In Matthew chapter 12 Christ encounters another person with “an unclean spirit” which Christ casts out. The people recognize Christ as the Son of David, but the pharisees blaspheme Him by saying that “This fellow doth cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.” Christ then makes a statement that Arthur Pink considers as a prophetic parable in regard to the Nation of Israel. Christ states, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. He then saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
The next statement Christ makes certainly supports Pink’s conclusion that Christ’s words were not just pointing to an individual that had been possessed, but it also has a double meaning in that it applies to the spiritual condition to the “House” of Israel. After Christ speaks the words concerning the return of an evil spirit with seven other evil spirits to the “house” of the man he states, “Even shall it be with this wicked generation.” If Christ applies his statement to his wicked generation then we like Pink should correctly apply Christ’s words to the final generation that will fill up the sum of rebellious and apostate Israel.
The seven kings of Revelation 17 give way to the eighth king. This eighth king is really the whole beast. This beast “once was, now is not and will come” (Rev. 17:8). The beast is the antithesis of the Lamb, which is described as “who is, and who was, and is to come.” We know that Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is God and has always been God. He was God in the flesh (God incarnate), and he will come to rule and reign over the earth. The beast symbolizes satanic rule over the mountains of God through successive empires. However, the beast ultimately symbolizes Satan. Evil rule reaches its zenith when the seven kings give way to the eighth. When Satan is cast down to earth, he will possess the body of the man known as the Antichrist. The eighth king is the merging of the chief principality of evil and the earthly king. The eighth king is the direct rule of Satan on the earth.