REVELATION, The Beasts of the, Sylvester Hassell The first Apocalyptic Beast rises out of the sea (13:1) or out of the bottomless pit (17:8), and has seven heads and ten horns, each horn having a crown upon it, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy; he has the power and authority of the Dragon, and makes war upon the saints and overcomes them; and all the world wonders after the beast, and worships him, except those whose names are written in the Book of Life and the lamb slain from the foundation of the world (13:1-10).
The First Beast shows himself to be the direct representative of the Dragon, who also has seven heads and ten horns (12:3), and who, first in human history, assumed the lowest beastly nature, that of the serpent (Gen. 3). The First Beast represents the World-Power opposed to God—the seven heads implying the assumption of Godhead, and caricaturing the seven spirits of God (Rev. 1:4); and the ten horns implying the whole cycle of worldly opposition to the Divine perfections.
The seven heads seem to be the seven world monarchies— Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the Germanic Empire (the German hordes that conquered Rome); though many scholars think the last or seventh is not yet developed; it is certain, from the interpretation of the angel to John, that at least six of these heads have already appeared (17:10), and that sixth was Rome, which reigned over the earth while John was living. Pagan Rome deified her emperors, and worshiped, it is said, 30,000 idols, and dominated the civilized world, and massacred the saints of God in ten persecutions.
Christianity seemed, for a brief period, to give its idolatry a deadly wound, in the fourth century; but that wound was healed, that is, the idolatry was restored by the apostasy of Papal Rome to picture-worship, Mariolatry (the worship of Mary), and the adoration of the Pope and the Eucharist. The ten horns of the First Beast seem to be ten kings who are to be subordinate to this world-power in its last development (17:12).
The Second Apocalyptic Beast is the same as the False Prophet (13:11-18; 19:20; 20:10); and also seems, in most respects, identified with the great, richly-dressed, blasphemous murderous whore, Mystery Babylon, who rides upon the First Apocalyptic Beast, and is drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (17:1-18); the same s the “little horn” on the fourth beast in Daniel 7, and the “man of sin,” or “son of perdition,” predicted by Paul in 2 Thess. 2; and, in its full development, is the chief and last of the “false Christs or false prophets” foretold by John in his first epistle (2:18).
He rises out of the earth, that is, out of civilized and consolidated and peaceful society, and is of the earth, earthy, worshiping earthly idols and not the God of Heaven—it is a beast, all the time, notwithstanding that it has two horns like a lamb, mocking Christ, and appearing mild and innocent, yet really having the spirit of the Dragon, and, out of the abundance of its heart, speaking and acting like the Dragon.
While the First Beast was a political power, this adds to the features of the First Beast hypocrisy and deceivableness, and is a pseudo-spiritual power, prophesying and working deceptive miracles for the First Beast, and making an image to the First Beast, and commanding all to worship the image, and killing those that refuse, and setting a mark in the right hands or foreheads of the idolatrous worshipers, and letting none buy or sell except such as have the mark or name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The Second Beast (or False Prophet), although assuming the garb of religion (see Matt. 7:15), is more oppressive than the first. The Dragon, Beast and False Prophet, “the mystery of iniquity,” form a hellish Anti-Trinity, counterfeit of “the mystery of godliness,” God manifest in Christ, witnessed to by the Spirit. “The Dragon personates the Father, assigning his authority to his representative, the Beast, as the Father assigns his to the Son; while the False Prophet, like the Holy Ghost, speaks not of himself, but tells all men to worship the Beast, and confirms his testimony by miracles, as the Holy Ghost attested Christ’s Divine mission.” (Hassell’s History ppg 254, 255)
The Mark of the Beast: Sylvester Hassell: The mark in the right hand and forehead implies prostration of the body and intellect to the Beast; or the mark in the forehead shows profession, and in the hand shows work and service for the Beast. The mark may be, as in the sealing of the saints, not visible, but symbolical of allegiance.
The number of the Beast is said to be the number of a man, and is 666. Countless attempts have been made to solve this enigma. Before the invention of the Arabic digits, numbers were generally represented by letters; so that every name, by the addition of the values of its letters, had a certain numerical value. From the language of the angel to John (Rev. 17:18), it seems certain that Rome was at least primarily meant; and the most scholarly solutions point to Rome.
The language in which John wrote the book of Revelation, like that of the remainder of the New Testament is Greek; and the numerical value, in Greek, of each of the following words, or phrases, is 666:—Lateinos (Latinus, said to have been the first king of the Roman aborigines, from whom they derived their name of latin); E Latine Basileia (the Latin kingdom); Italike Filii Dei (Italian Church); Paradosis (tradition); Euporia (wealth). Vicarius Filii Dei (a Latin phrase, meaning Vicar of the Son of God, blasphemously assumed by the Pope); Vicarius Generalis Dei in Terris (Vicar General of God on earth), have the numerical value, in Latin, of 666. Also the word Romiith (Roman), in Hebrew, has for its numerical value 666. Latin is Rome’s language in all official acts.
Let it be especially remembered that “the only two Greek nouns in all the New Testament, whose numerical value is exactly 666, are Paradosis and Europia, precisely the two expressing the grand corrupters of the church, Tradition, the corrupter of doctrine, and wealth, the corrupter of practice. The only unquestionable 666 in the Old Testament is the 666 talents of gold that came in yearly to Solomon, and were among his chief corrupting influences (I Kings 10:14; II Chron. 9:13).” (Hassell’s History ppg 255, 256)
The Two Horns of the Earth-Beast: Sylvester Hassell: The two horns of the earth-beast represent the two phases of idolatry which ever corrupt the church, literal and spiritual image-worship and covetousness. In Pelletan’s “Profession of Faith in the Nineteenth Century,” Wealth is addressed “Divine Son-Messiah-Redeemer-dumb confidant of God— begotten by mysterious conception, who hast saved men from misery, redeemed the world,” etc.
As the woman divinely clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, and persecuted by the Dragon (Rev. 12), represents the true church, so the woman humanly arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, and sitting upon the scarlet-colored beast, and having upon her forehead the name Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth, and drunken with the blood of the saints, represents the false or apostate church with her daughters, whether Roman, Greek, or Protestant, not loving Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, but giving its affections to worldly idols— corrupted by tradition and wealth.
The name Babylon given to the head of the image of the world-powers in the second chapter of Daniel is given in Revelation to the harlot. This connects her with the fourth kingdom, Rome, the last part of the image. Her sitting upon seven mountains or hills (Rev. 17:9), and her being the city which in John’s time reigned over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:18), also prove her to be Rome. Babylon means confusion, and well describes the rival claims of apostate Rome and her apostate daughters, and the “confused noises and blood-rolled garments” of their many wars upon each other and upon the followers of the Lamb, the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:5,6); but all these persecutors shall stumble, and their “confusion” shall be “everlasting” (Jer. 20:11). (Hassell’s History pg 256)
The Time of His Coming: Sylvester Hassell: In regard to the time when all these events shall take place, it is altogether uncertain. Christ told his Apostles that it was “not even for them to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:7); and that the day and hour of the coming of the Son of man were unknown to any man and to the angels, and even to himself in his humanity, and known only to the Father (Mark 13:32).
Therefore all his people are to watch (Matt. 24:42). What is called the Year-Day theory is popular with many writers, though rejected by several recent and able scholars. This theory is sought to be based upon such passages as Lev. 7:5; Deut. 16:9,10,16; Num. 14:33,34; Ezek. 4:5,6; Dan. 9:24; and maintains that a day in prophecy means a year in history. It is replied that prophetical numbers are symbolical, and can hardly be thought to be also literal; that the above passages are irrelevant, especially the main passage in Daniel 9:24, where the word translated weeks simply means sevens; that the theory is contrary to the words of Christ about our not knowing the times or the seasons; and that if it is applied to any prophetical numbers, it should be applied to all, and that would make the Millennium (Rev. 10:1-7) last 360,000 years.
Scarcely any Year-Day theorist applies his theory to the Millennium. Still, he insists that, in the latter days, many were to run to and fro, and knowledge was to be increased, and the book of prophecy was to be sealed only to the time of the end (Dan. 12:4); and that, as the beginnings of the periods are uncertain, although we know the periods themselves, their ends are also uncertain, so that Christ’s words would still be true.
The three years and a half, or time, and dividing of time, or 42 months, or 1,260 days, so often mentioned in prophecy, are the same period; and, if the Year-Day theory be true, they denote 1,260 years. As for the fall of Mystical Babylon, we cannot tell the exact date, even if she were to continue 1,260 years. Pope Boniface III., in A.D. 606, received from the Emperor Phocas the title of “Universal Bishop;” Pope Theodore I., in A.D. 648, assumed the title of “Sovereign Pontiff,” and was the last pope whom a bishop dared to call brother; Pope Stephen III., in A.D. 754, by acknowledging the usurper Pepin as the lawful king of France, received from him the three territories of Rome, Ravenna, and Lombardy, the beginning of the temporal power of the popes.
Reckoning the 1,260 years from these dates, we should reach A.D. 1866, 1908, and 2014; or, if only 360 days are reckoned to a year, A.D. 1849, 1891, and 1997. If the latter date were correct, and there was then to be a persecution of God’s people, unprecedented in horror, and lasting a literal period of three years and a half, as many suppose, it would make the fall of Romish Babylon about A.D. 2000. (All future dates are, of course, except to God, uncertain.)
As shown by Rev. 19:17-21, “the world, at its highest development of material and pseudo-spiritual power, is but a decorated carcass round which the eagles gather,” as literal Jerusalem was at its destruction by the Romans (Matt. 24:15-28). The one was a lively type of the other.
Mr. Charles Hodge (in his Systematic Theology), however, makes the wise remark: “Experience teaches that the interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy is exceedingly precarious. There is every reason to believe that the predictions concerning the second advent of Christ, and the events which are to attend and follow it, will disappoint the expectations of the commentators, as the expectations of the Jews were disappointed in the manner in which the prophecies concerning the first advent were accomplished.”
In reference to the highly important discourse of Christ in Matthew 24 and 25, it is to be observed that Christ is answering three distinct questions of his Apostles: 1st, When the temple and city of Jerusalem were to be destroyed; 2nd, What were to be the signs of his coming; and 3rd, What was to be the time or the sign of the end of the world (Matt. 24:3). The questions, perhaps, amounted to but one in the minds of the disciples at that time, because they probably supposed that these three events were to be simultaneous. It is in accordance with the entire analogy of Scripture prophecy to understand that these predictions had a primary and lower fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem, but will have a final and higher fulfillment in the destruction of this sin-polluted world.
So the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah were intended to foretell, not only the deliverance of national Israel from Babylonian captivity, but also the far more important redemption of spiritual Israel from the bondage of sin and Satan.
For the declarative glory of God, the righteousness and mercy of his dealings are to be displayed before the assembled universe on the most solemn and final day of judgment (Matt. 11:22,24; 25:31-26; Luke 10:14; Acts 17:31; Heb. 6:2; II Pet. 2:9; 3:7-13; I John 4:17; Rev. 20:11-15). The time and place and duration of that momentous scene have not been revealed to mortals. Christ, the Mediator between God and man, the Savior of sinners, he who loved and gave himself for his chosen people, embracing every truly humble soul, is to be the judge (Matt. 25:31,32; 28:18; John 5:27; acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 14:10; Phil. 2:10; II Tim. 4:1); otherwise his little ones “would sink in despair before the terrible bar.”
The persons to be judged are men and angels (Eccl. 12:14; Psa. 1:4; II Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10; Matt. 12;36,37; 25:32; Rev. 20:12; Matt. 8:29; I Cor. 6:3; II Pet. 2:4). “The saints will be present, not to have their portion assigned (for that was fixed long before, Matt. 25:34; Eph. 1:3,4; II Thess. 2:13; I Pet. 1:1-5; John 5:24), but to have it confirmed forever, and that God’s righteousness may be vindicated in both the saved and the lost (Rom. 14:10; II Cor. 5:10), before the universe.”
The books that are to be opened are the book of the law (Gal. 3:10), the book of conscience (Rom. 2:15,16, and the book of God’s omniscience (Heb. 4:13); and, besides these, another most precious book, the book of God’s fatherly remembrance, mentioned at the close of the Old Testament (Mal. 3:16-18; 4:1-3), which is the same as the Lamb’s book of life, mentioned at the close of the New Testament (Rev. 13:8: 20:12-15; 21:27)—a book containing the names of all the redeemed to God by the blood of the Lamb out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation (Rev. 5:9,10; 1:5,6; 17:14; Isaiah 35:10; 53:5-11; Jer. 23:6; Matt. 1:21; John 10:15,27-30; 17:2,3,9,10,20-24; Acts 13:48; Rom. 5:19-21; 8:28-39; I Cor. 1:26-31), their names being written therein, not for their works, but for Christ’s work for and in them—the Lamb’s book of life (Rom. 3:10-20; 6:23; 11;6).
The saints are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24), or justified by faith, the gift of God (Rom. 5:1; 4:16; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 1:19; Phil. 1:29; Heb. 12:2). Faith being appreciable by God and the believer alone (Rev. 2:17), and works being appreciable by all, the saints “works of faith and labors of love” are published as the external and evidential test to indicate their preparedness for glory, and to vindicate the righteousness of God (I Thess. 1:3,4; Mat. 25:34-40; 7:16-20; Gal. 5:22,23, Eph. 2:1-10).
Acquitted by the free mercy of God, while humbly feeling their own utter unworthiness, the saints are shown to be the children of God by their divinely inspired deeds of mercy to his people (Matt. 25:34-40; James 2:13-26: Eph. 5:1,2). True faith worketh by love, which is the fulfilling of the law, and the proof that we have passed from death unto life, and are the justified children of God (Gal. 5:6; 6:15; Rom. 13:10; I Cor. 13:13; I John 3:14-18; 4:7,8,11,13,20; 5:1; Rom. 3:24-26; 5:1-5). As for their sins, while they themselves can never forget them, and never cease to be deeply grateful to him who loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, (Rev. 1:5), their covenant God has long since promised, not only to forgive, but to remember their sins no more (Jer. 31:31-37).
Being thus accepted in the Beloved, and freely justified by his grace (Eph. 1:6,7; Rom. 3:24), the saints will become assessors with the Judge, and heartily indorse his righteous judgments (Psa. 149:5-9; I Cor. 6:2,3; Rev. 20:4; 19:1-5). In the light of the “Great White Throne” (Rev. 20:11) all deception will be banished, the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, every individual will appear in his true character (Eccl. 12:14; I Cor. 4:5; Mal. 3:18); the wicked, though seeking to justify themselves, will be justly condemned by the holy law of God, and by their own consciences (Rom. 3:19; 2:12-16; Gal. 3:10), and will be sentenced to everlasting misery, while the righteous are welcomed to everlasting blessedness (Matt. 25:46).” (Hassell’s History ppg 257-262)