The Bible says that an unholy trinity will arise in the latter days. This unholy trinity will be Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Satan is called the Dragon in Revelations. He has always wanted to be like God, if not God, and this will be his one and only chance to actually "play God" in the last 7 years on earth. Satan will take the role of God the Father, the Antichrist will take the role of Jesus and the False Prophet will take the role of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's job is to lead people to Jesus. In the same way, the False Prophet will be the one to lead the world to serve the Antichrist. He will be instrumental in arranging for people to have the mark of the beast put on either their right hands or their foreheads.
The 10 nation confederacy will be 10 nations that the Antichrist and False Prophet will rule from. The consensus is that the 10 nation confederacy will be 10 nations from Europe. Right now, there are 25 countries in what is called the European Union. By the time the Antichrist gets ready to take center stage, there can only be 10 countries left to fulfill Scripture.
I'm going to list the main verses from Scripture having to do with the Antichrist, the False Prophet and the 10 nation confederacy that they will rule from. Read these verses very carefully! You are getting an incredible look into the future from the Word of God as to what will becoming our way!
1. The Antichrist is called the Beast, the Lawless One, the Man of Sin and the Son of Perdition in the following verses. The first verse is right out of Revelations. "Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name ... and the dragon gave him his power, his throne and great authority. 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 worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blaspheming against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. And it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given to him over every tribe, tongue and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelations 13:1-10) Jesus is the Lamb. Notice that Satan is the one who arranges to give full power to the Antichrist to be able to rule with the power and authority that he will have. This verse literally tells us that the Antichrist will have full rule over the entire world for a short period of time before Jesus finally comes back to defeat him.
2. The next verse tells you that the 10 horns mentioned in the above verse are 10 kings - 10 nations that will give their allegiance to the Antichrist. "And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdoms as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called chosen and faithful." (Revelations 17:12-14) 3. The next verse comes from the prophet Daniel out of the Old Testament. Daniel was given very powerful dreams and visions as to what was going to happen at the end of time. The first verse was a dream given to him by God on the Antichrist. This verse also tells you that the Antichrist will be a man! "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the other beasts before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words." (Daniel 7:7-8) Notice Daniel's description of the Antichrist. He tells us that this man will be the worst dictator the world has ever seen. He will make Hitler look pale in comparison to what he is going to do once he gets on center stage. He says this beast is different than all the other beasts that have ever come before him and that he will be terrible, dreadful and exceedingly strong!
The above verse also implies that 3 of the kingdoms under the Antichrist may not at first go willingly under his rule. He will have to subdue them to get their allegiance as will be shown in the next verse.
4. The next verse from Daniel also interprets the 10 horns as being 10 kingdoms. It goes on to say that the Antichrist will subdue 3 of these kings. It also says that he will be allowed to persecute the saints of God for three and half years. An Angel from God is giving him this message.
Thus he said: "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall arise after them: He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, shall intend to change times and laws. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time, and times and half a time." (Daniel 7:23-25) A time = 1 year. Times = 2 years. Half a time = half a year. This comes to a total of three and half years. The first verse from Revelations 13:1-10 - states he will have authority to continue for 42 months which is also three and half years.
5. The next verse from Daniel gives more information as to some of the personality traits of the Antichrist. He will have fierce features, understands sinister schemes, will be very cunning and will be the epitome of conceit and arrogance. "And in the latter time of this kingdom, when the transgressors have revealed their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; He shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive; He shall destroy the mighty, also the holy people. Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without human hand." (Daniel 8:23-26) Notice the last sentence. He will not be destroyed by any one man or nation - but by Jesus Himself when He comes back for the 2nd time to our earth. The description of what Jesus does with him will be in the caption on the battle of Armageddon.
6. The next verse in Daniel gives some additional information on this man. He may be gay as he has no desire for women. He also may have some Jewish descent in him as it states he has no "regard" for the God of his fathers. "Then the king shall do according to his own will; he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above them all." (Daniel 11:36-37)
This man will end up being the ultimate ego-maniac of all time!
7. The next verse out of John tells us that his name is Antichrist. "Little children, in the LAST HOUR; and as you have heard that the ANTICHRIST is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour." (1 John 2:18).
8. The next verse tells us that he is also called the lawless one. "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders." (2 Thessalonians 2:9)
9. The next verse shows that he is called the man of sin and the son of perdition. This verse also tells us that when he seats himself in the rebuilt Jewish Temple at the halfway point in the Tribulation, he will literally pronounce himself to be God! "Let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 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 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
10. The next 2 verses are on the False Prophet. The 1st verse tells exactly what this man is going to do. The 2nd verse gives us his name - the False Prophet. The Bible also calls him another beast.
"Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by these signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive the mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666." (Revelations 13:11-18)
"Then the beast was captured, and with him THE FALSE PROPHET who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image." (Revelations 19:20) You will also note that the Antichrist apparently receives some kind of wound that should kill him. My guess is that there is probably some kind of assassination attempt on his life. He miraculously survives this wound and apparently receives a real healing - obviously from Satan himself and this causes the entire world to marvel at him and makes it easier for the rest of the world to fall under his demonic spell and follow him. Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet will now set the stage for what is called the 7 year Tribulation. THIS 7 TRIBULATION PERIOD WILL BE THE WORST PERIOD OF TIME THAT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. JESUS HIMSELF TOLD THE APOSTLES THAT THERE NEVER HAS BEEN A TIME OF TROUBLE THROUGHOUT HUMAN HISTORY AS BAD AS THIS TIME IS GOING TO BE AND THAT THERE WILL NEVER EVER BE ANOTHER PERIOD AS BAD AS THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE! Just as God gave His Son three and half years to walk with His power on this earth, God is going to allow Satan, through the Antichrist, to wreak as much havoc and destruction on this earth as he possibly can in the last three and half years of the Tribulation.
This is the 4th part of a 22 part series of end time events.
Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible Knowledge, articles, commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100 Bible articles. All free of charge.
If you do not want to wait for the next article, you can go to our
end times section of our website for all 15 articles regarding the 2nd Coming of Jesus.
Copyright © 2005 by Michael Bradley. All Rights Reserved.