Read Revelation 13 at Bible Gateway.
Revelation 13, The beast from the sea
Revelation 13, The beast from the land
Revelation 13, The beast from the land, part two
Revelation 13, The beast from the land, part three
Revelation 13, The beast from the land, part four
“He [the beast from the land] performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.” Rev 13:13-14
It is well- known that within the Roman church, “miracles” have often taken place: appearances of Mary, stigmata, miraculous cures, and the like. A recent example which has been officially sanctioned by the Roman church, is the Zeitun Church apparitions of Mary, which took place in Zeitun, Egypt, in 1968, witnessed by thousands over the course of three years, accompanied by miraculous healings.
This is only one example in a long list. Such a record does not exist with any other organized religion. When we consider that the result of these miracles is that people remain firm in their faith that the holder of the office of the papacy is in fact the Vicar of Christ on the earth, then we see the prophecy in Revelation fulfilled:
“And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.” Rev 13:14
What about the fire from heaven? In order to understand this aspect, we should go back and look at Rev 11:5, where it is said of the two witnesses that fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. What is this fire?
I do not believe it is literal fire, like we think of when we think of fire- breathing dragons, for example. When a town in Samaria did not receive Jesus, and the disciples suggested that they call fire down from heaven to devour the town, Jesus rebuked them, saying, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.” The implication is that neither this desire nor this power at this point in history was of the Holy Spirit. Why? Jesus Himself explains it in the same passage: “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them,” (Luk 9:56). Since the advent of Jesus and the completion of His work on the cross, God has been extending grace toward men, not wrath! The door to heaven is standing open! Jesus came, not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him! He and His witnesses did not use literal fire to devour their enemies.
(The symbolic fire which proceeds out of the mouths of the two witnesses in Rev 11, I believe, is this: the Lord’s witnesses were baptized with fire, i.e., with the Holy Spirit and with power; and when words inspired by the Holy Spirit, by that holy fire, proceed from their mouths, their enemies were devoured, in this way: citizens of earth had their eyes opened to the truth of the gospel, they died to their earthly citizenship and were raised in new life to their heavenly citizenship. They were no longer enemies, but brethren, and this was accomplished by the fire, the spoken witness under the unction of the Holy Spirit, which proceeded from the mouth of the witnesses.)
There is a time for the wrath of God, but it is not until the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. As we see with our own eyes every day in the newspaper headlines, that day has not yet come, nor has it been at any time during the past 2000 years, during the age of grace!
I believe that the fire from heaven spoken of here in Rev 13 is in the same vein: symbolic, not literal. In order to understand the symbolism, however, we do have to consider that the wrath of God is symbolized by fire from heaven in the Scriptures. Fire from heaven destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and Jesus’ disciples wished to call down fire from heaven, so that the wrath of God might consume His rejecters.
We saw that neither the Lamb nor His witnesses wield the wrath of God in order to destroy enemies while the door to heaven is standing open. However, the beast from the land has not hesitated to take up the terror of the wrath of God, and wield it for the solidification of his own power and the advancement of his own purposes, all in the name of Jesus. The beast from the land, who looks like Jesus but speaks the words of the Devil, is of the other spirit that wields wrath, that Jesus warned His disciples about, not the Holy Spirit. In no way has the office of the papacy more effectively exercised a usurped claim to the wrath of God than in the papal power of excommunication. It means little to us today, but in the days of the Holy Roman Empire (the image of the beast from the sea), the time period about which this chapter in Revelation is prophesying, excommunication resulted in the actual cursing of life in this world and (as everyone believed) the one to come:
“The prophecy found a striking fulfilment in the papal interdicts and excommunications so frequent in the Middle Ages, and not unknown in even our own day. These ebullitions of pontifical vengeance, it was pretended, were fire out of heaven: the fire of the wrath of God which the Pope had power to evoke, therewith to burn up his enemies. The blinded nations believed that in the voice of the Pope they heard the voice of God, and that the fulminations of the Vatican were the thunderings and lightnings of Divine wrath. A papal excommunication was more dreadful than the invasion of thousands of armed men. When launched against a kingdom what dismay, misery, and wailing overspread it. The whole course of life was instantly stopped. The lights were extinguished at the altar; the church doors were closed; the bells would not be tolled; marriages were celebrated in the graveyard; and the dead were buried in ditches. Men dared not make merry, for a sense of doom weighed upon their spirits. These terrible edicts pursued men into the other world, and souls arriving from the unhappy realm overhung by the papal curse found the gates of paradise shut, and had to wander forlorn till it should please the divinity of the Seven hills to lift off his sentence. Thus did the Papacy cause “fire” to come down from God out of heaven, and men, believing it to be real fire, were scorched by it.”
“To the mightiest sovereign even the papal excommunication was a dreadful affair. He shook and trembled on his throne for his army could give him no protection; it was well, indeed, if both soldiers and subjects did not unite in carrying out the papal behest by driving him from his kingdom, if some fanatic monk, by the more quick despatch of the dagger, did not save them the trouble. European history furnishes a list of more than sixty-four emperors and kings deposed by the Popes. In the number is Henry II. of England, deposed by Alexander III.; King John, by Innocent III.; Richard and Edward, by Boniface IX., Henry VIII., by Clement VII., and again by Paul III.; Elizabeth, by Pius V. … Almost all the bulls against crowned heads have contained clauses stripping them of their territories, and empowering their neighbour kings to invade and seize them; and influenced partly by a desire to serve the Pope, and partly by the greed of what was not their own, they have not been slow to act on the papal permission.”
“The Romanists themselves have chosen the very figure of the Apocalypse, “fire from heaven,” to designate the Papal excommunications and anathemas. Thus Gregory VII. spoke of the Emperor Henry IV. when excommunicated as “struck with thunder.” (Afflatum fulmino -Danburg, 587. ) To the same effect is the account of the excommunication of the Emperor Frederick by Pope Innocent at the first Council of Lyons. “These words of excommunication, uttered in the midst of the Council, struck the hearers with terror as might the flashing thunderbolts. When with candles lighted and flung down, the Lord Pope and his assistant prelates flashed their lightning- fire terribly against the Emperor Frederick, now no longer to be called emperor, his procurators and friends burst into a bitter wailing and struck the thigh or breast on that day of wrath, of calamity, and of woe! (& Harduin, vii. 401.)
— The Papacy is the Anti-Christ: A Demonstration by Rev. J. A. Wylie, LL.D., 1888; pages 33-35.
Revelation 13, Marked on the hand and forehead
Revelation 13, The name of the beast, and his number
Revelation 13, Buying and selling
Revelation 13, The conclusion
Return to revelation index of studies
Christine’s book The Revelation of Jesus Christ Revealed, based on these studies but greatly expanded, is now available from Nothing New Press. You may also be interested in reading the Book Extras and joining in on the Discussion.
As well, Revelation in Chiastic Structure is also available.
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