Greetings! In our last post, we started a study on the second beast that John described rising out of the earth. We know this second beast to be the false prophet. We learned the false prophet will be duplicitous in nature. He’ll have the appearance of being a religious man, but just like the Antichrist beast, he will yield himself to demonic powers. We also talked about the symbolism of the horns on the false prophet beast and what they mean and what they don’t mean. And lastly, we talked about how the false prophet will be in charge when the Antichrist beast is out on his military campaigns. In this post, we’re going to talk about how the false prophet will cause everyone to worship the Antichrist beast and what that might look like.

Revelation 13:11–18

Sixth in an Eight-Part Series
by Karen Thompson

Second Beast: The False Prophet

Rev. 13:11 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. 12 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. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Worship of the Beast

Now let’s look at the last half of verse 12: “…and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” The false prophet will cause the “first beast” to be deified and will initiate worship of him “whose deadly wound was healed.” He will lift up Antichrist to the level of divinity and promote the idea that he is a god.

Side note: Notice how verse 12 refers to the beast as the one having received the deadly wound and was healed. If you recall in verse three, it was one of the heads on the beast that received the deadly wound and then was healed of it, but it caused everyone to be amazed at the beast. We see the same thing in this verse where it refers to the beast as having received the deadly wound that was healed. As noted before, the beast that rose out of the sea symbolizes three things: 1) the end time Antichrist kingdom, 2) the king of that kingdom, and 3) the angel that came out of the bottomless pit. 

Personality Cults

Worship of a ruler is nothing new. In fact, it’s a very ancient thing. Down through millennia, despots have used this tactic of turning themselves into divine god-like rulers for the purpose of exercising absolute control over their people. There are even a couple of examples of this in the Bible. For example, the king of Tyre exalted himself to the level of god status, and he was judged for it. We can read Ezekiel’s prophetic word about him in Ezekiel 28:2: “Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God.”

Another biblical example of a man elevating himself to that of god status is Antiochus, second son of Antiochus the Great who ruled the Seleucid Empire. He’s one of the kings of the north listed in Daniel chapter 11. When Antiochus became king, he chose as his name Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes means “God has come” or “God is manifest.” Antiochus believed he was the reincarnation of Zeus. This is typical of a despot. Full of pride, they start to think of themselves as more than a man. They see themselves as god, and they want to be treated as such.

It’s common knowledge that the ancient kingdoms of China, Rome, and Egypt elevated their rulers to god status. Would it surprise you to know this phenomenon still occurs today? It happens in nations with totalitarian regimes.

Today this phenomenon of exalting the ruler to god status is defined as a cult of personality or personality cult. The phrase “cult of personality” was first used by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956 when he was speaking at the 20^th Century Congress of the Communist Party. He used the phrase to denounce Josef Stalin, objecting to the way Stalin was transforming his image as being someone with supernatural qualities, lifting himself to god status. Little did Khrushchev know, the communist nations would all follow Stalin in this tactic of lifting up their leaders to this same god-like status.⁷

China’s Chairman Mao, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein are only a few modern-day despots that developed effective cults of personality. In a personality cult, the ruler is lifted up as divine or given god status and the people are expected to modify their behavior accordingly. They are to speak words of reverence and praise about their leader, physically bow before him, or even pray to him.

Cultivation a Personality Cult

Modern-day despots have all claimed this adulation is a natural outpouring of the people’s love. But it is anything but natural. It is a deliberate and carefully orchestrated plan to exalt the leader of the nation to that of god status. If you are told your leader is divine, you’re less likely to question his actions, less likely to revolt against him. The cult of personality is forced upon the people. It is not a natural outflow of affection.

The foundation of all personality cults is built upon the perception of the divine ruler being everywhere, that, like God, he is omnipresent. The primary way that is achieved is by placing his image everywhere. His image is plastered both outside on every corner and inside every building. Outside, portraits, statues, and monuments are placed everywhere, and we’re talking about huge grandiose statues and monuments. Every room in every building of every city will have portraits of the divine ruler, and every home is required to have the divine ruler’s portrait hung in the most prominent place in the house. No matter where they go, the citizens will not be able to escape seeing the divine ruler’s image multiple times throughout the day.

Another way to achieve the effect of omnipresence is to have the ruler’s voice broadcast nonstop through loud speakers in the public square. Also, the divine ruler’s speeches are written down and published in books. Sometimes the people are merely encouraged to read the publication, and sometimes it is demanded. All of this is to make sure the divine ruler is in the forefront of every person’s thinking, to the level that it becomes invasive and inescapable.

Personality cults are carefully developed through a propagandized storyline. There are many aspects to personality cults, and no matter what nation you’re talking about, they all contain the same elements. Stories about the divine ruler are created in order to promote the idea he has supernatural powers and abilities. The divine ruler is lifted up as the people’s savior, the one person who cares about them most and that will save them from the enemy. He’s a perfect being.

Chairman Mao Zedong

Here are just a few examples of what kind of behavior you can expect from a personality cult. When Chairman Mao became China’s ruler, it didn’t take long before they put their cult of personality into action. A red book containing all of Mao’s doctrines was published and distributed to every person. Everyone was expected to memorize it word for word. One day, it was announced that Mao was god and was to be worshiped as God. It was required that a large portrait of Mao was to be hung in each home, and every morning when the family woke up, they were expected to say their morning prayers to the portrait. In public, whenever they were near a portrait of Mao, they were to face it reverently and say a prayer.

Benito Mussolini

And then there was Benito Mussolini. Mussolini sought to make fascism totalitarian, like a strict religion. He was referred to as a “heaven-sent savior,” “a man sent by God to Italy,” “divine Caesar,” “spiritual father,” “sublime redeemer in the Roman heavens.” Pronouns referring to Mussolini were to be capitalized the same way pronouns are capitalized when they refer to God. The person in charge of Mussolini’s personality cult was his brother, Arnaldo. Referred to as the high priest of the new religion of fascism, Arnaldo sought to create a divine, supernatural image of his brother. He invented stories about Mussolini having supernatural powers, like saving an entire village by mentally stopping the flow of lava! Arnaldo was diligent at cultivating a messiah-like image of his brother.

Saddam Hussein

Let’s talk about Saddam Hussein. He took the aspect of omnipresence to an extreme. There were thousands of portraits, statues, and monuments of Saddam everywhere. The portraits of him were strangely and even comically diverse, reflecting every possible emotion and every style of clothing. You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a portrait of Saddam. They were in every government building, store shops, offices, bus stops; and his portrait could even be found on common household items such as calendars, clocks, and computer screen savers. Since criticism of Saddam was not tolerated, everyone publicly would only praise him saying the many portraits are simply a display of admiration for him. But privately, some complained that it was too much, saying there were more pictures of Saddam than people.

Kim II Sung

The most serious of all personality cults is the one built around North Korea’s Kim Il Sung. I use the word “is” because it is still functioning today. This personality cult has been taken to such an extreme that other nations that had personality cults mock it. When Kim Il Sung died, his son, Kim Jong Il, spent a great deal of money to continue his father’s personality cult. Even though many North Koreans are starving, an inordinate amount of money is spent each year to maintain it, so far having created 30,000 monuments, festivals, films, books, billboards, and murals all exalting Kim Il Sung. Though Kim Il Sung has been dead since 1994, he is still spoken about as if he were still alive.

Then when his son, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011, I remember feeling sad for the people of North Korea when I watched on television the “mourning” of the nation of its beloved leader. I wasn’t sad for their loss. I was sad they felt pressure to display unnatural acts of grief. The evening news showed people standing together unnaturally in groups being filmed as they displayed their grief wailing in despair, falling to the ground weeping, pounding their fists on the ground in anguish. It was later reported on the news that those who did not display sufficient mourning were punished for lack of respect.

Personality cults are all about control. They control the population through two things. One, they elevate the leader to god status so no one dares question the divine being. And two, they terrorize the people to keep them in control, paralyzing them with fear so they don’t rise up in revolt. Wherever personality cults are in operation, there are shocking numbers of people that are murdered—by their so-called divine leader.

This is what the world can expect when the false prophet promotes worship of the Antichrist beast. The false prophet will create a very powerful cult of personality. The foundation of this personality cult will be the fact that the Antichrist beast died, yet he was raised from the dead. It will be the basis for his messianic image. It will be the reason why they build an image of him.

The entire phenomenon of worshiping leaders as gods is the manifestation of 1^st John 4:3: “…and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” All these personality cults come forth because of the spirit of Antichrist at work in the earth. Look what 1^st John 2:18 says: “…even now are there many antichrists.” Down through history, there has been many antichrists in the world. I just named several of them. The Bible calls all these faux gods as “antichrists.”

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