The Two Beasts

Text: Revelation 13:1-18

Thesis: We must persevere in Christ to discern what is true and what is false.

Application: We must recognize the enemy’s deceits and hold fast to the faith and life we have in Jesus.

Reading of the Word

Revelation 13:1-18

Intro

Beasts Function as Symbols of Institutional Evil

John’s visions of the beasts are in line with Daniel’s earlier visions of beasts. [Daniel 7:1-28]

Our interpretation of Revelation cannot be based on modern hypotheses; our interpretation must be established by and in line with the Old Testament Scriptures which setup the symbols which John writes about.

In Daniel, the four beasts represent the four empires which lead to Christ’s arrival: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

The point is that when human beings align themselves with the dragon instead of God, the societies and institutions they build become rife with sin and despair.

A single human’s sin can only go so far, but when powered by an institution, sin’s depth and reach become intensely magnified. Look at:

The city of Cain

The tower of Babel

Sodom and Gomorrah

The Egyptians

The Philistines

The Edomites

The Moabites

The Assyrians

The Israelites

John’s vision of the beasts is in line with the plethora of Old Testament messages communicating the corruption and resulting desolation of beastly institutions.

The Beast of the Sea - A Counterfeit Kingdom

The Beast of the Sea Represents Kingdoms and Kings

-This beast is described similarly to the fourth beast in Daniel 7.

A Counterfeit Savior

Rev. 13:3 - “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded…”

A Counterfeit God

Rev. 13:4 - “they worshipped the beast, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war with him?’”

The Beast of the Earth - A Counterfeit Religion

The Beast of the Earth Represents False Religions, Priests, Prophets, and Teachers

A Counterfeit Priest

Rev. 13:12 - “He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence.”

A Counterfeit Prophet

Rev. 13:13 - “He performs great signs…”

A Counterfeit Teacher

Rev. 13:14 - “He deceives those who live on the earth…”

Close, But No Cigar

The Mark of the Beast - 666

You may have heard before that 666 is a way of writing the name of the Roman Emperor Nero. This is true; the Hebrew people use a practice known as “gematria” which assigns numerical values to letters. For instance, the word “alive” = 18 and the word “wine” = 70. A similar practice was also used by the Greeks. This Greek practice is known as “isopsephy”. When translating Nero’s name into Hebrew and applying gematria, you do get the value 666.

When using numerical interpretation for the Greek, 666 = the word “beast” (θηρίον)

When transliterating “Nero” into Hebrew from Greek and applying gematria, you get 666.

When transliterating “Nero” into Hebrew from Latin, you get 616.

The latin transliteration is fascinating, because we actually have ancient manuscripts dating back to the third century which replace 666 with 616.

Irenaeus, a second century theologian, was aware of manuscripts using 616 instead of 666 but acknowledged 666 to be the originally written number. This leads us to believe that the earliest Christians understood that the number 666 was meant to be interpreted through gematria/isopsephy and were effectively translating the number itself into the Latin equivalent.

While Nero certainly represents the beastly kings and practices of the Roman Empire, there is a much simpler and far more profound theology being communicated through the number 666.

The simplest understanding of the mark of the beast being “666” is that it is just shy of the number we have seen over and over again throughout Revelation: “7.”

Remember, that to add emphasis to symbols, the Hebrew people would use repetition and multiplication.

The beasts do everything they can to lead people away from God by presenting themselves as “oh-so-close” to God. But they are counterfeit in every single way.

The way of the beast may look like it leads to true life, but it only leads to bondage and death. 666 is just shy of 777.

Now the incredibly fascinating thing to note is that using numerical interpretation, the greek word θηρίον (“beast”) equals 666. And if we use the same numerical interpretation, the greek word for Jesus (“ΙΗΣΟΥΣ”) equals 888. Whereas the beast’s number is just shy of 777, representing an inability to achieve wholeness and perfection, the number of Jesus is beyond 777, representing that Jesus is above and beyond wholeness and completion.

Outro

What does this all mean?

If you are a Christian…

Facing persecution for your allegiance to Christ

Being tempted by the alluring pleasures of the world

Being tempted by the alluring powers of the world

Feeling exhausted by the chaos of the world

Feeling isolated from the world

It can be easy to give up and give in to the beast.

The point here is that we have to be reminded that the powers of the dragon and the beasts are all counterfeit. The dragon and the beasts promise life, promise power, promise pleasure, promise status, promise fulfillment, etc. but they cannot truly offer it. They are just shy of wholeness. We have to be reminded that Jesus is not just enough, He is more than enough. In Christ there is an overabundance of perfect life. An overabundance of goodness. Christ is worth enduring the pains of this world. Christ is worth enduring the attacks of the dragon and the beasts.

But we also must be on guard. Because so many of the dragon and the beasts’ schemes are deception. The beasts will do everything they can to make themselves look like the Lamb. They will even adopt the Lamb’s name at times to do their beastly deeds. Charles Spurgeon, one of the great British preachers said, “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.” There are times when the beasts’ actions appear so vile and wicked that it is obvious they are wrong. But many times, dare I say much of the time, the beasts’ actions have the appearance of almost right.

Today, we are called to persevere with discernment. May we know the Lamb so well, that every deception from the beasts is readily declared to be counterfeit.