The Second Beast

If England is the first beast, the second must be the United States. Many have called the US a “city on the hill”, a reference to the Sermon on the Mount. America the Beautiful calls for God to shed his Grace on it. And hundreds of millions of Americans, including me, have been certain that God created America to be One Nation Under God. 

Revelation 13:11-12 reads, “Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ”  The “horns like a lamb” means this nation resembles and even has power that looks like Jesus, but in actuality, it speaks like Satan.  I suspect this is the worst kind of evil.  Paul warned in 2 Corinthians 11:14, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”  Verse 12 certainly implies the second beast rules over the entire earth.  

The second beast “performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.” Could that be a reference to the atomic bomb? The US is still the only nation that has dropped a bomb on a population center. And did so twice. Starting with WWII, the US has taken England’s place as the premier world power. 

I have nothing more than a wild guess as to what the rest of these verses are about.  It seems likely that, if I am on the right track in general here, these events have not happened yet.  My friends I have discussed this with warn me it is easy to read symbolism into today’s times, and that there may be many interpretations that fit these, and I agree with that.  However, I believe that once you suppose that the beasts are empires instead of people, these two nations fit the clues better than any in history (so far).  There is a troubling gap of over a thousand years between the fall of Rome and the start of the British Empire (Henry VIII, not William I, which would “only” be 600 years).

The main clues for the US being the second beast are a) it rises out of the first beast; b) it appears Christian but speaks like Satan; and c) maybe the “fire from the sky” is the A-bomb.  With such flimsy evidence, why post this?  First, as I stated at the outset, I am convinced that the US was set up to be a non-religious nation.  From a governmental standpoint, this is critical for equality under the Law.  And from a religious standpoint, if we have Free Will, imposing faith from above undermines the very faith we proclaim.  I believe my previous posts have made a good case for America seeming to be Christian but actually doing great evil, starting with our rebellion over taxes, the basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence, and the unpaid and growing debt of slavery and the injustices.  As with England, this is not to say that there have been no American Christians.  Americans have been a force for Good around the world.  

Second, it may well be that we are nearing the time of Jesus’ return.  Let’s get busy loving one another.  Romans 13:10, “Love is the fulfillment of the law.”