Revelation 13: The False Prophet Speaks As a Dragon | Part 2 of 6 | Norman McNulty
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- Опубликовано: 23 июн 2024
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Thank you brother Norman and God bless
Great presentation. I’d order the 2 books from AF, so they have it too.
I just asked an A.I. help source this question:
*Would a Sunday law ever be implemented in Saudi Arabia?*
Answer:
_"Based on the available information, _*_it is UNLIKELY that Saudi Arabia would implement a Sunday law_*_ . Saudi Arabia follows a different weekend schedule, with Friday and Saturday designated as the weekend days for the country...Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy, and its legal system is based on Sharia law. The country's laws and regulations are influenced by Islamic principles and teachings...the implementation of a Sunday law, which is more closely associated with Christian traditions, is not anticipated...However, based on the available information, _*_there is NO INDICATION that Saudi Arabia would implement a Sunday law"_* .
*Attention Adventists* : Please consider that *many major* and *entirely UNLIKELY changes* that would have to be made in Islam alone to ever tolerate something like a universal Sunday law in all Islamic lands (that's 1.9 BILLION people!). This problem is only magnified when we consider *all the rest of the world religions* as well as communism and growing atheism. Many things would have to change in the world for a Sunday law to ever come about. In reality, with Christianity waning in many parts of the world, the notion of a Sunday law just keeps getting dimmer and dimmer.
So if you are looking for a soon coming Sunday law, you are living in a fantasy world. Please think rationally about this matter.
It is true that all of these hurdles will need to be overcome. We do not claim to know how or exactly when - But from Scripture the picture is clear. It's not a matter of if, but when. It was unthinkable that the whole world would shut down in 2020, but it did and major behavioural changes took place in a very short amount of time. This gives us a glimpse of how quickly things can change in the world, however unlikely they may seem right now.
@@christopherlaubscher Thank you for your response.
Respectfully, I must point out that the "picture" from Scripture is anything but clear about a supposed coming Sunday law. Nowhere in Scripture do we find *"the first day of the week"* ever being forced upon anyone at any time, let alone as a "final test" for all humanity. This is why *no other Christian* group ever finds the notion of the Sunday law in the Bible, even fellow 7th day Sabbatarians. So again, this doctrine is in no way "clear" biblically.
Since the late 1800s, Seventh-day Adventists have seen the arrival of this universal Sunday law in every crisis. Each time, they suppose that this "crisis" will be the one that finally brings in Sunday legislation. For well over a century, any world crisis-whether it be the COVID pandemic, or climate change, or the world trade center bombing-is seen as the trigger mechanism that convinces lawmakers to abandon all reason and bow down to the papacy and institute a National Sunday Law. However, each time, the crisis fades and the National Sunday Law conspiracy never materializes. Then, they start looking for the next crisis. I have personally witnessed this pattern for decades. These people live in a constant state of paranoia.
Right now it's all about "Project 2025" and "Laudato Si/Laudate Deum", but these too will come and go and we still will have no Sunday law resulting. Just like all the failed promises of the "soon coming" Sunday law that have been made by the SDAs over the last 175 years. Again, we know it won't come to pass because the Bible says nothing about it.
We also need to ask how this type of law would ever be enforced. Is one to believe that the United States is strong enough to not only force its own people to worship on Sunday, but also force the entire world to do likewise? The entire world witnessed the great difficulty the United States had in trying to control the tiny nation of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. After futilely attempting to maintain control over that nation, the United States left in defeat. If the United States cannot even maintain order in this one small nation, then how is it going to control the entire world?
I welcome your thoughts and perspective.
@@NoSundayLawComing Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am no expert in this area, but again, the HOW of it being implemented is not clear. I agree that the unlikelihood of it happening does seem powerful. It's as unclear as the how of Jesus returning in glory. I'm not sure exactly how, but I believe what the Bible teaches about it. Noah preached for 120 years and then the seemingly impossible happened. So, just because we see tremendous difficulties in the way of such fulfilment in no way undermines the biblical teaching. God is very merciful and is working out his redemption plan in his timing. He allowed The papacy to rule for 1260 years. But eventually its power was toppled. Exactly according to the prophetic word. Do you have other perspectives on how to interpret Dan 2, 7, 9, 11 and Rev 11, 13, 14 and 18? Because these prophecies clearly dilineate these issues from a historicist perspective. What is your hermeneutic principle or method?
@@christopherlaubscher Thank you for asking about my hermeneutic. I first look at the internal evidence. For example we are told by the internal evidence of the book of Revelation what time frame we are looking at.
In the very opening passages of the book of Revelation we are told that the things that are about to place are described as being "near" and "soon".
Rev 1:1 _The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that _*_must SOON take place_*_ . He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John_ Rev 1:3 _Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for _*_the time is NEAR_*
John is writing to seven churches that physically existed at that time and he tells them that he is a fellow partaker in the tribulation that was already taking place to Christians at that time . Rev 1:9 _I, John, your brother and _*_"partner in the tribulation"_*
So John's audience was not thinking that what he wrote was to take place in the very distant future. If this was John's intention than he would have been either lying to them or terribly misleading them. Of course he was doing none of this. His audience fully expected that what he was describing was "near and soon", and the book of Revelation ends with John being told *_"Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is NEAR"_* (Rev 22:10).
Sealed prophecies are prophecies that are to occur in a future generation, not the current or present generation, thus a command to *not seal* a prophecy is to stress that this prophecy is *about to occur* in the generation being addressed.
In short, I believe most of the events of the Book of Revelation happened in the first century during the destruction of Jerusalem. Some of the details I will gladly explain later, but for now please also consider that 144,000 are called the *"first fruits"* unto God and the Lamb. And at the time that the apostle Paul wrote, he too referred to those in his letters as being the first fruits. We also know that the majority of the early believers were all Jewish, and all of the 12 tribes were still in existence in 70 AD, but completely dissolved after that horrible event.
The main point is that people living 2000 years later in time cannot possibly considered the *"first fruits"* . We who are alive now are perhaps in the latter harvest. If things are wrapping up soon, then we would be "the latter fruits" of the latter times. If there is still a long time ago, then we are still the fruits, just not the "first fruits".
@@christopherlaubscher I posted another answer in reply to your questions. It addresses my take on Revelation.
This one is on Daniel 2, which was countdown clock to the Kingdom of God
*(Forgive the length of the following post, but in it you will find the traditional view of Daniel 2 that has been held since the time of the early church)* .
There are a couple of things which many of you might agree with. First of all the Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. We enter into this kingdom by being spiritually born into it. John 3:5 _Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is _*_born_*_ of water and _*_the Spirit, he cannot enter the KINGDOM of GOD"_* In verse 8 Jesus states _"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is _*_born of the Spirit”_* . So Christ’s kingdom advances through the gospel via the Spirit. In this sense the Kingdom is "made without hands", through changed hearts born of Spirit. This is how God's Kingdom conquers others.
Secondly, Jesus spoke more about the kingdom of God than any other topic, and it came when He arrived. Christ Himself said it was at hand when He arrived.
*_"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand_* (Mark 1:15).
And Matthew 12:28 _"But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, _*_then the kingdom of God has come upon you"_* .
Dan 2:44 tells us _"And in the days of _*_THOSE kings_*_ the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed"_ .
Notice that *The focal point of the Daniel 2's vision is of the timing of the arriving of the Kingdom of God* . This is when Christ would arrive. The vision is a count-down clock to this event. The Kingdom arrives as a stone which strikes the 4th Kingdom *when it is mixed with His people* . The four kingdoms described in Daniel 2 never ruled over the entire globe, but they all at one time or another ruled over Israel, the covenant people of God.
The mixture of iron and clay is a picture of the kingdom of Rome mixed with the Jews, which had partial rule in their own land, but under the yoke of Rome. (A quick study of "Clay" in the Bible reveals that it refers to God's people, often in terms of the potter and the clay). In fact verse 41 tells us this plainly.
v41 _"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, _*_part of potters' clay_*_ , and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron"_
And as iron does not mix with clay, there was much upheaval at this time between Judah and Rome. *So this iron mixed with clay is the ROMAN/JEWISH relationship* which was always strained.
The ten toes represent the first ten kings of the Roman Empire. These are what is referred to as the “days of these kings”. During the first ten kings of the Roman Empire, the Jews still had a strong influence on the land, and they were in constant conflict with Rome. During the time of the tenth king (Emperor Vespasian) Rome invaded and destroyed Jerusalem and her temple in AD 70. Thus that mixture in the feet is no more. That part of the statue is also gone, just as the Roman Empire is gone, crushed to dust by God's Kingdom which grows and fills the whole earth.
The Kingdom of God started out small with only a handful of disciples, and later, there were the 120 in the upper room. Like a small mustard seed it quickly grew by the thousands in short order, and now it has grown to numbers into the millions (perhaps billions) which have gone out into all the world to fill it. And Christ's Kingdom will destroy current and future kingdoms as well as it advances. We are told this in 1 Cor 15:24
_"Then comes the end, when he delivers the _*_kingdom_*_ to God the Father _*_after destroying every rule and every authority and power"_* .
And again, Daniel 2:44 tells us this will indeed be the case:
_And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, _*_but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever"_* .
While all of this may seem like quite different view to consider, we know that the struggle between darkness and light often ebbs and flows, but slowly righteousness takes more and more ground, and has done so since Christ set up the Kingdom. The world is a very different place than it was 2000 years ago. Christians were used as human torches by the Romans without any outcry from the citizens. Yet if something like that happens anywhere in the world today there is immediate outcry, even from the heathen. Slavery has been exposed and outlawed in much of the world, and those who practice it now do it undercover and are at risk of imprisonment. Cannibalism was the norm in Fijian Islands, but when the Christian missionaries began arriving in the 1830s the Fijians turned away from the practice and to worship Christ, and the last known act of cannibalism occurred in 1867. So in a period of 35 years this awful practice was abated and destroyed, and Fiji is one of the most Christianized countries in the world today.
Of course there is much more to conquer, but Christ's kingdom has come and His will is being done. We need not preach fear but rather victory, for Christ is victorious!
So again, the Roman Empire no longer exists, just as the Greek Empire and the others mention in that passage no longer exists, all crushed to dust by the Kingdom of God, just as the Daniel 2 prophecy predicted.
I welcome your thoughts and perspective.