The Big Ugly And The Imposter Lamb

Remember please this truth at the outset as it relates to Satan’s war against Christ and His church:

“WHAT SATAN CANNOT PREVENT FROM WITHOUT, HE WILL

PERVERT FROM WITHIN.”

This quickly brings to my mind this profound and parallel insight from Martin Luther:

“FOR WHERE GOD BUILT A CHURCH, THE DEVIL WOULD ALSO

BUILD A CHAPEL.”

 

 

 

“And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

Satan is the quintessential masquerader who under the mask of light spreads his darkness, and who though as Lucifer he shines yet as Satan he deceives. If that has never deeply grabbed us before, it must grip us in these last hours of human history. While Satan comes with the sound of truth, he is in fact every false prophet’s prompter. Satan whispers in every liar’s ear. He can and does change his voice, his dress and his entire appearance, and all the while he is the most dexterous fraud that the world and the church have ever encountered. In fact, those who deny or pooh-pooh his existence only prove his crafty presence in their lives.

THE GREAT LUMBERING SEA-BEAST

We meet in Revelation 13 Satan’s real nature first in the form of the ugliest and most ferocious behemoth imaginable. Such a one as could only come from Hell! This is the real Satan that God wants us to see, without one sign of compassion on his hideous faces or the hint of a smile on his perverse lips. Read it like it is in Revelation 13:1-2 where John the Revelator in his spirit has been taken by the Holy Spirit to the seashore and this is what he sees:

“…And I saw a beast coming out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads,

and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous

names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet

were like those of a bear; and his mouth like the mouth of a

lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his

throne and great authority.”

 Not exactly Sesame Street! This grotesque gargantuan is Satan, but in the form and force of a multiplied monstrosity that has viciously confronted and attacked, is viciously confronting and attacking, and will to the end of time viciously confront and attack the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity has never been and never will be a walk in the park with your dog Mugsy. Old Mugsy looks handsome and debonair compared to this fiendish colossus. This is not Babe, Paul Bunyan’s blue ox. This is Satan’s “Big Nasty” who I assure you would not make a good house pet.

I am not going to try to explain the features of this “Big Ugly.” We don’t have time or space. Plus, he or it is not the main character that I want you to see on John’s Revelation screen. We will be getting  to the main feature of this teaching who is “The Imposter Lamb.” But first I do want you to note a few things about the creature who we can call “The Sea Beast” or as in our title “The Big Ugly.”

But first then this creepy character whom Disney could never have imagined emerges from the “Sea.” John the Revelator says in Revelation 13:1-

“And I saw a beast coming out of the sea….”

This truly is the original “Creature From The Blue Lagoon.” More exactly, interpreting Scripture with Scripture, we find what is described in Revelation 13 defined for us in Revelation 17:15,

“The waters which you saw…are peoples and multitudes and nations

and tongues.”

The Bible never contradicts but only confirms itself, and thus we already read of this in Isaiah 17:12,

“Alas, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the

seas, and the rumbling of nations, who rush on like

the rumbling of mighty waters.”

In short, what we have here emerging out of this roaring and rumbling boil of sand and surf is Satan’s maritime monster at evil’s high tide lumbering on earth’s shore throughout the history of the world. It is the multi-headed anti-Christ beast made up of the nations and people’s of the world who like wave after wave of cosmic tsunamis roll over the earth to persecute and kill Christians and destroy the Christian Church. You may want to rethink picturing the Christian walk-of-faith as a stroll on the beach. If you will:

“THE MULTI-HEADED OCEANIC OGRE IS THE FIERCELY ANTI-GOD,

ANTI-CHRIST GOVERNMENTS AND PEOPLES OF THE WORLD

WHO ARE THE NATURE AND FORCE OF SATAN HIMSELF.”

This great lumbering beast is the personification of Satan “The Dragon” from whom it receives its vile and blasphemous nature and power.

Many modern “Coastal Religious Resorters” who are being burned by the sun, bitten by flies and buffeted by the surf as they get sand in every bodily orifice, think only about “Persecution” and “Martyrdom” as barbaric acts that were carried out by ancient heathens on primitive Christians in the first ages of Christianity. The only sea monster they really worry about is the shark that comes feeding too close to shore during their vacation on the shores of Miami Beach. After all, there have already been six shark attacks on that stretch of beach alone in 2009.

However the “Great Sea-Beast” that John the Revelator is talking about is on shore now around the world. In August 2006, about 50 Vietnamese police officers swarmed the grounds of Pastor _____’s Mennonite Church, beating congregants with nightsticks, nunchucks, and electric prods. Pastor _____ was arrested. Today, Pastor_____ is released from prison, is operating a Bible school. Currently 47 young Vietnamese and tribal youth are studying in the three year program. This course teaches them a thorough understanding of the Bible, how to use a computer, how to establish a church and qualifies them to serve in full-time ministry. Oh, secret police are still coming by his church and home. *

Dateline China 2009! In a document obtained by a Voice of the Martyr’s source in 1998, Communist Party Officials in China expressed their disgust at Pastor _____’s persistence in telling others about Christ. The document states, “His career is illegal religion missionary and he has preached illegally in our town for nearly 10 years. He has been arrested and educated many times, and yet his heart has not died and his nature has not changed….” Today, Pastor _____’s heart still pumps for Christ and his nature is still to share Christ with others. The authorities are still monitoring his ministry, but he fearlessly continues to preach and teach about Christ. **

At least 11 Christians were killed in Iraq and Somalia by suspected militants this month, July 2009. Today there are only a handful of Somali Christians inside the country and they have  gone underground. Those who come to Christ in Somalia do so at a huge risk. Most of them are Muslim background Christians who face unbelievable persecution and death. But they stand firm in their confession even to the death.

That is how the true “Christian Shore People” are dealt with  by “Satan’s Sea-Born Beast.” Even though the “Big Ugly” carries them away and kills them, we have by no means seen or heard the last of them. And we remember not only our martyred Christian contemporaries, but the Christian contemporaries of the Apostle John to whom he is also writing. Under the 1st century Roman persecution, many were crucified, beheaded and thrown to lions. It looked then like it was all over for them. It looks like the “Big Bad Beast” has won. Look again! John says in Revelation 20:4,

“And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given

to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because

of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God.”

Right now as we speak, the martyrs for Christ are reigning triumphantly on thrones with Christ in Heaven and they shall participate with Christ in the judgment of those who beheaded them. John the Baptist will surely be among them on a front row throne, for there was never born to man and woman anyone greater than John the Baptist.

There are those times when you and I are tempted to give up the fight against the godless and heathen forces of evil and injustice in high places and low. Never! We must fight on for we serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We are His army and in the end we shall reign in Heaven with our Commander-in-Chief forever and ever. Not only reign with Him, but with Him execute justice upon the evil and unjust. We read in I Corinthians 6:2,3-

“Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?…Do you not know

that we shall judge angels? How much more matters of this life?”

I cannot but believe that the millions of aborted babies that were so hideously and unjustly butchered shall stand with Christ in the judgment against the butchers. The silent screamers shall have the last word after all! No one gets away with anything! There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. (Matthew 10:26) Those babes have made it home to Heaven from earth’s killing fields, and they with Christ shall also pass judgment upon the listless and indifferent who would not fight for the lives of the unborn.

Abraham asks the Lord in Genesis 18:25,

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

And Jesus asks His disciples in Luke 18:7,

“…now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day

and night, and will he delay long over them?”

Mark it down! Write it in indelible ink:

“AS SURE AS THERE IS A GOD, JUSTICE WILL BE DONE FOR THE

SUFFERING AND DYING INNOCENTS OF THE WORLD.”

There is something that you and I can count on as being unstoppable – it is the justice of God. The “Big Ugly” nations and peoples of the world will all be justly judged by the Judge of all the earth. Hold on to it like a life raft when you are about to sink from the raging flood of persecution – God’s justice will prevail.

Teach your children when it appears that the God-haters are in control – God’s justice will prevail. And when you think of letting go and giving in and going over to the other side, discipline your thoughts with this utter certainty – God’s justice will prevail.

And what happens to the “Satanic Sea Savage?” I thrill to what Isaiah says in Isaiah 17:13-14 about the beastly anti-Christ and anti-Christian nations and peoples of world history who opposed and martyred the saints of God:

“The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters! But He (God) will

rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like chaff in

the mountains before the wind, or like whirling dust before a

gale. At evening time, behold there is terror! Before morn-

ing they are no more. Such will be the portion of those

who plunder us, and the lot of those who pillage us.”

Just like that, the hostile anti-God and anti-Christian nations of the world are gone as if they never existed. The persecutors, the plunderers and the pillagers like chaff and dust are blown away by the furious mountain gale-force winds in the dark of the night, and the next morning there isn’t the flimsiest evidence that those nations were ever on the face of the earth. Gone forever!

Thus we read in Psalm 2:1,2,4,9-

“Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing?

The Kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel

together against the Lord and against His Anointed. He who sits

in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Thou shalt

break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter

them like earthenware.”

THE IMPOSTER LAMB

Remember now what we began with! How does it go again? Oh yes:

“WHAT THE DEVIL CANNOT PREVENT FROM WITHOUT, HE WILL

PERVERT FROM WITHIN.”

If Satan cannot cripple the church from without through the “Big Ugly,” he will try to corrupt the church from within through a “Soft Cuddly.” We read in Revelation 13:11,

“And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns

like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.”

Amazing! Again:

“IF THE DEVIL CANNOT CRIPPLE THE ARMS OF WARRIOR CHRISTIANS THROUGH

THE ROARING BEAST, HE THEN BY AN IMPOSTER LAMB SEEKS TO BE

EMBARCED BY THE ARMS OF DECEIVED CHRISTIANS.”

We just flat out have to see this! This is how Satan does it! To be more succinct:

“IF PERSECUTION FAILS TO KNOCK DOWN THE WALLS OF THE CHURCH,

THEN SATAN BY DECEPTION AND TREACHERY SEEKS TO OPEN

THE DOORS OF THE CHURCH.”

I think you are getting the picture! If the “Big Bad Ugly” won’t allow him to force his way in, the “Soft Little Cuddly” may enable him to be welcomed in.

But more exactly, who or what is the “Soft Little Cuddly.” Revelation 13:11 tells us:

“A TWO HORNED LAMB.”

You have seen I am sure in person or in pictures a “Button-Hook Deer.” Here Satan comes in the form of a “Button-Hook Lamb.” Oh, I think I am getting it! Of course, now I see it! Why you deceptive Dragon you, I’ve got you button hooked! Yes I know, you might think so, but it reality, the dragon is not easy to spot in his lamb masquerade. It isn’t an easy thing to ID Satan, let alone resist him.

First of all, who would ever think that a cute, woolly, little button-hook lamb really is the extension of and speaks for the Dragon? You know how absorbing and irresistible a lamb can be. You can’t help but stroke and cuddle the little dear. Who would ever think that a lamb would be yet another beast in the Dragon’s stable of beasts? Satan really is the originator of Halloween Parties after all! Only, he especially trick-or-treats at church doors. How imaginative! When you are a bag-bad wolf and you dress up like a sheep! Who could resist treating this trickster? Baa-Baa-Baa-Baa!

Second, it isn’t as simple as 1-2-3 to ID the Devil’s “Beast-Lamb” simply because we as Christians are lamb-habituated, lamb-addicted and lamb-saved. I mean, after all, the symbol throughout the entire Bible for Jesus the Savior is “The Lamb.” And more than this, that is how John the Baptist introduced the One and Only Who takes away our sins and the sins of the world. John 1:29,

“Behold, the Lamb of God who take takes away the sin of the world.”

The writer of Revelation, the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was so taken by the “Lamb Metaphor” of Jesus Christ, that he uses it 29 times. Calling Christ the Lamb sums up everything He is and everything he does.

How can we ever again resist an innocent looking Lamb?  And to our children anything or anyone lamblike is the mental and emotional equivalent of warm milk. All believers to a greater or lesser degree are lamb-struck. And the Dragon knows that and milks it to death!

Third, give me the “Big-Bad-Beast” any day I tell you. Anti-Christian leaders, anti-Christian governments, at least I know who they are and where they stand and where I stand with them. They are anti-spirituality and immorality, and you can spot ‘em with a modicum of spiritual discernment, even before they are elected. However, when a white, woolly lamb comes along, carrying a Bible, and begins to preach in the name of Christ in a place called the church with a flair for the supernatural (Revelation 13:13), man oh man, that can be very seductive and hard to resist. You might just swallow what he says hook, line and sinker. It is the perfect disguise for the perfect storm to sink the ship called the church.

More exactly, who or what is this “Lamb-Beast?” This is not science fiction. This is not Startrek with its intergalactic wierdos. This is not feeding time at the zoo. Far too many church people view John’ Revelation in exactly those terms and no more. No! This is Divine Revelation uncovering and exposing for us very real and potent devilish forces in the world. While the “Big Ugly” is the anti-God and anti-Christ governments and leaders in the world, the “Little Woolly” is the false Christ and the false religion that infiltrates the church. The “Big Ugly” and the “Little Wooly” work in concert together. But never loose sight of the fact that their targets for destruction and corruption are Christians and the Christian Church.

In short:

“THE CUDDLY, WOOLLY, BUTTON-HOOKED LAMB ARE THE LIES OF

SATAN DRESSED UP IN THE TRUTH.”

We must be warned about something right here. We might be inclined to give the “Little Wooly” slight attention, for after all he really is miniature compared to the “Great Lumbering Sea Beast” that growls and prowls the earth. Such thinking will be fatal, for the following reason:

“A BOSOM ENEMY IS FAR MORE DANGEROUS AND DESTRUCTIVE

THAN AN AVOWED ENEMY.”

And again:

“THE MOST PAINFUL AND DESTRUCTIVE BLOWS OFTEN COME FROM

WITHIN THE CHURCH AND NOT FROM WITHOUT.”

Frankly, at times what the enemy within can do makes the “Big Ugly’s” actions look merely like the harassment of the class bully. What concerns me deeply today is the casual, carefree air in the modern church, and a faint, passionless pulse beat for truth. When all the while the “Imposter Lamb” is bleating out his falsehoods across the global church in the name of Jesus! It is a life or death state of affairs.

But we must notice something else here that is all important about the “Beast Lamb.” What is his defining trait if he has one? Is there a main characteristic that makes him stand out as the “False Lamb” and therefore as the “False Christ.” As a matter of fact there is, and it is very apparent when you know what to look for. It isn’t only what he has, but what he doesn’t have in his form and appearance.

Do you remember how Jesus the Lamb of God is pictured in Heaven by John the Revelator? I am sure you do, and we read it in Revelation 5:6,

“And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders

a Lamb standing, as if slain….”

There it is! The “Imposter Lamb” has not been slain. There are no marks of the sacrificial death of the Lamb of God on the “Wooly Fake.” He has not been wounded for our transgressions or bruised for our iniquities. Not only does he have horns which the true Lamb of God does not have, but this “Horny Little Devil” does not have marks of crucifixion.

Why didn’t I see that? Why didn’t I think of that? I’ll tell you why, because the little masquerader is indeed a “Beast of Bamboozlement” after all. He has no wounds, but he is wounding the church with serious head wounds. He distorts her thinking, and already she is under his spell. The deception and devastation are already massive, and if and when she comes to her senses, and pray to God that she will very soon, she will be like the person who was brain damaged at Pearl Harbor and woke up six years later not able to believe what had happened or how much he has missed. He was totally unaware. That is more than a little scary.

More exactly, when the “Imposter Lamb” talks, it is the Dragon’s (Devil) voice, whose sounds are most distinct by what he doesn’t say. What does the absence of the “Slain Marks” mean? Simply this:

“THERE IS NO CENTRAL TEACHING ANYMORE ABOUT SIN AND THE

ATONING DEATH JESUS CHRIST FOR SINNERS.”

If you will:

“THE CUDDLY-WOOLLY TODAY SIDETRACKS HIS LISTENERS WITH A FALSE

BUT VERY APPEALING GOSPEL ABOUT RICHES AND SUCCESS.”

If you will again:

“HE TAKES PEOPLE MINDS IN THE NAME OF JESUS OFF FROM TH E

SPIRITUAL AND ON TO THE MATERIAL, AND OFF THE ETERNAL

AND ON TO THE TEMPORAL.”

We have to be keen spiritual discerners in this day and age, and super-careful where we get our teaching from, for it may resemble Christ and look like Christianity but it isn’t. In fact it is Satan the Dragon speaking through his little woolly, wily wonder.

And why is Satan in this woolly-lamb woundless disguise? First of all, if he can get people’s minds off from the true Lamb of the Cross and the true Cross of the Lamb, and on to mammon and stuff, he can still get people in Hell with him in the name of Christ and religion. Get them to follow Christ for his multiplied loaves rather than his soul-cleansing blood and he can populate Hell with multiplied millions of churchgoers. His ultimate coup d’etat over the church!

By all means let people follow Christ but stop short of the bloody cross. The horny little devil doesn’t want you to come to and glory in the bloody cross and the wounded Lamb, so he will head butt you away and steer you in other carnal and appealing directions. Today, the horny little devil is false-gospel-butting people’s brains out in the church all over the earth.

Second, the “Imposter Lamb” will also take our minds off from sin, for sin-consciousness and guilt may drive us to the wounded, slain Lamb of Calvary. He can’t risk that. Then again he has totally lost us. Already the “Feel Good Gospel” of the “Imposter Lamb” has made the idea of sin a trite cliché in modern Christianity. And when he downplays sin, he shrinks the cross and dilutes the blood of the Lamb. And after awhile, church goers really don’t believe anymore that they are sinners. At worst, to err is human, and to forgive is divine! And so it goes today! I’m okay – you’re okay!

The “Imposter Lamb” is frankly having a hell of a time with sin in the modern church. Entire mainline, historic denominations embracing practicing homosexuals as members in good standing. Pastors going on public record that they will no longer use the word “sinner” in their preaching. Prominent pulpit personalities going on record on “Larry King Live” stating that they and we should not preach on Hell and scare people, and that we cannot say for sure if Hindus and Moslems etc. will or will not be in Hell. The “Imposter Lamb” is dumping his waste all over modern Christianity.

CONCLUSION

So subtle can this “Guile Goat” dressed as lamb be, that the church has mistaken his butting as nudging and his growling as bleating! Satan is the artist of deception! It is not only what he says, but what he doesn’t say that draws people to their spiritual and eternal death. That was true from the beginning of time. You don’t even know what is happening to you until it is too late.
 
When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it was the “Big Ugly” that killed multiplied thousands outright. However there were multitudes that appeared to be unscathed on the basis of external observation.  Yet unknowingly there was a far less apparent but equally lethal contaminant or pollutant at work. It was invisible, but it entered the flesh of thousands of unfortunate victims and settled in their bones and destroyed their bodies. It was the “Fatal Invader” that did and is still doing them in. It is to this very day busy destroying them. He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Amen!

*Used By Permission The Voice of the Martyrs

PO Box 443 Bartlesville, OK 74005

1-918-337-8015

**Ibid