THE SATANIC TRINITY

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Revelation 16:13-16

10-30-83     10:50 a.m.

This is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas bringing the message entitled The Satanic Trinity.  And you will read it in the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation, verses 13, 14, and 16; Revelation, the last book in the Bible, the Apocalypse.  [The] first word in it starts off with apokalupsis, apokalupsis, “the unveiling” of Jesus Christ in His glorious coming at the consummation of the age.  The apokalupsis, the Revelation, chapter 16, beginning at verse 13:

And I saw three unclean spirits…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.

They are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and unto the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty— 

[Revelation 16:13-14]

verse 16—

And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, har megiddôn,

The mountain of Megiddo; in our English it comes to be “Armageddon” [Revelation 16:16].

The triumvirate of evil is made up of three distinct persons.  Did you read the text?  The dragon, the beast, the false prophet [Revelation 16:13]; in Revelation 20:10 it uses those same emphatic articles.  The devil was cast into hell, “where the beast and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”  That’s the end of all evil in the world and in God’s universe, when He purges it of all iniquity [Matthew 13:41].  And righteousness shall fill God’s creation like the waters fill and cover the sea [Isaiah 11:9].

Three distinct personalities, three of them: one is the dragon.  And he is distinctly defined in Revelation 12:9, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world.”  The dragon is Lucifer, Satan, diabolos; he’s the accuser and slanderer of God’s people. 

The second person of this triumvirate of evil is the beast.  In chapter 13 of the Revelation, “I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea…” [Revelation 13:1].  Universally, in the Bible, the sea, the tumultuous sea, is a type and a picture of the Gentile nations of the world.  And out of the Gentile nations of the world, arises this last, and ultimate, and final world dictator called “the beast,” out of the sea.

There is much, much, much about him in the Word of God.  In 1 John 2:18-22 and in 1 John 4:3 and in 2 John 7, this beast is called the Antichrist, the ultimate and final dictator of the world.  In Daniel 7:8, he is called “the little horn” that arises out of the ten and is the eleventh.  In Daniel 8:23, he is called “a king of fierce countenance.”  In Daniel 9:26, he is called “the prince that shall come.”  In Matthew 24:15, the Lord Jesus calls him “the abomination of desolation” spoken of by Daniel the prophet.  In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, he is called “the man of sin”; and again,” the son of perdition.”  He is the Antichrist, the ultimate and final world dictator.  It is as though Hitler had won the war and the world.  He is Satan’s final and ultimate masterpiece, the incarnation of evil. 

Then it says, beside the dragon, who is Satan—diabolos, Lucifer—and beside the beast, who is the Antichrist, there is the false prophet [Revelation 16:13].  In Revelation 13:11, “I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth,” out of the land, the land of religion, the land of Israel, “and he had two horns like a lamb, but he spake like a dragon.”  This is the false prophet, the tremendously effective religious leader of the final apostate church in the world.  And he does great wonders like Elijah; he can command fire to come down from God out of heaven.  And he magnifies the political dictator of the world; he glorifies him—the false prophet [Revelation 13:12]. 

Now this triumvirate of evil is the trinity of darkness.  There is a trinity of God; a trinity of holiness, of godliness, of purity, of heaven; there is also a trinity of darkness and of evil.  I have called it the satanic trinity.  Satan is unable to create anything.  He is not a creator but Satan is a distinguished and gifted counterfeiter, and he counterfeits the kingdom of God.  Satan is anti-God; the beast, the Antichrist, is anti-Christ; and the false prophet is the anti-Holy Spirit.

First of that trinity of evil, the satanic trinity: Satan is anti-God.  In the message last Sunday morning, we spoke of him from the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Isaiah.  He exalts himself above the throne of God, saying, “I will be like the Most High God” [Isaiah 14:14].  Lucifer, Satan, aspires to be the God of all creation.  He has an Antichrist, in whom he is incarnate, and this Antichrist is that “anti-Christ.”  What Christ is, the beast also is, only in an opposite definition.  Christ is the incarnation of God; Antichrist is the incarnation of Satan, Satan’s last and final masterpiece.  Christ has a church; Antichrist also has a church.  In Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9 it is called “the synagogue of Satan.”  Christ has a bride, “the bride of Christ,” spoken of in Ephesians 5:25; Satan also has a bride, the mystic harlot, whore church of Revelation 17.  Christ has a table and a cup [1 Corinthians 11:25]; Satan also has a table and a cup described in 1 Corinthians 10:21—a cup and a table at which the dupes of the evil one and the demons share the hour together.  He is a great counterfeiter, and the counterfeit of Christ is antichrist.

And the third person of that triumvirate is the anti-Holy Spirit.  In this Revelation it says that this false religious leader, the false prophet, who heads the ultimate and final apostate church—he magnifies the beast; he magnifies the political leader of the world [Revelation 13:12].

  I have written here the contrasts between the false prophet, the anti-Holy Spirit, and the true Spirit of Christ.  Here they are:

[1] The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the divine Trinity [Matthew 28:19]; the false prophet is the third person of the diabolical trinity [Revelation 16:13]. 

[2] The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of holiness and purity [Romans 8:4]; the false prophet is the fountain source and incarnation of unclean spirit [Revelation 16:13]. 

[3] The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus at the beginning of His three and one-half year earthly ministry [Matthew 3:16]; the false prophet joins himself to the Antichrist at the beginning of the three and one-half years of the great tribulation [Revelation 13:11-12].

[4] The advent of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by fire [Acts 2:3-4]; fire authenticates the coming of the false prophet [Revelation 13:13]. 

[5] The Holy Spirit is the giver of life [Romans 8:6]; the false prophet is the giver of death [Revelation 13:15].

 [6] The Holy Spirit seals [Ephesians 1:13]; the false prophet marks. You remember 13:16 in Revelation?  The false prophet causes all to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and you cannot buy or sell—you cannot live without that mark [Revelation 13:16].

[7] The Holy Spirit empowered the Lord Jesus. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power [Acts 10:38]; the false prophet empowers the Antichrist.  Revelation 13:14, “He deceiveth them that dwell on the earth…And he hath power to give life unto … the beast that he should speak” [Revelation 13:15].

[8] The Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself, but He exalts the Lord Jesus.  John 16:13: “For He shall not speak of Himself… but He shall glorify Me, saith the Lord” [John 16:14].  Now the false prophet speaks not of himself, but he glorifies the beast—Revelation 13:12: “He causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the beast…”

[9] The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth [John 15:26]—the false prophet is the spirit of deception.  Revelation 13:14: “He deceiveth them that dwell on the earth.”

[10] And the last, the tenth: the ultimate penalty for the rejection of the Holy Spirit is spiritual death, the unpardonable sin [Matthew 12:31-32]; the ultimate penalty for the rejection of the witness of the false prophet is physical death.  Revelation 13:15: “He hath power to give life unto the image of the beast… and cause that as many who would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

This is the great triumvirate of evil.  This is the tremendous satanic trinity presided over by fallen Lucifer, Satan, diabolos, the devil [Revelation 12:3].  Second: the beast, the Antichrist, the ultimate and final world dictator [Revelation 13:1-2]; and third, the false prophet, the prelate who heads the final and apostate church, and who gives glory to the world dictator, called the beast, the Antichrist [Revelation 13:11-15]. 

These are the things that we read in God’s Book regarding the final and great consummation of the age, the end time called the great tribulation.  It is much spoken of, as I have said, in the Bible, this final tribulation and the great triumvirate of evil that shall preside over it; spoken of in Ezekiel 37 and 38; spoken of in Daniel chapters 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11; spoken of in Zechariah [Zechariah 13:8-9]; spoken of in the great apocalyptic discourses of our Lord in Matthew 24 and Luke 17; spoken of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and of course; spoken of in vast detail in the Revelation, particularly from chapter 5 through chapter 19.  These are the triumvirates of evil that we find at the consummation of the world. 

But the Bible plainly reveals to us that these same great principles of judgment that will find their ultimate consummation at the end of the age are the same principles of judgment that guide and judge the nations, and human life, and our life today in this present time, in this present moment, and particularly in the hours of crisis through which we now live.

It is the same thing as God’s universal laws of physics.  They are unchangeable; they are identical in every area of God’s creation.  That’s why the astronauts are able to do what they do in the limited area of our earth and its moon. 

What I’m trying to illustrate is that the principle of possession in evil in the tribulation is not just there, but it is throughout all history, repeated again and again and again.  That’s what John is saying, “You have heard that in the last time, there is an Antichrist who is coming.  But, little children, I am telling you that this is a last time.  And there are many, many antichrists” [1 John 2:18].  The evil incarnate in men; leaders in the church, leaders in the political world, leaders in the nations of the earth—it is repeated again, and again, and again, and again. 

Could I turn aside from the sermon and just make an observation that comes out of my mind?  I think Satan has his masterpiece in every generation.  He doesn’t know when the last one will appear; he is not omniscient.  And in every generation, he has his antichrist, his masterpiece; the last one that I could identify is Adolf Hitler.  He had him prepared, he had him ready.  The only thing is, he doesn’t have the omniscient knowledge of the future.  But in every generation, there is that incarnate evil ready to be exalted as the dictator of the world. 

The principles that lie back of the Revelation are not just in the tribulation, but they work every day in human history, in every nation, in our nation, in our lives, in all lives; we face the triumvirate of evil, the trinity of Satan, forever.

Now let’s go one other: John says that in this “a last hour,” we have an antichrist, and there are many antichrists that come [1 John 2:18].  Now let’s listen to the Lord Jesus.  In the apocalyptic discourse of our Savior, in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Luke, when the Lord had finished His prophecy of the end-time and the great tribulation, He was speaking of the falling upon the nations of the judgments of God [Luke 17:20-36].  And the apostles asked Him, and this is the way that the apocalyptic discourse closes in Luke 17:37; “And the apostles answered and said unto Him, “Lord, where?  Where are these judgments to fall? And Jesus said unto them, Wheresoever the carcass [is], thither will the vultures be gathered together” [Luke 17:37]. 

Wherever the putrescent, corrupt nation is, church is, institution is, family is, art is; wherever the thing decays, there will the ministers of vengeance and destruction do their work.  It is an universal law the Lord is announcing here.  The vengeance and the judgment and the vultures fall not only at the end time in the great tribulation, but those same ministers of judgment fall upon the earth and upon the nations in every generation throughout history!  Where there is putrescence, and apostasy, and corruption, and decay, and blood, and violence, there do the carrion eating prey—the vultures gather and fall down in destruction and judgment upon the people.  And that makes me tremble as I live in this day, and in this time, and in this generation, and in this nation, and in the nations of the world!  Lord God, is this another day of awesome, and tragic, and incomparable, unspeakable judgment?  Is it, Lord?

We tremble, the whole world trembles on the very verge, on the very brink of a warfare, called in the Bible an Armageddon [Revelation 16:16], that shall destroy civilization and destroy the human race.  And nobody knows what moment it may be triggered or what day it may ultimately arrive.  We live, literally, in the imponderables of Almighty God. 

 And the same great principles that govern the nations of the world, govern our churches, and our institutions, and our homes, and our hearts, and our lives.  It is a call to confession, and intercession, and to prayer, and to committal.  May God have mercy upon His people!