Do you know what it going on? Reality is greatly misunderstood. Evil increases, but revival work goes forth. The monster demands allegiance and requires a mark on the people. A remnant of God’s people shall be preserved. (Revelation 13)

 

Speaker: Thomas Schaller, Gary Groenewold
Date: 2026-10-11
Time: Sun 11 am
Sermon #13220

P. Gary Groenewold –

That answers the questions. Life is worth living just because he lives. When you go through a trial and then the refining process, it produces Christ in us, right? Christ in us, the hope of glory. Christ. It’s worth, life is worth living just because he lives. That explains our life. Beautiful. 

 

You saw on the screen Togo, right? Is the prayer, the prayer country of the week or the P. Augustine is the missionary of the week. And just think about Togo. It’s a miracle that we’re there, you know, the Palmieri’s initially went there many years ago. And so, we’re praying for that country in West Africa. Togo. Okay? It’s a privilege to be connected to them. That’s P. Augustine. 

 

It’s a French speaking country and they’re dear brothers to us, okay? And they have trials they go through and we’re praying for them. What we saw, we saw the request on the board there and they’re our brothers. Okay. Just Togo, P. Augustine. Keep him in your prayers. Let’s pray for him right now. (Prayer). 

 

Each month, you actually get a prayer calendar. Those are so valuable. I want you to treasure those. Think about those. These are people that are ministering Christ on different places around the world where we’re connected with. So, okay. 

 

I just want to give a quick report on the leadership retreat. It was in the Pocono Mountains. We’ve gone there several years and it was a special year this year. We had 110 people. What did we do? I counted up on Friday alone. We sat in our chairs. This is, was beautiful and we listened to the Word of God. We concentrated and it was so alive, so fresh. 

 

And we learned and we heard from so many different portions and we say different portions. I mean just the diversity of the portions is so beautiful and I actually, I realize the capacity that we have for the Word of God when it’s speaking to our soul. It is our life. 

 

For me to live is Christ, right? For me to live is Christ. And you’re hearing about your life and you’re given opportunities to grow as you’re sitting there. And so we did that Thursday night and we had a night on guarding your heart, keeping your heart with all diligence and then we on Friday, we had the messages and then Saturday we closed up yesterday and it was like from beginning to end, it was full. It wasn’t like, you know, you start here and you go it was just, it was like this. It just built the whole time. It was beautiful.

 

And then the other thing is you’re with friends. You’re with friends and people like you don’t know that well. One of the highlights for me, one of them was actually P. Liam around the campfire. We all sit around the campfire. The coals are there, a little flame and everybody’s in their flannel shirts. Do you know what I mean?

 

And the legs are kicked up. And P. Liam said this. He was, I don’t know why we were on this subject but he talked about Francis Schaeffer and in Francis Schaeffer’s ministry, he was starting like a Sunday school and the people that he used as he traveled around from church to church, he found older ladies in the back of the church. Not the ladies in the front but the ladies in the back of the church. And those are the people that he used to pray for the start of his ministry. 

 

And I just love that because he, maybe he used somebody who didn’t think they could be used and they were, you know. Think about that for ourselves and then they became part of that ministry. 

 

This is the power of prayer. That was one testimony. And then something that stood our in my mind was actually this was, this would be Friday night. P. Schaller spoke about identity, you know, like identity and he spoke about the continual rehearsing or reminding ourselves of our identity and this is the way that we actually grow, continually reminding ourselves of truth, continually counselling our souls about who we really are. 

 

And let’s look at this verse in Galatians chapter 1. Okay, this is Paul and this is vital in our lives and it because he had a history or he had a past just like all of us. We all have histories and past, you know. We grew up on a farm. We grew up in the city. We went to a big high school, a small high school. We played sports. We were the people that were in the art room. We did the singing. 

 

You know, we all had those different histories, you know, in our lives. We grew up in the mountains. We grew up in the plains. We grew up in the valley. You know, my mom and dad were together. My mom and dad weren’t together. You know, my father died at a certain time. And we all have that. 

 

And Paul had his history in his life just like all of us. Pause. Then something happened and it says here, “But when it please God, in vs. 15, “but when it pleased God. God’s work, God’s effectual work, God’s timing, God’s eternal plan, God’s eternity meeting time. That’s what happened here. 

 

And it says that he was separated from his mother’s womb. Maybe you’re separated from your religion. We see all the security that we can have in a religion. I remember meeting a young waitress in a restaurant in the state of Iowa and she told me, you know, I asked her about her life. And she told me about her drugs. She told me about children being born out of wedlock. She told me about alcoholic parents. 

 

And she told me about like her life, how it was all messed up. And what I told her is you don’t have to live in a soap opera. It’s like you don’t need that in your life. Don’t be addicted to the soap opera. That’s a natural life. There’s something more. 

 

You can be separated from that. People are addicted to this, think the only way to live to go from problem to problem, from adversity to adversity, from something good to something better to a setback. They think that, you know, the cycles of life, that’s all there is and Paul is saying that’s not what it’s, that’s not what it’s about. 

 

God intervenes in time in our lives and he meets us with his grace, the power of his grace, the love, the lovingkindness of God, the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s what we talk about. And he says, he separated me from all of that. And there’s a distance. He separates us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. There’s a separation when it comes to God.

 

And it says in Romans chapter 6 that we get buried. We’re baptize into his death. We go underneath the water. We’re baptized into his death. It’s over. All that stuff over here is done. It’s gone. It doesn’t exist anymore in the mind of God. 

 

And what happens? We agree with God when it pleased God. He separated me. He says, it says, it says here, He separated me from my mother’s womb. Can there be anything more natural than that? From everything that was in the past. Pause. Cut. Separated. And it means that separation means to another purpose. It means to another purpose. God separate. He doesn’t just cut it and leave me there. 

 

And we think, like, okay, now I got to find my way. I’ve been separated. No, he does it by his grace. He wants us to live in his grace. And he separates us unto an eternal purpose. And this is, this is what life is. It’s not just biological life. We think using our volition and choosing and I’m intellectual. I read a book or like I know more than other people or I do more than other people. That’s biological life. That’s not living. That’s not living in God’s thinking. 

 

God has given us a volition. It’s a part of our soul to choose something. And this is, this is how you could say we leave something and we go to something else. It’s when we, when we see I can leave the biological every, you know, that soap opera life. I can leave that and I can go to something zoe, something eternal. He separates me unto that. That’s what, that’s where God takes me. 

 

And so I use my mind just like the disciples did. Jesus Christ shows up and it says that they left their nets. Something natural and they followed him. Something supernatural. They had something else to do. They left those behind. And so this is, this is how we think in our life. 

 

And this is, this is what happened to Paul and this is what happens to us. And P. Bailey spoke a message, and I had this, this, just like thought as he was speaking it. Like it was like life is like a ramp. You ever walk up a mountain and you just keep walking and walking and walking? Then all of a sudden you look behind and you see how far you have gone. And that’s what it does when we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

 

When we’re shepherded by God, the Good Shepherd, and we follow him and he’s leading us and his gentleness, his mercy and goodness following us all of our days. And we’re going up. We’re going up this ramp. It’s so easy. This is the way life is supposed to be. 

 

I’m using my mind to choose something eternal. And we’re like, Wow, I have joy I’ve never had before. Why? Because this isn’t our life. We’re separated from that unto another purpose. And I’m choosing this. I’m choosing this. I’m choosing this. I’m choosing this. 

 

And all of a sudden, we look back and I was like, Wow! This is, this is what I wanted in life. This is what I was designed for. And so, we were learning that at the conference on Friday night. P. Schaller said the important part of like discipleship of people growing is this continual I think we referred to Psalm 1 about the meditation. Living this blessed life meditating on it day and night. Rehearsing. We continually rehearse what God has like my identity. I continually tell myself my mind is working and it tells me my position. 

 

Let’s just, let’s just look in one quick verse here. Let’s turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. Okay. This is who we are. 1 Peter chapter 2:9. This is who we are. This is, this is zoe life. it says we’re a chosen generation. It means, you know, World Cup, you know, all those flags and, you know, whatever. This means you are the best nation. The best nation. You’re a chosen, you’re chosen. You’re the best. There’s nothing better. 

 

It’s easy to make a decision when you’re choosing the very best. This is what the Body of Jesus Christ is. You’re choosing the best place to hide your life. So, we’re a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a king living in a completely different economy with a completely different government. 

 

It’s not about my mother’s womb. It’s about being separated by his grace. And then, and then it says, a holy nation. Okay. It’s people that have a pure, a holy nation a pure origin, a pure origin. I’m separated from that. 

 

Yeah, I know, I grew up in Islamabad, but I’m separated unto now. I’m a holy, a holy nation. It’s completely different. This is, this is what we’re a part of. And then it says a peculiar people. It’s a person that has value, incredible value and he’s purchased us out of that and he’s placed us into something else. This is who we are. 

 

And we see this great big separation because from my mother’s womb, it doesn’t exist anymore. I’m detached from that. That has no power over us. But this, by the power of God’s grace, is what we live in. And we rehearse that in our mind and that’s our identity. Okay. Amen. 

*****

Schaller – Okay. You may be seated. As you know, well, hey! First of all, good morning. Awesome to be together. Wow. I’m just thankful for the Body of Christ, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, and he is our teacher. And when we gather in his name, we drink the same Spirit.

 

1 Corinthians 12:13 says, we drink the same Spirit. In 1 John 2, we have an anointing that teaches us all things. And one of the things, we are sheep in the midst of wolves. We are sheep but we have a Good Shepherd and he cares for us and teaches us. 

 

But one of the things that we can see in life is that we don’t always understand what is going on. Let’s say that to each other. Do you know what is going on? Or I don’t think I know what is going on in life. Let’s do it just for fun. Uh no, cancel that! Forget about it. We’ll get to it in a minute. Let me explain here. 

 

Here’s a man living in the world and what he sees is the obvious. What he understands, his culture, education, experience, his five senses. But then when we read in the Bible, we know that there are, there are things that are beyond us. And we could call this super or we could say reality not always seen and understood. 

 

For example, many people do not believe in a hell and many do not believe in God and many do not believe that God speaks to us. But I want to encourage you this morning. You and I have something that the world doesn’t have. 

 

We have the Holy Spirit as our teacher and the Holy Spirit who wrote these words. So, when we read them and hear them and live by faith in them, the Lord shows us more. We see beyond the natural and we actually believe that in this world, there’s more going on than what you can actually see.

 

There are demons in the world. Jesus told us that there are miracles that happened from God. There is the sovereignty of God. There is what we could call super history. And that’s something that we don’t really see clearly behind an event. There is more than just what you can see. 

 

And even in my own life making decisions. Sometimes I don’t know. I make a decision but actually my decision may be in the perfect will of God. On the other hand, I may make decisions that are, that is outside of the perfect will of God. 

 

And so, when we look at the book of Revelation, we are actually coming to the place where we have a deeper understanding of the world that we live in. That there actually is the throne of God. There actually is the Messiah sitting at the right hand of God. There is actually the sending of the Holy Spirit into the world at Pentecost. And that the book of Acts was the acts of the apostles or it could be said the acts of the Holy Spirit that came into the world because Christ conquered death and sin, and he sent the Holy Spirit into the world so that we could know God in a personal way and have fellowship with God.

 

So, our dear brother, P. Scibelli, went, departed from this life and went to receive his reward which we believe was, is very rich. And I’m sure he can behold and look at us running the race. It says that in Hebrews 12:3 that we are running a race of faith, looking unto Jesus who we cannot see with these eyes. But we can see with our new heart, because with our new heart we can live by faith, make decisions based on what Christ said and build our life on what God has said to us and trust him. 

 

So, that’s very good but there is also the evil that is happening in the world. And I want to – we are studying the book of Revelation and we’re going to look at chapter 13 again. We have done it in the past, but we have to work on it a little, little more. And we did. We went into 14 last week, but now we’re going back to 13 and even maybe touch a little of 12 and say something about chapter 11 also, and but we are moving on. 

 

Now this is not chronological like chapter after chapter with a progression. It is a progression, but there are what called, what are called interludes, like another perspective. It’d be like a car accident happening our in the corner and there’s four people that are witnesses and there are maybe even somebody at home that said, I was in an argument with my husband who was upset and he caused the accident. Like I’d like to know what the woman said or what she has to say about her husband and what state of mind he was in or I want to see another perspective. 

 

And the more perspective we can see of what is happening during the Tribulation time, the better understanding we will have of what is actually happening. So, what did I say? Where you were to say to your neighbor? I lost track. Turn to your neighbor and say, Well, how about this? I hope this will be a good lesson today. You know, go ahead. Talk to your neighbor for 10 seconds. I hope this will be a good lesson. 

 

Now, in our history, we have the Rapture. We are, we teach Pre-Trib Rapture meaning we are taken out of the world before this period called the day of the Lord or the day of Jacob’s trouble. There’s a number of phrases for this period of difficulty that we’re looking at. We will not be here during that time. That’s what we believe and we have reason and we teach about it and so on. 

 

So, sometime after the church leaves, there will be a greater possibility for evil to make advancement. Evil will increase in the world. And sometime after our departure. The Antichrist makes a covenant. And this is the beginning of a 7-year period. This is a 7-year block of time, Daniels’ 70th week. When I say a phrase like that, I cannot take time and explain it all, but you’ll pick up the language and the terminology and study it on your own. It’s very interesting how the Bible is written. 

 

And you have to say, there’s no way this could be written by men. These pieces that fit together and pieces of Bible verses that explain things and they come together and you see a oneness in understanding in the mind of God. It’s beautiful. The Bible is like that. Like there’s not contradictions that become, produce confusion, but there’s harmonization of Bible verses that make it clear that this is actually the Word of God. 

 

So, we are going to look at this period of seven years. We have been studying it as a period of an increase of two things. An increase of evil and then also a worldwide revival. A work of God in the midst of an evil period. How do we know there’s a revival? 

 

Because God has set apart and sealed 144,000 select Jewish men who are bringing the Gospel. And it looks like they survive physically the whole period when great catastrophic trouble is happening atmospherically, climatically, politically, socially, religiously during this period. It never has been as bad as this period is saying, is describing. It’s a terrible time in history. 

 

But the 144,000 men that are preaching the Gospel are also bearing fruit. There are people coming to Christ. There is the Spirit of God because there needs to be at the end of the seven period a remnant. I’ll put down that word “remnant” of Jews because the Messiah, when he comes back, he must be received by Jews. 

 

He must be received by Jews. He was not received officially by the nation in Matthew 11, Matthew chapter 12. He was not received. He was rejected. But when he comes, that’s a precondition for his coming that he would be received by the Jewish nation. 

 

But the Jewish nation has made seven years before a covenant with the Antichrist. The Antichrist is, this is in Revelation 13, and I’ll tell, explain that in a minute. The Antichrist. They’re going to receive him as the Christ. This is not, this is not the remnant. This is according to Arnold Fruchtenbaum. He says 2/3 of the nation of Israel will accept the Antichrist as Messiah. 

 

Now, I don’t know how he gets that number, but I believe that it’s something like that. That the nation of Israel will say, We need help. We are surrounded by trouble. We need the Messiah. And this man will be the man. Very polished, capable, intelligent, multilingual, organizational, brilliant, and he’ll be empowered by the dragon, Satan in Revelation 12, who is eventually targeting the Jews to annihilate them. 

 

And this happens midway. Midway. He comes down with great wrath and he’s targeting the Jewish people who have given birth to the Messiah. Revelation 12. As soon as the Messiah is born from the woman who is Israel, the Messiah is caught up and the devil cannot get his hands on the Messiah. 

 

Actually, he did in the crucifixion, but he didn’t actually. That was God’s will to be the atonement for our sin. And the Messiah went up. Now, the Antichrist is in the world. Even now, he is in the world. There are many antichrists, 1 John 2:18-19. And there have been many antichrists in the world. 

 

But this one has not yet come on the scene identifiably. We do not know who he is. We don’t know his name. But we know his number, 666. We’ll look at that in a minute. So, what is he going to do? he’s going to deceive the nation the first part of the seven-year and then there will be a radical change happening halfway through. And the change goes like this.

 

There’s a 10 nation block. I’ll draw it like this. Ten nations. You can put down there like these are ten kings. I won’t do it specifically because of time. It’s not important. They’re just 10. Ten. Ten leaders. 

 

It’s a block of power, block of politics and economics. It’s a block of power. Just think of different parts of the world. There’s a Japanese economy, Chinese economy, Russian economy, European economy, Latin America economy, North American economy, European economy and so on. 

 

And the Antichrist is called the little horn. So, I’ll draw it over here. And he would like to have his – his game plan is ascendancy in power to control the world. He makes agreement with Israel. But then there is a change. 

 

There are seven, ten of them are not, they’re not all accepting him. But there are, there’s three of them die and actually he dies also, a mortal wound. It’s not clear and commentators may vary on it in some detail but it’s okay. I’m not, I’m not, this isn’t a Bible class, college classroom. This is just a Sunday morning sermon. 

 

I want to introduce you and provoke you in your thinking and teach you something. The Antichrist has a mortal wound, but then he survives. Also, three of the kings die. So, now there’s a block of seven and the Antichrist is now in that block and they end up letting him have power. 

 

When he gets power, he moves to be a singular power and he has a sidekick called the false, I mean the false prophet or the second beast. Or Arnold Fruchtenbaum uses the word “monster.” I like the word monster. The Antichrist is a monster. 

 

And the second one is also a monster, but he’s different. He is empowered by the dragon who is the devil. And both of them are energized by the devil. And then the false prophet is reinforcing the Antichrist power base, and he’s now succeeding in having worldwide dominion. 

 

The move is happening halfway through the Tribulation period. It’s when he makes his move to be the king or the leader of the whole world and he succeeds because the dragon is given him power to do so. Evil is happening and the world is uniting under a monster and he has a plan. And his plan is to annihilate the Jewish nation, the Jewish people, and his plan is to take dominion over the whole population of the world and to control everything. 

 

Guys, this is the work of the devil. We have seen similar things in regional conflicts where an evil man takes power over a territory and a whole population. It’s happened through our history whether it’s Stalin or Hitler or Ma Zedong or, you know, some other little guy. But he has power over the country and the people are submitted to him or he will kill them or put them in prison. But this will be worldwide.

 

This is super history. This is the picture behind the picture. And it’s interesting to study it because it smacks so much of the fallen nature of man. Who would be part of evil to do this? Because man’s heart has this capacity to be evil like this because of his lust for power, lust for money, recognition and so on which we all kind of are representing in our small world. We are like this, also. 

 

But because of Christ, he changed us not to be evil, but to be hold and to be humble and to be like sheep. But this world that we are talking about is a world of wolves. A murderous, ambitious, careless – I mean care, care, loveless people and world structure of government. So, this is what, there’s some, a little more detail about it.

 

Look up at the screen, please. When he is restored to life, the Antichrist, this false prophet, he makes an image of him and the image actually becomes alive or it looks like it comes alive. That image of the Antichrist is the idolatry of the world. And he, that image is what people are forced to worship. They are forced to worship the image of the Antichrist. 

 

And then they have a mark, a mark on your body, on your forehead or on your forehead. Your hand. The mark of the best which means you are, have pledged allegiance to the worship of the image. 

 

Now, when Jesus talked about this image he called it an abomination and here we have this halfway mark when this is happening. What is happening in the halfway mark? He sets up in the holy place the image to worship. It’s called an abomination of desolation and will stay there 1, 290 days. It says in the Book of Daniel Jesus comes back 1,260 days after the midway period of the Tribulation.

 

It’s interesting. Jesus will return and the image of abomination continues to be in its place for 30 more days. And nobody that I have read knows why that is. But I could see Jesus saying, Let it be there for 30 more days. I am here. I am not in any – it’s no contest to me. And that image is actually a memorial of something evil that happened in the world. The worship of that image. 

 

So, I know this is a lot of material to digest but again, I want you to be provoked in it and to study it on your own. I want to say something about this. This Antichrist or monster and what’s in his mind or what is happening. 

 

#1. You have politics. #2. You have economics and #3. You have religion. If you think about it, these three things are really powerful tools in the hands of leadership. Leadership with politics, leadership with economics, and leadership with religion. 

 

And there will be false religion that’s going to be used by the monster, the Antichrist, who wants control over the world. And religion is one of his tools and it’s called Babylon. Babylon is the name of a city that is to be built in Iraq area. Babylon. And the first Babylon that we read about is in Genesis 11. 

 

In Babylon, they built a tower to reach up to heaven. And it was an abomination. It was idolatry. And it was the worship of false god or gods, the false gods that are in the world. Babylon the great is called the mother of harlots. Babylon, the mystery, the mystery religion. The mother of harlots. 

 

Why does it say harlot? Because harlotry or whoredom or prostitution is a religious terminology for substituting the real God in your life. Instead of the real God, I have other gods, but they aren’t, they aren’t the ones – I’m not married to them. They come and go. 

 

But when you have God, you are married to God, the living God, the true God. That’s what you want in your life. That’s what Christ came and gave to you, himself, the reality of the true God. That’s the thing that marks us from religion. 

 

Because mystery, the mystery religion, the substitute for the real God is idolatry. And that’s why being born again is so great, because when you are born again, you worship the living God, the true God, the real God. You love God. God. And there is no substitute for him.

 

But without God, you are drawn to gods. What are they? Pleasure, self-importance, money, power. You’re drawn to lust, women, men, people, things. You are drawn to your career, your family, your livelihood, your – these are idols. They replace God. You can find it in your heart. I replace God with these things. 

 

But when you have the Holy Spirit in your life, and you are filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s very important in your life. 

 

How do you get, how do you have the filling of the Spirit? You are sealed with the Spirit. You have the Spirit in your life, but now I need the power of the Spirit of God in my life. I need to be filled with the Spirit. And the teaching is I am not always filled with the Holy Spirit because I am a sinner. 

 

When I sin, I grieve the Spirit. I am not filled, I grieve the Spirit. So, I come to God with a humble heart. I say to God, I have sinned. Please forgive me. This is private between me and God in prayer in an attitude of faith. And he is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness and have fellowship with God in a personal way. That’s amazing. Beautiful. 

 

So, in this period of the Tribulation, this period of tribulation, you have the monster using religion, but he gets rid of her halfway through the Tribulation. He gets rid of the harlot. Why does he get rid of her? Because he got to the place of power and he doesn’t need her. So, he replaces here with himself.

 

Before that, you can be a Muslim, a Jew, an atheist, a Christian, whatever you want to be. Buddhist, Hindu, whatever religion you want, you can have. But then he comes to, he gets to this place where he’s saying, no. Everybody is to worship me. And in that meaning is Satan. Behind me is the dragon and I want you to worship me. 

 

It’s moving from religion in that, in that big sense of a co-mingling and a whole compilation of gods to me. And you must have the mark of the monster on your hand or on your forehead. It’s required and you worship me, the image of me. 

 

But as you worship the image of me, you’re actually worshipping me. You’re actually worshipping the devil. That’s where it’s going. And he uses – how does he get to this place of power? The politics, the economics, the buying and selling cannot happen unless you have the mark of the beast on your forehead or on your forehead. 

 

And he uses economics, politics and religion to get there. Now once he’s there, he is filled with anger to destroy the Jewish people because they are actually now that there are those that have survived and there are those that are recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, and there are those that are having the Spirit of God in their lives and they resist the evil. 

 

They resist the monster. They don’t agree with him. They now realize that Jesus is the Messiah. Then perhaps if they have the Scripture, they can read it and understand that they are, they are actually living in these days. 

 

There are a lot of cataclysmic things happening, environmental things happening. It’s like a very serious problem. I mean to be alive is intensely seriously, dangerously – it’s very hard. It’s the worst time. Okay. 

 

Now, if we go to the text, Revelation chapter 13, we can put this together as we read it. I think we start in 13:3. They were pondering it. They were reflecting on it. They were affected by it. They were astounded by it. They were thinking about it. How is this possible? This man is alive. He was dead but now he’s alive.

 

Vs. 4-5. Forty-two months. I’ll write it down here, is the 3.5 years. It’s a block of time. It’s fascinating that it’s very specific and very important that it is that way. Vs. 6-7. Who are these saints? Those that have gotten saved during the Tribulation period. Vs. 7b-10. 

 

What’s going to happen to the saints? They will be killed. Some will survive because Christ’s coming back must be received by a remnant of Jews in Israel or in the world. There are those and but then there are those that are feeling the murderous power of the monster killing them in perhaps in large numbers because this is that era of time. 

 

But they have to live in faith and have patience and have faith. Yeah. Patience and faith of the saints. Vs. 11-12. That’s this picture. Where are we? This one here. So, he causes the false prophet or the second monster causes the worship of this image here. Let me draw it a different way because it looks, it’s very confusing.

 

Here’s the first – this is the Antichrist, the false prophet or the first monster and the second monster and he will cause people to worship the image of this, the image or this is the image and the worship is required. Okay.

 

Vs. 13-18. So, the beast has or the monster has a number and a man has a number. The man’s number is 666 and it’s the same number that the beast has, 666. Vs. 18b. 

 

So, I want to read from Arnold Fruchtenbaum in his commentary on this. He’s a Jewish scholar and I like him. It’s amazing. I think he’s very good. “They will be able to neither buy nor sell anything unless they have the mark. It should be pointed out that this mark has nothing to do with credit as is often taught today. In a credit system, everyone must have a different number.”

 

“In this case, everyone has the same number. The purpose of the mark will be to serve as a sign of identification of those who will own the Antichrist as their god. Only those who have this number will be permitted to work, to buy, sell, or simply make a living.”

 

“The verse does not speak of credit cards, banking systems, a cashless society, a one-world money system or computers. Following through this logical progression, the number of the best is also the number of a man, because the Antichrist will be a man who will be the last ruler of the final form of the fourth Gentile empire.”

 

Furthermore, this number is a number of his very own name and that the numerical value of his name is 666. The point is essentially this. Whatever the name of the Antichrist will be in Hebrew, the numerical value of that name will be 666.” 

 

“Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and in the order of numerical value they are as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.  The next letter after the first 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. The next letter after those 200, 300, 400. So, everyone’s name in Hebrew has a numerical value.”

 

“The numerical value of the author’s name is 966. The name of Jesus the Messiah in Hebrew has a value of 749. In this passage, whatever the personal name of the Antichrist will be, if his name is spelled out in Hebrew characters, the numerical value of his name will be 666.” 

 

So, this is the number that will be put on the worshippers of the Antichrist. Since a number of different calculations can equal 666, it’s impossible to figure the name out in advance. But when he does appear, whatever his personal name will be, it will be equal to 666. Those who are wise at that time will be able to point him out.” 

 

Okay. Finishing up. Oh, it’s late. Okay. All right. What is your takeaway for this lesson today. Chapter 13. It shows us where it’s going. And then there’s another interlude, you know, you can see another piece, you know, another part of it. And it’s the great victory as the Jews escape him and they’re hiding in Bosra and protected by God because they will be there when the Messiah returns. 

 

They will be believing in him. They will be waiting on him. They will be anticipating the coming of the Messiah, the Second Coming. And you might say, well, like I thought nobody would know when he was coming. Well, no. 

 

We will not know when the Rapture is happening, but we do know that when this 7-year period of time kicks off at the end, he will be coming. And there will be Jewish people that’ll be saved from the Antichrist, that’ll be protected by God, and will be anticipating the coming of their Messiah who is also ours. Amen. Would you pray with me, please? (Prayer). 

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