Citywide Baptist Church
Beware of the lies from the False Prophet
Revelation shows Satan working through two agents, and this week we look at the second of those agents: The false prophet.
Locations & Times
Citywide Baptist Church (Mornington)
400 Cambridge Rd, Mornington TAS 7018, Australia
Sunday 10:00 AM
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https://www.citywidehobart.org.au/payment-or-gift-to-citywide/Ask your questions about Revelation
https://www.citywidehobart.org.au/2024/07/25/ask-your-questions-about-revelation/The five principles of reading Revelation
1) Correct reading of the bible leads to the fruit of the spirit and not fear
2) Revelation should be interpreted symbolically unless you are forced by the text to read it literally. Numbers, particularly are very symbolic.
3) The most important key to Revelation is understanding the Old Testament and what the over 200 allusions to the Old Testament mean in that context
4)Reading Revelation requires imagination.
5) Revelation was written to shape people as dissidents who give their allegiance not to the world but to the Kingdom of God.
1) Correct reading of the bible leads to the fruit of the spirit and not fear
2) Revelation should be interpreted symbolically unless you are forced by the text to read it literally. Numbers, particularly are very symbolic.
3) The most important key to Revelation is understanding the Old Testament and what the over 200 allusions to the Old Testament mean in that context
4)Reading Revelation requires imagination.
5) Revelation was written to shape people as dissidents who give their allegiance not to the world but to the Kingdom of God.
Who we have met so far:
The prostitute Babylon (Rome): What the bible calls "the world" or the system that sets itself up to tell you what success is apart from Jesus. (chapter 17)
The dragon (Satan), the woman (the people of God) and the child (Jesus) (chapter 12):
The dragon attempts to destroy the child being born, but the child is exalted to God and to his throne. The death of the Messiah (as was the case with the death of the Lamb in chap. 5) is the means by which the dragon is hurled out of heaven. The dragon, filled with rage, despite being evicted from heaven, continues his attempt to destroy God’s people—the woman—through persecution. The dragon’s attempt to annihilate the woman is vain, for the woman will be helped and will survive the dragon’s attacks. (from Thomas Schriener's commentary on Revelation)
The Beast from the Sea: Satan's coercive power and authority exercised through people (his agents) on earth (chapter 13) The beast is sometimes called the antichrist because he is a sick parody of the one who is faithful and true. The saints are encouraged to endure and be faithful.
The prostitute Babylon (Rome): What the bible calls "the world" or the system that sets itself up to tell you what success is apart from Jesus. (chapter 17)
The dragon (Satan), the woman (the people of God) and the child (Jesus) (chapter 12):
The dragon attempts to destroy the child being born, but the child is exalted to God and to his throne. The death of the Messiah (as was the case with the death of the Lamb in chap. 5) is the means by which the dragon is hurled out of heaven. The dragon, filled with rage, despite being evicted from heaven, continues his attempt to destroy God’s people—the woman—through persecution. The dragon’s attempt to annihilate the woman is vain, for the woman will be helped and will survive the dragon’s attacks. (from Thomas Schriener's commentary on Revelation)
The Beast from the Sea: Satan's coercive power and authority exercised through people (his agents) on earth (chapter 13) The beast is sometimes called the antichrist because he is a sick parody of the one who is faithful and true. The saints are encouraged to endure and be faithful.
After we are introduced to the first beast which represents the coercive power of Satan's agents, we meet the second beast, who is the PR agent for the first.
This beast is called “the false prophet” and is a symbol of religious or idealogical systems that use lies to control people...
He is the third member of a distorted and defeated parody of an evil Trinity
He is the third member of a distorted and defeated parody of an evil Trinity
The weapon of the second beast is its speech, which sounds like satan.
This second beast looks like a lamb, but with only two horns he is clearly inferior to the real thing.
This second beast looks like a lamb, but with only two horns he is clearly inferior to the real thing.
This second beast works on behalf of the first beast and makes people worship the first one.
In the original Greek, this verse is in the present tense, indicating to the readers that they will be experiencing the effect of this beast in their everyday lives.
What is translated as "the earth and it's inhabitants" in the NIV is literally "earth dwellers" (3:10, 6:10, 8:13,11:10, 13:8,12,14,17:2,8), which is a technical term in Revelation that means those who don't live in the light of the reality of heaven.
In the original Greek, this verse is in the present tense, indicating to the readers that they will be experiencing the effect of this beast in their everyday lives.
What is translated as "the earth and it's inhabitants" in the NIV is literally "earth dwellers" (3:10, 6:10, 8:13,11:10, 13:8,12,14,17:2,8), which is a technical term in Revelation that means those who don't live in the light of the reality of heaven.
The beast works hard to deceive and to punish those who think differently.
This is exactly what Jesus said would happen...
John is warning his followers to be on the lookout for what would come to be called "propaganda" which is:
"the expression of opinions or actions carried out deliberately by individuals or groups with a view to influencing the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends and through psychological manipulations."
- Harold Lasswell.
The function of propaganda is to make evil look good, the demonic divine, violence like peacemaking, tyranny and oppression like liberation. It makes blind, unquestioning allegiance appear to be freely chosen, religiously appropriate devotion. The grand lie does not appear to start as deception, but only as rhetorical exaggeration. The exaggeration deepens, lengthens, and broadens in an almost organic act of self-distortion. Eventually the rhetoric becomes a blatant falsehood, but now people have not only come to believe the lie, they also live the lie; over time they have been narrated into it. At that point, the exaggeration-turned-falsehood becomes uncontested and uncontestable truth, and its effects highly dangerous.
- Michael Gorman
"the expression of opinions or actions carried out deliberately by individuals or groups with a view to influencing the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends and through psychological manipulations."
- Harold Lasswell.
The function of propaganda is to make evil look good, the demonic divine, violence like peacemaking, tyranny and oppression like liberation. It makes blind, unquestioning allegiance appear to be freely chosen, religiously appropriate devotion. The grand lie does not appear to start as deception, but only as rhetorical exaggeration. The exaggeration deepens, lengthens, and broadens in an almost organic act of self-distortion. Eventually the rhetoric becomes a blatant falsehood, but now people have not only come to believe the lie, they also live the lie; over time they have been narrated into it. At that point, the exaggeration-turned-falsehood becomes uncontested and uncontestable truth, and its effects highly dangerous.
- Michael Gorman
Propaganda is effective because people are not as rational as we like to think we are.
"Propaganda relies more on emotional manipulation than upon logic, since its goal is, if fact, to bring about a change in the public's feelings."
- Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen (After the ball)
"It's time to learn from Madison Avenue, to roll out the big guns. Gays mush launch a large-scale campaign - we've called it the Waging Peace campaign - to reach straights through the mainstream media. We're talking about propaganda."
- Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen (After the ball)
Kirk and Madsen's three elements of propaganda:
Desensitisation: Strange things stop being strange if you see them enough. Things that you believe to be wrong will gradually become normal if you see them enough.
Jamming: through examples, pictures and stories so negative emotions become attached to things that before seemed clearly right
Conversion: Through examples, pictures and stories, positive emotions get attached to things that before seemed clearly wrong
"Propaganda relies more on emotional manipulation than upon logic, since its goal is, if fact, to bring about a change in the public's feelings."
- Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen (After the ball)
"It's time to learn from Madison Avenue, to roll out the big guns. Gays mush launch a large-scale campaign - we've called it the Waging Peace campaign - to reach straights through the mainstream media. We're talking about propaganda."
- Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen (After the ball)
Kirk and Madsen's three elements of propaganda:
Desensitisation: Strange things stop being strange if you see them enough. Things that you believe to be wrong will gradually become normal if you see them enough.
Jamming: through examples, pictures and stories so negative emotions become attached to things that before seemed clearly right
Conversion: Through examples, pictures and stories, positive emotions get attached to things that before seemed clearly wrong
Everything the beast does is a lie, designed to move people's worship away from God and towards the beast and, therefore, the dragon.
There is no space for individual conscience or conviction. The beast tells you what to think and then punishes you if you don't think that way.
There is no space for individual conscience or conviction. The beast tells you what to think and then punishes you if you don't think that way.
Jewish people hearing this would have immediately thought of something else that was meant to be a symbol around their foreheads and hands
Just as the hands and foreheads in Deuteronomy were symbolia of what was happening in the heart, receiving the mark of the beast is symbolic of worshipping the beast, which is the real problem.
What you worship is what you ultimately value, and the mark of the beast is the mark of people who worship the power of the beast.
It is probably not literal in the same way that other marks are not literal, but is a way of identifying those who have given their allegiance to the beast and not to the lamb
It is probably not literal in the same way that other marks are not literal, but is a way of identifying those who have given their allegiance to the beast and not to the lamb
The Mark is a way of designating the teams... you need to pick a side.
The beast will look for ways to use economic levers to pressure those who have not bent the knee.
The beast will look for ways to use economic levers to pressure those who have not bent the knee.
People who want to pin down the mark of the beast to one thing run the risk of being blinded to all the ways followers of Jesus are being asked to compromise by the systems of the world.
We have built a whole economy on selling identity markers... sometimes those markers are imposed by a government.
Being a follower of Jesus means we are marked by the Holy Spirit and not by the Beast. And as we listen to the Holy Spirit we acknowledge his ownership of us, which may have consequences.
We have built a whole economy on selling identity markers... sometimes those markers are imposed by a government.
Being a follower of Jesus means we are marked by the Holy Spirit and not by the Beast. And as we listen to the Holy Spirit we acknowledge his ownership of us, which may have consequences.
The first beast is about coercive power and the second is about deception.
There will always be people who reach for power and those who use false religion and lies to put our worship on the wrong thing.
Jesus stands as the antithesis to coercive power and deception.
There will always be people who reach for power and those who use false religion and lies to put our worship on the wrong thing.
Jesus stands as the antithesis to coercive power and deception.
Power and lies promise life, but always deliver death.
Small Group Questions:
1) John contrasts "earth dwellers" with the people of the lamb. What are the places where you see the tension between those whose whole reality is earthbound and those whose citizenship is in heaven most clearly?
2) Read the quotes about propaganda. Where do you see the impact of propaganda on our society?
3)In 1989, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen outlined a propaganda strategy to change people's feelings about gay people. What can we learn from that strategy?
4)The mark of the beast is less about the mark and more about worshipping the wrong thing. What are the things our society says should be the ultimate things in our lives?
5) What are the compromises you have been presented with in your life to enrich yourself? Where have you missed out because you didn't compromise?
Pray for each other
1) John contrasts "earth dwellers" with the people of the lamb. What are the places where you see the tension between those whose whole reality is earthbound and those whose citizenship is in heaven most clearly?
2) Read the quotes about propaganda. Where do you see the impact of propaganda on our society?
3)In 1989, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen outlined a propaganda strategy to change people's feelings about gay people. What can we learn from that strategy?
4)The mark of the beast is less about the mark and more about worshipping the wrong thing. What are the things our society says should be the ultimate things in our lives?
5) What are the compromises you have been presented with in your life to enrich yourself? Where have you missed out because you didn't compromise?
Pray for each other