Announcer: This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the "Amazing Facts Ministry." announcer: Coming to you from New York City at the historic Manhattan Center with your host Doug Batchelor. Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned. Your Amazing Facts adventure begins now.
Doug Batchelor: And our amazing fact today takes us to Rome. The subject, of course, is the Antichrist beast. And the amazing facts is dealing with the Vatican City. Now a lot of people wonder, the Roman Church is such a prominent power in the world today, religious power. Is it any way connected with these final events? Well, we'll find out what the Bible says as we go along, but there is an amazing fact regarding this.
The Vatican City is technically an independent country and the smallest country in the world. In 1929, under the terms of the Lateran Treaty, Vatican City (also known as the Holy See) was established as an independent state of 109 acres. It's a significant world power, the Vatican hosts 84 embassies of the world's top nations. Less than 800 people live in this tiny country, which is governed by the pope, who holds absolute executive, legislative and judicial powers. Furthermore, the Vatican City has its own postal system, its own currency, the world's smallest railroad system, about a thousand feet of track in one station. And this city also features a press to publish a daily newspaper, a radio station and its own phone and internet service. And the famous Swiss Guard serves as police, army and Secret Service for the pope.
A couple of years ago, Karen and I and Pastor Ross and his wife Ruth, we were in Rome, took a tour of the Vatican. Boy, I'll tell you, that's a very impressive city and building, and it is an independent country. They've got ambassadors. The US has an ambassador to the Vatican. When you think about that, 109 acres and the impact is global. How is that? Why is that?
Now, we're going to get right into our study dealing with the subject of the Antichrist and what is the Antichrist in the last days? Are they--is he or it in the world today? And as we often like to do, we want to go out onto the streets and find out a little more, what do some people think? What are their ideas about the Antichrist, so this should be fun.
Female: To me, it is someone who is not Christian, meaning not faithful, not a good person. Personified as the devil.
Female: You don't believe in Christ.
Male: Against Christ.
Male: Against all that is good, all that is God probably.
Male: It's like not believing in God, like not believing in churches and anything.
Male: Absolutely. I see more and more people varying away from religion. You know, religion is morality. 10 Commandments are all about being a good person. And we're straying too far away from that.
Female: Maybe. Sure.
Male: It probably lives in everyone. Yeah, kind of evil. Evil always lurks.
Female: I just think he is--the devil is doing his thing and he's trying to get everybody to divide against each other.
Female: Yes, definitely. We could tell. Well, just from the world conditions because from our study of the Bible, I believe that the Antichrist is someone who doesn't believe that the Christ existed.
Male: Well, I mean, I have a theory that, I mean, there's a couple of different theories. They say that the Antichrist is born on the day after the winter solstice, which would be December 22nd, which is my birthday, believe it or not.
Male: I don't think Antichrist exists.
Male: I don't think it's a real thing, okay? If I had to answer that in terms of who's the biggest risk to our world right now: Vladimir Putin.
Doug: And some people say Prince Charles, and some people say Ronald Reagan because he had six letters in all three of his names, and there have been all kinds of theories about what is the beast and who is the Antichrist, and I don't know if any of you remember years ago, they had a great big computer in Brussels, they called it the beast. Some of you I see you're nodding, yeah. All the Christians said, "That is the Antichrist."
And then when I was--early in my Christian experience when I was converted and I studied with my friends, the barcode began to appear on products and people said, "That is the mark of the beast. Don't buy anything that has a barcode on it." All those friends died a long time ago from starvation. And then, I don't know if some of you remember Proctor & Gamble had a very interesting logo that looked like--I see some of you nod, it looked like 666 and people said, "Don't use Pampers."
There have been so many theories out there about what is the beast and what is the Antichrist? Where do we go for the answer? We're going to find out what the Bible says about this. Fair enough?
So, number one, who is going to stand on the sea of glass? You're reading Revelation chapter 15. These are the redeemed, "Those who have victory over the," what's it say? "beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name," we'll get to that, "standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God." These are the overcomers. They are going to be in the kingdom. So, you know, you want to avoid the mark of the beast and the image. They've got the victory over it. That's good news. You can have the victory over it.
Number two, what are the three angels' messages that go to the world before Christ comes in Revelation 14 and in verse 14, Jesus comes, but these messages go global. One of those messages of Revelation 14 starts with Revelation 14:6. We're going to look here at verse 7, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come," now there is a judgment that takes place before Jesus comes. Judgment must begin at the house of God.
Some of you remember in the Bible when those religious leaders caught that woman in the act of adultery, they drugged her to the temple, they threw her down at the feet of Jesus, and they began to suggest that she should be stoned. Christ ignored them, and He began to write on the dust of the temple floor. And one by one, beginning at the eldest, even to the least, they went out because He was writing down their sins. He was writing down the laws they had broken. The finger of God, you know, writes the law of God. Judgment in the house of God against professed believers. And if you look in Ezekiel 9, it says, "There's a judgment that comes and a mark is placed on the forehead of those who are saved," and He said, "Begin with the ancient men in My sanctuary."
A judgment that begins at the house of God. Now why is that? When the Lord comes, He says, "I will reward everyone according to his work." I think it's clear to everybody that when He comes, God is not going to start rubbing His beard saying, "Hmm, I wonder who's going to make it." He already knows. So, some investigation takes place before He comes. We are living in that age now. I'll explain. Second angel's message Revelation 14:8, "And another angel followed, saying," what? "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she," we're going to read about Babylon. See, we're in chapter 14.
You're going to now read more about Babylon in chapter 17. I told you Revelation repeats and overlaps so we don't misunderstand. "Because she has made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication." The pure new wine is the gospel of Jesus. The intoxicating wine confuses people. It's the confusion of Babylon, it's the false teachings of Babylon.
Number three, third angel's message, "Third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice," by the way, that word loud voice is megaphono, "saying, "If anyone," does what? "Worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or his hand, he himself will drink of the wine of the wrath of God that is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation."
So, immediately prior to Jesus's return, you see this message of Revelation 14, these three angel messages go to the world to warn people about the beast, the Antichrist, same creature, and his mark and the number of his name and what his image is so they do not worship, so they're not confused by the false counterfeit worship. For every truth of God, the devil has a counterfeit. So, you need to know what the truth is, and you won't be confused about the counterfeit.
Number three, what is a beast or what does a beast represent in prophecy? Now, when some people hear about the mark of the beast and the beast in the last days, they picture some like alien-like creature with lots of eyes and heads and noses. In the Bible, a beast simply means an animal and it represents a kingdom. Let me show you from Scripture. Daniel 7:17, there's a vision of these beasts that come up out of the earth, one's like a lion and one's like a bear and one's like a leopard. "Those great," what are they called? "beasts which are four kings," and it doesn't mean just kings, it means kings or kingdoms because look at verse 23, Daniel 7:23, "The fourth beast will be the fourth," what? "Kingdom."
So, there's--the beast in Revelation 13 is one of many beasts in the Bible in prophecy. And so, it's not the only one, but it's the big finale for the devil, so we're all very interested in that Antichrist beast, but you've got many beasts in the prophecies that represent different powers that are usually opposing and persecuting God's people, okay? Look in Daniel chapter 8, "And the male goat is the," what? "The kingdom of Greece." So, it's comparing a kingdom of Greece, and it says the first horn between his eyes represents its first primary king which we learned was Alexander the Great. Then he ends up with four horns, and it's the four divisions of that empire. Even in our country, when you think of the bald eagle, what country do you think of? America.
Do you know I was--where was I? I think I was in Saint Paul's Church this week and they had the old seal of the United States and it was a turkey. Benjamin Franklin wanted to use the turkey as our national animal. If I mentioned to you the bear, what country comes to mind? Russia. And if I say the dragon, China. The lion, Great Britain, England, right? And so, all these different countries, they often have beasts. This is nothing new and should not surprise you.
So, question number four, no, we've got a very interesting beast we're going to be studying. How does the Bible identify the beast? And now we're talking about the beast of Revelation 13, and I want you to take your Bibles because there's actually a couple of beasts in Revelation 13. Turn to Revelation 13, we're going to go to verse 1, "Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having," what? "Seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns."
Now, that beast may join us right now. We see this beast appear several times in Bible prophecy. And if, you know, you're driving down the road in Alaska, you might see a sign and it's got a moose on it. It says beware, moose crossing. One of the principal ways people die driving in Canada is they hit a moose. Hitting a moose is worse than hitting a deer or a squirrel or a skunk. It'll look like a moose. You've never seen a crossing sign that's got a beast with seven heads and ten horns. This is obviously a symbolic beast. This beast in Revelation 17 has a woman sitting on it with seven heads and ten horns. And now here we are in Revelation chapter 13, and we've got this beast again and it's got seven heads and ten horns.
Now, would you all say that they're related because how many beasts are there running around with seven heads and ten horns? So, there is a comparison. Y'all with me on that? But it's different. In Revelation 13, it draws back to Daniel chapter 7 that leads us to the Antichrist beast. Let me show you. It says, "Having seven heads, ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns." Later in Revelation, these horns do not have crowns. You know, a lot of the empires in Europe used to have monarchies, they don't have monarchies anymore. So, things have changed. "Now the beast I saw was like a leopard," I thought it was a dragon. Well, you know, you read in Daniel 7, it says there's a beast like a leopard, "And its feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority." When you look in Daniel chapter 7 and you're looking at this composite of a beast, the lion is Babylon, the bear is Medo Persia, the leopard is Greece. Then you got this other beast with iron teeth. We learned the iron is Rome, that is a nondescript beast that crushes and devours.
Now, it's interesting: in Revelation it's exactly reverse. Instead of going lion, bear, leopard, it goes leopard, bear, lion. Why? Daniel is looking forward to these kingdoms. John is looking and now they're behind him. So, it's--the biblical perspective is so perfect. It's absolutely amazing. So, there's a little difference between the beast that you see here in Revelation chapter 13. It is the same beast that is now being ruled by Rome, but it's being influenced. You realize the Roman Empire is being influenced by the kingdom of Greece and Babylon and Persia. Matter of fact, we talk about Greco-Roman architecture and the governments and the math that they got from Babylon and things we've got from the Persians and the alphabet. And then they--the Greeks adopted some of that and expanded, and these four empires basically have affected the whole world, not just the Mediterranean.
What calendar does the whole world follow? It's a Roman calendar. That's right. A solar calendar. And even the months around the world and the days of the week, well, they actually date to the Bible, but the names for them. And so, the governments of the world that use a senate and a congress and a parliament, a lot of these things, they drew from these governments, and they built on them. A lot of the educational aspects.
And so, all right, let me finish reading here chapter 13. "And his mouth was like the mouth of a dragon," go to verse 3, "and I saw one of his heads as it had been mortally wounded," looks like a deadly wound, "but the deadly wound was healed and all the world marveled and followed the beast." Looks like a resurrection. "So, they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who's like the beast and who's able to make war with him?" And there has given him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he's given authority to continue for 42 months. And he opens his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. And it was granted him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and authority was given to him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
And then it goes on and it talks about another beast that comes up, but that's going to be a study for another day. I'll tell you what, I'm going to stop there. We're going to expand a little bit, and then we're going to go to Revelation 17. We want to identify who is this beast, and it ends up telling us that whoever does not have the number or worship that beast in his name and his number can't buy or sell, and they end up getting to the point where there's a death decree. All right, so we realize that the beast with the seven heads and ten horns is not looking quite as much like a dragon, but it is still being empowered by the dragon of Rome that we see in chapter 12 and also in chapter 17. Look at the characteristics. Let's identify them. And if we go through these clues, we'll eventually be able to figure out who this power is.
All right, for one thing, one, it rises up out of the sea. Two, it receives its power, seat and authority from the dragon. Three, it becomes a worldwide power. Four, it's guilty of blasphemy. Five, it rules for 42 prophetic months. Six, it receives a deadly wound that heals. Seven, it's clearly a religious power because it involves worship. Eight, it persecutes God's saints. Nine, it has a mysterious number connected with the name, "666." Ten, it is led by a supreme man. It says, "For it is the number of a man." All right, does that sound fair? This is the evidence we just read about in chapter 13. Let's find out what this beast's power is that is going to play a prominent role in the last days.
Number five, this beast arises from the sea. What does sea, or water, symbolize? Now you've got to go to Revelation chapter 17. The angel tells John; John the apostle writes the book of Revelation. He's in vision and he says that there's a woman that sits on a beast coming up out of the water, and he's wondering, "What does the water mean?" And the angel tells him, so you don't need to wonder, "The," what? "The waters that you saw are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues." And it's interesting that whereas you had the kingdoms of Babylon and Persia and Greece, they kind of went from the Mediterranean eastward, the kingdom of Rome almost completely surrounded the Mediterranean. And it rose up from a peninsula in the very middle of it all, but it tells us that it's highly populated empires. So, it comes up from that place. So, I think one thing we're going to learn is that all roads lead to Rome. The Romans actually built some of the most sophisticated road systems in the world in antiquity.
Question number six. Who gives the beast its power and its position? Answer, "The dragon gave him his power, his throne and great authority." All right, I need to just pause here and, ahh, take a breath, say something as carefully as I can. Quick little prayer. There are two beasts in Revelation 13. The first beast, I believe, is speaking of what we would call the papacy based in Rome. The second beast is dealing with Protestantism based in North America. I don't want to be unkind, you know. I consider myself a Protestant and I went to two different Catholic schools.
Let me say right here at the outset, I expect to see millions of Protestants and Catholics in heaven. Y'all with me? But you want me to tell you what the prophecy say? Hear me out, friends watching, those listening, do yourself a favor. Hear me out, if it's not biblical, don't believe it, but if it's going with the Bible, you want to go by the Word of God, amen? Does that sound fair? I am not talking against any individuals. I'm talking about what does the scripture in the prophecy say, you need to know? Because these things are going to have a dramatic effect on the last days and on you if you're living in the last days.
Tells us that Rome once ruled the world. We all agree Rome was that fourth kingdom in Daniel's image. Rome was the power that was in supremacy when Jesus was born. They seemed like they were ruling the whole Mediterranean, certainly occupying God's people during that time. But the Roman Empire began to crumble, and about the same time it began to crumble, Christianity in Rome became legal and ascended. And this is--now, the Bible was written over a period of 1500 years. The last book of the Bible, Revelation, John died about 90 AD. So now as we look for the fulfillment of Revelation in the future, you can't go to the Bible, you got to go to history because the last book of the Bible is written 100 AD.
So, now let's find out what happened historically that fulfilled those prophecies. You with me? Does that make sense? All right. Constantine was the first Roman emperor, and when we were in Rome, we saw his picture everywhere. He's considered a hero. He finally legalized Christianity. He made it a legal religion. He established Sunday as a day of worship and all of a sudden, it became very popular to be a Christian because now the emperor said it was legal. His mother converted to Christianity and there was a great movement, but there was a lot of compromise that took place because with the conversion of Constantine, up until that point, paganism, which was a combination of the Roman gods and the Greek gods, and they had idols everywhere in the empire.
Someone said they had more idols in Rome than tiles on the roof. Everywhere you went, they had little statuettes and idols, and they said, "These are very important works of art. What do we do?" And, you know, some of the developed Bible believers, they said, "It's idolatry. Don't pray to idols, it's forbidden in the second commandment." And others, they said, "Well, look, you know, if we compromise," listen to what they said, "if we compromise a little bit, look at all the pagans that'll join the church." So, they said, "Don't make them throw away their idols, just tell them, 'It's not really a god,' and give them biblical names. It's not, you know, Peter--it's not Mercury, Zeus, Apollo, it's Peter, James, and John. Or it's not Diana of the Ephesians, it's Mary." And they began to rename their idols.
Do you know that the statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican predates the Vatican? It was once called the Statue of Jupiter, and they moved it into the Vatican and renamed it. And they have kissed the foot off that statue several times, so it's had to be replaced. Literally, people go there and they kiss the foot and they worn it off and they have to rebuild it and they kiss it off again. That's called idolatry. Not supposed to do that.
Whom did pagan Rome give her authority to? Now I'm reading from Adolph Harnack, "What is Christianity?" A history book, he's not writing for my church. "To whom did pagan Rome give her authority and capital city? History is clear that pagan Rome," when I say pagan Rome, it's Rome ruled by Caesars, "pagan Rome turned over its power and capital to the Church of Rome." They moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, and they told the bishop of Rome, "You're now the leader of the church." They gave their power, seat, and authority, which is exactly what Revelation 13 said the dragon would give him, its power, seat, and authority. The dragon in Revelation 12, Herod, working for the Romans, tried to devour the baby, remember? As a Roman Empire now gives its power, seat and authority to the Church of Rome.
When the devil could not destroy the church from the outside, he decided to go in through compromise. That's what began to happen historically. So, the church being a movement of the heart, it became a political institution with an army compelling people to believe. Did Jesus ever say, "If you don't believe Me, I'm going to torture you"? No, that's not how Jesus spread His religion.
Doug: You know, Jesus came into our world for three reasons. First of all, He came as our example to live a life that we might follow His steps. He came to show us the Father. He said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." And then He came as our sacrifice. He died on the cross as a substitute for all our sins, but we must come to Him. We repent of our sins. We confess. He'll receive us with loving arms. Why don't you ask Him now?
Doug: Hi friends, I trust you're being blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the prophecy Odyssey study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides. They're beautifully illustrated, and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So, if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen. You will be glad you did.
Doug: Today you've learned the stunning truth about Revelation's Antichrist beast power, but you may have more questions about this important, but very deep topic. If so, I'd like to invite you to request a copy of "The Mark of the Beast." This "Amazing Facts" study guide reveals much more about this last-day power and how you can avoid its deceptions. To get yours, simply follow the instructions on your screen and we'll send it to you quickly and free of charge.
Doug: What you've seen just now is only part one in this presentation. Make sure and join us for part two in our next broadcast for some of the most important points on this topic and to complete the corresponding study guides. Until then, God bless.
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