These admiring worshipers raise the challenging question: “Who is like the wild beast, and who can do battle with it?”​—Rev. 13:1-4.

But what does the “wild beast” of Revelation, chapters thirteen through nineteen, symbolize?

17. How do we answer their argument in harmony with Revelation 13:1-12?

¹⁷ The foregoing scriptures must be harmonized with Revelation, chapter 13, and other texts which show the political powers of this world are by and are under the “ruler of this world”, “the god of this system of things.”

In chapter thirteen John tells of seeing a wild beast, with seven heads and ten horns, and which blasphemes God and wages war with God’s holy ones.

12, 13. (a) What do Re chapters 8 through 19 contain? (b) Why should honesthearted people not be disturbed by such prophecies?

¹² Re Chapters 8 to 19 are largely responsible for the reputation that the book Apocalypse, or Revelation, has of being a book foretelling terrifying catastrophes.

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In Revelation, chapter 13, it is pictured as a wild beast emerging from the sea.

By “the earth,” our planet is not meant, but, rather, the people who live upon it. (Gen. 11:1; Rev. 13:3)

But what is its image?—Rev. 13:1-18.

7. (a) What is the scarlet-colored wild beast of Revelation chapter 17 called in Revelation chapter 13? (b) In what way is “the image of the wild beast” a model of the original wild beast, and what do its seven heads represent?

⁷ This symbolic “wild beast” of Revelation chapter 17, which is described as scarlet colored, is really a copy of the original “wild beast” spoken about in Revelation chapter 13.

Also, on one occasion I almost gave up a good job because it involved signing numbered receipts, and I was afraid that I might get mixed up with the dreaded “number of the beast,” mentioned in Revelation, chapter 13.

And all those who dwell on the earth will worship it.”​—Rev. 13:1-8.