EndTime Issues ...

Why We're Getting Close to Christ's Coming

Identifying the Earth Beast

[for PDF click here]

 

Identifying the Earth Beast
(Revelation 13)
 

Introduction:

 

The prophetic story of Revelation 12, showing the dragon’s (Satan’s – vs 9) rage against the pure woman (vs 1) (God’s true church) leads to war against her offspring (a remnant who identifies with God’s commandments and with Jesus) (vs 17).
  • Chapter 13 shows how that war will be waged.
  • There, the dragon uses two “agents” – a sea beast and an earth beast – to fight that remnant.
  • Chapter 14:1-5 further identifies God’s victorious saints – that remnant.
Our focus is on the earth beast. To clarify its identity and mission, we must briefly look at the sea beast and its ties to both the beast in Revelation 17 and the fourth “earth beast” of Daniel 7. Those prophecies clarify it as a state power, centered in Rome, controlled by an apostate church (harlot), who has developed an illicit relationship with the world through an abomination (false doctrine).
  • That “beast” comes center stage in 17:11 when it emerges as a geopolitical power with the collective support of ten horns:
  • First without kingdoms (geopolitical regions) (17:12-13).
  • Later – with identifiable crowns (13:1) – powers ruling geopolitical areas of the earth.
That descriptive coalition is of a “world order,” which is currently and rapidly evolving![1] The papacy is predicted to be its “head.”[2]
 
“The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings … these have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast (Revelation 17:12-13; cf. Daniel 7:24a).
 
The world was recently (1942) divided into ten regions.[3]
“We shall have a world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether it will be achieved by consent or by conquest.” (James P. Warburg, international financier and political scientist).[4]
 
Later, The Club of Rome refined those ten divisions.[5]
 
“World peace can be ours if we only submit to a one-world government that manages our lives and our finances.”[6]
 
There were voices that spoke out against papal global power:
 
“The Roman church–state is a hybrid – a monster of ecclesiastical and political power. Its political thought is totalitarian and whenever it has had the opportunity to apply its principles, the result has been bloody repression.
“The Roman church–state … is an institution recovering from a mortal wound. If and when it regains its full power and authority it will impose a regime more sinister than any the planet has yet seen.”[7]
 
“The encyclical [Pope Paul VI’s, Populorum Progressio, 1967] is the manifesto of an impassioned hatred for capitalism; but its evil is much more profound and its target is more than mere politics: The Catholic church has never given up the hope to re-establish the medieval union of church and state, with a global state and a global theocracy as its ultimate goal. This is the spectacle of religion climbing … in a desperate attempt to recapture the power it lost.”[8]
 
Enamored, prophecy says that all the world will wonder after that papal beast with ten crowned horns (Revelation 13:3). Her world control, however, won’t happen easily: She will employ “every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world.”[9]
 
The Sea Beast Activities
 
The dragon gives it its power, seat and authority (Revelation 13:2), currently (2014) functioning as a church/state/world influence with 179 ambassadors.
  • The world becomes so enticed that it even worships this beast (13:2-3, 8). Thus, it has a religious image/influence.
  • It blasphemes God – it is the antichrist (13:5-6).
  • It is the key agent of Satan’s war against the remnant (13:7) – it is “Babylon” (Revelation 17:5).
  • Its evil power is permitted for 42 months (13:5) – just like the dragon (12:14).
Expositor White correctly saw a dual application to this beast prophecy:
 
“In the last days Satan will appear as an angel of light, with great power and heavenly glory, and claim to be the Lord of the whole earth. He will declare that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week; and as lord of the first day of the week he will present this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him. Then will take place the final fulfillment of the Revelator’s prophecy. ‘And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.’  (Revelation 13:4-5) [13:6-18 is quoted].”[10]
  1. There is to be a new geopolitical order.
  2. The papacy will be its head.
  3. The world becomes enamored of its leadership and evil focus.
  4. Satan has already appeared as an angel of light, affirming its abominable doctrine and sinister global power.
In this context, the earth beast can be addressed:
 
The Earth Beast
 
John appears to have a second vision:
 
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).
  • The sea beast “ascends” (cf. Revelation 11:7, Daniel 7:17).
  • Since this new “beast” has lamb-like horns, some see this as a parody of the Messianic Lamb or that it must be Christ-like.[11]
  • It “arises out of the earth” (ges) – naturally a “settled” or “fixed” geographic area. John uses this word in a variety of ways. Since it contrasts with the sea (restless waters – Isaiah 57:20-21 – unsettled wicked state of world), many see this as arising from a more peaceful area.[12]
  • Together, the earth and sea convey a “global” prophetic picture such as represented in 10:5.[13] (Such Christ and Satan end-time contrasts are frequent in Revelation.)
The last phrase associates this beast with the “dragon,” and, stunningly, the Greek word for “beast” is therion and implies a vicious, savage, terrifying creature.
  • Beast imagery symbolizes a world empire or a nation (Daniel 7:17, 23). Some geopolitical power is in sight. Since the prophetic context unfolds sequentially, a story is evolving in this chapter. After a global coalition is in evidence (sea beast with crowned horns), the activity of this earth beast emerges! It portrays a meek, lamb-like imagery, but it then speaks/directs/leads like Satan and acts viciously and terrifyingly.
  • Its “speaking like a dragon” contrasts with its “lamb-like” horns.
  • This is a “message by design,” given to John for us to understand.
Again, the imagery reveals:

eti165-graph 1

This wild “savage” beast imagery (therion) means that we must identify which “nation” this represents! A prophetic change in its nature, that God wants us to anticipate, is in evidence in this end-time prophecy. Peaceful – then tyrannical.
 
“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:12).
 
John is revealing that a theo-political peaceful nation will wield tyrannical power on behalf of the papacy (within a 42-month setting). This immediately precedes Christ’s coming (another study).
  • The prophecy relates to the time of the end (13:7; 12:17; 11:2, 7; 6:8-11) sometime during a three-and-a-half-year period.
  • This nation is apparently established before the world is enamored by the sea beast (via the timing limitation).
  • It must have worldwide influence and power.
  • It must have an initial imagery of innocence and peace (that changes – but deceptively continues to “wear” those lamb-like horns. That introductory portrayal is a significant clue).
  • It must be so unique that it can represent (though deceptively) the ideals of the “other Lamb,” elevated in John’s apocalyptic book as the “Lamb of God” and, later, called a prophet.
End-time Paradox
 
Since we will see this beast/nation giving global support to the sea beast (Holy See), there is a coalition between the two. But a paradox is presented:
  • This beast “speaks like Satan” – its nature has changed.
  • Yet, it is called a “prophet” (16:13, 19:20, 20:10) – thus it continues to portray a religious aura.
  • Albeit – a false prophet.
  • A true prophet lead to the worship of God. This prophet leads to the worship of the antichrist.[14]
Jesus specifically warned against “false prophets.” They “come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).
  • False prophets appear within the church (i.e., 2:2, 14-15, 20-24).
  • Also inside the “believing community” itself.[15]
An apostate religious aura flows throughout the world from both the sea and earth beasts. They are both given authority and power by Satan but are located in two different geographic areas. One is clearly Rome (Vatican – the sea beast – cf. Revelation 17). The other, that earth beast, arises from a place that previously was devoid of political turmoil (opposite of the sea).
 
Exploring Additional Clues
 
The papal beast was given a geopolitical blow in 1870 when it finally lost the remaining Papal States along with the City of Rome.
  • That occurred September 20, 1870, under General Giuseppe Garibaldi, on behalf of Italy’s king, Victor Emmanuel II.
  • The state/country of Italy was finally unified.
From 1870 to 1929 the Roman Catholic Church had no state. It was not then “beast” oriented.
  • In 1929, under Pope Pius XI and Italy’s Benito Mussolini, the Lateran Accords were signed, giving the Church the Vatican City State.
  • Ambassadors quickly began to be exchanged.
  • The beast’s “deadly wound” was healed (not a head).
  • It then enters end-time prophetic history as having a beast in 1929!
  • In Revelation 13 it is in a world coalition with ten powers (crowned horns), during a 42-month period, when the support of the earth beast arises.
  • Again, that occurs sometime during the 42 months (vs. 5).
That Earth Nation
 
Summation to this point:

eti 165-graph 2 

What world power, prominent in today’s world, began as a peaceful nation but is changing?
 
We appeal to history that looks at the early United States of America – but is now becoming coercive.
 
American Exceptionalism – The Lamb-like Past
 
Five decades after America gained independence, French political writer and analyst Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) remarked on the exceptional character of the United States. “Unlike other nations that were defined by ethnicity, geography, common heritage, social class, or hierarchal structures, America was a nation of immigrants bond[ed] together by a shared commitment to the democratic principles of liberty, equality, individualism and free enterprise economics.”
 
It came from a sparsely populated area without political upheaval or conflict.
 
G. K. Chesterton said that the “American creed” “is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.”[16]
 
Thomas Jefferson, the main author of that Declaration of Independence, and the least religious, wrote: “We are not in a world ungoverned by the laws and the power of a Superior Agent. Our efforts are in His hand, and directed by it; and He will give them their effect in His own time.”
 
Ben Franklin issued this stirring appeal during an arduous debate in the Constitutional Congress:
 
“In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection…. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of Superintending Providence in our favor…. Have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? … God Governs in the affairs of men (Daniel 4:17). And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice (Matthew 10:29), is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
 
Centered on the back of the dollar bill are the words, “In God we trust.”
 
Expositor White keenly observed:
 
“The beast with horns like a lamb is seen ‘coming up out of the earth;’ [Revelation 13:11.] signifying that instead of overthrowing other powers to establish itself, the nation thus represented arose in territory previously unoccupied, and grew up gradually and peacefully.
“Here is a striking figure of the rise and growth of our own nation. And the lamb-like horns, emblems of innocence and gentleness, well represent the character of our government, as expressed in its two fundamental principles, Republicanism and Protestantism. The Christian exiles who first fled to America, sought an asylum from royal oppression and priestly intolerance, and they determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty. These principles are the secret of our power and prosperity as a nation. Millions from other lands have sought our shores, and the United States has risen to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.”[17]
  • For those who love America and cherish her ideals and history, there seems to be a disconnect.
  • John said that it is even exercising the same power as the sea beast (which came from Satan).
  • Thus, it is in a coalition with “him.”
How can this represent the United States? It just doesn’t seem possible! Let’s first look further at the other keys John shares.
  1. It is a nation so strong that it tries to force all of earth’s inhabitants to worship the papacy or something it stands for (Revelation 13:15, 12) – it is a global power, a dominant nation, which becomes coercive and tyrannical.
  2. It uses its moral focus to deceive, as a tool to force the whole world to worship that sea beast.
  3. Under its religious guise it will perform supernatural miracles (similar to what Elijah did on Mt. Carmel, representing “the” God above all gods – I Kings 18:36-39). A dramatic turn of events occurs when it functions as a “prophet.” Spiritualism is now a consideration. Since Satan will have already appeared as an angel of light, any supernatural possibility is present.
  4. The papal sea beast looks to the earth beast to reach its geopolitical goals.

    “Though Pius [XI] has little liking for our wicked ways and our heresies, he sees in us the nation [United States] that counts for most in the world today – the nation of the future. We are rich, young, strong, and our life is before us as a nation. He would have us; he needs us; he means to have us. He believes that the destiny of the Church will be fulfilled in America and that with the spiritual conquest of America the world-dominion of the Church will be regained…. Meanwhile through his Press he reminds Americans that to the Church alone belongs the right of reforming the social and moral order. [Ref. 1: ‘To the Church and to the Church alone belongs the leadership of social forces for reform and human improvement,’ said Pius XI.]”[18]
  5. It is a leader in an emerging geopolitical order (ten crowned horns).
To the casual observer, the history and “being part of” the United States speaks against this understanding. In fact, this prophecy could not be properly understood until recently. But that is now changing – and quickly. In a recent article in Forbes Magazine, Bill Flax observes: “It has become evident Washington now embodies the gravest threat to freedom.”[19] There’s more!
 
The Emerging Drama
 
In the Counter-Reformation the Roman Catholic Church eclipsed the rapid spread of Protestantism through the work of Ignatius de Loyola (founder of the Society of Jesus – Jesuits), the establishment of the Roman Inquisition and the Council of Trent.
  • Their expressed objective was defined as wanting “control of the world,”[20] to be earth’s sovereign leader.[21]
  • This goal was later set into a geopolitical agenda by Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum (1891). This was an ingenious encyclical which created “victims” of the poor and working class and using spiritual dogma to convey solutions.
  • By this one document the Roman Catholic Church moved beyond its ecclesiastical realm into key issues of the secular world. Redistribution of wealth for the poor became a major part of their agenda.
After the Catholic Church regained its “nation” status (the Vatican City State in 1929), Pope Pius XI engaged psychoanalysts to guide in how the Church might dominate the world’s powers. A summary observation by Jesuit E. Boyd Barrett (one of those analysts) – again:
  • “The Church, under Pius XI’s superb leadership, has become a world power again.”
  • “He [the pope] believes that the destiny of the Church will be fulfilled in America and that with the spiritual conquest of America the world-dominion of the Church will be regained.”[22]
  • America must be religiously dominated by “Catholic power” at the end of time. And through the United States global power will be regained.
That objective, through its “social” agenda, moves forward under the guise of a New World Order. Popes Pius XI, Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis all wrote encyclicals similar to Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. Each rendering its goals through increasingly coercive language. All documents undermine capitalism and elevate Marxist principles.
  • Underlying all global objectives is the need to bring this country under its geopolitical “ideals.”
  • In turn, their world dreams are being implemented by the New World Order agenda.[23]
How would the United States give Rome such an ideological “gift?” Through the grooming of Barack Obama. Coming up through community work in Chicago with the Catholic Developing Community Project, he learned about dealing with the socially and financially needy. Then he ran for the Senate, getting the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America organization with a large gift from Marxist ideologue George Soros.[24] Then Roman Catholic Emil Jones, president of the Illinois Senate, took on the role of being “senator maker.” Suddenly, a Jesuit professor of St. Peter’s College came out publically as an activist for Barack’s Senate run.[25] Barack Obama won.
 
The Obama Presidency
 
On November 5, 2008, Senator Barack Obama became the first “Black” president of the United States. It wasn’t long after his inauguration (March 2009) that the documentary “The Obama Deception,” produced by Alex Jones Productions, hit the screens. It claimed that Obama was a puppet, that he would undermine the Constitution, that he would be a proponent of global chaos (like fascism) and make attempts to disarm America and bankrupt the country, and that “globalists” would be behind him, directing his administration.
  • His former defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, told Senator Jeff Sessions (2011) and the Senate that the U.S. military answers to international bankers, the U.N. and NATO – not the Congress of the American people.[26]
  • The Affordable Health Care Act would be a major means to redistribute wealth in America,[27] just as the Roman Catholic Church’s social doctrine envisions.
The Marxist ideology went forward, claiming totalitarian control of the “communities of citizens.” By mid-2012 President Obama perpetrated the principle that he can pick and choose which U.S. laws he wishes to enforce. He claimed a legal basis for this, which he has frequently exercised.[28] This is a change in the nature of the “earth beast.” This is a form of tyranny. The power he is wielding spills over into the international scene through:[29]
  • Economic restructuring and the IMF
  • Immigration – limiting enforcement
  • Fomenting unrest on foreign soils – arming revolutionaries (e.g. Syria and Libya)
  • Spying through NSA on other world leaders[30]
  • Drone spying and killing
Jonathan Turley, a Constitutional law scholar at the Jesuit-run George Washington University Law School, notes: “In many ways President Obama has fulfilled the dream of an imperial presidency.” Constitutional Professor and Legal Advisor to Obama, Lourence Tribes, Harvard Law School, agrees that no one can stop what the president is doing.[31]
 
One of the key elements of Catholic social doctrine is the right of everyone to use what another has for the “common good.” “In a 2005 senatorial speech, Obama attacked the ‘ownership society’ and made an argument for the collective good of government action. This philosophy is opposed to the individual liberty ideals of the Founding Fathers and of Abraham Lincoln.
 
“Obama said that Americans must have a ‘sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity.”[32] Yet, his actions undermine completely that “liberty” ideal.
 
The current trends within the Obama administrations are moving toward a “police state,” the very tyranny that Revelation 13 describes. In fact, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, told the Huffington Post that the digital surveillance of every phone conversation, email, text massage, utility bill, bank statement, credit card statement, chat log of this government “outmatches any police state in the history of humanity.”[33]
 
A major theme from the social papal encyclicals invites a central “world order,” decrying “income inequality” by encouraging redistribution of wealth. Robert Grady of the Wall Street Journal notes that President Obama’s concern over redistribution of American wealth is misguided – and he was siding with the Marxist ideology as did Rome (referring to the Vatican State)![34]
 
Recently, Obama launched a chilling purge against political enemies by retiring seasoned military generals who opposed his policies. This was a “police state” tactic that targeted decency.[35]
 
Respected conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia noted in a recent speech at the University of Hawaii Law School:
  • “In time of ‘war,’ the law falls silent.”
  • Then he said: Internment camps may be just around the corner here in America, as they were in World War II under Stalin.[36]
  • The “earth beast” is quickly “claiming” its Greek name, therion.
No nation in recent history can match the description of Revelation 13:11ff as the United States. With the New World Order close to its full début, the Obama administration, closely allied with papal Rome and the world elites, shares a Marxist ideology. The “great changes” in the world that expositor White talked about are ready to burst into end-time prophecy.[37]
 
Franklin S. Fowler, Jr., M.D.
Prophecy Research Initiative – non-profit 501(c)3 © 2014
EndTime Issues…, Number 165, May 1, 2014
[1] Fowler, Franklin S., Jr.; The Last Geopolitical “Order” (Christian Heritage Foundation, Lucerne Valley, CA, 2014).
[2] White, Ellen G.; The Faith I Live By, p. 329.
[3] http://www.his2ndcoming.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=66
[4] Warburg, James P.; Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 9, 1950.
[5] http://conspiracywiki.com/documents/club-of-rome-report-regionalized-and-adaptive-model-of-the-global-world.pdf
[6] Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 2009.
[7] John W. Robbins, Ecclesiastical Megalomania (The Trinity Foundation, 1999), p. 195.
[8] Rand, Ayn; An Answer to the Papal Encyclical Populorum Progressio,” pp. 315, 362; 1967.
[9] White, Ellen G.; The Great Controversy, p. 565.
[10] White, Ellen G.; Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, p. 282 (emphasis added).
[11] Stefanovic, Ranko; Revelation of Jesus Christ, p. 419.
[12] Barnes, Albert; NT Commentary (Revelation 13:1) software.
[13] White, Ellen G.; Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, p. 321.
[14] Beale, G. K.; The New International Greek Testament Commentary; The Book of Revelation (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan – 1999), p. 707.
[15] Osborne, Grant R.; Revelation (Baker Book House; Grand Rapids, MI), p. 512.
[16] Chesterton, G. K.; What I Saw in America (T. and A. Constable Ltd. at the Edinburgh University Press, London), 1922.
[17] White, Ellen G.; Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, p. 276, 1884.
[18] Barrett, E. Boyd; Rome Stoops to Conquer (Julian Messner, Inc., New York – 1935), pp. 259, 263.
[19] http://www.forbes.com/sites/billflax/2011/06/30/a-politically-incorrect-perspective-on-american-exceptionalism/
[20] General Montholon, Memorial of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena, vol. II (Paris: Paulin, 1847), p. 62. Charles-Tristan Montholon was aid-de-camp to the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (as quoted in Fifty Years in the Church of Rome by Charles Chiniquy, chapter 59).
[21] The Brothers Karamazou (1821 – 1881) (New York: Random House, 1950, originally published in 1880), p. 309, 310. http://hotfile.com/dl/ 211653233/ed1343e/The_brothers_Karamazou..pdf.html The brothers Karamazou..pdf ebook, pdf (emphasis added).
[22] Barrett, E. Boyd; Rome Stoops to Conquer, pp. 254, 259.
[23] Fowler, op. cit.
[24] http://www.theobamafile.com/BarackObama.htm
[25] http://www.crisismagazine.com/2008/a-jesuits-case-for-barack-obama
[26] Saman, Mohammadi; www.infowars.com
[27] Johnson, Erika; New York Times, November 24, 2013.
[28] http://libertycounsel.com/2014/04/the-growing-movement-to-impeach-obama-lcaction/
[29] Hanson, Victor Davis; National Review, June 15, 2012. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/303037/are-we-revolutionary-times-victor-davis-hanson
[30] http://news.yahoo.com/u-taped-moscow-plotting-chaos-094500766--politics.html
[31] Friess, Steve; Politico, “Obama’s Policy Strategy: Ignore laws,” June 6, 2012.
[32] Stepman, Jarrett; July 24, 2013. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/24/Obama-at-Knox-College
[33] http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ellsberg-obama-police-state/2013/08/22id/521757#ixzz2cipyK3yP
[34] Grady, Robert E.; Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2013.
[35] Watson, Paul J.; infowars.com, January 26, 2014.
[36] Gehrke, Joel; Washington Examiner, February 2, 2014.
[37] White, Ellen G.; Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 11.
 

 

Related Information