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you ever had a dream? Maybe you had a dream about the legendary
British King Arthur and his wife Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot along
with the knights of the round table. I love fantasy stories where
the good men conquer evil and honor the homeland. In one fantasy
dream I found that by flapping my arms I could fly like a bird. I
could move around and even stay in one spot in the air. That was
a great dream. Maybe your dream was a nightmare much like Dorothy’s
dream in the story of the Wizard of Oz. Poor Dorothy thought that
she was trapped in a foreign land among strange people along with
her magic slippers. Our next chapter in Revelation is almost like
a nightmare. It is about dragons, and two horrible beasts. It is
the Apostle John’s vision.
Background. Revelation
12 introduced us to four of seven signs. These first four signs included a woman,
a dragon, a male child, and Michael the archangel. The woman was the nation of
Israel, the child was Jesus Christ, and the dragon was Satan. Satan was angry
and enraged because he discovered that his end was near.
Two more signs will be given in this study in
Revelation 13. They are two beasts. The first one has seven heads and ten horns
and the second one performs signs and wonders. The first beast is the Antichrist
and the second one is the false prophet who requires men and women to receive
the mark of 666. When we reach the end of this study, there will be only one
more sign.
The Dragon. As
Revelation 13 opens we are told that “he stood on the sand of the seashore.”
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And
he stood on the sand of the seashore. And I saw a beast coming
up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and
on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous
names. (NASB) Rev. 13:1 |
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