The Beast of Revelation
Revelation 13:1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
10 He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
This chapter begins by describing a beast arising out of the sea. The sea is the population of the world and the beast is a kingdom. This same beast is described as a fierce kingdom in Daniel 7:
7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
8 "I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
In Daniel, the beast comes to an end when the Lord returns and destroys his kingdom. In Revelation 14, the beast comes to an end when the Lord returns and destroys his kingdom by drawing the nations for judgment in the Great Day of the Lord, which is called Armageddon in Revelation 16. When the beast arises from the sea it is referred to as the 7 united kingdoms with 10 kings. After one of the heads of this kingdom is mortally wounded, he returns and takes control over this kingdom. He is then called the beast because he represents the entire kingdom and the dragon now gives him authority over the kingdoms. The dragon, of course, is the devil. If we look back to Luke 4, Satan boasts that all authority in the kingdoms of the world has been delivered to him and he gives it to whomever he wishes. In spite of this claim, we also know that even the devil’s authority is subject to God (Romans 13). Even though Satan has been given the authority over the ungodly kingdoms of this world, God ultimately determines who rises and who falls as a leader and everything conforms to God’s plan. Daniel 2:21 makes this clear:
And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding.
Note: it is the authority – not the ownership that has been delivered to the devil. God is the owner of all things. Psalm 24:1 says:
The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
God revealed several thousand years ago that there would only be 5 kingdoms that would rule the world. One was in existence during Daniel’s day, three others have come and gone and the fifth is yet to come but is described in these passages of prophecy. Let’s take a closer look at the Kingdom of the Beast, the Beast who rules that kingdom and the end of this kingdom.
The fourth kingdom foretold in Daniel’s vision of the great image was Rome and will be revived as the fifth kingdom. The fourth kingdom in the image is the precursor to the fourth kingdom mentioned in Daniel 7. The third kingdom which resembled a leopard and had four wings and four heads was Greece. This kingdom swiftly conquered the known world and then when Alexander the Great died, it was divided between his four generals. The fourth begins as Rome, but as the Bible indicates in the vision of the statue, Rome gives way to the feet of clay mixed with iron. Iron and clay do not mix, therefore the kingdom will have strength in its rule, but weakness in is ability to maintain cohesiveness. When we look at other prophecies we see that the anti-Christ establishes his kingdom with power, but is soon attacked by many other nations.
The kingdom appears as a beast rising out of the sea before the anti-Christ comes on the scene. Each kingdom’s assent is described as rising out of the sea in Daniel 7. When this kingdom arises, it has ten horns which represent ten exalted leaders who will unify this kingdom. After the kings are in power, a little horn arises after them who speaks boastful things, blasphemes against God, and seeks to change the times and the law. Jesus said to those who were rejecting Him, “I came in My Father’s name and you didn’t receive Me, but if someone comes in their own name, you will receive him”. This is the man Jesus warned that His people will follow. The anti-Christ will come in his own name and blaspheme against God while claiming to be God. He will be received by the Israel and the world because of his claims of self-glorification. He will pluck up three of the ten horns by the roots. How this will occur can’t be accurately understood until it is fulfilled. Perhaps he will overthrow the kingdoms or maybe he will kill these leaders; we can only speculate.
If we look at the world today, we see the stage is already set. The European Union is a coalition of ten nations. Even if this is not the beast to come, it shows that the attitude is already present and the world only needs a catalyst in order to establish the rule foretold in the scripture. At this present time, they do not have the power to execute this prophecy, but this also could change overnight.
The Bible says this kingdom will be fierce, dreadful, and strong. It was devouring, breaking into pieces and stamping the residue into dust. This is a very warlike kingdom. Considering the anti-Christ will come in as a man of peace who restores order, it can be understood from this description that wars will be the beginning of this kingdom and it will begin with military might that will subdue and utterly annihilate all of its enemies. The little horn will then arise and speak peace to the world, pluck up three of the kings and become the beast himself. The dragon (or Satan) will give authority over the kingdoms to this beast.
The nations and wicked men are called beasts because they are driven by their passions alone. We are created in God’s image to live godly lives in imitation of Christ. We are called Christians because we are imitators of Christ. The Beast is an imitator of an animal. Animals have no conscience and do not have reason outside of their instincts. They follow whatever urge drives them. They act without restraint based on the desire of what they intend to gain. The unredeemed are often called beasts in scripture when they act solely upon desires with no regard for morality or God’s law. Men become imitators of beasts when they follow desires without any thought of God or future consequences.
The beast will be such a man. His only purpose is to fulfill his desires. Clearly, power will be his primary desire. The beast will not be a victim of God’s will, but will be a victim of his own passions. God will not force the beast to choose this path anymore than Judas making the choice to fulfill the prophecy that Jesus would be betrayed by His friend. Judas was a thief from the beginning and eventually his greed became his god and considered it a benefit to betray Christ to gain money. Satan entered into Judas heart after Judas yielded himself to ungodly desires. The anti-Christ will yield because he desires the world over God. Satan will control the anti-Christ because of his submission to Satan.
Look now at Revelation 13:
3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
Some think that Satan will raise the beast from the dead. The problem with this idea is that only God has the power to raise the dead. Jesus testified that the sign that would prove His claims would be that He is able to lay down His life and take it up again. If Satan could do the same thing, then how would the resurrection be evidence for Christ? The Bible says that Satan produces false signs and lying wonders to deceive the world. The world will be amazed, but there is no miracle involved. I don’t think it is possible to know what healing of the mortal will be until after it happens. We can know that he will not be killed. We also know that everything that God does, Satan tries to imitate with a counterfeit. In each case, the counterfeit falls far short of the authentic work of Christ. Only those who wish the false to be true are blinded by the hoax.
I recently attended several services from a popular ‘Faith Healer’. At first, it was amazing how he was able to do the miraculous things he was showing the audience. However, on my third visit he taught very unbiblical doctrines and I began to question the miracles I saw. I suddenly became skeptical because the Bible makes it clear that anyone who teaches a contradicting gospel is not of God and will not be used of God (except to test His people to see if they love the truth). After probing a little, I found that he has been exposed several times for fraud and even spent time in jail for financial fraud. Of course he claims it was persecution. I then found that he uses hand signals from accomplices in the audience to garner information about people’s needs and demonstrates fake healings through performers to supplement his big show. What appeared to be miraculous on the surface was in truth a complete fraud. In spite of the evidence, thousands of people refuse to believe the truth and instead chose to believe the fraud. If Satan can deceive people in church who claim to be following Christ, how much easier would it be to deceive a world at war with Christ?
Ironically, the anti-Christ does not come in by force and take over. Like all sin, submission is the key. When we allow Satan into our lives, it is by submission to sin. Once he gets a foothold, he quickly seeks to establish a stronghold, and then the devil seeks to dominate our life. One little compromise always leads to one little sin. One sin then leads to a habit and a habit can affect many other areas. If the habit is something we are ashamed of or something that we know hurts our relationship with God, it will not be long before God seems distant and we become vulnerable in other areas as well. The same thing occurs on a larger scale on this world scene. A little horn arises, the leaders submit to him and he quickly establishes a stronghold. He then removes anything that hinders his plan (3 kings) and then the world submits. Once the world is under submission, he quickly turns it into domination. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2:
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
There are some very key points in this passage that explain the rising of the anti-Christ and why the world follows him. The first point is that he does not overcome the church; the church yields to Satan’s will which opens the door. It is not until the church falls away from the faith that the man of sin is revealed. The anti-Christ steps into the void left by the church. A foundational principle found in scripture is that darkness cannot overcome light and Satan cannot overcome the church. The promise Christ has given is that the gates of hell can’t withstand against the church. However, when the church retreats, the gates are expanded to fill the areas left vacant by the church. When the light is absent, darkness immediately fills its place. The more the darkness falls, the more the world hates the light. We can see this today. A few years ago, if a political candidate was immoral the people rejected him. Today, not only is immorality accepted, but the role has been reversed. Now if a candidate is moral, the people reject him. In today’s climate, morality is considered religion and religion is not permitted in a public office.
In the past, when prayer was declared unconstitutional in school, it was an outrage. Headlines from a 1974 newspaper said, ‘Madalyn Murray O'Hair – The Most Hated Woman in America’. The entire nation resented her for her attack on prayer in the schools. Today those who express prayer or any symbol of Christianity in a public place are rejected. Prayer or any type of religious expression is not tolerated in school, government or at any State controlled function. The modern idea is that Christianity is ok as long as it stays out of the public eye. This is only a temporary boundary. The shift is now going after the Christian faith in our personal lives. This is brought to light in the homosexual movement. Not only is it required to accept homosexuality, but many are being forced to condone it or face consequences such as termination from employment. An example of this became headlines when Kodak fired a 27-year manager for refusing to go along with ‘Gay Coming Out Day’ at work. Homosexuality is not the problem – it is a symptom of the problem. The problem is that the church is turning from the truth and is swayed by subjective feelings rather than concrete truth. This abandonment of the truth is creating a void that will open the door for the man of sin.
It is also to be noted that the Bible says that God gives the world over to the deception. God does not deceive anyone – He merely delivers each person to the desire they have chosen. It is because the world did not love nor receive the truth that God turns them over to the lie. The world rejects the truth and wants the lie, therefore God honors their choice. Satan has always sought to raise wicked men to power and he has always desired to oppress the truth. It is not until the church takes truth out of the way that God ceases to restrain Satan and once that restraint is removed, the man of sin will be revealed. Throughout history, only thing between the anti-Christ and Satan’s goal is God’s restraining power. Many men have been qualified to fit this wicked scheme, but God has never and will never allow Satan to create this world oppression until the church has fallen from the truth by their own choice.
Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
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