The Beasts of
Revelation Exposed
What do They
Represent?
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Executive
Summary on the Origin of the Beast
This review
of all the data shows a simple
harmony throughout Revelation if we
take the Bible literally as it reads.
The origin of the two-horned beast,
rising out of the Earth in Revelation
13:11 is the same concept as
the angel king and his demons (as
many as locusts) being released from
the bottomless pit in Revelation 9:1,
which is the same concept as
the beast that once was [visible]
rising from the abyss! (Revelation
17:8) By restating this same
concept in three different ways,
a solid and truthful interpretation
can be reached. This is good, for the
more comprehensive the picture, the
clearer the meaning. The Bible often
follows the practice of repetition
and enlargement. For example, the
image’s chest of silver in
Daniel 2 is the same thing as the
bear in Daniel 7, which is the same
thing as the ram in Daniel 8; namely,
the Medo-Persian empire!
Like a
Lamb
Revelation
13:11 (Continued) ‘Then I saw another
beast, coming out of the earth.
He had two horns like a lamb,
but he spoke like a dragon.”
Did you notice that nothing was said
about the physical appearance of this
beast except he had two horns like the
lamb and speaks like the
dragon. Notice my bold print on the
words, “the.” I did this to
direct your attention to this point:
the Bible says “like a
lamb” instead of “like the
lamb” and the same is true
concerning the dragon. I am sure
Bible translators do their best to
give us a true and faithful
interpretation of each verse.
However, it is possible for a
translation detail to be overlooked
that needs some explanation. In this
case, the anarthrous nouns
“lamb” and
“dragon” need a bit of
explanation.
Using
anarthrous nouns is customary in the
Greek language. An anarthrous noun is
a noun without a article, such as
“a” or “the.” An
anarthrous noun points back to a
character that has already been
introduced into a story. In the
Greek, a literal translation of this
sentence would read: “and it had
horns, two like lamb, and spoke like
dragon.” Notice that the nouns
“lamb” and dragon” do
not have articles – they are
anarthrous. English translators added
the article “a” to make the
sentence read correctly in English.
However, they should have used the
article “the”
because the lamb and the
dragon were previously introduced
in the story of Revelation. In other
words, this beast had two horns like
the lamb that had seven horns and
this beast also spoke like the dragon
because it is the dragon in
sheep’s clothing!
What do the
two horns represent? The devil will
be two kings in one! He will be King
over the ten horns (political kings)
and Lord over the seven heads
(religions). The obvious parallel
here is the devil’s mockery
directed as Jesus alone who has been
granted the title “King of kings
and Lord of lords” by the
Father. Jesus was found worthy to lay
claim to this title. (Revelation 5)
He is humankind’s High Priest by
virtue of that appointment by the
Father. He is also humankind’s
Sovereign King by appointment of the
Father. The irony here is that the
Lamb-like beast steals this unique
title belonging to Jesus before Jesus
appears in the clouds. This shows how
exceedingly dark and grossly ignorant
the minds of sinners are, actually to
believe the devil is God! Since the
wicked do not recognize the value of
character, God allows the devil to
awe them with signs and miracles and
lead them into complete rebellion. On
the other hand, the religious
understand something about the purity
and holiness of God, so God allows
them to see the signs, miracles and
wonders are worthless if
righteousness and love is not the
basis of character. God is in the
character business and this is why
Jesus had to be found worthy before
the Father would grant Him everything
that Heaven has to offer. Wouldn’t
it be wonderful if governmental
leaders were found to be
“character-worthy” of their
high office?
Revelation
13:12 He exercised all the
authority of the first beast on his
behalf, and made the earth and
its inhabitants worship the first
beast, whose fatal wound had been
healed.
Comments: This
verse confuses many people at first.
They ask, “If this beast is the
devil personating Christ as you say,
then (a) why does the Lamb-like beast
have and exercise the same authority
as the first beast, and (b) if he is
personating God, why does he make the
people worship the composite beast
instead of worshiping himself?”
These are good questions and deserve
good answers.
When the
devil is allowed physically to appear
as the Lamb-like beast, he knows that
God has predetermined that his time
is very short – just five months
to establish his total dominion
before the sixth trumpet begins.
(Revelation 9: 5,10,15)
Therefore, to get immediate attention
and as many followers as possible, he
will do two things: First, appear
before billions of suffering people
performing counterfeit signs,
miracles and wonders. (2
Thessalonians 2:9-12) This will awe
the people everywhere and convince
many that indeed, God is among men.
Many will exclaim, “Hope has
come at last with healing in its
wings!” (Malachi 4:2) Second,
the devil will, in the assumed voice
of God, command the people to obey
their religious leaders. This will,
of course, highly flatter the
religious leaders to have “God
on their side” and sound
reasonable to those who have refused
to love the truth. However, this is
an important point in Revelation
13:12: The devil will have and
exercise the same high-level
authority as the “crisis
government.” In other words, the
Lamb-like beast does not derive
authority from the “crisis
government” or any nation. This
is consistent with the nature of his
origin – this beast just rises
from the Earth having two horns. The
devil “just appears” out of
nowhere having authority equal to the
“crisis government.”
This is a profound point. The devil
has carefully calculated every move
necessary to win the favor of the
world’s “crisis
government” (the composite
beast). After gaining a majority, he
will begin to oppose and change small
issues that the “crisis
government” has made law and
eventually, he will rise above the
seven heads in authority as the
eighth and greatest king. His use of
opposition will demonstrate his
superiority. Notice the words of
Paul: “He [the man of
sin] will oppose
and will exalt himself over
everything that is called God or is
worshiped…” (2
Thessalonians 2:4 – emphasis
mine) He will exercise as much
authority as the first beast for his
own benefit. After all, what would you
expect of God?
Why not
Worship the Devil?
Now the
question, “Why does the devil
make the people worship the composite
beast – instead of
himself?” Answer: If the devil
initially required one group of
people to worship him as God, this
would separate and alienate him from
the other religions of the world. In
other words, if the devil required
the Moslems to worship his person as
Allah, then Catholics, Protestants
and Jews would regard this being as a
Moslem God. The devil knows two
things: (a) by forcing people to
worship the composite beast, they are
actually worshiping him (Revelation
13:4) since he is the author of false
religion, and (b) by compelling
diverse bodies of people to obey
their respective religious leaders,
he will initially fulfill the
expectations of people who already
think they worshiping God. Therefore,
the devil will insist that everyone
living in Moslem countries worship
according to the laws of the
“crisis government” for
that nation. People living in
Catholic countries will be commanded
by the devil to worship according to
the authorities for that country,
etc. This is a temporary move
by the devil to lead a diverse world
toward the establishment of his one
world church/government. In the end,
however, people end up worshiping the
Lamb-like beast. The establishment of
the mark of the “beast”
proves this point.
When the
devil physically appears (during the
fifth trumpet), Moslems, Jews,
Catholics, Protestants, etc. will be
worshiping according to the laws
established in their respective
countries. By commanding the nations
to obey their religious leaders, the
religious leaders from all nations
will be pleased that “God”
is supporting them and in turn, the
devil will later extract their
support for his cunning “one
world-church” plan. Ultimately,
when the devil has gained enough
control to establish his “one
world-church,” the options he
gives to every world inhabitant are
not good – obey and live,
disobey and die. (Revelation 13:15)
But to reach this point in his plan,
religious leaders of all faiths must
first “join themselves” and
support the devil before he will
unfold his plan for a new world
church. After all, with God on
Earth, there will be no reason to
continue plurality of religion.
To make this idea as palatable as
possible, the devil will take certain
elements from each religion to create
the new one; thus, the new religion
is called “an image” or
clone of the composite beast. By
using a clone, everyone will find
something in the new religion that
was borrowed from their old system.
This new religion or church is also
the whore that rides on the seven
heads described in Revelation 17. For
a short time, the new one-world
religion will rule over the people of
Earth.
There will be
many distinguishing differences
between the people of God and the
followers of the devil. However, two
character traits will fully separate
the righteous from the wicked. First,
the righteous will “obey
God’s commandments and hold to
the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation
12:17) The Ten Commandments are
beyond impeachment. They stand
forever because the One who
established them lives forever! The
fourth commandment, requiring man to
honor and keep the seventh day holy
will stand in direct contrast to the
day of worship that Satan declares
holy. Perhaps the devil will direct
his one-world church to worship on
Sunday, since Catholic and Protestant
populations represent a very large
segment of people in terms of
numbers. (In other words, Sunday
observance could be one of those
tenants of doctrine carried over into
the devil’s new church.) No one
can biblically verify just what day
the devil will set forth as holy, but
we can be sure it will not be the
seventh day. Remember, the devil is
empowered by God to lead the world
astray and the sharper the contrast,
the clearer the issues are between
truth and falsehood. (Revelation
13:14) Second, the people of God will
be holding to the testimony of Jesus.
The testimony of Jesus is described
as the spirit of prophecy that He
will give the 144,000. (Revelation
19:10; 10:7) The wicked, on the other
hand, will be following the testimony
of their “false prophet,”
the devil. The Lamb-like beast is
also called, ‘the false
prophet,” because he lies to the
people in the face of the clearest
evidences of truth. (John 8:44) The
devil will be the chief spokesman for
his new world order and as such,
earns the title, “false
prophet.”
One last
point. The Bible says the devil will
make the people “…worship
the first beast, whose fatal wound
had been healed.” (Revelation
13:12) Why is the first beast
identified as the one whose fatal
wound had been healed? This question
comes up often and the simple answer
is – to avoid any confusion.
John refers to a distinguishing
feature associated with the first
beast, so there is no mistaking the
identity of the beast. This keeps the
actions of these two beasts separate
and distinct. For example, if five
men were standing in a line-up and
you wished clearly to indicate which
man you were pointing to, you might
say, “The man without any hair
on his head.” That would
eliminate any doubt if the other men
had hair!
A Really
Big Show
Revelation
13:13 And he [the Lamb-like
beast] performed great and
miraculous signs, even causing
fire to come down from heaven to
earth in full view of men. [To
prove his assumed divinity]
Revelation
13:14 Because of the signs he [the
Lamb-like beast] was given power [from
God] to do on behalf of the first
beast, he deceived [all the
wicked] inhabitants of the earth.
He ordered them to set up an image in
honor of the beast who was wounded by
the sword and yet lived.
Revelation
13:15 He [the Lamb-like beast]
was given power [from God] to
give breath to the image of
the first beast, so that it could
speak and cause all who refused to
worship the image to be killed.
Comments: A
few comments are necessary about
these verses. First, the ability to
call fire down from the heavens at
will, upon command, is a most
compelling display of divine
authority. Do not be fooled into
thinking this falling fire is just a
harmless holiday display. No, this
falling fire will be deadly –
destroying the enemies of the devil.
This will certainly out the
“fear of God” in every
heart. (Read 2 Kings 1 for an example
of what I mean.)
Also, notice
that the image is set up in honor of
the composite beast. What does
this mean? The devil is a master of
flattery, especially when flattery
paves the way toward fulfilling his
evil schemes. He feigns
“honor” for the ancient
religions of millenniums past as he
moves in the background to do away
with them! The devil wants to
convince people, the world over, that
his new church, the one-world
church/government, is being assembled
as a new religion that encompasses
all peoples and all faiths. “All
people of all faiths are invited to
participate in the honorable church
of the living God – a church
that makes the old way obsolete since
God now lives among men. Yes, in
times past, God winked at man’s
diversity, but now he calls for
everyone to assemble for worship and
praise at the appointed time.” I
can almost hear this evil
announcement ringing in my ears right
now! After the one-world church is
established, tones and attitudes will
quickly change. Verse 15 is chilling,
as well as self-explanatory.
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