The Image of the Beast

The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed. —Revelation 13:15

In the book of Revelation, the beast suffers a mortal head wound but lives. This will result in him becoming the image of the beast: Antichrist → Beast → Image of the Beast. The beast is the antichrist, and no one knows who the antichrist will be until he’s revealed. So, we continue to watch.

Barack Obama and Recep Erdoğan have been examined in previous posts as possible candidates for the antichrist. But let’s remember that Satan is the god of this world and he’s always working to deceive. For example, we know that the antichrist comes on a white horse. Is Kim Jong Un the blasphemous little horn because he likes riding a white horse?

Many believe that Vladimir Putin is Gog from Ezekiel 38—the invasion of Israel. This is possible because Turkey, Iran, and Russia are in Syria right now. But is Gog the antichrist? Let’s take a look at this murmuration:

The beast will suffer a mortal head wound by the sword and live. The sword can represent a violent act.

One of the heads of the beast appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. (Revelation 13:3)

After the mortal head wound, an image is made of the beast and breath is given to his image. Artificial intelligence will a role to play in this. The beast could be shot in the back of the head with the bullet exiting his right eye.

After a devastating head wound, the brain of the mortally wounded antichrist will be wired, literally or wirelessly, into AI. However, the image of the beast could be the antichrist’s image on social media seen around the world, as the apostle John might have seen it in 90 A.D. We can use the following images as examples:

The image of the beast could be something like a hologram as well:

The image of the beast could also be something like Apple’s Vision Pro, a 3-D technology that allows a realistic, captured 3-D image of a person that can be superimposed to any location in the world that speaks any language. Basically, Apple Vision Pro is seeing the real world with digital objects in it, including digital humans. This is referred to as mixed reality.

Even though the physical body of the antichrist, the beast, might be laying on a slab somewhere kept alive by medical science, his image will go forth into the world. Satan himself will be speaking through the image of the beast. As God manifested himself naturally through childbirth, so Satan will manifest himself artificially through AI. The image will most likely be a transhuman, like an AI robot, or a cyborg.

Jesus Christ refers to the evilest man that will ever live as an abomination. The beast will be the abomination that causes desolation. With no prior knowledge of anything, the following image was drawn by a third grader on January 4, 2023:

Note how the right eye is slightly larger and the red color (blood) on the arm (see Zechariah 11:17).

Let’s look at some more foolishness in the world. This is The Giant:

The Giant is the world’s tallest moving statue at 112 feet. The company projects the likeness of a celebrity or a private citizen onto the statue. This can remind us of Las Vegas in the 1960’s and 1970’s in which a neon sign was used to show a crude likeness of a person for a price. This is the same concept with The Giant. Here’s an excerpt from the sales pitch:

The attraction offers significant economic benefits to cities where it will be located providing a diversity of jobs and attracting local and international tourists and residents who will increase footfall in the vicinity. Besides income from ticket sales, The Giant provides several revenue producing opportunities including advertising on the spectacular three-dimensional digital statue; Giant selfies where every visitor can be scanned and instantly displayed on the sculpture creating the most awe-inspiring selfie in the world;

The Giant could be a shadow of things to come as well.

A Shadow of the Image

Let’s compare a type and shadow of the image of the beast from Daniel to the image of the beast from Revelation.

King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:1)

This is a very tall and thin statue. It’s approximately 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. Let’s scale this down to 9 centimeters high and 1 centimeter wide:

This can remind us of an obelisk such as in ancient Egypt or the Washington Monument. It also might remind us of Slenderman:

Slender Man as a modern meme, has many similarities to traditional mythology, folklore, and legend in different civilizations throughout the world, usually with respect to a tall or slender-like creature that stalks its victims at night. Additional attributes that Slender Man shares with historical legendary creatures are its frightening appearance and lack of facial features. Slender Man in Mythology and Culture | The Slender Man Wiki | Fandom

Alice Baily, a Theosophical writer and the founder of Lucis Trust (formerly called The Lucifer Publishing Company), said she was visited by a tall man: Her autobiography states that at the age of 15, on June 30, 1895, Bailey was visited by a stranger, “…a tall man, dressed in European clothes and wearing a turban” who told her she needed to develop self-control to prepare for certain work he planned for her to do. This turned out to be the creation and publication of 19 books, together with educational and meditation work that reached “practically all the countries of the world”.^[8]

Let’s continue in Daniel 3:

And whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace.” (Daniel 3:6)

The word statue in Daniel 3:1 can also be translated as image. With that said, let’s go back to Revelation 13:

14 Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived. 15 The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed. (Revelation 13:14-15)

The image of the beast is different than the statue. The image of the beast speaks, and those who don’t worship it are killed, most likely beheaded. In Daniel, those who don’t worship the statue are killed as well, thrown into the fiery furnace. In Revelation, those who do worship the image of the beast will be thrown into the eternal fiery furnace. So, those who don’t worship the image of the beast are killed on earth but receive eternal life, and those who do worship the image of the beast are thrown into eternal fire.

King Nebuchadnezzar orders the furnace to be heated up 7 times hotter than usual:

At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual, (Daniel 3:19)

The fire was so hot it killed the men carrying Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Should we believe that hell will be any less hot? In the context of the end of the age, Jesus makes a reference to the fiery furnace. He’s talking about those who practice lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:42)

You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them. (Psalm 21:9)

We can avoid the fate of the fiery furnace by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and repenting of wrongdoing. Let’s keep Jesus’s word of faithful endurance no matter what happens in this futile world.

20 The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Acts 2:20-21)

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