The Devil Appears In
Person
Study 5
page 2 of
2
l page 1 l page 2 l
The Fifth Trumpet
“The fifth angel
sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star
that had fallen from the sky to the
Earth. The star was given the key to
the shaft of the Abyss. When he
opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it
like the smoke from a gigantic
furnace. The sun and sky were
darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.
And out of the smoke locusts came
down upon the earth and were given
power like that of scorpions of the
earth. They were told not to harm the
grass of the earth or any plant or
tree, but only those people who did
not have the seal of God on their
foreheads. They were not given power
to kill them, but only to torture
them for five month. And the agony
they suffered was like that of the
sting of a scorpion when it strikes a
man. During those days men will seek
death, but will not find it; they
will long to die, but death will
elude them…They [the locusts]
had as king over them the angel of
the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is
Abaddon, and in Greek,
Apollyon.” (Revelation 9:1-6,
11, insertion mine)
God does not permit
the devil to escape from the prison
in the abyss (the spirit world) until
the sounding of the fifth trumpet. At
the appointed time, the bottomless
pit will be “unlocked” and
the devil and his angels will be
allowed to come out of the spirit
realm and be visible to the people of
Earth. God illustrated the appearing
of the devil and his angels to John
as a swarm of locusts coming up out
of the Earth. From a distance,
several hundred million angels would
look like a dense swarm of locusts.
The swarm that John saw in the vision
was so great that he says it darkened
the Sun! As the swarm came closer to
him, John saw that the locusts
actually looked like riders on
horses. Leading the swarm was an
angel king from the abyss whose name
in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek,
Apollyon. Both names mean the same
thing: “Destroyer.” The
imagery and language used in
Revelation 9:1-11 is similar to
language used five hundred years
earlier in Joel 2:1-11 where the
prophet describes the appearing of
the Lord and His angels as a great
swarm of locusts prepared for battle.
God permits the devil and his angels
to physically appear on Earth after a
majority of the world has heard and
rejected the truth about the worship
God requires. Notice Paul’s
words; “They [the majority of
people] perish because they refused
to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends them a
powerful delusion so they will
believe the lie and so that all will
be condemned who have not believed
the truth but delighted in
wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians
2:10-12) The first key point in this
verse is defiance. Paul says,
“they refused” to obey
God’s truth and be saved. Why
will they reject God’s truth?
“The sinful mind is hostile to
God. It does not submit to God’s
law, nor can it do so. Those
controlled by the sinful nature
cannot please God.” (Romans 8:
7,8) Therefore, when a majority of
people reject God’s last offer
of salvation, He sends them a
powerful deception. God releases the
devil from the abyss and He empowers
the devil to rule over the people who
refuse to recognize His sovereign
authority. This is an interesting
point about the Great Tribulation:
Each person will worship one
of two masters.
Three important
elements are revealed when God
releases Satan and his angels from
the bottomless pit. First, Satan will
come with a cloud of angels (like a
swarm of locusts). These demons will
be clothed with brilliant light.
Remember, the devil himself will be a
magnificent being of dazzling light.
(2 Corinthians 11:14) Although Satan
will do his utmost to imitate the
Second Coming, God limits the
devil’s deception. When Jesus
appears at the Second Coming, Jesus
will not touch Earth, the saints will
be caught up in the air to
meet Jesus and He will take them to
Heaven where they will spend 1,000
years. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, John
14: 1-3; Revelation 21:2) However,
Satan will come down out of the sky
and He will walk upon Earth in
various places. This is why Jesus
warned, “At that time if anyone
says to you, ‘Look, here is the
Christ!’ or, ‘There he
is!’ do not believe it….So
if anyone tells you, ‘There he
is, out in the desert,’ do not
go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the
inner rooms,’ do not believe it.
For as lightening that comes from the
east is visible even in the west, so
will be the coming of the Son of
Man.” (Matthew 24:23, 26,27)
Second, God does not
allow Satan to physically appear on
Earth until a majority of the world
has rejected the gospel. I believe
that this will occur in about two and
half year period. During this period,
the 144,000 will proclaim the truth
about worshiping God so that everyone
on Earth can make an informed
decision. The result will be simple.
When God sees that a majority of
Earth’s population intends to
rebel against His gospel, He allows
the devil to appear. God has a very
wise purpose for doing this. The
physical appearing of the devil will
force the people of Earth into one of
two groups: people who worship God
out of choice and people who worship
the devil out of force. In a final
effort to bring rebellious human
beings to their senses, God will
empower the 144,000 to proclaim a
special message throughout the Earth.
This message is so inflammatory that
most – if not all – of the
144,000 will become martyrs for
preaching it! The message is this:
“…If anyone worship [obeys]
the beast [the devil from the abyss]
and his image [his one world church]
and receives his mark [tattoo] on
their forehead or on the hand, he,
too, will drink of the wine of
God’s fury, which has been pored
out full strength into the cup of his
wrath. He will be tormented with
burning sulfur in the presence of the
holy angels and of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 14:9,10, insertion mine)
Since a majority of the world will
think the devil is God, speaking
against “God” like this
will be considered utterly derogatory
and blasphemous and the 144,000 will
be horribly persecuted for their
testimony!
The third reason God
allows the devil to physically appear
is that God wants people of the world
to get a “close up” view of
the demon they are following. The
issue of worship will be completely
resolved after the devil arrives. The
devil will demand worship, and
through his lieutenants, he will
clearly explain what men and woman
must do. God continues to do less
through His servants, the 144,000.
The saints will submit to God’s
law. The wicked will submit to the
law of the devil. That is the vortex
surrounding the decision that all
humans will face. Every person will
exercise his or her power of choice
and God will seal every decision.
Five Months of Torture
According to
Revelation 9:3-6, after Satan and his
evil angels appear, they will have
five months to torment the wicked.
This may seem strange at first, but
God does not let the devil hurt His
saints “with the sting of the
scorpions tail.” The devil will
inflict this torture on the
nonreligious wicked in order to
subdue them. The devil will not hurt
those who believe he is God, either.
Instead, he will hurt people who have
not made a decision to join with his
forces or with God’s saints.
Just what the torment is and how it
is inflicted is not clear from
Scriptures. However, we know the
torment will hurt like a
scorpion’s sting (which is
awful). The people who suffer this
affliction will long to die, but the
devil’s sting is not fatal. God
allows the devil to torment
“undecided” people with
scorpion like pain because God’s
offer of salvation is still open.
Everyone that the devil harms can be
delivered from agony if he or
she will turn from rebellion and
worship the Lord. (See Numbers 21:6-9
for a parallel story.) Remember, God
will do everything possible during
the Great Tribulation to save as many
sinners as possible!
An Angel of Light That
Works Miracles
When Satan appears,
his radiant countenance will dazzle
the people of Earth. Millions will
eagerly believe his claims that he is
God because of his appearance alone.
Paul says, “…for Satan
himself masquerades as an angel of
light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)
Revelation says the wicked will be
awestruck when they actually see the
devil! “…The inhabitants of
the Earth whose names have not been
written in the book of life from the
creation of the world will be
astonished when they see the
beast….” (Revelation 17:8,
italics mine.)
Satan’s first
work after appearing “in the
flesh” as a brilliant God-man
will be to convince the world that he
is divine – that he is actually
who he claims to be. Paul warns,
“Don’t let anyone deceive
you in any way, for that day (the
second coming) will not come until
the rebellion occurs and the man of
lawlessness is revealed, the man
doomed to destruction. He opposes and
exalts himself over everything that
is called God or is worshiped, and
even sets himself up in God’s
temple, proclaiming himself to be
God….The coming of the lawless
one will be in accordance with the
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 perish because they
refused to love the truth and so be
saved.” (2 Thessalonians
2:3,4,9,10)
The Greatest Deception
of All
To convince that he is
God, Satan will use one miracle above
all others – he will actually
call fire down out of Heaven at will!
This “proof of divinity”
will secure his deception. Because
the 144,000 will not have this
specific miracle working power, the
devil will eclipse their power and
end their ministry. (Revelation 11:7)
John says, “And he performed
great and miraculous signs, even
causing fire to come down from heaven
to Earth in full view of men. Because
of the signs he was given power to do
on behalf of the first beast, he
deceived the inhabitants of
Earth….” (Revelation
13:13,14) Remember, the appearing of
the devil is “a powerful
delusion” sent from God. The
devil is granted power to call fire
down from Heaven because God is
bringing the offer of salvation to an
end. Before the devil’s
appearing, God put forth the clearest
evidences of truth before the human
race through the testimony of the
144,000 servants. God wants people to
worship Him because of “Spirit
and truth” not miracles! (John
4:23) Therefore, God reduces the
ministry and power of His servants
while increasing the deceptive powers
of the Antichrist.
John describes the
appearing of the devil as
“lamb-like beast. (Revelation
13:11) The intended contrast is
obvious. Depending on the Bible
translation, Revelation refers to
Jesus as the “Lamb” 30
times or more. John describes Satan
as a “lamb-like” beast
because the devil masquerades as
Jesus. John warns that Satan will
make every effort to deceive the
world into believing that he is
worthy of worship. When Satan
appears, every quadrant of Earth will
have experienced massive destruction.
Extreme suffering will be everywhere.
Earth’s skies will have been
dark for a long time, and millions of
people (perhaps billions) will have
grown deathly ill from famine. The
death toll will be numberless, and
millions of people will die every day
from plague and disease. People will
be filled with despair, and religious
leaders will constantly reprimand
sinners, telling them to repent and
worship God so that His wrath will
subside. Religious persecution and
intolerance will be everywhere
because Babylon (the coalition of
religious leaders) will be determined
to appease God at any cost. (What
other option do they have?) Foremost
in all people’s minds will be
the question, “What more can we
do to appease God so that He will end
our suffering?”
In the midst of this
hellish nightmare, the devil suddenly
appears. Satan uses incredible
displays of signs and wonders to
deceive, if possible, the very elect.
(Matthew 24:24,25) His purpose has
always been to destroy this world
because it is the handiwork of
Christ. When Satan’s day of
opportunity comes, it will be the
perfect moment for him to fulfill
this ambition. The devil will
capitalize on the rebellious hearts
of the wicked. He will lead the
majority of the world away from
hearing and believing the truth
preached by God’s servants, the
144,000. Because of the miracles that
he has power to do, the devil will
deceive or destroy everyone but the
saints. After he gains control of
Earth’s nations, he will command
the people of the world to worship
“the image” or die!
Revelation 13:15 says, “He,
[Satan]…caused all who refused
to worship the image to be
killed.”
The Image of the Beast
What is the image of
the beast? Whom does the beast
represent? The beast from the sea in
Revelation 13:1-8 represents Babylon.
The seven heads represent the seven
religions of the world and the ten
horns represent ten kings who will
play a strategic role near the end of
the world. The image of
Babylon will be a consolidation of
the world’s diverse religions
and nations into one global
church/state. When the majority of
Catholics, Jews, Protestants,
Moslems, Hindus and all others
believe that Satan is actually God,
they will be willing to do whatever
he demands. Can a human being give
too much or do too much for God? The
devil will demand that all religions
must be dissolved into one religion.
Think about this for a moment. If God
were physically on Earth to establish
His eternal kingdom, how many
different churches could He allow?
How many different views of God are
possible when God is physically among
men to reveal what is truth? The
establishment of an “image”
is the establishment of a likeness of
Babylon. In short, the devil will
form a new composite religion and he
will require everyone to leave his
old religion behind. His new religion
will be designed to dissolve the
antagonistic differences between
Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Catholics,
Protestants, ect. This new church or
religion will have a special benefit.
All who join it will receive
permission to buy and sell. The
members of the devil’s kingdom
will have access to the necessities
of life (food, water, medicine, ect.)
which the devil’s forces will
control. In other words, citizens of
the devil’s kingdom will be able
to buy and sell because they will
receive a mark or tattoo showing that
they belong to the “One True
Church.” The saints, on the
other hand, will be cut off from all
necessities of life. It is just as
well, for they would rather die than
submit to the demands of the devil.
The wicked will volunteer to receive
the mark of the beast, justifying
that it is a small price to pay for
survival. Meanwhile, the saints will
be fed and cared for by angels sent
from God.
l page 1 l page 2 l
