A Message of Hope
There has always been a question addressed to Divinity: “Since God has our well-being in mind, why does He need to use such sophisticated language depicting symbols of beasts and dragons with horses, trumpets, earthquakes, and plagues in communicating to humans? Why must a God of love (who employed clear, simple language to depict the crucifixion and resurrection of His only begotten Son) in the book of Revelation suddenly use now very confusing language to describe the future to His children?
To understand why, let us first consider history. A non-Christian once asked me a legitimate question:
“Tell me, my friend: If God loves all people equally, why did He select the Jewish people to fulfill the task of writing the Bible instead of choosing the Chinese people who have over 5,000 years of history?”
We know that God loves the entire human race, and He is never guilty of unjust discrimination. So, I replied humbly:
“God knew what He needed. He realized that the Bible could not have survived from one dynasty to the next dynasty, because every emperor had an obsession to leave behind him the concept that ‘China begins with me.’ The problem with this attitude is that in a few decades other contender would come with the same idea: ‘China begins with me.’ What such a person would typically do is exactly the same: Destruction by fire of every social, political, and cultural detail that may have linked people to believe that there was ever another ‘Chinese era’ before him. Usually after burning the library, killing the scribes, and the previous emperor with all his wives, children, and relatives, erasing any evidence of any previous Chinese society, looking triumphantly around through the fire, smoke, and blood, with a sense of inner pride the contender would say to his new scribe: ‘Thus shall it be written: “China begins with me.”’ ”
Throughout history, there have been powerful empires in the world, each having its own passionate pride and extreme dignity. These characteristics alone would have been serious enemies against the objective intentions of the Bible.
Similarly, the all-wise God, knowing the ambitious nature of the world’s empires, chose to shelter the writing of the Scriptures behind the humble character of what was often a nation of shepherds.
The truth has been well preserved over the years, being covered by symbols and events of indescribable solemnity. It is indeed a miracle that today in the 21st century we have the extraordinary reflection of the book of Daniel to compare with the book of Revelation. Let us therefore echo the inspired aim of the wise man: “I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things” (Ecclesiastes 7:25).
The last of the books is “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1), none other. Perhaps the most important symbol found therein is that of the “Lamb” of God—Christ Himself. He stands in vivid contrast to the “beast of Satan.” In the gospel according to John, we find the character of God in contrast to the character of the dragon, and the character of the Son of God in contrast to that of the son of perdition. This is aptly summarized in the words, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
God did not send a savage or intimidating beast to redeem the world; rather, He sent a Lamb. And this is where we understand the concept of salvation. The heavenly Father is not a god of violence or forceful persuasion but a God of love that offers the sinner freedom of choice in contrast to the character of the beasts depicted in Revelation. It would be really scary to imagine a twisted concept of salvation expressed in ways such as: “Behold the beast of God that redeems the sin of the world.” The major purpose of “the beasts” in the Bible is not the salvation of the world but a forceful demand to worship. In Daniel chapter 7 we have the description of the character of a beast:
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns” (verse 7).
Here is a quite an interesting difference between the character of God and the character of Satan. God is interested first in our salvation and then, as a natural consequence of our love toward Him, a spontaneous, voluntary worship of Him will follow.
On the opposite hand, the beasts war against the Word of God, against His law, and against His followers. Having seen this, we can add to the puzzle other types of symbols that will enlarge our apocalyptic scene.
The battleground is our planet, the people are the subjects, and the beasts are the persecuting power of governments. See Daniel 7:21–23; Revelation 13:11–13. The Lamb is the extraterrestrial power that comes to help the enslaved humanity; those two powers collide on struggling for the supremacy, the other for deliverance of the human race. The world and the nations were described to John the Revelator:
“The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Revelation 17:15).
So, basically, the waters are the symbol of multitudes and nations and languages of this world. The interesting thing to notice is that even though human beings live in dry land, God in His wisdom chooses to compare the world with “many waters.” People do not live in waters, but God in His wisdom uses water to depict the stormy changing character of human nature. Water can begin very lenient but also can suddenly change not only the speed of its flow but its direction as well. Likewise, humans can be with you now and in the following second can change the course to be against you. We have to admire the extraordinary insight of God!
That being said, we have the Lamb, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, rescuing us from the hands of a reckless tyrant that is Satan, the beast that is the reflection of Satan’s character of government on this world, persecuting His authority—the Word of God, the people of God, and the law of God. The waters are the arena—multitudes, nations, kindred, and tongues. So let us come to another symbolic element which is found in Revelation 17:15:
The expression “whore” is the reflection of a debased and immorally defiled conscience resulting in the immoral behavior of a woman that sells herself for a worldly commodity such as gold or silver in contrast to spiritual values. In the Scripture the expression “woman” has a specific connotation, especially when we talk about prophecy. In the gospel of Isaiah 4:1, we have a very interesting concept about this symbol:
“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach” (Isaiah 4:1).
This prophetical statement involves the concept of a spiritual marriage between Christ and the wishing women. The elements in the picture, such as: “eat our own bread” (having our own theology, unscriptural teachings, and lustful appetites); “wear our own apparel”(have our own inward corruption that is strange to Jesus in contrast to His robe of righteousness—and often even displayed also in our outward appearance); “let us be called by thy name” (allow us to marry you only conventionally for the sake of protocol without having any committed, affectionate feelings); “to take away our reproach” (so we don’t have to be embarrassed since, after all, it is the time of the Judgment, and we prefer to consider ourselves free from actual responsibility and genuine accountability). All these reflect the condition of the churches before the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what Christ actually is looking for is explained in Ephesians 5:25–27:
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
The concept of the marriage between a church and a certain authority is reflected in Revelation 17:1–6:
“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”
The woman in this description is the mother of the 7 women described by Isaiah. This woman is married to a beast as an authority figure, she is seated on the beast, and is supported by the beast. We agree that a beast, contrary to the Lamb in nature and character, is a persecuting power. That is why the woman is drunk with the blood of the people of God. Quite an intriguing mystery! This counterfeit will play a very distinguished role in the order of the things till the end of time.
If we come back to the introductory statement of Isaiah 4:1, there is a parallel with the time of the judgment of the “mother of harlots” specified in chapter 17 of the book of Revelation:
“In that day seven women shall take hold of one man,” in compliance with; “I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.” This pair of verses reflects one single, critical moment: The end, the judgment. The expression “in that day” reflects unequivocally the typical expression of the symbolic language of the prophecy in regard to the end of the world, the Day of Judgment, and other events. Whenever you look into the scripture and you meet this expression “in that day,” in a prophetical context it means the end of the things, the end of the human reign, the end of sin, the end of Satan’s authority, and so forth.
The Lamb of God stands in opposition to the beast of the dragon, which is Satan; the world, which is symbolized by “many waters,” in opposition to the remnant of the people of God. (See Revelation 12:17.)
The woman who is a whore dressed in purple and scarlet (in Revelation 17) is in contrast to the pure woman dressed in white (in Revelation 12).
In Revelation 12 the prophet describes: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (verse 1).
The woman dressed in white is the church of God; the woman in purple is serving Satan the dragon by persecuting the pure woman and her seed, which is the remnant of God’s people. The woman that is a whore does not have moral principles, while the remnant church has the commandments of God.
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (verse 17).
The mark of the beast (see Revelation 13) is the authority of the persecuting power at the end of time and stands in contrast to the mark of God (see Ezekiel 9), which is the symbol of His divine authority.
The beast “causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16).
So what we can observe here is the idea of recognizing either authority—one or the other. The principle is the same. While the beast applies the mark on the hand and on the forehead, the Lord in the book of Ezekiel applies the mark only on the forehead, which brings us to the next level of understanding. The symbol of God’s authority is set only on the forehead, reiterating the same principle: love, free will, and conscience. The beast works based on principles of persecution, besides the fact that “many waters” (the world) recognize its authority and receive the mark willingly. Thus the beast goes one step further, applying the rule of iron “on the hand,” meaning forced persecution and finally extermination. This is Satan’s principle till the end of time, which is why we must properly understand the symbols of the book of Revelation. Although this book seems very hard to understand, by reasoning with contrasts we can understand how easy is this message of God towards us. We have been designed by God to think by contrasts. For instance, the notions of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, day and night, low and high, light and darkness—all these are bringing us to an intelligent choice. It never was necessary for us to choose evil in order to reach the climax of our happiness, but unfortunately we are dealing with an aftermath life due to our choices. We have never needed to know the other version of life. It is sufficient for us to know that the Lamb of God, not the beast of Satan, was sufficient to convey the love of God, not the wrath of the dragon.
The faithful believer in Christ must preserve and cherish the mark of God as revealed in His holy law of Ten Commandments. It is not our Redeemer’s plan for us to have to suffer the woe of the mark of the beast. Humanity in its infancy made terrible choices that brought us to the book of Revelation. There is still an eventual happy ending if we learn the lesson of our forefathers, and if we learn from the repentance of our first parents. The history of the world begins with a choice and will end with a choice. That is why you find symbols in the book of Revelation. Choose today the Lamb of God, instead of the beast of Satan, choose today the remnant of the people of God that keep the Ten Commandments, instead of choosing the presumptuous mark of the erring human authority. Choose today the church of God dressed in white apparel, instead of the church of the world dressed in purple and scarlet, surrounded by gold and silver but missing the fundamental moral beauty. Choose the Lord Jesus as the Lord and Saviour of your life.
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
—Galileo Galilei, emphasis added.