(13.5)         And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.  

1.   Wow! What a talking man this antichrist will be. Speaking great things will be his trademark. And blasphemy, too. I rather think his great things will center on how great the human race is, and how we can do anything we want to do if we just think positive enough, and how government will solve all our problems if we just learn how to be compassionate and feeling, and so on and so forth.  

2.   I rather think his blasphemies come in when he makes reference to God and to Christ. He will probably talk about worship of God as being an emotional crutch that the unstable and the fearful need for survival. He will probably intimate that religion was dreamed up, and God was thought up, by fearful shepherds as an explanation of lightning and thunder.  

3.   I am sure that he will put down believers and mock the blood of Christ. But he will only do that for three and one half years. During the first half of the Tribulation he will keep quiet about such things as religion. But once Satan is cast out of heaven, this beast, the antichrist, will become the most venomous blasphemer mankind has ever seen.  

4.   But he only gets away with it for three and one half years. Why? Because God has him on a string. And God’s string is only three and one half years long. Then the beast’s ravings will be over and Christ will reign.  

5.   Consider this 42 month time period more closely with me. It is the last half of the seven years of the tribulation.  

a.   In Jeremiah 30.7, that seven year period is referred to as “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Turn there and read with me: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”  

b.   This seven year period is also referred to as Daniel’s 70^th week, in Daniel 9.24-27:  

²⁴    Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

²⁵    Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

²⁶    And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

²⁷    And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.  

c.   Now read Matthew 24.1-31 with me, to see what the Lord Jesus Christ had to say the night before His crucifixion about this period of time:  

¹      And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

²      And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

³      And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

⁴      And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

⁵      For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

⁶      And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

⁷      For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

⁸      All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹      Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

¹⁰    And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

¹¹    And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

¹²    And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

¹³    But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

¹⁴    And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

¹⁵    When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

¹⁶    Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

¹⁷    Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

¹⁸    Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

¹⁹    And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

²⁰    But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

²¹    For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

²²    And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

²³    Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

²⁴    For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

²⁵    Behold, I have told you before.

²⁶    Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

²⁷    For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

²⁸    For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

²⁹    Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

³⁰    And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³¹    And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.  

6.   So, this fellow will be the central figure, the center stage actor, during the last 3 ½ years before our Lord’s second coming in power and great glory.  

(13.6)         And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.  

1.   Verse 6 necessarily occurs during the last three and one half years of the Tribulation. This is because the antichrist will not begin to really show his true nature to the world until Satan is cast out of heaven by Michael the archangel and he begins to vent is rage through this human instrument, called the beast.  

2.   Consider this word “blasphemies.” The word “blaspheme” refers to abusive speech of any kind, and translates a word, blasjhmew, that literally means “to ridicule or slander.”^[1] So you see, anyone can blaspheme, but the beast is brazen enough to blaspheme the living God.  

3.   Now, common sense would dictate that these blasphemies begin to occur about when the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem is defiled. We will look again at some verses, some from passages read just moments ago.  

Daniel 7.25: “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”  

Here we have the blasphemy.  

Daniel 9.27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”  

This verse talks about the treaty made between the beast and the nation Israel which is to last 7 years, or one week. But when Satan is cast out of heaven, he rages against Israel and his beast, the antichrist, breaks the treaty and desecrates the rebuilt Temple .  

Matthew 24.15:   “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)”  

The beginning of blasphemy is this abomination of desolation, the desecrating of the Temple .  

4.   Back to Revelation 13.6. Not only does the beast desecrate the Temple , and blaspheme God and His name, he blasphemes them that dwell in heaven. Just who does “them that dwell in heaven” refer to? It can refer to the angels who have just defeated Satan in battle. It can refer to the saints in heaven. Or, it can refer to both.  

5.   See what he is doing? He is reviling everyone who stands on God’s side. This includes angels, Church Age believers who have been raptured and are in heaven at this time, Old Testament believers who have died and are awaiting their resurrection, and those Tribulation saints who have lost their lives during this period of time.  

6.   He passionately hates everyone aligned with God. So, where does this fellow get his malevolence and hatred? Understand that he is more intensively opposed to the plan and purpose of God than anyone who has ever lived, because he is Satan’s masterpiece. But he is only quantitatively different than you who are lost, not qualitatively different. That is, any one of you who is lost is of the same essence in his opposition to God as the antichrist, it is just that the antichrist is a more determined and powerful foe of God than most lost people are.  

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