To have some background knowledge of the origin of the sea beast mentioned in Revelation 13:1-9, let us first go back to Revelations 12:7-12 which reads in full: Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because of he knows that his time is short. (end of quote).
As a brief summary of the above, when the ancient serpent referred to as the Satan and Devil was conquered in the Heavens, he was thrown down together with his army of worshippers upon the face of the earth, to live among the humans on land and among the creatures of the sea. However, Satan did not give up, as he regrouped with his followers and recovered to wage another war using his new dwelling planet, Earth, as his new base. Revelation 13 now tells us how he re-organised himself on our planet with his disciples in this instance using the sea as a new front.
In his vision, Apostle John writes about the new rebellion of the Devil: And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with 10 horns and seven heads, with ten diadens upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon it’s heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder. Men worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (Revelation 13:1-4).
Revelation 13:5-8 goes on to read: And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two mouths; it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, plasphening his name and his dwelling, that is those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given every tribe and people and tongue given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.
In short, after the Devil regrouped upon our planet and living amongst us mankind, he gave enormous power to a beast which apostle John saw rising from the sea. Apparently, this same beast had some characteristics that also resemble the beast with the little horn as depicted in prophet Daniel’s vision in Daniel Chapter 7. Seas normally represent a multitude of people or a densely populated area (Rev. 17:17,23). Winds represent strife or war (Jeremiah 49:36-37). Beasts represent kings, nations or kingdoms.
From prophet Daniel’s vision in Daniel 2, we can deduce that the four strange beasts that he saw represented the then four super powers of the ancient world. The lion with eagle wings signified Babylon. The Bear with three ribs in its mouth represented the kingdom of Medes and Persians. The Leopard with four heads and four wings of a fowl at the back of its represented the Grecian empire. The beast with 10 horns represented the Roman empire.
We can conclude that the beast that rose from the sea depicts a power rising upon our planet earth. The beasts comes to power without much violence as there is an absence of winds or war. It has many similarities to that beasts also seen by prophet Daniel in chapter 7, which had seven heads in total, namely one head of the lion, one head of the leopard, one head from the bear and four heads from the leopard.
- The sea beast of Revelation 13
Keep Reading
In my previous article of the mysterious beast of Daniel 7, it is noted that the fourth terrible beast had ten horns denoting the ten divisions of the Roman Empire, ruled by ten different kings. The beast that rose from the sea in Revelation 13 also has ten horns. It is mentioned in Daniel 7:21-25, the beasts with the little horn made war with the saints of God, in the same manner as mentioned in Revelation 13 which reads too; “Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer then”. Both instances also mention that the beast was given immense powers of conquest. We can then come to the conclusion that the beast as seen by prophet Daniel in Daniel 7 and that seen by Apostle John in Revelation 13 are very much linked together, as one.
The deadly wound which looked healed in Revelation 13 was in fact the result of the mortal wound inflicted in the defeat of Satan in the war in the Heavens. The healing of the wound means that when Satan was thrown down on to our planet Earth, he was able to recover from the fatal blows he had received in the Heavenly defeat, thus enabling him to regain his strength and regroup to wage another war against God using our planet as his new base. We are currently in the midst of this war by Satan against our Heavenly Father, with some of us humanity being used as Satan’s weapons of war.
- Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly — God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile and WhatsApp: 0771 260 195. Email address: [email protected]