The Beast (Rev. Tom VandeStadt)
Then I wanted to know what the fourth beast really signified, the beast that was different from all the others, exceedingly fearsome with its iron teeth and bronze claws, devouring and crunching, then trampling underfoot what was left.
— Daniel 7: 19
I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of Their Highnesses. We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as Their Highnesses may command. And we shall take your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and the damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord and resist and contradict him.
— From El Requerimiento
Daniel, a Jewish prophet, had an apocalyptic vision. Four terrifying beasts crawled out of the sea, each representing a mighty empire: the Babylonian, the Mede, the Persian, and the Macedonian Greek. The fourth beast, the most horrifying and voracious of all, had iron teeth and bronze claws. Arrogant and unrestrained, it devoured the earth and trampled underfoot all that was left. Daniel envisioned his god destroying the monster, and creating a new kingdom through the son of man. Though his imagery represented specific empires, it’s no stretch to interpret Daniel’s vision as a condemnation of all human empires, for they all devour the earth and trample it under foot.
In the 15th century, a voracious beast arose out of Europe, not crawling from the sea, but taking to the sea to devour and trample underfoot other parts of the world. The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English, backed by German bankers and Italian merchants, fought one another incessantly for political and economic dominance, and in the 1400s began turning the rest of the world into their field of competition. Each sought to dominate and exploit as much non-European land and as many non-European people as possible to gain the upper hand in their rivalry for wealth and power.
As Europeans imposed themselves on other people around the world, they came to believe that humans were the dominant species on earth, and that “white” Europeans were the dominant “race” amongst humans. They believed their god was the only god, and that anyone not of their god was their mortal enemy, to be converted, subjugated, or destroyed.
Spanish conquerors read the requirement to indigenous communities before setting on them to do “all the mischief and the damage” they could. English colonizers were convinced their Anglo-Saxon blood and civilization were superior, and believed their god gave them not only the right but the obligation to drive the indigenous people from their land or kill them, and to enslave Africans to work for the “superior race” in forced labor camps. The beast seized other continents, committed genocide, and shipped millions of men, women, and children in chains from one continent to another, all to feed its appetite to expand, grow, and profit in money and power.
Over the course of several hundred years, Europeans imposed their political economy, and their ideologies of human over non-human species dominance, white supremacy, and endless economic growth for the sake of profit, on the rest of the world. Different European nations forced their imperial order over different parts of the world, but it was Europe collectively that became the beast with iron teeth and bronze claws. It was European colonialism and imperialism that produced the global systems of production and consumption, injustice and inequality, in which we live today. It’s an irony of history that Europe became the beast by invoking the name and divine providence of the same god to whom the prophet Daniel appealed in his apocalyptic condemnation of the beast.
We don’t typically call the interlocking global political, economic, social, and cultural systems in which we now live an empire. Sigmund Kwaloy and Joanna Macy call it the Industrial Growth Society. Bob Marley, the vampire system. Wendell Berry, the objective. Thomas Berry, the commercial industrial order. Gary Snyder, the Growth Monster. They all point to the same beast though, one whose devouring and trampling have left us with the 6th great extinction, the destruction of eco-systems and the biosphere, climate change, and pervasive political, economic, and social injustice.
Apocalyptic visions, though they condemn empires, don’t inspire me. I don’t believe in a god who will destroy the beast and create a just and peaceful reality for us. Only we can do that. And therein lies the question—can we do that? Can we reign in the beast and transform it? Can we, as Gary Snyder asks, find the secret heart of the Growth Monster and hit it with an arrow to slow it down? Or as Joanna Macy counsels, do the Work that Reconnects, and bring about The Great Turning? Or as Bob Marley sings, unite for the benefit of the people? We have to try, otherwise the beast will keep devouring and trampling till there’s nothing left.
The explanation he gave was this: “The fourth beast signifies a fourth kingdom which will appear on earth. It will differ from the other kingdoms; it will devour the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it.”
— Daniel 7: 23
Even while I dreamed I prayed that what I saw was only fear
and no foretelling,
for I saw the last known landscape destroyed for the sake
of the objective, the soil bulldozed, the rock blasted.
Those who wanted to go home would never get there now.
— Wendell Berry, from Sabbath Poem II, 1997
###
Rev. Tom VandeStadt is a co-founder of AllCreation.org. Browse more of his writings here. Cover image compiled from the commons. Top inset image, “Daniel’s vision of the four beasts” by Hind, Arthur Mayger (ed.) & Hans Holbein, the younger: his Old Testament illustrations, Dance of death and other woodcuts. London: William Heinemann, 1912. Public Domain. Read various translations of Daniel 7:19 here.
