Revelation 13:1, commentary and pictures

The beast John sees rising from the sea with seven heads and ten horns, ten crowns and blasphemy on its heads, is an earthly persecuting power from the Old World, for the sea stands for peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues, and this power inherits what Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome held before it and receives the seat and authority pagan Rome once held. It is the papacy, a union of church and state in which the church controls civil power to rule consciences, whose blasphemy is exalting itself above God and claiming divine authority while making war on His commandment-keeping saints like the little horn of Daniel 7. Its dominant rule as a persecuting power lasted 1,260 years from 538 to 1798, when the pope was taken captive by the French army and it received its deadly wound and was forced to desist from persecution. What matters most is the final conflict over worship, a choice between keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of creation and sign of God's authority and keeping a man-made false sabbath of the sun, with worship of the beast linked to receiving its mark in the forehead as the mind or in the hand as action and power. That false worship will be enforced by decree through the two-horned beast and its image, especially by Sunday laws backed by imprisonment and death, while those who refuse the mark remain as a remnant keeping all God's commandments including His day of rest.

Symbols and Identity

The beast rising from the sea is a leopard-like symbol of an earthly, persecuting government especially engaged in trampling on God's law and persecuting His people. Together with the great red dragon and the beast with lamblike horns, it carries on war against the church, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, through the close of time. That war leaves God's people greatly in the minority, in the last days only as a remnant who keep the commandments of God.

The sea out of which it rises means peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, the great changing tides of nations in their rise and fall. Rising from the sea therefore marks this as an Old World nation upheld by many nations, distinct from the later beast that rises from the earth. John is shown standing on the sand of the sea and seeing the beast rise with seven heads and ten horns, ten crowns upon its horns, and the name of blasphemy upon its heads. Its seven heads represent its existence under different forms through the ages.

The same beast is given power to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power over all kindreds and tongues and nations. All that dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world worship him, and the call is for everyone with ears to hear, for it is for the interest of all to hear. The leopard-like beast carries the characteristics of the four beasts of Daniel 7 and inherits in succession the power once held by Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

The beast is the papacy, which succeeded to the power and seat and great authority once held by pagan Rome, an identification held as the general Protestant view. The dragon that gave it that authority represents Satan and, secondarily, pagan Rome, so Satan worked through the papacy as he had formerly worked through pagan Rome. The change of symbol from dragon to beast marks a change in the form of opposition, from open defiance of God by pagan Rome to opposition under profession of allegiance to Him, despite the pope's claim to represent Christ. It arose when paganism in the Roman Empire gave way to a professing form of Christianity.

Its blasphemous speech and war against the saints identify it with the little horn described in Daniel 7. Its blasphemy consists in exalting itself above God, claiming divine authority, and oppressing His commandment-keeping people. The beast symbolizes a union of church and state that becomes destructive to both, persecuting those who oppose it. The church gained control of civil power after the early church apostatized from the gospel, adopted heathen rites and customs, and sought state support to control consciences, and then used secular authority to advance its aims and purposes and to punish those judged heretics.

The Dark Ages showed the harmful effects of that union on both church and state. The vision was shown to John on Patmos by Christ through angels while veiling His own glory, for the instruction of God's people. The message is to reach God's people and to be received free from human wisdom and tradition, with Daniel and Revelation studied together and one scripture explaining another. Its truth is impressed by illustrations and lifelike figures representing the beast, presented so clearly from the Bible that to differ is to oppose the Word of God.

Historic Persecuting Rule

The beast arose as the papacy when paganism in the Roman Empire gave way to a professing form of Christianity. The early church had apostatized from the gospel, adopted heathen rites and customs, and sought the support of the state in order to control consciences. The change of symbol from dragon to beast marks a change in the form of opposition, from open defiance of God by pagan Rome to opposition carried on under a profession of allegiance to Him. Satan worked through the papacy as he had formerly worked through pagan Rome, despite the pope's claim to represent Christ.

Under its dominant head described in Revelation 13:1-10 this power was a persecuting power that destroyed God's faithful witnesses for many centuries. Under the dominion of Rome they were tortured and slain for more than a thousand years. It was an earthly government especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people, carrying its war against them forward to the close of time. The Dark Ages showed the harmful effects of its union of church and state upon both church and state. That long warfare left God's people greatly in the minority, with only a remnant in the last days.

Its period of persecuting authority lasted 1,260 years and then went into captivity. That period ran from 538 to 1798, when the pope was taken captive by the French army. This fulfilled the prophecy of the beast's deadly wound and captivity, when the papacy was at last deprived of its strength and forced to desist from persecution. The pattern of this beast defines what it means to form an image to it: religious power controls civil government so that the state is used to enforce the church's aims and purposes. The church gained control of civil power and used secular authority to control consciences and punish those judged heretics, and church-state alliances that punish dissent repeat that first beast's pattern.

Last-Day Worship Crisis

Revelation 13 presents a power that will become prominent in the last days, belonging with the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled now as the last warning message all are to hear. It stands as part of a connected sequence of past, present, and future events continuing through to the complete redemption of the 144,000 who gain victory over the beast and its image and stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion as shown in Revelation 14:1-5. It stands in sequence before the very last call to the churches recorded in chapter 18 which is now to be given, and before the time pictured in chapter 19 when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into the lake of fire. Then the dragon who instigated the rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, followed by the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked and the final triumph and reign of Christ in this earth.

The chapter warns of perils and dangers before God's people in the last days, showing a work and a people opposed to God and working counter to Him in a prophetic setting in which people are deceived. It is connected with the final conflict between those who keep God's commandments and those who make void His law. It belongs to the last-days message that joins the first and second angels' messages with the third, a proclamation to the world. It describes the power that persecutes God's people in the last period of the earth's history, when the beast represents the churches and the world united in trampling upon God's commandments. In that reign churches and civil authorities unite, human laws take the place of God's law, Scripture is displaced by human traditions, and the vision is connected with the time when Satan works through church and state, especially through religious laws enforced by governments.

The central issue is worship, a choice for every person between worshiping the true God by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation, and worshiping the beast through observance of a man-made false sabbath. Changing the Sabbath to the first day of the week leads people to treat human tradition as more authoritative than God's law, and the beast's distinguishing feature is opposition to God's commandments by changing God's law, so that obedience to its altered laws is allegiance to its authority rather than to God. Worship of the beast is connected with receiving its mark in the forehead or hand, where the forehead represents the mind and the hand represents power or action. Unlike God's servants, who are sealed in the mind, the beast's worshipers may be compelled to worship, yet compulsory worship is accepted by wicked powers. Its mark is a counterfeit Sabbath, the day of the sun, directly opposed to God's Sabbath as the sign and seal of His authority and power and the seal of His law, while keeping God's commandments distinguishes God's worshipers from the beast's worshipers.

That worship will be enforced by decree through the two-horned beast, and the thirteenth chapter lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws. Its image represents apostate Protestantism that will seek civil power to enforce religious doctrines, especially Sunday laws enforced by governments, and the third angel warns that anyone who joins in that worship and receives the mark in forehead or hand will drink the unmixed wine of God's wrath. The same beast is given power to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power over all kindreds and tongues and nations, and all that dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world worship him, so the chapter concerns every person and the call is for everyone with ears to hear. Its persecuting power will compel this worship by enforcing the sabbath it instituted, threatening with death all who obey God's precepts and refuse the mark, restricting liberty and sentencing to imprisonment or death those who keep God's commandments. Those who refuse the beast's mark keep God's commandments including the Sabbath and will suffer persecution for it, remaining in the last days only as a remnant who keep the commandments of God and show loyalty to Him by keeping His day of rest.

The papacy appears in its power in the last time, standing upon the borders of the greatest event in the world's history. Satan must not have power over God's people to cause them to sleep on, so the churches must be aroused and search the Scriptures. God will make known to His faithful ones what shall be in the last time, and His word is to come to His people in power.