Contending With Two Ferocious Beasts

 Vision 8- REVELATION 13:1-1-18

Subject: The seven-headed wild beast, the two-horned will beast, and the image of the wild beast

Time of fulfillment:  From Nimrod's  day to the great tribulation

THE great dragon has  been cast down to the earth!  Our study of Revelation makes it clear that never again will Serpent and his demon followers  be allowed back in heaven.  But we are not yet finished with "the one called Devil and Satan, who 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 that serpentine dragon:  "And it stood upon the sand of the sea." (Revelaton 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 modern times.  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 hors and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, but upon its heads blasphemous naes. Now the wild beast  that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were 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 with great authority." - REVELATION 13:1b, 2.

What is this freakish beast?  The Bible itself gives the answer.  Before the fall of Babylon in 539 C.E., the Jewish prophet Daniel saw visions involving ferocious beasts.  At Daniel 7:2-8 he describs four beasts coming out of the sea, the first resembling a lion, the secons a bear, the third a leopard, and "see there!  A fourth beast, fearsome and terrible and unusally 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, a leopard, and it has ten horns. What is the idenity  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.

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