Revelation, 666, The Beast and Now

The Beasts of Revelation Today.

Some of you may be thinking …. Oh Revelation? The Beast, 666 and all that! That's for some time in the future isn't it?

No! (well no and yes - It has been for Christians in every age since John wrote it in the 90's AD ) 
 
How unfeeling would God have to be if He sent 'round a book dealing ONLY with events in the 2000's or 2100's or for all we know the 4100's to people suffering persecution THEN. Of course God isn't like that! Revelation was meant for them in their distress then! 
 
But, God being super clever, it has also been for Christians in times of persecution in every place and age since then, and will be for persecuted Christians everywhere until that wonderful day when without warning Jesus appears and world history is forever history! 
 
If you want a really good fiction book that is intended to give an understanding of Revelation's first recipients and what Revelation meant to them (and also an insight into modern Russia as the author was a missionary in St Petersburgh when he wrote it, I thoroughly recommend this book by a friend of mine Ben Chenoweth: “The Ephesus Scroll” ISBN: 978-0-9875792-0-1.

One does have to be both wary and confident about Revelation. I grew up in a denomination that was really into the books of Daniel and Revelation. They stole a march on other denominations who were a bit cautious and said “Well we don't really know about Revelation...” while the Adventists said “Then come and listen to us because we do know about it ...” One of their commentaries I read up for a sermon I did a few years back on the Beasts in Revelation 13 (you can hear it on : https://www.dropbox.com/s/7vh6gohiatkurbd/Revelation%2013%20Apr%2028%202013.mp3?dl=0

Last night I looked at a youtube sermon on this text which had 62,000 views! And I thought he missed the obvious point, so I actually do recommend my one!) 
 
One old Adventist commentary said it had definitely identified “the Beast” … it was the American government! … of 1850! Because they were about to legislate that Sunday was the Sabbath (not Saturday)! Similarly 40 or so years ago one Hal Lindsay thought it was all happening at that time … obviously the helicopters in Vietnam fitted the description of the locusts! I don't mean to laugh at them: just to say that a little caution is clearly called for!

Also people who make interpretations over our horizon do us a dis-service. They take our minds off looking to see if there is an immediate application!

OK that was all a bit long-winded, so on to the point. To summarise what you can hear in more detail on the recording: The Beast from the Sea is tyrannical human government when it stops governing under God and tries to govern as God. The Beast from the Earth is human religion (or ideology) which looks “good” but is really directed by the Dragon (Satan) and supports the first beast.

To the first recipients of Revelation these were the Roman Empire and the cult of emperor worship.

Since then the second beast has had many many faces. Including I suspect the Inquisition, the Crusades, and so many other times in history when we read of “the Church” doing really, really bad things.


In our day as we see the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries, it is not hard to fit their governments to the first beast, and radical Islam to the second beast! But let's move closer to home.
What did we find in our earlier posts on government. Ideally it should be by the people and for the people. 
 
What are the dysfunctions we see now? “By the people” even in democracies has morphed into control by oligarchies. No matter which party you vote for you get a representative whose strings are really pulled by some power groups. More and more it is becoming evident that governments have little regard for the true welfare of the people they govern. Is modern democratic government still “for the people”? We have seen a voters' reaction in electing total outsiders like Donald Trump, in voting for splinter parties in Australia, and possibly the same thing at work in the rise of votes for a frighteningly unrealistic Communistic would-be-leader in the recent UK elections. None of these are tyrannical – yet. But the increasing “nanny-state” incursions into daily life show the path to a worrying future.


But more evident is the Beast from the Earth. What do you think? Do you see a rise of human religion or of ideology held with a religious fanaticism, or even the infiltration of churches by advocates for these (Galatians 2.4 speaks of “false brothers who had infiltrated out ranks…) ? Let's look closer at this possibility next time.

Government as Servant of the People

Government as servant of the people

There are many reasons for a government to say they serve the people, or even to do so out of self interest, but an altruistic motive is harder to find.

Trying to convince people you are serving their best interests is part of the political game book. Think of the election pledges of South American semi-democracies. Each new president pledges to rid the country of corruption, better the situation of the working poor and so forth. Once in power they often become even more corrupt, rapacious and indifferent to the needs of the populace than their predecessor. Even dictators try it. Think of North Korea. With all the brutality of a police state at his disposal Kim supplements this by relentless propaganda brainwashing the population into thinking that he is looking after them and their poverty is all the fault of their arch enemy the USA.

But there are also reasons rulers to some extent may actually serve, to some extent, interests of their people. 19^th century sociologist Max Weber examined styles of rule. One, which he called “charismatic” was typified by the pirate king: he held great power - but only so long as he kept delivering the goods – if he failed then he was supplanted. Obviously it was in the interests of a charismatic leader, even one who was otherwise not inclined to do so, to keep supplying his or her followers with sufficient of what they wanted.

Another type of rule Weber identified was typified by fealty between the ruler and the ruled. Here too, the close human relationship – whether by kinship or devoted service – had a two way effect. The ruler had incentive to look after his or her people.

However historically rulers of large or small domains have been a varied lot. Some benevolent towards their subjects. Some ruthless tyrants. One of the forces which drove the development of our modern constitutional democracy – from the nobles forcing Prince John in England to sign the Magna Carta to the Pilgrims fleeing to the Americas – was to reign in bad rulers. Hence Lincoln's government “for the people” is an important statement. It is also an objective that has been seriously undermined in recent times in most Western countries. The cynical joke “whoever you vote for a politician always gets elected” is not without foundation.

In Germany, Chancellor Merkel has swamped the country with immigrants for ideological motives, to the detriment of the nation. In Australia we have recently had a scandal involving a few politicians pushing a pro China line after receiving pay-offs that were traced through local businessmen back to Chinese government entities. I expect that in every country there are problems with corruption on large or small scales.

All of these – ideology, self interest, pay-backs for political support, influence of powerful lobby groups and bribery – mean that governments are not putting the welfare of their people first.

However I was surprised when I tried to find Biblical reaching promoting “government as servant of the people”. It was not there as an end in itself. Make no mistake, the Bible had many damning things to say about rulers who looked after themselves not the people! It was just that it was the end result of other things. God-fearing rulers loved justice because God loves justice – so they made sure the law-courts ran properly and treated everyone impartially. God-fearing rulers saw that God had put them in charge of his people, so they owed it to God to govern for the people not themselves. And so the list goes on.

A minister once quoted to me “I am every man's servant: yet I have but one Master”. I think this will turn out to be the case with truly good government as well. It is the result of duty to God.

So I want to pause the examination of “servant of the people” in order to deal with the Biblical view of who governments are ultimately responsible to, what their responsibilities are and the precepts which, if followed by rulers – be they kings or elected bodies – inevitably produce a government which truly serves the people.

The West is Streets Ahead of the Rest

The West is Still streets Ahead of the Rest

This is important to remember. We may still be failing to attain not only the lofty but also the attainable ideals of government of the people. We may be in danger of losing even what we have. But we are still so many streets ahead of the rest of the world.

In government for the people, voters are, as I said last post, expressing dissatisfaction with the current situation. In this they have good reason: In too many areas governments are not really acting in the best interests of the population, they are repaying favours to people who helped them to power or responding to lobby groups. In other areas they are remiss in their duty of care for the populace. But compared to others they are still remarkably caring, capable and honest.

To take recent past regimes, the Communists are probably the most horrifying examples. Stalin let 7 million (plus or minus a million or so) peasants starve to death when many could have been saved. Mao presided over a famine mostly due to government policy where 2 or 3 million people who complained about the policies were murdered and some 34 million people starved.

Brutality and government indifference to the suffering of the people on this scale is so awful that our minds don't want to take it in.

On a more homely scale and in our own cultural past has conditions we would not wish to live under. Consider Robin Hood. Look behind the derring-do and there is shocking treatment of the people by the rulers

In the present there are so many contenders. North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe are only the beginning of a very long list of totalitarian regimes where the ruling elites do not give a fig for the well being or even the lives of the people they govern.

Think of many of the African countries where the people are desperately poor. The West has poured in vast amounts of aid, but most has been siphoned off by the rulers – who live in extravagant luxury and pile up enormous wealth in Swiss bank accounts while the people continue to suffer privation. “government for the people” has never entered the heads of these rulers!

In countries like Zimbabwe this is compounded by terrible government policies. For instance the “redistribution” of farms from the successful agribusinesses owned by whites to political cronies of the ruling party - who as often as not left the land unfarmed and the black workers unemployed, or ran the businesses so inefficiently that they failed, has caused massive suffering across the nation and added to the country's already serious economic woes.

Truly we are so fortunate in the West that generations before us have fought to put good government in place. Understanding this and seeing the abyss into which we could descend should make us determined to strive in our generation, not just to maintain but to improve.