Prophecy

The False Prophet - PR06-01

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1971)

We continue with our highlights of prophecy series. We have been looking at the ecumenical church, the worldwide church which is shaping up in our day and which is going to play such a major role in the final seven-year period which the Bible refers to as the period of tribulation preceding the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. There is not only going to be a worldwide church, but there is also going to be a leader of that worldwide church, and that's the man we want to look at now.

One of the things that we find as we look at the situation in the end times after Christ returns is that man will not have solved the problems of humanity. The bible never lays before us, as Christians, the role that we are to impose our Christian ideals upon the unsaved world. We are certainly to champion them; we are certainly to commend them; we are certainly to vote for them when it comes to that; and, we are to urge for the moral well-being of the world--the ideas and the concepts of Christianity. However, our first calling is not to solve the ills of society.

When Paul found a runaway slave in the form of Onesimus, he sent him back to his master Philemon, and he urged upon Philemon a gracious Christian treatment of this runaway, but not a word about freeing him; and, not a word about the abusive practice of taking human beings and holding them in slavery. Man will have reached the epitome of his technological progress; of his sense of obligation to humanity; and, of his drive and dedication to remove social ills. Yet, when we come to this time, things are worse than ever, and things get even worse.

So we have to keep in perspective what our calling is. Our calling is to give people that desperate thing they need, and that is the knowledge of the Word of God. And whether you know it or not, that's awfully hard to come by today. It is very hard to come by a knowledge of the Word of God. It is an encouragement to us, the letters we get back from people who use the simple tapes we make here, and the words of gratitude and of praise to God for the fact that the Word of God is on a convenient form that they can receive it. This often comes from knowledgeable Christians--people who know something of the Word, and yet who are someplace where if it weren't for that simple little piece of electronic device, they would be desperate for the Word of God. So this is what our calling is. This is what we try to do here in this ministry. This is what we're going to do now.

When we come to the end times, we see this tribulation period of seven years. You will remember that the book of Daniel revealed to us that God had 490 years of dealing with the Jewish people, and then His dealings would come to an end. Historically, we have found that God dealt with his people to the death of Christ. Then the prophetic clock was stopped, and the pendulum hasn't moved since that time in almost two thousand years. Now that seven years is not forgotten in Israel's history, and it will be resumed after the church has been taken out of this world by being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is the next thing in the prophetic order.

Satan

Now, after the church is removed, Satan will realize that his time is very very short. Being a Bible reader, he will know that the prophetic picture has now reduced itself to a mere seven years. And if he is going to do anything to be like God and to move in to frustrate the plan of God, it has to be done and done very quickly. One of the things, therefore, that Satan will seek to do will be to make his greatest counterfeit that he has ever made on the minds of humanity on the Earth, which will be all unsaved unbelievers (all Christians are gone), and on the unbelieving humanity that's left on the earth, he will have his final grandest opportunity to make an impact in order to bring people to his thinking and under his control.

The False Trinity

So, what Satan will create will be a trinity of evil--a trinity to counterfeit the genuine trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Remember that Satan always seeks to be like God. He wants to be like the most High. So he himself will assume the role of father. In this false trinity, the father will be represented by Satan. That's the role that he has always wanted to play. Satan is the ultimate source of power and evil for those in the tribulation period. In Revelation 12:9, we read, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him."

Now Satan still has access to heaven. He can enter heaven as he did to accuse Job. At this point, we have described the final removal of Satan from heaven. He can no longer enter into that place. So Revelation 12:12 says, "Therefore rejoice you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down into you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time." When he is thrust out of heaven forever, and permanently, he can never return there again to accuse the brethren, which is what he is doing day and night there now. Every time you and I sin, he's pointing his finger at us and saying, "Alright, God, what do you think about your sweet Christian there now that has just done this thing and that thing." Then the Lord Jesus Christ comes as our intercessor and as our advocate, our lawyer, and he defends us on the basis of the blood of Christ which covers every sin. So, God the father says, "Case thrown out of court. No case. Not guilty."

Well Satan dominates the political and the religious powers in the tribulation period. The tribulation unbelievers actually will be engaging in Satan worship which we already have in force in our day. Revelation 13:4 says, "They (these people living in the seven-year tribulation) worshipped the dragon (that is, Satan), who gave power unto the beast (that is, the antichrist), and they worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast (the antichrist)? Who is able to make war with him?'"

So in this false trinity, number one, to represent; to substitute; and, to counterfeit God the Father will be Satan. Now, naturally, number two will be the son. Who is to substitute? The antichrist, who has various names in Scripture. This is the man who will head up the western confederacy. This world ruler will seek to counterfeit the person of Jesus Christ. He will be Satan incarnate, in effect. Revelation 13:2 says, "And the beast which I saw was like a leopard; his feet were like the feet of a bear; and, his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon (that is, Satan) gave him his power and his throne and his great authority." The antichrist is Satan's man, and it is very likely that he is alive someplace in the world right now, rising on the political scene, ready to make his great move where he conquers by force three nations of a ten-nation confederacy, so that the other seven join him, and he becomes the ruler over a revived form of the ancient Roman Empire.

Now no doubt he is an intellectually brilliant person with a magnetic personality. He is also worshipped by the tribulation unbelievers, along with Satan. He is, in effect, declared to be Satan's king of kings and lord of lords.

Revelation 13:8 says, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (that is, the antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

The False Prophet

There will be a third substitute in this unholy trinity. This will be the substitute for God the Holy Spirit, and that will be the man we look at now, the false prophet. Click to continue reading the full article.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1971

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