“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4).

In Christ’s retort to the dragon’s attempts to get Him to bow down in obeisance, He said: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 9:10, Luke 4:8). It’s stunning to even imagine that Satan would be so bold and presumptuous as to ask to be worshiped! Yet, it is one of the temptations of Christ. Why? Because that act would make Christ’s suffering unnecessary. Here, the world worships the dragon and the beast because it is suffering! It is the “time of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8). These powers will claim relief is possible by persecuting the saints – the declared “cause” for its pain and sorrow.

No wonder the sacred record shares the unquenchable Messianic praise, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing (Revelation 5:12). Why? He suffered to bring us eventual relief.

The picture here is fascinating. Satan is worthy of nothing except destruction (Revelation 20:10). Yet, there is a final interlude of time called the “appointed time,” when God permits him nearly full independence in the world he claims. They adore him and his representative! Through earth’s most sinister deceptions, they appear Messianic.

“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast:” (vs 4)

Why does the world worship the dragon? Satan claimed equality with God (Isaiah 14:13-14, Ezekiel 28:2). Might the world now accept that deceptive claim? He is seen as God. A significant issue is unfolding. In Revelation 17:11, when the eighth “head” (implied) becomes apparent, it likely is concomitant with the seventh. In complex imagery it then goes on to note that the “eighth” is the beast.

The weight of evidence, therefore, suggests that during that final papal head, Satan will make his debut. Thus, we will see him worshiped with the papacy/pope also. This takes on the form of actual prostration before Satan and the papacy and symbolically through individual loyalties.

“Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden, ‘Ye shall not surely die.’ ‘In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ [Gen. 3:4, 5.] Little by little he has prepared the way for his master-piece of deception in the development of Spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: ‘I saw three unclean spirits like frogs; … they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.’ [Rev. 16:13, 14.] Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in his Word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.”[1]

“As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. [Rev. 1:13-15.] The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air, ‘Christ has come! Christ has come!’ The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands, and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed his disciples when he was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying, This is ‘the great power of God.’ [Acts 8:10.]”[2]

Fascinating is the timing of this dazzling homage towards Satan. It portrays another of his parodies. It won’t be long – three and a half years – that God and Jesus will receive adoration, worship, reverence and adulation. “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:13). Satan has been waiting for his moment. One can’t help but muse: “What is in his heart as people bow before him? Is his acceptance one of love and bonding? Or, is that hate-filled mind gratified at their depraved servitude? Likely, the latter. He has garnered more victims.

“There is a limit beyond which Satan cannot go, and here he calls deception to his aid and counterfeits the work which he has not power actually to perform. In the last days he will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world. He will indeed transform himself into an angel of light. But while he will bear the appearance of Christ in every particular, so far as mere appearance goes, it will deceive none but those who, like Pharaoh, are seeking to resist the truth. – 5T 698 (1889).”[3]

The phrase “which gave power unto the beast” is another cue to the bondage that even Satan’s host has. The beast is totally dependent on the dragon’s power. In turn, the relationship is one of satanic servitude.

“and they worshipped the beast,” (vs 4)

This represents a deification of man. “It is a diversion of attention away from God to the worship of the civil power and the figure who heads it up.”[4] Again, the question from such a dramatic prophecy is: What causes the world to give such allegiance to the papacy?

It was previously revealed that it was “blasphemous.” The key to this understanding appears to be its convincing exaltation to be like God or perceived like Him: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (II Thessalonians 2:4). He is exhibiting a power that the world craves to identify with.

This echoes the explicit antichrist posturing in Daniel (Daniel 8:11, 25; 11:36-37). There, the description of an end-time Roman power is similar.

The ten horns’ support of the beast alludes directly to Revelation 17:12. Thus, there is not only spiritual identity but civil authority giving obeisance and honor to the papacy. The beast also shares seductive teachings God calls “abominations” in the harlot’s golden cup (17:4). This is identified as the “wine of her fornication.” When something God creates or gives that is sacred is discarded for a substitute never sanctioned by heaven, it is an abomination. When the substitute is shared, it is fornication. The Sabbath for Sunday, as we will see, is the issue[5] that brings idolatrous worship here. That is why God showed John its heads filled with the names of blasphemy!

This apocalyptic book will note such worship again (13:8, 12; 14:9, 11; 20:4). But many scholars say that this worship “is because” the dragon gives it authority.[6] That is, of course, the bottom line. The pope currently receives homage of such intensity, both in his appearance and in liturgy, one could claim that such a worship experience has begun (see the following  pictures).

Giving obeiscence to the pope!

There is another fascinating dimension. Could there be in this prophecy an allusion to such an assumption of “godlikeness” that the hearts of the world see the pope and papacy as God? (Exodus 20:3, 34:14; Deuteronomy 6:4; Psalm 44:20; Jeremiah 1:16, 11:13). Taking honor due God is not only idolatry but a supreme expression of blasphemy. This will be the issue in the last phrase of this verse. But that role will come only if the leaders of the world and its inhabitants see the papacy as answering a need that they regard as hopeless to solve. Since the words “cup of fornication,” “blasphemy,” “Babylon” and “war” against the remnant are used in chapters 12 and 17, there is a religious issue that leads to a confederated loyalty to Rome. But – a “need” must confront the world that only this power is seen to be capable of resolving.

“To the very close of time … [the papacy] will carry forward his work of deception. And the Revelator declares, also referring to the papacy, ‘All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.’ Revelation 13:8. In both the Old and the New World, the papacy will receive homage in the honor paid to the Sunday institution that rests solely upon the authority of the Romish Church.”[7]

What could be the catalyst where such loyalties surface so strongly – apparently starting in Europe and the United States?

“Men in responsible positions will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but from the sacred desk will urge upon the people the observance of the first day of the week, pleading tradition and custom in behalf of this man-made institution. They will point to calamities on land and sea – to the storms of wind, the floods, the earthquakes, the destruction by fire – as judgments indicating God's displeasure because Sunday is not sacredly observed. These calamities will increase more and more, one disaster will follow close upon the heels of another; and those who make void the law of God will point to the few who are keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as the ones who are bringing wrath upon the world. This falsehood is Satan's device that he may ensnare the unwary.”[8]

Will this issue spread to encompass the world?

“The so-called Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive actions. Men in authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after the example of the papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Every nation will be involved. Of this time John the Revelator declares: [Rev. 18:3-7; 17:13, 14, quoted]. ‘These have one mind.’”[9]

The Sabbath–Sunday issue was opened as an end-time matter in Daniel 8, 9 and 12. That is an end-time prophecy. Here is the description of how it will be fulfilled.

Can you imagine, even in a small way, the world’s reaction to massive devastation from calamities that paralyzes the earth? Since Satan has already appeared, a word from him as to cause and effect will point the compass needle to Sabbath keepers.

“Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sundaybreaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance.”[10]

The worship of the beast resides in physical worship and in bringing honor to an institution of the papacy. Sunday worship becomes an issue so intense it forms the basis for “a legal war” against the saints who keep the commandments of God. They are the focus of “cause.”

Sylvester I, 314–335 A.D., was the first bishop of Rome to call himself “pope.” He decreed the first Sunday law (ecclesiastical), calling it the Lord’s Day. Constantine, Roman Emperor and friend, decreed the first civil Sunday law with strong anti-Semitic lines (Appendix II, p. 165).

Thus, the institution of Sunday as a worship day came from Rome – first that church, then that empire. This concept of assumed authority to change one of the ten commandments will mature as an unholy power as the prophecy continues. The papacy and the Roman Catholic Church are given obeisance through a blasphemous institution – a false worship day.

The helpless experience from destructive calamities will bring a key reactant issue against God’s remnant.

“saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (vs 4)

“Who is like unto” is another parody relating to God! (Exodus 8:10, 15:11; Psalm 71:19; 89:8; Isaiah 44:7; Micah 7:18). The honor or worship given the papacy and its heads only belong to God.

This, once again, was prophesied by Daniel in 8:10-13, 22-25, 11:31. There, the beast power is seen as persecuting God’s people. That “war” is at first successful (Revelation 13:7).

Then the question, “Who can defeat him?” is already answered in a commentary insert in Revelation 12:11: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

Even the saints will have victory over the dragon. God’s wrath will bring the beast and his image into final judgment (14:10-11).

The irony is that in that war the Lamb and His followers win: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (17:14). Thus, from the saints’ vantage, the cry is: Who can deliver us from the power … of the beast?[11]

In the context of this chapter, the worship “factor” will be seen as “making an image” to the beast. In ancient Rome “worship” could take on the making of a symbol to be honored (even an empty chair that represented where the emperor sat). It is done “on behalf of” not necessarily to.[12]

The “image” and “mark” of the beast will come center front stage in the verses ahead.

The irony is picturesque. Those who arrogantly cry in defiance, “Who is like unto our god?” “Who is able to make war against him?” will soon cry another final desperate wish: “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16).

Then they ask rhetorically, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17). Their sad lives and rebellion will then be ended.

God fills every prophecy with clocks. This narrative is no exception. Let’s now see if we can tell “what time” all this will happen!

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