I am posting chapters from my sister's book, "The End is near. End Time Bible Prophecy Anyone Can Understand." Available at lulu.com
Continued from previous post...
The US involvement in the
Middle East is only the beginning. Iran,
North Korea, Syria and others are perceived as threats to the Western world and
Daniel says that the US will expand its campaign to the East
and North.
The
False Prophet
In Matthew 7:15
Jesus said, “Beware
of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are
ravenous wolves.” Revelation 13
continues with its description of the United States’ religious leader’s powers,
one of the two horns on the lamb that arose out of the earth.
“He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire
come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth,
because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the
beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who
had the wound of the sword and has come to life.” Rev. 13:13, 14
This religious leader, in the guise of a lamb
or in sheep’s clothing, is going to perform signs that are meant to deceive
people into believing that he is sent by God to organize an image to the beast,
when in fact he speaks like a dragon and is inwardly a ravenous wolf. The signs he performs may be powers given to
him by Satan, or they may simply be slight of hand magic tricks. We cannot know. What we do know is that he will be convincing
enough to make people follow him unquestioningly and to make an image to the
beast.
The apostle Paul
was talking about the end times when he said this: “…one whose coming is in accord with
the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all
the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive
the love of the truth so as to be saved.
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that
they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did
not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” 1 Thess. 2:9-12
People will often believe what they want to
believe when it seems to benefit them the most.
God allows this as each person on earth has been given free will to love
God and accept the truth, or love wickedness and believe what is false.
Resurrection
of the Beast
We saw in
chapter four and five of this book that the Pope was taken prisoner in 1798,
wherein the Catholic Church lost its power and suffered a fatal wound (Rev.
13:3). However, in Revelation 17:8 it
says, “The
beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss
and go to destruction. And those who
dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from
the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was
and is not and will come.”
It
looks like the beast “is not” but the beast will rise again from the “abyss” of
obscurity into which it had fallen after 1798, and it will regain its power in
the end times (see also Rev. 11:7; Rev. 13:12, 14).