In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the impending cataclysmic event that will terrorize the world. He describes the inhumanity of man to man that is often seen in war and the devastating consequences it brings. Pastor Chuck expresses his concern for the corrupting influence of music, movies, and videos on the minds of children and the destruction of their value system. He calls on believers to live for Jesus Christ and stand against the forces of evil in this dark and perverted age. Additionally, Pastor Chuck introduces his new book, "Six Vital Questions of Life," which explores life-changing questions asked by the apostle Paul in the book of Romans and provides biblical answers to revolutionize one's Christian walk with God.

Welcome to The Word for Today. The Word for Today is a continuous study of the Bible, taught by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old Testament. And for those of you following along in your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter 13, beginning with verse 12, as we continue with And so there have been, in past history, great climactic changes that were caused by cataclysmic of events. The physicists talk about this polar axis shift. And there seems to be evidence of the polar axis shift in the ionized iron and rocks and so forth by the directions that the ionization is pointing is not to what we know as the North Pole today. And thus they speak of the polar axis shift and the things that transpired during a polar axis shift. How that mountain ranges are removed. How that ocean bodies and ocean beds are changed. We do know that the area up around the Painted Desert and the Great Salt Lake was once a vast ocean and there were dinosaurs that roamed around the shores of that ocean up there. The Grand Canyon could possibly have been caused by a polar axis shift when that great vast ocean that was up in that area was emptied on down into the Pacific through the area of the Gulf of Mexico. And the geologists today, rather than ascribing to the theory that the Grand Canyon was formed by hundreds of or billions of years of gradual erosion by the Colorado River, are now saying it probably happened more rapidly by a massive flow of water over a short period of time rather than a small flow of water over a long period of time. We do know that a canyon almost half the size of the Grand Canyon was created in just a few days up at Mount St. Helens. When Mount St. Helens erupted and that lake was emptied, it formed a vast canyon up there that is similar to the Grand Canyon, about half the size. So that it tends towards the theory of the Grand Canyon being formed by a massive amount of water over a short period of time. And we do have the evidence of the fossils there around the Grand Canyon and up in the area of the Painted Desert and all that show that it was once an ocean floor. So this, they believe, took place during a polar axis shift. And they say that these shifts do take place about every 5,000, 6,000 years. The last one took place, according to them, about the time that the scripture says that the flood of Noah took place. It would sort of coincide with the time of the flood, which is interesting to consider. The Lord says He's going to shake. The heavens and the earth will remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of His fierce anger. That being removed out of its place could be a reference to a polar axis shift. Now, in light of this prophecy, you might find the book, Worlds in Collision, by Immanuel Velikovsky, quite interesting, as Isaiah types it together with the heavens shaking and the earth removing out of her place. I'll just leave it there. You can read the book and draw your own conclusions. But it is fascinating reading. And it shall be as the chased deer or as a sheep that no man taketh up, and they shall every man turn to his own people and flee every one into his own land. So there's going to be this tremendous cataclysmic event that is going to terrorize the world. And every one that is found shall be thrust through, and every one that is joined unto them will fall by the sword. And their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, and their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravaged. And these are events that usually take place in war. It's one of those horrible side effects and consequences of war. The inhumanity of man to man is manifested and demonstrated in war. Man is as a wild beast and it becomes manifested in a time of war. Now in the immediate, and it's interesting, a lot of Bible critics ascribe this portion of Isaiah to another writer. You're familiar with the theory that there is not one author of the book of Isaiah, but there are actually two authors. And they ascribe much of the writing of Isaiah to a second author of a later period. Now why do they do that? Here's one of the reasons why they speak of a second Isaiah. Because he said, Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, that is the Babylonians, which will not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Now at this time the Medes were just a very small tribal group. And so for Isaiah to say that the Medes were going to conquer Babylon was just so preposterous and far-fetched that no one could even think that at that time. And therefore there must have been a later Isaiah who wrote it after the Medes became powerful in their joining together with the Persians. And because it's prophetic, they cast it out for that. And so if you want to know why a lot of Bible critics are critical, it's because they don't believe the Bible. They don't believe God. They don't believe that God can speak of things in advance. They don't believe that God can speak prophetically of things that will take place in the future. And thus they always invent a late date for the book. It happened they wrote it after the fact because these details, they could not have known. It was just not, they couldn't even have imagined the Medes at that time rising up. The interesting thing about the idea of two Isaiahs is that Jesus spoke of Isaiah and he quotes from Isaiah. And Jesus said, as Isaiah the prophet declared, and he quotes from Isaiah. The interesting thing he quotes from what the critics have said are both Isaiahs. In other words, the second Isaiah, he quotes from that and attributes it to Isaiah. And he quotes from the first and attributes that to Isaiah. So Jesus did not have the advantage of modern scholarship and liberalism and thus he did not know that there were two authors. And one was sort of a, used the pseudonym at a later date, adding details that the first Isaiah could not have known. And so you see the Bible stands or falls as a unit. You take away part of it and you've destroyed the whole. The moment you ascribe to the two Isaiah theory, then you have to discredit and discount Jesus and the words of Jesus. Because he was mistaken in assuming that there was only one prophet, Isaiah. And thus the words of Christ are actually impugned by such a scholarship of liberal theology. So the Lord said, I will stir up the Medes, which he did. It was the Medes that ultimately conquered the Babylonian kingdom. But this was several hundred years later. And they will not regard silver. And as for gold, they will not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces. And as I said, near and far fulfillment. He gave us the far fulfillment first. Now he's giving us the nearer fulfillment will be by the Medes. This is in contrast to kingdoms of nations, plural, gathered from the far country, even from the end of heaven. Here are the Medes close by. And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, that is the babies. And their eyes will not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees, excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Now that did not take place under the Medes. When the Medes conquered Babylon, they did not even destroy the walls. Cyrus, the Medo-Persian general, diverted the river Euphrates, built some dikes and diverted the river Euphrates around the city of Babylon. And in the night, they shut off the river Euphrates and the soldiers of Cyrus came under the wall of Babylon on the banks of the river Euphrates that had been stopped by the dikes upstream that they had built. The Babylonians were so drunken and so engaged in a big party, the celebration of Belshazzar, that they weren't aware of what was going on. As the water level of the Euphrates went down, it exposed the under part there and the men came on the river bed into the city of Babylon and then up and through the gates, the levee gates, that the river Euphrates ran right through the center of Babylon and there were 25 major boulevards that crossed the river Euphrates, each with a bridge and gates and walls along the river bank. But these gates, the levee gates, were left open and Cyrus and his troops were able to come through these gates and into the palace and they took Belshazzar and the Babylonians almost without firing a shot, so to speak. Please turn cassette over, this time for side two. They just took the city and for two or three days the city of Babylon was so vast that many people in the city of Babylon didn't even know that it had been conquered for two or three days. And the walls were left intact, the palaces and all were left intact, they were not destroyed, they did not need to destroy them, but they were destroyed at a later date when Babylon about 200 years later was again conquered, at that time the walls were destroyed. But surely it was not as when God overthrew Sodom and destruction, that was with fire and brimstone from heaven and it was a pretty thorough destruction. And so this destruction that is prophesied here that is coming upon Babylon will be a fiery destruction and a total destruction as the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were totally wiped out. And thus after this destruction it will never be inhabited. Now the ancient site of Babylon is inhabited at the present time. They have rebuilt the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. They have rebuilt many of the other buildings in the ancient city of Babylon. And once God overthrows it, it will never be inhabited, neither will it be dwelt in from generation to generation, neither shall an Arabian pitch a tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there, but wild beasts of the desert will lie there, their houses will be full of doleful creatures, owls will dwell there and satyrs or demons shall dance there, and the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses and dragons in their pleasant palaces, and her time is near to come and her days shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land. Now the Lord has had mercy upon Jacob and again there's a dual fulfillment. They came home from the Babylonian captivity and they were reestablished, but never as a major power. This prophecy deals with Israel being reestablished but becoming a major power, and thus this prophecy is yet future. The Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel. God will pour out His Spirit and His grace upon Israel. He will deal with them as a nation for seven more years prior to the return of Christ and the establishing of God's great kingdom. And so the strangers shall be joined with them and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob, yet future. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids and they shall take them captives whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors. And so Israel, the nation, God's people are yet to have power and to rule as they take them captives whose captives they were. It shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear and from your hard bondage wherein you were made to serve, that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, how has the oppressor ceased and the golden city ceased? For the Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers and he who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted and none hinders. And the whole earth is at rest and is quiet and they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee and the cedars in Lebanon. They say, since you are laid down, no feller has come against us." Or that is a, what do they call guys that chop down trees? Here the word is feller, but logger. So the prophecy of the future, when God restores the glory to Israel, when Jesus comes to reign as king over the earth, when oppression ceases, when the staff of the wicked is broken, the scepter of the rulers that is earthly rulers, and the whole earth is at rest in the righteous reign of peace through Jesus Christ. The whole earth at rest and is quiet. And they break forth into singing. Glorious day. Now, hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. And the earth is at rest. It stirs up the dead for thee, even all of the chief ones of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all of the kings of the nations. And they shall speak and say unto thee, are you also become weak as we? Are you become like unto us? Your pomp is brought down to the grave and the noise of thy vials and the worm is spread under thee and the maggots cover thee. So it's, it's speaking really of the, the, the beast who is cast into Gehenna. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at your coming. It stirs up the dead for thee, the chief ones of the earth, and there will be no one quite the equal to, of course, the Antichrist in power and glory, the last final world leader who will be given the power of Satan to rule over the earth. And yet he will be cast down. And as he is, uh, the former world rulers and all will say, have you become as weak as we, you become like us. Your pomp is brought down to the grave and the noise of your vials or the worm has spread under thee and the maggots cover thee. Face to face, Lord, let me know you. Face to face, Lord, let me see you. Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few closing comments, but first I'd like to remind you that today's message is available in its unedited form on cassette or CD. Simply write or call and ask for ordering details on tape or CD number C-3248. Again, that's tape or CD number C-3248. As we come to a close in today's program, we'd like to introduce a brand new book written by Pastor Chuck Smith entitled six vital questions of life. Once again, Pastor Chuck has helped us to understand the scriptures with the anointing of the Holy Spirit in his new book. Pastor Chuck considers six life changing questions asked by the apostle Paul in the book of Romans and then expounds upon the biblical answers that can revolutionize your Christian walk with God. After discovering this revelation, the change was so profound in Pastor Chuck's own life, he says it was almost like a second conversion, putting him in the winner's circle. So if you have any questions concerning your relationship with God, the book six vital questions of life by Pastor Chuck will reassure and reinforce God's special plan and purpose for your life. To order Pastor Chuck's new book, six vital questions of life for yourself or for a friend, you can call the word for today at 1-800-272-WORD or write to us at P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California 92628. Once again, that number to call is 1-800-272-9673. And for those of you that would like to visit our website, you can do so at www.twft.com or if you'd like to email us, you can do so at info at twft.com. We'll coming up next time on the word for today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his fascinating study through the book of Isaiah. That's coming up next time on the word for today. And now with a few closing comments, here's Pastor Chuck. As we see the minds of our children being polluted by the perverted music of this day and by the false images being portrayed in the movies and the videos and how their whole value system is being destroyed, undermined, and how evil is looked upon as good and good is looked upon as evil. Lord, our hearts weep for our children and for our grandchildren, for the world that they are growing up in so corrupted by sin. And Lord, we pray that you will put a hedge around your people, around your church. And Lord, that we might determine in our hearts to live for Jesus Christ, even in this dark and perverted age. And may our lives shine like a light in this darkness. May we stand against the forces of evil that are so entrenched today within our society. Gird us, Lord, that we might carry your message of peace and love to a world that's about ready to destroy itself. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This program is sponsored by The Word for Today, the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.