Now to the third beast in Revelations.
Rev 13:1 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. 2 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.
This beast is said to come up out of the sea. In Scripture, the sea often symbolically represents the nations of the world. However, the sea can also be viewed to represent the Abyss. In Jewish thought, the Abyss was associated with the ocean depths. Speaking of the Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in use at the time of Christ, The New Unger's Bible Dictionary says: "The LXX renders Heb. tehom, 'the primeval ocean' (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 24:2; etc.) as 'abyss.'" (Abyss, p. 18). So while this aspect of the vision represents the rise of the beast from among the nations, it is likely dual in that it also represents the rise of Abaddon from the depths of the Abyss after his release at the fifth trumpet. Verse 1 also tells us that each of the ten horns has a crown, representing rulership and authority. In verse 2, we see that this beast has parts from a leopard, a bear, and a lion. This seems to tie the identification of the beast here with the four beasts Daniel saw in his vision recorded in Daniel 7.
Dan 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream,
and told the sum of the matters.
2 Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
4 The first
was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and
it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it
was diverse from all the beasts that
were before it; and it had ten horns. The first beast is a composite of two animals, a lion and an eagle. The second beast was a bear, the third a four-headed leopard, and the fourth an unnamed, terrifying beast with ten horns.
Let's look at the first four kingdoms represented in Daniel 2. The kingdoms started with Babylon and ran consecutively to Rome. When we look at the situation of the House of Judah at the beginning and end of the period when these four kingdoms ruled over the Holy Land compared to the situation of Judah during the reign of the four beasts of Daniel 7, a fascinating "mirror image" of events becomes evident. [size=+1]Judah was an independent nation when Babylon (the head of gold) rose to power. Although the fortunes of the Jews changed several times during the intervening centuries, by the time Rome (the legs of iron) fell, the Jews had been scattered throughout the world by the Romans in what came to be known as "the Diaspora." Each of the four kingdoms of Daniel 2 (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome) played a large part (both negative and positive) in what happened to the House of Judah during this time period. [/size]
When you look at the 4 beasts in Daniel 7 you will see the pattern is reversed. When the first beast rises up Judah is still scattered after the 4th beast Judah is once again an independent nation. The first beast a lion with wings like an eagle represents GB and her Offspring the US. The plucking of the wings refers to the split of the US from Great Britain. With that event, the character of the British empire was changed. Along with the eagle's wings, it lost the heart of a lion, and that heart was replaced by the heart of a man. No longer did Great Britain inspire terror in the world. Instead, it used human cunning to hold onto power and territory. Since then, Britain has gradually lost its colonies and its might. It was Great Britain that initiated the return of Jews to the Holy Land through the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in November 1917. The Balfour Declaration became the cornerstone of international support for the founding of the modern state of Israel.
The bear is the national symbol of Russia. This second beast that rises up has three ribs in its mouth, and these ribs tell the bear to "arise and devour much flesh" (Dan. 7:5). Russia's part in the rebirth of Judah is much more negative than Britain's, but just as effective. [size=+1]
The Soviet government caused the financial ruin of most Russian Jews through the termination of private commerce and the seizure of property and goods. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish families lost their means of making a living. These policies caused about 300,000 Jews to leave the Soviet-controlled territories for the Baltic states, Poland, and Rumania. [/size][size=+1]
Russia's new atheistic communist government also waged a fierce battle against Russian Judaism and its leaders. Heavy taxes were imposed on the rabbis and other religious officials to try and force them to leave their positions. A campaign was also initiated against the Hebrew language. The study of Hebrew was prohibited, and books could not be published in the language. These actions continued through World War II and were the motivation for many religious Jews to flee to the Holy Land after the War. [/size]
The third beast, the leopard with four heads and four bird's wings on its back, is somewhat more difficult to identify. However, the characteristics of the leopard help us to recognize the entity it represents in this prophecy. Leopards are known for their swift and lethal attack. In a mechanical emulation of the fleet assault of a leopard, Adolf Hitler's Germany waged blitzkrieg ("lightning war") against its enemies using Panzer forces during World War II. These cat-quick attacks disorganized enemy forces through the use of speed, surprise, and superior firepower and led to the Third Reich's conquest of mainland Europe during the early years of the war. The two pairs of wings on the back of the leopard could represent the Axis nations which aligned themselves with Germany in WWII (Italy and Japan). The four heads of the leopard represent the division of Germany into four regions after its defeat in WWII. The eastern half was controlled by Russia, while the western half was split between Great Britain, the United States, and France. The death of approximately six million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, while tragic beyond words, was not in vain. Once WWII ended and the scope of the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews was grasped, there was much international sympathy for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the land commonly known as "Palestine."
The fourth beast seen by Daniel, which appeared to be horrible, strong, and unlike any of the others, has to represent the entity which played the greatest role in the formation of modern Israel. This fourth beast represents the global government of the United Nations. General Assembly Resolution 181, issued by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, outlined the formation of Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. Additionally, it called for Jerusalem to become an international city under the control of the UN: The City of Jerusalem shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations. The Trusteeship Council shall be designated to discharge the responsibilities of the Administering Authority on behalf of the United Nations. (A/RES/181(II) (A+B), Part III-City of Jerusalem, Section A-Special Regime)
The United Nations, the "terrible" fourth beast of Daniel 7, will soon supplant the governments of the other beasts (the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and the rest of the world) and will begin to rule the earth in their place. The United Nations reportedly has the world divided into ten administrative regions; when the United Nations government begins ruling the world, these areas will be headed by the ten horns of the beast. These ten kings (represented by the ten horns on the fourth beast and the ten toes on the statue of Daniel 2) will rule over these administrative regions.
Dan 7:8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn
were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. The little horn that ascends among them is commonly understood to be the Antichrist. We now know him also as Abaddon/Apollyon, angelic king of the Abyss (Rev. 9:11). The ten horns are shown to be ten kings that arise as a result of the ascendence of this fourth, global ruling kingdom. We are told the "other horn" arises after these ten kings, and uproots three of the kings. It's clear that these ten kings who rule the earth through the coming global government (the United Nations) will exist simultaneously. Clearly the Antichrist is different from them; whereas they are human rulers, he is an angelic king. He will put down three of the rulers of this global kingdom in his bid for power. We see from Revelation 13:1 that this beast has seven heads. If we count the total number of heads on the four beasts seen by Daniel, they add up to seven also. Revelation 13:2 describes the seven-headed beast as a composite of the four beasts Daniel saw. The beast in Revelation 13 is the fourth beast Daniel saw (the United Nations), viewed by John after it had subdued and absorbed the first three. Just as with Daniel's beasts, this one rises from the sea. This kingdom is given power, rulership, and authority by Satan.
Just another way to look at it I guess. For alot closer look see THE BEASTS OF REVELATION AND DANIEL by Bryan T. Huie.
