Pastor Chris’ Corona Quarantine Epistles to the Flock of AIC Ngong Road, in Dispersion and Isolation. 16th. Edition.
Dear Heirs of the Riches of Heaven, Yesterday we began our limited examination on the teachings of the Bible about End Times, in response to numerous questions that have been raised by posts and forwards on social media. I promised you yesterday that we would look at the “horns and heads” of the Beast in Revelation 13:1. If we go back to Daniel 7:7-8 where the horns are first mentioned, we will observe that the horns are on the fourth beast.
Interpreters have generally seen the four beasts of Daniel 7 as representative of four empires – Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, in that order. The fourth beast – Rome, is the one that has ten horns. Rome did split into what are now European nations. How one counts the number of nations in Europe may determine whether one sees ten nations or more, or even less. Germany, Austria, Parts of Switzerland, and even Poland and Hungary can be seen as one nation if ethnic roots are examined closely.
But the number ten may be more about comprehensive inclusion than specific numbers. Suffice it to say, interpreters see Europe, the remnant of the Roman Empire. So now in Revelation 13:1, John sees a beast with ten horns and seven heads. Do note that the numbers ten and seven have a symbolic implication in the Bible, a form of completeness in both. The ten horns have crowns on their heads, a clear indication of rulers, so the beast is the head of a federation of states. The beast also has seven heads, with a blasphemous name on each head. The heads most probably represent religious authority, but such authority has no fear of God and blasphemes him, instead.
It can be surmised from this that there will be a ruler who will rule all or most of Europe. He will rise from one of those nations, because in Daniel 7:8, a little horn emerges from the ten and plucks three of the ten horns from their roots, probably indicating the conquest assimilation of three nations.
An interesting twist is a statement in Revelation 13:3 that one of the beast’s heads had been mortally wounded but was healed. Going by our earlier deduction that the heads represent religious authorities, we would conclude, then, that one of the religions under the Beast’s control had had a major setback, so great that it would have been considered fatal. That sounds like some major catastrophe, like the rapture. Imagine that all true believers are taken from the world without warning. Not only would the world, in general, be left partially crippled, but the true church would also be gone and the “Christians” who are left would be in a state of paralyzing shock. Imagine now, the Beast coming with his lies and explaining the rapture away, reorganizing the “church” and “resurrecting” it. It would seem miraculous.
This would lead to a situation that would credit evil with the resurrection of a mortally wounded faith and lead to the worship of the dragon (Satan), as the Beast would obviously attribute his power to the dragon. We do not know for sure that this is what will happen, but it sounds plausible. If I were you, I would take note of it as a realistic possibility, but I would not bet my life on it. Join me tomorrow as we take another jab at the beast.
Your loving Pastor Chris.