Revelation 13:12

And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed.

And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight ... "This is the head of the beast wounded and restored."[75] The wounded head was the beast in his sixth worldwide manifestation; namely, the Roman empire. Therefore, this beast is a successor to the sea-beast, being a worldwide dominion over the whole world, "every tribe and people and tongue and nation." Only thus could this beast have exercised "all" the authority of the first beast, all the authority of Rome, the sixth head, being itself the seventh head," but diverse from the others, being religious instead of solely secular. By having its operations on the same seven mountains (Rome) where the first beast was centered, and by its imposition of a religious authority over all the world, it was true in a remarkable sense that the slain beast (the sixth head) lived again in the seventh!

This can have no reference at all to some little deputy of the Roman emperor in Asia Minor 1,900 years ago, who never, in any sense, exercised the extensive worldwide authority of the Roman empire. No! A worldwide, ongoing, institutional organization is symbolized here, and one that continued to operate in the same kind of time-frame that pertained to the other six heads of the sea-beast: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, and appearing in the sequence as, in some spectacular manner, a reincarnation of Rome. We believe it is intellectually impossible to make this seventh head to be anything small. Nothing less than a worldwide dominion will fit.

In his sight ... This probably refers to the location of the seventh head's operations. It was in the same city of seven hills; and as the sixth head was already dead when the seventh succeeded to the worldwide authority it could hardly mean anything else, unless it is understood as the growth and development of the great religious authority during the century or so leading up to the final death of the sixth head in 476 A.D.

The current fad among commentators which interprets the land-beast's exercise of worldwide authority equal to that of the sea-beast as a reference to the "promoters" of the cult of the emperor"[76] is illogical and contradictory of the truth that the mortal wound of the sixth head took place before the seventh head succeeded to that great authority. When the mortal wound occurred (476 A.D.), the emperor cult had been out of business for generations, their temples closed, their sacrifices severely prohibited, their whole pagan religion outlawed and proscribed by the Roman Senate under the leadership of Theodosius. See Edward Gibbon's entire chapter 27(vol. 2entitled, "The Final Destruction of Paganism.[77] Neither the so-called emperor cult, nor the pagan priesthood, nor the institution of paganism itself, continued until the time of the mortal wounding of the sixth head and most certainly could not have been instrumental in the healing of the mortal wound, nor in continuing afterwards as the reincarnation of the beast in the form of the seventh head.

And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed ... The big things here are: (1) The new beast, a worldwide religious empire, was very successful. All nations continued to look to Rome; the ancient adoration accorded the pagan emperors was transferred to the enthroned bishop of Rome, and even many of the blasphemous titles were applied to him. (2) The actual change in all this, however, was more apparent than real; worship was still lavished upon a man, a mere human being; and such worship was the exact equivalent of the worship of man under the pagan system. The text before us called it "the worship of the first beast." There had been a change of certain externals, but the essential ingredients were exactly the same as before. Thus the religious apostasy became the seventh head of the beast out of the sea, being, in effect, a reincarnation of the old head, ROME.

This writer would enthusiastically welcome a better understanding of this dreadful chapter which forces some very difficult conclusions, but where is it? Certainly, the ridiculous Nero redivivus myth explains nothing. No explanation at all is far preferable to the unreasonable, awkward, and contradictory postulations of that alleged interpretation! The key thing to remember in seeking the truth here is that, "It was not merely one of the heads which was wounded to death and then healed. The beast himself (Rome) received a mortal wound and then was restored to life."[78] The true answer has to be Rome reincarnated with the new incarnation exercising "all the authority of the first" (Revelation 13:12), "over every tribe and people and tongue and nation" (Revelation 13:7). If it could possibly be anything other than what we have pointed out, let someone identify it! In the meanwhile, the view presented here is the only one known to this writer which does not violate either the rules of logic or the true principles of Biblical exegesis. We absolutely refuse to make this sacred prophesy of Revelation a myth in order to avoid it!

[75] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 92.

[76] G. R. Beasley-Murray, op. cit., p. 216.

[77] Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in Five Volumes (Philadelphia: Henry Coates and Company).

[78] George Eldon Ladd, op. cit., p. 183.