The Beast

In chapter thirteen we are introduced to the Beast. The Beast is the Antichrist. This is the most widely known aspect of the end times and is featured in books and movies and music. Popular movies include the Omen series of movies and the Iron Maiden song, the Number of the Beast. The Antichrist has been made a horror story villain and most people relegate him to fiction along with Michael Myers and Freddie Krueger. Unfortunately, unlike these villains the Antichrist is real and will one day rise to power. Let's look at chapter thirteen and see how the Bible describes the Antichrist.

¹ The dragon^[a] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. ² The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. ⁴ People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
 ⁵ The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.⁶ It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. ⁷ It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. ⁸ All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.^[b]
 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
 ¹⁰ “If anyone is to go into captivity,
   into captivity they will go.
If anyone is to be killed^[c] with the sword,
   with the sword they will be killed.”^[d]
   This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.


Let's take a look at the first half of chapter thirteen. A Beast arises out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on each head. The sea described here represents the gentile nations of the world, and the fact that the Beast rises out of the sea means that he will come to power politically. The heads represent dominion and the ten horns are a world government, the blasphemous names mean that these governments deny the true God. We have seen these horns mentioned in Daniel. 

⁷ “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
 ⁸ “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. Daniel 7:7-8
²³ “He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. ²⁴ The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. ²⁵He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.^{[b] Daniel 7:23-25}





Now the Beast is described as resembling a leopard with feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion. These represent the first three world powers that ruled before the fourth, which is the Beast. These powers were represented in Daniel.



 ⁴ “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and a human mind was given to it.
 ⁵ “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’
 ⁶ “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. Daniel 7:4-6

We can take this to mean that the fourth kingdom will be represented by these three powers combined. These powers were Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. 


In verse 2 we see that the dragon, which is Satan, gives the Beast dominion over the earth. When God created the earth, He gave dominion over the earth to Adam. When Adam sinned, dominion was given over to Satan. In his final bid to wage war against God, Satan gives dominion to the Antichrist. So now we know that the Antichrist will become the ruler of the world. In verse 3, the Beast is wounded in his head and is healed miraculously. The world is amazed that the Antichrist has risen from the dead, and worship him and through him they worship Satan. At this point, the tribulation period is half over, but the worst is still to come. The last three and a half years will be more difficult and is known as the Great Tribulation. The Antichrist will now be waging full on war with the believers left on earth. Many will be slain by the Antichrist at this time, but the believers will be faithful until the end and their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.







The Beast out of the Earth
 ¹¹ Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. ¹⁴ Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. ¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.^[e] That number is 666.




In the second half of the chapter we are introduced to another Beast that will rise up out of the earth. Rising up out of the earth, this Beast may be an apostate Jew. He may initiate the peace treaty with the Antichrist at the beginning of the tribulation period. He is described as a lamb with two horns. Lambs don't have horns, so we can surmise that he is a false prophet.


 ¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Matthew 7:15


Then we see that the lamb speaks like a dragon, this suggests that he will be speaking for Satan. The Antichrist will give him power to direct the world to worship him. The second beast, or false prophet will do miracles on behalf of the Antichrist and will cause the people of the world to worship the Beast as god. After the Antichrist rises from the dead, the False Prophet has an image of the Antichrist created. He gives the image the ability to speak, and all those that refuse to worship this image are killed. He will also institute the mark, which represents the name or number of the Beast, and everyone that wants to be able to buy or sell anything must have the mark. The number of the mark is 666. A custom in the ancient times was to mark a slave with a brand of ownership, so this is similar in that if you take this mark, you are being branded as being owned by Satan. Now the number 666 is always depicted as representing evil. We do not know how this number will relate to the Antichrist, some people think his name will have 6 letters for first, middle and last, others have different theories. No one really knows, but when the time comes, God will give believers discernment to understand what this means. It will be a horrible time for a believer to be alive during this part of the tribulation. They need only stand firm in their beliefs, for the Antichrist and Satan can only harm their bodies....their souls belong to God.