REVELATION 17:6\u201318<\/b><\/p>\n
The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction<\/i><\/p>\n
(Revelation 17:8a).<\/i><\/p>\n
Revelation 17:8\u201313 tells us a bit more about the beast. He once was, now is not, and yet will come. His seven heads are seven hills or mountains, and also seven kings. Five have fallen, one presently reigns, and one is to come. When the seven heads are gone, the beast himself will be an eighth head for a time. The ten horns of the beast are ten subordinate kings who briefly share the beast\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n
The angel tells us that \u201cthis calls for a mind with wisdom\u201d to interpret (Revelation 17:9). After 2000 years, the church still does not have enough accumulated wisdom to settle the issue. It may be that Revelation was using current events (current in the New Testament age) as the foundation for this prophecy. If this is the case, the seven\/eight heads of the beast would be the Roman emperors, and the ten lesser kings would be the ten provinces of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar ruled as emperor in all but name, so he would be the first. The came Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and sixth, Nero.<\/p>\n
After a few years of decent rule (decent for a Roman), Nero went insane. Rome descended toward chaos, and thus the beast \u201cwas not.\u201d After Nero died, three men sat on the throne for brief periods of time (Galba, Otho, and Vitellius) before the empire came to life again under Vespasian, who resurrected the beast and was the seventh head. With the death of Vespasian, the beast had used up his heads, but became an eighth head. Eight is the symbol for resurrection and would indicate that after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Roman Empire would continue to act beastly toward God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n
Another interpretation sees the seven heads as seven world empires: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome (the one that \u201cnow is\u201d), and a later persecuting empire (the seventh which is also an eighth). The ten horns would indicate that this seventh\/eighth empire is a confederacy of nations. Throughout church history, many candidates have been put forward for the last empire of the beast, but none wins out (mainly because eventually each empire passes away and is replaced). What we can know for sure is this: History is under God\u2019s control, and none of this happens by chance.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Haggai<\/p>\n
Revelation 16<\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n
Zechariah 1\u20136<\/p>\n
Revelation 17\u201318<\/p>\n
At the center of the book of Revelation is a picture of the birth of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:1\u20135). It is He and no one else who has been made King of Kings and Lord of Lords at His Ascension. The power of the beasts is doomed. Thank God today for His glorious and victorious plan: Immanuel!<\/p>\n
For further study: Daniel 7:20<\/i> \u2022 Jeremiah 50:42\u201346<\/i> \u2022 Ezekiel 16:37\u201339<\/i><\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
REVELATION 17:6\u201318 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction (Revelation 17:8a). Revelation 17:8\u201313 tells us a bit more about the beast. He once was, now is not, and yet will come. His seven heads are seven hills or mountains, … Continue reading “THE HISTORY OF THE BEAST”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}