I’m glad that we agree that the current Islamic Antichrist Theory is bogus. I’m an ardent advocater of the Greek/Roman Antichrist from the Western Roman Empire. It just so happens that when you incorporate all of the prophetic elements you actually end up with an Islamic Antichrist. The Islamic Antichrist Theory is only correct in its conclusion; however, you must go through the Western Roman Empire Antichrist Theory to get there.

I’ve had a good time discussing these matters with you. I subscribed to your future posts so that we can continue learning from one another. God bless brother. Keep up the good work.

Glad you have it all figured out.

I do not buy into the Islamic Antichrist theory at all. I have a number of posts telling why, on my World and Church Trends and Bible Prophecy blog. Anyway, I will not be going down that rabbit trail here.

Absolutely agreed that the False Prophet cannot counterfeit the Holy Spirit and that Scripture is not silent regarding Babylon the Great. Matter of fact, I believe the False Prophet has already designed and built the prototype for Rebuilt Babylon. In his blueprint, the city is 6 times larger than the surrounding 6 small towns.

My apologies, I thought when you said that “the False Prophet substitutes this,” it was in reference to “Elijah’s proclamation.”

By the way, the application of this adjustment harmonizes and unifies the European Antichrist Theory with the Islamic Antichrist Theory. My book applies this adjustment and determines how it would look if this were the truth… from the presumptive truth; actually I would use the term deductive truth.

This book is a compilation of twelve Biblical prophecies of the Antichrist and the False Prophet and forty-two Islamic prophecies of Imam Al-Mahdi and Isa (the Muslim jesus) from the hadith’s and the Qu’ran, while proving that the Islamic prophecies are in fact the delusions of 2 Thessalonians 2:11 that YHWH uses in order to manifest a believable lie to the masses who hate HaShem.

This is an astounding accompanying aid for books similar to Dr. Ron Rhodes “Unmasking the Antichrist,” Dr. J.R. Church’s “Daniel Reveals the Bloodline of the Antichrist” or those who assert and advance the Islamic Antichrist Theory advocated by authors akin to Walid Shoebat or Joel Richardson. The Appendix is a unique critique of a prominent Prince’s published principles who phenomenally fits the physical features and possesses the predictive parameters presented by these precise prophecies.

This concise Biblical study reference is the result of over a dozen years of research and incorporates 268 note citations, from experts such as Dr. Thomas Ice, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Dr. David Reagan, Dr. John Walvoord, Arthur W. Pink, Dave Hunt, Gary Kah, Sir Robert Anderson, Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, William Vine, Dr. Walter Martin; with Islamic scholars and philosophers such as Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Ibn Arabi, Imam Rabbani, Abd Allah ibn Abbas, Al-Tabarani, Adnan Oktar, and collector of hadith’s such as Sunan Abu-Dawood, Sahih al-Bukhari, Imam at-Tirmidhi and many other narrators.

Also, Islam teaches that when Isa returns, he and the Mahdi are related and descended from Muhammad.

As I said. The False prophet cannot counterfeit the Holy Spirit other than through Satanic signs and wonders through a false Elijah like figure. I agree with those that believe that. The False prophet is someone indwelt by a Satanic spirit as is the Antichrist.

Getting back to what you originally suggested.

“False Prophet = unholy father
Antichrist = unholy son
Satan = unholy spirit / spiritual father”

You suggest that the False prophet counterfeits the Father rather than the Holy Spirit. I really do not see it. Not that it really matters to Christians.

I understand that you want to defend what you said, but I did not say the False Prophet proclaims the Kingdom of Babylon. That is what God calls the counterfeit kingdom. I am sure the Beast will call his kingdom something like the Kingdom of God. I believe Elijah will come declaring the gospel of the Kingdom and the Antichrist will kill him and counterfeit the kingdom. The Bible is not silent about Babylon The Great.

I think this is a straining at gnats issue. So let’s put it to bed. Otherwise someone might accuse us of teaching presumption as truth, as I wrote about in the article.

I understand what you mean. But the False Prophet also initiates and institutes the financial and worship laws set in place during the Tribulation, which is exactly what God the Father did for Israel in the wilderness.

Also you said it’s not what Scripture is silent about, yet you then go on to describe how the False Prophet proclaims the coming of the kingdom of Babylon; which Scripture is silent about.

All analogies are truly limited.

I am not the one that is taking the analogy to an extreme. I think those claiming such conjectures are the ones doing that.

The False Prophet will call down fire from heaven. That is the exact same thing that Elijah did. What the scripture is silent about it not the issue. You can’t expect the False Prophet to try to duplicate every specific thing that Elijah did during his ministry.

The point is that Elijah proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God and the False Prophet substitutes this with the Kingdom of the Beast, called by God Babylon.

Any analogies are indeed limited but you make them specific by what is claimed in your prior theses.

It is all conjecture. Scripture never says Satan is the unholy counterpart to God the Father either. Also, the False Prophet can’t be everywhere at once, like the Holy Spirit. I think you are taking the analogy to an extreme which is beyond the intent.

I don’t think the intent of the current Church teaching is trying to say that Satan will duplicate the Trinity to create an identically evil twin, maybe mimic would be a better word.

I don’t see a need for the continuation of this mimicry beyond the Second Coming. I believe the purpose will be completed by then.

As for the False Prophet counterfeiting Elijah, even that has flaws. Elijah shut up the heavens from raining. Scripture never says the False Prophet will do that.

I think that is a lot of conjecture about Satan that the Bible does not teach.

I do not think that Satan is trying to duplicate the Trinity. How does this Trinity conjecture continue to work out after the Antichrist and False Prophet are cast into the Lake of Fire but Satan deceives people again after the thousand years? It is equal to putting the Son and the Father in prison for life but expecting the Holy Spirit to carry out the Triune purpose.

I think this is all much more simple. The False Prophet will be the counterpart of Elijah. Elijah had power that comes from the Holy Spirit but He was not the Holy Spirit. The False Prophet will have power that comes from Satan but he will not be Satan.

Satan is working through two beings that come out of the Abyss and somehow evolve two human bodies to become demigods. One will claim to be the most high God on earth and the other will be his prophet. My expectation is Zeus and Hermes.

There is no way that Satan can directly counterfeit the person of the Holy Spirit. Satan cannot be omnipresent.

The False Prophet. Below is the Biblical evidence excerpted from my first chapter of the book I wrote based upon this one Scriptural alternative that I distribute for free called: Correcting the Corrupt Counterfeit Counterparts

Re-examining the Relationship With Respect to the Current Church Doctrine of the Unholy Trinity

“What is the unholy trinity in the end times?” The current teaching in the majority of the Church is: “A common tactic of Satan is to imitate or counterfeit the things of God in order to make himself appear to be like God. What is commonly referred to as the “unholy trinity,” described vividly in Revelation 12 and 13, is no exception. The Holy Trinity consists of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Their counterparts in the unholy trinity are Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet… Satan is the anti-God, the Beast is the anti-Christ, and the False Prophet is the anti-Spirit.”1

Satan = unholy father
Antichrist = unholy son
False Prophet = unholy spirit

After years of study, I see a slight flaw in this understanding of the order of the unholy trinity. Could Satan actually be the unholy counterpart to God the Holy Spirit? This correction would make the False Prophet the earthly father of the Antichrist. So the corrupt counterfeit counterparts would be:

False Prophet = unholy father
Antichrist = unholy son
Satan = unholy spirit / spiritual father

This Doctrinal adjustment is equally applicable for those scholars who advocate the minority view of the supernatural origin of the Antichrist, such as Arthur W. Pink, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Daniel E. Woodhead and others which teach that the person of the Antichrist will be the literal offspring / seed of Satan. The only difference would be that they would be the perceived father and firstborn son. Perceived to those people alive during the Tribulation, creating the concluding corrupt counterparts:

False Prophet = unholy father / perceived father of the Antichrist
Antichrist = unholy son / perceived son of the False Prophet / actual seed of Satan
Satan = unholy spirit / actual father of the Antichrist

There is a difference between perceived reality and actual reality. The Jews in Jesus’ day perceived that Joseph was the father of Jesus (Luke 3:23; 4:22); yet, the actual reality was that God was His Father. Jesus even asked the scribes to explain this apparent juxtaposition (Luke 20:41–44; Matthew 22:41–45).

Within the nature of the One God, there are Three co-eternal and co-equal distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29, 36; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 5:7…).

Satan wants “to be like” God (Isaiah 14:14). The word “like” in this passage is the Hebrew word “damah” (H1819) which means: “To compare, to resemble, to liken, to be like, to use similitudes.”2 “To make oneself like.”3

To do this, he must pretend to substitute God. To be “like” God, Satan must have his own father, son, spirit unholy trinity (Revelation 16:13; 20:10).

The current teaching in the majority of the Churches is that Satan is represented as the unholy father and the Antichrist is represented as the unholy son (Genesis 3:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, John 8:44). But when we get to the False Prophet being represented as the unholy spirit, the advocates of the current Church teaching say: Since the Holy Spirit bears witness to the person and work of Christ and glorifies Christ and draws men to worship Christ, so shall the False Prophet bear witness to the person and work of the Antichrist and glorify him, and will draw men to worship the Antichrist.4

The main problem with this view is that according to Scripture, the Father has the exact same ministries.–Bears Witness of Christ (Deuteronomy 18:17–19; Isaiah 11:1–2; 42:1; Matthew 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; John 5:37; 8:18). Glorifies Christ (Daniel 7:13–14; John 12:23; 13:32; 17:1, 5, 22, 24; 2 Peter 1:17). Draws men to Christ (John 6:44–45, 37, 65; 17:9, 11–12, 24). To Worship Christ (Hebrews 1:6; [cf. 1 Peter 3:22; Colossians 1:18]; [cf. Hebrews 1:8; Luke 4:8; John 10:30]).

Scripture testifies over and over, that Satan is the cardinal copycat, the diabolical deceiving dragon, the example of every evil, the first fraudulent foe, the initial imitator, the master of masquerade, the prototype pretender, the supreme sinister serpent, the numero uno usurper, the number one wannabe and the original unholy spirit (Ezekiel 28:12–18; Isaiah 14:12–14; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Galatians 1:8; Revelation 12:3–4; Genesis 3:4–5). As the Antichrist imitates Christ, Scripture shows the Antichrist having a dual nature, being the unholy son of perdition (seed of Satan – spiritual or supernatural; depending on which view of the origin of the Antichrist you believe) and the man of sin (Genesis 3:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Since the ministries of the Father are to bear witness of Christ, to glorify Christ, to draw men to Christ and explicitly counsels His creation to worship His Son, then the False Prophet would be the unholy counterpart to the Father, making him the earthly father of the Antichrist. Satan will counterfeit the Trinity in a similar fashion. As the Father instructs His creation to worship His Firstborn Son, Jesus; likewise, the False Prophet will demand everyone to worship his firstborn son, the Antichrist and his image or be killed (Revelation 13:12, 15).

Another categorical correlating consideration is that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and since “the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26), so shall the False Prophet have “power to give life unto the image of the beast” (Revelation 13:15).

Out of these three beings, only two have physical bodies. Since Satan is a spirit, (literally, the original unholy spirit) people alive during the Tribulation (or more properly termed the 70th week of Daniel) will only see a father and his firstborn son, in order to mimic God, the Father and His Firstborn Son, Jesus (Luke 2:23; Colossians 1:15, 18; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 1:5).

_________

Notes:

1. Got Questions Ministries, “What is the Unholy Trinity in the End Times?,” accessed February 16, 2016, ¶¶ 1, 8. Got Questions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/unholy-trinity.html

2. Vines, Best of Vine’s, Hebrew, 63.

3. Gesenius, Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, 202. http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/Gesenius/

4. Pink, Antichrist, Chapter 2, § 2, (expanded and adopted from historical Church teachings). PDF e-book. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pink/antichrist

_________

Bibliography:

Gesenius, Friedrich, Wilhelm. Gesenius’s Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, translated by Edward Robinson, edited by Francis Brown, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1846. Online ed.

Got Questions Ministries. “What is the Unholy Trinity in the End Times?,” Accessed February 16, 2016.

Pink, Arthur, W. The Antichrist. Swengel, PA: I.C. Herendeen, Bible Truth Depot, October, 1923. Current Publisher, Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. PDF ebook.

Vine, W.E. (William Edwy). Best of Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001. In The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible [Red Letter Edition] with the Best of Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001.

Then who would be the counterpart of God the Father?