The Two-horned Beast, the False Prophet.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
MANY are the theories concerning the two-horned beast and the false prophet of Revelation. One says that France, another that England, and another that some other portion of the ten-horned beast, is the beast with two horns like a lamb. And for the false prophet, one takes Mahommedanism, another, Catholicism and another, Mormonism, &c. That the two-horned beast and the false prophet are one, is evident from the consideration, that if it is not so, we have the rise and work of this beast given, and nothing said of his destiny or end; and then the first that is seen of the false prophet is, he is captured and cast into the lake of fire. This would be a strange way to introduce a character deserving such punishment: to keep us in ignorance of his existence till the last act, and then suddenly introduce him and have him taken and destroyed in connection with another whose whole history had been previously given. This being inconsistent, we take the specifications given of the character and work of the false prophet, and search the preceding history to find a character to which they will apply. He is taken in connection with the beast, and the specifications by which he is described are, - He had “wrought miracles.”
- He had wrought them “before him;” that is, before the beast.
- By these miracles he had “deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image.” Rev. xix, 20.
Now compare these specifications with those of the two-horned beast. He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, (that is, in his presence, or in his sight,) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed; and he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men; 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, (taking the place of a prophet or religious teacher,) that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. Thus it is evident that the two-horned beast and the false prophet are identical. R. F. C.