What in biblical times was the definition of a beast?

Answer 1

Jesus said, "go into the world and preach the Gospel to EVERY CREATURE" (Mark 16:15). As men in their natural state are carnally motivated like the animals, God likens us in our first born condition throughout The Bible to animals. "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and THAT THEY MIGHT SEE THAT THEY THEMSELVES ARE BEASTS" (Ecc 3:18).

There are only two places in the Bible that directly explain the meaning of the biblical symbol of a "beast"; although the Old Testament is full of explicit instructions (commandments) by God to "sacrifice the beast" that were taken by the fallen Israelites to literally mean the slaying of innocent animals rather than the slaying of the nature of the beast within man (the first born nature of Egypt).

The following verse explains what the Bible means by "the image of the beast", it is the character of the beast that is in mind (as opposed to the Divine Image which is the example of Jesus).

"Their eyes stand out in fatness they have more than their heart could wish…they speak arrogantly, they set their mouths against the heavens…these are the ungodly who prosper in the world… as a dream when thou awake you shall despire THEIR IMAGE, so foolish was I, and ignorant, I was a BEAST before thee"(Ps 73:6, 8, 12, 20, 22).

The same is said everywhere else in the Word, where the symbolism of a "beast" in relation to mankind is used (carnally motivated spiritually ignorant man). "ALL YE BEASTS OF THE FIELD...HIS WATCHMEN ARE BLIND, THEY ARE ALL IGNORANT, they are dumb DOGS they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber, YEA THEY ARE GREEDY DOGS" (Isa 55:9); "a man who is in honour but understands not is like a BEAST that perishes". Beasts are carnally motivated men (microcosm) or nations (macrocosm) who have no spiritual understanding

That men as to their affections, are meant by beasts, may appear in these places and many besides, "a man who is in honour but understands not is like a BEAST that perishes" (Psalm 49:20). "ALL YE BEASTS OF THE FIELD...HIS WATCHMEN ARE BLIND, THEY ARE ALL IGNORANT, they are dumb DOGS they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber, YEA THEY ARE GREEDY DOGS" (Isa 55:9); The Pharisees were men in honour but who understood not, so likewise today popes, bishops, cardinals are men in honour in the eyes of the world.

In Isaiah 55:9 and Pslam 49:20 beasts are "shepherds" (the biblical symbol for a priest), the second tells us they are men "in honour" (in the eyes of the world), but that "understand not" (in the eyes of God). "ALL YE BEASTS...his watchmen are blind, THEY ARE ALL IGNORANT, they are SHEPHARDS that cannot understand"(Isa 56:7). "The Man that IS IN HONOUR, and UNDERSTANDS NOT, is like THE BEAST that perish" Ps 49:20. Men in honour (like the Pharisees/Popes/Bishops) "AND" who "understand not".

These are men in "honour" in the eyes of the world who are adored by millions and in whom millions trust, that have not performed the animal sacrifice and killed the beast nature within; and "cannot understand" the Bible yet have nevertheless "glorified themselves on earth" (Rev 18:7), like the Pharisees (but worse), they lead millions who trust in them into spiritual captivity into both Babylon and Egypt. "Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge."Isaiah 5:13.

Carnal and fallen man, infatuates himself with a sensual and material world. Unbeknownst to him, it is his own infatuation with these things that comprise the barrier to his understanding. He misses the point, so to speak, and obsesses with the image rather than what it represents, so that while the spiritual application of those symbols when internalised represents the Divine.

Beasts are carnally motivated men (microcosm) or nations (macrocosm) who have no spiritual understanding, and purpose to believe nothing that does not accord with their wisdom derived at the level of their bodily senses in which they trust - and believe all else is "foolishness" and are motivated by the same instincts as the animals, pride, lust, greed, desire etc.

In the Bible men can be "beasts" (individually), such as what happened to the king of Babylon but the Bible also calls the kingdoms of men "beasts" in [Daniel 7:23] as to their affections (macrocosm).

"The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth" Daniel 7:17.

So beasts can be men (microcosm) or kingdoms of men of that character (macrocosm). You will notice all the kingdom of men in Daniel are called beasts, as all are unreformed in nature.

To be a "beast" means to be motivated by animilistic affections not spiritual effections, "for I was ENVIOUS at the boastful, when I saw the PROSPERITY of the wicked; for their are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm "; "until I went into the sanctuary of my God, then understood I their end".."so foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a BEAST before you" (Psalm 73;3; 22). Here David says he was a "beast" because his perception and understanding of spiritual matters was based upon his wisdom derived at the level of his bodily senses (he perceived at that level the ungodly rich prospered in the world and had no pangs in death Ps 73:4). It was not until he was enlightened by God as to the ultimate fate of man that he realised his perception was natural/external and spiritually foolish (Ps 73:17-18). He was also a "beast" as to his affections (envious of the prosperity of others). Also many other places, "Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance, when it was weary; this BEAST SHALL DWELL THEREIN" (Ps. 68:9, 10); "rejoice and be glad, be not afraid, ye BEASTS OF MY FIELDS, for my pastures of the wilderness do spring" (Joel 2. 21-23).

We are the beasts of the field.

The beast is natural man (a spiritual Egyptian), and that which does not accord with the wisdom derived at the level of his bodily senses seems foolishness to him, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned". The natural man is revealed as to his spiritual perception (which is external), and his affections (which are carnal).

In the Word "horses" signify teachers, "Jehovah will make Judah a Godly HORSE"; "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, that biteth the HORSES HEELS so that his rider shall fall backwards, I have waited for thy salvation O Jehovah" (Gen xlix 17, 18). To be bitten by serpents is to be deceived by the lowest form of reasoning. "And I will cut off the HORSE from Jerusalem, and He shall speak peace to the gentiles" (Zech ix.10). Jesus did not cut of the horses from Jerusalem, but the legalistic/carnal teachings of the Pharisees. "In that day I will smite EVERY HORSE with astonishment" (Zech xii, 4); "and will smite every HORSE OF THE PEOPLE with blindness". Those teachers who think of spiritual things carnally, or externally/materialistically (as that is how the natural man is imbued) are smitten with spiritual blindness. "O God of Jacob, both the chariot and the HORSE are cast into a deep sleep" (Ps ixxxvi.6); "a HORSE is a vain thing for safety" (ps xx 7; xxxiii.17) "I will make Ephraim to ride" (Hos x.11). Ephraim signifies the understanding of the Word, because Elisha and Elijah represented the Lord as the Word, therefore they were called the chariot of Israel and his horseman, Elisha said to Elijah "my father, my father, THE CHARIOT OF ISRAEL and the HORSEMAN thereof" (2 Kings xiii, 14).

In the opposite sense, the horses of Egypt and Babylon destroy all truth and those who trust in them "the EGYPTIANS are men and not God, their HORSES are FLESH and not spirit" (Isaiah 31:3). The horses of Egypt are proud and strong beasts, they signify the proud and strongmen, the great men in the eyes of the world; in this context "a HORSE is a futile thing for safety". It is said here that their horses are flesh and not spirit because their teachers are beasts as to natural affections/perception/understanding and not spiritual affections. "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay ON HORSES, but they look not to the holy One of Israel; Now the Egyptians are men and not God, their HORSES are (flesh) and not (spirit)"(Isaiah 31:1). Egypt signifies natural man who judges and reasoning according to the flesh; and symbolic Egypt signifies the natural man, symbolic Israel the spiritual man.

There is always a spiritual (type) opposing a carnal (type), the natural man apposed to the spiritual man, the image (charachter) of the beast as opposed to the elect, spiritual Israel (the spiritual man) and spiritual Egypt (the natural man). From Genesis 3 we have the seed of the woman (spiritual man) and the seed of the serpent (carnal man).

The image of the beast applies both naturally (externally) and spiritually (internally). While we are not to worship the creature (Rom 1:26); there is always a surface meaning (the natural) and a spiritual meaning (the symbollic/spiritual) in almost every particular of the Word. It says in Revelation 13 that those who do not have their name written in the book of life adore "the beast and his image". The beast in a corporate sense (macrocosm of the microcosm) is natural man (motivated only as to those animalistic) or carnal affections, it is talking about a type - like Esua, like Cain, like the medieval popes of Rome, like modern man - motivated and imbued only as to those affections (that nature); who admire and adore those of that nature - these are those in the [spiritual] "image [character] of the beast" (Rev 13:13).

The symbolic meaning of the beast in Bible prophecy is about the world either manifesting the "image" (character) of the beast", or the "Image of God" Colossians 1:15, which is the character of God. Christ is the example of whose image/character we are to manifest througout the Church age.

Answer 2

Devil

Answer:

Four "beasts" are first encountered, prophetically, in the Bible in Daniel's 7th chapter "dream."

They are revealed to be the "four" major "world-ruling empires" down through history, beginning with the "Babylonian Empire" [followed by Persia, Greece and Rome]. The first three "empires" are represented by actual "beasts" found in God's creation: a Lion [Babylon], a Bear [Persia], and a Leopard [Greece].

The FOURTH BEAST [the Roman Empire] Daniel sees in his dream is "indescribable" as any known animal in creation.

"...I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, DREADFUL and TERRIBLE, and STRONG EXCEEDINGLY; and it had GREAT IRON TEETH: it DEVOURED and BRAKE IN PIECES, and STAMPED THE RESIDUE WITH THE FEET OF IT: and IT WAS DIVERSE FROM ALL THE BEASTS THAT WERE BEFORE IT; and it had ten horns." (Dan.7:7)

The fourth beast [the Roman Empire] defies any known description of any animal in God's creation. Daniel can only say "dreadful and terrible." It's a living unnatural beast bent on destruction.

But, prophetically in the Bible... a beast represents "MAN'S GOVERNMENTS"... man's "KINGDOMS" -- which always stands in "opposition" to God's coming Government, the "gospel" [good news] of the Kingdom of God [the wonderful message of the Bible] -- "...Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God..." (Mark 1:14).

These four beasts inherited from each other, combined and intermixed [in their customs and traditions] over the centuries, to influence and form the end time government system now extant in the world.

In the book of Revelation... John sees a single "Beast" rising out of the sea [which is the masses of people and nations around the world from which man's governments emerge - Rev.17:15].

John recognizes various components of the Beast as being the same animals of Daniel's dream: "... the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard [Greece], and his feet were as the feet of a Bear [Persia], and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion[Babylon]..." (Rev.13:2).

This is the same old components of man's government systems of centuries past, that's still ruling over men in the last days before Jesus returns with the Kingdom of God... only it's rising one last time in John's "end time" vision for one final attempt at establishing the "one-world government" that men have always sought.

It's here that John reveals the "true power" behind man's "beastly" governments:

"...AND THE DRAGON GAVE HIM [the Beast] HIS POWER, and HIS SEAT, and GREAT AUTHORITY." (Rev.13:2)

The Bible reveals the "Dragon" as: "...that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world..." (Rev.12:9).

Whereupon, we find Satan [the Dragon] in the "temptation account" of Christ offering "all the kingdoms of the world" to Jesus, if only He bows to him and worships him - Matt.4:8-9. Nor did Jesus argue with him regarding the truth of just "who possesses man's governments."

So, the "Beast" John sees rising in the end time world... is to be the last attempt of man's Satan-designed and owned government system to bring about "global governance" [as the nations are calling it today]. That very system toward which the nations of the world are racing and working so hard to achieve before our very eyes -- but which very few people are able to recognize for what it truly is.

The "Beast" isn't the Devil [Dragon]. The "Beast" is a "MAN"... who will be possessed by the Dragon... and shall receive his power from the Dragon.

"...no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast: for IT IS THE NUMBER OF A MAN..." (Rev.13:17-18) -- [not the Devil].

The "Beast" shall be the "man" who shall rise to power and great authority in the world at Satan's command at the prophesied time of the Great Tribulation -- which is described by Jesus as an unprecedented time in world history of such incredible distress, that unless He shortens those days and returns to earth in time... the earth and all life on it will perish -- Matt.24:9-29.