Two Beasts, The Antichrist, The False Prophet

The Antichrist will rule the world like no one has ever done. God tells His own, “Don’t resist him.” Instead, they were to bear with patience and faith the awful trials that come even on God’s children.

Hi everyone, I’m Tammy Becker.  Welcome to the Almighty God & Gospel Girl Podcast.  This is week nineteen into our series of Revelation and our podcast today is titled: Two Beasts, The Antichrist, The False Prophet My podcast today will be based on the reading of Revelation 13.  And if you would like to follow along with the notes or maybe you would like to find the links to anything mentioned in the podcast today, you can go to the link in the description or by visiting www.youministries.com and visiting the corresponding page.  As we get started today, I would like to remind you of my disclaimer, that as always…do not take my word, or anyone’s word for what you read…get yourself in the Bible and let God discern His Word to you.  I am only human and make many mistakes and do not claim to know or understand everything in the Bible…I just hope by bringing out this study that your interest is sparked enough to get into God’s Word and begin to deep dive on your own.

We’re engaged in a cosmic war, with characters symbolically described representing Israel, Satan, Michael the archangel, and of course, Jesus Christ, the victor. Now John describes the final two of the seven players. These are Satan’s agents: The wild beast out of the sea—a political power; and the wild beast out of the earth—a religious leader.

John tells us these two beasts are wild—it’s bad enough to be a beast, but to be a wild beast compounds the injury. There’s much debate about who these beasts represent, but to determine a king, you must look at his kingdom. The first beast is the Antichrist, the political ruler over the restored Roman Empire (see Revelation 16:10). The second beast then is a man, the false prophet, a religious leader who leads the world in the worship of the first beast, the Antichrist.

To be antichrist, you must be against the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Any minister or other person who denies the deity of Christ is antichrist—he is against Christ. This Antichrist, the wild beast, is a deceiver—he pretends to be Christ and can even do miracles, but he is antichrist. The Lord Jesus Christ warned us in Matthew 24:24 that many deceivers will come in His name, saying, “I am the Christ.” He tells us to test the spirits to be sure we’re following truth.

THE WILD BEAST OUT OF THE SEA: THE ANTICHRIST Satan calls the first beast out of the sea. John pictures Satan standing on the shore and calling the wild beast out of the nations of the world, of mankind, like the restless sea. This is Satan’s masterpiece. The Beast has “seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name” (v. 1). All the heads and horns and crowns link him directly to the dragon and Satan will give “him his power, his throne, and great authority” (v. 2). And of course, its head is guilty of blasphemy—making oneself equal with God, usurping His place, and slandering and taking God’s name in vain. This was Satan’s primary ambition—to be worshipped as God.

God apparently takes His hands off this earth for a while and turns it over to Satan. God must let Satan demonstrate that, when he is given full sway, he will not be able to produce. Otherwise, Satan would always be able to say to God from the lake of fire, “You never gave me a chance. If You would have taken Your hands off and let me alone, I would have been able to accomplish my purpose and establish a second kingdom.” Today the Holy Spirit is in the world, and He curtails evil and smothers resistance, although it may not look that way. Just think what it will be like when evil men are permitted to have their day. Satan will have full sway.

Old Testament Daniel’s prophecy gives us great insight into Revelation. In Daniel 7, the fourth beast pictures this wild beast out of the sea. There it represents the prophetic history of the Roman Empire, down to “the little horn” and his destruction. That fourth beast went dormant for a little while, and then out of one of its seven heads came up ten horns, out of which came a little horn. The little horn put together three of the horns and overtook the other seven.

At the time John wrote the book of Revelation, much of Daniel’s prophecy had been fulfilled. The first three beasts—Babylon, the lion; Media-Persia, the bear; and Graeco-Macedonia, the panther—had all been fulfilled. When Daniel gave it, it was prophecy, but it was fulfilled by John’s time. Therefore, John focuses on the fourth beast and on the little horn because the fourth beast, the Roman Empire, had appeared. John was living in the time of the Roman Empire, having been exiled to the Isle of Patmos by the Roman emperor, Domitian. Already, signs of weakness and decay were visible in the empire, and John was witnessing what was still future in Daniel’s day.

However, in the Revelation the little horn shows up as a wild beast, now ruling and controlling the restored Roman Empire. The little horn of Daniel 7 and the wild beast of Revelation 13 are identical.

The wild beast is the Man of Sin and Antichrist, the final world dictator (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3). The last verse of Revelation 13 confirms it, identifying the number of the Beast as 666. Even today the stage is being set in world politics; not that prophecy is being fulfilled, but it reveals it can be fulfilled—and Satan is going to supply the man.

John describes the Beast as really a weird-looking creature, a composite of animals, just like Daniel saw in Daniel 7. A panther, representing the outward culture of Greece; feet like a bear, devouring wealth and splendor like Media-Persia; a lion with eagle’s wings, like Babylon, with unquestioned authority. The Man of Sin will be one of the toes of the image that Daniel saw, composed partly of clay and partly of iron; he will rule with the autocracy and dictatorial authority of Nebuchadnezzar

This final world dictator comes to his zenith under Satan’s domination. Satan will raise him up and empower and energize him for his wicked dictatorial role. The Antichrist is the closest to an incarnation of Satan we have in Scripture.

In his meteoric rise to power, the Antichrist appears to have risen from the dead (impersonating Jesus Christ). This was a deception because Satan has no power to raise the dead. He’s not a life-giver; he’s a devil, a destroyer, a death-dealer. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can raise the dead. (See what Jesus says about this in John 5:21-29.)

The Antichrist’s fake resurrection will be the great delusion, the big lie of the Great Tribulation. God will give them over to believe it (see 2 Thessalonians 2:11). Those who reject the resurrection of Christ will buy the imitation resurrection of Antichrist. The challenge of that day will be: “What has Christ done that Antichrist has not done?” The Antichrist will fool the world. Believers say, “Christ is risen!” And the boast of the unsaved will be: “So is Antichrist!” The Roman Empire will spring back into existence under the cruel hand of a man who faked a resurrection, and a gullible world who rejected Jesus Christ will finally be taken in by this forgery. The Antichrist will promise, “I am going to give you peace,” and the people will say “Hallelujah!” and put him into office. He’ll have charisma and talk big and the people will love him. This is Satan’s supreme moment. The whole world will worship him … for three and a half years.

Blasphemy is the Antichrist’s platform. He’ll speak against God, His tabernacle, and everyone in heaven. He’ll war against the saints still on the earth (those who have turned to Jesus Christ during the Tribulation; the church is already with the Lord in heaven). Many saints, both Jew and Gentile, will suffer martyrdom. But God still extends grace to anyone who will listen and respond to His Word. He invites anyone to hear the Word of God at any time, in any age, because faith comes from hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

The Antichrist will rule the world like no one has ever done. God tells His own, “Don’t resist him.” Instead, they were to bear with patience and faith the awful trials that come even on God’s children.

THE WILD BEAST OUT OF THE EARTH: A RELIGIOUS LEADER The first beast is a political leader; the second wild beast is a religious leader, who comes out of the land. This fake messiah will most certainly come from Israel. He has two horns like a lamb, imitating the Lord Jesus. But this pseudo-lamb doesn’t “take away the sin of the world,” he adds and multiplies it in the world. He will do a lot of talking about loving everyone, but underneath he is a dangerous beast, just as is the first beast, deceiving the whole world (see Matthew 7:15, 24:24). This false prophet is like a “John the Baptist” to the first beast, but with the same power. He presents the world with something new to worship, the Man of Sin, the last world dictator (see Daniel 11:36-39; Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10).

This second wild beast leads a movement to kill the harlot of Revelation 17, which is the false church that enters the Tribulation. John doesn’t recognize that group as the church but calls it “the harlot.” The true church, which has now left the earth, is called the bride of Christ.

In Satan’s power, both the Antichrist and the false prophet can heal and work miracles. Their signs awe everyone and a strong delusion sweeps the world, with the exception of God’s elect—those who are His cannot be deceived. The Antichrist will put his own image in the temple at Jerusalem, just as Jesus described as the abomination of desolation (see Matthew 24:15). This image will appear to breathe and speak, and everyone is forced to bow and worship the image or else be killed. Everyone is also required to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead that signifies allegiance to the Beast in order to buy or sell.

The false prophet now marries religion and business. Today we have shadows of how this prophecy can certainly happen, though they are not yet “the mark of the beast.” We don’t know yet what that mark will be. Better than speculation, we should spend our time telling others of Jesus Christ that we might reduce the population of those who have to go through the Tribulation.

Next week will be a preview of coming attractions but…only for a special audience!