Revelation 13:14-15

Verse 14-15 "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast would both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."

Now we see that people are deceived by the miracles this false prophet performs and believe that they should do as he says and worship the beast. He does these miracles in the sight of the beast, which again implies it is he, not the first beast that is doing all the miracles. He tells people they should make an image to the beast. There is much speculation as to what this image will entail. The range of ideas is remarkable. Some say it is simply an idol, but that the idols will be inhabited by demons who will render the idol capable of speaking, thereby giving "life" to the image. Some say it will be an image via television (we all know what CG can do these days). John would never have seen television, so to see an image on a screen that is "alive" would seem miraculous to him. Some say it will be a holographic image beamed into everyone's home. I have no idea what it will ultimately be. If everyone is told to make or get their own personal image, being inhabited by demons would then be a must in order to make the image speak, and also to report back on whether or not the image is being worshiped. Note that this is a second raison d'etre of the image. It reports back on people. Those who do not comply are killed. The second idea is likely, as everyone seems to have a TV or online computer these days. It is completely plausible that the cables running to our houses and into our televisions and computers (not to mention the telephones) can be used for sending information (video as well as audio) both ways. At this time the government is not all that interested in watching most folks - at least not yet. As for holographs being beamed into people's homes, it is within the reason to assume this technology is available, (think of DisneyWorld having holography years ago) although only the government would have it at the moment. Again, their ability to spy on our activities is easily within the realm of possibility, so they will know if people do not comply. Any one of these ideas, or ones not even presented or thought of here, are a possibility, as Scripture is not very forthcoming with more information on this.

We are told that the first beast is wounded by a sword. If that is to be taken literally (and we are trying to take things literally whenever possible), it would seem that he has engaged in hand to hand combat. While Europeans, Americans, etc. do not use swords in this day and age, they do love their swords for beheading in Muslim countries, therefore a sword wound is easily a possibility. The prophecies (both the Bible and those of Islam) indicate that the antichrist (and/or Mahdi) will go to war quite often at the beginning. Being literally wounded by a sword in that part of the world is not as far-fetched as it might be in warfare in another part of the world.