The Fake Jesus and a Mysterious Harlot

 In recent blog posts, we’ve analyzed the mystery of lawlessness mentioned in 2 Thessalonians. The mystery of lawlessness describes human attempts to change or abolish God’s appointed times and laws. It describes a counterfeit gospel — the one preached by mainstream Christianity!

As we’ve seen, mainstream Christianity is the spiritual descendant of pagan Israel and Samaria. It pays lip service to God the Father and Jesus Christ, but teaches men to disobey God’s Word. And, as we’ve also seen, it mixes paganism with God’s truth.

At the end of this age, the mystery of lawlessness culminates with a man that the apostle Paul described as the “man of sin,” “son of perdition,” and “lawless one” (2 Thes. 2:3, 8). A man “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thes. 2:4). A man elsewhere called the Beast or the Antichrist.

This Antichrist, and the system he represents, is the topic of today’s study.

What Is An Antichrist?

Though the Antichrist hasn’t yet come, the apostle John wrote that “many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18). Here’s how John defines an antichrist: “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:22-23).

What does it mean to deny God the Father and Jesus Christ? Is it simply denying Their existence? Speaking words against Them?

That can be one way, but it’s far from the whole story. A few verses earlier, we’re told what it really means to deny Jesus Christ:

3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. (1 John 2:3-7.)

Disobeying Jesus’ commandments and words is denying Him! Walking contrary to the way Jesus walked is denying Him. And how did He walk? In obedience to God’s law. Jesus wasn’t lawless.

The apostle Paul’s description of Christ-deniers parallels John’s: “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work” (Tit. 1:16). Calling oneself a Christian isn’t enough; one must also obey!

Notice, too, that 1 John 2:7 told us Jesus' commandments aren’t new. They’re the same commandments we’ve had “from the beginning” — from Creation. The same commandments we find throughout the Bible from beginning to end. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

Later, John adds that an antichrist also denies Jesus’ coming in the flesh. “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:2-3). “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 1:7).

Applying the same principles as above, denying that Jesus has come in the flesh means denying His teachings and way of life. Anyone could say the words that Jesus has come in the flesh. But confessing Him means more than paying lip service; it means believing and obeying Him. It means walking as He walked.

This reinforces what we’ve seen before: the spirit of the Antichrist is the spirit of lawlessness. It’s the spirit of attempting to change and nullify God’s law. It’s the spirit of rebellion against our Creator.

The Headquarters of Idolatry

Now, the spirit of the Antichrist has been present throughout human history, and many antichrists have come. From the garden of Eden until now, mankind has rebelled against the Almighty. God brought the Flood because mankind disobeyed His laws: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).

After the Flood, man quickly rebelled against his Creator once more. He exalted and glorified himself in place of God: “And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth’” (Gen. 11:4).

Men thought to make a name for themselves. They thought to unify all humanity into one city and one system. They established the first one world government, a new world order, so to speak.

They built the city and its tower of brick: “Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar” (Gen. 11:3).

This paints an important spiritual picture. God’s temple is made of stone: “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5). Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone on which we are built (1 Pet. 2:6-7). Jesus told us, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Mat. 7:24-25).

Almighty God, the Rock of our salvation, is also our strong tower: “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower” (Psa. 18:2; KJV).

But men built their own tower, not of stone, but of bricks of earth — the same earth from which God made man. They rejected the Rock of our salvation and built on the foundation of men. Jesus said, “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (Mat. 7:26-27).

And so God brought men’s scheme to nothing. “So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth” (Gen. 11:8-9).

Babel, in the land of Shinar, is also the Hebrew name for Babylon, and the whole region came to be called Babylon. Here reigned Nimrod, a man who exalted himself in place of God: “Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.’ And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar” (Gen. 10:8-10). We might view Nimrod as a type and forerunner of the end-time Antichrist.

Thus Babylon gave birth to paganism after the Flood. It was there, in Babylon, that man rejected his Creator and began to serve other gods. Throughout the Bible, Babylon remains the headquarters of idolatry. It represents the spirit of the Antichrist, the spirit of lawlessness. And so, in the last days, we find the Antichrist associated with “Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5).

God calls His people out of Babylon: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). “Move from the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans” (Jer. 50:8). “Flee from the midst of Babylon, and every one save his life! Do not be cut off in her iniquity” (Jer. 51:6). “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:17).

When God began to work with Abraham, He called him out of the land of Babylon, out of Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen. 15:7; Neh. 9:7; Acts 7:2-4). Abraham and his relatives settled in Haran.

Now, Haran lies about 500 miles northwest of Babylon and about 500 miles northeast of Jerusalem. It’s halfway between Babylon and the Promised Land. Both physically and spiritually, Abraham’s family journeyed only halfway. Most of his family, including his father, continued to worship other gods (Josh. 24:2).

So God called Abraham out from among his family as well, resettling him and his household in the Promised Land. To leave Haran for the Promised Land, Abraham passed over the Euphrates River (Josh. 24:2). He became a Hebrew (Gen. 14:13), which Brown-Driver-Briggs defines as “one from the other side, from the region beyond.” Abraham and his household passed over from the other side to walk with God.

There can be no half-measures. No mixture of truth and paganism. One is either fully committed to God, or fully committed to this world. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jam. 4:4).

Abraham was all-in with our Creator. He did all that God commanded him and became called “the friend of God” (Jam. 2:23). Spiritually, he’s “the father of us all” (Rom. 4:16). Or, as some have called him, “the father of the faithful.”

We’re either Abraham’s children or children of Babylon. Friends of God or friends of this world. We abide by God’s laws, or we are lawless. That’s it. Those are the two choices, and there is no other.

The Two Women

In the last days, these two ways of life are pictured by two women in the Book of Revelation, one in Rev. 12 and the other in Rev. 17. The woman of Rev. 17 is Mystery Babyon, the woman who rides the beast. We’ll get to her momentarily.

But let’s start with the first woman: “Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth” (Rev. 12:1-2).

The following verses describe a fiery dragon hovering over her to devour her child as soon as it’s born. The dragon, of course, is Satan the devil (Rev. 12:9). The child brought forth by the woman is Jesus Christ: “She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne” (Rev. 12:5).

Following this, the woman flees into the wilderness (v. 6). Satan is banished from heaven and attempts to destroy her, but fails (vv. 7-17). So “the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).

Who is this woman? She’s the mother of those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” She’s the heavenly Jerusalem: “The Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26).

The heavenly Jerusalem is “the city of the great King” (Psa. 48:2; Mat. 5:35). It’s “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). It’s our heavenly homeland (Heb. 11:14-16), our mother country, if you will. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).

And so, we find some passages in the Prophets paralleling Rev. 12 and describing Jerusalem in labor. Let’s look at a couple of them.

In Mic. 5:2-3, God foretold Christ’s first coming and its aftermath, saying: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Therefore He shall give them up, until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return to the children of Israel.”

Who is “she who is in labor”? Why, the previous chapter told us: “Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs. For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go. There you shall be delivered; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies” (Mic. 4:10).

So the first woman is Jerusalem, also called Zion. The heavenly Jerusalem, mind you, not the earthly! This is why she has “a garland of twelve stars,” representing the twelve tribes of Israel, for all of God’s people are spiritual Israelites and descendants of Abraham.

The second woman is Babylon. When she appears in Rev. 17, she’s called “Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5). She persecutes the people of God, the children of the first woman: “I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:6).

Spiritual harlotry, which ancient Israel committed often, corresponds to idolatry. It’s being unfaithful to Almighty God and defiling oneself with the gods of the heathen. It involves mixing and polluting God’s truth with paganism, just as ancient Israel did and just as mainstream Christianity has done.

Mystery Babylon rides the beast (Rev. 17:3), that is, the Antichrist and his kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, she represents apostasy — the mystery of lawlessness. She is the religion of the Antichrist and his kingdom. She seeks to turn mankind away from the Almighty, and persecutes those who hold fast to Him.

Rise of the Lawless One

Now when Satan is cast out of heaven, he attempts to thwart the Kingdom of God by destroying God’s people. He persecutes the children of Zion, whose citizenship is in heaven: “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).

How does he do this? In the very next verse, Rev. 13:1, the beast rises up out of the sea. Then we read, “The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast” (Rev. 13:2-4).

The Antichrist claims to be God, and men will worship him. Many prophecies in Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelation, and elsewhere speak of this. The apostle Paul described it perhaps the most succinctly, writing that the Man of Sin “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thes. 2:4).

The beast setting himself up as God in the house of God is reminiscent of King Jeroboam setting up a golden calf at Bethel, for Bethel in Hebrew (Strong’s # H1008) means “house of God.” And, as we’ve seen previously, Jeroboam’s purpose was to turn Israel away from God.

Jeroboam also thought to change times and law, telling Israel not to keep God’s Holy Days, but to celebrate a holiday of his own choosing instead (1 Kings 12:26-33). The end-time Antichrist does the same, for he “shall intend to change times and law” (Dan. 7:25). As we’ve seen before, this is part of the mystery of lawlessness perpetrated by many antichrists throughout history.

The Antichrist is accompanied by a false prophet who “performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men” (Rev. 13:13). As Paul wrote, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thes. 2:9-10).

It’s reminiscent of the magicians of Egypt who opposed Moses, or of Simon the Sorcerer “who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great” (Acts 8:9).

So the Antichrist claims to be God and works great miracles by the power of Satan. In essence, he claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s a deception so spectacular, a counterfeit so perfect, that the whole world will worship the dragon and the beast. That means Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all other religions, too. They will all hail him as the messiah, the savior of mankind.

Though Satan “deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9), he wants most of all to deceive God’s people. Remember the story of Haman in the Book of Esther. Though all the people bowed before Haman (Est. 3:2), he was filled with murderous rage at the one man, Mordecai, who refused (Est. 3:5). And so it is with Satan.

Jesus warned that the false messiah would attempt to deceive even the elect: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it” (Mat. 24:23-26).

Jesus told us that His return will be seen by all: “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27). But notice in the passage above that the coming of the false messiah will be different. He will seem to appear on earth out of nowhere. “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.”

As we already saw, the arrival of the false messiah is described as a beast rising up out of the sea (Rev. 13:1). The woman who rides the beast “sits on many waters” (Rev. 17:1). Later, we’re told, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15). So the beast rising up out of the sea pictures the Antichrist, the false messiah, rising up from among the people. Seeming to appear out of nowhere, just as Jesus warned.

The Fake Jesus

It will be easy for the world to fall for the false messiah, for the fake Jesus, because it doesn’t know the true Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). But if one doesn’t know the true Jesus, then how easily might one fall for a clever counterfeit?

The Antichrist is lawless. Mainstream Christianity falsely believes that Jesus abolished God’s law.

The Antichrist changes times and law. Mainstream Christianity claims that Jesus abolished the Sabbath and Holy Days, and it keeps Sunday, Christmas, Easter, and other pagan holidays instead!

Mainstream Christianity preaches, not the Jesus of the Bible, but “another Jesus” whom the apostles did not preach and “another gospel” which Jesus’ original disciples did not accept (2 Cor. 11:4). The “Jesus” of mainstream Christianity is a fake — a long-haired, effeminate creep who preached no standards of righteousness, but only love and tolerance for wickedness; who worked miracles and died to abolish God’s law.

As we’ve seen previously, this fake Jesus has more in common with the false messiahs of the pagans — such as Tammuz, Adonis, and Attis — than he does with the true Jesus of the Bible. But this fake Jesus is the one that the world knows!

The truth is, if Jesus abolished God’s law or taught disobedience to it, then He would’ve been a false prophet. The fact that He also worked miracles and performed healings would be irrelevant. God warned His people about false prophets who worked signs and wonders:

1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

2 “and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’

3 “you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4 “You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

5 “But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. (Deut. 13:1-5.)

But Jesus didn’t teach against God’s law or preach a different God. Jesus Christ upheld God’s law and warned of judgment upon those who taught against it:

17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

18 “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

19 “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat. 5:17-19.)

By His own words, if Jesus had taught against God’s law, He would’ve been a false prophet! “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”

Many men throughout history have taught disobedience to God’s law. Nimrod, the magicians of Egypt, Balaam, and Jeroboam are just a few. If Jesus had done the same, He would’ve been just another in a long line of false prophets, miracles or no miracles. If Jesus had sought to “change times and law” (Dan. 7:25), to abolish the Sabbath, to change the Sabbath to Sunday, or to substitute pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter for God’s Holy Days, then He would’ve been just another false prophet, miracles or no miracles.

But Jesus Christ is the living Word of God (John 1:1-3; Rev. 19:13). How, then, could the living Word of God teach against the written Word of God? Or how could the Son of God say that “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30) and then abolish His Father’s law — and His own? Obviously He didn’t!

But the world doesn’t know the Jesus of the Bible, nor do most Christians. They don’t know the Son of God who upheld His Father’s law and preached repentance (Mat. 9:13); they know only the long-haired, effeminate creep who abolished God’s law. This is the version of Jesus portrayed in mass media, on TV, and in movies.

And so, when a man claiming to be Jesus Christ appears on the scene preaching against God’s law, working miracles, and thinking to “change times and law,” they will be easily deceived. For that’s who they think the real Jesus is!

Tribulation and Deliverance

The world will be fooled. Mainstream Christians will be fooled. Anyone who isn’t diligently paying attention will be fooled. But those who truly know their God, the sheep who know their Shepherd’s voice, will not.

Like Haman, and like his master Satan, the Antichrist will be filled with rage at those who don’t fall for his deception. And so, for forty-two months, he will make war against God’s people and try to destroy them (Rev. 13:5-7). This is the Great Tribulation.

We’re told that the false prophet who accompanies the Antichrist will “cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Rev. 13:15). We’re told that the woman who rides the beast, Mystery Babylon, is “drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:6).

But God tells His people to be patient and wait for His justice: “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Rev. 13:10).

When the days of tribulation are complete, Jesus Christ will return to earth with His saints and destroy the false messiah (Rev. 19:11-21). The apostle Paul succinctly described the rise and fall of the Antichrist in one sentence: “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thes. 2:8).

Those who follow Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, will live forever, even if they give their earthly lives for Him. Those who follow the false messiah will perish. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mat. 16:25).

Choose You This Day

So which way do we go? Joshua told the Israelites, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15).

Which choice do we make? Do we obey our God and His laws, or do we reject them? Do we come out from Babylon and touch no unclean thing, or do we cling to this world and mix truth with paganism?

Are we children of Abraham, or children of Babylon? Children of Zion, or children of the Great Whore? Friends of God, or friends of this world?

Which Jesus do we follow? The long-haired, effeminate creep of pop culture, or the mighty Savior of the Bible?