“This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Revelation 13:18

The Biblical meaning of a false prophet is someone who speaks falsely “in the name of God.” Therefore, I believe the end-times False Prophet will emerge from within a Judeo-Christian context, having an outward appearance of a godly man of the “cloth” but at the same time speaking blasphemous lies in the name of Jesus. The False Prophet will also possess immense supernatural powers, using signs and working wonders to deceive the world.

Beyond using supernatural and spiritual powers, however, the False Prophet is described as using two additional methods of influence during the great tribulation.

1. The Image of the Beast
2. The Mark of the Beast

Many have undertaken the task of trying to decipher what these two mysteries may be. In full disclosure, I don’t claim to know what the image and the mark of the Beast will be, but I do have some thoughts concerning the possibilities.

The Image of the Beast

“And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.”

Revelation 13:14

What is the image of the beast? Some have proposed that it is some type of satanic statue or idol that will be set up in the Third Temple, which will involve the abomination of desolation [see Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4].

Others still have suggested that it will be some type of holographic/virtual image that the Beast uses to appear before the masses.

Consider what the Greek word, image, means in Strong’s Concordance.

• Strong’s 1504 eikṓn (from 1503/eíkō, “be like”) – properly, “mirror-like representation,” referring to what is very close in resemblance (like a “high-definition” projection, as defined by the context).

When we understand that Jesus Himself is called the “image” of the invisible God — the exact imprint of His nature and likeness — it helps provide some context to the “image” of the Beast. The image of the beast will most likely be some type of human-like representation of the Antichrist. Here are some possibilities.

• The image of the Beast could be some type of cyborg replica of Antichrist who is given “life” by the False Prophet. By life, I believe that either artificial intelligence or a demonic spirit is in view.
• The image of the Beast could be some type of genetic hybrid who resembles the Antichrist and is given “life.”

But why would the Beast — who already will be a man in physical form — need a human-like replica of himself?

I believe the answer is most likely found in the second half of Revelation 13:14. The Beast — or the human leader — apparently will suffer some type of mortal wound and either appear to die or actually die, only to be brought back to “life” as the image of the Beast. All things considered, this could be a pseudo-miracle performed by the False Prophet that astonishes the whole world and causes them to worship the Beast, whose mortal wound was healed.

If we understand Satan’s desire to mimic and pervert all that God has done, then it is not unreasonable to believe that the Antichrist will perform some type of “resurrection” from the dead to imitate Christ. I am of the opinion that this demonic resurrection will produce the image of the Beast, further deceiving the lost inhabitants of the earth to worship him. Any failure to follow suit will most likely result in martyrdom.

“And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.” 

Revelation 13:15

The Mark of the Beast

“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

Revelation 13:16-17

Finally, we see the False Prophet using economic control over the masses, preventing anyone to buy or sell without first being “marked,” either on the right hand or the forehead.

What is this mark of the Beast?

The Greek word for mark used here in Strong’s Concordance is number 5480 xáragma. It can refer properly to an engraving (etching), brand or stamp and also can refer to an identification symbol or badge, giving irrefutable connection between parties. Think of the Jews in the Holocaust who were forced by the Nazis to wear the star of David for identification. Notice that the mark is also called the “number” of the name of the Beast, or 666.

Once again, I can’t be dogmatic about this mark, but here are my thoughts.

• The mark of the Beast is at the very least a universal identification system that can be globally monitored through modern technology.
• The mark of the Beast could employ some type of microchip or nanotechnology that can implanted into the skin of willing individuals or delivered via some form of vaccination or inoculation campaign.
• The mark of the Beast will be in some way outwardly recognizable and visible as to distinguish between those who have taken it or not.
• The mark of the Beast, in my interpretation, is the “seal” of the Antichrist, which is the antithesis of the seal of the Holy Spirit.
• True believers who are sealed with the Holy Spirit and who possess the mind of Christ will refuse to voluntarily take the mark, even if it costs us our lives.

Although the Beast and his kingdom will be concentrated in the Middle East, his reach and control will be global because of the technological component of the mark. Global tracking and data gathering has never been an option until now, and the Antichrist will take full advantage of GPS monitoring systems and 5G technology.

The Revelation of Jesus warns believers that the kingdom of darkness and the rule of Antichrist will last 42 months (3.5 years) and that we must be prepared not only to face the Beast, but also to be willing to suffer and die in resistance to his satanic system. This is just one of many reasons why I believe the church will be present on the earth during the great tribulation — or the last 3.5 years — before the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself gives a personal call to the saints to have endurance through this time of great trouble.

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

“If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.”

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Revelation 13:7-10

Furthermore, I believe only those who are seduced, deceived, or intimidated by the False Prophet to take the mark — and do so willingly — will be taking the seal of the devil and deliberately rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not believe a true believer who is sealed with Holy Spirit should worry that he or she will somehow be tricked or forced into the taking the mark of the Beast. For those who truly belong to Christ, they will not love their lives, even unto death. The words of Jesus ring true.

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.19When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” [Matthew 10:16-23]

Those who willingly take the mark, however, are consciously pledging full allegiance and giving themselves over to the Beast. Their end is sealed.

And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Revelation 14:9-10

We are living in the last days. May all God’s people be prepared for what is coming upon the earth in the years to come. We will need God and His presence and power more than ever, and we will need one another like never before.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.

The False Prophet is called a “beast” in Revelation 13. The term beast in this context is best understood as a leader/ruler with authority and power over a designated group of people. His purpose is to promote allegiance and worship of the first beast — the human leader known as the Antichrist — and also to utilize the supernatural powers of the Dragon to deceive the whole world. Whereas the first beast — the Antichrist — is described in terms of a political/military figure, the second beast — the False Prophet — is portrayed as a religious/spiritual figure of significant influence.

In my last post I made the case that the False Prophet will be a renown religious leader who speaks lies and heresies “in the name of God,” which means that he will almost certainly emerge from within the modern Christian “church” as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He outwardly has the appearance of a lamb (false christ), while inwardly he is a ravenous wolf speaking like the devil himself [Revelation 13:11].

Authority and Idolatry

“It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.”

Revelation 13:12

The False Prophet will exercise authority on behalf of the Antichrist, and his job will be clear. He is to use whatever means possible to cause the inhabitants of the world to submit and worship the Beast. As the verse above says, the False Prophet will “cause” or “make” the peoples of the earth bow down to Antichrist and pledge full allegiance to him.

Just as a side note, there is one primary belief system in the world today that gains “converts” by using force, intimidation, terror, and subjugation — Islam. The essence of Islam is jihad — or holy war — which is designed to introduce shariah law to every newly-conquered territory. Shariah forces infidels — those who do not believe in Allah or his prophet Mohammed — to convert, die or become a classless slave of the Islamic system.

Now while I do believe that the first “Beast” will emerge from an Islamic context and will rule over a Middle Eastern empire, I do not necessarily believe the False Prophet will be a Muslim imam. He most likely will use the terror of shariah law and exploit the authority of the Antichrist, causing many to worship the Beast for fear of their lives. All who would save his life, however, will lose it for bowing down to another god and worshiping this profane Beast. This is an assault of the first commandment of God. We are to have no other gods before Him.

Satan’s original sin was born out of his pride and arrogance and his desire to exalt himself above God [Isaiah 14:12-14, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4], and the False Prophet will be tasked with using whatever means necessary to make the whole world bow at the feet of the Dragon. Just as the Holy Spirit testifies to God the Son and points people to Jesus, the False Prophet will point the world to the Beast. The last days will reveal a wicked and corrupt generation that practices universal idolatry, blaspheming the One True God and His Son Jesus Christ, while giving glory to the devil.

The Scriptures reveal, however, that the False Prophet will use other means of influence to sway sinners to surrender to the power and control of the Beast.

Supernatural Signs and Wonders

“It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.”

Revelation 13:13-15

You can read other posts that I have written about the coming deception and the dangers of the apostate church. The spirit of the age is sweeping through our world and the stage is being set for mass deception. Satan is using a strategic combination of moral relativism, political correctness, doctrinal compromise, sexual perversion and seduction, governmental corruption, occult fascination, academic indoctrination, technological isolation, and substance addiction — among other things — to keep the world in his grasp.

I believe the False Prophet will employ all of these methods of seduction and deception when he arrives on the scene, especially when it comes to using artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.

But the False Prophet will also have a secret weapon — superpowers!

There seems to have always been a fascination with being superhuman — godlike. It’s the oldest lie of the devil … you shall be like gods!

The False Prophet will be able to access supernatural powers to woo the crowds and wow the masses. Revelation 13 says that he will be able to make “fire come down from heaven” and somehow give “breath,” or life to the image of the beast. His power is reminiscent of Satan’s vicious attack on Job by bringing fire down from heaven to destroy his herds [Job 1:16], as well as an imitation of the prophet Elijah during his standoff with the false prophets of Baal.

Although the Bible calls these “false” signs and wonders, that does not mean that they necessarily are “fake” like an elaborate magic show. The power of the False Prophet will be quite real, but it will be false in the sense that it will be used to deceive and lead the world astray.

The Apostle Paul also speaks of this coming supernatural demonstration of power in the last days. Those who have refused to love the truth and be saved will be deceived. Only those sealed with the Holy Spirit and possessing the mind of Christ will be able to resist the unbelievable powers on display in those days.

“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Finally we see the unholy trinity in Revelation 16 — the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet — sending three unclean spirits to the kings of the earth to gather for the battle of Armageddon. Again, these spirits perform supernatural “signs” in order to deceive.

“And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.”

Revelation 16:13-14

As God’s people, we must maintain a healthy balance between the supernatural power of God as demonstrated by the Spirit of God and the authoritative truth of God as revealed in the Word of God. Jesus warned the religious leaders of His generation, as well as ours, about being obsessed with signs and miracles and wonders and seeking those things above God.

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

Matthew 16:1-4

In other words, we have all the validation we need from God in His revealed word and the true testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is not to deny God’s ability to perform miracles and show mighty wonders. It is simply a warning about motivations. If we need a sign to validate God’s word, then we are dangerously setting ourselves up for deception.

Next time I will conclude this miniseries on the False Prophet by exploring the possible scenarios involving the mark of the beast and the image of the beast.

“But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”

Revelation 19:20

When it comes to the study of eschatology, or end times, the Antichrist — aka the Beast — usually gets the lion’s share of attention. The Scriptures speak of another “beast,” however, who will play a significant role in deceiving the world in the last days.

The False Prophet

My aim is to use the next several installments to build a Biblical profile of the False Prophet in order to help the body of believers become better equipped to identify him and his deceptive powers. The Lord Jesus consistently warned us about the spiritual deception and false wonders that will characterize the last days. If God’s people are not spiritually and doctrinally prepared, we are in danger of being led like lambs to the slaughter.

False Prophets and the Spirit of Antichrist

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

1 John 4:1-3

The Apostle John reminds us that the spirit of antichrist was at work in his day and that many antichrists have already come into the world [1 John 2:18]. John connects false prophets with the spirit of antichrist, which is the satanic spirit at work that blinds the minds of unbelievers and keeps the whole world in spiritual darkness.

John first heard this directly from the Lord Jesus Himself, when He taught his disciples about the coming dangers of the last days and the deceptive methods of the evil one. Concerning the signs of the end times, Jesus warned his disciples about false prophets and false “messiahs” more than anything else.

And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray … And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray … For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.”

Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 24-25

Just as there have been many antichrists who have come into the world, there also have been many false prophets. All of the antichrists and false prophets up until this point have been precursors and predecessors to what the Bible identifies as “the” Antichrist and “the” False Prophet. These two dynamic and demonic leaders will emerge on the world stage in the last days as the very personification of evil and incarnation of the devil. We should only expect to see a rise in the satanic spirit of the antichrist and in the number of false prophets in these last days, leading up to the revelation of these two unique “beasts.”

And what are we seeing in our world today? Just a surface glance at the modern spiritual landscape of the world and the church at large reveals a mass departure from sound doctrine that has created a pseudo-religious culture with an obsession for occult spirituality, personal mysticism, and ecstatic, emotional experiences. Even more telling is how much the spirit of antichrist has infiltrated the “church” — aka modern Christianity.

The first thing we must understand about the False Prophet is that he will most certainly emerge from a Christian context as a representative of the church.

The Pseudo Prophet

The name “False Prophet” is one word in the Greek — pseudoprophétés — which means one who teaches what is false “in God’s name.” The same can be said of the term “false christ” — pseudochristos — which means a pretend Messiah. These terms are used purposely to convey to believers that these dangerous and demonic imposters will emerge from within the church itself.

A false prophet in general is someone pretending to speak the word of the Lord (prophesy) but in fact is phony (an imposter), acting as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So when it comes to “the” False Prophet, spoken of in the book of Revelation, we can be sure that he will be speaking deceptive lies and heresies in the very name of Jesus Christ.

The first mention of the False Prophet in Revelation 13 provides imagery that confirms his true nature as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He may outwardly represent the “Lamb,” but inwardly He is a servant of Satan — the Dragon.

“Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.”

Revelation 13:11

Stay tuned for next time, as I will begin to look more closely at the power and authority of the False Prophet and his role during the great tribulation.