16:13 THE UNHOLY TRINITY
“And I saw 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) This verse reveals the unholy trinity of the very end of time, Satan’s counterfeit of the Holy Trinity. This trinity is the mastermind as well as the visible leadership of end time Babylon in the attempt to defeat God’s people.
“The dragon” is clearly Satan, “the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 20:2, 12:9). “The whole world” includes every people and every religion, so this is the “god” of the heathen, who uses the countless forms of spirit manifestations which pervade Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, animism, secular superstition and New Age, taking in the majority of the world’s teeming multitudes.
“The beast” will be more clearly identified in chapter 17, which depicts the final manifestation of the Babylon system. He is “the beast that…was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition…the beast is himself also the eighth” of a series of last day “kings” (Revelation 17:8,11). John “saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse [Jesus] and against His army. And the beast was captured, and…cast alive into the lake of fire” (Revelation 19:19,20). Chapter 19 will more clearly describe the Second Coming of Christ as “King of kings and Lord of lords” and shows how Jesus will destroy the forces that oppose Him, which will be led by an actual person, called “the beast.”
This same personage is seen in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10— “The man of sin…[who] sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God…The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 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.” This is Satan’s counterfeit of Christ, the final antichrist who will deceive the whole world, with the exception of those who have received the seal of God, and have refused the mark of the beast.
“The false prophet” is closely identified with the beast from the earth with the two horns like a lamb but who spoke like a dragon (Revelation 13:11-16).
| BEAST FROM THE EARTH | FALSE PROPHET |
|---|---|
| “He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence” (Revelation 13:12). | “The false prophet who worked signs in his [the beast’s] presence” (Revelation 19:20). |
| “He performs great signs…and he deceives” (vs. 13,14). | “Worked signs…by which he deceived” (v. 20). |
| “He causes all…to receive…the mark or the name of the beast” (vs. 16,17). | “He deceived those who received the mark of the beast” (v. 20). |
| “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast” (v. 15). | “He deceived those…who worshiped his [the beast’s] image” (v. 20). |
This beast/false prophet was identified in 13:11,12 The Beast from the Earth as an American union of church and state which will deceive the masses of the world and impose the worship of the papal “beast.” But he is more than just a political system. During the time of trouble there will be both the beast religio-political system and “the beast” 9(antichrist) who is a personification of the system. It is therefore likely that the false prophet will also be a person, a powerful, miracle-working religious leader of apostate American Protestantism. He will probably be elected president because the image of the beast is the union of church and state, and is modeled after the papacy where the pope is both political and religious leader.
Thus the unholy trinity consists of: 1) Satan the dragon in his invisible, pervasive form, “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) revealing himself with spiritualistic manifestations, 2) The beast who will arise out of the Roman Catholic wing of the Babylon system and will be the visible leader of the anti-Christ coalition, and 3) the false prophet with his American (Protestant) miracle-working religion and military might, who enforces the worship of the beast.
Whatever earthly manifestations there may be, there is a demonic element that will give diabolical intensity and effectiveness to the plans of the satanic trinity. “And I saw 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.” There is only one other place in scripture that mentions frogs:[1] the second plague of Egypt. Moses had shown Pharaoh miracles to convince him to let God’s people go free from their slavery. Pharaoh refused, and so God through Moses told him, “The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and 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 getting away from them. In Satan’s last demonic attack he will throw everything he has at God’s people, both earthly and demonic resources. From 2 Peter 2:4 we learn that many of the fallen angels have been kept in “chains of darkness” in “hell” (Greek tartarus[2]), which no doubt corresponds to the abyss or “bottomless pit” that the legion of demons begged Jesus not to send them into (Luke 8:30,31). But during the time of trouble God allows the bottomless pit to be opened,[3] releasing the demons who have been imprisoned there, so that 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.
The plague of frogs was also the last miracle that the Egyptian magicians were able to counterfeit. By imitating through tricks and the power of Satan the miracles of Moses (turning his rod into a serpent, turning water into blood and bringing frogs out of water, Exodus 7:11,22, 8:7), the magicians hardened Pharaoh’s heart in disbelief. But with the next plague (turning the dust of Egypt into lice), “the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not…Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘this is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:16-19). Thus frogs represent Satan’s last successful effort to deceive. The whole web of trickery and occult power perfected through the centuries will still be highly effective through the “unclean spirits like frogs,” but it is on the verge of unraveling in total defeat.