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Transcript 234B — The Two Beasts in Revelation 13
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a question on the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation. I was wondering if you could explain what the difference is between the two beasts. And I'd also like to know if you could elaborate on the last verse of the chapter, about the beast's number being 666.
HC: The question is raised concerning the two beasts of Revelation 13. What is the difference between them? What do they signify? And then, the question is asked also about the number 666 that is found in the last verse of the chapter.
The first beast comes out of the sea. It has ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns or diadems upon its horns, and a blasphemous name upon its head. And it "was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority." Now this is our first clue, that really teaches who this first beast is. "The dragon gave to it his power and his throne and great authority."
Now the dragon is Satan. Again and again in the Bible God speaks about the dragon as Satan, or Satan as the dragon. And the beast therefore would be the kingdom of Satan, totally synonymous with Satan himself. But it is the kingdom of Satan as it is found in the world throughout time. The seven heads refer to the rule of Satan throughout time.
In Revelation 1seven we find another reference to this beast, and we find in verse 8: "The beast that you saw was and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition." It says that "the seven heads are seven mountains, or hills on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is and the other is not yet come. And when he comes, he must remain only a little while." Therefore, it's speaking already in the past tense of seven of the heads, five of the seven heads representing kings who had already reigned. Now this simply is indicating that it is going all the way back into time, wherever the kingdom of Satan has been. It is the rule of Satan as it is found in the earth.
Now the ten horns more particularly relate to the rule of Satan right at the end of time, and tie very closely, incidentally, into the second beast, or in some respects to the second beast, as I'll show in a moment. But the ten horns do refer to the rule of Satan at the end of time because again, when we read Revelation 17, it says in verse 12, "And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who had not yet received royal power. But they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beasts."
Now the interesting thing is that in the Book of Daniel God makes reference to ten horns, out of which the little horn comes. And when we look at the Book of Daniel carefully, we find that in this reference to the ten horns and the little horn, it is really speaking about the false prophets, or it's talking about the church itself. The fourth beast spoken of in Daniel seven has ten horns: "And I considered the horns. And behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things."
"Eyes like a man" is a figure of speech speaking about prophets. If we tie that back into Isaiah 29:10, we can see this. Now the beast, therefore is the kingdom of Satan that rules throughout time, although particularly the period that's in view here is the whole New Testament period, the forty-two months of Chapter 5. And in verse 3 it says, "One of its heads seems to have had a mortal wound," indicating that at the cross Satan was dealt a death blow. The kingdom of Satan was dealt a death blow because of Christ's victory on the cross.
But yet, "Its mortal wound was healed. And the whole earth followed the beast with wonder." You see, the kingdom of Satan still goes on, even though the destruction of Satan and all the wicked was guaranteed because of Christ's work at the cross. Yet the kingdom goes on.
Then in verse 4 it says, "Men worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast and who can fight it?" Now this beast is what unsaved man is totally involved in. Any unsaved man is a worshipper of the beast, a worshipper of the kingdom of Satan, a worshipper ultimately of Satan himself.
Now in verse seven it says that this beast was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And this of course is pointing to the end of time, just before Christ returns, when Satan will be able to silence the Gospel.
Now beginning in verse 11 it speaks about a second beast coming out of the earth, that had "two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon." Now the minute it says that it spoke like a dragon, we know that again it is totally Satan related.
Now this beast is Satan in his religious rule, particularly, as he works through false prophets and false christs. "Two horns like a lamb." You see, he appears like Christ Himself. Christ is the Lamb that was slain. Remember, in II Corinthians 11 it speaks about Satan going about as an angel of light. Well, that's another figure that is tied in with this other beast that rose up out of the earth. The phrase "out of the sea" or "out of the earth" is a figure relating to hell itself. Hell is sometimes spoken of as the heart of the earth, or the heart of the seas.
Now this beast works great signs, "even making fire come down from Heaven to earth in the sight of men. And by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast should even speak, and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain."
Now you see, Satan, as he controls the minds of unsaved men, normally does not show himself to be of any life, or the giver of any life, or of having any life characteristics. A political kingdom ultimately is a fairly dead kind of a kingdom. It exists, and then it doesn't exist. It has no supernatural power.
But when Satan comes through his emissaries, false prophets and false christs, who come with signs and wonders, as predicted in Matthew 24:24, as he comes through occult activity of one kind or another, this makes the worship of Satan far more glorious and marvelous. Now of course those who are worshipping him don't understand that they're worshipping him. They are deceived, because Satan is the great deceiver. But nevertheless, ultimately they are worshipping him.
And they give breath to the image of the beast. They make the worship of the kingdom of Satan a live venture, as if through this there is a vital, energetic eternal relationship with the god that they are worshipping failing to realize that their god is Satan, and that he is doomed to eternal damnation.
Now those who worship the beast are spoken of in verse 18 as having a number, the number of man. Now as I've said before perhaps, in the King James Bible the translation is, in this instance, a poor translation. In your King James Bible you'll find that it says, "It is the number of a man." But the word that is used here, the Greek word, is the identical word that is used in the Bible repeatedly where it speaks of Christ being the Son of Man. Now under no circumstance would that be translated the "Son of a Man," because Christ under no circumstance was the Son of a man. He was the Son of Man. He was of mankind. In other words, He was a human being.
And here also the same word is used, so it would have to mean that it is the number of man, the number of mankind, the number of the human race. In other words, anyone at all who is unsaved symbolically has the number 666 on his forehead. It is the number assigned to an unsaved man, who is destined for hell, because he is a slave of Satan.
Now this number originally had its beginning in Zechariah 13, or at least it's referred to there, where it says in verse 8: "Two-thirds I will cut off and destroy, but one-third" And it goes on to speak about the redemption of the one-third. The number two-thirds, if written as a decimal, is .666666. And if we just use the first 3 numbers, we get 666.
And there are at least two illustrations in the Bible where this is put forth. We read about David, when he defeated the Moabites, that he caused them to lie down in three lines. Two of the lines he put to death. One line he spared, and they served him. David there was a type of Christ as Messiah, the two-thirds a figure of those who are under the judgment of God, the one-third a figure of those who are saved.
In II Kings 1 we read of Elijah, that he was sent for by the wicked king of Israel. And a company of men came to take him, and he called down fire from heaven, and they were destroyed. A second company of men came to take him, and he called down fire from heaven, and they were destroyed. A third company of men came to take him, and plead for mercy, and they were spared. Again we have two-thirds being destroyed, one-third being spared.
Well, there, just very quickly, is an outline of some of the ideas presented in Revelation 13.