False Prophet: Revelation 13:11-17.
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelation 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Revelation 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Mystery Religion Babylon:
Revelation 17 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Mystery Religion Babylon: Jews, evangelicals reach out to Sunni Gulf Arab leaders and the Beast.
Aya Batrawy ASSOCIATED PRESS. 2019
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Against the backdrop of the first papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula is an interfaith conference that includes prominent U.S. rabbis and Christian evangelicals, who are seeking stronger recognition of Israel through closer ties with Muslim figures and Arab leaders.
These merged interests come as Arab leaders look to strengthen ties with the Trump administration through his evangelical base of supporters. It’s also happening as Gulf Arab states take their once-private outreach to Israel more public in the absence of peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, who founded The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, New York, is at the forefront of building ties between Jews and Muslims in the U.S. and the Middle East. Through greater interreligious dialogue, he’s pushed for closer relations between Muslim leaders and the state of Israel.
“I think there is a very, very keen interest in bringing Islam and Judaism together, but our role as Jewish leaders – we also need to sensitize and educate and expose both Gulf leaders and Muslim interfaith leaders to the fact that Israel again is not a political dimension for the Jewish people; it’s at the very core of our religion,” he told The Associated Press in an interview on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Schneier has carved a foothold in the region to deliver that message. The king of Bahrain has appointed him as a special adviser and he’s been hosted by Qatar’s ruler in Doha. He also has links to Saudi Arabia’s interfaith center in Vienna and has been invited to Saudi Arabia to meet the crown prince.
He even boasts that he has helped ensure kosher hot dogs will be available to soccer fans attending the World Cup in 2022 in Qatar.
Over the weekend, he delivered a sermon to a congregation of expatriate Jews in an unmarked synagogue in Dubai – a move that not only underlined growing acceptance and recognition of Jewish life in Gulf Arab states but also of the warming of ties between these nations and Israel.
“I remember when I first entered the fray here in the Gulf, there was a tendency to bifurcate Israel and Judaism, to break out Israel from Judaism,” Schneier said, explaining that he used to hear people in the region say: “We have nothing against Jews. It’s Israelis and Zionists that we have a problem with.”
“I no longer hear that rhetoric. It’s no longer part of the conversation,” he said.
For Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, which still feel stung from the 2015 nuclear deal with rival Iran that was struck by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders, building ties with the Trump administration and Israel are seen as ways to counter Tehran’s footprint in regional conflicts.
For Qatar, which has hosted Hamas leaders over the years, welcoming pro-Israel figures from the U.S. for conversations with the ruling emir appear to be driven by an effort to maneuver politically within Washington lobbying circles in the face of a blockade by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.
For some U.S. evangelicals, support for Israel is at the very core of their faith. Most believe that before Jesus can return, Jews have to go back to the Holy Land. They also believe the return of the Messiah will follow the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, also the site of Islam’s sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The Rev. Bob Roberts, who leads a congregation of about 1,200 people in Texas and works on interfaith outreach with Muslims, said he believes this theology is “very unhealthy” and also harmful to Palestinians.
“Very few agree on exactly how Jesus is coming back, so it’s all a guess. But we’re letting that drive our foreign policy, which drives things like war and conflict. That’s very serious,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of an interreligious conference in Abu Dhabi.
Roberts acknowledges that although he’s a supporter of Israel, he remains in the minority among Christian evangelicals in the United States.
The month after Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed by agents close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, a delegation of top Christian evangelicals, including American-Christian Zionist leaders, traveled to Riyadh to meet the crown prince – the first-ever meeting of its kind.
The timing of this outreach was especially crucial for the crown prince, who faces fierce bipartisan criticism in the U.S. over the killing, despite denials by the kingdom that he had any involvement.
The delegation to Riyadh was led by Israeli-based communications strategist Joel Rosenberg and included former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann; Jerry Johnson, the president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters; and Michael Little, former president and COO of The Christian Broadcasting Network, among others.
CBN described it as a meeting “filled with both political controversy and spiritual opportunity.”
The group issued a statement after the meeting saying they were “encouraged by the candor of the two-hour conversation” and were looking forward to continuing the dialogue.
The Riyadh meeting came about after the crown prince had met with top Jewish American leaders in the U.S. in April. He’d also been quoted speaking about Israelis’ “right to have their own land” during his tour of major U.S. cities.
Just before their Saudi stop, the evangelicals were in Abu Dhabi meeting with its crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. They’d previously already met with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Roberts notes that while some evangelicals are reaching out to Muslim leaders in the Gulf, there’s a major challenge with Islamophobia in the U.S., particularly among evangelicals.
“I think it’s fine for evangelicals to be connected with Muslims in the Middle East. I am. But I’m also connected with the ones right in my own backyard – the imam down the street, the rabbi down the street,” he said.