While going through the Revelation study I am doing at a local church at the moment we discussed a section from chapter 13 the other day and it got me to thinking about the Trinity and the Unholy trinity mentioned in this chapter.
The Holy Trinity is something I is hard to understand, but at the same time easy for me to understand. The Holy Trinity is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I have grown up with this. This is who God is. He has 3 parts and acts in those three forms to do different things in the universe.
As the Father He is loving, just, and sees that His way is fulfilled. He commands things to occur and they happen. He has the ultimate authority and therefore must hold all accountable. He created everything.
As Jesus He is again loving. He is the one that has saved all of humankind by taking on the penalty of sin and death and then was raised to glorify God. He is the one that has shown humankind the best example of a way to live. He helped create the universe. He is preparing a place for all who believe in the perfection of heaven. He showed us a servants life, and how to put others above ones self.
As the Holy Spirit He is still loving. He is guiding humankind. He is the one that opens our hearts so that we can accept the gift of eternal life. He bring calm and peace and assurance to those that He indwells. He is the ever present conscience that believers have. He allows believers to bear the fruit of God so others can see God’s glory.
As you can see the Holy Trinity is wonderful. He bring peace, love, grace, hope and assurance to those that follow Him.
Now to the other trinity; the unholy trinity. While reading Revelation 12 and 13 recently and talking it over with my small group I came to a realization about this trinity. They really try hard to mimic the holy trinity. Here you get The Dragon (Satan, fallen angel), The First Beast, and the Second Beast.
In these chapters you read that Satan is big and powerful. He then brings the first beast out of the sea, and this beast is given the power of Satan. This is very similar to how Jesus is described as getting power for the Father. So Satan is taking on the role of God, and the first beast is taking on the role of Jesus. The first beast sis there to bring worship to the dragon, again very much as Jesus was sent to Earth to help humankind see the glory of God and worship Him. But the first beast bring torment and pain to people. This isn’t like Jesus. The first beast gains a fatal wound but is healed. Again very similar to Jesus being crucified and then raised from the dead. I am not sure the first beast has died completely or just nearly died. There is no mention of the beast being buried and then being resurrected, so I think this is a difference. If so, I think it is an important difference. Satan can’t raise people from the dead, he can help people from dying though. Another difference is that the first beast speaks in arrogant ways and blasphemies God and others. This is another thing that Jesus didn’t do. He spoke with love and care towards others even when He didn’t agree with them.
Then you get thee second beast. This beast comes from the land. This beast is given power by the first beast. This beast is often called the false prophet. He spreads the word of the first beast and that of the dragon as well. But what hit me during the small group was that this second beast is a lot like the Holy Spirit. This beast was there to guide the people in following the dragon. He is given the power to breath life into an inanimate statue. Is this similar to God giving breath to Adam and Eve at creation? The Holy Spirit was there are creation and this second beast appears to create life. This beast is marking people for the dragon. The Holy Spirit marks believers in the sight of God. But this beast again lead people toward destruction rather than toward life. This beast also calls down fire from heaven like Elijah did so the comparison to a prophet makes sense, but I see this beast as a Holy Spirit mimic.
So, that was where my mind was the other day and I wanted to write on it. This unholy trinity isn’t as powerful as the Holy Trinity. It has power, but God has supreme power.