The Aug 17, ‘02 Colorado Springs Gazette had this intriguing article under the headline “Unidentified Hot Object,” “Numerous residents from southwestern Nepal to India’s Uttar Pradesh state have complained to authorities that a mysterious fireball has been descending from the night sky and attacking them with extreme heat. The sphere of red and blue lights is said to severely burn those that it does not kill. The Katmandu Post quoted residents of the city of Nepalgunj as saying the unidentified object would target people sleeping on terraces and roofs to escape the summer heat. Doctors have dismissed the stories as mass hysteria, but have been unable to explain the burns. A crowd of 10,000 people gathered in the Indian city of Sitapur to demand that authorities capture the mysterious attackers. “People just block the roads and attack the police for inaction each time there’s a death or injury,” said Amrit Abhijat, Mirzapur’s district magistrate.”

Bible prophecy students are compelled to give reasonable consideration to reports such as this. The Word of God gives abundant warning to this present generation that awesome demonstrations of power will be leveled against mankind just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. We are told that some will originate from God, some from Satan and some will come from men.

Sending targeted fire down from the heavens upon command is an ability that God reserved for Himself in the past. In these last days we are shown where God will allow the servants of the Devil to include manifestations of this power in their days of supreme deception.

Speaking of the False Prophet, who will rule during the Tribulation Period along with the Anti-Christ, we read in Rev. 13:13, “he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”

In the Old Testament we find that Elijah the prophet, who is prophesied in the last chapter of Malachi to return at the close of this age, had a special gift for calling down God’s fire upon the earth in the sight of men.

In I Kings 18:36-38 we read, “And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord here me that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.”

The Scriptures tell us that hundreds of the false prophets of the demon god Baal had been challenged during this historical occurrence to duplicate this same miracle by calling on their purported sun god. Upon their failure to produce fire from heaven they were all executed.

Then again in II Kings 1:10-12 we read of what happened to two groups of soldiers who had intentions to harm Elijah. “So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. Then he [the king] sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men. And he answered and said to him, “Man of God, thus has the king said, ‘Come down quickly!’” So Elijah answered and said to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.”

Revelation 13:13 informs us that for these last days, Satan plans on having his servants better prepared to meet up once again with the likes of Elijah.

Revelation 13:12 tells us that the False Prophet “exercises all the authority” of the Anti-Christ.

Second Thessalonians 2:9 & Daniel 8:23 reveal to us that the authority of the Anti-Christ is found flourishing in the works of Satan with all power, signs, lying wonders, and a profound grasp of sinister schemes.

False prophets have come and gone throughout history, but none have ever reached the blasphemous heights of the one who is soon to come. Like his overlord, the Anti-Christ, the False Prophet will in like manner demonstrate a command over genuine Satanic “power” as well as that which the Bible calls “lying wonders.”

“And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Rev. 13:12).

“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (II Thess. 2:9).

In other words, any means of demonstrating abilities which will elevate them in men’s eyes above every other human being will be used, whether they be paranormal in nature or yet to be revealed advanced technology.

“All unrighteous deception” is the title to be put upon the heading of this page of history according to II Thess. 2:10.

From Rev. 13:13 we shared that one of the wonders this false prophet will perform before men will be to call down fire from the heavens; undoubtedly an important qualification when in a showdown of power with God’s two last days prophets spoken of in Rev. 11.

The fantastic rate of technological discoveries in this generation, especially regarding the forces being unleashed in the area classified as energy, particle weapons or scalar waves brings such a prophesied fulfillment closer to man’s understanding and highlights the fact that these are truly the last days.

Keep in mind that the following information is located on a far and distant road from the technology that is reserved in the top-secret files of the true insiders.

The Aug., 1998 “Last Trumpet Newsletter” related from “Ignition Point” of the “Internet News” that the “Government [is] experimenting with laser beams that are being used to ionize atmospheric atoms to serve as conduits for lightning discharges in naturally occurring thunderheads. Thus, lightning can be called down from the sky to a specific place.”

That man is developing ways to call down fire from the sky (in this case electrical fire) in these last days is interesting to say the least. Also, developments in this area of research is not as recent an achievement as one might think.

The Colorado Springs Gazette article of Apr. 21, 1997 which headlined, “Science fiction to become fact with Air Force’s photon beam” illustrates this point. It was reported that, “A small fleet of Boeing 747 jumbo jets will soon be armed with Star Trek-style photon lasers designed to shoot down enemy missiles…The development could be as revolutionary as radar, stealth or the atom bomb. The idea is for a lightweight chemically activated laser called a COIL – chemical oxygen iodine laser – to be installed aboard a 747…The airborne laser (called the YAL-IA) is being touted by the Air Force as down to earth, relatively cheap and doable.”

In 1997 this was presented as relatively new technology, but one can look back eight years earlier when dramatic advancements in this area were already being demonstrated.

Quoting from the Denver Post article of Dec. 10, 1989 which headlined, “Ball lasers reflect ‘star wars’ future” we read, “…a Strategic Defense Initiative experiment…will test whether a mirror orbiting the Earth can accurately capture and direct a laser fired from the ground…Known as the Relay Mirror Experiment, the Ball test involves putting a satellite into orbit with a mirror roughly two feet in diameter…the mirror will be tilted to relay a low-power laser beam fired from a mountain observatory on the island of Maui onto a target…The Pentagon isn’t talking about how future versions of the mirror specifically will fit into the overall Strategic Defense Initiative.”

Perhaps Elijah will be raised up like John the Baptist in these last days or it is possible that Elijah may be returned to earth by a whirlwind and the same fiery chariot and horses that separated him from the prophet Elisha when he was caught up to heaven in II Kings 2:11. Elijah’s witness had in the past been a ministry which effectively demonstrated the fiery power of the Lord.

In these last days his words will once again call down the fire of the Lord as he prepares the world to meet Jesus Christ when He returns in judgment (Mal. 3:1-7 & 4:1-6).

Speculating on how events might transpire in light of Bible prophecy can sometimes open the mind to other avenues of understanding. Perhaps things may go something like this.

The Anti-Christ and False Prophet grow in prestige and power as the world begins to look at them as being more than just mere mortals. God’s two true prophets come against this unholy duo and demonstrate their authority in God by performing great miracles, which according to Rev. 11:5 will include the power to destroy by fire those who seek to harm them.

In order to divert listeners from putting faith in the two prophet’s message of salvation by Jesus Christ alone, the Anti-Christ and False Prophet determine to reproduce the two prophet’s miraculous fire of the Lord. Unable to truly duplicate God’s supernatural fire by Satan’s limited power, the False Prophet is enabled to call down the Anti-Christ’s counterfeit technological fire instead (Rev. 13:13). It will be reminiscent of when Pharaoh’s sorcerers withstood Moses and Aaron for a time in Exodus Ch. 7.

Possibly it will be this very fire that the Anti-Christ will use to kill the two prophets of God as is described in Rev. 11:7.

The False Prophet and the Anti-Christ’s agonizing end, detailed in Rev. 19:20 read in conjunction with Rev. 11:5, would appear to support this supposition since the Anti-Christ and False Prophet’s flaming demise would be in keeping with the prophesied consequence for harming God’s two prophets… “And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner” (Rev. 11:5).

The evil man of sin and his false prophet will have a brief time of glory as they are established and worshipped as the world’s leaders over a 7 year period (Dan. 9:27).

After only 3 ½ years of their reign they will initiate a global law requiring the marking of every living person upon their right hand or forehead (Rev. 13:16-18).

Their time of exaltation will end in flames at the return of Jesus Christ when they meet face to face the everlasting God who “is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).