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Revelation 13:5-6   The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.  It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.

For 2,000 years there has been much speculation among Christian interpreters about the identity in history of ‘the beast’ in Revelation and the symbolic significance of the time-span of the ’42 months’ for which it ‘exercises its authority’.  It is so easy to get so caught up in the speculating that we overlook the significance of the beast’s activity.  The Sovereign Lord gave it ‘a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies’, and, as a result, it ‘opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.’

It seems that we live at a time in history when the beast is making very effective use of this gift to exercise “authority over every tribe, people, language and nation” and to seduce ‘all inhabitants of the earth to worship it’ – ie, “all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” (verses 7-8)

During his earthly ministry, Jesus he was accused of ‘blasphemy’ because he claimed to be God!  This was why they had him crucified.  Ironically, because his claim was true, one of the most serious blasphemies we can be guilty of today is to argue that he was/is not God and to hold to a world view based on this claim!  Such world views include Islam, which says Jesus was a ‘good man and a good prophet, but not ‘God the Son’, and sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses that deny the divinity of Christ.  The ‘worshippers of the beast’ also includes all those who slander Christ’s and God’s ‘name’, and it is frightening the extent to which this is in common practice in everyday speech today, including the use of the acronym ‘OMG’!

Moreover, the widespread persecution of Christians – God’s ‘dwelling place’ and the ‘inhabitants of heaven’ – for professing the name of Christ, is one of the activities of this ‘beast’ (Islam?).  Questions 54 and 55 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism state:

“Q 54. What is required in the third commandment? Ans. The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.  

Q 55 What is forbidden in the third commandment?  Ans. The third commandment forbids all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known.”  

It is important to note that, “anything whereby God makes himself known.” includes Jesus, the Scriptures and the Creation (cf Psalm 19!) which puts those who reject the clear Creation account in Genesis 1, and hold to the scientifically discredited Theory of Evolution, on very shaky ground.  Such a world view is blasphemy against the Person and Work of the Creator himself.

Let us be diligent in identifying and rejecting the very seductive and subtle influence of the ‘beast’ that has so infiltrated and infected our whole culture.

– Bruce Christian