False Prophet and Beast

[MoNatureMan]

I have always thought that the False Prophet and the Anti-Christ would be human, but after coming across Revelation 19 and 20 (again), I question that.

--–Before the 1000 years----
Revelation 19:20 states that the Beast and the False Prophet were cast alive into the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:1-3 states that Satan to be bound for 1000 years and cast into the bottomless pit.
Revelation 19:21 states that the rest of those that came against God were killed by the sword that proceeded out of His mouth. These that were killed were human.

--–After the 1000 years----
Revelation 20:7-10 tells of Satan being loosed after the 1000 years, to deceive the world one last time. He will then be cast into the Lake of Fire where the Beast and False Prophet have been for 1000 years, to be tormented day and night forever.
Revelation 20:11 after Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire, the Great White Throne Judgement takes place upon all of mankind that didn't trust in God.
Revelation 20:19 as a result of the Great White Throne Judgement, all those (humans) who's names were not found in the Book of Life were cast into the Lake of Fire.

It is interesting to note:
-The Beast and False Prophet are not treated as humans. They are cast directly into the Lake of Fire, 1000 years before Satan and the Great White Throne Judgement..
-The Beast and False Prophet are absent from the Great White Throne Judgement for unbelieving mankind.
-Unbelieving mankind will be cast into the Lake of Fire after the Great White Throne Judgement.
-So since the Beast and False Prophet were sent directly to the Lake of Fire without going to the Great White Throne Judgement, I have to assume they are not human.

If the False Prophet and Beast are not human, what are they? I believe they are probably fallen angels. God's angels appeared many times in human form, so it is likely that fallen angels could do the same in this case.

Your thoughts!?!?!?
In Him
Ron

[ezduzit]

Perhaps they are human ,(one and the same ie one person) a false prophet before he is revealed as the anti christ
Ez

[bn2bnude]

Here is what we tend to forget when we read the Bible. The Bible was NOT written to us. It was definitely left for us (and as a result could be said to have been written for us) but not to us.

So, who was the book of Revelation written to? In the first three chapters we find that at least some if not all the recipients were the 7 churches in Asia.

Next, what sort of literature is Revelation? By definition it is apocryphal, meaning it uses exaggerated but familiar symbols to convey meaning that the readers would understand but would often be hidden to those who the writing was not for. An example of this would be, in reference to the Kennedy assignation or the World Trade Center's destruction, "The world as we know it ended today". Did the world around me end? No. In general it didn't even change that much. It changed more for me the two times my company was purchased.

So, lastly, to help put the book into context, let's look at the date written. The dates range from prior to 70AD to 90AD. There is reason to believe that the early date is more reliable. These include the reliability of the church father that dated the book at 90AD (he also said Christ was 50 when crucified) to the fact that the destruction of Jerusalem was not mentioned as a past event but as a future event.

I agree with many who suggest that Nero was "The Beast". If you use numerology (which the Jews did), Nero does come out at 666. As far as the "False Prophet", I would suggest the deceiver himself.

A lot of what I stated above is covered in better detail in Hank Hannegraf's The Apocalypse Code.... In my "review" the book is very worth the read.

[bn2bnude]

Just a quick note... "The Naked Bible Podcast" discusses the prophetic and apocalyptic literature types here (15 minutes).

[Petros]

It is rather interesting that just yesterday [ in a bulletin from a chuch with which we have affinities] the topic of the millennium - closely related to this - came up. One more in a series of recent precise or close coincidencences.

Quote from Herself yesterday afternoon: "I don't like the millennium." That could sound naive - but the fact is the millennium is about as hard to figure as anything in John's seeing.

I am, ye ken, no great fan of Occam's Razor nor Pragmatism. I maintain Truth IS and that Truth matters whether or not we see it and try to steer accordingly. Yet Didymist scholarship asks, cui bono? Except for my internal counting coup if I calculate it right, how does it affect the Revelation scenarios if, say, Hilary Clinton is the Beast and George Bush the False Prophet? Watsa diff if they are not human [can any of us prove they are or are not?]

True, Revelation is written to Them Then. But if any share my understanding of God's role in the scriptures and of communicative multivalence, it is also intentionally written to Us Now. The meaning for us need not be, arguably cannot be the meaning for them.

Anyway, I am not equipped to participate meaningfully in discussions which reference the Great White Throne Judgement.