Kay asked:

But, how could ANY of these men fool the Jews into thinking he would be their Messiah?  I thought he had to first of all be Jewish, and from the tribe of Judah, a direct descendant of King David, and well versed in the Torah for them to accept him.  No?  Do any of them meet that critera?  I'd be very interested in your thoughts...

I do not see the Scripture indicate that people will accept him because he fits the scriptural requirement of Messiah (although, for example,  the Antichrist and a Cup of Tea does mention that Prince Charles official lineage claim him to be a "son of david"). Instead, from what I see in Revelation, the Beasts' rise will be due to the classic Hegelian Dialect: problem-reaction-solution.  First there will be deep impacts from outer space, earthquakes, tsunamis, lose of infrastructure, nuclear winter, global famine and WWIII whereby Russia and China and other communist countries defeat America.  As a result, the people will be starving and desperate with no one to turn to.  The Beast's offer in exchange for full control will be to feed everyone and to prevent the ravages of any more wars.  But it will be an offer you cannot refuse, whether you see him agreeing with Scripture or not, since the masses will not know the difference and will go along with it because they are starving. For those who resist because they smell a rat, they will face the mark of the beast enforcer angels (apparently masquerading as helpful friends from outer space) released at the start of the 42 months of the Beast's Great Tribulation (Rev 8-5th trumpet) who will torture you until you relent, rather than kill you. When you look at it, he really will not make a good fit as Israel's scriptural Messiah at all.

• Daniel 9 and 11 says he will move his armies to Jerusalem and stop the Jewish sacrifices and put up a statue.
• Zech 14 says he'll deport the Jews from their half of the then divided Jerusalem.
• 2The 2:4 says he'll require worship of himself as God.

Any Jew would know that the Torah forbids worshipping statues or any other God than YHWH, requires the daily sacrifices during the Messiah's reign (Ezekiel 44ff) and gives them Jerusalem forever.  So I hardly think Jews or Christians that know their Bible will see him fitting the Scriptural Messiah.  But of course this Bible Literate minority of the world will be silenced quickly, apparently within 5 months according to Revelation 8. Tim
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