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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
Part 185
THE
(continued)
“And
I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come
out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of
the mouth of the false prophet. For they
are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of
the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great
day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:13-14).
From
the greatness of the crisis and the solemnity of the warning, these emissaries
must be creatures of awesome power. Yet
they seem unaccountably crude, uncouth, and unseemly. They surprise us. “Frogs!”
we exclaim, “heralds of battle?
Ambassadors to kings?
Impossible! Absurd! Ridiculous!”
The crisis is the greatest in the annals of war. It is referred to in scripture, as well as in
our
First,
I would draw your attention to the fact that they are called “unclean
spirits.” They are unclean just because
they are designated as frogs, and under the Old Testament law of Moses, as
defined in the dietary laws, frogs were unclean animals and therefore not to be
eaten by the people of Israel. Our
second clue is that they are described as coming out of the mouth. Now how can a frog be in the mouth? The metaphor signifies an unclean spirit
or an unclean word that is coming out of a false teaching. This is the spirit of all false
teachings that originate from the mouth of the dragon (the devil and Satan),
from the mouth of the beast (the world system), and from the mouth of the false
prophet (the carnal
church system of man).
These are the teachings that people partake of, eat or assimilate into
their lives, thus swallowing the spirit of that teaching, becoming defiled by
it. And all of these teachings
“SPIRIT
AND WORD” — that is the issue
in this battle at Armageddon. “Three unclean
spirits coming out of the mouth.”
There is a time when God does more than just forgive our sins
and pour down blessings upon us. The
hour comes when He contends with the very spirit or spirits that motivate us
and we find ourselves drawn into conflict — into the greatest conflict of our
lives! The battle is not just “against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). We are to be CLEANSED “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God” (II Cor. 7:1). Thus,
when God sets His hand to purify and perfect us it is no local skirmish, but
erupts into a full-fledged WORLD WAR involving every vestige of the flesh and
every stronghold of spirit as God in us goes about His work of “the pulling down of strong holds, casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ” (II Cor. 10:4-5). In John’s
vision three unclean spirits emerge, touching upon the defilement and slavery
of man in all areas of body, soul, and spirit.
It reaches into all the expressions of society — religious, political, and
economical. The frogs may croak all
night but their influence will end with the Light of God’s New Day, when “the
kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ.”
An
“unclean” spirit is the opposite of the “clean” or “holy” Spirit. The “clean” or Holy Spirit of God is the
Spirit of truth, life, and righteousness.
Unclean spirits produce the opposite: lies and deceits, evil, and
death. The characteristics of the Holy
Spirit are found in the “fruit of the spirit” which is: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness,
If ever there was a need for this kind of power in
the world, it is now! This old sin-weary
world needs peace power, love power, and joy power. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the rulers in
all the nations had the peace power of GOD! You will understand a great mystery when you
understand that love is spirit, joy is spirit, peace is spirit, patience is
spirit,
The
so-called “gifts of the Spirit” are really manifestations of the ability
of Christ within us, while the “fruit of the Spirit” is the
manifestation of the nature of Christ within us. Every living thing possesses these two
aspects of being: ability and nature.
Ability is what you can DO.
Nature is what you ARE. With
Christ in us, both His nature and His ability are to be fully developed in, and
expressed through, our lives. All that
Christ can DO He must do through us! All
that Christ IS He must BE IN AND THROUGH US!
As these two aspects of God’s Being are brought
to complete fruition within, we become capable of truly reigning with and as
Christ. Through the development of these
we are enabled to be overcomers.
Jesus says, “And he that overcometh…to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron” (Rev.
2:26-27). The nature and power of God
raised up in His sons shall be ministered to the nations that they
finally might be ruled by the greatest and most irresistible power of all —
divine SPIRIT POWER! Love power…peace
power…joy power…faith power!
Now
let us return to the three “unclean spirits” like frogs which go forth to the
kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that
great day of God Almighty. These come
out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. These three “unclean” spirits are the
opposite of the “clean” or Holy Spirit.
They are therefore the ministers of lies, unrighteousness, and
death. These three spirits spew forth
all the unclean doctrines, propaganda, ideologies,
The
truth is, my beloved, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit or you can be
filled with the spirit of the devil. You
can be filled with God’s Spirit or you can be filled with the spirit of the
world. You can be filled with the Spirit
of Christ or you can be filled with religious spirits. You can be filled with the spirits of demons,
devils, and evil spirits. I don’t care
how you conjure them up. Matters not to
me whether you think they are entities walking about in the invisible spirit
world about you or whether they are something that comes out of a state of mind
— these powers are real and Jesus cast them out of people. I don’t pretend to understand all about evil
spirits — I don’t even understand all about the Holy Spirit and how He
works! And I am much more interested in
the Holy Spirit than I am in a devil or a demon or an evil spirit. I’m not a devil preacher. I am not devil conscious in my own life. But it is a fact that there is an unclean and
evil anointing just as there is an anointing of the Holy Spirit! And every man who follows on to know the Lord
will eventually come face to face with every one of those unclean “anointings” or “devils” when he comes to his Armageddon;
for Armageddon is the final battle
where Babylon, with all its carnality, worldliness, fleshliness, deception, and
deviltry falls to rise no more. Therefore
this battle must of necessity deal thoroughly and eternally with every one of
the “spirits of devils’! Armageddon is
where all the devilish spirits, all the worldly spirits, and all the religious
spirits make their last stand against the Lord of hosts! And, like General Custer, they go down into
ignominious and everlasting defeat! IT IS THE
With
this very thought in mind George Hawtin wrote: “The next great thing of note
was the discovery that right in the
synagogue there was a man possessed with an unclean spirit, and he cried
out, saying, ‘Let us alone; what have
we to do with Thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth.
Art Thou come to destroy us? I
know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God’ (Mk. 1:24). Now I wonder who that man was who was
possessed with an unclean spirit? I dare
not be certain, but I will tell you who he may
have been and who he probably was.
He was probably the leader of
the synagogue. Are you horrified at my
suggestion? Well, you need not be, for I
have on my desk at this moment a large picture of a preacher with a reverse
collar and all the regalia of a minister, marching with a crowd of homosexuals,
all replete with signs and banners, agitating for public acceptance and
recognition. Do you know what Moses said
of homosexuals? He said they should be
cut off from among the people (Lev. 18:22-29).
That is the Old Testament type, and under the New Covenant the apostle
Paul warns that no homosexual shall inherit the
“There
are other devils in the church system besides this one. There are false prophets, covetous, boasters,
men who do not believe in the resurrection, the blood of Christ, the Holy
Spirit, or regeneration. The Roman
system from start to finish is a ‘do it yourself’ religion. I do not hesitate to say that all who are
rubbing shoulders with it and glorying in ecumenism and the charisma of the
whole evil business are coming under the control of Satan and the power of
devils working miracles (Rev. 16:13-14).
Have you
The
three unclean spirits like frogs are called “the
spirits of devils.” The Greek word
for “devils” is daimon — a better translation would be demons.
We dare not go beyond what God reveals. The scriptures are plain that there are
entities called unclean spirits, devils, demons, etc. But the Bible nowhere clearly and explicitly informs us as to
where the origin of these was. Until the
Lord makes it plain it really isn’t important who are what they are. Some things are certain: Evil spirits of
various dispositions exist, they pertain to a negative realm, they are agents
of the satanic kingdom, they actively seek to inhabit the souls and bodies of
human beings, and Jesus has given us authority and power to cast them out. There is absolutely NO scriptural evidence or
even a clear inference that they are fallen angels! That is another false teaching of
There
is a further clue
I
would draw your reverent attention to a few pertinent points. I have met brethren who are of the opinion
that these demons were not actual persons or personalities but “negative
thoughts” or “false beliefs.” But these
devils, not the man, besought
Jesus. They asked a favor of Him. They used human
speech. They entreated Him not to
command them to go into the “deep.” The
word “deep” does not signify the lake.
The Greek word is abussos meaning “abyss,” a word elsewhere
applied to Hades, the unseen realm of disembodied human spirits. The devils
besought Him that He would not send them to the disembodied state, but permit
them to embody themselves in the swine.
He permitted them to go. The
devils went out of the man and went into the swine. Now some tell us that these were “negative
thoughts” or “false beliefs.” What shall
we say to these things? Shall we say
that a legion of six thousand false beliefs went out of this man and entered
into the swine? Is that a practical
thought — that six thousand false beliefs can go out of one man and enter into two
thousand hogs? Is it so, that six
thousand false beliefs so worried and worked upon these hogs that they
committed suicide in
the waters of the lake?
Was the suicide of the swine a protest against false beliefs? To ask the questions is to answer them! These demons bear all the marks of human personalities.
Having
said that, however, we must not forget for one moment that in the book of
Revelation we are dealing with symbols
and signs. We cannot let down our guard and yield to
the easy temptation to literalize the
visions John beheld in spirit. Three
“unclean spirits” which are “spirits of devils” come out of the mouths of the
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
We already know that the dragon is not a literal dragon, the beast is not a literal beast, and the false prophet is not one solitary literal man who is himself the false prophet. Each of these stands for something else! They are each a metaphor and a parable! Since the dragon is not a literal dragon, is
the dragon’s “mouth” a literal mouth?
And if the mouth is not a literal mouth, are the “spirits of devils”
issuing out of that mouth literally a
great host of demons spreading out over the earth? Not by any means!
Now
these unclean spirits go forth into the world to all peoples. They go to the “kings” of the earth and of
the whole world to
The
key here is the word mouth. How meaningful this is! The book of Revelation gives us two views of
everything. One is the view from heaven,
the other is the view from earth. When
you’re on earth and you see the Lord’s people, how do you see them? You see them as seven churches with all their
spirituality and their carnality. You
see them as a woman in the wilderness, as a harlot riding a beast, as that
great city,
We
must always know whether we are seeing from the heavenly perspective or the
earthly perspective, because from these two vistas we see two different
things. This is interesting because from
the earth the devil is beheld as a dragon
along with two mammoth bestial systems he uses and has always used
throughout the history of the church age.
The first bestial system (out of the sea) is the world governmental,
economic, educational, judicial, military, and cultural system — the world
order. The second bestial system (out of
the earth) is the false religious system of man. And the dragon is the spirit of the devil
that inspires, motivates, and controls them all. But when John beholds these from the throne
zone, he sees them as nothing but three ugly, slimy, croaking
frogs! In the spirit they appear
as three unclean, demonic spirits manipulating human governments and religious
systems of man — and, of course,
In
scripture frogs speak of evil spirits.
These spirits aren’t frogs, of course, but they are like frogs. If I understand
the properties and effects of water, I can understand water as a figure for the
Holy Spirit who comes to us refreshing, cleansing, empowering, and giving
life. If I understand something about
the properties and characteristics of a tree, I can then understand something
about what the scripture means when it says that we are “the planting of the
Lord,” and “trees
of righteousness.” I grasp the idea of
the strength, stability, and fruitfulness of one rooted and grounded in
Christ. In like manner, if I understand
the characteristics of the frog, then I can understand how these unclean
spirits operate. It’s not just important
to know that they are unclean spirits like frogs, but it’s important to discern
how they operate. What do we normally
associate with coming out of someone’s mouth?
WORDS! Words which express
thoughts and ideas, or intent of action.
So out of the mouths of these three “ungodly” forces poured forth
torrents of words! Unclean, evil,
deceptive, deluding, degrading, false, lying concepts and teachings. Babylonish
doctrines! The way they operate is through WORD
POWER! We understand this great truth by
the fact that this three-fold unclean spirit comes out of the mouth
of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet! You see, my beloved, whatever is hidden in
our nature will eventually spill over into our speech!
The words of Jesus are just as true today as when
He spoke them to the Pharisees twenty centuries ago: “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of
the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man
out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil
things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Mat. 12:34-37).
The
nature of the dragon, the nature of the beast, and the nature of the false
prophet are three dimensions of the nature of the natural
When
all is well and there are no pressures pressing in upon us, these dimensions of
the natural life remain hidden deep within us.
But when trouble comes, out of our mouth proceeds the evidence
of those things that still lie buried in the heart of man, in the
nature of the dragon, the nature of the beast, and the nature of the false
prophet. These are devilish spirits
(attitudes, words) that must be slain by the sword of the Lord! These are devilish spirits, working wonders,
and they are sent forth to the kings (those strong things which rule) of the
earth (soulical religious realm) and of the whole
world (the all-inclusive nature of man) to
Our
Now,
let us look a little
What
is a prophet? We must banish from our
minds the popular conception that a prophet is chiefly a person who foretells
the future. True, a prophet also
foretells the future; but the prophetic ministry is broader than that. A prophet is, according to scripture, one who
speaks for someone else. Aaron is called
the “prophet” of Moses when they two go together before Pharaoh, and
So
this second beast is also a prophet! He
speaks for someone else. His purpose is
to influence the minds of men, to persuade them, to rally them to the cause on
behalf of which he speaks. But he is a false prophet! That does not mean that everything he
says is a lie — not all that the serpent told mother Eve in the garden was a
lie — but it was truth laced with just enough error to deceive. That is the purpose of the words of a false
prophet — deception! And if we consider
this in relation to the beast now under consideration, we shall find that this is in reality his
character. In the first place, his very
appearance is deceiving. He looks like a
lamb; and one would receive the impression, therefore, that every word he
speaks is the word of the Lamb of God!
But he speaks like the dragon, that is, the message he bears is not in
the final analysis the gospel, the good news of the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world, but is liberally laced with bad news of threats, intimidation, fear, condemnation, coercion,
judgment, hell, and eternal damnation.
What
beast is this? Ah, this refers to the
false church, one that outwardly looks like the
On
another level we can say that the dragon
Before
there can be any battle there must be a confrontation of two forces. And to bring this confrontation into a
state of action, there must be a
It
was not until after the river
This is the battle of
that great day of God Almighty. It is GOD’S
DAY! The adversary has reached his last
ditch. It is now a free fight between
truth and error, between religion and reality, between flesh and spirit, and
between life and death. It is now time
for
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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