I was reading a website that I stumbled upon, that discussed general Jewish thinking regarding their beliefs concerning the coming of the Moschiach (aka Messiah). I read something that I had never heard of before. According to the site, there is the Jewish belief that around the time the Moschiach appears, the prophet Elijah will return and help the Moschiach. I was amazed when I read this.
I have argued that the Beast will wrap himself with a mantle of being the long awaited secular Jewish moschiach. The prophecies concerning the anti-Christ and the expectations of the secular Jewish moschiach have significant similarities. The belief that Elijah the prophet will appear and help the Moschiach exactly coincides with Revelation 13:11 and the second beast, aka the false prophet. Just as Elijah the prophet is suppose to announce the arrival of the Messiah and help him establish his rule, so does the false prophet of Revelation assist the Beast. The false prophet will call upon the world to worship the Beast and will perform great miracles for all to witness — something that we would expect Elijah to do for the Moschiach. Just as Elijah is expected to proclaim the Moschiach as King, so will the false prophet cause the world to fall down on their knees to the Beast. I am not familiar enough with Jewish teaching to understand where this belief comes from, but it reinforces my argument that the Beast will wrap himself in the cloak of a secular Jewish moschiach — and the false prophet will claim to be Elijah.
I also read of the Jewish notion that the initial stage of the Moschiach’s ‘rule’ (as a ‘king’ and thus the death of democracy) will be non-miraculous, but after that is over, his ‘miraculous’ rule will start. The false prophet will call down fire from the heavens and will bring the Beast back to life (after a successful assassination attempt?) — this would qualify as miraculous.
In the past, when I read this part of Revelation, my mind would sort of go fuzzy, wondering whether this was something symbolic or literal. After reading more about Jewish thought about their coming Moschiach, I can see that we can believe in the literal interpretation. The Beast will be looking to perversely fulfill the expectations of the secular Jewish moschiach, for whatever reason, and the world will truly witness the miraculous powers of the false prophet as described in Revelation 13.
In closing, let me repeat that the notion that the Beast will pose as a secular Jewish moschiach is something that is peculiar to this website — to my knowledge, it is not part of Church teaching or consensus evangelical belief. With that said, should this argument be correct, then it would explain so much of what we are seeing in the political world — both in America as well as Europe.
The website referred to above:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/108400/jewish/The-End-of-Days.htm