I realize that many Bible prophecy teachers are quick to say that the United States of America isn’t in Revelation. Many of these preachers pinpoint other countries in prophecy but emphatically conclude that the United States is not even mentioned.

While I hold a great deal of respect for the ministry of those who are doing all within their power to keep the great themes of prophecy before God’s people, I am not so quick to agree with them on an absent America in Bible prophecy.

In fact, Revelation 13:11 is where I think we may find the United States of America in Bible prophecy, and I want to look at four aspects of this interpretation below. The verse states, “Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon” (NIV).

Two Beasts

In Revelation 13 we are introduced to two “beasts.” In Revelation 13:1 the first rises out of sea to global control and the enforcement of its “Mark of the Beast.” In Revelation 13:11 the second “beast” is the one who rises out of the earth and “was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth” (Revelation 13:14).

The term “beast” translates to a “nation or kingdom” and we see that when we compare Scripture with Scripture, allowing it to interpret itself, rather than reading into it any preconceived ideas, or mistakenly forcing a literal interpretation into a prophecy meant to symbolically cloak its message in the same way parables did in gospels.

In this chapter, John sees “beasts” that are not meant to be literal but figurative or representative of something that he otherwise wouldn’t understand or be able to express in words.

In Daniel 7, a parallel prophecy of Revelation 13, we have the prophetic description of four great beasts: a lion, a bear, a leopard and a dragon-like creature.

In Daniel 7:23 an angel interprets “beasts” used in prophecy to signify nations and kingdoms on earth, stating “The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth.” It’s an interpretation that 98% of evangelical Christian Bible commentators have interpreted as the four beasts of Daniel 7 being the ancient nations of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.

Earth and Sea

Revelation 13:11 describing a nation rising into power from “out of the earth” while the first beast of Revelation 13:1 rises “out of the sea” as did the four beasts of Daniel 7:3.

The significance of a nation or kingdom rising “out of the earth” or “out of the sea” is understand in light of a related passage regarding a spiritual prostitute, where another angel confirmed, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.” (Revelation 17:15 NIV).

As any student of classroom history will recall, ancient Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome all arose from the populated sea of people in Europe and the Middle East. However, the nation or kingdom represented by the beast “out of the earth” comes from unpopulated area not established as a civilization.

The United States of America certainly fits the qualifications of rising from the New World. It has been said that in the earlier 1800’s, even after the 1776 establishment of the new nation, that the American continent’s population was 10 to 1 smaller in comparison to Europe’s.

Two Horns

This beast in Revelation 13:11 is described as having “two horns like a lamb” and we’ve from Daniel 7:24 that “ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom” which leaves us to interpret “horns” on “beasts” as the king or ruler of those nations.

If Revelation 13:11 is a reference to the United States and it has “two horns like a lamb” it would be worth considering that those horns could represent our American government two-party political system of Republicans and Democrats. It could represent that our American government system is based on our two constitutional principles of civil and religious liberty.

Even more interesting to me to consider is that the horns are defined as “like a lamb” and one can not evade the significance of a lamb in prophecy as pointing to the Messiah. The United States was built around the Christian principles of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been a giving nation, a protector of Christian freedoms, and a promoting force in the gospel mission to all the world.

The United States emerged as a nation patterned after the biblical laws and values of Christian liberty at a time when the Old World was suppressed by the Roman Church and governments taxed subjects in support of religion without religious freedoms.

Lamb and Dragon

Let’s consider the part of the prophecy that is yet future, the final words of Revelation 13:11 which say, “but it spoke like a dragon.” It may not be as hard to imagine as it once was, but the lamb-like Christian qualities of the United States are evolving into Satanic qualities.

When we read that a nation speaks, we can consider that a nation speaks through its leaders and laws. Revelation 12:9 has already referred to Satan as the Dragon, so could it be the United States of America will speak as Satan and cease speaking as Christ?

The correlation between the United States of America and the Revelation 13:1 beast “out of the sea” is not as clear cut for me to spell out here, but we do know from Revelation 13:11-17 that the Dragon power transformation of the beast “out of the earth” is meant for performing “great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth” and to order the global governance of the first beast interpreted as “ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast’ and to “cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed” and to have “forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark” so they can engage in commerce.

Even without a certain identification of the United States in Revelation 13:11 one could argue that the transformation from Lamb to Dragon has already begun when you consider government funding of the murder of innocent infants, the denial of religious liberties, the propagation of lies, the silencing of free-speech, double standards of justice according to political affiliations, making the biological science of two genders illegal to recognize, and now the institutionalizing of fraudulent elections?

I think the Dragon is beginning to speak.