WEBVTT 00:00.760 --> 00:01.680 Let's bow in prayer. 00:03.080 --> 00:10.620 Father, once again, as we take your word into our hands, we open our hearts to what 00:10.620 --> 00:11.880 you would say to us. 00:12.620 --> 00:17.480 And we ask that you will speak to us by your Holy Spirit, and that we will be 00:17.480 --> 00:23.040 willing to hear what your word has to say and what the Spirit has to say to the 00:23.040 --> 00:25.200 churches through your word. 00:25.280 --> 00:26.860 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:27.540 --> 00:27.900 Amen. 00:30.000 --> 00:36.940 Well, I think our topic this afternoon is A Woman Rides the Beast. 00:38.540 --> 00:42.280 I'm getting ready to write a book with that title, and my publisher doesn't like 00:42.280 --> 00:42.500 it. 00:43.640 --> 00:49.460 They think it sounds a little bit too provocative, although it is biblical. 00:50.160 --> 00:51.700 So it might not be a good title. 00:51.740 --> 00:52.160 I don't know. 00:54.400 --> 00:58.300 But let's turn to Revelation 17, where we find this woman. 01:00.300 --> 01:02.860 And see what we can learn. 01:08.560 --> 01:10.200 Revelation 17, verse 1. 01:10.280 --> 01:15.040 There came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with 01:15.040 --> 01:21.420 me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great 01:21.420 --> 01:27.860 whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have 01:27.860 --> 01:28.840 committed fornication. 01:30.200 --> 01:35.680 You're going to see a woman here, and just to be blunt about it, 01:36.700 --> 01:40.820 there are five identifying characteristics of this woman. 01:41.680 --> 01:45.120 You cannot escape who this woman is. 01:45.780 --> 01:48.760 You just can't escape it, if you're going to be honest about it. 01:51.400 --> 01:55.100 And this is the first identifying characteristic. 01:55.800 --> 02:01.440 She has committed fornication with the kings of this earth. 02:02.320 --> 02:03.380 Now that's interesting. 02:04.060 --> 02:04.860 Not adultery. 02:05.920 --> 02:10.660 God accused His people of adultery because of worshiping idols. 02:11.180 --> 02:14.180 Christ said, I have espoused you unto... 02:14.180 --> 02:18.160 Paul said to the Corinthians, I have espoused you unto Christ as a chaste 02:18.160 --> 02:18.500 virgin. 02:19.420 --> 02:23.860 We're talking about spiritual adultery, spiritual fornication. 02:23.860 --> 02:25.280 She's not the real bride. 02:26.060 --> 02:27.600 She's not really married to Him. 02:28.180 --> 02:30.240 So it's not adultery, it's fornication. 02:30.640 --> 02:34.520 But she pretends to be the bride of Christ. 02:34.720 --> 02:37.480 Otherwise, this language is meaningless. 02:38.520 --> 02:39.900 Fornication with the kings of the earth. 02:40.000 --> 02:42.080 What's wrong with being in bed with the kings of the earth? 02:43.180 --> 02:44.380 Nothing wrong with that. 02:44.520 --> 02:49.540 If you're one of the kings, particularly in the day in which we live, they're 02:49.540 --> 02:54.540 talking about the whole world being united, a one world religion, all the 02:54.540 --> 02:57.100 governments of the world getting together. 02:57.580 --> 02:58.760 What could be wrong with that? 02:59.540 --> 03:04.980 Well, but this woman claims to be the bride of Christ. 03:05.460 --> 03:07.120 Claims to belong to Him. 03:07.780 --> 03:13.180 And you remember what Jesus said to His disciples in John 15. 03:13.380 --> 03:17.400 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. 03:17.400 --> 03:22.200 But because you are not of this world, but I've chosen you out of the world, 03:22.700 --> 03:25.080 therefore the world hates you. 03:25.600 --> 03:27.500 The servant isn't greater than his Lord. 03:27.940 --> 03:30.320 If they crucified Me, they killed Me. 03:30.400 --> 03:34.600 What do you think they're going to do to you if you are true to Me? 03:36.180 --> 03:38.840 There's a difference between the church and the world. 03:39.280 --> 03:44.000 Here's something, a woman that claims to represent, it's representative of the 03:44.000 --> 03:49.160 church, the true church of Christ, but it's in bed with the kings of this 03:49.160 --> 03:49.600 earth. 03:50.580 --> 03:50.780 Okay? 03:51.620 --> 03:54.420 Number one, identifying characteristic. 03:54.940 --> 03:57.300 He carried me away in the Spirit, verse 3. 03:59.780 --> 04:04.640 Well, it says the kings, the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the 04:04.640 --> 04:06.040 wine of her fornication. 04:06.680 --> 04:14.360 In other words, this partnership between this great religious organization or 04:14.360 --> 04:18.520 whatever it is, this church that's supposed to belong to Christ, which is in 04:18.520 --> 04:23.500 bed with the world, has deceived the world. 04:23.600 --> 04:27.240 The inhabitants of the world are drunk with the wine of her fornication. 04:27.600 --> 04:29.740 They think this is a great unity. 04:30.540 --> 04:31.940 They think it's wonderful. 04:33.400 --> 04:38.100 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon 04:38.100 --> 04:44.380 a scarlet-colored beast, full of names and blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 04:44.380 --> 04:44.800 horns. 04:45.260 --> 04:51.640 Now, if you just hold your finger there and go back to chapter 13, you see this 04:51.640 --> 04:52.060 beast. 04:53.200 --> 04:57.100 And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, 04:57.220 --> 05:01.160 having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, 05:01.200 --> 05:04.060 and upon his heads the name of blasphemy, and so forth. 05:04.420 --> 05:06.060 Well, you know who this beast is. 05:06.500 --> 05:09.120 Verse 3, one of his heads is wounded to death, and so forth. 05:09.120 --> 05:10.020 All the world wondered. 05:10.460 --> 05:13.780 They worshipped the dragon, Satan, who gives power to the beast. 05:13.880 --> 05:14.860 They worshipped the beast. 05:15.080 --> 05:19.500 And on through chapter 13, you know that this beast is Antichrist. 05:20.360 --> 05:28.920 This beast represents two things, Antichrist and the kingdom of Antichrist, 05:29.060 --> 05:34.740 the revived Roman Empire, that will be present on this earth in the last days. 05:34.800 --> 05:36.240 Make no mistake about it. 05:36.880 --> 05:38.500 How do I know that? 05:39.700 --> 05:41.900 Well, I can give you a lot of scriptures. 05:42.060 --> 05:43.220 We don't have time for them. 05:43.820 --> 05:46.140 Let's just take one verse. 05:46.520 --> 05:51.860 I give you one verse, which if John the Baptist had known it, if the rabbis had 05:51.860 --> 05:56.920 known it, if the disciples had known it, they wouldn't have been confused when 05:56.920 --> 05:58.240 Christ came the first time. 06:00.360 --> 06:02.120 Remember what their confusion was? 06:02.160 --> 06:03.640 Same confusion you have today. 06:03.640 --> 06:07.440 They were confused about the kingdom, right? 06:09.780 --> 06:10.900 It's incredible. 06:11.400 --> 06:16.140 At the last supper, Jesus says, One of you will betray me. 06:16.240 --> 06:18.840 There's a momentary flurry of concern. 06:19.820 --> 06:20.780 Lord, is it I? 06:20.940 --> 06:21.600 Lord, is it I? 06:21.640 --> 06:23.560 And Jesus says to Judas, Yeah, it's you. 06:23.940 --> 06:24.720 Thou hast said. 06:25.180 --> 06:26.500 That passes them over. 06:27.120 --> 06:28.260 They don't seem to get it. 06:28.460 --> 06:34.100 And after a little momentary flurry of concern, they are back to arguing about 06:34.100 --> 06:34.460 what? 06:34.820 --> 06:37.020 Who will be the greatest in the kingdom? 06:37.180 --> 06:40.880 Don't tell me that people's problem is low self-esteem. 06:42.600 --> 06:46.300 That is not the problem that mankind has. 06:46.800 --> 06:48.140 You know, they just gave a test. 06:48.880 --> 06:56.060 They were testing high school seniors in mathematics around the world. 06:57.680 --> 07:05.180 And they were also testing them in self-esteem, which people, even 07:05.180 --> 07:08.300 Christians, say is the big problem now. 07:09.180 --> 07:11.880 Poor self-image, low self-esteem. 07:12.760 --> 07:17.080 And the American students rated number one in self-esteem. 07:17.780 --> 07:24.040 They asked them, How do you think you rate compared with others around the world? 07:24.040 --> 07:27.200 And the American says, We are number one. 07:28.790 --> 07:31.860 They were last, or close to last, in mathematics. 07:33.680 --> 07:37.240 See, we teach them self-esteem, but we don't teach them anything else. 07:38.810 --> 07:42.020 They don't know reading, writing, and arithmetic anymore. 07:43.060 --> 07:45.960 But we teach them how to feel good about themselves. 07:46.540 --> 07:50.500 The Koreans were at the bottom on self-esteem. 07:51.400 --> 07:54.000 They said, Well, we are probably not very good. 07:54.220 --> 07:57.060 They were number one in math. 07:59.360 --> 08:04.540 The problem is not bad self-esteem. 08:04.660 --> 08:12.700 That is not the problem in this world or in the church. 08:13.460 --> 08:23.380 This woman is sitting on this beast who rules over the kings of the earth. 08:24.660 --> 08:29.580 This beast who is the Antichrist and who is this revived Roman Empire. 08:30.480 --> 08:31.960 She is sitting on it. 08:32.120 --> 08:34.300 We will come back to that in a moment. 08:34.660 --> 08:39.660 The disciples are arguing who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom. 08:39.660 --> 08:43.460 They thought this kingdom was going to be established right now. 08:44.620 --> 08:48.140 It is the eve of his crucifixion. 08:48.640 --> 08:50.080 He is about to be betrayed. 08:50.780 --> 08:54.040 Judas is slipping out into the night to betray him. 08:54.400 --> 08:57.360 And they are thinking the kingdom is going to be established. 08:57.840 --> 09:02.020 And they are going to rule on thrones with him in Jerusalem. 09:03.220 --> 09:07.560 They were messed up about the kingdom, as to when it would come, what it 09:07.560 --> 09:10.800 involved, who would establish it, how it would be established, and so forth. 09:11.160 --> 09:14.420 You have people today who are just as mixed up on the kingdom. 09:14.660 --> 09:16.100 We don't have time to go into that. 09:16.620 --> 09:19.820 But if you don't get the kingdom straight, you are in real trouble. 09:20.880 --> 09:23.220 I was telling you there was one verse. 09:23.940 --> 09:25.200 If they had known that one verse. 09:25.380 --> 09:26.360 Daniel 2.44. 09:26.480 --> 09:27.680 We won't take time to turn to it. 09:27.900 --> 09:29.120 But you know the image. 09:33.080 --> 09:34.380 Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, remember? 09:36.380 --> 09:38.100 And he couldn't remember it. 09:39.560 --> 09:44.440 And he wanted his sorcerers, astrologers, soothsayers. 09:44.520 --> 09:48.200 These were the advisors to kings and emperors in those days. 09:48.960 --> 09:51.000 He said, tell me the dream and the interpretation. 09:51.540 --> 09:56.280 And they said, oh well, no king has ever asked that of his advisors before. 09:56.360 --> 09:58.360 Now you tell us the dream and then we will give you the interpretation. 09:59.140 --> 10:01.360 And he says, I am on to your game. 10:02.120 --> 10:05.260 If you can't tell me the dream, how do I know you can tell me the 10:05.260 --> 10:05.720 interpretation? 10:06.420 --> 10:08.520 And if you are so smart, you can give me the interpretation. 10:08.840 --> 10:10.880 You surely ought to be able to tell me the dream too. 10:12.740 --> 10:14.260 They backed away from that one. 10:15.320 --> 10:16.380 And you know the story. 10:18.600 --> 10:21.560 Daniel, when he heard that the king was going to kill all the wise men, 10:21.640 --> 10:22.540 and Daniel was one of them. 10:22.900 --> 10:25.060 He said, there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. 10:25.240 --> 10:27.120 And I will pray to him and he will reveal the secret. 10:27.220 --> 10:27.660 And he did. 10:27.660 --> 10:31.820 And so he told Nebuchadnezzar what this dream was. 10:32.060 --> 10:33.520 He saw this image, remember? 10:34.020 --> 10:40.840 Head of gold, torso of silver, loins of bronze, and legs of iron, 10:41.420 --> 10:44.060 and feet of iron mingled with clay. 10:45.220 --> 10:50.540 And Daniel said, these represent, well God told him, these represent four 10:50.540 --> 10:53.160 world kingdoms, four world empires. 10:53.760 --> 10:54.520 Accurate! 10:54.520 --> 10:59.960 He said, thou, Nebuchadnezzar, art the head of gold. 11:00.680 --> 11:03.200 You are this first king of the Babylonian kingdom. 11:04.160 --> 11:06.880 Then, next would come the Medo-Persian kingdom. 11:07.240 --> 11:10.520 Then the Grecian kingdom. 11:11.580 --> 11:13.720 Then the Roman empire. 11:14.280 --> 11:14.960 Interesting. 11:15.520 --> 11:18.340 You know that the Roman empire was divided in two, two legs. 11:19.760 --> 11:23.640 Byzantium in the east, and under Rome in the west. 11:23.640 --> 11:25.820 It still is divided religiously. 11:26.560 --> 11:31.040 The Roman Catholic Church and the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church. 11:31.380 --> 11:36.040 And it's Pope John Paul's great dream to bring them together. 11:36.980 --> 11:40.780 Then there were ten toes. 11:41.720 --> 11:48.840 And God said, and Daniel explained it to the king, those represent ten kings who 11:48.840 --> 11:50.640 will yet arise. 11:51.620 --> 11:54.880 So how do I know the Roman empire must be revived? 11:55.200 --> 11:56.920 They never had ten kings, right? 11:57.600 --> 12:00.300 It has to come back under ten heads. 12:00.440 --> 12:04.380 I believe it will be a worldwide empire under ten divisions. 12:05.120 --> 12:07.420 But this is what Daniel 2.44 said. 12:08.240 --> 12:15.460 In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven establish a kingdom that will 12:15.460 --> 12:16.560 never be destroyed. 12:17.520 --> 12:18.260 It's clear. 12:18.260 --> 12:21.420 It doesn't require any interpretation. 12:22.520 --> 12:27.240 The kingdom with Jesus ruling, the Messiah ruling on the throne of his 12:27.240 --> 12:31.720 father David, will only be established in the days of those kings, right? 12:32.960 --> 12:34.580 The Roman empire has to be revived. 12:34.780 --> 12:37.800 It played a big role the first time Jesus came, remember? 12:38.800 --> 12:41.820 Luke chapter 2, I think, begins something like this. 12:42.360 --> 12:46.060 It came to pass that there went forth a decree from Augustus Caesar that all the 12:46.060 --> 12:47.500 world should be taxed. 12:47.500 --> 12:53.020 And you know because of that decree from a Roman emperor, Mary and Joseph ended up in 12:53.020 --> 12:53.740 Bethlehem. 12:54.320 --> 12:59.160 Because they had to go back to the town of his birth, of his family, in time for 12:59.160 --> 13:03.500 Jesus to be born in Bethlehem of Judea to fulfill Micah 5.2, right? 13:04.040 --> 13:05.520 And you know that he was crucified. 13:06.080 --> 13:07.780 That was the Roman means of execution. 13:08.520 --> 13:14.640 The Roman empire played a key role in his birth and in his death. 13:15.360 --> 13:23.000 And we had it quoted last night, Daniel 9.28 or thereabouts, 27-28. 13:23.220 --> 13:30.020 It says, the people of the prince who will come will destroy the sanctuary and the 13:30.020 --> 13:30.460 city. 13:31.120 --> 13:34.160 That was the Roman armies under Titus in AD 70. 13:34.440 --> 13:37.540 Those are the people of the Antichrist. 13:37.780 --> 13:41.660 The Antichrist, the prince who will come, he will rule over those people. 13:41.740 --> 13:42.560 They will be his people. 13:42.560 --> 13:47.100 So that Roman empire must be revived. 13:48.140 --> 13:52.340 It must be revived for him to rule over it under ten heads, alright? 13:52.660 --> 13:56.920 And that can't happen, I mean, that must happen before the second coming. 13:57.620 --> 14:03.140 Because 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us that one of the purposes of Christ's return is 14:03.140 --> 14:03.680 to destroy. 14:04.260 --> 14:08.400 It talks about him whose coming is after the working of the Satan with all power 14:08.400 --> 14:10.200 and signs and lying wonders and so forth. 14:10.200 --> 14:15.160 And it says, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. 14:15.620 --> 14:19.880 So Christ comes back to destroy Antichrist, and he will not come in the 14:19.880 --> 14:21.640 second coming until Antichrist is here. 14:21.900 --> 14:25.120 But the rapture is something that takes place beforehand, alright? 14:25.600 --> 14:31.100 And so if the disciples had known that one verse, there weren't ten kings ruling over 14:31.100 --> 14:31.900 the empire. 14:33.240 --> 14:37.040 Then it was not the time to establish the kingdom, right? 14:37.040 --> 14:42.540 It was the time for him to be crucified and to establish his kingdom in our 14:42.540 --> 14:43.020 hearts. 14:43.560 --> 14:46.600 And for this entity called the church to come to birth. 14:47.420 --> 14:52.900 Well, that's Babylon, the first, the head of gold. 14:54.520 --> 15:02.560 It was built, Babylon was built around the ruins of Babel, the ziggurat, the tower of 15:02.560 --> 15:02.900 Babel. 15:02.900 --> 15:07.340 So this is taking us back to the beginning. 15:07.520 --> 15:09.300 Well, I'm getting ahead of the Scripture. 15:09.440 --> 15:13.780 He carried me away in the wilderness, I saw a woman sitting upon this beast, 15:14.100 --> 15:15.260 seven heads, ten horns. 15:15.320 --> 15:21.440 Those ten horns were the ten kings under which this empire will be divided and by 15:21.440 --> 15:22.360 which it will be ruled. 15:24.000 --> 15:28.780 And upon her, she has a cup full of abominations, the filthiness of her 15:28.780 --> 15:29.320 fornication. 15:29.320 --> 15:35.200 Upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon, the great, the mother of 15:35.200 --> 15:36.660 harlots, an abomination of the earth. 15:36.680 --> 15:40.300 This is taking us back to Babel, back to Babylon. 15:41.180 --> 15:48.980 I think I mentioned last night, seeing an ad in Scientific American by 15:48.980 --> 15:50.200 Lockheed Corporation. 15:50.960 --> 15:53.520 And they depicted the tower of Babel. 15:54.760 --> 15:58.740 And they said, we are working against the Babel effect. 15:59.400 --> 16:03.620 The Babel effect scattered people and it confounded their languages. 16:03.860 --> 16:07.840 And with our computers and so forth, we are bringing everyone back together. 16:08.460 --> 16:09.440 Isn't that amazing? 16:09.760 --> 16:16.280 God's judgment was that, well, to prevent a worse judgment, to confound 16:16.280 --> 16:17.560 their languages and scatter them. 16:17.640 --> 16:18.260 What do we say? 16:18.500 --> 16:19.760 I say we editorially. 16:19.860 --> 16:21.660 What does the world say is the answer today? 16:21.660 --> 16:22.940 Unity. 16:23.640 --> 16:25.380 Get everybody back together. 16:25.800 --> 16:27.220 Undo the Babel effect. 16:27.560 --> 16:28.920 We'll all speak one language. 16:29.480 --> 16:34.980 The Olympics that we just saw not too long ago. 16:35.740 --> 16:40.760 I don't know, about 4 billion people saw it simultaneously in their own languages. 16:41.780 --> 16:43.160 Simultaneous translation. 16:43.920 --> 16:45.640 The communication satellites. 16:45.900 --> 16:48.360 Incredible, the world speaks one language now. 16:48.800 --> 16:50.140 We understand one another. 16:50.140 --> 16:51.240 We're not confused. 16:51.600 --> 16:55.060 Now we can all get together and we can build this paradise. 16:56.080 --> 16:58.580 We were coming back from Rome. 16:59.180 --> 17:00.460 Was it last year? 17:00.560 --> 17:01.800 I can't remember the year before. 17:01.980 --> 17:02.980 I think it was last year. 17:05.700 --> 17:10.180 And they were handing out the international version of the Wall Street 17:10.180 --> 17:10.540 Journal. 17:11.140 --> 17:13.820 And there was an insert there from IBM. 17:13.820 --> 17:18.820 And IBM had the Tower of Babel. 17:19.200 --> 17:23.020 With high rise, modern high rise buildings coming out of it. 17:23.840 --> 17:28.200 I don't know if you've seen the official poster for the Council of Europe. 17:28.720 --> 17:30.380 The 12 Nation Council of Europe. 17:30.820 --> 17:32.720 It's the Tower of Babel. 17:33.400 --> 17:35.820 And it's got 12 stars over the top. 17:36.240 --> 17:40.500 Only they're not stars, they're upside down from what they are on the American 17:40.500 --> 17:40.960 flag. 17:41.400 --> 17:43.000 It's the pentagram. 17:43.840 --> 17:47.760 With the two up and the one down. 17:47.900 --> 17:51.300 That's the horns and the beard of the goat of Mendes. 17:51.900 --> 17:53.760 Baphomet, the symbol of Satan. 17:54.460 --> 17:56.680 Somebody knows what they're doing. 17:57.120 --> 18:02.660 And the Bible says Babylon is going to be revived. 18:02.780 --> 18:06.400 As I said last night, not that Disneyland in the desert that Saddam Hussein is 18:06.400 --> 18:06.640 building. 18:06.700 --> 18:10.340 It would probably be bulldozed because his name is on every brick. 18:10.340 --> 18:14.500 And when he's out finally, which he will be, they'll probably bulldoze it. 18:14.560 --> 18:16.420 I don't know what they'll do to get rid of his memory. 18:17.020 --> 18:18.280 But I would think they would. 18:18.580 --> 18:19.700 That's not what it's talking about. 18:19.800 --> 18:23.540 It's talking about a religious, a spiritual entity. 18:24.420 --> 18:27.880 This religion, what was the religion of Babel? 18:28.560 --> 18:31.080 We will build a tower that will reach to heaven. 18:31.500 --> 18:32.960 It was a rebellion against God. 18:33.420 --> 18:35.060 It was a works religion. 18:35.480 --> 18:37.020 It was a humanistic religion. 18:37.520 --> 18:39.140 We can do it. 18:39.140 --> 18:42.320 It was right in line with the lie of the serpent. 18:42.480 --> 18:44.260 You can be like God. 18:44.880 --> 18:51.340 And that was where occultism and astrology and so forth really began up on the top. 18:51.440 --> 18:53.680 The worship of the heavenly bodies. 18:54.680 --> 19:00.160 So, you can trace this woman, what she represents. 19:00.800 --> 19:03.480 You can trace it back to Babylon. 19:03.480 --> 19:09.300 Now, why was Saddam Hussein, why was he so interested in rebuilding Babylon? 19:09.940 --> 19:11.560 You know, he had minted a coin. 19:12.200 --> 19:13.700 And it had two profiles. 19:14.140 --> 19:17.420 On one of them, the profile of Nebuchadnezzar. 19:17.580 --> 19:19.580 And on the other one, Saddam Hussein. 19:19.640 --> 19:21.820 I mean, sitting right next to one another there. 19:22.420 --> 19:23.640 Looking at one another. 19:24.020 --> 19:24.360 Why? 19:24.580 --> 19:27.720 He thinks he's the new Nebuchadnezzar. 19:28.660 --> 19:30.120 What did Nebuchadnezzar do? 19:30.120 --> 19:32.820 He destroyed Israel. 19:33.400 --> 19:35.380 And he led them away into captivity. 19:35.580 --> 19:37.620 And that's his great dream. 19:38.300 --> 19:39.440 And who were the enemies? 19:39.940 --> 19:42.220 Who took over from Babylon? 19:42.980 --> 19:45.020 The Persians, the mean old Persians. 19:45.100 --> 19:46.020 That's Iran. 19:46.960 --> 19:49.140 So, this is his other big enemy. 19:49.540 --> 19:50.880 I mean, it's incredible. 19:51.360 --> 19:52.820 This book is coming true. 19:53.400 --> 19:55.880 But that's not what it's talking about here. 19:55.880 --> 19:59.980 Nebuchadnezzar is talking about this spiritual mystery. 20:00.640 --> 20:03.620 That you can trace back this false religion. 20:03.620 --> 20:05.960 That's the foundation of occultism. 20:06.240 --> 20:07.960 And it comes down through the ages. 20:08.120 --> 20:09.900 It is a works religion. 20:10.380 --> 20:12.120 It is a self-righteousness. 20:12.340 --> 20:15.500 It is man's way of getting to heaven. 20:15.920 --> 20:16.800 Getting to God. 20:17.440 --> 20:17.780 Okay. 20:18.880 --> 20:20.520 Upon her forehead was the name written. 20:20.620 --> 20:23.420 Mystery, Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, abomination of the earth. 20:23.640 --> 20:26.360 I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints. 20:26.480 --> 20:29.520 That's another identifying characteristic. 20:30.700 --> 20:32.260 She's drunken with the blood of the saints. 20:32.960 --> 20:34.200 And of the martyrs of Jesus. 20:34.780 --> 20:36.780 When I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 20:36.920 --> 20:37.760 Now, we'll just hold it there. 20:37.820 --> 20:38.800 We'll come back to that verse. 20:38.880 --> 20:40.460 But let's get two more characteristics. 20:42.240 --> 20:42.960 Verse 18. 20:42.960 --> 20:43.080 Verse 19. 20:43.520 --> 20:48.020 The woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the 20:48.020 --> 20:48.280 earth. 20:49.040 --> 20:49.580 Verse 9. 20:49.660 --> 20:51.060 Here is the mind that hath wisdom. 20:51.440 --> 20:55.180 The seven heads are seven mountains, or seven hills, on which the woman 20:55.180 --> 20:55.540 sitteth. 20:56.140 --> 20:57.880 Okay, now you've got all the characteristics. 20:58.040 --> 20:59.180 You've got five characteristics. 21:00.740 --> 21:01.900 This woman is a city. 21:02.800 --> 21:05.880 People say, oh, I think the United States is Babylon. 21:06.840 --> 21:08.140 You know, we're so bad. 21:08.300 --> 21:09.300 Well, we're bad. 21:09.800 --> 21:11.960 God's judgment will come upon the United States. 21:11.960 --> 21:13.700 But we're not Babylon. 21:14.080 --> 21:16.280 Babylon is a city. 21:17.560 --> 21:17.700 Okay? 21:18.520 --> 21:20.400 A local city. 21:21.720 --> 21:25.040 Number two, it is built on seven hills. 21:25.840 --> 21:27.240 Now, there are a number of cities like that. 21:27.300 --> 21:29.720 I think Rio de Janeiro claims to be built on seven hills. 21:30.120 --> 21:31.180 There may be some other ones. 21:32.160 --> 21:34.480 But the United States certainly is not a city. 21:34.640 --> 21:35.280 It's a country. 21:36.360 --> 21:38.100 Washington isn't built on seven hills. 21:38.220 --> 21:41.160 Neither is New York. 21:41.160 --> 21:42.560 New York, where the United Nations is. 21:42.620 --> 21:44.300 Some people say, well, maybe it's the United Nations. 21:44.420 --> 21:46.180 I see New York and the United Nations. 21:46.640 --> 21:47.200 No, wait a minute. 21:47.440 --> 21:49.900 It's a city built on seven hills. 21:51.700 --> 21:54.620 It has committed fornication with the kings of this earth. 21:54.800 --> 22:00.980 So it's a religious organization that claims to be espoused to Christ. 22:01.380 --> 22:05.680 And it has been unfaithful to Him and has been in bed with the kings of this earth. 22:05.860 --> 22:06.100 All right? 22:08.480 --> 22:10.960 It is... how many do we have? 22:11.000 --> 22:12.280 A city on seven hills. 22:13.680 --> 22:15.760 It's committed fornication with the kings of the earth. 22:16.220 --> 22:18.460 It rules over the kings of the earth. 22:19.920 --> 22:21.800 Now, what city rules over the kings of the earth? 22:21.900 --> 22:22.920 Well, we'll come back to that. 22:22.960 --> 22:23.660 Not Washington. 22:24.680 --> 22:26.440 Not Moscow or Paris. 22:26.840 --> 22:27.420 There's another one. 22:27.760 --> 22:29.320 It rules over the kings of the earth. 22:29.540 --> 22:33.740 And it is drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus. 22:33.740 --> 22:36.000 Where has that blood flowed? 22:36.580 --> 22:37.740 We're talking about Rome. 22:38.280 --> 22:39.540 I mean, you can't escape it. 22:39.620 --> 22:42.940 I mean, I'm not an anti-Catholic trying to read something into this. 22:43.600 --> 22:49.000 Now, I'm not saying that the Catholic Church is all that is held in view here. 22:49.500 --> 22:54.800 It is the false religious system of this world that has come together in a great 22:54.800 --> 22:58.120 ecumenical movement in the last days. 22:58.240 --> 23:01.220 But its headquarters is at Rome. 23:02.200 --> 23:06.760 Who is the greatest ecumenist in history? 23:07.760 --> 23:08.880 John Paul II. 23:09.040 --> 23:10.020 You can't escape it. 23:10.760 --> 23:17.160 And in the book he held up, Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist, which I had a 23:17.160 --> 23:20.980 couple hundred of them order to come here, and instead they sent me 240 of somebody 23:20.980 --> 23:22.740 else's book, a book I never even heard of. 23:24.040 --> 23:26.300 So, sorry about that. 23:27.000 --> 23:29.900 But I quote John Paul II. 23:29.900 --> 23:34.280 For example, when he was in India, he went to India. 23:34.940 --> 23:38.940 He said, we haven't come here to teach you Hindus anything. 23:39.440 --> 23:42.900 We've come here to learn from your rich spiritual heritage. 23:43.920 --> 23:48.280 John Paul II, when he spoke to Hindu audiences at the University of Calcutta, 23:48.340 --> 23:55.420 University of New Delhi, he said, what India has to offer to this world is a 23:55.420 --> 23:57.260 spiritual vision of man. 23:57.260 --> 24:01.660 And the world does well to give heed to this. 24:02.340 --> 24:03.460 Can you imagine? 24:04.240 --> 24:10.380 Commending Hinduism, the spiritual vision of man that Hinduism has given to this 24:10.380 --> 24:13.020 world, is anything but biblical. 24:14.480 --> 24:21.160 He gathered together in 1986 in Assisi, you remember, Italy, to pray for peace. 24:21.540 --> 24:25.180 He had 160 of the leaders of the world's 12 major religions. 24:26.100 --> 24:29.580 John Paul II said, we're gathered together to pray for peace. 24:29.660 --> 24:33.220 He said, we are all praying to the same God. 24:34.900 --> 24:42.840 And he said, our prayers are creating a spiritual energy that is bringing about a 24:42.840 --> 24:44.540 new climate for peace. 24:45.360 --> 24:47.860 That's about as new age as you can possibly get. 24:49.520 --> 24:52.980 Committed fornication with the kings of the earth and ecumenical movement, 24:52.980 --> 24:56.360 a false religious movement bringing everybody together. 24:57.360 --> 25:01.000 You know that one of his good buddies is the Dalai Lama. 25:02.800 --> 25:07.120 And they have been together a number of times. 25:10.680 --> 25:13.840 And they're working together for peace. 25:14.560 --> 25:17.200 I don't know if you get the Catholic World. 25:17.500 --> 25:19.380 It's a very slick magazine. 25:19.380 --> 25:21.720 I'm not saying that it's official. 25:22.540 --> 25:24.240 It doesn't come from the Vatican. 25:24.780 --> 25:27.600 But it certainly represents what an awful lot of Catholics believe. 25:27.680 --> 25:29.640 The Vatican hasn't stopped it from being published. 25:30.140 --> 25:32.760 They had an entire issue on Buddhism. 25:33.620 --> 25:38.400 One of their articles was titled, Buddha Revered as a Christian Saint. 25:40.160 --> 25:44.380 You've got an ecumenism going on like nothing you could imagine. 25:44.380 --> 25:48.660 They had an entire issue in the Catholic World on the new age. 25:49.380 --> 25:52.500 Not one word of anything wrong with the new age. 25:52.760 --> 25:56.160 But what a challenge it was to Christianity and how we could learn from 25:56.160 --> 25:57.500 it and so forth. 25:58.020 --> 26:01.420 There is a false religious system that is being put together. 26:01.720 --> 26:07.820 And the leader, the one who condones it and the one who has the power to bring it 26:07.820 --> 26:13.700 all together, has his headquarters at this city on Seven Hills. 26:14.820 --> 26:16.720 Does it rule over the kings of the earth? 26:17.280 --> 26:22.540 I always bring a lot of stuff here and somehow I never get around to showing it 26:22.540 --> 26:22.880 to you. 26:23.340 --> 26:24.580 See if I can find a little bit. 26:24.640 --> 26:31.780 I had the magazine but unfortunately this is just a Xerox copy out of Columbia. 26:32.220 --> 26:34.760 The Knights of Columbus magazine. 26:35.600 --> 26:39.980 It's a picture of Mrs. Margaret Melody. 26:40.120 --> 26:41.540 Melody, I don't know how to pronounce it. 26:41.900 --> 26:45.460 And Dr. Thomas Melody, that's our ambassador to the Vatican. 26:46.720 --> 26:50.140 This is a city that rules over the kings of the earth. 26:50.960 --> 26:56.780 What city in this world has ambassadors from every major country who come there, 26:57.080 --> 27:02.720 hat in hand, to present their credentials and to offer themselves and to work in 27:02.720 --> 27:03.980 cooperation with a city? 27:04.860 --> 27:07.200 Washington doesn't represent itself. 27:07.760 --> 27:10.120 It represents the United States. 27:10.360 --> 27:12.920 Ambassadors come there to Paris and so forth and so on. 27:13.180 --> 27:20.200 This is a city which in its own right has ambassadors coming and it calls the shots. 27:20.200 --> 27:23.420 I don't know if you saw the... 27:25.520 --> 27:27.680 Well, I won't try to find it because... 27:27.680 --> 27:28.540 Oh, here we go. 27:30.500 --> 27:31.700 This is out of the Denver Post. 27:31.820 --> 27:33.240 I suppose you know Mikhail Gorbachev. 27:34.060 --> 27:35.100 He's a millionaire now. 27:35.860 --> 27:37.200 He was just in Israel. 27:37.300 --> 27:38.940 Maybe you saw it in the Jerusalem Post. 27:39.600 --> 27:43.200 And he made a few speeches down there and he called Jesus the first socialist. 27:44.660 --> 27:50.400 And he said, the only way we'll have peace in the Middle East will be on the 27:50.400 --> 27:51.500 principles of Jesus. 27:52.920 --> 27:54.440 Sounds great, doesn't it? 27:54.820 --> 27:55.820 Coming from an atheist. 27:56.540 --> 28:01.040 I quote him in Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist when I read Perestroika back 28:01.040 --> 28:01.300 there. 28:02.000 --> 28:03.580 I couldn't believe it. 28:03.600 --> 28:07.220 I almost fell out of my chair when I got to this point where Gorbachev... 28:07.220 --> 28:07.980 This is 87. 28:09.760 --> 28:10.640 He said... 28:10.640 --> 28:13.040 You see, it's going to be more than Western Europe, folks. 28:13.960 --> 28:15.580 The whole world is going to be united. 28:16.440 --> 28:19.120 And Gorbachev and the Pope were also using the same language. 28:19.240 --> 28:22.240 They were talking about a united Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. 28:22.820 --> 28:26.160 And Gorbachev said, we are going to be part of this. 28:26.540 --> 28:30.920 Russia, Eastern Europe is going to be united with Western Europe. 28:31.220 --> 28:33.100 And he said, you want to know why? 28:34.800 --> 28:36.580 Because we're Christians. 28:39.260 --> 28:40.680 Can you believe that? 28:40.760 --> 28:42.340 This is the head of world atheism. 28:42.840 --> 28:44.740 The head of world communism. 28:45.460 --> 28:46.840 And he says, we're Christians. 28:47.680 --> 28:49.360 Now, you know... 28:49.360 --> 28:51.160 I mean, he says he's an atheist. 28:52.140 --> 28:56.160 You know what he means, of course, by Christians. 28:56.360 --> 29:00.820 He means born-again, Bible-believing, evangelical Christianity like you and I 29:00.820 --> 29:02.160 know. 29:02.160 --> 29:03.720 What does he mean? 29:04.480 --> 29:09.240 Well, you know, when he wanted to use religion for his own purposes of unity, 29:09.480 --> 29:12.940 worldwide unity, in fact, he's got his sights set on something more than being 29:12.940 --> 29:13.300 premier. 29:14.080 --> 29:16.080 I mean, I'm not saying he's the Antichrist. 29:16.160 --> 29:17.080 He's an awfully good candidate. 29:17.220 --> 29:20.500 But don't count Gorbachev out just because he's out of the Soviet Union. 29:20.600 --> 29:23.180 He's got bigger goals in mind. 29:23.960 --> 29:28.200 He could probably be voted in ahead of anybody here in the United States, 29:28.300 --> 29:28.520 you know. 29:29.260 --> 29:30.820 Certainly in Western Europe. 29:32.700 --> 29:46.690 But Gorbachev, in this article, he says, Now it can be said that 29:46.690 --> 29:50.990 everything which took place in Eastern Europe in recent years would have been 29:50.990 --> 29:55.770 impossible without the Pope's efforts and the enormous role, including the political 29:55.770 --> 29:58.090 role, which he played in the world arena. 29:58.770 --> 30:03.770 He's telling you the most important, influential leader on this earth is Pope 30:03.770 --> 30:04.650 John Paul II. 30:05.090 --> 30:11.510 So, when he wanted to use religion for his purposes, Christianity calls himself a 30:11.510 --> 30:13.270 Christian, you know where he went. 30:13.690 --> 30:17.550 Why, he got in a plane and he flew to Nashville, Tennessee to meet with the head 30:17.550 --> 30:19.190 of the Southern Baptist Convention, right? 30:21.450 --> 30:24.950 No, he went to Rome to meet with the Pope. 30:26.150 --> 30:30.070 And he had a five or ten minute conversation alone, because they're both 30:30.070 --> 30:33.930 slobs, they're speaking Russian to one another, without an interpreter present, 30:34.010 --> 30:35.150 so we don't know what was said. 30:35.470 --> 30:38.670 But we do know that when he came out from that private audience with the Pope, 30:38.910 --> 30:43.070 he introduced the Pope to his wife, Raisa, who also is an atheist. 30:43.550 --> 30:50.210 He introduced the Pope to her as, This is the highest spiritual authority on 30:50.210 --> 30:50.690 this earth. 30:51.350 --> 30:51.870 Okay? 30:54.010 --> 30:58.910 Now, here is our ambassador standing with the Pope. 30:58.990 --> 31:03.970 The Pope is dressed in white, she and he are dressed in black. 31:04.650 --> 31:05.610 You don't dress in white. 31:06.390 --> 31:09.570 You know, you've maybe seen pictures of Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy. 31:10.170 --> 31:13.610 Kennedy Onassis or whatever came first, I lose track of these things. 31:14.250 --> 31:19.350 And in the presence of the Pope, she's wearing black, everybody wears 31:19.350 --> 31:19.670 black. 31:19.670 --> 31:21.570 The Pope wears white. 31:22.390 --> 31:26.150 You know, the head of the Jesuits is called the Black Pope, because he must 31:26.150 --> 31:27.610 wear black as well. 31:28.090 --> 31:33.310 And here is our ambassador to this city that rules over the kings of the earth. 31:33.650 --> 31:37.410 He says, For us in the world today, the key word is opportunity. 31:38.110 --> 31:42.010 And it is certainly marvelous that at this time when significant change is possible, 31:42.450 --> 31:47.590 Pope John Paul II is at the high point of respect as a world leader advocating a 31:47.590 --> 31:49.110 moral and ethical point of view. 31:49.110 --> 31:54.330 And that our government is cooperating as one government to another government, 31:54.850 --> 31:56.830 the government of the Holy See. 31:57.070 --> 32:02.370 It is a great honor for me to be there representing our government to the Holy 32:02.370 --> 32:05.670 See at this significant time in history. 32:09.710 --> 32:10.870 It's a city. 32:12.310 --> 32:18.930 It's recognized in its own right as being right up there with all the other 32:18.930 --> 32:20.530 governments of this world. 32:20.970 --> 32:26.750 And in fact, it exercises authority over all of the kings of this earth. 32:26.850 --> 32:28.690 Committed fornication with the kings of this earth? 32:29.630 --> 32:31.090 Been in bed with the kings of this earth? 32:31.190 --> 32:33.790 I don't have to give you the history of the Popes. 32:33.790 --> 32:42.130 You go to Rome, and you go into the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel 32:42.130 --> 32:43.290 there is fantastic. 32:43.630 --> 32:48.730 Here's a 50-pound solid gold landscape. 32:49.010 --> 32:50.310 It's molded and so forth. 32:50.630 --> 32:54.510 And the guide says, this was given to Pope so-and-so by King so-and-so. 32:54.810 --> 32:56.870 Here's a priceless tapestry. 32:56.970 --> 32:59.250 They could pay off the U.S. 32:59.250 --> 33:02.790 national debt if they sold off some of these art treasures. 33:02.790 --> 33:03.810 I'm not kidding you. 33:04.150 --> 33:05.150 Easily they could. 33:05.850 --> 33:10.650 And he says, this was given to Pope so-and-so by King so-and-so. 33:10.810 --> 33:14.030 And you go through there, and they have been making deals. 33:14.570 --> 33:16.010 They have been in bed. 33:16.430 --> 33:21.170 You know that... look, talk about apostolic succession. 33:21.410 --> 33:22.490 There is no such thing. 33:22.810 --> 33:26.670 But even if it were, you would think that a Pope would lay hands on his successor 33:26.670 --> 33:27.910 and so forth and so on. 33:28.310 --> 33:30.390 The Popes were voted in by mobs. 33:30.390 --> 33:36.450 The citizens of Rome had the right to determine who would be the next bishop of 33:36.450 --> 33:36.770 Rome. 33:37.110 --> 33:39.510 You know they've been deposed by emperors. 33:39.570 --> 33:41.730 You know they bought their way in and so forth. 33:42.890 --> 33:50.390 You know that 800 A.D., Christmas, 800 A.D., it was Leo the third... 33:51.510 --> 33:54.690 I have to get out my list of Popes to make sure I got it straight. 33:54.810 --> 33:55.870 Leo the something or other. 33:56.640 --> 33:57.910 He was blind. 33:58.070 --> 34:04.030 His eyes had been gouged out by a mob that was so enraged with his corruption. 34:04.990 --> 34:11.650 And he made his way, groped his way, in St. Peter's Cathedral to Charlemagne, 34:11.990 --> 34:17.590 who was kneeling there for Mass on Christmas Day, 1800, and he crowned 34:17.590 --> 34:20.490 Charlemagne emperor of the world. 34:21.870 --> 34:26.230 This is the city that has ruled over the kings of the earth. 34:26.530 --> 34:31.930 And emperors trembled for fear of excommunication, because in those days the 34:31.930 --> 34:36.350 only religion, the only Christianity was Roman Catholicism, and if you were 34:36.350 --> 34:39.430 excommunicated from that church, you were beyond hope. 34:40.490 --> 34:44.450 And they trembled, and so power over the kings of the earth. 34:45.770 --> 34:47.970 Drunk with the blood of the saints, the martyrs of Jesus? 34:47.970 --> 34:54.850 No city like Rome, even before Roman Catholicism, under the emperors. 34:55.930 --> 34:57.350 And they took this heritage. 34:57.930 --> 35:02.010 I mentioned last night, the emperors of Rome were worshipped as God. 35:02.570 --> 35:05.270 They had the title Pontifex Maximus. 35:08.270 --> 35:10.950 Because they were the head of the pagan priesthood. 35:11.010 --> 35:15.210 And the pagan priesthood, by the way, was known as the Pontifical College. 35:15.210 --> 35:19.550 You have a Pontifical College in Rome today, and you know who is the head of it. 35:21.230 --> 35:26.110 When Constantine supposedly became a Christian, he became the de facto head of 35:26.110 --> 35:26.950 the Christian church. 35:27.070 --> 35:29.670 And as such, he took the title Vicar of Christ. 35:29.950 --> 35:33.870 He passed both of those titles, Pontifex Maximus and Vicar of Christ, 35:34.030 --> 35:34.650 to the popes. 35:34.690 --> 35:36.430 And you know that that's what they're known as today. 35:36.930 --> 35:40.290 The pope is the Roman Pontif, Pontifex Maximus. 35:42.590 --> 35:48.710 And during the Middle Ages, the pope circulated a document known as the 35:48.710 --> 35:50.310 Donation of Constantine. 35:51.110 --> 35:53.810 And I give you some of the data of this in Whatever Happened to Heaven. 35:55.230 --> 35:58.930 And that document has been proven to be a forgery. 35:59.790 --> 36:04.730 But the point is that in that document, the pope said they... 36:04.730 --> 36:10.390 It was supposedly written by Constantine, who said that he had given, donated to the 36:10.390 --> 36:16.810 popes, the tiara, the robe, the scepter, the palace of the Lateran. 36:17.110 --> 36:22.410 You know, everything that they have today, they say it was given to them by the 36:22.410 --> 36:22.870 emperor. 36:24.170 --> 36:30.590 There has been a partnership, you can't escape it, between what was supposed to be 36:30.590 --> 36:32.570 the true Christian church and the world. 36:34.590 --> 36:41.790 And they martyred, they martyred the believers in Jesus Christ and down through 36:41.790 --> 36:42.250 history. 36:42.830 --> 36:46.670 That has been done so that about all the history you have today is of the Roman 36:46.670 --> 36:47.290 Catholic Church. 36:47.350 --> 36:51.630 You've got to get a few books like I would recommend the Pilgrim Church by Broadbent. 36:52.730 --> 36:56.470 There are a few others out there that will tell you of these groups of independent 36:56.470 --> 37:01.310 believers who knew Christ, who were following the New Testament, and who were 37:01.310 --> 37:05.530 hated by this church and persecuted, their records destroyed, lies told about 37:05.530 --> 37:10.190 them, they're talked now of as heretics and so forth, and down through history 37:10.190 --> 37:11.010 they killed them. 37:11.050 --> 37:15.990 And you know what the Reformation, about in Europe alone, about one million 37:15.990 --> 37:23.170 burned at the stake for simply saying we think the Bible should be our authority. 37:23.170 --> 37:27.010 Not some hierarchy in Rome. 37:27.570 --> 37:31.970 They were burned at the stake for saying we believe in salvation by grace through 37:31.970 --> 37:32.390 faith. 37:33.030 --> 37:37.870 We believe that anybody who trusts in Christ is a child of God. 37:38.150 --> 37:42.370 No, outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation. 37:43.090 --> 37:52.930 And you had, I think around 1302, it's a papal bull, and I shouldn't know 37:52.930 --> 37:59.550 the name of it very well, but a pope decreed that unless you were in the 37:59.550 --> 38:03.230 Catholic Church and unless you were submissive to the pope, you're not saved, 38:03.310 --> 38:04.290 you're outside of salvation. 38:04.710 --> 38:06.970 And that was enforced down through history. 38:06.970 --> 38:11.430 In 1870, Vatican I reconfirmed this. 38:12.010 --> 38:14.510 The absolute authority of the pope and your submission. 38:15.090 --> 38:17.030 This, I mean, you can't escape it. 38:18.090 --> 38:23.870 I could go on and on, and I shouldn't go on and on about this, because I think you 38:23.870 --> 38:26.430 understand what we're talking about here. 38:26.710 --> 38:27.770 What the Bible is talking about. 38:27.890 --> 38:31.370 Now, as I said, it's not just the Roman Catholic Church. 38:32.230 --> 38:36.830 But it is an ecumenical movement. 38:37.450 --> 38:41.510 It is a false religious system that has been joined together. 38:41.950 --> 38:45.350 We kind of jumped from verse 6. 38:45.950 --> 38:46.150 Notice, 38:52.490 --> 38:55.950 Why would he wonder with great admiration? 38:57.490 --> 38:59.510 I don't know if you've ever been to Israel. 39:00.850 --> 39:04.250 But if you do go to Israel, I would suggest you do something. 39:04.450 --> 39:08.870 I think a year or two ago, we did it for the first time. 39:09.510 --> 39:11.770 We went from Israel to Rome. 39:13.150 --> 39:15.770 You stand there and you look at the Dome of the Rock, you know. 39:15.890 --> 39:18.110 You see the pictures taken from the Mount of Olives. 39:18.710 --> 39:23.370 And this thing, it's so huge, it dominates the skyline, right? 39:23.990 --> 39:26.810 And it just, it's so fantastic. 39:26.990 --> 39:28.910 You go inside the wealth and so forth. 39:28.910 --> 39:31.770 Listen, go from there to Rome. 39:32.950 --> 39:34.490 See, I've been to Rome before. 39:34.650 --> 39:36.330 I'd forgotten the perspective. 39:37.170 --> 39:42.890 Go from there to Rome and you will see you could put a half a dozen temple mounts in 39:42.890 --> 39:45.750 St. Peter's Square. 39:46.430 --> 39:47.590 This thing is huge. 39:47.670 --> 39:52.910 And when you walk inside St. Peter's Basilica, you walk inside this cathedral. 39:53.330 --> 39:56.890 You could, I'm not exaggerating, you could put a half a dozen Dome of the 39:56.890 --> 39:58.170 Rocks inside. 39:59.530 --> 40:02.750 Inside, the wealth, the power. 40:03.290 --> 40:05.250 I think John is staggered. 40:06.010 --> 40:08.190 All John knew was what he wrote it. 40:08.470 --> 40:10.250 I quoted it from John 15. 40:10.850 --> 40:12.750 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. 40:12.850 --> 40:14.770 Because you're not of the world, I've chosen you. 40:14.810 --> 40:15.870 You're out of the world, the world hates you. 40:16.070 --> 40:18.750 That's all Jesus promised us as his disciples, right? 40:19.510 --> 40:23.070 He didn't promise you you'd float to heaven on a pink miracle cloud, 40:23.270 --> 40:23.570 you know. 40:24.250 --> 40:27.410 He didn't promise you immunity from suffering and persecution. 40:27.410 --> 40:29.410 He never promised you that. 40:29.490 --> 40:33.630 All he promised you was you would be hated and persecuted and killed like he was, 40:33.710 --> 40:33.970 okay? 40:34.490 --> 40:36.750 And Jesus said, fear not, little flock. 40:36.870 --> 40:40.330 I think in Whatever Happened to Heaven, I quote the words of Annika Jans, 40:40.850 --> 40:43.770 the night before her martyrdom. 40:44.450 --> 40:48.770 The heritage she left for her two young children. 40:49.350 --> 40:55.590 There's a young mother in Holland who was burned at the stake because she believed 40:55.590 --> 40:56.230 the Bible. 40:56.230 --> 41:04.130 And she said something like this, wherever you find a small flock of hated 41:04.130 --> 41:07.450 and despised people, follow them. 41:07.970 --> 41:11.090 Be with them because that's where Jesus is. 41:12.210 --> 41:13.870 That's what he offered us. 41:14.130 --> 41:20.030 And that's all John knew was this hated, despised little group of followers of 41:20.030 --> 41:25.310 Jesus who all they could look forward to was being persecuted and crucified like he 41:25.310 --> 41:25.650 was. 41:25.650 --> 41:33.130 And suddenly he's given this vision that this little flock, this little church has 41:33.130 --> 41:39.850 suddenly metamorphosed into a huge worldwide organization that controls the 41:39.850 --> 41:44.050 kings of the earth, that has wealth beyond comprehension. 41:44.570 --> 41:47.090 He is staggered by this. 41:48.570 --> 41:49.650 It's staggering. 41:49.850 --> 41:51.570 Go over there and take a look. 41:51.570 --> 41:58.210 Go to Rome if the Lord leads you to spend your vacation funds in that direction. 41:58.390 --> 42:02.590 But I said it's not just the Catholic Church. 42:03.030 --> 42:06.910 There's a whole ecumenical movement out there. 42:07.450 --> 42:10.770 And let me just give you a little taste of it. 42:12.410 --> 42:16.210 The deception is so incredible. 42:16.210 --> 42:21.450 I am almost afraid to read some of these things. 42:22.170 --> 42:27.730 Here's the New Age and the second coming of Christ from body, mind, and spirit. 42:29.510 --> 42:32.110 Ooh, this is powerful stuff. 42:34.170 --> 42:37.830 Jesus didn't call us to worship him or even to be Christians. 42:38.450 --> 42:42.110 He called us to follow his example and become like him. 42:42.110 --> 42:46.290 Remember we said Antichrist claims to be Christ. 42:46.750 --> 42:48.410 His followers are Christians. 42:49.250 --> 42:51.390 But it's an Antichrist Christianity. 42:51.830 --> 42:52.450 Listen to this. 42:52.550 --> 42:54.150 This is Antichrist doctrine. 42:54.730 --> 42:57.110 And it is so persuasive and so powerful. 42:57.250 --> 43:01.130 I just want to read you just a few sentences here. 43:01.790 --> 43:04.750 He called us to follow his example, become like him. 43:05.410 --> 43:09.490 He called us to a radically new experience, to be Christed. 43:10.510 --> 43:13.470 That's not a matter of mere scholarly study of the Bible. 43:13.910 --> 43:17.530 It's a matter of removing from our heart all self-centeredness, all pride, 43:17.670 --> 43:23.390 anger, lust, jealousy, envy, and hatred, so that only the love of God resides in 43:23.390 --> 43:23.930 our being. 43:24.750 --> 43:26.990 Wow, that sounds really appealing. 43:27.890 --> 43:31.750 Messiah means enlightened or perfected or the ideal of humanity. 43:32.170 --> 43:35.750 That's what the Son of Man is, the offspring of humanity, the perfected 43:35.750 --> 43:38.910 or ideal form of the race presently inhabited the earth. 43:38.910 --> 43:42.930 Jesus understood that's what he was, you know, by the Christ. 43:43.370 --> 43:47.430 You've got to get all childish dependence, get rid of all childish dependence on a 43:47.430 --> 43:50.470 magical Savior who will do it for you. 43:50.930 --> 43:58.130 It's transcendental knowledge or gnosis that confirms spiritual truth beyond mere 43:58.130 --> 43:58.550 belief. 43:58.550 --> 44:05.230 So as we accept Christ in our hearts and minds and lives, not just a simple 44:05.230 --> 44:09.910 emotional conversion that the electronic evangelist called for, but a radical 44:09.910 --> 44:15.590 transformation of consciousness, metanoia, as we become Christ-like, 44:16.110 --> 44:18.590 we experience personally the coming of Christ. 44:18.810 --> 44:22.750 Now, here, at this time and this place, wherever that enlightening experience 44:22.750 --> 44:26.470 occurs for us, when we truly awaken in Christ, the world ends. 44:26.470 --> 44:30.530 But it doesn't end in the sense of the fundamentalist preachers, meaning a global 44:30.530 --> 44:31.170 destruction. 44:31.810 --> 44:35.070 It ends the world for us in the transcendence of space and time and into 44:35.070 --> 44:40.170 the divine domain, which is always our true condition and our true self. 44:40.850 --> 44:43.310 We realize who we really are. 44:43.470 --> 44:45.030 We are all the Christ. 44:45.310 --> 44:47.830 There is no second coming of Christ. 44:48.090 --> 44:51.130 That's a false concept and an unwarranted doctrine. 44:51.130 --> 44:56.050 There is only, as the Bible puts it, the coming of Christ through you and 44:56.050 --> 45:00.810 through me as we ascend in consciousness to the truth of life and the source of 45:00.810 --> 45:07.010 being, as we awaken at the heart to God and become sons and daughters of God. 45:07.030 --> 45:12.430 Are you getting the picture, how closely the lie is intermingled with the truth, 45:12.770 --> 45:17.590 becoming like Christ, becoming sons and daughters of God, and so forth? 45:18.550 --> 45:21.110 That's precisely what Jesus called us to do. 45:21.990 --> 45:26.890 And as that occurs on a global scale, the need for a world savior, such as the 45:26.890 --> 45:31.490 electronic evangelists depict, will be seen for what it is, fantasy based 45:31.490 --> 45:32.930 on immature awareness. 45:33.230 --> 45:37.810 The final appearance of Christ will not be a man in the air before whom all must 45:37.810 --> 45:38.150 kneel. 45:38.570 --> 45:41.570 The final appearance of Christ will be an evolutionary event marking the 45:41.570 --> 45:45.790 disappearance of egocentric man and the ascension of God-centered man. 45:45.790 --> 45:50.950 A new race, a new species will inhabit the earth, people who collectively have the 45:50.950 --> 45:52.790 stature and consciousness that Jesus had. 45:53.150 --> 45:57.610 And in that process, the kingdom of God will truly be established on earth under 45:57.610 --> 46:01.130 the rule of Christ in the hearts and minds and souls of all people. 46:02.050 --> 46:03.970 That is powerful stuff. 46:04.830 --> 46:06.370 That is very persuasive. 46:06.650 --> 46:08.330 It sounds so appealing. 46:08.330 --> 46:13.890 We can all be the Christ, and this world can be transformed. 46:14.750 --> 46:18.710 And the second coming is the manifestation of Christ through us. 46:18.790 --> 46:21.450 You got that teaching among some charismatic groups today. 46:21.970 --> 46:25.250 The dominionists are teaching very much the same thing. 46:25.330 --> 46:26.110 There's no rapture. 46:26.190 --> 46:27.070 There's no second coming. 46:27.070 --> 46:34.090 The coming of Christ is as we become Christ-like and as we develop these powers 46:34.090 --> 46:40.230 to heal and to do miracles, and ultimately we will overcome even death. 46:41.470 --> 46:44.130 This is what Earl Polk teaches, for example. 46:45.330 --> 46:46.750 He takes a verse. 46:47.570 --> 46:49.490 We've quoted this verse many times. 46:49.890 --> 46:54.230 The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be 46:54.230 --> 46:55.810 caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. 46:55.810 --> 46:55.990 Right? 46:55.990 --> 46:56.910 That's what it says. 46:57.150 --> 47:00.070 He begins a paragraph with those words. 47:00.810 --> 47:02.970 We who are alive and remain. 47:04.210 --> 47:05.330 And what does he go on to say? 47:05.910 --> 47:12.990 Are left here to manifest immortality in our bodies and to take over this world. 47:13.910 --> 47:19.670 And until we realize that we are gods and we take over this world, Jesus Christ 47:19.670 --> 47:20.330 cannot return. 47:20.450 --> 47:23.550 Of course, He won't return to take us home to heaven, but to rule over the kingdom 47:23.550 --> 47:24.190 we've established. 47:24.190 --> 47:26.130 He is on TBN. 47:26.210 --> 47:27.330 He's on Christian radio. 47:27.470 --> 47:29.050 His books are in Christian bookstores. 47:29.470 --> 47:33.910 And when I try to say the man is teaching heresy, it's anti-Christ doctrine, 47:34.550 --> 47:37.070 then I'm accused of causing division. 47:37.570 --> 47:43.630 Where are the men and women of God who will stand up and say, halt, it's false? 47:51.920 --> 47:58.660 Kenneth Copeland stands before a huge audience, and prophecy, Christ speaks 47:58.660 --> 47:59.280 through him. 48:00.760 --> 48:03.320 And what does this Jesus, this Christ say? 48:04.240 --> 48:07.660 He says, don't, you know, I'm not quoting him exactly, but you'll find it, 48:07.700 --> 48:12.560 I think, in Believer's Voice of Victory, February 1987, page 9. 48:12.980 --> 48:15.540 If you want to look, if you want to look it up. 48:15.540 --> 48:21.320 And he says, this Christ says, don't be upset when people accuse you of 48:21.320 --> 48:22.480 claiming to be God. 48:23.080 --> 48:24.260 They accuse me of that. 48:24.340 --> 48:25.200 Wouldn't they accuse you? 48:25.580 --> 48:26.640 Well, I give you a good reason. 48:26.720 --> 48:28.160 Jesus is God, and I'm not. 48:29.820 --> 48:34.320 And then this Christ goes on to say, but I never claim to be God. 48:34.980 --> 48:38.000 I only claim to be a man through whom God works. 48:38.580 --> 48:44.140 We have a blatant denial of the deity of Jesus Christ through a man who claims to 48:44.140 --> 48:46.980 be a prophet, and supposedly Christ is speaking through him. 48:47.300 --> 48:50.840 And nobody in the audience of a thousand stands up and says, heresy! 48:53.120 --> 48:54.760 It's published in his magazine. 48:54.960 --> 48:56.920 The editor doesn't catch it. 48:57.700 --> 48:59.460 The people out there don't write in. 48:59.680 --> 49:04.960 There ought to be clouds of letters saying this is false teaching. 49:05.520 --> 49:10.640 So we are heading toward this great oneness of religion. 49:11.320 --> 49:13.960 Under the Vatican, there's a unity with Rome. 49:14.400 --> 49:17.680 Somebody was asking me about the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship. 49:17.740 --> 49:18.420 They've done some good. 49:18.480 --> 49:19.340 They've done a lot of harm. 49:19.460 --> 49:21.400 I don't know if we have any FGB MFIs here. 49:21.980 --> 49:33.040 But you know, in 1991, their international convention in Orlando, they had a Catholic 49:33.040 --> 49:36.360 priest, John Bertolucci, as one of their keynote speakers. 49:36.360 --> 49:38.380 And he indicted the audience. 49:38.580 --> 49:42.820 He said, anybody of you out there who have said, who have identified the Catholic 49:42.820 --> 49:45.660 Church with this whore of Babylon, you better repent. 49:46.300 --> 49:48.480 And he got a standing ovation for this. 49:50.090 --> 49:51.860 There is a partnership now. 49:53.120 --> 49:57.980 The evangelicals are joining with the Roman Catholic Church to evangelize the 49:57.980 --> 49:58.400 world. 49:59.060 --> 50:01.380 Whatever happened to the Reformation? 50:02.380 --> 50:04.680 Suddenly it doesn't matter anymore. 50:05.720 --> 50:10.920 Paul Crouch on Trinity Broadcasting Network says, we believe the same thing 50:10.920 --> 50:11.700 they believe. 50:11.820 --> 50:13.240 Benny Hinn says it also. 50:14.780 --> 50:20.280 And they condemn to hell what they call the heresy hunters, people like me. 50:20.320 --> 50:25.000 I don't know if you heard it on TBN, where Paul Crouch was out of control for 50:25.000 --> 50:25.880 about 10 minutes. 50:26.460 --> 50:28.140 And he said, you heresy hunters. 50:28.140 --> 50:32.320 Well, Kenneth Copeland has said, we will come together in the unity of the 50:32.320 --> 50:34.740 faith when we give up our silly doctrinal demands. 50:35.440 --> 50:37.220 He said, doctrine divides. 50:37.900 --> 50:38.500 Wait a minute. 50:39.200 --> 50:41.100 We are united on what we believe. 50:42.000 --> 50:44.580 And Paul Crouch said, you heresy hunters. 50:45.700 --> 50:47.480 Pardon me, I'm quoting him verbatim. 50:47.800 --> 50:50.860 He said, you can go to hell. 50:51.720 --> 50:55.680 And he said, if God doesn't kill you first, I will. 50:55.680 --> 51:00.660 And Benny Hinn says, he's been looking for a verse in the Bible that would justify 51:00.660 --> 51:02.240 him killing people like me. 51:02.620 --> 51:08.360 I mean, that is so irresponsible to make statements because we got kooks out there 51:08.360 --> 51:11.140 who all they need is a little justification. 51:11.620 --> 51:16.300 And Benny Hinn says, I'm looking for a Holy Spirit machine gun and I'll mow you 51:16.300 --> 51:17.040 down, you know. 51:19.260 --> 51:23.340 Paul Crouch says, you heresy hunters, don't you come near me. 51:23.460 --> 51:25.740 I don't want to see your ugly face. 51:26.700 --> 51:27.680 This is incredible. 51:28.660 --> 51:34.300 We have a false Christianity now that is being promoted, it's being accepted, 51:34.520 --> 51:35.460 it's being embraced. 51:36.000 --> 51:40.480 I mean, I've got so much stuff here that I was going to share with you, but we don't 51:40.480 --> 51:41.980 have time to do it. 51:43.160 --> 51:45.940 Here's a pastor who's writing. 51:47.140 --> 51:54.700 He went to a World Council of Churches conference here in New York. 51:55.020 --> 52:00.180 It was held at Auburn under the auspices of Auburn Theological Seminary in New 52:00.180 --> 52:00.420 York. 52:01.160 --> 52:05.000 He says, I'm just quoting him, I knew we were in trouble when our first 52:05.000 --> 52:09.820 worship celebration found us outdoors at a garden pool offering prayers and water 52:09.820 --> 52:13.340 libations to the seven spirits of the seven directions of the universe. 52:13.960 --> 52:16.500 Oh, Spirit of the North, blow upon us and so forth. 52:16.900 --> 52:20.700 He says, there was the outright denial of the doctrine of the Trinity, Father, 52:20.880 --> 52:21.600 Son, and Spirit. 52:22.140 --> 52:26.620 That's not the name of God, but an archaic symbol for God, so loaded with classical 52:26.620 --> 52:28.800 Western sexism and images of oppression. 52:29.040 --> 52:31.700 It must be abandoned in favor of something more palatable. 52:32.360 --> 52:36.520 There was the denial of the divinity and the unique saving authority of Jesus 52:36.520 --> 52:37.060 Christ. 52:37.580 --> 52:41.520 Jesus, we were told, is just one of many deeply meaningful Christ figures among the 52:41.520 --> 52:43.240 religions and spiritualities of the world. 52:43.560 --> 52:46.840 While some of us may prefer to relate to Jesus as our personal Christ figure, 52:47.120 --> 52:48.640 we dare not make Him exclusive. 52:49.040 --> 52:53.140 We must be inclusive of all potential Christ figures, you know, whether it's 52:53.140 --> 52:56.280 Buddha or Krishna or whoever it may be. 52:56.420 --> 52:59.340 I can go on and document this so thoroughly. 52:59.340 --> 53:07.200 What is happening in the church today, an embrace of Antichrist doctrine. 53:07.460 --> 53:10.540 The world and the church are being prepared for Antichrist. 53:11.160 --> 53:12.700 It's one of the reasons for the rapture. 53:13.100 --> 53:15.340 We're leaving, and it's going to... 53:21.720 --> 53:27.440 You see, if we were here, we would identify and we would expose the 53:27.440 --> 53:30.380 Antichrist, and we would oppose him, and we would be killed. 53:31.040 --> 53:36.120 So, you believe in a post-trip rapture, it's a classic non-event, because there 53:36.120 --> 53:38.920 ain't nobody left to rapture, right? 53:39.340 --> 53:44.100 You either take the mark of the beast, and if you do, you suffer the wrath of the 53:44.100 --> 53:45.600 Lamb, you're not a Christian at all. 53:46.060 --> 53:49.740 If you don't, and you don't bow down and worship his image, not only can't you buy 53:49.740 --> 53:51.620 and sell, you are killed. 53:52.400 --> 53:57.300 It's a revival of the religion of Rome, when they made images to the emperor and 53:57.300 --> 53:58.740 they killed whoever would not worship. 53:59.600 --> 54:06.720 So, if... I mean, there isn't anybody left to be raptured at the end of the Great 54:06.720 --> 54:11.540 Tribulation, because the saints, those who come to Christ during that time, 54:12.140 --> 54:15.500 the believers on Jesus, they've been killed. 54:16.060 --> 54:18.340 They've paid for it with their blood. 54:19.400 --> 54:23.000 We're raptured out of here, and what is left? 54:26.010 --> 54:34.630 An apostate bride of the Antichrist, that is only too happy to be part of this 54:34.630 --> 54:39.470 great ecumenical movement that's going to bring about a peace in the Middle East, 54:39.790 --> 54:43.470 going to bring about universal peace for mankind, it's going to rescue us from 54:43.470 --> 54:49.350 ecological disaster, it will have its headquarters in Rome, it will be in bed 54:49.350 --> 54:55.210 with the Antichrist, just as this city always has been in bed with the kings of 54:55.210 --> 54:55.730 the earth. 54:57.430 --> 55:01.870 It doesn't mean that we're anti-Catholics. 55:02.890 --> 55:09.890 I had a letter from a Catholic charismatic bookstore, and they said, we got your 55:09.890 --> 55:13.030 book, Whatever Happened to Heaven, we thought it would be about heaven, 55:13.130 --> 55:18.410 and we found it was filled with your anti-Catholic prejudices. 55:19.090 --> 55:23.230 And we have customers who are charismatic Catholics, and they're upset by this book, 55:23.310 --> 55:25.890 and it was written to my publisher, and we want to send it back. 55:26.370 --> 55:32.610 I wrote to that bookstore, never received an answer, and I said, if you can show me 55:32.610 --> 55:38.770 one thing in that book that is a result of my anti-Catholic biases that is not 100% 55:38.770 --> 55:44.390 true to God's Word and to history, I promise you I will publicly repent, 55:45.090 --> 55:47.850 and I will see that it is changed in the next edition. 55:48.090 --> 55:53.610 But, if there are things in that book that are true, and you have customers who ought 55:53.610 --> 55:58.390 to know, and you keep it from them, you will be held accountable by God one 55:58.390 --> 55:59.750 day for their souls. 56:06.760 --> 56:09.780 See, we're not talking about somebody's prejudices. 56:09.780 --> 56:13.400 My opinion, your opinion, we're talking about what does the Word of God say, 56:13.580 --> 56:17.700 and the eternal destiny of souls is at stake, and we better stand for what is 56:17.700 --> 56:20.340 true and what is right according to God's Word. 56:20.740 --> 56:22.620 Father, help us to do just that. 56:23.300 --> 56:28.060 We pray in the power of your Holy Spirit, for we cannot do it in our own strength. 56:28.520 --> 56:30.100 We ask this in Jesus' name. 56:30.520 --> 56:30.760 Amen.