We will spend the next several sections in Revelation 13 where we have some very interesting and fascinating details during the Tribulation Period. From Revelation 13-19, the key character is what we call the antichrist. I have mentioned before that the antichrist is never called the antichrist in the New Testament or the Old Testament. He is called the beast out of the sea and various other names such as the man of lawlessness. However, we know him best by the term antichrist so that is what we will go with. As we look at Revelation 13 we find two beasts. The first one we believe is the antichrist.
Revelation 13:1 says, “And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore,” remember that the dragon is the devil. “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.” This beast comes out of the sea. There have been considerable conjectures as to the meaning of “coming out of the sea.” Some think that means coming out of the sea of humanity, others believe this is a picture of possibly coming out of the abyss. Maybe it is simply a distinction between this beast and the second one. Either way, this beast is coming out of the sea of iniquity or evilness. So, we don’t really know exactly what this phrase means. What we do know is that with the picture of his horns and his heads and his diadems, although not identical to what we see back in Revelation 12:3 concerning the devil, it is very, very similar. Therefore, we know right up front this is the devil’s man. It will become much clearer throughout the chapter. This is Satan’s person. He was sent by the devil to do his work.
We find in Revelation 13:2, “And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.” We see these metaphors and pictures of ferocious beasts that depict what the antichrist is like. We can go a little further than that though. These are the same kind of beasts mentioned in the book of Daniel that describe the empires of that time: the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Greek Empire. Looking at the scriptures in Daniel, we can say that this is somehow rolling together all of these great empires of the past and he is going to take on the manifestations and ferociousness and evilness of those empires of ancient times. There is a connection there to some degree.
