Revelation
13:1-14:5
The Four Beast of Revelation
#1. The Great Red Dragon
#2. The Composite Beast (Continued)
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Begin Text:
We concluded our last
segment in Revelation 13. We were
investigating the composite beast,
the beast that rises out of the sea
and makes war upon the saints for 42
months.
Let’s review a
few things before we go forward:
First, you should
remember that we are in
Revelation’s sixth prophecy that
began with Revelation 12:7. We are
studying a sequence of events that
are in chronological order. This is a
crucial point. If the events given in
each apocalyptic prophecy do not
occur in the order given, then who
has authority to declare their order?
How can prophecy be “the
more secure word of prophecy”
if everyone is free to move the
elements and parts around to suit
their own conclusions?
If anyone can move a
prophetic element out of its order to
suit his own ideas, then everyone has
the same privilege. This freedom
makes prophecy a nose of wax and this
leads to distortion of the intended
meaning. Tampering with the order
that God has given robs the Word of
God and its authority, its simplicity
and its power.
The Bible must speak
and will speak for itself. The angel
told John:
Revelation 22:19
And if anyone takes words away from
this book of prophecy, God will take
away from him his share in the tree
of life and in the holy city, which
described in this book.”
This verse is very
interesting. It indicates that a time
is coming when the book of
Revelation will be clearly
understood by those wanting to know
Truth. In other words, during the
Great Tribulation, this warning
applies to any person who tries to
divert or deflect the truth that the
book of Revelation proclaims. When
God’s 144,000 prophets are
empowered to proclaim His truth,
anyone caught twisting the prophecies
of Revelation around to avoid
persecution will be condemned to
death.
You may recall that
the first verse in this prophecy,
Revelation 12:7, occurred on
Resurrection Sunday. There was war in
Heaven and Lucifer was cast out of
Heaven on that very day. [April 9,
A.D. 30] You should recall that
Lucifer then chased the woman to the
desert for 1,260 years. You should
also remember that near the end of
the 1,260 years, the Earth helped
the woman.
In 1776, God raised up
a Protestant nation, the United
States, to accomplish a very
important global task…. That
task was the translation and
distribution of the Bible and the
worldwide promotion of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. (Do you remember our
study on seals 1 through 3?)
When the devil saw
that he could not destroy the woman
after 1,260 years in the desert, the
devil “went off” to prepare
for war on the remnant of the woman
– “…. Those that keep
the commandments of God and hold to
the testimony of Jesus.”
(Revelation 12:17)
Then, in the next
verse, Revelation 13:1, John saw the
devil standing on the shore of the
sea, waiting for circumstancesto
occur so that the composite beast
could arise.
Revelation 13:1
“And the dragon stood on the
shore of the sea…”
When the composite
beast rises out of the sea, the devil
will give this beast its great power,
throne and authority.
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.
Revelation 13:2
The beast I saw resembled a leopard [known
for its swiftness], but had feet like
that of a bear [claws as tough as
chrome molybdenum alloy – the
strongest form of steel] and a mouth
like that of a lion [which kills its
prey with a single bite]. The dragon
gave the [composite] beast his power
and his throne and great
authority.”
The composite beast
will serve a duel purpose.
First, from the human
perspective, the composite beast, a
crisis government, will appear to be
necessary mediator between God and
all mankind.
Second, from
Lucifer’s point of view, it will
enable him to prey upon the saints of
God.
Revelation 13:7
“He [the composite beast] was
given power to make war against the
saints and to conquer them. And he
was given authority over every tribe,
people, language and nation.”
What on Earth could
create such a global monster?
The first four trumpet
judgments described in Revelation
8:2-13 will produce death and
destruction on a Biblical scale that
exceeds human measurement and
calculation. I believe the first four
trumpet-judgments will occur during the
first 30 to 60 days of the Great
Tribulation.
Because these
judgments will be global, the whole
world will seriously question whether
survival on planet Earth will
continue. Thousands of cities will be
destroyed. Earth’s
infrastructures will be in ruin and
twenty-five percent of Earth’s
seven billion people will die as a
result of these judgments. [1.75
billion dead]
During these four
calamitous events the inhabitants of
Earth will be traumatized by two
painful observations:
First, everyone will
tremble at the reality of Almighty
God, the power and scope of His
fierce wrath.
(Actually, Almighty
God is Jesus Christ. Remember, Jesus
took over the throne of God in 1798,
but the world does not know this and
mankind will not be made aware of
Jesus’ authority until the
144,000 begin to proclaim the first
angel’s message. (We will study
the three angel’s messages later
on.) Remember the 4th seal
– how the fourth seal reveals
the authority of Jesus?)
The second thing that
everyone will notice about the first
four trumpets is that God’s
judgments fell on cities and places
that werewidely known for
wickedness. When these two
observations are synthesized
together, most of the world will
assume that more judgments from God
are imminently forthcoming.
(In other
words, four horrific judgments within
the short span of 60 days will
suggest that more judgments are
imminently coming unless God is
immediately appeased!)
This fearful
anticipation of more judgments from
God will induce panic and this panic will
propel the leaders of the world to
rapidly and radically transform their
governments.
>>>Desperate
situations require desperate
solutions.<<<
During the
fourth trumpet, darkness will cover
the “middle third” of our
planet (where most people live) and
during this period of extended
darkness the “crisis
government” will form. This
crisis government is the composite
beast of Revelation 13 rising up out
of the sea. The need for one global entity
to appease God’s anger will be
obvious to most everyone.
With 1.75
billion people dead, and thousands of
cities lying in ruins, intelligent
people will suddenly “wake
up” to the reality of God and
man’s accountability to Him. And
who will be able to argue against man’s
need to immediately appease God so
that His judgments will cease?
Therefore,
the religious and political justification
for the formation of a “crisis
government” will be simple and
unanimous. Everyone will agree:
“The
whole world has to change its ways.
The nations must unite and appease
God through repentance and worshipor
everyone on Earth will soon perish
as a result of His wrath.”
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