Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to "the most amazing prophecies." We want to take a little bit of extra time tonight in q and a. I tell you what, you people are asking some tough questions. This must be "try to stump Pastor Doug night." But before q and a, how many are blessed by the giftedness of Pastor John and his voice? I'm tell telling you what, when Pastor John sings, I just want to sit back and be swept up to heaven. Pastor John, come on out here and lead us in our theme song tonight as we get ready for the q and a time with Pastor Doug.
Let's all stand together and sing our theme song, "give me the Bible." You can join us, our words are on the screen. Sing it together... And tonight our prayer is gonna be offered by a good friend of mine. We go way back to the seventh grade. I know him as timmy, but this is pastor Timothy nixon.
So bring us before the Lord in prayer tonight, brother timmy. Let us bow as we pray. Our father and our God, we are grateful for this opportunity to worship in the beauty of holiness. And we're grateful for the chance that we have to call upon your name. As we pray this night, we know that many have situations or circumstances that they're struggling with.
And so we ask that you'll be very near to them tonight. Minister to each person who has come. Lift the burdens that they are carrying and let them know that you love them and are concerned for them. And be in a special way with this service and with our speaker, Pastor Doug, tonight. For we ask it in Jesus' Name, amen.
You may be seated. Thank you, pastor tim. He's one of our university chaplains. Thank you, Pastor John. Thank you, kelly and jamie.
We're off and ready to go. Well, he's had a very full day. Church was packed all the way to the back row again this morning as he preached to this 3,000 student university campus. Let's give a warm welcome. Bring him back on, Doug Batchelor, for our q and a and then for his lecture tonight.
Welcome, Pastor Doug. Thank you, pastor dwight. Evening. Welcome to our friends who are watching. This has been exciting.
All right, doug, we do have some serious questions tonight and this opening one gets us right back to where we were last night. "The Bible says that the fire--the lake of fire and brimstone never goes out. It's worms never die, etcetera, etcetera. Now last night, you mentioned, doug mentioned, that after the fire goes out, there is a new earth, etcetera. You also mentioned no torture chamber-like place reigning forever and ever.
So how do we put that together? The fire comes to an end and yet the Bible says it's unquenchable." Well, there are several points that are addressed in there. The word "unquenchable." Quench is a verb that means to extinguish. There is nobody extinguishing the fires of hell. The Bible also tells us that sodom and gomorrah were burnt with eternal fire, but they're not still burning. It means the results of that fire are eternal.
In Jeremiah 17, it said that if the children of Israel did not repent, that Jerusalem and the gates would be burnt with unquenchable fire. Well, they were burnt by Nebuchadnezzar. It's not still burning. Nobody extinguished it. And then it mentions the worm not dying and the fire not being quenched.
Jesus, in that passage, is talking about the valley of gehenna, valley of henum that is sometimes translated hell, is just outside Jerusalem. It was a city dump that was kept, they kept it burning to keep the smells down. There were all the worms were there, unclean animals that died were thrown there. So it was full of maggots and smoldering ashes. And he used that as a figure for that which is unclean for the lost.
And so he was giving them a visual image of hell. He wasn't saying--i mean think about it. Are we going to look out of our windows from the new Jerusalem at worms and moldering ashes through eternity? Would that be heaven for anybody? No. Several questions actually dealing with the subject of hell. And it is a sensitive subject.
There's no way you can desensitize it. It's just gonna be a tough one and here is a very earnest question. "You talked about the wicked who will burn and perish forever. Question, does that go for the children of the wicked who are too young to understand? Will they suffer as much as the adults?" Well, obviously the Lord tells us that there's a point where children reach an age of accountability. We're judged based on what we know.
And children not knowing are not gonna be punished that way. God is a God of love. You do have to ask a difficult question. When the flood came in the days of Noah and the world was destroyed for its wickedness, where there any children that were hurt in that flood? The sins of the parents, the children often suffer for and that's why it's all that more important for parents to be a good example and lead their children to Christ. But God is not going to punish children before the age of accountability in this lake of fire because they don't know.
"To whom much is given," Jesus said, "much is required." And children, before they understand these issues of salvation, they're not held accountable for those things. Here's an interesting question, keying off on the premise of prophecy, which this seminar, of course, is all about. "We've established, at this seminar, that God knows the future by the fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Bible. Since this is so--" this is good. "How are we then given a freedom of choice if God already knows which way we're going to choose? All right, good question.
Now you're getting into the great themes that pastors and scholars have labored over. Picture, if you will, a weather helicopter hovering above a hill watching traffic. It's one of these traffic helicopters I meant to say. It looks down and it sees a little red volkswagen entering into a tunnel on top of the hill, two-lane tunnel, and the helicopter sees coming up the hill on the other side is two semis, one decides to pass. The helicopter can see there's gonna be a collision in the tunnel.
He is not taking away the choice of the drivers because he sees what's gonna happen. God is all knowing. And because he knows what the final result is gonna be, doesn't mean he's taken away our choice. He just knows what the result of our choices will be. You see the difference? You still have your choice.
Does God know whether or not I'll be saved or lost or you'll be saved or lost? Of course, he knows all things. That doesn't mean he's making it happen. Because if you take that thinking to its ultimate conclusion, that would mean, let's all through our hands in the air and whatever God does, he does. No. God says, "you do choose, choose ye this day who you will serve.
" You've got the water of life spread before you. The Bible appeal is, "whosoever will, let him come." You choose to come. All through the Bible, the appeals are made for us to choose. God really is committed to our human freedom, isn't he? I mean that is just a priceless gift. That's the greatest gift.
Now here's a switch. "Is it a good thing to ask God for signs?" Let's talk about prayer. "Is it a good thing to ask God for signs? If yes, how can we know the answer comes from him and not satan?" That is a good question. I think you need to be careful about asking God for signs. It's like the fellow who is trying to lose some weight but he wants to stop getting those donuts on his way to work each day.
And he says, "okay, Lord, give me a sign. If it's okay for me to have one donut, they'll be an empty parking place in front of the donut shop." And so after driving around the block 13 times, finally one opened up and it was a sign from the Lord. So you know, sometimes we can manipulate these signs. You flip a coin, you don't get what you want, you flip it again, right? Usually when they asked for signs, God invited them to and they were already in dialogue with the Lord. It's like when the prophet Isaiah came to hezekiah, he said, "ask a sign.
" Again, Isaiah said to the King, "ask a sign." Yeah, that's right. It was Isaiah. And so gideon, he was already in dialogue with the Lord when he threw that fleece out. God had given him something to do. He needed assurance that he was not gonna lead these men to their destruction and he just--because of his concern for them, he said, "give me a sign.
I need confirmation." God will help you in those situations. Sometimes when you've got many good choices and you're not sure which choice to take, you can say, "Lord, I've studied Your Word. I really don't know, providentially guide me." And God may give you some sign that way. But I don't think you should be, you know, consulting tarot cards and flipping coins. And how do you know it's not the devil? Well, just make sure you're staying in the will of the Lord according to His Word.
Good answer. I knew this one was gonna come tonight. "Usually in a prophecy, a day represents a year. You've taught us that. "Why then in Revelation 20 where satan is bound for 1,000 years, is this interpreted as a literal time period instead of 1,000 prophetic years which would be 360,000 actual years?" Right or if you're using the roman calendar, 365,000 years.
The principle of prophetic interpretation where a day equals a year, it applies to us in this life while probation is open. Once the millennium begins, isn't it true the saved are saved and the lost are lost? Then when it says, "1,000 years," it just means 1,000 years. Prophetic time doesn't apply anymore. No one's studying the Bible during the millennium to find out what the future is. Know what I'm saying? Good.
"Dear Pastor Doug, if God put two of each mammal--two of each animal on the ark, what happened to the dinosaurs?" Well, when people say dinosaurs, of course, we always think of is the great big thunder lizards, the tyrannosaurus rex and the stegosaurus and the triceratops and the brontosaurus. Actually, there are all kinds of reptiles in the world today. Some have been extinct even during the time of man. God told Noah to take two of all the creatures. We believe he did.
Nothing said that they had to be full grown. He could have taken dinosaur eggs and fulfilled the requirements, right? They could have been little bitty tyrannosaurus rex. But if God told him, "take two of everything," God wanted him to preserve every species. Probably a lot of animals were rendered extinct. You read about nimrod, the mighty hunter.
Right after the flood, what do you think he was hunting? Probably some of these great beasts that may have seemed a threat to humanity. "Why did Elisha" now here's just totally from another angle. "Why did Elisha kill the children for mocking him in 2 Kings 2:24?" Right after Elisha is inaugurated as the prophet of God, he had been the apprentice of Elijah. And keep in mind, Elijah was sort of a homeless prophet. To be the poor apprentice of a homeless prophet, it's hard to get respect.
And after he was then commissioned by God and filled with the Spirit, double portion of Elijah's spirit, to--matter of fact our study tomorrow night is "return of Elijah," so good time to mention that. Some of the children, I guess he had a bald head. That's what it says. Children came out of the city and they began to mock him and said, "oh, so Elijah went to heaven in a fiery chariot. Why don't you go up, bald head? You go up, bald head.
" And don't mock people for their bald heads. That's why it happened. No. He was being established in a very important prophetic ministry that was going to last for years. It doesn't say the children were killed.
It says they were mauled. It says, "it tore them" meaning that the bears came out and mauled these children. Many of them bore scars their whole life from mocking the messenger of God. And that established something that lasted for the whole, 50 years of his ministry that they needed to respect God's messengers, especially if they have bald heads. This is back to the secret rapture teaching you were teaching a few nights ago.
"Why is the secret rapture teaching so widely accepted among protestants when it's origin historically can be traced with no biblical support?" There's a long answer. Let me try and give you a short one. The teaching, the left behind teaching, the secret rapture teaching that is so popular these days is really a new teaching. If you go back 200 years, none of the mainline churches believed that. What happened is--i don't know how deep to get into this now.
It was largely popularized. It came from francisco ribera and alcazar was adopted by darby. Darby embellished and elaborated on this teaching. Scofield, any of you heard of the scofield Bible? When scofield put darby's theology in his Bible notes and people like hal lindsey got a hold of it and then wrote best-selling books, it spread like wildfire. But it was just a fringe teaching for several hundred years because it just didn't have any biblical foundation.
But it just took off. It was a phenomenon. There's history behind it I can't you give until after tonight's presentation. Here's a practical Christianity question, "can you commit adultery without having sex?" What does Jesus say about that? Jesus said, "if a man looks on a woman to lust after her in his heart, he can commit adultery in his heart." So can a person commit adultery without the actual act? The sins begin with attitudes before they turn into actions. Isn't that right? Jesus said, "murder begins in the heart.
" It's conceived in the heart and when sin bears fruit, it then matures after that. And hatred. A person doesn't just suddenly kill. It develops as hatred with an attitude, turns into murder. Adultery's the same way.
Now someone is thinking, "well, since I'm thinking it in the heart, why not do it?" No, it's not the same thing. I met people before, "well, Jesus said thinking it's the same thing as doing it." No, he didn't say that. The action is worse. First of all, it usually involves two people where the attitude can involve one person. And so the action is worse than the attitude.
But the sin begins with the attitude in the mind. Good answer. "I don't understand the degrees of reward in heaven. Can you explain?" Well, Jesus tells us that there are varying degrees of reward. Not only are there varying degrees of punishment, Christ tells us that, "he who knew his masters will--" and this is in Luke.
"And did not do it will be beaten with many stripes. He who did not know will be beaten with few stripes." And in the Kingdom it says that different talents, different minas, are given to-- we're talking about Jesus' parable. His parable of the talents and the minas. Yeah. And those who take it and multiply what he has given them, they have those reward and he says, "you'll be faithful over ten cities.
" They're given greater rewards in the Kingdom. Jesus said, "whoever shall do and teach the law will be spoken of as great in the Kingdom of heaven. And then he told his disciples, "there will be varying positions of honor around his throne." So there are varying degrees. The Bible teaches it a number of different ways. Doesn't mean anyone's unhappy in heaven.
And nobody's gonna walk up and down the streets and say, "see how many stripes, I've got. See how many stars I've got?" Gloating that way. One more question, time for just one more. And you know we have gotten a lot of questions on marriage. Makes me think we must be on a university campus.
Here's one. And they're almost all this question. "Will the marriage ordnance be done away with in the new earth and the new heaven?" Good question. Jesus was asked by the sadducees. They created a scenario where they said, "this woman is married to a man, he dies.
She marries his brother, he dies. She marries his brother, goes through seven brothers. They die. Who's she married to in heaven." And Jesus said, "you do err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God but those that are worthy to obtain the resurrection, neither marry nor are given in marriage but they shall be like the angels. And some have understood that to mean that nobody's married in heaven.
Now the purpose of marriage and procreation will not be the same in heaven. But do adam and eve get divorce papers when they get to the Kingdom? If God originally designed them to be love partners and friends, will they still have that relationship there? My belief is there are no new marriages and the statement Jesus makes, makes it sound like there are no new marriages or marrying in heaven. But on the same place, people who have had uninterrupted marriages here where you've got just Isaac and rebecca, not Abraham and all of his wives, you may see Isaac and rebecca walking hand in hand in the Kingdom. God doesn't hand them divorce papers when they get there. Now this is a little bit--I'm sharing this with you by permission and not by commandment, but that's the way I understand it.
I like the answer by the way. Thank you. That means a lot to me. Thank you, Pastor Doug. We'll continue tomorrow night.
Thank you very much. Hey, we have a great program prepared for you tonight. And I want to welcome everybody again. Some may have just joined us to "the most amazing prophecies" seminar. This is a program where we are handpicking from some of the most relevant and important prophecies in the books of Daniel and Revelation that have to do with the day in which we're living.
And we're combining and condensing and coalescing these things into an action-packed prophetic study. A lot of very important subjects, a lot of misunderstood subjects. But you want what the Bible says, don't you? And tonight we're gonna deal with something that has been in the news a lot lately and they've made movies about it and books have been written about it, the subject of the antiChrist. And the study tonight is titled, "the bride of antiChrist." And it's based on Revelation 17 where you've got this woman that is sitting on a beast. And it's also--marries into Revelation 13 where you have the beast and the Mark of the beast, Revelation 12, and we're gonna spend a little time in Daniel 7.
So that's your homework after you go home. I hope you'll read 'cause we don't have time to read all those chapters right now. Revelation 17, Revelation 13, Revelation 12 and Daniel 7. We've already studied Revelation 12 a little bit. I'd like to start with an amazing fact since we're talking about beasts.
All right, let's test you. If you cross a donkey and a horse, what do you get? You get a mule. Some of us grew up on a farm. And what happens if you marry two mules? Can't do it, they're sterile. They're amalgamations.
They don't procreate. I guess there's been one very rare occasion where they said they found one that could reproduce. When you cross a donkey and a zebra, what do you get? A zonkey. It's true. You think I'm teasing you.
It's a fact. They do it in africa. How many of you knew that. You've heard of zonkeys before? You can go online, see a picture what a zonkey looks like. If you cross a dolphin and a whale, what do you get? Now you think I'm making this up.
They did it in Hawaii at the sea park there. My family was just there this last year and you get a wolphin. They got one. It's true. And if you cross a lion with a tiger, what do you get? No, you can't cross lions and tigers and bears.
But you can cross a lion with a tiger, you get a liger. And this is a picture of a liger. They happen to be the biggest cats in the world. They sort of growl and bark a little bit like a lion and a tiger. They' got shorter manes, the males, than african lions do.
They are the biggest cats. They get up to a 1,000 pounds. They can reach 12 feet, a big one, when they stretch out, 12 feet high they can reach up. And they're very gentle. They're just like great big old, great big old kitty cats, ligers.
Well, when you read in Revelation 13, you're gonna find that there's some creatures that appear there that are hybrids that you've never heard of before. And why don't we go to Revelation 17:3, I'm not gonna be able to read all of these verses to you but just to give the kickoff. "So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman--" that's the bride of antiChrist. "Sitting on a scarlet-colored beast which was full of names of blasphemy having seven--" how many heads? "Seven heads and ten horns.
" Say it again, "seven heads, ten horns." That's important you remember that. Now this woman in Revelation 17 is somehow in collusion with the beast. She's riding on the beast. They're traveling together. There's another woman who is in Revelation 12 who's the antithesis of the woman in Revelation 17.
We studied her. She is the bride of Christ clothed with the sun, moon, and stars. What does this beast with seven heads and ten horns--oh, by the way, let's read that. Revelation 12:3. Same beast.
"There appeared another wonder in heaven. Behold a great red dragon having--" how many? "Seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads." And that dragon is infuriated with this other woman. So the woman in Revelation 17 is the bride of antiChrist that we're studying, and we're gonna find out more about who that is and who this beast is. What is the antiChrist power? Probably appropriate for me to just say at this point, how many times do you think the word "antiChrist" appears in the book of Revelation? Zero. It's not even in there.
The teaching is there but antiChrist is found in first and second letters of John. You'll find that that beast with the heads and ten horns appears again in Revelation 13. Now it's in Revelation 13 you hear about the Mark of the beast. That's the chapter where that appears. And it says, "I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having--" what? "Seven heads and ten horns.
" There he is again. And if you want more specifics on what it looks like, it's not a liger. Listen to some of the characteristics. This is verse 2 of Revelation 13, "and on his horns, ten crowns and on his heads blasphemous names. Now the beast that I saw was like a leopard and his feet were like the feet of a bear.
" You cannot cross a bear and a lion or a leopard. "And his mouth like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power, his throne and great authority." Now if you remember from our study earlier where we talked about the four major kingdoms in Daniel 2, how many of you were here for that first study? You had the Babylon, medo-persia, greece and then the fourth beast was rome. Here we just identified this beast in Revelation 13 it says, "it's like a lion and it's like a leopard and it's like a bear and it's--the dragon's there." And so you've got those same entities. You'll find out more about those features of the lion and the bear and the leopard by going to Daniel 7. So jump there with me real quick, Daniel 7.
And I'm gonna read verses 2 and 3 here on the screen. "I saw in my visions by night, and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea." That great sea is probably the mediterranean was the biggest sea near the middle east there. "And four great beasts came up from the sea, each one different from the other." So these four beasts that are different. Now let's get into question number one as we begin to dissect these prophecies and understand who the characters are, who these players are. Number one, "what does a beast represent in prophecy?" Answer, you find it right there in Daniel 17.
"These great beasts which are four are four Kings." And it also says in Daniel 7:23, not just Kings as in one single monarch. But it says, "the fourth beast shall the fourth kingdom." So these beasts represent Kings and kingdoms. Now let me just make something very clear. When we study the subject of the beast and the antiChrist and other times we'll give you further material on the Mark of the beast, it doesn't mean that a beast is a monster. Beasts are often ways that countries identify themselves.
For instance, when you think of the bald eagle, what country do you think of? That's a creature, a beast. You see in the old testament, they use the word, "beast" for creature, for animal. That's an animal that represents the United States. If--today, what is great britain's animal? It's a lion. They're not the lion of prophecy but, you know, several countries in the world pick the lion 'cause, of course, everyone wants to be the lion.
Canada, they've got the beaver. You know I had great respect for Benjamin franklin. I still respect him, but I was terribly disappointed when I heard that he had recommended, instead of the bald eagle, that America choose the turkey. Did you know that? That's a fact. I am so thankful.
Can you imagine the battle cry of our soldiers as they went to war? Number two, "what does the wind and the sea or the waters represent?" When you get symbols in the Bible, it tells you what they represent in the Bible. Revelation 7:1-3, you find out that the winds represent strife and commotion and destruction. Both with a hurricane and a tornado, the winds are going in all four directions at one time, north, south, east and west. And so when it talks about the four winds and these winds of strife, that's what you see with the vortex of a storm whether it's a hurricane or a tornado. It creates a great strife, turmoil, turbulence.
And again, the waters represent, Revelation 17:15, the angel tells John what the symbols mean. "The waters are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues." You'll read, for instance, in Daniel 9 where it talks about this abomination power. It says, "the prince of that kingdom that will come will overrun like a flood." And again in Revelation 12 it says, "the dragon opened his mouth, he sent a flood." That means he sends armies after them, peoples. And so when these powers rise up out of the sea, it means they're rising up out of the existing nations. That's important to remember because when you get to Revelation 13, there's a second beast.
Everyone talks about the beast in Revelation 13. There are two beasts in Revelation 13. You got verses 1-2 and then you got verse 11 has another beast. Number three, "what kingdom--" now we're in Daniel 7 still. Matter of fact, I'm gonna open my Bible.
I want to read this to you. Oh, I'm glad that I remembered that I forgot. We have two lessons that go along with our study tonight that talk about the beast. And I really hope you'll take advantage of these two storacle lessons. One lesson is "the daughters dance" and the other is "bowing to Babylon.
" So much material is compressed into this seminar that we really hope you'll take advantage of the additional study. So some of the groups have that material. We hope you're handing that out tonight. Daniel 7, do you have your Bibles? Let's look at this together. We're gonna quickly read this prophecy and then we're gonna unpack it.
It says here in verse 4, he has this vision. And--well, we'll start with verse 3. "These four great beasts come up from the sea each different from the other. The first is like a lion and has eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on its feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it.
Suddenly another beast." The second, suddenly. "Like a bear, it's raised up on one side and had three ribs in the mouth between its teeth. And they said, 'thus to it arise and devour much flesh.' After this, I looked and behold, there was another like a leopard which had, on its back, four wings as of a bird and the beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it. And after this, I saw in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth.
It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with the feet of it. It was different, diverse, from all the beasts that were before it. And it had--" you reading? "Ten horns." That ought to be a clue there. That's corresponding with the beast that you find, that fourth beast is what's happening there in Revelation. Matter of fact if you turn your page in Daniel 7 and jump down to verse 23, the angel elaborates on the fourth beast there.
He's translating, interpreting, for Daniel. "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom of the earth which shall be different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth, trample it, break in pieces and the ten horns are ten Kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall rise after them. He'll be different from the first ones. He'll subdue three Kings." Three of the ten are kicked out. "He'll speak pompous words, blasphemous words against the most high and will persecute the saints of the most high and intend, or think, to change times and laws.
Then the saints--then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and a times and half a time." And the chapter goes on there. I need to stop because I've got so much to cover. I'm just gonna run ahead here real quick. The first of these four beasts in Daniel is what? It says it's a lion. Lion with two wings.
We know that represents Babylon because these are the four same kingdoms that we saw in Daniel 2. Matter of fact, even in the excavations that they've done from ancient Babylon, they found that one of the signs for the Kingdom was this lion with wings. Babylon typified themselves that way. Question number four, "what does the bear represent?" You find that in Daniel 7:5, "and what do the three ribs in its mouth symbolize?" Well, what kingdom followed Babylon that we study? Medo-persian kingdom. In Daniel 8:20, it identifies it by name, the King of persia.
The three ribs in the mouth of this bear, they represent the three principle powers that were conquered when persia came into power. We know they conquered Babylon. Medo-persia also conquered lydia and Egypt. And three ribs represent that they had defeated these kingdoms. Number five, we're moving quickly through history here.
"What kingdom's represented by the four-headed leopard?" What empire followed the persian empire? Do you remember? the Kingdom of greece, and it's symbolized by this leopard. I threw a picture in here because I thought you'd find it interesting that alexander, traditionally, they said that he had a leopard skin as his saddle. And I thought, "well, that matches along with what the leopard was." Four heads and four wings because he moved with such great speed, the four wings, four heads because when alexander died, he was--i think he Marched his armies very rapidly, 20,000 miles in 10 years. It's almost inconceivable to move armies that fast back in those days. But when he died 32 years of age, his kingdom was divided in four parts among his four generals, and they became the four divisions of the Greek empire.
And let me see if I can say these, the ptolemy, lysimachus, seleucus and cassander. Those four generals divided his kingdom up, four heads. Number six, "the roman empire, or the fourth-world kingdom, is represented by a horrible monster who has iron teeth and ten horns. What do the horns represent?" It says in Revelation 17:12, "the ten horns which you saw are ten," what? Ten Kings or ten kingdoms. And by the way, iron teeth, it's not in your question here.
What kingdom represented the legs of iron that we read about in Daniel's vision, chapter 2? That was rome, was the iron legs. And so rome is this kingdom that then divides into ten parts. That's why you end up with the toes of iron and clay. Here are the ten divisions of these germanic kingdoms that made up the roman empire. And the names, the ancient names, that you'd find here are the germans, the alamanni.
The french, the franks. The switz, the burgundians. The portuguese were the suevi. The italians, the lombards. The spanish, the visigoths.
The english, the anglo-saxons, as you know. And there were three others that were uprooted, the vandals, the heruli and the ostrogoths. Now if you take 10 and you subtract 3, what do you get? Seven, when you find that beast it's got seven heads and ten horns in Revelation. It all matches up perfectly. Don't miss a very simple principle here.
You've got that vision in Daniel 2, the lion, the head of gold. You notice that the most illustrious metal is gold, right? And the lion is considered the greatest of the beasts and what kind of wings does a lion have? Eagle's wings. Babylon had the best of everything, gold, lion, eagles. It was the most majestic. As you move successively down that vision, you see the other kingdoms, and there's a corresponding there between the golden head and the lion.
You've got the silver arms and you've got the bear. Then you've got the bronze belly. You've got the leopard. You've got the iron legs. You've got the strange beast with ten horns.
When you get to the feet of iron and clay, something's happened to the legs. The legs have gone through a change. They're not just iron, they're iron and clay. Something happens to the horns. Another little horn comes up, uproots three horns.
Do you see the parallel? By the way, in prophecy, this is very important so even if it takes time away from my other questions, if you catch this, it really helped me. When God teaches prophetic truth, he often teaches one truth with many different vantage points. Jesus told truth with many different parables. He would teach the truths of salvation, a number of parables to give you perspective so you could walk around something and get a perspective of what it looks like. In Revelation, you've got the vision of the seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets.
They are giving you the history of God's people, seven churches of the religious history of God's people from the first coming to the second coming. Seven seals are giving you the political history from the first coming to the second coming. The seven trumpets are giving you a military history from the first coming to the second coming. That's not all it means. There's a lot more there to it than that.
But they're giving you the perspective. In Daniel, you see the same thing. He's showing the powers that would influence God's people and he does it once through the vision of Nebuchadnezzar's image and now Daniel's getting a vision of these four beasts. And in Daniel 8, he's got the same truths are being taught with a goat and a ram vision. And so God is overlapping these things so you won't miss it by giving us several different perspectives of the one truth.
Now when we get down to the feet, we're talking about the beast power, the antiChrist. You'll notice that in the feet of iron and clay, how many toes? Is it ten toes? Then in Revelation 17, you've got a woman riding on a beast, seven heads, ten horns and you've got the same thing in Revelation 12 and the same thing in Revelation 13. And so that's the character that we're seeking to identify this evening. Question number seven, "in Daniel 7--in the Daniel 7 prophecy, what happens next?" Daniel 7:8... By the roots means they're not coming back.
Sometimes you leave a root, something will sprout again. That means they're gone for good. "And behold, in this horn were the eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great or exalted or even blasphemous things." Now consider some of the parallels that we're seeing between the prophecies of this antiChrist power in Daniel 7 and in Revelation 13. Look, for instance, at the chart we've got on the screen here. Daniel 7 talks about a lion.
Revelation 13, "mouth like a lion." Daniel 7 has a bear, Revelation 13 has got "paws like a bear." Daniel 7 has a leopard, Revelation 13 has a leopard. Daniel 7 has a dragon, Revelation has a dragon. They both have the ten horns. They both have a mouth that speaks. They both make war with the saints.
They seem to be victorious, at least temporarily, over the saints. They rule--or at least they're able to push them underground. They rule 3 1/2 years, 42 months in Revelation 13. In a Jewish calendar, 42 months is 3 1/2 years. Matter of fact, that's one of the most important time periods in the Bible.
It calls it a time, a times and the dividing of time. A time in the Jewish thinking was one complete cycle of the seasons or one year. A times meant a couple or a pair, so that's two. That would make a total of three. And the dividing or half of 1, 3 1/2, 3 1/2 Jewish years, they got 360 days in the Jewish lunar calendar.
That's actually easier to work mathematically. That's why there's 360 degrees in a circle. Pilots all use a 360-degree circle for flying. It works better mathematically than 365 1/4. So the jews did that because it was mathematically better.
They would add another month every 13 years to compensate for the season change. But that same time period, 42 months, a time, times and the dividing of time, 1,260 days is a time that God wants us to understand 'cause it's the same period that this beast power in the last age of the church here creates a lot of havoc. Number eight, here's the million dollar question. "So who is the little horn of Daniel 7 and the first beast of Revelation 13?" Okay. Now I gotta make my speech.
Do you folks want to know the truth? I gotta say some heavy things tonight that are often misunderstood. Sometimes I've said it and I've not been sensitive and people have gotten up and walked out. I don't want anyone to walk out until I'm done. I want you to hear, hear me out. See if what I'm sharing is from the Bible or not and make your decisions based on the Word of God.
Amen? What I'm about to share with you is nothing original with me. Matter of fact, it's not even new. It is not exclusive with the church I happen to belong to. What I am sharing with you is the teaching that churches had believed for hundreds of years that has been almost completely lost sight of. It's almost extinct and it's like there's a plan to hide it.
Now let me say very carefully, first I'm gonna tell you straight out what I believe. Then I'm gonna try and give you the evidence for why I believe what I believe and see if I can put a little balm on the sharpness of this subject. I believe that the beast power described--the first--there are two beasts in Revelation 13. I believe the first beast represents the church in rome known as the papacy. I believe the second beast represents the United States.
Now I'm an American. I love my country, but I think it's in prophecy, so I have to be honest with you about who they are. I went to two different catholic schools growing up, love the people there. I am not speaking against Americans and I'm not speaking against catholics. Is that clear to everybody? There are gonna be a lot of people who are members of my church that aren't gonna be in the Kingdom.
There are gonna be a lot of people who are members of the catholic church that are gonna be there. But what we're talking about now--remember what I said in my speech about read the ingredients, look at what the teachings are. These things are seen in history. God's people, in the old testament, were Israel. How many agree with that? How many of you know that the Kingdom of Israel went through a tremendous split? You ended up with the southern kingdom that still had the temple that tried to be faithful to the Lord for a while.
The northern kingdom began to slip toward idolatry and paganism. They began to worship idols at bethel and dan. The same thing that happened in the old testament to God's people, happened after the time of Christ to God's church. What northern Israel was in the old testament, the papacy is after the time of Christ. Now, let me read to you from what the church fathers--and most of these are the leaders of the reformation that I think you'll recognize their names.
I'm just gonna read from what they say, and then I'm gonna read from the writings of the papacy. And I remember when I first learned these things, even though I went to catholic school, I didn't know what the papacy was. I thought papacy was a little letter too small to need an envelope. "I'll send you a papacy. I don't need a--it's a small letter.
" I didn't know what it was, and so someone had to explain that to me. And I even went to catholic school. But the papacy is speaking of the hierarchy of the catholic church. It's comes from the word "papal" or "pope." And listen to what martin luther said--by the way, he was a catholic priest. That's how he started out.
Gonna read a number of quotes, stay with me... Of course, The Father of the lutheran church. If you read from the writings of John calvin, presbyterian leader. "Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the roman pontiff antiChrist." And of course it could be very misunderstood... Those are the teachings of calvin in his book, "Christian institutions.
" John knox, the great scottish reformer... Paul warns about in his writings. "Wherefore it followed rome to be the seat of antiChrist." And these are from the works of cranmer who is the martyr of the church. "And the pope to be very antiChrist himself. I could prove the same by many other Scriptures, old writers and strong reasons.
" Cranmer, who was one of the great anglican leaders, was put to death, burned at the stake by the church. Some of you, of course, have heard of roger williams who was one of the founders of the freedom of religion in our country. Rhode Island, our providence was established by him... You don't hear--these are church leaders and this is what they believed. If you're a methodist, listen to what John wesley said, founder of the methodist church in his commentary on the Bible.
.. And then you've got the-- from the book "all roads lead to rome," it says... So you don't ever hear sermons. It's very politically incorrect. But what we're talking about is who did prophecy identify as this power? And also keep in mind, we're not suggesting that any human, any person within these institutions or organizations is an unkind person.
We're not judging them. We're talking about the power, the organization of that institution. Number nine, "are there some clear points that we can consider to help us identify the antiChrist?" Now let's take all of the identifying characteristics that we looked at--by the way, did you know the antiChrist is mentioned in Revelation--the beast power is mentioned in Revelation chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, chapter 15, chapter 16, chapter 17, chapter 18, chapter 20--no, chapter 19, chapter 21 of Revelation? So if you want to study prophecy and leave out the beast, can you really be honest to do that? Does the Bible address it? You know what it tells us just before Jesus comes back? The final warning that goes to the world before Christ comes back is "Babylon is fallen, come out of her my people. If any man worships the beast in his image, the wrath of God is poured out on that person," then Jesus comes. It's a message that needs to go to the world and I don't want anyone's blood on my hands.
So I want to be faithful to give it to you straight but lovingly. Pray for me that I can do it right. What are some of the points that we find when we look at all these passages in prophecy dealing with the beast? Well, it tells us that, first of all, it's among--comes up from among the ten powers. It has a human leader. There are ten points here.
We're doing a through j. It uproots three. It's diverse or different from other powers. It's a persecuting power. It comes up after the fall of the roman power in a.
d. 476. It rules for a time, times, the dividing of times or 1,260 years. It's guilty of blasphemy. It changes God's law, or attempts to, and it's identified as this little horn kingdom.
It's a kingdom power. Now, question number ten, with all these ten points that we just looked at, if you apply them to the papacy, does it fit? All right, one by one, let's look at them. Stay with me. I'm giving you a lot of information now, and I know that it's sometimes more entertaining for me to tell you little anecdotes and stories, but I want you to think because this is so important. You owe it to yourself to tune in and listen to these quotes.
A, "does it fit the criteria of coming up among the ten powers of the western europe?" When you consider the geography of europe, was rome in the midst of that? So when it comes up among rome, does it fit that criteria? Let me hear you say "yes" if you think so. I mean it's right in the middle there. It tells us in Revelation 12, "the dragon is the devil working through pagan rome." Was power was it that was controlling the world in chapter 12 of Revelation that tried to destroy Jesus as a baby? It was the roman power, so we know it comes up from there. It says in Revelation 13:2, "and the dragon gave him his power, his seat and his great authority." That means its seat of authority, its throne so to speak, is handed over by rome. Rome gives this beast power its position.
Does the papacy or the catholic church fit that criteria? Look at what history says. We know that with the legalization of Christianity under the time of constantine, and then constantine not only legalized Christianity, he moved the headquarters of the empire to constantinople, named it after himself, istanbul. Here's what it says in abbott's roman history... So, did the church receive its seat from the roman empire? Not only were they given, basically, the very palaces that the emperor used to live in, but he then gave them an army. He gave them authority and he said, "the church is not just a religious institution now.
We're gonna make you a political institution now." And they were basically handed all these things. The prophecy fits that perfectly... Right out of history. It sounds like it's right out of the Bible. All right, the next criteria.
Issue b, we're looking at the evidence now. It says, "it would have a man, an individual, who would speak for it." There would be a man who had a mouth that would be the spokesman, a person at the head of the papacy. Would we all agree that the papacy, the roman catholic church, has one indivi--if I ask you, who's the head of the catholic church? What do you tell me? Is it a parliament? Is it a senate, a congress or is it one person? It's the pope. It says, "power was given him." Revelation 13:7, "over all kindreds and tongues and nations." I think everybody agrees that the pope is the undisputed leader of the papacy. Does it fit that criteria? Listen to this quote.
And by the way, the quotes I'm reading you, many of these, they're either from history or from the papacy's own writings. This is an example of the latter. "We moreover proclaim--" this is a declaration from a papal bull. "And declare and pronounce that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the roman pontiff." You catch that? It is necessary for salvation for every human being to subject to the pope. That's the translation of that.
So it meets that criteria of one individual at the head. Evidence c, let's see if it fits this now. "It would pluck up or uproot three other kingdoms while it comes into power." Oh, now we've got to go to history. "The three arian kingdoms of the vandals, the heruli, and the ostrogoths were overthrown between 493 and 538." And when the roman church came into power and they were given military power, one of the first things they did was to subjugate these three kingdoms, you've heard of vandalism? You know where vandalism comes from? Because the vandals, they were a Christian nation. They were arians.
They did not believe in the trinity but they also were against idolatry. And as idolatry began to creep into the church, they would go and they would deface, or break up, the idols that the church was beginning to worship and they called them vandals, vandalism. That's where the word comes from. They were destroyed. Have any of you ever met someone from the ostrogoths or the heruli? You say, "well, I've met some vandals before, but no they're not related to the vandals back in the ancient kingdom.
" They were uprooted by the roman power, by the papacy. So does it meet that criteria? Yes, it does. Evidence d, it says it's a diverse power from these other kingdoms. Instead of it just being a kingdom like Babylon, medo-persia, greece and rome, this is different because it's iron mixed with clay. It's different because the papacy is a kingdom where you can have dual citizenship.
You might be from argentina and be from the Kingdom of the papacy at the same time by being a member of that church. You see what I'm saying? It's both religious and political. One billion members around the world. Do you think prophecy might touch on something that profound that had so much power during the dark ages? Absolutely. It's in there, but it's just not politically correct if you say these things.
Answer e, "it would make war with and persecute the saints." We read that in the Bible that it would wear out the saints of the most high. It would be a persecuting power. Well, if you know your history at all--and when I went to school, it was still in the history books. I don't know if it's still there now. Anyone ever heard of the inquisition? I think you could look it up and still find it if you go to an encyclopedia.
But there was tremendous persecution. As soon as you give any church military power, it's gonna be abused. Did Jesus ever compel people to follow him? When he said to somebody, "you know, follow me and if you don't, we're gonna get the police after you or we're gonna get the soldiers after you, we're gonna torture you until you believe like I tell you to." Is that how Christ operated? Did he tell the church to operate that way? No, but this is what happened. These are not God's methods. Revelation 13, it tells us in verse 7, "and it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.
" That doesn't mean that he gets victory over the saints, but they are pushed underground and this beast power is in prominence. It becomes a successful counterfeit. "It is a well-known fact from history that the church did persecute. The papacy clearly admits doing so." I really admired pope John Paul ii. I don't know if I told you, my father met him, flew to rome and had an audience with the pope.
And he said, "just a lovely man." And the new pope, pope benedict. He might be a lovely individual, and we're not speaking about them. We're talking about the positions they hold and the teachings of the movement, the institution, and what they've done historically. But pope John Paul ii, part of the 2000 jubilee was a public confession for the abuses of the church. But do you know how it's worded? They are very careful how they word things.
They worded it that, "some in our church did some things to persecute," as though the church didn't approve it. Have you noticed, one thing I caught pastor dwight with the pope's comments about islam that have been in the news lately, they continue to make it sound like people have misunderstood. "We are sorry. We are so very sorry for your misunderstanding." But the pope is technically not supposed to make any mistakes. And so the wording, you'll notice, is very carefully crafted in any kind of apology.
But they did admit that there was persecution that was implemented by the church. And oh, man, some of the figures range anywhere from 50-70 million people. From 538-1798, not only Christians but jews and others were killed under the name of the church. The british historian, william edward lecky wrote... All you gotta do is go to europe and tour some of the churches.
I've been there. You can do it in south America too 'cause they even had--some of the churches had these places where they had implements of torture under the church. And they say, "come on down, pay a fee, we'll show you." And you can see the dungeons and the torture chambers. And it is just a fact of history. So, does the papacy fit that criteria that we read about of being of persecuting power? Yes, it does.
Evidence f, "it would emerge from the fourth kingdom of iron, pagan rome." Did the papacy come up from the roman empire? Yes, it came up right from the seat. It goes on to say in Revelation 17:13, "the waters that you sawest are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues." And with the swipe of a pen, constantine, basically, made the roman power ruled by the emperors--the roman empire ruled by a church. And it suddenly went from iron to iron and clay. Clay, in the Bible is what God made man of. It's the symbol for religion there.
It's not just a political power. It tells us that "the papacy arose from the center of civilization." That is just all through the history books. Answer g, we go on to learn, "God 's people, or the saints, would be given into his hand for a time and a times and the dividing of time." That's 3 1/2 years. And it goes on again in Revelation 13:5, "all power was given unto him to continue 40 and 2 months." Well, does the church fit that criteria... Where did the head of the church used to be when you read your Bible? When they gathered for councils, did they go to rome or did they go to Jerusalem? And all of sudden, the head of the church was shifted to rome.
Paul, in one of his letters, he writes to the church and he says, "your brethren in Babylon." You think he was talking about ancient Babylon that was swallowed up by the desert? They were already beginning to call rome Babylon at that time. The church recognized it symbolically as Babylon. Again, you can read... That's history of the Christian church. Now, it tells you in prophecy, "I have given you a day for a year.
" There are several examples of that in prophecy. Not only do you find that in Numbers, you find it in Ezekiel. I think I quoted to you from Luke 13 where Jesus used that principle where he said, "go tell herod, that fox, I do cures and cast out devils and perform miracles. Today, tomorrow and the third day, I will be completed." Another example of a day for a year in prophecy. It says that this power would hold uninterrupted sway from 538 to 1798.
And we've already seen that they were clearly established, a good starting point there, at 538 a.d. If you go, not 1,260 days, a day is a year in prophecy. So you go 1,260 what? Years. What does that take us to? 1798. What was happening in 1798 around the world? Anyone remember this character? The little general, the little corporal they called him.
Napoleon. His armies were sweeping across europe into northern africa. And fed up with the abuses of the church and because a frenchman had been murdered in rome, they used that has an excuse to take the pope captive. Matter of fact, I've got that. It's right here out of the history book.
"In 1798, berthier, he was the french general. He made his entrance into rome, abolished the papal government and established a secular one." From that time in 538 until 1798, they held virtually uninterrupted control over these kingdoms of europe. the Kings could really not do very much without the approval of the church. And they had advisors in every court. I don't know if I've told you yet.
You know how the--you know how the anglican church started? Little amazing fact. I might have time to share this with you. You know, after henry viii's many marriages and divorces or if he couldn't divorce his wife, he'd just behead them. The church even said, "you know, enough is enough." And then he tried to get them to approve of one of his latest marriages and they weren't gonna do it. And he said, "we'll break away and we'll start our own church.
" Well, it was a little harder for the church to fight england because there was an ocean separating them from the european continent. And henry didn't really want to do it because it created a lot of unrest among the loyal catholics and his empire. So he sent one of the earls in his empire--i can't remember his name right now. With a group of emissaries to make peace with the pope. And he brought his great afghan dog, the earl of windsor I think it was, brought his great afghan dog with him.
And when he went to meet with the pope, the custom was the pope would stick out his foot and you would kiss the pope's toe. When the pope thrust his foot towards the earl to kiss, the dog, wanting to protect his master, bit the pope's toe. The swiss guard, who's been there 500 years now, immediately dispatched the poor dog. The earl seeing his dead dog, was so outraged he stormed away from this meeting where they were supposed to reconcile england with rome. And when he got back, he says, "henry, it's hopeless.
Let's start our own church," because of a dog bite. It's interesting. There's more to it than that, but I thought that you'd enjoy that. Letter h, it tells us about this beast power. "It would speak great words of blasphemy against the most high God.
" Now what is blasphemy? We're not gonna use it like if you're using irreverent language in a bar. What's the Bible definition of blasphemy? There are two scriptural definitions for blasphemy? First one is, "claiming to forgive sin." And the second one is, "claiming the prerogatives of God, claiming to be God." And it tells us that this beast power, Revelation 13:6, "he opens his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name." And again, in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God." Let me say something about this right here. Some people think, because of that verse I just read, that the beast power is gonna sit in the temple of God. They say, "well, the temple was destroyed in 70 a.d. In order for the beast to sit in the temple of God, they must be rebuilding the temple of God.
" That is a terrible misunderstanding of Scripture. The Bible tells us in the new testament, "what don't you know that ye are the temple of God." Christ said, "destroy this temple made with hands, in three days I'll raise it up." What was he talking about? His body. The church is the body of Christ. And so when it says this beast power sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God, it's talking about the devil infiltrates the church and puts himself in the position of God and claims the prerogatives of God. It's not talking about a building somewhere.
And yet, how many times have you heard on tv evangelists say, "yup, they're gonna rebuild the temple over there. They're gonna bulldoze the dome of the rock?" You know what kind of war that would create? I mean right now the pope just makes a bad sentence and look at the furor that's caused by it. What do you think's gonna happen if they go in there with bulldozers and demolish the mosque of omar? That's not the temple it's talking about. That's why the whole world is confused about these issues. It's a big diversionary tactic.
The devil has got everybody looking down this way. He's coming up from behind, happening right under their noses. It's happening now and everybody's looking for this beast that is not where they think he is. The Bible gives us a definition for blasphemy. John 10:33, "the jews answered Jesus and said, 'for a good work we're not stoning you but for blasphemy because you, being a man, make yourself God.
'" When a man puts himself in the place of God, what does the Bible call that? Blasphemy. Now some quotes from the catholic churches' own statements. "We, the popes, hold upon this earth the place of God almighty." That's a complete quote there. Pope leo the xiii. Again, "the supreme teacher in the church is the roman pontiff.
Union of minds there requires together with perfect accord in the one faith complete submission and obedience to the will of the church into the roman pontiff as to God himself." I think that's stretching it, friends, when a man says, "you need to obey this--" technically, he's a pastor of the church as God himself. "On April 30, 1992, pope pius the xi said, 'you know that I am the holy father, the representative of God on earth. The vicar of Christ, which means that I am God on the earth.'" What's the other definition for blasphemy? We just read it a second ago. It's claiming to have the ability to forgive sins. "And the scribes and the pharisees began to reason saying, 'who is this that speaks blasphemy?'" Speaking of Jesus.
"Who can forgive sins but God alone? And they were right. God and God only can forgive sins. Does a church claim to have that power? Pope leo xiii again, "this is our last lesson to you: receive it, engrave it in your minds, all of you. By God's commandment, salvation is to be found nowhere but in the church; the strong and effective instrument of salvation is none other than the roman pontificate." The only way you can be safe. You know, if you would delete those words and put in "Jesus," it would be okay.
That would be a great statement. But when you put in an earthly power in individuals, that's taking the prerogatives of God. Again, "dignities and duties of the priest," "God, himself, is obliged to abide by the judgment of his priests and either not to pardon or pardon according as they refuse or give absolution. The sentence of the priest precedes and God subscribes to it." The priests are deciding who is forgiven and who is not forgiven. That means if you get someone who's got the office of a priest and he's cranky or inebriated, you're doomed.
That'd be terrible to give that kind of power to a man. Answer i, "it would think to change times and laws." A few quotes, "the pope has power--" these are from their own writings. "To change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ." Now they believe--and you know, one of the things I love about America is you're free to believe whatever you want to believe. That's wonderful. I've been in countries where they don't have that freedom.
It is so nice that if you want to smear yourself with molasses and sit on a hill of ants in America, you can do it. You know, it's a great place to live. Sometimes, freedom is risky. It can be abused. But hey, you know, let's face it.
We all meet all kinds of people with kooky beliefs in America. Amen? And you're free to believe whatever you want. You might think my beliefs are kooky and we can still love each other, right? You know what I look for in Christians is you can disagree, but let's not be disagreeable about it. I am gonna submit to you--and keep in mind, I am coming from the position of somebody who went to catholic schools, who had a lot of lovely friends and teachers that were in this institution, and I was shocked when I learned these things. But you know a light went on and the Holy Spirit said, "that makes sense.
" And I had to decide, do I want to follow popular traditions or do I want to follow the Bible? Little history. What happened is gradually as the roman power began to decline, the church in rome began to grow. They wanted to make Christianity more and more attractive to the pagans in rome. And so they thought, "you know, in order to reach them, let's create bridges. Rather than just destroy their idols, let's rename them and give them Christian names.
I mean it's certainly good to do that. We'll just do it as a transition." And little by little, they began to worship these idols. Instead of it being an idol of jupiter and mercury and zeus and diana, it was Peter, James, John and mary. And a lot of other teachings came in directly from paganism. Something else I think you'll find interesting.
There's a book. It's a powerful book. It's been out for years called, "the two Babylons." How many of you have heard of that book? Dr. Hislop, "the two Babylons," it actually traces from Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom on through the persians and through the Greeks and through the Romans right into the church of rome. Various teachings were refined and brought.
And you can find the relics of Babylon even in the papacy today. A lot of--why do you think we celebrate Jesus' birth? And I'm not ebenezer scrooge. I'm not against Christmas. But where in the Bible do we get the idea it was the middle of winter? Where do you find December 25th for his birthday? Had nothing to do with that. That was a roman holiday celebrating the rebirth of the sun during the winter solstice.
And that's where it comes from. I mean it's in the encyclopedia. It's very clear from history. But a lot of things from paganism were baptized. I want to get to heaven, how about you? I need to follow Jesus.
Christ is the word incarnate. If you follow the word, you're safe. You cannot follow the traditions of men. Jesus said, "you have a fine way of setting aside the commandments of God in order to observe your traditions." Traditions don't save anybody. Listen to what the Bible says and I'll contrast it with the teachings of the papacy.
The Bible teaches we are not to bow down to statues. How many know that's one of the Ten Commandments? It's not only in the old testament. Some say, "well, it's an old testament law." It's in the new testament. "The roman catholic church says that we should bow down to statues, not ancient tradition but it's a mid [inaudible] tradition." It's being practiced today. Now if you ask the typical catholic, "you realize this is not actually mary?" They'll say, "of course we know it's not mary.
" But if you ask a buddhist who's praying to a statue of buddha, "do you think that's really buddha?" They'll say, "of course not." Any idolater knows the idol is not actually the God. So when that's often used they say, "oh, it's just to help us think about mary or Peter." But they kiss them. They give gifts to them. They rub them. They carry them around.
That's idolatry. The Bible-- one of the Ten Commandments. New testament, "keep yourself from idols," last words in John's letter. The Bible teaches we've all sinned except Jesus, Romans 3:10-12, Hebrew 4:15. But in the papacy, they teach that mary was sinless.
The Bible teaches that nowhere. The Bible says that, "Jesus is the only mediator between man and God." The roman catholic church says, "mary is the co-mediator." The Bible teaches that, "Christ has offered his sacrifice on the cross once and for all." The roman catholic church teaches that, "the priest continues to offer Christ on the altar every time he offers mass." The Bible teaches that, "all Christians are saints and priests." We're all part of a royal priesthood. Catholic church says that, "the priests are an exclusive group within their community." The Bible teaches that, "all Christians should know that they have eternal life," 1 John 5:13. Roman catholic church says, "Christians should not know that they have eternal life." The Bible teaches that we can have--"we should call no religious leader our father," Jesus said that, Matthew 23:9. Catholic church teaches, "we may call the priests and pope father.
" The Bible teaches not to pray in vain repetition," Jesus said that in Matthew 6:7. And I remember when I went to catholic school. How many of you know the "hail mary" and the "our father" by heart and the rosary beads and all these things? The Bible teaches, "to confess your sins to God for God and God only can forgive sin," Isaiah 43:25, Luke 5:24. The catholic church says to, "confess your sins to the priest." The Bible teaches, "before baptism, a person should be taught to believe the Gospel and the commandments of Christ to believe and to repent." The roman church says, "it's okay to baptize infant babies before they even understand the concepts." "The teaching of purgatory and limbo, prayers for the dead are nowhere in Scripture but the relics of paganism." The words of Jesus to the pharisees apply today when he said, "you do well. Nullify the Word of God with manmade tradition," Matthew 15:16.
There's a lot more I could say here, but time will not permit. Maybe in our question time, I can cover some more of this. Final part j said it would be a worldwide movement. Do they meet that criteria, friends? What is the word "catholic" mean? It's means universal. The Bible says, "all the world would wonder after the beast.
" You know I've run out of time and I just--i really want to speak to your hearts as we close here. The evidence is so overwhelming. The greatest minds in the Christian church all recognize these things. It's, sometimes, considered to be unkind or politically incorrect to tell what the Bible truth is. But when did Jesus ever say, "if you follow me, you're gonna be popular?" When did Jesus ever say, "the truth is gonna be popular?" I'll tell you what he did say, "the truth will set you free.
" And Jesus has sent this truth to you, friends, because he wants you to be free. God has a lot of his children that he is calling out of Babylon. And that bride of Babylon, last words in Revelation 17, if you have any doubts, you just read it. The last verse says, "that woman, the bride of antiChrist, is that great city that reigns over the Kings of the earth." What great city was reigning over the Kings of the earth when John had his vision? Rome. A woman, a church in rome, it cannot be misunderstood.
God has told us these things to show that he sees the beginning from the end, and he has a plan for your life as well. Amen? You know, I'd like to just have prayer with you. Normally, I'd bring John up and we'd sing right now, but I just really feel like we need to pray 'cause I believe some people are struggling. The Holy Spirit is striving in their hearts. People who have been part of this institution all their lives right now are probably dumbfounded with what they've heard from prophecy.
And I want to ask God to send his spirit into their lives. Will you pray with me for those here and those who are watching. Father in Heaven, we have heard some very heavy things, but we have heard the word from your book, Lord. We pray that that word will fall on fertile ground right now, that the Holy Spirit will water it and that it will bear fruit. Be with these dear people who are listening and struggling through the things that have been presented, that they might recognize that God is calling his people out of Babylon into his church in these last days and give them the grace and the faith to seek first your kingdom and to take a stand based on what Jesus says.
In His name we pray, amen.