On March 8, 1983, President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union, the “evil empire” in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando. He said:
“They preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man and predict its eventual domination of all people on the Earth. They are the focus of evil in the modern world… I urge you to beware the temptation of pride… to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire…”
He was roundly criticized for demonizing the Soviet Union. The Soviet Press Agency TASSS said the ‘evil empire’ words demonstrated the Reagan administration ‘can think only in terms of confrontation and bellicose, lunatic anti-communism.’ Today, we see the Chinese Communist Party persecuting Christians and anyone who dissents from their ideology. Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran and many other regimes are similarly anti-Christian.
St. John in Revelation 13 described the Roman Empire under the Emperors Nero and Domitian as blasphemous beasts. He in his turn was using the language of the prophet Daniel, who received a vision of four great beasts rising up out of the sea, representing the four empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Alexander the Great and Rome.
John’s vision reveals that the evil empire of his day received its power, throne and authority from the dragon, who is the devil or Satan. The political power wages Satan’s war against the Lamb and his church by insisting that it be worshiped and obeyed rather than God in heaven. Opposition to it seems futile, for the totalitarian state has all earthly power at its command. All citizens worship the beast, all, that is, whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. It takes endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people to resist such blasphemous tyranny.
A second beast comes out of the earth. It looks like a lamb but it speaks like a dragon. It is a false prophet. It represents the first beast, and deceives the inhabitants of the earth. It wields power through its deceptive words. In John’s day the imperial cult and priesthood fostered ‘worship’ of the Roman empire and the emperor as divine savior and lawgiver. The abuse of religious devotion to manipulate thoughtless allegiance to the state is an ageless phenomenon. We see it throughout history and throughout the world today.
If the first beast is a godless government that takes upon itself the prerogatives of divine wisdom, and authority, the second beast must be those agencies that support and encourage the propaganda and ideology that sustains such blasphemy. What are such agencies today?
John writes about the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is that identification which qualifies citizens for acceptance in the godless state, whether it be membership of the party in power, or conforming to political correctness. Without it you cannot buy or sell or hold a job.
Which agencies seek to deceive people by promoting a godless society and establishing criteria by which it may judge people to be acceptable to their world view? I would like to suggest that there are three, an unholy trinity, that aspires to be thought infallible in setting up an image of the beast. John tells us that this calls for wisdom. “Let those who have insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.”
We know that the number of perfection in Scripture is seven. It is the number of the days of creation. It represents the seven spirits of God and the seven golden lampstands, and the seven churches. There are seven seals and trumpets and bowls. It is the number of completion. It is the number of God. The number of 666 falls short of that number. It aspires to seven but falls short of the Holy Trinity. It is the number of the beast, the number of evil, the number of human deception. Throughout history the beast has been identified as the antichrist of the day, the embodiment of evil and its acolytes. We are called to calculate it in our day.
My suggestion is that there is an unholy trinity today of the entertainment industry, the atheistic and agnostic educational and intellectual establishment, and the mass media. It is these three groups of people who influence the inhabitants of the earth by setting up images in honor of the beast and promote a godless and immoral culture.
The entertainment industry promotes immorality as mainstream and acceptable. Any criticism or dissent from that point of view is regarded as ignorant and narrow-minded. Marriage, the family and sexual faithfulness is mocked and derided. Christians who are obedient to biblical morality are presented as bigoted.
The educational and intellectual establishment in our schools and universities has banished consideration of Christianity from the classroom and instead enthroned rationalism and skepticism. Discussion can only take place within the iron cage of secular rationalism, and a scientific reductionist view of reality. Dissent from what is considered politically correct is not tolerated. The teaching of history and political science often promotes a Marxist perspective.
The mass media is dominated by pundits who spin the news to promote their own agenda and their favorite politicians. The same stories are endlessly repeated, the same lies are perpetuated. They wage wars on people of faith and ridicule the churches. Each generation has its issues which are held up as the religion of the day and demonize its supposed opponents. Today they are racism and white guilt.
What comfort can we take from this vision of political and social reality. “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.” There is a limit to their power. One day they will be held accountable for their blasphemies. Empires come and go. Business empires come and go. Politicians and parties come and go. Governments and tyrants come and go. In the meantime we are called to discern the beasts, to outlast them. We are called to wisdom, to patient endurance and to faithfulness to Christ.
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