When we read the apocalypse, I believe it is a mistake to read it as a history of the future. I think that for its time, such a reading would be unlikely: these people believed in the immediate return of Jesus - as well as fearing the recurrence of Nero. What the Apocalyptist writes about is about the Christian Church's current situation. The Church is already confronted by the beast and the beast is already judged. The beast is the empire, or any world or local system, that the individual finds herself in. From systems theory we know that the individual is in thrall to systems - that the only way to beat a system is to leave that system, and the only way to change a system is to be a more differentiated self. You can't change a system by directly confronting it or generating force. The weapon of the system is itself force and violence - that you are under a threat. Jesus changes the system, or offers a way to change the system, by being faithful to himself - and more over, faithful to God's intention for him and for all humanity: that we pray for enemies, comfort the mourning - in short, eschewing the methods of the beast. Whatever the beast is, we are called to not be that way. The most the beast can do is crucify us.
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