“Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.” Revelation 13:11-12
An empire/government will rise up, out of instability, and rule the world. This empire will bring short term stability and is going to bring about the means for the manifestation of the Antichrist. This beast, rising up from the land, is the Antichrist. He is going to emerge from out of this empire. The Antichrist is going to create stability out of instability, and it is because of this that he will be put into power. His words are not like the words of God, but are the words of Satan. The Antichrist will take a leadership position over this empire. The mortal blow is referring to an empire that the world thought was totally destroyed, but it is going to manifest itself again. This empire was one that was disastrous, wicked and one that the world did not want. The world is going to stand amazed as it revives itself and they will feel helpless against it. It has supernatural power and so the world will follow after it, submit to it and worship it. If we live to the end of this age, there will be no sitting on the fence, we will either worship the true Lamb or we will worship the false one – the antichrist.
There is some evidence pointing to the conclusion that the second beast is the head of the apostate church during the first half of Daniel’s seventieth week. With the rise of the first beast to a place of worldwide dominion, the apostate church is destroyed according to Revelation 17:16 and the worship of the whole world are directed to the beast out of the sea. The second beast, however, survives the destruction of the church which had been under his control, and he assists the beast in making the transition. Facilitating this change into the final form of apostate religion, the beast out of the earth causes men to worship the first beast. This is the final false prophet (called such in 16:13; 19:20; 20:10) who promotes Antichrist’s power and convinces the world to worship him as God. This companion beast will be the chief, most persuasive proponent of Satanic religion (see 16:13; 19:20; 20:10). Antichrist will be primarily a political and military leader, but the false prophet will be a religion; Satan’s mouthpiece and thus his message will be like the dragon. Satan is the source of all false religion.