Basic HTML Version
The Crowning Act of Deception, September 25
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee
from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to
try them that dwell upon the earth.
Revelation 3:10
.
As the second appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ draws near, satanic
agencies are moved from beneath. Satan will not only appear as a human
being, but he will personate Jesus Christ; and the world who has rejected
the truth will receive him as the Lord of lords and King of kings.
The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of
deceit and destruction will reach its culmination in the time of trouble....
As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will
personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour’s
advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make
it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will
manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness,
resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Reve-
lation.
Revelation 1:13-15
. 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 pros-
trate 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, heav-
enly 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. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day
are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them
with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like
the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from
the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying: This is “the
great power of God.”
Acts 8:10
.
But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of this false
Christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures.
[277]
284