Behold a White Horse - Session 1 - Chuck Missler

Well I want to welcome you to our study where we're going to undertake a look at a rather unusual topic so bear me the introduction which I'm calling The Mistaken Identity it's session one of several and we're gonna focus on Revelation 6 the first 2 verses that's our target but before we do that I'd like to just highlight how we're all victims of mistaken identities it's amazing how prevalent that theme is in our literature Alfred Hitchcock of course is famous for north by northwest and a bunch of other movies that rely on that Daphne du Maurier classic scapegoat been made into a movie I think 4 different times Alexandre Dumas we all know the Count of Monte Cristo and the man in the iron mask these are all hanging on the idea of the mistaken identity Charles Dickens in his Tale of Two Cities we all remember how Sydney Carton takes Charles Darnay’s place in the guillotine voluntarily great story it's really more complex than most people have probably studied but it's terrific in more modern times Robert Ludlum and his Bourne Identities have been made into a whole provisional set of related stories Donnersmark did--has amused us all with The Tourist you can't see that without a smile on your face it's an unusual thing and Gilroy's movie Duplicity they're so confused they confuse themselves as to who they are and so those are it's a popular theme in literature but mistaken identities also are in the real world There are real modern examples the most vivid one I remember is when I had an opportunity to tour and go to Angola Prison one of the most notorious prisons on the planet earth it has over 5000 inmates they're in there for life and the warden who is a very very celebrated sharp guy Brocades did a lot of innovations but he will tell you privately that he believes half of them are innocent they don't belong there that's not his job his job is to enforce the court but it's interesting to realize there are people on death row whose parole officers said they should be freed and they're not for some technicality so it's astonishing to see that's real life and more than half of them are probably innocent Lee Harvey Oswald we all know that name the cover up of that whole episode exceeded the event itself and then we have the reason I wear my everybody says Chuck your flag is upside down yes it is is that the most dangerous one no there's one is even more dangerous than Barack Obama believe it or not The most dangerous mistaken identity in my judgment is Jesus of Nazareth most people have no grasp of who He is even Christians think they know but they don't really that's what led to the autobiography that Dr. Welty and I put together an autobiography His own words declares who He is and the claims He made is a shock to many people I Jesus an autobiography Now I'm going to delete that one from our list because I'm sure those of you in this audience don't have that problem you do understand who He is so I'll delete that from my list I just wanted the list to be complete because I do believe that's the most dangerous of all cause that affects your entire eternity but so I'm going to focus this presentation what I'll call the 2nd most dangerous mistaken identity and it's not that one I just mentioned it's the ultimate masquerade The white horseman of Revelation 6 now that may shock you use a strange choice but the misdirection disinformation and deceit it involves is not gonna be excelled anywhere the white horse and that's the primary subject of this and the next session Now session 1 will be on the white horse of Revelation 6 the masquerade that's involved and a summary of his career We'll try to summarize that briefly of course in the coming hour but the next session after that we'll talk about his identity the seed of the serpent and prerequisites to his appearance that may surprise you there are some explicit prerequisites that have to be fulfilled before he can appear publicly and so we'll deal with that and there's also we're gonna make reference to an addendum that's gonna be available about the various expectations that different groups have of what to expect of him and each different group has a different expectation and yet they're surprisingly similar and we'll get into that too See man tells us that the world is getting better that's the basic premise you find underlying most people's world view God says the opposite God says they'll become increasingly worse ouch that's God's vote if you will man says that peace among nations is close at hand I don't believe it for a minute but that is the common belief that drives most of our geopolitical decisions God says they'll be wars and rumors of wars and kingdoms against kingdoms We talk a little bit about that that's God's promise He's going to tell us it's going to get worse and worse man expects to win the battle against disease famine and hardship we have very committed people in the health sciences that are committed to mastering these things but God says there's to be fearful judgments of disease famine and hardship that's coming Some people may be very uncomfortable with that and they should be so there is an outline of the book of Revelation the book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible that has the audacity to say read me I'm special it's the only book in the Bible that promises you a special blessing if you read it no other book the other books advocate Bible reading in general only one book has the audacity to say read me I'm special It has in the first chapter an outline of itself that many people miss John is instructed to write the things which thou hast seen this at the end of chapter 1 the first chapter 1 he sees the vision of Jesus Christ Jesus instructed write the things which you have seen namely that vision write the things which are and the things which shall be meta tauta after these things okay So there's 3 divisions to the book very simple Okay the 1st is the vision of Christ in chapter 1 no problem at the time he's writing that's past tense the things which are and while he's writing the things which exist at that time are 7 churches 7 letters to 7 churches dictated believe it or not by Jesus himself that most people ignore There are things that He says He hates and that's those things are prevelant in virtually every church you find on the planet and yet there are things that He expressly says He hates strange isn't it "But the things which shall be hereafter" what follows after the churches that starts to chapter 4:1 So that's the division chapter 1 In chapter 2 and 3 the letters and by the way of the entire book of it's 22 chapters the most important part of it for you and me is chapters 2 and 3 If you have that you've got the colonel as far as you are concerned why because all the rest is yet future this is that's present that's now that tells us what to do but okay but chapter 4:1-19 is a whole series of heavy things okay The things we shall be meta tauta is the Greek term it's like a marker if you will meta tauta after these things and from some of my studies there have been some societies put together that call themselves the Meta Tauta society which are basically societies to study Bible prophecy but they pick off this very thing to be their label if you will so The things that you have seen that's chapter 1 The things which are the letters to the 7 churches and the things Meta Tauta after these things 4-19 So we're going move into chapters 4 and 5 which will be--that'll be the saints being in Heaven that'll be exciting as we'll actually be transported with John to Heaven and will see things start to unfold It's a time warp it's a look ahead if you will it's yet future but it's --he's present while it's happening Okay the saints in Heaven Then we'll get through chapters 6-19 and that's the core of what most people think of the book Revelation the unveiling of Jesus Christ in his return here and so that will involve 6 seals 6 trumpets and 6 bowls right and each one of those seem to be a logarithmic projection projection okay now we're going to focus when I get through this overview we're gonna to zero in on chapter 6 that's our target for this study and the few that follow the heptatic structure You'll notice right away if you've studied the book of Revelation there's a scroll with 7 seals on it okay and that's in chapter 6 When you get to chapter 7 you discover there's a parenthesis there's a change of subject for a minute it gets to chapter 6 changes the subject for a little bit and then goes on to talk about 7 We discover by looking at it there are these parenthetical passages there's always 6 a gasp for breath so to speak a change of subject and then the completion Chapter 7 comes along and it turns out to be 7 trumpets and there again we have 6 of those trumpets and then a parenthesis of some other topics that are inserted to serve a change of subject sort of a catch your breath sort of take a break kind of thing that's again a parenthesis and then it goes to chapter 7 which turns out to have 7 bowls of judgment so you got seals trumpets and bowls in each case there's 7 in each case the after the 6th there's a break before the 7th and the 7th one really just consists of the next group if you will follow you get the picture that's a pattern you realize then this book is highly structured highly structured Even in the bold there's just one verse but there's a one verse change of subject before it finishes with bowl number 7 interestingly enough So that's what they call the heptatic-- 7 fold structure of the book and one of the things that are some of us suspect we don't know we suspect that John wrote his gospel after the patmos experience because you find those heptatic fingerprints all through his gospel they're just not as obvious here it's very manifest it's almost in fact it's almost like a symphony So much like an opera that's been organized the gospels is not quite that assertive if you will So we'll pick it up at chapter 4 okay we finish this presumably we've finished the the 7 letters okay now we're going to chapter 4:1 "After this I looked and behold a door was opened in Heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said 'Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter'" And a few verses later it will say "and there were 7 lamps of fire burning in the throne" that's a strange phrase because when you read the book of Revelation in chapter 1 the last verse of chapter 1 describes-- it identifies who these 7 lamps are it's the 7 churches But now in chapter 4 we find them no longer on the earth where it was in chapter 1 we find it in Heaven people miss that but it's very I think a very key indicator I mention it as a footnote as we go so you're aware of it but the main thing here is the first phrase of chapter 4 meta tauta after these things That's the code word if you will that triggers this third major segment of the book Are we together okay and that's the very thing that which must be hereafter meta tauta those things which must be meta tauta Okay so So now we find ourselves with John in the throne room of the universe flabbergasting Now if you're gonna study throne rooms you're gonna want to go to Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 10 and other places where we get a glimpse of the throne room but here this one is from Revelation 4 the throne of God that's in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 4 and in it we find 24 elders and there are a lot of everything in the book of Revelation is an allusion from the Old Testament the book of Revelation consists of 404 four verses that includes over 800 allusions from the Old Testament the reason it sounds strange to us is cause we haven't done our homework in the Old Testament But it turns out the 24 elders are an allusion we'll come back to that but every idiom in the book of Revelation is explained somewhere else in the Bible Those 24 elders will appear somewhere else in the Bible in some form and we have the 7 lamps from chapter 1 I just mentioned those they're on a sea of glass and I always think this is fascinating because it was a sea of glass and the sea of glass is what we wash in when we're on the earth it's what they're standing on it when they're in there and I think that's you say that's a pun yes I think it is I think the Holy Spirit uses figures of speech and that's one of them and then we encounter these strange creatures these four your-- King James calls them beasts and that's unfortunate because it's a different word we're gonna talk about beasts when we get to chapter 13--beasts in the negative sense the word that's used here is a different word it's not a derogatory it's not a frightening word it's just it's an alive good kind of thing the 4 living creatures and they turn out to be what we call the cherubim these are super angels and they're described they have 4 faces and those same 4 faces show up all through the Bible in the strangest way the lion the calf the man and the eagle In this case it's the 4 faces of the cherubim What does that mean well that's a whole area that you can get into if you start getting mystical about the whole thing but we'll move on now the key to identity what's going to turn out to be very important to you is to have no confusion about what is meant by the 24 elders the 24 seats that are arranged and these 24 elders come and they worship God and they take their crowns and put it on the glassy sea Who are they what do they represent are there really just 24 or is that just a an idom probably but who are they now the only place you find 24 in the Bible is where David organizes the priesthood into 24 courses all the priests--the priests were in 24 courses and they changed every Shabbat and they rotated and they had a whole procedure but that's in 1 Chronicles 24 and 19 verses lays it out That's the only place you'll find 24 it's got nothing to do with 12 disciples it's got nothing to do with the 12 apostles many people try to fabricate speculations and that's fine But you won't find the number 24 anywhere else You will find it in another technical place that there are 24 intervals remember when we studied the 70 weeks we know there's an interval in Daniel 9:26 that interval that's there shows up surprisingly in other places in the Bible but they're very subtle you have to really know how to look for them but you also discover something very interesting I think it's interesting There are 24 of those 24 intervals and each case include the church cause the church is in that interval When you get to the 24--the 70 weeks of Daniel you got 25 to the triumphal entry 27 is yet to happen there's an interval there that includes what we call the church age interesting and that interval shows up in the biblical text 24 times I wouldn't build our identity of 24 elders on that I'm just making a footnote a supplemental observation Now there are non Levitical priesthood orders in the Bible by the way this is going a side thing Melchizedek being the most startling one that's worth study but you need to understand it supersedes all the others in fact Jethro he was a priest and Jacob gives tithes in Genesis 28 we're not sure to whom That's interesting So any way we'll get on here the 24 elders now fortunately they identify themselves for us This isn't a Chuck Missler speculation I'm just going to call your attention to something very say we're going to skip over to chapter 5:9 and it says "And they sung a new song" --singing--saying excuse me "Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth" They identify who they are They are kings and priests by the way they do that in chapter 1 I just we just didn't go there to start when it kicks off here kings and priests There are only 3 people in the Bible that are called kings and priests there some kings and priests but there's only 3 people that are both a king and a priest Okay The first of course is Melchizedek cause he's an archetype of that the second of course is Jesus He's a king and a priest Well who's the third He's sitting in these seats we are How do I know that all through the apistles Paul mentions it but here it tell us because thy hast redeemed us see that us thou hast redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign" so who are the 24 elders they represent in the composite the redeemed What we commonly call the church the church in the mystical sense somebody was asking me earlier today what give me and example of the Hebrew Sod Well that would be one of them I think the concept of Ecclesia if we use the word church we get confused we think of real estate cause we use that term in another way do you think of the ecclesia the saved collectively that's interesting okay Let's get back to chapter 5 at the beginning starting chapter verse 1 John says "I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a scroll written within and on the backside sealed with 7 seals" and I just noticed by the way for the first time as I was looking at the little title slide I often use you see me with a little scroll if you look at it closely it's written within and on the backside which means it's a title deed but we'll go on here John says "I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals thereof" That call goes out okay and it says "no man in Heaven nor in earth neither under the earth was able to open the scroll neither to look thereon" Wow Now you and I are puzzled what's going on we're wondering what's going on John understood How do I know because the next line says John says I sobbed convulsively "I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the scroll neither to look thereon" Wow You see there's a subtlety here that was required that we don't pick up on okay it had to be a man it had to be a kinsman of Adam to be eligible and no man was found worthy and John realized the desperate situation of that you and I miss it cause you don't have the background John understood I sobbed compulsively why because no man was found worthy fortunately there's an exception that's gonna be pointed out to him but that's the predicament Are we together Okay It's interesting how When He's up there in Heaven and there's something on the earth that needs explanation the elders explain it to him No excuse me if it's on the earth the cherubim explain to him If there's something going on in Heaven he doesn't understand the elders explained it to him You'll notice it's always at some cases it's an elder explaining other cases it's a cherubim explaining anyway "And one of the elder said unto me weep not behold the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the 7 seals thereof" So John's obviously relieved he turns and he looks "and I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and the 4 living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood the Lamb as it had been slain" Wow he was told it was a lion the root of David no no he turns and looks it's not a lion it's a lamb because the idom goes to the very title that John the Baptist used when in the first public appearance of Christ by the Jordan "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" that's a Jewish title and that's the title used here stood the Lamb as it had been slain having 7 horns and 7 eyes" that's an idiom for the Holy Spirit "which are the 7 spirits of God sent forth" It's interesting how the 7 spirits it draws from Isaiah 11 again and again the 7 spirits are a way of referring to what you and I summarize as the Holy Spirit as a person the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David that's his expectation he turns and sees the Lamb as it had been slain Wow a couple things to highlight that I want you to carry away in your notes the 24 elders are in Heaven worshipping the Lamb before he recieves the scroll understand that they're there before the scroll is given okay it's when the lamb has and he has the unique right to open it and by the way if he's the one opening the scroll he's not one of the seals you follow me I'll get to that in a minute but his opening the seals it's opening up his opening of the seals that sets the 4 horsemen into motion so understand those 4 horsemen are set in motion after we are in Heaven it's astonishing how many people stumble over that they don't get it it's pretty straightforward and fundamental okay the opening of the 7th seal okay Verse 1 it says "I saw the Lamb when the Lamb opened one of the seals and I heard as it were a noise of thunder and one of the 4 beasts" actually one of the 4 living creatures is what it should say it's one of the cherubim "said 'come and see' and I saw and behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer" Okay good so that's the first of the 4 seals are we together so far we'll read this through just to get the flavor of the next one here the 2nd seal is the red horse which represents wars "And when it opened the 2nd seal I heard the 2nd living creature say 'Come and see' and there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth that they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great sword" Wow So that's the 2nd one the red horse then the 3rd one is the black horse which speaks of famine and inflation "And when he had opened the 3rd seal I heard the 3rd living creature say 'Come and see' and I beheld and lo a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand" measuring something here and black is often connected with famine of course to eat bread by weight is an indictment from Leviticus 26 and other places "and I heard a voice in the midst of the 4 beasts say 'A measure of wheat for a penny 3 measures of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine'" scarcity famine that's the overtone There's more but we'll get into that when the time comes Okay so we have white red and black there's one more to come here the livid horse the pale horse the actual word in the Greek implies Chloros it means green but it's an ugly kind of green speaking of death naturally "And when he'd opened the 4th seal I heard the voice of the 4th living creature say 'Come and see' and I looked and behold a pale horse and his name is sat on him was death and Hell followed after him and power was given unto them over a 4th part of the earth to kill with a sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth" And those beasts are not necessarily four footed they can be microscopic but they're beasts none the less so that's the 4th one Okay Ezekiel 14 we have an interesting verse "Thus saith the Lord God how much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem the sword the famine the noisome beast the pestilence and cut off from it man and beast" Wow There's something else I'd like to highlight sort of and we're just this is the warmup we'll get to the one we're really after in a minute but it's interesting to contrast Revelation 6 the whole bunch and Matthew 24 In Revelation 6 you have the white horse and rider you have a red horse menaing war you've got the black horse for famine you've got pale horse for death you'll have the martyrs that will follow and then you have the worldwide chaos that comes next its interesting Matthew 24 you have false Christs to begin with you've got wars famines death martyrs and worldwide chaos in the same order You notice that there's a parallelism that's I suspect deliberate I don't think that's a coincidence I think it's designed that way Now there's another thing I'll call your attention to that may just be a coincidence but it's still too curious not to mention it to you the white red black and green are all on the flags of Islam What do you do with that I don't know I wouldn't make too much of it but it's too curious not to make you at least aware of it for what it's worth the heptatic structure now the 7th sealed scroll with and you got the 7 trumpets again with each one with a parenthesis and the 7 bowls of judgment okay fair enough So that's--we're gonna zero in of course on the 4 seals white red black and green the 4 horsemen in fact what really has brought us together that's this was all sort of a warm up we are going to look at behold the white horse and it may surprise you that I regard him as the mistaken identity it astonishes me to see how many commentators miss the whole point of what he's all about Why a white horse John 5:43 says Jesus said to them in John 5:43 says "I've come in my Father's name you receive Me not another will come in his own name and him you will receive" You're going to make a mistake in other words a mistaken identity See this rider of this white horse is not Christ how do I know well first of all he's in bad company look at the 3 guys riding with him That's not Christ Christ is the one opening the seals he's not the subject of one of the seals but this guy that's coming will resemble and imitate Christ that's the point and he does it so well that there are many commentators that don't pick up on it they're also fooled Furthermore this one is called forth by the living creatures that's not appropriate for them to call Christ forward He's their creator no no and there's going to be a lot said about his career we'll get into that here shortly so back to "I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard as it were the noise of thunder one of 4 living creatures said 'Come and see'" that's not quite what he said he actually said "proceed" your King James called it "come" erkou in the Greek is actually to call forth he's ordered by one of the 4 living creatures and remember Jesus is the one opening the seals in the first place behold a white horse white horse we got all these horses horses are often used to designate judgments like a force or like a tithe in a sense and there's lots of examples in your notes you can track those down and come to your own conclusions but here the apparently one of his key characteristics is that he had a bow of all the things to mention that singled out two things are mentioned the bow and a crown but the bow was mentioned and most people jump to the conclusion that that's an archery term not necessarily not necessarily a bow versus a sword for example the Hebrew is keh’sheth in the Greek translation it's a toxon on which is a bow and it's not necessarily a tool of archery that's a very common presumption it's understandable but there's something else you need to be aware of that exegetes will highlight to you and that's what's called the law of first mention When something is mentioned the 1st time in the Bible it turns out to be significant and has a unique relevance let's take a look at those the Law of 1st Mention the word love Where's the first place that the word love appears God uses it to Abraham about his son because his son is going to be acting out a type of God's son Because another father is going to offer his son and that's what Abraham is going to act out in effect and he knows he is by the way he knows he's acting out prophecy because he names the place prophetically and Hebrews 11:19 highlights that So that's love as an example the first place love shows is where it's referring to the son of God and in the context of giving himself to all of us wow what could be more appropriate the word man okay and that man was made in the image of God first place man appears where he's being made in the image of God is that relevant I sure think so Well what about this bow business well in chapter 9:13 is the first mention of it God says "I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth" See you and I don't associate it as a token of a covenant God does several times It's a token of a covenant how interesting it is as we really begin to understand the white horseman the key event in his life is making a covenant that gets him to power and then breaking it that's going to be major element of his career we'll get into the bow the covenant and it's breaking is a key identity for him and we'll see that go Amos 2:15 "Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow and he that shift of foot shall not deliver himself neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself" interesting little allusions here you find when you're watching for them the bow see the bow seems to symbolize in addition the first world leader which was Nimrod the hunter it was a symbol apparently and also the final world leader will have the same symbol he's also an Assyrian so they're both the first and last Assyrian seem to be identified together but we get to Daniel 9 probably one of most important the last 4 verses of Daniel 9 is where Jesus points his disciples to when they ask about the end times In the Mount of Olives four guys came to him Peter James and John and Andrew Peter's brother they come and they ask Him some questions and He gives them a briefing which we call the Olivet discourse because on the Mount of Olives at night but that's no big deal per se it's just a label But in those 4 verses the last verse talks about a week of years that's piviotal and it says "He shall confirm the covenant with the many for one week" the last week of years it's the 70th week of a group of 70 "and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and for the overspreading abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" Now this isn't the place to try to unravel the whole 70 weeks but if you haven't done it you need to desperately really understand the 70 week prophecy the last 4 verses of Daniel 9 and that's a study in its own right I'm assuming that's a review for for most of you but this leader this world leader is going to achieve power because he's going to eventually be able to enforce the covenant or confirm the covenant with Israel the many is an idiom there of Israel he shall enforce the covenant with the many for 1 week okay that's his commitment except you see that that by the way it appears to involve temple sacrifices so we'll see in a minute "but in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease" so whatever that covenant includes it may be a lot of other things too but we know it apparently includes their permission to return to sacrifice thier Jewish sacrements "in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblations to cease" so in the middle of the week the weeks of years he abrogates that covenant that's a big deal in his life Jesus is going to point to that when we get to Matthew Jesus is gonna make a big thing of it we'll get there in a minute shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease so his enforcement of the covenant seems to include a return to the temple sacrifices for some weird reason and for the overspreading and that's what we call the abomination of desolation that's a term that Jesus used we'll see in just a minute abominations are a form of idol worship and the extreme version of that is to put an idol in the most sacred place on the planet earth in the temple in fact in the holy of holies we know that because there was a historical event that Jesus makes reference to in using that term this is the very marker that Jesus calls the attention of the diciples to in the Olivet Discourse we'll get to that let's take a look at it when you get to Matthew 24 there's a whole bunch of things that are mentioned before you get to verse 15 wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes in various places and all those things he says but the end is not yet those things are lumped and then described as not being signs strange we always see those lists of signs no he lists those things that are coming but they're not signs because the're not distinctive enough to be a sign however when you get to verse 15 he by then he says these things are not signs "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation which one spoken of by Daniel the Prophet" he's talking about chapter 9 right here "stand in the Holy Place who so readeth let him understand" Wow there's a lot in this little this one verse is a big deal we could spend an hour on this little verse okay the you got all these critics that like to argue who really wrote Daniel I know who wrote Daniel How do I know Jesus told me Daniel the prophet anybody that wants to challenge this has got bigger problems than the authorship of Daniel "when you see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet" stand where in the holy place in fact the holy of holies is where it is and then he adds this little phrase "who so readeth let him understand" how many of you read that with me just now can I see a show of hands Do you realize you just picked up an obligation Jesus said "who so readeth let him understand" you now do not have the option of not bringing that to understanding you need to dig into that till you understand it cause Jesus tells you to That's not a little peripheal thing that good people have different views about no that's something that you need to understand Jesus says so It's the key event in the Olivet Discourse that abomination that event the putting up of an idol in the holy of holies is what it's talking about is going to puncture that 70th week right in the middle it was 7 years set aside by a world leader that's going to be violated he's going to not keep his covenant he's going to violate that covenant that's exactly what Antiochus Epiphanes did back in 167 BC that very thing he made a covenant and he violated it right the middle the pattern was there by the way see this is no longer optional you got to do your homework now okay but there's something else here did you realize that there's a technology statement in here I want you to be alert to technology statements I'm sure if Duane Matsen was among us he would insist as he's are he's our enterprise architect and he would insist that we always pay attention where there's evidences of desgin there's a technology statement here do you see it when ye therefore shall see the abonimation how can you see something that's in the holy of holies if you're in the mountains of Judea or you're by the sea of Galilee or wherever you are how can you see an event that's going on inside the holy of holies you can only enter the holy of holies once a year only if you're the high priest only once a year and after great ceremonial preparation no one's allowed in there but apparently when ye therefore shall see this thing happen how are you going to see it anyone on CNN or BBC it's going to be televised it's a big it's a big event apparently it's going to get public attention and when you see that happen ho ho boy you get some instructions to follow here what do you do then let that that be in Judea not in the Holy Place them which be in Judea flee into the mountains Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of realize a housetop was typically the guard was on a hillside so often your roof is at street level So if you're leaving you leave from the roof strangely "he that's on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house" the Missler translation is you split and you split now "Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes and woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days and pray that your flight be not in winter neither on the Sabbath day" that tells you something about his audience he's assuming his audience is Jewish the Sabbath day wouldn't bother us no he's assuming he's talking to Jews it's talking to Jews Luke 21 is not that's during the day in the temple and it's a different very similar but very different presentation with a different conclusion Many people think Luke 21 is part of the Olivet discourse no no no Let's move on here For then shall Jesus "For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no nor ever shall be" he's quoting from Daniel 12 actually but he is labeling the last half of that 7 year period it's split in the middle by the abomination of desolation 3 1/2 years before 3 1/2 years after he labels the last half the great tribulation where does it get that label from Jesus here in Matthew 24 "For then shall be great tribulation such as not since the beginning of the world to this time or nor ever shall be" You mean to tell me it's going to be worse than the Nazi Holocaust absolutely by a factor of 2:1 How do I say that the first Holocaust of what--we know from World War II took apparently about 1 Jew in 3 about 1/3rd of Jewery perished in the so called Holocaust Zechariah 13:9 says the next one will take 2 out of 3 and because I read that on the radio the Anti Defamation League has labeled me an antisemite I think they've corrected that by now I think they've got enough mail to straighten that out but in any case not on the sabbath day he's speaking to a Jewish audience and the great tribulation he labels the last half the 3 1/2 years the 42 months the twelve's each half is labeled every way you could think of half a week 3 1/2 years 42 months 1260 days the Holy Spirit did everything but put it in nanoseconds for you and then you get the verse 22 this is another one that I just don't want you to miss Jesus says "Except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" Do you realize that's a technology statement If we were studying this say in 1860 roughly the time of the Civil War in the United States if we were at that period studying this would we understand is probably not we could not imagine the world wiping itself out with muskets and bayonets No this is a technology statement that says it'll be in our capability of wiping us totally out except those days be shortened there should no flesh be saved that's a technology statement and we today a nuclear cloud hangs over every Geopolitical decision made on the planet earth the reality of that back in the days of mutually assured destruction we had two players the US and Russia the nightmare scenario in those days was what we used to call the Nth country problem what happens when there's more than 2 3, 4 there wass a plurality that was regarded as a nightmare because that's the state of coalitions and what have you and that's where we are today There are a number of countries that have nuclear weapons not just Russia and the US every--there's a number of them whether it's 5 or 8 you can argue I won't get into that here We'll talk about that next time and Jesus says he goes on to say "Then if any man should say unto you lo here is Christ or there believe it not where there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect" wow wow wow there shall srise a false Christs even if he's riding a white horse don't get confused okay the heptadic structure behold a white horse let's take a closer look at him and I saw the behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went forth conquering to conquer a crown was given to him what kind of crown there's two words in the Greek a diadem or a stephanos here we have stephanos that's a victor's crown that's like an athletic award kind of thing a wreath or garland given as a prize to victors at public games it's like an ornament it's to honor somebody that's what a stephanos is that's what we're talking about here it's that kind of crown that is given to him and yet this is not a diedem a diadem is a crown that implies rulership authority okay like a sovereign reigning and so forth okay conquering and to conquer and the word there is Nikao meaning to rule over to get the victory or conquer or prevail over so despite the fact that it's an award of that kind it apparently propels him into a position of power it's interesting to understand that well that's exactly what Daniel tells us back in Daniel 8 speaking of him in effect "And it says through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnify himself in his heart and by peace shall destroy many he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes and he shall be broken without hand" there's an allusion there by peace he shall destroy many he's a pacemaker but he uses that to gain power he then becomes very powerful militarily strong he doesn't get there through military strengths his military strength derives from the position of power he maneuvers important to understand that his career begins as peacemaker and it's highlighted by the covenant with Israel he gets strong enough to enforce that covenant okay that's something else that's usually overlooked by people making little charts there's a duration of time from the time that he is--first appears until he's powerful enough to start the 70th week of Daniel He can't be revealed until the rapture takes place in 2 Thessalonians 2 will deal with that we'll get to that later anyway we'll move on here see the rider is indeed the prince that shall come that's one of his many titles in the Old Testament you can actually find 33 potential titles of this character some of them when used connotatively speak of just evil in general but when they're used denotatively we are talking about a person and many of these were indebted to Arthur Pink for the the discovery but seed of the serpent in Genesis 3:15 is clearly one of them the idol shepherd in Zechariah 11 we'll talk more about that later he's a shepherd but he's an idol worshipper and the little horn of Daniel 7, 8 are allusions to him the prince that shall come is one of his titles in Daniel 9 the 70th week of prophecy he's called the willful king in Daniel 11 and there's a whole history of his family tree on that one Now in the New Testament now there's 33 titles in the Old Testament potential titles and in the New Testament there's 13 We won't go through all of them I won't drag you through all of those but the first is the beast that you find out first mentioned in Revelation 11 and widely discussed in Revelation 13 the beast and there's a second beast that we tend to call from that point on the false prophet one of the things to keep in mind there's not one guy there's a duet there's two guys one we'll call the beast the other one we'll call the false prophet some people call him the Antichrist Antikhristos in the Greek is actually a pseudo christ the fact that he's against Christ isn't the point he's in the place of Christ but I'll tell you what's wrong with that label we don't need we shouldn't try to fight it because that's what everybody calls him by usage but the truth of the matter is it's probably an error because the only guy that uses the word Antichrist is John in his epistles and he uses the term in a different way in a spiritual sense not as an individual per se and so John is the only one that uses that phrase and John in the book of Revelation doesn't use that term for him he has several others he uses instead so it's in a sense it's an unfortunate label but it's the one everybody uses so why fight it He's called the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians he's called the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians he's the one that comes in his own name according to Jesus's remark in John 5:43 and he's called the son of perdition in 2 Thessalonians 2 he's called that in such a way that some people I don't happen to agree with this I don't want to confuse you but there are some that feel that he might be the reincarnation of Judas I don't think so for a lot of reasons but they tie it because of the use of that peculiar phrase What are some of his characteristics he's obviously an intellectual genius no question about that he's a bright guy he's a persuasive orator he's a shrewd politician obviously that's how he rises to power he's a financial genius indeed and he turns out to be a forceful military leader there are references you can track these things down on your own he's a very powerful organizer and he's also a unifying religious guru he manages to get the world to he manages to get himself to be above all that is called God that's the phrase out of 2 Thessalonians 2:4 He elevates himself above all that is called God that includes Alluah is he a Muslim he's more than that he's found a way to unify wherever you come from to worship him so is he a Muslim probably that with the decimal point moved over now there is only one physical description of him in the Bible that I'm aware of You find it in Zechariah 11:17 where Zechariah has one of these little tidbits he throws at us "Woe to the idol shepherd" idol like a false something that is falsely worshipped Woe to the not idle like lazy idol like false worship you with me "Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock the sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye his arm should be cleaned right up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened" what does that mean I don't know but apparently he does have a physical defect in fact maybe that's why people who want to demonstrate an allegiance to him receive a mark on their forehead and on the right hand to allude to his peculiar disfigurement it's possible he has these disfigurements or whatever because of his healing from a head wound okay that's a speculation we don't know but in Revelation 13:3 we notice it says "And one of his heads were as it were wounded to the death and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast" in other words that's apparently an event that is very very serve a trademark kind of thing his deadly wound was healed again in chapter 13:12,13 says "and he exerciseth all the power of the first" bear in mind it's talking about the second of the two guys Remember there's 2 guys the first guy is the political one and the second one is we call him the false prophet "and he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him caused the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed" It's the first beast that has the head wound you follow me it's the second beast that causes the people to worship the guy with the head wound "That he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from Heaven on the earth in the sight of men" wow his deadly wound was healed "and he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had the power to do in the sight of the beast saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live" that goes on to the 666 I won't get into that here that's a whole 'nother thing but I just want you to be sensitive that the two guys it's a duet a political leader which we'll call the first beast and the false prophet who forces everyone to worship the first beast you with me it's a duet okay in fact some people like to visualize Satan as the third so it's a satanic trinity so to speak which had the wound but so this head wound is a trademark but that's not his primary if I was going to pick an indentity I would not pick his head wound I could use that because everybody's familiar with it but there's another identity that I'm fond of using with this guy I call him Mr. Big Mouth cause it's astonishing how many verses you can find where he is shooting off his mouth bragging Daniel 7:8 is one of those examples 2 Thessalonians 2:4 the one I mentioned exalting himself above all that is called God think about that one Revelation 13 and there is a lot of others too you can find your own but you'll discover every time is more often than anything else mentioned about him is he's shooting off his mouth he's bragging boasting He's Mr. Arrogance so in our next session we're gonna talk about his identity we've talked about his career his career one of the questions you may have is he alive today A lot of people ask me that I always say absolutely they look at me startled then I quickly point out if you'd asked me that a hundred years ago I'd say absolutely Because I have this theory that Satan is always had to have his man in the wings cause he doesn't know when the starting gun is gonna be fired when the Harpazo takes place that's a whole other thing we'll get into Is he a Jew or Gentile they're good arguments both ways you can make arguments that he is Jewish cause he's acepted by Israel in some respects then again not so so that's another but remember there's two guys so it makes it a bit more complicated will he be an alien it may surprise you to find scriptural evidence that he probably is We'll look at Daniel 2:43 as an example speaking of a group they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men that means that they must be something other than the seed of men man what does that mean we'll talk about that next time is there a genealogical link from the seed of satan we know that the seed of the woman is a title of Jesus the seed of the serpent is the title of this impostor is there a genealogical story behind that possibly we'll take a look at that We'll also discover that there are various expectations--every group has a different expectation the Muslims have their view of what's going to happen regarding him the Vatican it may shock you discover the Vatican is preparing to receive someone of extraterrestrial origin as that guy they have the best astronomers and the fanciest facilities in southeastern in the world in southeastern Arizona and they are preparing to receive an alien visitor you gotta be kidding no we're quite serious What about the transhumanists they have their agenda whole 'nother scenario where they believe they're only a couple of years away from immortality not decades years not far away really and what about the Freemasons boy they have a story so there's a number of those the real question that lurks behind all this is should we be concerned what do we care and there's lots of reasons you don't have to care and I'll take take you through that next time So let's bow our hearts for a word of prayer Father we thank you for who you are and we thank you that we serve the the fifth rider our precious Lord we look for our horseman the one that will put all this behind us we thank you Father for who you are and we thank you for the extremes you've gone to on our behalf and we thank you for your word Father these things you've chosen to reveal to us and we pray Father through your Holy Spirit and that word that you would reveal to each of us what you would have of us in the days ahead that we might be ever more effective for you in all these things as we commit our way without reservation of any kind we commit our way into your hands in the name of Yeshua our coming King indeed our kinsman redeemer himself Amen

Channel: Koinonia House

Views: 411,576

Rating: 4.8250756 out of 5

Keywords: jesus, christ, chuck, missler, koinonia, house, khouse, institute, Antichrist, end times, revelation, apostasy, babylon

Id: f7witCMZ-O0

Length: 60min 20sec (3620 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 25 2019