in modern times by Germany as the successor to Rome, the sixth world power, which was gradually transformed from pagan Rome to the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation. It received a deathstroke during World War I, from which it was healed; it has been only partially healed from the wound it received during World War II.

To have the mark of this beast upon one’s forehead or hands means that one is giving support to Satan’s organization, mentally or physically, thereby violating the command to “keep oneself without spot from the world.” (Jas. 1:27) Such friendship with the world, however, means enmity with God.

This beast is said to have a number, 666. In the Scriptures the number six is a symbol of imperfection or incompleteness. (1 Sam. 17:4; 2 Sam. 21:20; Dan. 3:1) Satan’s visible organization is composed of three basic ruling elements, false religion, greedy commerce and worldly politics. These three would well be pictured by the imperfect number 666; false religion by 600, greedy commerce by 60 and worldly politics by 6, the larger the number the greater the degree of reprehensibility connected with it. At Armageddon this wild beast, Satan’s visible organization, is lined up with Satan and his demon hordes in their fight against Christ, the King of kings, and in that war this beast and its cohorts will suffer total defeat.—Rev. 13:18; 14:9, 11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:19, 20.

The Two-horned Beast

AT Daniel 8:20 an angel of God told Daniel that the two-horned ram that he saw represented the dual kingdom of Medo-Persia. By this explanation God throws light on what is represented by the wild beast that the apostle John saw after having seen the dragon and the wild beast that ascended out of the sea: “And I saw another wild beast ascending out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, but it began speaking as a dragon. And it exercises all the authority of the first wild beast in its sight. And it makes the earth and those who dwell in it worship the first wild beast, whose death-stroke got healed. And it performs great signs . . . And it misleads those who dwell on the earth, because of the signs that were granted it to perform in the sight of the wild beast.”—Rev. 13:11-14.

What could this wild beast picture? Looming up prominently in front of the wild beast or Satan’s visible organization have been Great Britain and the United States. While both are separate nations, to all intents and purposes they have functioned as a dual world power, their language, their heritage, their principles and policies being the same, and they have been working together ever since their differences were settled