Well, if the first beast is a visual representation of a king or state that has fallen into league with Satan, what do we make of the second beast that rises out of the earth in verse 11? The most obvious thing about it is that it doesn’t claim to have any power or authority of its own. Instead, it tries to get everyone to worship the power of the first beast (v. 12). It is, as John calls it in 16:13, a false prophet – a prophet of a false god.

And how does it do its work? Primarily through deception. Verse 2 says that it looks like a lamb, but this is the only time in the Revelation where the word “lamb” is not used to refer to Jesus. Verse 13 says that it “performs great signs,” even calling down fire from heaven as the Old Testament prophet Elijah did (I Kings 18:36-38; II Kings 1:10, 12). In other words, the second beast is a visual representation of the warning Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 24:24: “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

And the sad truth is that many so-called Christian leaders in every generation have in fact urged God’s people to look to the power of the beast instead of the power of Christ, to embrace Caesar instead of Jesus, to trust in the power of the state rather than in the power of God.

But if such false prophets begin with deception, they usually turn to violence, using the power of the King to compel God’s people to worship the state in one way or another. Unbelievers have always used these sorts of tactics: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down before an image of the Babylonian king (Daniel 3:20). In John’s day, Roman law demanded that everyone express their patriotism by worshipping statues of the emperors. And who can forget the way Mohammed’s hordes swept across Northern Africa, compelling conversion at the point of the sword?

But remember, Jesus and John are warning us about so-called Christians using such bullying tactics. Just so, the Roman Church took a page from Mohammed’s playbook when it called for the Crusades, just as it used Nebuchadnezzar’s tactics to stamp out what it called “heresy” during the Spanish Inquisition.

And so we see that it is the unholy trinity of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet – of Satan, the state and false religion – that tries to force people into compliance. So it’s no wonder that John gives this evil combination the name 666 – for while seven is a number pointing to perfection, this is a trinity of imperfections. So no matter how strong the temptation to rely on the power and protection of the state may be, and no matter how great our fear of its force and violence may be, the Church must never try to compel anyone to follow Jesus – for that is the way of the beast, not of the Lamb.

Revelation 13:11-18 (ESV)

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
12 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.
13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,
14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
17 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.
18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.