Image of the beast

[Justin Adams]

We are made in God's Image. We have His attributes: Freedom, Creativity, the ability to Love etc.

The Beast Image will be all that opposes Yahweh. So all that we see that is not Holy is portraying some elements of that beast. Its characteristics are all a counterfeit of our Lord. It is all around us now. Ugly.

Where might one look and not see some vestiges of the image of the beast? Underneath any 'sweet' kind of beastliness is a truly horrific entity. It is our worst zombie nightmare coupled with our very worst fears. It is inhuman, devilish, stinky-rotten and a total devastation of His Holy Beauty. Nastiness in extremism!!

[Last Daze]

19 minutes ago, Justin Adams said:

We are made in God's Image. We have His attributes: Freedom, Creativity, the ability to Love etc.

The Beast Image will be all that opposes Yahweh. So all that we see that is not Holy is portraying some elements of that beast. Its characteristics are all a counterfeit of our Lord. It is all around us now. Ugly.

Where might one look and not see some vestiges of the image of the beast? Underneath any 'sweet' kind of beastliness is a truly horrific entity. It is our worst zombie nightmare coupled with our very worst fears. It is inhuman, devilish, stinky-rotten and a total devastation of His Holy Beauty. Nastiness in extremism!!

I like to use this verse as a contrast:

• For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.  Romans 8:29a

People will be forced to conform to the image of the beast, or forfeit their lives.  The beast is an evil angel who's causes the man of sin to exercise dominion.  His image will do likewise.

[Diaste]

2 hours ago, Last Daze said:

Unless perhaps the image is a glorified, weaponized "pledge of allegiance" that everyone votes on when they get his mark.

• Who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.  2 Thessalonians 2:4  

It doesn't make sense that the man of sin would force people to worship anything other than himself.  I think the icons you mention would play more of a secondary / optional role.  

You're showing your age.

The idols are a representation of the beast, almost a mirror image, so they wouldn't be 'other', but representative. Worshipping the image will be worshipping the beast. All will be forced to get this. Like the German people forced to have Mein Kampf during the terror of Nazi's and Hitler. 

Now, about the age thing....maybe I discovered those shows on YouTube!  Recently. Maybe.

[Last Daze]

9 minutes ago, Diaste said:

The idols are a representation of the beast, almost a mirror image, so they wouldn't be 'other', but representative. Worshipping the image will be worshipping the beast. All will be forced to get this. Like the German people forced to have Mein Kampf during the terror of Nazi's and Hitler.

I don't think the beast will be visible though.  From what I can find, only evil spirit beings come up out of the abyss.

 

14 minutes ago, Diaste said:

Now, about the age thing....maybe I discovered those shows on YouTube!  Recently. Maybe.

I think that in order for The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits to be perceived as "horrifyingly terroristic" they would have had to have been seen when they first came out.  Just a guess though.

[Diaste]

39 minutes ago, Last Daze said:

I don't think the beast will be visible though.  From what I can find, only evil spirit beings come up out of the abyss.

Yes, but in this case does Abaddon not inhabit a body? Just wondering how that's going to work. I mean, isn't a man healed of the deadly head  wound and he's the beast? So Appolyon would possess this man who was healed, yes? No?

[Daniel 11:36]

The combination is Satan using Abaddon, and the human little little horn of Daniel's visions

[Last Daze]

1 hour ago, Diaste said:

Yes, but in this case does Abaddon not inhabit a body? Just wondering how that's going to work. I mean, isn't a man healed of the deadly head  wound and he's the beast? So Appolyon would possess this man who was healed, yes? No?

I do believe that Satan possesses the son of perdition, as he did Judas, which is why he speaks as a dragon.  The heads of the dragon represent kingdoms.  The one that appears dead is the son of perdition's kingdom and appears dead because the three horns attack him with an overwhelming force.  However, calling fire down from heaven has a way of reversing fortunes.  Not only does it bring his kingdom back to life, it gives it the perception of invincibility.

[Diaste]

18 hours ago, Last Daze said:

I don't think the beast will be visible though.  From what I can find, only evil spirit beings come up out of the abyss.

 

I know there will be unusual actors in the days of end of the age. The dragon is always described as a dragon and the people worship the dragon; Rev 13:4 "People worshiped the dragon..." It's entirely possible we will see a dragon. A powerful, supernatural dragon that can speak and give enormous power to another. It may be the dragon is a symbol of a fallen angelic being that, when on earth, he appears human like. But Satan was a serpent in the garden, sooo...

Contrast this to the beast who is described as a man, even if he is an evil spirit, or a man possessed by an evil spirit.

We see the locusts of Rev 9, "7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions,"

What kind of terrible beasts are these? And they can fly? I don't think this is Johns's best stab at describing mechanical devices; he wrote what he saw. We are going to see exactly what is written.

But there is more. The great army of 200 million from the east rides across the Euphrates mounted on steeds. Steeds that defy imagination. "The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury."

These are chimera. We see this image in ancient text and carvings. Were these chimera a real experience for the ancients? Certainly looks as though they will be a real experience at some point in time.

And what about the riders? These are not typical riders. "Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur." I looked for this combination on flags, insignia, coats of arms, in the east mostly, didn't find anything. Not that this combo is not out there, I just didn't run across it. What is John saying? How is a breastplate all these colors at once? Or is he saying some wear red, some blue, some yellow? And what army wears breastplates these days? None that I know of. I know I've digressed. To the point...

John in this case is writing what he saw. I can allow for allegory and symbols when it's clear that's the intent. Like Rev 12. "A sign appeared in heaven..." this is a sign or a symbol and should be viewed as such.

Rev 17.

 10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. 11 The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction."

This is not a spiritual event. This will happen in real time, or has occurred in part, in this dimension, as John is writing what he saw and heard. I have thought of this 'coming up out of the abyss' statement by the angel and wondered over it, trying to understand. While it must be a spirit, it must also inhabit an individual. The beast is the 8th, yes? He is also OF the 7. It's been established the previous 7 are terran kings at the head of kingdoms. Popular takes on the identity of these previous 7 are lacking evidence, but the 7 are kings of the past in relation to the 8th. So, if the 7 are of mankind, the 8th is as well, as he is of the 7.

But what if this 8th king suffers the deadly head wound, goes down into the pit, or abyss, which means 'bottomless' or 'boundless' in Greek, and is resurrected and inhabited by a evil spirit? This is what we are astonished over, the death and resurrection of this man. It doesn't seem to me we would be astonished by, or worship, the unseen or that which was not previously known. I mean, who's going to worship a evil being we never heard about? And the fact that it's the life, death and then life again that astonishes the world.  "3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." The worship of the people for the beast arises directly out of the deadly head wound that was healed.

Rev 13, "...and they worshipped the beast...". So if the beast gains global infamy, which can happen if it's who I think it is, and then is arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to death, in a mirror of the Son of God's ordeal, then executed and resurrected, the world would be truly astonished. At least the leaders of the world who put on the trial and carried out the execution. And if the infamy is truly hideous, our access to social media and the news will keep us all informed as we are an ambivalent lot.

[Last Daze]

2 hours ago, Diaste said:

I know there will be unusual actors in the days of end of the age. The dragon is always described as a dragon and the people worship the dragon; Rev 13:4 "People worshiped the dragon..." It's entirely possible we will see a dragon. A powerful, supernatural dragon that can speak and give enormous power to another. It may be the dragon is a symbol of a fallen angelic being that, when on earth, he appears human like. But Satan was a serpent in the garden, sooo...

I agree that those days will be highly unusual.  All of the deception of wickedness will be on display which is why Jesus warned numerous times against being misled.

Keep in mind that a person or thing doesn't have to be seen to be worshiped.  It just has to affect your behavior.