Few elements in the book of Revelation have received more attention than the "beast" of Revelation chapter 13. This is the infamous "The" "Antichrist" of some future someday for futurists, while partial-preterists generally figure it to have been some 1st century figure like Nero, as having fulfilled the prophecy during that century.
But what might we discover if we apply the third, all but forgotten
traditional historicist approach to prophecy, of those great men of God of the Reformation, and as available evidence suggests was the approach of the church up until the eschatologies of futurism and partial-preterism began to come into vogue during the 19th century.
Some that seem to believe they have it all figured out proclaim such as:
"If we want God's interpretation of a matter, the only sound hermeneutic for finding out what He means by what He has inspired written, is to ask Him. We do that by evaluating His Word in comparison to itself. In other words, reading His Word, in the light of His Word. The Bible then becomes its own interpreter and even dictionary."
I couldn't agree more with that sentiment, but can church leaders really see past prior indoctrination, or is it something more akin to an unctuous platitude proclaimed while pressing palms together and gazing skyward?
The methodology of hermeneutics is a very powerful tool that is used in the study of literature, poetry and even legal documents, but in the study of scripture perhaps more than anywhere else. Letting scripture define and explain scripture. So what can we discover about this "beast" of Revelation 13 when we apply the methodology of hermeneutics, within the
traditional historicist approach to prophecy?
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.So the dragon, Satan, gave this "beast" his "seat" (and power and authority). When we search for an adjacent hermeneutic for the term "leopard", we find Rev 13 is the only such reference in the New Testament, but when we check the Old we find 5 more references, two of which seem most interesting. Particularly in the book of Daniel, where we not only find a leopard, but we find it in the same context of the figurative language of a prophetic dream, along with a bear and lion as well! Now that's hitting the hermeneutic jackpot!
Daniel 7:3
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.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 also describes a fourth beast as:
Daniel 7:23
Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.....
Wow! So we not only find three of the very same figures, but in the same chapter
Daniel's prophecy defines a "beast" as a "kingdom", when used in that figurative language!
Dan 7:19
.....and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;So
Daniel's prophecy also assigns the masculine gender to those kingdom "beasts".
No shortage of both Christian and Jewish scholars understand those figures to represent the successive ancient kingdoms of
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and the fourth beast as
the Roman Empire, that unfolded in Daniel's future.
So in Revelation we find a composite
leopard-bear-lion "beast" kingdom, of which Satan gives "him" his
seat. What countries occupy the seats today, that those ancient kingdoms did?
Babylon = Iraq
Medo-Persia = Iran
Greece = Syria-LebanonWhile those countries and various sects of Islam may have theological and political differences, and separate national sovereignty,
they are all perfectly united spiritually through the false prophet Muhammad and his Quran. The "sign" that Muhammad "wrought" before his Islamic kingdom "beast". As a result
each and every follower of Muhammad is an antichrist as an article of their faith because they must deny and even blaspheme the Son of God, and are even taught that to profess that Jesus is the Son of God, or even
to pray in Jesus' name, would be to commit the single most "heinous" and only unforgivable sin ("shirk") in the false prophet Muhammad's kingdom. That's 1.5 billion antichrists - 1/4 of mankind in the world today.
Sura 19:88
They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" 89 Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous!Last I checked percentages were at: Iraq 97%, Iran 98%, Syria/Lebanon 90%/60% Islamic. However based on what I have heard lately the Christians have virtually been wiped out in Syria.
Muhammad's followers fight and slay God's people because they are commanded to:
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!Surah 9.111
Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur'anSatan, the ruler of the kingdoms of this world, gave the false prophet Muhammad's Islamic kingdom beast his power and authority as well, as is made conspicuous through not only 1400 years of Islamic history, but through the murder, mayhem and misery perpetrated by true, fundamental, orthodox followers of Muhammad around much of the world today.
However through an ethnographic hermeneutic, we find that the prophet John's whole "world" has already been consumed by the "beast". Since outside of the tiny little strip of land of Israel, where the rights of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslim Arabs as well as Muslims, are protected by the democracy of the Israeli Jewish State, a near unanimity of the rest of the Middle East carries the name of the beast - Islam - suggesting that the mark of the beast may be a fulfilled prophecy!
Strong's (partial def):
worldNew Testament Greek Definition:
3625 oikoumene {oy-kou-men'-ay}
1a)
the portion of the earth inhabited by the Greeks, in
distinction from the lands of the barbarians1b) the Roman empire, all the subjects of the empire
Another interesting use of the term "leopard" is in:
Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Remember, the Revelation 13:2 the beast is "
as a leopard".
Individual Muslims can, and do indeed change, as evidenced by over 6 million Muslims coming to Jesus Christ every year in Africa alone.
However anybody that knows anything about Islam, knows it is impossible to change the Quran or Hadith - Islam can't change its spots - while it has been made obvious for all to see that the ultimate arbiters of Muhammad's Islamic kingdom "beast" will always be the most evil and murderous among Muhammad's followers, armed with a beheading knife in one hand will being perfectly supported by their Quran and Hadith in the other. If someone were foolish enough to propose changes in Islam's books, it would result in a death sentence for any Islamic scholar that was so clueless and apostate as to even suggest such a thing.
Whether al-Qaeda, the Taliban, The Islamic State, Boko Haram or whichever even more black-hearted and reprobate group arrives in the future, those most willing to murder others in cold blood will obviously be the ultimate arbiters of the false prophet Muhammad's Islamic kingdom "beast".
AP - December 06, 2006 MOGADISHU, Somalia - "Residents of a southern Somalia town who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an Islamic courts official said Wednesday, adding the edict will be implemented in three days."
It would seem that sound exegesis through the methodology of hermeneutics, within the traditional historicist approach to prophecy,
paints a bulls eye in the middle of Muhammad's back as THE false prophet of the book of Revelation. Yet some among the indoctrinated remain so hermeneutically challenged as to pluck separate terms like beast, little horn, man of sin and antichrist out of their context, and then lump them altogether as if they were all intended to all mean the same thing! But perhaps that was prophesied too!
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.If this thread gored any non-member onlooker's particular eschatological ox, it is certainly open to your logging in and presenting a more hermeneutically sound exegesis, in regard to the identity of the "beast" of Revelation 13:2.
