There have been numerous sermons and books and movies on the Book of Revelation, all of which have been taken out of context and distorted to meet man's desires.  There are very few in depth sermons preached from the original Greek text and placed within it's proper place and time (70 AD)  

Rev. John C. Martin III is a graduate from Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, Miss.)  He is the pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Tyler, TX.

• If you would like to read along with the podcasts, the sermons may be found on the church website at: http://www.cpctyler.com/revelationsermons.php

• Pastor Martin has spent eight years prior to the Revelation series preaching exegetically through the Book of Matthew.  Currently there are four books that have been published, with future plans to publish a six to seven volume complete series.  They can be purchased on the internet at http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/BookStoreSearchResults.aspx?SearchType=smpl&SearchTerm=Rev.%20John%20C.%20Martin.%20The%20Gospel%20According%20to%20matthewTheir titles are:

Abomination of Desolation; The Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer;

 Jesus on Divorce; and The Sermon on the Mount

          

      

 

 

We are pleased to announce that Rev. Martin now has his first of seven volumes published on the complete Sermonic Exposition of the book of Matthew!!  The second volume is days away from being completed and published.  Volume 3 is in progress.  To order your first volume, click here:  http://www.author house.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail. aspx?bookid=71764

At the close of the second hour last Lord’s Day, a question came up in the discussion; and I thought some additional comments might be good.  It was regarding the obvious state of the nation (and the rest of the world) right now. 

 

With godless progressives in charge of our own, the islam-beast making steady gains in the nations, and with other clueless pseudo-religions on the rise, where are we?  What’s happening?

Since I’m just a messenger with no prophetic mandate other than preaching, I can’t confidently give you anything that will happen tomorrow, or the next day, or the next week; and I certainly can’t predict what will happen during the next twelve hundred and sixty days, or forty-two months, or three and a half years.

However, from Yahveh’s sign of the dragon, John confidently writes to the Churches those things he has seen and heard; and he tells them of what is to happen “shortly”; and, beginning at verse five of our text, he says that the beast that the dragon has raised up from fallen mankind has been given authority over the holy people for forty two months (a number John knows well from the prophetic Word).  And that it will make war with them and “overcome” them!  (All through the Scripture the word translated “overcome” carries the idea of “completion” and “victory”.)

And since the risen, ascended and enthroned Christ of God is the only One Who has the authority to give, that’s where the authority came from.  Otherwise there would be no dragon, and there would be no empire-beast to compete for world dominion.

Except on a grander scale, of course, it’s the same authority given to the dragon to make war with Job and his household and estate.

The Revelation of St. John is made out to be most mysterious, isn’t it? – with tragedy of mythological proportions to come upon the world, with tectonic eruptions, and asteroids, and man-made catastrophes, and storms from an evolving, super-heated eco-system and solar system, and epic wars, and with anthropological annihilation and cosmic fire from heaven, and many such things that man can produce from his fallen imagination.

But why not just read the text?  It’s a lot easier than writing a fiction novel.

As stated at the beginning, this letter to the Churches is for their comfort and assurance!  How could they be comforted by fable or mystery written from a state of delirium?  (Besides, we’ve already learned the mystery was completely revealed in an earlier chapter.)  But the comfort and assurance arises from the fact that the events to take place shortly were prophesied, and that our Lord possesses all authority.  That possession of authority is not only prophesied from the beginning of the written Word, but that His authority is revealed and confirmed from the beginning to the end of this letter!

What I’m trying to get across here (and probably not too well) is that you have to try, really hard, to get this wrong!

Now, the forty-five hundred years of world history during which our Bible was written reveals the facts, doesn’t it?  Our Lord protected His people all the way through.  At every event of man’s striving to cut off the seed and exercise dominion over all the earth, the people of God were providentially delivered.  And it was due to His complete authority over His Own creation and His Own history.

The culmination of that divinely written history states clearly that the most significant event of providential care in all the history of the creation was the Parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ at the “end of the age” – the last forty-two months of Israel’s existence as a set- apart covenant people.  Scripture states that there had been nothing like it before; and that there would never be anything like it again.  The Biblical record, from Moses to The Revelation, describes the horror of the devastation that would take place.  And yet God’s elect people were delivered from the wrath of the Lamb to the last man, woman and child!

So, if there were only one, central theme in all of John’s Revelation, it would be this: that our Lord’s elect people in the Churches, even during the most catastrophic events of world history, are to be confident and assured of His complete and unquestionable authority.  That’s it!

They are not caught up in accidental and uncontrollable events; they are not confronted with dragons and beasts that have their own authority; they are never lost in chaos; they are never, ever, subjected to chance (there is no such thing); they are never left to circumstance; and they are never abandoned!

All who belong to Him are precious in His sight.  Why?  Because He shed His blood for us; we belong to Him.  We’re in His body (the second, and perfect, human body), and we are His brothers… His “seed”.  And nothing, and nobody, can separate us from Him.

And we, and everything around us, are under His authority (the fact that some don’t acknowledge it has no effect whatever on that authority).

What we’re getting at here (in response to the original question from last Lord’s Day) is that, since there is written record (God’s Word) of forty five hundred years of world history in which our Lord has kept His Own people unto Himself, isn’t that sufficient for our faithfulness?  Some of that time, the last forty years of that written Word, were the worst in all of His history; and it is the worst that will ever be!

And yet it was the very best!  Because the exodus from Israel before the “real” historical holocaust was the most impressive display of the love and grace and mercy of God the Son toward all who belonged to Him!  Not a single one was left subject to His wrath.  All of them were saved from the wrath shortly to come.

The wrath of the Lamb of God was shown to Daniel and prophesied by him six hundred and some-odd years in advance; and it was completed in a forty-two month period in which a “beast” would be given authority over the “holy people” (as seen once again by John here in verse five).  And it culminated in a three and a half year period of siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem.  The humanly written history is hereby confirmed by the prophesied Word.  That’s the exact amount of time that it took the beast to complete its authorized work!

And there was no one in the city, or in the towns and villages, or in the countryside belonging to the Christ that were abandoned to the chaos.  They were all gone.

So, since we have all this written history (the last event being the worst there will ever be), what then do we “anticipate” from the One Who has all authority in the heavens and the earth?

Since He has demonstrated His faithfulness (forty-five hundred years of it) to all who belonged to Him, and since He has also revealed His further work to glorify the Father, we can exercise “insight” with regard to the nineteen hundred and forty years since 70AD; and we can provide Biblical “prescience” to others about current conditions and the future.

Not prophesy; “prescience”.  “Insight”.  “Anticipation”.  “Hope”.  “Expectation”.

Not mysterious premonition; not a higher state of knowledge; not additional revelation; not divination; but “prescience”.

And, once again, how is that?  Upon what is our anticipation based?  It comes from the written Word of God concerning His faithfulness during forty five hundred years of His history, culminating in the deliverance of every single one of His people in the world’s worst event – ever!

That’s why we’re told to “remember”.  Remember His faithfulness; and therefore hope – anticipate – His promises.

World dominions have been raised up from fallen mankind to compete for the kingdom (all under God’s authority); intricate, centuries-long schemes have been devised to cut off the seed and capture the authority over this creation.  Yet we’re informed, all the way through the Revelation, that the authority for the schemes and dominions was given.

And we’re told, at the end of this chapter, that we can even calculate who, what, where and why!  We have the prescience to discern the source and reason for all that’s revealed.  It’s all about God’s faithfulness to His Own.  His justice and goodness and grace and mercy toward all that belong to Him demonstrates His supreme authority over all, and glorifies Him.

The satan vengefully wishes to embarrass Him and humiliate Him; but the Second Mankind – the Second Adam – glorifies Him.  The first Adam and his seed wishes to compete; but the Second Adam was given all the authority!

The dragon and its seed (fallen mankind) strives for dominion over the world; but it is only given whatever authority it demonstrates.  Talking about humiliation and embarrassment!  All it receives is ridicule and laughter!  God the Son has it on a leash!

The “kiss” was once an acknowledgment of superior authority.  And all the leaders of the earth were warned that they had better “kiss the Son” lest He be angered, even a little, by their insubordination!

The risen God-man has all authority.  He was given it for His faithfulness.  He glorified the Father.  He redeemed all that belonged to the Father.  And He has promised to deliver it to the Father, for His glory, in pristine condition!   And not just every single one for whom He died; but the entire creation itself.  He is the Savior of the world.

So we know the history from the beginning to the Parousia.  And we have the promises of the Christ’s continued faithfulness in all His work.  And therein lies the source for “prescience” – insight; not prophesy or divination, but anticipation… discernment… perception.  Not intuition, but expectation… perspective (God’s perspective).

Rousas John Rushdooney left us with a pretty good history of this country from God’s perspective.  Somewhere I have notes that I took from about twelve hours of lectures.  I was writing as fast as I could, and they’re probably completely unreadable.

But I don’t know of a history of the post-Parousia world from God’s perspective.  That would be a very worthy life-long task for a Reformed historian.  I don’t know how he would make a living, but the Church would really benefit from it.

However, when we read linear history since 70AD (which we all should do), in all probability it will be the history of man rather than the history of the Christ and His work.

Let me put that another way.  The nineteen hundred and forty years that have passed since our Lord’s Parousia occurred because of Him!  It’s His history.  It didn’t come to be unless He caused it to come to be, since all things consist by Him and in Him.  The Bible analogy is that He is “The Rock” upon which this creation is attached!  It all exists due to the One to Whom it is attached. 

I think that’s a very good example of His authority, don’t you?

So, every event in world history since 70AD that you read about ought to be read with “prescience”, remembering His work, His faithfulness, His promises and His complete authority.   Therefore the process of gaining knowledge about world history has to be one from His perspective; for His Kingdom is from the heaven, and history proceeds from there.  The Kingdom isn’t “in” heaven, it is “from” the heaven.  He rules all things from the tabernacle/sanctuary.

The history of the last two millennia can’t be understood if it is the history of man.  That is, by definition, defiant.  History must be read as the history of The Christ and His Kingdom.  It IS His history, so how can it be read in any other way?

This is not meant to discourage you from reading history or studying singular events in history; that is not the case, for you are encouraged to gain as much knowledge as possible about it.  But you must read in the whole “light” of His Kingdom and His work and His promises.  You already know of His further work and promises, so why shouldn’t you read His history in that light?!  That’s what we mean by “prescience”.

Let’s take that a step further (and we’re still addressing the questions and issues that arose last Lord’s Day).

With godless progressives in charge of our own, the islam-beast making steady gains in the nations, and with other clueless pseudo-religions on the rise, where are we?  What’s happening?

The passage that we read last Lord’s Day (from Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome) referred directly to the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem.  Their “fall” was the “signal” event to the grafting in of the Gentiles; for the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ was to be over all the nations.

One can’t understand world history of the last two millennia without clarity regarding that event.  It’s impossible.  That’s one of the reasons that Scripture refers to it as one such as has never occurred before, and never will again.  And please remember all that we’ve read and heard in the preceding chapters of this letter; that the forty years after our Lord’s crucifixion in which Israel suffered so greatly, and then the three and a half years of siege and destruction at the end of the age, are all described by John as the “wrath of the Lamb”.

It was under the authority of the enthroned Christ of God that the nation of God’s holy people was made a wilderness fit only for jackals and birds of prey.

And it was a just sentence, carried out for the glory of God by the risen God-man.  And the Gentile nations were the beneficiaries.  And we still are.  Undeserving as we are, we are the subjects of His great beneficence.

Since we Gentiles have been made recipients of His mercy, there have been the passing of nineteen hundred and forty years (that’s 70AD to the present).

During that short period of time (all under His Kingship), He has established His Church among all peoples and tongues and tribes, showing mercy (to the thousandth generation) to those loving Him and keeping His Commandments.

And we have learned, here in the Revelation, how our Lord “proves” His Church, haven’t we?  We heard it again in chapter twelve.

“Those who keep His commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus.”

As in the forty-five hundred years before His Parousia, so in the more recent nineteen hundred and forty years.

There were raised up great schemes to cut off the seed; and there were raised up world-wide dominions (four of them) against the holy people.  There was judgment, and there was proving.  In the first case, there was judgment for those defiant; in the second there was proving for His Own.  And it is all for His glory.  He glorified Himself by raising up magistrates of His choosing, and brought judgment on them for their own wickedness and defiance.  And those evil magistrates “proved” His Own elect by their defiance!

So it is now.  This is our Lord’s Kingdom.  Please let that soak in thoroughly.  It is not the history of man.  It is not the history of Rome; it isn’t the history of Europe, or Asia, or the United States (as some would like for it to be).  It is the history of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

As Scripture says, He raises up who He will; and He takes them down as He will.  And He “proves” His Church as he will.  The Kingdom is His.  And it includes all nations and all peoples and all tribes and all tongues!

Fallen man desires to have dominion over the earth (John writes to the Churches that they’re supposed to be able to “calculate” that!), and our Lord uses them (fallen mankind) to prove His Church; for the Church is the visible representative of His Kingdom.  And those who belong to Him are those who obey His Commandments and hold His testimony in times of His “proving”.

As covenantal continuity gives us “prescience”, we’re enabled to see in that Light.  Forty five hundred years of written Revelation prepares us to recognize what Jesus Christ is doing in His Own Kingdom.

The world has seen numbers of attempts at dominion during the two millennia since the Parousia.  The dragon can’t give up; it’s its nature!  It’s given to it (i.e. the authority to provoke fallen mankind).  It must resist the Kingdom – not only because it’s its nature, but because it knows its time is short!

And every instance of provocation is used by our Lord to judge the wicked (who He has given the authority to be defiant), and, of course, to prove those who belong to Him.

And each and every time the Church is proved, it grows stronger!  Then there seems to be a “falling away” (which the letter to the Hebrews sternly warned against); then another beast (or several at once) is raised up to prove (or “try” or “test”) His people.  And from the proving come mighty people of God who obey, and who hold the testimony of Jesus.  They’re made evident, you see.  And the Church once again is awakened and becomes strong and faithful and expansive.  That’s our Lord’s history, you see… HIS history.

We have to learn to see it that way (and, of course, defend it); because that’s the way He brings glory to the Father!  Each and every occasion of defiance is an occasion of “overcoming”.

There is never a case in which the Kingdom (and its earthly representative) are overcome by the dragon and its seed.  Our Lord is The Overcomer!  His people will grow in numbers and in faith as Jesus Christ proves His Church and overcomes His enemies.  He’s the One Who raises up His enemies; and He’s the One who mocks them and laughs at them and overcomes them to the glory of the Father!

And that’s the way it should be until all nations acknowledge Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Lastly (as we finish with this line of thought), let’s put the United States into this context.  This is important for us… not only since we live here, but because pride and nationalism are real issues for a great nation.

But how does what we’re learning here affect our thought regarding our country?

A great Christian economist and philosopher has said “you can’t beat something with nothing!”  Well, what was once a strong interest in the history and founding documents of the nation has been excised from the public memory; but that awareness, having been “erased”, has been replaced with “nothing”.  It’s called “nihilism”.

If, on the other hand, the intense attachment to the early history of the nation and how it was formed had been put in context of our Lord’s Kingdom and its history, then that “something” would have been greatly enhanced with “something greater”!

The evolutionary, nihilistic public school system has expunged the history and founding documents from its teaching material; so several generations of Americans have grown up without having any basis for nationalistic pride.  However, these educators have put “nothingness” in its place!  (That’s what is meant by the use of the term “nihilism”.)

Then there are some who “deify” the country and provide it with a “divine right” and directly inspired documents.  They, and some other cults, even locate the future kingdoms of their false gods in specific places in the United States!  These places include Missouri, Utah and even Garden Valley, Texas!!

So, what we have, then, is a very large portion of the contemporary population with “nothing” (in terms of knowledge of, and attachment to, the nation’s history and how it was formed); and then, on the other hand, a fierce and growing segment of the public has associated the nation and its history with divinity!

The point is, that they’ve both missed it entirely!

Gary North is right on when he wrote: “you can’t beat something with nothing”; and the “something” that has to be beaten is “nothingness” and “idolatry”!

And the “something” that will beat “nothingness” and “idolatry” is the history of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom!

So (still regarding our own country), including what we heard last Lord’s Day, that there is a great beast loose in the world (given some authority by the Christ), that would establish a world-wide caliphate in Mecca or Medina; and it would have North America as a satellite!

And then we have a huge portion of our population with nothingness as their “something”; and then there are prophets of false gods injecting the history of the nation with divinity!

What do we think about all of that?

Again, the “something” that beats it all is the history of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  It’s not the history of man; it isn’t the history of the world; it isn’t even the history of the United States.

Chapters twelve and thirteen of The Revelation provides us with God’s perspective of the history of His creation.  And it’s His history.  And therefore it’s how we must view it.

And in the “light” of it, it’s how we must also view post-Parousia history.  With prescience – not prophecy – we understand world history as the history of Christ’s Kingdom; we understand the history of the Church as the history of Christ’s Kingdom; we understand the history of the Roman empire as the history of Christ’s Kingdom; we understand the history of the United States as the history of Christ’s Kingdom!

Jesus Christ came preaching the Kingdom!

“The Kingdom of God is as a sower….” The Kingdom of God is as a mustard grain….” The Kingdom of God is as leaven…” “The Kingdom of God is as little children….”

Having been perfectly faithful to The Father; and having defeated death in His resurrection, He was given all authority – over everything!  And the authority that anything or anybody else has comes from Him.  And that authority is “judged” by Him; and His Church is “proved” by Him.

He views all of His history as the history of His Kingdom (that’s obvious from our two chapters here).  And our perspective is to be His.

So, should we view and understand the history of the world, or the history of the United States, in any other way than in the glorious Light of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the promises that He has made, then we’re practicing either “nothingness” or outright idolatry.

We didn’t make much headway in the text; but all these things arise out of the text; and we address them because of the text and in the Light of the text.

But hear this before we stop:

"Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations.  Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you:  ‘When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated mankind He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God; for Yahveh’s portion is His people; Jacob is the line of His inheritance’”. (Deuteronomy thirty-two, verses seven through nine).

The history of God is where our attention must be fixed; for it is all His!

May our Lord hold on to us, build faith in us, and cause us to keep His Commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus.

Link to Article

[This is an exerpt taken from the Revelation 13:1-13 Part 3 sermon.]

As I mentioned, I want to spend a little time with you on a current attempt at world dominion, especially as the attempt is so closely associated with deception and linked to deception (just as the one in our text was); but before I do that, we have to look at the reaction of those remaining in the holy land to the beast’s imitation resurrection.

As you can see at the end of verse three, the “whole land” was caused to marvel after the beast.  Another way that could be translated is, “the whole land was astonished after the beast”; the word “astonish” is a reasonable translation of the Greek word, but it doesn’t allow a sufficient translation of the passive voice in which the word is written.  The word “wonder” also fits, but it, too, eludes the passive voice in English.  Also there’s a slightly different “slant” to the Greek word than the word “astonish” would allow.  So I’ve translated it “caused to marvel”.

The word translated “marvel” isn’t common in the newer Scripture, but neither is it rare.  It’s found fairly often in the three synoptic Gospels and six times here in the Revelation.

What’s so important in relation to what John is describing here is the fact that in every occasion that it’s used in the Gospels, it is with reference either to the birth of Jesus Christ or in those instances in which He reversed the ills of His lost sheep that had been propagated on them by the false shepherds of Israel (the rapacious wolves in sheep’s clothing).

And what’s so interesting (and important) about this is that the lost sheep recognized The Christ and followed Him, having “marveled” (or wondered) that here among them was the promised Messiah of God!  But (on the other hand) the false shepherds of Israel did not recognize Him, but condemned Him as being a demon under the authority of the devil; and they tried Him for blasphemy and killed Him!

On the other hand, here in the sign of the dragon, as this beast in the image of the devil/dragon deceptively imitates a resurrection, those remaining in the holy land “wonder” at the imitation resurrection, and they were “marveled”, and they followed it and adored it and obeyed it!  So, all these remaining in “the land” did not recognize the Express Image of the Father; and they did marvel after the image of the dragon!

The ones that Yahveh had kept for Himself from the twelve tribes of Jacob “marveled”, because Jesus was the fullness of the prophetic Word regarding Messiah.  His wondrous works “filled up” all that was prophesied of Him, and they caused His lost sheep to marvel!  And they followed Him.  But, once again, those remaining in the land marveled at the false resurrection and the false signs that the beast showed, and they were full of wonder. 

The Christ of God was not “wonderful” to them, but the beast was!  As John writes at the end of verse three, “the whole land was caused to marvel after the beast”.  Once again, this is God’s sign of the dragon.  And it can’t be interpreted from man’s perspective or from the perspective of historical events.

 

Now.  That having been said, what I want to do for next few minutes, before we continue with this text, is to remind you once more about our more modern imitator/deceiver/beast.  We’ve done something along this line before; but in the light of our text I couldn’t make the decision to pass it up.   And, besides, I want to take it just a bit further than what we’ve done before.

 There’s no doubt in my mind that islam is a renewal of Satan’s beast-dominion-scenario (it’s just too easy!)  It just “fits” so perfectly with its serpent disposition.  The dragon, having completed its scheme for the destruction of the holy land, has now turned its attention to the Church in the nations, recognizing that it was tricked.  Jesus Christ took all that belonged to Him before the devil’s “beast” destroyed the “land”; and now the Gentiles are responding to The Gospel all over the world as the Church makes disciples among every people, tribe and tongue.

This latest beast-in-Satan’s-image began its quest for world dominion of our Lord’s Kingdom in the early six hundreds AD, and it did so by the sword, lead by Mohammed and his writings.  It almost conquered the middle East and Europe, being finally defeated and put to flight in Austria.

The beast (islam) has learned through the years (by experience) that it must be deceptive in order to reach its goal of world dominion (just like the fourth beast was so deceptive here in our text).

The beast called islam also “imitates” a great religion (especially with the miraculous birth of Muhammed, who is the one everybody is to “marvel” after, since he was born the “last prophet of god”).  It (islam) wants the world to think it’s a religion; but it is not a religion… it is an imitator, just like the fourth beast of John’s Revelation was an imitator!  It really is an ideology of human culture and politics, with its starting point being an Arabian moon god!

And since it, by imitation, presents itself as one of the “three ancient religions”, the whole world is “marveled” at its revival since the crushing defeat that it suffered in the seventh and eighth centuries, and another defeat in the middle ages, and then another defeat in the Reformation, all the early defeats at the hands of three men who followed The Christ and instituted His Law-Word.  But, in effect, islam has had a “resurrection” since the Reformation.

There are three main things that you must know and remember about this beast until our Lord is through with His purpose for it; for you have to be ready to defend The Faith at any and every occasion.  If you don’t hold the testimony of Jesus and defend the Faith, then you surrender to the beast!!

And since this is not an exposition of quran, it is the “minimum” that you must know.

First, islam is NOT a peaceful religion that has been hijacked by extremists (as we’re told over and over).  The so-called “extremists” are simply following the commands in the quran.  And so are the ones who seem to be “peaceful” (I’ll explain that in a minute).  But this beast is a deceiver just like the fourth beast of the Revelation; for there are no peaceful islamists.

The quran is a book of commands put together from the writings of one man during a short period of time within a short life-span.  It is an imitation Bible, written by a “lunatic” (a particularly appropriate word, since “luna” has to do with the moon).

This book (a collection of commands) is full of contradictions for which islamists have an answer.  And the answer goes like this: the later writings of Muhammad supercede, or abrogate, the ones that come before!

And the “religion of peace” mantra that you hear about islam is an outright lie; for the “peaceful” portions of quran are at the beginning chapters (suras).  And they are completely contradicted in the later suras, which are full of violence and conquest and tyrannous world dominion.

So, when islamists are confronted with so-called extremist incidents, in order for them to defend the “religion”, they simply (and deceptively) quote the early suras in quran that have to do with “peace”.  They pick and choose.  It’s a deception that all of them participate in!  And the world believes them because it’s in “the book”!

All religions have a “book”, right?  And all religions are approximately the same; so, if the “book” says the religion is peaceful, then it must be so!!  And the world wants to believe and be tolerant.  Jihadists are just “extreme”, where most islamists are peaceful.  It’s in “the book”!!

But the world doesn’t know about the doctrine of “abrogation” and the world doesn’t understand that it’s being deceived!!

Secondly, striving to institute world-wide sharia-law is a duty of every islamist.  Islam is political and cultural ideology.  There is no separation between politics and religion, or between culture and religion.  Every muslim that attends mosque and holds to quran understands what his duty is! 

Sharia is a substitute, imitation law meant to replace God’s Revelation in the Scripture.  And a society that has any other kind of law is an “oppressor” of islam and sharia.  That’s why the United States is an oppressor nation.  No matter what muslims say in public, that’s the way they view us.  The very fact that we have a different law system is “oppressive” of sharia.

Islam is a totalitarian means for man to order the societies of every nation on earth (world dominion by man).  Rather than God’s Word ordering the nations of the earth, this is “man” substituting his own order; and the order is tyrannous totalitarianism (as is all man-generated law).  And it is exactly what Satan raised up out of the sea of humanity.  Daniel saw all four of them; John is shown the fourth one here in our text in Yahveh’s “sign of the dragon”.

In the mind of every islamist is sharia; it is his duty!  Every islamist must strive to bring every governing authority, at all levels, under this man-made, substitute law.  And whatever means is necessary to accomplish that goal is what they will do.

And that brings me to the third thing that you must know and remember.  And that is the concept of “taqiyya”.  Taqiyya is “deception”.  Islamists are allowed, and even required in quran, to deceive any and all non-muslims (called “infidels”) in order to “protect” and “advance” islam and its sharia.

Islam is at war with the entire non-muslim world; and what they say to the “infidels” of the world is completely different from what they say amongst themselves.  They deceive and defraud and manipulate infidels.  So islamists can collect money, for example, from good-hearted (but ignorant) infidels who think they’re providing relief for oppressed people, and then give the money to those in areas where great violence is required to further the cause.

They can say, perfectly appropriately, that islam is a peaceful religion.  What they don’t say (concealment of the truth is a required deception) is that peace is only achieved when the world is under the dominion of islam’s (man-made) sharia!  Never will islam be at peace until that time!  “Peace” is a deception to further global sharia.

Governments such as ours and those in other western nations have abandoned God’s law in favor of man’s law (in one form or another).  And man-made law in most of its forms is easy to manipulate; and western law systems are tolerant of everything except God’s law.  And that makes most western governments perfect targets for islamists and their creeping sharia; for the “infidels” are not only anti-Christian (making them very weak, by the way), but they’re just plain stupid for not recognizing what’s happening to them.

When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious privileges, some of the other components start creeping in as well.  As long as the Muslim population, for example, remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will, for the most part, be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in such places as the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Italy and Norway.

At 2% to 5% of the population, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in Denmark, Germany, England and Spain (which once was ruled by Muslims).  And we see it beginning to happen here as well.

At 5% of the population they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population, along with threats for failure to comply with their demands.  At this point, they will work deceptively to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under sharia.  Governments that resist are accused of oppression of a minority, and the political pressure causes the government to condescend!

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions.  Don’t ever think that these are spontaneous events!  They’re not!  They are planned and practiced, purposeful schemes of civil unrest.  In Paris we’ve already seen rioting and car-burnings.  Same thing in London and in Copenhagen and in several German cities.

Any anti-muslim action is eagerly anticipated by islamists and they purposefully take offense; and it results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with recent opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about islam.  Violence occurs routinely – purposefully, particularly in Muslim areas of countries such as India, Israel, Kenya and Russia.

Upon reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as are occurring in Ethiopia.  The muslim population there is now thirty three percent!  And at 40%, nations experience systematic and methodical raping of infidel females (regardless of age), widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in Bosnia and Chad, and in Lebanon.

From 60% muslim population, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of sharia as a weapon, and “jizya”, the tax placed on all infidels.  This is happening right now in places such as Albania, Sudan, Qatar and Malaysia.

After 80%, there is on-going intimidation and violent jihad, state-run ethnic cleansing and genocide, as nations drive out the infidels (killing as many as possible), and move toward a hundred percent muslim, such as has been experienced in Bangladesh, Egypt and Indonesia.

100% will usher in the peace of  'dar-es-salaam' -- the islamic house of peace.  Here there's supposed to be peace, because everybody is a muslim, the madrasses are the only schools, and the quran is the only word, and the only law is sharia, such as in Afghanistan, Saudia Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

Today's one and a half billion Muslims make up twenty two percent of the world's population. But their birth rates dwarf the birth rates of Christians. 

However, that’s not our hope, is it?  Although God’s people aren’t populating the world and having dominion over it as they should (given the creation decree), our Lord is in authority over all of this; and He is using this satanic beast for His Own purposes.  Our duty is to remain faithful and to make disciples, and to pray for another reformation in order to drive this beast back into the abyss where it belongs.

During the reformation, sixteenth and seventeenth century Christianity was reinvigorated, and the crazed Islamic beast was consigned to its asylums and hovels. 

It’s always interesting to me (and inspiring) to read what our reformation forefathers said and wrote.  Reading the sermons is an “experience” in and of itself!   Along with Romanism, islam was a frequent target.

Martin Luther (whose use of the language is offensive to many in today’s feminized and pietistic Church) never minced words with regard to this beast.  He exposed it; he ridiculed it (which sometimes is the very best way to deal with satanic provocation); and he described it with words that make some folks blush.

As he wrote (and by the way he wrote all of his sermons) and as he preached from Second Samuel chapter twenty-three, concerning the “sons of the devil (seed of the devil) being thrust away and utterly burned with fire”, he referred directly to Mohammed and his “book”.  Here’s what he said (reading Luther is a “riot” as far as I’m concerned):

“Neither does Mohammed find it in his book, that is, his bed of harlotry; for that is where he did most of his studying.  Thus this contemptible, filthy fellow boasts that allah, that is, the devil, had endowed him with so much physical strength that he could bed with as many as forty women and yet remain unsatisfied.  Indeed, his choice book, the quran, smells and savors of his studies in that book… the carnality of harlots.  He looked for and found the spirit of his prophecy in the right spot, that is, in the mons veneris.  And it is surely not surprising that he who pores over such books as that knows nothing of God, or Messiah.  Thus they also do not know what they are saying and what they are doing.

“The devil and its pander (flesh-peddlers), and the whoremaster Mohammed, may be offended at this; they may blaspheme and curse, but all of them will tremble eternally for this in the depth of hell with howling and gnashing of teeth.  God willing, that day is not far removed.”

So much for political correctness!

Now, the fourth beast raised up by Satan to destroy Israel was brought forth under the authority of the newly crowned King of Kings.  At the beginning of this period called “the end of the age”, there was only One.  And all the nations were gathered against Him (the beast).

Then there were twelve more.  Over thirty-five years or so, there were a hundred and forty four thousand more.  And the most terrible beast in the world’s history was raised up against them.  And they kept the commandments of God and held to the testimony of Jesus, at risk – and cost – of their lives.  And the Church thrived in the nations.

This present-day beast (not at all unlike the fourth beast in our text) is calculatingly cunning and deceptive when it has to be; and it is vicious and bloodthirsty when it is in its best interests.  But from the sharply-dressed man in the blue suit and red tie, to the most demure lady clad in her burkha, they all have the same thing in their minds.

And that is dominion… a world-wide caliphate with all societies under sharia.  The serpent/dragon has raised up another man-made imitation of the dominion of the King of Kings.  It is man in rebellion against his Creator/Ruler; for he will not acknowledge and pay homage to Jesus Christ.  But our Lord IS the Overcomer; and we can rest assured that He will overcome.  For The Christ of God has all authority in the heavens and on the earth.  And every attempt of man to rise up against the King of Kings is met with laughter and mockery (and then judgment); for the dragon and its beasts from the sea of humanity are used by Him for His purposes and for His glory.

That’s what John’s entire letter to the Churches is about.

All that remained in the land adored the fourth beast and the dragon that gave the beast its authority (verse four).  After all, it ruled all the nations of the earth, so its might was unquestioned.  Who in all the world could make war with it?  Besides, it had performed an imitation resurrection from death.

Since this is Yahveh’s sign of the dragon, any explanation of this resurrection (this healing of the death-stroke) has to come from Scripture; it can’t be explained by human reason or by man’s view of history.  Any attempt to do so is flawed from the outset.  It must be seen from God’s perspective through His revealed Word.

This is the SIGN of the woman and the SIGN of the dragon; and where does the dragon first appear?  And what did God say to the dragon?

Having been humiliated and cast into the earth, it entered God’s garden and vengefully deceived the woman made in God’s image into rebellion against her Creator.  If the woman rebelled, you see, and was judged by God, then there would not be born The Seed!

But God told the serpent that there would, indeed, be The Seed; and although the serpent would bruise His heel, He would crush the serpent/dragon’s head!  His head!!

And from God’s perspective here in the sign of the dragon, its head (the serpent’s head) received its death-stroke at the resurrection of Jesus Christ and all His people in Him.  And our Lord ascended to the throne where He now rules all the nations from the Tabernacle in the heaven.

But the dragon “fakes” a resurrection (in God’s perspective) in order to do exactly what the King of Kings has decreed, which is to destroy Israel.  And the beast that it raises up is the dragon’s spitting image; therefore it has a head which has suffered a death-stroke (verses three, twelve and fourteen) from which it fakes a resurrection in order that all those remaining on the land “marvel” at it and adore it.

The beast itself is a fake; it is the image of the dragon, and it is a deceiver pretending to be what it is not.  And it is under the supreme authority of the risen and enthroned Christ.  And it can do nothing other than what is decreed for it to do.  And those remaining in “the land” are blinded and deafened to its deception (as prophesied by Isaiah).

And all that has been decreed by Yahveh, and all that has been prophesied in His Word with regard to Israel, is carried out under the authority of The Christ of God.

Now.  I know we’re long; but I want to take another minute or two to remind you that there are many who have said that islam is prophesied in the Revelation of St John.  Historicists, amillennialists, premillennialists and dispensationalists alike have made islam to appear in the text.

And I’ve read a number of our reformed forefathers; and they, too (some of them), have done similarly.  However, all who have done so have done so by conjecture; therefore they have “assumed” a position before doing the exposition of the text.  It is their “interpretation” of Yahveh’s sign and they inflict the text with a foreign element.

I have no problem at all with recognizing (from Scripture) the disposition of the devil (for God’s Word makes it clear), and therefore “extrapolating” from that that this creature is still acting in the same way that it was before, because its disposition is still the same!  And I have no problem whatever in acknowledging that, in many ways, islam is another beast raised up as a “contender” for our Lord’s Kingdom.  It is a deceptive imitator much like what is described for us by John here in chapter thirteen.  That’s how we can recognize it!

AND, I have no problem in treating it as such!  We are to learn these things from God’s Word; and we are to be alert to all deceivers.

But preaching that islam is prophesied here is forcing an interpretation on the text that isn’t here.

However, the Scripture does prophesy that the Lord Jesus Christ will bring the earth into submission to Himself for the glory of the Father; and that all nations will acknowledge Him and bow to Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  And that’s what you need to hold to; and that’s the prophecy to which you need to testify at every opportunity.

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As we leave this text now, I want to brief you (and I promise that it will be brief) brief you regarding some of the recent history within which our Lord’s Church has persevered and advanced toward the fullness and completion of His Kingdom (a fullness, in space and time, prophesied throughout Scripture).  As in all other times, it has persevered through great peril.

For a relatively brief period in our recent history, all the Christian Church had to worry about (it seemed) was a single, soulless (but militaristic) ideological movement at the borders and shores of many nations.  It was, indeed, militaristic and seemed able to jump from one culture and nation to another so easily that it put terror into the hearts of most Christians, especially in the western world.

But it was soulless; and it was alien to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; and, in fact, alien to the nature of man in God’s image.  Its ideal, the equality of men necessitating economic justice, proved a façade.

In the end there were many who wept for joy as the Berlin wall was literally torn to pieces by the very sort of common men and women who had, only a generation or two earlier, fought to establish the new world order that this alien ideology stood for.

But what we all seemed to have forgotten (or maybe only a few realized it in the first place) was that this period between 1906 and the mid 1980s was a social aberration (a very serious one), some sort of a “tourniquet” to stem the real world’s far older struggle.

That “aberration” was called communism.  And do not be led astray… communism is not just a political idea; although hardly recognizable, it has a “theology”.  And its eschatology formed an eighty-year “abatement” of the far-deeper Theological struggle.

Communism is much, much more than merely competing views of how to handle the wealth of men; it is philosophically equipped to handle that and everything else!  It was a well-formed political system with its own defined eschatology.  But its time of expansion was limited.  It had to go “underground” for a time.

Now it has reared its ugly head again here thirty years later in a somewhat less militant (and more egregious) form; but, as before, it will serve to take the world’s attention off the deeper and far-more-serious struggle for the Church.

During communism’s intrusions into Christianity’s western strongholds, the best philosophical and Theological and political minds were redirected from the more important struggle; and they were (most of them) convinced in their own minds that this new affront to Christ’s Kingdom was the epitome of evil.  And therefore the more serious struggle was left pretty much unattended.  That was a grievous error. 

The still famous 19^th century social commentator and author GK Chesterton once said of the militant anti-Trinitarianism which swept away the ancient Christianized eastern Roman empire in the seventh century, that it arose not just by the sword (although in all respects it was brutal), but upon a deep rooted sigh of relief from the empire!  The web of indebtedness and unjust laws and brutality which tentatively held together the Roman ecclesiastical empire was something which this new world system promised to sweep away.  And to many this seemed a worthwhile trade (a compromise).  Men tore down a different wall that day; but perhaps with a passion similar to those who tore down the Berlin wall.

What most people saw when the Berlin wall fell was the rotting corpse of soviet communism.  But what they DIDN”T see was the rising specter of the ancient foe of the Trinitarian west (which at that time was a debased Church which was, with the passing of time, ever more apostate in its own right)!

Fiery embers, long tramped down by communism and the soviet armies, flared up almost immediately with the Soviet’s demise.  And the very best minds chose to ignore it… or to think it simply the rising up of nationalisms.

But at the very heart of all these flare-ups lay the fourteen or fifteen hundred year old militant anti-Trinitarian movement which has always had in its culture the resilient drive to conform all the world to its own image – by any means! 

And we were wrong to ignore it; and we were wrong to think that it would go away.  We were wrong to assume that Islam was being used by communists when, in actuality, it’s the other way around!  We were wrong to think that if we sold them western gadgets they would forget their militancy.  We were wrong to think that if we were nice to them they would like us.  We were wrong to think that secular pluralism would be more to their liking.  We were wrong to think that some ideology of the “brotherhood of man” would cause all men to live in peace.  We were wrong to think, as some, that dark-skinned camel-drivers could not be “players”.  And we were wrong to think that our watered-down, apathetic Christianity could go on unopposed by this militant anti-Christianity!

We spend our time, our effort and our money mollifying and ameliorating the “differences” between men which cause them to be brutal to one another.  Some call that “being politically correct”.  And in doing that, we ignore the history.  From the Middle East into Europe and Africa and Asia and the Americas, the history negates and rejects the attempt.  The “politically correct set” attempts, in earnest, to have men of all political and theological and ideological persuasions to live together in peace and brotherhood.

But we have at our doors, and in our midst, right at this moment, a viable and resilient challenge to everything the west has valued historically; and an uncompromising enemy to orthodox Christianity.  We have people willing and eager to die to destroy anything and everyone which does not conform to what they believe.  They really would like to kill us, and then for the Christian Church to go away forever!  And they have become very adept at using the “system” (whether democratic or communist) to their best benefits.

And, you see, western secular pluralism doesn’t naturally produce a people with something to die for!  Secular humanism doesn’t produce uncompromising militant religion.

These people swept up not only the ancient middle east and its billions; but also held Europe as far west as Spain, and northern Africa, and who possessed the lands of eastern Europe and to the Steppes of Asia.  They produced great art, grasped and employed cutting edge science and technology, handily defeating the armies of the west again and again. 

Today their descendants are sweeping south ever deeper into Africa, east into Asia as far as western China; and they possess growing power and influence in all the major cities of the West.  And their brutality and militancy knows no boundaries.  Millions have been slaughtered – simply because they were Christian, or simply because they would not convert from whatever they were to Islam.  (As far as the recent French riots are concerned, this is by no means the first time that French blood has been shed by Islamists.)  They’ve shed the blood of men many times the numbers of those by Maoists and Stalinists and Nazis – having been at it since the early 600sAD. 

In my opinion the Church must look full in the face what has become of Christianity in the lands which this violent conquering force has long held; or even what is becoming of it in the lands it has recently conquered (or is attempting to conquer). 

Old communism merely succeeded (as I said before) in driving the Church underground.  But this older enemy sets up a system in which the Church is diminished (or outlawed) either by social and economic forces… or by brutal force itself.  In the end what remains of the Church is a ghetto of disenfranchised, alienated people sometimes tolerated – sometimes not.  Certainly when a whipping boy is needed it isn’t so tolerated.

Paranoia is indeed something to be mistrusted; but so is an ostrich-like and simplistic myopia towards the greatest challenge to the Christian Church (and, by extension, to the West).  And this challenge isn’t the relatively bumbling challenge of communism, but the full-orbed, deep-rooted challenge of a foe which fully intends to defeat and replace the faith once delivered to the saints with its own anti-Christ, anti-Trinitarian and occultic religion.  And it will attempt to do so by whatever means it has at its disposal.

Some few individuals may espouse (verbally) a “live-and-let-live” attitude; but Islam is not merely a terrible perversion of God’s Revelation.  But it is a MILITANT perversion.  There is no backing away from it.  They truly believe that Islam must conquer the world and establish a universal caliphate under sharia law.

However, as prophesied by Yahveh through the prophet Daniel, the fifth great Kingdom would be set up in the midst of the fourth; and never again would there be a world-wide rule by an earthly tyrant.  The One Who received all authority in the heaven and on the earth is its Ruler.  And His rule is over all things in the creation until all His enemies are under His feet.  As Daniel said, His rule would be everlasting, and His Kingdom over all; and the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the water covers the sea.

This is the Word of God.  The Church – the Church that belongs to Jesus the Word of God Incarnate – is the earthly, visible representation of His Kingdom.  And we are to “faith” in His Words.  He reigns; and He reigns forever.  The text of the Revelation is the inauguration of His reign.  It’s what we’re reading and hearing about.

We may suffer (as many in Church history have done before us); and that suffering may come from the imposition of some ungodly and unbiblical economic system… or it may come from a militant occultic religion.  But trust Him!  They cannot win.  He just laughs at them… just as He laughed at Israel’s mockery here in the text of Revelation chapter nine.  Our Lord will not be mocked!  His Kingdom will persevere; all efforts against Him are temporary.  All nations will bow to His Lordship.  That’s a promise from Him to us!

Our job is to fight… to fight with His Word.  As He said, “as you are going, make disciples of the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all My Commandments.  And, LO! I Am with you to the end of the age.”

 

Rev. John C. Martin III

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