The Beast and Its Image

For those of you who linked in from my site you may return to my site by CLICKING HERE

For those of you who have not been to my site, please CLICK HERE

First and foremost, the only way one will ever come to understand John's Apocalypse is to dedicate oneself to listening to the enticings of the spirit. Forget everything everyone has tried to implant into the minds of men, for most of them have done it for money, and in the process of so doing, they have overlooked these simple yet sublime words from their creator's servants, the prophets.

"Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind" 1 Peter 5:2

Having a "ready mind" means one who is greatly concerned for the eternal salvation of those around them, and not doing it for money (lucre). Therefore it is the opinion of this author that those who have attempted to decipher Johns work while promoting a paid ministry can not, will not, and never have had the spirit to guide them in achieving the simplicity of understanding John. Understanding the Book of Revelation is a very simple thing to do. With that said, let us begin.

The question that immediately jumps into our minds is: The history of what? And just as simple as before, John provides the answer to that question as well.

"And there are seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come,..." (Rev. 17:10)

The beast is a history of seven kings!!! See how easy it is to understand John? Of course, the next question that comes to mind is who are the seven kings. We will go there in just a minute, but first I want to take you somewhere else. John wrote his vision while on the Isle of Patmos around 97AD. Now apply that fact to the verse we just quoted.

"And there are seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come,..." (Rev. 17:10)

Let us go back in time now to the year of 97AD when John wrote his vision. According to what John had written, by the year 97 AD five kings had come and gone, one was in power, and the last king, king number seven, had not yet come into power. The rest is just a matter of......HISTORY!

Before we attempt to establish who are these seven kings John gives us one more clue in helping us to understand his vision.

"And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." (Rev. 17:9)

Take a look at the map below and notice how many mountains surrond Jerusalem.

Count the mountains that surround the city of Jerusalem.

1) Mt. Zion, (2) Mt. Moriah, (3) Mt. Gerizim, (4) Mt. Ebal, (5) Mt of Olives, (6) Mt. Gilboa, (7) Mt. Tabor

What is the significance of this? John has just given us a topographical location as to where the beast, these seven kings, are going to appear. We now know that John's beast is a history of seven kings which will have somethng to do with the land of Jerusalem. Let us look at one more point of doctrine before putting names on those seven kings.

It is time to turn our attention to Rev. 13:2.

"And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."

When the council in heaven convened and the plan of salvation and redemption was presented to the hosts of heaven, (that would be you and I) Lucifer opposed Heavenly Father's plan and suggested that he would make us all do right, taking away our agency, not allowing us to have the power to choose right from wrong, He wanted to place us into his own bondage. This is the only power that Satan has today. Slowly taking away our agency by the sins we commit and our setting at defiance the power of the atoning sacrifice by not repenting of our wrongs thus placing us into bondage of our own sins. This is the power that Satan gives to his beast, thus, as we put names to these seven kings we shall be looking for seven kings who shall place the Judaean Jewry into bondage. A more in-depth review of this concept may be found in my book "THE BOOK OF SEALS".

Let us now name the seven horns of John's beast.

1) From 625-539BC Nebuchadnezzer and the Babylonian Empire . 2) From 539-334BC Cyrus and the Persian Empire. 3) From 324-166BC Seleucus Nicator and the Seleucidian Empire. (also referred to as the "King of the North in Dan. 11) 4) From 324-166BC Ptolemy Soter and the Ptolemian Empire . (also referred to as the "King of the South" in Dan. 11) 5) From 166-37BC Mattahias, who begins the Maccabaean reign of self appointed kings over the Jews of Judea.

Thus the first five kings have fallen!!

6) Herod, the Great, slays Antigonus, the last of the Maccabaean self appointed kings, marries the last Maccabaean princess, and becomes King over Judea at 37AD, now placing the Jews of Judea under Roman rule and the sixth horn is now in place.

This is the horn that was in power when John wrote the Apocalypse. What history will show us is that the Romans remained in power up until the 4th century AD, meaning that the 7th horn cannot come into power until after the fall of Rome.

The image of the beast is relatively simple to grasp. The beast brought about the apostasy. Mankind, in his quest to worship deity and after having crucified our Lord, in his struggle to satisfy his desire to worship deity, what was left for him to worship? Only the images of what was left in his mind of what use to be. Thus the beginning of a multitude of man-made doctrine as they try to remember what they use to have.

Remember why Christ spoke in parables? There are those who have eyes and will not see. The truth is always hard to accept for those who will not take the time to hear and see what our elder brother has done for us. Through out all of the Apocalypse there is a line of demarcation drawn. There are those who have the seal of the living God "in their foreheads" (Rev. 7:3) and then there are those who have the mark of the beast "in their right hand or in their forehead" (Rev. 13:16) Folks, this has nothing to do with computer chips or bar codes. No, nothing at all!!!!! Did you happen to notice the one word that was common among both descriptions? The word "in". John did not say on their foreheads, but in their foreheads. In other words, are you thinking thoughts that are worthy of exaltation? Or, are you entertaining thoughts that are beastly, and worldly? Are your hands in the service of God? Or, are they doing beastly things and putting you into bondage? What will your thoughts and hands testify about you when you are standing in front of Jesus the Christ? THIS IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST!

You will notice that the symbolic description of Satan in Rev. 12:3 is identical to that of the symbolic description of the beast in Rev. 13:1-2 with one exception. Satan has 7 crowns in the pre-existence and the beast has 10 crowns here on earth. Why the difference? In numerology 7 is used to represent perfection and 10 is used for completion. In the pre-existence Lucifer thought that he had the perfect plan demonstrated with his 7 crowns, and that perfect plan was to place us into bondage and do his will. He empowered the beast with that plan and the beast was successful in placing the Judaean Jewry into bondage. In so much that it brought about the apostasy.

This Easter Season might we come to understand that Christ, foreordained before the foundation of this world, knew what He was coming to do. And He did it! He came back for me!!!! HE CAME BACK FOR ME!! The Lord God Omnipotent remembered me. And all He ask of me is to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I dedicate this Easter Day and my life to you, in hopes that I may some day receive the seal of the Everlasting God in my forehead, and through the power of His atoning sacrifice be cleanse from the beast and his number, with the hope of finding my name written in The Lamb's Book of Life.

For more insight visit my other hub, Discovering Mt. Sinai

Feel free to come visit my site at jmikejones.com I do hope you have enjoyed this hub. I intentionally left the seventh horn out of this hub. I will preview it in my next hub.