We were pastoring in Everett about 33 years ago, and … was it Everett or was it Butte, Montana? That was longer but one of the young men in the church went up to see his baby and he came running down and he said “moma, moma” he said “the baby’s talk’n in tongues”. Well, it was cooing and it was babbling in the crib and he didn’t understand what the baby was saying, so to him it was talking in tongues. Well, no baby has ever been born that speaks. But here is an ‘image’, here is a replica, here is a likeness that will have the ability to think and to speak and to lead men and to demand of men that they worship it. Not only worship the Anti-christ, not only take the mark of the Beast but men will literally be forced to worship the ‘image’ of the Anti-christ. It couldn’t be a mere babe, it couldn’t be one without intellect. This ‘image’ of the Anti-christ will have the ability to make men do what it wants them to do.
Now as I search the scripture I find that there are special judgments allotted to those who will take the number, name, or mark of the Anti-christ. Who will worship him and also to those who worship the ‘image’.
Now don’t forget we have been created in the ‘image’ and likeness of God. We are being created today as new creatures in Christ in the ‘image’ and likeness of God. Jesus came in the ‘image’ of God.
Now, here in the future we see projected, this thing, this event where one will be created by the powers of darkness and will be in the exact ‘image’ and replica, an Icon if you please of the Anti-christ. And he will have force, power, and authority, ability to lead men.
But note thesixteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, the second verse, ‘And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. Do you see what the scripture is saying to us? Maybe you’ve always read this. I’ve read it, I don’t know how many times I’ve taught the book of Revelation. And to me the emphasis was always on the ‘mark’ of the Beast. But now I see that the word of God is not only saying the ‘mark’ of the Beast but worship unto the ‘image’ is as vital and important in the judgments of God as the ‘mark’ of the Beast itself. ‘And here is a noisome and grievous sore’ a cancer if you please falling upon those who have taken the number, name or the mark of the Anti-christ.
I turn to the nineteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, the nineteenth chapter the twentieth verse, ‘And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. The Anti-christ and the False Prophet cast alive into the lake of fire into their eternal home, their eternal destiny. But what happened to the ‘image’? We are not told what happened to the ‘image’. The Anti-christ and the False Prophet are men, turncoats if you please. Men who have turned from the truths of the Gospel of Christ. But the ‘image’ is the creation of the False Prophet. And for the life of me, I don’t see how he could possess an eternal spirit. A robot, not mechanical but a thing produced by men that has the ability to breathe and to live. But does it possess a spirit given by God? There is no judgment upon it. It simply is gone. Those that created it are judged eternally. But there is no statement made of what happens to it. I don’t think it possesses a spirit given by God or it too would be judged.