12 Sep Reflections on Revelation #282
‘Day 282
“And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the entire world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked, and people will not see his shame.”) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” Rev.16:13-17 (NASB)
V:12 told us that the purpose of the drying up of the Euphrates is to prepare the way for “the kings from the east”. In the OT, “the kings from the east” were Cyrus and his forces(Isa41:25). Their conquest of Babylon made the return of God’s people to their homeland possible (Isa.44:27-28). In the same way, the symbolic drying up of the Euphrates prepares the way for the coming of the kings from the east to provide deliverance to God’s end-time people.
The kings from the east in Rev.16:12 are Christ and His army of heavenly angels. At His second coming, Jesus will appear with His angelic host, “clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev.19:14), which is the dress of sinless angels (Rev.15:16). Accompanied by the host of heaven, Christ will, as Rev 17:14 shows, overcome the satanic forces that oppress His people (c.f.Matt.24:30-31). This final conflict against Christ and His people leading up to the Second Coming is known as the battle of Armageddon.
The 3 demonic spirits are a counterfeit of the 3 Angles messages of Rev 14:6-12. Both messages are universal.
Through the final events leading up to the close of probation, every human being will be led to choose which of the two sides he or she will stand on in the battle of Armageddon. As a prelude to this spiritual warfare, John sees three demonic spirits resembling frogs. The last plague of Moses that the magicians were able to duplicate. Satan’s last attempt to deceive involves demonic, lying spirits.
The dragon (paganism and spiritualism), the sea beast (Roman Catholicism), and the false prophet (protestant America) unite under Satan’s command (Rev.13:11-12). Satan enables the lamb-like beast to perform miraculous signs, that includes spiritualistic manifestations. These signs are part of Satan’s end-time deceptive strategy to persuade the world to follow him rather than the true God.
Blinded by their hatred of God and His truth, the leaders of the world readily believe satan’s lies, which are cloaked in a pleasing religious guise (2 Thess.2:9-12). Ultimately, they will unite in the final battle leading to the end of this world.
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