Beast of Revelation

Seven Heads

Another aspect of the beast is the seven heads mentioned in Revelation 17:

Revelation 17:9-10 – Here [is] the mind that is having wisdom; the seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman doth sit, and there are seven kings, the five did fall, and the one is, the other did not yet come, and when he may come, it behoveth him to remain a little time; (YLT)

The seven heads represent the seven forms of government the Roman Empire went through:

1. Kings
2. Consuls
3. Dictators
4. Decemvirs
5. Military Tribunes
6. Military Emperors
7. Christian Emperors

Revelation 17:10 continues on by saying that five of the heads fell. John is saying that when he wrote this, five of these forms of government had already fallen. This makes sense because John wrote this around 95 A.D. Kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and military tribunes were all old forms of government by 95 A.D. After the death of Nero in 68 A.D., military emperors were fighting over the throne. It was not until the Edict of Milan in 325 A.D. that Christianity was legalized and the government had Christian Emperors.

Little Horn (The Eighth Head)

Daniel 7:8 – I was considering about the horns, and lo, another horn, a little one, hath come up between them, and three of the first horns have been eradicated from before it, and lo, eyes as the eyes of man [are] in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things. (YLT)

Daniel 7:24 – And the ten horns out of the kingdom [are] ten kings, they rise, and another doth rise after them, and it is diverse from the former, and three kings it humbleth; (YLT)

Daniel says that after the iron beast with ten horns came another “little horn” which destroyed three of the horns on the iron beast. A similar passage is also seen in Revelation:

Revelation 17:11-12 - and the beast that was, and is not, he also is eighth, and out of the seven he is, and to destruction he doth go away. And the ten horns that thou sawest, are ten kings, who a kingdom did not yet receive, but authority as kings the same hour do receive with the beast, (YLT)

Instead of “little horn,” John calls this the eighth head. John says that this eighth head comes out of the seventh head. It thus follows that this represents Papal Rome; the era in which popes had great power. Papal Rome subdued the Vandals in 534, the Ostrogoths in 555, and the Lombards in 774. These are the three horns that fell.

Forty-Two Months

Revelation 13:5 – And there was given to it a mouth speaking great things, and evil-speakings, and there was given to it authority to make war forty-two months, (YLT)

Daniel 7:25 – He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time. (YLT)

John says that little horn is given authority for 42 months. If we multiply 42 x 30 days we get 1,260 days. Prophetically, this can mean 1,260 years. Daniel says a time, times, and half a time. If we take a time to equal 360 years, this means 360 + 360 + 180 = 1,260 years. When does this time period take place? This begins in 529 A.D. when Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Empire wrote his first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis which was a set of Orthodox Christian Laws. These laws replaced the Roman Laws, which transfers authority. The period ends 1,260 years later in 1789 A.D. which was the beginning of the French Revolution. The French Revolution punished Papal Rome and shifted power to the state.

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