The Second Beast/False Prophet
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
The phrase “rising out of the earth” refers to coming from a nation.
This second beast is the false prophet of the Antichrist who will promote his rule on earth (Revelation 16:13).
“It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.” The false prophet will resemble a man being from God but his words will be the Devil’s. His words will be full of lies, contradictions and very deceptive.
Insight:
The Greek word for Beast here is Therion.
It means a wild animal that’s dangerous with deadly venom.
12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
The false prophet is the Antichrist’s right-hand man who has been given full authority by the first beast. The purpose of the false prophet is to encourage the worship of the first beast.
Satan desires to dethrone God and receive for himself worship which stems from jealousy as seen in Isaiah 14:14 which says, 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
The second beast is no different from that of a false prophet in today’s time. All false prophets have a goal that is to deceive you into worshipping Satan through the doctrines of demons (1 Tomithy 4:1-3) which takes you away from the truth. These false prophets are energized by demons.
13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people
The sign of making fire come down from the skies refers to having great powers that it will make the people be in awe.
For Satan to defeat the crowd, he has to make the people doubt the Word of God and substitute Scripture with emotions. Once the crowd is led by their emotions deception takes root.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
Scripture is no longer primary in their lives but an experience which contradicts God’s Word takes precedence.
14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
These signs will be so great in the presence of the multitudes that it will convince the people that the first beast must be God or someone as great.
Satan loves to use idols as a weapon to make people stumble. Here we see the second beast making an image of the first beast so that the hearts of the people may be diverted away from God and given to the person that the idol represents.
Insight:
Behind every idol is a demon (1 Corinthians 10:14-22).Any religion, especially those who identify as Christians that has established idols in their worship gatherings to pray and bow down to is literally demonic worship.
15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
Breath can also mean spirit which it would fit perfectly in this passage because it animates the image.
A demon will enter the idol and cause all the people who do not worship it or the real person, the Antichrist to be killed.
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