Will worship the beast
“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast - all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8)
When you hear this title, you might laugh, “What nonsense do you say?” For it is certainly not fair to say that a man named the lord of creation worships an animal. I think it’s a foolish reality for a person to live without knowing oneself like that. The animals in the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation are from the sea and from the earth. The two beasts mean the forces of Satan who persecute the people of Christ. A dragon is a symbolic animal, meaning Satan. And Satan is a spiritual being, so he comes in and teases people and bullies the world in many ways.
It is true by nature that man is a lord of all things on the earth. God created man and all things, and He gave man power to rule over all things. It should be no such thing for a lord entrusted with authority over all things to worship animals. But if you hear people bowing to animals, that would of course sound ridiculous. Not to mention the question of many beliefs in the world, through the twelve zodiacal ideas involved deeply in the thoughts of Koreans, we can fully understand that the ideas of animal worship are related. Rat, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, pig; these twelve animals symbolize the guardian deities of the earth. The animals, by calculating the date of person’s birth on them, are the mechanical basis for judging their fortune. People do not worship the beasts, people say, but there’s a connection between them and the people in the culture of life trying to predict fortune. Man is such a fool, in fact.
The dragon is one of the twelve zodiac, but it is an imaginary animal that does not exist. The philosophy of the zodiac belongs to Ancient Oriental thought, and the dragon is an auspicious creature in the thought. But the dragon in the Bible is a symbol of Satan, and the dragon is a supreme being against Christ and the holy people. Satan had been an angel to assist God, but Satan became an enemy of God because of the desire to be higher than the Creator. So Satan will seduce people by making an injustice to the end of the world. Satan sets up agents for him to make them work, and Satan refuses to show his weakness or wickedness because he is very crafty.
The text shows a scene in which a beast in the role of Satan appears from sea. The animal had ten horns and seven heads. Every horn of the animals’ heads was draped with a crown, and there were blasphemous names on each head. The horns represent something like the power of a king. Seven heads represent himself disguised as if he had the power of God the ruler of heaven and earth. And the seven heads and ten horns look like a red dragon, written in Revelation 12:3. The ten horns are also symbolic ｅxpressions for all the honors in the world. So it seems natural for people to give in before him.
By their names written on their heads, we can clearly see their ultimate goal to disturb God and oppose Christ. They try to seduce the world in all sorts of ways to achieve their goals. The reason why people can’t defeat Satanic power is simple. For he has temporary authority over each tribe, dialects and countries in the world. People simply cannot ignore or defeat that power, because he has all the authority of money and honor and status and lust. But only the people of Christ do not give in to the power.
Men of Christ mean those who have been recorded since the creation, in the Book of the murdered Lamb. And the Lamb that was killed stands for Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Book of Life is the written with the names of those who have been saved in God. People of God are the people of the heavenly kingdom, even though they live on the earth.
The life of Christ’s people is a reality in which they have to overcome conflicting situations. The world is a place of trouble that captivates each other, and where people get caught, where they kill and die. But Christians are the heavenly people, and they must not live in a secular way. In that regard, the patience and faith is required for them. Even in a world where you have no choice but to worship the beast, but for Christians, that’s never going to happen. If you’re reborn in the Holy Spirit, you will be able to defeat Satan’s tactics.
(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Dec 1st 2019)