11:7 the beast. This is the first explicit reference in Revelation to “the beast,” though John no doubt recognized him as the fourth beast of Daniel’s prophecy given over six hundred years before (Daniel 7:7). He will already have become sufficiently powerful as a world leader to make the seven-year treaty with Israel. However, he will have had to spend the first 3½ years in fighting and consolidating his power (note Daniel 11:36-45, for example), in addition to trying to fight the locust scorpions and lion-like horses called forth by the two witnesses. But then, Satan himself will possess and energize “the Beast” after placing him in an occultic trance wherein he will appear to have died, reviving later in an apparent miraculous resurrection, with marvelous tales of what he heard and saw in Hades while his body was in this state of superficial death. All this will so impress the whole world that “all the world wondered after the beast” (Revelation 13:3). This admiration will increase to worship when, all at once, the demon horsemen are vanquished and the two witnesses are slain. He will very quickly become the unquestioned ruler of the world.