“They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?” Revelation 13:4
These people think that what they are seeing is supernatural and wrongly conclude that God must have a hand in it. But this is not the case. Those who are unaware of what the Scripture says and are unprepared for the last days are going to be easily deceived by the enemy. Satan knows that he has been defeated and is not going to be victorious. He delights in the suffering of others and so will take down with him as many people as he can.
In Daniel 8 the shaggy goat depicts this beast. The people alive at the time will feel helpless against him. The sentiment will be: “How can we wage war or win against him because he is supernatural?” We need to realize that we have the King of kings and the Lord of lords on our side. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, we have access to spiritual weapons. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) The final form of apostasy is not simply the worship of some pagan deity but the worship of Satan himself who in his whole program seeks to be like God. Because men worship Satan, they also worship the beast, that is, the man who rules over the revived Roman Empire. He is Satan’s substitute for Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, and to him the world as a whole flocks to give homage, The point in history where this takes place is apparently at the beginning of the great tribulation when the head of the revived Roman Empire, described here as the beast, is able to assume authority over the entire world.