Who Is the Counterfeit Christ?
We must not forget that the Anti-Messiah is the exact counterfeit of the true Messiah, Yeshua. Everything Satan does is false. John 8:44 says Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” As the great deceiver, the only thing Satan can do is create counterfeit copies of God’s original versions.
This is why we see even a counterfeit, satanic trinity in the end-times story involving a dragon (Satan), beast (Antichrist), and false prophet. (See Revelation 16:13; 19:20.) Satan, the dragon, is the counterfeit equivalent to the Father; the beastly Antichrist is supposed to imitate Jesus, the Son; and the false prophet is a false replica of the Holy Spirit. All three will work together in the last days to destroy God’s people, and all three eventually will meet their eternal fate in the lake of fire.
While on earth, the Anti-Messiah will be “anointed” by Satan in the same way Yeshua was anointed by the Father. This means the Antichrist will be empowered with every demonic force available. Satan, “who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9), will ultimately “anoint” his son with the only real thing he can offer: deception. Yet before you begin to think that all the Antichrist will be able to do is lie, realize that he will be the manifestation of a supernatural spirit of deception that not only has duped the world for thousands of years but in the end times will also be accompanied by powerful signs and wonders. We see traces of it even now in the multitude of stories about near-death experiences. Many of these people are not believers, yet they claim to have gone to heaven, making it seem as if people don’t need to profess faith in Yeshua to spend eternity in heaven.
Daniel 8 says the Antichrist’s “power shall be mighty, but not by his power.…By his cunning, he shall cause deceit to succeed under his hand” (Dan. 8:24–25). The B’rit Hadashah’s counterpart to these verses, 2 Thessalonians 2, adds that the Antichrist’s “coming is in accordance with the working of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of unrighteousness among those who perish” (2 Thess. 2:9–10). Notice the use of the word all in that passage—“all power and signs and false wonders” and “all deception.” This will be a full-throttle, all-out blitz attack from the forces of evil, all channeled into the Antichrist.
Just as Jesus walked in power and used signs, wonders, and healings to attest to the truth of His divinity, the Anti-Messiah will use signs and wonders to deceive people into believing he is the actual messiah. Some believe that Revelation 13:3 implies he will even be resurrected, which will cause many to conclude that he is sent from God.
Sadly, I meet many believers today who would be prime candidates to be deceived by the Antichrist’s otherworldly powers. They go through life seeking one experience with God after another, one feeling or physical healing or blessing or supernatural sign. They attend conference after conference chasing only experiences instead of the truth of God. It’s not wrong to seek the Lord for miracles, experiences, and healing; I desire these too. And God wants us to come to Him for everything. But there is a problem when we desire those things more than we desire Him and truth.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who are drifting away from the faith or consider Christianity irrelevant to their daily lives. Church attendance fell dramatically during the COVID pandemic, with many people apparently finding church as nonessential as some local governments did. On top of that, a growing number of Americans are claiming no religious affiliation, identifying as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.
Many believers have held on to the scripture that says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6, KJV). Yet today, many young people are not “trained up in the way they should go,” so they don’t know where to “return” now that they’re older. During the hippie era, teens and young adults strayed from the faith, but after they got married and had children, they returned to the church. That’s not happening anymore because the church is unfamiliar to many young adults.
This is exactly how so many will fall in the end times. Either they will be so desperate for the spectacular that they will fall for demonic signs and wonders, or they will have so little understanding of Christianity they won’t recognize truth from lies.
Scripture repeatedly warns us to stand true to the faith amid the false prophets, false teachings, and false gospels of the last days. Even today, many are straying from the truth that was once and for all delivered to us by the apostles. According to one study, only a third of Americans believe Jesus is the only way to salvation, and another study found that more than 60 percent of born-again Christians under the age of forty believe Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad are all equally valid paths to salvation.
Paul said if anyone preached a different gospel than the one he preached, “Let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). But many are preaching a gospel today that is not the one Paul preached. Paul declared a God-centered gospel that focused on the cross and demanded obedience. The false gospel that many receive today is man-centered and prosperity-focused and does not require repentance. This gospel of greasy grace and sloppy agape will not prepare us for the end times.
What’s more, society has created a religion of unity and tolerance, elevating it as the highest moral ethic while demonizing the hard truths in Scripture as oppressive and outdated. As the Antichrist emerges, more and more people will receive and believe in this false gospel of political correctness and tolerance. This will apply even more when the Antichrist is surrounded by signs and wonders appearing to confirm that God has sent him.
Let’s get one thing straight: Satan is not dumb. He will not make the Antichrist look evil. No, just as Satan sometimes “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14), the Anti-Messiah will be anti-anointed with a covering that makes him look more appealing—in fact, more so than any other leader in history. He will not look like the devil but instead will be incredibly charismatic, compassionate, gracious, and seemingly loving. He will reach out to all humanity, show mercy to all, and reinforce his tolerance for all kinds of people. The crowds will flock around him, just as they did Jesus because they will fall in love with his words of wisdom, his heart, his inclusiveness, and his power. Simply stated, he will seem like the Son of God.
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