Political Research Associates
The final battle between Satan and
God is described in Revelation, the last book of the Christian
New Testament. This chronicle of a prophetic
vision was written about 95 AD, but parts reflect prophetic elements
of the book of Daniel and other Old Testament books. The
identity of John, the author of Revelation, is disputed, but most
experts suggest it was not the same John who authored the Gospel
The prophesies in Revelation are directed
to seven Christian communities under Roman rule and primarily aimed
at urging Christians to resist the demands of Roman secular authorities. The basic theme is explained by a commentary in the popular
Protestant NIV translation:
final showdown between God and Satan is imminent. Satan will
his persecution of believers, but they must stand fast, even to
death. They are sealed against any spiritual harm and will soon
be vindicated when Christ returns, when the wicked are forever
destroyed, and when God's people enter an eternity of glory and
Various Catholic versions put more
emphasis on the ambiguous nature of the many symbols used to describe
the prophecy. As one suggests, "The precise time of this victory
lies hidden with God."
Many authors have analyzed Revelation's
symbolic language. Among devout Christians the study
of the end times is called “eschatology.” Here
we focus on language and imagery that has been incorporated by
apocalyptic movements and campaigns of demonization down to the
According to Revelation, the exact
order of what will happen in the apocalyptic end times is written
on a scroll kept by God and sealed with seven seals. As
the seals are broken, dramatic events unfold causing seven years
of tribulations. During some point in these tribulations, the faithful
are caught up in a state of rapture, protected from harm by God--whether
the faithful experience none, part, or all of the Tribulations
At the beginning of the Tribulations,
the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse emerge. They
represent a deceptive conqueror seeking power (riding a white horse);
war, revolution and civil strife (riding a red horse); natural
disasters causing famine (riding a black horse); and pestilence
and death (riding a pale horse). Plagues
and disasters sweep the world signifying the day of judgment is
But much of mankind still does not, “repent
of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or
their thefts,” and they continue to worship demons and false idols. A
dragon attacks Heaven, but the “great dragon was hurled down--that
ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole
world astray.” The
dragon gives power to two satanic beasts, the first from the sea,
the second from the earth.
The beast from the sea represents
a false messiah who declares himself God. The
beast from the earth represents a false prophet who convinces the
world to worship the image of the false messiah. The beast from the sea attempts
to force “everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave,
to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that
no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name
of the beast or the number of his name.” The number for the beast
is revealed as 666. An
angel, however, warns that those who accept the mark of the beast
will face God's wrath and be tormented with burning sulfur forever,
while those “who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to
Jesus,” and refuse the mark of the beast, will be protected and
saved. In rejecting the false messiah
and false prophet, many faithful Christians suffer terrible persecution
The beast from the sea is the Antichrist,
who leads a campaign to unite all nations into one world government
sharing a unified religion. He controls earth as a global leader
for 42 months. During this time he attempts to trick the faithful and
subvert God's authority. Three frog-like demons pop out of the
mouth of a satanic dragon and provoke a huge battle (involving
forces from Gog and Magog) at a site in the middle east known as
the treacherous Antichrist and his false prophet are revealed as
representing Satan. God punishes those who followed the Antichrist,
especially those in Babylon, pictured as a great cosmopolitan city
which symbolizes all that is evil and depraved. Babylon is smashed
into three pieces and destroyed along with other corrupted cities.
A satanic beast re-appears ridden
by a woman dressed in purple and scarlet. She wears a title: “Mystery,
Babylon the Great, The Mother of Prostitutes, and of the Abominations
of the Earth.” This whore of Babylon has drunk the blood of the
saints, committed adultery with the corrupt rulers, and indulged
in excessive luxuries. This
satanic beast is revealed as representing the false religion of
the Antichrist that had been acclaimed by religious and political
leaders. These leaders, who have tried to subvert and betray the
faithful, receive vividly-described punishment. God triumphs over the beast,
and punishes those who have refused to repent, especially merchants
in the cities who have profited from those who followed the Antichrist.
After the Antichrist and the false
prophet have been exposed as being satanic, the forces of evil
have been defeated, Babylon has fallen, and the unfaithful punished,
then the faithful Christians reign in peace and abundance for a
thousand years. Whether Christ returns at the beginning or the
end of the millennial reign is disputed.
At the end of the thousand years,
Satan makes a last attempt to “deceive the nations,” but is cast
down into the same lake of “burning sulfur, where the beast and
the false prophet had been thrown.” Then the dead are judged, and
the sinful of Hades are cast down into Hell, the burning lake of
fire, forever. The faithful dwell eternally
with God in the new Jerusalem.
= = =
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New
International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Bible
Publishers, 1984); Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International
Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishers.
Protestantism the text has been called the book of "Revelation," New
International Version of the Holy Bible [Protestant "NIV" version]
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1984 (1973)); and "The
Revelation of St. John the Divine," The Holy Bible: King James
Version (Iowa Falls, Iowa: World Bible Publishers, 1986). In Catholicism,
it has been called "The Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle," New
Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible, Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine Edition, (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company,
1957); and "The Revelation to John," The Catholic Study
Bible: New American Bible, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
Edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
Millennium Rage, p.36.
Millennium Rage, p.37.
Study Bible, commentary on Revelation, p. 399. Pagels, The Origin
of Satan, pp. 112-149.
International Version of the Holy Bible, (NIV), preface to Revelation,
Catholic Edition Bible, "The Apocalypse," Editors' introductory
explanation of theme and message, p. 324.
Naming the Antichrist, pp. 27-30; Lamy, Millennium Rage, pp. 32-36;
David Cantor, The Religious Right, New York: Anti-Defamation League,
1994), pp. 151-153.
exact order of the events in the end times is hotly contested,
especially among fundamentalist Christians.
to competing interpretation based on other Biblical sources. Fuller,
Naming the Antichrist, pp. 6-7; Diamond, Spiritual Warfare, pp.
130-138, 240; Michael Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The
Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, (Chapel Hill, NC: University
of North Carolina Press, 1994), pp. 82-84, 213. The basic positions
are called pre-tribulationist and post-tribulationist.
each horseman represents varies by translation and interpretation.
From the King James version comes the phrase, “behold a pale horse.” In
the Catholic versions it is a pale green horse, signifying the
color of death. Some argue that the rider on the White horse is
Christ rendering judgment against the unfaithful, others, such
as Billy Graham, argue the rider is Satanic. See Billy Graham,
Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Minneapolis,
MN: Grayson, 1983), p. 78.
13:1-13. Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp. 30-31. The identity
of the two beasts involves Satan, the Antichrist, a false messiah,
a false prophet, and a global ruler, in a variety of disputed combinations.
We offer one possible simplified interpretation.
certainly representing the Roman emperors who claimed divinity.
13: 4, 11-15.
16: 17-19, 18: 1-3. Babylon is used as a symbolic name for a sinful
Rome and the emperor who claims to be a god.
20-22. Whether Christ returns at the beginning or the end of this
thousand year period is disputed among pre-millennialists and post-millennialists.
Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp. 6-7. George Marsden, Understanding
Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1991.), pp. 40, 112-114; Diamond, Spiritual
Warfare, pp. 130-138, 240; Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right,
p. 75-79, 104-105, 213.