It makes sense that this is the character of this kingdom. After all, the text tells us that the one who gives this kingdom power is ultimately the devil himself. Revelation 13:2b:
And the dragon gave him(the beast, the anti-Christian kingdom)his power, and his seat, and great authority.That dragon is the dragon of the previous chapter. The dragon is brought up all throughout the chapter. The dragon is called explicitly in Revelation 12:9:the Devil, and Satan. The one who, Revelation 12:1–17 teaches, tried throughout all the Old Testament to devour the man child Christ, to prevent Him from coming. And who, when he failed to prevent Christ from coming, now turns his sights upon the church (upon the woman), and seeks to destroy that church. And how does he destroy that church? Revelation 13:1–18 is the explanation of how he makes war with the church that is left upon the earth. He goes about to set up a kingdom as a kingdom of himself, the devil, upon the face of the earth. He goes about to take over God's world and remove the church. It is he, ultimately, (under God) who sets up the anti-Christian kingdom. He uses his influence over the nations to lead them to come to a point where they willingly set up this anti-Christian blasphemous kingdom. So that when this anti-Christian kingdom speaks with its mouth and its blasphemies come forth, it is really becoming the physical voice of the devil himself upon the face of the earth.The Antichrist is, you might say, the incarnation of the devil unto the world, and he rules as the head of the devil's kingdom, similar to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, and rules as the head of God’s kingdom – the church – in the midst of this world. The regime of the anti-Christian kingdom is a puppet regime, and the puppet master is Satan himself. That is why in Revelation 12:1–17 the dragon – Satan – is described the way that he is. He is described there as having seven heads and ten horns upon his head. It sounds familiar, does it not? Then the anti-Christian kingdom in Revelation 13:1–18 is described in the same way: Seven heads and ten horns. This anti-Christian kingdom is the full image of the devil himself upon the face of the earth. It is the devil in political and earthly form. And when the people of the world worship this kingdom of the beast, they are therefore, whether wittingly or unwittingly, worshipping the dragon himself (Revelation 13:4).
As such, this anti-Christian kingdom will be the culmination of everything that the devil has been working for since the very beginning of the world. The devil's goal, beloved, has always been a worldwide anti-Christian, blasphemous kingdom. The earth has been a battlefield for the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan from the very beginning. When God created this world and set up His king Adam upon it and His queen Eve, the devil sought to take them from God and make them his own king and queen, heads over his own kingdom that was against God. And he did that in the Fall for a time. But God intervened right away and sovereignly took them back to Himself in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But from there on forward, too, the devil still sought to rule over God's world for his own ends and his own purposes.
He even tried to establish a worldwide anti-Christian kingdom through Jesus Himself. Remember the third temptation, where the devil offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth. He was trying to establish his worldwide kingdom there and turn the Lord Christ into the Antichrist, as he turned Adam away from God and unto himself. That was his goal!
Bow to me, and I will give you the kingdoms of the world. You will rule over the earth as my agent, for my glory.Our Lord resisted the attack and established instead the spiritual kingdom of God through His atoning sacrifice upon the cross. But beloved, always (always!) the devil has been trying to bring God's world fully into the service of his own self.Remember why he fell out of heaven in the beginning? He was an angel of light at one point. Why did he fall? He started a revolution in heaven against God. He tried to make God serve him instead of him serve God. He wanted to be God himself. That is always his desire. It has always been his desire in the history of this world. And this is his desire, too, in seeking to establish a worldwide anti-Christian kingdom. In his mind he is saying,
Cory GriessI will rule, God, and not you! I will be the god over this planet, and I will ruin your intentions and your plan with it. I will keep you from gathering and establishing your own spiritual kingdom, and I will overcome and finally be God myself!1
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.