The Beasts of
Revelation Exposed
What do They
Represent?
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The book of Revelation
refers to four beasts. They are:
- A slain lamb
with seven horns and seven
eyes (Revelation 5)
- A great red
dragon with seven heads and
ten horns (Revelation 12)
- A leopard-like
composite beast with seven
heads and ten horns
(Revelation 13: 1-10; 17:
3-13)
- A beast coming
up out of the Earth with two
horns like the lamb but
speaking like the dragon
(Revelation 13: 11-18)
What do the Four
Beasts Represent?
- The slain lamb
with seven horns and seven
eyes represents Jesus, the
Lamb of God.
- The great red
dragon with seven heads and
ten horns represents the
fallen angel, Lucifer.
- The
leopard-like composite beast
with seven heads and ten
horns represents a coming
worldwide crisis government
controlled by seven religious
systems and ten political
kingdoms.
- The beast
coming up out of the Earth
with two horns like a Lamb,
but speaking like a dragon,
represents the physical
appearing of Lucifer
masquerading as God. Lucifer,
the ancient Antichrist
himself, will gloriously and
physically appears before all
nations during the Great
Tribulation.
A Crucial topic
Why should Bible
students be concerned with the
identity of these beasts? Answer:
These beasts are about to fulfill a
prophetic destiny that includes
everyone on planet Earth. Later, I
will present the reasons why I
identify the four beasts as I do, but
for now, consider the conclusions
presented as a “starting
place” for this study. For the
sake of clarity and discussion, I
have reduced the beasts to four short
names:
1.
The slain lamb with seven horns and
seven eyes will be called “The
Lamb.” (Key phrases are
highlighted in bold letters.)
2.
The red dragon with seven heads and
ten horns will be called “The
Dragon.”
3.
The leopard-like composite
beast with seven heads and ten horns
will be called “The
Dragon-like beast.”
4.
The beast with two horns like the
Lamb will be called “The
Lamb-like beast.”
Synthesis
It may be helpful as
we open this study to conceptually
group the four beasts in the
following manner:
The Lamb and His
imposter, the Lamb-like beast
The dragon and his
worldwide empire, the Dragon-like
beast
The Lamb and the
Lamb-like Beast
This association of
names is easy to remember because the
contrast is obvious: Jesus is
“The Lamb of God” and when
Lucifer personates Christ on Earth,
he will portray himself as
“Lamb-like” in everything
he does. This is an important
association because a great
controversy has raged for thousands
of years between Jesus and Lucifer.
Revelation 12 portrays Michael and
Lucifer as commanders and each has
its own followers. Ever since Lucifer
was cast out of Heaven, the conflict
between them has not faded. We know
that Lucifer caused the events that
led to Jesus’ death on the cross
and we also know that Jesus will
destroy Lucifer in the lake of fire
at the end of the thousand years.
(Revelation 20) Further, we know that
The King of kings (Jesus), Himself,
will descend from Heaven to face His
rival (Lucifer) who will have
established himself as God on Earth.
These two commanders with their
armies will war against each other at
the Second Coming. (Revelation 19:
11-20) We also know the Lamb-like
beast (also known as the false
prophet) “will be destroyed, but
not by human power.” (Daniel
8:25)
Please consider this
point thoughtfully: When the great
Antichrist comes, he will be more
than a mere man. He will be more
powerful and glorious than anyone can
imagine. The Bible reveals that God
will allow the devil himself to
appear “in the flesh” to
lead the world into destruction. (2
Thessalonians 2:9-12). Consider
the fairness of our Heavenly Father.
Just as Jesus came to Earth in the
flesh to establish His kingdom,
Lucifer will be granted the
opportunity, in days to come, to do
the same.
The Dragon and the
Dragon-like Beast
This association
should be easy to remember because it
speaks of a king (the dragon) and his
government (the Dragon-like animal).
Lucifer is a fallen angel king and at
a future, designated time, God will
allow him to have full control of
Earth, just as though it were his
personal possession. The dragon king
will have the advantage of operating
in two dimensions – in the
background (influencing the spiritual
part of man) much like a hand
operates within a glove and operating
before the physical senses of the
people (influence through hearing,
seeing, etc.).
From his spiritual
throne, he will rule over demons and
men as the prince of demons. (Luke
11:15) From his physical throne, he
will awe many inhabitants of Earth
into submission.
Note: The
reader may question why I apply both
titles, “king and prince,”
to be proper, the devil is a prince
– that is, he rules over the
kingdoms of this world under
temporary provisions granted him by
the King of the Universe. In other
words, the difference between a
prince and a king is perspective.
From God’s perspective, the
devil is a prince and Jesus often
identifies him as such. (John 12:31;
14:30; 16:11) On the other hand, a
prince may also be regarded as a king
by those over that he rules. For
example, Herod is often called a king
in the Bible although he was
subordinate to Caesar. (Matthew 2)
The use of both titles is confirmed
in John 16:11 in which the devil is
called a prince and Revelation 9:11
that calls him the angel king of the
abyss.
Coming Destruction
– A Key Event
When conducting Bible
studies on Revelation, one of the
biggest obstacles that hinder
understanding about the Great
Tribulation is that most people fail
to appreciate the environment during
that time. Of course, we can only
reason from what is known, and
consequently, many people try to
understand Revelation’s story by
looking at our world “right
now.” The challenge though, is
to grasp what God predicts, then
process it and repossess it until we
can observe complete harmony between
the environment AND the resulting
actions of the time. Comprehending
the overwhelming sudden and horrible
changes that will occur is important
when the judgments of God begin. In
this environment, the devil will be
able to things that he cannot do
right now because he will be granted
special privileges that he does not
have currently. The devil will seize
upon a “crisis opportunity”
to set up his worldwide
government – and his actions
will appear, at least on the surface,
to be appropriate to the people of
Earth. Although the devil cannot
physically appear until the fifth
trumpet, he will prove his incredible
control over men by establishing a
new government “overnight.”
This forthcoming government will
eventually reflect how completely
evil and controlling the character of
Lucifer really is. (Revelation 13:4)
Therefore, I call his coming
government by the title, “The
Dragon-like beast.” (The Bible
also refers to this coming world
government as Babylon.) Through
his command and control center, the
devil will wage war against everyone
who chooses to oppose him and of
course, this includes the saints of
God. As the time for his government
draws to a close, the devil will
especially seek to destroy the saints
and many of God’s people will
die. (Revelation 6:9-11; 18:24) As
this coming world government reveals
the evil character of its father,
Earth’s inhabitants will know
why the dragon and his Dragon-like
organization are so closely
identified with the anatomy of the
beasts. It is extremely fitting that
both entities are symbolized in
Scripture as mean and ferocious
animals – a dragon and
Dragon-like – what choices of
symbols could have been better?
A Two-faced Devil?
Before we get to
far along, I should point out
Revelation’s story describes a
two-faced devil – not two or
three different devils. This point
can be confusing at first. In other
words, one view from Revelation shows
the devil working through
religious and political leaders that
will continue through the Great
Tribulation. (Revelation 13:4;
Ephesians 6:12) How the devil works
from the spiritual realm to
accomplish his evil plans remains a
mystery to me. Of course, we know
that he influences people to do evil
things. For example, the devil
influenced Herod to kill Baby Jesus.
(Revelation 12:4) On the other hand,
the devil will physically masquerade
before the people of Earth in a
glorious body of a man –
claiming to be God! How the devil can
be a spiritual being and a physical
being at will is another mystery. If
you can find my claim hard to
believe, consider the fact that
angels, both fallen and unfallen, can
pass through walls, closed windows
and doors and still appear before men
as physical beings. (See acts 12:7.
Jesus also performed a similar
miracle on at least one occasion! See
John 20:19.) However, do not let this
unexplained phenomenon obscure the
point. The book of Revelation exposes
both faces of the devil (the
spiritual and the physical); so do
not underestimate the sophistry and
cunning of this wily foe. The great
contest ahead is more than a physical
battle – it is a contest for the
souls of men and woman.
Faulty Presuppositions
I know several
different views exist on the identity
of the four beasts described above,
and the culprit that produces so many
different views is this:
Presuppositions. A presupposition is
an idea or theory believed to be true
before examining or testing
new data. The problem with
presupposition surfaces when we force
the weight of evidence found in
Scripture to conform to a preexisting
concept. If a presupposition leads us
away from a plain and simple
“thus saith the Lord,” then
the presuppositions are faulty. Do
not misunderstand; nothing is wrong
with presuppositions if they can be
demonstrated to be true. Everyone
studies the Bible with various
presuppositions, but caution is
needed because logic alone is not
sufficient properly to understand the
Word of God. As students of
God’s Word, it is necessary to
bring all the relevant data to
the table before we can resolve the
meaning of difficult passages. Evan
after doing this, we are still at
God’s mercy to discover and know
truth. If God does not want
certain things revealed, no amount of
study or logic will produce them.
On the other hand, if God wants
something known, every sincere heart
will be enabled to draw the correct
conclusions! This is why the gospel
must be preached to the entire world
before Jesus can come. (Matthew
24:14) If our heart and attitude are
not right toward God and man, we
cannot be open to the leading of the
Holy Spirit. Without the illumination
of the Spirit, there is no possible
was of grasping knowledge of Truth!
Therefore, the sword of truth has two
edges – we must depend upon the
Spirit of God to reveal truth, and
take time to study. The Spirit helps
us to “connect the dots” as
we gather all the information the
Bible has to say on a topic. To show
the power and influence of
presuppositions, four examples are
described in the following
paragraphs. Pleas consider them and
their results:
Presupposition # 1:
“All events described after
Revelation 4:1 occur after
the saints are taken to Heaven in a
pre-tribulation rapture.”
Notice how the
presupposition logically forces
the fulfillment of the seven seals,
seven trumpets and a host of other
events after the rapture
simply because the seals, trumpets
and other events are described in chapter
following Revelation 4.
Presupposition # 2:
“In Bible prophecy, beasts always
represents kingdoms or nations.”
Notice how this
presupposition forces the identities
of the Lamb and the dragon in
Revelation to be nations or kingdoms.
(Contrary to the claims of those who
defend this presupposition, a lamb is
a beast – just like a ram and
goat in Daniel 8 are beasts.) As you
will see, this presupposition forces
conclusions that are contrary to the
plainest Scripture. For example, the
Bible interprets the symbol of the
great red dragon as follows: “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 12:9) It is not good
scholarship to make the symbol of the
dragon more, or less, than what the
Bible says that it is. In fact, it is
highly dangerous. (Revelation
22:18,19) We must be vigilant to
allow the Bible to be its own
interpreter. The dragon in Revelation
12 is nothing less and nothing more
than the devil, and the Lamb in
Revelation 5 is nothing less and
nothing more than Jesus, the Son of
God.
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