[Note: The following is an excerpt from my chapter in the book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception, edited by Terry James. Order your copy on Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)].
The Eschatologically Ignorant
As humanity hurtles towards the Rapture of the Church, outright false messiahs and prophets proliferate in frequency and intensity. The Eschatology Confused abound. And then there are the Eschatologically Ignorant.
These people, pastors often, unwittingly play into the great end time delusion. For whatever reasons, they just refuse to touch the 31% of the Bible that contains prophecy. They fell head-first into the Laodicean malaise Christ warned the churches of in Revelation 3–the spirit of apathy. This end time Church of Laodicea mentality claims, “We’ve got it all together, so we don’t really need you, God. We are just going to keep on practicing Christianity without Christ, thank you very much.” This makes them a pseudo-form of false teachers by their willing acts of omission.
Ignorant can be a harsh word, but for some pastors, it fits. I left a church once because the pastor from the pulpit sneeringly denounced Bible prophecy conferences as “Star Trek Conventions.” The congregation whooped approval. And then the pastor went back to his endless use of sports analogies. These scoffers actually fulfill 2 Peter 3:4, which prophesied that in the end times people would scoff at the very idea of times ever changing. For some, prophecy is just not cool.
Some pastors have been raised by strictly Amillennial teachers, believing in no literal thousand year reign of Christ coming and that everything will just pan out in the end. Or, Post-Millennialism, a viewpoint that sees the Church conquering the world for Christ and then handing it over to Him upon His return. The Bible teaches neither view, and yet so many churches are drowning in these errant interpretations.
For other pastors, it’s less ignorance and more illiteracy. I feel for those pastors who daily have to deal with their members’ marital, employment, and health issues. They’re bogged down in daily living, leaving no time for “irrelevant” prophecy. And yet, Jesus will bring all of our heart-wrenching issues to an end upon His return. So then, how can the good news of Christ’s return not be relevant in providing the believer hope?
Another reason for the apathy concerning God’s prophetic word is because a lot of pastors just don’t know that part of the Bible. Seminaries have fallen down on the job of equipping pastors in the study of Eschatology, leaving these poor ministers ill equipped. Strange end times viewpoints cross their paths, which naturally confuse and repel them. And so, quite a number of pastors, whether they are open to Bible prophecy or not, finally throw their hands up and declare, “I can’t deal with prophecy right now because I just don’t understand it. I’m going to focus instead on what I do understand.” So, I will give these pastors some credit.
Regardless of their reasons, spiritual apathy has become the dominant characteristic of today’s Western churches, with an even a greater apathy towards God’s prophetic word. At a time when the signs of the times Jesus pronounced swirl about our heads at hurricane strength, the Laodicean Church has become Rip Van Winkle.
Second Coming
We have finally reached Jesus’ “Farther” response when answering the Apostles’ third question: “What will the sign of Jesus’ coming?” These signs lead up to Jesus’ Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation, and they constitute the harshest and most intense of the birth pain events.
What’s most interesting about the Sign of False Messiahs is that all these plethora of false christs, prophets, and teachers will disappear. During the Tribulation, all the foreteller-fabricators of our day will be phased out, boiling down to just two men.
The Antichrist
The Bible calls the ultimate false christ the Antichrist (1 John 2:18). His list of names should strike fear into the hearts of the world’s inhabitants: the Beast (Revelation 13:1), the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the Son of Destruction (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the Despicable Person (Daniel 11:21), the Willful King (Daniel 11:36), the Worthless Shepherd (Zechariah 11:17), the Insolent King (Daniel 8:23), and the Abomination (Matthew 24:15).
Revelation 13 describes this penultimate false messiah as a beast who comes “out of the sea,” and Revelation 6 as a rider on a white horse who sways the world under his power. Daniel 9:26 reveals his origins as rising from “the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary,” meaning the Romans who destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D.
The Antichrist’s empire will grow to encompass the entire planet (Isaiah 34:2; Jeremiah 30:11; Joel 3:2,9; Zechariah 14:2; Zephaniah 3:8; Revelation 14:8; 16:14; 18:3,23). The price for finally achieving world domination will be a series of horrific wars which will result in the deaths of a whopping two billion people (Revelation 6). But, this maniacal emperor acts merely as a puppet, for he is fully possessed by Satan, the prince of this world (John 16:11).
A peace covenant signed with Israel reveals the Antichrist and marks the start of the seven-year Tribulation (Daniel 9:27). At the mid-point of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will proclaim himself to be God in the newly built Jewish temple (Daniel 9:27). He will then slaughter both Jews and Tribulation Saints alike in a satanic fury so fierce that if Jesus Christ did not return quickly, this Beast will have devoured all of God’s faithful.
The False Prophet
The Antichrist is served by a False Prophet (Revelation 13). All false religions will eventually fold under his command. No more false christs, other than the Antichrist, will be allowed to exist. The final False Prophet will demand the entire world worship Satan through the Antichrist, or be killed.
The push to form some kind of one-world philosophy grows ever stronger in our day, but it will finally culminate in the False Prophet’s harlot religion. He will erect a living image and require all the world to bow down to it. Satan will grant him the ability to perform miraculous signs, such as sending down fire. This lamb-like “beast from the land” will reveal his true colors through his deceptive, dragonesque speech. As his ultimate act of consuming all other religions, the False Prophet will demand loyalty to the Antichrist by forcing all people to take a loyalty mark and worship him alone, or die by beheading.
No wonder that the very first and number one end times sign Jesus gave was false messiahs, prophets, and teachers!
Resource
Indoctrination disguised as education. The religion of climate change enshrined. Witchcraft and the occult made mainstream. Fake news. We live in a world where deception is rampant and true agendas are rarely revealed. Jesus foretold of this time as He answered His disciples’ question: What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Bible prophecy experts present analysis of today’s issues and events in Deceivers, revealing that Christ’s prophecy is literally unfolding before us today.
Order the book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception, edited by Terry James, on Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)]!
