Beast 8.2: Religion=Power=Beast #2
 
 
Revelation 13:11Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. Any clues as to the identity of the cheer-leader for the beast? Resembles a lamb - perhaps the Lamb of God – the messiah – but speaks like a dragon – resorts to the language of force and violence when grace and truth are not sufficient to establish his authority “Nonetheless, establishing Christ’s divinity was critical to the further unification of the Roman empire and to the new Vatican power base. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable. This not only precluded further pagan challenges to Christianity, but now the followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves only via the established sacred channel – the Roman Catholic Church. It was all about power.. Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of Church and state. Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity and using it to expand their own power… … Jesus was indeed a great and powerful man. Constantine’s underhanded political manoeuvres don’t diminish the majesty of Christ’s life. Nobody is saying Christ was a fraud, or denying that He walked the earth and inspired millions to better lives. All we are saying is that Constantine took advantage of Christ’s substantial influence and importance. And in doing so, he shaped the face of Christianity as we know it today. The fictional Sir Leigh Teabing in Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” page 315-6 If you are inclined to take offence at this idea, just bear in mind that Jesus himself said he had not come to destroy the Law of Moses or the interpretation of that law by the prophets. He had come to fulfil them, not destroy them. So it can be argued that Jesus had no intention of starting a new church. He just wanted to reform the existing one. Revelation 13:12 He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. Revelation 13:13-15 And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. Revelation 13:16-18 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.  The end-times biblical prophecy enthusiasts have always suggested that this beast is the Roman Empire. Later updating has turned it into the European Common Market as the new face of Rome. Another twist on this idea is that it is the United Nations, unduly influenced by the Vatican. It’s enough to raise the hackles of any self respecting Catholic. The fundamentalist, evangelical bible teacher Chuck Missler (Cosmic Codes), who has made a study of age old bible commentaries, reflects this idea in his analysis of what Daniel was saying about the really scary beast with the iron jaws, usually referred to as the Roman Empire. So why blame the Romans? Why must they be caricatured as the scary beast? Given the exercises in political power sharing and trading over the centuries of the Roman Catholic church, there are a lot of end times prophecy buffs who treat the two as synonymous.  The Scandinavian-cum-Germans-cum-Goths were really rather benign rulers of the Roman Emperor – Constantine was one of them. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) laid down the structural framework by which the church could outlive the old Empire. Even given its lack of success with Holy Roman Emperors, the Vatican today still claims the status of a political kingdom of the world. If they could wheel and deal with Hitler, they could wheel and deal with the Devil (or the Anti Christ Beast) himself,  Beast_please_explain.html
Another sacrilege emerged from tainted earth A sycophantic acolyte, assistant to the first In guise of Lamb did praise his commerce foul Did sanctify perversity all dressed in robe and cowl With dragon’s words, he wrought unholy fire An image of the beast men to inspire The dragon gave that image monstrous speech And all that would not worship it their power he did impeach The beast gathered to him the minds he had remade The rich the poor, the free man and the slave Sealed them head and hand, three sixes there he laid And them that would not bear that mark could neither work nor trade Going on half of seven years With vile words instilled his bitter fear And them that bore Jah’s seal upon their heads He rearranged their times and laws and left them all for dead 

Religion=Power Over People = Beast #2