Revelation 13
The Two Beasts
13:1 Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns were ten diadem crowns, and on its heads a blasphemous name.
John will see the fourth beast that was mentioned in Daniel 7, except more details will be given. In the rest of this book, sometimes this beast will be a symbol for the Great Tribulation government of the Antichrist. Other times, it will be a symbol of the leader of this government, which is the Antichrist.
According to Daniel 7, the horns will be ten different kings over ten different kingdoms. At the beginning of the Great Tribulation, all of these kings will be alive and living together on the earth. At the middle of the Great Tribulation, three of these kings will be killed.
Daniel did not mention the seven heads. However, their meaning will be given in Revelation 17. The seven heads will be seven different kingdoms that have ruled over Rome. The seventh head will be the seventh and final Roman government, which will be ruled by the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. This capital of this seventh and last Roman Empire will be in the city of Babylon.
The diadem crowns are crowns worn by kings to show their authority over their subjects living in their land.
13:2 Now the beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority to rule.
These are the four beasts from Daniel 7. The leopard will represent the Hellenistic Empire of Greece under Alexander the Great. The bear will represent Persia. The lion will represent Babylon. The beast will represent the Roman Empire. All four of these nations will leave their influence upon the fourth kingdom.
The dragon will represent Satan, who is the counterfeit father of the satanic trinity. The beast will represent the counterfeit son of the satanic trinity. Just as God the Father gave all his authority to God the Son, so Satan the counterfeit father will give all of his authority to his counterfeit son.
13:3 One of the beast’s heads appeared to have been killed, but the lethal wound had been healed. And the whole world followed the beast in amazement;
The Greek for "appeared to be killed" is ὡς ἐσφαγμένην (os esphagmenan), a perfect passive participle, meaning "as or like to have been slain." This is the same Greek word used of Jesus being slain in John 5:6. Some scholars interpret this as a fake death and resurrection, because of the Greek word ὡς (lys), meaning "like" or "as." Others interpret this as an actual literal death and resurrection, meaning that Satan will have the power to resurrect the Antichrist back to life. After this resurrection, either fake or real, the entire world of the non-elect will begin to follow the Antichrist in amazement. Notice that Satan will have tremendous powers, so charismatics are wrong when they say that all miracles come only from God.
13:4 they worshiped the dragon because he had given ruling authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast too, saying: “Who is like the beast?” and “Who is able to make war against him?”
This miracle will cause the non-elect to worship the Antichrist.
13:5 The beast was given a mouth speaking proud words and blasphemies, and he was permitted to exercise ruling authority for forty-two months.
The Antichrist will remain in power for the remainder of the Great Tribulation, which was three and a half years. During this time, he will speak proud words and blasphemies. Blasphemies are calling what is good evil and what is evil good.
13:6 So the beast opened his mouth to blaspheme against God – to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
The Antichrist will blaspheme God, His name, His dwelling place in heaven, and those who will be in heaven with God at this time.
13:7 The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation,
For the last three and a half years of the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will be permitted to go to war against all of the believers. He will be allowed to conquer them. He will be given authority over every person and place and language of the entire earth. The Antichrist will have it his way for three and a half years. The entire angelic world and those in heaven will receive the opportunity to see what the world would be like if God remained silent for three and a half years and allowed the devil to have full reign.
13:8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.
All of the non-elect will reject Christ, but worship the devil. This is the destiny of liberalism.
The Lamb's Book of Life is different from the Book of Life. Every person who is born into the world has his name written in the Book of Life. When an unbeliever dies, his name is erased from the Book of Life. The unbeliever's name will be erased at the Great White Throne Judgment.
When a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, his name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The believer's name will still remain in the Book of Life, it will never be blotted out. Therefore, the Book of Life contains the names of all believers and unbelievers, but the unbelievers will be blotted out at the Great White Throne Judgment. Only believers' names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
13:9 If anyone has an ear, he had better listen!
Those who have "an ear" will be the elect who can hear and understand the Word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ will give a word of comfort to these saints who will be alive during the Great Tribulation.
13:10 If anyone is meant for captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, then by the sword he must be killed. This requires steadfast endurance and faith from the saints.
Those who enslave the believers will be enslaved themselves. Those who kill the believers will be killed themselves. Therefore, the saints need to be patient and allow God to avenge them.
13:11 Then I saw another beast coming up from the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but was speaking like a dragon.
This second beast who comes from the earth will be the False Prophet. He will be the third person of the counterfeit trinity, executing the role of the Holy Spirit. He will have two horns like a lamb, meaning that he is very religious. However, he will speak like the dragon, who is Satan himself. His words will be the words of Satanism.
13:12 He exercised all the ruling authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, the one whose lethal wound had been healed.
As the actual Holy Spirit leads others to worship the Son of God, so the counterfeit Holy Spirit will lead others to worship the counterfeit son.
13:13 He performed momentous signs, even making fire come down from heaven in front of people
The False Prophet will perform many miracles in order to authenticate his ministry. However, his miracles will be designed to deceive others into worshipping the Antichrist.
13:14 and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived.
The False Prophet will deceive the non-elect with his miracles. He will also lead the non-elect to make an idol of the resurrected Antichrist. This is the fate of liberalism and multi-culturalism.
13:15 The second beast was empowered to give life to the image of the first beast so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
The image will be given life. The image will speak. Everyone who will not worship the Antichrist will be killed. This is a reason why charismatics should not trust in miracles being of divine origin. Miracles can happen and they are used to deceive. The test of divine revelation is not miracles, but the Word of God.
13:16 He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.
Just as the Holy Spirit will place a seal on the 144,000 Jewish witnesses, so the False Trinity will place a counterfeit seal on the right hand or forehead of all of their followers.
13:17 Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast – that is, his name or his number.
The purpose of the seal will be to control the economy. The Antichrist will use this seal to control all food, shelter, clothing, and medicine of the people. Communist and socialists already have experience implementing this type of satanic system.
13:18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666.
All of the Hebrew letters contain a number as well as a consonant sound. The first Hebrew letter is alef, meaning one. Beth is two, gimmel is three, etc. When the actual literal name of the Antichrist is spelled in Hebrew, the total of his name will add up to 666.