Wallace Smith: The Book of Revelation warns us that
a man is coming, who will inspire the entire world to
embrace a false and deceptive version of Christianity.
Aided by supernatural signs and wonders,
he will help usher in an era of death,
destruction, and devastation, the likes of which the world has
never seen.
The false deceptive system he represents is already in place,
enjoyed by the deceived faithful every week,
and that system is destined to grow in power and influence
until it impacts the lives of every human being on the globe.
Wallace Smith: Who is this man?
What does the Bible reveal about him,
and what should we do with that knowledge?
Join us today, on "Tomorrow's World," as we uncover the great
false prophet of Revelation.
♪♪♪
Wallace Smith: Greetings, and welcome to "Tomorrow's
World," where we help you make sense of your world
through the pages of the Bible.
It's good to have you here.
Wallace Smith: Your Bible describes certain
individuals who are prophesied to arrive on the world scene in
the days just ahead of us and who will have a devastating
impact on life as we know it for,
literally, every human being on the globe.
These individuals and their actions will impact you and your
family and me and my family.
No living, breathing soul on earth will be able to avoid
their power and influence.
Frankly, they will wield the most destructive powers earth
has ever seen unleashed by mankind,
and they will be servants of Satan, the devil.
One of those individuals is called,
in the book of Revelation, the false prophet.
This individual will deceive billions,
and the religious system he supports is already
in place today.
On today's edition of "Tomorrow's World," we'll
examine what the Bible has to tell us about the false prophet
of Revelation and how we might recognize both him and the false
Christianity he will promote.
The name "false prophet" first appears in the book of
Revelation in chapter 16, and Revelation 19 tells us that the
false prophet will be tossed along with the infamous beast of
Revelation into the lake of fire at the return of Jesus Christ.
But the false prophet is introduced to us
in chapter 13 of Revelation.
In the first portion of that chapter,
we read of the beast of Revelation,
used to refer to both an individual and the political
entity he controls: a world-ruling,
end-of-time, Satan-inspired political entity that will
possess astonishing economic and military power.
On our program, we often refer to this entity as "the beast
power," and verse 4, of Revelation 13,
says, "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?'"
We will read more about this beast today since his role in
the end times is intimately entwined with the false prophet.
However, Revelation 13, then speaks of a second beast.
We read about this separate person symbolized by a second
beast, beginning in verse 11: "Then I saw another beast coming
up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke
like a dragon."
This beast is the partner of the beast of Revelation,
mentioned just before, and is called elsewhere,
the false prophet, and this description,
given in verse 11, is crucial to understanding his nature.
Notice, he looks like a Lamb, Jesus Christ,
but speaks like the dragon, Satan, the devil.
If one listens carefully to his teachings and doctrines,
one can discern that they're the teachings not of Christ
but of the devil.
Wallace Smith: But, please, note that doesn't mean
these teachings are obviously evil.
Satan is the master of deception,
and the old King James Version of the Bible says of Satan in
Genesis 3, in verse 1, "The serpent was more subtil
than any beast of the field."
His twists of true biblical doctrine are subtle,
hard to discern, and convincing.
In addition to describing his teachings,
Revelation 13, continues, "He performs great signs,
so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in
the sight of men.
And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs
which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast."
Now, it might surprise some of our viewers that such
supernatural signs and wonders could be worked
by a false prophet.
Aren't such works only possible by God's power?
The Bible says, no, that is not the case.
In fact, a miracle-working precursor to the false prophet
in the first century was Simon the Sorcerer,
often called Simon Magus.
He is described in the book of Acts in chapter 8: "But there
was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery
in the city and astonished the people of Samaria,
claiming that he was someone great,
to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest,
saying, 'This man is the great power of God.'
And they heeded him because he had astonished them
with his sorceries for a long time."
Simon Magus was a sorcerer and not a man of God at all though
the people thought he was so.
His power to work signs and wonders came not from God but
from the devil.
The false prophet will follow in Simon's footsteps,
and the wonders he will work will grab the attention of the
entire world in the days just ahead of us.
Before we go further, I need to make sure you have an
opportunity to request this week's eye-opening offer,
our free booklet, "Who or What Is The Antichrist?"
This mysterious figure has been discussed and speculated about
for centuries, but using your own Bible,
this booklet will clearly explain the identity of the
Antichrist and the religious system he will deceive the world
into embracing, a religious system that is active today.
You need this astonishing free booklet.
Request your copy today, and I'll be right back to explain
how the false prophet ties into the great harlot of Revelation.
Don't go away.
male announcer: For today's free offer,
call...
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This clear and straightforward resource will help you
understand this vital truth,
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you're calling for the first time,
you will also receive a free annual subscription to
"Tomorrow's World Magazine," ten inspiring issues,
discussing news, science, and modern culture,
will help you make sense of your world
from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world who are turning
to "Tomorrow's World" for truth, prophecy,
and hope in these confusing times.
Call now,
or go to TWTV.org/Antichrist.
Wallace Smith: Welcome back.
In our last segment, we saw that the false prophet will use
startling demonically empowered signs and wonders to help him
deceive the world.
In fact, verse 12, of Revelation 13,
says that the false prophet "causes the earth and those who
dwell in it to worship the first beast," that is,
the beast of Revelation.
Verse 15, says that he will "cause all who are unwilling to
worship that beast to be killed," and verses 16 through
18, talk of how the false prophet,
the second beast of Revelation 13,
will cause all people to obey the first beast,
symbolically taking his mark on their right hand or forehead.
This is tied, in verse 18, to the mysterious number 666.
It is the beast of Revelation, a political entity and its leader
wielding unfathomable economic, political,
and military power that provides the muscle,
but we see here that it is the false prophet who is using this
beast for his own purposes, as well,
in an unholy union of church and state power.
We see this relationship dramatically pictured in
Revelation chapter 17.
There, the apostle John is told in vision by an angel that he
will show the apostle the religious system controlling
affairs in the end times.
"So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness.
And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of
names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with
gold and precious stones and pearls,
having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the
filthiness of her fornication.
And on her forehead a name was written,
'Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the
Abominations of the Earth.' I saw the woman,
drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement."
Wallace Smith: This monstrous beast corresponds to
the end-time economic and military powerhouse beast of
Revelation we've already discussed,
but riding that beast and influencing it is a great harlot
drinking in abominations and drunk on the blood of
persecuted, true followers of Jesus Christ,
much like the bloody inquisitions of ages past but
far surpassing them.
Wallace Smith: In the Bible,
God uses women to symbolize religious systems,
and prostitution to symbolize corruptions of the true faith
with pagan religious practices.
Ancient Israel did this with the faith God had given them,
and this end-time false Christianity does this with the
faith of the Bible, mixing it with sinful pagan practices God
does not approve, endorse, or command.
This harlot pictures the deceptive religious system,
headed by the false prophet, and we see it influencing the beast
and benefiting from its power.
The union of these two powers and their institutions will be a
tempestuous one, yet they will need each other.
Wallace Smith: Chapter 2, of the book of Daniel,
describes the kingdom of the beast of Revelation
as being like a mixture of iron and clay,
noting that the peoples of this entity do not mix well together.
This political entity will need the religious influence of the
false prophet to keep the people bound together,
and the false prophet uses the beast
for his own purposes as well.
Several prophecies of the Bible explain how this deceptive
end-time religious leader desires to suppress the true
understanding of God, his commandments,
and his laws, and to persecute the true church of God.
As Daniel chapter 7, in verse 25,
says of this individual, "He shall speak pompous words
against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most
High, and shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and
times and half a time."
Now, this "time, times and half a time," or three and a half
years, represents the period of the Great Tribulation and the
Day of the Lord to come upon the earth,
during which many true Christians will be martyred at
the command of this false religious leader,
and he will use the raw military power and political resources of
the beast to accomplish his diabolical purposes.
And notice the false prophet's desire to change times and law.
We'll come back to that later.
Wallace Smith: Ultimately, the selfish dance
of these two devil-inspired despots does not end well.
Prophecy says that, as their plans begin to fall apart during
the events accompanying Christ's return,
the beast will ultimately turn on the harlot who rides it and
devour her as we see in Revelation 17,
in verse 16: "And the ten horns which you saw on the beast,
these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked,
eat her flesh and burn her with fire."
In the next portion of our program,
I want to explain how the religious system of this false
prophet is in place today, right now,
and already has multiple millions in its sway.
But, first, I need to give you another opportunity to request
our free booklet, "Who or What Is The Antichrist?"
This booklet will go into the details of both the Bible and
history to help you identify the Antichrist himself.
While others simply wonder about this mysterious evil figure in
prophecy, you can know who he is and recognize him the moment he
steps onto the world scene.
Don't risk missing out on getting this vital information.
Request your own copy today and I will be right back to show you
how the counterfeit Christianity of the false prophet is powerful
and active in our world today.
You need to know.
announcer: This clear and straightforward resource will
help you understand this vital truth,
straight from the pages of the Bible.
Call now, or go to TWTV.org/Antichrist.
Wallace Smith: Welcome back.
We have been discussing the prophesied false prophet.
Understanding his lawless nature,
his desire to supplant the laws and commands of God with pagan
influence laws and dogmas, even changing the times,
holidays, and calendar to suit his counterfeit Christianity
instead of the times, holy days, and calendar of the biblical
faith, is a key to recognizing the presence of that counterfeit
Christianity in the world, and it is also important to
recognize that this deceptive counterfeit faith will not be
new to the end times.
Many think the false prophet will rise on the scene and
create something that is completely new,
but the Bible says otherwise.
Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 7,
that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
Lawlessness is important because we saw earlier,
in Daniel, that the false prophet and the faith he
presents seeks to change times and law.
That is the fundamentals of this counterfeit Christianity that
would seek to eliminate and replace the laws of God
were already present in Paul's day,
fighting against the true faith and attempting to displace it.
The presence of this hijacked version of Christianity worming
its way into the congregations of true followers of Christ is
part of what motivated Jude, one of the brothers of Jesus,
to write to his fellow Christians.
"Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you
concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to
you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which
was once for all delivered to the saints.
For certain men have crept in unnoticed,
who long ago were marked out for this condemnation,
ungodly men, who turned the grace of our God into lewdness
and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."
Wallace Smith: It is not a coincidence that the
apostle John wrote of the coming Antichrist and his religion in
very similar terms.
Look in 1 John chapter 2.
We see there that John also wrote in the first century to
say that this lawless false Christianity was already being
put in place back in his day.
"Little children, it is the last hour,
and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming,
even now many antichrists have come,
by which we know that it is the last hour."
That's right.
Even in John's day, shortly after the very foundation of the
true church, another false version of Christianity was also
being founded, and here we see John naming those who come in
its name, including the false prophet to come,
by a word many have heard before, "Antichrist."
The prefix, "anti," can imply "against," "in opposition to,"
or "in place of," and the false prophet will be the climactic
end-time Antichrist and the leader of the religion that well
deserves the label "Antichrist," a religion that,
from the beginning of true Christianity in the first
century, has been working to replace it
with a lawless counterfeit.
In fact, in 1 John chapter 4, in verse 3,
the apostle says that "the counterfeit spirit of Antichrist
was already in the world," in his time,
and we must remember this counterfeit will look Christian
in appearance.
Revelation 13, says the false prophet appears
to be like the lamb.
The apostle Paul spoke of those teaching such deceptive
forgeries of the true faith when he warned those in Corinth in 2
Corinthians 11, "For if he who comes preaches another Jesus
whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit
which you have not received, or a different gospel which you
have not accepted, you may well put up with it."
Wallace Smith: And many have put up
with it for centuries.
The writings of Paul, John, and others,
make it clear that this false, deceptive system that began in
their day would continue throughout time into our own day
and that it would be, by far, the dominant version of
Christianity at the end.
Wallace Smith: While the false prophet of Revelation,
the final head of this religious institution,
will perform amazing signs and wonders before Christ's return,
these verses make plain that the religious teachings he will
spread and enforce are being taught today
in the guise of Christianity.
Those teachings will lay the foundation of ultimate deceit in
the days just ahead, and without God's protection,
those who resist them will be mercilessly martyred,
and they're being taught in pulpits and religious services
all across the world right now by those claiming the name of
Jesus Christ, but how would you know the difference?
How would you recognize such a servant of the spirit of
Antichrist spreading the counterfeit faith that will
one day support the false prophet of Revelation?
Wallace Smith: We begin that journey for you in
the last segment of our program.
But, first, you don't have to wait until you see signs and
wonders from this end-time individual,
by which time it may be too late to untangle yourself from those
teachings and deceptions.
You can understand the subtle but utterly false teachings for
yourself now, for the sake of your life,
your family's life, and your walk with God.
Your free booklet today, "Who or What Is The Antichrist?"
uses your Bible and the pages of history to show you the
teachings of this false prophet in detail,
exposing the Antichrist and his fraudulent church and its
related churches for what they truly are.
It will give you exactly the kind of deep,
rich detail you need that we simply don't have time for in
our short program, and it will show you out of the pages of
your own Bible.
Wallace Smith: Request your free copy today,
and I'll be right back after this break to get you started on
your way to seeing this counterfeit for yourself.
announcer: For today's free offer,
call...
or go to TWTV.org/Antichrist.
This clear and straightforward resource will help you
understand this vital truth,
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you're calling for the first time,
you will also receive a free annual subscription to
"Tomorrow's World Magazine," ten inspiring issues,
discussing news, science, and modern culture,
will help you make sense of your world
from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world who are turning
to "Tomorrow's World" for truth, prophecy,
and hope in these confusing times.
Call now, or go to TWTV.org/Antichrist.
Wallace Smith: The false prophet of Revelation will
be one of the most powerful men to have ever lived,
yet as we saw at the beginning, his end will be to be cast by
God into the lake of fire and be destroyed
as an enemy of Jesus Christ.
But before then, he will contribute to more devastation
and death than the world has ever seen before.
We've seen that he speaks the teachings of the devil yet that
he will appear very Christlike and his false Christian religion
very much like what one might expect
of a good Christian faith.
Wallace Smith: This is the devil's M.O.,
as the apostle Paul warned in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
Speaking of those who preach this alternate version of Jesus
Christ, who look so believable and so close to the real thing,
Paul says, "For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into apostles of Christ.
And no wonder.
For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also
transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness,
whose end will be according to their works."
Wallace Smith: So if these false ministers of
Christianity are at work today, how can you identify them for
what they are?
For this, I cannot recommend today's booklet to you highly
enough, "Who or What Is The Antichrist?"
This booklet takes you through the prophecies of Daniel and
Revelation and other passages of the Bible and makes the identity
of the final Antichrist and false prophet and his religious
system utterly plain and irrefutable,
but let me summarize several of the hallmarks we've discussed
already on today's program to get you started.
We've seen, for instance, that the religious system of this
false prophet at work in his day and ours is called,
by Paul, the "mystery of lawlessness."
It's not a religion that teaches against the laws of man,
like speed limits or tax laws, but against the laws of God,
and we've seen that the false prophet's religion represents
changing times and laws.
Ask yourself how many Christian churches teach obedience to the
Ten Commandments, all ten, including the fourth about the
seventh-day Sabbath verses only some of the commandments or no
need for obedience at all?
And how many Christian churches teach the times and holy days
given in the Bible, such as Passover,
the Days of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Trumpets,
verses times and holidays with pagan origins and traditions
hidden behind a veneer of Christian reinterpretation?
And recall that Revelation 17, not only describes the false
prophet's religious system as a harlot or prostitute,
corrupting true worship with heathen falsehoods,
but also says, in verse 5, that she is the "Mother of Harlots."
What religious organization in the world not only claims the
authority to change the laws and commandments of God,
substituting its own ecclesiastical laws and
ordinances, but has also spawned countless daughter harlots,
each with their own differences yet each still carrying with
them corrupted ideas and heathen influences?
Wallace Smith: When you find this so-called
Christian religion in the world, you have found the great harlot
or one of her daughters, and you have found the counterfeit
Christianity that the false prophet will use to spread
deception around the globe, persecuting those who are
described in Revelation 12:17, as those "who keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Wallace Smith: If you want to prove this for yourself
at a level of proof and detail far beyond what we can provide
on this short program, then you owe it to yourself to get
today's free booklet, "Who or What Is The Antichrist?"
because the false prophet, the final Antichrist is coming,
and his religion is already embraced by most who consider
themselves Christian today.
Please don't forget to request your free copy,
and please don't forget to come back
to "Tomorrow's World" next week.
Gerald Weston, Richard Ames, Rod McNair,
and I will be right here, waiting for you,
ready to explain the end-time prophecies of the Bible,
the good news of the coming kingdom of God,
and the true teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Until next time, take care.
announcer: For today's free offer,
call...or go to TWTV.org/Antichrist.
Call today and join millions around the world who are turning
to "Tomorrow's World" for truth, prophecy,
and hope in these confusing times.
The preceding program is produced
by the Living Church of God.