In this sermon, the speaker discusses the unique perils that the current generation is facing. He mentions that there are three main perils: runaway nuclear proliferation, pollution of the air and water, and the runaway population explosion. These perils, according to experts like Dr. George Wald, pose a great threat to the survival of the human race. The speaker emphasizes the need for people to turn to the Lord and understand the Bible in order to navigate these challenges. The sermon also mentions a casual gathering at Lifeguard Station 15, where people can come and learn about applying the Bible to their daily lives.

I'd like at this time to introduce Hal Lindsey. He has written a number of books, the most popular of which is The Late Great Planet Earth, and at this time, worldwide, it has sold more than 15 million copies. I remember when it first started to sell a lot, the book company that was selling it couldn't handle it. In Christian writing, except for Bibles, they had never had a book sell like this before. They couldn't even produce it, so they had to go to another production line. He's written, since then, seven or eight books, which have totaled over 20 million altogether. At this time, I'd like to introduce to you a good friend and brother of mine, Hal Lindsey. applause Well, I'm really glad to have this opportunity to talk with Fireman because, as Mike hinted, we used to have lots of trouble with the fire marshal in a very good-natured way because he was for what we were doing. But we were always having more young people crammed into this building by the UCLA campus than we could handle. And it was thrilling to see some people that used to come to the old Light and Power House here today. And so I'm going to give a little commercial here, if you don't mind. And many ask if I speak anywhere in the L.A. area and if I have an itinerary. Well, about the only time I speak in the L.A. area is every Sunday. I started speaking on the Santa Monica Beach at lifeguard station 15. And so if at 10 o'clock on any Sunday morning you'd like to come down, we'd love to have you. Just bring a towel or something to sit on because we sit right on the sand. And we've had some exciting times there. We have a very unique kind of place to share the word of God. And we've got the world's biggest baptistry, the Pacific. And when we baptize 700, we stop counting them. So we've had an exceptional blessing of the Lord there. And it's an unusual kind of people who come there. Most of them wouldn't darken the door of a church building. But they're people who really wanted to know the Lord in a personal way. And they wanted to find out if they could understand the Bible in terms for daily living and how to apply it to today. So that's our emphasis. It's a very casual thing. We've had surfers come off the water, bring their surfboards, sit down, have a beer and so forth while they were listening to what's going on. We don't care what they do as long as they listen. And so, you know, we'd just love to have any of you come. That's lifeguard station 15. It's just north of Chautauqua off the Pacific Coast Highway. So if you're interested, come by and see us. You know, we live in an exciting day. And exciting, I guess, is a relative term from how you look at it. Because I think everywhere we turn, the average man on the street realizes that things are happening in our world today that no other generation's ever had to face. Just the average man on the street that's aware of anything that's being said in the news realizes that there are things going on today that are unique. And everything seems to be accelerating. I mean, you get used to where things are now and it's already past. Something new is happening. The culture and everything is changing more rapidly than psychologically we can handle it. That's what the book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler emphasized. That there's an accelerating rate of change just in the things that we're familiar with day by day. And it's leaving people bewildered and wondering what's next. What's going to happen next in this crazy world we live in? But in the midst of all of this, there are experts who are pinpointing some things that are happening in our world that are of great peril, unique to this generation. I just finished a project that was really exciting to me. And that is, Hollywood just made a major motion picture on the late great planet Earth starring Orson Welles. And it's already been released. It's in many parts of the country right now. And it'll soon, well, at the end of February, it'll be here in Los Angeles. The reason I mention that is because it gave me the opportunity to do something I'd always wanted to do. And that is to interview some of the world's leading experts on what's going on in our world and interview them personally. We interviewed 35 scientists, military experts, statesmen who have to do with what's happening in foreign policy and so forth from all over the world. And many of these men were Nobel Prize winners. And as we interviewed them, we found that there was a consistency to what each one was saying, even though they came to these conclusions from different disciplines, from different fields of expertise. And there was one man who particularly stood out. It was Dr. George Wald of Harvard. He kind of had a way of summarizing what everyone else was saying and put it in a capsule form. Dr. Wald is a Nobel Prize winner and considered one of the world's leading experts on what's happening in our world today. He said, and I quote, this generation is faced with perils unique, perils that have never been experienced by any other generation before us. And he said that he is one of those scientists who believes that we will not last much beyond the year 2000 as the human race. He said, unless we're able to cope with three unique perils, which are the runaway nuclear proliferation, secondly, the pollution of the air and water of our planet, and third, the runaway population explosion, unless we can cope with these three perils, which are unique to our times, there's no hope for us. And he said he didn't believe that we could cope with them, that the chance to really do something about these perils is rapidly passing us by. He said that these perils are all interrelated. In other words, they work on each other. Each one of these perils could destroy the human race, but when you find that they are interrelated and affecting each one, it's even more perilous. Let me illustrate that. Let's take, for instance, first of all, the population explosion. Why is this unique? Well, just think with me for a moment. It took from the beginning of man to 1850 to reach the first one billion in population. It took from 1850 to 1930 to reach the second billion. From 1930 to 1960 to reach the third billion. It only took from 1960 to 1974 to reach the fourth billion, and now we're really generating. We'll hit the fifth billion by about 1981, if we're lucky. But there are experts that do not believe that we will really hit five billion. The reason is we can't feed the population that we have now. We're up against the limits of our present systems and agricultural production around the world to not only produce the food, but to get the food to the people who are dying of famine by the hundreds of thousands every day. And so men like Dr. Paul Ehrlich of Stanford, we interviewed him, who wrote The Population Bomb. He said that he did not believe that there would be a way to avert a major disaster by the early 1980s. He said this along with many other experts in this field, that we've already reached what is being called the age of famine. The greatest famines in history already are raging and have been since 1975. And as the population continues to explode in the underdeveloped countries where they can least afford such a thing, that the momentum toward disaster can only accelerate. Now, that's one area that's unique. No other generation has ever had to face the very real peril that within 30 years from 1974 we will double the population. The doubling time of increase in population has reached such a state that within 30 years from 1974 we'll have double what was there. That is if we're lucky. Now, there's another great peril that's interrelated with this. And that is the advent of weapons that now can destroy humanity. Many people are skeptical as to whether this could happen or not. Well, you're firefighters, so I'm going to throw some things out that some scientists are really speculating on. There could be a fire that none of you could even begin to cope with if we had an all-out nuclear exchange. Because most military experts believe that in the event of an all-out nuclear exchange there would be a chain reaction set up between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. That is that whole great plain area in the middle of the United States and that that would become a lake of fire all the way across it because of the intensity of several nuclear weapons being set off in that one area. But Dr. Wald again brought out some facts that were really frightening. He said as of 1970, and believe me, we're way beyond what we were in 1970, but as of 1970 there were enough nuclear weapons on station ready for launch to equal out to ten tons of TNT for every man, woman, and child on Earth. That ought to do the job, don't you think? But that was 1970. Ten tons of TNT for every man, woman, and child on Earth. But today, because of the pressure placed on us by the consistent drive of the Soviet Union to gain overwhelming advantage in the nuclear area, we have had to continue in the arms race and we're now producing three hydrogen bomb warheads per day. Can you imagine what that means? And the Soviet Union is doing at least that good. So the destructive power that's now available is unbelievable because we have the MIRV system added into the nuclear arsenal since 1970. MIRV meaning many of the singular rocket delivery systems now have multiple warheads, multiple independently targeted warheads. And so in this field no other generation has ever had to face the very real peril that when in 30 minutes the East and the West could destroy each other mutually. And of course this would not just apply to the Northern Hemisphere, this would also go to the Southern Hemisphere. There wouldn't be any place really safe left on Earth in the event of an all-out nuclear war. The question is, with such terrible potential, will there ever be a nuclear war? Well, history shows that there's never been a weapon invented that had great military application and strategic application that wasn't eventually used. Now, in the event of nuclear weapons, the government hired a blue-ribbon panel of experts, scientists from MIT and Harvard, to study whether there really is a potential all-out nuclear war in the future. After several years of study, this blue-ribbon panel came back and said that a limited nuclear war appears to be inevitable before 1984 and that an all-out nuclear exchange will occur before 1999. That was their grim report. A CIA report showed how one peril interrelates with the other. And that was this. They showed that in the underdeveloped countries where the greatest peril of famine exists, that when massive numbers begin to die off from famine, and we're talking about millions within a short period of time, and this is inevitable as we see the ability to produce food decreasing and the population increasing, that many of these underdeveloped countries where the greatest impact of famine will hit now have nuclear weapons with delivery systems. And as governments are about to be toppled by the pressure of the population rebelling in, so many millions dying, for instance, India or China, it's believed that by the experts that they will make their point known or even blackmail the countries that have food surpluses to give them food or fire nuclear weapons off. And they believe that they actually will fire nuclear weapons to make their point. So we see these things are interrelated, and that's what's got the military experts and high government officials so frightened about the future. Now a third peril is the pollution of the air and water of our planet. Never before in any other century, really in any other generation, has there been such a massive increase in industry. And that, of course, has been coupled with a growing expectancy and a growing, in a sense, an attitude of taking for granted by all of us that we need more and more creature comforts in the form of electrical gadgets, in the form of automobiles, transportation items, and so forth. And we've become so used to it, and I'm certainly as much a part of this as you are, we've become so used to these things that we feel like they are an alienable right, and once we get used to them, it's hard to ever go backward. That is, and just say, for the sake of survival, we won't have all of these conveniences and go back to where we were. That's really impossible. But what it's done is forced a greater and greater increase in industry. And in turn, industry has polluted the atmosphere of this planet to a degree that's incredible. Such men as Dr. Jacques Cousteau of France, one of the greatest living experts on oceans of all time. He's literally spent thousands of hours over the last 30 years underwater. He said that with his own eyes, he has seen the Atlantic Ocean dying. And that he believed that unless there's a radical change, that the Atlantic Ocean will become a dead sea in 20 years. Now this has been borne out by statistics. Since 1970, the annual total tonnage of fish taken from the sea has been steadily declining. So at just the time when we need this kind of food in the greatest way, we're actually getting less food from the sea. That's one impact of pollution. Another impact is this, and it's becoming a matter of great concern to climatologists. And that is because of the pollution of the upper atmosphere of our planet, there is a radical global weather pattern change taking place. Now this is something unique that has not happened before. There have been weather pattern changes before, but not of this nature. And the reason is because there's never been this kind of pollution before in the upper atmosphere. Do you know that all that stands between us and death is a layer of a substance called ozone, that if you bring it to its laboratory natural state, would equal to three millimeters. Three millimeter thick layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere is all that stands between you and I and death. Because that ozone layer filters out some destructive rays of the sun. Without that filtering process, we couldn't exist on the face of the earth. We couldn't live on the surface of the earth. Now that ozone layer is being radically affected by pollution. You know how thick three millimeters is? It's a little less than an eighth of an inch. And when we tamper with that, we're tampering with something that's vital to the whole ecological chain on the earth. But we are. Now what's been the impact of the radical weather pattern changes around the world? Well it translates out to super storms, and some places storms that have reached an intensity never before known in recorded history. But the most frightening impact of it is this. Once again, it gets at our ability to produce food. Droughts in places where droughts have not been. Floods in places where floods have not been. All of this is upsetting the agricultural ability around the world to produce food. So that not only are we able to produce less food from the sea than we could in 1970, but far less food agriculturally than we could since 1970. And this is at a time when that curve of acceleration of population is going almost straight up. The momentum for disaster, Dr. Bolang said, is frightening. Dr. Bolang was the father of the Green Revolution. You know, many people thought that was going to solve our problems. The Green Revolution is dead, Dr. Bolang said when we interviewed him. The reason is because when the Arabs quadrupled the price of crude oil overnight, it killed the Green Revolution because it depended upon cheap petroleum as its source of success. The reason is because the fertilizers, the pesticides that are used in connection with this process, come from oil. Also, the machinery that had to be run, had to be run by gasoline and derivatives from oil. So once, he said, once the Arabs quadrupled the price of oil, they guaranteed the death of millions because of starvation. Now all of these things are accelerating together. And I'm only touching upon some of the more obvious perils that are unique to this generation. All of these things are accelerating together, though, and bringing us to a point where sober men of science, like Dr. Bolang, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, and many others are saying, we probably will not last beyond the year 2000. Many, many men said that, military men as well. And this is causing those who have their eyes open to what's happening in our world to say, you know, where do we go from here? What's happening? What's the answer? But at just the time this is happening worldwide, it's important to note that there's something even more startling taking place than the things that I'm telling you from the secular world. Because contained in this book, the Bible, there has always been a very precise pattern of events predicted. And this pattern of events was predicted to come together simultaneously, just shortly before the end of history as we know it and the coming of the Messiah. Now, I first came in contact with this pattern nearly, well, it was 23 years ago when I was 25 years old. I was an agnostic. I didn't believe in anything, really. And I was concerned about the situation in the Middle East. And during this time, the Suez Crisis broke out in 1956. And I was really concerned about whether we were going to have an all-out nuclear war. That was the time when much was being said publicly about the hydrogen bomb and so forth. And I was very concerned. It was about that time that I heard that there was a Bible scholar, one who knew the Greek and the Hebrew of the original scriptures and so forth, that he was going to speak at Rice University there in Houston on what the ancient Hebrew prophets said about the Middle East crisis. Well, I thought, wow, if he could demonstrate they said anything, it would be amazing. So I went out just sort of to hear what he had to say. But after hearing him for two and a half hours, I was so shook up that I spent the rest of the night trying to make a liar out of him. I'd taken notes and I was trying to check it out and trying to pull on what he had said. But I'll tell you, by daybreak, I was convinced that what he said was true. And I was convinced from then on that this book was unique. It was not just the good, lucky guesses of a bunch of men, but that this book was a supernatural revelation from God. I was already a believer in Jesus Christ, but I was kind of floundering. I didn't really know what I believed in or whether I believed at all. But it was that startling bit of information that started me on a path of study, which eventually led me to four years of graduate study and translating the New Testament and a good part of the Old Testament. But it resulted in this. It resulted in me confirming and searching out more myself this pattern of events that were predicted in the ancient Hebrew Bible. And I can tell you today that as never before in history, that pattern is happening right before our very eyes. There is no doubt, no question about it. It is happening. And it's for the first time in history that this has taken place. So I want to briefly go over that pattern with you this morning and the implications of it. And I want you to remember something. That before I even started talking about Bible prophecy, I laid out the way, the considered and sober statements of many, many scientists. It's not the Bible prophets that are saying, you know, the world is coming to an end. It's the scientists, the statesmen, and the military men who don't know anything about the Bible who are saying it. But at the same time that's going on, what the Bible predicted is happening. And it's all happening before our eyes. Now that is not a coincidence. And I believe that we should all weigh that very carefully. But what is this predicted pattern of events? Well, the first and the most important part of this pattern has to do with the Jewish people. Because their whole history has been predicted and broad outlined from their beginning until their ultimate destiny. And long ago, starting with Moses, the prophets of Israel predicted that many things would happen to the Jewish people. They predicted that twice in their history their nation would be destroyed. That the people would be scattered and taken from their nation and their land. But that twice they would return. And graphic details were added to what Moses predicted. Many of the other prophets added details to this. But the incredible thing is that just as these prophets predicted, it happened. The first destruction of the nation was predicted in great detail. And even the one that would do it, Babylon, it happened. Babylon destroyed Israel about 600 B.C. The prophets said they would be held against their will and captivity for 70 years. That's exactly how long they were kept. Even the name of the Persian king, Cyrus, was predicted 200 years before he was born. And it was predicted that a man named Cyrus would release them. He did. So they were destroyed as a nation. They returned as predicted. They flourished again. But the second destruction took place in 70 A.D. And according to the prophets, this would be the greatest peril and the greatest suffering the Jewish people would ever know. And Jesus himself predicted that it would be the people in his generation that would see the beginning of that great destruction and dispersion through the world. Just as predicted, the Jewish people were destroyed as a nation, scattered throughout the whole world. And as Moses described it, he said, there you will have no place for the sole of your feet to rest. You will fear day and night. You will have no assurance of life for the dread that you will see with your eyes. Now that's been the story of the Jews since 70 A.D. Every country, it said, the Lord said, I will scatter you throughout every nation under heaven. That happened. And they have been in peril of life everywhere they've gone, persecuted unjustly without even understanding. And yet it was predicted. Why was it predicted this would happen? The prophets said it would be because they would come to a period where they would not believe in their true God. And that's what happened. God sent the Messiah. They rejected and crucified him. And so we see in history a graphic fulfillment of what God predicted uniquely about these people. But the same prophets that predicted their destruction and dispersion also predicted that they would return in the last days, that just as history would begin to move toward its climax and the coming of the Messiah, or as we know it, the second coming of Jesus Christ, as the world would lead toward that, that the first sign that would indicate we were in the general time of that event would be that the Jewish people would miraculously return from where they had been scattered and they would reestablish their nation again in their ancient homeland. Now that happened May the 14th, 1948. And that was the beginning of a countdown, a prophetic countdown. Before that event, nothing was really relevant as far as prophecy is concerned for the last days. I want to make that very pointed because when you start talking about, you know, a prophetic pattern and that this indicates that we're near the second coming of Christ, the first thing people do is say, well, I heard that before, especially if you're 50 and over. The reason is because in World War I there were well-meaning students of Bible prophecy who said that that was going to be the end of the world when Christ was coming. There were many more well-meaning students of Bible prophecy in World War II who said the same thing. And they even had Hitler as the Antichrist, this world dictator that the Bible predicts is to come. And Mussolini the false prophet and so forth. There were all kinds of things that were said and they didn't happen and so this discredited prophecy. But really it should have just discredited those who jumped the gun and were not careful students of prophecy. But there's something that's unique to now that's never been before. Because after almost 2,000 years of being scattered throughout the whole world, the indestructible Jew is now back in his ancient homeland and that was a miracle. Now that's the first great sign and it's the key to the whole prophetic puzzle. Everything else has begun to fall together like a great jigsaw puzzle and all falls together and fits just right at the same time. According to the prophets, the nation of Israel once it was reborn in the last days would become a focal point of world trouble. And actually it would bring the world to such a state of chaos that the whole world would become involved in a dispute between Israel and the Arabs. Now that's exactly what has happened since the rebirth of Israel. As a matter of fact in Zechariah chapter 12 verses 2 and 3, this was written 2,500 some odd years ago, it said that the last battle of the world would be started over Jerusalem disputing who owns it and that every nation under heaven would have armies in the Middle East because of this and it would bust out in a great war. Well the conditions for that are there now. Israel is never far from the front page. I hope you realize that. And yet it contains less people than the city of New York and yet it's still a focal point of the world. Now at the same time all of this would be going on, the prophets said that there would be another important sign and that is that the Israelis would recapture and gain sovereign control over old Jerusalem. Now in 1967 that occurred and that was the first time after they held on to it, first time in nearly 2,600 years that the Jew had sovereign control over old Jerusalem. Even in the days of Jesus Christ they did not have sovereign control over it, the Romans had it. And that was a very significant part of prophecy. As Jesus predicted in Luke chapter 21 verse 22, he said that Jerusalem would be trodden down under the foot of the Gentile until the times of the Gentiles were drawing to a close. And once the Jew got sovereign control of Jerusalem in 1967, this was a very significant part of this puzzle fitting together. Now at the same time all of this would be going on, the prophets predicted that there would be a confederation of the Arab nations who would have been all disunited before that, but a confederation of the Arab nations with a mutual desire to destroy the state of Israel. Now this is predicted in passages like Daniel chapter 11 verses 40 through 45, book written some 600 years before Christ, and it's also predicted in Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel chapter 38. And here as these prophets talk about the ancient Arab tribes and how they would in the last days unite together against Israel, they predicted that actually the last war of the world would be triggered by an all-out invasion of the Arabs on Israel at a future point. Now certainly we see that one of the greatest periods of unrest that we've ever known on this earth has been caused by the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. Now that's a conflict that goes back 4,000 years, so don't think anybody like Kissinger or anybody else is going to solve it today. It's something mystical. It goes beyond just the normal conflict between two nations or several nations. There's something mystical that dates back to the very times when the forefathers of these races existed. God predicted they would never get along. Now the problem, however, is this. Just before the last seven years of history which will end when the second coming of Christ begins, that seven-year period is called the Tribulation in Bible prophecy. Just before that period would begin, the Bible said that there would be a pseudo-peace established in the Middle East. And I believe what's going on over there now could be the forerunner of that pseudo-peace that's going on because in passages like 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, it says they will be crying peace and safety and then sudden destruction will come upon them. The idea is there would be a period of false peace and the world would be lulled into a confidence that would make it think that God will not intervene. But according to Scripture, there will never be a permanent peace in the Middle East and therefore in the rest of the world until the Prince of Peace establishes it when he comes back. But we do see the conditions that were predicted set up in the Middle East exactly. Now another piece of this prophetic pattern is predicted in a passage like Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. And once again that was written about 2,650 years ago. And yet in Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39, he predicted that at the same time that Israel would be reborn as a nation in the last days, the Arabs would be against them, that there would emerge to the uttermost north of Israel an incredible military power that would frighten the whole world. Now for centuries there have been both Jew and Christian scholars who have studied Ezekiel 38. And those who have seriously studied it and taken it at face value have come up with something for centuries. And that is an understanding of what nation is being spoken there of being to the uttermost north of Israel. You take a globe and you go to the extreme or uttermost north of Israel, there's only one nation there. And that's the Soviet Union. And both Jews and Christian scholars have recognized this for at least three centuries that I could trace back. And Russia is fitting exactly that prediction. Now according to Bible prophecy, at this future point, when there will be an all-out invasion of Israel again by Arab forces, the Russians will take the opportunity to move into the Middle East with an overwhelming mass of troops. And that will be the beginning of the last war of the world. It almost happened in 1973. If it had been God's timing, it would have happened. But I don't know how many of you realize what really happened in 1973. I found this out by talking to Dr. Eric, or I should say General Eric Sharon of Israel. He was the hero of the 1973 war. He's the one who, against orders, led an attack of Israeli forces across the Suez Canal and was on his way to Cairo. And it took everything they could. Moshe Dayan himself had to come over there and stop him because he was going to go right on to Cairo. He said, to hell with all of you people. When he crossed the Suez Canal, he said that they were going to break him, strip him of his rank. And he shouted back as he was in the lead tank going across. He said, I'll join up as a private then. And he took off. But as I was talking to Dr. Eric Sharon, an incredible man, he revealed to me that the Russians already had their best marine divisions airborne, headed for the Sinai. And that was when Nixon declared a worldwide alert, and that called their bluff, and they turned them around in midair and sent them back. If those Russian troops had gotten into the Middle East, we'd have had Armageddon right there. But it wasn't God's time. But what this illustrates is that the conditions that were predicted are there. They're just waiting for the time to be unleashed. Because according to Daniel chapter 11, verses 40 through 45, this great northern power will sweep down with an overwhelming force and just ravage right through like a lightning war, what the Germans call the Blitzkrieg. They will sweep through Israel. They will go down to Egypt, double-cross the Egyptians, and they will take over Egypt, and then they will begin a plan to take over all of the Arab lands and Africa. Now in the Soviet strategy, it's very clear that's exactly what they want to do. It's very obvious why they would want to take over the Arab lands, because the Soviet Union, which has never changed its avowed purpose since the takeover in 1917 or around there, I forget the exact date of the Soviet revolution, but since Lenin and the Soviet party took over Russia, they have never changed their ultimate goal, which is to take over the world. And they know that the surest and quickest way to take over the world would be to get their hands on the control valves of the Arab oil. They could bring Western Europe to its knees within two months, and shortly thereafter they could bring the United States to terms if they can get the Arab oil. So it's clear why they would want to take over that area, and why they have many plans of how to do it. Well, Bible prophecy predicted long ago that's exactly what would happen. And so that's another factor in this scheme. Now at the same time this would be going on, the prophets predicted there would be another great power, and they're called the kings of the east. In Revelation chapter 16, verse 12, it says that there would be a vast army come in from the east of the Euphrates River. It would be a great oriental army. In a very cryptic description of this army in Revelation chapter 9, it says it would be a 200 million man force. Now when this prophecy was made, there weren't 200 million people in the world, and yet God led the prophet John in the book of Revelation to predict it. But now it's not only feasible, but the red Chinese leaders have boasted they can field exactly that number. Several times it's been said, and I have it in my files at home from the newspapers, that the red Chinese leaders themselves boasted they can field an army of 200 million militiamen at any time they need it, and they use the exact term. I believe that the red Chinese are the beginning of that great oriental force which will come into the Middle East once war breaks out there. Now that is something that has never happened before in the world. I mean, think of an army of 200 million men. And yet it's easy to see why that would happen. If the Russians make a move to take over the Arab oil, the red Chinese, who are really at odds with the Soviet Union, would realize that, and they are sworn to prevent any more major takeovers of the Soviet Union. So you can see, even today in just modern strategy, and I've talked to some of the world's leading generals about this, and they said this is exactly the way it came out on the computers. The Russians make an all-out invasion of that area, and the red Chinese would move in. They already have plans of how to get there. There's a superhighway that's been built with the cooperation of Pakistan that brings the Chinese army from their high plateau across the mountains down into the southern Asian region now. So it's feasible for them to do this. Now, at the same time this would be going on, there's another part of this pattern. And there's a great deal of prophecy about this because it's a very important part of the spheres of political power of that time that was to exist. According to the prophets, the same time all of this would, that Israel would be restored as a nation, the Arabs would be against them, there would be a great power in the Orient, there would be this great northern power in the form of Russia. They predicted there would be another power in the West, and this would be a revived form of the ancient Roman Empire. And it will consist of ten nations that would emerge out of the ruins of the ancient Roman culture and people, ten nations that would have as their initial base of power economics and world trade. Now, I believe that we're witnessing the emergence of that ten-nation power in the form of European common market. There are nine nations in the common market now. I had the opportunity to go with a group of ten reporters sent by the State Department to the common market headquarters in 1971, and I was there as a photographer. And while I listened to this high-level secret briefing, there was one thing that came through that just blew my mind. In fact, I put a reporter up to it. He was the one who brought me as his photographer. His name is Dan McKinnon, who owns KSON Radio down in San Diego. But anyway, he asked a question. He said, what do you expect will be the total number of the common market when you fill it out to what you really want it to be? And the man said, ten nations. In the United States of Europe of the future, the actual confederation of our government, there will be ten nations. And he said, would there be any other thing considered? He said, no. He said, there will be cooperating members, but in the actual United States of Europe of the future, the actual confederation of our government, there will be ten nations on the inside, and that's it. Why did he say that? I don't know, but that's what the Bible predicts about this general thing. And they followed roughly that plan, although we may not know exactly the shape it will take. But there are factors operating in our world right now that indicate that there is a movement toward the fulfillment of this pattern. And I don't have the notes with me on this, but I can tell you one of the most significant things that's happening here in the West as far as Bible prophecy is concerned. And it concerns a group called the Trilateral Commission. How many of you have ever heard of the Trilateral Commission? Let me see your hands. That's about normal for a group. Very few of you have heard of it. And yet, did you know that the Trilateral Commission controls virtually your destiny and mine? The Trilateral Commission is one of the most powerful government forces ever seen in the Western world. It was formed only four years ago by David Rockefeller. Brzezinski was its original brainchild and farmer. He hired Brzezinski for that. He's now the special presidential advisor, incidentally. And they handpicked a peanut farmer from Georgia to be groomed as a president, and by their enormous power they put him in. And yet he was thoroughly indoctrinated with the doctrines of the Trilateral Commission before he was even put up for president. If you read the February of 1977 editions of the U.S. News & World Report Newsweek, timed, there was a whole number of articles about the Trilateral Commission that came out at that time. Also the Christian Science Monitor. All of these are sources from which I'm drawing. But the present cabinet of the president is called the Trilateral Cabinet. Do you know why? Every one of them are members of the Trilateral Commission. Every one of them. And all 17 high-level cabinet positions and special positions in the president's government are held by men who are members of the Trilateral Commission. Some have even seen this as a conspiracy. But what is the purpose of the Trilateral Commission, and what is it? The Trilateral Commission consists of Japan, the United States, and eight members of the common market. Incidentally, that's ten nations. And their avowed purpose is to bring about a one-world economic system. And they want to bring about a one-world monetary system and a one-world trade and economic system. And they want it to be something unique. A totally new global trading system. I've read this in their own documents, so I'm not just firing in the dark. I know what I'm talking about. But this is only the beginning of the groundwork for something even more breathtaking. Not only does the Trilateral Commission want to bring about a unique, new, world, global trading system, but they want to use that to bring about a one-world government. Now that is exactly what the Bible predicted will happen, and I believe we're seeing the beginning of it right now. I want to be clear on something else. Am I saying that President Carter is an evil man? No, I'm not. It's quite possible that he is a born-again Christian. But what I am saying is he has certainly been hoodwinked about what God thinks about international politics, and he really needs to hear what the Bible prophetically says about the world. But I am saying this, that the Trilateral Commission, with the intention of trying to bring about some sort of control that will help avert an all-out war, are actually setting up the groundwork for what the Bible says will be the worst curse this world has ever seen. And that is simply this. A one-world government which will be headed by a man who will be the greatest leader this world has ever seen outside of Jesus Christ. He will be hailed as a Messiah kind of a figure. He will seem to have the answers to everything. He will have superhuman intelligence. But the reason he will have it is because Satan himself is going to possess him. And that man is called the Antichrist. That man is alive somewhere now, probably in Europe. And we see the stage being set for his being unveiled on the stage of history. According to Bible prophecy, and this will blow your minds, but this is what it says, and I've never seen one Bible prophecy fail. It's all been fulfilled just as it was written. The way this man will gain world prominence and be thrust into the stage of world acceptance is he will receive a mortal head wound from which he will be miraculously raised up. And it will appear to be a resurrection. Now whether it will actually be a resurrection or not, I don't know. But it will be done in the power of Satan. And the world will believe it's a resurrection if it isn't. And this man will have superhuman intelligence and psychic powers beyond anything that we're used to coping with ever. And through this he will bring the whole world under his power and he will mesmerize them. And according to the Bible, there's a unique thing that's going to happen. According to Revelation chapter 13, verses 15 through 17, this leader is going to cause the whole world to receive a number which will have as a prefix the number of his name, which is 666. Now this is an incredible thing because in Revelation 13 it says a man will not be able to buy or sell unless he receives the number which this man will cause the world to receive. And this is incredible because the world cannot receive this number unless they swear allegiance to this man as being God. So a clear choice will be forced on the whole world. But I want to step back from this thing for just a moment and point out something that's amazing. There are more people in the world right now than there's ever been. As a matter of fact, the statistics show, and this is startling, more than half the people who have ever lived on planet Earth are alive right now. Isn't that amazing? All right, now let's stop and think about this prophecy. It says that this man will require the whole world, the small and the great, to receive a number, the number of his name. And without this number you can't buy or sell or hold a job. Now that represents a total economic control. Have you ever stopped to think about technically what is required to affect that? When in history has it ever been possible for one man to even keep a count of every person on Earth, especially when we've got such a population as we have now? For the first time in history it's now possible. There is a gigantic computer in Brussels at the common market headquarters, called the Beast incidentally, and this has now been confirmed, a gigantic computer which is capable of keeping track of the numbers and the names of every person on Earth and not only that, enormous amounts of information about each person. You see, before the advent of computers, no dictator could have ever fulfilled this prophecy. But now there are computers and by this electronic means one man could keep track of the whole world and could bring about such an economic total control as we're talking about that every man, woman and child could not buy or sell or hold a job without this number. Furthermore, those who have been involved in this have gotten lots of reports on this and that is this, we are rapidly moving toward a doing away of currency. Already there are enormous amounts of studies and plans for a day when there will only be electronic money and that is when you work at a job you will not receive currency it will be credited electronically to a central account with your number and if you buy something they will debit it for that amount or if you sell something you'll be credited for that amount but no currency would change hands. Well this is enormously efficient and in the days of fluctuating currencies and all that there's a lot that could be said for it but here's the frightening thing if that does happen think of the centralizing of power and control that brings about but not only that, in these studies the constant problem that came up was what if you know a person receives a lifelong number and it's on a card what if the person loses the card, somebody could wipe him out overnight so they have thought about, and this is actually in documentation they have thought about putting with a laser a number on a person's forehead that would be the number there for life it would not be cosmetically bad because it would only be seen under an ultraviolet light but they were thinking about this because no one could ever steal your number and therefore wipe out your account this is exactly what the Bible predicts would happen that the number would either be put on the forehead or on the hand and it was thought that it would best be put on the forehead of a baby because the part of a body that grows the least in a human being is the head therefore babies would have it put on the head older people would have it put on the hand now these are things that's actually already been considered and yet this was predicted 2000 years ago and all of it is fitting together into an exact pattern that the Bible predicted hundreds and hundreds of years ago now where is all of this leading there are many more things that if I had the time I could go into but I don't but I can say this long ago Jesus Christ spoke of the time when all of these things would start coming together all of these predicted signs would come together and this is what he said about it in Matthew chapter 24 these were among his last public words Jesus said this now learn the parable from the fig tree when its branches has already become tender and puts forth its leaves you know that summer is near even so you too when you see all these things now I want to point out the context Jesus had just talked about many different signs that would precede his coming back to the earth to set up God's kingdom and so when he says when you see all these things he's referring to the predicted signs of the prophets that would show the conditions that would lead up to his return so he says when you see all of these things recognize that he is near right at the door that is ready to return he says truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place now learn a parable of the fig tree that's what he said for us to do this whole context is controlled by that parable now what is the point of the parable there is one basic point of that parable he says learn the parable from the fig tree when its branches has already become tender and puts forth its leaves you know that summer is near alright what's the main point of that it's how to tell a general time summer that's the one main point there is no other so he says when the fig tree's branch first becomes tender and puts forth leaves that tells that the general time of summer is near then he uses that illustration and he says even so just as that is true he says when you see all of these things recognize that he, Jesus is near right at the door then he says truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place now when he says all these things take place he's referring to all of the predicted events that would lead up to and include his return and so what he's doing is just as the fig tree can point out the general time of summer he's saying that when all of these predicted things begin to fall together they lead up to the general time of a generation that would not pass away until all of these predicted things take place we are that generation we're seeing it no generation in history has ever seen all of these predicted things falling together as we are and I believe that if I live my normal life expectancy all of these things will take place within my lifetime and knowing what is supposed to happen a war that will be so horrible that it will wipe out half the population of the earth within a period of about three years knowing that you would think that I would be a pessimist and terrified but I want to tell you I'm not but there's one basic reason I ain't going to be here you see the reason I can look at this and I can look at it from two points of view number one I look at it with great sorrow for the world I mean I'm not excited that such suffering is going to occur in this generation I mean that troubles me it bothers me and that's why I'd like as many people as who have not come to a personal belief in Jesus Christ to make that decision because if they make that decision they won't be here for this horrible period either but there's another part of me that says this man I'm excited I'd rather be alive right now than any other period in history if I could have even made the choice and the reason is because the most incredible event in history is about to take place because seven years before Christ actually comes visibly and personally back to this earth and before all of those horrible things occur in the seven years leading up to his coming back to this earth there's going to be a secret coming of the Lord which the Bible calls or the Bible students call the rapture and that is an event which will occur according to prophecy in the twinkling of an eye it's an event which has never had any parallel before in human history but it's very graphically predicted and promised because it says that everyone who's come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ they have simply accepted the fact that Jesus Christ died in their place and that by taking the penalty for breaking God's law and paying that penalty in our place we believe that personally that we're forgiven and brought into a right relationship with God if we accept and believe that then the scripture says that we are going to be taken out of this world in a unique and wonderful way before this terrible seven year period begins how will it happen? well 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 51 through 53 says says about it this way says behold I show you a mystery we shall not all die but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption and then the saying death is swallowed up in victory shall be fulfilled now the apostle Paul who wrote that was predicting this event that we call the rapture I like to call it the great snatch because that's a time when Christ himself is going to come and snatch out everyone who's believed in him in the twinkling of an eye now that's a millisecond and it says that it will be a mystery the world at large will not understand what's happening but he is going to come in the twinkling of an eye and change those who are alive from being a mortal to immortal without even seeing physical death now in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 15-18 a couple of more details are added about it it says for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God the dead in Christ shall be raised first and then we who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord in other words it will not only happen in the twinkling of an eye but those who are alive at that time will be caught up to meet the Lord secretly in the clouds above the earth and in that split second change from mortal to immortal without seeing physical death and it says from that point on we will always be with the Lord now what happens after that well John chapter 14 verses 1-4 tells us where it says this let not your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you so he said and if I prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to be with me where I am well that tells us we will be caught up in the twinkling of an eye to meet the Lord in the air change from mortal to immortal into bodies that will never know pain or sorrow again never know destruction or decay and we will go with him to his father's house to await the time when Christ comes back with us to judge the earth to stop war and to set up a whole new world order over which there will be peace and everlasting time of equality and justice now I believe that that event could occur at any moment there is nothing else in prophecy that needs to be fulfilled before that could occur and if that event occurred this morning and it could then it would mean this all of those who have placed faith in Jesus Christ for receiving the gift of forgiveness those people would just vanish and this would happen here and all over the world and there would be no warning it's just suddenly all of those who are believers in Jesus Christ would disappear and it doesn't matter whether they are Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians or whatever it's whether they have personally believed and received the gift of forgiveness in Jesus Christ they would vanish and the rest would be left sitting here and saying that crazy nut was right and there are going to be a lot of startled people who one day are going to say he was right and it's not that I'm right it's that the Bible is right what I think is nothing and that's why I'd like to say in closing here this morning that it is an incredibly important time not only in human history but for you individually you know when Jesus Christ came the first time he fulfilled more than 300 predictions that exactly predicted what he would do where he would be born, the parents the line he'd be born things he would do, the sort of miracles he would perform, the way he would be arrested and betrayed, the way he would be unjustly condemned, the trials that he would face, even the way he would die was predicted all of these things precisely predicted but also the reason why he would die was exactly predicted 750 years before it happened in the book of Isaiah the 53rd chapter of Isaiah was written 750 years before Christ and if you can lay hands on a Bible I challenge you to read this chapter today remembering how long before Jesus was ever born that it was written, it's incredible this is called the bad conscience of the synagogues and you read it and you'll know why because this is so obviously talking about Jesus Christ it's distressing to a rabbi but this is what it said about why the Messiah, Jesus, would die, it says in Isaiah 53 verse 5 it says, but he was pierced through for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well being fell upon him and by his scourging we're healed all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him, he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearer so he did not open his mouth, by oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due his grave was assigned to be with the wicked man yet with the rich man in his death although he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth here's an exact description of what happened and why and written 750 years before it happened why did he die? because all of us like sheep have gone astray each one of us has turned to his own way now that doesn't mean that we're evil men lying in the gutter necessarily but what it does mean is that every human being has gone his own independent way and none of us, no matter how hard we try or how sincerely we may hope to do so, can ever keep God's law well enough to be accepted with him see God requires and has to because of his character, perfection so no matter how hard we go to church no matter how hard we try to be good, we can never be good enough for God to accept there was only one remedy that God could give and that was to come into this world himself and become a man in the person of Jesus Christ and to take all of the judgment that was due each one of us for breaking his law and falling short of his standards take the judgment for that upon himself in our place and that's why we say he died for you and for me but he did that in order that justice could be upheld and perfectly paid and met and when Jesus Christ died on the cross in our place he perfectly paid the penalty for everything you would ever do that fell short of God's standards and that's why it says in Isaiah the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him, why? because he took it upon himself and then God judged him in our place now once that has been done God is perfectly free to forgive anyone who will simply receive this as a gift and say Lord I accept your pardon that's the only way God can save a man because any other way would give credit to you and God says that would mar the whole thing because no man can ever qualify, if you do anything that gives merit to you then you must qualify on your own merit and that means you must be perfect now that's why the law of Moses was given in the beginning and most people never realized that why were the ten commandments given the ten commandments were given to show how good we would have to be if we were going to earn salvation ourselves the sermon on the mount was simply Jesus showing what the ten commandments had always meant and he said you've heard it taught by those of old you should not commit adultery but I say if you look after a woman with lust you've committed adultery in your heart already well was he making a new law no he was just showing what the old law of thou shalt not commit adultery meant it didn't just mean not committing adultery actually it meant committing adultery in your thoughts now I've never met a man who would tell me honestly he hadn't broken the law by that standard well I have met a few but they had another problem I guarantee I've broken it and he said you've heard it taught by those of old thou shalt not murder but I say that if you're angry with your brother you're in danger of being judged for murder in other words he shows that God looks at the motives of your heart as well as your outward behavior and so if we are going to come to God and have a relationship with him and we're going to come by our own efforts we're even going to try to help God forgive us then he says I'm sorry the standard is my law keep it perfectly without ever breaking it once any takers it's absurd that's why Jesus Christ came the iniquity of us all was put on him and he loved you so much that he was willing to pay for it himself and now all he requires is that a man in the quiet of his heart ask him to come into his life and to forgive him to bring a pardon that has already been paid and then he gives us in that moment in a miracle he gives us a new spiritual life which gives us a desire to want to follow God and more importantly gives us an understanding and an ability to know God on a personal basis it's a miracle that God does I can't explain it I can't tell you how it happens I can just tell you it has happened to me and it's happened to everyone who's ever placed personal faith in Jesus Christ without that nothing's real as far as God is concerned so in these critical days of history as I close in prayer I'd like to just urge you if you don't know where you stand with God to just pray quietly in your own heart and just ask Jesus Christ to come into your life to forgive you for not measuring up to God's standards and just thank him for his forgiveness just tell him you want to give him the right to come into your life and make it pleasing to God from that moment on you're in God's family and your relationship with God no longer depends on you it depends on God because he says I give to them eternal life and they will never perish neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hands you see he holds on to us most people say well if I really committed my life to Christ I couldn't hold out don't ever lose that thought if that's what you're thinking most Christians forget it yeah if you believe in Jesus Christ I'll guarantee you that you can't hold out you're not supposed to cleaning up your life and making you a better person is God's job not yours and so when you become a Christian you're forgiven everything past present and future at the beginning and then he begins to change your heart and make you have power to combat your temptations and he is the one who changes our life if we could change it ourselves we wouldn't need Jesus Christ so don't let that hold you back let us pray our God and Father we thank you for these hours in which we're living in history and we pray for all of those who are in these critical times and do not have the certainty of knowing you I pray for that one right now who doesn't know that he's forgiven doesn't know that Jesus Christ is in his life he doesn't know you Father as a real person may he simply pray this prayer with me in the quiet of his heart thank you Lord Jesus Christ for dying for my sins I ask you to come into my life right now forgive my sins thank you for the pardon Lord Jesus I give you the right to begin to change my life please make it pleasing to your Father and to you Father may the one that just prayed that prayer not look for some strange emotion but you give them a quiet assurance that you keep your word and it depends upon your promise which you can't break give them assurance in faith and bring them to a fellowship of others who know you in Christ's name we pray Amen men I'd just like to say this in conclusion if you made a decision if you prayed to ask Jesus Christ into your heart there's a little square down there at the bottom of your blue card just put a check in there now the reason is because there's some information that will help you answer a lot of basic questions that you will have and there are those in the firefighters for Christ who would love to sit down with you and answer any question you may have not that you'll be put on some bugging list or something like that they just want to be a help they can be and they would like to know that there have been those of you who have invited Jesus Christ into your life so if you did just put your comments down there whatever they are and check that I just want to thank you for being a very good and attentive audience God bless you Lord we just open up our hearts to you right now and we might receive Think about what Jesus said before you let your mind reject him listen to your heart instead and you will accept him there may be many questions that you'd like to answer somehow all things will be shown someday but you can't know all things now but if you try by letting go Think about what Jesus said before you let your mind reject him listen to your heart instead and you will accept him you don't know where you can turn but if you will control yourself you'll find that you will learn it gets so hard what Jesus said before you let your mind reject him listen to your heart instead and you will accept him listen before you let your mind reject him listen to your heart instead and you will accept him Think about what Jesus said before you let your mind reject him listen to your heart instead and you will accept him listen and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you him and you and you will accept him will accept him and you will accept him and you and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will accept him and you will him and you will accept him and you will accept and you will him