Revelation 13 - 1-part1 - The elect were made conquerors over the unsaved, Satan and his demons, the whole world and hell

Revelation 13:1:

1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy . {name: or, names}

This verse begins with the Apostle John saying, And I stood upon the sand of the sea. The verb translated as I stood is actually in the Passive Voice of the Greek, which means when Apostle John says, I stood ..., he stood not because he actively stood himself, for he was passive in the matter. Instead, he stood because of someone or something else working upon him while he was passive; thus, making our verse more plainly translated like this: And I was stood upon the sand of the sea. Exactly who or what made the Apostle John to stand, we will see shortly.

But now, what does the sand of the sea that John was stood upon symbolize? We have already seen numerous times in the book of Revelation that the sea symbolizes the world or the unsaved in the world. Remember, we read,

Ps 98:7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein .

See how the first part of this verse is defined by the latter part of the verse. The first part states, Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof, and then the latter part defines the first part, namely the world, and they that dwell therein. Thus, we see that the sea is defined as being the world.

Then, we read,

Isa 57:20 But the wicked [the unsaved] are like [or as] the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt .

Thus, we see that the wicked are like the troubled sea. And, because in God's eyes, all unsaved people in the world are wicked by His standards, we can conclude that the wicked or unsaved are symbolized by the sea.

In summary, then, the sea symbolizes the world or the unsaved people in the world. Both the world and unsaved people in the world are actually interchangeable. That is, the world can refer to the unsaved in the world, and the unsaved in the world can refer to the world, and each can be symbolized by the sea.

Yet, not so often realized, the sea, in the Bible, can also sometimes represent hell itself. For instance, we read about the demoniacs in Matthew 8. There we read,

28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way .
29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time ?
30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding .

31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine .
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters .

Now, we will not go into an in-depth study of this passage at this time, but it represents a picture of the fallen away and demon possessed Christian Church on Judgment Day that began on May 21, 2011. Remember, Judgment began on all the Christian churches on May 21,1988 when the Holy Spirit began to remove Himself from all the churches so that Satan and his demons could easily take over all the churches as judgment against them due to their abundance of false prophets, false teachings, false gospels, and evil practices, for God had told us that Judgment must begin at the house of God (1Peter 4:17). And so, Satan and his demons did take all the churches over so that when Judgment Day came on May 21, 2011, all the local Christian churches and congregations (also called the temple) were ruled over by the counterfeit Christ who is THE ANTICHRIST who was to come (see Who is the Antichrist? ), Satan, declaring himself to be God (listen to 2Thes. 2:1-11 and Why depart out from all churches? ).

Thus, by Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, the Christian churches were ruled over by many demons, and this is what is being pictured by the two demon-possessed men who come out of the tombs to meet Jesus.

Why 2 demon-possessed men? Because the number 2 symbolizes the Church (see meaning of number 2 ), and we know that Jesus uses this account that we previously read to symbolize what would happen to the many demons in the churches on Judgment Day because the demons say, art thou come hither to torment us before the time? It's like Jesus answers this question silently and says, NO to the demons, for Judgment Day had not yet come, but nevertheless, Christ then goes on to show the demons and us an earthly portrayal of what will happen to the demons in all the churches when Judgment Day actually does come.

Now what happened to the demons in the Christian churches on May 21, 2011, when Judgment Day began? The account says,

31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine .
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters .

Notice that Jesus cast them into a herd of swine or pigs. In the Bible, swine were an unclean animal that Old Testament Israel were commanded not to eat (Leviticus 11:7-8), and what they represented were all the gentiles that ancient Israel was commanded to not intermingle with because they were then considered unclean, and they would lead Israel astray ...

But after the cross, this all changed as revealed to the Apostle Peter in a vision as recorded in Acts 10. There we read,

9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour :
10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance ,
11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth :
12 Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth [including unclean swine] , and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air .
13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat .
14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean .
15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common .
16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven .

From this account, we see that Peter was told by God to rise up and eat all the unclean animals, including swine, that Peter knew were unclean, and he wondered what the meaning to his vision might be. The answer is given in Acts 10:38 when Peter himself states,

28 And he [Peter] said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation [a gentile] ; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean .

Thus, we see that during Old Testament times, all the unclean animals, including swine, that the Jews could not eat were a picture of all the peoples in the world (the gentiles) who, by definition, were not Israelites. Before the cross, the gentiles were considered unclean, and so God's people were not to associate with them in any way. But after the cross, all nations of people became clean in Jesus Christ, as seen in that God began to save and cleanse a remnant of gentiles from every nation as well as the remnant from national Israel like the Apostles and others. In fact, after the cross, the nation of Israel as a whole were no longer the people of God, but only the remnant from every nation who were saved through the faith of Jesus Christ before eternal salvation ended on May 21, 2011, when Judgment Day began. These ones saved in Jesus Christ are now the true Jews or Israel, and their circumcision is that of the heart or soul by the Spirit alone and not by the hands of men in the flesh. And, ever since the cross, everyone in the whole world that had not been spiritually saved in Jesus Christ, these became the gentiles whether of national Israel or of any other nation.

So, what is my point? Simply this: since the gentiles are now all those who have not been spiritually saved through the faith of Jesus Christ,

and swine, in the Bible, represent the gentiles as God revealed to Peter in his vision, as we had read in Acts 10, then swine are those who have not been saved in Jesus Christ anywhere in the world. We get an even better idea of who swine are when we read,

Mt 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you .

Now, let's prove that pearls represent the gospel or Word of God who is Jesus Christ. We know that pearls represent the word of God or the gospel when we read,

Re 21:21 And the twelve gates [were or are] twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass .

This verse is a description of the Holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, and we are told that its 12 gates [are] 12 pearls. The gates are the door through which one must enter to get into the holy city. And who is the door that one must go through to get into the Holy Jerusalem? We read,

Joh 10:9 I [Jesus] am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture .

Thus, Jesus is the door or gate through which one must enter to get into the heavenly Holy Jerusalem ...

which also means that Jesus is the gate to the Holy Jerusalem because the gate is the door to get into the heavenly city, Jerusalem. There are 12 gates because the number 12 symbolizes the fullness of whatever is in view (see Bible number 12 ), and what is in view are the 12 gates. Therefore, the 12 gates symbolize the fullness of the gates, and we know, that is Jesus Christ Himself. He is the one who said, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. And since Christ is also the word of God or the gospel as we read in Revelation 19,

Re 19:13 And he [Christ] was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God ,

We know that Christ is the 12 gates, which are also the word of God or gospel that one had to be saved through to enter the Holy city by salvation. And finally, since we were previously told in Revelation 21:21 that the 12 gates [are] 12 pearls, we can now know that the pearls are the word of God or the gospel, Jesus Christ Himself, because we were told that the gates are the pearls, which also sheds light onto the following parable in Matthew 13:

45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls :
46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it .

The pearl of great price, then, represents the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ ...

So, when the man found eternal salvation in Christ, he sold all that he had, which means that he gave up everything in his life (he died to himself with Christ on the cross) and instead, bought that pearl of great price; that is, he believed in Jesus Christ and followed him to learn and obey everything the Word of God, Jesus Christ, teaches. Obviously, this is not in any way saying that the man paid literal money for salvation, for this is a parable meant to teach us deeper truth, although I am sure that Satan has abused this verse at one time or another. I do know that the Catholic Church during the latter medieval period most sinfully allowed payment by money or good deeds to pay for sin called Indulgences, and Martin Luther was rightfully most disgusted with these (see Indulgences and their Role in the Reformation ). Even today, although the Catholic Church is different than in those days, they still believe that you must do something to be saved, making salvation to be by grace and good works, and this is why they are told that they cannot know whether they are saved until after this life. They have to wait to see if their works were good enough, which is a sure recipe for going to hell (see The Bible and Catholicism ).

Now that we have learned that swine represent the unsaved people in the world, especially those who are aggressively against Christ and His word, let's return to the story of the two demoniacs in Matthew 8 before we return to our main verse of study in Revelation 13:1 because now that we have learned that swine represent the unsaved in the world, we can begin to see what is being taught in the account of the 2 demoniacs:

We had already learned that the 2 demoniacs represent the local Christian churches and congregations when Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, and they are demon possessed because the churches had been infiltrated by Satan and his demons as God's judgment against them during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 when the Holy Spirit removed Himself from the churches so that they could be spiritually destroyed by demons as judgment against them. And so, by Judgment Day that began on May 21, 2011, the Christian local churches and congregations around the world were demon possessed as God's judgment against many of their teachings, false prophets, false gospels, and traditions of men, for judgment [had to] begin at the house of God (1Peter 4:17).

Then, once again, the account reads in Matthew 8,

31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine .
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters .

And now that we had previously learned that the swine symbolize unsaved people, we know that Jesus's teaching is, that many demons of the Christian local churches and congregations were cast out from them into many swine of the unsaved people in the world ...

and they ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. But the parallel account recorded in Mark 5 reads,

13 And forthwith Jesus gave them [the many demons] leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea .

So now, we know that there were about 2000 swine, or unsaved people, in which the many demons were cast. And why does God want us to know this? Well, the number 2,000 equals 1,000 x 2. The number 1,000 is a factor of 10 and so symbolizes the completeness of whatever is in view (see Bible number 10 ), and what is in view are the swine. Therefore, 1,000 symbolizes the completeness of the swine. But there are 1,000 x 2 swine, and the number 2 symbolizes the Church (see Bible number 2 ). Therefore, the 2,000 swine symbolize the completeness of the Church, or all the various local churches and congregations throughout the world on Judgment Day.

So, without going into all the details about the story or historical parable of the 2 demoniacs (we can go into more detail in another study), we are being taught therein that come Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, Christ took the many demons of the Christian Church that had been used to take them over by false prophets, false teachings, false gospels, and lying signs and wonders as God's judgment against them during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 ...

and He cast those demons into the completeness of all the local churches and congregations (into the completeness of all the people in the churches, which the 2,000 the swine symbolize), which resulted in them all being cast into the sea where they drowned. The sea is clearly a picture of hell or the Lake of fire because remember, the whole account is a picture of what happens to all the local churches and congregations on Judgment Day, including those of every denomination. We read about this in Revelation 19:20, which reads,

Re 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone .

The beast symbolizes the kingdom of Satan, or this world, that includes all the unsaved people in this world as we will learn as we get further into Revelation 13. The false prophet symbolizes Satan, including all his many false prophets inside as well as outside the Christian churches that Satan's demons work through to bring false teachings, false gospels, and miracles (see Revelation 12:4 ). And, as we shall see further into Revelation 13, them that had received the mark of the beast are all those who have remained in all the local churches and congregations, who did not depart out from them as commanded by Jesus Christ during the Great Tribulation upon all the churches from May 21, 1988, to the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, as we shall also see further into Revelation 13 (see Why leave all churches? ).

This Great Tribulation, spoken of in the Bible, that the churches are wrongly still looking for, when judgment came upon all the local Christian churches and congregations, is when God ended any possibility for true eternal salvation in or thru any local church or congregation. Even to this day, only counterfeit salvations are now taking place into false gospels or Christs in an attempt by Satan to deceive the elect, if that were possible, as well as to deceive all the local churches and congregations, that eternal salvation in Christ is still taking place, and that Christ is still being worshipped in their churches, which He is not. It is the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST , Satan whom they are worshipping in their churches without them even knowing it because God is sending them a strong delusion. As we read in 2Thessalonians 2,

9 Even [THE ANTICHRIST], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders ,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved .
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie :
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness .

Now, spiritually speaking, all the unsaved people of the world along with Satan and all his false prophets, and all the local churches and congregations were cast into the Lake of Fire on May 21, 2011, when Judgment Day that consists of many days began ...

There is no longer any possibility of any of them now becoming eternally saved in the true Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit removed Himself from all the local Christian churches and congregations back during the Great Tribulation beginning on May 21, 1988, so that the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST, Satan himself could set himself up to rule the whole Church, which includes all the local churches and congregations, by September 7, 1994 of the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988, to May 21, 2011 that began Judgment Day.

So now, ever since Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, there is no eternal hope for all that are in any local church or congregation, nor for anyone else who was not eternally saved in Christ by the time that Judgment Day began. And now, God views all the unsaved, whether all those in the churches, or all those in the world, as already cast into the fire because it is now absolutely guaranteed that they will all be physically cast into the Lake of Fire on the Last Day of Judgment Day, which is relatively soon to come. Yes, in a real way, the end came already on May 21, 2011. As we read in 1Thessalonians 5:3,

1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape .

Indeed, when Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, and nothing outward and physical like earthquakes and such took place, they all said in their hearts, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction [came] upon them ...

It was not yet their physical destruction, but it was their spiritual destruction of no more possibility of eternal salvation to guarantee their physical destruction on the Last Day of Judgment Day. The spiritual judgment came first to guarantee that the physical judgment will come later, just like when Adam and Eve were judged in the beginning by first being spiritually judged and killed to lose relationship with God, and then their physical deaths came later. This is what also happened to all the local churches and congregations and the whole world on May 21, 2011: first, they all spiritually died in that they no longer have any hope for spiritual salvation in the true Jesus Christ, and they are now all guaranteed to be physically destroyed in the soon to come Lake of Fire on the Last Day. Thus, their judgment came on May 21, 2011, but it will not be complete until they are physically cast into the Lake of Fire on the Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

Well now, we have strayed somewhat from our original verse of study, namely Revelation 13:1, to come to realize that the sea can not only symbolize the world or the unsaved in the world, but it can also symbolize the Lake of Fire or hell itself. But now, in returning to our original verse of study, what could the complete phrase, the sand of the sea in Revelation 13:1 represent? Well, since we already found that the sea can represent the world, doesn't it make sense that the sand of the sea would probably represent the unsaved people of the world, the unsaved people being symbolized by the sand, and the world being symbolized by the sea? If this is true, we should find verses in which the sand of the sea refers to the unsaved people of the world, and indeed, we do. We read,

1Sa 13:5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven .

And, again, we read,

Re 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea .

Thus, we can now conclude that the sand of the sea in our verse symbolizes the unsaved people of the world so that our verse of Revelation 13:1 can now read, And I [the apostle John] was stood upon the sand of the sea [the unsaved peoples of the world]. And since we had also learned that the sea can symbolize hell, our verse can also read,

1 I [the apostle John] was stood upon the sand of the sea [the unsaved peoples of hell].

But now, what does it mean that the Apostle John was stood upon the unsaved peoples of hell or the world? Well, that the Apostle John was stood upon the unsaved peoples of hell or the world means that he had conquered or was victorious over them. And how had John conquered them? Christ says,

Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world .

And how did Christ overcome the world? By His death and resurrection on behalf of all His elect, of course. And if Christ had overcome the world, which includes all the unsaved in the world, then in Christ, so did the Apostle John and all the elect overcome or conquer the world. As John says,

1Jo 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world .

So, John who represents all the elect had conquered and was victorious over the world, including all the unsaved and even Satan and his demons, and this is what it means that the Apostle John stood upon the sand of the sea. And remember, it is not John who stood himself on the sand of the sea, but he was stood on the sand of the sea by something or someone else, and that someone else, of course, was Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection, amen. In other words, the apostle John who represents all the elect was made to have conquered all the unsaved of the world or hell through the sacrifice of Christ; that is what it means that the Apostle John was stood upon the sand of the sea.

CONCLUSION

During this study, we sought to understand just the first sentence of Revelation 13, which states,

And I [the Apostle John] stood upon the sand of the sea. We learned that the verb translated as I stood would be better translated as I was stood to make it clear that the Apostle John stood not himself upon the sand of the sea, but he was stood upon the sand of the sea by the atoning work of Jesus Christ, which made him and all the elect who he represented to stand on the sand of the sea.

Now, we also learned that the sand of the sea is symbolic of the peoples of the world or the peoples of hell. Therefore, the first sentence in our verse of Revelation 13, which says, And I [the Apostle John] was stood upon the sand of the sea means that the apostle John who represents the elect was stood upon the peoples of the world or hell, which further means that all the elect, including John, conquered the unsaved of the world and hell that not only refers to all the unsaved people in the world, but also Satan and his demons who rule over them. Therefore, that John was stood upon the sand of the sea teaches us, the elect, that we have conquered Satan, his demons, the unsaved peoples, and the whole world not by something that we have done in ourselves, but by what Christ did for us by His sacrifice on the cross and then resurrection from the dead. So, in the days to come during this Passover and Resurrection season, may we manifest our forever thanks and praise to Him who stood us on the sand of the sea, amen.

CONCLUSION

During this study, we sought to understand just the first sentence of Revelation 13, which states,