Introduction
I have been examining the subject of antichrist, which includes three main parts: antichrist as a political movement for a one-world kingdom that is anti-God and anti-Christ; antichrist as the one man who finally will sit at the head of that kingdom and declare that he is God; and antichrist as a religious movement for the unification of all false, apostate Christianity along with the world’s religions that stands in the service of antichrist as a political movement and as a man to cause the whole world to serve him. The fullest, scriptural description of this third aspect of antichrist is Revelation 13:11–18. In this editorial I will follow closely that description.
Antichrist as a political movement has had a history-long manifestation, beginning at Babel with Nimrod. Antichrist as a religious movement has had a history-long manifestation too. Antichrist as a political movement and as the hero who will lead that movement have always had their prophets who sing their praises. This was true of Nimrod’s prophets, who caused this slogan to arise around Nimrod and all his efforts: “Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord (Gen. 10:9)! Pharaoh had Jannes and Jambres, as we read in 2 Timothy 3:8: “As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” Nebuchadnezzar had his wise men, soothsayers, and sorcerers. So we see that the beast that rises out of the sea is accompanied by a beast that rises from the earth.
The appearance of the beast that rises out of the sea is at the same time both terrible and wonderful, for he is a composite beast: lion-faced on his seven heads and having the body of a leopard and the paws of a great bear. He is the symbol of antichrist as the work of Satan to unite the nations and peoples of the world into one kingdom of political and universal dominion at whose head ultimately will stand that wicked one himself. He will control all the nations and peoples, and he will develop wonderfully the powers of creation and control all the institutions of society. He will have absolute dominion over science and technology, art and culture, industry and commerce, religion and philosophy, and the powers of creation. The beast is the symbol of a kingdom heretofore as yet unrealized, but for which there always has been a push in the history of the world. The spiritual character of this beastly kingdom is anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-church. However, the beast will not be anti-religion, but the beast himself will be the religion. He will bear a blasphemous name; he will speak great blasphemies; and he will be worshiped and wondered after by the whole world, which will exclaim, “Who is like unto the beast?”
This antichristian kingdom is not realized primarily by force of arms but by the willing union of all the nations and peoples in the world. It is a kingdom that has been and already is in the world regarding its spiritual principle, as a movement, and as a drive in the hearts of men. It also has had certain pointed types that have failed to achieve the full picture symbolized in the beast that rises out of the sea in Revelation 13:1–10, but nevertheless they have given to us a clear glimpse of this terrible, blaspheming creature.
The Identity of the Beast Out of the Earth
Now we see a second beast. An entirely new subject is not introduced in Revelation 13:11–18, but the second beast is another description of the full reality of antichrist. The reality of antichrist is not exhausted in the representation of his political power, but antichrist has another important aspect that is represented by “another beast,” one that is “out of the earth” (v. 11).
There is something darker and more sinister about this beast than the first beast. The first beast comes boldly and openly with his seven heads and great composite body. He snarls and blasphemes openly. But the beast out of the earth is beguiling. This deception begins with his appearance. He appears out of the earth; he comes from obscurity, as it were, as a son of the earth. He does not rise to power in the heady rough-and-tumble of politics and political intrigue, but he comes from the earth until he reaches the heights of extraordinary power.
And he apparently looks like a lamb because he has the two horns of a lamb. He does not have the snarling and awful appearance of the first hydra-headed beast with his tawny face, dappled coat, and huge ursine paws. Although the second beast appears as a lamb, he is still a beast, but a far less formidable beast in appearance.
Yet any good thoughts about the second beast evaporate when he speaks. He looks like a lamb, but his voice is that of a dragon.
He also stands in a very obvious relationship to the first beast because the second beast exercises “all the power of the first beast before him” (Rev. 13:12). In his presence and in his service, the second beast operates before the first beast as his court magician and prophet.
The second beast also does great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men. And by his wonders men are deceived, so that they listen to his preaching, make an image to the first beast, and worship that image.
The second beast himself gives a spirit to the image, so that the image speaks and causes all who do not worship the beast to be killed. And all—rich and poor, bond and free, small and great—who worship the image of the beast he inscribes with a mark, so that they all are united in the worship of the beast whose deadly wound has been healed and who speaks great blasphemies.
Revelation 19:20 very specifically confirms the identity of the second beast: “The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” The false prophet of the book of Revelation is this second beast out of the earth that appears as a lamb but speaks like a dragon.
The second beast is a false prophet.
A prophet is a messenger who is commissioned by another to speak on his behalf, to speak his message and for his cause, and to oppose all that oppose that cause for which he speaks. For example, a prophet of God is commissioned by God to speak for God. The prophet speaks God’s word and opposes with that word of God all that sets itself in opposition to that word. The prophet is God’s yes to man’s no and a teacher and a revealer of the will of God. All the prophet’s power is in his voice and in his message, which is the voice and the message of God. Such a prophet is a true prophet. What he speaks is the truth, and the principle that animates him and his message is the Spirit of truth as that truth is in Jesus Christ.
The second beast is a prophet who speaks for the first beast, and with that speaking he persuades and deceives men and thus brings them to the side and to the cause of the first beast.
That the second beast is a false prophet describes him according to his animating principle. He operates under the power of the lie and is animated by the spirit of the lie. The power behind this false prophet, and thus the voice of this prophet, is the dragon himself as the father of the lie. The prophet’s message is a lie, regardless of how it sounds, how it is taken, or how it is received. His message is a lie as such. That is something to remember regarding statements of doctrine. There are doctrinal statements that are lies. They are false regardless of how one might have intended them. As such they stand as lies.
The Realization of the Beast Out of the Earth
The second beast will be the final realization of the history-long movement to unite religions. He will be the union of all men in the one religion of the beast. Revelation 13:11–18 emphasizes this. All—small and great, rich and poor, and bond and free—who worship the beast will receive the mark of the beast. This will be a universal, catholic religion that embraces the world. It not only will be the union of apostate Christianity but also the union of apostate Christianity with all the world’s religions, so that the only religion that will be tolerated will be the religion of the first beast, and the only worship that will be allowed will be the worship of the image of the first beast. This one universal creed will be embraced: “We believe in one beast and in his creator, the devil. We believe in man and his power and glory. We believe in the wonder of his kingdom and the potentials of his conquests.” There will be sung only one hymn: “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”
At the head of that false religion of the beast will stand a prophet as its chief spokesman. I think that we cannot rule out one single individual in the future who will carry out this work or who will be the leader in this work. When Moses faced the false prophets of Egypt, then the leaders were Jannes and Jambres. When Micaiah stood before the face of Ahab to oppose his unity with Judah, then the leader of Ahab’s stable of false prophets was Zedekiah. And we see in the world around us that certain theologians and philosophers can change a whole generation with their writings, so persuasive are their teachings. And it seems that every false doctrine that has arisen in the church to challenge the truth has attached to it the name of its chief false prophet: Platonism, Arianism, Apollinarianism, Pelagianism, Arminianism, Kantianism, and Darwinism. The second beast will be the first beast’s minister of propaganda, his herald, and his spokesman, without which the first beast cannot come and achieve his power. The second beast will take up the ideology, the theology, and the world vision of the first beast and preach it.
Is the second beast then merely a man and a religion that will come in the future, or is that beast something more? Revelation 13:11–18 gives us to understand that the second beast, like the first beast, is something more than a final realization at the end of the world, for the second beast presently is arising out of the earth. As the first beast, the second beast has a coming, that is, his coming raises the question of his historical manifestation. Further, he exercises his power before the first beast. To limit the second beast to a single, future, chief false prophet of the cult of antichrist is to do an injustice to the fact that this beast is and comes.
The apostle John wrote of this beast in 1 John 2:18–22:
18. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
The multiplication of antichrists already in the day of the apostle John was the indication that his day already was the last time. Antichrist as a false teacher already was a reality in the time of the apostles. Antichrist is a liar who denies that Jesus is the Christ. That Jesus is the Christ is central in the Christian faith. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed of God; thus he is the king, priest, and chief prophet of his people whom his people hear and to whom they submit. Antichrist denies that.
That may seem like a rather broad test of antichrist. But the context of 1 John 2:18–22 is a powerful test of antichrist as a spirit of apostasy from Jesus Christ. The meaning of “denieth” in the text is abjure and renounce. To leave a true church of Jesus Christ where Jesus Christ is present in the preaching of the truth and the administration of the sacraments is an act of apostatizing from the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, and thus it is an act of apostatizing from Jesus Christ. It is a denial of the Christ whom one professed to know, promised to cleave to, and promised to submit to, and it is a manifestation of the spirit of antichrist that now works, a spirit that works a great apostasy in the churches of Jesus Christ.
John also writes in 1 John 4:3: “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” The spirit of antichrist denies that Jesus Christ comes in the flesh. We would be tempted to say again that this is a rather broad and general description of antichrist. How many are known who actually deny the incarnation, except an out-and-out theological liberal? But the point of the apostle is that false doctrine—all false doctrines and false religions—ultimately yields this fruit, which is at the heart of the lie. Either Jesus is just a man, or he is the eternal Son of God in the flesh. If he is just a man, then the Christian religion is hero worship, like any other religion of the world. If Jesus is the Son of God, then he is the only way of salvation. And false doctrine and every false religion always assault this principal fact of the Christian faith and say, “Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh.” That is clear with an example: The denial of the truth of creation. This denial necessarily involves the denial of the historical Adam the first; if there were no Adam the first, then there could not have been Adam the last, Jesus Christ. There is no Christ come in the flesh, and that is the eventual result of the denial of creation.
The second beast, which ultimately will be the false union of all religions, has its historical manifestation in all the attempts at unity apart from the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. All those attempts are denials of Jesus Christ and are the work of the spirit of this false prophet. Each attempt at false unity always appears as a lamb: It has the appearance of Christianity, peace, love, and all the other noble Christian virtues, but it speaks like a dragon. The creed of such a movement is always the denial of the truth: This or that truth is an impediment to unity, so do away with the truth.
And it is necessary that all false doctrines deny Jesus Christ, because this will be the central tenet of the religion of antichrist and his apostate kingdom: Antichrist will proclaim boldly that Jesus Christ is not the Christ and that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh because he, the antichrist, is the king and is God in the flesh. Under that creed as preached by his false prophet, antichrist will unite the world and all its peoples in his kingdom. The end of all apostasy will be the antichristian kingdom and antichrist himself and his false prophet.
Some say that religion divides or that doctrine divides. That is true. Religion divides. That is true of all the present world’s religions. They are divided. How often do not the world’s conflicts have a religious overtone: Christian versus Muslim, Muslim versus Hindu, Shinto versus Christian? But these divisions are superficial because the central fact of all false religions, as with all apostate Christianity, is the denial of Jesus Christ as the Christ come in the flesh and in whom God established his eternal kingdom. Every attempt at world dominion must reckon with this fact of religion. It was reckoned with by the great powers of the world. The most successful powers were the most successful at incorporating into their national cults the religions of conquered people. And the denial of Jesus Christ will be reckoned with by the first beast who will send forth his prophet to prepare the way before him, and all these divisions will be given up in the end, as they even now are being given up.
But the fact that religion divides is true absolutely of the true religion. It cannot be combined, synthesized, or joined with any other religion. It is impossible to mingle the exclusive worship of God with the worship of any other and especially the worship of man. The faith always divides in homes, in families, among churches, and ultimately in the whole world. Faith always turns the world upside down. The Jesus Christ that brings peace by the blood of his cross at that same time brings a sword of enmity and division between the church and the world, between Christ and Satan, between the church of the living God and the corrupt synagogues of Satan. And inasmuch as the true religion sharply divides between the church and the world, false religion is ultimately the most powerful force of unity that will be pressed into the service of the antichristian world kingdom and king as the culmination of the principle of all false religions, which is the worship and exaltation of man.
There is one religion, the true worship of the one true God revealed in the mediator Jesus Christ that cannot be combined with any other worship. The true worship is exclusive. God is an exclusive God, one Lord, and all others are idols. Jesus Christ is an exclusive savior, the only way of salvation, because there is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ; and he alone is the way, the truth, and the life. There is one righteousness whereby a man might be right with God—that is, the righteousness of God worked out in the cross of Jesus Christ. And there is one law that may govern men—the law of God. In all this and many other aspects, the Christian faith is exclusive. And in that exclusivity the Christian faith clashes with the religion of the worldwide kingdom, which is nothing else than the blasphemous worship of a man as God.
The Power of the Beast Out of the Earth
The beast out of the earth, in the interest of his goal of uniting all men under one creed and apart from the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, will have exceptional power. Operating under the power of the lie, he will have the power to deceive all men into worshiping the first beast.
First, the second beast does great signs in the sight of all men: “He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” And related to this, he “deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast” (Rev. 13:13–14). No doubt this refers ultimately to the final incarnation of the false prophet, who will effect the union of all religions and apostate Christianity into the religion of the beast. But this also refers to those who are false prophets now. They may have great powers of intellect, are erudite, attain to great things, and have an almost miraculous ability to deceive, to influence, and to affect men. But in the final false prophet, this certainly will be realized in its highest sense. He shall do great signs in the sight of men.
Those signs will be real. The signs that are referred to may not be explained away as tricks. The whole world will not be deceived by a few mirror tricks and some parlor games. The text calls them “wonders,” which is the biblical word for miracles. And the text calls them “great.” They will make men wonder. They will catch men’s attention. Such will be the beast’s miracles that he will perform the definitive test of the prophet: He even will bring fire down from heaven. That was the test of the prophet in the days of Elijah when the God who answered by fire was the true God. So deceptive will be the false prophet that even this power will be given to him, to seemingly do the impossible; he will do what the prophets of Baal were unable to do. Indeed, the false prophet will do great signs.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:9 we read of this power that will be given to the beast: “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” The word “lying” does not refer to the nature of those wonders, to their genuineness or falseness, as if they pretend to be wonders but are not. Rather, “lying” describes the operative principle in the wonders and that to which they point. They are done under the power of the lie and in the service of the lie.
Just as the miracles of God are always performed in the service of the truth and in the power of the truth and in their essence all point to Jesus Christ and especially his incarnation as the central wonder of God in which he came down to us in the person of his Son and dwelt among us, so the false prophet will do miracles that will be signs of his gospel of the lie, his ideology of the beast, and his world vision of a kingdom apart from Jesus Christ and his truth.
And yet it is not the ability to do miracles that will be the definitive test of the prophet. It never was the test of a prophet. The fact that Elijah had to do miracles was to the shame of the people to whom God had given the law and the prophets. Jehovah even warned Israel and thus us of this fact in the law in Deuteronomy 13:1–3:
1. If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2. And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
This prophet came with another doctrine and said, “Let us go after other gods.” As proof of his doctrine, he performed a sign, and it came to pass. But the fact that he performed a sign was not the definitive test of that prophet. The test was his doctrine. And Jehovah tested his people by the prophet’s miracle, whether they held to Jehovah with all their hearts, whether they had the love of the truth. All those who did not love the truth would be enamored with the miracle.
This is a warning against the spiritualism that affects the church world. The interest in Pentecostalism and Charismaticism and all their signs plays right into the hand of this beast. Miraculous healings, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, and other wonders persisted for a time as signs of the apostolic office and gospel, but these signs have disappeared with that office. The church and people who are ignorant of that will be prey for the draconic lamb. And not only ignorance but also the superficiality of a veneer of Christianity characterizes many, which is declared to be Christian and holy and beyond reproach, and they weigh not and try not the spirits according to the definitive test, which is the doctrine, the truth, of the word of God. It is a superficiality in which all are Christians who take the name of Jesus on their lips and that lacks a basic discernment of the spirit of the age and of error. The church or people or person who is not grounded thoroughly, instructed, and filled with the love of the truth will be seduced by the beast’s wonders as many are today by the spirit of lies.
Second, the beast out of the earth has power to cause men to make an image of the beast, and he has power to give life to the image of the beast, so that it speaks and sentences all who will not worship the image. This refers to the effect of his teaching and especially of his miracles. The effect of his teaching is that men make an image of the beast to worship it. Whether or not the cult of antichrist will include an actual image that is worshiped is to my mind immaterial.
There were images that the great types of antichrist made and which they demanded their subjects to worship. The most prominent example is Nebuchadnezzar, who made his gigantic gold image and demanded its worship on pain of death. Also Antiochus Epiphanes desolated the worship of God in the temple with his image and the requirement that the Jews sacrifice pigs. In the days of Emperor Caligula, failure to worship the image of the emperor was a capital offense.
To make an image of one’s god is an act of devotion toward that god. By making the image, men show who their god is. Their god is not the true God who cannot and may not be represented by images, but whose image is Jesus Christ, but their god is the first beast himself. And the making of this worship of the first beast is the effect of the teaching and persuasion and specifically the miracles of the second beast. Men believed his lies and his lying wonders. The point is that his teaching unifies all peoples of the world in the worship of the beast.
And to the image that men make, the false prophet gives a spirit, so that the image speaks. If we refer to an actual image, then the false prophet will make that image speak. It will be an animated image. If we refer to the worship of this beast, then the idea of this beast, his spiritual character, is that he is a false prophet who will give to the worship of the beast his voice, message, and content.
And the image not only speaks, but the image also sentences all who will not worship it. The syntax of Revelation 13:15 points to the fact that the image itself passes judgment on the worshipers and non-worshipers. A refusal to worship the image marks one as an enemy of the state and religion of the beast.
Third, those who worship the image of the beast the false prophet causes to receive the mark of the beast in their right hands or their foreheads (v. 16). What is that mark? This is a question that has exercised many to no avail. We should use caution in identifying that mark. And that we cannot say certain things about that mark simply means that we have not seen yet its final realization because when it comes there will be no doubt about what that mark is, and God’s people will not take it.
Nevertheless, there are certain things we can say about the mark that the second beast will give to all men who worship the image. First, it is a mark; it is that which will stamp one as the property of another and will tell its provenance and makeup. Like a fine piece of china has on it the mark of its maker, so this mark will mark the bearer as the property of the beast. The text makes it appear as rather obvious that it is a mark because it will be stamped on the right hand or on the forehead. But this is not strange in the book of Revelation. The elect of God also are sealed in their foreheads, but that seal is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is, as it were, on their foreheads because he affects their whole lives and is obvious to those around.
Second, that mark is synonymous with the name of the beast and also with the number of his name, as is clear from Revelation 13:17. The name of the beast is his essence and character, and the number of his name summarizes or points to that character. And all this is pointed to by the mark of the beast. I am inclined to say that the mark will be the act of worshiping the beast because that mark is inseparably connected with the worship of the beast. The way that a man gets the mark will be his act of worshiping the beast. To worship the beast will be to be publicly marked as the beast’s and belonging to his kingdom and to demonstrate one’s own spiritual character as belonging to the beast.
Third, this mark will guarantee participation in the kingdom of the beast. All who do not have the mark will be excluded from the kingdom, from participation in its most basic activities of buying and selling, and by implication also living. To worship the beast will be to receive the mark. To deny the beast his worship will be to have a death sentence passed on one. And this mark is a dark parody of the mark with which Christ himself marks his own with the assurance of participation in his kingdom.
And we may not leave the Lord out of all this. This is all under the control of God himself. He sends to some strong delusions in order that they believe a lie because they received not the love of the truth. All those to whom God gives the love of the truth, the love of himself, his Christ, and the word of God as truth will not be deceived by this beast. Nor will they worship his image. Nor will they take his mark. They have been sealed, and there is no room for two marks on their foreheads, and they will not worship the beast.
Rather, they wisely will count his number. This does not mean that the wise are to engage in some kabbalistic number games to arrive at the time of this beast or his identity, as some false prophets prattle today. To count the number of the beast is the sober, logical knowledge of his identity, not by name specifically but according to his spiritual character. It is a knowledge that is as simple, sober, and logical as counting a number. This beast has a number, which is the number of his name, which number reveals the essential spiritual character of the beast and thus also of the beast whose prophet he is. The number is 666—the number of man—man separated from God and man fully developed under the rebellious principle of the lie that was his downfall from the beginning: “Ye shall be as God.” Man worships man and blasphemes God.
And thus 666 is an important number.
Count it.
The number is of a man who may reach the pinnacle of earthly power, but who is man for all that, whose days are in the Lord’s control, whose actions are weighed by the Lord, and who ultimately will be judged with fiery and eternal judgments by the Lord whose place he attempted to usurp.
For when man has fully developed, filled the cup of iniquity to the full, the judge shall appear. Behold, he comes quickly! Amen.
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