You have a powerful enemy.

His name is Satan. He is the enemy of the entire human race. He is always on the side of wrong and never on the side of God and what is right or good. Satan’s goal is to have control over that which the Lord created and loves: the human race. One day soon Christ will come. When He appears in the sky, only the saved will see Him. We will rise to meet Him, and He will take us to heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). Once this event, known as the Rapture, has taken place, the seven-year Tribulation will then begin on Earth. Multitudes of people who rejected Christ will be left behind. The Bible tells us that many of these people will blindly follow Satan as he leads them into a dark, terrible time of trouble. During Satan’s reign of terror, two men will rise to international prominence as recorded in Scripture. These two men, the antichrist and the false prophet, will receive their power and authority from Satan. The antichrist will rise to prominence quickly. Later in the Tribulation, he will become the dictator of the world. The antichrist, promoted by the false prophet, will influence people to worship him instead of Jesus. The false prophet is the subject of our discussion in this article. In parts one and two of this series, we covered the following seven things about the false prophet:

1. The false prophet will have the appearance of a gentle, religious man.
2. The false prophet will be a great deceiver.
3. The false prophet will be demon possessed.
4. The false prophet’s authority will come from Satan.
5. The false prophet’s power will come from Satan.
6. The false prophet will promote the antichrist as the Messiah.
7. The false prophet will be a member of the “evil trinity.”

Now, let’s continue our discussion about the number two man of the Tribulation, the false prophet. 

8.​ ​The false​ ​prophet will have control over a world-wide money system.

“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” – Revelation 13:16-17

If you carefully study Revelation 13:11-17, you will discover that the focus of the text is on the false prophet. He is the one who will introduce the commerce system described in verses 16 and 17. A forerunner of the commerce system described in this passage is the chip card. The chip card has been used in Europe for decades and is now available in the U.S. The chip card, which many of us possess, is a credit card with an implanted computer microchip. Because technology is rapidly changing, the chip card is already becoming old news. The next generation of chip technology has already been developed and is being used in some places. This new technology involves the implantation of a chip into the human hand and is currently available and being marketed by at least one company in Sweden. It might surprise you to know that tens of thousands of people have already received the chip implant. You can read more about this technology by simply doing a search on the internet using the words “chip implant.” The chip implant will probably not have widespread use among the masses of mankind until sometime after the Rapture. The important thing to understand on this subject is that for the first time in human history the money system described in this nearly 2,000-year-old writing is now beginning to come into use.

9. ​The false prophet will deceive the people of Earth with great signs.

“He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast…” – Revelation 13:13-14a

Satan has big plans for the false prophet. He will be a “mover” and a “shaker” during the Tribulation. The false prophet’s big moment on Earth’s stage, however, will come midway in the Tribulation after the antichrist receives a deadly wound that is healed (Revelation 13:3, 5, 11, 12). Satan will then use the false prophet to perform eye-popping signs and wonders. Deceived by these signs, people will worship the antichrist just as the false prophet urges them to do. When it is time for the false prophet to take center stage in the affairs of this world, the television cameras will be rolling, and a watching world will witness him bring fire down from the sky. Will the false prophet really be able to create fire? Probably not. Verse 14 states that he will deceive people with his signs. How, then, will he be able to call down fire from the sky? The antichrist may grant the false prophet permission to use modern technology to pull off the fire miracle described in Revelation 13:13. Using a smart weapon and the global positioning system, man can, for the first time in history, make fire come down from the sky. In contrast, God, the creator of all things, has chosen at times to reveal His awesome power and holiness through the use of fire. He rained fire and brimstone on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). At the request of Elijah, God sent fire down from heaven on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38). Notice what will happen to those who try to harm the two witnesses who will be preaching for God during the first three-and-a-half years of the Tribulation: “…fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies…” ​- ​Revelation 11:5

10. ​The false prophet will demand that all people must worship the antichrist.

“And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” – Revelation 13:12

Satan knows God has declared that when Christ returns He (Christ) will cause all wars to cease on earth, He (Christ) will establish His kingdom, and all the people who are part of Christ’s kingdom will worship Him (Christ). Satan will make an all-out attempt to rob Christ of His kingdom by establishing his kingdom first. Notice in the above scripture (verse 12) that the false prophet will convince the people to worship “the first beast,” who is the antichrist. He will no doubt make the claim that the antichrist should be worshipped for he was dead but now lives. For a short time, Satan will rule the world through the antichrist. Through his affiliation with the antichrist, he will be worshipped as Revelation 13:4 tells us:

“So, they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’”

Conclusion

A terrible time of great trouble is coming to this world. I praise God that the He has told us in the Bible that Christ is coming for us before that time of trouble arrives. Friend, let us share the love of Christ as we have opportunity. Jesus is coming…soon.