Revelation 13:1-5 “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. (2) Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. (3) And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marvelled and followed the beast. (4) So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (5) And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.”
In this section we want to discuss the person called the false prophet, i.e. who he is and where he fits into God’s timeline of end time events. As we will see in this section, that timeline will be forty two months. We mentioned earlier that there are two distinct periods in the reign of the anti-Christ, and in the previous sections we discussed the first half of his reign. And so in this section we want to discuss the second half of his reign. This is the half most Christians know about i.e. the period of forty two months. As we will see in this section, there are four main characters that will feature in the earth during this time i.e. the anti-Christ, the false prophet and the Lord’s two witnesses; and all four will operate in the realm of the supernatural. The opening display of the supernatural occurs in the above quoted passage of scripture, where we see an incident in which the anti-Christ is mortally wounded but then miraculously recovers from his wound. We will discuss this incident in more detail in a later section. Nevertheless we see in this passage that it is after this incident that the anti-Christ will then be given authority to continue for forty-two months. In other words after this incident the Lord will allow the anti-Christ to continue his reign for another forty two months, and then his reign will come to an end. And so we see that the final half of the anti-Christ’s reign will last for a period of no more than three-and-a-half years.
Revelation 13:11-18 “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. (12) And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. (13) He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. (14) And he deceives those who dwell on the earth--by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. (15) He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (16) He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, (17) and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (18) Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle John describes a second beast that will arise in the earth. This beast is more commonly known as the false prophet (Revelation 16:13). We have already seen that the false prophet is also a hybrid being, in that he is part angel and part man. And we have seen that just like the anti-Christ, the false prophet is currently being held in captivity in the bottomless pit. We have also seen that, just like the anti-Christ, when the time is right the false prophet will eventually be released into the earth once again. When the false prophet finally appears, although he will have angelic powers of his own, it seems that he will draw on the power of the anti-Christ to perform certain miracles; for this passage declares that he exercises all the power of the first beast in his presence, and he is granted to do signs in the sight of the first beast. And so it seems as if these two must work together in order to perform certain supernatural signs, which would explain why the anti-Christ performs few signs in the first half of his reign. Some examples of the signs which the false prophet will perform are; he will make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men and he will give breath to the image of the anti-Christ so that the image of the beast can speak. So what will be the purpose of the various signs that the false prophet will perform? The false prophet’s role will be to persuade all who dwell on the earth to worship the anti-Christ; a crude way of putting it is that the false prophet will act as the anti-Christ’s PR specialist or foreign minister, if you will. And so in that role, the false prophet will use miraculous signs to deceive the various peoples of the earth into believing that the anti-Christ is in fact God. This passage reveals to us the ruthlessness of the false prophet in advancing his agenda, for he will ensure that all who refuse to worship the anti-Christ will be killed. So when will the false prophet be released into the earth? This passage points to the fact that the false prophet will only be manifested in the earth after the anti-Christ is already in place, for we see in this passage that he is mentioned for the first time when an assassination attempt is made on the life of the anti-Christ. And it is only after the assassination attempt that the false prophet will take up his role in proclaiming to the world that the anti-Christ is God. The attempted assassination, which we will discuss in more detail in the following section, will only take place half way through the seven year non-aggression pact which we discussed in a previous section. And so we see that significantly, the false prophet will only appear in the earth during the second half of the anti-Christ’s reign. So why is it so significant that the false prophet appears in the earth after the anti-Christ? The reason is because that concept fits in exactly with Islamic eschatology, for in Islamic eschatology, both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims believe that the al-Mahdi (the anti-Christ) will be the first to arrive on the earth, and after him the prophet Isa (the false prophet) will then appear. Muslim eschatology also states that when the prophet Isa arrives he will proclaim to the world that the al-Mahdi is the Islamic saviour[1]. And so we see that not only is the timeline of the appearance of the anti-Christ and the false prophet in agreement with Islamic eschatology, but the purpose of the false prophet’s agenda i.e. to persuade the world to worship the anti-Christ (proclaim him as the Islamic saviour) is also in agreement with Islamic eschatology. And so with the anti-Christ and false prophet fulfilling so many of aspects of the Muslim teaching of end time events, is it any wonder that the Muslim community will be so willing to accept the message which these two will proclaim?
Michael E.B. Maher
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah
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