REV 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, REV 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. NET – 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. Cancel. Even America – with our Christian roots – is becoming more and more anti-Christian. They carry out his bidding. This describes the worldwide dominance of this beast. This “war” will be led by the eighth king, the “man of sin” (2 Th 2:1-12). With everything we’ve discussed in this chapter so far, and with the above verses in mind, I think the identification of the beast of this chapter (13) is already quite clear. 13 And I 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. It’s about the struggles Christians deal with in a world that is hostile to Christ and His followers. In other words, everyone except those who follow the “Lamb” (Christ). The symbolism of the heads and horns is the same as with the dragon. a. If we’re to see the full scope of this revelation, we must see it through the overall message of the New Testament—which is what I’ve strived to do throughout this commentary. Now the scene of his vision shifted to the earth, and in his vision he stood on the sand of the sea. Revelation 13 New King James Version The Beast from the Sea 13 Then [ a]I stood on the sand of the sea. All rights reserved. The Apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation, understood this world system well as he describes in 1 John: NET – (1 John 2:15-17) – 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. All that opposes Christ is in the world today. “Everyone” whose name has not been written in the Lamb’s “book of life” since the foundation of the world, will worship the beast. Christians belong to the Kingdom of light, and we are the only ones who stand in opposition to it. And I saw a a beast rising up out of the sea, b having 2 seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a c blasphemous name. The beast has ten horns and seven heads with ten diadems on its horns. Thus we do not have this same sense of awe toward the beast that the rest of the world has. In regard to the first six world empires, history tells who those rulers were. 13 And I 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. It’s the realm that we’re all in before we come to faith in Christ: (Col 1:13) – 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,” (NASB), (Acts 26:18) – 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Once Rome fell, it continued on as the seventh empire, which is what we have throughout the whole Church age—keeping in mind that this seventh empire has two kings: Satan, who rules as the seventh king (over the kingdom of darkness) until the rise of the eighth king (at the end of the Church age), who rules as a human king in the likeness of the kings of the first six empires. We will talk about this more later. Therefore, this chapter (and throughout this book) depicts the spiritual warfare between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. I outline those reasons below: (Eph 6:12) – 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This whole chapter describes an enemy that is against Christians, and Christians alone. And the beast which I sawwas like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his … In regard to the seventh empire, we’re not told who those rulers (two kings) are, but is something we have to figure out by comparing scripture with scripture. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. That won’t happen until we get close to the return of Christ, where there will be a worldwide assault against the followers of Christ—known as the “War of Armageddon” (see commentary on Rev 11:7). It almost seems obvious that the identity of this beast is that kingdom (empire). To understand what’s going on here, this beast, the beast of this chapter, has to be viewed as the Church-age beast. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six - In this verse we have the very name of the beast given under the symbol of the number 666. The idea that the book of Revelation is about a mere seven year period, fails to capture the greater message and full significance that this book actually conveys. Wisdom tells me that people make too much of this number. In this instance, the appearance of the beast’s head did not match reality, because the next phrase shows that in fact it did not die. We have to keep in mind that this chapter is the seventh head (empire, kingdom), which is the kingdom of darkness. Revelation 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. The “head” (sixth) that appeared to have been killed was Rome. K.J.V. Those who belong to the kingdom of darkness are normally easy to identify. The same is true of those who have the “mark of the beast.” It’s a symbolic mark of identification of who they belong to. The good fruit that identifies us with Christ and His kingdom is in clear contrast to the rotten fruit of those who belong to Satan and his kingdom. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? (Rev 13:2) – 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 throne, and great authority. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. This book is about the conflict between these two kingdoms. “if any man shall kill with the sword” (ASV, NASB, KJV, NKJV, NRSV), “If anyone is to be killed by the sword” (NET, ESV, LEB, NIV, CSB). Then I stood on the sand of the sea: In Revelation 12, John’s vision mainly had heaven in view. Here is wisdom. It falls far short of who this prophet actually is and what it represents. That’s all part of the deception. What we think and what we do is all-encompassing. And the beast which I saw, was like vnto a Leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a Beare, and his … 17 And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever. These demonic rulers (false prophet) are the kingdom of darkness. Therefore, all combined, these demonic rulers are seen as a single false prophet. Thus what’s being depicted here is a shared belief system among unbelievers. Certainly not those who belong to this kingdom. 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