan to get there, I guess that's the way it goes. At least I get to eat tonight.

Well, we have there Revelation 13, four kinds of authority. Great authority, verse 2. Satanic authority, verse 4. Time-limited authority. That's the key thing that they don't seem to get. verse 5, and global authority, verse 7. Plenty of authority there, right? Plenty of that. This second beast, the false prophet, is exercising authority delegated from the first beast and does not act independently of the first beast.

It may also indicate that he is always hanging around the Antichrist. Always hanging around to point people, this guy, this guy. He is the forever cheerleader enforcer. All the time, that's what he does. He makes those who dwell on the earth to worship the first beast. He makes them to worship the Antichrist. So this is not just encouragement. It's enforcement. And it is a forceful enforcement. So this false prophet mimics in a way, and we see how this word authority just keeps echoing back again and again. He mimics the ministry of the Holy Spirit, except not graciously.

Are people forced to worship Christ? No. No, they're not. And a great many choose not to. But this will be a different situation. People will be forced to worship the Antichrist, except at great expense, probably the loss of their lives in many cases.

John 16, 13, and 14, our Lord says, But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will disclose it to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. The Antichrist will parrot the same thing. This false prophet, he'll glorify me.

He'll point everybody to me. The Antichrist. Mimicking the Holy Spirit. Okay. This Greek word for worship, I'm at the top of page four. The Greek word for worship here is the same word used elsewhere in the New Testament for worship of the Lord. That shouldn't be a surprise.

That is exactly what Satan wants. It is precisely what Satan has in mind to receive worship that is rightly due to God himself. Last phrase of verse 12, the first beast whose fatal wound was healed This first beast, the Antichrist, is said in verse 3, and again in verse 12, and again in verse 14, three times, to have a fatal wound that is healed. So there's a great deal of emphasis on the Antichrist mimicking the death and resurrection of Christ.

People are going to go, Wow! That's awesome! Wow, he's cool. Or he's really powerful. Right? There will be a death and resurrection. Will it be a death for other people? Will it be a sacrificial death? No. Will it be a selfless death? No. It won't be that. It'll be all for self. I'm going to die and then resurrect to impress people so that I can get what I want. It'll all be selfish. Whereas Christ died with no thought of self, at the expense of himself, this one will die and then resurrect all for himself. Amazing, although it's a mimic, the motivation and the mindset is the exact opposite.

Verse 13, He performs great signs so that He even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. Now notice, what's the descriptive word in front of signs? Great signs! Wow, man, that's really cool! Did you see what he did? Turn on the television, it's on every channel. You're going to see what this guy did? Man, it's impressive. Wow, you've got to see it. Look at the replay, and replay, and the replay, and the replay, and the replay. It'll be that kind of thing. We're going to see it again and again. Everybody is going to be very impressed.

He even makes fire come down out of heaven. Well, when has that happened in the Bible? Elijah, right? Hey, Elijah did it. So, heaven sakes, that must be impressive. He did it in 1 Kings 18. By the way, he was opposing the satanic prophets of Baal. And then in 2 Kings 1. It's interesting because the one in Elijah was supposed to redirect the people's worship to the true God, away from the false God. This again is the absolute reverse. the worship of the true God, if there is any, to the false god.

Satan actually is fatalistic. Yes, that's ultimately, he is a demonic being at least, under Satan's hierarchy. Notice that the two witnesses in the middle, who were who were killed and then taken up in the middle of the tribulation period, just before this, the two witnesses were the ones bringing down fire out of heaven.

But here, what do you see? He's saying, hey, I can do that too. You're impressed with those guys? I can do that too. I can pull it off. He ultimately is a mimic of God's miracles, right? Elijah did it, I can do it. Two witnesses did it, I can do it. So you don't need to be impressed by these guys. Be impressed with me. I'll do this stuff and if you want to be impressed, yeah. And by the way, if you really like the show, pay attention to the Antichrist. Verse 14, and he deceives, oh, is that a surprise? He deceives those who dwell on the earth.

By the way, those who dwell on the earth, what kind of phrase is that? That's a tribulation specific phrase of those who are living on the earth during the tribulation. It's not used otherwise. Those who are living during the tribulation period who are unsafe. It's used again and again throughout this chapter 6 through 19.

So those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast. Notice again, he does this stuff in the presence of the beast in order to draw people's attention to and to glorify the beast. He's always hanging around the beast. But whatever he does that's impressive is intended to get people to look at the beast, the Antichrist. Telling those who dwell on the earth is the unsaved living during tribulation period to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. There is this wound and is now healed.

Yeah? So, is all this basically for the Jewish people because they believe that Messiah hasn't come? Certainly us Gentiles, and I consider myself in that category, certainly us Gentiles are impressed with things. We see magicians do things, illusionists do things, and it's impressive. No question about it. But remember the Jews, what were they looking for? Signs. You've got a guy here, And what does he do? Great science. And what does he do? He does things that the Old Testament prophets did. That sounds good to me if you're Jewish, right?

So a lot of Jews will be drawn away by this. Because it looks an awful lot like something they ought to pay attention to. Yeah. And in fact what we find is that two-thirds of the Jews, at least in Israel, will be taken in with this. And they won't make it through the tribulation period. So getting back to this question of being deceived. Yes. They were deceived. Yeah. It was just right there. He deceives. He deceives those who dwell on the earth. Now, when you say they were deceived, who do you mean? Well, it's a question that was asked. OK. Does this false prophet know that?

It's funny, it doesn't talk a lot about their mental process. What you see is, this is what they did with the world. And you see what's behind them. It doesn't talk a lot about their mental process, but you've got to figure at some point there's deception there. There has to be. Why are you going to do this knowing that at the end this is not going to turn out well? Here are two creatures who are going straight to the lake of fire when this is all done.

And it says it right here. And Satan knows every word that's in here. So what kind of deception does it take to sign up for this? I'll sign up for this and I'll be on top of the world for three and a half years and pay for it for eternity. What kind of sense does that make? Anybody who is thinking at all has got to figure, this does not make sense, unless you're phenomenally self-deceit. Yes?

Don't you imagine that Satan has the foresight to know that he's eventually condemned? But any human who gets wrapped up in his scheme here, and way too stupid to have the foresight to realize this is all going to fall apart, and Satan doesn't work, But the antichrist and the false prophet, they will very much have no idea what's going on in the ultimate. They could be so deeply deceived and just so ignorant to the spiritual reality going on. They could really think this could be their forever deal. Would Satan be bothered by withholding information?

Not so much, right? Not so much. These signs, those are the Christed signs, didn't he? So here's some more of them. You know? I've got to ask, so is this guy's lineage, is he Jewish? I mean, obviously he can't be the Antichrist because they follow genealogy. I mean, to the letter, I mean, it's been lost over a period of time. But still, there's a certain sect of Jewish people, the Orthodox, that I understand that follow this lineage. to the individual so they would know if this guy is Jewish or not.

The orthodox Jews, they have recorded in their traditions that there is a seven year period of terrible times coming to the earth. Now they're the minority, no doubt, but a seven year period of time coming to the earth of awful times. Their name for the Antichrist is Armalus. Armalus. That's the traditional Jewish name for the Antichrist is Armalus. So they believe in a seven, because of the book of Daniel, they believe in a seven year period of awful times coming to the earth during which Armilus, the Antichrist, will reign. They don't look to Revelation as their authority, but the book of Daniel gives them a lot of the same information. At the end of that period of time, Messiah will come and will put down Armilus and judge the earth. So that's how they see it happening. But that's the Orthodox Jews and they are definitely the minority. They're the minority here in the United States. They're the minority in Israel.

They will have some insight into what's happening. There will be those that will understand what's happening. And the Bible says there will be those Jews who will come to believe in Christ as their Savior. And in the nation of Israel, About a third is the ratio that we're given. Yes? Along with the signs and all the things that they're doing, do you think they'll be making verbal promises to them, too?

Follow this and your woe will be ended and there may be a bad turmoil, but if you follow us, we'll get you to the sunshine and all the things that you need. I think that while that is quite likely, in other words, they'll probably do the carrot and the stick approach, what we see in here is there would definitely be a heavy stick. I would not doubt at all that there would be some, you know, hey, there's this promise and that promise and see, we'll pull this off and make it look good. On the other hand, there'll be one of those heavy sticks that says, you know, hey, this will be nice and that'll turn out nice.

But if you don't go along with this, it won't turn out nice for you at all. Matter of fact, you won't turn out at all, you know. And so it's the carrot and the stick approach with a very heavy stinging stick. You're quite likely correct. The carrot may be fairly normal and the stick will be awful. What this lays out is a terrible, horrible punishment for those who don't comply, for those who don't go along. Yeah. people we've been waiting for? Very likely, some of them will be fooled.

We mentioned earlier the word we say anti-Christ, the Greek word actually has two possible meanings and it could be both. One meaning is against, the other meaning is a substitute for. So he could be both against Christ and a substitute, which is, since he's a mimic, And that makes perfect sense. Yeah, he could come out and say, you know, you're looking for Christ, I'm Him.

Yeah, I'm the one you're looking for. And if people are not discerning, you know, that's why, you know, he who has wisdom, calculate the number. Now, if people are going crazy trying to calculate it now, during that period of time, it'll be quite evident who this guy is and what he's up to. But if people want to be deceived, if they're not discerning, they will get sucked in. Yes, don't believe it. And that is precisely the fatal offer. I am the Christ. Jesus says don't believe it. That won't be the way it works.

Verse 15 here, it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. So the image of the beast is impressive. It may even think it's a technological wonder. But on the flip side, those who don't, what's going to happen to them? killed. So there's the reward for worshipping the beast, you get to eat.

You get to have clothes on your back. And if it's cold in January, you get to heat your house. But if you don't worship the image of the beast, well, you're going to be hungry and you're going to be without clothes on your back and your house will be cold. But that won't matter too much because you're not going to live anyway. We'll pursue you, right?

Now notice, it was given to him to give breath to the image. What does give breath mean? Go back to the Garden of Eden and who gave breath? God. He's going to make this image seem like a lively thing, like a living thing. Breath of life and ability to speak. Yes? almost the powers of God. He's limited in certain regards. Do you think God is pacing the floors of heaven thinking, what on earth am I going to do? Do you think God's wringing His hands? Oh, woe is me! That's not what's happening, is it? No, you're quite correct. God is allowing this to happen. Why would He allow something like this to happen?

First of all, Satan wanted to be God. And then he's showing that he can be. I mean, he's the personification of evil, and God's the personification of good. So if evil ever become good, it's impossible. And he's proving this through, like Paul said, everything that's being lived out here is for the angel's purposes and things like that. So again, he's just demonstrating what evil truly is. Do you think that people ought to be allowed to do whatever they want? Do you think that what people want to do ought to be their guide? If you're a new age, yeah. You see, that's a philosophy that has in varying degrees been sold to people.

I feel like doing it. My feelings were so intense that this is what I did. Ultimately, the Lord is saying, this is what it looks like. When you have angelic beings who are not subject to the Lord, and when you have human beings who are not subject to the Lord, do what they want. Everybody gets to do what they want, right?

And so, what does that look like? It looks pretty ugly. It starts looking pretty ugly. I think one of the key things as you start seeing this, this is painting the picture of power and control during this last half of the tribulation period. And one of the key things I think for us to start looking at is this is there not just so that we get a a crystal ball into the future, but also for us to get a realization, even in our own era, our hope is in the Lord. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Ultimately, people have various political opinions. I have political opinions. But no politics of this planet is going to be any kind of a substitute for the Lord calling the shots. There is no ultimate hope in any political system, candidate, party, anything like that reigning supreme.

Our hope genuinely is in the Lord. And here's something else. All political systems will be subject to this guy. So no matter who gets in at some particular time, and people will cheer and others will boo, no matter who gets in, in the ultimate, this guy ends up having his period of time on the earth. Our hope must be in the Lord. And does that mean that we give up on things here? No, that's not what it means. But it means that if things turn out in a way, we look at it and say, well, that isn't what I want. The right guy didn't get in. or the gal or whatever, you know. Ultimately, my hope isn't in that. Ultimately, my hope is in the Lord. Ultimately, regardless of what happens here on planet Earth, my citizenship is in heaven. And that's an exceedingly important thing for Christians to keep in mind.

No election here in the United States, no vote of Congress is any ultimate kind of issue for us. Oh yeah, we may have our opinions, and we may wish this or that, and it may even be worth letting our voice be known, sometimes with great vigor. But make no mistake, the Lord Himself will be the one who will rule this earth with perfection. and only the Lord. And so at times like this, passages like this help bring that into perspective.

We have a heavenly citizenship. And that's a marvelous hope. That's a marvelous hope. Believe it or not, that's it. We've got a short passage here. in a short number of pages. Thoughts, questions, ramblings? Yes? The 144,000? Yes. During this time, are they like together in a group?

We are going to be looking at them the very next chapter, Chapter 14, and get more detail. What's interesting is 144,000 were given exactly what tribe they're from. We are given the number of each tribe. Each tribe is named. In summary, they're given the figure 144,000.

We're told that they are virgin Jewish males. So we're given some very specific, you might almost say peculiar things. But we're going to revisit those here in chapter 14. It's interesting, the chapters they show up in are 7 and 14. So those guys are going to show up and we'll take a look at what goes on.

Basically, as we mentioned, they are one of the three testimonies that the Lord has that are specifically noted as public testimony. that the Lord has during the tribulation period. 144,000 who are Jewish from these tribes of specific number and the various things that bother other people, they just go marching on and continue to testify. The two witnesses who have a voice in the first half up to the middle.

No, they are Jehovah's Witnesses, but they're the real ones, not the ones who come to your door. I tell people sometimes to shock and surprise that I am a Latter-day Saint, I'm a Jehovah's Witness, and a Christian scientist. So anyway, that'll confuse people. Instead of the watchtower, it's the watchmen.

But there will be those voices, the 144,000, the two witnesses and the gospel angel. And it's interesting. The 144,000 will be a group that's just like, oh, I wish I could get these guys to shut up. And the two witnesses, it's like, Everybody's irritated with them, even to the point where they get killed, everybody gives everybody else presents. It's like Christmas time.

And finally they get killed and then they resurrect and rise to heaven in front of everybody. And they go, oh, finally we got rid of those guys. And then besides that, the false prophet can make fire come out of the sky just like those guys did. It's like not only a relief we got rid of them, but we got somebody else who can do the same thing and give us a show.

And then the Gospel Angels, I don't know, you can imagine them. They fire missiles at it or do whatever they try to do. It doesn't matter what they do, it's still there. Still spreading the Gospel during this period of time. Whereas the two witnesses have voiced during the first half, the gospel angel and the 144,000 from any evidence that we have, have the whole period of time to spread the gospel from earth as human beings or from up in the atmosphere for the gospel angel.

Other thoughts, questions, comments? really noisy places. Yes, this will not be a peaceful place. I mean, if you want to get a good night's sleep, you'll have to go some other planet, you know. This would be some raucous, crazy time, you know. The noise of 100 pound hail stones on the roof are just a little loud to sleep with, you know. This is going to be one wild time, no doubt about it. Yeah, you know, insomnia for seven years. That's going to be a little rough. Okay, we've run out of time.

Let's pray. Lord, we do thank You as we look at Your Word, as we behold You, As we look from these, what are by themselves, dismal verses, we thank you that our hope is not in what we read there exclusively, but in you, and though you have given us insight into what will take place, perhaps even very soon. You've also given us insight into where our hope lies forever and for eternity. Thank you for the blessed hope that we have and not just a three and a half year hope that is ultimately hopeless. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.