Having looked at the doctrine of deification in our last issue, we are now ready to begin our consideration of the Bible’s oft-repeated and most enlightening beast theme. To do so, we must take up the tragic tale of man’s beastly sin and rebellion against God.

We’ll begin with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve fell when they refused to retain their godlikeness by continual submission to God and arrogantly grabbed for an autonomous godhood by submitting to the most “subtle…beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Genesis 3:1-24).

Just as Lucifer, the former “anointed cherub that covereth” (Ezekiel 28:14) was reduced to a beast—a serpent—due to his arrogant grab at godhood, so also were Adam and Eve reduced to having their former incorruptible and unclothed bodies covered with the skins of beasts, due to their joining of the serpent in his beastly sin against God (Genesis 3:21).

One might even go as far as to say that they were marked for their beastly sin against God by the sweat on their foreheads and the callouses on their hands (Genesis 3:19). Both sweat and callouses are emblematic of man’s hard work. They speak of man’s erroneous belief that he can manage on his own, independent of God. He’ll work and make himself god and by doing so make his own way to heaven and his own heaven on earth. Here, is the beginning of the tragic tale of man’s beastly sin against God.

Lycanthropy is a mental illness in which a person falls under the delusion that they are a beast. It is of no little scriptural significance that Nebuchadnezzer, the powerful king of the world’s first great Gentile world power, “Babylon the great,” fell prey to this debilitating disease and was reduced to acting like a beast (Daniel 4:28-33). According to the Scripture, God made Nebuchadnezzer “a king of kings” by giving to him “a kingdom, power, and strength and glory” (Daniel 2:37). However, Nebuchadnezzer failed to give the glory to God, opting instead to seek God’s glory for himself. As a result, he was reduced by the Almighty to acting like a beast.

It is no coincidence, that from this point forward in Scripture, all Gentile world powers are symbolized as beasts (Daniel 7:1-28; Revelation 13:1-10, 17-18). Not only do they seek for themselves God’s glory, but they also oppose and oppress God’s people.

The enemies of God, of Christ and of the church are repeatedly referred to and symbolized as beasts throughout the Scripture. For instance, consider the following:

❶ Satan or the devil is referred to as: [1] a “great red dragon” (Revelation 12:3) [2] a “serpent” (Revelation 12:9; 20:2) [3] a“roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8).

❷ Demons are referred to as: [1] “Serpents and scorpions” (Luke10:19) [2] “Locusts” (Revelation 9) [3] “Frogs” (Revelation 16:13) [4] “Unclean birds and beasts” (Revelation 18:1-2).

❸ Both Jesus and John the Baptist called the Pharisees “serpents and a brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33).

❹ False prophets and teachers are called “dogs,” as well as “fierce” and “ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Philippians 3:2; Acts 20:29; Matthew 7:15).

❺ And the depraved are called “brute beasts” (2 Peter 2:12; Jude 10).

Along with the above, the reprobate—those so hardhearted that God has given them up to depravity—are also referred to in the Scripture as beasts. For example, Jesus refers to them as “swine” before whom we should not cast our “pearls” and as “dogs” to whom nothing “holy” should be offered (Matthew 7:14).

It’s useless to offer pearls and holy things to the reprobate, because they will only “trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear [us] to pieces.” The reason the reprobate are so profane as to possess no regard for the sacred is because of the fact that their hardheartedness has already sealed their eternal fate. Having crossed God’s deadline, they are destined to be excluded from the “holy city, new Jerusalem,” and to be banished into the “blackest darkness…forever” (Revelation 22:15; Jude 13).

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