Two Beast Become Friends
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.... And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life... And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads... Revelation 13:1,8,11,12,16
In Revelation 13, two beasts are described that will dominate world events at the end of time. The first arises out of the sea and the second out of the earth. Moreover, the second beast pays homage to the first beast by causing all that dwell upon the earth to worship the first beast and in so doing they receive the mark of the beast. Again, by applying the Biblical definitions to the symbols employed in this great prophecy, we can unravel its mysteries.
The core symbols are beasts, heads, horns, sea, dragon and earth. As outlined in the chapters The Mists of Time and The Man Behind the Mask, a beast is a king or a kingdom (Daniel 7:17) and the two beasts of Revelation 13 thus represent two kingdoms or political powers that dominate world events in the last days. The first beast arose out of the sea, representing the nations, the multitudes, peoples, and kings as defined in Revelation 17:15 where the waters were said to symbolize the nations of the earth. In contrast, the second beast arises out of the earth thus representing the opposite of nations, multitudes and kingdoms; therefore, it must arise in areas of the world where nations, multitudes, and kings were not established.
The first beast has ten horns, which remind us of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 which referred to Rome with its ten horns. The seven heads of the first beast represent historic time periods, but the number seven is also the divine number thus indicating that this beast lays claim to deity. The attributes of the beast are further described, and the similarities with the little horn power of Daniel 7 are seen to be the same as those of this beast. They must be seen as one and the same and we are thus dealing with Rome in its papal form (see The Man Behind The Mask). This beast has leopard, bear and lion characteristics, which we recognize again from Daniel. The order in which these three beasts appear here in Revelation is the reverse seen in Daniel. This is because Daniel was looking ahead and John was looking back.
... and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat and great authority. Revelation 13:2
The dragon is identified as Satan in Revelation 12:9.
The little horn power of Daniel 7 had the following attributes in common with the first beast of Revelation 13:
-it spoke great things and blasphemies (Verse 5)
-it made war with the saints (Verse 7)
-it overcame the saints (Verse 7)
-it was more stout than its fellows, or authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation (Verse 7)
-it was given authority to continue forty-two months/1260 days (Verse 5)
John’s vision parallels that of Daniel 7 and the imagery and attributes of the beast out of the sea link it directly with the little horn power. However, the imagery is enlarged, in that the beast also incorporates components of the lion, the bear, the leopard and the terrible ten-horned beast, which were symbols of the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. There is a distinct reason for this, as the Church of Rome has incorporated and refined many of the systems of worship and styles of governance of the kingdoms of antiquity into its own systems. The absolute power of the ruling monarch, the infallibility of his decrees, the total subservience of his officers, the hierarchy of its elite and the many secret organizations that make her power absolute are all inherited from the kingdoms of old. Rome also maintains many of the rites and vestments of the bear; the triple crown worn by the Pope, made of solid gold, is of Persian origin- “King of Heaven, and of Earth, and of the Nether World,” as well as the rites and titles of Mithraism. The rites and ceremonies dating from the Grecian and Babylonian periods form the basis for most of the liturgies, festivals and grand ceremonies observed by the Roman Church. Even the titles used by presentday Popes are the same as those used in early pagan religions and by the monarchs who were seen as representatives of the gods and even as gods themselves.
As the power of pagan Rome declined, the power of papal Rome increased as the church accumulated more and more power and influence. When the emperor Constantine accepted the veneer of Christianity and Paganism and Christianity blended into one, Rome became the religious capital of the world. Abbot’s Roman History, p.236 declares:
The transfer of the emperor’s residence to Constantinople was a sad blow to the prestige of Rome, and at the time one might have predicted her speedy decline. But the development of the Church, and the growing authority of the Bishop of Rome, or the pope, gave her a new lease on life, and made her again the capital – this time the religious capital – of the world.
From 538 A.D., when the emperor Justinian issued a decree, proclaiming the pope to be supreme in religious matters he assumed the garb of representative of Jesus Christ on earth. When Constantine moved his seat to Constantinople, the popes inherited the power of the Roman emperors - their prestige, and even their titles. The most significant of such titles was that of: “Pontifex Maximus” a pagan title for “Bridgebuilder between Heaven and Earth”. Moreover, the Roman clergy also wore the same vestments of the priests of Dagon, the fish-god. The fishhead mitre, worn by bishops and popes is also the same as the ancient mitre used by the priesthood of Babylon. The keys of the pagan female and male god figures have also become a symbol of the papacy, as are his staff, which is the symbol of the snake, and was carried by ancient emperors from Babylonian through Egyptian to Roman times. The keys became the “keys of Peter” and the staff became a shepherd’s staff, christianizing these pagan artifacts.
The papacy is but the ghost of the Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon its grave.[i]
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