Participants: Pr. John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR100003
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00:01 And so dear Father, bless every upraised hand,
00:04 every upraised heart 00:06 and we say this prayer in Jesus name, amen. 00:14 The following presentation was made by John Carter 00:17 to a crowd of more than 100,000 souls. 00:20 This message is one of a truth filled series 00:23 that was delivered in the power of God's Holy Spirit 00:26 at the Sir John Guise Stadium, 00:28 Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 00:31 One night, as the evangelist spoke about the Holy Spirit, 00:34 a giant white bird flew low over the vast audience 00:38 and the people rejoiced that God had visited His people. 00:42 Crowd surged forward to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. 00:46 A few days later, thousands were baptized 00:49 in the sea at Ela Beach. 00:51 All who attended these Holy Spirit anointed meetings 00:54 were convinced that God's word is true 00:57 and His gospel is still the power of God 01:00 for the salvation of all who believed. 01:03 The message you're about to hear and see 01:05 will not leave you the same person. 01:08 Welcome to the Carter Report at the Sir John Guise Stadium, 01:12 Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 01:16 The topic tonight here it is. 01:18 You're ready for "Wonder Cities of the Past." 01:23 What are the essential characteristics 01:25 of genuine prophecy? 01:28 Well, let me tell you. Number one. 01:31 Prophecies got to be plain and unambiguous. 01:38 Number two. Not just a calculated guess. 01:43 Number three. 01:45 It needs to be verifiable, that means it must have 01:50 the capacity of being tested. 01:53 If you can't test the prophecy, 01:56 how can you tell whether it is true or false? 01:59 One great philosopher of our day and age 02:04 made this remark, here it is. 02:07 If genuine prophecy, here it comes. 02:10 If genuine prophecy exists, let me say it again. 02:13 "If genuine prophecy exists 02:16 then the main issues of life are met." 02:19 Now listen to me what I'm saying. 02:21 If I can show to you 02:23 that there is a genuine prophecy in the Bible, 02:26 then I've shown you the evidence of the supernatural. 02:30 No person here has the gift of prophecy. 02:33 We can make calculated guess, 02:35 but none of us have the gift of prophecy. 02:39 But if genuine prophecy exists in the main issues of the age, 02:43 the ain--main issues of life are met. 02:47 If there is a genuine prophecy then I know who I am. 02:50 I am a child of God. I'm not a machine. 02:53 I'm not an animal as the communist thought. 02:55 I'm not an animal. I'm not a machine. 02:58 I'm the child of God, 02:59 because the Bible tells me in the beginning, 03:02 God created the heavens and the earth. 03:04 And the Bible tells me that there is a God who loves us 03:08 and who send his own Son and He died for us on the cross. 03:11 Are you listening to me tonight? 03:14 I want to hear from you. Are you listening to me? 03:19 I want you to know tonight we're going to touch the divine, 03:23 better still the divine is going to touch us. 03:29 Here we go. 03:31 Two and a half thousand years ago, 03:35 a young king in a far end city many, many miles from here. 03:41 The fable city of Babylon had a dreamer 03:46 that foretold the history of the world. 03:51 Listen now as you've never listened before 03:55 and you be the judge. 03:58 Going to come for moment over here to the blackboards 04:02 and I'm going to set up where we are going to go 04:05 tonight and some other nights. 04:07 Here we have the Mediterranean Sea, 04:11 the great sea and there is the land of Egypt 04:14 and we've talked about these things 04:16 and then you come across-- here is the city of Jerusalem 04:20 and we come across to the great desert 04:23 and we come over here-- 04:25 I want, I hope you folks can see this. 04:27 You have the Persian Gulf 04:29 and there you have the land of Mesopotamia. 04:34 And Mesopotamia means quite simply 04:37 the land between the rivers. 04:42 And this is where we're going to take you tonight, 04:44 we call it today Iraq. 04:46 You have the two great rivers there, 04:49 the Euphrates and the Tigris. 04:51 These are famous, famous rivers that are mentioned in the Bible. 04:59 The Euphrates River and over here you have the Tigris 05:04 and seated upon the great Euphrates, 05:08 you have the fable city of Babylon. 05:14 And this was once 05:15 one of the greatest cities of the ancient world 05:19 and thousands of years ago a young king, 05:22 his name was Nebuchadnezzar. 05:28 And Nebuchadnezzar went to bed. 05:30 He was a politician. He was a philosopher. 05:33 But most and first and foremost 05:36 he was potentate, he was a dictator 05:40 and he went to bed with thoughts of fear troubling him. 05:46 His city was perhaps 05:48 the greatest city of the ancient world. 05:52 It was the city my friend, 05:53 as I mentioned to you on the great River Euphrates. 05:58 There you have in a larger form the River Euphrates. 06:02 And the great city of Babylon 06:04 was seated upon this great river. 06:08 Up the north here you had one of the king's great palaces. 06:12 The system of fortifications was quite amazing. 06:17 The city was surrounded by not one wall or two walls or three, 06:21 but it had four massive walls 06:24 with a total thickness of 84 feet 06:29 and the length of the walls was more than 11miles. 06:34 It was a formidable city, the capital of a great empire 06:40 and the king was Nebuchadnezzar. 06:45 Can you say that word? 06:49 Can you say Nebuchadnezzar? 06:55 I want you to say out loud 06:58 on the count of three Nebuchadnezzar, 07:01 1, 2, 3. 07:04 Nebuchadnezzar. 07:07 Not bad. So, so, we're gonna do it again. 07:12 When I say three, Nebuchadnezzar, 07:17 1, 2, 3, 07:20 Nebuchadnezzar. 07:25 And he was the king of this tremendous empire, 07:29 some say the greatest empire. 07:32 Now I'm gonna show you a few pictures of this. 07:35 I got more to tell you tonight then I can get through, 07:38 but wait, I'm so excited about this tonight. 07:41 I'm getting sort of steamed up. 07:44 It was the city back to Babylon, city of temples and altars. 07:50 53 temples of the chief gods. 07:54 300 chapels for earthly gods. 07:59 600 chapels for heavenly Gods. 08:02 They were super religious, but not super good. 08:06 And they had a king over them, 08:08 a young king who was a world dictator 08:11 and his name was, tell me? 08:16 Come on. What was his name? 08:20 Come on. Come on. 08:24 Come on. Nebuchadnezzar. 08:30 And he was--there he is. I got of picture of him. 08:34 He was the king who ruled this tremendous empire 08:38 and he had the dream of destiny. 08:43 He attacked the city of Jerusalem, 08:45 the city of the Jews, the people of God. 08:48 And a young prisoner by the name of Daniel was taken prisoner. 08:53 And he is the hero of the story 08:56 because tonight a dream was given by Almighty God 09:02 that foretold the history of the world, 09:07 the 2,500 years and tells us about the next world ruler. 09:14 Now people have come to my meetings and they've said-- 09:17 they've said to me, you know, 09:18 we don't believe any of this stuff. 09:21 They say, there was no Nebuchadnezzar. 09:23 No, no, no, there was no, no Nebuchadnezzar. 09:25 The Bible is just a book of fables. 09:27 You can't believe the Bible. 09:29 I want to say to the university students 09:31 and others who are coming here tonight 09:33 and people have come to you and they have said, 09:35 you can't believe the Bible. 09:36 Tell them what you're hearing in these meetings and tell them 09:39 about Nebuchadnezzar's building list, wow. 09:44 That's written in the cuneiform language. 09:46 It was found over there in the city of Babylon. 09:49 And it talks about Nebuchadnezzar 09:51 building the city of Babylon 09:55 and it talks about all the buildings he put up. 09:59 The skeptics were wrong. The Bible was right. 10:04 There was a Nebuchadnezzar. 10:07 Now, scholars came along with a different problem, 10:11 they-- The Bible says that the last king of Babylon 10:15 was a profligate by the name of Belshazzar. 10:21 Don't you like the word? 10:22 Belshazzar, that's what the Bible says. 10:26 But secular historians back there said, 10:29 the last king of Babylon was a man by the name of Nabonidus. 10:36 And so they said the Bible has got to be wrong now. 10:40 I want you to look over here. 10:43 This is a clay cylinder marking the restoration 10:48 of the temple of the Moon God at Ur by King Nabonidus. 10:54 It ends with a prayer-- what does this say? 10:59 For him and his son, Belshazzar. 11:09 Skeptics didn't have a word to say. 11:11 You see Nabonidus was the last king, but he retired. 11:16 He went up into the hill country 11:18 and he passed over the kingdom to his son Belshazzar 11:24 and so Belshazzar was the ruling monarch 11:27 and that's why he said to Daniel, 11:29 if you can read the dream you're going to be the third, 11:33 number three in the kingdom because the first was his dad 11:37 and the second was himself and the third would be Daniel. 11:41 The Bible was proved to be absolutely correct. 11:46 I want to tell the people of this part of the world 11:48 as I've told the Russians, as I've told the KGB, 11:52 as I've told the Indians, 11:54 you can believe in the God of the Bible, 11:57 you can believe in the Bible because the Bible, 12:00 I tell you is the word of God. 12:06 And I'm not just saying these things. 12:08 I'm not appealing to a motion. 12:10 People say, well, you give us too many facts. 12:13 Don't you want facts? What do you want? 12:16 When a person says that to me, you give me too many facts. 12:18 Do they want lies? 12:21 We're not here tonight to talk lies. 12:23 We're here tonight to talk about the unsaleable truths 12:29 of the Bible and prophecy. 12:34 But even the mighty fall. 12:39 Babylon was captured. 12:42 And the overthrow of Babylon was predicted by the Prophet Isaiah. 12:49 Chapter 45:1-3. 12:56 And we put this up here on this giant screens 13:00 and I want you to notice these words that were written 700 BC. 13:07 "This is what the Lord says to his anointed to Cyrus, 13:12 whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him 13:17 and to strip kings of their armor, 13:20 to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. 13:25 I will go before you and will level the mountains, 13:30 I will break down gates of bronze 13:33 and cut through bars of iron. 13:36 I will give you the treasures of darkness, 13:40 richness stored in secret places, 13:43 so that you may know that I am the Lord, 13:47 the God of Israel, who summons you by name." 13:51 Listen to the story. 13:54 This is talking about Cyrus, 13:59 more than 100 years before he was born. 14:04 This is the famous Cyrus Cylinder that is found today 14:08 in the British museum that I carefully examined. 14:13 Cyrus was mentioned by the Bible prophet 14:17 more than 100 years before he was born. 14:21 Here is undeniable proof that there is a God 14:25 and the Bible is true. 14:28 Now the prophet Isaiah said in another place 14:32 that the River Euphrates would be dried up 14:35 and let me tell you what the historian says, 14:39 as I come over here to the blackboard. 14:41 Cyrus marched against the great city of Babylon 14:45 and surrounded it on all sides, 14:48 but it was an impregnable fortress city, 14:51 he couldn't batter down the walls. 14:55 Inside Belshazzar was having a drunken feast 15:01 and remember the saying, 15:03 "When the wine is in, the wit is out." 15:07 He was drunk with his ladies and his lords 15:11 and his concubines and his generals, they were drunk. 15:16 And Cyrus the Great caused a great drain to be dug 15:22 and drew away the waters of the River Euphrates 15:26 into an artificial lake, out goes the water. 15:30 And while the king and his officers were drunk, 15:35 I want you to see this. 15:37 I want you to see this on the blackboard. 15:39 Cyrus the great marched his soldiers 15:42 down the banks of the Euphrates River, 15:47 they waited along the bottom of the river. 15:52 And when they got to the great gates of Babylon 15:56 exactly as the Bible said, the gates were not locked. 16:01 God said that gates will not be locked. 16:06 And so the soldiers of Cyrus the great 16:09 got to the gates of Babylon and the gates were not locked 16:14 and they flooded like the River Euphrates itself 16:17 into the city of Babylon. 16:21 That night, the blood of the King Belshazzar 16:28 mingled with the wine of the banquet hall. 16:34 There it was my friend, a rebellion against God, 16:39 they said we do not believe in God 16:42 and they desecrated the secret vessels from the Hebrew Temple 16:47 and God said you've done enough. 16:49 Let me tell you something. 16:52 It was a night of wine, women, and song. 17:00 The sacred vessels had been taken 17:02 from the temple in Jerusalem. 17:05 Now the foolish young drunken, what a curse alcohol is. 17:13 When he was drunk, he said, bring in the vessels. 17:16 And they drank wine out of the sacred vessels 17:19 of All Mighty God. 17:22 As they were drinking, a bloodless hand started 17:27 to write on the wall and the words were 17:33 "Mene Mene 17:38 Tekel Upharsin." 17:44 So they call in Daniel the Prophet of God. 17:48 The king says what is it mean? He's shaking. 17:54 The prophet said, God has numbered 17:58 the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 18:04 You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. 18:09 Your kingdom is divided 18:11 and given to the Medes and the Persians. 18:18 Judgment day came for Belshazzar. 18:22 It will come for you. It will come for me. 18:27 But this was a man who knew the truth of God 18:30 and who had given in up and turned away from it 18:33 in his heathenism and in his paganism 18:37 that was the overthrow of Babylon. 18:41 What is Babylon like today? 18:42 I take my dear old Bible and I turn to Isaiah 13:19 18:50 and I'm going to read it to you right off the screen here, 18:53 so that you can see it 18:54 because we've got such a vast crowd of people here tonight. 18:59 This was written many, many years before Cyrus the great. 19:03 Here it is. 19:05 "Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, 19:08 the glory of the Babylonians' pride, 19:11 will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 19:15 She will never be inhabited or lived in 19:17 through all generations, 19:19 no Arab will pitch his tent there, 19:22 no shepherd will rest his flock there. 19:25 But desert creatures will lie there, 19:28 jackals will fill her houses, 19:31 there the owls will dwell, 19:33 and there the wild goats will leap about. 19:37 Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, 19:40 jackals in her luxurious palaces. 19:44 Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged." 19:54 I've been there many, many times. 19:58 I'm going to show you what I saw when I went there. 20:01 When I went there I saw unparallel devastation. 20:08 I was taking a television crew there 20:12 and as I was climbing up the hill 20:14 into Nebuchadnezzar's palace 20:18 something happened that gave me goosebumps. 20:22 A little jackal ran out 20:24 of one of the rooms of Nebuchadnezzar's palace. 20:29 And I picked up the Bible that I believe in 20:32 and I open my Bible to the prophecy of Isaiah 13 20:39 and I said indeed Babylon tonight is in the very condition 20:45 that the Bible said it would be 20:47 in thousands and thousand of years ago. 20:53 The overthrow of the Babylonian Empire 20:57 by the supernatural of working of God 21:00 through His servant Cyrus the great 21:04 is one of the greatest proofs in the world 21:08 that there is an Almighty God and that the Bible the true. 21:15 Now listen, listen. 21:19 One night, what's the name of the king? 21:25 Come on, what's the name of the king? 21:27 Come on, come on, come on. 21:28 Talk aback to me when I say it. 21:30 Who is the name of the king? 21:31 Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar. 21:33 Nebuchadnezzar goes to sleep. 21:36 When he goes to sleep, he has a dream 21:41 and the dream troubles him. It's like a nightmare. 21:47 And the story is told in the scriptures 21:49 about the king's dream. 21:53 This is the fabulous dream of destiny. 21:58 I don't know anything in the world more amazing 22:01 than what you're going to hear tonight. 22:04 As the ancient Egyptian said, this is the finger of God. 22:10 He goes to sleep and he has a dream. 22:13 It's like a nightmare. 22:14 And he wakes up and he calls in the magicians. 22:17 Well, the magicians can't help anybody. 22:20 But he calls in all the magicians he said, 22:22 I've had a dream. I can't remember the dream. 22:28 Now I want you to tell me 22:30 what I dreamed and tell me what it means? 22:35 And the magicians say this is absolutely impossible. 22:39 There is no person on the face of the earth 22:41 can help the king with this matter except the Gods 22:45 and they do not live with human beings. 22:49 And so the king gets tremendously angry 22:51 and he sends out his soldiers and says, 22:53 kill all the wise men of Babylon. 22:56 Now there is this Daniel who is a true prophet of God 23:01 and he was caste in the same light 23:03 by the king as the rest of the wise men 23:06 and so they come to kill Daniel, who comes from Jerusalem. 23:10 But Daniel says, why is the king so crazy? 23:13 Why is he so mad? 23:15 He said, I'm a believer in the true God, 23:18 take me in before the king and I'll talk to the king. 23:22 So he goes in before the king and he says, king live forever. 23:26 I believe in the true God. God will answer your prayer. 23:30 I can't--he says, let me go home and let me pray 23:34 with my friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 23:38 Let me go home. 23:39 And we're going to have a real prayer meeting 23:41 and we're going to ask God to give us 23:43 the same dream that you had, think of this. 23:47 How can a person tell another man what he dreamed? 23:50 And so they pray that night and that night the dream 23:54 is reveled by the Spirit of God to Daniel and his companions. 23:59 And so the next day he rushes back, 24:02 he rushes back into the-- he's taken into the throne room 24:05 and the king says, can you tell me the dream? 24:08 Can you tell me what I dreamed? 24:10 He says, I'm anxious, I'm frantic to know the dream. 24:13 And the Daniel say, no I can't tell you the dream 24:16 and the king starts to get mad again. 24:19 He goes-- he sort of goes crazy. 24:21 He says, then you are a fraud. No, no. 24:24 Daniel says, I can't tell you the dream 24:27 but there's a God in heaven and the God of heaven 24:30 will tell the king his dream. 24:32 And then we're going to read it to you out of Daniel 2. 24:39 We're gonna put it up here. Here it is. 24:42 "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner 24:47 can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about," 24:51 Okay. But he says, 24:54 "But there is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries. 24:58 He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar 25:00 what will happen in days to come." 25:04 Now listen, as you've never listened 25:09 before my beloved friends, here in this great city, 25:13 in this wonderful country 25:15 and we've got tens of thousands of people here tonight. 25:18 I don't know but tens of thousands. 25:21 But I'm talking to everyone of you 25:23 as though you were in my living room 25:25 and I was talking to you face to face. 25:28 I read to you from the word. 25:31 "As you were lying there, O King, 25:35 your mind turned to things to come 25:37 and the revealer of mysteries showed you 25:42 what is going to happen. 25:45 You looked, O king, and there before 25:48 you stood a large statue, an enormous, 25:52 dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 25:57 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, 26:02 it's chest and arms of silver, 26:05 its belly and things are bronze, 26:09 its legs of iron, 26:11 its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 26:18 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, 26:22 but not by human hands. 26:26 It stuck the statue on its feet of iron 26:30 and clay and smashed them. 26:34 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver 26:40 and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time." 26:46 And then it says, the stone struck the statue 26:52 becomes like a great mountain. 26:55 But it says here, "The whole thing breaks up 26:59 and became like chaff 27:01 on a threshing floor in the summer. 27:04 The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. 27:09 But the rock that struck the statue 27:12 became a huge mountain 27:15 and filled the whole earth." 27:22 Now did you hear this? 27:26 The king has a dream. 27:28 God tells Daniel the same dream. 27:32 There's a great metal man and the head is of gold, 27:38 the chest is of silver, 27:41 the belly and the thighs are of bronze 27:44 and the legs are part of iron, solid iron 27:48 and the feet are partly of iron and partly of clay. 27:54 And then as he's watching and spell bound fascination, 28:00 there comes a tremendous stone out of the blue 28:04 and it strikes into the image and the thing breaks into pieces 28:10 and the stone that struck the great image 28:16 starts to grow and to grow and to grow 28:21 and it becomes a great mountain and it fills a whole earth, 28:26 but the great image becomes like chaff and it's blown away. 28:34 The question is, this is great question 28:39 that we're going to talk about tonight. 28:42 What on earth-- what on earth does it mean? 28:47 What is the meaning of the great metal man? 28:52 What is the meaning of the dream of destiny? 28:59 Paul the evangelist says in the Bible, 29:01 that "God will finish His work 29:03 and cut it short in righteousness." 29:05 The Prophet Joel says, "God will pour out His spirit 29:08 in the last days, and signs and wonders will follow." 29:11 The Carter Report believes that we are now 29:14 in the end times and His spirit is moving mightily. 29:18 During the Port Moresby campaign 29:20 we testify that we saw the power of God revealed. 29:24 God hungry souls 29:27 could not get enough of the word of the Lord 29:30 as at creation the Spirit of God 29:32 moved upon the face of the waters 29:35 and God brought cosmos out of chaos. 29:38 Souls were recreated in the image of the Creator. 29:42 Instead of hate there was love. 29:44 Instead of despair there was hope. 29:46 Instead of sorrow there was joy. 29:49 And in the place of death God gave life. 29:52 One night as John Carter preached 29:54 on the person and work of the Holy Spirit 29:56 the image of a white bird was flashed on the screens. 30:00 That moment a great white bird flew low 30:03 over the astonished congregation. 30:05 Cries of joy filled the air as the audience recognized 30:09 that God had visited His people. 30:11 A mighty surge of Pentecostal power 30:13 swept the audience of 120,000 souls 30:17 and everyone present felt 30:19 the warm comforting presence of God. 30:22 The Carter Report team invites you my dear viewer 30:25 to be a partner in this work. 30:27 Soldiers of the cross are wanted. 30:30 Faith partners are needed. 30:32 Write to us now, here at the Carter Report, 30:35 PO Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, California 91358 30:41 or in Australia at PO Box 861, 30:45 Terrigal, NSW 2260. 30:49 You may also contact us online at cartereport.org 30:53 or email us at info@cartereport.org. 31:00 Now listen to me very carefully 31:02 I want to talk especially to young people tonight. 31:07 I want to talk to skeptics. 31:10 I want to talk to atheists. 31:12 I want to talk to Christians. 31:15 I want to talk to every person 31:17 who's got an ear opened to hear the truth of God. 31:22 "This dream foretold 31:26 the history of the world." 31:31 And it tells about the next world ruler. 31:38 Now I'm going to turn in the Bible 31:40 and I'm going to turn to Daniel 2:36-40. 31:47 I want you to notice this on these colossal screens. 31:53 He turns to the king and he says, 31:57 Oh God has blessed you. He's made you a mighty king. 32:00 You ruled the world he said. 32:03 "You are that head of gold." Listen to me. 32:08 Head of gold on the great metal man 32:12 represents the kingdom of Babylon 32:15 that was ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. 32:18 The next verse says, 32:20 "And after you another kingdom will rise, inferior to you." 32:25 The chest of silver represented a kingdom 32:31 that would come after Babylon 32:34 and the kingdom that came after Babylon 32:37 was the kingdom of Medo-Persia 32:42 under Cyrus the great. 32:46 And the verse goes on to say. 32:50 "Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, 32:55 will rule over the whole earth." 32:58 Babylon, Medo-Persia 33:03 and the next great world empire is the one of bronze, 33:09 it is the Kingdom of Alexander the Great. 33:13 It is Greece. But he is not through. 33:20 The next verse says, Daniel 2:40. 33:26 "Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, 33:28 strong as iron." 33:32 And what happened was this, 33:35 that after Greece that came a great empire 33:38 that was strong as iron 33:41 that marched around the world on legs of iron, 33:48 it was the great iron monarchy of Rome. 33:56 I've taken this lecture around the world. 33:59 I would turn to the Russians in there tens of thousands 34:04 and I would say, tell me my Russian friends, 34:07 what is the great monarchy of Rome? 34:10 What is the great iron empire? 34:13 And they would call at the word Reem Reem, 34:17 which means Rome. So look at me. 34:21 Head of gold, Babylon. 34:23 Chest of silver, Medo-Persia. 34:26 Belly and thighs of bronze, Greece. 34:29 Legs of iron, Rome. 34:35 I want to ask you something. 34:38 You're listening? I want to ask you something. 34:42 How did a man living in Babylon 2,500 years ago 34:49 know that the fourth empire from the Babylonian Empire 34:53 would be as strong as iron 34:56 and it would crush the whole wide world 34:59 and it would break it down into a million pieces? 35:04 If there is no God in heaven, 35:07 how did he know in Babylon that they would be Babylon, 35:12 Medo-Persia, Greece and then Rome. 35:15 How did he know that the fourth empire 35:17 would be the strong one 35:19 that would march around the world 35:21 and that would crush the whole world under foot? 35:24 I will tell you how he knew my friend. 35:26 I will tell you how he knew. 35:28 It is because what we are reading here 35:31 are not merely the words of men. 35:33 This is indeed the word of God. 35:37 Now what we're going to do is this. 35:41 I'm going to show you a few pictures of Persia, 35:43 Greece and Rome to show you 35:45 how archaeology proves the Bible true 35:47 and how archaeology proves that this prophecy is true. 35:51 I'm going to take you firstly to Persia. 35:54 What a privilege I've had 35:56 to visit the great land of Persia 35:58 that we call today Iran. 36:01 This is going right inside the wonderful shahs palace, 36:05 or the palace of the shahs, wonderful palace. 36:09 Then as we travel around Persia, 36:11 we see some amazing places 36:14 and I want you to see some of these wonderful places. 36:16 Here are some of the ancient Persian kings 36:19 that were represented in the Bible prophecy 36:22 and there you see some of the great Persian kings 36:26 that made the world tremble and shake, 36:28 and they are mentioned in Bible prophecy, 36:31 and they are described in the Bible. 36:33 Remember, Babylon and then you have Medo-Persia. 36:36 We're going to take you to some of the wonderful places there. 36:39 This is Bucephalus, the temple city of the Persian kings. 36:43 What a place it was, so powerful. 36:47 Out there in the desert I went and visited 36:49 some of the tombs of the ancient kings. 36:52 They were potentates. They were powerful men. 36:55 I went inside those tombs and as I went to those places 36:58 we're gonna hold this one here. 37:00 This is an inscription written by Xerxes the great. 37:05 And he is the king who is mentioned in the Bible. 37:07 He is actually mentioned in the Bible 37:10 we read it in the Bible and we go to Bucephalus 37:13 and we read it there in the ancient languages. 37:17 I tell you my friend, it gives you the goosebumps. 37:19 You know, that you're not dealing simply with myths. 37:22 You're dealing with the facts of history. 37:25 This is the Behistun Rock, 37:27 an amazing thing written in three different languages 37:32 and nobody could understand those languages. 37:34 I want you to keep that picture there on the screen 37:37 because I want to tell you the amazing story 37:39 of this Behistun Rock, it is amazing. 37:42 It is 345 feet above ground level. 37:46 There was a British officer 37:48 living there in Persia at this time 37:49 and his name was Rawlinson, he was a scholar. 37:52 He got a series of ladders and he climbed up 37:55 on the face of the mountain 37:58 and he copied by hand the different writings, 38:01 the Persian, the Assyrian and the Elamite 38:04 and he went back to camp 38:06 and he studied it and he worked on it. 38:09 It was much more difficult than the Rosetta Stone. 38:13 But the great Rawlinson was able to work it out. 38:15 Now we have an understanding of the Persian Empire 38:20 and we've discovered-- there it is the Behistun Rock, 38:25 an amazing story, but it tells us that the Bible is true. 38:29 It tells us that everything we're telling you 38:32 from this prophecy, it is all true. 38:35 Babylon and then you had Medo-Persia. 38:38 And the leader of the Medo-Persians 38:40 was Cyrus the great. 38:41 He was the guy who is mentioned by name before he was born. 38:45 This is the great temple city. 38:47 Here are some of the great tombs of the Persian people. 38:51 But the Bible says, the Persian Empire 38:54 was destined to go down 38:57 and there came a man with tremendous authority 39:01 and tremendous power and tremendous courage 39:04 and his name was Alexander the Great. 39:10 And so Babylon had gone and Medo-Persia had gone 39:15 and now there came the empire of Greece. Look at me. 39:19 Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece 39:23 and this is the kingdom of Greece. 39:26 What remains of the old kingdom 39:28 that is the famous Parthenon which means the virgin. 39:32 This was a temple where they worship 39:34 the Virgin, Queen of Heaven. 39:36 You see the ancients worship many, many Gods 39:39 and one of their chief gods was the Queen of Heaven. 39:43 Some of these places are actually 39:45 mentioned in the Bible 39:46 such as Mars Hill and the marketplace. 39:50 This is the stoa which is been reconstructed 39:53 by the American School of Oriental Research. 39:57 As I walked around the acropolis 40:00 because that is what it is called. 40:02 I thought of the great dream of destiny 40:06 and I said to myself. Yes, the Bible is right. 40:10 It was right about Babylon. 40:12 It was right about Medo-Persia. 40:15 It was right about Alexander the Great. 40:18 It was right about Greece. 40:20 Now what about the legs of iron? 40:23 History tells me that around 1060 B.C. 40:28 there came the power of the Roman Caesars. 40:36 The iron monarchy of Rome 40:41 with all its power still remains today much of it. 40:47 We can see the splendor and the broken rooms 40:50 like at the pantheon, the temple of all the gods 40:55 with its concrete roof that has been standing there. 40:58 And this is the arch of Titus. 41:01 Titus was the soldier who overthrew the city of Jerusalem. 41:06 And that was also predicted in the prophecies of the Bible. 41:12 There you have the coliseum with sitting for 50,000 people 41:17 that is where the gladiators would spill their blood 41:21 but that is not where the Christians 41:24 were thrown to the lions. 41:26 They were thrown to the lions up at Circus Maximus 41:30 that had room for 250,000 souls 41:35 who cheered as the Christians were put to death. 41:42 But I would remind you tonight 41:46 that Caesar has gone, but Christ lives on forever. 41:52 Would remind you that. 41:53 These are the gates, the great doors 41:57 that went into the form and other buildings 42:01 they have been converted into so called Christian churches. 42:04 Now pause and wonder, 42:09 inside the arch of Titus 42:14 you have the seven golden candlesticks 42:17 that the Roman soldiers took out 42:20 of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. 42:25 Jesus Christ, our Lord predicted 42:29 that Jerusalem would be destroyed 42:31 and the temple would be laid waste. 42:35 Every word of the prophecy of Jesus 42:39 came to pass as you can see on the screen. 42:46 Can you understand? 42:49 There you can see where the chariot 42:50 used to roll down the streets after 2,000 years. 42:53 You can still see the marks in the road. 42:56 There you have the catacombs 42:58 where the Christians placed their dead, 43:01 but also where they had their religious services. 43:04 They were persecuted by Rome, 43:08 but you cannot kill the truth of God, 43:12 I want you to know that. 43:16 You folks, just listen to me 43:19 whether you are a believer or a non believer 43:21 or whether you are an atheist, whether you are a Christian, 43:25 I don't care tonight, God loves you all. 43:29 God loves people. 43:32 God loves white people, He loves black people. 43:36 He loves brown people, He loves yellow people. 43:40 He loves communists. 43:42 He loves everybody, He loves the Hindus, 43:45 He loves the Muslims. 43:46 God loves people and I want you to know tonight 43:50 I don't care who you are, God loves you. 43:54 He loves you, He cares for you. 43:56 Christ died for you. I want you to know that. 44:01 But Rome didn't believe this. 44:04 Rome didn't believe in a gospel of peace. 44:06 Rome didn't believe in a gospel of love. 44:10 Rome believed in a gospel of blood 44:13 and the gospel of the sword. 44:18 You folks, look at me. 44:21 Great metal man, head of gold, Babylon. 44:25 Chest of silver, Medo-Persia. 44:29 Belly and thighs of bronze, Greece. 44:33 Legs of iron, Rome. 44:38 And this was written 2,500 years ago. 44:43 But what happens next? 44:45 Well, we gonna read a text out of the Bible. 44:49 What happens next? 44:50 We gonna read a text out of the Bible. 44:54 And I am gonna read to you from Daniel 2:41-43. 45:01 We gonna read it slowly and clearly 45:04 off the giant screens, okay. 45:07 "Just as you saw that the feet and toes 45:10 were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, 45:15 so this will be a divided kingdom..." 45:21 "So the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, 45:27 any more than iron mixes with clay." 45:32 The Bible says that after Rome, the fourth great empire, 45:39 there would not be a fifth empire. 45:41 It says the kingdom will be divided. 45:49 It is a fact that between 300 and 500 A.D. 45:57 the Roman Empire was broken up 46:00 into the kingdoms and the states of Europe. 46:06 The Roman Empire rotted from within. 46:11 The barbarians from the north 46:13 came down like a wolf on the food. 46:20 The Roman Empire was not followed 46:22 by another world empire, 46:26 but it broke up into the kingdoms 46:28 and the states of Europe. 46:31 Therefore these are some of the kingdoms 46:34 we put up on the screen. 46:36 You don't need to try to memorize them. Heruli gone. 46:41 But you can see up there talks about the race 46:44 that came from, became the Germans, 46:48 Burgundians became the Swiss, 46:50 the Franks, the French and so forth. 46:53 But the Roman Empire was not followed 46:56 by another world empire. 46:58 It broke up into the kingdoms of Europe. 47:00 Now listen. Please get this. 47:04 He's a man in Babylon, a king. He has a dream. 47:09 Doesn't know what it means, 47:11 so he called in the prophet of God. 47:13 God gives the prophet of God the same dream. 47:17 Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece. 47:23 And then you get down to Rome 47:25 and then you have division, you have division. 47:29 You have the feet and the toes 47:31 and the Bible says that represents 47:34 the break up of the Roman Empire 47:37 into the kingdoms and the states of Europe. 47:41 I have news for you tonight, 47:43 every word of the prophecy came to pass. 47:49 Every word came to pass. 47:54 Now the prophet said this. 47:57 He said they shall not cling one to another. 48:00 That's what it says in the King James Version. 48:03 It says all those powers in Europe they'll do their best. 48:07 They'll have a Euro zone, they had a common market. 48:11 They'll have all sorts of things 48:12 and they will go through all types of gymnastics. 48:15 But the prophet said, and these are the words of the Bible. 48:19 "They will never be united again." 48:27 History tells me there had been a group of people 48:32 who have tried to unite Europe. 48:35 Yes, there was Napoleon, 48:37 who set out to tear the heart out of glory 48:42 but a snowflake kissed his cheek in Russia 48:46 and he went down into oblivion. 48:49 More closer to our time, 48:51 there was the Kaiser and there was Hitler 48:56 trying to bring about another world empire and rule the world. 49:03 And people will say, "Well, who's going to do it? 49:06 Who's going to do-- who is going to be the next world ruler?" 49:14 Well the Bible tells us. 49:17 Now we come my beloved friend to the climax of the prophecy 49:25 and I am going to turn in my Bible. 49:28 Let me see now. Let me see now. 49:33 Here it is. Daniel 2:44-45. 49:40 Daniel 2:44-45. 49:47 You're ready? 49:50 You're wondering that the stone represents, aren't you? 49:53 The great stone that comes, well, here it is, 49:57 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven 50:01 will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, 50:06 nor will it be left to another people. 50:10 It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, 50:15 but it will itself endure forever. 50:20 'This is the meaning of the vision of the rock 50:22 cut out of the mountain, but not by human hands. 50:28 A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, 50:31 the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. 50:37 'The great God has shown the king 50:39 what will take place in the future. 50:43 The dream is true and the interpretation 50:48 is trustworthy.'" Listen to me. 50:55 You got to see this and you will tonight 50:57 because this is plain as the nose on your face. 51:01 Head of gold, what could it be? 51:05 Babylon. The chest is of silver, Medo-Persia. 51:08 The belly and the thighs of bronze, 51:11 yes, yes, yes. 51:13 Babylon, Medo-Persia then you come to the thighs, its Greece. 51:19 And then you come to the iron legs, Rome. 51:22 And then you come to the break up of the Roman Empire 51:26 into the kingdoms and the states of Europe. 51:28 And then comes the stone. 51:34 It is the kingdom of God. 51:37 The next word ruler my friend, 51:39 I've news for you is the kingdom of God. 51:46 It is the kingdom of God, it will not be Russia, 51:50 it will not be China, 51:52 it will not be the United States of America or any other power. 51:56 I've news for you there's a new kingdom coming 52:01 and it is the kingdom of God. 52:05 I am amazed, aren't you? 52:09 Two and half thousand years ago in Babylon 52:11 I said to the skeptic, "how on earth did he know?" 52:15 I'll tell you how he knew. God told him so. 52:21 And I want you to know tonight that God loves you. 52:25 He has got you in His hands. He cares for you. 52:30 He has a plan and a purpose for this planet. 52:33 There's no doubt about that. 52:37 The next great event in the history of Port Moresby 52:42 or Australia or the United States of America 52:44 or Russia, this entire world my friend 52:47 is the coming of the stone of destiny. 52:52 Jesus Christ is going to be 52:57 the next world ruler. 53:01 And I want you to know this 53:04 that he's got a place for you there. 53:08 Did you know that? 53:10 There's a room for you in His kingdom. 53:14 He's got a place for you in His kingdom. 53:20 Christ came down from heaven and died on the cross 53:24 that you and I might have a place in His kingdom 53:28 because he loves us so. 53:31 And what we're going to do now, this is so very important. 53:36 We're going to have a prayer together. 53:39 And I hope that every one of us will send home a message 53:42 to God tonight and we're going to say, 53:44 "Lord, by your grace 53:47 I want to be a citizen of your kingdom." 53:51 Now I want you to stand 53:53 and we're going to pray together. 53:56 Want you all to stand. 53:58 We're going to bow our heads 54:01 and we're going to pray together. 54:05 Now look at me, you all watching. 54:12 There may be some here tonight you feel, 54:14 you say, "I am too bad." 54:16 Nobody is too bad for God. 54:19 Somebody may say, "But I've committed terrible crimes." 54:22 If you turn to God, God will take care of this. 54:26 There may be some here tonight and you will say, 54:28 "I am too weak to follow Christ." 54:31 It doesn't depend upon your strength my friend, 54:34 it depends upon His strength. 54:37 And if you and I will lift up our hands 54:39 and our hearts to God tonight, 54:42 He will make us citizens of His coming kingdom of glory. 54:47 Now let us bow our heads and let us pray together. 54:52 Our Father, we just want 54:53 to thank you tonight for your great love. 54:57 We want to thank you for Your great goodness 54:59 and Your grace and Your mercy. 55:02 We want to thank You that God so loved the world 55:07 that He gave His only Son, 55:09 so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, 55:13 but have everlasting life. 55:17 We thank you Lord for this great amazing prophecy 55:21 that tells us that there's a God in heaven 55:23 and that the Bible is true and the Jesus is coming again. 55:30 And there's room for every one of us in the kingdom of God 55:34 if we'll just turn to God and give Him our hearts. 55:39 And as we're praying here tonight in this great stadium 55:43 with so many thousands of people 55:45 standing in the presence of God, 55:46 I don't know how many tens of thousands are here. 55:50 But how many tonight would lift up a hand and say, 55:54 "Dear Lord, I want to be a part of the kingdom of God 55:59 and I want Jesus to come into my heart tonight." 56:03 Could you raise your hand tonight if that is your prayer? 56:06 Tonight I want to believe in you God. 56:11 I want to believe in the Bible 56:14 and I want to be part of Your kingdom 56:18 that is coming so very soon. 56:20 And as we lift up our hands tonight, 56:23 we lift up our hearts and we say, 56:25 "Oh, God, bless us tonight. 56:29 Come into our hears tonight and bless us 56:32 with the forgiveness of our sins 56:35 and grant us peace and everlasting life." 56:40 Oh my Father, tonight I pray 56:43 that You will bless these thousands and thousands, 56:47 I don't know how many tens of thousands-- 56:50 more than I can see. 56:52 Bless these tens of thousands of earnest souls 56:56 as we lift up our hearts to You tonight. 57:01 Bless these precious people and save us all 57:07 when Jesus comes and we thank youin Jesus name. 57:14 Amen. Amen. 57:22 Thank you for joining us today. 57:23 To become a faith partner with Pastor John Carter 57:26 and to receive our monthly newsletter, 57:28 write to us here at the Carter Report, 57:31 PO Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, 57:34 California, 91358, 57:37 or in Australia at PO Box 861, 57:40 Terrigal, NSW 2260. 57:44 You may also contact us online at carterreport.org. 57:49 Remember Jesus said, "You'll know the truth 57:52 and the truth will set you free. |
Revised 2014-12-17