"Protestants Are No More" - Pastor Stephen Bohr

well good evening it's good to see all of you back to continue studying this fascinating series on the blessed hope the title of our study for this evening is protestants are no more now this title is not originally with me actually uh it is an idea that came from an author called alexander vinay he lived from 1797 to 1847. the only thing is he expressed it this way protestants there are but protestantism is no more i would like to say this evening that it's just the contrary protestantism is but protestantism but protestants are no more i'd like to refer as we begin our study to the words of the philosopher george santayana who said the following he who does not learn from the errors of history is doomed to repeat them now this evening we're going to study a lesson in history we're going to notice how futurism infiltrated protestantism now most of the presentation will deal with history and i hope you enjoy history at the end we're going to deal with some biblical issues but most of the presentation has to do with historical events because i think it's important for us to see how in the course of history these ideas penetrated from roman catholicism into protestantism now let's review very briefly what we studied in our last presentation you remember the historical flow of daniel chapter 7. you have a lion which represents babylon you have a bear which represents middle persia you have a leopard which represents greece you have a dragon beast which represents rome then that dragon beast sprouts ten horns which represents the ten divisions of the roman empire in the year 476. and then you have the little horn that comes up among the ten which represents the roman catholic papacy which ruled from 538 to 1798 a.d now revelation 13 takes us one step further ahead because revelation 13 tells us that this little horn who is called the beast in revelation 13 is going to have a resurrection from a deadly wound in other words this little horn this beast ruled 1260 years at the end of the 1260 years received a deadly wound and for a period this power was inactive but after a period of inactivity this power will resurrect from its death death wound and once again will rule the world now we noticed in our study last evening that the protestant reformers knew very well what this little antichrist was this little horn was they had certain basic tenets number one the antichrist is not an individual the antichrist is a system secondly the temple in which the antichrist sits is not the literal jerusalem temple it represents the christian church third israel is not literal israel but israel represents god's true people whether they be jew or gentile and finally the three and a half years of dominion of the little horn were not literal years but prophetic years in other words you had to apply the year day principle to this period which means that the little horn would govern not three and a half literal years but would govern 1 200 years and as we noticed in our study last evening because of the prophetic concepts of the reformers the roman catholic church not only lost individuals but actually lost whole countries in europe as a result the roman catholic church said we have to do something to arrest this growing movement the protestant reformation and they soon realized that the only way to arrest the protestant reformation was by dealing with the prophetic concepts that were being taught by the protestant reformers that were pointing the finger clearly to the roman catholic papacy as a fulfillment of the antichrist prophecies we noticed in our study last night that saint ignatius loyola established the order of the jesuits the council of trent reaffirmed the beliefs of the roman catholic system it became entrenched we noticed that this order of the jesuits uh produced two very able scholars who shifted and changed god's prophetic calendar luis de alcasar who established the system of preterism the idea that the antichrist prophecies were fulfilled in the distant past and francisco rivera who taught that the antichrist had not arisen yet in his day but would arise at the end of time at the end of human history seven years before the glorious coming coming of jesus we also noticed that bellarmine also a jesuit carried the ideas of francisco rivera far and wide for 300 years as i mentioned as we closed our study last evening the protestant reformation remained firm in its commitment that the papacy was the predicted antichrist of prophecy but in the early 1800s actually in the late 1820s and early 1830s the protestant view began to show cracks the protestants began shifting their point of view concerning the antichrist the first individual that we know of who began shifting this view that the antichrist of prophecy was the roman catholic papacy was a man called samuel maitland in 1826 he wrote several pamphlets the name of the pamphlets was inquiries in this series of pamphlets samuel maitland said that the antichrist prophecies did not point to the roman catholic papacy he said that these prophecies needed to be understood as referring to a future blasphemous individual who would sit in the literal jerusalem temple for a literal three and a half years for the first time that we know of a clergyman from the church of england which was a protestant church was teaching the same thing that francisco rivera and bellarmine had taught several hundred years before many of the clergy of the church of england started picking up these views these divergent protestant views i'd like to read the concepts of two of these clergymen of the church of england who lived early in the 1830s the first of them is robert berg he lived from 1800 to 1866 and he stated this first that the man of sin is not potpourri by the way the word potpourri means the papacy first that the man of sin is not potpourri appears from the necessity that this chapter that is second thessalonians 2 be understood of an individual and not of a power or office vested in numbers or held by succession in other words the antichrist is an individual it is not a succession of rulers or individuals in a system he also said this i would say that an individual is intended one person whose pretensions live and die with himself furthermore he continued saying secondly the nature of these same acts that is the acts of this man of sin of ii thessalonians 2 secondly the nature of these same acts and preset pretensions prove that the man of sin is not the pope categorically in the early 1830s we find this clergyman robert berg as well as other clergymen clearly stating that the papacy was not the antichrist that the antichrist would be a literal individual who would sit in a literally rebuilt jewish temple and would rule for a literal three and a half years another individual from the church of england also a clergyman who began teaching these views was james todd james todd lived from 1805 to 1869. in 1838 he presented a series of lectures which he later published the name of the lectures was this discourses on the prophecies relating to antichrist in the writings of daniel and saint paul what views did james todd express in those lectures basically he said first of all that antichrist would be an individual not a system this individual would appear shortly before the second coming of jesus secondly antichrist would not sit in the christian church the antichrist would sit in the literally rebuilt jewish temple number three antichrist would not rule for 1260 years but was to rule for 1260 literal days which is three and a half literal years number four the fourth kingdom of daniel 7 was not the roman empire according to james todd now amazingly you would say okay well he believed this futurist view of the roman catholic church but he went one step further he actually started teaching that the roman catholic church was a true christian church in fact allow me to read you three statements from the writings of james todd where he addresses the issue of the identity of the roman catholic church they're very short statements first of all he said this romanism that's another way of speaking about the papacy romanism is not properly an apostasy from the faith in a second statement he says this the errors of romanism do not amount to apostasy and finally the most amazing statement he says the church of rome is a true christian church isn't it amazing that the minute that these protestant clergymen shift their views concerning the antichrist immediately they see the roman catholic church in a different light as a true church not as a church who has apostatized from the faith but a genuine christian church you see the point is that when the church goes astray from its prophetic foundations from its prophetic roots the end result is that they want to join the very system that they recognize as being christian rather than apostate the story continues between 1833 and 1845 marked that date very important date 1833-1845 in england was established what is known as the oxford tractarian movement actually 90 tracts for the times as they were called were written during this period this movement was spearheaded by an individual which probably most of you have heard of john henry cardinal newman anybody ever heard of john henry cardinal newman yes many of you have heard about him do you know the history of cardinal newman he actually wrote 29 of the 90 tracks for the times he said in these tracks that the protestant reformation was a tragic mistake he also advocated a return of the protestant church of england to the communion of the mother church the roman catholic church in fact he renounced his credentials in the church of england and he became a convert to the roman catholic church where he was accepted as a member in 1845 in fact in 1879 john henry cardinal newman was given the hat of a cardinal he became a cardinal in the roman catholic church now we must move way south of europe and we're going to digress for a moment but this is very closely related to what we're dealing with in england in the 1830s we must go down to the country of chile there lived an individual from 1731 to 1801 whom i'm sure you have heard about as well his name is emmanuel de la cunsa we know him as lacunza how many of you have ever heard of lacunza if you've read the book great controversy you've heard of lacunza did you know that lacunza was a member of the jesuit order did you know that many of the prophetic views that lacunza had were views that were almost identical to the views of francisco rivera in fact lacunza wrote a masterpiece a theological masterpiece whose title was la venida which translated means the coming of the messiah in glory and majesty now you're saying why are you going all the way down the chile the simple reason is that a copy of lacunsa's book found its way all the way from chile to england in the decade of the 1830s and in a moment i'm going to tell you what happened with that book but before i do allow me to share with you certain of the ideas of the prophetic ideas of lacunsa first of all he taught that revelation 4 through 22 deals exclusively with future events number two the three and a half times of the little horns dominion are literal years number three during the millennium christ will reign personally on planet earth number four the 144 thousand are literal jews number five the literal jerusalem temple would be rebuilt then he said that literal animal sacrifices would once again be offered there in the temple in jerusalem he taught that during the millennium the literal jews would be re-gathered and converted and he also taught that god will fulfill his literal covenant with the literal jewish nation now lacunsa diverged from the regular jesuits like francisco rivera on a couple of points first of all we find that lacunsa was what you call a pre-millennialist pre-millennialist he believed that jesus christ was going to come before the beginning of the millennium you say well that's what we believe but in the time in which lacunsa wrote the roman catholic church taught a view which is known as amillennialism the idea that during that time they were already in the millennium and that the purpose of god was that the church by using the political systems of the world should establish christ's kingdom on planet earth and so the roman catholic church did not speak much about the second coming of christ because they believed that christ's kingdom would be established by the church taking over the world so lacunca diverts from that in teaching no the millennium is not now the millennium will be after the glorious second coming of jesus christ he also taught that even though the antichrist will be in the future and will rule for a literal three and a half years he says that the antichrist was not going to be one individual but was going to be an apostate system so he diverged somewhat from francisco rivera but most of his points of view were the regular futurism that had been taught by the roman catholic counter-reformation now you say why do you bring lacunsa into this what does he have to do with england in the 1830s well allow me now to speak to go back to england and speak to you about uh a series of groups that were established in the church of england known as the plymouth brethren have you ever heard of the plymouth brethren some of you probably have actually these study and prayer groups were established all over great britain they were established in scotland in ireland and in england around the year 1825. you see at this time the church of england was dry formalistic and stagnant and so these men through the study of bible prophecy wanted to bring a revival and a reformation within the church of england now to the plymouth plymouth brethren belonged to notable individuals that we need to keep in mind one of them was called edward irving and the second one was called john nelson darby now you say that's greek to me pastor i've never heard of edward irving i've never heard of john nelson darby well that's why we're talking about them this evening because they have a lot to do with how these ideas penetrated from catholicism into protestantism it just so happens that edward irving came across a copy of the book that had come from chile that was written by emmanuel lacunza and he was so fascinated by this book edward irving was that he actually translated it into english and he started sharing the views that he got from lacunsa far and wide in this decade of the 1830s in england in other words futurism not only came from francisco rivera in spain but it was also coming from this work of lacunsa all the way from south america both sources were jesuit sources they were members of the roman catholic counterfeit reformation you see there was a big problem at this time with the theology that was being propounded by these protestants who were adopting the roman catholic view you see they taught that revelation chapter 4 through 19 applied to the jews in the future but people would ask them if you say that revelation 4 through 19 applies to the jews in the future where is the church why isn't the church mentioned in revelation 4-19 they needed a way to explain why the church in their mind was absent from revelation 4 all the way to revelation chapter 19 they needed a way to explain the absence of the church and of course the answer came but it came in a very very strange way it just so happens that in the church which was pastored by edward irving a very interesting experience took place and i want to read the account as it is given by samuel p tragell he was present there when this event took place notice what he says i am not aware that there was any definite teaching that there would be a secret rapture of the church at a secret coming until this was given forth as an utterance in mr irving's church when he says in utterance it means that somebody in the congregation spoke this in an unknown tongue in ecstasy once again i am not aware that there was any definite teaching that there would be a secret rapture of the church and a secret coming until this was given forth as an utterance in mr irving's church from what was there received as being the voice of the spirit but whether anyone ever asserted such a thing or not it was from that supposed revelation that the modern doctrine and modern phraseology arose in other words the phraseology of the secret rapture it came not from holy scripture but from that which falsely pretended to be the spirit of god in other words the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture of the church came not from the study of scripture but it came from an ecstatic utterance in an unknown tongue in the church that was pastored by edward irving you know it's no coincidence that hal lindsey who is really received the mantle or the cloak of john nelson darby and edward irving do you know that hal lindsey had the same type of experience according to him when he was writing his most recent book vanish into thin air allow me to read his own words in the book vanished into thin air page 51. he says this as he was writing his book there were times that i experienced the presence of the holy spirit in such power that i went into an ecstatic state it's no secret that back in the times of edward irving people were involved in the tongues movement people were involved in spiritualism people were going through supernatural phenomena and this phenomena that took place in the church of edward irving was not the exception it was the rule and of course now they had a way of explaining why the church was not in revelation 4-19 because according to darvey and according to irving because of this ecstatic utterance that said that there was going to be a secret rapture of the church before the tribulation now they could explain why the church was absent from revelation 4-19 it was because in revelation 4 verse 1 the church is raptured to heaven and everything from there on applies to the literal jews now allow me to say a few words about john nelson darby i'd like to give you a physical description of darby as given by cardinal newman's brother he knew him personally and admired him he says this evidently he wasn't a very attractive person he says he was a most remarkable man who rapidly gained an immense sway over me his bodily presence was indeed weak a fallen cheek a bloodshot eye crippled limbs resting on crutches a seldom shaven beard a shabby suit of clothes and a generally neglected person drew at first pity with wonder to see such a figure in a drawing room so is john nelson darby but his physical appearance has nothing to do with the ability the scholarly ability that this man had to proliferate the ideas of futurism john nelson darby actually had very little respect for history in fact let me read you a statement uh by darby where he says this i do not admit history to be in any sense necessary to the understanding of prophecy he says we don't need history to understand prophecy why would he say such a thing well it's very simple if you believe that you have babylon medo-persia greece and rome and then history stops in other words the prophecy does not continue fulfilling you have a gap of 2000 years plus and then prophecy starts fulfilling again you don't need the reference of the past to understand the future are you understanding what i'm saying so he says you don't need history historicism thrives on history history is indispensable but in futurism history has no importance and so darby says i do not admit history to be in any sense necessary to the understanding of prophecy in fact darby radically dichotomized or divided made a radical separation between israel and the church he said this and i'm actually quoting uh hal lindsey about darby's views i believe that god's purpose for israel and his purpose for the church are so distinct and mutually exclusive that they cannot both be enforced on earth at the same time especially during the seven year tribulation if this is so then the church must be removed before god can deal specifically again with israel as defined in daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks in other words he says god has one plan for israel and he has another plan for the church the plan for the church is to take them to heaven in the rapture and then all of the prophecies of revelation starting with chapter four the prophecy of the little horn in daniel chapter 7 and chapter 8 will be fulfilled on earth with the literal jews during a seven year tribulation that can be traced directly back to darby god has mutually exclusive plans for israel and for the church now you say okay all of this was happening in england among the plymouth brethren the book by lacunza came and it persuaded irving you have this ecstatic utterance where the secret rapture doctrine is taught in an unknown tongue in his congregation what does all that have to do with what happened in the united states well it just so happens that john nelson darby traveled we know for a fact at least six times to the united states from england between 1859 and 1874. we also know that john nelson darby who is known as the father of dispensationalism dispensationalism is another uh synonymous term for futurism it's also known that he wrote several books now in the united states there was a man called cyrus ingerson scofield anybody ever heard of schofield the schofield reference bible several of you have he was converted to christianity in the year 1879 he became senior pastor of a large congregational church in dallas and one day as he was going through the library one of the libraries in dallas he discovered a book written by john nelson darvey that had found its way from england all the way to dallas he was so impacted by the content of this book the futuristic perspective of bible prophecy that he decided that he would write a book about it himself and in 1888 he wrote the book rightly dividing the word of truth which is still published today and is used as a textbook about how to study bible prophecy he also began a monthly publication called the believer and through these two mediums through his book rightly dividing the word of truth and through the journal the believer his ideas started spreading his ideas of course were the ideas that he had gotten from darby in fact we know that schofield taught at dwight moody school in chicago and we also know that all across the united states he led out in bible conferences on bible prophecy you see futurism had now been transposed from england to the united states now allow me to say something about the scofield reference bible scofields i'm going to read a statement now from richard kyle by the way richard kyle used to be a member of the plymouth brethren he used to be a futurist this is what he says scofield's enduring legacy rests in his reference bible published in 1909 expanded in 1917 and revised in 1967. sales of this bible total about 10 million the scofield bible immediately became the standard of dispensationalism that's the idea that god divides history into seven dispensations the last one is the period of the tribulation the seven year period he continues saying the scofield bible immediately became the standard of dispensationalism and for 90 years has been the major vehicle for distributing dispensational ideas let me just share with you a a small story that illustrates how much power the scofield reference bible has in the minds of people several years ago i taught a revelation seminar in the city of mount holly new jersey and an opening night i noticed this real nice looking young couple come to the table of course we gave everyone a bible when they came to the table they said we don't want a bible we have our own bible and of course i took a peek and i saw that they had the schofield reference bible by the way the schofield reference bible is the king james translation but what makes it unique is that at the bottom of the page you have all types of explanatory notes which express the views of dispensationalism and futurism concerning bible prophecy and so this couple came in they sat down i knew now that they had the scofield reference bible i knew where they were coming from and i started teaching the seminar and i finally got to the lesson on revelation four and five the introduction to the seven seals of course they believe that that applied to the period after the church is raptured to heaven revelation 4 verse 1 is the rapture according to them and so i taught the historicist view of revelation 4 and 5 and all through my presentation i could see this young man going like this his head was down he's saying no no no they quit coming so i called them and i said you know we've been missing you at the seminar he said well we decided that we're not going to attend the seminar anymore i said oh how come he says well because in the last lesson that you taught on revelation chapter 4 and 5 that doesn't square with our bible and so i acted kind of ignorant i said what bible is that he says with the schofield reference bible i said oh really did you know that that the notes in the scofield reference bible are not part of the bible he says yeah i realize that they're not part of the bible but they're part of my belief system and they never came back to the seminar that shows the power that the schofield reference bible has in the minds of futurists in fact all of these individuals who are into futurism into this idea of a seven year tribulation when the church is gone is raptured all of those who believe in this scenario take as their basic textbook the scofield reference bible i'm going to read a statement from george eldon ladd he used to be a futurist he used to be a dispensationalist he's not a seventh-day adventist notice what he says it would probably come as a shock to many modern futurists to be told that the first scholar in relatively modern times who returned to the patristic futuristic interpretation was a spanish jesuit named ribera he says in 1590 rivera published a commentary on the revelation as a counter interpretation to the prevailing view among protestants which identified the papacy with the antichrist here's a non-seventh-day adventist scholar who's saying that the purpose of ribera was to counteract the protestant reformation he continues saying rivera applied all of revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the church antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the jews and would rebuild jerusalem abolish christianity deny christ persecute the church and rule the world for three and a half years here is an individual who used to be a futurist saying that the purpose of ribera was to counteract the protestant reformation allow me to read a couple of other statements this next one is also from a protestant he's not a seventh-day adventist dean henry alford he says speaking about futurism the founder of this system in modern times appears to have been the jesuit ribera about a.d 1580. even the roman catholic scholar g s hitchcock says this the futurist school founded by the jesuit ribera in 1591 looks for antichrist babylon and a rebuilt temple in jerusalem at the end of the christian dispensation and then he says about the praetor school the prairie school founded by the jesuit alcasar in 1614 explains the revelation by the fall of jerusalem or by the fall of pagan rome in 410 a.d here you have a roman catholic scholar saying that the future of school comes from rivera and the preschool comes from luis del casa not a protestant but a roman catholic allow me to read once again from richard kyle who was once a member of the plymouth brethren he believed this futurist scenario he also recognizes that these schools came from roman catholicism into protestantism he says this among the jesuits who insisted that the antichrist was still to come the approach of the spaniard francisco rivera had significant implications for future millennial thought both catholics and protestants who identified the antichrist as a contemporary pope or leader generally took a historicist interpretation of john's revelation did you notice how protestants did this they what once again he says they generally took a historicist interpretation of john's revelation he says this rivera reintroduced a somewhat literal futuristic view of the apocalypse of john in doing so he concluded that the antichrist was a future renegade jew so the scholars measure in non-adventist scholars you might be saying oh this is pastor bart's scenario that this is the way that these views came into protestantism i i've read to you from george eldon ladd i've read to you from dean alford i read to you from roman catholic scholar g s hitchcock from richard kyle who used to belong to the plymouth brethren there are others that i could read that say that these schools came directly from roman catholicism and it has penetrated into protestantism from that source now those of you who have belonged to perhaps the pentecostal movement or the evangelical movement to conservative protestantism know that these ideas have grown like a grass fire and there are five factors that have led to the growth in protestantism of these views number one as i mentioned the scofield reference bible number two the vast proliferation of television evangelists is that true you open you you turn on the television any sunday morning and you'll find them preaching about the rapture the rebuilding of the temple the antichrist sitting in the temple the antichrist demanding worship a single individual dominating the world for three and a half years persecuting the jews all of this comes from ribera bellarmine lacunca and other jesuit theologians that have infiltrated these ideas into conservative protestantism a third factor in the growth of these ideas is fiction and non-fiction books like the left behind series another factor is the production of thriller movies such as left behind the omega code armageddon and a fifth factor is the work that is done at dallas theological seminary at moody bible institute in chicago they're forming whole generations of pastors that believe and preach this futurist scenario did you know for example that the 12 volume series the left behind series has sold over 62 million copies for months this 12 volume series has been on the new york times bestseller list and do you know what the purpose of these books is with this futurist scenario let's allow jerry jenkins who is one of the co-authors of these books to tell us he says this the purpose was to encourage the church and to persuade unbelievers see they're trying to gain converts to this futuristic view he continues saying we have found that people are reading the bible again because of it that is because of this series and many have become believers believers in what is my question believers in a futuristic scenario which is a counterfeit interpretation of prophecy imparted directly from roman catholicism tim lahaye one of the co-authors says this about the series i'm hearing from church pastors all over the world and they're telling me that the books are the best evangelistic tools they've ever seen it's gratifying to see so much interest in this story because of any of the major world religions christianity has the most exciting story to tell about the future folks you go to a christian bookstore you cannot find a book with a historicist mode of interpretation you hardly ever will even find a book that has the preterist point of view i mean the names of the writers is legion hal lindsey tim lahaye jerry jenkins grant jeffrey john valvord john hagee benny hinn jack van impe jack lalonde dave hunt david jeremiah zola levitt arnold freeze pat robertson randall price dwight pentecost jerry falwell billy graham and infinitum have all assimilated these views from roman catholicism the concepts that some of these futurists have borders on the absurd and the ridiculous take for example grant jeffries any of you ever heard of grant jeffries he wrote a book called the signature of god the handwriting of god he claims to have cracked the secret code of biblical prophecy by employing the hebrew numbering system now you say what's that well he attributes to each letter of the hebrew old testament a number and he says that by this secret numbering system he's able to discover many of the things that have been happening in the world today like for example what he says the death of princess died the plague of aids the assassination of franz joseph the first of austria the peace process of israel and the plo the assassination of yitzhak rabin the gulf war he even claims to have found in the prophecies of the old testament the specific names america george bush generals general schwarzkopf scud b missile and russia he also claims to have found predictions of the oklahoma city bombing with the specific names timothy mcveigh and oklahoma in fact he claims to have found some cryptic message by using this numbering system that says day 19 ninth hour which is the very uh the very time in which the oklahoma city building exploded folks apart from the fact that the bible is not concerned with triviality such as this i find it amazing that jeffrey thinks he is able to find all of these hidden cryptic secret veiled subliminal messages and at the same time has not been able to figure out something as clear and simple as which is the right day of the week to go to church [Applause] is it clear in the bible of course so why look for that what's not clear let's stick to the clear let's examine one of these futurist writers and i'll tell you have a burden for this man because this man is not your run-of-the-mill futurist he has some things right and i believe he's sincere his name is dave hunt he's written two scathing books one of them is called a woman rides the beast and the other is called global peace in these books he gives a scathing criticism of the roman catholic church you think i've been strong here this has been tame considering compared to what this man has written by the way he's an evangelical he is not obviously a seventh-day adventist he teaches that the harlot of revelation chapter 17 is the roman catholic papacy and he lays into the papacy in these two books hundreds and hundreds of pages delving into the history of the roman catholic church when he's asked who is babylon in the end time i want you to notice by the way do you know that futurists say that you're supposed to take all of revelation literally literally so when revelation says babylon you go to iraq when revelation says jerusalem yeah it means jerusalem over there nothing symbolic everything is literal however when he talks about babylon notice how he goes against his own principle he says some suggests that the vatican will move to babylon in iraq when it is rebuilt but why should it the vatican has been fulfilling john's vision from its location in rome for the past 15 centuries so i'm saying babylon isn't in battle in babylon is rome he's spiritualizing the meaning of babylon which is which is anathema for futurists because they say everything is to be taken literally he continues saying moreover we have shown the connection to ancient babylon which the vatican has maintained down through the history in the paganized christianity it has promulgated as for ancient babylon itself it wasn't even an existent in existence during the past 2 300 years to reign over the kings of the earth babylon lay in ruins while pagan rome and later catholic rome the new babylon was indeed reigning over kings what does he say that the roman catholic church is the new babylon but wait a minute if we're supposed to take things literally how can you say that we're not dealing with a literal city over in iraq if babylon is a spiritual worldwide system then jerusalem the enemy of babylon must also be a worldwide spiritual system are you understanding what i'm saying in fact he continues saying in the book global peace pages 72-73 god is foretelling his final judgment upon a great evil which began at the tower of babel and which has only grown as politics religion and science have become more sophisticated until finally notice the whole world is united in the pursuit of satan's ancient lie this is the babylon revived and headquartered in rome that will be destroyed never to be inhabited again at least dave hunt finds that roman catholicism is going to play a tremendous role in bible prophecy now when when dave hunt talks about the four powers of daniel chapter 7 you would say this guy's a historicist allow me to read you a statement about the four empires of the book of daniel as is found in the writings of dave hunt he says this daniel explained that nebuchadnezzar represented by the head of gold was the ruler of the first world empire are we agreed on that yes the three other parts of the image made of silver brass and iron foreshadowed three more world empires that would follow babylon as its successors in a later vision daniel would be given the name of the second world empire middle persia and details concerning the third kingdom which clearly identified it as the grecian empire the fourth world empire of course would be rome that much is history does he sound like a historicist oh yes he says babylon midopersia greece and rome you say good for david but don't start clapping yet before i tell you what he says about the ten horns and the little horn allow me to read a statement where he describes what the antichrist is going to be like he says while the greek prefix anti generally means against or opposed to it can also mean in the place of or a substitute for the antichrist will embody both meanings he will oppose christ while pretending to be christ instead of a frontal assault against christianity the evil one will pervert the church from within by posing as its founder he will cunningly misrepresent christ while pretending to be christ and right here is where the plot thickens if the antichrist will indeed pretend to be christ then his followers must be christians and you say wow this is amazing is that a perfect description of the roman catholic system it is but dave hunt doesn't see it notice what he says obviously what the toes represent has not yet come to pass where does he stop at the legs when you get to the to the bottom of the legs to the feet prophecy stops he says obviously what the toes represent has not yet come to pass god's kingdom was not established in the days of these ten kings further mark notice this furthermore the antichrist never appeared to take the reigns of the ancient roman empire that's unbelievable because roman catholicism did according to all historians take the place of the old roman empire how he can't see it is beyond me and then he even goes one step further he says the protestant reformers were wrong in identifying the papacy as the antichrist allow me to read the statement he says the reformers and their creeds this is a protestant writing the reformers and their creeds were unanimous in identifying each pope as the antichrist scripture however does not support that claim the antichrist is a unique individual without predecessors or successors amazing amazing blindness what is hunts bottom line in spite of the fact that he sees that the papacy is the harlot of revelation 17 he sees a role of roman catholicism in the dominion of the world at the end of time he still believes that the antichrist is an individual he will sit in the literal jewish temple he will reign for a little three literal three and a half years the church will be removed in the rapture revelation 4 through 19 applies to the future the millennium will be a period of literal time on planet earth there's a gap between week number 69 and week number 70 in the 70 weeks and there's a gap of 2000 years between the legs and the toes between the fourth beast and the ten horns and the little horn and right there in that gap that he has established is hiding the real antichrist and he can't see him actually preterism and futurism have hijacked protestantism preterism has hijacked liberal protestants and futurism has hijacked conservative protestants and both of these systems can be proven historically came from the roman catholic church into protestantism in fact they're not so different futurism says that the future antichrist will be a literal person who will sit in a little literal jewish temple for a little literal three and a half years preterism says that the antichrist was a literal person who sat in the literal jewish temple for a literal three and a half years the only difference is that futurism sees the antichrist in the future whereas preterism sees the antichrist in the past but both of them literalize and both of the systems detract people's eyes from seeing the true fulfillment of the antichrist prophecies now if you read protestant works today you would think that you were reading ribera and bellarmine and newman and lacunza instead of reading luther and calvin and swingly and all of the reformers who many of them spilt their blood to uphold the protestant message now i need to go to one final point why in the 1830s in england of all places why would that be the place where these ideas would penetrate into protestantism from catholicism well the fact is folks that in the 1830s on the other side of the atlantic there was a great revival taking place known as the great second advent movement spearheaded by a man called william miller who was using historicism as his method of studying the prophecies now many of you know that william miller taught that jesus christ was going to come october 22 1844 and jesus did obviously didn't come october 22 1844 but later on it was discovered that something did happen october 22 1844 how did william miller reach this date it was by following the sequence the historical sequence of powers and applying the year-day principle to the 2300 days is that not true absolutely but when jesus didn't come protestants gave up on historicism not only did an attack against his historicism come from europe in england it also came as a result of the disappointment protestants said what he said was going to be fulfilled didn't take place his method is wrong and so they threw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater do you think the devil knew that there was going to be a great second advent movement in 1844 does the devil study bible prophecy do you think he knew the meaning of daniel 8 14 unto 2300 days the sanctuary shall be cleansed do you think he understood revelation 10 where it spoke about these people who would proclaim the message of daniel it would be sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach of course the devil do he's a student of bible prophecy so he says i've got to counteract that historious method of interpreting prophecy so he begins it in england and then after the disappointment he leads protestants to abandon historicism and in case you think that i'm just speculating on this allow me to read from the scholars once again richard kyle who has written a book the last days are here again he was a member of the plymouth brethren he says this despite its visibility the millerite movement had little influence on subsequent end-time thinking it did however have three long-term effects millerism had three long-time effects number one millerism spawned the seventh-day adventist church this is a non-adventist writing number two it discredited historicist premillennialism causing it to fade out almost entirely after 1844. and number three the millerite fiasco demonstrated the perils of setting definite dates for christ's return he further says this the great disappointment of 1844 had decimated historicist premillennialism but a futurist pre-millennialism called dispensationalism soon arrived on the scene i'd like to read also from thomas ice a futurist he wrote in the book the great tribulation pastor future page six this historicism notice this historicism once the dominant view of protestants from the reformation until the middle of the last century this is a futurist admitting that this was the protestant view until the middle of the last century of course he's writing in 1999 so the last century would be the 1800s the middle of the 1800s he says historicism once the dominant view of protestants from the reformation until the middle of the last century appears to exert little attraction as a system of prophetic interpretation to conservative critics uh christians and then he puts in parentheses outside of seventh-day adventist circles this has no influence outside seventh-day adventist circles he says within now notice this within evangelicalism that is conservative protestants during the last 150 years futurism has grown to dominate and overcome historicism a futurist writing who is not an advocate who believes that historicism was slain by futurism and that only the only place that survives is in the seventh-day adventist church he says it himself revelation chapter 16 verse 13 speaks about a false prophet he's the false prophet of the beast he speaks for the beast this system is also called the image to the beast it's the second beast of revelation chapter 13 which represents protestantism in the united states now let me ask you do protestants keep the same day which was changed by the roman catholic papacy yes do they accept the change in the law yes do protestants today conservative protestants employ the same prophetic methodology as was used by the catholic counter-reformers yes are they an image both in the day they keep and in the prophetic methods that they use have they changed the times according to scripture and history yes you see folks if protestantism had not gone astray from its roots billy graham would not call the pope the greatest moral leader of the world if protestants had not gone astray from their prophetic roots robert schuller would not say that he hopes the day will come when the whole christian world will accept the pope as its leader paul crouch would not say that he's not protesting anything and that he's deleting the word protestant from his vocabulary lutherans would never have signed a joint declaration on righteousness by faith and pat robertson would not have signed the document evangelicals and catholics together because if they identify the true antichrist would they really want to join with the antichrist of course not you see this is the point when you abandon your prophetic roots that identifies the roman catholic papacy as the antichrist the end result is that you want to join with them because you see no danger in it are you understanding what i'm saying this is a matter of life and death now allow me to go to one final point this has been a long lecture 10 whole pages worth at least on my on my pages but you have all of the quotations and everything on powerpoint with the references the books i haven't read where they came from the page number and everything but to see that's an incentive for you to get the dvds daniel 7 25 i'll finish with this point daniel 7 verse 25 says that the little horn would think to change times and the law times refers to the prophetic calendar and the law represents the ten commandments would it do this during the 1260 years during the time times and the dividing of time that's what daniel 7 says let me ask you at the end of this period was god going to raise up a people who were going to correct these two problems last text revelation chapter 12. revelation chapter 12 and verse 17 and by the way i don't have time to show you this but revelation 12 17 comes immediately after the 1260 years that that's how how we can connect daniel 7 21 25 and revelation 12 17. because in daniel 7 25 you have time times the dividing of time immediately before revelation 12 17 you have time times the dividing of time in daniel it says that the little horn thinks he can change the times and the law but in revelation it says 12 17 it says that god will raise up a people who keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of jesus which is the true gift of prophecy enter the book great controversy as the true interpretation of prophecy god gave it shortly after 1798 to correct the false prophetic views that he knew were going to enter into protestantism isn't this an amazing story that we've studied this evening how these ideas have crept into and taken over protestantism god needs a people in this world that will hold high the standard of prophetic truth given to our fathers the protestant reformers may be may we be those people is my prayer father in heaven we thank you for the study we've been able to have this evening we asked lord that you will be with us now as we conclude this uh service we're just saddened by what we've studied but we ask that you will give us the strength and the courage to stand for truth though the heavens fall we thank you lord for hearing our prayer for we ask it in jesus name amen

Channel: Aaron

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Length: 65min 4sec (3904 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021