Can We Be Deceived by the Coming False Prophet?

I was speaking with my oldest daughter last night, seeing how they're doing over there in Boise, Idaho. And basically, the first thing my daughter said was, Dad, about the Pope dying. What about that? What's going on there? And so, I thought I'd give you a message, just like I did with her, because it was big news this week. The death of Pope Francis. They're going to have a conclave in the next two weeks to choose a new pope. Now, we don't know what the consequences are, what it can bring, but we do know, as best as we can discern from the Bible, that one of these popes is going to become the false prophet described in Revelation 13. Again, the best we understand. If it is different, well, we know that we don't have the last word of things, but this is what we have seen in the Scriptures as the most probable. Not that this is the one, either. We have to... I'm going to give you some characteristics that we need to look at. So the question is, can, no matter who it is, can we be deceived by the coming false prophet when he appears? Now, Christ warned his disciples, you know, don't be too sure that you can't be deceived if you're the generation that's going to live this. Don't take it for granted. Don't believe that we can't fall away because it's going to be a big test and trial for the church. It might happen earlier than we think. So I'd like to take you through the Bible and see how we come to some of these conclusions. In Matthew 24 and verse 3, Matthew 24 and verse 3, his disciples asked him a very typical question. We still are asking the same question today. Matthew 24 and verse 3. Now, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? That's something that we still are asking. And Christ has not returned yet. And Jesus answered and said to them, First of all, take heed that no one deceives you. You're his disciples. And he's saying, be careful. Don't take for granted that you're not going to be deceived by the great coming of the false prophet and the antichrist. And Jesus then said, For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. Now, here you can take it in two ways. We take it in this first sense. What he is saying, For many will come in my name, representing me, representing the church, representing who Christ has appointed over things, saying, I'm the Christ. They accept Christ and will deceive many. And so we have all kinds of versions of Christianity as a result of people just taking the name of Christ and claiming to be Christ's representative here on earth. And the gentleman who just died in Rome, he has like 20 different titles. One is Vicar of Christ, which means in place of here on earth. He takes the role of Peter, the apostle. And he is also Pontiface Maximus, which was the chief head of the Roman pagan system. And yet they gave it to the Pope, that same Pontiface Maximus, which means the maximum head of a church.

Christ went on to say, and the second way you can take it is that many will come and basically say, I am the Messiah. But that doesn't quite fit because usually it says they come in my name. So would a Jewish person come and say, I'm coming by the authority of Christ? No, they don't believe that. So they come by the authority and then they are claiming, well, I am being guided by Christ and that He is my chief or boss. And then he goes on to say, verse 6, and you will hear of wars and rumors of war. And of course, you can almost have every century after this that there were wars and rumors of wars. But he just says it's a time of great danger because there have been times when there's been a lot of peace. And by the way, the wars right before the 20th century, you're still dealing with cannons and things that you can just do so much damage, right? But it was this World War I, World War II, and then the Cold War, which then now you have atomic missiles. Now it's not these local wars anymore. And so it's a much more dangerous time. And he says, see that you are not troubled. What he's saying is, well, you know there's always going to be dangers and wars and rumors of wars. It's called threats of war. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. That's not an indication that you are in the end times. He says, for nations will rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom. Nation against nations are basically countries. Then you go to kingdom, and those are empires. What we had in World War I, where we had numerous nations all joining together to fight.

And there will be famines, pestilences. We just went through one. The COVID period, terrible two years. And earthquakes in various places, and earthquakes, according to geologists, have increased over time.

All these are the beginning of sorrows, which has to do with the first birth pangs, when a woman starts having birth pangs. But you know that it's just the beginning period, not the end. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations for my namesake. People are not going to really be converted before Christ comes back. It's not the majority of the people on the earth. It's a very few, in fact. He says, and then many will be offended, because there's going to be so much persecution.

People will do anything to protect themselves, save their skins. So they'll betray. They will point out who are the true Christians and hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. So there will be all kinds of different people claiming to be the right and the true religion. And because lawlessness, which the term anomia means the breaking of God's laws, because lawlessness will abound, and certainly it certainly has now, the love of many will grow cold. So this is not talking about the world, it's talking about the church. And because of that coldness that's affecting the world, there's not the moral level that you had before. It's just this really colder and colder type of morality now. It's just way down in the dumps.

And then it goes on to say, but he who endures to the end, again, talking about true Christians, those who continue to the end, will be saved. And of course this is talking about protection, God taking care of them. And this is one of the characteristics of our church. This is something that is part of our DNA. It's part of what we're doing. And this gospel of the kingdom, that's what we're doing, preaching the gospel of the coming kingdom of God, will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. And of course the gospel of the kingdom also includes the king, so it has to do with Jesus Christ as well. But God is looking at what kind of work we're supposed to be doing, because it also has to do with getting this gospel out. And how important it is that we all work together to freely be able to disseminate God's truths to the world. That's one of the major things. We never wanted to be just a little group and forget about getting that gospel out, and keep the church sustained through the tithes and through the prayers and through the cooperation and what everybody can do, just like we have grouped people with what Lincoln is heading there. That's getting the gospel out to this area of Orange County. Don't ever discount the importance of that, because that's part of the kingdom. That's the literature of the kingdom of God that we are getting out to this world, and woe be unto us! If that becomes just this kind of a minor interest. And then it goes on to say, verse 15, Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, the prophet standing in the holy place. Let's talk about in Jerusalem. That's where the Jews have to have a place of sacrifices. When you see that happening with the sacrifices, and then the abomination of desolation is when that antichrist and the false prophet will take over Jerusalem, and they will desecrate that temple. And the sacrifice. Well, we're not sure about the temple, but at least the sacrifices will be desecrated. We don't know what kind of structure, but it has to be these sacrifices, daily sacrifices that the Jews have done over millennia. But they haven't started them yet. So when you see that, and of course, he says, whoever reads, let him understand. You better read Daniel chapter 9 and Daniel chapter 11, where it talks about that abomination desolation.

Then let those who are in Judea, that's the area of Israel today, flee to the mountains because they are going to be taken over. They're going to be invaded by this antichrist and the false prophet. They will take over. He says, let him, who is in the housetop, not go down to take anything out of the house. Once the alarm is given, it's going to be one of these bleat-scree-type attacks. It's going to be very quick. They'll take over the area of what is essentially Israel now. If you get caught inside concentration camps, if you survive, because we're not playing patsy, and we're not playing games here. This is going to be part of the Great Tribulation that starts. The persecution of God's people, and also a lot of the Jewish people as well. They still have the mark of the Sabbath, and God still takes them into account. But it's primarily talking about here Jewish Christians that are there.

And let him, who is in the field, not go back to get his clothes. You don't even have that much time.

Kind of reminds me when we had to flee Cuba, where Fidel was just putting up walls and closing all possibilities to leave that country. And my father, having known Fidel at the university, my dad was a medical student at the time. Fidel Castro was a law student. And Fidel was very mean and really ordered to assassinate the student body president that was a friend of my father. So this was personal. And so, as my father saw Fidel taking over more and more, he said, you have to leave. And so he prepared that, but he said, I'm staying behind because I'm going to fight for my country. And so he was one of the freedom fighters and risked his life, especially during that Bay of Pigs invasion. My dad was one of the ones coordinating that invasion from Havana. And so he got caught. And just by the grace of God, he was able to miraculously, almost from the prison, they were shooting people against the walls every day. But the doctors, they wanted to leave until the end to shoot. And my dad was able to, thankfully, my grandmother bribed some of the guards. She was the daughter of the vice president of Cuba at that time. She had political influence. And so she got him out of there and he took a taxi into the Venezuelan embassy and they smuggled them out of the country and we were reunited. So I know what it is about fleeing. We left probably in the last plane because the next day there wasn't a plane. And that's the way it is. You got one opportunity, you better take it. Don't go back and try to wait it out because it's that dramatic. Okay, well, I didn't mean to give you so much editorializing here about that. So then Christ goes on to say, but woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. Again, he's talking about when you flee, a pregnant woman has huge amount of liquid in her body. It's very hard for them to run. And so it says they're going to have a hard time getting to that place of protection. And pray that your flight might not be in winter or on the Sabbath. Winter is very tough. There's a lot of mud. It's hard for transportation to carry it out or on the Sabbath because a lot of the practicing Jews, they closed everything down. You're not supposed to be doing much driving.

For then there will be great tribulations such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor ever shall be. If you can imagine something worse than being a Jew in Germany during those five years of World War II, what they went through. Well, this is going to be worse because this is the last time God's going to allow it and Satan is going to be loosed upon this earth with a lot of power.

And unless those days were shortened, if God did not intervene, no flesh would be saved. Basically the world will blow itself to smithereens. No flesh. It means complete wiping out of mankind. But for the elect's sake, for God's people, because he loves them, that little group of faithful people those days will be shortened.

God will intervene before man manages to blow himself up. So here the focus has to do with the warning of all of this deceit that is coming and how we have to prepare for something like this. Notice what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9. Paul also warned us not to get cocky, not to get complacent, because when Satan is loosed on this earth, we better be spiritually prepared. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. Here's how you can prepare. It says verse 24, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Put all your effort in this Christian race. Don't try to come second place as far as your dedication. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. So he says that you've got to discipline your life.

You've got to, just like an athlete, prepare yourself and make sure you give it the best you can. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight. Because he's talking about the boxing analogy, he's talking about the Olympics at that time, nor is one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. He's talking here not necessarily about exercise. No, he's disciplining his passions. He's keeping them in check. He's doing the right things. He's praying with God and keeping close to him, reading God's instruction book. That's our textbook, the Bible. He said, unless when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. So he said that he didn't have salvation secured.

He could have slipped up and be disqualified. So he had to keep control of his passions, his use of time. What do you use your time mostly on? Well, that shows a little bit what you think is the most important thing. Then he goes in verse 10. He says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. So he's saying, well, how do these guys do as far as qualifying? Did they stay close to God? Did they run the race? Did they back Moses?

Or were they in the opposite? They were the ones complaining, dragging their feet, always looking at things negatively and looking back at the world. He wanted to go back to Egypt. So he's saying here, be careful, brethren, because all these fathers, the Israelites, were under the cloud. They were protected. God intervened in their lives. All passed through the sea. We just celebrate that in the night. Well, during that time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea in that sense they were purified.

They came out of Egypt, because that was part of Egypt. And so they crossed the Red Sea. Now, there are another territory, the Sinai Peninsula. All ate the same spiritual food, the manna.

All drank the same spiritual drink. God miraculously provided for possibly one or two million people every day in this dry desert-like place with the manna and the drink. So you'd think, oh, they would have been so grateful. Oh, they would have been serving God so much.

Oh, they would have been so united under Moses and his men and what they're doing. Look at all the things that God did. He said, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

So we see that, yes, Christ has a pre-existence, and that during that time he was the main figure that intervened as God in the Old Testament. I'm not going to say 100 percent because God the Father also was there. But as far as going with the Israelites, with that pillar of cloud, and the pillar of fire followed them. He says, but with most of them God was not well pleased. For their bodies were scattered in the wilderness here, all these miracles, all the hopes that God had, and they just didn't take things seriously. They took things for granted. God is going to do everything for me.

I want more manna. Oh, by the way, I'm tired of manna. I want meat now. And they rebelled against Moses, too, until God said, okay, I'm going to bring you the quail. And then they didn't even bow their heads before they ate, and God struck them with a curse while the food was in their mouths because they had forgotten to thank God. Again, God's very patient, merciful, but don't you think He does this great miracle? Here they've got these beautiful little chickens that fall right there.

And you know it came from God. And what did they do? Oh, let's go at it. You know, they had this huge smorgasbord, and just what they call basically pig out, right? No thanks. Let's not do that. And so then it goes on to say, now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters, as were some of them.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did. And in one day, 23,000 fell, nor let us tempt Christ, which was the one that was with them, as some of them also tempted. So, yeah, they disregarded God who was there, especially with the golden calf and everything else, where they said, well, we don't want this cloud. We want an idol. These are your God's Israel.

How insulting. And he says, and we're destroyed by serpents, nor complain, as some of them also complain and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, all these things happen to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition. So we don't make the same mistakes upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. So it's all this that, you know, when we become complacent and we think everything's just going to be fine with us, we let down spiritually, we're going to get ourselves into trouble.

And so now we have a modern equivalent of this type of warning that was in the past. We've lived it 30 years ago. We had a gathering of elders in Indianapolis at the end of April of 1995 to form United Church of God. Why? Because there was the equivalent of a, quote, minor false prophet who became a man teaching lawlessness.

Disregarding and opposing many of God's laws, the Sabbath, Holy Days, food laws, and tithes, among other things. And so many were deceived by this, quote, minor false prophet, not like the one coming in the future in the whole world. How's that going to work out? Here we got this church and it wasn't even the major prophet. It was just this test whether we should continue keeping the Sabbath and God's commandments or not. Well, how did we do there? Not too good. Not too good.

We had over a thousand ministers and we ended up with maybe a hundred.

900 basically. I don't know if at least pastors. Well, we had a minority of pastors stay firm.

The result was that more than half of the church fell away and we will be tested in the future. There are no guarantees that we're not going to fall away and we must be ever vigilant. Notice in Jeremiah 12 verse 5. Jeremiah 12 verse 5.

And brethren, this was not the sermon that I plan to give you today. I had one on the Sabbath in the park, so I had to pull this real quickly. But in Jeremiah 12 verse 5, the Lord answered Jeremiah, If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, how then can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace in which you trusted they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? So we have to understand that what's coming is not footmen. It's going to be horsemen. It's going to be tougher.

So how did we do with the trial of those on foot that were persecuting us? Well, not too good. We weren't really prepared as a church. It got complacent. The ministry, a lot of them got complacent. It's almost like Israel coming in, and boy, God blessed. And materially, we just got blessed, and we got weak. We lost our discipline. So it can happen at any time. Notice in 2 Thessalonians 2, got to go quick because we don't have much time and still a lot to cover. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 1. Paul says here, Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or trouble, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if it came from us. In other words, there were already false letters from Satan's henchmen that were falsifying some of the apostles' letters. And we see that later, a lot of apostolic, apparently, the Gospel of Peter and all of this, which came usually about a century later, but it was claimed. And it was false teachings, false doctrine. And he says, As though the day of Christ had come, it wasn't yet there, Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first. And the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. So here we got, in verse 3, it says, a falling away. Something's going to happen, that's going to trigger the rest of the end time things. Now, it could be a falling away of God's people. We know God's people have fallen away, but it talks about the falling away. I mean, this is the big one. And so it could be dealing with the church, or it could be dealing with Satan himself. This is Satan's final rebellion against God, because the term is apostasia, where we get the word apostasy, falling away. It can be angel, or it can be man. And we generally take it as Satan's rebellion, because in Revelation 12, it says that Satan went up to heaven again, storming God. That's the main rebellion that will take place. And then he is cast down, and he only has a short time. And then that will trigger that Satan has the authority now and power to empower his henchmen. He does not have that power before. So it kind of makes sense that the great rebellion... Let's just read here Revelation 12. Maybe I'll go over 10 minutes if you indulge me. I haven't done this for years, but it's just something that I do want to cover the whole thing. I don't want to just give you half of the message.

Revelation 12, it says in 7, verse 7, it says, And war broke out in heaven. So this hasn't happened yet. This rebellion has not happened. It says, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. They have no access anymore to going up to heaven. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of all, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Here's a good point, biblically speaking. Sometimes when it talks about the devil doing something, it includes those under him. And so it's almost like sometimes you don't hear about Caesar's army being defeated. No, Caesar was defeated. Napoleon at Waterloo was defeated. Well, he wasn't fighting on his own, but he was representing all of his forces. And that's a way the Bible doesn't always fully give the details. And I heard a loud voice saying, In heaven now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And then they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Talking about the word of God and by Christ's sacrifice, giving us forgiveness. And they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. You don't want to be on the earth at this time. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time. And so Paul explained that this is going to happen in the future, and that now let's go back to 2 Thessalonians 2. This thing about the apostasy, the falling away, and the man of sin will be revealed.

And again, there are two main protagonists here. One is the antichrist, or what is called the beast in the Bible, the beast power. And the other one is the false prophet. And because of indications, it's not talking about the beast, although he certainly is very important. He's talking about the false prophet here, and I'll show you why we believe that. It says, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God. Kind of like a vicar. He's the one who represents Christ. So the beast is not interested so much in religion as he is in being the emperor of the world, political and military power. But there's also religious power, which is under the false prophet. And so he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So people are going to kiss his hand. They're going to basically worship him. He says, do you not remember that when I was with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time. Again, angels are restraining Satan until they loosen him. And then this can all happen.

Satan would like to go up to heaven much sooner. He can't do it.

For the mystery of lawlessness, of breaking of God's laws, is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way. And this probably is an angel. And God has that right now these men do not have power. Nor does Satan have the power to do this. And then once God says, back off, it's time to give Satan more leeway and freedom.

And then the lawless one, this is the first thing Satan does. He chooses his human henchmen to do his dirty work. Whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. And so it talks about these men, or this one, of course, along with the other one, because the prophet, the false prophet and the beast are living at the same time. So they're going to be killed by Christ's coming. So it's not talking about some time in previous history that this happens.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. So where is he getting his power from Satan? And what does he do? He says, with all power signs and lying wonders. Now it does never in the Bible do we read that the beast has all of these powers to do miracles. But the false prophet does. And with all unrighteousness, unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. This is so important. If you're a church member, you have to have God's Spirit, which gives you the love of the truth. If you don't have it, there's a problem there.

And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, talking about in the world, that they should believe the lie. What's the lie? That the beast and the false prophet are from Christ. This is Christian religion that is being carried out, and that you should submit to the beast and the false prophet, and worship them and put the mark of the beast on you.

He says, And for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Pleasure in breaking the law of God.

Let's go real quickly to Revelation chapter 13, and then I'll just conclude with a couple more statements and two scriptures. Revelation chapter 13 verses 1 and 3.

It says, These are the same ones that are part of the former empires. This is another manifestation of the Roman Empire, and on his heads are blasphemous names. He comes from all of these evil men.

The last two that we can describe, a previous beast-like rulers, was Hitler, Mussolini, and before that was Napoleon. You know about how much devastation Napoleon created. He says, The beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet, so he was part of the ones that had swallowed the previous empires, which were the Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek, and then the Romans took over all of that. But notice then in verse 7, it says, yeah, verse 7, it says, It was granted to him, this beast power, it's a person in charge of the empire, it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. So this is a warrior-type figure. And not only with the saints, but it goes on to say, an authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. So this is a world emperor we're talking about. But notice in verse 11, Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. This is the second, this is the false prophet now, coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb. So he saw kind of a lamb-like figure, and lambs are usually white and look very peaceful.

It wasn't horns like warrior horns, it didn't talk about rams. No, it's talking about a lamb. Anybody's ever reared a lamb? Can I see hands of anybody who's had little lambs? Well, are they a threat to you? No, right? He says, but he spoke like a dragon. So it's all dressing. It's all, he's dressed like a lamb, but he's a wolf inside. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. That's important, because what you have here is not a subruler. It is a co-ruler. They both have the power, they just have divided it. One is political and military, the other one is religious. He says, in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell, to worship the first beast. So it is a type of a church whose deadly wound was healed. He performed great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth, on the side of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted. He didn't have them automatically. Satan gave it to him. To do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast, and was wounded by the sword and lift. So these are two human beings that have different functions. It's important to understand this. And so, according to a disputed prophecy by the Catholic bishop, Saint Malachi, he had a vision while he was in Rome to meet Pope Innocent II, who was going to award him, because he was a bishop in Ireland, and give him more power and authority.

And this was in the year 1139.

And this could be a Balaam type of Satan-induced prophecy, because this did not come from God. But according to him, from that time of 1139, he wrote of the following 112 popes that would come until the end of the age. And so, we are now, of those 112 popes, we're either in the one that's going to be in the 112th or the 111th, somewhere along that line. Because not all the popes were official at the time. Sometimes we had three popes over there, Avillon in France. They had one, and then the other one. But whatever it is, it's very close. But again, I wouldn't bet on this because of the source. So, Satan could be using this prophecy also to deceive us.

But this is what he said about the last pope. This is number 112. In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, notice he's not talking about the church at all. It's part of the beast power, the false prophet. There will sit Peter the Roman. So, again, this is a symbolic type of figure. Peter was the first one. According to them, he was the first pope, which he wasn't. But Peter the Roman, so we don't know exactly what that will mean. Who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations? Maybe talking about the great tribulation here. And when these things are finished, the city of seven hills, in other words, Rome, will be destroyed. And that's part of... that's true. This is going to be the Babylon of Revelation 18, as best as we can understand. It will be destroyed, and a dreadful judge will judge his people, talking about Christ. And then it just has the end. It has come to the end of man's rule.

So this prophecy came by a false prophet. You've got to take that into consideration. And we have to be very skeptical. It could be a trick to mislead us.

And it's important then, as this next pope is considered, the characteristics. If it is the false prophet, he can't be too old like these previous ones. He can't be enfeebled. He's barely getting along. He has to be a vigorous, charismatic, and strong person to command the worship of the world.

Now, just remember, too, that this isn't coming from that person just on his own. He is going to be used as a tool of Satan. Just like Adolf Hitler was young and vigorous when he started his reign. And although he lacked a lot of education, he was just a corporal in World War I, and a mediocre painter in Vienna, it was Satan who possessed him, and gave him the brilliant mind and spellbinding power over people. Many literally worshipped him, willing to die for him. So it's not so much the person as allowing Satan to possess him.

And so it talks there, doesn't it, that it's going to do wonders because of Satan empowering that person. So we're going to have to wait. See, if the next one, he has to have certain characteristics to be able to carry out that role. Or we will have to wait more. Let's read God's warning, Revelation 18, verse 1. This is another warning God gives us. He says, after these things I sat down, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. He cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon, the great has fallen, talking about symbolically Rome, and has become a dwelling place of demons. That's where they've been. And a cage for every unclean and hated bird. So you see, the food laws still apply. Because why would animals be unclean if Christ cleaned them all? For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication, which means alliances with her. And the merchants of the earth, also alliances, have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice coming from her, talking about God's people, saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. So, you know, what side of history do you want to be a part of? You can just go along with the world until this happens, with all the plagues. And someday someone is going to be there, hiding out with plagues and the punishment, and say, Oh, if I just had taken the church more seriously, if I had just done my part, and didn't become lukewarm, and left the church because of something, and we're always going to have excuses because this is an imperfect church. We can always have excuses, well, I don't want to continue going because of this or that, or somebody didn't look properly at me, and people can get offended by many things. God did not call us to fall away or fall short. And so, just a scripture that I found this week that I hadn't seen before. Let's go to the last one, Psalm 94, verse 12. What a jewel did I find in this treasure chest called the Bible. Psalm 94, verse 12.

This is what I want to dwell on. This is what I am thankful for. It says, Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law.