Revelation chapter 12 ends with a description of the war Satan waged against the remnant of Christ's ancient church after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.¹ Revelation chapter 13 begins where chapter 12 ended without interruption.² Chapter 13 describes Satan's ongoing earthly war against the church and kingdom of God from 70 AD until the Second Coming.³ This 2000-year history⁴ includes Satan's universal dominion on earth during the Great Apostasy in Revelation 13:1-8,⁵ his captivity of the saints during Renaissance and Reformation in Revelation 13:9-10,⁶ and his growing dominion in the latter-days after the restoration of the gospel in 1830 in Revelation 13:11-18.⁷

Satan has waged, and continues to wage, this 2000-year war on earth against the kingdom of God through his evolving kingdom called Babylon.⁸ Revelation chapter 13 symbolically depicts this evolving kingdom as two beasts.⁹ The First Beast, in Revelation 13:1-8,¹⁰ symbolizes Satan's kingdom on earth¹¹ from 70 AD until restoration of the gospel in 1830.¹² This time period includes the Great Apostasy, which John identifies as a period of 1260 years from the time priesthood power was lost from the earth until it's restoration.¹³ The First Beast represents the Roman Empire during the early stages of the Great Apostasy after 70 AD.¹⁴ This First Beast overcame the saints in Christ's ancient church on the eastern hemisphere.¹⁵ However, the loss of priesthood power did not become universal until the Nephite apostasy on the western hemisphere¹⁶ and the translation of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel in 570 AD.¹⁷ The priesthood and church were lost from the earth for 1260 years from roughly 570 AD to 1830 AD.

The First Beast in Revelation chapter 13 is the fourth dreadful beast described in Daniel chapter 7,¹⁸ and is also the great and abominable church described in 1 Nephi 13.¹⁹ In Revelation 13:1, Satan gave his power to the disembodied spirit of Cain who is the spiritual head of the earthly institutions symbolized by the image of the First Beast.²⁰

The prophet Daniel predicted 1290 years of spiritual darkness that began as a flood on the earth after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.²¹ After Daniel's 1290 years, this flood of spiritual darkness reached a high point in 1360 AD. At that highwater mark of spiritual darkness, the flood waters began to recede. The Dark Ages gave way to the faint spiritual light of the Renaissance, followed by the increasing light of the Reformation, as described in Revelation 13:9-10.²² The increasing glow of spiritual light from the Reformation in the 1500's then gave way to the brilliant light of the restoration when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored and organized in 1830.²³

When Christ restored his church on the earth in 1830, Satan's kingdom evolved and re-emerged from the earth as the Second Beast in Revelation 13:11-12.²⁴ The Second Beast is Satan's counterfeit church that grows uniformly with, and in opposition to, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.²⁵

In Revelation 13:13, the Second Beast reaches the height of its power just 3½ years before the Second Coming.²⁶ This coincides in time with the gathering of saints at Adam-ondi-Ahman,²⁷ and the time when Christ will begin to reclaim power on earth from Satan.²⁸ Revelation 13:13-18 symbolically describes events and conditions of the Great Tribulation during the last 3½ years before the Second Coming.²⁹ The Second Beast will be destroyed by Christ at the Second Coming.³⁰ Revelation chapter 14 describes the destruction of the Second Beast (Modern Babylon) at the time of the Second Coming without interruption after the last verse in Revelation chapter 13.³¹

The Second Beast in Revelation 13:11-18³² is also the little horn from Daniel chapter 7,³³ and the church of the devil identified in 1 Nephi 14.³⁴ The Second Beast is an outgrowth or evolution of the image of the First Beast that represents the Roman Empire. The Second Beast emerged from the earth after the First Beast dominated for almost 1800 years.³⁵ Some scholars fail to recognize that the Second Beast is an evolutionary outgrowth of the First Beast in Revelation chapter 13 as they compare John's two beasts with the horrible beast in Daniel chapter 7, and the great and abominable church in 1 Nephi 14.³⁶

Some scholars also equate the Second Beast with the False Prophet mentioned in Revelation 16:13.³⁷ The two images share a similar symbolism. However, the False Prophet is the disembodied spirit of Judas Iscariot who stands as the spiritual head of apostate institutions and earthly agents of Satan represented by the image of the Second Beast from 1830 AD to the Second Coming.³⁸ Cain is the spiritual head the First Beast that represents evil institutions and agents of Satan during the Roman Empire from 70 to 1830 AD.³⁹