The Kingdom Study Lesson 7 The Counterfeit Kingdom
In the previous lesson we saw how Israel rejected the Holy Spirit under the preaching of Stephen and God postponed the Kingdom of Heaven until a later time. Instead of bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven he turned to the gentiles and gave the gospel unto them. This allows them to be put into the Kingdom of God by being born again through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore during the time from Acts 7 until now the kingdom of heaven is not on earth and no one is bringing it in as many teach today. They may be preaching salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) which puts one into the kingdom of God, but mankind will not by any means usher in the kingdom of Heaven. Only the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ can accomplish this.
We must remember that the very first creature to lose the Kingdom of Heaven was Lucifer who became Satan, and every since then he has been trying to get it back. We must also remember that everything he does is an imitation of God in some way. Therefore as we will see in this lesson Satan will counterfeit this kingdom of heaven and this takes place during what is called the tribulation.
Many times in the word of God when you see pairs the imitation or the bad one will come first. Below is a list that helps us see this fact.
1) Cain before Abel 2) Ishmael before Isaac
3) Esau before Jacob 4) Saul before David
Therefore we see that the anti-christ will come forth at the end of the church age and set up a false kingdom that will eventually see Satan as the head ruling over the world, remember he is called the god of this world right now (2 Corinthians 4:4). It stands to reason that he would have this counterfeit kingdom which is before the true king, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the real kingdom shows up.
Some evidence for this Counterfeit Kingdom that we can see right now :
1) The Middle East
- You cannot turn on the news or look at the newspaper without seeing something about Israel, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria, the Palestinians or something pertaining to the Middle East.
- This is where everything started and this is where everything will end with Jesus Christ reigning on the throne of David in Jerusalem.
- Notice that Jerusalem means city of peace and there has been more fighting over that piece of land than anywhere else in history.
2) The push for peace in the Middle East and everywhere else in the world
- Man is trying to bring the kingdom of heaven in by his doings that is why there is such a push for peace especially in the Middle East.
- The anit-christ will confirm a peace but it will not last which is why it is a counterfeit kingdom.
3) The interest in aliens, outer space, and demonic activity
- Science fiction has been portraying aliens from outer space taking over earth for many years. This is a ploy of Satan to get man ready for when he and his angels are cast out of the second heaven, which is outer space, half way through the tribulation (Revelation 12:7-10).
- Notice also the sudden rise of interest in witch craft, vampires, and all things demonic in our society today. Once again this is a ploy of Satan to prepare the world for his coming.
From this and many other things we can see that something is going to happen soon, and when we study these things in light of the scriptures we see that Satan is preparing the world for this counterfeit kingdom. But the real sad thing is that many people are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
The Tribulation and this Counterfeit Kingdom :
1) The tribulation is called the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) and this is where Israel is judged for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ.
- After the church age ends with the rapture of the church (1 Corinthians 15:50-57 ;
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) God will return to dealing with Israel once again and prepare them for the Kingdom of Heaven that will come when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
2) When the anti-christ shows up he will conquer with peace (Revelations 6:2 ; Daniel 8:21-25 Daniel 11:21-32)
- We see in Daniel 9:27 that the anti-christ confirms the covenant, but in the midst of the week we see that he causes the sacrifices to cease.
- What has happen is that as a result of this false peace that is set up Israel is allowed to build the temple again and they are sacrificing once again.
- Now the 70th week in Daniel’s prophesy of 70 weeks is the last week of the prophesy to be fulfilled. When we study this very closely we see that in this prophesy one week is 7 years. This is how we know that the tribulation is 7 years long. The time given in Revelation is 3 ½ years because Revelation primarily deals with the last half of the tribulation which is known as the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21).
- In the middle of the week or the 7 years the anti-christ will break the covenant and stop Israel from sacrificing. Note in Revelation 6:2-3 we have two riders, the first one is an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ he is the anit-christ who conquers with peace, the very next rider is said to take peace from the earth. This is when all the terrible things happen on the earth that you see spoken of in the book of Revelation. This is also where anti-christ will proclaim himself to be God and demand that the world worship him and receive the mark of the beast.
- Therefore we see that the peace is short lived and the anti-christ will persecute Israel (Revelation 12:13-17) and by the end of the tribulation will bring the armies of the world together to battle at the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 14:14-20).
3) The tribulation ends with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Revelation 19:11-21)
- When the Lord Jesus Christ returns he will destroy the armies of the anti-christ and the beast and the false prophet will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
- Satan is bound in the bottomless pit for 1000 years (Revelation 20:1-3).
- Then the Lord Jesus Christ will set up his one thousand year millennial reign and there will be peace on earth as the KING of KINGS is reigning supreme. Here we have the kingdom of Heaven finally coming to the earth with the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob inheriting the kingdom.
The Kingdom Study Lesson 7 : Handout
The Counterfeit Kingdom
1) What kingdom is present on the earth during the Church Age?
2) Give a list showing that the imitation usually always comes before the real thing in the Bible.
3) What is Satan’s title right now? Give a reference.
4) What are some of the evidences that we can see right now for Satan getting ready to establish his counterfeit kingdom?
5) What are some of the characteristics of this counterfeit kingdom under Satan?
6) List a passage for the true king showing up and destroying the anti-christ and this counterfeit kingdom.