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