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And I beheld another beast [the false prophet] coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb (Rev 13:11),

In other words, he looked like a lamb.

and he spoke as a dragon (Rev 13:11),

Jesus said, "Beware of false prophets, who will come to you in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15). The one thing about false prophets is they never look like a false prophet. Satan never looks like the characters of Satan. He does not have horns, a forked tail and a pitchfork in his hand and he doesn't wear red leotards. He would like you to think that he did. He would like you to think that he is some grotesque-looking character that would scare the wits out of you, if you saw him. He would like you to think that, because that way he can go around cleverly disguised as an angel of light, beautiful, speaking such soothing words to the flesh. "Why don't you just go ahead and enjoy yourself. Drink of pleasure till it is full." And you would say, "Oh, that can't be Satan. That is so charming, and so enticing. Satan is ugly. I don't see any pitchfork." And that is why he's able to deceive.

So the false prophet has horns like a lamb, but listen to what he says.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast which were before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed (Rev 13:12).

So, several times there is the mention of this deadly wound being healed. And it is really sort of the rallying point by which the false prophet draws the people to worship the beast.

And he does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of man (Rev 13:13).

Now, you remember the two witnesses were doing this. They were bringing down fire from heaven. Now, he duplicates it.

You remember in the case of Moses going before the Pharaoh how that the magicians in Pharaoh's court were able to duplicate to a point the miraculous things that Moses was doing. Moses threw down his rod on the floor and it became a serpent. They threw down their rods and they became serpents too; that duplication of godly miracles.

Now Satan is able to counterfeit many of the things of God. He can't counterfeit all of them, but he can counterfeit many of the things of God, and does counterfeit many of the things of God. And here is a counterfeit, the two witnesses calling down fire from heaven. Now, this fellow comes along and he calls down fire from heaven in the sight of men.

And deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying of them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image of the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live (Rev 13:14).

Now again in second Thessalonians you have parallel-type of passages in chapter two as the antichrist is described, he is called "whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause"(2 Thessalonians 2:9). What cause? Because people didn't love the truth, the truth of God. Jesus said I am the truth and the life, but people don't love the truth. "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they would believe a lie: that they might be damned to believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness"(2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

So, God is going to give them a strong delusion that they might believe. In the Greek it is a definite article, "the lie", the big lie of Satan, the antichrist, the false prophet. So, he deceives them. You don't want to believe the truth. God gives them over to delusion. God allows them to be deceived.

You know I am amazed at the things that people believe who have rejected Jesus Christ. When you reject the knowledge of the truth in Christ, you are a prey to all kinds of stupidity. I am amazed at the foolish things that people do who reject the truth of Jesus Christ. They wear white robes standing on street corners, shaving their heads and working finger symbols, doing their little chantings, doing the mantras, and doing their "ums". Watching the people up in Oregon as they are worshipping their guru, seeing the outlandish things that he is leading them to do, as they have mass hysteria, heavy breathing calisthenics followed by uncontrolled screaming. What a prey man becomes when he rejects the truth. You don't want to be wise and receive the grace of God then be stupid. And people believe and do the most stupid things who have rejected the truth of God.

I am amazed at many of these college professors who pretend towards superior intelligence of some of the weird things that they do of supposedly intelligent men. But because they did not love the truth, God gives them over to a strong delusion. They soon believe a lie.

Several years ago I was invited to come to a meeting of the supposed Intelligencia of Orange County. There were a bunch of college professors and doctors who were supposed to be the cream of the Intelligencia. And I was brought as a specimen of ignorance so they could play games and be amused by the fact that I actually believed in a living God who created the heavens and the earth. So, I was brought in for their amusement that they could eat me up. And as I sat there during their preliminaries, and this one sort of leader of the group of superior intelligence sat on the floor in the lotus position and began to tell me of all of his accomplishments and all of his intelligence and everything else. I felt sorry. He was so wise, yet so deceived and so foolish.

Finally after a period of time, they said, "Well, what do you have to bring to us tonight?"

Because they told me how that they had had LSD sessions, these very intelligent people, they called themselves "seekers". They were seeking truth, and they had had LSD, they had Cocaine and everything. After all of your seekers, you can excuse anything that you want to do seeking truth. The one sitting in the lotus position declared that he was a Buddhist priest. He had studied Buddhism under him.

I said, "Well, you have obviously searched through everything, but the fact that you call yourselves 'seekers', you obviously are still searching." I said, "Maybe in all of your searching you have overlooked something that you have already searched through." I said, "Why don't we start with the basics. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." One of the men interrupted me immediately and said, "Now, when you say God, are you talking about an anthropomorphic concept of God?"

And then some other guy started challenging him and they got in this big rhubarb. And as they were in this big rhubarb, I bowed my head and I started praying. I said, "God if you get me out of this place I promise I will never come again. I have been neglecting my wife. I haven't spent enough evenings at home with her. Lord, forgive me. I am sorry. I should be home tonight with my wife and my family. My kids, they need me, Lord, and here I am in this mess. God, get me out of this mess, or do something." Because I knew that there was no way I was going to get anywhere and I didn't need the hassle.

So finally some lady there said, "Will you guys shut-up. We hear you all the time. Every week we hear you guys going through the same inane arguments. Now, we have invited this fellow to speak to us; the least we can do is listen." So they apologized and said, "Okay, you have the floor." And I looked at them and I said, "My soul and spirit are at complete rest. I am completely satisfied." Hey, they all sat up on the edge of their seats and they started listening extremely attentively, because that is something none of them could say. With all of their arguments, with all of their intelligence, with all of their background, none of them could say, "my soul and spirit are at rest. I am satisfied." And the Lord allowed me to share for about an hour the richness and the fullness that can be experienced in Jesus Christ. And then the Lord got me out of there.

But in the succeeding weeks I had several of them call and come in and receive Jesus Christ. Because there is only one way that a man can find rest and peace, that is in and through Jesus. And you may search the world over and you may have all kinds of bizarre experiences, but you will never have rest until you have Him. But those who refuse the truth are open for deception.

So, he comes with deceiving wonders and they make this image.

And then they have power to give life to the image of the beast (Rev 13:15),

Now, there is a lot of talk lately by some of the far-out physicists of creating a computer that can be biologically connected to certain types of organisms and will have life in itself. And this bio-kind of a computer has had several articles written on it. There is a research group in Canada that is working on such a thing. It is sort of a computer that will be able to think on its own kind of an idea; one that you can't turn off. And they say that this is the next step in the evolutionary process. It will be higher than man and will be able to rule man and give us the answers to life and its problems and so forth, because they can create it with so much more intelligence than man. That's the talk of the far-out physicists.

Interestingly enough, they are going to make an image of the antichrist and put it in the Holy of Holies of the rebuilt temple and then they are going to give life to it. Now, this is the ultimate blasphemy. This is the abomination, which will cause the desolation or the Great Tribulation. This is the final straw. At this point the wrath and the fury of God will be poured out upon the earth. And the earth will go through a time of great tribulation such as it has never seen before or will ever see again. When the antichrist comes to the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and proclaims himself to be God and stands in the Holy of Holies, the Holy place, and announcing himself as God, that is the ultimate blasphemy. They set up this image in the temple and they give power to it.

that it should both speak and have life, and they caused that as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed (Rev 13:15).

You have sort of a historic kind of a picture when Nebuchadnezzar, you remember, made the golden image and set it in the plains of Dura and caused everyone to bow down and worship it, in order that if anyone should refuse to worship it that they should be cast alive into the burning fiery furnace. Now the image that he made was making a statement.

Nebuchadnezzar had had a troubling dream that Daniel had interpreted. It was a great image. It had a head of gold, chest of silver, stomach of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay with ten toes. This dream interpreted was the image where the nations that would rule the world headed by Babylon, the head of gold, which was to be replaced by the Medo-Persian Empire, the chest of silver, which would be replaced by the Grecian Empire, the stomach of brass, which would be destroyed by the Roman Empire, the legs of iron, and the final world governing empire a relationship to the Roman Empire, ten nations, the ten toes federated together. And during the time of the reign of these ten kings, the Lord of glory would come and establish His kingdom that would never end.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar was making a statement with this image. Why? Because he made it all of gold. "Though, O Nebuchadnezzar, are the head of gold, God has given you a kingdom to reign over the earth and all, but you are going to be replaced"(Daniel 2:38). He is saying I am not going to be replaced. Babylon will last forever. It was a statement. And people were ordered to pay obeisance to that statement, to acknowledge that Babylon would be eternal. It would not be destroyed. It would not be overthrown. It was a statement of contradiction to God's word that declared that Babylon would be overthrown. It was a statement of rebellion against God. And people were commanded to agree to that statement by bowing down and worshipping the image. And you have that same counterpart to this image being set up and everyone being ordered to worship this image and being put to death if they refused to worship the image.

You remember that shortly after that he went insane and spent seven seasons in insanity until what? Until he acknowledged that God did rule over the kingdoms of man and would set on the thrones those who He would. His little statement of blasphemy against God was finally changed.

Reference: KJV, Blue Letter Bible Org. and Chuck Smith Commentaries, online @ http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/comm_view.cfm?AuthorID=1&contentID=7271&commInfo=25&topic=Revelation