14 It [the Earth Beast] deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence [location] of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 It was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 And it makes everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.
Revelation 13
As we have read earlier, the Earth Beast is the UN, associated agencies, and united governments around the world. We saw how the Earth Beast brutally attacked the Middle East for decades, calling down missiles (fire from heaven) where the Sea Beast (Islam) lives. We now examine the creation of the Image Beast in the context.
Revelation 13:14 says that the Earth Beast commands us to make an image of the Sea Beast that it has attacked. By this stage, the Sea Beast (which has previously been identified as Islam) was wounded by the sword and yet lived; we know this to be the loss of the “head” of Islam in 1924 when the Caliphate was abolished, but Islam continued to live. The Earth Beast tells us to make an image of Islam, and we did so with billions of dollars, to promote “true” Islam, not the “false Islam” of ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Based on a deception & giving power to the Image Beast
But what is the deception of verse 14? The reasons for calling down missiles to where the beast is, was based on a deception. The world accused Iraq, ISIS, Al-Qaeda of having weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as justification for the wars. People were told by their governments that we were attacking false Islam, not true Islam, when the reverse was true. Hundreds of billions of dollars was poured into the media, and media associated organisations (universities, fact-checks, inter-faith dialogues) to promote Islam, albeit a western-palatable version of Islam. The world was saturated with the slogan, “Islam means peace”.
During this time, Governments enacted laws to protect Islam from criticism. The media, receiving billions of dollars in funding to promote this new version of Islam, literally blamed anyone who was killed by Muslims as being responsible for their own deaths. The infamous Mohammad cartoons are a perfect example. Soldiers were killed at home by Muslims. This happened around the world, but in the West in particular: the hatred from Islam on the West, was “our fault” for not respecting Islam. In so doing, the Earth Beast gave the Image Beast power to speak.
“Islamophobia makes democracies less safe for everyone”1 and other such articles pointed the blame of the attacks onto the West’s lack of respect or Islamophobia. Other media representations tell us that people such as ISIS (lead by a man with a PhD in Islamic studies) are not true Muslims and that they misrepresent Islam 2.
To make it clear, the West still calls the violent committed in the name of Islam, bad, but blames the attacks on the disrespect of Islam. They even say that the perpetrators of the worse atrocities aren’t true Muslims, but still blame the attacks on the victims for their disrespect of Islam.
The Cater Centre and many others proposed making disrespect of Islam into law. And many nations breathed life into this false image of Islam by giving it force of law. Daniel Scot was one of the first to be charged with inciting hatred or disrespect of Islam, and while the case ultimately failed in the Supreme Court of Victoria due to errors on the original tribunal judgement, it opened the gates to prosecution for those who speak against Islam. The UK developed a police unit that specifically combs the internet for media posts of its citizens. Germany has taken multinational companies to court who allow anti-Islamic speach, even where they’re not based in Germany. It is not that you can’t say true things about Islam, it is about whether Muslims are offended; and if a complaint is lodged, you can expect the force of the law to come after you. Social Media companies are compelled by law to censor or even censure users who do not respect Islam and other agendas. This Image Beast now has power to speak.
But Scripture says it would cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed
The word “cause” here is the generic verb “to do”, not ‘force’ or ‘make’. In the context, the Image Beast has the power to speak, and therefore the generic verb here should be a speaking verb, such as “say”, “declare”, “demand”. There are numerous examples in Scripture where it is translated as ‘declare’ in the context of speaking (not all translations have translated it as “declare”) John 5:18; John 8:53; John 10:33; John 19:7, 12; 1 John 1:10; 1 John 5:10, and many others that could swap ‘make’ for one of the generic actions of speaking above (e.g., Matthew 12:16; Luke 5:33; Acts 5:34; 8:2; 23:12-13).
It is worthwhile reading: Is Revelation 13:15 hyperbole?
Translators are genuinely trying to accurately convey the meaning of the text, and it is difficult when we only usually see prophecy fulfilled in hindsight. It is made more difficult by translators’ own eschatology. But it should be evident that the Image Beast cannot “cause” or “force” you, as it only has power to speak; it has no power to command. The Image Beast we created, has no temporal authority.
No worship = killed?
We have written elsewhere on what worship means in Scripture and in the context of this beast in Revelation. And now, bare in mind that the Image Beast can speak, but it cannot force anyone. The Earth Beast can force you, but the Image Beast cannot.
Verse 15 uses ἀποκτανθῶσιν to describe ‘killed’. One of the definitions by Strongs’ (ἀποκτείνω – G615[2]) is “to destroy, to allow to perish, whether literally or metaphorically.” Greek also has other words that convey killing, murder, etc rather than the more generic ἀποκτείνω (apokteinō).
Google translates “ἀποκτανθῶσιν “ as “get rid of” rather than “kill”. Strongs’ defines ἀπό as ‘separation, so as to put out of the way’. We see that it is therefore a desire to “get rid of” and “separate out of” rather than actively kill (Romans 7:11; Ephesians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 3:6). Likewise Mark 3:4 makes more sense in the context of ‘allowing to perish’ (also as per Strongs’) rather than actively killing, and some translations do translate it this way.
Thus the sentiment expressed by the Image Beast that we make, is that those who don’t take the Mark or don’t worship the Sea Beast, can and should be removed from society, or it is desirable that they should die/suffer, or be allowed to die. Perhaps the Media would wish death upon these people who refused the Mark or worship the Beast, rather than mandating a lawful program to actively kill these people.
We have seen recent examples of this, firstly in Islam, were anti-Islamic statements are met by the media (snd social media) calls for the speaker to be killed, destroyed, loss of livelihood etc. And secondly, in dealing with COVID; if you did not accept the COVID solution (vax, mask, QR-codes) you were demonised; vax mandates for work or shopping, concentration camps, loss of children, denial of treatment, removal from transplant lists, etc.
The Media is the Image Beast. This leads to the Mark of the Beast.