“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake like a dragon.”
Revelation 13:11
It is easy to forget that St. John describes two Beasts in Revelation, the Beast that comes up out of the sea and the Beast that comes up out of the earth. The Beast that comes up out of the sea is worldly power, “that hideous strength,” the politico-military Leviathan that was founded by Nimrod and has been with us, more or less puissant, ever since. The Beast that comes out of the earth is worldly religion, the sycophantic Synagogue of Satan that flatters, apotheosizes, and at last possesses the Beast that comes out of the sea.
The First Beast holds the World in thrall by power, on loan from Satan, and causes the overawed World to ask,
“Who is like unto the Beast? Who is able to war with him?”
The Second Beast is the perverted priesthood that runs the cult of the First Beast and answers these questions with the words “no one at all.”
St. John tells us this Second Beast appears to be gentle and Christ-like, with only two horns like an innocent lamb. Yet when it opens its mouth it roars and tells blasphemous lies, like Satan the serpent who is concealed at the bottom of it all. The Second Beast also astonishes the World because it has the terrible power of the First Beast its command. It’s perverted priests
“maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of man.”
This means that the Synagogue of Satan anathematizes, persecutes and destroys anyone who opposes the First Beast or the hierophants of its cult. The target of this raining fire is the Church or the People of God.
It is generally believed that St. John said “taketh fire come down from heaven” to allude to a lesson he learned from Christ, and to thereby illustrate a difference between the Synagogue of Satan and the Church of God. St. Luke tells us that when Jesus first set his face towards Jerusalem, there was a Samaritan village that “did not receive him.” Indignant at this affront, James and a much younger John asked Jesus, “wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven.” Jesus, lamb-like in more than appearance, then rebuked them saying,
“ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9: 52-56).
The Second Beast calls down fire to destroy anyone who does not worship the First Beast and its “hideous strength.” And it does this “in the sight of man,” nowadays on television, so that others will think twice before inviting such a rain of fire. Thus is the World terrorized by the Synagogue of Satan or Second Beast, which both serves and commands the First Beast.
It is said that the Second Beast had power to give life and speech to the Image of the First Beast, and to compel worship by the terrorizing lesson of its rain of fire. I believe this means that the Synagogue of Satan takes control of the politico-military Leviathan, much as the media has taken control of the government of the United States. The priests that began by running the cult of First Beast at last control that First Beast, directing its actions and speaking on its behalf. The First Beast has become their instrument, their slave, their golem.
It is this Second Beast that causes men of all estates to receive its notorious mark. The word is “causes,” not compels, since the mark automatically appears on all who do not consciously refuse the mark. St. John says the mark appears on the forehead or right hand to tell us this mark cannot be hidden, and thus neither can its absence. When the Second Beast restricts buying and selling to those who bear its mark, those who have refused the mark will suffer the penalty for their refusal. There can be no bluffing, no passing, no laying low or keeping cool. The unmarked will be all, without exception, cornered and cancelled by the Second Beast.
The Orthosphere 
JMSmith,
I feel the Beast constantly, which is probably why I warn those who think [rhyme] flight or any other sort of flight is any answer. No matter where you go sooner or later the Beast will come knocking on your door. He will be defeated, for sure. God bless; Mary keep. But even the elect would be lost if those days weren’t shortened.
The Beast will be defeated, but he may defeat me first. A soldier may be confident in the outcome of the war and still fear for his own life.
I once read a commentary on Revelation written in the 19thC. The author had a huge amount of difficulty with the “in the sight of man” phrase, and similar ones; how can the entire world see what is happening? Because he predated even the cinema, the modern world, where we see everything as it happens, was beyond his imagination. Yet John predicted it. I’ve found remembering his confusion helpful.
The line where the Second Beast makes the First live and speak can also be taken to anticipate cinema. I think “in the sight of man” simply means “as public performances” or “ostentatiously.”
I am reminded of the remark of an Oxford Professor of Divinity, on learning that one of his former students was writing a commentary on Revelation:
“Oh,dear! How very sad. Such a promising young man – And with a young family, too!”
According to Saint Photius the Great, the fox and wild Beast is the Filioque of Charlemagne, and the Carolingian Religion, FILIOQUE, is of the Two Beasts of Revelation, the HRE and the Papacy of Rome. Saint Photius. On the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit. Boston, MA: Studion Publishers, Inc., 1983.
May God have mercy on the souls of those who call “beast” the Holy Office of the Papacy.
LORD have mercy on the Papacy, Which REJECTS the REJECTION of FILIOQUE by Pope LEO III and by Pope JOHN VIII, and holds these Popes of ROME in CONTEMPT and DOES NOT LISTEN TO THE POPES OF ROME WHO FORBID FILIOQUE and THEY CONTRADICT THESE POPES OF ROME BY ADDING FILIOQUE TO THE CREED. The PAPACY is a HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF which CANNOT STAND ON THE BASIS OF VATICAN I. They reject POPES when they REJECT FILIOQUE.