The False Prophet in Revelation
“But the
[composite] beast was captured,
and with him the false prophet who
had performed the miraculous signs on
his behalf. With these signs he
[the false prophet] had deluded
those who received the mark of the
beast and worshiped his image. The
two of them were thrown alive into
the fiery lake of burning
sulfur.”
(Revelation 19:20)
During the July 2014
Lake Tahoe Seminar, the question was
asked, “Who is the false
prophet in the book of
Revelation?” As the discussion
unfolded, several people also wanted
to know the three frogs that come out
of the mouth of the dragon, the
beast, and the false prophet.
(Revelation 16:13) I will address the
identity and purpose of the three
frogs next month, but this month let
us see what the Bible has to say
about the false prophet.
There are four beasts
in the book of Revelation:
1. A lamb having seven
eyes and seven horns (This beast
represents Jesus.)
2. A great red dragon
having seven heads and ten horns
(This beast represents Lucifer in an
invisible state.)
3. A beast coming out
of the Earth/Abyss* having two horns
like the lamb, but speaking like a
dragon. (This beast represents
Lucifer in a visible state.)
4. A composite beast
coming from the sea having seven
heads and ten horns (This beast
represents the global government that
will form in response to the chaos of
the first four trumpets. The
world’s religious and political
leaders will unite in an effort to
appease God’s wrath.
*Note: The
ancients thought the world was flat,
much like a dinner plate. For them,
the bottomless pit was a mysterious
shaft that pierced Earth. They
believed that if a person fell into
the bottomless pit, he would find
himself in an underground region
where evil spirits lived and endless
fires burned. Volcanoes were thought
to be chimneys for the fires that
burned beneath Earth. God used these
concepts to illustrate the book of
Revelation for John.
Keeping these four
beast entities separate and distinct
can be somewhat challenging for two
reasons. First, the book of
Revelation uses many pronouns which
can be very confusing. For example,
Revelation 13 has more than 20
pronouns in it! Second, tracing the
devil’s actions takes a bit of
work because he sometimes operates as
an invisible entity and sometimes as
a visible entity within the book of
Revelation. When operating as an invisible
entity, he is described as a great
red dragon. When operating as a visible
entity, he is described with
different phrases such as “the
beast from the Abyss,” or
“the angel of the Abyss,”
or “the beast that comes up out
of the earth having two horns like a
Lamb.”
What is the False
Prophet?
“if a prophet, or one who
foretells by dreams, appears among
you and announces to you a miraculous
sign or wonder, and if the
sign or wonder of which he has spoken
takes place, and he says, ‘Let
us follow other gods’ (gods you
have not known) ‘and let us
worship them,’ you must not
listen to the words of that prophet
or dreamer…. That prophet or
dreamer must be put to death, because
he preached rebellion
against the Lord your God, who
brought you out of Egypt and redeemed
you from the land of slavery; he
has tried to turn you from the way
the Lord your God commanded you to
follow. You must purge the
evil from among you.” (Deuteronomy
13: 1-5, italics mine)
A false prophet is an
entity who demonstrates supernatural
power, but preaches rebellion against
the Lord and tries to turn people
away from God’s ways and
commands. This explanation, along
with the following two verses taken
from Revelation [italics mine], will
help us discover the identity of the
false prophet:
Revelation 12:9
The great dragon [Lucifer] was
hurled down-that ancient serpent
called the devil, or Satan, who
leads the whole world astray. He
was hurled to the earth, and his
angels with him.
Revelation
18:23 The light of a lamp will
never shine in you again. The voice
of bridegroom and bride will never be
heard in you again. Your merchants
were the world’s great men. By
your magic spell all the nations were
led astray.
Who is the Devil?
Before the world was
created, Lucifer was the greatest and
most powerful angel of all created
beings. God highly favored Lucifer
until he became jealous of Jesus and
hatred filled his heart. Lucifer was
given enormous powers and abilities
that mankind cannot understand. He
travels faster than the speed of
light, he can pass through solid
walls undetected, he can see us and
hear our words, he knows each person
intimately because he has watched our
behavior, and without notice, he can
influence people to do wicked things.
He is a master of entrapment. He
trapped Eve with his enticements and
led her into sin. Through her,
Lucifer was able to entice Adam to
sin, so watch out! The devil can do
many things which human beings cannot
explain or understand. Hatred is the
game he knows best. I am highlighting
some of the amazing powers and
abilities because increasingly, much
of the evil we see happening around
us bears his invisible signature.
The devil becomes
exceedingly successful when he gains
control of people who have religious,
military, and/or civil power. For
example, when Jesus was born, an
invisible Lucifer attempted to kill
Baby Jesus through a demon possesses
king (King Herod). (Revelation 12:
1-6) Because Lucifer often works
through wicked people to achieve his
demonic goals, God describes Lucifer
in the book of Revelation as an
invisible force, but a time is coming
when Lucifer will not always be an
invisible force. This is a profound
point which many students of
Revelation do not give adequate
consideration The coming
Antichrist will not be a human being
– not even close! It will be the
devil, accompanied by his angels, who
will be given glorious bodies so they
can physically appear on Earth in
plain view! Therefore, God
describes Lucifer as a visible being
in the book of Revelation with phrase
like: “The beast from the
Abyss” (the Abyss means the
spirit realm) or the beast “that
once was [visible], now is not
[visible] and will come up out
of the Abyss [and be visible].”
(Revelation 17:8)
When God permits
Lucifer and his angels to physically
appear and walk on Earth, the Bible
says his appearing will be an
overwhelming delusion for the wicked.
(Revelation 17:8) His glory will be
so brilliant that people will shield
their faces. The angelic host who
hovers around him will be so numerous
that nations will cower with
intimidation. There is no
parallel in ancient history for such
a display of awesome power and
authority. Even the giving of the law
at Mt. Sinai will pale by comparison.
Because the devil is both invisible
and visible in Revelation’s
story and because he can do things
that human beings cannot do, God has
given Lucifer different names and
described him in different ways so
that no one should be deceived. When
God describes him as a dragon
in the book of Revelation, Lucifer is
working as an invisible adversary.
(See Revelation 13:2) When God
describes him as the beast from
the Abyss, Lucifer will be
working as a visible adversary.
(See Revelation 11:7)
Why Does God permit
the Devil to Physically Appear?
The apostle Paul
explains, with amazing detail, the
physical appearing of the devil in 2
Thessalonians 2 and why God permits
it. Paul calls Lucifer “the man
of lawlessness” for a simple
reason. When the devil and his angels
appear, he will not obey or respect any
of man’s laws. The devil and
his angels will trample underfoot
everything (laws, boundaries,
religions, and governments) that man
honors and no one will be able to
stop him. Lucifer will be an
unstoppable bully and after leading
the world to believe that he is God,
he will become an insatiable
predator.
Paul describes the
situation this way: “Don’t
let anyone deceive you in any way,
for that day [the Second Coming
of Jesus] will not come until
[a] the rebellion occurs [before
Jesus returns, the 144,000 will
boldly proclaim the testimony of
Jesus and the whole world will hear
it. The demand to worship Jesus on
His seventh day Sabbath will create a
global rebellion.] and [b]
[before Jesus can return] the man
of lawlessness is [must be] revealed,
the man[thought to be
indestructible will be] doomed to
destruction. [Prior to the Second
Coming, the devil will be released
from the spirit realm or Abyss where
he is now confined. When he is
released.] He will oppose and will
exalt himself over everything that is
called God or is worshiped [The
devil will have no respect for the
religious systems or governments on
Earth. He will oppose and abolish all
religion and authority.], so that
he sets himself up in God’s
temple [he will not occupy a
building made by man, instead he will
sit on the tops of the mountains],
proclaiming himself to be God [to
the world below] ….
The coming of the lawless one [the
physical appearing of the devil will
have the appearance of divinity
living among men, but his great
performance] will be in accordance
with the [deceitful] work of
Satan displayed in all kinds of
counterfeit miracles, signs and
wonders, and in every sort of evil
that deceives those who are
perishing. They [the wicked who
rebelled against the gospel of Jesus
will] perish because [they
clearly heard the will of God which
was faithfully delivered by the
144,000, but] they refused to love
the truth and so be saved [because
of their stubborn rebellion and hard
hearts]. For this reason God sends
them a powerful delusion [the
physical appearing of Lucifer and his
demons] so that they will believe
the lie and so that all will be
condemned who have not believed the
truth but have delighted in
wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians
2: 9-12, insertions mine)
The False Prophet
Identified
Given the information
that we have examined thus far,
please consider the following passage
and especially notice the devil will
flatter the leadership of Babylon
during the fifth trumpet by
performing miracles “on
behalf” of the
composite beast (Babylon): “And
he [a visible Lucifer]
performed great and miraculous signs,
even causing fire to come down from
heaven to earth in full view of men
[attempting to prove to the world
that his lie is truth, that he is
truly Almighty God]. Because of
the signs he was given power to do on
behalf of the first beast
[Babylon, the composite beast], he
deceived the inhabitants of the earth
[and led them astray]. [Eventually,]
He ordered them to set up an image
[a one world church state] in
honor of the [composite] beast
who was wounded by the sword and yet
lived.” (Revelation 13: 13,
14)
The Bible says that
the visible Lucifer will perform
amazing miracles “on
behalf” of the leadership of
Babylon. His time to complete this is
short. During the fifth trumpet, the
devil is limited to five months to
create a bandwagon effect.
Lucifer knows that if he is accepted
and endorsed by the religious leaders
of Babylon as Almighty God, a
multitude of people claiming to be
religious, who rejected the testimony
of Jesus (which was spoken through
the lips of the 144,000), will
quickly and wholeheartedly embrace
Lucifer as Almighty God. Therefore to
achieve his goal, the devil will
praise and extol the leaders of
Babylon, he will exalt and praise
them for “the god job” they
are doing (by persecuting rebels who
are actually saints, etc.). As soon
as the sixth trumpet sounds and the
devil is permitted to kill people,
the devil will throw the religious
and political leadership of the world
“under the bus” so that he
can take over as King of kings and
Lord of lords.
Jumping forward to the
Second Coming of Jesus, please notice
the contents of this verse: “But
the [composite] beast was
captured, and with him the false
prophet who had performed the
miraculous signs on his
behalf. With these signs
he [the false prophet, the beast
from the Abyss, a visible Lucifer] had
deluded those who had received the
mark of the beast and worshiped his
image [Lucifer’s
one-world-church-state]. The two
of them [the devil’s
physical body and the composite beast
that he empowered-Revelation 13:2] were
thrown alive into a fiery lake of
burning sulfur.” (Revelation
19: 20, insertions and underlining
mine).
Bottom line: We
find the false prophet performed
miraculous signs on behalf of the
composite beast. We found in
Revelation 13:13 that the lamb-like
beast [a visible Lucifer] performed
miraculous signs on behalf of the
composite beast. We know that a false
prophet is defined as someone having
supernatural power, and he uses that
power to lead people away from
God’s ways and commands. Given
these specifications, clearly the
false prophet is another identity
describing Lucifer in his visible
state.
Larry Wilson
