Revelation's Battle of the Beasts: The Lamb Wins
When a Lamb Smacks Down a Lion, Bear, Leopard, and a Dragon!
The first animal that we encounter in the book of Revelation is the Lamb. The Lamb is the focus of the book, and the reader is to follow the Lamb through the book down to the final episode.
The epic conflict between Christ and Satan plays out its final scenes on earth in the book of Revelation. In chapter 7 of the book of Daniel, the prophet is shown the world's great empires in succession down through the ages, symbolically represent by various carnivorous beasts. For example, a mighty winged lion represents the great Babylonian empire. This lion is followed by a bear, representing the Medo-Persian kingdom that replaced Babylon as the world power. Then Greece followed, symbolized by a four-winged leopard. And then there is the non-descript, dreadful beast which had great iron teeth, and was different from all the other beasts before it.
Revelation picks up the struggle in chapter 13 by reviewing the lion, bear and leopard, then repeating and explicating more upon the fourth beast-power that would rule the world. We are also introduced to the dragon, Satan, and his primary agency of deception in the last days, the beast which rose up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads.
This author contends that Revelation chapters 12-21 contain the ultimate showdown between the fourth beast and its confederated hosts versus the Lamb and His agency on earth, the church, the bride of Christ, which keeps His commandments and has the faith of Jesus. But the church does not do any physical fighting. It is Christ the Lamb Who fights against the dragon/sea beast/earth beast/false prophet, and overcomes and destroys them in the lake of fire and brimstone that burns at the end of the earth. At long last, the controversy is ended. Satan, sin and evil, and death, and those who chose Satan's service, all are forever destroyed by the wrath of God and of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The harmony, peace and order of God's universe is eternally secured, and the Lamb sits upon the throne of His glory as the only One fit to rule over all. The Lamb wins.
The first animal that we encounter in the book of Revelation is the Lamb. The Lamb is the focus of the book, and the reader is to follow the Lamb through the book down to the final episode.
The epic conflict between Christ and Satan plays out its final scenes on earth in the book of Revelation. In chapter 7 of the book of Daniel, the prophet is shown the world's great empires in succession down through the ages, symbolically represent by various carnivorous beasts. For example, a mighty winged lion represents the great Babylonian empire. This lion is followed by a bear, representing the Medo-Persian kingdom that replaced Babylon as the world power. Then Greece followed, symbolized by a four-winged leopard. And then there is the non-descript, dreadful beast which had great iron teeth, and was different from all the other beasts before it.
Revelation picks up the struggle in chapter 13 by reviewing the lion, bear and leopard, then repeating and explicating more upon the fourth beast-power that would rule the world. We are also introduced to the dragon, Satan, and his primary agency of deception in the last days, the beast which rose up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads.
This author contends that Revelation chapters 12-21 contain the ultimate showdown between the fourth beast and its confederated hosts versus the Lamb and His agency on earth, the church, the bride of Christ, which keeps His commandments and has the faith of Jesus. But the church does not do any physical fighting. It is Christ the Lamb Who fights against the dragon/sea beast/earth beast/false prophet, and overcomes and destroys them in the lake of fire and brimstone that burns at the end of the earth. At long last, the controversy is ended. Satan, sin and evil, and death, and those who chose Satan's service, all are forever destroyed by the wrath of God and of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The harmony, peace and order of God's universe is eternally secured, and the Lamb sits upon the throne of His glory as the only One fit to rule over all. The Lamb wins.
Comments
Post a Comment