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Link of article or video : http://www.bibleresources.org/mark-of-the-beast/


WHO, OR WHAT, ARE THE REAL BEASTS OF THE BIBLE? (Part One)

Hello All,

I feel driven to share this information, as it is so crucial that we understand this TRUTH. It is major in understanding everything that happened in the past, is happening now, and will happen in the future!! It is all good and well to try and figure out who the Beasts of Daniel and Revelation represent, and there are many individual antichrists to choose from, in regards to the number of his name and what evil agenda these individual men are following. But, we have to base our findings on the what the Bible shows us about these Beasts, and according to the Bible they are not individual men!!

The Holy Word of God tells us who these beasts are and we need to heed what it says. These Beasts are kingdoms, and systems of government that have existed in the past, have fallen and been replaced by another, and the final 4th Beast system exists until this day. Yes! Obama is an antichrist, and the Pope is an antichrist, but they are not the Beasts, they are just the heads of the Beast System!

I have found a couple of amazing articles explaining this much better that I ever could, so in this letter will share one and in my next letter will share the other. Please understand that this is extremely IMPORTANT, and I feel it will make all the difference in how we see things unfolding in there last days. This first article is about the mark of the beast, but goes on to explain the Beast Systems. Here are some excerpts from the article.
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What the Bible Says about the Mark of the Beast
By Betty Miller
Importance of What the Bible Says about the Mark of the Beast

How will the beast mark those who follow him, and what is the mark of God set upon those who follow Christ? Let us begin with the mark of the beast, then look at how we are to receive God’s mark which protects us from destruction in these end times.

Throughout the Scriptures, the word ‘beast’ refers to a system, and not to a man. The beast is a system that rules the world; it’s an antichrist system. Daniel 7 speaks of beasts and identifies them as earthly kingdoms. So the beast in Revelation is a beastly system that’s ruling the world (it’s a dictator beast). This beast is not just one human being, rather it is a system that has infiltrated every area whether it be politics, medicine, art or science; the beastly system is everywhere. This system is typically overseen by a powerful government with those in power making decisions that perpetrate the worldly system throughout mankind. When Revelation 13:1 speaks of the beast rising up out of the sea, what is meant by the sea? The Scriptures speak of the sea as “masses of humanity.” This beastly system is rising up out of humanity, out of all the people on the earth. When John, the author of Revelation, stood upon the sand of the sea, he was standing upon that which could not be numbered, among all the people of the earth.

Decoding Revelation

Revelation is a coded book. It was written for Christians so that only they could understand it. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit are bewildered by the imagery in this book of the Bible. Even as Christians we have difficulty when approaching Revelation. How do we understand its code? The Bible interprets itself so we can understand Revelation by looking to other portions of the Bible for clues to its interpretation. When we study one portion of the Bible, we can find the same truth in another portion that sheds light on what we are studying. Since Revelation is a coded book, we won’t understand it without the help of God’s Spirit who inspired it, plus a child-like approach to His Word. We must have God’s Spirit and an understanding of the Scriptures to comprehend Revelation. Revelation was written symbolically; a great deal of it is not literal. If we don’t understand that Revelation is speaking of spiritual things, then we’re going to misinterpret it. We’ll end up looking for literal frogs and heads and horns and an actual beast.

To illustrate a portion of the code that almost all Christians are familiar with, consider the usage of the term “lamb.” We know when the Scripture refers to “the Lamb,” it is symbolically referring to Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross as He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). It is not referring to a literal lamb, the offspring of a sheep. So for us to understand the symbolism of the “beast,” we must go to the Scripture for that definition. A modern-day analogy is that we could not operate a computer unless we understood computer language. We must get a Bible definition of “beast” and the Bible definition of “mark” to understand the mark of the beast.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. Revelation 13:1

God wants us to understand the meaning of the terms in this verse, and throughout all of Revelation. He promises that if we wholeheartedly seek Him, He will hear and answer (Jeremiah 29: 12, 13). If we want to understand, we can. It may not come all at once, but as we seek Him, He will open our eyes. One of our shortcomings as Christians is that many of us have listened to end-time teachings but never have asked the Holy Spirit if the teaching is the truth. We’ve considered ourselves ignorant and assumed the teachers must have all the answers. But God wants each one of us to understand His Word, and He will give us understanding as we seek Him for it. He will confirm His true teachings if we seek Him by faith and with a pure heart. We have a responsibility to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Symbolism of Numbers in Scripture

This beast rising up out of the sea has seven heads (Revelation 13:1). Numbers are often symbolic in the Scriptures with the number seven standing for perfection, completion. For example, when Jesus told Peter to forgive “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”); He did not mean to forgive 490 times. He was telling Peter to forgive completely and perfectly. To the Jew, numbers were descriptions rather than mathematics as each number represented something. Since we will be dealing with several of these symbolic numbers in this chapter, listed below are the Jewish equivalents for each number (see glossary for detailed definitions):

1.One symbolizes new beginnings and unity.
2.Two symbolizes witness and division.
3.Three symbolizes divinity, heaven and God.
4.Four symbolizes earth and man.
5.Five symbolizes grace and favor.
6.Six symbolizes the world and is man’s number; it falls short of seven; therefore, it is imperfection.
7.Seven symbolizes perfection, completeness and abundance.
8.Ten symbolizes obedience, completeness of order.
9.Twelve symbolizes government, authority.
10.Three and a half, being half of seven (perfection), is an indefinite period of time; it is a number of trouble and judgment.

When the beast is described as having seven heads, it speaks of completion or fullness of the wickedness and evil. Heads refer to leadership, to governments and to ruling. When we refer to the head of an organization or a group, we’re speaking of the leadership. So seven heads would refer to fullness of governments. Seven heads mean the governments of the whole world (a New World order?). The headship of the governments is upon the beast. The ruling governments are right in the midst of the beastly system. In man’s eyes, some governments are good and some evil. But in God’s eyes they’re all evil because they’re not performing the will of God. No country is truly doing the will of God, even my own country which I do love and pray for. Of course, some governments are better than others because of the greater freedom they allow.

The beast in Revelation has ten horns. In the Bible, horns are symbolic of countries with world power and influence. A horn does not represent the whole beastly system that pervades the earth, but rather a country. A little horn would represent a little country. The countries have influence, but not as much as the whole power of the beast. So when the beast is seen with ten horns it speaks of influential countries in the world that are part of the system of the beast. One meaning of the number ten is completeness of order, so ten horns indicate how complete the involvement of smaller countries is with the beast, just as the seven heads of the beast show the involvement of major world powers.

Upon the horns are ten crowns. Crowns stand for authority and political influence. So we further see the beast system coming through the authority in the world, the governmental and political system.

The Name of Blasphemy

The name of blasphemy is seen upon the heads. There’s not a country in the world that’s doing the will of God. They’re all part of the beast system. To blaspheme is to speak irreverently or profanely of God, or to attribute something to God that is not of Him. An example is Saddam Hussein stating that God was on their side in the Persian Gulf War (1991) and therefore they would win. Allah, Saddam’s god, is a false god as the war proved. However, America’s winning the war doesn’t prove America to be a Christian nation. We are blaspheming God by calling ourselves a Christian nation when our greed, materialism, drunkenness, addiction, murder, abortion, pride, etc. prove otherwise. We won the war because of a holy nation within this nation, that is, God’s true praying people who were interceding not only for all Americans and allies, but also for the Arabs because we desire to see all men come to the knowledge of the true and living God. The beast does things in the name of God, yet is blasphemous because the motives are wrong. Currently, no nation or country is primarily concerned about the gospel going forth as its main focus. (We do see God’s people — His holy nation — from every country with that concern.) We know the nations of the world won’t do God’s will until Christ returns and His millennial reign is established.

We’re to be preparing for Christ’s return when God will set up His authority on the earth. The earth will have a theocracy; being ruled by God will bring perfection into the earth. But until that day, none of the earthly authority is pleasing to God. All of it is blasphemy. Even in the better countries there’s evil within the system. In our own country of America we’re seeing much sin being uncovered that’s within the system.

Humanism Behind the Beastly System

“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” (Revelation 13:2). Toward understanding this description, remember that Scripture interprets Scripture. In Daniel 7, four different beasts are described, beasts that represented different beastly systems. “The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked” (Daniel 7:4a). In other words, that beastly system failed. “And it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it” (Daniel 7:4b). Men were behind this beastly system, men’s ideas, humanism. Humanism is nothing new; it’s been here from the beginning. Man has considered himself smarter than God, which is the essence of humanism.

The Beast’s Head is Wounded

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? Revelation 13:4

One thing this verse speaks of is war. Jesus prophesied that before His return there would be wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24: 6). Concerning the wounding of one of the beast’s heads, I believe that refers to an event that happened at Calvary. Some people try to fit all of Revelation into only the end times. But Revelation was not written just for us today; it was written for all of the church throughout history. Note how the wound came to this beast’s head. Revelation 13:14 says the beast “had the wound by a sword, and did live.” The dragon, which represents the devil, is part of the beast system. Who wounded the devil? Did not Jesus wound him with a crushing blow to the head? By His death on the cross, Jesus crushed Satan beneath his feet as was prophesied in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

God’s promise to Eve was that from her seed would come the one that would crush the enemy who deceived her. When Jesus died on the cross, he stripped Satan of all power. Satan was given a deadly blow. However, from there the church didn’t take advantage of the truth that the enemy was stripped of his power. Because the church didn’t take her authority over the defeated foe and hasn’t throughout the centuries, the deadly wound was healed and the beast again raised his head.

The deadly wound came by a sword, which represents the Word of God (Ephesians 6: 17). God’s Word wounded Satan and those believers who have received the truth of Satan’s defeat have walked in victory. Throughout history, individuals who’ve recognized Satan’s defeat have been victorious Christians. But the corporate church body as a whole never received the revelation of Satan’s defeat. Therefore the beast’s wound was healed, and Satan yet rules this earth through his beastly system. People still look at the devil and think he’s going to continue ruling. But God is telling the church that we’re to rise up in Jesus’ name and take our authority over Satan.

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Please read part two of this letter, the next article is just as informative and will reinforce the truth that was presented in the above article.

Agape!
Patti C.