Discover

The United States' Amazing Role In Bible Prophecy

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. David Asscherick

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Series Code: DP

Program Code: DP000020


00:17 Let's go to our lavender study guide, and begin with our
00:20 opening paragraph, it says: The United States is
00:23 unquestionably the most powerful nation on earth today.
00:28 More than this, it is the most powerful nation that has
00:30 ever existed in the history of the human experience.
00:34 This political, economic, and military potency has caused
00:38 many to inquire what role, if any, the United States would
00:43 play in Bible prophecy. This is precisely the question
00:46 we will seek to answer in this lesson.
00:50 So our presentation is entitled "Discover the United States' "
00:53 "Amazing Role in Bible Prophecy", and as we've already
00:56 said before, in the future, the final issue of loyalty will
01:01 center around the issue of worship. So let's look right
01:05 there on our study guide, some of this is review from last
01:08 night's material, it says "Worship or Else... "
01:15 The word "cause", and let's go to Revelation 13 for this,
01:20 this is actually how we began last night's presentation,
01:22 but let's just go back for just a little bit of review as we
01:26 prepare to understand the United States' amazing role in Bible
01:29 prophecy. I'm in Revelation 13:11,
01:39 when you're there say "amen". [Audience] Amen.
01:41 John says: "Then I saw another beast coming up out of"
01:44 "the earth, and he had 2 horns like a lamb, and he spoke"
01:47 "like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of"
01:50 "the first beast in his presence, and causes"
01:53 "the earth, and those who dwell in it, to worship. "
01:56 Notice verse 15, down towards the bottom it says:
01:59 "And cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast"
02:03 "should be killed. " First part of verse 16: "and causes"
02:06 "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave"
02:08 "to receive a mark on their right hand, or in their "
02:10 "forehead. " So this word, "cause", is an important word
02:13 here in Revelation 13, it occurs 3 times.
02:20 So that's what you'd write right there, and the word
02:22 "cause" means "to force". In this context the word
02:27 "cause" means "to force". Every time the word "cause"
02:29 is used in Revelation 13, you could just substitute the word
02:32 "force". "...and he forced them to worship".
02:36 He compels them, or causes them to worship.
02:40 In context, it's clearly against their will.
02:42 It goes on to say: We might ask the question: does God
02:45 ever force people to worship Him? Yes or No?
02:48 [Audience] No. Absolutely not, we've given
02:51 you 2 texts there, Matthew 11 and Jeremiah 31:3. Both of those
02:54 texts, and a host of others, literally scores of others
02:57 could be cited from both, the Old and the New Testament,
02:59 in which God invites us, and draws, and asks us to worship
03:03 Him, but never ever forces us.
03:08 So we go on: God urges, invites, encourages, woos, and draws
03:11 us to worship Him, but He never forces us to.
03:14 Forced worship, like forced love, is a contradiction
03:19 in terms, and is surely rooted in Satan's perverse and
03:22 insatiable desire for worship. Yet, that's exactly what
03:25 we see there in Revelation 13, that this power would seek
03:29 to force, cause, to compel worship. Forced love has
03:35 a very ugly word attached to it, we call that word "rape".
03:39 We don't believe that love can be forced. In fact, I've given
03:42 the illustration, I think, in this room before, if I held
03:45 a gun at you, like this, and I said "I want you to stand up"
03:48 you would stand up. If I held that same gun at you
03:50 and said "I want you to turn around", you would turn around.
03:53 If I said "I want you to stand on your head", you would do
03:55 you best to stand on your head, and I said "I want"
03:58 "you to bark like a dog", you'd [barks like a dog],
04:01 if you really thought I was going to do you harm.
04:03 But if I pointed that very same gun at you, and I said
04:06 "love me with all your heart", could you do it?
04:09 Love cannot be forced. Worship is nothing more
04:14 and nothing less than the extension of our love to God.
04:18 Jesus said in John 14:15: "If you love Me, keep My"
04:22 "commandments", and if love cannot be forced, worship,
04:26 true worship, cannot be forced. So now we're to the mark of
04:29 the beast there, the second subheading in your study guide.
04:32 It says: The mark of the beast - let's say it all together
04:35 - is the mark of the beast, and that's the point, it's not
04:39 "themarkofthebeast", one word, it's "the mark of the beast".
04:45 ...that is, it's the beast's mark of authority. We have
04:47 identified from the Bible the beast as non other than
04:50 the Roman church-state.
04:52 Incidentally, some of you have said "Wow, that's"
04:55 "so amazing, I've never seen that before, that's so cutting"
04:57 "edge, you must be on the cutting edge of what's"
05:00 "happening in Revelation, David", absolutely not.
05:02 Look at the rest of this, it says:
05:05 This identification is consistent with essentially
05:08 every one of the Protestant reformers, tell me if these
05:10 names mean anything to you, from Martin Luther and John Wesley,
05:13 to William Tyndale and John Calvin. Do those names mean
05:15 anything to anyone in this room? Okay, every one of those people
05:19 believe what I've been teaching you about the identity of
05:21 the beast of Revelation 13, and the little horn of Daniel 7
05:24 and 8. Every one of them, this is not something new,
05:27 as a matter of fact, this is something old.
05:31 So don't think that I invented this, hardly.
05:34 Now it doesn't matter, just because somebody taught it
05:36 in the past, it doesn't mean it's true.
05:38 In other words, we don't say "Well, if it was taught in"
05:42 "the past, if it was good enough for them, it was good enough"
05:44 "for us", what we say is: is it based on what the Bible teaches?
05:48 In this case, they were right in their identification.
05:52 I know that there are many people who are waiting for some
05:54 Antichrist figure, a single man, to appear at the end of time
05:57 amidst 7 years of tribulation, who's going to be some kind
06:00 of incarnate Satanic figure. Beloved, that is not
06:03 the Antichrist presented in the Bible. That might be
06:06 an Antichrist presented in some fictitious action series called
06:09 "Left Behind", but that is not the Antichrist figure depicted
06:13 in the Bible. At least that is not what historic Christianity
06:16 has taught, and it's also not what the Bible teaches.
06:19 Let's continue here, it says: The mark of the beast then,
06:21 would be the mark of the Roman church-state, so we identified
06:25 who the beast is, and then we ask very simply: what is
06:29 the beast's mark? If the beast is the Roman
06:32 church-state, then we ask a very simple question: what is
06:34 her mark of authority. We looked at this last night,
06:38 this is from C.F. Thomas, a letter dates October 20, 1895,
06:41 other sources could be given incidentally, but this one is
06:43 so clear, it says: [text on screen]
06:46 "the change" - that is the Biblical Sabbath to the Pagan
06:51 Sunday, [continues to read]
07:01 So we simply have to identify the beast and then we say
07:04 "Hey, what's your mark? " And they say "Our mark, our"
07:07 "proof that we can change religious dogmas, "
07:10 "and teachings, and laws, is that we changed the Biblical"
07:14 "day of worship, one of the 10 Commandments, written with"
07:16 "the finger of God, on tables of stone, and was placed"
07:20 "in the Ark, we can change it", that's the claim that's being
07:25 made. So notice, bottom of the first page, it says:
07:28 Last lesson we learned that the mark of the Roman
07:30 church-state's authority in religious matters is found in
07:33 her presumptuous claim to have changed the Christian day
07:37 of worship from Sabbath to Sunday, this is her claim,
07:44 and it is an amazing one indeed. But where did we get this
07:46 idea from that this change would be introduced?
07:49 We saw it as one of the identifying characteristics
07:52 of the Antichrist, in Daniel 7:25, see if you
07:55 remember it, where it says that "he would think to change"
07:59 "times and laws". That he would be so presumptuous,
08:04 he would actually think he could change the very times
08:06 and the very laws, not of Sterling Heights, but of God.
08:11 Now is that an amazing claim everyone?
08:14 Absolutely. You're right there at the bottom of the first page:
08:17 Remember Daniel 7:25 which says this Antichristian power will
08:19 think to change the very times and laws of God.
08:22 Have they attempted to do this? The answer of history is yes,
08:25 they have sought to transfer the holiness and solemnity
08:28 of the seventh day Sabbath to the first day of the week.
08:30 There is no Biblical authority, or mandate for this
08:35 change, we've already been over that.
08:37 If you're new tonight, that's review, in fact, all of this
08:40 so far is review, the church has done it out of her own
08:43 sense of authority, she has placed convenience and
08:45 tradition above the Bible. The Roman church-state has
08:48 historically made this claim and continues to make this
08:50 claim even today. She claims that this change proves her
08:53 sovereignty and authority in religious matters, it is
08:56 a mark of her authority, it is a mark, an identifying mark,
09:00 of the beast, and it's usurped ecclesiastical power.
09:05 I think it's only fair, once we've identified the beast
09:08 that we go to them, and ask them what their mark of
09:10 ecclesiastical authority is, and they tell us
09:13 without equivocation. You might be thinking to
09:15 yourself "Do you mean to say David that you believe that"
09:17 "this day, this new day of worship that has been"
09:21 "introduced, not on the authority of the Bible, but on"
09:23 "the authority of the church and tradition, are you saying"
09:26 "that that day is going to be legislated and enforced? "
09:29 That's exactly what I'm saying. In fact, a friend of mine,
09:33 G. Edward Reid, he's a lawyer, he wrote a book entitled:
09:36 "Sunday's Coming, Eye Opening Evidence That These Are"
09:39 "The Very Last Days": [text on screen]
09:49 You say "that's absolutely, positively impossible".
09:52 I'm going to do my best tonight to demonstrate to you that not
09:55 only is it not impossible, it's probable in our modern
09:59 political climate, and the Bible says that it is absolutely
10:03 going to happen. So let us continue here.
10:05 This was the slide we put up last night, and I want to just
10:08 walk you through it. About 6 years ago pope John Paul II
10:12 introduced an encyclical letter entitled "Deus Domini",
10:16 which literally means, in Latin, "The Day of the Lord".
10:22 It was big news, because he basically was dealing with
10:25 the whole idea of Sunday, and its theological significance.
10:29 It was an encyclical letter, and very interesting some of
10:32 the text of that letter, I've read the text in its entirety,
10:35 you can find it on the Internet, I recommend you do the same.
10:38 Just type that in, "Encyclical letter, Deus Domini", you can
10:41 do it right into any Google search engine. But this was very
10:43 interesting from the Detroit news, dated Tuesday,
10:46 July 7, 1998: [text on screen]
10:53 You say "Of course Catholics should set aside Sunday"
10:56 "for worship", but let's see what he goes on to say.
10:58 He went on to say: [text on screen]
11:05 I want you to think about that for just a moment.
11:08 What's happening is that there is an agitation surrounding
11:12 this idea of Sunday. In fact, there's a whole
11:17 alliance here in the USA, and the world over, called
11:21 "The Lord's Day Alliance", you can look that up on your
11:25 Internet if you'd like, "The Lord's Day Alliance", and there
11:27 are people who are saying we need to get this nation
11:31 back to God. They make a very persuasive
11:36 case, they say we've abandoned God in the schools,
11:39 and we've abandoned God here, and many of the Christians
11:41 are saying: "That's right, we abandoned God, "
11:44 "that's right, we need to get back to God".
11:47 And one of the things they say we've done is we've begun
11:49 to desecrate God's holy day. They begin to talk about how
11:52 we need to get back to that holy day that God set aside,
11:55 and they even call it "the Sabbath".
12:00 But guess what day they're talking about, yeah, they're
12:03 not talking about the Biblical Sabbath, they're talking about
12:05 this new day. So this is actually taking place.
12:08 I'm going to give you more on that in just a moment.
12:11 So, in Revelation 13, actually, first of all go here to your
12:14 study guide, and we're going to work our way towards
12:15 Revelation 13. Notice the paragraph that begins with
12:18 the word "impossible". Somebody says: "Are you"
12:23 "saying that every single person that goes to church on Sunday"
12:25 "today has the mark of the beast?"
12:28 Number 1: have I said that, yes or no? No, and I wouldn't
12:31 say it because there are faithful people who love
12:34 the Lord Jesus Christ, who are living up to all of the light
12:36 that they have, and God will only hold us responsible
12:39 for what we know. James 4:17: "For him that"
12:43 "knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin. "
12:47 However, if you know to do good and don't do it, whether
12:52 you're talking about the Sabbath or anything,
12:54 that puts you on dangerous ground. So if I know that I
13:00 should not be stealing, but I can continue to steal, that
13:03 could potentially fracture my relationship with God,
13:05 is that true? Of course, absolutely.
13:09 So the idea here is simply this: if we know what's what right,
13:12 if we know what's true, if we know what's Biblical, God says:
13:16 "I've revealed truth to you, not because I hate you, "
13:19 "but because I love you, and I have the expectation, as one"
13:22 "of My disciples that you will follow what the Bible says, "
13:25 "not what tradition says. " We quoted that yesterday
13:28 in Matthew 15 where Jesus says: "In vain do they worship Me, "
13:32 "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. "
13:38 Somebody's going to say: "Oh, well David, I already keep"
13:41 "the Sabbath because I go to church on Saturday".
13:44 Notice I didn't say anything about going to church on
13:46 Saturday, there's a big difference between going
13:49 to church on Saturday, and keeping the Biblical Sabbath as
13:52 God intended it. Beloved listen, there's many
13:55 people that "go to church on Sunday", and they can't wait
13:59 for the sermon to get done so they can get home and watch
14:01 the football games. Tell me if I'm telling the truth now,
14:03 come on. I'm not saying that's everyone,
14:06 of course not, but there's a big difference between just
14:10 going to church and keeping a day holy for the Lord Jesus
14:14 Christ. What does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy?
14:18 Beloved, I'll tell you what it means, it basically means
14:20 3 things, number 1: you don't work. So whatever it is
14:22 that you're doing the other days of the week, you don't do
14:24 on that day. Number 1, you don't work; number 2:
14:27 you don't cause others to work, that's what the commandment
14:29 says: "...the stranger that is within your gates", you're
14:31 not causing them to work. Number 3: whatever activity
14:34 you're engaging in on the Sabbath, it's drawing you closer
14:37 to God. So any other secular activity
14:41 that you might do the other 6 days of the week, think of
14:43 the Sabbath as a date with God. If someone invited you over,
14:50 your spouse before you were married, and if you're not
14:53 yet married, you have a date with someone, if they come
14:56 over to your house and you have a certain time, and you're
14:58 going to do a certain activity, and you say
15:01 "Okay, we're going to go out and do that, but first I've got"
15:02 "to change the oil in the car, and then after I change"
15:04 "the oil I've got to mow the lawn, and then after I mow"
15:07 "the lawn I've got to trim the weeds, and then after I trim"
15:10 "the weeds I've got to put fertilizer".
15:12 All of these things you've got to do, are you going to end up
15:15 having a date? Absolutely not.
15:18 So the Sabbath is all about a relationship between you
15:21 and your Creator, Jesus Christ, between you and your Redeemer,
15:24 Jesus Christ, it's a weekly date with God.
15:29 So beloved there's a huge difference between just going
15:32 to church on Saturday and keeping the Sabbath.
15:37 It's important to understand the distinction there.
15:39 Now let's continue on here. "Impossible", you say,
15:41 "that would never happen, it's impossible to even suggest that"
15:45 "this would ever be enforced here in this free, liberty"
15:48 "loving country of the USA. " Be careful.
15:54 Note that 36 states in this union already have Sunday laws
15:58 on the books just waiting to be enforced, they're called
16:01 "Blue Laws". You go type that into Google,
16:06 just do a little research on blue laws, 36 out of 50 states
16:09 in the USA already have these laws on the books.
16:13 These aren't laws that have to be passed in many cases,
16:16 these are laws that simply have to be enforced.
16:22 The climate is ripening for just this kind of thing.
16:24 Many a politician, and many a religious leader are keen on
16:27 "getting this country back to God". Beloved, people aren't
16:30 blind, they can see the moral decline that's taking place,
16:32 they can see all of the things that are happening in society,
16:35 and the gross debauchery, and the gross moral decline,
16:39 the gross moral chaos that's taking place, people can see it,
16:43 and in reaction to that we have politicians, and religionists,
16:47 and even religious leaders saying "We need to get this"
16:50 "nation back to God". Now, I believe we need to get
16:54 this nation back to God, but here's the major difference:
16:58 in the way that you do it. I believe we should do our very
17:03 best to get this nation back to God, and do you know how I think
17:06 we should do it? By doing what we're doing right
17:08 here, by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
17:12 In other words, this idea that we're going to get everybody
17:15 in the legislation to become Christians, and we're going
17:17 to start legislating our ideas, and legislating our beliefs,
17:22 you better be careful because church and state never make
17:27 good bed partners. We've good this whole people,
17:31 everyone says "We need to get more religion back into"
17:34 "the government", etc, etc. Listen, I believe we should have
17:37 Godly, moral people in government, but we need to be
17:40 very careful that that line is not crossed where people are
17:44 enforcing their religious beliefs on others who may not
17:48 believe those beliefs. If you want to look at this
17:52 it's actually very simple from a Biblical perspective.
17:54 There are how many commandments? 10 Commandments.
17:57 The last 6 commandments deal with the relationship that you
18:01 have with those people around you: honor thy father and thy
18:03 mother; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt
18:06 not commit adultery; thou shalt not bear false witness against
18:09 thy neighbor; and you shall not covet thy neighbors goods.
18:11 All of those have to do with the horizontal relationship.
18:15 The government absolutely, totally, completely should
18:18 enforce those things as civil parameters and civil laws.
18:24 We don't want to argue for an anarchy, or anything like this,
18:28 we need civil restraint, and Paul talks about that in
18:31 Romans 13, but the first 4 commandments the civil
18:35 government has no business enforcing.
18:41 I mean, are we comfortable with the US government enforcing
18:44 "Thou shalt have no other gods except the Jehovah God"?
18:47 Absolutely not. You're forcing worship if you
18:51 think that's true. Are we comfortable with the US
18:54 government enforcing a second commandment: "Thou shalt not"
18:55 "make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of"
18:58 "anything that is in the heaven above, the earth beneath, "
19:01 "or the waters under the earth"? Do we want our government
19:03 telling us how we should worship. One of the greatest
19:06 rites that we have in the US is the right to be wrong.
19:10 And neither should they be enforcing taking the name
19:13 of God in vain, and neither should they be enforcing
19:15 the Sabbath. So it's actually a very simple distinction,
19:18 you can find it in Romans 13, the apostle Paul says
19:21 God has set up governing authorities, and then he quotes
19:24 from the commandment, but he doesn't quote the first
19:27 commandment, he doesn't quote the second commandment,
19:29 he doesn't quote the 4th commandment because Paul knew
19:32 that this is not the proper sphere for a secular government
19:36 to be enforcing. We're going to get into that
19:40 in just a moment. People want to get the nation
19:43 back to God, the problem is that they're going to overstep
19:46 their boundaries, they're going to go too far.
19:49 Governments tend to be reactionary, it's very unusual
19:51 that a government just nicely comes back right back to
19:54 the middle, they're like a pendulum: back this way,
19:57 and back that way. Let's look at our study guide,
20:01 it says: This mixture of church and state is always a dangerous
20:04 mixture as the 1260 period known as the Dark Ages
20:08 clearly reveals. Why do they call it the "Dark Ages"?
20:12 Because the lamp of God, the light of the Word was taken
20:15 away. The first amendment of the constitution is a safe guard
20:18 against this very kind of thing, but the constitution is being
20:22 radically reevaluated - we're going to talk about that in
20:27 just a moment. The climate of the US right now post 9/11
20:31 is a very different world than the pre 9/11 world.
20:33 Is that true, yes or no? Absolutely.
20:36 The world will never be the same again, neither will the US,
20:40 we are living in strange and portentous times as
20:43 the increasing number of politicians and legislators
20:45 claim that they are Christians on a mission to turn this
20:49 nation back to God. I want to say again,
20:51 nothing wrong with wanting to get this nation back to God,
20:54 but you didn't see Jesus out protesting the abuses of
20:57 the Roman government, you didn't see Jesus out protesting
21:00 the abuses of Herod and the others, Jesus preached
21:05 the gospel, and that's what Christians are called to do,
21:10 to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to legislate
21:15 their views on people who may or may not hold to those
21:17 very views. We're going to come back
21:19 to that in just a second. So look at the bottom of that
21:22 page, to put it very plainly, I don't know how to make
21:25 it more plain than this: Sunday observance will be legislated.
21:27 This will be the enforcement of the mark of the beast.
21:30 We've already identified the beast, we've already identified
21:33 the mark of their ecclesiastical authority, so the enforcing of
21:37 that must be the legislation of that mark.
21:39 It's really quite simple, the transfer from the Biblical
21:41 Sabbath to Sunday is the beast's mark, this mark will
21:44 be caused, or enforced. The US will pay a pivotal role
21:47 in this enforcement, as Revelation 13 makes clear.
21:51 I want to say something here as we turn to the 3rd page
21:53 of our study guide. Someone in this room is bound
21:55 to say "Oh really? I wonder if that's true, in fact, "
21:58 "it looks like the Biblical evidence actually points in"
22:01 "that direction, and I'm going to wait and see how this"
22:05 "pans out, and I'll tell you what, if it ends up happening"
22:09 "that way then I'll know that Pastor Asscherick was right, "
22:11 "I'll know that his interpretation was correct"
22:14 "and then I'll start to keep the Sabbath. "
22:16 Beloved, I've got news for you, the Bible says today
22:21 to keep God's Sabbath. It's not just an end time issue,
22:26 it is an end time issue, but it's also a Biblical issue.
22:32 Let's just pretend that the mark of the beast had to do
22:34 with the second commandment, not bowing down to an image,
22:36 let's just pretend for a moment. So we say "Well, I'm going"
22:39 "to keep bowing down to my images, and in case they pass"
22:42 "that law that says I can't do it, then I'll change. "
22:44 Is that how we should go about it? Absolutely not.
22:46 Beloved, if you open your Bible today you will find that in
22:49 Exodus 20, and in Deuteronomy 5 the Sabbath commandment is
22:52 there today, you can go check on it right now.
22:54 It's not just going to suddenly appear at the end of time when
22:57 these things are going to become agitated, it's there today.
23:00 So it's not just an end time issue, it's a present tense,
23:04 current events issue, but it will also become an end time
23:07 issue. By the way, we should never
23:10 ever, ever, ever delay to obey what we know is God's will.
23:17 That doesn't have to be the Sabbath, it could be anything,
23:20 it's never safe to wait, or to delay.
23:26 Okay, so let's go. The 2 beasts, who is the second?
23:28 I'm in Revelation 13. For those of you who are
23:31 attentive Bible students, you have noticed that there are
23:34 actually 2 beasts in Revelation 13.
23:38 Let's begin in Revelation 13:1, John says: "Then I stood"
23:43 "on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out"
23:46 "of the sea, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his horns"
23:48 "10 crowns, and on his head a blasphemous name. "
23:51 "Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, its feet were"
23:54 "like the feet of a bear, his mouth was like the mouth of"
23:57 "a lion" and who him his power, throne and great authority?
24:00 The Dragon, and who's the dragon? Satan.
24:02 Okay, this is the Antichrist beast. "I saw one of his"
24:05 "heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his"
24:08 "deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled"
24:11 "and followed after the beast. So they worshiped the dragon"
24:13 "who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped"
24:16 "the beast, saying 'Who is like the beast? Who is able' "
24:19 " 'to make war with him?' " Verse 5: "And he was given"
24:22 "a mouth to speak great things and blasphemies, and he was"
24:25 "given authority to continue for 42 months", that's 1260
24:30 days, that's the 3 and a half years that we've already
24:32 talked about, those dates that move from 538 AD to 1798 AD
24:37 of papal persecution. It goes on: "Then he opened"
24:39 "his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme"
24:42 "His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. "
24:44 "It was granted him to make war with the saints and to overcome"
24:47 "them, and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue"
24:50 "and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him"
24:54 that's the key issue, "who's names have not been written in"
24:57 "the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation"
25:00 "of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. "
25:02 Then verse 10: "He who leads into captivity will go into"
25:05 "captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed"
25:09 "with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of"
25:12 "the saints. " Now look at verse 11: "Then I saw another"
25:16 "beast". So we know who that first beast is, we have plainly,
25:19 clearly identified from the Bible this first beast as
25:22 the Roman church-state. So look at the top of page 3
25:28 in your study guide: Revelation 13 describes
25:32 2 beasts, the first beast rises up out the sea and it has 10
25:37 horn, it has the body of a leopard, it has the feet of
25:40 a bear, it has the mouth of a lion, this imagery comes
25:44 from Daniel 7 as we've already seen and studied.
25:47 I want you to notice the sequence, John sees this beast
25:50 in this order: first he notices the horns, that would be on
25:55 the beast that represented Rome. And then what did he see
25:59 after the horns, what did he see next? He saw the body
26:02 of a leopard, and who was the leopard? Greece.
26:08 And then he saw the feet of a bear, and that was who?
26:11 Medo-Persia, and then he saw the mouth of a lion.
26:15 So from John's perspective, living in the time of Rome,
26:17 he saw in this order, he saw this beast's characteristics
26:22 as Rome, Greece, Medo-Persia, Babylon.
26:29 How did Daniel see them? Daniel saw them in the exact
26:34 opposite order. What did he see first?
26:37 Lion, and then he saw the bear, and then he saw the leopard,
26:41 and then he saw the beast with 10 horns, why might that be?
26:44 Beloved, because John was living during the time of Rome
26:47 and he was looking backward through history, and Daniel
26:52 was living 600 years before the time of Jesus, and he was
26:55 looking forward into the future. You can fill that in
27:00 right there. Why the difference?
27:02 Daniel was looking forward into the future, that is, he was
27:05 looking prophetically, John was looking backward into history,
27:08 that is he was looking historically.
27:11 The first beast it the Roman church-state, as we have
27:13 already seen, who is the second beast?
27:17 We know who this guy is, we have that first beast in our sights,
27:22 we have spent message after message after message
27:26 identifying that rascal, we know who that is.
27:29 But now another beast was seen coming up.
27:34 So there are 2 beasts here. The first beast, as we've
27:40 already identified, is the Roman church-state, which reigned
27:43 for 1260 literal years, that is prophetic days, from 538 AD,
27:50 we've been over this, this is all review, 1260 years,
27:53 to exactly 1798. In 1798 a man by the name of Berthier, one of
27:57 Napoleon's top generals, marched into the Vatican, he took
28:00 the pope off of the throne, declared everything there as
28:03 the property of France and the pope died in exile,
28:07 and the deadly wound was inflicted, that agrees perfectly
28:12 with verse 3 where it says his deadly wound was healed.
28:15 So a deadly wound was inflicted, we could perhaps spend some more
28:19 time on that. So we know who this first beast is, but here's
28:22 something very interesting: there is a second beast,
28:25 and this beast acts as the spokes person for the first
28:29 beast. Now beloved, what is a beast in Bible prophecy?
28:34 It's a kingdom or a nation.
28:36 So here we have Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
28:41 So a beast in Bible prophecy is, let's say it together,
28:43 a kingdom. So here he sees another kingdom coming up,
28:48 there's a second beast, this beast is sometimes referred to
28:51 as "the false prophet" because he speaks on behalf of the first
28:55 beast, who claims to be God. Think about it, a prophet
29:00 speaks for who? For themselves? No, a prophet speaks for God
29:05 that's why you find so many times in the Old Testament:
29:08 "Thus sayeth the Lord...", Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel
29:12 and others, so this second beast comes up, and he basically
29:15 speaks on behalf of that first beast, who actually claims to be
29:20 God on earth. That's why he's called "the false prophet".
29:27 Now let's look at this, verse 11: "Then I saw another"
29:30 "beast coming up out of the earth, and he had 2 horns"
29:34 "like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon, and he exercises"
29:38 "all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he"
29:41 "causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship"
29:44 "the first beast. " So notice, the job of the second
29:47 beast is to cause the earth to worship, not himself,
29:53 but the first beast. "...causes all who are in it",
29:56 it says in verse 13: "He performs great signs, so that"
29:58 "he even makes fire come down from heaven on earth in"
30:01 "the sight of men. He deceives those who dwell on the earth by'
30:03 "the signs he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, "
30:05 "telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image"
30:08 "to the beast, who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. "
30:10 "He was granted power to give breath", notice that, he gives
30:13 breath, the word is "pneuma", "to the image of the beast"
30:16 "that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause"
30:19 "as many as would not worship the image of the beast should"
30:21 "be killed. He causes all", no one is exempt, "both small"
30:24 "and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark"
30:28 "on their right hand, or in their foreheads", and we learned
30:31 last night that you can get the mark of the beast in either your
30:33 right hand, or the forehead, but the seal of God you can only
30:35 get in your forehead. Why the difference?
30:38 Because you can't work your way to heaven, you're only getting
30:43 to heaven by faith, so the seal of God can't be put in the hand,
30:46 the seal of God can only go in the forehead.
30:49 Powerful! It goes on here, verse 17: "And that no one"
30:56 "might buy or sell, except the one who has the mark of"
30:59 "the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. "
31:01 "Let him who has understanding calculate the number of"
31:04 "the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number"
31:06 "is 666. " So the job of this second
31:09 beast is to cause the earth to worship and to reverence
31:13 the first beast. We know who the first beast is, now we've got
31:20 to figure out who's the second beast.
31:23 You're right there in your study guide, we're going to look
31:25 at 6 identifying characteristics, and they're all
31:29 going to come from the Bible. I'm not going to stand here
31:33 and say "Well, you know, it could be North Korea. "
31:37 "And it could be the former Soviet Union. "
31:40 No, let's look at what the Bible has to say, and we'll see
31:42 that the Bible interprets itself. I want you to notice,
31:46 first identifying characteristic, this beast rises
31:50 out of the earth. He rises out of the earth as opposed
31:58 to the sea. We've already seen in Revelation and Daniel that
32:02 water in Bible prophecy represents peoples, multitudes,
32:06 nations and tongues, that is a populated or populous area.
32:11 So this beast is seen rising up in a very different locale,
32:15 the other beast in Revelation 13 rises out of the sea, this beast
32:18 rises out of the earth. So look at the board,
32:21 we're going to ask 5 simple question, we're going to look
32:23 at 5 considerations: [text on screen]
32:35 In looking at these 5 things what we're going to see is that
32:38 it's actually very easy to identify this beast.
32:41 So our first question is: where does he rise out of the earth?
32:44 Now look at number 2. The Bible says he has 2 horns
32:48 like a lamb. Now, the New Testament uses the word
32:52 "lamb" 29 times, 26 of those are directly from the book
32:56 of Revelation, and every time, except 1, it's a reference
32:59 to Jesus Christ. The only time it's not a reference to Jesus
33:03 Christ is this verse right here, verse 11. The only time in all
33:07 of Revelation that the word "lamb" is used, and it's clearly
33:10 not a reference to Christ. It says "he has to horns like"
33:14 "a lamb". This means that this beast would espouse lamb-like,
33:19 or Christ-like characteristics. What did John the Baptist say?
33:25 He said "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins"
33:28 "of the world. " So this beast rises up out of
33:31 the earth, the first beast rose up out of a populated area.
33:34 This beast rises up out of a relatively unpopulated area,
33:36 that just makes sense. If the sea is a populated area,
33:39 then the earth would be a less populated area.
33:40 So he rises up in a different area, he also, as we've just
33:44 discussed in number 2, he has lamb-like, or Christ-like,
33:51 characteristics. Look at number 3: the first beast had horns
33:55 with crowns.
33:58 Does the Bible say anything about the second beast having
34:01 crowns? No, so we might ask the question: who wears a crown?
34:06 A king wears a crown, or a pontiff wears a crown,
34:09 or a queen wears a crown, does a president wear a crown?
34:12 Presidents don't wear crowns. This, the governmental character
34:16 of this beast, would be different, we're not going
34:19 to look for a royal, or kingly, or a queenly authority.
34:24 So notice it says: Horns have no crowns, there is no king
34:27 or queen in this beast, whoever it is.
34:30 Number 4 says it rises up about the same time the first beast
34:34 goes down, let me show that got you, you're right there in
34:36 verse 10. So John is seeing this first
34:41 beast, and he's watching it do its various rampages,
34:44 and ravages, its doing its mission there, and then he sees
34:48 it receive the deadly wound; 1798, we've already talked
34:52 about that. In fact, if you want to just do a little bit
34:54 of history, here's essentially what happened: among other
34:57 things, Napoleon got fed up with the Catholic church, that's
34:59 basically the short version, and he sent one of his best
35:02 generals down there, and he said "I'm tired of that rascal, "
35:05 "go down there and just take care of business. "
35:07 So it received a deadly wound.
35:10 Look at verse 10, it says: "He who leads into captivity will"
35:16 "go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed"
35:22 "with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of"
35:24 "the saints. " So what was happening
35:26 during the period of the Dark Ages is that if you wouldn't bow
35:28 to the Roman church-state, you could be led to captivity,
35:31 led to a dungeon, led to a prison, or killed.
35:35 What John sees here in vision is that this power that's been
35:37 leading into captivity will himself go into captivity,
35:40 this power that's been killing with the sword will himself
35:43 be killed by the sword. And what's the very next thing
35:47 John sees? Verse 11: "Then I saw another beast"
35:52 "coming up out of the earth. " So get this in your mind,
35:54 it's actually very, very simple: John sees this first beast
35:57 on its career, 538-1798, and he sees it go into captivity
36:01 and get wounded by the sword, and just about the time he sees
36:03 this beast going down, he sees another beast coming up.
36:07 So now we have a time element. The first beast received its
36:12 deadly wound in 1798, so we're looking for this nation to come
36:15 on the scene of action some time around 1798.
36:21 That's number 4. Look at number 5.
36:25 It says, if you look at verse 11, "I saw another beast"
36:29 what are the next to words? "Coming up", do you see that?
36:33 Revelation 13:11: "I saw another beast coming up".
36:39 It's very interesting here, the Greek word translated
36:42 "coming up" is the very same word that is used to describe
36:47 the almost invisibly slow maturation of a growing plant.
36:52 Any gardeners here? You put that seed in the ground
36:55 and you wait, nothing, you wait, nothing, and then
36:59 just one day you look and the dirt has moved slightly
37:02 and you've got a little something there, and then you
37:04 go away for a week and you come back, and it's just a little
37:07 bigger; you go away for a week, you come back, it's just
37:10 a little bigger, it's coming up slowly, almost imperceptibly.
37:17 That's the word that's being used, that's actually what
37:19 the word means, he sees another beast coming up.
37:22 So this beast, unlike, say, these beasts here,
37:25 remember the bear? You might remember back in
37:27 Daniel 7, the bear, it said: "Arise, devour much flesh",
37:31 and he had those 3 ribs in the mouth signifying the 3
37:34 provinces of Babylon that he had conquered?
37:36 This second beast is nothing like this, this beast is not
37:40 pouncing and conquering other nations, this beast is growing
37:44 quietly, slowly, almost imperceptibly in a relatively
37:51 unpopulated area of the world. So we can't be looking for this
37:54 beast to come up in the old world where all of the other
37:58 beasts came up, and the sea was, and the populated area was
38:02 This beast is going to come up quietly, imperceptibly, almost
38:06 like a plant growing, not conquering, but coming up.
38:12 And look at number 6: this beast would eventually
38:15 posses unprecedented global power and influence.
38:19 You say "How do you know that? " Well, look at the text,
38:21 the text says several times that he causes the whole earth
38:24 to worship the first beast. Now, I'm just looking down here
38:27 at my good friend Maurice, who I love very, very much.
38:31 Maurice is from Cameroon, I'm going to just pick on you very
38:33 quickly Maurice, not pick on you, I love you like a brother,
38:35 but we can be pretty sure that whoever this nation is,
38:38 it's probably not Cameroon, for a variety of reasons.
38:42 If Cameroon passed a law and said the whole world has to do
38:47 something, do you think they'd listen?
38:52 Unfortunately Maurice, here in the US we're not as good
38:54 at our geography as other places, a lot of people would
38:56 say "Cameroon, is that some kind of a nut? "
39:00 [Audience laughs] A lot of people wouldn't even
39:03 know, so this nation, whatever this nation is, has to posses
39:08 global influence. So here's our identifiers right
39:15 here on the board, this is what we're looking for, this is
39:17 the second beast. How many of these identifiers
39:19 came from the Bible? Every one of them.
39:22 So number 1: [text on screen]
39:29 Jesus said things like "If the Son shall make you free, "
39:33 "you shall be free indeed. " In Luke 4 Jesus said
39:38 that He had come to preach liberty to the captives.
39:42 This nation would espouse Christ-like principles.
39:45 Number 3, this nation would not have a king, this nation would
39:49 not have a queen, or any kind of a monarchy, this would be
39:52 a nation that was ruled governmentally differently.
39:57 Number 4, this nation has to arise some time around the time
40:01 the first beast is going down, which was in 1798,
40:04 so we're looking for a beast to come up some time around 1798.
40:08 [text on screen]
40:23 Is there any question in anybody's mind who we're
40:25 talking about here? It is just as plain as
40:28 the noonday sun. Who is this second beast
40:30 of Revelation 13? It could only be the United States of America.
40:35 Let's see if it meets all of the identifying characteristics.
40:39 Did this country arise in a new area, a relatively unpopulated
40:43 area, as opposed to the old world? Absolutely.
40:46 Does this country espouse
40:48 Christ-like principles, at least in concept and in principle?
40:53 Absolutely, not always in practice, but at least
40:56 in principle. Number 3: is there a king, or queen here?
41:00 In fact, the exact opposite, when the pilgrim fathers
41:02 and others landed here, they decided, our forefathers,
41:06 we're going to talk about this in a moment, that they would
41:07 start a government, not with subjects but with citizens.
41:14 There's not going to be a king that's reigning supreme over
41:17 the lowly peasants, but we would have, instead of a kingdom
41:21 with peasants, we would have a citizenry.
41:27 Let's say it this way: "Of the people, for the people, "
41:30 "and by the people", that's a little different, isn't it?
41:33 It would arise around 1798, does that fit?
41:38 The answer is "yes". Does it grow up quietly,
41:41 like a plant, not primarily through conquering other
41:44 nations? Absolutely. And has it grown literally
41:46 almost overnight? Think about it this way:
41:49 the USA is basically only 200 years old and is the most
41:52 powerful nation that has ever existed in the history of
41:56 the human experience. It literally came on the scene
41:59 of action, and now, as a good friend of mine from Romania
42:02 says, my wife is from Romania, he says "When the United States"
42:05 "sneezes, the whole world gets a cold".
42:08 [Audience laughs] Isn't that right?
42:10 I could give you instance, after instance of this thing.
42:13 For example, the US says "Hey listen, we want to invade Iraq"
42:17 and the UN says "No", and they say "Tough!"
42:19 "We'll do whatever we want", it's like the old saying:
42:22 "Where does an 800 pound gorilla sit? "
42:25 "He sits wherever he wants to. " So Tony Blair from the UK,
42:29 and a few others, have figured this out. They've said:
42:32 "You know what? He's the toughest kid on the block, "
42:34 "better join him. " That's exactly what's happening.
42:37 Let's go through and see if this all fits together, this is from
42:40 "The New World Compared With The Old", by G.A Townsend,
42:43 notice what he said, speaking of the US: [text on screen]
42:52 That's exactly the Biblical language: like a silent seed
42:56 coming up slowly, almost imperceptibly.
42:59 "Daniel and Revelation" by Uriah Smith, page 578 [text on screen]
43:08 So it fits that qualification very nicely.
43:12 [text on screen]
43:15 They had been in the old world where they had seen that
43:19 religious tyranny, and political tyranny basically got them
43:23 nowhere except persecution. If you didn't have the luxury
43:26 or the fortune of being born into one of the royal families,
43:29 or somehow being associated with royalty, you could be in a very
43:32 bad way. So when they landed, you know the stories, I'm not
43:35 telling you anything you don't know, but they would get off
43:38 those boats, and they would kiss the ground because this was
43:40 a new place where they didn't have to worry about the king
43:42 saying thus and so, and the pope saying thus and so.
43:45 It was a new land where they could try a new governmental
43:49 experiment, and I believe in my soul of souls that God
43:53 opened this nation up right on time.
43:58 I believe that with every fiber of my being.
44:00 Does it meet the time element? Absolutely, [text on screen]
44:07 Is that around 1798? So just as the one beast
44:11 is going down, what's the other beast doing?
44:14 Coming up. The Declaration of Independence
44:16 was signed July 4, 1776, so one is going down and one is
44:23 coming up, meets that specification perfectly.
44:25 The Declaration of Independence, I love this: [text on screen]
44:33 Do you know how revolutionary that is?
44:36 We take these things for granted here in the USA, that is so
44:40 revolutionary, in the old world with the royal hierarchy
44:46 and the oligarchies of kings and queens and princes,
44:49 not everybody was created equal. To even suggest that the peasant
44:53 was the equal of the king is laughable.
44:57 Here they say "We hold these truths to be self-evident, "
44:59 "that all Men", of course, including women as well,
45:01 [text on screen]
45:07 "Unalienable", that means "cannot be taken away".
45:10 [continues to read]
45:17 Just a little bit of hedonism thrown in there at the end.
45:19 [Audience laughs] A few of you got that.
45:23 The US constitution, the first Amendment:
45:26 [text on screen]
45:31 As George Thurgood Marshall said: "Your rites end"
45:34 "where my nose begins". You can do whatever you want,
45:39 but your rights end at the very place that my nose begins.
45:43 So in the USA, if you want to worship that pulpit, you want
45:46 to start a whole religion where you worship that pulpit
45:49 and you want to dance around the pulpit and say "This is"
45:51 "the Creator God, this pulpit here", could you do that
45:54 in this country? Yes or no? [Audience] Yes.
45:56 It would be foolish, it would be illogical, it would be unusual,
45:59 but you could do it. Absolutely, that's the point.
46:04 You see, they were so under the thumb of religious and political
46:08 tyranny that when they got on these new shores, they said
46:11 "We're tired of the popes, and we're tired of the kings".
46:15 So they established this radically new government.
46:18 It was an experiment, it was the American experiment.
46:22 A government of the people, for the people, by the people,
46:26 where everyone is equal, and citizens vote leaders?
46:29 We take this for granted now, this was radical beloved.
46:33 Absolutely radical. What makes this nation great?
46:36 2 central freedoms, 2 central liberties make this nation
46:40 great: [text on screen]
46:47 If you want to be even more technical, you'd say
46:48 "Republicanism and Protestantism", those are
46:52 the 2 principles that make this nation great.
46:54 Republicanism, sometimes we think we live in a democracy,
46:57 but really we don't live in a democracy, we live in
46:59 a republic, which is a representative democracy.
47:02 We pledge allegiance to the flag of the USA and to the republic
47:08 for which it stands. A republic is a representative
47:11 democracy, the idea of republicanism is that the people
47:15 can govern themselves. We don't need kings,
47:21 that doesn't say that sometimes our presidents have not acted
47:24 that way, but I'm saying in principle.
47:28 And we don't need popes. We can worship how we want
47:32 to worship in this country, we have the right to be wrong.
47:36 Absolutely incredible So religious liberty is freedom
47:38 from a pope, civil liberty is freedom from a king.
47:40 Look at George Washington, who could have said it better
47:42 than this in 1789. Mr. Washington,
47:45 first president of the USA said: [text on screen]
48:02 So now no one's going to come and say "You'd better bow"
48:04 "to the cardinal", "you'd better bow to the pontiff",
48:07 "you'd better bow to the prelate", Mr. Washington said
48:09 "We've had enough of that. " You can worship God according
48:13 to the dictates of your own good conscience, you want
48:15 to be a Protestant, you can be a Protestant.
48:18 You want to be a Muslim? You can be a Muslim.
48:20 You want to a Catholic? You can be a Catholic.
48:22 You want to be an atheist? You can be an atheist.
48:25 As long as what you do does not infringe upon my rights,
48:27 where your rights end my nose begins, you can worship God
48:29 according to the dictates of your own good conscience.
48:34 That is one of the things that makes this nation great,
48:37 I'll say it again, it's the right to be wrong.
48:42 Look at this one, Benjamin Franklin, I love this:
48:46 [text on screen]
49:17 Do you see what he's saying? That's exactly right.
49:22 Religion is good, it'll take care of itself, but the moment
49:24 that the religious entity has to appeal to the civil entity for
49:28 support, and for money, and for finances, and for influences,
49:31 he said: "If God can't support this thing, why, pray tell, "
49:35 "should the secular government support it? "
49:39 Founding fathers! It says that this nation
49:43 would speak like a dragon, look at verse 11.
49:45 I wish I could stop here, I wish it was a happy story
49:48 and we all marched off into the great democratic horizon
49:53 behind the drummer. I wish it could end like that.
50:01 But it says something very disturbing in verse 11:
50:03 "Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had"
50:06 "2 horns like a lamb", so he would espouse Christ-like
50:09 principles of liberty and freedom, but eventually he would
50:13 speak like a dragon. And who's the dragon?
50:16 Satan. Let me tell you something,
50:19 that is the only verse in all of Scripture where the word
50:22 "lamb" and the word "dragon" appear in the same verse.
50:24 That's it. There is a tension in this verse
50:26 that's palpable. Here you have the Lamb
50:29 and the Dragon mentioned in the same verse.
50:34 "Would speak like a dragon". We might legitimately ask
50:37 the question: how does a nation speak?
50:40 Through its laws and legislative body.
50:44 [text on screen]
50:47 You say "How do you know that? " Because I just read that
50:50 the second beast is going to "cause" the earth to worship
50:56 the first beast. You're saying "impossible, "
50:59 "that's absolutely impossible! " No it's not impossible.
51:03 In fact, the deadly wound is healing right before out very
51:06 eyes, that first beast is growing in power
51:08 and in preeminence right before our very eyes.
51:11 In 1929 Mussolini sat down with cardinal Gasparri
51:14 and signed the historic Roman pact. I want you to notice
51:17 the language here, February 11, 1929: [text on screen]
51:32 Isn't that interesting? I could give you 3 other
51:34 articles, contemporaneous articles that say that exact
51:37 same thing, when they sat down together, and basically what
51:40 happened was that Mussolini turned civil power back over
51:44 to the Vatican, he gave it back over. He basically reestablished
51:47 the Vatican as its own civil governing entity, they were
51:52 healing the wound that had been inflicted in 1798 by France
51:56 when they took the pope off his throne.
51:58 Is that interesting? Is it or not?
52:01 Oh, they began to heal the wound, and it is being healed
52:04 right before our very eyes today. This man was probably
52:06 the single greatest evangelist and apologist that the church
52:09 had ever seen; traveling all over the world, he was almost
52:12 like a rock star in some ways. Malachi Martin, who wrote
52:15 the book "The Keys of This Blood", he was Jesuit.
52:17 He said this: [text on screen]
52:23 I want you to look at that word here "three-way",
52:26 we'll come back to that. [continues to read]
52:47 He's saying we're the stakes, there's a 3 way battle.
52:51 You can read the book, you don't really have to read the book.
52:54 Here were the 3 "C"s that in Malachi Martin's almost 1000
52:59 page book were struggling for the supremacy: [text on screen]
53:07 Beloved, you know that that's an older book.
53:11 Written in the late 1970s, early 1980s, you know it's
53:14 an older book because how many of those "C"s are around today?
53:18 Just 2 of them, one of them's gone.
53:21 You say "Whoa, I wonder how that happened? "
53:23 "How did the one disappear? " I'll tell you how
53:26 it disappeared: the other 2 got together and got rid of him.
53:29 Time Magazine, right on the front cover: [text on screen]
53:33 That's pope John Paul, that's Ronald Reagan, so the moral
53:36 superpower of the world, and the greatest superpower
53:38 of the world. The subtitle says:
53:41 "How Reagan and the pope conspired to assist Poland's"
53:46 "Solidarity movement and hasten the demise of Communism. "
53:50 So I want you to think about that.
53:53 In the late 1970s, early 1980s when Malachi Martin wrote
53:56 "The Keys of This Blood" there were 3 players on the scene:
53:58 capitalism, communism and Catholicism, and 2 of them
54:01 got together and kicked the other guy off the bench.
54:05 It was so common knowledge that they put it right on the front
54:08 cover of our major news media magazines.
54:11 I want to ask you a question: does that sound at all like what
54:13 Bible prophecy is saying? A coming together of
54:16 the greatest superpower in the world and the beast
54:18 of Revelation 13? Absolutely incredible.
54:22 You just have this man going out, just basically bringing
54:26 the whole world together. He has died, and his predecessor
54:29 has come on the scene, he's already in dialogs with Islam,
54:32 and everybody says "Oh, he really made the Muslims mad"
54:35 "when he made that comment". Beloved, let me tell you
54:37 something: even though the Muslims were upset, and they
54:40 were all mad at the pope, and people were going crazy, etc.
54:43 You remember this, this is like a month ago? 2 months ago?
54:46 I want you to notice something, when it came time to settle
54:49 the score, when it came time to sort it all out and to have
54:51 the meetings and to sit down over tea, you know where
54:54 they didn't meet? They didn't meet in Afghanistan
54:57 They didn't meet in the Middle East. They didn't meet
54:59 in Islamabad. You know where they met?
55:03 They met at the pope's place. That tells you who's got
55:05 the power. When it came time to settle it
55:08 they met in Rome. At the end of the day everybody
55:12 was happy again, and "Oh, we have so much in common".
55:15 See beloved, it's happening. Look at that right there.
55:17 The most powerful men in the world kneeling before the body
55:21 at the funeral. That was the first time in history that a US
55:26 president had ever even attended a papal funeral.
55:29 First time in history beloved, and it wasn't just one,
55:33 you have the current president, George W.
55:36 You have the former president, George Bush I, and Bill Clinton,
55:39 and Jimmy Carter would have gone, but there were, I believe,
55:41 medical complications. 3 presidents, Condoleezza Rice
55:45 is just there, Tony Blair's just outside of the picture.
55:48 The most powerful people in the world knelt, look at what
55:52 they're doing. They're kneeling!
55:57 They're kneeling before the pope, the dead pope.
56:02 Beloved, if that doesn't tell you something is up,
56:06 there's a rat in the woodpile, you're not paying attention.
56:10 [Audience laughs] I saw a bumper sticker one time
56:13 that said: "If you're not outraged, you're not"
56:16 "paying attention". Look at that, the wound is healing.
56:24 In fact, for a long time the US wouldn't even send
56:27 an ambassador to the Vatican, but Ronald Reagan changed
56:30 all that in 1984, he was the first president in the history
56:34 of the US to send an ambassador to the Vatican.
56:37 Ever since then we've had an ambassador to the Vatican.
56:39 What's happening is the wound is healing and this great
56:42 moral superpower, the Roman church-state, is aligning
56:46 itself with the great military and political, and economic
56:50 superpower, I might add, the USA, and they're getting closer,
56:54 and closer, and tighter and tighter. It's happening.
56:58 It's front news headlines. You keep your eyes on it.
57:01 I'll come back to that one another day.
57:03 How was the Roman church-state formed? It worked through
57:05 secular governments, this is right there in your study guide,
57:08 you look at the last page. How was the Roman church-state
57:11 originally formed?
57:19 Here's what we're going to do: we're going to continue this
57:23 on Thursday. [Audience] Ohhh!
57:32 ...Because we still have to go over 666 thing.
57:35 I'm going to tell you something, as God is witness I had total
57:41 intentions of going over the 666 thing, in fact, I could
57:44 fast forward on my slides right now, you'd see it right on
57:47 the slide ready to be presented, but I need to be sure that we're
57:50 all moving all at the same pace and we're all getting it.
57:53 Is that responsible? It's very important for me,
57:56 I know it's like drinking out of a fire hydrant,
57:58 and that's just the way I am. [Audience laughs]
58:02 Because I'm passionate and I believe that this is Bible
58:05 truth, and I believe that we need to be making daily
58:07 stands for the Lord Jesus Christ so we don't get swept
58:10 away in this mob mentality that is fast coming,
58:13 because at the end of the day it's all about Jesus.
58:17 See, at the end of the day it's all about Jesus.
58:20 If you choose to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and to keep
58:23 His commandments by faith, you can't get the mark of the beast,
58:27 but don't tell me it's not going to be extremely helpful to know
58:30 at the end of time what the issues are.
58:33 You see what the issues are, and it's beginning to become
58:36 increasingly clear.


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Revised 2014-12-17