REVELATION SIMPLIFIED

 

CHAPTER 13.1

Gleanings from the Book of Revelation:

A Weekly Verse-by-Verse Bible Study Series

 

The

REVELATION TO JOHN

(The Apocalypse)

                                                                           

Chapter Thirteen

The Great Tribulation

A Parenthesis

The Seven Trumpets

Trumpet Number 7: Woe Number 3

 

Tribulation Characters

 

 

Introduction

Revelation Chapter 13 is a very important passage explaining exactly what is about to occur. There will be a one-world government established during the Tribulation period out of which a powerful political world leader will arise and form the eighth and final world empire.

 

Thus far, the reader has been introduced to five of the seven personages of the seventh trumpet judgment:

1.  The Woman – Israel (Revelation 12:1)

2.  The Great Red Dragon - Satan (Revelation 12:3, 9)

3.  The Man Child – Christ – The Child of the Woman (12:5)

4.  The Archangel Michael (Revelation 12:7)

5.  The Remnant Seed of the Woman (Revelation 12:17)

 

Principal to the book, Revelation 13 unveils and presents an explicit description of the remaining characters of Tribulation. They are two beasts empowered by Satan delegated to control the earth.

6.  The Wild Beast of the Sea – Antichrist (Revelation 13:1-10)

7.  The Wild Beast of the Earth –The False Prophet (13:11-18)

 

The Holy Trinity

As discussed earlier, the Holy Trinity consists of a triune (tri-unity) God, i.e., not three separate individual gods, but three equal persons comprising one Godhead:

1.  God the Father – The First Person

2.  God the Son - Jesus Christ – The Second Person

3.  God the Holy Spirit – The Third Person

 

The Unholy Trinity

As a counterpart, Satan mimics the heavenly Trinity with his hellish trinity:

1.  Satan assumes the role of God (cf. Isaiah 14:13)

2.  Satan empowers Antichrist likened to the Son of God

3.  Satan empowers a False Prophet equated to the Holy Spirit

 

Understand: Satan is not three equal persons in one (Triune). Satan is a spiritual being created by God and permitted to have power. He, in turn, delegates power to two beasts – Antichrist and the False Prophet. Hence, the unholy trinity is three individual personages.

 

John the Apostle, commissioned to scribe the Book of Revelation, reminded his readers in an earlier letter of his day:

1 John 2:18 - Little children, it is the last (end) time(s) (hour): and as ye have heard [from preachers of the Gospel] that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists [false Christs who have come and gone]; whereby we know that it is the last time [the final hour before the Second Coming of Christ].

 

In Revelation 12, after being defeated in battle by Michael the archangel, the great red dragon (Satan) is expelled from Heaven to Earth. Furious and knowing his days are numbered, he is determined to instigate excessive havoc on Earth’s remaining inhabitants.

 

The last verse of Chapter 12 reads:

Revelation 12:17 - And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

Verse 1 of Chapter 13 is a continuation of this thought, the dragon being the subject.

 

 

6. The Wild Beast of the Sea

(Verse 1)

 

And I [not I, but translated he, the dragon] 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.

 

The Sand of the Sea

When the dragon arrives on earth, since he is a spirit being, Satan needs to embody himself in an earthly organism. So, he immediately negotiates and enables the beast from the sea.

 

The sand of the sea is not the seashore. The term sea in Revelation is generally symbolic of an unnumbered mass of humanity [all inclusive: peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues (cf. Revelation 13:1; 17:15)]. General belief considers countries [primarily Greece] about the Great Sea – The Mediterranean.

 

Irrespectively, Isaiah alludes to the sand of the sea accordingly:

Isaiah 10:22a - For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return.

 

Sea also represents instability, confusion, commotion, and ungovernable nations. There are troubled, tossing, and unrestful political conditions causing the world to be in an upheaval.

Isaiah 57:20-21 - But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire (mud) and dirt (sticky clay or calamity). There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

 

Another possibility for the sea is the beast will rise out of the abyss or Bottomless Pit harmonizing accordingly with many Old Testament passages.

 

And [the dragon] saw a beast rise out of the (definite article) sea

So, as Satan is standing amid earth's remaining humankind, he observes a most powerful beast elevating himself above the rest. Mentioned 36 times in the Bible, the word beast in the Greek vernacular has two independent meanings:

A. Zōon [G2226], indicative of living beings, ones or creatures as found in Revelation Chapters 4 and 6.

B. Thērion [G2342], comparable to dangerous venomous wild animals.

And according to Verse 2, the Thērion is identified as a wild animal like a leopard.

 

The Antichrist

The term Antichrist comes from the Greek word antichristos, meaning an opponent or adversary of Christ. Anti, as a prefix, elicits the idea of opposition, in place of, a substitute or a false Christ. The Antichrist will be a real person having outstanding natural abilities. He will not be the devil but an executive of Satan's power. The Apostle Paul identifies him else wise:

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 - Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition (destruction).

Consequently, the drastic difference between Christ and Antichrist is evil.

 

Beast number one of Chapter 13 is given political, economic, and religious authority and a kingdom for forty-two months. So, Satan sees Antichrist rise out of the sea of humanity and this wild animal will be sanctioned by and under the control of Satan. He will make war with the saints to conquer them. As Chapter 13 continues, the attributes of the Antichrist will surface. However, when this last dictator or ruler of the world rises to the apex of his popularity and supremacy, he is described in this fashion:

 

Having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns

There are three unique things about this beast:

1.  The beast has seven heads

Revelation 17: 9-10 - And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings.

 

Many define the reference of the woman to Rome, which was built upon seven hills. However, the context of Revelation Chapter 17 recognizes the great city to be Babylon on the Euphrates. Either way, it is here from which the woman reigns over the seven kings of the earth.

 

2.  The beast has ten horns

Revelation 17:12a - And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings.

 

3.  The ten horns of the beast are crowned with diadems

Crowns on the beast are associated with historical kingdoms under the rule of a world leader

 

Numbers

1.   Number seven signifies universality and divine completeness

2. Number ten designates completeness in the Bible

3.  Number four suggests the world’s four winds or corners

 

Symbols

1.  Heads are representative of nations

a.  Seven heads equal universal dominion

b.  Seven godless kingdoms

 

2.  Crowns (royal diadems), sovereign authoritative rule

a.  Denotes ten rulers of the last empire

b.  Depicts negative destructive sovereignty

 

3.  Horns exemplify power and strength

a.  Symptomatic of powerful kingdoms

b.  Ten horns comprise the final one-world empire

 

And upon his heads the name of blasphemy

The most blasphemous creature against God will have the word blasphemy written on each of its seven heads, wherewith they collectively curse the existence of God and deny the omnipotence of Jesus Christ.

 

The Book of Daniel

Prophecy dominates the book of Daniel. It is a prerequisite for reading and understanding the book of Revelation. The End Times is presented in a macro-visionary manner in Daniel, whilst Revelation is micro-visionary in detailing end-time events.

 

In the book of Daniel, two prophetic dreams are descriptively recorded. Subsequently, they are duel in nature - Historical and prophetical:

A. The dream of King Nebuchadnezzar envisions a statue of himself portraying four world empires from a human perspective (cf. Daniel 2)

1.  The head of gold – the Babylonian Empire

 

2.  The arms and breasts of silver – Medo-Persian Empire

 

 

3.  The thighs of brass- The Grecian Empire

 

4.  The legs of Iron – The Ancient Roman Empire

a.  Feet and toes, part iron and clay – The fragments of present-day Rome

b.  Toes, part iron, and clay – The revived Roman Empire (still future)

c.  The Smiting Stone – Jesus Christ at His Second Coming in glory

 

B. The dream of Daniel, on the other hand, envisages four beasts as world empires from God’s perspective (cf. Daniel 7)

1.  The Lion - Babylon (verse 4)

2.  The Bear – Medo-Persia (verse 5)

3.  The Leopard - Greece (verse 6)

4.  The non-descript composite beast - Rome (verse 7)

 

Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel opens historically in the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon.

 

C. The listings of the names in Revelation 13, however, are recorded in reverse order. John is picturing the four beasts as he beholds backward:

1.  non-descript beast (verse 1)

2.  The Leopard (verse 2)

3.  The Bear (verse 2)

4.  The Lion (verse 2)

 

As the study in Chapter 13 continues, the beast in Verse 2 will overlay prophetically with Daniel 7.

 

 

QUESTIONS:

1.   Identify the names of both trinities.

2.   Who is the wild beast of the sea?

3.   What does the sand of the sea represent?

4.   Define the word beast.

5.   Define the word Antichrist

6.   What do ten crowns represent?

7.   How is the book of Daniel relevant to Revelation?

 

 

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