The Antichrist

I want to turn back to the ninth chapter of Daniel. We've tried to cover many of the major developments of prophecy, and I hope you've seen enough now to see that the prophetic scriptures bring before us a picture of the culmination of movements and currents of thought which have been at work in the world for centuries. And these things that are pictured here, especially concerning the last days, are not simply things that come suddenly upon the earth.

They are the outcome of trends and movements that have been with us ever since the beginning of the Christian era, are very much evident today, and will finally culminate in these things. For instance, as we saw from Daniel, the prophet Daniel was shown that there would be four major divisions of what we would probably most aptly call Western civilization, that four great world empires would dominate the whole scope of the development of Western civilization. And the first three are easily identified as being related to the Empire of Babylon, and followed by the Medo-Persian Kingdom, and then the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great.

And then came a fourth great kingdom. And Daniel was particularly told that this fourth great kingdom or empire would be different than the rest. It wouldn't be just one monolithic central control running on for centuries, such as the other empires were, but it would be divided up.

Diverse, he uses the term. And it would be introduced, we know in history, by the Roman Empire. But the Roman Empire doesn't embrace all of it.

It sets the tone for all of it so that the whole of this Western civilization becomes Romanized. And yet it is not just the Roman Empire as such. Now this is what we've seen true in history.

If we look back, we can see how the whole of the Western world is strongly Romanized. Our customs, our ideas, our forms of government, our courts of law, all are taken from the Roman Empire. And this is now spread throughout the world.

It's most interesting that the cultures of the East have not pervaded and infiltrated and changed the cultures of the West. It's the other way around. It's the West that has pervaded and captured the imagination and is changing the East.

And these concepts have spread throughout the Earth. Everywhere anyone travels today in this easily-traveled world of ours, you see how true this is, that these ideas and concepts from the Western world have now spread and are rapidly taking root all over the world. Now, Daniel also said that there would come certain characters who our Lord also identified that would sort of symbolize, head up the final expression of the philosophies, the political philosophies current among men.

And we've looked at several of these. There is, first of all, the man of sin or the man of lawlessness, the antichrist, the prince that shall come, the little horn, the beast, all these terms are used to describe one individual who will be at the head of the Western world in some form of a world government, or at least partial world government, the Western world at least, and that he would be the one who would be ultimately received by the people of Israel as the true Messiah, the one they've been looking for, and would therefore take the place and fulfill the words of our Lord when he said, I am come in my own name and you receive me not, another shall come in his name, I am come in my father's name, he said, and you receive me not, but another shall come in his own name, and him you will receive. And he would be the political leader in company with a religious assistant, the second beast of Revelation 13, who would dominate this world.

And then we saw also the ecclesiastical developments, how there is at work in the world today and has been for centuries a spirit that the Bible calls Babylonianism, an idea which has infiltrated and pervaded the structure of every religious organization on the face of the earth and is abhorrent to the mind and thinking of God. It's a philosophy which centers in the idea that earthly power and glory may be obtained by the exercise of religious authority and, of course, of false religious authority. Now, most Protestants are very quick to point their fingers at the Roman Catholic Church and say this is the acme of Babylonianism.

And there's no question, I think, for anyone who honestly faces the question, but what the Roman Catholic Church is pervaded in great degree by a spirit of Babylonianism. But what we forget is that the Protestant Church is equally so, equally pervaded by the spirit of Babylonianism, that the idea of seeking to obtain earthly power and glory by the exercise of a false religious authority is as much evident in Protestant thinking as it is in Catholic thinking. And wherever it is, it's Babylonianism.

Wherever it is, it will be ultimately judged by the nations themselves, and therefore the Scriptures make clear that the final end of Christendom as such, that is, outward, external Christianity, is destruction, a complete repudiation by the peoples of the world. And they'll throw it overboard as being no longer worthy of their interest because of its hypocrisy and its hollowness. Now this doesn't, of course, touch the question of true faith, which is an inner thing, not an outward thing.

And that will never be overthrown. Nothing can touch that. Nothing moves against that.

So that we can see some of these developments beginning to take very positive shape even in our own day. And the final expression of earthly religion will not be Christianity as such. It will be humanism, that is, the exaltation of a man and the worship of man as man, all centered and focused in a single individual who will be worshiped as the God-man.

Though I doubt he will be given that term. For the spirit of humanism has been at work throughout the human race ever since the beginning in this desperate attempt to exalt man. And the final form that satanic religion takes is that, that there will come an overthrow of everything that has the outward expression of Christian faith and even the outward adherence to God and a substitution of man as God himself.

Now this we see in the Antichrist. Now, there's another character that must come before us and we'll try to get at him today. In chapter 9 again of Daniel, the great prophecy of the 70 weeks, we're told that, remember, this prophecy set forth the coming of Christ and it was told exactly the time he would come in relationship to the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and how after he came he would be cut off without and have nothing.

And then would come the people, the Roman people who would destroy the city, the sanctuary. All this has long been fulfilled exactly as it was predicted here. And then would come the final end where for a period of seven years or one week the man of sin, the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, all these terms here, will make a covenant with Israel for seven years.

The temple will be rebuilt in the city of Jerusalem and there in that temple this man presents himself as the god of the world, as the final expression of the humanistic spirit that man is his own god. And then in the last verse of this chapter, the latter part of it, we read, And upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Now that is a different individual.

And here we have a hint that when the man of sin rules in almost invincible power, there is yet a third force or a second force that is raised against him called here the desolator who moves into the land of Israel and a decreed end is poured out upon him. Now many have wondered who this is and what role he plays. And I think it's time now for us to trace this role.

We'll find now in chapter 11 of Daniel a further reference to some of these matters. This chapter is the most amazing chapter. The whole chapter begins, traces the course of history in the Mediterranean from Daniel's day on down through the, almost to the first coming of our Lord and then skips over in the great parenthesis to the last day.

And we haven't time to trace the first part of this in detail though it's most interesting. From verses 1 through 35 of chapter 11, all of this has already been fulfilled. It's a very remarkable tracing in detail of history that covers a space of probably four to five hundred years that went on after Daniel wrote these words and was fulfilled in detail including such outstanding characters as Cleopatra and king of Syria, Antiochus, Epiphanes, that is Antiochus the Great and is a record of the battles that went back and forth between Egypt and Syria in the days between the writings of the Old and the New Testament in that intertestament period.

But now beginning with verse 36, we find that great parenthesis that I've mentioned coming in that leaps over the intervening centuries to the time of the end. And this is suggested clearly for us in verse 35. We read that many shall join themselves with flattery and some of those who are wise shall fall to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white until the time of the end for it is yet for the time appointed.

And those words carry us over some 20 centuries from the time before the coming of Christ the first time there down to this time when the end period, the seven year period that Daniel predicted begins to be fulfilled. Now that is the immediate seven years before the second return of Christ. Now beginning with verse 36, we read about that period.

And the king shall do according to his will. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things against the god of gods. Now you recognize him, don't you? This is this one we've read in so many scriptures about the man of lawlessness whom Paul says exalts himself above every god exactly as Daniel said whom our Lord called that abomination that makes desolate who is the antichrist the prince that shall come the little horn of Daniel 7 the beast of Revelation 13 the one who will express the humanistic spirit in its ultimate manifestation.

He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things against the god of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished. That's the tribulation.

For what is determined shall be done. He shall give no heed to the gods of his fathers or to the one beloved by women. He shall not give heed to any other god for he shall magnify himself above all.

He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these that is the god of military might. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver with precious stones and costly gifts and I take that as a reference to the extreme cost of military preparation of which we are getting an excellent taste today. He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god.

Those who acknowledge him he shall magnify with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price. Now the land in Daniel always refers to the land of Palestine or Israel and here's one who shall divide the land.

Make a covenant to divide up the land and thus you see settle this long standing feud between the Arabs and the Israelis as to what part of the land belongs to who which is the unsettled problem of our day. Now we read at the time of the end the king of the south that's always Egypt in the Bible shall attack him and it should be and instead of but and the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind with chariots and horsemen and with many ships. Now who is the king of the north? But as you read through this chapter earlier you'll notice that the whole of the chapter centers around the conflict between these two the king of the south and the king of the north and in the record of history the king of the south was always Egypt and the forces, allies that they were able to control while the king of the north was Syria.

The northern area north of Palestine these directions are always given in relation to Palestine north of that is the land of Syria and Turkey to the north of that and still further north of course the Russian areas of Russia. Now all of these areas including much of what is now known included in Russia was dominated by the Syrian Empire and this then is the king of the north that we find referred to here and if you get the picture here you find this great political leader ensconced in the temple in Jerusalem offering himself as the one who is the proper expression of human worship and while he's there at that time the king of Egypt the leader of Egypt marshals his forces and comes against him and at the same time the king of the north comes down so that there is a double pronged invasion of Israel from the south and from the north against the western ruler whose forces are there in the city of Jerusalem and in the west of course as well and we read that the king of the north comes with chariots and horsemen and with many ships and shall come into the countries and shall overflow and pass through he shall come into the glorious land that's Palestine and tens of thousands shall fall before the king of the north but these shall be delivered out of his hand Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites that happens to be that section of the desert where evidently the Israelites who flee from the city of Jerusalem in obedience to our lord's words get out of the city when you see these things take place will hide and there's divine protection afforded to them so that they are kept from the enmity of the king of the north as he comes down through he shall stretch out his hand against the countries and the land of Egypt shall not escape so that he comes right on through marching through Israel capturing the city of Jerusalem moving on down through the Sinaitic peninsula and into Egypt he shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver and all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall follow in his train that is shall come under his influence but tidings from the east and the north shall alarm him and he shall go forth with great fury to exterminate and utterly destroy many and he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain yet he shall come to his end with none to help him that's that decreed end that Daniel mentions back in chapter 9 until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator he shall come to his end with none to help him now notice what happens he comes down into Egypt and while he's there in northern Africa with the Ethiopians and the Libyans coming under his power tidings from the east and the north come to him that alarm him I wish I had a map here that you could see this area in detail but if you have one in the back of your Bibles you might follow it and you'll notice that if you're down there in Egypt the east and the north is Palestine and here he is with a long extended supply line down in northern Africa and of course all this kind of an invasion will not be taken lightly for the tremendous military might of the west is stirred up and he hears words evidently of an attempt to cut off his supply lines from the east and from the north and so he comes back into the land of Israel with great fury and we read he shall pitch his palatial tent between the sea and the glorious holy mountain now the sea is always the Mediterranean the glorious holy mountain is Jerusalem and yet he shall come to his end with none to help him now holding your place here in Daniel turn back to the previous book of Ezekiel and in the 38th and the 39th chapters of this book we have an amazing prophecy related to the king of the north which is in this end time identifiable with Russia and its satellite nations chapter 38 of Ezekiel verse 1 the word of the Lord came to me son of man set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal and prophesy against him now these are nations which are Gog and Magog are referred to in the 10th cha

pter of Genesis and anthropologists archaeologists and bible students alike agree that these nations were migrated up into the northern parts of Asia in this area and settled down in the lands of Armenia Turkey and the northern shores of the of the Black Sea which is now the southern steps of Russia and the cities that are mentioned here the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal it seems quite strong in the grammatical derivation here that this is a reference to the two cities the principal cities of Russia and Siberia Meshach is another spelling for Moscow or that is Moscow is another spelling of Meshach and Tubal here is another spelling of the capital of Siberia which is Tobolsk T-O-B-O-L-S-K and these names can be pretty closely traced back and identified with them and so we have here a prophecy concerning Russia Thus says the Lord God Behold I am against you, O Gog chief prince of Meshach and Tubal and I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws and I will bring you forth and all your army horses and horsemen and all of them clothed in full armor a great company all of them with buckler and shield wielding swords Persia, Cush and Put are with them now Persia of course is Iran Cush is identifiable usually with parts of the Arabian Peninsula so that here are the Arab nations in league here all of them with shield and helmet Gomer and all his hordes and most identify that with parts of Eastern Germany Beth Togerma from the uttermost parts of the North with all his hordes many peoples are with him see here is a nation which is dominant in power over many satellite nations as well many peoples now the word comes to Israel Be ready and keep ready you and all the hosts that are assembled about you and be a guard for them after many days you will be mustered in the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war now here is the word to Russia you will go against the land that is restored from war the land where people were gathered from many nations upon the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste its people were brought out from the nations and now dwell securely all of them you will advance coming on like a storm you will be like a cloud covering the land that's why Daniel called it the wing of abominations upon the wing of abominations he says shall come one who makes desolate like a cloud covering the land you and all your hordes and many peoples with you thus says the Lord God on that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme and you will say I will go up against the land of unwalled villages I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely all of them dwelling without walls and having no bars or gates to see you spoil and carry off plunder to assail the waste places which are now inhabited and the people who were gathered from the nations who have gotten cattle and goods who dwell at the center of the earth Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its villages will say to you have you come to seize spoil have you assembled your host to carry off plunder to carry away silver and gold to take away cattle and goods to seize great spoil now here's opposition arising from certain nations identified with the merchants of Tarshish which usually is associated with the western Mediterranean nations therefore son of man prophesy and say to Gog thus says the Lord God on that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely you will bestir yourself and come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north you and many peoples with you all of them riding on horses a great host a mighty army you will come up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the land in the latter days I will bring you against my land that the nations may know me when through you, O Gog I vindicate my holiness before their eyes it's amazing isn't it when you stop to think about it that that declares that Soviet Russia and all its communist activity is an instrument in the hand of God that it serves the purposes of God thus says the Lord God are you he of whom I s

poke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel you want to read the prophecies of Isaiah about this one you can find him under the title of the Assyrian there I just suggest that for you but on that day when Gog shall come against the land of Israel says the Lord God my wrath will be aroused now what's going to happen for in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare on that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel that is an earthquake the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground and all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall quake at my presence and the mountains shall be thrown down and the cliffs shall fall and every wall shall tumble to the ground I will summon every kind of terror against Gog says the Lord God every man's sword will be against his brother with pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples that are with him torrential rain and hailstones fire and brimstone so I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations then they will know that I am the Lord Now, you're asking is this atomic warfare or is this a natural phenomenon poured out from God it's a little bit difficult to determine my own personal conviction is that this is not atomic warfare this is a natural phenomenon that God himself musters the forces of the universe in a sense and there are these tremendous outpourings of hail and rain fire and brimstone the earth has had records of such outpourings before and this could occur again now in chapter 39 and I'll just skip through I don't have to read the whole chapter though it's interesting to read we read further this prophecy here and then verse 11 says on that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel the valley of the travelers east of the sea east of the sea remember what Daniel said he shall plant his palatial tent between the sea and the holy mountain and it will block the travelers for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried it will be called the valley of him and Gog for seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land so terrible will be this destruction all the people of the land will bury them and it will be down to their honor on the day that I show my glory says the Lord God they will set apart men to pass through the land continually and bury those remaining upon the face of the land so as to cleanse it at the end of seven months they will make their search when these pass through the land and anyone sees a man's bone and he shall set up a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the valley of him and Gog then he speaks of calling the birds of the air to feast upon the flesh of the thousands millions who are slain in this occasion and how he thus proves his might among the nations now turn to the prophecy of Joel which is young Daniel Hosea Joel Daniel Hosea Joel and you see another word concerning this in chapter 2 of Joel we read a prophecy of this great northern army coming down again we read chapter 2 verse 3 fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns the land is like the garden of Eden before them and after them a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them their appearance is like the appearance of horses and like war horses they run as with a rumbling of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains before them verse 6 the peoples are in anguish all faces grow pale and all the way down through here now we come to verse 18 then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people the Lord answered and said to his people behold I am sending to you grain wine and oil you will be satisfied and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations I will remove the northerner far from you and drive him into a parched and desolate land his front at the eastern sea and his rear in the western sea which is the dead sea the stench and foul smell of him will rise for he has d

one great things and there you see God destroys the armies of Russia of the Soviets now all this takes place during this tribulation period when all these terrible things are happening on the earth and I'm convinced from the scriptures that this occurs this destruction of the Russian host occurs before the battle so called battle of Armageddon but we're moving up now to the very time of that great battle which has become a byword among the peoples of earth a time when God finally settles the problems dealing with the nation and I want to spend most of my time next week on finally bringing the picture together here the final climax but I'm sure by now you've got a lot of questions you'd like to ask and we'll take extra time this morning to handle them alright I felt that this man his revolutionary effort was no that's the king of the north there who comes down the prince who shall come is the king of the west you see and he is involved in conflict with the king of the north as Daniel tells us here in chapter 11 all of these things are yes but the desolator is a different individual he's the king of the north this one yes no this is not the king of the north none of these names identify with the king of the north remember the points of the compass you have the king of the north which is throughout history Syria and the northern nations beyond that which would identify with Russia then the kings of the king of the south which is Egypt and all the nations of northern Africa that identify with it then there is the western world it's never called the king of the west but you can think of it that way where you have the leader with all these names here these all apply to one individual the western king and then there are the kings of the east that are mentioned in Revelation who we will speak of next week that come into the scene just on the final end where you would certainly have the millions of China and India and so on involved I'm very confused because I thought that the king of the west would be actually Israel and the cenotaph temple was the one he wrote and he does and the , no no he only desolates the temple not the land he has been accepted in a sense as the ruler of the land and he desolates the temple which was erected by the Jews as a true temple to God and offering himself you see as the proper object of human worship he desolates that temple and that's what our lord meant when he called him the abomination which makes desolate but the individual who comes through and desolates the land is the northern powers of Israel the king of the north who fights against this king of man of sin the destruction of the armies of the west comes at the battle of Armageddon you find another reference to it if you want to see it in Zachariah next to the last book of the Old Testament chapter 14 Behold the day of the lord is coming when the spoil is taken from you will be divided in the midst of you for I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravaged half the city shall go into exile but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city now this is the invasion of that king of the north with his armies with the many peoples that are with him then the lord will go forth and fight against those nations when he fights on a day of battle that's the destruction that we just read of Ezekiel 38 and 39 but then it goes on to involve also the battle of Armageddon which almost immediately follows I will tie that in next week but it's the northern army that ravages the city of Jerusalem and takes it captive this is what the time when our lord said ye who let him which is up on the housetop not come down and take his coat but get out of the city when you see this taking place this abomination of standing in the holy place then get out of because it will be immediately followed by this invasion from the north the city shall be taken and will be destroyed as we read here right that's very difficult to determine whether it's the first half or the second ha

lf and commentators shift between those I personally feel it takes place early in the second half if then otherwise the first half I don't think the church sees it except as as seeing it from a glorified state but there will certainly be believers who see this are involved in these scenes the believers of that day and I frankly I think they'll still be called Christians because that name once introduced will never be lost among men but they're not part of the church now John the western king will be the antichrist will be ruling ruling from this new temple with the Jews is it clear that he will be a gentile I think so I think he'll be a gentile and he'll be accepted by the Jews as the true messiah that is the question is the king from the south now is he an enemy to the south or is he yes he's overcome by the northern army as it sweeps down just a juggernaut of military power see this is evidently what precipitates the invasion of the north to put it in modern terms though I'm not saying that the present individuals will necessarily be the ones involved in this though certainly it could be them supposing Nasser you see who is now toying with joining with Russia and it's under their influence but not necessarily totally so yet supposing he would without consulting with Russia launch an invasion against Israel as certainly he's preparing to do right now this might well be taken very as a very frightening thing on the part of Russia because they would feel that they would be losing their grip on the Middle East and it would fall under his control and they would have no longer any voice at all so they launch an immediate counter attack they say now's the time to strike and come right on through well that would be the similar situation you see we have here might be the very situation no no you see he's his forces seem to be temporarily discomfited and the north northern army passes right on through into Egypt but the west the forces of the west of course are not really involved yet they're still in the western world there comes out an immediate I'm sure an immediate summons for mobilization of all the military power of the west to come and strike back here this is a lightning attack a blitzkrieg here and immediately the western powers begin to assimilate their forces to strike back and that's the tidings out of the east and the north which trouble the king while he's in Africa and he doesn't dare stay there with his lines of supply deployed as long as they are so he comes back into the land of Israel and it's there that he is destroyed. Is the picture beginning to come clear? Okay.

Any questions on that? Somebody asked about the rapture. If the whole church is taken out, who would be the believers after the rapture? Well, immediately following the rapture, the departure of the church, at the very moment that the very events that take the church out of the world also unveil the blinded eyes of thousands in Israel. And in the book of Revelation we read that there will be 144,000 Israelites who suddenly see that Christ is the Messiah.

Even with the law of formation. Yes. And like Paul on the Damascus road, they are suddenly transformed, you see, and changed from their blinded condition to see that he is indeed the one.

Paul speaks of himself as one born out of due time, that is, one born before the time. His conversion was a picture of this conversion of Israel at that time. Well, the Holy Spirit, of course, is always present.

And it's always been true that the church persecuted has more real power to really convict people and bring them to Christ than it has when it's not persecuted. So you find all through the book of Revelation, you see, the saints are there in the world. And the enmity of the man of sin is directed against the saints.

He makes war against the saints, Daniel says. And he tries to stamp out this religion. He succeeded in stamping out all the external forms of Christianity, all the Babylonianism that's present in Christianity.

And the only thing left is this fire in human hearts, which he can't quite get at. And so he makes every possible effort to try to stamp this out. Then the Holy Spirit will be here at that time.

Oh, yeah. Very definitely so. Yes, Darrell? When is Christ going to receive the 140 disciples? Receive them? What do you mean receive? You mentioned that the big, their eyes would be opened up to Israel.

The 144,000 would remain in Israel. At the coming of the Lord as a thief, that is the departure of the church, only in the sense that the church becomes with the Lord in glory. But remember the picture that I've drawn is that Christ comes and remains here on earth through that whole time, just as he was here during those 40 days after his resurrection when he could appear and disappear at will.

And he's in direct contact with these 144,000 or more. Now, some of this may sound rather fantastic, but when you stop to think about it, it's nothing more than what has already happened. Really.

There's nothing new. No new elements introduced. It's exactly what has already occurred in our Lord's relationship with his own.

It's what has recorded in the gospel. And it's all the strange and sinister sounding beasts and animals and so on that you find in the book of Revelation are not literal. They're figurative.

They're figurative of political movements and ideals and so on at work among men. And they're not something new. They're something that's already present.

If you could take the book of Revelation with its strange animals and so on, and I think pretty well identify them with the movements and ideas and philosophies that are abroad today, because they're simply a figurative description of these things. And when you read the book that way, you can see that it isn't going to be a time of grotesque and absurd animals appearing on earth, sort of like an Alice in Wonderland scene, but it's really just a description of what's been here all along in its final, culmination. Okay, Irv? Well, now remember, he spoke to the disciples as representatives, didn't he? Because they themselves did not personally go through any of this, did they? So he speaks to them as representatives.

Now, they were representative of two different groups, and amazingly enough, only the disciples were. We following Christians could never have represented what they represent, because they were both of Israel and of the church. They served to represent both groups of God's people, didn't they? They were called at this time.

The church hadn't yet begun when the Lord spoke these words. So they were standing before him as representatives of Israel, but in his anticipated thinking, they also represented the church. So he could speak to them in both relationships.

So in that sense, there, the words he addressed to them does not indicate in any way whether they, the church, would be involved or not involved. However, there are passages that do indicate that. First Thessalonians were told that God has not chosen them, chosen the church to go through tribulation, the tribulation in that sense, a wrath, but rather to be delivered from it.

And also in Revelation 1.10, you have that amazing promise, 3.10. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth. And the original is very strong there. I will keep you out of the hour of trial which is coming.

I will take you out of it, in fact, it says. There are other promises, but I think it's clear if you put the scriptures together. What would be your advice to anyone who hasn't met children? Well, the advice is to hold fast the things that the Lord has spoken.

Anyone who has seen these things take place, there's only one possible alternative, and that's to hold on to Christ as the one who is the only one who possibly can see them through this time of difficulty. Of course, this is a time of great stress, pressure. As the Lord himself said, then shall come false Christs and false teachers who shall deceive many.

And if it were possible, even the very elect but that's the point. Only those who are genuinely gods are kept by him through this time of trouble. And he's able to keep his own.

He knows how to do that just as he has been today. Actually, that could be said about any Christians at any time. We don't stand by our own cleverness.

It isn't by the fact that we constantly keep alert to every recognition of error that comes our way that keeps us. It's really the grace of God that watches over us. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 9, For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live with him.

Wrath here is another descriptive characteristic title of the time of tribulation is the day of wrath. Well, it would have to be us because the whole letter is addressed to the church, isn't it? You have another reference, you see, in chapter 1, verse 10. For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Now, there the word church, in English it's really. Does that represent the word right? The word church? Well, no, that's from the scriptures. That's the translation of the, you mean, well, it's the word ecclesia, from which we get ecclesiastical and so on.

That's the word church in the Greek. Ecclesia. Now, that word, interestingly enough, is not in the book of Revelation after chapter 4 through all that time of tribulation.

You'll never find the word church through all the picture of the tribulation. The word church means all believers, all believers in Christ. Yeah.

The body of Christ, called out the body of Christ. Did I understand at one point that it's possible that the church will not be completely removed from the world? Well, it will be in point of time, but not in point of space. Do you have pictures to support this? Not wholly.

These are partly conclusions that I just have come to as I compared things together. But the statement is made clearly, that the church will be with the Lord. Right? Now, you find in the book of Revelation that the Lord appears with his people on earth.

A hundred and forty-four thousand are seen with the Lord, the Lamb in the midst, he says. And the church is therefore always with the Lord. And I think it can easily be seen in the same sense that he was with them during the time of the forty days after his resurrection.

He was with them, wasn't he? And they weren't always, he wasn't always visibly with them, but he was with them and became visible at times. Now, with the church, those, of course, were not yet glorified saints. Glorified saints are with the Lord always, but in the same relationship that he is.

And the reference in saying things together is not to the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit was present. He will be present. Oh, yes.

He will be present. All this says is that his restraining activity ceases. See? It's like somebody standing in front of a door, holding it shut with his back up against it, and he's holding somebody from coming in.

And then finally he decides to let him in. He steps aside. They come in.

Now, he's still there, but he's not restraining any longer. That's what the Holy Spirit does, you see. It's that his restraining work stops.

He lets loose the flood of human iniquity. The only reason we could exist here and meet this morning is because God is restraining iniquity in this world today. If he ever for a moment chose to let it go, let it find full expression, we would immediately be engulfed in anarchy all over the face of the whole world.

And that's what will happen during that time. Any other questions? Well, my time is about up. Got about time for one more, maybe.

It's interesting that this instruction of the man of the north, the king of the north, this little southerner, says that, God said that he will reveal himself to these people through this instruction. Yet they have no time for repentance or no time for turning, just recognizing for what he is. They've had time for repentance all through the long years of their whole life.

This just becomes a time of final revelation, you see, because they've deluded and deceived themselves. This is not true only of Russia. It's true of all peoples.

This is a problem with man, isn't it? We delude ourselves. We deceive ourselves. We don't want to look at life as it really is.

We don't want to face reality. We want to face our image of it. We want to own it up and dress it up so it looks like something that we like, and then we say that's what life is like.

And that's just what men are doing all the time, you see. I think that the lesson there is turn it in order. Is this literal? Not necessarily.

It's literal in the sense that they will be actual vehicles certainly, but not necessarily the old idea of chariots. That's just a general term. I think it could cover tanks and amphibian vehicles and so on, just as well as the old war chariots.

Are we going to get a chance next week to delve into this area of revelation where Alice in Wonderland sees some of this? It's a real puzzle, isn't it? Well, I don't know how much tense we'll get into some of these other areas. I can't, of course, cover all the prophetic sections of the Scripture because there's much that I haven't even touched upon. I've just hit the highlights.

This is just a course on the highlights of prophecy. But if there's time, I'll be glad to try to answer some questions on that next week later. What I want to do next week now is to pick it up right where we've left off today and trace the final culmination of things in what is called the Battle of Armageddon, Campaign of Armageddon.

It comes from two words in the Hebrew, ahar, which means valley, and Megiddo, which is simply a name of a location. So it's the Valley of Megiddo or Armageddon. And it's a well-known valley, also called the Plain of Israel.

And it Salem, which in Israel, you can visit it if you ever go there. It runs from Mount Carmel, where the city of Haifa is located, inward, straight inward until it ends at a bluff upon which the city of Nazareth is located. So when you're at Nazareth, you look out over the Valley of Armageddon.

And Napoleon once stood on that site and looked out over that and he said, this indeed is a valley in which all the armies of earth could maneuver. And that valley already has been the most fought over spot on the face of the earth. Battles are not new to the Valley of Armageddon.

It's already been more fought over than any other place on the face of the earth. All right, let's bow in prayer.