Revelation 13 describes a beast rising from the sea, composite in power—swift as a leopard, firm as a bear, but with a mouth like a lion. This mouth speaks with authority, influence, and blasphemy. It persuades the nations, drowns out dissent, and enforces allegiance. It's a system of power that doesn’t only act—it speaks, dominates, and defines the story.
Now consider the modern church, especially as shaped by certain streams of American evangelicalism. In many places, a leadership model has taken hold that reflects not the Lamb, but the lion's mouth. Assertive, authoritative, dismissive of critique, and quick to cast out inconvenient voices. This “Diotrephes spirit”—a term drawn from 3 John—dominates rather than serves. It favors charisma over character, institutional control over spiritual discernment. And as this model is exported globally through church plants, conferences, media, and funding, its influence becomes more than cultural—it becomes structural, systemic, and spiritual.
The danger is subtle: a church that begins to sound like the voice of the Beast while still believing it speaks for God. A system that enforces unity through silencing, that elevates celebrity over humility, and confuses divine authority with institutional preservation. This is not just leadership failure—it may be prophetic fulfillment. Revelation warns not just of tyrants, but of a system that speaks with power—and deceives through that speech.
The true voice of Christ doesn’t roar to dominate—it speaks truth in love, it calls out sin but welcomes the sinner, it heals, it listens, and it lays down its life. The question is: whose voice is shaping the church? The whisper of the Lamb, or the roar of the lion’s mouth?
