Episode Transcript
So glad that you've joined us for countdown. Back to the Future, an amazing presentation. This time, the House of the Dragon and Throne wars on Patmos. I was visiting Auschwitz on one occasion and I noticed this caption under this picture. It said, off to the gas chamber. This dear mother or grandmother, whoever it was, leading these two little children. They were going straight to the gas chamber. Why is there so much suffering in our world? Think of that young lady who thought, everything's going to be tremendously rosy because I've got this great future for my family. But then she's told she has terminal cancer. She's never going to have those dreams. Why is there so much suffering in our world today? And then think about the situation where a family's going down the highway and some drunken driver smashes into them and mom and dad are killed. Those kids are going to have to go through the rest of life without Mum and Dad. You know, this is a very haunting question, a real problem question for many people. Why is there so much suffering in our world? We want to answer that question in this presentation today. I want us to go back to the island of Patmos. John on the island of Patmos was given amazing visions of the future. Remember, we saw, we came to this cave. This was a penal colony. And in this cave they say John was given amazing revelations about the future right here in this place. Well, we're not too sure whether this was the exact place, but this is the traditional place, somewhere on the island of Patmos. John saw things way into the future from his time. In this presentation, we want to go back to the beginning, in fact, before the beginning, before the beginning of life, before the beginning of history, before the beginning of any suffering on this planet. We want to go way, way back in time. In fact, we're going to take a journey through time right down to today. We're going to see a great cosmic war, a cosmic battle or conflict between good and evil. This is the center point of the book Revelations. Now, John sees a number of scenes in this great conflict. Scene number one, he says, is a great cosmic conspiracy. You remember, we've been looking at these three beasts, the dragon, the sea beast and the land beast. They form a sort of a global world order. Well, what we understand, want to understand is the fact that who is this dragon, this dragon that's behind these three powers that seek global control, global worship or allegiance? So who is this dragon that John sees in the middle of the book of Revelation? John says, so the great dragon was cast out that Serpent of old, called the devil and Satan. So he says the dragon represents Satan. Now I can almost hear some of you saying, give me a break. Do you really believe in that idea of a devil? Well, let me tell you, I surely do. And for some very, very good reasons. I want to give you the evidence for that fact in this presentation, the evidence that this guy really exists called Satan. First of all, a little bit from archeology of the reality of this being. You may recall in a previous presentation, we saw the gates into the city of Babylon, famous gates called the Ishtar gates. Now you will notice there's various beasts on the gates of the Ishtar. The Ishtar gates here, these beasts, some of them are dragons. You see, for the Babylonians, the dragon was a symbol of evil. But not just the Babylonians. In the time in which the Bible was written, we go back to the Persians. If we come here to Persepolis, we can visit the palace of Darius the Great, mentioned in history and mentioned in the biblical records. This king notice in his palace we see Darius fighting Ahiraman the dragon. Now for the Persians, Aheremon the dragon. He was a symbol of evil. So even archeology bears out this idea that the dragon represents something evil, something sinister. Even in ancient cultures of the Middle east, that is so the devil or Satan. Who is this dragon devil and where did he actually come from in the first place? Notice what the Bible says about his origins, where things began. John says, and war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. Now think of it. War broke out in heaven of all places. The last place you'd expect to see a war breakout is in heaven. And by the way, that's one of the greatest evidences for the truthfulness of this book. You know, if I was writing the Bible, I probably would have left that bit out. It sort of doesn't make God look too good, a war in heaven. But God just tells us like it happened because he's an honest God and he wants us to know why it happened. And we'll understand that in a few moments. Now, long before George Lucas, Star wars, those fictitious. What were they? Star wars, the Empire Strikes Back, the Return of the Jedi, you know, those fictitious Star Wars. There was the original Star wars, these films of George Lucas and books and stories and films, they all draw on a similar theme, you know, have you noticed? It goes like this. Things were once good, then something terrible came along. Somebody bad showed up and messed things up. Then a Hero comes along and saves the day, and everybody lives happily ever after. Books, stories, films, they all seem to have a very similar pattern. Often, well, they're all drawing on the original Star wars, which is found in the Book of Revelation. Let's go back and notice the dragon devil or Satan. There are two portraits of this being in. In the Bible. Now, the dragon doesn't. Or Satan doesn't appear like this. You know, a pitchfork in one hand, a pointy tail and a couple of horns. People draw it like that, but that's just a. That's just a figment of people's imagination. This being always uses fronts. We say he uses fronts that he works behind the scenes. For example, one of the fronts that we're going to see now is the king of Tyre. We go to the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 26 to 28, and we see this first portrait of this dragon devil. But he's working behind the king of Tyre, which is a king of a Phoenician city. Notice what it says in the Book of Ezekiel. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden. That's the Garden of Eden, the garden of God. The workmanship of your timbrels and your pipes was prepared for you on the day that you were created. You were the anointed cherub, the covering angel, if you would. Who covers? I established you, says God. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. So what do we have here? You will notice in this portrait, number one, that the king of Tyre, someone is working behind him, pushing him to do certain things. And it's this dragon devil. Who is this dragon devil who dared to war against God? Number one, he was once in the Garden of Eden according to the Bible. Number two, he was actually created by God. So he's not a God, He's a created being. He's not eternal. Number three, he was the anointed cherub. He was once the covering angel of God himself, like the guardian angel. The Bible continues to help us understand. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till sin was found in you. God created a perfect being until sin was found in him. Never forget that. God did not make a devil. God created, according to this book which we've seen is so accurate. He created a perfect being. Now, what was the sin that was found in this being? Notice what the Bible says. Ezekiel continues. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of Your splendor. There it is, isn't it? Pride. Self centeredness was where this thing started. And isn't that how it's continued? Someone wants to be top dog in the family, at the workplace, in the sporting club, in politics. And to do that, things start to unravel when someone exerts their pride, their ego, over the expense of others. So portrait number two. Now that's the first portrait of this being. Second portrait. Now the front is the king of the Babylon. Notice what it says in the book of Isaiah. How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground. This word Lucifer is a Latin word and it means day star. That's what this being was, a bright shining good being, perfect at the beginning. But notice what happened. Isaiah continues, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farther sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most High himself. Wow, this guy's got an eye problem, right? Five times. I, I, I, I. And this is where it all began. Self centeredness. You know, the middle letter of pride is I. Right? The middle letter of Lucifer is I. The middle letter of a small world word called sin is I. In other words, the desire to take God's place, to be in control, where God should be in control in our own life or in wherever it is. The desire to take God's place. This is where it began. He wanted to be in God's place. The love of power, as we say now. Notice what happens next. He begins a campaign of deceit in heaven to discredit God. And, and isn't that how it goes? Someone wants to take a number one position somewhere. So people actually tell some porkies, they tell some lies, they gossip, they criticize, which is a distortion of the truth. In order to climb up. That's not you. That goes way back to this being. That's what he did. And the Bible says eventually war broke out in heaven. Lucifer became Satan. There's a question. Does a woman give birth to a drunkard? Well, of course not. She gives birth to a beautiful child who by his or her choices becomes a drunkard. And it was the same with God. He made a perfect being called Lucifer, who by his choices became Satan or the dragon. Now Lucifer took with him one third of the angels, according to John, in the book of Revelation, John says, and another Sign appeared in heaven. Behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems or crowns on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Now what's this tail business? Well, the tail is symbolic of deception. The tail was the light to take people with him. You see, in the Bible, it mentions these words going back to the book of Isaiah. The elder and the honorable. He is the head. The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. So the tail, the lies were what swept the angels with this dragon devil. He lied about God evidently, and they brought his lies and he took them with him. So the Bible goes on to say, so the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil. And Satan who deceives the whole world, he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. You notice what it is? Stars represent angels in the Bible. That's how it begins. The John sees in the hand of Jesus in the first chapter. He's got seven stars in his hand. And John's told those stars represent angels. So in other words, when it says war broke out in heaven, it was star wars among the stars. In other words, angel wars took place in heaven. And by pride, this exalted angel fell. What a tragedy. What a tragedy indeed. Now, here's a question that many people have. Why didn't God just destroy this being immediately, Zap, gone, whoom, sayonara. He's finished. Well, maybe that's what you or I would have done. But thank God he didn't do it that way. You imagine for a moment. Here we have Mr. Albanese. Okay, let's imagine that he's accused of his cabinet of embezzling government funds. Now, Mr. Albanese knows he didn't do it. He knows he's innocent. But would it help Mr. Albanese if he's. If he got out the, you know, the special forces out, you know, the secret police or something, and said, now go to those homes and kill those guys. You know, mow them down, brr, boom, finished, gone. Would we think Mr. Elbow was innocent? Well, of course not. We'd think he's as guilty as a pig in mud. But he never did it. No, you can't handle it that way when you're accused of something you never did. And God certainly didn't go down that track. And we can be glad for that. I'm sure Mr. Elbow wouldn't do that either. But anyway, why didn't God destroy Satan immediately? There's a Couple of reasons. Number one, love. Love is at the heart of this thing. You see, God does not want us to relate to him out of fear, but out of love. Not fear, but love. In other words, if God had just destroyed this being straight away, Zunk, he's gone. People would have thought, angels would have thought, created beings would have thought, whatever you do, don't cross God or you're going to be dead meat. As we say, don't. No, God doesn't want us to relate to him out of fear. But there's another reason. Jesus once told a parable about some wheat and some weeds growing together. He said, a farmer sowed some seeds, his servants sowed some wheat. And a couple of days later, the servants noticed weeds coming up among them very all of a sudden. And they realized that some enemies had planted some weeds among the wheat. So they went to the boss and they said, shall we pull up the weeds? And he said, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. Because if you pull up the weeds, you pull up the wheat with it, let them both grow together till the harvest time, and then it will be clearly seen what to do. Pull the weeds in one pile and the wheat in another pile. So God had to give this being time to show his true colors, because created beings wouldn't know unless they saw where things were going. So this brings us to scene number two. Now this great cosmic conflict moves from heaven to earth. This planet joins the rebellion of this being, the devil. Notice what the Bible says. So the great dragon was cast out. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. The one third of those angels. Now, the earth had been God's most recent creation. A beautiful, pristine world that he made. But into that garden, home of our first parents, there came a snake. It was actually the first front for the dragon. Devil, Satan. Notice what happens. So the great dragon, that serpent or snake of old, called the devil. And Satan, why does John call the dragon a snake? Because he wants us to go back to this very story where he had his first front. That's why in the book of Revelation, when you see words and certain, they're taking us back to the Old Testament so we can get the principles of the story. All right? So the snake becomes the first medium or channel for Satan. Now notice if you would, this God of evil, for the Egyptians, Apep, he was the God of chaos, of evil and destruction. So this idea of a snake representing evil is not new. It goes way back in ancient times. By the way, on the right you see the snake and he's. Where is he? He's in a tree. You see, the ancients had part of the story that's mentioned in the biblical records, but it got distorted through time. But they had bits and pieces of it. So this snake shows up. Before we go any further, I want to talk about love. In order to have true love, you must do two things. You must allow two things. You must allow a person to say yes to you, but you must also allow them to say no to you. If you can only say yes and you can't go against them, then this is not true love. You don't have any freedom of choice. God implanted within his created beings the freedom to choose, even to go against him if they chose. That's true love, giving people the freedom of choice. So the Bible says the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now what's God doing here? Adam and Eve could have fruit from every tree in the whole garden, but just not from one tree. What God is doing is he's setting up a sort of a polling station. He's giving Adam and Eve the opportunity to exercise their freedom of choice. They can say yes to him or no to him. He's told them if you eat from the tree, you will die, but if you don't eat, you will live. So God is saying, Adam and Eve, vote for me by not eating and you will have life. I don't want you to die, so don't eat of that tree. But if you choose to eat of it and vote for Satan by doing that, you need to know you will die. Now is God saying, because you didn't choose me, I'm going to wham you one or something? No, God is just saying life is in me. I am the source of life. The devil, he's a created being. He doesn't have life in himself, but life is in me. So stay with me and life will continue. In other words, you need to know there's a consequence to your choice. It's not because I get even with you, it's just because you disengage from the life support system. Me, God says, that's why I want you to follow what I say. I want you to have life. So one day Eve steps up to the polling booth and there she is, met, isn't she, by the dragon in the form of a snake. The Bible says now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? In other words? Surely not. God wouldn't say that, would he? Would he really hold something back from you? Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Have we heard that before? Yes, we have. Back there in the book of Ezekiel and Isaiah. Remember, I will make myself like the Most High, said this dragon, Lucifer at the time. Now he's saying, eve, you be like God. You be in God's place in your situation where God should be. You know, right here there is a two pronged attack on the character of God. Two pronged attack. Notice number one. God doesn't really love you, Eve, because he only loves himself. He just doesn't want you to eat from this tree because he wants to look after himself. He just doesn't want you to have what he's got, so he really doesn't care about you. And secondly, Eve, he's saying God isn't just. It doesn't matter if you break his laws. He said you'd die. I'm telling you, you won't die. It doesn't matter. It's no big deal. If you disobey God and we as human beings, we've fallen for those two things. Have you done it? Sometimes I've done it. You do something bad and you think, God could never love me. He could never forgive me for that terrible thing I've done wrong. That's a lie of the devil. Second thing, sometimes we say, well, I'll just do it and I'm going to ask God for forgiveness. It's only a little thing. I just won't really matter. It's only a little sin, a white one. White lie. God says, no sin matters, it causes death. The devil said, no big deal, Eve. That's the double pronged attack on God's character. He's not a God of love and he's not a God of justice. So the Bible says when the woman saw the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise. Let's just pause there for a moment. When did you last see a snake talking or hear one talking to you? Imagine. This is a pretty incredible temptation. This snake is probably munching on this piece of fruit. And he's talking, makes one wise. Eve fell for it. Notice what it goes on to say. And a tree desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Didn't take much to get. Adam did it. It was a tricky thing. The devil got the woman with. But the. But Adam just went along with the thing. So we can't blame one or the other in this thing. We all got in it together. All right. So then enters sin, disobedience to God shows up, and immediately this happened. Relationships were affected. You see, Evidently, God had met Adam and Eve oftentimes in the garden to come and talk with them. But now they hide from God. They hid from their creator, God, in the bushes. They didn't want to be where God was any longer. And not only that. When God caught up with them and talked with them, he says, adam, what happened here? Adam says, that woman, that lady you made. And then he says, eve, why did you do that? Well, that snake that you made. They're blaming it on God, blaming on others, never take responsibility. And isn't that the way it is today? Many people blame the government, blame this, blame that, but never take responsibility ourselves. Well, this goes back a long ways, but it broke relationships with God and human beings and so entered into our world. Disharmony and disease and depression and destruction and divorce and death. This is the things that entered our world at this time. They don't come from God. They came when this being, the dragon, tempted our first parents. These are the acts of Satan. If you want to have a look at that a little more, go to the book of Job and see why Job has all the problems that Job has. The first two chapters, it's the dragon, it's Satan. He's the one that causes all his problems. Jesus put it this way. He said, this being is the author of deception and destruction. He lives for two things. He lives to deceive us as human beings. In fact, the Bible says he deceives the whole world. He lives to deceive for one reason. To destroy us so that we don't have a part in that last empire. That's his end game for sure. The author of deception and destruction, the two activities that this being lives for. But, you know, we believe the devil's lies because what do we have in our insurance policies? Cyclones, earthquakes, floods, acts of God. That's what. That's what we call them. We blame God as a human race for this stuff. The Devil who caused it all. We don't blame him. We blame God. Even when we lose a loved one. Why God did you let that happen? Why God do you let those poor little children in Africa starve like they are? Why God do you do this? God never did it. It's this being. But we believe the devil's lies as a human race. So how is a loving God to reach a world that believes the devil's lies? How can he possibly reach us? Well, let's go back to the garden story. Let's go back to Adam and Eve. There, they're hiding in the bushes from God. He's calling them, looking for them, but they're hiding from him. I love what happens next. God calls out, adam and Eve, where are you? I love you. Why are you hiding from me? I care about you. Do you know we've been hiding in the bushes of most of us, all of us down through the centuries, we hide in different ways. People say there is no God because that's a way to hide from God. Other people, they carry out this activity and that activity which they know is hard. Anything to get their mind off God. They don't want to get into that space. We run from God in a multitude of ways, activities and a whole range of things. But God calls out to us, Adam, Eve, all through the ages, where are you? I love you. I care about you. Well, when Adam and Eve came out of the bushes, notice what God did. He made a promise. I will put enmity, antagonism between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He, a special seed, an offspring, one. He, he's promising a deliverer. Here, your seed. He shall bruise your head. You know what happens when you whack a snake on the head? You know it's going to attack you and go for you. You have to, you know, put the thing away if it's going to hurt, you know, kill somebody. So you kill it. It tail wiggles, but it's dead. He said, he shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. So while Jesus was the seed of this woman, which is Christ, well, he's going to crush the snake, meaning the devil. He's going to defeat him. He's going to be wounded in the same process. And so here is the promise way back, as soon as our first parents did the wrong that they did of a coming deliverer. This brings us to scene number three. Scene number three. The empire strikes back. The empire of God strikes back. We go to the book of Revelation. Now, John says, now a great Sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a Garland of 12 stars. Then, and being with child, he says she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child. As soon as it was born, she bore a male child who was caught up to God and to his throne. You see, this is, this woman represents God's people. This woman is clothed with light from head to foot. Crown of stars, sun, it covers her and feet, moon under her feet, white from head to foot, represents God's people. Notice in the Old Testament, Israel was called or likened to a woman. Notice what the Bible says. For your that's Israel's maker is your husband, God is your husband, you are the wife. In other words, the Lord of hosts is his name. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. So here God likens his people in Old Testament times to a woman longing for the Messiah. And wasn't that the case? The woman is in pain. She cries out to give birth. God's people all down through the centuries long for the coming of the Messiah, the mighty Messiah. In fact, Adam and Eve called their first child Cain, which means, we've got the man. This is the one, they thought. But he was the first murderer, sadly. But all down through the centuries, they longed for the coming of the Messiah. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. You know, what we've just read here is the gift of Christmas. God so loved the world, the Bible says that he gave his only begotten son, this God who became one of us in human flesh. He came to deliver us. This was the gift of Christmas. The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child. As soon as it was born. She bore a male child. So here's this dragon. He wants to catch this baby as soon as it's born. Now, of course, he didn't come like this. Remember, he always uses fronts. Who was the front at the time of Jesus birth, when he came into the world? Ah, the first front was the snake, remember? Then we had the front of Tyre and Babylon. But now the front is Rome. This power is the front for Rome. Because you see in Revelation 12, the chapter we're looking at, it was Herod the Great, who was a puppet of the Romans. He was the one who tried to kill the baby Jesus in the Christmas story. Here is the Fortress of Herodian, just outside of Bethlehem. This is probably. We're looking down on it from the top here, from a helicopter. But this was the fortress that Herod the Great had near Bethlehem. Probably the very place where the soldiers came to try to kill the baby Jesus in the Bethlehem story, remember? But he missed. And so he grew up, was baptized here in the Jordan River. And then this same Jesus of Nazareth, God in human flesh, he fed the hungry. This Jesus healed the sick. People were brought to him. They'd never seen anything in their life. And he made them see again or see for the first time. This Jesus touched lepers. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with lepers. They were called unclean. But Jesus touched them. He put his arms around them because he cared about them. This Jesus, he befriended outcasts. People didn't want to know about the prostitutes and the tax collectors who were regarded as enemies. But Jesus was their friend. Jesus is the friend of everybody, if they'll let him be their friend. Jesus comforted the grieving. He's coming into a city on one occasion, and there's a poor mother, she's coming out of the city, and her only child, her only son, he's dead. He's on a funeral, a coffin, if we could say. Ancient type of a funeral bier, they call it. Jesus stops and he says, don't cry. And then he raises that boy to life. This is the Jesus. He raised the dead. He cast out demons. This Jesus. Why did he do these things? This Jesus, the Christ, he did this because he came to seek what was lost and to fix what was broken. Now, how do we explain all this? How do we understand all this one word? The Bible says, Emmanuel, which means God is with us. You see, the Bible puts it this way, talking of Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. All things were made through him. And without him, nothing was made that was made. And the Word God, we saw, became flesh and dwelt or lived among us. You see, God, our creator, he became a creature forever one of us, given to the human race. I was in Tonga some years ago running a series similar to this. And everybody in Tonga was amazed at what the king, who had just been crowned, did. The first place he went to was a commoner's home. Now, in Tongan society, you have the king, you have the nobles, and you have the commoners like me. Well, the first thing he did was go visit the home of a commoner. Who was the commoner? A little girl Dying of leukemia. And everyone was blown away by the fact that the king would come down into the home of a commoner. Now I think what the king did was marvelous, but it's nothing compared to what Jesus did. You see, Jesus became one of us. He just didn't visit us commoners on this planet. He became a commoner. He took human flesh. You see, these are the acts of Satan. Disease and destruction and divorce and depression and death. But these are the acts of God. You see, when Jesus came the first time, love broke Satan's possessive grip on this planet. When Jesus came the first time he came to end human suffering. When Jesus came the first time he came to give us a forever hope. How you say? How did he do that? Well, this is when God's empire struck back. Now I know it was the baddies who struck back in George Lucas film, so I'm told. But this is when God's empire struck back. And when was that? At the cross, you see, at the cross we see Satan was defeated. Notice what the Bible says. Inasmuch then as the children, that's you and I, we have partaken of flesh and blood. He himself likewise shared in the same. He became a human being. Why that? Through death. So he could die. So that through death he might destroy, he might defeat him who had the power of death, that is the devil. Now you say, so how did Jesus defeat the devil at the cross? Well remember the two pronged attack on the character of God. That two pronged attack, what was it? Number one, God doesn't love us. He doesn't really care about us. He isn't a just God. His laws don't matter. Remember that doesn't matter if you break his laws. Well, let me tell you, at the cross of Calvary, we see God's laws do matter. The justice of God was seen at Calvary. How so? The Bible says Christ Jesus, whom God set forth by his blood. That means his death. To demonstrate at the present time his righteousness or justice, that he might be just. You see, all of us have done wrong. The Bible puts it this way. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've done wrong. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him, that's Jesus. The iniquity or the sin of us all. That's why the Bible says again and again Christ died for our sins. The wages of sin is death, says Paul. And because of that he died. You see, the Bible says the Lord God commanded the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely. What? You shall surely die. The wages of sin is death. He said that way back now. When Jesus took our sin, therefore he took our punishment. Because the wages of sin is death. The justice of God was seen at the cross. In other words, sin is not a minor thing. Sin is a big deal. If you don't understand that, go to Calvary and see what happened to Jesus when he took your sin, my sin, and the sin of the whole world. Sin matters. The devil's lie was exposed right there at Calvary. But more than that, the love of God is seen at the cross of Calvary, the Bible says. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, even when we were bad, Christ, God in human flesh, died for us or in our place. You see, God loved us so much, loved you so much that he took your place. Your sin should have put you there, but he took your sin and he took your place. God is just and God is love. And that's why hope is sure, because of those two things. Thank God for that. She bore a male child who was caught up to God and his throne. Yes, Jesus died, but he rose again. His tomb is empty. He is not here. He has risen. This brings us to scene number four in this great cosmic conflict, the great pursuit. The Bible says now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth. That means he had given birth to the male child. So he says, couldn't get the woman. Now I need to. Couldn't get the child. I should say I need to go after the woman. Now, the woman represents God's people now, since the time of Christ, a woman clothed with light there. And the New Testament people after. In the New Testament times, they too are called or likened to a woman. Paul is writing to his friends in Corinth. I have betrothed you to one husband. He says that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. What a beautiful picture. God likens his people, his church, to a bride, a loved bride. Now, the Bible goes on to say, when the dragon saw that he'd been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth had given birth to the male child. So I couldn't get the lady, the baby. Now I'm going to go for the lady. And that's what Rome did next. The ancient Romans, they were the front for the devil. What did they do this front for Satan? They Tried to wipe out the church. We talked about this. They went to the Coliseum, put people, fed them to lions, down to the Circus Maximus. More of this took place in great amounts than down at the Coliseum. Tried to destroy God's people. Many of them put on crosses, tar poured over them, set alight for the games for the night. What a tragedy. But the Bible portrayed that. Notice what the Bible says next. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there. 1,260 days. Now, you remember in Bible prophecy, one day represents one literal year in time. We've seen that principle from the book of Ezekiel. We saw it in our last presentation. I've laid upon you every day you lie in your sight. Ezekiel, in this prophecy, it represents a literal year in time. So the 1260 prophetic days represent 1260 literal years. And we call this in ancient history, in university history of this period, we call it the dark ages. From 538 to 1798, there was a horrific amount of persecution. Godly people, godly priests and bishops and people in the church were killed simply because they wanted to follow the Bible. John says, so the serpent spewed out water after. Out of his mouth like a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. So the woman is persecuted like a great flood comes after this woman. In other words, a flood of persecution. And somewhere between 5 to 50 million people were killed in this terrible time called the Dark Ages by things like the Inquisition and so on. Then we have scene number five, the Great Escape. The Great Escape is mentioned next. John says he continues in this story of this great time period, of this cosmic conflict starting way back in heaven, going right down to our own time. We'll see. He says, but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. This flood of persecution. You know, in Bible prophecy, we've seen that there are many symbols. One of the symbols is waters represent nations, regions of large population, masses of people. Notice what the Bible says. Then he said to me, the waters which you saw are peoples of multitudes, nations and tongues, lots of people. Now, the earth is in contrast to the waters, the waters as many people, the earth swallows up the flood, meaning a relatively unpopulated region is going to swallow up the flood. Now, if you remember anything about your history of the Dark Ages, you will remember that religious intolerance we mentioned went on for 1,260 years, people were persecuted, people were killed, sadly, even by the church. They wanted to escape. So when Christopher Columbus found the New World, guess where they went over into the New World. They fled from the Old World, Europe, it's called in ancient in history, to the New World. The Americas. Very unpopulated compared to Europe. You know what? There's only about 1 million American Indians when they came here in all of that vast expanse way back then. That's what it means, a relatively unpopulated region in contrast to the sea, the earth. And so we have. The Americas came into being. United States. Many, many people fled to the shores of the United States from Europe to get away from religious persecution. And a sad time in the history of the church then. Scene number six, John says, is the final battle for global control. Notice what he sees in his sixth scene. This battle for worship or allegiance. This brings us down to the very time we're going to be talking about in detail in our series. This battle for worship or allegiance. These three beasts, the dragon, the sea beast, the land beast. John says these words. The dragon was wroth or angry with the woman. He went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and. And have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Did you see it? He goes to make war with God's people in the end times. Do you see what we've seen here? We've seen six scenes down through time, beginning in heaven, with that war in heaven, marching on down through time. John takes us with a big sweep of history down to the very time where we're going to be looking in more detail. This battle between the three beasts and the three angels. It happened here at Gettysburg back in July one to three in 1863. This was the war, the biggest fight they had in the Civil War. You know, after that battle between the forces of the south and the north, the Yankees and the Rebels, as they were called, after that battle had taken place. There was 55,000 casualties on that battlefield. Men with no limbs, no arms, no legs, parts of their face blown away. It was a tragic thing. Casualties everywhere on that battlefield. But if we had been there after the battle was fought on July 3, we would have seen a very interesting thing taking place. A man was running around the battlefield with a lantern in his hand. He was a farmer from a few hills back over, not far from the battlefield, a farmer. And he'd come looking for his boy who he knew had been in that fight. And he said with a loud voice, calling out as he ran, John Hartman where are you? Your father calls you John. Where are you? And he ran from one pile of moaning, groaning men to another, looking for his boy. Finally, he heard what he'd hoped he would hear. Father, I'm over here. That big farmer raced over to where he heard the voice of his boy. And there he was, lying on the battlefield, wounded. He picked him up in his big farmer hands and he took him back home over the hills a few ways. You know, we've seen that Jesus is coming soon. He wants to take us home, but we're wounded. On this battlefield of life, in this great controversy, great conflict, the devil has trapped many of us, trapped all of us at different points in our life. But I hear the voice of Jesus calling out, as he did so long ago. Adam, Eve, where are you? I love you. I want to take you to my last. I want you to be part of my last empire. Where are you? Won't you accept my grace, my mercy, my kindness? Won't you accept that I died on Calvary for you, so that you could be part of this last empire, a forever empire? Adam, Eve, where are you? I love you. Won't you call? Here I am. Why don't we bow together in prayer as we close? Father, we want to thank you for the fact that the Book of Revelation unfolds in the background, this great cosmic battle that's been raging from way back in heaven right down to our own day. But Lord, we hear the cry of that God of love. Adam, Eve, where are you? I love you. Won't you put your hand, your life in my hand, Lord, May we do that today. Wherever we are watching this presentation, may we determine right now. God, here's my life. I need your help to take my life. Help me, Lord, hear the prayers of those who are crying out to you right now in Jesus name. Amen. Well, we're so glad that you joined us for Countdown Back to the Future. Whatever you do, don't miss the next presentation. The Middle east at the crossroads. The final solution. Invite a friend to watch this presentation on 3ABN. and yourself. We look forward to seeing you then.
