In the books of Daniel and Revelation, the “Beast” is a single entity that has existed since the dawn of human history, beginning with the first attempt at global domination when men founded the city of Babel in a former swamp and “SET UP a high tower to make us a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the earth.”
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That ancient incident is alluded to at the start of Daniel when the Babylonian crown prince subjugates Jerusalem and takes exiles and the “vessels of the house of God into the land of Shinar to the house of his god.”
As in Genesis,
Nebuchadnezzar attempts to unite all nations under his rule by imposing the
Babylonian language on the population under his rule and summons all nations
and peoples from his empire to Babylon to render homage before the “great high image that i SET UP” to glorify his kingdom - (Genesis
111-9, Daniel 1:1-21, 3:1-9).
But the
God of Israel is the one who “removes kings and SETS UP kings.” The
choice of the verb “set up” is deliberate. Whatever kings, dictators,
and presidents may think, it is Yahweh who sets up rulers and kingdoms
regardless of their pretensions and conceit, and He is certainly well able to
remove any nation or tyrant whenever it may please Him to do so – (Daniel 2:21).
And
Nebuchadnezzar got a taste of this when he was troubled by a dream in which he
saw a massive image in the
shape of a man with a golden head, a torso and arms of silver, its belly and thighs
of brass, its legs of iron, and its feet a mixture of iron and clay.
The entire edifice was struck down at once
by a “stone that was cut out without hands.” It struck the image’s feet, but
the whole structure “became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And
the wind carried them away… and the stone that smote the image became a great
mountain and filled the whole earth.”
Only Daniel,
the servant of Yahweh, was able to interpret the dream. The image’s golden head
represented Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian Empire, and its other three
sections symbolized three additional kingdoms that would appear afterward. The “stone
cut without hands” is the kingdom of God that one day will supplant the
kingdoms of this age and fill the entire world – (Daniel 2:31-45).
Noteworthy is
that, although the image consisted of four parts, it was ONE IMAGE.
Moreover, the entire thing was destroyed in one stroke when the “stone cut
without hands” struck its feet. It all turned into dust in one moment.
FOUR BEASTS
We see this same
reality again in the seventh chapter of Daniel. The prophet saw four “beasts
ascending from the sea” in quick succession. They represented four
kingdoms, again, starting with Babylon. The fourth beast was the most terrible
of the lot, especially its “little horn boasting of great things,” and
it “waged war against the saints of the Most-High.”
In the
interpretation, Daniel is told that the “four beasts are four kings that
will arise out of the earth.” But in the end, the “saints of the Most-High
will receive the kingdom,” SINGULAR. This age-long conflict is about the
dominion of the entire planet, but also the destruction of God’s people. But unlike
all presumed world-rulers, past, present, and future, the saints will
possess the kingdom forever – (Daniel 7:15-27).
The fourth beast will wreak havoc on God’s people for a predetermined time – a “season, seasons, and part of a season” – but its reign of terror will cease. And they will “take away his dominion to consume and destroy it unto the end.”
However, the
preceding three beasts will continue to live in the fourth kingdom until it is
destroyed (“as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away. Yet
their lives were prolonged for a season and a time”). As before, the entire
structure is not vanquished until the very end.
REVELATION
This
understanding becomes more explicit in the book of Revelation. In
chapter 13, John sees a SINGLE BEAST ascending from the sea that has all
the monstrous characteristics of Daniel’s four beasts, including the ten horns and
the “mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” And like the “little
horn” of Daniel’s fourth beast, this creature is authorized to operate for
a limited period – “forty-two months” – (Revelation 13:1-10).
Just like the “little
horn” in Daniel, the goal of this beast is to “wage war against
the saints, and to over them and kill them.” Controlling the nations and “inhabitants
of the earth” may be a necessary tactic, but the objective remains what it
has always been – to eradicate the people of God.
It is no
coincidence that when describing the rise of this ONE BEAST, John uses a
Greek participle in the present tense to signify action in progress. It
is, even now, “ascending” from the sea. Moreover, John lists its animal-like
features in reverse order from the ascent of the four beasts ascending from the
sea in Daniel.
Daniel saw the
lion, the bear, the leopard, and the monstrous creature with ten horns
ascending in that order. John, on the other hand, describes the ONE BEAST
as having the features of the beast with ten horns, the leopard, the bear, and
the lion. It is almost as if John is looking backward in time over history.
SEVEN HEADS
And in chapter 17, John sees Babylon the Great Whore “riding
the beast with ten horns and seven heads.” This beast “was and is not and
is about to ascend out of the Abyss.” The description refers to chapter 13 where one
of the beast’s “seven heads” received a “death stroke but lived.”
The “seven
heads” represent “seven kings” and kingdoms, including the one “head”
that received the death stroke and lived. Of the seven kingdoms, by John’s time,
“five are fallen.” They have come and gone already in his past. One
exists, the sixth, which can only be the Roman Empire. And the last or seventh
head is yet to come. And it does, it will continue for a “little while,”
a reference to the same limited period as the “forty-two months” and the
“season, seasons, and part of a season.”
And this final
kingdom is “also an eighth and is of the seven.” It is of the same
nature as its predecessors, but it is also something beyond them, and
presumably, far worse. It will continue until it is defeated by the “rider
on the white horse” who will cast it and the “false prophet” into
the “lake of fire.”
The point is that
the “Beast” is an ancient creature that has been slithering around since
the beginning, since the Garden of Eden. It is no coincidence that in the twelfth
chapter of the book the power behind the “Beast,” the “Great Red
Dragon,” is also called the “Ancient
Serpent” who persecutes the “woman and her seed.”
The “Beast” is a transhistorical reality, but one focused like a laser beam on its goal of annihilating the “saints.”
In chapter 20, for example, after being released from the “Abyss,”
the “Ancient Serpent” gathers the nations from the “four corners of
the earth” in one last assault against the “camp of the saints.”
And this “Beast”
is still alive today, and perhaps the beast that “was, and is not, and shall
be again, and is going to destruction” will appear in its final incarnation
in our time.
In chapter 13,
the foundation of the Beast’s power over nations and people is economic
control. Its vassal, the “False Prophet,” uses its authority to level
economic sanctions on any man, woman, people, or nation that refuses to render
homage to its Master.
And so, today,
there is a government on the earth that unilaterally imposes sanctions against governments,
nations, peoples, corporations, and individuals that do not obey its “rules” or
acknowledge its overlordship. It does not take the gift of prophecy or a degree in rocketry to figure out its identity.
Will this regime become the final incarnation of the “Beast”? Only
time will tell. But it certainly fits the description and is headed in the “right”
direction. It is all a matter of timing. But buyers beware, especially followers of Jesus.