Rev 13:11-18 says, "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast."

The first beast was a government system, and so is this second beast, although it is not purely political. This beast has two horns like a lamb but it speaks like a dragon. This is religious symbolism: Jesus and Satan. The first beast came out of the sea of humanity, but this one comes up out of the earth. Things grow out of the earth, but first they have to be planted. This is a religious system that was planted by Satan at the time of Eden and has been growing since that time.

In Rev. 17 we see the personification of a nation and its religious aspects at the time of the end.  Her name is Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth, and she illustrates two religious systems. Harlot religions are those that claim to honor Jesus Christ but at the same time elevate other persons or spiritual beings to equality with him or superiority over him; abomination religions are occultism; and both belief systems are the two sides of a single coin. Whether heads or tails, it is the same coin: false religion.

This second beast has two horns, and as we have already seen, horns represent kings. So this beast has two kings and they will be in conflict with each other for superiority of their religion as the one that will triumph. Eventually there will be a confrontation and the winner will be the person the Bible calls the False Prophet.

"And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly was healed." We already saw this worship of the first beast, the government, back in verse 4. This indicates that here in verse 12 we are returning to events that occur toward the beginning of the tribulation, which is when this second beast arises out of the earth. This beast is exercising all the power of the first beast, who in turn is a triune system of government encompassing politics, religion and economics. This beast is particularly exercising the religious power. Apparently he will put on a great show that will cause the earth to worship.

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." I believe this is a confrontation between the two horns (kings) - the leaders of the Harlot and Abomination sides of the endtime false religion. We see such a confrontation in I Kings 18 between Elijah and the priests of Baal. "And the God that answers by fire, let him be God." In that incident Baal did not respond but the God of heaven did. Here in Rev. 13 the God of heaven is not involved. There won't be a true miracle of God, but there will be a "miracle" and a winner. The Harlot religion, the one who claims to hold the name of Jesus, will be destroyed because that name cannot be tolerated. Acts 4:12 says "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Phil. 2:9-10 "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." That name is the word of choice for cursing, even in non-Christian cultures, because of the power in that name. Satan suffered a public defeat in I Kings, he won't want to go through that again. Question is, if he couldn't produce fire from heaven at that time, how could he do it now?

Another possibility is the baseball sized neutron bomb which can limit the destruction to an area as small as one square mile. New Agers hate and plan to destroy the Vatican. Fatima involved the miracle of the dancing sun, which may have been mass hypnosis: Satan cannot move the sun because Jesus upholds all things, including the sun, by the word of his power. Whatever this fire coming down really is, the False Prophet has a big problem: the real Elijah will be present on earth (one of the two witnesses of Rev. 11) and he will no doubt be speaking the truth about what is occurring. I believe the winner of this confrontation will be the person the Bible calls the False Prophet, and from the time of the confrontation the False Prophet will be the religious leader of the world.

The False Prophet is not the third person of the unholy trinity. God is worshipped and this False Prophet is never worshipped. The third person of the unholy trinity must answer to the Holy Spirit and the False Prophet is not a spirit, he is a prophet. He exactly answers to John the Baptist, pointing the way to him who follows. Unlike John, this person won't be killed - he will continue his 'ministry' right through the tribulation.

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image of the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." All the miracles performed by the False Prophet are deceiving and are calculated to mislead people into worshipping the beast. They can only be done in the sight of the beast and they are public because they must deceive others.