Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
The coming described is that of the lawless one, the man of sin, whose appearing is driven by Satan's working with all power and signs and lying wonders and with deceptive unrighteousness. Those wonders are real supernatural manifestations performed through Satan's agents, counterfeiting God's work as Pharaoh's magicians counterfeited what was wrought through Moses, and so closely resembling the true that miracles alone never prove a messenger is from God. This working is fulfilled in the Papacy manifesting Satan's character and government, and it grows more frequent and startling as the close of time nears, just before Christ's second coming. It deceives with personation of the dead, apparent healings, fire from heaven, impersonation of Christ, and religious delusions, aimed especially at those who look for Christ and keep God's law. Those who perish are deceived because they refused love of the truth, so God gives them up to strong delusion to believe a lie, while the wicked one will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Safety is in earnest prayerful study and obedience of Scripture, tested by the Bible, with steadfast trust in Christ by which the faithful will be hedged about and not deceived.
Coming and Satanic Working
The coming spoken of is that of the lawless one, the wicked one, the man of sin and antichrist, whose coming is driven by and after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with unrighteous deception. That wicked one is revealed working through power, signs and lying wonders that counterfeit God's works to turn people from faith in Christ as Messiah and Son of God, and the influence can come through openly supernatural signs and through apparently beneficial human sciences. Those wonders deceive those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, leaving them vulnerable to unrighteous deceit and delusion, while believers are called to hold fast to the truth. The wicked one so working will ultimately be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming.
The Papacy is that coming of the man of sin after the working of Satan, through which Satan has manifested his own character and brought out the principles of his government, operating with all power and signs and lying wonders. The coming of the power identified with the papacy is driven by Satan and marked by power, signs, lying wonders and unrighteous deception, leading to ruin those who reject the love of truth, whom God gives over to strong delusion, and that wicked power will ultimately be destroyed at Christ's coming. Satan inspires the men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents upon earth, and their teaching that prayers should be offered to dead apostles and saints and to Mary belongs to that satanic working and deceivableness of unrighteousness. Such prayers are useless and fall to the ground, because Mary and the saints are not in heaven but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven and the sound of the trump of God calling the dead from their prison house, and those receiving the deception perish for refusing the love of the truth, so that God sends strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Christ's second coming follows and is immediately preceded by this working of Satan, including its work through spiritualism with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. The perishing are deceived because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for which cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, and the verse stands as an exhortation to be on guard and not depart from the faith. Because his time is short Satan makes one last mighty effort to deceive and destroy, directed not merely at the unbelieving world but at the great mass of professed Christians who have not received the love of the truth, working now with greater power because his hatred for truth is the same in all ages. Advocates of truth in the present day should therefore expect greater difficulties and more determined opposition than Luther and his fellow laborers faced. These wonders are part of a deception that turns people from the truth.
The power, signs and lying wonders are real supernatural manifestations that Satan's agents have power to perform, not merely tricks or pretended miracles, though trickery is also often palmed off as genuine. Before Christ's second coming Satan will display such supernatural power through his agents that people mistake their work for God's power, and this applies to the manifestations of Spiritualism as satanic delusion. Spiritualism is not mere trickery and imposture but superhuman power, the direct work of evil angels, and those who believe it is merely human imposture will, when brought face to face with supernatural manifestations they cannot deny, be deceived and led to accept them as the great power of God. Its signs and wonders become more pronounced as the professed Christian world rejects plain Bible truth and refuses a plain Thus saith the Lord for human doctrines, its way opened by ministers proclaiming as Bible doctrine the falsehood of consciousness after death and communion of the living with the dead, by which devils personate the dead and bring souls into captivity to swell Satan's religion. As men reject light and truth they decide their destiny for eternal death, the Spirit of God gradually withdraws from the earth, Satan gains more control over his subjects, and he shows great signs and wonders as credentials of his divine claims, working through Spiritualism against Christ and His agencies.
This working counterfeits God's work as Pharaoh's magicians by satanic aid counterfeited what God wrought through Moses, and there will be similar manifestations of satanic power in the last days. Through the Egyptian magicians Satan copied the miracles associated with Moses, whose deliverance of Israel from bondage prefigured Christ's deliverance of humanity from sin, aiming to undermine faith in Christ's miracles as evidence that God had sent Him, to lead people to reject Christ as Son of God, and to turn them from mercy through redemption. That same ancient counterfeiting work is going on now, having increased tenfold within a few months and set to increase and spread further. Unless God's Israel keeps constantly rising with the message and growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, the powers of darkness will get the victory over them.
Miracles and miracle-working power alone do not prove a teaching or messenger is from God, for God's people are not the only ones who will have miracle-working power. The coming of the antichrist and deceiver is empowered by Satan and accompanied by marvelous works, extraordinary signs and wonders that mislead, forming a counterfeit so like the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By the testimony of Scripture every statement, claim and miracle must be tested, for Scripture is given as the safeguard against false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness, and Satan uses every device to keep men from Bible knowledge because its plain utterances reveal his deceptions. Unless people abide in Christ and stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, God's Word the Bible, and substantiate faith by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, grounding faith in every word of God and relying on God's power, they will be swept away by delusive error and deceived when Satan appears in glory claiming to be Christ. In the last great delusion soon to open, when Satan puts forth his utmost efforts in a final struggle against Christ and His followers and antichrist performs his marvelous works in sight, believers must stand firm in eternal truth and resist deceptive miracles rather than accept them as evidence of truth.
Forms of Deceptive Manifestations
Evil angels make both saints and sinners who have died appear visible to human eyes with familiar words and tone of voice, personating the dead as if exalted to heaven and speaking as heavenly messengers to excite sympathy and confirm unscriptural doctrines. These spirit manifestations began small in places like New York and Rochester with mysterious knocking, but will spread and become more frequent and of more startling character as the close of time nears, to allure the unwary and deceive if possible the very elect. Clothed in religious garb to lull the deceived into security, they draw minds to doubt the teachings and power of the Holy Ghost, while Satan's devoted followers gain power to work miracles and by rapping and mesmerism account for all the miracles of the Lord Jesus as wrought by that same power. Those deceived perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, and God proves this peril for the benefit of His people living amid the perils of the last days.
Satan works apparent healings and cures in plain sight before observers, with fallen angels tracking people every moment to work marvels and miracles, and evil spirits may even make people sick and then suddenly remove the affliction so they seem healed. Many souls will be ensnared and taken because they receive these wonders as from God, though they draw away from God's plain precepts and commandments, and this display will be exhibited still more fully in a soon trial that brings a test upon Seventh-day Adventists. Minds are fitted for the deception by forms of error, departure from plain commandments, and giving heed to fables, while faith in God's word prayerfully studied and practically applied is the only shield bringing victory through the blood of Christ. Satan's agencies will also bring fire down from heaven in the sight of men, even through agents departed from the faith, to persuade earth's inhabitants to choose allegiance and to counterfeit the miracles, healing and signs accompanying God's final work under the third angel's message. That time is only just beginning, and those charmed by bewitching influences now or giving them the least countenance will be ready to act a part with the devil then, for miracles alone are not a reliable sign of divine guidance.
Satan comes to those who love not the truth as an angel of light, clothing spirits of darkness in pure robes of heaven and covering hideous purposes under Christian garb, appearing in robes of brightness as a lovely young person or beautiful shadow or beautiful angel. He impersonates Christ in appearance, claims to be Christ and to be God, and is worshiped as a benefactor of the race while using riches, power, genius, eloquence, pride, perverted reason and passion to make the broad road attractive and strewn with tempting flowers. Though he failed thus clothed in brightness in tempting the world's Redeemer, he succeeds with the unwary who are not fortified with Bible truth and firmly anchored on eternal truth, spreading spiritualism where least expected. He works unperceived through phrenology, psychology, mesmerism and other sciences falsely so called, by a laid-out plan gaining access to minds to influence them as he pleases, poisoning thousands and controlling mind by mind. While devotees praise these sciences to the heavens for great and good works claimed, they cherish and glorify Satan himself, who destroys faith in Christ as Messiah and Son of God, makes God and Christ seem of no account, destroys the Bible as detector, undermines God's law, and leads to infidelity and corruption laying the foundation of spiritualism.
The working includes satanic literature containing false theories, spiritualistic demoralizing theories and satanic science, mingling pure truth with deceptive slime to counterwork the means to meet the foe on his own ground. Satan watches for entrance and has found standing-room in the sacred publishing work, placing in workers' hands books and matter prepared to deceive if possible the very elect, demoralizing apprentices and all who handle it, sowing seeds of evil that grow and causing loss of discernment between truth and error and loss of souls. It gains a victory for Satan when such literature comes from presses entrusted with truth, because the apparent endorsement is then used to influence others to accept objectionable matter. Satan also assumes a religious character with different delusions prepared to affect different minds, so some look with horror on one deception while readily receiving another. He deceives some with spiritualism and spreads influence by false reformations and religious excitement mistaken for God's marvelous working, with fanaticism, falsehood, mysterious displays and strange manifestations that do not lead from error to truth, and when the excitement dies away it leaves church and world worse than before.
Through individuals under his control such as Thomas Paine and through his angels impersonating holy apostles, angels in glory and wicked dead men, Satan works pretended spiritual manifestations declared to far exceed the works of Christ. By these miracles and lying wonders he tears away the foundation of Christian hope and puts out the light on the narrow way to heaven, making the world believe the Bible is uninspired and no better than a story-book, putting back in the shade the Book that is to judge him, corrupting apostolic teaching and making apostles contradict what the Holy Ghost dictated. He reduces Jesus to a common man in the background, denying anything miraculous about His birth, death and resurrection, and turns attention to his own agents, as the Roman guard spread the false report put in their mouth about the tomb so his deluded followers repeat lies. He teaches that no matter how wicked men are and whether they believe God and the Bible they may live as they please because heaven is their home, thus taking the world in the snare and lulling it to security until the deception is found out when the seven last plagues are poured out.
Satan makes a determined effort to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment sanctified as the memorial of creation and to institute a spurious sabbath in its place to bring worldwide apostasy against God's law. By leading men to disregard the fourth commandment he places them on his side, making professed Christians into idolaters who give a man-made institution the glory God requires for His day, persuading the world that Sunday is the Sabbath and compelling its observance by oppressive law, identified with the mark of the beast and its image. These lying wonders occur amid confused minds, competing claims to divine authority, many voices crying Lo here is Christ, removing landmarks and tearing down pillars of faith after truth has been proclaimed as a witness, marking the time when the mighty angel lightens earth with glory to proclaim Babylon's fall and call God's people out. Those who believe the lie and remain unrepentant despisers of God's law will be visited with retributive judgments poured out without mercy.
The deception is directed with special rage and snares against those who look for Christ's second coming, keep God's commandments and uphold His law, including Sabbathkeepers, provoking determined opposition from darkness when God's converting work advances. It uses professed reformers covering licentiousness and adultery with a cloak of godliness to deceive inquiring souls, secret combinations and selfish unions carrying out the enemy's plans in the last scenes of the world's drama, and exploitation of ministers' weaknesses. Satan remains active and vigilant, calling fallen angels to his aid, working every device and bewitching influence with subtle beneficial guises, having come down with great power so that no one is above temptation and none can safely trust human counsel or own strength. The mystery of iniquity leaves God's authority scarcely recognized, and he conceals his existence and methods so people mistake his influence for their own wisdom and are unprepared for his attacks.
Last Days Timing Intensifies
These deceptive displays grow more frequent and more startling in character as the close of time nears, increasing down near the close of time until fulfillment itself confirms prophecy. Evil angels making the dead appear visible is part of that increase, already at work and set to allure the unwary and deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's preserved Word, multiplied and made available to all who desire it, arms people against them amid the perils of the last days.
Satan works with greater power and wrath because his time is short and probation is closing, making one last mighty effort to deceive and destroy. As the church nears her final deliverance he brings to the final conflict six thousand years of acquired skill, subtlety and cruelty as a master mind once highest among the angels of God, wholly bent to deception and ruin through the struggles of the ages. That intensified working can come subtly through teachings and practices presented as beneficial, even through human sciences affecting the mind, turning people from faith in Christ and characterizing his efforts near the close of probation. Advocates of truth in the present day should therefore expect greater difficulties and more determined opposition than Luther and his fellow laborers faced, while Christ's followers are to bear the warning of the Lord's second advent and be prepared without spot and blameless by a special endowment of divine grace and power no less than in apostolic days.
That time is now upon us and only just beginning, with perilous times right upon us and evil angels constantly working on human hearts. His miracle-working power, including causing fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men, will sweep in the whole world, and those charmed by these influences now or giving them the least countenance now will be ready to act a part with the devil then. The same ancient counterfeiting by which the Egyptian magicians counterfeited what God wrought through Moses has increased tenfold within a few months and will still increase and spread further. Unless God's Israel keeps rising with the message and growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, the powers of darkness will get the victory over them.
The verse belongs to the prophecy about the man of sin as a figurative outline of events leading to the close of this world's history, with direct historical fulfillment. The scenes connected with that working are the last features revealed in this earth's history, standing at the close of the line of events figuratively delineated in the prophecies of Daniel and John. Because those closing scenes are present, God's people now have a special message to give, the third angel's message with the Revelation 14:6-12 threefold warning and the Revelation 18 last message that will ever be given to the world and will accomplish its work.
Before the Lord's coming there is religious declension like that in the first centuries, with a form of godliness but denying its power, departure from the faith to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and deep spiritual darkness as in Noah's and Lot's days spreading errors, heresies and delusions even among professed Christians. That condition is reached when the union of the church with the world is fully accomplished throughout Christendom, and only then is the fall of Babylon complete. The change is progressive and the perfect fulfillment is still future, when the same results will follow as in the first centuries, with churches seeking aid of civil power to enforce decrees, sustain institutions, punish dissent, and form an image to the beast.
In the time of trouble just before deliverance the wicked claim they have the truth and that miracles, great power, signs and wonders are among them, with angels from heaven talking and walking with them. They claim this is the temporal millennium long expected, with the whole world converted and in harmony with the Sunday law, while the heavenly messengers cited are Satan personating the dead claimed to have gone to heaven. These lying wonders are used to mock the small, feeble, poor, stricken Sabbathkeeping people, ridiculing their smallness, charging them with independent defiance of the laws of the land, taunting them that they are dependent on the world and cannot live without it. Their resources are cut off so they cannot buy or sell, pressing them to concede to the customs, practices and laws of the world or go out of it.
Those Deceived and Judged
Those who perish are met with all deceivableness of unrighteousness because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, refusing obedience, taking pleasure in unrighteousness, and yielding to Satan's plans. The coming of the wicked one is driven by Satan and accompanied by power, signs, lying wonders, and deception, and these wonders deceive the perishing precisely because they did not love the truth so as to be saved. This deception works through unrighteousness among those who perish because they reject the love of the truth that could save them, and the verse stands as an exhortation to be on guard and not depart from the faith. God has proved this class for the benefit of His people who live amid the perils of the last days and has placed His stamp upon the heresies of spiritualism.
For this cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, giving them over to Satan's deceptive working so that light becomes darkness and they love and believe lies as truth, that all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness might be damned. Those deceived by professed reformers who cover licentiousness and adultery with a cloak of godliness come under this description, being given up to believe even that there is nothing displeasing to God in licentiousness and adultery. The deception leading to ruin belongs to the coming of the power identified with the papacy, driven by Satan and marked by power, signs, lying wonders, and unrighteous deception, and God gives over to strong delusion those who reject the love of truth.
The deception is directed not merely at the unbelieving world but at the great mass of professed Christians who have not received the love of the truth, and if possible even the elect and God's chosen. Because his time is short, Satan makes one last mighty effort to deceive and destroy with greater power, and since his hatred for the truth is the same in all ages, advocates of truth in the present day should expect greater difficulties and more determined opposition than Luther and his fellow laborers faced. In the last days errors, heresies, and delusions spread through the world and even among professed Christians, producing deep spiritual darkness and persecution for those who uphold the truth, while Satan works through agents departed from the faith to perform apparent miracles and lying wonders, even bringing fire down from heaven. Such wonders can deceive even the elect, so miracles are not a reliable sign of divine guidance, and in the closing struggle Satan works to misrepresent God's character and lead even the elect astray if possible, directing his work against God's servants as they uphold His law.
Rejection is prepared by ministers' false teaching of consciousness after death and communion with the dead, by rejection of the Bible's truth about human nature and that the dead know nothing, by acceptance of the immortality of the soul and the false Sabbath, and by refusal to give up cherished sins and a plain Thus saith the Lord. Satan inspires the men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents upon earth, and their teaching that prayers should be offered to dead apostles and saints and to Mary is part of that satanic working and deceivableness of unrighteousness. Such prayers are useless and fall to the ground, because Mary and the saints are not in heaven but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven and the sound of the trump of God that shall call the dead from their prison house. People who will not give up cherished sins close themselves to the light and become prey to Satan's snares, and churches which refuse the messages of truth accept a lie and are deceived, which is part of what makes the churches Babylon against which God's warning is given.
The wicked one so revealed will be consumed with the spirit of the Lord's mouth and destroyed with the brightness of Christ's coming, when apostasy ends, truth and righteousness triumph, and lying wonders are defeated by divine power with the final message. Satan empowers the coming of the deceiver with power, signs, and lying wonders that ensnare people who reject God's truth, making them attractive or mixing apparent truth with error, but the deceiver's end is destruction at Christ's coming. Satan comes with all power and signs and lying wonders in his determined effort to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment sanctified by God as the memorial of creation and to institute a spurious sabbath in its place to bring about worldwide apostasy against God's law. By leading men and women to disregard the fourth commandment he places them on his side of the controversy, making professed Christians into idolaters who give a man-made institution the glory and honor God requires for His Sabbath day and compel others to worship this idol, and those who believe the lie and remain unrepentant despisers of God's law will surely be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy. Through individuals wholly under his control such as Thomas Paine and through pretended spiritual manifestations declared to far exceed the works of Christ, he tears away the foundation of the Christian's hope, puts out the light on the narrow way, makes the world believe the Bible is uninspired and no better than a story-book, puts back in the shade the Book that is to judge him, reduces the Saviour to a common man denying anything miraculous about His birth, death, and resurrection, and as the Roman guard spread the false report put in their mouth about Jesus' tomb so his deluded followers repeat these lies until the world taken in the snare and lulled into security finds out the deception when the seven last plagues are poured out.
At the same time the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord still in Babylon will heed the call to come out of her. Those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness will be left to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, the church has fully reached the fallen condition of Babylon foretold by the second angel, at the time of the message of Revelation 18, which is the last message that will ever be given to the world and will accomplish its work. The verse points forward to the darkest period of this earth's history just before the coming of Christ, when the condition of the world will be as in the days of Noah and of Lot before the coming of the Son of man, when Satan exerts all his power in deceptive unrighteousness plainly revealed by rapidly increasing darkness and multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions that not only lead the world captive but leaven the professed churches into a great apostasy dark as midnight. To God's people it brings a night of trial, weeping, and persecution for truth's sake, out of which God's light will shine, and in that time of peril Christ's followers are to bear to the world the warning of the Lord's second advent, and a people are to be prepared to stand before Him at His coming without spot and blameless, needing a special endowment of divine grace and power no less than in apostolic days.
Scripture Safeguard and Response
God caused His Word to be written out so plainly that even the weakest need not err, carefully preserved it from destruction by Satan, his angels and his agents while other books might perish, and near the close of time multiplied it so that all who desire may have a copy and arm themselves against increasing deceptions and lying wonders. Before Christ's second advent Satan works with power and deceptive signs and wonders to lead away from truth toward falsehood, and in a final struggle Antichrist performs marvelous works in sight as the last great delusion opens. Satan uses every device to keep men from obtaining knowledge of the Bible, because its plain utterances reveal his deceptions and it is given as the safeguard against false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. The counterfeit will so closely resemble the true that none can distinguish except by the Holy Scriptures, by whose testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested.
Safety lies in faith in God's Word prayerfully studied and practically applied as a shield from Satan's power, bringing victory through the blood of Christ, for lying wonders including apparent miraculous healings can seem to be from God and draw away from plain commandments those who turn to fables. Fallen angels track people every moment and work marvels and miracles in plain sight, including healing the sick before observers, and this display will be exhibited still more fully in a soon trial that will ensnare many who receive the wonders as from God. Minds are fitted for this deception by departure from the plain precepts and commandments, by forms of error and by giving heed to fables, while the only successful resistance is the Word as the weapon, with earnest prayerful study guarding against spiritualism's false teachings spread where least expected by Satan disguised as an angel of light. Unless people abide in Christ and stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, the Bible, substantiating faith by every word proceeding from God's mouth, they will be swept away when Satan comes in glory claiming to be Christ, since miracle-working power alone does not prove faith and God's people are not the only ones who will have it. Abiding on that platform with confession of sin, steadfast confidence and practical obedience gives spiritual perception and keeps the plain path.
The danger calls for watching carefully, examining well the foundation of hope from the Scriptures, being on guard and not departing from the faith, for the perishing are deceived because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. In the time of peril when Satan's working grows stronger as a master mind of six thousand years brings all acquired skill, subtlety and cruelty against God's people with great wrath because time is short, Christ's followers are to bear the warning of the second advent and be prepared without spot and blameless with special endowment of grace and power no less than in apostolic days. The delusion will spread until it must be contended with face to face in a conflict just before us, requiring readiness to give a reason of hope with meekness and fear, heeding the watchman's trumpet, warning others, and meeting the testing message with humility and self-sacrifice. Christ's way of preaching and healing cannot now be copied through miraculous works, for Satan will work miracles including false claims of divine healing, so genuine physical healing is to be joined with gospel teaching through medical missionary work.
In the warfare against commandment keepers that continues until probation closes, two influences bear upon the mind while Satan contests inch by inch to keep every soul, so those who flee to Jesus with earnest prayer to know truth and go to God and their Bibles find truth as it is in Jesus, while those who through policy refuse obedience go to any length in deception until light becomes darkness. No one is above temptation and none can safely trust human counsel or confidence in own strength, since Satan has come down with great power to work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those yielding to his plans, so the only safety is to make the Lord alone the Counsellor, depend wholly on God, lean hard on Jesus Christ and work carefully without mistakes. Safety also requires earnest prayer for Christ's grace, oneness with Christ and unity with one another, building a firm sanctified character to preserve integrity and spiritual life, with every power trained to war as faithful soldiers giving the enemy no place. Those who do their part to be ready will be protected by God's all-powerful arm, who would sooner send every angel out of glory to hedge faithful souls about than allow them deceived and led away by lying wonders. That protection includes constant communication between heaven and earth by angels for faithful people walking in light from the throne, with power found not in working miracles which Satan will counterfeit but in the sign of God and in standing on the living word, It is written, while covenant-breakers are left without God and without hope.
Miracle-working power of Satan spiritualistic in character will be seen in the last days to test those diseased with spiritualistic sentiments, and unless they change they will soon be swayed into accord with it, with those feeding on the supposedly excellent but spiritualistic theories of Living Temple in very dangerous place before it. Satan shall personate Christ and apparently work Christ's works by misrepresentation, professing to be Christ and even claiming to be God surrounded by evil angels with celestial glory, working miracles of all kinds to deceive if possible the very elect. Men so easily misled by depending on men's words will be tested, and only those who by faith hang helpless souls upon Christ, plainly understand doctrines, remain anchored and firm in received truths, and reject teachings denying the reality of God or Christ, will be unmoved and withhold allegiance from false christs by going not after them.
The coming described is that of the lawless one, the man of sin, whose appearing is driven by Satan's working with all power and signs and lying wonders and with deceptive unrighteousness. Those wonders are real supernatural manifestations performed through Satan's agents, counterfeiting God's work as Pharaoh's magicians counterfeited what was wrought through Moses, and so closely resembling the true that miracles alone never prove a messenger is from God. This working is fulfilled in the Papacy manifesting Satan's character and government, and it grows more frequent and startling as the close of time nears, just before Christ's second coming. It deceives with personation of the dead, apparent healings, fire from heaven, impersonation of Christ, and religious delusions, aimed especially at those who look for Christ and keep God's law. Those who perish are deceived because they refused love of the truth, so God gives them up to strong delusion to believe a lie, while the wicked one will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Safety is in earnest prayerful study and obedience of Scripture, tested by the Bible, with steadfast trust in Christ by which the faithful will be hedged about and not deceived.
Coming and Satanic Working
The coming spoken of is that of the lawless one, the wicked one, the man of sin and antichrist, whose coming is driven by and after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with unrighteous deception. That wicked one is revealed working through power, signs and lying wonders that counterfeit God's works to turn people from faith in Christ as Messiah and Son of God, and the influence can come through openly supernatural signs and through apparently beneficial human sciences. Those wonders deceive those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, leaving them vulnerable to unrighteous deceit and delusion, while believers are called to hold fast to the truth. The wicked one so working will ultimately be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming.
The Papacy is that coming of the man of sin after the working of Satan, through which Satan has manifested his own character and brought out the principles of his government, operating with all power and signs and lying wonders. The coming of the power identified with the papacy is driven by Satan and marked by power, signs, lying wonders and unrighteous deception, leading to ruin those who reject the love of truth, whom God gives over to strong delusion, and that wicked power will ultimately be destroyed at Christ's coming. Satan inspires the men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents upon earth, and their teaching that prayers should be offered to dead apostles and saints and to Mary belongs to that satanic working and deceivableness of unrighteousness. Such prayers are useless and fall to the ground, because Mary and the saints are not in heaven but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven and the sound of the trump of God calling the dead from their prison house, and those receiving the deception perish for refusing the love of the truth, so that God sends strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Christ's second coming follows and is immediately preceded by this working of Satan, including its work through spiritualism with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. The perishing are deceived because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for which cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, and the verse stands as an exhortation to be on guard and not depart from the faith. Because his time is short Satan makes one last mighty effort to deceive and destroy, directed not merely at the unbelieving world but at the great mass of professed Christians who have not received the love of the truth, working now with greater power because his hatred for truth is the same in all ages. Advocates of truth in the present day should therefore expect greater difficulties and more determined opposition than Luther and his fellow laborers faced. These wonders are part of a deception that turns people from the truth.
The power, signs and lying wonders are real supernatural manifestations that Satan's agents have power to perform, not merely tricks or pretended miracles, though trickery is also often palmed off as genuine. Before Christ's second coming Satan will display such supernatural power through his agents that people mistake their work for God's power, and this applies to the manifestations of Spiritualism as satanic delusion. Spiritualism is not mere trickery and imposture but superhuman power, the direct work of evil angels, and those who believe it is merely human imposture will, when brought face to face with supernatural manifestations they cannot deny, be deceived and led to accept them as the great power of God. Its signs and wonders become more pronounced as the professed Christian world rejects plain Bible truth and refuses a plain Thus saith the Lord for human doctrines, its way opened by ministers proclaiming as Bible doctrine the falsehood of consciousness after death and communion of the living with the dead, by which devils personate the dead and bring souls into captivity to swell Satan's religion. As men reject light and truth they decide their destiny for eternal death, the Spirit of God gradually withdraws from the earth, Satan gains more control over his subjects, and he shows great signs and wonders as credentials of his divine claims, working through Spiritualism against Christ and His agencies.
This working counterfeits God's work as Pharaoh's magicians by satanic aid counterfeited what God wrought through Moses, and there will be similar manifestations of satanic power in the last days. Through the Egyptian magicians Satan copied the miracles associated with Moses, whose deliverance of Israel from bondage prefigured Christ's deliverance of humanity from sin, aiming to undermine faith in Christ's miracles as evidence that God had sent Him, to lead people to reject Christ as Son of God, and to turn them from mercy through redemption. That same ancient counterfeiting work is going on now, having increased tenfold within a few months and set to increase and spread further. Unless God's Israel keeps constantly rising with the message and growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, the powers of darkness will get the victory over them.
Miracles and miracle-working power alone do not prove a teaching or messenger is from God, for God's people are not the only ones who will have miracle-working power. The coming of the antichrist and deceiver is empowered by Satan and accompanied by marvelous works, extraordinary signs and wonders that mislead, forming a counterfeit so like the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By the testimony of Scripture every statement, claim and miracle must be tested, for Scripture is given as the safeguard against false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness, and Satan uses every device to keep men from Bible knowledge because its plain utterances reveal his deceptions. Unless people abide in Christ and stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, God's Word the Bible, and substantiate faith by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, grounding faith in every word of God and relying on God's power, they will be swept away by delusive error and deceived when Satan appears in glory claiming to be Christ. In the last great delusion soon to open, when Satan puts forth his utmost efforts in a final struggle against Christ and His followers and antichrist performs his marvelous works in sight, believers must stand firm in eternal truth and resist deceptive miracles rather than accept them as evidence of truth.
Forms of Deceptive Manifestations
Evil angels make both saints and sinners who have died appear visible to human eyes with familiar words and tone of voice, personating the dead as if exalted to heaven and speaking as heavenly messengers to excite sympathy and confirm unscriptural doctrines. These spirit manifestations began small in places like New York and Rochester with mysterious knocking, but will spread and become more frequent and of more startling character as the close of time nears, to allure the unwary and deceive if possible the very elect. Clothed in religious garb to lull the deceived into security, they draw minds to doubt the teachings and power of the Holy Ghost, while Satan's devoted followers gain power to work miracles and by rapping and mesmerism account for all the miracles of the Lord Jesus as wrought by that same power. Those deceived perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, and God proves this peril for the benefit of His people living amid the perils of the last days.
Satan works apparent healings and cures in plain sight before observers, with fallen angels tracking people every moment to work marvels and miracles, and evil spirits may even make people sick and then suddenly remove the affliction so they seem healed. Many souls will be ensnared and taken because they receive these wonders as from God, though they draw away from God's plain precepts and commandments, and this display will be exhibited still more fully in a soon trial that brings a test upon Seventh-day Adventists. Minds are fitted for the deception by forms of error, departure from plain commandments, and giving heed to fables, while faith in God's word prayerfully studied and practically applied is the only shield bringing victory through the blood of Christ. Satan's agencies will also bring fire down from heaven in the sight of men, even through agents departed from the faith, to persuade earth's inhabitants to choose allegiance and to counterfeit the miracles, healing and signs accompanying God's final work under the third angel's message. That time is only just beginning, and those charmed by bewitching influences now or giving them the least countenance will be ready to act a part with the devil then, for miracles alone are not a reliable sign of divine guidance.
Satan comes to those who love not the truth as an angel of light, clothing spirits of darkness in pure robes of heaven and covering hideous purposes under Christian garb, appearing in robes of brightness as a lovely young person or beautiful shadow or beautiful angel. He impersonates Christ in appearance, claims to be Christ and to be God, and is worshiped as a benefactor of the race while using riches, power, genius, eloquence, pride, perverted reason and passion to make the broad road attractive and strewn with tempting flowers. Though he failed thus clothed in brightness in tempting the world's Redeemer, he succeeds with the unwary who are not fortified with Bible truth and firmly anchored on eternal truth, spreading spiritualism where least expected. He works unperceived through phrenology, psychology, mesmerism and other sciences falsely so called, by a laid-out plan gaining access to minds to influence them as he pleases, poisoning thousands and controlling mind by mind. While devotees praise these sciences to the heavens for great and good works claimed, they cherish and glorify Satan himself, who destroys faith in Christ as Messiah and Son of God, makes God and Christ seem of no account, destroys the Bible as detector, undermines God's law, and leads to infidelity and corruption laying the foundation of spiritualism.
The working includes satanic literature containing false theories, spiritualistic demoralizing theories and satanic science, mingling pure truth with deceptive slime to counterwork the means to meet the foe on his own ground. Satan watches for entrance and has found standing-room in the sacred publishing work, placing in workers' hands books and matter prepared to deceive if possible the very elect, demoralizing apprentices and all who handle it, sowing seeds of evil that grow and causing loss of discernment between truth and error and loss of souls. It gains a victory for Satan when such literature comes from presses entrusted with truth, because the apparent endorsement is then used to influence others to accept objectionable matter. Satan also assumes a religious character with different delusions prepared to affect different minds, so some look with horror on one deception while readily receiving another. He deceives some with spiritualism and spreads influence by false reformations and religious excitement mistaken for God's marvelous working, with fanaticism, falsehood, mysterious displays and strange manifestations that do not lead from error to truth, and when the excitement dies away it leaves church and world worse than before.
Through individuals under his control such as Thomas Paine and through his angels impersonating holy apostles, angels in glory and wicked dead men, Satan works pretended spiritual manifestations declared to far exceed the works of Christ. By these miracles and lying wonders he tears away the foundation of Christian hope and puts out the light on the narrow way to heaven, making the world believe the Bible is uninspired and no better than a story-book, putting back in the shade the Book that is to judge him, corrupting apostolic teaching and making apostles contradict what the Holy Ghost dictated. He reduces Jesus to a common man in the background, denying anything miraculous about His birth, death and resurrection, and turns attention to his own agents, as the Roman guard spread the false report put in their mouth about the tomb so his deluded followers repeat lies. He teaches that no matter how wicked men are and whether they believe God and the Bible they may live as they please because heaven is their home, thus taking the world in the snare and lulling it to security until the deception is found out when the seven last plagues are poured out.
Satan makes a determined effort to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment sanctified as the memorial of creation and to institute a spurious sabbath in its place to bring worldwide apostasy against God's law. By leading men to disregard the fourth commandment he places them on his side, making professed Christians into idolaters who give a man-made institution the glory God requires for His day, persuading the world that Sunday is the Sabbath and compelling its observance by oppressive law, identified with the mark of the beast and its image. These lying wonders occur amid confused minds, competing claims to divine authority, many voices crying Lo here is Christ, removing landmarks and tearing down pillars of faith after truth has been proclaimed as a witness, marking the time when the mighty angel lightens earth with glory to proclaim Babylon's fall and call God's people out. Those who believe the lie and remain unrepentant despisers of God's law will be visited with retributive judgments poured out without mercy.
The deception is directed with special rage and snares against those who look for Christ's second coming, keep God's commandments and uphold His law, including Sabbathkeepers, provoking determined opposition from darkness when God's converting work advances. It uses professed reformers covering licentiousness and adultery with a cloak of godliness to deceive inquiring souls, secret combinations and selfish unions carrying out the enemy's plans in the last scenes of the world's drama, and exploitation of ministers' weaknesses. Satan remains active and vigilant, calling fallen angels to his aid, working every device and bewitching influence with subtle beneficial guises, having come down with great power so that no one is above temptation and none can safely trust human counsel or own strength. The mystery of iniquity leaves God's authority scarcely recognized, and he conceals his existence and methods so people mistake his influence for their own wisdom and are unprepared for his attacks.
Last Days Timing Intensifies
These deceptive displays grow more frequent and more startling in character as the close of time nears, increasing down near the close of time until fulfillment itself confirms prophecy. Evil angels making the dead appear visible is part of that increase, already at work and set to allure the unwary and deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's preserved Word, multiplied and made available to all who desire it, arms people against them amid the perils of the last days.
Satan works with greater power and wrath because his time is short and probation is closing, making one last mighty effort to deceive and destroy. As the church nears her final deliverance he brings to the final conflict six thousand years of acquired skill, subtlety and cruelty as a master mind once highest among the angels of God, wholly bent to deception and ruin through the struggles of the ages. That intensified working can come subtly through teachings and practices presented as beneficial, even through human sciences affecting the mind, turning people from faith in Christ and characterizing his efforts near the close of probation. Advocates of truth in the present day should therefore expect greater difficulties and more determined opposition than Luther and his fellow laborers faced, while Christ's followers are to bear the warning of the Lord's second advent and be prepared without spot and blameless by a special endowment of divine grace and power no less than in apostolic days.
That time is now upon us and only just beginning, with perilous times right upon us and evil angels constantly working on human hearts. His miracle-working power, including causing fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men, will sweep in the whole world, and those charmed by these influences now or giving them the least countenance now will be ready to act a part with the devil then. The same ancient counterfeiting by which the Egyptian magicians counterfeited what God wrought through Moses has increased tenfold within a few months and will still increase and spread further. Unless God's Israel keeps rising with the message and growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, the powers of darkness will get the victory over them.
The verse belongs to the prophecy about the man of sin as a figurative outline of events leading to the close of this world's history, with direct historical fulfillment. The scenes connected with that working are the last features revealed in this earth's history, standing at the close of the line of events figuratively delineated in the prophecies of Daniel and John. Because those closing scenes are present, God's people now have a special message to give, the third angel's message with the Revelation 14:6-12 threefold warning and the Revelation 18 last message that will ever be given to the world and will accomplish its work.
Before the Lord's coming there is religious declension like that in the first centuries, with a form of godliness but denying its power, departure from the faith to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and deep spiritual darkness as in Noah's and Lot's days spreading errors, heresies and delusions even among professed Christians. That condition is reached when the union of the church with the world is fully accomplished throughout Christendom, and only then is the fall of Babylon complete. The change is progressive and the perfect fulfillment is still future, when the same results will follow as in the first centuries, with churches seeking aid of civil power to enforce decrees, sustain institutions, punish dissent, and form an image to the beast.
In the time of trouble just before deliverance the wicked claim they have the truth and that miracles, great power, signs and wonders are among them, with angels from heaven talking and walking with them. They claim this is the temporal millennium long expected, with the whole world converted and in harmony with the Sunday law, while the heavenly messengers cited are Satan personating the dead claimed to have gone to heaven. These lying wonders are used to mock the small, feeble, poor, stricken Sabbathkeeping people, ridiculing their smallness, charging them with independent defiance of the laws of the land, taunting them that they are dependent on the world and cannot live without it. Their resources are cut off so they cannot buy or sell, pressing them to concede to the customs, practices and laws of the world or go out of it.
Those Deceived and Judged
Those who perish are met with all deceivableness of unrighteousness because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, refusing obedience, taking pleasure in unrighteousness, and yielding to Satan's plans. The coming of the wicked one is driven by Satan and accompanied by power, signs, lying wonders, and deception, and these wonders deceive the perishing precisely because they did not love the truth so as to be saved. This deception works through unrighteousness among those who perish because they reject the love of the truth that could save them, and the verse stands as an exhortation to be on guard and not depart from the faith. God has proved this class for the benefit of His people who live amid the perils of the last days and has placed His stamp upon the heresies of spiritualism.
For this cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, giving them over to Satan's deceptive working so that light becomes darkness and they love and believe lies as truth, that all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness might be damned. Those deceived by professed reformers who cover licentiousness and adultery with a cloak of godliness come under this description, being given up to believe even that there is nothing displeasing to God in licentiousness and adultery. The deception leading to ruin belongs to the coming of the power identified with the papacy, driven by Satan and marked by power, signs, lying wonders, and unrighteous deception, and God gives over to strong delusion those who reject the love of truth.
The deception is directed not merely at the unbelieving world but at the great mass of professed Christians who have not received the love of the truth, and if possible even the elect and God's chosen. Because his time is short, Satan makes one last mighty effort to deceive and destroy with greater power, and since his hatred for the truth is the same in all ages, advocates of truth in the present day should expect greater difficulties and more determined opposition than Luther and his fellow laborers faced. In the last days errors, heresies, and delusions spread through the world and even among professed Christians, producing deep spiritual darkness and persecution for those who uphold the truth, while Satan works through agents departed from the faith to perform apparent miracles and lying wonders, even bringing fire down from heaven. Such wonders can deceive even the elect, so miracles are not a reliable sign of divine guidance, and in the closing struggle Satan works to misrepresent God's character and lead even the elect astray if possible, directing his work against God's servants as they uphold His law.
Rejection is prepared by ministers' false teaching of consciousness after death and communion with the dead, by rejection of the Bible's truth about human nature and that the dead know nothing, by acceptance of the immortality of the soul and the false Sabbath, and by refusal to give up cherished sins and a plain Thus saith the Lord. Satan inspires the men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents upon earth, and their teaching that prayers should be offered to dead apostles and saints and to Mary is part of that satanic working and deceivableness of unrighteousness. Such prayers are useless and fall to the ground, because Mary and the saints are not in heaven but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven and the sound of the trump of God that shall call the dead from their prison house. People who will not give up cherished sins close themselves to the light and become prey to Satan's snares, and churches which refuse the messages of truth accept a lie and are deceived, which is part of what makes the churches Babylon against which God's warning is given.
The wicked one so revealed will be consumed with the spirit of the Lord's mouth and destroyed with the brightness of Christ's coming, when apostasy ends, truth and righteousness triumph, and lying wonders are defeated by divine power with the final message. Satan empowers the coming of the deceiver with power, signs, and lying wonders that ensnare people who reject God's truth, making them attractive or mixing apparent truth with error, but the deceiver's end is destruction at Christ's coming. Satan comes with all power and signs and lying wonders in his determined effort to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment sanctified by God as the memorial of creation and to institute a spurious sabbath in its place to bring about worldwide apostasy against God's law. By leading men and women to disregard the fourth commandment he places them on his side of the controversy, making professed Christians into idolaters who give a man-made institution the glory and honor God requires for His Sabbath day and compel others to worship this idol, and those who believe the lie and remain unrepentant despisers of God's law will surely be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy. Through individuals wholly under his control such as Thomas Paine and through pretended spiritual manifestations declared to far exceed the works of Christ, he tears away the foundation of the Christian's hope, puts out the light on the narrow way, makes the world believe the Bible is uninspired and no better than a story-book, puts back in the shade the Book that is to judge him, reduces the Saviour to a common man denying anything miraculous about His birth, death, and resurrection, and as the Roman guard spread the false report put in their mouth about Jesus' tomb so his deluded followers repeat these lies until the world taken in the snare and lulled into security finds out the deception when the seven last plagues are poured out.
At the same time the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord still in Babylon will heed the call to come out of her. Those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness will be left to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, the church has fully reached the fallen condition of Babylon foretold by the second angel, at the time of the message of Revelation 18, which is the last message that will ever be given to the world and will accomplish its work. The verse points forward to the darkest period of this earth's history just before the coming of Christ, when the condition of the world will be as in the days of Noah and of Lot before the coming of the Son of man, when Satan exerts all his power in deceptive unrighteousness plainly revealed by rapidly increasing darkness and multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions that not only lead the world captive but leaven the professed churches into a great apostasy dark as midnight. To God's people it brings a night of trial, weeping, and persecution for truth's sake, out of which God's light will shine, and in that time of peril Christ's followers are to bear to the world the warning of the Lord's second advent, and a people are to be prepared to stand before Him at His coming without spot and blameless, needing a special endowment of divine grace and power no less than in apostolic days.
Scripture Safeguard and Response
God caused His Word to be written out so plainly that even the weakest need not err, carefully preserved it from destruction by Satan, his angels and his agents while other books might perish, and near the close of time multiplied it so that all who desire may have a copy and arm themselves against increasing deceptions and lying wonders. Before Christ's second advent Satan works with power and deceptive signs and wonders to lead away from truth toward falsehood, and in a final struggle Antichrist performs marvelous works in sight as the last great delusion opens. Satan uses every device to keep men from obtaining knowledge of the Bible, because its plain utterances reveal his deceptions and it is given as the safeguard against false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. The counterfeit will so closely resemble the true that none can distinguish except by the Holy Scriptures, by whose testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested.
Safety lies in faith in God's Word prayerfully studied and practically applied as a shield from Satan's power, bringing victory through the blood of Christ, for lying wonders including apparent miraculous healings can seem to be from God and draw away from plain commandments those who turn to fables. Fallen angels track people every moment and work marvels and miracles in plain sight, including healing the sick before observers, and this display will be exhibited still more fully in a soon trial that will ensnare many who receive the wonders as from God. Minds are fitted for this deception by departure from the plain precepts and commandments, by forms of error and by giving heed to fables, while the only successful resistance is the Word as the weapon, with earnest prayerful study guarding against spiritualism's false teachings spread where least expected by Satan disguised as an angel of light. Unless people abide in Christ and stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, the Bible, substantiating faith by every word proceeding from God's mouth, they will be swept away when Satan comes in glory claiming to be Christ, since miracle-working power alone does not prove faith and God's people are not the only ones who will have it. Abiding on that platform with confession of sin, steadfast confidence and practical obedience gives spiritual perception and keeps the plain path.
The danger calls for watching carefully, examining well the foundation of hope from the Scriptures, being on guard and not departing from the faith, for the perishing are deceived because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. In the time of peril when Satan's working grows stronger as a master mind of six thousand years brings all acquired skill, subtlety and cruelty against God's people with great wrath because time is short, Christ's followers are to bear the warning of the second advent and be prepared without spot and blameless with special endowment of grace and power no less than in apostolic days. The delusion will spread until it must be contended with face to face in a conflict just before us, requiring readiness to give a reason of hope with meekness and fear, heeding the watchman's trumpet, warning others, and meeting the testing message with humility and self-sacrifice. Christ's way of preaching and healing cannot now be copied through miraculous works, for Satan will work miracles including false claims of divine healing, so genuine physical healing is to be joined with gospel teaching through medical missionary work.
In the warfare against commandment keepers that continues until probation closes, two influences bear upon the mind while Satan contests inch by inch to keep every soul, so those who flee to Jesus with earnest prayer to know truth and go to God and their Bibles find truth as it is in Jesus, while those who through policy refuse obedience go to any length in deception until light becomes darkness. No one is above temptation and none can safely trust human counsel or confidence in own strength, since Satan has come down with great power to work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those yielding to his plans, so the only safety is to make the Lord alone the Counsellor, depend wholly on God, lean hard on Jesus Christ and work carefully without mistakes. Safety also requires earnest prayer for Christ's grace, oneness with Christ and unity with one another, building a firm sanctified character to preserve integrity and spiritual life, with every power trained to war as faithful soldiers giving the enemy no place. Those who do their part to be ready will be protected by God's all-powerful arm, who would sooner send every angel out of glory to hedge faithful souls about than allow them deceived and led away by lying wonders. That protection includes constant communication between heaven and earth by angels for faithful people walking in light from the throne, with power found not in working miracles which Satan will counterfeit but in the sign of God and in standing on the living word, It is written, while covenant-breakers are left without God and without hope.
Miracle-working power of Satan spiritualistic in character will be seen in the last days to test those diseased with spiritualistic sentiments, and unless they change they will soon be swayed into accord with it, with those feeding on the supposedly excellent but spiritualistic theories of Living Temple in very dangerous place before it. Satan shall personate Christ and apparently work Christ's works by misrepresentation, professing to be Christ and even claiming to be God surrounded by evil angels with celestial glory, working miracles of all kinds to deceive if possible the very elect. Men so easily misled by depending on men's words will be tested, and only those who by faith hang helpless souls upon Christ, plainly understand doctrines, remain anchored and firm in received truths, and reject teachings denying the reality of God or Christ, will be unmoved and withhold allegiance from false christs by going not after them.