Oh Curtis... another thing.
The Jews asked John the Baptist if he was "the prophet", meaning the Christ. John told them "no".
The reason you need to learn why this wording about "the prophet" is important stems from Moses who told Israel that God would raise up another prophet like himself (Deuteronomy 18:15, and identified as Jesus by the Apostles in Acts 3:22).
So the "false prophet" is the false messiah.
The true prophet was/is Jesus the Christ.
Try reading the text. They asked John if he was the prophet Elijah.
Moses is a type of Christ, which doesn’t change the fact that the false prophet is not the beast called the antichrist.
There are two beasts, to answer your prior claim - the first beast comes from the sea, the second beast out of the earth, out of the abyss:
The First Beast
Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea,
and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
The Second Beast
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 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.
More on the first beast, out of the sea:
And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea: From the place identified with evil and chaos and resisting God, a beast comes forth. The ancient Greek word translated beast here has the idea of a wild, dangerous animal. Because John calls him a beast and not a dragon (as in
Rev 12:3), this creature represents someone distinct from Satan who was represented by the dragon (
Rev 12:9).
Having seven heads and ten horns: Though this beast is distinct from the dragon of Revelation 12, he is still closely identified with him. He is not the dragon, but he is like him, because the dragon also had seven heads and ten horns (
Rev 11:3).
All the indications in Revelation 13 are that the beast is a man, a human individual, though he is closely identified with his world-dominating government.
i. “The Beast is worshipped as a god; but people never worship an empire as such; neither do they make a succession of emperors into an object of religious devotion. The paying of divine homage to kings has been a common thing in the world’s history, but it has always been rendered to individuals.” (Seiss)
ii. An image is set up of the beast, and the whole world is commanded to worship it. How can one set up an image of an empire or a government? This hasn’t been done in the past, but men have often bowed down to an image of a political ruler.
iii. “This Beast also has a proper name - a name expressive of a particular number, and that number ‘a number of a man;’ which cannot be conceived except on the idea of an individual person.” (Seiss)
iv. “This beast is finally damned. He goes to perdition, into the lake of fire, where he continues to exist and suffer, after passing from this earthly scene (
Rev 17:11;
Rev 20:10), which cannot be true of systems of government.” (Seiss)
The antichrist is also called the son of perdition (
2Th 2:3), as was Judas (
Joh 17:12). Judas was a man, not a system or a government, so it follows that the antichrist will also be a man, not a system or a government. (Seiss)
More on the second beast:
Then I saw another beast: This creature represents someone like the beast rising from the sea, because the same word beast is used to describe them both. At the same time, this beast is different.
i. They are different in origin, because one comes out of the sea, the other out of the earth.
ii. They are different in rank, because the second is subordinate to the first (causes the earth . . . to worship the first beast,
Rev 13:12)
iii. They are different in appearance, because the second has a mild, “lamb-like” appearance.
b. And he had two horns like a lamb: The two horns may express the fact that this beast has authority in two realms, such as religious and political authority. Or, he may have two horns simply because that’s how many horns lambs have (two horns like a lamb).
c. Spoke like a dragon: Despite his lamb-like appearance, the message of the second beast is the same as the message of the first beast.
i. This second beast is called the false prophet (
Rev 16:13;
Rev 19:20;
Rev 20:10), as someone distinct from the first beast (the Antichrist) and the dragon (Satan).
ii. With the dragon, the beast rising from the sea, and the beast rising from the land we have an unholy trinity. The dragon is the anti-Father, the beast rising from the sea is the anti-Christ, and the beast rising from the land is the anti-Holy Spirit.
2. (
Rev 13:12-15) The second beast’s “job description.”
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. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
a. He exercises all the authority of the first beast: The beast rising from the earth is essentially a Satanic prophet, who leads the world to worship the beast and the dragon.
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed: The beast rising from the earth will use a deceptive, animated image as the focus point of the worship of the beast.
There are two separate beasts.
