I would add the mysticism of the beast in Revelation 17:
"The beast you saw WAS and IS NOT."
Translation:
In the beginning of human history, in the days of Noah, the Fall, and its effect on the human race, was the prevailing force in human history. Indeed, the dragon “reigned” prior to the Flood. But beginning with the Flood, the power of the Original Sin is already being weakened and progressively healed. God has begung the historical process of redeeming humanity. Hence, the beast “is not.”
However, that the fallen nature of man is taking a back seat to the redemptive plan of God, it does not stop the fallen nature from making repeated secondray manifestions along the way in the redemption of humanity. Hence, the heads of the beast, or “kings”, are symbols of the greater stages of resistance to God’s grace that span all salvation history. Hence, “kings of the beast” still rise and fall within history, even though the those that are in between the first and last manifestations are secondary.
Hence:
"Five have fallen. One is, and the other has not yet come, and when he does, he must continue a short space."
Translation:
Five primary stages of sin were respectively redeemed in the OT era. At the time of writing the Apocalypse, one king reigned “pagan resistance to and persecution of the New Covenant.” One stage was yet to come (presumably the modern minor apostasy). But all these, saving the first, are secondary manifestations since they occur within the period of what ryanoneill directed our attention to, “the period of restraint.” (2 Thess. 2)
But, presumably, the “eighth” king represents the final manifestation of sin, and hence, one that is incurable, hence, in the eighth, the restrainer is “gotten out of the way”, and hence, Satan’s rule resumes. In the eighth stage, the fall is back, but it is back to stay, incurable, irredeemable. Hence, the eighth stage is consummate with the final release of the dragon at the end of the world.
"And the beast which was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition."
Translation:
In the eighth manifestation of sin, the fallen nature once again rules humanity as before the Flood. But unlike the Flood, the fallen nature is incurable in the end, for the Redemption of humanity has been made “complete” in the “rest of the seventh day.” Hence, like the first day, God destroys the world. But in the first day it is by water, seeing as it is redemptive. In the eighth day, it is by fire, it is the condemnation of a world that has no excuse for its sin.
The beast is “of the seven”, seeing as the fallen nature of man (Original Sin) is the spiritual source of all the stages of sin. It is consummate with them.
So, we can say that the dragon only “rules” the world in the beginning and in the end, but in between, in the time of “restraint”, he is but a secondary pest.
Just my take, anyway.
