Revelation thirteen is such a clear narrative that it lends itself to a form of paraphrasing;
substituting the best understanding we have of the various imagery into the text and
elaborating further based on other texts.
John stood on the sand next to the sea and he saw an empire rising up out of the sea of peoples and nations. It resembled a beast with seven heads and ten horns, and on each horn a crown, for the
horns represent ten kings (or rulers) who shall rule for a short time1.
Now this kingdom (or empire) that he saw was like a leopard in the speed of its conquest, its feet
strong like a bear as it trampled the nations and it had a mouth that was as bold and as proud as that of a lion. Satan gave the kingdom its power and great authority to rule. One of the parts of the
kingdom (or one of the kings) seemed vanquished (or killed), yet suddenly achieved great victory, so that the entire world marveled and worshiping the beast saying, “Who is like the beast and who can
make war with him”?
Then the beast opened its mouth and its leaders began to speak against God and against God's
people, and throughout the kingdom there was much persecution of the saints. But all the rest of
the world worshiped the empire and its leaders.
Then two great figures arose, overshadowing or displacing the power of the ten kings before them.
One was the ultimate Antichrist, the complete embodiment of Satan upon the earth2. The other was
the false prophet3 who proclaims the Antichrist as messiah. The Antichrist performs great deceiving wonders; even making fire come down from the sky so that people think he is a god. His ability to do miracles comes from his command over the satanic part of the supernatural world (just as Pharaoh's
magicians could repeat some of the miracles of Moses4).
The Antichrist then set up an idol (much as Nebuchadnezzar did), however this idol is able to speak.5
Then he commands that all the people of the earth receive a mark on their hand or forehead and if
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they don't receive this mark they will not be allowed to buy or sell, thus being completely cut off from the economic system.
Addition from Rev15:2: But many shall reject the beast and reject the idol and reject the mark, and these are ultimately seen standing on a sea of glass playing heavenly music and singing the song of Moses that starts “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God almighty…”.
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