The Apostle John continues on today with his description of the Antichrist. We are going to compare our passage with the book of Daniel, just as we did yesterday.
"The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast." (Revelation 13:2b-3) John tells us that Satan is the power behind the throne. The signs and wonders that the Antichrist will perform are going to be done through the powers of darkness.
In yesterday's study we took a look at a dream the prophet Daniel had about four great empires of the world. We studied the first three empires, and these were the Babylonian Empire in which Daniel lived, the Medo-Persian Empire which overthrew the Babylonians, and the Greek Empire which overthrew the Medo-Persians. The fourth kingdom he foresaw has always been interpreted as the Roman Empire because it overthrew the Greek Empire. but it also represents the empire of the Antichrist. This is a double prophecy, as are many of the prophecies of the Bible. The fourth beast symbolized both an empire in the not-so-distant future and one in the far off future. Daniel's description of the fourth beast (which we will study momentarily) is an apt description of the ancient Roman Empire, but it's also the description of the empire that will be on the earth right before Christ comes to rule forever. Many scholars have interpreted verse 3 above regarding the head "that seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the wound had been healed" to mean that the kingdom of the end times will somehow be a revival of the Roman Empire. We will get to that explanation shortly.
First we'll take a look at how Daniel describes the final kingdom that will be on earth before Christ comes to rule the world forever: "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast---terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the other beasts, and it had ten horns." (Daniel 7:7) The age of the Roman Empire is also known as the iron age, so we can see why Daniel envisioned the Roman Empire as a beast with iron teeth. Of the four kingdoms in Daniel's dream, the Roman Empire was the strongest and endured the longest, and this matches up well with the strength and durability of iron. But we see something about this beast that doesn't quite fit with the Roman Empire because it has ten horns, and when we arrive at Chapter 17 an angel will tell John that the ten horns of the beast that both he and Daniel saw symbolize ten nations who will give their authority and power to the Antichrist.
The fourth and final empire will be very strong, but it will be defeated by the return of Christ. We know this because Daniel isn't the only one who had a prophetic dream about four great empires. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had one too. In his dream these four kingdoms were represented by a large statue with a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, and its feet a mixture of iron and clay. Daniel interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar and told him that the head of gold represented him and his kingdom. The chest and arms of silver was the kingdom that would succeed Nebuchadnezzar's: the Medo-Persian Empire. The belly and thighs of bronze was the kingdom that would overthrow the Medo-Persian Empire: the Greek Empire. The feet of iron and clay was the kingdom that would conquer the Greek Empire: the Roman Empire. But following all these, a kingdom would be set up by God that can never be destroyed, and this kingdom was symbolized in the dream by the rock (Christ) that crushed all the former kingdoms to pieces. You can find the full account of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and Daniel's interpretation of it in Daniel 2. We see something interesting in Nebuchadnezzar's dream regarding the Roman Empire. It seems to exist both in ancient history and right before the return of Christ since it is the final empire before Christ sets up His eternal kingdom. This prophecy began to be fulfilled when Christ was born during during the era of of the Roman Empire, but He did not ascend to the throne of David at that time and become king over the whole world. He will, however, return and take up the throne of David during the reign of the Antichrist, whose empire may be a revived Roman Empire of sorts.
Does this mean that the kingdom of the Antichrist, and the head that received a fatal wound but was healed, will be a revival of the actual Roman Empire? Or will it simply be like the Roman Empire in its strength and its dominance over the civilized world? What does John mean when he says one of the heads of the beast had sustained a fatal wound but that the fatal wound was healed?
Some scholars think that the paganism of the ancient Roman Empire will revive during the end times. Early on in our study we took a look at what the Lord Jesus had to say about the church at Laodicea, the church that symbolizes the religious system that will be in place during the end times. We saw that this church was going to be prideful and arrogant because of its great wealth. We learned that it would be very lukewarm toward the Lord, so much so that He said it made Him want to vomit. He said that the final church age would think it has it all when instead it is pitiful and poor and blind and naked. This religious system will likely be a hodgepodge of pagan beliefs and rituals perhaps mixed with humanism and a sensual attitude that says "anything goes", but it won't be based on Christ and the message of the gospel. In that sense it compares quite accurately with the religious system of ancient Rome. Those who adhere to the religious system of the end times are the type of people the Apostle Paul said would, in the last days, "be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God---having a form of godliness but denying its power." (2 Timothy 3:2-5a) Paul could have said these same things about the Roman Empire in which he lived, but even more so about the empire and the religious system of the last days.
Some scholars believe that the revived Roman Empire will have to do with the Antichrist taking over the Vatican and perhaps establishing a headquarters for himself there. This is possible, since when we get to Chapter 17 we will see the religious system of the end times represented by a prostitute (a false church) riding the red dragon who has the seven heads and the ten horns. We will be told that the seven heads are seven hills upon which the woman sits. You've probably heard Rome called "the city of the seven hills". The Vatican faces these hills. We can see why scholars think the capitol of the Antichrist's "church" may be located in Rome and even in the Vatican itself. Unfortunately, this has led some unscrupulous Protestant scholars to say some very ugly things against the Catholic church. They've proposed that the Antichrist will be a pope of the Catholic church, and they've compared the Catholic church as it is now to the ancient paganism of the Roman Empire. We are not going to indulge in any of that kind of talk here, because I think that if the Antichrist does take over the Vatican and the Catholic church, the resulting religious system won't resemble anything we're familiar with today. He may or may not declare himself the pope, but again we can't confuse the things he's going to do with anything that's currently going on in the Catholic church. I'm Protestant but I have family members and friends who are Catholic. Their faith is genuine, as is the faith of millions of Catholics all over the world. Although the Antichrist may associate himself with the Vatican in the end times, his religion is going to be a false religion. His religion is going to draw worship away from Christ and point it toward himself. We can't take what the Bible says about the apostate church of the end times and use it to slander the Catholic church of today---or any other church, for that matter.
Another theory about the head of the beast that was fatally wounded and yet revived is that the Antichrist will stage a fake resurrection. He may orchestrate an elaborate assassination in which it will appear to the world that he has been shot or otherwise mortally wounded in the head. His death will be announced to the world, and those of you who were alive and old enough to recall the Kennedy assassination can imagine just how shocking this will be. People may observe the body of the Antichrist lying in state and they may watch his funeral services on television and on the internet. Then suddenly he will appear to them alive as if he has risen from the dead. This could be why John tells us that "the whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast", because perhaps this is how the Antichrist makes himself not only the most powerful political leader of the world but also the most powerful religious leader of the world.
Having authority over both the political system and the religious system is going to give the Antichrist an enormous amount of power. He will have unimaginable military might at his disposal. He will be the head of a false church. The citizens of the earth won't want to oppose him. John tells us this will be their attitude: "People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, 'Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?'" (Revelation 13:4) Many are going to willingly bow their knees to him and to Satan who is the power behind him, even though they may not know that Satan is the power behind him. I think a large number of earth's citizens in those days, who don't know the Scriptures and who don't know Christ, will think the Antichrist is Christ. By worshiping the Antichrist as Christ they feel they are worshiping God as well, when in fact they are swearing their allegiance to the most wicked fallen angel of all.
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