9-25-17 How the Beast Becomes a Person

 

 

How the Beast Becomes a Person - By Gene Lawley - http://www.raptureready.com/2017/09/21/how-the-beast-becomes-a-person/

Both Daniel and John describe a terrible beast having up to several heads and ruling over the known world for periods of time. Daniel, looking forward, tells of one having four heads when he interprets the dream of Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar. John, in Revelation 13, looks backward and sees a beast having six heads plus one that is merely a shadow of some future reality. (Actually, John pictures an eighth head, which is rarely, if ever, mentioned, but it is the object of this article.)

From the earliest, they are Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, then that future one that is, apparently, a rebirth of the Roman Empire. Daniel begins his account with the one in which he lived, Babylon. The statue pictured in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar describes these four succeeding kingdoms in terms of the decreasing values of types of metals.  

Babylon, the head, was god; its chest and arms were silver (Medo-Persia); its belly and thighs, bronze (Greece); its legs, of iron (Rome); and finally, a fifth one, its feet of iron mixed with clay and having ten toes. This final one, apparently, is that seventh head, which John said, "that is, yet is not, but will be" (Revelation 17:8).  The ten toes of Daniel's statue match with the ten horns having ten crowns which John saw on his beast vision.  And it corresponds to the secular world's New World Order plans. [1]

In Revelation 13:2 John says, "The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority." That refers to the previous chapter 12 in which the dragon is identified: "Behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads" (verse 3).  (In other places "diadems" means "crowns.")

This one is the motivation and strength behind each of those seven kingdoms. He is the prince of this world and was able to offer to Jesus at the temptation those kingdoms if He would fall down and worship him (Matthew 4:8-10). According to Romans 8:19-23, when mankind fell into disobedience, the whole world did also and came under the control of Satan.

        

In Revelation 12 he is cast into the earth from the heavens, and as a disembodied spirit, who do you think he would indwell in the earth? It is the one who is most receptive to him, of course, no one but the Antichrist. This is when things really begin to get rough on planet earth. That chapter describes Satan as one very angry person for he knows his time is short.

In Daniel 9:27, we are told that half-way through the seven years of that covenant, he will shut down the Jewish sacrifices and offerings in that new temple, move into it and becomes an abomination to it. In 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Paul tells us that he "opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." That is exactly what he claims to do in the account in Isaiah 14, only he meets an obstacle he cannot overcome-God Almighty!

In that context is where we are told that the Day of the Lord begins, when Jesus comes for His beloved saints in the resurrection called the Rapture, and the judgment of God upon the earth's inhabitants in the hands of an angry and vengeful enemy of God. Looking, then, to Revelation 13, and the chapters following, we see that spelled out in the introduction of the mark of the beast that all must take if they want to survive. Otherwise, they will be killed, by that imposter's order.

In Revelation 13:3, John makes this observation: "And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed." Most often commentators maintain that the Antichrist, now indwelt by Satan, is mortally wounded and dies, then is resurrected to copy the death and resurrection of Christ, thus obtaining the devotion and following of the people of the earth, and the Jews. Problem is, none of those people have shown any interest in Christ before this, so why now? After the Rapture great deception comes upon those left behind, says 2 Thessalonians 2:10.

It sounds plausible, but I contend that it is not the correct interpretation. Here's why. John sees seven heads on the beast; the heads are identified by Daniel's prophecy as political kingdoms over the history of the world. John looks back from his position in the sixth head, Rome, and sees those heads, including the one where he stands. The prior five kingdoms are already past history; the seventh head is not yet formed, as described in Revelation 17, so "one of his heads" appears to have suffered a mortal wound. The only head that then exists is the sixth head-Rome.

The legs of Daniel's statue are that sixth head, as John looks back to the beginning of the kingdoms, and the final section of the statue is the feet with their ten toes, yet seemingly an extension of the legs. History is clear that the demise of Rome's eastern and western divisions did occur.

In Daniel 9:26-27, we read, "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary...Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week...."  That link of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. is tied to today's current events, in that the confirmation of a covenant that allows the Jews to rebuild their temple is, at this point, a future event. And the legs of Daniel's statue are separated from its feet and toes by many centuries before the resurrection of the Roman Empire is again in place. It is the sixth head of the beast, Rome, which is mortally wounded, then resurrected again with its feet and ten toes in current history coming to pass.

The driving motivation of the leftist ideology  is to have a New World Order and a one-world government, which is that seventh head that is to come. That resurrected mortally wounded head is said to have the adoration and worship of the world fully captivated, according to Revelation 13:4. The Satan-indwelt Antichrist and his religious partner, that second beast, will see to that. It has been the longing heart-cry of the Marxist-Communist-Socialist-Liberal-Progressives to have a state-controlled population of which the "elite" can enjoy being "more equal" than those other "equals," who worship the State which gives them everything. (That is, until "they run out of other people's money," as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher so beautifully stated.)

After the Rapture of the saints, the Antichrist rides out on his symbolic white horse, appearing to bring peace, but "conquering and to conquer," as Revelation 6 reports. It is in Revelation 17 that we see how he stays behind the front of the New World Order, the formative entity for the seventh head, until he can no longer work through it, and he fully assumes control of the world as the eighth head of the beast.

Now it is a person, not a kingdom, and he is headed for perdition.  The context of Revelation 17 includes reference to "the woman who rides the beast, pointing to the religion of the false prophet or second beast told of in Revelation 13:11-17. Our concern is to follow the trail of the beast, so that matter of partnership is left to the details of John's vision. We look now to Revelation 17:10-13:

"There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

"The ten horns which you saw are ten kings (toes or regions) who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast."

The demise of this ten-region New World Order is told in Revelation 17:14:

"These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful."

That tis a preview of the final confrontation at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ following the war of Armageddon, when He conquers the beast and false prophet and they are "cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:20).

Conclusion: There will be a New World Order and a one-world government, but they will be formed in God's timetable and not according to the wiles of "flesh and blood." He will be glorified in His justice, righteousness and holiness before the whole universe. It is quite remarkable that the last quotation in the Bible is this:  "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

End Notes

[1] (Ten Toes, ten regions) http://nuclearsuntan.blogspot.com/

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