Participants: Atonte Myers, Ivor Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000014
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00:14 Welcome to Battles of Faith, we're your hosts:
00:17 Ivor and Atonte Myers. We call this program 00:20 Battles of Faith because there is a battle being waged 00:23 over each and every one of our souls. 00:26 Satan is fighting intensely and God is fighting back 00:29 even more intensely, and God has the power to give us 00:33 the victory, and it's up to us which one we're going 00:36 to chose, are we going to chose to accept God's power 00:39 or continue to be trapped under Satan's delusions. 00:43 Today's program is called: "The Science of the Forgotten" 00:46 "Beast", and we invite all of you to get your Bibles 00:49 as we go through the book of Revelation and find out who this 00:53 forgotten beast is, and what it has to do with what's 00:57 going on in today's world. 00:59 That's right Atonte, on this program we're going to be 01:01 looking at some very well, deeply laid plots by the enemy; 01:08 how he is planning, how is has plotted to bring about 01:14 an annihilation, if you will, of our young people 01:17 in these days. We also have to understand 01:20 that as we look at a deeply laid plot, it is going to take 01:24 time to unfold and in this program we're going to be 01:27 unfolding some things through Bible prophecy, through history 01:32 so that we could follow up in a timeline sequence 01:36 what the enemy is doing today. So we're going to begin 01:39 and we invite you again to get your Bibles, 01:42 and we're going to begin with reading Revelation 12:1. 01:46 I'm going to ask Atonte to read that verse. 01:48 Well, before we start, I just want to say to all of the young 01:51 people out there watching: don't close your mind 01:54 quite yet, I know you heard "Revelation" and you thought 01:56 "Oh, we're going over that stuff again, the beast and things" 01:59 "like that", but you're going to find that this is very 02:01 eye opening and how it literally pertains to your life. 02:05 So don't go away, go get your Bibles. 02:07 That's right. Well, now I'm going to read 02:10 - Revelation 12:1. - Okay, go ahead. 02:13 It says there: [text on screen] 02:22 Now, in Bible prophecy a woman is likened unto a church, 02:27 and you can look at verses like Jeremiah 6:2, in Ephesians 5 02:32 the Bible says "husbands, love your wives, even as Christ" 02:34 "loved the church and gave Himself for it." 02:37 So this woman being described here in Revelation 12:1 02:41 is the church of Jesus Christ. Again in verse 3 it says: 02:47 [text on screen] 02:57 What the Bible is doing here is it is taking these 2 powers, 03:01 this woman representing the church, and this beast power, 03:05 or this dragon, representing its nemesis, and it's about 03:08 to show us this conflict between the church and the Devil. 03:13 Now we're going to go ahead and we're going to look at 03:16 verse 6, Atonte would you read that for us: 03:19 [text on screen] 03:28 Okay, here is a description of this woman, or this church, 03:32 who is now in hiding. In the verse just before that 03:36 it speaks about her delivering a male child, that male child 03:39 was none other than Jesus Christ, the Old Testament church 03:42 delivering that male child, and after the death, burial 03:46 and resurrection of Christ we see that this woman 03:49 now flees into the wilderness where the Bible says she is 03:54 fed for 1260 days. This we understand to represent 04:00 a prophetic time period. We're going to look at our 04:04 first slide and we're going to notice that this time period 04:08 is in mentioned several places in the Scripture. 04:11 [text on screen] 04:33 Now I want to go back to Revelation 13:1, we're going 04:37 to see the same thing being described, and in 04:42 Revelation 13:1 the Bible says: [text on screen] 04:52 Sounds very similar to the beast we saw in Revelation 12 04:55 that was persecuting the woman. And over in verse 5, speaking 05:00 of this same beast it says: [text on screen] 05:12 We're talking about the same time period of 1260 days. 05:19 In Bible prophecy a day is always equal to a year 05:23 because you're dealing with symbolic time. 05:26 A perfect example of this would be the prophecy 05:29 of Daniel 9 where it is stated the Jesus, the Messiah, 05:33 was to come on the scene in a time period known 05:37 as the 490 day time period. Yet, most scholars realize 05:42 that this 490 day time period must be under the principle 05:48 of a day for a year because Jesus Christ did in fact come 05:52 - within that 490 year period. - But not 490 days. 05:57 Exactly, so taking that principle, the "day for a year" 06:00 principle, we realize that this 1260 days is actually 06:04 1260 years, and it is what is commonly referred to 06:09 as the Dark Ages. This is the time period 06:12 that the church of God was being persecuted and they 06:16 had to be hiding in the wilderness and hiding in caves 06:20 and rocks, and these different kind of things, and we see 06:23 the enemy putting out this assault upon God's church 06:28 during this time period, but now we're going to shift 06:32 gears and we're going to look at Revelation 13:3. 06:36 Would you read that to us. [text on screen] 06:47 The Bible is telling us that this first beast that arose 06:51 from the sea receives a deadly wound after the 1260 years. 06:58 By the way, that 1260 year period is commonly believed 07:03 to be 538 AD to 1798 AD, this is an exact period of 1260 years 07:11 where the persecuting power, which happened to be 07:16 the Dark Ages churches, the Roman church at this particular 07:20 time, persecuted the people of God for having Bibles, 07:24 for believing things the head church at that time 07:28 did not believe. Well, in 1798 something 07:32 prophetic happened to this particular power, and we don't 07:35 have time to go into that, suffice it to say that this 07:38 power, 538-1798 here symbolized 1260 days. 07:44 And there was a wound that occurred. 07:47 So now as the Devil is working through this power to try 07:51 to destroy the people of God, this beast from the sea receives 07:57 a deadly wound. Don't lose me here because 08:00 this is really going to tie in, you're going to see some 08:02 really powerful things here. This beast from the sea 08:05 receives a deadly wound. What does the Devil have to do? 08:08 He has to come up with another power to begin to war 08:12 against the people of God. 08:13 Because the first beast was working for him and with him, 08:16 they may not have known that, but he was using that beast 08:20 to do the things that he wanted to God's people at that time. 08:23 Right. So, now this beast is out 08:25 of commission, and now we're going to look at Revelation 13 08:28 and we're going to notice in Revelation 13:11 that there is 08:32 indeed another beast, and by the way, a beast in Bible 08:36 prophecy according to Daniel 7:19, represents 08:39 a kingdom, or a nation, or a power. 08:43 It's not a literal beast. But we see in Revelation 13:11 08:49 that just around the time where this first beast from the sea 08:53 would receive its deadly wound, there was 08:55 another beast coming up on the scene. 08:58 Atonte, would you like to read that? [text on screen] 09:07 Okay. Here we've got another beast 09:10 coming up out of the earth. We're looking for this beast 09:13 rising up on the scene around the time of the deadly 09:16 wound that is given to the first beast, which we said 09:19 would be around the 1790's; this beast represents 09:22 a nation that looks like a lamb, and I think right there 09:25 you're light bulbs must be going off saying: 09:27 "Oh, there's no other nation that can even fit this" 09:31 "description that is a lamb-like, or Christian-like" 09:34 "nation other than America, the USA." 09:39 Because Jesus is also represented in the Bible as 09:43 a lamb, so as Christians we follow Jesus, so a lamb-like 09:47 would be almost Christ-like, holding the principles 09:51 that Jesus has, uplifting them. 09:53 That's right. Now this beast, while 09:56 it looks like a lamb, the Bible says that it speaks 09:58 - like a dragon. - ...which is not Christ-like. 10:01 That's right, so what we're talking about is what 10:04 we would call counterfeit Christianity rising up 10:07 in America. We're not talking about 10:09 all Christians, but counterfeit Christianity, the kind of 10:12 Christianity that has the horns of a lamb, that appears 10:15 lamb-like, but is really dragon-like in spirit, 10:17 it's really against what the Bible says. 10:20 So we've got this second beast rising up on the scene 10:24 and there are a lot of prophecy students who recognize 10:28 this second beast and realize the dramatic role that this 10:32 beast will place in the last days. Hence our subject: 10:40 "The Forgotten Beast", there is another beast that rises 10:45 up on the scene just around the same time, 10:48 and this is why we call it the forgotten beast, 10:51 because most people are totally unaware of this beast 10:55 and the role that this beast plays in last day events. 10:58 When you study prophecy or hear things on prophecy, 11:01 you hear a lot about this beast that looks like a lamb, 11:05 but speaks as a dragon, you don't hear too much 11:07 about this forgotten beast that we're about to talk about next. 11:10 That's right, we're going to go ahead and look at 11:13 Revelation 11 and we're going to read the description 11:16 of this second beast and then we're going to go back 11:19 and unfold who this second beast is, and then we're 11:21 going to see how this forgotten beast is influencing our youth 11:26 today. Revelation 11:7, the Bible 11:30 reads there: [text on screen] 11:34 We'll discover who the "they" is in a moment," 11:37 [continues to read] 11:50 Here we have this beast that is described as rising 11:55 out of the abyss, the bottomless pit. 11:59 What's amazing about this verse, if you look at all the other 12:02 places in the Bible where beasts are described, 12:05 there's a description in terms of what the beast looked like. 12:09 Right, very descriptive. 12:11 And the reason why that is given is because students 12:14 of Bible prophecy should be able to figure out: 12:17 "Oh, this beast looks like a lamb, speaks like a dragon," 12:19 "so I know the characteristics of this beast". 12:22 Atonte, I want to suggest that this beast from Revelation 11 12:24 is a beast of such a different nature that it is not 12:30 even described in the prophecy, it simply says "the beast" 12:34 "that arose out of the abyss", it would be a beast 12:37 that is hard to identify. Now we're going to go back 12:42 to Revelation 11:1-3. 12:48 I'll go ahead and read that, the Bible says: [text on screen] 13:11 Here the Bible is again describing this same 13:13 time period, the 1260 years, the Dark Ages. 13:17 We're going to read again, verse 3: [text on screen] 13:32 So now this prophecy is telling us, leading up to who 13:35 this beast is, the prophecy says that during the 1260 years 13:40 God would have 2 witnesses that would be prophesying 13:45 in sackcloth; people would wear that when they were 13:48 in mourning or in hiding and when it was a sorrowing 13:52 time. We are told that these 2 13:54 witnesses would be prophesying during the 1260 years. 13:58 Now, instantly people would think of 2 witnesses, 14:01 2 people, and because we've established that time period 14:05 as 1260 years, not 1260 days, we see that these 2 14:11 witnesses can't be 2 human beings, they've got to be 14:15 something symbolic, and in Revelation 11:4 the Bible 14:20 describes them: [text on screen] 14:36 Again, when you look at various Scriptures that use this 14:40 illustration of the candlestick, the Bible says 14:43 in Psalms 119:105: "They Word is a light unto my path," 14:47 "and a lamp unto my feet", and we see that Jesus 14:51 Himself actually, in the book of Matthew, describes the Bible 14:57 as those things that testify of Him. 15:00 What does a witness do? A witness testifies. 15:03 So during the Dark Ages the word of God was going forth 15:07 doing its work, but it was doing it in hiding. 15:10 Why? Because those who had a Bible 15:13 were being persecuted. You were not allowed to have 15:16 a Bible, the Bible had to do its work in very hard times. 15:21 So the prophecy says here that they would do this 15:24 for 1260 years and now we're going to go over the verse 7 15:28 and now we're going to see how this verse ties in. 15:31 [text on screen] 15:33 "their testimony" - that is the 2 witnesses, that prophetic 15:36 time period of 1260 years, [continues to read] 15:46 So here's another beast that's going to try to attack 15:50 the word of God, which is the 2 witnesses. 15:53 That's right. Some people have said that these 15:55 2 witnesses are Moses and Elijah. 15:58 The question I would have is: Moses and Elijah, when they were 16:01 taken into heaven, they were glorified, which means 16:03 they can no longer die, the Bible says that these 16:07 2 witnesses were killed, and again, we don't have very much 16:09 time to get into that, nonetheless, this beast 16:12 from the abyss makes war on the word of God, and he does it 16:17 just around the end of the 1260 years which would be 16:21 around the 1790's. Now the Bible's going to go 16:25 and give us a few more details. Verse 8: [text on screen] 16:38 Alright, and here, if you've been waiting for the punch line, 16:41 here it is: we're given a time description, 16:47 we're given a place description, and those 2 things together 16:50 will help us to figure out who this beast is. 16:53 N1- we're looking for a power that would arise around 16:56 the 1790's, the same time that America rose up 17:01 on the scene, and we're also looking for a power that 17:06 the Bible says would arise in a place spiritually called 17:09 Egypt and Sodom. Now, Egypt was known 17:14 in particular when Pharaoh was dealing with Moses, 17:18 Moses said: "Let my people go that they may go serve God", 17:21 and Pharaoh said: "Who is God that I should obey Him?" 17:29 This kind of attitude represented an anti-God, 17:32 even an atheistic attitude, we're talking about a power 17:37 that would arise on the scene around the 1790's that would 17:40 reject God. We're also talking about 17:43 this place, would be spiritually called Sodom. 17:46 Sodom was known for its sexual perversion, its lawlessness, 17:51 its iniquity, we're looking for a power that would arise 17:54 that would resemble Sodom and would resemble Egypt, 17:57 and for many people who have studied this prophecy 18:01 they see that there is only 1 power that can fit this, 18:04 and its during the time period what we call 18:07 "The French Revolution" where after France had been under 18:15 the rule of the church during the Dark Ages for so many years, 18:20 1260 years almost, they began to rebel against the Bible, 18:24 and against Christianity, and basically outlawed the Bible, 18:29 outlawed Christianity, and put in an atheistic society, 18:35 and this is this beast that rises up right at the end 18:41 of the 1260 years and begins to make war on the word of God. 18:46 They felt that they did not need a law or the Bible 18:49 for them to know what was right or wrong, or they didn't care 18:53 if they were doing anything wrong at that point. 18:55 Nothing that the Bible taught did they want a part 18:58 - of their life or their society. - That's right. 19:01 So what took place was something called "The French Revolution", 19:04 or "The Reign of Terror", because what happened during 19:07 that time period is when they put aside the word of God, 19:10 and when they put aside the law of God, what you had was just 19:14 pure terror, people were being killed, great slaughters 19:17 were taking place from hierarchy, all the way down, 19:21 people were being slaughtered, it was a time that just 19:25 symbolized the spirit of rebellion. 19:28 Interestingly enough, in 1 Samuel 15:23 the Bible says 19:32 that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. 19:35 What we see rising upon the scene in the French Revolution 19:38 is a spirit of rebellion, a spirit of witchcraft, 19:42 a spirit of "we don't want anything to do with God" 19:45 "or anything to do with the Word of God". 19:47 Some people are still saying: "Well, what does it have to do" 19:50 "with where we are today?" 19:52 Right, I'm sure many young people who are watching 19:54 out are wondering "Hey, you told us to stand by," 19:56 "and this sounds just like more of that beast stuff" 19:59 "that we've heard all of our life", but we're about 20:02 to find out how the French Revolution actually effects 20:05 - us today. - Right. 20:07 There was a general by the name of J.B. Lamarck. 20:10 J.B. Lamarck was a scientist, a product of the French 20:13 Revolution, he lived during the time of the French Revolution 20:16 and in this atmosphere of rebellion against God, 20:20 and turning away from the law of God, J.B. Lamarck came up 20:24 with a theory that has become very popular today, 20:27 most people are unaware of this, but at this time 20:29 the theory was called "Transformism". 20:32 Let me read to you what J.B. Lamarck wrote in 1801, 20:35 he was the first scientist to document this. 20:37 He says here: "Time, and favorable conditions" 20:41 "are the 2 principle means which nature has employed" 20:46 "in giving existence to all her productions." 20:49 Here is a scientist talking about the circumstances, 20:52 or the principle of time and circumstances that helps 20:56 species to become what they are, what does that sound like? 21:00 - Evolution. - It sounds like evolution, 21:02 and sure enough, this is the man from whom Darwin really got 21:06 the teaching, or the principles of evolution that he espoused 21:10 - in his writings. - So he was the first 21:12 to write about if things just evolve into what they are. 21:15 That's right, he was the first scientist to actually put this 21:18 in print and to many he's actually known as the father 21:21 of evolution. What's interesting about this 21:25 is that evolution teaches that there is no God, 21:28 it wars against the 2 witnesses, and here you have this 21:34 principle of evolution, and I'm going to say, rising up 21:37 out of the bottomless pit, out of the abyss. 21:41 Something else very interesting is that when you think 21:44 about the abyss, that's the condition in which the world 21:47 was before God created it. Well, what evolution does, 21:51 and why this beast is said to arise out of the abyss 21:53 is that it takes us back to the beginning and says "No!" 21:57 "Creation didn't occur the way the 2 witnesses said it," 22:00 "creation occurred over a long period of time, and there was" 22:04 "no God involved in it." You look, evolution has now 22:09 flooded our schools, our school system, and many people 22:13 believe, and what it has done is it has destroyed 22:16 the testimony of the 2 witnesses. 22:19 But to the Christian watching out there, you're probably 22:21 thinking: "Hey, I'm not an evolutionist, that's why I'm" 22:24 "watching Christian TV right now, because I believe in God." 22:27 So how does it affect the Christian? 22:30 Alright, we're going to look at our next slide, 22:32 and this is a definition that I want to put up here, 22:35 it is a term "adaptation". And adaptation, the definition 22:38 is simply this: [text on screen] 22:50 This is what Darwin taught. Darwin taught that as 22:53 the environment changed, that the species adapted 22:57 to fit that environment, and I want to suggest that while 23:02 many Christians say: "Oh, we don't believe in evolution," 23:05 "and evolution is false, it's not Biblical", and those 23:07 kinds of things, "we've got our guard up"... 23:10 ...It's true, it is false. 23:12 Could it be possible that the Devil is manipulating 23:16 the atmosphere in which we live in hopes of transforming 23:21 our youth from the image of God into the image of brute beasts. 23:29 Right, or to his image. 23:31 That's right, to his image. Could it be possible 23:34 that the physical evolution is really a diversion 23:39 to the Devil's real ploy, which is it bring about a manipulation 23:43 of the environment through music, entertainment, fads, 23:49 styles, what's "in", and by manipulating this environment, 23:54 he will cause the species, especially the Christian 23:58 species, our young people to being to adapt 24:01 to what they are seeing around them, so that while we say: 24:04 "Evolution?! No way!" Could it be possible 24:06 that we're actually falling under the principles of 24:09 evolution as we change with the environment and the times 24:14 - around us. - His whole purpose to change 24:17 the environment or get people to adapt is, again, to fight 24:22 against the word of God, the 2 witnesses, 24:25 that's why he uses this beast from the bottomless pit 24:28 because this beast's job is to fight against the word. 24:31 When we adapt to all the things of the world then the desire 24:33 to study the word and be in the word, it's just not there, 24:37 it just swallows the desire out. 24:39 Right, Atonte, I think one of the important things, 24:42 the reason why we took so much time to unfold 24:45 the principles, to unfold this prophecy in Revelation 11 24:48 is because it is indeed a beast that many people do not 24:51 focus on, they read it, "Hmmm, I wonder what this" 24:53 "is talking about?" and then they leave it. 24:56 But while the Christian world is looking out for this 24:59 lamb-like beast and the false doctrines it may be teaching 25:01 and those kind of things, what about this forgotten beast 25:05 who is attacking our young people through the manipulation 25:08 of the environment. We're going to learn 25:10 in upcoming programs that this beast, this beast that rises 25:14 out of the abyss, has much to do with the music 25:17 that are youth are listening to today; 25:20 with the entertainment, with the philosophies. 25:23 It's incredible how much we're going to pull out from this 25:26 Revelation 11, but we need to know how we can avoid 25:31 the Devil's spiritual evolution plan. 25:35 Hollywood is built off of this thought system, 25:40 this evolution thought process, the movies that they put out, 25:44 there is no God, everything goes back to any kind 25:48 of random thing, but not God. God was never the beginning. 25:52 That's right, I would suggest that our viewers, in order 25:57 to understand "Hmmm, evolution, as I look around" 25:59 "I do see people changing according to the environment," 26:02 "according to what's "in" now." The Bible tells us to be 26:06 in the world, but not of the world. 26:09 When you're not of the world, the Devil's plan of manipulating 26:14 the environment won't have no effect on us because 26:16 as Ephesians 2 tells us, Christ has invited us up into heavenly 26:21 places, we can dwell, spiritually speaking, 26:24 we can have our minds stayed on things in heaven 26:27 and when our minds are thus stayed on things in heaven, 26:30 the Devil has no power. No matter how much he 26:33 manipulates the environment around us, he has no power 26:35 to change us from what God wants us to be. 26:39 Right, and for young people out there, you may be 26:41 thinking: "Hey, I go to church", but spiritually things aren't 26:44 quite going the way you want them to, it's probably 26:47 because some of this evolution process that's been put out 26:51 there, spiritual evolution that's being put out there, 26:54 if you're still partaking heavily in the entertainment 26:57 industry, it will stop your spiritual growth. 26:59 That's right, we are adapting to our environment 27:03 and the Devil realizes: change the environment, they will 27:07 adapt. The true Christian says: 27:09 "Lord, help me not to adapt to the things of this world," 27:13 "but to adapt to the things of heaven; to adapt to" 27:18 "the things that God would have me adapt to". 27:21 And by beholding we become changed. 27:25 It is so important, crucial, we begin to realize: 27:28 "I may not believe in evolution, but I see evolution going on" 27:33 "around me, and I need to be aware that it's not" 27:36 "just the physical thing, but the spiritual thing." 27:39 "Lord, help me to keep my mind stayed upon You," 27:42 "so that I can be transformed into Your image," 27:46 "and not degraded from man to beast." 27:53 As you can see, we are in a battle, and it is our prayer 27:56 that you will draw closer to the Lord, and get strength 27:59 from Him so you can win in this battle. 28:01 We're all out of time, until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17