Having laid a foundation from Daniel and Revelation that Islam is our current Beast, we'll examine Rev 13 line by line to see if it's a fit.

 

Note that I'm skipping Rev 1 - 12.  Our immediate concern and threat is Islam, so that's what I'm going to deal with now.

 

Revelation 13

 

And I stood on the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea.

 

The sand is the desert, the sea are peoples, so the beast arises from peoples of the desert.  The middle east, a desert area.

 

Having seven heads

 

Rev 17:10 helps us figure this out...This is an earthly kingdom, so we now concern ourselves with heads that ruled over Israel.

 

Egypt

Assyria

Babylon

Medo/Persia

Greece

Rome

Islam

 

and ten horns,

 

We'll use Daniel to help us count horns at first, then we figure out the rest of the horns.  These horns are divisions/nations in the seven kingdoms. 

 

Egypt was not divided, nor was Babylon or Assyria so they had no horns that were mentioned in Daniel.

 

Dan 8 gives Medo-Persia 2 horns

Dan 8 gives Greece 5 horns (1 for Alexander, 4 to his generals)

 

Rome doesn't get any horns because this beast is concerned primarily with the area of Lion/Leopard/Bear.

 

Islam had 3 major divisions...

 

#1 - Muhammed and the Saracens period

#2-  Abyssians/Ummyads period

#3-  Ottoman period

 

That's 2 + 5  + 3 = 10 horns/divisions

 

(There are other ways to get to 10 horns but they all use the same kingdoms)

 

These are divisions and empires, they are not the 10 toes/kings of the end time Islamic empire.

 

and upon his horns, ten crowns,

 

All 10 horns had kings or emperors or caliphates, so all had crowns or thrones or seats of government.  But they are not the 10 toes/kings, they come later at the end.

 

and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."

 

Each 7 kingdoms worshipped false deities which was especially blasphemous since they all ruled Israel and therefore KNEW about the God of the Bible.  Rome started off this way as well but became Christian eventually.

 

The Beast was like a Leopard, and his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion;

 

This emphasizes that the geographical area of the composite beast is the same as the areas of the empires of Greece, Medo-Persia, and Babylon; the middle east.

 

This beast now corresponds with the 4 beasts of Daniel 7, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Islam.

 

Why is Rome included in with the heads and left out of the Geographical description?  Because Rome is part of this historically composit beast with 10 horns but is described in detail elsewhere as is Egypt and Assyria.  It's the middle east geography that is most important. 

 

And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat/throne, and great authority.

 

This area, starting with Mesopotamia has been under the control of Satan since Babel.  Muhammed was said to be demonically possessed, even he thought so, and I believe he was for Satan gave him the throne of the middle east, and it became the location for Islam.  Satan had the key to the abyss and gave it to Muhammed in Rev. 9:1, after he (Satan) had been expelled from heaven.  This first wave of Islam lasted 150 years.  (This is another study).

 

And I saw one of his heads as though it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed, all all the world wondered after the beast.

 

Which head was wounded?  Out of the 7 Kingdoms of Egypt/Assyria?Babylon/Medo-Persia/Greece/Rome/Islam there is only one which came back into power as a Kingdom/Empire in the middle east after a crushing defeat.  The others remained as nations only, if that.

 

That would be the first wave of Islam under the Saracens.  It's imperialistic plans were thwarted by Charles Martel first in 732 at Tours, then in 733 in Burgundy.  The battle of Burgundy is significant because it was there that Islam had made it's maximum expansion.  I believe this date of 733 is one of the marker dates mentioned in Daniel 12:11/12.

 

Islam reeled from this blow and lost significant territory after this, plus was in a state of chaos, during Abbasids/Ummyads/Turks for a long time.  But, it hung in there and rebounded and by the time of the Ottoman Empire, was stronger than ever.  But it was also different than it was at first, in the gloriously regarded golden age of the empire in the 7th and 8th centuries.  This is an important point.

 

The world wondered over Islam because it survived this head blow/wound/defeat, and still survived.

 

And they worshipped the dragon who gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast?  Who is able to make war with him?

 

Muslims worship the dragon, Allah, and the Beast, Islam, and Muhammed.  Their empire had perservered through civil war and poor government rule, plus the Crusades and attempts to defeat it by various armies.  They think they are invincible and that they will rule the world.  They think Allah has that power.  This is bragging.  You can hear this kind of statement all the time from Islamic fundamentalist even today.  They still think they are invinceable and will rule the world, and that no one can stop them.

 

WE ARE NOW PAST THE YEAR 733, the head wound.

 

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,

 

You can learn in the study of ancient languages that the symbol for "mouth" is used to represent the words "word" or "language".  Here I believe it represents the words of the Koran and the reciting of it, which is total blaspemy and incredible evil.  The Koran was not written in book form until at least 100-150 years after Muhammeds death, this is a fact.  And since he died in 632, it could not have been written until after 732, after the head wound.  So the timeline in this chapter is holding to historical facts.  If you have not read the Koran, you should, then you will realize how evil and anti-Christian it is.  Allah is the antithesis of God.  It goes to great lengths to report that Jesus is NOT the Son of God, over and over again.  What other doctrine anywhere in the world that is as revered as the Koran can make such a claim?  It is the doctrine of the Anti-Christ religion.  And, it is anything but peaceful.  Muslims claim it is not able to be translated accurately and so is misunderstood.  That is a lie, just like the book itself is a lie.  The Koran coaches them to lie about it.  Read it.

 

and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

 

Power over what?  How about Jerusalem?  And the middle east. If we go back to Daniel 12:11, there are 1,290 days (read YEARS) between the taking away of the daily sacrifice and the "setting up" of the abomination that maketh desolate.  In 602 BC Babylon took the rest of the royal and priesthood of Israel captive to Babylon.  Daniel would know that date well.  1,290 years later would be 688 AD  (602+688=1,290), which is when the Dome of the Rock mosque was set up on God's Holy Mount.  So if we take that date, 688 and add 42 months (or 1,260 years), we come to 1948, which we all recognize as the state of Israel's rebirth.  Is the Dome of the Rock an abdomination that makes desolate?  It has inscribed on it that Jesus is NOT the Son of God, how much more abomitable can you get?  Also, after this, the holy land was known to all to have become a pretty desolate place until Israel returned and the desert bloomed again.

 

Is there a way to check if this is right?  Dan 12:12 gives us another timeline to check.  If anything important happened 45 years after 688, then this gives significance to this idea.  The 1,335 days (read YEARS) after 602 BC would take us to 733 AD, the year of Islam's head wound at the Battle of Burgundy when it was defeated at its maximum expansion point.  So, it's a fit that includes Daniels prophecies as well.

 

This verse doesn't say when Islam began and when it ends, but only about "continuing".

 

And it was given given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

 

Since day 1, Islam has been a killing machine, imperialistic to the hilt of the sword.  Jews and Christians have been especially targetted throughout it's history and to this very day.  Islam almost entirely wiped out established Chistian nations and states and areas in just the first century of it's existence.  It has spread throughout the entire world and is causing havoc everywhere it exists in the nations of the world.  You just have to see the news to understand this.  Islam DID overcome Christianity and Judaism in the middle east very early on.  Christians and Jews had to convert or flee to other nations.  Which of course just served to spread God's word.  I forget how many nations now are officially Islam, but it is a great number.  It's worldwide.

 

In the Bible "all" doesn't always mean 100% but rather means a wide despersion.  It is talking about the Lion/Bear/Leopard part of the world.

 

Also, as stated in Rev 12, there began a period of time in Islam where Jews were tolerated, even under Saladin in Jerusalem.  In fact, the Jews were helpful to the Islamic Persians in 614 to overthrow Rome.  This was the time of the Crusades where Islam and Christianity went to war.  Just like Rev 12 says.  Shortly after this, muslims erected the Dome of the Rock.

 

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

 

"Shall" indicates the future.  Also, since Jesus has not yet finished writting the book of life yet, it still must be future.  It is not everyone who shall worship the beast Islam, because it excluded everyone written in Jesus's book of life, which I think will be pretty thick by the end.

 

If any man have an ear, let him hear.  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword.

 

Here is a strong admonshment from the Lord.  Listen up people, the pressure to convert to Islam has been and will be very great.  Die or convert is a terrible choice and the temptation to take the easiest way out to save ones' skin has been and will be strong.  This choice has been given to many non-muslim's in the past and many have converted at the edge of the sword, rather than die or pay the special tax.  But God is saying here that if you join forces with Islam, you will be part of the team that leads others into captivity and kill with the sword, which is the hallmark of Islam.  The consequences of this decision in favor of conversion is that you yourself will go into captivity into the lake of fire and will be judged by the sharp two edged sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus.  Captivity and sword used will result in captivity and sword used against you.

 

And isn't it crazy that they still use swords to behead people?

 

Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

 

God wants his people to especially pay attention to this warning; better to lose body than soul.

 

We westerners tend to see a rivived Roman Empire or Russia because we were much better educated in those bodies than we were about Islam.  Islam was poorly understood for a very long time.  But now we are learning about it more than we would like and we need to understand it's importance in history and in the present time, not to mention the future.  It is only now, in the day of the higher learning and technology that we are beginning to see clearly the impact of Islam on the world.  We'd better not underestimate the threat.  Peoples living in the middle east in history understood this, and some wrote about it.  But European Christianity became the light of the world and the knowledge of Islam got buried.  Let's unearth it.  The books are being unsealed now.

 

Now for another beast...