And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like the dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast before him. And he makes the earth and those who dwell on it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. And he performs great signs, that he even makes fire come down from heaven to the earth before the people, and he deceives those living on the earth by signs…telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast who had the wound…and came back to life. And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
And he causes all…to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and that no one may buy or sell except the one who has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom: let the one who has an understanding count the number of the beast, for it is a human number; and his number is 666. Revelation 13: 11-18
The dragon (Satan) summons his second ally in his preparation for the world’s final battle. The dragon does this after the first beast suffers its wound. This time, He raises a beast from out of the earth. The first beast (papal Rome) arose from the sea. Because the sea represents peoples and nations (Rev. 17: 15), the earth, then, represents a sparsely populated region.
The earth beast appears with two horns like a lamb. In Revelation, the symbol of a lamb always refers to Christ. Therefore, this beast (nation) is viewed as being endowed with Christian attributes. However, that belies its true character, for it will eventually speak like the dragon. This beast becomes the mouthpiece of the dragon in the same way that the Old Testament prophets were the mouthpiece of God. That’s why the following chapters of Revelation refer to the earth beast as “the false prophet.”
Also, the earth beast’s two horns symbolize power. In this case, one horn represents political power; the other, religious power. It appears that the description of the earth beast matches only one nation – America. The origin of America is that of a sparsely populated land. It rose into worldly affairs as a power after the sea beast’s political and religious reign received its mortal wound (the Pope’s capture, imprisonment and death in a French jail) in 1798.
The earth beast’s activities will be by the authority of the sea beast. It is set up in this way to mimic the arrangement of the Holy Spirit exercising the authority of Christ (John 15: 26; 16: 13-15). The sea beast’s misuse of authority and power against the woman/church during the symbolic forty-two months in the wilderness, will eventually be exercised through the earth beast against the woman/church’s offspring – the end-time believers. And like its predecessor, the sea beast, the earth beast’s authority and power will come from its political and religious structure.
In the way that the Holy Spirit magnifies Christ, the earth beast’s role is to exalt the sea beast. In earth’s closing days, through deceptive persuasion and finally by coercion, the earth beast will be able to force most of the world into worshiping the sea beast. As mentioned in my last post, the beginnings of this worship is already taking shape, what with the healing of the sea beast’s miraculous healing of its church/state wound.