Summary of Revelation 13:1-18
John saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. The beast slandered and blasphemed God and all those in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life.
John saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast. This beast performed great signs, and it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast. It forced all people to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name, 666.
BSF Study Questions Revelation: The Hope Lesson 17, Day 5: Reread Revelation 13:1-18
12a) Dragon, The First Beast from the Sea, The Second Beast from the Earth. The Second Beast is attempting to imitate Jesus, who is the Lamb of God. He is trying to appear meek and mild in order to deceive believers into thinking he is Jesus. He needs to appear unintimidating in order to succeed.
b) God’s message is one of love, peace, compassion, and gratitude. The deceptive trinity is trying to deceive everyone in order to get them to fall and turn to evil ways. It’s one of bullying, sin, and evil.
13a) Deuteronomy 13:1-4: We must not listen to false prophets who ask us to follow false gods. It is a test to see if we love God with all of our hearts and souls. We must obey God, keep His commands, and hold fast to Him. Matthew 7:15-20: False prophets will come to us in sheep’s clothing, but we will recognize them by their fruits. Mark 13:22-25: False prophets will perform signs and wonders we must we wary of. 1 John 4:1-3: False prophets say that Jesus is not from God.
b) Wisdom. From God, through prayer, and in His Word with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Revelation: The Hope Lesson 17, Day 5: Reread Revelation 13:1-18
Great warning of false prophets. We must test those who perform signs and miracles. We must always go back to God’s Word and His character to ensure what we see is in line with who He is! We must always be vigilant!
End Notes BSF Study Questions Revelation: The Hope Lesson 17, Day 5: Reread Revelation 13:1-18
The Jewish people saw the sea as a frightful place. This may be because most people could not swim and people did not know there were others across the wide ocean from them. Therefore, the sea was seen as evil and chaotic in ancient times.
Note that the beast is not the dragon. Therefore, this beast is not Satan as we’ve seen in Revelation 12:3. It’s separate from the dragon/Satan.
Note the dragon has the same number of heads and horns as the beast (Revelation 12:3)
Remember horns are a symbol of strength and power in the Bible. Therefore, the beast/dragon would be hard to kill with 7 heads.
Fun Fact: The word Antichrist only appears in the Bible five times in four verses (1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3, and 2 John 7). The beast is believed to be the antichrist. This thing will be the opposite of Christ.
Note that the 10 crowns of the beast is different than the 7 of the dragon. Remember, 7 is the number of completeness. Here, Bible scholars believe the 10 refers to the number of nations that the beast rules over, which comes from Daniel’s vision of the antichrist (Daniel 7:24). Bible scholars are divided over which head/heads are wearing the crowns. Many see this as the beast that Daniel saw due to the 10 horns Daniel 7:7
The description of the beast also connects with Daniel’s vision Daniel 7 Daniel’s beasts represent governments, so many think that this beast does so as well.
Since the beast is worshipped, he is considered a man here who is supported by Satan. This is the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit (Revelation 11:7, 17:8). Therefore, he is some sort of evil spirit.
The beast has been wounded, most likely by God, but the beast healed as mentioned here, too (Revelation 13:12 and 13:14)
The people are worshipping the dragon along with the beast since the dragon gave the beast authority. This is similar to God and Jesus, too. This is Satan worship, but people don’t like to acknowledge they are devil worshippers.
The dragon and beast will be strong, but not for long.
42 months is the 3.5 year time frame that Revelation keeps mentioning. The beast rules for the first half of the 7 years but under God’s authority. He is against those that God has saved.
Those who do not worship the beast will be persecuted/killed.
Those who do worship the beast will not be saved. Their names will be omitted from the Book of Life.
All of this happens according to God’s good plans. God is in control, and those who were saved were pre-chosen, too (Revelation 17:8).
John then says to listen up. If you lead others astray, you will pay the consequences for your actions.
God’s people must have faith and endurance to prevail.
This second beast is subordinate to the first beast and comes from the earth, not the sea.
This beast is a false prophet. (Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10)
This makes 3 evil beings we’ve seen (dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth) that form a perverse trinity.
It is important that we are made aware of these false prophets and their signs because we don’t know when they will show themselves. We must always be vigilant for them.
We must all be careful because the image of the beast will appear very real to us. It is what is referred to as the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
If you don’t have the mark of the beast, you will most likely die because you can’t buy or sell goods.
Letters were assigned numeric values in ancient times, which is why the beast’s name is 666.
Bible commentators have put forth dozens of theories on who the person may be with numbers that add up to 666. Interestingly, the letters of Jesus add up to 888. 666 falls way short of Jesus (obviously). No doubt it is an unholy Trinity.
The beast is impersonating Christ. That is all it can do. It has no originality whatsoever.
Satan is mocking God.
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