172    The Bible and the Future of the World 

captivity, they must accept it. If any Christian tries to avoid suffering by use 

of violence during this time, he will be defeated. For it is God's will that the 

Church suffer, even as Christ himself suffered. When it was time for Jesus to 

be crucified, He willingly carried His Cross and let Himself be nailed to it. 

The False Prophet (Rev 13:1 15) 

     Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns 

like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the 

first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship 

the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.  (Rev 13:1 2). 

    This other beast rises out of the earth, not the sea, meaning that this is an 

individual person, not a kingdom. (Recall that God made mankind out of 

dust from the earth, Genesis 2:7.) The two horns of a lamb symbolize the 

two powers which religious leaders have, spiritual and temporal. So this 

individual will be a religious leader, who will also have worldly authority, 

but one who will speak like a dragon. The term dragon is used in Revelation 

to refer to the devil, and also to the kingdom of Antichrist. Therefore, this 

religious leader will be a false prophet, who will use the words and ideas of 

religion in order to do evil. 

    The false prophet is the Antichrist's assistant for part of his reign of nearly 

seven years. The false prophet is a woman; she is to the Virgin Mary as the 

Antichrist is to Christ. She is an Antimary. She assists the Antichrist  and 

often speaks on his behalf. 

    This false prophet will exercise the temporal authority of the first beast, 

who is Antichrist. And  she will work false signs and wonders, to try to 

convince the people to worship Antichrist (Rev 13:13).  She will have both 

worldly power and a deceiving kind of spiritual power. She will use the idea 

that Antichrist was healed of a mortal wound to try to convince people to 

worship Antichrist (Rev 13:14). They will try to kill anyone who remains 

faithful to the one true God and who refuses to worship the Antichrist. 

Whoever does worship Antichrist and follow the  false prophet will be 

condemned by God and will be severely punished. 

    The false prophet will have an image of Antichrist made and try to 

convince people to worship the image.  She  will even be able to make the 

image of Antichrist appear as if alive, in  order to deceive people into 

worshipping Antichrist and his image (Rev 13:13 15). 

    Recall the warning which Jesus Christ himself gave:  For false Christs 

and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead 

astray, if possible,  even the elect. Lo, I have told you beforehand.  (Mt 

24:24 25). Here Jesus is predicting the arrival of the Antichrist and the false