Revelation 13:11-18 The False Prophet of the Beast

What happens when government and religion get too cozy? Just for the record we Baptists have long been in opposition to the church and state mixture. The phrase “separation of church and state” came from a letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association that was concerned that the state of Connecticut would form a state religion causing the Baptists to be discriminated against. The Baptist opposed a state religion even before the United States became a separate country. They were at work in England opposing religion/government relationships. With the being our background let me ask again; what happens when government and religion get too cozy? We do have an historical reference we can turn to. During the time of the Roman Empire there was the requirement that everyone worship Caesar and there was an imperial priesthood that administered that requirement. Those who refused to worship Caesar would be either killed or made a slave; government and religion was a little too cozy. Later on in 312 BC Emperor Constantine ended the persecution of the Church and on his death bed was converted to Catholic Christianity and the Catholic church rose to prominence and to some degree for the next 1500 years held sway over the Empire of Rome and after its fall the various kingdoms of Europe and Asia Minor. Those who opposed the church was said to oppose the king and was executed or persecuted and probably excommunicated. The same was said of those who opposed the King; they opposed the church. That was Catholic Christianity but the Protestants had their time as well. In the English Civil Wars the Puritans got cozy with the government under Oliver Cromwell and the Catholics were persecuted along with some of the other Protestants like Baptists. We all have heard of the Spanish Inquisition. From the time of Mohamed to today Islam has taken over governments in some countries and the result is always persecution of those who will not follow their religion. In short when government and religion gets too cozy there is always a perversion of religion and government. Well that is what we are going to see in our look at the second half of Revelation 13 today, a perverted religion coupled with an evil political/military leader. Let’s pray then we will begin our study of God’s Word.

Before we read our passage this morning let’s do a little review. Last week we got a closer look at the Beast/Monster that came from the sea. We talked about how the sea is often referred to as being chaotic, tumultuous. This Monster, the Anitchrist, will arise under the power of Satan out of a world in chaos, a world that is in total disarray and looking for a savior. He will proclaim himself to be that savior, claiming deity for himself, thus the blasphemous names on his head. He will have appeared to have been killed and come back to life counterfeiting Christ’s death and resurrection. He will be the counterfeit savior of humanity and all of those whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world will bow down and worship him as god. His authority will come from Satan/the Dragon and he will release Satan’s wrath on the redeemed of God. Some of the redeemed of God will be imprisoned and some will die by the sword.

Now let’s read Revelation 13:11-18 11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 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. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth—by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.[1]

The monster from the sea, the Antichrist, had a lengthy description but this monster from the land does not. First he comes out of the earth. Many people believe that this indicates that this monster comes from the Jewish nation since they are the people of the land of God. And that could be the case just like many believe the first monster was from the Gentile nations. But if I am correct that the monster coming out of the sea is representative of coming out of chaos then perhaps this monster coming out of the earth represents him coming out of stability? The sea is chaotic but the earth is solid. So tell me, what brings more stability to society than religion? It speaks to cultural morality (whatever shape that morality may take), it speaks to law and order (whatever that looks like in a society), it speaks of peace, justice, and wellbeing. All of that supports stability, solid, concrete security. This monster (and John uses the same word here for beast as he did for the Antichrist so he is a monster) rises out of religion looking like a lamb. Here we have another counterfeit. He will represent that he is a part of the established church, and the world knows that the church is good and stable, but he will be speaking the same words, have the same goals; supporting the work of Satan, the Dragon. He will have a message of salvation and security like the message of Christ but it will be the lie, calling people to worship the Beast. As we said last week Jesus warned His disciples and us of this in Matthew 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22 and Matthew 7:15 says to be careful of false prophets who are really wolves in sheep’s clothing. That seems to be a good description of this monster from the land.

You may be wondering what I think the words he speaks that sounds like a Dragon is. I will have to admit that what is coming next is my opinion. I come to this opinion based on what I have seen and my knowledge of the human condition and my knowledge of the false teachings that are out there today. Again, this is not in Scripture, it is my opinion but it is a viable conclusion. I believe this monster’s message will be one of faith. If you will have enough faith in the Antichrist (that will not be his title) then you will have health, and you will prosper; you will have wealth; your faith in the Beast will cause this. Does that sound like anything you have heard before? That message is out there today and I know that message because I have a degree from Orel Roberts University, the college that is the hot bed of the false teaching of the prosperity gospel. It is not a far stretch to believe that it could be used of a false messiah just like many false teachers use it today. After all Paula White, a false teacher, a false prophet, was the spiritual advisor to President Trump; an advisor to the seat of governmental power. The fastest growing religion in Africa and South America is the false teaching of the Word of Faith movement; the prosperity gospel. Satan does not really care what you believe as long as your attention is turned away from the Lamb slain. If he can get you to focus on your health and your prosperity over and above Christ then he has won the battle. I believe that is a viable possibility of what the monster from the earth will be preaching to a world that is in turmoil, looking for stability and security. Just trust the Beast.

To verify that his message is true second monster will be given the power to exercise the authority of the Antichrist for the purpose of causing the people of the earth (the lost) to believe and worship the Beast/Antichrist. This second beast that comes from stability is the false prophet and that is made clear in Revelation 16:13; 19:20 and 20:10 and he will seek to glorify the Antichrist. The Antichrist gets his authority from the dragon/Satan and the false prophet glorifies the Antichirst. Look at this; God the Father gives God the Son (Jesus) all authority (Matthew 11:27 and 28:18) and the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son (John 16:13-14). This unholy trinity of Satan, the Antichrist and false Prophet are working together to deceive and destroy the people of the earth while pouring out Satan’s wrath on the redeemed of God. But the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is working to redeem those whose names are written in the Book of the Life of the Lamb. This unholy trinity is mimicking the Holy Trinity; and they are excellent counterfeiters.

In verses 12-14 we can see that this monster from the earth, the false Prophet, will perform many signs and wonders to convince the people of the earth of the message of the Antichrist. In the New Testament Jesus performed many signs to verify His deity, His messiahship, that is why John said he wrote his gospel (John 20:30-31). In the Old Testament prophets were empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform miracles and Elijah even called down fire from heaven on several occasions to verify his message was from God. The false Prophet will even counterfeit this act to prove that his message is from the savior of mankind who has risen from chaos to bring order through this religion of faith in him. The false Prophet will serve the function of the Old Testament prophets and Holy Spirit in the New Testament to verify the false messiah’s deity to the people of the earth, those whose names are not written in the Book of the Life of the Lamb.

In the second part of verse 14 and verse 15 we see that the false prophet so deceives the people of earth that they build a image of the monster from the sea, the Antichrist. Let me make this clear, it will not be difficult for the redeemed to know that this is a false religion because God clearly said in the law that we are not to make any “graven” images to represent Him. But the people of the earth will be easily deceived because they are worshiping the one that was killed with a sword and still lives. Of course there is more counterfeiting to do so the false Prophet, the beast from the land more or less breathes life into the image making it alive and able to speak. In this act he is counterfeiting the work of the Holy Spirit in breathing life into the redeemed of God. God created man and breathed life into him but due to sin all men are dead in their trespasses and sin until they are made alive in Christ through the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-8 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[2]). Here the false Prophet empowered by the Antichrist who receives his power from Satan breathes life into the image of the Beast who orders that anyone who will not bow down and worship the Beast or his image should be killed. This is nothing new because we saw this in Daniel when he was commanded not to pray to anyone but the king and the 3 young friends of Daniel who would not bow down and worship the emblem of the king. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and the 3 young men into a furnace. God preserved them for the day and it is God who will preserve His redeemed. Some will die but they will be preserved for eternity. You see no one whose name is written in the Book of the Life of the Lamb will bow down to the image or the Beast. But when government and religion gets too cozy then there will be this type of persecution. Examples can be found in Islam even today, in the Spanish Inquisition, and in the Crusades of the Middle Age. It will be seen again.

In verses 16-17 we come to the dreaded mark of the beast. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Whether or not this mark is a literal mark or not is a matter of debate. There is no historical precedence of a god or the priesthood of said god requiring someone to be marked as a devotee. There are occurrences of slave owners branding their property and military personnel being tattooed with their military rank or unit of service but that is not quite the same as requiring a mark to show that one worships a particular god. The Jews did wear phylacteries (small boxes with scripture in it) on their left hands and on their foreheads but still it was not obligatory for them to do so. This mark serves two functions. First it designates that one is a worshiper of the Antichrist and second as a permission slip of sorts to be able to do any kind of transaction, whether it be for food or anything. You wouldn’t be able to pay your bills so you would lose your car and house. You couldn’t hire a plumber or even go to the doctor. Without the mark one would theoretically starve to death. But all one has to do is bow down and worship the Beast then all would be well. Trust the Beast and you will be healthy and prosperous. Who will receive the mark? Everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb; the insignificant and the powerful, the wealthy and the poor, every station of life the slave and the free. Everyone but the redeemed of God. But remember back in chapter 7 that all the redeemed of God had already received God’s seal on their foreheads representing that they worshiped the true God and their names were written in the Book of Life of the Lamb.

Now for the record I believe the mark of the Beast is a literal mark of some kind. I remember my parents talking about their parents believing that our social security number is the mark of the beast and many people refused to sign up of social security cards when it began. Let’s face it we all have numbers that mark us in some way. Here in my wallet I have a SS card with a number, a driver’s license with a number. I have an insurance card and medicare card with numbers on them that identify me specifically, I even have a Myrtle Library card with a number. Each week I put my check in the bank electronically and I have to know my bank account number. Even if I tattooed those numbers all over my body they would not be the mark of the Beast. I have not done that by the way. The reason I know that none of these numbers are the mark of the Beast is because I have not bowed down to worship anyone but the true God, Creator and sustainer of the universe and His Son Jesus Christ my Savior and God knows His own, I am sealed by God. One would have to choose to worship the Beast to get his mark. The redeemed of God will not do so but everyone else will. But I do believe that all of these “numbers” for identification purposes, though not the mark of the Beast, does serve to prepare the world for taking the mark; what is one more number?

We will talk more about his name, the number of his name and the number 666 next week. But today I want us to take a few gems from our passage. As we noted last week government and political leaders can be a great force for good in the world, God intended it as a blessing. But because man is fallen it is probable that man will pervert God’s blessing turning it into a curse. You don’t have to agree with me about politics to see this borne out in our time. This week we can see that religion can be a great force for good, especially if that religion is Christianity. But because man is fallen it is probable that he will pervert the good causing the blessing to be a curse. When those two goods are perverted and combined then there is a powerful force for evil rather than good. Evil people have used political, religious, and economic threats to enforce their will upon their subjects from time immemorial. Thus, we should not find it surprising that these same forces will be used one more time—more effectively than ever. The challenge for us is to remember that these threats to genuine Christian living face us, and they face us today. We should not be so intent on trying to identify who the Antichrist will be that we forget that the dragon is already at work. He likes nothing more than to deceive the world’s people—using all the political, religious, and economic forces that he can. When he loses persons to the Lamb’s side, he will use those same forces to attack them.[3] Redeemed of God, we must not get so comfortable in this world that we forget that we are in a battle now. I have no doubt the every generation’s preachers have said this but from what I see going on in our world, from what I have seen in history, and from what I see in Scripture I believe that there is a snowball effect moving across this planet ushering a time of great turmoil, chaos that will have the people of the earth ready to receive a savior to humanity. Our purpose for being here is to point them toward the true Savior. False religion is rampant today and we can only counter it with the Truth and Truth has a name and His name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I believe it was Mark Twain that said; “It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived.” We see this in every aspect of life, politics, religion, science, and on and on. But when we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God for salvation, then the Holy Spirit convinces hearts of the truth. The lie will continue but we must proclaim the truth. Will all believe? No, but the Lamb’s blood was not shed in vain; it will accomplish its task. Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 13:11–18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 3b:5–8). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 236). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.