When the testimony of all Scripture upon the Man of Sin is considered, he is seen to be a person whose superhuman power is plainly ascribed to Satan.  He appears upon the scene, after the removal of the heavenly people and during the great tribulation, as the climax of all Satanic exaltation and opposition to God.  He is the last and greatest of earthly rulers, and, from his position of unsurpassed influence, speaks great words and manifests great wisdom.  He is externally religious, and the promoter of great righteous projects and principles which in God’s sight are only hypocrisy and blasphemy because of the subtle Christ-denying motive which prompts it all.  His hold upon the public mind is by a process which is natural.  Great miracles are performed by himself and by his prophet,—­fire is called down from heaven; a dumb idol is made to speak and live; and he himself has been wounded to death and yet lives.  By such supernatural works his assumption to be very God is accepted, and he becomes the world’s ideal of all that is supreme.  The people are said to first marvel and wonder; then to worship at his feet; and at last, in mad devotion, they challenge the universe to produce his equal—­“Who is like the beast?” they cry.  He has been wounded to death and yet lives; he performs as great miracles as the world has ever seen; his teachings are based upon Scripture; and he must, therefore, be God manifest in the flesh.  His wisdom, beauty and majesty are a seeming warrant for every element of adoration.

Thus the Man of Sin will appear as the culmination of all the counterfeit methods of Satan; which method had its beginnings in the last days of the age, even before the calling away of the true Church, the Body of Christ.  The subtle doctrines of devils will be adopted as creeds in assemblies and so called churches, and these deep things, with the Satanic ambition for moral improvement, will be voiced by ordained ministers who appear as apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousness.  Yet in God’s sight it is all a deep lie and hypocrisy, for they are distorting His truth and subtly denying His redemption.

All this, as has been stated, is but the Satanic preparation of humanity that they may wholly acknowledge him as their god, and that he may himself become like the Most High.  This program is permitted in the purpose of God, for “that that is determined shall be done” (Dan.  II:36).  It will be only for a moment; for the resistless coming of the “Ancient of Days” will unveil all this deception, banish the enemies, and bring in His own long-predicted and glorious reign of everlasting blessedness upon the earth.

Chapter IX.

The Fatal Omission.