The people on earth at the time of ANTICHRIST AND THE FINAL SOLUTION who have rejected God are called, as we have seen, “earth dwellers.” They have become totally susceptible to the deluding influences of demons. The deception is full blown, and the people will wonder in awe of the things they see, thus will go ever deeper into worship of Antichrist.
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Revelation 13:14)
It is documented that throughout the ages people have been easily seduced by those claiming to produce miracles. It seems that the more people discount and even outright deny or mock the miracles reported in God’s Word, the more easily they become seduced by false wonder-workers. Such will be the case during the Tribulation era. People will deny God but grasp the demonic manifestations that delude.
Neither Satan nor his cohorts, the fallen angels, can produce miracles created by their own power. They don’t have that power. Only God does. They can, however, manipulate natural matter to produce phenomena that mankind perceives to be miraculous activity.
Miracles must always be tested in relation to their purpose and fidelity to Scripture (Isaiah 8:20). Deluding miracles, the Bible warns, will become more and more manifest as Christ’s Second Advent nears.
Again, Henry Morris writes:
The Lord Jesus Christ warned: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). Paul, speaking probably of this same false prophet, says his “coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). His miracles are lying miracles, in that their purpose is to cause men to “believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11) that the “man of sin,” with his image “sitting in the temple of God” is, as he is claiming, truly God (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4).[i]
The False Prophet will, through delusion and pseudo miracles, bring about the evilest of all of Satan’s plans for humanity. From it will burst forth Antichrist’s own Final Solution, one that will make Adolf Hitler’s seem mild by comparison. It will eventuate in the harlot religious system prophesied in Revelation chapter 17.
Satan and his henchmen perpetrate the blasphemous counterfeit of the Holy Trinity, as we’ve just examined. Now the wickedness is taken by these hellish minions to an even more heinous level, when they seek to create the counterfeit of the Church produced by Jesus Christ.
God sees this counterfeit system of religious evil as a woman who is a harlot. The False Prophet will be at the head of this false worship system and will point all within its assemblage to worship Antichrist and Satan, who indwells him at the time the first beast sits in the Temple of God in Jerusalem and declares himself to be God.
“Harlot”—rendered “whore” in the King James Version—denotes a woman who prostitutes herself sexually. In Bible prophecy, the term is applied symbolically to a system of religion that rejects true doctrine from God’s Word and gives itself totally to a false system of worship. Just as the true Church is known as the Bride of Christ, the harlot, as depicted in Revelation 17, can be likened to being the mistress of Antichrist. She comes from her father, the devil.
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:1–6)
This harlot church system will, many prophecy students and teachers believe, be made up of an eclectic mix of religions in the time of ANTICHRIST AND THE FINAL SOLUTION. As Dr. Thomas Horn in his VIRTUAL CONFERENCE PRESENTATION notes, this religious system, called “Mystery Babylon,” is seated in Rome at the Vatican according to the disciple John and numerous Catholic scholars and will work in concert with the Antichrist regime to enslave the world in every realm of life.
Many believe the ecumenical movement among the religions of the world and the falling-away within Christian church bodies from sound, fundamental doctrines are quickly moving the world toward this prophesied harlot system. Dr. John Walvoord, one of the great Bible teachers of our day, addressed this troubling Bible prophecy for the Tribulation era.
The great prostitute described in these verses is a portrayal of Apostate Christendom in the end time. When the [catching away of the Church] occurred, all true believers were caught up to be with the Lord, but left behind were many thousands of those who made some profession of faith in Christ and claimed to be Christians who were not born again. These constituted the apostate Church which will dominate the scene politically and religiously up to the midpoint of that last seven years before the Second Coming.
The apostasy, called adultery and fornication here, of course refers to spiritual unfaithfulness, not to physical adultery. The church, devoid of any redeeming influence, is now completely united with the world, and, as the passage indicates, is working hand in glove with the political powers.
John saw a woman on a scarlet-colored beast with seven heads and ten horns. the beast is obviously the political empire described in 13:1–10. The fact that she is seated on the beast indicates that she is working with the beasts to attain common ends, that is, the subjugation of the entire world to their authority, and that the political power is supporting the apostate church. The woman wears the trappings of ceremonial religion in which purple and scarlet are prominent and which is often enhanced with precious stones. From the title written on her forehead, she is linked with the mystery of Babylon the Great. In referring to this identification as a mystery, because its ultimate truth is learned only by divine revelation, the influence of Babylon for evil is supported in Scripture from as early as Genesis 11 and continues through the revelation of the destruction of the city in Revelation 18.
Babylon is the title that covers all false religions that claim to be Christian in their content. Babylonian influence clearly crept into the church, and much of its ritual is similar to the Babylonian religious rites.
When Babylon was introduced in Genesis 11, her true character was revealed as rebelling against God and attempting to build a tower in recognition of her worship of heathen deities. Because this was contrary to the Will of God, He confounded the language the people were using at that time so that they could not understand each other; hence, the term “Babel,” meaning confusion, applies to the subsequent history of Babylon (cf. Gen. 11:9).
It should be borne in mind that the term “Babylon” applies to Babylonian religion; it also applies to the city of Babylon; and it applies to the empire of Babylon.
Babylon had a long history and rose to considerable prominence in the time of Hammurabi (1726-1686 B.C.)….
In this section, however, the revelation concentrates on the influence of Babylon religiously. Because the religion of Babylon was in the form of a secret religious rite in which they worshipped certain idols, it requires divine revelation to understand completely what they held. The wife of Nimrod, who was the founder of babylon, headed up the mystery religion. which characterized Babylon. She was given the name Semiramis, and according to the adherents’ belief, she had a son conceived miraculously whose name was Tammuz. He was portrayed as a savior who fulfills the promise of deliverance given to Eve. This was, of course, a satanic description which permeates pagan religions.
…The prophecy concerning Babylon here as well as other allusions to religion in the Book of revelation demonstrate that apostasy will have its final form in the Great tribulation in the worship of the world ruler and Satan.
In the period of the first half of the seven years leading up to the Second Coming of Christ, Babylon combined with Romanism becomes a world religion—Christian in name, but not in content. Those who do come to Christ will be subject to her persecution, and the woman is described as “drunk with the blood of the Saints” (Rev. 17:6). The apostate church has been unsparing in its persecution of those who have a true faith in Christ. Those who come to Christ in the end time will have the double problem of avoiding martyrdom at the hands of the political rulers and at the hands of the apostate church.
…One of the outstanding, convincing arguments for worshipping the beast is the fact that he comes back from apparent death to life, as recoded in 13″3. the reference to the Abyss identifies the home of Satan and the demon world. The whole false religion found in Babylon is satanic in its origin and therefore is closely related to the demon world.
The purpose of the alliance between the woman and the beast is that both are seeking world domination. When this is finally achieved, as the end of the chapter indicates, the political power will no longer need the religious power to support it.[ii]
The Harlot
The angel showed John the woman decked in gold and purple and with a golden chalice in her hands while riding the scarlet-colored beast. It was much like the one John and Daniel before him saw in their visions. Apparently, she represented all world empires, including the final one—Antichrist’s regime.
The angel said the woman was “drunken on the blood of the saints.” This is a horrendous picture! This is the Antichrist’s—Satan’s—Final Solution! It will be carried out under the False Prophet’s religious system on behalf of Antichrist, who will no doubt be indwelt by Satan.
Millions upon millions will be martyred for the cause of Christ when the man of sin’s power and authority become full blown. The False Prophet will cause all to worship the first beast or be beheaded.
This Final Solution will be designed to get rid of every Jew on the planet and every person who comes to know Christ for salvation during that time of the Fourth Reich. If this generation in which we live is approaching that time, the worst in all of human history, signals of the coming False Prophet and the man of sin are even now pulsing their warnings.
Dave Hunt wrote the following in considering the nearness of that approaching time of unprecedented troubles.
Christ warns us in Matthew 24 not to be deceived by false Christs and false prophets and lying signs and wonders. Paul repeats the warning, but with an added dimension: to beware of being deceived into thinking that the apostasy won’t come. It will. It must. Surely Paul would not speak in this manner unless in the last days the popular view would be to reject the idea of apostasy within the church. The grave danger will be that of following false prophets who, with their signs and wonders, will seem to back up their false teaching that revival, not apostasy, is the order of the day. Paul therefore says, “Don’t let anyone deceive you with sweet talk about revival: the apostasy must come or the day of the Lord cannot begin.”
A False “Signs and Wonders” Movement
That fact becomes clearer when we refer to other passages of Scripture. Christ’s statement about false signs and wonders is clarified as we are given further insights into the nature of the apostasy. False signs and wonders will be an integral part of the apostasy. The departure from the truth will be spearheaded by apparent miracle workers and the delusion will be made possible by a prevailing emphasis upon experience over doctrine. Paul says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:3). And Christ declares:
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22, 23).
These apostates of whom Christ speaks did not lose their salvation, they were never saved (“I never knew you”). Yet they outwardly appeared to be high-profile Christian leaders apparently performing signs and wonders in the name of Christ. They didn’t leave the church to become atheists or to join some non-Christian religion. They remained in the church. They even called Jesus Lord—but without really knowing Him. Tragically, they seemed to think that their ability to prophesy and to perform wonders proved that they belonged to Him. Clearly, doctrine is out and experience is in; and the signs and wonders are so impressive that doctrine no longer matters.
Surely these of whom Christ speaks in Matthew 7 must be the same “false Christs and false prophets” to whom He refers in Matthew 24. It is certainly sobering that the signs and wonders these false professors are able to perform are apparently so impressive that even the very elect might be deceived by them were they not given discernment by the Holy Spirit. We can only conclude that something more than mere trickery is involved.[iii]
These wonder-workers are backed by the power of Satan, whom they unwittingly serve in the name of the Lord.
Jesus’ first warning of things to look for in determining when the end of the age would come must be very important to this generation if we are in the last of the last days of the Church Age (Age of Grace).
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.… And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24:3–5, 11)
With the proliferation of prophetic signs that the end-times stage is being set for fulfillment of Bible prophecy, the False Prophet, along with the man who will be Antichrist, must lurk somewhere in the murky shadows of the immediate future.
