If I Were Told the Future - Lesson 69

The False Prophet

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The False Prophet

Let's pray together:

Our Father,

In this last lesson about the servants of evil, we wish to study the character which Your prophetic Word calls Ťthe false prophetť.

Once again, we humbly ask You to grant us Your divine light, so that we may clearly identify this mysterious character, and accurately understand his role in the last days.

In Jesus Christ we pray.

Amen.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 16:12,13	Comments
Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.	During the sixth bowl, subject of a future lesson, the book of Revelation presents, for the first time, a character called Ťthe false prophetť. Together with the dragon (Satan) and the beast rising from the sea (the papal system), the false prophet makes up the great satanic trinity.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 19:20	Comments
Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.	Who is the false prophet? We can find the answer a little farther on in the book of Revelation, in chapter 19. By drawing a parallel with a passage from chapter 13, which we studied recently, the false prophet's identity is immediately disclosed...

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The False Prophet

The false prophet corresponds with the beast rising from the earth:

ŤThen I saw another beast coming up out | ŤThen the beast was captured,
of the earth (...). He deceives those who | and with him the false pro-
dwell on the earth by those signs which | phet who worked signs in his
he was granted to do in the sight of the | presence, by which he deceiv-
beast, telling those who dwell on the | ed those who received the
earth to make an image to the beast who | mark of the beast and those
was wounded by the sword and lived.ť | who worshiped his image.ť
(REVELATION 13:11,14) | (REVELATION 19:20)

The false prophet and the beast rising from the earth both work signs in
the sight of the beast rising from the sea, and deceive those who dwell
on the earth, leading them to make an image to the beast and worship it.

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The False Prophet

Matthew 7:15	Comments
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.	Similar to a lamb, the symbol of Jesus, but speaking like a dragon, the symbol of Satan, the beast rising from the earth accurately corresponds with Jesus' definition of a Ťfalse prophetť: a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Revelation 13:11
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 13:11,14

Comments

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, (...) telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded.

In a previous lesson, we identified the beast rising from the earth as the United States of America.

By giving this political power the name Ťfalse prophetť, the prophecy indicates that it will also operate at the religious level.

In fact, it is by uniting political and religious powers that the United States will make an image to the beast, thus producing a religio-political system similar to the papacy.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 13:15

Comments

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should (...) speak.

For several years now, the Christian Religious Right Wing has worked without respite to increase its influence and domination over the United States' government.

Their goals of raising morality levels and promoting family values seem noble and commendable.

But by planning to use political power to impose their ideas, the Christian Religious Right Wing will contribute to creating and giving breath to the image of the beast.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 13:11,14	Comments
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth (...). He deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.	In order to create the image of the beast (a religio-political system similar to the papacy) and to cause all the inhabitants of earth to follow and obey this system, the United States' government, infiltrated by members of the Christian Religious Right Wing, will first use deception.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 13:14	Comments
[The beast coming up out of the earth] deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast.	We have seen that the United States has already charmed and deceived the world by its power and symbols. But this nation is also Ťthe false prophetť and, as such, deceives the whole world with Ťsignsť, miracles.
Revelation 19:20
Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 13:13

Comments

He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

In a previous lesson, we have seen that the United States was the first country to use nuclear weapons, and is today the strongest nuclear power.

But now, we can expand our understanding of prophecy a little farther, since the capacity of making Ťfire come down from heaven on the earthť is not limited only to the United States' nuclear power.

In fact, this nation will also be the scene of wonders, supernatural phenomena.

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The False Prophet

Matthew 24:11,24	Comments
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (...) For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect.	In fact, this capacity for performing wonders and miracles, to deceive the inhabitants of the earth, is typical of the work of false prophets. The United States will be the scene of such deceptive signs and wonders, and that is why the book of Revelation uses the symbol of Ťthe false prophetť to represent this country.

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The False Prophet

Revelation 16:13,14	Comments
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs.	These verses clearly show that the wonders performed by the false prophet are not linked only with the power and influence of the United States over the rest of the world: these wonders will be the work of Ťspirits of demonsť. The United States and the papacy, by allying themselves with Satan (the dragon), will perform miracles through the power of demons.

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The False Prophet

1 Timothy 4:1

Comments

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

We know that Satan intensifies his efforts to deceive as many people as possible, and that spiritualism and occultism (astrology, clairvoyance, divination, etc.) are some of his most devastating weapons.

But he also has some signs and wonders especially designed for untaught and unstable Christians, in order to deceive them too.

What are these traps, and how will Satan manage to make Christians believe them?

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The False Prophet

Revelation 13:13	Comments
[The beast coming up out of the earth] performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.	First, Satan will give rise to a false spiritual awakening in the United States. This powerful counterfeit of Pentecost (Ťfire coming down from heavenť) will deceive all unstable Christians. But there's even more...
Acts 2:2-4
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

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The False Prophet

Genesis 3:1-4

Comments

[The serpent] said to the woman, ŤHas God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?ť

And the woman said to the serpent, ŤWe may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."ť

And the serpent said to the woman, ŤYou will not surely die.ť

Satan will also deceive Christians with a renewed emphasis on his very first lie to mankind, the claim that every human has eternal life dwelling within him.

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The False Prophet

2 Corinthians 11:3	Comments
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.	From the beginning until today, Satan has managed to deceive men, making them believe that they bear immortality within themselves.
Revelation 12:9
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

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The False Prophet

1 Timothy 6:15,16	Comments
(...) the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality.	And yet, the Bible is very clear: God alone has immortality. So, man is not immortal by birth. However, God's greatest desire is to share His immortality with us.

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Genesis 2:17	Comments
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.	God created man as a candidate for immortality. But, by his disobedience, man broke his relationship with God, the only source of life, and lost access to immortality. So he became a mortal being.
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (...).

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Romans 6:23	Comments
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.	By offering His life for us on the cross, Jesus Christ gives us the possibility to grasp immortality by faith. So, immortality is conditional to the salvation of man in Jesus Christ.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

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Romans 2:6,7	Comments
[God] will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality.	The Bible clearly says that God reserves eternal life for the righteous. In spite of this fact, Satan has succeeded in making men, and even the majority of Christians, believe that a part of man - the soul - is immortal.
1 John 3:15
No murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

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Ezekiel 18:20	Comments
The soul who sins shall die.	By accepting the false doctrine of the immortal soul, the Christian world came to adhere to other lies, teaching that, when a righteous person dies, his soul goes straight to heaven (or to purgatory), and, when a wicked person dies, his soul goes down to hell. And yet, the Bible is plain: the soul is mortal.
James 5:20
He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death.

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John 3:13	Comments
[Jesus said:] ŤNo one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.ť	The doctrine teaching that one goes up to heaven at death has no biblical foundation. All the dead, both righteous and wicked, rest in the grave, completely unconscious.
Acts 2:29,34
Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. (...) For David did not ascend into the heavens.

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Once dead, everyone, righteous or not, rests in a state of sleep:

ŤThey have sunk into their sleep, and none of the mighty men have found the use of their hands. At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep.ť (PSALM 76:5,6)

Ť[Stephen] knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Now Saul was consenting to his death.ť (ACTS 7:60 to 8:1)

ŤI do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.ť (1 THESSALONIANS 4:13)

Ť[Jesus] said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead."ť (JOHN 11:11-14)

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The Bible teaches that the dead are in a state of total unconsciousness:

ŤThe dead know nothing (...). There is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.ť (ECCLESIASTES 9:5,10)

ŤSo man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep. (...) His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he does not perceive it.ť (JOB 14:12,21)

ŤYou shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place.ť (2 KINGS 22:20)

ŤThe dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence.ť (PSALM 115:17)

ŤFor in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave who will give You thanks?ť (PSALM 6:5)

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Leviticus 20:6	Comments
The person who turns after mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person.	Many Christians, sincerely believing that their deceased loved ones are in heaven and really alive, try to communicate with them through prayer. God positively forbids this practice, because He knows that this makes people completely vulnerable to Satan's lying wonders.
1 Corinthians 10:20
I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

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Isaiah 8:19,20	Comments
And when they say to you, ŤSeek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutterť, should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.	By trying to call up a dead person, we give Satan the opportunity to impersonate the deceased, in order to deceive us and make us believe his lies.
2 Corinthians 11:14
And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

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Matthew 24:24,25	Comments
[Jesus said:] ŤFor false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.ť	Satan will soon deploy his most powerful deceptions in order to draw men away from the gospel of Jesus Christ which proclaims the way to salvation.
Galatians 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

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Matthew 7:21-23	Comments
Not everyone who says to Me, ŤLord, Lord,ť shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ŤLord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?ť And then I will declare to them, ŤI never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!ť	Satan will even use people who claim to perform miracles in the name of Jesus, but we will be able to recognize them by their rebellion against the will of God as expressed in His Ten Commandments.

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2 Thessalonians 2:9,10	Comments
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.	Only a careful and persevering study of the Word of God will prevent us from being deceived by Satan.
John 12:35
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.

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Ephesians 6:11,14-17

Comments

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (...)

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And this spiritual armor alone will give us victory over Satan and his wiles.

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Revelation 13:15	Comments
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.	The deceptions of Satan and his demons, and the lying wonders of the papacy and the United States led by the Christian Religious Right Wing, will lead the inhabitants of earth to worship this apostate religio-political coalition. As for the faithful believers who resist all the enemy's wiles, they will go through very difficult days...

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Revelation 13:15-17

Comments

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast.

In order to clearly identify those who refuse to worship the beast and its image, a special mark, the Ťmark of the beastť, will be put on everyone.

The nature of this mark will be the subject of our next two lessons.

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Revelation 16:13,14	Comments
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.	What will be the fate of the false prophet? Allied with the beast and all the nations of the earth, he will take part in a final offensive aimed at destroying God's people who refuse to worship the beast and its image.

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Revelation 19:19,20

Comments

And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.

Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

At that point, Jesus will return and put an end to the activities of the beast and the false prophet, who will both be destroyed.

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1 John 4:1	Comments
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.	Let's close this lesson with one important reminder: as we live in the last days of history, Satan will try to deceive us by every possible means. The more Ťinoffensiveť form of occultism or spiritualism may be a powerful weapon able to take us away from God's truth. May the Spirit of God and His inspired Word protect us from the wiles of the enemy.

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Let's pray together:

God Almighty,

As the end draws very near, we know that the enemy will multiply his deceptions in order to take us away from You.

But You gave us Your Word as our guide, revealing Satan's wiles, and warning us against them.

Please grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that, when we need it, He may remind us of the valuable teachings You have given us today.

In Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord we pray.

Amen.

The False Prophet

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The False Prophet

The test of Lesson 69 is waiting for you!

Click here to send us your questions or comments about our Web site and products. Copyright Š2002 Cyberspace Ministry

Click here to send us your questions or comments about our Web site and products.
Copyright Š2002 Cyberspace Ministry