Satan hates the Lord but he likes to imitate Him. He does this so he can entice people away from the truth. He offers human beings "substitutes" for the Lord Jesus Christ so they will fall into idolatry. Idolatry doesn't always take the form of literally bowing down to an idol. In our modern world it more often takes the form of spiritually, emotionally, or mentally bowing to someone or something who has become greater in our minds than God. Human beings are capable of turning just about anything into an idol, such as a relationship that becomes an obsession, or an overwhelming drive to achieve material success, or an addiction to things like pornography or illicit sex, or addictions to drugs or alcohol or food or shopping. Ever since he tempted the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, Satan has been in the habit of placing various idols in our paths in hopes that we won't kick them out of our way but will instead allow them to have first place in our lives---to take God's place. But in the end times the devil is going to attempt to take God's place himself, and that's why we see him forming an unholy trinity. Today we meet the third person of this unholy trinity.
We've already met the enormous red dragon of John's vision. The dragon is Satan and he is trying to set himself up in the place of God the Father. He is the one who gives power to the beast out of the sea, the Antichrist, who will deceive many into thinking he is God the Son, at least when he first comes onto the world scene promising peace. Today we meet the beast from the earth, otherwise known as the False Prophet, and he is imitating the role of God the Holy Spirit. The False Prophet is going to mimic the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles by performing signs and wonders, the signs and wonders the prophets and apostles were able to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. But the False Prophet will be performing signs and wonders through the evil powers of darkness.
Now let's take a look as what John tells us about the False Prophet. "Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon." (Revelation 13:11) The first beast, the Antichrist, came out of the sea. A large number of Bible scholars have interpreted this to mean he is a Gentile since there are several places in the Bible where the Gentile nations are referred to as "the sea". But the second beast, the False Prophet, comes out of the earth. What does this mean?
Some have suggested that if coming from the sea means the first beast is a Gentile, then the second beast may be of Jewish heritage since he has a different origin. If this is so, then he may be Jewish by heritage but he is not a faithful, religiously observant Jew. If he were, he would not be associated with the dragon and the first beast at all.
Another theory is that the sea doesn't symbolize the Gentile nations and therefore the earth doesn't represent any person of any particular heritage. The sea may stand for ancient pagan religions in which the gods were believed to have emerged from the sea. The Aztecs and Mayans of Mexico are just a couple of examples of people who believed their gods came from the sea. The fact that the False Prophet comes out of the earth might symbolize earth-based pagan religions. These are the type of religions where the gods are the gods of the trees, the gods of the fields, the gods of the mountains, and so on. Some of the modern day "witchcraft" religions are earth-based. The Native American beliefs were very much earth-based. We know a false church is going to be formed in the end times, and we are going to take a detailed look at it when we get to Chapter 17, but here in Chapter 13 there seems to be some suggestion that this church will be made up of a combination of pagan beliefs from all over the world. This collection of pagan beliefs may be symbolized by the Antichrist coming out of the sea and the False prophet coming out of the earth.
The False Prophet has two horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. This beast is not a lamb. But just as a lamb has two horns, this beast has two horns. If horns symbolize power, as they often do in the Scriptures, then he has authority over two areas. I consider this to be a very good theory because we are going to see him heavily involved in the false church and heavily involved in the government of the Antichrist. Or the two horns of a lamb might just be one more attempt by Satan to entice people to accept anyone as the Lamb of God except the One who really is the Lamb of God. The False Prophet is a dragon in lamb's clothing, because when he opens his mouth his true nature is revealed. He doesn't speak words of comfort and peace and righteousness. He speaks words the dragon himself (Satan) would say.
Next John tells us what the False Prophet does. "It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed." (Revelation 13:12-15)
Earlier in the week we discussed the Antichrist having a fatal wound that had been healed. The popular opinion in our times is that the Antichrist will stage a fake assassination of himself followed by a fake resurrection. The world will believe he was killed and that he rose from the dead. The prophet Daniel, the Apostle Paul, and the Lord Jesus Christ all issued the warning that a wicked man would place an "abomination" in the temple that would desecrate it. That abomination is the image of the Antichrist. When this idea comes to the man of sin, the False Prophet is the one who will suggest it to the whole world. He will urge the earth's citizens to set up an image to honor the one who has (or so they think) overcome death.
There's nothing new about a powerful leader setting up an image of himself and demanding that he be worshiped. This has happened all throughout history. The Pharaohs of Egypt ordered massive images of themselves to be constructed and a great deal of these images can still be seen in Egypt today. The Pharaoh considered himself to be the god Osiris in the flesh and he expected to be worshiped as Osiris. In the Apostle John's day, emperor worship was enforced by the Roman Empire. Statues of the emperor could be seen in most or all of the territories Rome had conquered. The image of the emperor was on the money that everyone in Roman territories used, often with blasphemous words printed underneath declaring the emperor to be "God made manifest". It was expected that all subjects of the Roman Empire would burn incense to the emperor and make the statement, "Caesar is God." Moving on up to more modern times, think of all the dictators who have set up large statues of themselves and who have displayed their picture prominently all throughout their countries. Modern dictators do not necessarily demand worship, but they do exercise absolute control over the people and they do demand absolute obedience from the people, which is essentially the same as being worshiped.
In 2 Thessalonians 2 we find the Apostle Paul prophetically speaking about the end times. His words line up perfectly with our passage today, for he describes the reign of the Antichrist like this: "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
When John tells us in our passage today that people of the earth will be deceived, he means the people of the earth who continue to reject the Lord's merciful offer of salvation. They will grow so wicked and so rebellious that the point will come when the Lord says, "Have it your way. You prefer anything and everything over the truth. You prefer darkness to light. Believe what you want." The Lord isn't going to force anyone to believe a lie. He's merely going to cease dealing with their hearts. Their hearts have become so hardened against Him that nothing He says or does is ever going to get through. Because He is omniscient, He knows they are never going to turn to Him, so after faithfully making an untold number of attempts to lead them to salvation (so that they can never accuse Him of not trying) He is going to take His hands off them and let them believe what they want.
I'm reminded of what the late author, scholar, and evangelist C.S. Lewis said regarding those who reject the Lord all their lives. "There are only two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"
Tomorrow John is going to tell us about another thing the False Prophet will do. He's going to force the people of the earth, under threat of death, to accept what is known as "the mark of the beast".
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