Satan in Christian disguise.
In our days we are well into the end times, we know that for sure. However, how long there is left of the end times and Jesus’ return will become a reality, we do not know. When Jesus was here on earth, He told a parable in Luke 12,54-56 about being able to understand time. This is relevant to us today. If we are able to see the signs that are given and those that are fulfilled before our eyes, we will be able to see approximately where we are on the timeline, not with certainty, but it will give us a good clue. The parable is: And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when [ye see] the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. [Ye] hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
If we read this parable together with Matthew 24,32 (the parable of the fig tree), we may see what Jesus wants to tell us about how to interpret signs in time. This verse says: Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:
Let us look at a single event that Jesus told about in Matthew chapter 24 – seduction, this is something that must happen before He will return. As many as four times in chapter 24 of Matthew, Jesus warned against the seductiones to come. This must therefore be an important warning that we should keep in mind. The first warning comes in verse 4: … Take heed that no man deceive you.
In verse 5, Jesus says. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. We see that there is a lasting fulfilment of this prophecy. Ever since the days of Jesus, there have been people who have claimed to be the Messiah. In our time, there are more than ever who stand up and claim to be the risen Christ who has returned to earth in secret.
| Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Islamic Ahmadiyya movement. He claimed to have been appointed as divine and as the promised Messiah and Mahdi – who is Jesus’ second coming in the metaphorical sense (mathīl-iʿIsā), as a fulfilment of Islamic end-time prophecies. |
In the autumn of 2019, my wife received this flyer outside a shopping centre at Furuset in Oslo, which proclaims that Mirza Ghulam Ahmed is the promised messiah. It is precisely such false prophets and Christs that Jesus warns us against in Matthew chapter 24. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed is unfortunately just one of many, many who claim to be the Messiah, and the problem will only increase in the time to come.
In verse 11 Jesus repeats this warning. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many, and in verse 24 Jesus emphasizes and adds that Satan will even try to make God’s faithful remnant – the elect * – fall. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Once again, we see that Christ warns us against both false Christs and false prophets. This seduction will be among the last things that happen on earth, and false prophets, that is, pastors and priests in the fallen churches, will have the power to perform various miracles and wonders. Ellen G. White says something about the text in verse 24 in Manuscript 125, 1901 where she says, the Word of God declares that when it suits the enemy’s purpose, he will through his agencies manifest so great a power under a pretense of Christianity that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
To be able to distinguish between what comes from God and what comes from Satan, we must spend a lot of time studying the Bible, because there God gives us the knowledge we need to be able to see which prophets and messiahs are false. Isaiah says that we should use God’s standard, which is the law and the testimony as standard for what is right. To the law and to the testimony says Isaiah, if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them, Isaiah 8,20.
* The elect do not mean that they are predestined for salvation, but they have developed such faith in Jesus that they are willing to follow Him all the way, even if it will lead them to a cross.
In Education, 150 (1903) Ellen G. White says; The strongest bulwark of vice in our world is not the iniquitous life of the abandoned sinner or the degraded outcast; it is that life which otherwise appears virtuous, honourable, and noble, but in which one sin is fostered, one vice indulged. Genius, talent, sympathy, even generous and kindly deeds, may thus become decoys of Satan to entice souls over the precipice of ruin.
Today we can add love to this list. Satan rightly claims that God loves all people, and therefore no one will be lost. This is contrary to what the Bible teaches. Love is used for what it is worth in relation to homosexuality. Let it be beyond all doubt: God loves all men, and all men are sinners. Nevertheless, it is just as certain that God hates sin. God loves the sinner but hates sin. This cannot be emphasized enough. Therefore, the fact that God loves the sinner does not mean that God accepts sin. If we sin, we must confess our sin and ask for forgiveness, but Satan has led the world to believe that God loves both the sinner and the sin. We must accept the homosexuals because they are created this way in the image of God, is an argument used to defend homosexuality, but God calls homosexuality, abominable (Leviticus 18,22), compares it to idolatry and fornication and says that such people do not shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6,9).
As I said, we are all sinners, and no one enters the kingdom of God without the individual choosing to stop what the Bible calls sin, repent his actions and ask God for forgiveness. It does not matter what kind of sin it is. However, Satan leaves nothing untried in his fight against God and His faithful people. Even the most beautiful thing God has given us, love, Satan destroys by falsely claiming that God loves sin.
This statement from Ellen G. White is taken from Manuscript Releases 8:346 (1901). We are approaching the end of this earth’s history, and Satan is working as never before. He is striving to act as director of the Christian world. With an intensity that is marvelous he is working with his lying wonders. Satan is represented as walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He desires to embrace the whole world in his confederacy. Hiding his deformity under the garb of Christianity, he assumes the attributes of a Christian, and claims to be Christ Himself.
Cameras have been set up on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to record ‘the greatest event in the history of the world’, the return of Jesus. Satan will take advantage of this when he comes to present himself as Jesus Christ. This will be a deception so great that even the elect can be led astray. Then he will appear in different places, and tell that the Sabbath of God, the seventh day of the week has been changed to Sunday, the first day of the week. He will confirm that he is the ‘Messiah‘ by performing great miracles and wondres, and the whole world will believe that it is the Messiah who has returned. However, Jesus’ second coming will not happen that way. Jesus will not touch the ground, He will be in the air and draws the saved to Himself, and take them to heaven. Only Satan’s lies have led people to believe that Jesus will come down to earth at his second coming to be here and establish the millennial kingdom. These are just dispensational thoughts and have nothing to do with reality.
The most important text in the Bible that explains how Jesus will not touch the earth at his second coming is found in 1 Thessalonians 4,17. Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Satan imitates Christ in every way
Already in the Garden of Eden, Satan began to imitate God, imitate what God does and imitate what God says. Since then, he has developed his deceptions and he has become the very personification of Mr. CopyCat. In the Garden of Eden, he turned God’s word upside down when he spoke to Eve and seduced her. God had told people when He created them that they could eat from all the trees in the garden – except for the one tree that stood in the middle of the garden, the tree that gave knowledge of good and evil. If they ate from that tree, they would die. This is what Satan turned upside down when he said in Genesis 3,1 … … … Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? As we know, God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from all the trees in the garden except one tree (Genesis 2,16-17). This is what Satan is turning upside down. Even though he reverses the order, he uses the same words and presents it all as if it were the truth of God; Yea, hath God said … …? We also hear the echo of this question in our time. Yea, hath God said … … has become one of the deceiver’s most used questions throughout history.
All kings, presidents and heads of state have a seal that tells about the person’s authority, and provides information about name, title and domain. The King of Norway, King Harald V, has a seal that tells his name ‘Harald V’, his title ‘king’ and his domain ‘Norway’. God was the first in history to have a seal (or mark of God), and this seal imitates Satan.
The seal of God tells us something about God, a kind of who, what, where about God. We find this seal in God’s fourth commandment in Exodus 20,8-11. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD thy God (Gods name), [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates. For [in] six days the LORD made (Gods title, the Creator) heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is] (Gods domain over which has the right to rule), and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. The expression heaven and earth must be understood as the whole universe. In addition to God’s name, title, and domain, God’s seal tells us which day is the Lord’s day of rest. It’s the seventh day of the week, our Saturday.
This imitates Satan. When God chose the seventh day of the week as His day of rest, the day He is especially present to meet His people in a more complete way than all the other days of the week, Satan, who is Mr. CopyCat personally, had to choose a day he too as a sign of his authority. Since Satan always put his lies as close to the truth as possible, but still as far away from the truth as possible, the choice fell on the first day of the week, our Sunday.
Stop a bit, will many say. The first day of the week is Monday, just look at the calendar. Well, this is a truth with certain modifications. Admittedly, Monday appears as the first day of the week on the calendars in most of the countries of the world, but this has not always been the case. On January 1, 1973, the calendar in most countries was changed ‘to be in harmony with daily life’. For a long time, Sunday has been considered the last day of the week, and one of the reasons for this is Emperor Constantine’s Sunday law, which came on March 7, 321 AD. On January 1, 1973, Sunday was moved from being the first day of the week to being the last day of the week. However, man are not allow to change God’s calendar, they can try, but they will never be able to do it.
These are just two examples of how the enemy works. He works tirelessly to lead people to fall, and will not give in to this until Jesus Christ returns to deliver His faithful people. He will continue with increasing intensity and invent new things to imitate Christ, and only the imagination can limit Satan’s deception. In order to resist the temptations that come through these imitations, we must be firmly rooted in Scripture. We must study the Bible daily so that we can avoid being seduced.
Even though there is a limit that Satan is not allowed to cross, there are still many millions who will be deceived by the devil’s deception when that day comes. What I am thinking about is the biggest deception he wants to perform. Satan will come and pretend to be Christ, but in the way Christ will return Satan will not be allow imitating.
In Testimonies for the Church 5: 698 (1889), Ellen G. White states the following. There is a limit beyond which Satan cannot go, and here he calls deception to his aid and counterfeits the work which he has not power actually to perform. In the last days he will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world. He will indeed transform himself into an angel of light. But while he will bear the appearance of Christ in every particular, so far as mere appearance goes, it will deceive none but those who, like Pharaoh, are seeking to resist the truth.
When this day comes, for it will come as surely as night follows day, Satan will most likely suddenly appear in the place where one expects the Messiah to come when He returns. It is on the mount of the Olives where everything seems to have been made ready for the greatest, not event, but deception in history. Satan will suddenly manifest himself, appear out of thin air, and this deception will seduce millions of people all over the world and cause them to worship Satan. This will be the very crown of Satan’s deception that he manifests himself as an angel of light to appear as Christ. Ever since Jesus was taken up to heaven, His followers have been waiting for His return. However, it is the great deceiver and seducer Satan who will pretend to be the Saviour, and he will appear as a dazzling being who appears to be the Son of God. Although this deception is almost perfect, it will be possible to avoid being deceived. All those who believe in the God of the Bible and in the word of God, all those who diligently study the Bible, all of these will be preserved from all the deceptions of Satan, because they are rooted in the truth of God.
In The Great Controversy, 624 (1911), Ellen G. White states this. The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air: Christ has come! Christ has come! The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed.
Thank God, who in His wisdom has given us the opportunity not to be drawn into this deception by giving us an accurate description of Jesus’ return. It will be both visible and audible, and all people throughout the world will see Him when He comes on the clouds of heaven.
Matthew 24,27. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24,30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
1 Thessalinians 4,16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Revelation 1,7. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Satan performs miracles
We read in the Bible that some will perform great signs and wonders in the time before Jesus’ return. The one who stands behind and gives strength and power to do this is Satan. In Matthew 24,24, Jesus says that this should be done to seduce even the elect – if possible. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect. In Revelation 13:13, John writes that «he» who here points back to the beast from the earth, who is one of Satan’s followers in the end times, will cause fire to fall from heaven. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
It is therefore indisputable from the Bible, there will come a time when false prophets and Christs will perform miracles, and say that they act on behalf of Christ. We already see in many Pentecostal charismatic churches that this phenomenon is spreading. ‘Healings‘ are performed, which in most cases turn out to be false healings. Those who have been healed have never suffered from what they have been healed for according to medical records. Others cause the ‘spirit‘ to fall on the church by blowing on them. The result is that those on whom the «spirit» is blown fall as if cannon had shot them. Such manifestations should be able to be revealed by anyone and everyone who has a minimum knowledge of the Bible, but unfortunately, such congregations get thousands and thousands of members and followers. The reason for this can be so many, but it is always easy to accept what itching in the ear. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4,3 the following about this: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. However, one day it will be much harder to expose Satan’s deception, then, Satan will give power and might to perform real miracles. He who has the power to make people sick will also be able to take away what makes sick. About this Ellen G. White says the following in Testimonies For The Church 1:302 (1862). The sick will be healed before us. Miracles will be performed in our sight. Are we prepared for the trial which awaits us when the lying wonders of Satan shall be more fully exhibited?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses this problem, and here He seriously puts the tail on the pig, to use that expression. Here He begins with the false prophets, who seek out seekers and present themselves as followers of Jesus, when in reality they are the exact opposite. There are only two sides to choose from, either you are with God or you are against God, there is no middle ground. Jesus says that we should know them by their fruits, for a bad tree does not bear good fruit. It is in this connection that he says the following: Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity, Matthew 7,21-23.
Selected Messages 2:53 (1903) she says. Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles. They will make people sick by casting their spell upon them, and will then remove the spell, leading others to say that those who were sick have been miraculously healed. This Satan has done again and again … // … and in Selected Messages 2:53 (1904) she says. Wonderful scenes, with which Satan will be closely connected, will soon take place. God’s Word declares that Satan will work miracles. He will make people sick, and then will suddenly remove from them his satanic power. They will then be regarded as healed. These works of apparent healing will bring Seventh-day Adventists to the test.
The term ‘fire from heaven’ also needs to be explained. There are many imaginative explanations for this term, and the most striking is probably the use of the atomic bombs that ended World War II. It is doubtful whether such a fire will fall from heaven, for that kind of fire will certainly not draw fallen Christians to Satan and his minions. We have to go to the Bible to see if we can find ‘fire that fell from heaven‘ there, and find out what kind of fire it is. Let us go to the Acts of the Apostles and chapter 2 where it says in the first four verses: And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. This is the kind of fire that will fall on the fallen church in the end times. There is a completely different spirit than the Holy Spirit behind such manifestations as we see in many churches and congregations in our time.
Satan has performed wonders and miracles as long as humans have existed. In Egypt, Moses and Aaron were sent to Pharaoh to ask him to allow Israel to leave captivity in Egypt. When they stood before Pharaoh, Pharaoh refused to comply with Moses’ demands. Aaron takes Moses’ rod, throws it on the floor, and it becomes a serpent. But Pharaoh’s priests and sorcerers did not allow themselves to be amazed by this, but did their magicians and threw their own rods on the floor so that they became snakes. This is found in Exodus 7,9-12: When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast [it] before Pharaoh, [and] it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
Ellen G. White says in Selected Messages 2:52 (1907). Satan can, through a species of deceptions, perform wonders that will appear to be genuine miracles. It was this he hoped to make a test question with the Israelites at the time of their deliverance from Egypt.
Satan will pretend to be Christ
When the time comes, Satan will pretend to be Christ. This will be the ultimate deception he brings and with this, he will seduce the whole world, even those who today do not believe will believe that it is Jesus Christ who has returned. This deception will be so great that the world will go completely off its hinges, and will run towards the false Christ who will perform miracles and great wonders before the eyes of men. This will be recorded and shown on TV and on all social networks. In this way, this deception will seduce almost all people.
Ellen G. White says in Selected Messages 2:96 (1894) that “the enemy is preparing to deceive the whole world by his miracle-working power. He will assume to personate the angels of light, to personate Jesus Christ”.
In order for Satan to prepare the world for his last great deception, he uses the fallen church where he lets false miracles happen. I have already mentioned what this is about, but to repeat, false healings will be performed, a false spirit will fall from heaven and similar manifestations of the power of God. These are things that itch in the ear, and Satan knows that the easiest things to get into their lives and beliefs are precisely the things that itch in their ears. Many people seem to think that false tongues (see English; the end times begin; the church of God in the last days) are proof of the presence of the Spirit of God, but this form of tongues has its origins in pagan tribal religions such as Voodoo, and is used by shamans in many tribal religions worldwide. Nevertheless, the false portrayal of ‘speaking in tongues‘ as the greatest of ‘the gifts of the Spirit to the church,’ as the charismatic churches portray it, is not biblical. False tongues, along with the miracles performed in certain denominations, constitute the preparations that Satan uses to deceive people before he himself suddenly appears as Christ. When these forgeries are so firmly entrenched in the fallen churches, how will it be when Satan personifies himself as Christ and performs true miracles? It will be an unparalleled hysteria. People will from everywhere to see the ‘Saviour‘ and to hear what he has to say and to see mighty miracles. Then he will also preach a false gospel and say that the Sabbath has been changed and moved from Saturday to Sunday.
Well, it is not just the fallen churches that is working for Satan’s deception. The secret organizations are also doing Satan’s business. There are many such secret organizations or societies, where the Freemasons are the most famous. Most of what these organizations and communities do, they do in secret.. There are very few outsiders who have insight into what is happening outside their closed doors, and on top of it all, they claim to be Christians.
After I became an Adventist, I worked with a man who was a Freemason, with the second highest degree anyone had in Norway at that time. Since I was a Christian, he wanted to recruit me, because they use the Bible, he told me. We had a longer conversation about this. I was not interested in becoming a Freemason, but said that I had to know what I was going into if I became a member. To that he replied that I would find out eventually! When I claimed that Freemasons were a secret organization, and a closed society, and that they could in no way be called Christians, he became very annoyed with me. Before this conversation we could talk together as colleagues do, but afterwards he avoided me. I wonder why.
When we see how the fallen church, and the world at large, has evolved over the last 120 years, from the time when speaking in tongues became modern in the charismatic churches to the present day, we see an exponential increase in all kinds of deceptions as Satan stands behind. One of the reasons for this is that Satan wants to stem the influence of the Advent movement, because after 1844 they have rediscovered many of the forgotten truths in the Bible, truths that were forgotten when the Catholic Church was in power. Another reason, and the biggest reason is that Satan knows he has little time left, and he uses all the means at his disposal to seduce, if possible, the whole world. Fortunately, there are some who stand guard on the walls and uphold the word of God. It is about these guards that God says the following: I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, [which] shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, … // … Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken, Isaiah 62,6.10-12
Ellen G. White says in Testimonies for the Church 8:28 (1904). A power from beneath is working to bring about the last great scenes in the drama—Satan coming as Christ, and working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in secret societies.
When we look at the warnings that Jesus gives us in Matthew chapter 24, it is amazing that I see a world that does not take these warnings seriously. Even among those who call themselves Christians, the warnings given seem to be ignored. The most important warning is found in verse 4. “… Take heed that no man deceive you”, which is repeated in verses 5, 11 and 24.
Verse 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Verse 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Verse 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
If this is not enough, we will find these warnings as well.
Verse 23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here [is] Christ, or there; believe [it] not.
Verse 26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, [he is] in the secret chambers; believe [it] not.
Why these last warnings? We will not listen to rumours, because Jesus’ return will be of a spectacular kind. EVERYONE will see His return, and Satan is not allowed to imitate this. Jesus himself says of his return in verse 27: For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
To emphasize the seriousness of it all, Jesus says in verse 25, Behold, I have told you before. We therefore have no reason to be seduced if we do what we should do. We must study the Bible daily in prayer and with the help of the Holy Spirit. Then we will be protected from all the deceptions that Satan can come up with. Yet most of the world’s people will believe the deceptions when Satan one day, very soon, will manifest himself and appear as Jesus Christ.