Revelation 13:5

and there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months.

And it was given to him ... The principle in this is that all authority in the final sense is God's. The beast cannot operate, except under the restrictions of the permissive will of God. See under article on "The Christian View of the State" in the chapter introduction.

To continue forty and two months ... This time period must surely be identified with "the whole time the woman was in the wilderness (Revelation 12:6), that is, the whole Christian era, from its beginning to its close."[47] "The forty-two months is a symbolic number for the entire period of the persecution of the church."[48] This is why the sea-beast is more than the Roman empire and why the land-beast is more than the emperor cult. Both beasts will be in operation throughout the time of Christians living upon earth. Plummer thought the forty-two months signified "the period of the earth's existence,"[49] but it is more logical to understand it as a reference to this whole dispensation.

These great blasphemies against God and against all that is holy must not be thought of as merely the anti-Christian actions of human governments. The beast is busy in every sector. The anti-Christian power fills people's souls with uncounted blasphemies. As Lenski said:

A thousand avenues pour out arrogant contradictions to God's word. The point to remember here is that this blasphemy is over the whole world for all time until the very end.[50]

John's vision is here signaling the church of God that, "Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

[47] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 94.

[48] George Eldon Ladd, op. cit., p. 180.

[49] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 332.

[50] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 397.