The Beast & Its Image
In chapters 8-11 we saw the endgame or
winding up scene of the earth. In
chapter 12 we were introduced to the way to be saved through all that
destruction. Now in chapters 13 through
18, we are shown how the seeds of that destruction were sown – we learn the
three major influences that the Dragon (Satan) uses to fight the Woman Clothed
with the Sun and her Children (the Church of the Firstborn and Kingdom of God)
on the Earth: political power, religious falsehoods, and economic seduction (using
money to buy up tyrants and false priests to reign on the Earth with violence
and terror). They are symbolized by a
Beast (political), an Image or false prophet (religious), and a Harlot or Great
City (economic) but they do blend into each other, as these three factors are
used together to great effect by Satan.
READ Revelation 13:1 (see JST)
What
does the sea represent?
Peoples and nations (see Revelation
17:15).
READ Revelation 13:2 and Daniel 7:2-7
What
does the Beast represent?
The despotic empires or political
regimes/machines of the world over time.
For example, Daniel’s four beasts are
Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.
What
do the various heads of the Beast represent?
Different faces and forms of despotic
rule: fascism, communism, monarchy, dictatorship, oligarchy, theocracy or militant
religious states, colonialism, etc.
But they all share the same heart: force,
fear and political tyranny.
What
do the horns represent?
Power and those who wield it.
The power that an individual tyrant or
group assembles to enforce their will: unjust laws, military or police might,
corrupt judges and civil servants, wealthy cronies, false priests, etc.
The specific horns are transient – i.e.
they do not last but are either broken off in battle or fall off in time; but
they are always replaced with new horns during the next “season”.
READ Revelation 13:3
What
happens when a head is wounded or chopped off?
Like the Hydra, when one head is removed,
“two more take its place”.
Sometimes the head is “healed” in a
mockery of Christ’s resurrection like the Phoenix back from the “dead” – this
is designed to show the power of the beast – to discourage people from trying
to kill it because it seemingly cannot die.
What
does attacking the heads of the Beast do?
Nothing, except maybe make it angry and
motivate it to strike out at you.
You must attack the heart of the Beast to
inflict harm on it.
READ Revelation 13:4-8
What
reaction does the Beast solicit from the people of the world?
Shock and awe.
Worship – obedience, imitation, reverence.
The Beast is the god of force, power and
military might (see Daniel 11:36-38).
The world looks to this “god” for
protection – or more accurately, it looks to one of the heads to protect it
from the others – not realizing it is all the same Beast.
What
is the blasphemy that comes from the Beast?
That there is no one like unto him.
That he is the “god of this world” – that
there is no other god before him.
That he is the savior or protector of
those that worship him – the Beast is the literal arm of the flesh.
READ Revelation 13:9-10
What
is the secret that the Saints must remember?
If you use the Beast’s tools to defeat
him, you are worshiping him and he has defeated you.
If you cut off one head, two will take
its place.
You must defeat him with patience and
faith in the Lord, using His timetable and His means/methods (see Daniel 7:9,
13-14, 18); actually, it is the Lord that will defeat the Beast and you can
elect to join His army and participate in His fight.
READ Revelation 13:11-18
What
is the “Image” or “twin” of the Beast?
A false prophet or religion (see
Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10).
It is a literally a wolf in sheep’s
clothing as it looks like the Lamb of God (how Satan took the image of the
serpent or Dragon, which represented Christ, and rebranded it was himself – but
in this case, he’s taking the Lamb and trying to rebrand it as himself, too).
It appears innocent and harmless as a
lamb – after all, it is just trying to save your soul.
But if you listen to the voice, it is
speaking the words of the Beast (force, compulsion, tyranny, power on Earth).
What
is the message that the Image shares with mankind?
The Beast can save you if you worship it.
The Image is an apologist for the Beast;
he is an influencer who validates and recommends the Beast – he tries to look
like an objective third party who has your interest primarily in mind, but this
is a total lie.
What
is the connection between the Beast and trade/commerce/business (the Harlot)?
If you don’t worship the Beast and follow
his precepts, you cannot trade or do business or be successful in a world the
Beast rules.
Survival of the fittest - the “law of the
jungle” or Korihor’s “management of the creature” principle (see Alma 30) plays
out in economics as much as it does in politics (or biology).
What
is the name of the Beast?
The name of the Beast is Master Mahan
(see Moses 5:31) or “great one” or “destroyer”.
Mahan trades “life for money”.
Mahan is to not be your brother’s keeper,
but to sell him what can kill him (physically or spiritually) and profit from
it; it is to grind the faces of the poor, because you can.
Mahan enables its followers to
hurt/kill/take from others and never be brought to justice because of the
secret oath taken by the society of leaders who worship the Beast (i.e. a
“priesthood” or fellowship) and uphold the unjust laws (or at least its
loopholes) through their power and wealth.
What
is the difference between the Seal that the 144,000 receive and the Mark of the
Beast?
A “seal” administered by God or His
angels lasts through this life and into the next; it is to protect and/or endow
power; a seal is received – it can only be given by someone with authority to
give it.
A “mark” differentiates one from another
who isn’t marked; it is not permanent in that it doesn’t “seal” or provide a
binding promise from God that something will remain or be given; a mark can be
self-imposed.
The Seal is the Name of God (see
Revelation 14:1), which is eternal and gives power on both sides of the veil;
while the Mark is a “human number” and gives power only upon the Earth and will
fail (or its power and privilege will) when the World is destroyed.
The Harvest
READ Revelation 14:1-3
Why
can none but the sealed 144,000 learn the “new song”?
It cannot be taught by man to other men.
It must be learned from Heaven – directly
from Christ or His angels.
This implies that the seal enables those
who receive it to see things in a transformationally different way.
What
are the 144,000 able to do?
Stand or abide in the presence of Christ.
Because they are without fault (see
Revelation 14:5) through the Atonement of Christ.
And have been filled with His Holy Spirit
or vibrate at a much higher level of light (quickened) or energy than those who
cannot abide God’s presence.
READ Revelation 14:6-7
What
means does the Lord use to preach the everlasting gospel to every nation?
War, famine and pestilence – He allows
Satan’s own tools to work against themselves to remove Satanic barriers to the
sharing of the truth.
The weak “things” of the earth are
Christ’s tools.
The revelations of God, written by the
prophets and contained in ancient and modern scripture.
The internet…the Lord uses the
dissemination of truth in whatever means our current level of technology allows
(and from whoever has an element of truth and is willing to share it); that
doesn’t mean that just because an internet poster shares one element or
“packet” of truth that anything else they share is also true.
Angels themselves – true messengers from
Heaven with a direct message from God.
Other means we don’t expect – the Lord
does His own work; we may only assist, not dictate, and it is not “hastened”
unless He wills it.
Revelation 14:14-16
Who
is reaped by the angels wielding the sickles?
Everyone – the “wheat” and the “tares”
are harvested when both are fully ripe.
Then, they are divided and dispatched –
with the wheat being stored in the garners, and the tares and the field itself
both burned.
Armageddon
READ Revelation 16:16-17 and D&C 87:6
What
do “Armageddon” and “Cumorah” have in common?
They are places where the Lord gathered
massive armies together to enable them to administer mutual destruction to each
other – Armageddon in the Middle East and Cumorah in the Americas. It is where the wicked will/did punish the
wicked.
Which
nation will be standing at the end of Armageddon?
None – not even the United States
(contrary to popular belief in some circles).
Only those who have fled to Zion will be
safe, and only because the Lord will fight their battles for them – Zion is
terrible because of the glory surrounding it, not because of a store of weapons
that have been stockpiled there.
The fact that people have to flee to Zion
to be safe speaks to the lack of safety and unstable nature of all nations,
including the USA.
Babylon, the Mother of Harlots
READ Revelation 17:1-5 and Revelation
18:2-3, 7-11
Who
is the Woman who rides upon the Beast?
Babylon – the Great City.
The world’s economy – that which rewards
and profits from those who worship the Beast and its ways (Master Mahan) – an
economy where a few live luxuriously while, and in many cases directly because
of that, many starve – it is all about profit at any cost, including human,
environmental, spiritual…for the Woman who rides the Beast, it’s “show me the
money.”
Why
is she called “the Harlot”?
Because she buys and sells her “wares” to
the highest bidder.
She will not take care of those she has
covenanted with to care for as “Queen” of the world – she has left them for
money and the fine life.
She sells to the Beast – those who have
the power uphold the economy.
She seeks the affections of people
through the seduction of riches and material possessions.
Her economy is largely fake, as it is
built on growth – the continuous consumption of comforts and delicacies and the
promise of speculative wealth in stock or currency markets; if the merchants
stop creating new offerings and the buyers stop buying, it constricts and
strangles itself and those who had faith in it (investors) lose all their money.
What
will happen to the Woman when the Beast is killed at Armageddon?
She will be thrown down, as she has
nothing to ride.
If the Beast is dead, she is ruined – her
life is tied to the life of the Beast.
In our fallen world, there is a tight
connection between the economy and politics (and the military which keeps it in
power) – it’s a “military industrial complex”.
What
is for sale in Babylon?
Everything; anything can be bought with
money in this telestial world.
Even the human soul can be bought; life
is cheap – the great secret Lucifer taught Cain was how to exchange life for
money (see Moses 5:31) – it is how he became Master Mahan.
READ Revelation 18:15-19
How
quickly can Babylon be brought to nothing?
As fast as it takes for the bottom to
drop out of the stock market.
In an “hour”.
