The Ancient Régime

The Beast of Revelation embodies the ancient imperial power that has stalked the saints since the Tower of Babel incident.

History is littered with the remains of past attempts by tyrants and empires to dominate peoples and territories. Each new imperial power may experience initial success. However, all past empires have floundered, declined, and collapsed in the end. The Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and Caesar’s imperial realm, for example, ceased to exist thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, this imperial effort continues from generation to generation. Today, we find the latest incarnation of this Ancient Régime marching across the globe, imposing its will through military threats and economic control, seducing Christians, and subjugating nations and peoples.

[Roman columns - Photo by Tom Podmore on Unsplash]

This raises the question - Why? Why does this pattern repeat? Why do men embrace corruption and tyrannical power time and again despite the lessons of History? Is humanity incapable of learning? That is the cynic’s answer. Or perhaps nefarious groups of conspirators are working behind the scenes from one generation to the next to impose a New World Order.

The Bible provides another explanation. There is a conspiracy in operation, but it is under the control of the Devil in his continuing war against the Creator of all things. His tactics, tools, and puppets may vary, and he rebrands ideologies as needed, but his objective remains the same - To destroy the people of God.

In the Book of Daniel, the Babylonian Empire is called the “Land of Shinar,” a reference to the first attempt at global government as recorded in the Book of Genesis, the Tower of Babel incident.

Like that first Mesopotamian Kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar tried to impose one language on the many peoples of his domain. Moreover, he erected a great high “image” measuring six cubits in width and sixty cubits in height. He installed it in the “plain” outside the city where he assembled representatives of all the peoples of his realm to pay homage to his majesty and sovereignty – (Genesis 11:1-9, Daniel 1:1-4, 3:1-9).

Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great image composed of four sections of different materials. Its golden head represented Nebuchadnezzar, and the remaining sections symbolized three kingdoms that rose in succession after him - (Daniel 2:1-48).

Nebuchadnezzar saw only one figure in his dream, only one imperial system. Each of the four kingdoms was a part of this single whole. The Kingdom of God represented by the “stone cut without hands from a mountain” struck the image on its feet, turning the entire edifice into dust - all four kingdoms perished together.

The same reality is portrayed in the seventh chapter of Daniel where the prophet sees four “beasts” ascending in succession from the sea. They symbolize kingdoms, beginning with Babylon. The first three possess the characteristics of known animals – the lion, the bear, and the leopard – (Daniel 7:1-25).

The fourth Beast is so horrific it has no analog in the animal kingdom. It is a monstrosity with “ten horns… diverse” from its three predecessors. This Beast wages “war on the saints,” and for a time, “it prevails against them.” Nevertheless, the fourth kingdom is destroyed when “judgment is made for the saints” by the “Ancient of days,” and the saints then “possess the Kingdom.”

Despite their demise, the lives of the first three “beasts” or kingdoms continue in the fourth realm. “But a lengthening of life was given to them” until the fourth kingdom is thrown down and “given to the burning fire.” As in the second chapter of Daniel, the entire structure is destroyed at once, and all four kingdoms perish at the same time.

THE BEAST FROM THE SEA

In the Book of Revelation, Satan is the “Ancient Serpent” determined to destroy the “woman” and her “Son.” This echoes the story in the Book of Genesis where the “Serpent” tempts Eve in the Garden.

However, though the “Dragon” bites the heel of the messianic “son” in Revelation, the Son defeats Satan when God raises him to His “Throne” and installs him as the “Shepherd of the nations.” The context makes clear the “Son” is Jesus Christ. He “overcame” the Devil through his Death and Resurrection and so he now reigns as the “Ruler of the Kings of the Earth” from the Divine Throne - (Revelation 1:4-7, 5:5-14, 12:1-17).

The “Dragon” is expelled from Heaven and loses his prosecutorial powers. However, he is not yet finished and sets out to “wage war” against the “Seed of the Woman, those who have the Testimony of Jesus.” He is next seen standing on the seashore as he summons his “seed” from the Sea, the “Beast” with seven heads and ten horns, and the “Beast from the Earth,” the False Prophet - (Revelation 13:1-18).

This “Beast from the Sea” has the same characteristics as Daniel’s four “beasts from the sea” – the “ten heads,” the leopard, the bear, and the lion. However, the four animals ascend from the sea in reverse order from Daniel’s vision, and John sees only one creature, not four. This monster combines the features of Daniel’s four separate beasts. It is related to them, but it is also something beyond them, and presumably, far worse.

John’s single “Beast” exercises all the authority of the “Dragon.” Satan is the power behind the Imperial Throne, and the “Beast” uses the Devil’s authority to “wage war against the saints, and to overcome them and kill them.” This last clause echoes the language from Daniel when the “Little Horn” waged war against the saints - (Daniel 7:21, Revelation 13:7).

The preferred weapon of the “Beast” is economic control. It sanctions any man who refuses to give allegiance to its image. The Ancient Régime demands the level of loyalty that belongs to God alone. All men who resist it are excluded from the economic life of society. No man may “buy or sell” without the Beast’s “Mark” or “Number,” 666.

The “Beast from the Sea” is allied with “Babylon, the Great Whore” who has been seducing the nations since the beginning. In Revelation, Babylon is integral to world commerce. No kingdom or empire can attack and suppress God’s people without her economic control – (Revelation 18:1-23).

This Régime is something the world has seen many times. Its “seven heads” represent seven “kingdoms.” By the time of John’s vision, five had fallen, and the sixth was alive and well. It symbolized the Roman Empire – (Revelation 17:7-12).

Yet Rome has fallen since that time. At some point, the world will see the rise of the last and seventh “kingdom.” It will be the “seventh,” but it also will be an “eighth.” It will be from the same lineage as its predecessors but also something different and even more dangerous than its predecessors to those who refuse to give homage to the Beast or its image.

This final incarnation of the Ancient Régime will include the combined ambitions and inhumanity of its predecessors - Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, only now fueled by the rage of the “Dragon” as he lashes out at the people of God in his death throes.

Throughout human history, there has been one imperial power driven by Satan to pursue his objective of destroying the people of God. History repeats because the “Dragon” has pushed the same agenda since the beginning. While its form varies.

Today, we see a vast imperial power once again marching across the globe, a government that uses economic sanctions against nations, peoples, and individuals, anyone who does not acknowledge it as supreme overlord. It manifests the characteristics of its predecessors, especially those of Rome and Caesar.

Will the latest iteration of the Ancient Régime become the “seventh” and final kingdom? Only time will tell. Empires come and go, and they often fall suddenly and unexpectedly. Nevertheless, it would be foolish to ignore the dangers posed by this latest “Beast,” and it is lurking in plain sight as it once more stalks the saints.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Abyss - (The Abyss is the source of satanic attacks against the church even though it remains under the authority of the Lamb – Revelation 11:7)

• The Dragon's Demise - (Satan is released from the Abyss and launches his final attack on the saints, but he is the one who is defeated and judged)

• The Great Cosmic War - (At the end of the age, Satan and his minions will launch an all-out cosmic war against the saints, the followers of the Lamb)

• Seizing God's Likeness - (Satan and the Rulers of this Age exalt themselves and usurp Divine prerogatives in contrast to the true Servant of God, Jesus Christ)