Now the wild beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were as those of a bear, and its mouth was as a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority.”​—Revelation 13:1b, 2.

3. (a) What ferocious beasts did the prophet Daniel see in visions? (b) What did the huge beasts of Daniel 7 represent?

³ What is this freakish beast? The Bible itself gives the answer. Before the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.E., the Jewish prophet Daniel saw visions involving ferocious beasts. At Daniel 7:2-8 he describes four beasts coming out of the sea, the first resembling a lion, the second a bear, the third a leopard, and “see there! a fourth beast, fearsome and terrible and unusually strong . . . and it had ten horns.” This is remarkably similar to the wild beast seen by John about the year 96 C.E. That beast also has the characteristics of a lion, a bear, and a leopard, and it has ten horns. What is the identity of the huge beasts seen by Daniel? He informs us: “These huge beasts . . . are four kings that will stand up from the earth.” (Daniel 7:17) Yes, those beasts represent “kings,” or political powers of the earth.

8. Why should it not be shocking that the Anglo-American dual world power is likened to a beast?

⁸ Is it not shocking to identify the ruling political powers with a wild beast? That is what some opposers claimed during World War II, when the status of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as an organization and as individuals, was being challenged in law courts around the earth. But stop and think! Do not the nations themselves adopt beasts or wild creatures as their national symbols? For example, there are the British lion, the American eagle, and the Chinese dragon. So why should anyone object if the divine Author of the Holy Bible also uses beasts to symbolize world powers?

9. (a) Why should one not object to the Bible’s saying that Satan gives the wild beast its great authority? (b) How is Satan described in the Bible, and how does he influence governments?

⁹ Moreover, why should anyone object to the Bible’s saying that it is Satan who gives the wild beast its great authority? God is the Source of that statement, and before him ‘the nations are as a drop from a bucket and as a film of dust.’ Those nations would do better to court God’s favor than to take offense at the way his prophetic Word describes them. (Isaiah 40:15, 17; Psalm 2:10-12) Satan is no mythical person assigned to tormenting departed souls in a fiery hell. No such place exists. Rather, Satan is described in Scripture as “an angel of light”​—a master of deception who exercises powerful influence in general political affairs.​—2 Corinthians 11:3, 14, 15; Ephesians 6:11-18.

Notice, too, it is the dragon that “gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority.” (Compare Luke 4:6.) The beast is Satan’s political creation among the masses of mankind. Satan is truly “the ruler of this world.”​—John 12:31.