Evil spirits that looked like frogs leapt from their mouths. Revelation 16:13-14.

 I ended the previous post with these verses.

Revelation 16:13-14 NLT  And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.  (14)  They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.

What can I gather from this?

That the evil spirits leap from the mouths of the dragon/Satan; the beast/antichrist; and the false prophet. The spirits are clearly identified as demon spirits. Demons are not some bizarre, original creation, they are fallen, angels. Now, there might be some association with the hybrids created by the Nephalim having sexual relations with human women, but I will leave it at that.

Defining the false prophet is not a simplistic answer, so let's dig into this for a moment.

If I were to say, there was an oil spill, would you assume it was an oil tanker in the Persian gulf that got hit with an explosive UAV, or would you theorize that I had a bad moment while trying to fry chicken?

As you can see the answer requires a bit more information doesn't it, especially if I wanted you to be able to perceive an accurate mental picture. Now apply my logic, in this case, to whom or what this person is.

Another assumption we make, as religious Christians, is that we cannot look outside of the religious box we live in. Let's apply this assumption to the oil scenario. If you are a chef, can you receive information that provokes you to consider oils other than, olive or vegetable oil, especially if you wanted to comprehend something like a ruptured oil line in Long Beach Harbor, that was damaged by a ships anchor and polluted miles of beaches? Any reasonable person would and should.

Why tell you any of this?

Because there was a day at church when we were having lunch together. I can be rather introverted at times and on this particular day, I chose to make conversation with some people I had seen frequently but never talked with. Just days before this moment I had come across archaeological information from Israel that opened a door that changed the way I look at Jesus, “the carpenter.”

The first consideration about Jesus being a carpenter, and part of my religious mentality is,

• He did NOT say these words about Himself; they were spoken by others about His father.

  Matthew 13:55 "Is not this the carpenter's son?

• Secondly, those speaking about Him did NOT say carpenter, they called Him a tektōn.

  A tektōn is a craftsman and does not limit Him to being a carpenter. The idea of Him being a carpenter came from tradition and tradition said, you learned your father's trade. If you want to have a problem with this, you can take guesses as to how old Jesus was when Joseph died.

• So we cannot assume that Jesus was a carpenter, but we do.

  So we live in an extra-biblical world on a regular basis.

So, how does this information change my life or perception?

Perhaps it does not change anything unless you are willing to consider information OTHER than direct Biblical information.

Guess what I talked about with these strangers? Archaeology, and how the Israeli archaeologists had uncovered a granite quarry, no more than a quarter-mile outside of Nazareth, the town Jesus grew up in. At the quarry, those scientists found broken and partially completed remnants of granite drinkware, all of which showed clear lathe marks. The family I shared this information with seemed to follow what I was saying.

With only a moment's hesitation, the husband says, “I do NOT believe that we should consider anything extra-biblical in forming our understanding of Jesus.”

I responded by saying, fascinating that you should say that, as we accept the idea that Jesus was a carpenter when the Greek terminology tells us that Jesus was a tektōn. We don't challenge what the word tektōn means, we merely accept that it means Jesus was a carpenter, however, it is an undefined term and cannot be defined without additional information.

So what do we do?

We chose to ignore that archaeology has intelligibly demonstrated that it was possible for Jesus to be a craftsman at this particular quarry.

You might try to tell me that we have no evidence to demonstrate that Jesus was a craftsman with granite, but we do, and it is NOT so un-biblical. In the second chapter of John's gospel, Jesus and the disciples were invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee.

“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus *said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus *said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." His mother *said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."”
(John 2:1-5 NASB)

No other disciple recorded this incident so we have NO other biblical information to pull from, and, therefore, have to make logical, even non-biblical assumptions.

• What we do see is a mother inserting herself into a situation that may not have been her responsibility.

• We do not know how she would know they were out of wine,

• And, neither do we know the nationality of the servants that Mary spoke to.

  To say they were Jewish servants is pure conjecture on your part. Since the Jews were so quick to tell Jesus, we have NEVER been slaves to anyone, we must presume that these were Gentile slaves.

• What is made very clear to us, is that Mary understood Jesus' capabilities for the miraculous, and told the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

What happened next is extraordinary.

• Jesus seemed to know that there were stone pots, of enormous size.

  Remember, we have NO other constrictive information, so anything we assume about this is conjecture.

Now there were six stone water-pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus *said to them, "Fill the water-pots with water." So they filled them up to the brim. And He *said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him. (John 2:6-8 NASB)

Nobody pays attention to the fact that these stone pots were most likely handcrafted, lathed, and capable of holding up to thirty gallons of water; and quite possibly made one-quarter mile outside of Nazareth. The other significant thing was that they were made of stone.

What is the big deal about that?

Israel had some severe sanitary laws, laid out by God, that they had to abide by. For example.

'As for any earthenware vessel into which one of them may fall, whatever is in it becomes unclean and you shall break the vessel. (Leviticus 11:33 NASB)

For the longest time, all they had was wood or clay vessels from which to eat. However, history records that several years prior to this wedding, an enterprising Jewish council member, realizing that the restrictions of God's law said NOTHING about granite and therefore was meant by God to always be ceremonially clean, This entrepreneur presented his case to the council and they agreed. From that day forward granite was declared perpetually clean and is looked on as clean to this day. For the most part, we Gentiles know nothing about Jewish laws concerning cleanliness, nor do we know that a Jew could explain this to you if you asked, as they hold to this exception today. If those pots had been earthenware and Gentile slaves had touched them, the pots would have to be broken and trashed; but since they were granite, Jesus could have slaves fill them, without a thought.

Is it possible that the craftsman, Jesus, made those very pots?

We have nothing to tell us otherwise. Because Jewish law was modified, it was now possible for Gentiles to fill the waterpots without harm. All this information may have played a role in Jesus turning the water into wine, but should you exclude it because it is extra-biblical?

The answer from this man I spoke to was, no.

If I have done my job in conveying this story, then you should be able to see that extra-biblical information might help to explain who this false prophet is.

While we, in the Christian community, have prophetic Words and scriptures contained with the Bible to guide us in our attempt to understand, don't be shocked to find out that Islam does as well. For them, scriptures are the words of the Qur'an and they have their own prophetic words in writings called hadith.

Our imagery of the false prophet varies so much that some portrayals show the man as a vicious wolf covered in sheepskin; and yet, this is how Islam portrays Jesus, although they don't call Him that, they call him the Dajjal¹.

Here is a short definition of what they perceive the Dajjal to be.

Dajjal means "deceiver" in Arabic. In Islamic eschatology, Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal is an evil false prophet who, it is said, will come to earth and try to lure people into following Shaytan (Satan). It is believed he will then be destroyed by Christ or the Imam Mahdi.

The Dajjal, to Muslims, is the false prophet, which we believers understand to be Jesus. How convenient that Jesus shows up about the same time as the biblical end of the false prophet, and Islam's Mahdi – the antichrist.

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."" (Revelation 19:11-16 NASB)

And the beast [the Antichrist] was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast [An interesting fact is that the only one who takes this mark will be those who DO NOT have their names written in the book of Life.] and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20 NASB)

How does the Bible describe the false prophet?

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. (Revelation 13:11 NASB)

The fact that he had two horns like a lamb is indicative of him being a representative of “godly teaching,” either that or a Jew. Keep in mind, that the Bible sitting on your shelf, is a Jewish book and is centered on the Jews. We, the church, are just a side note.

As I have pointed out in previous posts, there is a man that already exists and fits this role. His name is Rabbi Baruch Kahane, and he has been the high priest designate since 2016. When I mention this and show the picture of the Rabbi, their response is, he seems like a nice man.

This phrase “ he seems like a nice man” is exactly what the enemy wants out of us, as it will be the catalyst for a great deception. Think about this, scripture tells us that he has two horns like a lamb. City folk, like myself, perceive the horns as a bad thing not knowing that sheep are born with horns and that the shepherds presumably cut them off to preserve the wool of other sheep.

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24 NASB)

If, a loved man, like this, suddenly began performing great signs and wonders, do you think it might be possible to draw Jewish teachers away from their fragile relationships with God?

No doubt in my mind, although religious teachers, who ignore God's words, portray this “misleading” differently and try to make you think this is talking about you instead of God's chosen – the Jewish leadership. Remember, there is always a context and it applies to a time when the church, as the body of Christ, is gone. It would be impossible to mislead the church if it has been caught away. Secondly, this time is halfway through the seven years of God's wrath upon Israel and the nations – the time seen as the time of the antichrist.

• Horns like a sheep are telling us that the false prophet is a religious man.

• Performing great signs only happens at the halfway point, and, up to this point has NOT been a regular part of the false prophet's functions. If this man, who becomes the false prophet, has been acting as the high priest, imagine the awe and respect he will have.

• When it comes to signs and wonders, you have to keep in mind that there have been two witnesses from God, and they have been performing signs and testifying of God's greatness for three and one-half years. With their mission accomplished God allows for them to die. You have to realize that everyone has tried to kill them without success or harm. These two witnesses have been doing the very thing that this false prophet will do. It is not a question of mimicry, but it is exactly what Satan/the serpent/the dragon does, he perverts God's will and ways, and, as scripture shows us, he is empowered by Satan just as the beast is.

Revelation 13:11-12 NASB “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence...”

Daniel 8:24 is speaking about the insolent king that will come when he says this.

"His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree And prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. (Daniel 8:24 NASB)

Since you know that the false prophet exercises ALL THE AUTHORITY of the first beast, then you should understand that it is the dragon that gives the false prophet this authority. If you want validation of what I just told you above, then read the entirety of Revelation 13:11-17.

One last comment.

These two passages that I initiated this study with are here to show you a purpose.

And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
(Revelation 16:13-14 NASB)

The entirety of their purpose is to gather the kings of the whole world for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.

“kings” is the Greek word basileus, and according to Thayer's definitions also means leader of the people, prince, commander, lord of the land.

It would seem that everyone who thinks they have power is being drawn to this battle.

The terminology that the NASB uses is the phrase “the war of the great day of God, the Almighty,” Many focus on the term Armageddon and will deem this battle we see in Revelation 16:14 to be that very battle.

If you do a word search for the term Armageddon the KJV produces one result, while the NASB gives us NO instances of the term.

The Ultimate Cross-Reference Treasury defines Armageddon in this manner. It is called

• The hill of slaughter,

• The Mount of Decision or Sentence (Lange).

• The Meggido Valley,

• A symbol of defeat;

• A hill of victory.

• Armageddon is also known as, the Hill of Megiddo, where the Lord would avenge the crime of the heathen (Gebhardt, p. 274, cited in Dusterdiek, Note LXXX, p. 425)

• I will add that virtually every Biblical battle has been fought in this valley.

  An example of this comes from the book of Judges.

  "Kings came; they fought. Yes, the kings of Kena`an fought at Ta`anakh, by the waters of Megiddo; but they took no spoil of silver. (Judges 5:19 CJB)

• And that Megiddo is situated in the plain of Jezreel, which happens to be where David killed Goliath.

  1 Samuel 29 tells us of how David, running from King Saul, went to Achish and allied himself to him, in the land of Philistines, the Jezreel valley.

Though we are not there yet, the only place we find Armageddon in the scriptures is in Revelation 16.

And he shall gather them together into a place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

(Revelation 16:16 DRB)

Notice that it does not imply that you will find the word in the Old Testament, merely because it says, “in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

So, in the world of battles, we have the

• Gog, Magog war of Ezekiel 38,39

  This will be a massive attack against Israel. It almost sounds as though this war has some nuclear weapons being launched, and God appears to launch fireballs against the enemies of Israel. This might happen moments before the rapture of the church, or a short time later; it's hard to say.

• The antichrist calls for peace, but keep in mind that Israel is not mentioned in that call. Three and half years later, the false prophet will launch a deadly war against believers and Jews. At some point 2/3 of Israel is killed or destroyed.

• Revelation 19 tells us that Jesus returns at the end of the time of wrath. All those who chose to fight against Him will be killed. This battle also happens in the Jezreel valley, and there is where the blood will run as high as the horses' bridle.

• After all this, we enter a thousand years of peace. While people stop fighting, considering that the nations, though limited in number, will continue to live during this time and still have their free will choices. At least Satan will be bound and unable to affect their decision-making process. At the end of this thousand-year period,  Satan will be released to deceive the nations one last time. They will rise up in a war against God and the Holy City, where most of us will live. This battle will also take place in the Jezreel valley.

With this information and lack of scriptural witnesses, it seems that it would be inappropriate to walk in confusion and call everything the battle of Armageddon.

Hopefully, this helps.

Today would be a great day to turn your life over to the Lord.

1I had intended to give you extensive, extra-biblical, information, but I get whined at about my posts being too long already. If you want more information then I suggest you do an internet search for: Dajjal; Isa ibn Maryam; The Mahdi; Twelvers; Islamic prophecies; Qur'an, and Islamic eschatology. You should find the answers you seek.