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The Coming of World Peace (Revelation 61–2) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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Speaker 1: We come now to the time of the study of
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Speaker 1: God's Word and I want you to open your Bible
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Speaker 1: to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6 begins for us.
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Speaker 2: The future element of the book of Revelation.
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Speaker 1: Now we get into the prophecy regarding the time of
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Speaker 1: the end. We're going to be learning so much as
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Speaker 1: we go through chapter 6 right on to the end
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Speaker 1: of this great book. There is truth and application abundant
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Speaker 1: in every verse. It is not just a mystical trip
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Speaker 1: into the future. It is not just a fascinating look
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Speaker 1: at something that doesn't have relevance for now. It is
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Speaker 1: very practical. And we're going to allow the Spirit of
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Speaker 1: God to apply it as we go. Tonight I want
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Speaker 1: to speak to you from the first two verses of
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Speaker 1: chapter 6 because this is the first seal that is
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Speaker 1: opened on the subject, the coming of world peace, the
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Speaker 1: coming of world peace. In verse 1 we read,' And
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Speaker 1: I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven
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Speaker 1: seals and I heard one of the four living creatures
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Speaker 1: saying as with a voice of thunder, Come. And I
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Speaker 1: looked and behold a white horse and he who sat
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Speaker 1: on it had a bow and a crown was given
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Speaker 1: to him and he went out conquering and to conquer.'
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Speaker 1: Now you will remember that the scenes in chapters 4
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Speaker 1: and 5 are in heaven. And we see in the
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Speaker 1: scene in chapter 4 God seated on His throne. Then
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Speaker 1: as we come into chapter 5, God holds out His
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Speaker 1: hand and in His hand is a little scroll sealed
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Speaker 1: with seven seals. Those seven seals basically were for the
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Speaker 1: purpose of hiding what was in the scroll. It could
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Speaker 1: not be broken. without manifesting that someone had done that.
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Speaker 1: It couldn't be read unless it was broken. It couldn't
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Speaker 1: be broken legally except by the one who had a
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Speaker 1: right to open it. I told you that little scroll
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Speaker 1: was the title deed to the universe, and the only
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Speaker 1: one who was worthy and able to open it was
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Speaker 1: the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion from the
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Speaker 1: tribe of Judah, the Root of David, as He is
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Speaker 1: described in chapter 5, verse 5. The scene then is
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Speaker 1: God and God is about to unleash judgment.
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Speaker 2: Around His throne is lightning and thunder.
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Speaker 1: In the midst of this there is glorious worship of
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Speaker 1: God by the redeemed and raptured church and by the angels.
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Speaker 2: And in the midst of all of this glorious worship, as.
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Speaker 1: God gets ready to act in judgment and as all
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Speaker 1: those glorified beings celebrate His coming judgment, for it is
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Speaker 1: right and just and will be the exaltation of Christ
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Speaker 1: and the glory of the saints, as they celebrate that,
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Speaker 1: God puts out His hand and in it is the
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Speaker 1: little scroll which symbolizes the title deed to the universe.
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Speaker 1: It has to be taken back from the usurper, Satan,
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Speaker 1: and all his cronies. The Lamb, the Lion of the
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Speaker 1: tribe of Judah comes forth and takes the scroll. He
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Speaker 1: is worthy and He is able. He has a right
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Speaker 1: to inherit the universe. He has the power to take it.
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Speaker 1: Written in this scroll is a description of the judgment
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Speaker 1: by which the Lord will take back the earth. It
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Speaker 1: is sealed seven times as often ancient documents were to
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Speaker 1: keep it hidden until the rightful heir opens it.
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Speaker 2: At the opening of.
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Speaker 1: Each seal we will see drama portrayed, the drama of
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Speaker 1: the coming judgment as the wrath of God unfolds and
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Speaker 1: He takes back His universe. Now the first seal is
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Speaker 1: opened as we read in chapter 6. And when that
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Speaker 1: seal is opened, a drama plays out. One of the
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Speaker 1: four living creatures, you will remember them from chapters 4
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Speaker 1: and 5, says, as with a voice of thunder, come.
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Speaker 2: And I looked and behold a white horse and he
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Speaker 2: who sat.
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Speaker 1: On it had a bow and a crown was given
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Speaker 1: him and he went out conquering and to conquer.
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Speaker 2: Here is the first seal.
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Speaker 1: This then is the description of the first event, the
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Speaker 1: first feature of the end when the Lord takes back
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Speaker 1: His world. For many years, many Christians have been taught
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Speaker 1: that things in the world are heading inexorably toward final war.
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Speaker 1: We have all been told that we are headed for Armageddon,
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Speaker 1: that we perhaps are headed for a nuclear holocaust. Maybe
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Speaker 1: that's what Peter had in mind when he says the
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Speaker 1: elements will melt with fervent heat. That everything in our
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Speaker 1: society and in our world is going to deteriorate and
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Speaker 1: deteriorate and deteriorate until the holocaust breaks loose. The world,
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Speaker 1: we've been told, is going to fall into deeper and
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Speaker 1: deeper chaos, confusion, disaster and death. We have all heard
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Speaker 1: the gloom and doom message, the message of escalating war, crime,
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Speaker 1: financial collapse, etc. We know, and even the Scripture says it,
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Speaker 1: there will be wars and earthquakes and famines and plagues.
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Speaker 1: We look at the world around us and we see
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Speaker 1: people concerned about the character of society, concerned about finance,
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Speaker 1: concerned about food and the food supply, concerned about fuel
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Speaker 1: and the fuel supply, concerned about pollution and environment. We
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Speaker 1: all have been told that we face in these areas,
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Speaker 1: the areas of our social order and our money and
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Speaker 1: our food and our fuel and our.
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Speaker 2: Environment, we face doomsday.
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Speaker 1: We face insurmountable dilemmas that will drive the globe into
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Speaker 1: an ultimately living hell. We're on the slide to destruction.
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Speaker 1: But is that really the scene? Yes, ultimately, but no temporarily. Actually,
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Speaker 1: before the worst comes, and it will come, there are
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Speaker 1: going to be good times. I believe we are headed
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Speaker 1: for worldwide peace, worldwide prosperity, safety, security. Before things get bad,
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Speaker 1: they're going to get better. In fact, many world leaders
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Speaker 1: are convinced of this. Many world leaders, and you can
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Speaker 1: read them if you just listen to what's going on
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Speaker 1: on the television and read the news magazines and even
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Speaker 1: the newspapers. Many world leaders are convinced that the problems
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Speaker 1: in our world, problems of food and fuel and society
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Speaker 1: and environment, these problems are so serious and they are
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Speaker 1: so compelling that they are driving the attention of nations
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Speaker 1: away from the military field. and that all of the
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Speaker 1: ingenuity that has been poured into space travel, all of
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Speaker 1: the ingenuity that has been poured into weapon development is
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Speaker 1: going to be moving towards society and economics and environment
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Speaker 1: and food and fuel. And the wonderful genius of man
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Speaker 1: is going to pull us out of this dive. The
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Speaker 1: world as you watch it today is setting aside its arms. Oh,
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Speaker 1: there are skirmishes here and there and there always will
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Speaker 1: be some of those. But the world is really laying
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Speaker 1: down its arms because it has to focus on what
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Speaker 1: it deems to be more serious problems. Money, social order, food, fuel, environment.
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Speaker 1: People are frightened that our future is threatened. They're very
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Speaker 1: concerned about the quality of life. They're not so concerned
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Speaker 1: about national borders. Oh, as I say, there are some
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Speaker 1: places where that is still an issue. There are some
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Speaker 1: bitternesses that run very deep and we see places like that.
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Speaker 1: But for the most part, the great powers of the
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Speaker 1: world are moving away from separation to unification. We're seeing
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Speaker 1: the unification of Europe. something we perhaps thought we would
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Speaker 1: never see. We all assumed the Soviet Union would stay
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Speaker 1: intact until the very end and be the king of
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Speaker 1: the north that came down and.
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Speaker 2: Destroyed and overpowered Israel.
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Speaker 1: We have watched Western and Eastern Europe come together in unification.
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Speaker 1: We are watching even now the pulling down of trade barriers.
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Speaker 2: They're talking about common currency.
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Speaker 1: They're talking about eliminating all of the trade barriers to
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Speaker 1: facilitate a common economy so that the rich can help
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Speaker 1: the poor become richer. They're concerned about medicine. They're concerned
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Speaker 1: about health. They're concerned about all of those things and
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Speaker 1: driven by those concerns, they want to pull down all
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Speaker 1: the barriers they can. Even in our own northern part
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Speaker 1: of the western hemisphere where we live, we're very close
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Speaker 1: to having a trade bargain or whatever you want to
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Speaker 1: call it, pact with Mexico and Canada to pull down
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Speaker 1: all barriers so that the economies flow back and forth
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Speaker 1: so we can all take advantage of strengths and compensate
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Speaker 1: for weaknesses. tremendous, tremendous effort going on in the various
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Speaker 1: think tanks of our world to come up with means
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Speaker 1: by which the unification of the world can occur. Robert
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Speaker 1: Mueller has been called the philosopher of the United Nations
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Speaker 1: and its prophet of hope. Mueller has served the United
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Speaker 1: Nations for 33 years and has performed diplomatic missions all
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Speaker 1: over the world. Today he is the Assistant Secretary General
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Speaker 1: of the United Nations. He's in charge of coordinating the
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Speaker 1: work of 32 specialized agencies and world programs for the UN.
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Speaker 1: He's got to be one of the best informed men
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Speaker 1: in the world. And Mueller is convinced, and I quote,
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Speaker 1: that there will be no third world war.
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Speaker 2: Between the big powers, end quote.
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Speaker 1: But instead, he says, we're headed for a new age
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Speaker 1: and a new world, a new genesis, a true global
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Speaker 1: God-abiding political, moral and spiritual renaissance to make this planet
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Speaker 1: at long last what it was always meant to be,
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Speaker 1: the planet of God.
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Speaker 2: End quote. He claims to be a good Catholic.
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Speaker 1: His God, however, is not the personal God of the
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Speaker 1: Bible but the cosmic force who is pulling together unification
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Speaker 1: all over the globe. You see, people believe that this
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Speaker 1: is all we've got.
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Speaker 2: They believe that the earth is all there is. You
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Speaker 2: understand that?
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Speaker 1: They believe we've got to hang on to this deal
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Speaker 1: because it is all there is. Those who are evolutionists
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Speaker 1: think we've got to preserve it.
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Speaker 2: They worry about what you do to it.
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Speaker 1: And I thought to myself as I was studying this,
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Speaker 1: if you think we mess up this earth, wait until
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Speaker 1: you see what Jesus does to it. This is a
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Speaker 1: disposable world. but they don't know that. This is a
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Speaker 1: consumable planet, but they don't know that. It was designed
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Speaker 1: to be consumed, it was designed to be disposed of,
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Speaker 1: and it was designed to be used up and when
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Speaker 1: it's used up, the Lord Himself will create a new
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Speaker 1: heavens and a new earth. But these people believe that
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Speaker 1: this is it. And the fear of losing the planet
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Speaker 1: is sublimating the fear of having all the territory you
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Speaker 1: might need or keeping your.
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Speaker 2: Traditional borders or losing them.
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Speaker 1: Herman Kahn, head of the Hudson Institute, a New York
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Speaker 1: research organization dedicated to predicting the future says, quote, even
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Speaker 1: with all the problems we now face, mankind and the U.S.
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Speaker 2: Have a great future.
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Speaker 1: He says, many of the fears plaguing Americans today will
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Speaker 1: be all but forgotten in coming years. He says, he predicts,
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Speaker 1: the population explosion will soon fizzle, the birth rate will drop,
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Speaker 1: and the world population will stabilize at about ten billion.
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Speaker 1: The world is not running out of natural resources since
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Speaker 1: vast supplies lie untapped in space and in the earth's oceans.
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Speaker 1: We have plenty of energy and will never run out
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Speaker 1: of fossil fuels since there's enough coal alone to.
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Speaker 2: Last hundreds of years.
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Speaker 1: In addition to nuclear power, there is also solar energy
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Speaker 1: and thermal heat beneath the earth's surface in an almost
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Speaker 1: unlimited potential that we have scarcely begun to develop. All
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Speaker 1: of the pollution problems that now seem so serious will
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Speaker 1: eventually be solved. The inflation rate will drop below 5
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Speaker 1: percent and there will be a worldwide economic boom. Computers
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Speaker 1: will be the key to much of the above and
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Speaker 1: a genetic engineering will make food plentiful and cheap by
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Speaker 1: developing new edible plants that can be grown in salt water.
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Speaker 2: End quote. He's not alone.
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Speaker 1: There are many like him, leaders and analysts. who believe
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Speaker 1: that all the energy and all the attention and all
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Speaker 1: the creative juices flowing to problem solving in our world
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Speaker 1: are going to bring us to an age that man
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Speaker 1: may think is an age of utopia, an age of peace,
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Speaker 1: and an age of prosperity. We've gotten a little taste
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Speaker 1: of that, haven't we, with the ending of the Cold War.
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Speaker 1: When that age comes, when that time of world peace comes,
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Speaker 1: earth's war-weary inhabitants are going to greet the peace with ecstasy.
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Speaker 2: They're going to be convinced that utopia has arrived.
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Speaker 1: It's going to look as if all the problems are solved. Finally,
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Speaker 1: international peace and a certain degree of prosperity for everyone.
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Speaker 1: We've watched as the iron bars of communism have crumbled
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Speaker 1: to dust. We've watched as the invincible communist power has
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Speaker 1: fallen willingly. We've even heard communist leaders apologizing for their
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Speaker 1: past conduct. No less than Pope John Paul II looked
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Speaker 1: at all this dramatic change and announced that the world was, quote,
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Speaker 1: at a very special moment as if awakened from a
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Speaker 1: nightmare and opened.
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Speaker 2: Up to a better hope.
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Speaker 1: So says USA Today in December of 89. The Pope
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Speaker 1: says we're coming to a better day. People are talking
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Speaker 1: as if the candle or the flame of hope has
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Speaker 1: never burned brighter. Is there peace on the horizon? Will
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Speaker 1: there really be worldwide peace? Will we really miss a
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Speaker 1: third world war and enter into an age of prosperity
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Speaker 1: with falling trade barriers and facility to move in and
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Speaker 1: out of the places in this world and be accepted?
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Speaker 1: Will there be such an economic flattening out that the
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Speaker 1: rich will share with the poor, the wise with the foolish?
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Speaker 2: The answer is yes.
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Speaker 1: The Bible predicts such a time. The Bible predicts that
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Speaker 1: there's coming a world peace.
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Speaker 2: It will come.
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Speaker 1: But listen, it will be a deceptive peace. It will
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Speaker 1: be a false sense of security. It will be the
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Speaker 1: most subtle and the most deceptive trap that's ever been
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Speaker 1: set because it'll catch.
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Speaker 2: The world in it. And they'll be caught... and they'll
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Speaker 2: be destroyed. The trap is.
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Speaker 1: Being set right now psychologically, socially, politically, economically, and religiously.
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Speaker 2: And it is luring the world right in. International peace
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Speaker 2: is the bait.
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Speaker 1: It's the bait for the trap in which the human
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Speaker 1: race will be caught to feel the full and final unleashing.
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Speaker 2: Of God's wrath. We're headed for peace.
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Speaker 1: In a speech to the American people, President Bush said this,
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Speaker 1: we're beginning a new era. This new era can be
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Speaker 1: full of promise, an age of freedom, a time of
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Speaker 1: peace for all peoples. But if history teaches us anything,
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Speaker 1: it is that we must resist aggression or it will
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Speaker 1: destroy our freedoms. Appeasement does not work. He is saying
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Speaker 1: we have to maintain some kind of strength in this,
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Speaker 1: but we're headed for peace. Months before that, Mikhail Gorbachev
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Speaker 1: had already optimistically said, quote, we see a budding world
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Speaker 1: order in which peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation based
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Speaker 1: on goodwill will be universal norms. Everybody's talking about world peace.
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Speaker 2: We would do well to remind ourselves.
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Speaker 1: That an optimistic confidence that peace was assured characterized Europe
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Speaker 1: precisely before World War II. Sir Winston Churchill never did
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Speaker 1: buy into Hitler's offer to sell peace. William Manchester's biography
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Speaker 1: of Sir Winston Churchill confronts us with the unpleasant and
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Speaker 1: haunting reminders of Hitler, a man who came extremely close
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Speaker 1: to being the Antichrist, yet deceived the world with his
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Speaker 1: promises of peace. Listen to what Manchester wrote Thomas Jones
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Speaker 1: who had been in and out of Whitehall for a
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Speaker 1: quarter century wrote in his diary, all sorts of people
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Speaker 1: who have met Hitler are convinced that he's a factor
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Speaker 1: for peace.
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Speaker 2: He doesn't seek war but friendship.
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Speaker 1: Meeting the press after he had been closeted with Hitler
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Speaker 1: for an hour, Lloyd George said he regarded him as
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Speaker 1: the greatest living German. A year later he wrote, I
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Speaker 1: only wish we had a man of his supreme quality
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Speaker 1: at the head of affairs in our country today.
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Speaker 2: He's talking about Hitler.
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Speaker 1: Nazi goals were even applauded by Anglican clergymen, a group
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Speaker 1: of whom expressed, quote, boundless admiration for the moral and
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Speaker 1: ethical side of the Nazi program, its clear stand for
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Speaker 1: religion and.
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Speaker 2: Christianity and its ethical principles, end quote.
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Speaker 1: Sir John Simon said, His Majesty's Foreign Secretary from 1931
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Speaker 1: to 1935 saw in Hitler not arrogance but a man
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Speaker 1: rather retiring and bashful and unconcerned with affairs in Western Europe.
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Speaker 1: Later he described Hitler to King George, quote, as an
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Speaker 1: Austrian Joan of Arc with a mustache. Arnold Toynbee equally
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Speaker 1: spellbound by the Reich Chancellor, declared that he was convinced
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Speaker 1: of Hitler's sincerity in desiring peace in Europe and close
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Speaker 1: friendship with England. Talk about getting sucked in. Churchill was
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Speaker 1: never deceived by Hitler, but he stood almost alone. The
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Speaker 1: deception was practically universal. Almost everybody misread Hitler. and they
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Speaker 1: walked right into his false peace and were slaughtered. It's
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Speaker 1: going to happen again, only it won't be Hitler, it
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Speaker 1: will be Antichrist. And everybody will think he wants peace
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Speaker 1: and he'll be the next Joan of Arc with or
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Speaker 1: without mustache. I really think that the political openness of
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Speaker 1: Eastern Europe, the political openness of the world is more
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Speaker 1: surely a move toward the false peace of antichrist than
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Speaker 1: the true peace of Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 2: Religion will also be a factor.
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Speaker 1: Religious ecumenism will also be a factor in this global unity.
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Speaker 1: Everybody coming together for the purposes of science and medicine
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Speaker 1: and economics and food.
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Speaker 2: And all of those things we talked about.
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Speaker 1: But I think also religion's got to get involved in
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Speaker 1: this because religion can keep people apart. So there's got
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Speaker 1: to be somehow a barrier coming down between religions. Religious
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Speaker 1: ecumenism is a very key player in this global unity.
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Speaker 2: Religion has divided people.
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Speaker 1: There has been deep running animosity between Catholics and Protestants
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Speaker 1: and Hindus and Muslims and on and on.
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Speaker 2: And if this is going to happen.
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Speaker 1: A global tolerance and a worldwide peace, religions are going
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Speaker 1: to have to openly accept each other. They're going to
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Speaker 1: have to ignore doctrine and they're going to have to
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Speaker 1: ignore traditional differences and they're going to have to form
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Speaker 1: sort of one religious force.
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Speaker 2: Particularly if it's all going to be sort of.
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Speaker 1: Controlled by Antichrist.
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Speaker 2: Well, it's happening.
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Speaker 1: There are so many illustrations that we could be here
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Speaker 1: for hours just giving you practical illustrations of the move
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Speaker 1: toward a one-world religion, toward tolerance for everything. And by
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Speaker 1: the way, at the same time, I have to say parenthetically,
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Speaker 1: intolerance for true Christianity. Intolerance for true Christianity will escalate
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Speaker 1: in this process.
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Speaker 2: Hostility toward us will escalate.
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Speaker 1: But I believe, as I've noted for you, that the
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Speaker 1: church is raptured before the false peace comes, so we'll
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Speaker 1: be out of the way and they'll think that the
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Speaker 1: biggest barrier has been removed.
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Speaker 2: Let me give you some illustrations. Mother Teresa, whom you
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Speaker 2: know I have met and spoken with, and.
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Speaker 1: Those who work with her, never attempted to convert dying
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Speaker 1: Hindus to Christ. I've been in her home for the
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Speaker 1: dying over in Calcutta and gone through it. She showed
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Speaker 1: us through it. I spent some time with her in
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Speaker 1: the church. The sister's quarters there as well as in
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Speaker 1: that very place. She never tries to convert dying Hindus
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Speaker 1: to Christ. She says, quote, If in coming face to
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Speaker 1: face with God, we accept Him in our lives, then
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Speaker 1: we become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic,
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Speaker 1: a better whatever we are.
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Speaker 2: What God is in your mind, you must accept. End quote.
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Speaker 1: She really doesn't care whether you're a Hindu, a Muslim,
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Speaker 1: a Catholic, or what you are, as long as you
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Speaker 1: come face to face with God, whatever that is. One
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Speaker 1: of the most widely read Catholic writers of our time
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Speaker 1: is a man by the name of Thomas Merton. If
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Speaker 1: you have hung around any Catholics who are sort of
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Speaker 1: into the mystical end of Catholicism, they've talked about him.
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Speaker 1: He's a very, very influential writer and he has a
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Speaker 1: warmth and a passion about him that makes.
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Speaker 2: Him very believable.
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Speaker 1: A month before his death, Merton told an ecumenical gathering
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Speaker 1: of representatives from numerous religions in Calcutta, quote, My dear brothers,
23:51
Speaker 1: we are already one, but we imagine that we are not.
23:57
Speaker 1: And what we have to discover is our original unity.
24:02
Speaker 1: What he is saying is we have artificial barriers. We're
24:04
Speaker 1: all really just one, all of us, whatever religion. He
24:09
Speaker 1: was echoing the sentiment of Mother Teresa and what many
24:12
Speaker 1: other Catholics, including popes, have long been saying. There are
24:21
Speaker 1: many Catholics who today are involved in and tolerant of
24:24
Speaker 1: Transcendental Meditation, Zen and Yoga and Eastern Mysticism. A man
24:29
Speaker 1: by the name of Cardinal Ratzinger, a Vatican guardian of
24:31
Speaker 1: Catholic orthodoxy, issued a twenty-three page letter in mid-December 1989
24:35
Speaker 1: to three thousand Roman Catholic bishops And in that letter,
24:39
Speaker 1: the statement that he gave, which was approved by John
24:42
Speaker 1: Paul II, did not condemn Eastern mysticism or New Age
24:45
Speaker 1: meditation or yoga technique, but in fact suggested, quote, taking
24:50
Speaker 1: from them what is useful. John Paul II has publicly
24:55
Speaker 1: encouraged such a syncretistic attitude at the universities of Calcutta
24:59
Speaker 1: and New Delhi in his 1986 visit to India. The
25:03
Speaker 1: Pope told the Hindu audiences, and I quote, India's mission
25:06
Speaker 1: is crucial because of her intuition of the spiritual nature
25:10
Speaker 1: of man. Indeed, India's greatest contribution to the world can
25:14
Speaker 1: be to offer it a spiritual.
25:16
Speaker 2: Vision of man.
25:18
Speaker 1: And the world does well to attend willingly to this
25:20
Speaker 1: ancient wisdom and in it to find enrichment for human living.
25:24
Speaker 1: That's an incredible statement, isn't it? From one who's supposed
25:30
Speaker 1: to be the head of the true church regarding an
25:33
Speaker 1: idolatrous demon-worshiping religion in India. Another very important world leader
25:41
Speaker 1: is a man by the name of, or by the
25:42
Speaker 1: title of, Dalai Lama. His holiness, the Dalai Lama, who
25:46
Speaker 1: is God to most Tibetan Buddhists, has been well received,
25:50
Speaker 1: of course, by Roman Catholics around the world. He's twice
25:53
Speaker 1: met with Pope Paul VI, has met five or more
25:55
Speaker 1: times with his good friend John Paul II.
25:58
Speaker 2: Says the Dalai Lama, quote, both of us have the
26:00
Speaker 2: same aim.
26:00
Speaker 1: At the start of his first U.S.
26:04
Speaker 2: Tour, they call him the God King.
26:07
Speaker 1: He was feted in 1979 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and
26:10
Speaker 1: the relationship between the Buddhists and the Catholics, the Pope
26:13
Speaker 1: and the Dalai Lama has continued to go on, and
26:16
Speaker 1: I could give you all kinds of insight into that.
26:19
Speaker 1: You have somebody like Sun Myung Moon and the Moonies,
26:24
Speaker 1: founder of the International Religious Federation for World Peace, by
26:27
Speaker 1: the way. He says, all men and women of religion
26:31
Speaker 1: should now tear down the walls of sectarianism for the
26:33
Speaker 1: greater goal of world peace.
26:36
Speaker 2: Gorbachev, by the way, personally hosted.
26:38
Speaker 1: Moon in the bowels of the Kremlin, and Moon responded
26:41
Speaker 1: that the Soviet Union, which he formerly equated with Satan,
26:44
Speaker 1: was now going to play a major role in the
26:45
Speaker 1: plan of God to construct a world of peace. You've
26:50
Speaker 1: got probably nearly a hundred interfaith councils in America that
26:53
Speaker 1: are trying to pull everybody together in some kind of
26:55
Speaker 1: a global peace. In the state of Washington, we think
26:58
Speaker 1: of Washington as a fairly American place. Washington State. Let
27:07
Speaker 1: me read you a quote from the Washington State Interfaith Council.
27:11
Speaker 1: Swami Bhaskarananda, a Hindu, chanted a prayer to God in
27:16
Speaker 1: their interfaith council. Ismael Ahmed, a Moslem, recited a short
27:20
Speaker 1: prayer to God. Trust, the members agreed, was their most
27:25
Speaker 1: important short-term goal. Meeting at the Vedanta Society on Capitol Hill,
27:31
Speaker 1: those who signed the council's charter expressed their hopes for
27:34
Speaker 1: the group as they stood in front of an altar
27:36
Speaker 1: adorned with pictures of Sri Ramakrishna, Jesus Christ, and Buddha.
27:42
Speaker 1: My support and heart is in this group, says Pasha
27:45
Speaker 1: Mohajer Jasbi, a member of the Baha'i faith. Baccha Sarananda
27:52
Speaker 1: told the group that Hindus believe in the harmony of
27:54
Speaker 1: all faith. And the Pope has declared, and I quote,
27:59
Speaker 1: Christians must work with all other religions to secure peace.
28:05
Speaker 2: These are just.
28:06
Speaker 1: Samples of what's happening in religion as it moves toward
28:08
Speaker 1: a global ecumenicity. The New Age Movement fits into this mysticism.
28:17
Speaker 1: President Bush, you remember after the Helsinki meeting in September
28:20
Speaker 1: of 1990, expressed the hope that the plan worked out
28:23
Speaker 1: in Helsinki was to bring the New World Order. And
28:27
Speaker 1: President Bush said, this is Time magazine, September of 1990,'
28:30
Speaker 1: If the nations of the world acting together continue as
28:33
Speaker 1: they have been, we will set in place the cornerstone
28:36
Speaker 1: of an international order more peaceful than any that we
28:39
Speaker 1: have known.' I don't think our president understands what's coming.
28:49
Speaker 1: All of this drive for peace has nothing to do
28:53
Speaker 1: with the Prince of Peace. But it has to do
28:57
Speaker 1: with a false delusion, a trap. The prophet said, for
29:05
Speaker 1: the wicked there is no what?
29:07
Speaker 2: Peace. No peace.
29:11
Speaker 1: But their passion for peace will lure them into the
29:14
Speaker 1: trap of antichrist as God uses peace as the bait
29:19
Speaker 1: for the kill. Jesus warned about this. Turn to Matthew
29:24
Speaker 1: chapter 24. In Matthew chapter 24, I want to draw
29:28
Speaker 1: you to verse 3. Jesus was sitting on the Mount
29:37
Speaker 1: of Olives and the disciples came to Him privately and said,
29:39
Speaker 1: tell us, when will these things be and what will
29:42
Speaker 1: be the sign of Your coming and the end of
29:43
Speaker 1: the age? When will come the final end? When will
29:47
Speaker 1: come judgment on the world system of evil and darkness?
29:51
Speaker 1: When will come the beginning of a new and eternal
29:54
Speaker 1: age of light and righteousness?
29:55
Speaker 2: When is the end?
29:57
Speaker 1: They asked with eager and hopeful anticipation. And Jesus answers them,
30:03
Speaker 1: quite interestingly. And Jesus answered and said to them, verse 4,'
30:07
Speaker 1: See to it that no one misleads you, for many
30:13
Speaker 1: will come in My name saying, I am the Christ,
30:17
Speaker 1: and will mislead many.
30:19
Speaker 2: Stop right there.
30:21
Speaker 1: When is it going to happen? When is the end?
30:23
Speaker 1: When is the final judgment? Well, Jesus says it starts
30:28
Speaker 1: with a deception. It starts with someone who comes to mislead,
30:36
Speaker 1: who says, I am the Christ and I bring peace.
30:42
Speaker 1: I am your Deliverer. I am your Savior. I am
30:45
Speaker 1: your Messiah. A very deceptive, very misleading.
30:53
Speaker 2: Proclamation.
30:57
Speaker 1: And it won't just be one. Please notice verse 5,
31:00
Speaker 1: many will come. Many will be saying this. There will
31:05
Speaker 1: be many saying, we're come to bring world peace. We're
31:08
Speaker 1: come to bring the new order. I can just see
31:11
Speaker 1: the world leaders all lining up and chiming in. All
31:17
Speaker 1: saying that they represent the deliverance. They represent the global peace.
31:22
Speaker 1: They represent the new day, the new dawn. They promise
31:29
Speaker 1: to deliver peace. the world from its troubles. They promise peace.
31:33
Speaker 1: They are the architects of the false peace that begins
31:36
Speaker 1: the end-time judgment. It doesn't last very long. Look at
31:42
Speaker 1: verse 6, and you'll be hearing of wars and rumors
31:48
Speaker 1: of wars. In verse 7, nation will rise against nation,
31:54
Speaker 1: kingdom against kingdom, and the result, famines, earthquakes.
32:00
Speaker 2: Will follow.
32:03
Speaker 1: And then in verse 9, there will be tribulation and
32:06
Speaker 1: persecution and you will be hated by all nations on
32:10
Speaker 1: account of Me. Now what you have here, and we
32:16
Speaker 1: don't want to go into all the detail, is Jesus saying,
32:21
Speaker 1: when is it going to happen? First there's going to
32:24
Speaker 1: be a deception. That deception will be followed during the
32:29
Speaker 1: time that we call the Tribulation with wars, with famine,
32:35
Speaker 1: with natural disasters, with persecution. And even with all of
32:42
Speaker 1: that going on, now follow this. Verse 11, many false
32:47
Speaker 1: prophets will continue to arise and mislead many. They'll still
32:52
Speaker 1: come along and what will they say? Just like the
32:55
Speaker 1: prophets of old, they will come along and they will say, peace, peace,
33:00
Speaker 1: when there is no peace. This will always be their message.
33:06
Speaker 1: Peace is just around the corner. Even far into the
33:13
Speaker 1: final judgment, you come down to verse 21, and you're
33:17
Speaker 1: now in the second half of the seven-year period in
33:20
Speaker 1: what's called the Great Tribulation. The first half is called,
33:24
Speaker 1: in verse 8, the beginning of birth pangs. The second
33:27
Speaker 1: half is called the Great Tribulation. And even in that time...
33:33
Speaker 1: Verse 23, people are going to say, here is Christ,
33:36
Speaker 1: there He is. And verse 24, false Christ, false prophets
33:40
Speaker 1: are going to arise and show signs and wonders so
33:42
Speaker 1: as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Then he
33:45
Speaker 1: says in verse 25, I've told you in advance, if
33:49
Speaker 1: they say to you, here He is in the wilderness,
33:51
Speaker 1: don't go. Here He is in the inner rooms, don't
33:54
Speaker 1: believe it. From the time of the beginning of the
33:59
Speaker 1: tribulation period, the time of the end after the rapture
34:02
Speaker 1: of the church on, it's going to start with a
34:05
Speaker 1: false peace. The false peace will crumble into war rapidly.
34:10
Speaker 2: As God wreaks havoc in judgment.
34:12
Speaker 1: But even in the midst of that, the false prophets
34:15
Speaker 1: will still be crying peace.
34:17
Speaker 2: Peace. Peace.
34:22
Speaker 1: Even with all the signs that precede the final day
34:25
Speaker 1: of the Lord which is at the end of the
34:27
Speaker 1: Tribulation when the full fury of God is unleashed, even
34:30
Speaker 1: with all of the signs leading up to that, with
34:34
Speaker 1: the wars and with the famines and with the pestilence
34:38
Speaker 1: and plagues and with the natural disasters, even with all
34:42
Speaker 1: of the holocausts flying around everybody's head everywhere, people are
34:46
Speaker 1: still going to be deceived about peace. It's such a
34:51
Speaker 1: desperate cry. And I'll tell you this, once they get
34:54
Speaker 1: a taste of it at the beginning and then it crumbles.
34:58
Speaker 2: They're going to be desperate to get it back.
34:59
Speaker 1: 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 takes us right up to the
35:09
Speaker 1: brink of the day of the Lord at the end
35:10
Speaker 1: of the tribulation. And it says in chapter 5 verse 3,
35:14
Speaker 1: while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come.
35:20
Speaker 1: And it'll come suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman
35:23
Speaker 1: with child and they won't escape. They'll be all saying
35:27
Speaker 1: peace and safety and the destruction will come the day
35:31
Speaker 1: of the Lord. Matthew chapter 24 takes you from the
35:38
Speaker 1: beginning of the time we call the tribulation right on
35:41
Speaker 1: through to the return of Christ. The first phase of it,
35:45
Speaker 1: just so you understand, is this deceptive peace thing. by
35:50
Speaker 1: deceptive would-be saviors and peace bringers, deceptive Christs, that crumbles
35:56
Speaker 1: into war But even as the whole period escalates from
36:01
Speaker 1: war to famine to natural disasters and pestilences, even through
36:06
Speaker 1: the abomination of desolations, the desecration of the temple, even
36:10
Speaker 1: through the persecutions that come right on down to the
36:14
Speaker 1: brink of the day of the Lord when the sign
36:16
Speaker 1: of the Son of Man appears in heaven and Jesus
36:18
Speaker 1: is ready to come back and the sky goes black,
36:21
Speaker 1: right up until that moment the people who thought they
36:24
Speaker 1: orchestrated the first peace will be crying peace is coming back,
36:29
Speaker 1: peace is coming back, and there will be people who
36:32
Speaker 1: believe it. Back in Jeremiah's prophecy, he prophesied about a
36:40
Speaker 1: historical day of the Lord. The historical day of the
36:44
Speaker 1: Lord was a day in which God was going to
36:46
Speaker 1: judge Judah in the past. He was God's prophet to
36:50
Speaker 1: warn them, and He did it with tears. He told
36:53
Speaker 1: them about coming horror, coming divine judgment, And He even said,
36:58
Speaker 1: you ought to know it because there are some present signs.
37:02
Speaker 1: I mean, there are some things happening that are precursors
37:05
Speaker 1: to the actual day of the Lord and you ought
37:07
Speaker 1: to know about them.
37:09
Speaker 2: You ought to warn people.
37:11
Speaker 1: He says, chapter 6 verse 1, already evil looks down
37:15
Speaker 1: from the north and a great destruction is there. You
37:18
Speaker 1: can see it coming, so blow a trumpet. Warn people,
37:23
Speaker 1: it's coming. But in spite of that... In spite of
37:28
Speaker 1: everything that Jeremiah said about the overthrow of Judah and
37:32
Speaker 1: the overthrow of Jerusalem, despite all the precursors, despite the
37:38
Speaker 1: imminent judgment, despite the power right there visible to them,
37:43
Speaker 1: they could see it right on the brink.
37:48
Speaker 2: They kept believing everything would be fine. Everything will be fine. Why?
37:53
Speaker 1: Over in chapter 6, verse 14... Because false teachers came
37:57
Speaker 1: and false prophets, and they said, peace, peace. They kept
38:01
Speaker 1: telling them, peace was coming, peace was coming. Chapter 8,
38:06
Speaker 1: verse 11. They kept saying, peace, peace, but there is
38:11
Speaker 1: no peace. Chapter 14, and verse 13 and 14. The prophets,
38:21
Speaker 1: and what do the prophets say? Peace. Peace. You won't
38:25
Speaker 1: see the sword. You won't see famine. I'll give you
38:29
Speaker 1: lasting peace. They're prophesying falsely, he says. There isn't going
38:37
Speaker 1: to be any peace. There's going to be the day
38:40
Speaker 1: of the Lord. The fury of God's judgment. False prophets
38:50
Speaker 1: always say peace. They always talk about the new order.
38:55
Speaker 1: the new world of peace. So when you come to
38:59
Speaker 1: the end time, you can go back now to Matthew
39:03
Speaker 1: 24 for just a moment. When you come to the
39:06
Speaker 1: end time, it's going to begin with a false peace.
39:11
Speaker 1: False prophets, false Christs, and one great antichrist, one great
39:18
Speaker 1: ruler and leader of And we'll say a lot more
39:21
Speaker 1: about Him in our study of Revelation. This one great
39:24
Speaker 1: Antichrist will be over all these other false Christs and
39:27
Speaker 1: false prophets and false teachers.
39:31
Speaker 2: They're going to try to orchestrate this peace. It's going
39:34
Speaker 2: to work for a while.
39:34
Speaker 1: And then it's going to crumble. So you see, the
39:40
Speaker 1: world's movement toward a global peace really does fit this scenario.
39:48
Speaker 1: The deceptive peace is coming. It's coming led by false
39:53
Speaker 1: Christs and the Antichrist. And it is the first signal
40:00
Speaker 1: that the scroll has been unrolled and the first seal
40:05
Speaker 1: has been opened.
40:07
Speaker 2: False peace.
40:10
Speaker 1: Now go back to Matthew 24 and let's follow a
40:12
Speaker 1: little bit the sequence. Verse 6 and 7 then describes war. Wars,
40:19
Speaker 1: rumors of wars, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. The
40:26
Speaker 1: second thing that's going to come is war.
40:30
Speaker 2: The third thing that's going to come, famine. Famine.
40:38
Speaker 1: The fourth thing that's going to come in verse 7,
40:41
Speaker 1: earthquakes which are representative of massive natural disasters. First peace,
40:49
Speaker 1: then war, then famine, then death through natural disaster. Now
40:55
Speaker 1: hold your finger there in Matthew 24 and go over
40:56
Speaker 1: to Revelation 6. And you see the same sequence. Here
41:05
Speaker 1: the first horse is the white horse. He represents, as
41:08
Speaker 1: we will see in a moment, peace. The second horse
41:13
Speaker 1: is a red horse and he represents what?
41:17
Speaker 2: War. He took peace from the earth and men slaughtered
41:23
Speaker 2: each other.
41:26
Speaker 1: The next horse is a black horse and he represents famine,
41:35
Speaker 1: the scales and the balance. and the wheat and all
41:38
Speaker 1: of that, the barley, talking about famine conditions. And then
41:43
Speaker 1: the fourth seal and a pale green or ashen horse
41:48
Speaker 1: and he represents death, natural disasters, plagues that are also mentioned.
42:00
Speaker 2: Even earlier. So you see the parallels are exact. Peace, war, famine, death.
42:10
Speaker 2: Those are the horses.
42:12
Speaker 1: And Jesus said peace, war, famine, and natural disaster, of course,
42:18
Speaker 1: implies massive death. And Jesus said these things in verse
42:24
Speaker 1: 8 are merely the beginning of birth pangs, just the beginning.
42:36
Speaker 1: Then you notice verse 9, they will deliver you to tribulation,
42:41
Speaker 1: kill you. You'll be hated by all nations on account
42:44
Speaker 1: of My name. You say, who's He talking about? I
42:48
Speaker 1: believe He's talking about redeemed people. Well, you say, wait
42:52
Speaker 1: a minute, I thought the church was raptured. Yes, I
42:53
Speaker 1: believe they are, but I also believe that as soon
42:55
Speaker 1: as that time period begins, there is going to be
42:58
Speaker 1: conversion taking place.
43:01
Speaker 2: People are going to be redeemed during that time.
43:06
Speaker 1: And I believe they're going to be persecuted.
43:10
Speaker 2: And they're going to be maligned. In fact, throughout the
43:14
Speaker 2: whole period of the tribulation.
43:17
Speaker 1: You see it down in verse 15, from the abomination
43:20
Speaker 1: of desolations on, woe to those who are with child,
43:23
Speaker 1: those who nurse babies because of what's going to happen.
43:25
Speaker 1: And this certainly relates to Israel because the Jews are
43:27
Speaker 1: going to be persecuted as well. But it does mention
43:30
Speaker 1: the elect down in verse 24, those who would be redeemed.
43:34
Speaker 1: who also will be under the persecution. So there will
43:37
Speaker 1: be an onslaught against true believers and against Israel. Now
43:46
Speaker 1: I want you to note here that there's a very
43:49
Speaker 1: important sequence. You have the parallel of the first four
43:52
Speaker 1: in Matthew is the same as the first four seals
43:55
Speaker 1: in Revelation 6. The fifth seal in Revelation 6 is
44:00
Speaker 1: the martyrs under the altar. And the fifth component here
44:05
Speaker 1: in Matthew 24 is delivering you to tribulation and killing you.
44:09
Speaker 2: It's the same. It's the killing in.
44:12
Speaker 1: Chapter 24 of Matthew that yields the martyrs in Revelation 6.
44:16
Speaker 1: So the sequence is the same, peace, war, famine, death, martyrdom.
44:23
Speaker 1: It's that way in Matthew 24, it's that way in
44:25
Speaker 1: Revelation 6. What triggers the persecution? What really spins it
44:33
Speaker 1: full blown is verse 15, the abomination of desolation which
44:38
Speaker 1: was spoken of by Daniel the prophet. That is when
44:44
Speaker 1: the Antichrist shows himself for who he really is and
44:52
Speaker 1: desecrates the temple and starts to try to destroy the
44:55
Speaker 1: Jews along with any others who are identified with God.
45:02
Speaker 1: So the five seals take you all the way down
45:04
Speaker 1: to the sixth seal, which introduces the second coming of Christ,
45:09
Speaker 1: and the seventh seal is His coming and His final judgment.
45:15
Speaker 1: So the parallels are identical. If you read Revelation 6,
45:19
Speaker 1: the first four are the same. The fifth there martyrs
45:22
Speaker 1: under the altar. The fifth component here is martyrdom. The
45:26
Speaker 1: sixth seal in Revelation 6, as we shall see, the
45:29
Speaker 1: sky goes black. That is exactly what you see here
45:32
Speaker 1: in verse 29. So the sequence is the same. Absolutely consistent.
45:41
Speaker 1: Now first there will be peace. That's what we want
45:44
Speaker 1: to focus on. Let's go back to Daniel 9 for
45:46
Speaker 1: a moment.
45:47
Speaker 2: We'll try to wrap this up. Daniel 9.
45:56
Speaker 1: In verse 24 to 27, you have a very important text.
46:03
Speaker 1: And it says in Daniel 9, 26, after the 62 weeks.
46:12
Speaker 2: And these are weeks of years.
46:13
Speaker 1: You remember our study of Daniel. You remember we've related
46:16
Speaker 1: back to Daniel in our study of 1 Thessalonians also.
46:19
Speaker 1: Sixty-two weeks are gone. The Messiah will be cut off.
46:22
Speaker 1: Sixty-two weeks of seven years. God had prophesied back in
46:28
Speaker 1: verse 24, 70 weeks decreed on Israel. Seventy weeks to
46:35
Speaker 1: bring in everlasting righteousness. It started, you remember, with the
46:38
Speaker 1: decree of a king named Artaxerxes and it went 70
46:42
Speaker 1: times 7 or 490 years. 483 years from that decree
46:49
Speaker 1: to the very day Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem.
46:54
Speaker 2: The first 69 weeks were accomplished.
47:02
Speaker 1: Now, that leaves one week left, one period of seven years.
47:11
Speaker 1: There were the seven weeks and then the sixty-two weeks,
47:15
Speaker 1: as he notes in verse 25, and after the seven
47:18
Speaker 1: and the sixty-two are complete, the Messiah is cut off.
47:21
Speaker 2: He is killed.
47:25
Speaker 1: The city is destroyed. The sanctuary is destroyed. You remember
47:28
Speaker 1: that happened a little later in 70 A.D. And there's
47:32
Speaker 1: still a week that hasn't happened. Verse 27 picks it up.
47:39
Speaker 1: He will make a firm covenant with the many for
47:41
Speaker 1: one week.
47:42
Speaker 2: Who's He?
47:44
Speaker 1: He's the Prince who is to come, of verse 26.
47:47
Speaker 1: The Prince who is to come.
47:52
Speaker 2: He's the Antichrist.
47:54
Speaker 1: He's also called in Daniel the little horn, chapter 7,
47:56
Speaker 1: verse 8. He's called the king of fierce countenance, chapter 8,
48:00
Speaker 1: verse 23. He's called the willful king or the king
48:03
Speaker 1: who does whatever he wants, chapter 11, verse 36.
48:06
Speaker 2: The Antichrist comes. Now watch this.
48:08
Speaker 1: And he makes a firm covenant with the many for
48:11
Speaker 1: one week. But in the middle of the week, he
48:15
Speaker 1: puts a stop to the sacrifice and the grain offering
48:19
Speaker 1: and commits the abomination of desolations, as it's called.
48:26
Speaker 2: What is this?
48:27
Speaker 1: The Antichrist, remember now, he's the leading orchestrator of peace.
48:31
Speaker 1: He is a false Christ. We went over him in detail.
48:34
Speaker 1: Remember in 2 Thessalonians, we followed his career all through
48:37
Speaker 1: there in chapter 2.
48:40
Speaker 2: The Antichrist comes.
48:42
Speaker 1: He leads all the other false Christs and false Messiahs
48:45
Speaker 1: to bring this world peace. He makes a covenant with
48:50
Speaker 1: With Israel, yes, certainly Israel is a key player and
48:53
Speaker 1: the many certainly focuses on Israel since they are the
48:56
Speaker 1: nation in view here.
49:00
Speaker 2: But it extends beyond Israel.
49:03
Speaker 1: It is a covenant that involves the protection of Israel
49:06
Speaker 1: from all of those who might harm them. So it
49:09
Speaker 1: is a kind of major peace pact. Who knows how
49:14
Speaker 1: many nations may be involved in it? He makes a
49:18
Speaker 1: peace pact.
49:23
Speaker 2: That's how the period of tribulation is going to begin. Peace.
49:29
Speaker 2: Global peace.
49:30
Speaker 1: And the Antichrist specifically makes a peace treaty with Israel.
49:37
Speaker 1: A covenant to be their protector. their peacemaker, their deliverer,
49:44
Speaker 1: their Messiah, their Savior. But in the middle of the week,
49:52
Speaker 1: in the middle of the seven years, that's why we
49:54
Speaker 1: know it's a seven-year period. It's called a week of years.
49:57
Speaker 1: In the middle of the week, He will put a
49:58
Speaker 1: stop to sacrifice and grain offering.
50:00
Speaker 2: You know what's going to happen?
50:01
Speaker 1: That peace treaty with Israel is going to be so
50:03
Speaker 1: comprehensive and so complete that they're going to be back
50:05
Speaker 1: in their sacrificial systems. They're going to be back making sacrifices.
50:10
Speaker 1: They're going to be back offering grain offerings. They're going
50:14
Speaker 1: to have their temple. And in the middle of it,
50:18
Speaker 1: He's going to come in and desolate the place. He's
50:23
Speaker 1: going to make it desolate. And He's going to try
50:28
Speaker 1: to destroy Israel and conquer the world. I think by
50:33
Speaker 1: the middle of the week, war will already have broken out.
50:37
Speaker 1: I don't know that the peace is going to last
50:38
Speaker 1: the whole three and a half years. The wars and
50:41
Speaker 1: the rumors of wars may have already begun, but for
50:45
Speaker 1: sure it will all break loose then as Antichrist.
50:51
Speaker 2: Desecrates the Holy of Holies, sets himself up.
50:54
Speaker 1: As God, and we'll see more about that in the
50:56
Speaker 1: future of Revelation, to be worshiped by the whole world
50:59
Speaker 1: and that leads the world into massive warfare that ultimately
51:02
Speaker 1: ends up in Armageddon.
51:06
Speaker 2: But it all starts with peace. Peace is coming for
51:10
Speaker 2: the world, for Israel, prosperity, safety.
51:15
Speaker 1: It's a trap followed by war, famine, natural disaster, fierce persecution,
51:23
Speaker 1: the blackening of the sky, the appearing of Christ, devastating judgment,
51:28
Speaker 1: and then His kingdom.
51:34
Speaker 2: This is the future. The labor pains are going to come,
51:40
Speaker 2: starting with peace.
51:43
Speaker 1: And as labor pains do, they get harder and harder
51:46
Speaker 1: and closer together and closer together. So there is a
51:49
Speaker 1: movement through that seven-year period of escalating trauma, escalating pain,
51:54
Speaker 1: increasing rapidity until the event happens. Now all of that
52:01
Speaker 1: brings us back to Revelation 6. Let's go back there briefly.
52:07
Speaker 1: You say, you haven't said anything about these two verses.
52:09
Speaker 1: I know.
52:12
Speaker 2: But do you understand what I've said so far? Okay.
52:18
Speaker 1: And I saw when the lamb broke one of the
52:20
Speaker 1: seven seals, and I heard one of the four living
52:24
Speaker 1: creatures saying, as with the voice of thunder, come. And
52:27
Speaker 1: I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who
52:29
Speaker 1: sat on it had a bow, and a crown was
52:31
Speaker 1: given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
52:35
Speaker 1: Heaven's praise was so glorious in chapter 5, so glorious
52:39
Speaker 1: in chapter 4, and now all of a sudden, silence.
52:44
Speaker 1: The scene shifts from heaven to earth. The Lamb unrolls
52:49
Speaker 1: the first seal, opens the scroll, the.
52:52
Speaker 2: Title deed to the universe. John sees.
52:59
Speaker 1: As the Lamb breaks the seal and the contents are revealed.
53:04
Speaker 1: that legal document which represents the rightful heir and his
53:10
Speaker 1: power and authority to take back the earth. And as
53:14
Speaker 1: he opens it, he sees.
53:21
Speaker 2: A white horse.
53:23
Speaker 1: But not until one of the four living creatures calls
53:26
Speaker 1: that white horse and rider. One of the four living creatures,
53:30
Speaker 1: we've already noted in chapter 4 that the four living
53:32
Speaker 1: creatures are angels cherubim, same kind described in Ezekiel 1
53:37
Speaker 1: that are around the throne of God. And one of
53:40
Speaker 1: them says loudly like thunder, and after all, thunder and
53:43
Speaker 1: lightning is coming out of that throne, as we remember
53:46
Speaker 1: from chapter 4 verse 5, it's a throne of judgment.
53:49
Speaker 1: And His voice is a voice of judgment. He says,' Come, come.'
53:58
Speaker 1: And immediately a white horse comes and a rider. And
54:05
Speaker 1: you say, well, what is this? Well, horses were associated
54:11
Speaker 1: with war. I wish we had the time to do
54:15
Speaker 1: a little horse theology.
54:18
Speaker 2: We don't.
54:20
Speaker 1: Horses are representative of power, magnificence, majesty, conquest. And here
54:28
Speaker 1: comes this horse and the one who sat on it,
54:34
Speaker 1: a rider. It's not necessarily a person because the red
54:39
Speaker 1: horse and rider and the black horse and rider and
54:42
Speaker 1: the pale or ashen or green horse and rider, as
54:47
Speaker 1: some have designated it, are not a person either. These
54:51
Speaker 1: are representatives of something and we'll see that.
54:56
Speaker 2: Just a note.
54:58
Speaker 1: The Lamb broke one of the seven seals to remind
55:00
Speaker 1: you that seven is a number of completion. That's why
55:02
Speaker 1: there are seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls because
55:05
Speaker 1: that completes the judgment. When all of them are complete,
55:08
Speaker 1: the universe is Christ's, the Kingdom has come, and the
55:11
Speaker 1: Millennium is here. All of these events also occur in
55:16
Speaker 1: a period called the Tribulation which is a week, the
55:19
Speaker 1: seventieth week of Daniel, a period of seven years. Jesus,
55:22
Speaker 1: as I said, divided it into two parts, the birth pangs,
55:24
Speaker 1: the first half, and the great tribulation, the second half,
55:27
Speaker 1: separated by the abomination of desolations, which is when the
55:30
Speaker 1: Antichrist desecrates the temple in Jerusalem and heats up the
55:34
Speaker 1: persecution and tries to destroy Israel and set Himself up
55:37
Speaker 1: as God to be worshiped by the whole world. As
55:41
Speaker 1: we saw in the first half, generally you have the
55:44
Speaker 1: four seals, which is peace, war, famine, and.
55:50
Speaker 2: Disaster bringing death.
55:52
Speaker 1: The fifth seal, the abomination, triggers the persecution and then
55:56
Speaker 1: the sixth and seventh seal bring the end. Half of
55:59
Speaker 1: this period is designated as forty-two months in Revelation 11
56:03
Speaker 1: and 2 and Revelation 13 and 5, and even designated
56:07
Speaker 1: as 1260 days in Revelation 11 and 3 and 12
56:09
Speaker 1: and 6. So the time period is pretty set. It
56:12
Speaker 1: has to be seven years because we're even given months
56:15
Speaker 1: and days to note what half of it is. We
56:17
Speaker 1: multiply it by two and it's seven years. Our Lord returns,
56:22
Speaker 1: Scripture says, Matthew 24, 29, immediately after the tribulation.
56:26
Speaker 2: Of those days.
56:27
Speaker 1: So at the end of the seven years, Christ comes back. Now,
56:31
Speaker 1: having given you the context, we're at the beginning. The
56:35
Speaker 1: seal is opened, the voice of the cherub says, come.
56:39
Speaker 2: And He comes. Who is this? Some say it's Christ. No,
56:44
Speaker 2: it can't be Christ. Why?
56:45
Speaker 1: Because Christ is opening the seals. It can't be Christ.
56:51
Speaker 1: This writer has a stephanos. That's a crown that you
56:54
Speaker 1: win as a prize. Christ wears a diadem off for
56:57
Speaker 1: a crown. That's a kingly crown over in chapter 19
57:00
Speaker 1: when we see Him. It can't be Christ because Christ
57:03
Speaker 1: doesn't come at the beginning, He comes at the end.
57:06
Speaker 1: It can't be Christ, He doesn't carry a bow, He
57:08
Speaker 1: carries a sword. Some say it's anti-Christ. Well, he's certainly there.
57:16
Speaker 1: I mean, it certainly encompasses Antichrist, but the horses don't
57:21
Speaker 1: represent individuals, they represent a force.
57:25
Speaker 2: War is a force. Famine is a force and so
57:29
Speaker 2: is death.
57:32
Speaker 1: Certainly Antichrist is the main man in the peace, but
57:35
Speaker 1: the horse and rider represents the peace.
57:39
Speaker 2: He's not alone.
57:40
Speaker 1: There are many Antichrists. many false Christs, many impostors. And
57:46
Speaker 1: this horse and rider represents the false peace headed up
57:49
Speaker 1: by Antichrist. You say, how do you know it represents
57:52
Speaker 1: the false peace? Well, the fact is he has a bow.
57:56
Speaker 1: That's a symbol of a warrior. But if you have
57:59
Speaker 1: a bow, you also need something else.
58:00
Speaker 2: What? An arrow. He doesn't have any. The absence of
58:06
Speaker 2: arrows speaks of a bloodless victory.
58:09
Speaker 1: Worldwide peace brought by this covenant maker and his cohorts
58:13
Speaker 1: in a bloodless way. And then an interesting phrase, a
58:17
Speaker 1: crown was given to him. He is sort of democratically
58:22
Speaker 1: crowned here. Doesn't seem that he took it. It was
58:25
Speaker 1: just given to him. Like He's been honored by the
58:29
Speaker 1: world and elevated and given prominence, this peace has been
58:34
Speaker 1: made king by the world.
58:37
Speaker 2: Everything is subservient.
58:38
Speaker 1: To peace, and since the architect of peace is primarily
58:41
Speaker 1: the Antichrist, everything is subservient to him. He is rewarded
58:44
Speaker 1: with the crown, which is a reward, Stephanos, rather than
58:48
Speaker 1: a diadema, which is a king's crown that belongs only
58:51
Speaker 1: to one who is in the rightful.
58:52
Speaker 2: Line of the kings. Peace is king, and peace is
58:57
Speaker 2: crowned king by the world. He went out conquering and
59:03
Speaker 2: to conquer.
59:04
Speaker 1: He's rung up a long series of triumphs in bringing
59:08
Speaker 1: world peace. This is the deception that Jesus talked about
59:12
Speaker 1: when He said many would be misled.
59:14
Speaker 2: This is the golden age.
59:15
Speaker 1: This is the utopia that Antichrist helps to establish with
59:19
Speaker 1: his covenant with Israel that Daniel spoke about, peace, misleading, deceptive,
59:26
Speaker 1: false peace, orchestrated worldwide by many false messiahs, and led
59:34
Speaker 1: by the Antichrist. And of course, once the peace is established,
59:39
Speaker 1: the Antichrist rises to the top. In fact, in 2
59:44
Speaker 1: Thessalonians 2.9, it says, he will come with all power
59:48
Speaker 1: and signs and false wonders. and with all the deception
59:52
Speaker 1: of wickedness for those who perish. And God will send
59:55
Speaker 1: a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false.
1:00:00
Speaker 2: Why?
1:00:01
Speaker 1: In order that they may be judged. God's going to
1:00:05
Speaker 1: delude the world. He's going to let the delusion run.
1:00:08
Speaker 1: They're all going to fall into the false peace, bow
1:00:11
Speaker 1: down to this great world ruler who epitomizes it.
1:00:16
Speaker 2: And it's a trap in which they will be caught.
1:00:20
Speaker 2: and killed.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: The world is headed for war, but first it's headed
1:00:27
Speaker 1: for peace. Father, thank You for this insight. Help us
1:00:37
Speaker 1: to be able to read the signs of the times
1:00:41
Speaker 1: and see the way our world is headed. So much
1:00:44
Speaker 1: talk about peace, so much movement about peace. We could
1:00:51
Speaker 1: be very near the time when you come for your church.
1:00:56
Speaker 1: We thank you that in this all we have no fear,
1:01:01
Speaker 1: for our hope is not to look for Antichrist, but
1:01:04
Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ Himself, who will take us to the
1:01:08
Speaker 1: place prepared for us in glory. We thank you that
1:01:13
Speaker 1: we live with an eternal hope of heaven, but also
1:01:17
Speaker 1: knowing what is coming, We have the responsibility to warn
1:01:21
Speaker 1: the world.
1:01:24
Speaker 2: They're falling for a false peace. And the only one
1:01:28
Speaker 2: who can give them real peace is the Prince of Peace,
1:01:32
Speaker 2: even Jesus Christ. In the days that we have, may
1:01:38
Speaker 2: we preach the true peace. In our Savior's name, amen.
1:01:45
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