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QUESTIONS ABOUT PROPHECY
YOU ALWAYS WANTED ANSWERED
 

What does the Bible tell us – that is all that matters.

• Some say that “Babylon” in the book of Revelation is the real city that has been rebuilt in the Middle East by Saddam Hussein. Some say it is the Roman Catholic Church. 
• Yet others say that “Babylon” is the union of all religions on the earth. 
• There are others who are sure that “Babylon” is the united European super state that has sprung up in our day. Babylon has to be understood basically, [we cannot understand it fully as it is a mystery], for us to begin to learn about Biblical prophecy.

·14:8 – “the great city.”

·16:19 – “great Babylon.”

·18:2 - “Babylon the great.”

·18:10 – “that great city, that mighty city.”

·18:21 – “that great city Babylon.”

·17:5 – “MYSTERY, Babylon the great.”

Obviously “Babylon” refers to a real city, it is called that four times. It is also called “mystery” as the actual city has and still does have a great and awful influence over all the nations of the world.

“Babylon” was present in the Tower of Babel, it is the source of all the ghastly profane sacrilege that has been perpetrated on earth! The religious system “Babylon” has been satanic from the beginning.Religion is NOT what Christianity is.

See Revelation 17:2 for this startling verse:

“With whom the kings of earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her [Babylon’s] fornication.”

·Babylon is many things, it is not just one. 

·It is the real city that has been rebuilt by Hussein; 

·it is the religious system of the Scarlet Woman on the Beast,
the One World Church that includes the Papacy; 

·and it is the power behind the economic and governmental system of the Antichrist
or the One World Government. 

We will study this further in coming meetings.

Today we will look at amazing pictures of what is happening in Europe right now.

The spirit of “Babylon” in the earth’s inhabitants caused them to rise in great rebellion against the Almighty God at the Tower of Babel, see Genesis 11. Babel is the source of all the languages of the earth. Before the Tower of Babel the earth had one language. God confused the languages and gave many tongues in those days, because mankind was rising in great power against Him, and they had built a huge tower to reach to heaven to show their might. Then God judged them and scattered the inhabitants of earth into tribes so that they could not be united. 

Today the whole world is crying 

• “UNITE or we will perish.” 
• “Save the earth, do not be separationists.” 

Today the symbol of Babel and Babylon is being shown in the New World Order!

Pictures from Europe show not only that 

·the Tower of Babel has been built again in symbol, 

·but that “the woman riding the beast” is being presented as well! 

[More on this “woman” and “beast” below].

BABYLON is the Greek form of BABEL; Semitic form Babilu, meaning "The Gate of God." 

In the Assyrian tablets it means "The city of the dispersion of the tribes.” 

1. IS ANTICHRIST A REAL PERSON?

What does the Bible tell us?

a)The term “antichrist” is in scripture, it is found in John’s epistles three times: 1 John 2:22; 4:3; 11 John 7. In 11 Thess 2, Antichrist is referred to as “the Man of Sin,” and “son of perdition.’

b)Can’t all those references be just general terms for those who oppose Jesus Christ? No, for the Bible shows us A MAN who is the Antichrist. Other forerunners can have his “spirit” or attitude.
Where do we find these references to an actual man?

Isaiah 11:4; Daniel 7:8; Daniel 9:26; 11 Thessalonians 2:4; verses 6-9.

c)What will eventually happen to this man? Revelation 19:20; 20:10. 

No one can cast a mere influence or attitude within all sorts of institutions and organizations into a “lake of fire.” The “beast” referred to is the Antichrist ruler of the earth, who sets himself up to be God. 

Who Antichrist actually will reImages a mystery until he is appears, although many have had guesses, and good ones at that. He will “confirm the covenant” with Israel in the end times. That is he will be the one who will seem to bring peace to the Middle East by “confirming” a peace covenant with Israel and her enemies. “Confirming,” suggests that an existing peace treaty will be strengthened and acknowledged by the Antichrist. There have been many potential peace treaties with Israel in our day; none have been successful – yet! Daniel 9:27.Finally, there will come one treaty that will seem to bring peace in the Middle East at last, but it will in reality bring the most horrendous period of suffering the world has ever seen, it ushers in the Tribulation. The leader who “confirms” that treaty is the Antichrist! He will break the treaty with the Jews in the middle of the “week” of years, see again Daniel 9:27.

d) Some people think that the Antichrist, or the Beast, will be a Jew, an apostate from Judaism. Does the Bible indicate this? No, this has been suggested because of Daniel 11:37- “God of his fathers” being interpreted as being the God of O.T. Jews. But Daniel 9:26 shows this is not so, because “the people of the prince that shall come” were the Gentile armies of Rome. The “little horn” or the Antichrist is an apostate, but he will be an apostate from Christianity, not Judaism, see 1 John 2:18,19. He will have some sort of Christian church background, but will be 100% against the God of the Bible and His 

Christ. [As an example, our recently “resigned” Governor General had a Church background, but is against the principles and Grace of the God of the Bible and His Christ.]

2.  HOW DO WE KNOW THE TRIBULATION

IS NOT HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT IT IS SEVEN YEARS IN LENGTH?

• The Tribulation period cannot be now, for the whole world is not in unity under a world tyrant, and is not going through the disasters shown in Revelation 6-19. 
• The Tribulation period cannot be now because the Christian Church, the real one the invisible one, is still on earth. God has promised us we will be taken away in the Rapture before the Trib. begins. Revelation 3:10. Matthew 24:21 shows us how severe the “great Tribulation” will be, this is the last 3 and a half years of the seven-year period. See also Daniel 12:1.

See Daniel 7:25 and 27; Daniel 12:7 and 11. Revelation 11:2; 13:5; 12:6; 12:6; 11:3 

(two witnesses are Enoch and Elijah); Rev. 12:14.

• The Tribulation is not just any time of “trouble” or “tribulation.” The Scriptures severely limit the time of this period of seven years, so any notion that the Tribulation is the entire period of the Church Age, or this “present age” as some say, is not true. The Bible says, “except those days be shortened” (Matthew 24:26). Some say we have been in the Tribulation since Christ Jesus died and rose again! Chapter twelve in Revelation marks the beginning of the last three and a half years of the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” Jeremiah 30:7.

No, there is no indication that the Antichrist is one of the popes, or all of them as some say. The Seventh Day Adventists claim that the papacy is the Antichrist, erroneously. 

a) Scores of men have been popes, which one is supposed to be Antichrist? 

b) According to 1 John 2:22 the Antichrist will deny both the Father and the Son. The Papacy and the popes do not deny the Father or the Son, they do not deny Christ’s virgin birth, His sinless life, or that He died an atoning death and was resurrected.

c)The Papacy is always identified with the Scarlet Woman in Rev. 17. She is riding the Beast or Antichrist, so the Catholic Church cannot be both the Woman and the Beast as well. Antichrist finally destroys the Woman or apostate Christendom in Revelation 17.

d)Antichrist comes from the midst of the ten kings of the restored Roman Empire, and conquers three, then rules the reImagesder. The Popes have never done this. 

The Antichrist will be much more than a fake Pope, pretending to be the Vicar of Christ! He will be able to work genuine miracles, for the same word for the “miracles” that he performs is used of the miracles Christ Himself performed. Antichrist will do this by the power of Satan, his master. The word “miracle” I refer to means a work of the supernatural, saymion. See John 2:11 and compare Revelation 13:14.

WHICH BEAST IS ANTICHRIST?

There are TWO BEASTS in the Tribulation. That means two satanically energized men will be dominating the Tribulation. They are both called “Beast.” 

Well, we had better know which is which and what is what!

Revelation 13 reveals the two beasts.

• The “first Beast” of Revelation 13 is the Antichrist. Daniel 7, 8, 11:36-39 lined up with 11 Thessalonians 2 harmonizes perfectly with the first Beast of Revelation 13, the world economic and governmental wicked dictator. Then who is the second Beast?

• The “second beast” is “like a lamb.” He is the false prophet who is a Church leader, the Pope of the One World Church, no doubt. We read about him in Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10. 

Jesus Christ spoke of “false prophets” in Matthew 24:24. 

The Beasts are said to come from “the sea” and from “the earth.” 

This designation could give us a clue to the human identity of the two Beasts.

THE BEAST OUT OF THE SEA:

“The sea” would be the Mediterranean, given the area where the book of Revelation was written, the isle of Patmos. The first Beast could come from one of the Mediterranean kingdoms. In fact, Daniel 9:27 suggests he could come from the people of ancient Rome.He is possibly a direct descendent of the Romans. The second Beast cannot come from the same place, he is designated differently.

THE BEAST OUT OF THE EARTH:

He would come from somewhere in the great landmasses outside the Mediterranean nations. 

No other indication of where he comes from. 

·He will first rise to the attention of the world as a miracle-working religious leader
with great charisma. 

·He is of the earth, a leader of the earth. 

·He is a great false prophet of the great universal religion. 

·He is the pope, or ayatollah, or guru, or prophet of the “Christ”- the counterfeit
“Christ” or “Maitreya” who will be the Antichrist. 

·He will give a general appearance of love and goodness like Christ Jesus at first,
a false “lamb” like figure. 

·His words will be sweetly deceptive, kind and gentle. 

·But he will turn deadly, his actions and words turn into the likeness of the dragon or Satan.

The world’s religions are all joining together in our day, the World Parliament of Religions is seeing to that! The most deadly and fastest moving is the BAHA’I religion, well supported and aligned with the United Nations.

IMPORTANT TRUTHS !!!!

WILL THE CHURCH GO THROUTH THE TRIBULATION? 

NO, there are many, many reasons why not. I can deal only with a few herein.

Some of the preachers today say that a verse in Acts 14:22 refers to the Tribulation period, “We must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom.” This tribulation is about trials and persecutions we all suffer in the Christian life, but it is NOT the Tribulation period of seven years. The word thlibo is used in Scripture, which means to press or afflict. There is another word like it thlipsis that means the same, the pressures and afflictions of the Christian life. We all go through these. THIS is the word used in Acts 14:22. 

But there is another word that should interest us greatly, it means the Tribulation that is God’s wrath poured out on the earth’s dwellers. It is ORGE. In English this is translated “wrath.” This word is used in many passages about the Tribulation. In several places the words thlibo and thlipsis are used of the Tribulation to describe the awesome perils of that time. But, the Church will never pass through the ORGE of our Heavenly Father. There are at least 50 reasons why we will be raptured before the Tribulation 

In Romans 5:9 we are assured that we will be saved from the wrath of God, or the ORGE.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:9: we are told explicitly:

“God hath not appointed us to wrath (orge) but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In 1 Thessalonians 1:10:

“Whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath (orge) to come.”

Just one more out of many reasons why we will not go through the Tribulation:

The Rapture 

·is called a comforting hope. 1 Thess 4:18.

·In 1 John 3:3 it is called a purifying hope. 

·In Titus 2:13 it is called a blessed hope. 

Why would this be, if the Antichrist could at any moment sweep the Church into the Tribulation, and he could come before Christ could remove us? That would be no hope at all, in reference to the Tribulation and the wrath of the Lord. We are told by God to watch and wait for the Lord’s return, NOT the coming of the Antichrist. If the Antichrist comes first, then that commandment would make no sense at all. 

God has promised us we will be kept from the whole period of trial, that is the Tribulation period. Revelation 3:10:

“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from (ek, out of) the hour of temptation (trial) which shall come upon all the world (habitable earth) to try them who dwell upon the earth.”

The word “ek’ is used here in reference to a period of time. This is a promise that the Church will be kept from the entire time of trial, or the Tribulation. The Holy Spirit does not say “kept in the hour of trial” but “kept from” the hour of trial. Praise God.

WILL THE CHURCH OF THE BORN-AGAIN ONES

GO THROUGH THE TRIBULATION?