Revelation 13

This is sort of a climax here. The beast comes out of the sea. He has ten horns and seven heads.

I really do not have a handle on this. Perhaps too many distractions right now.

In verse 3 one of the heads is killed but then comes to life. Perhaps this is a parody of Jesus' death and resurrection. Anyway this sign causes people to worship this beast.

He is given authority for 3 1/2 years. We think of a Beast like "Beauty and the Beast" a awful looking monster like thing, perhaps like Chewbacca. Both these beasts that speak were good hearted. But I think the beast might be the opposite - good looking but evil. It would be sort of the opposite of those two modern fictional characters.

Call it my paranoia but I suspect the Beauty and the Beast send up was done conscious of the Revelation image. It was a sort of to make a mockery of it. Perhaps people who love this play/movie will object to this. The Beast with a good heart is a great image, even romantic. Still I think the intention of the writers originally was impious. That does not mean it cannot be used for good.

That's a weird aside. But this is a serious problem. We often do admire the wrong things. This beast that does amazing signs and speaks with tremendous authority is often wrongly worshiped. On can think of Hitler in the 20th century and Napoleon in the 18th (?) century. Both spoke with authority and had great followings.

But John certainly had Roman authority in mind here. Perhaps even specifically the head that died but then came back to life could refer to Nero who killed himself but whose policies were mimicked by Domitian. The heads could refer to successive Roman emperors.

The emperors were considered like gods and they were worshiped in temples. Those who did not worship were persecuted and sometimes killed.

But we are told to consider the fruits of such men/beasts. We will know when Jesus returns and be the one who is truly worthy of worship. We will not have to guess. We must not be distracted by great signs. Hitler resurrected the German economy and created great things like superhighways and automobiles. I am not sure what signs Napoleon did. The Romans continued to keep the peace and also build great roads and aqueducts. It was considered miraculous at the time. But it was not worthy of worship.