The book of Revelation describes not only God’s last pleading with His children (Rev 14:6-12) but also Satan’s final effort to deceive (Rev 13:12-18). Though Jesus “saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18), the defeated enemy of God and man still “prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8), knowing that his time is short (Rev 12:12). The one whose insane desire to be God led to the war up in heaven will at last seem to enjoy complete success (Rev 13:8). So how can we resist Satan’s last and most diabolical attempt to convince us of the truthfulness of his lies about God? How will he seek to persuade us to join his side as the great controversy over God’s character and government comes to its end? Revelation 13 describes Satan’s final effort to deceive us into accepting his lies as the truth.

When Adolph Hitler knew that he had lost the war, he announced his intention to bring the whole Third Reich down with him in destruction. The world said he was mad. Satan suffers from a similar madness. When Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), Satan knew that he had lost the war. He knew that the falsity of his charges had been exposed before the whole family of the universe. He knew that he had failed to provoke the Son of God to anger and retaliation. He had lost his case. Like Hitler, his only remaining purpose is to bring as many as possible down with him at the end (Rev 12:12).