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Previous Conclusions
Book of Daniel
In Daniel 7, 11 horns grow out of the fourth animal. A previous article identified the 4th animal as the Roman Empire. [Show More]
The 11h are the kingdoms that were formed through the fragmentation of the Roman Empire. The first 10 horns are the nations of Europe into which the Western Roman Empire divided in the fifth century. [Show More]
After the first 10, an 11th horn comes up from the fourth animal (the Roman Empire). It is different from the others. It becomes larger than the other horns and opposes God. It blasphemes the Most High and persecutes His people (Dan 7:8, 24-25). These things are not said of the other 10 horns. It is one of the kingdoms into which the Roman Empire fragmented in the fifth to eighth centuries. A previous article identified the 11th horn as the Roman Church, meaning the Church of the Roman Empire that later became the Church of the Middle Ages.
In 380, the Roman Empire made Nicene theology the State Religion of the Roman Empire, meaning that it was the only legal religion but also that it was subject to the authority of the emperors.
In the next (fifth) century, Arian tribes wrestled control of the Western Empire from the Romans and fragmented it into several Arian kingdoms, symbolized by the first ten horns of the fourth animal (the Roman Empire). The Roman Church survived as a distinct organization with its principles and a hierarchy of bishops but was now subject to Arian rule.
In the next (sixth) century, the Eastern Empire subjected three Arian nations and liberated the Roman Church, enabling it to rule itself, symbolized as the 11th horn coming up.
However, only in the High Middle Ages, from the 11th century onward, was the Roman Church able to dominate Europe and persecute God’s people.
Book of Revelation
The Dragon is one of three seven-headed beasts in Revelation. Both Revelation’s Dragon and Daniel’s 4th animal symbolize the Roman Empire. [Show More]
The Beast of Revelation, whose Mark in the time of the end will be put on the foreheads of people (Rev 13:15-16), receives its authority from the Dragon (Rev 13:2). Therefore, it received its authority from the Roman Empire. The Beast is the same as the 11th horn that grows out of that fourth animal in Daniel 7 (Read article), which has been identified as the Church of the Roman Empire.
For clarity, this article reserves the term “Beast” for the Beast in Revelation 13:1 and refers to the creatures of Daniel 7 as animals.
Revelation 13 says that the Beast will have a fatal wound, but the wound will be healed. It also says that the Beast will have authority for 42 months (Rev 13:5). The question is whether the 42 months describe the period before or after the fatal wound, or both periods:
The Dragon gave the Beast his authority (Rev 13:2, 4). Since the Dragon is the Roman Empire, the Beast had its authority while the Roman Empire still reigned. Presumably, the 42 months began when the Roman Church received the power to reign, which was when Emperor Justinian liberated it in the mid-sixth century.
Revelation 17 explains the same fatal wound and explains it as .
The fatal wound and resurrection of the Sea Beast suggest that this world power would have a period of great authority for “42 months,” followed by a period of death before its ‘resurrection’. This may be applied as follows to the ‘Roman Church’:
1. The 42 months represent the many centuries during the Middle Ages when it massacred people who did not accept its blaspheming doctrines and practices.
2. Its authority received a fatal wound through religious liberty and the separation of church and state in the time of the French Revolution.
3. In the end-time, the wound will be healed (Rev 13:3) when an image of the beast (a copy of the system during the Middle Ages) is set up, which will again kill its opponents.
A further indication – that the beast is the ‘church’ – is that the Sea Beast is not just a political power; it is also a religious power, for it “blaspheme His name and His tabernacle“and “make war with the saints.”
More specifically, the Sea Beast is a Christian organization, for it is a deliberate counterfeit of Jesus Christ. Like Jesus Christ, it:
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- Receives its authority,
- Looks like one from which it receives its authority, and
- Has a ministry that lasts three and a half years, followed by a death and a resurrection.
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Other indications that the Sea Beast is a Christian organization are:
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- It specifically persecutes God’s people. Only a Christian organization is able to do that.
- It uses a lamb-like beast as its agent. Revelation refers 28 times to Jesus as a lamb.
- The Bible predicts in various places that the church would become corrupted.
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The End-time Antichrist
The Sea Beast is not ‘personally’ involved in the end-time. Just like it received its authority from the Dragon (Rev 13:2), which symbolizes the Roman Empire, the Sea Beast gives its authority to its end-time assistant; the Beast from the Earth (Rev 13:12). The Earth Beast then convinces the people of the world to make an Image of the Sea Beast (Rev 13:14), which is an end-time organization in the likeness of the Sea Beast. In other words, it is an end-time organization that functions on the principles of the church in the Middle Ages. It is this ‘Image’ that persecutes and kills God’s end-time people (Rev 13:15).
The religious oppression and intolerance of the Protestant Orthodoxy (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) were disturbingly similar to the Church in the High Middle Ages. The Holocaust and similar more recent religious cruelties make it clear that today’s version of institutional Christianity is not significantly improved over that of the Middle Ages. The end-time Antichrist is not any of the specific organizations that exist today, but an application of the principles of the church of the Middle Ages. Whenever we see persecution and killing of people for their religious convictions, whatever form that persecution takes, then we must know that the principles of the Roman Empire are at work, for God never uses force.
– END OF SUMMARY –
Evidence from Revelation
The previous section identified the Sea Beast by identifying Daniel’s evil horn. The current section identifies it based on what Revelation 13 itself says about it.
| The time, times, and a half describes a period of 1260 years, from the time the Roman Church was liberated. |
The death and resurrection of the Beast suggest that the world power, of which the Beast is a symbol, would have a period of great authority for “42 months,” followed by a period of death (the fatal wound – Rev 13:5) before its ‘resurrection’ (“his fatal wound was healed” – 13:5).
In the previous chapter, the 42 months are described as a time, times, and half a time or 1260 days (Rev 12:6, 14), during which God’s people will have to hide. These are the same period (time, times, and half a time = 3.5 years = 42 months = 42×30 = 1260 days). This same period is mentioned as a time, times, and half a time during which God’s people will be given into the hand of Daniel’s 11th Horn (Dan 7:25)
The nature of Revelation, with things such as beasts with seven heads and ten horns, that are worshiped by the people of the world, implies that time indications are also symbolic. For example, the ten horns are ten kings that will reign “for one hour” (Rev 17:12). This must be a symbol of a much longer period than one literal hour, but still a relatively short period, perhaps only some months. Compared to one hour, 42 literal months (3½ years) is a very, very long time.
Daniel 7 states that the 11th horn comes up when it uproots three of the other horns (Dan 7:8). That refers to Emperor Justinian’s wars in which he subjected the three Arian nations that dominated the Roman Church. Those wars began in 533 and ended in 552.
The authority of the Roman Church received a fatal wound by the introduction of religious liberty in the time of Napoleon and the French Revolution in the 1790s. The period from the 530s to the 1790s is 1260 literal years. It is, therefore, proposed that that was the period of authority of the Roman Church.
It follows that we today are living in the period of the Fatal Wound. The Church is no longer able to compel God’s people to comply with its demands, as it was during the Middle Ages. It further follows that the healing of the wound lies in our future. In the end-time, when the Image of the Beast is created (a copy of the system during the Middle Ages), the Beast-power will again be able to “cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Rev 13:15).
| Revelation implies that the Beast is a Christian organization. |
Firstly, the Beast blasphemes God and persecutes His people (Rev 13:6-7). A non-Christian organization is unable to identify God’s true people. Only a Christian organization is able to persecute God’s true people, for God’s people are identified by their protest against unbiblical doctrines and practices in the church.
Secondly, more specifically, the Beast is a counterfeit of Jesus Christ:
While Jesus is an image of His Father, the Sea Beast is an image of the Dragon. [Show More]
While Jesus received His authority from the Father, the Sea Beast received its authority from the Dragon. [Show More]
While Jesus’s ministry lasted for three and a half years, the Beast ruled for 42 months (Rev 13:5), which is also equal to three and a half years.
Like Jesus, the Beast’s ministry is followed by a death and a resurrection. [Show More]
Thirdly, one of the Beast’s associates is a lamb-like beast (Rev 13:11-12). Revelation refers 28 times to Jesus as a lamb. This is the only instance in Revelation where “lamb” does not refer to Jesus. The lamb-like beast, therefore, looks like Jesus but “spoke as a dragon” (Rev 13:11).
The beast is something dragon-like that has a Christian face! It claims to serve Jesus, yet its actions serve the Dragon!
| The New Testament elsewhere often predicts that the Church would apostatize. |
For example:
“The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1; cf. Acts 20:28-31; 2 Tim 3:1-5; 1 John 2:18-19).
| The end-time Beast will not be the same organization as the Beast during the Middle Ages. |
- The final end-time phase of the Beast, after the Fatal Found had been healed, will be very different from the Roman Church and the Church of the Middle Ages. We should not expect the same organizations to be involved. In the end-time war, the sea beast will be resurrected, and an Image of the beast will be set up (Rev 13:14). Since it is the Image that persecutes God’s people in the end-time, and not the Beast itself, the Beast is probably resurrected by the creation of the Image, which will be a different organization.
The Church of the Middle Ages brutally persecuted and executed believers who dared to stand up to its doctrines and practices, but the religious oppression and intolerance of the Protestant Orthodoxy (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) were disturbingly similar. For example, the role Calvin played in the murder of Michael Servetus. Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Holocaust show that Protestant Christianity has not significantly improved over that of the Middle Ages.
I propose that we define the beast as the mainstream church of Christendom. That definition would allow it to be represented by different organizations at different times.
| Religious persecution is a sign of the Antichrist. |
Whenever we see persecution and killing of people for their religious convictions, we see the spirit of Satan at work, for God never uses force. If God used force, He would not have allowed evil to develop. But He created us as free beings with the wonderful ability to make our own choices. He protects our freedom, for if He would override our freedom to choose against Him, He would be destroying the miracle which He has created.
Final Conclusions
Revelation’s Beast is the mainstream church of Christendom. This identification is based on the following:
The Beast is the same as the Evil Horn in the Book of Daniel, which is the Church of the Roman Empire, which grew to become the Church of the Middle Ages.
The description of the Beast in Revelation 13 identifies it as a Christian organization.
The beast symbolizes the Antichrist in both the Middle Ages (before the Fatal Wound) and in the end-time (after the Wound had been healed), but different organizations may be involved. In the end-time, the beast could take the form of the Protestant Orthodoxy.
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