What do preterists understand John's Revelation 13 composite leopard-bear-lion "beast" to be? Scholarly approach to literature, poetry, legal documents and scripture employs the use of sound study tools, like hermeneutics. Otherwise we set out to construct an inverted pyramid of pile-on presumption, that eventually requires the construct to do violence to the scriptures, like taking literal passages and making them figurative while taking the figurative language of prophetic dreams and visions and suggesting they are literal, in transparent efforts to bend scripture to accommodate a chosen doctrine. Or perhaps to change the historical dating thereof.
But what might be revealed when we apply sound study tools to scripture, within the traditional historicist context through which all Jews and Christians understand Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled? That is, treating all scripture, both Old and New Testaments, uniformly.
Within John's prophetic vision in Revelation he prophesies:
Revelation 13:2 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.
Now we could take a trip to the zoo to study these figures if we believed them to be literal, or we could otherwise recognize that they are figures expressed within the figurative language, of John's prophetic vision. So just as in study of poetry, literature or a legal document, what happens when we apply an adjacent hermeneutic to scripture, to see what scripture might indicate is meant by these figures? As we expand our search in an ever widening area, we discover not only another place in scripture where these same figures are mentioned together, but we also find they are cited in the same context of the figurative language of dreams and visions in prophecy, within Daniel's prophetic dream:
Daniel 7:4 The first [was] like a lion, and had eagle's wings...
Daniel 7:5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear...
Daniel 7:6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard...
Daniel 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly...
In the following verse we find that Daniel's prophecy defines a "beast" as a kingdom in this figurative language:
Daniel 7:23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
Thus BEAST = KINGDOM
Because Daniel's prophecy does such a stunning job of describing these successive kingdoms that were to unfold in his future, tens of millions of Jews and Christians recognize Daniel's lion, bear, leopard and fourth "terrible" "beasts", as being the successive kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire.
Recognizing prophecy as unfolding throughout the era about which is prophesied, and recognizing the figures within that prophecy as representing historical persons, places and things, is what is known as the "historicist" approach. This is the context through which all Jews and Christians understand Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled, and up until a couple of centuries ago, it is the same approach that the church including those of the reformation, understood New Testament had been and continued to be fulfilled within. Treating all prophecy uniformly, while traditional, might perhaps seem a novel idea, to the 19th-20th century church.
In Revelation 13 we find a composite leopard-bear-lion "beast". The change in order between Daniel and John's prophecies, could be due to the fact that Daniel's prophecy was forward-looking toward the fulfillment of each of these kingdoms in succession, while John's was looking backward after their fulfillment, as a group of kingdoms, that occupied the same territory or seat. As we consider the geographical area formerly occupied by those ancient kingdoms we find that today it has become almost entirely occupied by followers of the false prophet Muhammad, with the exception of Israeli Jews, Christians and non-Muslim Arabs, that enjoy the protection of the democratic Jewish state. Indeed the tiny remnant of Christians and Jews that remain in the rest of the middle east, in the - idol venerating, thinly veneered Arabian pagan Star Family and jinn-devil ritual practicing, multiple wife and concubine beating, female circumcising, child doing, Jew and Christian beheading - Islamic slave states, are being increasingly wiped out as the Muslim Brotherhood consolidates Islamic power and begins the universal imposition of Islamic sharia law, not only in the Middle East but in European Muslim ghettos as well. Some elements of sharia law even having now been ensconced within English law. The power and seat, that verse 13 tells us that Satan gave to his (Islamic kingdom) "beast". While Muhammad's followers even kill each other over differences, all are perfectly united through the spirit of antichrist, by way of Satan's "messenger", THE false prophet Muhammad.
Within another area of John's prophetic dream we find prophecy of eight "kings/beasts".
Revelation 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
Considering John's assignment, as we look back through history we can recognize that the 6th king or the one that "is" in power as John wrote, was the Roman Empire. Thus it should come as no surprise that tens of millions of Christians understand the first six "kings/beasts" of John's prophecy, to be the successive kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire. But then surprisingly, many do violence to the hermeneutic by switching the kingdom that had "not yet come" in John's day, to becoming a man in order insert church tradition of the concept of a single boogieman "The" "Antichrist", rather then simply looking back through history to formulate a consistent exegesis.
The historical fact of the matter is that the Roman Empire, was conquered by the false prophet Muhammad's Islamic kingdom "beast" during the First Islamic Jihad, as the 7th beast that had "not yet come" in John's day. This isn't rocket science, but sound exegesis arrived at through an adjacent hermeneutic, as confirmed by historical record.
After the short space of about 150 years, the first Islamic Jihad lost its power - but not it's seat in John's "whole world" - when the Islamic First Jihad was mortally wounded in the Battle of Tours France, as confirmed mathematically by Daniel's "1335". Still later the two horned "beast" (Crusades & British mandate) later "exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him" (Strong's "in the presence of"), the Islamic beast. The Islamic Empire lost it's power but maintained it's "seat". Then later, the transfer of Western wealth through oil development and purchase eventually healed the mortal wound of the Islamic First Jihad, financing the rise of the Second Islamic Jihad in the image of the First Islamic Jihad. In part conspicuously confirmed not only by their hatred of Jews and lust over Israel, and desire to "drive the Jews into the sea", but also through such conspicuous fulfillment as over 20,000 deadly Islamic terror attacks around the world, just since 9-11. This as we watch the Middle East continue to fall to the Muslim brotherhood, and the institutional "church" in Europe shrivel and die, as Islam fills the vacuum left behind.
In verse 11 we find the 8th beast that "was" (occupiers of the same geographical location) - before John - but "is not". So the 8th beast isn't about the Roman Empire, but it is "of the seven". Considering the identity of our leopard-bear-lion "beast" Islamic kingdom, we find that geographical as a good fit for having been "was" before John, and also as having been "of the seven" (this Greek term also translated as "seventh"), but specifically not of the "is" "beast" or kingdom, of John's day - the Roman Empire.
"….. it is said, five of the seven Kings are fallen, and one is, and another is not yet come; and the Beast that was and is not, being wounded to death with a sword, he is the eighth, and of the seven: he was therefore a collateral part of the seventh." - Isaac Newton
Regarding "...and goeth into perdition.":
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The 7th and 8th beasts are Muhammad's Islamic empire - the LBL beast's 7th head - the seventh in the succession manifest as Satan's final kingdom. The power of this jealous fallen angel manifest in Islamic Jihad. We learned above that Satan gave the Islamic beast his power, seat and authority. It isn't a stretch to suggest that Muhammad's followers hold ultimate power over the world through oil.
Any surprise then, to find that the false prophet Muhammad's followers must deny the Son of God, disbelieve His crucifixion, and reject His shed blood, as articles of their faith in the false prophet Muhammad alone. So can there be any doubt that the hand of the jealous fallen angel is guiding Islam? Indeed if a follower of Muhammad were to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, or even to pray in Jesus name, he would have committed the most egregious and only unforgivable sin, according to Muhammad. A sin worse than, for example, the mass murder of those school children in Connecticut of not long ago.
No surprise then to find that Muhammad's followers - 1/4 of mankind in the world today - are commanded to conquer all kingdoms of the world, and subjugate all people, to denying the Son of God and rejecting His shed blood.
Sura 19:88 They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" 89 Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous!
Surah 4:157 That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-
Surah 9.29 Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. 30 The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!
Even commanded to prostrate toward the Quraish pagan's black stone idol in Mecca five times a day, while praying in the "vain repetitions of the heathen", in the names of the Arabian pagan's deity "Allah" and his "messenger" Muhammad.
Bukhari, V1 B2 #24 Narrated Ibn 'Umar: Allah's Apostle said: "I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform a that, then they save their lives an property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah."
Yet in spite of the evidence, and stunningly, preterists must stumble around blind because they must necessarily close their eyes to 1900 years of Christian era history, and thus must absolutely reject even considering the possibility that Muhammad could be THE false prophet of the book of Revelation, because of their chosen eschatology (via 17th century Jesuit Luis Alcazar?). Planting their heads in the sands of the 1st century desert. The ECFs at least had the excuse of not having had 1900 years of Christian era history behind them. This even as nearly everyone in John's "whole world" today has already received the name of the false prophet Muhammad's "beast" - Islam. Isn't that amazing? This while each and every follower of the false prophet Muhammad, is an antichrist, because of their faith in Muhammad alone.
What's going on in futurism's "revived Roman Empire", and the preterists idea that Revelation was all over with in the first century?
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/27...s-into-mosquesLet alone preterists having to reject, what scripture suggests even the heathen should recognize as - the stunning reality - of the restoration of Jews to Israel, as being of the Lord.
The result? "The Muslim Public Affairs Council’s choice of location for its 12th Annual Convention on December 15 is telling: The All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, California. The group, founded by Muslim Brotherhood followers, says this is the “next step in its mission by crossing the interfaith line.â€"
"The ICSC is proud of its interfaith successes. For example, the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica is allowing the ICSC to hold Friday prayers there every week."
http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis...ive-christiansAny surprise this group of those that profess to be Christian that reject the restoration of Jews to their land is of the lord, are joined by others that profess to be Christian like Arnold Murray and his Serpent Seed cult, David Duke and the KKK, Jeremiah Wright and Ted Pike? Also joining the Roman Catholic church in belief in punitive supersessionism. Among still others that join in, overtly despise Jews (as also the historical RCC expressed), and today despise and the Jewish state as well, are Nazis, skinheads, Muslims, white supremacists, Louis Farrakan the Nation of Islam, communist Soviets, the United Nations, George Soros and his Center for American Progress, and anti-Semites of all stripes.
The exegesis of John's beasts detailed in this thread isn't rocket science. Nor is it guesswork theology, but rather a conspicuous, reasonable, and supportable conclusion, based on application of sound hermeneutic study principles, to allow scripture to determine what is meant by its own figurative language within Daniel and John's visions, rather than willy-nilly doing violence to the scriptures by taking literal verses metaphorically and figurative verses literally to conform them to fit a pop-eschatology. Exegesis within the traditional historicist context as applied to Old and New Testament prophecy uniformly, and in a manner in which those great men of God of the reformation, would have employed were they here today.
So what is the preterist understanding of John's lion-bear-leopard "beast"?
Something akin to your "exegesis" of "
the false prophet".
