by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
“It was granted to [the beast] to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:7-8)
The Book of Revelation describes the spiritual condition of the world between Christ’s Ascension into heaven and His coming again in glory on the Last Day. The spiritual condition of the world, that is, the relationship of the peoples of the world with God, is the most important and essential concern in all the affairs of humankind. God created and populated the world for it to be inhabited as His dominion of love, peace, and life everlasting. This is especially true now that sin and death has been introduced into the world because the forces of sin and death specifically attack the very life which they have rejected.
God intends our life both here and beyond this world to be a continual activity of worship, rejoicing in thanksgiving for the divine life given and restored to us in Christ Jesus. Likewise, the forces of evil demand worship, not of the true God, but of a false god, a false system of worship mimicking the true; this is the religion of the Antichrist.
The “beast” in Revelation 13 “rise[s] up out of the sea” (the nations of the earth; Dan. 7:3f.). “The dragon (the devil, or Satan; Rev. 12:9) gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” (Rev. 13:1, 2-4).
This beast, the agent of Satan, has a mortal wound which was healed. He should be dead, but he isn’t, clearly a false christ in imitation of the true Christ, the “Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6). This beast is the antichrist (Gk., meaning “instead of Christ”; see Matt. 24:5; 1 Jn. 2:18). Just as the true Christ, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, ascribes authority to God the Father, so the antichrist ascribes authority to a false father, the devil.
Furthermore, Revelation 13 describes “another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (vv. 11-12). This second beast, also called “the false prophet” (Rev. 19:20), works miracles and calls all people to worship the image of the antichrist. This second beast is a false Holy Spirit, completing the basis of the religion of the antichrist as being a mockery of and counterfeiting God the Holy Trinity.
As the worship of God encompasses all activities of His creatures made in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27), so the false worship demanded by the dragon (Satan), the beast (the antichrist), and the other beast (false prophet/spirit) is an all-encompassing religion. It is crucial to recognize the characteristics of the rule of evil as religious requirements.
- The beast (antichrist) “[has] seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name” (Rev. 13:1). The use of the word “beast” indicates the antichrist is a system of worldly government ruled by various antichrists with the sole purpose of enforcing its godless will by coercion, violence, and war (see Dan. 7; 11:36f.; 2 Thes. 2:3, “the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition”). The fourth beast of Daniel’s vision, the Roman Empire of the first century, provides a perfect example of this reality. Thus the religion of the antichrist demands allegiance to government as the state religion, ultimately, as in the case of modern atheistic, socialistic communism, to the state itself and its rulers as God. The persecution of Christians naturally ensues in such a system because Christians refuse to worship any other than the true God.
- The religion of the antichrist includes control of socio-economic transactions. “[The second beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16-17). This mark of the beast is a parody of the seal with which the servants of God are sealed on their foreheads (cf. Rev. 7:3; Ez. 9:1-11; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 1 Jn. 2:20; chrism/the sign of the Cross).
- The regime of the antichrist is a system of religious prostitution. “’Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters (i.e., peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues; v. 15), with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.’ So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns (cf. 13:1)…And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:1-3, 18).
This great prostitute/city is called “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (Rev. 17:5). Earlier in Revelation, “the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, [is] where also our Lord was crucified” (i.e., Jerusalem; 11:8). So this prostitute sitting on the beast is not restricted to any one place; rather, she is a mystical, or spiritual, system of perversion, sexual depravity, and idolatry demanding the selling of one’s body and soul to the antichrist in return for worldly pleasure and influence. This system is touted as civilization (from the Lat., civis/civitas, meaning “citizen/city”) manifested under different historical names: Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome, etc., wherever such prostitution is practiced.
As with every aspect of the religion of the antichrist, the great harlot riding the beast (antichrist) is a parody of the Church, the pure Bride of Christ. When confronted with the alluring pleasures of the world, Christians are called to remain chaste and devoted only to God in Christ in the Church of the saints (1 Cor. 6:15-20; 2 Cor. 11:2-3; Eph. 5:23-27), also known as “the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven” (Rev. 21:2; cf. Gal. 4:26; Heb. 11:10, 16; 12:22-24). The Apostle writes of Christians: “For our citizenship is in heaven…” (Phil. 3:20).
- The forces of evil operate through deception by masquerading as the truth. Therefore, Satan, the antichrist, and the false prophet seek to establish the religion of the antichrist as the acceptable version of Christianity specifically within organizations called the “church.” The letters to the seven churches testify to this pivotal reality (Rev. 2-3). “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away (Gk., apostasia; apostasy) comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thes. 2:3-4). Saint John writes: “[Many antichrists] went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 Jn. 2:19).
Under the guise of Christianity, the religion of the antichrist warps the Church from the inside using the name of God and Christ to promote worldly power and prestige, wealth and physical ease, and gratification of the flesh at all costs. Simultaneously, this false Church opposes exclusive faith in the one true God, keeping the commandments of Christ, the doctrine and worship handed down from the Fathers, and a life devoted to the virtues. The spiritual disease of secularization thoroughly infecting many “Christian” organizations leads directly to the practice of the religion of the antichrist, “churches” pushing agendas merely of this world from which God is disconnected or absent.
“The Revelation (Gk., apokalypsis, “uncovering”) of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place…’Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book’” (Rev. 1:1; 22:7). The religion of the antichrist is all around us, permeating our society and the systems of this fallen world, foolishly giving homage to the dictates of the evil one. We know what this religion looks like. “We are not ignorant of [Satan’s] devices” (2 Cor. 2:11).
Therefore, not only must Christians recognize the religion of the antichrist when we see it, but we must resist its pull and influence by being prepared to suffer loss for the sake of Christ and drawing closer to God in His holy Church (see Matt. 5:3-12; Jam. 4:7-8; 1 Pet. 5:8-11). The baptized faithful gathered around the Lamb, Jesus Christ, in Holy Communion are the dwelling place of God the Holy Trinity, the Bride of Christ. We are called to lead heavenly lives fulfilled in true worship and the keeping of the Lord’s commandments of righteousness. Despite the evils of the antichrist, the constant refrain for those who remain faithful in Christ and the Spirit is peace, joy, and everlasting bliss in the eternal Kingdom of God (cf. Rev. 7:14-17; 14:12-13; 18:20; 20:6; 21:3-4; etc.).
