Revelation Chapter 13 Part 1
Brief introduction:
In chapter 12 we were introduced to 5 of the 7 key players in the Great Tribulation...
▪ The Woman... Israel.
▪ The Red Dragon... Satan.
▪ The Manchild... Christ.
▪ Michael... the Archangel.
▪ The Remnant... the 144,000 who were sealed by God.
In chapter 13 we meet up with the next 2 personages.
▪ One is the wild Beast out of the sea... he is both a political power and a person.
▪ The other is the wild Beast out of the earth... he is a religious leader.
In this chapter is revealed to us the continued great warfare that is taking place between light and darkness... between God and Satan.
It really comes to the fore now as we draw to the end of the age during the Great Tribulation Period.
The literal translation of "Beast" here is "wild beasts."
Interesting.
Beast is bad enough... but wild beasts!
Who are these Beasts then?
There are a lot of different opinions amongst Bible scholars as to who's who...
▪ Is the first Beast... a person? The last form of the Roman Empire?...
▪ Is the second Beast... the Man of sin? A prophet?...
"Anti" in antichrist can mean either... "over against" or... "in place of."
We can see both characteristics in the Antichrist of the Great Tribulation.
He is both against Christ and... he imitates Christ.
What identifies an antichrist?
The Apostle John gives us the following indicators...
☆ 1 John 2:22... he that denies that Jesus is the Christ.
☆ 1 John 4:1,3... he that denies the deity of Christ.
☆ 2 John 1:7... who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Jesus tells us the following in His Olivet Discourse...
☆ Matthew 24:24...
"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders... insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
There will come false Christs who will be able to perform miracles.
Now the second Beast is a miracle worker... he is an Antichrist.
This makes the first Beast the political Antichrist.
The second Beast is the religious Antichrist.
That is, there are 2 persons, 2 Beasts who are Antichrist.
6 ■■ WILD BEAST out of the sea...
description, a political power and a person.
☆ Revelation 13:1...
"And I [he] stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a Beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."
Apparently the beginning of this verse should read... "And he stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw..."
The "he" actually referring to Satan.
The Dragon (Satan) stands on the sands of the sea, and it is he who brings the wild Beast out of the sea and... dominates him.
The word "Beast" here means a brutal, bestial man, savage, ferocious.
Not what I call a friendly being.
Also, in Scripture "the sea" is a picture of the nations of the world, of mankind, like the restless sea.
So this first Beast is a person, a human being who comes from this world... specially chosen and groomed by Satan.
This is Satan's masterpiece.
▪ "... having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."
Seeing this sort of creature would freak anybody out.
But what does it all mean?
This Beast heads the old Roman Empire (revived). Rome fell apart and it is this character who "puts it all together again."
God is apparently taking His hands off this earth for a while and turning it over completely to Satan.
When you think of it, this is poetic justice.
God must let Satan demonstrate that, when he is given full sway, he will not be able to produce... he will totally botch it up.
Otherwise... Satan would always be able to say to God from the Lake of Fire, "You never gave me a chance. If You would have taken Your hands off and let me alone, I would have been able to accomplish my purpose and establish a second kingdom."
But God is going to let Satan have his way so that he will not be able to make accusations against God.
To understand this portion of Scripture in Revelation, we need to have a look at prophecy in the book of Daniel... particularly chapter 7.
Be prepared and patient... it does get a little complex here.
This wild Beast in Revelation is similar in description to the fourth beast, that is in the seventh chapter of Daniel.
There it represents the prophetic history of the Roman Empire right down to "the little horn" and it's destruction.
It seems the fourth beast became dormant for a while and then bingo... out of one of the seven heads there came ten horns, out of which came a little horn. This little horn puts together three of the horns and was able to take the other seven.
At the time of John writing Revelation... much of the prophecy of Daniel had been fulfilled.
The first three beasts...
1st... Babylonian empire the lion
2nd... Medo-Persian empire the bear and...
3rd... Graeco-Macedonian empire the panther/leopard had...
all been fulfilled.
When Daniel gave it... it was prophecy... but it was fulfilled by John's time.
John concentrates on the fourth beast and the "little horn".... because the fourth beast... the Roman Empire had appeared.
☆ Daniel 7:7...
"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns."
☆ Daniel 7:8...
"I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another "little horn," before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things."
John was living in the time of the Roman Empire.
Roman emperor Domitian had John exiled to the Isle of Patmos.
The Empire was already starting to show signs of weakness and decay.
John was a spectator to that which was still future in Daniel's day.
In Revelation the emphasis is upon the rule of the "little horn" of Daniel 7.
The "little horn" is set before us as a wild Beast for he is now ruling and controlling the restored Roman Empire in John's prophecy.
The "little horn" of Daniel 7 and the wild Beast of Revelation 13 are the same.
The wild Beast is the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, the final world dictator.
Over the years there's been a lot of excitement about the existence of the European Common Market or the European Economic Community.
Throughout history there have been many attempts made to put Europe back together again... "Humpty Dumpty" all over again.
All have failed.
The Roman Catholic Church tried it. Franz Joseph one of the last emporers of the Holy Roman empire tried it. Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler, and Mussolini... all attempted it and failed.
God is not ready yet and He won't let it appear until the time of the Great Tribulation.
Remember... God is in control.
The European Economic Community is interesting, not because we are seeing prophecy fulfilled, but because we are seeing the stage set which reveals that prophecy can be fulfilled.
It won't happen until God is ready.
Satan will supply the "man."
The "ten horns" with ten diadems speak of the tenfold division of the Roman Empire in the time of the Great Tribulation.
The "horns" are the ten kings (presidents) who rule over this tenfold division.
This interpretation is confirmed by...
☆ Revelation 17:12...
"And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the Beast."
The "little horn" comes to power by ruthlessly putting down three of these rulers... dominates the other seven and becomes the world dictator.
The seven heads are not easily identified. They are interpreted to be seven kings in...
☆ Revelation 17:9-10...
"And here is the mind which has wisdom.
The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.
And... there are seven kings: five are fallen (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece), and one is (Roman), and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space."
All seven heads are guilty of blasphemy.
Blasphemy can be shown as either making oneself equal to God or slandering and taking God's name in vain.
The Beast is guilty of both.
☆ Revelation 13:2...
"And the Beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the Dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."
The description we have here of this Beast is weird to say the least. He's a composite Beast. John combines the characteristics of the other beasts representing the kingdoms which Daniel saw in his vision of Daniel 7.
"And the Beast which I saw was like unto a leopard... "
☆ Daniel 7:6...
"After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it."
Panther and leopard are the same word in the Greek. This was representative of the Graeco-Macedonian Empire.
Greece was noted for its brilliance and its advancement in the arts and sciences. It was noted for its philosophy, its architecture and its marvelous literature.
The empire of the Beast will have all the outward culture which was the glory of Greece.
"... and his feet were as the feet of a bear... "
Reminds us of the second beast in Daniel.
☆ Daniel 7:5...
"And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh."
This was representative of Medo-Persia known for its paganism.
The empire of the Beast will have all the pagan splendor and wealth that Medo-Persia had.
"... and his mouth as the mouth of a lion... "
Reminds us of the first beast in Daniel.
☆ Daniel 7:4...
"The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it."
This was the Babylonian autocracy. The Man of Sin will be one of the toes of the image that Daniel saw, composed partly of clay and partly of iron. He will rule with the autocracy and dictatorial authority of Nebuchadnezzar.
This final world dictator comes to his peak under the domination of Satan. The source of his power is found in Satan who raises him up, empowers and energizes him for all his wicked evil doings. He is the closest to an incarnation of Satan that appears in Scripture.
He is certainly possessed by Satan...
Paul says...
☆ 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10...
"Even him (world dictator), whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish... because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."
☆ Revelation 13:3...
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast."
Combined with ☆ Revelation 17:8 there are many who think Satan raises the Beast from the dead.
☆ Revelation 17:8...
"The Beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
This cannot be so.
Satan does not have the power to do this.
Only Christ is able to raise the dead because He is the Resurrection and the Life.
What takes place is a fake restoration and a fake resurrection. I believe it will be done through some very clever and diabolical media manipulation to dupe and deceive the masses.
I reckon the Beast is a man who will manifest a counterfeit and imitation resurrection. This will be the great delusion, the big lie of the Great Tribulation Period.
We are told that God will give them over to believe the big lie...
☆ 2 Thessalonians 2:11...
"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
Interestingly the people will not accept the resurrection of Christ, but they will believe the fake resurrection of Antichrist.
"... and his deadly wound was healed..."
This shows the blasphemous imitation of the death and resurrection of Christ.
The saying in that day will be... "What has Christ done that Antichrist has not done?"
Nobody can duplicate the resurrection of Christ... they might imitate it... but they cannot duplicate it.
Yet Antichrist is going to imitate it in a way that will fool the world... it is the big lie.
Believers say, "Christ is risen!"
The boast of unbelievers in that day will be... "So is Antichrist!"
The Roman Empire (revived form) will spring back into existence under the cruel hand of a man who faked a resurrection, with a gullible world who rejected Christ that will finally be duped by this forgery.
In the recorded history of man... mankind has engaged in 1 500 wars and signed some 8 000 peace treaties. And in that period there's been perhaps 2 to 300 years of true peace.
What does the Bible say about the human heart?
☆ Jeremiah 17:9...
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
The Antichrist will comes in on a false platform of bringing peace to the world.
He will say, "People of the world I am going to give you peace," and the people will say "We accept!"
The world will put the Beast into office.
He will come disguised as a great humanitarian... speaking peace, prosperity and plenty.
He will spread the lie that men will never be better until they make society better.
Changing society, changing the environment or changing any other external, cannot and will not make man better. The Word of God teaches that it's when you change the heart... you change the person...
☆ Proverbs 4:23...
"Keep your heart with all diligence... for out of it are the issues of life."
☆ Mark 7:20-21...
"And Jesus said, That which comes out of the man, that defiles the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders..."
☆ Jeremiah 17:9...
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
☆ Revelation 13:4...
"And they worshipped the Dragon which gave power unto the Beast: and they worshipped the Beast, saying, Who is like unto the Beast? who is able to make war with him?"
Satan is in his element...
His aim has always been to be worshipped... and here it is... the world worshipping the Dragon... worshipping Satan.
Satan is the one who gives the Beast his power... his position... his prestige.
And what's more, the duped people of the world say, "Who is like unto the Beast... and who is able to make war with him."
In a sense they are saying... "Isn't he wonderful!"
The Beast is going to make Hitler's Nazi regime look like a Sunday School picnic.
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We will stop here and in a fortnight we will look at the emergence of the second Beast... the religious leader... the religious Antichrist.