A Mysterious Sign in Virgo … What Does It Mean?
The Book of Revelation is a subject that I can’t think of any book in the Bible that is so well-known (in name) by both believer and unbeliever alike, while at the same time the least read or understood. For example: If ten people were asked where in the Bible we find the term Antichrist, I would (safely) surmise that eight of them would answer … in Revelation. However, the only book that refers to this despicable man as the Antichrist is the epistle of I John.
Titles and Identity of the False Messiah
Other titles of this false messiah are found throughout various prophetic texts. These include descriptions such as the little horn, ruler, king, worthless shepherd, man of lawlessness, and the beast. These titles are found in Daniel, Zechariah, II Thessalonians, and Revelation.
Key Titles of the False Messiah:
- Antichrist: I John
- Little horn, ruler, king, beast: Daniel
- Worthless shepherd: Zechariah
- Man of lawlessness: II Thessalonians
- Beast: Revelation
Is Revelation Exclusively Future Tense?
Is the Book of Revelation about the future? Yes, I realize; that is one of those “duh” questions. But not as rhetorical as you might think. Which begs the next question: Is Revelation exclusively future tense? The fact that I even asked this question probably gives cause to pause. If you didn’t know for sure, you’d probably answer that it isn’t solely future merely because I asked the question! And you would be right. But just barely. So, then, do you know what passages in Revelation are past tense? Let’s make it simpler —there are only two.
Other than the present-tense dynamics of Chapters 1, 2, & 3 and a reference to the woman (that great city—Rome) that rules (present tense at the time Revelation was written) the kings of the world (Revelation 17:18), the Book of Revelation is almost entirely future tense; except for the two past-tense passages that we’re going to examine. Because nearly the entire book of Revelation pertains to the Tribulation, Second Coming of Messiah, the Millennium, and post-millennial Eternity, the vast majority of prophecy students have overlooked the evidence that the beast of Revelation (Antichrist) had already lived and died before John’s vision of the beast.
The Mystery of the Beast and the Number 666
One of the Two Past-Tense Passages (Revelation 17:7-11a) reveals a startling significance. Said the angel to John: “I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns on which she sits. The beast you saw was once alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit … And the people who belong to this world … will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died” (Revelation 17:7-8). This was a disclosure that led to rediscovery of what most 1st through 4th century Christians knew all along … the identity of the Antichrist.
In Chapter 13 it is the “meaning” of the number and, therefore, name of that same (Antichrist) beast. In Revelation 13:18 the meaning can be “solved” with Hebrew gematria—counting by the alphabet. Six hundred and sixty-six is the equivalent spelling of Nero Caesar, from Greek to Hebrew. In Revelation 13:14 the angel tells John of the beast, “…who was fatally wounded and then came back to life”. And three times in Revelation 17, we’re told the same thing. Except this time the angel elaborates even more by confirming that the beast had already lived and died before John saw the beast from the isle of Patmos in the first century!
Which invalidates the prevailing view that a modern-day born Antichrist will be killed during the Tribulation, then arise from the dead. After telling John that the beast he had just seen “was once alive but isn’t now” (verse 8), the angel again states: “The scarlet beast that was, but is no longer, is the eighth king. He is like the other seven…” (Revelation 17:11). Before that John is told that the seven heads of the beast represent specific historical meanings.