Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #14 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading Revelation 13:10:

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

This verse is unusual in the context in which we have been reading.  It stands out.  God has been getting into details about the “beast” and now, seemingly out of nowhere, God says, “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”  What does this mean?  We are helped, of course, when we turn to other places in the Bible and we see information that matches and agrees with it.  For instance, it says in Jeremiah 20:4:

For thus saith JEHOVAH, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

Here, we see the “captivity” and the “sword,” just as in our verse, where it said, “leading into captivity” and “killing with the sword.”   Here, God says He will give up all Judah and the king of Babylon will carry them captive into Babylon and slay them with the sword.  The king of Babylon is used in the Bible as a type of Satan, especially as Satan is loosed at the end of the world at the time when God judged the churches and congregations.  Judgment began at the house of God at the same time Satan was loosed and it was also the beginning of the Great Tribulation.  This means, if we are correct, that “he that leadeth into captivity” is a reference to Satan and “he that killeth with the sword” is also a reference to Satan, just as the king of Babylon took all of Judah into captivity and slew them with the sword.  He is a picture of Satan and now that helps us to understand why God is saying this at this point, in Revelation 13:10, because He had just been talking in the previous verses about the loosing of Satan as he came up out of the sea.  He came against the camp of the saints, as we read back in Revelation 13:7: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.”  That is who Judah represents – the New Testament church – and that is where the saints were located throughout the church age period.  So that helps us when the Lord says, “He that leadeth into captivity (Satan) shall go into captivity.” 

We would have to understand that Satan and his emissaries (his forces) come as “ministers of righteousness,” and they are unsaved, but they have infiltrated the New Testament churches and risen to positions of power and authority.  Through them, Satan exercises his power and authority over the doctrines of the churches and the direction the churches are headed.  So those that “lead into captivity” will, themselves, go into captivity and those that “kill with the sword” will be killed with the sword.  It is a principal that God is establishing and, in a sense, He is encouraging His people.  He is speaking to His elect, because at the end of the verse He adds, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”  We will discuss that later, but He is letting us know that there will be a time that the churches are overcome and those in the congregations are spiritually killed, which the sword represents. 

Let us look at some other verses in the New Testament.  It says in Luke 21:22-24:

For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Here, again, it is the context of the judgment on the churches, as Christ is answering the disciples’ question in the parallel chapter in Matthew 24: “What shall be the sign of they coming, and of the end of the world?”  So Jesus is speaking of the judgment on the churches, which is a characteristic of the Great Tribulation and He likens it to: 1) falling by the edge of the sword; and  2) being led away captive into all nations.  Jerusalem is a figure of the corporate church, according to Galatians, which says there is “Jerusalem above,” which is the eternal church and there is “Jerusalem which now is,” which is the earthly corporate church that has physical buildings and people in membership.  So Jerusalem, the corporate body, is “trodden down of the Gentiles” (or the nations, because the words “Gentiles” and “nations” are synonymous “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” and that reminds us of Revelation 11:2:

But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

The “holy city,” in this instance, is a reference to the churches.  All the language fits together and agrees so we can know exactly what it means – it is speaking of the end time judgment on the churches and God calls it, as He did in Jeremiah.  But maybe some people have difficulty with understanding the historical parable, which the judgment on Judah typifies, as well as the going forth into captivity.  God makes it a little plainer in Luke 21, using the same type of language and the same pictures: falling by the edge of the sword and being led away captive into all nations.  That also helps us to understand that Babylon is representative of all nations; it is the kingdom of Satan and Satan was given all the kingdoms of the earth – all the nations.  They all became in subjection to him.  He had won that right by conquest in the Garden of Eden.  That is what the Lord is referring to in our verse in Revelation 13:10: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.” 

By the way the word “He” is this verse is the Greek word for “if any,” so it says, “If any leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.”  It is repeated in the next phrase, “If any killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”  Those that identify with Satan (the beast) and his kingdom of darkness will have a period in which they are victorious.  They will triumph and take captive the churches and all the unsaved within them.  They will kill them with the sword – those in the churches that think they are there for blessing will die; they will believe the lies and the strong delusion that is told them: “Yes, God is here.  Do not listen to the idea about the end of the church age and, certainly, you do not want to leave because the blessing is here.  This is where God has commanded us to meet.  This is where you partake of the Lord’s Table and where you can have your children baptized.  This is the place that God has ordained.”  Yet, in keeping these people captive within the churches, they are killing them and destroying them through deceit.

The word “lead” or “leadeth” that is used in Revelation 13:10, where it says, “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity,” is only translated here, as far as I could tell, as “leadeth.”  It is normally translated as “gather together.”  It is the same word that is in Revelation 20:7:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

(And, again, we are reading a commentary on that in Revelation 13.  The entire chapter is telling is what happens once Satan is loosed and the beast comes up out of the sea.)

Then it says in Revelation 20:8:

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

The English words translated as “gather together” are from the same Greek word that is translated as “leadeth” in our verse.   He is gathering them to battle and this has much to do with Satan overcoming the churches and gathering the churches together.  He is “Gog” and they become “Magog,” and they do battle with God and His people in the Day of Judgment.  Of course, they lost that battle, but this is what God is saying here.  If any gathers together into captivity, they will go into captivity and if any kill with the sword, they must be killed with the sword.  They have done this to the people of God, although in most cases it was just people that professed Christ and, yet, they had the name of God; the church was God’s institution for almost two millenniums.  The church was where the Bible could be found. 

So Satan did this to the churches, but it was all by the purpose and design of God; that is why the Lord loosed him as a destroying instrument to bring desolation on the congregations of the world.  Yet, God turned around at the completion of that judgment upon the churches, which was exactly 23 years to the very day, and then God judged Satan and his forces.  In speaking of Babylon, we need to remember that it says in Revelation 18:6:

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

This means that she took you into captivity – you take her into captivity.  She killed you with the sword – you kill her with the sword.  Kill “Babylon,” and bring the sword upon her.  We read this in our study of Jeremiah 50, recently.  I want to turn there because it has a strong emphasis on bringing the sword upon Babylon, which is the kingdom of Satan.  It says in Jeremiah 50:35-37:

A sword is on the Chaldeans, saith JEHOVAH, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed. A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.

Ten times a “sword is upon” this or that of Babylon, pointing to the completeness of the wrath of God or the complete judgment upon Babylon, the unsaved inhabitants of the world.  They are said to be in Babylon because their king is Satan who is likened unto the king of Babylon.  Jeremiah, chapter 50, as well as chapter 51, describes the day of the Lord, the day of God’s wrath, which we entered into on May 21, 2011.  Judgment Day is a day when the sword is upon Babylon.  Yet, earlier, Babylon had her sword upon the people of God, in the churches where the saints were located.  As Babylon destroyed the churches under the rule of Satan, so, too, God destroys Babylon.  That is why the Lord is encouraging His people as He addresses them in Revelation 13:10.  He is saying, “They that are presently leading into captivity will themselves go into captivity and they that are killing with the sword, likewise, will be killed with the sword.”  Then He says, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”   You have to wait.  You have to endure hardship and tribulation and not only tribulation, but great tribulation.  It is the time of the end and the final days that the Bible has so often discussed have arrived.  God is saying, “And you, my people, will have need of patience.”  Why is there a need for patience?  Remember what we read in Luke 21, the parallel chapter to Matthew 24, when Jesus answers the question: “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  In the middle of answering their question, Christ says, in Luke 21:19:

In your patience possess ye your souls.

Then the next verse speaks of Jerusalem and it says in Luke 21:20:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

When you “see” it and that is not with our physical eyes, but with “eyes” of understanding and with “ears” that hear and we understand God’s Word, by His grace, as He opens up our eyes to see these things.  Then we will have a need of patience: “In your patience possess ye your souls.”  Of course, patience points to Christ.  In Christ is really where our souls are “possessed,” or kept, and no one can lose that “patience.”  But there is an outworking of that patience in our lives.  Yes, Christ is “patience” and He is also “faith,” and, yet, we through the Spirit have faith.  Christ is “love” and, yet, we through the Spirit may learn love and show love.  He is “patience” and we through the Spirit may develop patience in our lives and learn to wait upon the Lord to do the things He has said He will do.

The time of the Great Tribulation was a time when patience necessarily had to be exercised.  God’s people needed patience.  The churches had been around for 1,955 years and Christ had been in the midst of that organization.  The churches were where the people of God would go to find comfort, strength and encouragement in their Christian walk.  It was where they could find others of like mind and now God was about to make a dramatic change and a drastic shift in that program.  He ended the church age and brought judgment on the churches and congregations.  The churches were no longer feeding the people of God.  They were no longer nourishing God’s sheep and no longer taking care of them, but they were feeding themselves of them.  More and more, the teachings within the churches became apostate and grieved the child of God, who began to go from to church to church: “Is this a (faithful) place I can come with my family?”  Then he might stay for a little while and something else (unfaithful) would arise and he could not find a “place.”  He did not understand what was happening because it was not God’s plan early on in the Great Tribulation to reveal all the information concerning what He had done against the churches. 

Eventually God did open up His Word to show what He had done – He had left and abandoned the churches and turned them over to Satan.  Then the child of God must get out and flee to the mountains and depart out of the midst of the congregations.  In all of this, there was a great need of patience.  In many cases, God’s people were on their own; they had no pastor to help them, no elders or deacons to help them and they had no congregation for fellowship.  In His command to flee to the mountains, God was focusing His people’s eyes on the Word of God, the Bible.  Of course, God also arranged for there to be a faithful ministry (outside the churches) at that time, Family Radio.  The Lord raised it up and God also raised up the electronic medium so the people of the Lord could be reached outside of the churches and congregations.  It was also so that great multitude that God later intended to save could be found, primarily through this electronic medium. 

Then there was the true believer who, in times past, would have been in his local church and others would be there and he could talk to the pastor and it was a good place to fellowship, if it was a faithful church.  When Christ was in the churches they could be faithful to some degree and it was where God wanted His people to congregate.  It was a place to bring the family and the children could meet other children there and, hopefully, grow in the fear and nurture of the Lord.  But now, men and women and their families were on their own and it all required tremendous patience.  God says in James 1:2:

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

The word “temptations” can also be translated as “testings.”   This was a trial.  It was a great trial and “great tribulation.”  There was a trial of faith in trusting the Bible and the things that were coming forth from the Bible.  It had never been known before that the church age would end and you could not gather together in a local church.  But now this information was coming from the Bible.  Would you trust it?  Would you believe it?  Would you take action upon it and come out of the churches?  God’s people did and that began the trial.  There was a trial of believing the Word and then there was a trial of living outside of the churches.  This was also a very trying experience for the people of God.