{"id":18991,"date":"2019-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-042-coming-surveillance-society\/"},"modified":"2019-06-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-042-coming-surveillance-society","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-042-coming-surveillance-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 042 – Coming Surveillance Society"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18991","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 042 - Coming Surveillance Society","sermon_date":"20190616","sermon_month":"6","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6822,"sermon_slides":6826,"sermon_mp3":6828,"sermon_id":"616191427112998","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"13:16-18","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Surveillance Society\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6-16-19\n\nRevelation 13:16-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 42\n\nA very happy Father\u2019s Day to you.\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles this morning if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, looking this morning at verses 16-18 which are probably the most famous (or infamous I should say) in the entire Book of Revelation.\u00a0 In fact, most people who know almost nothing about the Bible or nothing about the Book of Revelation, for whatever reason, are very, very familiar with these verses that we\u2019re looking at this morning, as we have entitled our message The Coming Surveillance Society.\u00a0 \u00a0Sorry I couldn\u2019t come up with a more politically correct subject on Father\u2019s Day but that\u2019s the price you pay when you go through the Bible verse by verse.\n\nJust to remind you where we are in the big picture of the book, the trumpet judgments have been sounded with trumpet number seven there is a legal transfer that is occurring as the kingdom of this world is becoming the kingdom of our God \u201cand of His Christ.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 11;15, \u201cThen the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, \"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.\u201d]\n\nSatan, of course, doesn\u2019t like that.\u00a0 He\u2019s not going to take that lying down and so we come to chapters 12-14 which is sort of a stop in the chronology.\u00a0 Basically it\u2019s there to show us Satan\u2019s counter move.\u00a0 Satan has enjoyed running the world all of these centuries and he\u2019s not allowed to [can't understand word] what Christ established His kingdom on the earth so he moves into high gear in Revelation 12 to destroy the instrument, Israel, through which the kingdom will come.\n\nFrom Revelation 12 we move into Revelation 13 where we run into the two human beings that Satan is using during this terrible time period, the two beasts.\u00a0 The first beast is sort of a political ruler, as we have talked about.\u00a0 And we have been studying this second beast, an equally diabolical religious leader.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve looked at many, many facets related to this second beast and this morning we are talking about one of the most interesting things the Bible predicts is the economic system headed up by this beastly system.\n\nIt\u2019s sort of depressing in a way but in another way it\u2019s sort of invigorating how realistic the Bible is in terms of showing us exactly what the holds for planet earth without God.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t want God then you get the consequences and the consequence is this diabolical cashless economic surveillance type of society.\u00a0 And notice our three part outline, we have the Global economy in verse 16a; a global numbering system in verses 16b-17, and then when we get to verse 18 we get information about the Beast\u2019s own number that he will\u00a0 have to have to participate in the system.\u00a0 And this is why people on planet earth living during this terrible time (and I don\u2019t plan on being here, I don\u2019t know about you) but they will know exactly who the beast is and I\u2019ll show you that through a numbering system.\n\nBut notice first of all verse 16, the coming global economy.\u00a0 Look, if you will, at the first part of verse 16, \u201cAnd he causes all,\u00a0the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves,\u00a0]<\/sup>to be given a\u00a0mark on their right hand or on their forehead.\u201d Now notice this word all.\u00a0 You say what does all mean\u2026 well, I think all means all!\u00a0 All means every single human being on planet earth during this terrible time period and just to make it clear that all means all you have described there in verse 16 six classes of people.\n\nRobert Mounce, in his Commentary on the Book of Revelation<\/em>, says this concerning this verse.\u00a0 \u201cSuch a coupling of opposites as a way of stressing the totality of human society.\u00a0 John mentions here six classes of people from the cultural, social and economic categories.\u201d\u00a0 And\u00a0 he gives the outer edges of each category.\u00a0 \u201cThe outer edges of the social category, the outer edge of the cultural category, the outer edges of the economic category.\u00a0 The Bible is very clear that this system that\u2019s coming will cover every single human being.\u00a0 No one will be exempt unless they go underground and receive great persecution.\u00a0 This, of course, fits very well with other verses of the Bible which tell us that the antichrist in this terrible time period will have set up over the entire\u00a0 planet a one-world government.\u201d\u00a0 Those verses, if you look them all up individually would reveal that to you. And you can\u2019t have a one-world government unless you have a one-world economy.\n\nAnd you can\u2019t have a one-world government unless\u00a0 you have a one-world religious system. The one-world religious system is going to be revealed in Revelation 17.\u00a0 The one-world economy is revealed here in these verses, verses 16-18.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:16-18, \u201cAnd he causes all,\u00a0the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves,\u00a0]<\/sup>to be given a\u00a0mark on their right hand or on their forehead,\u00a0[17] \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and\u00a0he provides<\/em>\u00a0that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the\u00a0mark,\u00a0either<\/em>\u00a0the name of the beast or\u00a0the number of his name.\u00a0[18] \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that\u00a0of a man; and his number is\u00a0[<\/sup>n<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>six hundred and sixty-six.\u201d]\n\nAnd I\u2019m going to show you a few things today that perhaps you don\u2019t want to see. I really don\u2019t like talking about these things either, believe it or not, but they are very clear to me stage setting things, stage setting events, preparing our world for this system that I think is just on the horizon. \u00a0Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day and He said this:\u00a0 \u201cDo you know how to discern the appearance of the sky,\u201d Matthew 16:3, \u201cbut you cannot discern the signs of the time.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 16:3, \u201c\u2019And in the morning, \u2018There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.\u2019' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?\u201d]\n\nHe rebuked them because they could understand weather patterns, \u201cred sky in the morning, sailor take warning,\u201d they understood that but they did not understand prophetically the season that they were in.\u00a0 And I think that that rebuke could easily apply to the modern day Christian who under\u00adstands all kinds\u00a0 of information, they know how to pick socks, they know how to get their kids into the best schools, they know how to make money, they know how to buy low and sell high, and they know all kinds of information about sports and statics and baseball and basketball.\u00a0 And you ask them what are some of the signs of the present age that are setting the stage for the end time and they will tell you absolutely nothing; they know very little about it.\n\nI think there are more signs for the second coming of Christ than there are the first coming of Christ and consequently I think our accountability is even higher to understand the signs of the times.\u00a0 We have an eschatological model that we follow here.\u00a0 We believe there\u2019s coming upon the earth a tribulation period of seven years.\u00a0 The way it\u2019s described the tribulation period can\u2019t just come into existence in a nanosecond, the stage has to be set properly for it, and so we think this: if the stage is being set for the coming tribulation period, including this information about the one-world economy, then the tribulation period must be very close.\u00a0 And if the rapture of the church precedes the tribulation period (and it does) then the rapture is coming even faster.\u00a0 You see that?\n\nYou look at these signs that are happening and the clouds of darkness that are enveloping the earth and you say to yourself the tribulation is coming very fast.\u00a0 But the world, as I like to say, is growing gloriously dark because as the darkness increases the hope of the rapture, which precedes these events, must be coming even faster.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot like a chess board.\u00a0 A chess game can\u2019t just happen; the board has to be taken out of the box, the players have to take their respective seats, the pieces on the chess board\u00a0 have to be assembled correctly, and when you see all these things happen you know that a chess game is about to begin.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way to understand these signs of the times.\u00a0 We\u2019re nearing an event or a series of events in world history.\n\nAnd one of the things that\u2019s very interesting that\u2019s spoken of here is this one-world economy.\u00a0 It says \u201cAnd he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slaves.\u201d It\u2019s an economic system that covers the entire earth.\u00a0 And what you have to understand is such a system made very little sense, maybe fifty to a hundred\u00a0 years ago.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the United States was sort of insulated from the rest of the world, isolated from the reset of the world, separated from by the two great oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific.\u00a0 And what happened in other parts of the world really didn\u2019t matter to us so much here in the United States of America.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting today that the economies of the world have become intertwined; they\u2019ve become united.\u00a0 And so what happens?\u00a0 An economic slowdown, an economic problem in another part of the world suddenly has a direct impact on our economy, our economic growth.\u00a0 It has a direct impact on our retirement accounts and investments accounts and everything.\u00a0 In other words, the day is sort of gone where you can sort of close your eyes to what is happening in other parts of the world because just as the Bible predicts the economies of the world have now moved into what we would call a global economy.\n\nGeorge Soros, the quintessential globalist puts it this way; he says, \u201c\"I think the dollar is now under question and I think the system will need to be reformed, so that the United States will be subject to the same discipline as is imposed on other countries\u2026.\u00a0 In the long run, having an international accounting unit rather than the dollar<\/u> may, in fact, be to our advantage...\"\u00a0 [Jennifer Ablan and Daniel Burns, \"Soros Says U.S. Faces 'Lasting Slowdown,'\" online: http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-economy-soros-exclusive-idUSTRE53537D20090406 , April 6 2009, accessed 21 January 2016.]\n\nAnd I hope when you read a statement like this from a godless man that knows probably nothing about Bible prophecy you\u2019re seeing in the background Revelation 13:16 because he\u2019s talking about the phasing out of the dollar, the phasing out of a national currency and replacing it with what he calls \u201can international accounting unit\u201d that would govern not just a nation but all the nations of the earth.\u00a0 Is this not what John saw back in the first century as he describes it in Revelation 13:16?\n\nAnd so we move away from this global economy and we get some more information about a global numbering system.\u00a0 And notice what it says there in the middle of verse 16 to the end of verse 17, those involved will \u201cbe given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, [17] and he provides\u201d that\u2019s the antichrist and the second beast, \u201che provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.\u201d This is a global monitoring system.\u00a0 And it\u2019s difficult to understand why Satan would want this unless you understand the doctrine of angels, angelology, which is a Sunday School class we started this morning.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand who Satan is as a created being you cannot understand his ambition or his desire to have this one world system.\n\nEzekiel 28:12-17 is a description of Satan prior to his fall and his ultimate fall and if you look at the end there of verse 13, God says something very important concerning Satan.\u00a0 He says, \u201cOn the day that you were created.<\/u>\u201d \u00a0\u00a0And then down in verse 15 it says, \u201cYou were\u00a0blameless in your ways From the day you were created<\/u>\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Satan is a created being.\u00a0 A lot of people look at the battle between God and Satan as sort of like the battle between Rocky and Apollo Creed.\u00a0 Too many people get their theology from the movies and they have sort of a view that God and Satan are sort of equals and they\u2019re going into the ring and we really don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to win because Rocky is a very talented boxer, we give a slight edge of course to Apollo because he\u2019s the heavyweight champ.\u00a0 And so we\u2019re sitting on the edge of our seats wondering who\u2019s going to win this.\u00a0 And that saga worked so well they made Rocky 2 and Rocky 3 and Rocky 4 and now it\u2019s what?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many Rocky\u2019s they\u2019ve made, they\u2019ve got their great grandkids down there fighting it out, but as long as it makes money I guess let\u2019s just milk this for all it\u2019s worth.\n\nBut\u00a0 you\u2019re in these movies and you\u2019re wondering who\u2019s actually going to win.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how people look at the battle between God and Satan.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is you already know who\u2019s going to win.\u00a0 This is what we would call no contest because it repeats there in Ezekiel 28 the concept that Satan is created.\u00a0 He is not the Creator; he is a created being!\u00a0 And consequently there\u2019s no doubt that God is going to win.\u00a0 In fact, Satan only exists to fulfill God\u2019s purposes and once those purposes have run their course Satan will be very quickly vanquished and defeated.\u00a0 And because Satan is a created being he does not have the attributes of God.\u00a0 What are the attributes of God?\u00a0 The \u201cOmni\u2019s\u201d omniscience, all knowing; omnipotence, all powerful; omnipresence, everywhere at once.\u00a0 And because Satan is not everywhere at once how in the world as ruler of this world can he keep track of everybody?\u00a0 He\u2019s always consequently as a finite being had a desire to erect over planet earth a system which will allow him to monitor every single human being on planet earth, a system he needs just by virtue of the fact that he is not everywhere at once.\n\nAnd so we see this ambition of Satan to have this numbering system.\u00a0 Now of course when we talk about numbering people that\u2019s nothing new.\u00a0 Holocaust survivors of today or descendants of Holocaust survivors will tell you that this is exactly what Hitler did in the Holocaust.\u00a0 He numbered people to keep track of them, to keep them under his realm, to keep them under his dominion.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re learning here from the Bible is the day will come, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too far future, when this sort of numbering system will be manifested over the entire planet. \u00a0And humanity will be moved into what I would call a cashless economy.\u00a0 As you look at verse 16 and you look at verse 17 you learn very fast that cash or the use of cash is a thing of the past as now the transactions of the world have become digitized and you ask yourself why is it so essential to eliminate cash and to digitize electronically everything in order for this system to occur.\n\nTerry L. Cooke in his book, The Mark of the New World Order<\/em>, explains it as follows:\u00a0 \u201cThe New World Order economists are not ignorant of the importance of cash and its ability to inhibit their control of the world.\u00a0 They\u2019re aware that in order to completely control, track and monitor the global population they must first eliminate the use of cast.\u00a0 With cash there is no way to know how people are using their finances, whether for or against the government and its agenda, because control of one\u2019s finances in essence is control over one\u2019s entire life .\u00a0 Advocates of world government have for decades been promoting a move to a cashless transactions via a myriad of banking plans, ATM machines, credit cards, points of sale transactions, credit data, all funneled through massive computer systems.\u00a0 Eventually the goal is control over all the computers by the economic leaders of the new world order.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting, he wrote those words in 1996 and it\u2019s amazing how since 1996 how fast we\u2019ve moved into this cashless system.\n\nThe problem with cash is there\u2019s no way to determine how people are using their money but once things become digitized and electronic transactions become the norm there\u2019s now what we might say a paper trail, a way to keep track of the buying habits of every single person.\u00a0 There\u2019s a way to monitor them.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting, I\u2019m sort of an fan of buying books, I buy books on Kindle, Kindle actually saved my marriage because my wife would always tell me I\u2019ve got too many books, there\u2019s no room for them and Kindle came along and I could get all my books and I could stick them right on here, nothing to fight about any more.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And it is interesting that when you purchase something electronically, like on Kindle, for Kindle or on Amazon it\u2019s interesting to me that suddenly I get an e-mail into my inbox that says well you know, if you like this book you\u2019ll probably like this one.\u00a0 And if you like those two you\u2019ll probably like this one.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 They\u2019re right.\u00a0 And how can they figure that out so fast?\u00a0 Well they figure it out so fast because the computer information now about my buying behavior is now running an instant profile on me.\u00a0 If I was buying everything through cash the profile would be impossible.\u00a0 But now with the digitalization of these transactions the computer runs an instant sort of background check on me if you will, and consequently it\u2019s able to generate information that it couldn\u2019t generate via cash oriented transactions.\n\nAnd so what you discover in our world is cash is being phased out gradually.\u00a0 Liz Moyer, writing in Forbes Magazine, says this: \u201cMoney is becoming more of a concept than a physical reality.\u00a0 People are using debit and credit cards in more and more everyday situations from meals purchased at fast food restaurants and fuel purchased at gas stations to movies, groceries, sundries, highway tools, and clothing.\u00a0 Even New York City \u00a0Taxi cabs are rigged with electronic readers increasing pay checks are electronically deposited and the money for bills they pay, mortgage, utilities, cable and phone are all paid electronically as well.\u00a0 Banks offer incentives to consumers for using direct pay options which allow them to keep better tabs on their customers and their money.\u00a0 Welfare and food stamps are issued on cards which can be downloaded at the register through an automated teller machine.\u201d\n\nThe first time I heard this in flying, taking an airplane, I remember very clearly the announcement being made over the loudspeaker that here come the snacks, I always pay particular attention to that, but you can\u2019t pay for the snacks with cash, and they began calling this a cashless cabin. And many times my wife will put in my wallet a hundred dollar bill so if you pickpocket me this afternoon\u00a0 you can be a hundred dollars richer, and it\u2019s interesting how long that hundred dollar bill stays there.\u00a0 I go into place after place and pull out my hundred dollar bill and they say sorry, we can\u2019t make change here because cash is becoming something that\u2019s out of fashion, out of vogue.\u00a0 And this is sort of the society that we\u2019re drifting into.\u00a0 Now I don\u2019t say that to make everybody paranoid, I just want people to understand the season or the time period that we\u2019re living in.\u00a0 And it is very interesting to me that technology has advanced to the point where now a system like this which seemed so farfetched in prior generations we can now see how credible this scenario is.\n\nTechnology is moving at breakneck speeds; it\u2019s hard to keep track of all of it.\u00a0\u00a0 You take, for example, microchip technology.\u00a0 A recent news article says this:\u00a0 \u201cA Wisconsin company is about to become the first in the U.S. to offer microchip implants to its employees. Yes, you read that right. Microchip implants. \u2018It's the next thing that's inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it,\u2019 Three Square Market Chief Executive Officer Todd Westby said. \u00a0The company designs software for break room markets that are commonly found in office complexes. Just as people are able to purchase items at the market using phones, Westby wants to do the same thing using a microchip implanted inside a person's hand. \u2018We'll come up, scan the item,\u2019 he explained, while showing how the process will work at an actual break room market kiosk. \u2018We'll hit pay with a credit card, and it's asking to swipe my proximity payment now. I'll hold my hand up, just like my cell phone, and it'll pay for my product.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Josh Rosenthal of 5 Eyewitness ABC News - July 24, 2017,\u00a0 [http:\/\/kstp.com\/news\/wisconsin-company-to-implant-microchips-in-employees-three-square-market\/4549459<\/a>]\n\nI found this headline concerning Sweden.\u00a0 It\u2019s entitled, \u201cSwedish Commuters Can Use FuturisticMicrochip Hand Implant: The future is here \u2013 a Swedish rail company is trialing letting passengers use biometric chips as tickets Helen Coffey of The Independent - June 16, 2017.\u00a0 The article says, \u201cGone are the days when an e-ticket was seen as cutting edge \u2013 one Swedish rail company is offering passengers the option of using a biometric chip implanted into their hand in lieu\u201d didn\u2019t we just read something about the right hand here, \u201cimplanted into their hand in lieu of a paper train ticket\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The tiny chip has the same technology as Oyster cards\u201d I\u2019ve used Oyster cards in Europe, they get you in and out of virtually any traveling but Oyster cards are out.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026Oyster cards and contactless bank cards\u2026to enable conductors to scan passengers\u2019 hands\u2026Around 2,000 Swedes have had the surgical implant to date, most of them employed in the tech industry.\u201d\u00a0 [http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/news-and-advice\/sj-rail-train-tickets-hand-implant-microchip-biometric-sweden-a7793641.html]\n\nYou look at the evangelical church today; how many people are actually talking about this in a public way?\u00a0 They\u2019re talking about any number of subjects and yet we\u2019re living in the very season or the very time predicts would come upon planet earth.\u00a0 And to be completely honest with you I don\u2019t mean to be paranoid about technology, I enjoy technology as well.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re\u00a0 using technology right now as I speak.\u00a0 Technology can be a very good thing.\u00a0 My concern though is what happens when all of this data falls into the wrong hands, and your Bible predicts that that day will come!\n\nWe enjoy these kinds of things for convenience.\u00a0 I remember my wife when we first got a cell phone and every time I\u2019d leave the house she\u2019d goes \u201cdo you have your phone?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDo you have your phone?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDo you have your phone?\u201d\u00a0 And finally I asked her why is it so important to you that I carry my phone everywhere?\u00a0 And she said it\u2019s very simple, it\u2019s an electronic leash.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And that\u2019s what these things are.\u00a0 I mean they\u2019re electronic leashes, when it\u2019s time to come home for dinner or whatever I receive immediate notification from her.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 When she needs something done there comes my electronic leash.\u00a0 And we, to a certain extent we enjoy these things, they provide for us a tremendous amount of convenience.\u00a0 And you think of how these things would be enjoyed by people simply on the basis of convenience, keeping track of pets that run away, keeping track of runaway children, keeping track of elderly people.\u00a0 My understanding is these are\u00a0 used in many scenarios to keep track of inmates, to keep track of prisoners, to keep track of those that are on parole, to keep track of those that are convicted criminals and under house arrest.\n\nAnd these things can be a tremendous blessing, a tremendous convenience is associated with these things.\u00a0 But I\u2019m always wondering at the end of the day one of these days everything is going to fall into the wrong person\u2019s hands and the instruments for control, world-wide control already seem to be in place.\n\nNow there\u2019s been sort of a debate in prophecy circles concerning these microchips that go into people\u2019s hands because the Biblical text says something very interesting.\u00a0 It says in verse 16, \u201cthey are to be given a mark ON,\u201d not \u201cin\u201d, \u201cON\u201d the Greek proposition is epi<\/em> \u201con their right hand\u201d and then it repeats it, \u201cor on their forehead\u201d and we thought to ourselves for a long time, well doesn\u2019t microchips go into the hand and are not placed on the hand.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very interesting to me that if you give things enough time technology eventually catches up to what the Bible predicts.\n\nHere\u2019s a news article, \u201cA new candidate has arrived, and one that is garnering praise and attention worldwide as the next innovative breakthrough. More noticeably, hardly anyone is even talking about its potential as the mark of [the beast] Revelation 13. \u00a0These devices are known as electronic tattoos. Made out of flexible silicon and rubber, the tattoo is applied in a similar way as a temporary tattoo,\u201d now isn\u2019t that interesting, that would solve the in versus on problem, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cMade out of flexible silicon and rubber, the tattoo is applied in a similar way as a temporary tattoo and is completely non-invasive and pain free. \u00a0People around the world, Christians included, are so focused on its application as a biomedical savior that can handle everything from giving you a weather report, to monitoring and adjusting blood sugar levels, and just about any other practical function for a modern world\u00a0 difference in these devices and the RFID microchip, is that these devices are highly visible on the surface of the skin, and virtually any design can be used to cloak its very electronic look. One can easily imagine a design that somehow equates to the number of the beast being the required mark that all of mankind must accept at the hand of their new world leader.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [http:\/\/idontbuthedoes.com\/mark-of-the-beast-that-n]\n\nTechnology comes along and pushes things further down the road and all of a sudden the in verses on problem is resolved as apparently these marks electronically are not now placed in people\u2019s skin but on people\u2019s skin.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what the Bible says.\u00a0 Now you say to yourself, come on pastor, who are\u00a0 you kidding; there would never arise a generation, would there, where they are known for putting marks on their skin?\u00a0 I mean, that would never happen\u2026.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not here to criticize tattoos, to harrang about tattoos, to say tattoos are immoral.\u00a0 I just think it\u2019s very interesting that in my generation, in my day hardly anybody had a tattoo.\n\nAnd you look at the current generation of millennials and younger and every single one of them are almost to a person has some kind of mark or insignia or tattoo on them.\u00a0 In fact, have you been to the city of Austin lately?\u00a0 There\u2019s an open swimming area there that we\u2019ve gone to and I was just kind of monitoring things, minding my own business and I looked at every single person that was walking by and all of them had tattoos.\u00a0 There\u2019s even Christians that had tattoos, John 3:16 and other things on their body.\u00a0 I noticed this, they never put on their body Leviticus 21 which says don\u2019t have a tattoo,\u00a0 I never saw that on anybody but there\u2019s marks and insignias on young people everywhere now.\u00a0 Am I here to condemn people for having tattoos?\u00a0 I\u2019m not here to do that at all, that\u2019s not my point.\u00a0 My point is now there\u2019s a whole generation of people conditioned to receive some sort of mark on their body.\n\nAnd wouldn\u2019t it be something if\u00a0 you could go through the store line and you don\u2019t have to fumble for your wallet anymore, you don\u2019t have to fumble for cash any more, you don\u2019t have to check if your credit card is up to date, it\u2019s just some sort of insignia that electronically validates\u00a0 your purchase.\u00a0 Waiting in a line is over, fumbling for cash is over, and in fact, if you go onto You Tube you can see certain commercials that have been made, some of them I found this very week, where the person using cash is sort of\u2026\u00a0 you know, up front and he is sort of holding things up and he\u2019s sort of looked at as the buffoon and cool young people in the back are the ones with these marks and insignias and how fast they move through the checkout counter, etc.\n\nI\u2019m just saying this, beloved, we\u2019re living in very, very interesting times.\u00a0 In fact, it was not long ago that I was in the car purchase market and we purchased an automobile and I said this to the fellow that was handling the transaction, I said let me ask you a question just hypothetically.\u00a0 I think he was annoyed because he was getting us to sign all this stuff and I throw this weird question at him.\u00a0 I said to him, he was sitting on the other side of the desk, what if I came in here with two suitcases of cash and I just popped them down on your desk and I pointed to that car over there and I said I want that one.\u00a0 I said what would happen to me?\u00a0 And he looked up from behind his desk, he looked at me directly in the eye and he says you wouldn\u2019t even believe the trouble you\u2019d be in.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to call the IRS, I\u2019d have to call the DEA, there would be countless laws that you would be violating, in fact it would be assumed by the legal system that you were laundering money.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that people that traffic in cash today are immediately put under a cloud of suspicion.\u00a0 If they use cash and lots of it they must be doing something wrong.\u00a0 Cash is being phased out.\u00a0 These electronic transactions are becoming realities even those placed on the skin itself.\u00a0 This is exactly what John saw back in Revelation chapter 13 when he wrote these words.\n\nNotice again verses 16 and 17, notice what it says.\u00a0 \u201c\u201cAnd he causes all,\u00a0the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves,\u00a0to be given a\u00a0mark on\u00a0 their right hand or on their forehead.\u00a0 [17] and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.\u201d\n\nWhat is the goal of Satan?\u00a0 What is the goal of every despot in world history?\u00a0 You can sum it up in four words; To control the people.\u00a0 That\u2019s four, isn\u2019t it: To control the people.\u00a0 That\u2019s what this whole thing is about.\u00a0 I remember when Obama Care, remember that, a 3,000 page monstrosity was passed and at the time the sitting leader of the House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House was asked have you read the bill?\u00a0 No but we have to pass the bill to see what\u2019s in the bill.\u00a0 Remember that?\u00a0 What was that whole thing about?\u00a0 Ever asked yourself that question?\u00a0 Was it about compassion?\u00a0 Was it about making sure that those that don\u2019t have health care receive it?\u00a0 Was that the end game?\u00a0 No, the goal of that whole thing is in those four words, \u201cto control the people.\u201d\u00a0 And if you\u2019re attentive enough and discerning enough you could hear the architects of this saying that very thing.\n\nJohn Dingle, Congressman, on Obama Care, an advocate unintentionally admitted as much during a live telephone interview concerning the imminent passage of universal health care and legislation.\u00a0 Dingle made the following remark to Paul Smith on Smith\u2019s Monday morning radio show in Detroit, March 22, 2010.\u00a0 Dingle said, \u201cThe harsh fact of the matter is you\u2019re going to pass legislation that will cover three hundred million American people in different ways.\u00a0 It takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be put together in the legislation to\u201d here\u2019s our four words, a direct quote from Dingle, \u201cto control the people.\u201d\n\nI think they sort of backtracked on that but you can find his statement out there floating around on You Tube to control the people.\u00a0\u00a0 You mean the issue with Obama care wasn\u2019t health care?\u00a0 No it wasn\u2019t; it was to control the people.\u00a0 Let me let\u00a0 you in on a little statement, you can find this in Saul Lenski and other Marxists. If you learn this statement you\u2019ll see very clearly what\u2019s happening in our present world.\u00a0 I think it was Curtis Bowers, when he was here with us, teaching on Marxism or against Marxism and Communism made this statement as well concerning Marxism and here\u2019s the statement:\u00a0 \u201cThe issue is never the issue.\u00a0 The issue is the revolution.\n\nThe issue is never the issue!\u00a0 The issue is the revolution!\u00a0 I mean, when Obama care was passed the whole name of the game was compassion, wasn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But you see, the issue with Obama care was never health care, it was control.\u00a0 Think about this for a minute.\u00a0 If the government through a single payer health care system, which Obama care is in a step towards, if the government gets control over\u00a0 your health care do they not control you?\u00a0 You need that money for a new surgery, heart valve or whatever.\u00a0 Well, let\u2019s look at your record, what kind of church do you go to?\u00a0 What kind of things do you post online?\u00a0 Who did you vote for in the last election?\u00a0 Suddenly you put the government in the position of deciding and the government is in trillions of dollars of debt, and they\u2019re always trying to save money aren\u2019t they?\u00a0 At least that\u2019s what they tell us.\u00a0 Well, what a great way to save money, we look at you and you\u2019ve lived a full life and here\u2019s some crutches and some aspirin have a nice life.\n\nYou see what happens when health care becomes federalized?\u00a0 The issue was never health care; the issue was the revolution.\u00a0 What\u2019s the revolution?\u00a0 To control the people.\u00a0 Lax voter\u00a0 ID is not about Lax voter I.D. It\u2019s about control; it\u2019s about signing up a whole bunch of people to keep a certain party in power.\u00a0 Lax immigration is really not about lax immigration, it\u2019s about control, it\u2019s about bringing in a whole class of people, get them enrolled in all kinds of social programs and you\u2019ll never lose an election.\u00a0 The issue of the environment is not about the environment.\u00a0 The environment is used as a pretext to get the government to grow, become larger, micromanage all of your decisions and every facet of your life.\u00a0 That\u2019s the agenda!\u00a0 The agenda was never the environment.\n\nThe white washing of American history, the fact that your average\u00a0 young person today doesn\u2019t know anything about the Declaration of Independence, they don\u2019t know anything about the Bill of Rights, they don\u2019t know anything about the United States Constitution.\u00a0 How is the changing of our textbooks approached?\u00a0 We need to be tolerant towards all religions and races.\u00a0 But the removal of American history was never really about tolerance; it\u2019s about what Karl Marx said, a people that are unaware of their history are easily persuaded.\u00a0 And when you begin to look at things happening in our world through that lens you\u2019ll start to see what\u2019s happening and why it\u2019s happening.\n\nThe issue is not the issue; the issue is used as a pretext to advance the revolution.\u00a0 What\u2019s the revolution?\u00a0 The Bible explains it\u2026 to control the people!\u00a0 And it\u2019s very interesting to me how technology has now advanced to the point where this is become a possibility.\u00a0 Today is Father\u2019s Day, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Many of you are going to go out to lunch, go out to dinner, go to restaurants, go to the mall, go to public places.\u00a0 Do yourself a favor, look at what people are doing in any public place you go to this afternoon.\u00a0 Any public place,\u00a0 you know what they\u2019re doing?\u00a0 They\u2019re looking at these things and they\u2019re pressing buttons.\u00a0 I would say that any public place\u00a0 you go to this afternoon half of the people, at least, will not be involved in a conversation, they\u2019ll be looking at these devices, pressing buttons, posting, tweeting, sending direct messages.\n\nHave you ever asked yourself this question: where does all that information go?\u00a0 I mean, does it just disappear?\u00a0 Does it go into the clouds?\u00a0 Actually what we learn is yes, it does go into THE cloud.\u00a0 All of this messaging, tweeting, talking back and forth, private messaging, all of that information goes somewhere.\u00a0 It\u2019s stored somewhere.\u00a0 Well, where is it being stored?\u00a0 Apparently it\u2019s being stored in\u00a0 Utah.\u00a0 Welcome to Utah, the NASA\u2019s desert home for eavesdropping on America<\/em>, by Rory Carroll.\u00a0 Welcome to\u00a0 Utah, the Utah Data center, a new home for the NASA\u2019s exponentially expanding information trove.\u00a0 The one point seven billion dollar facility two years in the making will soon host super computers to store gargantuan quantities of data from e-mails and phone calls, Google searches, and other sources.\u00a0 Since January 2011 a reported 10,000 laborers have built four 25,000 square foot holes filled with servers and cables plus an additional 900 thousand square feet of space for technical support and administration.\u00a0 James Bamford, author of The Shadow Factory<\/em>, said.\n\n[The Shadow Factory: The NSA from 9\/11 to the Eavesdropping on America<\/em>]\n\nHe said, \u201cThe public had not yet grasped the significance of Utah\u2019s data mining.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically a hard drive; it\u2019s also a cloud, a warehouse, it\u2019ll be storing not just text and audio but pictures and videos.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lackadaisical attitude to this, people pay no attention to it until it\u2019s too late.\u201d\u00a0 See, what\u2019s happening with all this stuff is vanity has ruled the day, because I can take little old me, my picture, and put it all over the world not understanding that the moment I clicked that button is the moment that data is stored.\u00a0 And once the data is stored there is now a profile on me.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the thing with profile---you can use the data highly selectively to make anybody look like you want them to look.\u00a0 If you want to turn them into a hero the data is available to do that through selection.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you want to turn them into a monster, if you want to turn them into a racist, if you want to turn them into a spousal batterer, they can selectively pick pieces of data and turn you into that as well.\n\nA generation ago the technology simply wasn\u2019t in place for this to happen and now exactly what the Bible says has caught up with the technology of the day.\u00a0\u00a0 If you want to see the future of this whole thing look directly at China and look at China\u2019s social credit score system.\u00a0 Another news article says this: \u201cChina\u2019s chilling dictatorship is moving quickly to introduce social scorecards by which all citizens will be monitored twenty-four seven and ranked on their behavior.\u00a0 The communist party plan is for every one of its four billion citizens to be at the rim of dystopian social credit system and it\u2019s on track to be fully operational by the year 2020.\u00a0 Over all scores can go up and down in real time, depending on the person\u2019s behavior, but that can also be affected by the people you associate with.\u00a0 If\u00a0 your best friend or your dad says something negative about the government you\u2019ll lose points.\u00a0 If people keep their promises they can go anywhere in the world; if people break their promises they won\u2019t be able to move an inch.\u00a0 Under the system those deemed to be the top\u00a0 citizens are rewarded bonus points.\u00a0 The benefits of being ranked on a higher end of the scale include waved deposits on hotels and rental cars, VIP treatment at airports, discounted loans, priority job applications, fast tracking to the most prestigious universities.\n\nOn the other hand, jaywalking, late payments on bills or taxes, buying too much alcohol, speaking out against the government, each cost the citizen points.\u00a0 Other [can't understand word] punishable offences include spending too long on video games, (I may qualify on that one) wasting money on frivolous purchases and posting on social media.\u00a0 Penalties can range from losing the right to travel by plane or train, social media accounts suspensions, and being barred from government gobs.\n\nChinese journalist Liu Hu is one of the millions who have already amassed a low credit rating.\u00a0 He is now banned from traveling by plane or fast train; his social media accounts with millions of followers have been suspended, he struggles to find work.\u00a0 Welcome to the brave new world.\u00a0 You play ball the correct way things seem to work out for you.\u00a0 You get into political incorrectness, not recycling the way you should, eating the wrong kinds of foods, speaking out against the government and suddenly\u00a0 your world starts to shrink.\u00a0 You can\u2019t get the passport privileges\u00a0 you once had; you can\u2019t get the job application through that you once were able to do.\u00a0 You can\u2019t get your kids into college.\u00a0 And your life shrinks and you become an electronic prisoner.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like electronic concentration camp if you will.\n\nWhat about India?\u00a0 News article\u2026 India has collected biometric data on most of its 1.3 billion residents to be used in a nationwide identity system called Aadhaar meaning foundation, seeking to build an identification system of unprecedented scope India is scanning the fingerprints, eyes and faces of its 1.3 billion residents and connecting the data to everything from welfare payments or benefits to mobile cell phones.\u00a0 So the Libertarians are horrified viewing the program as Orwell\u2019s big brother brought to life.\u00a0 Technology has given governments around the world new tools to monitor its citizens.\u00a0 Critics fear that government will gain unprecedented insight into the lives of all Indians.\n\nHow about cameras?\u00a0 Ever asked yourself this question?\u00a0 How many times are you on camera every single day?\u00a0 You stop at a stoplight you\u2019re on a camera.\u00a0 You go into a convenience store and you make a purchase and you\u2019re on a camera again.\u00a0 You get pulled over by a police officer, you\u2019re on a camera.\u00a0 How many times are law abiding citizens in the United States placed on cameras every single day.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know the answer to that question but I did find this article about what it\u2019s like in the United Kingdom.\u00a0 In fact, in the United Kingdom a person on average is caught on surveillance cameras three hundred times a day.\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t that a bit excessive?\u00a0 I mean, why did the law abiding citizens need to be placed on a camera 300 times a day?\u00a0 The answer is very simple if you understand the agenda to control the people.\n\nIn fact, British journalist Allen Franklin says this: \u201cIf you want to be a film star, come to Britain. We\u2019re all on camera. All you have to do is walk through any town or drive down any road and you are watched, filmed, and monitored. When my wife, Pat, and I tour America, we feel neglected because the roadside cameras are no longer ever-present\u2014not yet. As the world moves towards a \u2018Big Brother\u2019 society beyond the nightmares of author George Orwell, who predicted a world in which the state watched everyone in his 1948 classic novel, called 1984, it is like we are inmates of a high-tech prison. Big Brother really is watching us in Europe. The rest of the world is not far behind.\u201d<\/em> . . .\u00a0 [Alan Franklin, \"Big Brother Is Watching,\" in The Departure: God's Next Catastrophic Intervention into Earth's History, ed. Terry James (Crane, MO: Defender, 2010), 341.]\n\nYou say well,\u00a0 you sound paranoid about technology.\u00a0 No, we\u2019ve got cameras in here, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 You say I knew it, I knew Andy Woods is part of this conspiracy.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Well, as you know our cameras are in here for good purposes, we want to get our message\u00a0 out to the masses; it\u2019s not a scenario where the government is watching what we are doing.\u00a0 But if I was a pastor of a China church the cameras would be here for a different reason; they would be watching everything that I say and monitoring our behavior every single moment of the service.\n\nAnother news article, \u201cChina\u2019s Orwellian-like network of surveillance cameras now includes churches. Most churches\u2026have government-mandated surveillance cameras that allow the communist government to monitor the congregation\u2019s every move\u2026 The cameras are part of a massive network of cameras across China that allow the government to monitor citizens. There are an estimated 176 million surveillance cameras across China\u2026\u00a0 That number could reach 450 million by 2020.\u201d\u00a0 [China Installs Surveillance Cameras in Churches to Monitor Christians, By Michael Foust, ChristianHeadlines.com, Tuesday, June 11, 2019]\n\nDid you know, I just discovered this this week, that the government in China spends more money monitoring its own citizens than it does protecting them from some sort of international threat.\u00a0 Why is it that law abiding citizens have to be constantly watched and monitored?\u00a0 If you understand the agenda and you understand Bible prophecy you know exactly what it\u2019s about and where all these things are headed.\u00a0 The world is headed towards the level of enslavement that it\u2019s never known before.\u00a0 That\u2019s the future without God.\n\nAnd how different the millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Are you looking forward to that?\n\nWhen he establishes His kingdom on the earth are we going to be monitored from cradle to grave? Not at all!\u00a0 Isaiah 65:21-22 says, They shall build houses and inhabit them; \u00a0they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. [22] They shall not build and another inhabit;\u201d in other words, the coming kingdom of Jesus is not going to be socialistic or communist.\u00a0 It will be involving true economic justice where whatever you enjoy is what your hands have produced, limited government, not maximum government.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026they shall not plant and another eat; \u00a0for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy3<\/sup><\/em><\/a> the work of their hands.\u201d\u00a0 And what a relief that will be when that kingdom is established humanity being given a lesson of enslavement in the world without God, the welcome relief of the millennial kingdom.\n\nWe\u2019re moving very fast into the very time the Bible predicts, and let\u2019s close here with verse 18 as we look at the beast\u2019s number.\u00a0 Notice what it says there in Revelation 13:18, \u201cHere is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.\u201d\u00a0 Now if you look at the end of verse 17 and into verse 18 it uses these phrases: name of the beast, number of his name, number of the beast and the number of a man. Revelation 13:17, \u201cand he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.\u201d]\n\nAnd it also uses phrases like this, to figure it out is going to require wisdom, the Greek word sophia<\/em>, and it says, \u201cLet him who has understanding,\u201d and then it even says \u201clet him who has wisdom and understanding calculate the number of the beast.\u201d\u00a0 Now that verb \u201ccalculate\u201d is only used one other time in the whole Greek New Testament and it\u2019s used that way in Luke 14:28 which says, \u201cFor which one of you, when he wants to build the tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough resources (or money) to complete it?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about mathematical calculations.\u00a0 You don\u2019t build a tower unless you have the right calculations determining if you have enough money to finish the building.\n\nI think what this is talking about is there\u2019s a calculation that people have to do during this terrible time period to figure out exactly who the beast is.\u00a0 And that takes use into a practice you may have no knowledge of because it\u2019s an ancient practice called gematria.\u00a0 Gematria is the idea that\u00a0 you can take an ancient language, Hebrew or Greek, and if you assign the right number to the right letter you can spell out anybody\u2019s name and anybody\u2019s name will be summed up in a number.\u00a0 So one night I woke up in a cold sweat and my wife woke up and she said what\u2019s the matter, and I said well how do I know I\u2019m not the antichrist?\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And she said go back to bed.\u00a0 And I said no, this is really bothering me, so I went downstairs, I pulled out this table, I spelled out my name in Greek and I did not come out with six, six, six, so I was very relieved about that and I went right back to sleep.\n\nBut you see, there\u2019s coming a man on planet earth, and this is how everybody will know exactly who he is, you\u2019ll be able to spell out his name in Greek,\u00a0 you\u2019ll be able to, through the \u00a0use of gematria assign the right number to the right letter.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be able to add it up and his number will be what?\u00a0 Six hundred and sixty-six.\u00a0 That\u2019s the number he himself must have in order to participate in the one world economic enslavement system.\n\nNow let me spare you from writing me a lot of e-mails because when I talk like this I get all these e-mails from people and texts and they say you know at my job they\u2019re making me carry this card around and they\u2019re giving me a number and they won\u2019t let me in a building unless I have the card and I\u2019m really worried I might take the mark of the beast.\u00a0 What we see today is the forerunner of the mark of the beast system but it\u2019s not yet in total place.\u00a0 The stage is being set but it\u2019s not yet in complete place.\u00a0 It will not be in complete place until the antichrist presides over the system and everybody on planet earth, through the use of gematria knows exactly who the antichrist is.\u00a0 \u00a0And when they take the number they are basically saying we are aligning ourselves consciously with the antichrist who we can identify and in the process they\u2019re damning themselves to hell.\u00a0 Today I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a possibility because the antichrist and his identification is not yet present and will not be present until subsequent to the rapture of the church.\n\nNow\u00a0 I\u2019ve got six minutes left, let me give you this, because if you\u2019re researching this you\u2019re going \u00a0to hit this.\u00a0 We have today a group of people called preterists.\u00a0 Preterist means past and they believe that the prophecies in the Book of Revelation have already transpired.\u00a0 They don\u2019t believe the anti\u00adchrist is future, they believe he came already in the first century.\u00a0 Major names on this list you might recognize would be the late R. C. Sproul, (believe that?) wrote a whole book about it.\u00a0 Hank Hanegraaff is a believer to a large extent in that system.\u00a0 And there are some other names there of people you may recognize or may not recognize.\u00a0 Scott Hahn, of Roman Catholicism, one of the great apologists for the Roman Catholic Church, one of the great defenders for Roman Catholicism when you look at what he has written concerning the Book of Revelation, his view is largely what you call preterist.\u00a0 And preterists believe that the name Caesar Nero adds up to 666 and they use this number to say nothing here to worry about folks, the antichrist is not in our future, he already came in the person of Nero.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that what they do here, they take the Hebrew\u2026 do you follow?\u00a0 Did you hear what I just said?\u00a0 Not the Greek Demetria, the Hebrew, added it up, Neuron, and then threw the title in, Kaiser, Neuron Kaiser, they assigned the right number to the right letter, added it all up and it comes out to 666.\u00a0 And they use this to mitigate our belief of a future antichrist; they think the antichrist already came.\u00a0 I think, folks, there\u2019s some problems with that.\u00a0 I did my Master\u2019s thesis on this, I spent more time on this\u2026 I mean, you should be in prayer right now that I\u2019ll tell you everything I know about this.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nBut the first problem with it, very quickly, is why are they using Hebrew?\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t they using Greek Gematria since John was Greek speaking and wrote the Book of Revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor who all spoke Greek.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of odd that they would use Hebrew here.\u00a0 Beyond that, I would call it cherry picking to fit a preordained outcome, meaning to get it to work they\u2019ve got to throw the title in of Nero.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t work without the title Caesar.\u00a0 Did you catch what Revelation 13 says?\u00a0 It says, \u201cthe name of the beast,\u201d not his title, the number of his name, the number of the beast, the number is that of a man.\u00a0 Nothing here about the title but it doesn\u2019t come out (Nero) to 666 unless the title is tossed in there.\n\nBeyond that give me a single early church father that ever believed Nero was the antichrist.\u00a0 There\u2019s not a single one!\u00a0 I\u2019ve looked at every single one of them, NONE of them thought this.\u00a0 And so what R. C. Sproul, Hank Hanegraaff and all these people have done is they\u2019ve dipped into German higher criticism and rationalism and liberalism.\u00a0 This stuff comes from higher criticism in Germany, and they\u2019ve brought into modern day evangelicalism to try to dispel the belief that there\u2019s going to be a future antichrist.\n\nBeyond that these people are completely inconsistent in their use of numbers.\u00a0 You listen to R. C. Sproul talk about the Book of Revelation and he goes on and on about how the numbers are not literal, the thousand year kingdom is not literal, and isn\u2019t it interesting how literal he takes 666?\u00a0 I mean why is that literal if no other number in the Book of Revelation is literal.\u00a0 And beyond that we have a big problem because the Book of Revelation could not be a prophecy about Nero because the Book of Revelation was written 25 years after Nero was on the scene and this is why these folks need to take the Book of Revelation and they need to date it in the 60\u2019s, the Neronian time period, to make it a prophecy about Nero when in reality the Book of Revelation was written in the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 You might remember when we started this series on the Book of Revelation, if you can remember back that far.\u00a0 You might remember this quote I gave you from Irenaeus, I said Irenaeus is like E. F. Hutton, when Irenaeus speaks people listen.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because Irenaeus is one generation removed from John, the author, John, the disciple Polycarp, the disciple Irenaeus;\u00a0 Irenaeus is very clear in his book Against Heresies,<\/em> that the Book of Revelation was written at the end of the reign of Domitian.\u00a0 That\u2019s the 90\u2019s, not the 60\u2019s.\u00a0 This couldn\u2019t be a prophecy about Nero that\u2019s written 20-25 years after the fact.\n\nThe reality is the idea that the Book of Revelation was written as a prophecy about Nero, written in the 60\u2019s, that date did not even show up in church history until 500 years after the fact.\u00a0 If you look at the left column all of the early church fathers going right back to John took the book as written in the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 And if you want to see an absolute blood bath on this go to the pre-trib website, www.pre-trib.org<\/a> and watch the public debate on this between Mark Hitchcock, one of my friends, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject, and Hank Hanegraaff.\u00a0 Hitchcock, and you can catch this whole thing online, it goes about two and a half to three hours, John Ankerberg took it and put it on his program and you\u2019ll see very fast that Hank Hanegraaff has basically no argument whatsoever.\u00a0 And in fact, when he came to do his opening statement he didn\u2019t even do an opening statement, he gave the audience an awareness of his memory because he cited Revelation chapter 1 from memory.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m impressed with your memory capacity Hank but that\u2019s not an opening statement.\n\nMark Hitchcock will give you an opening statement and he\u2019ll give you the facts and the information about how this nonsense that the Book of Revelation was written in the 60\u2019s and a prophecy about Nero,\u00a0 how it\u2019s utter complete nonsense.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sad to me to watch intelligent people like Hank Hanegraaff, R. C. Sproul and others, grab this information and promote it as if it is gospel truth.\n\nNow folks, the antichrist is not in our rear view mirror; he\u2019s in our future.\u00a0 Look at the information here about Revelation 13.\u00a0 Did Nero usher in a persecution for forty-two months?\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 Did he control the entire planet?\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 Did he force people to receive a mark on their right hand or forehead in order to participate in the global economy?\u00a0 He never did that.\u00a0 Did he coerce the entire world to worship a singular image of him?\u00a0 No he didn\u2019t!\u00a0 Did he rise from the dead?\u00a0 No, he didn\u2019t!\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen very carefully in our study of Revelation 13 about how antichrist is going to come back from the dead and in fact the image set up in the antichrist\u2019s honor is the noun eikon<\/em>, which is a singular noun.\u00a0 I looked at this very carefully in my Master\u2019s Thesis, there is no reference anywhere of a singular image ever being set up in honor of Nero.\u00a0 Images (plural)\u00a0 yes, multiple statues, yes, but not a singular image.\n\nBeyond that did Nero ever associate with a miracle working false prophet.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Did he ever receive global veneration?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 You say what\u2019s the bottom line?\u00a0 The bottom line is the Antichrist is\u00a0 yet to come and the stage is being set for this coming antichrist, as we have surveyed his coming economic system, his global economy, his global numbering system and the actual number that he himself will have to have to participate in the system, allowing every person alive on the earth at the time to know exactly who he is.\n\nThe reality of the situation is the human race without God is destined to enslavement.\u00a0 That\u2019s the end game that Satan won\u2019t tell you about.\u00a0 And how interesting it is that Jesus says \u201cWhom the Son makes free is\u201d what? \u201cfree indeed.\u201d\u00a0 [John 8:36]\u00a0 Jesus is about liberation, liberating us from our sin which sends us to hell, liberating us from that debt, giving us the Holy Spirit which allows us to live a life above and beyond the desires of the sin nature in the present.\u00a0 And then if that weren\u2019t enough hope of a glorious kingdom, where freedom will reign supreme. \u00a0The nanny state will be a thing of the past.\n\nAnd how do you get those benefits?\u00a0 You get those benefits simply by trusting in what we call the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel means good news because Jesus did everything possible to bridge the gap between a fallen humanity and w holy God.\u00a0 He died on a cross, He rose from the dead, His final words prior to His death were \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s all paid for, it\u2019s all taken care of.\u00a0 So how can you enter into this blessing and these many blessings?\u00a0\u00a0 You receive it the only way you can receive a gift from God which is by faith.\u00a0 If you\u2019re trying to earn it you can\u2019t have it but you can receive it by faith simply by right there where you\u2019re seated trusting in what Jesus did for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s what believing is, it means to trust, to rely on.\n\nYou don\u2019t have to walk an aisle, join a church, give money, sign up for a program to receive this.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where the Spirit places you under conviction and you trust in what He has done for you!\u00a0 It\u2019s not good works that gets you in, it\u2019s based on the good work He already did for you and you receive it as a gift.\u00a0 And for people that have never done that our exhortation to you here at Sugar Land Bible Church is to do that.\u00a0 You can do that right now, in the quietness of your own heart and mind and thoughts you trust in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 You change your mind about Jesus.\u00a0 You stop thinking it\u2019s Jesus plus works that gets me in.\u00a0 Jesus plus me being a good person is what gets me in.\n\nIt\u2019s Jesus and Jesus ALONE, His works, no longer trusting in self, trusting in Him.\u00a0 And you can do that now as I\u2019m speaking.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation of I\u2019m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we are grateful for these sobering passages which give us a very sober analysis of our world and where it\u2019s headed.\u00a0 Help us to be good stewards of these truths even though sometimes they are unpleasant to digest.\u00a0 But thank\u00a0 You for giving us this morning a dose of reality.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t