Eternal
Gospel: No Beginning and No End
– Part I
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Of course, these
three decisions are unthinkable
within today’s world
context, but the destruction
caused by the first four
trumpet-judgments will terminate
today’s context. Consider
the fundamentals underlying these
three civilization changing
decisions and notice how simple
they really are: First, all
religions believe in some form of
repentance and the need to
worship God. Re4pentance and
worship will provide the
religious framework for a global
effort to appease God. After
seeing the sudden destruction of
more than 1.5 billion people,
kings, prime ministers,
presidents, and legislative
bodies will not murmur. How can
they? Desperate circumstances can
make desperate solutions appear
very reasonable. (Do not forget,
after the World Trade Center
disaster, the Patriot Act of 2001
only took 45 days to create and
implement.) Second, the religious
leaders of the world will attempt
to resolve a very thorny problem,
but their efforts will only cause
confusion. This one world of
human beings consists of seven
antagonistic religious systems.
The diversity of humanity means
that repentance and worship in
Islamic countries cannot be
identical with repentance and
worship in Catholic countries.
Therefore, the “crisis
authority” will have seven
religious leaders (the seven
heads) who rule over their
subjects. The mandates emanating
from the “crisis
authority” will be adapted
to each nation. For example,
Moslems will be directed in ways
that are different from
Catholics. (A mixed message
coming from the crisis authority
explains why this beast is called
“Babylon,” or
confusion, in Revelation.) Third,
the political leaders of the
world will be forced to admit
that God can be appeased only if
the “rights of the
individual” are subjugated
to the “survival of the
whole nation.” In other
words, if God remains offended by
the sinful behavior of a minority
(which brought on His wrath in
the first place), the majority
will continue to suffer more of
God’s wrath. Therefore,
every nation must obey the
mandates of the “crisis
authority.” You may be
surprised to learn this
development will not be difficult
to achieve. Here is why:
When the first
four trumpet-judgments occur,
martial law will be implemented
in all nations. Overwhelming
destruction and the disruption of
national infrastructures will
necessitate most current
constitutional rights which many
nations grant to their citizens
be suspended. To maintain some
semblance of order and to keep
gangs from preying upon the
elderly and weak, civil
authorities will be granted
enormous power (deadly force)
with very little legal restraint.
Because of the devastation,
martial law will already be in
place (and constitutional rights
suspended) when the summit
occurs. The “crisis
authority” will be able to
direct, without impedance, the
governments of all nations on
matters of repentance and worship
because constitutional provisions
will have been suspended due to
the extreme state of emergency.
I believe
the pope will be elected to serve
as head of the “crisis
authority.” “One of the
[seven] heads of the beast [the
crisis government] seemed to have
a fatal wound [1798], but the
fatal wound had been
healed…” (Revelation
13:3) The pope will be elected to
lead the crisis government
because his church is the only
church having diplomatic ties
with most nations. The pope will
neither usurp the powers of
governments nor will he dictate
how every nation must repent and
worship. (Remember, there are
seven heads.) Rather, he will
lead the world in an ecumenical
way toward repentance and
worship. His Moslem, Protestant
and Jewish counterparts will
follow his lead. In this setting,
the various religions of the
world will tell their respective
nations how to govern. Out of
fear, “sin-less” laws
will be implemented in every land
and civil authorities will punish
every person who disobeys. The
government within each nation
will retain its civil power, but
the governments of the world will
be obligated to carry out the
reforms mandated by the
“crisis authority” or
God’s wrath may fall again.
Remember, the
clergy will not have to prove
that God is angry at the
degenerate behavior of
Earth’s population. Every
nation will have sufficient death
and ruined infrastructures as
evidence. With twenty-five
percent of the human, race dead,
and thirty-three percent of the
world destroyed, political
leaders will conclude that
“the appeasement of
God” must be their highest
priority. Thus, Revelation
predicts the kings of Earth will
“follow” a religiously
controlled “crisis
authority” and politicians
will be forced by circumstances
(like Pilate) to carry out the
wishes of religious leaders
within their respective nations.
This explains how the global
church-state, the first beast of
Revelation 13, which is also
called Babylon because of its
confusion, will rise. (Revelation
13:1)
As far as I can
tell, this beast will rule over
the nations of Earth for 1,260
days. (Revelation 13:5) However,
at the end of 890 days, Lucifer
will physically appear and after
dissolving the religions of the
world into “a one-world
religion,” he will set
himself up as lord of lords and
king of kings. The devil will
masquerade as God Almighty and
reigns on the Earth for a period
of about 445 days.
A Gospel
with No Beginning and No End
– Part IV
“A second
angel followed and said,
‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon
the Great, which made the nations
drink the maddening wine of her
adulteries.’”
-
Revelation 14:8
A
Horrible Mistake
The Great
Tribulation will begin with a
global earthquake (Revelation
8:5) followed by a rapid sequence
of four divine judgments (the
first four trumpets, Revelation
8:6-12). When God’s wrath
begins, the Bible predicts the
world’s religious and
political leaders will unite in
an otherwise unthinkable union.
This union or “crisis
authority” is represented in
the Bible as a composite beast
that rises out of the sea.
(Revelation 13:1) The union of
religious and political powers
will be widely accepted at that
time as a sincere and desperate
effort to appease God through repentance
and worship. The Bible
indicates that all of the world
will follow (Revelation 13:3) and
worship the beast except those
whose names are written in the
Book of Life. (Revelation 13:8)
The marriage of religion and
politics will prove to be a
horrible mistake. Ironically,
man’s efforts to appease God
will accomplish two terrible
things – increase human
suffering and offend God even
more.
Religions
Put on Display
God has designed a
brilliant process to prove to the
honest in heart that all of the
religions of the world are
blasphemous (opposed to God). To
bring this revelation about,
Jesus will send an initial volley
of four judgments and
predictably, the leaders of the
world will “come
together” in a global effort
to appease God. The nations and
religions of the world will
unite, at least in principle,
based on the need for repentance
and worship. In this setting, the
first two messages presented by
the 144,000 (Revelation 14:6-8)
will have a powerful and stirring
context. The first message –
“Fear God, repent and give
Him the glory He is due, and
worship the Creator, Jesus
Christ,” will sound similar
to the messages that comes from
the beast (the crisis authority)
demands will be different. This
is how the contest between the
laws of man and the laws of God
begins.
It is interesting
to note that a conflict over
worship occurred between the
first two sons of Adam and Eve
and the same type of conflict
will be repeated between the last
of Adam and Eve’s offspring.
God has carefully designed a
series of events that will
contrast His truth against
man’s rebellion. These
events will produce a powerful
and telling contest that
ultimately separates the sheep
from the goats. Several
revelations will occur during the
Great Tribulation. One revelation
will be the blasphemous nature of
religion. Another revelation will
be man’s need to forsake his
sins and receive Jesus as Savior,
and the greatest revelation of
all will be the fact that Jesus
Christ is God and He has all the
prerogatives and powers of God
the Father!
These revelations
will be bittersweet. For the
honest in heart, they will be
wonderful to understand, but they
will come with a high price. The
eternal gospel will separate
family and friends. Some people
will rejoice and respond to
God’s call when they hear
about the repentance and worship
that Jesus wants, but a majority,
like Cain, will reject the
repentance and worship that God
wants. In its place, they will
substitute a repentance and
worship they prefer to give. Like
Cain, when the wicked people see
God’s approval for His
children, they will do everything
in their power to keep others
from obeying God and receiving
His approval!
The
Second Message
There are seven
religious systems in the world
(represented by the seven
blasphemous heads on the beast in
Revelation 13). Hundreds of
variations exist within these
systems and every one of them
is false! This fact provides
the basis for the second
angel’s message (Revelation
14:8) that declares three things:
First, the 144,000
will make a startling
announcement: “The crisis
authority (Babylon) does not
represent the interests of
God.” Babylon does not have
the right answer and Babylon
cannot appease the wrath of God
because Babylon is fallen. The
word “fallen” means,
“brought down” or
“exposed as false.”
Currently, the religious people
look “up” to their
spiritual leaders for information
and truth about God and His will.
However, the 144,000 will present
a second message that is a
declaration that all religions
are false and falsely created by
fallen man. (If religious leaders
really understood, God’s
plan for the Great Tribulation,
they would be able to foretell
the sequence of events that Jesus
intends to follow and would
strenuously object to the
formation of Babylon, the crisis
authority.)
Second, the
144,000 will announce that the
union of the religious and
political leaders to appease God
is a great mistake. When the
religious and political leaders
convene and form the crisis
authority, political leaders will
‘drink” two
intoxicating ideas presented by
the clergy. The clergy will
convince political leaders that
if global repentance and worship
are implemented, God will be
appeased and His judgments will
cease. The clergy will convince
political leaders that the only
way repentance and worship of God
can be implemented is through the
imposition of
“sin-less” laws. After
viewing and experiencing the
overwhelming destruction caused
by God’s wrath, the
political leaders of the world
will “buy into” this
horrific error. Fear of God and
uncertainty about His wrath will
make the doctrine (wine) of
appeasement appear reasonable
(intoxicating), but the results
will be maddening and horribly
flawed. Third, adultery is used
throughout the Bible to convey
the idea of moral corruption and
unfaithfulness. When ancient
Israel abandoned the laws of God,
He called them adulterers.
(Jeremiah 9:2; Hosea 7:1-4)
The second message says,
“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon
the Great, which made all the
nations drink the maddening wine
of her adulteries.”
The phrase, “the maddening
wine of her adulteries,”
points to the immoral result of
an intoxicating idea. Political
leaders will
“prostitute” their
appointed purpose (Romans 13:1)
when they “get in bed”
with religious leaders and impose
laws demanding repentance and
worship. The last resort of false
worship is force. The 144,000
will soundly condemn the
maddening wine (the idea that God
can be appeased with forced
repentance and worship) and
resulting adultery (the union of
church and state to accomplish
repentance and worship).
I have said many
times that the second
angel’s message could be
most difficult message that the
144,000 gives because people who
resist the repentance and worship
laws mandated by Babylon will appear
to be defiant towards God.
Because a large majority of
people will be in one accord on
the necessity of appeasing God
and the formation of Babylon, our
peers will think that we are
opposed to appeasing God when in
reality, we will be opposed to
the dictates of Babylon!
Because the laws
mandating repentance and worship
will be uniquely established in
different nations, the confusion
that results will be maddening.
Hapless civil servants will be
required to enforce laws that are
religious in nature. Thoughtful,
good people will be punished for
refusing to go along with the
beast (the crisis authority). The
chaos caused by Babylon’s
formation will last 890 days. As
a result, humanity’s
suffering will increase, and
man’s rebellion against God
and hatred for His saints will
intensify, as it becomes clearer
and clearer that the formation of
Babylon was a horrible mistake.
May the Lord give us grace and
strength to stand firm for His
gospel that has no beginning and
no end.
