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Two Beasts, Part 1
Revelation 13:1-10
March 4, 2007
If Christ has finished the redemptive work the Father gave Him to accomplish (John 17:1-4; 19:30, etc.), then why does the world maintain such fierce opposition to the Christian gospel? If Satan has been conquered, then how does it seem that he has control over humanity? Why are tens of thousands of Christians dying for their faith every year while cruel and vain religions appear to grow? Why do nations, such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and the United States, that have strong evidence of Christian heritage, turn more and more against the revelation of God’s Word and Christ as King? Each year sees these nations slide toward blotting out any mention of the one true God. Scant observations of the global scene reveal that evil dominates the world. Ruthless dictators, egomaniacs, and tyrants of every stripe control so many nations. In so-called free countries, immorality, greed, and evil of every sort abounds. Yes, the dragon appears to be having a field day!
So, how do we make sense of all this in light of the gospel? If Christ has finished the work, then why are things so bad in the world?
Much of it has to do with understanding the message of Revelation as well as so many other portions of Scripture. Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world…My kingdom is not of this realm” (John 18:36). Paul told the Philippians, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20). Peter told the scattered saints that they were “aliens and strangers” in this world (1 Pet. 2:11). John told the congregations that read his first epistle, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world…For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (2:15-16). The point is that the kingdom of God is not temporal empires, democracies, or nations. The kingdom is not temporal. Satan attacks in the temporal realm. He cannot accuse us in the eternal kingdom because Christ’s death and resurrection threw him down in defeat. He operates in the temporal realm.
Though members of the eternal kingdom of God, we still live in the temporal realm. The message in the Gospels and Epistles calls for us to live like kingdom citizens while still in this world. In New Testament language, the world is commensurate with constant opposition to God; it is a system of thought and way of life that refuses to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Lord God. So, if you’re living as a kingdom citizen while still in a world that stands in direct opposition to God, then what do you think will happen? Can we all just get along and treat each other kindly? As far as we’re concerned as Christians, that would be just fine; that is our goal to live peaceably with all men as much as is possible within us (Rom. 12:18). In God’s mercy and kind providence, there are pockets of the world throughout history where there’s been some measure of civility shown between the world and Christians. Yet those periods came usually due to the powerful influence of spiritual awakenings or the faithfulness of the church impacting its culture.
Much of the Christian world seeks to just get along with the world as well as trying to get the world to conform to Christian values. It’s a nice plan; it just doesn’t work. Jesus was not kidding when He called the devil “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31). Nor was Paul stretching it by calling Satan “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). Opposition by the world under its ruler can be anticipated. Yet, in the midst of even the worst opposition, believers can rest securely in Christ. That’s the message that John drives home in Revelation. His original audience understood something about worldly opposition. But they needed to understand, even more, their security in Christ. We need to know the same thing. How does he make this clear? Consider with me the unusual explanation that he gives.
Revelation 12 ends with the dragon enraged and going off to make war with the saints. The next chapter explains the manner of the dragon’s war. He understood that he has only a short opportunity to assault the church and seek to undermine God’s kingdom (12:12). So, he broadens his war, according to chapter 13, so that he might encompass the globe with rebellion against the Almighty God and opposition to the saints.
That’s the short version of chapter 13! What struck me as I studied the text is its relationship as a type of bridge between chapters 12 and 14, as well as another angle of explaining what John stated toward the end of chapter 12. In that chapter, we have John’s version of the birth narrative, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation of Jesus Christ (v. 5). Then we see the dragon or the devil’s pursuit of the redeemed, pictured by the woman whom God rescues time after time (v. 6, 14, 16). To help us grasp the effectiveness of Christ’s first coming that resulted in completing the redemptive work of God, John switches scenes to a heavenly battle. Michael and his angels pursue the dragon and his angels in war because the Lamb has conquered (vv. 7-11). The centuries-old heavenly conflict raged until Christ overthrew the devil’s claim on those Jesus redeemed. John focuses on the event of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension by the word “Now.” “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.” Those in heaven confess that their source of triumph over the dragon’s persistent attacks while on earth came from the Lamb’s triumph at the cross. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (v. 11).
Then he switches back to earth as the dragon pursues the woman, that is, the redeemed. The Lord consistently provides refuge for her. Right at the end of chapter 12, John clues us in on what he will be expanding upon in the next chapter (though, of course, John didn’t originally write in chapter divisions). “So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” That’s us! And it’s our brethren throughout the world and throughout the centuries—all “who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus,” as John identifies believers. He’s going to show the final triumph in chapter 14 with the Lamb standing as the conquering general before His army, but meanwhile, he gives us a startling picture of how the world functions in opposition to anything that has to do with the living God.
John has already introduced the “beast” as coming out of the abyss (11:7) to assault the two witnesses who represent faithful believers bearing testimony to the gospel. No matter, he comes back to another unveiling of the beast, giving evidence of the beast as the instrument of the dragon in waging war against the saints (12:17). The dragon standing on the seashore pictures him straddling sea and land, showing his rule over the world in opposition to God. “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.” This picture resembles that of the dragon that had “seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems” (12:3). That showed the dragon with complete mastery and domination over the world. On one hand, John wants us to see the beast as an extension of the same kind of malice found in the dragon. On the other, he distinguishes between them, showing the supremacy of the dragon by having the diadems on his head rather than on his horns, which would picture the beast’s strength to rule over men, but with delegated strength.
“And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.” John’s pictures resemble Daniel’s vision of the four beasts. “The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle…And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear…After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns” (Dan. 7:1-8). Daniel’s vision gave prophetic insight to the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Though living in the kingdom of Babylon, he mapped out the world scene for the next several centuries, particularly identifying the destructiveness of the fourth kingdom and how all were conquered ultimately by the Son of Man to whom “was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed” (7:13-14). He contrasts the temporal kingdoms with the eternal kingdom that belongs to Christ. What Daniel foresaw, John lived in.
Rather than four kingdoms, John’s beast has the characteristics of those in Daniel’s vision concentrated into one beast. That is significant in our interpretation. While Rome was certainly the immediate manifestation of the beast, his intention was to show something larger than Rome. The multiple heads and horns with diadems further insist that we view the beast as much larger than the Roman Empire. Some identify the Seven Hills of Rome with the seven heads and the ten horns with the ten emperors. The only problem is that Rome had more than ten emperors (cf. Michael Grant, The Twelve Caesars). Clever ways of counting have been devised to make this fit into a schematic that makes the beast into Rome, and only Rome. But to do so misses the global scope of Revelation. While Rome was the dominant kingdom in John’s sphere, it was not the only one in existence; then or now. Greg Beale explains, “In the light of Daniel 7, the Roman Empire transcends many centuries and represents all world powers who oppress God’s people until the culmination of history” [NIGTC: Revelation, 685]. Simon Kistemaker adds, “It is wise to understand the numbers seven and ten symbolically as figures of completeness and fullness, and to apply them to the combined forces of world governments set against the saints on earth” [NTC: Revelation, 377-378].
The beast parodies Christ’s death and resurrection. Rather than literalisms, John emphasizes that the beast defeated by Christ when Satan was conquered still parodies Christ in order to deceive. “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him?” The dragon aims to usurp the authority of the crucified and resurrected Christ, so the beast is healed of his fatal wound. The wound refers to the mortal wound applied by Christ in His death. John describes it as, “the wound of the sword,” which implies a death that took place in a great war—here the battle for our souls at the cross. John enlarges on the beast’s death, not mentioning the wounded head again, but rather identifying the beast as slain (vv. 12, 14). As Kistemaker points out, the emphasis is not on worshiping the wounded head but worshiping the beast [p. 380]. “And they worshiped the beast,” demonstrates the focal point. George Ladd summarizes this rather difficult portion. “Here is the key to the character and purpose of the beast; it is not merely the exercise of political power—it has the objective of capturing the loyalties of men and diverting them from the worship of God. To turn from God and submit to the beast is in reality to worship Satan” [A Commentary on the Book of Revelation, 179].
The beast speaks “arrogant words and blasphemes, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.” The same timeframe as given to those trampling the holy city, the two witnesses, and the woman is allotted to the beast (cf. chap. 12). That’s the time from the resurrection of Christ until His return. It’s the time of gospel ministry and Christian persecution. The forty-two months, 1260 days, and time, times, and half a time each point to the sovereign control of the Lord God over the unfolding details of humanity. For that period, the beast “opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.” To blaspheme is to slander, a characteristic of the devil whose name means slanderer. The beast carries out the devil’s bidding to blaspheme God’s name—which means to sully the character and glory of His being. Blasphemy implies saying or doing anything “that desecrates the divine name or violates his glory and deity” [Ladd, 180]. The beast’s self-deification through receiving worship and adoration is blasphemy since it is a devilish attempt to rob God of the glory that belongs only to Him. The blasphemy is aimed as well at all that know and worship the Lamb of God.
John certainly witnessed this with the actions of the Roman emperors, such as Nero, Caligula, and Domitian who accepted worship, and even demanded it by Roman subjects confessing Caesar to be Lord and God. Eusebius, the ancient church historian, said that Nero “displayed himself an enemy of piety towards the Deity.” He further explained, “Thus Nero publicly announcing himself as the chief enemy of God, was led on in his fury to slaughter the apostles” [Ecclesiastical History, 80].
The same spirit prevails in the personification of the beast in the 21st century. Eighteen Christian pastors, meeting for a meal, were forcibly taken by Uzbek policemen, accusing them of “holding illegal meetings” and “inciting religious separatism.” Only Muslim and Orthodox religious groups have freedom to worship or propagate their religion. One of the pastors has already spent four months in jail where he faced discrimination and deprivation. His wife also lost her job because of the publicity over his arrest. Here is the work of the beast continuing in our day, blaspheming the name of the Lord [“Uzbek Police Seek Missing Pastors of ‘Unregistered’ Churches,” by Peter Lamprecjht, Compass Direct News, Istanbul, March 2, 2007].
The beast is considered omnipotent by his followers. “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” Nero thought of himself as omnipotent, even as a teenaged ruler over the Roman Empire. It led to “the grossness of his extraordinary madness” and “indiscriminate murder” of thousands [Eusebius, 79]. Seneca, Nero’s tutor, put words in his mouth to reinforce this attitude of omnipotence.
From out of all the host of mortal beings [he pictures the emperor as asking], have I been chosen and thought worthy to do the work of the gods upon the earth? I have been given the power of life and death over all the nations. To determine the condition and to control the destinies of every race and of every individual is my absolute prerogative [Michael Grant, Twelve Caesars, 154, quoting Seneca, On Clemency, 1, 2 (trans. Francis Holland)].
Is this any less the attitude evident in Stalin and Hitler, both of whom demanded absolute loyalty, even worship? Is it any different than the spirit evident in Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Castro, and others in our day? The beast lives on, calling for admiration by the masses, and ruling with a view to usurp the glory of God among all people.
John’s intention is to show that, in spite of the triumph of Christ in His death and resurrection, the final mopping up is not over. Persecution, oppression, and opposition will continue until Christ returns. But do not fret; the Lord reigns.
John explains the scene across the globe and across the ages. “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.” The text doesn’t tell us who gave the beast freedom to make war with the saints and overcome them as well as exercise authority over all people. The passive voice, shown in “given to,” means that the beast could not do this on his own without permission. It seems best to see this as John’s way of indicating that the beast’s actions took place only by divine permission. He subtly reminds us of God’s sovereignty even in the dismal opposition. The dragon and the beast may be alive but they are not in control. This reinforces the certainty that the Lord will give deliverance to His people. The beast’s activities are limited, as the “forty-two months” indicates. Though life may grow difficult, the Lord is on the throne and will deliver the redeemed in due time.
Neutrality in relationship to the Lord God is impossible. If any in John’s audience think that they can straddle the fence in order to avoid persecution and oppression, he lets them (and us) know that there’s no middle ground. He tells us, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him,” that is, the beast. This whole spirit of rebellion against God and rejection of Christ as Savior characterizes the spirit of those worshiping the beast. John wrote in his first epistle along this same vein. “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ [i.e., Messiah]? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son…and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world” (2:22; 4:3) He added another note in his second epistle. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist” (v. 7). John indicated that the antichrist is not a singular person but a pervasive, singlular spirit of rebellion against God denying Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the gospel.
He further clarifies who will worship the beast and who will not: “everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” That is all-encompassing. The line of distinction is clearly drawn. Greg Beale reminds us, “The whole mass of unbelieving humanity is likely in mind here and not merely a part from one brief period of history” [700]. Who worships the beast? John makes it clear; those whose names were not written from the foundation of the world in the Lamb’s book of life. Leon Morris is right, “John wants his little handful of persecuted Christians to see that the thing that matters is the sovereignty of God, not the power of evil. When a man’s name is written in the book of life he will not be forgotten. His place is secure” [TNTC: Revelation, 169].
Once again John threads the gospel into the narrative as he calls attention to “the Lamb who has been slain.” The beast may utter blasphemies and denigrate God at every turn. But the Lamb who has been slain has already conquered the beast, the dragon, and all the hosts of hell. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross atoned for our sins and severed the devil’s claim on us. Christ’s work is so sure, and those for whom He died, so secure, that John speaks of believers’ names having already been written “from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb.” This means that the Lord God, in sovereign mercy, chose a people for Himself before the foundation of the world. Their names have already been written in the Lamb’s book of life—indicated by the perfect passive verb that shows an action completed in the past with continuing results. The divine passive is used once again to show the sovereign pleasure of God in election. John uses the singular, “name,” to show that he’s not speaking of God electing a group of people but electing individuals one by one before the foundation of the world, and then giving charge to His Son to redeem those whom God has chosen.
In his characteristic way, John calls special attention to this statement of assurance and security: “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” In other words, “Get hold of this! Latch onto it! Believe it!” He further reinforces that the Sovereign Lord is working among His people even in times of great persecution. I think that the English Standard Version better captures this difficult Greek passage: “If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.” He’s not speaking of fatalism but rather, assuring that if God has purposed for any of His precious ones to be taken captive or even put to death, then it comes by divine design. Satan “can only do what God permits him to do” [Kistemaker, 386]. So don’t be alarmed when captivity or even death takes place; God has wise designs and will bring you through.
How does John apply all of this? He gives an indicator that what he has spoken is particularly for the Christian to encourage him to press on in the faith, resting in the wise, sovereign working of the Lord on his behalf. “Here is the perseverance and faith of the saints.” Here it is, says John. Dennis Johnson explains that John is saying, “What is needed in this situation is…” Then he adds, “The church participates in God’s kingdom, but since our pilgrimage to kingdom joy passes through the desert of affliction, our present responsibility is endurance (1:9). Persistence in the word of our testimony to the Lamb is the means of our victory over the dragon who empowers and authorizes the beast (12:11)” [Triumph of the Lamb, 194].
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (12:11). That’s the call to press on even in the ever present face of the beast. The Lamb has triumphed; let us live in that triumph as kingdom citizens.
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