Beast of Revelation

By J.D. King

"J. D. King has done a wonderful thing. He has put the antichrists and beasts in biblical perspective."—Gary DeMar, Ph.D., author of Last Days Madness and host of the Gary DeMar Show

• 666

• Mark of the Beat

• The End of the World


Discussions about "end-time" evil ramped up in the third decade of the twenty-first century. A global pandemic, failing economies, and political discord has affected billions. Amid fear, families feel like they're living at the end of the world.

In The Beast of Revelation: Unraveling The Mystery, J. D. King delves into hidden corners of history and scripture—going where few have trod. Prepare to be astonished by what comes to light.

Any Christian frightened about the future will regain hope by reading this book because it answers questions people are yearning to understand. Not all is as it seems.

Behind the most baffling mysteries of this era, you can rediscover hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.D. King
• Release date: Jan 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215872253

Book preview

1

Anxious About the Antichrist

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12 NIV).

Discussions about end-time evil have ramped up in the third decade of the twenty-first century. A global pandemic, failing economies, accompanied by political and social discord, has affected billions. Many feel like the world has come to an end.

Former colleagues have asked if I thought the antichrist, a shadowy evil figure in the New Testament, was about to appear on the scene. As they talked, I could sense they were fearful—worried that things were spinning out of control.

Sometimes end of days conversations pop up in places I never expected. One of my classmates from high school reached out and said,

J.D with all the corruption and Draconian policies of the government, something awful is on the horizon. I can just feel it. It won’t be long before societal disintegration and the rise of the antichrist.

I didn’t know how to respond. He had already made up his mind. It wouldn’t help to tell him I thought he was wrong. Some discussions get you nowhere.

An older acquaintance contacted me on social media, saying demonically inspired bureaucrats are dragging people into the horrors of the apocalypse. She proclaimed: Mandated face masks are laced with nanotechnology. These cloth appendages, along with COVID-19 vaccinations, were the start of our descent into darkness. She emphatically wrote,

Vaccination passports are merely the first stage of forcing people to take the mark of the beast. The antichrist will enter the stage quickly. You better get ready for calamity and famine.

I don’t like government overreach, but the heavy-handed bureaucracies we’re witnessing today aren’t rising to the level she imagined. Agitated by politics, she projected social concerns onto her Bible readings. I almost said something, but realized it wouldn’t change anything. Sometimes, silence is the best strategy.

I’ve had hundreds of discussions along these lines. Many are dealing with increased anxiety and apprehension. They’re worried about many things. It is not unusual for economic, health, and social turmoil to incite negative responses. During times of trouble, individuals embrace the apocalyptic.

During the 1920s and 30s, Americans embraced cataclysmic narratives as they wrestled with the aftermath of the Spanish Flu, World War I, and the Great Depression. Two of the most popular research tools during this time were the Scofield Reference Bible ¹ and Clarence Larkin’s Dispensational Truth. ² These widely distributed publications used charts and summaries to warn people that the Antichrist was on the scene. They claimed that chaos would soon erupt and society would fall apart.

The 1960s and 70s had a similar ethos. Amid political unrest, the Vietnam war, and a drug-crazed youth culture, many thought that the end of the age had come. In 1969, Larry Norman released a song on Capital Records titled, I Wish We’d All Been Ready, imagining a world filled with guns and war. ³ Many of the same people who listened to this song picked up Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. ⁴ This paperback forecasted calamity, destruction, and the rise of the antichrist.

But apocalyptic concerns not only emerge during tumultuous times. They are also on display in prosperous decades. I witnessed this during the 1980s and 90s. A best-selling book during this era was 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 by Edgar C. Whisenant, a retired NASA engineer. He had the world coming to a halt shortly before the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. ⁵ A few years afterward, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins began publishing a best-selling fictional series called Left Behind. This multi-volume storyline dramatized a post-apocalyptic world under the control of the beast of Revelation.

Believing that evil is poised to overtake our world has been a prominent belief for at least a century. While anticipation of doom increases during wars and seasons of social unrest, it never entirely fades. ⁶ One colleague told me that the embrace of cataclysm is not surprising. This fear is deeply rooted in the psyche of modern men.

Apocalyptic Dread

Just a few years ago, my wife and I took our daughter to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for medical testing. While there, I glimpsed former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (1923- ) being wheeled around.

Seeing his face brought to mind the fact that many Christians believed he was the Antichrist in the late 70s and early 80s. ⁷ I suppose that this foreign-born official made Americans nervous because he led some pivotal talks with the Soviet Union. They thought he was brokering a false peace agreement and bringing in the end of the world.

However, seeing Kissinger in the twilight of his years, you recognize how ridiculous this assertion was. This man was a politician and geo-political consultant, not a demonically inspired end-time monarch. Yet, when it comes to cataclysmic anxieties, facts seldom matter. People like to go on feelings.

Throughout my lifetime, families were anxious about the antichrist. I remember paperbacks with scary depictions of the post-apocalyptic world and an ominous Jack Chick tract with the mark of the beast on the cover. ⁸ One elderly woman in my Pentecostal church kept saying, Oh, the end is nigh. Oh, the end is nigh.

After President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was shot on March 30, 1981, churchgoers asked whether he was the prophesied evil figure of the end-times. Some were concerned that John Hinckley Jr.’s assassination attempt fulfilled part of John’s prophetic vision:

I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast (Revelation 13:3 NLT).

At my Pentecostal Church, I remember congregants reflecting on the attack and speculating about the next event on the prophetic time clock. ⁹ It didn’t help matters that Reagan’s first, middle, and last name each had six letters—Ronald [6] Wilson [6] Reagan [6]—seemingly asserting the number 666.

During this same era, Christians also speculated about the destinies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-) or Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011) of Libya. Some hypothesized that each of these men was the Antichrist. Less than a decade later, Evangelicals insisted that the Man of Sin ¹⁰ was Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) of Iraq—the land once known as Babylon.

I never knew what to think when I heard this. It certainly made me feel unsettled. It always seemed like some terrible geo-political event was going to take Americans into chaos and destruction.

Although the economy was growing and lives were seemingly improving in the late twentieth century, many churchgoers were expecting a monster to be revealed. They were expecting the fly in the ointment. Honestly, believers often find precisely what they’re looking for.

Those with a cataclysmic worldview see the earth through such dreadful lenses that they have a hard time seeing anything good. For them, every day is just one step away from heartache and ruin. They believe evil is about to rush in and catch us all unaware.

This was the mindset that I grew up around. ¹¹ Every churchgoer that I knew expected everything to fall apart. There was no need to build or invest, time was running out. Many preachers said, The Antichrist is already alive and planning, and the Day of Judgment is near. ¹² It is easy to get caught up in the paranoia when it keeps coming at you.

Speculation About the Man of Sin

Fear about the antichrist was rampant in my childhood Pentecostal church—particularly among the older ranks. Talking with one man, I learned that many had previously assumed that this evil figure was Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) architect of Soviet Russia, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Prime Minister of Italy, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the Führer of Nazi Germany, or Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), the General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party. The listing of men identified with this sinister role is lengthy. ¹³ Going all the way back to the seventh century, some believed Muhammad (570-632), the founder of Islam, was the Antichrist. ¹⁴

Every decade or so, the script changes. A barbarous nation in the Middle East or a maniacal dictator will emerge that raises our collective suspicions. Typically, whichever country is the adversary of America—or Israel—will furnish the latest contender for this beastly figure. ¹⁵

With this topic, individuals often mishandle scripture. Anxieties and fear distort popular Bible readings. While the lunatic fringe . . . has always revelled ¹⁶ in these kinds of things, it’s not uncommon for ordinary churchgoers to project their fears onto the text. Multitudes of people generate self-serving meanings that contradict the original author’s message.

Reflecting on the cavalier attitude of many churchgoers, theologian David Chilton (1951-1997) writes that

Many rush from their first profession of faith to the last book in the Bible, treating it as little more than a book of hallucinations, hastily disdaining a sober-minded attempt to allow the Bible to interpret itself--and finding, ultimately, only a reflection of their own prejudices. ¹⁷

Along similar lines, theologian Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. (1950- ) writes, Regrettably, prophetic studies have been so dominated by a naïve sensationalism that they have become a source of embarrassment and grief to many in conservative Christendom. ¹⁸

Churchgoers need to gain a better grasp of what’s occurring in the biblical text. They cannot let politics, social unrest, or popular folklore distort the truth. Believers must re-examine the locus and intent of first century authors. They must dig out what God is saying.

As we move forward, a lot is riding on our worldview and interpretative lenses. Who are we going to be and what will we believe? Are you ready to walk with me as I attempt to unravel the mystery of the Beast of revelation? What I am about to uncover may change everything.

1 C. I. Scofield, Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909, 1917).

2 Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth (Glenside, Pennsylvania: Clarence Larkin, 1918, 1920).

3 Larry Norman, Wish We’d All Been Ready, Upon This Rock, Capitol Records (1969).

4 Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1970).

5 Edgar C. Whisenant, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will in 1988 (Whisenant|World Bible Society, 1988).

6 When it comes to documenting apocalyptic dread, cases can be drawn from the research of several gifted analysts. See Francis X. Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour: Christianity's Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World (Powder Springs, Georgia: American Vision, 2000). Gary DeMar, Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church (Powder Springs, Georgia: American Vision, 1999). Dwight Wilson, Armageddon Now!: The Premillenarian Response to Russia and Israel Since 1917 (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1991).

7 See Salem Kirban, Kissinger: Man of Peace? (Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania Salem Kirban, 1974).

8 Jack Chick, The Beast (Ontario, California: Jack Chick Publications, 1966, 1988). Chick’s religious cartoons, known as Chick tracts, became known worldwide as tools of religious salvation. To some, his tracts are American folk art . . . titillating and somewhat dangerous. Anita Gates, Jack T. Chick, Cartoonist Whose Tracts Preached Salvation, Dies at 92, New York Times (October 26, 2016).

9 The term prophetic time clock was a term used by televangelists and authors to describe how close America was coming to midnight, or the end of days. As the clock advanced, saints could expect the soon coming of the Lord. Here’s an example from Salem Kirban, Based on these observations, it is my considered opinion, that the time clock is now at 11:59. When is that Midnight hour . . . the hour of the Rapture? I do not know! Salem Kirban, Countdown to Rapture  (Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania Salem Kirban, 1977), 188.

10 The Apostle Paul referred to a Man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10. Some speculate that this was referring to the Beast of Revelation as well. For more on this topic, read Kenneth L. Gentry, Perilous Times: A Study in Eschatological Evil (Chesnee, South Carolina: Victorious Hope Publishing, 2012).

11 If you would like to read more about apocalyptism’s influence on classical Pentecostalism, see David R. Johnson, The Mark of the Beast, Reception History, and Early Pentecostal Literature, Journal of Pentecostal Theology 25.2 (2016): 184-202.

12 Various, Is the Second Coming Near?, CBS News (December 9, 1999).

13 See William Martin, Waiting for the End: The growing interest in apocalyptic prophecy, The Atlantic (June 1982).

14 Some believers tried to assert that Muhammad died in 666, but the founder of Islam passed away in 632. Because of his violent attacks on Christians, many wanted to align him with the beast of Revelation. See Kenneth Meyer Setton, Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: American Philosophical Society, 1992).

15 More recently, people have suggested the antichrist was Kim Jong-un of North Korea or Vladimir Putin of Russia. I wonder who will receive this designation over the next decade?

16 Donald W. Richardson, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Richmond: John Knox, 1964), 12.

17 David Chilton, Paradise Restored (Tyler, Texas: Reconstruction Press, 1985), 153.

18 Kenneth L. Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation (Powder Springs, Georgia: American Vision, 2008), 58.

2

Demystifying the Apocalyptic

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

Aretired gentleman from downtown started popping off about black hawk helicopters and covert military operations. He said these impending attacks were prophesied in the Book of Revelation . William warned that our society was on the eve of unprecedented bloodshed and violence. He said,

Things are about to ramp up and Americans better watch out. But, we have an irrevocable tie to Israel. Every time you see Jerusalem referenced in the Bible, you know God is talking about America. After all, USA is at the very center of the word.

William had bizarre notions about eagles, mountains, and rivers. Each of them had some kind of prophetic significance. He shifted from highs to lows when he spoke. It wouldn’t be unusual for him to move from patriotic diatribes to warnings about Democrat containment centers built to imprison conservative Christians.

As one of my great aunts in Arkansas liked to say, He sure spun a yarn. I tried to be gracious to William as he shared his theories, but I’m sure I had an