Brothers,
Men’s Bible Study is back once again this week, March 3rd at 7:00pm in the Grace Chapel Geneva House – on the discussion docket for the evening we have Revelation chapter 13.
Last week we looked at chapters 11-12 and discussed the two witnesses, their proclamation of truth to an unbelieving and scorning world who end up killing them for their testimonies. However the Lord raises them from the dead and into heaven amidst a great earthquake. We did note a contrast with previous calamities, in those the peoples’ hearts were hardened, after the witnesses were raised up and the earthquake came, those remaining were terrified and gave glory to God.
The seventh trumpet once again ushers in Christ’s final return and reign on earth. The elders bust out a sweet song glorifying God’s righteous judgment and realignment of a crooked world.
We begin another set of stories, this time more akin to a telling of Lord of the Rings – we get the great dragon (or serpent if you prefer) waring against the seed of the woman (see Genesis ch3). A massive heavenly battle in which the dragon is defeated and “the salvation and the power and kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down”; the dragon is cast to earth and is a bit angry to say the least and sets of to make war even though he knows he’s ultimately already been defeated (think of Ben Loos’s wounded bear in an alley analogy).
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This week some questions as we consider the two beasts which the dragon calls out of the sea and the earth:
The first beast is a crazy conglomeration of beasts with wacky horns and crowns, a real ugly and powerful beast who can at best imitate the power of Christ. As always, Vern has a great bullet point list with some of the imitations:
http://www.frame-poythress.org/Poythress_books/Returning_King/BRvCom12.htm (almost halfway down the page)
What do you think is the point of all these imitations? What do the actions of the beast and its followers tell us about the beast’s goals and desires for the earth?
Verse 8 contains a very reassuring and powerful passage granting confidence to believers – stating that all will worship the beast except those whose names have been written in the book of life since before the foundation of the world – how can this be a reassurance for us?
The second beast is an imitation of the Holy Spirit completing the mock trinity (dragon, beast, prophet/beast 2). What is the significance of a mark? In what ways are Christians marked?
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See you all Wednesday.
