Revelation 6 // The Coming of the Antichrist

okay let's do revelation Revelation chapter 6 is where we're at and last time - it's been a couple weeks now because of holidays and and that kind of thing but last time we were talking about the nature of the tribulation and in we're gonna get to get into revelation 6 and talk about that let's pray before we get started father we we again come before you and lord I just thank you for the book of Revelation it's just a really cool book it's in a lot of ways it can be pretty scary just thinking about the things that are coming on this earth but what I really like about it is the fact that you're in control Lord there's there's all these things that are going on around us and all these indications that the world is going in directions that are just awful and Lord as as as we just look at the world and see the downturn as far as culture goes and and the anarchy as far as morality goes it can be a pretty frightening thing and I know lots of people in this world who are afraid to have children literally because of where the world's going and yet god you're the God who owns the planet you have this world in your hands obviously Lord youth you're allowing certain things because of the fact that you want to work your will and you want to allow man his free will but Lord Oh ultimately we know where this is going because you've written it down in the pages of the scripture 2,000 years ago and we know how the end of the book reads and it's going to be a pretty cool thing when we get to the end and Laura I just I just like it because when we get to the end it's pretty awesome and all of these things you're going through that the world is going through will be turned around and made made right made good and so Lori's we're talking about you entering into human history and doing what work here in the last days we pray that you give me clarity and father that we'd have an understanding as we're going through your word and we ask that you do this in Jesus name Amen okay like I said a couple a couple of weeks ago we were going through and talking about the nature of the tribulation and the reason that I did that went through and talked about the nature of the tribulation is because when you go through the book of Revelation one of the excuses that people have in going through the book is that it's highly symbolic and so therefore what it says isn't what's really meant because when you take it as it's written it's pretty frightening and when you go through and you look at the rest of what scripture has to say about the tribulation period what you what you find is that God in very plain language all throughout scripture talks about this period of time as being the worst period of time that the world's ever seen that's like literally from the mouth of Jesus it's going to be the worst period of time that the world has ever seen and so again you know anybody who's familiar with the Bible knows the you know some of the periods of time that the world has gone through you know notably the flood you know wipe out everything on the planet except for you know fish in the sea you know all the other marine mammals and you know eight people sitting on a boat and yeah eight people sitting on a boat and then you know some of the animals some of the air-breathing animals and jesus said it's worse than that period of time and literally he said that if you if God didn't cut it short no flesh would be saved it's the idea that all flesh would be wiped out on this planet you know everything living would be wiped out on the planet and so when you're and again when you're going through the through the book of Revelation there's it's like there's one disaster movie after another disaster movie after another disaster movie I just read an article the the didn't you know where they did a poll on what NASA should be doing okay and I'm coming at this from you know just like a secular point of view right now so what NASA should be doing and they made a poll stating should NASA go to the moon or should NASA go to Mars or should NASA watch out for asteroids and most of the people in the United States wanted NASA to watch out for asteroids okay now I understand that from a biblical perspective because you go through the book of Revelation it says we're getting hit by an asteroid actually - okay and so I understand that from a biblical perspective of course you know what are you gonna do about stopping a mountain from falling on your head you know that's one of the that's one of the problems with NASA going after asteroids and I'm all aware of you know the things that they come up with you're like painting the side of an asteroid did you know this if you paint the side of an asteroid what happens is it heats up differently and the heat itself will cause the asteroid to shift its orbit if you find an orbit of an asteroid that's gonna hit the earth you know in like 50 years or something you can you can do some things to shift its orbit without you know trying to blow it up with nukes and and that kind of thing so there's all kinds of interesting ideas when you're planting little Rockets on it and you know just pushing it out and and those kind of those kinds of things but realistically that's not happening realistically that's not gonna happen and so what do you do to stop a mountain for fall on your head so again you know coming at it from a biblical point of view from from my point of view reading the Bible I understand that that's a big deal how is that a big deal from a worldly point of view and the only reason it's a big deal is because of because of movies it's at movies like Armageddon and movies like deep impact and all these movies where an asteroid comes and wipes out the planet or almost wipes out the planet and Bruce Willis goes out and saves you know saves the world and and and and that kind of thing that's where they're getting this from and you know NASA's been been talking about those things but again when when you look at it from a from a biblical perspective and and what the world's looking at asteroids is not the only thing it's nuclear war it's asteroids it's government run by dictators the the wholesale slaughter of people on the planet you're going through the book of Revelation and again it's one disaster movie after another after another the Bible talks about the sea in the waves roaring and men's hearts failing because of their fear of these things that are happening in the last days and that's you know talking about tsunamis and and those kinds of things and well we'll get into those when we get into Revelation chapter 8 when you're going through Revelation chapter 6 and that's where we're at it starts off with now I saw verse 1 when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder come and see and I looked and behold a white horse and he who sat on had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer and when when you were looking at Revelation chapter 6 I think that one of the things that needs to happen is you need to get the picture of what's taking place here in Revelation chapter five Jesus has be given a scroll it's got seven seals on the scroll and we and we talked about that and I'm just gonna use the example of you take a scroll you put seals on the outside seals are our drips of wax basically holding the edge of the of the paper down or the parchment down and when he's breaking these seals that's what's happening each one of those seals is being broken there's other way that Scrolls can work but that I'm gonna use that one for an example and so when he breaks the first seal all of a sudden John sees this vision and the vision is of a man riding on a white horse going out conquering into conquer and then he opens up the second seal in verse three I heard the second living creature saying come and see again with a voice like thunder and so I like to picture that you know a picture that in my mind loud voice scary voice next time we have a thunderstorm think about this stuff that's what I do I set out and I watch thunderstorms I listen to the Thunder and I think of angels voices pretty intense stuff and he says another horse fiery wet red went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another and there was given to him a great sword and then the third seal so he's busting the third seal and his vision you know Billy Graham when he was doing his commentary on this he pictured it as the horses jumping out from the scroll and John seeing this vision when he opened the third seal I heard the third living creature saying come and see so I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a Denarius and three quarts of barley for a Denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine when he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying come and see so I looked and behold a pale horse in the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades followed with him that's talking about the grave and the end power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth then a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed I looked when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind and then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand and so those are six of the seven seals after the six seals you have chapter seven which is a parenthesis and in in chapter eight you have the Seventh Seal opening and there's silence in heaven for a half an hour and then you have the trumpet judgments that come after the trumpet judgments you have there-there's there are six trumpet judgments and then there's a parenthesis and then you have the seventh and then after the trumpet judgments there's a parenthesis in there in Revelation chapter eleven there's some things are going on in there and for for a couple of chapters there then you get to the bowl judgments and again there's this there's this structure where you have six bowl judgments there's a stop there's a parenthesis and then you have the seventh and in the parenthesis and each one of those passages you have something good that's going on as far as God got working in the lives of people the last parenthesis is just a promise from Jesus to the reader that he's coming quickly but in the other parentheses you have these situations where you see God at work in a godly way not in a good way not in just an area of judgment not that judgment is bad but you know what I mean and so it's intense intense intense intense intense intense Latin off the pressure let you know something Goods happening at the same time and in the next the next step the trumpet judgments are contained within the within the scroll you know obviously they open the seventh seal out comes the trumpet judgments and then later on the bowl judgments also and so it's all connected to this scroll that Jesus has been given and when we were in chapter five we talked about the fact that that's most likely a scroll that is basically the title deed to the earth it's it's the document so to speak that gives God the right to come and take what's his and to redeem the earth redeemed the people on the earth and to execute judgment actually to evict the people who don't belong and that's what you have throughout the whole book of Revelation anybody who's going to rebel against the the command of God were rebelled against the rulership of God is evicted from the earth and so you have this here's another thing about the the six scroll or the six seals in this passage they go right along with Matthew chapter 24 go right along with Matthew chapter 24 and so each one of the seals that's mentioned is also something that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 24 which makes sense because Jesus is the one who's revealing this to John the Apostle right and so if you go over with me to Matthew chapter 24 why don't you do this real quick and I'm gonna get ahead of myself in in pointing this out to you but that's okay when when Jesus is answering the disciples questions and in my heading in this passage it says that the disciples asked two questions it's actually three that the disciples asked if you look in verse three of Matthew 24 it says as he sat on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when will these things be that's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age so there's three questions in there and a lot of commentators take the last two the sign of your coming in at the end of the age and make them the same question but the structure of this passage and not to get too intense but I'm you know too into the weeds but I will of the structure of this passage Jesus answers two of the questions that are asked there and it's the last two it's what will be the sign of your coming and then the next question is what will be the sign of the end of the age and he answers those two questions in Matthew 24 he asks answers the first one when will these things be in Luke chapter 21 this isn't the whole sermon is what I'm telling you Matthew only gave a part of it so in Luke 21 Jesus deals with the issue of Jerusalem and the city being destroyed and every every part of the city being knocked down not one stone being left upon another in the temple Jesus deals with that in Luke chapter 21 and he deals with a little bit of the rest of it but the when you're talking about the last two questions here it's Matthew 24 that Jesus goes through and he in detail takes care of these things if you look at what he says and I'm not gonna go through and read everything I'm just gonna make some points number one you know we had the first seal this guy riding on a white horse right and we're gonna talk about that in a minute but the first thing that Jesus says when he's talking about the last days what will be the sign of your coming first thing he says is for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many that's the first sign that he gives first signing the book of Revelation is guy writing on a white horse and we're gonna talk about that and that's an indication that the Antichrist is coming he's a false Christ and so the first sign that Jesus gives in Matthew 24 is a false Christ the first seal in revelation 6 is a false Christ then he says and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet second sign is warfare warfare and in Revelation chapter 6 the second seal is a guy writing on a red on a red horse and he comes to take peace from the earth it's warfare he's got a sword and he goes out the third one it says verse seven for nation will rise against nation Kingdom against Kingdom that's a continuation of the second seal and there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places so famines the third seal is a guy riding on a black horse and this guy riding on a black horse is famine basically and also pestilence for steel it talks about death coming along fourth living seal heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying come and see and I looked and behold a pale horse that's literally a pale green horse like sickly green have you seen things die things with light skin die you know that pale green that's the that's the color of that horse and so you have pestilences and earthquakes in various places and so there's death following and he says all these again verse 8 are the beginning of Sorrows then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake the fifth seal in revelation 6 is the martyrs under the altar people who've been killed for their faithfulness to the Lord and then the rest of this deals with the Antichrist and the abomination of desolation and specifically encouragement to the Jewish nation and when you get to Revelation chapter or Matthew Chen for 24 verse 29 he says immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light the Stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory okay let me read to you the sixth seal again I looked when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind then the sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders and the mighty men every slave in every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb sound familiar and it's talking we're talking about the same event there the Sun and the and the moon ceased to shine the the the the stars fall from the heavens there's a great earthquake and in the case of Revelation chapter 6 it's an earthquake that literally moves every mountain and island out of its place and so that's obviously an overview of Matthew chapter 24 again in Revelation chapter 6 he goes through the same major points that you have here this is the point that I'm making there are different ways to look at the chronology of the book of Revelation there's just a straight chronology where you go through and in Revelation chapter 6 you have all these events that take place and sometimes guys put them in the first part of the tribulation period remember tribulation period is seven years Great Tribulation is the last three-and-a-half years but Jesus calls it all tribulation and so it's a seven-year period until some people put the the first six seals in the first part of the tribulation period and then they try to put the trumpet judgments in the next part of the tribulation period until you get to the end but one of the problems that you have is when you get to the end of each one of the judgments whether you're talking about the seal judgments or whether you're talking about the trumpet judgments or whether you're talking about the bowl judgments it all looks like it ends with this with the second coming of Christ and when you compare Revelation chapter 6 with Matthew chapter 24 and again not to make it too theological for you it sure looks like it's an overview of the whole tribulation period like Matthew 24 is an overview of the whole tribulation period and that's what I think is going on there and I I think I talked about this a little bit last time it's the way that Jews tell stories they don't tell stories chronologically that's how we do it that's how Greeks do it when Jews tell stories ancient Jewish literature they tell stories over and over and so they give you a general overview first and then they come in and they deal with the specifics if you've gone to college and I always like to tell tell people this if you go to college or if you've gone to college you've taken a religion class and they talk to you about Genesis chapter one and two and talk to you about two different creation stories it's nonsense they don't know what they're talking about what what they're doing is telling stories in a Jewish in a Middle Eastern perspective and what they do is they give you the overview and so there's a six days of creation the seventh day God rested and then they come back and they do specifics that are taking place during the same period of time specifically in when you get to revel Genesis chapter two it's it's it's zooming in on the creation of mankind the man and the woman and so it takes the sixth day and it kind of expands that for you and tells you what God was doing on that day it's not another creation story it's a Jewish way of telling a story and in the same way as you're going through the book of Revelation it looks like each one of these series of judgments ends up in the same place and it's a the same place as with the RET with the return of Jesus and I don't know another way to interpret the sixth seal these people are looking up into heaven and the sky is rolled back like a scroll and they can see see Jesus what is that and so in they're doing exactly the things that are mentioned not only in Matthew chapter 24 but they're mentioned in Isaiah chapter 2 and a number of other passages as being the things that are going to take place at the coming of the Lord in the end of days and so again that's what it looks like to me so that's the way that I'm going to teach it this is I see this as an overview here's another thing when you go on you know for all you prophecy buffs the fifth seal is about martyrs under the under the altar right so these are people who have been killed before their faith verse nine when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and so the book of Revelation is clear that believers are going to be killed during the during the Tribulation Period and the major reason for the death of believers during the Tribulation Period is the fact that they will not worship the Beast okay and so the Beast is the Antichrist and he's this guy who's coming he's the last world dictator who's coming along and so he wants to be worshipped as God we'll get into that when we get to Revelation chapter 13 the guy wants to be worshipped as God and obviously believers in the true God are not going to do that and so he goes out with a vengeance after people who will not worship Him and so you see this not only in the book of Revelation but in other places we read about it in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 last time talking about the the fact that he's going to proclaim himself to be God and it's going to be the the evidence specifically to the Jewish nation that this guy is not a messiah he's not you know he is a false a false messiah and he's he shows his true colors and at that point there's a great persecution that takes place you know when the when the Antichrist rises up this this whole thing starts with a bang because he rises up out of warfare and and so there's a warfare that takes place that's the that's pretty debilitating and I'll talk about that again in a minute but after he rises up he's consolidating power and he's bringing the world under his influence and even though there's awful things that are going on there's the the Bible talks about a period of peace and that he's literally actually he destroys people through peace this is out of the Book of Daniel and and so he's not a guy who comes on the scene as a guy who's basically here to conquer the world he does conquer the world but he does it with the acclaim of the people that he's influencing when we get to Revelation 13 the whole world wonders the Bible says after the Beast and they worship Him and they worship the dragon the Bayeux that Satan who gives him his power and so it's it's a conquering that happens but it's willful on the part of those people who are giving allegiance to him and anybody who won't give him give him Allegiance he kills in the way that he kills is by decapitation and the Bible is clear on that too okay so that's kind of that's kind of the scenario so warfare he rises through warfare the war fairs absolutely devastating but then there's a period of three and a half years where he's consolidating things he's buddy-buddy with the with the Jewish nation and in three and a half years into this what happens is he shows his true colors and he does what is called the abomination of desolation and when that happens there is a rebellion against him by those people who were actually followers of God and then the persecution comes in the reason I'm telling you that is because the fifth seal is all about the death of those who will not compromise for the word of God and that's in the first six seals okay so it doesn't really fit in the first half is the point that I'm making and so again it's something that Jesus talked about so let's get into the first verses I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder come and see and I looked and behold a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer you know there are commentators that will tell you that this is Jesus and you know a couple problems with this and one of the problems is you got Jesus holding the scroll opening it up and so that's not insurmountable because it can be a picture of Jesus coming another problem with that you have with this is he's got a crown on his head it's called a Victor's crown in Greek it's a stefanos in Greek it's not a Diadema Diadema is a royal crown as stefanos as a Victor's crown this guy's got a Victor's crown we know that revelation 19 is is the description of Jesus coming back in the second coming and Jesus has crowns on his head not one crowned many crowns he's king of kings and Lord of lords and those crowns are called Diadema in that passage and so this is the crown that you would give to a military conqueror to crown that you would give to somebody who won in a sports event that type of thing that's a stefanos okay so the Crown's are different the second thing that you have in the passage is it says he has a bow he has a bow it's actually the first thing you did she have but still he has a bow okay and so when you when you look at the second coming does Jesus have a bow and no but he has a sword and actually the Bible says in that passage it's a sword of his mouth he's got when when we read about Jesus in in Revelation chapter 1 it talks about the fact that he's got a sword coming out of his mouth and saw like Jesus is walking around up into heaven with a you know big big sword sticking out of his mouth it's it's it's the idea that Jesus doesn't need a physical weapon because he's got his word that's his weapon Jesus can say things and they happen and my favorite example of that is in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus asked the guys who were coming up to gennym by the way over 800 guys coming to get Jesus that's that's what the Greek tells you in the Gospel of John over 800 guys came to get Jesus and when they came up to him he said who are you looking for they said Jesus of Nazareth he said I am and they all fall over backwards just by Jesus saying two small words a go a me in Greek that's what he said egg or a me and boom these guys all fall down and then they get up and dust themselves up off and then Jesus goes who you looking for and they go Jesus of Nazareth and he goes I am let these guys go and it tells you why he knocked him all over because he wanted his disciples to be freed he was protecting his disciples and that's exactly what these guys did they let them go and then they took Jesus Jesus went willingly who's in control in that passage yes Jesus is in control and you see him in control all the way through the the story of the crucifixion he's always the one who's in control and you you have the same thing in the book of Revelation the the difference is that Jesus at the crucifixion he goes willingly to his death like a lamb to the slaughter it says in Isaiah 53 as a lamb before his Shearer's is silent it says in Isaiah 53 and so he went willingly to the crucifixion because he was going to do the sin bearing he was going to pay for your sin and he was gonna pay for mine it was the plan of God but the second time he comes he's not coming like a lamb he's coming like a yeah he's a lion of the tribe of Judah and again we've already dealt with that in previous chapters in Revelation it's one it's one of the names that's given to him in Revelation chapter five the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome and he's able to open the scroll and so when you see Jesus coming in revelation 19 he's coming to conquer he's coming to take what's his but he doesn't come with a bow he comes with a sword and the sword is the sword of his mouth it says that he has a sword strapped to his side he just never used it he just uses the sword of his mouth and the the Bible teaches that when he he does come and we'll get into that when we when we get to the passage he's literally wiping out armies like literally wiping out armies the Bible says that the blood flows up to the horse's bridle in the in the valley of Megiddo at that point I was over in Israel and I'm gonna pick on you Zac I was over in Israel we and we were talking about this Zack and I were talking about this and I think were you teaching or something did you teach at that yeah I can't remember anyway he said something the lines of well you know it's probably just talking figuratively lots of blood you know you couldn't do it and so immediately I start doing the calyx yeah and I and I start doing body mass I talk you know I deal with horses it's at the end of the tribulation and the Bible teaches at the end of the tribulation that all the infrastructure is gone if you've got earthquakes that are moving mountains guess what it does to roads right and so all the infrastructure is gone and you have these examples in the in the Old Testament of armies coming up on horses and it has to be horses in the context of the passages and the the destruction that takes place when Jesus deals with this stuff and when you talk about Christ's coming and wiping out the army that's coming is two hundred million men from the east that's only one or me and then it's then there's another army that is the army of the Antichrist and then there's another army that the Book of Daniel talks about that's coming from the far north so there's an army coming from the far east there's an army coming from the far north the Antichrist is coming up from the south after he's dealt with stuff down in Egypt and these three armies are meeting in the valley of Megiddo and so you literally have wall-to-wall people in this place and then they're all wiped out and the book of Revelation or the book of Zechariah talks about the way that they're wiped out and it talks about the melting while they're standing there and so pretty pretty nasty stuff pretty intense stuff in any case the the point being that Jesus is not somebody that that when he fights a battle has to work hard at it he can say I am and you were and that's what's going to happen you don't exist anymore and he can just wipe you out in fact you guys seen Raiders of the Lost Ark I love that movie you know one of the end scenes were the guys opening up the Ark of the Covenant and their faces all start to melt and then explode and got taken right out of Zechariah chapter 14 that's where he got it from and so it's a description of that here's a when when you're looking at this guy with a bow that was numeral what weapon in the book of Genesis the Jews believed that Nimrod was the guy who invented the bow and arrow and he was called a mighty hunter before the Lord he was the first anti God dictator that the world has ever seen and this guy here is pictured like him he goes out conquering and to conquer it's you know the basically when Jesus comes he's not coming to start a war he comes to end war there's a war that there's a battle that's going on when he comes and he ends it he's not coming to start tribulation he comes to end it and that's what revelation 19 is about it's we're done now and it all ends and Jesus stops it so amp when when I look at this again Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 talked about the fact that there were gonna be false christs and that's exactly what this guy it's false by the way in greek is pseudo pseudo christ and so you know how pseudo works in in our language it's not just phony it's imitation and that's what you have with the Antichrist it looks like he comes along and imitates Jesus you have a whole group of people in Judaism who are looking for the coming of the Messiah because they don't believe that Jesus is Messiah when you talk to people in Orthodox Judaism and even in Reform Judaism and you asked them how they're going to recognize the Messiah they all to a man all to a woman everyone that I've ever talked to so the way we're gonna recognize him is he's going to rebuild our temple and the problem with that is the Bible teaches that it's not Jesus that helps the Jews rebuild their temple it's the Antichrist there is a temple that's going to be built by Jesus but it's after the one that the Antichrist builds and so that's the next one that the Bible talks about so the Antichrist comes on the scene and he comes he obviously arises out a warfare crown was given to him and he went out conquering in to conquer this guy Rises out of warfare it comes on the scene and he offers peace to the Jewish nation and he offers to rebuild their temple and what I'm referring to is some passages out of the Book of Daniel when you when you look at the whole issue of the Antichrist one of the one of the things that people ask me all the time is who do you think the Antichrist is who do you think he is can we identify the Antichrist right now there's been all kinds of people who've tried to identify the Antichrist there people who are saying right now that Putin is the Antichrist there's probably people saying I haven't Ivan you know you know research this but there's probably people saying that Trump is the Antichrist you know and and the Antichrist has been all kinds of different characters as I've been growing up King Juan Carlos in Spain is the Antichrist or Gorbachev is the Antichrist Reagan was the Antichrist you know all these different guys I mean people would take you know the names of these guys whether it was Gorbachev or was it whether it was Reagan or whether it was Andropov and they would take their names and convert them into a language that that combines numerals and and letters you know like Roman numerals right so Roman numeral five is what VIII yeah Roman Roman numeral one is what I yeah in Latin okay and so they use their letters for numerals Greek does that Hebrew does that and so what people do is they take Hebrew or Greek or Latin and they take people's names and they they they change them into one of these languages that has a number system and what they do is they they take the number of the of the man's name and if it adds up to 666 because that's the number of the beast in Revelation 13 then he's the Antichrist right here's a problem with that remember Barney the Dinosaur if you take Barney the cute purple dinosaur and you convert that into Greek and you take the Greek not Greek letters and convert them into Greek numbers then you get 666 for Barney the cute purple dinosaur so Barney is the Antichrist and I watched a lot of Barney when when my children were younger and I agree with that theory Barney is the Antichrist I hated that show in any case you can't know the identity of the Antichrist and it's because of the second Thessalonians chapter 2 let me let me read that to you real quick in that passage Paul is talking to a group of people who've just gotten saved they haven't been saved for more than a month or two and he had taught them about the fact that Jesus was coming back for them and that he was going to deliver them from what was called the day of the Lord and we talked about day of the Lord last time it's a period of time when that starts with the tribulation period these guys had been told though by various teachers and through letters that they were in the day of the Lord and they and and so they had been told the day of the Lord is not a good time and Jesus is going to deliver us from the wrath that's in the day of the Lord and so if we're in the day of the Lord then what happened to the deliverance why are we still here that kind of thing and so they're all worried about it and what Paul says to them is this I don't want you to be soon shaken in mind or troubled neither by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us as though the day of Christ or the day of the Lord had come or was present or you're in it and then he says this let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first now the Greek in that passage doesn't have for that day will not come what it has in the passage is I'm trying to remember it a on a on halti and and so it says but if not but if not the falling away first and the man of sin revealed the son of perdition that's literally what it says in a Greek and the point that Paul's making is that there are events that take place during the day of the Lord and you're not seeing them you're not seeing them therefore you're not in it and so the first event that he says is going to take place during the day of the Lord an apostasy a falling away comes first and that's an apostasy of believers they turn away from true worship of Christ and they begin following after the Antichrist basically it's that that whole scenario and then he says and the man of sin is revealed the son of perdition that's talking about the Antichrist this guy who appears at the beginning of the Tribulation Period it says later on in the passage he says do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things and now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming that's talking about Jesus destroying the Antichrist when he comes at the second coming and so he can't be revealed yet because the restrainer is not allowing it and the question is who's the restrainer and the answer to that basically is centered in the nature of the Antichrist the Antichrist is Satan's man the Antichrist is somebody who's literally empowered by Satan it looks like he's literally inhabited by Satan and when you're when you're talking about Satan versus everyone else basically there are not a whole lot of options for who the restrainer is and most likely the restrainer is the Holy Spirit and so the Holy Spirit as far as the restraining power keeping the Anti Christ back is going to be taken out and then the Antichrist is revealed okay and so we have the Holy Spirit and we talked about this last time we have the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit's been given to the church if the Holy Spirit is taken out is he leaving us here not likely and so when he goes we go and so that's that's one of those things that you have as a proof for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church in any case you can't know who the Antichrist is you're gonna read books you're gonna have people tell you this stuff they know exactly who is it's been happening the whole time I've been a Christian since 1975 and nobody's ever been right at this point and again the reason is because you can't know who he is in Daniel chapter 9 and I'm just gonna give you a quick overview of this in Daniel chapter 9 we just did this not too long ago on on Palm Sunday there is a prophecy talking about things that are going to be happening during the last days and actually the last period of time for Israel's history and the prophecy basically goes like this there are 70 weeks that are prophesied for Israel for their for their City which is a City of Jerusalem for their nation and so on and there's going to be 69 weeks and then the 70th week and again without getting it all into it the the weeks that we're talking about have to be weeks of years the Jews had weeks of years they had weeks of days - just like we do and so the the Jews have six days that they work and the seventh day is a day of rest well it was the same thing with their years they had six years that they would work the land and then the seventh year was a year of rest where you let the land rest and in the eighth year you you could plow again and you could start using it it's good farming practice it you know allows the the you plow the the nutrients back into the soil and the soil recovers in the you can farm again and that's all connected with that passage in Daniel chapter 9 so you're talking about weeks of years and when you take the 70 weeks or you know the suddenly you're talking about 490 years when you take that 490 years and you start counting days 469 of the 70 weeks which is 483 years you count from the starting point which the Bible teaches is the command to rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the wall specifically of Jerusalem and we know when that date was when you take that starting date and you go 483 years 360 day years though that's another whole thing sorry but you go 483 years you come to the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem and proclaimed himself to be the king and then in that prophecy it says after the 69 weeks divides it up into seven and then 62 and he says after the seven weeks and in the sixty-two weeks after that three things are going to happen one Messiah is going to be cut off but not for himself it means executed for a capital crime so after the 69th week after the 483 years Messiah dies okay and the city and the sanctuary is destroyed that's the that's the second thing that it says happens in that prophecy and then the third thing is desolations are determined for the people of Israel so three things happen after the death of Jesus it's or after this 69th week it's the death of Jesus or death of Messiah destruction of the temple and then the third thing is the desolation of the nation okay here's a problem with that normally what you do is you go 483 years because it's only a 490 year prophecy right so you go 483 years boom we have Messiah coming into Jerusalem and then it says after that after the 69th week the 483 years then those three things happen well you only got seven years left right okay so seven years left and so normally you'd go within those seven years you would have the those three things taken place and that's the end of history for the Jewish nation at least for that prophecy and here's the problem with that Messiah dies like four days after the fulfillment of the 69 weeks but then the temples not destroyed for another 38 years and now we're already outside the scope of the seven years and then when you talk about the desolations of the nation of Israel that's the Diaspora that's the that's the the the taking of the nation and throwing them out into all the world and the Jewish nation not being a nation anymore that lasted for nineteen hundred years okay so we are way outside the last seven years and what that lets you know is that there's a problem there and then what the passage says actually you know I'm sitting here talking about it let's look at it Daniel chapter 9 if you can find Isaiah or Ezekiel TURN RIGHT Daniel chapter 9 it says after after in verse 26 after the sixty-two weeks and again he divides it from seven to 62 so it's seven weeks plus sixty two is 69 after that Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary that's 38 years later so this death of Messiah is four days later the destruction of the city is 38 years later and the end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined and that's the desolations of Israel and then look in verse 27 then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week well there's the last seven but in between the sixty-nine weeks seven then 62 then messiahs cut off in between the sixty-nine weeks and the 70th week there are those three things that happen Messiah is killed people of the prince who is to come destroy the city in the sanctuary and there's the desolations that are determined for the nation of Israel and those things again lasts of 1,900 years so four days in 38 years in nineteen hundred years and what you have there is a parenthesis God stops the history of Israel as far as this prophecy goes for up to 1,900 years at this point 1,900 years boom God stops it and then there's a there's a future time or that lasts seven years is going to be fulfilled and that's what we have in the book of Revelation that's Daniels 70th week and so in the 70th week look at verse 27 then he shall confirm a covenant with literally in in Hebrew the many for one week that's that last week and the he has to have what's called an antecedent you have to be talking about somebody and if somebody that you have that's previously mentioned is the people of prince who is to come so the people we know who destroyed Jerusalem you guys know who destroyed Jerusalem who destroyed Jerusalem what nation destroyed Jerusalem the Romans the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and this passage says the people of the prince and so now what we're talking about is a Roman prince the prince who is to come this Roman Prince is the nearest what's called antecedent in the passage and he's the one who confirms a covenant with the many that's talking about the Jewish nation that's a term that's used for them it's idiom for the Jews for one week for a seven year period that's the Antichrist you guys and he's a Roman Prince there's all these descriptions they have the that you have of the last days and one of the descriptions is also in the Book of Daniel and I'm sorry to do all the all the techie stuff with the youth with you but in Daniel chapter 2 the history of the Gentile world is laid out Daniels an awesome book the history of the Gentile world is laid out from Babylon all the way until the end until Jesus comes and so there's a statue that Nebuchadnezzar sees in a dream head of gold shoulders of silver shoulder and arms of silver and belly of bronze legs of iron feet of iron and clay mixed right and in the prophecy what Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar God tells him Daniel passes it on is you're the head of gold that's Babylon it's come in a nation after you that's lesser than you but they're going to take over your kingdom that's the Medes and the Persians we know we know from history that this is what happens and then after the Medes and the Persians come the Greeks so a head of gold Babylon shoulders and arms Medes and the Persians actually you have two arms two groups of people Medes and the Persians and then you have the belly of bronze that's the Greeks they're the ones who you know the the movie the 300 that's that's about the wars that take place between the Greeks and the Persians and you know it's it's a movie but there's actually wars that took place there and are actually Alexander the Great the reason that he went out conquering the Persians is specifically because of that attack by the Persian nation on the Greeks and so it's in that movie and so you have Alexander the Great and that's the next great Kingdom and then the ones who overtook the Greeks were the Romans and you know legs of iron and you have this you have this decreasing worth in the metals you from go from gold to silver to bronze to iron and again two legs of iron and the Roman Empire had two parts to it it had the Eastern Roman Empire the Western Roman Empire it's just amazing how God makes these things go along with history and in the last ten kingdoms the last the last nations it says in in Daniel chapter 10 are ten kingdoms that arise from the old Roman Empire ten nations and it's a revival of its its revival in a sense of resuscitation of the old Roman Empire in the last times and one of the things that we have going on in our world is a resuscitation of the old Roman Empire it's a European Union and here's the way the part of the reason that I say that Roman Empire encompassed the Mediterranean Sea right and so it's northern Africa and it was a Middle East and then you go from the Middle East and you go up into Turkey which is kind of an in-between country but it's still pretty much Middle Eastern and then you get into Europe and you're talking about Greek and mass Greece and Macedonia and then you talk about Italy in Western Europe and all of that was in the Roman Empire right when you get into last days studies all those nations are mentioned except for the nation's specifically that are in the northern part of the Roman Empire so northern Africa is mentioned you have Egypt mentioned you have Libya mentioned you have some of the other northern African people groups that are mentioned in last days stuff and so it doesn't look like that's part of that ten nation Confederacy and and when you go over and you start getting over into Egypt specifically Egypt is a major player in last day's issues and they're not pictured as being part of the ten days federer see and then you go up into the middle-east and obviously obviously you have Israel and you have Syria and you have Iran and you have a Syria you know what we would call Iraq nowadays and you have Turkey they are also mentioned but they're not mentioned as being part of that and so when you when you're talking about the whole Roman Empire and I know that I'm just doing this from you know off the cuff with you but when you when you picture the Mediterranean Sea the whole northern part of the Mediterranean Sea is mentioned in another context than those ten nations the whole eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea of the Mediterranean area is mentioned in the Bible in the context of being outside those ten nations and the only part that isn't mentioned in other in any other context is the northern part which is Europe and the Romans had Europe too and so one of the things that people been looking for for a long time is a resuscitation of the Roman Empire by a union of the nations that used to be part of it and one of the things that you have in the Book of Daniel is the fact that when this nation when this when this group of nations comes together it's going to be like iron and clay mixed so it goes gold silver bronze iron iron and clay mixed and it says that they won't adhere to each other that they're gonna have a union that's not a really great Union and they're gonna be you know it's it's like they they're it's not tight and when you look at the European Union guess what you got you got brexit yeah well you know there are people in France who want to exit the European Union the only ones that are really really set on staying in the European Union or making it a big deal it's some of the smaller nations in Germany and so you have all kinds of issues that are going on in the European Union and it's not a cohesive unit basically and so it's a great description of what you have in the Book of Daniel I don't think that the European Union yet is that taste ten nation Confederacy but it's a it's a it's a really good candidate for that whole thing and the Bible says that when the Antichrist comes he's a prince that comes out of the old Roman Empire a revived Roman Empire but it comes out of an old one out of the old one and that's what this is he confirms a covenant with the many talking about the Jewish nation for one week that's a 7 year covenant in the middle of the week three and a half years into it he brings an end to sacrifice an offering where did you offer sacrifices in a temple well the temples been destroyed you see it up in verse 26 the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary temples been destroyed and so what are they offering sacrifices in and that's where you get the idea that the Antichrist is involved in the rebuilding of the temple and that actually that 7-year covenant has something to do with the rebuilding of the Jewish temple and then it goes on in the in the passages and says and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate or actually on the Desolator is how you could translate that in Hebrew and the Desolator would be the Antichrist what he does is he rebuilds the temple or he's involved in that whole thing three and a half years into it he decides that he's God he tries to make that an object lesson to the whole world by walking into the temple it says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 sitting down in the temple and proclaiming himself to be God and at that point the Jews have a fit because you don't do that and at that point the Antichrist has a counterfeit and he begins killing off Jews and you see the persecution of the Jews and he begins killing off believers in Jesus as Messiah he goes through any begins wiping them out and that again is kind of an overview of that whole thing and I know that I just hit on a ton of stuff and I know that you know some of that just one pew pew pew pew you know over the top your head my wife's been listening to me for four decades and she's you know she told me not too long ago I'm just now getting it she she pretty much follow follows and stuff but there's a lot of stuff on this guy in the Bible and so when the Antichrist comes along he's a guy who is again a false messiah the Jews like a like I was saying previously what they're looking for right now in a messiah is a guy who's going to rebuild their temple that's what they're looking for and I absolutely believe that that is the source of the Antichrist deception with the Jewish nation and I have to stop right there because I just looked at the clock and we're over so we'll pick that up next week talk talk a little bit more about this this is just really cool stuff you guys and talk talk a little bit more about this guy's character and the war that he rises out of one of one of the things that we saw when we get to the third seal or excuse me the fourth seal is that a quarter of the earth is killed and it looks like it's a quarter of the earth is killed in the battles that the Antichrist rises out of I was just looking at numbers today 7 point 7 billion people on this planet 7 point 7 billion you take that you divide it by 4 you get 1 point 9 to 5 1 billion 925 million people are killed and that's another that's a that's a that's like though that's all of China all of India they're both about a billion people take all of those you know that and and that's still a number that you can't fathom it's destroy the population of the United States six times that's how many people died in the in the beginning of the tribulation destroy the population of the United States six times and those are the numbers that you're talking about and so again pretty intense times that the Bible talks about when you take it as as it's written and so well that we'll talk some more about that next time so in that encouraging [Laughter] let's pray get out of here thanks again Lord for for your love for us thanks again father for the fact that you would speak to us about things to come and Lord going through and looking at prophecy can just be so exciting it could be it can be frightening too because Lord we don't want our family members to have to go through this we don't want our friends take a have to go through this we've already talked about the fact that you made a promise that you were going to deliver us out of literally out of the time that these things take place and so Lord we're looking forward to being with you but still scary things and Lord we just pray that you give us a heart for you that we'd be faithful to you that we'd be looking up that we'd be expectant about your return for us and Lord a heart that would be faithful towards those around us because I'm really not interested in any my family members going through this I'm gonna any my friends going through this so Lord we we pray that you'd make us godly people who share your word share your love with people and bring bring many to Jesus and we ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen god bless you

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Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: Q3__ALROggY

Length: 61min 27sec (3687 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019