The Events after
World War III – Revelation 13:4
A War Over Worship
The book of
Revelation indicates a coming war
over worship which no one
expects, but which will affect
everyone. I call this war World
War IV because it will
begin after World War III has
ended. Currently, this war seems
impossible, but other events like
the four trumpets and the
formation of a seven-headed beast
also seem impossible. A very
different world order will emerge
shortly after God’s
judgments begin. The seven-headed
beast in Revelation 13:1 will
immediately enact laws to appease
God’s wrath and stop His
judgments. Ironically, the
seven-headed beast and law
enforcement officials in every
nation will become oppressors and
attack anyone who resists the new
laws. World War IV will last 42
miserable months.
Revelation
13 describes the war over
worship with the following
words: “The
whole world was astonished [by
the sudden creation of the
seven-headed beast] and [at
first, the survivors] followed [along
with] the [mission
of the seven-headed] beast. [In
worshiping the seven-headed
beast,] Men
worshiped the [great
red] dragon [who
is that ancient serpent, the
devil] because he
had given authority to the [seven-headed] beast,
and they also worshiped the [seven-headed] beast
and asked, “Who is like
the [seven-headed] beast? [Who
can resist its authority and
succeed?] Who can
make war against him [without
being killed or severely
punished]? The [seven-headed] beast
was given a mouth to utter proud
words [vain,
arrogant boasting] and
blasphemies [words
and declarations that are
insulting to God] and
to exercise his authority for
forty-two months . . . He [the
seven-headed beast] was
given power to make war
against the
saints and
to conquer them. And he was given
authority over every tribe,
people, language and nation [including
the United States]. All
inhabitants of the Earth will
worship the [seven-headed] beast
— 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 13:3-8, insertions and
italics mine)
By the end of the
42 months, everyone will be
worshiping (Greek: proskuneo)
the seven-headed beast except the
saints who either will be dead or
in hiding. Proskuneo means
to kiss, surrender, or
voluntarily submit. The idea
stems from ancient times when
people showed voluntary
submission by bowing and kissing
the rings of kings, queens, and
popes. A display of humble
submission seems a brilliant
choice when approaching people
that have power over life and
death. Unfortunately, for all the
good the seven-headed beast
intends to do, it will ultimately
become the devil’s
hand-puppet. The devil will
overtake the seven-headed beast
when he gives it his power,
throne, and great authority. This
will be an amazing thing to
witness, but only those who have
spiritual eyesight will
understand what is really taking
place. The wicked will not
recognize the devil’s
control of the seven-headed beast
or sense his deadly goal of
destroying the saints until the
war ends.
Tensions are
building around the world and
eventually, World War III will
become inevitable. During this
war, millions of innocent people
will die; many from nuclear
exchanges. As the carnage
unfolds, the United Nations will
sound like a broken record,
pleading for peace and safety.
The saints will be praying,
asking God to intervene to stop
the madness. (Revelation 8:3,4) While Earth is
roiling from the violence of war,
Jesus will select and seal
144,000 people (Revelation 7:1-4) and when they
are ready for their mission,
Jesus will declare, “There
will be no more delay.” (Revelation 10:6) The angel
ministering at the Altar of
Incense in Heaven’s temple
will terminate the intercession
that transpires each day by
throwing down his golden censer.
(Revelation 8:5) Dramatic signs
such as sheets of lightning,
deafening thunder, and voices
coming out of the Earth will
follow. Then, a global earthquake
will cause the whole world to
tremble, and God will direct His
wrath toward Earth. I believe the
144,000 will announce the date
for each of the first four
trumpet judgments (Revelation 8:6-12) and the
disasters will occur over a 30 to
60-day period.
Sudden Destruction
Ends World War III
Although WWIII
will be horrific, very few people
anticipate the “sudden
destruction” that will halt
it. Paul wrote, “While
people are saying, ‘Peace
and safety,’
destruction [from
God] will come on
them suddenly, as labor pains on
a pregnant woman, and they will
not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3, insertion mine)
The sudden destruction that Paul
predicts is God’s wrath. The
first four trumpets will cause
much greater devastation than
mankind’s nuclear
destruction. After God has
burned up one third of the Earth
and two billion people are dead
or missing from the first four
trumpets, the leaders of the
world will assemble during the
darkness of the fourth trumpet.
They will attempt to appease
God’s anger by creating a
seven-headed government that will
devour everyone who resists its
authority. This beast (or
government), called Babylon, has
the mouth of a lion and the claws
of a bear. It will issue laws and
severely punish anyone who
refuses to obey them. Initially,
the religious and political
leaders of the world will be on a
mission to save the world from
God’s wrath, and their
solution will be to stop all
behavior that is offensive to
God. Anyone caught offending the
Almighty will be immediately
arrested and punished.
The religious
leaders of the world will not
anticipate the dreadful
consequence of creating the
seven-headed beast. Governments
rarely consider the negative
consequences of their good
intentions. Before we examine
this consequence, consider this
short story.Before Jesus created
the Earth, God cast Lucifer and
his angels out of Heaven, because
they refused to worship Jesus.
After Jesus created Earth,
Lucifer lied to Eve in the Garden
of Eden, and she ate the
forbidden fruit. Adam willfully
sinned because he loved Eve.
After Adam and Eve sinned, the
devil claimed the world as his
kingdom and Heaven recognized him
as “the prince of this
world.” (John 12:31) Four thousand
years later, the devil knew that
when Jesus was born, He came into
the world for three reasons.
First, Jesus came to redeem every
sinner who loves God, obeys the
voice of the Holy Spirit, and
lives by faith. Second, Jesus
came to prove to Heaven’s
angels that Lucifer had become a
liar, predator, and murderer.
Third, Jesus came to Earth to
take this kingdom away from
Lucifer’s dominion. Remember
that Lucifer tempted Jesus with
ownership of the world. (Matthew 4:8,9) Jesus
accomplished everything the
Father wanted Him to do so
Lucifer and his angels know that
God will legitimately destroy
them at the end of the thousand
years. (Revelation 20:9,10) All the saints
and holy angels will agree that
for justice to be served, Lucifer
and his angels must be
annihilated. Knowing that Jesus
was on a mission to destroy his
dominion, the devil tried to kill
Jesus when He was born. When that
effort failed, Lucifer came up
with another plan. He led the
leaders of Israel to kill Jesus,
but the Father resurrected Jesus.
Jesus ascended to the Father
resurrection Sunday morning to
receive Earth as His
possession. However,
Lucifer would not give up his
claim, so there was war in Heaven
and Lucifer and his angels were
cast out. Never again would the
Father allow the devil to
represent Earth in His
administrative councils. (Job 1:6-12)
Furious over his
eviction from Heaven, the devil
focused his efforts on the tiny
Church that Jesus established.
For four hundred years, the devil
attempted to use the Romans to
destroy the early Christian
Church. When that failed, Lucifer
saw Justinian establish the Holy
Roman Empire. For 1,260
years he used the Roman Catholic
Church to chase the woman (those
who love God, obey the voice of
the Holy Spirit, and live by
faith) into the wilderness. (Revelation 12:6) However,
God had prepared a place for her,
and the woman survived. Lucifer
has been defeated fairly several
times, and he is furious. He
knows that he will lose the war
over worship, but he will have
one last opportunity to make life
unbearable for God’s people.
This is the best outcome he can
anticipate. He hates God and by
killing and torturing God’s
children (the objects of
God’s affection), he can
exert his last revenge. When the
power of the papacy was broken in
1798, the Bible says, “Then
the dragon was enraged at the
woman and went off [took
a time out so that he could lay
careful plans] to
make war against the rest [the
remnant, the last]of her
offspring–those who obey
God’s commandments and hold
to the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17, insertions mine)
The Devil Will
Take over the Beast
The devil has one
last opportunity to spit in
God’s eye. The devil knows
that God’s wrath is coming.
He also knows the seven-headed
beast will be created and it will
be his last opportunity to
torture, persecute, and destroy
God’s people. The devil is
worse than divorced parents
fighting over custody of their
children with a husband who kills
the babies rather than allow his
ex-wife to have them. The devil
knows that God will allow him to
conquer the saints—at least
for a while. The devil also
knows that God allows the
seven-headed beast to function a
mere 42 months. Initially, men
will rush to create the
seven-headed beast for one
purpose, but the devil will
quickly usurp the beast and use
it for his evil purposes. His
control of the seven-headed beast
will be the unintended
consequence.
In the
devil’s plan to take over
the beast, he is as sneaky as he
is experienced. He knows he is
invisible to the sinful nature,
but visible to the spiritual
nature! He gained control over
the world in Noah’s day by
leading people deeper and deeper
into sin. He is a master at
gradualism. He has gained control
of every nation since Noah’s
flood. He gained control of the
early Christian church, then the
Catholic Church, and then every
church within Protestantism. He
has also gained control of every
religious system on Earth; this
is why a blasphemous name is
written on each of the seven
heads. Therefore, given his
skills and experience, gaining
control of the seven-headed beast
will be easy. In fact, he is
working on the very people who
will someday be its leaders!
Consider the
devil’s handiwork: Over
time, King Herod fell under
demonic control by knowingly and
willfully violating his
conscience. When a person like
King Herod chooses to do wrong,
the Holy Spirit steps back and
permits the demons to insert
their depraved thoughts into
his/her mind. As a person slides
down the greasy flagpole of sin,
demons lead their victim deeper
into wrong doing so the victim
has no conscience or sense of
guilt. His only concern is saving
self, doing “whatever it
takes” to survive. A person
in this state becomes separated
from God, because the Holy Spirit
stops speaking if we insist on
defiance (blasphemy) and demons
will take over. According to the
Bible, when King Herod learned
that a child had been born who
would someday rule the nations
with a scepter of iron, the devil
made Herod very afraid that he
would lose his throne. As king,
Herod had the power of life and
death over his subjects. In a
state of fear, Herod did what he
had to do, and he commanded that
all baby boys in Bethlehem who
were under the age of two years
be killed. Lucifer prompted
Herod’s actions, because it
was Lucifer who wanted Baby Jesus
dead!
Perhaps the devil
did not know an angel had
appeared to Joseph telling him to
flee to Egypt with Mary and Baby
Jesus. Historians may describe
Herod’s despicable crime,
but there is more to the story.
Revelation 12 lifts the veil
so that we can see Lucifer’s
predatory role. Lucifer was the
Master of Ceremonies on the night
all baby boys in Bethlehem were
slain, and Lucifer will become
the Master of Ceremonies shortly
after the seven-headed beast is
created.
The devil
understands Bible prophecy better
than any human. He has garbled up
apocalyptic prophecy so no one
can make heads or tails out of
it, because he does not want
people to know his plans. The
devil knows a window of
opportunity is coming. Right now,
He is secretly gaining control
over the religious and political
leaders of the world (2 Thessalonians 2:7), and after the
seven-headed beast appears, it
will not take him long to
transform man’s efforts for
appeasing God into his
hand-puppet for destroying the
saints. The devil often hides
behind human faces. Lucifer will
cause the leaders of Babylon to
say outrageous things against
God, and to do all kinds of cruel
things that people trying to
please God would never consider
doing. This will be a powerful
sign that the seven-headed beast
cannot fulfill the mission which
it originally intended. Demons
can cause people to do things
that are so evil, depraved, and
disgusting that they go beyond
imagination. Those who have
spiritual eyesight can see the
increasing power that demons are
gaining over people and
organizations every day.
Meanwhile, those who do not have
spiritual eyesight will literally
remain in the dark.
