Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Conclusion

 John calls upon those with discernment to listen very carefully: "If anyone has an ear, let him hear."  Then he goes on to say: "If anyone is meant for captivity, he goes away into captivity. If anyone will kill with sword, he must be killed with the sword. Here is where it means the endurance and faith of the holy ones." (Revelation 13:9, 10) Jeremiah wrote words quite similar to these in the years preceding 607 B.C.E., to show that there was no turning back of Jehovah's judgments for the unfaithful city of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 15:2; see also Jeremiah 43:11; Zechariah 11:9) In his time of great trial, Jesus made it plain that his followers must not compromise when he said: "All those who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) Similarly, now in the Lord's day God's people must hold fast to Bible principles. There will be no final escape for unrepentant ones who worship the wild beast. All of us will need endurance, along with unshakable faith, in order to survive the persecutions and trials that lie ahead. - HEBREWS 10:36-39; 11:6. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Two-Horned Wild Beasts

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Continue

 This seemed like a victory for Satan and his organization. But it could bring them no long-term benefits, since no one in Satan's visible organization had his name written in "the scroll of life of the Lamb." Figuratively, this scroll contains the names of those who will rule with Jesus in his heavenly Kingdom. The first names were written in it at Pentecost 33 C.E. And in the years since then, more and more names have been added. Since 1918, the sealing of the remaining ones of the 144,000 Kingdom heirs has been proceeding to completion. Soon, the names of all of them will be written indelibly in the Lamb's scroll of life. As for the opposers who worship the wild beast, not one of these will have his name written in that scroll. So any apparent victory these may have over "the holy ones" is an empty one, merely temporary. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Conclusion

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Continue

 The forty-two months mention here appear to be the same as the three and a half years during which the holy ones are harassed by a horn arising from one of the beasts in Daniel's prophecy. (Daniel 7:23-25; see also Revelation 11:1-4) Thus, from the latter part of 1914 on into 1918, while the warring nations were literally tearing at one another like wild beasts, citizens of those nations were pressured to worship the wild beasts, to indulge in the religion of nationalism, even to be ready to die for their country. Such pressure led to intense suffering on the part of many of the anointed ones, who felt that their higher obedience belonged to Jehovah God and his Son, Christ Jesus. (Acts 5:29) Their trials came to a climax in May 1918, when they were conquered.' In the United States, prominent officers and other representatives of the Watch Tower Society were wrongly imprisoned, and the organized preaching by their Christian brothers was greatly hindered. Having authority "over every tribe and people and tongue and nation," the wild beast clamped down on God's work worldwide. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Continue

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts- Waging War Against the Holy Ones

 The wily Satan had plans for the manipulating the wild beasts to his own ends. John explains this: "And a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies was given it [the seven-headed beast] and the authority to act forty-two months was given it. And it opened its mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his residence, even those residing in heaven.  And there was granted to it to wage war with the holy ones and conquer them, and authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all those who dwell on the earth will worship it; the name of not of them stands written in the book of life and of the Lamb who was slaughtered, from the founding of the world." - REVELATION 1:5-8.

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones - Continue

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts -The Death Stroke - Conclusion

 Worship in what sense? In the sense of putting love of country ahead of love of God. Most people love the land of their birth. As good citizens, true Christians also respect the rulers and the emblems of the country where they reside, obey the laws, and make a positive contribution to the welfare of their community and their neighbors. (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:14-17) They cannot, however, give blind devotion to one country as against all others. "Our country right or wrong" is not a Christian teaching. So Christians who worship Jehovah God cannot share in giving prideful patriotic worship to any part of the wild beast, this would amount to worshiping the dragon-the source of authority of the wild beast. They cannot ask admiringly: "Who is like the wild beast?" Rather, they follow the example of Michael-his name meaning "Who is like God?"-as they uphold Jehovah's universal sovereignty. At God's appointed time, the Michael, Christ Jesus, will do battle with the wild beast and conquer it, even as he triumphed in expelling Satan. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - Waging War Against the Holy Ones

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts -The Death Stroke - Continue

 Mankind has even gone beyond admiring the wild beast, as John next states: "And they worshiped the dragon because it gave the authority to the wild beast, and they worshiped the wild beast with the words: "Who is like the wild beast, and who can battle with it?' "(Revelation 13:4) While Jesus was here on earth, Satan claimed to have authority over all the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus did not dispute this; in fact, he himself referred to Satan as the ruler of the world and refused to participate in the politics of that day. John later wrote of the true Christians: "We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying the power of the wicked one." (1 John 5:19; Luke 4:5-8; John 3:16; 14:30) Satan delegates authority to the wild beast, and he does this on a nationalistic basis. Thus, instead of being united in bonds of godly love, mankind has become divided by pride of tribe, race, and nation. The great majority of people worship, in effect, that part of the wild beast having authority in the land where they happen to live, Thus whole beast gains admiration and worship. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Conclusion

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Continue

Historian Charles L. Mee, Jr., writes: "The collapse of the old order [caused by the first world war] was a necessary prelude to the spread of self-rule, the liberation of new nations and classes, the release of new freedom and independence."  Leading to the development of this postwar era was the seventh head of the wild beast, now healed, and with the United States of America moving into dominant role. The dual world power took the lead in advocating both the League of Nations and the United Nations. By the 1980's, U.S. political power has led the more privileged nations in creating a higher standard of living, in fighting disease, and in advancing in technology. It had even placed 12 men on the moon. It is no wonder, therefore, that mankind in general has followed the wild beast in admiration." 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Continue

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts- The Death Stroke - Continue

 At the same time, the Great War, as it was then called, opened the way for the United States to emerge distinctly as part of the Anglo-American World Power. For the first years of the war, public opinion kept the United States out of the conflict. But as historian Esme' Wingfield -Stratford wrote: "It was all a question of whether, at this hour of supreme crisis, Britian and the United States would sink their differences in the realization of [their] of their overmastering unity and common trusteeship." As events turned out, they did. In 1917 the United States contributed her resources and manpower to bolster the war effort of the staggering Allies. Thus, the seventh head, combining Britain and the United States, came out on the winning side. 

The world after the war was vastly different. Satan's earthly system, although devastated by the death stroke, revived and became more powerful than ever and so won the admiration of humans because of its recuperative power.

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Continue

From the jw.org publications

 

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Continue

 For the dominant seventh head of the wild beast, that war was a major disaster. Along with other European nations, Britain lost its young men in traumatic numbers in one battle alone, the Battle of the River Somme in 1916, 420,000 British soldiers died, along with 200,000 French and 450,000 German-more than 1,000,000 fatalities! Economically, too, Britain-together with the rest of Europe-was shattered. The huge British Empire staggered under the blow and never fully recovered. Indeed, that warm with 28 leading nations participating, sent the entire world reeling as if by a deathblow. On August 4, 1979, just 65 years after the outbreak of World War I, the Economist, of Longdon, England, commented: "In 1914 the world lost a coherence which it has not managed to recapture since. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Blow - Continue

From the jw.org publications

Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Continue

 What was the death stroke? Later, it is called a sword stroke, and a sword it a symbol of warfare. This sword stroke, administered early in the Lord's day, must relate the first world war, which devastated and drained Satan's political wild beast. (Revelation 6:4, 8; 13:14) Author Maurice Genevoix, who was a military officer during the war, said of it: "Everyone agrees in recognizing that in the whole history of mankind, few dates have had the importance of August 2, 1914. First Europe and soon after almost all humanity found themselves plunged into a dreadful event. Conventions, agreements, moral laws, all the foundations shook; from one day to the next, everything was called into question. The event was to exceed both instinctive forebodings and reasonable anticipations, Enormous, chaotic, monstrous, it still drags us in it wake." -Maurice Genevoix, member of the Acade'-mie Francaise, quoted in the book Promise of Greatness(1968).

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Eight/Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts - The Death Stroke - Continue 

From the jw.org publications