All right, I want to welcome you.

Glad you're here.

We're in a series called what?

Anybody know?

Okay, we're in Revelation 13.

The book of Revelation, especially chapter 13, is a chapter that is probably the most fascinating chapter in apocalyptic literature.

In this chapter, we're going to be introduced to three major players.

I really want to encourage you, if you have a Bible, your phone, your iPad, whatever it is, look at Revelation chapter 13.

In these three players, major players, we're introduced to the dragon, the beast of the sea, and the beast of the earth.

And to understand the passage, this passage, is to understand the signs that will occur near the end, is to prepare yourself for what is coming, and to build a resistance toward the deception that will cause so many people to walk away from their faith.

So it kind of makes it important, doesn't it?

In other words, understanding Revelation 13 is absolutely essential.

So to do that, we have to have a code.

And we don't have time to go through the entire book, so on the screen behind me, I want you to take note of a code that the readers of Revelation 13 would have understood by the language John used.

Okay.

The number seven, when you see the number seven, you're talking about something that is perfected.

It's finished.

It's very similar to the number 10.

So when you find them combined, you know you've got perfection and you know you've got completion.

Anytime you see a character that has heads, numerous heads, it's just trying to tell you that his authority is very powerful.

When you introduce somebody that has horns on the heads, then you're introduced to somebody who is authoritative, his power.

is greater than you can imagine.

His authority is greater than you can imagine.

The more horns and the more heads, the greater the power, the greater the authority.

Now you say, where do you get this, Pastor Jeff?

It's all out of the Old Testament, so we're not guessing here.

And the people who read John's letter would have known this.

Now, there's something else.

And I've shared this before, but in my personal humble opinion, all of history, to understand the book of Revelation, you have to understand that all of history is seven years, symbolized by seven years.

And if seven years means perfection, that makes sense.

So you would have three and a half years symbolically between creation and the time Jesus came.

And you would have another three and a half years from the time Jesus came and established the church until the time he comes again.

The tricky part is that right near the end, the things that have been happening between the time Jesus established his kingdom and the time he comes back, things will intensify.

And that's where the debate over revelation is.

These events that will happen over the course of humanity, when they intensify, how intense do they have to get before the Lord returns?

And nobody knows that answer.

So down here on this lower part of the screen, the dragon we're going to be introduced always refers to Satan.

The dragon is Satan.

It's one of his symbols.

The beast of the sea, we're going to be introduced to two beasts.

The beast of the sea, most theologians will tell you, represents anti-God and anti-Christ governments.

Governments that blaspheme and try to dethrone God, and then anti-Christ governments that punish the people who follow Christ.

This is just a persecution of Christians that have gone on since the Roman Empire.

And then you're introduced to the beast of the earth, which is anti-Christ religions.

So you've got beast of the earth, or C, anti-God governments, beast of the earth, the anti-Christ religions.

And then, The thing you have to notice, as I've said before, when you're reading the book of Revelation, even when you're reading the Old Testament prophetic books, that revelation or prophecy is progressive.

So when you get a prophecy, it's going to be fulfilled more than one time.

And as you go through the biblical history, you'll see it fulfilled again and again and again.

And the prophecies that you read in Revelation will be fulfilled again and again.

They'll intensify until the end comes.

Now, I just gave you a...

code.

Are you okay?

I know that I am.

So if you can remember these things, now we can go straight to the text and now it's going to be so much more meaningful to us.

It's going to make a lot more sense.

So here we are, Revelation 13.

Let's read the text.

The dragon, who's the dragon?

Stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming out of the sea.

Now the sea speaks of violence, chaos, and death.

and unpredictability in the Old Testament, which is why when you read in Revelation chapter 21, that the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no more seed.

You remember that?

That's the Bible's way of saying there's no more chaos.

There's no more death.

There's no more confusion.

Now we're told it had 10 horns and seven heads.

So this is a very powerful being.

10, completion, seven, perfect, with 10 crowns.

So the beast coming out of the sea that represents chaos is very powerful.

You have two Greek words for crown.

You have Stephanos crown, which is the crown of martyrdom, a word that evolved after the death of Stephen in the book of Acts.

And then you have the diadem crown, which is a crown of victory.

The evil characters wear a diadem crown, but they never wear the Stephanos crown, the crown of ultimate victory.

So the beast I saw resembled a leopard.

but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion.

The first rule to reading Revelation 13 in light of the Old Testament, not in light of the news cycle.

So when you read Revelation, try not to think about what's going on in your world.

Try to think about what's going on in the world of John and the persecuted Christians.

And no one who is familiar with Daniel 7 would have failed to see the similarities between John's beast that he's just described And Daniel's beast, featuring four kings and four kingdoms that oppose God.

They are anti-God, and they punish and persecute the people of God.

So Daniel, in his dream, he saw four beasts.

Let me just remind you.

One was like a lion.

You don't have to...

Don't be frustrated.

You don't have to know all of this.

It's just kind of a summary.

But he saw Daniel.

In the book of Daniel, he had a dream, and it was interpreted so that we can understand it.

He saw.

Four creatures, one was like a lion, and we learned later that that represented the Babylonian empire.

One was like a bear that represented the Medo-Persian empire.

One was like a leopard that represented the Greek empire.

And one had 10 horns with a little horn and with a mouth speaking great things, and that represented the Roman empire.

So the commonality in all those four beasts was these are all kingdoms that were set up to blaspheme God and to persecute the people of God.

They have that in common.

So unlike Daniel, John now sees only one beast, but in the beast you have a combination of Daniel's four beasts.

Now remember, Daniel's beasts represent four kings and four kingdoms that oppose God and the people of God.

So now John has a vision of one beast, but all four of those beasts are wrapped up into one.

The dragon, we're told, Gave the beast his power.

Now, who's the dragon?

Gave the beast his power.

And we're saying the beast is anti-God governments and his throne and great authority.

So already we're learning that throughout the course of history, there are going to be anti-God governments who are in cahoots with the evil one, even though they may not know it or understand it, they are empowered and given their authority by Satan himself.

Now, verse 3, one of the heads of the beast...

seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.

There have been numerous suggestions about what this means.

Can I tell you that when you're reading apocalyptic literature, you're just looking for signs and symbols.

You're not looking for an individual.

And when you read the idea of a fatal wound being healed, we're being told that whatever the beast represents, which we've assumed is anti-God governments, every time you think an anti-God government goes away, it will always come back.

It's that simple.

Verse 4.

By the way, what do we mean by an anti-God government?

Anti-God governments seek autonomy apart from God.

They want to define for you origin, meaning, morality, and destiny apart from God.

It's when government sets themselves up as God and begins to determine things in our lives that are apart from the precepts of God.

Verse 4.

People worship the dragon.

Because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, who is like the beast?

Who can wage war against it?

So we're told in Revelation 13 that this beast is an amalgam of all the kingdoms that oppose God and the people of God.

We're told it's a powerful kingdom.

We're told that its throne is great and it has great authority.

Its power is so much that people will think twice before attempting to attack it.

But does it really worship the dragon?

Who's the dragon?

So are we saying that there are governments who worship Satan?

Well, if you've read anything about the Nazi regimes, you'd have to say yes.

The point here is not that they are Satan or cult worshipers.

The point here is that you're either under the influence of God or you're either under the influence of the devil.

So if your government does not give credence or respect or authority to God, then automatically you're going the flow of the world, which is operated by who?

1 John 5, 19, we are the people of God, but the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one.

So unless you're rescued out of darkness into light, and have the Holy Spirit in you, your natural bent is toward the prince of the power of the air.

That's why sometimes when you're watching these YouTube videos of people and their response, or you're watching a television program, or you're watching people holding signs in their vitriol, their hatred, their anger, what you're seeing is someone, they don't realize it, but they are occupied, they are influenced by a prince of the power of the air that is anti-God and anti-Christ.

So verse 5.

This beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for how long?

Okay, the slide we saw just a few minutes ago, this is important.

We said that you've got three and a half years between creation and Christ and another three and a half years symbolically between Christ and the time he returns.

Well, think about this.

That's seven years.

So the time...

of what we call the church age from the time Jesus was crucified and established his kingdom until the time he returns is symbolized by three and a half years.

Well, you're going to come across other numbers in the book of Revelation, but they're all equal to three and a half years.

42 months is three and a half years.

Time times and half a time is three and a half years.

1,260 days, three and a half years.

And those numbers appear again and again in the book of Revelation.

The reason that's important is because whoever this beast is, and we've said he's what?

Anti-God governments, anti-Christ governments, they're going to exist from the time Jesus establishes kingdom until the time he returns.

And they're going to repeat themselves again and again and again.

Verse 6, it opened its mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.

It was given power to wage war against God's holy people and to conquer them.

And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

So anti-God governments, their authority is great.

And it extends to every tribe and every people and every language and every nation.

And its power in many ways is unmatched.

It is symbolized by 10 horns.

That's five times the amount of a normal beast.

And it sets itself up against the...

ultimate authority, which is God.

And it claims to be the ultimate authority and demands that people follow and hear and in a sense, worship it.

Look at verse eight, all inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast.

Who's the beast?

Anti-God governments.

All whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

Now again, do they really worship the government?

Well, the word worship here There are many different words, well, three primarily different words, but this word here means to give ultimate worth to, to depend on, to give total allegiance to, to pay homage to.

In other words, you live, you start to live to the philosophy and your worldview is determined by an anti-God government so that the government starts to dictate what you believe.

It dictates morality and you follow its morality rather than the objective word of God.

All right?

However, we're told here, and I think it's good news, that genuine Christ followers, whose names are written in the book of life, will never give their ultimate allegiance or place their ultimate trust in any man-made kingdom or human government.

And that's encouraging.

Now, if you haven't figured it out by now, theologians are in basic agreement that John has been given a vision referring to the anti-God and anti-Christ kingdoms of man you Represented by the beast of the sea empowered by Satan.

And this beast of the sea represents anti-God, anti-Christ governments who will blaspheme God by assuming ultimate power, by persecuting the people of God through the threat of violence and economic pressure and penalties.

These government types will pressure people into false worship.

Instead of punishing evil, it practices and promotes evil.

instead of praising good, it persecutes those who do good and who refuse to violate the words and the ways of God.

So while the lamb commands us, the lamb of God, to give to Caesar what is Caesar's, the beast commands to give to Caesar what is God's.

You with me?

Now, the question is, does the beast of the sea represent anti-God governments like the Roman empire that John lived under 2,000 years ago?

Or is it some person or power who arises at the very end of the age?

And the answer is yes to both.

That's progressive revelation.

As we look back through history, we can identify numerous embodiments of the beast of the sea throughout history.

For the early church, it was Nero and the Roman Empire.

For 20th century Russian Christians, it was the Soviet Union.

For modern American Christians, our government, although in many ways I believe it is superior, it is moving further and further away from Judeo-Christian values.

And as it does, it's in cahoots with Satan and the beast of the sea.

What was it?

The Obergefell decision, the court decision that redefined marriage in America, which caused Justice Roberts to ask, just who do we think we are, was rather anti-God and anti-Christ.

Anytime a government or its figureheads requires us to disobey God under threat of legal or economic persecution or sanctions, at that point it has become the beast and we're called to resist.

You and I, right?

I'm assuming, and if you're a visitor here and you haven't been here before and it's a little bit hard, you just came on a week when we're really diving into something here, so I apologize for that.

And I'll stay around after.

If you have a question or two, you can find me on the patio.

But listen carefully.

We Christ followers really believe in the Word of God.

We truly believe that God has our best interest in mind.

And so for us, there's never going to be a time ever where we redefine marriage, no matter what the government tells us.

And we're not going to redefine gender no matter what the government says.

And we're not going to support any law or edict that legalizes things like same-sex marriage or abortion or any legislation that violates the Word of God.

Now, we're not going to hate anybody.

We're going to love all people, especially those who disagree with us, but we're never going to shift and change because we know when our government change and it goes as the way of the world that we're not going to follow it.

Now, we also know, we expect that we will be ostracized and marginalized, and your pastor one day may be arrested for refusing to do the wedding of two people of the same sex.

I know that.

That's probably coming.

As long as you understand, I love those two people of the same sex.

I just strongly disagree with where they're going, and I can't do something that violates the Word of God.

You with me?

Okay.

Now, for Roman Christians, If you know your history, you know that they refused to worship the gods of the emperor.

They were mandated by the government, working in cahoots with a false religious system, to worship the emperor.

And they refused to do so.

And by doing that, do you know, they were not allowed into the agora, the marketplace.

They could not buy and sell and trade goods.

Anti-God and anti-Christ governments do not need to claim that they are God.

They simply have to make all other claims of loyalty subservient.

to those of the state, whether it's the claims on the family, the church, or God himself.

So to demand ultimate allegiance is to demand worship, and to yield ultimate allegiance to something other than God is worship.

So let's be on the alert.

If Revelation teaches us anything, it's that those who follow the Lamb must always be ready for the beast.

Now here's the second character that we meet.

We're introduced to the second beast.

And we will immediately see an unholy alliance between the three.

We have the beast of the sea, anti-God governments, and now we have the beast of the earth, anti-Christ religions, and they're in cahoots with the dragon, Satan himself.

Look at verse 11.

Then I saw a second beast coming out of the earth.

It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.

It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed.

Now, do you see what's happening here?

It looks like a lamb.

Now, what does the lamb remind you of?

It looks good, but it talks like a dragon.

John is being told that there is a religion and religions of sorts that look good from the outside, but they're empowered by the dragon.

And it is in cahoots with anti-God, anti-Christ governments.

Verse 13 again, and it performed great signs.

Even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.

Because of the signs it was given power to perform on the behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

Now, notice Satan's MO.

He's not an original thinker.

He just counterfeits everything God does.

He plagiarizes God's truth with his own counterfeit copy.

An example of that is, you've got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, which we refer to as the Trinity.

Now, contrast that with the dragon.

The beast of the sea and the beast of the earth.

So the first beast, anti-God authorities, actually serve Satan.

The second beast, anti-Christ religions, serves the first beast, anti-God governments.

And they're all empowered by Satan.

You have a triumphant of powers.

The devil authorizes the first beast, anti-God governments.

And the second beast, anti-Christ religious systems, uses...

his power to give credence to the first beast and thy God governments who speak on behalf of the devil.

Hard to keep up with, isn't it?

But there is an unholy triumvirate and anyone steeped in John's thought knows there's a very clear parallel here to the Holy Trinity.

In verse 13 again, and it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.

Now, how many of you know what the word ape is, and don't say a big monkey?

When I use it as a verb, what does it mean?

When the word ape is used as a verb, it means to copy or mimic someone else's behavior, often clumsily or without original thought.

And that's why Satan apes what God does.

So if you look at verse 13 and 14, Satan apes Elijah, the forerunner of Jesus, who called down fire.

He performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down, we're told, from heaven to the earth in full view of men.

Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

So in the ancient world, I'm not sure you know this, and this is why I take the strong position that what we read in the book of Revelation is basically six cycles, cycling again and again, describing the types of events that will happen between the time you Jesus established his kingdom and then at the time he returns.

So any chapter we're reading in Revelation is really relevant through every age.

So that means that if you think about it, just for a moment, in the days of the Roman government, as anti-God government partnered with anti-Christ religions, they would trick the people by having idols and statues representing the Roman gods, and these idols and statues would speak.

Ventriloquism was used.

So they would have these little cubby holes for the priests to crawl into, and then they would think the statue's actually speaking to them to make it appear as though the idols came to life.

We just read in verse 15, or we will read now in 15, he was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that it could speak.

And cause all who refuse to worship the image to be killed.

And it's true in the time of John, if you didn't worship the Roman statues, pay homage to deity, then you would be killed.

You'd be persecuted, but often killed.

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor.

Now this is important, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Now listen carefully.

This kind of thing has been done again and again since the Jesus movement.

Totalitarian regimes have done this again and again.

We've already shown you that in the ancient world, Rome, if you didn't have a certificate of worship and you didn't go to the temple and participate in temple worship, which often included orgies, homosexuality, and drunkenness, if you didn't do that and you didn't have a certificate to prove that you had done that, you were not allowed into the agora, the marketplace, which means...

You can't get a job.

You can't work.

Gainful employment.

You can't buy, sell, and trade.

You can't get food.

So John's people would have known what was going on right away.

In Romania, in Czechoslovakia, pastors' children were not allowed to receive an education.

They got sacked from their jobs.

They couldn't buy and sell and live on the handouts.

They had to live on the handouts of God's people just because they were pastors.

And the Bible says to receive a mark on his right hand and on his forehead.

Now, we always ask, what is the mark of the beast?

And why does it say that he received it on his wrist and on his head?

Now, I just don't think this is as difficult as we make it.

Do you know what phylacteries are?

Phylacteries, still worn today, by the way.

But in the Old Testament, you would wear a little box of the Word of God on your forehead, and you would have these leather straps going around, and you would also put them on your wrist.

That symbol is very clear.

And it represented that you are a person who thinks the thoughts of God and does the work of God.

So now we come to Revelation 13, and when John starts talking like this, the people's mind automatically is going to go, ah.

What is the mark of the beast?

Well, you do the work of the devil and you think the thoughts of the devil.

They're not going to go try to find an individual.

They're looking at types.

That's what you do in apocalyptic literature.

And they're told they could not buy and sell.

Well, they get that completely.

Because if you don't serve God, if you do serve God and think the thoughts of God and you refuse to serve the emperor and think the thoughts of the emperor, what happens?

You can't get in the agora.

You can't buy, sell, and trade.

That kind of thing's been going on forever.

So according to Revelation 13, there are two groups of people.

One, there are those who are marked and sealed with the Holy Spirit as the truth of God impacts what they do and how they think.

And then there's a second group, those who have been deceived and whose allegiance is to anti-God governments who have partnered with anti-Christ religions.

to require ultimate allegiance and trust.

What they do and what they think is anti-God and anti-Christ.

So basically what Revelation tells you is you're going to be stamped one way or the other.

There's no middle ground here.

You're either stamped with the seal of God so that you do his work and think his thoughts, or you're stamped with the seal of the dragon and do his work and think his thoughts.

The problem is if you're not rescued out of darkness into light, you may think you're neutral, but you're not.

Because you're influenced by a world system that is governed by who?

The dragon who is.

All right.

So what are his thoughts then in our world?

God's word is not authoritative.

The government determines morality, my meaning, identity, and destiny.

I am my own authority when it comes to right and wrong.

My hope and confidence is in human institutions.

My work is to build my own kingdom.

I am self-serving, self-preserving, and I do not seek or pursue a relationship with the creator and sustainer.

of all things.

And that's the world system in which we live.

Verse 18 says, this calls for wisdom.

If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast.

It is man's number.

His number is 666.

Now the readers, doubtless, made a precise identification.

They knew John.

They knew what was in his mind.

I don't think it's that hard.

Now, let me just say what I've always said when I do Revelation.

I could be wrong about everything.

Sorry, it's apocalyptic literature.

No man has a monopoly on the truth of Revelation.

Now, you can disagree with me and you have the right to be wrong.

It's hard.

It's very difficult, but hear me out.

I think we almost romanticize revelation as if it's some kind of eerie, fiery thing that no man could understand, but the people of John's day would have understood it.

Otherwise, it would have made no sense to write it because the purpose of writing the book of John was to encourage a group of Christians who were under heavy persecution.

So if it's all code language they can't understand, how's that going to encourage them?

If you look at the Old Testament, this stuff becomes very true and it comes to light.

So the number of God all through the Bible is the number seven.

How many times did Naaman dip in the river?

for cleansing.

You can say it.

How many times did Peter say to Peter or did Jesus tell Peter to forgive?

Seven times, 70.

What day is the Sabbath on?

The seventh.

How many times did they march around Jericho?

How many trumpets did they blow?

And how many days did they march around?

The point is, if seven is God's number, then six is man's number.

It's man attempting to take the place of God, to usurp his authority.

So those who've taken the mark of the beast, in my humble opinion, are simply those who do the things of the evil one and think the thoughts of the evil one.

They've been sealed and marked with man's number.

Now, here's the shocking truth.

Throughout the church age, governments will indeed partner with religion.

to deceive many.

It's going to happen.

They will form an unholy allegiance.

Rome did that with the pagan gods.

The streets of Rome were lined with crosses of people who had been executed because they would not worship the emperor.

And the government and religion worked together.

During the Middle Ages, though, the Catholic Church...

I'm sorry, you Catholics, we all have a history.

But during the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church held immense power in Europe.

Monarchs ruled with the church's endorsement and approval.

The Spanish Inquisition enforced Catholic orthodoxy, targeted Jews, Muslims, and alleged heretics.

And dissent from the church teaching could result in imprisonment, torture, and execution.

And that's why I say that not every movement or person who claims to follow Christ follows Christ.

Many are deceived and follow the beast who is empowered by the dragon to achieve anti-God and anti-Christ objectives.

Before Chinese control, Tibet functioned as a Buddhist theocracy led by the Dalai Lama.

Monastic institutions dominated governance and law.

Religious hierarchy shaped social and political life.

Through enforcement, though enforcement varied in intensity, you still paid a penalty.

You paid a price.

Now, I could go on and on listing these, and because of time, I've got to move on.

I want to...

you I want to share something.

I want to tell you something, right?

I want to make you aware of this.

I think it's so important because the shocking reality is, according to Scripture, there will be some of you that walk away from Jesus when these things intensify.

That's what the Bible tells us.

Now, before I say what I have to say, first of all, let me categorically condemn what happened down in San Diego last week.

Two teenage attackers, 17 and 18 years old, opened fire in a mosque during the day.

Three people were killed.

At least one other person was injured.

The attackers were later found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

We as Christ followers categorically condemn all violence.

A person ought to be able to worship his God without fear of persecution, violence, economic sanction, or death.

We are commanded to love all people.

We choose to follow Jesus and to love all persons and wish them well.

Even though we may disagree with them, we love our enemies.

We pray for those who persecute us.

Amen.

Now, I hope you clap after the second part.

Having said that, Islam is currently the most powerful system on earth for the persecution of Christians.

Thousands of Christians are dying at the hand of Islam every single day.

Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, India, South Sudan.

Slavery, crucifixion, rape, home invasions.

and the destruction against Christ's followers continues to increase.

It is not decreasing, especially and primarily in places where Islam and the government to form a state religion has combined.

Moreover, even in Islamic countries today, a centuries-old law brought about by the Pact of Omar, the second successor to Muhammad, prohibits today the building of a church within a thousand meters of a mosque.

If indeed a church can be built.

because in most Islamic countries, you cannot build a church.

No new Christian churches can be built, and neither can old church buildings be renewed or restored.

My daughter lives in a country that I will not name.

It is illegal to convert someone to Christianity.

You can be in prison for life.

In Algeria, the Islamists waged war.

And they turned Algeria into an Islamic state and killed a quarter of a million people along the way.

Scores of women have been killed for being unveiled in public.

Christ followers are primary and easy targets and are refused employment and are ostracized by most of society if they manage to survive.

And in many nominal Muslim countries, it remains illegal, as I said before, to convert someone to Christianity.

Now, by stating these facts, Does that make me Islamophobic?

I don't think so.

On February 22nd, 1998, the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, in association with groups from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, established an official edict.

And here's how it reads.

With God's help, call on every Muslim.

Can we get that one up there?

It's important.

Thank you.

We, okay, let me read the first part.

That's not their fault, that's my fault.

Let me read the first part and then I'll pick it up there.

We, with God's help, call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money whenever and wherever they find it.

Now here's the quote.

We call on all Muslim leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch and raid Satan's U.S.

troops and the devil's supporters allying with them and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies, civilians and military, is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.

What concerns me is passages that you find in the Quran like Sukkah.

151 to 152 in the original version.

I think we have the version here of Sucra 3, 157, 158.

It says, if you shall be slain or die on the path of Allah, then pardon from Allah and mercy is better than all your amassings.

For if you die or be slain, verily unto Allah you shall be gathered.

The radical fundamentalists armed with the Quranic promise, they tell their young impressionable believers That martyrs go to...

If you kill an American, if you kill a Christian, they don't have...

Look, a lot of the persecution is not Islam, Islamist against American.

It's Islamist against Islamist or Muslim who converts.

You with me?

It's not just Americans or white people.

It's those who live in Muslim countries who have decided they don't want to be Muslims.

Oftentimes, they are executed.

And this happens almost every single, it does happen every single day.

But if you execute someone who is not of Islam, you are promised that when you die, when you arrive in Allah's presence, you will be welcomed by 72 black-eyed virgins with whom you will have eternal sexual relations.

And they claim that the Quran describes these women in heaven as beautiful like rubies with complexions like diamonds and pearls.

The martyrs then will delight themselves lying on green cushions and beautiful carpets.

Man, I've always had the question, what happens if I'm a woman and I am a martyr?

I never, you know.

The fact that Christians are seen as the enemy concerns me for my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

Do you know that on Palestinian television, there's a program for children modeled after Sesame Street?

It's called the Children's Club.

And it features a song.

It goes like this, when I wander into Jerusalem, I will be amused a suicide bomber.

Imagine little children singing that song.

Sheikh Abd al-Salam, who's the chief Palestinian authority where the police are concerned, describes what a suicide bomber who kills Jewish women and children in Israel can expect in the afterlife.

He says, from the moment his first drop of blood spills, he feels no pain and he is absorbed from all his sins.

He sees his seat in heaven.

He has spared the tortures of the grave.

He has spared the horrors of the day of judgment.

He is married to 70 black-eyed women.

He can vouch for 70 of his family members to enter paradise.

Now, let me say something that you've heard me say before.

Not everyone who follows Islam is violent.

In fact, I would say that there are many, many probably Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who read the Quran and who claim to be Muslim, who have no intention and no idea of ever hurting, harming anybody.

That's not the point I'm making.

The point I'm making, there is a movement that is growing, that is developing, that is conquering the West.

And I've always said to those that I debate in these kind of things, in love, that when a Christ follower.

picks up a sword, he does so in direct disobedience to Jesus.

But when a Muslim picks up a sword, he does it in direct obedience to Muhammad.

And that, my friends, is the difference.

If you know anything about the history of Islam from 622 to 632, Muhammad led 65 violent campaigns.

By 630, he was able to conquer Mecca.

And then the religion progressing through violence becomes the firmly established religion in the Arabian desert.

And then that's when Muhammad begins having his visions.

He goes up on a mountain, he foams at the mouth and says, Gabriel takes his heart and rips it out.

And then Allah speaks to him.

Again, this is Satan mimicking or aping.

Does that remind you of anything?

Moses going on the mountain, getting the 10 commandments.

Sukra 556 says, oh, believers, take not the Jews or Christians as friends.

They are but one another's friends.

If any of you, if any one of you taketh them for his friend, he is surely one of them.

God will not guise the evildoer.

In 9.5, but when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them and seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war.

In fact, militant Islam uses the last words of Muhammad to justify their violence.

When he said, oh Lord, perish the Jews and the Christians, beware, there should be no two-faced in Arabia.

Is Islam a militant religion?

The answer is yes and no.

A lot of people who are Muslims are not violent in any way and they would never raise the sword.

But if you're talking about groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda and Hamas, then the answer is yes.

They are committed to destroying Christians.

They have combined religion and government and they force allegiance, submission.

And if you do not, they will kill you as a Christ follower.

So this is a government anti-God and a religion anti-Christ that we'll get to who's in cahoots with a dragon to destroy God and the people of God.

There are 1.2 billion Muslims now, 1.2 billion and growing.

They are growing in a major way.

Yes, in some cases, it is not a true reflection of the heart of a person because you are forced to submit and convert.

So even if you don't believe it, you are forced to go through the processes.

of the Islam faith or be killed.

It is the ultimate example, Islam, of the beast of the sea, anti-Christ government, and the beast of the earth, anti-Christ religion.

Look again at verse 2 of chapter 13.

It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast.

The anti-God government.

There is uncanny resemblance.

You with me still?

I'll rush.

I'll hurry.

But we got to make the final application.

Okay.

You all right?

And is it just me or is it stinking hot in here?

Okay.

Let's keep going.

Under Sharia law, religion and government come together.

Sharia means path in Arabic.

Religiously motivated.

This governmental law promotes unequal treatment of women in inheritance, dress, and independence.

Sex outside of marriage or drinking alcohol can result in flogging, stoning, amputation, exile, or execution.

The UN tells us that thousands of women are killed every year in the name of family honor.

There's a 2013 Pew poll conducted in 39 countries that found strong support for Islam in its politics for harsh punishments.

Amputation, stoning, death for crimes like theft, adultery, and conversion to Christianity.

Again, this has led to a severe persecution.

In America, Islam is free to practice and to preach without restrictions.

I happen to agree with that.

We're in a democracy, it's the freedom of religion.

It's a person's right.

But in Islamic countries, Christianity does not and has not received that similar right.

As I said before, sometimes the greater punishment and retribution is Muslim upon Muslim who's converted to Christianity.

Sometimes children are kicked out of their homes, often tortured, raped, violated, and even killed if they even think about converting to Christianity.

This is what I don't understand about America.

Why is America trying to silence a religion that believes everybody must be given freedom to believe without fear of torture and death?

while giving special treatment to a religion that uses coercion, manipulation, and threats to push an ideology that undermines democracy and takes freedom away from the people.

Malcolm Muggeridge got it right.

We have educated ourselves into imbecility.

The Guardian in London, which is no conservative network, says this, public polling indicates that while a minority of British Muslims support the implementation of surreal law There is no widespread desire for it to replace the UK legal system.

Instead, many Muslims utilize informal, non-binding Sharia councils to settle civil and family disputes.

Did you hear that?

There are 80 Sharia courts now in London.

80.

More than a third are calling for Sharia law.

As immigration in the UK opened its doors to Islam, you have high numbers of Muslims living in areas, and thus they elect their politicians, which you have the right to do in a democracy.

It is estimated that in the next general election, you will have 25 Islamic...

MPs entering parliament.

Thus, Islamic politics will be entering frontline politics.

You say, well, that's not a big deal.

Really?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

There is a push in our world, in our country.

You and I as Christ followers, we love everybody.

Full stop.

No violence against anybody.

Full stop.

But you better use your head.

There's no such thing as religious freedom in an Islamic regime that is totalitarian.

It seeks to combine government with religion and force surreal law.

I heard one Muslim on the media in the BBC say, you know what, I'm having to rethink this thing about Christianity.

Why would we want to get rid of Christians?

Because when you tell a Christian you don't want to become a Christian, they will say to you, okay, I will pray for you that your eyes will be open.

But when you tell a Muslim you don't want to become a Muslim, they say you're the enemy of God.

When I see women in protest carrying signs in promotion of Islam and Sharia law, you do realize, young ladies, that sexual sin, there's a public fogging in death, homosexuality is an automatic death penalty, but for you, where you're concerned, women are required to have a male guardian.

That is, you have to get permission from a male to travel, to work, or to access health care.

And you can't divorce your husband just because he wants to have 12 wives.

The penalty is severe.

A woman's testimony in the court of law is considered equivalent to half of a man's testimony.

And women have mandatory dress codes, okay?

And men, it's not bikinis, so...

Is Islam Antichrist?

This is how we're going to end.

Absolutely.

It's the epitome of Antichrist.

It does everything it can to denounce the deity of Jesus Christ as the way of salvation.

It attempts to make Jesus less than he is.

Surah chapter 2, Sukkah rather, chapter 2, verse 130.

We believe in God.

In that which hath been given to Moses and to Jesus, they mean Allah, and that which was given to the prophets from their Lord, no difference do we make between any of them, and to God we are resigned Muslims.

In other words, they say, yeah, Jesus is a prophet, but he's no more important than Moses or Abraham, or Moabit is the last and the greatest.

1 John 2, dear children, this is the last hour.

And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come.

This is how we know it's the last hour.

What's an antichrist?

1 John 2.22.

Who's the liar?

It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.

Such a person is the antichrist, denying the Father and the Son.

1 John 4.2.

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God.

Every spirit that acknowledged that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Islam gives the appearance of a lamb, but speaks like a dragon.

in an attempt to dethrone the Messiah and persecute his people.

Now, I got to finish.

What are we supposed to do?

The reason there are many who believe that we're in the end times is because they believe that when the souls under the altar in Revelation 6 cried out to God and said, how long before you avenge our blood?

There are many who believe that there have been so many Christian deaths.

that surely this is the end.

Others believe when they read passages like 2 Peter 3.10 that it's describing a nuclear holocaust.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

The heavens will disappear with a roar.

The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

And they say, it's very clear with a roar.

That's compared to the roaring, deafening blast of a nuclear explosion.

The elements shall mount, we're told.

interpreted as the atomic structure of matter breaking down, undergoing nuclear fission.

And the earth will be laid bare or burned up, matches the widespread devastation, incineration, the thermal radiation of a nuclear blast.

I love to read those, but I don't take them that serious.

What would that have meant to the people of John's day?

I don't think you can dictate or predict the exact day, but here's what I will tell you.

Be careful.

Lean in.

Be careful.

You can be deceived.

Islam is not the only false religious system in this world.

It's the most powerful one right now, combining with government.

But there's all kinds of religious systems all around you.

And the thing about it is, the devil knows precisely what gets you going.

That's why Paul said, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Islam may be powerful and the example of an unholy trinity, but I look around and I see the things that we are worshiping today.

Like tolerance, tolerate everybody, meaning that everybody speaks the truth and there is no objective truth.

That's right from the pit of hell.

That the Bible is archaic and I don't have to follow its rules or its precepts concerning sex outside of marriage or what I look at or where I go.

That's archaic, it's all that's straight from the pit of hell.

Number two, be saved, be saved.

Revelation 14.

After Revelation 13, this beautiful passage occurs, then I looked, there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion with Him, 144,000.

Now remember we said that this is apocalyptic literature.

144,000 is a multiple of two numbers, 10 and 12.

What does 12 represent in the Bible?

12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples, 12 apostles, 12 thrones.

It's the people of God.

It's a number symbolizing the perfect completion of the people of God.

That's who's going to heaven, all the people of God, who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a sound from heaven like the roaring of rushing waters and like a loud pill of thunder.

The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps and they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures.

And it goes on to tell you that these are the first fruits of the Lamb of God.

Can I tell you something?

If you're not saved, get saved.

If your eyes have been opened to who Jesus is and what he's done for you, you got to know that there are all these religious systems around you, all these anti-God, anti-Christ governments, all this dragon influence and philosophy around you.

And the only thing that's going to spare you is the spirit of the living God coming inside you.

When you receive him as your Lord and Savior, the light comes on.

And the Bible says he will keep you until the day of redemption.

Be saved.

And then finally, finally be diligent.

Stay in the scriptures.

You know, my mother or my father, they weren't theologians.

You know, they weren't philosophers.

And they probably couldn't enunciate the deep thoughts of God's ontological nature and the harmony between the free will of man and the sovereignty of God.

But you know what they did do?

They read their Bible all the time.

And because they read their Bible all the time, when some foreign philosophy came around, they just shoved it to the side.

Be diligent.

Be diligent.

Because in Revelation 14, we're told they follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

Follow Him wherever He goes.

The time is near.

Father, I praise you and thank you in Christ's name.

I thank you for this group of people who are so patient and who love the word.

I pray that anything I've said that is not consistent with your truth, that it would be forgotten, trampled on, cast to the side.

Anything I've said that represents your word accurately.

that it would go deep into our hearts and our minds and our souls and change the way we look at the world and look at everything around us, because we know when the word is taken in, it will not return void.

And I pray for anybody here who's never given their lives to the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, so that the Spirit of God may come on the inside and protect us from all the evils around our world.

I pray today would be the day in Christ's name.

And everybody said.