Rev. 13:1 says this beast will have seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. This is not a 'baby' beast: this thing appears fully formed and ready for action, which means that when it appears it will have already been developed, matured and outfitted. This beast is not the same entity as the dragon in chapter 12 (which reveals Satan), this beast is a government system. The symbolism of both is similar which tells us that it is the dragon who empowers this beast.

The symbolism of the beast is interpreted in Rev. 17:7-12 "And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast."

The seven heads are seven mountains, which in scripture symbolizes a kingdom, but they are also seven kings. A king is the absolute ruler and head of his kingdom. Each of these seven were able to dominate the civilized world. Of these seven kingdoms, five are fallen (1. Egypt - Pharoah, 2. Assyria - Tiglath-pileser, 3. Babylon - Nebuchadnezzar, 4. Medo-Persia - Cyrus/Darius, and 5. Greece - Alexander); one is (Rome under Caesar was the empire in existence when John wrote Revelation).

"And the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition."

There are indeed seven world kingdoms in the past and in the future, but number seven, which is a revival of Rome, has two kings - one during the tribulation and one at some point between the Roman Empire (king #6) and the Tribulation. The seventh king would only be given a short space - a small amount of time. Many have tried to reunite the Roman Empire, most notably Napoleon, but the one who most closely fits this prophecy is the Nazi government under Hitler.

On pages 114-120 of the same book, Mrs. Cumbey lists the parallels between Nazism and the New Age Movement side by side. It is my opinion that the seventh head of Rev. 17:10 is the Nazi system with Hitler as its first king (king #7) to be followed by antichrist (king #8) as the last king over the same system.  To summarize, Rome was the sixth kingdom in Rev. 17:10 (the one that is), and because Daniel's fourth beast was Rome, Rome gets revived twice: the first revival under king #7 - Hitler; and the second revival under king #8 - antichrist.

The ten horns are ten kings. For years this has been interpreted to be the revived Roman Empire and in a sense it is because Daniel's fourth and last beast was Rome. Christians were watching for a ten-nation federation to form in Europe. This federation formally began to be formed more than forty years ago.

Current members of the European Community and their membership dates are: Austria (1995); Belgium (1952/58); Cyprus (2004); Czech Republic (2004); Denmark (1973); Estonia (2004); Finland (1995); France (1952/58); Germany (1952/58); Greece (1981); Hungary (2004); Ireland (1973); Italy (1952/58); Latvia (2004); Lithuania (2004) Luxembourg (1952/58); Malta (2004); Netherlands (1952/58); Poland (2004); Portugal (1986); Slovakia (2004); Slovenia (2004); Spain (1986); Sweden (1986); and the United Kingdom (1973).

While most of the Christian world was waiting for the European Union (EU) to reach either ten or thirteen members, the organization leap-frogged to twenty-five member states, which would appear to rule it out as the end-time system. However, there are two branches to the organization: the EU and the Western European Union (WEU). This WEU happens to be the military branch of the organization and it does in fact have ten member states. They are: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece.

I do believe that antichrist will rise out of the revived Roman Empire, but the ten kings mentioned in Rev. 17:12 have no kingdom and no power as kings until the antichrist arises. Most (if not all) of the nations listed above have democratic forms of government: they elect their leaders. So these ten kings may be the ten leaders at the time that the system rises to power, but it seems that they may receive power as KINGS, i.e. absolute ruling power, as soon as the beast system rises, and further, the scripture states that they will give this power to the antichrist.

Europe does have kingdoms with royalty at the top, but they are mostly figureheads. J.R. Church wrote a book that exposed the heretical legend that Jesus did not die, he married Mary Magdalene and emigrated to France where they raised a family who eventually became the royal families of Europe, and more recently this heresy has been popularized in the fiction work, The DaVinci Code. While this legend is occultic and blasphemous, it illustrates the opinion held by some that royalty is indeed special: they think they have divine blood. We should understand that it is immaterial whether beliefs are true or false, people will act upon their beliefs and others will be forced to deal with the consequences.

There is an alternate possibility as to the identity of these ten kings. The Club of Rome (COR), founded in 1968 by Aurelio Peccei of Fiat and Olivetti, claims to have the solutions for world peace and prosperity, and those solutions always involve a one-world government. In 1978 the COR prepared a report entitled Regionalized and Adaptive Model of the Global World System. This report divided the world into ten political/ economic regions and referred to them as kingdoms. (Click here to see map) In looking at the map we can see that region #1 roughly corresponds to NAFTA, region #2 corresponds to the European Union and region #7 corresponds to OPEC. I haven't gotten information on treaties or trade agreements for the other regions, but I am quite sure they either exist now or soon will. I believe that because we are talking about a one-world government, these ten kings may cover a larger area than just Europe. If these ten kingdoms are economic regions, it is interesting to note that about ten years ago Congress passed the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT): legislation that established the World Trade Organization. This 22,000 page bill establishes rules and regulations to which ALL U.S. laws must conform. It will be treated as a treaty in the U.S. courts therefore everything GATT decrees will override federal and state laws and constitutions. GATT was a giant step toward one-world government, or the New World Order (NWO).