Daniel 024: World Governments on the Horizon (Part 1)

Andy Woods

World Governments on the Horizon

6-4-17     Daniel 7:23-25a         Lesson 24

Good morning everybody.  If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Daniel, Daniel 7:23; maybe if God allows it, I can’t promise it but, making it through the end of the chapter this morning.  The title of our message this morning is World Governments, plural, World Governments on the Horizon.  We’re seeing here in Daniel 7 predictions of two governments that are yet future; one is the world government of the antichrist, which will dominate the events of the tribulation period, and the other one is the government of Jesus Christ. So the sermon application is pretty easy, which government are you in?  Which one do you want to be in?  How do you get from one into the other.

And as you’re turning there, there is a lot of stuff that’s going on as you can see behind me.  The people that are watching online have no idea what all this stuff is. It just looks like one of those cool sets, but all this stuff is for VBS and we’re going to be having VBS at this church, we’ve got more kids signed up than we’ve ever had.  And people have been working very hard at getting this VBS going.  VBS stands for what? Vacation Bible School.  And Jesus loves the children, doesn’t He, so this is a tremendous opportunity to reach these children for Christ.  We’re not the only church in the area doing it but we’re one of many.  And I know people are working hard at it because I haven’t seen my wife for about a week.  [Laughter]  I saw her next to me sitting on the front and I said oh, good morning, how are you?  [Laughter]  So people are working feverously to get this going.  So if you could just pray for people this week, even if you’re not contributing directly or participating.  Pray for me, I’m a crew leader at VBS so pray for endurance because most people don’t realize but VBS is a taxing week.  So we appreciate your prayers in that area.

And Friday was a day which took you two emotional spectrums if you’re involved with Sugar Land Bible Church, in the morning Dan and Judy Poole said goodbye, not farewell, but goodbye to their daughter Karen in a memorial service at Sugar Creek Baptist Church; we’re grateful that Karen is a believer and they will see her again.  And then that evening was the wedding of Hannah Bodum who is now no longer Hannah Boden But Hannah Michael Barber.  And Hannah of course, as you know her is a very faithful saint at Sugar Land Bible Church and sadly for us they’re moving to Florida so we will not see her in the near future, although they might be visiting at certain points.

I just got back and I want to thank Gabe and Jim for filling last week, from the Phropheticon in Germany, which is a Bible Conference in Germany, it’s about two hours near Frankfurt and there’s a picture there of all the different speakers, and most importantly the translators.  The translators just did a phenomenal job.  You might recognize Mark Hitchcock in that group.  The guy up front is Meno and I’m not even going to try to pronounce his name but he is the pastor of the church at Jerusalem, and I said so you’re the guy that Paul was raising money for in the Bible?  He says well, I’m not that old… [laughter]  but it was kind of neat to have the pastor of the Jerusalem church there with us.  Everything we hear about Europe in our media is always negative.  We hear about no go zones and Muslims and liberalism and it’s so refreshing to go to Europe and to see the Holy Spirit doing a work there through this conference, through Johannes Vogel and his Bible center.  And we had 300 people show up and the crowd didn’t even dissipate and so that’s a big crowd for a prophecy conference in Europe.  It’s probably the most organized conference I’ve ever been involved in.  I mean, you were told when to get up, when to eat breakfast, when to talk to your translator, when to pray, and by the way, I was placed on a tight leash in terms of my speaking time,  [laughter] which is hard, and I had this great big square that was supposed to be a clock and they stuck it right here on the pulpit  and as you got within ten minutes…and it was tricky because you have less than half the time you’re used to because  your translator takes up half the time, so we would get within ten minutes of when I was supposed to start and the thing would start to pulsate with different colors, like it was radioactive, and then if you went over it would flash overtime, overtime, overtime.  So get any ideas here… but I’ve just never been to a conference that’s that well organized.  And I asked people is this normal, and they said this is typical of the German people, highly disciplined, highly organized.  So that was a great time as well.

There’s the crowd, as we were speaking prophecy, we all taught prophecy in an uncompromised way; they took the little book that I had written on The Middle East Meltdown, they had translated it into German and it sold out, and the gospel is in that book, so who knows what the Lord is going to do there in that wonderful land, beautiful area, and there I am speaking, there’s my translator, Kristoff, who did just a fantastic, fantastic job.

Anyway, we’re not here to talk about that, we’re here to talk about the book of Daniel, we are in the Book of Daniel, chapter 7, around verse 23.  We know that Daniel was raised up by God strategically to be a prophet of God, not only in terms of his lifestyle, which is a role model, but also to fill in details regarding what the nation of Israel would experience during a very difficult time in their history, called the times of the Gentiles.  It’s a period of time that really started with the Babylonian captivity and Daniel gives prophecies from that time period up until the return of Jesus Christ.  And in Daniel 7 he begins to talk about, in great detail, two governments that are on the horizon.  They’re still futuristic from our point of view; the empire of the antichrist, which is yet future, and then the eternal kingdom of God which will replace the kingdom of the antichrist.

One of the things we’ve noted as we’ve gone through this series is the book is set up chiastically; in other words, the information in chapter 2 is sort of repeated, if you will, in chapter 7.  It’s just like the information in chapter 3, you find the same theme in chapter 6; just like the information in chapter 4, you find the same kind of theme in chapter 5.  So we’ve worked our way all the way through that chiastic structure and we have been working our way through chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel which is a very, very significant chapter.

We’ve seen the historical setting, verse 1, and this is where tremendous chronological information is given.  We’ve studied the fact that this took place around 553 B.C., the first year of Belshazzar, which basically indicates that Daniel was in his mid-sixties when these prophecies were given to him.  And we have also studied the fact that the Neo-Babylonian Empire is still in place; that’s the background, if you will, for chapters 7 and 8.  And we’ve also looked at the fact that Nebuchad­nezzar had the same view of history in Daniel 2.  Nebuchadnezzar saw it as a beautiful statue; Daniel, on the other hand, saw it as four disgusting grotesque beasts that would trample down the nation.  And this is a terrible time period that the nation would be under beginning with the Babylonian captivity and stretching all the way forward to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What Nebuchadnezzar saw from the anthropocentric man centered point of view was a beautiful statue Daniel saw through a theocentric Gentile point of view.  That’s why to Nebuchadnezzar the time period looked beautiful, like a giant statue, but to Daniel it looked horrific as the nation was being trampled down by various disgusting beasts.

The vision itself is given there in verses 2-14 where Daniel sees in this vision four beasts coming out of the sea.

[Daniel 7:2-14, “Daniel said, ‘I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. [3] And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. [4] The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.  [5] And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’  [6] After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. [7] After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. [8] While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.  [9] “I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool.  His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire.  [10] A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened.  [11] Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. [12] As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.  [13]  kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.  [14] “And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”]

The first beast was the lion and we said that represented Babylon.  That was the empire in place when Daniel saw these things.  The second beast was a bear and we said that’s Medio-Persia, the empire that would follow Babylon, that’s an empire that would come to power in Daniel 5 during Daniel’s own lifetime.  And then Daniel kept looking and he saw a leopard and that leopard, we indicated, was the empire of Greece, an empire that would come into existence long after Daniel had died and left the scene.  And then finally we saw a fourth beast; Daniel just describes this beast as a terrifying beast and we indicated that was Rome.  Rome would come to power around 63 B.C. and Rome would be the empire that would push the nation of Israel out of her homeland around A.D. 70.  But you see, Daniel kept looking and in this vision, towards the end of it, he began to see things that really don’t describe what we know of ancient Rome.  He saw ten horns and a little horn subduing the earth.  He saw that ten-horned nation or confederacy being catastrophically instant­aneously overthrown by Christ Himself.

And so what we believe is that is a description of the empire of the antichrist which is yet future.  It will reach its zenith in the tribulation period and I believe that that is the empire that is being orchestrated today.  This is the direction of the world; the world is headed in the direction of one-world government.  And it’s sort of attempting to become afraid of that, despondent about that, but the fact of the matter is the Bible was very clear that this final empire of the antichrist is only going to last three and a half years, the second half of the tribulation period.  And it is to be replaced by God’s eternal kingdom  which will never end.

So the reality of the situation is people that have never trusted in Christ, the only thing that’s in front of them is the failing system of the antichrist.  And how different it is to be a citizen of Christ’s kingdom by way of faith and understanding that this world is going to go from bad to worse yet our hope is not in this failing world and its failing systems.  Our hope is in Jesus Christ and His kingdom that’s on the horizon.

That’s the kingdom that we should be praying for to arrive; didn’t the Lord tell us to pray “Thy kingdom” what? “Thy kingdom come.”  Is that part of your prayer life?  Is that something you’re looking forward to or are you so invested in this world that you’ve taken your eyes off the greatest kingdom that is yet on the horizon, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  That kingdom is going to be brought short, the antichrist’s kingdom, by the Ancient of Days, that’s the Father, verses 9-12, who will at the end of the tribulation period take the world as it exists and turn it over, verses 13-14, to the Son of man, Jesus Christ, who will rule this world from David’s throne in Jerusalem for a thousand years.  And let me tell you something, that’s the only one-world government or New World Order I’m interested in belonging to.

Daniel, as he has this vision, now receives, verses 15-27, an interpretation of the vision.                [Daniel 6:15, “As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.  [16] I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: [17] These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. [18] But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’”]

The vision itself really bothers Daniel; he specifically is focused on the empire of the antichrist because he sees that as the instrument that will bring the greatest suffering to the world.  So in verse 16 he requests an interpretation, he wants more data, more information, which is provided by an angel that I think there is Gabriel.  Gabriel gives sort of a generic description as to what is going to take place.  But Daniel really isn’t satisfied.  There are a lot of details about this final empire of the antichrist which will be followed by the kingdom of Jesus Christ that Daniel wants more data or information on.  So he makes that request in verses 19-22.  [19, “Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet, [20] and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates. [21] I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them [22] until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.”]

The angel is very faithful in giving Daniel this additional information which he does in verses 23-27 so that’s where we sort of pick up the story this morning.  Notice, if you will, this interpretation, Daniel 7:23 says this: “Thus he said:” that would be the angel, “‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms” and notice this very specifically, it “will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.”  It’s speaking there of the final realm of Gentile rule on planet earth before Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation period and sets up His forever throne and His forever kingdom.

You’ll notice that this vision that Daniel saw was different; there’s something about this empire of the antichrist that was different, it was unusual; it was atypical of the other beasts that preceded.  And so Daniel is seeking information on this.  What Daniel is seeing here is, in essence, the opposite of what Nebuchadnezzar saw.  Nebuchadnezzar, back in chapter 2, around verses 40-43, say the statue’s feet made of iron and clay having ten toes.  Daniel is seeing the same period of history but he doesn’t see it as feet made of iron and clay having ten toes, he sees it as a final beast not having ten toes but having ten horns.  [Daniel 2:40-43, “Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. [41] In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. [42 As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. [43] And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.”]

It’s interesting here that in verse 23 you have one of the clearest predictions in the entire Bible that I know of, of humanity’s trajectory in the end of days into one world government.  It is interesting to me to look at the architects of the earth today, the movers and shakers, the authors, the politicians, those in the think tanks, constantly talking about world government as if one-world government is going to be the solution to all of our problems.

This is a statement from David Rockefeller, it’s an interesting statement to me because it comes right out of his Memoirs, on page 405, he’s not trying to hide anything.  He blatantly says this: “For more than a century ideological extremists…have seized upon well-publicized incidents…to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions.  Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure–one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

People say well pastor, you’re getting a little bit into conspiracy theories; well, the reality of the situation is when they come out like this and they announce what their goal is and I have the same reading comprehension ability that you have, they are making their goal very transparent.  It’s not a matter of conspiracy theories; it’s a matter of simply reading what they wrote.  I think this world today would be different if an unknown work, called Mein Kampf, was actually read and digested and taken for value, because in that book Adolf Hitler gives us his blueprint, his strategy if you will, for world conquest and what ultimately caused World War II.

It’s interesting to me that as dictators get closer and closer and closer to the end game, or their goal, they get more and more bold and more and more aggressive about announcing their intentions.  If history teaches us anything it teaches us that despots and dictators should be taken literally and for what they say.

One of the things that’s very interesting that happened May 26, while I was in Germany, a little over a week ago, is the death of Zbigniew Brzezinski.  Most people in the world today have never heard this name.  If you watch cable television, which is a habit I don’t recommend you pick up, his daughter, Mika Brezinski is on a show called Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, she’s a very pleasant looking, pleasant sounding person, but she is the daughter of the Brzezinski I’m talking about here that passed away a little over a week ago.  Brzezinski is the founder of what became very dominant in the Jimmy Carter administration as the Trilateral Commission. Brezinski probably has had more influence over American foreign policy than any academic I can think of.  He has actually been called the spirit or the ghost, if you will, behind five Presidents.  And it’s interesting that you can go back into his writings, here’s a citation from his book, Between Two Ages, written in 1970 where the whole blueprint is laid out for anybody that will take the time to read it, for this trajectory into world government.

And what you have to understand when  you’re dealing with people that don’t know Christ, they don’t understand the Bible, they don’t understand human nature, they don’t really understand Bible prophecy, they look at world government as the only solution to the world’s global problems.  And that’s why they, in their writings, are always denigrating, deprecating the individual nation/state.  They don’t like it when nations do their own thing.  What they want is people under one umbrella where they’re submissive to the world government of the future. “Brezinski does make a number of statements about the decline of the nation-state: ‘the nation-state’” he says, “ is gradually yielding its sovereignty” He talks about “the fiction of sovereignty.”  He talked about, in this particular book, “developing limitations on national sovereignty”   [Brezinski: “the nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty” (p.56); “the fiction of sovereignty” (p.274); and “developing limitations on national sovereignty” (p.296).”  Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era (New York: Viking Press, 1970).]

What national sovereignty is he talking about exactly.  Here is a citation from the Humanist Manifesto, page 21.  This was published in 1973.  The humanists have come out and they have developed a doctrinal statement; it’s sort of like the doctrinal statement you would find in a local church in the sense that this is what we believe.  And this is what they said back in 1973: “We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history where the best option is to transcend” notice that word “transcend, “transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward” what? “to move toward the building of a world community… a system of world law and world order based upon transnational” what does “transnational” mean? A government that supersedes the mere nations  of the world, like the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, “… a system of world law and world order based upon transnational federal government.”

This is the end game, this is what the godless of this world want and it should come as no big shock to us that Daniel, right here in Daniel 7:23, predicted this very thing that would take place in the last days; he simply called it the empire of the antichrist, an empire that once it’s in place will not solve the world’s problems but will literally create hell on earth in its slavery of humanity and its opposition to the things of God.

This whole mindset is a rebellion, if you will, of what God initially established at the tower of Babel.  You remember the story from Sunday School, Genesis 11:6, where the nations of that time came together for what I like to call the first United Nations Conference.  “The LORD said, ‘Behold, they” as they built this stairway into heaven, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.”  [Humanist Manifesto II (1973) Page 21]

God saw the potential of evil at the tower of Babel.  God understood what Lord Acton said, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts” what? “absolutely.”  And so it’s a very dangerous thing to consolidate power into one human being.  This is what Nimrod, whose name is mentioned in Genesis 10:8-10 was trying to build and God intentionally disrupted it because He saw the potential, not for good, but the potential for evil. [Genesis 10:8-10, “Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth.” [8] Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. [9] He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”]

Isn’t it interesting that what man looks at as a solution God sees it through a different lens and sees it as an instrument for evil.  And so God, through a miracle, by confounding the language, thwarted this process.  And Satan in human history has always worked to resurrect this one-world government.  Apparently, according to Daniel’s prophecies it’s a one-world government that will exist on planet earth in the tribulation period.  It is a rejection of the different nations that God has established.

You know, there’s so much talk today in the culture about borders and nations and languages and they’re so much of a mindset to erase those things.  The reality of the situation is these are things that God set up.  These are things that God set up as a built-in check and balance system.  It’s difficult for one man to get control over the entire world and abuse his position of authority as long as there are good nations that can arise and oppose and offer a check and balance system.  But think of the world in which there is no check and balance system.  Think about an Adolf Hitler or a Saddam Hussein or a Fidel Castro getting hold of the only government that exists on planet earth.  Think of the mayhem that he could create.  Think of the enslavement that he could create.

It’s interesting that when we study prophecies about this one-world government of the future the way it’s described is like a surveillance society.  It’s a society or a government that keeps track of people through information from cradle to grave.  By the way, they don’t use the expression any more, “cradle to grave.”  What you hear is “cradle to cradle.”  Why have they switched the vocabulary?  Because they are not interested in simply your death, they’re interested in their thoughts going through to the next generation, to your children.  So no longer is it cradle to grave, it’s cradle to cradle, kind of like the way John describes it in the Book of Revelation.   You know the verses, Revelation 13:16-18, “He” that’s the antichrist, “causes all” that would be the whole world, “the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,  [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. [18] Here 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.”

We could spend all afternoon talking about these verses, couldn’t we?  But we know this much, that the empire of the antichrist is what I would call a surveillance society; freedom is gone and people are literally tracked electronically throughout the duration of their lives.  You say well, you can’t believe, do you, that such a system is on the horizon; you really are not telling us, are you, that it is within the mind of the fallen man to foist this system upon every nation on the earth, even here in the United States of America?

Again, it’s just a matter of going back and reading what Brzezinski said.  Brzezinski, in his book here, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, Pages 252-53 in 1970 was very clear.  He says: “Another threat, less overt but no less basic, confronts liberal democracy. More directly linked to the impact of technology, it involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled and directed society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific knowhow. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society” look at this, “and keeping society under close surveillance and control.”

It’s almost like Brzezinski woke up one day, read the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, and said that’s what I want.  But we know that, of course, he was not being directed by the Holy Spirit, he was being directed by the god of this age.  In fact, Brzezinski, when you get into his writings, has a very dim and love view of people that are religious, people like ourselves that are Bible focused, and yet he is reaching the same conclusion that Daniel said would happen in the last days.

Brzezinski goes on and he says, “At the same time, the capacity to assert social and political control” this is a 1968 citation, I was two years old when this citation was given, in a book called the Encounter.  “At the same time, the capacity to assert social and political control over the individual will vastly increase. As I have already noted, it will soon be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and to maintain up-to-date, complete files, containing even the most personal information about the health or personal behavior of the citizen, in addition to more customary data. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.” [cited in Zbigniew Brzezinski, “America in the Technetronic Age”, Encounter (January 1968), p. 21.]

One of the things that was fascinating to me to watch in Europe was how many times I was on camera.  According to one article I read the average person in the U.K. is on camera somewhere about 300 times a day; they drive down the road they’re on camera.  They walk into a convenience store, they’re on camera.  We see that here in the United States developing too, don’t we, the surveillance society of the last days.  Of course we hear all the excuses of why we need this surveillance.  The thing in my mind is what happens when this surveillance falls into the wrong hands?  What happens when someone arises and abuses this surveillance and this technology?  This is what the Bible is warning us about during the empire of the antichrist.

I think that we are living in a time in history where technology has finally caught up with what the Bible predicts.  Think how ridiculous Brzezinski’s statements looked in 1970, prior to microchip technology, prior to the internet, prior to the advent of cameras everywhere, and yet he was seeing something that he thought and hoped would materialize, and we’re living in a time period where this technology has finally caught up.  Every Google search you do is recorded; every Facebook post you make is recorded.  Every time you text somebody, a loved one, a friend, that’s recorded.  All of that information doesn’t just disappear, does it?  It’s stored somewhere.  And the computer is capable of generating profiles on you.

Why is it that when I order a book off of Amazon through my credit card, suddenly I get an e-mail, in my e-mail inbox that says if you liked this book you’ll like this one over here.  How do they know that?  And you’ll like this one over here.  In other words, in a moment the computer can generate a profile on me through marketing; and it’s generated on you.   There’s really no problem with that but what happens if all of that technology falls into the wrong hands. It’s almost as if Tim LaHaye used to say, the skids are being greased for the coming time in history where a one-world dictator, the antichrist, will come upon the scent and abuse this technology.

What is Daniel seeing here back in the 6^th century, Daniel 7:23, “the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and crush it.”  This is what John sees in Revelation 13:16-18.

One of the things to understand about Satan is he is not omniscient; if he was omniscient he would be god himself.  He’s not all-knowing; neither is he omnipresent (everywhere at the same time), neither is he omnipotent (all powerful).  The Book of Ezekiel, chapter 28:13 says this of the fall of Satan, “On the day you were created,” just to get the point across Ezekiel 28:15 says, “you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created.”  Satan is a created being; he can’t be everywhere at once and know everything, so what has he always lusted for?  He has lusted after this system of control where everything is monitored, everything is regulated and through that system he can orchestrate and subjugate and enslave humanity.

The very system Nimrod was trying to build in Genesis 11 is the system that Satan himself seeks to bring back and now the technology is in place.  You know, I used to pay almost everything with cash.  Have you ever purchased a car lately?  Could you go in and purchase a car with two big suitcases of cash?  I purchased a car recently and I asked the guy, I said what would happen just hypothetically, if I was going to walk in with these two big suitcases of cash, put them on your desk and say I want that car over there?  He said to me very nicely, well, we would have to call the FBI, we would have to call the FBA because  you’re probably laundering drugs, we would have to call the Department of Homeland Security.  And so we’re at a point now where cash is almost off the table when it comes to major purchases.  Now why is that?  They don’t want us using cash because as long as I am using cash they can’t monitor exactly what I’m doing.  My wife the other day says, Why did you eat at Arby’s?”  And I said “eat at Arby’s, I eat at Arby’s all the time.”  She never knew before because I was paying cash; well now I’m  using a credit card, it shows up on the receipt there  your husband ate at Arby’s… busted in other words.

And this is the type of system that we’re moving into.  And we, as God’s people need to be discerning about the signs of the times.  I don’t mean to foist my own political beliefs on you but I feel very strongly about this.  Dr. Jim McGowan and myself did a Facebook feed on Friday where we talked about this for an hour, you can find that on You Tube, or you can find it on the SLBC Facebook page but I was so exhilarated and happy and thrilled when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, told the Paris climate treaty folks to take a hike.  [Clapping and a yeah in the background]  You know, to enter into a treaty you’ve got to have two-thirds of the Senate, that requirement was never satisfied; the whole thing is a bad deal; it’s a bad deal for American but it’s used as a pretext to suck us into world government.  The prior President entered into treaties like this constantly and I can’t tell you how happy I am and how much I’m in prayer for this man; we have a President that’s finally saying no to the rest of the world.  And this is something that is what I would call a reprieve, if you will.  Have you watched the reaction of the world media to what Trump did?  The total meltdown and total hysterics.

I was in Germany before that treaty was entered into… or revoked I should say and the Christian group that I was with told me very clearly, I want you to understand that everything you’re going to hear about Donald Trump in the German media is critical and negative.  And sure enough, as you look at different media outlets throughout Europe it’s critical, negative, constantly, and to see that criticism just explode into profanity… I went to the Drudge Report and I saw a picture, if you will, of a German magazine, and I’m not condemning the German people, what I’m condemning is the German media, and I don’t speak a lot of German but I can recognize expletives when I see them.  I saw a picture of Donald Trump, I saw the Globe in the background, they were upset about his renunciation of that treaty and I saw expletives.  And that’s what you see all over Europe.  And what is the crime?  What has Donald Trump done that’s so bad?  He has said no to The New World Order. And I believe largely what happens with our rejection of the Paris Climate Accord put a monkey wrench or slowed down, if you will, our progress into one world government, which we know is on the horizon.

Let’s move on to verse 24.  “As for the ten horns of this kingdom, ten kings will arise and will arise after them and be different from the previous ones and subdue the three kings.”  What does Daniel see here?  He sees this final realm of Gentile dominion and he sees ten horns and you’ll notice there in verse 24 that the ten horns are described as ten kings.  He sees a ten king confederacy governing the entire planet.

One of the things to understand about Daniel’s writings is he uses king and kingdom synonymously.  It’s like when we say the White House, we’re not just talking about a house but we’re talking about the governing structure of the executive branch of government.  Daniel does the same thing; he did the same thing back in Daniel 2 related to what Nebuchadnezzar saw, the feet mixed with iron and clay.  He said, “You, O king,” that would be Nebuchadnezzar, “are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the” what? “the kingdom.”  See how he just switched there from “king” to “kingdom”?  What exactly is Daniel seeing in this vision?  He’s not just seeing ten kings; he’s seeing the ten kingdoms that these kings represent.

One of the things I found very interesting a few years back is The Club of  Rome which is a one-world government organization, they have the entire planet divided up into ten governing regions.  They didn’t pick eleven governing regions, they didn’t pick nine governing regions, they picked the number ten; it’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it?  And of course I’m putting “coincidence” there in quotations because Daniel is seeing these things in advance.  He’s seeing some kind of ten king confederacy not just arising out of Europe.  I think this is the mistake people make, they look at Europe and they say it’s going to be the European Common Market, the European economic community.  I don’t have any doubts that Europe doesn’t play some kind of role in this but it’s bigger than Europe.  It’s talking about something that governs the structure of the entire world.

You know, if you want sort of a blueprint of where the United States is headed look at Europe.  It’s interesting that in the different European nations they no longer have political power, those are just nothing more than debating societies.  The real source of power is Brussels which reigns over an entire region.  And in fact when I was in Germany I didn’t use German currency, I used something called the Euro, which allowed me to purchase things anywhere in Europe.  That’s what we call regionalism.  And eventually I believe that what is going to happen is there’s going to be ten of these regions and they’re going to be dispersed throughout the entire world and those will form the backdrop of the coming world government of tomorrow.

Isn’t it interesting that all of the criticism today is on people that want to enforce our borders.  We frisk little old ladies before they get on a domestic flight but the border is wide open.  Why is that?  It’s a very simple reason, the architects of world government have already decided that America is going to be not America but a region; it’ll most likely be America, Canada, and Mexico combined as a region and we will not use the dollar any more, we will use something called the Amero.  The true source of power will not be the United States of America and Washington D.C., it will be some sort of government that reigns over that entire region.  If  you’re interested in this the book The Late Great US.A. by Dr. Jerome Corsi, a Harvard graduate, talks about this blueprint in depth.  And I believe North America will be a region.  Europe has already been conglomerated as a region and eventually what you’re going to see at the end game is these ten regions disperse throughout the earth and you’ll notice that this is the structure through which the antichrist will come to power because three of these regions, according to this prophecy, will resist him.  He has to subdue three; he has to bring three under his dominion, but seven of them will acquiesce and this is the meaning of the ten horns that Daniel saw earlier, and the little horn arising amongst the ten and three horns needing to be subdued and seven horns cooperating.

If I’m wrong at many of these points I’ll be happy to be corrected by the Lord in heaven because I’m not planning on being here when these things take place.  I’m planning on having the best seat in the house following the rapture, of the church.  By the way, that’s what they say the half hour of silence is heaven is for.  Revelation 8 talks about there’s silence for half an hour.  Why is there half an hour of silence?  Because that’s when we readjust all of our prophecy charts.  But we’ll see, we’ll see how it works.  But these are things that Daniel is seeing in the last days.

As we move into verse 25 he begins to focus on the antichrist himself.  I’m not sure how far we’ll get into verse 25.  The antichrist or this little horn that has to subdue three horns and seven horns cooperate with him is described in verse 25.  It says, “The beast” that’s the little horn or the antichrist, “will speak out against the Most High.”  One of the things that’s fascinating to me about this prophecy is how frequently the Holy Spirit calls our attention to the antichrist’s mouth.  Have you notice that?  That’s why one of my favorite Bible teachers refers to the antichrist as Mr. Big Mouth.  Verse 8, you’ll see a reference to him uttering great boasts.

As you move into verse 11 of chapter 7 you’ll see another reference to what he says uttering great boasts.   You see the same emphasis there in verse 20.  [Daniel 7:11, “Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.”  Daniel 7:20, “and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates.”]

And now for the fourth time in the series of a very short chapter we have the fourth reference to the antichrist’s mouth.  John, in the Book of Revelation picks up on this and in Revelation 13:5-6 John says this, “There was given to him” that’s the antichrist, the same character that Daniel is seeing, “There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. [6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”  Who would be “those who dwell in heaven”?  I think that’s the church; the church that the Lord has removed from the earth before these events happened.  The antichrist sees them in heaven and blasphemes them and blasphemes God Himself.

Again, not to get overly political but I cannot tell you how many intelligent people, people even in my own extended family, people with advanced degrees, many of them voted for not this President but the prior President which shall remain nameless, and I would ask them, I’d say you’re a very intelligent person, the prior president has no resume whatsoever, we don’t know anything about him, why would you vote for him?  Why would a man of your academic pedigree and your intelligence vote for something or someone that you know nothing about?  And here was the answer I got all of the time: he sounded Presidential, we like what he says, we like how he talks, we like how he articulates his ideas.

The only reason I bring this up is we are living literally in the exact same time period that Daniel spoke of where people will attach loyalty to someone based completely, not on their character, not on their accomplishments, not on their resume, but on their ability to be an orator.  And this is the very thing that Daniel here is seeing.

Well, verse 25 goes on and it says this of Daniel 7, He will “wear down the saints of the Highest One,” now that opens Pandora’s box.  Who are these saints?  What are they doing upon the earth?  Is this the church?  If it’s not the church then who is this group?  And I’m now looking at the clock and I’ve got two minutes left so obviously I’m not going to be able to explain all that right now.  So that’s sort of my tease to get you to come back next week as we discuss who are these saints in the midst of this time period.  And is there really proof for this idea that the church (that’s us) is going to be raptured to heaven before these things happen.

But before I dismiss you let me just bring one more point to your attention.  We’re dealing with, here in Daniel 7, two kingdoms, two world governments on the horizon—the failing empire of the antichrist followed by what will start to be described in verses 26, 27 and 28, the eternal earthly rule of Jesus Christ.  And as I said before the sermon application this morning is very easy, it’s just a question:  What kingdom are you a citizen of?  The reality of the situation is if you have never trusted in what Jesus has done for you your whole citizenship is here on the earth.  The only thing that you are stuck with is the failing system of the antichrist and world government which is on the horizon, destined to destroy, destined to enslave and destined to be defeated.  If you don’t know Christ personally that’s your future.  Your future is in the empire of the antichrist which will fail.

But how different it is when a person responds to the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit and they place their personal faith in what Jesus has done for them.  This is what we celebrated this morning at the Lord’s Table.  You see, the fact of the matter is simply this: the story of the Bible is not what man does for God!  What man does for God is religion; it’s human works.  The story of the Bible is not what man does for God, it’s what God has done for man.  Christianity is not about reaching up to God and climbing; it’s about God reaching down to man in the person of Jesus Christ, whose final words on the cross were what?  “It is finished!”  In other words, it’s completed.  Everything that’s necessary to bridge the gap between God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness has been fixed.   Your job is to rest by faith in what He’s done for you.  Are you here today with a spirit of religion—what can I do for God?  If that’s your mindset then you’re stuck in the kingdoms of this world that are failing.

If, on the other hand, you’re here today resting in, by way of faith, what Jesus has done for you then not only are you a member of God’s royal family but you’re a citizen of a coming world government on the horizon which will be far bigger, far greater and far more durable than the failing kingdom of the antichrist.  As the Spirit of God no doubt places some of you under conviction either here or perhaps people watching online, the conviction you feel is not accidental, it’s the Spirit’s work, whereby Jesus said in John 16 that when the Spirit comes He “will convict the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment.”   “…sin,” singular, “because they do not believe.”  [John 16:8, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;”  [9] concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;”]

The reality of the situation is there’s only one sin that sends a person into an eternal hell and that’s the sin of unbelief.  It’s going to a person’s grave never having trusted in what Jesus has done for them.  That’s the only sin that really is unforgiveable and this is why the Holy Spirit comes into the world to agitate people, to annoy people of their need to place their personal faith in Jesus Christ.  But placing your personal faith in Jesus Christ is a matter of privacy between you and the Lord.  It’s not something  you have to raise a hand to do, walk an aisle to do, join a church to do, give money to do, it’s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you respond by faith, the best you know how, and receive a free gift from God.  Another way of saying faith is trust, reliance, dependence, confidence.  It’s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord.  When you say to the Lord, yes, I’m trusting in  You and what You’ve done for me and not what I do for  myself.  It’s something you can do right now as I’m talking.  If it’s something that you have done or now are doing then on the authority of the Word of God you’ve changed your eternal destiny and your citizenship has been completely altered away from the failing systems of man to the glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ which is on the horizon and you are now a citizen of it.  If it is something you need more teaching on, more explanation on, I’m available after the service to talk.

Shall we pray: Lord, we’re grateful for Your church and Your people as we gather this first Sunday of June in a very busy time period in our lives, in our church, but we acknowledge Your truth, we rest in it, we trust in it, we thank  You for the prophetic pages of  Your Word which give us a clear depiction and picture of the things that are to come.  Make us good stewards of these things.  We ask these things in Jesus’ name.   And God’s people said… Amen.