“Okay,” he continued, “turn to Revelation, chapter thirteen. Manuel, here’s where we see a description of an animal called ‘the beast.’ This is the Antichrist. Now, look at verse two and read what it says.”

Manuel began tentatively, “It says, ‘The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.’”

“Good,” said John. “This is the man I was talking about. But if the beast is the Antichrist, as I’ve already said, who do you suppose the dragon might be?”

“Must be the devil,” Manuel answered.

“Yes, that’s exactly right. And who is the devil?”

“Well, he’s an evil spirit,” Manuel said, “a real powerful evil spirit.”

“That’s true, in part, but did you know that Jesus called him the Prince of the Earth? When the devil came to Jesus to tempt Him, the evil one offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth because he said they belonged to him. He was lying, in part, but Jesus turned him down as if the offer was true. This beast figure will accept from the devil what Jesus rejected.

“Now, please read the second part of verse three.”

“‘The whole world was astonished and followed the beast,’” Manuel read. Then he added, “Whatever the devil gave him, the world sure bought it. He becomes the leader of everyone.”

“That’s the way I see it too,” replied John Edwards. “Now, look at verses seven and eight.”

“‘He was given power,’” Manuel read, “‘to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.’”

John continued, “This beast is to be given power over all the inhabitants of the earth. Everybody is going to venerate him.”

“But, Jack,” Carl said, “we’re making this sound so modern, but it was written—well, the Roman Empire was still at its height when John wrote this book—so don’t you think the apostle John might have been talking about some Roman emperor? Didn’t the emperors claim to be God?”

“Carl,” John answered, “you make a good point. The apostle John may very well have used a Roman emperor as a model. After all, one of them exiled John himself to that tiny island. However, the power of Rome only went so far. It didn’t control India or China or Africa. And remember, the beast controls everybody. So, in my opinion, this beast hasn’t received power yet. But he will soon.”

Cathy and Lori were thinking the same thing, but Lori spoke first. “If he has the devil’s power for a time to hurt the saints, does that include us?” she asked. “Because we’re certainly not saints!”