The First Beast of Revelation 13

The following description is given of this strange first beast:

What is the basis upon which we dare to state that the little horn and this first beast of Revelation chapter 13 are identical powers? A summary of their identifying features will demonstrate a remarkable concurrence, a similarity too close to ignore. First, however, we let the Scripture speak of the identifying features of this first beast, as we term it for brevity.

Once more we note the following parallels:

Many nations have blasphemed God, and many have persecuted God’s people. But only one has ruled for a period of 1260 years. Since identifications 3 (above) are equivalents, as we have seen in the chapter entitled "Time, Times and the Dividing of Time," this is the most compelling evidence that the little horn and the first beast are one and the same power.

Yet the descriptions of this power in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 not only demonstrate a remarkable concordance, they also provide complementary features.

Let us turn our attention to this weirdly composite beast. We notice six features are set forth.

1. It possesses seven heads.

2. The name blasphemy is upon its heads.

3. The beast possesses ten crowned horns.

4. It has the body of a leopard.

5. It possesses the feet of a bear.

6. Its mouth is that of a lion.

At the initial reading this first beast must appear to be an incomprehensible mishmash. But Scripture can guide us through these various features and present us with a remarkable fusion of history and prophecy.

In our later view of Revelation chapter 17, where a beast of the same features is described, we will discover that the seven heads represent the seven mighty powers from the period following the Noachian Flood until the Second Coming of Christ, which have stood and will stand in mighty opposition to the God of heaven. Thus these heads represent a succinct historical summary of the violent opposition to the pure faith of God over a period of more than 4,000 years. That these heads are all located upon the first beast is indicative that all features of the previous opposing nations are to be found in this fierce opponent of God. The dominant feature of each of these powers has been blasphemy against Almighty God.

We have seen that the ten horns represented the nations into which the Western Roman Empire fragmented in the fifth century. That these horns, located on the first beast, bore crowns, indicates that the ten nations of Western Europe would be ruling when this power arose. As we have seen in the chapter, The Little Horn Among the Ten Horns, history confirms this fact.

The significance of the leopard’s body, bear’s feet and lion’s mouth is not to be lost. Here the first three beasts of the prophecy of Daniel 7 are represented, confirming the fact that this beast power incorporated the features of previous nations which stood in bold defiance of God—Babylon (lion), Medo-Persia (bear) and Greece (leopard).

This power would closely reflect Greek intellectualism, religious practices and culture, since it is represented primarily as a leopard. It would eventually emerge from the fourth nondescript beast of Daniel 7 which, akin to this nondescript beast of Revelation, represented Rome in its pagan state. As we have seen in chapter 2, the Papacy was to seize the scepter of imperial Rome, following the transfer of the capital to Constantinople. Both its theology and its political authority, the two mighty pillars of Roman Catholicism, are rooted in paganism. The two great influences on the theology of the Roman church were Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in the fifth century and Thomas Aquinas of the thirteenth century.

That the beast of Revelation 13 incorporated all the elements of the four beasts of Daniel 7, as it stood in mighty opposition to the God of heaven, is signified by the fact that it possessed seven heads and ten horns.

The four beasts contained precisely the same total number of these features.

Clearly the first beast of Revelation 13 represented a power which was the culmination of the opposition to God exhibited by the four empires which preceded it.

We shall now examine the reason God chose to designate this first beast of Revelation 13 as a leopard—Grecian in substance.

Here we see that Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354—430), whose grossly faulted theology dominated Roman Catholic thinking from the fifth century, brought the Greek pagan concepts of Plato (428 b.c.—348 b.c.) into the Christian Church. Anselm (1033—1109) who served as Archbishop of Canterbury is regarded by Roman Catholics as the greatest theologian in the 800-year period between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.

Thomas Aquinas (1225—1274) merged the views of the pagan Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384 b.c.—322 b.c.), with Christianity. As we shall later document, it was he who advocated death for heretics as just, and the use of the state to enforce the church’s punishment of heretics.

Thus, in describing the first beast of Revelation 13 as a leopard beast, Christ revealed to the apostle John a faith built on Greek philosophy intermixed with Christianity. The use of the symbol of the leopard power, Greece, from Daniel 7 is a most important and accurate clue to the identity of the first beast of Revelation 13. God’s symbols are always full of meaning.

This beast possessed the feet of a bear, the symbol of the empire of Medo-Persia. It would crush opposition underfoot as did Medo-Persia. In what way was Medo-Persia able to crush opposition under its feet? The kings of Medo-Persia were deified and so, as gods, they were declared to be infallible in their decision making. Thus we read that their laws could not be altered once they were enacted by the king. We cite two instances of this from Scripture.

The long tradition of papal infallibility in the Roman Catholic Church and its proclamation by Pope Pius IX, in 1870 as a dogma to be believed by all, is in the tradition of the bear (Medo-Persia) and is a powerful weapon designed to crush all dissent from Papal proclamations. How appropriate that this power be represented, in symbol, to possess the feet of the bear!

This beast would speak the words of Babylon. This last feature must be remembered, for the book of Revelation represents this powerful entity as spiritual Babylon in chapters 14, 16, 17 and 18. Thus it was appropriate for God to depict this power possessing the mouth of the lion, the symbol of Babylon in Daniel 7.

There is yet a deeper and even more sinister meaning in the designation of the beast’s having the mouth of a lion. Babylon enforced worship by the issuing of a death decree designed to quell all dissent. This decree was issued as the leaders of the nation were compelled to assemble on the plain of Dura to perform an act of worship before the image set up by this beast (lion) power. Daniel recorded this disgraceful breach of the principle of religious liberty in his prophetic writings.

Thus the mouth of the beast of Revelation 13 represented fearful persecution of God’s people as a death decree was invoked for conscientious dissenters to the king’s decree.

The second beast of Revelation 13, we are informed, uses its mighty power to enforce the worship of the first beast.

How appropriate that this coerced worship is said to involve the making of an image to the beast, paralleling that which happened under Babylon, the lion power, on the plain of Dura.

Thus the first beast of Revelation 13 is identified as a power—

Such identifying features greatly narrow the search for the identity of the beast of Revelation 13.