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Series Code: DAA
Program Code: DAA017007A
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00:25 Hello.
00:26 Once again, we welcome you to Daniel All Access, 00:28 our behind the scenes look at the Book of Daniel. 00:32 We've been seeking to ask not only the question what 00:35 but also the question why and sometimes, 00:38 who and how, as we look, behinds the scenes, 00:40 at this powerful book of prophecy 00:43 that has so much to say in these last days. 00:47 We've looked at Daniel, 00:48 and we've seen how God has blessed his life. 00:50 And we've taken out lessons for ourselves. 00:53 And tonight will be no different 00:55 as we take a look at Daniel 7. 00:58 We've entitled our message "Alpha Predators 01:02 and the Protestant Inconsistency." 01:05 "Alpha Predators 01:06 and the Protestant Inconsistency." 01:08 Join with me now in a word of prayer 01:10 as we open God's Word. 01:12 Father God, we do praise You 01:14 and thank You for the power of Your Word 01:17 and how this ancient book 01:21 has so much to say to us 01:24 in the latter stages of this earth's history. 01:29 There is so much that You want us to know 01:32 and so much that You want us to do 01:36 and so much that You want us to be. 01:40 Help us, Lord, to know and to do 01:44 and to be the kind of children that You can use. 01:49 Oh, Father, teach us this night. 01:51 Show us Your will for our lives, 01:53 fortify us for the trials which are sure to come 01:58 that we may be overcomers, that we may stand victorious 02:04 on the day we see You face to face. 02:07 We thank You, dear Father, in Jesus' name. 02:10 Amen. 02:12 Daniel 7 pivots 02:16 into full prophetic apocalyptic mode. 02:21 And although it appears that he is covering some 02:25 of the same material as Daniel 2, 02:27 and indeed he is, you will find 02:31 that a feature of Daniel is this particular idea 02:34 of what we call repeat and enlarge, 02:38 repeat and enlarge. 02:42 Whenever Daniel goes over 02:45 previously spoken of prophetic material, 02:48 he repeats it, but he also enlarges it. 02:53 I was telling someone just today, 02:55 I look at it much as Google Earth. 02:58 You know, when you have Google Earth 03:00 and you see a picture of a continent, 03:04 and you push in a little closer and you see cities 03:07 and you go a little closer and you see streets 03:10 and you push a little closer and you see houses 03:13 and you push a little closer 03:14 and you can actually see people on the lawn 03:16 and near those houses. 03:18 Well, that's what Daniel does. 03:20 Each time he goes over the material, 03:22 he gives you a little better view, 03:24 he gives you a little better view. 03:26 And we will see this in Daniel 11 03:28 in a very, very marked and dramatic way. 03:31 So it's called repeat and enlarge. 03:33 He does cover the same material, 03:36 but he gives you a little more depth. 03:38 He magnifies it a little more. 03:40 He gives you a little more information. 03:42 He shines the light a little brighter 03:45 every time he goes over material. 03:48 So Daniel 2 is the world viewed through naked eyes. 03:53 Daniel 7 now is that same world with reading glasses on. 03:59 And Daniel 11, actually, is that same material 04:02 under a microscope, and we'll see that coming up 04:06 in our lectures that come in just a little bit. 04:09 So he repeats and he enlarges. 04:13 Daniel 11 is going to be a fun chapter 04:17 that we will get to in just a little bit. 04:20 It's entitled the train is on the tracks. 04:22 So we want you to look out for that. 04:25 So we will see the same history that we saw on Daniel 2, 04:29 but we see it with greater clarity. 04:32 We'll see it again in Daniel 8. 04:34 We'll see it again in Daniel 9. 04:35 We'll see it again in Daniel 11. 04:39 So we see the same material, 04:43 but this time, 04:45 we actually get the help of an angelic tutor. 04:49 So we're gonna get homeschooled by an angel. 04:52 Notice, we are going back in time. 04:57 We are going back to the first year 04:59 of Belshazzar's reign. 05:01 So, we're going back, previous to Daniel 5 and 6. 05:06 Nebuchadnezzar's reign, of course, was 40 years. 05:10 And we ended that in Daniel 4. 05:14 Daniel 2 took place at the second year 05:18 of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. 05:19 So now we are dealing with events 05:21 that precede Daniel 5 and 6. 05:25 And we are at the behest of an angel instructor. 05:31 So we've got to go to school with Daniel, 05:33 and we've got to home school with Daniel. 05:36 Daniel now has a dream. 05:40 He states he had a dream. 05:41 And he wrote down the main points of that dream. 05:46 So when we interpret scripture, we do so literally 05:52 until we move into apocalyptic mode 05:55 and then things equal other things. 05:58 So we're moving into that mode now, 06:01 from the historical, the interpersonal, 06:04 to full apocalyptic mode. 06:06 Let's go to Daniel 7:2 because the Bible talks about 06:10 wars and strife, and school is now in session. 06:13 "Wars and strife mean political, 06:17 social, societal upheaval." 06:19 And I've given you some reference texts, 06:22 Jeremiah 49, Revelation, and Zachariah. 06:27 So when the Bible talks about wins and strife, 06:30 you know you're dealing with a situation of war, 06:33 of strife, of upheaval, 06:35 political war, sometimes spiritual conflict, 06:39 but a scene of turmoil and chaos. 06:42 And so what is happening here 06:45 in the early portions of Daniel 7, 06:48 war, strife, political chaos, 06:53 and we've given you the texts for that. 06:55 "The winds are striving upon the Great Sea." 06:58 And of course, the Great Sea is the Mediterranean. 07:01 And we've given you some background material 07:03 for that also. 07:04 Joshua 1:4, Numbers 34:6-7. 07:09 Don't have time to read all of those, 07:11 but this is your homework assignment. 07:13 You can look at those yourself. 07:15 They will assure you that we're talking about 07:17 the Mediterranean Sea. 07:18 So in short, Daniel is viewing war and strife, 07:24 conflict among nations that border the Mediterranean. 07:29 So we know the what 07:32 and we know the where. 07:36 Daniel sees four great carnivorous beasts. 07:40 I call them alpha predators. 07:41 These are top of the food chain beasts, 07:45 these are big cats, and a big bear, 07:49 and a beast that I call the iron teeth beast. 07:53 These are alpha predators. 07:56 They're on the sea. 07:59 So not only do we see political strife, 08:02 we also see military strife and military power. 08:07 Daniel 7:4, that first beast 08:12 in this particular scenario is a lion. 08:16 These empires super imposed their cultures over each other. 08:21 When one country captured another country, 08:24 they impose their culture on that second country. 08:27 And so Daniel 7:4 08:32 introduces us to the lion 08:34 which we know is analogous 08:36 to the golden head of the image in Daniel 2. 08:39 So we're talking about the empire of Babylon. 08:42 But here again, Daniel gives us more information 08:45 because Daniel says this lion undergoes a change 08:50 because it's a winged lion. 08:52 It undergoes what we call an anthropomorphic change, 08:56 which is a long 25-cent word, simply means 08:59 it gets human characteristics, 09:01 what was once a beast now becomes a man, 09:06 literally and figuratively. 09:08 It's talking about Nebuchadnezzar 09:10 because Nebuchadnezzar live seven years as a beast 09:13 and then came back to be a man. 09:15 But more than that, Daniel is giving us some clues 09:20 to the conversion and ultimate redemption 09:24 of Nebuchadnezzar. 09:25 He started out as an idol worshipper. 09:28 He started out as one who worshiped the gods of wood 09:31 and stone and gold and silver. 09:33 But before it was all over, he stood up like a man, 09:37 gave his heart to the Lord, and is a person. 09:41 Isn't it nice to know when you get to heaven, 09:43 one of the people 09:45 who will be in your neighborhood 09:46 will be King Nebuchadnezzar? 09:50 You can get to talk to him and ask him 09:51 what it was like to live and eat grass for seven years 09:54 and then come back to his kingdom 09:56 and have his kingdom there waiting for him. 09:59 So the Bible is saying here that this beast worshipper 10:04 becomes a man. 10:05 He gets eyes, he gets... 10:07 He gets saved. 10:11 And when did that happen? 10:13 When Nebuchadnezzar 10:14 surrendered himself to the Lord. 10:17 So in the first four verses of Daniel 7, 10:21 we actually get a summary of the first four chapters 10:26 of the Book of Daniel, 10:30 highlighted by the conversion of its greatest king, 10:34 Nebuchadnezzar. 10:37 Now we come to Daniel 7:5, 10:40 we go from the lion to the Medo Persian bear. 10:45 Now what is interesting, 10:46 again, we get a little more information. 10:48 The Median half is older, 10:51 but the Persian half is stronger, 10:53 which is why the bear has got 10:55 sort of a scoliosis kind of condition. 10:56 It's kind of up on one side, the Median half, 11:00 Media was an older country, 11:03 but the Persian half was stronger. 11:06 So he's on one side, and he, of course, 11:10 has three ribs in his mouth. 11:14 The three principal nations 11:15 conquered by the Medo Persian Empire 11:18 were Lydia, Egypt, 11:23 and Babylon itself. 11:25 Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon, 11:30 those are the three ribs. 11:32 Daniel 7:6, we see another big cat. 11:38 Daniel 7:6 Greece comes, which is a leopard. 11:43 Another big cat, an alpha predator. 11:46 A leopard with four wings and four heads. 11:50 Again, more information, the four wings 11:53 indicate the speed at which Alexander the Great 11:58 and the Grecian Empire was formed. 12:01 By the time he was 30 plus years of age, 12:04 he had conquered the then known world, 12:05 he had crossed the Indus River, 12:07 he had gone into India, he had gone 12:09 as far west as Greece, and Central Europe, 12:13 he had gone south into North Africa, 12:16 he had covered pretty much all he wanted to cover, 12:20 and all he could cover, 12:22 and then in a drunken stupor, suffering from malaria, 12:25 he died, four wings, but also four heads. 12:31 Alexander was a son of Philip of Macedon, 12:35 and he conquered the then known world at age 30. 12:41 It's an amazing feat, that at 30 years of age, 12:44 you've conquered just about everything 12:46 that you wanted to conquer. 12:48 You've done just about everything you've wanted to do. 12:53 So let's note 12:55 that each Empire increases in size. 12:59 The Babylonian Empire was fairly compact. 13:03 The Medo Persian Empire was fairly broad, 13:07 and the Grecian Empire was broader still. 13:11 But before his death, 13:12 Alexander summoned his four principal generals. 13:18 Cassander, who was given Macedonia, 13:22 Greece and the west, 13:25 Lysimachus, who was given Thrace, Bithynia, also called 13:29 Pergamum in the north, 13:32 Seleucus, who took Syria and the east 13:35 and all of us Seleucus kings 13:37 took the name Antiochus, 13:39 all of them were called Antiochus I, Antiochus II, 13:43 Antiochus III, Antiochus IV, or Antiochus Epiphanes. 13:47 They all took the name Antiochus, 13:48 they were eight Seleucus kings, all taking the name Antiochus. 13:54 And then of course, Ptolemy. 13:57 He took Egypt and the south. 13:58 Cleopatra was a Ptolemy. 14:01 And of course, there were several Cleopatras. 14:03 The Cleopatra that we all know of is Cleopatra number seven. 14:06 And when we get to Daniel 11, 14:09 we're gonna see a lot of interplay 14:12 between these four generals. 14:15 Daniel 11 really shines the light 14:18 on these four generals 14:19 and gives us much history. 14:21 And there's some interesting stuff 14:23 that went on between these four fellows. 14:26 So this leopard has four wings 14:31 and now four heads. 14:35 Then I suspect Daniel saw the beast 14:38 that caused him the most distress. 14:44 I call this beast the iron teeth beast 14:49 because it has no analogy in fiction 14:53 or in the real world. 14:55 Now I've seen it portrayed as a dragon. 15:01 Usually, some sort of cobbled together beast. 15:05 We don't know what he saw. 15:07 We know it had iron teeth and it had claws 15:11 and it ground down and stamped into powder 15:15 everything that opposed it. 15:18 It is an incredibly strong, vicious, unmerciful, 15:23 devouring beast that breaks into pieces 15:26 everything that opposes it and then stamps on the residue. 15:32 When the Roman armies attack a nation, 15:35 they either enslaved it or destroyed it. 15:38 And so this picture of this beast 15:40 is very, very accurate. 15:43 Rome's legacy 168 BC 15:47 to 476 AD, 15:51 just over 600 years. 15:53 By far the longest of the world kingdoms. 15:56 By far the largest of the world kingdoms. 16:00 And we saw the other day that the Roman Empire 16:03 went from east to west, north to south, 16:06 and even crossed over the English Channel 16:09 into Great Britain. 16:13 Then Daniel sees the Germanic tribes 16:17 that begin to encroach and invade on Roman territory, 16:22 breaking it into pieces. 16:25 Here they are, the Alamani, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, 16:30 the Franks, the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, 16:36 the Heruli, the Anglo Saxons, and the Lombards, 16:41 these Germanic tribes 16:44 began to encroach on the territory 16:47 of the Roman Empire. 16:50 And for a while, for a time, 16:52 Rome was able to withstand their forays, 16:54 but soon, the internal decay of the Roman Empire 17:00 began to show 17:01 and these dramatic tribes began to take large sections 17:05 of territory once ruled by Rome. 17:10 Daniel 7:8. 17:15 There comes from the head of this beast a small horn, 17:21 which displaces three of those horns. 17:24 Let's read it, "I was considering the horns, 17:27 and there was another horn, a little one, 17:30 coming up from among them, 17:32 before whom of the first horn... 17:36 before whom three rather of the first horns 17:39 were plucked out by the roots. 17:42 And there, in this horn, 17:45 were eyes like the eyes of a man 17:48 and a mouth speaking pompous words." 17:53 Now when you try to identify who and what this horn is, 17:58 there are some parameters 17:59 that you need to be governed by. 18:01 One, when you're trying to find out who this horn is, 18:05 there is no need to look in Asia, 18:09 Africa, or North America. 18:12 Amen. 18:14 That's because, the text says, the horn came up 18:19 out of the head of the first beast 18:23 and among the 10 horns. 18:26 So if the first beast is the Roman Empire, 18:31 then if you're trying to identify 18:34 who this horn is, 18:36 there's no need to look in China. 18:39 Amen. 18:40 There's no need to look in Africa, 18:43 there's no need to conjecture about North and South America 18:47 because the horn comes 18:49 from the head of the Roman Empire. 18:52 So whatever that horn is, it's got to be Roman. 18:56 Amen. 18:58 'Cause it's coming up out of the head, 18:59 it's coming up out of the seat of authority. 19:02 So if you're trying to identify who this beast is, 19:05 all you've got to do is go to your history book 19:08 and find out what came up 19:11 out of the seat of the Roman Empire. 19:14 Not that tough. 19:16 Out of the Roman Empire came the Roman Church. 19:20 Amen. 19:22 Now the Bible also says that it plucks up 19:25 three of those kingdoms. 19:27 Well, we know who those three kingdoms are, 19:29 the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths 19:33 were completely destroyed by the Roman armies 19:36 and never really got a chance to settle in. 19:39 What's interesting is that those three kingdoms 19:42 the Heruli, Vandals, Ostrogoths 19:45 embraced a theological concept called Arianism. 19:49 They all believed and taught 19:51 that Christ was a created being. 19:54 And somehow they developed this belief 19:59 and they were destroyed by the Roman armies 20:04 before they ever got a chance to take root. 20:06 And so today, there are no Ostrogoths, 20:09 there are no Vandals, there are no Heruli, 20:11 these other ten tribes are now the ten kingdoms of Europe. 20:15 You've got the Lombards, you've got the Italians, 20:20 you've got the French, you've got the Anglo Saxons, 20:22 you've got the Germans, you've got the Swiss. 20:25 They're all here today, but they are no Heruli, 20:28 there are no Vandals, there are... 20:34 No Heruli, that's it, no Heruli, no Vandals, 20:36 and no Ostrogoths. 20:38 So this horn get eyes and a mouth, 20:44 this is code for a new power 20:47 that will not be ruled by committee 20:50 but that will be ruled by a single person. 20:53 This is not a parliamentary system. 20:55 This is not a system 20:56 where people are voted in and out. 20:58 The Bible is telling us that this new entity 21:02 that comes from the head of the old Roman Empire 21:07 is gonna have one person sitting at the top. 21:11 And that one person will speak for this entity, 21:15 will be the power in this entity, 21:18 and will speak great words, 21:22 one man atop a system 21:25 that is going to speak pompous words. 21:31 Comes up from among the others, so we are talking about Europe, 21:35 it comes from the head of Pagan Rome, 21:38 and it uproots the Heruli, 21:40 the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths. 21:43 So when we take our time with prophecy, 21:45 it tends to make sense, it tends to fall apart 21:48 or build itself up on its own. 21:51 So the Bible is identifying not a person per se 21:56 but a position and a system, 22:00 a position and a system. 22:02 The position is head of the church, 22:06 the system is the ecclesiastical body 22:09 that came up after Pagan Rome fell to ashes. 22:15 So we're talking about an entity 22:19 that speaks pompous words. 22:22 Now the word for pompous in the Bible is "rabrab." 22:28 Interesting word. 22:29 It means huge in size and domineering 22:35 or dominating in character. 22:38 Very interesting. 22:39 The Bible is saying that this new entity 22:42 is going to be huge as far as its size is concerned, 22:47 as far as its control is concerned. 22:49 But it will also be dominating in character. 22:55 It's gonna be a bossy kind of a system. 22:59 It's gonna try to take control not only of what man does 23:04 but what man thinks. 23:07 History tells us that the entity that came up 23:11 out of the Pagan Roman Empire 23:15 was called the Holy Roman Empire. 23:20 The Pagan Roman Empire fell to be replaced 23:25 by the Holy Roman Empire, 23:28 in short, the Roman Universal Church 23:32 or the Roman Chthonic Church. 23:34 The Holy Roman Empire was an amalgamation of kings, 23:38 emperors, electors, and popes 23:42 that dominated the history of Europe 23:45 form the 6th century all the way down 23:48 to the 18th century, just after the 1,260 years, 23:53 which we'll talk about in just a minute. 23:56 So kings, emperors, electors, and popes 23:59 were in charge of the Holy Roman Empire. 24:02 For short periods of time, 24:04 the emperors and the electors took the lead. 24:08 But make no mistake about it, the power behind the church 24:13 from 538 to 1798, 24:16 that 1,260 year period was the man 24:19 who sat on the cathedral in Rome, 24:23 and that was the pope, 24:25 the head of the Catholic Church. 24:27 The Church insinuated itself 24:32 into every aspect of the medieval life. 24:36 The Church controlled how you ate, 24:39 the Church controlled what you drank, 24:42 the Church controlled how you lived, 24:45 the Church controlled your employment, 24:48 and they even tried to control what you thought. 24:54 European culture had one master, 24:57 it was ran from Rome, 25:00 and Rome insinuated itself into every aspect 25:05 of medieval Church life. 25:09 That's one of the things 25:11 that becomes very, very apparent 25:13 as we study Daniel 7. 25:18 So Daniel now gives us increased focus 25:21 on beast number four. 25:25 Daniel uses that term pompous words a number of time. 25:30 Daniel 7:8, Daniel 7:11, 25:35 Daniel 7:25. 25:38 He is begging the point, insisting on the fact 25:43 that this new entity 25:47 stands not necessarily for God 25:51 but off times in opposition to God. 25:55 And by the words that it speaks 25:57 and the way that it conducts itself, 26:01 it assumes many of the prerogatives of God. 26:06 Daniel 7:21, Daniel says, 26:09 "This same horn was making war 26:13 against the saints." 26:16 So make no mistake about it. 26:18 This is not a civil army. 26:20 This issue is a spiritual battle. 26:25 When we look at this new beast, 26:28 we are moving from physical conquest 26:32 to spiritual warfare. 26:34 The issue in Daniel 7 is not just physical conquest, 26:40 it is spiritual warfare. 26:43 And this horn is not fighting a nation or a kingdom 26:47 or even an ideology, 26:49 it's fighting against the saints of God. 26:52 And when you fight against the saints of God, 26:55 you are in effect fighting 26:57 against God himself. 27:01 So we are speaking about pompous words 27:04 and an entity that is wearing out 27:06 the saints of the Most High. 27:09 The Bible explains how this little horn power 27:12 virtually reigns unfretted and unchallenged 27:16 for a period of 1,260 years. 27:19 That's an awful long time. 27:21 Paul talk about him in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, 27:26 the Bible says, 27:27 "This power exalts himself above God, 27:30 sits in the place of God, in the temple of God, 27:34 claiming that he is God." 27:37 Now how do you do that? 27:39 You do that when you try to say that the things that God says 27:43 are important are not important. 27:46 You do that when you say the laws of God 27:48 are no longer 27:51 able to be kept 27:53 or even should be kept. 27:54 You do that when you try to take the prerogatives of God 27:59 and the power of God and apply it to yourself. 28:02 So this new exposition is telling us 28:06 what happens down in the ankles and toes 28:09 and feet of that image of Daniel 2. 28:12 It's explaining in greater detail 28:15 what we saw in Daniel 2 just prior to the second coming 28:20 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 28:22 So the picture we get is one of... 28:25 is one of aggressive, 28:29 grinding persecution, 28:32 years of persecution, years of privation, 28:37 we get a picture of a power 28:40 that insinuates itself 28:44 into every aspect of life and controls that life 28:48 and grinds against the people of God, 28:51 even to the extent of coming to America. 28:55 The inquisition went as far as Goa, India, 29:01 and also came to America. 29:03 If you want to read interesting history, 29:06 look how the people see 29:10 ordered Spain and Portugal 29:14 to divide South America. 29:16 Why some countries are Portuguese, 29:18 some countries speak in Spanish, 29:20 that was done at the insistence of Rome. 29:25 You get this piece, you get that piece. 29:28 Very, very interesting history how the Church 29:31 even insinuated itself into South America. 29:35 I remember speaking with Malachi Martin. 29:37 That name may not be familiar to some of you. 29:39 He was a famous Jesuit scholar, 29:43 lived in New York, died in 1999. 29:47 We had a chance to meet at a local radio station 29:50 and had many, many talks. 29:53 He's written a number of book, 29:55 "Decline and Fall of the Roman Church," 29:57 "Keys of this Blood," 29:59 just a number of books, an outspoken Jesuit scholar. 30:02 And after having read his 30:04 "Decline and Fall of the Roman Church" 30:05 about 650 pages, Dr. Martin admitted to me 30:11 in private discussion how he felt his church 30:15 had done many, many wrong things 30:17 down through the middle ages. 30:19 I was meeting with him. 30:22 And we were gonna have a debate 30:24 on one of the local radio stations 30:27 in the New York City area. 30:28 And I came armed with all of this material 30:31 as to how the Catholic Church had done some of these things 30:34 in the Middle Ages, and I had facts and figures 30:38 from the Lutheran Church and other churches 30:40 how they say the Catholic Church, 30:42 during the Inquisition, was responsible for the death 30:45 of about 50 million people. 30:47 I came armed with my material and we sat down for the debate 30:51 and I hit him with my hardest salvo. 30:53 I said, "Well, my figures show that the Catholic Church, 30:58 through the Inquisition, was responsible 30:59 for the death about 50 million Protestants." 31:01 He said, "Oh, it's way more than that. 31:04 It's way more than that." 31:05 And he disarmed me right away. 31:07 He said, "Yeah. Everything is true." 31:08 He said, "We did." 31:10 But this is what he said, and we're gonna come back 31:12 to this in just a little bit. 31:13 This is what Malachi Martin famous Jesuit scholar, 31:16 said to me. 31:17 He said, "Sometimes mothers are little over zealous 31:22 in correcting their wayward children." 31:26 That was his statement, 31:27 statement of a famed Jesuit scholar. 31:30 He said, "Sometimes mothers can be a little over zealous 31:35 in correcting their wayward children." 31:39 Some scholars estimate 50 million. 31:42 Malachi Martin said, "Much more than that." 31:45 So he wasn't making an excuse. 31:47 He said, "Sometimes when you spank your children, 31:50 you spank them a little hard, 31:51 you spank them a little too hard." 31:54 But given all of the torture 31:57 and the millions of death 32:01 as sad as that was and as bad as that was, 32:07 perhaps the most audacious 32:10 aspect of papal intention 32:14 was to change times and laws. 32:18 And that's what Daniel 7 tries to stress in 32:24 its portrayal of this new beast. 32:28 What does that mean? 32:32 What does it mean to try to change 32:35 times and laws? 32:38 There is a wonderful book that is no longer in print 32:41 that I have in my library called, 32:42 "How the Pope became infallible." 32:46 And it deals with the changing of times and laws. 32:50 But in verse 25 of Daniel 7, 32:53 we see that statement made. 32:58 This new power, this horn will seek to change 33:04 times and laws. 33:07 This little horn 33:09 claims the prerogatives of God. 33:14 The question we need to ask, 33:17 what times and whose laws 33:20 is the Bible speaking off? 33:24 Well first we can discount man's laws. 33:26 Can you say amen? 33:28 Because man's laws change 33:33 like the wind. 33:35 Think of the number of times 33:36 that England as a country 33:38 went from catholic to protestant, 33:40 catholic to protestant, 33:41 depending on the king or the queen on the throne, 33:43 it went from catholic to protestant. 33:45 We now have, in the United States here, 33:48 the president can sign executive orders. 33:51 One president can sign an executive order that says, 33:54 "Yea." 33:56 And then the next president comes right behind them 33:57 and signs an executive order that says, "Nay." 34:00 So we're not talking about man's times and laws 34:03 because man's laws change with the whim of the person 34:06 who gets elected. 34:08 They are not permanent. 34:09 They are as ropes of sand. They're like the wind. 34:11 So when we talk about changing time and laws, 34:14 we've got about the church trying, 34:16 we've got to be speaking about the church 34:18 attempting to change God's times and God's laws 34:23 because it's only God's time and God's law 34:26 that really matter. 34:28 Amen? 34:33 Every time we amend the constitution, 34:35 it occurs to me, we change our own laws. 34:37 So we're talking about God's time, God's law. 34:41 Here's a text for you, Malachi 3:6. 34:44 The Bible says, "I am the Lord, I change not." 34:48 So God is not fickle. 34:50 God doesn't say one thing today 34:52 and then sign an executive order 34:54 and make it another thing tomorrow. 34:56 And the battle really is between earth and heaven. 35:02 So let's put that in context, 35:04 God's law is the Ten Commandments, amen? 35:07 We're talking about the law of God, 35:09 we're talking about the eternal law of God, 35:11 the law that is part of His character, 35:13 that's the Ten Commandments. 35:15 The only commandment that deals with time 35:18 is the fourth commandment. 35:21 The rest of the commandments are sort of do 35:23 and don't commandments that really deal 35:25 with interpersonal relationships 35:26 between humans and interpersonal relationships 35:28 between man and God. 35:30 The only one that deals with time 35:33 is commandment number four. 35:35 Now this is very, very important. 35:37 I'm gonna show you something in just a little bit. 35:39 So God's law, Ten Commandments, God's time, 35:43 the fourth commandment. 35:44 So then Daniel 7:25 identifies a power 35:49 that will attempt to change the Lord's Sabbath. 35:54 That's what Daniel 7:25 is saying. 35:57 This power is going to attempt to change God's holy Sabbath 36:03 because the Sabbath is the only part 36:06 of the Ten Commandments that deals with time. 36:12 The first change or the first attempt to change 36:15 began with the Edict of Constantine in 321 AD. 36:19 Now we're not gonna go through that 36:21 because many people have talked about that. 36:23 What the Edict of Constantine 321 AD did, 36:27 it decriminalised work on Sunday. 36:33 Prior to 321 AD, 36:35 Christianity was still a Religio Illicitus, 36:39 in other words, an illegal religion. 36:42 And the reason we know that it was an illegal religion 36:44 is because just 10 years before or less, 36:49 the Christian church went through 36:51 one of the worst times of persecution in its history 36:54 called the Diocletian Persecution. 36:57 Ten years of persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, 37:00 303 to 313, when Christians where 37:03 slaughtered by the tens of thousands. 37:07 So now after 313, in 321, 37:11 Constantine makes an edict 37:15 that decriminalizes work on Sunday. 37:19 It de facto recognizes Christianity, 37:23 turns it from a Religio Illicita 37:26 to a legitimate religion. 37:30 Most people know about 321. 37:33 I want to take you to the next big attack 37:37 on Christianity at the council of Laodicea 37:41 in 364 AD. 37:44 364 AD. 37:47 And I want to give you the language that was voted 37:50 by the church at the council of Laodicea 364 AD, 37:56 "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, 38:01 that is the Sabbath." 38:02 Judaizing meant just acting like a Jew 38:05 and doing nothing on Sabbath. 38:07 So they wanted you working on Sabbath. 38:11 A little bit later, something very interesting, 38:14 the Catholic Church actually instituted something 38:16 they called the Sabbath fast. 38:18 They made you fast on Sabbath to make it a day of drudgery, 38:22 and then they allowed you to feast on Sunday. 38:27 So you can't Judaize on Sabbath "but shall work on that day." 38:31 So they want you in the field work 38:32 and they want you working on that day, 38:34 "But the Lord's day 38:37 they shall especially honor and as being Christians shall, 38:42 if possible, do no work on that day. 38:47 If however they are found Judaizing, 38:50 they shall be cut off from Christ." 38:55 That's the Council of Laodicea, 364 AD. 38:59 In other words, 39:00 if they caught you not working on Saturday, 39:06 you were anathema, you were cut off from the Lord. 39:10 So this now is the first fully functioning edict 39:16 not only in favor of Sunday 39:19 but specifically against Sabbath. 39:23 Then in the 16th century, 39:26 the church found its philosophical mother load. 39:34 In the 16th century, 39:36 the Church convened an 18-year convocation called 39:41 the Council of Trent, T-R-E-N-T, 39:45 after the city in Northern Italy. 39:50 The Council of Trent took up 39:52 many, many doctorates. 39:56 But one of the things that it did 40:01 towards the end of the council 40:03 was address itself to the Sabbath. 40:08 Let me give you some of the words 40:11 of the hero of the Council of Trent, 40:14 his name was Archbishop Reggio 40:18 or the Archbishop of Reggio. 40:21 Here is what a Catholic Church discovered in 1551 40:28 right near the close of the Council of Trent. 40:32 "The written word explicitly enjoins 40:36 the observance of the seventh day." 40:39 Now that's the Catholic Church telling the truth 40:43 about the Sabbath. 40:45 "The written word explicitly enjoins 40:49 the observance of the seventh..." 40:50 In other words the Bible says, "Keep the Sabbath." 40:54 "As the Sabbath, 40:56 we do not observe the seventh day. 41:00 If they," that is protestants, 41:04 "do truly hold the scripture alone 41:07 as their standard, they would be observing 41:12 the seventh day as enjoined in the scripture throughout." 41:17 You see what he is saying? 41:18 He's saying if you really were Bible keepers, 41:22 you would be keeping the seventh day. 41:24 Now hold onto your hats, 41:26 here's how he uses that argument, 41:28 "Yet they only... 41:32 "Yet they not only reject the observance of the Sabbath 41:36 enjoined in the written word..." 41:38 So he's saying it again. 41:39 "Not only do you reject the Sabbath in the Bible, 41:42 but they have adopted and do practice 41:46 the observance of Sunday 41:49 for which they have only the tradition of the church." 41:52 Now look what he is saying. 41:55 He is saying, 41:57 "You say that you're Bible keepers, 42:00 but the day you're keeping..." 42:03 You will forgive my pejorative English, 42:05 eight in the Bible. 42:09 So you're keeping a day, and the only reason you have 42:15 for keeping that day is because we're telling you 42:18 to keep that day. 42:20 So you cannot really say you're Bible keepers. 42:24 Now this, this is very, very important, 42:26 this is very crucial, "Consequently," 42:29 he goes on, "the claim of scripture alone 42:33 as their standard falls and the doctrine of scripture 42:38 and tradition as essential is fully established." 42:43 He's weaving a pretty tight case here, 42:46 "The Protestants themselves being judges." 42:50 This was voted at the Council of Trent in spring of 1551. 42:55 It's a powerful, powerful argument. 43:00 Now the Augsburg Confession, 43:03 the Augsburg Confession was voted as the Catholic... 43:09 Sorry, the Protestant doctrine in 1530. 43:15 It was presented 43:17 to the Holy Roman Empire 43:23 elector in Germany, 43:26 Lutheran scholars put it together, 43:29 and before long, 43:31 all protestant denominations 43:33 accepted the Augsburg Confession. 43:36 I've read the Augsburg Confession, 43:38 the book in which it is written is 878 pages long. 43:42 It's got 28 different parts and each of the different parts 43:46 has about 20 different subtexts. 43:48 It's a long, long thing. 43:51 The Council of Trent calls 43:55 it the Protestant Inconsistency. 44:01 Here's their reason, the Augsburg Confession 44:06 states that Protestants 44:11 would accept and revere Sunday. 44:15 And all protestant churches 44:17 signed on to the Augsburg Confession. 44:22 It admits the observance of Sunday as the Lord's day. 44:28 So now Archbishop Reggio come along 21 years later 44:33 at the Council of Trent and says, 44:36 "Because of this one issue, 44:40 because of this one issue," he says, 44:44 "the entire Protestant reformation is nothing 44:48 more than an unwarranted revolt 44:53 against the mother church." 44:55 And that was voted at the Council of Trent. 44:58 And from that day to this, that shows 45:02 what the Catholic Church thinks of Protestantism. 45:08 It is an unwarranted revolt. 45:12 Why is it a revolt? 45:14 He says, 45:15 "Because you don't believe yourself 45:18 what you're teaching." 45:20 And it's a powerful argument. 45:22 He says, "You cannot believe what you're teaching 45:25 because the main argument of the Protestant reformation 45:31 was sola scriptura." 45:36 The Bible and the Bible only. 45:40 The main argument coming out of the Council of Trent 45:44 is that scripture and tradition are equal. 45:51 So how can you be sola scriptura 45:55 and keep a day which is not scriptura? 46:01 You understand that argument? 46:03 It is so powerful that every Catholic scholar 46:07 from that day to this has used that same argument. 46:11 Every one, you name them, Cardinal Gibbons, Albert Smith, 46:16 John Newman, Louis Gaston Segur, 46:20 Nathan Keenan. 46:22 All of the great theologians 46:27 have used that same argument 46:30 that you cannot be solo scriptura 46:33 because you're keeping a day that has no place in scripture. 46:39 We changed the day. 46:41 You're keeling our day 46:43 so you're not really Protestant. 46:47 And many Catholic theologies call it, to this day, 46:51 the Protestant inconsistency. 46:54 They say, "You cannot be sola scriptura 47:00 because you're keeping a day that is not in scripture." 47:02 I brought this up to Malachi Martin. 47:05 This Protestant inconsistency, 47:08 this idea that you cannot be sola scriptura and keep Sunday. 47:12 And here is what Malachi Martin told me face to face. 47:16 He said, "If you worship the day..." 47:20 "If you worship the Lord on the day designated 47:24 by the Catholic Church..." 47:27 "If you worship the Lord on the day 47:31 designated by the Catholic Church, 47:34 regardless of what 47:36 you call yourself, you are Catholic." 47:41 That's Malachi Martin. 47:43 It doesn't matter what your name is, 47:45 Baptist, Protestant, Presbyterian. 47:47 Doesn't matter. 47:48 If you're worshiping on the day that we designate, 47:51 you're Catholic. 47:53 And that is the mindset of the church to this day. 47:56 And that's why your hearing terms like erring brethren, 47:59 you know brethren that have departed. 48:01 You're still Catholic 48:02 because you're worshiping on our day. 48:04 Now that's not the Protestant argument, 48:06 it's not the Seventh-day Adventist argument. 48:08 It is the Catholic Church's theological context 48:12 form 1551 in the Council of Trent. 48:15 You're accepting our day, you are de facto Catholic. 48:22 And of all the dogma 48:24 coming from the Council of Trent 48:26 and they ratified many things, arguably, 48:29 the one that has the most far reaching effect 48:35 on how Catholic theologians view 48:37 and treat all Sunday-keeping Protestants is this idea 48:43 of the Protestant inconsistency. 48:47 They're saying, "You don't believe yourself 48:49 what you're teaching, you cannot 48:52 because you're keeping our day." 48:53 It's a very, very powerful argument, 48:55 and it is buttressed 48:57 by what the Bible says in Daniel 7, 49:00 "They will seek to change times and laws." 49:03 And then we find out in Revelation 49:05 that the whole world is moving in that direction. 49:09 That is why, ladies and gentleman, 49:11 the Counter Reformation was so vicious 49:15 and why the fires of the inquisition rage 49:18 for the next 400 years 49:21 because from the Catholic standpoint, 49:23 said Malachi Martin to me, "They were crushing 49:27 an illegitimate religion whose adherence not only 49:34 didn't believe what they taught, 49:36 they couldn't believe what they taught." 49:39 According to Malachi Martin, "They couldn't believe it 49:42 because their basic worship premise 49:47 did not come from the Word of God. 49:53 Many of the popes and leaders of the church 49:57 saw their persecution of Protestants 50:01 not as persecution but rather fumigation, 50:07 sterilization, ratification of a disease 50:13 that infected the holy mother church. 50:18 Protestantism in the middle ages 50:21 was for many not a rival religion 50:26 but a virus that needed to be cleansed. 50:31 That is why they took such extreme measures, 50:34 such ungodly measures, such horrific measures 50:38 in stamping out what they saw... 50:41 what they thought was an unnecessary revolt 50:46 that should have never taken place. 50:50 So groups like the Huguenots, the Albigenses, the Waldenses, 50:56 the Cathary, the Lombards, 51:02 the Anabaptists, the Jews... 51:05 I'm sorry, the Lollards, the new Christians 51:09 which were Sabbath keeping Christians 51:12 by the way were hunted down and destroyed 51:17 because the church thought 51:19 they were doing the work of God. 51:22 As far as India and in the east and Spain 51:29 and its colonies in the west, 51:32 the church thought its duty 51:37 to execute offenders. 51:40 The move to change God's Sabbath, 51:44 to change the times and laws of God 51:47 did not happen overnight. 51:50 It took centuries of force, coercion, 51:55 edicts, papal bulls 51:58 and disciplines to try 52:01 to get the Sabbath to go away. 52:06 But praise God after 100,000 Albigenses 52:10 were destroyed in a day and 70,000 Huguenots 52:15 destroyed in France, 52:17 and tens of thousands of Christians destroyed, 52:21 God's truth still marched on. 52:25 Amen. 52:27 Now let's look quickly before our time gets away 52:28 at the time period as spoken of in Daniel 7. 52:33 The Bible says that this persecuting power 52:36 would be in the ascendency times, 52:39 time, times and dividing or half a time. 52:43 So let's look at the numbers, looking at the day, year, 52:47 day principle, time, time, 360 day/years. 52:51 The Jewish year was 360 days, not 365. 52:56 Times is a multiplication of that, 52:58 times 2 or 720 day/years, 53:02 and half a time is 180 day/years. 53:06 We mark that from the year that Pope Leo crowned 53:12 Charlemagne head of the Holy Roman Empire 53:17 the same year that the Ostrogoths 53:19 were eradicated from Italy, the same year 53:24 that the Catholic Church began to function on its own, 53:29 the year 538 AD. 53:33 You add to that 1,260 years, 53:37 and you'll come up to 1798. 53:42 It was in that year that... 53:47 Alexander birth year, Napoleon's general went to Rome 53:52 and took the pope off his throne, 53:56 and a 1,260-year reign 54:00 of terror came to an end. 54:05 During that time, God's people stood up for Him 54:11 in marked and wonderful ways. 54:14 God's people were burned and hounded 54:19 and chased and weren't allowed to read the Bible. 54:24 They were persecuted 54:28 almost beyond reason. 54:31 And yet the truth of God stood strong. 54:36 Amen. 54:38 I'll say it again. 54:40 I said before rather and will say again. 54:43 God has always had His witnesses, always. 54:46 There have always been people 54:49 who were able to risk life and limb 54:55 and even liberty for the cause of Christ. 54:59 We don't know how many millions died 55:04 at the hand of persecution but God does. 55:09 Every name has been written down, 55:12 every face is marked in the mind of God. 55:17 And not one tear was shed 55:20 that wasn't written down in heaven. 55:23 That's why I am so thankful that at the end of that 55:28 wonderful faith chapter in the Book of Hebrews, 55:33 there is this text that says, 55:35 "They without us should not be made perfect." 55:40 Even those who suffered, when they get their reward, 55:46 you'll get your reward at the same time. 55:49 We'll all go in together. 55:52 My prayer is that we all stand for the Lord. 55:57 Our faith will be tested. 55:58 Oh, yes, it will be. 56:01 But the same God who was with those 56:04 wonderful saints of old is with us here today. 56:08 Amen. 56:09 He has not left us, He has not forsaken us, 56:13 and He guarantees that the children of God 56:18 will be victorious. 56:22 This is like the seal, the... 56:27 I'm trying to think of that person you go to the... 56:29 notary republic who gives you 56:31 that seal and makes it official? 56:33 That's what this last line is. 56:35 "For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." 56:41 That's a notary republic seal. 56:43 God say, "What I have told you, 56:46 I myself guarantee." 56:50 They will seek the changed times and laws, 56:53 they will seek to tell you what you can do 56:55 or even what you can think. 56:59 But have no fear, fear not. 57:03 God will bring forth our people. 57:07 And I wanna be in that number. 57:08 What about you? 57:11 And then He says, 57:12 "I'm guaranteeing you your deliverance. 57:17 You will make it through." 57:20 Why? 57:21 Because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. 57:27 Amen? 57:28 Amen. And amen. |
Revised 2019-09-10