Revelation 13:11: 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.

Revelation 13:10 is a transition verse that describes the Renaissance and Reformation that came before the latter-day restoration of the gospel in 1830.¹ In Revelation 13:11, John's continuing chronological vision² describes the scene when John beheld another beast.³ John's initial vision of this "Second Beast" coincides in time with the latter-day restoration of Christ's church in 1830. ⁴

The image of this Second Beast was outwardly different from the First Beast in Revelation 13:1-8, but they share several attributes.⁵ The Second Beast emerged as the metaphorical offspring⁶ of the First Beast⁷ during the Reformation.⁸ That is, John saw and symbolically described the myriad⁹ of Protestant churches¹⁰ that emerged from the mother church of Roman Catholicism.¹¹ He saw these Protestant churches coming up out of the earth,¹² as compared to the First Beast that rose from the sea (abyss) in Revelation 13:1.¹³ The Second Beast comes up out of the earth because the image¹⁴ represents the many churches and institutions formed by men on earth during and after the Reformation.¹⁵ They were not the restored church of Jesus Christ that came down from heaven.¹⁶

The Second Beast represents much more than just the mother church of Roman Catholicism¹⁷ and her Protestant offspring in the modern era.¹⁸ The Second Beast is the little horn from Daniel chapter 7, which grew in the midst of ten horns on the fourth dreadful beast.¹⁹ Nephi saw the same latter-day representation of the Second Beast in 1 Nephi 14, which he called the mother of abominations and whore of all the earth.²⁰ In Revelation 17:1, John describes the fully matured Second Beast of the latter days as the great whore that sitteth upon many waters,²¹ and Modern Babylon in Revelation 17:5.²² Whatever its name or title, the Second Beast is the latter-day symbol for earthly organizations,²³ manmade pseudo-religions,²⁴ worldly educational institutions,²⁵ greed-inspired businesses,²⁶ compulsory governments,²⁷ and any other organizational source of false philosophy²⁸ that weakens or destroys faith in Jesus Christ.²⁹ Through the earthly organizations of the Second Beast,³⁰ Satan promotes a myriad of evil isms.³¹ Some of the most damning isms of the latter days include atheism,³² communism,³³ deism,³⁴ hedonism,³⁵ humanism,³⁶ liberalism,³⁷ materialism,³⁸ modernism,³⁹ naturalism,⁴⁰ secularism,⁴¹ and socialism.⁴²

Today, a large number of religious and secular organizations have many praiseworthy attributes⁴³ and many good people among their members.⁴⁴ This is precisely why the Second Beast has the appearance of an innocent looking lamb.⁴⁵ Unfortunately, these lamb-like organizations have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof, as Joseph Smith was told during the First Vision.⁴⁶ In other words, they imitate⁴⁷ a goodly lamb in their outward appearance,⁴⁸ but on the inside they are antichrist.⁴⁹ In their true character, the lamb-like institutions of the Second Beast speak as a dragon.⁵⁰ Their latter-day deceptions have led to many false forms of worship⁵¹ and isms that cannot save anyone.⁵² Saving ordinances exist today⁵³ only in Christ's one true church,⁵⁴ which he named⁵⁵ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.⁵⁶ Since partial truths and isms⁵⁷ in other organizations cannot save anyone,⁵⁸ there are only two churches in the latter days‒precisely as Nephi foretold.⁵⁹ There is the one true church of the Lamb (Jesus Christ)⁶⁰ that saves, and then there are all other antithetical organizations that look like a lamb but speak as a dragon.⁶¹

The Second Beast has two horns which symbolize power,⁶² but there are no crowns (diadems) on the two horns.⁶³ The First Beast, by contrast, had ten horns with ten crowns to symbolize its absolute power to rule throughout the world of the Imperial Roman Empire followed by the Holy Roman Empire.⁶⁴ The horns on the Second Beast have no crowns because the Second Beast does not rule politically in the modern world⁶⁵ as the Roman church ruled politically in the Holy Roman Empire.⁶⁶ However, the Second Beast does not lack for power in the modern era because, as John states in Revelation 13:12, the Second Beast "exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him."⁶⁷

The two horns on the lamb-like Second Beast represent the secular and religious parts of Satan's kingdom on earth in the latter days.⁶⁸ Satan's first horn of secular power on the Second Beast influences⁶⁹ and corrupts⁷⁰ modern governments⁷¹ that have emerged from the First Beast (Roman Empire).⁷² The second horn represents the power of false religion, which is separately represented by the symbol of the Great Whore in Revelation chapter 17.⁷³ The two horns of secular and religious power on the Second Beast combine the powers of church and state⁷⁴ to promote the worldly ideals, idolatry, and ideology of the First Beast.⁷⁵

Most scholars equate the image of the Second Beast with the False Prophet identified in Revelation 16:13.⁷⁶ The two are closely related, but the image of the Second Beast is not a symbolic synonym for the False Prophet. The False Prophet is specifically distinguished from the First Beast in Revelation 16:13, which identifies the Dragon (Satan), the First Beast (Cain) and the False Prophet (Judas Iscariot) as separate symbols.⁷⁷ As Cain is the spiritual head of the First Beast, Judas Iscariot is the spiritual head of the Second Beast.⁷⁸ John also confirms their individual status as living spirits‒as opposed to earthly institutions‒in Revelation 19:20. In that verse, the disembodied spirit of Cain as head of the First Beast, and the disembodied spirit of Judas as the False Prophet and head of the Second Beast, will be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone at the Second Coming.⁷⁹

John said the lamb-like Second Beast spake as a dragon⁸⁰ to describe its true Satanic nature.⁸¹ The Second Beast is a wolf in sheep's clothing,⁸² which the Savior predicted before his death.⁸³ This latter-day imagery confirms the role of Judas as the spiritual head of the Second Beast. Judas was an apostle of the Lamb, but he was also the deceptive devil who betrayed the Savior.⁸⁴ With the restoration of the true church and apostolic authority in the latter days,⁸⁵ the disembodied spirit of Judas stands as the antithetical head of a new generation of apostates and wolves within the true latter-day church.

In these last days, the Dragon (Satan)⁸⁶ speaks great evils⁸⁷ through the people, churches, and organizations that are the Second Beast.⁸⁸ His words are flattering⁸⁹ and deceptively pleasing to the carnal mind.⁹⁰ The Second Beast speaks with the power of the devil.⁹¹ His power is amplified by modern technology that gives Satan unlimited power⁹² to speak to almost all people at all times in every nation on earth.⁹³ Daniel predicted this when he saw the little horn in Daniel chapter 7 that is symbolically the same as John's latter-day Second Beast. The little horn (Second Beast) has a mouth given him in Daniel 7:25 that is so powerful it will wear out the saints of the most High in the last days.⁹⁴ However, and fortunately, Judas and the Second Beast will not have power to overcome all the saints in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints⁹⁵ as Cain and the First Beast overcame the saints of Christ's ancient church during the Great Apostasy.⁹⁶