Notice that Antichrist is making war against only one army. I believe the one army is the army of saints. Antichrist has no power against the army of angels. He will attempt to deceive the judges.

No doubt he will plead for mercy. How many times in the Old Testament did God command the Israelites to totally destroy the enemy. But they would not. Once they had the upper hand they wanted to be friendly with the enemy. This was their undoing.

This is why those who follow Christ will be a very select group, an elite striking force. They will not be moved by the threats or entreaties of Antichrist and his kings. They will destroy the enemy, not like the wicked Saul who kept Agag alive and spared the livestock.

Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. (I Samuel 15:3—NIV)

But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. (I Samuel 15:9—NIV)

Can we realize what a great temptation it will be, once we have the upper hand, to treat Antichrist and the kings kindly and spare that which Christ commands us to destroy?

But every one of the saints that follow Christ will have learned in this life to be totally obedient, even when obedience means the destruction of that which appears valuable and worth saving. God is to be obeyed—sternly, immediately, and in detail. Those who feel differently will never ride with Christ in the Day of the Lord.

The judges will pronounce the judgment of God, given to them through Jesus Christ. Then the army of angels will execute the judgment with the power of the Holy Spirit.

But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. (Revelation 19:20—NIV)

Can you see that the False Prophet worked in terms of delusion? Power was not the issue. The weapon was deception. Christ always retains all power, but He will not act until His saints, His judges, are convinced in their mind of His righteous ways and of the unalterable truth of the Scriptures.

I believe the mark of the beast in the hand and the head means the recipient is part of the world system, the world's way of thinking and doing. The Lord Jesus told us we are in the world, but not of the world because He has chosen us out of the world. We are not of the world just as He is not of the world.

To be continued.