Revelation
13:3-4
I
saw one of his heads which seemed to have a fatal wound, but his fatal
wound was healed; and the entire earth followed after the beast in
amazement. 4. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the
beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who
can wage war against it?”
We so easily read over these verses without understanding
the real impact of them. If we exchange the words of verse four with who/what
they actually refer to, it reads like this: People (the entire earth as
stated in verse 3) worshiped Satan because he had given authority to the
Antichrist, and they also worshiped the Antichrist ….
And there you have it – global satanic worship. This will
fully deploy at about the time that the Tribulation that John speaks about in
Revelation commences, roughly a seven-year period during which Antichrist, as
global political leader, will start to reign on earth. He will start out as
part of a ruling faction of ten, but in the middle of that time will emerge as
a dictator (Dan 11:21-23).
We know that he has a set time to appear, and that he is
being restrained by the presence of Holy Spirit in believers on earth at the
moment. (2 Thes 2:6-8). Even so, we can already see an alarming
increase in openly satanic rituals across the globe - from Olympic Opening
ceremonies to the ceremony opening the Gotthard Tunnel. Recently also the
displaying of a pentagram and a tifo (visual display by supporters in the
stands of a stadium) of the Devil emerging from the pentagram at the German Kaiserslautern
football match, to name but a few.
The question we have to ask of the church is, why? Why is
this increase allowed? What would the result be if there were multiple protests
against such blasphemous behaviour; if millions of Christians the world over would
regularly gather for prayer meetings to counter the enemy’s influence; if there
were voices going up at ground level all over the world to stem the tide of
evil infiltrating our schools, our municipalities, our government, our churches
even?
Are our ministers urging us to become part of our
community and be the voice of our God there - joining school governing bodies/neighbourhood
watches/municipalities? Or are we silenced by the notion that standing up to
evil is not showing love to others?
Pearls to ponder:
When we look to Jesus to model our behaviour on, we see
that He was never naïve. He discerned the hearts of men, knowing who were
sincere and who only wanted to use and manipulate Him. He quickly corrected the
Pharisees; He overturned tables in the Temple. He instructed His disciples to
be wise as serpents and innocent as doves – soft hearts but sharp minds. Let us
ask Jesus how to stand up to evil in our environments. We have restraining to
do!