Shadows of the Beast

Revelation 13:1-2: 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 13:11-12: And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

If a generation rejects Christ the Lamb, then that same generation will turn toward the Beast system that has been set up in these last days. To fully grasp the scope of what the kingdom of the Beast will truly look like in its fullest manifestation, we need only look back into the twentieth century and see how it foreshadowed itself in the nations of Russia and Germany.

Both nations had known God but then willfully chose to depart from him, and when they did so, they came under the full sway of the Dragon (Lucifer) who entered in and empowered them with a new order, that of Communism and that of Nazism. Under these regimes, a war of persecution was launched against those who upheld the ways of God, and each case produced a shadow of the Beast, one in the form of Joseph Stalin, and the other in the form of Adolf Hitler. Each also produced a shadow of the Beast’s kingdom, on the one hand, the Soviet Union, and on the other, the Third Reich.

The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler are localized examples of what will happen to the whole world under the iron rule of the Antichrist whom Satan will incarnate after the Bride of Jesus Christ is raptured. Revelation 13:16-17 shows that in the Tribulation the Mark of the Beast will be laid down in its fulness so that none can conduct commerce unless they conform to the Beast system; and furthermore, under this New World Order, a full persecution will be waged upon the righteous who are left behind (they missed the Rapture). The foolish virgins and many other Christians (as well as the 144,000 Jews) who refuse to bow the knee in complying with the edicts and legislations of the new order will be hunted down like dogs and killed for their convictions and their faith (Revelation 13:15). All these things we are beginning to see come into greater prevalence at present, but it is not until after the Bride is gone into Glory that the Beast and his kingdom will come into the height of its power and strength.