You may remember that I spoke of the Antichrist last time, the Beast of the Sea. The Antichrist will have a friend, the False Prophet. What does he need with the False Prophet? Oh, well, for one thing, the Antichrist is presenting himself as the Messiah. The Jews would insist that the Messiah be Jewish, and it would be paramount to the Antichrist to deceive the Jews, being that they are God's chosen people. The Jews would be very inclined to also insist that the person they accept as the Messiah at least appear to fulfill prophesy, one of these being that before the Messiah comes, Elijah will return. Recall that Elijah was taken away in a sweet chariot straight up to heaven without death. This is told in 2 Kings 2. So, there would have to be a prophet in conjunction with the Antichrist. Oh, these will be clever people.
You may also remember that John the Baptist appeared as Jesus prepared to begin his ministry, "to make straight the way of the Lord." The Antichrist will have his own prophet to drum up public support for him, but this person will be the False Prophet. How do you know that a prophet is false? If a so-called prophet makes a single prophesy that is proven to be false or incorrect, he is a false prophet, not from God. One sees this all the time really. "I'm getting a 'D', the spirits are telling me 'D'! Is there someone close to you whose initial is D?" The False Prophet will surely have some embarrassing mistakes in his prophesies that he'll have to explain. Speaking of the fatal head wound of the Antichrist that the world accepts as proof he is an immortal God, I mentioned that this wound would be unsurvivable, and opined that beheading is a convincing injury. John the Baptist was beheaded. Beheading really seems to be one of the most horrific losses of life there is.
John tells of the False Prophet's appearance in Revelation 13:11: "And I beheld a beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." I don't know what to make of "coming up out of the earth." Some have said that means "out of the land," and "the land" would be the land of Israel, so he would be from Israel. Hmm... I am guessing that the reference to the earth is a description of hereditary and cultural background of the False Prophet. Two horns like a lamb. I've heard over and over that the two horns like a lamb mean that he will be something like a wolf in sheep's clothing, looking like a gentle lamb on the surface, and inwardly being an evil dragon. However, it has occurred to me that in the case of the Beast of the Sea, the horns represented rulers in his realm. And so this suggests that the horns may also refer to persons of power in the Beast of the Earth's domain, although not likely the powerful sorts that the Antichrist will have. And he spake as a dragon. He will spit tacks every time he opens his mouth.
Verse 12 continues, saying that the False Prophet will have all the powers of the first beast before him, and cause "the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Over and over people will be reminded of "the miracle" of the Antichrist's survival. He will be portrayed as immortal. Who is immortal but God? I guess this is part of what bothered some about Christ's death. Shouldn't God be immortal? They had seen Jesus Christ die. The False Prophet will bring down fire from the skies, and do "great wonders," deceiving them that dwell upon the earth by the means of those miracles. He is only able to do miracles when he's around the Antichrist. Having everyone completely awestricken, he will tell them to make "an image to the beast."
And the craziness continues.
Daniel 3 "Nebuchadnezzar the king, made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: and he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the counsellors, the treasurers, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image. 3......and they stood before the image....4. Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, and nations, and languages, 5. That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchnezzar the king hath set up: 6. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 7. Therefore...when all the people heard the sound of the ...musick, (they) fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up."
There are some obvious parallels to the account in Daniel 3 of an image to be worshipped, and the account in Revelation 13 of another image to be worshipped. The trend of the empires has been downhill, with Nebuchadnezzar being the pick of the litter. I imagine this must have been an impressive sight. A statue about 90' high and 9' wide made of gold? In the entire world the amount of gold today could be contained in a box the dimensions of a tennis court and 30' high. In fact, probably some of the gold of that statue is being worn today in jewelry, and made into coins and bullion. It must have been a glorious sight. And the music would probably make one gasp. One other thought about Nebuchadnezzar's image. It was threescore cubits high, which means 60 cubits, and 6 cubits wide. So again, the devil number 6 comes up. Or maybe more accurately, 'the number of man.' One more observation about the Image of the Beast. A lot of people think they're much too intelligent to worship a rock or a piece of wood or metal that someone has made into a statue and claimed it became God because now it looks like God. But why is it wrong to worship an idol? One is worshipping the created rather than the Creator. Why do so many intelligent people convince themselves that they can pray to "the universe" as God? How can the universe be God any more than a rock? It is the created. So it's become fashionable lately to call the universe God by people who would see that worshipping a rock is ridiculous and wrong. The universe is not God!!!
Back to the Image of the Beast. The False Prophet is able to make the Image of the Beast come to life, just like Pinocchio! He can speak! He gives every indication of being alive! And we're off to see the wizard! A curious thing about Revelation 13:15: "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, and cause that the image of the beast should both speak and that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Why is the Image of the Beast always spoken of with the full phrase instead of using a pronoun? Maybe there is no pronoun suitable for this thing.
PS There is a proverbial saying: Don't believe everything you hear and don't believe half of what you see. - It would be a good thing to remember for the people that find themselves confronted some day with the Beast of the Sea, the Beast of the Earth, and the Image of the Beast.
Am I done with Chapter 13 yet?? No! I still want to talk about the Mark of the Beast. But not today.
PS. "And he had two horns like a lamb." I have another idea about the False Prophet's two horns. Assume the False Prophet is the leader of a world religion, which we know because he is telling people to worship the Beast of the Sea, and to make an idol. Also assuming that it is a religion that is a false form of Christianity. The two horns could represent the two main branches of Christianity - Catholic and Protestant.
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