Biblical Exegesis and the Beast of Revelation

This is chapter 5 of The Effect of the Jesuit Eschatologies on America Today – by Dr. Ronald Cooke

We live in the day of Hollywood fiction and prophetic fiction. So it is difficult to discuss in a sane fashion some of the problems of biblical interpretation. One of these problems centers around the BIBLICAL meaning of the word BEAST.

You would think that men would tread carefully regarding this issue in light of what the godly Protestants of church history have taught, but such is not the case. The positions of the Roman Catholic Jesuits, which were put forward to discredit the Protestant position, are now accepted by almost ALL Christians in North America today. The Jesuit positions on the BEAST of Revelation are taken and the position of the older Protestant commentators is dismissed without a second thought

The Reformed Reconstructionists, taking the position of the Jesuit Luis Alcasar, that most of the book of Revelation was fulfilled around AD 70 or shortly after, identify Antichrist with Nero, Caligula, Simon Magus, or some other individual of the first century. So Antichrist, whoever, or whatever, he might have been, is dismissed from church history, after AD 70, from the present, and from the future. So he cannot now affect the church in any way for he disappeared after AD 70. The majority of evangelicals and fundamentalists, taking the position of the Jesuit, Francisco Ribera, identify Antichrist with a man, or super-man, who has not yet appeared in history, and who will not appear until near the very end of this age. In both these cases, the Jesuits, and those who follow them, identified the Bible word BEAST, as a man, and not a kingdom or world empire.

Yet, when one looks, not only at what the Protestant Reformerss and Puritans,and those who followed them for about two hundred years have written, but what the Bible says on this very important issue, he will find that there is very little room for the dogmatism of the Jesuits, and those who follow them, on this issue. The Reformers and Puritans, and those who followed them wrestled with the problems of interpretation every bit as much as the Jesuits. Surely their interpretations merit the same attention and consideration as that given to the Jesuits.

Cardinal Bellarmine, the famous Jesuit apologist for the Roman Catholic interpretation of the identity of the Beast in Revelation 13, wrote:

For all (Roman) Catholics think thus that Antichrist will be one CERTAIN MAN; but ALL heretics teach that Antichrist is expressly declared to be NOT a single person, but an individual throne or absolute KINGDOM, and an apostate seat of those who rule over the church. ¹ (emphasis added)

So Bellarmine, the great Jesuit, clearly shows that many Roman Catholics, following the Jesuit Francisco Rivera, teach that the Beast of Revelation 13 will be ONE CERTAIN MAN and not a dominion, kingdom, or empire. Bellarmine declares that it was the HERETICS, the Protestant Reformers and early puritans, who put forth the teaching that the Beast of Revelation was a great empire which overspread the earth.

Clarence Larkin, in his major work, Dispensational Truth, corroborates what the Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmine wrote at the turn of the seventeenth century. Larkin wrote in 1920 that the view that Antichrist is a single individual who only appears at the very end of time, originated with the Jesuits. Strange as it may seem, Larkin is almost ALONE in this admission, among all the modern non-catholic commentaries on the book of Revelation who follow the Jesuit line. I cannot remember reading ONE such commentary that tells the reader, this view I am giving, started with the Jesuits.

Larkin and Bellarmine are further corroborated in their positions by the Reformed and Puritan writers of the past, in that almost all Protestants up until around 1820, regarded the single man-Antichrist view, as a Roman Catholic one. John Calvin said,

But we see that almost the whole world has been miserably deceived, as if not a word had ever been said about Antichrist. And what is more, under the Papacy there is nothing more WELL-KNOWN and COMMON than the FUTURE coming of Antichrist. Those who think that he would be just ONE MAN are dreaming. ² (emphasis added)

The Puritans say almost the same thing. Ussher said that the idea that Antichrist was a single man who would come in the future is a papal fancy. ³ Turretin also said that it was Romanists who imagine that Antichrist is still to come. ⁴

The Reformers, the Puritans, and those who followed them for several centuries all believed that the idea of a future one-man-Antichrist was a papal teaching; not a scriptural one. And they had scriptural backing for their position on the identity of the BEAST which the Jesuits, and all those non- catholics who now follow them, lack.

Larkin, Ironside, and many many other evangelical and fundamental writers, all write about the Beast of Revelation 13, as a future single individual of terrible cruelty and deceit. There is no comparison made with the BEAST- KINGDOMS of Daniel, which would seem to indicate to the exegete comparing both, that there is BIBLICAL precedent for regarding the BEAST-THERION-as a great world wide empire or kingdom. No, they just run on dogmatically writing about some awful person who is going to appear at the very end of the age.

Here is a sampling of such writings:

Roy Talmage Brumbaugh, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Tacoma, Washington, in speaking of the last days in 1934 noted that there would be,

The increased desire of men for supermen… H. G. Wells said that a super state is necessary for the world’s peace. This super state must necessarily be ruled over by a superman. All nations call for a super-ruler. ⁵

W.R. Newell,
Proper interpretation MUST regard these two BEASTS of Revelation 13 as two MEN. (Emphasis added) ⁶

M. R. DeHaan,
Judas will be the Antichrist. The Spirit of the Antichrist will enter once more into mankind and cause to appear another freak, half-man and half devil, who will be the incarnation of the devil. ⁷

Arno C. Gaebelein,
The Beast will represent a picture hitherto unknown and unseen-one unexampled in the history of the race- A human power endowed with Satanic energy, openly defying God and invested with the royal power and world-wide authority of Satan will engage the rapt gaze of the whole world. ⁸

J.A, Seiss,
He gives perhaps one of the best interpretations of any Futurist which I have read. He notes that the Beasts represent World Wide powers, here in Revelation 13, so at least he tries to stay with the biblical meaning of the word Beast for awhile, but then adds as his third comment; “My third remark is that this Beast is an INDIVIDUAL administrator embodied in one PARTICULAR MAN though upheld by ten kingdoms or governments who unite in making the Beast the ONE sole ARCH-REGENT of their time. ⁹

Harry Ironside wrote,
A man then is waited for. His advent draws near. He will come when, at last, the restraining power, the Holy Spirit (another dogmatic unproven assumption) has gone up to the heavens whence He came. This coming one is the Grand Monarch of the New Humanity cult. He is the coming Imam, or Mahdi, of the Muslims. He is the long-expected last incarnation of Vishnu waited for by the Brahmins; the coming Montezuma of the Aztecs; the false Messiah of the Apostate Jews; the great Master of all sects of Yogis; the Ultimate Man of the evolutionists; the Uebermensch of Nietzsche, the Hun philosopher whose ravings prepared the way for the world war. He will be a Satan-controlled, God-defying, conscienceless, almost super-human man-an INDIVIDUAL whose manifestation will mean the consummation of the present apostasy, and the full deification of humanity to his bewildered dupes. ¹⁰ (emphasis added)

These examples could be multiplied a hundred fold, suffice it to say that the majority of commentaries on the Book of Revelation over the past one hundred and fifty years, present Antichrist, the Beast of Revelation 13, as an individual man. Very little has been written from a different standpoint. Much the same material is just rehashed by hundreds of different writers on the Apocalypse.

Henry Ironside, in giving his description of Antichrist, mentions that the Hindus and the Muslims and the Aztecs, etc, are all looking for a coming MAN who will lead them. Most of this segment by Ironside is taken from Govett’s commentary on the Apocalypse which first appeared in 1864. Govett wrote that,

The Hindus expect the tenth Avatar. The Buddhists look for the next Buddh or deity. The Indians of Mexico watch beside a holy fire for the return of Quetzalcoat. The Mohammedan Shiites look for the coming Mouhdi. The Druses look for the return of Hakem. The Samaritans expect a prophet called Hathal. The Chasidim look for one to come. ¹¹

So Ironside merely polished up and added a few more thoughts to what Govett wrote a half a century before him. And many other writers on the book of Revelation do the same thing. In fact, the majority of modern futurist books on the Apocalypse are merely repristinations of Govett’s work, Look at Dave Hunt’s work.

The dogmatism, which some modem writers on the Man of Sin display, is only matched in many cases by their illogical exegesis. Dave Hunt, who passed away recently, states in his book The Woman Rides the Beast that,

The Reformers and their creeds were unanimous in identifying each pope as Antichrist. Scripture, however, does not support that claim. The Antichrist is a unique individual without predecessors or successors. He will be the new “Constantine,” the ruler of the revived Roman Empire. ¹²

Several things to note in this quotation which are obviously erroneous. The Reformers identified the papal kingdom, not individual popes, as the Man of Sin. The Bible in Daniel corroborates their position that the Beast of Revelation is a kingdom or Power, not a single man. As Bishop Newton so wisely said, “No one has ever looked at the Woman of Revelation as a single Woman, why should they regard the Man of Sin as a single man?” In fact, Hunt himself corroborates Newton, for in his own book, THE WOMAN RIDES THE BEAST, Hunt obviously regards the Woman as the great city and System of Rome, not as a single woman. So he does not apply the same logic to the Woman as he does to the Man.

It can be said, without fear of contradiction, that almost ALL commentaries written on the book of Revelation in the past century and a half, apart from a few written by the Reconstructionists, all follow Govett in their description of, and comments about, his coming secular super-human monster. Coupled then with the Jesuit Preterist view of the Apocalypse it can safely be said that_almost every _ commentary written on the book of revelation in the past 150 years_follows the Jesuits. Is that not a remarkable achievement accomplished by the Jesuit Counter-Reformation conspiracy in Reformed, Evangelical, Fundamental Baptist, and other non-catholic circles today?

Surely it is instructive to notice that the entire population of the earth has died since Govett wrote his commentary in 1864. And almost the entire population of earth has died since Ironside wrote his commentary in 1920. Only those 93 years old or older, today, were alive when Ironside wrote about his coming monster-super-man. So that the entire world of people has died in Govett’s case, without EVEN ONE PERSON being affected by his evil cruel secular superman. Yet multiplied millions, yea billions, have been affected by the Antichrist of the Protestant view: Papal Rome.

Is it not important to note that even if the Muslims, who were alive in Govett’s day, were looking for some coming world leader, they ALL died without ever being affected by him in any way at all. But they were all lost forever, if Christ is the way the truth and the life, even though they never saw anything of Govett’s Antichrist.

All the multiplied millions of Roman Catholics, who bowed before the Pope of Rome, and followed all his blasphemies and false teachings, all died without EVEN ONE of them being affected by Govett’s Man of Sin. However, they were ALL affected by the Papal Man of Sin to their everlasting damnation.

Govett directed the attention of his readers to some future man, who even yet, one hundred and fifty years later, has NEVER affected ONE SOUL in the entire earth in the four generations since Govett wrote his commentary. While during that same period BILLIONS of precious souls have been overwhelmed by the lies and blasphemies of the Papal Man of Sin.

Should not some commentator on the book of Revelation during these four generations, have warned his readers of the PRESENT ANTICHRISTIANITY that was cursing ihe earth at the very time of his writing? Rather than so many commentators directing the attention of their readers to some future man, who as yet, in all of the history of the human race, has

AFFECTED NOBODY!

Or directing the attention of their readers to a man who rose and fell in the first century AD. who also now affects nobody on earth.

As far as Christendom, or Popedom, as Luther called it, is concerned, the Papacy of Rome has affected it more than any other power on earth. Other evil religions and ideologies flourish on earth today, but the dynasty of men known as the PAPACY has affected the “church” more than any other” power throughout its history. This dynasty of men has done far more damage to the immortal souls of men, than some past man who came and went in the first century; or some future man who has not yet appeared in human history.

The Jesuits have used their deceptive power to mislead millions of non-catholics today. Directing the attention of these non-catholics to the past or to the future, they have managed to blind them to the truth that is right before their eyes. In looking to the past, or looking to the future, they fail completely to look at the present.

If the Bible is true, then multiplied billions of precious never-dying souls have been deceived by the Papal Man of Sin, in the past, even while their attention was being directed to some other non-existent culprit. One billion precious souls are NOW, in the present tense, being deceived by papal Rome, while totally unaffected in any way by Govett’s Man of Sin.

In Govett’s day, multiplied millions were being_ deceived by the Papal Man of Sin, who never saw any other evil super-man, Aztec, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, or Secular satanic monster. Govett spends more than fifty pages describing his coming secular super-man. Towards the end of his chapter on the BEAST of Revelation, he says,

No (one has) ever so powerfully affected our system of worlds, as this dread deceiver will affect mankind, THE PERDITION OF SOULS UNNUMBERED IS BOUND UP WITH HIM. (Emphasis his) ¹³

Govett * is here speaking of his coming world dictator, not the papacy. Yet millions of people were being deceived and sent to perdition by the Popes of Rome, even as he wrote about his future man who has affected no one.

Think for a moment how many millions of people were being deceived by the papal dogmas as Govett wrote, Think how many more have been deceived by the Papal Man of Sin SINCE Govett wrote. Then think again of how many are STILL BEING DECEIVED as I write this. Then think how many more will continue to be deceived by the papacy in the future. And think that in all this same time NOT ONE SOUL was BOUND UP IN PERDITION by Govett’s. “DREAD DECEIVER” OF MANKIND.

* We are not picking on Govett particularly, for every other Futurist writes the same as Govett about their Man of Sin. We are using Govett because he was the first non-catholic (we cannot call him Protestant, since he repudiated the Protestant view, – and set forth the position of the Jesuits on the Man of Sin.) to write a commentary on the Book of Revelation from the standpoint of the Jesuits. Up to the appearance of his commentary the view which he upholds was followed only by Roman Catholic expositors.

When I first came to America the majority of evangelicals and Reformed men stood where [ still stand today with regard to the teachings of Roman Catholicism. Now in the present tense that has all changed. Several men whom I knew personally began working with Roman Catholic priests, and others became sympathetic to Roman Catholicism even if they did not join openly in fellowship with it. When I first came to America I did not know ONE man who professed to be evangelical or Reformed who fellowshipped with the Roman Catholic system, not even Billy Graham.

Just over a hundred years ago the Rev. W. C. Brownlee, a Presbyterian minister, who helped in the founding of Rutgers University, published his magazine called PROTESTANT VINDICATOR AND DEFENDER OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AGAINST THE INROADS OF POPERY. This is what evangelical magazines used to do, Now World Magazine, Christianity Today and others like them, sing the praises of the Roman Antichrist continually. So times have CHANGED in America today. One hundred and fifty years later, Govett’s mystery future super-man is still nowhere to be seen, but the Pope of Rome is given front page coverage on the cover of the “Reformed” World Magazine, on Time Magazine, and Newsweek and others. When the late pope died I looked across the magazine stand in Wal-Mart and I could not believe my eyes: his picture seemed to be on the cover of every magazine there. The glowing accounts and fulsome praise of the late Pope are a yardstick to measure the triumphs of the papacy and the failures of American Protestantism today.

The man that all the Reformers, and almost all the prominent Puritan writers viewed as the historical antichrist, is now considered one of the world’s leading Christians and is being put forward as the head of the ecumenical church of the 21* century by various non-Roman Catholic leaders. As the Emergent Cult keeps expanding and emerging, it is obvious that the unity of the Jesuits is being promoted.

In light of all the ignorance of the papal Man of Sin today, it is necessary to show what these evil men said about themselves. They called themselves THE SUPREME LORD OF THE UNIVERSE. They also claimed that everyone else on earth derives their power from the Pope of Rome. Innocent III, that megalomaniac, was one of the first of the popes to take such an extravagant title as his own.

Boniface VIII follows with his infamous Unam Sanctum published in Nov. 16, 1302. This Papal Bull outstripped all the claims that had preceded it. Here is part of that tyrannical proclamation:

The secular power is but a simple emanation from the ecclesiastical; and the double power of the pope, founded upon Holy Scripture, is even an article of faith. God has confided to St. Peter, and to his successors, two swords, the one spiritual, the other temporal. The first ought to be exercised by the Church itself; and the other, by secular powers for the service of the Church, and according to the will of the pope. The later, that is to say, the temporal sword is in subjection to the former, and the temporal authority depends indispensably on the spiritual power which judges it, while God alone can judge the spiritual power. Finally, it is necessary to salvation for every human creature to be in subjection to the Roman pontiff. ¹³

After the Reformation, the Jesuits for centuries, preached up the pope’s supremacy over temporal princes and kings, and through their astonishing influence upon the minds of various peoples in various nations, the Bishop of Rome came to be regarded as the supreme Sovereign of the secular world and the head of the Church, thus assuming the head of ALL authority, TEMPORAL, SPIRITUAL, and IMMORTAL. For he claimed to have jurisdiction over Purgatory in the world to come.

REFERENCES

1. Robbins, John, Editor, Against the Churches, Unicoi, TN, 1989-1998, p. 257.

2. Calvin, John, New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 5, p. 256.

3. Ussher, James, A Body of Divinity, Thomas Downes & George Badger, London, 1653, p. 413.

4. Turretin, Concerning Our Necessary Secession from the Church of Rome and the Impossibility of Co-operation with Her, Reprinted by Reformed Publications Forestville, CA, 1999. pp. 19-20.

5. Dunham, T. Richard, Editor, Unveiling the Future, Fundamental Truth Publishers, Findlay, OH, 1934, pp. 120-121.

6. Newell, W. R., Revelation, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 1935, p. 195.

7. DeHaan, M. R., Revelation, Zondervan Pub. House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1971, p. 184.

8. Gaebelein, Arno C., Revelation, Pickering & Inglis, Glasgow, Scotland, 1915, p. 80.

9. Seiss, J. A., Lecture on the Apocalypse, Charles Cook, N.Y. NY, Vol. II, p. 393.

10. Ironside, op.cit, p. 240.

11, Govett, Robert, The Apocalypse, Chas. J. Thynne, London, England, 1920. (Abridged from 4 Vol. Ed 1864) p. 309.

12, Hunt, Dave, The Woman Rides the Beast, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR, 1994, p. 47.

13. Govett, op.cit., p. 349.

14. Clarke, Adam, Commentary, Abingdon- Cokesbury, Nashville, TN, Vol. VI, p. 1023.

Continue to the next chapter: ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURE’S THE BIBLICAL SYMBOL OF THE ANTICHRIST IS A WILD BEAST