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October 9, 2011 |
| Beasts and Heads and Horns, Oh My! | ||
The book of Revelation and Daniel's visions are full of beasts with various heads and horns. This lesson provides an introduction to understanding the symbolism in these books. This lesson does not attempt to interpret the symbolism. Interpretation is very difficult and subject to human error. For example everyone wants to try to find a way to interpret the symbols into our current society, but it is entirely possible that the thing described symbolically doesn't exist yet.
So the value in this lesson will be in learning how deep the symbolism goes and the common elements in it.
The fundamental assumption in understanding the symbolism is that it is consistent. Therefore, a horn in one place means the same thing as a horn in another place. Without this assumption the symbolism would be impenetrable; there would be no way to have any understanding of the book.
There is also an important rule to follow – the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In his context this phrase means that symbols are not always fully described and we cannot assume that if a symbol is not described that it isn't there. For example, if someone describes a kingdom without describing its king, that is not evidence that it has no king.
These are some of the symbolic elements that appear frequently enough that they can be understood or which are explained in the scripture itself.1
Woman – a woman symbolizes God's people or a subgroup of God's people. This can include God's people in a fallen state. The basis for the use of a woman this way comes from our understanding of the concept of the "Bride of Christ". This symbol is one the easiest to understand because it can only be Jews, Christians, or both.
Beasts – a beast symbolizes a kingdom of man. There is also some evidence that it is a kingdom of kingdoms. That is, it has merged or conquered other kingdoms.
Heads on Beasts – a head symbolizes a sub-division within the kingdom.
Horns on Heads on Beasts – a horn symbolizes the leader.
The Sea, Water – the sea symbolizes a group of people. Water is similar but probably a subgroup of the Sea.
Now we'll try to apply this understanding to Revelation chapter 17.
1 And one of the seven Angels who had with them the seven vessels, came and spoke with me saying, "Follow me; I shall show you the judgment of The Harlot who sits on many waters,"
2 "For the Kings of The Earth committed fornication with her and all Earth dwellers are drunk with the wine of her fornication."
It's important to try to understand everything from God's point of view. Therefore, fornication refers to spiritual fornication, but it is physical fornication that helps us understand spiritual fornication. The subject is always the symbolic woman, the Bride of Christ. Therefore spiritual fornication is a spiritual unity between the Bride of Christ and another spirit. Spiritual fornication exhibits itself in the physical world as God's people not being separate from the world. This could be everything from agreements to work together in unholy ways to incorporation of false beliefs.
Harlot means the same thing as prostitute. Again we understand this in a spiritual way by understanding physical prostitution. Therefore spiritual prostitution is the exchange what is special and good for things that are common and improper.
We understand waters to be peoples and the phrase "sits on many waters" should be understood as "affects many peoples."
The word "drunk" also needs to be understood in a spiritual way. It refers to spiritual confusion.
So the complete message above is that the Bride of Christ is going to receive judgment because she has been prostituting herself and entering into relationships she should not have been in. As a result she has confused the many peoples of the world.
3 And he brought me to the wilderness in The Spirit, and I saw a woman who sat on a blood-red beast full of blasphemous names, which had seven heads and ten horns.
This beast is described in more detail in Revelation 13, so we won't go into it in detail. We can see that it has 7 sub-divisions within it but the curious thing is that it has 10 leaders. That would seem to be 3 more than needed but it probably means that 3 of the leaders run the organization as a whole.
The important thing to this lesson is that she sits on this beast, meaning that she has some effect on it or control over it.
But now we will skip ahead to verses 9 and 10 where an angel is explaining the meaning, or actually compounding meanings. In this case some of the symbols have multiple meanings that would not be discovered without someone to describe them.
9 "[…] the seven heads are seven mountains, upon which The Woman sits."
10 "And there are seven Kings; five have fallen and one is, and there is another not yet come, and when he comes, a little remaining time is given to him."
The angel is saying that the seven heads also indicate that the woman sits on seven mountains. Most people take this to be a physical location. If so, this is not as helpful as one might think because many cities claim to be built on seven hills2
The angel also says that the seven heads also represent seven kings, but these are different from the ten horn-kings. These seven are a view through history of kings leading up to the Beast.
Now we go back to the description of the woman
4 And the woman was wearing purple and scarlet gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls and had a cup of gold in her hand, and it was full of abominations and the filth of her fornication.
Purple and scarlet are symbols of royalty. Gold and precious stones are symbols of wealth. So we see the Bride of Christ adorned as royalty and with great wealth.
A cup and what it holds is a symbol that was used also by Jesus3. The meaning is "the events in a person's future". In Jesus case that future was given him by the Father. In the case of this woman it is her choice. Therefore the cup in her hand likely indicates that she plans to continue in her evil ways, i.e. unrepentant.
5 And upon her forehead was written: "Mystery Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and of the Filth of The Earth."
The meaning of Mystery is debated. The original text had no punctuation so it isn't even clear if it is saying "Mystery Babylon the Great" or "Mystery, Babylon the Great".
Babylon is a symbol of spiritual wickedness. Its use this way comes from the time Israel spent in Babylonian captivity and we see an example of it used symbolically in 1 Peter 5:13 when he almost certainly is not referring to the literal Babylon.
Another important characteristic of the Bride of Christ is given here. She is the mother of Harlots. That is, she has given birth to other prostitutes. Note that these prostitutes are also women and therefore the Bride of Christ. They have come out of her as children and are just like her.
You may think that this results in multiple Brides of Christ. It does not; there can only be one. Perhaps it would be clearer to think of these daughters as being subgroups of the Bride in the same way that the heads of a Beast are subgroups of the beast. The point of this part of the description is to give us another identifying characteristic – others no better than her came out of her.
6 And I saw the woman who was drunk with the blood of The Holy Ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Yeshua, and I was stunned with a great astonishment when I saw her.
The Bride of Christ has been doing some killin'. She has killed the elect and those who witness for Jesus. Including both the elect and the witnesses seems odd because the elect should also be witnesses for Jesus. Oddities like this in prophecy often indicate there is something more or deeper being said.
But the killing that is referred to here is probably also spiritual killing rather than physical killing. God is much more interested in the second death than the first.
Now we jump ahead to the angel who provides more information about the woman that we couldn't have gotten from the symbolism
18 "And The Woman which you saw is that Great City, which has rule over the Kings of The Earth."
The angel also brings a special message.
8 "[…] And the inhabitants on Earth will marvel, whose names are not written in The Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see The Beast which was, and is not, and is approaching."
Those people whose names are written in the Book of Life will not marvel at the beast. They will know it for what it is because they have been warned in this scripture and others.
The angel concludes by describing the fate of the Harlot.
16 "And the ten horns that you saw on The Beast will hate The Harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will devour her flesh and will burn her in fire."
17 "For God gave into their hearts to perform his pleasure and to do their one purpose and will give their Kingdom to that Beast until the words of God are fulfilled."
Then in chapter 18 the entire chapter is devoted to describing the destruction of the Harlot. In that chapter we see additional clues about the characteristics of the Harlot.
1 And after these things I saw another Angel from Heaven, who had great authority, and The Earth was brightened by his glory.
2 And he shouted with a great voice: "Fallen, fallen, Babylon the Great! And it is become the abode for Demons and a prison to every impure and detestable spirit." 3 "Because she mixed of the wine of her fornication for all the nations, and the Kings of The Earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of The Earth have become rich by the power of her infatuation."
4 And I heard another voice from Heaven that said, "Come out from within her my people, lest you share in her sins, that you would not receive from her plagues."
5 "Because the sins in her have touched Heaven, and God has called her evil to mind."
6 "Pay her just as she also has paid, and give her double for her deeds. In the cup which she has mixed, mix her a double".
7 "Because of that in which she glorified and exalted herself, give such suffering and sorrow, for she said in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and I am not a widow and I shall not see sorrow."4
8 "Because of this, in one day there will come upon her plagues, death, sorrow, and starvation, and she will burn in fire, because the Lord Jehovah is powerful who judges her."
9 And the Kings of The Earth, who committed fornication with her and exalted themselves, will weep and wail concerning her, when they see the smoke of her burning, 10 As they stand opposite from fear of her punishment, and they will say, "Woe, woe, woe, the great city Babylon! The Mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come!"
11 And the merchants of The Earth will weep and grieve over her, and there is no one buying their cargo again:
12 Cargo of gold and silver and of precious stones, of fine linen, of purple, of silk, of scarlet, of every fragrant wood and every ivory vessel, every precious wooden vessel, and brass, iron and marble,
13 Cinnamon, spices, ointments, frankincense, wine, oil, fine white flour, sheep, horses, chariots and the bodies and souls of the children of men.
14 And your own pleasant fruits have departed from you, and everything luxurious and splendid is gone from you and you will not see them again."
15 And the merchants of these things, who grew rich by her, will not find them, and they will stand opposite from fear of her punishment, weeping and lamenting,
16 And saying, "Alas, alas, the great city that wore fine linen and purple and scarlet guilt in gold and precious stones and pearls!
17 For the wealth is lost in one hour!" In this way also, every ship Navigator, everyone traveling in a ship to places, and the ship Captains, and everyone who does business at sea, stood from a distance,
18 And they lamented her when they saw the smoke of her burning and they were saying, "Who is like The Great City?"
19 And they cast earth upon their heads and shouted as they wept and lamented and they were saying, "Alas, alas, Great City, by which those who had ships in the sea grew rich from her magnificence, which is destroyed in one hour!"
20 "Rejoice over her, Oh Heaven, Holy Ones, Apostles and Prophets, because God has executed your judgment upon her!"
21 And one of the Angels took a mighty stone, great as a millstone, and cast it into the sea and said, "In this way with violence, Babylon The Great City will be thrown down, and it will not exist again!"
22 ‘And the sound of stringed instruments and of trumpets and the various singers and shouting will not be heard in you again!"
23 "And the light of a lamp will not appear to you again, and the voice of a groom and the voice of a bride will not be heard in you again, because your merchants had been great ones of The Earth, for by your sorceries you deceived all the nations!"
24 And in her was found the blood of the Prophets and Holy Men who were murdered on Earth.
Addition: Ship Navigator – The Roman Catholic Church calls itself the "Barque of St. Peter" where a barque is a kind of boat - Stan
There are many different views on the identity of the harlot. So, who is she?
Now, with your new skill at understanding the symbols, consider this verse from chapter 13 that describes the false prophet.
11 And I saw another Beast that ascended from the ground, and it had two horns and was like The Lamb and was speaking like The Dragon.
What does each of these mean?
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
6 "If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
1 http://www.bibleprophecytruth.com/topics/keys-to-bible-symbols.aspx
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_claimed_to_be_built_on_seven_hills
3 Matthew alone has 20:22,23 23:25 26:39,42
4 Isaiah 47 has many of these same elements but is plainly speaking of the literal Babylon (and Zephaniah 2:13-15)