Revelation 13:11
Counterfeit Holy Ghost
Let me start by giving you two things that I believe:
1. I believe we are definitely in the last half of the
Tribulation. With the rise of the beast out of the sea, the
the anti-Christ has reached his pinnacle in power, pride, and
position. It is now the Great Tribulation or the Time of
Jacob’s Troubles.
2. I believe our interpretations are going to get less reliable.
a. All prophecy interpretations are questionable until they
are fulfilled. The scribes and Pharisees thought they
understood the prophecies of the Messiah—until He came—
and the nation of Israel has been paying the price for
their wrong interpretations ever since.
b. The further into the Tribulation we go, the less we can
use the lens of current events to interpret prophecy,
and that lens—I believe—is a very powerful tool in
getting things right.
c. Things change so fast! Look at what has changed in just
the last 5 months due to a pandemic!!
d. So we will continue but you need to understand that our
thoughts are less reliable.
The first half of this chapter spoke mostly of the counterfeit Jesus
and his kingdom, better known as the anti-Christ. There is more to be
revealed about the beast; but for the time being, let’s continue
following that train of thought because the last half of this chapter
speaks mostly of the counterfeit Holy Ghost. The counterfeit father
is also mentioned \\#Rev 13:2,4, 11\\. He is described as the
dragon. The counterfeit Holy Ghost has another name. He is called the
False Prophet \\#Rev 16:13, 19:20, 20:10\\.
The reason I titled this message the Counterfeit Holy Ghost is
because the next person that makes us the unholy trinity tends to be
like—in some ways—the Holy Ghost. I see this is two ways:
1. Even though the False Prophet is essential to the work of the
anti-Christ, I have not seen him is mentioned in any other
book of the Bible, and I think this is the first time he is
mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
That is much the way the Holy Ghost was presented to us.
Although the Holy Ghost IS mentioned throughout the Bible,
many people had no idea who He is or how important His role
in God’s plan would be until the church was born and He came
to do His work. So both the Holy Ghost and His counterfeit
are not seen or understood until it was time for them to
begin their work in earnest.
2. Another similarity is that the False Prophet seems to be the
power behind much of what the anti-Christ does. We know that
when Jesus came to the earth, He laid aside His power and
relied on the Holy Ghost and the Father. While the anti-
Christ will be the devil’s front man—the evil one who is
devil possessed—we will find that it is the False Prophet who
actually does much of his work.
Let’s notice four truths about the second beast that arose.
I. \\#11\\ His Nature
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up
out of the earth; and he had two horns like a
lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
A. Two words compare the False Prophet to be similar to the anti-
Christ, "another beast."
1. The Greek word for "another," allos, means another of the
same kind. That is, these two beasts have the same
spirit, the devil himself, possessing and driving them.
2. This second being is also called a beast.
a. Like we said of the first beast, this is not what he
is. He is not an animal, but a man.
b. However, this is what his nature is. He is cruel,
violent, brutal.
B. However, the two beasts come from different parts of the world.
1. The first beast rose from the sea, out from the masses of
the people.
a. That indicates that he will be a man, by birth and in
his appearance.
b. Since he arises up out of the masses, it is possible
that he might be one of the common people who make it
big.
c. Some of our world leaders come from families who are
privileged, powerful, political, and popular.
d. Since rises from the sea, the anti-Christ might not
be.
2. However, the second beast rises up out of the earth. The
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary of 1881 said that
means "out of society civilized, consolated, (sic) and
ordered." \\See JFB on "Rev 13:11"\\
3. In other words, the first beast may be one of the common
people, but the second will be from the world of society,
perhaps a politician himself or a religious leader of
long standing that knows how the political system works.
a. If that is true, the longer a person is in politics,
the less likely he/she/it is to be the anti-Christ.
b. However, while the anti-Christ likely will not be a
person with a long history in politics, the False
Prophet likely will be.
II. \\#12\\ His Goal
Rev 13:12 …and causeth the earth and them which
dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose
deadly wound was healed.
A. The False Prophet will not be seeking the limelight.
B. His goal will be to promote the first beast, the anti-Christ.
1. To use the word "promote" is not enough.
2. The Bible says "to worship" the anti-Christ.
C. Either the False Prophet will fully believe that the anti-
Christ is god, which the entire lost world will believe, or
he will be so filled with the devil that he knows the anti-
Christ is not God but will lie and deceive the whole world
about it anyway.
1. Each time I preach/teach through this Book, I see things I
have not seen before.
a. That is things both in Bible and in the world we live.
b. I see something today that I did not see five years
ago.
2. The world is starting to express a different opinion about
religion and gods.
a. A few weeks ago I saw pictures of Pelosi, Schumer, and
others bowing—wearing identical scarfs—in some type
of tribute to George Floyd.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8398481/Congressional-
Democrats-unveil-sweeping-U-S-police-reform-proposal-Floyd-death.html
b. July 22, Joe Biden wants Islam taught in public
schools.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/joe-biden-wants-islam-taught-more-
in-schools-decries-rise-in-islamophobia.html
III. His Power
A. While the anti-Christ is portrayed as the loud-mouthed horn,
the False Prophet is portrayed as the power behind the anti-
Christ.
B. Notice his power:
1. \\#12\\ Anything the first beast can do, the second beast
can do.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the
first beast before him….
a. They have the same power because they are part of
same unholy trinity.
b. They are both filled with the devil.
c. They both work for the devil.
d. They both want to magnify and glorify the devil.
e. And although they are human beings, they will both
burn with the devil.
f. We do not know who either of those people will be, but
it appears auditions are being held in many major
cities across the U.S..
2. \\#13\\ The second beast will be a miracle worker.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he
maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in
the sight of men,
a. The power that the False Prophet will have does not
seem to be fake.
b. \\#14\\ calls them "miracles."
c. His power is strong enough and his miracles
spectacular enough that he is able to help persuade
the world that the anti-Christ is god.
3. \\#14-15\\ The second beast will have the power to make an
image come to life.
Rev 13:14 … saying to them that dwell on the
earth, that they should make an image to the
beast…
Rev 13:15 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.
a. That miracle does not seem to be too farfetched any
more.
(1) Hollywood does that all of the time with
Computer Generated Imagery.
(2) It is not beyond the realm of possibility that
the False Prophet might be a technological
wizard.
(3) Is it just me or is it strange to others how
computer geeks have suddenly become medical
scholars?
b. Such geeks already have the ability to make images
that talk and even think.
(1) That is what Artificial Intelligence is all
about, and—I believe—it is one of the next
fulfillments of Bible prophecy.
(2) Computers and their algorithms have already taken
over many of the mundane and the complicated
tasks of life for mankind.
(a) They fly our rockets, guide our missiles,
regulate our traffic, operate our
buildings, do our surgeries, and drive our
automobiles.
(b) May I predict that you and I have not seen
anything yet.
(3) The ones who can bring life to these images will
themselves be thought of as gods.
(4) The False Prophet will be the one who puts all of
his support behind the anti-Christ.
c. But do not forget his nature.
(1) He is a beast.
(2) \\#15\\ If you will not worship the anti-Christ,
the False Prophet will use his living image to
hunt you down and kill you.
4. \\#16-17\\ The second beast will have the power to mark
every human and stop those who reject the mark from
buying or selling.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he
that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or
the number of his name.
a. Credit for implementing the mark of the beast is not
given to the anti-Christ but to the False Prophet.
(1) Although his name is not used in these verses,
the same masculine pronoun that has been used
since \\#11\\ to describe the False Prophet is
used here.
(2) No doubt the anti-Christ and the dragon are all
in agreement with this, but it is the False
Prophet’s plan and effort to implement it.
b. Imagine a law that says that if you do not have a
mask, you cannot buy or sell or work in our
businesses— I mean if you do not have a mark on
either your right hand or forehead, you cannot buy or
sell.
c. By now, everyone should know about the radio frequency
chipping that is being done.
(1) It is their technology that is in those small
sensors that make the alarms go off when you
walk through the doors at Lowes without them
being deactivated.
(2) It is their technology that makes it possible for
lost pets to be identified even without a collar.
(3) It is their technology that makes it possible for
to slide your credit card over a reader and pay
for an item.
(4) It is their technology that makes it possible for
you to crank your automobile without a key.
(5) It is their technology that some companies have
already used to chip their employees, replacing
employee ID cards and making their companies
more secure.
d. And it might be that technology—or something similar
to it—which the False Prophet will use to have the
people of the whole world marked.
e. Three thoughts:
(1) For this to work, the world will have to become
a cashless society.
(a) The fact that the world becomes cashless is
not in itself an evil thing.
(b) Man—not God—made gold and silver its
currency, then paper bills and coins, and
now credit cards, and phone apps.
(c) The next logical progression is to make
something our currency that cannot be
stolen, lost, or accidently left at home.
(d) Coin shortages and pandemics have caused
some to rethink our use of paper bills and
coins.
(e) I do not doubt that a change will be coming
soon.
(f) But even going to a cashless society is not
in itself evil.
(g) It is just one more step—albeit a big
step—that we are getting closer to the
anti-Christ’s kingdom.
(2) For this work, the world will have to turn to a
one-world ruler and a one-world economy.
(a) I do not know how much of Covid scare is man
made, but I do know political powers do have
some agendas.
i. They want to overthrow the US
constitution.
ii. They want to make people dependent on
the government.
iii. And to do the first two, they want to
wreck the world economy.
(b) All three of those things are being done in
the name of safety during this Covid/
(c) If it is not their goal to set up a new
world order right now, it is their goal to
do a trial run right now.
(3) Notice that when this tagging is done, it will be
done openly and boldly.
(a) Some are concerned that a mandatory Covid
vaccine will have a chip inside it.
i. Anything is possible in this day and
age, but I doubt that will be the
anti-Christ’s chip.
ii. Why?
(aa) If we are correct about the
church being removed, it’s too
early.
(bb) It looks like the False Prophet
will be very up front about
his chipping.
(cc) I don’t think he will be
attempting to chip is without
our knowledge but rather the
opposite.
(dd) He will be doing it for the
purpose of making the
Christians take a stand and
thus expose themselves as true
Bible believers so that he can
arrest or kill them.
(b) Perhaps that is the reason we are told
exactly where the chip will be placed…
Rev 13:16 …in their right hand, or in their
forehead….
(c) …and what its information will be like.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath
understanding count the number of the beast:
for it is the number of a man; and his number
is Six hundred threescore and six.
i. The chip will not go in the upper arm,
the buttocks, or the blood stream but
in the right hand—not the left—or
the forehead.
ii. While men probably won’t be tagged
with the same number it does appear
it will be type of numeric code to
identify people.
iii. I don’t think people will be tricked into
taking this mark, but will willingly
do so.
This is the false, the counterfeit, the unholy trinity, the devil,
the anti-Christ, and the False Prophet; but the lost world will bow
and worship them or die refusing to do so. Why worship a counterfeit
when you can worship the real thing? Why be forced into do something
wrong when you are being loved into doing what is right?
Turn to Jesus today. Worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. Find out what freedom is all about.
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