Satan mimics God. God is a holy trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Satan has formed an unholy trinity – The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. In today’s message we look closely at the False Prophet and see that Satan uses lies, deception, false religion, and lying miracles to bring people unknowingly to align with Satan in his purposes.
[powerpress]
The False Prophet
Revelation 13:11-17
Last Sunday we gave serious attention to a Beast that Satan summons from the sea. This Beast, it turns out, is a composite Beast. He is the four individual Beasts of Daniel 7, rolled into one. When you put the 4 beasts of Daniel 7 together, what do you come out with? You have a single Beast that has 7 heads and 10 horns (the leopard had four heads, which makes a total of 7 heads; the fourth beast had 10 horns). The Beast of Revelation, also has 7 heads and 10 horns, and he resembles the leopard, bear, and lion, which are the beasts mentioned in Daniel 7.
We know that the four beasts mentioned in Daniel 7 are kingdoms or empires: the Babylonian, the Medo-Persiah, the Greek, and the Roman empires. Although it is popular today among futurist interprets to identify this Beast as an individual man, the Antichrist, we would more in keeping with Scripture to identify this beast as a government that makes war on the church and persecutes it, because that is exactly what he does (13:7). What is his ultimate objective? To gain the worship of the world, and he is successful! That is to say, he is successful with all except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb from the foundation of the world (13:8). How do the peoples of the world worship the Beast? By giving it their ultimate loyalty and allegiance, rather than to Jesus Christ. One of the ways the Beast gains followers (worshipers) is through His arrogant words and blasphemies, ascribing to himself divinity and titles of divinity.
The Beast has been around forever. We see him in the Old Testament in the form of the various pagan governments that persecuted the faithful Jews. We saw him in the Roman empire when the various emperors ascribed the title “Augustus” to themselves (The Great, The Majestic, The Revered), and required all people to burn incense to them and say “Caesar is Lord.” Other totalitarian governments have arisen over the centuries and persecuted Christians. In the 20th century, eastern European countries, China, North Korea, and some Muslim countries have all persecuted Christians. These would all be expressions of the Beast that Satan summons from the sea to obtain worship, first for himself, but ultimately for Satan.
However, beginning Revelation 13:11 we are introduced to a second Beast. In Revelation 19:20 and 20:10 we are given his other title – False Prophet. He works closely with the first Beast, to obtain universal loyalty and worship of the first Beast, and to Satan who stands behind this first Beast.
This morning let’s examine each of the following:
- The Appearance of the False Prophet
- The Goal of the False Prophet
- The Miracles of the False Prophet
- The Mark Enforced by the False Prophet
1. The Appearance of the False Prophet (13:11)
Then I saw another Beast coming up out of the earth
Remember that at the end of Revelation 12 we read that the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children? Of course, there are no chapter divisions in the Bible originally. Chapter 13 flows very naturally out of chapter 12. So, how does the dragon make war on the woman and her children? Answer: he beckons two different beasts as he is standing on the seashore. He beckons one beast from the sea and another from the land. We’ve already examined the first beast which stands for political/military governments that seek to persecute and silence the church. This next beast, when he is beckoned, comes up out of the earth. The first beast makes war on the church through coercion and force. The second beast makes war on the church through deception and lies. If the first beast is the arm of the dragon, the second beast is the mind of the dragon. The first beast is the Dragon’s persecuting power. The second beast is the Dragon’s beguiling lies.
Just like the first beast, this second beast is not an individual person, but a satanically inspired power that causes people to believe the devil’s lies. In some nations and cultures, this second beast is far more dangerous than the first beast. I believe that is true of the United States. Many times those Christians who have experienced intense persecution have told us that God used their suffering as a means of grace to deepen their fellowship with Him and dependence on Him. They also say that they pray for us in the U.S. because we face an even more difficult enemy than persecution. We face the enemies of prosperity and deception.
He had two horns like a lamb
He is very different in appearance from the first beast, who had 7 heads and 10 horns. This beast looks like a lamb and has two little horns. He looks like he who would make a cute little pet for your little kids. He appears gentle and cuddly. He wouldn’t harm a flea. In that respect, he is very different from the ferocious and deadly first beast. But that is what makes this False Prophet so dangerous. He appears harmless, but in fact is extremely deadly.
But don’t let his appearance fool you. “He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence” (13:12).
He spoke as a dragon
Remember who the dragon is? That’s right, Satan himself. How does Satan speak? Revelation 12:9 says “he deceives the whole world.” Jesus said he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
Underneath his outward sheep’s clothing lurked a menacing dragon. Remember Jesus taught us to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. That’s what we have here. This false prophet wears a costume, a disguise. He’s a dragon wearing a sheep’s disguise. Why? So that no one will detect his true motives of course.
The first and second beasts are kind of like the bad cop and good cop. These two policemen arrest someone and take him in for questioning. The first cop is loud, aggressive, and mean, seeking to intimidate the suspect into admitting the crime. When that doesn’t work, the “good cop” takes him aside and says, “my partner is really not a bad guy. He’s just frustrated. Let’s go over here and I’ll get you a cup of coffee. Cream and sugar? We have the goods on you, but you don’t have to take the rap for this alone. Tell you what, let’s cut a deal. You tell us everything and I think the Judge will go easy on you.”
Both cops want exactly the same thing. They just go about trying to get it in two different ways. That’s the way with the Beast and the False Prophet. The Beast uses fear, threats, force and intimidation into getting his subjects to cower and submit to him. The False Prophet uses lies to deceive his subjects into submitting to him.
2. The Goal of the False Prophet (13:12)
He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
His primary objective is to “make” earth dwellers to worship the first beast. That shows his power and authority. He makes them worship the beast, but not through force and coercion. He does it through lies and delusions. But why would this second beast want to make everyone worship the first beast? Remember, who summoned him to action. It was the dragon. The dragon is in a battle for the worship of the people of this world. If the dragon can get the people of this world to bow to, submit to, give highest allegiance to the State, he receives their worship. He has diverted worship from God to himself. The dragon has summoned the False Prophet in his attempt to gain their worship.
So, what does this False Prophet say in order to gain the worship of men for the Beast? He utters any false philosophy, or ideology that causes people to give their highest loyalty to the State. From the beginning, he has been spewing out these false religious and philosophical claims.
Atheism: this is the claim that there is no God, and thus no heaven or hell. Thus, all religions that claim there is a God or gods are false and a waste of time.
Agnosticism: This ideology is similar to atheism, but not identical. This ideology claims that if there is a God, He is unknowable. Thus, all effort to seek God is vain and pointless.
Evolution: because there is no God, this world had to come about in some natural way, apart from divine intervention. Thus, the world has embraced the false ideology of the Big Bang bringing about life, and less complex life forms evolving into more complex life forms through natural selection.
Naturalism: this is the philosophy that only natural laws and forces operate in the universe, in contrast to supernatural ones. It is anti-supernatural in nature. Thus Naturalism rules out the existence of God, gods, angels, spirits or miracles. Those holding to Naturalism look to science for the meaning of all things.
Postmodernism: this is the philosophy that permeates our culture today. It is the idea that there is no absolute truth. All truth is relative. You may have your own truth, but I have mine. No one can say that what they believe is The Truth. Postmodernism began to be prevalent in the mid 1970’s. According to this philosophy, tolerance has been enthroned as the new god. Under Postmodernism, someone may say, “I’m glad Christian has helped you; Buddhism has worked wonders for me!” Pragmatism is now what determines what is good and right for any person. The question is not “what is true?”, but rather “what works?” Of course, this makes evangelism extremely difficult, because the Scriptures make the claim that Jesus Christ is the Truth, and one can only come to God through Him alone.
Moral Relativity: this one flows out of postmodernism. If there is no absolute truth, then there is also no absolute moral truth. In other words, one person can’t say to another person, “this is morally right, and that is morally wrong.” That’s why people today have no hesitation in just moving in together when they are not married, or in engaging in homosexual relationships, or engaging in polyamory, or adultery. If we keep going in this downward trajectory, eventually our culture may see nothing wrong with pedophilia or bestiality. We are giving ourselves to debauchery and fleshly perversions, that it is going to erode and tear apart the fabric of our society. Families are suffering, and will continue to suffer under this philosophy.
Distinction Between Sex and Gender: this has been one of the more recent philosophies to pop up in our culture. It is the idea that sex has to do with your biology, and gender has to do with a social construct that a person identifies as. In this new philosophy, you can be a biological male, but your gender may be male, female, neither, or both. We have even created new language to embrace these ideas: gender fluidity, binary, non-binary, transgender, cisgender, sexual orientation, etc. You young people may think this is crazy, but I never heard any of those terms being used when I was growing up. Those ideas and terms have arisen and been popularized in about the last 30 years. John Money pioneered the idea that biological sex and a person’s gender were different things in the 1950’s. However, before this time, any idea that sex and gender were different was unknown, and as far as we can tell, no races or cultures have adopted this ideology.
In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…” I believe the various philosophies and ideologies we have just discussed would come under the category of being doctrines of demons.
The False Prophet is not a single individual, but the spreading of lies, and delusions concerning God’s truth. And these falsehoods enable the State to do its work of exercising absolute power over the people, and persecuting those they can’t control.
In the Old Testament, kings would always have their prophets. To be loyal to the king meant being loyal to his religion. Remember that when Jezebel became queen, she made Baal worship the religion of the land, and sought to kill all the prophets of Jehovah.
In the first century, the emperors had their temples with priests and priestesses scattered throughout the empire. To be a loyal citizen, you had to burn incense to the emperor and confess that he was Lord.
And so has it gone throughout history. Revelation 13 is a vision of false religion wedded to the State.
3. The Miracles of the False Prophet (13:13-15)
He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth
Now, this is what the two witnesses did in Revelation 11. False religion has been accompanied with the miraculous throughout history. In the book of Acts, we read of Simon Magus, who was called “The Great Power of God”, who astonished the people with his magic arts. In Acts 13 we read of Elymas the magician who tried to keep Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, from coming to Christ.
There have been miracles in Buddhism, voodooism, witch doctors, Hinduism.
Jesus warned in Mt. 24:24, “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
Moses was able to throw down his staff which turned into a serpent and turn water to blood, but the magicians in Pharoah’s court could do the same thing.
Just because someone is able to do signs and wonders doesn’t mean they are propagating the truth. We should not believe what someone says just because they are able to do the miraculous. Satan has his servants doing the miraculous as well as God.
And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast.
Satan has a purpose for the miracles that are done in false religious systems. It is in order to deceive people.
Listen to the words of God in Deut. 13:1-3, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul… but that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God…”
Moses spoke of a false prophet arising who was able to perform signs and wonders, but who was trying to lead the people away from God. That seems to be what John was seeing in his vision in Revelation 13.
And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast… so that the image would even speak
I think this must mean that the false religious systems that are wedded to the State are able to deify the State, so that those who give their ultimate allegiance to the State, think they are honoring God. This false religious doctrine makes the State into an idol to be worshiped, giving life, breath, and spirit to the State, so that the people don’t think it is wrong to put the State in the place of God. Many political leaders have been able to deify the State, so that the nation comes under an almost fanatical religious fervor in establishing the leader’s objectives. Just think of Hitler and Nazi Germany. When you listen to his speeches, he speaks with such passion that you would think you were hearing a Pentecostal preacher.
4. The Mark Enforced By The False Prophet (13:16-18)
And he causes all… to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead
You might get the impression from this passage that only those who submit to the Beast get a mark. However, we learn from Revelation 7 and Revelation 14, that the 144,000 receive a mark as well, only it is called a seal. The mark of the Beast is given on the right hand or the forehead. The seal placed on the 144,000 is put on their foreheads. The mark of the Beast is either the name of the Beast or the number of His name. In the case of the 144,000 it is the name of the Lamb and His Father that is placed on them. As in many other things, Satan is mimicking God. God seals His own; the devil will mark his own.
For most of my Christian life, I have been told that there is coming a day right before the return of Christ when every person will have some kind of a mark on their forehead or right hand that allows them to buy and sell in a cashless society. I was told that the mark was really a computer chip placed under the skin that would allow people to just scan their hand or forehead and money would be automatically debited from their bank account to pay for their purchases. Is that what is being described in this passage.
To get to the answer of that question it will be helpful to know a little bit about first century life in the Roman Empire. In the first century, if you owned a slave, and he ran away, and was later returned to you, you would have a tattoo placed on his forehead or hand, indicating your name as his master. It was nearly identical with what ranchers do when they brand their cattle today. They place the logo of their ranch on the cow so that everyone knows instantly who it belongs to. This “seal” on the 144,000 tells us that they belong to the Lamb and His Father. Interestingly, in Ephesians 1:13-14 we are told that Christians have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. That seal identifies us as belonging to Christ. Those that do not believe in Christ are marked out as belonging to the Beast.
But why the forehead or the hand? Think back with me to Deut. 6:4-8, we read that Jewish fathers and mothers were to diligently teach the Law to their children. Further, they were to “bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.” Some scribes and Pharisees, taking this passage in a wooden literal fashion, actually put tiny portions of the law in a little box and fastened the box to their forehead or their hand. Of course, they thought by doing this they were obeying God’s word. I think, rather, the point was that God wanted His law to be in their thoughts (forehead), and the rule of how they lived (their hand). He wanted their minds and deeds controlled by His Law. Similarly, I believe this mark of the Beast is said to be placed on the forehead or right hand, because it signifies that this person has given his mind and deeds to furthering the Beast. He has given his loyalty and allegiance to the Beast. He is in agreement with its doctrine and willing to carry it out. In Revelation 14:11 we are told that all those who have the mark of the Beast worship the Beast.
And he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name
What happens to those who refuse to give their ultimate allegiance the State? They face persecution in that they face an economic boycott. They can’t buy or sell. The State knows how to make life miserable for those they can’t control. You remember that in Nazi Germany, beginning in 1933, the German authorities placed the Star of David in yellow and black on their shop doors and windows warning Germans not to do business with them. Revelation 13 seems to be indicating something along the same lines in vision form.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.
John’s readers are told to calculate the number of the beast. That means they were being called to do some math. They were to add the number of the beast. In Hebrew and Latin, the letters did double duty, and stood for both a letter and a number. By taking the numerical value of each letter, you could calculate the number of a person’s name.
This is where things get fascinating. In the oldest surviving manuscript of Revelation that we possess, the number is not give s 666, but as 616. However, if you take Nero Caesar spelled in Latin, and then transliterate it into Hebrew, the resulting the name computes to 616.
But if the Greek spelling of Nero Caesar is transliterated into Hebrew, the result is 666, which is what most our surviving manuscripts have. It seems to me this is too incredible to be the result of mere chance or coincidence. For this reason, I think the manifestation of the Beast in John’s day in the first century was Nero and the Roman empire. In any other age of the church, the Beast would have a different manifestation.
However, this at least would indicate that there was current expression of the Beast living when John wrote Revelation. How else would his readers be expected to be able to calculate the number of his name. If the Beast was the final Antichrist who would not even exist for another 2,000 years it is difficult to know why John would call on his readers to calculate his number.
Conclusion
I will just leave you with two thoughts as we conclude today.
- Notice how the Devil mimics God. The devil does not come up with his own original ideas. He simply observes God and what He does, and tries to copy him. What do I mean?
God is a holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So what does the devil do? He comes up with his unholy Trinity – Dragon, Beast and False Prophet.
God sends His Son into the world to die and rise again. So, what does the dragon do? He sends the Beast into the world where it receives a fatal head wound, and then comes back to life.
God sends His Son as His own image. Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col.1:15). Well, the Beast is the spitting image of the Dragon! Both of them have 7 heads and 10 horns.
God sends His Son into the world to gather worshipers to Himself and His Father. That’s exactly what the Dragon does. The Beast makes all to worship him (13:8), and in turn will worship the dragon (13:4).
God sends the Holy Spirit into the world as the Spirit of truth. His job is to glorify Christ. He does supernatural signs and wonders through the apostles to testify to Christ. So too, the Dragon sends the False Prophet into the world to deceive the whole world and bring all men to the feet of the Beast to worship him. He too, works signs and wonders.
Satan is copying God! He seems to have no original ideas of his own. He simply watches what God does, and then copies him. That tells me that his creative intelligence is not even on the same level as God’s. God is as far superior to Satan as we are to an earthworm.
- Notice how the Church overcomes the Beast. They conquer the Beast by being willing to be conquered by him. Remember what we read in 12:11 “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” There it is!
If you take the mark of God, you escape the wrath of God, but you face the wrath of the Beast. You take the mark of the Beast, you escape the wrath of the Beast, but you face the wrath of God. The mark you bear will determine the wrath you bear.
The martyrdom of Christians is described both as a victory of the Christian over the Beast, and the Beast’s victory over the Christian. From the perspective of this world, the martyrdom of Christians signifies the victory of the Beast. From the perspective of heaven, the martyrdom of Christians signifies their victory over the Beast. How? It is the paradigm of the cross of Christ. How did Christ conquer Satan? By surrendering His life. What appears as Satan’s victory over Christ, in actuality is Christ’s victory over Satan. The head of the Dragon was forever crushed in the act of striking the heal of the child.
And we conquer the same way Christ conquered. We must not love our life even when faced with death. Remember Christ’s words to all who would follow Him, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”
My friends, do not be deceived by the lies of the False Prophet. Instead, be informed of the truth through the truth of God found in the Scriptures. And then STAND on that truth, come life or death, heaven or hell.
______________________________
© The Bridge
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by The Bridge.
Follow Us!