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Good morning on the snowy morning.
Too much snow this year.
I remember one year it snowed every Wednesday all winter.
And that’s when we used to have prayer meetings where everybody met at the church and uh so that was a tough time.
But anyway, um you can enjoy it and uh and be careful in it. Right. Well, I’m thankful for you coming today and fighting the weather and being here. And so um today we’re going to look at Revelation chapter 17, probably verse 7 through verse number 18.
So, take your Bibles and turn there. And I’d like to have you put your hand in Daniel chapter 7. Keep your hand there, too, because I’m going to be going back to that uh with some interesting things that Daniel says about Daniel 7 and Daniel, I mean, Revelation chapter 7 and 17 and 18 are linked together. In fact, this is partly an explanation of what Daniel didn’t know back then, but was given the prophecy that would be coming later on. And of course, Revelation is that book that tells us that. So, let’s pray. Lord, this morning as we look at your word, Lord, help us to see in the word of God just the almightiness of your power.
And Lord also the deception that will be is already amongst us but will be get increasing as time goes on as the antichrist uh will finally make his moves to get into full power. Uh it’s going to be a time that people who get saved during that period must be on the alert every moment of every day because of what’s happening. Many will lose their will lose their lives, but some won’t. You’re going to allow some to persevere through that time. And so Lord, I pray as we gaze upon the word of God that we would get a sense ourselves as we read Revelation about being ready about preparing ourselves for the Lord’s coming.
And I pray Lord that would always be the mindset that we have. It’s always been the mindset, should it be the mindset for believers, that imminent return of Christ. So I pray Lord, you would make us ready as a church and be able to pro proclaim that truth to those who don’t know it but should know it. And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. I remember a a story that I read about it was it was right during World War II.
The Lady Be Good was a bomber uh who had a crew that was well seasoned and they had they were an intelligent group. They were combat ready. They had been on several missions, many missions actually. and they were returning home to base one night and in front of the pilot and the co-pilot was the instrument panel and the radar equipment that they had to rely on to reach their final destination.
They had made this particular flight many times before, so they knew about how long it would take to get there.
But this flight was different. Unaware of the strong tailwind that was pushing the bomber much more rapidly through the air uh than usual.
So the men in the cockpit pit were amazed at their instruments when they it was correctly signaling them that it was time to land.
So they refused to believe these uh accurate dials and gauges.
And though confident they were miles away from home yet they kept flying and hoping, looking intently at those familiar lights below. Their fuel supply was finally depleted and the olive drab bomber never made it back. It was found deep in the desert many miles further and many days later. Its fine crew had all perished having overshot uh the field by a great distance.
And the reason why is because they followed the prompings of their own feelings which seemed right but proved to be wrong, dead wrong. In a very similar way, people are unaware that the strong currents of global circumstances have pushed us closer to the end than we could even ever imagine.
TR closer to the time of the tribulation as spoken in in Revelation. Closer to the time of Christ coming for his church. The instruments God has given us to give us an accurate reading as to where we are is the Old Testament and the New Testament.
We cannot follow the prompings of our own feelings which uh often seem to be right but will prove to be dead wrong. So, Revelation is a book that challenges us to keep hearing the voice of God through the scriptures and to hold to that word and heed what’s written because the time is near. And revelation pushes us to be discerning the times on what’s happening and then to re be remain ready and prepared for the Lord’s coming. That’s what revelation does. It makes us ready for that. And every generation whoever read the book of Revelation, it did prompt that in them to realize these things are going to take place and they haven’t taken place yet, but they will take place.
So as we look at Revelation chapter 17, I already mentioned that in chapter 17 and 18 there is a pause between the seventh trumpet, seven bold trumpet and before the victory of the lamb that is coming and the apostle John, this is the third vision he has. uh and so he gives us in revelation I’ve already mentioned these things but the first point he makes is he gives us a description of the harlot in verses 1 through3 all right and the harlot is the apostate religious system that is already in place uh in the world but as we get near to this time it becomes more prominent more authoritative and bigger than ever before and then uh the apostle John gave us the history of the religious harlot and of course remember that history started at the Tower of Babel in Genesis. That’s where religion started and not religion leading to the truth, religion leading away from the truth. It started back then and it continues today.
But this morning, I want to look at verse 7 through verse number 18. And we’re going to look today at the future, number three, the future of the world’s counterfeit religious system. And so John was told in verse number one of chapter 17, it says, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, come here and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on the water.” So John is expecting to see the judgment of the great harlot.
But instead he saw the grander the her wealth. He saw her glory. He saw her seeming triumph. So John the apostle was a bit confused and somewhat perplexed.
So look at how John responds in verse number seven. He says, ‘ And the angel said to me, why are why are why do you wonder? Why do you wonder? That’s this is what John was doing. He was he was in wonder. John was filled with great wonder and astonishment. So the angel gives John more information and explanation.
And he says in verse number seven, I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her which has seven heads and 10 horns. Now, he’s going to imp unpack that a bit as we go on because here is the first future thing about what happens. And the first future thing we’re going to see from verse 8 to verse 15 is that this counterfeit religious system teams up with the antichrist during this 7-year tribulation period. Now, this probably happens uh even in the beginning of the seven-year period of time there, the tribulation period, and goes on right possibly to the middle of the uh tribulation, maybe a little past that. And so, this system, Antichrist, realizes that he can use this system to bolster his prominence and power in the world. So scripture now focuses on the beast and the em and his empire that will be a political world empire which antichrist will be the ruler. So the woman that is carried by the political empire of the beast is pictured as the source of all evil in apostate Christendom.
A counterfeit religious system used by the beast to get the world to follow him and worship him. The beast being Antichrist.
So this system will continue until there will emerge a one world church.
Apostate Protestantism, Romanism, Islamism, Judaism will all be united together in one system and it will be united into one world church.
John calls Babylon the great mother of harlots.
And of course, remember a harlot is someone who ultimately is has a sexual problems. Of course, this is an apostate religious system that is apostasized towards what the truth is.
And of course, the mother is someone who has children.
However, she will stop having children and that means she’ll stop propagating that religious system worldwide because all harlots like her, she will be used up and she then will be replaced by the total worship of the beast and that’s Antichrist. And my title of the message is the lamb destroys the world’s counterfeit system. But before we get to that, there’s much explanation to be done on what it says in our text.
So there’s two competing powers going on in Revelation 17 verse 8-18.
The first evil power, the number one evil power is the harlot woman. That is the evil religious system that commits spiritual prostitution by doing by actually forsaking the way of God.
Coming to the place where they realize we are going to go our own way. We are organized. We are strong.
And we don’t need God’s way. We have our own way. We have our religious way.
That’s that first evil power. The second power I’ll not get to today. That’s in Revelation 18 is the beast or the scarlet beast which is Babylon itself, the city of Babylon.
So this evil political system that will be called Babylon is going to be the very system that the antichrist or the false prophet and this religious system rides upon.
So we see in scripture in um Revelation chap 17 verse 7 and 8. In verse 7 it says, “And the angel said to me, why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her and the seven heads and the t horns.” So here we’re going to see the origin of the beast that the woman rides on and is carried by the beast. She is the harlot religious system which is moving behind the political and national scene in the tribulation period and she depends the religious system depends on the political system. So we have a religious political system in the tribulation period. Now who’s the beast?
It says in Revelation 17:7.
It says the beast has seven heads and 10 horns.
Now where do we see that before? Yes, the prophet Daniel.
Another Daniel connection is and it’s important that we we really look at back at Daniel chapter 7 and uh and see for ourselves that there is three things that Daniel tells us about the beast which revelation actually affirms or explains more for us. The first one is this in Daniel 7 verse 7.
The first thing it says about the beast there is that he’s actually prophesied in scripture that he will come.
It is the fourth beast. This beast is described as terrible in uh it’s described as almost indescribable.
And the kingdom, this kingdom that is is part of the beast kingdom was not represented by any animal Daniel ever saw before. So look at Daniel chapter 7:7 and it says, “And I kept looking in the night visions and behold the fourth beast beast dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong and it had large iron teeth and it devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns.
Now, this world king that arises from the sea is really the meanest of all and the meanest that Daniel saw in his visions up until this point. It was a kingdom that ate up, crushed, and walked over all its victims, all it the other kingdoms.
It had control over everything.
And if you look again at Daniel 7:7 and it says it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns. It was different because of its great power, its large its largestgeness and its vicious emergence on the scene of human history.
So the the first phase of the Roman Empire was real very powerful and very long. And now notice in verse 7 and 8 because Daniel adds elements about this fourth kingdom not mentioned before and stressed the stress is placed upon the 10 horns and then in Daniel 7 upon the little horn for in Daniel 7 verse number eight it says while I was contemplating the horns behold another horn a little one came up among among them. And three of the first horns were pulled out of the roots, pulled out by the roots before it. And behold, this horn possess eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts. So we see that this little horn is really another horn that pushes up and aside the other kingdoms. It starts off small and little but it becomes very great and powerful and that will be the fourth kingdom that will be the kingdom of antichrist.
So what we are looking at here is the second phase or final form of the Romanike empire.
Some have designated it as the final gentile world uh kingdom with its leader the antichrist. So he was prophesied in Daniel uh that he would come. But if you go back now go back to revelation chapter 17 and verse number eight. A second thing it says about this beast is that he is actually a counterfeit one. In Revelation 17:8, it says, “The beast that you uh that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will will wonder when they see the beast that he was and is not and will come.” Of course again it’s very say it’s very saying about the antichrist. The antichrist was the antichrist is not here right now but the antichrist will come in the imminent future. Now that means the antichrist comes up out from the abyss.
This this is his origin. But that’s not what people see. They don’t see that origin. The only one who sees that origin is the real believers. So the abyss is remember is the home of Satan and his demons which in indicates the power of this political empire of Satan that Satan is the only one who comes up out of the abyss. And you can see why this empire is going to be dreadful and terrifying and very strong.
It was Grant Osborne, a commentator who had a keen observation. He says back in Revelation 11, the second beast ascends from the abyss in order to kill the two witnesses.
In Revelation 13:1, he ascends from the sea in order to be part to be part of the false trinity and to conduct war with the dragon. And then of course the next ascension has not yet occurred but is about to happen in the imminent future which is the one mentioned here. Now this again is a character caricature of Jesus death and resurrection. The antichrist wants to mimic Jesus Christ to the world.
And for what purpose? For the purpose of deceiving the world. Because back in revelation chapter 1 it meant John mentioned when speaking to the churches he mentioned him who is and who was and who is to come. That’s the true and living God. But Satan is going to mimic that uh what Christ has done and that’s how he begins to get his following. He wants the earth dwellers to think that he is the Messiah and his counterfeit resuscitation or resurrection is the clincher. In fact, it is the crucial event in the ascension of Antichrist from the abyss that the dragon, which is Satan, gives to the antichrist uh power and a throne and great authority already mentioned in Revelation. And he gives this authority to rule politically because he will be the ruler of the final world empires empire spoken of by Daniel. So the antichrist Thessalonian mentions him as the lawless n lawless one will truly be an amazing figure and will display his subtle magnetic draw upon the people of the world.
Now, back in Revelation chapter 13, it says there that the people when they heard this, they were amazed that this is all part of the dragon’s attempt to counterfeit the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Remember, the uh antichrist gets a fatal wound and of course appears to die and then appears to come back to life. It was uh Dr. Thomas a professor at master seminary who said it is best to identify this restoration to life with an end time satanically controlled king who will come to the world as a false Christ.
So you have a king and you have his kingdom, a resurrected king as head of a revived world empire, an imperial empire. So do you think something like this will turn some heads and get people’s attention to have someone like him uh appear to die and then come back to life? Yeah, he will get attention. Matter of fact, the Bible tells us in Revelation 13, the whole world will be amazed and will follow after the beast.
So, it looks like the dragon Satan resurrects the beast, Antichrist, from the dead. And that means Antichrist is the counterfeit son in every respect. At least that is what he wants the world to conclude who he is. But the only ones who know that he’s not are the real believers. So just follow what is what is happening here. A counterfeit death and resurrection leads to a counterfeit second coming to rule the world and possess the nations and the kingdoms of the world.
that Satan is playing the part of the counterfeit father.
For as the true father gave authority to the true son, the counterfeit father, Satan gives authority to the counterfeit son, which is antichrist.
So this marvelous feat through enormous deception evolves into accomplishing his intended goal and his intended goal and his final goal for antichrist will be unopposed first of all worship and then unopposed authority and control over everything both religiously and politically.
Now who are the ones that are really amazed? Well, look at Revelation 17 verse number 8.
Actually, the ones who are amazed at this particular event are the spiritually blinded and the spiritually dead unbelievers of the earth are amazed at the counterfeit resurrection. For it says in verse number eight, “And those in the middle of the verse, and those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.” See, God will ultimately reject all unbelievers whose names were not written on the roles of of the citizens of heaven before the foundation of the world, which points to the sovereignty and the omnis of God Almighty, not only in history, but in the very plan of salvation.
that we cannot be Christians at all unless God has done something to us.
It’s not something we do to ourselves to be saved. It’s what God does to us to be saved.
So their knowledge of this miraculous recovery from this death wound convinces them of his invulnerable invulnerabilility that he was invulnerable that he could not be touched that he definitely was the Messiah and he definitely was the one to be followed at that time in history. So the important thing that is hidden from the me mesmerized earth dwellers is the beast’s real character.
They don’t see it. They think he is the conquering one. They think he is the Messiah. But in reality, hey, he don’t care what you think about him as long as you believe him. whether he’s he’s a Jewish Messiah messiah, whether he’s Islam’s mighti Messiah, uh he doesn’t really care. He just wants you to believe in him and it it’s going to be by deception.
So, this is what he hides from unbelievers, but believers actually know. And this is the third thing the word of God says about the beast is that he is the condemned one.
Here’s the real deception and the twist that the observers of this miracle of healing are unaware of the beast’s origin. And what is the beast’s origin? It says in verse number eight, the beast that you saw that was, is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss. All right? So, what’s his origin? His origin is the abyss. the holding place of demons. But he does not present himself as that. The earth dwellers of course are unaware of his origin.
His origin in other words is not heaven.
His origin is is abyss which is the holding place before the lake of fire.
And so once Antichrist after his life is raised back and his life is in other words it looks like he raised from is raised from the dead when he does come back to life he will come back in a demonic rather than a purely human form. So in other words, after this resuscitation, after this mock resurrection, he will come back with greater power than he had in the first part of his uh being on this human scene.
Now the earth dwellers though, they’re also unaware of the beast’s destiny.
Look at the end of verse number verse number eight of well it it tells us right there that it’s he’s go he goes to destruction in verse number eight he goes to destruction and then again in Revelation 17 11 it says the beast which was and is not is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven and he goes to destruction.
So in other words that they’re unaware of also the earth dwellers not only of his origin but that he actually goes to destruction that his that is in other words his destiny.
So believers know his re uh his origin.
They know his destiny because they are keeping their minds on the instruments of the word, the instrument of the word of God and not what they see or what they hear or what they feel because deception today you can’t even believe what you see.
You can’t believe what you hear and in many cases you cannot believe what you feel.
Now in Revelation 17 verse number N it begins to describe for us or explain for us the seven heads of the beast. Now look at verse number nine.
It says here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. So here is a call. Another in verse number nine, for the mind that has wisdom.
Now that means that divinely given wisdom is needed to solve the apocalyptic riddle here. It’s a call for vigilance, to pay close attention.
And what riddle is that?
wisdom about the real character of the beast, wisdom about the real origins of the beast, and wisdom about the events surrounding his coming.
Wisdom needed to avoid the strong deception during this time in human history to be able to hold firmly to the truth and what is written in scripture and not listen to anyone else.
It was CJ Mahaney. He used to attend the together for the gospel conferences. He said, “Today, the greatest challenge facing evangelical bibleelving American Christians is not persecution from the world, but sub seduction by the world.” See, if you’re if you are ignorant of God’s word, you will be seduced and you will be deceived.
So this this discernment is needed to stay clear of being caught in this satanic trap.
He comes on the scene as a great ruler and leader, as someone who is worthy to be followed, and he is none of those things.
In Revelation 17:3, the harlot religious and political system sits on the beast, but more precisely in verse number nine, she sits on the beast’s seven heads where it says, “And the seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sits.” I believe the best way to understand this is to identify the seven heads and mountains as seven successive empires with seven kings.
These heads are the personifications of these empires.
So consequently, the the woman, the false counterfeit religious system rides upon the seven empires, depends on them to propagate what she’s doing, but she is separated from them. that that just simply means that she is one of them but she she has and has great influence upon them uh but in with her false religious standards but she’s not governing them. She has no authority over them.
And of course in Revelation 17 verse number 10 it begins to explain now a little bit more uh because you have to follow what it’s actually saying here. It says in verse number 10 and they are seven kings.
And notice what it says that the these seven kings represent seven literal gentile chile uh kingdoms that follow one another in succession.
And notice Daniel says it like this. These great beasts which are four in number are four kings who will rise from the earth. That we already read that. Thus he said the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth.
So therefore a king can stand for a kingdom of course ruled by a king and what seven kingdoms have dominated the world throughout human history. We had the Egyptian kingdom, Assyrian kingdom, Babylonian, Persia, Greece or Greco kingdom and then Rome.
Remember Rome is the kingdom that was ruling when John the Apostle was actually writing Revelation.
And then of course there is the future kingdom of the beast and that will be the beast’s imperial kingdom but it is Romanike.
It’s has many characteristics of the original Roman Empire. Now look at verse number 10 of Revelation 17 to see what it says about it. It says right here in Revelation 10 it says five have fallen.
So up until the time John is writing, five of those kingdoms have fallen.
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece have fallen.
So that is the five empires that have passed off the human scene prior to John writing revelation. And then it says one is one kingdom is the present kingdom in power when John was writing was the Roman Empire.
And what made the Roman Empire different than all empires that came before it?
Well, what made it different was the type of government that it actually first initiated, which is the government of imperialism.
Now, imperialism can be described in this way.
When the conquering army took over an area, they set their own countrymen and their own countries rule in that area. It did not use national people to rule that kingdom that they took over.
In other words, when Rome conquered, Romans were sent to rule. That’s why when you read scripture and it’s talking about Rome, you have Pontius Pilate, Roman, Felix, Roman, Fesus, Roman. He put those in power. And some people believe that this Roman type of government, imperialistic government, just melted into the rest of the world because when Rome put people in power, they call them Caesars.
And what’s so interesting is that when Russia went in and conquered areas, they put in Russians and called their leaders Zars, right? Which means Caesar.
When Germany went and conquered, they put in Germans to rule and they called their leaders Kaisers, which means Caesar.
So it seems that this Roman type of government was implemented in other places in history in the world. So it seems like it’s still kind of in place.
So this was the policy of imperialism.
And Daniel even mentions that this beast’s kingdom will devour the whole earth. And that’s what imperialism does.
It devours everything.
Now, if you look back at our text in verse number 10, not only we have five fallen, we have one one kingdom that is that’s the Roman kingdom. And then we have notice in our text, the other has not yet come.
See, the fourth kingdom that is yet to come is the future kingdom of the beast.
And I’ve been referring to it as the final form of the last gentile empire.
Some have designated again as the final gentile kingdom led by the antichrist.
But then notice in the the last part of verse number 10, it says this. And when he comes, he must remain a little while. So that means that this future leader of this future kingdom is short-lived and brief.
Now that of course is mentioning the seven-year tribulation period that this kingdom will only be activated in part of that time. So what we have just seen in these seven kingdoms is a sweep of the entire history of the gentile world empires. And brethren, the Bible has just given us in just a few verses the beginning and essentially the end of human history.
And the next verse in verse number seven is a little bit of a mystery.
But look at it. Verse 11 it says the beast that was and is not is himself an eighth and is one of the seven he goes to destruction.
So this beast here is identified as a false messiah because he mimics the death and resurrection resuscitation of Jesus Christ and and much like the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so what is going on here?
Is it just speaking about an eighth kingdom or something else? Well, I think the kingdom correlation alone is is kind of unsatisfactory because a kingdom cannot sustain a death wound to be healed. It has to be a person.
But the person himself can be the king of the kingdom.
So this can happen only if the kingdom’s representative there’s a a kingdom’s representative king. So as one of the seven the beast is a kingdom and then as an eighth he is the king of that kingdom who sustains the wound and ascends from the abyss after the wound. And when this occurs, he is king over an eighth kingdom because he his reign is following the ascent from the abyss. In other words, it’s following his resurrection and we he will it will be far more dynamic and dominant than it was before. So I said before this person when he when he Antichrist comes up, he has a demonic power to him. That’s why he’s able to take over nations. He’s able to deceive the whole world. He has a power that the first part of when the antichrist was functioning as uh did not have the power. So he is uh distinct from his predecessor in that he is subsequently had received a really supernatural powers from Satan at the resuscitation.
So once the fourth empire rules the whole world then this one world government will split into 10 kingdoms.
And the 10 kingdoms cover the entire earth. And these kings have not yet received the kingdom but will join together and will receive royal authority together with the antichrist.
And once they receive royal authority then they become active kingdoms.
Now religionists usually want universal peace. They usually want universal prosperity too through human effort usually and are convinced that the day must come when there will be one religion and one central government of the world.
They believe that. They spout that all the time.
Well, I want you to notice another thing it says about the beast in verse number 12 of Revelation chapter 17. There’s actually several things it says about the 10 horns of the beast.
They were given the authorization of probably by Antichrist to be subordinate kings underneath him to rule with him.
Notice what it says in verse 12 that these 10 kings share their rule with the beast. It says, “Then the 10 horns,” verse 12, “which you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received the kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.” So we see here that the seven heads are seven kingdoms.
But the T horns are kings without a kingdom at the time John wrote. So this is still future as John’s writing. This is the this is the final gentile kingdom led by the antichrist. That hasn’t happened yet.
Hasn’t happened in our time yet. A second thing it says about uh the beast in verse 12 that these 10 kings have a short time.
It says they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.
So this could mean uh it could mean any short period of time. It could be the three and a half years of the tribulation from the middle of the tribulation to the end. It could mean that time. Uh most likely that’s what I believe it means. But then there’s another thing it says in verse number 13.
It says this, these have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast. So these 10 kingdoms with 10 kings are actually subordinate to the antichrist and their purpose is specifically to give their power that they have as kings and their kingdom over to the authority of the beast.
So in other words, when that take play that takes place, the beasts will have full authority over the whole world that these 10 kings are united in one purpose and absolutely support the beast.
The unity of giving their power and authority to the beast. It points to a future time when these kings receive a kingdom and have then power and authority to actually give to the antichrist. They don’t have it yet, but they will have it. These 10 particular kingdoms. Now, brethren, that brings me to a place that I often, and this is the question I that often comes up.
What about the United States of America?
Where does the United States of America fit?
Because the big thing about end time prophecy is it is absent from end time prophecy.
So the qu it always bugged me. It always bugged me. We are a world superpower.
We have been that for quite some time.
Hopefully we’re that for more time. Who knows what’s going to happen. But what what In other words, what I’m saying is this, that these 10 kings surrender their rule.
My question is, why did they do that?
Why do they surrender their rule?
Well, to answer that question, we have to go back to to Daniel chapter 7. So, let’s do that. Hold your hand here in Revelation. Let’s go back to Daniel chapter 7.
And let me see, I’ve been I’ve been thinking of kicking this thing around for a long time, and I I want to kind of divert a little bit, but stay on point that during the 10 stage, this 10 kingdom stage, when that’s developing, the antichrist will rise to power like never before.
He will have demonic strength and he gets these 10 kingdoms to submit to him and give them him all their authority.
But Daniel says something very interesting and I think this is possibly where the US fits in.
The antichrist at the height of his power uproots three nations.
That means he completely destroys them.
That these nations are not integrated into something else, nor do they decline and merge into something else. No, they are completely eliminated. They’re gone.
All right. Now, with that in mind, I want you to look at three passages of scripture in Daniel 4 and to see if maybe I’m on track, maybe I’m not.
Because there’s three possible reasons why America is absent in prophecy. I’m going to mention one of you them to you now. I think it is the most convincing one.
Look at Daniel chapter 7.
And verse number 7, Daniel 7:7, it says, “After this, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong.” This is the one I’m mentioning that’s mentioned in in Revelation 17.
And it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns. All right. Now, look to verse number eight.
While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, that’s the Antichrist, came up up among them. And three of the first horns were plucked out by the root before it.
Now, I mentioned that is because these nations are plucked up. And notice it says by the root. When you pull a plant out by the root and you put it aside, it’s not growing again. It’s done. It’s dead. He plucks these nations up by the root.
And it says, “Behold, this horn possess eyes like the eyes of a man and mouth uttering great things.” That is the character of the antichrist given here.
But then look at verse number 20 of of Daniel chapter 7.
It says this.
And the meaning of the 10 horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up and before which three of them fell. Three of them fell. namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boast and which had large was larger in appearance than its associates. And then that look down to verse number 24 of Daniel 7.
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom, 10 kings will arise, and another will arise after him, and he will be different from the previous ones, and will subdue three kings. All right? Now, I say all that for this reason that Daniel says, “I’m going to pluck up these nations from the root.” Three of them fell. Daniel says, “And shall be put down forever.” So if America is one of these three nations, she doesn’t decline.
Antichrist will violently remove her from the world stage. And remember, America has continuously been a supporter and defender of Israel along with a significant political, military, economic power on the world stage.
She can easily be seen as the number one threat to anti antichrist agenda. that is for for for worship that he desires and the political and economic denom uh domination that he wants in the world.
So if America is gone off the global stage, the other seven nations will quickly fall into place into compliance and will be willingly will willingly give their kingdoms over to the Antichrist because they they see what they’ve done to these great nations.
America is a global power missing from the final world map.
The world I I don’t say these things uh I don’t say these things with pleasantries because I love our country so much.
But the world’s superpower is not mentioned.
The world’s military might is not is absent.
Revelation describes Babylon, a great economic power and its religious system. It describes the kings of the east, a massive army from Asia. It describes the kings of the earth gathered at Armageddon. Every major power block is represented represented except one.
The most powerful nation on earth in our time is our nation.
America is nowhere to be found.
Some say some say that she simply declines and merges into the kings of the earth.
But Daniel says these three nations are uprooted. They’re plucked up by the roots. They’re not weakened. They’re not displaced. They’re not eliminated.
They’re not absorbed.
This is not a gradual decline. It isn’t even integration, but a violent displacement and an utter removal.
Now, some say, well, how could that happen?
How can you pluck a superpower like America off the scene? Well, number one, you first have first thing is you have demonic power.
And of course demonic power who has control of the whole world can do a military action with nuclear weapons.
There can be an economic collapse, an uh uh internal implosion, uh civil conflict, division, societal breakdown, which we already have, the reversal of uh men and women, men being nationaliz uh I mean men being feminized, women being masculized, family breakdown, gender confusion, lawlessness, immorality. There’s no righteousness.
Could be a cyber attack crippling our infrastructure. Could be an EMP weapon, electric magnetic pulse weapon that destroys our grid.
You know, if you’re driving a car built between 1976 and 1980, you should be all right.
However many of us that means that you would be driving a car 46 to 50 years old. Nobody has a car that old. I don’t think my my my even my Jeep my 1998 Jeep is only 28 years old.
So I don’t know if that will get under the radar. But everything electronic is going to be this. If you have a Tesla, sorry, you’re not going anywhere.
Your computers are fried. Everything’s fried. all the communication breaks down. It could be just a natural disaster which which in a major scale.
It could be a strategic getting together the nations of the world against America that’s already happening now.
So any of these sides and some used together could explain America’s absence from the end time events. And I say that with no pleasure.
I really don’t.
So the antichrist establishes a one world government, a single global authority, a unified system controlling religion, commerce.
We’re going to see that more in Revelation 18. and politics and this one global beast system can’t have an American independent American superpower competing with it.
One has to go and unfortunately at this point in time no nation will be strong enough to stand up against this demonic backed power.
The other two nations, it said three nations. The other two nations may be China and Russia right now. They’re the most powerful nations on the earth.
So either America becomes the beast system, which we would see in prophecy, but we don’t.
America is absorbed into the beast system and loses its identity or America is removed before it, which would explain its absence in biblical prophecy.
That the prophetic silence suggests removal.
So if you’re the antichrist and you want to establish glo global denomination, you would have to eliminate the most formidable obstacles, the most powerful nations.
The USA would be one and it would be the most formidable obstacle to his power. So whether thei whether the US is one of these nations, I don’t know.
But I’m saying that I’m trying to wrestle down the question. If we’re such a powerful nation in this world in this time, what happens to us?
So this strong demonic rule uproots these three nations and the other seven nations sat other seven nations which it says here in Revelation just follows in because you know what they don’t want the same thing done to them that was done to those three nations.
So that’s my little research on on what happens to America.
Now you say, well, you said that there was more than one. There are the other ones I can’t explain now. No time. is that the USA becomes Babylon or is Babylon or that the USA is the eagle that helps Israel escape and protects them in Petra or Bazra when they when they dis escape.
All right. All of those are possibilities. I think this is the strongest one.
So, with that encouraging thought in mind, let’s just go back to Revelation and finish up today. I know I’m a little longer today, but I I just want to finish up because I didn’t really get to the point.
The point is that Christ destroys the the religious system, right? But let’s look real quick at verse number 14 of Revelation chapter 17.
What is the now? This is what happens.
Once the antichrist has full power and control, his real motive is clearly revealed.
And what is that real real? What’s the real motive of of the antichrist? Here it is. Hatred against God.
Look what it says in verse number 14.
These will wage war against the lamb.
And war is always the solution of the imperialist.
Their solution is to take over. And if we can’t do it by diplomacy, we’ll do it by war. And that’s what their goal is.
Their goal is always that. But see, at this point in history, God reverses the tables and look what he does. Look what it says in the passage in verse number 14.
See the destruction of the remaining kings. It says the 10 kings and their kingdoms, the beast, the lamb will overcome them. You see that?
that this very organized, very powerful group of nations with its demonic power behind it is no match against the sovereign of the universe.
So here is a deliberate reversal and the reason for the lamb overcoming them, look what it says in verse 14.
because he is the lord of lords and the king of kings. This means he is the sovereign over all others who rule on the earth and in heaven. Jesus is a lord and king like no other that has ever ruled in heaven and earth.
It is his day. It is his turn. This is the day of the Lord. Stand back because the Lord overcomes them. Now, if you look real quickly to Revelation chapter 19 verse 19 gives us the rest of the story there in verse number 19 of Revelation 19. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was seized with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.
These two were thrown into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from his mouth, the mouth of him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. Who is this talking about? It’s talking about Jesus.
It’s in Thessalonians it says the Lord will slay him slay them with the breath of his mouth and bring an end to the their end by the appearance of his coming. So the triumph of the lamb is a triumph of the saints.
Notice what it says in Revelation 17:14.
Last part of it. And those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful.
You see the saints, the called the chosen and the faithful accompany the war, the warrior king Jesus Christ when he comes to the earth in triumph.
Whether the saints just accompany him or or there or they participate in some way, I don’t really know. But I do know this. There’s no real war going on here.
Jesus by the power of his mouth destroys them all.
I do know one thing though. We’re part of his army and we’re more like it says in Romans, we’re more than conquerors through him who loved us.
So Christ promises that the overcomers that they will be given authority over the nations and they will shepherd them with a rod of iron.
It also says in Romans chapter 16, “And on his robe and on his thigh, he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So only the chosen, the called and the faithful ones are his. It’s always been like that.
Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are brought together right here in this passage. God’s by God’s sovereign election and his call by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s his part. Our responsibility is to remain faithful after hearing and responding to the gospel in loving obedience. And repentance and faith is also an act of obedience. I repent and trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And what is my job after that? To remain faithful.
That’s our responsibility. Remain remain faithful in the middle of trials and temptations and persecutions. remain faithful as a student of the word of God. Remain faithful as a churchman and a watchman. Remain faithful as a husband, as a wife, as a parent, as a neighbor. To remain faithful as a witness and a servant of Jesus Christ.
That’s what we’re do.
And then finally getting to the point this morning.
First of all, look at verse number 15.
It explains something. It explains explanation of the waters in verse 15.
And he said to me, the waters which you saw were where the harlot sits are the peoples and the multitudes and the nations and the tongues. In other words, this is a metaphor for inhabitants, meaning the religious harlot system controlled all the inhabitants of the earth.
So here’s a second thing that happened and that’s found in verse 16 to 18 and this is the destruction of the harlot. And I I said that the destruction of the harlot would be destroyed by the Lord.
The lamb destroys the world’s religious system. But how does he accomplish this?
And here we see Antichrist’s true feelings for this great harlot who helped him gain prominence and power in the world.
These 10 kings with their kingdoms and antichrist have pure hatred for the religious system.
Why does the antichrist have pure hatred for this system that helped him rise to power? Because he h will have nobody competing with him.
That’s why he’ll have nobody competing with him.
So this counterfeit religious system is destroyed at last. You know who it’s destroyed by?
By the antichrist himself. Look at verse number 16. And the 10 horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.
So what we have here is really a destru destruction of of this harlot system.
And notice that the beast has no love for his followers. Satan only uses people as pawns to get what he wants.
And when he’s done, he destroys and discards them like throwing garbage on a garbage pile.
Demons have no affections for human beings made in the image of God. The Antichrist desire is to inflict as much pain as possible on this religious system and to put it to final death. So the beast and his vassal kings turn on the great harless harlot religious system and strips her of all her power and wealth leaving her desolate and destroyed. Total annihilation of the apostate church.
However, all these undertakings are under the sovereign control and will of God. This is a surprising verse in Revelation.
Notice what it says in verse 17.
For God has put in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled.
So God raises up these vassal kings to aid the beast to carry out his last act.
And of course, enemy number one, the harlot woman, the harlot religious system is dead.
And now in chapter 18, what do we have?
We have now the political system.
Babylon as a political force also is destined for destruction.
All right. And then chapter 19, allelujah, Christ is one. We’ll get there. Let’s pray.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you again today for the word of God.
It is so uh amazing as we read scripture to know that we have in our hands your plan.
We have in our hands what you will do.
We have in our hands a description of our enemy.
We know his character.
We know his mode of operation.
We know his plans.
And we know his origin. And we know his end.
And Lord, our job as the called ones, the chosen ones, the faithful ones is to remain faithful.
And I pray in this day that we can go out in into our lives on onto our jobs, into our families, and we can remain a light and a testimony for Jesus Christ.
And Lord, I pray in our own mind and heart we’d not allow deception to remove the truth, but we would be cautious to stay very close to the word of God so we are not one who gets deceived.
Lord, give us victory over our remaining sin.
Give us victory over the currents of the world.
Give us victory over satanic deception.
And I pray Lord that every single day we would have in our mind that we need to today to be ready because Jesus may come for me. And I pray this for all of us in Christ