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Revelation 13:3-4
The Beast's head that had been smitten was healed
3
And I saw one of his heads as though it had been
{1 }
smitten unto death; and his death-stroke was healed: and the whole earth wondered after the beast
; {1) Gr slain }
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and they
worshipped the dragon, because he gave his authority unto the beast; and they
worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? And who is able to war with him
?
INTRODUCTION
In this study entitled, The beast's head that was smitten unto death was healed, we will be discussing things that took place during the Great Tribulation that began on May 21, 1988 when judgment came upon all the churches and congregations worldwide, for judgment [had to] begin at the House of God (1Peter 4:17). We will learn exactly what it means that one of the beast's 7 heads was as though it had been smitten or slain unto death, and exactly when this took place. Then, we will discover what it means that this death-stroke or wound to the head of the beast was healed, and exactly when it was healed. We will see that due to the beast's death-stroke or wound being healed, the whole earth worshipped both the dragon and the beast because the dragon that was healed gave its then renewed authority or power to the beast so that
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Now we can begin to understand what our verse means when the apostle John says, And [I saw] one of his [the beast's] heads as though it had been smitten unto death. Since we already learned that each of the 7 heads of the beast symbolize the perfect authority or rule of Satan's kingdom (see
Revelation 13:1-part 2
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Yes, Satan had been bound at the cross in 33 AD and the Day of Salvation for the whole world began 50 days later on Pentecost in 33 AD, and this Day of Salvation and the Church Age lasted until May 21, 1988 when judgment began with the House of God in and thru which eternal salvation came to an end until that same judgment of no more salvation also came upon the entire world on May 21, 2011 when Judgment Day began, all according to the
well-proven
But now, our verse says, and his [the beast's] death-stroke was healed. That is, on May 21, 1988 when Satan was loosed from having been bound at the cross to bring judgement against all the churches and congregations worldwide, also known as the Church, House or Temple of God, or the Holy Place, it appeared that the death-stroke rendered to this beast (to Satan with his kingdom) at the cross that had stripped it of its 7 heads and 10 horns was healed or cured, which is why Satan with his kingdom (this beast) is once again presented as having 7 heads and 10 horns in
Revelation 13:1
But notice how the beast during the Great Tribulation in
Revelation 13:1
But now, before moving on to the last sentence of verse 3 in Revelation 13 that we have been studying, we should pay careful attention to how our verse says that the death-stroke or wound
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reads,
and the whole earth wondered [or marveled] after the beast. Obviously, the word earth in this sentence, and the whole earth wondered after the beast does not refer to the physical earth, but it refers to the people of the earth, for how could the physical earth wonder or marvel after the beast? Rather, the earth must refer to the people of the earth, for only they could wonder or marvel after the beast. And, in that it is the whole earth which wonders or marvels after this beast makes it clear that it is the whole of or all the living people of the earth who wonder or marvel after the beast, for a dead person could not wonder or marvel after this beast. But, looking at things spiritually, all the living people of the earth are only those spiritually saved in Jesus Christ because without eternal salvation, God tells us that people are spiritually dead in their sins and trespasses. As we read in Ephesians 2,
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But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us
,
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Even when we were dead in sins
[without spiritual salvation]
, hath quickened us
[made us alive through spiritual salvation]
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;
) {by ... : or, by whose grace }
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And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
...
And again, in Colossians 2 we read,
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And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh
[without spiritual salvation]
, hath he quickened
[made alive]
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses
[with spiritual salvation]
So, it is clear that people without eternal or spiritual salvation through Christ are spiritually dead in God's eyes, and the people with spiritual salvation through Christ are spiritually living or alive when we look at things from a spiritual vantage point of view, which we must do to understand the spiritual symbolism in Revelation 13.
Yet, we must recognize that when the apostle Paul says what he did in the previous two passages, he is speaking to the whole Church of Ephesus, including those believers who were not yet truly saved although undoubtedly they thought they were, for it is highly unlikely that everyone in this local church of Ephesus was saved (see
Revelation 2:1-7
Yes, counterfeit Christians can look so much like true Christians. They can seem so moral; so outstanding; so vocal for and obedient to Christ that you can never know who all the counterfeit Christians are until you see that they are living an ongoing lifestyle in this sin or that sin, and they won't repent when they are faced with their sin. This is why, for instance, Christ taught in the parable of the Wheat and Tares in Matthew 13:24-30, then 13:36-43, in which the Wheat represent true believers and the Tares represent counterfeit believers, that the Tares that grew right alongside the Wheat in the churches were not to be rooted up because, if it was tried to root them up which grow so close to and entangled with the Wheat in the churches, some of the
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Church can seem so absurd and contrary to common sense to the flesh, that virtually all those who are yet in the flesh and not in the Spirit (their not saved) will not obey Christ to leave their churches, even if they are revealed the very command itself in Holy Scripture (see
Why leave all churches?
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churches and congregations around the world at the beginning of the Great Tribulation of judgment against all the churches, which began on May 21, 1988. Therefore, once again, we can surmise that our term the whole earth (all those who, at least, claim to be spiritually living through Jesus Christ) refers to all the local churches and congregations worldwide.
It is interesting to note that the surface of our planet is about two-thirds sea and one-third land or earth, just like the population size of those who were unsaved or spiritually dead to the population size of those who claimed to be spiritually living through Jesus Christ (all the Christian churches around the world): the unsaved or spiritually dead were about two-thirds of the total population of the world, while all the churches were made up of about one-third of the total population at the time of the Great Tribulation that began on May 21, 1988 and which is the context of Revelation 13 that we are studying. Thus, we have even more support for the sea symbolizing all the spiritually dead, and the whole earth symbolizing all the peoples of the Christian churches and congregations worldwide who identified themselves with the spiritually living, for, spiritually speaking, the whole earth refers to all the spiritually living on this planet, which refers externally to the whole Church, for all who are in all the churches and congregations worldwide are externally identified as being those of the spiritually living. Externally, they are considered to be all the living ones of the earth, and therefore, they can be symbolized by the term the whole earth.
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We can even go further to show that the term the whole earth in Revelation 13:3 refers to all the churches and congregations worldwide during the Great Tribulation by looking up the word earth in the Bible to see if it can refer to the peoples of the Church (the people externally considered to be the spiritually living people of the earth), and when we do so, we find that it can. For instance, we read,
Ps 66:1 To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm.
Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands
[or all ye earth] ...
And it is obvious that the word lands that can also be translated as earth does not refer to the physical lands or earth but to those who are of the spiritually living of the earth (the Church of God), for it is only they who will make a joyful noise unto the true God. The rest can only make a joyful noise to their false Gods and idols because, spiritually, they are dead to the true God.
Again, we read,
Ps 66:4
All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name
. Selah.
Clearly, when it says, All the earth shall worship God, it refers not to the physical earth worshipping God but to all who spiritually claim to be spiritually living through Christ (the Church) on earth who would worship God. Thus, we see that the Bible does give support to the term the whole earth symbolizing or representing the whole Church since as we have seen, the word
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But now, our verse finishes with the whole earth, which we had learned refers to all the peoples of the churches and congregations worldwide, saying, Who is like unto the beast? And who is able to war with him? This sounds like questions that all the churches would say if they were worshipping God Himself, for who is like God, and who is able to war or battle with Him? So, how could all the churches around the world say such things about Satan and his kingdom? Now the churches may have not been literally speaking such things, but they were so admiring and marveling, and worshipping the beast and Satan that they believed they were worshipping God Himself, and they are still believing that they are worshipping God even to this day even though the Church Age ended, and then the churches were handed over to Satan and the beast on May 21, 1988 to completely deceive all those who would not depart out of their churches in obedience to Christ as judgment against them, and as a way to separate the Wheat from the Tares in the Harvest in the end of the world (see
Wheat and Tares
You see, those who will not leave their churches to obey Christ have been deceived by the Master Deceiver! When the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST, Satan himself came speaking from the Bible through his false prophets with such power and doing signs and wonders like many counterfeit salvations to make it look like a church revival had come, like apparent miraculous healings; and apparently getting miraculous direct messages from God in dreams, visions, prophecy, tongues, so-called words of knowledge; and making people fall backwards by touching them on the foreheads, and there was even at least one false prophet
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15
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation
[the beast, the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST, Satan himself]
, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place
[the Church]
, (whoso readeth, let him understand
:)
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Then let them which be in Judaea
[spiritually, the Church]
flee into the mountains
[depart out from the Church unto God, for He is no longer in the Church] ...
Notice how Christ did not say to depart out from your church when you see the abomination of desolation; that is, the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST, Satan Himself, in your very own church. No, he says that when you see this abomination of desolation stand (making himself known) in the Church, which was not every
So, don't wait to depart out from your very own church until you think that the Abomination of Desolation, the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST, Satan himself is ruling over it because he is now ruling over it. And you were not commanded to come out of your own church when you think that the Abomination of Desolation, THE ANTICHRIST, the counterfeit Christ, Satan is standing or ruling in your own church, but you were and are commanded to come out of your own local church when you see him standing in the Holy Place, the Church, which may have only appeared to be in other Christian churches than your own, for the corporate Church includes all the Christian churches and denominations worldwide. So, when you see this Abomination of Desolation standing (making himself known by false teachings, gospels, signs and wonders, and other demonic-like things mentioned earlier in this study) in even just a few of the Christian churches or denominations, you were and are still to depart out from your own local church whether you think he is standing in your own church or not. And I can assure you that these evil things were taking place in many churches around the world even before May 21, 1988 when judgment first came upon the House of God. Therefore, from May 21, 1988 when the Great Tribulation of judgment began with the House of God, the Church (all the churches and congregations worldwide), until this same judgment came upon the entire world on May 21, 2011 to begin Judgment Day, the Abomination
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Let's first focus on the first sentence of this verse: it states, And [I saw] one of his heads as though it had been smitten unto death. Now remember, we learned in the previous study of
Revelation 13:1-part 2
Okay, let's get to the main point in all this. The main point is that even deceived, unsaved Christians in the Church, when viewed externally can appear to be true, saved Christians; therefore, both the saved and the unsaved in the local church of Ephesus and Colossae were addressed by the apostle Paul as though they were all eternally saved true Christians, which was why we saw the apostle Paul address the whole Church of Ephesus and the Church of Colossae as if they had been all saved when he told them that they were once spiritually dead in their sins, but when they were eternally saved through Christ, they became spiritually alive. What I am getting at is that when the Church was only viewed from an external perspective, which is all that we as humans could do, all the people in the Church could be considered Christians simply because they were a part of the Church. But if we were able to view the Church from an internal perspective and look at the hearts of each individual in the Church, which, of course, only God could do, we would have discovered that not all the people in the local churches and congregation were true Christians. In fact, at the time when judgment began at the House of God on May 21, 1988, we would have seen that most of the people in the churches were already counterfeit Christians.
So, there was what we can call the external local Church which consisted of the saved and the unsaved in every local church worldwide, and there was what we can call the internal or eternal church which consisted of only the saved people in every local church worldwide. Only the eternal or internal church who were the truly saved of each local church were the church that Christ said, the gates of hell would not prevail against (Matthew 16:18).