10
Toes, 10 Kings and the 4th Beast; Revelation 6:1-2
Revelation 6:1 NASB “Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of
the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a
voice of thunder, ‘Come’.”
At this point John is to observe another vision. What he is going to see
is the first series of judgments called the seal judgments and in these
judgments which cover the first 21 months of the Tribulation there will be six
consecutive judgments poured out on human history. These are judgments unlike
anything that has been seen in human history. Each seal reveals a subsequent
judgment. The scroll itself represents a title deed to the planet as He is
going to come at the end to receive the kingdom from God.
Revelation 6:2 NASB “I looked, and behold, a white horse, and
he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out
conquering and to conquer.”
The first seal refers to a rider on a white horse. Each of rhe first
four seals is represented as a rider on a white horse. The rider is not a
specific person it represents another judgment. This first rider rides a white
horse—white is a picture in Scripture of righteousness. But this is not the
Lord Jesus Christ who comes at the end of the Tribulation period riding on a
white horse; this is a pseudo Christ or the Antichrist, the one who is a
substitute Christ who comes. He is described in this section as a rider with a
bow, indicating military power. He is given a crown that is the victor’s wreath
and he goes out conquering and to conquer. Conquering is not always done
through military defeats, sometimes it is done through other means. This is a
personification of the Antichrist’s conquests.
So the Antichrist is a substitute or pseudo messiah. He is going to
attempt to bring in world peace, end all the problems of mankind, and what he
offers is a solution to man’s problems that denies the basic problem. If we
watch the news carefully, of we watch current events, and even go back into the
middle of the 19th century, what we will observe is that especially
since the end of the 1700s western civilisation has continuously worked at
redefining man’s basic problem as something other than sin. At the middle of
the 1700s most people in the west believed that mankind was inherently depraved
and corrupt. With the influence of Enlightenment ideas coming out of the 17th
and 18th centuries there has been the influence of this idea that
man is basically good. It influences society, it influences Christianity, it
lays the groundwork for what becomes known as 19th century religious
liberalism that came on the scene in the 1800s, and at the core is the idea
that man is basically good and that if man is basically good he is perfectible.
And if man is perfectible then society is perfectible and so it is the goal of
government and the goal of the church to bring in this perfection by doing away
with immorality, by doing away with what is perceived to be the social sins,
and all of this fits this same utopic agenda. There are utopians who are
secular, utopians who are religious, but ultimately any sort of utopic idea is
functional atheism because it denies the reality of God and His Word, that
man’s basic problem isn’t social, isn’t environmental; his basic problem is sin
and that we are all born dead in our sins and that the only solution comes
through a relationship with Jesus Christ by putting our faith in Him at the
cross, and then only through the Word of God and the Spirit of God can the corruption
and the sin nature be managed and defeated as the Word of God is applied. The
Antichrist provides a solution that is totally apart from God’s Word and based
on a false analysis.
The result of this is that God judges. One of the ways God judges is to
give us over to our sin nature, as it were; He removes the restraints. In
Romans chapter one we see that homosexuality and sexual perversion are all part
of God’s judgment. They are not what God will judge us for, they are God’s
judgment on a culture and on a society, and each time a society moves more and
more in a direction against God then God gives them over to a further degree of
depravity. This is the same thing that will happen in the Tribulation period.
God will send them strong delusion that they shall believe the lie. You have to
be able to spot the deception because the deception, the wolf in sheep’s
clothing, will come and large numbers of people will be deceived in the
Tribulation period.
In 1898 a book came out by Samuel Anvers called Christianity and
Antichristianity. He was writing about the future situation with the rise of
the Antichrist and he made some incredibly perceptive comments.
“The choice of the Antichrist is not to be the
choice of the rulers only, or of the popular leaders, the multitude being
unwilling [it is not going to be the leaders in contrast to the people], it is
the choice of the people, the direct or indirect expression of the popular
will. It is the voluntary declaration of Christendom: ‘We will not have this
man rule over us; not this man but Barabbus’”…..
What he is saying is that when the Antichrist comes he will be approved
and accepted by popular acclaim. The masses will love and adore him. It is not
that some political system is going to put him in power but the people will
turn to him and acclaim him as the one who will bring in a utopian society.
“…. We may know here that a democracy looking
upon its leader as its representative willingly gives him a power even greater
than the largest measure of its political prerogatives. The sovereign
multitude, the people, which sees in their leader not so much a ruler who
commands them as the one who is the exponent and executive of their will. That
people yields to their ruler such a full and unreserved obedience as no despot
could ever obtain. Democracy headed up in one who can sway its forces has such
elements of aggression as no form of government hitherto existing has ever had.
The laws and institutions are no longer reverenced as having sanctions when
having gone through continual change after change after change….”
He says that when you have a government that changes the laws and the
interpretation of laws over and over and over again it destroys any sense of
stability in law itself.
“…. When various institutions are continually
changed they have no root in the traditions or the love of the people…” In other words,
the generations will forget what the founders wanted, because there are so many
changes that it doesn’t matter what the intent of the founders was.
“… When rulers by popular election prove themselves incapable, when no surety
or stability of legislation exists and all are uncertain and anxious as to the
future then there arises a general cry for a man. In a general disintegration
it is only about a man that men can rally. It is not about abstract principles
or written constitutions, all cry for one with an inflexible will and a strong
arm who can serve as a centre of unity and bring order out of confusion.”
The point that he is making is that in the end-time scenario confusion
and chaos in society and politics will reach such a point that it is into that
vacuum of power that one will come, and people will willingly and gladly give
him all authority to rule over them, and they will trade their freedom and
their liberty for security. And that doesn’t just happen in the Tribulation;
that happens throughout history, but it will happen in its final form during
the Tribulation period with this one who is called the Antichrist. Deception
will be rampant.
He is given a wide variety of titles in the Scripture. He is called the
little horn in Daniel 7:8, 9, 19-26; he is called the insolent king in Daniel
8:23; the prince who is to come in Daniel 9:26, 27; the one who makes desolate
in Daniel 9:27; 11:31; Matthew 24:15; the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians
2:3; the son of destruction in 2 Thessalonians 2:3; the lawless one in 2
Thessalonians 2:8; the beast in Revelation 11:7; the despicable person in
Daniel 11:21; the strong-willed king in Daniel 11:36; the worthless shepherd in
Zechariah 11:16-17.
The Antichrist rises to power during the transition between the Rapture
and the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week. We will not see him as the
Antichrist before the Rapture. The Scripture says that the next thing that
happens is the blessed hope, and we are looking for Jesus’ coming in the air
for us. The Antichrist is not revealed until afterward but he begins to rise to
power prior to Daniel’s seventieth week and in the first half of Daniel’s seventieth
week is when he brings his power base together and establishes his empire.
Daniel 9:27 NASB “And he will make a firm covenant with the many
[Israel] for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to
sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations {will come} one
who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is
poured out on the one who makes desolate.” From the point in the middle of the
week will be seen his full blown hostility to believers during that end-time
Tribulation period.
Who is this man? He is the head of a confederation of western powers
related to the revived
The Antichrist rises to power following the confederation of ten
nations. He will then assume control over the ten as an eleventh king. The ten
are not removed but he is elevated over them and in the process it appears that
there are three resisting and so he conquers them and includes them within his
kingdom.
Daniel chapter seven represents these kingdoms seen in chapter two as
four beasts. Now we are looking at these kingdoms from God’s viewpoint: that
man in independence from God is beastly, horrible. He has taken power out of
control and he is destructive of God’s purpose. So these ravenous, powerful
beasts are used to depict these kingdoms. The fourth beast that shows up is
terrible and it goes forth devouring and crushing and it is pictured with teeth
of iron. That takes us back to the iron the statue related to the
The Antichrist is the little horn and he is going to subdue three of the
horns in the process of gaining control over the ten. That is how he
establishes his authority and establishes his kingdom. This is viewed as the
revival of the
Daniel 7:19, 20 NASB “Then I desired to know the exact
meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others,
exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, {and
which} devoured, crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet,
The interpretation: Daniel 7:23 NASB “Thus he said: ‘The
fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different
from all the {other} kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down
and crush it. [24] As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will
arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the
previous ones and will subdue three kings. [25] He will speak out against the
Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to
make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for
a time, times, and half a time.” He will take up a position that is directly
antagonistic to God. He will oppress and persecute the saints and then will
continue to make alterations in times and in law. He wants to re-establish
things in terms of his own authority. He sets himself up as the ultimate
arbiter of law and law does not come from elsewhere and so it is a rejection of
God as the ultimate source of law. We live in a world today where we see this
same spirit developing. It works itself where political institutions seek to
establish legal solutions to man-defined problems in order to develop a utopic
society.
So in Daniel seven we see these ten horns arise and it is the little
horn that is the beast, the Antichrist. There are several things in this
chapter about the Antichrist. We learn that he rises to power from within this
fourth empire which is made up of ten nations, ten kings, and that it is a
revival of the old