"And I stood upon the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and 10 horns and upon his horns 10 crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy and the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like a bear and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority."

Who is this beast? Or better yet, what is it? This passage is in Revelation 13 verses 1 and 2 and it is a part of an ongoing story that's actually placed in the book of Revelation at this point, it deals with the persecution of the saints, the persecution of the people of God, the war of Satan, if you will, against the people of God.

In this article, we will look at the connection between the Dragon, who is the devil, and the Dragon's persecution of the saints, that it is of the people of God and his war against these people. Last time we connected the beast to the great prophecies of Daniel two and Daniel seven and to a late manifestation of the Roman Empire of all things.

Now Daniel saw a vision that dealt with the same beast. We made our way back in the previous article, through the second chapter of Daniel and then now in this particular version of it, which has some important things that are not in the first article.

Daniel seven and verse seven, "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful, terrible, strong exceedingly and it had great iron teeth and it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it. It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns."

Now he says it was different from all of the beasts before it but what was really striking is, it has some of the same characteristics of the beasts. In fact, in a lot of ways it pulls all of them together.

He continues in verse 8 to say, "I considered the horns and behold there came up among them, another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots and in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things."

Now you talk about a nightmare, this incredible, weird, strange, beast with horns and heads and then a little horn cropping up and speaking great things. Of course the question is, what does this nightmare mean? What is the symbolism? What is the imagery? What's supposed to be dragging out of our understanding or opening our understanding up to? So we can know what this thing is all about.

There is more in Daniel seven and he says, "I beheld until the thrones were cast down." Which implies the end of the age and the time of the end of all the governments of man, which we've heard about before in Revelation 11 verse 15, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever."

Continuing back in Daniel 7 verse 9, " I beheld till the thrones were cast down," Daniel says, "and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool, His throne was like a fiery flame and His wheels were like a burning fire, {10} a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands ministered unto him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him and the judgment was set and the books were opened."

O man, this stuff will put the hair up on the back of your neck when you understand that here is the great God whose throne is set and it's the judgment day. There a lot of songs about that, about blowing the horn of the judgment day and the time when the sins of man will be dealt with at last.

"I beheld," Daniel says in verse 11, "then because the voice of the great words which the horn spoke, I watched until the beast was killed and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame."

Now if there's a connection between this beast of Daniel seven and the beast of Revelation 13, this little horn in here should crop up someplace, we should see it someplace.

So let's return to Revelation 13 and verse 3, Talking now about the beast that Daniel saw, he says, "I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast."

This is apparently a very public event that takes place and while the whole beast isn't killed, some part of it suffers what would be a fatal wound and then the fatal wound is healed and the whole world is astonished by it.

Then it goes on to say in Revelation 13 verse 4, "They worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? ""

Make war with him? Well that suggests the possibility that this beast is a military power of some kind. He is powerful, he is awesome!

Now one thing you ought to know is, you would think the word 'worship' here would have religious overtones or that it would imply love, not necessarily, the Greek word for, which is often translated 'worship' and the Hebrew word translated 'worship' as well, means essentially "to do obeisance", in other words we worship God by falling on our face or by bowing ourselves down and putting our head to the floor. We do it by bowing in prayer before Him. Bowing, putting the face down, is what this doing obeisance is like. The Greek word expression for it, I believe, means "to kiss the hand toward" in the sense of just a little overt outward act of obeisance to the other, as though you were kissing the hand or the ring of a ruler that you were bowing down to. So when it says, "The whole world did obeisance to the beast", it is not quite the same thing as talking about a religious act, they may not to have had a choice, but to do obeisance to the beast, it was do obeisance or die. In that case, most men will bow down. Worship as we use the term is always voluntary. Obeisance however can be forced.

John continues in verse 5 of Revelation 13, about this terrible beast and says this, "There was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given to him to continue 42 months."

That's a very consistent time period in Revelation. It comes out in days or months or whatever but there's a 3 1/2 year period, that keeps cropping up in Revelation and in Daniel and we need to keep it in mind. We are not told necessarily whether it's always the same 3 1/2 years but there's a presumption that tends to lead us to feel that it is. It is half of seven years and of course when you have half of it, there is another half, so there are some things to think about relative to this, but keep it in mind.

Continuing in Revelation 13 verse 6, So here is the beast with a mouth speaking great things, and there are blasphemies that are involved in it. Now this is kind of strange and it speaks of blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.

Now why on earth, how on earth, does the Tabernacle get into this picture? Will there be a tabernacle when we get down to the end, then why would he be blaspheming God's Tabernacle if there isn't one?

Well it seems I recall in the Olivet prophecy, we have talked about this before in this series.

In Matthew 24 verse 15 Jesus said this, "When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet," (Whatever that is?), "stand in the holy place, whoever reads let him understand."

Now anyone in the first century who was in this tradition, that is a Christian who grew out of the apostolic tradition whether he be Jew or Gentile are going to know very clearly what the 'holy place' is. It is not just any place, that's a very distinct and definite reference. In the Temple of God as in the Tabernacle of God, there were two divisions, two primary divisions, there was an area called the 'holy place' and then there was an area called 'the holiest of all' or 'the holiest place' and these were sacred, no pagan could enter into it, no abomination could enter into it, no idol should ever enter into it, of course, and that 'holy place' has been abused twice in history. One significantly was by Antiochus Epiphanes, who offered swine's flesh on the altar on one occasion and once again by Titus, when he destroyed Jerusalem.

Now that I think about it I'm sure the Babylonians desecrated that same place as well and Jesus says there's a time coming ahead of us, at the time of the very end, but once again there's going to be an abomination of desolation in the 'holy place.'

Well, that would suggest, pretty clearly that there's going to be a tabernacle at least or a temple at the most.

Jesus then says in Matthew 24 verse 16, "Let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains, let him which is on the housetop not come back to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field turn back to take his clothes," and all these things is coming down on Jerusalem.

The blasphemy against the name of God and the Tabernacle may suggest a new wave of anti-Semitism, but it is not merely Christians who suffer at the hand of this beast, it is those who believe in God in Judah around Jerusalem around the Tabernacle of God and this blasphemy is against Jerusalem and those who dwell there and against God.

Could we be looking at another Holocaust as we come down to the time of the end?

So we're looking for a time when there may be another Tabernacle. What are other indications we have of this and how does it lock-in to what we are talking about? Is it possible that we could be looking at another Holocaust in the future as some power comes rolling down into Israel and begins to destroy Jews right, left and sideways?

Well the 12th chapter of Daniel comes into play. You see what I mean earlier when I made the comment that you really need to have an understanding of history and of what happened in history if you're going to understand Revelation and prophecy.

So consider what Daniel says in chapter 12 and verse 1, "At that time, shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people."

Now this is rather interesting all by itself, and I cannot take the time now, but this seems as though this angel, Michael, is particularly designated as a great prince, and he is one that stands up for or somehow looks after or what shall we say as a guardian angel of God's people.

Continuing in verse 1, "And there should be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time, and at that time your people shall be delivered everyone that is found written in the book."

This suggests that there may be some that are not found written in the book. Now here he speaks of a time of trouble unlike any other. Jesus spoke of a time of trouble unlike any other and we are in Revelation finding about a terrible time of trouble, so it doesn't take a lot of imagination to realize that we have prophets coming from many angles, all of them focusing on one period of time, right at the very end of terrible trouble and tribulation.

Daniel continues in verse two of chapter 12, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

So we are talking about the resurrection of the dead, something we talked about earlier, when the seventh trumpet was blown. So we are still right in the same time frame, all these prophecies are dealing with that 'end time' set of events.

"Then I Daniel'" verse 5, "looked and behold there stood two others, one on this bank of the river and the other on the other bank of the river. One said to the man clothed in linen, that was upon the waters of the rivers. "How long is it going to be to the end of these wonders?""

That's something a lot of us want to know as we start looking at some of the things that are happening in the world, "How long do we have? How long is this going to last? Well they answered it but I don't know how helpful their answer is to us right now with our present state of knowledge, but it's worth knowing because later we may learn something that will unlock all this.

In verse seven of Daniel 12, "Then the man clothed in linen that was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven,, and swore by him that lives forever, that it should be for a time and times and a half."

Now I will not bore you with a long explanation but a time is a year, and times is two years, and 1/2 is six months, so we are talking about 3 1/2 years again.

Continuing in verse 7 of Daniel 12, "When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."

Now what in the world does that mean? Well I've already said that if you don't understand history you are not going to understand prophecy. So let's go back in history and let's ask the question, when Daniel wrote these words down, having heard them from this angel, who would he have thought they were? Well not much question about the people were Israel, all the 12 tribes of Israel, and so God talks about a time in the future, coming up to the resurrection of the dead, when the power of the holy people will be scattered and it is connected with the time when there is an 'abomination of desolation' put up in a holy place which presumably is in a Tabernacle or Temple. In this time frame, Jerusalem is encompassed with armies, the people who were there are told to flee for their lives and this power of the holy people is scattered. It makes sense doesn't it?

"Daniel said in Daniel 12 verse 8, "I don't understand, Oh my Lord, what is going to be the end of these things, please help me with this!" The man clothed in linen said, "Go Your Way Daniel, for the words are closed and sealed until the time of the end.""

So we have to realize that at some time, at some point in time, these words are going to be unsealed and the grasp of the meaning of the words, will suddenly come rolling down upon those who know them and understand them and internalize them. If you never read the words then obviously you're never going to understand them, but we have read them now, haven't we? And so we can look ahead to a time when perhaps all of a sudden they will become unsealed.

"Many will be purified," verse10, "and made white and tried, but the wicked will just keep on doing wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand."

God help us to be wise and God help us to be paying attention because as we get down to this time it may well be that these warnings are coming out of the book of Revelation and now out of the book of Daniel, could save our lives, and the lives of our children and a lot of pain.

No I do not think you should go fleeing off into the mountaintop at the word of some guru or some prophet, not at all. What I'm advocating only is, that you be sure you understand what the prophet said, so that when events take place, you will understand the events.

Daniel 12 verse 11 gives us this interesting statement, "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be 1290 days."

A daily sacrifice implies a place, an altar, a holy place where those sacrifices can be offered, doesn't it? And now we have a new element connected to the 'abomination of desolation,' the 'daily sacrifice' is taken away. The abomination is set up, whatever it may be, be it a statue of some pagan god, be it that they come in and offer swine's flesh on the altar of God or something of that nature. We have no way of knowing at this point, other than looking at history and seeing what it was and realizing that it will be like that, but there's going to be a time when this happens and there's going to be from that time 1290 days, to what? Well presumably the end of these things that Daniel was talking about, but even so, how can we be sure what exactly is the end of which things. There is still some room for, what shall we say, greater understanding on these particular verses.

"Blessed is he," verse 12, "that comes to the end of the 1,335 days." Well that is longer than we thought so you see what I'm saying is, that is a lot of times you're going to think you're there, there may be something else out ahead of you

I want to give you a secret right here, something very important for you to know. It's not really critical that you have the answer on these 1290 days or 1335 days or whatever it may be, actually whatever it is, you don't really have to know that. What is it that you do have to know? You have to know who God is, you have to know what He requires of you, you have to be living His way of a life.

You know, I remember a situation in the Old Testament that jumps to mind, the angels of God were going down to Sodom to see if things were as bad in Sodom as they thought they were, and they were! They told Lot and his wife and kids to get out there and not look back at the city, and Lot, in the meantime, sent out to his other children in the city to try to warn them to get them to go with him.

This passage of Scripture, Genesis 19 verse 16 says, "that while Lot lingered, the angels took him by the hand and drug him out of the city." Lot was a righteous man, he was a good man, he was reluctant to leave, not reluctant to leave Sodom, he was reluctant to leave his children behind. His reluctance, his love for his children, did not cost him or his wife or his daughters their life. I think that your failure to understand some technicality of prophecy is not going to cost you your life. It is righteousness, it's obedience to God, the keeping of all of God's Commandments, these are the things that make the difference.

So we know there's going to be a daily sacrifice offered at the time of the end and we know there going to be a holy place and that gives us a very strong suggestion that there's going to be a Temple? Maybe, doesn't seem that it would be entirely necessary there would be a Temple, but certainly a Tabernacle.

What Did Apostle Paul Say?

Even Paul gets into the act on this one. It is really remarkable in second Thessalonians 2 and verse 1, Paul says this, "Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, {2} that you be not soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit nor by letter that seems to be from us. As that day the day of Christ is at hand."

This is interesting, because previously if you had read some of what Paul had written you would think that he did think that the day of Christ was at hand. In fact I think all 12 of the original apostles thought the day of Christ was at hand and He was going to come in their lifetime but by this time Paul was beginning to realize, "Well I don't want people stopping work and giving up their jobs and then running off into the hills on some whim or some rumor," so he begins to talk about, to our benefit, some of the things he understood about the end time.

Paul says this in second Thessalonians 2 and verse 3, "Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first."

The Greek word is 'apostasy', in other words, out in the future there is going to be great apostasy. Now what does that mean? An apostasy from what? Paul, unfortunately doesn't explain it to us, but he does add some more.

Continuing in verse 3, There is going to come an apostasy, "and that 'man of sin' be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sits in the Temple of God showing himself that he is God."

Well that ought to be easy to see, wouldn't you think as it comes to pass? Now here we are talking about the Antichrist, aren't we? There can't be much question about that. This is an individual who sets himself above God in a sense, making himself to be God, exalting himself above all that is called God, who opposes God. Here he is called 'the man of sin', elsewhere he's the Antichrist. But it also matches the beast, doesn't it? Yes it does!

Now just as an aside here, in case you have heard someone suggest, that the Antichrist will be an anti-Christian Arab or Islamic power, they are wrong! How could that be? Anyone who really understands Islam and knows the teachings of Islam and understands how and what their prophet had to say, any suggestion of another god besides Allah is rank blasphemy and punishable by immediate death, not death tomorrow but today. There's not a lot of patience with anyone in the Arab world, I should say in the Islamic world, who is going to oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or to even act like he thinks he might be God. Islam is easily the most rigid, stringent, monotheistic religion a person could ever imagine. One of their problems has never been the chasing after idols.

So this power, this beast power, this man of sin, this Antichrist, cannot command the allegiance of Muslims!

Paul continues and says in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 5, "Now don't you remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? {6} And now you know, what is holding this back, that he might be revealed in his time, {7} For the mystery of iniquity does already work, only God who now restrains will do so until he, the son of perdition, is taken out of the way."

Now this is really an obscure part of one of Paul's writings, and it probably is not very well translated, and it probably even depends on your knowing something the Thessalonians knew that we don't know, to really understand what Paul was saying.

But Paul does say, "If something is holding things back and that this 'man of sin' is going to be revealed in his time."

There is something called the 'mystery of iniquity' that was at work in Paul's day, but it wasn't fulfilled.

Paul says, "There were things or people who were holding all this back until a certain time and when the time comes," verse 8, "then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and who shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." Remember that the beast is to be burned.

So this power, this 'man of sin', this beast is Antichrist, is right at the coming of Jesus Christ.

Verse 9, "Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders."

We are right in the same ballpark, right with the same characters, with the same things going on, so it's hard, really to miss the fact, that Daniel and Revelation and Thessalonians and Jesus' Olivet Prophecy, all of them from different angles point at the same period of time, when there is going to be someone on this earth, working with the power of Satan with signs and lying wonders, with false miracles and with all deceitfulness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because" (Now this is a useful piece of information,) "They perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." Salvation then, depends very heavily on the love of the truth!

And it takes a real loser, to close his eyes to reality.

Until next time, this is Ronald Dart reminding you, you were Born to Win.

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This article was transcribed with

minor editing from a Born to Win Radio Program by: Ronald L. Dart

Titled: The Book of Revelation - Chapter 13 Part 2 - Program #17

Transcribed by: bb 7-10-22