Sound The Trumpet : Revelation 13: 13-14

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“Revelation 13: 13-14”
by Art Sadlier
October 4th, 2009

The Miracles of the False Prophet

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he (the false prophet) maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, which had the wound and did live." (Revelation 13:13-14).

In contrast to the deception of the false prophet God will raise up His two witnesses to the truth. Though Satan is given almost unlimited freedom to carry forth his evil, rebellious agenda God will not be without a witness in the world. The idea that God will be passive during the tribulation period is false. He will be pouring out judgment and He will be working to bring salvation to a great multitude of those who will become tribulation saints.

We read about them in Revelation 7:9, "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." These are those who will be saved and martyred and are viewed in heaven during the tribulation period.

Even in that dark, dark hour the people of the world will have access to the truth of God, at least untill they turn away from it and are given over to deception. Many will be challenged by the miracles of the two witnesses of God.

God's two witnesses are taken up from the earth at the mid-tribulation point. Revelation 11: 11-12, "And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them."

Satan now counteracts and counterfits God's witnesses by giving power to the False Prophet to duplicate those miracles.

Satan uses deception but he also is allowed by God to exercise great powers. Remember in Job, Satan was allowed to control the wind, fire and lightning. "And he maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth." We see in our text how Satan uses the false prophet to duplicate God's two witnesses to bring deception to the world.

"And deceiveth them that dwell the on earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do." Paul tells us of those miracles in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all powers and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the the love of the truth, that might be saved."

Notice what the deception involves, "That they should make an image unto the beast", this is the introduction of a new religion. It takes place at the midpoint of the tribulation after the harlot false church is destroyed. We see the destruction of counterfeit christianity, the destruction of the world church that the unholy trinity has used to gain control over the peoples of the world.

"And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire" (Rev. 17:15-17).

All down through the ages counterfeit religion has been Satan's tool against the true worship of God. The great harlot is representative of all counterfeit religion, and God is going to use the unholy trinity to judge and destroy it.

Now Satan's true purpose is revealed, to have the worship of the world, and it starts with the worship of Satan's man, the beast. Ultimately, as the world worships the image of the beast they are worshipping Satan. This has been Satan's goal since the day that he proclaimed that he would be "like the most high."

This deception will be so great that those unregenerate men and women will have no chance of resisting the deception. Remember what Paul said, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." Notice again the reason that God sends this strong delusion "Because they received not the love of the truth, that might be saved." Understand, when an Individual rejects the truth he is rejecting the light. He automatically places himself in darkness. God sends delusion to those who have rejected the light. When a man or woman turns away from the gospel, they place themselves beyond the grace of God.

"Which had the wound by a sword and did live", this is the greatest miracle that the false prophet performs. The beast appears to have been killed by a sword and is brought back to life, seemingly, by the false prophet. We know that Satan can not restore life, only God can do that. It seems obvious that this is an act of deception, the beast is not really dead though he appears to be so. Nevertheless, the world is deceived into believing this to be a resurrection of the dead, what a great deception?

This another of Satan's attempts to mimic God. The second person of the Holy Trinity was raised from the dead, so Satan presents the second person of the unholy trinity as being raised from the dead.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13