The Three Frogs of
Revelation 16:13
“Then I
saw three evil spirits that looked
like frogs; they came out of the
mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth
of the beast and out of the mouth of
the false prophet. They are spirits
of demons performing miraculous
signs, and they go out to the kings
of the whole world, to gather them
for battle on the great day of God
Almighty.” (Revelation 16:13,14)
Last month, I
wrote that we would continue our
study on the false prophet by
discussing the three frogs. We must
review some of the events of the
Great Tribulation to appreciate the
purpose, meaning, and timing of the
three evil spirits that John
describes.
The
Birth of the Composite Beast
Given the
growth of hatred in our world, I
believe a nuclear exchange will occur
and the whole world will erupt in war
and chaos in a single day. Shortly
after this war begins, Jesus will
enter the fray with a display of
awesome authority and power. There
will be deafening peals of thunder,
huge sheets of lightening, rumblings
from deep within the earth, and a
global earthquake which will destroy
the many infrastructures on which we
depend.
Shortly after
the earthquake, Jesus will send a
meteoric firestorm and two great
asteroid impacts which will cause
unimaginable death and destruction.
He will also cause volcanos to erupt,
and the resulting soot and ash will
cause darkness to occur on Earth.
Twenty-five percent of the
world’s population will die
during these judgments (Revelation
6:8) and the survivors will fearfully
anticipate more judgments from God.
Man’s
response to God’s judgments is
represented in Revelation 13:1 as a
beast. After world leaders see
God’s wrath, they will unite in
a desperate effort to appease the
anger of Almighty God. Leaders from
the world’s seven religious
systems and 219 sovereign nations
will do whatever it takes to appease
God.
The political
leaders of the world will look to
their religious experts for direction
on what must be done to appease God
so that His wrath will end. The
religious leaders of the world will
confer among themselves and they will
recommend the establishment of a
global authority that addresses
God’s wrath. The irony behind
this response
will be twofold. First, the religious
leaders of the world do not
understand God’s plans because
they do not properly understand
apocalyptic prophecy. This will be
demonstrated by their directives to
the nations. Their directions will be
contrary to God’s will. Second,
the Bible states that God will not
continue sending horrific judgments
after the fourth judgment, but the
religious leaders will not know this.
Instead, they will boast that their
efforts are succeeding because
God’s judgments have ceased. And
of course, billions of ignorant
people will believe their claim.
Who
Speaks for God?
Are there many Gods on Earth
or is there one God called by
different names? When the judgments
of God begin, the religions of the
world will conclude there is only one
Almighty God, but “Which
religion knows Him best?”
Mankind has argued about the nature
and will of God ever since Cain
killed Abel. Today, there is endless
hatred and religious gridlock because
no one religion can prove that
it understands God better than
another. To overcome this problem,
Jesus has a simple solution and will
not include the services of a
religious body? Jesus will select
144,000 people just before the Great
Tribulation begins. During the Great
Tribulation, Jesus Himself will speak
through the lips of His chosen
people. Therefore, everyone on Earth
will hear “the testimony of
Jesus” and they will hear the
dictates of the beast (Babylon).
Everyone will find himself in a
valley of decision.
Great
Tribulation is a Testing Time
The Bible
indicates a painful separation will
occur during the Great Tribulation.
The demands of Jesus and the demands
of Babylon will be in opposition.
Those who put their faith in Jesus
and obey His commands will have to
disobey the laws of Babylon and
be unjustly persecuted. On the other
hand, the Creator of Heaven and Earth
will destroy those who defy
His demands at His Second Coming.
Therefore, the Great Tribulation will
be a time of testing to see who we
will obey. (Revelation 13:18)
As the Great
Tribulation progresses, circumstances
will force people to make a choice. A
third group of people will form who
opposes the demands of Jesus and
Babylon. God has a big surprise for
this group. According to the apostle
Paul, the
devil will be
permitted to physically appear and
masquerade as Almighty God. He will
perform amazing signs and wonders
that are so great that if possible,
the saints would be deceived. The
prophet John indicates the devil will
eliminate the third group by
torturing them into submission.
(Revelation 9: 4-6) Jesus allows the
devil to do this so that all who have
rejected His demands will be forced
to recognize there are higher beings
than humans. If people will not
voluntarily humble themselves and
obey the Creator of Heaven and Earth,
there will be no alternative than to
obey “the prince of this
world.” Paul explains why the
devil physically appears:
“…They
[the wicked] perish because
they refused to love the truth and so
be saved. For this reason God sends
them a powerful delusion 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, insertion
mine)
God
Will Challenge Mankind
From
God’s point of view, the sinful
nature is cursed with two properties
that are difficult to overcome. Arrogance
is the bloom of haughtiness and
ignorance is the absence of truth.
When the sinful nature is challenged,
hostility is often the result. During
the Great Tribulation, God will
challenge the arrogance and ignorance
of mankind. He will speak through His
prophets and through the Holy Spirit.
Of course, the devil will speak
through the authorities (the leaders
of Babylon) and this will produce a
great contest for souls between
Christ and Satan. Everyone will have
to decide whether to put their faith
in Jesus, obey His demands, and
receive the seal of God or obey the
laws of Babylon and receive the mark
of the beast. After the devil
physically appears, the wicked will
find acquiescing to the devil’s
demands will be expedient because the
penalty for defiance will be torture
and/or death.
At the sixth
trumpet, the devil will set up a
counterfeit theocracy. He will say
words to this effect: “Now that
God lives among men, there is no room
for religious or political diversity.
Let there be one Lord, one faith, and
one baptism. The world will become
the kingdom of God and its king will
be Almighty God.” Billions of
wicked people will join with the
devil to build up and establish the
kingdom of God. These people will do
everything the devil requires. They
will worship him as Almighty God and
when Lucifer demands that all of
God’s saints
should be
killed, they will not hesitate.
“This calls for patient
endurance on the part of the saints
who obey God’s commandments and
remain faithful to Jesus.”
(Revelation 14: 12)
The
Seven Bowls (Plagues)
Because the
three evil spirits look like frogs
appear during the seven bowls (the
seven last plagues), a few words
about the seven bowls are necessary.
The seven bowls only begin after all
people on Earth have made their
decision. Because Jesus and Lucifer
both promise death for defiance, the
people of Earth will be separated by
their choices. Those who choose to
obey Jesus receive the seal of God.
(Many of the saints will perish as
martyrs.) Those who choose to obey
Lucifer receive the mark of the
beast. Thus, two distinct and
separate groups of people (sheep and
goats) will exist on Earth when the
time comes for the seven bowls.
“I
saw in heaven another great and
marvelous sign: seven angels with the
seven last plagues – last,
because with them God’s wrath is
completed.” (Revelation
15: 1) The seven bowls represent
seven horrible judgments which God
forces the wicked to “drink,
swallow, and experience.” The
wicked are guilty of defying God.
They heard the testimony of Jesus
with their ears, they heard the voice
of the Holy Spirit, they saw the
signs and wonders which affirmed the
ministry of the 144,000, and yet they
choose to disobey the demands of the
King of Heaven and Earth. Moreover,
many of the wicked participated in
the torture, persecution, and death
of God’s saints. These people
chose to obey Lucifer and they
willingly received the mark (a tattoo
on their right hand) because they
hated righteousness and loved evil.
Therefore, Jesus will punish the
wicked for their actions.
The first
four bowls are horrific. God sends
ugly and painful boils on everyone
having the mark of the beast.
(Revelation 16:2) The wicked will
suffer agonizing pain. Next, all sea
life is terminated, and since global
famine will be pandemic, the absence
of sea food will be devastating.
After this, all drinking water turns
to blood and finally, the Sun will
scorch the Earth with intense heat.
The devil, who claims to be Almighty
God on Earth, will be powerless to
prevent these plagues. His followers
will cry out for deliverance. He will
blame these plagues on the saints who
are practicing “voodoo and
witchcraft.” During the third
bowl, the devil will set up a
universal death decree for the
saints. This decree will be
meaningless and none of God’s
children will perish. (Daniel 12:1).
During the fifth bowl, Jesus will
bring Lucifer’s charade and
government to an end. God will cause
the eyes and flesh of Lucifer’s
captains and staff to rot while
standing on their feet. (Compare
Zechariah 14: 12, 13 with Revelation
16: 10, 11.) Lucifer’s empire
will implode and the remaining
wicked, who are not part of
Lucifer’s government, will have
a great awakening. They will cry out,
“Oh no! The 144,000 were right.
We were deceived! This glorious being
we trusted is the devil because no
God would destroy his own people and
government in a single day!”
This moment
of truth, this punishing reality,
will leave the wicked in a state of
hopeless gloom. Each wicked person
will suddenly understand his dire
situation. He deliberately defied the
God of Heaven in order to save
himself from death and now, there
will be no escape from death. The
devil also knows that his deception
is over, so he will send three of his
most powerful demons to the ten kings
of the Earth. God represented these
demons to John as frogs because frogs
catch their prey with their tongues.
These lying demons will perform a
series of impressive miracles before
each king saying: “Join with
Lucifer and his mighty angels because
Jesus Christ will soon appear.
Working together we can destroy
Jesus, so gather up your armies and
weapons and be prepared for the final
battle, the battle of Armageddon.
Otherwise, He will kill you and your
armies will surely perish.”
“Then
I saw the [composite] beast
and the kings of the Earth and their
armies gathered together to make war
against [Jesus] the
rider on the horse and his army. But
the [composite] beast
was captured, and with him the false
prophet [Lucifer, the
lamb-like beast] who had
performed the miraculous signs on his
behalf. With these signs he
[the devil] had deluded those
who had received the mark of the
beast and worshiped his image. The
two of them were thrown alive into
the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The
rest of them [all of the
wicked who were not soldiers] were
killed with the sword that came out
of the mouth of the rider on the
horse, and all the birds gorged
themselves on their flesh.”
(Revelation 19: 19-21, insertions
mine)
During the
sixth bowl, the kings of the Earth
will realize that Lucifer is the
devil, but they will still listen to
his demons. Unaided by the influence
of the Holy Spirit because they
committed the unpardonable sin, they
will join with the devil and
attempt to
destroy Jesus when He appears. This
is a fact. The sinful nature would
rather destroy God than surrender to
His authority. “The
sinful mind is hostile to God. It
does not submit to God’s law,
nor can ti do so. Those controlled by
the sinful nature cannot please God.”
(Romans 8: 7, 8) For those who have
ears to hear, it should now be clear
why God’s “sudden death
law” is both righteous and
perpetual throughout eternity.
Larry Wilson
