2 Thess 2:3. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
4. Who exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the ¹temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
8. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,

Revleation 13:11. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
12. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the site of men.

14. And he deceives those who dwell on earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make and image to the beast that was wounded by the sword and lived.
15. He was granted to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the best to be killed.
16. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand and on their foreheads,
17. And that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

• Notice how the 2nd beast lends authority to the first beast rather than replacing it.
• Convinces the world to favor one of the heads/religions over the other
• The debate over the 2nd beast is whether it is America or the antichrist. Consider that the beast has 10 horns, that are descibed as kings, and "the whole world marvels after the beast." This indicates that these 10 kingdoms rule the whole world. The 2nd beast rules at the same time as the first beast, but does not come from water/people.
• If the 10 kingdoms represent world political power at the time, it makes sense that Ameica would just be one of the 10 horns.
• Most would agree that verse 13 on, is describing the anti-christ, so where is the transition from America?
• It makes more sense that these verses are refering to the "mouth" described a few verses earlier. The mouth does the very same things as the 2nd beast.