The Second Beast: A False Prophet Series

Every person must have something that motivates them in life; something that causes you to get up in the morning—something that excites you. That may be a job, family, school, sport, girlfriend, car, house, land, money, or power. A person has to have something to drive them.

The problem that the antichrist will face in the end time will be that of trying to get everyone motivated to be loyal to one world government. But last time we were reminded that the world at that time will be in utter chaos—not only with the intensified violence and evil on earth, but also the natural disasters. People will be looking for something or someone to help them.

There will be such a person—the beast, the antichrist. Tonight we will see that the antichrist is going to have help. There is a second beast, a beast that is going to help the antichrist find that unifying element to hold the loyalty of the people. So this second beast will become the worldwide spokesperson and propaganda chief for the antichrist.

READ v. 11. We see the origin of this second beast. He comes out of the earth. This means that he comes out from among the common people of the earth. He will be the second most powerful man in the government of the last days.

He appears to be a lamb because he has two horns like a little lamb. No person is ever afraid of a little lamb. This little lamb symbolizes at least three things:

1. The beast will appear innocent and harmless. There will be nothing about the appearance of this beast that will frighten anyone.

2. The beast will appear to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be a religious leader. He will appear to represent Jesus Christ and peace and love and joy. People will think that he can do no wrong.

3. This beast will speak like a dragon. His voice is going to betray him. What he has to say will reveal that he is not a prophet of God, but instead a false prophet.

- That means he won’t be teaching God’s Word, but the word of the antichrist.

- He won’t be speaking the truth.

- He won’t be the spokesperson for God.

- He won’t be promoting the Lord Jesus Christ. He will support the policies of the antichrist.

This second beast will be the motivator of the masses for the antichrist. We know he will be a religious leader because in the passages later on (chapters 16:30, 19:20, 20:10) he is called the false prophet whenever he is mentioned. His origin will be that he comes from religion, from Christianity itself. He will be a prophet, a priest, a minister who professes to be a follower and teacher of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read v. 12.

His objective is to secure the devotion, the loyalty, and the allegiance of the world to the antichrist and his government. There are two things that we should note here:

1. This second beast will exercise all the power of the antichrist. The antichrist will give him the right to speak and act for him. He will be the chief executive officer of the antichrist.

2. Remember though, this beast is a prophet, a prominent religious leader. He comes from the root of Christianity and represents the Lamb of God. But the antichrist entices him to use his religious position and influence for the state.

A minister should never use his position to persuade anyone toward one political decision or another. Yet, in the end days, this second beast will do just that.

Read v. 13-17. Here we see the means of securing the loyalty and devotion of the people of the earth. He will use four things to do this:

1. He will deceive people with great miraculous signs, especially with fire. The problem that the false prophet will face is how to convince the masses of the world that God will understand their allegiance to the state? Really, there will only be one way. To do that, he has to prove that he is truly of God. He has to prove that God has approved of him preparing these masses for a new worship. How does he do that? By miraculous signs. The miracle of being able to call down fire from heaven. The devil will empower the false prophet to be able to do that. The people will see the miracle and be convinced that he is a true prophet

Just what the miracle involves is never said, but whatever it is will be awe-inspiring. At that point, whatever he suggests must be acceptable to God. Or so the people will think. To sum it up, the false prophet will prove that he and his declarations are of God by performing these miracles. So this is one way he will be able to persuade the world’s masses.