Dr. Stephen Phinney
THE FALSE PROPHET | THE GOAT'S AROGANCE
People tend to take the blessings of God without faithful obedience. Honestly, the two do not mix. Daniel knew this. As a leader, he appeals to God on behalf of the Hebrew people. This pray has been a model for prophets and teachers for thousands of years. In this episode, we will address fake Christians in modern times. Those who think they have the blessings of God but do not. The teaching will be a challenge for marginal Christians. Since fake Christians live out their lives with one foot in the world and the other in the church, they become ignorant of God’s absolute Truths.
OVERVIEW
Daniel had a glimpse into the triune of Satan, which is the Antichrist, the Beast, and the False Prophet. One of the most mysterious is the False Prophet. John, the writer of Revelation’s book, warns us of a dragon-like creature who will present himself as a great prophet. This figure will come on the scene as a pleasant, humble, and self-effacing person whose magnetic personality will seduce many followers. The prophet will be much like the false image Jesus warned us would come.
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
Unless one has the indwelling Holy Spirit, it will be impossible for the masses to discern this prophet being a ravenous wolf. All external evidence will tempt the masses to be diabolically deceived. They will have no ability to discern this prophet's strong relationship with the Antichrist or Satan himself.
THE INTRODUCTION
Numbers are a big deal to God regarding the pictorial Hebrew language. As with most languages, numbers are assigned to each letter – it is no different in Hebrew. However, numbers are prophetic disclosures of significant events in the pictorial Hebrew – 7 days, 7 years, 12 tribes, 40 days, 12 disciples, 70 weeks, etc. We need to keep the human timeline intact with the crossover timeline of God. For example, one day to the Lord is one-thousand years to humanity. If you do not keep this formula intact, linking Biblical prophecies to humanity's events is next to impossible.
The book of Daniel is filled with God’s Hebrewic numeric codes. He speaks of four beasts, ten horns, seventy weeks, 1,335 days, and many more. Revelation’s book is packed with similar numeric codes – seven churches, twenty-four elders, seven lampstands, four living creatures, four angels, seven seals, one hundred forty-four thousand Jews, seven trumpets, and a plethora of others.
Why is God immovable in using numbers to establish prophecies? If we understand the two timelines, we can see that God uses numbers to cement the reality that the stated prophecy arrives perfectly in the established number. Meaning that numbers never lie.
Another secret to studying prophecies is seen in God’s created beasts. God almost always uses parts of creation, particularly animals, birds, and sea-going creatures, to communicate prophetic imagery. For example, Daniel speaks of a lion with wings like an eagle. Dissecting this revelation, we find a lion to be the king of the beasts that walk the earth, wings are always related to supernatural powers, and the eagle is the most majestic symbol among the birds. When we put these real-time symbols together, we have – a great king with supernatural powers that will dominate the world in a graven image of majesty. When reviewing the “wings” in Daniel’s revelation, it discloses Greece due to its obsession with winged idols. This can be confirmed in over 90% of ancient Greece's statues of idolatry. As for Daniel, this became the description of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian Empire, the soon coming Grecian takeover, which happens to be the same description of the Antichrist in Revelation.
People avoid studying prophecies because they become confused by the “symbols” noted in the Old and New Testament imagery. These are not necessarily symbols but rather ways God connects prophecies for humans to understand. However, if authentic Christians do not understand the numeric codes of God and His choice-created beasts to help humanity understand the complexities of prophecies, they will remain ignorant.
The study of prophecies opens the door to understanding God’s character and objectives – His ultimate plan and gives us a glimpse into the mind of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we gained insight into all the prophecies revealed regarding the first coming of Jesus, so are we gifted with looking into the window of His Second Coming. Fact. God, who has kept every stated prophecy to us as His Son’s Bride in the past, will keep every Word of promise for His return.
Authentic Biblical prophecy reminds us of God’s faithfulness to His people and the urgency of proclaiming the Gospel in the end times with others. While it is selfish to view our own security of the Rapture’s ticket, we need to share the Truth with unsaved family members and strangers so that they too will be blessed with not just a passageway into Heaven but eternal Life in Christ Jesus.
IMPORTANT SCRIPTURES
Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. "At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. (Daniel 9:20-23)
THE PURPOSE OF THE FALSE PROPHET
The easiest way to one line the purpose of the False Prophet is that he is a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, which is why the Holy Spirit will be taken from the earth at the Rapture. As in the case of the Holy Spirit leading the masses to Jesus, the False Prophet is responsible for leading the masses to worship the Antichrist.
He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. (Revelation 13:12)
As I explain to interested students of the Word, I communicate that pretty much all the
symbols and numeric codes of God are replicated by Satan. As God functions within a trinity, so does Satan. Thus, Satan identifies himself as a god, the Antichrist functions as christ, and the False Prophet functions as a holy spirit of sorts.
Similarly, the Antichrist will receive authority from the dragon (Satan Rev.13:4). As we should know, the Holy Spirit’s primary role is to glorify the Son, Jesus Christ (John 16:14). In like manner, this will be the role of the False Prophet.
The basics are that the False Prophet will arrive on the scene as a global religious leader representing all religions represented on the earth. He will propagate the unity of the masses, respecting all beliefs. However, behind the scenes, he will be immovable in deceptively leading all religious leaders to conform to one single religion – that of worshipping the Antichrist, who passes the false glory onto Satan. The reason this demonic figure will deceive the Jews is found in Malachi’s prophecy.
"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. (Malachi 4:5)
While Bible scholars know this is related to the two prophets the Lord sends during the Great Tribulation, the Jews act as “stupid sheep” and assume Satan’s False Prophet is Elijah. The fire spoken of in Revelation regarding this figure, as for the Jews, is quickly associated with Elijah. As Elijah called down fire from Heaven to ignite the sacrificial bull he had prepared on Mount Carmel, when the False Prophet does the same, it confirms to the Jews this Satanic Prophet is indeed their “Elijah.” In fact, if you study all the works of Elijah, you can easily figure out the plans for the False Prophet.
Since all are stupid without the Holy Spirit, it is easy to understand how the masses, particularly the Jews, are deceived by the fake wonders performed by the Satanic prophet.
Like Nebuchadnezzar, Satan’s prophet will build an image of the Antichrist AND require the masses to worship it (Rev. 13:14). Not only that, he will conjure demonic powers to give breath to this image (Rev. 13:15). In this single act of deception is what moves the earth to drop all their gods and focus on this beast figure as their god. Shortly after this, the False Prophet will capitalize on this conjured miracle to dominate the world, requiring all to receive the “mark of the beast.” Those that do live and those that don’t are slaughtered.
DANIEL LED TO PRAY FOR HIS PEOPLE
Daniel was so overwhelmed by his visions that he dropped to his knees in prayer. He certainly understood the importance of the Hebrew people needing to repent. The problem was they didn’t. What is a leader to do? As in most cases, the leader prayed for the people and confessed their sins for them. The irony is, God listened. God saw the compassion and brokenness in Daniel and decided to send a special messenger, Gabriel, to answer his prayer.
In the middle of Daniel’s prayer time, Gabriel shows up one more time and says, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.
We all need to understand something. Daniel was no ordinary prophet. He was so esteemed by God and the Heavenly hosts that God sent an archangel. Keep in mind that after Satan was booted out of Heaven, there remained two archangels, Gabriel and Michael. Both of which addressed Danial in his visions. Having an angel from Heaven speak to him would have been grand enough. However, for God to send the archangels to grant Daniel understanding was beyond significant. Personally, I believe the prophetic doctrines revealed to Daniel were so significant that Daniel needed to record these visions accurately.
ARCHANGEL GABRIEL REVEALS THE SEVENTY WEEKS
The seventy weeks of Daniel set the precedent of the prophetic numeric code that will remain intact until the details of Revelation’s book are complete. On this single number, all of the end times hinges. I will explain more later, but the basics are that the seventy weeks encompass 490 years as each week represents seven years. The first 69 weeks began when God required Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem, which started the day after Daniel died. The sixty-ninth week ended when Jesus entered Jerusalem and presented Himself as the Messiah to God’s people. The seventieth week will start at the beginning of the Tribulation and will end with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Now we know why God sent His archangels to deliver these immovable details.
IN CONCLUSION
Hopefully, we know by now that everything about anything has to do with Jerusalem and Israel. We have learned the importance of the False Prophet’s work in presenting himself as Elijah. Finally, why the Antichrist and the False prophet need to deceive the Jews so that Satan could sit on the throne seat of the final Temple. Hopefully, we have discovered the significance of why God had to send His “best” and most powerful angels to grant understanding to Daniel’s visions.
We have here the answer that was immediately sent to Daniel's prayer, and it is a very important one, as it contains the Alpha and Omega of all prophecies and the Gospel of Grace through Jesus Christ. It predicts the arrival of Jesus and connects all Old Testament prophecies to the final chapter of Revelation’s book. In this passage, I consider Gabriel’s explanation to Daniel to be the key to unlocking humanity’s ability to have insight into God’s plan to destroy His greatest enemy – Satan.
Forward these blogs to your sphere of influence. The Rapture is soon upon us.
President & Founder
Dr. Stephen Phinney
Authentic Salvation Prayer | HERE
IOM America | Identity Matters Worldview Institute
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