The Wild Beast of Revelation

The book of Revelation is presented in signs and symbols. Among these signs, we are presented with a wild beast with seven heads. What does this monstrous creature represent, and why should we even care?

Revelation is the last book in the Bible for a reason. That is because it draws upon many things previously written. To illustrate the point, the 12th chapter of Revelation identifies Satan, the Devil, as the original serpent in Eden. The account of Adam and Eve is in Genesis—the first book in the Bible, which was written over 1,500 years before Revelation.

The book of Daniel, which was compiled more than 500 years before Revelation, helps us interpret some of the symbolism of Revelation. In a dream recorded in the seventh chapter of the book bearing his name, the prophet Daniel envisioned a series of wild beasts; one beast was like a lion, followed by another beast like a bear, and another was like a leopard with four wings.

The seven-headed beast of Revelation is a composite of these three beasts, having the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, and mouths like lions.

What do these strange creatures and their composite represent?

The book of Daniel is a series of prophecies that all conclude the same way—with human rulership giving way to the Kingdom of God. Multitudes of misguided Christians, so-called, imagine that God is going to destroy the earth, not rule over it. But Jesus taught his followers to pray, “Let your Kingdom come,” and to make God’s will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. That means a drastic change is destined.

While Daniel was a captive in Babylon, Jehovah imposed a disturbing dream upon the mind of king Nebuchadnezzar. The king was greatly disturbed by the vision but he could not remember what he had dreamt, so he issued an edict imposing death upon the conjurers and magi if they could not tell him what he had dreamt and its interpretation.

No mere human could tell the king what he had dreamed. It was impossible. Jehovah made it so that only he could give the correct interpretation, which was done through Daniel. That is why Daniel explained to the king that there is a God in the heavens who is a Revealer of secrets.

The king’s dream involved a colossal image composed of various metals. Daniel interpreted the king of Babylon to be represented as the head of gold. He was to be followed by four other kingdoms, symbolized by the silver chest and arms, then copper abdomen and thighs, with legs of iron, standing upon feet composed of iron and clay. Daniel explained that God had revealed to the king what would occur in the final part of the days.

Together, the image represents five kingdoms. Daniel then explained that a stone cut out of a mountain, but not with human hands, would strike the image on its feet and crush all these kingdoms. Daniel revealed that the stone represents God’s Kingdom and what would occur in the final part of the days.

But what do the other metals symbolize? In the eighth chapter of Daniel, the prophet himself had a vision wherein he saw two animals. The first was a ram with two horns. The other was a hairy he-goat with one horn. The goat came charging at the ram—its hoofs not even touching the ground. And it killed the ram. The angel then explained to the prophet what the vision meant, saying to him: “The two-horned ram that you saw stands for the kings of Media and Persia. The hairy male goat stands for the king of Greece; and the great horn that was between its eyes stands for the first king. As for the horn that was broken, so that four stood up instead of it, there are four kingdoms from his nation that will stand up, but not with his power.”

True to the angel’s words, Alexander the Great swiftly conquered the Medo-Persian kingdom. However, Alexander unexpectedly died and did not have a capable successor. Consequently, the short-lived Grecian empire was broken up into four regions and ruled over by four of Alexander’s generals, just as the angel had foretold.

Having identified Babylon’s two immediate successors, we may determine that the silver chest represented the Persian empire, and the copper belly and thighs symbolized Alexander’s kingdom and its four fragmentations. What about the legs of iron and the feet of iron and clay? Daniel was not told.

However, when John received the Revelation, the angel presented a riddle to him that would allow us to identify Greece’s successor. In Revelation 17:10, the angel explains: “And there are seven kings: Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet arrived; but when he does arrive, he must remain a short while.”

First, let us ask why, in Revelation, the angel revealed a succession of seven kings, whereas God revealed to Daniel there would be a series of five kingdoms leading up to the advent of the Kingdom of Heaven. The seeming discrepancy is because two kingdoms existed before Babylon in Daniel’s day and so they were not included in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Those two empires were Egypt and Assyria. But the beast of Revelation includes the two kingdoms that existed before Babylon. That is why John was presented with a seven-headed beast.

So, the five kings that had already fallen in the first century when John received the Revelation were Egypt, followed by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The one that “is”—from John’s standpoint in the first century—was Rome. Therefore, Rome is symbolized by the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar’s image. To be sure, there have been many more empires down through history, but the seven kingdoms are those that have ruled over God’s people or yet will in the future.

What is the other kingdom, the seventh king, that had not arrived in the first century? It must be the Anglo-American dual-world power symbolized by the feet of iron and clay. Iron and clay that do not mix together is the perfect symbolism for the political amalgamation of an imperial system and a republic. This incompatible relationship is also represented in Daniel’s prophecy by the rivalry between the king of the North and the king of the South leading up to the climactic conclusion.

As for the iron, not only was Britain one of the Roman Empire’s farthest outposts, but the oligarchical system of Great Britain represents the tradition of the Babylonians, Romans, and Venetians. The usurious Venetian banking system was transplanted into the British Isles over two centuries, beginning in the 1500s. The present-day City of London/Wall Street, off-shore, IMF system of usury, money laundering, and speculation is the extension of the iron legs of the Roman Empire.

The United States came into existence through a revolutionary war waged against the colonial masters in London. After a series of failed wars intended to recapture their breakaway colonies, including the War of 1812 and the American Civil War, which pitted the London-backed Confederacy against the Union, the British Empire decided upon a strategy of subversion rather than confrontation, which was successful, bringing the two incongruous systems into an alliance, which since World War Two is called the Anglo-American Special Relationship.

Now that we have identified the seven heads of the wild beast let us consider some very intriguing details that will impact the world very shortly.

First, though, I readily admit to having revealed nothing new—at least up to this point. The Watchtower has enlightened Jehovah’s Witnesses and anyone who will listen regarding the interpretation of the dream image and the significance of the seven-headed wild beast. But the Devil is in the details, as they say.

Looking more closely at the seven-headed beast that arose from the symbolic sea, John reported: “I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been fatally wounded, but its mortal wound had been healed, and all the earth followed the wild beast with admiration.” – Rev 13:3

Here is where the Watchtower’s interpretation is misleading. According to the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the seventh head of the beast suffered this seeming mortal blow due to the First World War. The beast apparently quickly recovered and carried on as before. No one even noticed.

But how could that be true? The ascending power of Germany and the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires were dealt a crushing defeat from which they never recovered. By all accounts, the Anglo allies were victorious and did not suffer anything analogous to a mortal wound.

Here is a question for Jehovah’s Witnesses to consider: Since God has seen fit to reveal the things to come, why would the Revealer of secrets portray the allied victors of the First World War as if they had suffered a catastrophic, deadly blow?

Surely, God is aware that the British Empire and America were victorious in the Great War and that America’s entry into the war did not occur until 1917. It quickly tipped the scales in favor of the Allies, and the war ended the next year. And if mere casualties are the determining factor in what constitutes a mortal head wound to the ruling powers, America suffered many times more casualties during the Civil War and World War Two. We should at least expect a government to collapse or some social upheaval, but alas, there was nothing like that in America or Great Britain, neither during the First World War nor its aftermath.

We are exhorted by the apostles to make sure of all things and to test the seemingly inspired expressions for authenticity. Doing so, it should be evident that the Watchtower’s interpretation of the mortal head wound does not pass the test of having originated with the Revealer of Secrets.

To understand Revelation, it is important to note that Bible prophecy interprets itself. This has been demonstrated by using the prophecies of Daniel to interpret the meaning of the seven-headed beast of Revelation. Can we use the Bible to determine whether the beast has suffered the foretold mortal wound? Yes, but only if we use our powers of reason honestly.

The real question is not if the head of the beast has already suffered the catastrophic, mortal wound. The paramount question is if Christ’s Kingdom has come to power. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that it has. The reason those two issues are related is because Revelation reveals that the head of the beast suffers a mortal blow as a result of Satan and his angels being ousted from heaven by Michael, the archangel. Michael is Jesus’ heavenly name.

As a result of the Devil being hurled down to the earth, the system over which Satan rules as god will be plunged into war, famine, and pestilence and ultimately collapse during what Jesus called a great tribulation, unlike anything that has ever occurred or ever will occur. Revelation depicts this event as the charge of the four horsemen—the lead horseman with a bow and arrows representing Christ himself.

The Scriptures reveal that the overthrow of Satan will mark the coming to power of the Kingdom. Revelation 12:10 and 12 state: I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!…On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time.”

Here is a question to consider: How will the Devil know that he has a short period of time? He will know because Satan knows the Bible. He surely knows that from the time of his ouster from Jehovah’s heaven to the end of his reign over the nations amounts to three and a half years.

There is some question as to how long the mortally-wounded wild beast will remain in a death-like state before it emerges from the abyss of death, but surely it cannot be an extended period of time. In any case, the 1,260 days—also expressed as 42 months and cryptically as time, times and half a time, amounting to three and a half years—begins when the beast revives from death and rules the post-crash world for the symbolic “one hour” as the eighth king.

Therefore, the “one hour” is the “short period of time” equivalent to three and a half years, during which the Devil will be allowed to make war against the chosen ones. Jesus also referred to this period as the hour of test coming upon the world.

With the outbreak of global war, which Jesus said would be the beginning pangs of distress, the last days will begin. Other terms used in the Bible are the time of the end, the final part of the days, and the end of the age—or conclusion of the system as worded in the New World Translation. We may expect the pangs of distress to begin whenever it is they are saying peace and security.

In the 11th chapter of Revelation, we are informed that two witnesses who stand alongside Christ during his parousia will prophesy for 1,260 days and “When they have finished their witnessing, the wild beast that ascends out of the abyss will wage war with them and conquer them and kill them.”

It is preposterous to suppose that something as monumental as the appearance of the two witnesses of Christ’s presence were merely symbolically killed during the First World War—as the Watchtower claims. God does not deal in trivia and absurdities.

The two witnesses represent the totality of the chosen ones who will experience the manifestation—yes, the revelation of Jesus Christ during the great tribulation. Jesus said the chosen ones will stand before governors and kings in order to give them a witness, just as the Lord Jesus stood before Herod and Pilate. The end result of the fine witness Christ gave them was death. And it will be the same for the two witnesses.

Revelation goes on to state: “And their corpses will be on the main street of the great city that is in a spiritual sense called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also executed on the stake. And those of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their corpses for three and a half days, and they do not allow their corpses to be laid in a tomb. And those dwelling on the earth rejoice over them and celebrate, and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those dwelling on the earth.”

Jesus was not symbolically killed. As the scripture says, he was executed on the stake. Therefore, it is reasonable that the two witnesses will be literally killed by the beast during the last hour. In fact, Revelation 20:4 reveals they will be executed as was their Lord: “Yes, I saw the souls of those executed for the witness they gave about Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had not worshipped the wild beast or its image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for 1,000 years.”

But in what sense was Christ executed in Egypt? As stated, Egypt was the first empire that ruled over the Israelites, which God decimated with the Ten Plagues. Egypt may symbolize whatever empire was ruling at the time.  The Roman Empire was the ruling power in the time of Christ. Therefore, it was “Egypt” in a spiritual sense. The revived head of the beast is Egypt in a spiritual sense, also symbolized as the two-horned beast that ascends out of the earth. And because the eighth king springs from the seven, it too may be regarded as “Egypt” in a spiritual sense.

Since the chosen ones have not been executed yet—and for that matter, not even all have been chosen and sealed—it is evident that not only has the beast not gone to war against the holy ones, it has not suffered its foretold mortal head wound.

At this moment, counter-currents are coming from the Anglo-America Empire. Trump intends to establish peace, normalize relations with Russia, and end NATO’s war against Russia. Britain, France, Germany, and other European nations are preparing to war against Russia.   The stage is set for the prophecy to be fulfilled: “Whenever it is, they are saying ‘peace and security,’” followed by the sudden destruction of the Anglo-American head of the beast and the beginning of the last hour.