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The Devil Appears In
Person
Study 5
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The
Fifth Trumpet
“The fifth angel
sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had
fallen from the sky to the Earth. The star was
given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he
opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the
smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky
were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And
out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth
and were given power like that of scorpions of
the earth. They were told not to harm the grass
of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those
people who did not have the seal of God on their
foreheads. They were not given power to kill
them, but only to torture them for five month.
And the agony they suffered was like that of the
sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During
those days men will seek death, but will not find
it; they will long to die, but death will elude
them…They [the locusts] had as king over
them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew
is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.”
(Revelation 9:1-6, 11, insertion mine)
God does not permit the
devil to escape from the prison in the abyss (the
spirit world) until the sounding of the fifth
trumpet. At the appointed time, the bottomless
pit will be “unlocked” and the devil
and his angels will be allowed to come out of the
spirit realm and be visible to the people of
Earth. God illustrated the appearing of the devil
and his angels to John as a swarm of locusts
coming up out of the Earth. From a distance,
several hundred million angels would look like a
dense swarm of locusts. The swarm that John saw
in the vision was so great that he says it
darkened the Sun! As the swarm came closer to
him, John saw that the locusts actually looked
like riders on horses. Leading the swarm was an
angel king from the abyss whose name in Hebrew is
Abaddon and in Greek, Apollyon. Both names mean
the same thing: “Destroyer.” The
imagery and language used in Revelation 9:1-11 is
similar to language used five hundred years
earlier in Joel 2:1-11 where the prophet
describes the appearing of the Lord and His
angels as a great swarm of locusts prepared for
battle. God permits the devil and his angels to
physically appear on Earth after a majority of
the world has heard and rejected the truth about
the worship God requires. Notice Paul’s
words; “They [the majority of people] perish
because they refused to love the truth and so be
saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful
delusion so they will believe the lie and so that
all will be condemned who have not believed the
truth but delighted in wickedness.” (2
Thessalonians 2:10-12) The first key point in
this verse is defiance. Paul says, “they
refused” to obey God’s truth and be
saved. Why will they reject God’s truth?
“The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does
not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot
please God.” (Romans 8: 7,8) Therefore, when
a majority of people reject God’s last offer
of salvation, He sends them a powerful deception.
God releases the devil from the abyss and He
empowers the devil to rule over the people who
refuse to recognize His sovereign authority. This
is an interesting point about the Great
Tribulation: Each person will worship one
of two masters.
Three important elements
are revealed when God releases Satan and his
angels from the bottomless pit. First, Satan will
come with a cloud of angels (like a swarm of
locusts). These demons will be clothed with
brilliant light. Remember, the devil himself will
be a magnificent being of dazzling light. (2
Corinthians 11:14) Although Satan will do his
utmost to imitate the Second Coming, God limits
the devil’s deception. When Jesus appears at
the Second Coming, Jesus will not touch Earth,
the saints will be caught up in the air to
meet Jesus and He will take them to Heaven where
they will spend 1,000 years. (1 Thessalonians
4:15-18, John 14: 1-3; Revelation 21:2) However,
Satan will come down out of the sky and He will
walk upon Earth in various places. This is why
Jesus warned, “At that time if anyone says
to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or,
‘There he is!’ do not believe
it….So if anyone tells you, ‘There he
is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or,
‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do
not believe it. For as lightening that comes from
the east is visible even in the west, so will be
the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew
24:23, 26,27)
Second, God does not
allow Satan to physically appear on Earth until a
majority of the world has rejected the gospel. I
believe that this will occur in about two and
half year period. During this period, the 144,000
will proclaim the truth about worshiping God so
that everyone on Earth can make an informed
decision. The result will be simple. When God
sees that a majority of Earth’s population
intends to rebel against His gospel, He allows
the devil to appear. God has a very wise purpose
for doing this. The physical appearing of the
devil will force the people of Earth into one of
two groups: people who worship God out of choice
and people who worship the devil out of force. In
a final effort to bring rebellious human beings
to their senses, God will empower the 144,000 to
proclaim a special message throughout the Earth.
This message is so inflammatory that most –
if not all – of the 144,000 will become
martyrs for preaching it! The message is this:
“…If anyone worship [obeys] the beast
[the devil from the abyss] and his image [his one
world church] and receives his mark [tattoo] on
their forehead or on the hand, he, too, will
drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has
been pored out full strength into the cup of his
wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur
in the presence of the holy angels and of the
Lamb.” (Revelation 14:9,10, insertion mine)
Since a majority of the world will think the
devil is God, speaking against “God”
like this will be considered utterly derogatory
and blasphemous and the 144,000 will be horribly
persecuted for their testimony!
The third reason God
allows the devil to physically appear is that God
wants people of the world to get a “close
up” view of the demon they are following.
The issue of worship will be completely resolved
after the devil arrives. The devil will demand
worship, and through his lieutenants, he will
clearly explain what men and woman must do. God
continues to do less through His servants, the
144,000. The saints will submit to God’s
law. The wicked will submit to the law of the
devil. That is the vortex surrounding the
decision that all humans will face. Every person
will exercise his or her power of choice and God
will seal every decision.
Five Months of Torture
According to Revelation
9:3-6, after Satan and his evil angels appear,
they will have five months to torment the wicked.
This may seem strange at first, but God does not
let the devil hurt His saints “with the
sting of the scorpions tail.” The devil will
inflict this torture on the nonreligious wicked
in order to subdue them. The devil will not hurt
those who believe he is God, either. Instead, he
will hurt people who have not made a decision to
join with his forces or with God’s saints.
Just what the torment is and how it is inflicted
is not clear from Scriptures. However, we know
the torment will hurt like a scorpion’s
sting (which is awful). The people who suffer
this affliction will long to die, but the
devil’s sting is not fatal. God allows the
devil to torment “undecided” people
with scorpion like pain because God’s offer
of salvation is still open. Everyone that the
devil harms can be delivered from agony if
he or she will turn from rebellion and worship
the Lord. (See Numbers 21:6-9 for a parallel
story.) Remember, God will do everything possible
during the Great Tribulation to save as many
sinners as possible!
An Angel of Light That
Works Miracles
When Satan appears, his
radiant countenance will dazzle the people of
Earth. Millions will eagerly believe his claims
that he is God because of his appearance alone.
Paul says, “…for Satan himself
masquerades as an angel of light.” (2
Corinthians 11:14) Revelation says the wicked
will be awestruck when they actually see the
devil! “…The inhabitants of the Earth
whose names have not been written in the book of
life from the creation of the world will be
astonished when they see the beast….”
(Revelation 17:8, italics mine.)
Satan’s first work
after appearing “in the flesh” as a
brilliant God-man will be to convince the world
that he is divine – that he is actually who
he claims to be. Paul warns, “Don’t let
anyone deceive you in any way, for that day (the
second coming) will not come until the rebellion
occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed,
the man doomed to destruction. He opposes and
exalts himself over everything that is called God
or is worshiped, and even sets himself up in
God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be
God….The coming of the lawless one will be
in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in
all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and
wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives
those who are perishing. They perish because they
refused to love the truth and so be saved.”
(2 Thessalonians 2:3,4,9,10)
The Greatest Deception of
All
To convince that he is
God, Satan will use one miracle above all others
– he will actually call fire down out of
Heaven at will! This “proof of
divinity” will secure his deception. Because
the 144,000 will not have this specific miracle
working power, the devil will eclipse their power
and end their ministry. (Revelation 11:7) John
says, “And he performed great and miraculous
signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven
to Earth in full view of men. Because of the
signs he was given power to do on behalf of the
first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of
Earth….” (Revelation 13:13,14)
Remember, the appearing of the devil is “a
powerful delusion” sent from God. The devil
is granted power to call fire down from Heaven
because God is bringing the offer of salvation to
an end. Before the devil’s appearing, God
put forth the clearest evidences of truth before
the human race through the testimony of the
144,000 servants. God wants people to worship Him
because of “Spirit and truth” not
miracles! (John 4:23) Therefore, God reduces the
ministry and power of His servants while
increasing the deceptive powers of the
Antichrist.
John describes the
appearing of the devil as “lamb-like beast.
(Revelation 13:11) The intended contrast is
obvious. Depending on the Bible translation,
Revelation refers to Jesus as the
“Lamb” 30 times or more. John describes
Satan as a “lamb-like” beast because
the devil masquerades as Jesus. John warns that
Satan will make every effort to deceive the world
into believing that he is worthy of worship. When
Satan appears, every quadrant of Earth will have
experienced massive destruction. Extreme
suffering will be everywhere. Earth’s skies
will have been dark for a long time, and millions
of people (perhaps billions) will have grown
deathly ill from famine. The death toll will be
numberless, and millions of people will die every
day from plague and disease. People will be
filled with despair, and religious leaders will
constantly reprimand sinners, telling them to
repent and worship God so that His wrath will
subside. Religious persecution and intolerance
will be everywhere because Babylon (the coalition
of religious leaders) will be determined to
appease God at any cost. (What other option do
they have?) Foremost in all people’s minds
will be the question, “What more can we do
to appease God so that He will end our
suffering?”
In the midst of this
hellish nightmare, the devil suddenly appears.
Satan uses incredible displays of signs and
wonders to deceive, if possible, the very elect.
(Matthew 24:24,25) His purpose has always been to
destroy this world because it is the handiwork of
Christ. When Satan’s day of opportunity
comes, it will be the perfect moment for him to
fulfill this ambition. The devil will capitalize
on the rebellious hearts of the wicked. He will
lead the majority of the world away from hearing
and believing the truth preached by God’s
servants, the 144,000. Because of the miracles
that he has power to do, the devil will deceive
or destroy everyone but the saints. After he
gains control of Earth’s nations, he will
command the people of the world to worship
“the image” or die! Revelation 13:15
says, “He, [Satan]…caused all who
refused to worship the image to be killed.”
The Image of the Beast
What is the image of
the beast? Whom does the beast represent? The
beast from the sea in Revelation 13:1-8
represents Babylon. The seven heads represent the
seven religions of the world and the ten horns
represent ten kings who will play a strategic
role near the end of the world. The image
of Babylon will be a consolidation of the
world’s diverse religions and nations into
one global church/state. When the majority of
Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Moslems, Hindus and
all others believe that Satan is actually God,
they will be willing to do whatever he demands.
Can a human being give too much or do too much
for God? The devil will demand that all religions
must be dissolved into one religion. Think about
this for a moment. If God were physically on
Earth to establish His eternal kingdom, how many
different churches could He allow? How many
different views of God are possible when God is
physically among men to reveal what is truth? The
establishment of an “image” is the
establishment of a likeness of Babylon. In short,
the devil will form a new composite religion and
he will require everyone to leave his old
religion behind. His new religion will be
designed to dissolve the antagonistic differences
between Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Catholics,
Protestants, ect. This new church or religion
will have a special benefit. All who join it will
receive permission to buy and sell. The members
of the devil’s kingdom will have access to
the necessities of life (food, water, medicine,
ect.) which the devil’s forces will control.
In other words, citizens of the devil’s
kingdom will be able to buy and sell because they
will receive a mark or tattoo showing that they
belong to the “One True Church.” The
saints, on the other hand, will be cut off from
all necessities of life. It is just as well, for
they would rather die than submit to the demands
of the devil. The wicked will volunteer to
receive the mark of the beast, justifying that it
is a small price to pay for survival. Meanwhile,
the saints will be fed and cared for by angels
sent from God.
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