(OPINION) Since the Dark Ages, the world has gone through a series of major epochs—the Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, Age of Revolution, Russian Revolution, Atomic Age, and now the Great Reset Age.

But before moving into the next age, the Messianic Age—the time when Jesus Christ will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords—the Book of Revelation tells us that two “beasts” will appear.

The apostle John wrote in Revelation 13:1 that he “saw a beast rising up out of the sea” (NKJV). The sea is a metaphor used several times in Scripture to refer to Gentile nations. The apostle Paul described this figure as “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3, NIV) while John called him the “Antichrist” (1 John 2:18, NKJV).


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John also wrote of a second “beast” in Revelation 13:11: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.”

In Greek, the word for “earth” is ge, and one of the meanings of this word is the “mainland” as opposed to the sea. We also see it in Matthew 2:20 when the angel of the Lord told Joseph to “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land [ge] of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.”

So, when John describes the second beast “rising out of the earth,” he’s talking about the second beast coming up out of the land of Israel.

“So, in opposition to the sea, where the Antichrist arises, which is a symbol of the nations, the second beast is going to rise out of the land of Israel,” says Lars Enarson, founder and president of The Watchman International ministry, whom I (Rev. Kevin Jessip) just visited on a trip to Israel to lay the groundwork for The Return Israel, the culmination of the repentance and revival movement that began on September 26, 2020, with The Return: National and Global Day of Prayer and Repentance, an event held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and seen by tens of millions of people.

“It’s interesting because the second beast is the one who will operate in the full authority of the first beast, which is the Antichrist, but he is the one who will introduce the mark of the beast, which is the number 666, well known by most people.”

Is the World Primed for the Mark? In fact, the “mark of the beast,” or “666” (Rev. 13:18), is so well known that a recent John Zogby Strategies poll exploring technologies discussed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab revealed a surprising fact. READ MORE