Questions about worshipping the beast in Revelation

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So, according to the Book of Revelation, everyone will essentially be forced to worship the “beast” and Christianity will be declared as illegal or something? But how will this actually work? The strongest nations right now USA and Russia are Christian. Not to mention that Christianity is one of the largest, if not, the largest religion right now. If people try to outlaw Christianity and force them to idol worship, won’t there be a major outrage?
 
I don’t think I would classify Russia as a Christian nation.
 
Aren’t they Russian Orthodox? If that counts as Christianity, that is
 
70 years of Atheism under Soviet Communist rule wasn’t helpful. Also, Putin is an atheist and he clearly views religion as a threat to his rule like all good Communists do.

Look at the decline of religiosity in the west, and imagine having generations live under the fear of living the rest of their lives in a gulag if caught practicing religion. There were generations of children who were raised to report their parents and neighbors if they were practicing religion.

Russia wasn’t like Poland. Russia was the force that was trying to crush the church in Poland.

I don’t know numbers, but I can’t imagine that people 3 or 4 generations removed from the practice of religion people suddenly started to practice it again.
 
@HolySpirit
HolySpirit said:
70 years of Atheism under Soviet Communist rule wasn’t helpful. Also, Putin is an atheist and he clearly views religion as a threat to his rule like all good Communists do.
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I’m not an expert on Putin at all, but I seem to recall that he is in fact a practicing Christian. A quick look at his Wikipedia page confirms that, as well as this Hollowverse page here.

Some snippets:
Putin began as an atheist, but a car accident and a house fire caused him to question his views and now he is a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Some argue he is ushering in a new theocratic government in Russia. (Hollowverse)
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According to Putin, his religious awakening began after a serious car crash involving his wife in 1993, and a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996. Shortly before an official visit to Israel, Putin’s mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed. Putin states, “I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since.” (Wikipedia)
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This end times theology is more of Protestant origin.
Are you reading Catholic or Protestant books about it?
 
Well, first off, this has already happened many times.

For example, the Emperor Diocletian (who lived after the Book of Revelation was written, just to be clear) instituted a policy of putting pagan altars everywhere in the imperial capital of Nicomedia, including in all the markets and law courts, as a testing method to root out Christians. They knew that Christians would either have to refuse to sacrifice to the gods in order to buy food or do business (and thus confess to being Christian), agree to sacrifice (and thus cease to be Christian), or stay away from the markets entirely (and thus be in danger of starvation).

Persecution is one of those things that Christians have to deal with, in nearly all times and places. The Book of Revelation is warning us about that. It may also be talking explicitly about a particular persecution at the end of time, although it clearly is also talking about persecutions under the emperor Nero.
 
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  1. The U.S. is much less of a Christian nation than it was 50 years ago.
  2. So are at least some other nations.
  3. It’s not impossible that the Beast will claim to be Christian.
 
Haven’t read up much about the theology behind it. Just the Book of Revelation
 
Oooh, I didn’t see it that way before. You’re saying that the events depicted in Revelation could be a general analogy of any persecution Christians would have to go through?
 
The first two are true. But for the last one, won’t there still be an uproar if the beast tells Christians “worship me”?
 
Likely. That’s why the persecution. But do you really think something with the power of the Beast, aided by the False Prophet, won’t be able to persuade some people that its followers are the real Christians if it sets its mind to it?
 
Yup, and that’s the dangerous part about an anti-Christ. Not only is such a person against Christ, but he also is trying to replace Christ with himself.

Ever since the Resurrection, we have all been living in the last times, the times between the coming of the Kingdom and Christ mopping up all evil. Obviously Revelation was directed in a more pointed way at its original addressees, and at whichever Christians are still around at the actual end of time. But it wasn’t pointed only at them.

(And there’s a lot of difference in timelines between traditional eschatology throughout Christian history, and the sort of “end times theology” that showed up mostly in the US.)

Just as the rest of the OT and NT have an original message, but also are directed at everyone in all times, so is Revelation. If you pay attention, and especially if you read it in the context of all the Bible quotes and references in it (like Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, lots of other prophets, the Gospel of John, etc.), you will get lots of good stuff from it.

Just remember – ultimately it is a book about hope. There are scary things in it; but it’s supposed to help you persevere through scary times, or come back to Jesus if you forsake Him.
 
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Zynxensar said:
If people try to outlaw Christianity and force them to idol worship, won’t there be a major outrage?
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In today’s society, the idol is not a statue or a symbol like the golden bull, and you won’t have to literally bow down and worship it. The idol is the Self – personal liberty, choice, self-actualization.

The time may come when powerful groups and the media disparage, denounce, and even outlaw Catholicism. They will call it bigotry and hate speech. Either get on board with abortion, gay marriage, and women priests, or lose your job, your property, and your good name. Could that be the Beast?

In Ireland, an overwhelming majority just approved abortion. What if an overwhelming majority someday decides to shut down the Catholic Church? It could happen. Be ready. Be strong.
 
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The problem is, we are all guilty of idolatry at the moment. Anything that causes you to forget God and your duty toward Him, even for a second, is technically idolatry. Sports, patriotism, television, political leaders, music, literature…all these things and many more are worshipped by millions of people all over the planet. Any turning of your face from the Beatific Vision and eagerly contemplating something else is idolatry. Don’t mean to be harsh, but we need some context here. When the Beast comes to power, if he hasn’t done so already, it is highly likely that the vast majority of us will bow down before him and put him before God without even realizing we are doing so, so entrenched is general idolatry in our daily lives.
 
So say a couple with same sex attraction goes to a priest to be married. The priest refused and is taken to court and accused of a hate crime. Not so far fetched!
 
The buy and sell conditions are fought for today in the medical field and the attack on religious freedom, the Christian baker comes to mind. His business has closed I heard… Catholic hospitals were threatened to sin(perform abortions) or abandon their work. ( the hand symbolizes work)The Bishops refused and threatened to close all of them in the U.S. This is a reflection of but not necessarily an end time event.
 
Man is created in the light of the sixth day along with the beasts. We all have beastness in our soul. That is what rose up in rebellion when Adam and Eve sinned. Worshipping the beast is a life satisfying the desires that are born of sin. I would say the false prophet is the voice heard in media that has formed the culture of death.
 
I have been wanting to write a blog (or maybe a book) about this topic for a couple of years. Unfortunately, time has not cooperated. So here’s a quick synopsis w/o any effort to substantiate my claims.

The Beast comes out of the sea. Man is the sea. Think of Ezekiel’s dream of the New Covenant Temple. So the beast is not an it. The beast is man when evil reaches a great portion of the world’s population. In St. Catherine of Siena’s book, The Dialogue, God always refers to people who have given themselves over to fleshly lusts as beasts. We become beasts when we behave in such a manner as to cease to be in the likeness of the God who created us to be in the image and likeness of Himself.

Our God is an eternally fruitful God. What has virtually taken over the world by stealth? In 1917, Margaret Sanger started publishing her Birth Control Magazine. Sexual deviancy has now taken over the world. Furthermore, we Catholics approve of birth control by somewhere around 75%. We should have been the ones to have fought the Beast. Instead, we largely joined the party. I’ll bet we could all name a large number of sex-related problems plaguing our world today. THAT, I believe, is the Beast of Revelation.
 
There’s no reason to think that the end times are imminent. The geopolitical situation can and will change drastically by then.
 
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