The False Prophet, Now and Then
“Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.” – Revelation 13:11-12
The Beast from the Earth
Any commentator on Sacred Scripture has to exercise a great deal of caution, mostly because one can always mistakenly become an eisegete instead of an exegete. That is, one can read into a text one’s own thoughts and ideas, rather than drawing from the text what the author (both human and divine) mean to convey. This is particularly true in the Book of Revelation/Apocalypse of St. John. As G.K. Chesterton said in an excellent comment in his classic Orthodoxy, “Though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.” So it is with some wariness I venture to comment on the Book of Revelation, always choosing to ground myself in Tradition, and the Church Fathers.
The Book of Revelation is full of many images, all of which are meant to convey a spiritual truth to the mind of the reader. The Book of Revelation is both an eschatology, but also in some respects a theology of history, not unlike St. Augustine’s De Civitate Dei. Many of themes St. John visits under divine inspiration are the same themes which the Old Testament Prophets and Christ himself presented in their own inspired words. It is significant in both how he presents the images and themes in his own words, and also reinterprets and reapplies old images.
One image that has long since fascinated me is the image and concept of the “Beast of the Earth”, which according to the overwhelming majority of commentators, represents a False Prophet. He acts in a sense as an anti-John the Baptist, or can perhaps be called the anti-Aaron to the Old Testament’s Moses. St. Paul makes a similar analogy when comparing to religious deception in the Last Days as being like that of Jannes and Jambres, (2 Timothy 3:8) two sorcerer-priests who opposed Moses before the Exodus. In both Testaments, the coming of Christ and his predecessors are often preceded by heralds who announce the “Day of Visitation” upon the world and upon God’s people. The False Prophet, much like the Antichrist, will do deeds contrary to the great heralds of salvation history. This proceeds from a principle taken from Late Antique ‘Antichristology’ that “[Antichrist] will be contrary to Christ in all things; that is, he will do deeds contrary to Christ.”* So too, the False Prophet’s purpose, to draw from the Book of Revelation itself, is to deceive, and to induce all people to worship the Beast of the Sea, which overwhelmingly is interpreted as the Antichrist. He thus attempts to appear “like a Lamb”, but when he opens his mouth, he speaks “as a Dragon”, which indicates he is a ‘dragon in sheep’s clothing’, speaking the words of the Devil himself.
The False Prophet/Beast from the Earth’s Mission, then, is to deceive and to create confusion, and then also to summon the people to false worship. Ultimately, this leads to total submission to the Antichrist, as the False Prophet forces all the people to take the infamous “Mark of the Beast” on their foreheads and hands. This progression of events is typical in the Biblical framework, as false beliefs lead to false worship, and false worship, which is idolatry, ultimately leads to slavery.
The Spirit of the False Prophet at Work in History
We know from the First Epistle of St. John that the spirit of Antichrist is already at work in the world. St. John speaks of many “antichrists” which were even at work within St. John’s own time. St. Paul likewise speaks of the “mystery of iniquity” already at work before the Second Coming. Would it be too much of a logical stretch to suggest that just as the spirit of antichrist is at work, and so is the Holy Spirit opposed to it, so too there are spirits of the false prophet at work in the world? I believe this reading can be inferred, if not deduced, from the Old Testament belief that lying spirits inspired the works and words of False Prophets, and that belief was repeated by St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, particularly in the case of the exorcism of the Python, where a girl prophecied by means of a demon (Acts 16:16-21). Ancient Christian tradition also endorses this belief, in that the oracles of the Greeks and Romans, spoken in the name of their gods, were widely considered to be demonic in origin, especially those of Delphi.**
Another sobering insight taken from the Scriptures is that at times, God allows people to become victims of False Prophets because of their own love of falsehood. So we read St. Paul’s statement that God allows people who love depravity to ultimately have what they want (Romans 1:25). This can be seen in the life of the idolatrous King Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:21), and also in the lives of all those who “refused to love the truth, and so be saved” whom God allows to be deceived by “[sending] upon them strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)
In this same vein, St. Paul warns Timothy that people will have “itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3) and will be unwilling to listen to truth. In order to remedy this, St. Paul enjoins Timothy as a cleric to preach the word without fail.
In St. John’s Second Epistle, he gives an interesting warning: “Any one who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son.” (2 John 9) What does St. John mean by “going ahead”? The Greek προαγω literally means to “lead forth, precede, go before” or “go too far”. This word is used twenty other times in the New Testament, typically when Christ, the Disciples or other people are “going ahead” of one another. Hence, Christ uses this verb when speaking of prostitutes and sinners “going before” the Pharisees into the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 21:31).
In Saint John’s own words then, the “Doctrine of Christ” is essentially conservative, and it is quite possible to go ahead of Christ’s Doctrine, and in so doing, lose God. He says this only two verses after warning, once again, about the Antichrist.
The Spirit of the False Prophet at work today
It is always dangerous for anyone in any time in history to take eschatological paradigms or figures and apply them strictly to individuals or institutions. This has been done so many times throughout history, perhaps even to an embarrassing extent. Thus, everyone from Martin Luther, the Emperor Nero, or the Pope have been called the Antichrist, even during their lifetime. This was because of their perceived (or actual) antagonism to Christians and Christian Faith.
On the other hand, while there is a way we can abuse these eschatological titles, there is also a way we can prudently and judiciously use them in order to identify the forces of religious deception and idolatry at work in the world today. Abuse of a thing does not take away its use, and so too using words like “Antichrist” or “False Prophet”.
Returning to my point made previously, we should first recall that typically in the Bible, False Prophets abound because people either ignore or persecute true ones. In this vein, the Prophet Amos, one of very few true prophets in Israel in his day, would call a paucity of true prophets a divine punishment, a “famine on the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11)
Today, perhaps more than ever in history, people with “itching ears” are able to indulge themselves by seeking and following any message which suits their inclination. In some respects, this is good. You can talk to literally thousands of experts in every conceivable field at the click of a mouse. Yet at the same time, there is a huge amount of misinformation and disinformation around. This is especially true where the mentality of religious liberalism abounds, which is fundamentally anti-dogmatic and subjective.
Where do we find this preeminently today? We see it in every form of religious deception, by which people are induced to worship false idols. Even though none of these particular men and women may be the False Prophet of the time just before Christ’s coming, all of them participate in that piece of the cosmic drama. It is particularly egregious in those voices in the Church who have the appearance of a lamb, but speak as a dragon. We think of Bishops, Priests and other leaders who routinely urge disobedience and dissent from the teachings of Christ and his Church. Even more blasphemously, some of these people call Christ’s teaching “hate”, and so incurring God’s curse for those who “call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)
I know especially, in light of my recent essays, that many people want to readily call certain hierarchs false prophets. That may be. But I urge caution: a false prophet is not someone who practices sin. Otherwise, every true prophet would be unable to speak God’s words. A false prophet is one who proclaims and encourages false worship. This is far more dangerous. I understand that people are rightly alarmed about pederasty and homosexuality in the clergy, among other problems. This is certainly a problem, perhaps even the besetting sin of our times, but it is not our primary or most dangerous problem. All sorts of sin and crime, even heinous sin and crime, has always been with us. It has been the object of constant reform in every age of Church history. We must do our best to overcome it.
Here and now, as for centuries, the most dangerous aspect of the current problem is that these same men who commit sin are also the ones who have proclaimed for decades teachings directly contrary to the Gospel. They did not just drink the poisoned chalice of moral and spiritual perversity, but they passed it to their bride, the Church.
As an example of what I mean, we can read Ludwig von Pastor’s words on Alexander VI, the Borgia Pope who was infamous for his nepotism and personal sexual depravity. Although he himself would be declared unfit for ministry by most people today, nevertheless it is admitted by no one less than that great historian of the Popes that “Alexander exerted himself not only to maintain the purity of the Christian faith, but also to provide for its propagation.” He may not have been personally virtuous, but he certainly did not seek to destroy the faith. How different from the situation in which we find ourselves today!
While scandal is most certainly a grave sin, in that it causes others to stumble by means of a bad moral example, heresy is even worse, because it creates the environment by which evil beliefs and actions are not just tolerated, but celebrated. This to me is the ultimate expression of moral obstinacy, when one says in the words of Milton, “Evil, be thou my good.” (Paradise Lost, IV, 109-110) If a Priest or Bishop sins sexually or otherwise, I think we should be quick to show him the same mercy and compassion which we would show any sinner in our evil culture, because he swims against the same tides as the rest of us. However, if a Priest or Bishop both commits sin, loves his sin, and proclaims a life of compromise so as to constitute a threat to Christian faith and morals, I believe this is far more serious, and the prospect of his healing and restoration is almost impossible, save a miracle of divine grace. I intend to return to this subject in a future essay.
We are all Christ’s sheep, and it is possible for any of us to go astray. But when one of Christ’s sheep speaks with the words of a dragon, and rapaciously and actively seeks to destroy the integrity of the Church’s faith and morals, such a person is an enemy of the spiritual common good. In the environment of current agitation, it is important to not just identify the depth of the current problems, but the breadth. The problem is not just sin in the Church. The problem is celebrated sin. The problem is false prophets.
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*Taken from Epistola Adsonis ad Gerbergam Reginam de Ortu et Tempore Antichristi (Letter of Adso to Queen Gerberga, concerning the Rise and Time of the Antichrist). “Quia Christo in cunctis contrarius erit, id est Christo contraria faciet.” Abbot Anso lived in the 10th century, as Abbot of Montier-en-Der, France.
**Curiously, Ancient Christians, much like Jews commenting on the False Prophet Balaam, often had an ambivalent view toward pagan prophecies. For instance, the Sibylline oracles, which were frequently forgeries, were widely disseminated and quoted even into the Second Millenium after Christ. However, most of the time, pagan prophecy was considered at best fanciful, and at worst inspired by demonic power.
