The Rise of the Beasts for 42 Months

End Times Berean Watchman Report

June 21, 2024 – No. 46

Analysis and commentary on today’s prophetic events from author and biblical researcher – Dr. Christian Widener

EndTimesBerean.com

---

Thank you for checking in on another edition of the End Times Berean Watchman Report!

It’s been a while since my last report, so I’d like to give you an update on what I’ve been up to. Since April, I’ve been getting a lot more podcast interview requests, and along with those come lots of comments to respond to on the videos as well as a flood of emails through my website.

[You can always find the latest ones on my News and Media page on my website.]

That generally keeps me pretty busy, but I need to balance responding to questions and comments with time spent in new content creation. I’m trying to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead in that process, because I think both are important.

I have also started making my own videos again. The first one was on the Abomination of Desolation, and it has had about 87K views to-date on YouTube.

I think this video has given me a format that I can duplicate successfully to help me share more of the ideas from the book and also new major updates that reveal themselves as we go along, like the AoD. So, I’ll probably do more of that and less old fashioned postings going forward. [If you subscribe to you my YouTube channel, End Times Berean, though, you will also get alerted when I release new videos.] However, never fear, writing my thoughts down is part of how I think through things, so I expect I’ll keep making posts for major new ideas as well. And I’ve got some thoughts on the rise of the beast from the sea for 42 months to share with you in this newsletter. 🙂

Is the Beast With Seven Heads and Ten Horns Already Here?

I hope that you are ready for another rethink about things that we have all come to know and to assume. But when you get right down to it, some of the things we are sure are definite may be built on assumptions that are not quite right. This time I want to talk about the 42-month reign of the Antichrist and the beast with seven heads and ten horns.

The things I am proposing in this update come from applying the overall lens of the decree of Suleiman, which establishes a seven-year window that was confirmed by the massive shift the world has clearly experienced beginning with the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. If the world were not on fire right now in so many different ways, I might be rethinking the significance of the decrees. But because all of these signs are present and are only increasing, I thought perhaps, once again, there may be some things that we have incorrectly assumed that are preventing us from recognizing what is happening before our eyes.

1. The Beast is symbolic.

Who is like the Beast? The image of beast with seven heads and ten horns is clearly symbolic. We are not looking for a literal, giant and terrifying beast to rise up out of the sea like something from the movie, Pacific Rim (2013). No, it is a picture of the last world empire as revealed in Daniel 7. But it is also a picture of Satan, the great dragon with seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 12:3) who is the one behind man’s last days rebellion. And finally, it is the beast from the sea, the first antichrist, who is discussed in Revelation chapters 13 & 17. The first time we read about such a beast is in Daniel chapter 7, except that we are not told the beast has seven heads, only that it has ten horns and that it will be the last empire. With such a complex picture, could there be more to identifying the beast from the sea than we suppose?

²³ “This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth and trample it down and crush it. ²⁴ As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will humble three kings. ²⁵ And he will speak against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time. ²⁶ But the court will convene for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. ²⁷ Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the empires will serve and obey Him.’

Daniel 7:23-27 NASB

What about the specific numbers of heads and horns that are called out? Are those literal? Won’t there need to be EXACTLY seven heads and ten horns expressed in the fulfillment of this prophecy? Perhaps, but I think not. Why?

First of all, we understand that the entire picture of the beast is symbolic, but somehow we assume that the numbers of heads and horns is literal. Hmm…should we do that?

Could the numbers seven and ten be symbolic also? Yes, they could be, especially since both numbers are known to have deep symbolic meanings themselves.

Seven is the number of perfection or completeness. In Revelation chapter 2, when we are told about the seven churches, we know that there are not, literally, only seven churches, but that those seven represent the whole of the church. Likewise, seven heads could represent the fact that all of the heads of the world are part of the beast government.

Similarly, the number ten is ordinal perfection and completeness of order, from which nothing is lacking. This could be understood to mean that all of the world’s leaders are part of the system. Thus, if both seven and ten are symbolic, then we may already be looking at them. We’ll come back to the question of when did the beast rise later, but for now, let’s keep moving. [For a good reference for the meaning of numbers in Scripture, see E.W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture, 1894.]

2. The beast represents the LAST WORLD EMPIRE, which is DIFFERENT than all the others.

We read that the last kingdom represented by the terrible beast is different from all the other kingdoms and it will subdue the whole earth. If we think about our modern forms of government and the growing global governance that we are watching arise, it is indisputably different than any other time in human history. When has there been a United Nations and government by a mixture of bureaucratic organizations, like the G7, G20, BRICS, WEF, WHO, WTO, IMF, etc? But prophetically, almost everyone is not looking for a multi-headed monster, but instead for a return to government by a single global dictator, i.e., for another Hitler to arise out of our present mess. That may be at odds with what Scripture is telling us, though. Could we instead need to be looking for a much larger and more unpredictable monster, like government by committee led by Satan himself? Perhaps, I’m just off in the weeds here, but what do many heads and many horns represent? The heads represent countries or conglomerations of people, like the US, Russia, China, the EU, etc. The horns represent leaders like Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden, Xi Jin Ping, Mohamed Bin Salman, Recep Erdogan, António Guterres, Tedros Ghebreyesus, Klaus Schwab, etc. Doesn’t the world, right now, already look like a multi-headed monster with lots of horns?

October 11, 2012 — https://thenewamerican.com/world-news/the-united-nations-on-the-brink-of-becoming-a-world-government/

The AGENDA 2030 movement and the Great Reset that was first proposed by King Charles and Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum in 2020, which says that “you will own nothing and you will be happy,” and it has also promised that “no one will be left behind,” i.e. no one will be able to opt-out.

https://unsdg.un.org/2030-agenda/universal-values/leave-no-one-behind

They have also agreed to accelerate their 2030 agenda. This means that while people are thinking about this being targeted for 2030, so that it seems that we could have a little more time to stop it, they actually already agreed more than two years ago to move up the timetable and get us to the Great Reset even sooner.

Perhaps by 2027…?

Could this whole thing already be in the works? Will 2024 be recognized as the year that the new world order really began to take power, as the rise of the beast from the sea for 42 months? We’ll have to wait a little longer to be sure about that, but the term multi-polar world order is being used, which is another way of saying “multi-headed,” which sure seems consistent with the image of a beast with seven heads that rises out of the sea, i.e., the chaos of the nations. This is also revealed in Revelation 17:15, where the woman who rides the beast sits on waters that represent “peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages.”

“The post-Cold War period is over, and we are moving towards a new global order and a multipolar world.” — António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

UNITED NATIONS — July 31, 2023

“The year 2024 is a landmark year for the foreign policy of the Russian Federation,” Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov told Newsweek. “Advancement of the international community towards genuine multipolarity is gaining momentum,” Antonov added. “And Russia is not a mere witness to these trends, but an active participant in this much-needed process.”

NEWSWEEK, Russia Plans to Usher In a ‘New World Order’—More Powers Are Signing Up, Feb 14, 2024

However this final beast ends up fully manifesting, I think it is going to be made up of the parts that are sitting here, right in front us. With all that has moved forward and emerged in these last four years, I’m thinking that we may already be looking at it.

3. Satan, as the seven-headed red dragon, is the ultimate power and coordinator of this seven-headed beast monstrosity from the sea.

Next, we see the sign in heaven of a great red dragon who swept a third of the stars from the sky, who we know is Satan who caused a third of the angels (heavenly host) to fall away. Two thousand years ago, the dragon stood before God’s child (Jesus Christ) birthed by the woman Mary and tried to killed him as a baby after the visit of the wise men, via Herod the Great. But it could also be a future vision of the woman Israel giving birth to the church, who will also be caught up (harpazo) to God and His throne, but then again, we are also told Satan will wage war against the saints, who are “the rest of her children” (Rev. 12:17).

³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven crowns. ⁴ And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.

Revelation 12:3-4, 17 NASB

It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given to him over every tribe, people, language, and nation. 

Revelation 13:7 NASB

The scriptures say that the dragon with seven heads and ten horns will wage war against God’s holy people, beginning with Israel. But the earth will help the woman, as we have seen the nations helping Israel against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. It also says that Israel would be sheltered in “her place” for 1260 days. The word for place is topos (G5117), which has the connotation of a specific demarcated area that belongs to her. That seems to me to indicate the nation of Israel itself. In other words, as the devil begins to stir up hatred against the Jews all over the world, Israel will be their place of refuge, and more and more Jewish people will probably flee there in the final three and half years. But Satan will soon turn his attention to the Christians.

¹³ And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. ¹⁴ But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent. ¹⁵ And the serpent hurled water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon had hurled out of his mouth. ¹⁷ So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 12:13-17 NASB

The policies and decisions of nations and groups like the United Nations will be increasingly led by Satan and his demons as God’s restraint on the Earth is removed. He will also likely speak directly through select individuals, like the little horn that has eyes and speaks great boasts, which I’ll talk more about later in the post.

4. The beasts “reign” may not be what we expect.

There is a challenge to identifying something or someone that we have never seen before. It’s like going to a place to meet someone for the first time, and you don’t have a recent photograph to show you exactly what they look like. We may have a rough description from which we create an image in our mind (or even a very old photo), but when we are standing there looking at all of the random people there and those newly arriving, trying to search out the person we’ve come there to meet, we end up broadening and testing the image in our minds against all of the people that we actually see–trying to decide if any of them could be the right one. Now, granted, that process is doomed to fail if we have arrived to either the wrong place, or we are there at the wrong time. HOWEVER, if it is the right place at the right time, then adjusting our expectations from what we imagined to what we actually see is absolutely essential in order to find the person we are looking for.

Similarly, having deduced that we are in the right time for the beast from the sea to rise to power for 42 months, I’m looking at what is actually happening right now, and I’m trying to make a determination if what we are seeing could truly be the rise of the beast. Could the start of the beasts rise to power be less dramatic than one might have supposed? Certainly, there have been no fireworks so far announcing his arrival. But should there be? Might it simply be marked by God’s permission from heaven, followed by the execution of a series of machiavellian schemes that result in the beast gaining power over the whole earth? And if those schemes have been described in their essence under the guise of the Great Reset, then I would say that yes, those plans have not abated or been defeated in the slightest, and from all accounts look to be succeeding famously.

Now, I’m not expert on the Great Reset or on the rise of globalism through the World Economic Forum and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and all the machinations that are happening behind the scenes, but I’ve seen enough people exposing different aspects of it to know that it is no conspiracy theory and that it is absolutely happening. Craig Bong, who has also been on Janie DuVall’s YouTube channel has made himself somewhat of an expert on this topic. He has a lot of videos on the subject that are posted on her channel, the latest of which is this one:

Craig does have a different overall interpretation of what he sees happening, but that’s okay. He is sharing information about real things that are happening in the direction of global governance and he is trying to warn people about them. He is looking for a rapture prior to the rise of the beast from the sea, though, so for him these are still precursor events. But what I see is that he is documenting the rise of the beast to power right now.

Furthermore, we have all imagined that the beast from the sea would just be one guy, a single evil global dictator, as we discussed earlier. However, seeing that it looks like something else is actually happening, and recognizing that the beast actually has many heads and many horns, then we also have to adjust what we think a reign like that will look like. There is a recent corollary, though, that we might reference. The global coronavirus pandemic response. Remember that virtually the same guidelines were enforced around the world, but through a myriad of different governing organizations, from the UN all the way down to local townships. That was amazing, and a major first. The same rules, handed down by a small group of visible and invisible bureaucrats (like a beast with seven heads and ten horns), was enforced on people globally through nearly every part of society, from national governments, international organizations, state governments, local governments, large corporate governance, non-profits and NGOs, almost everywhere, all at once. As if it came from a single global dictator with the power to enforce his will on the whole world, and yet no such person or structure existed. Wow!

Could we have already seen the test run for global governance, and now we are at the beginnings of its full implementation for 42 months under a beast from the sea, who has already begun to reign?

5. There are still mysteries, though.

Who is The Woman Who Rides the Beast?

³ So he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness, and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ Now the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality. ⁵ On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.” ⁶ I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. I was greatly astounded when I saw her.

Revelation 17:3-6 NET

According to Revelation 17, there will be a woman who sits on many waters and who rides the beast. The woman seems to represent many things. She is the harlot, representing idolatry. She is a great city that rules over the nations of the earth, harkening to Babylon. She sits on seven hills, representing kingdoms. All that might be expected, but to me, the greatest mystery is that she is trampled and torn to pieces at the end by the beast. Why would the beast trample her at the end if she is on the side of the devil and the beast? Who does she really represent? The papacy? Islam? Something else?

There are many thoughts about this running around out there, and I even shared some of my initially in my book, but I now think that they must all be incomplete and fall short of the full and true reality of who she represents. This will likely become more clear in the future, so this is by no means my final answer, but I think she may represent all of mankind who rebel against God and choose their own way. Right now mankind is trying to set up his own perfect world and global governance, but the very thing we are creating and trying to ride, this beast with seven heads and ten horns, is going to one day soon turn and tear us to pieces. This experiment of rebellion against God is going to utterly fail, and men will be undone by exactly the thing that they tried to establish in His place. And it is also what Daniel warned us about in chapter 7, further strengthening the idea that the woman who rides the beast represents all of mankind, who are in rebellion against God.

²³ “This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth and trample it down and crush it.

Daniel 7:23 NASB

Perhaps the idea that man’s rebellion is about to bring about our own destruction can be seen and understood nowhere better than in the current push for transhumanism. If you aren’t familiar with The Highwire, they have made an excellent report on it:

THE PUSH TO ENGINEER HUMANITY

The woman who rides the beast seems, to me, to also represent the mother of the seed of the serpent. From Genesis 3:15, we know that there are two seeds. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, but all men, except Adam, descend from a woman, and so the seeds of the serpent must also come from a woman, and that woman would be the great harlot who sits on many waters, i.e. all false religion and belief throughout the entire world. Jesus called the pharisees “sons of their father the devil” in John 8:44, and John also wrote that there were many antichrists (1 John 2:18). Thus, we might deduce that there are really only two camps. You are either a son of God or a son of the devil. You are a seed of the woman or a seed of the serpent. One is either born of the woman representing spiritual Israel (i.e., having repented and believed in God’s son, Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and salvation), or one is born of the harlot, the woman seen riding the beast, who will be burned with fire and trampled underfoot like chaff. In truth, we are all born a child of the harlot, and are only redeemed and made sons or daughters of God by grace, through faith.

One of the Heads Will Be Wounded

I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast.

Revelation 13:3 NASB

The traditional understanding of this verse is that the antichrist will receive a head wound; however, if we understand that the heads are different major groups of this beast government, then it takes on a whole different meaning. This fatal wound may apply to only one group of the beast, but it will somehow push people to embrace this global government beast even more whole-heartedly. I don’t really have an answer I am satisfied with for this one, yet, but it’s important to acknowledge that these questions still eventually need to be answered.

The Little Horn that Speaks Great Boasts

But wait, if the head that was wounded was the antichrist, who is the little horn? Isn’t that the antichrist, too? And isn’t the whole beast just a single person and also the antichrist?!?! How many pictures of a single guy are there, or is there more than just one person/entity to fulfill all of these prophecies? I think that more than any of other potential identifications of a single antichrist person, this image of the little horn must be the clearest. I do expect that there will be one prominent person who will become a kind of spokesman for the beast and for Satan and who will be involved in directing the beast. But I’m not sure that he will have the singular concentration of power that we imagine. Somehow, he will also supplant or put into submission three other horns. I don’t know for sure who or what those really are yet, but it is again something important to be watching for.

The Man of Lawlessness Who Sets Himself Up in God’s Temple

This is still an event that I expect to see. But for the reasons I describe in my latest video on the Abomination of Desolation, I do not think that this event happens in the middle of the seven years, but rather later—probably closer to the time that the mark of the beast is rolled out, and likely not until the second beast is revealed.

The Lawless One Who Performs Signs and Wonders

¹¹ Then I saw another beast coming up from the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but was speaking like a dragon. ¹² He exercised all the ruling authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, the one whose lethal wound had been healed. ¹³ He performed momentous signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people ¹⁴ and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived. ¹⁵ The second beast was empowered to give life to the image of the first beast so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶ He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. ¹⁷ Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast—that is, his name or his number. 18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666.

Revelation 13:11-17 NET

This refers to the rise of the beast from the earth, and I’m expecting this to be something that we see in the next 12-24 months, possibly even sooner, but I doubt it could be much later.

The Kings of the North and South

I think that all the battles we are watching right now in the Middle East could be boiled down to a description of North versus South, which is most clearly described in Daniel chapter 11. In the north, that would be Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, supported by Yemen, Sudan’s militants, and Libya (as prophesied in Ezekiel 38). In the south, it looks to be Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, etc. Granted, there seem to be multiple kings, not just one, in both the north and south alliances of Islamic nations, but symbolically, since they are allied, they could be described as one king, which is simply an amalgam of the kings on each side.

No Regard for Women

And he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will boast against them all.

Daniel 11:37 NASB

I don’t have a perfect answer for this one, yet, but how can we miss that there is an open war on women today? Whether we talking about not even being able to define what a woman is, or allowing men to compete as women, to even naming a man as “Woman of the Year.” It seems clear to me that this is somehow part of what we should be looking for. And this new woke global governance system is boiling over with its assault on true womanhood.

The Two Witnesses

Another crucial piece that I don’t have a good answer for, yet, is where are the two witnesses? I am certain, though, that if this really is the right time, then they are definitely already here. But we are talking about 2 people out of 8 billion. And God may want this to start slow, which means, we shouldn’t expect them to be featured on CNN on day one. I can’t even say for sure that they MUST be just two individuals, since they clearly seem to be associated with two faithful churches, likely Smyrna and Philadelphia, from Revelation chapters 2 & 3, but somehow I expect that they will actually be two people who just represent those two churches, not those two churches represented by the figurative description of the two people in Revelation 11. We just need to keep watching for them.

Wrapping Up

Well, thank you for hearing me out, once again. I don’t claim to have all the answers or to be infallible, but I am doing my best to be a faithful watchman and to report what I see, and I will continue to do so until the Lord returns or calls me home. 🙂

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, and may we be found ready when He comes. Amen and Maranatha!

Christian Widener, PhD

christian@endtimesberean.com

EndTimesBerean.com