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.
Power - `authority.'
Before him - `in his presence;' as ministering to him. The non-existence of the beast (Revelation 17:8) embraces the Germanic and Greek Christian period.
Which dwell therein - the earthly-minded. The Church becomes the harlot; the world's power, the anti-Christian beast; the world's wisdom, the false prophet. Christ's three offices are perverted: the first beast is the false kingship; the harlot, the false priesthood; the second beast, the false prophet. The beast is the bodily, the false prophet the intellectual, the harlot the spiritual power of anti-Christianity (Auberlen). The Old Testament Church stood under the beast, the pagan world-power: the Middle Ages Church under the harlot: in modern times the false prophet predominates. But in the last days all three shall cooperate; the false prophet causes men to worship the beast, and the beast carries the harlot, (Revelation 17:1-18.) These three are reducible to two: the apostate church and the apostate world, pseudo-Christianity and anti-Christianity, the harlot and the beast; for the false prophet is also a beast; and the two beasts, different manifestations of the same beastlike principle, are finally judged together, whereas separate judgment falls first on the harlot (Auberlen).
Deadly wounds - `wound of death.'