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1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, ‘Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?’
When I was in the 7th grade, we studied Greek mythology. One of the pictures in our textbook was of the god Atlas. He was a muscular Titan who had to hold the world on his shoulders. I remember looking at that picture and thinking, that looks really heavy and difficult. He literally carried the weight of the universe on his shoulders! It seemed like a lot for someone to carry, he would need a lot of endurance to support that weight for long.
The Bible is not a myth, and the Book of Revelation is telling a real story about the weight of real worldly evil. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are asked to endure the weight of this evil for a short while, but it’s not going to be easy, and it will take patient endurance.
Chapter 13 isn’t easy to interpret and it’s not my goal to explain here. Rather, I want to focus on two phrases that tell us everything we really need to know for now. The first phrase is at the end of verse 10 – “This calls for patient
By Meeting Point1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, ‘Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?’
When I was in the 7th grade, we studied Greek mythology. One of the pictures in our textbook was of the god Atlas. He was a muscular Titan who had to hold the world on his shoulders. I remember looking at that picture and thinking, that looks really heavy and difficult. He literally carried the weight of the universe on his shoulders! It seemed like a lot for someone to carry, he would need a lot of endurance to support that weight for long.
The Bible is not a myth, and the Book of Revelation is telling a real story about the weight of real worldly evil. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are asked to endure the weight of this evil for a short while, but it’s not going to be easy, and it will take patient endurance.
Chapter 13 isn’t easy to interpret and it’s not my goal to explain here. Rather, I want to focus on two phrases that tell us everything we really need to know for now. The first phrase is at the end of verse 10 – “This calls for patient

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