and it exercises all the authority of the first beast before it, and causes the earth and those that dwell in it to do homage to the first beast, whose wound of death was healed.
Revelation 13 introduces a second beast: not the world-ruler of the earlier verses, but his working partner. His whole task is to make the earth worship that ruler — which raises a hard question: how can a false messiah win worship for a rival?
The chapter shows two beasts, and they differ in what each supplies.
In Revelation 13 two beasts are seen in vision. The first is the Roman power and its blasphemous head under the direct control of Satan (Rev. 13:1-10). The second beast is the personal Antichrist (Rev. 13:11-17). The first is marked by brute force. It is the political power of the earth in those days, the one to whom Satan "gave his power and his throne and great authority" (Rev. 13:2). The second beast is clearly subordinate to the power of the first (Rev. 13:12). The ends he has in view are religious, not political. The might and strength of apostate Rome supports this religious pretension. So the two beasts act together under their great chief, Satan. All three receive worship together.
Much of the verse turns on the phrase "in its presence." Older translations read "before him." It rules out any rivalry between the two beasts.
This beast exercises all the authority of the first beast before him — that is, in his presence, with his full sanction. It is not a seizing of power. It is in no sense something done without him. It is done in his presence, as it says here. "And makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast" — there is an understanding between them — "whose mortal wound was healed." It is remarkable that in 2 Thessalonians 2 we do not hear of him causing the world to worship the first beast. There he claims worship and is himself worshipped as God.
This looks like a contradiction: a man who demands worship for himself, yet promotes another. Kelly answers that worship in this scene is never limited to one figure.
Three persons are clearly linked in this scene: the dragon, the world-power or first beast, and the second beast, which is both political and religious. Revelation 13:4 shows that men worship the dragon as well as the first beast. So the difficulty stays much the same, whether we take the first beast or the second to be the antichrist and man of sin. Either way, another shares the worship. In fact they are the anti-trinity, and find their bond in the unseen power of Satan.
Satan did not invent this arrangement of one person using another's authority. He copied it.
There is a fact here worth noticing — it is a kind of imitation of the ways of God. As the Father has given all power to the risen Son, and the Holy Spirit exercises all the power of Christ before Him, so Satan imitates the same thing in evil. The dragon will give his throne to the beast. Notice the character in which men will worship him: "One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed." When that wound is healed, there is a kind of resurrection — not of a person, but of the beast's power raised up again. Then all the world will wonder after the beast, and the second beast will exercise all the power of the first beast before him.
All the action in the verse belongs to the second beast. Some conclude the first is only a figurehead. Scott rejects that.
The second beast is a subordinate power, and its royal head is the active minister of the first beast. At first sight one might almost think the first beast is a mere passive machine. All the energy and force of character seem to sit in the second, since "he exercises all the authority of the first beast before him," that is, in his presence. But that is not so. The first beast is a powerful federation of ten kingdoms under an imperial leader — active, bold, persecuting, and blaspheming. The religious beast has no royal authority outside Palestine. So he uses the authority of the first beast, its force and prestige, to carry out his utterly evil design: to get Christendom to bow down in worship before the revived Roman empire.
"Those who dwell on the earth" is a set phrase in Revelation. It marks out one kind of person.
This is a strong expression in Revelation. It describes those who seek their portion on earth at the time when men refuse the Lord Jesus Christ His rights in it. A great trial awaits them (Rev. 3:10)... They will worship the first beast, and the miracles of Antichrist will deceive them. Yet the everlasting gospel will be preached to them, calling them to "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come." We do not read of their repentance.
- Counterfeit — the scene copies God's order. The Spirit exercises Christ's power in His presence; the second beast exercises the first beast's authority in his.
- Sanction — "before him" rules out rivalry. The first beast gives his authority with full consent, and the two have an understanding.
- Subordinate — the second beast serves as the active minister of the first. His aims are religious; the first supplies the force.
- Reach — outside his own land he has no royal authority, so he uses the first beast's force to bring Christendom to worship the revived empire.
- Victims — those who chose earth as their portion worship the beast, Antichrist's miracles deceive them, and Scripture never records their repentance.
And it works great signs, that it should cause even fire to come down from heaven to the earth before men.
Halfway through Revelation 13 a second beast appears, and it performs the sign that once settled who the true God is. The fire that fell for Elijah now falls for a deceiver. If heaven itself seems to back a lie, what keeps anyone from believing it?
The signs are not listed, but one is named — and it happens in public view.
He "performs great signs." These are not listed, but one outstanding sign is named: he makes "fire come down from heaven," and he does it in public, "in front of people." This is the kind of miracle by which Elijah proved the claims of Jehovah over those of Baal (1 Kings 18:38-39). In this way the second Beast supports the first beast's claim to the worship of the whole world.
One writer names this second beast the Antichrist. The parallel with Elijah runs further than the fire — both scenes end in killing, but opposite people die.
In his day, God gave Elijah power to call down fire from heaven. It bore witness to the true God and exposed the worship of an idol. What Elijah did by the power of God, Antichrist will copy by the power of the devil. He will use it to turn men away from the true God to worship an idol, the image of the beast. In Elijah's day the fire exposed the idolaters, and the prophets of Baal were killed. In the coming day the wonder of fire from heaven will deceive men into worshipping an idol, and those who refuse to worship the image will be killed (1 Kings 18:36-40).
The sign is not strange. It looks like the very evidence God Himself has used.
This second beast makes fire come down from heaven. It is very solemn testimony. In 2 Thessalonians 2:9 the Greek uses the same words for the works of the one whose coming is by the power of Satan as Acts 2:22 uses for the proofs of the Christ — power, signs and wonders. So the same things given to prove the Christ are given also to prove the antichrist!
Commentators differ on whether the fire actually falls. One reads the wonders as genuine events that God permits:
These are not merely pretended miracles. They are real wonders. God will send men a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie, and at that time He will allow this instrument of Satan to produce them. No one will be deceived by them except those who would not receive the love of the truth so that they might be saved.
Another calls it imitation — something that holds only in the way people see it:
So he imitates the great power of God — though of course it is not so; it holds only in the sight and understanding of men.
Either way, the crowd is convinced.
The deception is also a judgment on people who had already turned from God.
This is the time when God, in judgment, gives up the guilty scene of the Christian world, which had already given Him up. Their punishment begins here. God hands them over to an active delusion, so that they believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11). The result is that Satan takes his seat in the professing house of God, and so completely sets God aside that devil-worship is the terrible result.
Scripture announced this miracle in advance. So it does not mean the same thing to everyone who sees it.
Elijah once did this very miracle to turn the hearts of a fallen-away Israel back to the true God. Here the deceiver is allowed to do it to turn men to a false one. Men are given up to be deceived… God's Word announced this beforehand, so of course it is the perfect safeguard of those who trust it. To God's chosen ones this very miracle would be a sign, not of Christ, but of Antichrist. But to the men who dwell on the earth… heaven itself would seem to seal the deceiver's claims.
Intelligence is no defence here. What holds is something simpler and much more available.
All the cunning and subtlety, the signs and lying wonders, all the resources of Satan, all the machinery of hell, are completely powerless against a heart that is governed by the love of the truth. A little child who knows and believes and loves the truth is wonderfully shielded, sheltered and kept safe by God from the blinding and deceiving power of the wicked one.
- Copy — The one named sign is Elijah's own miracle, borrowed to prove the opposite case. Fire once exposed an idol; now it recommends one.
- Credentials — Acts uses certain words to certify Jesus. 2 Thessalonians uses the same words for this deceiver's works. So a miracle by itself proves nothing about its source.
- Cause — God gives up a world that had already given Him up. He hands it over to a delusion, and the punishment starts here.
- Consequence — Elijah's fire ended with the prophets of Baal killed. This fire ends with everyone who refuses the image killed.
- Cure — The same miracle that seals the deceiver's claim for the world marks him out to anyone who trusted the Word beforehand. Love of the truth, not cleverness, keeps a person standing.
And it deceives those that dwell upon the earth by reason of the signs which it was given to it to work before the beast, saying to those that dwell upon the earth to make an image to the beast, which has the wound of the sword, and lived.
A second power deceives the world by working signs. It then tells people to build an image to a ruler who once took a deadly wound and lived. Two questions follow: are the signs real, and why does a wounded ruler win the world's worship?
The deceiver here is not the beast the world admires. It is a second beast, who works in the presence of the first. His signs hold up a throne that rests on nothing solid.
He leads astray and deceives the people of the earth by the signs he is allowed to work in front of the beast. The beast is glad to have such power holding up his throne. It lifts his authority high and makes it look grand in the eyes of men — authority that rested only on deceit, on deluded minds, or on persecution.
The verse says these signs are allowed. Writers insist they are not stage tricks.
These are not fake miracles. They are real wonders. There is coming a time when God will send men a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie, and then this instrument of Satan will be allowed to produce them. Only those who refused to receive the love of the truth that would have saved them will be deceived by them.
Commentators differ on how the signs work. Some give human cleverness a share in them:
These are not miracles of grace, like the ones the Lord did on earth. They are terrifying feats, such as making fire come down from heaven. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 calls them "false signs and wonders." So human cleverness will likely have some part in them, yet behind them stand both satanic power and satanic delusion.
The particular sign named — fire from heaven — is borrowed. It was once God's own proof against idols, and it is now bent to the opposite purpose.
In his day God gave Elijah power to call down fire from heaven. It bore witness to the true God and exposed the worship of an idol. What Elijah did by the power of God, the Antichrist will copy by the power of the devil. His aim is to turn people from the true God to worship an idol — the image of the beast. In Elijah's day the fire exposed the idol worshippers, and the prophets of Baal were killed. In the coming day fire from heaven will deceive people into worshipping an idol, and those who refuse to worship the image will be killed.
The verse names the victims: those who dwell on earth. The phrase marks out a kind of person, not an address.
These passages point to a group of people who are not simply on the earth. Their only interests are in it, and they are limited by it. In moral character they are "dwellers on the earth."
The delusion is also a judgment on Christendom — the world that carries the Christian name:
This is the time when God gives up the guilty world of Christendom in judgment, paying back what it deserves. It had already given Him up. Their punishment begins here.
This is not the first time people have been ordered to worship an image. The age of the Gentile empires opened the same way:
It is striking that when Gentile world rule began, men were forced on pain of death to worship an image standing for the greatness and majesty of the first empire (Dan. 3). Now, as that rule closes, it happens again. How stubborn human nature is! … An image is something that stands for another, though it need not look like it. We are sure that the "image to the Beast" will be a real, literal, huge figure set up in the centre of Christendom, and through it the Beast will be worshipped.
The difference is the ending. God once stopped Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Daniel 3:
Our chapter shows that the times of the Gentiles will end just as they began, and seemingly with greater success: those who refuse to worship the image of the beast will be killed. This time God will not step in to block the plans of these wicked men, as He once did with Nebuchadnezzar. Their judgment will fall in one crushing blow at the end.
The verse names the beast by his wound. That naming is deliberate.
This surprising fact is mentioned three times in this chapter. In Revelation 13:3 the whole earth wonders after him because his mortal wound was healed. In Revelation 13:12 he is again described as the first beast whose mortal wound was healed. That is not said just to identify him, since "first beast" alone would have been enough for that. Clearly it is for emphasis.
- Permitted — the signs are real, not tricks. They are allowed, so God is letting the delusion come; Satan is not overpowering Him.
- Borrowed — the one sign named, fire from heaven, was Elijah's proof of the true God. Here it drives people to an idol.
- Aimed — the targets are the dwellers on earth. Their whole interest is bounded by this world, and they refused the love of the truth.
- Repeated — Gentile rule began with a forced image in Daniel 3 and ends with one. This time no rescue comes.
- Wounded — the world worships the ruler who took a sword blow and lived. The healed wound, named three times in the chapter, is what wins its wonder.
And it was given to it to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should also speak, and should cause that as many as should not do homage to the image of the beast should be killed.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.