Faithful When the World Bows: Whose Mark Do You Bear? (Revelation 13:1-10)

Believers face the pressure in every age: the pressure to conform, and to give allegiance where allegiance does not belong. That is exactly the kind of pressure Revelation 13 places before us. This chapter reveals how Satan works through counterfeit authority, coercive power, deception, and idolatrous worship to oppose Christ and seduce the world. We are not only being shown what the future antichrist will be like, but also how the spirit of antichrist is already at work in the world, so that as followers of Jesus we will learn to discern the beast, refuse to bow, and remain faithful to the Lamb when the world bows.