An Excerpt from: The End of the Age and The Sixth King
The Ten Horns:
The bazaar beast from the sea, rising up with seven heads and ten horns, is contorted with the images of a lion, leopard, and a bear. It is a foul thing filled with blasphemies that will take the lives and souls of countless millions. The seven heads are a succession of kings leading up to the Antichrist. He being the sixth and the eighth due to suffering the deadly wound. The lion, leopard and bear are his loathsome allies joining him in blood lust. But this beast also has ten horns. And as with everything associated with it, the description of the ten horns is both strange and contradictory.
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
Revelation 17:12-13
They are kings. But they have “no kingdom.” “Yet.” But they are kings. How can they be kings before they receive their kingdom? And after receiving authority for “one hour as kings” — not a kingdom for one hour but only authority for one hour as kings — and being “of one mind,” they return their momentary power to the beast. These are very strange kings indeed! They have no real power of their own. And no kingdom. At least not yet which means they will eventually have their kingdom. But in a direct statement of scripture, we are being told that at the point in time in which they exalt the Antichrist to power, they do not have a kingdom. To understand these odd kings it takes a little noticed scripture found in the Book of Isaiah. In it, the prophet repeats words that the Antichrist will one day say. On their own, these words make little sense.
For he says, ‘Are not my princes altogether kings?
Isaiah 10:8
The Hebrew word for “princes” is the masculine noun “sar” used to identify various types of leaders. In the Old Testament, it is used 208 times for prince, 130 times for captain, 33 times for chief, and 33 times for ruler. So these could be literal princes or simply notable leaders.
Another key in the verse is “he.” It is the Antichrist. Seven verses earlier he references the “Assyrian the rod of My anger.” (KJV) The Lord’s anger. And we know from Micah 5:1-6 that the Assyrian is the Antichrist because in the beginning of those verses “Bethlehem Ephratah” is identified as where this man Jesus will be born. Then this in verse 4:
And this man (Jesus from Bethlehem) shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. Micah 5:4
This action of the Assyrian has never taken place. It is yet future. And when it does happen it will be Jesus who will deal with him. This is an end-time event with the Antichrist simply being called by one of his many names found throughout scripture. There is also Isaiah 31:4-9. Within those verses, the Assyrian is being dealt with by Jesus when the Lord comes back in the second coming. “Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of mankind shall devour him.” Isaiah chapters 14 and 10 also speak of the Assyrian as the Antichrist.
These princes that the Antichrist indicates are his kings must also be the same ten kings described in Revelation 17. That is because other than the lion, leopard, and bear, the ten kings are the only kings scripture tells us are intimately associated with him. This would explain why Revelation 17 describes the ten kings as those who have received no kingdom as yet. They must first be princes or powerful leaders who later receive their own kingdoms to rule. At that point, they go from princes to real kings. The prophecy of Revelation 17 uses the title of what these ten despicable princes or leaders will ultimately become. Kings. The prophet John is simply looking backward upon an event yet to happen referring to them by the title of the highest office they will ultimately attain. Kings. Not by the lesser position they will hold along the way. Princes. Consider the example of former president Franklin Roosevelt which is informative to this point.
Before he became President of the United States he was first Governor of New York. But historically no one refers to him as Governor Roosevelt. He is always referred to by the ultimate office he attained. President Roosevelt. That is because we are looking from the present back in time so we refer to him by the ultimate title he attained. However, the truth is that he was governor of a major state before he attained that lofty position. And it was his stepping stone to the presidency. It could be said by New Yorkers of Roosevelt: “Is not my governor also a president.” And if a prophet had foretold his rise would he not have called Roosevelt a president even though he was a governor first? But there is something even deeper and darker taking place relative to these ten kings.
One of the main characteristics of the Antichrist is that he seeks to mimic Jesus in as many ways as possible. For example, he will suffer a deadly wound only to come back from the dead in a dark rendition of Jesus’ resurrection. He also will have miracles taking place around himself, especially with the help of the false prophet. The false prophet, like John the Baptist for Jesus, declares the Antichrist a god. And the ten kings appear to be another such effort. By making them each a king, (Even before having a kingdom of their own.) when they lift him to his black throne he will have become a king lifted up by other kings. Therefore, he can then claim he is the king of kings in another mimic of Jesus. And this explains these strange kings who have no kingdom at the time they lift up the Antichrist to the throne. And why they are granted authority as kings for only one hour before it is whisked away from them.
Now Revelation 17 again, but in context with the Antichrist telling us ‘Are not my princes altogether kings? And keep in mind the word used for princes in Isaiah 10 can also simply mean a notable leader of some kind.
The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
Revelation 17:12-13
Yes, they are called ten kings because they are being referred to by what they will ultimately become. But initially, they must be princes (or notable leaders within a kingdom) just as Isaiah tells us the Antichrist describes them. This explains why these kings initially have no kingdom… yet. That yet is also an important clue. Because it means they will ultimately attain an actual kingdom. But not yet at the point in time wherein they give their support to the Antichrist to establish him. Strangely, at the time they lift up the Antichrist to the beast kingdom throne, we are also told they will be kings for one hour with the beast. The fact that they have to be made kings for one hour at that point also speaks to the fact that they do not even have the title of king until that hour. As well as no actual kingdom. This too speaks to the reality of their lower station as princes initially. More on that in a moment. But all of this speaks to something else.
At the time the Antichrist rises to power, there is no ten-nation or kingdom confederacy yet. (The common teaching today is that he arises out of a ten-nation confederacy based on Daniel 7. More on that later.) Revelation 17 is unambiguous in making it clear that the ten kingdom confederacy comes into existence only after the Antichrist rises from within some kingdom. And since his rise is made possible by these ten princes or notable leaders this supplies ample reason why he will eventually confer upon them literal kingdoms making them actual kings with a kingdom of their own. All of this raises yet another question. Where does the territory come from for these ten princes to receive kingdoms?
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