In this sermon, Brother Denny discusses the importance of everyone coming together and working together. He emphasizes the power of community and the need for nations to resolve their differences in a calm and ordered way. Brother Denny also mentions the global trend of countries forming alliances and trade agreements, such as the creation of a free trade area in the Americas and the integration of European nations. He references Tony Blair's speech about a new world order and the need for justice and unity among different religions.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.com. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Well, this is fast coming to a close. I just have about three or four days of material here to go over yet. So bear with me. I wanted to make an announcement here that they planned to lift an offering for the Benuel Esh son's hospital bill. He was in the trauma center for three days there and that could be a substantial bill. They planned to lift an offering to give brothers here an opportunity to share in that expense before you go home. So they'll lift that at the end of my message. Shall we just bow our heads for prayer? Father in heaven, once again, here it is, Friday already, so soon these days pass. Many of these men are going back to their responsibilities and families and ministries and I pray, O God, that you would have birthed in them conviction this week in many ways, but especially, Father, we pray for in these sessions that you have given them and especially specific ones amongst them the gift of discernment, that they might be able to discern between the wicked and the righteous, that they may be able to judge righteous judgment and be able to discern all these things that are coming upon the Christian church to try to deceive us and take our hearts away from the true written word of God and the relationship with God that we believe in and have. Thank you, God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, once again, you've been a very easy group to speak to this week and it's been a joy for me. My cold is continuing to get better and that's one of the reasons why I feel a little like going on for a few more days now that I feel better. All right, this morning's topic will be on present signs of the times. At the back end, at least, I have some other unfinished work from yesterday's teaching that I want to take care of. At the beginning here, I have a bit of an unpleasant beginning to give you in that we have had to have a little discernment here already this week. We have had to have a little discernment. But there is a man in the group here that I understand has his suitcase full of the Book of Mormon and is wanting to give them out or is hoping at least to find people to give them to. And I just want to encourage in case that that has happened to any of you young Christians that you take that book and make a bonfire. That is false. They're trying to establish a new Zion, I guess, in Independence, Missouri and that's where he's from. So, you be wise there. And the Book of Mormon is not compatible with the Word of God. All right, Matthew chapter 16 again is my text here. Verse 3, it says, Last half, O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but ye cannot discern the signs of the times. I just received information this morning that Rick Warren's book on the purpose-driven church and I'm not quite sure if it's a purpose-driven church or the purpose-driven life, but I think it's a purpose-driven church, has passed the 10 million sales mark. They are hoping to accomplish 15,000, listen to this, 40-day purpose-driven seminars in churches around the country this year. 15,000 of them. This is taking the evangelical world by storm the world over, almost unprecedented in speed of virtually any other movement that probably has been upon us in these last days. And another sad note, a very sad note, but Christian Research Institute of California is falling on this one. They are selling the books and don't feel there's much wrong with them, and up to today at least have not come to grips with the error in this whole concept. Hank Hanegraaff is not anymore the Bible answer man on this one. All right, I just forgot to mention also, concerning the matter of rebuking the devil, I failed to mention that in Jude, verse 9, there is a specific scripture which I'm sure many of you are aware of, that in verse 8 it says, Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. Much of what we hear in the rebuking the devil today falls in the category very much of railing accusations against the devil. I mean ranting and raving against the devil, calling him on all kinds of funny names and mocking names, but if the angels durst not do that, we should neither. Call him by his name, pray the Lord rebuke thee, but for you to take it in your own hands to order him around, that God has not given to your authority, I don't think. And driving him out of town, giving him two black eyes in the meanwhile and all that foolishness. All right, let me answer a question I ask on Monday. First order of business here, or order of discernment, I would like to at least, if you will allow me, to give a little bit of rest on the subject, if I can, of whether there is healing in the atonement. Whether there is divine healing in the atonement. Because Benny Hinn cuts directly to the heart of this matter in his messages, along with all the other word of faith and all kinds of other men across the nation and world, that cause much confusion on this subject. But Benny Hinn writes this way, the Bible declares that the work was done two thousand years ago. God is not going to heal you now. He healed you two thousand years ago. All you have to do is receive your healing by faith. And he's doing that on the assumption that physical healing, not spiritual healing, physical healing is in the atonement, in the blood atonement of Christ, that his blood was shed to heal all of us physically. Hinn believes that Moses should be our example. Moses lived a hundred and twenty years without his eye growing dim and his natural force abating. Therefore we should as well, says Hinn. Sickness does not belong to you. It has no part in the body of Christ. Sickness does not belong to any of us. The Bible declares if the word of God is in our life, there will be health, there will be healing, divine health and divine healing. There will be no sickness for the sin of God. If Moses could live a healthy life, so can you. But he forgot to read Psalms chapter ninety, that a man stays at three score and ten, and if by reason of strength, four score, and then we will fly away. Well, several pages later he writes, he promises to heal all, everyone, any, any whatsoever, everything, all our diseases. This means not even a headache, a sinus problem, not even a toothache, nothing. No sickness should come our way. Jerry Savelle believes that divine health is something we already possess. When symptoms come, it is nothing more than a thief trying to steal the health which is already ours. In other words, divine health is not something we are trying to get from God. It is something we have and the devil is trying to take it away from us, says Savelle. When the devil tries to put a symptom of sickness or disease on my body, I absolutely refuse to accept it. I am redeemed from, I haven't had the flu since 1969, he says, and I am not going to have it now. I am redeemed from the flu on the misconception of healing in the atonement. Immediately I begin to confess God's Word that I am healed by the stripes of Jesus. I rebuked Satan and refused his lying symptoms. I wasn't trying to get something I don't have. I was keeping something I already had. I am healed. Savelle does not seem troubled by the absurdity of being healed of the flu, yet continuing to suffer just as badly as the rest of us with the symptoms. Neither does Kenneth Hagen. Fred Price has his own twist to the idea. He tells the story of how Satan attacked him with the symptoms that were so severe that he literally thought he might die. He tells, Price tells the story, the devil wanted to scare me into thinking that the pain would kill me. Well, I just let the pain come. My wife can tell you, I crawl around on my bedroom floor shouting and hollering at the top of my voice. I was in such pain I couldn't stand on my feet. I was under attack to that extent, but I refused to give in to it. I wanted my faith to work for me. I didn't want to have to call you up and have you pray for me. So, what happens here is that these fellows get sick pretty much like the rest of us, they just deny it. And I don't think that's the way to go. This is a deadly doctrine. Such pronouncements might sound merely silly, but they have a darker side. Perhaps Kenneth Copeland does not recognize that ignoring symptoms may well be lethal. I refuse to consider my body. I refuse to be moved by what I see and by what I feel. I'm going to choose his word instead of what my body's trying to say. And then he admits, I've had people die and me standing there saying, bless God, you ain't going to die, and they died anyhow. Well, what's happening is there are thousands of people lying on beds of cancer and all kinds of diseases such as that, denying them until the week of their death, declaring they're not going to die, they're not going to die, I'm not sick, I'm well, I'm well, I'm well. And all the while, the life is ebbing away out of their physical body. I say they're liars. While an individual like that should be preparing for eternity, making sure all things are right and clear, and be ushered in by preachers and by men in singing and praises of glory into heaven, they are told you're still sinning, there's still sin in your life, or you don't have enough of faith, and are harassed with that type of an onslaught to their dying hour. I tell you, that is sad. I've never seen that happen, but I've seen the other happen. And you see literally heaven open up and receiving a saint that's dying in the Lord. Brethren, we're not here to stay in these bodies anyhow. How is it that, I forget how someone said, I'm not sure where I have that, yeah, the death rate is still one per person and we're all going to make it. These fellows are saying if you're sick, it's your own fault. Second, they're saying don't take any medicine, that's not trusting God. Don't you ever admit that you're not feeling well, or that you're sick, and on and on they go. They say the doctors are using toothpicks in order to help people, we're using atomic bombs, concerning their own charade of statements that they make. Instead of a devil being behind every bush, they have the devil behind every disease. That's why you can tune in to Christian television on virtually any given day and hear faith healers screaming at demons. The following is a transcript of Robert Tilton raging at what he believes to be the demonic forces attacking his followers on TV land. Now listen to this, I almost hate to quote it, it's so absurd, but I want you to get some of these things because there's a dual message in it. Satan, you demonic spirits of AIDS and AIDS virus, I bind you. You demon spirits of cancer, arthritis, infection, migraine, headaches and pain, come out of that body. Come out of that child, come out of that man. Satan, I bind you. You foul demon spirits of sickness and disease, infirmities in the inner ear, in the lungs, in the back. You demon spirits of arthritis, sickness and disease. You tormenting infirm spirits in the stomach. Satan, I bind you. You nicotine spirits, I bind you in the name of Jesus. Now since when, since when is AIDS a problem in the way he's handling it? A spirit of AIDS upon the people. I don't think there's anybody in here that doesn't know where AIDS comes from. And it's from sin because they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge. God has given them over to do that which is unseemly and may I add in my words, to suffer that which is unseemly. And the same goes for nicotine spirits, come on. Nicotine spirits, this is totally absurd. Men have nicotine habits because they smoke cigarettes. Must I be an eight year old to tell you that? But you see how it is? They blame the devil. They don't want to blame the flesh. They don't want to blame the world. They don't want to blame their ungodly habits that they have put on their lives and brought into their lives. And so they just blame the devil and try to cast it out. And that's where this whole shift has taken the mentality and the prayers of many. They're trying to bind the devil in the matter of physical sickness and they can't even bind him to start with. And the scriptures they use don't even apply to physical sickness, I don't think. Charlie Capps says this way, growth and tumors have no right to my body. They are a thing of the past and I'm delivered from the authority of darkness. See the connection with the spiritual that they make? Every organ and tissue in my body functions in the perfection that God created it to function. I forbid any malfunction of my body in Jesus' name. Father, your word has become a part of me. It is flowing in my bloodstream. It flows to every cell of my body, restoring and transforming my body. Your word has become flesh. Look at that. Your word has become flesh, the resting of scriptures. For you sent your word and healed me. Your word is manifest in my body, causing growths to disappear. Arthritis is a thing of the past. I make a demand on my bones. Listen to this language. I make a demand on my bones and joints to function properly in Jesus' name. You see what these fellows are doing? They have the atonement so construed. They have Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, identified of coming into my body and driving out the diseases in my body. Instead of the incarnation of Christ, God becoming man, atoning for man's sin and setting all men free from the bondage of sin. This is a delusion, a strong delusion these men are into. Well, now let me explain Isaiah 53. Let's turn to Isaiah 53, verse 5, and just show you some of the thoughts that I have concerning this. And I'm open on it, like I say, maybe on some of these things. You know, we're trying to find our way and discover what God is saying in His word. And we're not the absolute authority on these things, trying to give it the understanding that we believe God has given us. Isaiah 53, verse 5. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. Now, wouldn't it seem logical to you and I, and before I forget it, I'm not against healing or anointing with oil, and I have experienced healing myself years ago for a physical thyroid problem I had many years ago now, and I'm not against healing. But when the Scripture here talks about by His stripes you are healed, where do you suppose we could go in order to find out what the interpretation of that healing is, physical or spiritual? Are we allowed to go to Peter? Let me see here, 1 Peter 2, 24 and 25, and see how Peter understood that? Who His own self, bear our sins in His own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live on the righteousness by whose stripes we are healed. And there's not a clue of physical healing in Peter's interpretation in that context. Now, let's go back to Isaiah 53 again and read the verse ahead of what I read there. And we notice there that it says He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. When it talks about a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, I understand that that word grief may have to do with physical part of healing of man. And there are numerous other scriptures in the Old Testament, of course, that speak about healing of our diseases and so on. But if, I mean, could you agree at least that Jesus, when He came on earth and healed all that were sick, that there was a fulfillment of physical healing in Jesus' ministry, but that is fulfilled in that. And if we could turn to, let me see here, Matthew 8, 16 and 17. When He even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils. And He cast out the spirits with His word and healed all that were sick. He healed all that were sick. And here is the interpretation thereof, the next verse. That it might be fulfilled, that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying himself, bear our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. Now in the sense here, according to this, if He bear our sicknesses and there is a sense in which He did, then the Bible says in Matthew chapter 8 here that that was fulfilled when He healed all that were sick in His three and a half year ministry. That was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53. It's quoted right here. And then Peter goes on to explain that chapter 53 verse 5 is a fulfillment of spiritual healing and doesn't even mention the physical. And that is how I have come through that conclusion of how that physical healing is not in the atonement, not in the blood atonement for the universe of mankind, for whosoever believe it. That is where the confusion comes in. God has made a provision for us to be healed by the laying on of hands and by anointing of oil and praying for people that are sick, anointing them with the elders of the church as Denny mentioned yesterday in his ordinance teaching there at the end. And it is right to pray for people that are sick and all that. But to walk up and demand that saying it is done 2,000 years ago as part of the cross brings us another problem. And the problem is if a man in his sickbed does not have the faith to be healed, then how are we going to assure him that he has the faith to be saved if they are connected? If a man dies anyhow and the charismatic preacher tells him, well, I'm sorry, you just didn't have enough of faith and you may die here, and he does, then how can we guarantee and escort him to heaven with our songs and prayers at his dying hour and say that he is saved? If he didn't have enough of faith to have him healed, if healing is in the atonement and he doesn't have enough of faith to apply the atonement to heal his body, then how can we tell him that he is going to be saved? That's the problem that comes up with that whole theology. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work that way. The other problem we have is the misapplication of the law. The whole thing of going into Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 28, 27 and 28 and attributing the blessing and curses to the church. That is a major problem, my brethren, in spite of all the teachers that are doing it. Because in that passage, and you have to take them in the package, you have no miscarriages. You have rain on your crops. You have your enemies fleeing from you and all of those things. Those promises, those curses and blessings were given to Israel specifically, not to the Christian church. Or we are out of it. Because we have miscarriages. We have a lot of difficulties here. We have droughts. It doesn't rain on some of our fields. And yet we are faithful to the Lord. If that is true, we must conclude we are out of sync with God when we have a drought or when enemies come against us or we get burned at the stake or all those things. This is not right. And it is making the Christian, in total, taking the Christian church into confusion because of the misapplication of the law. And here is another one. If Christ, and this is where the confusion is so great, if Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, and in their minds that is the curses of Deuteronomy 28, then you see where the confusion comes from, where instead the curse of the law is interpreted in Romans as being a curse on everyone who continues not to do all the things written therein. The curse of the law is upon every man who fails in one point. And Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law for failing to not keep it all. And that is why we can go free in the power of the gospel. Don't let anyone take you back and mix you up in the old covenant. That is what is so confusing. And you know the teachers who have done it, who have had their seminars all over this country and written their books until they have brought such confusion upon people that one after another comes to us and says, we finally got into such bondage in our home and in our marriage and in our child rearing and everything by that bondage that we finally just woke up and threw the whole thing and said something is out of order here. Here is another one. You know that is new, the whole Pleasant Valley movement down there in Georgia, Henry Wright, who is teaching that 80% of all sickness is due to sin. And so all these things, all the sickness that we have are due to sin and in some of them like fibromyalgia and what have you, he is up to 100% on that I think. The other thing is that sin is a demon. Sin is a being, he says. And what he means is a demon behind you who is causing you to be sick because there is sin in your life. Once again, we have the sickness of cancer, we have all those diseases and you walk up to a person on their sick bed and say there is still sin in your life. That is what is wrong. And lay that on that dear person who is a saint of God. But we are living in a worn out earth, brethren. We are living in a world that is full of chemicals and the earth isn't pure and the air isn't pure and nothing that we eat hardly is pure and there is no such thing as a truly organic thing because of the air and all the fallout of the chemicals and the stuff in this industrialized world and all that. And that is just where we are. The earth is waxing old and it is about ready to be folded up. And God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth, win death and righteousness. And then we will be free of this. And not only that, Romans 8 says all creation is groaning and trailing together until now, waiting for the redemption to end of the body. And that is the redemption that is going to be the final and ultimate redemption when these bodies will be redeemed and we will have new ones. And we tell people that are dying and people that are sick, well, glory to God, you are about ready to get your new body. Take courage and be joyful and go on and get it. That is historically biblical truth. And this new stuff that is coming up, brother, don't go for it. Don't go for it. There again, if I use my historical test on it, that stuff falls flat on the ground. Hey, they further teach on the diseases of Egypt these days. You know, it says there in the law that if you obey me, I am going to give you this land, I am going to bless you, it is going to rain and none of the diseases of Egypt are going to come upon you. And then somebody writes a book, none of these diseases and tries to bring that into the Christian church. And there was God's covenant there with Israel very clearly while they were in the land of Canaan. Another thing I would like to speak about, changing subject here, is earth worship. I have with me a documentation I picked up a few years ago called An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation. It is a document of repentance for because we have sinned, we have failed in our stewardship of creation. Therefore, we repent of the way we have polluted, distorted and destroyed so much of the Creator's work. It is a documentation of having degraded and having polluted the earth. And I have pages, I think, one, two, three, four pages like this of lists of major evangelical preachers and mission directors and leaders who have signed that document, being led right into the new age. Mother Earth is the new age. It is hurting, you know, and we need to repent of the way we have treated her. And another thing with Henry Wright, he gives a portion of his prophets into Target Earth. And Target Earth is another new age development concerning earth worship and preserving the earth and repenting and all those kind of things. All right, so anyway, you are shocked if you see the list of some of those missions and preachers and all that, that have signed that. Earth worship, repenting for the way we have depleted the earth. Now, let us go into signs of the times a bit here and I want to share with you a little bit on the national world and political scene just a few points. Here is where I ought to have two, three more days. But we are turning or have turned a major turning point in history, has happened at a 9-11. And I am sure many of you realize that and see the ramifications of it, but I do not believe any of us know half or all, near all of the changes that are taking place in the all new agenda. We did know that the father George Bush was a man of a new world order, but the implications of our present president and how he has led this country into a new world order is astounding. Likewise, I would say with Tony Blair also of England. And here are some of the things I would like to give you on his speech that he made recently and our president has acted exactly the same way by taking his shoes off, going into the mosque in Moslem, the Moslem mosque in Washington and bowing down there likewise after 9-11, making statements concerning the validity of the Islamic religion. Here Tony Blair would say, well let me just read you a list first of all of these changes on the fallout of this new change that has come since 9-11. A boost to the interfaith agenda, highlight on Islam and copies of the Koran snapped up at bookstores. A temptation to depend on false prophecies and visions, spiritual hunger coupled with fear driving people into the arms of the religious agenda and the apostate churches. Political alliances even with communists and Islamic states. A forced peace in the Middle East with criticism now of Israel. Have you ever noticed how they can't get the sympathy of the world concerning their terrorists? Isn't that interesting? We can turn the whole world on ours, focus on ours when we have some deaths with terrorism, but they can't and they have them every week virtually. And they seem to blame Israel for it. And that's because they're God's people. Talk of compulsory ID cards and fingerprinting us now. All foreigners traveling here by plane or anyway, I guess by plane or by ship at least from foreign countries. Measures to increase surveillance in all areas. Restriction on travel worldwide. Pressure on the world's economies leading to the introduction of the euro throughout Europe with centralized banking and financing. And of course all banks buying each other out and all that. Changes to the legal system making arrest and detention easier even without proof of a crime. Incitement to hatred laws are introduced with both racial and religious reasons. Popular consent for joint global action against intangible evil. And this person says, my comments on Israel and Islam would certainly be seen as an incitement to hatred and the new laws hint at a situation where street evangelists could be arrested and prosecuted simply for preaching the gospel. The Muslims are crying to the police officers for protection from harassment by these evangelicals coming up to them and preaching to them. And that is gaining. And the Muslims of Britain have pressed for protection from harassment and are asking for legal protection from this whole thing too. Christians are, and this is concerning England now with Tony Blair, Christians are routinely pushed out of jobs, especially in education and the media in favor of ethnic minorities and they are ridiculed mercilessly in the press and on TV. Christian bookshops are bought out by Catholic and restorationist groups who then stock them with their own propaganda and the born again Bible believing Christian in Britain has a hard time of it all around. Let me see here. Here is some of Tony Blair's speech. Tony Blair yesterday gave his strongest appeal, and this wasn't yesterday but a year or so ago maybe when he gave this, gave his strongest signal that he wants to join the European single currency within four years as he outlined his vision for a new world order rising from the ashes of the terrorist attacks on America. He says the true followers of Islam are our brothers and sisters in this struggle. This was a 54 minute speech. He mentioned that while he talked, there were strong moral and religious overtones as he proposed a new world order which he said should be the memorial of those who lost their lives in the attacks on New York and Washington. He talked about international injustice. What is that? Even suggesting that it would intervene if there was a repetition of the slaughter of Rwanda where a million people were killed in 93. He defended globalization as a force for good and said the international community if it choose to do so could breathe new life into the Middle East peace process and resolve the conflicts in Africa, combat poverty and address climate change. Just as a side note, I have been a bit weary over my seven, eight years, more specifically, of discussing community with Hutterites. You know, that's the big word among them, living communally or community. And now once we find this word on the global scene and they're talking about international community and it's interesting to study what they mean by that. On everyone getting together I'll give you some more quotes here to show you that. In retrospect, the millennium marked only a moment in time. It was the events of 11 September that marked a turning point in history where we confront the dangers of the future and assess the choices facing humankind. A new beginning, he talked about hope amongst all nations of a new beginning where we seek to resolve differences in a calm and ordered way, greater understanding between nations and between faith. There is another dimension appearing, he says. There is a coming together. The power of community is asserting itself. We are realizing how fragile are our frontiers in the face of the world's new challenges. He talks about how power and wealth and opportunity must be in the hands of many, not few. Confronted by this reality around the world, nations are instinctively drawing together. In Quebec, all the countries of North and South America decided to make one huge free trade area, raveling Europe. It's interesting also to notice that I think it's Argentina wants to, has maybe already, brought in the American dollar as their currency. Belize wants to do the same, and other Central and South American countries are talking about the same thing, including Mexico. In Asia, we have ASEAN. In Europe, the most integrated grouping of all, we have now 15 nations and other 12 countries negotiating to join, and more beyond that. A new relationship between Russia and Europe is beginning. And there are developing right now three major currencies, North and South America, and all the nations thereof, the American dollar. The European common market and all of the nations associating with it, the euro. And over in Asia, I think the most valuable presently is the Japanese yen, and all of the Orient is looking at that. What they plan to do is have all of these three uniting in those currencies, as I stated, and then looking at a common currency for the entire world next. And many of those things we see happening before our eyes. Tony Blair further said that Jews, Muslims, and Christians are all the children of Abraham. This is a moment to bring the faith closer together in understanding of our common values and heritage, a source of unity and strength. This is a moment to seize. The pieces are in flux. Let us reorder this world around us. Now you can understand why our president being a New World Order man and Tony Blair are such good friends. And not only that, let's look a little bit at their agenda for Iraq. There's been speculation ever since the war that the real problem there or the real desire there is Iraqi oil. Well, that may be a side issue, but I believe it goes far beyond oil. We have Jordan, King Abdullah, who now wants to have a, he wants his nation to be an example there of democracy. He wants that to be the showcase for Arab unity and to start a democracy in Jordan. Bush, at all costs of men and money, is wanting to establish a democracy in Iraq. Iran is also looking at it and begin licking its lips a bit and talking about a democracy likewise there. It would be my persuasion that the democracy will install the Antichrist, not communism or any other such thing. The real threat today is democracy. It is not a democracy of religious freedom like we have known in the past which was called a democracy, but this new democracy will also have a designated religion, or at least you must be tolerant of them all and unite them all and consider them as this, all the children of Abraham, and let them all be brought together so you can name them with different names as long as in spirit you are all agreed to recognize each other and respect each other. And if anybody is otherwise they are, the big buzz word, intolerant. And the next thing is while they are talking about us being, as they are talking about tolerance and everybody has to have tolerance, you will find then that they will be intolerant of our intolerance because they are getting weary of fundamental churches or Bible-believing churches that will not submit to their agenda. Another thing we notice is the Queen of Heaven. The whole idea of Mary in worship, I have a document here with me concerning the petition, well it's to the Pope, and the idea is that what has happened is just recently they have announced that they are planning to go to the area of Fatima, Portugal, and there build an interfaith shrine. Now the Fatima in Portugal is the place where in 1917 three peasant children saw six aberrations of Mary, and Mary gave lots of messages to these children in those aberrations, those six different aberrations, and now we have this great shrine built there called Fatima or Our Lady of Fatima. Many Catholic churches name themselves Our Lady of Fatima because Fatima is where Mary appeared, but all at once now they would like to build an interfaith shrine there in Fatima, Portugal, and this is what they are saying here, a plan to transform the shrine of Our Lady at Fatima into an interfaith facility opening this Catholic holy site to worship on an equal footing by non-Catholics of all kinds including Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and other followers of non-Christian religions. You know why? That's because the Hindu religion also honors this Mary in worship or has its goddesses and its women that they bow down to and worship, and the Muslims accept Mary likewise, very high respect for Mary, probably even more than Jesus there, and so here we have the Catholic church with all of its co-redemptrix nonsense concerning Mary, and they can bring all of this together in Fatima, Portugal there because it fits them all. And imagine, Hindus of India, Muslims a billion strong by themselves, Catholics a billion strong, and then they're inviting the Jews. Well now, when it comes to the Christians, I just want to mention that, let's see, where do I have that? Yes, in California, in Cosa Mesa studio of the TBN, Trinity Broadcasting Network, in Cosa Mesa, California studio, they have a statue of the Queen of Heaven on the second floor. And so it almost seems like that this whole goddess and Mary in worship and all of this thing is uniting in one in order to bring about a unity of the faith on Mary. Another thing we notice is our holidays have changed. They don't want Christ in the word Christmas anymore, and those have changed to happy holidays, but in this last year something unique happened in which Hanukkah, Christmas, and Ramadan, holy days of three of the world's major religions are bunched on equally close together this year, December 23rd, December 25th, and 31st respectively. The proximity of these holidays changes from year to year because of the different calendars used by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christmas of course always occurs on December 25th, but Hanukkah can begin any time between late November and late December, and Ramadan falls near Christmas once every 35 years, but I think this year Ramadan was celebrated in the White House, from what I understand. Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Jews led by Judah Maccabee over the Syrian Greeks and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem at 165 B.C. Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ, the faith Messiah, and Ramadan marks when Islam's founder, the prophet Muhammad, is said to have begun to receive the divine revelation that became the Quran. Now one wonders, just some speculation here, no prophecy given, that whether they will try to make a universal date and call it happy holidays to include all three, but in this last year most of the greetings that are sent out are just say happy holidays, and the object of all that is to include all three it seems like, and they're hard trying to get Jesus out of that whole thing, and even the manger scenes are under tremendous attacks by the ACLU as you notice and all that. Next is the homosexual agenda. Marriage amendment in the United Nations, and by the way, I think a couple got married in San Francisco yesterday, just saw a glimpse of that this morning, that San Francisco is jumping on the bandwagon, Massachusetts likewise has approved gay marriages, but the United Nations began considering a proposal that would support same-sex marriage in countries around the world. The California State Legislature passed a bill with the intent to protect transgendered people. This bill would force Christian businesses, people to hire or keep male employees who dress like women, and women who dress like men. Television programs now portray gay characters in a positive light, whereas heterosexual men are displayed as bumbling fools. Many programs center on homosexuality. The United States is a great example of that, because there is a homosexual agenda in this world, and you have to be half blind not to see it, pick it up. New diseases, that's an interesting one. Recently we of course had the bird flu scare in Asia, which is transferable from chickens to humans. We have SARS in China and in the Orient, in Canada as you all know. We have the mad cow disease, this is all in the last year. The mad cow disease in Canada and then one found in the United States, and now we have the avian flu again in Delaware this past week, and suspicion to be in Lancaster County this morning. Incredible. You can tell that the earth is wearing out. You can tell with all their science and medicines they can't keep on top. You see these strong strains of malaria developing in Africa, South America, which are almost resistant to any antibiotic or any anti-malarial medicine, and that's because they are changing and strengthening against the medicines that were common and worked well over the years, until where they just are so strong the medicine is hard to get to do its job. On the medical scene, 700 people a day die from overdoses of prescription drugs. Not illegal, prescription drugs. Just a side note here, another one here is opening of a checking account. I have an employee who had some trouble with his checking account in Nebraska before he moved in this area, so he went in to try to start a checking account in a local bank here, and he couldn't, so he went from bank to bank to bank, and none of them would help him. So he wondered whether I could help him, and I went in to my local bank and said, why can't this man open a checking account? Well, he has a record on this universal check system, and if you don't somehow get them to clear it, you cannot start a checking account anywhere in the United States. We are under investigation by the government now here locally in Ephrata for that, and we cannot give him a checking account for seven years. And the last time I started a side checking account for a business under a different name, I mean you had to produce your driver's license, and they took a picture of your driver's license just to open a checking account. I mean, the privacy is just totally eroded, and everything has to be documented and checked and rechecked and cross-checked, and all these businesses are falling into it, and like the lady said, we're forced to do it. We have no choice, no matter our jobs are on the line if we wouldn't. And then I just wanted to mention, I forgot to mention also that in Iraq, also we have the beginning of civilization there. We have the history of the Garden of Eden there, and we have the history of Babylon there. And Babylon is very, very interesting to notice that that name comes up again in Revelation very clearly, and we have the destruction of Babylon very clearly marked out to us in Revelation chapter 18, and but we have the mystery Babylon, which seems to be the religious entity of Babylon or the Antichrist entity mentioned to us in Revelation 13, and also we have the description of this Babylon, and it fits very well to all the things I've been telling you this morning, into the New World Order, into the Cosmic Christ, into everyone coming together and being the sons of Abraham, and all of these other things that are compiling together into one. And of course, on top of that, we have the One World Church and the One World Government likewise being freely talked about and spoken about. Well, I mentioned before that I am a literalist and I believe these things when I read them in prophecy and expect them to come to pass. Another side note that I'd like to give is the unpopular opinion in the evangelical world concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ, or especially looking for him. I understand that in a poll recently made that only 46% of evangelical Christians are known to expect or to believe that Christ is going to come back to earth again. And this probably reflects the word of faith and all the different liberal theologians and seminarians and what have you that have taught that we, the church, is the incarnation of Christ in the end times. And on top of that, we have the Reconstructionist movement which believes that all of Revelation was fulfilled in AD 70 in the destruction of Jerusalem which is a total and complete impossibility if there's any accuracy to scripture. If I believe that, I could believe anything. I believe that all, that that was all fulfilled in AD 70. And so they wipe all of the prophecy and the predictions given there of the tribulation and the second coming of Christ out of the book. Now, there are two, a couple different types of Reconstructionists. They are very close brothers of the Dominionists that I talked about yesterday, the Dominionist theology. We're here. We're going to take over. We're going to win the world with Christianity. And they say, some of them, with the gospel. But you have to wonder what kind of gospel that they're promoting when you see this contextualization and all the other things that we see and how the gospel is so watered down that they're only doing prayer walks in Thailand and China in order to win the people for Christ instead of actually preaching the gospel in many other places. But some Reconstructionists believe that the world must be made better and better and better. They're kind of a new hybrid of the post-millennial view and that the earth is not waxing old and does not, Christ is not going to come to destroy it and burn it up and melt its elements with fervent heat in the near future and make a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. They believe that the world must be gotten better in order for Christ to come back to it. And so, therefore, they say Christ may not come for thousands of years. But then the more radical Reconstructionists believe that the church is Christ. Christ will never come back. Such manipulation and arresting of Scripture is going on and convincing our people and I can see where Peter's prophecy will probably come true and is probably coming true already where they'll say, where's the promise of his coming since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they have before. They're simply saying, nah, come on, we're solving the problems of the earth. Christ isn't going to come and it's also the major agenda on many of these religious agendas that they have to solve the problems of the earth and they have in their objection very clearly to solve poverty and to solve crime and to solve these major problems and so they are uniting with the rest of the politicians of the world in order to have a united agenda in order to solve those problems. Well, let us turn in closing to Luke chapter 21 and Acts chapter 21, verse 20. So, Luke 21, verse 34, take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with sin and surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life so that they come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore and pray only that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. It'll come upon a snare and the reason it'll come is because the most of the world will be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and causing them to be drunk on prosperity and on pleasure and on all these other things that men have to occupy their time and nobody wants to think about Christ coming. They think they're eventually going to solve these problems and especially so once their answer man comes, which the Bible said he will come and he'll sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God in Thessalonians. Now, Acts chapter 20, my closing verses, verse 27, for I'm not ashamed to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Paul is saying, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. Ministers, listen to feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves or after them. Therefore, for this cause, for this reason, watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. And I, brethren, I commend you to God. And I want to do that here today in the close of this message. I commend you to God, brethren, and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. And that's what this leadership seminar is all about. From us as leaders' perspective is that to all that may be sanctified and we appreciate the emphasis on sanctification and getting right with God in these meetings. So may God bless you and you be discerning now as you go from here. May God bless you.