[§227] Rev 13:12-13: The Power and Miracles of the Second Beast

This podcast explains the symbolic language used by John in Revelation 13:12-13 to describe the power of Satan in the last days leading up to the Second Coming. Satan's power is symbolized by a Second Beast that has a lamb-like appearance, but it speaks like a dragon (Satan). These verses say that this Second Beast “exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” The power of the First Beast refers to Satan's dominion in the Roman Empire which continued until the Reformation. At that time, Protestant religions broke the ecclesiastical and secular power of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Roman Empire. In the modern era (post-Reformation), the power of the Second Beast evolved from, and grew out of the power of the First Beast. Satan's worldwide influence in the last days causes people to engage in the same types of wickedness and evil that were prevalent in the ancient Roman Empire. This is what it means for them that dwell on the earth to worship the First Beast. The earthly agents of Satan who were part of the religious and secular institutions of the Second Beast do great wonders. These wonders include the great wickedness and false spiritualism that exists in the world today. The Second Beast also makes “fire to come down from heaven on the earth." This fire comes down as a judgment upon the wicked at the time of the Second Coming. The Second Beast causes this fire to come down only in the sense that it's acts of wickedness bring upon itself the fiery judgments of God at the Second Coming.