Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (41 page)

Rapturists assume that the sea-beast of Chapter 13 is the antichrist. Some Catholics follow their lead. But nowhere in the entire book is there any indication that this is the final antichrist foretold to appear at the final confrontation between good and evil. In fact, by the time we get to the final battle, St. John foresees that both beasts will have been in the lake of fire for centuries! No, this sea-beast lived in the first century, although he might certainly stand as a type for the final antichrist (GR3).

When reading the description of the sea-beast, we cannot avoid being reminded of the four beasts in Daniel’s vision. The beast has attributes of “a leopard … a bear … and … a lion.” From this we can be absolutely certain that St. John saw the Roman war machine as the fourth beast of Daniel 7. The beast even has the same ten horns. Modernists who try to interpret Daniel without including Rome must answer to St. John.

The sea-beast is the dragon’s protégé, so it has seven heads and ten horns just like the dragon (13:1). The ten horns represent the ten provinces of ancient Rome, as a later vision will make clear (17:9–13).

That later vision also reveals that the seven heads have a double meaning (GR4). The vast majority of scholars would agree that these seven heads are the seven emperors who ruled Rome, and that is the meaning that concerns us here.

There is controversy over when to start counting emperors. Who was the first emperor? Modernist scholars begin with Augustus, the heir of Julius Caesar. But St. John was not a modernist scholar. He was a Jewish native of Judea, like the ancient historian Josephus. And because Josephus was a contemporary of St. John, he is illustrative of how St. John’s original Jewish readers would have numbered the emperors. Josephus started counting the imperial rulers of Rome with Julius Caesar. Even though Julius technically ruled during the Republic, he was considered by St. John’s contemporaries to be the first of the emperors. After all, he established the Julio-Claudio dynasty that ruled Rome for generations.

This dynasty began with Julius Caesar and continued through Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius I, and Nero. This makes six, with the seventh head being Emperor Vespasian, under whose rule Jerusalem was sacked and the Temple destroyed by General Titus, his son and future heir to the throne. The interregnum of three short-lived rulers is ignored by Josephus, just as it is by most present-day scholars when numbering the emperors.

St. John mentions seven heads, including Vespasian, because that was the number of emperors before Jerusalem was judged and the Church vindicated. In early 68 A.D., Nero was Caesar, and so stands as representative of the empire. By July 1, 69, Vespasian was declared emperor by his troops. He was confirmed by the Senate in Rome on December 21, 69. Of course, the number
seven
was also very important symbolically (GR2).

Yet in this vision of the sea-beast, Nero is the primary focus. Why? The reason should be obvious. He was the emperor during the Great Tribulation implemented by the two beasts. In this vision of the dragon’s battle strategy, the destruction of the Temple takes a back seat to the greater conflict between Satan and Christ’s Church from 64 to 67 A.D.—a conflict that extends even to today.

Remember, that spiritual conflict is what imbues the destruction of the Temple with significance. Christ pointed to the judgment of the Temple and the Sanhedrin as the public vindication of His message and ministry. The destruction of the Temple revealed to the world the message of the scroll: the mystery of the Church. We encountered this scroll in God’s throne room in the initial vision.

Overall, the symbolism of the beasts is similar to that of the Woman and of the two witnesses. Nero, Vespasian, and Titus each stand at different times as a specific focal point for the entire Roman Empire in its vindictive destruction of Jerusalem. Later in the book (17:11), the beast is identified as General Titus, who became the eighth emperor of the Roman Empire. At other times, it is evident that what is said of the beast is meant to refer to the entire Roman Empire and its government. St. John uses his symbols to signify dual realities (GR4).

The beast suffers a wound on one of its heads. “One of [the beast’s] heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder” (13:3). Nero is the personification of the empire in much the same way as Moses was the personification of the Law. At this point, the beast signifies Rome, and the wounded head symbolizes Nero.

Rome certainly endured what “seemed to [be] a mortal wound” during the tumultuous reign of Nero. Nero’s reign was disastrous in many respects: Rome was plagued by uprisings and civil wars; the Senate hated him; and the provinces, the army, and even the praetorian guard finally revolted against him. In the end, he committed suicide. On an individual level, that not only seemed to be a mortal wound; it was.

On a political level, the suicide of Nero caused a wound that seemed mortal as well. Nero’s sudden suicide, preceded as it was by his incompetence, led to a total disarray in the Roman Empire. Many Romans, including General Vespasian, were afraid the empire might disintegrate after Nero’s suicide (
WJ
, IV, 8:1).

During the interregnum between Nero and Vespasian, three men reigned for a very short time each. There were three rulers from the suicide in June 68 A.D., to the Senate’s confirmation of Vespasian in December 69 A.D. These nineteen months of turmoil saw civil war within the city of Rome itself. Rome was perhaps in more danger during this interregnum than at any other point in its history (
WJ
, IV, 8–10). Some historians are amazed that the empire avoided implosion. Rome’s failure to suppress the revolt of the Jews spawned insurrections throughout the empire, up until Titus’s victory in 70 A.D. Then “the mortal wound was healed,” as Vespasian ruled over a peaceful Roman Empire for nine years. Indeed, the empire had been wounded through Nero’s actions, but the empire would be healed.

A careful reading of the text reveals that, although the “head” suffers the mortal wound, it is the beast that is followed. After the mortal head wound, that particular head is not mentioned again. This is, of course, because Nero is dead, but the Roman Empire has survived. “The whole world followed the beast with wonder.”

By Nero’s reign, the ancient Roman world had given itself unreservedly to the worship of the emperor as divinity. St. John equates this with worship of Satan himself: “Men worshiped the dragon … and they worshiped the beast, saying … ‘Who can fight against it?’ ” (13:4). Rome truly was invincible in the eyes of much of the ancient world. St. John understands the power of Rome as a gift from the dragon.

This worship of the sea-beast led to blasphemy, as Daniel had predicted (7:25). The beast (Rome as personified in its Caesars) “was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words … for forty-two months” (13:5). This is the same three and a half years that we have seen repeatedly throughout The Apocalypse. Historically it refers to the time when Rome and Jerusalem were at war, from February of 67 to August of 70 A.D. During this time, three men were Caesar: Nero, Vespasian, and Titus (Titus was declared Caesar by his father before Jerusalem fell;
SH
, XXX:403). In demanding worship, the Caesars had crossed the line between political loyalty and idolatrous blasphemy.

Nero’s arrogance and blasphemy are well known, but the next two emperors were no better. Jewish tradition states that after the Romans overran the Temple, Titus took a prostitute into the innermost chamber of the Temple, the holy of holies, spread out a scroll of the Torah (the Old Testament Scriptures), and proceeded to engage in an act of fornication on the scroll. Such was the arrogant blasphemy of the Caesars who conquered Jerusalem and persecuted the Christians. They were beasts.

In the face of this invincible beast that demands and accepts worship, what is a Christian to do? St. John makes clear one thing they are
not
to do. Lest the early Church take up arms to protect itself in a futile and suicidal revolt, The Apocalypse warns that “if anyone slays with the sword, with the sword must he be slain” (13:10). This warning parallels that of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse: do not join the army of false Messiahs if you value your life. “Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” (13:10). Endurance and faith are the only paths to victory in what amounts to a spiritual battle with a political foe.

This can also be taken as a promise. The pleas for justice by the Christian martyrs under the altar in the fifth seal have not been forgotten. In the midst of the description of these two evil beasts, the reader is reminded that justice will be served in the end. But the role of the Christian is to plead his case before God’s throne. It is a lesson that applies to many ages beyond just the first century.

The second beast, the land-beast, now enters the scene. As is so often the case in The Apocalypse, earth in 13:11 would better be translated as “land.” This land-beast “had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon” (13:11). So the land-beast will speak just as deceitfully as Satan, but will appear harmless and holy. This beast must be a symbol of the Sanhedrin.

This interpretation dovetails with how many scholars view the essence of these two beasts. “Satan calls up two lieutenants: the ‘beast from the sea,’ the political [adversary of the Church, which is] … the Roman Empire with its emperor worship …; and the ‘beast of the earth,’ the philosophical and theological [adversary]”
(NCE)
. The Jewish land-beast provides theological “cover” for the political machinations of the Roman sea-beast.

Josephus mentions two men whom Nero sent to administer his will in Jerusalem (
AJ
, XX, 11:1): Albinus and Gessius Florus. They are probably the most logical interpretation of the two lamblike horns on the beast.

In a few chapters, this same land-beast is referred to as “the false prophet.” “False prophet” is actually a description of what the land-beast does: “It works great signs, even making fire come down from Heaven to earth in the sight of men.… It deceives those who dwell” in the land (13:14). This false prophet is able to imitate even that sign of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, when Elijah brought fire down from the sky. But his main stratagem is deceit.

This passage parallels the prophecy of Jesus. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus predicted that, at the time of the destruction of the Temple, “false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders.” The land-beast uses signs and wonders to deceive people. St. John is careful to show that Jesus has kept His promise. The signs He pointed out in the Olivet Discourse came to pass within that generation.

This land-beast stands in a long line of false prophets who have assured God’s people that they were safe, when they were anything but safe. The Sanhedrin in 70 A.D. certainly fit the description. Not only had they led Jerusalem in revolt against her Messiah almost a generation earlier, but during the war, “there was a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people [in Jerusalem] … that they should wait for deliverance from God” (
WJ
, VI, 5:2). As we learned in the initial vision, they were forced to drink wormwood (8:11).

This land-beast is given authority by Rome and “makes the land and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed” (13:12). The Roman system of government required great autonomy on the part of the provincial governments. The empire was simply too large to be administered by a centralized bureaucracy in Rome. So Nero used the provincial governments within his empire to enforce emperor worship. Judea was no exception. This cooperation with Roman idolatry was one reason the outlaw Zealot hated the Sanhedrin and the priesthood in Jerusalem. They thought the leaders of Jerusalem were blaspheming the Law of Moses in their cooperation with Roman religion.

Although some of the earlier Caesars accepted worship, it seems doubtful they genuinely believed it themselves. But many historians think that Nero did believe in his own divinity, and so he rigorously enforced his edict of worship on all his subjects. One ancient writer called the enforcement of Nero’s edict “maniacally rigorous.” In fact, “the Neronian persecution [was] the most cruel that ever occurred” (
HCC
, I, 386). During Nero’s reign, even simple trade became impossible without submitting to the worship of Nero in the town square: “No one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast” (13:17).

The Jewish leadership had compromised to survive, by performing daily sacrifices in the Temple for Nero, but the Christian Church refused to participate in anything that even bordered on idol worship. In the letters to the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira, St. John encouraged them to hold to the Faith in this regard. No idol worship! For obeying Christ, Christians were viewed as traitors. As traitors, they were hunted down and killed by Rome.

Rome did not act in isolation from its provincial governments. The land-beast caused “those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain” (13:15). Jerusalem encouraged and cooperated with Rome because the Sanhedrin had their own motive for hating the Christians. Christianity taught that the Temple worship was obsolete, and that the divisions between Jews and Gentiles had been superseded by Christ’s atonement. That was the initial vision’s mystery of the scroll that was unsealed for the entire world to see.