Prophetically, beasts represent governments. Worldly beasts represent major world power governments. This particular beast is an amalgamation of all previous (historic) beasts / governments, meaning it is the concluding result (the worst) of all that came before. This beast is being ridden (driven) by Babylon, the whore (Revelation 17:3). Here is an actual photograph of a statue of a beast recently erected at the U.N. headquarters in New York. How blatant is the confession to the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation? Maybe someone can explain how this can be an innocent admission or have some benign meaning.



The whore riding the beast shows that Babylon (Satan, through his sons and minions) is controlling (driving, riding) world government. Satan, through his elite, the great men of the Earth, the powers that be, is the puppet-master, controlling all worldly government.



The mark of the beast has to be issued and received before Babylon falls. This logic is very plain and we will explore it shortly. The penalty for receiving the mark requires two parts. 1) receiving the mark and 2) worshiping the beast. The penalty occurs after Babylon's destruction and includes suffering the last plagues (Revelation 16) and being excluded from heaven (Revelation 20:4).