My Musical Sunday School Sessions - The Bad Boys from Revelations

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26 May 2024

A while ago I (re)discovered a book by a guy called John. John was all by himself on a Greek Island. The estimated due date of the book must have been a couple of years after they nailed Jesus to the cross. As documentation was not yet digital exact dates are not kept.

During his stay on that Island, he experienced some crazy things and it might have been the loneliness or something stronger but what he ended up writing was beyond anything else in the Bible. Hence this book is often found to be an inspiration to somewhat darker songs and occult stories.

I took it upon myself to do some digging and come up with a nice mash-up of religious writings and modern songs.

Chapter One

Part 1 was about those gorgeous ladies of Revelation:
My Musical Sunday School Sessions - The Ladies of Revelation

The Woman Clothed with the Sun (Revelation 12:1-6)
The Woman Pursued by the Dragon (Revelation 12:13-17)
The Whore of Babylon (Revelation 17:1-6, 18)
Jezebel (Revelation 2:20-23)

Now this last little girl lost was often portrayed as a False prophet:

You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

But was she really?

Chapter Two

For this second part, I will focus on the Bible's Badest Dudes

The False Prophet

One of the most enigmatic figures among the bodies in The Book Revelations must be this False Prophet.

Don´t mix them up
The Antichrist is never mentioned in Revelations and made its appearance much later.
Of course, as there have been many False Prophets since the Christian God was founded.

The Antichrist might be one to some but the Antichrist is a broader concept.
It´s really the dark opposition of Christ, while the False Prophet, according to the Book of Revelation is associated with promoting the worship of the Beast.

But people love mixing them up and therefore we have seen plenty of them. One of the first False Prophets was the so-called Prophets of Baal who challenged Elijah or maybe it was Elijah challenging these prophets from the opposing god?

The challenge was all about which god could send fire from heaven to consume an offering, Baal or the God of Israel

The prophets of Baal danced, shouted and even offered their own blood, but heaven remained closed, with no hungry gods to consume the offering.
Then Elijah did his little dance of victory and mockery, before getting on his knees and praying to the God of Israel. Elijah asked Him to show that He was the one true God and immediately, fire came down from heaven and consumed the offering.
The Prophets of Baal did not live happily ever after and it seems to be a recurring theme with false prophets.

Just take a more modern one, David Koresh he was killed at Waco and probably shot by one of his own after they figured out that his divine powers could not protect them from the FBI bullets.

In general, it does not pay to be a prophet, a real one, or a false one but the cool thing is that these false guys love working with The Beast!

The Beast

Now the beast is not so easily captured as in saying it´s Satan because according to the good book, it´s not.

So 666 the number of the beast is not a satanic symbol it´s a beastly bunch of numbers.

In Revelation 13, the number 666 is linked to a "beast" that rises from the sea.
If Man Is 5, Then The Devil is 6, and God is 7 this monkey is allowed into heaven.

6 is the imperfect number as it falls short of the divine number 7, which stands for perfection and completion in biblical symbolism.

But back to that beast that is not the devil.
Why do people tend to mix up the Beast with that guy Satan?
Well maybe because the two both opposed God and both were thrown into a lake of fire.

Other than that, probably because mankind is stupid and has the tendency to oversimplify things.

The Beast, at least the first one, came from the sea.
The Beast symbolizes earthly and temporal powers, such as empires, governments, oppressive authorities, or anti-Christian ideologies. The Beast represents the act of opposing God's will and does so in alliance with the False Prophet.

Now in these modern times, both that authority beast and the false prophets are starting to make sense, so Dear Reader according to The Book of Revelations....the end is near as the beast is here.

Now we can only be sure when we see the mark of the beast.

The Mark of the Beast

Revelation 13:16-18:
"It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666."
Now what could be this Mark in Modern Times..... KYC? A chip implant, using CBDCs?

Just a few options as the mark is often viewed as a warning against compromising one's faith and principles in the face of persecution and worldly temptations.

Now I mentioned that there was more than one beast according to revelations, so who is that second, not-so-famous beast?

The Beast from the Earth

The Beast from the Earth, also known as the False Prophet, is another entity associated with evil. It works in conjunction with the Beast from the Sea and deceives people into worshiping the first Beast.

Hence this beast is a False Prophet because the terms are not used interchangeably in the text, but they are often treated as representing the same entity in many interpretations.And there are more beasts in Revelations that you do not want to cross paths with

The Locusts

In Revelation 9, there are descriptions of demonic locusts that emerge from the abyss, inflicting pain and torment on those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
They are considered to be the consequences of human sin and rebellion, as well as the judgment and sovereignty of God in the midst of the apocalypse.
But they do not look anything like this, well maybe just a bit:
They are the most magical creatures from Revelations if you would ask me because they wear crowns of gold on their heads and have human faces with hair like a woman and teeth like lions.

The locusts are considered invulnerable because they wear breastplates of iron, and their wings make a sound like many chariots rushing into battle.

They attack by stinging like a Scorpio and possess the power to torment people for five months.

But there is one positive thing about these magical non-unicorns they are allowed to torment those without God's Seal Of Approval but they are not licensed to kill them.

There is of course one more baddy, the daddy of all baddies. The Dragon otherwise known as Satan himself. Now we met this dragon before when we encountered those lovely ladies of Revelations....but I think he needs his own little corner in my universe so a special chapter on Mr. Morningstar coming soon.

And Then There Was Light

This whole Revelations Trip started with a Spread The Vibes post about my good friends The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

STV - Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse NOW

Which led to a Playlist filled with Biblical Beauties:

Midnight Gems - Your Free Mix-Tape Show - E 23 "Revelations and other Biblical Beauties"

And triggered a Part 2 on the horsemen story as I forgot to open half of the Seven Seals:

STV - Last Week I Opened Only 4 of the Seven Apocalyptic Seals

But there is too much good stuff to keep making Spread The Vibes Follow Ups, this stuff needs its own series if you ask me.

There are just too many incredible stories and related songs to this Book; The Book Of Revelations. You just read Chapter Two and I am quite sure that if I have a say in it there will be a Devilishly Good Part Three coming your way soon.