The Four Beasts of
Revelation
“A great
and wondrous sign appeared in heaven;
a
woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet
and a crown of twelve stars on her
head.”
-Revelation
12:1
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We will examine two
prophecies in this study. The first
prophecy is a short story about
Lucifer’s hatred for Jesus and
the second prophecy is a longer story
about Lucifer’s hatred for those
who follow the teachings of Jesus.
The first prophecy is found in
Revelation 12:1-6 and the second
prophecy immediately flows in
Revelation 12:7-14:5. According to
Rule One of Apocalyptic Prophecy,
Revelation 12:1-14:5 consists of two
different prophecies because
chronological order is broken between
verse 6 and 7. These two prophecies
are intimately related, so we should
examine both in this study. The two
prophecies identify four beasts we
need to consider. They are:
1. A lamb
with seven horns and seven eyes
(Revelation 5:6; 12:11; 13:8,11;
14:1,4)
2. A
great red dragon with seven heads and
ten horns (Revelation 12:3)
3. A
leopard-like beast with seven heads
and ten horns (Revelation 13:1,2)
4. A
beast with two horns like a lamb, but
speaks like the dragon (Revelation
13:11,17)
What Do the Four
Beasts Represent?
1. The
Lamb represents Jesus, the Lamb of
God, who was slain for our sins.
(John 1:29)
2. The
great red dragon with seven heads and
ten horns represents the fallen
angel, Lucifer, who is also called
Satan or the devil. (Revelation 12:9)
3. The
leopard-like beast with seven heads
and ten horns represents Babylon.
(Revelation 14:8; 18:2-4) Babylon
will form during the first four
trumpets and rule over the world as a
church-state government.
4. The
beast with two horns like the Lamb,
but speaks like the dragon,
represents Lucifer in human form. The
devil and his angels will be released
from the Abyss (the spirit realm) at
the fifth trumpet. (Revelation
9:1-11) These evil beings will be
given physical bodies so the
inhabitants of Earth can see them,
touch them, and freely talk with
them.
Now that we have
identified the four beasts, we need
to investigate each of them.
The Lamb
Ever since the day
that Adam and Eve sinned, a flawless
lamb has been used to represent the
sinless life of Jesus Christ.
Although the Bible does not
explicitly say the burnt offering was
a lamb, the Bible does say, “The
Lord God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife and clothed
them.” (Genesis 3:21,
italics mine) Since the Bible does
not elaborate further on the first
sin offering, we can deduce two
things. First, the use of skin for
clothing indicates an animal died.
Second, when we assemble everything
God has said in the Bible about sin
offerings, it is safe to assume that
Adam sorrowfully killed the first
lamb because “…sin
entered the world through one man and
death through sin….” (Romans
5:12)
When Jesus began His
ministry on Earth, John the Baptist
announced the mission of Jesus with a
single sentence: “The next
day John saw Jesus coming toward him
and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the
world!’”(John 1:29) I
am sure that God choose a lamb to
represent Jesus for several reasons.
First, what are more adorable than
baby lambs? They are loving, gentle,
and easily bond to human beings.
Second, in terms of survival, sheep
are valuable animals in Bible times,
providing a source of food and
clothing. They are hearty creatures
and they reproduce often. Sheep often
have multiple births, and since
gestation is only five months, a herd
of sheep can quickly double in size.
Symbolically, Jesus is to eternal
life what a lamb was to earthly life
in Bible times. Last, sheep are
social creatures. They are typically
meek and gentle. Consider the words
of Isaiah concerning Jesus: “He
was oppressed and afflicted, yet, he
did not open his mouth; he was led
like a lamb to the slaughter [i.e.,
without resistance], and as a
sheep before her shearers is silent [submissive],
so he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah
53:7, insertions mine) When we put
these features together, a lamb
symbolizes the life of Christ very
well.
Notice’s
John’s description of Jesus in
Revelation 5. “Then I saw a
Lamb, looking as if it had been
slain, standing in the center of the
throne, encircled by four living
creatures and the [24] elders.
He had seven horns and seven eyes
which are the seven spirits [the
seven angels] of God sent out into
all the earth. He came and took the
scroll from the right hand of him who
sat on the throne.” (Revelation
5:6,7, insertions mine) Three
fascinating aspects about Jesus are
highlighted in this passage. First,
John saw a “resurrected
Lamb” standing in the center of
God’s throne. This scene
indicates the scene occurs after the
cross. Second, John saw seven horns
on the Lamb. This means the Lamb has
sovereign power (the number seven
represents completion and the horns
represent authority). Third, the Lamb
has seven eyes. These eyes represent
the seven angels who stand (notice
their posture) before the throne of
God. (Revelation 1:4) These eyes are
the seven angels who receive the
seven trumpets. (Revelation 8:2) They
are also called “seven
spirits” (as in seven ghosts)
because they are highly exalted
beings that can appear and disappear
on command. (Revelation 1:4, 3:1,
4:5, 5:6) Notice Paul words: Are
not all angels ministering spirits
sent to serve those who will inherit
salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14,
italics mine) The seven eyes of the
Lamb are the seven angels of the
seven churches, the seven angels who
receive the seven trumpets, and the
seven angels who pour out the seven
bowls. (Revelation 1:20; 8:2; 15:6)
These seven angels are servants of
Jesus. They are sent from the throne
and they report back to Him whatever
they see. The beauty of understanding
the seven eyes is that they serve an
omnipotent Lamb who had been slain.
The Great Red Dragon
“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 [to Jesus], so
that he might devour her child the
moment it was born.” (Revelation
12:3,4, italics and insertion mine)
The great red dragon
symbolizes Lucifer. We know this to
be true because the Bible interprets
the symbol with a relevant text: “And
there was war in heaven. Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon,
and the dragon fought back. But he
was not strong enough, and 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 12:7-9, italics mine)
The great red dragon is the devil. He
is God’s adversary and
man’s accuser.
(Revelation 12:10)
Please consider two
points that will prove useful later
in this study:
1. The
great red dragon and the Lamb are not
governments or nations. I emphasize
this distinction because some people
insist that beasts in Bible prophecy
always represent nations or
governments. This assertion is not
valid. The four beasts in Daniel 7 do
represent four world empires because
Daniel 7:17 says the four beasts are
world empires, but Daniel 7:17 does
not force the four beasts in
Revelation to be four world empires.
The Bible is not internally
conflicted. If we allow the Bible to
define symbols with texts that point
to the symbol, we will find that the
Lamb in Revelation 5 represents
Jesus, and the great red dragon in
Revelation 12 represents His
adversary, the devil. These two
beasts are caricatures two
supernatural beings – Jesus and
Satan.
2. The
great red dragon has seven heads and
ten horns when he is introduced in
Revelation 12:3. Later, we will learn
that these seventeen features
represents future extensions of
Satan’s authority over mankind.
In other words, when the story begins
in Revelation 12 (at the birth of
Jesus), the seven heads and ten horns
on the great red dragon are not
functioning, but they will “come
alive” and function when their
appointed time comes. This technique
is not unusual in apocalyptic
prophecy. When the fourth beast
(Rome) rises out of the sea in Daniel
7:7, it has ten horns. History says
that Rome began to function as a
world empire in 168 B.C., but the ten
horns did not begin functioning until
six hundred years later. The beasts
in Daniel and Revelation may have
various parts when they are
introduced in a story, but these
parts may not have any function when
the beast is first introduced.
The Devil’s Name
The devil was an
exalted angel before he was cast out
of Heaven. Please consider three
different translations of the same
verse:
KJV
“How art thou
fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer, son of the
morning! How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the
nations!” (Isaiah 14:12,
italics mine)
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