Revelation 13:11-18 “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke 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 has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” The Identifying Marks of the Second Beast 1. Arises out of the earth in contrast to the Papal power that comes out of the sea, verse 11. — Thus this power arises outside of Europe, or the papal dominion, where her tentacles have not reached. 2. Arises or becomes prominent after the deadly wound, as the papacy is going into captivity. After 1798, verse 11. 3. Did not come up by conquest, verse 11. — “Coming up” in the Greek is applied to a plant growing up, quietly but continually growing up. 4. The horns are lamb like, verse 11. — Lamb implies youthfulness, young of age, passive, gentile in appearance. 5. Two horns or as shown in Daniel 8:3, 20 two kingdoms. a) Christ would refer to the Church as the kingdom of God/heaven in His parables. b) Then we have the state or political kingdom. — The kingdom of the Church and the kingdom of the State separate yet within the one nation. — Therefore as the two horns are separate so is Church and State separate in this nation as Jesus taught in Matthew 22:21. — This would give civil and religious freedom. — The lamb is a reference to Christ; therefore it would be built upon Christian principles as the horns are lamb like. — With these principles in mind we see that it would be an anti-catholic power. (separation of church and state) 6. There are no crowns showing that it is a democratic form of government which is also emphasized in verse 14, the people have the power. 7. Becomes a world-wide power and has world-wide influence, verse 12. 8. After the deadly wound is healed it will enforce the Papal policy. — It speaks through legislature and enforces it. 9. It promotes the image to the beast/Papacy, verse 14. 10. Enforces obedience to the image which it gave life to, verse 15-17. (Shows the image to the beast is symbolic, for he gave life to it) — Under pain of death. — Also characterized by an enforcement of a mark. An Application of the Identifying Marks 1. The Pilgrim Fathers, fleeing persecution, came to North America, a place where the tentacles of the Papacy had not reached. — America was a sparsely populated area obviously outside the dense population of Europe. — It was also known as the New World. 2. America was arising to power as the Papacy was loosing its power. — Declaration of independence – 1776. — War of independence – 1777 to 1783. — Constitution voted – 1787. — Constitution ratified – 1788. — First president elected – 1789. — Bill of rights adopted – 1791. — First international recognition as a nation – 1798. 3. America did not rise to power due to her overthrowing/conquering another empire, but by quietly growing up. 4. America was only young or youthful of age around the downfall of Papal Rome, as can be seen by answer 2. 5. America was established on anti-catholic principles, separation of church and state, religious liberty etc, we shall speak more of this in a moment. The United States is a Protestant nation, the complete opposite to Catholicism. 6. It was easy for those fleeing the persecution to see the result of the Papal form of government. Therefore we see that America was to be a democratic/republican form of government, by the people and for the people. 7. It is not hard to see that America is the world super power, watchdog for the world. — e.g. The war with Iraq, the United Nations said we do not want to go and America said so, we're going anyway. 8, 9 and 10 are creeping slowly into existence and this is not hard to see. Notice the following; “Because Sunday is the Sabbath of the majority in our land (meaning America), and has been nationally established as a day of worship, it is the day that all should be compelled to observe as the Lord's day. And we further emphasis, that it is the duty of the government to enforce the observance of that day.” Destiny Publications' 'Special Alert' no. 43, 1983. “The United States Supreme Court has fundamentally changed the ground rules for separating church and state. It is a term marked by one blockbuster decision after another. The US Supreme Court has altered lines of demarcation between church and state in the United States. Justice Berger expressed a view he had first announced in a decision last year, that not all burdens on religion are unconstitutional. That the state may justify a limitation on religious liberty by showing that it is essential to accomplish an overriding governmental interest.” 'Religious News Service' July 22 1983. In other words, the Supreme Court said, “Look, there may be times when we have to restrict religious freedom for the sake of an overriding principle of the government.” “Justice Antonin Scalia went far beyond the CSA and declared that when religious rights clash with the governments need for uniform rules, the court will side with the government.” Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1990. “Religious adherents need to look to the political system not to the courts for protection.” Justice Antonin Scalin. “The supreme court today forcefully declared that it would no longer shield believers whose practices violate general laws.” Ibid. “. . . The problem with the (Smith) decision is that the United States supreme court has gutted the free exercise of the first amendment.” Washington Post, March 9, 1991. “The wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.” Chief Justice William Rehnquist. March 26 1991 Fulminante confessed to a government informant (who was guilty of using psychological torture) that he had murdered his 11 year old daughter. Condemned to death, Fulminante appealed on the grounds of torture and the fifth amendment. Supreme Court found that torture had been used but still upheld the death sentence. Dissenting Judge Byron White Stated: “Permitting a coerced confession which could be part of evidence on which a jury is free to bare it's verdict of guilty is incompatible with the thesis that ours is not an inquisitional system of criminal justice.” Washington Post, March 27, 1991. But we need to see that it is more than just America, as such, that is spoken of here. It encompasses the American Protestant Churches as they slide deeper into apostasy, e.g. :- a) They have already departed from the original faith of Christ. b) They lack spiritual power, as a result, to proclaim the gospel. — False teachings and controversies have entered into the church and the power of love and the power of the gospel have been replaced by a love for power, a love of position and a desire to dominate. c) Protestantism has lost its 'protest.' As these churches continue to apostatize and unite together, they will begin to unite with the civil power of the state and the state will enforce the wishes of the church thus forming an image to the beast. Religious liberty will be gone, she will be intolerant. Verses 11-18 Another beast - It is a separate beast to the first that had the deadly wound and did live. As we have seen this is Protestant America quietly growing in power as the Papal power is going into captivity. Earth - In contrast to the Papal power, which arises out of the densely populated area of Europe, or the sea. Protestant America rises out of a sparsely populated area. Two horns like a lamb - As we have seen already, Protestant America would be built upon anti-catholic principles- the 2 horns on the one beast a symbol of 2 kingdoms within this one power Daniel 8:3, 20, the kingdom of the church and the kingdom of the state (as the 2 horns are separate so are church and state to be separate in the nation of America)- a separation of church and state, civil and religious freedom which is contrary to Catholic teaching. Notice the following taken from Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith, pg 538; Article IV, sec. 4 of the Constitution of the United States, reads: 'The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.' Article VI: 'No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.' The first amendment of the Constitution (Art. 1) begins as follows: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' These articles profess the amplest guarantee of civil and religious liberty, the entire perpetual separation of church and state...” The Lamb is also a reference to Christ, the Lamb of God verse 8 and John 1:29, thus the nation was to be built upon Christian principles, separation of church and state being one of them. (Matthew 22:21) Spake as a dragon - Eventually Protestant America will turn against those great principles that made her a strong nation and speak as a dragon - a persecuting power as seen in verses 12, 15-17. She will change to the side of the devil who ultimately is the dragon. She will speak through her legislature. It is interesting to note at this time, that the Justice system/Supreme Court of America is made up of the following people; — Chief Justice John Roberts - Catholic. — Stephen G. Breyer - Jewish. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Jewish. — Anthony M. Kennedy - Catholic. — Antonin Scalia - Catholic. — David H. Souter - Episcopalian. (Souter is resigning and it will be interesting to see who Obama replaces him with and their religious persuasion) — John Paul Stevens - Protestant. — Clarence Thomas - Catholic. — Samuel Alito - Catholic. — Two places became vacant, Rehnquist died and O'Connor resigned about 2 weeks later, during George Bush Jr's presidency and it is interesting to note that he placed 2 Catholics to the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito. “Bush burnished his conservative credentials by naming Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the high court, and helped increase the overall conservative bent of most federal courts.” www. cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/01/souter.politics/index.html — Something else that is interesting to note is that there is only 1 protestant filling a position. So it is seen that the Catholics have 56% of the votes and thus the balance of power to push through decisions they want made. The Catholic Church already has control of the justice system of America. Which brings to mind a very relevant quote that Archbishop Quigley made back in 1903, “When the United States rules the world, the Catholic Church will rule the world.” The Chicago Tribune. This point is also shown by the following points made below. Alberto, a Jesuit priest, spoke of a secret sign to be given amongst the Jesuit order, “...a secret sign was to be given to the Jesuits world-wide when the ecumenical movement had successfully wiped out Protestantism, in preparation for the signing of a concordat between the Vatican and the U.S. The sign was to be when a president of the U.S. took his oath of office facing an obelisk.” The God Fathers; Alberto pt 3, pg 26. From March 4, 1837 when Martin Van Buren was inaugurated through to January 20, 1977 when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated, the ceremony was conducted on the East Portico of the Capitol Building. But when it came to Ronald Reagan it all of a sudden changed to the West Front of the Capitol Building, from whence one looks to the west straight to one of the biggest obelisks. “Since the first inauguration of President Reagan in 1981, the swearing-in ceremonies have been held on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. The only exception was the 1985 swearing-in of President Reagan's second term, when cold weather forced the ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda.” http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa011701a.htm Studying Reagan's Presidency we find that he did much to unite the U.S. and the Vatican. Much more information could be given but space does not allow it.