Wednesday: Satan’s Last Great Deception
Revelation 16:12 tells us that the purpose of the drying up of the Euphrates is to prepare the way for “the kings from the east” (NKJV). In the Old Testament, “the kings from the east” were Cyrus and his forces coming from the north, then approaching Babylon from the east (Isa. 41:25). Their conquest of Babylon made the return of God’s people to their homeland possible (Isa. 44:27-28). In the same way, the symbolic drying up of the Euphrates prepares the way for the coming of the kings from the east to provide deliverance to God’s end-time people.
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The kings from the east in Revelation 16:12 are Christ and His army of heavenly angels. At His second coming, Jesus will appear with His angelic host, “clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev. 19:14, NKJV), which is the dress of sinless angels (Rev. 15:6). Accompanied by the host of heaven, Christ will, as Revelation 17:14 shows, overcome the satanic forces that oppress His people (compare Matt. 24:30-31). This final conflict against Christ and His people leading up to the Second Coming is known as the battle of Armageddon.
Read Revelation 16:13-14. What is the role of the three unclean spirits in the preparation for the battle of Armageddon? How are they a satanic counterfeit of the three angels’ messages in Revelation chapter 14? (See 1 Tim. 4:1).
Through the final events leading up to the close of probation, every human being will be led to choose on which of the two sides he or she will stand in the battle of Armageddon. As a prelude to this spiritual warfare, John sees three demonic spirits resembling frogs. Satan’s last attempt to deceive involves demonic, lying spirits.
The dragon (paganism and spiritualism), the sea beast (Roman Catholicism), and the false prophet (apostate Protestantism) unite under Satan’s command (Rev. 13:11-12). Satan enables the lamblike beast to perform miraculous signs (Rev. 13:13-17) that includes spiritualistic manifestations. These signs are part of Satan’s end-time deceptive strategy to persuade the world to follow him rather than the true God.
Blinded by their hatred of God and His truth, the leaders of the world readily believe Satan’s lies, which are cloaked in a pleasing religious guise (2 Thess. 2:9-12). Ultimately, they will unite in the final battle leading to the end of this world.
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We have always thought of the three unclean spirits as three religious forces uniting against the true believers. Our church developed that interpretation when the papacy, spiritualism, and apostate Protestantism had much more traction than they have today. While I do not deny that these forces could resurge, I cannot help but think about what the main anti-religious forces that affect us today.
Secularism combined with the idea that religion is no longer meaningful and is in fact evil is a powerful force today. Authors such as Richard Dawkins are not just promoting the idea that there is no God. They actively promote the idea that religion is evil.
Social media has combined with popularism to produce a persecuting power that is only just beginning to be understood. Being involved in research on Facebook, I am well aware of how a small grievance can be turned into a fearsome tool of persecution against those whose ideas are unpopular.
Commercialism has become an all-consuming passion where money, power, commodities, and possession crowd out any thought of altruism.
Once again I am not suggesting that we replace our original interpretation, but the three forces I have mentioned are an immediate threat to Christianity and cannot be discounted. They are growing in influence and already, the combination of these three ideas are creating an atmosphere that is affecting us, particularly our young people. (I have grandchildren and know what affects then now.)
The final conflict will be sudden and unexpected. We are advised to watch and be ready and as I have frequently added, watching includes using your peripheral vision.
Thanks for your reflections Maurice.
So, is it possible that there are valid interpretations that exist at a more overarching (broader and more encompassing) level than has been reflected in typically cited Adventist interpretation?
Could there be ‘new light’ (a rediscovery of what was known in New Testament bible times but subsequently became lost sight of) that God is offering us to recover?
Are we perhaps being given an opportunity to see the forrest that the trees are but a part of?
In the back of my mind, I always have the memory that the Jews has a very clear picture in their mind about how the Messiah would come and what he would do. As it turned out, they missed the boat, because they were largely driven by self-interest. We sometimes put so much stock in the notion that the early Adventist Church got it right, that I think it does us good to look around and take stock of what is happening presently.
I am not trying to offer new light, but we must remember that Satan is the enemy and has built his empire on deceipt and subterfuge. He is happy for us to look in one direction while attacking us from another.
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While holding onto the old interpretation we must remember Satan can use these tools in numerous ways and we must always be on our guard.
It is very easy to defeat Satan's counter towards us. Because our silent,invisible Super power God is always with us. Damn Satan and his colleagues. Check
Hi Maurice
Often I find not needing to comment on the discussions as you seem to always see things the way I see them.
Once I asked this question in the class "How would John have described a mobile phone, an aeroplane or the internet if he was shown that in a vision?"
In essence I am just saying I agree with you in how we must see things and use our peripheral vision as well; even though the meaning of the prophecy itself will remain the same.
Maurice, I agree with your assessment. But you know something? I see it as 'the same old man in a brand new Jacket'.
Satan has disguised himself. We old Adventists look for him in a certain appearance and role. That's how we were trained! But he has become even more subtle, entertaining, sophisticated and seemingly relevant.
But with our foundation, we can see the connection between the old and the new 'look' but I fear for our youth who know only the popular modern culture, who are not very aware of our roots as a movement. I pray for them and ourselves daily, for we are all in danger of losing our focus in these post-modern days of political, immoral 'truth is relative' days. Satan has indeed disguised. himself already. It will only get more seductive.
Another 'force' that was of no consequence 100 years ago, but might be a major player in these events is Islam. I and others have wondered if it fits any of these symbols--or more to the point, if the interpretation were just now being done, if it would have been named.
P.S.: Just as there are many sincere, honest souls in the Catholic church, I also believe there are many sincere, honest souls in Islam. This is in no way an attempt to denigrate people, only systems.
Wilton, I believe that Babylon is a confederacy of all religions that reject or pervert the truth of the LORD, it includes pagan and demon worship and am sure it includes Islam which is based on being descendents of Abraham and who worship "God/Allah"
Do we not see all religions getting closer together? After all don't they all worship God, just in different ways?
Different ways? Different gods!
A GREAT WORLD RELIGION
It's led by deception and held by it.
It is a three fold deception from the beast = Romanism, The false prophet = apostate Protestantism and dragon = paganism.
All the three bring out of their mouths something similar = unclean spirits like frogs. This means they will be bound together by the influence of these evil spirits.
Satan will give them a false spirit. The evil angels will pretend to be the spirit of their dead friends and deceive many.
They will imitate the nominal Christianity of the day.
Satan himself will pretend to be Christ.
Miracles will be done, the sick will be healed and very many UNDENIABLE wonders will be performed.
They will profess faith in the Bible. They will show respect to church institutions. Their work will be accepted as a show of divine power.
As frogs jump in all directions it will be difficult to tell where these deceptions of Satan will jump next.
This world religion will manifest love, fellowship, unity and humility. They will have the best church buildings, they will look more organized and rich.
Their gospel campaigns will attract millions, they have the best choirs, best singers, best leaders and the best equipments.
....to deceive if possible even the saints.
We, as Christians need to get away from the teaching that Satan has no power or that he is a lion that has no claws and no teeth. This is exactly what Satan would want you to believe. Satan is a liar and the master of it, he has deceived all of us at one time or another, proof of this is the fact you came to Christ, if he had never deceived us then we would have always been with Christ but this is not the case, our eyes had to be opened and the message of the Gospel had to be received in order to bring us to the truth.
Satan has always been deceiving us, he makes us believe some sins are not sins or that some truths are not really true. He has so cleverly changed media to influence the minds of many. He has brought up a new generations that has no understanding of how the family structure is what keeps nations together. He has even made most of us Christians to gossip about other people’s struggles so that we don’t have to look at our own sin. The worse thing Satan has done is change the very definition of sin so that some of us don’t think we sin at all.
For example: I know people who will attack Christians and gossip about them because they smoke cigarettes. Now I am not saying that cigarettes are of God but I can tell you one thing, the scriptures states that gossip is an actual abomination to the Lord. Yes, an abomination, so here we are as representatives of Jesus Christ committing what the Word of God says is an abomination in order to bring negative attention to someone about something the scriptures say nothing about. Oh my dear loved ones, Satan is alive and well and he has mastered us as his puppets....
Satan's last deceptions!
In light of what you say, Paul’s counsel in Rom 12:2 is certainly still highly relevant at this point in history.
As Seventh-day Adventists have been given a gift which gives inspired commentary on many of the issues raised today, we should be very careful if we start sowing seeds of doubt or try to give alternative applications to prophecy. We know there can be dual applications but they should never overpower the revealed meaning of the prophecies. It's like putting too much water in soup and it becomes far less significant and meaningful.
May the Holy Spirit be able to do what was promised to us by the Saviour Himself who said He would guide us into all truth. Truth may become much clearer to us but the truth as it has been revealed to us now will not now become error.
Hi Harvey; great to hear from you after all these years. As I replied to Phil above, I am not trying to promote new light, just emphasizing the idea that we need to keep our peripheral vision open. Satan does not feel obliged to attack us front on. Currently, the areas that I mentioned are illustrative of some of the biggest threats to Christianity today.
“Truth may become much clearer to us but the truth as it has been revealed to us now will not now become error.”
Not that you have to Harvey, but I am genuinely interested to know which truth/s you are referring to and whether you have supporting evidence from somewhere to back up that statement.
Thanks
The 🐸 are demonic spirits. Do they only go out after the 6 bowl is poured out? Which is after the close of probation? Or have the counterfeit trinity been using them before to deceive and seduce people and now in 6 bowl sending them out with the specific mission of stirring up the kings and the people to make war against God's people?
The frog spirits are utilized during the sixth plague as the means to regain allegiance to the system of Babylon. Loss of support of the system is suggested in the drying up of the river.
Watch the frogs. Each one from a different mouth. In the Egyptian culture the frog was a Diety.
"The cult of the frog is one of the oldest in Egypt, and the Frog-god and the Frog-goddess were believed to have played very prominent parts in the creation of the world.4
The association of the frog with new life and the resurrection was so much a part of the religious life of the Egyptians that small figurines, or amulets, of this little deity were made and deposited in the royal tombs. This symbol also was adopted by the Egyptian Christians (Coptic) for use in their churches." -Osborn (from the article: https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1958/09/spirits-like-frogs)
There are many species of frogs. Perhaps there are many species of miracles. The frogs are worth watching for today's manifestations as well as looking for the 'last' deceptive manifestation.
Interesting insights. Thank you.
Since Revelation derives most of its content for OT stories and events, putting them in the New Testament context, the frogs take on an interesting meaning. The frogs were the last of the plagues to hit Egypt that the Egyptian magicians could counterfeit. This suggests that the use of frog symbolism here is announcing the final counterfeit deception taking place.
Priscilla,
Thank you for this additional background information i.r.o. the frogs, it really explains why that symbol was used - showing us the deception is about creation and life and resurrection.
"The kings from the east in Revelation 16:12 are Christ and His army of heavenly angels. At His second coming, Jesus will appear with His angelic host, “clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev. 19:14, NKJV), which is the dress of sinless angels (Rev. 15:6)."
Sabbath School lesson
But wait, I was taught English grammar at school that Kings is written in the plural and not singular. There cannot be two or more Christ`s coming from the east. Angels are never referred to as Kings in the Bible. God`s people are not arriving with Christ from the eastern heavens. The context of Rev 16:12-16 is the sixth plague and not Christ´s Second Coming.
Can someone help me understand? Does the Last great deception happens after the plagues or before? If it happens after, what does this have to do with God's people seeing they would have been sealed already?