Revelation 13:12 (NASB) He [the second beast] exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
I suggest that the 1st beast of Revelation 13 is the supreme being of a false religion– a false religion because the 1st beast blasphemes God and Christianity (Revelation 13:6); and a supreme “deity” because the word “worship” is used throughout Revelation to describe his devotees’ response to him and his “image” (Revelation 13:4, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 13:12, Revelation 13:15). The word “worship” translates from the Greek word, προσκυνέω (“proskuneo”), meaning, “… in the NT of worship or veneration of a divine or supposedly divine object, expressed concretely with falling face down in front of someone; worship, venerate, do obeisance to, used to refer to the worship of a deity in Scripture.”1 Worship is also used one time in relation to the lord of the beast, i. e., satan, who is also worshiped (Revelation 13:4) but satan’s worship is through his beast because satan has given his throne to the beast (Revelation 13:2). Hence, the beast has the power of satan as satan’s delegee which is precisely what satan offered Jesus in Matthew 4:9 but Jesus refused in Matthew 4:10. Wherever the beast is mentioned in Revelation, the word “worship” appears proximate to him (and/or his image): Revelation 14:9, Revelation 14:11, Revelation 16:2, Revelation 19:20. The first beast is a demonic entity that masquerades as a supposed divine being.
If you have read my book, you know that my view is that the 1st beast of Revelation 13 refers to Allah, the divine object of worship in Islam (See Islam the Cloak of Antichrist). Since writing it, I have become ever more certain that the “image” of Revelation 13:14 is not a literal image or an idol, but rather, a word-picture for Muhammad– not as a human being in the 7th century A.D., but the “living” connotation of Muhammad’s Qur’anic message that all Muslims emulate. Muhammad “breathes” through the actions of Muslims who emulate his message (from the Qur’an and Hadith) including the massacres we have witnessed at the hands of Islamist groups such as ISIS. The importance of Muhammad to the daily lives of Muslims cannot be overestimated. In fact, so important is Muhammad to Islam that the “Shahada,” the creedal statement one makes to convert to Islam, includes a testament, not only to Allah, but also to Muhammad: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” One Muslim source explains the Shahada as follows:
It may also be called al-Shahadatayn (the two witnessings), because it consists of two separate acts of bearing witness. The first witnessing, “There is no god but Allah,” affirms the acceptance of the divine reality by the human intellect. … The second witnessing, “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,” affirms one’s submission to God, which is the meaning of the word islam itself. Here, the human being responds to the divine will by acknowledging the Prophet Muhammad as both the vehicle of the Quranic revelation and the paradigmatic muslim or “submitter” to God. By stressing the sources of both the theoretical and the practical knowledge of religion (i.e., Allah and the Prophet), the “two witnessings” of the Shahadah thus reaffirm the complementarity of faith and practice in Islam.2
The Scripture states that the second beast exercises all the “authority of the first beast,” Allah, but only in his presence, meaning Allah’s words have been “breathed” into the minds of his devotees through their submission to the message of Allah as communicated by the messenger:
Revelation 13:15, “And there was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”
Muhammad, the man, is not the first beast nor the second beast. Allah’s message as revealed to Muhammad and communicated to his followers “breathes” when Muslims emulate Muhammad’s actions to kill to the glory of Allah the Greater.The Greek word translated “image” in Revelation 13:14 is εἰκών (“eikon”). Gingrich’s Greek lexicon translates the word, “image, likeness. Mk 12:16; 1 Cor 11:7; 15:49; Rev 13:14f. … Rom 1:23, 8:29; Col 3:10; Heb 10:1.” New Testament passages use the word to describe a stone idol or inscription designed as a visible “likeness” of a person (Mark 12:16). In addition, however, other passages translate the word, not as a visible likeness, but as a lifestyle to emulate based on the teachings, behaviors of another person, e.g., Christians who are called to emulate Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:10. If we use this latter definition of eikon in our interpretation of Revelation 13:14-15, we come to a quite different view than that of a stone object that miraculously comes to life and speaks.
We read on a recurring basis of the atrocities of the Islamic State, including genital mutilation of women and the crucifixion of Arabs of Iraq who refused to convert and submit to the caliphate of Islam. A video was released by Palestinian Media Watch of a Palestinian of HAMAS using a favorite quote of Islamists: “We love death more than you love life.” Osama bin Laden was another who used this phrase and many more like it. Bin Laden was frequent to quote from the Qur’an as the justification for violence in the name of Allah. One such statement is as follows:
May the words of God Almighty stay in your mind: “A prophet should not take prisoners until he has ensured his dominance in the land” (Qur’an 8:67). And “When you meet the disbelievers in battle, strike them in the necks” (Qur’an 47:4). Your reprimand to the Crusaders should be just as the poet said: “All there is between you and me is the piercing of kidneys and smiting of necks.”3
In writing my book, I came across many such statements including this one made by an Islamic cleric:
Special Dispatch No. 2845 … Egyptian Cleric Wagdi Ghneim on HAMAS’ Al-Aqsa TV: “We are a nation that excels in the production of the art of death … I will die anyway, so I should be creative to make sure my death is for the sake of Allah.” Later, he said: “Brothers, we pray to Allah that we be terrorists, if terror means Jihad for the sake of Allah.”4
How can one understand evil committed in the name of a god to be a just and righteous act? Because Allah’s message declares it to be so and his messenger, Muhammad, transmitted the message. Actually, it is not the actions of Radical Islamists such as ISIS that are the issue but the Qur’an that reveals it and the Hadith that explains it. When Islamists carry out the message, it is no different to them than a soldier obeying the orders of his commanding officer. This is precisely the meaning of Revelation 13:15. It is being fulfilled in the modern-day in the same way it has since Islam came into existence in 610 A.D. Perhaps the same statement that Jesus gave to Judas might well serve Muhammad:
Matthew 26:24 (NASB) “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Jesus come quickly.
Blessings.
Jack
An interesting hypothesis Jack, on the beast with breath being a false god of Muhammad. My position is that the first beast has all the attributes of Islam itself, and Muslim’s mindless dedication to it is itself, idolatry, worship of a false religion instead of the one, true God of the bible. It is the ‘image’ that has been a challenge.
I believe this ‘image’ is the antithesis to the ‘image of God’ found in the person of Jesus Christ.
(Col 1:15) He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
(2Co 4:4) in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Further support for the ‘image’ being Muhammad’s allah is from the observation that the image expects worship and is always associated with the beast (Rev 14:9,11, Rev 15:2, Rev 16:2, Rev 19:20 & Rev 20:4), which is Islam. Muhammad’s allah would be the tangible expression of the image, the totality of satan’s corrupt nature expressed through Islam and its antichrist manual of destruction, the Quran.
“…make an image to the beast…” could therefore mean, to make obeisance and to give allegiance with every part of one’s being to the beast, Islam. Since Muslims submit to Muhammad’s various obsessive/compulsive rituals and rules of the sharia, every aspect of the Muslims’ life (personal, political, legal, sexual, financial etc etc) is to be given to Muhammad’s allah, which is nothing less than total allegiance to and worship of satan on a daily basis.
In the most wooden sense, an alternative view is that the ‘image’ may be the Kaaba shrine that Muslims bow toward five times a day and its idolatrous ‘black stone’, which is believed to be a meteorite. According to Islamic teachings, the black stone used to be white when it was in heaven but upon its fall to earth, became black. The scriptures tell us that satan was once beautiful but chose evil and likewise, fell from heaven…
(Isa 14:12) “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
Jesus also saw satan fall from heaven…
(Luk 10:18) And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
If the ‘image’ that 1.6 billion Muslims bow down toward is the black stone, then the black stone is the image of satan himself, who demands and receives their worship five times a day, every day. This imagery of stones in heaven is likely taken from the bible, where there is a white stone.
(Rev 2:17) ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’
The black stone that Muslims circumambulate at the Kaaba is like the meteorite of (Acts 19:23-36), six hundred years earlier. Pagans believed the meteor was a god and start worshiping it.
(Acts 19:23-36) “But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image [meteor?] which fell down from heaven?
Muhammad kissed the same black stone that his pagan forebears kissed, which a hadith says is supposed to sprout eyes and speak on judgment day (just as the image of the beast is to speak).
Narrated by Ibn Abbas: The Messenger of Allah said about the (Black) Stone – (Hajar al Aswad)
“By Allah! Allah will raise it [the black stone] on the Day of Resurrection with two eyes by which it sees and a tongue that it speaks with, testifying to whoever touched it in truth.” (Hasan)
It seems that Muhammad may have had access to portions of the bible, including the Revelation, in order to obtain such imagery as beasts, stones from heaven and speaking images. Yet he turned their biblical meanings on their head as it were, corrupting the truth of the biblical revelation and incorporating that corruption into his own twisted version of end time events.
A hadith also records Muhammad teaching others that touching the black stone results in the forgiveness of sins.
The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) also said: “Touching the Black Stone and the Yemini Corner completely wipes out the sins.”
[SOURE: At-Tirmithi, Ibn Hibbaan, Al-Haakim and Ath-Thahabi]
Only God has the power and authority to remove sins, to justify a person. So in this sense, Muhammad attributed God-like power to a black stone…which is idolatrous.
Jesus said in (Luke 19:40), in response to those Pharisees trying to silence the crowds who were praising God at Jesus’ arrival…
(Luk 19:40) But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”
Not wanting to be outdone by Jesus, Muhammad claimed that a stone actually greeted him.
“Jabber-b-Samorah reported that the Apostle of Allah said: “Verily I know certainly of a stone at Mecca which used to greet me before prophethood. Surely I recognize it even now”
(SOURCE Muslim Al-Hadis. Volume 4, page 367-368)
Muhammad‘s belief in a stone from heaven coming to life and speaking was likely symptomatic of his temporal lobe epilepsy. Since Muhammad was both a demon oppressed narcissist and epileptic, he lacked the ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. He was convinced of his fantasy world that existed to please him at the expense of others. He expected others to believe his epileptic reality as much as he did. Thus, Muhammad had sufficient reason in his corrupted mind to believe that what he imagined was real, including stones that come to life and speak.
The black stone is also inscribed on the outside cover of many Qurans. Its suggestive, vaginal shape is reminiscent of Muhammad’s sexual deviancy (pedophilia, among other sexual immoralities) and the corrupt sexuality of many Muslims who wish to emulate him.
The rotten fruit of Muhammad’s corrupt morality is extensive and not just limited to sexual deviancy is. However, Muhammad’s sexual violation of a nine year old little girl, Aisha, explains the many pre-pubescent little girls who have suffered throughout history, many dying from internal injuries after being sexually violated by Muslim men.
The fact that his best friend, Abu Bakr was gullible enough to believe Muhammad’s claims and give his 6 year old daughter to Muhammad shows just how effective Muhammad’s deception was. Since Arabians believed him enough to give him their little girls to sexually violate, then it should not be a surprise that other Arabians would believe him when he claimed stones will come to life and speak…to him.
Throughout history, we see satan mimicking what God means for good with a corrupted version. The holy Son of God is the cornerstone of the Christian faith (Eph 2:20, 1 Peter 2:6) and genuine believers will receive a white stone (Rev 2:17), yet Islam has its own cornerstone, the pre-Islamic, pagan, idolatrous black stone, located on the Yemeni corner of the Kaaba shrine.
While there is no single, verified explanation for the ‘image’ of Rev 13:14 that is worshiped, it appears that multiple hypotheses point to the idolatrous worship of Muhammad’s allah in one form of another, which is satanic.
Muhammad was mentally ill, a narcissist and a demon oppressed, immoral monster. Through the Quran, he passed on his violent narcissism and corrupt morality to generations after him. Anyone who comes into Islam’s sphere of influence is damaged. Their soul is destroyed if they bow toward the ‘image’ of the black stone, or make the ‘image’ of idolatrous worship to Muhammad’s pre-Islamic, pagan idol, allah, who is satan incarnate. In summary then…..
Satan is the dragon (Rev 13:1).
Islam is the first beast of (Rev 13:1).
An end time ‘Caliph’ will be the second beast / false prophet of (Rev 13:11, Rev 16:13, Rev 20:10).
Allah is the ‘image’ of the beast (Rev 13:14).
The ‘mark of the beast’ (Rev 13:16) and ‘mark of his name’ (Rev 14:7) is Islamic faith.
The ‘name of the beast’ is the cause of Islam (Rev 13:17).
I can’t wait to see what happens when you find out that Jesus is Muslim, loll’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait till 2022 though. GL man.
A Muslim declares the shahada, “there is no God but allah and Muhammad is his messenger”
Jesus could not have said the shahada, because Muhammad had not been born yet, and the name Jesus would have used for God would have been YHWH or “Yehova”, not allah.
A Muslim believes in the quran and follows the five pillars of Islam. They are circumcised at the age of 13, following the tradition of Ishmael. Jesus believed on and quoted the Old Testament and was circumcised when he was 8 days old, in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, by Jewish Rabbis. Jesus was a Jew.
Jesus never performed the haj. There is no evidence that Jesus ever left the region around Judea or Galilee.
Jesus did not observe Ramadan. Ramadan is a pagan Arab holiday as recorded in the Sirat Rasul Allah, a month of peace observed by Muhammad’s pagan ancestors. Muhammad even caused a scandal when he violated the peace of Ramadan by attacking some infidels. As a practicing Jew, Jesus observed Jewish holidays under the Jewish calendar.
Jesus did not face a qibla for prayer. He did not pray 5 times a day, but taught that we should pray constantly. Jesus taught that you should pray in private, in your room, and not pray by vain repetition of a book whose language you do not even understand.
Jesus could read and write four languages. Muhammad could not.
Jesus taught us to love one another. Muhammad never told anyone to love.
Allah hates Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Therefore, Jesus could not have been a Muslim. Since Jesus was not a Muslim, Islamic eschatology is flawed, just another lie that Muslims have been told by other Muslims. Jesus is not returning to destroy the pig and tear down the cross. He’s coming to defend Jerusalem and rescue Christians……from Muslims, and then destroy Saudi Arabia, Islam and all Christ-rejecters. If you’re a Muslim, fear God, and know that His onlybegotten Son, Jesus, died for your sins and raised again to life on the third day, evidence of being the living hope of forgiveness and eternal life to all who repent and believe.
So Jesus is coming back to bow to Allah and proclaim to the world that Islam is the true religion? What a farce! That is interesting when Islam denies that Jesus was ever crucified (so it doesnt have to deal with his resurrection). And if we go with the next best option Islam has it is that Jesus was taken to heaven by Allah. Amazing when somehow the Quran can claim that Muhammad is greater than Jesus when Jesus was born of a virgin (as the Quran agrees) and Muhammad was born a human being like the rest of us. And, that Jesus asends to heaven (rather than dying like Muhammad did) and the Quran can make the claim that Muhammad is greater than Jesus simply because he came after Jesus? That is the most illogical conclusion anyone could ever imagine. The saying goes, “There is no one so blind as he refuses to see the truth.” Anonymous, you are guilty.