And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
And with him ... So 'Aleph ('); but A, 'and those with him;' B, 'and the false prophet who was with him.'
Miracles - `the miracles' ('signs') recorded already (Revelation 13:14) as performed by the second beast in sight of the first beast. Therefore the second beast is the false prophet. Many represent the first beast the secular, the second the ecclesiastical, power of Rome; and think the change of title for the latter, from the 'other beast' to the "false prophet," is because, by the judgment on the harlot, the ecclesiastical power will then retain nothing except the power to deceive. I think the false prophet will succeed to the spiritual pretensions of the papacy; while the beast, in Its last form, as the fully-revealed Antichrist, will be the secular embodiment of the fourth world-kingdom, Rome, in its last intensified opposition to God. Compare Ezekiel 38:1-23; Ezekiel 39:1-29; Daniel 2:34-35; Daniel 2:44; Daniel 11:44-45; Daniel 12:1; Joel 3:9-17; Zechariah 12:1-14; Zechariah 13:1-9; Zechariah 14:1-21. Daniel (Revelation 7:1-17; Revelation 8:1-13) does not mention the second beast, but "the little horn" with "the eyes of a man" - i:e., spiritual and intellectual culture.
This is expressed by the apocalyptic "false prophet," embodying man's unsanctified knowledge, derived from the old serpent. The first beast is political, the second is spiritual. Both are beasts-anti-Christian wisdom serving anti-Christian power-both lion and serpent. As God's moral government requires that "judgment should begin at the house of God," executed on the harlot, the faithless Church, by the world-power with which she intrigued, so also that the world-power, after being God's instrument of punishment, should itself be punished. As the harlot is judged by the beast and the ten kings, so these are destroyed by the Lord in person. So Zechariah 1:1-21: cf. Revelation 2:1-29. Jeremiah, after denouncing Jerusalem's judgment by Babylon, ends with denouncing Babylon's own. In the interval between judgment on the harlot, and the Lord's destruction of the beast, etc., earthly mindedness will culminate, and anti-Christianity triumph, for its short three and a half days while the two witnesses lie dead. Then shall the Church be ripe for glorification, the anti-Christian world for destruction. The world, at its highest development of material and spiritual power, is but a decorated carcass round which the eagles gather. Antichrist and his kings, in their blindness, imagine they can war against the King of heaven with earthly hosts: betraying the extreme folly of Babylonian confusion. The Lord's appearance, without actual encounter, shows Antichrist his nothingness. Compare the effect of Jesus' appearance even in His humiliation, John 18:6 (Auberlen).
Had received - `received,' once for all.
Them that worshipped - `them worshipping:' not an act once for all, as "received," but in the habit of 'worshipping.'
These both were cast alive into a lake - `the lake of fire,' Gehenna. Satan is subsequently cast in, at the close of the outbreak, after the millennium (Revelation 20:10). Then death and hell, with those not found at the general judgment "written in the book of life:" this constitutes "the second death." "Alive" - a living death; not annihilation. 'Their worm dieth not, their fire is not quenched' (Mark 9:44; Mark 9:46; Mark 9:48).