Pale Horse Rising
Return to Book IndexThe First Beast that John describes in Chapter 13 and the scarlet Beast he sees in Chapter 17 have to be studied as one to understand the heads of the beast.
The first beast, the
image of the first beast, and the beast of Chapter 17 are all
speaking of the same Beast
empire in the
Middle Easter.
All
three beasts can be
seen as one beast in different stages of it's existence.
The first beast is the old Islamic Empire under the 7th head of that beast, the head has been slain but it comes back to life as a revived Islamic empire.
The Image of the first beast is the revived Empire, showing how it was created.
The scarlet beast (chap 17) shows us the history of the heads, and is the image of the first beast under the rule of the fallen angel from the pit, making it like an 8th head/empire, that is really one of the 7 heads, with authority of the ten horns. In other words the 7th head on the 1st beast come back to life.
In a new beast is described, but it has a connection to the old ones, found in Daniel, as you will see.
Rev. 13: 1-2 And he (Satan) stood on the seashore and I (John) saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems (crowns) , and on his head were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a LEOPARD, and his feet were like those of a BEAR and his mouth like the mouth of a LION. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.
BEAST =empire
HEADS =past kings of empires
HORNS =kings/nations that are within an Empire
The animals are symbolism from the beasts Daniel saw in his vision, which were:
Babylon the LION,
Media-Persia the BEAR,
The four generals ruling over the Grecian empire, the LEOPARD with Four Heads,
And the BEAST with ten horns.
.
LINKING THIS "END TIME" BEAST/EMPIRE TO ALL THE PAST EMPIRES OF THE MIDDLE EAST, AS SEEN IN DANIEL.
This first Beast of Revelation is actually a combination of all four of the beasts that Daniel saw, all wrapped up in one beast..
THE SEVEN HEADS
The beast has
seven
heads. What are these heads? They
are the same seven heads of the four Beasts that Daniel saw in his
vision.
The head of a Lion, one a Bear, four are heads of the Leopard,
and the last head has ten horns on it.
That is why the beast has a body made up of the Lion, Bear and Leopard. Heads and bodies usually stick together.
Portrait of the Beast
God reveals to John the meaning of the seven heads, but we must go to Chapter 17 to find out:
Rev 17 9-10 Here is wisdom; The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. 10; and they (the seven heads) are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other is about to come; and when he comes he must remain a little while.
.
Symbolically,
mountains/heads represent kings and their kingdoms or Empires.
Greek word here, "horos", is
almost always translated "mountain"
rather than "hill." Mountains
are
often symbols of kingdoms in Scripture (cf.
Ps. 68:15, Dan. 2:35, Obad. 8-21, Amos 4:1, 6:1).
The OT is always our
guide to understanding
the meaning of the symbolism used in the Book of Revelation.
Some believe these to be the seven hills of Rome, but, as we have seen, the heads are that of a lion, a bear, 4 leopard heads of the Grecian Empire, and the last one, that of the antichrist's kingdom, with the ten horns, which is slain by war, yet comes back to life in the end days coming back into power when the bottomless pit is unlocked.
Rome is not any of these.
One way to understand what the heads represent is to look back through what the Lord has given us in prophecy. Revelation is the last set of clues, for lack of a better word, that the Lord has given us.
Beginning with Rev 17, we have heads that are hills, or mountains, and also kings. Chapter 13 showed us the clues so we would go back to Daniel 7 and Daniel 2, to understand what kingdoms these were. So if the beast of Revelation 13 has the heads of these beasts, then each head would represent one of the kingdoms. Looking at the leopard with four heads, we can go back to the Ram and Goat vision in Daniel 8 and see that this was Greece and was turned over to four generals, becoming four separate kingdoms. We can also read about two of these Grecian kingdoms in the king of the north vision of Dan 11. The Leopard's 4 heads represent these same four of the heads on the beast of Chapter 17 as four Grecian Empires.
Five
have Fallen by the Time of John
If
we begin with any other empire before Babylon then we are not
adhering to Daniel's vision for these 7 heads.
FIRST
head/Empire
the lion head
Babylon
under Nebuchadnezzar II, known as The Destroyer of Jerusalem. It fell
in 457 BC to Media-Persia.
(This
is also the head in Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue).
SECOND
head/Empire
rhe bear
head
Media-Persia.
Along with Babylon, they also acquired Palestine. Cyrus issued the
decree for Israel to return to their land.
(This
is also the chest and arms of the statue, and also the Ram of the
vision of the Ram and Goat)
THIRD,
FOURTH, & FIFTH
heads/Empires
three
of the leopard
heads
The Grecian
Empire split into
four Grecian empires.
(The
first three heads (Egypt, Seleucid, Macedonia) were conquered and
occupied by the Roman empire before John was given the visions of
Revelation, but the Lord says one head of the Grecian kingdom
remained alive. )
SIXTH
head/Empire/last
of the leopard heads
"One
is" This
was Parthia. Arsaced
Dynasty which included Mithridates I of Parthia. The
last of the Grecian Empire satrap to survie beyond the first century
AD.
Parthia conquered Babylon. Rome never conquered Parthia. See Parthian
History)
(These
four are the belly and thighs of the statue dream, and also the goat
with 4 horns, and the Leopard with 4 heads in Daniel's visions.)
Notice how all of Daniel's visions are always talking about the same empires over and over again, but that God keeps adding more information in each of the visions to further identify where the last beast will be located!
SEVENTH
"one
is about to come"
This head is for a time when
the Jews are back in
the land of Israel. This is an important thing to understand
because most of the prophecies are centered around Israel and her
nieghbors. The Jews must be back in the land of Israel for
this
Head/empire to have an impact on them. This is the head with
the ten horns or kings of ten Islamic nations in the middle
east.
This head was killed as by the sword which took place at the end of
WWI. After that the nations of the Middle east were divided and kings
appointed for these countries.
(This
is the fourth beast of Daniel and also the First beast of
Revelation, that the eighth head/empire will rise out of.)
An
EIGHTH, a
symbolic 8th
head
that
is really one of the 7 heads come back to life
It
comes
into
power when the fallen angel from the abyss is let out and in control
over it from the angelic releam. He units the ten
horns/nations
of the Middle East. Please
remember that it is a
head that
died, which is the whole Empire, not just a leader. Therefore, it
isn't that the head of Iraq will be killed and brought back to life,
but it was the whole last seventh head with the ten horns
which
was the Islamic empire that died and will come back to life as
another Islamic Empire.
(Mohammed (570-632 AD), began the religion of Islam. He is definitely anti-Christ. He taught that Jesus was a prophet and not the Son of God. They list Jesus as a Muslim because he carried out the will of God. Mohammed is said to be the greatest prophet, because he brought the Koran to men. Mohammed claimed the archangel, Gabriel, dictated the Koran to him. Through the Koran, Mohammed was able to control the Arabs. When the Arabs first began their attacks on other lands, the soldiers were to give the enemy that survived, four alternatives: conversion, tribute, imprisonment, or death. Those who still had money could pay a poll tax, but the poor converted and the armies grew quickly. At first Jews and Christians were exempt from death, but once Mohammed declared a Holy War, no one was safe. This religion rose to power through force. Not as a peaceful religion. The goal of this religion is to take over and rule the whole world so that all will worship Allah.
They
worshiped the dragon (satan) through the beast (Islam).
Rev 13: 4-8 ......"Who is like the beast and who can wage war with the beast?"
Rev 13:5 'And there was given him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies; (Koran) and authority to act for 42 months was given to him And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Part of the problem when trying to understand prophecy is the English words the translators chose to describe something, such as the word "Earth" The word in 13:8 for earth is "ge"
Lexicon
for Strong's Number
1093
ge {ghay}
can
also mean = a country, land enclosed within fixed boundaries, a tract
of land, territory, region
The word "all" in this case is like when it is said that ALL Jerusalem came to the river to be baptized by John. We know ALL didn't, but SOME OF EVERY SORT DID. Some of every tribe of the Jews.
The beast was given power
over every sort of
peoples from all nations, that the beast attacked and conquered.
Rev
13:10 He
that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth
with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and
the faith of the saints.
THE
TEN HORNS
Can these ten kings/kingdoms be
the ten horns of the beast of the Middle East?
Rev. 17:12 ”and the ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 13: These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast. 14: "These will wage war against the lamb, (Jesus) and the Lamb will overcome them. Vrs. 16: and the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the Harlot (on the water, Israel and her city Jerusalem) and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. 17: For God has put in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled.”
The binding of these
nations together comes out of hatred for the Holy Covenant.
When
we look only at the verses in Revelation we don't get the full
picture. The other place they are told about is in Daniel.
(Dan.
7:24; as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise;
and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the
previous ones and will subdue three kings.)
The
fourth beast in Daniel has ten horns. They are also the ten toes on
the statue in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. They are the weak part of
the statue: the clay, and when they are crushed, the whole statue
falls.
.
Ten Islamic Nations in the Middle East
The
Ottoman Empire had ten provinces, in what is called the Middle East.
The land was divided up on the map that the British used to draw the
new borders for a new Middle East. "In 1922, Churchill succeeded
in mapping out the Arab Middle East along lines suitable to the needs
of the British civilian and military administrations. T. E. Lawrence
would later brag that he, Churchill and a few others had designed the
modern Middle East over dinner.- David Fromkin in "The
Smithsoneon" (Fall 1990)
This is a copy of the map drawn
by a British civil servant in 1922.
(I added the numbers to show
the 10 provinces.)
Quote: "In the
peace
settlement that followed the First World War, the Allies divided the
Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and Britain was allocated
mandatory power over the territory of Iraq under the authority of the
League of Nations.
Modern Iraq had never existed in its current form and the mandate of
Iraq was cobbled together from the Ottoman provinces of Basrah,
Baghdad and Mosul.
In 1921 Britain imported a king, Faisal, to be the king over this new
kingdom."
Ten Horns
1. Turkey
2. Syria
3.
Lebanon
4. Egypt
5. Jordan
6. Arabia
7. Persia (Iran)
8.
Mosul*
9. Basrah*
10. Baghdad*
The
last 3 countries were not given kingdoms. They were uprooted and a
whole new country was created. The new country was called
Iraq-meaning "the well-rooted country"-in order to give it
a name that was Arabic.
These
would be the 10 kingdoms that will give their authority over to the
little horn, also known as the 8th head that was really one of the
seven heads, for the last hour. They do it for only one reason. They
all hate the harlot. For this reason they will all come together as
one army (Gog war) against Israel and the harlot city of Jerusalem.
And the Lord will return and His foot touch down on the Mt of Olives
(Zec 14) And The Lord will send out evil spirits like frogs to gather
all these peoples that have gone against Jerusalem to the place
called Armageddon.
This section, on the identity of the beast, was first written in the spring of 1991. It has been updated through the years according to my understanding.
Continue to chapter 11