BABYLON: Originally the country between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This was the general area where the Garden of Eden was located on earth according to Gen 2:10-14. The Assyrians conquered Babylon and dominated them from about 1300 BC until 626 BC. Like the Assyrians they were an idol worshipping country and their chief god was Marduk. The name Babylon is often used in the Bible to represent all of the nations of the world who oppose God. The capital city of Babylon was a city named Babylon on the Euphrates River.

BABYLON, MYSTERY: See Great Prostitute.

BEAST: Rev 13:1-18. A beast in apocalyptic writings represents an empire or group of empires. It is also used of the antichrist in Revelation, possibly because he emerges from the beast out of the sea.

BEAST OUT OF THE SEA, THE BEAST OUT OF THE ABYSS; Rev 13:1-10, 11:7, 17:1-8, Dan 7:6-7. The term beast can refer to either the allied end time empire of the antichrist described in Rev 13:1-10 or the leader who emerges out of the empire who we know as the antichrist. We will analyze Rev 13:1-10 to attempt to identify the beast out of the sea. As background, we see four beasts coming up out of the sea in Dan 7:3. These beasts were empires in which one nation and one prominent leader conquered many other nations and ruled over them. By comparing Dan 7:3 with Dan 7:17 we can see what the word “sea” means in this context; the four beasts of Dan 7 and Rev 13 came out of the earth, meaning out of the nations or empires of earth. Thus the beast out of the sea is an empire or group or empires on earth. The fourth beast in Dan 7 had 10 horns or kings but only one head. Thus a head represented an empire of multiple nations. The beast in Rev 13 has seven heads (and ten horns or kings) and this may imply an alliance of seven separate empires or groups of allied nations. I suspect that this group of empires may be a compilation of all of the empires of Daniel 7 and their extensions in the end times, since the beasts have corresponding descriptions, listed in reverse order; a lion, bear, leopard and ten horned beast. In the middle of the tribulation period an empire that had fallen or ceased to exist arises again and the leader of this revived empire gains control over the whole world for the next 42 months, Rev 13:5-8. This leader is the antichrist and he is thereafter referred to in Revelation as the beast. The antichrist may be a Nephilim since Rev 17:7-8 & 11:7 say that the beast came out of the Abyss. Rev 17:7-8 further describes him as one who once was, now is not, and will yet be. That certainly could apply to a Nephilim. In Rev 9:1-3 we see the release of some strange creatures from the Abyss and Tartaros during the first woe or the fifth trumpet judgment. We may be seeing the release upon the earth of the Nephilim and evil angels who have been held there since the days before the flood, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6. The leader of these evil angels is called Apollyon, or destroyer in Rev 9:11. He has the ability to do all sorts of miraculous things. The vision of the statue in Dan 2 reveals that the feet are made of a mixture of clay and iron, things which do not normally stick together. This may be a reference to the Nephilim being in the end times; composed of two things that do not normally mix together, angels and man. Following is a summary of the scenario that I see being played out in the end times as described in Rev 7, 13 & 17: The leader of the empire known as the beast out of the sea is wounded and killed near the end of the first half of the tribulation period. He had been doing his work in the spirit of Satan but his power was still limited. When the beast out of the Abyss is released upon the earth at the beginning of the fifth judgment he comes upon the earth in the image of the dead leader. He has supernatural powers and is now the leader of the empire and becomes known as the beast. He is a superman, a half angel and half man like creature, but who looks like a man. In fact we are told in Rev 17:3, 8 that he is the beast out of the Abyss. A comparison with Rev 13:1 shows that this is the same beast as the beast out of the sea. This certainly would explain a lot of otherwise difficult to understand scriptures. He is also the scarlet beast of Rev 17. Also see Abyss, head, horn.

BEAST, THE FIRST: Rev 11:7, 13:1, 14:9, 15:2, 16:2, 17:3, 13, 19:20, 20:10, Dan 9:26-27, 11:21, 36, 2 Thess 2:3-8, Matt 24:15. A Satanically inspired world leader referred to as the antichrist. He is initially the leader of the world empire known as the beast out of the sea. He is killed at the mid-point of the tribulation period and comes back to life as the beast out of the abyss. We are told in Rev 13:14-15 that the “image” of the beast came to life and could speak. He leads an unprecedented reign of terror on earth and is bent on destroying Israel. He is also the scarlet beast of Rev 17. See the beast out of the sea above.

BEAST OUT OF THE EARTH: Rev 13:11-17. This beast is described in Rev 13:11-17. As in Dan 7,

I suspect that this beast represents an empire. This time the beast has one head, implying it is one empire, but two horns, implying that it is composed of two countries. This two nation empire seems to be the military and economic power of the earth. They have great influence in the rise of the anti-christ. The leader of these two allied nations is presented as the false prophet. From the discussion in Rev 16:13-14 we see that the false prophet is a part of a trinity composed of himself, Satan and the antichrist. They each spawn evil spirits upon the earth, implying that they are all evil angels. Like the antichrist, he also may be a Nephilim.

BEAST, THE SECOND: Rev 16:13, 19:20, 20:10. The false prophet. A Satanically inspired prophet for the antichrist who promotes worship of the antichrist. See the beast of the earth above. The antichrist and the false prophet are the first two to ever be thrown into the lake of fire and for that reason I expect that they were both Nephilim. The lake of fire was prepared for Satan and his evil angels, Matt 25:41.

BEAST, SCARLET: See Scarlet Beast, Beast out of the Sea, Beast, the First.

BLOOD: Rev 8:8, 16:3-4. From Gen 9:4, blood is that which gives life to a living being. We see in the second and third trumpet and bowl judgments that the sea and fresh waters turned to blood and the living creatures all died. We see how this happens from Rev 16:3 where we see that the blood was like that of a dead man. That means that the sea and fresh water had lost their ability to sustain life. We also see in Rev 8:10-11 that the fresh waters became bitter or poison to life.

BOW, RAINBOW: Rev 4:3, 6:1-2. In Rev 6:1-2, the rider on the white horse accomplishes his work through use of a bow and conquest. The bow is the same word used in Gen 9:12-16 for rainbow, which God used to seal his covenant with man to never again destroy the earth with water. The use of the word bow here may signify two things. First God will keep his covenant and will not destroy the world this time with water; he will accomplish it this time with fire (2 Pet 3:19). Second, the bow may represent a covenant, the seven year covenant of peace that the antichrist makes with Israel (Dan 8:25, 9:26-27). Since this is seen with the first rider, it obviously happens at the very beginning of the seven year tribulation to bring about the seven year peace treaty spoken of in Daniel. In Rev 4:3 we see a rainbow circling the throne of God. Since God is said to be light, the rainbow may indicate that John is seeing God in all of his fullness, the full spectrum of his being so to speak. It may also symbolize that God is about to completely fulfill his covenant with man. Another possibility is that since the bride is seen all around the throne of God as the sea of glass, and since the bride is seen in Rev 21:19 as the new Jerusalem adorned with every kind of precious stone or jewel, the rainbow may represent the light of God reflecting from all of the colors of the jewels which adorn the bride of Christ.

BRIDE OF CHRIST: The church. See the discussion of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb for details.