War On The Saints
WAR ON THE SAINTS
REVELATION 13:1-10
How does this passage put us on our guard?
In Daniel 7:3, four beasts come out of the sea. Here there is only one (13:1), but it combines the traits of the first three (13:2; see also Daniel 7:4-6), and as it develops, it shows another trait, its mouth, which links it with the fourth (13:5; Daniel 7:8,20); this is in any case shown by its horns (13:1; Daniel 7:7). As Daniel 7:17 makes clear, the beast is both a man and a system. It is in fact the summing up of an age-old system, which John calls the world, and of a line of people who have sought to rule in defiance of God’s will. Its last stage is merely the climax of what has been all along.
It comes out of the sea (13:1), ie it is the product of humanity in rebellion against God; it is a beast, because humanity in revolt against God is subhuman. Even the mortally wounded head (13:3) is only a special case of a common phenomenon. Repeatedly in human history a system or ruler is saved when at the apparent point of death. This is regarded as proof of divine favor, and honor and validity are attributed which are in fact a worship of Satan.
Far more effective than mob violence against the believer is to embrace him in the all-competent, authoritarian state, which may pay lip service to God, but by its claims blasphemes him. The dragon may give the beast his power (13:2), but only God can allow it to make war on the saints and conquer them (13:7), and no doubt it is also God who gives it its authority (see also Romans 13:1), though its length is strictly limited (13:5). From 13:7 we see that these principles are worldwide.
In Holy Communion we take the bread as symbol of Christ’s body of humiliation, not of his glorified body. Similarly the church follows in the steps of his humiliation, even though it may enjoy hours of popular favor, as he did. Periodically, not only in the end time, the church knows the bitterness of apparent defeat and death. Only so can God separate the true from the false. Natural human sights are set on the present or immediate future, the spiritual person’s on the end of the age, when Christ returns and true judgment is meted out (13:10; see also 14:16-20).