In this sermon, the preacher focuses on Revelation 13 and the rise of the beast from the sea. The beast is described as having seven heads and ten horns, with the dragon giving it power and authority. The preacher suggests that the beast represents an anti-Christian force, possibly even communism, which the devil uses to deceive and control people. The sermon also references Ezekiel 9, where God marks those who cry out against the abominations in Jerusalem, highlighting the spiritual significance of the mark of the beast mentioned in Revelation 13.

Israel, verse 68, For he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As his fate by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world, began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised for our fathers, and to remember his holy covenants fulfilled in Jesus. He was the first one who was born of that promise, wasn't he? And he's your elder brother. And you have been born of the same promise, isn't that right? The same life incarnate in you. And I think that's the most likely explanation of the woman and her seed. An explanation backed by scripture. Now let's see what happens. When Jesus died and rose again, there was war in heaven, wasn't there? Didn't he triumph over principalities and powers? Was it Satan cast down? Didn't he emerge from the battle triumphant, crying, I have the keys of death and hell? Yeah, there was war in heaven when Jesus rose from the dead. Michael and his angel. I wonder, angels were manifest in the resurrection against the devil, who then was manifesting himself in this form, a red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. The old familiar Roman Empire pattern, isn't it? Seven heads and ten horns. And it was a Roman cross upon which our Lord died. Roman soldiers nailed him to it. A Roman declaration was put over his head. Satan was operating through Rome against our Lord Jesus Christ. But notice where the crowns are. The crowns are on the seven heads and not, as in chapter 13, on the ten horns. That is its old Rome, old pagan Rome, with its changing forms of government, that is in power here. Persecuting, coming against the man-child who is caught up to God, and then coming against the remnant of the woman's seed. And you know how in the first three centuries it was pagan Rome that was the bitter opponent of the early church. And the brethren of Christ suffered ten great persecutions as a result of that opposition. But Satan had a second defeat from the heavenlies, when in the era of Constantine, the pagan powers of heaven were cast down. And Satan had to adopt new disguises. No longer could he hide himself in pagan Rome. He changed his form and identified with the drawing anti-Christian force. So in chapter 13 you have the crown on the ten heads, on the ten horns, they've moved. The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, for she was persecuted for the one to sixty years. That is once again the period of the great apostasy, beginning to manifest itself by the sixth century and going on. God took this precious gospel and hid it. Those who loved it hid away in the mountains in the Alps, in the mountains of Asia Minor, in the mountains of Austria, in the remote recesses of Britain. God took the testimony and hid it, and the remnant of her seed were with her. And the earth helped the woman, and opened up her mouth and swallowed the blood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. I've just been mentioning how those great papal armies came against the Waldensian brethren in the Alps, and time and again a whole army was swallowed up in those mountains. The combination of the mists and the precipices defeated them. A handful of men protecting their homes would defeat a whole army. The earth opened her mouth and helped the woman. Swallowed up the flood. You know that flood is one of the scripture symbols of an army. Swallowed up army after army. The dragon was broke with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And still, as you know, in many parts of the world, those who love the Lord, whom you love, who read the Bible that you read, are still suffering from the bitter attacks of the great dragon. All right, let's take a break. Five minutes. If you have questions, keep them, make a note of them, write them down, and I'll try and answer them before we close the minute. And well, in the meantime, I'll push on into Revelation 13. Once again, another view back over history to bring us up to date to the present position in the book of Revelation, obviously the most important position. Chapter 13, I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy. The beast was like a leopard, feet like a bear, mouth like a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his seat, and great authority. I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death. His deadly wound was healed. All the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power to the beast, and they worshipped the saying, who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him. There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forth in two months, as our period again. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds, towns and nations. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear to hear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here's the patience and the faith of the saints. Once again we see the Roman beast in view, now very obviously receiving his power from the dragon, from satan. We notice his heads, upon his head the name of blasphemy. You know that blasphemy in scripture isn't the sort of oath and curse that we hear in our civilization. It is that thou being a man makest thyself God. That's what they accused Jesus of. Why do you take up stones to stone me? They said for blasphemy, because thou being a man makest thyself God. That is the kind of blasphemy we have in view here. The Caesars took, demanded worship as God. One of his hands wounded to death. We have already seen how the Roman beast, which was in full sway in John's time. Let's have a look at Revelation 17 verse 10. There are seven kings, five are fallen, one is and the other is not yet come. And when he cometh he must continue a short space. The beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goes into perdition. So at John's time the sixth head of the Roman empire was in power. And we know that was the great pagan emperors who were ruling the world at that time. The seventh head then would have been the Christian emperors who succeeded them. They continued a short space. The empire broke up under them and everybody thought that was the end of it. But out of the wreckage of decadent Rome, the deadly wound was healed. And it was the bishop of Rome that pulled Europe together and formed that new ecclesiastical empire which proved to be more powerful than the great empire it displaced. The deadly wound was healed. All the world wondered after the beast. They worshipped the dragon which gave power to the beast. They worshipped the beast saying who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? He had a mouth speaking great things of blasphemies. Power was given to him to continue forty and two months. He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. I better remind you of some of his vassaries. I have the authority of the king of kings. I am all in all and above all so that God himself and I the vicar of Christ, vicar of God have but one consistory. I am able to do almost all that God can do. What can you make of me but God? And again there are many of those. He was, this is Pope, Pope Pius II was angry that the church councils were beginning to exercise authority over the Pope because he was so morally rotten. And this is what he said. An excrucible and hitherto unheard of abuse has arisen in our time, namely that some people in the spirit of rebellion presume to appeal to a council from the Roman pontiff, the vicar of Jesus Christ. We condemn appeals of this kind by councils, prelates and consults of divine or human law. We denounce them as erroneous and detestable and low and quash them and declare that they are of no significance. We command that nobody may dare under any pretext to make such an appeal against any of our sentences and commands. It is forbidden for any man to oppose or infringe this charter of our will by which we condemn, reprove, null and quash the forces. If anyone so attempt, he shall incur the indignation of almighty God and of St. Peter and St. Paul. You may be interested to know that the Pope gave all America, North and South, to Spain. We give, this is the Pope Alexander, we give a sign and concede to you, out of our kindness, knowledge and fullness and apostolic power, by the authority of almighty God and by the vicariate of Jesus Christ, which we have on the earth, all the islands and mainlands, discovered and yet to be discovered, west or south of the line drawn from the Arctic to the Antarctic pole, one hundred leagues west and south of any of the islands commonly called Azores and Cape Verde, irrespective of whether the islands and mainlands are in the direction of India or of any other country, and we strictly forbid anybody of any rank, imperial or royal, or of any other status, under penalty of excommunication, to dare without your license to approach, for the purpose of trade or for any other reason, the islands and mainlands discovered or yet to be discovered. This we ordain, notwithstanding any apostolic bulls or ordinances or documents to the contrary, confident in him from whom empires proceed." So there you are, Queen Elizabeth of England, the first Elizabeth. "...he who reigns on high, to whom is given all power in heaven and earth, has entrusted his holy and catholic and apostolic church, outside of which there is no salvation, to one person alone, that is to Peter, the prince of the apostles, and his successor, Roman Pontius. He alone is appointed prince over all nations and kingdoms, to root up and to pull down, to plant and build, to waste and destroy, among others assisting in the work of abominable doctrines, is the servant of vice Elizabeth, pretended queen of England, with whom, as in the place of sanctuary, the most nefarious wretches have found refuge. This woman, acquiring the kingdom and usurping for herself its chief authority and jurisdiction, has again plunged that kingdom back into a wretched and unhappy condition, after it had so recently been reclaimed for the catholic religion and prosperity. Therefore, being strengthened by the authority of him who gave us this plenitude of apostolic power, we declare the authority of Elizabeth to be a heretic, and an aider and abetter of heretics. We declare her to have incurred the sentence of excommunication. Further, we declare her to be deprived of her pretended claim to the kingdom of England, and of all authority and dominion whatsoever. We command and bid all and sundry against her people, her lords and councillors and subjects, that they do not obey her or her under pain of excommunication. In Ireland, the popes failed in their attempt to subdue and subvert England and Scotland, but they did better in Ireland. In 1641, the catholic bishops of Ireland, under the instruction of the pope, proclaimed a holy war and incited their people to massacre the Protestants. Villages and towns were destroyed, rivers of Ireland literally ran red with blood, even cattle were tortured. Burial of the Protestant dead was forbidden, but many were buried alive. Five hundred thousand Protestants were either massacred or expelled. Pope Urban issued this bull in commemoration of the deeds, extolling the faithfulness and loyalty of the catholic murderers, commending them in the name of God, and rewarding them with full and absolute remission of all their sins. To all who had so faithfully and gallantly done what in them lay, to extirpate and wholly root out this pestilipitous leaven of heretical contagion. Against the scripture, Pope Gregory condemned Wycliffe as having run into a detestable kind of wickedness because he translated the scriptures into the common speech. Pope Leo X issued a bull against the German translation, carrying the foulest language. The bull condemns as false, shocking, scandalous and impious and blasphemous against God and his pontiff, the reading of the scripture by everybody. Pope Pius VII, 1810, issued pronouncements against Bible societies and said, any association for the promulgation of scripture to the common people is a crafty device whereby the very foundations of religion are undermined. A pestilence dangerous to Christianity, a defilement of the faith dangerous to souls, a nefarious scheme. Even as late as 1864, Pope Pius IX reasserts medieval claims and says, we, the divine vice-regents on earth, curse all who differ from the Roman pontiff in belief and practice, and summon the whole world to absolute submission on pain of eternal damnation. So you can see that the case, the position is very very strong. It was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. As to the practice of this unchangeable church, there is not a statement in the following quotation which history does not abundantly substantiate. As some luxurious emperors of Rome exhausted the whole art of pleasure so that the reward was promised to any who should invent a new one, so have the Romish persecutors exhausted all the art of pain, so that it will now be difficult to discover or invent a new kind of it which they have not already practiced upon those marked out for heretics. They have been shot, stabbed, stoned, drowned, beheaded, hanged, drawn, quartered, impaled, burnt, buried alive, roasted on spits, baked in ovens, thrown into furnaces, tumbled over precipices, cast from the tops of towers, sunk in mire and pits, starved with hunger and cold, hung on tensure hooks, suspended by the hair of the head, by hands or feet, stuffed and blown up with gunpowder, ripped with swords and sickles, tied to the tails of horses, dragged over streets and sharp plinths, broken on the wheel, beaten on anvils with hammers, blown with bellows, bored with hot irons, torn piecemeal by red-hot pincers, slashed with knives, hacked with axes, hewed with chisels, planed with planes, pricked with forks, stuck from head to foot with pins, choked with water, lines, rags, urine, excrement, or mangled pieces of their own bodies, crammed down their throats, shut up in caves and dungeons, tied to stakes, mailed to trees, tormented with lighted matches, scalding oil, burning pitch, melted limbs. They have been played alive, had their flesh scalped and torn from their bones, they have been trampled and danced upon until their bowels have been crossed out, their guts have been tied to trees and pulled forth by degrees, their heads twisted with cords till the blood, or even their eyes sprouted out, strings have been drawn through their noses, they have been leaded out like swine, butchered like sheep, to dig out eyes, tear off nails, cut off ears, lips, tongues, arms, breasts, has been ordinary sport with ronins, converters, and holy butchers. Persons have been compelled to lay violent hands on their dearest friends, to kill or cast into the fire their parents, husbands, wives, children, to look upon them while they've been most cruelly and shamefully abused. Women and young maids have also suffered such barbarities, accompanied with all the imaginable indignities, insults and shame, pangs to which their sex has exposed them. Tender veins have been whipped, scarred, ground, stamped, burnt to death, dashed against trees and stones, torn limb from limb, carried about on points of spikes and spears, thrown to dogs and swine. If such treatment as this inflicted on successive generations of disciples of Christ, for centuries together, be not wearing out the saints of the Most High, what could be? History affords no parallel. The following is one of the authorised curses published in the Roman pontifical to be pronounced on heretics by Romish peace. May God Almighty and all His saints curse them with the curse with which the devil and his angels are cursed. Let them be destroyed as are the landsmen living, and let the violence of death spell upon them. Let them descend alive into the pit, let their seed be destroyed from the earth, and thirst, nakedness and all distress, let them perish. May they have all misery, pestilence and torment. Let them always be cursed. Always and everywhere let them be cursed. Speaking and silent let them be cursed. Within and without let them be cursed. By land and by sea let them be cursed. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot let them be cursed. Let their eyes become blind, their ears deaf, their mouth become dumb, their tongue cleave to their jaws. Let not their hands handle, let not their feet walk. Let all the members of the body be cursed. Cursed let them be, standing, lying from this time forth for ever, and thus let their candle be extinguished in the presence of God at the day of judgment. Let their burial be with dogs and asses, their hungry wolves with none of their corpses. Let the devil and his angels be their companions for ever. Amen and amen, so let it be. The Inquisition, a name at which humanity has learned to shudder. In Spain alone it has been proved by careful statistics that between the years of 1481 and 1808 over 341,000 persons were condemned by this holy office, of whom 30,000 or so were burned alive, 17 in effigy, nearly 300,000 tortured and condemned to penalty. Every Catholic country in Europe, Asia, and America had its Inquisition, and its consequent unexplained arrests, indefinitely long imprisonments of innocent persons, secret investigations, horrible torture chambers, dreadful dungeons, autos d'affaires, or burnings of obsolete heretics, its thousand nameless cruelties and injustices. When the French took Toledo and broke open the Inquisition prison there that we lead, graves seemed to open, and pale figures like ghosts issued from dungeons which emitted a sepulchral odor. Bushy beards hanging down over the breast, nails grown like birds' claws, disfigured the skeletons, who with laboring bosoms inhaled for the first time for a long series of years the fresh air. Many of them were reduced to cripples, head inclined forward, arms and hands hanging down, rigid and helpless. They had been confined in dens so low that they could not rise up in them. In spite of all the care of the surgeons, many of them expired the same day. The light of the sun made a particularly painful expression on the eyes. On the following day, General LaSalle minutely inspected the place, attended by several officers of his type. The number of machines for torture thrilled even men in nearer to the battlefield with horror. Only one of these, unique in its kind for refined cruelty, seems deserving of more particular notice. In a recession, a subterraneous vault contiguous to the private hall for examinations, stood a wooden figure made by the hands of monks, and representing the Virgin Mary. A gilded glory encompassed her head. In her right hand she held a banner. It struck us all at first sight as suspicious, but notwithstanding the silken robe descending on each side to ample holds from her shoulders, she should wear a sort of cuirass. On closer scrutiny it appeared that the forepart of her body was struck full of extremely sharp nails and small knife blades, with the points turned toward the spectator. The arms and hands were jointed, and machinery behind the partition set the figure in motion. One of the servants of the Inquisition was compelled, by command of the General, to work the machine as he turned it. When the figure extended her arms as though to press someone most lovingly to her heart, the well-filled knapsack of a Polish grenadier was made to supply the place of the living victim. The statue hugged it closer and closer, and when the attendant, agreedly to orders, made the figure uncast her arms and returned to her former position, the knapsack was perforated to the depth of two or three inches, and remained hanging on the points of the nails and knife blades. To such an infernal purpose, and in a building erected in honour of a true faith, was the Madonna rendered subject. So on. There's an endless array of this, and the total number of victims was probably fifty million. Made war with the saints. All that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life, but the land slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and his fate as a dragon." Reading from my notes here. The ten kings give their power to him. Revelation 17.13. He blasphemes. See John 10.33. Makes war, persecutes, receives worship. He is described as the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2, who arises out of the apostasy with Judas-like apostleship. The papacy has fulfilled this prophecy with awful depth and detail over twelve centuries of church history. He has indeed blasphemed in the true scriptural sense, has made war with the saints, and received worship. He was aided by a second beast out of the earth, Europe, while he himself retained his seat in the Mediterranean. The second beast was like him, had two horns. Compare the two witnesses. So, is a witness in company, is landlike in appearance, speaks as a dragon, deceives men, causes them to worship the beast. He is a prophet, a preacher, with pretended divine authority. You may read about him in Revelation 13, verse 11 to 17. And I note here what all the great Protestant interpreters deduced. The Catholic clergy, regular and secular, two branches, that is the monks and the priests, a united body, a beast within the beast, an empire within the empire, the church within the church, amply fulfill this prophecy. You know that in the Roman system, if you say joining the church, what usually means is that you're going into the priesthood, church within the church. This beast causes men everywhere to make a local image of the revived beast and worship it. And not many people will agree with me here, but one of the strange manifestations of medieval Christendom is the fact that every town, every city is dominated by a magnificent church building, with power or spire, something that Christ never instructed us about. He didn't tell us to do anything like that. And this church building is an object of worship, isn't it? Holy water is all you have to worship, it's holy. There's a tremendous aura of holiness about it. It is an image, it is the local image of the whole universal ecclesiastical empire, isn't it? There it is, right before your eyes, in every village, every town. There it is, the image of the whole thing. Who built it? Ordinary people did. Who made them build it? The priests did. Every town had its church, an image of the Catholic church. Every city its cathedral, a gorgeous image of the seat of ecclesiastical government. You know that the word cathedral means seat. I expect you know that. Seat. When the Pope speaks ex-cathedra, that's from his official seat. A cathedral is a seat of a bishop. Do you remember 2 Thessalonians 2? He's seated in a temple of God. The image was given life. Nobody else can operate it. The official church building, you have to be one of the clergy. It had a voice from the pulpit and from the tower. Isn't that right? All medieval Christendom dominated by church bells. What did they do? They governed medieval life from sunrise to curfew. You got up by it, you went to bed by it. With anatomists, men could be cursed, cities could be cursed, villages be cursed. Benedictions, you're blessed by it too. Baptisms, marriages, burials, excommunications, interdicts, feasts and fasts. All governed from the church. The priesthood needed the church to be the image through which they functioned. They didn't have much power about it. And there it was, men everywhere made that local image of the beast and caused that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Over and over again it happened. In my own town there are memorials for two martyrs in the reign of Bloody Mary who died there, burned at the stake outside the city walls, because they would not submit to Mother Church. And all through my old country other towns have their memorials and their record of those who died. And through Europe, everywhere, this thing happens century after century. To receive the mark, that should be a C there, to receive the mark, there's a mark of a beast. Because if all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bound to receive a mark in their right hand, that's their deed, or in their forehead, that's their minds. It is a spiritual thing, as in Ezekiel 9.4. See, scripture explains scripture. In Ezekiel chapter 9 you will find that the prophet sees a man with an inkcloth. Ezekiel 9. Go through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark on the forehead of the men that sigh and cry, for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. That is God, marking with an invisible mark, which heaven could recognize. Those who really belong to him. It wasn't a literal thing, it was a symbolic thing, spiritual. It is likely that the mark of the beast is also a spiritual thing. But it has a remarkable counterpart in the baptism which is done by the priest on the side of the cross, on the forehead, with the right hand. If you refuse to receive that mark, you are liable to excommunication from your village. From about the 10th century on to the 17th century. And in some cases later, some countries later still. For all those hundreds of years, you could neither buy nor sell, if you refuse the mark of the ownership of the Catholic Church. Imagine a plain history. The number of his name, I have given you a simple little solution here. Vicarius Filii Dei, adds up in Latin numerals to 666. The vicar of the there are other suggestions, the Greek Latinos, a Latin man also adds to 666. But don't put too much on the number of the name business. Use wisdom in association with it, because you can even turn Kissinger into 666, if you want to. It's surprising what you can do with numbers, if you really try. But essentially, it is the number of a man. It is the number of a man. But being threefold, three sixes, it's the number of a man taking the place of God. That's it. He that hath wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred three four and six. But I'm afraid I've been a bit terrible tonight, trying to hurry through a whole lot of material. And I expect your questions are so many, that you'll scarcely know what to ask first. And I can't promise to answer all your questions perfectly either. The interpretation I have set before you, is the one I think to be the most likely, but I might be wrong on many points. There is, however, as I'm sure you can see, this tremendous parallel between the intricate visions of Revelation and the intricate history of the professing Christian Church down through the centuries. I'm certainly not an infallible interpreter. You will find in any school of interpretation of the Revelation, whether it's Futurist or anything, you'll get different points of view. There are some people who believe there'll be one rapture. Some believe there'll be two. I've known some who believe there'll be seven different raptures. They've got it by divine revelation. It's the latest. And some think that the Antichrist will be a Jew. Some think he'll be a Roman. Cardinal Bellarmine, Roman Catholic Futurist, thinks he'll come out of a church. All Futurist people don't agree among themselves by any means, even though they're getting into a future which hasn't happened yet. And those of us who are moral-passionate and are inclined to follow the great reformers in our interpretation of the scripture, also have differences of viewpoints. One can't always be absolutely certain what the divine cartoon is intended to imply. Indeed, some of us don't always agree about the cartoons in newspapers. And it's no wonder if we make some little mistakes about the divine cartoons in such a difficult subject as this. Suffice it to say that our Lord has warned us about the deceptions which he foresaw. And we look back at a very hasty glance into history and find that everything he warned us about has been terribly and awfully fulfilled. And this should make us alert to our own day. Yes, I think the normal thing is figurative. Isn't there a reference there to Elijah? Wasn't he the man who called empire from heaven? He was testifying against the apostate court of Ahab and Jezebel. And it probably indicates that the witnesses would have a similar function in their day against an apostate court witnessing, calling down fire. Let's see, where's that first five and six part of fire proceeded out of their mouth and devoured their enemies. When, for instance, when John was led to the stake, I told you what he said. He said, you may kill this goose, but in a hundred years, a swan will arise and you will not be able to silence him. As he was dying, fire proceeded out of his mouth. A hundred years later, Luther and the Reformation swept through Europe. And this sort of thing happened again and again. These men were prophetic, especially in their dying moments. Do you think that there will ever be a single man that will be the antichrist? I'm inclined to say no. I would say that this revelation prophecy has been so tremendously fulfilled, that we're safer now to look for the coming of the Lord without an antichrist intervening between us and his coming. Right, most pre-revelation is due. Yes, yes. Do all these take place within three and a half years? Yes, I think it's most unlikely. We've seen that the range of revelation is from those early days, and right up to the second coming. We have seen this tremendous fulfillment. I do think that basically what he was warning the church about was her long and sad trial through the centuries. I can't tell you that there won't be, but I don't think it's likely. As we continue in our reading of scripture, I can show you that some of the things I think are likely to happen in the future, but I can't guarantee it. Look for the coming of the Lord, that's the best thing. What was Elizabeth's reaction to the papal process? I think she had a sense of humor. The Pope sent the Armada to enforce it, you know. You know about the Spanish Armada, don't you? There were 3,000 priests on board to bring them back to Rome. But the Lord intervened and wrecked them. It was a time of reformation, God's time. This has a little bit to do with what was said. The other day on the 700 Club, Pat was discussing with guests about the fall of Iran and the coming peace in the Mideast, and saying that these two things showed that we would be in a war with Russia before the 1980s ended. Do you have any knowledge of this, or do you agree with this? Whatever we say about the future must be speculative. You're more likely to be wrong than right, whatever you say. Well, the odds are against, don't they, really? But I do think that a war centered around Israel and the Middle East is indicated in the Old Testament, and probably the New, and it may be the next big thing to turn up. One of the last signs of the coming of the Lord. Yes, yes, this is later on in Revelation. We'll deal with it probably next week. Revelation 16, verse 13 to 17. We'll look at it later. All right, any other questions, problems? I was reading in another book, it said that during the latter 15th century, early 16th century, when Europe was, I mean, when England was under a monarch, a Protestant monarch, that the Catholics were persecuted in England to a very bad degree. Is this also indicated in Revelation that the time that they lived there, that the Catholics were perceived as persecutors? Not quite that one. The most of the Catholic persecution are, he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity, that kind of thing. We've already read that today, that there would be a reaction. Most of it occurred right through Europe, particularly around the French Revolution, when country after country turned against the Roman Catholic system. Especially in France, thousands of priests were killed, guillotined, and this went through several European countries. In England it wasn't so bad, but they certainly had quite a rough time. You see, England didn't all turn Christian because they broke away from Rome. They didn't all get converted. I don't think Queen Elizabeth was a slave woman. I'm fairly certain King Henry VIII had no idea about salvation. The Inquisition was started against the Jews, first of all, to make them confess where they'd hidden their money, and to force them to become Christians. The Jews had a terrible time under Christendom, and it's no wonder that the Jew hates the idea of Christianity. Their history is terrible. They suffered equally as much as these people we've been reading about. Driven from country to country, robbed, unfairly treated, living in ghettos. Their history is dark and terrible. The situation is improving everywhere, but a friend of mine at Eden told me that when he was in Ecuador in his early days, a predecessor Protestant minister heard someone at the door opened it. A man dashed in, slipped a noose around his feet, and disappeared again. The car started up, and the man was dragged out through the streets until he died. And that was not uncommon in those days. Willie Burton of the Congo said that the bitterest opposition he had, that his convert had, was from the people who were taught by the Catholic priests, who taught them to beat up Bible believers. But I'm sure that the situation is improving, rapidly. And are those Christians armed Christians? In China? In Chan. There have been some, there always are several kinds of Christians around, you know. And many of those who died as martyrs in Chan, some years ago, they were cruelly treated, buried up to their necks, and left to die with the ants eating their eyes out. They were genuine Christians. But whether this war is between genuine Christians or only professing Christians is another matter. I can't tell you that. Similarly, in Germany, there were those who were true believers who were willing to suffer, and there were those who were political Christians who just wanted to fight. I think everywhere this sort of thing happens. Because, just a few years ago, things are generally improving, and I wonder if you mean that in the sense that the drop is taking hold, and more people are coming in, or that there's less of this sort of persecution, or in some other sense? The Catholic Church in these ages, newspapers and so on, is being more and more careful about what it does. You can't do things these days as you used to be able to do. And I think there's a general moving of God's Spirit among the rank and file everywhere. The positive teaching of spiritual gifts, I think, has only been generally recovered during the present century. But there always has been evidence of this kind of thing among the elect. For instance, in the Sedans in southern France, at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when hundreds of thousands of Protestants were robbed of home and family, and were driven out, little children were prophesying beautifully. Even when they were oppressed by soldiers, they were praying and prophesying. Wonderful manifestations of the Holy Spirit there. In Scotland, during the time of the Covenanters, there were a few, even the Prophet, obviously, had a divine gift. We haven't got such good records of miracle ministries, but there always seems to be a little touch of it here and there. The obvious question we all ask ourselves is, faced with the things that which should be withstand, and so forth, and maintain our faith, it occurred to me that the Holy Spirit empowers some people to be the witness that they were. Is there any record of, during his horrible death, of a special empowerment of the Holy Spirit, even through his moments of pain and agony? Yes, there have been a few interesting ones. Bishop Cranmer, who was Henry VIII's right-hand man, but a believer, he backslid a bit under pressure, and conformed to the Roman Catholic oppression brought on by Bloody Mary. But later on, he repented, and he faced the stake, and he remembered that his right hand had signed a document renouncing his Protestant position, and he said, let this hand burn first, this hand that betrayed me. He struck that into the flame, and he held it there, and mustered in grace there, until that hand was burned off, before he died. It was dying grace. Many of them had dying grace. But not always. Some suffered an awful agony. You say that there was a decrease in the verity of the Roman Church inside Christ, and that science was not to do that. How would that mean? Did you take some of the Christian from the Roman Church to something else? I would say decreasing. So you would expect then, in the culture, that something would be left? Yes. Would it gradually become inflated into the New England then? No, I, no, I don't think that. But there will be, it isn't exactly, he will be consumed, you remember the Thessalonian passage, he will be consumed by the spirit of his mouth. Once the spirit of his mouth, surely the word of God and the Holy Spirit working together, would consume the anti-Christian thing. I don't know. I don't think we've got much longer. Yes. Where are we? On the third page. Yes. All right. You're going to send me to the wall? Yeah. Very definite. Yeah, he's the prince of this world, isn't he? And he adapts himself to whatever guise is convenient. Oh yes, I'm sure he's behind communism in some measure. Although I think he, he makes bigger blunders there because the Lord uses him wonderfully. Well, that might be a blessing. That might be a blessing in disguise. A recent part of it, and you said in one instance that the persecution of the charismatic Catholic renewal would come not from these churches, you know, that are not, that are still called the Catholic Church, you know. And I didn't understand that prophecy until this passed. It would be illogical that their persecution would come from the very church that they are on, you know, that they still, a lot of it, may be the reason. Yes. Yes, I do think that great pressure will be brought to bear upon the Catholic Charismatics to conform to the great church. Yes. All right, all right. I think that will do for now. Thank you, Tim. Let me recommend this book, Great Prophecies by Woodrow. It's up here if you want to get, see where to get it from. Okay, leave me some sound there for a minute. Oh, how many of you did not hear the announcement at the beginning of class?