Does the UN statue resemble the End Times Beast from Daniel and Revelation?

Published in

The Sacred Faith

6 min readDec 15, 2021

There’s been a lot of fuss on the internet lately about this new statue that the UN has erected outside their headquarters on the Visitor’s Plaza.

I’ve seen screenshots of the original tweet shared on Facebook and other social media platforms, as well as copious articles flooding my newsfeed, all suggesting the same thing: this is the beast from Daniel 7. This of course carries with it the implication that it is also a fulfilment of that prophecy and therefore we should expect something more to happen soon, like “the antichrist” to rise up and consume the world. Or something along those lines. I don’t follow the Dispensational “end times” view anymore, so I try not to get my eschatology from newspaper headlines (or tweets). In nearly all of the other articles I’ve seen on the topic, no one is actually engaging with the Scriptures, but are quoting random tweets and Facebook posts as though that’s where we should derive our exegesis and conclusions.

If you can’t see the tweet above, the official UN Twitter account said:

A guardian for international peace and security sits on the Visitor’s Plaza outside #UN Headquarters. The guardian is a fusion of jaguar and eagle and donated by the Government of Oaxaca, Mexico @MexOnu It is created by artists Jacobo and Maria Angeles.

So with that said, let’s have a look at some of the claims and then compare with what Scripture actually says, rather than a bunch of tweets by people losing their minds.

Three passages of Scripture are being thrown about: Daniel 7:2–4, Revelation 13:2, and 1 Thessalonians 5:2–3. But do these verses speak to this new statue?

Daniel 7:2–4
I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being; and a human mind was given to it.

Alright, Daniel does say the first beast “was like a lion and had eagles’ wings”, which I will admit, is pretty similar to the statue (except that it’s not a lion). I don’t know if Daniel would have been familiar with Jaguars which is why people are pointing out the phrase, “like a lion” due to the similarities of the animals. But these details are really besides the point. The first, and most obvious point to me when I first saw this was that the “beasts” in Daniel 7 (all four of them) are representative of nations and kings. The visions Daniel has are about future kingdoms and their leaders. You only need to read the rest of the chapter to see this, as the angel with Daniel gives the interpretation to him! See below:

Daniel 7:16–17
I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all this. So he said that he would disclose to me the interpretation of the matter: “As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth.

Unless the statue outside the UN is actually a living person who rules a nation… trying to tie it to Daniel 7 is more than a stretch. It’s just nonsensical. The second point which came to my mind too, and anyone else who has seen the Disney film “Coco”, is that these Jaguar-Eagle beast things are part of Mexican culture and mythology (and were warrior classes of the Aztecs). It’s not a unique design the UN came up with, demonically inspired to fulfil prophecy. No, the statue is an “Alebrije” created by Mexican artists Jacobo and Maria Angeles and has no links to Daniel or Revelation.

So let’s go to Revelation next, while we’re thinking about it:

Revelation 13:2
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 the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority.

Again, similar words and phrases, but this doesn’t make it about the statue. Especially since this description lacks the eagle’s wings, not to mention that this description by John is a blending of the four beasts from Daniel’s vision. Compare the other beasts at the start of Daniel 7: “The first was like a lion … a second one, that looked like a bear … another appeared, like a leopard”. Daniel’s visions and John’s vision are intrinsically linked and speak to the same events; though Daniel looked forward into the very distant future, John looks a little closer to home within the Roman Empire. These previous empires pale in comparison to the breadth and might of Rome, as though it had the strength of all previous beasts combined.

But the point remains, these passages of Scripture may be linked and related to one another, but they aren’t related to a statue outside the UN headquarters. People are trying to make the inference that the UN has the power and authority over the people and nations which the devil has given them, but the problem with this is that the UN has no real power–it’s authority is limited. It can’t enforce things on nations or member states and can’t overrule individual governments.

Finally, here’s the most tenuous link being bandied about. The UN’s tweet said that the statue is a “guardian for international peace and security”, so obviously that must be a reference to 1 Thess 5. Because that’s not a common expression at all, right?

1 Thessalonians 5:2–3
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!

Even within the context of Paul’s writing here, the way he phrases “when they say…” he is using it as though it’s a well-known expression, if it’s even a specific phrase, rather than just a generalisation about the attitude of the world who aren’t waiting for the Lord to return. Paul is speaking about being aware and keeping our minds fixed on Jesus, because we can’t, and don’t, know when things will happen; especially so when we think everything is fine and dandy, then suddenly everything can crash down around us if we’re not paying attention.

To bring this to some kind of conclusion, and to answer the question in the title: no, the statue has nothing to do with Daniel and John’s visions about beasts because they are representative of nations and kings (particularly Babylon, the Medo-Persian Empire, Greece and Rome), not literal beasts and even less about sculptures.

While we have nothing to fear from Mexican artwork outside the UN building, we should all bear in mind what Paul did write to the Thessalonians, and “keep awake and be sober” so we don’t “fall asleep as others do”. Though Jesus may come like “a thief in the night”, we shouldn’t be caught by surprise, Paul says, and to do that we must know our Bibles better! All of these articles jumping on the bandwagon claiming that this statue is the fulfilment of Revelation 13 just goes to show that people aren’t actually studying the Scriptures and are seeing patterns where there are none, because if you knew Daniel and Revelation well enough, you’d see that this is totally unrelated. Be like the Bereans and open your Bibles to check claims before posting it all over social media, stirring up “end times hysteria” and making the Body of Christ look like fools.

Our interpretations of Scripture should come from good exegesis, not newspaper headline comparisons.

If you do want to read more about the end times, and specifically in relation to Daniel, see my blog series The Coming of Jesus, or sign up to be notified about my upcoming book, The Coming of Christ.

Further Reading:

Does the UN statue resemble the End Times Beast from Daniel and Revelation?

Written by Luke J. Wilson