The following article is just a postulation put forth, based upon Scripture of a future scenario that could theoretically happen. To put it in direct and simple terms, Satan is going to have to convince the world that Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, was the false messiah otherwise known as the Antichrist.
It is obviously deeply disturbing for us as true followers of the true Messiah to even contemplate such a detestable heresy against our dear Savior, but that is exactly what Satan will be allowed to do. If mankind denies God long enough, He will give them up to deception. If He will harden their hearts to believe the lie, He will also allow the lie to be told. Just as when they were deceived into rejecting Jesus as the true Messiah so they will accept Satan as the messiah.
“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? ‘So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.’ And He marveled because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:3-4, 6a).
“And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed’” (Isaiah 6:9-10).
True Messiah: The Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.
False messiah: Satan who comes to rule the world.
Christians believe that the true Messiah was crucified and ascended up to heaven and He will come again at a later time, to rule the world. Jews claim that the true Messiah has not yet come to earth and when He does come, He will not be crucified, but He will instead rule the world. So the current expectation of Christians and Jews is the same, that when the Messiah comes to earth He will set up His kingdom rule.
The first beast of Revelation 13:1 is the Antichrist, possessed by Satan, and he will claim to be the Messiah as prophesied in the Torah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people” (Genesis 49:10).
Satan has to convince the Jews and the apostate Christians along with other religious groups in the world, that he is their messiah. All he will have to do is proclaim that Jesus was the false Messiah. How can both Jews and apostates be convinced that the Antichrist is the Messiah? Answer: Apostate Christians will readily accept that the Jesus of the New Testament was a fraud and unsaved Jews already accept the same lie.
The second beast of Revelation 13:11, will likely be a world leader of false Christianity. People will be more likely to follow deception from someone who is the leader of the religion that they already follow, than from someone who isn’t. The false prophet is described as having two horns like a “lamb” because the lamb symbolically represents Christ. He will not choose to look like a goat because he will deceive the world as a lamb wrapped around a goat.
So, the first beast will likely be Jewish and the second beast will likely be a false Christian and possibly of Jewish decent. Why does Satan have to pay lip service to Jesus Christ and claim to be the God of the Torah and Israel anyway? Can’t he just stand on his own earthly miracles and earthly powers granted to him by the Lord and declare himself as another god with a different name? By the way, how do we know that Satan has been granted powers on the earth?
“Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ 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” (Matthew 4:8-9; Revelation 13:13-14).
So again, why does Satan have to claim to be the God of the Bible and not just some other god of some other religion? Because he knows full well who the real God is and he knows what Paul said in Romans is absolutely true: That every single person on earth, upon hearing the truth of the God of the Bible instantly knows in his or her heart that He is the real God.
“Men… suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18b-19, 20b).
Satan knows that the people of the world will not accept any other god as being the real God unless he claims to be the God of the Bible. This is a different concept than that of the world, which rejects the God of the Bible in His true form and character. You see the world knows in their hearts who the real God is. But they choose to reject Him because they hate His Way.
Believing God is not the same thing as believing in God. Remember what James said: “Even the demons believe and tremble”. As long as Satan changes the true message of God into his own false message, then the world will believe that he is god.
The world hates God’s true message because it calls for humility and the world is proud. The world cannot stand being told what to do so much as they would rather defy God and “call His bluff” on hell rather than accept His free gift out of hell (because that involves humility).
The world hates that Jesus said He is the only Way to heaven. The world says that they themselves are the only way to heaven. As the crucifixion of Christ proves, miracles combined with truth, were not enough for the world to accept Jesus as God. As long as Satan combines his miracles with lies, and tells the world that they can still make their own way to heaven, they will accept him as their god.
Of course Satan will have other plans for the masses after they swear allegiance to him, but he certainly won’t let them on to that at the beginning. Upon his sudden appearance on the world stage, Antichrist will hook the people by whispering sweet nothings into their ears and they will fall for it. Combine Satan’s sweet talk with the miracles that he will do in their sight and you will have the worldwide worship of the beast.
After the Rapture of the church and the complete disappearance without a trace, of millions of people (the true Christians), a world leader of false Christianity (a mega-church pastor or the pope) will announce something like: “We were never duped by those people, those false Christians, who claimed that you Jews actually had the power to murder your own Messiah!” Sarcastic laugh: “Hah, hah, hah! Our true messiah is here!” Hand extends toward the Antichrist: “He has removed the apostates from his kingdom and destroyed them! They have no place on our new earth!” Loud cheers and clapping: “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! All hail messiah!”
“So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” (Revelation 13:4).
Although they have no such power, the false prophet and the Antichrist will hijack the miraculous nature of the Rapture as representative of their own power to completely remove and destroy multitudes of people from around the earth. The false prophet will claim that Jesus was the real Antichrist and that He and His temple were destroyed in 70 A.D by the god who the Antichrist claims to be. He will no doubt use verses like 1 John 2:18 to enhance this deception. He will then proclaim that the new temple, the Tribulation Temple, is the true center of worship.
Although he will twist New Testament verses to the advantage of Satan, the second beast will also claim that the New Testament record is nothing more than an interpretation of the events surrounding the false Christ written by those who were deceived by Him. A lie easily told is easily believed, by the deceived.
This will be the great deception and the lie spoken of by Paul in 2 Thessalonians that those who reject the salvation of Christ will believe. Of course, many will deny the Antichrist as their messiah and many will pay with their lives. It is not until the end of the Tribulation, that the Jews along with the rest of the world will recognize Jesus as their true Messiah at His glorious appearing, when they will wail and mourn because of Him (Zechariah 12:10-12; Matthew 24:30, Revelation 1:7).
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
I vanish before Thy feet O Christ. I fade to nothing, not even my dust remains. You are the King of kings and Lord of lords. O Lamb of God, Please forgive my sin and have mercy on me. Amen.