There will be no territory and no nation that is outside the borders of this absolute political power. The description that John gives of this beast indicates to us, secondly, that the political power of the Antichrist is worldwide.
Leopard, bear and lion: This is indicated by John's description of this beast as a combination of the leopard, the bear and the lion. A student of Scripture will know immediately that those three beasts – bear, leopard and lion – appear somewhere else in the Bible: Way back in Daniel 7:1–28. Daniel 7:1–28, which also contains a description of the anti-Christian kingdom, speaks of a beast that is like a lion, a beast that is like a bear and a beast that is like a leopard. And those beasts there in Daniel 7:1–28 represent different nations in the history of the world. Now here, in Revelation 13:1–18 in the description of the anti-Christian kingdom, all three of those beasts of Daniel 7:1–28 are combined into one beast! So that the point is unmistakable: This anti-Christian kingdom is the combination of the nations of the world into one. It will take up all nations into this one great beast of political power. It will be a worldwide kingdom.
Seven heads: Second, the point being made to us that the anti-Christian kingdom is a kingdom of worldwide power is proved from the seven heads that this beast has. A few chapters later in Revelation 17:1–18, this same seven-headed beast pops up again. And the Spirit there gives us an infallible interpretation of those seven heads on that beast.
[Those seven heads] are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is… (that is the Roman Empire)
…and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven… Revelation 17:10–11a, KJV.
The seven heads represent seven kings and their kingdoms (the history of the world). And the beast himself of Revelation 13:1–18, with the seven heads, is the eighth beast. But he is made up of the seven. He is of those seven. In other words, the seven world powers of the past – from Babel to Egypt to Assyria on down through Rome – come together now to make one great world power unlike all the world powers that had ever been before it. The anti-Christian kingdom arises out of the past seven attempts at worldwide domination. And it is the culmination of those attempts. It will do what they could not do.1
Cory Griess
2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.