The Berean Expositor
Volume 38 - Page 193 of 249
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"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and
out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the
spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the
whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
"Idolaters and all liars" conclude this dreadful list. The apostle did not hesitate to say
when writing to the church at Corinth "If any man that is called a BROTHER be . . . . . an
idolater" (I Cor. 5: 11), neither did he feel it unnecessary to say "neither be ye idolaters as
were some of them" (who did not overcome like Caleb and Joshua) (I Cor. 10: 7). See
I Cor. 9: 24 where this passage is introduced, not with salvation, but with prize and
crown, and with the possibility of being a "castaway" or "disapproved".
The worship of the image of the Beast (Rev. 13: 15) when resisted led to the
martyrdom and the crown of those who reign during the thousand years (Rev. 20: 4).
Finally "all liars" is extended in Rev. 21: 27 as "whatsoever worketh abomination, or
maketh a lie" and in Rev. 22: 15 is further expanded to "whosoever loveth and maketh
a lie". "The lie" is of the Devil, it is "his own" (John 8: 44). "The lie" is associated
with the Man of Sin and the working of Satan, together with those who received not the
love of the TRUTH and have pleasure in unrighteousness (II Thess. 2: 9-12). In the
church, those who posed as apostles were found "liars" (Rev. 2: 2), and the liar is
definitely associated with Antichristian denial (I John 2: 22). This list of dreadful sins is
all related to the time of stress which comes upon the world under the domination of the
Beast and the False Prophet To lean towards that blasphemous teaching, to submit
rather than suffer, becomes an act of treachery on a field of battle, and the treatment of all
such offenders must be drastic in the extreme.
There remains to be considered one more feature, and one that may cause considerable
feeling; that is the bringing into the realm of the church (Rev. 2: 3) the possibility of
ending up in the Lake of Fire. Traditional theology in the past has entertained few
qualms as it contemplated the countless millions of unevangelized heathen being
consigned to that dreadful place, but it may be the nearer approach will stimulate a keener
interest. The Lake of Fire is implicit in the two references to the churches, the second
death, and the Book of Life already considered (Rev. 2: 11; 3: 5). In the first place,
this dreadful doom was not prepared for the sons of men, it was "prepared for the Devil
and his angels" (Matt. 25: 41) and in the Revelation, the first to enter are The Beast, the
False Prophet, and the Devil (Rev. 19: 20; 20: 10).
In times of peace, the punishment for some act directed against a Government might
be several years" imprisonment, but the selfsame act in time of war might be punishable
by death. Into the churches of Rev. 2: and 3: we can perceive the infiltration of the
fifth columnists, false apostles, liars, Nicolaitanes, the blasphemy of those pretending to
be Jews, but who are of the synagogue of Satan; Satan"s throne, the doctrine of Balaam,
the woman Jezebel, the threat to "kill her children with death", the depths of Satan, a
name to live yet dead. These constitute the associations of some of those who, having
sold themselves to Satan, received the mark of the Beast, and so will be counted worthy
of suffering the same fate as that infernal trinity, the Beast, the False Prophet, and the