Dive deep into Revelation 13 as Bible teacher David Hawking presents the serious and looming threats of religious deception signaled by the rise of the beast and the mark of the beast. Understand the scriptural warnings about the false prophet guiding people into false worship and deceit through convincing signs and wonders. As Hawking elucidates, these are not just stories of fiction but prophetic realities that demand vigilance and faithfulness to the truth of God’s Word.
There’s going to be a multitude, says chapter 7, verse 9 and following, out of every nation, tribe, tongue, and people who will believe in the Lord. And they’re going to be killed. Why? Because they don’t take the mark of the beast and they refuse to worship that image. And who is promoting this? Isn’t that interesting? The false prophet. Then if you don’t worship it, kill him. Real loving ministry, huh?
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You’ve seen the movies, you’ve heard the speculation, and you’ve read the headlines, headlines that claim to have it all figured out. but the Bible blows the lid off every theory. In Revelation 13, verses 11 through 18, John describes a world not just watching signs and wonders, But falling for them, a world under the spell of lies, driven into obedience until the only option left is to bow to the enemy of God and take his mark. This isn’t science fiction, but it is prophecy. It’s real and it’s coming. Stay tuned as Bible teacher and author David Hawking takes us even deeper into Revelation chapter 13 to learn more about the mark of the beast on Hope for Today. And just before our lesson time, Matt, it’s time to open up the mailbag again here. And we have a letter from Ron. And I sure appreciate what Ron says here. He has a very wise comment on truth.
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What does he say? It says, Dear David and staff, there is nothing so powerful as the unadulterated truth contained in the word of God.
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Amen, Rob.
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Amen. Please continue giving it to the world, one verse and book at a time. Yeah. Wow. Have been listening and studying with you for almost 30 years. And thank you again for your faithfulness to the Lord.
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Well, Ron, the only one that’s got both you and me beat is Matt here, because you’ve been studying God’s Word for, what, 50 years or so? Yeah, 55. And I just love that when you tell about your dad, growing up with him and remembering him studying the Word of God early in the morning, four hours a day was typical.
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That’s right. Because it goes back to that, you know, monkey see, monkey do, right? Right. And it’s not what you say, it’s what you do. And that was a great example for me to say the word. Deed to create and walk to talk.
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Well, folks, if you have a comment per request, maybe if you’d like to make a donation to the ministry, we could sure use your contact. You’re getting in touch with us and we’ll tell you just a bit later how to do that. All right. Now here’s David with day two of The Mark of the Beast.
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Revelation chapter 13, verse 11, warns us of what’s coming. We looked at this beast who came out of the sea. Verse 1, we pointed out the first phrase belongs at the end of chapter 12 and is referring to Satan. He stood on the sand of the sea. And then John saw this beast, seven heads and ten horns. and how the whole world’s going to worship him and all of that. Now verse 11, And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, that one out of the sea, this one out of the earth. And he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them who dwell on it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast that had the wound by a sword and did live. And he hath power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and enslaved, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no one, no man, might buy or sell anything save or accept he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred three score and six. First of all, the characteristics of this second beast in verse 11 and 12. Verse 13 to 15, the counterfeit of miraculous signs that he will do. And third, the control which he will bring through this mark of the beast in verse 16 and 18. So let’s start by looking at the characteristics of the second beast. This beast is another of the same kind. He’s going to appear to be very acceptable and desirable to start with. But he also has a wicked and vile character like the first beast. And I’d like you to notice five things about him. First, his association with the first beast. He’s called the false prophet. And notice their destiny. These both, God’s going to send them to hell ultimately. The second thing is look at his appearance. In verse 11 again of chapter 13, it says he had two horns like a lamb. He’s going to cause certainly religious deception, but perhaps the two horns indicate both his political and religious authority. The third thing I notice is his attitude. It says he spake or spoke like a dragon. The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. And if he speaks like the dragon, he’s going to do the same thing. Chapter 13 again, look at his authority. His authority. Chapter 13 and verse 12. He exerciseth all the power, that’s a Greek word, exousia, the authority of the first beast before him. Notice it’s always in his presence. There’s a blending together or a full cooperation between the political leader and the religious leader. Now his aim is very clear. It says, he causeth the earth. Look at chapter 13, verse 12. He causeth the earth and them who dwell on it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. The whole characteristic of this second beast are not difficult at all to picture happening soon. Now, in verses 13 to 15, you have the counterfeit of miraculous signs. And I personally believe that what’s happening in religious circles today has created the atmosphere, all the atmosphere we need for this deception. And I’d like you to notice at least five things here. Number one, he duplicates what God did in the past. This is why it’s so deceiving. He duplicates what God did in the past. Verse 13, he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. that’s duplicating what God has done in the past. This person is really counterfeiting the miracles of God. And it’s interesting what Jesus said in Matthew 24. Turn back there, please. Matthew chapter 24. Look at verse 24. Our Lord Jesus predicted that in the tribulation there will be such religious deception by miracles that if possible it would deceive the very elect, the believer. It says in verse 24, Now those words are the same words used of Jesus’ miracles. He did signs and wonders. It’s the same words used of the apostle miracles. Signs and wonders. And these men are going to do them. And they’re not just small, they’re great signs and wonders, Jesus said. In so much that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And look at verse 9 and 10. You talk about deception by miraculous miracles, the counterfeiting of the miracles of the Lord. He duplicates what God did in the past. 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 and 10 says, “…even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” They are going to be deceived by what? Power, signs, lying wonders. Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12, 12, truly the signs of an apostle were done in you with all signs, wonders, and miracles, or powers, dunamis. The fact is that these same words are used of what’s going to happen in the tribulation period. No wonder John wrote in 1 John 4 that we need to discern and test the spirits, whether they be of God, that we can know the difference of the spirit of truth and the spirit of error by one single test, whether or not Jesus Christ is truly God incarnate in human flesh. It’s a very serious matter. I come back again to Revelation 13. He not only duplicates what God did in the past, but he deceives by the use of these signs. He deceives people. It says, he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, verse 14, by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast. And this amazes me because the world is set for this. We shouldn’t be surprised. There’s been some investigation of these ministries. I believe that God can do miracles even in the midst of that trash. I believe God can heal people anytime he wants to. But I think we better understand something. We’re living on the verge of the return of Christ, and the Bible warns us that there is going to be deceptive miracles, signs that if possible would deceive the very elect. It’s going to look so good. It’s going to look like it’s real. And this is a very serious matter. It’s happening all over the world. I just finished reading an article by a man describing how God is doing miracles all around the world. And he mentioned several locations and places where And the whole attitude of it was not to check into the validity of it, not to verify whether it was truly from God or whether it was a healing or not, but to supposedly all of us are to automatically bow down and accept it all. I’m sorry. I just can’t do that. I don’t believe God wants us to check our brains off at the door. God is a God of miracles, and he’s a God who can heal, but there’s a lot of junk out there. There’s a lot of counterfeiting going on. And we’re supposed to be warning the people of God, and instead we’re rebuking each other if anybody brings it up. Hey, something’s wrong, folks. The devil has pulled the wool over our eyes again, and we are not studying God’s word carefully. He deceives, according to the Bible, by the use of these miraculous signs. And our Christian world, you know it and I know it, has been set up for this. But friends, we’re getting to a point where we see people not only supporting these things, but sending millions and millions of dollars. He was raking in over $80 million a year off of these supposed miracles. You send me money and this will happen to you and so forth. He started out by asking for $1,000 and then people got a little wary of that and so now he’ll take anything. But I hope that people will see through that. This is a terrible, terrible time we’re living in, in terms of religious deception. And more and more reason why we need to be Berean Christians and search the scriptures daily to see whether those things are so. A third thing I notice he does, that he declares that an image should be made to the beast. Look at verse 14. It says, he said to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast that had the wound by a sword and to live. So this world empire that’s come back to life, they’re making a giant image to it. And it cannot help but remind you what happened in the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 2, they did the exact same thing. And our world is so pagan now that if they think that’s the answer to bring world peace, they will make some monument to it. After all, look at all the gross, ugly monuments that we have all over our country now to unbelievable things. I was in Rochester, New York, and one of the pastors had taken me out to the airport as I was leaving the Rochester airport. And he said, by the way, David, I want to show you something right here in the middle of our airport. And as we got closer to it, I saw these what looked like totem poles to me, the ugliest looking things I’ve ever seen. And he said, you know, we’re very concerned in our city that we don’t favor any religion. And he said, I’d like you to notice what this plaque says underneath these idols here and these gods. And it was an Eskimo saying from the past saying, that was talking about a lot of new age junk as it relates to the earth, but literally was asking everybody to worship these gods and goddesses that represent the movements of nature and the earth. You know, I felt like saying, hey, maybe we ought to demonstrate here against the religious discrimination, or at least, hey, let’s set up a sign that says Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We ought to do something. When they brought the Ark of the Covenant into the house of Dagon, we know what happened to the idol Dagon. He fell over. But I just couldn’t believe it. Right there in the airport, asking everybody to worship this. It’s unbelievable. And the paganism across our country. Some of the ugliest, stupid monuments. I have ever seen in my life. Or in public squares all over America. We have become a pagan society. And I think as Christians, sometimes we have our head in the sand. We’re enjoying each other and our fellowship and so forth. We’re trying to ignore what’s going on. But the world out there is becoming more secular, but in another sense, becoming more religious. It’s like a paradox. How can you be secular and religious at the same time? Well, there is a vacuum in the heart of man. He’s got to worship something. And the paganism in our society is just growing by leaps and bounds. And it’s no surprise to me that they’re going to design some sort of monument to world government and world order and even begin to worship it, obviously honoring that government and that beast behind it. But the other interesting thing, look at verse 15. The fourth thing I’d mention is that he designs the image with the ability to speak. Now you’ve got to admit that if that image they built all of a sudden started talking to you, you’d be looking around to see if there was somebody who put a speaker in it or something else. But it says, verse 15, he has power to give life unto the image of the beast. What does that mean? Will it move? That the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And the last part of that verse gives us the fifth thing I would mention, that he demands that the beast be worshiped. And if you don’t worship the beast, you are killed. Turn to chapter 20 and look at verse 4. Chapter 20, verse 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Wow. Wow. What happens to these believers? We know 144,000 Jews are supernaturally protected by God. By the way, they receive a mark, their father’s name in their foreheads, and they’re protected by God. We know also that there’s a Jewish remnant, as we learn in chapter 12, that’s going to flee into wilderness and be protected by God for the last three and a half years. They’re going to survive and turn to the Lord at the end of the tribulation. So who are these believers who are being killed? They are Gentile believers, obviously. There’s going to be a multitude, says chapter 7, verse 9 and following, out of every nation, tribe, tongue, and people who will believe in the Lord. And they’re going to be killed. Why? Because they don’t take the mark of the beast and they refuse to worship that image. And they’re going to be killed. And who is promoting this? Isn’t that interesting? The false prophet, the head of the world’s religious system, is promoting this. And if you don’t worship it, kill him. Real loving ministry, huh? Well, let’s take a look at the control which this beast will bring. Verses 16 to 18, and probably the thing you’re all waiting for, is the mark of the beast and what it means. I want you to notice four things. Look at the extent of this control. Once again, reading the Bible carefully, it says he causeth all evil. both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond slave or enslaved, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. The extent of this control, he causeth all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, all of them. Everybody has to have the mark. Boy, what a dilemma this is going to bring to Christians, the believers in the tribulations. Everybody has to have it. Now the evidence of his control, of course, is this mark in their right hand and in their forehead. Turn back to chapter 7, verse 3. The devil seems to counterfeit everything. In chapter 7, verse 3, concerning the 144,000, it says, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their what? Foreheads. Look at chapter 14, verse 1. And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father’s name written in their what? Foreheads. So here we have in society a counterfeit of the mark of God. A mark in their right hand or in their forehead. I don’t think there’s any question about it. I think it’s literal. I think there’s going to be a mark in the forehead and a mark on the hand, and it’s going to control the economic position of all in the world. It’s going to be there.
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That’s David Hawking, and this is Hope for today. David will be back in just a moment or so to close out today’s time in the word. So stay right there. Just before that, Matt and I have a great Bible study resource. And, you know, this is going to lift your spirit during the rough times that inevitably come in our lives.
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Matt? Each month, Jim, we hear from our listening family regarding the trials and tribulations they’re facing. Members of our staff are experienced. experiencing deep hurts and pains. And as a nation, we’re reeling from these recent events. So how do we keep our hearts focused and trusting in the Lord? How do we hang on to hope? Yeah, well, this month we’re featuring my dad’s book, Hope in Difficult Times. Hope in Difficult Times is 195 pages of encouragement. Faith Building Guidance, biblical direction for every discouragement of your life. And it’s just $20.
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Matt, Inside Your Dad takes readers through a biblical study of hope and its role in the life of believers. He shows us God’s merciful character for those times when the hopelessness we face comes from our own sin or cowardice. Yeah, and it also includes a powerful study from Peter’s life. Boy, he’s a good example. Amen.
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Well, Matt, how about the discouragement we endure when we’re targeted by gossip, rumors, and accusations? Yeah, exactly. Well, there’s hope from God’s word from these seasons. And my dad lays it out inside this book, Hope for Difficult Times. Matt, how about those times when we fail and desperately need restoration? Yeah, you know, there’s hope from God’s word. Amen. And you’ll discover and realize it when you read Hope for Difficult Times. Hope is the confidence that God cares, loves, cares. has a purpose, and will complete his work in and through our lives. And gives us the abundant blessing of eternity with him.
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Wow. Amen. Well, get your copy of Hope for Difficult Times today for $20 from Hope for Today. Read, enjoy, and then share with a friend who also needs hope.
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And don’t forget to always pray for Hope for Today. Please do.
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To get your copy of Hope in Difficult Times, call us at 800-75-BIBLE, that’s in the U.S., or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And you may know this, Bible is 242-53. Or order online at davidhawking.org. Now, just before David joins us again, you know, if you were with us at the beginning of today’s broadcast, you heard the letter we read from a listener who was thanking God for this ministry. And that was so encouraging to Matt and I and the whole team here. And, you know, friends, testimonies like that, they just don’t happen by accident. They’re the direct result of God’s word going out and your prayers and your donations that keep this program on the air. It’s your partnership with us, your co-laboring with us that makes it possible for Hope for Today to continue proclaiming the truth unfiltered and unapologetic to a world that is spiritually starving. But that partnership tells a story. We can’t do it alone. We need your continued support. We need your prayers for us. We need you to stand with us. And if God is leading you to give, know that your gift becomes a part of every soul reached, every life touched, and every heart turned back to the Lord. You can partner with us by sending your donation by mail, if you like, to Hope for Today, Box 3927. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Eppesford, B.C., V2S, 8P1. Or 800-75-BIBLE. In Canada, 888-75-BIBLE. And again, Bible by the numbers 242. You know, your gift isn’t just paying for airtime. It’s pushing back against the darkness. It’s lifting high the name of Jesus. It’s making sure that the Word of God remains free and available to anyone who turns on a radio or opens up a web stream. So thanks for whatever you can do. Here again is David.
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We read in the passage that we’ve been studying today that this is another beast coming out of the earth and had two horns like a lamb, so it looks like he’s okay, but he spoke as a dragon. He is the false prophet, and he deceives people. He’s going to be able to perform miracles and be very impressive to the people of planet Earth. That’s obvious in the teaching of Revelation chapter 13, starting with verse 11, and we’ll read to the end. And at the end, before we’re done, we’ll deal with the mark of the beast. I hope you’re ready for that. We want to thank you all for your prayers, and thank you for your support. We definitely need you. We’re a team together, and thank you very much. God is working mighty miracles in the hearts of people today and through these broadcasts on Revelation, and I just pray that you will keep praying for us and help us financially when you can as well. Thank you so very, very much. We don’t have a church or a big organization or a manufacturing agency in the background behind Hope for Today. No, Hope for Today is totally dependent on listener support. Thank you, and God bless you, and let’s keep our eyes on the Lord. We’re here to worship Him. God bless.
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Well, thank you, David. And next time on the broadcast, you know the false prophet. The false prophet is still on the move in Revelation chapter 13. He’s deceiving the nations with miracles, breathing life into the image of the beast and demanding worship at the edge of a sword. The mark is more than a number. It’s a sign of loyalty to the Antichrist and rebellion against the living God. Don’t miss the continuation of our study on the mark of the beast right here on Hope. For today.
