preceding the second coming of Christ. And I don't know if you've gone to many other churches recently, but prophecy is kind of a topic which is not real popular right now in the sense of being preached. Because, you know, it's so controversial nowadays and because of the the postmodern influence and relativism, Christians are really struggling with whether such things can be known at all. And so, because prophecy hasn't unfolded yet in history, there's been a great detraction from it being taught from the pulpit, because we don't want to step on anyone's toes. And yet, this is the last hour, as every generation has thought it's the last hour. But it needs to be taught. It probably compiles about 30% of the Bible. Some say a little more, some say a little less. But it's a large portion of the Word of God. If we leave that out, then we're leaving out a huge portion of the Word of God. And so it needs to be taught, and that's one of the reasons we're teaching it now. This morning I want to deal with the events covering four time periods. One of those, of course, is the one we're in now, the present age, or the church. Secondly, we'll look at the period of preparation that follows the rapture, so the time from the rapture until the beginning of the tribulation, some of the events that will take place. Third, the period of peace for Israel in the first half of the tribulation. And lastly, the period of persecution for Israel in the second half of the tribulation. So the present, the period of preparation, the period of peace, and the period of persecution. In terms of how these things will fall out in history, this is what it looks like. We're presently, of course, in the present age. There are events which separate each one of these. The rapture separates the present age from the period of preparation. The firm covenant between the Antichrist and Israel separates the period of preparation from the period of Israel's peace. The abomination of desolation in the Tribulation Temple separates Israel's period of peace from Israel's period of persecution. And then that will, of course, conclude with the second coming of Christ. And so these are the four periods that we'll look at today and the events that take place in these periods. And hopefully I'll be able to bring in some things here that I'm not able to bring in in Revelation, and this will help enhance what we're doing in there. So let's look at the present age, first of all. And there are some general characteristics of the church age that are outlined in Matthew 13. There are eight parables, the first and last are like bookends for these parables, the first gives the interpretation or an introduction to the parables, the last one gives a application. So the six in the middle really have the key teachings that we have to understand. These parables have been given numerous different interpretations, and there's no doubt that they are a difficult section of scripture. They are called the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. I think this is down in what, 1310 or so? 11. And he answered and said to them, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Now, the little phrase mysteries of the mystery means something that was unrevealed in the Old Testament, but is now being revealed, OK, for the first time. And it has to do with the kingdom of heaven, mysteries concerning the kingdom of heaven. And the kingdom of heaven, I believe, is the millennial kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament, the Davidic kingdom, that God's period of ruling on earth through his son. So this phrase means they contain truths that were not revealed in the Old Testament regarding the earthly millennial kingdom. And the primary teaching of the parables is that in view of Israel's rejection of Jesus as Messiah in chapter 12, a whole new age will intervene. This age is not the kingdom, but precedes it. Okay? Does that make sense? So what we're looking at is something like this. In the Old Testament, Israel's kingdom program was in operation. And then, when the king was rejected, he introduced in these parables a new intervening age. We know it now as the church. He announced what it would be called in Matthew 16, 18, three chapters later. I will build my church. And then, once the church is complete at the rapture, then he will once again pick up Israel's kingdom program. Or really, that's the second coming. This is just showing that there's going to be an intervening age, all eight of these parables. So these eight parables are going to teach us general truths about this intervening age, okay? And here's what they are teaching, I think. We will see the parable, I've got a little title for it, the scripture that it covers in this Matthew 13, and then the interpretation. First of all, the first parable is the sower and the soils. Here's the scripture that relate to that parable, and then it teaches that there are going to be four different responses to the gospel. Okay? Four different responses to the gospel. Rejection, profess to believe but not really believe, believe but don't be fruitful, believe and be very fruitful. Okay? So those are the four different responses that people have to the gospel during this age. You ever think of that? Reject, profess to believe, but believe in the wrong object or something. Believe, but never become a fruitful believer, and then be a fruitful believer. Those are the four responses. Then we have the Wheaton-Darnall parable, and this is basically teaching that a new age will intervene. We can't go into detail into these at all, The mustard seed starts off like a mustard seed and it grows to be a huge thing. This will point out that there's going to be a growth in the number of kingdom heirs. Who's going to inherit the kingdom? Well, we'll be there in the kingdom. So during this age, all who believe will be a part of that kingdom. And this is showing that the number of kingdom heirs will increase during the present age. The leaven. During this age, of course, 11 always points towards sin in the Bible. So it's pointing to the fact of increasing apostasy throughout the intervening age. And so we will spend some more time on that particular aspect in a moment. But, you know, in other words, things aren't going to get better during the church age, like post-millennialism, but they're going to get worse, like pre-millennialism. And the ultimate bad time is after the church is raptured and you've got the tribulation, which is just terrible. Hidden treasure, the hidden treasure, the parable of the hidden treasure. The kingdom is the treasure. It has been hidden. But Jesus will find it at the end of this intervening age. OK. And of course, he'll find it when he brings in his kingdom. The precious pearl teaches the idea that the redeemed of all ages will be in the kingdom. Okay, so that includes you and I and the Old Testament saints and even those before. The parable of the dragnet shows that there will be a judgment at the end of the new age. There will be a judgment at the end of the age. So these are all general characteristics of the present age. And the last one is the head of the household. And this parable is teaching us to apply what we've just learned about all these new truths that had been hidden in the Old Testament but were now revealed. And what we're supposed to do is we're supposed to web the old truths with the new. In other words, we're supposed to integrate these new teachings with what we already knew from the Old Testament. Okay? So we can have a full picture. Now, let's zoom in on the fourth parable, 11, that the present age will end in apostasy. 2 Peter 2 and 3 outline the progression toward apostasy during the present age. It says in 2 Peter, I believe it's 2.1, that false teachers will secretly introduce destructive heresies. I want to narrow in on some of these terms like secret and destructive heresies, okay? Now, it uses the word secret here to point out that there's secret tactics. I mean, false teachers don't come at you, you know, in obvious ways. Satan is an angel of light. It doesn't say he's a big red guy, you know, with a pitchfork, you know. But he comes as an angel of light. He appears to be what is good and pure and holy, but it's actually a deception. And so this is why, it's because they come with secret tactics that you have to be advanced in Bible doctrine if you're going to be able to detect it, okay, and not be swept away. So let's look at some of the secret tactics. I can't give them all to you. I could think and probably come up with some better ones, but here's some of the secret tactics false teachers use. They gradually introduce heresies, number one. Gradually, see? They don't introduce them all at once. They slowly condition your mind to accept new ideas. Okay? Just a little point here and just a little bit there. And over time, they'll condition your mind. And the second one is probably the most obvious. They don't teach the Bible. Instead, what they do is they start with a verse that they pulled out of context, Okay? And then they use it as a springboard to promote their own political, moral, or social agenda. This is very common. You know, churches that don't teach through books of the Bible, but just want to jump around every week, that is a very dangerous way to study or to teach the Bible. Very dangerous. Through this, what they can do is they can manipulate people to give money to them and give them their time to support their agendas. And most of the people, they do this all the time, and they don't even know they're doing it. They're just fueling someone's political, moral, or social agenda. Three, they use Bible words, but with non-biblical definitions. In other words, they talk about Jesus, it's real pretty. They talk about God. They talk about, oh, the resurrection, yes. Oh, the inspiration of Scripture, yes, yes, yes. But by these words, they mean totally different things than what traditional orthodoxy has meant, what the Bible means. For example, by Jesus, they mean a first century political activist. You know, you wonder why, they come out with articles in the Austin paper, you know, like, what, Jesus was a Democrat, you know, and all this kind of stuff. Well, I mean, That's because this is what they think about Jesus. He's just some kind of political activist. They don't think He's the Son of God and all these kinds of things. So they talk about Jesus, but they mean a totally different thing by Jesus than what we're accustomed to knowing. By God, they mean the forces of nature. You say, really? People think that about God? Yes. When you say God in public, who knows what you're communicating unless you describe this God that you're talking about. By resurrection, they mean some kind of New Age mysticism, some kind of ongoing spirit or something like that. But they don't mean this literal, physical, bodily transformation of your old body into a new one. They don't mean that. A lot of Christians even think resuscitation is the same thing, or reincarnation. I have Christians say to me, well, you know, every Christian knows about the reincarnation. What are you talking about? You're talking about some kind of Eastern religion stuff, reincarnation. That's not Christianity at all. By inspiration, they mean something like the minds of the authors of Scripture were stimulated to create a literary masterpiece, kind of like Van Gogh or Michelangelo or something like that. That's not what happened. That's not what the Bible means by inspiration. They were inspired to create some literary masterpiece. No. No, we mean God's words were breathed out onto the pages of Scripture, is what we mean through human authors. Okay. The fourth way they introduce false teaching is they interpret the Bible allegorically or spiritually. Allegorically or spiritually doesn't mean we have to find a spiritual meaning there. There is spiritual meaning on every page of the Bible. Nobody's denying that. What we mean by allegorical or spiritual, which I see as identical terms, is that we read into the words ideas that are not communicated by the words. Like, for example, when I'm reading the Bible and it says church, and they say, oh, that means Israel. What? How did we get there? See, the word church does not communicate Israel to me, but to some people it does. Okay? Because they've read into the word a meaning that's not communicated by the word. Okay? So, obviously, if you do this, then you're going to read into the Bible ideas that are not in the Bible. Okay? And so this is a way to confuse people. And the last one, of course, the secret tactic is everybody else is doing it. Everybody else is reading that book. Y'all ought to read it. Every other church is involved in this big hoopla thing, so we ought to do it. It must be good. If lots of Christians are following it, it must be right. How could so many Christians be wrong? Oh, my gosh. You've got to be kidding me. Right now, I'm going to tell you this. If every Christian is doing it, I don't want you to do it. Because I have never seen something that every Christian is doing that it was good. I've not seen one. So, obviously, the way I always think about it is if every other Christian is doing it, it's probably not the right thing to do. Let's go the other way. All right. So, these are all secret ways of introducing destructive heresies. So, you have to be advanced. You have to know Bible doctrine if you're going to be able to detect these things. Okay? Now, the verse said that they're going to introduce, secretly introduce destructive heresies. Okay? They're destructive. They have destructive results in your lifestyle. That's what we're talking about. Normally, it works out in the following progression. Futile speculations. Begin to speculate about all sorts of things. And Paul said this kind of thing divides Christians rather than bringing them together. Evolutionary thinking. Do we have any believers around in the United States or elsewhere in the world that believe in evolution? all the time, trying to get the two together, you know, and all that kind of business. Heterosexual immorality. We have any Christians who are involved in destroying their marriages by going off with other men or women? You better believe it. The divorce rate among Christians just a few years ago was higher than non-Christians. Why? Well, because they have begun to take in all the world all around them and integrate it in their thinking. and not believe God's Word. Homosexual immorality. Same thing. Do we have any believers out there who get involved in this kind of activity? Yeah, we do. Why? Because their minds are futile. They're being darkened because they're turning away from the one God who is. They're even saved by Him. But they're lapping up false doctrines. become filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil. They become full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips. We don't have a problem with that in the church. Okay. Slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. We don't have any of that. without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And here's the real kicker. And although they know the ordinance of God, as they know what they ought to be doing, that those who practice such things are worthy of death. They not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. You're a good old boy like me. We do the same terrible things. I mean, what are you going to do? See, the next verse is if you condemn them for doing it, then they're condemning themselves. because they do the same thing. So, since they gradually introduce heresies, you gradually fall into this destructive lifestyle. You say, I'd never get involved in heterosexual immorality. Oh, I'd never, you know, be insolent. I'd never be untrustworthy, unloving, all these things. Yeah, but it comes gradually, see? It's not like tomorrow you're going to be that way. It's like Satan is on a little track to get you there gradually. And if I can get you to accept this little thing, just have a bite of this. And then before you know it, you eat the whole candy bar, you know, and that kind of thing. So it's all secret and it's all destructive. So their doctrines are heretical. This means that something that is totally contrary to a clear teaching of Scripture, something totally contrary to a clear teaching of Scripture. Let's look at some of these. It says in 2 Peter 2.1 that they will even deny the master who bought them, as they'll deny Christ, the one who paid for them on the cross. So, they often do this in secret ways. Let's look at some of these. Denying the deity of Christ. Denial of the deity of Christ. They may say, oh yeah, they may talk about Jesus a lot, first of all, okay? And you think, oh, this guy's a Christian, man. He's talking about Jesus? Yeah. And all this, I really like this guy. But if you really start to ask him questions, you find out, oh, he says Jesus is like God, but not God. Like God? Well, that's close. I mean, maybe he just means there's a distinction in the Trinity or something. No. This is a false view called Arianism and Semi-Arianism, both of which are heretical. Or they may say Jesus is a God. He's a God, but not the God. They're willing to say a God, though. That'd be the Jehovah's Witnesses in Mormonism. Okay? Or they may say it's not important that Jesus was God. It's just important that you walk like Jesus. Oh, get out of here. There's no salvation if he wasn't God. Let's just put it that way. That destroys the whole plan of salvation. Denying the substitutionary atonement of Christ. That his death on the cross was a substitute for you. They may deny this. So they may say that Jesus died on the cross. Oh, yeah, he died on the cross in the first century, but he died to simply be an example of a martyr and someone who stood up for their convictions. And you ought to stand up for your convictions, too. You ought to be like Christ, and you ought to be a martyr for your belief system, whatever that might be. Just be like Jesus. Or they may talk about the death of Christ a whole lot, but not in a substitutionary way. They just never will bring that element in. Okay, this is just false doctrine. Here's another one. They may deny the second coming of Christ. This is getting real popular. So, they deny the literal, physical, bodily second coming of Christ. The view that does this is called extreme preterism, because they say that the second coming happened in 70 A.D., when Christ came through the Roman armies, led by Titus, to destroy Jerusalem. So, see, Christ didn't come literally, physically, bodily, did he? If that's the way he really came, he came through the Roman army? So the extreme prayers don't even look forward to a future second, well, it would be a third coming for them. They don't even look to another coming of Christ. In fact, they actually believe we're in the new heavens and the new earth. So this is not a very good view to take. This is heresy. So the whole tenor of the present age is going to be toward increasing apostasy. That means you have to be more and more on guard for false doctrine all the time, because it's just going to increase and increase and increase. And now that we have the media to publish it everywhere, the publication and all this stuff, you've got to be very careful what you read, who you read, and all that, because you can't just pick up a book just because it says Jesus on it and expect it's going to be good. The ultimate apostasy will happen after the genuine church is raptured, that is, the true believers, and the professing church is left behind in the world. Okay? So that's when the apostasy will take place. So, let's look at the rapture a little bit, since it's the event that separates the present age from the period of preparation which follows. The church is... closed at the rapture. Nobody else ever that ever believes after that point will be a part of the church. The church will be complete at that moment. This event is not dated anywhere in scripture. Okay, Hal Lindsey said it was going to happen in 1988. Just look it up on the internet. You'll find all sorts of sites about Hal Lindsey predicting 1988 we're going to be raptured. And all this was built on the fact that Israel became a nation in 1948, 40 years before. And he said, well, it's going to be one generation, OK? And he said, a generation of the Bible is 40 years. So we add 40 to 1948, that gets us to 1988. And it didn't happen. You can't date on that basis, OK? You can't date the rapture from any event that happened. Here's some of the reasons that you cannot date it. No one can date the rapture because there are no signs revealed that must precede it in the Bible. If there were events that had to precede it, then we could measure from that date forward. But there are none given in Scripture. If there were signs, we could look for the signs, and then we would get ready. And one of the things about the rapture is since you don't know when it's going to happen, you're supposed to always be ready for it to happen. But if signs have to precede it, see, as long as we saw no signs, then we would not get ready, would we? Oh, we're waiting on that sign. When that sign comes, then we'll get ready. But the whole tenor of the rapture doctrine is that there are no signs, and so it can happen at any moment. As such, we have to be ready at all times. That's the whole point. So you can ask me when it's going to happen, but I'm going to tell you, I don't know. So you always have to be ready. Now, the rapture is this. It's the dead in Christ will be raised, and living Christians on earth will be caught up to heaven without dying. Okay? So, as a result of this dramatic event, the removal of I don't know how many believers from the world, the world is going to... this is going to be a huge shock. Huge shock to the world. Just think. It's basically my contention or one idea that I have is that Christians in the world are basically what's holding up society, one of the elements that are holding up society. We have absolutes. We have the things that a society needs to stand on. Now, let's say you take all that out from underneath the society. Oh, man, it's not going to be pretty. It's going to collapse. I mean, look at the tribulation. It's going to collapse. So let's look at the period of preparation, the second period, the fall of the rapture, right in here. We don't know how much time this is. It could be one month, it could be five years for all I know. I don't know. But there will be a little period here between the rapture and the beginning of the tribulation. Several things are going to happen during this period. First, since the true church is removed, the false or professing church will be left behind, you know, the left behind series. We'll play on that. Now, these people who were a part of the professing church but got left behind, they still have an opportunity to believe, okay? They'll still be able to believe the gospel, but they just won't be a part of the church if they do believe. They'll have to go through the tribulation. Second, the world will be in such a state of shock that a one-world religion will emerge. In other words, all Protestant denominations that are left behind, the people in them are left behind, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, whatever other religions exist at the time, they will all drop their distinctives and find a common ground. So in other words, they'll dilute themselves so that they can all get on the same page, right? This is already happening. It's called the ecumenical movement today, where we just drop our distinctives and hold hands across the area which we can't agree. The present rise of relativism in our culture and religious pluralism are fueling the present ecumenical movement. And it's going to ultimately result in a one-world religion. And this one-world religion is talked about in the book of Revelation. It's called the harlot in chapter 17. The harlot. Because false doctrine and idolatry is always pictured as a fornicator, a harlot. The harlot in Revelation 17 has dominion over the whole world. and its central headquarters will be in the city of Babylon, which is over in Iraq. The Antichrist in that chapter is pictured as a scarlet beast. We're looking at the beast in Revelation 13. He's called the scarlet beast over there, so he's a red beast. And he's pictured as riding the harlot to his position of power in the world, using her as a means to become a political and economic dictator. Third thing, during the period of preparation, Israel's partial hardening will be lifted and many Jews will begin trusting Jesus as their Messiah. So, Romans 11.25 says that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. I take it that the fullness of the Gentiles refers to the time when the church will be removed from the world, or at the rapture. The time when Gentiles are the dominant believers, and that's the present age. After that point, God will begin to remove the partial hardening of Israel, and so, as a result, they'll begin to trust Jesus as the Messiah. They'll, of course, be curious as to what happened to the Christians. Where did all the Christians go? And they'll begin to study the Bible, books, pamphlets, and Internet sources that Christians have left behind, you know, such as maybe we develop here or something, or other books and stuff that have been left behind for them to help understand the events that are about to unfold. And the fact that Jews already live all over the world in every nation and are normally multilingual fits them as the primary witnesses during the future tribulation period. And of course, we know about 144,000 that will be sealed and their primary job will be to witness and to prophesy or witness, witness only. The fourth thing that will happen during this time is the ancient Roman Empire will be revived under a ten-nation confederacy. Now, this could happen before or after the rapture. I don't know. This is kind of like a prophecy like the state of Israel being re-established or the regathering in unbelief. It happened before the rapture happened. But, I mean, there's no way you could have known that, and there's no way you can date the rapture from that. Like a one world, toward a one world economy? Well that's just like everything, ecumenical movement growing toward a one world religion. The economies are the money devices. Yeah. I mean it's possible that those are things that are pointing toward a stage setting for the final form which will be reached during the tribulation. But yeah, it's possible. of the statue, or Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the statue. He's got ten toes down here. We have Babylon, we have Medo-Persia symbolized here, we have Greece symbolized here, we have Rome symbolized by the legs, and then revived Rome by the feet, partly of iron and partly of clay, and they have ten toes, and these are the ten nations or kings of that period and the future. We also saw this in the Daniel saw this in Daniel 7, when he saw the fourth wild beast. The fourth wild beast had ten horns, and then another little one that came up among them, the eleventh horn, that's the Antichrist. But the ten will come first, and these ten horns are ten kings that will rule during that revived Roman Empire. Now, what will end the period of preparation? Well, the event called the firm covenant. Daniel 9, 26 and 27. So the period of preparation will end when the Antichrist makes a firm covenant with many Israelites for one week. Notice, not all Israelites, but many. This event marks the beginning of the tribulation, the 70th week of Daniel, but it's not the first seal, as I've told you before. The first seal is a bloodless takeover which results in worldwide peace, but that peace is shattered at the second seal. The firm covenant promises peace to Israel only, and that peace will last for three and a half years, a much longer period than between the first and second seals. So these are two different things. So even when the Antichrist signs the covenant with Israel, most of them will be unaware that he's the ultimate Antichrist because there are actually other Antichrists besides him. Matthew 24, 5, Jesus said, many will come in my name saying I'm the Christ. So maybe these ten kings will be Antichrists. I don't know. But the fact is that he will maybe be among them, but he won't be the primary one yet. He will not reach his ultimate position until the middle of the tribulation. Okay? Maybe a little bit right after that, but right about that time. Now, the Bible says that the Antichrist will rise to power after the Ten Kings are already in place. A little one after them, it says. Over and over and over. So, nevertheless, the many Israelites who enter this agreement will trust that the Antichrist is able to solve the Middle East crisis and provide peace for them. He will, of course, break this peace in the middle of the week. So let's look at Israel's period of peace between the time when the Antichrist signs a covenant with their leaders or with them, and then the time when it is broken at the abomination of desolation. During the first half of the tribulation, Israel will dwell securely in her land under the protection of the Antichrist. During this time, the Antichrist will use the one-world religious system centered in Babylon to rise to power. Okay, the harlot of Revelation 17. He'll ride the harlot, it says, to a position of power. The Jews will be practicing Orthodox Judaism in Jerusalem at the time in a tribulation temple which will be operational, and they will be offering sacrifice and grain offering in that temple during the first half. Now, during the first half, the first seal will give you some peace for the whole world, but it'll be shattered at the second seal, when warfare and bloodshed replace peace. During the first half, I believe that we'll have what the Bible describes as the battle of Gog and Magog and Ezekiel 38 and 39, and which I see parallel to Daniel 11, 40. Both describe an attempt by the king of the north and south to attack Israel. while she's dwelling securely. So this can't be the second half. Because she's not dwelling securely in the second half, she's dwelling under persecution. This battle takes place when Israel is dwelling securely according to Ezekiel 38, 8 and 11. So this has to be during the first half. Apparently, the reason they invade is to attack for spoil. To attack for spoil. I won't speculate as to what that is today. However, God is going to cause confusion among them so that these armies begin to kill one another. Okay? This is mentioned in Ezekiel 38, 21. And then God is going to destroy them all by supernatural judgment, in the next verse, on the mountains of Israel, north of Jerusalem. Okay? Now, if you read the first six seals, really the second, the fourth, and the sixth one, you'll find that they parallel a lot of the things that are happening in Ezekiel 28. It's real interesting. And since I think the seals will take place in the first half of the tribulation, that fits the fact that this battle will take place during the first half when Israel's dwelling securely. So, Israel will have been protected from this invasion by God, But then the Antichrist and his army, who promised protection, will use this great destruction of their enemies, his enemies, to advance his own power. Kind of like, well, now they're out of the way. Now I'm going to use this to my advantage, to take over. And it's probable that during this battle, which I think will take place near the end of the first half, that this is the time when the Antichrist will be wounded, is very close, should normally result in death. Okay, so I think he'll be wounded in this battle as he tries to protect Israel. But then he's going to turn the tide and everything, and he's going to begin to persecute Israel. And really, if you look at Israel, or the Antichrist, he has two campaigns, really. His first campaign is really during the time of peace, and then he's a totally different character for the second campaign. And Revelation 17 makes the distinction between his two campaigns. So, you have the period of persecution for Israel during the second half. So, the only other thing I can add to this period here in peace is you've got the six seals and then when you get over here you'll have the seven trumpets and the six trumpets and the seven bowls. Okay? So, seals first half, trumpets and bowls second half. Now, this piece is cut off by a key event we know as the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel, spoken by Jesus. It's at this point that Satan is going to be kicked out of heaven, okay? I think just before he will commit the abomination of desolation, Satan will be kicked out of heaven. And he will counterfeit the resurrection by healing the Antichrist and coming to indwell him. And because of his newfound power, the Antichrist will no longer need the one-world religion, harlot. Okay? Now he's got his position of power. And so he and the ten kings will go over to the city of Babylon and strip her of all her wealth, I think, kill all who remain, and burn the city. Okay? Burn Babylon. To advance his power, he will then enter the beautiful land, Daniel 11, 41 says. He will enter the beautiful land. That's Israel. His purpose of going there is to acquire Jerusalem, the most strategic military stronghold in the world. And this is because it's set between three major continents, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The Bible calls Jerusalem and Israel the navel of the earth. It is at the center of the earth. If the earth is at the center of the universe, then Israel and Jerusalem are at the center of the earth. And if they're at the center of the earth, then the Temple Mount is at the center of Jerusalem. And on and on. The Holy of Holies is at the center of that. to the very place where God dwells. So he will enter this beautiful land, and when he arrives in Jerusalem, he will enter the Tribulation Temple, commit the abomination of desolation, which of course will break his covenant with Israel. And he will have the false prophet set up an image in his likeness in the temple. It will remain in the temple for 1,290 days, which is 30 days after the tribulation has ended, according to Revelation 12-11. The believing Jews, when they see the abomination of desolation, will flee southeast of Jerusalem to modern-day Jordan, where they will be nourished and protected for the second half of the tribulation. Or, as Revelation said, a time, times, and half a time. We've been over a lot of this. Now I'm just kind of putting the chronology to it all. The false prophet will make all men worship the Antichrist and his image, which has been set up in the temple. He will perform signs, trying to draw out the Israelites who are in hiding so he can destroy them. This is mentioned at the end of Matthew 24 when they keep saying, if they say he's in the inner rooms, do not go out. Or if they say he's in the wilderness, do not go. because His coming will be like lightning flashing from one end of the sky to the other. So His coming is a public event, not a private event. But these signs are going to have tremendous significance and tremendous drawing power to pull them out and to deceive the whole world into thinking that Antichrist, they should worship the Antichrist. So we'll talk about those signs here next Sunday when we look at the false prophet and the mark of the beast and all that. Once this image is set up that everybody's supposed to worship, then the Antichrist and his armies will go southwest. So, the Israelites fleed southeast, he will go southwest to Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia. Okay? Now, why is he going there? Well, he's going there because those are some of the kings of the south that came up there and got destroyed by God supernaturally. So, he's like, well, I'm going to go take all their land and all their wealth. They can't protect themselves. They have no army anymore. So this is all going to be mine. And so he goes there to take it. And he's going to use all the treasures that he gets from Egypt and Libya and Ethiopia to further fuel his military campaign. We find out in the Book of Daniel he doesn't worship any god, but he worships the war itself. He worships war. He's going to be a tremendous military leader. He's going to use rapid blitzkrieg warfare to wipe out all who stand in his way as he tries to take dominion of the earth. This is what is meant in Daniel when it says that he overflew and passed through many countries. Now, during this campaign, as he goes into northern Africa, he's going to hear of rumors from the north and the east, northeast, which is Palestine. back where he came from, right? He's down here, he's thinking back northeast, which for y'all is this way. He's going to have to go back to Jerusalem because of these rumors. And he's going to become very wrathful because here he is, he's trying to advance in his military campaign, and now he's going to have to turn around and go back. But because of the importance of Jerusalem, he will return with great fury and annihilate many Jews. Most likely, like Zechariah says, he will annihilate two-thirds of the Jews. Then he will set up his military tent, just like all great commanders do. They go, they set up their military tent, which is essential to all the other tents, and he's going to set it up in Jerusalem, probably on or near the Temple Mount, showing that he has subdued the Israelites. Now, returning to some of the events that God is going to be doing, An angel will then pour out the sixth bowl, and the Euphrates River will dry up as a result, so that the kings of the East can assemble for the final battle. Once this is done, the Satanic Trinity will send out deceiving spirits, so the Satanic Trinity is Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet, will send out deceiving spirits to gather the armies of the world for the final campaign of Armageddon. They will assemble in the valley of Megiddo to make war against God and his army, and to destroy the final remnant of Israel, who are hidden southeast of Jerusalem in modern-day Jordan. So Israel's going to be cornered. She'll have nowhere to turn but to Jesus, the Messiah. Daniel says that their power must be shattered, and it will have been. And they will call upon the name of the Lord. The Messiah will come with his bride, the church. And the King of kings and Lord of lords will seize and break and destroy the Antichrist without human agency. And he will be cast alive into the lake of fire. And he will kill all the rest with the sword that comes out of his mouth. He will bind Satan for 1,000 years And he will destroy every other kingdom in every respect. And he will establish his kingdom, which will last forever and ever. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, since things are going to unfold this way, we pray, Lord, that we would live godly in the present. And we hastily wish that your kingdom would arise, that we could dwell in your righteousness, that we could dwell in your peace, that we could rule with you as kings, as the book of Revelation says, over the whole world, that we could watch what you had originally intended in the garden as a man, the man Jesus Christ, fulfills the dominion mandate and rules over all creation in perfect peace and righteousness with a rod of iron crushing all who would and go contrary to your will, but upholding those who are righteous. And we could watch justice be served perfectly. We can watch your holiness being displayed before our very eyes. And we would see, Lord, that even in your perfect reign, the issue is not something outside of us. The problem is within us. It is our sin nature. That too must be done away, and resurrection bodies must be put in place for all those who have trusted Christ. And you will establish your new heavens and new earth, Lord, and we will ever reign in righteousness with no sin, no slavery, no bondage to the things of this world, but we will be enslaved to the things of Christ and in love with Him. And we thank you for your marvelous plan and your wonderful promises. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.