Read Revelation 12:18–13:18
In a bygone era, when people played board games together in the same room, “Guess Who?” was a classic. Each player had a lineup of faces. Based on the other player’s descriptions, they slowly eliminated characters until they found the one their opponent had chosen. Is that what we find here in Revelation 13? Is God giving us just enough information to figure out exactly who He is thinking of? Sort of, but not exactly. Every generation of Christians has thought they found the beasts. For the earliest Christians, it was the Roman emperor Nero (whose name transliterates to 666). In the 1500s, it was the Pope of the Catholic Church. In the 1980s, it was Ronald Wilson Reagan (his name is six letters, three times in a row, and he survived a fatal wound). But we are still here, and human history continues. Does that mean they were all wrong? Are we waiting with bated breath for the real beasts to please stand up?
Here is a better way to think about it: Lots of people throughout history were like the beasts, and one day there will be final beast-like people before Jesus’ return. Returning to our “Guess Who?” analogy, it seems like God is describing what the beasts are like. They will draw worship to themselves rather than God (13:4). They will be proud and blaspheme God (13:5). They will persecute the saints (13:7, 16–17). So, as we find people who fit that description, we should not just breeze past them and try to figure out who the beasts really are. If they fit the description, then God is calling us to faithfully endure their time of authority (13:10). God calls us to worship Him alone and to trust Him for provision and protection, even when the world does not.
