The Beast is briefly mentioned in other books of the Bible:
“And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:14–15).
“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered; … Surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it” (Genesis 9:1–5).
If we read superficially, it seems that God will judge animals that cause harm to humans (for example, a bear attacks someone). But will God really judge the unreasonable animals? In the Hebrew text, the word refers to simply animals (חַי), living creatures. However, in the Septuagint, the word חַי is not translated as usual—as animals (ζώον)—but as a wild, fierce beast (θηρίον). It may be that the text is not talking about the animals roaming the fields and forests, but about beasts that later in the Bible are symbols pointing to a form of the devil. And the devil and his followers will indeed be judged by God.
“O God, my King from old, working salvation in the midst of the earth! Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the head of Leviathan, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness” (Psalm 73:12–14).
Tanim, in the plural, is a synonym for Behemoth.
“For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet” (Psalm 91:11–13).
“Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; Thou hast scattered Thine enemies with Thy strong arm” (Psalm 88:10,11).
“This great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom Thou hast made to play therein” (Psalm 104:25,26).
“Save me from the lion's mouth: for Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns” (Psalm 22:22).
“And the Lord commanded the great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord! And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:1–11).
“The story of Jonah is important for us because it turns out that the devil – and specifically the great fish, or whale – is one of the biblical signs of the devil, and it can swallow a person, and that person can live within the devil. This concept will be developed further.
“Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers” (Ezekiel 32:2).
“In that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1).
“Since God strikes the whole Satanic trinity with the sword, it most likely refers to the first coming, the resurrection of the Messiah, and the rise of the Christian Church. At that time, the Beast will receive a mortal wound in one of its heads. However, the general context of the narrative suggests more of a massacre, and in the context, this is closer to the 19th chapter of John where Christ with the sword strikes many.
“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old! Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?” (Isaiah 51:9–10).
“I have set the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it” (Jeremiah 5:22).
Separately, we must consider what is written about the Beast in the book of Job.
First, Job speaks of the devil as a fallen angel. Job writes both about the great fish and about Lucifer as the morning star. Job has the most developed teaching about the devil in the Old Testament. However, we are interested in what Job says about the incarnations of the devil, particularly the Beast’s equivalent—Leviathan.
This is discussed in chapters 40 and 41 of the book of Job. First, a bit is said about Behemoth. Behemoth בְּהֵמוֹת is the plural form of בְּהֵמָה, meaning beast, cattle, or animal. The Greek translation of this word is θηρία, the plural of Θηριον, meaning a wild, fierce beast. A simple animal in Greek is ζωον. It is the word Θηριον that John and the translators of Daniel use to describe the apocalyptic beasts. So, one of the names for the devil in Job is Behemoth—"the beasts," and in chapter 40, the triadic (threefold) nature of the devil is described, along with certain traits of the devil in general and of Leviathan in particular.
Starting from verse 24 of chapter 40, the devil in the book of Job finally takes on a distinct form. It is no longer the fallen angel, the morning star, the great whale in the abyss, or the "beasts" of Behemoth. From here, the focus shifts to something winding and twisting (interestingly, Isaiah makes a distinction between beasts: one twists, and the other walks straight). Not only does the name change, but the subject of the story also changes. In the book of Job, we begin to describe the internal structure of the creature named Leviathan. The description of Leviathan then moves on to the depiction of its structure, components, system, and attributes. Thus, paradoxically, as in the Apocalypse, a structural aspect begins to be introduced into the personality of the devil. This is the most important part for us.
Here, we will mainly quote from the book of Job in the Greek translation, as the Hebrew text has been significantly "adjusted."
Job 40:15–32 —
15 “However, behold, the beasts (Behemoth) are before you. He eats grass along with the oxen.
16 His strength is in his loins, and his power is in the muscles of his belly.
17 He makes his tail like a cedar tree, and the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
18 His bones are like tubes of bronze; his limbs like iron bars.
19 He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword.
20 Surely the mountains bring him food, where all the beasts of the field play.
21 He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed and the marsh.
22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him.
23 If the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is confident though the Jordan swells up to his mouth.
24 He will not be caught by the eye; he will be pierced through with a dart.
25 Will you catch him with a hook, or tie his tongue with a rope?
26 Will you put a rope through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?
27 Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you?
28 Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?
29 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you bind him for your maidens?
30 Will the traders bargain for him? Will they divide him among the merchants?
31 Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?
32 Lay your hand on him; remember the battle; you will not do it again.”
Job (41:1–26) —
1 "Do you know him? Do you marvel at what has been said?
2 Are you not terrified by what I have prepared? Who has opposed Me?
3 Or who will stand against Me and endure, when all that is under heaven is Mine?
4 Because of him I will not keep silent, and My word of power will show mercy to those who are equal to him.
5 Who will uncover his face that covers him? Who can enter the gaps in his armor?
6 Who will open his mouth for him? His teeth are full of terror.
7 His body is covered with shields of brass, and his strength is like stone.
8 He cleaves to his own kind, and no spirit can pass through him.
9 His brothers are fastened together, and they will not be separated.
10 His sneezing flashes like light. His eyes are like the dawn.
11 From his mouth come sparks of fire, and his breath spreads the fires.
12 His nostrils exhale smoke like a furnace burning coal,
13 his soul is full of coals, and flames come from his mouth.
14 Strength dwells in his neck, and destruction runs before him.
15 His flesh sticks to his body. (The Lord) pours His power on him, and he does not move.
16 His heart is hardened like stone, standing like a heavy anvil.
17 When he turns, he frightens the beasts that leap across the earth.
18 If spears meet him, they will do him no harm; neither will his armor or weapons.
19 He regards iron as straw and brass as rotting wood.
20 A bronze bow will not wound him. He regards sling stones as hay.
21 He counts hammers as straw and laughs at the firestorm.
22 His bed is made of sharp iron blades. All the gold of the sea is beneath him like dust.
23 He boils the deep like a bronze pot and considers the sea as his flask.
24 He treats the deep like a captive, and he considers it his playground.
25 There is nothing on earth like him, made to be mocked by My angels.
26 He sees all that is high, and is the king of all that moves on the waters."
Now, based on the text of the Bible and its initial commentary, we can begin to understand the meaning of the Beast.
Job, Isaiah, and John show us that the devil manifests in history in three forms or incarnations: the Fallen Angel-spirit, the devil in the form of a man, and the Beast with seven heads and ten horns, called Leviathan by Job and Isaiah, and the First Beast by John.
In this work, we have already examined this issue superficially. However, during the process, we encountered several problems that stopped our thought, primarily the riddle of the Beast with heads and horns. It's too big of an issue and there are too many contradictions. However, it is this Beast with heads and horns, or in other words, the First Beast, that John focuses the most attention on, placing it at the center of the events of the last days. It is this First Beast that wages war against the Church, almost defeating it. It is this Beast that kills the last two prophets. It is this Beast that is healed from a mortal wound. And, it is this Beast that overcomes the limitation set by God for it. It is upon this Beast that the Babylonian Whore sits. The entire world will be compelled to worship this Beast by receiving a mark. The First Beast is the central mystery of the Apocalypse.
So, how does Scripture name these incarnations of the devil?
Satan as the Fallen Angel
Genesis: the serpent
John: the red dragon, the serpent, the devil, Satan
Job: Rahab, the dragon, Behemoth, the great fish (great whale)
Isaiah: the sea dragon, son of the dawn (Lucifer)
Psalms: Rahab, the dragon, the asp (poisonous snake)
Ezekiel: the sea/rivers dragon
Jonah: the great fish
Daniel: the beasts
The Devil in the Bible, as a fallen angel, is depicted through four distinct symbols:
A terrestrial reptile: dragon, serpent, asp
The planet Venus (Lucifer)
A monster (tannin, rahab, great fish) dwelling in hell, the abyss, the sea, or the river (sea being a symbol of the abyss-hell)
Fierce beasts in the plural: tanniyn, behemoth
There are also other symbols—unicorn, lion, eagle, bird-catcher, etc. Some of these symbols relate to both God and the devil.
The devil, as a fallen angel, tries to imitate God. God—Yahweh Elohim. The proper name—Yahweh and Elohim (gods in the plural) indicates that God is multiple, more precisely, three Persons. Similarly, the devil is often named in the plural: tanniyn, Behemoth. The devil also has three "hypostases."
Incarnation of the Devil in the World as a Human Person - Antichrist
Job: the destroyer who runs
Paul: the son of destruction
Isaiah: Leviathan, walking and running
Daniel: the lion with a human heart
John: the second beast with horns like a lamb, the false prophet, Antichrist
Incarnation of the Devil in the World as the Beast-Leviathan
Job: Leviathan, sometimes Behemoth
Daniel: the arrogant Horn, possibly connected to the unicorn beast
John: the First Beast with seven heads and ten horns
Isaiah: the twisting Leviathan
Psalms: Leviathan
However, what is the essence and mystery of this "Arrogant Horn," "Beast," "Leviathan," or "Twisting Leviathan," which shares a root with the devil and the Antichrist, yet carries a unique meaning?
Let's examine this step by step.
The Nature of the Beast
The description of the Beast in the Bible is somewhat contradictory. This contradiction complicates our understanding of such a phenomenon as the Beast. Moreover, the contradiction lies not in different portrayals of the Beast in various parts of the Bible, but in the fact that the contradictions are embedded in certain books. Within the books of John, Daniel, and Job, each presents these contradictions.
The first contradiction concerns the location and activity of the Beast. John, Daniel, and Job write that the Beast comes from the abyss/sea/waters. God has confined the kingdom of the devil to the sea’s abyss, and the devil can only influence the earth from there, in forms and boundaries defined by God. On the other hand, John, Daniel, and Job also tell us that the Beast will be on the earth. Moreover, it will reign on earth and reach its triumph there.
The second contradiction concerns the ways of worshipping the Beast. On one hand, it seems like political subjugation, while on the other, it is religious worship.
Finally, the third and most complex contradiction involves the nature of the Beast. In the biblical descriptions, the Beast appears as either a person or an animal. The Beast is alive, with legs, skin, a tail, a mouth, heads, and horns. The Beast will be judged and punished, even executed in the same way as a person. The Beast will be worshipped, and an image of the Beast will be made, to which people will bow. On the other hand, its images are unmistakable symbols not of an individual but of a community structure—primarily a kingdom. The Beast, horn, and head are universal biblical signs pointing to a kingdom.
Let's highlight right away that everything regarding the Beast's activity on earth has a global character. The Beast is a universal kingdom. Therefore, any interpretations that suggest the Beast represents non-global structures or individuals are either gross mistakes or deliberate disinformation.
Let’s start a bit further back. The Book of Jonah tells us something very interesting: it turns out that the devil can swallow a person, and the person remains alive. Jonah, a man of God, ended up in the belly of the sea monster—the devil—and prayed to God for help. But how would an atheist, a sinner, or an ungodly person behave in that situation?
Late Renaissance views on the devil depict him as one large personality made up of many people. For example, consider the famous Leviathan by Hobbes, in which the state is a person, a structure, and a union of people.
This early intuition did not arise in a vacuum, but rather as a result of interpreting the description of Leviathan in the Book of Job. The Book of Job develops this idea on a serious level, offering certain concepts.
I. Leviathan is a Community of People
Leviathan is a community of people, both political and religious: “…his unity (σύνδεσμος) will humble him like a stone. One sticks to another. The spirit cannot penetrate him. A man will stick to his brother. They are sustained together, and will not be torn apart” (Job 41:7–9).
As we see, Leviathan is a certain unity, a union, σύνδεσμος (unity, union, bond, connection, fastening). It is not known what this "stone of humility" is, but from the context, it is clear that this union, this fastening, is very strong. The Church, in Greek, is "ekklesia," literally, "a called assembly." But Leviathan is a fastening, a binding. But a fastening of whom and of what nature?
"One sticks to another." The Bible, written in an extremely personal language, also includes ways of depicting structures with a high level of personal degradation (for example, the description of the Tower of Babel). The phrase "one with another" is analogous to "they" concerning the builders of the Tower of Babel. In Biblical language, avoiding mentioning a name or any human characteristics, limiting it only to a pronoun, indicates a strong degradation of these people.
However, it is further explained who "they" are—they are people who "stick to one another as a man sticks to his brother." The word "stick" (דָּבַק) is first heard in Adam's declaration: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).
Such cleaving is the union of a man and a woman into one flesh. Likewise, the union of God and man in the Bible is often portrayed as a marriage relationship: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31–32).
Here, too, it seems to be a marriage relationship, but perverted—a man to his brother, which is a hint at sodomy. Accordingly, religious relations are also distorted. Since the marriage term is used, it means that in Leviathan there is a perverted, religious union of people. Moreover, the Spirit of God will not penetrate this union. So what spirit does this perverted religious union of people in Leviathan live by?
"In his sneezing, light rises, his eyes are like the morning star" (Lucifer, the Morning Star) (Job 41:10). Eyes are the mirror of the soul. Lucifer—that is the spirit of the religious bond of people in Leviathan.
Let's continue reading Job: "Flesh with flesh in his body, they stick to each other. (The Lord) pours upon him, and he does not move" (Job 41:15). Leviathan has a body, which is made up of people in the flesh (but again, the word "people" is not directly mentioned to emphasize the total degradation of their personality). Where have we seen this before? In Apostle Paul's teaching on the Church:
"For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (Romans 12:4–5); "Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Cor. 6:19); "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (1 Cor. 12:12–13); "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17).
Leviathan is the "anti-church." That is, here we have both the person—Satan—and his body, the people, united together. But everything is upside down. In the Church, each member is unique, valuable, has their own place and purpose, and, like in marital relations, remains in a spiritual union with God. In Leviathan, everything is the opposite. All are the same, their identities erased, there are no individual members of the Beast’s body (they are all impersonally referred to as "flesh"). There is no talk of any special place for each member: everyone is intertwined, like in the sinful sodomite act. Consequently, the religious union with Satan is a perversion of Christianity, a religion of inversion. This is the true church of Satan, not a cosplay of LaVey or similar figures.
Job, in the light of Paul’s theology, reveals the most difficult mystery of the Beast. The story of Job took place long before the emergence of not only the Christian Church, but even the Old Testament Church of Moses. Yet it describes the events of the Last Times. This shows the remarkable coherence of the Bible.
However, the Beast-Leviathan has three "advantages" over the Church of Christ.
First, the Church is an assembly of free individuals. Each person is unique, has their own place and purpose, and each is free. Therefore, any evil spirit can approach any member of the Church and tempt them to leave. But it is impossible to leave Leviathan. The Spirit of God cannot penetrate there. Leviathan is not a union of free individuals but a bond, a quarrel, a mixture of degraded, dehumanized people. God pours His Spirit on all: "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh" (Joel 2:28), but the outpouring of the Spirit on Leviathan has no effect. If a person has already become part of Leviathan, it is too late.
Second, the Church is a religious community, and if secular activities do not interfere with religion, the Church has no particular concern with them. A person—a member of the Church—lives their personal life. But in the Beast-Leviathan, there is nothing personal, which means it is utterly totalitarian ("all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave" (Revelation 13:16)). Outside of Leviathan, a person has nothing, because now the Beast is both the person and humanity—it is the union of the religious and the secular. That is why, for Job, Leviathan is primarily a religious entity, while for John, it is a kingdom—a political entity.
However, Job makes an interesting remark: "All the gold of the sea is under him like the untold dirt." The gold of the sea (since the sea was used for trade) refers to circulating money—the financial system. So, under the Beast is the entire global economy. The Beast is everything: religion, politics, economy, culture, the information sphere, etc. The Beast is humanity. There will be the devil-Antichrist as a person and the devil-Leviathan as humanity.
Third, inside Leviathan, there is constant enmity. Man is a wolf to man. But this internal conflict, unlike internal church disputes, does not weaken the Beast; rather, it strengthens it. Internal enmity is one of the bonds of Leviathan, which is quite a paradox. In the Hebrew text of Job, the phrase "one with another they cleave" is written as "they approach one another" (יִגַּ֑שׁוּ) in the imperfect tense, which can mean a repetitive, continuous action. In other words, there is a permanent process—decay as a result of internal war, but immediately, everything returns to the union: "Will you lay a hand upon him, remembering the battle that is in his body, and he shall be no more?" (Job 40:32).
It is naive to think that, since there is conflict among the cogs and knots of Leviathan, one can use it to play the game and defeat the Beast. That very conflict only strengthens it. Even if in the abyss Satan and his demons began to fight, it would weaken their forces: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?" (Matt. 12:25–26). But in Leviathan, the devil incarnated in humanity, division does not weaken him. So, let not the strife among the children of this world deceive us—it leads not to division, but to even greater unity within the body of Leviathan. Probably, the rules of the game in the Beast are set up in such a way that no matter how much you fight, everyone will still pull in the same direction.
Now that we understand the basic structure of the Beast, we can resolve the third contradiction.
Here is what Job says: "He boils the abyss like a bronze pot, considers the sea as a flask, and the Tartar of the abyss as a prisoner. He considers the abyss as a place for walks. There is nothing on earth like him" (Job 41:23–25).
In Daniel: "Four great beasts came up from the sea" (Daniel 7:3); "These great beasts, which are four, [mean] that four kings shall arise from the earth" (Daniel 7:17).
This is a clear contradiction—does the Beast come from the sea or from the earth? The explanation is in John: "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority" (Revelation 13:1–3).
So, the Beast is of the sea, but comes onto the earth. John even sees the process of how the Beast-Leviathan rises from the sea to the earth. However, we immediately face a fundamental problem. John doesn't simply write that he stands upon the sand of the sea: "I have set the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it" (Jeremiah 5:22); "When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed" (Job 38:8–11); "But the morning star knows his place" (Job 38:12).
God has set the boundaries of the power of the devil in the abyss—the sea—and he will not pass them. But how did he end up on the earth?
Being limited by the abyss, Satan, as an angel, cannot triumph on earth by himself. But he can triumph in those who are made from the earth, from the dust of the earth: in man, as the Beast-Antichrist, and in humanity, as in the kingdom and "church" of the Beast-Leviathan. With the help of people, Satan will be able to overcome the limitations imposed on him by God Himself! The devil cannot cross the boundary set by God on his own, no matter how enraged he may be, but people will take him across that boundary, and through them, he will cross it. The Beast will not appear in an instant— it is a process and an evolution (we will discuss this more later).
So, we see how to resolve the contradictions in the description of the Beast-Leviathan. The Beast is a personality, because it is governed by the spirit of the personality, Satan-Lucifer. But the Beast is also a structure, as it is made up of people who have surrendered themselves to Lucifer in irreversible slavery. The Beast is also a religion. It is organized according to the church principle, but it is also secular, because it is totalitarian and everything related to human life is subordinated to it: politics, culture, science, and the economy. And finally, the Beast is from the sea, because the sea abyss is the dwelling place of the evil angel-Satan, and at the same time, it is on earth and of the earth, because its body consists of earthly people.
II. The Material Nature of Leviathan.
What is the "fuel" of the Beast on earth?
The serpent, having tempted the first humans, was punished by God with the limitation of matter: "thou shalt go upon thy belly, and thou shalt eat dust all the days of thy life" (Genesis 3:14). The devil is limited to matter, and it is only through material means that he can tempt and enslave man. Similarly, in the Book of Job, Behemoth: "He eats grass like oxen." The serpent eats dust, Behemoth eats grass; and under Leviathan, lies the entire economy. Leviathan is made up of people not as individuals but as mere flesh, which is a synonym for matter.
In fact, Job emphasizes the material nature of Leviathan: "His heart is as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone." "His ribs are like bars of iron; his back is made of cast iron" (Job 41:24).
Daniel also writes about the fierce fourth beast: "which was different from all the others, and very terrifying, with iron teeth and bronze claws, it devoured and crushed, and trampled the rest with its feet" (Daniel 7:19). Its fierceness is material—iron and bronze.
How do different members come together in one Christian body? By the Holy Spirit. The Spirit acts in each member, leading to unity. But in Leviathan, it is the flesh that acts. Human materialistic, carnal desires bind people together in the body of Leviathan-Beast. Christians are united through the Spirit, which is beyond material. The devil cannot do this, and instead, he imitates the union by the Spirit of Christians in the Body of Christ with the union by the flesh in the devil's body. The Beast-Leviathan is the earthly, materialistic, carnal counterpart of the Church.
Here’s what Paul says about the spirit and the flesh: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:16–23).
The devil is the prince of matter, and yet is bound by matter. And since man, although through sin, has gained a tendency to rely on the material, he has also received the ability to resist and reject the material temptations of the devil through the spirit and mind. Thus, the devil, through all his activity toward man, uses matter—more precisely, the material Matrix—to try to replace the spirit and mind in man (more on this in a separate article).
The key characteristic of the First Beast is that its "body" consists of many people, linked together by various, yet all material, carnal ties: power, physical strength, commodity-money relationships, and finally, the information network. Essentially, it is precisely for these connections that this Matrix is designed.
III. The Technological Nature of Leviathan - Network
We have defined the general nature of the Beast-Leviathan as a binding of people based on the material. But what form, what method, is this binding? – Technological.
In John’s description of the Second Beast, the Antichrist, it is written: "And with the wonders that he was given power to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceives those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image of the beast, which had the wound by a sword and lived. And he was given power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed" (Revelation 13:14,15); "And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:16,17).
People must create something, some technology. The False Prophet will use electronic concentration camp technologies for all people on earth. In the direct descriptions of the Beast-Leviathan, technology is not mentioned much, but indirectly, it can be seen that everything there is literally filled with technology, information, and networks. In fact, all wicked structures in the world are always heavily dependent on technology. We raise this topic in detail in a separate article. Here, we will only point out the general technology of the binding in Leviathan.
Describing Behemoth, Job says: "His sinews are intertwined." Tendons in animals and humans are not intertwined but parallel (this is why people used them to make ropes and bowstrings). But for Behemoth, the tendons are strangely intertwined.
Even in the name of the Beast, Leviathan holds great meaning. Leviathan לִוְיָתָן "livyatan" – something that coils or twists. It comes from the words לָוָה "lava" (Aqal): 1. to accompany; to borrow, to take on loan. B(Ni): to join, to cling. E(Hi): to lend, to give a loan; participle lender; לִוְיַת "livyat" wreath, garland.
There is an interesting moment in the story of Jacob. Jacob loved his second wife, Rachel, but did not love Leah. Because of this, God withheld children from Rachel for a long time, while Leah bore many children: "And Leah conceived again and bore a son, and said, Now this time my husband will be joined לָוָה to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his name called Levi לֵוִֽי" (Genesis 29:34). The word לָוָה may have the context of joining, more precisely intertwining, binding.
Do you catch the connection? Here is the Tower of Babel with dead bricks as the new humanity. Here is the Kabbalistic Babylonian view of the world as an impersonal digital system and matrix. Here is the Beast—the world totalitarian kingdom. And here is Leviathan as a network. The network binds people into Leviathan.
In the Bible, the devil is often depicted as a bird catcher. The bird represents the soul of man, which the devil catches with a net. The sea creature also works with a net: "And you leave men like fish in the sea, like creatures that have no ruler? All of them are pulled with a hook, caught in his net, and taken in his dragnet, and from that he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his portion is fat and his food is luxurious. Is it for this that he empties his net and continually beats nations without mercy?" (Habakkuk 1:14-17).
Pay attention to what Habakkuk writes: “He sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet.” Leviathan performs religious service (sacrifices and incense offerings) to his technological instrument, which he uses to capture people. There is a connection between technology and religion. John also writes about this: people make something technological with their hands, in "the image of the beast," and then they worship it.
The devil, as an evil spirit, the dragon, catches souls in a net through temptations. How can this be realized in the material world? It could be an information network or a Matrix. And it revolves around the special image of Leviathan: for Hobbes, it is the devil in the form of a system made up of human souls; for Kurzweil, it is a transpersonal utopia, or the movie "Lucy."
IV. The Impermeability of Leviathan
Leviathan is a very strong, impenetrable creature. This is evident in the fact that:
The inner essence of the Beast, hidden behind its disguise and protection, cannot be seen by a person on their own: "Who can open his face, his covering? Who can go through his breastplate? Who can open the doors of his face (his mouth)?" (Job 41:5–6). In other words, who can remove the disguise and see the true face, the true essence of this creature? Everything we know about the Beast has been revealed to us by God in the Revelation (this is why we study the Scriptures), but a person cannot learn something through independent research.
The Beast cannot be frightened, softened, or bargained with: "Will he speak to you with words of supplication and request in meekness? Will he make a covenant with you?" (Job 40:27–28).
A person cannot enslave or control Leviathan-Beast: "Can you draw out leviathan with a hook? Or his tongue with a cord which you let down? Can you put a hook into his nose? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? Will thou take him for a servant forever? Will thou play with him as with a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" (Job 41:25–29). Even if all the forces of the earth are gathered, the Beast cannot be defeated: "They feed of him the nations? Do the Phoenician tribes divide him among themselves? All the creatures of the sea gather together, yet they cannot carry the skin of his tail. And all the fish in the sea cannot bear up his head" (Job 41:30–31). On the contrary, the Beast can easily defeat, capture, and enslave man.
However, a person can stand against the Beast on equal terms: "The word of power will show mercy to one who is equal to him" (Job 41:4). A person has a weapon against Leviathan—mental warfare. If a person remains steadfast against temptations, the seductions and intimidations of the devil, no Beast will enslave him by force. The strength of Christians is Christ—the Word on the Cross. A person is not given the power to defeat the Beast, but standing against him on equal terms is possible. Only God can defeat the Beast: "Hast thou seen him? Hast thou been astonished at what is said? Do you tremble at what is prepared for Me? Who has stood against Me? Or who will stand against Me and endure, if all that is under heaven is Mine?" (Job 41:1–3).
Physical, material strength is powerless against the Beast: "If the spears meet him, they will do nothing to him; the spear and armor are nothing to him, for he regards iron as straw, brass as rotten wood. The bow of brass will not harm him. He considers the slingstones as hay. He laughs at the thunder of the earth" (Job 41:18–21). Remember that the permanent internal war within the Beast does not weaken him, and it cannot be used to fight against him.
The Holy Spirit cannot enter the Beast, which means those who become part of the Beast are forever deprived of the Spirit and will perish. Those who become part of it can never escape. Once you connect to the network, the electrodes cannot be pulled out, and no red pill will be offered to escape the Matrix. Therefore, living in the networked world, it is important to remember that integration into it and using networks for Christian purposes (which is possible and necessary) can only continue as long as there is an exit, with the possibility to leave, to return. Once the exit begins to be blocked, one must withdraw from the network.
Now that we have an understanding of what Leviathan is—a high-tech church-state of Satan, made up of people—we can look at both its early Renaissance intuitions and its modern representations in philosophy, technology, and art from a different perspective.
How the Beast Acts in the World
The description of the events of the beasts in the 13th chapter of Revelation also follows a nonlinear, chiastic structure. First, there is a general, final conclusion: the world worships the Beast.
"And all the earth marveled and followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (Revelation 13:3–4).
It is somewhat easier to imagine how people will religiously worship the devil as a fallen angel, but what does it mean to worship the First Beast, which, as we have learned, is a community of connected people, a state, and the church of Satan at the same time? The only answer is this: to worship the First Beast means to acknowledge its political power and join its satanic church.
We have already written that the central event of the entire Book of Revelation is Chapter 11, which describes the final sermon of repentance by the two prophets. We also showed that the structure of the third part of the book, from Chapters 12 through 19, is chiastic, with the Beast at the center, which means it is the most important element. A chiastic structure of narration is poetry not of rhythm, but of meaning. It points not to the sound but to the most important part. This structure does not allow for considering the events of the narrative as a reflection of chronological order. However, there are plenty of hints in the text that suggest we should also consider the chronology.
For example, first comes the description of the Beast, and then the description of the Babylonian Harlot. This is done for the purposes of the semantic chiasm. Later in the text, it is clearly explained, and not just once, that chronologically in historical events, the Harlot will come first and the Beast will rise from the sea.
A similar situation occurs in Chapter 13. The sequence of events described in the text does not correspond to their historical order, but the text provides hints about how this sequence will unfold.
A. The Beast rises from the sea, with the power and spirit of the Dragon. It acts as though it is equal to God, entices people with its greatness to make them worship, and intimidates with its strength to make them worship.
B. The Beast reaches to the height of its power and defeats the two prophets of God and other saints. But this does not last long, and both beasts are destined for destruction.
C. The second beast rises from the earth, with the power and spirit of the Dragon, behaves like the Messiah (with horns like a lamb), deceives with miracles to make people worship the Beast, and threatens with death to make people worship.
It is important to note that in Chapter 13, there is a brief description of the events of Chapter 11, when the peak and triumph of the kingdom of the First Beast occurs—the Beast will act blasphemously. Let us remind ourselves that the concept of blasphemy in the Bible means making oneself equal to God. Christ was crucified for blasphemy, not for cursing God, but for acting as though He were equal to God.
“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:5–8).
This passage is the thematic center of Chapter 13. Two chiasms converge at one center: the main chiasm of Revelation (the events of Chapter 11 with the sermon of the two prophets), and the chiasm of the third part of the book, Chapters 12 through 19, where the thematic center is the Beast.
Next, John writes: "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints" (Revelation 13:10). Essentially, this is a paraphrase of the phrase "all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew 26:52). John says that the one who conquers by force and killing the saints, the faithful to God, will soon be overthrown by force. And the saints must endure. The Beast cannot be defeated by force. This ends the central narrative of Chapter 13.
We have uncovered the central thematic chiasm of Chapter 13. But there is another layer of meaning in Chapter 13, presented in the form of a typical biblical parallelism.
Chapter 13 contains two parallel descriptions of events. First, verses 1 through 10, and then a similar description (verses 11–18) of the same events, but from a different perspective. Verses 1 through 10 describe how people are prompted (by deception and fear) to worship the First Beast. But the First Beast is a system, a structure moving toward triumph, but the triumph has not yet occurred; the Beast is just rising from the sea. Who is the main enticer and propagandist of the Beast? Verses 11 through 18 describe in detail who this is and how exactly people will be led to worship the First Beast. These two clusters—verses 1–10 and 11–18—represent entirely parallel narratives. Only the second narrative is more detailed and expanded. We have broken these narratives into eight parallel thematic segments:
Let’s analyze these parallels:
The beasts appear. One rises from the sea, representing the Beast as a system, as humanity; and the other from the earth, representing the Beast as a man.
The horns. For the First Beast, the 10 horns represent ten blasphemous kingdoms that make themselves equal to God and, at the last moment, will give their power to the Beast. For the Second Beast, the two horns like a Lamb represent the fact that the second Beast will imitate Christ the Messiah.
The Beast as humanity acts in the spirit and power of Satan—the fallen angel. The Second Beast—the man—is also possessed by the spirit of Satan.
In both accounts, it is said that the amazed people will worship the healed First Beast. Furthermore, the First and Second Beasts work together. The second Beast acts as a false prophet to lead people to worship the First Beast; that is, to drive humanity into the state-church known as the First Beast or Leviathan.
The First Beast makes himself equal to God. The Second Beast, by performing false signs, makes himself equal to the Messiah. The fire from heaven to the earth is an imitation of the Second Coming of Christ: “For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day” (Luke 17:24); “And fire came down from God out of heaven” (Revelation 20:9).
The First Beast defeats the saints, and through fear, he gains final authority over the world. The Second Beast creates the image of the First Beast and, as a false prophet, demands worship for it, and kills those saints who refuse to worship, to instill fear. The image of the Beast, into which the spirit of the devil also enters, is hard to fully imagine, but it is clear that it is something technological.
All those who do not have the seal of God through their name in the Book of Life will worship the First Beast. God has His own list and His own accounting. Those whose names are written in this book will have a share in the Kingdom of God, or more accurately, in God Himself. The Second Beast, on the other hand, imitates God’s list of the saints and demands that all people of the world be recorded, and those who accept the Beast are marked. Those who receive this mark will share in the kingdom of the Beast, or more precisely, in the First Beast himself.
These verses are words of comfort. Concerning the First Beast, there is a call for patience and understanding that this will not last long, and the Beast will be struck down. To understand this, it is enough to have ears to hear this comfort. Regarding the parallel section, a key is given to understand the meaning of the mark of the Beast, and most likely the Beast itself. However, for this, one also needs wisdom.
Finally, based on what is given to us in Scripture, we need to restore the historical sequence of events related to the Beast, as we have established that it does not always match the sequence of events in the text.
The triumph of the global Satanic state, “church,” civilization, and indeed Satanic humanity will be brief. John writes about 42 months.
We already know that before the events of chapter 13, the Beast was in the waters, and the Babylonian Harlot sat upon him. Then, the ten kingdoms will overthrow the Harlot, and for a time, they will gain power in the world.
The events of Chapter 13, and what follows (the seven plagues), are a lengthy process. The Beast will rise from the sea to the earth, and ten kingdoms will give it power. The Beast will gradually gain strength in the world simply by people worshiping it, serving it, and more people becoming part of it. Therefore, before the Beast, the Second Beast, a man, the Antichrist, will come, preparing the world to accept this Beast, attracting humanity with signs and driving them with fear. To achieve this, he even creates a whole religious cult for the Beast and marks those who worship the Beast. It is unclear from John exactly when the Second Beast-Man-Antichrist appears—whether it is with the Beast or after it. However, this is clearly stated by Job and Daniel.
That the Beast-Antichrist comes before the Beast-kingdom is written in the Book of Job: "Destruction runs before him (Leviathan)." The Beast, walking upright, is how the Antichrist is described in Isaiah.
The Apostle Paul speaks of the Antichrist: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).
This means that the Third Temple must be rebuilt, where the Antichrist will sit. Daniel also speaks of the beast-man, the lion with torn wings and a human heart, indicating that the False Prophet-Antichrist must be from the Jews. In Daniel, this man-beast comes first.
And here’s what John says in his letter about the Antichrist: "And as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us... Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah)? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:18–23).
John says that even in the early years of Christianity, before the writing of Revelation, Christians already had an understanding of the Antichrist. Anyone who denies Jesus as the Messiah is the Antichrist. And who could deny this? Only the Jews, who share a common root with the Christians but later turned away from the true path: "They went out from us, but they were not of us."
Already at that time, there were Antichrists among the Jews who rejected Jesus. John later quotes Jesus in the Apocalypse, calling Judaism, which did not accept Jesus as the Messiah, the "synagogue of Satan." However, in the Last Days, a special exalted Antichrist will come.
At some point, the Antichrist-False Prophet will force everyone into the Beast, and those who refuse will be killed or cast out from society to the margins. The Beast will kill the last two prophets and achieve triumph for a short time, but: "For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction cometh upon them" (1 Thessalonians 5:2,3). God will begin sending plagues upon the Beast and those who have become part of it. And at the end of the plagues, the Beast and the False Prophet-Antichrist will be thrown alive into the lake of fire. These events will also take a considerable amount of time.
According to our calculations, all of these events related to the Beast, from the beginning of its rise to its downfall, will take about 70 years.
How do the Beast and the Antichrist act in the world in relation to humanity? With both the whip and the carrot, seduction and intimidation.
John sees how the Beast gradually emerges from the sea. This is a long process. Everyone sees this and marvels at it: "There is none like this Beast," John writes. There is nothing like Leviathan—it is written in the book of Job. There are similar and even greater beings in the heavens, but none on earth. The world has never seen anything like it with such power, authority, and might. Surely the Beast's kingdom will have its own positive program for global transformation, overcoming crises, universal happiness, and justice. Everyone has promised this before, but now finally, there is one who can make it happen. It is only natural that all the people from every nation of the world, whose hearts have not been touched by the Holy Spirit of God, and whose names are not written in the Book of Life, will bow to him, recognize him, and serve him.
The First and Second Beasts act together. The Second Beast—the Antichrist, the false prophet—goes before the first Beast and entices people with sweet things: miracles and signs, religiously legitimizing the power of the first Beast. But those who are not deceived by the Beasts will face the whip, in the form of fear: "The circle of his teeth is fear" (Job 41:6).
It should be noted that the complete annihilation of Christians is probably not the goal. The devil is interested in being worshiped, so he will scare people with death. Moreover, the death of people, especially Christians, is not solely under the devil's control—God decides that. John writes that we must believe and endure, for the devil will not triumph in the world for long.
So what should Christians do? They must come out and not enter into that material bond, whether it is the Whore or the Beast. But the technical infrastructure can still be used for Christian purposes, as long as the opportunity exists. How is this possible? God gives Christians the opportunity to live in this world but not be a part of it (symbolized by the Church having "the wings of an eagle").
Another idea of the Apocalypse is the ultimate choice. The Beast, unlike all other eras and situations, will present an unavoidable choice to everyone, regardless of their country or position. Before this ultimate test, one can live parallel to the world. But then, for those who do not accept the Beast, there will only be suffering. Instead of the wings of an eagle, there will be the patience of the saints.
The Evolution of the Beast
The Beast does not suddenly emerge in the world; it has a long history, and Revelation reveals this to us.
"The Beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is" (Revelation 17:8).
This means the history of the Beast in the world. It has already once been, then was destroyed, and will reappear in the world from the bottomless pit. "The Beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit," a grotesque parallel with the Messiah, who was, is, and is to come.
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast" (Revelation 13:3—4).
"And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns" (Revelation 17:3).
"The Beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast" (Revelation 17:8–13).
"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire" (Revelation 17:16).
The Beast in the wilderness is the devil, the one who made war with the Woman—the Church. Now the Whore sits upon him. John sees her in the wilderness. The wilderness is the symbol of a sinful, godless, pagan world. On the other hand, the Whore also sits on the waters. The waters represent the peoples, and the sea is the place of the devil’s abode. These images indicate that the Beast is still in the waters and has not yet come ashore. That is, the Whore sits on the Beast until it rises out of the water and onto the land.
The angel explains first that the existence and activity of the Beast are connected with its heads: "The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space" (Revelation 17:9–10).
To avoid any misunderstanding, the Angel immediately proceeds to explain that the seven mountains on which the woman sits means "seven kings," which refers to world powers or empires (see Daniel 7:17). The seven mountains represent the seven consecutive world powers that have ruled the world throughout history, through which Satan has worked to oppress God's people for centuries. Thus, the great Whore finds support from the Beast, which appears in history as a succession of secular godless kingdoms. The five that have fallen are the empires that ruled the world before the time of John: likely Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The sixth, the one that "is," is the Rome of John's time. The appearance of the one who "has not come" is in the future from John's perspective.
"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition" (Revelation 17:11).
This is stated in a very interesting way. First, we are told about the seven heads of the Beast. These are the kingdoms that have already held power. The ten horns, however, will receive it only for a short time at the end, when they throw off their lord—the Babylonian Whore—and then they will still give their power to the Beast.
Each of the earthly world empires up to the sixth, the Roman Empire, which was contemporary to John, serves as an intermediary, representing the interests of the Beast, embodying its ambitions on Earth. But the Beast itself is still in the sea, in the waters, and cannot yet come to the earth.
But then, the Sixth chapter, the sixth world kingdom of the devil—the pagan Rome—was struck by Christ, who established Christianity. This is not merely the fall of pagan Rome; it is also a mortal wound to the Beast as such, for it destroyed his most important and successful project on Earth. With the destruction of pagan Rome and the rise of Christianity, the Beast in the abyss received a mortal wound, which seemingly put an end to his ambitions of building a global satanocratic state. This Beast was, and is not. The devil, as an angel, is immortal. He can be bound, and cast into the lake of fire, but he cannot be killed, etc. God strikes at the manifestation of the devil that can be destroyed—the devil as a man or the devil as humanity.
The entire Old Testament speaks of this wound. According to the Old Testament, with the sword to the head, God or the Messiah will strike the devil in general and the Beast-Leviathan in particular. This is mentioned in the book of Genesis with Adam, and it is spoken of in the Book of Job, Isaiah, and the Psalms: "You have broken the head of Leviathan" (Ps. 73:14); "In that day the Lord will punish with His sword, fierce, great and strong, Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and He will slay the monster of the sea" (Isaiah 27:1); "Behemoth, whom I made with you, eats grass like an ox... only He that made him can make His sword approach unto him" (Job 40:10–14).
Daniel, however, does not specify how the Beast/Arrogant Horn will be struck, only stating that before the strike, the Horn will be judged by judges: "Then the judges will sit, and they will take away his power to destroy and to consume until the end" (Daniel 7:26). Similarly, in chapter 19, John writes about the 24 elders as judges (Revelation 19:4) and about Christ on a horse with a sword, but "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet... both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:20). But where is the sword strike? After all, they were not killed with the sword, but were thrown alive into the lake of fire? Does this mean that the Beast had to be struck twice?
But, wait. God, the Messiah, has already struck the Beast in the head with the sword, as was promised to Adam! Something incredible is happening. The wound to the Beast is healed, and not only does the Beast not die, but it gains the power to lift the boundaries and restrictions imposed on it by God, to enter the world, and to establish its global satanocratic state there. The wound to the Beast is healed by humans. Those who will later bring it onto the land, into the world.
What exactly is the defeat of the Beast-Leviathan by God in the head? It is that to people, a different, non-matrix, non-worldly reality is revealed through knowledge and thinking (the Bible and the biblical language), as well as a special form of life in the world, without becoming part of it—the Church.
The devil's matrix loses its monopoly; humanity is shown a different life, a different path, and different goals. The presence of the Scriptures and the Church, led by the Holy Spirit, is the "mortal wound" to the head of the Beast-Leviathan. In this way, the devil loses his monopoly on interpreting reality—and, consequently, his monopoly over the human spirit. He can no longer create a universal church and a universal state, which means he can no longer achieve his goal of receiving worship like God.
Humans heal the head of Leviathan. What does this mean? It means that people nearly nullify the Church of Christ and the Bible, allowing the devil to claim a monopoly over his matrix and the creation of a global Satanic state-church.
The nullification of the Bible and the Church happens through the creation and imposition of matrix theology, matrix interpretation of the Scriptures, matrix religious worldview, and matrix ecclesiastical structure and church life on Christians. This is precisely the case for the teachings and ecclesiastical reality of the overwhelming majority of Christian denominations today. Today, there is a pressing need for non-matrix theology and Christian church life.
"And the beast that was, and is not, is the eighth, and of the seven." Pay attention here. The conversation starts with the heads of the Beast—earthly kingdoms—and then suddenly shifts again to the Beast, which will become the seventh, and simultaneously, the eighth kingdom in the world. That is, the very First Beast that John speaks so much about. In the past, the earth was ruled only by earthly, ordinary pagan kingdoms-empires (from Egypt to Rome), the heads-"successors" of the Beast on earth. But now, a seventh/eighth kingdom will appear in the world, and this will no longer be just a viceroy, but the Beast itself will come from the abyss to the earth.
Similarly, in Daniel: “And the ten horns are ten kings that shall arise out of this kingdom; and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High” (Daniel 7:24–25).
Daniel speaks of a special kingdom that will arise from the Beast—an exceptional horn that speaks arrogantly (making itself equal to God). However, the image of this kingdom in John’s vision is the Beast, while Daniel uses the image of a horn. Referring to the heads, he calls the last 7th-8th head the Beast.
After the ten horns-kingdoms, another eleventh horn will rise. This is the Apocalypse Beast, which will demand divine worship. It is important to not become confused. All of the biblical images—the beast, the horn, and the head—symbolize kingdoms. Both John and Daniel refer to the same thing, but they use different images. This complicates the study of Scripture, but the correctly understood context clears everything up.
Let's summarize the process of the Beast's emergence in the world.
Initially, the Beast sits confined in the prison prepared for it by God—the abyss. On earth, it operates through the great human kingdoms-empires, which John refers to as the heads of the Beast. There were six, the sixth being pagan Rome, to which Christianity dealt a fatal blow.
From the abyss, the Beast sends its heads to earth one by one. One has received a fatal wound, but it is healed by people. Then the Beast begins to appear on the surface of the water: it has seven heads, six of which have already fulfilled their role, and the seventh is the kingdom of the Beast itself, which is preparing to take power in the world. The Beast also has ten horns. These are the vassal kingdoms of the Beast, which come after the fall of the sixth head-Rome and rule the world, in preparation for transferring power to the Beast.
For a certain period of time, these 10 horns-vassals of the Beast remain under the influence of a unique, truly global formation—the Babylonian Harlot. This is a global secular world empire, based on the economy and consumer society. We have already written in detail about this second Babylon here, here, and here.
The Beast has not yet emerged onto the land, but it has already surfaced, and at first, the New Babylon sits upon it. Why did the Beast manage to rise? Because people began to heal it.
We have already written that the foundation of the New Babylon was laid during the Renaissance. Interestingly, during the Renaissance, its adherents constantly tried to emphasize that the Roman Empire had come to an end, that it was no longer there, and that all the so-called Holy Roman Empires, Byzantium, etc., were pitiful imitations. Why did the ideologists of the Renaissance emphasize this? Perhaps to show that the time of the sixth, Roman head of the Beast had passed, and the gradual emergence of the Beast from the abyss and its healing had begun.
The New Great Babylon developed over more than 600 years, and by the beginning of the 21st century, it had reached the peak of its power. What happens next?
The ten horns-kingdoms will rise against Babylon and destroy it. These ten kingdoms “which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Revelation 17:12–13). We are already witnessing the crisis of Babylon and the emergence of new trends in the world—the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, the era of preparation for the coming of the Antichrist, and the establishment of the Beast’s rule.
After the fall of Babylon, the Beast, no longer shielded by Babylon, will take control of the world through its ten vassals. However, the reign of these kingdoms will be short. At the end of their brief rule, the False Prophet-Antichrist will appear, leading humanity and starting the campaign for the acceptance of the Beast. The Beast will emerge onto the land, take power, and achieve a brief triumph.
God will send the final seven plagues upon the Beast. Afterward, the Beast and the False Prophet will be destroyed, the devil will be bound for a thousand years, and the Millennial Kingdom of Christ will begin on earth.
Postscript
David has an amazing psalm that encapsulates almost everything we have written about the Beast, its schemes, and its future destruction by God:
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say,
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us;
then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.
Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth!
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 124:1–8)
