Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 13-16.

I am not sure, but we have something which might be another dream-like scene shift.  At the end of yesterday’s passage, the dragon made war on “the woman” and her offspring.  Today’s passage starts with the dragon standing on the shore of the sea and a beast coming out of the sea.  Then a short bit later a second beast rose out of the earth.   We know from yesterday’s passage where John came right out and told us that the dragon is Satan.  A little thought about how the writing style of this book was influenced by Daniel and Ezekiel reveals that the two beasts represent empires/governments/nations. The first beast derives its power from the dragon and the second beast derives its power from the first beast.  While I am convinced that people will recognize the relationship between the beasts, I also believe that John implies that people will pretend to not see the relationship between the beasts and the dragon, Satan.   Actually, as I am reading this today, I wonder if the second beast, instead of being a government or nation, is actually big corporations working together to do the will of the government, which would be the first beast.  Whatever the beasts are, John tells us that people worship them in place of God.  To be precise, those who have not fully given their lives to Christ will worship the first beast.  The second beast will use its power to direct worship to the first beast.  And I think the best warning we can have is the Mark of the Beast.  The Mark of the Beast is something without which you cannot buy or sell anything.  There were those who feared that one’s Social Security number would be the Mark of the Beast.  They were wrong, but they were not being silly (and it is not impossible for it to turn out that they were right, just highly unlikely).  The Mark of the Beast is something which will allow complete strangers to know that you are appropriately subservient to the beast.  Anyone who recognizes anything as a higher authority than the beast will lose their ability to do business with others.  You can see what I believe are precursors to the Mark of the Beast in the way in which banks and credit card companies shut off certain people who express unacceptable, but legal, thoughts and ideas.  Does that mean that I think banks and/or credit card companies are one of the beasts? Not really, I am merely pointing out that their actions, and that of other large corporations, are preparing the ground for the rise of the beast(s).

This did not end up coming out the way I expected, and reads much more “conspiracy theorist” than I would like.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.