The False Prophet Appears

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
   And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 
He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
   And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
   He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
   He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
   and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. 13:11-18   

   The first beast, the Antichrist, came out of the sea. 13:1. For more on this see: http://ikefehr1939.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-european-common-market.html 

   Now, another beast, the false prophet, is shown as coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns, like a lamb.  He seems thoroughly gentle as a lamb.  Mr Foster*** wonders if the two horns might represent the leaders of the ecumenical movement and ungodly education; this beast spoke like a dragon. That is, inwardly his intent was as deadly as the intentions of the red dragon, Satan. Outwardly, though, he appears to be interested in the unity of all religions and enlightenment by education.

   He has all the power of Antichrist, the first beast, the last political ruler.  The purpose of the false prophet is that everyone on earth will worship the Antichrist.  

   The false prophet can work miracles such as making fire come down from heaven.  In this connection, we need to remember the words of our Savior, For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders. Mat. 24:24.   We also remind ourselves of the words of Paul, then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth…The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders. 2 Thes. 2:8-9

   By his miracles, the second beast, who is the false prophet, deludes humans and convinces them to make an image to the first beast, the Antichrist.  This sounds as if the false prophet, the last leader of the universal church, will be willing to do and teach anything that the world’s last political leader would approve of or demand.

   He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark... and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark.  While studying chapter 7, we read of God sealing his servants in their foreheads.  Here in 13:18, Satan, the great counterfeiter, is issuing a mark to all humans and they must accept it, on the penalty of death, for without it there will be no buying or selling of the necessities of life.  If a person will not worship the beast, that person also will not get the mark, and without the mark, starvation is inevitable to the people of the world in the last days.

   His number is 666.  Mr Foster suggests that since the number six represents sinful mankind, or even sin itself, then 666 represents sin to its sixth power and that number again to its sixth power.  Though he does not write it in technical terms his point is that the false prophet is a man as wicked as a man can be.

   If we believe the mark or the number of the beast is for the purpose of business transactions than it makes sense that no two of the numbers issued would be identical.  What is the purpose of identifying numbers, if every number is the same?  The Bible does not say that every number will be the same; it says that "666" is the number of the beast.  

   One can surmise, that the 666 are the first three digits, (specifying its origin) of a longer series of numbers.  The sequential numbers after that might represent countries, date of issue, a person’s sex, date of birth or other facts down to identifying the individual.  They would be much like numbers on plastic cards are in our present day society.  The whole idea of having chips implanted into the forehead or into the right hand, for business reasons, is really frightening. 

Delving into upcoming atrocities created by these chips is far outside the scope of these posts and so we will not go there except to mention this one possibility.  

A scary thought about all of this is that technology could easily develop to a point where a signal could be sent from "head office" to a person's implant which would cause a person to act in a way he would not normally act.

For more on this topic see:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6T1QktPuG0 

   Buying and selling are already done on “the screen”, but in the future perhaps all business transactions could be done that way.  So unless you have a number, like an Internet customer number, you cannot buy or sell, and you cannot get a number unless you pledge allegiance to Antichrist.

It seems as if many Christians are already doing that, judging by where and how they are spending their time.  Two minutes a week in Bible reading, three minutes a week in prayer (both in the Sunday morning church service) and about thirty hours a week watching the blasphemers on the TV screen.

   the number of the beast, ... is the number of a man: His number is 666.  The first beast is a man, the leader of the last worldly political system; the second beast is also a man, his number is 666 and it seems that he is the head of the worlds last artificial church.

   The words that Christ spoke to the church at Ephesus, Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love, 2:4, and the words He spoke to the church at Laodicea, I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth, 3:15-16, are certainly applicable to the modern church.
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*** Shadow of the Antichrist, Ivan Foster