The Book of Revelation - Part 19 - Two Beasts

Revelation 13 is undoubtedly the most troubling to some people most because of verse 18 and the 666 thing. That is not what is most troubling to me. What is most troubling to me is who these or what these beasts represent. It is not as easy as you might think.

What gets interesting here is most people's interpretations. For the most part these symbolic representations can either represent persons or political entities or both and the problem is I believe the symbolism is deliberately designed to conceal these things to all but those who understand the symbolism. The problem is those that probably would have understood it are long dead.

What's left; I mean, what can we then know?
1. Neither of these beasts are good guys. They defy God and worship Satan (The Dragon).
2. Secondly there is a hierarchy in this relationship: The Dragon over the Beast from the Sea; The Beast of the Sea over the Beast from the Earth. A kind of unholy trinity.
3. They are on a mission to destroy the saints and exalt the Devil.
4. They have real spiritual power.
5. The have both political and economic power.

The whole number of the beast issue has lead some to believe that the Beast is every thing from Nero to George W. Bush. The problem is that the people who would have truly understood this are dead and so what ever it will be or is, I think will be made apparent when genocide is declared. What the actual number 'is', has been speculated to be anything from micro chips to tattoos. No hard clad answer on any point is really available as all we really can do is speculate. It does make for good Chrisitan science fiction but it is all completely specualtive.

Next: The 144,000 Return