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challenged and the world worships the Dragon; truly a burning fiery furnace for the
faithful few in those days. No wonder each of the seven Churches have special promises
given to the overcomer. In Rev. 19: 20 we read:--
"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before
him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast."
Note this order, "he deceived them that HAD RECEIVED", they received first, they
were not deceived first. Now note II Thess. 2: 9-12:--
"Whose presence (parousia) is after the working of Satan with all power and signs,
and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish:
BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that
they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Here the same order is followed, they are deceived, because they would not receive,
they will not believe the truth, they do believe the lie; not merely a lie, but the lie.
John 8: 44, speaking of the Devil says, "he is a liar, and the father of IT". Christ is the
truth, the old man is the lie (Eph. 4: 21-25, "wherefore putting away the lie."). All
Satan's works are "the lie". With a lie he deceived our first parents saying, "ye shall not
surely die"; with some similar lie he sets God aside in favour of himself and his false
Messiah at the end. If all this iniquity finds its home in Babylon, it has but returned to its
original home. Speaking of the Babylonian apostasy, Rom. 1: 18-32 uses terms similar
to II Thess. 2:
"They changed the truth of God into the lie, and worshipped and served the creature
more than the Creator."
"They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an IMAGE made like to
corruptible man."
The words of II Thess. 2: are further echoed in Rom. 1: 32, where it speaks of those
who "have pleasure in them that do them". The miracles wrought by the energy of Satan
are called "powers and signs and wonders of falsehood". These three words are used in
Heb. 2: 4 without the words "of falsehood" to describe the miracles of the Acts of the
Apostles. This fact should be enough to teach us that the miracles performed by the false
prophet will be real enough even as Jannes and Jambres were able in many instances to
work miracles in opposition to the miracles of Moses. The peril with which many
so-called Pentecostal movements are fraught becomes clear in the light of this fact. The
work of Satan will be such a counterfeit of truth as to deceive if it were possible the very
elect. "Here is the patience and faith of the saints." In the somewhat confused state of
the Greek text of Rev. 13: 10, the safe course to follow is to turn to the Hebrew original
to which this passage alludes:--
"And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for
death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the
sword" (Jer. 43: 11).
Rev. 13: 10 therefore should be rendered:--