VI: The Prophets' Visions

Beast from the Sea Counterfeit court

the composite ruling system out of Rome

Root
Dan 7:2-3 · cheyvah (H2423)
Old Testament chain
  1. Dan 2:40-43
  2. Dan 7:2-7
  3. Dan 7:17, 23
  4. Dan 7:21-25
  5. Dan 12:7
  6. Rev 13:1-10
New Testament
Rev 13; Rev 13:1-10; Rev 13:7

Daniel interprets his own beasts: "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings" (Dan 7:17), and the fourth "shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth" (Dan 7:23). It is the iron of the image, broken into iron mixed with miry clay (Dan 2:41-43). Revelation's beast from the sea is that same Roman line in its later form, a system of authority rather than one individual, which the book places historically in the papal power of 538-1798. Its war on the saints is loss of protection and standing, the faithful preserved but removed from prominence. The futurist single Antichrist of a coming seven-year tribulation has no footing here; Daniel's seventieth week is already fulfilled.

From The Courtroom of Heaven, pp. 185, 188, 195, 198–199, 205, 215