Worship The Beast or
Die
Study 6
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A Time of Testing
Someone has said that
truth can be stranger than fiction.
If this is true, then there is a
truth that could be stranger than
fiction: The Bible predicts the
final generation will face a life and
death controversy over the question
of worship. Many people think
worship means “going to
church,” but worship involves
far more than going to a worship
service. Worship means submission and
obedience to God – as in
fulfilling a divine obligation or
duty out of love for God. A terrible
controversy over worship will occur
during the Great Tribulation because
salvation will come through the
worship of Jesus Christ (John
5:23,24) and condemnation will come
through the worship of the
Antichrist. (Revelation 14: 9,10)
When Abel sacrificed
the required lamb, he
worshiped God. When Cain offered
fruit to God, he did not worship God
– he offended God because he did
not do what God commanded. Often,
worship is considered a causal
matter. When and how (or if) an
individual worships is a personal
matter for the most part. Worship is
sometimes described as a celebration
service or meditation. Worship is
regarded as an expression of devotion
to God and each religious body is
free to worship according to what it
believes is God’s will. When the
Great Tribulation begins, the topic
of worship will suddenly change from
that of personal taste to that of
corporate responsibility. Suddenly,
the issue of how God is to be
worshiped will be debated because
people will assume that they can
appease God’s wrath by
worshiping Him properly. According to
Revelation, the people of Earth will
become sharply divided over the
worship of God during the Great
Tribulation. Ultimately, there will
be two camps of worshipers, one will
worship the Lamb (the sheep) and the
other will worship the lamb-like
beast (the goats.)
The Bible predicts the
first four trumpet judgments of God
will kill 25% of the world’s
population. (Revelation 6:8) As a
result, despair, anxiety and
depression will be pandemic. In this
awful and desperate setting, consider
the simplicity of these words:
“All inhabitants of the Earth
will worship the beast [Babylon] all
whose names have not been written in
the book of life belonging to the
Lamb that was slain from the creation
of the world.” (Revelation
13:8, insertion mine) The words
“all inhabitants of the
Earth” are inclusive. The only
people who refuse to worship the
beast will be the saints. It is hard
to believe that millions of people
will rebel against God and submit to
the authority of Babylon, but it is
true. When the devil appears on
Earth, he will consolidate the
diversity of Babylon’s religions
into a one-world church/state. At
that time, wicked people rebelling
against both God and the devil will
have no choice but to worship the
devil or die. Notice the horrible
consequences that will befall the
people who worship the devil:
“If anyone worships the [lamb-like]
beast and his image and receives his
mark on the forehead or on the hand,
he, too, will drink of the wine of
God’s fury, which has been
poured full strength into the cup of
his wrath. He will be tormented with
burning sulfur in the presence of the
holy angels and of the Lamb.” (Revelation
14:9,10, insertion mine) This verse
contains one of the most solemn
warnings found in the entire Bible.
God means what He says and we can be
sure that death by burning sulfur
will not be a pleasant experience.
The other side of the
controversy will have deadly
consequences also. Many saints will
be tortured and killed by the
devil’s forces for refusing to
worship the beast! “…He [the
lamb-like beast] ordered them to
set up an image in honor of the beast
who was wounded by the sword and yet
lived. He was given power to give
breath to the image of the first
beast, so that it could speak and
cause all who refused to worship the
image to be killed.”
(Revelation 13:14,15, insertion mine)
Revelation says a huge
number of saints will be killed
during the Great Tribulation. “When
he [the Lamb] opened the fifth
seal, I saw under the alter the souls
of those who had been slain because
of the word of God and the testimony
they had maintained. They called out
in a loud voice, ‘How long,
Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until
you judge the inhabitants of the
earth and avenge our
blood?’” (Revelation
6:9,10) When the devil gains control
of Earth, he will not tolerate
rebellion against his authority. The
devil will be more cruel and ruthless
than Hitler. Millions will be
martyred. John writes, “This
calls for patient endurance on the
part of the saints who obey
God’s commandments and remain
faithful to Jesus.”
(Revelation 14: 12) God will
give a martyr’s faith to
everyone facing a martyr’s
death. Jesus said, “…And
surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:20) “All this I
have told you that you will not go
astray. They will put you out of the
synagogue; in fact, a time is coming
when anyone who kills you will think
he is offering a service to
God. They do such things
because they have not known the
Father or me.” (John 16:1-3)
While we are
considering the coming martyrdom of
saints, consider God’s wrath
upon those who kill His saints: “The
third angel poured out his bowl on
the rivers and the springs of water,
and they became blood. Then I heard
the angel in charge of the waters
say: ‘You are just in these
judgments, you who are and who were,
the Holy One, because you have so
judged; for they shed the blood of
your saints and prophets, and you
have given them blood to drink as
they deserve.’” (Revelation
16:4-6) This verse describes the
third bowl that occurs during the
seven last plagues (God’s
destructive wrath). God pours the
third bowl of His wrath – full
strength – upon those people who
participated in killing His saints
during the Great Tribulation. God
avenges the innocent blood of His
saints by giving these bloodthirsty
people blood to drink. These evil
people will suffer horribly for their
crimes against humanity. In addition
to this horrible suffering, their
lives will be sustained so that they
might perish in burning sulfur. The
wrath of God is far worse than
anything man can do. Jesus warned, “But
I will show you whom you should fear:
Fear him who, after the killing of
the body, has power to throw you into
hell. Yes, I tell you, fear
him.” (Like 12:5)
Powerful Irony
When God’s
judgments begin, God’s servants,
the 144,000, will tell a dazed and
reeling world that God is angry
because there is no respect for His
laws or His authority. They will
remind everyone that God’s Ten
Commandments are ten demands the
Creator imposes on all creation.
Specifically, the fourth commandment
requires the cessation of work on
God’s seventh day Sabbath.
Ironically, the leaders of the
religious coalition will say the same
thing! The problem will be that
Babylon’s Sabbath and God’s
Sabbath will be on two different
days! This disparity will make the
issue of “worship” very
interesting. The religious leaders of
Babylon will say with a united voice
that God has sent judgments upon
mankind because Earth’s
inhabitants have sinned greatly and
have become degenerate. They will
call for immediate action to appease
God. The religious leaders of Babylon
will sincerely demand laws from their
legislators requiring everyone to
honor and worship the God of Heaven.
Hindu and Buddhist leaders will solve
the worship problem by imposing their
views upon their nations. Jewish
rabbis, Catholic priests and
Protestant clergy will all do the
same.
A Holy Day Mystery
God has clearly
expressed in the Bible how His
subjects are to worship Him. This is
not a matter left to human design,
for if it was, humans would have
greater authority than God. The
one dictating the time and manner of
worship has highest authority.
Unfortunately, the devil has obscured
God’s truth about worship and
implemented false religion around the
world. During the end time, Babylon
will face a peculiar problem. Each
religious system in Babylon will
demand that God be worshiped in a
variety of ways. For example,
Moslems, regard Friday as a holy day,
Jews regard Saturday as a holy day
and Christians regard Sunday as a
holy day! Therefore, each religion
will ask its lawmakers to enact laws
exalting their day of worship. The
Bible says that when people obey the
laws of Babylon, they will be
worshiping the devil because the
devil is the power within Babylon. “Men
worshiped the dragon [devil] because
he had given authority to the beast
[Babylon], and they also worshiped
the beast [Babylon] and asked,
“Who is like the beast [Babylon]?
Who can make war [rebel]
against him?” (Revelation
13:4)
The story of Cain and
Abel is recorded in the Bible because
it illustrates the primary difference
between true worship and false
worship. Both men built altars. Abel
worshiped God by obediently
sacrificing a lamb according to
God’s instructions. Cain refused
to obey God. Instead, he chose to do
what he thought was best. In effect,
Cain presumed to tell his Creator how
He would be worshiped. By doing this,
Cain insulted God and God rejected
Cain’s offering. (Genesis 4:
1-6)
Cain’s rebellious
heart led to Cain’s rejection.
Because of rejection, Cain became
violently angry and killed his
brother. John warns, “Do not
be like Cain, who belonged to the
evil one and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him? Because
his own actions were evil and his
brother’s were righteous. Do not
be surprised, my brothers, if the
world hates you.” (1 John 3:
12,13) John says Cain’s
“act of worship” was evil!
In fact, God considered it a
blasphemous act because Cain assumed
the prerogatives that only belong to
God. Cain thought he could tell God
how or when He should be worshiped!
Look at this from God’s
perspective for a moment. If a
created being can tell his Creator
how or when He is to be worshiped,
then the created being is greater
than his Creator. Remember, the one
dictating the time and manner of
worship has highest authority.
The crux of the matter is this: God
accepts our worship if we worship Him
in Spirit and in truth; that is, if
we honestly worship God according to
all we know to be right and true. At
the present time, many people worship
God thinking they are doing the right
thing, when in reality they are not
worshiping God as He commands. God
kindly winks at our ignorance.
However, during the Great
Tribulation, God has determined that
the whole world must be informed
about worship. This is why worship
will become the central issue during
the Great Tribulation. The 144,000
will preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ to every nation, kindred and
tongue as a testimony to all nations.
(Matthew 24:14) and the gospel of
Jesus Christ contains specific
information about the worship of
Jesus. The 144,000 will proclaim “…Fear
God and give him glory, because the
hour of his judgment has come,
Worship him who made the Heavens, the
Earth, the sea and the springs of
water.” (Revelation 14:7)
The 144,000 will present the first
message that will be “fear
God” and “worship the
Creator” because the vast
majority of the world’s
population does neither. God
understands Earth’s spiritual
darkness and He has winked at our
ignorance for a ling time, but
overnight, He will remove the
darkness that covers the subject of
worship by display of awesome power,
He will have everyone’s
attention. Then, He will send His
servants throughout the world and
with Holy Spirit power; they will
expel the darkness that Satan has
placed around the subject of
worshiping God on His holy Sabbath,
the seventh day of the week. The
honest in heart within every religion
will hear the call to worship Jesus
and they will receive Christ as their
Savior and worship Jesus according to
our Creator’s demands.
Worship the Creator
This may come as a
surprise, but 95% of the references
about God in the Bible refer to
Jesus. The Father rarely speaks in
the Bible. Jesus is the God of the
Old Testament and He is the God of
the New Testament. (Isaiah 45; John
5:39,40; 8:58) Jesus is the Creator
of Heaven and Earth. (John 1:1-14;
Colossians 1:16-19; Hebrews 1:1-3)
These facts are presented because
Jesus is not a lesser God than the
Father as many suppose. (John 5:23;
Colossians 2:9) Jesus is fully God
and He did not leave worship to human
design. Jesus clearly explains in the
Ten Commandments how He is to be
worshiped. Carefully review His first
four commands. They are found in
Exodus 20: 3-11)
Commandment 1. “You shall not
have no gods before me.”
Commandment 2.
“You shall not make for yourself
an idol in the form of anything in
heaven above or on Earth beneath or
in the waters below. You shall not
bow down to them or worship them; for
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous
God, punishing the children for the
sin of the fathers to the third and
fourth generation of those who hate
me, but showing love to thousands who
love me and keep my
commandments.”
Commandment 3. “You shall not
misuse the name of the Lord your God,
for the Lord will not hold anyone
guiltless who misuses his name.”
Commandment 4. “ Remember the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six
days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is the
Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it
you shall not do any work, neither
you, nor your son or daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor
your animals, nor the alien within
your gates. For in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the Earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, but he
rested on the seventh day. Therefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and
made it holy.”
These four
commandments outline the basics of
worship. They explain the reverence
and respect due our Creator. We are
not to obey and reverence any other
God. We are not to create an idol and
bow down before it. We are not to use
or represent the name of God in a
careless way. In addition, we are to
observe the seventh day of the
week as a memorial to our Creator
and our Redeemer by resting from our
labors on Saturday, just as He rested
from His.
Confrontational
Issue
When confronted with
the demands of the fourth
commandment, most Christians argue
that the seventh day Sabbath was
abolished or nailed to the cross. The
implication is that when Jesus came
to Earth, He did away with the Ten
Commandments, including the
“Sabbath of the Jews.” The
Bible disagrees. The fourth
commandment does not grant ownership
of the Sabbath to the Jews. Rather,
it says, “The seventh day is
a Sabbath to the Lord your God.”
The Bible indicates the seventh day
was made holy long before there was
any Jew on earth! In fact, the
seventh day Sabbath was created and
set apart as a special day at
Creation. When properly understood,
the beauty of God’s Sabbath
shines from Creation’s week
revealing a special gift that Jesus
gave to mankind. Think of it –
God’s Sabbath was the first full
day of life for Adam and Eve! Jesus
created the Sabbath, He made it holy
at Creation and He gave it to man: “Thus
the heavens and the earth were
completed in all their vast array. By
the seventh day God had finished the
work he had been doing; so on the
seventh day he rested from all his
work. And God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, because on it he
rested from all the work of creating
that he had done.” (Genesis
2:1-3) Four thousand years later
Jesus said, “…The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is
Lord even of the Sabbath.”
(Mark 2:27,28)
If the topic of the
seventh day Sabbath is a
controversial subject in the best of
times, what will it be during the
worst of times? God’s seventh
day Sabbath will prove to be highly
controversial during the Great
Tribulation for three reasons: First,
our carnal nature is inherently
opposed to obeying God’s law:
“The sinful mind is hostile to
God. It does not submit to god’s
law, nor can it do so.”
(Romans 8:7) Second, few people have
enough time to get everything done
that needs to be done throughout the
week. Asking most people to
“give up” 24 hours each
week to worship God seems to be
asking too much. Last, God’s
Sabbath has a very determined
adversary. The devil has made sure
that Saturday observance puts a
person at odds with the social and
religious orders of life. The
observance of Sabbath interrupts
every aspect of life. This is why God
created the Sabbath in the first
place. Jesus wanted to interrupt
man’s relentless pursuit for
money and pleasure every week with a
whole day of rest. Because Jesus knew
that mankind would stray from His
Sabbath, God bound the observance of
His Sabbath upon mankind with the
authority of law. When these factors
are added together, it is easy to see
why most of the world prefers to
worship God according to their own
ideas. They believe that “Jesus
wants too much.”
The Ten Commandments
are divided into two groups, and
therefore, they were written on two
tablets of stone. (Exodus 34:29) The
first four commandments deal with
man’s relationship to God, and
the last six deal with man’s
relationship to his neighbor.
Actually, the Ten Commandments
summarize the two essential laws of
life. Jesus summarized them saying, “…’Love
the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all
your mind.’ This is the first
and greatest commandment. And the
second is like it: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’ All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these
two commandments.” (Matthew
22:37-40; Jesus quotes from
Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18.)
Love and faith are the
foundation of salvation. Love makes
submission a joy, and faith
(believing God’s Word) is the
basis for obedience. The two
“love” commandments that
Jesus mentioned are defined by the
Ten Commandments. The meaning of
love is not left to human definition.
Unfortunately, the word
“love” today, commonly
means sex, lust or passion. What a
perversion! According to Jesus, true
love is a high and holy principle
that produces joyful obedience!
“Whoever has my commands and
obeys them, he is the one who loves
me. He who loves me will be loved by
my Father, and I too will love him
and show myself to him….If
anyone loves me, he will obey my
teachings….He who does not love
me will not obey my
teaching….” (John
14:21-24)
As we would expect,
Satan has effectively led the human
race to diminish the importance of
the Ten Commandments. The devil has
especially tried to hide the
requirement of the fourth commandment
which contains instruction on how to
worship an when to worship our
Creator. Satan’s purpose for
doing this is simple. Bible history
confirms that when people ignore the
Sabbath of their Creator, they also
forget their Creator. When people
forget their creator, they soon
create false gods that are compatible
with the carnal nature because
mankind inherently needs something to
exalt and worship. God created this
desire within us. Satan has enjoyed
enormous success displacing our
Creator with false gods. Many people
have no idea that god demands rest on
the seventh day of the week. God has
winked at man’s ignorance and
darkness on this subject for a long
time. This is not God’s loss; it
is man’s loss because an
all-knowing Creator created the
Sabbath for man! Every violation of
God’s law diminishes the quality
of life that God wants for His
children. Degeneracy is the result of
rebellion and separation from the
renewing power of God. If a person
does not love and obey his or her
Creator, he or she has broken the
first commandment because that person
will love and obey another god. “Who
foretold this long ago, who declared
it from the distant past? Was it not
I, the Lord? And there is no other
God apart from me, a righteous God
and a Savior; there is none but me.
Turn to me and be saved, all you ends
of the earth; for I am God, and there
is no other.” (Isaiah
45:21,22)
Jesus will use the
first four trumpets to strip away our
financial security and our foolish
attraction for gods of wood, metal,
stone, pleasure, materialism and self
reliance. A $75,000 Mercedes will be
of no value without fuel or roads on
which to drive. A $500,000 house will
be worthless if it is reduced to a
pile of rubble by the first global
earthquake. God is about to awaken
people all over the world. Then
everyone will get a chance to see how
great our corporate rebellion is
against Him. This rebellion will
center on the issue of worship,
specifically on the observance of our
Creator’s Sabbath.
Jesus is Almighty
God
Knowledge of an omnipotent and
angry God will explode all over the
Earth during the Great Tribulation!
No one will be able to deny
God’s wrath. God’s silence
with the transgression of His law
will end and all creation will know
that He sits enthroned in Heaven. He
is Almighty God. He is Sovereign over
Heaven and Earth and He will send a
clarion call throughout the earth to
worship Him on His holy day –
Saturday, the seventh day of the
week. The call to worship Him as He
dictates will separate the sheep from
the goats.
Consider these three
points:
1. God declared the
seventh day of the week holy at
Creation because He rested on the
seventh day to commemorate His
creation of this world! The word holy
means “set apart.” God made
the seventh day uniquely different
from the other six days at Creation
– not at Mount Sinai! It was God
who set the seventh day apart from
the others. (Genesis 2:2,3)
2. Because
foreknew that Satan would
successfully lead the world to forget
or deny the holiness of the seventh
day Sabbath, the fourth commandment
begins with the word
“Remember.” (Exodus 20:8)
3. Contrary to what
religious leaders say, god Himself
declared the seventh day of the week
to be holy and He has not rescinded
this declaration. All other
days, according to God, are for work
and common activities. (Exodus 20:9)
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