The Beasts of
Revelation Exposed
What do They
Represent?
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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.
Sixth
Head Wounded and Healed
Let us review a
portion of history. In February 1798,
the papacy was almost fatally wounded
by Napoleon’s forces. The power
of the church was nearly destroyed
when the pope was expelled from Rome.
However, the church did not die. In
1929, Mussolini restored Vatican City
to the Catholic Church and declared
it a sovereign state. Since that
time, the healing of the deadly wound
has made steady progress toward
recovery. Today, the pope is regarded
as a significant figure in world
politics and even more, is considered
the most influential religious leader
in the world – all this in less
than 75 years! The point is that the
composite beast rises from the sea,
the Bible says, “the fatal wound
had been healed.” Notice
the tense of the verb: past perfect
tense. This means the healing is
completed when the beast rises from
the sea. Therefore, on the basis of
the three previous sentences, I
believe that the time is near when
the beast will rise from the sea
– because the fatal wound is
healed.
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