The False Prophet
(Rev. 16. 13; 19. 20; 20. 10), indicating that his activities are chiefly of a religious character, and perhaps that he will be more closely connected with Jewish affairs. He will make "the earth and them that dwell therein worship the beast," the emperor of the ten kingdoms (13. 11), deceiving the world by supernatural signs wrought in the presence of the first beast (v. 12), and enforcing the worship of his image (v. 15), the abomination of desolation set up in the temple at Jerusalem (Matt. 24. 15). With the worship of an image the times of the Gentiles began (Dan. 3. 1), and with similar idolatry they will end. In the days of the early Roman emperors their deification was celebrated by the adoration of their images. Then, as formerly under Nebuchadnezzar, those who refused to worship suffered death. So will it be under the final emperor and his colleague.
Various opinions are held regarding these two beasts of Revelation 13, as to which is the Man of Sin spoken of by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, which the Antichrist mentioned in John's Epistles, and which of the two is the wilful king described in Daniel 11. Limitations of space preclude our entering into the subject in detail here. The present writer holds the view that all three are the same person, and that they are also the same as the horn in Daniel 7. 8, 11, and as the first beast of Revelation 13, and that these are all different descriptions of the final head of the revived Empire. The Old Testament passages somewhat briefly announce the arising of this world-wide ruler; the New Testament passages unfold and expand the preceding predictions concerning him, among the additional details given in the New Testament being the fact that he is to have a prophet who will assiduously support his claim to deity and his administration. It is the world-emperor, and not his prophet, who is to be worshipped, and who therefore proclaims himself as God (2 Thess. 2. 4). His prophet, the second beast of Revelation 13, in the exercise of all the power of the first, will cause the world to worship him (13. 12). As his prophet and prime minister he would not himself endeavour to usurp the position of him whose avowed deity he seeks to support.
The similarity of the details in the above-mentioned passages indicates that the same person is in view in each case. His blasphemies, for instance, and his assumption of deity are mentioned in Daniel 7. 25; 11. 36, 37; 2 Thessalonians 2. 3, 4, and Revelation 13. 5, 6, and his war with the saints in Daniel 7. 21, 25 and Revelation 13. 7. Further, the blasphemous proclamation of himself as God is consistent with what is said in John's Epistles concerning the Antichrist. For in his self-deification he is directly "antagonistic to Christ," he denies that Jesus is the Christ, and therefore denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2. 22).
The two potentates will establish not only a universal religion, but also a
Universal System of Commerce.
The second beast "causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark on their hand, or upon their forehead; and that no man should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name" (Rev. 13. 16, 17). This indicates a world-wide protectionist system, such a system as, for instance, might conceivably be established under some form of syndicalism. Undeniably, circumstances in the industrial world to-day manifest an increasing tendency in this direction. The principles previously mentioned, as now making for industrial and international revolution, and the present stupendous movements towards amalgamation, are clearly preparing for the fulfilment of this prophecy by facilitating the eventual establishment of the unrighteous commercial system of the reconstituted Empire.
