There is an unholy trinity eager to do its malevolent work in the world, and it wants you to fall for its tricks. The powers of darkness are not creative. They are copycats. The devil has no currency of his own. He only deals in counterfeits. He’s a liar and a deceiver, and he’s very good at what he does.
In Revelation 12 we are introduced to the dragon. In chapter 13 we meet his two accomplices: a beast from the sea (13:1) and a beast from the earth (13:11). The first beast represents the political sphere; the second beast represents the religious sphere. The first beast is a perversion of good government; the second beast, also called the false prophet (Revelation 19:20), is a perversion of true worship. The first beast shows us what a diabolical state looks like; the second beast shows us what a diabolical religion looks like.
The deadliest, most violent, most oppressive work the devil does on the earth always utilizes a perverse government, empowered and supported by a perverse religion.
The purpose of this article is not to suggest that American society has become this awful (though sometimes it feels close). I do not intend to give you advice on how to think about voting or whom to vote for (though both are important). No matter which candidate or party wins in November, we must not forget that our ultimate hope and allegiance belong not to the president nor to the Congress but to Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. With that in mind, I want us to think about a strategy—thoroughly Biblical and desperately needed—that we rarely think about.
Revelation 13:10 must have been a hard message for the Christians suffering in Asia Minor: “If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.” This is not a graduation speech telling 22-year-olds they can accomplish anything they set their minds to. This is not a cheery address assuring us that the good guys always come out on top. To be sure, the saints will be victorious in the end, but not apart from suffering, and oftentimes not apart from death.
“God was less concerned that His people figure out how to change a godless empire, and more concerned that His people not be conformed to the godless empire in which they lived.”
So if the world around us loses all vestiges of Christianity and grows increasingly hostile to the Word of God, how then shall we live?
The end of verse 10 gives us an answer: “Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.” Revelation 13:10 is not a political theory. No doubt, Christians who live in a democracy, with thousands of churches and millions of other believers, in a country with a rich Christian history, have more political options than first-century believers did in a thoroughly pagan Roman Empire.
But if verse 10 isn’t everything we need to hear, it is something that we almost never hear. The Spirit of God speaking through the Apostle John didn’t say, “Here is a call for political strategy,” or “Here is a call for cultural transformation” or “Here is a call for building a better Christian civilization.” There may be a time and place for all of those. But the singular call given in this passage is simpler—and perhaps harder: endurance and faith. It seems that God was less concerned that His people figure out how to change a godless empire, and more concerned that His people not be conformed to the godless empire in which they lived.