Second Reformation

Inexplicably, he has a fatal wound on one of his heads, indicating that he had previously died. But now the wound has healed and he has returned, alive, to the horror of all. What a strange situation! The standard explanation is that this beast refers to the hated Roman emperor Nero. Nero had persecuted Christians when he burned down part of Rome to make way for a new palace. He had also ordered his legions to march on Jerusalem when the rebellion began in 66 CE, marking his name for a special opprobrium among Jews. His cruelty also was remembered by Christians who developed a legend that he would return again, appearing in the East with an army (the Nero Redivivus Legend). John takes this legend and weaves it into his revelations. Nero returns as The Beast armed with supernatural powers. (Returning to the question: Are there evil supernatural powers apart from God’s Holy Spirit? Certainly not.)

The Beast, often identified as the Antichrist, orders all earthly inhabitants to receive a mark on their right hand or forehead that allows them to continue to engage in commerce. Since all Roman coins at this time bore the likeness of the emperor and the use of those coins might denote agreement that the emperor should be worshipped as a god, it might be posited that even everyday trade was seen as an act of apostasy. This could well be John’s meaning and another cause of his deep hatred of the Roman Empire. Buying a loaf of bread might be the equivalent of worshipping an idol! Remember, John was not a reasonable, balanced person. He was a religious fanatic.

Then we come to the famous identification of the Beast. Its number is declared to be 666. If we take Nero’s Greek name, Neron Caesar, translate it into Hebrew, and apply numbers to each Hebrew letter, we get 666, again anchoring this Revelation in actual, first-century history.

We read that the Beast has a kingdom (16:10) which is tortured (of course) and plunged into darkness by the fifth angel’s pouring out God’s next bowl of wrath. The sixth angel’s bowl dries up the Euphrates River, allowing “the kings from the East” and the Beast to invade, settling at the place called Armageddon where they will ultimately be destroyed. These bowls of destruction and pain are reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt, another influence from the Old Testament.

After the seventh bowl, “the great city” (Rome) is shattered by the largest earthquake in history and all the cities of the world collapse. Then in Chapter 17 an angel shows John “the great prostitute who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries…” (17:2). We are also told that “The woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony of Jesus” (17:6), perhaps referring to Nero’s persecution of Christians. She sits on a beast that has seven heads and ten horns. She is “Babylon the Great…the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth” (17:5). Clearly, this is an especially odious being in John’s bestiary. Who is this beast?

We are soon told. “The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits” (17:9).  This can only mean Rome, the city of seven hills. John cannot say so, fearing real-world reprisals, so he hides the identification in as much mumbo-jumbo as he can. But for those who read carefully, he identifies “Babylon, mother of prostitutes” as Rome. At the conclusion of the chapter we are told, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth” (17:18). Undoubtedly, it is Rome, whose empire was the largest of any at that time.

John also reminds his readers about Nero. Twice he mentions “the beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction” (17:11). Surely a shiver ran through both Christians and Jews at the mention of the legendary return of this personification of cruelty and persecution.

Then suddenly John brings up something new: seven kings (17:9-10). This reference is meant to set readers calculating the passage of Roman emperors and timing of “The End.” It has triggered endless speculation, but surely Nero is one of the seven kings referred to here.

Next, we are told about the ten horns of the beast. They represent ten kings who will turn on Rome, who “will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (17:16). Apparently the great earthquake of the previous seventh bowl (16:19) that broke the city up as well as the giant hailstones that landed on her at the same time were insufficient to reduce her to the end John felt she deserved.

John devotes the entirety of Chapter 18 to exultation over the destruction of Rome. “Fallen is Babylon the Great!” (18:2). Fire is now the source of her destruction, as though the previously mentioned catastrophes were not able to bring about Rome’s demise. He gloats:

The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more – cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men (18:11-13). 

Note the specificity. How many of these products did John see in western Asia Minor making their way to Rome?

And then, perhaps speaking personally, John exclaims, “Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you” (18:20).

His exultation continues in Chapter 19 and concludes with the Battle of Armageddon which is really no battle at all. The Beast and False Prophet are thrown alive into the lake of burning sulfur and all the others “who had received the mark of the Beast” are “killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse…”(19:20, 21). And lest he miss an opportunity for more gore, we read that “all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh” (19:21).  This could represent a warped Apostolic Banquet.

It is instructive to discover who the people were who were thus struck down. We learn who in 19:18: “….kings, generals, and mighty men, … horses and their riders, and …all people, free and slave, small and great.” Did John hate everyone? In real life, was he an outcast himself or perhaps a sociopath? The possibility should not be ignored.

Now we are treated to one of Revelation’s most signal peculiarities. Instead of being killed, the Devil is bound and thrown into the Abyss for 1000 years. He will later emerge for one more indulgence in blood-lust. Why? Apparently to assuage John’s as-yet unsatisfied desire to avenge the evil that was Rome.

In another peculiar development, only those witnesses who had been beheaded for their faith are allowed to “come to life” (20:4) in this First Resurrection and rule with God and Jesus for the thousand year millennium.

After the thousand years, the Devil wiggles out of his chains and buzzes around the earth, deceiving “the nations” into making another challenge against God’s people. The inhabitants of the earth presumably have the Bible at their disposal which clearly tells them what is going to happen in this last caper by the Devil; but many or most enlist in his army nevertheless and surround God’s people, who are camped in “the city [God] loves” (Jerusalem) (20:9). Again, there is no actual battle. Fire from heaven burns them up. Then the Devil is thrown into the Lake of Burning Sulfur where he sizzles “forever and ever” (20:10). We may well ask what the point of all this thousand-year paradise and final deception and carnage is. We are not told.
 

Finally, we are treated to the Final Judgment. All those who have been resting in their graves are arraigned before the throne and judged “according to what they had done” (20:12). This suggests a judgment according to one’s acts. But scarcely three verses later we find a contradiction that we have noted previously –a reference to something like predestination: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (20:15). No matter how the judgment works, this is “the second death” (20:14).