Lesson Two

Chapter 13:1-10

Divine Symbol of The Earthly Battle—The First of Two Beasts

a) Introduction

- Chapter 13 provides final expansion of the vision-story of Rev 12:1-6, answering the question on why the woman had to flee in the desert.

- Key theme of the chapter is the sovereignty of God. Everything happens because God allows it to happen, even evil

- The dragon wages war with the offspring of the woman.

- The beasts are two satanic agents that carry out the war: the beast of the sea and the beast of the earth (false unholy trinity—counterfeit)

- The works of the beast are mere counterfeits of what Christ and his servants have already done (13:3, 14) ß Counterfeits of Christ and the Church

b) Beast of the sea—the Tyrant (13:1-10)

- Read Daniel 7

- The first beast is the enemy of God and his people

- Seven heads = complete earthly wisdom (1 Corinthians 1)

- Ten horns = kings that follow dragon

- While the heads are the main features of the dragon, the horns are the main features of the beast

- They parallel the description of the dragon

- The dragon and the three beast parallel the imitation of the trinity (16:13)

- Diadems on the horns of the beast indicate the military Aden of the dragon king

- The little horn in Daniel represents the Antichrist

- Note the parallel with Rev. 17:12–14, where the angel interprets the ten horns of the beast as ten kings. For a short time (“for one hour”), these ten kings will be given authority by God “to wage war against the Lamb.”

- A lion (Babylon), a bear (Persia), a leopard (Greece), and a beast with iron teeth and ten horns (Rome). Here the body is like a leopard, the feet like a bear’s, and the mouth like a lion’s. The main difference with Dan. 7 is that there the four beasts are consecutive empires while here they describe one being. In short, this beast is a composite of all the beasts or empires throughout human history that have stood against God and his people (though the Antichrist is a person and not just an empire; he embodies them all). The major point is that this beast sums up all that have gone before it.

- Authority of the beast: 1) Satan gives the beast his power), namely, the strength to accomplish miracles (as in 13:3) and perform mighty deeds in the eyes of the world. 2) the beast receives his throne), perhaps “his dominion.” The beast receives “sovereignty” over this world from “the god of this world.” 3) the dragon gives the beast authority. This authority echoes the third beast (the leopard) of Dan. 7:6. It is this authority that causes the earth-dwellers to worship first the dragon (13:4) and then the beast (13:4, 12–13). There is also a progression of authority from the dragon to the first beast (13:2, 4), on to the second beast (13:12), and then to the ten kings who serve the beast (17:12–13). This authority will eventually be surpassed by God’s avenging angels (14:18; 16:8; 18:1).

- The head mortal wound is clearly another great imitation used in 5:6 for the Lamb that was “as slain.” This is an imitation of Christ’s resurrection.

- “Was healed” says the beast returned to life after his “mortal wound,” is a parody of Christ’s resurrection. The dragon and the beast can only copy what God and Christ have already accomplished. As a result of the counterfeit resurrection, the world was “amazed” at the beast’s miracles and flock after him. They were deceived by the miracles. The devil copies the things of God to gain the world’s favour. This is why God didn’t try to win people with miracles and tricks.

- Earth-dwellers: The most significant statement about the earth-dwellers is not that they follow the beast and worship him but that their name has not been written in the book of life; cf. 17:8). The “book of life” is found five other times in Revelation (3:5; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27) and refers to the divine register for true believers. The first biblical mention of such a book occurs in the golden calf incident, when Moses asked God to “blot me out of the book you have written” (Exod. 32:32–33) if he would not forgive the nation. The cross made the book of life possible, for it was the slain Lamb that became the sacrifice for sin and enabled the people of God to have “life.” Thus, the final victory does not belong to Armageddon or the final battle of 20:7–10.

c) The Antichrist

- The Antichrist theme developed late in the intertestamental period and was not a full-fledged emphasis until the Christian era. There is not a lot of evidence, but we can say it probably began with Jesus (Mark 13:14) and had become a developed doctrine by the time John wrote his epistles (1 John 2:18).

- In 1 John 2:18 John alludes to the early church’s teaching, “You have heard that the antichrist is coming.”

- The term occurs three other times (1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7), all referring to false teachers. These heretics were precursors of the final Antichrist and were the “spirit of antichrist”

- Perhaps the first NT reference to a coming antichrist is found in the Olivet discourse, where Jesus speaks of the abomination of desolation as a person (Mark 13:14).

- The next place the Antichrist is mentioned is in 2 Thess. 2:1–12, where the “man of lawlessness” is discussed

- Paul talks there of the removal of the “restraining power” (probably government and its control of law and order), allowing the “lawless one,” the Antichrist, to appear.

- Like the little horn of Dan. 7:8 (“speaking boastfully”), 8:25 (“he will cause deceit to prosper and will consider himself superior”), and 11:36 (“he will magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods”)

- This lawless one will “oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess 2:4).

- Two types of an anti-Messiah figure in late intertestamental Judaism, one a tyrant from outside who opposes God and oppresses his people, built on the little horn of Daniel; the other a false teacher from within the community who deceives the people, possibly built on the false prophet who opposes the “prophet like Moses” in Deut. 18:18–22. These two are combined in the man of lawlessness of 2 Thes. 2 but separated in the two beasts of Rev. 13.

- Here the “beast from the sea” (13:1–10) is the military tyrant, while the “beast from the earth” (13:11–18) is the false prophet

- Once again, the Antichrist will be the “eighth king” (17:11) who will build on the Roman idolatrous practices and take them to their ultimate conclusion.