Welcome to a Revelation of Jesus. In this video, we will continue our study of the final crisis by taking a deeper look at the sixth of the seven last plagues. To review, the final crisis is a time during which the whole earth has already had a chance to experience the everlasting gospel presented with the power of the Holy Spirit. By the time the seven last plagues fall with the accompanying miracles, fearsome signs, and tribulations, everyone will have made a final decision, either to join the great multitude of people that put their trust in Jesus or to submit to the beast alliance.
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The beast followers are convinced that the terrible conditions taking place during the great tribulation have come about because of the minority who refuse to follow the rules laid down by the beast government. They are determined to bring the followers of Jesus into compliance, but the seven last plagues interfere with their plans. Painful sores, poisonous water, and scorching heat make their lives miserable. But when the beast kingdom is plunged into darkness, and at the same time the true followers of Jesus have light where they are, the suffering masses begin to doubt what their religious leaders have been telling them. This is the essence of the sixth plague.
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“Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared” (Revelation 16:12). The Euphrates was the river that ran through ancient Babylon, providing the water it needed to exist. The river was dried up when Cyrus, emperor of the Persian Empire, diverted the river so that his troops could enter and conquer Babylon through the dry riverbed. Thus the drying up of the river Euphrates points to the downfall of Babylon.
Babylon at the time of the seven last plagues is the international religious coalition which uses deceptive miracles to “deceive the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). Waters in Revelation represent “peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” (Revelation 17:15), so the drying up of the Euphrates represents the time when the people of the world realize that they have been duped by their religious leaders. In chapter 17, we will see how the world will turn on Babylon to destroy her.
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But that doesn’t mean that the people will turn to God. They are fully under the control and the influence of Satan, who has appeared on earth as the beast. He will pull out all the stops to recruit and motivate an army to fight against Christ in the person of His followers, especially as he perceives the signs of the coming of “the kings from the east” (Revelation 16:12).
There has been a lot of speculation about the players in the drama that leads up to the Battle of Armageddon in Revelation 16 and 17. The “kings from the east” are often assumed to be China, Russia, or other Asian powers. But the scriptural evidence indicates that the “kings from the east” are not the armies of earthly superpowers; they are the “armies of heaven” (Revelation 19:14), coming to earth on a rescue mission.
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The original Greek for the phrase “from the east” is literally “from the rising of the sun,” and is found in only one other place in the Book of Revelation. “[John] saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God” (Revelation 7:2). The angel from the east is a messenger from the kingdom of God who comes to “seal [God’s followers] in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3).
In Ezekiel “The glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east… and the glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east” (Ezekiel 43:2,4). Jesus Himself said, “for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27). These verses show us that it is God’s kingdom that comes from the east.
Jesus, “the King of kings,” is the One coming “from the east,” and Revelation 16:12 refers to the Second Coming of Christ. The use of the plural, “to prepare the way for the kings from the east” shows us that Jesus will return with “the armies of heaven” who “follow Him” (Revelation 19:14), including the “kings and priests to God” who are already in heaven (Revelation 5:9,10).
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Satan has a thorough knowledge of prophecy, and he will recognize the signs that the Second Coming is imminent. He will desperately send out his demonic minions to mobilize an army to make a preemptive strike on Christ by destroying His followers.
“[John] saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to the kings of the earth, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:13,14). This verse reveals the unholy trinity of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, which will emerge in the last moments of this age.
“The dragon” is clearly Satan, “the great dragon… that ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 20:2, 12:9). “The whole world” includes every people and every religion, so the dragon is the “god” of the non-Christian world with its countless forms of spirit manifestations. These masses of humanity, shaken to the core by the final events, will team up with the beast coalition.
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The use of the title “the beast” in Revelation is a little confusing because it is used in several ways. We will sort this out when we get to chapter 17, but for now I’ll just say that the beast of the unholy trinity is “the beast from the bottomless pit,” also called “the man of sin” in 2 Thessalonians 2, who “sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalinians 2:3,4). This is the final antichrist, a person fully possessed by Satan himself, pretending to be Jesus.
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The “false prophet” is closely linked to “the beast coming up out of the earth” in Revelation 13. Both the beast from the earth and the false prophet exercise authority and perform miraculous signs. They both do this “in [the beast’s] presence.” Both deceive the people of the world so that they receive the mark of the beast, and both promote the deceptive and coercive image of the beast.
This suggests that the false prophet will be a miracle-working leader of the religio-political system symbolized by the beast from the earth. In videos 45 and 46 we saw that the beast from the earth symbolizes the American union of church and state of the last days. With this in mind, we can assume that the false prophet will be the leader of this union who has been empowered by Satan to work powerful and deceptive miracles, “even making fire come down from heaven” (Revelation 13:13).
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The unholy trinity, consisting of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, will mobilize demonic forces to organize their final assault against Christ’s followers. “Three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet” (Revelation 16:13). Checking for Old Testament links, there is only one other place in the Bible that mentions frogs: the second plague of Egypt. God through Moses performed miracles to try to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go free from slavery. Pharaoh refused, so God through Moses told him, “The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly! Frogs shall come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls. And the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants” (Exodus 8:3,4).
The emphasis is on the ubiquity of the frogs. They were everywhere, and there was no escaping from them. In Satan’s last demonic attack, he will be allowed to throw everything he has at God’s people. From 2 Peter 2:4, we learn that many of the fallen angels have been kept in “chains of darkness” which correspond to the abyss or “bottomless pit” that the legion of demons begged Jesus not to send them into (Luke 8:30,31).
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But during the time of trouble, God, in order to expose Satan’s true nature of ruthless hatred, will allow the bottomless pit to be opened, releasing the demons who have been imprisoned there. Satan will have his full forces at his disposal, hell-bent on deceiving the impenitent and destroying the righteous. Just like the frogs of Egypt, the demonic forces and manifestations will be everywhere.
“They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14). The frog-like demons use miracles, performed in the name of Jesus, to convince “the whole world” to join the unholy trinity in their war against Jesus’ followers. Many of the religions of the world have pointed to signs and miracles as proof of their validity. Historically, this has been particularly true of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches with miracle-working relics and icons, supernatural apparitions of the Virgin Mary or other saints, and pilgrimage destinations where miraculous cures take place.
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More recently, the Pentecostal movement has swept through the whole world with a strong emphasis on signs and miracles such as speaking in tongues, personal prophecies, and healings. An underlying assumption is that since the miracles cannot be explained by science, and are beneficial for the recipients, they must be from God. No doubt many of these miracles are from God, but this and other verses teach that, particularly at the end of time, Satan and his “demonic spirits” will also use signs and miracles to deceive multitudes of people into cooperating with his agenda.
“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” (2Thessonians 2:9,10). The context of this passage is an exposition about “the lawless one…whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (vs. 8); in other words, this passage refers to the period of time immediately preceding the Second Coming of Christ. Although Satan has been active all through human history, he has been restrained from fully exercising his power—”You know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time” (vs.6).
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Because of Satan’s challenges, God will allow a full demonstration of both Satan’s evil principles and of God’s righteousness and love. But God has delayed this because billions of people all over the world do not know enough about God and Jesus to make an intelligent decision.
However, when “the everlasting gospel” has been preached “to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6), then God can allow the final demonstration of Satan’s principles and character. “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). “You know what is restraining…for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8).
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God allows deceptive miracles, but it is important to note that the people who are deceived are those who have rejected God’s truth. “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” (vs. 11,12). We should not think from these verses that God wants people to believe false miracles, or lies, or to be condemned. By looking at this verse from the end to the beginning, we see that deception is the final stage of a process which starts with having “pleasure in unrighteousness,” and then proceeds to a refusal to “believe the truth” about God—truth they reject because it also rebukes the sin they do not want to forsake. Rejecting the truth makes them susceptible to “strong delusions,” “believing the lie,” and finally condemnation. In Matthew 24 alone, Jesus warned three times against deceptive miracles in the last days—”False christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24, 4,5,11).
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At the same time, God’s faithful representatives will manifest the power of the Holy Spirit to an extent that has not been seen since Pentecost. The prophet Joel predicted that God would pour out His Spirit and “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions… before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:28-31).
Today, rational science is skeptical of all that cannot be explained scientifically, but the very end of time will be characterized by undeniable signs, wonders, and miracles, both from God and from Satan. In particular, the false prophet “[will] perform 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” (Revelation 13:13,14).
What this means for God’s followers is that we cannot rely on miracles as proof of God’s working, because spectacular miracles will be performed through the power of Satan! How essential that we heed John’s admonition, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1John 4:1). “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).
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Right in the middle of the seven last plagues, we have a surprising verse that at first seems out of place. “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15). The first thing we notice is that this is Jesus Himself speaking. If you have a red-letter Bible, you can see that Jesus leaves the vast majority of Revelation to be narrated by “His angel“ (Revelation 1:1,2). But here, at a time when everyone on earth has already made up their minds, Jesus speaks up.
Jesus coming as a thief is so important that He repeated it in Matthew 24, in Luke chapter 12, and twice in the Book of Revelation. It was a major theme for the early church too; the apostle Paul said to the Thessalonian church that “you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). The apostle Peter said, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which… the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (1Peter 3:10). Why is there such an emphasis on Jesus coming as a thief?
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Let’s look first at Matthew 24, where Jesus dedicates two chapters to tell us what will happen around the time of His Second Coming. He uses several illustrations, such as the parable of the talents and the wise and foolish virgins, to remind us that we should watch carefully during what may seem to be a delay of His returning. “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into” (Matthew 24:42,43). Here, as in Revelation 16, Jesus compares His coming to a thief breaking into a house at night.
Notice that it is the master of the house who is surprised by the thief. In almost every other place where the Greek word for master of the house (oikodespotis) is used, it is Jesus or God who is the master of the house. But as we read on, we see that the master who is surprised by the thief is actually a servant who has usurped authority from the real master.
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Jesus first describes the faithful servant. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing” (Matthew 24:45,46). The faithful servant is ready because he is focused on serving those in his sphere of influence.
But the faithful servant is contrasted with “that evil servant [who] says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards” (Matthew 24:48,49). All the servants claim to be waiting for the master. But this evil servant is acting like he is the “master of the house.” He is the one who will be surprised; To him, Jesus’ appearance will be like a thief.
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Coming back to Revelation 16, the whole chapter is talking about people who are a lot like the evil servant. They think they are following Jesus. But they are “beating their fellow servants” as they join the beast alliance in its attempt to destroy Jesus’ faithful servants. And they are “drinking with the drunkards” as they cooperate with the harlot of Babylon, who is “drunk with the blood of the saints” (Revelation 17:5,6).
But why would Jesus include this message in the midst of a passage that is talking about people who have already made up their minds, who have gone too far in their rejection of Jesus to be able to repent? Let’s look again at Jesus’ words. “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15). This verse, with its reference to garments and walking naked, is a clear link to the message to the church of the Laodiceans, who were admonished by Jesus to “buy from Me white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed” (Revelation 3:18).
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Jesus had the church of Laodicea in mind when He inspired John to include a warning, right in the middle of the seven last plagues, about coming as a thief. We learned in video 12 that the message to the church of Laodicea is a message to the Christian church of our time; in other words, Jesus is directing this warning to people like you and me. It’s a hard message to hear; he tells us that we “are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,” so sickeningly lukewarm that He is about to vomit. But He has remedies; the gold of faith, the white garments of righteousness, and the eye salve of spiritual discernment. It’s as if He is telling us, as we read about the dreadful fate of people who claim to be believers but aren’t, to go back and review His message to the Laodiceans, and then invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and transform our lives.
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