Three Woes and the Gospel

um I was raised in the United Kingdomand when I go back to Britain uh peoplesay where do you come from and uh theysay you don't come from around here andI say well actually I was raised inEngland and they say no you weren't youwere raised somewhere elsewhere and soit's a privilege to be with you herethis afternoon in Ohio and it's aprivilege to stand before you and toshare um some of the good news of theGospel this afternoon um as uh wasshared I serve with Adventist Frontiermissions um based in beran Springs andwe work in about 20 countries and uh sothat kind of keeps me busy um but mygreatest joy in life is to study theword of God because it's in studying theword of God is like pouring the AtlanticOcean into a little plastic cup um it itexpands your mind and it grows you andGod challenges me and God changes me inthe process and so I can say with newonI'm not the man that I wish to be but byGod's grace neither am I the man that Iused to be and if we look back in ourown lives we can all see uh God's uhshaping uh care in each of Our Lives asGod has shaped each one of us so um I'mgoing to be giving three talks heretoday tomorrow and Sabbath afternoon anduh I think on Sunday I'm talking aboutthe papacy um tomorrow I am going to betalking about um something I'm trying toremember what it is actually um ifsomebody can tell me what the title isI'll remember what I'm talking abouttomorrow but I know what I'm talkingabout this afternoon which is good newsfor us today historicism three woes andthe gospel and um let me just get thisthing up and runninghere I I spend a lot of time workingwithMuslims and I know that the the holyspirit is working in a powerful way inthe Muslim world I think we have todifferentiate between individual Muslimsand the system of theology that is Islamin the same way that we differentiatebetween Roman Catholicism as a system ofdoctrines and individual Roman Catholicsand while we may say that RomanCatholicism per se as a system ofdoctrines um is a is a force against Godthere is no doubt that God is working onthe lives of individual Roman Catholicsand I would say the same thing aboutIslam that while Islam is a force thatis against gospel and is against JesusChrist um it is clear to me that on aoneon-one basis with individual Muslimsthat the holy spirit is working in theirlives and we have seen more baptisms ofMuslims in the last 15 years worldwidethan have occurred in the previous 1400years since the time of Muhammad it isclear that what is happening in theMuslim world right now with all thestruggles and The Strife that we see umis really indicative of the fact that umthe holy spirit is is at work there andjust as in the year 2000 we startedseeing massive baptisms in the Muslimworld so from the year 2001 onwardswe've had incredible violence in theMuslim World starting with uh 911 in2001 so it seems to me that the holyspirit is working in the Muslim worldand Satan is trying to stir up the Windsof strife in order to prevent peoplefrom entering God's kingdom and so umwe're going to be talking today first ofall we're going to talk for a fewmoments about historicism and then we'regoing to launch into to the three woesof Revelation and how they apply to ustoday um so um I've given you thesehandouts here and I'm going to be goingthrough these notes um so you know I'mgoing to be referring to these notes andpointing out tables and so forth you maywant to keep these to refer to as we gothrough our presentation this afternoonso um essentially that there are anumber of different approaches toprophetic interpretation in scripturethe one that we are most familiar withthe S the Adventist of course ishistoricism his sism if you read theprophetic Faith of Our Fathers by FR yousee this goes um all the way back to thetimes of the Apostles and it was thestandard biblical interpretation ofProphecy um used um all the way up toMartin Luther and the reformers uhhowever um and in in in in historicismum we understand that when God gave avision to Daniel in the 6th Century in5ifth Century BC that those propheciesextended from the time of Daniel downthrough the course of time to the secondcoming of Jesus and almost everyEvangelistic series I've ever donestarts with the Statue of Daniel 2 andyou're essentially affirming that God isin control of history and God has apurpose and God is bringing history to aconclusion in his time and in his wayand why don't you be part of God'splan nowhistoricism uh the challenge withhistoricism from uh the C perspective ofmany Catholics is that from the time ofMartin Luther the Catholic church isportrayed as an anti-god force apersecuting anti-god Force um within theBook of Daniel and in the Book ofRevelation as a result of which in TheCounter Reformation um as the CatholicChurch pushed back um in the late 1500searly 1600s against the the ProtestantReformation the Catholic Churchunderstood that you don't just change umthe results of people's Bible studiesyou need to change how they understandscripture itself and so they came upwith two alternative approaches to to umprophecy the first of which I've listedup there was prism and prism argues thatall of the prophecies in the Book ofDaniel were fulfilled in the time of theBook ofDaniel essentially and all theProphecies of the Book of John werefulfilled pretty much in the time of theof the Apostle John now magically inthis kind of approach to prophecy ifeverything in Daniel was fulfilled inthe time of Daniel then none of it couldpossibly apply to the Catholic Catholicchurch and if all the Prophecies of Johnin the Book of Revelation if they wereall fulfilled in the time of of theProphet The Apostle John then you cannotsay that anything uh for instance thethe Beast of Revelation chapter 13 theSea Beast that cannot apply to theCatholic church and so um prism wasfirst of all um championed by a Jesuitpriest um called Lou de Alazar I'vegiven the dates there in your handout uhthe next uh thing that came along wassomething called futurism and futfuturism implied that the crucial eventsof the Book of Daniel and Revelation didnot take place in the time of Daniel andRevelation but futurism argued that thatthese events took place at the end oftime and that between the 69th week ofof the 7we prophecy of Daniel 9 and the70th week of the prophecy of Daniel 9there was a gap called The Church erawhich um coincidentally coincides withthe dominance of the Catholic Churchand this has become very popular inmodern Evangelical circles particularlysince um the scoffield reference Biblecame out which popularized the idea ofdispensationalism that there's the ageof grace and the age of the law and theage of the gospel and the age of thechurch and so forth and withdispensationalism modern evangelicalshave adopted the idea of the secretRapture and with the idea of the secretRapture many of the uh crucialProphecies of Daniel and Revelation arepunted off into the era after the secretRapture in those final seven years umand if you're one of God's Saints todaythen you you have no need to worry aboutthose prophecies because you'll be inheaven bythen of course the doctrine of the secrRapture really is a satanic heresybecause what it says to people is thisthey say you don't need to make adecision for God until you know theRapture has taken place and if you seethe Rapture taking place then you knowthe the word of God Is For Real and thenyou have seven years to give your lifeto Godall right the natural result of thedoctrine of the secret Rapture is thatyou don't need to give your life to Godtoday you can wait until the the secretRapture and then you can head your betsuntil then and then if you see thesecret Rapture of people know about itthen you can give your life to JesusChrist and then um in modern more moderneras we're seeing more and more Scholarsand theologians including withinadventism talking about more symbolicalor figurative approaches to Revelationor Daniel uh they say things like thisum the book of Revelation says there isa struggle between good and evil and atthe end of the day good will Triumph butbeyond that you can't understand any ofthespecifics now that doesn't help me as Iseek to understand the Book of Daniel orRevelation um figurative approaches toprophetic interpretation really donothing for me so within adventism wehave seen a trend since the book umDaniel Revelation was published by UriahSmith now the first period you can labelfrom 1862 to 1957up until the time of the Adventist Biblecommentary during this time Adventistswere mostly focused on on historicalinterpretation of the Book of Daniel andthe Book ofRevelation we were pinning down theevents of Daniel uh in realtime historyand we were looking for the realtimeevents in the Book of Revelation in inin verifiable historical events from thepast but with the publication of the SDABible commentary um Adventist uminterpretation of the Book of DanielRevelation starts to leave behind thehistorical approach and we start toadopt a more theological approach so nowwe're now we from the time of the SDABible commentary 1957 and onwardsAdventists are are slowly moving awayfrom historicism as we understand it tolooking at what does the Book of Danieltell us about Jesus what are the majorthemes in the Book of Daniel what doesthe Book of Daniel say about how you aresaved the doctrine of salvation and soforth and we're looking at the Book ofDaniel more from a theologicalperspective rather than from ahistorical perspective and then fromabout 1970 onwards um we have uh youmight say um very Divergent views onDaniel and Revelation um occurringwithin the Adventist Church we are not aunified Church in how we approach thebooks of Daniel and revelation we arevery very um all over the place um thereis not much um Common Ground amongAdventist Scholars when it comes to tothe interpretation anymore of Daniel andRevelation now that the crucial pointabout this is as we move away fromhistoricism from the early approachesthat we took to Daniel and revelation weare losing um our approach to prophecyknown as typology where you have a typeand an antitype which we find in the oldand the New Testament we are abandoningthe Year Day principle we are abandoningthe concept of historical application ofthe prophecies and ultimately as Ibelieve God as we see later today go Godhas a prophetic movement at the end oftime calling people to worship Jesus andprepare for his second coming ultimatelywe are losing our theological foundationfor existing as a church that is what ishappening right now um inadventism there's a growing re there area number of reasons for this the firstis thatum the most Evangelical Scholars rejecthistoricism and um the second reason forthis is that more and more of ourAdventist theologians are studying innon-adventistinstitutions where the governingprinciple is not Faith but the governingprinciple is skepticism the essentialdifference between a seminary and auniversity is that in a university thegoverning uh principle of all inquiry isskepticism in a seminary the governingprinciple is confession of faith and asmore and more of our scholars study inin non-adventist universities where thegoverning principle is skepticismum so we are seeing that feed throughinto what is happening with our youngpastors um another reason why this ishappening among Adventist theologians isthat rather than talk about the broadsweep of these prophecies and how thisis applied in history to real events uhmore and more of our Scholars arefocusing on word studies or they'refocusing on little passage here orlittle passage there they're drillingdown deep into narrow portions of thescriptures um and not wanting to look atthe broader picture because the broaderpicture is unpopular with evangelicalsand with Catholics and we also see adownplaying of the role of the spirit ofProphecy among some Adventisttheologians now the the end result ofthis is that um if you go to anAdventist Evangelistic series TheAdventist Evangelistic series we justheld one in my church in Baran Springsis rooted inhistoricism but once you enter thechurch then you read Adventisttheological Publications which are kindof rubbishing the idea ofhistoricism and there is a disconnectbetween what our evangelists are sayingabout this is how we interpret prophecyand this is what's God messages for adying world and what our theologians arestarting tosay to say that some scoff athistoricism would would that's anunderstatement and so we are facing aprofound um we're coming to a junctionwithin adventism about what do weactually believe about how we interpretapocalyptic prophecy and if we don'taccept historicism we might as wellclose the doors and go home and rejointhe methodists or the Baptists that'sthe bottom linefolks and this is happening around usand um I'm not going to name any namesspecifically here today but um brotherKenneth Matthews has produced anexcellent paper called the seventrumpets uh which has about a 100 pagediscussion of the very specificsexamples of how this is working its waythrough in Adventist theologicalwritings and these are bignameAdventists who are essentiallyabandoning our theological foundationsthis is happening around us as we speakand just from the nodding of your headsit's clear to me as I see elsewhere thatwhat is happening among our theologiansand what is happening among ourevangelists The Divide we see betweenthe two of them that divide is not lostamong thinking members in the pewspeople understand that something isgoing wrong um between our theologiansand our evangelistsso with that kind of um that kind ofbackground I want to talk about theseven trumpets of Revelation and actualfact I don't want to talk about allseven I just want to talk about um thelast three trumpets trumpets 5 six and 7um if you look at your handouts on uhhalfway down the front page there's alittle table there I'm just going towalk you through that for a moment theBook of Revelation um essentiallycontains fourVisions we think of the book Book ofRevelation as um containing um the sevenTrumpets the Seven Seals the seven finalplagues the seven churches Etceverything The Book of Revelation is insevens but actually in the Book ofRevelation there are four broad visionsand the first vision is starts inRevelation 1:0 where the Apostle Johnsays I was in the spirit on the Lord'sday and uh the broad message there isthat Christ is the light of thechurch the second vision is starting inRevelation chapter 4:2 the throne roomvision of God where John says at once Iis in the spirit and uh this runsthrough the Seven Seals and through theseven trumpets and the message theoverall message there is not that Christis the light of the church but thatChrist is the Lord of history for whichI say Amen the third Vision starts inRevelation 17:3 it says so he carried meway in the spirit into a Wilderness uhwhere he sees um the pure church is nowbecome an apostate church and she is apersecuting Church she's drunk with theblood of the Saints and here we see thatJesus is the friend of theoppressed and finally we see inRevelation 21:10 the final vision of theBook of Revelation says and in thespirit he carried me away and here wesee that Jesus is not just the light ofthe church as from the first Vision butnow Jesus is the light of the NewJerusalem and So within those thatbroader context the the the vision ofthe the seven trumpets is in the secondVision there where Christ is seen asChrist is revealed as the Lord ofHistoryum you know I I spent a lot of time inpretty dangerous parts of the world justrecently I was in Northern Iraq I'vebeen going there repeatedly since August2014 since Isis were conquering acrossthere and when you meet um Christiansthey nestorians calans um EasternOrthodox maronites they're all umancient sects of Christianity when youmeet them um in the refugee halls in thefactories in the schools and you you sitnext sit down next to an Iraqi motherand her her worldly possessions are onone mattress and uh she says how Isiscame to a house in mosul in August 2014they gave her a choice leave in 48 hoursor die she chose to leave and as theywere leaving mosul um Isis took herwedding ring they took her belt theytook her shoes they took her glassesthey took her watch anything of valueand they took herdaughters little girls and we havechildren here today so I'm not going todescribe what happeneduh other than to say that um I neverunderstood why whenjob three friends come and visit him atthe end of chapter 2 The Book of Job itsays that when they saw the depth of hissuffering they sat in Silence with himfor seven days when you come and sitdown with people who are going throughthat level of daily trauma words meannothing the only thing you can do is sitin silence and recognize that there isan evil that extends beyond wordsand uh and so we see in in the secondvision of Jesus you know the Sixth Sealum talks about you know there toed howlong how long oh Lord those who aremartyred for their faith it tells usthere that there is a limit beyond evilBeyond which evil will not go and I'mvery grateful to God for that vision ofThe Sixth Seal um of Revelation therebut um we're going to look thisafternoon bit more detail at thetrumpets the last three trumpets so whatdoes a trumpet mean in Scripture wellum Joel chapter 2 verse1 gives us a clueuh the meaning of a trumpet it says blowthe trumpet in Zion and sound an alarmin my Holy Mountain let all theinhabitants of the land tremble for theday of the Lord is coming for it is athand so the first thing we find wefigure out about trumpets is prettyclear that a trumpet is a warning soundthat that God is bringing a judgmentupon his people in this case in the Bookof Joel the people of Judah and and souh the command Goes Forth to sound thetrumpet ET because the day of the Lordis coming day of the Lord being an OldTestament concept um that rolls forwardthrough to the end coming the secondcoming of Jesus Christ ultimately Joelchapter 2: 12 what are we to do when wehear the trumpet sound it says there nowtherefore sayith the Lord turn to mewith all your heart with fasting withweeping and with mourning so Rend yourheart and not your garments return tothe Lord your God for he is gracious andmerciful slow to anger and of greatkindness and he relentsfrom doing harm so the sounding of thetrumpet calls God's people to uhrepentance and the renewal of theirrelationship with God in view of thejudgments that are about to fall uponthe Earth and uh so when we understandthis about trumpets we see that thetrumpets of Revelation are essentiallyGod's call of Mercy to the world beforehis final plagues are poured out on theunrepentant wicked of planet Earth andin Revelation chapter 8 and9 we haveseven angels I 1 2 3 four five yes wehave seven in this slide that's always arelief when the slide matches whatyou're saying uh so we have seven angelsup in there uh blowing their trumpetsand those first four trumpets in thatchart at the bottom of your table thereum what I've given you there uh thisused to be shall we say the standardAdventist interpretation using ahistoricist approach to the to propheticinterpretation um these days if you readAdventist theologians kind of all overthe park on or interation of thetrumpets um and uh it's hard to find twoor three people who really agree on thisamong our Scholars and our theologianshowever um I do believe that what whatI've listed here um which is more anolder Adventist view on the on thetrumpets there is a lot to commend it sothe first trumpet will be the people ofGod in the Old Testament sense theJewish nation in their Capital CityJerusalem were destroyed by the Romansin 70 AD the second trumpet was then thefall of the Western Roman Empire itsinhabitants in its capital city Romedefeated and overrun by the invadingbarbarians by 476 ad and then we switchto the the the Catholic assault on thegospel in the third and fourth trumpetsin the third trumpet the true religionof Jesus Christ is corrupted by Satanand by the teachers of the RomanCatholic church and then the fourthtrumpet the Heavenly High PriestlyMinistry of Jesus is obscured andreplaced by a corrupt and um EarthlyRoman Catholic priesthood thus providinga false Plan of Salvation I'm not goingto dwell on those now we're going tofocus more on the fifth trumpet thesixth trumpet and the seventhtrumpet and um so um upon the screen youhave the text there if you turn over inyour notes to Revelation chter 8 andverse 13 it says there the the ApostleJohn says I looked and I heard an Angelflying through the midst of Heavensaying with a loud voice wo wo wo to theinhabitants of the Earth because of theremaining blasts of the trumpets of theThree Angels who are about tosound and those three woes lead up tothe close of probation as we shall seeafter which The Book of Revelationreveals the battle of Armageddon asbeing in the sixth and final plaguepoured out by God upon the wicked youmight understand these final three woesas being God's final three offers ofMercy to a DyingWorld and since Reformation timesour Scholars have understood the thefirst two woses at least as representingum the upsurge of the Muslim world nowwe have our lights on here but um ifthis were a bit darker here's the um thestatue of Daniel 2 and here you have thefirst woe I've blown it up for you herethe first woe is represented by an ArabHorseman um carrying a spear this iswhat our early Adventist Pioneers werepublishing and they OD that this firstwoe represented the initial upsurge ofof Islam under the leadership of theArabs and if you want to open yourBibles for a moment turn to Revelation 9and verse uh 12 uh we're going to belooking through this text just now I'mgoing to read it out you can follow mein your Bibles we're going to start atverse one Revelation 9 verse1 and we'regoing to ask ourselves why did the earlyPioneers understand this first woeotherwise known as The Fifth trumpet torepresent the first Islamic Jihadagainst Fallen Christendom so um followme in your Bibles I'll be readingchapter 9 of Revelation verses1-2 it says there and the fifth angelblew his trumpet and I saw a star thathad fallen from Heaven to Earth and hewas given the key to the shaft of thebottomless pit he opened the shaft ofthe bottomless pit and from the shaftRose smoke like the smoke of a greatfurnace and the Sun and the air weredarkened with the smoke from the shaftthen from the smoke came locusts on theearth and they were given Authority likethe authority of scorpions of the earththey were told not to damage the grassof the Earth or any green growth or anytree but only those people who do nothave the Seal of God on their foreheadsthey were allowed to torture them forfive months but not to kill them andtheir torture was like the torture of ascorpion when it stings someone and inthose days people will seek death butthey shall not find it they shall longto die but death will flee from them inappearance the locusts were like horsesequipped for battle on their heads werewhat looked like crowns of gold theirfaces were like human faces their hairlike women's hair and their teeth likelion's teeth they had scales like ironbreastplates and the noise of theirwings was like the noise of manychariots with horses rushing into battlethey have taals like scorpions withstingers and in their tails is theirpower to harm people for 5 months theyhave as king over them the angel of thebottomless pit his a his name in Hebrewis abdon and in Greek he is calledapolon the first woe has passed thereare still two woes to come so we askourselves why did the early AdventistPioneers join uh with Martin Luther andother reformers identifying this firstwoe or the fifth trumpet of Revelationas representing the Arab uh Jihad thefirst Arab Jihad that started with theproclamation of The Message of Islam byMuhammad in 612 in the city of of Meccaand so um I've given on on that longtable there um a number of identifierswhy did the early Pioneers identify thisfirst woe as being the ArabJihad so um the first clue was that wasthat um there was a star that had fallenfrom Heaven to Earth the interpretationof that was that a fallen angel umpossibly probably Satan Who was theAngelic being specifically listed ashaving fallen from heaven in Revelation12:12 and then the we talk about thebottomless pit or the abyss abusos inGreek uh this is used seven times in theBook of Revelation I've given thereferences there normally to representthe domain of Satan physically thePioneers understood this to representthe abyss that even today represents theArabian Peninsula then um thesecharacters in the fifth trumpet thefirst woe are refer they are like thelocusts of theearth and um we want to interpretscripture from scripture we find that injudges 65 and 712 when the midianitesand the amalekites invade Israel theyare referenced to as being like locustsupon the Earth and so the only referencewe have to to any people group inhistory being like locusts are what wewould nowadays consider the the childrenof the east or the the Arabs um thespread of Islam in their first GlobalJihad as you see on the screen there umactually corresponds very closely to thegeographical spread of the desert Locustandum we see there uhthe the desert Locust spreads all acrossNorth Africa it spreads up into thesouthern 2/3 of Spain across the MiddleEast the Arabian Peninsula Modern DayIran and up into the Caucasus here is isa good um outline of the actual spreadof the desert Locust even in moderntimes and then we we are told that thesmoke darkens the sun and the air wellMalachi 4:2 says that Jesus is the sonof righteousness therefore we interpretthis and the Pioneers interpreted thisto mean that Satan is permitted throughthe Prophecies of Muhammad to releasefalsehood and error that would obscurethe light of thegospel and I can tell you that when youstudy with a Muslim and they understandthe gospel it's a most beautiful thingyou've everseen I was studying once with a youngIranian lady and we're working our waythrough Romans 5 and she came to verse 8it says but uh God proved Goddemonstrated his love for us in thatwhile we were yet sinners Christ diedfor us and she stopped at that momentand she looked up with tears in her eyesand she says this is sobeautiful the gospel really is good newsparticularly to people who are livingwhere the son of righteousness isobscured by falseteachings um the false teachings that wefind in the Quran the Hadith and theShariaum they were told in Revelation 9 not todamage the grass or any green growth orany tree but only those who do not havethe Seal of God on their foreheads andthis uh this was specifically fulfilledin the command of Abu Baka the first ofthe cifs after Muhammad died Abu Bakabecame the leader of the MuslimCommunity uh he was the first Khalif andwhen his troops invaded Syria the recordis they were to cleave the skulls andgive no quarter to those of thesynagogue of Satan those with shavencrownbut they were to leave alone those whoserved God and that is a commandrecorded in Muslim history that someChristians would be slaughtered andothers were to be left alone uh becauseAbu Baka recognized that those earlymonks really had nothing to do with Godand they were to be killed we are toldin the prophecy of Revelation 9 thatthese locust-like creatures would havelong hair and iron breast plates theArab Muslims rejoice in long flowinghair for their men in their calary Warbreast platesthey rode Cavalry and they sting likescorpions and scorpions we know Stingwith their tails and the book of Isaiahtells us in 9:15 it says there theancient and honorable he is the head andthe prophet that teaches lies he is thewhat he is the tail so the Muslimstherefore sting through the falseteachings of their false prophettormenting Men by obscuring the Gospelof Jesus Christ they are led by abdon orapolon which means destroyer and theywere allowed to torment men for 5 monthsand notice that that is stated twice inin Revelation chapter 9 um we actuallysee you see on the screen there thatthere are four things that are repeatedtwice within this Prophecy of the thefirst woe or the fifth trumpet we findthere that the bottomless pit ismentioned twice in 91 and 911 that theleader is mentioned twice in verses 1and 11 we also see that the scorpionsting is mentioned twice and cruciallywe see that the time period is alsomentionedtwice now you know when something'smentioned once in scripture you kind ofthink okay I should pay attention tothat when something is repeated twice inthe same prophecy that's obviouslysomething you need to pay particularparticular attention to so what is theholy spirit trying to say to us throughhaving this repetition now you can lookat this two ways you can either say thatwe need to find a single period of 150years that represents the first um ArabJihad against Fallen Christendom buthistory doesn't bear that out becausethe first Arab Jihad lasted a lot longerand this first world lasted a lot longerthan 150years so how then are we to date thiswell in 612 ad Muhammad started hisproclamations in Mecca and if you add150 years to that you come to 762 ad andin 762 ad that was really uh the firstwave of Arab Muslim expansion it lastedup until until 762 ad after which timethe Khalif transferred the capital fromDamascus in Syria um to a new citycalled Baghdad after which we have thestory The thousand one Knights andAladdin and all that kind of stuff thatyou know children read in Fairy Tales umyou have the Baghdad became a center ofWorld Learning but for those first 150years you have the Arab the first ArabJihad against Fallen Christendom and atthe end of that first 150 years in 762ad the the the Muslim khif moves thecapital from Syria Damascus which usedto be part of the Byzantine Empire movesit back towards the um the the riverEuphrates and tigis and builds the cityWe Now call Baghdad and uh the theMuslims settled down to a life ofrelative luxury and learning um havingconquered much of the Eastern RomanEmpire but then the there is a secondperiod of 150 years that we we find inhistory and it's starts on 27th of July1299 ad I've given you the dates therein yourhandouts this is when a gentleman calledoan after whom the Ottoman Empire wasnamed first invaded the ter theterritory of Asia Minor that's EasternTurkey today and for 150 years theOttomans were constantly attackingattacking attacking uh the the uhByzantine Empire based in modern dayIstanbul it used to be calledConstantinople and uh eventually uh 150years later on the 27th of July umsomething happened uh the Turks uh hadconquered or the Ottomans had conqueredmost of turkey they' conquered acrossinto Bulgaria and much of the Balkansbut Constantinople still remained as acity state that was ruled by a ChristianEmperor at least Christian in name itwasn't really a Christian but at leasthe was Christian in name and um it cameto a point where on this final date of150 years that there was a new ChristianEmperor crowned in Constantinople justbefore the city fell to the invadingOttomans but he had to ask thepermission of the invading Sultan theottoman Sultan in order to be crowned uhthe king in Constantinople soeffectively the ruler of Constantinoplethough nominally a Christian was onlyallowed to sit on the throne by theexplicit permission of the sultan whowith his armies was outside the walls ofConstantinople and if you have to asksomebody ask for permission before youcan do something that indicates that theyou no longer have authority in and ofyourself to do something you will onlydo it by permission of somebody elseit's a crucial point we'll come back tothat in a moment um sothis thus we have the first woe or thefifth trumpet we can date thereforethere were 250e periods the first periodof 150 years of jihad started in 612through to uh 762 ad and then the secondperiod of 150 years um starts in uh in1299 in finishes in 1449 ad and thus wehave the dating of the first Jihad uh itwas um it was a long Jihad it was almost900 years long of Relentless Onslaughtagainst the west by Islamicforces and as the Bible then goes on tosay one woe is passed behold still twonew woes still two more woes are comingafter thesethings so then we come to the second woeand this is one of the charts used byour pioneers and our Pioneers um youthis is the second woe here I've blownit up for you here the second woe theyunderstood once again you have a MuslimCavalry but whereas in the first woethey had a spear now they're using um amusket or an arabus as it used to becalled a musket you would carry on on aon a horse maybe really kind of aprimitive shotgun that the the Ottomansstarted to use so if you turn to yourBibles we look at this this next um thisnext uhwoe and this wo begins Revelation 9:13and it goes through to the end of thechapter verse 21 so follow me in yourBibles we're just going to read throughthis woe here and then we're going toask ourselves why did the early Pioneersidentify the second woes being theottoman Jihad so it says there inRevelation 9:13 it says then the sixthAngel blew his trumpet and I Heard aVoice from the four horns of the goldenaltar before God saying to the sixthAngel who have the trumpet release theFour Angels who abound at the greatriver Euphrates so the Four Angels werereleased who had been held ready for thehour the day the month and the year tokill a third of mankind the number ofthe troops of Cavalry was 200 million Iheard their number and this was how Isaw the horses in my vision the Riderswore breastplates the color of fire andof sapphire and of sulfur the heads ofthe horses were like Lion's heads andfire and smoke and sulfur came out oftheir mouths by these three plagues athird of mankind was killed by the smokeand sulfur and fire com out of theirmouths for the power of the horses is intheir mouths and in their tails theirtails are like serpents having heads andwith them they inflict harm the rest ofmankind who are not killed by theseplagues did not repent of the works oftheir hands or give up worshiping demonsand Idols of gold and silver and bronzeand stone and wood which can neither seeor hear or walk and they did not repentof their murders or their sorceries ortheir fornications or their thefts nowthere are many reasons why um fromMartin Luther on Protestant umtheologians identified this second woenot as being the original Arab Jihadthat lasted from the time of Muhammad umthrough to the time when um theConstantinople it was about to fall itfell in 1453 ad uh there are manyreasons why the Protestant theologiansidentified this second woe as being thenot the Arab Jihad but the Turkish Jihadotherwise known as the Ottoman Empireandum uh the first clue uh we want to datethe secondJihad um let's just take a look throughat the um the bottom of your page therewe have the table it says the firstfirst identifier was that there werefour Angels bound at the great riverEuphrates uh the Ottomans were governedby four Regional rulers all based in theEuphrates River Basin uh in the citiesof Aleppo Iconium Damascus and Baghdaduh that the Bible says that there was anumber of about 200,000 thousandHorsemen well the Ottomans had hugearmies of Cavalry and they could Momobilize armies involving many hundredsof thousands of Cavalry at a given timeuh they would uh they had massive armiesuh the text talks about um fire andsmoke andbrimstone and uh if you're up inmilitary history you know that theOttomans conquered using the latestmilitary technology which was castbronze Cannon and the ottoman Cannon wasso large that they couldn't actuallyhaul them from campaign to campaign theywould simply melt them down and carrytons and tons and tons of brass to thenext city that they wanted to besiegeand then they would spend a few monthsum digging in a riverbed they would digout the cast and then they would makethe cast the cannon that they needed forthat City on the spot and then theywould bombard the city and lock down itswalls the cannon that we used to destroyConstantinople um they would fire acannonball of 200b in weight more thanhalf a mile I mean these are largeCannon uh the cannon are about 35 to 40ft long and they're about about 3 feetin diameter across the across the muzzlethese are huge cannon and those Cannonwere actually made not by the Ottomansthemselves but they hired um they hiredCatholic um Engineers from Romania andHungary and Bulgaria to come and maketheir cannons form they're essentiallymercenaries uh these these CannonEngineers but the point is this that thetext talks about fire smoke andbrimstone and a brimstone is anotherword for sulfur and that is what is thatis the keying ingredient in gunpowderand so um when the text says thatthey're conquering using fire smoke andbrimstone we know historically that theottoman's competitive Advantagemilitarily speaking was their use ofCannon and their Mastery of gunpowder ittalks about the fact their clothing wasthe color of fire hyasynth and sulfurnow fire is red hyasynth is blue andsulfur is yellow those were the colorsof the otoman uniforms if I were to sayto you today that the red coats arecoming who would you say I'm talkingaboutthe British okay um so we understandthat different nations traditionally haddifferent colors for their uniforms inthe Napoleonic Wars the French tended towear blue the British worered um I'm not sure what to theAmericans wear gray I don't know whatthe color of the Continental Army wasunder George Washington but the point isthat when the text says that the colorof their clothing was fire or red hn isblue sulfur is yellow those were thecolors of theumuniforms they were given authority tokill a third of mankind well theyconquered almost the entire Middle EastNorth Africa the Balkans and almost toVienna itself and most crucially for ourdiscussion today um they were given inRevelation 9:15 I put the text up theresays so the Four Angels who have beenprepared for the hour and day and monthand year were released to kill a thirdofmankind and we ask ourselves what dodoes a year a month a day an hour whatdoes that represent propheticallyspeaking well if you've abandoned theYear Day principle of interpretationthat means diddly squat to you meansnothing if you've abandoned historicismthis means nothing it's just a Perpetualmystery but if we hold to the principleof a year day interpretation of ofprophetic time periods we see that oneprophetic year equals360 days in a Hebrew year um and thatrepresents 360 years then a propheticmonth would represent uh 30 daysrepresenting 30 actual years a propheticday would represent one one actual yeara prophetic month is a 254th of a day umthat's uh 15 days and that gives you atotal of 391 years and 15 days when youadd up that time prophecy there so thehistoricist the lutherans onwards theywere saying is there a period in inhuman history that corresponds to 391years and 15days yes yes yes thank you yeah so umit's 391 years and 15 days the questionis was there a period of time thatcorresponded um to the ottoman Onslaughtthat was a period of 391 years and 15days was the word of God accurate andmaybe more importantly is our method ofinterpreting the word of God accuratedoes does history actually play out aswe as we expect um based on what theword of God actually says and how weinterpret the scriptures wellum does history show whether thishappened or not okay so I've given yousome little description of this in yourhand out there uh you've probably heardof the gentleman called Josiah Lichwell Josiah Lich um he he looked at thisprophecy in considerable detail and hetook the used the following calculationsthe 27th of July1299 that was when the last um emperorof Constantinople was allowed to bethroned and throned he was coronated umin in the one of the cathedrals there ofConstantinople but only with theexplicit permission of the sultan whowas outside the walls and so Josiah Lichcast forward 391 years and 15 days andhe came to the the date um 11th ofAugust1840 and Josiah lch he wrote a littlepamphlet this was before this happenedand he said um we believe in in in thehistoricist approach to prophecy webelieve that the 39 the hour the yearthe day and the month Etc is 391 yearsand 15 days therefore we expect on onthis date in August 1840 we expect thatsomething profound will change withinthe Ottoman Empire and he wrote thisbefore ithappened and people said you're crazythe Ottoman Empire um at that stage inthe Eastern Mediterranean nobody had aninterest in seeing it fallapart because the Russians wanted togain access to the Mediterranean thenthey could get access to the Britishpossessions in India and so um theBritish wanted the Ottoman Empire tostay in place as a buffer zone so thatif if the Ottoman Empire collapsed theBritish didn't want to have to fight theRussians in the Eastern Mediterranean itwas kind of like the great game of the1840s ofgeopolitics and it was basically abattle over worldwide Empire and controlof the Eastern Mediterranean NorthAfrica and the the Far East India SriLanka Pakistan Afghanistan and so forthand Josiah Lich he wrote this predictionand he argued based on the391 um years and 15 days on 11th ofAugust 1840 that prophecy would befulfilled and people thought he wascrazy they said you know he was mockedthose learned Scholars of his time saidyou know who is this upstart who thinkshe can interpret scripture in this wayas it happened in 1838 the Ottomans inTurkey went to war with their ruler inEgypt a guy called mhmed Ali he was thepaser of Egypt and the Egyptians theyAdvanced up the Eastern Mediterraneanthey Advanced into turkey and it lookedlike they were about to overthrow theOttoman Empire Emperor himself in modernday istambul it used to be calledConstantinople and because it looks asif the Egyptian part of the OttomanEmpire was about to take over the entireOttoman Empire there was a hastilyconvened conference in London the UK butand the christian powers of Europe thatwas Britain Prussia was ancient GermanyAustria and Russia they held aconference in London and on the 11th ofAugust 1840 that's exactly 391 years and15 days since the last Christian Emperorwas crowned in Constantinople with thepermission of the sultan who was outsidethe city walls uh to the year and to theday the the christian powers of Europegave an ultimatum to the passia of Egyptsaying You must Retreat back to Egyptand otherwise we will declare war on youand to emphasize the points the Britishsent their Navy and they reduced thecity of Beirut to Rubble in a couple ofhours one of mahm um mhmed mhmed Ali'scities and mhmed got the point and heretreated to Egypt the broader point isthis that whereas in uh 14 the beginningof the 391 year prophecy a ChristianMonarch sat on the throne ofConstantinople with the permission ofthe Muslims outside the city 391 yearslater the situation was reversed and nowthe Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empiresits on the throne of Constantinople buthe only does so with explicit permissionof the christian powers of Europe thesituation was completely reversed andwhen this event happened in 1840 um manymany people uh who were listening towhat Milli what milliam what WilliamMiller was saying they said Well theremust be something to this milleritemessage because who would have guessedthat the Ottoman Empire would becomeknown as the sick man of Europe years inadvance who else would have figured outthat the Ottoman Empire which was one ofthe largest world empires of its timewas going to exist only by thepermission and power of the WesternChristian powers and we read thatmultitudes accept the Mite message oncethey understood the incredible procisionof the Prophecies of Daniel andRevelation particularly this um thisSixth Seal or the second woe prophecy ofRevelation chapter 9 sisterwhite um goes on to say in the bookgreat controversy she says in the year1840 another remarkable fulfillment ofProphecy excited widespread interest twoyears before Josiah L one of the leadingministers preaching the second Adventpublished an exposition of Revelation 9predicting the fall of the OttomanEmpire and specifying not only the yearthe year but the very day on which thiswould takeplace she goes on to say according tothis Exposition which was purely amatter of calculation on the propheticperiods of scripture the Turkishgovernment would surrender itsindependence on the 11th day of August1840 and so in the writings of sister wehave this confirmation that what howMiller Josiah Lich was interpreting thesecond Trumpet of the fifth the sixthtrumpet the second woe of Revelation 9was actually as God ordained this waswhat the prophecy was talking about andthey had seen this Prof this fulfillmentof Prophecy in their own lifetime notonly in their own lifetime but it was aremarkable affirmation to the multitudesin America that what William Miller waspreaching was that must actually beaccurate that the historicist approachto prophecy has a lot going for itbecause you can actually predict worldevents and they actually comeabout and I praise God that God hasrevealed these things to us prophecy hasgiven us a light to guide us through thestorms of life and when we turn thatlight off we shouldn't be surprised whenwe stumble and hurt ourselves uhRevelation 11:14 says this the secondwoe has passed the Third Woe Is Comingvery soon so then we come to the ThirdWoeand this is where uh we kind of ventureum into the realm of not speculation butuh informed discussion because the ThirdWoe or the seventh trumpet you can sayquite a lot about it um uh we're goingto say quite a lot about it right nowactually um if you open your Bibles youwill notice that um at the end ofRevelation chaptern that talks about the end of this thisuh sixth trumpet but then it says inRevelation 11 and verse 14 it says thesecond woe has passed the Third Woe IsComing verysoon and so we need to read Revelation10 and 11 as uh they they they fall intothe flow of the transition from thesecond woe to the ThirdWoe and in Revelation chapter 10 what dowe find there in Revelation chapter 10we find the story of the greatdisappointment of 1844 we find the angelwho comes down from heaven with one footin the sea one foot in the land he hasin his hand an open scroll thatcorresponds to the closed Scroll ofDaniel chapter 12 and he speaks thereare the seven Thunders which nobodyreally has ever interpreted other thanDavid Kesh he attempted to expound onthe seven Thunders and nobody else hasreally attempted an exposition of thoseThunders but um in Revelation chapter 10you have the story of the milleritemovement the joy of the anticipation ofthe coming of Jesus then the greatdisappointment then the command toprophesyagain and as we look back using thehistoricist approach to prophecy we seethat in Revelation chapter 10 God isreminding us that before the seventhtrumpet or the Third Woe God is callingout to people forhimself for the final crisis and inRevelation chap 11 you have the story ofthe two witnesses who it seems are slainfor three and a half years but they areresurrected once again and we're notgoing to go into huge amount of detailother than to say that um I believethose are those two witnesses representthe Old Testament and the new testamentwhich were um slain or abandoned theywere rejected in the French Revolutionthe rise of secular atheism but theywere restored and so what we see inRevelation 1011 is that between the thesecond woe and the Third Woe God callsout a people for himself and heresurrects the um the role and the prpreeminence of the word of God in humansocietyI'm grateful for these two chapters arein this spothere because it tells me that before thefinal woe strikes Earth God has calledout a people for himself and he'sreminded the world that actually theword of God is truly significant and weneed to listen to it and we are not tolisten to human wisdom the the futilityof human wisdom we see what is happeningin America right now with thistransgender issue that as we turn ourback on on God as a nation at leastamong our political leaders so in our inour wisdom we become futile in ourthinking we are going down the path ofutter chaos once we abandon what God hascreated in the creation order ofthings and so before the Third Woearrives before the seventh and finaltrumpet God calls out a people and herestores the rightful role of thescriptures to Human Society I say Amentothat and so then we come to the the Fthe final woe the Third Woe the seventhtrumpet there's not a lot to say in thein the text about this but in Revelation11:15 it says there and then the seventhangel blew his trumpet and there wereloud voices in heaven saying the kingdomof the world has become the kingdom ofour Lord and of his Messiah and he willreign forever and ever then the 24Elders who sit on their Thrones beforeGod fell on their faces and worshipedGod singing we give you you thanks LordGod Almighty who are and who were foryou have taken your great power and havebegun to Reign the Nations raged butyour wrath has come and the time forjudging the dead that's a crucial phraseIn this passage here for dating this forrewarding your servants the prophets andthe Saints and all who fear your nameboth small and great and for destroyingthose who destroy the Earth then God'stemple in heaven was opened and the Arkof his Covenant was seen within hisTemple and there were flashes oflightning Rumblings peels of thunder andearthquake and heavy hail so this finalwoe the seventh trumpet when does itbegin well the text indicates that thetime has come for judging thedead so we might say that if the secondwoe uh the final second woe ends about1840 with the the 391 years and 15 daysyou then have this prophetic interludewith a great disappointment in themillerite movement God calls out apeople and restores The prominent roleof scriptures so the third and final woebegins at the time of the pre-adventJudgment the time has come for judgingthe dead as the text says during thetime of the Third Woe or the seventhtrumpet Revelation 13 reveals to us thatthere is a a resurgentpapacy uh supported by the militarymight of a a an apostatized UnitedStates of America to coerce the worldinto worshiping the mark of the beast orthe image to the Beast revelation 13-4also remind us in the time of the ThirdWoe and the seventh trumpet God's endtime movement that he's called out inRevelation 10 has a job to do and itsays there in Revelation um 14:6 I'vegiven you the text there then I sawanother Angel flying in the midst ofheaven and notice this that the firstAngel who announced the woes inRevelation 8 says this and behold I sawan Angel flying through the midst ofheaven and I've always wondered until Istart studying this why do we talk aboutthe Three Angelsmessages when the Three Angels messagesstart with they say then I saw anotherAngel flying in the midst of heaven andthere are three of them so it's not theThree Angels messages at all because ifhe starts with the phrase then I sawanother Angel then there must be atleast one other Angel to the three ofRevelation14 and the only other Angel we flying wefind flying in the midst of Heavenliterally in the Greek the phrasing isthe same is the angel Revelation 8 whoannounces the three woes that the threewoes are related to the three theproclamation of the Three Angelsmessages that they represent God's FinalCall of Mercy to a Dying World and so umEllen White comments on thispassage and uh this is what she saysI've put the text up on the screen thereshe says the kingdoms of this world aresoon to become the kingdoms of our Lordand of his Christ the seventh angelsounded and there were great voices inheaven saying the kingdoms of this worldare become the kingdoms of our Lord andof his Christ and he shall reign foreverand ever then you says this there is tobe a rapid and triumphant spread of theGospel can you say Amen then the time ofthe Third Woe when the world is goingthrough its final spasms of pain and Warand anguish and and and suffering allthe rest of it when we see a resurgentpapacy and an apostasis United States ofAmerica and I believe that with ourdecision on same-sex marriage our nationshook its fist in the face ofGod that's the only conclusion I cancome to an apostasis United States ofAmerica turning its back on the lightthat God has blessed her with for 200years despite the fact that we seesocial chaos and moral collapse aroundus it is not our job to sit and ring ourhands sister white says during this timethere is be a rapid and triumphantspread of the Gospelit's a call to Arms brothers and sistersthat we have a job to do to share theEverlasting gospel with Ohio and withthe whole world it's easy to get caughtup in what's happening around us and tosay this is terrible this is terriblethis is terrible we need to get Obamaout of office and all the rest ofit but the Bible says that during thistime we find the spirit of Prophecyduring this time of Social and moralchaos God's people are focused on theproc clation of the Everlastinggospel that is our Focus we're not goingto be diverted by second amendmentrights or First Amendment rights ortransgender rights or all the otherstuff that's going on right in Americatoday our focus is the proclamation ofthe gospel because if we're not doing itnobody else is going to doit so this is what sister white saysduring this time of the third wo thereis to be a rapid and a triumphant spreadof the Gospel she goes on to say inearly writings page 36 commenting onthis verse she says I saw that the angerof the Nations the wrath of God and thetime to judge the dead were separate anddistinct one following the other fromthis we conclude that before the ThirdWoe ends the nations are angry beforethe close of probation that is duringthe period of the third world which weare living in today the world is to beconvulsed by conflict andanger do you see that in social media inAmerica todayI've noticed that uh whenever I see thenews that people always outraged aboutthis that or theother and everybody'soutraged you know you're outragedbecause a gorilla gets killed in a zoowell I'm sorry but if you believe inevolution you should not be outragedwith gorillas being killed in zoos thatgorilla has no intrinsic purpose ormeaning to life he's just a randomcollection of chemicals why are yououtraged and so we're living in asociety where people are right or leftand there is increasing polarization inNorthAmerica we're living in a world wherepeople's identity isShifting it used to be that 10 years agoEurope was a postmodern post-christiancontinent and now with the arrival of 1million military AE young Muslim malesin as a refugees coming in you have thethe Hungarian prime minister saying justa few days ago he said um Chris um nthese Muslims have no place in EuropeEurope is a ChristianNation we notice this he didn't say thatI'm aHungarian he's saying now we areswitching to spiritual allegiances andidentities and the Book of Revelationchapter 13 What Matters at the end oftime is not whether you're Arab Britishor South African it doesn't matterwhether you're African-American orCaucasian or Latino what matters iswhether you worship the beast in Hisimage or not so allegiances at the endof time and people's identi it will notbe ethnic it will not be linguistic itwill not be political it will not beNational it will be along spirituallines and we are seeing those spiritualbattle lines starting to harden up infront of our veryeyes the world says sisterwhite she says I see the anger of theNations so what else happens duringthose first woes the final woe well thisthis is where we venture into the realmof speculation of we see we know in thefinal woe the world will be angry theNations will be at War we know that thepapacy will be resurgent we know thatthe United States will be an apostateworldwide power um enforcing umessentially um Rebellion against God wealso know that during the third wo theseventh trumpet that that there will bea triumphant spread of the Gospelworldwide um is it possible Islam ispart of this well the first two woes youturn to your final side of your secondsheet of yourfinal the the reverse side of yoursecond sheet now says the first two woesinvolv the is Islamic caliphate thefirst two woes involved attacks againstPowers connected with an apostateChristianreligion the first two woes resulted indiverting the enemy's attention awayfrom God's true people so they couldfulfill their mission of proclaiming theGospelthe first two woes were Redemptivescourges upon an apostate Christianreligion andChristendom designed to lead men torepentance that is Christians repentanceindicating that the fifth and sixthtrumpets sounded before the close ofprobation so if the first and secondwoes involved God allowing Jihad againstapostate Christianity the Arab Jihad andthe ottoman Jihad and we see that thosefirst two woes occurred becauseChristianity the Christian parts of theworld had apostasis and turned theirback on God um what do we expect of thethirdwar do we see in the world today um acall to establish the Islam Islamiccaliphate once again uh what do we havein the Middle East right nowIsis they are the modern version of thecaliphate you see when the OttomanEmpire wasabolished with it went the Islamiccaliphate and when Ataturk the father ofthe Turks camel Ataturk founded themodern Turkish Republic in the early1920s he abolished the caliphate and wein the west don't think this is a bigdeal but it's a huge deal toMuslims because when the Muslim worldwas United under a single Calif thefirst four cffs Abu Bakr and so forth umthey conquered the West Muslim Cavalrymade their way almost up to Paris andthey were turned back in the Battle ofTours in 732 ad when the Muslims wereUnited under the ottomancaliphate um they beat the Christiansand they conqueredConstantinople and if you read thepropaganda of Isis what they say is verysimple they say when the Muslims areUnited against Christendom the Muslimsalways win and historically that's beenthecase and they say to the young Muslimmen of today if you want to lose theshame of of Western domination andChristian domination you need to jointhe caliphate because when the calipatis the Muslims of the world are unitedunder a single Khalif then the Muslimswill be strong and United and they willtake the world for Islam this is whatthey'resaying uh the Turkish president erdogancalls on Muslims to invade uhJerusalem there he is there saying wewill march to liberateJerusalem otan sulan erdogan he's theTurkish president um he's replacingsecular turkey with a Sunni version ofturkey uh there are some pictures ofwhat you see going on in the worldtoday um we're all familiar with thiskind of stuff um the American ThinkerJuly 2013 turkey in the restoration ofthecaliphate uh here are Muslims in Tunisiarejecting multi-party democracydemonstrating for Tunisia to become partof a global caliphate because that ishow Muslims see that they can get out ofWestern domination and they can haveMuslim Supremacy around the world thewahhabi leaders of Saudi Arabia see theTurkish threat over the caliphate theSaudis want to lead the calipat theTurks want to lead the calipat they wantto lead this worldwide Force the BBCjust recently recorded that over 100,000islamists met in the Indonesian CapitalJakarta to press for the establishmentof a caliphate across the Muslim worldthe Palestinian Authority chief judgeargued recently that Jerusalem will bethe capital of the caliphate theEgyptians recently were in the streetswere calling for Sharia law and theIslamic caliphate and there you havesome recent pictures 9911 Benghazi umSan berardino the assaults in the trainbombs going off in Europe and in Spainjust a few years ago um the message ispretty clear when you look at what thejihadis are actually saying they'regoing to killAmericans this guy here is aworld-renowned Islamic scholar he died afew years ago S Abu Alam Ma maudi andthis is what he said he said Islamwishes to destroy all states andgovernments anywhere on the face of theEarth which are opposed to the ideologyand program of Islam regardless of thecountry or the nation that rules itIslam requires the Earth not just aportion but the wholeplanet and you may hear from peopleIslam is a religion ofpeace I would suggest that you go andbuy the Sharia law for yourself you canbuy it on Amazon for about $40 it'scalled the Reliance of the traveler it'sabout 600 pages long and if if you wantto spend a terrifying 48 Hours readingI'd suggest you read that book and ifyou're a womantremble uh the Sharia law expresslyarticulates how and when Christians areto be killed if a Muslim kills aChristian under any circumstances he isnot to be punished no matter what thecircumstances because we are a secondclass citizen uh the Sharia law saysthat um If you deny that it isobligatory for salvation to pray fivetimes a day in the manner prescribedthen you have left Islam which meansIslam is pure righteousness by works Ifyou deny that it is obligatory for yoursalvation to perform harj go to Meccaonce in your lifetime then you have leftIslam it's very clear in the Sharia lawthat Islam is a doctrine ofrighteousness by works and is afundamental denial of the Gospel ofJesus Christ and you can read it foryourself it's in black and white itlists in the Sharia law when Christiansmay be killed which is pretty muchanytime a Muslim feels like it and thereis no penalty for the Christian for theMuslims so here we have Alik this is themagazine of Isis it's a very famousmagazine I hope you don't reced it ifyou do Homeland Security are probablywatching your inbox but um D is is basedon a a Hadith ofMuhammad Muhammad argued that there willbe a final showdown on planet Earth in atown of Northern Syria called abik andthe Crusaders would come and they wouldwipe out most of the Muslims but thatwould be the the Catalyst for the returnof Jesus and the Mei to Earth the 12thImam and here we have um one of thepages of of the this magazine um youcan't see it on the screen but whatthey're essentially doing uh in Isis isthey are the the IslamicReformation because when Martin Lutherstood at the diet of vums Martin Luthersaid that councils have have discussedand they've made made mistakes he saysbut unless I'm persuaded from the wordof God alone I will not recount so helpme God so Martin Luther said I'm notgoing to listen to 1200 years of humantradition I'm going to go back to theword of God itself and actuallyImplement what the word of Godsays what Isis have done is exactly thesame because after Muhammad died umthere were four schools of Islamictheology or jurist Prudence they werefixed by the end of the 8thcentury and from the end of the 8thCentury most Islamic discussion hasstopped um other than how do youinterpret these four schools of juristprudence and so we have from the 8thCentury to the 20th century 1200 yearsof Islamic theological debate about howto apply the Sharialaw what Isis have done is they'vesimply said we're going to cut out those1200 years of interpretation we're goingto go back to the Quran itself and theHadith of Muhammad and we're going tobase our lives on those original Sourcedocuments Muhammad got rid of um Lutherrejected um over a thousand years ofCatholic interpretation so let's go backto the text Isis are doing exactly thesame we're just going to go back to thetext and the text is a terrifyingtext so how do we interpret this in theseventh trumpet or the thirdseal well it may be that under thisscenario what we're seeing in the worldtoday with a global upsurge of Islamicattacks led by newly resurrected Islamiccalipat known as Isis in the Middle Eastit is very easy to see the nations ofthe world of historical Christendomuniting around a common Christianidentity whose natural leader is thepope and the imposition of a globalSunday law to win God's favor as and asan expression of loyal Christianidentity what would be the Catalyst forthe world to turn to thepope what we see in Europe right now ispeople are saying we are a Christianconstant because there's a mass massivearrival of military AED Muslim malesclaiming to berefugees andso if we turn to Daniel 11: 45 through121 this is the text we this is what weread there in the text says and he shallplant the tents of his Palace betweenthe Seas and the glorious holy mountainyet he shall come to his end and no oneshall help him at that time Michaelshall stand up the great prince whostands watch over the sons of yourpeople and there shall be a time oftrouble such as never was since therewas a nation even to that time and atthat time your people shall be deliveredeveryone who is found written in thebook Daniel 11:45 through to Daniel 121they go over the period from the closeof probation when Christ's Heavenlyintercessory M Ministry comes to an endand Christ receives his kingdom at theend of the pre-advent Heavenly judgmentso therefore 11:45 includes those eventsjust prior to the close of probationtherefore they parallel the time of theseventh trumpet or the ThirdWoe 11:45 says this he shall plant thetents of his Palace between the Seas andthe glorious holy mountain yet he shallcome to his end and no one shall helphim and Adventist Scholars have debatedwhat power is represented here becausethe phrasetents is really the wordTabernacle so this is a religious wordand this is a political or a secularworld word so this power here he is acombination of religious and politicalpower this is a union of church andstate just at the end of time umclaiming authority over there in theMiddle East and um there are variousstreams ofinterpretation um but there arebasically two streams of Adventistthoughts on this the most common thoughton this is that this represents thepapacy establishing its worldwideheadquarters as a solution to Mankind'sproblems in uh in the my Holy Mountainwhich is halfway between the Dead Seaand the Mediterranean Sea uh this is thepapacy at the end of time before theclose of probation establishing itselfin Jerusalem uh to try and be uh theglobal Peacemaker or establish a globalgovernment in a city that Muslims andChristians would recognize as being aholy site um there are variousinterpretations of this verse um somepeople hold some Adventist Scholars holdthat this he shall plant the Tabernacleof his Palace to be Isis um if you readthe writings of witcom or Henderson youget very different views on this but uhif you read across the spectrum ofAdventist historicist interpreters thegeneral consensus is that this passagehere is referring to the papacy at theEnd of Time establishing itsheadquarters in Jerusalem um as as afinal attempt to solve Humanity'sspiritual struggles and conflicts amongHumanityso today we are seeing as I put in thenotes there an upsurge of some forcesglobally we're seeing an upsurge ofradical Islam the fifth trumpet thefirst woe was characterized by anIslamic assault on apostate Christendomthe sixth trumpet or the second woe wasalso characterized by an Islamic assaulton apostate Christendom and uh so as youproject forward um it's not hard to seethat the Third Woe part of that processwhy do the nations of the West ancientChristendom why do they coales aroundthe papacy because the pope is theobvious leader ofChristianity in the eyes of the worldand why would people coales around thepapacy unless they feel under assault orunder threat The Logical force in theworld today that is attacking the Westis radicalIslam and so uh as we look at this thesepassages today we see that in the worldtoday there is a resurgent papacythere's tolerant secularism here in thewest and there is a Resurgence ofradical Islam all three of those forcesdeny freedom of conscience and religiousliberty so it's not good news for usfrom that particular perspective um butin the sixth trumpet God used theOttomans to protect the ProtestantReformation time and again when thearmies of the Catholics were about towipe out the lutherans in Germany it wasthe arrival of Ottoman armies over theborders from Turkey um that saved theProtestantReformation and so it may well be theend of time while radical Islam and theWest are are going you know toet to toeto seek who has global domination thatallows God's people to focus on sharingthegospel while radical Islam and the Westare seeking to be dominant and aretrying to wipe each other out that givestime and space for God's end timemovement to do what we are primarilycalled to do which is not to sit injudgment on Clinton or Trump but toshare the Everlastinggospel and soas I say in my notes there it may bethat during the seventh trumpet or theThird Woe when a sister white says thereis to be a rapid and triumphant spreadof the Gospel the loud cry will be givenworldwide because the powers that be thepapacy and apostate United States andradical Islam are involved in a mortalideological struggle for Globaldominance we see it right in front ofour eyes today but perhaps moreimportant because proclaiming theEverlasting gospel and the soon returnof Jesus is the only priority of God'schildrenit is not a priority it is not the toppriority it is the only priority ofGod's children so how do we respond tothis day well firstly as I put up on thescreen there um God sends these trumpetsthrough history as we go back to theBook of Joel chapter 1 and chapter 2 andchapter 3 God sends these trumpets inhistory to call his people to a renewedand restored and a right relationshipwithGod we're not pointing the fingers atthe CH at the Catholics or the Muslimsor anything like this when we hear thesetrumpets sounding through history God iscalling us to a restored and a rightrelationship withGod he's a god of Mercy he's a God whoforgives therefore this is a call for meto search my heart and my life and toask myself is there anything in my lifethat comes between me and a holyGod and if there is then I need to givethat upthe Lord's arm is not too short that hecannot save his ear is not so dull thathe cannot hear but it is your sins thathave separated you from God that he willnot hear your prayers Isaiah 59: 1 andtwo you know the Apostle Peter saysthat um husbands treat your wives withrespect and care have compassion forthem as the weaker sex so that nothingMay hinder your prayers you think aboutthe implications of thatguys if we're treating our wives withanything less than compassion and loveand respect if we're abusing them in anyway we we are lost because God isn'tgoing to hear our prayers including ourprayers forforgiveness know you may say that youcan see the depth of a man's experienceit is etched into the face of hiswife these woes don't just don't justtalk about the Muslims and the Catholicsout there and and the postate UnitedStates there a call for me to repent ofwhat's in my life that Separates Me fromGod and if there is something in yourlife today that is separating you fromGod then don't just come to for as Zcamp meeting and enjoy the fellowshipand listen to the talks it's a time forpersonal repentance andconfession if there's somebody that youhave hurt or is hurting because of whatyou may have unintentionally done orsaid then before we get to this sabbathif you want your worship to beacceptable to God be reconciled withthat person if necessary confess yoursin and repent and ask forgiveness thatis why God gives us these trumpet callsit's not that we can point the finger atMuslims is so that we can be ready tomeet God on the day of theLord It's verypersonalsecondly the third Angel the Third Woethe seventh trumpet the angel says thisthe kingdoms of this world have becomethe kingdoms of our Lord and of hisChristand he shall reign forever andever it's an invitation for us to I toconfirm what is our ultimate identitythese days we hear an awful lot aboutidentity we we are a nation of identitypolitics now if you can identify as youknow I don't know a lobster apparentlywe all have to recognize you as alobster um I'm going to identify as a asa lion then I get federal aid becauseI'm an endangered species you're sayingyou're the Govern then has to feed meand house me I'm joking withyou but the text says that the kingdomsof this world to become the kingdoms ofour Lord and of his Christ and he shallreign forever andever it's time for us as Adventists torecognize that our primary and our onlyidentity is as is as citizens of Heavenabove from where we're expecting OurSavior the Lord JesusChrist it's easy to get caught up inNational politicsthis is the right path forward forAmerica or in my case for Britain at theend of the day every nation will beopposed toGod and we need to understand that ourfirst loyalty is to our brothers andsisters regardless of what country theycome from because we are all citizens ofGod'skingdom it's time for us to maybe getoff that patriotic bandwagon and sayit's not my nation right or wrong anylonger but the only nation I serve isGod's kingdom and I will will serve hiskingdom and I don't care what country Ihappen to be in but my primary and myonly loyalty is to God'skingdom andfinally the text concludes with thecoming ofJesus the the era of the third wo is thetime of the Three Angels messages we arecalled as God's people to commitourselves once more to proclaim theEverlasting gospel around the world so Iwant to challenge each one every one ofus here today to love your neighbor asyourself you can't love your neighbor asyourself if you don't know their namecanyou or if you don't know what job theyhave or if you simply don't care whothey are we are called to love ourneighbor as ourself and a good startingpoint for me and for you would be to gohome from Ford to Zion and to startpraying for our neighbors and to get toknow our neighbors and to let them knowthat we're praying forthem to actually love our neighbors asourself to go home and to maybe join amission trip to give out glow tracks tohold an Evangelistic series to sponsor amissionary we are not called to sit onthe sidelines we're called to join thefrey for God when God called Jeremiah inJeremiah chapter 1 three times in thebook of Jeremiah God says to JeremiahI'm going to place you in the midst oftrouble but three times God sayso not beafraid for I will be with you God neverpromised us that he would take us fromthe battle he promised us that he wouldstand with us in the midst of thebattles so in these trumpets we arecalled first to live circumspect holylives to be reconciled with those aroundus to not allow anything to come betweenus and God secondly we are called inthesetrumpets to essentially giveup our you know our emotional gutparticipation in National politics andto say that I am loyal to God's kingdomand God's kingdomalone and thirdly in these trumpets ifSister white says there is to be a rapidand triumphant spread of the Gospelworldwide we're called to ask our whatam I doing to contribute to the gospelreaching the ends of the Earth am Iactively involved in helping the gospelgo to Every Nation tribe language andpeople and if not then I need to startdoing it thisweekend the trumpets are stillsounding they go to the end ofprobation close of probation so God'scall for mercy on my life and on yourlife it still applies today it's myprayer that each one of us will indeedhear those trumpets and rather than usethem as excuse to point the fingers atothers that we will hear God calling usto a deeper and a more faithful walkwith him and as other people see us maythere be less of us and more of Jesusand as Herod said in Mark chapter 6 itsays when the disci 12 disciples wentout ministering it says it was the nameof Jesus came to herod'sears it's not my name that should risethrough Society or your name as a resultof our lives and our witness it shouldbe the name of Jesus that percolatesthrough Society and the name of Jesusalone may God bless us as we live forhim as we serve him as we witness abouthim and for him is my prayer that whenJesus comes again all of our neighborsand our families will indeed be on thatsea ofglass let's bow our heads and have abenedictionfather I want to thank you for the giftof Prophecy that you've given us thesewords as a light to guide us through thestormy years of Earth's final historyGod I ask that we will never switch offthe light ofProphecy but I ask father that your wordwill indeed be a light unto our feet anda lamp onto our path day by day that wewill not think that we have wisdomsufficient to turn that lamp off that wecan find Our OwnWay father if we have indeed turned offthat lamp in our lives I ask that youturn it on again and that we will walkhumbly and Faithfully in the light thatyou've givenus father may we not mock that light maywe not turn our back on it but may we befaithful to live in the light thatyou've given us may Our Lives beholesome and Winsome and wooing to thosearound us who know we follow Jesus buthave yet to find the Saviorthemselves so please Lord today I askthat the love of Jesus Will flow throughus and shine out of us and reach thehearts and minds of those we havecontact with day by day this is ourprayer in jesus' name amen this mediawas brought to you by Audi verse awebsite dedicated to spreading God'sword through free sermon audio and muchmore if you would like to know moreabout Audi verse or if you would like tolisten to more sermons please visitwww. audioverse.org[Music]