We left off last time with a fearsome beast rising up to make war with the saints. This of course implies that true believers will still be on earth at this time. But, now another beast comes onto the prophetic scene. Who is he?
Revelation 13:11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. And it had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. 13:12 And it exercises all the authority of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and those dwelling in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
So here we have what appears to be an individual who comes to power over this worldwide political system, i.e. the One World Government. As now the uncontested leader, he enforces his will onto all in the world. That is to worship this Satanic belief and to not worship God.
13:13 And it does great wonders, so that it makes fire come down from the heaven onto the earth in the sight of men.13:14 And it deceives those dwelling on the earth, because of the miracles which were given to it to do before the beast, saying to those dwelling on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who had the wound by a sword and lived.
He will have available to him all the power of Satan at his disposal, even though he is totally under the control of Satan. We will discuss the wound next time.
13:15 And there was given to it to give a spirit to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might both speak, and might cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
This beast now has an image, perhaps similar to the image made by Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3. The same warning made then will now be enforced with the same deadly force. Remember, only 3 men refused to worship the image for King Nebuchadnezzar.
13:16 And it causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or in their foreheads,13:17 even that not any might buy or sell except those having the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name.
Here we read of the mark of the beast. What it looks like to consists of is not clear, but with technology rapidly advancing daily, it is not hard to see something new appearing to make this happen today.
13:18 Here is the wisdom. Let him having reason count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And its number is six hundred and sixty-six.
The Hebrew alphabet also has a numerical equivalent. Hence the number to his name. It seems like this number is appearing more frequently today in a number of areas. I don’t believe this is just some random coincidence.
We will go to Daniel 2 and 7 next to gain further understanding