Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. (Rev. 13:11)
The Second Beast, the Lamb with two horns (Rev. chapter 13) signifies both the State of Israel and the False Prophet in the same way that the First Beast signifies both the restored Soviet Union and the Son of Perdition.
The Second Beast represents Israel and the False Prophet.The imagery of chapter 13 of Revelation is clearly taken from chapter 7 and 8 of Daniel. The First Beast is a composite of the four beasts that rise from the sea in Daniel chapter 7, all four are wild animals. The Second Beast is like a lamb, a ruminant like the the Ram and He-Goat of Daniel chapter 8. Every beast in these chapters of Daniel represent nations and so it must follow that the lamb-like Second Beast must also represent a nation. That nation is Israel.
Towards the end of the eighth kingdom (the Second Soviet Empire), the Beast himself arises who will declare himself to be God. The False Prophet will arise out of Israel around the same time to make the inhabitants of the world worship the Beast.
And it causes all to be marked on the right hand or forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Rev. 13:16)
Many assume that that the mark will not exist until the days of the False Prophet and the Son of Perdition (the Beast). However, it is evident that the mark is already in existence and already functions as the mark of the Beast, namely as the emblem of the Soviet Union. The return of the Hammer & Sickle will herald the advent of the eighth kingdom, the Beast "that it to come" and the restoration of the Soviet Union.
The False Prophet will cause everyone to be marked on their forehead or right hand, despite the fact that the law prohibits the making of tattoos (Lev. 19:18). He will introduce idolatry and emperor-worship, and will slay those who do not receive the mark of the Beast. Just as the First Beast represents both the eighth kingdom and also the Son of Perdition, so the Second Beast represents Israel and the False Prophet. The two Beasts only take on the meaning of the Son of Perdition and the False Prophet respectively at the End, just before the second coming of Jesus Christ and the battle of Armageddon. The False Prophet himself is not represented by either of the two horns of the Second Beast, just as the Beast himself is not represented by any of the ten horns of the First Beast. The Beast and the False Prophet are represented by the First and Second Beast respectively, not by their horns. The dual partnership of the Beast and the False Prophet continues right to the bitter end. Three fouls spirits like frogs issue from the mouth of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet which are demonic spirits that perform signs, who gather the kings of the whole world for the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:13). Captured, the Beast and the False Prophet are thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sign of men (Rev. 13:13)
The Second Beast is actually denoted the False Prophet in Rev. 16:13 and Rev. 19:20. This Second Beast is lamb-like, and therefore reminiscent of the Lamb of God himself (Rev. 5:6). The False Prophet appears righteous, but speaks like a dragon and is thus of satanic origin (Rev. 13:11). Making fire come down from heaven is a sign that would associate the False Prophet in the minds of men with Elijah (1 Kgs 18:38-39; 2 Kgs 1:10-14). It is likely therefore that the advent of the False Prophet will be seen as a fulfilment of the prophecy in Malachi about Elijah (Mal.4:5). John the Baptist however was the Elijah who is to come (Matt. 11:14).
The False Prophet will repudiate Jesus of Nazareth and will claim that he is the Messiah instead. Jesus Christ warned his disciples that false prophets would arise who will show show great signs and wonders (Matt. 24:25).
The two horns of the Lamb represent the two former kingdoms of Israel, the kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and Judah. Between them, the two kingdoms ruled over all twelve tribes of Israel.
Commentators often compare the Second Beast with its two horns to the Ram (Dan. 8:3), but it is more pertinent to compare the two horns of the Second Beast to the horns of the He-Goat. Just as the great kingdom of Alexander the Great became divided and is represented by four horns, so the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided up into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The first three Javanic kingdoms were absorbed within the last, the Roman Empire, yet the Javanic Kingdom (the Leopard) is still portrayed as having four heads (four horns), rather than just one. So likewise, despite the fact that Israel became reduced to one kingdom (Judah), Israel is still represented by two horns, rather than one.
Israel was united under one king during the reigns of David (1003-970) and Solomon (970-930). After the first three years of the reign of Rehoboam, however, it became divided into two. The Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered and exiled the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. The southern kingdom of Judah fell in 586 BC when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and took away the Jews to Babylon. For a brief period just before the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans (the sixth head of the Beast), Judah becamse a kingdom again. Judah Aristobulus I (104-103) was the first Jew in 483 years to establish a monarchy since the return from the Babylonian Captivity. The Hasmonean dynasty lasted until 37 BC. The Herodian dynasty followed, the last king over Judea being Herod Agrippa whose reign ended in 44 AD.
Israel had no king for most of the period spanned by the seven kingdoms represented by the seven heads of the First Beast. It is therefore apt that Israel should be represented by a beast that appears to be lacking two mature horns. The Second Beast’s horns are “like” those of a lamb in that they are small and resemble stumps. Stumps signify the absence of these two horns, rather than their imminent growth to maturity. The stumps serve as a reminder of the history of Israel when it was divided into two kingdoms.
Just as the seven heads of the First Beast represent kingdoms that go back in time to the exile of the Jews in 586 BC, so the lamb-like Second Beast also represents the same period of time during which Israel was deprived of its two kings. However, the Second Beast represents the modern State of Israel, just as the First Beast represents the USSR.The modern state of Israel will not be ruled by any king, which is why it is represented by a beast which lacks any fully formed horns.In the latter days, the False Prophet will gain enormous authority, equalling that of the First Beast himself. In those days, the authority of the False Prophet will be as great as that of any king, and his authority will not just extend over Israel, but over the entire world.
The scriptures themselves confirm that Israel is indeed the Second Beast, for Israel is actually called a lamb (Hebrew: seh) in Jeremiah:
Israel is a hunted lamb (RSV: sheep) driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones (Jer. 50:17)
So I will be to them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rend them. (Hos. 13:7-8).
In this verse in Hosea, God declares that he will destroy the kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) and compares himself to the three wild beasts seen in the vision of Daniel. Like a sheep devoured by a lion, Israel fell victim to the kingdoms represented by the Beast’s heads. Jerusalem fell under the control of Babylon, the Persians, Alexander the Great and the Antigonids of Macedonia, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and the Romans, each in turn. The following history shows how each kingdom in turn took control of Jerusalem:
The Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and exiled its inhabitants in 586 BC.
Cyrus the Great captured Babylon in 539 BC. It was during his reign that an edict went out allowing the Jews to rebuild the Temple. Greece (Javan)
Alexander the Great: Jerusalem capitulated to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, during his six-year Macedonian conquest of the empire of Darius III of Persia. Despite having initially refused Alexander the Great provisions for his siege Tyre, Jaddus, the High Priest in Jerusalem, was able to win Alexander over. When Alexander saw Jaddus dressed in the robes of the High Priest he saluted him, for in a dream he had seen the High Priest who had assured him that he would be victorious over the Persians.
The Antigonid dynasty gained control of Jerusalem in 315 BC after Ptolemy I Soter withdrew from Syria and Antigonus I Monophthalmus invaded during the Third War of the Diadochi. In 312 BC Jerusalem was re-captured by Ptolemy I Soter after he defeated Antigonus’ son Demetrius I at the Battle of Gaza. In 311 BC the Antigonid dynasty regained control of the city after Ptolemy withdrew from Syria again following a minor defeat. In 302 BC Ptolemy invaded Syria for a third time, but evacuated again shortly thereafter following false news of a victory for Antigonus against Lysimachus. In 301 BC Coele-Syria (Southern Syria) including Jerusalem was re-captured by Ptolemy I Soter after Antigonus I Monophthalmus was killed at the Battle of Ipsus.
The Ptolemies ruled over Judea from 301-198 BC when the Seleucids wrested control of Judea away from them.
In 198 BC King Antiochus III wrested Southern Syria and Palestine from Egyptian control. They ruled over the Jews for around sixty years, from 198-142 BC.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes led the Jewish people into deep apostasy. In 167 BC the Syrians used the Temple in Jerusalem as a pagan temple. Some see in him a forerunner of the Beast.
The involvement of Rome with Judea dates from 63 BC when Rome made Syria a province at the end of the Third Mithridatic War. Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem that same year.The former king Hyrcanus II was confirmed as ethnarch of the Jews by Julius Caesar in 48 BC and under Julius Caesar Judaism was officially recognised as a legal religion. The ruling Hasmonean dynasty was deposed and in 37 BC the Herodian Kingdom was established as a Roman client kingdom. In 6 AD Judea proper, Samaria, and Idumea, became the Roman province of Judea. In AD 70 the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and enslaved many Jews. At least half a million Jews died during the siege.
In AD 130 Publius Aelius Hadrianus had Temple Mount ploughed by the Roman governor of Judea to signify the utter destruction of the Jewish city and to signal the birth of Jerusalem as the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina. In AD 132 arose the Bar Kokhba rebellion and in AD 135 Hadrian retook Jerusalem. Hadrian desecrated Temple Mount by erecting a statue of himself on the site of the Holy of Holies. A pagan temple was constructed on Temple Mount. Few Israelites were left in the Holy Land and Judea was renamed Palestina.
It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence (Rev. 13:12)
The fact that the False Prophet is in the presence of the First Beast shows that the Beast will also reside in Jerusalem. This conclusion agrees with statement of Paul that the Beast will take his seat in the temple of God and proclaim himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:4). Since the Beast’s seat will be the Temple in Jerusalem, it follows that Jerusalem will be his capital city.
bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived … (Rev. 13:14)
The False Prophet will make everyone worship the First Beast and had mankind make an image for the Beast.
Marxist heads of state oppose and exalt themselves against every so-called god or object of worship. Benjamin Gitlow, writes in The Whole of Their Lives about how communists worship the Party:
In the eyes of Communist party members, Party decisions are vested with supernatural omniscience. Here we have the strange paradox of modern times: that communists, Marxian materialists, with a pronounced atheistic outlook on life and history, adopt a profoundly religious attitude towards a temporal man-made organization. To the communist the Party is Godly and fanatically worshipped as such.
Lenin revealed Marxism’s determination to oppose God and anything that is called God when he said:
Every religious idea, every idea of God, even flirting with the idea of God, is unutterable vileness of the most dangerous kind, contagion of the most abominable kind. Millions of sins, filthy deeds, acts of violence, and physical contagion, are far less dangerous than the subtle, spiritual idea of a God.
Paul explains that Jesus Christ will not return before the apostasy comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed:
the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess. 2: 3-4)
Communists have a history of treating its leaders like gods. The communists are constantly building statues to honour the gods of communism.
Nebuchadnezzar is a type of the worship of the beast of Revelation, because just as the beast demands worship of itself on pain of death, so those who did not worship the statue made by Nebuchadnezzar would also die (Dan. 3:4,5).
Rupert Shortt in Christianophobia tells how on learning of Christianity, North Koreans maintain that attributes usually ascribed to the Almighty are instead projected on to their founding leader. This cult is enforced through the use of song, incantations, and Stalinist holy writ.
One is meant to worship only the political leaders and any other worship is a deviation from loyalty to the regime. When North Koreans hear about God, they think they are talking about Kim Il-Sung. All North Koreans have this confusion.
Shortt records the comments of a former guard at a number of political prison camps:
If anyone embraces Christianity in North Korea, they are called a crazy guy. No one could understand or imagine someone wanting to become a Christian. It is very unlikely one could find a descendant of Christian still living. The purpose of the camps I was involved in was to kill the prisoners. Instead of killing them by shooting, the intention was to force them to work until the last minute. The intention was to kill, not to extract labour.
There has been a marked propensity in communist countries to attribute god-like qualities to some of their leaders.
Vincent Miceli argues in his books that the divinising of the Party leader is not foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism but indeed natural to it. Miceli notes how Berdyaev wrote that Russian atheism is an inverted theocracy. He notes how the Party leader evolves from being an atheist humanist to becoming a despot God. This divinising cult is the logical and inevitable fruit of displacing the true God.
The personality cult of Stalin veered towards worship. His brother-in-law, Kaganovitch, said that he occupied a position previously reserved only for God.
In North Korea, the atheist state turned its political leader into its own distorted version of God. In 1997 it officially withdrew from the Christian calendar and put itself on juche time which marks the beginning of history, Year Zero, as 1912, the year of the birth Kim Il-sung. After the death of his father’s death, Kim Jong-il passed an amendment to the Constitution in 1998 declaring Kim Il-sung the Eternal President of North Korea. He built an enormous mausoleum in which his father is entombed. April 15, the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, is basically Christmas in North Korea, although no presents are exchanged.
Victor Cha notes in The Impossible State that juche was transformed from a political ideology into a cult of personality and semi-religion from 1949. The one statue of Kim Il-sung grew to an omnipresent 30,000 statues by 1982 and over 40,000 by 1992.
The state took draconian measures to erase any influences, political and religious, which might detract from fidelity to Kim. Over 2000 Buddhist temples and Christian churches were burned. The persecution of Christians was especially intense given the success of missionaries in Korea compared with other parts of Asia. Kim imprisoned over 100,000 Christians and spread rumours that missionaries were Western spies who branded Korean children with hot irons and sold their blood. Kim was replacing God with himself in the minds of North Koreans. Through destroying others, he made himself the Creator of everything material and spiritual in the North Korean state. Nothing existed before him. State propaganda thereafter referred to Kim as superior to Christ in love, Buddha in benevolence, Confucius in virtue, and Mohammed in justice.
There are five main gulags in North Korea, each holding between 5000 and 50,000 prisoners. Some are sent there for merely allowing a portrait of the Great Leader to collect dust.
The demand of communism for total allegiance is a form of worship, according to Dr W. Steuart McBirnie:
The reason why many Christians do not fight communism, or fight it effectively, is that they do not understand it. Communism is a spiritual way of life that demands total and ultimate allegiance. And what is that but worship? Worship is your admission that someone or something has total authority over you. When you worship God, you believe that God has ultimate authority.
Louis Richard Patmont noted how international communism restricted the commercial activity of those who do not bear its mark. In a passage which has sharp echoes of the Book of Revelation, Patmont writes:
The privilege to buy and sell is extended only to those who have accepted the Bolshevik regime and have given their unquestioning loyalty to the communistic scheme. Food cards are issued only to members of the party, pro-bolsheviks, and such other workers who have not incurred the suspicion of the Soviet henchman. The disfranchised are not only deprived of the privilege to buy and sell, but according to official decree are not entitled to living quarters or employment except those who are in prisons or exile.
It is significant that the Soviet emblem which these cards bear is a five-pointed star, with hammer and sickle in the centre. Even those who are not members of the communist party, but have registered as pro-communists, must show their cards bearing these emblems before they are able to obtain anything at the commune. The salutation of the officials and the military is always accompanied by a lifting of the right hand to the forehead, pointing to the communist emblem on their caps and helmets. Plameny pryvyet! (A flaming greeting!) they cry with fervour.
Communist monopoly of commodities enabled the state to browbeat the masses into submission, withdrawing food and clothing card privileges from those who refuse to deny openly their faith in God. As Trotsky put it:
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
It is the False Prophet himself who speaks like a dragon (Rev. 13:11), and not Israel. However, it is pertinent to note the huge influence that Marxism has had on the history of modern Israel, and similarly the huge influence that Jews have had on Marxism. Given this propensity for Marxism, Israel may be particularly susceptible to the deceptions of the latter-day False Prophet.
Jews were found in disproportionately large numbers in Socialist, Social democratic and Communist parties across Europe and North American in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It is estimated that in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a tenth of activists in the Communist Party of Great Britain were Jewish, despite the fact that Jews formed less than 1% of the UK population.
Many Jews dedicated their lives to the socialist revolution: Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Yakov Sverdlov, Karl Radek, Rosa Luxemburg, Lazar Kaganovich, Maxim Litvinov, Genrikh Yagoda. In Hungary, Communism was led by Bela Kun and Tibor Szamuely, and later by Rakosi and Gero.
Many Jews contributed in a large measure to the erection of Communism in Romania. Richard Wurmbrand notes how many of the officers of the Secret Police in Rumania were indeed Jews, but not as many as anti-Semites like to assert. Wurmbrand wondered how Jews could ever be rejudaized:
There is not much chance that they [the Jews in the Soviet Union] will be allowed to go to Israel. Even if allowed, how could Israel take in a short time over three million new inhabitants? And how will they rejudaize three million men and women who certainly hate Communism, but have been indoctrinated only with Marxism? They know no other teaching than that of fierce atheism, wherewith they have been brainwashed.
Israel was founded largely by a group of Russian Jews such as Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharet, and David Remez. They came to Israel around the turn of the nineteenth century and were extremely influenced by Karl Marx and socialist ideas. The culture of Jewish society in Mandatory Palestine was socialist. Mapai, the Workers’ Party of the Land of Israel, was a centre-left political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the modern-day Israeli Labor Party in 1968. During its time in office, a wide range of progressive reforms were carried out: the establishment of a welfare state, provision of a minimum income, security, and (almost) free access to housing subsidies and health and social services. To get a job, you had to bare the Red Notebook of Mapai. In the opening years of Israel, the electoral symbol of each major party was a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The aleph of Mapai is clearly based upon the Hammer and Sickle itself.