The Beasts are Rising

Imperial power and biblical monsters

Beasts are afoot in the book of Revelation. It’s something some of us cultural consumers are familiar with in apocalyptic TV shows and movies, but not as much in our religious texts. Sometimes the beasts are people infected by a virus that turn into zombies. Sometimes they are creatures, like a human-eating deformed fish that survives a nuclear fallout. In chapter sixteen of Revelation, a dragon takes a stand, having unsuccessfully chased down a mother Mary-figure through wilderness. She escapes with her child—the earth itself comes to her aid—but the dragon does not simply sit down and horde its treasure like the fairly lazy Smaug of “The Hobbit” fame. Instead, the dragon stirs forth further evil: two beasts rise, one from the sea and one from land. But this is no democracy of doom, it’s a dictatorial “trinity of evil” instead: the first beast receives its power from the dragon and “the whole earth” follows it. The second beast wields power as a representative of the first beast “exercising all the authority of the first beast on its behalf” (13:12).

As terrifying as they are, these apocalyptic beasts are derivative, disguised in twisted mirrors of the good. The second beast has “two horns like a lamb” (13:11) recollecting the divine, nonviolent Lamb. The first one, in a distorted take on Christ’s death and resurrection, has a “mortal wound that has been healed” (13:12). Evil, like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, looks good but hides murderous depths.

With its beastly visions, Revelation provides surprisingly nuanced and overlapping symbols of domination power. Beasts in the Bible are associated with empires. If that’s a new idea for you, check out the four beasts representing four kingdoms dreamed by the prophet Daniel: one like a lion with an eagle’s wings; one like a bear, another like a leopard, and another with four heads and wings like a bird (Daniel 7). John’s beasts in Revelation are an updated mixtape of Daniel’s nightmare.

This “trinity of evil”—dragon, sea beast and land beast—“is the way John communicates a broader theology about evil and how it becomes manifest in the world.” (Robyn Whitaker 82) The dragon is “primordial evil” (Whitaker) that wields force in invisible ways, conspiring in murky shadows. The sea beast can be unveiled in systems such as militaristic and fascistic power. And the land beast can be identified with the individual minions of power themselves.

The land beast is a person identified with a number—666—and we know who he is. Most biblical scholars agree that while Revelation’s visions are not meant for literal decoding—that only leads to delusion and conspiracy rabbit holes—the number 666 is a riddle that John expects readers to solve and is almost certainly the Roman emperor Nero. To pair the number 666 with Caesar Nero, one uses ancient Jewish numerology in which each letter is assigned a number and arrives at his name (Craig Koester; “Revelation,” 596-598; also Bart Ehrman “Armaggeddon,” 134-135).

Image credit: David S. Soriano - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Forces of evil, structures of injustice, and individuals who wield dominating power make up the architecture of oppression. The early Christians of John’s communities hid their critique of power in symbolic pictures of beasts and esoteric riddles so only the initiated would know what they were talking about. Revelation’s visions are evocative and mythical, not literal, intended for discernment and not glib application. At the same time, these beastly visions compel us to name the abuses of power, if we dare. They are the CEOs who knew the science of global warming in the late 70s and proceeded to fund studies that denied their very own internal research. They are the former President and political surrogates who have embraced a ponzi scheme of resentment, racism, and “winning” which, when married with governmental power, has undermined democratic norms at the altar of personality cult—and threatens to do so again. But the beast’s myth also cuts through partisan divides, as a uniquely united Congress voted to send $17 billion of weapons funding to the state of Israel, which will undoubtedly be used for more war, more death, creating conditions for more starving and desperate people.

The effect of Christian nationalism in our precarious democratic moment also cannot be understated. The sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead articulated four different categories of Americans and their relation to Christian nationalism: Rejecters, Resisters, Accommodators, and Ambassadors. Through their survey work, they found that 32% of Americans are “Accommodators” (somewhat undecided but leaning in the direction of Christian nationalism). Nearly 20% of Americans fit the category of “Ambassadors” (completely supportive of Christian nationalism).

The Ambassadors are the ones who believe America is a “Christian nation” and that the federal government should recognize as much through things like prayer in schools and ten commandments in courthouses. But, as Perry and Whitehead show, it’s Christian nationalism that is the larger factor that explains the religious vote for Trump, not religiously conservative beliefs per se. People who score higher on the Christian nationalist ranking may or may not think the Bible is God’s literal word, but they do think Muslim refugees are dangerous, support banning the legality of abortion, and oppose gun control. Christian nationalism is a faith that has morphed into a monster. After millenia of Christianity baptizing the empire in charge, for these Christians, the two are no longer distinguishable.

Revelation compels the reader to grapple with and face unveiled monstrosities of unjust power—whether in the ancient world or our own. The apocalyptic book, read through the gospel eyes of love, can inspire radical hope alongside loving and just living. In the wrong hands, it can also inspire violence and delusion. The call of Revelation is to nonviolent witness in the way of Jesus amid the end of worlds. In the meantime, the beasts are rising, and we ignore them at our planetary peril.