Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #28 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading Revelation 13:15-16:

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

I will stop reading there.  We were discussing the time of the Great Tribulation, the time of Satan’s loosing, when the churches took on the “image” of Satan.  God calls this the “image of the beast,” and we were looking at the beginning of Revelation 13:15 in our last study, where it says, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast.”  We saw that the Greek word translated as “life” should really have been translated as “spirit.”  In the many times it is used in the New Testament, it was only translated here as “life,” so it should be translated as “spirit.”  It is the same Greek word that is translated as “spirit” in reference to the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.

So, it is saying that Satan had the “power to give spirit unto the image of the beast,” and, no wonder, because the Bible speaks of “another spirit” in 2Corinthians 11:4:

For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

All of these terms are synonyms for “another gospel” when it is taught.  When we teach faithfully and truly (and the things we say are supported by the Bible in its entirety), then that is “preaching Jesus,” or that is “preaching the spirit of God,” or that is “preaching the true Gospel.”  But if we distort, pervert and twist the Bible…and, of course, this is done all the time in our day and we could spend a long time talking about the many gospel variations that people can come up; mankind is amazing (in a perverted way) in his ability to develop error and to develop wrong understanding.  It is incredible when we look at the professed “Christian world” in the churches and in the many ministries outside of the churches and how many doctrinal errors there are on just about every point. 

God teaches one Truth, one Lord, one Bible, and one Gospel and, yet, you can take any Scripture you choose (whether it concerns the Sunday Sabbath, marriage and divorce, women’s role in teaching) and you will find dozens and dozens of other teachings on that verse that are mistaken, that are wrong and that are false.  You will see that all kinds of churches that support it and all kinds of Christian ministries that support it and all kinds of “spirits,” as 2Corinthians 11 calls it; it is “another spirit” and not the Spirit of God. 

Well, this is the world we live in and we have been living in it for some time now, all during the Great Tribulation and into the Day of Judgment.  We are accustomed to the ‘sea of deceit’ and the ‘ocean of wickedness’ in spiritual matters.  We are aware of the enormous quantity of false teachings, false gospels, false Christs and false spirits that are out there.  Why is that?  It has always been the case that there has been error and falsehood, but especially at the time of the end, it was God’s plan to loose Satan and give him free reign, to a large degree, in the world and, especially, in the churches in order to destroy them – to destroy the “image of God” which they once reflected and to make the churches after the “image of the beast.”  That is why there are such incredible “lies” everywhere in Christendom and in the professed Christian world of the churches and in other ministries.  It is just everywhere because the churches have been patterned after the “image of the beast.”

Remember, he had power to give spirit to the image of the beast – not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of Satan.  It says in Ephesians 2:2:

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

The evil spirit, the prince of the power of the air, is Satan.  He is a spirit being and he gives the “spirit” to the image – it is the spirit of error, the spirit of perversion and the spirit lies.  This is a big reason that God commanded us (not suggested, but commanded), in 1John 4:1:

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God…

Now, again, remember that “spirit” is a synonym for Christ and “spirit” is a synonym for “Gospel.”  So, God is saying, “Beloved, believe not every gospel, believe not every Word or every teaching.  And the phrase, “believe not,” does not mean that you simply dismiss it and refuse to listen, but God explains that we are to “check it out,” and we “try the spirits whether they are of God.”  Is this teaching the spirit of Christ?  Is this preaching truth?  Is it the faithful Word of God?  The only way to determine that is to “check it out,” and we do that by opening our Bibles and searching it out.  We take the verse they are referring to and we compare the Scriptures with other Scriptures in other places; we pray for wisdom and we ask God’s guidance: “Oh, Lord, help us and lead us into truth.”  However, we are living at a time when God says, in Matthew 24:22-23:

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

And, again, this is the same language in 1John 4, and it means to check it out and “try the spirits.”

Then it says in Matthew 24:24:

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

“If it were possible,” but it is not possible for a child of God to be deceived by these lies of Satan.  Oh, yes, we can be wrong on a doctrine and make a mistake for a time, but God is carefully watching over us.  He is our protection.  He is our shield.  He is our safety.  For instance, God is the one that protected His people during the time leading up to May 21, 2011.  If any were in a church, it was absolutely necessary for them to get out.  Who can say if all the elect got out?  Maybe one, or two or a handful stayed?  No – that is not possible.  God would make sure of that and it is not possible for Satan to deceive the elect.  He can come close, as he is the master impostor and he mixes lies with truth to make his gospel, his spirit and his Christ seem like the genuine article.  He comes as an angel of light, but it is not possible for him to deceive the elect because the Lord causes His people to hear His voice and they will not hear the voice of a stranger; they will not follow a stranger’s voice, but they follow the voice of Christ, the true Word, which is the Lord speaking.  When Christ speaks, He speaks the truth and that is the characteristic of the voice of Christ.  When Satan speaks, it is the voice of a stranger and he speaks a lie and that is characteristic of him.  God has opened up the ears of His people to be sensitive to the truth and to discern the truth.  Again, remember what it says in Ecclesiastes 8:5:

… and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

God is the one that makes sure of that.  He gives the “wise,” His elect, the ability to hear.  For example: “Yes, it is the time of the end of the church age and it is time for me to get out, therefore;” it is time for Judgment Day and I need to go to the Lord and beseech Him for mercy before that day of May 21, 2011 comes.”  God gives His elect that leading, but He does not for those that are not elect.

The non-elect hear the churches, which are after the “image of the beast,” and they hear them say, with one voice, “No man knows the day or the hour.”  It was amazing and incredible how consistent and how unified the corporate church was, as they spoke with one voice.  I cannot remember even one dissenting voice on this topic when the news media would go to the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Catholics or the seminary “authorities” on the subject of knowing the time of the end.  They would quote, with the same voice: “No man knows the day or hour.”  I have said this before and I mean it with all my heart: that, in itself, ought to give people pause concerning that doctrine.  The end time churches are not the church of our fathers or the church of the Reformers, but it is the “church of the falling away.”  It is the apostate church, the churches patterned and fashioned after the image of the beast and they are wrong about just about every point of doctrine you can come up with: it is wrong on salvation; it is wrong on baptism; it is wrong on point, after point, after point.  

If these churches that “cannot find the truth” because the light of the Gospel has been put out within it; if these churches that have been given over to blindness; if these churches that believe a lie because they have not the love of the truth; if these churches say, with one voice, “No man knows the day or the hour,” then I would say that this is strong evidence they are wrong, because they do not speak in unison about any doctrine; they do not speak the truth on practically any point.  Maybe that is saying too much, as there may be some churches out there that may conform to some Reformed doctrine and they could have some doctrines right to some degree, but even though the Reformed churches believes in election, they still encourage people to exercise “faith” (to become saved). 

I remember something I was taught in a seminary that would have said they were believers in the doctrine of election: “You believe like a Calvinist, but you preach like an Armenian.”  And that is the confusion that is out there in the church world.  That is how they understand it.  They really do not understand the “faith OF Christ,” as far as salvation goes; that is something God opened up at the time of the end and very few churches understand that point of truth that the Bible presents.  Okay, I do not have to say the churches are wrong on everything, but, of course, it does not matter because the Spirit of God has left them, so there is not profiting them.  But it is certainly true that the churches, in general, are blind on practically every point of Biblical truth.  It is sort of a confirmation to me that they can be all in agreement that “No man knows the day or the hour,” but my point of view is: “Why would Satan want to put forth that doctrine through his emissaries?”  Remember, they come as “ministers of righteousness,” and the churches are filled with emissaries of Satan that come looking like ministers of the true Gospel.  But we know that in the time we are living, God has ended the church age and all that remain there are tares, so it was the tares that were teaching, “No man knows the day or the hour.”  (I suppose I have emphasized that enough.)

But, again, God tells us, here in 1John 4:1-3:

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Then it says in 1John 4:6:

We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

The word “error” is the word translated as “delusion” in 2Thessalonians 2:11.  It is the spirit of “delusion.”  There is a spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  Christ, of course, is the Spirit of Truth and Satan is the spirit of error and that is the “spirit” that is in view in Revelation 13:15:

And he had power to give life (spirit) unto the image of the beast,

What a sorrowful thing it is that we live in this day, in many ways, and that this is the spiritual condition of all churches all over the earth.  It is sorrowful, but it is also it is necessary that these things happen.  These things had to happen at some point in time before the end of the world.  God wrote about the loosing of Satan, the image made to the beast and the Great Tribulation period and judgment on the churches.  He wrote about Judgment Day on the unsaved people of the earth.  These things had to take place before all Scripture could be fulfilled and before God’s people are taken out of this world and into the new heaven and new earth.

I know when I read Revelation 13 (and I am sure it is true for many of you), I absolutely know what is being said.  We can visualize this through all the things that are being taught in the churches today: the tongues, the falling over backwards, the holy laughter, and so forth.  They are churches that are made over into the “image of the beast,” Satan.