On the Day of Death for the Great Deceiver
What makes religious deception so intriguing is the power and scope with which people are made prey. The elect people of God are even subjected to the deceiver’s deception (Mt 24:24).
Sadly, when we think of the deceiver, we bastardize his caricature, like we do with Satan. The man of deception, controlled by the demonic spirit of deception, when he is revealed, will not have a tail, pitchfork, nor devilish grin.
What does the great deceiver look like? What is his demeanor? What tones does he speak with? What lifestyle will he live? What is his mystique, the content of his message to the world? And, oh yes, he will have a global audience of admirers. With messianic allure, the coming antichrist will have global outreach like no human being has ever achieved — apart from Jesus Christ, the true Messiah. The Bible does inform us to some measure.
By way of illustration, Santa Claus helps us to see the man of intrigue and his message. Who is afraid of a winsome old guy from the North Pole? Nobody. Santa seems to love everyone, and everyone is enamored with him. Father Christmas does not have an enemy despite notorious home invasions and manipulative mind control producing proper behavior. His skookum yakka is world famous. Saint Nicholas (not the true and historical one) offers the free gift to everyone, and judges whether they were naughty or nice (even though we know nobody gets coal in their stocking on Christmas morning!). If Santa were religious, he would have even more followers than he already does as the material messiah. Santa is an apt type of the coming antichrist.
So, this alluring man of lawlessness, alluded to in the Bible, will be a nice guy who convinces just about everyone he can offer them salvation. His attempted global regime will be both political and spiritual. His public persona will be magnetic, but his dark motives will be seductive. He will lead the people of the world astray in unscrupulous way and with orotund sway.
Nice, winsome, gift offerors are very popular in the world. In fact, on the day of death for this ultimate universal deceiver, it is quite possible that people will say, “He was taken by the breath of God to his special place in heaven.”
And then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27)…for him and for all humanity across history and around the world.
Christians must be ever-vigilant to be wary of cunning religious leaders, popular in the world, charismatic in personality, laisser-aller in lifestyle, who offer some form of heaven to nice people in the world. False teachers, false prophets, and false messiahs, throughout history and today, help us to see him who is to come.
One must love the truth that is Jesus Christ (Jn 14:6; 2 Thess 2:10, 13) who is heralded — not offered — by unpopular men, who are hated in the world (Jn 15:18–19), and who declare a “foolish” message (1 Cor 1:18, 21) of God’s sovereignty in electing a people for Himself before creation (Rom 8:30; Eph 1:4–5; Rev 13:8; 17:8). These are they who proclaim Christ’s death for His chosen people (Mt 1:21; Jn 10; Rom 11:5; Eph 5:25) and who preach the grace of the Holy Spirit, who grants faith unto salvation to these very same people (Rom 12:3; Heb 12:2; 1 Pet 1:3; 2:9). This is the veracious message from and about the true Messiah, Jesus the Son of God.
To bring another gospel than this one is simply an inspired man of another spirit, preaching a spurious gospel, and offering salvation to everyone as a gift to be theirs for the choosing (2 Cor 11:3–4; Gal 1:8). This is done in the spirit of antichrist and there are many who go out into the world to proselytize men, but ironically, they make their hearers children of hell in the process (1 Jn 4:1–4).
Jesus said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world will hate you (John 15:19).” This is not true for men of mendacity, who beguile for sport and financial profit.
Thus, we must beware of popular and prosperous men and women, exalted but not hated by men. This is the profile and picture of deception, unseen by those receiving a deluding influence from God (2 Thess 2:11). Every act of religious prevarication by popish posers is a prelude to the personality of the preeminent son of perdition.
Together, let us venerate Jesus Christ alone, adding proclamation to our worship of the only begotten Son of God. Let us rejoice at the prospect of His destroying this political/religious man, who poses as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). On the day of the great deceiver’s death, with the breath of His mouth, our Lord Jesus Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5) — beginning with this messianic usurper (2 Thess 2:8).
For further reading Matthew 24-25; 1 Thessalonians 4-5; 2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 19-20.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
February 28, 2022
