Revelation 13:5, commentary and pictures

The leopard-like beast from the sea is the papacy succeeding to the seat and authority of pagan Rome, receiving its power from the dragon working through that empire and speaking boastful blasphemies against God, His name, His dwelling, and His people while making war on the saints. Its blasphemy is exalting itself above God by claiming authority to change His law, setting aside the seventh-day Sabbath hallowed at creation and proclaimed at Sinai and exalting the first day as a spurious sabbath enforced upon conscience. The forty-two months are the same as the three and a half times and 1,260 prophetic days reckoned as 1,260 years, beginning in A.D. 538 when the bishop of Rome was established as head of the church and ending in 1798 when the pope was taken captive and the power received its deadly wound. The power will appear again in the last time, bringing the great and final worldwide conflict over worship between those who keep the commandments of God including the Sabbath and those who make void His law and threaten with death all who obey. In that final fulfillment Satan will appear as an angel of light claiming to be lord of the first day and demanding its observance as the test of loyalty, calling every person to refuse the compulsory worship and mark of the beast and to stand with the remnant until the beast and false prophet are destroyed and Christ triumphs.

Beast's Identity and Blasphemy

The leopard-like beast rising from the sea is the papacy, which succeeded to the power and seat and authority once held by pagan Rome. It combines ecclesiastical power with granted civil power, for the Roman Church existed as a church before it possessed civil power, and its seat in the city of Rome with great authority was given to it by pagan Rome. It was upheld by many nations, for the sea means peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. It inherits the characteristics and power held successively by Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, as shown by its likeness to the four beasts of Daniel 7.

Its power came from the dragon, which is Satan working through pagan Rome, and the change from dragon to beast marks a change in the form of opposition, not in its underlying source. Through union of church and state it became a persecuting power that gained control of civil power and used it to advance its purposes, especially by punishing dissent from its doctrines, restricting liberty of conscience, and craving compulsory worship enforced by stringent laws. The Dark Ages show the harmful effects of this union on both church and state. Opposition to God's work will still arise through church and state, where Satan will work.

The mouth given to the beast speaks great boastful things and blasphemies, and its blasphemous speech and persecution of the saints mark its opposition to God. Its blasphemy is directed against God and His name and His tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven, while it makes war on the saints, oppresses God's people, and exercises authority over peoples and nations. It shows an earthly government especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people, with its war against them carried forward to the close of time. During its dominance Christians who refused its ceremonies and worship faced coercion, imprisonment, torture, and death.

Its blasphemy is exalting itself above God by claiming authority to change God's law, exemplified by the deliberate change of the fourth commandment. It set aside the seventh-day Sabbath, which was hallowed and sanctified by God at creation, sustained by the miracle in the giving of the manna, and proclaimed in the commandments given upon Mount Sinai in the very bosom of the Decalogue as God's memorial of creation. In its place it exalted the first day of the week, a common working day, as a spurious, idol sabbath, and has so blinded the professed Christian world that the false has taken the place of the true. It compels worship of the beast by requiring observance of this human-instituted sabbath, oppressing those who keep the commandments and honor the seventh day and violating their liberty of conscience, so that human authority takes the place of God's law and religious institutions promote laws contrary to God's purposes.

Forty-Two Months Fulfilled

The forty-two months are the same period as the three and a half years, or three and a half times, and the 1,260 prophetic days spoken of in Daniel 7. Reckoned on the day-for-a-year principle they are 1,260 years of boastful speech, blasphemy, and power to oppress God's people. The chronology of that reckoning was sound; the error lay in expecting the wrong events when the period ended.

Those 1,260 years of papal oppression began in the sixth century, in A.D. 538, when the papacy became firmly established and the bishop of Rome was declared head of the church. During that long period Christians were forced to accept papal ceremonies and worship or face coercion, imprisonment, torture, and death. The faithful church found refuge in seclusion and obscurity rather than yield.

The period ended in 1798, when the pope was taken captive by the French army. At the close of the forty-two months the beast went into captivity. In that captivity the papal power received its deadly wound.

The papacy will appear again in its power in the last time, standing upon the borders of the greatest event in the world's history. Its appearing in power makes the time of trouble near, a setting identified with the time of the end when human authority takes the place of God's law. Therefore God's people must awake and not let Satan have power over them to cause them to sleep. The churches must be aroused to search the Scriptures, for God will make known to His faithful ones what shall be in the last time, and His word will come to His people in power as the appointed message swells into a loud cry.

Final Conflict and Warning

The verse belongs to a prophetic revelation of events that will surely take place, part of Revelation 12 to 18 which is being fulfilled. It shows the great and last warfare and worldwide final conflict over worship and the Sabbath in the last period of earth's history. The conflict is between two classes, those who keep the commandments of God and those who make void His law. In it the churches and the world are united in trampling upon God's commandments, and all who obey His precepts are threatened with death, leaving God's people greatly in the minority as only a remnant.

The chapter lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws and presents a power to become prominent in the last days. It calls every person to choose between this power and the true God, warning against joining the worship required by the beast and his image and enforced by decree and stringent laws. That worship is enforced by the mark received in the forehead or in the hand, where the forehead represents the intellect or mind and the hand represents power. God's servants are sealed only in their foreheads because compulsory worship is not acceptable to God, but the beast's mark may be in forehead or hand because compulsory worship has always been craved by wicked powers. The mark stands for compulsory worship and a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun in direct opposition to God's Sabbath seal, which is His sign of authority as Creator and the seal of His law.

Those who refuse the mark keep God's commandments including the Sabbath and will suffer persecution, while those who enforce it will face God's wrath. This message comes from Christ and is to reach God's people and be given plainly without human wisdom or tradition mixed into it. It continues the enmity between the serpent and the woman's seed declared in Eden, after human disobedience to God's known will opened the way to sin and suffering. While those who love God and keep His commandments lift up the standard of truth and declare the last message of mercy, teachers will teach fables to counteract the message of truth.

The passage reaches its final fulfillment in the last days when Satan appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory. He claims to be lord of the whole earth and lord of the first day, declaring the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. He presents this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him, bringing about universal worship of the dragon-empowered beast and the exercise of blasphemous authority for the appointed time.

The verse belongs to a connected sequence of past, present, and future events involving the beast and its image, leading to the complete redemption of the 144,000 shown victorious over the beast and its image standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Its fulfillment belongs to the time when the last message of warning is to be heard by all, swelling into a loud cry, leading to the very last call to the churches in chapter 18. Then follows the taking of the beast and the false prophet and their casting into the lake of fire, the binding of the dragon for a thousand years, the resurrection of the wicked, the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth. The remnant church is to give the warning against the beast, and God will make known to His faithful ones what shall be in the last time, with His word coming to them in power as the churches are aroused to search the Scriptures and not let Satan cause them to sleep.