And all those who dwell on the earth will worship it.”​—Rev. 13:1-8.

The big thing upon which we here desire to focus our attention is that this “wild beast” out of the sea was worshiped by the whole world of people; it was treated as an unconquerable god. The worship of the political State as a god, which was thus pictured in John’s vision, was at the same time the worship of someone higher than the political State. Who was that? That one was the dragonlike Satan the Devil, for he is pictured as giving the authority, the power, the throne or seat of government to the political State.

⁸ It is no wonder, therefore, that the Master of whom John was a disciple spoke of Satan the Devil as “the ruler of this world.” (John 14:30; 16:11) And Paul, a fellow disciple of John, called Satan the Devil “the god of this system of things.” (2 Cor. 4:4) This is something for those many people to think about today who boast that they do not worship anything at all. Do they, like the atheistic Communists, worship the political State? They may deny doing so, but when a serious national issue arises, when international war breaks out or national sovereignty is threatened, what do they do then? Yes, what is it that they then worship as a god? Their course of action then discloses the truth and speaks so loud as to drown out what they say with their mouths.