Doug Batchelor - An Overview of Revelation Apocalypse Synopsis - Part 4

it's been 2,000 years since the glorious light of the cross illuminated a world veiled and darkness and confusion about the character of God and still today the greatest need of mankind is a revelation of God's love as revealed in the life of Christ amazing thanks presents the everlasting gospel with Pastor Doug Batchelor coming to you each week from Sacramento Central Church in sunny California discover hidden treasures in God's Word today well it's always encouraging to see the house of the Lord filled with the people of the Lord on the day of the Lord and if you have been coming to central with some regularity you know that we're doing a series it's being interrupted periodically as I come and go but we're doing a series dealing with a subject of Revelation now I originally intended that this be a brief overview and I think now I figure it's gonna end up about six parts based on the pace that I've got going and today we're gonna be talking principally about Revelation chapter 12 and 13 the center of the book two of the most outstanding popular prominent prophecies in the Bible now probably it'd be a good idea to tie things off a little bit by sharing with you the last verse or two of Revelation 11 just to get us up to speed oh and one more thing I should mention I'm not sure if it's up on the screen but we have a lot of notes and resources additional study material on this subject at a website and it's called Bible prophecy truth Bible prophecy truth I was very excited that since this series began I think I told you if you type in the word Bible prophecy there's I don't like 80,000 possible websites you could go to this website that amazing facts developed is on the first page now I think we're in fourth place if you just type in Bible prophecy so that's really exciting hope you'll take this and link it to your Facebook account or some like that your job account whatever you've got anyway so there's a lot of information and charts and things there at that website that has more on the subject turn with me in Revelation chapter 11 you've got the the last few verses here revelation 11 is dealing with the two witnesses those two witnesses represent the Word of God sometimes they're portrayed as in Moses and Elijah last two prophecies in the Old Testament remember the law of Moses behold I send you Elijah to Malachi chapter 4 Moses and Elijah appear to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration representing the law and the prophets there's this duel on nature in the Word of God because it's in the mouth of two at least or three witnesses every truth is established Jesus when he rose proved he was the Messiah from the law the prophets and sometimes he said and the Psalms that be the third witness ten commandments written on how many tables of stone - and that's how we end revelation 11 you can read here in verse o 19 and the temple of God was open in heaven does God have a temple in heaven and tells us that also in Hebrews it tells us that and the Ark of his covenant was seen in his temple chapter one of Revelation you got Jesus among the candlesticks we read about the altar of incense when these plagues threw down that was in the temple now we're in the Holy of Holies the Ark of his covenant was seen in the temple and there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and earthquakes and a great hail that great earthquake and that hail and that lightning and that noise are all synonymous with the end and so just before the end of time God's word again is going to be exalted and proclaim before the people now you'll notice also in the different segments of Revelation they take you to the end of time and you look at the panorama seven churches takes you to the end of time in the Church of Laodicea you get the seven seals takes you to the end of time in the last seal and in the last of the trumpets reaches to the end of time and so you've got all these different visions that are taking us down to the end of time by the way when you get to the end of chapter 12 I know I just jumped all the way through Chapter 12 but I want you to notice the last verse Revelation 12 last verse and the dragon is enraged with the woman he goes to make war with the remnant of her offspring who keep commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus dual nature of God's Word again there bind up the law seal the testimony among my disciple so you get the law and the prophets all through the Bible again final emphasis on the Word of God the Word of God the Word of God Jesus tells a parable of the rich man and Lazarus how does he punctuate that parable at the end if they believe not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded the one should rise from the dead so what's the bottom line with God the word why did Jesus come the word became flesh blob Bible became a human the Word of God was incarnated in Christ he was the Living Word and by the way he wants his word to be lived out in our lives too doesn't he and so you'll notice this big emphasis on exalting the word in the battle over the word all through these chapters that were considering now you know I like amazing facts and one thing I thought was fascinating is all the different cultures around the world seem to have legends about dragons flying dragons in particular and you find the dragon appears several times in Revelation it begins in chapter 12 you know what paleontologists and those who study bones think one reason that all these different cultures of the world have these legends about dragons or flying dragons is because they can even find skeletons of these flying reptiles all different parts of the world now when we were growing up I wanted to be a paleontologist I'm still fascinated by dinosaur bones I just don't believe they're millions of years old by the way I don't want to lose my place talkin about the flying dragons but you know they've always attributed multiple millions of years anywhere from 30 to 15 million years for these dinosaurs and then in Montana they dug up a Tyrannosaurus thigh bone that was huge in the helicopter could not carry it out it was so remote that after they took the plaster-of-paris they decided we're gonna have to take it in two pieces they broke it cleanly but got it back to the lab one of the technicians looked and Morrow of this bone and put some a solution on it and pulled it with tweezers and it's stretched it was soft tissue looked at it under a microscope and it had veins and cells and they were absolutely baffled because they said everything they know about geology is it's soft tissue doesn't last more than 10,000 years how could you have a 30 to 50 million year old dinosaur with soft tissue now they're beginning to think Jurassic Park could happen and they could somehow get a sell out of this Tyrannosaurus Rex bone it's got blood so how many of you heard about this that's fascinating maybe it's not billions of years old or millions of years old anyway so they find these flying dragons everywhere today they call them Petra sores and what's amazing is they found the skeletons of some and the best estimates our bodies could have weighed a hundred pounds we don't have any birds that weigh that much now and their wingspan would have made them nearly as big as a small Cessna forty feet flying now if you live back then and you saw these long legs they had trailing behind their wings you would have thought that it was a flying dragon with the tail and so it doesn't surprise us that these find their way in the lore of many of the ancient traditions well we're gonna find a battle between a woman and a serpent or a dragon and a child you notice what we read in our scripture memory verse rather this morning scripture reading talking about the woman the serpent and the promised seed are descendants of the woman you find that theme very prominent in Revelation chapter 12 go with me to Revelation chapter 12 we're gonna read the first few verses here now a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a garland or a crown of twelve stars a word there Stefano's and we've got a son named Stephen it our Stephanie no his name is not Stephanie that's the girls version of it Stephanie Stephens Stefano's it means crown is where you get that name and he or she has a Stefano's hovering above her head she's got stars standing on the moon clothed with the Sun this woman represents God's church a woman in Bible symbolism represents the church since I've likened the daughter of Zion unto a delicate and comely woman husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and when John writes in his second letter he says I'm writing from your elect sister unto the woman and from one church to another he uses the terminology of a woman and so here is this woman I got a couple of women in Revelation but one is clearly God's church the other is clearly not one is called a prostitute she's coming around next week you know what I mean by that in our next study on this subject not necessarily next week so this woman we know that it's God's church because there is light that is man-made and there there is light that is god made it tells us in the Bible that Psalm 136 verse 7 to him who made the great lights for his mercy endures forever the son to rule by day for his mercy endures forever the moon and the stars to rule by night for his mercy endures forever God made the Sun the moon and the stars this is God made light jesus said to the church you are the light of the world we are to be letting our light shine and so here's his woman clothed with light the Sun would represent the blazing light that came from Christ in the New Testament Jesus is that Sun of righteousness that arises with healing in his wings she's standing on the moon that is the foundation of the Old Testament now the mount has no light that emanates on its own we talk about the moon as shiny moon doesn't shine moon reflects all through the Old Testament time it was reflecting the light of when Jesus would come when he would rise and we should also reflect that twelve stars above the head represents authority in the Bible 12 that should tell you right off well that would be like the twelve patriarchs in the Old Testament there some have counted the judges if you include Samuel 12 judges others of course the 12 apostles in the New Testament you get 24 elders around the throne of God two sets of twelve some have tried to make a case it represents the twelve from the Old Testament and twelve from the new and I don't know how you divide it but that number twelve represents the leadership of the church you remember they couldn't pour out the Holy Spirit till they replaced Judas Jesus appointed twelve and so here you've got a picture of God's bride now some will see this chapter twelve revelation they say oh that's Mary Mary the mother of Jesus and in the Catholic Church you'll often see paintings of Mary standing on the moon with twelve stars above her head have you seen that before often you'll see that well this woman is not Mary is much bigger than that it's representing the Bride of Christ the church not the mother of Jesus and you'll see that as we read on in the story then being with child she cried out in labor and pain to give birth and another sign appeared in heaven behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads here's that dragon the serpent and ten horns and seven diadem's on his heads his tail a third of the stars and drew them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman I'm sorry and threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born all right let me talk about this for a minute let me see one more thing here the theme of a woman having a miraculous promised child is seen all the way through the Bible you can also see the theme that the devil wants to stop it all the way back when this promises made to Eve that there would be a promised seed that would be born that was a representation of Christ it's interesting that the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob all three brought their Brides out of Babylon to the promised land but the wives of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the principal wives were all barren they all had problems having babies Sarah had problems but through a miracle she has Christ Rebecca had problems Isaac prayed for her she had twins Jacobs wife Rachel had problems was barren she'd actually kind of took him by the throat and said give me children ere I die and he said what am i God prayed miracle she has Joseph Isaac Jacob Joseph were all types of Christ weren't they then you've got these other barren women the mother of Samson we don't know her name it just calls her the wife of manoa Samson becomes a type of Christ Bible even tells us that laid down his life to save God's people from their enemies then you've got Hannah barren prayer Samuel who becomes the prophet the judge and the priest of God's people Jesus is our prophet priest and Judge John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth was barren John the forerunner of Christ something tells me I'm leaving one out the shooter might woman thank you very much I'm glad you said that she has a son because of the intercession of Elijah that son dies in the field with his father and is resurrected that doesn't happen every day type of Christ the son who dies and is resurrected all those women who had these miraculous babies that are resurrected were types of Christ those sons were types of Christ the women are types of the church then you've got a couple three examples of these sons that are born and an effort is made to exterminate them Moses is born and there's an effort made to kill all the babies trying to get to Moses all the baby boys then you've got the descendants of David when Athaliah becomes Queen she kills all of the descendants of David but one survives joash and so then you get to the New Testament and when married gives birth to Jesus the Roman power that dragon that first appears is the devil manipulating the kingdom of Rome to destroy the promised seed the devil often operates through the governments to accomplish his design and so you have to see the devil behind the government when you first find the devil identified in prophecy in Isaiah 14 it's a prophecy about the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28 actually Ezekiel's king of Tyre Isaiah 14 it's a prophecy about the king of Babylon and then it talks about the devil behind the kingdom in Daniel chapter 10 that talks about the devil working through the Prince of Persia but Michael withstood him and you can see the devil working behind these governments and many of the Kings and government leaders may not even know the devil was working through pagan Rome King Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem so don't forget this a spiritual battle in Revelation taking place behind what people see in history and politics did you get that the great controversy is being acted out between the woman and the child and the serpent all through history the church that's us and Christ and the serpent the dragon does that make sense and we tend to argue about the politics and we forget about the big politics the great controversy happening behind the politics you and I could see there's another battle happening so the dragon wants to devour the child as soon as it's born of course Herod sent his soldiers in to do that then you transition here just go to verse seven I'm not gonna have time to cover everything I want to cover and it tells us about this cosmic battle in heaven that really helps us understand what's happening here on earth revelation 12 verse 7 and war broke out in heaven that doesn't that sound kind of like that you think about heaven everyone wants to go to heaven who wants to go to a war but there was a war in heaven Michael and his angels fought with the Dragon and the dragon in his angels fought but they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer so that Great Dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan now do we need to wonder who the dragon is the power behind the kingdom of Rome pagan Rome at this time is the power of the devil it calls him Satan devil serpent dragon I mean what more do you want God to say it's like a dictionary definition you can't get any more precise than that and it tells us that there's a battle all the battles here on earth begin with this battle in heaven between good and evil now I know you know I was praying as I thought about it do I want to even mention this because people choke on this point but it's the truth and I want to mention it if we know the dragon is a symbolic name for the Prince of evil then why would it confuse us to realize that Michael is a symbolic name for the king of kings the Prince of princes which is Jesus I am NOT saying Michael our Jesus is an angel it never calls Michael and Angel it calls him the Ark angles that means the greatest messenger people picture that there is this angel named Gabriel and he's got wings he's a serif or cherubim and you got another one's name Catholics made up one name Raphael you ever heard about him he's not in the Bible Gabriel is not Raphael and they got all these different angels and then they paint Michael as an angel but the Protestant theologians realized that Michael in the Bible is not a cherub with feathers and wings it was a special name principally used in the Old Testament to identify Christ before his incarnation the word Michael the name means who is as God Archangel means greatest messenger it's talking about Jesus who led the Angels in his battle against Satan the battle is between Christ and Satan now let me give you more proof Daniel chapter 12 speaking of the end of time at that time Michael will stand up the Great Prince that stands for the children of thy people and there will be a time of trouble such as there never has been who is the great Prince that stands to intercede for us it's Jesus there's no angel that is interceding for us 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 and the Lord Himself the Lord Himself will be sin from heaven with a shout sentence keeps going and the voice of the ark angel the Lord with the voice of the Archangel the greatest messenger then you read in Jude one chapter verse 9 that Michael comes to resurrect Moses and the devil tries to stop him and he says the Lord rebuke thee that's the same thing that Jesus said to the devil when he was tempted in the wilderness and the angels can't resurrect and so you just go through all the evidence in the Bible wherever you see Michael appear do you remember one time the angel of the Lord appeared to Joshua as the general of God's army and he says take your shoes off your feet for this is holy ground and Joshua worships him that was Christ so there's a lot of evidence for it in the Bible but I don't have time to go through it so this is a battle between the devil and Christ in heaven the devil is cast out of heaven and he is Cassidy alright let's go back to Revelation chapter twelve we were just reading verse seven and it tells us I heard a loud verse ten a loud voice saying now salvation strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down the devil is constantly accusing you've read in the Bible where the devil was accusing job before the Lord so all the only reason job serves you is because you've had just a man with your Angels the devil was accusing Zechariah the high priest and you know typically those who are the most derogatory and critical and accusing it's not the Spirit of Jesus usually that's behind that it's the spirit of the devil is the accuser of the Brethren and it says he was cast out but where's he cast he's down here remember Satan said to the Lord I've come from the earth pin God says woe to the inhabitants of the earth and verse 12 for the Devils come down to you having great wrath because he knows he has a short time now I all wish that we knew something the devil knew the devil knows that he's running out of time do we know that the devil because he knows he has little time is working with great intensity how much time do we have left to preach the gospel should there be a passion and intensity among God's people because we're running out of time so there ought to be that eminence that enthusiasm for Christ because we realize this and then it says verse 13 when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the manchild now we know who the manchild is and I don't know if I read it all to you it says after she brings forth a man child in verse 4 who's to rule all nations with a rod of iron does everyone know that's Jesus and the male child is caught up to God and his throne Christ ascended the devil can no longer reach Jesus he he unloaded all of his venom on Christ when Jesus was here on earth you want to know how the devil feels about Jesus look at the cross and during that last 24 hours of Christ's life God withdrew his protection because Jesus took the suffering and the death that we deserve but Jesus now has ascended he has a glorified body he is out of the reach of the devil and so now when the devil wants to hurt Christ who does he have to go after the woman the Bride of Christ it's not Mary because it doesn't say that Mary fled into the wilderness because the devil was out to get her there's they mean all of a sudden the whole idea that this is Mary disintegrates right now because he continues to persecute this woman who flees in the wilderness she hides 42 months and it goes through this whole scenario here it's not talking about Mary's talking about the Bride of Christ Mary is a type of the church but this prophecy is not talking about Mary's talking about the church when Jesus hung on the cross and he said to John son behold your mother woman behold your son that was also a place where Mary was a type of the church we are being told that you've got Christ and you've got the woman and we're being told to for the woman to behold thy son what does the church supposed to do behold thy son and so there's analogies there but don't mix it up into thinking that this woman in Revelation 12 is Mary is that clear you know some of us come out of a Catholic tradition and and we have a hard time letting go of that it says to the woman were given two wings you ever seen Mary flying around like an eagle okay so the dragon now tries to vent his fury on the woman for the first few centuries of the church don't forget we're looking at the history here he tries to destroy the church through persecution and so she has to go underground now what happened is Oh from the time of Jesus till about first two three hundred years after Christ Christianity was outlawed Christians were the aw offscouring in the Roman Empire they are persecuted they built the catacombs they had to go underground but then around the time of the conversion of Constantine or at least the sensible conversion of Constantine it was very dubious how genuine it was because he wasn't baptized until he was on his deathbed but he saw it was a smart political move because he needed to get the kingdom together because he was fighting a civil war at the time and he needed the additional support but then what happened as Christianity sort of became a state religion and eventually by about 538 they were given an army and the Christianity was enforced by means of arms which was never Jesus plan and all this compromise kind of came into the church because the Christian sort of commingled with the pagans in Rome and the greco-roman religions and it became sort of a melting pot where the religion in Rome and the capital was moved from Jerusalem to Rome there was a lot of compromise and blending that went on or a bunch of things that were never meant to be in the church came in through paganism through compromise trying to make the religion popular they said we can reach more of the pagans if we just make a few concessions try and market it have we made that same mistake in Christianity in North America try to market our religion to the pagans society we're in and so we we dumb it down would compromise it pretty soon instead of us converting the pagans the pagans are converting us that's what ends up happening it's like when these some youth pastors say if we just you know put some Christian music you know put some Christian words to the rock music we can reach the youth instead of reaching the pagan youth out there in the world what happens is the Christians end up becoming converted to the rock the bridge runs both ways isn't that right that's what happens I could never figure out why all you Adventist wanted me to be a vegetarian you kept serving me phony meat how else is gonna make your kids grow up and think wonder what the real stuff tastes like you give me all this phony bacon and phony pork and phonies thing and I heard one pastor actually it was a doctor say one time I can't understand inviting Jesus over to dinner for Sabbath and saying would you like some way him tastes like the real thing you really like this lor oh now I'm on dangerous ground anyway so a lot of compromise came into the church during that time well the woman flees into the wilderness and she's given two wings and it says that she's preserved in the wilderness for a time and a time and half a time a time times and half a time from the presence of the serpent now has God preserved his people by taking them into the wilderness in the Bible in the Old Testament where did he bring Israel to prepare them for their ministry wilderness where did he'd Elijah go during three and a half years of famine wilderness did God feed Israel in the wilderness did God feed Elijah miraculously in the wilderness and so you've got this pattern all through the Bible of God supplying the needs of his people in the wilderness by the way it was white Jezebel was manipulating the government that Elijah for 1260 days was in the wilderness you're gonna find it as 42 months it's 1260 years I know that we're having some challenges 1260 years you'll also find it's calls at a time at times and the dividing of a time and 42 months now in the Jewish year there's 360 days when they calculated their year it's like 360 degrees in a circle they had 360 days in their year and 30 days to their month they just did that as a round number even though the months the lunar cycle is shorter than that that's approximately what they did and so you end up with 42 months equals if there's 30 days in a month what does that equal 1260 days or one year of 360 a pair of years that's when it says a times that means a couple or a pair which is two more and a dividing of one-half that time period appears again and again in the Bible by the way you was in revelation 11 did you notice it there the two witnesses prophesy clothed in sackcloth 1260 days then you've got it here where the woman flees into the wilderness during this time and it's gonna appear in Revelation 13 also matter of fact that time period 1260 days 42 months a time a times and the dividing of a time appears seven times in the Bible you need to know what it means 7 and revelation big number perfect completion of God God completed the week in the seven days it represents a complete perfect cycle three and a half is exactly half or a dissecting or a chopping of that perfect number the Messiah was chopped off in the midst of the week Jesus ministered three and a half years he was cut off Elijah preached during a time of persecution three and a half represents a time of persecution a time of rejection three and a half years the disciples preached until 34 ad Stephen a stone great persecution they had rejected it the Sanhedrin plugged their ears so you're gonna see this time period again some have wondered the small time of trouble in the last days will it be three and a half years I don't know I think people can argue that because it does even appear again in Daniel chapter 12 but I'm not gonna make a doctrine out of that I just think that's something interesting to consider and no I don't think that time period started yet so then finally the earth opens its mouth and helps the woman during this period of the Dark Ages from 1798 know from 538 to 1798 was a time of great persecution of the church now what happened during that time that time period began when a Roman general installed a Roman Pope the Roman Emperor Justinian sent his general in they used an army to install their favorite Pope they overthrew the last of the three opposing sects of the religion area lie the Ostrogoths the vandals Ostrogoths were the last they seated a pope they gave him a military they said you are now the head of the church we're using force of arms almost uninterrupted for 1260 years that church ruled by force and it was a time of great persecution Bible Christians had to go underground until Napoleon came along he sent his general Berthier into France in 1798 the Pope was arrested carried off into valence where he ultimately died and that power was broken during that time and during the French Revolution sort of had the birth of atheism and so you've got this time period that appears great darkness over a millennium where the church would have to go into the wilderness you had the walled and seized and the Hussites and the Alba gen C's had fled into the the Swiss and the French Alps and hid out in the mountains there and God preserved the truth biblical truth they wrote out the scriptures by hand during that time then we go to verse 17 the dragon was enraged with a woman and he went to make war with the remainder of her offspring that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ two outstanding characteristic of God's people especially in the last days is the law and the prophets they have the Word of God they keep the commandments of God is a very minimum and they believe the writings of the prophets the spirit of prophecy you read in Revelation chapter 19 verse 10 it says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy and so you find this pattern Moses and Elijah the law of God the testimony of Jesus the commandments of God and the prophets these represent the Word of God God's church in the last days is going to go back to the truth of the Bible and I think God is people in many different churches you hear me but there's going to be a great shaking in the last days well they'll be a consolidating and you're going to have two polls you've heard of things being polarized you'll have two poles around which the groups in the world rally one group is gonna rally around the word and they will have the seal of God the other group and they're gonna get the they're gonna have the Word of God in the seal of God the other group they can have the Holy Spirit the other group is gonna rally around the mark of the beast and they're gonna rally around the traditions and laws of men they're gonna get the mark of the beast that's happening right now that's why it's so important for us to know the word cuz both groups are gonna claim to have the truth remember the people who crucified Jesus had Bibles isn't that right Cain made an offering to the Lord and killed his brother and it's gonna happen again jesus said the hour is coming when those that persecute you will think they're serving God so you got to know your Bible make sure you're not deceived now we're gonna go how with much trepidation into Revelation 13 turn with me you've got these beasts coming up to understand Revelation you need to have some background and Daniel now I don't have time this is an we're doing kind of a synopsis of the apocalypse here it's a flyover I can't go into Daniel and cover it all so you're gonna have to take my word on some of this and do your own study chapter 1 he says I stand on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and all his ten horns ten crowns these are kingdoms and on his head's Blastoise names now this beast appears in Chapter 12 this beast the cheer appears in chapter 13 this beast appears in chapter 17 except it's written by a woman this is the Roman power said the Roman power goes through some kind of change now the kingdoms in Daniel talked about Babylon being a lion how many of you remember that talks about Greece being like a leopard and the Persians being like a bear and then it's got the strange nondescript beasts iron teeth like the iron legs in that original image represent Rome the iron monarchy of Rome this final power sort of the sort of a work of all these thing is that these kingdoms all by the way occupied God's people they persecuted God's people they occupied the promised land they're all not consolidated in this one beast that occupies the promised land during the time when the Messiah is executed and it remains in power but it goes through a change it's not desire and it turns into iron and clay the Roman the power ruled by Caesars pagan commingled with religion and Christianity that's the clay man was made a plate dust and so here you get the two things going together and now you've got this all this one beast has all of it notice what it says the Beast I saw verse two is like a leopard and his feet were like a bear its mouth like a mouth of a lion now when Daniel tells it he says lion bear leopard because Daniels looking forward John is looking back he goes leopard bear lion that makes perfect sense depends on your perspective and one of his heads was wounded and the deadly wound is healed and all the world marvels after the Beast and chapter 13 is especially taking us into the last days of Revelation revelation and you'll notice that we ended chapter 12 talking about a war that is being waged against the woman and her seed now you've all heard about the Battle of Armageddon and I remember I think Douglas MacArthur is somewhat responsible for this because at the end of world war two he said we need to get our house in order and learn to control these weapons or Armageddon will be at our door he said we cannot survive another world war I think he's right you know they had World War one he was in on that fabulous MacArthur was part of World War two and he said you better not get into World War three cuz now with these weapons we'll see Armageddon at our door and then everybody hearing the word Armageddon they began to think of Armageddon ISM is Armageddon gonna happen in China is it gonna be Russia and China is it gonna be the US and Russia is it gonna be Egypt in Israel well I mean and I remember going on a tour as a promised land where we overlooked the valley of megiddo and the pastors who were there these were Evangelic old pastors that soon all the armies of Russia are gonna gather here in the armies of China and all the people of the Islam and they're gonna get they're gonna war against Israel the Bloods gonna run up to the depth of the horses bridles and I was standing there with a Methodist an Episcopal pastor and we kind of looked at each other because they don't believe it like that either and that's not again if you want to know what the Battle of Armageddon is it's telling you it's when the dragon makes war against the woman Battle of Armageddon is not a battle between the nations of the world Revelation is not dealing with the political wrangling that we have here on earth it's dealing with the big war between Christ and the devil the Battle of Armageddon is the devil's final war to exterminate the seed of the woman from the earth you remember that prophecy we opened with that says the woman would bring forth this seed that would bruise the Serpent's hand who is Christ ultimately going to use to bruise the Serpent's head in the last days the seed of the woman is going to be Christ living out his life in you and me we are gonna reflect what Christ it's gonna be through Christ and his bride that the devil is shown that his accusations are not true so there's an effort made to exterminate then you go to chapter 13 it goes into the details now of that war in this battle against God's people now you've got two beasts you got the beast from the sea we just read about that's the one that looks kind of like a lion a leopard and bear but you could get down there and he receives a deadly wound but the wound is healed back in 1798 the Roman Church received a terrible wound - it's uninterrupted power and it looked like it had totally fallen off the stage as an influence but that deadly wound has been more than healed it has come back into power there are approximately 1 billion Roman Catholics in the world today and all the kingdoms of the world have ambassadors in the Vatican it is treated as an international power and yet it is the smallest country in the world very interesting but there's another beast that comes up now revelation 13 verse 11 I saw another beast coming up out of the earth he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon I don't know forgot the my picture of my RAM like beast but he speaks like a dragon and he exercises all the power of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who are in it too who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed I wanted you to see that I made that yesterday myself I put fangs on a ram that's pretty good by the way you only find these are American mountain goats that are found in the Rockies and in the Sierras and I just no one knows exactly what it was John saw some try to make it look like a bison buffalo or something but this second beast that comes up out of the land represents North America it means a new world power would emerge that previously had not been densely populated because in the Bible you read in revelation 17 waters represent multitudes of peoples nations and tongues so while we did have Native Americans here if you do the math it was very sparsely populated compared to Western Europe where and the other thing is that was the land where God's people had been scattered all over the Roman Empire here is a new country where God's people were not known and out of this new land that had been prepared in North America this new nation rises up it turns into an international power very quickly and on the scope of history you think about it I mean from the time of the Revolutionary War the greatest empire in the world was England the fact that America defeated England in such a short space of time no one would have predicted that was possible they had the greatest army the most experienced army the greatest Navy and yet they were defeated right about the time 1798 I know we were 1776 where's our Constitution do you know we were not recognized by European powers as an independent country from England until 1798 during that same time this new beast rises up and then you realize that there becomes a confederacy between the religious power that you find in the old ten kingdoms of Europe no one can divide and no one can argue that the nations of Europe that you find there the Roman Empire divided among those ten kingdoms you've got the another French and the Italians and the Swiss and the Saxons and the Aleman either Germans and it disintegrated into approximately ten kingdoms those are the ten horns so you've got that power they're led by Rome by the way the Russian Orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox are now oh what's the word I'm looking for they're reconciling with Rome they had split off but they're recognizing Rome as the supreme power of the church but you end up now with these two principal powers the European represented by Rome that deadly boost wound that came back and was healed and the United States that became the bulwark of Protestantism you know you've got these two powers even among Israel the Northern Kingdom got involved in idolatry and a pasta sighs the southern kingdom had the temple said we're gonna stay true we're gonna be the revived people of the book by the time you get to the end of Israel's history they started to make a confederacy the son of Jehoshaphat married the daughter of Jezebel and they began to work together you see that there's a confederacy between Herodias in her daughter to persecute John the Baptist you have the confederacy between Jezebel and her daughter a falaya to kill the royal seed and in the last days you've got this global Confederacy between apostate or fallen Protestants represented in the Western Hemisphere central power United States that's undisputed and those in the the eastern hemisphere Europe central power with Rome and there's gonna be a confederacy there'll be some national international disaster something's gonna happen that's gonna trigger this I don't know if it'll be economic I mean if we're having all of that now aren't we is that an earthquake 7.0 earthquake in New Zealand every time I preach I can point to some major earthquake and some natural disaster some economic crisis so have you heard the recession never got better they just injected a bunch of money in it it kind of made a blip on the heart monitor government put a few trillion dollars into the economy to gave us a blip and then it disappeared we ran out of adrenaline and so serious things are happening in the world right now I don't know what's gonna trigger these final events but friends I think we're there then you get down to go to Revelation 13 and you get down to the final act so to speak it says that this second beast is telling everyone to worship the first beast whose deadly wound is healed and he grants power to give breath to the image I'm in verse 15 of the Beast and the image of the Beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship should be killed at one point he says no man can by herself or seventeen except those who have the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name and then it gives us that mystic number here's wisdom let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is a number of a man by the way it never says the mark of the beast is 666 it says it's a individual that holds that but you identify them through a number no one's going to be walking around with a big crown that's a 666 on it in the last days so if you're waiting for that you're me too see all right what does this mean there's a bunch of things I need to tell you first of all what does it mean by a mark what is this mark in the hand or in the forehead to understand the mark biblically you got to start with Deuteronomy 11 well I'll start with Deuteronomy 6 verse 8 speaking of the law of God it says you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be frontlets between your eyes in the hand in the forehead law of God chapter 5 of Deuteronomy 10 commandments chapter 6 he says they're to be bound should be in your heart in your hand in your forehead Deuteronomy 11 therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul you realize that's spiritual bind them for a sign on your hand he didn't literally want them to do that I mean they're very Orthodox Jews today that they have these phylacteries they put little pieces of the Word of God on their hand they hang them between their forehead because they're literally wanting to fulfill this his Moses was he being literal is he talking about in your actions in your mind in your worship to have the law of God exodus 13:9 it shall be assigned to you on your hand and there's a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth were they to put transcripts in their cavities I mean you really think it's kind of silly kinds not wanting us to keep the little crumbs of the Bible on our body and I don't mean to be disrespectful to my Jewish brethren but it's in our thoughts it's in our mind blessed are the pure in heart it's in our hearts it's in our actions it's in our mind very simply those that have the seal of God in their forehead have the word of God in their hearts and in their minds and their actions that sort of means having it in your forehead in your hand but there will be another set of laws that will go against the law of God in the last days Daniel chapter 2 understand revelation you got to look in the Old Testament Daniel chapter 3 great images made the height of this image 60 cubits 6 cubits wide and if it doesn't give you the depth in Hebrew that would mean it's the same as the width you remember the little altar in the temple the altar of incense by the veil and something to cubits high and it was a cubed by a cubit the width same as the depth that image that Nebuchadnezzar built was sixty by six and then it's understood in the Hebrew by six if it leaves it silent the width is the same as the depth you listening on the plain of Dura and everyone bowels down or they'll be killed I mean you can't you can't miss Daniel three if you're gonna talk about the mark of the beast in the last days they have to decide do I obey the commandment of God that says don't worship idols or follow the commandment of the government and all these kingdoms that had gathered together all the kingdoms were gonna bow down what's gonna happen in the last days there'll be a law made that contradicts the law of God I believe it's going to be the fourth commandment regarding the Sabbath because that's the one commandment that regards a worship and it's the one commandment where you find the word holy and everyone's gonna have to make a decision do we obey the law of God or the law of men and are we gonna stand up at that time and if first still try and use you know campaigning and advertising and pressure and maybe financial pressure you can't buy or sell unless you cooperate maybe they'll see the plague is going on around the world and it'll be mandated we must all turn back to God well what God do you think they're gonna turn back to it'll be the generic evangelical variety of God it'll be the popular version which is usually not the right version following out a multitude to do evil and there'll be a law made to worship but we're gonna have to sacrifice one of the commandments to do it what will you do you see that's gonna be the big issue now then it tells us about that number 666 and I have just enough time to touch on that quickly what does that mean it says here is wisdom let him who has understanding calculate the number the number of the beasts word is the number of a man and his number is 666 you know if you take Roman numerals and you line them up that you remember the old Roman numeral you've got AI represents one you got V is five you've got X is ten you've got L is fifty see century 100 D 500 if you take the first six Roman numerals and just add them up comes to 666 and that interesting by the way the Jews this was a very important number because I told you they had a year with 360 days you know if you take a roulette wheel with 36 slots and you add up 1 plus 2 Plus 3 plus 4 plus ba you add them all up sequentially when you get to the last number and you add 36 you come up with 666 it's very interesting number it's a it's a what they call a triangular number of course 3 times 2 to 266 but what does that mean well one of the ways you can identify it it says it's the number of a man it's a position that is held that is in opposition to the position of Christ I don't know if this is going to make it up on the screen but the title of the Pope according to Pope John Paul the second in his book on the threshold of hope he says we hold upon this earth the place of God and that his title is it's the chapter called the Pope a mystery and a scandal it says that he is the Vicar of Christ the representative of God Pope John a pope paul also said the same thing that I am The Vicar of Christ I am the representative of God on earth that title in Latin that the Pope has Vicar of God is bi-curious fill i day i if you take the latin title and then you look at on April 30 1922 Pope Pius V what does that xi said you know that I am the holy father the representative of God on earth the Vicar of Christ which means that I am God on earth and I'm not telling you some bizarre thing that we happen to believe in our church this is what Protestants believed going all the way back to the wall vincey's in about 1100 and they believe that the Roman Church was a great compromise of Scripture and they represented the beast of revelation 13 and of course I'm a loyal American I think America is the second beast of revelation 13 verse 11 so it doesn't matter whether you're a Protestant or a Catholic or an Orthodox Christian you need to be a Bible Christian amen because that's what God is calling people back to in the last days we can't be worshipping man we 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Channel: Amazing Mission

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Keywords: An, Overview, of, Revelation, Apocalypse, Synopsis, Part, Gospel, Church, Christian, good, faith, hope, sin, love, salvation, christianity, philosophy, lecture, bible, coming soon, gospel, review, reviews, Jesus, Christ, angel, lucifer, devil, dragon, 666, john, 144, 000, blood, preaching, inspirational

Id: 9ODfkEbi7hQ

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2011