The Beast From The Earth:the Great Delusion Series

Today we return to Revelation 13, and this week we will finish the chapter. So far, we have identified the Beast From The Sea (13:1) as Antichrist, and to make a long story short, he will have the following qualities:

That the rise of Antichrist will be mercurial in speed, brutally strong and vicious in conquest, and will demand the attention of the world

That Antichrist will have the qualities of different kingdoms of antiquity, and will lead a ten nation confederation of countries that will rule the world and will be, most likely, of Roman, Grecian and Jewish descent

Antichrist will suffer a fatal blow by sword to the head, specifically to the right side of his head, putting out his right eye, withering an arm

Satan will have a demon possess the dead but healed body of Antichrist, while Antichrist's spirit will go to Hades upon death

This demon possession of Antichrist's body will be passed off as a miraculous resurrection meant to overshadow and replace the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in importance

The great mass of humanity will fall for the great lie, the great delusion of a fake resurrection, and will marvel and wonder at Antichrist and follow Him

Antichrist--and, Satan by default--will receive the worship and adoration of the world. The world, for the most part, has rejected the testimony of the Word of God, but will be duped by the message of Antichrist.

Antichrist will speak against Jesus Christ, say that he himself is God, and lead a vicious persecution against the people of God world wide.

This week, we will examine the "sidekick" of Antichrist, this Beast from out of the Earth: The False Prophet.

The Beast Out Of The Earth--The False Prophet

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. Rev 13:11-13

The word for beast in the original Greek is therion, denotes a wild, venomous or dangerous beast. It is the same word to describe Antichrist in verse 1 of this chapter. In short, both Antichrist and this "beast coming out of the earth" are dangerous, wild and venomous when compared to God and His people. As Antichrist will be against God, so will the beast mentioned here; and this beast will be wild, dangerous and venomous toward the people of the earth.

We also see that this beast is "out of the earth" while Antichrist comes "out of the sea". We identified Antichrist as being from the Mediterranean Sea area, and that he will most likely be of Roman and Greek heritage (possibly part Jewish as well). Some scholars feel that this beast will be Jewish as land is mentioned, but that is not certain; in fact, no one really knows for sure what his heritage will be. It is certain, however, that this "beast" is the False Prophet mentioned elsewhere in Revelation (16:13; 19:20; 20:10). The rising of the False Prophet will complete the "unholy trinity" that includes Satan and Antichrist.

He will have horns of a two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. The symbolism of the Lamb shows that this False Prophet will have a kind and lovable demeanor and will fool many people in the one world religion of that time into Antichrist worship. He will "lovingly" woo people into following Antichrist. However, he will be empowered by Satan as well as "the Dragon" (Rev 12) is a smooth talker as he himself can appear as "an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14-15). He will also speak with great power, being a great orator like Antichrist.

The motive of the False Prophet will be for all the peoples of the world to worship Antichrist, and that will be his full time "ministry". He will point to the phony "miraculous healing" of Antichrist and may well even have had a hand in that bogus resurrection.

As we have discussed before, Satan can and does indeed counterfeit miracles. He will have been given authority by Antichrist for the False Prophet to do miracles in order to perform the "great delusion" from God that Paul wrote of in 2 Thessalonians 2. One of the miracles done by the Holy Spirit during the end times will have been when the two prophets from God shoot fire from their mouths to consume their enemies (11:1-6); the False Prophet's power to call down fire from heaven will make the thought of the "unholy trinity" of Satan, Antichrist and False Prophet seem to be plausible, mimicking Elijah as well (1 Kings 18:38)