The beast is one of the most prominent symbols in Revelation, and there have been numerous theories as to its identity and the mark of the beast that is to be taken by those who worship the beast.
There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or anyone who receives the mark of its name. (Rev 14:11, CSB)
So who or what is the beast?
There are actually two beasts in Revelation, three if you count the dragon. Revelation 13:1-10 describes a first beast that comes up out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads. It is like a leopard, has the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion. It suffers what appears to be a fatal wound to one of its heads, but is healed. The whole earth is “amazed” at the beast and follows it. It is given a mouth to utter boasts and blasphemies against God. It wages war against the saints, followers of God, whose names are written in the Book of Life. Everyone else will worship the beast, but the dragon (identified as Satan in Rev. 12:9) who gives the beast power and authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. Those who do not worship the beast are taken captive and killed.
The second beast is described as coming up out of the earth (Rev 13:11-18). It has two horns like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon. It performs signs, causes fire to come down from heaven in front of people. Later, in Revelation 19:20, this beast is called the false prophet. It deceives people and has them make an image of the first beast. The image is given breath so that it can speak and cause those who do not worship the first beast to be killed. The second beast, or possibly the image, makes everyone receive a mark on their hand or forehead. No one can buy or sell without the mark.
There are many ideas that have been suggested as to the identity of these beasts. To name a few:
- The Antichrist
- The Roman Empire or Emperor Nero
- A future revived Roman Empire
- Muhammad or Islam
- The Catholic Church or the Papacy
- The United States
- Any kingdom in opposition to God
What interpretation you choose generally depends on how you view Revelation. Preterists interpret Revelation along with other Biblical prophecies as referring to past events. This view of prophecy generally identifies the beasts as referring to the Roman Empire and the seven heads its emperors, with Emperor Nero as the antichrist. A futurist view, however, sees the prophetic events as occurring in the future. This view generally interprets the beasts as referring to a future government or world order. Idealists interpret the prophecies more allegorically, with the beasts referring more generally to all kingdoms past and future, or any system of the world that is opposed to God.
To properly interpret the symbolism of the beasts, we need to understand the “prophetic language” of vision prophecies recorded in the Old Testament. The book of Revelation contains an estimated 400 to 1000 references to the Old Testament, and many of these are to the book of Daniel. Daniel records multiple visions of wild beasts. Daniel 7 describes four beasts. Combined, these fit characteristics of the beast in Revelation: a lion, a bear and a leopard and a fourth terrible beast with ten horns. In Daniel’s visions, we are told that a beast or animal represents a kingdom (Dan 7:17-23, 8:20-22) and horns represent rulers (Dan 7:24). We are not explicitly told what heads represent. We will need to infer that from context, but since the horns represent rulers, the heads must represent something else, like regions or dynasties. We can already rule out the notion that the heads represent emperors of Rome. And in this light we can also rule out the notion that at least the first beast is a religion, such as Islam, or a religious organization such as the Catholic Church. Based on Daniel 7, the fourth beast is a “kingdom on the earth, different form all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.” This fits Revelation 13:7 which says “it was also given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.” The beast is a kingdom or government that is given authority over the entire world. It has authority over the nations. So, the beast is not a nation, like the United States.
Nor is the beast every nation or kingdom that opposes God. Daniel makes it clear there are a series of future kingdoms with a final kingdom that will trample the entire world. It may be legitimate to see a deeper allegorical truth embodied by the beast, but there is clearly a specific kingdom that is being referred to here. Since we haven’t seen such a kingdom that rules the entire world, we should expect a future fulfillment that will match the prophecies of Revelation and Daniel.
There are many curious clues as to the identity of the beast of the sea and its heads from Daniel and Revelation. Revelation 17 gives us more of these in a description of a prostitute who rides the beast, and has on her forehead written the name Babylon the Great (Rev 17:5). The beast “was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction.” (Rev 17:8). The seven heads represent seven mountains on which the woman is seated, and also seven “kings” or “kingdoms” of which five have fallen. Of these kings, “five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for only a little while.” (Rev 17:10). The beast is itself an eighth king or kingdom (Rev 17:11).
From this we can see that there is a temporal nature to the heads of the beast, as they come after one another. We can see them as different faces of a common type of ruling power, and in that way I believe the passage supports the spiritual truth of the idealist – that there is a common thread that ties multiple governments or empires together. This thread is the authority granted to them by Satan. The beast reflects the character of its true authority, that of the dragon, and each of its heads are a representation or a face of a common system that is opposed to God. But I think Daniel and Revelation makes it clear that there will be a future embodiment in the form of a world government that controls all the nations of the world. And this is the beast itself, a final representation of this world order.
In my next post, I will lay out these clues to examine possible specific explanations for the four beasts of Daniel 7, the beasts of the sea and the land in Revelation, and the 7 heads of the beast of the sea.
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