Signs of the End Times – The Unholy Trinity

The sermon opens by clearly distinguishing between two concepts often confused in believers' minds: the Last Days and the end of the age. The Last Days, or Church Age, extend from Christ's resurrection and ascension until His first return to rapture the church to heaven. This is the period in which we currently live, when God speaks to us through His Son. The end of the age, by contrast, refers to the conclusion of an era before Christ returns to reign or before God judges humanity. The disciples misunderstood, thinking Christ's return would mark the end of the age, but in fact His first return only raptures the church and initiates a seven-year Tribulation period filled with unprecedented upheaval in human history.

The pastor continues by presenting characteristics of the Tribulation period, particularly the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit's restraining function regarding sin in society. An important function of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin and restrain so that sin does not increase in society—called common grace. But during the Tribulation, this function will be removed, allowing evil to increase at an unprecedented pace. The intensity and consequences of sin continually escalate, like labor pains for a pregnant woman. The sermon lists seven primary signs: deception, wars and rumors of wars, famine, natural disasters and plagues, religious persecution, betrayal, and the gospel preached to all nations. These signs have occurred, are occurring, and will continue to occur throughout human history, but will reach an unprecedented climax during the seven-year Tribulation, especially the final three-and-a-half years called the Great Tribulation.

The remainder of the sermon focuses on deception as the primary and most subtle sign. Christ teaches about this sign more than any other, warning that many false christs and false prophets will arise, performing great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect. When truth is distorted, changed, and taken away, people, society, and the world increasingly deteriorate. Truth is the most important anchor for life, but with increasingly sophisticated technology, deception also becomes clever and difficult to discern. Scripture teaches that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all life, light, truth, and reality. The entire Bible is truth, and those who teach God's Word must teach truth as God's Word is truth. The result of knowing the truth is freedom—truth will liberate us from the slavery of sin and deception.

The pastor then reveals the most sophisticated deception: the Unholy Trinity that Satan uses to counterfeit the Trinity of God. Scripture calls these three evil spirits to deceive and trick all people. The dragon is Satan himself, the counterfeiter of God the Father. Satan creates the Beast from the sea bearing an image like itself, just as God created humans in His image. The Beast from the sea is the counterfeiter of Christ, called the Antichrist. It is given power, throne, and great authority from the dragon. Though its wound appears to be healed (mimicking resurrection), it is worshipped by the world. People ask: "Who is like the Beast? Who can make war against it?"—a counterfeit of the praise of Jehovah from Exodus. The Beast from the earth, called the false prophet, is the counterfeiter of the Holy Spirit. It is given power to perform great wonders, causing fire to fall from heaven—like the prophet Elijah—and it deceives the inhabitants of the earth by the wonders it performs to persuade them to worship the Beast from the sea. This is a subtle counterfeit of the Holy Spirit's role in granting miraculous gifts to the early church and helping believers focus on worshiping Christ.

Finally, the pastor points out that Satan counterfeits not only the Trinity but also the Church itself. The Church is described as the Bride of the Lamb in Revelation, adorned with fine linen, bright and clean—the righteous acts of the saints. Paul compares the marriage relationship to that between Christ and the Church, expressing Christ's love and self-sacrifice. But Satan counterfeits this through the image of the Great Prostitute Babylon in Revelation 17-18—a woman clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones, sitting on a beast bearing blasphemous names. This prostitute symbolizes a global religious system that attracts, seduces, and enchants kings, officials, and people on earth. She is the tool of the Beast to deceive all people to reject Christ and abandon the truth. Satan employs two primary tactics: through the two beasts with their power, wonders, and signs to seduce and buy off people; and through the prostitute, the global religious system, to draw people away from God. The sermon's final warning is clear: do not let anyone deceive you in any way, for rebellion must come first, and the man of lawlessness must be revealed—but Christ will destroy him with the breath of his mouth.