Revelation 19:20
And the beast {Islam}
was taken, and with him {kingdom/beast is a "his" in Daniel}
the false prophet {Mohammed}
that wrought miracles [Quran]
before him, {this means in the presence of the {beast - Islam - Muslims}}
with which he deceived them {Muslims}
that had received the mark {666}
of the beast, and them {Muslims}
that worshipped his image. {today's Islam and second Jihad in the image of the Islamic First Jihad. Jihad is the pinnacle of worship in Islam}
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.Since Muhammad himself declared that he never did or would perform a miracle, how can he be the false prophet of this passage?
In this rare instance, the NKJV does a little better job of this portion of this verse:
(NKJV) Revelation 19:20 ...
and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence...
The Greek word "
semeion" translated as "miracles" and "signs" is defined in Strong's as "
that by which a person is distinguished from others and is known". That makes Mohammed a perfect fit for the false prophet, since he is his known for his Quran, and has without question been distinguished from others by it for 1400 years.
miraclesNew Testament Greek Definition:
4592
semeion {say-mi'-on}
from a presumed derivative of the base of 4591; TDNT - 7:200,1015; n n
AV -
sign 50, miracle 23, wonder 3, token 1; 77
1) a sign, mark, token
1a)
that by which a person or a thing is distinguished from
others and is known1b) a sign, prodigy, portent, i.e. an unusual occurrence,
transcending the common course of nature
1b1) of signs portending remarkable events soon to happen
1b2) of miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men
sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are
pleading is God's
Revelation 20:10
And the devil that deceived them {Muslims}
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast {Islam}
and the false prophet {Mohammed}
[are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.If we consider an
ethnographic hermeneutic of John's whole "
world" - that is looking through John's eyes at the time he penned the book of Revelation (which is required because he wrote about the things that were, are and will be, through his eyes) - John's world would have been limited to the Middle East area and perhaps extend into the lands of the Roman Empire at that time. The Bible was written about the Holy Land and God's people, not Peoria Illinois.
Through this view we find Iraq, Iran and Syria/Lebanon (geographically the seat of the leopard-bear-lion beast of Revelation, and successive kingdom beasts of Daniel) to be from 90 to 99% Muslim. Other countries in the area are similarly Islamic - like Saudi Arabia at 100% and Turkey at 99% Muslim.
In other words most everyone in the whole "world" that John knew, is today Muslim, and thus already have
the mark. In Saudi Arabia if a national announces they have converted to Christianity they are beheaded. The penalty for "apostasy" or turning away from Islam,
is death. This is the prescribed punishment for Christian converts, from Islam to Christianity. The true hallmark of a dangerous cult.
Revelation 13:17
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast {Islam},
or the number {
666}
of his name.The book of Daniel defines what a "beast" is: Daniel 7:23
Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,". Here we learn that the term beast = kingdom when used in the figurative language of a dream or vision in prophecy, and particularly in the context of Daniel's lion, bear, leopard and fourth "dreadful", beasts. Bible scholars - Christian and Jew - almost universally understand these four "beasts" to be the successive kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The leopard-bear-lion beast of Revelation then, is the Islamic empire since it's occupies the same seats in Iraq (Babylon - lion), Iran (Medo-Persia - bear) and Syria/Lebanon (ancient Greece - leopard). These beasts are explored in more detail on their own
page here, and in "The False Prophet" in
this chapter.
Revelation 13:2 And the beast {Islamic empire}
which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And thus it is in much of the Middle East - or John's whole world - TODAY. When we exercise the discipline of hermeneutic rules in our Bible study we find that prophecy is nearly fulfilled, and our Lord and Savior's return is truly imminent.
