Doug Batchelor - A Woman Rides a Beast - Part 1

TOPICS: End times, Book of Revelation, Apocalypse

There are few humans whose intellect could match the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest artists and inventors of all time. Probably, he's most renown for his Mona Lisa painting. Leonardo also excelled in the fields of science, optics, engineering, anatomy, botany, architecture, geology, zoology, mechanics, and many more. In many of these areas he was far ahead of his time. For example, he drew designs that were the equivalent of a helicopter, one for a parachute, a diving suit, an armored tank, and many other fascinating inventions of our day. He even built a robot capable of walking, sitting, and moving its jaw - and some of his robotic concepts are currently being put to use in robots for space exploration today. Looking back, it almost seems like Leonardo could see into the future. We might wonder if anyone really can predict the future. In ancient Babylon, the prophet Daniel informed King Nebuchadnezzar about the God of Heaven who revealed the deep and secret things of the future. So join me now, friends, as we discover what God's Word really says about the mysterious beasts from the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.

A little while ago - a few years ago - a teenage girl in Virginia was kind of shocked when she saw, in her backyard, a turtle with two heads. And she felt sorry for the poor thing and was a little shocked and didn't know exactly how to react. She tried to feed it some lettuce and both heads were sort of fighting for the lettuce. Believe it or not, two-headedness is not completely unheard of in the animal kingdom. Usually those creatures do not live very long because they feel - the two minds are telling the body to do two different things and they can never seem to agree and they just don't seem to survive in the wild. But you've never seen anything with four heads and you've never seen anything with seven heads, but the Bible talks about creatures with four heads and seven heads. And, in particular, there's a creature that keeps reappearing in the book of Revelation with seven heads and ten horns, and you'll find the ten horns on another beast in the book of Daniel. And, as we look at the evidence, you'll see that this is typically talking about the same power. We need to identify that power because it's one of the main players in the last days. The presentation tonight is dealing with the subject a woman rides a beast. And this hearkens from a prophecy and a picture that you'll find in Revelation 17.

Now, in this presentation, in particular, we're going to be talking about, 'What is this beast that keeps reappearing in the books of Revelation and Daniel?' if you have your Bibles you'll want to take a look at Revelation chapter 17 and there it says, "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." Now, we discussed this earlier and we'll give you some more scriptures for it, but in these Bible symbols a woman represents a church. 'Husbands love your wives,' Paul says, 'even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. I've likened the daughter of Zion to a delicate and comely woman.' All through the Old Testament God compares Israel to His bride. So His people - it's often identified with a woman. You've got two different kinds of woman that are there, both in the Old and the New Testament, the faithful and the unfaithful, and this woman is, evidently, not the faithful one because it says she's got a paragraph on her forehead that says, 'Mother of Harlots'. That would sort of be a clue, right? She's not the faithful wife.

Now, you see these two women identified there in Revelation - Revelation 12 you've got the good one. So, what's the connection now between the woman in Revelation 12 - there's another beast that appears to her. You look in Revelation 12, verse 3, "And there appeared another wonder in Heaven: and behold a great red dragon - same as the scarlet that you find in Revelation 17 - "having seven heads and ten horns," - same beast - "and seven crowns upon his heads." And it goes on to say that this beast is trying to attack this woman. So here in Revelation 17 you've got this red seven-headed ten-horned beast the woman is riding the beast. They're in cooperation. And then you go to Revelation 12, that same beast is trying to destroy this woman. She's clothed with light - the symbol of God's church. I have another study talking about that.

Now go to Revelation 13 - you know Revelation 13 - you've heard of 6-6-6? Mark of the beast? That's Revelation 13. And you can read there, it says, "And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea," - notice the sea - "having seven heads and ten horns" - sound familiar? - "and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name." Blasphemy is when someone is degrading God by putting themselves in the place of God or claiming the prerogatives of God. And so, you notice that the woman, names of blasphemy - Daniel 7 talks about this beast power as blasphemy and here you see that creature again. Now, I just need to tell everybody, straight up, as nicely as I can, that - you want me to tell you the truth, right?

Paul asks a question. He said, 'Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?' I hope you didn't come because you just want me to preach smooth things. You want to know, 'What does the Bible really say?' In the Old Testament, God's Word is very faithful to not only talk about the way He would bless His people. And there were many times God's people were faithful and there were miracles wrought. He said, 'One of you will chase a thousand.' And then He said, 'You'll turn from Me. You'll worship other Gods.' And He prophesied their unfaithfulness. And the word that God used, He said, 'You will go whoring after other gods.' He's talking about His people.

Now, He also does that in New Testament times. Even Paul said, 'I know, after my departure, grievous wolves will come in not sparing the flock. From among your own selves people will arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves.' So, even Paul predicted something's going to happen to the church. The devil is going to come after the church and there's going to be major unfaithfulness. Well, I'm going to tell you right now, in Revelation chapter 13 - it's not just one beast - Revelation chapter 13, there are two beasts. Did you know that? We always talk about the mark of the beast - chapter actually has two beasts. You see in chapter 13, first few verses talks about the first beast. Later on, you get to verse 11, it says, 'And then I saw a second beast.' I'll tell you right now, I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about systems and areas where churches have been disobedient. And this has been foretold in prophecy. So you want me to keep going?

I just - I want to be faithful. I want to be kind, but I don't want to mince words with you. So with that background, you've got this beast that keeps appearing - seven heads, ten horns. We're going to find out 'Who is this beast?' It's also know as 'the antichrist'. Now, the word 'antichrist' means 'against Christ'. How many times does the word 'antichrist' appear in Revelation? Not at all. I told you that earlier - it's only in the letters of John. And John says there already were many antichrists, even in his day. So the word 'antichrist' can be used broadly, but the main beast is also called 'the antichrist'. It's like the industrial strength antichrist on steroids that you find there through the book. Alright, so let's find out first about beasts.

Question #1: What does a beast represent in prophecy? We're going to let the Bible explain itself. If you look, for instance, in Daniel chapter 7, verse 17, it says, "Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth." Not just kings, but it also includes kingdoms - those great beasts which are four - or, "the fourth beast" - rather - "shall be the fourth kingdom" - so you've got - it's kings - it's kingdoms - it's talking about powers. Look in Daniel 8, verse 20 and you'll see there where there's this vision of sheep and goats, and it says, 'The ram which you saw, having the two horns - they are the kings of Media and Persia, and the male goat is the kingdom of Greece." So here it's got a goat that represents - and it says the horn between his eyes is the first king. Later we learn that's Alexander the Great. It makes it pretty clear.

So, you know, if - today, do we sometimes use countries to illustrate - or animals to illustrate countries? If I say 'bear' what country do you think of? Russia. And, if I say eagle – The United States. And the lion is - Great Britain, exactly. So, it's not new or unusual. Countries have done that and so God does this also in prophecy. Alright, question 2: Is there a beast with ten horns in Daniel chapter 7? Now we're jumping to the Old Testament and I just want to make sure we set the foundation for Revelation. You remember what I said, out of 404 verses in the book of Revelation, 278 of them are found almost verbatim in the Old Testament. So, to understand Revelation, it's all rooted in the Old Testament. You've got to go back.

Look in Daniel chapter 7, verses 2 and 3 and Daniel says, "...in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea." - so it talks about these winds striving - "and four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other." Matter of fact, I'm going to read several verses here in Daniel chapter 7 - if you brought your Bible with you, you may want to join me and turn there real quick. Let's just take a look, for instance, verse 3 - Daniel 7:3 - "And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion." - like a what?

"First was like a lion and it had eagle's wings and I watched until the wings were plucked off: and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear it was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: 'Arise, devour much flesh.' And after this I looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird and the beast also had four heads" - I told you, you can find a beast with four heads in the Bible - "and dominion was given to it." And then, now this is the beast that is the antichrist - "and then, after this, I saw in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth: it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet, it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." That sound familiar?

I just want to read a little further. Let's go to verse 8, "I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots." You know, when you're young, and a kid starts getting their grown-up teeth and starts pushing out the baby teeth, it's almost that kind of a picture that this little horn comes up, but it's pushing out three horns as it makes its way. And so - and it says, 'In this horn' - don't miss this - "were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words." Or that can be interpreted 'blasphemous' words.

Alright, and this final beast Daniel is really worried about because it persecutes God's people, you read on in the rest of the chapter there. But I just want to give you the foundation about the beast because we're going to try to identify this beast in Revelation - I should say the beasts in Revelation - that will have a prominent role in the last days. And so, we learned that one of those beasts in Daniel, the fourth beast, also had ten horns. "...devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it." and so I want you to notice some of these points.

Alright, first of all, these creatures in Daniel, they come up out of the sea. So what does the wind and the sea represent? Well, wind, we talked about the winds of strife there, remember, in Revelation chapter 7. It's talking about turmoil and strife, destruction, commotion. And when you talk about the waters, the definition for these symbols is in the Bible. The angel told John, in Revelation 17, verse 15, "The waters...are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." He's talking about vast numbers of people. By the way, if you read in Daniel chapter 9 it says that the wicked power would come like a flood - talking about a flood of army - a flood of people. And so, this beast power rises up out of a densely populated part of civilization and the world.

Alright, next, question 4: What kingdom does the lion represent? I want to march through because, in order to understand the fourth beast, you've got to look at the sequence of history and it just becomes really clear. What kingdom does the lion represent? The lion is Babylon. If you look in chapter 2 of Daniel, Daniel makes it pretty clear to Nebuchadnezzar. He said, 'You are that first primary kingdom. You are the head of gold.' it just says Babylon is the lion. Matter of fact, if you go to some of the museums, they have recovered some of the ancient gates from Babylon - I think they call it the Ishtar gate - and you can even see they had lions with wings that were on - just like in Daniel's vision, a lion with two wings. Why did Daniel say the lion would stand on its feet like a man? Because King Nebuchadnezzar ended up being converted. Instead of being a beast, he became a son of God. He became converted before the end of his life and he glorified God.

If you've read Daniel chapter 4, that would be in. What kingdom does the bear represent? So you've got Babylon, then you've got the next kingdom. He represents, in Daniel chapter 7:5, and what do the three ribs in his mouth symbolize? This is the Medo-Persian kingdom, later the Persians, they were more powerful and that's why it says the bear was raised up on one side - he's stronger on one side - he's got three ribs in his mouth. This represents the three kingdoms that the Medo-Persians conquered when they took the empire away - this world power - from Babylon. And that was, of course, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt - that's the three ribs in his mouth. And so, all these things happened historically.

Now, before I go any farther, I just need to inject a thought. These beasts that are mentioned here in Daniel, they're not saying they're the only kingdoms in the world, I mean, at the time that Babylon ruled, it was a vast world empire, and so were the Greeks and so were the Persians. If you know your history, there were great empires - the Incas in South America, the Toltecs and you had the Rou - Khmer empire and you had the Chinese, the Mongols, and there was other great empires. These empires are mentioned because they all occupied God's people. They controlled the land of Israel. So the only empires that are being mentioned in these visions are the ones that had a real impact on the policies and the land of Israel, later, God's people, okay? So these are the nations that it's dealing with, and that's the reason. So what kingdom is represented by the leopard with four heads? What followed the Persian kingdom?

I think we all know, Alexander the Great defeated Darius. He was that notable horn that was in the ram's head - or in the goat's head - and then he also represents the first king of the leopard, but he died and then his kingdom was then spread among his four generals. And you can see that they had a vast empire. The four generals who headed the divisions of Alexander's kingdom were Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. And so these are the four empires. You can see the scope of Alexander's kingdom there. Someone told me that in just ten years he marched his soldiers 22,000 miles. Nobody has ever done anything like that in history, just conquering everything every where he went. And his approach was very different. He didn't just want to conquer, he wanted to spread their philosophy and way of life. They call it Hellenization. That's why the New Testament's written in Greek, because that influence even stayed with the next empire that we're going to get to, which is our next question.

Which world kingdom is represented by the fourth beast? Now, if you know your history, the world empire surrounding the Mediterranean that occupied Israel - you've got Babylon, you've got Medo-Persia, you've got Greece, then who conquered the Greeks?

Rome. And, you know, what's also interesting is each kingdom lasted a little longer than the one before it. So the devil's learning something along the way and they're getting stronger and they're lasting longer. You can read which kingdom it was, it's right there in the New Testament. Luke 2, verse 1, "And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus." - Octavian - Augustus Caesar issued that decree that all the world should be taxed. He was the emperor of Rome. And so, that's - by the way, where you get the month August. And the reason February is short is because Julius Caesar named a month after himself, that's called July, and Augustus Caesar didn't think that was fair that July would have more days and so he took some days off February to make sure August was the same length of time. That's called too much information, isn't it? Okay, 'That all the world should be registered'. So, why would Rome be compared with the ten horns? Why is it the fourth beast? Who was ruling the world when Jesus is born?

Rome. It was Roman soldiers that crucified Him, a Roman spear pierced His side, the Roman nails pierced His hands, Roman guards were at the tomb. Rome was the principle power that was responsible at that time, and Rome was very involved in especially persecuting the early church, as you probably know from just your elementary school. You all heard about how they used to burn the Christians in the Colosseum. So "the ten horns which you saw" - you read in Revelation 17:12 - "are ten kings." What happened when Rome, ruled by the Caesars, that's better known as pagan Rome, when it began to fall because the barbarian hordes were attacking different parts of their realm, they started losing control.

They had plunged into so much decadence they became preoccupied with entertainment - I don't know if you know that. It's kind of happening to us - became so preoccupied with entertainment that the barbarians started conquering the edges of the kingdom and pretty soon Rome fell. It wasn't built in a day, but it fell pretty quick - about 476 ad. What was in its place when it fell? The Roman Empire - and here's a map that represents the vastness of that empire at its zenith - it then disintegrated and it largely was in the northwestern territory. It fell into ten divisions, the ten branches of the Roman Empire. And this is a map with some of the ancient names of those divisions of the roman empire. You might know them by some of the modern names. You have the Alemanni, any of you speak Spanish? How do you say 'German'? Aleman, yeah.

So you've got the Alemanni were the German, the Franks were the French, the Anglo-Saxons were the English, the Suevi was Portugal, the Lombards - Italy, the Visigoths - Spain - and then you'll notice three that you don't hear from much anymore. We've got all the others are still there. You've got the Vandals, the Heruli, and the Ostragoths. Now the Vandals were in North Africa. You ever heard of vandalism? There were a lot of Christians that spread through the Roman Empire, because even before Paul was dead, he said the gospel's gone to every creature. He meant throughout the Roman Empire. There were Christians all through North Africa. And when the Christians in Rome began to get involved in idolatry, the Christians in North Africa said, 'That's against the law.' and they would deface the Roman gods. They called it 'vandalism'. So whenever anybody in Rome broke the arms off - you ever see Roman statues and they're missing an arm and the nose is gone - a lot of that was done by vandals that said, 'This is idolatry. You're worshiping these Roman gods.' But those kingdoms were later attacked.

Alright, so before I leave Daniel I want you to notice something. For those of you who are Bible scholars, you'll notice that there are some similarities between Daniel 2, where there's this image outlining the kingdoms of the world. That prophecy is given in a great idol that is the des - it's then destroyed. It's a great idol with a head of gold and arms of silver and a belly of bronze and legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. In the fourth beast, what kind of teeth did it have? Iron teeth.

And in the toes you've got iron and clay and there's ten toes. And so, you'll see that there's similarities. Right away you'll notice, between Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 13, Revelation 12 - you're going to see that all of these things are talking about the same world powers that would impact God's kingdom in the last days. And so, if you look now in - question #9: In the Daniel 7 prophecy, what happens next? It says, "I considered" - and I started reading this to you - "I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn. Before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots:" - so you've got these ten divisions of the Roman Empire and it included the Vandals, the Heruli, and the Ostragoths. But when this little horn power comes up that speaks great words against the Most High and wears out the saints of the Most High and thinks to change times and laws, that power, when it comes up, it uproots three. Make a note of that. I'm going to show you, historically, how that was fulfilled. "And, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man," - something different about this power - "and a mouth speaking" - pompous words or - "great things."

So how is the beast in Revelation 13, now, similar to the vision in Daniel chapter 7? It says, "Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear. And his mouth like the mouth of a lion." Now, did you see, in Daniel 7, a lion, a bear, and a leopard? That means this beast is all built on the history of those four main kingdoms. There's a connection here. You might notice that, in Daniel, it says, 'lion, bear, leopard.' In Revelation is says, leopard, bear, lion. It's opposite. Why? Very simple, because Daniel is looking forward in his prophecy. John is now looking back. So you've got the exact same sequence, too, from their perspective. And so, it's talking about these powers that had occupied God's people and persecuted God's people in the Jewish history. And then there's a new power that was happening in Revelation right during the time when john wrote it. Rome was in power. John was a prisoner on the isle of Patmos, by the kingdom of Rome, for his faith. And it says - in this beast, it says, "His mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority."

Now, we all know that the dragon, of course, behind the dragon you've got the devil - calls him the old serpent, the dragon - but the dragon was operating through the power of Rome. When it says the dragon tried to devour the man child as soon as it was born. Well, the Roman power - the devil used the Roman power to destroy Jesus - or try to destroy Him - when He was a baby. So, the devil was working through Rome when Christ was crucified. The devil was using that kingdom to persecute Christianity, but it was the kingdom of pagan Rome. But pagan Rome then goes through a change when it falls.