Paradise Restored

The Beast and the False Prophet 177
darkness, which the light of the Spirit “overcame” (Gen. 1:2;
John 1:5). Obviously, there was no real conflict between God
and His creation; in the beginning, everything was “very good.”
The sea is most fundamentally an image of life. But after the
Fall, the picture of the raging deep is used and developed in
Scripture as a symbol of the world in chaos through the rebellion
of men and nations against God: “The wicked are like the
tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse
and mud” (Isa. 57:20; cf. 17: 12). Thus John is told later that “the
waters which you saw . . . are peoples and multitudes and nations
and tongues” (Rev. 17:15). Out of this chaotic, rebellious
mass of humanity emerged Rome, an entire empire founded on
the premise of opposition to God.
Second, John saw that the Beast had “ten horns and seven
heads” (Rev. 13:1), in the image of the Dragon (12:3), who gives
the Beast “his power and his throne and great authority” (13:2).
The ten horns (powers) of the Beast are explained in Revelation
17:12 in terms of the governors of the ten imperial provinces,
while the seven heads are explained as the line of the Caesars
(17:9-11): Nero is one of the “heads” (we will return to this in the
following chapter).
Third, “on his heads were blasphemous names” (13:1). As we
have already seen, the Caesars were gods. Each emperor was
called Augustus or Sebastos, meaning One to be worshiped;
they also took on the name divus (god) and even Deus and
Theos (God). Many temples were erected to them throughout
the Empire, especially, as we have seen, in Asia Minor. The
Roman Caesars received honor belonging only to the one true
God; Nero commanded absolute obedience, and even had an
image of himself built, 120 feet high. For this reason Paul called
Caesar “the man of sin”; he was, Paul said, “the son of destruction,
who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god
or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of
God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thess. 2:3-4). John
emphasizes this aspect of the Beast: “And there was given to him
a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies. . . . And
he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme
His Name and His tabernacle, those who tabernacle in heaven”
(13:5-6). The Christians were persecuted precisely because they
refused to join in this idolatrous Emperor-cult.