Confusion about the Apocalypse

Is the antagonist in the bible story of the apocalypse the anti-christ, the beast, or a false god? Are all three the same, or all all three seperate? Or is the beast another word for one of the other two?

The beast and false god don't appear outside of Revelation no? But the anti-christ has other support in other parts of the bible?

I know that the dead sea scrolls are supposed to talk about sons of light and agents of darkness struggling against eachother somewhat gnostically also.

There's quite a few beasts in Biblical prophecy, especially Revelation, but I can tell you this much off the top of my head.

The DRAGON represents Satan.

The BEAST is generally called the Antichrist, and the Dragon (Satan) gives him all his power.

The FALSE PROPHET is the Antichrist's right-hand man, and requires everyone to worship Antichrist.

The book revelations is incredibly difficult to understand since it is full of imagery and symbolisum so sorting out the two from reality are sometimes inperfect

remember this is John interpiting a vision or dream into words.

The Dragon is Satan, Rev 12:9 "The great dragon was hurled down–that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."

The beast of the sea represents the False churches

The beast of the earth represents Corrupt government

You might have to be a bit more specific on the beasts in order for me to explain

By beast I am primarily thinking about the multiheaded one that arises from the sea, the one that gives people its mark, a 'human number', which is 'six hundred and sixty six'.

So the mark of the beast is a mark of the anti-christ?

Seems even more confusing if the mark is supposed to be something required to purchase stuff and what not. The false prophet is supposed to lead the armies at armegedon? I should probably re-read the text again, its been a little while. But doesn't the beast get thrown back into the hole before the battle at armageddon?

I have a nice article on the subject written up that I may post in the Research Forum, but in short and right here:

The beast out of the sea is generally called Antichrist. The sea represents the Gentile world, or Europe. The seven heads represent various things, but possibly the seven continents. The ten horns represent ten kings that will rule under him. The head that is wounded but then is miraculously healed refers to him dying and then resurrecting himself.

The beast out of the earth represents the Antichrist's false prophet. He has two long horns and is very well-spoken, persuading the world with his voice.

The mark of the beast is the mark of the second beast...therefore it is not, as most think, the mark of the Antichrist, but is rather the mark of his false prophet, who will require the entire world to worship Antichrist.

Interesting. You should definitly see about posting the research article.

If anyone is interested in something other than the 'Left Behind' deal--

The beast from the sea is a clear allusion to the four beasts of Daniel 7, which represented four specific world powers that succeed one another in domination of the known world--Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The beast from the sea in Revelation is given a description more or less identical to that of the little horn on the fourth beast in Daniel, and as it does a lot of religion-related activities, it makes sense to assume that it represents a religious power that arose from the ruin of the Roman Empire. As for the land beast, it is a dominant world power like the other ones. It came into being in a manner different from the others. The other empires came from the sea, but this one came out of the land. The other empires came from a turbulent history, but this new world power grew somewhere more quiet. Rather than forging itself amidst a sea of warring peoples, this new power arose in a place that was sparsely populated, allowing it to grow (mostly) in peace. Having horns like a lamb could mean a number of things, so I'll just guess here--horns represent kings, or maybe rulership on the other beasts, and the lamb reference could be a reference to Jesus-- perhaps a Christian style of rulership. Going by how God prefers to run things in the rest of the Bible, it appears that He prefers to have as few rules as possible, allowing maximum freedom for each person. Only one world power fits this description, and that is, of course, the United States. Unfortunately, while its rulership is lamblike, it speaks as a dragon, pointing to all the times the USA has fallen away from its principles and oppressed the same freedom it was supposed to stand for. The false prophet will bring these two beasts into cooperation.

Then again, everything I just said could be wrong.

Very well, I have posted the article in the Research Forum under the "book of Revelation Research Project."

It's not all-conclusive in any way but has proposes several ideas on the subject and a bit of my take on things.