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The Beasts of Revelation
Exposed
What do They Represent?
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Presupposition # 3:
“In Bible prophecy, a day always
represents a year.”
This presupposition
produces several false conclusions. For example,
if you accept this view, considering the fifth
trumpet of Revelation 9 as a future event is not
possible since the fifth trumpet covers a
time-period of five months (5 x 30 equals 150
days that would equal 150 years using the
day/year presupposition). Further, this
presupposition also prevents adherents from
considering the fact that the 42 months in
Revelation 13:5 occur after the deadly
wound is healed. In other words, the
presupposition demands that the 42 months be
1,260 years (42 x 30) – a time period far
too long to be considered “the last
days.” So it is argued that the 42 months
cannot occur after the deadly wound is
healed, although Scripture plainly shows just the
opposite.
Presupposition # 4:
“A person’s position or prophetic truth
may be determined by (a) a prophet, or (b)
founding church fathers, or (c) a doctrine
committee, since God confirms truth through (a)
prophets, (b) religious leaders, or (c)
scholars.”
This generic
presupposition includes most religious people.
Moslems, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Buddhists
and Hindus all use this presupposition. The
frightening aspect of this presupposition is that
Scripture becomes secondary, and in some cases,
immaterial. Nothing makes the devil happier that
to lead religious people away from the plain and
simple truths of God’s kingdom written in
the Bible. Consider the real problem: Truth is
ever advancing and when new truth appears, it always
seems to contradict that was previously thought
to be “true.” Let me explain. At any
given time, man’s understanding of truth
contains two elements: That which is actually
true and that which is believed to be true. The
problem with human beings is that distinguishing
one element from the other is hard for us. We
encapsulate both elements into one neat little
box we call “truth.” Therefore, when
new insights come regarding truth, it always
defeats that portion of existing
“truth” believed to be true. New truth
does not change or alter that which is actual
truth. Since most religious people cannot
differentiate between actual truth and believed
truth, they cannot endorse or accept new light as
truth advances. This is why religion, per se, always
goes stale when it comes to the area of advancing
truth.
As you can see, the
inherit problem with presuppositions is that thy
can prevent people from accepting the Bible as it
reads. Any presupposition that fails to exalt the
Bible and the Bible alone as the Word of
God (the rule of faith and doctrine), and any
presupposition that prevents or discourages men
and women from understanding all that is
written in Scripture, is flawed. This does not
mean that everyone has to see eye-to-eye on every
point of Scripture. However, I do believe that
all who are sincere and honest in their study of
truth can get past their flawed presuppositions
through study, prayer and the illumination of the
Holy Spirit. (John 16:13)
Fussing
with Secondary Details
Another point needs to be
made before we begin looking at Bible texts. To
make sense of prophecy, a good student first
begins by trying to identify the main characters
or elements in the story, constantly aligning
his/her conclusions with the texts. After
somewhat, stable conclusions on the big parts are
developed, and then secondary details should be
addressed. Too often, I find people trying to
resolve everything at once. Fussing with
secondary details, while ignoring larger issues,
will only end in confusion. Truth is always
simple, straightforward and easily grasped by
those who seek it. If you believe your
conclusions about Revelation or any spiritual
matter are better that what you find here, put
those views to the test and share them with a
hundred Bible students or so and observe their
response. As the saying goes, “the proof is
in the pudding!” So, let us turn our
attention to the identity of the beasts.
The
Lamb is Jesus
The identity of the Lamb
is quite simple to determine. Notice the
following texts: Revelation 5: 5-6,9, 12 Then one
of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open
the scroll and its seven seals.” Then I saw a
Lamb, looking as if it had been slain,
standing in the center of the throne, encircled
by the four living creatures and the elders. He
had seven horns and seven eyes, which are
the seven spirits of God sent out into all the
earth…And they sang a new song: “You
are worthy to take the scroll and open it seals,
because you were slain, and with your
blood you purchased men for God from every
tribe and language and people and nation… In
a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the
Lamb, who was slain, to receive power
and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and
glory and praise!”
Comment: When
Jesus appears the second time, He will be “a
roaring Lion” to the wicked and a “meek
and gentle Lamb” to the righteous. With his
own blood, He purchased men for God from every
tribe, language and nation. He alone is worthy to
receive the seven attributes of God (power,
wealth, wisdom, etc.) Can there be any doubt as
to whom the Lamb is? I do not see how. (John
1:29) The seven horns signify His omnipotence
– having all power. The seven eyes signify
His omniscience as though He has seven spirits
reporting to Him about everything done on earth
– having all knowledge.
The
Dragon is the Devil
The identity of the
dragon is no mystery. Notice the texts:
Revelation 12:3,4 Then
another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous
red dragon with seven heads and ten horns
and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a
third of the stars out of the sky and flung them
to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the
woman who was about to give birth, so that he
might devour her child the moment it was
born…
Revelation 12:7-9 And
there was war in heaven. Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon,
and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he
was not strong enough, and they lost their place
in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down
– that ancient serpent called the
devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world
astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his
angels with him…
Revelation 12:17
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman
and went off to make war against the rest of her
offspring – those who obey God’s
commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Comment: Taking
the Bible as it reads concerning the identity of
the great red dragon leaves no doubt. He was in
Heaven and he was cast to the Earth. The Bible
leaves no doubt that this is the dragon, which is
the devil, Lucifer, and the adversary of God and
man. Notice that at the end of chapter 12, the
dragon “went off” to make war against
the rest of the woman’s offspring. This
indicates that the dragon, himself, has been
preparing to wage war on the remnant of
God’s people during the last days. This war
described in Revelation 13:7.
Note: The great
dragon was a strange shaped body. There are seven
heads, ten horns and seven crows on the seven
heads. These descriptive appendages were
purposely designed by God to help to help
Earth’s last generation trace the
devil’s activities through centuries of
time. In other words, God’s descriptive
language helps us identify and trace the
activities of an invisible being that works in a
spiritual dimension, a being who can assume
different forms and do unbelievable things. The
seven heads, ten horns and seven crowns will be
described in a later segment of this document.
The Dragon-like Beast
Because several clues
need to be addressed before properly identifying
this beast, a selection of Scripture follows. To
make this investigation as simple as possible, I
have inserted comments between verses.
Revelation 13:1 And
I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He
had ten horns and seven heads, with ten
crowns on his horns, and on each head a
blasphemous name.
Comment: John’s
words do not tell us why or when this beast
appears. He does, however, provide the essential
clues. For example, John says about the wounded
head, that the deadly wound had been healed.
This is a profound statement of timing. For
reasons presented later, this places the
appearance of the beast after 1798, since
the “wound” inflicted to the sixth head
took place in 1798. However, why does this beast
rise? The answer to this question is found in the
behavior of the beast. It appears to rise to
establish control over Earth’s governments
– suggesting a breakdown of global
infrastructures. Notice this profound point: This
beast does not gain dominion over the Earth by
force! On the contrary, the people of Earth will
be astonished (awed) and follow the beast willingly.
Eventually, everyone will worship the beast
– except those whose names are written in
the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 13:3)
What could cause something like this to take
place? What could break down the infrastructures
of the world? Answer: The events associated with
the first four trumpets: A global earthquake,
meteoric showers of white-hot hail burning up
one-third of the Earth, two asteroid impacts and
hundreds of mighty volcano eruptions. This
sequence of events will inflict a mortal blow to
life, as we presently know it. When the first
four trumpets of Revelation 8 begin, travel,
commerce, communication, banking, insurance,
trade and manufacturing will be devastated by the
events just mentioned. Into the vacuum of this
infrastructure collapse, a crisis government will
rise – it has no parallel in times past. It
will quickly develop into a most impressive
empire.
Like
Father, Like Son
Like the dragon, the
beast has ten horns and seven head. Unlike the
dragon, however, the crowns are described as
being on the horns of this beast. What does this
suggest? The Greek word used in the verse for
crown is “stephanos.” In the
Greek, the diadema is a crown of authority,
whereas the stephanos is a crown of victory. For
example, the woman in Revelation 12 wears a crown
(stephanoes) that has 12 stars on it, whereas the
dragon and the Dragon-like beast wear crowns of
authority (diadema). The meaning behind the
transfer of the crowns (from heads to horns)
indicates a shift of authority. Since we have not
identified who the seven heads are yet, consider
this as an assertion for a moment: In
Christ’s day (when the vision of Revelation
12 begins), the authority that persecuted the
saints came from the heads (the religious
powers). This is why the diadema described in
Revelation 12 are on the heads. However, in the
last days, the authority that will persecute the
saints will come from the horns (the political or
civil powers). The transfer of the diadema gives
us a clue regarding the tactics of Satan. By
moving the crowns from the heads to the horns
– the devil will change persecuting
authorities.
Revelation 13:2 The beast
I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet
like those of a bear and a mouth like that
of a loin. The dragon gave the beast
his power and the throne and great authority.
Comment: This
beast is sometimes called the leopard-like beast
or “the composite beast” because it has
taken special features taken from other beasts.
The beast looks like a leopard on
purpose. God designed the strange anatomy of this
beast to give us clues about its character and
power. The leopard is known for its swiftness and
stealth. This beast has feet like a bear (claws
that are incredibly powerful and merciless) and
it has the pulverizing mouth of a lion. (Who can
withstand the king of beasts?) When comparing the
beasts in Daniel 7 with the composite beast,
notice two compelling points: The first three
beasts in Daniel 7 are a lion, bear and leopard
– the very elements used to make up this
composite beast. However, notice that the body
parts from the fourth beast of Daniel 7 are
not included in this beast. Why is the fourth
beast not included? Answer: The composite beast does
not represent the fourth beast of Daniel 7,
and further, it is not an end-time clone of the
fourth beast of Daniel 7 – a point that
confuses many people.
Read the specifications
about the fourth beast of Daniel 7 and you will
see that the composite beast of Revelation 13 and
the beast of Daniel 7 are not the same creature.
The fourth beast of Daniel 7 rose in 168 B.C. and
three of its ten horns were uprooted by A.D. 538.
On the other hand, as you will read later, the
composite beast rises after 1798 with seven heads
and ten horns! Further, the composite beast is a
composition of parts from the first three beasts,
but the fourth beast in Daniel 7 was terrible and
different from the first three! (Daniel
7:7) This composite beast is a unique beast in
its own right. Last and perhaps most convincing,
the composite beast is not ancient Rome or a
neo-Roman empire that will flourish again. Once
the Roman Empire (the fourth beast in Daniel 7)
was destroyed, it does not rise again. Remember
Daniel 2? Once we move to the legs of iron (Rome)
to the feet and toes of iron and clay, we never
again return to a world of one metal
(kingdom). On the contrary, the composite beast
is a soon coming composite government, something
like the ancient empire of the Medes and the
Persians (having more than one king). Even when
the devil establishes his one-world
church/government with himself as king of kings
and lord of lords, he still cannot forge a
homogenous empire!
As stated above, the
composite features of this seven-head/ten horn
beast are taken from previous world empires (the
beasts in Daniel 7 were also world empires). This
reveals much about the type of world government
this composite beast will be. In other words,
this beast will have world dominion just as the
lion; bear and leopard had world dominion in
Daniel 7. However, since this beast is a
composite, it will not have one king ruling over
the world like Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the
Great and other ancient kings. This coming world
empire will be ruled by 17 entities (seven heads
and ten horns) for a while, but eventually, these
17 entities will be overruled by the devil
himself.
A
Junkyard Guard Dog
We cannot overlook the
last sentence in our text: “”The dragon
gave the beast his power and his throne and
great authority.” The devil will
empower this “crisis government,” and
its laws will be highly oppressive, with severe
penalties for disobedience. The Bible reveals
that the devil will give the beast its throne and
great authority. This means that this beast will
not be great by human prowess. This government
will not become powerful by conquest and
technology. This beast will suddenly appear and
have enormous power and authority – out of
“crisis” necessity. This beast
represents a composite world-government that will
be set up within a few days of the global
devastation caused by the first four trumpets.
(Revelation 8: 7-12) Think of this government as
the hand puppet of the devil and you will
conceptualize a concise picture of what is
coming. Those who correctly understand this
prophecy will easily “see the hand within
the puppet” for themselves. No, this beast
is not the impotent United Nations or some
current form of government operating on Earth and
ready to go. Nevertheless, this beast cannot rise
up and come to life until God releases the four
angels holding back the overwhelming destruction.
(Revelation 7: 1-4) This beast, like a sleeping
“junkyard guard dog,” awaits the coming
global crisis described in Revelation 7 and 8.
Watch for it and refuse to submit to it!
Revelation 13:3 One of
the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal
wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.
The whole world was astonished and
followed the beast.
Comments: The
focus of this verse is on one of the seven heads.
As it turns out, the head in question is the
sixth head. Before attempting to identify the
wounded head, let us consider two points:
- Each
of the seven heads bears a blasphemous
name. (Revelation 13:1) This indicates
that each head is religious in nature and
antichrist. Notice that the ten horns so
not have blasphemous names on them
because they represent political powers
and do not presume to speak for God.
Yet the heads, by their very nature,
claim to speak for God and yet, are
opposed to the authority of God –
their blasphemous names confirm this.
- One
head appeared to have had a fatal wound,
but the fatal wound had been healed
by the time the composite beast rises
from the sea. What does the phrase
“followed the beast” have to do
with the fatal wound on one head being
healed? Simple this: The head that was
wounded represents the Christian Church
that existed in John’s day, which
eventually evolved into the Roman
Catholic Church. The healing of the fatal
wound indicates a restored papacy. When
the beast rises out of the sea, the world
will believe that obeying this beast is
proper because the Roman Catholic Church
will endorse the establishment of this
new world government! Please! Do not
misunderstand me, I am not railing on the
Catholics any more than any other
religious system because all the
religions will join this endorsement.
Contrary to what many believe and teach,
I do not find the composite beast to
represent the papacy, nor do I find Bible
prophecy predicts the papacy will rule
the world during end-times, as Europe was
ruled during the Dark Ages. Rather, I
believe the papacy to be one of the key
players in the big picture of coming
events. For reasons that I will follow, I
understand that the seven heads are the
seven religions of the world – after
all, they are seven of the same thing
– namely, seven heads. If one head
of this beast is a religious system, then
the remaining six heads must also be
religious systems.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
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