Thursday, June 14, 2012 (All day)
What is a key to avoiding the deception of the beast and the false prophet?
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[Steve Myers] We just concluded recording a program about the coming beast power. And of course that power is found over in Revelation chapter 13 it's described as this ominous, not only a political leader, but also a political system. So, it was quite a serious program that we recorded on the whole subject.
[Gary Petty] Yes, while we were looking at Revelation 13, the one thing you see there is there's actually two beasts. And as we go through in the program, one of them represents a political power that is going to come together in what is now modern day Europe. And with that political power is going to be a religious system. And they're going to combine together, which of course is historically common in the history of Europe where the political power and church combine together. And when they do they're going to try to actually take over the world. They're going to unite and they're going to create this beast power, which will actually fight against Jesus Christ at His return.
[Steve Myers] Yeah and the serious part for you and I is that we better be ready for this because there's going to be an outright attack on God's people. You've got this counterfeit religious system that's going to appear to be wonderful and fantastic and why shouldn't we follow all of these things—and yet we find in verse 7 of chapter 13 where it says, "It was granted to him," referring back to the beast, "to make war with the saints and overcome them" (Revelation 13:7). So there's the possibility that our faith could be overrun if we're not careful. So how do we assure that we are God's people, that we are following Him? You know, what is that delineating factor that shows that we are with God's program?
[Gary Petty] Well, when you look there in Revelation chapter 12, there's a verse that explains who the saints are and that the beast goes to persecute (Revelation 12:17). And they have two things—one is the testimony of Jesus Christ. They will know who Jesus Christ is. They are Christians. They understand that He is the divine Son of God, who came to this Earth to die for our sins and be resurrected and now sits at the right hand of the Father. But they also keep the commandments. And that's very important because what we're going to increasingly see as time goes on is a lawless Christianity form, in which people do not believe in the laws of God. They don't believe in the Ten Commandments. And because of that, what we have is really a false Christianity.
[Steve Myers] I think that is such a vital point because people don't understand the connection there that we are commandment keepers. We need to be commandment keepers. There's a great passage that came up in 1 John chapter 5. And as you look at this particular passage whether you read verse 2 and beyond, there's some interesting things that are written here because it says, "We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments" (1 John 5:2-3). And it even says this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. So if we're going to avoid the beast power in the future, we better be on track with God—loving God, loving our neighbor, and keeping those commandments because they really show who God's people really are.
[Gary Petty] One of the great lies that's going to form is, is that love somehow overrides commandment keeping. And the truth is, if we love God, we're going to want to live life the way He says to because He defines what love is. And so actually what the beast power's going to do is replace God's love with a human definition of love and end up creating a lawless system.
[Steve Myers] Don't be caught in the counterfeit. We can avoid all that by staying close to God.
[Gary Petty] That's right.
[Steve Myers] That's BT Daily . We'll see you next time.
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