The Comeback

NFL great Joe Montana, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers from 1979 to 1992, was famous for being “The Comeback Kid,” often guiding his team to victory late in the fourth quarter after spending most of the game behind.

In 1798, the papacy was at the height of its power when French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte dealt it a severe blow. His general, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, marched into the Vatican, taking Pope Pius VI captive, effectively crushing the papal power. Everyone thought the papacy was down and out for the count—utterly defeated.

Yet anyone living today knows that couldn’t be further from the truth. In 1929, via the Lateran Treaty, the Vatican officially became its own sovereign city-state ruled by the pope. The papacy’s “deadly wound” is still in the process of being “healed.” Today’s verse further prophesies that once this “deadly wound” is completely healed, “all the world” will once again be under the beast’s sway.

Let’s take a closer look at this healing: The beast was thought to have died, yet it came back to life—a counterfeit to Christ’s own crucifixion and resurrection. In Daniel 9, we are told of the 70-week prophecy, also known as the 490-year prophecy.

The prophecy reveals that Christ’s ministry was to last for three and a half literal years, from His anointing through baptism in AD 27 to His death on the cross (vv. 25–27). The beast reigned for three and a half prophetic years, rendered as “a time and times and half a time” (7:25) or 1,260 prophetic days, at the end of which he similarly “died” in 1798.

The devil’s foremost agent, the beast, is trying to resemble Christ. The Bible has a term for that: antichrist, “one who puts himself in the place of … the Messiah.” This counterfeit is so convincing that it actually deceives “all the world”—all except a special group of people named in verse 8.

Father, thank You for warning me of this counterfeit that exists in the world today. May I keep my eyes focused on Your truths.

For Further Study: John 11:25, 26; 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, 9–12; Revelation 17:8

Key Bible Texts

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. (Revelation 13:3 KJV)