Part V of Identifying the False Prophet; the Predecessor of the Antichrist
As you have seen from the previous four segments the end is not yet. It could be said and has been said by many that “we are definitely in the end times.” As I have said before, there will be things leading up to the apokalupto of the False Prophet, but what they will be no one knows for sure. And I don’t believe anyone can tell you with absolute certainty that we are in the end times. I have shown you what will happen after being Caught Up, harpazoo, of 1Thess. 4:17, but no one knows what will be going on prior to that.
There are no prophecies concerning this Age because none of the prophets before Paul knew anything about this age. This age was kept a secret by God:
Rom 16:25-27 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel (Paul’s) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret which has been kept silent since the world began but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the (Christian) prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
Eph 3:5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy (Christian) apostles and prophets by spirit; (How many Old Testament apostles can you name?)
Since none of them, no one, had any knowledge of this Secret Age, they could not have prophesied anything about it, particularly what to expect before the Gathering Together of the saints! In other words no one has any idea when this will occur. There are no worldly events which will indicate when it will happen.
Now, if I am wrong about the Rapture and there is none as many believe, at least you know what to look for concerning the False Prophet.
So, when will “the end” come? Let’s see what 1 Cor 15:20-26 says:
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep (dead). 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the standing up from the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, (Remember the 5 parts of the Parousia, coming, in Part IV?) This is addressing the dead, those who are asleep.
24 then comes the end, when He, Jesus, hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death (death is not destroyed until Rev. 20:14, after the Millennial Kingdom.) NASU
When all of the “whens” have occurred, then comes the end!
Part IV of Identifying the False Prophet; the Predecessor of the Antichrist
Clarification of The Events Before and After the Revealing of the False Prophet
2 Thess 2:1 was the first verse of Part III Identifying the False Prophet; the Predecessor of the Antichrist.; Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, WEB
Coming is the Greek word Parousia and there are many aspects of this Coming:
The 1st aspect of the Parousia is our gathering together to him. These 2 words are the one word episunagoge. Look at this word for a minute and you can see epi as in epicenter center and synagogue. Episunagoge means a complete collection, especially a Christian meeting. When Christians come together for a meeting it is usually called a Church, which is the equivalent of the synagogue for the Jewish meetings. Episunagoge comes from the word episunago, which means to gather together besides and in one place.
The suffix of these 2 Greek words is agoo, which means to lead by accompanying to or into a place or destination; to attach oneself to as an attendant.
Verse 3 tells us that the day of the LORD will not come until the “Departure” comes first! 2 Thess 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, WEB. The word for departure is apostasia, apo, away from and stasia, to stand.
Apo NT:575 is used of local separation, after verbs of motion from a place (of departing, fleeing, removing, expelling, throwing, etc. Luke 22:41 2. used of the separation of apart from the whole; where of a whole some part is taken.* (Translating apostasia into apostasy is not translating at all, but is transliterating it into a similar English word. It is fraudulent and deceptive, as well as lazy).
The verb of motion in this verse that apostasia is used after is erchomai, “except there come.” This seals the deal. It means to come from one place into another! Metaphorically, of Christ’s invisible return from heaven.*
After the Gathering Together of the saints to Heaven (the Rapture) the 2nd aspect of the Parousia is the revealing, unveiling, or uncovering, apokalupto, of the False Prophet.
The 3rd aspect of the Parousia is the Great Tribulation.
The 4th is The Bema, the Judgement Seat of Christ, where all Christians will be either rewarded for what we did with what we had on earth: 2 Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. KJV
The 5th is the 2nd Coming of Christ with us, 2 Thess 1:7-10 when the Lord Jesus is revealed, apokalupto, from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified with his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day.WEB 1 Thess 3:13 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
When Christ gathers us together, there is no apokalupto, no angels in flaming fire and none of God’s vengeance. At the Gathering Together no one sees Jesus coming in the clouds. Just look at the contrast here:
1 Thess 4:16-17
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. KJV Caught up is the word harpazoo which means to snatch out or away; proverbial, to rescue from the danger of destruction. You will also see that we meet Jesus in the air. It is customary in Eastern cultures that a host who is expecting company, go out to the edge of town to escort them back to their home. This is the same concept. Jesus does not come to earth.
Part II of Identifying the False Prophet; the Predecessor of the Antichrist
One of the keys to understanding who is what in the book of Revelation being able to see the different Greek words from which our English words are translated. Beast for example is translated from either zoon or therion:
NT:2226 zoon (dzo’-on); neuter of a derivative of NT:2198; a live thing, i.e. an animal: KJV – beast. NT:2198 zao (dzah’-o); a primary verb; to live (literally or figuratively).
NT:2342 therion (thay-ree’-on); diminutive from the same as NT:2339; a dangerous animal: KJV – (venomous, wild) beast. NT:2339 thera (thay’-rah); from ther (a wild animal, as game); hunting, i.e. (figuratively) destruction: KJV – trap.
Zoon is used 7 times and therion is used 37 times in Revelation. Here we can see that therion is not just any living animal, but a wild, dangerous and destructive one as well.
Rev 13:11-17 describes this Beast from the Earth
11 Then I saw another beast (therion) coming up out of the earth; and he had (having) two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. 12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast (therion) in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast (therion), whose fatal wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 14 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 (therion), telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast (therion) who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. 15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast (therion), so that the image of the beast (therion) would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast (therion) to be killed. 16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 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 (therion) or the number of his name. NASU
Now let us look at 12 attributes of this 2nd therion beast:
- Comes from the earth as opposed to the 1st beast who comes from the sea;
- Has 2 horns
- Speaks eloquently “as a”(figure of speech simile) dragon- NT:1404 drakoon, drakontos, ho a great serpent, a fabulous animal
- Exercises all the authority (exousia, physical and mental power, influence, rights, governance) of the 1st beast
- Makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast
- Causes great signs (miracles and wonders),
- Makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men
- Deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs
- Tells, commands, those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast
- And it was given to him (autos, he, she or it), to give breath (pneuma, spirit) to the image (eikoon, likeness, figure) of the beast
- Causes as many as do not worship the image of the beast (therion) to be killed
- Causes all, to be given a mark (charagma, an etching, stamp or sculpted figure) on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast (therion) or the number of his name
This should give you plenty of food for thought for helping you understand the chronology of End Time events. Does this help?
*(Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
- *(from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
What is The False Prophet? Will You Know It When You See It?
(Taken from Chapter XI of my book)
Yes, there any many false prophets and false teachers, but there is only 1 False Prophet thrown into the Lake of Fire:
Rev 19:20
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. KJV
This individual is first mentioned 3 chapters earlier:
Rev 16:13
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. KJV
Prior to this there is no mention of this individual by this name. The only way we can discover more about them is by their attributes:
- In ch. 19 we can see that they “wrought miracles“
- and through these miracles people were seduced into receiving the Mark of the Beast
- and into worshipping the image of the beast
What we need to establish is that this individual is not the beast it is mentioned with and is not “the” Antichrist even though they are “an” antichrist. Until you are ready to acknowledge the difference between these 2 with the spirit of antichrist, you will be deluded and deceived into believing lies.
Is this what you want?
A Problem with Islam?
In spite of the fact that most believers believe, that the righteous dead are in Heaven and the unrighteous in Hell, no one person has ever lived and died is in Heaven but Jesus Christ. This error in Doctrine is most unfortunately not only confined to Islam. Practically every religion believes in life somewhere immediately after death. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When we die our bodies, if we are not cremated, corrupt in the ground; they rot away. You know, dust thou art, unto dust thou shalt return, right? It takes a while to turn to dust; it doesn’t happen overnight. I spent a lot of time on the subject of sleeping (death) in my book which you can get on the site, so I am not going into it here.
The point of this blog today is to highlight a problem with Islam. In “The Messengers of Islam” by Ashraf Hassan Abdul-Aziz on page 212-214, we have an account of Muhammed being escorted by the angel Gabriel to each of the 7 heavens; yes 7. In each heaven his “Prophethood” was confirmed by whoever was there. In the first heaven he was greeted by Adam. Here Mo was allowed by Allah to the “souls” of martyrs on his right and those of the wretched on his left.
In the second heaven he met John the baptist and Jesus, the son of Mary. In the 3rd he met Yusuf, the 4th Idris, the 5th Aaron, the 6th Moses, and the 7th Abraham . Then he was taken to God Almighty, like 10′ away from Him or so. This, I suppose is to confirm to all his followers that he really must be a prophet. The Problem is, that all these people are dead and in the grave. Do you see how important the truth is? Without the truth it is more difficult to expose a counterfeit.
The author goes on on page 215 to show “proof” of where in the Bible scripture passages are referring to Muhammed, like De 18:17-18 where YHWH (LORD with all caps) said to Moses that he would raise up a prophet, like Moses; John 16:12-13 (the word “he” should be translated “it,”) where it mentions the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth is not a he. Muslims believe this is referring to Muhammed.
Again, whenever error is practiced, exposing a counterfeit, in this case a false prophet, is not as cut and dry. BUT, when the Dead are dead and the spirit of truth is the gift of holy spirit, there is no problem exposing someone for what they really are. The truth really will set us free, when we know it.
God bless,
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