Participants:
Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000014S
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00:01 What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean? When
00:07 will the antichrist appear and make his final move? How can I 00:12 be ready for the final events of earth's history? You'll be 00:16 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us as 00:21 Pastor Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:30 Welcome everyone to our Prophecy Unsealed seminar. We are so glad 00:35 again, you're joining us today. Again, I want to welcome all 00:38 those who are joining us at home Thank you. We're delighted that 00:40 you want to be part of our study Our topic today is a very 00:44 important one: The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God. Now 00:48 I've been asking you to pray and friends, we need to pray. 00:51 This is one of the most important subjects we could 00:53 ever study in our entire life. 00:55 The mark of the beast has attracted millions of 00:57 people down through the years. It's truly a life and a death 01:01 matter. When Jesus comes, there's only going to be 01:04 two groups of people: 01:06 Those who are ready and those who are not. And those 01:08 who are ready will have the seal of God in their forehead and will 01:11 be saved for all eternity. And those that are not will have the 01:14 mark of the beast in their forehead or in their hand and 01:16 will be lost for all eternity. So, when the Lord seals his law 01:21 in our hearts, it has to include the Sabbath. It demonstrates to 01:23 him that we've accepted God as our creator and our sanctifier. 01:28 So the Sabbath is a weekly reminder of our relationship 01:33 with God. It shows that he has the power and authority. Now 01:35 what do you suppose is going to happen folks when that same 01:38 finger that wrote the ten commandments in stone points to 01:44 this world in the judgment day and says what are you doing with 01:47 my law? James 2:12: We'll be judged by the law of liberty. 01:51 Let me tell you what's going to happen friends. All of those 01:53 vain and superficial arguments that are given today, all of 01:57 those irrational reasons that people give why they don't have 02:00 to be obedient, it will collapse like a house of cards. And 02:04 people will come face to face with the one who made heaven and 02:06 earth, the sea, and all that is in them is and that'll be a 02:09 sobering moment, won't it? So we're going now...Let me just 02:14 say one more thing on that. Isn't it just sensible that God? 02:17 looking down through the centuries spotlighted the fourth 02:21 one with the word remember because he knew that churches 02:25 today would be saying it's the one that's okay to forget. God 02:27 in his wisdom told us that ahead of time. So, when someone says 02:32 to me, oh come on now, pastor this society today, 02:35 it's a jungle out there. 02:37 How do we really know what day the seventh day 02:39 is, right? I mean calendars and calendars have been mixed up 02:41 and Adventists have, and we've covered these things, but folks 02:44 I'm going to share something with you from 25 years of 02:46 ministry and holding many seminars. When the mind is open 02:51 for truth it is as clear as the nose on our face. But when 02:56 someone doesn't want to follow truth, when they're looking for 02:59 reasons around it, when they want to rationalize out of it 03:03 all of a sudden there's a hundred reasons the devil will 03:05 give you why you don't have to keep the Sabbath, right? So it's 03:08 a matter not of the head so much but of the heart. Are you 03:11 wanting to do his will? Because if you are folks, the Sabbath is 03:14 as clear as the other commandments are. 03:16 They're all written in stone. Now we know one thing for sure. 03:19 And I think we need to say this. That salvation is by grace, and 03:23 we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and can we 03:26 be saved by the law? No. Can we be saved by keeping the Sabbath? 03:29 No, it is not the law that saves us. God will not accept that 03:33 system. Why was it necessary for Jesus to die? Romans 3:23: For 03:37 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But when he 03:40 gives us that marvelous grace grace always leads us back to 03:43 what? Obedience and never to disobedience. And when he leads 03:48 us back to obedience that will include all of the commandments 03:51 right? Not just the fourth, but all of them. He wants to write 03:54 everything in our hearts. Psalm 19:7: The law of the Lord is 03:58 what? Perfect, converting the soul. So our only hope, friends 04:02 is to put our trust in the one that saved us. And when we put 04:06 our trust in the one who saved us, our love for him will grow. 04:10 I hope daily because of what he did and then he said, because you 04:15 love me, he says, then be obedient right? Keep my commandments. 04:19 John 14:15. So now that we know what the seal of God is, do you 04:24 want to know what the mark of the beast is? It's really not 04:26 that difficult friends. Let's go back to Revelation 14. This time 04:28 verse 12. We've looked at verses 9, 10, and 11, speaking of the 04:32 mark of the beast, the warning of it, but now verse 12 contrasts 04:36 that and says Here is the patience of the saints: here are 04:39 they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. 04:43 So, what are we seeing here? God's seal is standing in 04:46 opposition to the mark of the beast. So if we are keeping the 04:51 seal of God, if we've been given the seal of God, we will not be 04:54 given the mark of the beast. Or to put it another way: If we 04:56 are honoring the commandments of God, we will not be given the 05:01 mark of the beast because they're put in opposition to one 05:03 another. So two things are brought out: One group is 05:06 worshipping the creator. One group is worshipping the beast. 05:09 Now we've studied the beast power in a previous session. 05:12 We found out that there was a prophecy in Daniel 7 that said 05:16 that he would think to change times and what else? The laws. 05:21 Has anything been done by the beast power to affect God's law? 05:25 We should be expecting it. As Bible students, we should be 05:28 expecting an attack on the law of God. So in our previous 05:32 session, we've learned about the beast power, and we're not going 05:35 to spend a lot of time on it, but we did go back to our Daniel 05:38 chapter 7, and we know that many people fail to understand 05:43 Revelation because they fail to do their homework, as I say 05:45 They fail to understand what the Old Testament prophecies about 05:48 the antichrist are and then bring that information into 05:52 Revelation. So because they don't have the foundation, they 05:56 don't have the knowledge that they need. But we went to the 05:57 Old Testament. We went to Daniel We saw a metallic image there 06:01 and then we found out the principle that Daniel and 06:04 Revelation are built on is repetition and enlargement. So, 06:08 there's two prophecies, one in Daniel 2 and one in Daniel 7 06:10 that are paralleling one another They're showing Babylon by the 06:14 head of gold and the lion with the eagle's wings. They're 06:16 showing Medo-Persia by the chest and arms of silver and the bear 06:19 that was humped up on one side. They're showing Greece by the 06:23 belly and thighs of brass and the leopard with four heads and 06:26 four wings. We see Rome with the legs of iron and the great 06:29 terrible dragon with 10 horns and of course the divided 06:32 nations of Rome after Rome fell shown by the feet on the image, 06:37 the toes on the image and the divided nations shown by the 10 06:41 horns on that fourth beast. So now that's the foundation and 06:47 then God builds on that, or we can say he enlarges on that in 06:51 verse 8 of Daniel 7. I considered the horns 06:54 and behold, there came up among them another little horn before 06:57 whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the 06:59 roots. And this little horn, again, this is review for us, 07:02 is the same power as the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 07:08 when we started here. So we want to know, what is this power 07:11 We went to Daniel 7, and we found out there's a lot of identifying 07:14 marks. There's a lot of information that God gives us 07:16 because he doesn't want us to guess at it. He wants to 07:19 eliminate every other possibility in history except 07:23 one. That's exactly what it does There's only one that fits all 07:27 of these things. And again, I want to say friends, if you've 07:29 ever had a connection with this power, you or a relative or a 07:32 friend, it doesn't mean that they're bad people. It doesn't 07:35 mean that God doesn't love them and that they don't love God. 07:37 It just means there's nothing personal in the identification 07:39 to this because God is not talking about people. He's 07:42 talking about systems of worship and can deceive people. In love 07:47 he reveals this to us because God does not want his people 07:49 fooled in the end time. Because to be so, you may find yourself 07:54 on the wrong side of the issues that will divide the world. And 07:56 we know from studying these things on previous nights that 07:58 this could be none other than the Roman church, which is headed 08:01 by what we call the papacy. It's the one power, the only power, 08:05 that fits all of the identifying characteristics of scripture 08:08 for the end time beast power. Please understand again that 08:10 anyone could take those identifying marks, and you could 08:13 go down to the library and look it up in history, and you would 08:16 know it for yourself. No single man is the beast. The beast is a 08:19 religious and political kingdom that rises up in history. It 08:23 does its work over time. Does certain things that the Bible 08:26 brings out. It received a death wound when it's civil power is 08:31 taken away. But then it ends up getting it back and the result 08:34 is all the world turns back to this power. It doesn't mean that 08:39 all who have followed power by the way have been lost. It 08:43 doesn't mean again that they don't love the Lord, but it 08:45 probably means that they don't know these truths in scripture. 08:48 So they're really not a matter of argument, it's a matter of 08:50 factual history. But let me give you a couple of quotes here. From 08:54 the Catholic Dictionary it says: The Vicar of Christ...This is a 08:57 title used almost exclusively of the Bishop of Rome, as successor 09:01 of Peter and, therefore, the one in the Church who particularly 09:03 ...which means in a special way...takes the place of Christ. 09:08 So they're title means that they're in the place of Christ 09:12 on earth. Pope Boniface VIII, he said: Furthermore, we declare, 09:16 we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for 09:18 salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman 09:21 Pontiff. Very interesting. So they say that we have to come 09:27 through that power, that system. It received a death blow when 09:33 Napoleon sent his general Berthier into the heart of Rome 09:36 and took the Pope captive. He declares it to be at an end. 09:38 They confiscated property. They said nope, this is over now, and 09:41 Encyclopedia Americana picked up on this: In 1798, he, meaning 09:45 Berthier...Napoleon's general... made his entrance into Rome, 09:49 abolished the papal Government and established a secular one 09:51 So they took it away. This was the deadly wound that occurred 09:55 at the end of the 1260 years of the dark ages. But the Bible 09:59 says it'll get power back, and it was given a special power back 10:03 when he could rule over certain land as a state would. San 10:06 Francisco Chronicle newspaper wrote in February of 1929: The 10:10 Roman question tonight was a thing of the past and the 10:12 Vatican was at peace with Italy. In affixing the autographs to 10:15 the memorable document healing the wound...here they used 10:18 scripture, a scriptural term... which has festered since 1870, 10:23 extreme cordiality was displayed on both sides. So here they're 10:26 saying that was a wound that was given was starting to be healed 10:30 now because it got back the property or at least some 10:34 property that it had confiscated and friends, people have turned 10:37 to this power like never before. But remember from our previous 10:40 session that the image of Daniel 2 had legs of iron, right, 10:45 representing pagan Rome. But then that led into the feet 10:49 which were of iron and clay. So even though there was a change 10:53 still, the presence of Rome was there in some way and that of 10:57 course is because it is now papal Rome. Not pagan Rome. It 11:01 gave place to papal Rome. So that's why it is a different 11:07 composite. Now, let's ask this question. Why did God choose... 11:12 I've been waiting to get to this...why did God choose to 11:14 represent this power in this way? Revelation says he's got 11:19 the body of a leopard, the feet of the bear, mouth of the lion, 11:21 10 horns. Why did he give it to us in this fashion? The answer 11:25 is because when the papacy was formed it drew its doctrines or 11:30 It's beliefs, not from scripture but from the pagan nations that 11:34 had gone before it. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome 11:36 they no longer survived as political nations, but their 11:39 religious practices did survive. And they were incorporated into 11:44 the papacy. And the papacy became a persecuting power just 11:48 as those nations had. But then it also cloaked itself with a 11:53 religious veneer, a kind of thin covering and passed itself off 11:58 to the world as Christianity. So, this is the counterfeit 12:04 friends. The devil counterfeited the true gospel and the true 12:07 beliefs of the church with a false system that will draw the 12:11 multitudes after it. For example the Bible is the truth and the 12:17 final definer of doctrine. It's been counterfeited by the words 12:20 of pope and tradition. The sacrifice of Christ would be a 12:23 one-time sacrifice. It's counter- feited by the masses, which 12:25 is said to be a continual sacrificing of Jesus. God's 12:30 truth is baptism by immersion that shows the representation of 12:33 dying to self and rising back up to a brand new regenerated 12:37 life and has been substituted or counterfeited by sprinkling. 12:40 Communion service that we take of the emblems of Christ's 12:43 broken body and spilled blood and it is counterfeited by a 12:47 long word here: transubstantiation which means the priest, the 12:52 catholic priest claims to have the ability to change the bread 12:54 into the actual body of Jesus and the grape juice into the actual 12:58 blood of Jesus. So again, in their own words, they claim to 13:04 create their creator. Amazing. Tithing, of course, is asked of 13:08 God, and that's been substituted by indulgences, the idea that 13:12 you could pay for God's favor. Death being a sleep till the 13:14 resurrection. We've taken that up in a previous session. That's 13:16 substituted by purgatory and the immortality of the soul. 13:20 Righteousness by faith, of course, we're saved by God's 13:22 grace through faith. Substituted or counterfeited by penance, the 13:25 idea that you can do certain works to earn forgiveness. We 13:27 are to pray to God, and we can be forgiven directly by God has 13:32 been substituted by praying to dead saints and confession to 13:35 earthly priests. This was the falling away from truth that 13:39 Paul talked about in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13:42 3. So let's not kid ourselves. The only faith that's going to 13:44 lead us back to God is that which comes from God. Would you 13:48 agree. And let's be very clear now. We know who the beast 13:53 power is but our subject tonight is not about the beast power. 13:56 We've already covered that. Our subject to night is the mark of 13:59 the beast. So the beast itself is not the mark of the beast. 14:02 The mark of the beast has to be something that the beast does. 14:05 So listen carefully right now friends because this is one of 14:09 the most important points of what I'm going to share tonight. 14:10 Just as a beast in Bible prophecy represents a 14:17 kingdom or a nation, so the mark of the beast represents the 14:24 distinguishing characteristic of that power, right? It's the 14:28 mark of the beast is the mark of that power. So what is the 14:34 distinguishing characteristic of the papal power? What does 14:38 the papacy give them authority? Could it be that they have 14:42 counterfeited what God says gives him authority. You know 14:45 the devil's not too original. He counterfeits what God does. 14:47 Could it be a fulfilling of what Daniel says? Let's go take a 14:52 look here if we may. Remember now Satan is a counterfeiter. 14:55 So he counterfeits what God does. We're going to let the 14:58 papacy answer for itself. The tower of Babel was a monument 15:01 to disobedience. When Nimrod died he was worshipped as the 15:04 Sun god, and it wasn't very long before the people began to 15:06 worship the sun and the moon and the stars and Satan deceived 15:10 them into looking away from the Creator to the creation. Here 15:13 you see an Egyptian pharaoh who claimed to be the embodiment of 15:17 the sun god Horace on earth much like the Pope claims to be the 15:20 infallible vicar of Christ on earth. He's holding up these 15:22 golden goblets to sun showing worship. Here you see it again 15:26 another one. This was common now They worshipped the sun and 15:29 they're holding up their offering to it. Here the priest 15:31 he holds up a golden cup, too above his head, which is his way 15:35 of bowing before it as he gives an offering. Now there's a 15:40 communion lifted up by the priest. It is to be adored much 15:42 like the symbols of the sun were lifted up and adored. There's 15:46 nothing to say that the Communion bread should be in the 15:47 shape of a round wafer, like a sun, but this is what they do. 15:51 And the Catholic claims that this wafer of bread turns into 15:54 the actual body of Christ when it's consecrated by the mass. 15:57 Semiramis Nimrod's wife died. She was worshipped afterward as 16:02 the queen of the heavens and since then, in different cultures 16:05 and in different languages female deities are worshipped. 16:09 Here you see Mary in the upper center there. She's lifted up. 16:12 She's being adored as the queen of the heavens. You see her in 16:15 many other nationalities in various places of the earth. 16:20 She's again made huge here because the crowd is worshipping 16:22 Mary. Statues of her, monstrous statues, huge ones, all over. 16:27 They make her very, very large because she is the one again 16:30 taking the place of this female deity of the past. Here's one I 16:35 found when I visited Florida. Mary, the Queen of the Universe. 16:39 Now Mary worship is found in none of the writing of the early 16:43 Christians. She would be horrified if she saw her name 16:47 used like that. The symbolism of the mother-child worship, very, 16:51 very prominent in Catholicism. You see it in many different 16:54 ways. I show you just a few examples here. Mother and child. 16:58 But look who's the larger one. Look who's the small one, right? 17:00 Who's prominent and who's made very little. If it isn't Mary 17:04 who do they make big, right? Now it's not Jesus, right? Not that 17:08 we should go around making images, but nevertheless, when it 17:10 it's not Mary made real big, the Pope is made real big and where 17:14 is Jesus found? He's found dying in a wretched, you know 17:17 position there on the cross. So it's showing Jesus not in the 17:22 risen glorious sense, not as our great high priest, not as our 17:24 soon coming king, but they always having him in the dying sense 17:28 there on the cross. So the crucifix, which is Jesus hanging 17:30 there is continually displayed. It's really a blasphemous claim 17:34 of a continual sacrificing of Christ, rather than the one-time 17:39 sacrifice that the Bible speaks about. Now here's a pagan symbol 17:43 representing male and female union and the sun and the 17:46 crescent moon for Egypt was a symbol of Isis, the wife of the 17:49 sun god and the mother of the gods. The pagans displayed this 17:54 sun and the crescent moon in many different types of artwork 17:56 sometimes it was the sun in the horns of a bull, but you see this 18:01 also in Islam. Here's another shot of it here. Here's the 18:05 Islam one, right? You see it over and over again, all around. 18:09 But now, by placing Mary, this is a Catholic artwork in the 18:13 crescent, it's really harkening back to the fertility, the 18:19 mother goddess tracing both back to the Babylonian queen 18:21 Semiramis, who was titled the mother of god. Here you see... 18:25 this is in a Catholic church in Chicago, and this one really blew 18:29 my mind. A nine-foot image of Mary sitting atop a crescent 18:32 moon as Isis did. Mary sits in the position where God should be 18:37 between the cherubim's and over the ark of the covenant and 18:40 she's offering herself now as the host, or the bread of life, 18:43 but she's got her hands out as if she made the sacrifice and 18:46 she's right over the top of the mercy seat again, where God's 18:49 present normally is. Again she's got a sun right on her chest, 18:52 you see the beams going out there. 18:53 Again, it's just putting Mary in the place of God. 18:57 So you can see even the pagan deities, this disk 19:03 of this halo is very prominent in pagan history. Same as the 19:06 symbolism of the wafer. It means the same thing. You see it in 19:10 other religions. Here's one from the near East, right? Or the 19:13 middle east. Here's one that came from the far east, Japan, 19:16 being the land of the rising sun But notice the halo behind 19:18 one of the Japanese gods. This is the god of happiness. He 19:22 still had the sun behind his head. So this is where the halo 19:26 came from friends. It's not a sign of holiness originally. 19:29 It's a sign of a sun god. It shows up in Catholic carvings, 19:33 it shows up in Catholic art work paintings like this. You see it 19:36 in all kinds of places. Basically, it's a union 19:41 of pagan and Christian belief. Now the serpent with wings 19:46 on it here. The winged serpent. That shows up also in pagan 19:48 religions. You see this 19:50 Egyptian bowing down to a winged serpent making an offering and 19:53 the dragon on the papal crest, this is from the Vatican museum. 19:57 By the way, the word Vatican, in case you didn't know that, the 20:02 first part vatu's means diviner and can means serpent. So, 20:05 Vatican means the divining serpent, just in case you didn't 20:08 know what that actually means. But the devil himself is a 20:12 serpent, right? And he is a cunning one isn't he? The Bible 20:15 says that dragon, that old serpent called the devil and 20:18 Satan deceives the whole world. So here's a door knob on St. 20:21 Mary's cathedral in San Francisco, California. It's hard 20:23 to imagine that they would use a symbol on a Christian church 20:26 that represents Satan, right? Right on the very door. You'd 20:29 have to think that they know what that means, but nevertheless 20:31 King Tut identified in death with Osiris, the son and the god 20:36 of the dead, he holds this crooked augur in his hand and 20:38 it was the sign that he was an official diviner of the future 20:42 using omens, which was carried by soothsayers and by fortune 20:46 tellers, and here we see in the Roman Catholic church the 20:49 which represents the shepherd. They say it represents the 20:53 shepherd's crook but you can see it has a serpent's tail on it. 20:55 You can see the scales on it there. And this is held by high 20:59 officials of the Vatican. It's traced back to the divining 21:03 staff of those fortune tellers they inherited from the priests 21:06 of Babylon. Now here's an actual artifact unearthed in a pagan 21:10 temple in the Canaanite city of Hazor, which was in northern 21:14 Italy. On one of its sides, on the right hand side, you see a 21:16 circle with a cross in the center. That's the divine symbol 21:20 of the Canaanite storm god Baal, a circle with a cross in the 21:24 center. So it came right from the temple. So you see this 21:27 symbol of Baal all over in the papacy. Here you see it right 21:31 there on the altar. You can't miss it there. It's got it right 21:33 front and center. That's a symbol of Baal. 21:35 You see it here on a pagan altar 21:37 , same thing, circle with a cross. You see the waves 21:41 coming out of it there, sun rays Here it is, the symbol of Baal 21:44 on the tapestry that's hung from the balcony. This is when Pope 21:47 John Paul II made his very first appearance. But it represents 21:51 pagan sun worship. Here you see Pope John Paul II. Now several 21:56 things are going on here. It's got his miter; you see the same 21:59 symbol right on the miter. Right there, it's a symbol of Baal 22:03 front and center, the circle with that cross in it. Here you 22:07 see it right on his miter here. That's a symbol of Baal. You see 22:11 it on the canopy here, on the stole on his neck, see at the 22:16 bottom there, same symbol, symbol of Baal. Another form of 22:21 sun images that are originated from Babylon is the solar wheel. 22:23 And it's in the form of a chariot wheel, which is linked 22:27 with astrology and the occult. Here you see another kind of 22:30 sun wheel or solar wheel and the pagans they thought that 22:32 this sun god traveled across the sky in a great chariot and 22:37 that's where you get the sun wheel from. But it's a pagan 22:41 wheel. This one here is from the temple of Karnak in India. To 22:43 show you the occult and astrology. It kind of resembles 22:46 a chariot wheel doesn't it? And here you see again this woman 22:49 she's got her solar wheel. She's got the sun behind her head. 22:52 What do you suppose the largest solar wheel in the world is? 22:55 Here you see a view of the piazza or the plaza of the 22:58 Vatican, also known as St. Peter's square. Circular court 23:01 yard, but marked out plainly as a solar wheel. This large eight 23:06 rayed sun wheel or chariot wheel design said to be symbolic of 23:10 the God Ishtar. It's immediately noticeable, isn't it? So the sun 23:14 image, it originates from Babylon, the solar wheel, it's 23:16 filled with astrology and the occult. Here you see another one 23:19 here, but in this one it's got the symbol of Baal in the middle 23:23 of it. You've got a solar wheel that represents again false 23:28 worship and the symbol of Baal right in the center of it. And 23:30 that's what they have here at the Vatican also. You got the 23:33 eight point sun wheel, the smaller pointed symbol of Baal 23:37 right? And then in the middle which is...by the way these 23:40 things are common in Babylonian temples. But if you look closer 23:44 at the very center, what do you see? You see there an obelisk 23:47 right? Genuine Egyptian obelisk shipped over from Heliopolis to 23:52 Rome by the Roman emperor Caligula and he was an evil guy. 23:56 But the obelisk was used in sun worship. And so here right in 24:00 St. Peter's square within the symbol of Baal is the symbol of 24:03 Ishtar, which is this Pagan sun worship. This obelisk is a 24:08 symbol at the entrance of a lot of different temples. They use 24:11 it quite extensively, commonly sighted at temples. No Pope here 24:17 he's enthroned under a canopy and notice above the canopy what 24:19 you see. It's got the astrological figures of the 24:22 zodiac. This one is from the Vatican museum, with the sign of 24:25 Leo is directly above his head again showing a mixture of the 24:28 pagan with the church. Now you probably know this guy, the 24:31 Emperor Constantine. We talked about him. Famous for his 24:34 attempts at combining pagan worship with Christianity. Here 24:39 is a quote from the life of Constantine p.94: In order to 24:41 attach to Christianity greater attraction in the eyes of the 24:44 nobility, the priests adopted the outer garments and adornments 24:47 which were used in pagan cults. So, again, this was 24:51 Constantine's practice. Here's one more from An Essay on the 24:54 Development of Christian Doctrine, p.372: We are told in 24:58 various ways by Eusebius,... he was an historian...that 25:01 Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to 25:02 to the heathen, transferred into it...into Christianity...the 25:07 outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in 25:09 their own. So what did they do? Well, here is one of the ancient 25:14 priests for the Dagon, he's the priest of Dagon or the fish 25:20 worship. We see them among the Philistines, we've seen them 25:22 among the Babylonians. Sometimes they wore the whole fish on 25:24 their head, which seems kind of strange.. Sometimes they just 25:28 wore the fish cap on their head. And on the right, there is the 25:30 mystery goddess of Asia Minor Cybele. She's wearing the fish 25:33 cap on her head, right? So the modern miter hat that the 25:41 priests wear, or the officials of the Vatican, is the same 25:43 thing. It's worn among the bishops and the pope, and it 25:47 represents the head of Dagon, but an open mouth. That's what that 25:49 miter is an open-mouthed fish. You see it in various priests 25:52 here. You see it on the pope here. That's just an open fish 25:56 right there. This is Dionysus the great god with a pine cone 26:01 on his staff. It's a fertility symbol. Children are always 26:04 looked upon as extending the life of the human species and 26:08 therefore, it was linked to the conception of children. The pine 26:12 cone staff very, very interesting here. It goes all 26:17 the way back to Tammuz of Babylon, who is said to have died 26:19 for the good of his people. Now notice how Satan sets up 26:21 counterfeits here. So he's got this mother, who is said to be a 26:26 impregnated miraculously, she was a virgin, but still 26:32 impregnated. This is a counterfeit of course of the 26:36 virgin birth of Jesus. So this is another picture here of the 26:40 Syrian winged god with a pine cone representing again the 26:42 power of regeneration traceable to Tammuz of Babylon. A lot of 26:46 false worship can be traced back to Tammuz. Most paganism in 26:48 history is. But his mother Semiramis, again, she was the 26:52 first one that they claimed of her to be a virgin even though 26:56 she gave birth. Do you know that the Roman Catholic practice of 26:59 making the sign of the cross goes all the way back to Tammuz. 27:01 They made the sign of the T for Tammuz, and that's been carried 27:04 on down into the church today. Now here you see the Pope's 27:10 staff. He's got a pine cone on it, the ultimate pagan symbol 27:12 really. But again, we would be surprised that he's got the 27:15 symbol, the pagan symbol, for extending eternal life right 27:21 there on his staff. Here he's got it on his breast plate here. 27:23 He's got the miter on his head. The crucifix in the other hand. 27:26 Interesting hand symbol, we'll get to that in just a minute. 27:29 Where do you suppose the largest pine cone in the world is? In 27:33 the court of the pine cone, here is originally made in the time 27:38 of pagan Rome, right, the pagan Roman empire, but it was moved 27:41 here in 1608 and right there into the Vatican again. It's a 27:44 an ultimate symbol of pagan worship. Now this old statue 27:50 with its occult blessing here is supposedly a statue of Peter 27:51 enthroned here. But notice the sun wheel above his head. The 27:56 statue is actually a pagan statue of Jupiter. It was 28:01 removed from the pantheon in Rome, which is a pagan temple, 28:03 moved into St. Peters, modified a little bit and renamed Peter. 28:07 But notice the pattern on the wall behind him. That's the 28:10 pattern of Baal, that's the symbol of Baal, right there 28:14 behind the wall on the tapestry. Now this extended right foot has 28:18 been worn away and replaced by the many pilgrims who come and 28:22 in sincerity, kiss it in homage not realizing they're kissing 28:24 the foot of an ancient pagan god It's really sad when you think 28:28 about it. They don't understand what the Bible teaches about 28:30 making images and bowing down to them. But that's what happens 28:33 when the word of God is withheld Now, here again, 28:37 you see the solar wheel above his head. 28:38 You see the pagan symbol of Baal behind 28:40 him. But notice the hand sign. That's what I wanted you to see 28:42 there. See that hand sign he's got. That is the occult symbol 28:48 called the trident hand. The old statue of Jupiter with his 28:51 blessing hand is now St. Peter but it's still got that same 28:54 occultic hand symbol with three fingers. That's where they come 28:56 up with trident from. Now here it is in the Hindu religion. The 29:00 Hindu deity with the thumb and two fingers extended, same 29:03 trident sign. This is a Buddhist a Buddha hand. Again same three 29:08 fingers of Buddha. Now these Satanic hand signs, of course, 29:12 are symbols of occultic power. 29:13 They appear in the Roman church on 29:15 statues, paintings throughout the priesthood. Here you see it 29:19 with the Pope with the miter on his head. He's got the trident 29:23 hand sign. See it here with Pope John II. Again borrowed right 29:27 out of paganism right into the church. You see it here. If you 29:30 put the statue of Jupiter right next to the pope, here you can 29:34 see clearly how they have adopted these symbols. Here's 29:37 one from my homeland that I'm not too proud about, a postage 29:40 stamp. It's got a symbol of a priest here. He's got the sun 29:43 behind his head, right, you got the miter on his head, you got 29:48 the serpent's staff in one hand, he's got the occult hand symbol 29:51 in the other. Four pagan signs on one postage stamp. How much 29:54 more can they load onto it, right? But there it is. Now this 30:00 is a sun face, this hideous, horned, nature spirit is among 30:03 the most sacred items in the Vatican treasury. It's located 30:05 beneath St. Peter's Basilica. Nature spirits are common in 30:10 pagan cults throughout the world In Roman paganism, they were 30:12 called fawns. In Greek they were known as Seder, but the 30:16 reflections of this horned hoofed god is traceable all the 30:19 was back to the sun god of Babylon. Now these images, they 30:22 occur in church buildings. They take on various forms. This one 30:25 is from an ancient Roman bath house. It depicts the face of a 30:29 Roman sun god. All around it are horns and rays emitting from the 30:33 sun face. You see it here on this church. This one is from 30:38 Scandinavia. Same thing, sun face a telltale sign of sun worship. 30:40 Again, another one. This statue is a Romanized statue of the 30:46 Egyptian Isis. Notice the globe in her hand. What is the hand 30:50 symbol that she had? Small bronze of Hercules. He's kind of 30:54 an allegorical figure of the solar deity, also holding the 30:56 globe in his hand. This is a Persian sun god Mithra holding 31:01 the globe. The globe is a symbol of the rulership of the universe 31:04 here. And now, of course, they've just done the same to Jesus. 31:06 They've given a globe in his hand. You've got the trident 31:10 hand symbol in the other one holding that. So it's simply 31:12 making of Jesus, what the pagans did of their god. And of course 31:17 here's one of the child Jesus holding the pagan symbol of the 31:19 globe and the same hand symbol too. So they use it in 31:21 different forms of Jesus. You see the sun globe on the Pope's 31:25 tiara, you see it on churches. Now this is the Roman god 31:28 Jupiter. Notice he's the equivalent of the Greek god Zeus 31:32 He's holding the lightning bolt right? Lightning bolt-symbol 31:36 of power. Now you've got the statue of this female figure 31:40 representing the Roman church found in the Jesuit church of 31:41 Rome. She's holding a lightning bolt in her hand precisely the 31:45 same way it's carried by the chief deities of the pagan 31:48 mysteries. It's really depicting here, the church's authority over 31:50 kings and depicting her destruction of what she 31:55 considers to be protestant heresies. So she's driving away 31:59 from her two protestant Reformers, one of them, Martin 32:01 Luther. And you see this little cherub angel ripping pages out 32:05 the book showing the denial of the protestant reformation, which 32:07 is based on the Bible, right? So he's ripping the pages out 32:10 saying we don't want this. Revelation 17:4: And the woman 32:14 was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with 32:18 gold and precious stones and pearls. And it says: And the 32:20 woman was clothed in two colors, purple and what? Scarlet color. 32:25 So purple and scarlet, purple and scarlet, purple, and scarlet. 32:33 Purple and scarlet, purple and scarlet. It says she had a 32:42 golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of 32:45 her fornication. The cup of wine that she held that the harlot 32:49 woman is pictured with represents a spiritual and a 32:53 doctrinal fornication, which is a mixing of truth and error. So, 32:57 it says she made all nations drink of that in Revelation 18. 33:01 So she's spreading these false teachings around the world as 33:05 they imbibe in those things. Here it is. This woman in 33:08 Revelation. She's holding up a golden cup, right, so the 33:12 Revelation pictures her as holding up this golden cup. 33:14 What is the only faith that holds up at the climax of its 33:17 service the golden cup? Very interesting. Now they also in 33:26 the Vatican have a mint and they can mint their own coins. This 33:29 one is Pope Pius XII, who reigned during the time of the second 33:31 world war. And on the flip side of the coin, you see a woman 33:35 there. Incredibly enough, it says the woman who represents the 33:38 Catholic church she holds a cup in her right hand, in which you 33:43 see a pagan sunburst, right. It recalls the verses of Revelation 33:45 but on their own coin, they have the woman with a cup and a 33:49 sun. Amazing. Daniel 7:25: He shall speak great words against 33:53 the most High,...wear out the saints of the most High...think 33:57 to change times and laws. Since the final issue revolved around 33:59 worship what earthly religious power claims it has authority to 34:04 change God's law? This is Catholic testimony, I'm about to 34:08 share with you. In their catechism, they say: Which is the 34:10 Sabbath day? The answer's Saturday is the Sabbath Day. 34:12 Why do we observe Sunday instead of Sabbath? Because the Catholic 34:16 church transferred the solemnity which means the sacredness from 34:20 Saturday to Sunday. What specifically then, is the mark of 34:27 the beast? The mark of the beast must be the sign of the Roman 34:31 church's authority. So what does the Roman church claim to have 34:36 for its sign of authority? That's a simple question. Now 34:41 this particular bust is of James Cardinal Gibbons, a very well 34:44 known cardinal in Catholic history and his chancellor, who 34:49 was an official who acts kind of like a secretary or handles 34:52 documents for a bishop or other official, he said: Of course, the 34:55 Catholic Church claims that the change was her act...Let me 34:58 pause there. He means the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to 35:01 Sunday...He says: This act is a mark of her ecclesiastical 35:05 power and authority in religious matters. So he's saying of 35:09 course, she claims this. She changed the Sabbath from 35:11 Saturday to Sunday. She says that's a mark of our authority 35:13 in religious matters. From the Catholic Record, 1923, they said 35:18 The Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath 35:21 observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that 35:25 fact. Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate 35:28 or a reasonable explanation or justification for the 35:34 substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Third - 35:36 or the Protestant Fourth- Commandment of God. As the Rev. 35:38 Mr. Smith rightly points out: The Jewish Sabbath is not Sunday 35:42 the Lord's Day. Christians are all wrong in speaking of the 35:44 Sabbath as Sunday. Christians who so speak are "Bible 35:47 Christians," those who make the Bible the sole rule of Faith; 35:51 and the Bible is silent on Sunday observance, it speaks 35:54 only of what? Sabbath observance. Well, I've got to 35:58 give them credit for honesty here, absolutely. Also in the 36:02 Catholic Record, it goes on: The Church is above the Bible;... 36:04 we've read that, but that proof is what they put out there as 36:07 saying that that's their mark. They can change God's law. In 36:12 the Dictionary of the Liturgy, p.604 it says: Sunday Mass 36:15 observance became a mark of a practicing Catholic. If you're a 36:21 Catholic, then that is your mark of authority. You are now 36:22 keeping Sunday. Here is one from the Catechism Simply Explained, 36:25 p. 89: A word about Sunday. God said, Remember that thou keep 36:29 holy the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday 36:31 why, then, do we keep Sunday holy instead of Saturday? First 36:35 they admit that the Bible Sabbath is Saturday. They say 36:39 the Church altered the observance of the Sabbath to the 36:42 observance of Sunday in commemoration of our Lord 36:44 have risen from the dead on Easter Sunday, and the Holy 36:47 Ghost having descended upon the apostles on Whit Sunday. Whit is 36:52 simply an older term for Pentecost. Protestants who say 36:54 that they go by the Bible and the Bible only, and they do not 36:56 believe anything that is not in the Bible must be rather 36:59 puzzled by the keeping of Sunday when God distinctly said, Keep 37:02 Holly the Sabbath Day. The word Sunday does not come anywhere in 37:05 the Bible, so, without knowing it, they are obeying the 37:08 authority of the Catholic Church Notice how they keep coming back 37:11 to this over and over and over. The change of the Sabbath from 37:14 Saturday to Sunday is a mark of the authority of the Vatican. 37:18 It is by their words the mark of their power or the beast. Now in 37:24 this particular letter...this is one from Pope John Paul II. 37:28 So this is modern times. 37:29 It says: Sunday is a day which is at the very 37:32 heart of the Christian life. ...St. Augustine notes in turn: 37:35 Therefore, the Lord too...now notice this folks...has placed 37:37 his seal on his day,...the identity of this day must be 37:42 protected. What have they done here friends? They have 37:46 counterfeited not only the day but the seal of God. And they 37:52 so, Oh, God put his seal on that day. Does the Bible say anything 37:53 about the seal being on Sunday? Not a bit friends. They're just 37:58 proclaiming that. But folks the Bible doesn't say that. But 38:01 notice how the devil is even trying to steal away the symbol 38:05 of the seal of God. What is so amazing here, folks, is that 38:09 Daniel predicted it, and the church readily admits it. Now I 38:13 showed you this one on a previous session of Prophecy 38:15 Unsealed. Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 parallel all the 38:17 way down. They both show the progression of history by the 38:21 lion, the bear, the leopard, the dragon, the 10 horns, which is of 38:23 course, the breaking up of the Roman kingdom, the mouth 38:26 speaking great things, the blasphemous words of this little 38:28 horn power. Warring on the saints, both chapters, 38:31 overcoming them for a period of time, both chapters. Daniel says 38:34 he rules three and a half years, Revelation says 42 months or 38:37 1260 days, which means years. They parallel all the way down. 38:41 So if Revelation says the beast, which is called there, has a 38:46 mark, then Daniel will have to have an equivalent to that and 38:49 it does friends. Revelation says the beast has a mark. Daniel 38:54 says he changes times and laws. An attack on the law of God is 39:01 the mark of the beast power. God's truth is that he has a day 39:05 that honors his authority in this world. And Satan knew that 39:08 if God had a day that was going to honor his authority and draw 39:11 people's attention away to the true God, he ought to counterfeit 39:13 that. And so in Chambers College Dictionary: Sunday the first day 39:18 of the week, called this because in ancient times, it was a day 39:20 for worship of the sun. I give you more than one to show you 39:22 this is common knowledge. In Paganism in Our Christianity, it 39:26 says: The Catholic Church made a sacred day of Sunday largely 39:28 because it was the weekly festival of the sun:- for it was 39:31 a definite policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to 39:36 the people by tradition, and give them a Christian 39:42 significance. Wow. So what does he do? He takes the seventh day 39:45 Sabbath, and he says we are going to put the capstone on it. Why 39:50 did I show you all of those pagan symbols? They're 39:55 interesting, yes, you know. They bring out certain aspects of 39:59 what's going on in that system? Yes. But that's not why I showed 40:03 it to you. I showed it to you because Satan has taken so much 40:06 paganism and swept it into the church. The bringing in of 40:11 Sunday was just the capstone of it. It's like the icing on the 40:14 cake. After bringing in all these other things he says I'm 40:16 not going to stop there. I'm even going to take the day that 40:19 God put aside for him and his worship, and I will have my own 40:22 day. He said that's the day of the sun. So what we're seeing 40:27 here, friends are true and false worship colliding together. We 40:30 have to make a choice. Revelation 13:8 said: All that 40:34 dwell upon the earth shall do what to the beast? Worship the 40:38 beast. Keep that in mind. Don't miss this. Romans 6:16 What does 40:41 Paul the apostle say? Know ye that to whom ye yield yourselves 40:45 servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether 40:49 of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 40:51 He says if you are obedient to that power, you are the servant 40:54 of that power. Bear that in mind You go to Father T. Enright of 41:00 the Catholic church. He says: I have repeatedly offered $1000 41:02 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am 41:06 bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It 41:09 is a law of the Holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says 41:11 Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. The Catholic Church 41:14 says, No! By my divine power, I abolish the Sabbath day, and 41:19 command you...what, do what... command you to keep holy the 41:25 first day of the week. Don't miss this friends. They're 41:28 saying we changed the Sabbath, we took it out of the way, and 41:32 now we are commanding you, look what it says next: And, lo, the 41:36 entire civilized world bows down ...does what?...bows down and 41:40 bowing down is a symbol of what? Worship. In reverent obedience 41:43 to the command of the Holy Catholic Church! They're saying 41:46 the world when we made that change, we are commanding them 41:51 to accept that change, and they are bowing down to us when they 41:55 keep our day. And Paul says: To whom you yield yourselves 42:00 servants to obey his servant, you are. So then they add this. If 42:04 that wasn't enough friends Cardinal James Gibbons said in 42:09 the Catholic Mirror publication, he said: Reason and sense demand 42:13 the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: 42:15 either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or 42:18 Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is 42:21 impossible. The beast's power left it's mark 42:25 right on God's law. 42:27 When we accept a change in the holy moral law of God, not on the 42:33 Bible, but on the tradition of the church we've accepted man's 42:36 way in place of God's commandment, haven't we? 42:39 When Protestants hold Sunday as their day of worship, what 42:42 they're doing friends is they're accepting the authority of the 42:45 beast power. Now any other interpretation is like Snow 42:50 White and the seven dwarfs. You can believe it, you can read 42:54 about it, but it's not the truth friends. It's myth. Now millions 42:57 and millions of honest conscientious Christians they 43:00 don't understand what we're going over about the mark of the 43:03 beast, and many of them are inhibited because they think the 43:05 mark of the beast is something mystical, right? Something 43:08 hidden, something so difficult that only a privileged few can 43:10 understand it. It's simply not true. Look at this, folks. This 43:13 is taken from a Catholic church in Michigan. You know how 43:17 churches often have a bulletin of something that goes over the 43:20 order of service and gives some announcements and things. I mean 43:22 this church does. Most all churches do. Well this church 43:25 had a bulletin and on the front of the bulletin, this is what it 43:28 said. This is a priest talking. He says: Perhaps the boldest 43:31 thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did... 43:34 speaking of the Catholic church ...happened in the first century 43:37 Now I would take issue with the timing here, but that's not 43:39 germane to the point so we'll just go by that...happened in 43:45 the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath was changed from 43:48 Saturday to Sunday. The day of the Lord was chosen not from any 43:51 direction noted in the scriptures, but from the 43:54 Church's sense of its own power. ...People who think that the 43:57 Scriptures should be the sole authority,...let me pause here 43:59 friends, Bible students. Do we believe that scripture should be 44:03 our sole authority? Amen? The Catholic priest said this to his 44:08 congregation: People who think that the scriptures should be 44:12 the sole authority should logically become Seventh-day 44:15 Adventists, and keep Saturday holy. Isn't that amazing, friends 44:19 A Catholic priest says what Protestant ministers know but 44:24 will not say, you see. He says if you're going to go by the 44:28 Bible, then logic, reason, sense would say you would go with a 44:33 church that keeps that day, the biblical day. So it is powerful 44:37 friends, coming from the words of a Catholic priest because he 44:39 doesn't have to defend Sunday because he says we go on 44:42 tradition. What did Jesus say though? He says in Matthew 15 44:45 But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the 44:47 commandments of men. He says when we put the traditions of 44:50 man in place of the commandments of God, he says it is vain 44:52 not what God wants. And we've examined that in the scripture. 44:55 God said to Cain and Abel bring an offering right that shows 45:00 that the Messiah will come. So it had to be a sacrificial one. 45:02 Abel did that, righteous Abel did that. Did Cain do that? No, 45:06 he brought an offering of his own making, right? The fruits 45:09 and vegetables that he grew. Did God accept it? No. To put 45:12 something in the place of what God asks is like the offering of 45:17 Cain. It's saying God, I'll bring you an offering, but I'll do it 45:18 on my own terms, right? It's a religion of my own making. I'll 45:22 do it the way I want to do it. God didn't accept Cain's, he 45:25 won't accept it today, friends. God does not change. Now here's 45:29 a question that I want to bring to you because I don't want 45:32 anyone misunderstanding this. Does anyone have the mark of the 45:34 beast now? Can we get that plain? No! No one has the marking of 45:38 the beast now. The Bible says that the mark of the beast comes 45:41 when it is enforced by law. We'll take that up in our next 45:43 session. The mark of the beast is one of the final developments 45:46 of time when the authorities will enforce, in their best 45:56 sincerity perhaps, but they'll enforce the wrong thing. They'll 45:58 enforce the counterfeit Sabbath and they're going to ask people 46:02 to worship in a way that God cannot accept. Now, please don't 46:06 leave here thinking that we're teaching that everyone that goes 46:08 to church on Sunday has the mark of the beast. We're not teaching 46:10 that at all. But when legislation is enacted, and when 46:14 the issues are clearly drawn between the true and the false, 46:17 then people will have to decide. God will not force us to worship 46:21 him. But he does force us to have to make a decision. So when 46:27 this country is under a church/ state influence once again this 46:30 is a night to come enacts legislation, then this issue 46:33 comes before the world friends, And people will lose their 46:35 freedom because they refuse to go man's way. And when they do 46:41 that then there will be some who will compromise and some who 46:44 won't and God will have his faithful people, and that's good 46:47 news to know. Let me ask you a question. Did it make a 46:50 difference to God whether they went into the Ark of not. 46:52 Come on, answer. 46:53 Did it make a difference to God whether Uzza touched the 46:57 Ark or not? Did it make a difference to God, those of you 47:00 who know your Bibles, whether David counted his army or not? 47:05 Yeah, God said don't you count your army. Rely on me. Don't 47:07 rely on numbers. David counted his army. Boy, he paid a high 47:10 price. Did it make a difference to God whether Samson cut his 47:13 hair or not? Yeah? A haircut. Is that a big deal, right? 47:18 Yeah, it was a big deal. God told him not to do it. 47:20 So why then would we think for a moment 47:23 that it doesn't make a difference to God what day we 47:28 keep. If it makes a difference to God, what piece of fruit Eve 47:30 ate, right? Why would we think it doesn't make a 47:34 difference when God says keep the seventh day, that's my day! 47:37 Right. So the reason the mark of the beast is so deceptive is 47:41 that the beast comes along within the Christian church or 47:45 supposedly. He does his work in the name of Christ, and people 47:48 are taken in, and he is boasting himself to be in the place of 47:52 God and he says, therefore I can make religious law. So the mark 47:56 of the beast, so we understand it now it is demonstrating to 48:00 all of us that we refuse to allow God to write his law in 48:04 our hearts and our minds, which he wants to do in the new 48:06 covenant, remember, Hebrews 10:16, Hebrews 8:10. He wants to 48:08 write his law in our hearts and minds. So it's refusing God to 48:12 write his entire law because God is preparing us for heaven would 48:16 you agree. And there he wants loyal law-abiding citizens does 48:20 he not? He's saying this is what heaven is. These are the 48:23 principles of heaven. You want to go? Yes. Well, let me write my 48:26 law in your heart so you'll be happy there. You'll be a law 48:29 keeper there. You won't be up there saying I don't want that. 48:32 I don't think that's very good. No, I don't want to do that 48:34 either. Do you remember how we saw at the outset tonight, folks 48:38 that the devil was going to trip us up in the area of the mark of 48:42 the beast, he's going to trip us up in the area of the law. It's 48:44 the law that shows what sin is. Sin is the breaking of the law. 48:46 So here it is very clearly friends. Is it a law of God that 48:52 we do not steal. Is it a commandment of God that we do 48:56 not steal? Should we keep that? Yes. Is it a sin to commit 49:00 adultery? Yes. Is it a sin to take God's name in vain? Yes. 49:05 Well, if it's a sin to do all the others then, is it a sin to 49:09 willfully, knowingly break the Sabbath? Yes. Now I know many 49:13 people don't know that yet. I know there's a whole lot of 49:16 sincere Christians who haven't learned that yet. But God is 49:18 going to bring them this issue before the end, friends. So again 49:22 it's the law of heaven. And the beast in the Bible is called the 49:24 lawless one. Wow! He exalts himself above God by putting his 49:32 laws above God. Matthew 7:14: Because strait is the gate, and 49:37 narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few there be that 49:40 find it. Few find it. Why don't they find it? Not because it's 49:45 hard, because this is so difficult tonight, but because 49:48 to find it, we have to humble our hearts and admit that maybe 49:53 we've got it the wrong way. Maybe we didn't see it clearly. 49:56 Maybe we still can learn something. Those who see the 49:59 straight and narrow, friends have to humble and say Lord, I want 50:02 your way, even if it's not the way I was raised. Amen. Even if 50:06 it's not the popular road. I want your way. I want the 50:10 straight and narrow way, even if it's not the way my church goes 50:13 yet I'll find a group of men and women that want to go that way. 50:16 The road of error is well beaten down by masses of people that 50:23 want an easy, popular religion. William Penn that Pennsylvania's 50:28 named after said, Right is right even if everyone is against it. 50:32 Wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it. Well. So what has the 50:40 papacy done? It's gained world wide influence, prestige, and 50:43 prominence. Everywhere you go masses of people going after it. 50:46 But when you see these large, large services of this power do 50:50 you see him holding up a Bible? Right? When he goes round, do you 50:53 see him pointing to scriptures and saying thus sayeth the Lord? 50:56 No. Because his agenda is not that. His agenda has political 51:02 overtones to it that we're going to get into in our next session 51:05 together. Now folks as for me and my house, we will follow the 51:10 one who did humble himself even to the death of the cross. Say 51:15 Amen. We want to serve Jesus. We want to follow the one who 51:19 gave his life for you and for me and who said to us, If you love 51:24 me keep my commandments. Are there other interpretations out 51:26 there? Yes, you're going to find these things. But don't go after 51:30 those friends. It doesn't make sense. It's not from scripture. 51:32 Now I need to just conclude this before we finish here. It says: 51:37 Revelation 13:16: He causes all both small and great, rich and 51:40 poor, free, and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or 51:42 in their foreheads. Why is it they received it in their right 51:46 hand or their forehead? Their forehead because they're 51:49 thinking like the beast, right? Some willingly but mistakenly 51:53 take the mark in their forehead because they believe that it's 51:56 okay to change God's law. Their character is such that they 51:59 agree that the beast power can do that, Right? So their 52:05 character is such that they're rebels, right? Now there are 52:09 many who don't care about those issues. Many maybe have other 52:13 religious observances. Maybe they're not even religious 52:15 people, but when the chips are down, and the legislation comes 52:19 and they have to decide, and you can't buy and sell, in other 52:22 words when the pressure is put on they'll say ho-oh I gotta go 52:27 along with that. Right. I mean I don't like it, I don't even 52:30 believe it, but I got to go along with it, and I got to buy and 52:32 sell. They receive on the hand, right? The hand is giving their 52:36 agreement to the beast, right? They're willing to conform even 52:40 to a bad law for the sake of convenience, not of conviction. 52:44 So why do they get it in the forehead? Because they're 52:46 believing like the beast. Some get it in the right hand because 52:49 they're complying with the beast They're going along with it. It 52:52 might be a forced compliance or it might be a coerced compliance 52:56 but it's rebellion either way. In other words, to say it this 52:59 way: The seal of God in the mind-true worship. The mark of 53:03 the beast in the mind-false worship. The mark of the beast 53:06 in the hand-obedience to false worship. That's about as plain 53:10 as I can make it there. You know a person's forehead may not 53:16 approve, but actions speak louder than words. But you know what 53:20 the interesting thing is friends when it comes to compliance or 53:25 forced compliance, God can't take you that way. God has to have 53:28 our whole heart. You can't say to God well, I don't like it, but 53:30 I'm going to go along with it. God says, no, let me change your 53:33 life, so you'll love what I want you to do, right? Let me give 53:36 you my heart, let me convert you so that you love what I'm asking 53:41 you to do. Many are looking for a literal tattoo on the forehead 53:45 or something in their hand. But again, the symbolism of 53:48 Revelation goes far deeper than the surface, right? It goes into 53:51 the heart. God is more interested in your heart 53:53 than he is a little bit of ink on the skin. So as we begin to 53:56 wrap it up here tonight, the beast represents what? A false 54:00 religious system with human authority in place of the 54:03 authority of Christ. Man's traditions for God's words. 54:05 Substitute law for the commands of God. A counterfeit Sabbath 54:08 for the true Sabbath. With the beast, the beast is going to 54:12 mark his people and Jesus will mark his. The beast's mark will 54:15 show that they are surrendered to his authority and Jesus' mark 54:17 will show they are surrendered to his authority. And when they 54:21 have the beast's mark, they won't be protected when the plagues 54:23 are poured out. That is Saturday night's topic, our topic is just a 54:26 couple of sessions from now. And when Jesus marks his people, they 54:29 will be protected during the time of the final tribulation. 54:31 In Revelation chapter 14, it says Saying with a loud voice, Fear 54:35 God, and give glory to him; worship him that made heaven 54:37 and earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters. The only 54:40 commandment that deals with the creator is the fourth one that 54:42 says, Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. And then it says 54:46 in Revelation 14: The third angel followed them, saying 54:48 don't worship the beast and receive his mark. And the 54:52 official of the Vatican said the Catholic church changed the 54:55 Sabbath, and that's our mark and then they said we command you to 54:59 keep that day, and then they said when you do, you bow down 55:02 to us. And there you have it. So the issues are these: Worship 55:07 the Creator, or we worship the Beast. Five times in Revelation 55:13 13 it ways worship. Worship, worship, worship, worship, 55:17 worship. Five times. I think God wants to get it through to us 55:20 what the issue is, right? The first angel commands us to 55:24 worship the Creator. He quotes the fourth commandment. 55:30 She made all nations drink of her wine, false teachings. The 55:33 third angel declares the beast has a counterfeit worship 55:36 that's opposed to God's seal. It's not that difficult. And 55:39 Peter said in Acts 5 and verse 29. He said we ought to obey God 55:45 rather than man. What do you say? We need to make a stand, too 55:50 don't we? For many of you, this is new. But if Jesus is in your 55:57 heart you'd have to say Lord I want to obey you. It's not that 56:03 difficult friends. If you had cancer, and you went to a doctor 56:08 who was skilled enough to take that cancer out, but instead he 56:12 just patted you on the back and said Ah, you'll be all right. 56:15 Would he be faithful to his duty? Right? No. Even if the 56:20 doctor that skilled surgeon had to apply a painful knife and cut 56:23 that terrible cancer out by doing so, saving your life. Later 56:29 you'd thank the surgeon, wouldn't you? In the same way 56:32 the Holy Spirit takes that word of God, and he applies it to our 56:37 life, and he cuts out those areas that are not in accordance with 56:41 his will. And by doing so, he brings us into conformity to 56:46 God's will. And change is always difficult folks. But afterward 56:51 we thank God. Because Remember as we said earlier, it's in the 56:56 judgment, it's always safe to follow Jesus. Don't you agree? 57:02 Always safe. So we trust in him. We thank him for that and 57:08 tonight I'm going to hand out a card. Every time Jesus shared 57:14 truth, he asked people to make a decision. I wouldn't be right 57:18 with you if I didn't do the same thing. Okay, let's go. It says I 57:23 choose to be sealed by the Holy Spirit and have God's law 57:25 written in my heart. That's the new covenant. Hebrews 10:16, 57:28 Hebrews 8:10. It says Lord, I want the new covenant experience 57:32 without which friends we will not be saved. Number 2. I choose 57:36 not to worship the beast receive it's mark of following any papal 57:39 traditions. It's talking about traditions that go against the 57:41 commandments of God. Right? It's talking about those kinds of 57:44 traditions. Let's go ahead and check that. We're done with 57:45 those things. Number 3: I choose to keep the seventh-day Sabbath 57:51 and to worship him who made heaven and earth. It's one of 57:54 God's commandments. We love him, we'll want to keep that one like 57:57 we do all the others. It's really, a matter of saying Lord 58:00 write your whole law and not just part of it in my heart. The 58:03 Bible teaches us we're going to keep that day even in eternity. 58:06 Let's start practicing now. Number 4: I choose to be among 58:11 the saints who love Jesus and keep his commandments. Again be 58:14 praying that God will write his law in your heart. |
Revised 2025-10-28