[0:00] Okay, let's pray together. Father, we are truly grateful for another day and another opportunity that you've given us to be together. And we pray that as we engage the material, you will help facilitate our minds to an understanding and appreciation of what's taking place.
[0:17] In the midst of it all, we are deeply grateful for your being the sovereign and loving God that you are. And we are pleased that you have been pleased to reveal these things to us. Otherwise, there's no way that we could know them.
[0:29] So thank you for what you've revealed. And we ask for wisdom in what our response ought to be to it. We give this time of investigation and worship and study to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[0:42] Amen. It's going to be necessary to go back to Daniel chapter 7 and read a few verses there. And also in chapter 11, because as we've mentioned, Daniel is the revelation of the Old Testament.
[0:58] And while you're turning to it, let me remind you that the material we are engaging in the time frame involving the future has to do with the ushering in of an entirely different kind of era.
[1:14] Be a different time than the world has ever seen. And that which is primarily going to characterize it is it is going to be a time of unprecedented supernatural activity.
[1:28] And it will be divinely supernatural and it will be satanically supernatural. Both of these are going to be operating at one and the same time.
[1:42] Be reminded that the church is gone. The age of grace is over. The dispensation of the grace of God is past when you get into this material that we are considering in the revelation.
[1:59] And what that means, of course, is that this is the fulfillment of the 70th week of Daniel. It is the time of tribulation to be visited upon the earth.
[2:12] It will be utterly unlike anything that has ever existed in the history of humanity. And in chapter 13 in particular, we're going to be talking about the principal characters who are going to be at the very center of this.
[2:32] And they involve the Antichrist and the false prophet. And be reminded that this is an unholy trinity that is taking place.
[2:45] Satan himself is the counterpart to the deity, to God the Father. And the Antichrist is the counterpart to our Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:59] And the false prophet is the counterpart to the Holy Spirit. And just as it was and is the Holy Spirit's responsibility to bear witness unto Christ, because our Lord said, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he shall not speak of himself, but he will glorify me.
[3:19] That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we will see in Revelation 13, when the false prophet arrives on the scene, his chief ministry is to glorify the Antichrist and bring people's devotion and honor to him.
[3:36] And he will succeed admirably in doing that. Now, for some additional background and collateral material, I want to share with you Daniel chapter 7.
[3:46] And we're just going to jump in with verse 19 through 28. And then we've got a portion to read in Daniel chapter 11 as well. Daniel chapter 7 and 19.
[4:01] Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful.
[4:11] And by the way, this fourth beast is the Antichrist that we'll be considering in 13 of Revelation. With its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet.
[4:27] And the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts.
[4:45] That's the Antichrist. And which was larger in appearance than its associates. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints, and overpowering them.
[4:59] In other words, and winning. Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
[5:14] Thus he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth, and tread it down, and crush it.
[5:30] As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom, ten kings will arise, and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones, and will subdue three kings.
[5:45] And he, this is the Antichrist, will speak out against the Most High, and wear down the saints of the highest one, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law.
[6:00] In other words, he's going to change everything. That's going to be his mantra. It's a time for change. And by the way, what is going to precipitate the change, of course, is chaotic conditions that are going to exist on the globe, internationally.
[6:19] And radicalism, and extremism, always has a heightened opportunity, when there are extreme times, or radical times, in which people are living.
[6:33] He will intend to make alterations in times, and in law, and they will be given into his hand, for a time, times, and half a time.
[6:45] When it says they will be given, it literally means, he will not take them. They will be given to him. This one is going to have such charisma, such a mesmerizing personality, such an accomplished history, to that point, that they will just freely, willingly, gladly relinquish authority, and give it to him, because they have great confidence in him, and in his ability.
[7:13] But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated, and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven, will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.
[7:33] His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey him. And this, of course, represents the overthrow of that Antichrist, and the power of Christ, and the saints gaining ascendancy.
[7:48] But it will only be after a horrendous bloodbath. Now, come over, if you will, to Daniel chapter 11, and verse 36, Daniel 11 and 36, and here we have another description, the same character.
[8:08] This is all Antichrist content. He is the king, verse 36, who will do as he pleases, and he will exalt, and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods, and he will prosper until the indignation is finished.
[8:31] For that which is decreed will be done, and he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god, for he will magnify himself above them all.
[8:49] But instead, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know. He will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones, and treasures.
[9:02] And he will take action against the strongest of fortresses. With the help of a foreign god, he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him.
[9:13] This man will really know how to pay off and make it worthwhile for those who support him. And he will cause them to rule over the many and will parcel out land for a price.
[9:28] At the end time, the king of the south will collide with him. Here he's going to meet opposition. And the king of the north, these kings, by the way, could as easily be presidents or prime ministers or whatnot.
[9:41] They are simply heads of state. We'll storm against him with chariots, with horsemen, with many ships, and he will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through. He will also enter the beautiful land, that's, of course, Israel, and many countries will fall.
[9:59] But these will be rescued out of his hand. Edom and Moab. Edom is southern Jordan. Moab is northern Jordan. And the foremost of the sons of Ammon.
[10:14] Ammon, of course, is Jordan in general, the capital of which is Ammon, Jordan. And these Ammonites are descendants of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters.
[10:29] Then, verse 42, he will stretch out his hand against other countries and the land of Egypt will not escape. But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, over all the precious things of Egypt, and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels.
[10:48] But, rumors from the east and from the north will disturb him. And he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many.
[11:00] And he will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful holy mountain. Yet, he will come to his end and no one will help him.
[11:15] So, those are probably the best commentaries that we can get on what we're reading in Revelation chapter 13. And I realize that we've already considered a fortune of this, so I'm going to be as brief as I can in covering these first few verses and then we will get to the newer material which deals with the false prophets.
[11:37] But just by way of review, may I remind you of the supernatural aspect that's going to be taking place. That is key to understanding Revelation. In fact, as you come to the book of Revelation, you will note just by reading the incidents in it that it represents a departure from the tenor of scripture that you were reading up before that time.
[12:02] Because as you're reading through, particularly the Pauline epistles, you find very little representation regarding the miraculous.
[12:15] There are a few incidents. Paul raised someone from the dead when he fell down out of the loft, you'll recall. And there was the miracle of Paul shaking off the viper when he was bitten on the island of Malta.
[12:32] And there were a few other incidents, but as you move on into the book of Acts with time passing, the miraculous begins to fade more and more and more.
[12:45] And the reason for that is because God has introduced a new dispensation. It is the dispensation of the grace of God. And it is to be characterized by sheer faith.
[13:00] Nothing else. This is what Paul was referring to, I think, when he said, we walk not by sight, but by faith. And what that simply means is we believe God on the basis of what he has said, not because of what we see with demonstrations of the miraculous, et cetera.
[13:22] That was all new. Now, as you go to the birthing of the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt, this is where we find a proliferation of miracles really getting underway.
[13:35] because the incidents that accompanied the Passover and the Passover night and the gathering of the children of Israel to flee the land of Egypt, the passing of the Red Sea, and all of the miraculous provision that God made for Israel when they were in the wilderness, all of those were demonstrations that they could see and identify with.
[14:04] They were right there. They saw that water come out of the rock. They saw the quail from heaven. They saw this. They saw that. They saw all kinds of things. So, Israel, as a nation, is steeped in and accustomed to miraculous manifestations from God.
[14:23] And as you move on through, you get into the period of the prophets. We have incidents involving Elijah and the calling down from God fire out of heaven to consume the sacrifice there before the priests of Baal.
[14:40] We have the axe head floating up out of the water. All of these things are characteristic of the nation of Israel. And you've got to really keep that in mind because it will help you understand the whole of Scripture.
[14:54] This is exactly, I think, what Paul meant when he said the Jews seek a sign. And the word for sign there is Simeon. It means they seek a miraculous manifestation.
[15:08] That's what they demand. And when Christ came, what did they ask of him? What sign showest thou? You claim to be the Messiah. You claim to be the promised one for Israel.
[15:20] All right, show your stuff. Convince us. So what did he do? He authenticated his claim of Messiahship by performing miracles.
[15:33] And they were the kind of miracles that took a humanly difficult or impossible situation and restored it to what you could call normal, like bringing back someone from the dead, like Jairus' daughter or the widow son of Nain, changing water into wine.
[15:56] All of these reflected kingdom conditions, all of these reflected the way things are supposed to be, but aren't because of a fallen world. And the Messiah's job is to reverse that which the fallen world imposed upon humanity.
[16:12] And that's what he was about. So, the signs that he performed were in keeping with what Israel as a nation could expect. And then, once Israel was finally set aside in judicial unbelief, and the commentary for that is Romans 9, 10, and 11, that depicts the present status of the nation of Israel.
[16:38] Once that happened, what we call the church age, or the dispensation of the grace of God, came into full flower.
[16:49] and one of the first things that is changed is the absence of the miracles. What happened to them?
[17:01] Well, the age of grace is characterized by people walking by faith, not needing or requiring miraculous signs to authenticate.
[17:15] So, what do we do? We simply take the word of of God at face value. God doesn't have to do anything to prove himself to us. All he has to do is give us his word.
[17:27] We accept his word. We take it at face value. That's our trust and our confidence. But not for the Jew. The Jew walks by sight, not by faith.
[17:40] And, when the church is gone, guess what returns? The supernatural. supernatural. It picks right up where they left off in the early chapters of the book of Acts.
[17:54] In the early Acts, miracles were standard. The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was miraculous. The speaking in languages they had not learned was miraculous.
[18:08] And the apostles' miracles and signs that they did to prove to Israel that Jesus was the Messiah. All of those things were miraculous. But with the church age, they're gone.
[18:23] This is not to say God cannot and does not provide miraculous manifestations today. He can do anything he wants, anytime he wants.
[18:35] However, that's not the chief characteristic of our age. Our age is we walk by faith, not by sight. So, when we come then to chapter 13, and let's hasten on through this if we may.
[18:50] I want to be sure to have time for some Q&A this time. Chapter 13, first thing we need to do is correct this here, that this should be he, in verse 1, he stood upon the sand of the sea, and the he is not referring to I, John, it is referring to the context, and this is the dragon of chapter 12.
[19:18] Note right above it, if you will, verse 17, the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
[19:30] And he, the dragon, stood upon the sand of the sea. You've got a note down at the bottom of your page, and it says some manuscripts read he, and I think that is correct.
[19:41] That's the way it ought to be. And John continues by saying, or the, John continues by revealing what this, uh, what the dragon is, is witnessing here.
[19:57] He saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his ten horns, ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
[20:13] Now, the heads represent knowledge, or intelligence, and the horns throughout Scripture speak of power or authority.
[20:25] And you know, when you couple intelligence with authority, you have something that is formidable. And that's what's being talked about here.
[20:35] These are very powerful concepts. And the beast, which I saw, was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.
[20:51] Now, it is interesting to note that, and we've defined these as pertaining to the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire.
[21:04] And they seem to be very descriptive of these animals. And Daniel describes them that way, and looks at them as though they are all future, because they were, and the only one that was present to him then was Babylon.
[21:20] But when John describes them, he reverses them from what Daniel saw, and he makes it leopard, bear, lion, because that's the way he was viewing it from his vantage point.
[21:35] And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. Now, I do not have any really good explanation for this, other than to just take it at face value.
[21:52] some say that what this really represents is an individual who at one time was considered politically dead, out of action, of no consequence, set aside, no influence, and then he makes a comeback politically.
[22:15] And I'm not prepared to completely discount that and say that that isn't the case, but I think it is significant because this is mentioned three times, this deadly wound.
[22:32] it is mentioned here in verse three, it is mentioned again in, let's see, in verse 14, and then in verse 12, yes, in verse 12.
[22:49] And it seems that John is emphasizing this, and the only thing that I can conclude is that this is just one more miraculous manifestation.
[23:02] And Satan is behind this. And I know that we tend to think of Satan as not having creative ability, not having the power to give life, but we are told in Hebrews, Hebrews, where is it?
[23:27] I think it's Hebrews chapter two, where he is referred to as having power over death. Well, we know that he brings death with him wherever he goes, and one of his chief objectives is to kill, to kill, to kill, which of course is completely counter to God and his creative ability.
[23:54] So, it could well be that there is a supernatural manifestation provided by Satan to actually bring someone back from the dead.
[24:08] Now, think about this for a moment. He is depicted as the Antichrist. He is not only against Christ, but he is like a false Christ or a false Messiah.
[24:22] what could possibly be more authenticating for this one than to have been dead and be made alive again?
[24:36] What could possibly be more convincing? And, for the early disciples in the early church, what was the most convincing thing to them of all that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, but his resurrection from the dead.
[24:57] In fact, it convinced them to the extent that they were willing to lay down their lives for that truth rather than deny it. And it may well be that we are going to have a copycat counterfeit here that he is actually going to be dead and identified as dead and be raised from the dead by none other than Satan who gave him this power.
[25:23] Satan, of course, is the dragon. And we read in we're still in verse two, the dragon gave him his power and his seat with great authority.
[25:38] And some translate this as power, but authority ought to be what it is because there are two words in the Greek for power. power. One is dunamis and it means like explosive energy, physical power.
[25:56] And the other is exousia, from which we get the word executive. And it means an executional power or an executive power, the power that comes with the ability to just give orders and have them carried out.
[26:12] That's the kind of power he is going to have. We're not talking about a muscle man. And his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast.
[26:25] This means they held him in amazement. They are astounded at him. Well, much of the world holds Christ in amazement too, principally because he came back from the dead.
[26:43] And the whole world, at least the whole Christian world, wonders after him, holds him in awe, in complete esteem. That's the kind of credit that is going to be afforded to this one.
[26:54] And they will be so persuaded that they will worship the dragon, which gave power unto the beast. Now keep in mind that the dragon is Satan and his counterpart is God the Father and the beast is the one whom he is empowering.
[27:11] And they worship the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast and who is able to make war with him. Now I've got to digress just a little bit.
[27:23] And we're not going to go back there, but I want you to remember where we were in chapter 12 with the two witnesses. And we're a little bit out of chronology here, and it's somewhat confusing because what we have in chapter, I'm sorry, it was chapter 11, not chapter 12.
[27:40] chapter 12 deals with the woman giving birth to the child, and the child, of course, is Israel in the wilderness. And in chapter 11, we have the two witnesses who are indestructible, people, and we were unable to really identify them, but they offer their unappreciated preachments and announcements, and they stir up the animosity of the whole world, and everybody is trying to kill these guys, and nobody can, because they are virtually indestructible, and when they speak, we are told that fire comes out of their mouth.
[28:20] I don't know if that's literal fire that comes out like a flamethrower, I can't imagine it. I suspect, rather, it is their spoken word that will have the same effect that the spoken word of Christ will when the sharp sword proceeds out of his mouth in Revelation 19.
[28:34] I don't believe it's a sword with the hilt on it and all the rest, that Christ has a sword-like tongue. I think it simply means his spoken word is going to slay people, just as it brings items into existence by speaking the word.
[28:51] So, these two prophets, these two indestructible men are going to be preaching for three and a half years and nobody is able to shut them up until somebody does.
[29:07] You remember who it was? it's the Antichrist. The Antichrist, however he does it, overpowers these two witnesses and kills them and they are lying out in the open with their dead bodies exposed to the whole world.
[29:32] and everyone is rejoicing over their death. They were so hated and so despised and so feared. No one could shut them up and no one could kill them.
[29:45] But this one does. And then we ought not to be surprised at their saying, who is able to make war with this one?
[29:56] He did something that no one else was able to do. he really is impregnable and he deserves our loyalty and our following.
[30:09] There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power, this is authority again, was given unto him. And this is really significant.
[30:19] I want you to note this. He isn't taking this power by brute force, but his charisma, his accomplishments, his plans, his ideas, are electric.
[30:33] And they buy into them. And they relinquish authority to him. They want him to control. They want him to take charge. They keep heaping more and more responsibilities and authority upon him.
[30:47] And in the midst of all of this, the world is undergoing cataclysmic difficult times. On earth and in the heavens.
[30:59] it isn't raining for something like three years. This is during this tribulation period and crisis is all over the globe.
[31:13] And there is no opportunity for radicalism like there is when there's crisis.
[31:23] It just naturally comes to the surface. it was like that in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s.
[31:34] And Germany was in economic crisis as a result of World War I. And they were in economic doldrums. And Hitler came to power. And you remember what he was able to get away with?
[31:49] What the German people allowed him to bypass by way of their laws and establish procedure? Why? Because these are tough times. And tough times call for tough measures.
[32:01] And he was given all kinds of authority that no German authority had before him. And of course we know what he did with it. So when people are in chaos they are vulnerable.
[32:17] They are open and ready for anybody that has a promise of some answers. And they will get in line behind him. So he opens his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.
[32:30] And I think this is very open. I think he's making no bones about it. This isn't something secret. He doesn't have a secret agenda. He is right out front with it. He is cursing the God of heaven and calling him by name.
[32:43] And the people behind him are cheering him on. Because he is turning chaos into order and it's working. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.
[32:58] And this is all going to involve the mark of the beast and so on. So let's hasten on it. All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
[33:14] If any man has an ear to hear, let him hear. He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He that kills by the sword must be killed with the sword. And here of course this is simply predicting their end.
[33:27] Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And verse 11, I beheld another beast. These beasts are people.
[33:39] They are beast-like in their behavior. They are inhuman in their thirst for blood. blood. They have no compunction, no morals, no standards.
[33:55] Only thing that matters is their objective, accomplishing their objective. And this one is going to be the false prophet. He will surface again in Revelation 16, 13, in Revelation 19, 20, and in Revelation 20, 10.
[34:16] he is the third person of the unholy trinity. He will have the spiritual emphasis. He will succeed in marrying the politics of the Antichrist with the corrupt religion that he will endorse.
[34:39] And I do not know what this will be. It probably will be some kind of ecumenical flavored thing. It may be presided over. This false prophet could be, understand I'm not saying he is, he could be the Pope of Rome.
[34:57] He could be an Islamic Ayatollah. He could be a representative from a body like the World Council of Churches.
[35:12] But the name of the game will be syncretism. Marrying all religions and beliefs together so that there will be just one big happy family.
[35:24] And it will be incredible. He exercises all the power of the first beast before him. And he causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.
[35:44] That is, when this false prophet comes on the scene, he will himself have a supernatural kind of charisma, ability, persuasiveness, and he will direct the world's attention to the wonders of the first beast.
[36:09] He will extol him, he will endorse him, he will support him, he will encourage everyone to get behind him, support his program, undergird him in every way you can, cooperate with him in every way you can, and he's going to do it with a religious tone.
[36:26] And people are simply going to buy it wholesale. verse 14 says, he deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
[36:57] And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
[37:14] This is nothing more than reminiscent of what took place back in the Old Testament, when those who would not bow down and worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up would be put to death.
[37:28] under Haman, remember that those who would not bow down and worship should be put to death. And this is in the book of Esther, so we've got a repeat of that, only it's on a much, much larger scale.
[37:43] And then comes the mark. It causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads.
[38:02] This may or may not be a visible mark. It may be an invisible mark that could be detected with some kind of a scanning mechanism that could be even handheld so that someone could, in authority with a scanner, could easily identify whether this person had the mark or not.
[38:23] And if they do not have the mark, they will be looked upon as an enemy of the state. Here we are trying to save the world.
[38:35] We are trying to save humanity and pull civilization out of the crisis that it is in. And granted, we have to take stringent measures in order to do that.
[38:49] Because difficult times call for extreme measures. And these are extreme measures. And we admit it. And in order for us to salvage humanity, we need the cooperation of everyone pulling together.
[39:08] Aren't you going to be a team player? Then you need to take the mark of the beast and indicate your loyalty and your allegiance that you are willing to help out in this.
[39:21] And those who don't will be looked upon as narrow-minded, selfish, obstructionists who don't care at all about their fellow man. They only care about their own personal safety and peace.
[39:34] That's all they care about. Well, you know what? We would do much better with these people being gone. So you just eliminate them. They are part of the problem. They are part of the problem.
[39:46] It's their fault. And the Jew and anyone who does not have the mark of the beast will be the international scapegoat.
[39:57] It will be open season on these people and you eliminate them. You know, we don't like doing this, but we have to do this in order to save the whole.
[40:11] It's necessary that these uncooperative ones die for their lack of consideration for their fellow man. This thing is going to be so slick and so smooth and it's going to sound so reasonable they won't have any problem at all selling it.
[40:29] And it reminds me, even in this day and age of grace, we are told that if our gospel is hid, it is hid to those whose minds the God of this age has blinded, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them.
[40:48] If that is operative now, in the day of grace, think of how operative it's going to be once the church is removed.
[41:01] If ever there was a time when good will be called evil and evil will be called good, it will be then. No one might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
[41:21] And I am of the opinion that the coin of the realm, the coin of the realm, when this time comes, is not going to be gold or silver, it's going to be food and water.
[41:38] Just water to drink. It's going to be tremendous demand for drinkable water and anything that is edible.
[41:51] Man will have to work a whole day to earn enough to buy food for one meal, one person.
[42:04] These are hard times that are coming. here is wisdom. And we are in chapter 13 as you turn the page here.
[42:22] This calls for wisdom or here is the key. There is wisdom here. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man.
[42:37] And his number is 600 three score and six. And we can easily see how it is that six is the number of man because as far back as man goes, he was a product of the sixth day.
[42:55] Man was created on day six. And seven is the number of divinity. Seven is looked upon as the perfect number.
[43:07] It is considered to be a number of fullness or completion. And it is the number that refers to God. So man with his six, of course, just comes short of God with his seven.
[43:23] Interestingly enough, but Goliath, whom David slew in combat, had a bunch of sixes in connection with him, his height and the weight of the shield that he carried and the spear that he carried, it was a whole bunch of sixes.
[43:41] And one wonders if that's some kind of a representation of humanity there. And good versus evil, if you will. I don't know exactly what this six, six, six means, how it plays out.
[43:56] you know as well as I that there's been all kinds of speculation about it. And I gave you a handout last time that was prepared by, did I give you that?
[44:11] I did, didn't I? I thought I did. I think it was, I think it was Henry Morris. Yeah. Did everybody get that? If you didn't get it, I want you to have one.
[44:23] It's taken from his book on the Revelation record by Henry Morris. And it's an interesting explanation. But even he admits that he cannot, of course, say with any degree of finality exactly how this spells out.
[44:41] I don't know how obvious it will be or whether believers living at that time. And there will be plenty of believers here because there are going to be huge numbers of people converted to Christ during the tribulation period.
[44:58] And they are going to take their lives into their hands by ascribing loyalty to the Lord. But this is during the time that the 144,000 are preaching and there are going to be huge numbers of Jewish people who are going to come to faith and of course a lot of Gentiles too.
[45:18] and it will be Christ said a time of tribulation such as a world has never seen. Yes. Oh, you didn't get that?
[45:29] Okay. I'm just reminded what our Lord said in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.
[45:41] He, in just a few verses, described some of the things that we've been talking about. And, Matthew 24, and he talks about the tribulation of that period, and then in verse 24, and I'm talking about Matthew 24, 24, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders.
[46:13] They are going to dazzle people. so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect, even the chosen.
[46:26] Which means that he's going to come real close to fooling even believers. And if he comes that close to fooling believers, you can imagine how he's going to fool the unbelievers.
[46:42] it's going to be really, really something. I can't wait to miss it.
[46:56] All right, we've got some time for Q&A. Barbara. Could you answer three references you gave in verse 11, please?
[47:07] What did you, what was the question? Verse 11, I want the three references you gave, I got the last one ever, I should find. What did I do with my sheet?
[47:22] I had my notes on. I probably did. Anyway, you're talking about chapter 13 and what? Verse 11.
[47:35] Okay. I probably did put that back in my briefcase. What are they?
[47:49] Revelation 16, 13, Revelation 19, 20, Revelation 20.
[48:01] Thank you. I can't even find the sheet I was working off of. Here it is. Yeah. Okay. And thank you for paying attention. Okay.
[48:11] Now I found the sheet I was working off of. Any other comments or questions? anyone?
[48:35] Yes. Marietta? I just found it confusing earlier in reading it, but I find it so explanatory now that this is a total reenactment trying to trying to be what God does for three.
[49:01] Oh, I think so. Yeah, I think it's an effort on his part and a very successful one to mimic, to counterfeit the Trinity.
[49:12] Yes. And we find those three principal characters very obviously portrayed, I think, as Satan is the counterpart to God the Father, and the false prophet is the counterpart to the Holy Spirit, and the Antichrist is the counterpart to our Lord.
[49:28] Yeah. And the ex was because of great John Buffett. he's bringing up a good point about could this be of the body, you know, what we were talking about, could be a political person, could be a pope, could be a Ayatollah, I think it could be somebody from the United Nations or something myself.
[49:56] Well, absolutely, it's entirely possible. It'll be a world-recognized figure who will be really smooth. With all this stuff that Ahmadinejad's doing, one, and trying to keep, get the turmoil going, the body can come back, makes you wonder.
[50:15] Absolutely, absolutely. There is, wouldn't it be something, wouldn't it be something if the Islamic 12th Imam would be the Antichrist?
[50:39] You could understand how he could rail against the Christian God and the Christian Son of God, how opposed they are to everything Christian, and if you, if you have not noticed regarding radical Islam, let me point out to you what I think is probably pretty obvious, and that is radical Islam, matter of fact, radical anything, is devoid of rationality.
[51:19] That's what makes it radical. And when you take people who say, you Americans, you love life, we love death, and they make no bones about it.
[51:39] We love death, and when you go into battle against an enemy, your goal is to come out of it alive. Our goal is to die in battle and be martyred.
[51:52] take as many witnesses we can over the Lord. Pardon? And to take as many witnesses while we can. Oh, and take as many, yeah, and I think the time may come when some are going to be of the opinion you want to die in battle and go to be with Allah and your 42 virgins and all the rest, we're going to do everything we can to help you realize your goal.
[52:19] Now, that sounds pretty bad, but it's a response to their attitude, you know. It's radicalism has no rationality to it.
[52:32] And when you go to war against an irrational enemy, you really got problems compounded because they don't even want to come out of it alive.
[52:48] We send our boys off to war, whether it's Afghanistan or Korea or Iraq or Iwo Jima or wherever, we send them off to war knowing that some of them aren't going to come back.
[53:01] But the thing we want more than anything else is for them to return home in one piece. And we consider that natural, that's normal, to love life and want to live.
[53:16] and they consider us as abnormal. Go figure. It's the total difference of God is life.
[53:29] That's right. He is. He's the king of life and Christ is the prince of life and and Satan is death and destruction, chaos and mayhem.
[53:46] Any other thoughts or comments? Yes. I still don't have a clear understanding of the three. I know the false prophet is a man, a religious leader, but the other two are both demons?
[54:03] Well, Satan here in this text in both 12 and 13 is referred to as the dragon. That's Satan.
[54:13] Satan is the dragon. and the antichrist is the one who surfaces here in chapter 13 and he's also the one that we described from Daniel chapter 7 and Daniel chapter 11.
[54:31] Several verses we read there all are in reference to the antichrist. And then the false prophet is the one think of it in these terms. The antichrist is primarily political.
[54:44] political and economic. The false prophet, as his name prophet suggests, handles the religious responsibilities. And he will provide the spirituality for this thing.
[55:00] And then of course the one who is behind it all, engineering and pulling all the strings, is the dragon, Satan. I think you told us the last time that this beast is the right-hand man of the antichrist.
[55:17] Yeah. The false prophet will be the right-hand man of the antichrist. And his objective will be to make sure that the antichrist succeeds and is worshipped and is adored.
[55:33] And of course the word worship comes from the word worth worth. Or worthiness. And when you worship someone, you ascribe to them great worth.
[55:53] And that's exactly what worship is. It's ascribing great value or worth to one. And when you worship one as God, you are ascribing ultimate value and worth to that one.
[56:07] Well, let's pray. Father, we know that these times are coming upon the earth because this is a direction in which our world is going and this is what you have mapped out as that which is going to transpire when men are confronted with certain choices.
[56:27] And these are the choices that they will make and they are reflected in the descriptions that are given here. We are so grateful to know that even transcending the power of all of these individuals that we've mentioned is your power and your wisdom and your love and your ability so far transcends anything that this unholy triumvirate could concoct that we once again acknowledge you as the Lord God of heaven and your son, the Lord Jesus Christ as our redeemer.
[57:08] and the spirit of God as the blessed comforter that you've sent to us. We thank you for the manifestation of these that you've given in scripture and for the privilege being able to honor and worship you in Christ's name.
[57:23] Amen.