[§228] Rev 13:14-15: The Wicked Make an Image to the First Beast

This podcast explains the meaning of the imagery used by John the Revelator to describe events that will occur as the Second Beast from Revelation 13 matures and gains power throughout the modern world. In Revelation 13:14, John tells us that agents of the Second Beast will deceive people throughout the earth by means of the great wonders and miracles that the Second Beast has power to perform in the likeness of the First Beast representing the ancient Roman Empire. The main point of explanation is that earthly rulers in the modern age (both ecclesiastical and political) will exercise the same degree of power worldwide that that the Roman emperors and popes once exercised in the ancient Roman empire. These modern-day rulers will cause people worldwide “to make an image to the [first] beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (Rev 13:14) This symbolism refers to the fall of the Imperial Roman empire in 476 AD, which led to the establishment of pontifical power in the Holy Roman Empire that finally came to an end in 1806 after the French Revolution. In Revelation 13:14, John alludes to the death of the First Beast as he predicts that the Second Beast in Revelation 13, will rise to power from the ashes of the Holy Roman Empire just as the Holy Roman Empire rise to power after the death of Imperial Rome in 476 AD. When the Second Beast rises to power and is fully matured in Revelation 13:15, it will “give life unto the image of the [First] Beast.” That is, the same type of ecclesiastical and secular control that existed in the ancient Roman Empire will again exist on a worldwide scale. These conditions will fully exist during the last 3½ years of Armageddon. In this day, the Second Beast will have power to decree that “as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” This means that people who refuse to honor and obey the dictatorial decrees of the Second Beast will be killed. This symbolism also includes Latter-day Saints who refuse to worship the idolatrous ideals of the beast. They will also be subject to the decree of death. This podcast further explains, however, that saints who flee unto Zion after the gathering of saints at Adam-ondi-Ahman can find safe haven in new Jerusalem, which will be built during the last 3½ years before the Second Coming.