This false and apostatizing church, who looks on the outside like a lamb but speaks like a dragon, will desire that men worship the first beast, because the false and apostatizing church will be enthralled by the first beast’s agenda to unite all men as one. It is very striking that in these verses, which describe the second beast causing men to worship the first beast, appeal is repeatedly made to the wound that was healed on that first beast.
And [the second beast] 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…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. Revelation 13:12, Revelation 13:14, KJV, emphasis added.
In both cases, the false church is telling people to worship the first beast precisely because the wound that this beast had is being healed. The thing about the anti-Christian kingdom that will appeal to false and apostatizing Christianity, and the thing about the anti-Christian kingdom that the false church will promote in its efforts to get men to adore the first beast, is that this beast is uniting all men.
Last time we deduced that that wound to the first beast was given at the Tower of Babel, where the devil tried to unite all men into one political worldwide kingdom. There God swung His sword at that political beast by dividing men into different languages and different cultures, spreading them out so that they could not very easily come back into one worldwide kingdom again. And remember that at the end God will allow the dragon, the devil, to heal the wound of this beast finally, so that all men will be one. It is precisely the healing of that wound that appeals to the false church, and that the false church will promote. And when the false church sees this, it will jump on the bandwagon and promote subservience to this anti-Christian kingdom and power. And it will do so in the name of Jesus.
It will preach unity to people at the expense of the truth of God's Word. It will preach that we all simply need to come together and accept each other without talking about sin and talking about what the Word of God really says and talking about repentance.
After all, what Jesus was really after is just that all men would be unified anyway. All Jesus really wanted was for people across this whole world to be one and at peace with each other. Just come together. Look, He is bringing us all together as one. Isn't that what God wants with His world? Come join Him in His efforts. Come unite together.The false church will offer a false salvation that is exactly what man is looking for by nature, and is the false salvation that this Antichrist himself will also offer: An earthly utopia where sin abounds but the consequences do not so much abound. It will cry out,
Cory GriessLook, this kingdom will end poverty. Look, it will end warfare. That is all Christianity is really about anyway! That is all God really wants. The parts about sin were for back then. It doesn't apply anymore. That was culturally bound. But the part that still exists for today is: God is only love. He is love, and He wants us all to be together. God’s blessing is on what this kingdom is doing in uniting the world.All the while, that kingdom is blaspheming God.All God wants is for us to be united and prosperous. Come join together. Peace on earth!Not the peace of reconciliation with God through the cross of atonement with Christ, but the peace of men at peace with their sin.1
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.