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are many startling clues in the Bible that seem to connect the Coming World Leader to Satan and his "alien" forces. In the first book of the Bible we find an intriguing clue to the possible lineage of the coming Antichrist. In Genesis 3 we find the story of the fall of man. The setting is the garden of Eden, where God had placed a tree called "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." God had placed Adam in the garden and told him that he could eat of the fruit of every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). However, one day Satan (the serpent) came to Eve and tempted her to eat of the forbidden tree. It's interesting to note that the first thing Satan said to Eve was, "Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the gar-den?" This is the first tactic of the enemy—to question the word of God. Satan went on to promise Eve that if she would eat of the tree she would not "surely die." Instead, she would be like God; she would have incredible knowledge, "knowing good and evil." Immortality, deity, and incredible knowledge. What a deal Satan promised Eve! So, she ate of the forbidden fruit and so began the fall 1: of mankind. woodshed: "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:14- 15). This is one of the most pivotal portions of scripture in the entire Bible. It sets up the battle between the seed of the woman (a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ) and the seed of Satan. A casual reading of this text will miss a disturbing textual insight. The Hebrew word translated seed is the word zera, meaning "offspring, descendants, posterity, and children." Satan is going to have seed! Who is the seed of Satan and what is his future destiny? We get another hint in the New Testament. World Leader: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). After the falling away Paul states that "the man of sin . . . the son of perdition" will be revealed. This is a fascinating insight that may relate to the very parentage of the Antichrist himself. The word translated "son" is the Greek word huios, which is used in a general sense to mean "a male offspring." In a wider sense it means "descendant, posterity, child." The word translated "perdition" is the Greek word apoleia, meaning 162 THE SEED OF THE SERPENT In Genesis 3:14—15 we read the response of God as he, so to speak, takes Satan to the THE SON OF PERDITION We saw earlier, in Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, a description of the Coming