[0:20]My thanks to our musicians this morning. Wasn't that wonderful? Yes, well done. Thank you, uh, Director Zork, and, uh, Good Ears, and our Andrews University Singers. Well done. Yes. And thanks also to our our Worship Orchestra here, uh, under the direction of Pastor Biaji. Thank you for that. Uh, Elsie sounding phenomenal as usual. Yes. So I don't know if Elsie sings when she walks down the hall, but I think you just kind of feel like, you know, it's a dorm, but it's heaven, right? You hear the music singing, yes. So thank you very much. Also want to thank uh, Dr. Glenn Russell for covering for me this morning during first service. Uh, on Thursday night, if you're looking for a good restaurant that will help you to lose weight, Uh, in the greater Grand Rapids area, I can tell you one, uh, where that's at. And, uh, yeah, it's been an interesting last 24 hours, but, uh, the good news about food poisoning is that it does, uh, what once, uh, once it's run its course, uh, you you are able to, uh, return to the land of the living. So, uh, I'm a I'm a little bit weak, but, uh, uh, many thanks to Dr. Russell and, uh, those that scrambled to to cover for me in first service. It's good to be here.
[1:44]Some months ago, I did a survey during Chapel right here actually in this Sanctuary. Andrews University Chapel and I put a QR code up on the screen and I asked students to respond to a a single question. What topics would you most like to hear preached about at Pioneer? And, uh, I got three or four pages worth of of of, uh, of responses. They're ultimately collated in there. And the usual suspects were there, good questions, you know, good, good topics, relationships. What does the Bible have to say about dating? Uh, social issues, et cetera, what does the Bible have to say about those things? But to my surprise, at the top of the list was Bible prophecy. How to how do we interpret it correctly and how can we help how can we explain it effectively to other people? And I just want to say, uh, University students, you have chosen wisely. Uh, we will talk about some of those other topics too that you turned in, but I want to start with the top of the list. We live in very interesting times. You know, boredom is rarely a a challenge for anybody that keeps up with with World News these days. And it is very, very, very important to know where we are at on the Prophetic Clock. So without further ado, let's get to it. Turn your Bibles please to Revelation Chapter 12, verse 1. Page 829 in the Red Pew Bible that's somewhere near where you're sitting, Page 829, Revelation Chapter 12, verse 1. While you're looking that up, Let me just say that as we go through this series, my hope is to achieve at least two things in addition to responding to to to the requests here to talk about Bible prophecy. First, to to establish Bible prophecy as a trustworthy and firm foundation on which to build faith. It's a big Bible. There's lots of you know, 66 books in here, not all of them are prophetic. Many of them do have prophetic elements and there are some books that are entirely dedicated almost to prophecy. And these represent a firm foundation on which to build faith in Jesus Christ. And secondly, my hope is, is to help us to refocus on that which is primary at the end of time, rather than that which is secondary. Now, this is not a small point. You know, we Adventists, uh, you know, we we could be rightly accused of specializing in Jesus and end time events. I mean, that that's a that's kind of our thing, prophecy, right? And and yet even amongst Adventists, in in my opinion, in the last 10, 15, 20 years, there has been a a a persistent focus on on that which is secondary as though it were primary. And people will look at and go to great lengths to talk about, well, we know that the end is near because such and such a, you know, the president made this decision, therefore, okay. Now, don't misunderstand, presidential decisions and and and, you know, political decisions, what Congress does, et cetera, all of those things are genuinely important. We're not to be ignorant of those things, yet the Bible makes clear that that that those things ultimately are secondary. There are primary things that must come to pass first before the end can come. And so the Bible says, keep your eyes first and foremost on Jesus. And secondly, if you're looking about the signs of the times, there are some things that are primary and there are other things that are definitely secondary. And I hope to be able to draw that distinction fairly clearly in this series. Now, Revelation 12, verse 1. Let's see what it says here. A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Pause there please. Revelation 12, 13 and 14 are the major reason that the book of Revelation was written. Uh, we've talked in the past about chiastic structure and what that means, et cetera, et cetera. Not going to review all of that except to say, what we find here, the themes in Revelation 12, 13 and 14 are the primary reason why the book of Revelation was written. There's many other things that are important, we need to pay attention to those things throughout the book and this is the focus. And part of the reason for that is because it is one of the best places to get the broad, overarching view of end time events. What's important, what's secondary, what's primary? And here we have introduced here, this this symbol of a woman. Now, those of you that have had some experience here, tell me, what who does this woman represent? Okay, the church and, Okay, the church in the Old Testament and the church in the New.
[6:38]God's people, faithful people in the Old Testament and God's faithful people in the New. Now, here's perhaps the more important question, how do we know that? Students are asking, well, how do we interpret Bible prophecy? Well, how do we know you you are correct, by the way. This this woman does represent those things. Yes, how do we know that? Well, because of a first principle of how to interpret Bible prophecy and and students or anybody else who's listening here. If you're the kind of person that wants to write stuff down, you can get your phone out, you can take a picture of these things. I want to give you throughout this series principles for how to correctly interpret Bible prophecy. Principle number one here, once you have done the basics, okay, you've prayed, you've asked for the Holy Spirit's guide. That's that's the that's absolutely basic here. Then we get to the mechanics. Number one, always study the context. Whatever text you are reading in the Bible, particularly with Bible prophecy, always study the context. Some of the most dangerous people in the history of the world have not done this and it made them very dangerous. They took prophecy and they said, I think I'll just extract that verse and I'll pull it out and I'll attach grand conclusions to it and do all kinds of things. Even end up with killing people because of a wrong interpretation of Bible prophecy that would have been fixed if they had just done this first principle. Study the context. Well, what does that mean? Well, by context of a verse or or a symbol in this case of Bible prophecy, we mean the culture, the customs, the beliefs of the author and the original audience. The book of Revelation was written by a guy by the name of John in the first century AD. The the the context back then was a bit different than it was today, right? We would do well to understand those things. It has to do, the context has to do with the language in which the text was written. In this case Greek, and and any grammatical concerns that are there. And by the way, you don't have to be a Greek scholar, it helps sometimes. Those of you in the seminary, keep studying. But you don't have to know Greek in order to be able to understand what the Greek language is saying there. In fact, if you just go online and you put three or four or five English, good, solid English translations next to each other, the places where they differ, that's where there's questions about the Greek. Good news in the book of Revelation, the Greek is really, really straightforward. We don't have any problems understanding what was originally written. Sometimes we have problems interpreting it, but what is there, it's fairly straightforward. Context also includes the intent of the author in writing the passage and particularly note this. Context, with particularly when studying prophetic symbols, includes the verses, the chapters and even the books surrounding that prophetic symbol, and sometimes it's the entire Bible is the context. Remember, the Holy Spirit guided the formation of the biblical Canon over a period of centuries. These books are not here by accident. God formed his word so that it would form this cohesive whole, and when we read widely in it, it is much more easy to accurately interpret Bible prophecy. The book of Revelation, obviously the last book in in the Bible, probably the last one written as well, okay, we're pretty certain about that. And it builds upon this accumulation of all these other things that are written in the Bible in there. And so this brings us actually to an important second principle. Very often, the Bible interprets itself. In other words, if you have some if if if somebody has a fanciful conclusion about something, you need to go back to the Bible to see if the Bible says, well, actually, no, that's not it. This is the real meaning. Reading widely in the context helps us, and the Bible very often interprets itself. Now, let's make some application here. If we apply just these first two principles to the to this woman that we find here in Revelation Chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, her identity is clear because, we're not going to look at these verses right now, but if we were to read more widely in the Bible, we would find that the Bible uses a symbol of a pure woman to represent God's faithful people.
[12:08]And it does this more than on more than one occasion. Isaiah 54, 5 and 6. Jeremiah, Chapter 6, verse 2. In the New Testament, you go to places like Second Corinthians 11, verse 2. Ephesians, Chapter 5, verses 25 to 32. There's a consistent imagery, a pure woman represents the faithful people of God.
[12:44]And in this case, we know that this symbol of a woman in Revelation 12 refers to both Old Testament and the new, because we have clearly the Old Testament symbols and she is pregnant with someone we're going to talk about in just a moment, which clearly puts her also as a symbol of the New Testament Church. Now, interestingly enough, during the time when God's people have apostatized and turned away from him, God refers to them in scripture as an impure woman. Again, we're not going to look this morning, but places like Jeremiah Chapter 3, verse 20, Ezekiel 23, 2 through 4, and in the New Testament, Book of Revelation, Chapter 17, verses 1 through 3, et cetera, et cetera. Back to our Bible. Revelation Chapter 12, this time verse 3. Then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns, and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Now, here we see several new prophetic symbols introduced. For instance, there's this enormous red dragon, there is this male child and there's this time period, 1,260 days. Now, taking just the first two principles that we have here, the dragon represents whom? Satan, exactly right. And we don't have to guess about that. Look at verse 9 of Revelation Chapter 12. It says it very clearly, the great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. Again, very often the Bible interprets itself, if we're simply willing to read more widely. The male child represents whom? Christ. Yes. How do we know that? Because again, if we apply these first two principles and we read broadly in the Bible, we will discover the following facts. Jesus is the promised Messiah. Old Testament Messianic promises perfectly fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The child is one described here in Revelation 12 as one who will rule the nations with an iron scepter, right? Well, this is a direct reference to Psalm Chapter 2, verse 9. That which is clearly a Messianic prophecy, only Jesus could therefore be the fulfillment of this male child. Furthermore, Jesus was indeed born to the Jewish people. That's where he came from, okay? The woman representing God's faithful people, the Jews in the past. God's faithful people in the New Testament, the Christian Church, Jesus came from Judaism. And he was indeed snatched up to heaven, just as Revelation 12 says. Jesus died, he lay in the grave, he rose again, after several weeks, he went back up to heaven, he ascended there once again. And again, the Bible interprets itself if we are willing to read in the wider context comparing scripture with scripture. Now, notice something here. This identification as Jesus of Jesus as the male child here, the promised Messiah, in this context, reveals a third principle of prophetic interpretation. Jesus is the center and ultimate interpreter of the Bible, including Bible prophecy. Jesus is the center and ultimate interpreter of the Bible, including Bible prophecy. Now, I'm going to be honest, many Adventists do not understand just how important this is. But much of each evangelical Christianity, I'm not throwing stones here, I'm just I'm just telling the truth like it is. They need to hear this. Because if Jesus is the author and the ultimate interpreter, we need to listen to him rather than anybody else. He is the one that is the focus here of scripture. In fact, particularly with Bible prophecy, Revelation Chapter 1, verse 1 says very clearly, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Grammatically speaking, it can mean at least two things. It's the one it's the Revelation from Jesus Christ. He is giving this Revelation to people, and it can also very clearly mean the Revelation of who he is. Listen carefully, Bible prophecy is not, I say again, is not primarily given to satisfy our curiosity about the end of time. It is given primarily that we might know Jesus. That is its purpose. And if we come up with an interpretation of Bible prophecy that does not support this central foundational fact of prophecy, we can be sure that we have missed something. And potentially may be in great error. Never forget that Jesus is at the center of this. And if Jesus sends his Spirit and Jesus himself interprets Bible prophecy in a certain way, we must pay attention to it, no matter how fanciful and enticing other interpretations may be. And what about this 1,260 days? Well, for now, if you're not familiar with that passage, that that that reference, that symbol, I just want you to remember the number. We're going to come back to this, okay, in part two. 1,260 days. Now, we've seen here some progression. We have symbolized here the the Old Testament faithful God's people in this woman, the New Testament Church. Jesus is born, he's crucified, laying in the grave, rises again, goes back to heaven and the woman enters into this time of persecution. She flees into the wilderness for this 1,260 days, symbolizing the persecution of God's people. More about which we will talk about later. Now, let's pull back here to 10,000 ft for just a moment. Seeing what we have seen so far, we must recognize a foundational fact of this core of the book of Revelation. As Revelation will soon reveal here, the dragon, Satan, at the end of time, does not work alone. Instead, there are three. How many did I say? Three. Okay, not not 50, not one, okay, but three. There are three major players at the end of time that are the primary ones responsible for orchestrating all of the evil and the persecution and deception that will occur during that end time period. In fact, this this evil trio has come to be known by an interesting nickname, the unholy Trinity. Remember, one of one of the great themes of the book of Revelation is deception. The devil wants to deceive us. I mean, just to state the obvious, right? I mean, he was a liar from the beginning, it's his native tongue, Jesus tells us, okay? And at the end of time that only increases. He's seeking to deceive the planet and to do it, he needs two other partners. And they are a counterfeit of the true Holy Trinity. Sometimes I wonder if maybe the the reason why the devil sometimes uses this this whole thing about the Trinity and causes confusion and what not is because he's trying to blow smoke to cover his own tracks at the end of time. So, so how can we look at this here? Let let's just do some some logical thinking. If indeed there is an unholy Trinity that's trying to counterfeit the real Trinity at the end of time. Who might who might the dragon represent?
[22:38]Which one of the of the of the real Trinity? Okay, God the Father, right? That that kind of makes sense, doesn't it, right? I mean, you know, Jesus refers to his father as kind of the one that that that gives him his authority and and direction in life. And as we'll see here in just a moment, that is indeed a role that Satan seeks to play, except this time in an evil sphere, not in a righteous one. And notice carefully here, the next member of the unholy Trinity. Look please, Revelation Chapter 13, verse 1. Revelation Chapter 13, verse 1. In my Bible it says this, and the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And my mind's going to kind of got kind of had his eye shielded. He's looking for partner number one here, okay? And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on his horns and on each head a blasphemous name. Where have we seen that before? Who does that sound like?
[24:00]The dragon. All the way back in first 12, the horns and the heads, there there's there is definitely some cross-pollination going on here. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and the mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped 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 make war against him? The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them, and he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. Wow. I mean, that's quite a resume, isn't it? You know, this, uh, this beast out of the sea. Sometimes just referred to as the sea beast, okay?
[26:00]It has here a number of characteristics, and we need to note them carefully. We're going to unpack these a little bit today and some and part two as well, because this is the second member of the unholy Trinity. It's the first of the devil's partners, okay, here at the end of time. And let's notice a few of the CV's characteristics that we just read.
[26:38]10 horns and seven heads, identical to the dragon there in Revelation Chapter 12. Verse 1, 5, and 7, Blasphemy plays a huge portion in what this sea beast does. It has a blasphemous name, it utters blasphemies, it blasphemes and slanders God's dwelling place. That is the heavenly sanctuary. Jesus' ministry in the heavenly sanctuary is blasphemed by this sea beast. Verse two, has characteristics of a bear, a leopard, and a lion. What's that about? Verse two again, it gets power, a throne, and great authority from Satan. Verse three, has a fatal wound that is healed and it's very interesting. This is where a little Greek can be helpful. The Greek word that is used here to describe this wound is the same word that is used to describe crucifixion. In other words, the sea beast is crucified, but then is healed, it rises back again. Who does that sound like? Verse 5, it has authority for 42 months. Verse 7, it wars against God's people and conquers them. It has the number of a man. Now, we did not read verse 18 here. We're going to come back to that in part two, but I just want you to know this here at this point. It has the number of a man. What might that mean? We'll come back to it. And verse 8, at some point in the future, all those not belonging to Christ will worship the sea beast.
[28:44]We're not there yet, but Bible prophecy is clear. It's never failed, by the way. There are no unconditional promises made in prophecy that have not come to pass exactly on time, just as God said they would. So we can be certain. We can be certain that this will indeed come to pass. All those not belonging to Christ at some point on this planet on a global scale, will worship the beast and by extension, Satan, the dragon, which gave the beast its power.
[29:29]Now, based on this alone, which member of the true Godhead is the sea beast a counterfeit of? Jesus. Yeah. I mean, that's very clear. The crucifixion language alone could not be more clear. Jesus died, he rose again. This beast has this this crucifixion that takes place, he rises again. He he's made holy, he comes back, he's healed. And do we realize what this means? What this means is, is that the sea beast is the end time Antichrist.
[30:17]Now, if you're anti-something today, we usually think of it meaning against, like if you're anti-homework. What that means is that you are opposed to homework being assigned, and in particular, to you having to do it, right? Okay, you're anti-homework in that sense, okay?
[30:43]But the language that is used here, the prefix anti, actually means in place of.
[30:57]So in other words, the end time Antichrist is against Christ by attempting to take the place of Christ. To take the prerogatives that only belong to Christ as their own. Now, please listen carefully here. So many people at the end of time will not choose Jesus, they will choose the counterfeit. This is not a small thing that we're talking about here. This is a big deal, the biggest of deals, because this is at the very end. All I mean, this is for all the marbles. The devil is saving his best tricks for last, right? And and if I read my Bible right, the majority of the planet is going to choose the counterfeit and not the real. And yet Jesus is the only hope for this world. Jesus is the only one that can solve the problems of sin and persecution and and doubt and discouragement and war and famine, et cetera. Jesus alone is the solution to those things. So for the love of Jesus and for the love of our fellow men and women on this planet, that they might be saved. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to identifying this Antichrist power, we must know.
[32:41]We must know.
[32:46]And good news. We can. We can. And let's begin. Daniel Chapter 2, please, verse 26.
[33:04]Daniel Chapter 2, verse 26, please. Page 596 in the Red Pew Bible there.
[33:17]596, Daniel Chapter 2, beginning with verse 26.
[33:28]We're going to read a story here in the book of Daniel. By the way, the books of Daniel and Revelation go together like chocolate and peanut butter, hand in a glove. They are meant to be together. Read them together, you will understand much more as you go through, uh, either book when you read those things together.
[33:53]The story that we're going to read here in Daniel Chapter 2 takes place in Babylon. It's a in in modern day Southern Iraq is where we would find this today. King Nebuchadnezzar, uh, artist representation of what he might have looked like, overran Palestine in 605 BC. And then he took captive a man by the name of Daniel and his three friends among many other captives for for for from Palestine. They they took the captives were taken back to Babylon, and as happened often in those days, the the the best of the best of the conquered nation were put into the employ of the conquering king. Well, one night the king has a dream and it deeply troubles him. Uh, dreams were taken very seriously back then, and particularly for a king. And he wakes up and just like some of you have experienced, he could not remember what it was that he dreamed. But he knew it was important, and he had no idea what it meant. So he asked his wise men, tell me what I dreamed and what the interpretation is. They can't do it, and so being a reasonable guy, he condemns them all to death.
[35:25]Uh, when Daniel and his three friends hear about it, they pray to the one true God in heaven. God reveals the dream and its interpretation and then Daniel asks for an audience with the king. And this is what happens next. Verse 26, Daniel Chapter 2.
[35:54]The king asked Daniel, also called Belshazzar, are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it? Daniel replied, No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these. Skip down to verse 31 please. You looked, oh king, and there before you stood a large statue, an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace, but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole Earth. Pause there please.
[37:51]This is an artist representation of what it might have been like that night when Nebuchadnezzar dreamed it. He sees this statue. It's it's essentially an idol. You know, idolatry was extremely common back in those days. This would have been an understandable symbol for the king, right? And and it's unusual and that it's comprised of these different metals. And it and it seems to have a progression here from the most precious metal gold at the top, down all the way through to to clay and iron there in the feet. And then this rock comes and and it strikes it and it turns the thing to smithereens, they all blow away. What could it possibly mean? Well, that's what the king wanted to know, and blessedly, he did not have to wait very long. Verse 36. This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. You, oh, king, are the King of Kings, the God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory. In your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them. You are that head of gold. Okay, that's pretty straightforward, isn't it?
[39:35]You know, Babylon, the the nation of Babylon, the Empire of Babylon, rules from about 605 BC to about 539 BC. And gold was indeed a fitting symbol for it. Not only was there a lot of physical gold in Babylon, it was a golden city. There's all kinds of gold in that place. It was also a a center for learning, uh, architecture, you know, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was there, the Hanging Gardens, et cetera. It was a golden place. Now, what about the chest and arms of silver?
[40:24]Verse 39, says, after you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Pause there please.
[40:40]Now, it turns out that the Bible tells us the answer to what this next kingdom was going to be. In fact, would you turn just a few pages to the right? Chapter 5, verses 30 and 31. Daniel 5, verses 30 and 31. We're going to come back to Daniel 2. Daniel 5 is a story that happened many years later, by this time in the story, Nebuchadnezzar, the king is dead. His grandson, uh, Belshazzar is now the king. Says that very night, Belshazzar, King of the Babylonians was slain, and Darius the Meade took over the kingdom at the age of 62. And indeed, history tells us even outside of the Bible that the Medo-Persian Empire did indeed supersede the Babylonian Empire. They reigned from about 539 BC to 331 BC. Now, Alexander was dead long before that 168 BC, but indeed, the Greek Empire was the next World Empire. Well, what came next? Verse 40, Daniel Chapter 2.
[42:12]Finally, there will be a fourth Kingdom strong as iron. For iron breaks and smashes everything, and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Now, by this time, we are in very easily accessible world history, which clearly tells us that the next empire was the Roman Empire.
[42:47]They ruled from about 168 BC, and depending on how you count, historians will vary on this, but 476 AD is a safe ending point for the Roman Empire. And indeed, iron was a great symbol for the Roman Empire. They were strong. I mean, their armies were invincible for hundreds of years. Rome conquered the Greek Empire about 168 BC, which leads us again to the question, what empire came next? Well, as it turns out, none. In fact, let me just put on the screen here. Daniel 2, verse 41. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided Kingdom. Yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this Kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. Now, this is actually an incredible thing to tell hundreds of years in advance. Remember, the story of Daniel takes place at the at the at the very end of the seventh century BC and the beginning there, first part of of the seventh cen. Did I get that right? Yes, I did. Yes. The fifth century BC. So hundreds of years before all of this happens. You know, if somebody was going to guess, they would just keep going with single metals, right? You know, this empire will knock off this empire and then this empire will knock off this single empire, single empire, single empire. But no, the God of all knows what is actually going to come. And so he says, well, actually, this fourth kingdom of iron isn't going to stay that way, and it's not going to fall to a single empire.
[45:29]Instead, isn't this interesting? The Roman Empire, instead of falling to a single Empire, over a number of decades, Rome was actually overcome by approximately 10 tribes. And these 10 tribes, whittling away at the Roman Empire, most of those 10 tribes would become later on the nations that we know as Europe today. For instance, you know, the Svi down here, bottom left, they became the Portuguese. Visigoth became the Spaniards, the Lombards became the Italians, the Burgundies became the Swiss, the Franks became the French, et cetera, et cetera. Seven of those 10 still can still continue to this day in some form. But three of those tribes are no longer in existence, the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals. That's really important. And we're going to talk about that in part two. But isn't this fascinating?
[46:51]It goes down to this this statue that's just shown to Nebuchadnezzar is a timeline, right? And it goes down progressively through time, from the head of gold down all the way through to these legs of iron. And indeed, Rome had its iron period where it was strong, could overcome anyone. But then it gets down to this Kingdom of the Toes, and things go into apparently about 10 directions. How how many people does how many toes does the average person have? Okay, if you're here and you have nine or 11 toes, we're glad you're here. Okay. This is a good place to be. You are very welcome, but for the sake of prophetic interpretation, we're going to let the most obvious meeting stand here, okay?
[47:56]And so what the prophecy is saying, this this astonishing, no one can do this but God. Hundreds of years in advance, he says, you know what, this this Roman Empire, it's going to have a strong period, but as you go down through the ages, eventually it's going to be like it is a mixture of clay and iron together. What a terrible mixture to build a foundation on, right? And they will not cleave together, some translations say, they will not form a single hole. In other words, the nations of Europe will never be reunited as one.
[48:47]Even though people have tried, Charlemagne tried it, Napoleon tried it, Hitler tried it. What was their rate of success?
[49:03]Zero, okay? Because God said, they will not cleave together. They will always be a mixture. They'll be some of the strength of iron in it every now and then, but there's going to be a bunch of clay there as well. And now, let's see what we have come to. Let's sum it up. We see here this grand statue that's given by God to Nebuchadnezzar, showing him the progression of empires down through the ages, right? Babylon, 605 BC, Medo-Persia, 539, Greece, 331, Rome, 168 to 476 AD. A divided Rome, 476 AD to, you know, to the end of time, okay, right? And with this overview in mind, if you have been paying attention, let me ask the question here again. Who or what is the Antichrist of Revelation 13? The sea beast.
[50:39]And if you have been paying attention, the answer to that is now crystal clear. The Antichrist power of Revelation 13 is the power that I am going to identify for you next week in part two.
[50:56]So you need to be here, right? You need to be here.
[51:04]Because that's very important to know. But until then, please remember this. Daniel 2, verse 44. Remember how the dream ends? In the time of those Kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands. A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God, Daniel says to to Nebuchadnezzar, has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is going to be victorious. Jesus is going to win. Isn't this a great slide, by the way?
[52:27]Look at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Britney put this together for us there.
[52:36]I mean, this is how the story ends, right? And there is nothing. There is nothing that the unholy Trinity can do to stop that from happening. The fact of the matter is, is that Jesus is coming again. I believe that day is going to be soon. And it will not matter how much the unholy Trinity may may try to work and to and and to to persecute and to deceive, et cetera, et cetera. Jesus Christ is greater than all besides. May each one of us be ready for that great day.
[53:42]Did you know that every week from this very campus, the gospel of Jesus Christ is going beyond these walls, across oceans, into living rooms, prisons, dorm rooms and mobile phones? Right now, Pioneer Media is reaching hearts in dozens of nations around the world.
[54:15]From India, to Australia, to Central Africa. And yes, right here in the United States, from California to New York. You should know that this ministry is empowered by the flashiest technology or large production studios. It's instead powered by just three full-time staff, a small army of passionate volunteers, and the big-hearted support of donors like you. Our annual budget is about $300,000, and more than two thirds of that comes from donors like you.
[55:12]That means that you are part of this global mission team. So today, we invite you to partner with Pioneer Media. Whether it's $20, $200 or more, every gift makes a difference. Simply scan the QR code on your screen now, or go to pmchurch.org/media and click on the donate button. Every single dollar you give goes directly to spreading Christ's message of salvation and hope to prepare a people for the soon coming of Christ. Together, we can share Christ's final message with urgency, with love and with hope.
