Revelation 13: the beast from the sea, part two

Previously: Revelation 13: the beast from the sea
The first post in the Revelation series

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” Revelation 13:1-4

We saw that this beast represents the kingdoms of this world, to which Satan gives his power, throne, and authority. The seven heads, we saw, were Babylon, Persia, the four Grecian kingdoms, and Rome. The ten horns we will come to soon. There is more detail coming up about the ten horns.

Now one of the heads of the beast becomes mortally wounded. A mortal wound is fatal, so we would expect to see a death of some kind. Then the fatal wound of that head was healed, and it became a functioning head of the beast again. This caused all the world to follow the beast, worship it, and to declare that no one could make war with him.

The fulfillment of this figure is in the head of Rome. It received its mortal wound when the Roman Empire was conquered by German barbarians in 476, and fell. But then in 800, Charlemagne, a Frankish (German) king who had consolidated the kingdoms of Germany, France, Italy, and Eastern Europe, and kept the Saracens in Spain at bay, was crowned by the pope in Rome as the sixty- eighth emperor of Rome. Even though there had been no western Roman emperor for 324 years (or western Roman Empire, for that matter), the pope crowned Charlemagne as if there had been no break at all. It was from this coronation that the Western Roman Empire was raised to life again, after it had been mortally wounded, under the name of the Holy Roman Empire. When the pope crowned Charlemagne, he also set a precedent in the kingdoms of the world: the Church would now rule the State, and no one would indeed be able to make war with it.

To be continued …

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Update: continued in Revelation 13: the beast from the land