Sunday November 23, 2025 | Greg Boyd
Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Greg Boyd clarifies the meaning of the second beast in Revelation 13, naming it as the beast of “wow and wonder,” as it aims to expand our attention on the first beast. Greg then identifies common strategies the second beast uses in our culture today, offering ways to identify these issues along with three challenges for resisting the beast.
In this sermon, Greg addresses the nature of the second beast from Revelation 13. This beast works on behalf of the first, which is the beast of perpetual ascent. The goal is to get all focused and entrapped by the need to ascend, to attain more without any sense of satisfaction.
First, a couple of points of interpretation are helpful because these issues often distract from the primary message of this vision. The number 666 is not a “mark of the beast” that comes upon unbelievers in the last days. Instead it is a code that refers to a person. In this case, it is Nero Caesar, who enforced wide persecution during the first century. John is using Nero Caesar as a prototype of evil rulers of all oppressive empires who manipulate and deceive masses in anti-Christ ways to win allegiance.
The second thing to note is that the Roman Empire regularly held local religious festivals that put on impressive magical displays to convince crowds that the Emperor was divine and that the empire was destined by the gods to reign forever. Revelation 13 mentions that the second beast could send fire from heaven and cause statues to come to life. There is good evidence that these spectacular displays of magic was simply new technology that few knew about. They were used to manipulate the masses. As the science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any significant technological advance is indistinguishable from magic.”
Greg asks where we see the second beast at work today. Where do we see new technology looking like magic and winning people’s allegiance to the lie that our global empire will have peace, safety and prosperity forever? The answer to this question is “everywhere.”
Greg then lays out for us how technology has advanced. Over the last 75 years, there has been more technological advancement than in all of previous history combined. To those who lived before 1950, microwaves, cell phones, GPS and AI all appear to be magic. With each advance, life seems to improve, and we can easily join the intoxicated masses by bowing to the power of technology.
While technology itself is neutral, as it can be used for good or evil, there are unintended consequences that come with each new advance. For instance, there are a great number of benefits to plastic, but it also contains forever chemicals. We are also seeing the unintended effects of social media upon our lives, even though it offers ways to stay connected to others. Then there are the challenges that AI presents.
We are called to be a resistance movement as a part of God’s kingdom. If we don’t resist, then we will find that we are going with the flow of everyone else. Greg offers three things that we can do to resist the second beast. First, stay sober with your relationship to technology. We live in the world, but we cannot be intoxicated by it. One way that we can do this is to limit our screen time. Second, see through the deception. Technology pundits would have us believe that technology is far more beneficial than it actually is. We must see it for what it is, not for what it overpromises. Third, ask yourself where you get your “wow.” We must rediscover the wow and wonder of the things that really matter.