The close of history: God shows us in Revelation that, before Christ finally intervenes as King, there will be a brief time when humankind learns the full horrendous consequences of what it means to live lives independent from Him. We wanted our independence from God, a world free from God, and God’s been restraining evil and protecting us from the full consequences of that folly. But, for a very short time in history’s final phase, He gives us what we’ve desired and allows us to learn what rejecting God’s rule really means: to experience the full terrible consequences of living without God.
Revelation sets them out unflinchingly – a poisoned world, famine, natural disaster, disease, persecution, horrific slaughter in global warfare; and, here in chapter 13, the totalitarian dictatorship of the ultimate satanic dictator. Certainly the principle of the antichrist has been at work throughout the centuries (2 Thess 2:7). But Revelation 13 seems to present also a final evil figure in whom one day will be consummated, unrestrained, all that Satan has been seeking to accomplish in the worst dictators – the Antiochus Epiphanes, the Neros, the Hitlers and Stalins – throughout the long spirals of human history. (Not long back, by the way, a survey showed that 54% of British people say Britain needs a strong leader who is willing to break the rules.)
Satan, the ‘dragon’, is embarking on a climactic assault on ‘those who … hold to the testimony of Jesus’, and this is how he does it (12:17-13:1). Here at last he brings forth a tyrant (the ‘beast’, ‘the Animal’) with total power, who can demand a mark of blasphemous worship of himself as the condition for being free to buy or sell at all (13:17), and slaughters all who refuse (13:15), even though taking it surely leads to eternal hell (14:9-11). (The technology of an increasingly cashless society could make this all so very easy. The authorities would be sorry: your credit line is currently cut off, your grocery, electricity and medical bills are not being paid and obviously you cannot run up further expenditures. Eventually, since you can’t pay your local property taxes, you lose your house. And all because of your intransigence on a minor matter of worship! Life could become increasingly impossible for whole families, yet very cleanly and with no unpleasant violence or brutality. At least, that is how it might start; it would not be how it ends.) And in this time of ‘revelation’ the alternatives will become terribly clear (13:16, 14:1): on your forehead you carry either the mark of the Animal, or the name of the Lamb.
(And a further thing that makes this a terrible moment is what v14 says: there will suddenly be highly convincing supernatural signs, but disastrously, they point in totally the wrong direction. It’s what Jesus in Matthew 24:24 warned us forcefully about (`great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible`), and Paul in 2 Thess 2:9-12. As Tozer says, Christ doesn’t say there will be an increase in God-given miracles in the endtimes; in fact he says the opposite.)
When will all this happen? We can’t say. Then again, as we look at the pressures of climate change, increasing pollution, population explosion and much more, we may well feel that things cannot go on as they are, and the End-period may not be far off. For me, the most striking insight in all this is one I owe to Nigel Lee, formerly the deeply respected campus ministry leader of UCCF, the student Christian Union movement in Britain. Jesus said the gospel will be preached ‘to all nations, and then the End will come’ (Matt 24:14, NIV as usual), bringing about the completion of the global Bride of Christ that is a key purpose of history (Rev 7:9). With the staggering growth of God’s Church all round the world in the last century, it’s hard to see this process needing more than another hundred years, probably less. And once it is completed, said Jesus, the End will come; in that case, very possibly either we or our children’s generation need to be prepared for history’s climax that Revelation describes.
So then what? Must we (using Peter’s phrase) ‘arm our minds’, and train ourselves and our children, for the possibility of having to live faithfully – true ‘radicals’ – through such a situation? Christians disagree. But – with the Great Commission now apparently so close to completion – the very uncertainty should make us prepare our hearts. (And in both Russia and China, something like it has happened in the very recent past.)
The great pioneer missionary C T Studd, founder of WEC, saw this period as something the Church must be prepared to live through. ‘I have been greatly stirred by reading Revelation,’ he wrote. (This is in the glorious Studd anthology Fool and Fanatic?) `The chief lesson I learned is that as Christ died for the world, so also must we, His Body, do the same. The tortures and deaths inflicted on Christians will evidently be of such a nature that no human being could endure them unless he was indwelt by God’s Spirit. So the test will be a perfect one and only those come through as victors who can do the impossible, endure the unendurable, being specially enabled and indwelt by the Spirit of God. Thus shall God be perfectly justified in His anger and judgment when He comes to deal with a world which tortured and killed His Son Who came to save it, and did the same to His Body, the true Church who followed His only Son. Who indeed shall be able to stand? Holy-Ghost-possessed men, women and children and none else!`
But then again, many Christians would disagree with Studd. They remind us that the second coming will occur suddenly, when we least expect it (Matthew 24:44); and since the Revelation events will so clearly herald the End, the whole Church as we know it must already have been snatched away unexpectedly to heaven, by the `rapture` described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. (And might the Animal’s slander of `those who live in heaven` (Rev 13:6) be how he tries to handle the memories of this mass disappearance, suggesting perhaps that this was the work of evil extraterrestrials and their dupes?- there have been enough movies pointing that way.) The rapture, many Christians see God saying (again in the light of Matthew 24), can come on us at any (unexpected) moment. Only then, with all true Christian influence and restraint (the preservative ‘salt of the earth’) removed, will all hell break loose (2 Thess 2:6-8).
It may be so. I’ve tried to set out both sides of this question in depth in https://petelowmanresources.com/our-future2-whats-this-about-the-rapture/ . Scripture is ambiguous; and I wonder if God left it deliberately unclear because we benefit practically from both possibilities? It’s vital to live aware that Christ may come at any minute, interrupting our lives, to take us home. It’s also vital to live aware that being Christians may involve us in serious persecution; it’s happening in many other countries, and may happen one day in ours, whether it’s the end times or not. (What could prove disastrous is the unpreparedness for both that comes from ignoring the Bible passages embodying what God says about all this.) Maybe we or our children will be the ‘hero generation’ called to stay faithful to Christ when the Animal comes, who will refuse the Animal’s mark (whatever that turns out to be), even if it costs us our lives. Or, even if we believe the rapture will save us from the worst time, there is a chance we may face the early days of the Animal’s reign; or our own land may start treating believers as badly as others have done. Either way, we should make it a goal to get used to pressure, seeing it as training. And the fact that the `rapture` may happen at any moment, is a powerful motivator for evangelism. It would be catastrophic for anyone we care about to get left behind, suddenly left out, too late; God’s offer of salvation does have a deadline (2 Cor 6:1-2). Christ may return when we don’t expect it: yes, maybe today! – later today we may see Him face to face! And then come millions of years of glory and joy beyond our imagination! So as Bob Dylan asked on his Saved album, ‘Are you ready for the day of the Lord?’
Nonetheless, Revelation 13 is there in our Bibles; and at least we need to be forearmed for the possibility that the Nazi annihilation of the Jews will not remain history’s ultimate expression of evil, but that there is a worldwide persecution to come which will surpass it, and of which the Church will bear the brunt. If this is a genuine possibility (and hopefully friends who take a different view will recognise that the possibility exists), then it’s best to face up to it. In particular, this means we must cultivate a faith that is not consumerist, not one we follow for our own therapy or just because it makes us feel good. One day it may not! The reason we follow Jesus is that His gospel is true – and in the end our response to it will lead us to an eternity in either heaven or hell. Roger Forster suggests that a major purpose of Revelation is to help us understand (and this is relevant to every era) what it means to be `overcomers’. Certainly this is an emphasis at the book’s start, climaxing each of the seven letters in chs 2-3; and at its close, in 21:7. `He who stands firm to the end will be saved’ (Matt 24:13, cf Rev 2:26) – because, `standing firm’ does not happen by our own strength but demonstrates that we are `born of God’ and so have had placed within us that true faith by which we are saved. `This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith’ (1 John 5:4).
Our prayer then must be: Lord, I will live by following You, and if need be I pray that You give me the strength to die for You. The apostle Peter wrote: `Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed` (1 Peter 4:12-13). How would we live now if we knew that Revelation 13 would be our situation in ten years’ time? Our answer will tell us a lot about how much we love Jesus. The sensible thing is to prepare ourselves for the possibility; if we or our kids might be the ‘hero generation’ called to live through this, we’d better get trained…
But let’s be clear too: that training will also pay huge dividends in other situations – just as meditating on the themes of Revelation will do – because ‘days of evil’ (see Eph 6:13) do come to each of us from time to time. In this world we will have trouble, said Jesus (John 16:33); in our family sometimes, in our workplace too. Reading In God’s Underground, Richard Wurmbrand’s hugely inspirational story of persecution in communist Romania, helped me enormously as a young Christian. I read of the incredible pressures he survived, and couldn’t help thinking that I shouldn’t complain about what happened in my own life. God does strengthen the weak when the time actually comes (Heb 4:16). Reading Revelation and being aware of the possible coming of the Animal will help us cope with inconveniences now; and, just possibly, it will also one day give us the guts to take our place in the hero generation, and ‘after you have done everything, to stand’ (Eph 6:13) for God…
So Lord Christ, do not bring us to the time of trial; but deliver us from evil; and if it does fall to us to face persecution, as it has to so many of our sisters and brothers, please give us grace at the time we need it (Heb 4:16), and Your strength to be faithful in our utter, total weakness; so that, if the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand our ground, and having done everything, to stand … (Eph 6:13)
PS Next week’s post will interrupt our Revelation series to cover the (not entirely unrelated) issue that Britain could very possibly be persecuting Bible Christians in 2 or 3 years’ time. I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but for a starter please see, from the reliable Christian Institute, https://www.christian.org.uk/news/labour-wants-a-no-loophole-conversion-therapy-law/ . This is unfortunately reality, and CI’s other posts make clear further very serious possibilities in this promised `no loopholes` legislation; more detail next week, including the calls for consensual prayer to be banned, `Christian summer camps` to be clamped down on, Christian parenting to be restricted (`Parents most of the time are the problem`), groups like the Evangelical Alliance to be `hit hard`, and legal penalties of up to ten years in prison or £100,000 fines…
