Expert: Messianic Rabbi Yochanan Levine - 7/11/2008

Question
Hello,
In revelations it talks about three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet and that they are to perform miracles. Does this mean the spirits will perform miracles FOR the dragon, beast and false prophet or does it just mean the dragon, beast and false prophet will perform the miralces themselves?
Also in zechariah 13:2 it mentions unclean spirits being removed from the land when Jesus was crucified. Does this mean the unclean spirits were no longer allowed to perform miracles until the time of revelation, like it says in revelations 16:13?

Thankou for your time and help,
Alice

Answer
Hi Alice,
Excellent questions.

I always like to begin such questions by acknowledging that Christians differ on MANY points of prophecy and that understanding these things requires some background in the prophecies, which I assume from the quality of the questions, you have. I'll be happy to share my understandings of these things according to the Light I am currently blessed with. this will be a rather long post. I have tried to be succinct.

Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
13 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.
14 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.

This section is discussing the lead-up to the Battle of Armageddon.

The "kings of the east" is, in my opinion, a reference to the armies of the People's Republic of China. The river will be damned up and the 200 million Chinese troopers will cross on their way to invade Israel.

The "dragon" is Lucifer, the Devil.
The "beast" is the Antichrist.
The "false prophet" is the leader of the world religion that will exist at that time (Babylon the Great).

This evil trinity will speak lies and deceits and will draw the powers of the earth together in hope of joining forces and defeating the arriving Messiah (see below).

These "frogs" are noxious creatures of the night and swamps. They abide where purity and godliness are absent (metaphorically). It is through such dark spirits and demons, that the Rex Mundi (the Antichrist), servant of Lucifer the Dragon, will deceive the nations through miracles, treaties, etc. As a pig being drawn by a ring through the nose the nations will be drawn to invade Jerusalem.

These spirits then, just like the Dijal (Antichrist) and False Prophet are servants of Lucifer, tools that do his evil bidding with the hope of establishing his global kingdom and preventing the establishment of the Kingdom of God. All will serve the Dragon. Directly or indirectly all such evil acts arise from and by the power of Satan.

There are certain more "hidden" interpretations of these symbols as to their identities etc. referenced here, but in terms of general prophecy, they represent tools the evil one and will use.

Now for  Zech 13. This section of Zechariah is deep and requires a bit of study to understand.

First we go back to 10:9 where the Jews are dispersed among the Gentile nations (70 CE) in the Time of the Gentiles. What follows is somewhat parenthetical, but we jump forward to "the Last Days" when Israel is restored as a nation. It is this section that shows us that Israel will be restored prior to the Moshiach's (Messiah's) purificatory work.

At 13:1 the God of Israel determines to purify His people of their uncleanliness. To accomplish this, the many false prophets (including THE False prophet arise and mislead the Jews and the nations concerning the Jews and lead them all to embrace the New World Order of the Global King (the Little Horn or Antichrist). However God will convict them of their false prophecies etc. and a time of hardship will befall Israel as the people embrace the Lie (II Thes 2:11). The leader of this Lie will be THE False prophet who will point the people to the Antichrist whom they will, for a time, embrace, as Paul and others explain. The Antichrist presents himself as a humble man, he says, "I'm no prophet, only a meek and humble farmer..." this deception results from the past lack of faith by the Jewish people. Only later will the Man of Sin (Antichrist) proclaim himself to be God (II Thes 2:4).

Verse six is taken by some to be a reference to the true Messiah but there is no break in context from verses 2 to 6. The "wounds in his hands" come from his humble manual labor, in other words, he presents himself as merely a humble servant of the people who has suffered terribly to help others, his friends.

Now we get to verse 7, this is often taken as a shift from the false messiah to the true one however I do not believe it is. The "Shepard" here is not a reference to Jesus or the Messiah, but to People Israel. Because the Shepards of Israel (the leaders of the people) failed to establish Israel as a Jewish State they are smitten by the false messiah (for seven years).

On into verse 8 we see what this false Messiah does. He lays waste to the Jewish people during the seven years of his reign so that 2/3 or more of the Jews are destroyed. A third of the Jews however will be protected (at Petra and elsewhere) and through "the fire" of the Seven Years Tribulation Israel will be purified and when the time comes will embrace the true Moshiach who will then establish the kingdom of God on earth.

The unclean spirits, the false teachers, secularlists, atheists, lukewarm "Laodecians," demonic inspirers etc. will be banished through this process as Moshiach, yet invisible, leads the people of God through the Tribulation period and into the thousand year kingdom when he will dwell in Jerusalem as King of the Globe and High Priest of God.

Then in 14: we back up a tad parenthetically, and again see the nations of the earth being gathered together against the Moshiach. The Antichrist will be in Jerusalem. China, Russia and the Muslim Ummah, moving in from the south, will use Miggido (Armageddon) as the staging area for an attack on Jerusalem and the Antichrist.

But then the true Moshiach will appear, these forces will unite with the Antichrist against the true Christ and they will all be destroyed. The blood will run the streets of the Holy City to the horses bridle.

I do not see the crucifixion at 13:2 but rather the gathering of the false teachers and false prophets of all kinds in Israel and throughout the world and then, in the following verses, their humiliation and destruction comes.

I'm not sure how you are seeing the crucifixion here:

"And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land."

Perhaps you are citing the wrong verse?

In conclusion, these verses fit perfectly with Rev. 16 etc. and show that Israel, once re-established (in 1947/1968) will still have to be purified in order to receive the Moshiach. To accomplish this Satan, led as a pig by a ring in his nose, will use the types of spirits referenced to manipulate the world scene and at the last, to save the Elect, Moshiach will come (as taught in Matt 24).

This has been a much longer than normal reply for me, but there are many vital elements in these verses and I only here lightly skimmed the more essential ones. I have not written directly on these verses before and plan to create a more detailed and documented study on it at my website (http://www.allfaith.com/Religions/Noahide/) in the coming weeks once we are released from our current refugee camp in Northern California.

If you have further questions or thoughts feel free to post a follow-up. I'll answer asap.

Maranatha,
~ John of AllFaith