Revelation 13, verses 1 and 2, part 1, the dragon gave him his power

 

Revelation 13:1 ¶  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Apollyon or Abaddon, the Destroyer, came out of Hell.

Revelation 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

He is called the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, the bottomless pit shown previously to be Hell.

Revelation 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

A second beast rises out of the sea but Revelation 17:8 tells us that it is the same beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit.

Revelation 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Some commentators say that the sea represents the mass of humanity and it does appear that way as another beast comes out of the earth.

Revelation 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

Like the Philistine God, Dagon, half man and half fish, this beast arises out of the sea. The question is, you have to ask, is this a metaphorical statement and does this beast arise out of the mass of humanity or does he come literally from the sea when it is already said that he ascended out of the bottomless pit?

Think of the possibility of the sea representing the mass of people, the sea of humanity, and the earth representing religion. He is a man of the people. There are People’s Republics, usually just another name for government by oligarchy. Some early American political leaders referred to vox populi vox dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Genesis 19:30 ¶  And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31  And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32  Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

The nature religions like Wicca and others are called earth religions. Modern paganism is one of those traditions. Could John be writing about a political character and a religious character, the first under Satan’s authority and the second as a religious figure who will demand worship of the first?