The Beast and Its Image

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If you truly desire to understand John's Apocalypse then you must dedicate yourself to listen for the enticings of the spirit. Forget everything everyone has tried to implant into the minds of men, for most of them have done it for money, and in the process of so doing, they have overlooked these simple yet sublime words from their creator's servants, the prophets.

"Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind" 1 Peter 5:2

Having a "ready mind" means one who is greatly concerned for the eternal salvation of those around them, and not doing it for money (lucre). Therefore it is the opinion of this author that those who have attempted to decipher Johns work while promoting a paid ministry, (Feeding the flock for money) cannot, will not, and never have had the spirit to guide them in achieving the simplicity of understanding John. Understanding the Book of Revelation is a very simple thing to do. Please allow me to give you a demonstration.

Although John does not introduce the beast until the 13th chapter of his vision, it is towards the end of his vision when John shares with his readers just what is his interpretation of the beast. Here is his clue.

"The beast that thou sawest was and is not; ... (Rev. 17:8)

Here is how simple the interpretation of John’s beast truly is. The phrase John used in the verse just quoted  "was and is not" is a perfect definition for the word history.  The beast is something that use to be and now no longer is, something that was and now is not.  The beast is a history!

The question that immediately jumps into our minds is: The history of what? And just as simple as before, John provides the answer to that question as well.

"And there are seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come,..." (Rev. 17:10)

The beast is a history of seven kings!!! See how easy it is to understand John? Of course, the next question that comes to mind is who are the seven kings. We will go there in just a minute, but first I want to take you somewhere else. John wrote his vision while on the Isle of Patmos around 97AD. Now apply that fact to the verse we just quoted.

"And there are seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come,..." (Rev. 17:10)

Let us go back in time now to the year of 97AD when John wrote his vision. According to what John had written, by the year 97 AD five kings had come and gone, one was in power, and the last king, king number seven, had not yet come into power. The rest is just a matter of......HISTORY!

Before we attempt to establish who are these seven kings John gives us one more clue in helping us to understand his vision.

"And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." (Rev. 17:9)

Take a look at the map below and notice how many mountains surround Jerusalem.

Count the mountains surrounding the city of Jerusalem.

1) Mt. Zion, (2) Mt. Moriah, (3) Mt. Gerizim, (4) Mt. Ebal, (5) Mt of Olives, (6) Mt. Gilboa, (7) Mt. Tabor

What is the significance of this? John has just given us a topographical location as to where the beast, these seven kings, is going to appear. We now know that John's beast is a history of seven kings which will have something to do with the land of Jerusalem. Let us look at one more point of doctrine before putting names on those seven kings.

It is time to turn our attention to Rev. 13:2.

"And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."

When the council in heaven convened and the plan of salvation and redemption was presented to the hosts of heaven, (that would be you and I) Lucifer opposed Heavenly Father's plan and suggested that he would make us all do right, taking away our agency, not allowing us to have the power to choose right from wrong, He wanted to place us into his own bondage. This is the only power that Satan has today. Slowly taking away our agency by the sins we commit and our setting at defiance the power of the atoning sacrifice by not repenting of our wrongs thus placing us into bondage of our own sins. This is the power that Satan gives to his beast, thus, as we put names to these seven kings we shall be looking for seven kings who shall place the Judaean Jewry into bondage.

Let us now name the seven kings of John's beast.

King #1: Nebuchadnezzer and his Babylonian Empire from 625-539BC

King #2: Cyrus and his Persian Empire from 539-334BC.

King #3: Seleucus Nicator and the Seleucidian Empire from 324-166BC. (Also referred to as the "King of the North" in Dan. 11)

King #4: Ptolemy Soter and the Ptolemian Empire from 324-166BC. (Also referred to as the "King of the South" in Dan. 11)

King #5: Mattahias, who begins the Maccabaean reign of self appointed kings over the Jews of Judea from 166-37BC.

Thus the first five kings have fallen before 97 AD!!

King #6: Herod, the Great, slays Antigonus, the last of the Maccabaean self appointed kings, marries the last Maccabaean princess, and becomes King over Judea at 37AD, now placing the Jews of Judea under Roman rule and the sixth King is now in place.

This is the kingddom that was in power when John wrote the Apocalypse. What history will show us is that the Romans remained in power up until the 4th century AD, meaning that the 7th king cannot come into power until after the fall of Rome.

The image of the beast is relatively simple to grasp. The beast brought about the apostasy. After the apostasy had taken place, mankind, in his quest to worship deity, what was left for him to worship? Perhaps only the images that were left in his mind of what the Gospel of Christ use to be like? Thus the beginning of a multitude of man-made doctrine as they try to remember what they use to have. This onslaught of new man made doctrine suddenly appearing all over the place is what John describes as the image of the beast.

Remember why Christ spoke in parables? There are those who have eyes and will not see. The truth is always hard to accept for those who will not take the time to hear and see what our elder brother has done for us. Through out the entire Apocalypse there is a line of demarcation drawn. There are those who have the seal of the living God "in their foreheads" (Rev. 7:3) and then there are those who have the mark of the beast "in their right hand or in their forehead" (Rev. 13:16) Folks, this has nothing to do with computer chips or bar codes. No, nothing at all!!!!! Did you happen to notice the one word that was common between both descriptions? The word "in". John did not say on their foreheads, but in their foreheads. In other words, are you thinking thoughts that are worthy of exaltation? Or, are you entertaining thoughts that are beastly, and worldly? Are your hands in the service of God? Or, are they doing beastly things and putting you into bondage? What will your thoughts and hands testify about you when you are standing in front of Jesus the Christ? THIS IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST!

In the 12^th chapter of John’s vision he his sharing with his readers an event, which took place in our pre-existence.  You will notice that the symbolic description of Satan in Rev. 12:3 is identical to that of the symbolic description of the Satan’s beast in Rev. 13:1-2 with one exception. Satan, known as Lucifer in our pre-existence had seven crowns and his beast has 10 crowns here on earth. Why the difference? In numerology 7 is used to represent perfection and 10 is used to represent completion.  Lucifer thought that he had the perfect plan, which is being demonstrated to us by the 7 crowns, and that perfect plan was to place us into bondage making us to do his will, which was rejected and he, along with his followers, were cast down to the earth.  Satan then empowers his beast with that plan and the beast was successful in placing the Judaean Jewry into bondage, in so much that it brought about the apostasy, thus the reason why the beast has 10 crowns, to signify he completed his task.

For more insight visit my other hub, Discovering Mt. Sinai