The Apostle Paul had a specific reason for writing to the churches concerning the end of the age and Christ’s return. Believing that the end would come in his lifetime, he wanted the church to be able to recognize the “signs of the times.” By having Paul put his end-time message in writing God used him to warn those saints living in the last days about the holocaust that would envelop the entire world during the last 3 1/2 years of that period. By including this vital information in His Holy Bible the Lord made certain that it would be available to those living at the end of the age. Because of this His true saints know not only what is coming, but in a general sense, when it is coming.

As a result of God’s actions, His church is watching the end-time signs materialize right before their eyes. Now on full alert, they are looking for the appearance of the “Wicked” (one) who will arrive on the world scene as the man with the plan–a solution for every problem man has brought upon himself. Those who know their God, and therefore His Word, will recognize him for who and what he is. The other 99.99% of the world’s population will believe that he is the Biblically promised Messiah. The False Prophet (Second Beast) will have presented him to the world through the mass media and will have performed incredible signs, wonders and miracles as “proof” that the world’s savior had arrived (Rev. 13:11-18). To understand why the False Prophet will have power to perform such mighty miraculous works, let us travel back in his spiritual family’s history where we will find the source of the numerous heathen beliefs and practices that the Bible-rejecting, God-defying Counterfeit Church (Catholicism/Protestantism) assumes to be “the will and way of the Lord.”

In Daniel 7:25 we are told that one of the False Prophet’s spiritual ancestors would “change laws.” The papacy has in fact done exactly that. For example, it has changed God’s laws concerning the time of the beginning of the year (from mid-spring to early January), the time of the beginning of the day (from sundown to midnight), the day of the weekly Sabbath (from Saturday to Sunday), the day of the week on which Jesus died (from Wednesday to Friday), as well as the length of time He was in the tomb (from three days and three nights to one day and two nights). This reveals the awesome power of the Catholic Church which has not only substituted Satan’s fiction for God’s Truth, causing “the church” to worship a false god, she has also convinced the unchurched world to go along relative to the time changes. As a result, most of the world operates according to the Catholic time schedule. Due to having this world-controlling power, her representative (the False Prophet) will have no trouble convincing the masses that the Antichrist is indeed the savior of the world.

In the Greek language–the language of the New Testament–the word “Wicked” is anomos–lawless, without law, transgressor of law. See God’s Royal Law. In Revelation 13:11-16 we find the False Prophet performing miracles, signs and wonders, one of which will be to call down fire from the sky. The purpose will be to convince the world’s masses that the “promised one” has arrived and needs only to be given total dictatorial power over them. With him in charge, the world’s many problems will be solved. I have stated that I believe the False Prophet/Second Beast will be the Catholic pope in power at that time. He will be ruling over a world-wide church which will worship the Antichrist and his image: “And I beheld another Beast (False Prophet) coming up out of the earth … and he exercises all the power of the First Beast (Antichrist and his government) … and causes them which dwell on the earth to worship the First Beast …. And he (False Prophet) does great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” See The Ingathering. To be continued. L.J.