IS THE BEAST OF REVELATION 13 THE SYMBOL OF A PERSON OR A SYSTEM?

I remember way back in 1986 just before I got baptized I was attending a crusade organized by a number of churches in my area. The evangelist who spoke at that crusade is from abroad and is one of the most respected authorities on Bible prophecy. Because of this he drew a nightly crowd of tens of thousands of people from across the island (by the way, did I tell you that I am from the island of Jamaica? Yeah Mon, I am Jamaican). The crusade was scheduled to go on for four weeks but it eventually went on for 6 weeks due to popular demand and because of the large number of candidates that needed to be baptized.

In that crusade the evangelist dwelt on the prophecy a lot (which I enjoyed very much). And if you think more

people are interested in the prophecy now, I have seen a level of interest in the prophetic word that was unprecedented. The energy and enthusiasm associated with this crusade was such as I have never seen since this event; it even caught the attention of the media and made front-page news in Jamaica!

In retrospect, though, now that I am better enlightened today, I believe that the evangelist said some things that needed to be re-examined. Mind you, I believe that that preacher was well intentioned, he is a good Bible instructor, and really want people to understand the truth. And if the truth be told, a lot of what he preached then was so solid that it laid a firm foundation for me to understand Bible prophecy the way I understand it today. Let us not forget that we are all Bible students trying to understand the scriptures for ourselves and none of us can claim to have all the answers to Bible prophecy.

Anyway, one of the things he said at the crusade is that the Beast (or the Anti-Christ) is NOT A PERSON, but A SYSTEM of falsehood! But all along I thought it was a person, until he "corrected" me to believe otherwise. Sure enough, when I accepted this "new truth" on prophecy I began to realize that I was having difficulty making sense of the narrative development of Revelation 13 and putting it into its proper perspective. I was even having the same problem in my study of the book of Daniel.

But, you know, when you are being taught by somebody whom you consider to be an expert in their field, you just don't want to question what they teach! That was my problem, and that is the big problem with many prophecy students today. They would rather follow what they are taught in spite of clear biblical evidences to the contrary. The problem of not being true to your conscience concerning what you believe to be the truth is the residual effect of relying on the commentaries of highly respected theologians and Bible commentators?

When you examine the prophecies right across their parallel themes from Daniel to Revelation, you will see a clear pattern which teaches that this last-day enemy of Christ is the same individual who is the Stout horn King (Dan. 7) doing the same thing as the King of Fierce Countenance (Dan. 8), doing the same thing as the King of the North (Dan. 11), doing the same thing as the Man of Sin (2Thess. 2), and doing the same thing as The Beast (Rev. 13).

Then on top of that, the Bible clearly teaches that the Beast is the Eighth king (Rev. 17:11).  Do we need any more proof than that to realize that the Bible is at least speaking of nothing other than a person? Unless we want to ignore the interpretation of prophecy and mystify that which the Bible has made plain we cannot hold to the idea that the beast is otherwise and claim to be following Bible instruction at the same time.