What is the unholy Trinity?

Satan will have an imitation of the Trinity in the Roman beast, the false prophet, and himself (Rev. 13:4,11; Rev. 20:10).

But let us turn again to scripture for light on this important subject. In the 13th chapter of Revelation there are three distinct personages who act as one. They are indeed a Satanic anti-trinity. A distinguished writer has remarked that from what the Bible tells us of Satan, he appears to have no originating power: he can only imitate. God sets up a church; Satan has his false church. God has His Christ, Satan his antichrist. And here in this chapter of the Revelation, there is a Satanic anti-trinity, consisting of Satan himself, the Roman prince (eighth head of the beast), and another beast, which has "two horns like a lamb" (imitation of Christ), but "he spake as a dragon" (ver. 11). Satan's grand aim is to get himself acknowledged in the place of God. He is the rival as well as antagonist of God, and seeks to use man as the instrument of his exaltation.

It is not simply that the empire had the distinctive heads and horns of the Roman empire, with qualities by-and-by that belonged to the previous empires; it was marked by the revival of imperialism at the close under Satan's authority. For "they did homage to the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast: and they did homage to the beast, saying, Who [is] like the beast, and who is able to war with him?" It is evident from the context that an apostate and idolatrous state appears in the world. The dragon and the Beast are alike set up against God. This first Beast represents the western empire. The religious chief will not be in the west but in Jerusalem, and becomes, as we learn elsewhere, a special object of worship in the temple of God there at the close, as 2 Thessalonians 2 indicates, as well as Daniel 11:36-38. He is the second Beast of our chapter.

This is a difficulty to some, because it is distinctly said that the man of sin will not tolerate any other object of worship. But these wicked personages work together, and are allies. To worship the one is pretty much to worship the other; just as, in regard to the true God, there is no worship of one person in the Godhead without the same homage due to the others. It is in vain for any to pretend to honour the Father without the Son, and he that worships the Father and the Son can only pay it in the power of the Holy Ghost. When we worship God as such, when we say "God," not Father only is meant, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So precisely is this awful counterpart, the fruit of the energy of satanic craft and power at the close. The worshipping of the dragon and of the Beast seems, therefore, consistent with divine worship paid to the man of sin, the contrast to "Jesus Christ the Righteous." They are, as has often been said with justice, the great counter-trinity, the trinity of evil creatures as opposed to the Trinity of the Godhead. The devil is clearly the source of it all; but the public leader of his power politically is the first Beast; and the grand religious agent, who works out crafty plans and even miracles in its support, is the second Beast of this chapter, or the man of sin in the great prophetic Epistle.

Verse 13 shows the trinity of wickedness (the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet) in its insolent challenge to the true Trinity, with the outpouring of its cunning evil doctrine likened to the croaking of frogs, creatures accustomed to slime. The Beast, the head of the Roman empire, imitates God the Father; the False Prophet (or Antichrist) takes the place of the true Christ, the Son of God; while Satan, behind the scenes, simulates the Holy Spirit. Their doctrine and their ability to work miracles of deception will have powerful influence in deceiving many national leaders to bring their armies to Israel to “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (v. 14). This evil trinity will plead the cause of Israel, which has been invaded by the King of the North, to persuade many nations to come to fight in what they claim is a great humanitarian effort to liberate Israel from oppression. But they are fighting against God, for God has sent the King of the North to punish His people Israel because of their idolatry (Isa. 10:5-6).

These three — the dragon, which is the devil, the beast, and the false prophet — will form a terrible trinity of evil; they are brought together in the unity of their purpose in Revelation 16:13-14, and that purpose — war. The present League of Nations, which is a mere shadow, is for peace, the real League of Nations when it appears will be for war. The evil spirits that go out of the mouths of the diabolical trinity are deceptive and inflammatory words and doctrines. And in the conception and broadcasting of these, Antichrist will take the lead. He will be the great deceiver and will probably tell men that the only road to the goal of their ambitions is to blot out God and Christ and that they are able to do it, and aroused by his arrogant and lying words (2 Thess. 2), the cry will be: "Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears" (Joel 3:9-10).

Rev. 13. The Roman empire is now seen as a beast, rising out of the sea, the unorganised mass of the Gentile people. This is the second element in the trinity of evil. It embraces ten kingdoms. One of its heads had been wounded to death; that is, in one epoch of its history it had been slain, but it lived again. The dragon gives to the beast his power and throne and great authority, and it continues 42 months — the last half of Daniel's seventieth week. It blasphemes God, and the dwellers on earth worship it. In Rev. 13:11 another beast is seen to arise out of the earth (formed organisation): it appears as a lamb, but speaks as a dragon. It deceives all the earth and assists the Roman power, working miracles in order that the image of the revived beast may be worshipped: cf. 2 Thess. 2:3-10. This is the man of sin, the Antichrist. The number of the Roman beast is 666, the significance of which will be understood in that day. We have thus the trinity of evil arrayed against God and His Christ.

And now, when the peoples become, as it were, ordered, or formed, under Satan, another beast comes up out of the earth. He assumes the look of the Lamb, but his voice betrays him: “he spake as a dragon.” He has immense influence and power. This is the wicked one. He had two horns as a lamb. Now though we must not confound this wicked one with the woman, the great whore, yet I judge, from Daniel 11:36-38 and 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12, that the final apostasy of both the Jews and Christendom will find its centre and head in this wicked one. There is a trinity of wicked ones, and in fearful imitation of God. The head of the restored empire takes the place of God. This lamb-like dragon-speaking Antichrist exercises all the power of this first beast, and is co-equal with him, and does great wonders. And Satan takes the place of the Holy Ghost on earth. Idolatry is set up and enforced by death. Then they that dwell upon the earth shall be deceived. God in righteous judgment sends them strong delusion, that they all may be damned.

Now we find ourselves, as in chapter 11:19, in Jewish circumstances. Verse 11 of this chapter introduces us to a sovereign power in his way, and he assumes to have Christ's power. He has horns like a lamb, and yet if you really hear what he says, you find it is a power in opposition to Christ; though pretending to be Christ, he has a mouth like a dragon, he has the devil's energy against Christ, and pretends to be the Messiah. Christ was a prophet when down here, and He will be a king when He comes again, and both these this second beast takes to himself, so that he is the Antichrist (Herod being a figure of him). We find in him the pretension to Christ's royalty, and His prophetical character, but the priesthood of Christ he cannot claim. In the three great powers in action at this time, the dragon, the first beast and the second beast, we find a mimicry of the Trinity - Father, Son, and Spirit.

In sum, we have a second beast, using diabolical spiritual energy, and playing into the hands of the beast who held his throne from Satan. You get a kind of trinity of evil and resurrection. The dragon gives the throne to the beast, as the Father to Christ; and the second beast exercises in spiritual energy the power of the first beast in his presence, as the Holy Ghost with Christ. This is the fruit of the falling away - the apostasy of Christianity. So the first beast was slain and his deadly wound is healed.

It is during the period comprised in the history of these four beasts that Christianity comes in, and that the moral rebellion takes place. But we have seen that the ecclesiastical power, which has been the instrument of leading to such a result, by assuming the place of God - taking away faith, and, at the same time, disgusting reason; putting aside natural religion, and, under the pretext of the rights of revelation, corrupting and perverting this revelation itself, so that men should have no other objects than themselves - this power, I say, having played a part in the drama of iniquity, which the enemy of our souls and of the Lord, has brought to pass, will itself fall a victim to the violence of the human will - that will which itself has withdrawn from subjection to God; and as incapable, by its pretensions to religion, openly to serve Satan, as it is of serving God with sincerity - in one word, incapable of truth, it becomes the cowardly counsellor and abettor of that iniquity of which it cannot constitute itself the actor. It provokes crimes which it dares not consummate, and of which the civil power is to be the active chief and executor. Dear friends, when the natural conscience is more upright than that resulting from religious forms, it is all over with the church - it is near its end; and the candlestick will be removed where it serves only as the instrument of wickedness, such as the world can hardly imagine. As men say, the corruption of that which is most excellent is the worst of corruptions. As to the Antichrist properly speaking, he will deny that Jesus is the Christ; he will "deny the Father and the Son" (John 2:22); he will not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh (2 John 7); he will deny everything sacred - the Father, the Son, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus come as Man. We have seen his character, his acts, his form, and the source of his power. Satan will work directly by him. It will be a sort of satanic imitation of what God has done. The Father has given the throne to the Son, and the Spirit acts according to the power of the Son in the church before Him: in the same way the dragon (Satan) will confer the throne on the beast, and great authority; and the second beast (spiritual power, real Antichrist, and false prophet) exercises all the power of this last beast (civil power) before him; Rev. 13:12.