THE BOOK OF REVELATION // Session 15: Emerging New World Order and the Coming World War

[Music] hey guys welcome back to the maranatha global bible study in this session we're going to be looking at what i'm titling this session to be the new world order and the coming world war it's a very heavy session the next few sessions are going to be incredibly heavy actually as we dive into a word by word exposition of the judgment events described in revelation chapter 6. it's probably going to take us about a month to work through this i don't know how long we'll be in this but it's going to be a little wild because these events are very consequential they're very weighty and it deserves patient attention so thank you guys for tuning in and joining with us as we continue on a quick word for those of you who are new to the fai app or to the fai youtube channel you may be trying to wrap your head around who is fai what do these guys do there's film there's teaching there's this there's that our primary core mandate as a spiritual family and as an organization is on the ground local ministry exalting the worth of jesus among the unreached and unengaged at the end of the age our primary obsession as a spiritual family is laying foundations where there are none in the middle east predominantly and predominantly in conflict zones so one of the ways that you can get involved in that is by prayer and a massive way that you can get involved in it is by giving five dollars a month you say how does that how does five dollars a month affect anything a couple months ago we started thinking about it we said man if if let's just say 25 percent of all of people who enjoy the fai app and the free content that we give away every day on the app gave five dollars a month that would cover our whole budget in the middle east in conflict zones it's it's pretty remarkable and it's very easy to do it's very any of us almost any of us can afford five dollars a month and not really feel the pain of it and yet have a massive impact in the middle east if we do it collectively so i want to invite you to do that if you say well i don't know where the money goes to here's where the money goes to the church in iran you can watch our film sheep among wolves and see the details of this it goes to on the ground ministry to the kurds in iraq syria turkey and iran you can see that in our film better friends than mountains one and two it also goes towards general conflict zone ministry and a whole bunch of different ministry initiatives all over the middle east north africa mediterranean basin asia into the himalayas you can see all this in very vivid up close detail in our film the frontier and all things isro related you can see in our films covenant and controversy now all these films are free on the app and on the website this is where our budget goes all the budget for media and film is raised separately it doesn't come out of this bucket i don't take a salary uh all the funds that come in through the five dollar campaign go to which is not a campaign it's really just the baseline if you want to support ministry in the middle east and you love the maranath the message running like wildfire consider giving five dollars a month and subscribing it's very easy uh it's secure on our app and on our website with that out of the way let's jump into revelation chapter six the last two sessions joel richardson has done a beautiful job laying the groundwork for understanding the the nature of the structure of the book of revelation the jewish background the biblical context of the judgment events today i'm going to begin to jump into a word by word exposition of it which is going to take a considerable amount of time over the next few weeks and potentially months to go through these events because they're massive massive consequential events but i want to get i want to lay some groundwork as we do that and i want to echo what joel said as well and concerning being dogmatic about things that scripture is not quite clear on here's our goal as we move into these notoriously difficult and controversial passages our goal is to shout what the bible shouts whisper what it whispers and be silent about what the bible is silent about now there's a lot of things in the judgment events namely the seals the trumpets and the bowls in revelation there's a lot of things in there that the bible throughout the bible shouts at us that are tied to these events and there's some things in these texts that the bible whispers about that we have to ponder and consider and we we weigh up and there's some things that the bible is silent about concerning these events there's just not information about it that our approach is we want to what typically what happens with a lot of end time stuff is that people end up shouting what the bible's silent about and they end up being silent about what the bible shouts about we want to stay faithful to the scripture and we want to be transformed by the testimony of the scripture and to love jesus more to become more obedient disciples of him to become faithful witnesses as we approach the days when these things will unfold we take the bible very seriously we want to honor the authority of the scripture because we believe that the authority of the scripture is what it gives the power for the transformation of the human heart under the authority of the holy spirit so with that said let's jump into it we're going to talk about the nature of the seals so as we go through revelation in the book of revelation starting in chapter six to the end of the book we see really a long story arc of the transition from the present evil age to the age to come that's the simplest way to to to give an overview or to summarize revelation 6 through 22 which is the bulk of the book of revelation is describing the story arc of the transition from this present evil age to the coming age and the restoration of all things and the details in that you could say oh well you know it's going to happen no matter what so you know why bother learning the details well if he gave us the details we should bother to learn the details because it's kind of like with my kids i say something to my kids and oftentimes you know when they don't listen or they you know they go do something else and say kids why do you think i said that i wouldn't have said it if i didn't want you to hear it and obey it i don't just put information out there for you as your father just randomly to be like oh actually that's irrelevant information don't worry about it i tell my kids things because i love them and i believe that the information is important and that their obedience to what i'm telling them is necessary i believe there's a lot of obedience passages in the book of revelation that we need to take seriously but the thing is this is why i care about the judgment events our ability to obey the commands of the book of revelation is increased or diminished to the degree that we understand or don't understand the context and the events in which that obedience is required and that's why we need to look at these events in a very serious way in a very patient way and with humility and with a dependence upon the lord to teach us so as joel said in his session you know when you get two guys teaching the book of revelation together you're probably gonna have differences of opinion here and there i would say i'm 99 in agreement with everything that joel taught in the last sessions there's to be some differences of verbage vocabulary i would see it this way a little bit this way i'm probably more post-trib than i am pre-wrath but never mind we'll get into the details of that as we go and as joel said it's not really that important if we understand that we are all going to face the antichrist and the generation of the lord's return and that we need to obey all the commands that the lord gave the church in the generation of the lord's return the great divide is over the issue of being on the earth when these things unfold we've we've done a lot of sessions on this you can go do that later if you want to i'm not going to get into that now but the point is this i'm not going to be dogmatic about some things and i'll tell you where i don't know things and i'll tell you what i do know but my goal and my role in teaching really is to say the things that the bible says to shout what the bible shouts so i'm not going to do a whole session of things that i don't know but when i get to a point that i don't know i'll i'll be honest with you and there are some things in here i just don't know and we'll actually begin with some of that the nature of the relationship joel touched on this the nature of the relationship between the seals the trumpets and the bulls has been fodder for discussion and dialogue and debate since these things were pinned is it does the order of these things go seals trumpets bulls or do does it go seals trumpets bulls does it how how do these things work how do the seals relate to the trumpets how do the trumpets relate to the bulls what do we know what do we don't know so i want to talk about the seals in particular and break down what the bible does say what we can take away from the seals before we begin to expose it them and burrow down deep into them because the first seven seals are very significant and specifically the first four we're going to spend the next four weeks or so looking at the first four seals which describe a new world order that emerges and the final or the coming the future world war that's what we're going to be looking at today in an introductory way and then in more detail in the future sessions the the concept of a new world order has been used in the secular world in the church world conspiracy world political world government there's lots of context that that term is used i'm using it here and you may say do you are you using in this way or in that way what i mean is that there is an order a structure a a authority structure that's coming that's going to be a new global order that's going to change the one that you currently know now completely reconfigure the face of the earth especially the middle east but the whole face of the earth is going to be reconfigured leading up to the coming the future the final world war which is described in vivid detail in the book of revelation and described in in incredible detail in brevity but in detail in revelation chapter 6. before we get into that let's talk about the nature of the seals and just seven things here that i'm going to run through very quickly that are important number one the seals are released by jesus this is not satan releasing suffering on the earth this is not uh you know accidents happening this is not men just sinning and deciding to do things this is jesus in his sovereignty tearing the seals in response to the body of jesus on the earth the body of christ the church the family the covenant family of god crying out with a maranatha cry come lord jesus they are saying you o lord jesus are worthy to take the scroll loose the seals that are on the scroll so if you have a scroll okay imagine a scroll there's seven wax seals that keep the scroll rolled up and when that scroll is unrolled the end of all things is fully at hand and will be fully realized there's seals and that what the the saints in heaven and earth will be saying leading up to this moment is jesus take the scroll from the hand of the father tear the seals from the scroll you're worthy to do it lord do it and when he tears each one that he tears there's a judgment event released upon the earth but the point is this the saints are the catalysts for the event of jesus himself who's described in revelation 6 repeatedly as the lamb not the lion not the judge not messiah not any of these other terms he's described as the lamb the lamb of god is tearing the seals from the scroll that's number one number two the dynamic that we know for sure about the seals is that they're eschatological meaning they're end time events why do i make a point of this because there's a lot of commentaries and there's a lot of teaching and there's a lot of stuff out there from history and at present that would take events from the revelation chapter 6 and they would put it in history past i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but i will just say this that it is foolish and dangerous to take the events of the book of revelation and put it into the past and then wash your hands of it and that's really why i say it's dangerous is because if you take information that is it was given for a specific time frame take it out of its time frame put it in one that's passed which means you are absolved of any responsibility to that information you can wash your hands of it move on and live your life totally disconnected from that reality the the technical term for this is called preterism or amillennialism or post-millennialism these different systems of theology take the events of the book of revelation and they put them either in the first century or they scatter them throughout different time frames in human history i remember talking with a very high level theologian at one point he was an amillennial leaning theologian and one of his interpretations of one of the events was that it was the yellow fever in the 1600s after something and i was going man there's zero biblical context for that there's just where it's so kooky it doesn't make any sense how do we know it's eschatological two reasons we know that number one because the saints the bowls of incense fill in revelation 5 and then jesus takes this takes the scroll from the hand of the father and it culminates with the wrath of the lamb covering the whole earth and jesus ruling and reigning in jerusalem and restoring all things this is not a historical thing it's not a continual cycle that's another view that this these things happen in cycles the first second third fourth seal these are not cycles guys these are eschatological apocalyptic events that take place in the final seven years of this present age now whether it's in the final seven or the final three and a half we'll talk about that here in a moment the third dynamic is that these are all because they're eschatological they're all future they're all future number four this is an important one they are all sequential how do you know that they're sequential dalton well because you know want to know the greek word for the first seal you know what the greek word is what it means i'm being cheeky here but it means the first do you know what the greek word for its second means you can see where i'm going with this second the lord doesn't number things that aren't to be numbered he doesn't put things in sequential order if they're not supposed to be in sequential order case in point the book of exodus when the plagues are released it was called the first plague the second plague the third plague when the lord gives numbers to judgment events they're always sequential and numerical and happen in order which means this you can know with absolute certainty after the second seal comes the third after the third comes the fourth after the fifth comes the six and so on and so forth which raises the question then how did the trumpets and the bulls relate to the seals we'll talk about that more later number five the next dynamic of the judgment events is that they are intensifying meaning this the first one is a rider on a white horse that's a dynamic the second one peace is taken from the earth the third one there's economic collapse takes place the fourth one death and pestilence breaks out across the other quarter of the earth's population dies it continues to escalate until the wrath of god is poured out upon the earth in full and it's finished now regardless of whether it's the the order of the the 21 event seven cl7 trumpet symbols whether it's like this in order one two three four five six seven one two three or whether it's like this or whether they overlap and dovetail a little bit either way it goes to an appointed end and all of them as three separate family events of judgment seals trumpets pulls they all increase in intensity that culminate and crescendo in a fight in finality which is a very important point about all the seventh of each set of judgments the seventh seal ends with incredible the sixth and the seventh i should say and with credit incredible finality the seventh trumpet ends with incredible finality we read this in revelation chapter 11 when the sounding of the seventh trumpet happens the mystery of god is complete it says in chapter 10 and it says in chapter 11 that the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms the kingdom of our god and of his christ at the seventh trumpet jesus inherits everything at the set pouring out of the seventh bowl it says it is done it is complete so the point is this there is a profound profound finality and ultimacy to the sixth and the seventh events that eclipse the intensity of the first and the second events in the judgment series we'll talk about that more in detail later as well number six the the judgment events in revelation chapter 6 are intentional they are intentional because jesus is the one doing them and because the father is the one with who's holding the scroll that jesus takes they are you can guaran be guaranteed that they are thoughtful they're intentional they're deliberate they're not accidental now here's why i say this right now we're living in a moment of history because of this covid 19 pandemic debacle balagon that's taking place in the earth right now there is a temptation i've heard a lot of believers talk about this like do you think god is involved in this and if he is what is he doing is he sovereign did he allow it did he orchestrate it did he initiate it like what what's going how do you theologically how do you understand these things those questions are going to get even more dramatic and more pressing as these judgment events break out on the earth it's very important because when they break out in the earth there is going to be a temptation to feel like oh wow god's not on the throne the father is not in control jesus cannot be trusted who knows where this thing is going and that's why we need to go deep in these events to understand the intentionality on the part of jesus there is a logic to these events now as joel mentioned the last sessions the first seal that is released is the rise of the final antichrist which we're going to look at here in a moment in detail this the rise of the final antichrist now as the antichrist rises the next event that takes place is peace is taken from the earth jesus takes peace from the earth after peace is taken from the earth there is famine and economic collapse there's war that breaks out because of this thing and then when the war and then because of the war because the economic impact of this thing there's now a health impact there's pandemics there's pestilence there's plague breaking out the sword is flying blood is spilling but it's intentional it's crowding the nations into a specific corner for the final confrontation with what is true what is not and the lord is going to push the nations of the earth says in isaiah 26 that when the judgments of god are on the earth the inhabitants learn righteousness the lord is going to instruct in the nations of the earth are going to learn righteousness as the judgment events are intentionally released upon the earth now what's very important about this is as the judgment events are being poured out on the earth the knowledge of god becomes the most important thing the knowledge of god becomes the most important thing because who knows what he's doing why is he doing it where is it going what does he want is he a tyrant is he a cruel merciless what is he doing why is he causing this why is he doing this because the message in that day is not going to be you know this is human sin we're going to be like politically condemning world leaders for their decisions the message is jesus is doing this yes the leaders of the nations are going to bear responsibility yes every man woman and child is going to bear responsibility for what they do in these days but there is an intentionality on the part of the lamb of god who is executing the judgments of god on the earth when these events are breaking out which leads us to the seventh and final point about the nature of the sealed judgments they're multi-purpose they're multi-purpose what do i mean by that they are affecting it's like one stone each judgment event is like one stone that kills 500 birds to use the analogy meaning it's it's not as though the the in releasing these judgment events the lord is just doing one thing he's doing a thousand things with that one thing by raising up the antichrist and giving him authority which is a very controversial but very important point both the book of daniel daniel chapter 11 daniel chapter 7 and the book of revelation chapter 12 and 13 describe the rise of the antichrist as a sovereignly ordained event not a demonic event that happens against the will of god it happens because of the will of the sovereignty of god which is a very critical point the antichrist will be raised up sovereignly by god now the purpose of this is manifold there's a purpose for this in the church because the church will face the antichrist the apostles are very clear about this in thessalonians and in first john and in the book of revelation that the church will be on the earth and she will face the antichrist daniel chapter 7 daniel chapter 11 is very clear about this the saints will face his fury and he will the lord will produce things in the body of christ globally through the rise of antichrist he's also going to produce things in israel through these events he's also going to produce things in the gentile nations he's also going to produce things in the antichrist and his coalition by these events unfolding all of these things are manifold and multi-multi-purpose it's also going to affect the evil one satan and it's going to affect the powers and principalities and rulers of the air it's going to affect the spiritual unseen realm it's going to affect the scene realm the political realm the military realm the financial realm it's going to affect every single realm every single dynamic of the created order is going to be affected by these judgment events these are not events to be trifled with they are not events to be marginalized or rendered irrelevant they are very significant you need to understand them because if you or your children lives through them it is going to shake everything that can be shaken hebrews 11 says sorry hebrews 12. he is going to shake everything that if it can shake it's going to shake which means this the wheat and the chaff is going to fall and separate and the chaff in your life and in my life is going to be blown away in this time and we're going to find out how much of us is wheat and how much of us in us is chaff you need to understand these events and we need to go deep in understanding them so let's look at this let's jump into verse 1 of chapter 6. now i watched the lamb i watched when the lamb opened one of the seven seals and i heard one of the four living creatures say with a loud voice like thunder come which is interesting the beginning of all of the first four seal judgments a loud voice thunders to john john come there's an invitation here come come here draw near open your eyes open your ears open your heart open your mind humble yourself listen pay attention watch what the lamb is about to do and that's what i would say to us right now come behold listen pay attention watch this turn your ear incline your ear and i looked and behold a white horse and its rioter had a bow and a crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer very interesting grammar he came out conquering and to conquer which means there is an initial preliminary conquest and there is a secondary conquest there's going to be the initial one that people see but there's going to be another conquest to conquer he comes out conquering now but he's coming to conquer there's a specific conquest that he's on that you're not going to see it first but you will see second i want to come back to this word come for a minute the this is a prophetic call to the global body of christ right now that i believe that the holy spirit is thundering come consider the judgment events in the book of revelation come consider what's about to take place come consider this new world order that's about to rise the implications for you i think the covid situation has been a profound gift to shake us up to be able to consider the reality that in a moment one little thing can change that can set off a chain reaction and shut the earth down we have all different kinds of opinions about the covid thing you know who's responsible for it is it blown out of proportion is it a serious thing how should we deal it mass no mass vaccines no vaccines everyone has an opinion everyone's arguing about it i want to make this point regarding the covet thing regardless of what you think about what it is and what the world should do about it you can't argue with the fact that it brought the world to a screeching halt and i want to say this emphatically and clearly with gentleness but i want to say this with clarity the coveted thing is not even a speed bump compared to where we're going in terms of the glo the the catastrophic nature of the storm that is ahead of us i mean this is like we're not we're gonna look back we're gonna be like do you remember when we thought that was bad it's nothing it's nothing compared to what's coming the impact of this thing i was talking about with my wife the other night isn't it crazy that children have not been affected in a wide scale way with this that's not going to be the case in the future pandemics that's not going to be the case in the future calamities children will be affected in a very heavy way the impact of this thing is going to it's a mercy the covet thing did not you know we didn't see images around the world of mass graves with children being buried in them that it it's my point is this is it's tiny compared to the monstrosity of the judgment events described in the book of revelation let me say well that might be overblowing at dalton i'm going to just do a quick spoiler alert for you the fourth seal 25 of the earth's population is killed in one judgment event let's just hypothesize here for a moment let's just say you know world population right now eight nine 10 billion we don't know let's just say 10 billion by the time this stuff happens 25 or a quarter of the earth's population dying in one judgment event 2.5 billion people dying in one judgment event in one concentrated time frame that is absolutely staggering guys that's why i say that the covet thing is is nothing it's like a rock in our shoe compared to the absolute avalanche of human suffering that is going to break out on the earth because of these events that the messiah the savior that you and i love and worship is responsible for executing on the earth let's look at verse two i looked and behold i looked and behold there's a i and there's a u in there i looked now audience behold you behold think consider this this is what i saw and you need to see it i saw a white horse now there's some commentaries that will say the white horse white horse i've heard of a white horse before who has oh yeah jesus has a white horse this must be jesus think about the the how goofy this is jesus tearing a seal and jesus riding a horse on the seal judgment event john would have been like i saw jesus tear a seal and jesus ride a horse he doesn't say that he saw i saw a rider bent on conquest now why is why is this event so significant and where does it fit in the chronology and timeline of end time events because there's a lot of different ways that we could look at this this event all the commentaries are divided on this where in the chronology to put this is this jesus or is this the antichrist i'm i am beyond confident and i would say even dogmatic about this point that this is not jesus this is the antichrist this is the final beast who comes out conquering and to conquer this is one of the most consistent themes and threads throughout apocalyptic literature in the old testament and in the new testament is that the final time of tribulation breaks out because of the rise of a little horn a little tyrant an antichrist a beast that's the consistent narrative it doesn't because some of the commentaries will say oh he's a white horse it must mean that jesus is going forth you say okay if jesus is going forth before world war how's he going forth and what's he going forth to do and they'll say well he's going forth to conquer the souls of men that's right they conquer he say who who's he going to go conquer he's going to conquer the hearts of men and men are going to worship jesus and they're going to they're going to go to church you go hold on that kind of doesn't fit at all with the rest of the chapter the other horses bring incredible suffering to the earth and and i think about this you see the four horses because the first four judgment events are four horses with four different colors now imagine looking at their riders because this is the horses and their riders now imagine the horse and its rider and then you you look at you know like ooh man there's the black one his rider looks pretty scary oh there's the red one oh the pale one oh look at him oh look at the white one oh it's jesus hey jesus can you i mean just the the foolishness of imagining jesus sitting on a horse next to four other horses that are that are intentionally set before john to convey fear and trembling concerning what's coming not tormenting fear but fear of the lord fear like we're going to have to face these things i there is you should tremble there should be a degree of fear you say one agree and fear-mongering beloved if there's a bible verse that says 25 of yours population is going to be killed in one judgment event and you don't feel any trembling over that that's that's not wisdom that's foolishness and folly and it's not fear-mongering to say we should take it seriously it's actually just humility because what it requires is our submission to the authority of scripture i looked at behold a white horse and its rider had a bow a bow it doesn't describe arrows or anything else it describes just a bow which means he's not in military he's in military procession mode but he's not in combat he's carrying a bow but it's not there's no weapons in it meaning at this point it's bloodless so to speak and a crown was given to him crown speaks of authority this is the language of daniel in the book of revelation and first john and ii thessalonians authority is given to the final antichrist he does not take it it is given to him and he receives authority it says antichrist receives it as a very key interpretive passage that i would have you cross reference in your own time that's deuteronomy 13. deuteronomy 13 the the lord says through moses to the people it says this if if a false prophet rises up among you and an antichrist so to speak someone who oppo and they teach you to walk away from the lord and his teachings his commandments and draws you away to the worship of a false image of false god moses says know this the lord raised him up why to test you to test your hearts to see if you love the lord your god with all your heart you're still in your mind your strength the antichrist is raised up by god sovereignly to test the hearts of all mankind this this passage is in full of consequence a crown was given to him a crown was given to him he does not assume control it was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer he came out conquering present tense and to conquer with a vision for conquest we know that final conquest is it's jerusalem and he will be met this writer on the white horse would be we'll meet another rider on another white horse at the end of the story in revelation 19 where he will meet his end which is described in vivid detail in daniel chapter 11 and daniel 12. let's talk for a moment about when this first seal is torn joel touched on it i want to touch on it as well there are lots of options lots of commentaries lots of teachings on it in my opinion an estimation based on all of the information out there there are only two viable options that make sense when you square it with everything that the the rider on the right white horse that the first seal is torn either at the beginning of daniel's 70th week which begins the final seven years or in the middle of daniel's 70th week with the abomination of desolation now i i'll tell you where i lean towards and this is where i told you i'd tell you what i know and i don't know i know that the rider on the white horse is the antichrist i know that and i know that he sets in motion the events that culminate and escalate into the heavy birth pangs of the great tribulation that culminate in the return of jesus the resurrection of the dead the deliverance of israel and the judgment of the wicked and the destruction of the antichrist all these events go together i don't know if the first seal is describing his initial rise or his revealing when he establishes the abomination of desolation and attacks israel i don't know and there's there are good arguments for both cases and in some sense it doesn't necessarily change things because when the events begin to unfold you're going to know very very quickly what's happening and a lot of this if you're saying i don't understand what you mean dalton this will become clear as we get to the second third fourth fifth seals in the subsequent sessions but here's why i believe these are our only two options because there are good verses that talk about the rise of the antichrist before he invades jerusalem and establishes the abomination of desolation now matthew 24 jeremiah chapter 30 daniel chapter 8 daniel chapter 9 daniel chapter 11 daniel 12 revelation 12 revelation 13 2 thessalonians 2 the list goes on of passages that describe the abomination of desolation or the desolation of jerusalem as the consequential event that sets in motion the final 42 months the final 1260 days the final three and a half years i mean revelation 10 communicates that revelation 11 communicates that revelation 12 and 13 all communicate that number 42 months three and a half years time times in half time 1260 days that ha that that final three and a half years is the hard labor pains of the great tribulation and joel touched on the birth pangs in the future in the previous sessions the question is does the rise of the antichrist set in motion the first half of the week which he does according to daniel chapter 11 verse 21. now i would encourage you if you haven't to go watch this session from the maranatha global bible study that we did on the book of daniel and look at the session of daniel chapter 11 21 through the end of the book of daniel this describes in incredible detail the rise of the antichrist at the beginning of the seven year final seven years that leads to in verse 21 he rises but then we see in verse 31 he invades jerusalem so in those ten verses is most likely possibly what's taking the four horsemen the first four seals are i believe are potentially taking place during those ten verses and daniel 11 21-31 because in 31 the abomination of desolation happens the invasion of jerusalem and the great tribulation begins now the antichrist my point is this the antichrist comes on the scene long before not long before three and a half years before in a visible way he comes on the scene in verse 21 but he invades and attacks and turns his face and reveals himself openly in verse 31. it's the same thing in matthew 24 joel touched on it there's the beginning of birth pains but guys it's not the end yet there will be wars rumors of wars there'll be famine earthquakes there's gonna be pestilence there's gonna be a lot of suffering but it's not the end it's not the hard labor not until what verse 15 the abomination of desolation which also this is a session that you'll want to go back and watch is our teaching through the olivet discourse when we talk through matthew 24 verse by verse jesus distinguishes the difference between the birth pangs which is not yet the end and the great tribulation the hard labor now you say well how do we know that the book of revelation is describing the great tribulation says in revelation chapter 7 these are those martyrs who come up out of the great tribulation anyone who dies because of these judgment events in chapter 6 are coming up out of the great tribulation and the the language the greek language in revelation chapter seven is this the tribulation the great one meaning the final the big the apocalyptic the eschatological one i want to touch on something real quick before we continue on with this talking about the the nature the the timing of it let's talk about the nature of the first four events the first four horses what's interesting is that these are all humans doing things to humans so for example we have an antichrist conquering land and people with a vision for conquering land and people the second one is peace taken from the earth men slay each other it's violence and bloodshed covers the earth the third one is financial it's economic it's people hoarding keeping taking buying selling but it's people interacting with people the fourth event is the pestilence the sickness the plagues pandemics the war the impact of it and the pale horus with death covering the earth and a quarter there's per population dying because of what men do to each other now once we get to the fifth sixth seal and then we go through the tr the trumpets and the bowls everything from there on out is god doing things not men doing things this is a very important point which is why i tend to agree with joel that the beginning the tearing of the first seal and specifically the first four seals take place during the first half of the 70th week of daniel because it's men doing things but there is a moment there is a moment where it ceases to be men doing things to one another and it's god interfering and interacting and interjecting in the created order for example when god turns all of the vegetation into and burns it up when he turns all the water into blood when he darkens the sun and the stars and the moon i mean these when he sends demonic locus plagues when he causes hailstones like this is all god it's the difference between divine activity and human activity the first four judgment events the first second third fourth seals are human initiative human involvement human engagement human actions against humans or relating to humans but after the fourth seal everything after that you could say the fifth seal as well which is suffering through martyrdom but even then there's a divine nature to that that i believe is actually god ordained it's not necessarily men doing this to men which is true of all of the events but because god is sovereign over all of these things but more on that later so in light of the fact that the first four very are very much are like context setting events and i say all that to say this these first four events set the context for the hard labor of the great tribulation i don't necessarily think however that these are the great tribulation the first four events i believe they set the context for the great tribulation now on the other hand there's also good evidence to suggest that the first seal could actually be the abomination of desolation it fits by all means it works meaning he emerges and he conquers jerusalem and he's bent on conquering more than just jerusalem we read it revelation chapter 17 and 18 that when he attacks jerusalem he also burns babylon the heart of babylon burns it to the ground burns her with fire for her relationship with jerusalem very interesting dynamic he's also going to war with egypt at that time he's also going to war with forces from the east he's going to war with north africa he's going to war with the middle east the middle east is fighting itself peace is being taken from the earth so it makes sense that the first seal could potentially be the abomination of the desolation which sets in motion a great world war which sets in motion economic collapse which sets in motion the death of a court of the earth's population which sets in motion mass martyrdom which sets in motion then this rolling up of the sky like a scroll in the wrath of god being revealed from heaven this could all be compressed into that 42 month time frame this is where i don't want to be dogmatic i don't know if we can say with certainty before it happens that the first seal is taking place at the beginning of the 70th week of daniel or in the middle now if you are sure maybe you've studied this yourself and you feel like you have an opinion i bless you in your opinion and that's really the the spirit the attitude that joel and i want to carry in this is that you know i've gone back and forth about this over the years and sometimes like no it's definitely the abomination of desolation another time i go i don't know maybe maybe it's not there's and there's an element here where it describes it it could potentially be the birth pangs that jesus is describing and those birth pangs are really escalating during the first half of the 70th week of daniel we'll find out and we'll know very clearly and the helpful thing is and i would say this the key to interpreting and understanding the antichrist's rise more than any other chapter in the whole bible is daniel 11 and 12. this is the most significant passage in the bible that describes the rise of the antichrist with the most amount of detail and with the most amount of new testament dependence upon it what do i mean by that meaning when jesus taught on the antichrist the abomination of desolation he quoted daniel 11 and 12. when paul taught on the antichrist and the abomination of desolation the final tribulation he quoted daniel 11 and 12. and in the book of revelation as well the descriptive uh passages in chapter 10 chapter 11 chapter 12 chapter 13. he's drawing from daniel 11 and 12 to get because that's what he's pulling from because that's in his mind because he knows the jewish scripture which means this if you want to understand the details of the rise of the antichrist you need to understand you need to study daniel daniel is where all this information is given in so much robe in a very robust robust way with that said we're gonna probably wrap this one to a close here and in our next session we're going to begin to look at the impact of the the rider on the right horse but i want to in some sense set it up by introducing it now and we'll go into it in detail in our next session look at verse three when he opened the second seal okay so the first seal is a conquering rider on a white horse okay a conquering rider on a white horse and the second event that happens after that is this we i heard the second living creature say come again beckoning us to come and out came another horse bright red its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that so that people should slay one another and he was given a great sword this is also one of the reasons why i lean towards i get shifty on it i say maybe it is after the great tribulation because the impact of him rising is peace being taken from the earth and men butchering each other which is very much the description in daniel chapter 11 and 12 and in revelation chapter 12 and 13. the description of the rise of the antichrist is very much immediate war but having said that daniel 11 verses 21 through 31 also described a series of preliminary wars before the final war to end all wars which means this when we look at the new world order that's going to emerge what do we know about it from scripture we know this that it's going to be in a context of perceived peace and safety which is why i believe it's important that we understand that the rider on the white horse is on a white horse he's coming in perceived peace but that peace will be shattered violently in the middle of daniel's 70th week paul said this to the thessalonians he said in the last days people are going to come and they're going to say peace and safety peace peace but then sudden destruction will come upon them this is the sudden destruction peace peace which is why i believe that the antichrist when he rises he rises and he establishes a new world order in the middle east the antichrist when he rises establishes a new world order in the middle east from the middle east that requires all the nations of the earth to fall in line and recognize that order that authority structure it's going to impact all the earth but in the first three and a half years of the 70th week of daniel it's not going to be massively violent compared to what it will be when peace is taken from the earth now the question is this will peace be taken from the earth before the abomination of desolation is set up or only after we know after for sure there is going to be the coming final eschatological world war that the nations of the earth are going to get sucked into it again daniel 11 describes the arabian peninsula north africa the mediterranean parts of europe asia being involved he describes a massive massive part of the earth being sucked into this final world war because of this emerging world order that rises in chapter 21. now here's what we need to consider when we're looking at the landscape of events in the generation that leads to the return of the lord and we're watching in a sober way for the rise of the final antichrist and the rise of this final world order what are we looking for what we're looking for is the emergence of a world leader who comes out conquering immediately now this is an important point why and i'll end with this there's a lot of pop cultural ideas about the antichrist out there that he just comes as a peaceable guy and everyone falls in love with him that's not the way the bible describes the rise of the antichrist now we know he gets violent in the middle and he wages incredible war for the final 42 months but what's interesting from the book of daniel is that he when he arises at the beginning of the final week he's not coming as a peace and love hippie right away he's coming in violence he's coming conquering immediately but his conquering will establish a new world order and a kind of peace a kind of peace now any of you who've been around war grew up in war you know that there is a peace that comes from the outcome of a war it's not doesn't mean that there is peace it means that there's not war and the kind of peace that's going to settle on the earth when the antichrist rises three and a half years before he invades jerusalem is not going to be real peace it's going to be the kind of peace that comes because there's not war because the outcome of a war and i want you to understand this as we move forward there will be a series of wars and rumors of wars leading up to the final war and we need to be careful not to speculate and to get trigger happy and defining that as the final war we're gonna see some very seismic significant sizable wars a series of wars take place in the middle east before the final war now these preliminary wars like for example isis isis reconfigured the middle east dramatically the syrian civil war reconfigured the middle east dramatically the arab spring reconfigured the middle east dramatically and there's going to be more wars like this there's going to be more groups that rise and nations that clash there's going to be more altercations in the middle east but it doesn't mean that it's the final one because these events will set the context for the rise of the rider on the white horse who will come out immediately conquering and to conquer which is why i think this is as a potential nod here for the first seal being at the beginning of the final 70th week because he comes out conquering and to conquer meaning don't perceive that his initial conquests are necessarily his end game conquest his end game conquest is going to be something much more jerusalem-centric something much more of biblical proportions not just random regional conflicts between uh nation-states in the middle east it's going to be hone in on jerusalem and it's going to revolve around the harlot babylon as well which is a very important point that we'll get to in subsequent sessions so in summary we've looked at the rise of the antichrist with the tearing of the first seal who establishes with his rise with his conquest a new world order which once we get to chapter 12 and chapter 13 we're going to see the details of this new world order and how it affects the nations of the earth in a very very catastrophic brutal and consequential way now when he rises he sets in motion a world war which is the second seal and in our next session we're gonna dive into that coming world war and the impact of it on the nations of the earth guys thank you for watching if you've enjoyed this and if you want to support ministry on the ground in the middle east consider supporting our teams through the five dollar giving mechanism the links are below this video guys thanks thank you for watching and maranatha from the golan heights here in northern israel

Channel: FAI STUDIOS

Views: 452,349

Keywords: Dalton Thomas, FAI, FAI Studios, end-times, end times, eschatology, Turkish antichrist, antichrist, Middle East beast, Joel Richardson, islamic antichrist, pretribulation rapture, rapture, Amir Tsarfati, Behold Israel ministries, frontier alliance international, sheep among wolves, return of Jesus, beast empire, revelation 13, harlot babylon, great tribulation, bible study, maranatha global bible study, Donald trump, make America great again, covid19, christian, mark of the beast

Id: 7SDK2RKzaqU

Length: 55min 38sec (3338 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021