Episode Transcript
Welcome to Countdown. Back to the future. In this presentation, Antichrist Unmasked. We are going to see some amazing things that come from this ancient book that help us to understand where we are today and where we need to be heading personally. You know, there are many ideas of Antichrist. I was reading Bulletin magazine some years ago and they were talking about different people that people think are the Antichrist. There was, well, King Charles, they said, with Prince Charles back then, Bill Clinton, some said he was the Antichrist. Henry Kissinger, one of the advisors to the President of the United States back then, he was said to be the Antichrist. We were living in Fiji some years ago and there was a newspaper going around the country with a picture of a man called Simon Lee, a Jewish man with 666 in his forehead. They said this is the Antichrist. Well, many ideas of who or what Antichrist is today. Many people think it's maybe some big computer somewhere. They also call it the beast. Maybe it's some atheistic dictator for other people. Just who or what is Antichrist? We want to track that down by going to the Bible. The word Antichrist comes from the Bible. It's where it's found. It's found actually only in the letters of John by name, the word. But it's mentioned in other places by different name. But it's the same thing, the Antichrist, especially by John in the Revelation as well. Paul mentions it and we're going to see Daniel, the prophet mentions it the most. Let's look at the meaning of Antichrist. This word antichrist, what does it mean? This word means against Christ or in the place of Christ in where he should be. Both of those ideas come from the word Antichrist. Now, I want us to think about the New Testament principles of Antichrist because that word is mentioned there in the New Testament. Let's look at the principles that the Bible shares before we get into looking at who or what is Antichrist number one. He is called Antichrist because he is against or it is against Christ followers. The Bible says in Revelation it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. This is John's Antichrist in Revelation. It makes war against God's people. Now, if you know something about the story of Paul, you probably recall that Paul was a hater of people who were Christians. He was rounding them up to kill them or imprison them. He's on his way to Damascus one day, the city, one of the most the ancient cities in history. He's on his way to Damascus to round up a group of Christians, when suddenly Jesus meets him on the road. And this is what Jesus said to him. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now, Paul could have said, I'm not persecuting you. But what Jesus was saying was, when you hit my people, you attack my people. You hit me. You're attacking me, you see, because the Bible says what Paul was doing. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. You do that to my people, you do that to me, says Jesus. That's a beautiful thing when you think about it. So close are God's people to him that if you do anything to his people, you do it to him. What a beautiful picture of our God, the closeness of him to his people. Number two, he's against Christ's laws. That's what makes him antichrist. Paul, he gives his antichrist, calls it the lawless one or the man of sin. In his letter to the Thessalonian people living in Thessalonica, Second Thessalonians, the Bible says, paul is talking, don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day. He's talking of the coming of Jesus, the return of Christ. That day will not come before the rebellion. Occ and the man of sin, Antichrist, that's his Antichrist, is revealed. The man doomed to destruction. Now, what is sin? Well, we've noticed what sin is in the Bible. The Bible says sin is the transgression or the breaking of the law. So sin is lawlessness or breaking God's laws. That's why calls Paul, calls him the man of sin or the man of lawlessness. That's how we could say it. Now, whose laws do we break when we break God's laws or commandments? The Ten Commandments. Well, notice what Jesus said. Jesus said, if you love me, that's Jesus. Keep my commandments. Do you realize that the great Lawgiver, the one who wrote the Ten Commandments on stone, was no less than Jesus himself, the pre incarnate Christ, before he became a human being. We know that from the Bible because Paul talks about the fact that when Israel was in the wilderness, Moses got water out of a rock when he struck it and water flowed. And Paul says that rock that followed them, that rock was Christ. The pre incarnate Christ was with his people. He's the one who gave the commandments. So if we attack his laws, if we're against the laws or the commandments of Jesus, we're against him. We're Antichrist. Number three. He would appear before Christ's return. Many people think Antichrist comes first. Sorry, Jesus comes for his people secretly. And then Antichrist comes after. But no, not according to Paul. Notice what the Bible says. Let's go back there. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day, Christ's return will not come before the rebellion occurs. And the man of sin, Antichrist, is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. So first comes Antichrist and then comes Jesus, says Paul, what's he coming for? To gather his people. Number four. Antichrist had already started in New Testament times. That may surprise us. Notice what the Bible says. Paul is talking the mystery of lawlessness, the man of sin. The Antichrist, he's saying, is already at work. It's already starting in his day. Wow, what an amazing thing. And finally, Antichrist has Christian origins. It actually comes from within Christianity as well. Notice what Paul said when he wrote to John said, I should say, when he wrote to his friends, the Antichrist is coming. Even now, many Antichrists have come. They went out from us, from the Church, but they were not of us. In other words, really, they didn't belong to us, but they were part of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. Paul came here to Miletus on one occasion in Turkey, here to meet the elders, the leaders of the Church in Ephesus, which is not that far away. Notice what he said to them about what was going to happen in the future after he went and he died and so on. Paul said, and also from among yourselves, from among the Christians, men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. It's going to come within the Christian Church. Now, these are the principles of Antichrist. What are they? Number one, it's Antichrist because it's against Christ's people. You attack his people, you attack Christ. It's Antichrist because if it attacks Christ's laws, it's attacking Christ. It's against Christ because they're his laws. It had Christian origins. It had begun in New Testament times, and so on. These are the principles that we find of Antichrist in the New Testament. Now, all of these references in the New Testament to Antichrist, whatever they call it, they are all primarily speaking to God's people. Now, I want you to think about Old Testament Israel for a moment. You see, when God gave the Old Testament, what did he give it? Who did he give it to? It wasn't so much for the surrounding pagan nations. He gave the messages to Israel through the prophets because they were straying from God. Notice what the Bible says. So rend your hearts, return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great and he relents from doing harm. Israel was God's people in the Old Testament times to bring his love to the world. But when they strayed, his prophets wrote to them to bring them back, to call them back to God. The same is true in the New Testament times. In the New Testament times, God's prophets like John and Paul and so on, these people were speaking primarily to the Church. They were not so much writing to the pagans, though of course they took the message to the pagans. They're writing to make sure the Church stays on track. You read the letters of Paul to the different churches, Notice what he says. And this is revelation here. To the angel of the Church of Ephesus, write, I have this against you that you have left your first love. So when God writes messages, primarily he's trying to bring his Church back to. To himself. And that's what we're going to discover as we move on. This is addressing the Christian Church because it has Christian origins. The Antichrist we've seen. The Bible says now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, in the days to come, says Paul, he agrees with what John said. In the days to come, some will depart from the faith. And why, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines or teachings of demons. So these are the principles of Antichrist. Number one, we saw it's against Christ's followers, that's why it's against Christ. Number two, it's against Christ's laws. He gave the commandments. It's against him when it's against his laws. Number three, it appears before Christ returns. It's already starting before he returns. It began in New Testament times and it has Christian origins. But so who or what is Antichrist? What is this? Well, the New Testament writers, they're all drawing on the Antichrist that's pictured in the Book of Daniel. That's where they're getting most of their information from, much of it from the prophet Daniel, because Daniel had a lot to say about it. In the book of Daniel, Daniel gives us in his seventh chapter, an amazing vision of four beasts. These four beasts come up out of the briny ocean. I want you to notice what Daniel saw. These four beasts, he was told, represent four kingdoms, four powers, four nations. The Bible tells us that the Fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth. Now we often see a cartoon or a picture of some animals sitting around a table. You know, imagine you see a kiwi, you see an eagle and you see a kangaroo sitting around a table in a cartoon. You know that the New Zealanders and the Americans and the Aussies, they're having a powwow, a conference, right? Because we use animals to represent nations. Well, so too in Bible times. The first one, the lion with eagle's wings, this represents ancient Babylon. Now the lion was a fitting symbol for Babylon. The lion appears on the processional way from the Ishtar gates. You go to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. By the way, you won't be able to see this till about 2037 because the museum's closed down because of renovations. But anyway, you can go through the Ishtar gates and then this is a processional way with lions all the way along the line of Babylon. We even have the lion of Babylon, dates that we used to get as kids. Medo, Persia is represented by the bear with three ribs in its mouth. Medo, Persia, this bear, it says he's raised up on one side. One is higher than the other side because first the Medes and then the Persians. Persians became dominant in this coalition. What are the three ribs? Well, the three ribs are the powers that it conquered the Lydians of Turkey, the Babylonians, they conquered them as we saw in a previous presentation, but they also conquered the Egyptians. The three ribs, it's devoured something. Then he saw a four headed leopard coming up out of the sea. This represents the power that toppled the Greeks. We saw. He actually gives them the names in his eighth chapter. Why the four heads and the four. And the wings? Well, the four heads, remember they took over after Alexander the Great died. Alexander the Great united the great Macedonian Greek empire together. And then he did it very quickly. Hence the wings on this beast, because he's in a hurry. By the age of 32, he's conquered everything from Greece down to Egypt and right across to the borders of India, man. Incredible swiftness. Hence the wings on this leopard, the foreheads. Because these guys, who were they? Lysimachus and Cassander and Seleucus, these guys carved up the empire among themselves. Lysimachus took part of it, Cassander took some of it, Ptolemy down in Egypt. And then we have Seleucus up in what we call Syria and Mesopotamia. They divided his empire when he died. We saw in a previous presentation, hence the four heads. But Daniel was particularly interested in this fourth beast, this is the power that conquered the Greeks, the Romans, the iron monarchy. Just like the iron legs, this beast has iron teeth and claws and so on. But he was not so much interested in just the beast. He was interested in some of the horns. There were 10 horns on this beast. These 10 horns, he was told, specifically represent the breakup of the Western Roman Empire. The ten horns are ten kings who shall rise from this kingdom. And we saw that in that presentation when we looked at that great big statue, that dream that the king had and Daniel interpreted. The toes and feet of clay and iron represented the breakup of the western part of the Roman Empire. The now, the 10 horns, like the 10 toes, well, he was more interested even in one horn in particular. He noticed a little horn coming up among the 10. Now, this little horn, this is what he spent most of his time on. What is this little horn? How do we understand this little horn that comes up on this fourth beast? Rome. Notice what Daniel said. I was considering the horns, the 10. And there was another horn, a little one coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. So they were all there before. And then he comes up, and there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High. Notice he speaks against the Most High. Well, who is the Most High in this chapter, chapter seven of Daniel? Well, interestingly, in this chapter, the Son of Man is also called the Most High. Let me show you how we see that clearly. One, like the Son of Man was given dominion and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. We saw that in the previous prophecy of Daniel 2. With the big image, his kingdom takes over the kingdoms of this world. This is saying the same thing, but it's the Son of Man. Then the same thing said of the Son of Man taking the kingdom is said of the Most High. The Bible says the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him. In other words, the Son of Man is the same as the Most High, just a different name for the same being. Now, one of the most. The favorite titles for Jesus in the New Testament is the Son of Man. He that title for Christ many times. Son of Man. Jesus the Christ. So this being is against the Most High? The Bible says he's against the Son of Man in this chapter. That's who the Most High is. If he's against the Son of Man. That's the Christ. He's against Christ. He is anti Christ. You can see why the New Testament writers, in talking of the Antichrist, refer to this chapter again and again and other chapters in the book of Daniel dealing with Antichrist. This is the Antichrist, this little horn. But who or what is this little horn, this Antichrist? We need to go now to university history of Christianity. We're going to take a 101 history course. All right, very briefly so we can look at Christian history down through time. So let's move. Going to go to uni together now. Right. Christianity began right down here in Jerusalem, right down there when Jesus of Nazareth came, was crucified in this very city. And his followers then took the message. They quickly took it up to places like Antioch in Syria. Paul started his work in this place and God called him to take it over into Asia minority, what we call Turkey today. Then while he's there, he had a vision. In the night vision, he heard a man, saw a man say, come over to Macedonia. In other words, come over towards Greece and help us. We need the same message that you're sharing there in Turkey. So Paul planted the Gospel in Greece and then finally it was planted in Rome itself. We saw that in a previous presentation, the spread of Christianity in the first century very rapidly. Then you'll recall in 70 AD the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem, completely destroyed the temple and so on, drove the people. Eventually by the time we get to Hadrian, out of most of Palestine, most of them were driven out scattered around the world. We saw. Now we notice with the destruction of Jerusalem, Rome becomes the center, the most important part of place for Christianity. As time goes on, thanks to the fact that Jerusalem is now finished, it's no longer the center of Christianity. As we saw in a previous presentation, Christianity in Rome becomes increasingly influenced by pagan beliefs. I mean, they're right there where they're surrounded with the pagans and their beliefs. So the temptation to take on board, to be squeezed into its mold is very real. And with Christians there in Rome. Then we saw in a previous presentation the big fight at the Milvian Bridge. Let's remind us of that. Revision is good for us, actually. It helps us to see. Ah, that's what we're getting at. That's what the Bible is getting at. Remember Emperor Constantine, he's worried about his empire. How am I going to keep it together? They have this big fight at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine and Maxentius. Constantine says, I had a vision and I Saw a cross. And I was told by this sign, you will conquer. And so I painted the cross on the shields and banners. In other words, he's really saying to the Christians, hey, I'm one of you now. I believe in what you guys are up to. Because he could see the Christians were starting to overcome the empire. It was spreading everywhere Christianity. So he wants to. If you can't beat them because they've been trying to destroy Christianity through persecution the previous two centuries, remember, if you can't beat them, let's join them. Basically, that really what Constantine was up to. So they had this big fight. He's got the shields, the crosses on his shields and banners, he said. And then he went. And away they went, won the battle. And eventually Constantine becomes a Christian. It's believed before he dies. But he allowed Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire by 324 A.D. as we said, Rome became Christian. But sadly, Christian pagan beliefs flooded into the Christian Church. The new Christians we saw the new Christians were, as far as thinking and habits went, the same old pagans. Their surge into the churches did not wipe out paganism. On the contrary, hordes of baptized pagans meant that paganism had diluted the moral energies of organized Christianity to the point of impotence. And you know, my friend, when you and I allow the things of the world to encroach upon and go come into our lives and push out the things of God, that means we actually don't follow what God says in the right sense. The same will happen to us. We will become impotent Christians, impotent followers of Jesus, because the things of the world are taking over our lives. And that's why Paul said those famous words, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds and so on through Jesus. Sadly, this was happening to the Christian Church. Now, the Western Roman Empire collapsed between the years 351 and 476 A.D. you see, Constantine was the first one to actually realize that because of these barbaric tribes in what we call Europe today, Western Europe, he could see that they were. It was too difficult to keep them under control. They were wanting their independence. He could see that. And so he was the first one to move his headquarters from Rome over to what we call Istanbul today, Constantinople. It was called Constantine City. That's what it means. And so he moved his headquarters. The first Roman emperor and others followed suit. But because the Western Roman Empire is being attacked by these, we call them the barbaric tribes, the Germanic tribes. So between that time they collapsed. 341 to 476 AD. So the emperors moved from Rome to Constantinople, through the Dardanelles and so on there in Turkey. Now, unfortunately for the bishops in Rome who were living back there, three nations opposed the bishops of Rome. You see, nominally in name, all of this, North Africa and up there in Europe, Western Europe was all Christian in name, but that doesn't mean Christian in heart. Now, they had different ideas of what things meant from the Bible. Now the bishops of Rome at this time and still today taught that, you know, Jesus always existed, the pre incarnate Christ, before he became a human being at Bethlehem, he always existed from eternity. The bishops taught that. But these three groups, the Heruli, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths, the, they had a different idea. They believed a man by the name of Arius, or that's where their belief came from, that Jesus, there was a time when he was not the Father created him. Now, in those days, they gave the bishops of Rome a hard time, a real hard time physically and so on. And so this is the way they often did battle back then. Not with just the Bible, not with just words, but with swords, literal swords. So because the bishops of Rome were having a hard time, they sent a message over to the emperors living in Turkey. Send some armies across, we need your help. And over a period of a number of years, different armies destroyed those three powers. The Vandals, the Heruli and the Ostrogoths, they were completely wiped out. And when they were wiped out, the a decree given by Justinian. Now let me back up. Justinian was the emperor at the time, living in Turkey, when the final one was put down, the Ostrogoth, and he living there, he made a decree in 533 A.D. that the bishop of Rome could be the head over all the churches. Now, because the last of those three powers was put down in 538 A.D. that decree could go into effect. And this begins what we call the Dark Ages, the medieval church of the Dark Ages. The Bishop of Rome became the head over all the churches as far as the emperor of Rome was concerned, who was Justinian at the time. So this begins the medieval church of the Dark Ages. Now this is what Daniel is calling the little horn. This is the medieval Christian Church, the Christian Church of the Dark Ages. That's what he's saying. Now, how do we know that? Well, let's go back and now look at his points that he gives. He gives identifying characteristics about this. Now we're not talking of people here, we're talking of a system. We're talking of an institution, the medieval church of the Dark Ages. Not individuals, but of a system. I want you to notice Daniel gives us six identifying characteristics so that we can know from the Bible that the little horn is in fact the medieval Christian church. So let's notice these six points. Number one, this horn, he says, came from among the 10 horns or from Western Europe. Notice what it says in Revelation in Daniel. Daniel says, a little one, a little horn coming up among them. They're already there, but it comes up among them among the ten horns. Now, of course, the medieval church of Rome, that's exactly where it comes from among the breakup of the old Roman Empire. It's one of the parts of the breakup there. That's where it came from. Number two, it arose after the ten horns of Western Europe, which became Western Europe. Those breakup of the Roman Empire, Daniel says, and it had 10 horns. That's this fourth beast. It had 10 horns. I was considering the horns. They're already there. And there was another horn, a little one coming up among them. So they existed first. And he comes up, coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. All right, let's notice the 10 horns of Western Europe. They come into being by 476 A.D. remember the breakup of the old Roman Empire in the west. 476 A.D. it's all over. Red Rover, all over Rome. The church of the medieval Dark Age Church. It begins in 538 A.D. thanks to Justinian's decree, making the bishop of Rome, according to him, the number one bishop of the churches. Now number three, the medieval church replaced three of the 10 horns, according to Daniel. Notice what Daniel says, before whom three of the first horns, three of the 10 were plucked out by the roots. Now we just saw that, didn't we? Those three nations were completely wiped out. The Heruli, the Ostrogoths and the Vandals, completely wiped out and replaced by the medieval church of Rome in their place. As one is coming up, three are put down. And history bears that out very clearly. Number four, says Daniel, it would persecute God's people. Notice what the Bible says. He shall wear out the saints, that's the friends of the Most High, and they shall be given into his hand. Now, the church openly acknowledges that this took place. Notice what the church says in its publications. The church has persecuted only a tyro. That's someone who doesn't know their history. Only a tyro. Or novice in church history will deny that when she thinks it good to use physical force, she will use it. You see, what happened was that many godly priests, many godly bishops, people who loved God and loved the Church, in fact could see that things were going astray. Remember Constantine, because he opened the floodgates. Lots of pagan things came in among the Christians. Christian teachings of the New Testament were pushed aside. Many of these godly people could see we're straying. They called the Church back to reform. Let's change, let's get back to the Bible. But sadly, they were destroyed because of their words. They're exposing what was wrong and they wanted to call the Church back. And so sadly, their voices were silenced. Number five. Daniel is told it would persecute for 1260 years. Notice the prediction. This is 2,500 years ago. Daniel is writing 530 odd B.C. then the saints, God's friends, I.e. they will be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. Well, how do you get 12, 60 years out of a time? Times and half a time? Well, notice what John tells us in the Book of Revelation. That's why these two books, by the way, the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, they go like a hand in a glove. They're twin books, by the way. These are the two books in the whole Bible that Jesus particularly told us to study. Book of Daniel, when he was giving the signs of the end time, he said, study the Book of Daniel, understand it. And he gave the Book of Revelation and started it off by Blessed is he who reads, who hears and puts into practice what this book says. That's Revelation, chapter one, verse three. Sometimes I hear people say you can't understand the Book of Revelation. That's wrong because it's called the Revelation, which means the revealing. You can understand the Book of Revelation. In fact, we can see we can understand it as we've been starting to go through these symbols and what they mean as we go to the Bible. So, book of Revelation, 12th chapter. John sees this dragon chasing this woman. She gets chased into a desert. Want you to notice what happens. John says, but the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she's nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. Now the same time period, this time period where the dragon chases her into the desert and she's looked after or nourished in the desert, it's used in a different way the same time period is spoken of in a slightly different way. Notice what it says in verse 6. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her what there for 1,260 days. So you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that the time times and a half is 1260 days because it's talking of the same event, just expressing it in a different way. Now remember, in Bible prophecy, in prophecy, not just anywhere, only in prophecy, one prophetic day we've seen represents one literal year. So we got that principle, remember from Ezekiel, doing some street drama. We saw that in a previous presentation and he was told that when you do your lying on your side and so on, he said, I have laid on you a day for each year. Every day you lie down there represents a year in literal time. Now, 538 A.D. the Emperor Justinian, he is able to make the Bishop of Rome the head of the churches. His decree of 533 can now go into effect because they've conquered those the last of those three powers. 538 plus 1268 years. And you will come to the year what? 1798. 1798. What happened in 1798? I want you to notice what happens in that very year. This is coming off out of the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte basically ends the French Revolution and he becomes the revolution. He becomes the leader of everything. He sends one of his soldiers, one of his generals, Berthier, who goes into the Vatican, and he takes the Bishop of Rome prisoner. In fact, he exiled him to Valence in France. You can visit Valence, I've been there. And you can visit the place where he was exiled to. Amazing, the history that's here. Pope Pius VI was his name. The 1260 years of persecution ceased around that very time. Around that very time period we find that persecution ceases. But there's a sixth thing that would take place, a sixth identifying characteristic. I want you to notice this power, God said, would try to change God's laws and his time. Notice what it says in Daniel chapter seven. Remember, this is 2,500 years ago, 500 years before Jesus even gets here. Look what he said of this power, this little horn. He shall speak pompous or boastful words against the Most High and shall intend or think to change the times and the law. Now you will notice we're talking about the times and the law of the Most High, of Jesus himself. By the way, it shouldn't surprise us that the Son of Man is called the Most High. Because all through the Bible we notice that Jesus is called what in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's the Alpha and the Omega. We saw the Lord Almighty. No wonder the Son of Man is the Most High. But he speaks, and he intends to change the times and the laws of the Most High God. Now I want you to think about this for a moment. Let's go to a catechism of the church. And a catechism is a book that teaches people the faith so they can become part of the church. A teaching, instruction book. Let's have a look at the catechism and see what's written in the catechism about the commandments. And then let's check them against the Bible. So let's put the Bible, the commandments as they appear in the Bible on one side, and the commandments as they appear in the catechism on the other side. Now let's notice what we discover here in the Bible. The first commandment says, you shall have no other gods before me. Now that's pretty much the same of what we have in the catechism. You shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment in the Bible is a very long one. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath and that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them for all I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. And it's a very long commandment. The second commandment in the catechism says down the bottom, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. But that's the third commandment in the Bible. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. So in actual fact, you can see what's happened. The second commandment of the Bible is dropped out of the catechism. That one there, that large one which mentions making images and bowing to, it's not in the catechism. So then how do you get ten commandments if cause everybody knows these ten commandments. Well, let's notice what happens before we get there. Let's go to the Sabbath commandment. You notice the Sabbath commandment in the Bible is a very long one. It says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work, you, your son or anybody. So it specifically tells us which day is the Sabbath, the seventh day. But when we go to the catechism, all it says is, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. It doesn't tell us which day is the Sabbath or anything. It just says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So how do we get ten commandments then? Well, you'll notice that the tenth command, ninth and tenth commandment in the Bible is separate. Ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Don't lie to people. Number 10. Don't covet your neighbour's wife, his house, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. But in the catechism, the ninth commandment is, you shall not covet your neighbor, neighbor's wife. And the tenth commandment is, you shall not covet your neighbor's goods. In other words, they've split the 10 commandment in two because that's commandment number 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his goods. So they split that one in two to make ten commandments. So you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Number nine. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. Ten. But in the Bible they're together in one. Now it looks, it looks like there are ten commandments, but in actual fact there are only nine in the catechism. What a tragedy that that is indeed that one split completely into two because people know there are 10. Now here's a question that I think we should ask ourselves. Why this change? Why would Satan ultimately want the church to change God's commandment? How come he would want to do that? Well, remember, God's law reveals his character. God's law reveals his values. We've seen, they show us what God is like. So when you change God's laws, when you alter God's laws, when you remove God's laws, you distort the picture of his character. You see, the devil hates God. He can't stand God, he just opposed to him. So if he can do anything to distort the picture of God, then it will affect people's understanding of God. Now I want you to think about this for a moment. Just think that second commandment which is dropped out. What does it tell us? It actually tells us that God is a loving God. Don't make an image and bow down to it. God says, because I, the Lord your God, am a Jealous God, I love you. I don't want you to get a false picture of me. Because, you see, when we worship stone and wood and statues and so on, our picture of God is lowered. Our concept of God is decreased. So the devil wants to change things. He wants people to think that, hey, we don't need that commandment, but it's the very commandment which shows us the love of God. He not only said he's a God of love, he told us what his love is like. In that commandment. He said what? I'm a merciful God. I show mercy to thousands, but I also am a just God. I punish iniquity. I punish those who hold on to sin and won't let it go because they're messing up other people's lives. And I love people. So changing God's laws will alter the picture that people have of God. But there's another reason. Remember the Ten Commandments? They protect our most important relationships in life. They really do. We saw and you see, when we undermine God's law, it's going to affect our relationships to him and to others. That's why the devil does this thing. He wants to undermine the picture we have of God and our relationships with other people. He wants to undermine our relationship with God because he knows if we have a relationship with God, it's going to keep us strong. We're going to overcome those three powers when we have a relationship with him. When we look after other people, we help. We give power to other people to turn to God. When a person treats his neighbors with respect and kindness, that's attractive to people. Remember, Israel didn't do that and turn people away. So the devil wants to turn people away by the fact that relationships don't look too good in the family of God. That's why Jesus said these words when he spoke to his people. He said, abide in my love. In other words, stay in my love. How do you stay in my love? Jesus said, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and I abide in his love. Wow. I told you. In a previous presentation, I mentioned the fact that what my wife asked me. Gary, could you put out the garbage? Well, I don't do garbage, remember? Not into that one. Sweetheart, help me with the dishes. Nah, that's not my thing. Sweetheart, I'd like a hand in the garden and some heavy soil there to dig up. Nah, sorry, don't have time. Do I really love my wife? No, I Don't. But you know, the opposite is the case. If my wife asks me to do something and I actually don't want to do it, but I know the principle is, no, I do love my wife. Let me help her out. My love for her will grow. It's the fact of life when you do something which even sometimes you don't want to do, when you do it, Love springs in the heart. When we go to action, it's well known. So the devil's trying to mess things up here. Abide in my love. If you keep My commandments, you will stay in my love, says God. You'll remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and I abide in his love. This is why the Devil's tried to mess up these ten commandments. This is why the Antichrist is trying to change things, because the devil is behind the thing, sadly trying to ruin relationships this way. And with God and others. I think we should thank God for showing us these things in the Bible. I know this may be a bit hard for some of us to understand it, but it's because God loves us that he shows us these things. He's not trying to have a go at us. He loves us like Israel in the Old Testament. He was calling them back like the church in the New Testament, which was straying. You read the Book of Corinthians, and so on, Second and First Corinthians, God is using Paul to bring them back to Himself. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, thank youk so much that yout've shown us these things from the Bible. You gave us these things. You told us a long time ago, 2,500 years ago. So when they happen, we would believe in our God. We would know this is for sure. This is true. Oh, God, I pray that you will help us to follow you in everything we understand and we know and we learn from the Bible. Because, as Jesus said, you'll stay in my love if you follow what I say. You'll abide in my love just as I abide in my Father's love, because I obey what he says. Lord, help us, each one of us, Myself included, to follow whatever God says. I love the words of the Virgin Mary, when she said to those people, when Jesus turned the water to wine, Whatever he says to you, do it. That's good advice from the Virgin Mary. May we follow the same. The same words. Follow whatever Jesus tells us in our lives. Bless us now. Thank you for these prophecies. In Jesus name Amen. Well, we're so glad that you joined us in this COUNTDOWN Back to the Future presentation, but I don't want you to miss the next one. I'm going to be talking about history's greatest hoax when history wasn't his story, wasn't God's story. I want to take you to another slant on the Antichrist. We're going to talk about Antichrist, History's greatest hoax. This is a program that will really warm your heart. It will help you understand what a great God we have and how he wants to help us today. So don't miss us in our next presentation. Send a link to a friend to watch 3ABN and watch this program count down Back to the Future. We'll see you in our next presentation.
