Revelation 12:7-14:5

The Four Beasts of Revelation
#1. The Great Red Dragon
(Continued)

__________________________________

page l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l

-6-

The pope will be selected as the leader of this council. He will be given authority to oversee and direct the process of appeasing God on a global basis, and rightfully so. The Roman Catholic Church is uniquely prepared to serve the world in this role because it is both a spiritual and a political organization having diplomatic relations with more than 170 nations of Earth.

 

>>>The pope will not be elected to this position for the purpose of imposing Catholic doctrine on the nations of Earth. The diversity of the world’s religions will not permit this. Rather, the mission of the pope and his council of diverse religious leaders will be limited to overseeing and directing a united effort by all nations to appease God through repentance and worship.

 

The composite beast will be a crisis government created by world leaders. The diversity of this government is indicated by the fact that the composite beast is part lion, bear and leopard, remnants of the ancient empires presented in Daniel 7.

 

Actually, for all the good the composite beast intends to do, it will quickly become a hand puppet of the devil. “…. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.” (Revelation 13:2)   

 

The composite beast has seven heads and ten horns just like the great red dragon because the devil will totally infiltrate this crisis government and working through demon possessed men and women, he will control the composite beast.

 

In other words, when the crisis government forms, men will be responding out of a legitimate fear for God because they don’t understand what God is actually doing. However, as time passes, the crisis government will quickly become corrupt. Absolute power absolutely corrupts.

 

I like to define Babylon, the composite beast, as “a human glove” which mankind will create and the devil will use. The devil will work through this human glove to persecute the saints of God.

 

For example, if you put your hand into a glove and then hit someone with your gloved hand, who is responsible for the pain you caused, your glove or your hand? The point here is that once mankind exalts religion over politics and creates this crisis government, the devil will quickly enter through the back door to take control of the world.

 

“… And he [the composite beast] was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship[obey] the beast, all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb…” (Revelation 13:7,8)

 

When the governments of the world submit to the demands of the crisis government, they will be, in effect, worshiping the devil because the concept of appeasing God through forced obedience is false from the start.

 

The devil will be delighted with the crisis government because he has been preparing to make war on the saints for a long time (Revelation 12:17) and now his chance has come to make war on them and destroy them.

 

“He [the composite beast] was given power [by the devil] to make war against the saints and to conquer them…” (Revelation 13:7)

 

I hope you can see why the anatomy of the devil in Revelation 12 and the anatomy of the composite beast in Revelation 13 are identical (both having seven heads and ten horns).

 

God represented these matters to John in this way so that we can trace the devil’s hidden presenceand evil activities as he “enters” the human glove. The human glove will be demon possessed. The human glove will be a violent predator. 

 

This is interesting:

 

While the Lord Jesus is doing everything possible to save mankind from the curse of sin, the devil will be doing everything possible to destroy God’s people. The devil will make the most of the 42 months. But, God will give His people grace to deal with persecution and death.

 

Revelation 13:9   He who has an ear, let him hear.

 

Revelation 13:10   If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.

 

End Text

 

__________________________________

page l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l

-6-