Various posters have showed you the error of your hyper-literal approach to Revelation. Because you choose to ignore this, you then proceed to examine Amil through the lense of your mistaken approach. This is both unfair and unwise.
I asked you "how long is the “one hour” that the beast reigns with the “ten kings” in Revelation 17:12 is? i.e. is it sixty minutes?" You failed to address this. This carries the same figurative sense - only describing a small period of time. Most Premils have no difficulty with this, because it does not interfere with Premil. This is double standards. This is common with nearly every topic you address with Premils.
The reality is: Revelation is a highly symbolic book. Your strict literalist approach to does not stand up to any basic examination. You have a habit of avoiding detailed posts that expose the flaws in your doctrine.
Your hyper-literalist approach to the beast and the mark cause you to miss the spiritual thrust of truth in Revelation. The one thing that marks Premil is that it lack corroboration for every single aspect of its teaching. For example: nowhere else in Scripture does it teach that heaven or hell is determined by taking a literal mark or not. Premils seem to struggle with interpreting Revelation by other Scripture. They rather arbitrary enforce their literalist mindset on the whole book. What results is a mountain of new revelation that totally contradicts repeated, clear and explicit biblical teaching.
You do not seem to get the fact that Revelation is describing a spiritual conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. We have moved a long time ago from the old covenant to the new covenant. We have moved from the physical to the spiritual, from the temporal to the eternal, from the earthly to the heavenly, from the visible to the invisible.
The story of the book of Revelation is the same as the rest of scripture: men are either on one side or the other. Men are either in the army of God or in the beast’s army - controlled by Satan. There is no in-between. God's army on earth and God's army in heaven are spiritually one. When Jesus comes Christ unifies the whole army. What is left on earth is the wicked (or the beast's army). He destroys all them, resurrects them and judges all together. He then sets up the eternal state on the new heavens and new earth.
We know from repeated Scripture there are only two peoples on the earth – those whose names are written in the book of life (the redeemed Church throughout time) and those whose names are not written in the book of life (the Christ-rejecting world). Those that withhold their veneration of this evil beast are assuredly the elect of God – those chosen from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11, Titus 1:1-2, II Thessalonians 2:13-14, 2 Timothy 1:9). The beast’s disciples include everyone else – that great number of Christ-rejecters on the broad road to destruction “whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Revelation 17:8 teaches,
“The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder (
thaumazo or admire or marvel),
whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast.”
This text makes clear that the beast attracts the affections of
all the non-elect. All “that dwell on the earth” admire or marvel at the beast “whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.” The language here is pretty water-tight.
This passage again only recognises 2 peoples: those who
are in the Book of life that are shown to be the only ones that don’t admire the beast, and those who
aren’t in the book of life and who consequently reverence the beast.
Throughout this chapter before us the Holy Spirit identifies and speaks respectively of God’s dealing with the sum total of either camp. The passage is written from God’s eternal aspect and depicts both the eternally righteous and the eternally damned – those who finally yield themselves to the world in reprobation and are therefore eternally doomed. The saved carry the mark of God upon them – which is the blessing and favour of God – and are the elect of God having their names written in “the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The lost consist of those “whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This is the only two groups that have ever existed on this earth.
Remarkably, the sum total of those “that dwell on the earth ... whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” shall admire and marvel “when they behold the beast.” They look with awe and amazement at him. They give their allegiance to this fiend. They esteem the incredible power and influence of this evil entity. The beast’s followers are therefore the sum total of the wicked. The beast holds the affection of all the unregenerate. We know the ungodly are besotted by this wicked influence because of the wording of Holy Writ. The beast gains the hearts and minds of the Christ-rejecter.
This can only refer to the full amount of those among the wicked that stubbornly refuse to bow their knee to Christ in this current life. It is they that are beguiled by the subtle prompting of the beast and are shown to have no time for the things of God. The awful consequence of this delusion is that they have no part or portion “in the book of life” which is said to be written in eternity – “from the foundation of the world.” It should be noted in passing, the delusion poured out by the beast is directed at human beings, not angels. We know for sure that those that
are written in the book of life are the redeemed of God alone – embracing all those that put their trust in Christ alone. Therefore, we can deduce, the beast’s adherents are the remainder of mankind – the sum total of the unregenerate world, also known in the Bible as the damned.
Revelation 13:16-17 underpins the all-encompassing nature of the beast’s army, saying,
“he (the false prophet)
causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Everyone on earth that is not written in the book of life is required to submit to the beast’s authority. When we look at the detailed description of the beast in Revelation (including his image and his mark), we can see that
the apocalypse very clearly distinguishes between those who take the mark of the beast and those who don't.
The people in the beast kingdom are those whose names are not written in the book of life. They worship the beast and are part of the beast kingdom. Revelation 20:15 confirms the fate of all those who are not in the book of life, saying,
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Revelation 14:9-11 says,
“If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
- Beast’s subjects = those excluded from the book of life = those that are eternally damned to “the lake of fire.”
- Christ’s subjects = those included in the book of life = those that are eternally saved from “the lake of fire.”
Scripture after Scripture (referring to the beast) makes clear that men either have the mark and worship the beast and his image or else they refuse any association with him / it. It is that simple. Those who have the mark of the beast are lost and will be thrown into the lake of fire at the Judgment. Those who do not have the mark of the beast have the seal of God (Holy Spirit) and are saved and reign with Christ spiritually even now in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3, 2:6, Hebrews 12:22-23 and Revelation 20:4) and will inherit eternal life in the new heavens and new earth.