There are many references in the Bible to false prophets. Many readers think that they only occur in the New Testament, and that one particular prophet is called “the man of sin”.
In the Hebrew Old Testament the word “false prophet” does not occur. The Jews were warned against false teachers, “dreamers” or “diviners”, by Moses, Deu 13:1-3. Prophets who lied were mentioned by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah: Isa 9:15-16 Jer 14:14 Lam 2:14. However, in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the word “pseudoprophet” ψευδοπροφῆται occurs in 10 more verses in Jeremiah and Zechariah, Jer 6:13 Jer 26:7 Jer 26:8 Jer 26:11 Jer 29:8 Jer 26:16 Jer 27:9 Jer 28:1 Jer 29:1 Zec 13:2
These false prophets, associated with idol worship, had claimed to speak on behalf of God, making accusations against the true prophet, Jeremiah, and misleading everybody else. They supposedly saw visions, possibly using hallucinogenic drugs like cannabis, which is now been proved to have been used in rituals in ancient Israel.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bible-era-israel-shrine-earliest-ritual-use-marijuana
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ warned his followers against “false prophets”. He described them as “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. They would be deceitful, and able to create illusions:
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Mar 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
Luk 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Peter and John also warned Jesus’ followers against false prophets who would teach wrong doctrines:
2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
1Jo 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
From this we understand that there have been many false prophets, and there will be many more, right up until the return of Jesus to the earth,
But there is another particular false prophet in the book of Revelation. This false prophet, which is also known as the “Beast out of the earth” is one of the facilitators of the battle of Armageddon.
His benign appearance deceives people. It has “2 horns” like a lamb, which fits in with the Lord's description of the wolf in sheep's clothing, Mat 7:15. It speaks like a dragon, a snake. This “Beast” is very powerful and makes people worship the “Beast out of the sea”, which is known as “The Beast”, and is a combination of all the beasts that the prophet Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7.
The False Prophet is able to perform great illusions, with which it deceives many people. The “fire that comes down from heaven”, is possibly a type of lightning rod.
The prophet Elijah, a true prophet of God, had made fire come down from heaven, that burnt the false prophets of Baal.
2Ki 1:12 "And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty."
The False Prophet convinces the people to make an image, some type of replica, of “The Beast”, which he animates so that it can speak. He then demands that they worship this modern idol, or they will be killed!
All people are made to receive an engraved mark, possibly a microchip, in their right hand or on their forehead, if they want to trade. This mark will have the name of the idol, or his number “666”.
Revelation 13: 11-18:
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.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
The followers of the False Prophet will be punished with a plague of painful sores, possibly like smallpox or a new virus, which is not fatal Rev 16:2 Rev 16:10-11
This False Prophet will produce a “frog-like” spirit, an evil, invasive message, in concert with the other two apocalyptic monsters, the Dragon and The Beast which will draw the kings of the revived Roman world, to the battle of Armageddon.
Rev 16:13,14,16 "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. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. .. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."
The False Prophet and The Beast, and the kings and their armies, will be defeated at Armageddon by Christ, and His army:
Rev 19:19-20 "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 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."
The Dragon will join them a thousand years later Rev 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."
A clue to the identity of the apocalyptic False Prophet was given by the Lord Jesus: False prophets are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Mat 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
Mat 10:16 "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
Luk 10:3 "Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves."
The Apostle Paul warned the early believers:
Act 20:29 "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock."
In New Testament times the dominant power in the region was based in Rome.
The Capitoline “Wolf” is the ancient symbol of the city of Rome. Some Roman soldiers wore “wolf” pelts on their helmets.
In the next centuries a form of Christianity would develop in Rome that would spread throughout the world. It would change the doctrines that were taught by Jesus, introducing a new idea of God, the trinity. There would be a new priesthood, and statues, idols, or icons, used in worship. Any who opposed the new religion would be persecuted, including excommunication, expulsion from countries, torture and death, all supposedly in the name of God.
The False Prophet has 2 horns. In the Bible “horns” are symbols of monarchs in several prophecies.
The Roman forms of Christianity are distinguished in that the leaders in both the Roman Catholic and the later Orthodox Churches have Popes or Patriarchs which are monarchs that have crowns.
In the Catholic Church, the bishop who is head of a particular autonomous Church, is ordinarily a patriarch. Since the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the bishop of Rome has been recognized as the first among patriarchs. That Council designated three bishops with this 'supra-Metropolitan' title: Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch.
The Roman Catholic Pope (Latin: papa from Greek: πάππας pappas, "father"),is also known as the supreme pontiff (Pontifex Maximus), or the Roman pontiff (Romanus Pontifex). He is the bishop of Rome, chief pastor of the worldwide Catholic Church, and head of state or sovereign of the Vatican City State.
Pontifex Maximus was the title for the chief pagan priest in Republican ancient Rome. This title was later acquired by the Emperor Augustus when it was subsumed into the imperial office.
In Emperor Theodosius's edict, De fide catholica ,of 27 February 380 AD., by which he established Catholic Christianity as the official religion of the empire, he referred to the western Bishop of Rome, Damasus, as a pontifex, while calling the eastern Bishop of Alexandria, Peter, an episcopus:
The title Pontifex Maximus was later added to other papal titles, but then dropped for several centuries, and then re-adopted in the Middle Ages. It is still in use today.
A coronation became part of a pope's inauguration ritual from the time of Pope Nicholas II (1059–1061) until 1963. Pope Paul VI, the last pope to be crowned, or to use a papal tiara, abandoned the use of his tiara in a ceremony at the end of the second period of the Second Vatican Council. More than 20 papal tiaras are held in the Vatican.
Crowns have been part of the papal coats-of-arms since 1447/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes#20th_century
The camelaucum (Greek: καμιλαύκιον, kamilaukion), the headdress, that both the mitre and the Papal tiara stem from, was originally a cap used by officials of the Imperial Byzantine court. "The tiara [from which the mitre originates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism
The Pope in Rome excommunicated the Patriarch in Constantinople, and two new churches resulted: The Roman Catholic church, and the Eastern Orthodox church.
The Eastern Orthodox church was depleted when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Russian Orthodox church then became the dominant church, among other “equal” churches.
After the Russian Revolution 1917, the Russian church was nearly destroyed. However, since the end of the USSR, in 1991, the Russian Orthodox church has revived. It is once again the dominant Orthodox church.
The combined Orthodox churches now have a membership of about 230 million baptised members, making Orthodoxy the second biggest church in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church
Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox church met in Cuba in 2016. They issued the first joint statement, the Havana Declaration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Declaration_of_Pope_Francis_and_Patriarch_Kirill
This could be the beginning of a re-united Roman church, with 2 monarchs.
SUMMARY OF FEATURES OF THE FALSE PROPHET
Deceit.
Wears sheep’s clothing.
Inwardly is a ravening wolf.
Associates with believers of Christ.
Has authority and a powerful voice.
Does wonders: miracles, fire from heaven.
Makes people worship the original beast out of the sea. (Revived Roman Empire?)
Makes people make an image of the original beast.
Brings that image to life and makes that image speak.
Makes people worship the image.
They receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead.
No one without the mark, or the name of the original beast, or the number 666 of the name of that beast can buy or sell.
Those who do not worship the image are killed.
Draws kings of the “oikoumene” (Roman habitable =Eurasia) into Armageddon.
Fate:
Cast into the lake of fire with the original beast.
