Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts

The great dragon has been cast down to the earth! Our study of Revelation makes it clear that never again will the original Serpent or his demon followers be allowed back into heaven. But we are not yet finished with "the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth." The account next identifies in greater detail the means used by Satan to fight against the woman and her seed.' (Revelation 12:9, 17) John says of that serpentine dragon: "And it stood still upon the sand of the sea." (Revelation 13:1a) So let us pause to examine the dragon's means of operation.

No longer are the holy heavens afflicted by the presence of Satan and his demons. Those wicked spirits have been ousted from heaven and confined to the vicinity of the earth. This no doubt accounts for the tremendous growth of spiritistic practices in this 20th century. The wily serpent still maintains a corrupt spirit organization. But does he also use a visible organization in order to mislead mankind? John tells us: " And I saw a wild beast ascending out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, but upon its heads blasphemous names. Now the wild beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were as those of a bear, and its mouth was as a lion's mouth. And the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority." -Revelation 13:1b, 2.

What is this freakish beast? The Bible itself gives the answer. Before the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.E., the Jewish prophet Daniel saw visions involving ferocious beasts. At Daniel 7:2-8 he describes four beasts coming out of the sea, the first resembled a lion, the second a bear, the third a leopard, and "see there! a fourth beast, fearsome and terrible and unusually strong. . . and it had ten horns." This is remarkably similar to the wild beast seen by John about the year 96 C.E. That beast also has the characteristics of a lion, a bear and a leopard, and it has ten horns. What is the identity of the huge beasts seen by Daniel? He informs us "These huge beasts. . . are four kings that will stand up from the earth." (Daniel 7:17) Yes, those beasts represent "kings," or political powers of the earth.

In another vision, Daniel sees a two -horned ram that is struck down by a goat with a great horn. The angel Gabriel explains to him what it means: "The ram. . . stands for the kings of Media and Persia. And the hairy he-goat stands for the king of Greece." Gabriel goes on to prophesy that the great horn of the he-goat would be broken and be succeeded by four horns. This actually happened more than 200 years later when Alexander the Great died and his kingdom was split into four kingdoms ruled over by four of his generals. -Daniel 8:3-8, 20-25.

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