by John Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
The false prophet has a very deadly approach. He is deadly in the way he BLINDS mankind. Signs from heaven and signs from hell will be included in his bag of tricks, and men will be so confused that they will not be able to tell one from the other. John says, “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” This will be no mere sleight of hand, no sham hocus-pocus of a stage magician. This will be a real miracle, convincing the most skeptical of men—all, in fact, except the saints of God. The memory of the two witnesses will be fresh in the minds of men. They summoned fire from heaven; the false prophet will do the same. And who can forget that spectacular miracle by Elijah recorded in 1 Kings 18:36-38 where he called on God to send down fire from heaven. Ironically Elijah had performed that miracle so that God could show who was a true prophet and who was not. The unbelieving Jews demanded that Jesus show them a sign from heaven, and He positively refused to perform such a miracle to support His claims. But the false prophet didn’t follow Jesus’ example! He will delight to set the sky ablaze. Never forget, the devil can perform miracles . . . limited, yes—but miracles.
Keep in mind that these two beasts work together—political and religious. The first will be the leader of the most powerful united kingdom that has ever been on this earth. He will be the most colossal ruler—the boldest, most blasphemous ruler who ever lived upon the face of this earth. The second beast will have no royal authority outside of Palestine; therefore, he uses the power and prestige of the political beast to bring about his diabolical design to get all the peoples of earth to bow down to Rome and worship the great beast who was wounded unto death but now has miraculously come alive. The second beast will have no military power of his own. Military power will be turned over to the first beast by the dragon—the devil. The second beast is much worse than the first. He influences man religiously and leads them into the vilest blasphemy and idolatry. He demands men to worship him. He sits in the temple in Jerusalem and announces publicly that he is God Almighty. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10, especially verse 4—“. . . He will even go into God’s Temple and sit there, claiming that he is God.”
Jesus came in His Father’s name, to do His Father’s will. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. The false messiah will come in his own name, to do his own will (John 5:43). With the exception of those who have believed and been redeemed through the testimony of the 144,000 and the two witnesses of chapter 11, the masses will fall down and receive the beast as their messiah, and joyfully line up to receive his mark in their forehead or in their right hand. They will be sent strong delusion; they will believe the lie. Read 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12.
14 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.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
He also BLINDS men with signs from hell. John says, “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. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed . Because of these powers, he will be able to convince people that he preaches the truth, and everyone who is NOT a true believer will be fooled.
The prophet instructs people to make an image of the first beast and to put it in their homes. Then, according to verse 15, the prophet gives the image, or idol, the power to speak. The word speak is often translated “spirit.” This seems to mean that not only can the image speak, but it has
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