Jesus tells us there will not only be false Christs, but false prophets. According to Scripture, there will arise at the close of this age two gigantic sinners known as the beast and the false prophet. The antichrist will not appear alone, but he will be accompanied and supported by a notorious man that will serve as his prophet or his preacher, to advocate his cause, or to work miracles in order to bring the world under the antichrist.

The religious element is the strongest in all human nature. A heathen or a fanatic or a false-religionist will bring everything in the world in subordination to his religion. On the other hand, a true Christian will make everything in life subordinate to his faith in God, and his worship of God.

Throughout all ages and among all nations, the religious element in man, whether the man be a heathen or a Christian, forces everything to give way to his religion. His business, his politics, his domestic relations, his pleasures, his ambitions, his fears, his very life itself are brought in subjection to his religion. Now here lies the great power that the false prophet will wield in the days of the antichrist, for he is to be the supreme exponent of the religion of the antichrist, and it is by him that an image is made to the beast, as we see described in Revelation 13; and it is by this false prophet that all nations are led to take the mark of the beast and to worship the beast.

There have been many types of the antichrist in the past generations, but they have always had as companions in sin false prophets to abet their enterprises with a false religion. Pharaoh was a type of the antichrist, and he was supported by his false prophets, Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses and Aaron, and who imitated their miracles up to a certain point.

Balak, the king of Moab, was another type of the antichrist, but he re-enforced his authority by calling to his aid the false prophet Balaam, that he might use Balaam as his instrument in working on the religion of the people. Balaam was highly gifted, and doubtless God called him to be a true prophet, and in spite of himself God prophesied through his lips some of the most beautiful foretellings about the Lord Jesus, but he, like Judas, sold himself to the devil, and to the antichrist, and has been for all these centuries a type and forerunner of the great false prophet that is to rise in the time of the tribulation judgment.

Absalom was another type of the antichrist in his revolution against the Messianic kingdom, but he fortified himself by calling to his aid Ahithophel, one of the most astute counselors in the world at that time, and this man acted as his false prophet. Ahithophel was in character just like Judas, for he revolted against God's true king for gain, and when he was defeated he committed suicide like Judas.

Infidels and ignorant Christians often criticise the terrible language of King David in the 109th Psalm, because they do not know that that Psalm is a perfect portrait of Ahithophel and Judas Iscariot. Doubtless when David wrote that Psalm he had in his mind Ahithophel, who had turned traitor to his king, but the Holy Spirit had in His mind a still greater false prophet, Judas. Please turn to the passage. Psalm 109, and read from verse 2 to 20, and see how perfectly those awful words fit the case of Judas, and of similar characters who are false prophets. Ahab was another type of the antichrist, but he had to be supported in a religious way by the false prophets of Baal, who were his associates and abetters.

Napoleon, doubtless, in some respects, was a type of the antichrist, but he saw the necessity of using the religious element in his empire, and tried to negotiate with the pope of Rome to act as helper. So when the real antichrist appears in the world, he will have given to him by the devil a great false prophet exactly adapted to his character, and the one most fitted to deceive the nations of the world, by appealing to the religious instincts of the human race, and giving them a religion just suited to their sinful nature. In the next place the false prophet will be a real person, just the same as the false Christ.

Many commentators suppose that the false prophet spoken of in Revelation will be a system or an empire, but all the terms that are used, and the actions ascribed to the false prophet, can only be affirmed of an individual person. It is true that the principle of antichrist may be manifested in history, as for instance, in the form of Romish governments, which are emphatically of the beast character; and also the principle of the false prophet as running through a course of history (cannot be made to fill all the requirements that are spoken of in connection with the false prophet that is to rise in the latter days.

In the next place, we are to remember there is a trinity of Hell, the exact counterfeit of the Trinity of God. Satan is a counterfeit of God the Father, and he is a spirit, unseen by mortal eye, as God the Father is unseen. The beast, or false Christ, is a counterfeit of the Son of God, and as the unseen divine Father imparts all His fulness to Christ, and Christ is God made visible, so Satan puts all his fulness into the antichrist, who becomes a visible manifestation of everything that is in the devil. And then the false prophet is a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, and just as the Holy Spirit does everything for Christ, bears witness to Christ, reveals Christ, and always magnifies Christ, so we notice in every expression in the Bible concerning the false prophet, he does everything for the beast or the antichrist, works for him, preaches for him, works miracles for him, puts a mark on the people for him, builds an image to him, and makes the image speak in behalf of the antichrist, so that the false prophet never does anything for himself, but does it all for the beast.

Satan has his home and throne up in the air, and in the tribulation period he comes down from the air upon the earth. The beast arises from the sea, and the false prophet from the earth, as you will notice in Revelation 13. In connection with this fact, there is a prophecy in Psalm 10: 18, concerning a certain man who is called by the â– Psalmist "the man of the earth,"� some great oppressor that is to come in the last days and from whom God is to deliver His people.

In the next place, the false prophet will assume to be very religious and Christlike in his outward appearance, but his inward being is filled with the devil. This corresponds exactly with the words of Jesus, that false prophets will be wolves in sheep's clothing.

For instance, in the great picture of the false prophet in Revelation 13:11-18, it says that he will "have horns like a lamb,"� but that when he speaks "his speech will be that of the dragon, or Satan."�

Many spiritually minded scholars have thought that the false prophet may be Judas Iscariot, that the devil will have power to bring from the dead in the tribulation period. Now just notice the similarity between what is said of Judas, and what is said of the false prophet. First, the false prophet is said to be one that will come up out of the abyss, that is from the center of the earth, and doubtless Judas will be brought back from the dead, by the power of the devil, for we are told that Satan will have power to work all kinds of lying miracles and wonders at that time.

Second, the false prophet is also called a beast, and it is said he will have all the power of the first beast, that is, of the antichrist. Jesus gave His Apostles power to work miracles in His name, and to cast out demons, and He gave that power to Judas, the same as to the rest of the disciples, and before the crucifixion Judas went out with the Twelve healing the sick and casting out demons. Now as Christ gave power to His prophets and Apostles, so the false Christ will give power to the false prophet, and Judas, having forfeited his power in the true Christ, will receive Satanic power from the false Christ.

Third, as Christ's disciples had power over worship, and to conduct the affairs of the kingdom of God, so the antichrist will give to Judas power to conduct his false worship in the world.

Fourth, as Judas was with Jesus three and a half years, so we are told the false prophet will work with the antichrist for the same length of time, forty-two months, that is three and a half years.

Fifth, it is said the false prophet will put a mark or a sign on all those who worship the beast, and so Judas Iscariot gave the Jewish rulers a sign by which they were to seize Christ in the garden, which was the deceitful kiss he gave the Ford.

Sixth, Judas and the false prophet are both designated in Scripture as "the son of perdition which does not mean that they go to perdition, but that in some mysterious way they were taken out of perdition, and came up from the abyss.

Seventh, David, in speaking of the false prophet and of Judas, said that Satan stood at his right hand, and we learn from the Gospel that at the Last Supper, when Jesus gave the sop to Judas, Satan was right there by the side of Judas Iscariot, and that Satan entered into him. The devil had a special desire to get the heart of Peter, that he might use him in some marvelous way in the kingdom of darkness, but Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail, but Satan succeeded in getting Judas. So far as we know, Judas may have been a man of marvelous personality, and of some special genius, and so fitted to be the great agent in that infamous trio which is to desolate the world in the closing part of the tribulation judgment.

In the next place, the false prophet will have power to work miracles in the interest of the antichrist. How easily people are gulled on the line of anything that is wonderful. Multitudes have the impression that if a miracle is wrought, or if the sick are healed, or if there are marvelous demonstrations, that the people doing such things must be of God, and yet the Bible warns us over and over that the working of miracles is no proof that anyone is a true servant of God, but it depends on the doctrine he teaches, and on whether he is true to Jesus Christ or not. Moses warned the Jews in Deuteronomy 13 that if any prophet should rise in their history teaching them to worship idols, that, even though that prophet should do wonders, and foretell future facts with accuracy, they should not follow him, even though his preaching of lies was accompanied with all sorts of evidence, because God was proving them to know whether they would obey God's Word or not.

Thousands of people were gulled by the late Dowie, because he denounced whisky, and tobacco, and Freemasonry, and because many were healed under his ministry, supposing they were proofs that he was of God, and yet from the beginning to the end of his ministry he never showed one atom of divine love, never showed any love to anybody on earth except to get their money: denounced holiness of heart, and preached a lie in all his life, and died with curses on his lips to his fellow-beings — a positive picture of a creature with horns like a lamb, but with the speech of the dragon. The same remarks apply to Mrs. Eddy, and to many others. Healing the sick is no proof that one is right with God, and there are multitudes in Hell to-day who did wonderful things in a religious way in their lives, healed the sick and wrought many things, and Jesus tells us emphatically that at the Judgment many — and that means MANY — will say to Him, "Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, did we not cast out demons in your name, and heal the sick in your name, and do many wonderful works in your name, and yet the King will say unto them. Depart, ye workers of iniquity, into everlasting fire; I never knew you."�

The antichrist will preach a notorious lie against the meek and lowly Jesus, against the Man that died on the cross, against the spotless humanity of Jesus, and against His absolute divinity, and he will back up his lie with wonderful miracles, and every form of deception, by which all the world will be deceived, except the few that have the true faith in their hearts.