Rev 13:1-4 "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. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?"

The sea is representative of humanity, and it can be calm or stormy. There are fish in it, beneficial for food, but there also sharks - predators. Jesus said "I will make you fishers of men," and those fish come from the sea of humanity. In the Old Testament salvation was possible for those who were Jews or were converted to Judaism. In the New Testament salvation has been opened to all peoples. So we see the beast rising up out of humanity.

This beast is not a man, it is a government system. Daniel saw four beasts and his fourth beast answers to the beast in Rev. 13, we therefore go to Daniel to define the beast.

Dan 7:1-3 "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 spake 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."

The four winds of heaven are striving on the same great sea as in Rev 13:1. In August and September 2004 we saw the most severe hurricane season in the previous forty years. Four major hurricanes hit the state of Florida. At the same time Japan experienced a particularly severe typhoon season. In February a major hurricane hit Australia, and of course, on December 26, 2004 a 9.+ earthquake in Indonesia resulted in a tsunami that killed upwards of 270,000 people in a matter of minutes. The 2005 hurricane season surpassed 2004, producing storms that were the largest, strongest, and fastest growing ever, and lots of them. For the first time ever the letters of the English alphabet, used to name the storms, were used up and the weather authorities had to move to the Greek alphabet. This is a picture of the spiritual condition of man, who is being enveloped by a great spiritual storm. Daniel saw four great beasts come up out of the sea, diverse from one another.

Dan 7:4 says "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." This first beast is Babylon - not Great Britain and the USA. The national symbol of Babylon was a winged lion. Berlin's Pergamon Museum has a replica of the Ishtar Gate which was guarded on the north processional avenue by two winged lions. The power and strength of Babylon was as the strength of a lion and an eagle. In Daniel's vision, the lion's wings were plucked, it was lifted up and made to stand as a man. This is a picture of what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, who had a problem with pride (Dan. 3:28-37). He believed that his kingdom was great because of his personal power and majesty. He was humbled: he lost his mind and lived and ate like an animal for seven years, and at the end of that time he was restored and gave glory to the God of heaven. I believe Daniel's vision excluded Egypt and Assyria (the first two kingdoms which will be mentioned shortly) and began with Babylon because it was contemporary to Daniel.

Dan 7:5 "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." This beast is Medo-Persia - not Russia. Bible bears are not teddy bears, they are vicious, hungry animals. The bear is raised up on its side because the Persians were stronger than the Medes. The three ribs represent Lydia, Babylon and Egypt, three kingdoms that Medo-Persia conquered. Eventually the Persians subjugated the Medes.

Dan 7:6 "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." This beast is Greece - not Africa. A leopard is swift, cunning and cruel with an insatiable appetite for blood. Greece was ruled by Alexander the Great who was the father of the blitzkrieg. The lightening-quick character of his conquests was without precedent in the ancient world. Alexander died at age 32 of alcohol and venereal disease and after his death, his kingdom was divided between his four leading generals - the four heads on the leopard. I think it's significant that Alexander conquered most of the known world at that time because this meant that most of civilization would be familiar with the Greek language, the language of the New Testament. I believe God used Alexander to get his word into the hands of the people.

Dan 7:7 "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 brake 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." This beast is Rome in three separate manifestations, each worse than the one preceding. Jesus lived under the power of Rome and died at the order of a Roman ruler. The Roman Empire began its conquests about 250 B.C. and extended to 1453 A.D. It had more influence on culture, literature, architecture, and law than any of the preceding empires. At the height of its power the armies of Rome would smash a country, carry off the able-bodied men as slaves, and leave a detachment of soldiers to enforce the collection of taxes and Roman rules of government, and its rule extended over Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia.

In the book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon listed five reasons for the fall of Rome:

1. the increase in divorce, undermining the institution of the family
2. the imposition of higher taxes for bread and circuses
3. the drive for pleasure, sports becoming more exciting and brutal
4. the people had lost their faith
5. the existence of an internal conspiracy, working to undermine the government from within, all the time that the government was proclaiming that Rome's enemy was external

All five of these reasons for the fall of Rome are present and active in the U.S. (and the rest of the world) today: the governments of this world are about to fall to the antichrist system.

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." At the end of verse 8 Daniel bridges the gap between the ancient Roman Empire and the endtime system of the antichrist. It is antichrist who will have eyes like a man and a big mouth.

All four of these beasts were nations or governments. More specifically, all of them were kingdoms ruled by kings (individuals). Each kingdom (also Egypt and Assyria) were a triune system of government where the king had absolute control over 1) politics, 2) religion, and 3) economics. We will see all three branches of this system in Rev. 13.