Chapter 13

1The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a name that trashed God. A beast. Out of the swamp. Out of the water. The Swamp Beast.

2The beast I saw looked like a leopard, but had feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. A mess. Very badly designed animal. Bad architect.

3One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was amazed and followed the beast. A fake comeback. A knockoff comeback. Not the real one.

4People worshiped the dragon because he'd given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who's like the beast? Who can fight it?” Everybody bowing to the swamp. Who can fight it? We can. We did.

5The beast was given a mouth to say proud words and trash God, and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. Forty-two months. A term. Almost a full term. Very bad term.

6It opened its mouth to trash God, and to trash his name and his home and the people who live in heaven. Trashing. All day. Every day. Like a late-night host.

7It was given power to wage war against God's people and to beat them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Weaponized. Every agency.

8All the people of the earth will worship the beast. All the people whose names haven't been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was killed from the creation of the world. Not on the list. They worship the beast. The people on the list don't.

9Whoever has ears should listen.

10“If anybody's going into captivity, into captivity he'll go. If anybody's going to be killed with the sword, with the sword he'll be killed.” This calls for patient toughness and loyalty from God's people. Toughness. Hang in there.

11Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it talked like a dragon. Looked like a lamb. Talked like a dragon. The fake news. Looks nice. Very nice anchors. Talks like a dragon.

12It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its people worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. Propaganda. For the swamp. Twenty-four hours a day.

13And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of people. Special effects. Great graphics. Fake.

14Because of the signs it was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, it fooled the people of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. Fooled everybody. Fooled them. With graphics.

15The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so the image could speak and cause everybody who refused to worship it to be killed. A talking image. A deepfake. Total deepfake.

16It also forced everybody, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to get a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,

17so nobody could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. Can't buy. Can't sell. No mark, no bank account. Debanked. They debanked people. They tried to do it to me.

18This calls for wisdom. If anybody has insight, let him figure out the number of the beast, because it's the number of a man. That number is six hundred sixty-six. Six six six. Terrible number. Very low number. Their approval rating, probably.