I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE ‘BEAST’. Not the “Beast from the East” — the nickname given to the wave of Arctic Siberian weather conditions currently freezing the UK! — but the ‘beast’ referred to in the Book of Revelation, chapter 13. The reason I want to talk about it today is not primarily related to the so-called ‘mark of the ‘beast’ as I have already flogged that fascinating subject to death in a number of recent articles which I hope you found helpful. My reason for raising it here is because I see so many social media posts every day talking about the ‘beast’ and Revelation 13 as if it was all about something that is solely shaping up in the future. But to restrict Revelation 13 merely to the ‘Endtimes’ is a fatal mistake which robs that profound chapter of its depth, breadth, and scope.

People jabber on about the ‘beast’ as if it is only yet still to come. For example, I saw this today, “When the digital ID and CBDC are set up then the beast of Revelation 13 will finally become operational and the mark will come into force”. But the ‘beast’ to which John refers in his Book of “the revelation of Jesus Christ” existed in His day too, in the embodiment of the Roman empire. The ‘beast’ is all about raw human power fuelled by satanic government and the satanic philosophy/religion which props it up (the first and second beasts respectively in Revelation 13) which violently suppress the true faith embodied in Jesus the Christ, the ‘Lamb’. That is the spiritual battle of this fallen world in a nutshell, going right back to Genesis 3:15. The ‘beast’ is the physical manifestation of aggressive state-run satanic kingdom-building throughout the Gospel Age, to a greater or lesser degree. While Christians proclaim the Gospel to build Christ’s spiritual kingdom which will issue in a new creation in a new heaven and new earth, those under the influence of Satan build his pretended usurper political/religious kingdom on earth — the satanic world-system of governance and supporting religion which has overseen all political developments throughout this age.

Before taking this further, I have to say that so many seem to have no conception of the Book of Revelation as being crammed with symbols and Old Testament references. They take the terrible liberty of literalising absolutely everything! Even something as basic as the number ten is literalised instead of being seen for what it is. In this book, it symbolically depicts earthly completeness or government on earth in its human aspect (e.g. 2:10; 12:3; 13:1; 17:3,7,12,16). Such crass (or even dumb) literalisation has wreaked havoc on the interpretive needs of the church. This type of poor hermeneutics has always afflicted the church to a greater or lesser degree but because of the massive popular, wayward (and somewhat morbid) obsession with eschatology these days, the whole realm of literalistic futurism has now become a toxic minefield. So let’s now venture further into what the ‘beast’ represents, its nature.

The Roman empire was a gargantuan manifestation of ‘beast’ government and religion — the culmination of the empires which went before it — each conquering and supplanting the previous one, with the Roman Empire as the last. The common thread which ran through them all was that Israel (as God’s people) had a rocky relationship with them, with God sometimes enabling some alleviation to fulfil His purposes. This has always been the pattern in the spiritual battle between the satanic world-system and the people of God — ‘beast’ government versus the people of the Lamb. That is the choice right there: Either the ugly wild ‘beast’ of satanic hegemony or the beautiful Lamb of God who is the “Prince of Peace”. The culminatory Roman empire spread across the world into many lands. However, although it was curtailed in AD 476 (Western Roman empire) and later in AD 1453 (Eastern Roman Empire), there was no mighty conquering empire which came after it, contrary to what had happened with the previous empires. It just fizzled out… but only seemingly. For the Roman empire seeded itself through other cruel ‘beastly’ mini-empires which grew out of it — notably the colonising country of Britain (Brittania), which in turn seeded America, which was also founded on the basis of genocide and deception, not to mention the freemasonic element of its founders (which I discussed in some detail in “The Serpent and the Cross”, pages 172-177). One could also say that the ‘beastly’ evils of the Roman empire also continued through the Papacy in Rome and the false church which it oversees, eventually becoming enshrined in the actual Vatican State. It is highly likely that syncretistic Rome and its false church will come to have a part to play in the interfaith religion (second beast stuff) which will underpin the brief reign of the Antichrist at the end of the age. Thus, the Roman empire, in a sense, in all its beastliness has continued in spirit — the ‘spirit of the Antichrist’ and the ‘mystery of lawlessness’. But it has all been divinely constrained from being able to foment the nations into an all-out global government so as to enable the Gospel to spread accordingly (cf. Revelation 20:1-3,7-8). The nominal supposed “Christianity” of those Roman empire offshoots in Britain, Europe and the USA has to an extent assisted in that spreading, despite the inherent liberalism connected with that religious nominalism.

So the ‘beast’ in the fullness of its magnitude went ‘underground’ with the outward end of the Roman empire. The ‘beast’ empire is all about overbearing human control in the spirit of the Antichrist. In other words the ‘beast in full swing always seeks total human dominion through an idolatrous satanic hegemony’. We have seen elements of that hegemony in the world from time to time, but not yet manifesting in a global empire. That catastrophe awaits. But John knew about it well. In John’s time, that idolatrous hegemony manifested itself in the crusading, pillaging, ransacking Roman empire, which demanded of Christians, on pain of death, to renounce Christ and bow down to the gods of Rome. To be a Christian then was considered by Rome to be destructive to society as it threatened the status quo. The Book of Revelation and its chapter 13 were written by John as a result of his own experience. But John knew the difference between what we can call “mini-antichrists” — of which a rampaging Roman emperor would be one — and the actual Antichrist, who was to be a future event (1 John 2:18).

So John had first-hand experience of the ‘beast’ via the marauding, murderous Roman empire, which was his first reference in chapter 13 of the Book in the Bible that he wrote, and that was exemplary of ‘beastly’ behaviour towards those who are Christ’s and who lived in John’s time. Yet so many apply that chapter solely to the ‘Endtimes’, which is a fatal mistake. For it applies to John’s time as well as to the Endtimes. The ‘beast’ is used by John as a symbol depicting the psychopathic complexity of the godless, idolatrous, ruthless, murderous satanic world-system, in contrast to the simple faith in the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. A destructive wild beast juxtaposed with a life-giving lamb. This is why those whose allegiance to the ‘beast’ are called “those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18).

The Christians in John’s day were unable to lead normal lives and to buy and sell because they did not pay homage to the gods of Caesar. Those Christians did not have the spiritual ‘mark of the beast’; but instead, they had the Lamb’s and His Father’s name written spiritually on their foreheads — a powerful symbol. This is a spiritual contrast between two symbolic emblems (a mark and a seal) deliberately highlighted by John (Revelation 13:16-18 – 14:1). To make out as if the inability of God’s people to lead a normal life (e.g. embodied in being unable to “buy or sell”, Revelation 13:17) only applies to the ‘Endtimes’ is shortsighted indeed, completely negating what Christians experienced in John’s day and to which he was primarily referring, though it will be so in the ‘Endtimes’ too. For then all Christians will be expected to renounce their allegiance to Christ and instead give it to the godless, idolatrous, ruthless, murderous satanic world-system, symbolically known as the ‘beast’ (well, two beasts in one actually — the first to signify governance, the second to signify the religion, philosophy and technology which props it up and promotes it).

As I said above, the ‘beast’ seeks total human dominion through an idolatrous hegemony. In John’s day, that manifested in the Roman empire as a military machine on the rampage demanding total allegiance to its emperor and its cause while depriving, torturing and annihilating Christians. That empire-on-a-rampage outwardly disappeared from view many centuries ago but it will reemerge with all the supremacy of godless technocratic might as a controlling transhumanist conglomerate surveillance state which will also suppress the true faith embodied in Jesus the Christ, “waging war against the saints and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days arrived and pronounced judgment in favour of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for them to possess the kingdom” (Daniel 7:21-22; cf. Revelation 11:7; 13:7).

In both manifestations of ‘beast’ supremacy — in John’s time and in the ‘Endtimes’ — the people are ‘gaslit’ with bogus claims. In John’s day, if you had criticised the regime, its supporters would have said, “But they are building amazing roads and bringing you peace and security. If you do not dissent, you will be looked after”. When the ‘beast’ system really hits the fan again globally in the future, if you were to criticise the regime, it’s supporters will say, “But they are improving medical intervention, plugging you into an electronic system which brings you peace and security. If you do not dissent, you will be looked after”. It’s always the same. Satanic beastliness masquerades as safety and sanctuary for the gullible. It always has.

Such is the nature of the ‘beast’.  That ‘beast’ existed in John’s day, and he experienced it first-hand by being exiled to the Isle of Patmos because of his testimony about Jesus (Revelation 1:9). Most of the other Apostles had been martyred and lost their lives for the faith because of the ‘beast’ and its adherents.  If the ‘beast’ existed in John’s day, then so also did the ‘mark’ of it. As I have previously written about extensively, the ‘mark of the beast’ signifies what marks out those who will deny Christ and who have made their allegiance to rapacious satanic godlessness as exemplified in the world-system and earthly kingdom which Satan seeks to establish. It is a spiritual mark and it marks you out for the ‘second death’, consignment to hell (Revelation 14:9-11).

So I ask you as a disciple of Christ, “Are you willing to die for your discipleship to the Lamb, having His name and His Father’s name written symbolically on your forehead (Revelation 7:2-3; 14:1)? Or will you instead be marked by the ‘beast’ ‘on your forehead’ [i.e. in your thoughts and through your worldview], or ‘your right hand’ [i.e. through your actions]” (Revelation 13:16-17)? If you are a genuine disciple then there is no contest. You would rather be put to death than renounce your Christ. But many false disciples of Christ, pseudo-Christians, false teachers, false apostles, false prophets, “zizania” (tares, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) will be revealed for who and what they are when the axe falls and the ‘beast’ comes into the ascendancy once more.

There is a straight choice in this “evil age”, at all stages of it: One is either marked by the ‘beast’ (enslaved to Satan and his manifestations on earth) or sealed by the Lamb (devoted to God manifested in the flesh). That is the choice. There can be no neutrality. One may think that one can ‘hedge one’s bets’, but the time is coming when people’s true hearts will be revealed. Are you ready for that?

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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