The Book of Life is mentioned in various verses in the Bible.
In Exodus 32:32, Moses said to God, “Yet now, if You will not forgive their sin, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
In Daniel 12:1, God told Daniel, “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
In Luke 10:20, Jesus told His disciples not to rejoice that evil spirits were subject to them, but to rejoice because their names are written in heaven.
In Philippians 4:3, Paul urged the Philippian Christians to help his yokefellows who labored with him in the Gospel
In Revelation 3:5, Jesus said to the overcomer, “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.”
According to Revelation 21:27, no one enters New Jerusalem whose name is “not written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Three important truths to remember from Revelation 13:8 are: 1) Don’t worship the beast, 2) God’s plan from the foundation of the world was for Christ to be slain for our sins, 3) The Lamb writes the name of those who are His in the Book of Life.
Revelation 13:9: “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.”
In Revelation, Jesus says to each of the seven churches mentioned, “If anyone has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Are we listening to the Holy Spirit’s guidance?
How did the devil mislead our first parents? In Genesis 3:1, he asked Eve, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” He wants to create doubt in us about what the Lord has said to us. Thus, it is important to meditate on God’s Word day and night, to abide in Christ, so that we are not led astray by either forgetting or beginning to doubt God.
Revelation 13:10: “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”
The above passage contains a quote from Jeremiah 15:1-4: “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go forth. And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord: such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction, says the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.’”
The people of Jeremiah’s day had ignored God’s voice for so long that He determined to let some die by sword, some by famine, and some by created creatures. In Revelation 13, the appearance of the beast is a fruit of the world’s rejection of God.
The phrase, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” is a word to the wise. In 1 Corinthians 13:4, the Lord says that love suffers long. When a saint sees people reject Christ and perish in their sin, it grieves his or her heart. Christ died to save sinners. He loves them dearly, but due to pride and hardness of heart, they reject God’s remedy for sin.
Revelation 13:11: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.”
The Lord shows John another beast. It comes up out of the earth not the sea. This second beast is called the false prophet in Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10.
The beast has a lamb’s horns and a dragon’s voice. In Matthew 7:15, Jesus warned us against false prophets who look like sheep but inwardly are ravening wolves. In 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Paul warned us against false apostles who transform themselves into apostles of Christ.
Revelation 13:12: “And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
The second beast is a worship leader. He leads people to worship the antichrist. He can also be understood as a minister of propaganda. He publishes lies against God and God’s people. He convinces people to serve the first beast who appeared as dead and then resurrected.
In John 5:43, Jesus told the religious leaders of Jerusalem, “I have come in My Father’s Name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” People tend to want a religion of their own choosing rather than the one God has ordained.
Revelation 13:13: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”
The false prophet makes fire visibly come down from heaven. This miracle answers to the miracle of the two witnesses. In Revelation 11:5, the two witnesses of God had fire proceed from their mouths that consumed their enemies.
The miracle of fire by the false prophet also answers to the miracle of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:24. Elijah told the false prophets of Jezebel, “You call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” The false prophets in Elijah’s day could not do this miracle, but it seems that the false prophet of the last days is able to do it. Thus, many believe he is a true prophet of God.
God rained down hail and fire on Egypt through the ministry of Moses. In Exodus 7:11-12, 22, 8:7, the magicians of Egypt were able to imitate some of God’s miracles by deceptive means, but bringing down fire from heaven is not mentioned as one they imitated.
In Matthew 24:24, Jesus prophesied of false prophets appearing and performing great signs and wonders. In 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Paul prophesied of a man of lawlessness appearing and performing signs and lying wonders.
Revelation 13:14: “And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.”
In Revelation 16:13-14, the Lord showed John three unclean spirits coming out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. “They are spirits of demons performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
The devil deceives people to shift their allegiance from God to him. After that, he deceives people to fight against the saints who are trying to save them from him.
Revelation 13:15: “He [the second beast] was granted power to give breath to the image of the [first] beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”
In Daniel 3 there is a counterpart to the beast of Revelation 13. In Daniel 3, the king of Babylon set up a golden image to be worshipped. He made a decree that everyone should worship its image or die in a fiery furnace. Three of his officials refused to do so because of their love for God. They were cast into a fiery furnace. They would have perished except that a fourth person appeared with them. The fourth person looked like the Son of God. He was. The three officials came forth from the fire unharmed.
In Revelation 13:15, the false prophet also creates an image. Like King Nebuchadnezzar, he gives people two options in regards to the idol: 1) worship it or 2) die.
The image of the beast is animated to breathe and speak: whether by magic or by technology, the result is impressive. In Psalm 135:15-16, the Psalmist noted that idols are silver and gold. They have mouths but cannot speak not. They have eyes but cannot see not.[1]
This idolatrous image is what Jesus, Daniel, and Paul spoke of as an abomination that causes desolation.[2] It is an idolatrous image set up in the holy place of a rebuilt temple.[3]
The earliest surviving commentary we have on the Book of Revelation was written by Victorinus of Pettau around 260-290 AD. Commenting on Revelation 13:15, he wrote, “He shall cause also that a golden image of Antichrist shall be placed in the temple at Jerusalem, and that the apostate angel should enter, and thence utter voices and oracles.”[4]
Revelation 13:16-18: “He causes all, both small and great, rich, and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
Currently, many people are using a number to purchase items. It is the number on their bank or credit card. It is no longer a farfetched concept to have the numbers 666 for buying and selling.
Sometimes slaveowners and kings brand people as a cattle rancher brands his cattle. In this way, the slave, the owner and potential people stealers know without a doubt to whom the slave belongs. The antichrist brands people with the number 666. Some have suggested that this is a trinity of humanism – body, soul and spirit – yielded to the glory of humankind rather than to God. 666 because God created man on the sixth day of creation.
In Deuteronomy 6:8, the Lord told the Israelites. “You shall bind them [the commandments] for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” The devil wants people to wear his brand on their foreheads and hands instead of God’s Word.
According to Revelation 14:9-11 and 19:20, whoever worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, will be cast into a lake of fire.
In Revelation 15:2 and 20:4, those who overcome the beast, his image, his mark, and over the number of his name, are with God. They live and reign with Christ.
Let us remain faithful and true to the Lord. If our earthly government is one big crime syndicate, we still need to honor and serve the Lord. This life is short. The next life is eternal.
[1] Enduring Word Commentary
[2] See Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
[3] Enduring Word Commentary
[4] Ibid
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