Well, good morning on this Monday morning.
Now, it's Monday morning and you're all awake
and alert and bright-eyed and memory sharp.
So, we're going to have a little quiz.
How about that?
Don't look down, look up.
So, we're going to have a little quiz.
It's just five questions.
I think you can handle that.
Now, I have to put you on your
honor.
So, when I read the question, you make
a stab at the answer.
And if you can't say, I'll answer later,
because there's not time for that.
You've got to either answer now, correctly or
not.
And you'll have to keep track of your
score.
So, maybe you can use your two hands,
each got five fingers.
And the ones you get right, you can
use in your right hand.
The ones you get wrong, you'll have to
mark in your left hand.
Okay?
Everybody ready?
The questions are on the subject we're going
to discuss this morning.
So, I just want to know it.
You see, if everybody gets all five right,
then we'll just have the benediction and go
home.
Or else I'll make up five more questions.
Who knows?
Okay.
The empire that defeated and succeeded Babylon was...
Don't answer out loud now.
I'm not interested in your bragging.
I just want to know that you know
it.
Alright, if you got it right, put up
your right thumb.
If you can't answer, put up your left
thumb.
In your lap, that is.
Sit on your hands if you're embarrassed.
Two.
Daniel lived in what century B.C.? Alright,
you got two fingers out, one way or
another now.
Everybody?
Three.
The same panorama of the future that is
detailed in chapter two of Daniel is also...
The same panorama is also covered in chapter
what?
Fourth.
True or false, how easy can it be?
There were antichrists living in New Testament times
before now.
That is, in the first century A.D.
True or false, there was an antichrist in
the first century A.D.? I don't want
to hear those whisperings still.
Five.
The coming antichrist will rule over a confederation
of how many nations?
Okay, how many of you had five fingers
up on the right hand?
Raise your hand.
Now you can brag.
Oh, I'm sure some of you did.
Come on, don't be humble.
Fake humility is a sin.
Alright, there's two, three.
How many had four fingers up on the
right hand?
Very good.
Still passing.
Three on the right hand?
You're still passing.
The rest of you need to go home
and read your Bible.
Alright, I just thought that might be something
to learn while I'm speaking this morning, because
I'm not going over the answers now.
But all of them will be covered in
the next few minutes.
Now, I think I'm going to warn you,
because you came out on Monday morning, so
you ought to have a warning.
Tonight we're going to do the same thing
on the subject.
We're going to have ten questions.
And don't tell the people that aren't here.
And the subject tonight is the Millennium, so
if you want to bone up on the
Millennium, you can show everybody how smart you
are tonight.
The others that aren't here, they'll just have
to wean off on their prior knowledge.
You don't mind doing that, do you?
Okay.
After all, you're not failing or passing.
Nothing crucial depends on it.
Just a little interesting exercise.
Daniel.
Daniel the prophet, the Lord called him, who
lived in the 6th century B.C., that
is in the 500s B.C., was of
course one of those who was deported to
Babylon when Babylon became the leading power in
the world.
Babylon had roots that went back many years
before the story of the book of Daniel
opens.
Actually, Abraham was from a city in the
southern part of that territory of Babylon.
In those days it had religion and laws
and writing and was very advanced and civilized.
Assyria to the north was the preceding world
empire to Babylon and Nineveh eventually was the
capital of Assyria.
You know Nineveh because that's the city to
which Jonah was sent and to which he
preached with the greatest kind of success.
You also know Assyria and Nineveh because that
was the power that captured the northern ten
tribes of Israel in 722.
Well, about 100 years after that Nineveh itself
was destroyed and Babylon became the emerging world
empire, defeating Assyria and the Egyptians to the
south.
There's an interesting prophecy or comment in Jeremiah
about Egypt in those days which says the
king of Egypt is but a big noise,
just a lot of propaganda and was defeated
by Nebuchadnezzar who chased the armies of the
Egyptians into Egypt.
And as Nebuchadnezzar went back to Babylon from
that campaign against the Egyptians, as he went
back to Babylon because his father had died
and it was up to him to take
over the reins of government, he took Daniel
and some of the other young Hebrews as
captives into the land of Babylon.
And then though Jerusalem escaped for a few
more years, it wasn't very much longer before
Jerusalem itself was captured and decimated, totally destroyed,
including the temple, in the last phase of
the captivity that we call the Babylonian captivity.
Nebuchadnezzar is on the throne and it must
have been difficult to be a ruler in
those days.
Lots of things on your mind.
The book of Ecclesiastes says that if you're
too busy it will give you nightmares.
So Nebuchadnezzar had a nightmare one night.
And we're looking at that in the second
chapter of Daniel.
This occurred in the second full year of
his reign.
And he had a nightmare, a dream, which
he used as a test, a test in
which God used to reveal a panorama of
world leaders that existed then and would come
to pass one after the other in the
subsequent history of the world.
I don't suppose as Nebuchadnezzar thought about his
kingdom he ever thought it could be destroyed
or anybody could ever capture Babylon as he
had overtaken Syria and Egypt.
But of course that happened eventually.
The city that straddled the Euphrates River was
protected by two sets of double walls which
altogether totaled about 80 feet worth of walls.
There was the great Ishtar Gate that led
into the city with its magnificent lapis-colored
tiles and towers.
Babylon was impregnable as far as the people
themselves thought.
In a museum in East Berlin there is
a not quite to scale reproduction of the
way leading to the Ishtar Gate and these
beautiful lapis-blue colored tiles with the symbols
of Babylon on them.
It's a magnificent reconstruction of a portion of
the magnificence of the city of Babylon.
Well Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and he called
together his wise men.
If you have your Bible open to Daniel
2 we're going to skim a few verses
and then look at a couple in more
detail.
He called together his wise men, verse 5,
and he said to them, The thing is
gone from me.
Or, it's a little hard to know how
to translate that.
It may mean the dream is certain to
me or it may mean the command that
you must interpret it is certain or firm.
The thing that isn't clear is whether or
not Nebuchadnezzar remembered the dream itself.
Now of course he didn't know the interpretation
but it isn't quite clear from the phrase
whether or not he remembered the dream.
In any case he used it to test
the wise men to see if they could
tell him what the dream was and if
they could do that then of course he
would be certain or more certain that the
interpretation was accurate as well.
It may be that he had forgotten at
least the details of the dream, couldn't recall
them as is often the case.
You dream something and what did you dream?
Well I don't remember what it was about,
the general subject, but I don't remember the
details.
Or it may mean that he did remember
the dream but in either case he wasn't
about to tell the wise men what the
dream was because if he had done that
they would have made up an interpretation and
who could deny whether it was true or
false.
But if they could prove themselves by giving
the dream itself then he could be sure
or at least more sure that the interpretation
was true also.
Most of these people who claim to be
able to tell the future don't even bat
500, which is a very poor batting average.
And of course anybody in Old Testament times
who didn't bat 1000, that is who didn't
predict accurately 100% of the time, was
subject to being stoned.
And all of these false prophets that run
around today, not only in religious circles but
in the National Enquirer and some places like
that, they don't bat very well and they
ought to be stoned according to Old Testament
law.
Well Nebuchadnezzar was going to put his magicians
and wise men to the test.
So he said, you tell me the dream
and the interpretation and if you don't then
I will punish you with death.
Well you remember the consternation and the scurrying
around that went on after this edict.
And finally Daniel heard about it and his
friends got together and prayed a very urgent
prayer of self-preservation.
Verse 18, they asked the God of heaven
concerning the secret that Daniel and his fellows
should not perish with the rest of the
wise men of Babylon.
That gives me great encouragement, verse 18.
Because it doesn't say they asked for the
secret in order that God might be glorified
or some lovely pious reason like that, which
is a good pious reason.
But the unvarnished statement is they didn't want
to die so they asked for help.
It was kind of a selfish prayer but
in a right sense.
I think God wants us to make known
our desires as well.
He knows whether our heart is right and
wants to glorify him but in the meantime
we ought to tell him our desires.
They told him we didn't want to die,
we want to know the interpretation.
So God revealed the interpretation to them.
And then the little bureaucrat, verse 24, named
Ariok.
Verse 25, he brought Daniel in before the
king.
I think he was short and fat with
stubby legs.
And he ran in to the king and
he says, I have found a man of
the captives of Judah who will make known
to the king the interpretation.
And the king didn't even give him apparently
a second look but spoke right away to
Daniel and asked if that was possible.
So Daniel interpreted the dream.
Now there are six parts to the dream
in this chapter.
And we'll just sketch those.
The dream has to do with the latter
days.
Verse 28, see that phrase, what shall be
in the latter days.
And what should follow after Nebuchadnezzar's time and
on through until the second coming of Christ.
And there are six parts to this image
that Nebuchadnezzar saw.
Six parts to the dream.
Verse 32, there was an image who had
a head, that's the first part.
Had a chest, breasts and arms of silver.
Second part, third part, stomach and thighs of
brass.
Fourth part, legs of iron.
Fifth part, feet part of iron, part of
clay.
And then the sixth part of the dream
had to do with the stone, verse 34,
that break the feet into pieces and then
enlarged itself, verse 35, until it filled the
whole earth.
So there's six parts to the dream.
Now look up here please and imagine I'm
the image just for the moment.
Let's see, if I step away you won't
pick it up.
But imagine I'm the image for the moment.
There's six parts.
Part one, part two, part three, part four,
legs, part five, feet.
And part six, that stone that comes and
crushes the image on its feet and fills
the whole earth.
Now take me, take the image and lay
me on the side just as if I
were stretched out here on the platform.
And you have a timeline chart beginning with
the head, which was Babylon, moving through a
sequence of time down to the feet.
Stand the image up and that's the way
Nebuchadnezzar saw it.
Place the image on its side and you
have a little timeline chart of a panorama
of what the Lord calls in Luke 21
the times of the Gentiles.
Which is described in Luke 21, 24 as
characterized by the fact that Jerusalem is trodden
down of Gentiles.
Jerusalem is ruled by Gentiles, the times of
the Gentiles.
Starting with Nebuchadnezzar who overcame the city and
laid it in ruins.
And right down to the second coming of
Christ, which is the stone that eventually fills
the whole earth in his millennial kingdom.
Now the times of the Gentiles have had
some temporary interruptions.
That is, there have been a few times
when Jerusalem has not been overruled by Gentiles.
During the Maccabean era that was not the
case.
That is, the Maccabeans, the Jews, ruled Jerusalem.
People have wondered if since 1967 the times
of the Gentiles have been interrupted.
Because during the war in 1967 Jerusalem again
was reunited and was ruled over by the
Jews.
So there can be some interruptions in it,
but the general characteristic of the time is
that Jerusalem is trodden down of Gentiles.
If there had been an interruption, though I
personally don't think 1967 interrupted it, because Israel
only rules Jerusalem by at least the permissive
toleration of the major Gentile powers in the
world.
If Russia and the United States got together
and said you must internationalize Jerusalem, what could
Israel do but internationalize Jerusalem?
So at least by the permissive toleration of
the world powers, the Gentile powers, Israel rules
Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, if there has been an interruption since
1967, we know from Revelation 11 verse 2
that Jerusalem again will be trodden down by
the Gentiles in the tribulation days.
And the phrase trodden down in Revelation 11
verse 2 is exactly the same verb as
in Luke 21 verse 24.
The times of the Gentiles.
Lay the image on its side, begins with
Babylon, the head, followed by Persia, the Medes
and the Persians who overtook Babylon.
That's the answer to the first question.
And that Persian Empire was succeeded by the
Grecian Empire, and the Grecian Empire was succeeded
by the Roman Empire.
And now there's been an interruption during these
days in which God is calling out from
among Gentiles a people for his name.
But there will come a time when there
will be the feet portion of the image.
That is when there will be ten nations
that will be leaders in the world.
And then Christ will come and the stone,
that is Christ, will fill the whole earth
when he comes to rule the earth.
And that general sketch you see is in
verses 38 and 9 and 40 and 41
and 42.
Following 38, thou art this head of gold.
39, another kingdom inferior after thee.
And then a third one, 39, then 40,
a fourth one.
And then 41, the toes are described.
And then verse 44 says, in the days
of these kings, that is of the ten
toes, in the days of these kings shall
the God of heaven set up the kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed, and not left
to any other people, not succeeded by any
other kingdom.
So the fourth empire, the Roman Empire, there
is an interruption there, and then the toes
that will come eventually in a ten nation
confederation, and that is the answer to one
of those questions, will be crushed by the
coming of Christ.
In the days of those kings shall the
God of heaven set up a kingdom.
So the timeline chart runs successively until you
come to the conclusion of the Roman Empire,
and then there is a gap in here,
and then there will be a revival of
this timeline chart with ten kingdom confederation in
the tribulation days, and then the coming of
Christ.
Now how long did these kingdoms last?
This might be interesting for you to remember.
Babylon ruled for 66 years.
That's not very long.
Persia for 208 years, Greece for 270, and
Rome, well it's a little hard to know
what the cutoff date should be, but let's
take Rome to the division of the empire
into the east and the western divisions, and
then Rome did rule for 458 years.
The ten nation confederation in the tribulation days
will rule for no more than seven years
of the tribulation, and the kingdom of Christ
will be a thousand years plus eternity.
The United States is how many years old?
207.
So you see we actually are among the
longer nations ruling in the world as far
as history is concerned.
Now that's essentially what Daniel's dream was.
I mean, what Nebuchadnezzar's dream was.
Now if you turn over to chapter 7,
which is the companion chapter covering the same
panorama, there's an answer to another question.
If you turn over to chapter 7, you
have the same time period, the same panorama,
only with some added detail.
And here I'm going to suggest we have
seven parts to the dream that Daniel had
in chapter 7.
Nebuchadnezzar's dream in 2, Daniel's dream in 7.
This occurred about 50 years later from the
time of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
And by this time, Daniel was well established
in the kingdom.
He had this dream.
Nebuchadnezzar had already died and then succeeded in
the kingdom, but Babylon was still the ruling
world empire.
It had not yet been succeeded by the
Persians.
Actually, I think the events of Daniel 7
come between Daniel 4 and 5, so Persia
had not yet conquered Babylon.
Now God describes these world leaders not in
terms of a great image or parts of
a great image, but in terms of beasts.
But it's the same panorama.
And you'll notice the sequence of events is
exactly the same.
Verse 4, the first beast was like a
lion.
And always, when you read prophecy, pay special
attention when the text says, like, or as,
or as it were.
And pay special attention when it doesn't use
those words.
When it uses words like that, then it's
saying this is the best way it could
be described.
In fact, the first kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, was
like a lion.
And then some added description, added details.
The second, verse 5, was like a bear.
And the third, verse 6, was like a
leopard.
And the fourth, verse 7, was like nothing
Daniel had ever seen.
It was dreadful, terrible, strong, great iron teeth,
and some other details are given.
So there are four parts to this dream
that correspond exactly to the first four parts
of the image.
To the head, the chest, the stomach, and
the legs.
To Babylon, to Persia, to Greece, to Rome.
And these four animals are exactly similar in
the panorama.
Now, we have, in verse 8, something added.
There were, out of this fourth beast, there
were ten horns.
And that corresponds exactly to the ten toes
of the feet of the other image.
But now here's something new.
Now, I considered the horns, and behold, there
came up among them another little horn, before
whom three of the first horns were plucked
up by the roots.
And behold, in this horn were eyes like
the eyes of a man, and a mouth
speaking great things.
And I beheld how the thrones were cast
down, and the Ancient of Days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow, and his
hair of the head as pure wool.
His throne was like a fiery flame, and
his wheels as burning fire.
Now, in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, you had
six features.
Four kingdoms, toes of ten kingdoms, and then
the stones, the kingdom of Christ.
In Daniel's dream, you have seven features.
Four beasts, just like the four parts of
the image.
The ten horns, equivalent to the ten toes,
that is the confederation of nations that will
arise in the tribulation days.
And the Ancient of Days, equivalent to the
stone, to Christ's kingdom.
But the added feature in Daniel 7 is
this other horn, verse 8, that comes out
from among the ten nations, the ten-nation
confederation that will arise in the tribulation days.
And this horn is Antichrist.
This is another description of the same man
we talked about last night.
Let's look at verse 24 and see some
details about Antichrist.
The ten horns out of this kingdom are
ten kings that shall arise.
That's the ten-nation confederation of the tribulation
days.
Personally, I think that's a western confederation.
West being described in relation to Palestine.
That is, it's west from Palestine.
Some teachers will use the phrase, the revived
Roman Empire.
And that's alright, because it comes out of
the fourth kingdom, which was Rome.
The $64,000 question is, which stage of
the Roman Empire?
Because Rome went through a number of stages.
If you've ever been to Rome, you'll remember
on one of the modern walls near the
Colosseum, there are mosaics of the various stages
of the Roman Empire during its history.
And sometimes it was smaller, and sometimes it
was larger.
So when a teacher talks about the revived
Roman Empire, you need to ask the question,
which stage of the old Roman Empire is
going to be revived?
A smaller area of conquest, or a larger
area which is conquered?
And I don't know the answer to that,
frankly.
But I think the idea is correct, the
term is correct, that there will be a
revived Roman Empire in the sense that the
ten-nation confederation will come from that general
area which Rome ruled during its time of
world conquest.
And that's west from Palestine.
So I like to call it a western
confederation of nations.
And it will be ruled by this little
horn that will arise.
Apparently, remember the detail, he had to subdue
three kings.
So apparently not all ten nations will want
to give him their power at first, so
he'll have to do something forcibly to bring
three of them into line.
I don't know how that's going to work
out, or which ones will be reluctant or
opposing him, but he will have to bring
three of them into line forcibly.
The others apparently will give him their allegiance
voluntarily.
He shall subdue three kings.
Verse 24, that's one detail we know about
him.
And as far as I know, that's the
only place in the Bible where we learn
this particular detail about Antichrist coming to power.
Now you must always think of Antichrist as
both a political and a religious leader.
He is both.
He has a lieutenant, but he is both
political and religious.
At first he is political.
In the first part of the Tribulation he's
gathering together his base of operation in this
ten-nation western confederation.
But remember last night, in the middle of
the Tribulation, he sets himself up in the
temple to be worshipped, and there he takes
on a religious role.
And as he leads the world to Armageddon,
he tries to make the whole world worship
him, bow to him.
So he will, I don't think, ever be
a worldwide leader, but he'll be a world
leader.
If he were a worldwide leader, then there
would be nobody opposing him at Armageddon, and
there will be armies opposing him at Armageddon,
and armies of the East.
So he won't be a totally worldwide leader,
but he will be a world leader, his
base of operation being west from Palestine.
So, this little detail about his coming to
power that he must, fortunately, do three of
the ten nations here in Daniel 7 and
24.
There's more details about him.
Verse 25.
He shall speak great words against the Most
High.
That's why he's anti-Christ.
And shall wear out the saints of the
Most High.
Not the Church, for we shall have been
raptured to heaven.
But, there will be saints in the Tribulation
days.
There will be elect in the Tribulation days.
And they will be the objects of his
persecution.
He will think to change times and laws.
And that's an intriguing phrase.
I don't know all that it means.
To change laws, that seems clear enough.
But to change times.
I'll give you a guess, and that's all
it is.
Maybe one of the things anti-Christ will
do is to change the seven-day week.
So as to try to erase from people's
minds the idea of the Lord's Day.
Or even from Jewish minds, the idea of
a Sabbath.
You know, a seven-day week has never
been universal.
Except among Jewish people.
But many nations have observed other lengths of
weeks.
We just can't think of that being possible.
Four and five-day weeks have been very
common.
And even these days, in the French Revolution,
we will attempt to change the week.
It was geared to the market day.
And if market came every four or five
days, that was the weekly cycle.
It's just so hard for us to think
how that could be.
Because we're so used to the seven.
But if anti-Christ wanted to erase the
idea of the Lord's Day, and all that
would mean to believers in the Tribulation days,
this would be a pretty necessary thing to
do.
Not just desecrate the Lord's Day.
Not just make it a secular day, as
it's fast becoming in our days.
But actually change it.
So you have a first day, and a
seven-day cycle.
But only to have a three, four, or
five-day cycle.
So maybe it might mean something like that.
And you'll have free reign for time, time,
half a time, for three and a half
years.
And then, the Kingdom of Christ will come.
And that's the seventh feature in this version.
The disclaimer that Daniel had.
So, here are some details about anti-Christ
that we didn't pick up in Chapter 2,
because he really wasn't mentioned in the chapter.
Now I want to ask some questions that
maybe you are asking.
Is the European Economic Community, that is the
common market, is it in some way related
to the coming ten-nation Western Confederation, headed
by anti-Christ?
Well, it might be a base on which
anti-Christ could build.
And I say that about as carefully as
I know how to say it.
It might be a base on which don't
get excited if there are ten nations, because
next year there might be eleven.
It depends.
When anti-Christ takes over, his Western will
be ten.
Until then, there may be six, sixteen, ten,
who knows, in the European Economic Community.
I think the most significant thing about the
European Economic Community is not the number of
nations that cooperate, or that go in and
out, because there is only one.
I think the most significant thing about them
is the economic energy that they affect.
And the economic energy of the world, including
the Western European nations, is, I think, one
of the most significant signs of the time.
There is a parliament.
I know that.
It's got 410 members, a European parliament.
We don't hear much about it in this
country.
But once in a while a prophecy teacher
will get hold of that, and this is
obviously anti-Christ parliament.
I don't know that it is or isn't.
And the common market is obviously the Ten
Nation Confederation.
I don't know that it is or isn't.
It could go out of business tomorrow or
next year.
That wouldn't stall God's program.
Its presence might be a help to anti
-Christ to build on, but even if we
didn't have a common market, God's not going
to be supported or hindered or delayed in
bringing to pass his purpose at the beginning
of the tribulation to unite these ten nations
in the West.
Second question.
Is anti-Christ alive today?
If the rapture of the church will occur
in the next 30, 40 or 50 years,
the answer is yes.
Because anti-Christ will not come on the
scene of history.
That is, he won't come as a political
leader gathering together ten nations.
He won't come on the scene of history
as a leader as a baby.
He's going to have to be an adult.
So he'll have to be 30, I suppose.
And if he has to be 30 when
this starts, then 30 years before it starts,
he's got to have been born.
So is he alive today?
He could be.
If the rapture is within the next one
or two generations, then the chances are he
is alive somewhere on the earth today.
It's kind of a startling conclusion, isn't it?
But it's very, very possible that that's the
case.
A third question.
In the message last night, it didn't say
much about how anti-Christ will lead, be
one of the leaders in propelling the world
toward Armageddon.
And I'd like to ask the question, how
will he do that?
Well, he will do that because he's going
to try to enlarge his kingdom, the scope
of his kingdom, not merely, or not only
to include the West, but to include other
parts of the world as well.
Now, if you could change everything I've been
doing up here from the timeline charts and
all the rest of it, and if you
could now change the front of the platform
to a map, can you do all that?
And you'll make the pulpit Palestine, if you
have a point of reference, and then you'll
have to make everything over there to be
the West from Palestine.
So, anti-Christ is in that area where
the piano is, getting his League of Ten
Nations together.
And he makes, at the beginning of the
Tribulation, a treaty with the Jewish people in
Palestine.
And he becomes their protector, actually, in those
days.
Now, I really would like to have some
help here I suppose I could get three
or four men to come up here and
help me.
Would that embarrass somebody?
Come on, some of you men.
I won't ask you to say anything, I
won't ask you to do anything, except what
I ask you to do.
I mean, I won't embarrass you, believe me.
But it would just maybe help everybody to...
I think we have enough.
All right.
Let's see.
You come up here, please.
And you go over there just by the
piano, please.
And you...
Let's see.
You can go over here, please.
One of you.
And you can just stand right down there.
Okay?
Now we've got everybody in place.
You can obviously tell who's the most handsome
of this group.
And...
No, it's you.
Thank you.
Yes.
And...
Well, look at him.
He's got a nice profile.
Good looking.
Attractive.
Youngish.
And that makes him a good choice for
Antichrist, doesn't it?
I think he will be an attractive man.
One who attracts people to himself.
So I put him in the West over
there, you see.
And the first thing he does is make
a...
At the beginning of the Tribulation, make a
treaty with the Jewish people.
And I'll be Jewish people.
Come over and make a treaty with me.
And we will covenant together.
And what you will do is protect me
in Palestine.
And in the meantime, you have to get
your ten nations together.
And all of that.
Now in the middle of the Tribulation, remember,
he breaks the treaty.
So...
And...
He sets himself up in the temple to
be worshipped.
Exactly right.
Now, he wants to expand his empire.
So...
To become, literally, a world ruler.
And there are other blocks of nations, other
power blocks in the world that stand in
his way.
I do not...
I'm not at all dogmatic about the sequence
of events.
But the general outline, I think, is correct
and scriptural.
So these other blocks, these other powers have
to...
Something has to be done with them.
I personally think the sequence will be something
like this.
Down in the South here is the King
of the South, Egypt.
Which answers the question, will Egypt survive?
The answer is yes.
Into the Tribulation days, Egypt will survive.
Up in the North...
Is...
Big Bear.
Great typecasting.
Of course, these men will never speak to
me the rest of the day.
And I personally think that the two will
try to effect a kind of pincer movement
against Palestine.
If one comes from the South and one
comes from the North, to cut him off
in both directions.
Like a pair of scissors, in other words.
You see, here's one part of the scissors,
here's the other part.
And they're going to bring them together and
cut this man's contact between the West and
Palestine.
So, this one starts North and this one
starts South.
Don't come too far.
And he starts South.
Now, Antichrist has to make a tactical decision.
It's pretty hard to divide his forces and
go both ways.
And I think Daniel 11 indicates that he
will first knock out Egypt.
And I can see, vaguely, a reason for
that.
Because it's harder to get from the North.
There are too many mountain ranges, it's not
easy to move a land army.
And it's much easier to get from the
South.
And Egypt may be there sooner.
Egypt will be a weaker nation, probably.
So, he attacks Egypt first and does defeat
Egypt.
And Daniel 11 says he has power over
the gold and treasures of Egypt.
So, take his gold watch off, man.
Wallet and watch.
Got a gold watch?
Give me his watch.
Your watch, yeah.
Now, you're out of it, brother.
You're out of it.
Go sit down there in the front tier.
But he's got to tend to the other
part of the pincer movement.
And there will be the invasion from the
North.
Again, I'm not dogmatic about the sequence.
But when he comes back here, of course,
it is God who superhumanly, supernaturally, destroys the
king of the North.
So, he really doesn't have to fight the
king of the North.
He's destroyed by God.
Sit down here on the bench so we
don't lose your presence up here.
So, that really makes him, you know, he's
well on the road to being a worldwide
leader.
But there is this power block over in
the East, the kings of the East, about
which we have very little detail.
Except that they seem to march toward Palestine
because the Euphrates River has dried up.
And you have to march this way to
remind the kings of the East.
And Antichrist must do something about this block
if he's going to be a worldwide ruler.
So, I really think that Armageddon starts off
to be an East-West conflict in the
most literal sense of the word.
And the Euphrates has dried up and that
facilitates his crossing of the Euphrates.
And they come together, Armageddon, but then Christ
returns.
So, the two of them suddenly become allies.
And turn to try to defeat Christ at
his second coming.
And, of course, they're not able to do
that.
And that's when all the carnage will occur.
And God will have to send the birds
to clean up the corpses.
So, that's the answer to the third question
in a very brief sketch.
How will Antichrist lead the world toward Armageddon?
Thank you, everyone.
I appreciate it.
And then I want to ask one final
question, if you'll permit me.
Where does the United States fit into all
this?
Because that's a question everybody wants to ask
and wants an answer.
Is the United States in prophecy?
I think not.
Is it in the Bible?
Yes.
Where?
The kingdoms of this world will become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
That includes all kingdoms.
But is it mentioned specifically?
No, I don't think so.
What will happen to the U.S.? Well,
there are only three reasonable options.
First, it'll be annihilated.
Second, it'll be neutralized, but not annihilated.
Third, which some seem to opt for...