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The Confirmed
Word
More than one-third of the
Bible is prophetic. I merely make this statement
because we have people who will tell you that
they are "not interested" in prophecy. Well, my
friend, more than one-third of the Bible is
prophecy. "Prophecy" is history in
advance, and it is so necessary that we
understand it. To know the history of the past
and the prophecy of the future is to have a
perfect understanding of the confusing situation
of our present day. I just want to make it clear
that we are not wasting time when we study these
things.
Peter said in II Peter 1:19,
We have also a more sure (confirmed)
word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that
ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a
dark place... He talks of being on the Mount
of Transfiguration with Jesus, and of hearing
God speak with Jesus, and of hearing God speak
out of Heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased." (verse 17) That was A.D. 32,
and by A.D. 90, God had confirmed the fact that
Jesus was His Son, His ONLY begotten Son, that
He was the ONLY Way, the ONLY Truth, and the
ONLY Life. The Apostles went everywhere
preaching the Gospel, and Jesus confirmed the
Word with signs following.
Now that was
in A.D. 90. How much of a confirmed Word do we
have today? Most everything in the Bible has
been confirmed. Most every prophecy has come to
pass, just as God said it would in His Book. We
have less reason to doubt God's Word than any
people who lived on the face of the earth, yet
there is more unbelief today than at any other
period of time.
I say that, not to find
fault, but that you might realize the enemy is
strong today. I am not building him up; I am
only telling you the truth. Brothers and
Sisters, he has a stronghold on a lot of people
through unbelief. They just cannot believe the
Word of God will come out the way God assures us
it will. Every Bible prophecy which has been
fulfilled has happened EXACTLY as God said it
would,a dn so will the
rest.
Hidden
Treasures
Someone may
ask, "Why don't more people understand prophecy
if it is true?" First of all, we have legislated
Bible reading and prayer out of the schools. A
recent survey found that 6 out of 8 children,
eight to twelve years of age, could not name
three of the Ten Commandments. One out of
forty-five could name three Bible prophets. A
very high percentage in several schools could
not give the name of even ONE Gospel.
It
has not only been taken out of the schools, but
the homes are also failing to teach it. After
all, God ordained for it to be taught in the
home, NOT in the schools. Too many so-called
churches do not preach the truth, so some
honest-hearted individuals are struggling with
Bible study, trying to understand
it.
Some people say, "I do not believe we
ought to let our children choose their own
religion." I do, too, but how are they going to
choose when they don't know anything about
anything? How are they going to make a right
choice between truth and error when they have
not been taught what is truth and what is
error?
The Revelation is mysterious, but
not too mysterious to be understood. There is
nothing more precious than a mystery revealed.
On the human level, man has delved into the
mysteries of God and harnessed the natural
treasures of the earth, and we are blessed by
it. Jesus let us see that the Word is like a
treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). To
find this treasure, we must dig deep. Some
highly-educated men say there is nothing in it,
that the Revelation should not have been put in
the Bible. Brothers and Sisters, the Holy Ghost
can take you down to the depth where the trasure
is hidden and there reveal it to
you.
What is a mystery? Mr. Webster says
a mystery is a religious truth beyond human
understanding. The Bible is full of mysteries.
The Bible reveals the mystery of godliness. The
religious world cannot understand it; they say
that no one can live free from sin and live
godly. Well, there is a mystery to it; it is
called the mystery of godliness. The mystery of
iniquity is also revealed. Then over in
Ephesians 5:32, Paul said, "This is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
church." What was that "great mystery"? The
mystery of The Church, how God brings His people
together and keep them together as one people.
We hope you can agree now that studying prophecy
is a necessary
thing.
The End
Of The Reign Of The First
Beast
Papalism, as
we studied in our last message, was to continue
42 months or 1,260 years. Since the first beast
was to continue that long, it was to have much
to do with this second beast.
Let us read
Daniel 7:25-27. And he shall speak great
words against the most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the most High, and think to change
times and laws: and they shall be given into his
hand until a time and times and the dividing of
time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall
take away his dominion, to consume and to
destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under
the whole heaven, shall be given to the people
of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall
serve and obey him. There in verse 26 where
it reads, "But the judgment shall sit...", it is
not talking about final judgment. He is saying
that God is going to bring judgment on this.
Truth always brings judgment on any contrary and
corrupt condition that is going
forth.
Daniel saw the first beast rising
up, and that he was going to reign for 1,260
years. He also saw that the Word of God was
going to be opened again, that judgment was
going to be put on that system, that the kingdom
was going to begin to come forth, and this first
beast was going to be consumed with the power of
God and his reign taken away from him clear to
the end.
Now as we studied the falling
away, we began to talk about The Church. When
they fell away from truth, the true church was
lost sight of, visibly. The true saints hid away
in the dens and the caves. When we talk about
The True Church being lost sight of, we are
saying that she was lost sight of by name.
Nowhere through here were the people of God
called by a Bible name. They could not come out
and take the outward stand for truth by taking
the Bible name and outwardly declaring the
doctrines of The Church. So, when The Church was
lost sight of, she was lost sight of by doctrine
and by name.
Even as God had people (this
will help you later in the message), so He has
people today who are scattered around in
sectarianism. Unless, however, they see the
truth, The True Church is lost sight of for
them. Why? My friends, they have a name other
than the Bible name, and they are following some
doctrine other than the true doctrines of The
Church.
This first beast reigned until
God in His great wisdom and power saw fit for
the Word of God to be brought forth. God said
that the reign of the first beast would be 1,260
years. So, when we get to the end of this 1,260
years, we can look for something to happen. We
can look for the reign of this first beast, who
had been killing Christians, burning the Word of
God, and driving the Christians into caves and
dens, to come to an end. No man knew how it
would come to an end, but God prophesied that it
would.
Friends, the only that that puts
false religion down is the True Word of God,
openly declared and stood for. Whenever the Word
of God grows in the hearts of God's people and
prevails, falsity loses its grip from the minds
and hearts, and from the community. When God saw
fit to bring the reign of this beast to an end,
He began to turn the Word of God loose a little
bit.
The
Reopening Of The Word Of
God
Going into history, we see
how the Word of God was turned loose at
approximately 1300. Remember that Rome had
burned the Bible. The only copies they had were
in Latin so the poor of the land could not read
it for themselves. God knew that if the Word of
God was ever turned loose, it was going to have
to be translated back into the "common"
languages that people could understand. So He
moved on an educated man, John Wycliffe, and he
translated the Bible into English. At
approximately the same time, He moved on two
great reformers in Bohemia: Jerome of Prague
University and John Huss. At the same time that
God made a move in England, He also made a move
in Bohemia through these great
reformers.
John Huss preached what Bible
he understood with such power and fierceness
that Rome raised up against him and burned him
at the stake on July 6, 1415. The persecution
was still going on, but it was about to come to
an end. As they burned John Huss at the stake,
he stood and said, "Let a goose be sanctified,
but one hundred years hence, out of its ashes
there will rise up a swan, who will uphold the
truth that he has defended. (The name
Huss in the Bohemian language means "a
goose".) John Huss was speaking of Martin
Luther, that lionhearted reformer who would
follow him and turn the Gatling guns of truth
loose on that empire and upon that false
condition.
John Wycliff brought so much
displeasure upon himself by translating the
Bible into English that after he died and been
buried forty years, Rome got so mad at him, they
DUG UP HIS BONES, held a trial for him, nad
burned his bones. Hatred is pretty deep when it
will reach into a grave where a man's bones have
lain for forty years!
Someone may yet
contend, "That is history." Don't forget, the
spirit of the dragon, of the beast, and of the
false prophet has gone out to the whole world.
So the spirit I am talking about is prominent in
our day and time. It has gone into all the world
and we need to consider it.
With all the
rising up that Rome could do, Europe was being
shaken from end to end by a power that
generation had never known before. Under the
sound of God's Word, the everlasting pounding of
God's Word through Martin Luther and others, the
Papacy began to crumble. Now, I want to tell
you, you can build up anything you want to, but
under the certain sounding of God's Word, if it
is wrong, it will be pounded to pieces. Nothing
false can stand the sounding of God's Word.
That's why there are not many people in church
today: their lives are such that they have no
desire to change them, and the Word of God is to
them like a hammer pounding on the
rock.
Human
Intelligence
The
groundwork of a reformer was laid through Martin
Luther and those men we mentioned, along with
others, that would reach the whole world. We are
eternally indebted to the reformers, every one
of that early Protestant era. Why? They have
given us education. That is why this second
beast came up out of the earth. The first one
came up out of the sea, out of wickedness and
corruption, but this second beast came up out of
the earth. "Out of the earth" means out of the
minds of men. Much of this is run through human
intelligence.
Most all the colleges and
schools of higher learning, in the beginning,
were started by some church group. There is much
we have to thank the reformation for. We not
only have education, but we also have open
church buildings; we are free to have church
services today in America. We have a democracy,
this America, the home of the free, as we say it
is.
With all the praise we can give early
reformers for all they have brought us, we must
make the statement that to call Protestantism
"The Church" is to misname it! Protestantism
NEVER was The Church and NEVER CAN BE The
Church. That is a strong statement, but it is
true.
Because there was so truth sounded
out of Protestantism, some people say it was The
Church. I want to give you good reasons why
Protestantism never was The Church and never can
be. All the coming together she can do is only
brought by human intelligence. It is of the
earth. It came up out of the earth, and anything
which came out of the earth is going back down
to the earth. Babylon is fallen; it has gone to
a lower, degraded state of the earth than it was
in the beginning. Movement after movement came
out with some fire, some life, sinless living,
and power in the midst, but they've gone down to
a lower earthly level than where they
started.
All through the Revelation and
the Bible, it lets us know that the Word and the
Spirit are the TRUE VICARS of The True Church.
They are here in Christ's stead to manage The
Church. It is by God's Word and Spirit that we
are brought into the light of the church and
kept in the light of the church. Even though the
Word and Spirit rose up when holiness began to
shine forth, men killed those two witnesses.
Revelation, Chapter 11, tells of the two
witnesses, the Word and the Spirit, lying dead
in the street. Men didn't go very long before
another spirit began to move in and
work.
This is what bothers me. We'll
never have any trouble with division among us by
feeling differently about some scripture; we can
still be one, love each other and work together.
When a spirit rises up that begins to say, "I
won't have anything to do with you if you don't
see just as I do!" that's another spirit. When
another spirit rises up, there will be another
body, there will be a division, and there will
be another work.
God understands us. He
remembers that we are dust. He remembers that we
may have different ideas about some things, but
if we will keep the one Spirit of God, if we
will endeavor to keep the one Spirit that
baptized us into one body, we can remain one
body. They, however, killed the Word and the
Spirit, yet they went right on
working.
The
Power Of The First
Beast
Someone may
question, "How could they go on? How could it be
alive?" Revelation 13:15 tells us, And he had
power to give life unto the image of the
beast... My friends, the life is in the
spirit. We taught early in the lesson that the
life was in the blood through the everlasting
Spirit. Now, this first beast had power to give
life, or give a spirit, to this second beast.
We'll have more to say about that in just a
little bit.
The question may arise: "What
happened to the reformation?" When a different
spirit got in, then creed-making began. The
Augsburg Confession, the first human creed, was
written in 1530; it was just the beginning of a
long procession of creed-making. Through that
creed-making, we have this second beast. John
said that it came up out of the earth. It had
two horns like a lamb; those two horns are
power, and they denote the beginning of
Protestantism.
Where did it begin? Luther
gave a state church to Germany. At the same
time, King Henry VIII gave a state church to
England. What do I mean by a state church? It
was just exactly like the first beast--church
and state together, the church governing the
state. Protestantism in its early days began in
Germany and England, with each having a state
church.
We read in Revelation 13:11-12:
And I beheld another beast coming up out of
the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and
he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the
power of the first beast... What was the
power of the first beast? The church reigning
over the state. In Rome, if you didn't become a
Roman Catholic, off came your head, or you were
killed in some other manner. Here the same power
rose up when Luther gave Germany a state church:
if you didn't become a Lutheran, they'd kill
you! In England, when you didn't join the Church
of England and belong to it, they exercised the
same power of the first beast: they killed you.
The laws of the land don't let them kill us now,
but if the law had been lifted, I'd have been
killed fifty thousand times.
The spirit
is still there. Oh yes, it is still there. I
agree with the fact that there are good people
in Protestantism, people who are actually saved
and have the Spirit of God indwelling in their
lives. I am merely referring to the spirit that
dominates Protestantism: it is the same spirit
of the beast.
Beast
Talk
The first
beast had power to give life to the second
beast, and it spake just like the first beast.
How did this beast speak? "If you don't become a
Roman Catholic, your head is coming off!"
Protestantism had a good start, but it wasn't
long until they took on this wrong spirit, also.
What was the Thirty-Year War? A religious war
where different religious organizations put
armies on the battlefield and fought for their
creed. The Hugenot War was a religious
war.
People today will hardly believe it:
it's too amazing to believe that docile
religious groups could ever have done that.
Friends, the spirit of the beast phases out,
then rises up every little bit, even today. You
and I may have a good start, but another spirit
can get hold of us. Those spirits are out there.
Whenever you grieve the Holy Spirit and refuse
to let Him have His way, any one of these
spirits we've been teaching about is
waiting--they'll be glad to come in and set up
housekeeping within your being.
In
England, King Henry VIII drew up the Bloody-Six
Articles; he persecuted Catholics and
Protestants alike. The Church of England,
through the Bloody-Six Articles, persecuted and
killed Christians. Consider John Bunyan, who
wrote Pilgrim's Progress, in the Bedford
Jail. Why was he in jail? The Church of England
put him in there to die like a rat because he
believed principles in the Bible which were
against the teachings of the Church of
England.
The Quakers were confined to
prison by the thousands. This is what brought
the Puritans to this country. Why are we really
here in America? Why did our forefathers come
here? Because the Church of England wouldn't
give them freedom to worship according to the
dictates of their conscience.
Well, they
landed on these shores, and we rejoice in that
landing every year. They came to get free from
the persecution of the Church of England. But
many who came on the boats were not true
Christians; they were Protestants, too, so the
spirit of it traveled with them. Their first
year here, Christians (supposed to be) banished
Roger Williams and a little group of his
followers out into the cold. They made them
sleep in the snow without any covers, to freeze
to death, because they saw a little more truth
than the first group which came over. I say
"Thanks!" to those who had a deep enough love
and appreciation for God and His Word that they
would lay down their bones in the ice and snow
before they would back off a God-given
conviction of truth.
I want you to see
that the spirit just followed right on. How
wonderful it would have been if it could have
been left in England, but everywhere there are
people, they bring spirits with them. Not
everyone who claims to be a Christian today has
the right spirit. No Sir!
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