Simply teaching the Bible, simply

This verse-by-verse study of Mark 13:21-37 was taught by Pastor Barry Forder at our family service on 4th November 2018.

In our previous study, we looked at the individual who will soon make an appearance on the world stage whom we often refer to as Antichrist. In fact, this individual is known by 33 different titles in the Old Testament and 13 in the New Testament.

However, there is another individual that Jesus alludes to in Mark 13, and that is the one referred to as the False Prophet in Revelation 19:20.

But it is in Revelation chapter 13 that we are introduced to the Devil’s two great protagonists, the ‘Beast from the sea’ v.1 (aka Antichrist) and the ‘Beast from the earth’ v.11 (aka the False Prophet). From the beginning, Satan has been a deceiver and master counterfeiter. Now, at the mid-point of the Tribulation, Satan (man’s great opponent) will attempt to deceive mankind through an unholy trinity, with Satan (as he has always wanted) being ‘like God’; Antichrist (as the name means) ‘in the place of Christ’, and the False Prophet assuming a Holy Spirit-like role, pointing people to the false Christ.

In Revelation 13:13 we read: “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men”

By this time, the people of the earth will have seen God’s two witnesses (see Revelation 11) call down fire from Heaven on any that tried to harm them; Satan now gives this power to the false prophet as if to counter what God has done. This reminds us of Pharaoh’s magicians in Egypt who tied to counter the signs that Moses and Aaron did in an attempt to harden the people’s hearts.

But the False Prophet will win the hearts of the people with his deceptions and will deceive the people (who have made this world their home) by the ‘signs and wonders’ he performs, and then he’ll suggest that they make an image of Antichrist in a re-run of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon (Daniel chapter 3) and Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel chapter 8 & 11).

Somehow the false prophet will make the image of Antichrist (which will be placed in the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem) to seem as if it’s alive and even cause it to talk. Just like it was with king Neb’ back in Daniel 3, any that don’t worship the image will be killed. He will then cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads

This is of course the infamous ‘Mark of the Beast’.