Revelation 12

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to services. This past week, you may have noted, to one degree or the other, that there was a very interesting conference that took place in Iran. Iran gets a lot of headlines these days with the president there and the statements that come out of Iran. But the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hosted a conference that was aimed at debunking the idea that the Holocaust existed. The Holocaust being the murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II. We use that term, the Holocaust, exclusively today, it seems, to apply just to that one Holocaust.

So they held a conference, and they had one of the past directors of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke came, and other historians who've written the ideas that the Holocaust never existed. President Ahmadinejad has made those statements and claimed that it didn't happen, and this was supposed to be an open conference based on free speech to examine that question. It's an interesting thing to see. There was one article in the Financial Times that said that the event was billed as an objective examination of historic fact, although interest is fed off the international furor spoke by President Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks on Israel by his questioning of the Holocaust, which he has repeatedly done over the last year and a half since he became president of Iran.

And, of course, it is no secret that anti-Semitism is a very, very strong feeling and sentiment, not just in Iran but throughout the Muslim world, the Islamic world, and particularly in several of the Arab nations and has been for a number of years. It is interesting, we should note that anti-Semitism in the Arab world and the conflicts that have resulted obviously the conflict between the Arabs and the state of Israel since 1948 when Israel came into existence have dominated our lifetime.

But anti-Semitism and this hatred of the Jews within the Arab world is a relatively new phenomenon, and its roots really go back to Nazi Germany. Prior to, let's say, the World War I, World War II period, within the Arab world, anti-Semitism was not a feature, let's put it that way. In fact, another article that was in the Financial Times this week brings out that within even the holy book of Islam, the Koran, there are passages that advise and encourage Muslims to, in fact, respect Jews and to respect Christians because they are, as they call them, people of the book, this being the book, and at least with the Jews, Jews monotheistic.

But there are some passages in the Koran that encourage tolerance of Jews and Christians, and historically, Muslims through the ages were very tolerant of Jews, more so than Christians were. In the end, anti-Semitism historically has very deep roots within Christianity, as it has developed. Martin Luther, for instance, the founder of the Lutheran faith, was a virulent anti-Semite. He hated Jews, and his writings bear that out. In World War II, as I started to say, the Nazi feeling, the German Nazi feeling toward Jews became so pervasive, and that bled down into the Arab world.

In fact, you've heard the term the Bathurst Party, which was the party of Saddam Hussein and the ruling party in Iraq. The Bathurst Party has its origins in, again, the 1930s, 1940s, and they modeled the origin of that Arab party after the National Socialist Party or the Nazi Party of Germany. And so, it was through that and through the propaganda of the Nazi machinery that anti-Semitism came into the Arab world, at least in the World War II period and with the start of the nation of Israel in 1948 that just has grown and developed and has become a very, very strong strain of hatred within the Arab world, and we see that continually today.

Now, the Holocaust, I don't think there's any – I hope there's not anyone of us in this room that denies that the Holocaust existed. I've been to a couple of Holocaust memorials, probably the most famous is Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and I've seen the relics and the artifacts in that display at Yad Vashem. There are Holocaust museums all over the world.

Washington, D.C., has one that was opened a few years ago that is quite extensive and there has been probably no event in modern times has been documented like the Holocaust.

And we've all seen the films, we've all seen the books, and we know that, and yet to see that there are people, not just Arabs, but even others who would deny that shows a number of things, but it is a very, very strong situation that we see.

Anti-Semitism is not just in the Arab world. It is still very much alive in Europe today, in many parts, the actual scene of the Holocaust. In recent years, synagogues have been attacked, Jews have been attacked as well. Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated in various cities in Europe. In France, within the last couple of years, there have been some notable attacks upon French Jews. And in some cases, I think, at least in one case, I know of a few of the that I was reading about recently. It was a French Muslim, a Muslim youth that attacked the French Jew and killed him in his apartment complex. And there are, from time to time, articles and notices about that, but it is still very, very much a fact of life. Last year, whenever we were in Jerusalem after the feast, we were at the Jerusalem YMCA, which is right across from the King David Hotel in downtown Jerusalem. And we had a chance meeting with the director of that building, the Jerusalem YMCA, and he was giving us a tour of this old and historic facility there. And he showed us out the back door of the YMCA, and there was a big construction project going up of condominiums. And it was, I think, they were releasing the land from the YMCA, and so he knew the origins of it, knew what was being done there. But these condominiums were going up, and he said most of them have already been pre-sold, and he said the majority of them have been purchased by French Jews who want a place of escape. If anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews in France get so strong that they can't stay there, they've got another home to come to. And he said, so this place is already sold out, and the majority of owners are French Jews. So this is a very real part of life in Europe still, and certainly in the Arab world in terms of anti-Semitism.

And you will see articles about it. We've written about it in our publications, and it is a very, very real part of life. It hasn't gone away, just like so much of other forms of bigotry or prejudice in all of our cultures have not really died out despite legislation, despite social change over the years. We still run into it, but this one gets a lot of headlines because of the many different factors. And this recent conference that was held for two days in Tehran this week is just an example of it.

I was writing and thinking about this this week, and the question came to my mind, could the world see another eruption of violence against a group of people that hold distinct religious views, such as do the Jewish people? Now, not all Jewish people are devoutly religious according to the Jewish faith. They have their various classifications of people within their society. But I think the Jews we recognize because of who they are and their beliefs, they are a distinctive cultural and ethnic group within our world. But could we see the conditions arise in our world that would make this possible again? Could we see another Holocaust?

It's interesting to ask, and it's interesting to look and see what the Bible tells us about this. My mind was drawn immediately to a chapter of the Bible that I thought it would be good for us to spend a little bit of time with. And the more I thought about it and went through it, the more I saw the relevance to even the season of the year that we are in and to us in the church and saw that this would be an important topic for us to look at and to remind ourselves of certain basics about the church, about our belief, and about Bible prophecy.

The chapter I'm referring to is the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation. I'd like for you to turn there because I'm going to go through this chapter here this morning and refresh our minds on some of the elements of this book, or this chapter at least, because it does tell us something that can answer this question that I posed about another future Holocaust that would expand beyond just one ethnic group, but would be upon a spiritual group of people.

This book tells us that indeed it will happen, just as it has happened in the past. This book has a little bit to tell us about that and to see what it says. Let's begin here in Revelation 12. Let's look at verse 1. Let me say that chapter 12 of Revelation, as many of you know, is what we've called an inset book within the flow of Revelation. Revelation begins with a scene of Jesus Christ in chapter 1, jumps into two chapters that describe the messages to the seven churches there in Revelation, and then it begins an unfolding of the prophecies and the seals and the plagues and the events of the book of Revelation culminating in the time of Christ's return in chapter 19 and 20 and the resurrections and all.

We have this flow of events that get marched through the book of Revelation, but there are certain chapters that kind of are inset chapters, or sidebar chapters, we could say, that kind of stand alone in Revelation 12 is one of those. Within Revelation chapter 12, we actually have a whole range of history being discussed from the time of ancient Israel all the way to the time of the return of Jesus Christ is encapsulated in these 17 verses.

Let's begin in chapter 12 and verse 1. Now it says, a great sign appeared in heaven, and this was the sign, as John saw it and recorded, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Alright, well, here we get into symbolism. And what does this mean?

We have a woman, we have the sun, we have the moon, we have twelve stars. What this is describing, what this is talking about, is the people of God. Remember that this whole book comes from Jesus Christ. It is a message from Christ to His church. And here we are talking about the people of God, the ones that have been chosen to be the light in the world in contrast to another woman that is mentioned here in the book of Revelation.

This woman is speaking of the people of God. That can be, as we will see, either the Israel, the people of God from the Old Testament, or the church of God, described as a woman here. Revelation talks about another woman, a harlot woman of a whole different religious persuasion. We're not going to go into a lot of detail on that aspect of it today. But this woman symbolizes the people of God, those whom God has worked with, that are chosen to be a light of the world, to be a kingdom of priests, as they were in the Old Testament, and a spiritual kingdom of priests, and called out ones in the New Testament.

But it begins here, and you see the twelve stars. They represent the twelve tribes of ancient Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob. And within this you will have a memory of the dream that Joseph had, the patriarch Joseph had back in Genesis, where he had this vision of the sheaves bowing down before him. And Jacob understood a bit of what was taking place there, and understanding that at the time. But the woman here is Israel, and the twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel, as they are pictured here.

And so that's stated. We move right into verse 2, and it says, then being with child, she was pregnant, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. Alright? Any one of us are you ladies who have given birth to your children? You understand that concept very, very well, what it means to cry out in pain and in labor. But beyond that, there is also another verse that comes to mind. Hold your place here, and let's turn back to Romans 8. It might be good just to note this verse in Romans 8 here.

Where Paul writes beginning in verse 18 about the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation, verse 20, was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now.

And so Paul elevates this concept of woman giving birth to the whole creation, and that all of life and all of the creation and humanity has been groaning throughout the ages, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, for we are saved in this hope. And so the whole creation waits for this until we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

So he's saying that the whole creation, even the first fruits, the people of God, historically, through the centuries, have been waiting for the time of the manifestation of the people of the sons of God, which is a direct reference to the resurrection, when that birth into the family of God through the resurrection of spirit beings will finally be consummated and done. And so going back now to Revelation 12, we see a specific time of birth that is talked about here when this woman is to… cries out in labor and is going to give birth.

And so verse 3, another sign appeared in heaven, and behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his head. So we have a woman in pain to give birth, and now we have a dragon that comes on the scene. Kind of swoops in like dragons do, if you ever go to the dragon movies. And I think there's one coming out this month that is based on the mythology of a dragon, but they kind of… Here's the idea of a dragon swooping in and poised right there as the woman is about to give birth.

Now, you know, we could play off of that, and, you know, the Bible is very direct, and it's very graphic. You know, what woman wants anybody watching her give birth? Most don't. There's a doctor and a nurse in attendance, and a lot of times today a husband is there.

But it's, you know, it's a time of great pain. It's a very intimate time. It's a time of great joy. But we have this injection of a dragon, which is never a good thing, and he's right there.

This dragon we know from the book of Revelation is describing Satan the devil. He is symbolized here by a dragon. And, of course, Satan is the one who has stood in opposition to God and to his plan for all eternity. And Satan has… The symbols of the human systems that Satan has worked through are right here as well with these seven heads and these ten horns.

And, you know, Revelation has a great deal to say about this. Chapter 13 goes into it in more detail as well as chapter 17. It ties in with Daniel's prophecies, and I'm not going into all of the details of that. But suffice it to say that this dragon with its heads and its horns represent the human systems that Satan has worked through, the governments and the systems that historically Satan has worked through to thwart the plan of God, to stand in opposition, to even persecute the people of God and the various resurrections of that. Now, we know from Daniel's prophecies in Revelation as well that the four great empires that… from the ancient world and ended with the fourth one being Rome. And Rome has had many different revivals from the time of the first century and the fourth century down to our very day. We look for a final revival of the system that has its origins in Rome to be yet ahead prior to the time of Christ. But that's the focus as to where we are right now. But this whole system is described here, right there, waiting for a child to come out. Now, in chapter… or in verse 2 here, we really are looking at the time when Christ was born. This is the time when Christ was born because it is referring to the time of the woman who is Israel, the physical nation of Israel, giving birth. We'll come back to that in a minute. Verse 4 tells us that the tale of the dragon drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. And so this idea, this picture of the dragon taking a third of the stars of heaven and dragging them to earth is telling us, in a sense, how many of the angels of the angelic world Satan took with him in his initial rebellion against God and his plan. Stars are always a symbol of angels in Scripture. And this one sentence is telling us that Satan took a third of the angels at the time of the pre-creation period before Adam and persuaded them in his way and drew them to earth. He drew them out of their allegiance to God and were with him. So we find that he stands before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. And so here then we see what was taking place. And so she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

And her child was caught up to God and his throne. So in verse 5, we go from the birth of Christ to his death. This is the child that is being spoken of. Now, at the time of Christ's birth, whose birth accounts we have, obviously, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke primarily, we learn enough details that God wants us to know about the birth of Christ that tells us a great deal. I've given a sermon in the past, and I need to probably next year, at the time Christ really was born, to give another sermon about that, to talk truly about the meaning of the nativity of Christ at the time that he was born. But this is what's being described right here. And when we go back to those accounts, we see Christ being born in what we would call today the first century. They didn't call it the first century in Joseph and Mary's day. They didn't get up and say, oh, good to be living in the first century. And it was today for them. It was exactly where they were and who they were. And it was their life, and it was then and now for them. But the ruling power was what? During the time of Joseph and Mary. It was Rome. It was that last system that Daniel prophesied of. And Herod, that we read about being the bad guy in Judea, was the governor of the province there in Palestine. And Joseph and Mary found themselves in Nazareth because there was a census that went out from the Caesar at the time, Augustus. And everyone had to go back to their city of birth for a census. And so they were in Bethlehem. That's why we were told they were there. And all of those things are true and important.

But Herod, being told and being warned and being a paranoid individual that he was, and he was kind of a complicated whole set, he had this premonition that he needed to do something. And right now... I'm going to turn off my cell phone.

Okay, next time yours goes off in church, you've got one on me. So... I'm duly embarrassed.

Okay, I normally do that. And, well, I forgot this time. I know we all make mistakes. Okay, so you remember in Matthew's account, Herod talked with the wise men and found out who and where he was. But by then, God had already whisked Joseph and Mary off to Egypt along with Christ. And actually, about two years it had gone by. But you remember the significant event of what was taking place there, and why God inspired and moved Joseph and Mary with Christ down into Egypt?

It was because Herod was killing the firstborn males of the Jews. What do we have going on there?

Another Holocaust. We have another Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by the Roman Empire, the beast. And the the beast's agent, which was Herod at that time, was creating a Holocaust.

And Christ was spared during that period of time. His life was spared. But that's what we had going on during that day. We haven't even talked about it. We could go back to maybe the original Holocaust, which was over all of the children of the Israelites when they were in Egypt. Remember, Pharaoh started killing off all the males. That's why Moses found himself floating on the river.

As he was spared. So we had another one going back even further there. So this has been a historic occurrence against whom? The people of God. The Israelites, the time of the captivity in Egypt. And here, the remnant of the tribes of Israel, which was the tribe of Judah. By the time of Christ's birth, Christ was born of the lineage of Judah, the one tribe of Israel that at this time had still retained its identity. The other tribes of Israel had been taken captive. They were already, quote, lost into history. And they had lost their identity of who they were as a people.

And what were those signs of their identity? Well, one major sign was the Sabbath. The Jews of Christ Day were still keeping the Sabbath. And they had an identity, and they were persecuted.

Christ was spared. And that's what we are told here. And this is obviously...

He was set upon by Satan's system, and he was spared. And so, verse 6 then, moves into another episode or point in the story. Then the woman being, in this case, the church, because after the time of Christ's death, Israel goes through a transition. It is the church that is now formed. Christ founded His church. And the church is the body of Christ. And so, from the time of Christ's death on, the woman here takes on the symbolism of the church. The church takes on the symbolism of the woman. And in verse 6, we are told that she fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God. Very interesting phrase. But they should feed her there 1,260 days. So, 1,260 days. And with the understanding of a day for a year in the Bible prophecy, this becomes a period of... can become a period of 1,260 years. That is an interesting period of time to look at. We come down through verse 6, and there's another break on into verse 7. But our understanding of this in the church historically has been that this particular period of 1,260 days or 1,260 years, one period of time we've blocked off in history to understand this, and I think that it still has validity, is a period from 325 AD when the Council of Nicaea was conducted by Constantine. And in the first church council that took place, the Sabbath was outlawed, and those who would keep the Sabbath were looked upon as heretics. And really, with that council and subsequent councils and the Christianization of the Roman system, the Roman Empire, and the church becoming ascendant as it was at that time, we see a beginning of a persecution upon those who would adhere to the teachings of God. The Sabbath is one that is marked out right in some of the dictates of the Council of Nicaea. And so from 325 on, you fast forward 1,260 years, and you come to the year 1585. Now, 1585 by itself is no remarkable date, except that it marks the year when Queen Elizabeth I became Queen of England. And she becomes the first monarch to establish the Protestant faith within England, which is the ascendant, call it the nation of Israel at that time. So you've got to tie into the first woman or the symbolism of the woman here in verse 1, and the people of God, or at least the people of Israel as they find themselves among the English-speaking peoples at that time. And you have a woman, Elizabeth I, who becomes the queen, and she is a Protestant queen, her father, Henry VIII, who made the historic break with Rome, and she perpetuates that. Protestantism becomes ascendant within England, and there is a great deal of Catholic-Protestant intrigue. It's a very fascinating story, but we find a break being made that is finally anchored within English culture, and it has tremendous ramifications for England, ultimately for America, and that story, and really for the world. But that's a whole other story that we have to go into.

It's interesting, and I heard this coming up on NPR this morning. There are some valuable things you can hear on NPR, but today, on this date in 1653, this is the last date I'll give you, on this date in 1653, less than 100 years after this other date of 1585, and Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell becomes the Lord Protector of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and he cuts off the head of James I, who was a successor to Elizabeth. And Oliver Cromwell is an interesting person in English history. He sets up a lot of reforms. One of the things he does, he is a Puritan, he's Protestant. Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas in England for a period during his time. He also instituted certain religious reforms that really expanded religious freedom within England at that time. And the parliament that he set up, or originated with him, has endured to this day in England. But he banned Christmas, and England saw a period of religious freedom under Oliver Cromwell. I've always felt Cromwell was kind of a type of a modern-day judge, off of the old judges, of the book of judges, that kind of rallied the people and held off paganism and everything else. And Cromwell's story is a fascinating one, but he actually banned Christmas during his reign, something that was pagan, and a good Puritan Christian of his day should not be doing.

So anyway, 1585, Elizabeth I marks the end of a 1260-year period for us, at least to understand and to think at. This is what we've understood in the past, and as I said, I think it has some validity in terms of application there. But we keep moving forward in the story. Let's go to verse 7. Because verse 7 tells us that war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, and they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels, that third that we read about, were cast out with him. All right, so in verse 7, 8, and 9, we have, again, a composite picture that tells us a great deal. And that is that something we already know from the book of Job, that Satan seems to have and has had access to God in God's presence in heaven. We see that in the first two chapters of Job as, or the first chapter of Job, is Satan is disputing with God over Job. He's in the presence of God at that time. But there is a time when there's going to be another major battle. And Michael will fight against the dragon. This is one of the archangels that is described in the book of Daniel. And Satan and his demons will not prevail, and they will be cast out, and they will be cast back to the earth. Now, this event that we read in these verses, I don't believe has taken place yet.

All right, this is a future event. One reason I don't believe that it has happened is that when it does, we will see an intense persecution begin. Because verse 10 tells us, and then as well verse 10 tells us, then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. So the immediate event after this casting out of Satan from heaven is salvation, the resurrection, the kingdom of God and the power of Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. So this jumps us right into the time of Christ's return and the setting up of the kingdom of God, and this hasn't happened yet. There's no need to try to figure out that it has. I've heard people speculate, well, this event in the church or this event in the world shows us that it's happened. I haven't bought any speculation that I've heard over the years that shows me that. Will we see it? Will we know by some natural phenomenon? I don't know.

Don't know that we need to look for that in that sense, because that's not what we are really told here. Really, when you move on, verse 11 says, and they overcame him, meaning Satan, by the blood of the Lamb. It is through Christ's strength and his sacrifice that we overcome sin. We overcome this world of Satan. It says, and by the word of their testimony, in other words, of theirs being the brethren, the saints, we overcome by the word of our testimony, the testimony of our faith and the works and our life. And it says, they did not love their lives to the death. Now, that's an interesting phrase. Again, I don't have time to go into a lot of the ramifications of that, but it means that we look to the kingdom of God. We love this life. We don't have a death wish. We don't have a death cult like Islamists have who love death more than life and are willing to blow themselves up and anyone else in order to achieve their vision of paradise. We don't have that at all in our faith and our understanding. But what he's saying here is they don't love their lives to the death.

We understand that this life is transitory. It's a preparation. We understand it for what it is, as a time of preparation for the kingdom of God. We don't hurry our death. We don't hurry that time when we are going to exit this physical life, but we understand that there is more to it than really holds and stands. And so we move forward. Therefore, it says, Rejoice, O you heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. So you take these few verses together and again I say this hasn't happened yet, because when it does, we're into the tribulation. We're into a time of Satan's wrath. He knows that he has a short time and his reign as the God of this world is about to come to a close. He's been cast out of the presence of God and will no longer have access to God in the form and fashion that he has had. And he now turns his attention on the earth and its inhabitants. And so, verse 13 says, When the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman. And this is the church. This is the spiritual woman, the spiritual body of Christ. He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child and whose body is that of the child, in a sense, as we fully understand from the scriptures. And this is the time of the great tribulation and the time of great persecution. Now, verse 14 tells us, I'm encouraging a bit of news, the woman was given two wings of a great eagle. She might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time from the presence of the serpent. And so, we have a period of time for three and a half years that this tribulation, the time of the day of the Lord, and all the other prophetic scenarios are taking winding down and taking place. This time, time, and half a time, or three and a half years, takes in that period leading up to the return of Christ. But it says here that the woman is taken into the wilderness to her place. Now, this is the second time that the phrase her place is referred to in chapter 12 of Revelation. And it is her place where she is nourished from the presence of the serpent, from the presence of Satan, and his political agents, governmental agents. Again, historically, we can see from the scriptures and from history that Satan has worked through a system of human governments throughout history to thwart the plan of God, to try to advance his kingdom, his ideals, his plan. And those kingdoms have cycled in and out. They have changed. They migrated from the time of Babylon to Persia, to Greece, and to Rome, and its various revivals, and still very much alive. And we'll have a final revival before the time of Christ, and we'll be involved in this particular time of persecution.

Now, to the question, where is this place? And what are we being told?

I can't—I don't have the time to talk to you about that this morning.

But I would refer you to a presentation that was given by Robin Weber on one of our World News and Prophecy seminars that we do have on our wnponline.org website. And I thought he did a very good job of covering this subject. The title of that presentation, which you can listen to or download and view, is called, What is Her Place? Well, will her place be your place, is the title of it. And it's on our website. So you can go to that if you have—if you want to know the answer. The key is in that—the key is in that presentation. The answer is to where her place is, and what you need to know is in that presentation. So I expect you all to go there as soon as you can. Okay?

I was in Petra last year, brethren, and I sure hope it is not Petra. Okay? All right.

Petra's an interesting place to visit. I'd love to go back there. But the only food we had was what was catered in by a very nice hotel chain. We had a very fabulous meal there. And everybody knows—there's hotels all around Petra. Everybody knows where Petra is.

Wherever God has this place for His people, He knows where it is and how it will be done. And I think that those details are better left to Him to reveal to us when it is time for Him to do that. But Mr. Weber does a very good job of explaining it to you there.

Verse 15 goes on to show that the serpent, Satan, through his armies, through his powers, spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. And this is, again, Bible symbolism for the flood and these waters are like armies. And agents of Satan, they're physical forces that he marshals to provide this persecution in armies. And yet God protects. Verse 16 says, the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. So here is a time of persecution. Now, this is aimed primarily at the church, but we must also realize from other aspects of prophecy we understand, brethren, that this persecution is also directed at the physical remnant of Israel as well. Remember, we began this prophecy in verse 1, talking about the 12 tribes, 12 stars, the nation of Israel, that first woman, that through whom Christ was born of the family of Judah. And so they're not completely out of the scene. Revelation shows us that from many different perspectives. God knows who Israel is.

We find 12,000 from each tribe even being sealed in another occasion here in the book of Revelation and in the story flow. So Israel has not gone out of existence, even though historians say that they are lost. Here we find that this persecution is also going to be directed at the remnant of Israel, and the modern descendants of Israel will also suffer the wrath of Satan. The book of Jeremiah talks about a time of Jacob's trouble. There's going to be a mixture of Satan's wrath as well as God's judgment upon Israel in the time of the end because of its sins, because of its problems and its inability to recognize that God is a source of His blessings.

And so when we look today and we see America's place in the world coming under severe attack, not just in the Muslim world, but from other areas from Asia, and increasingly so from Europe as well, we have to understand that this verse here is telling us that Satan, the agents that he uses, and the forces that he will gather in the time of the end, really are being gathered right now, in one sense. Because we're seeing a very interesting period of time in our world history, and especially in American history. There is a mounting chorus of negative comment and action being directed our way in this world at this time. And it's not just from the chorus of the Islamic fascist variety, but from a number of ways. There was an article that was off the internet this week called, The End of Pax Americana. Pax Americana is the Latin, the Peace of America, and it really, the article is talking about the decline of America, American power. This was out of the Washington Post on December 13th. And let me just read a few paragraphs about it. It says, with hindsight, we may see 2006 as the end of the Pax Americana.

Ever since World War II, the United States has used its military and economic superiority to promote a stable world order that has, on the whole, kept the peace and spread prosperity.

But the United States increasingly lacks both the power and the will to play this role. It isn't just Iraq, though Iraq has been profoundly destabilizing and demoralizing. Many other factors erode U.S. power. China's rise. Probable nuclear proliferation. Shrinking support for open trade. Higher spending for Social Security and Medicare. And the weakness of the traditional U.S. allies in Europe and Japan. It goes on to talk about the prosperity that America has helped to facilitate in the world and the legacy of America, which indeed has been good, and the strength and the power that America has at this time. But he comes down and he says that the trouble is that strength, and that being the economic strength, the political strength, and even the military strength, which is undeniable, does not translate directly into power.

Power is the ability to get others to do what you want. Here, America is weaker. And I will just say, in summarizing what he says here in conclusion, that not since World War II really was the last war that America won, in the sense that we were the sole power surviving and standing in the world, and we had the influence and the ability and really the power to influence the world and to change and shape the world, the post-World War II world, in the image that we wanted, which we did.

We made Japan a democracy. We made Europe, Germany especially, a democracy. We helped rebuild Europe. And we did shape much of the post-war world. We have been the strongest nation, but we have not really won a war that we could have the lasting impact like we had in World War II. We didn't in Korea. We did not in Vietnam. And we have not in this most recent affair in Iraq, this most recent war in Iraq. As the article says, strength does not always translate into power. Power is the ability to get others to do what you want. And that is increasingly on the decline in America. Now, it doesn't mean America is going away tomorrow. He says America will not retire from the world stage, but how active it will be is unclear. Iraq has reduced national confidence and credibility. And he goes on to talk about our own internal problems with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Interestingly, he said, this article says, a poll of 18 to 24-year-old Americans finds that 72 percent don't think the United States should take the lead in solving the global crisis. 72 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds, some of you, don't think that America should take the role in solving global crisis. Given the rampant anti-Americanism abroad today, the fading of the pox americana may inspire much glee. The U.S. is widely regarded as an arrogant source of instability blamed for many global woes, from greenhouse gases to Islamic militancy to unpopular globalization. No one can know what will replace the pox americana, but with time, the people who now celebrate its decline may conclude that its failures are mainly those of good intentions and its successes were unwisely taken for granted. Whatever replaces America will change the world, and it will not be the same. And when that happens, and I'm not saying it's going to happen next week, but when it happens, it will dramatically impact our lives if we're still alive at that time.

But that comes from other prophecies, but going back to what we see here, this persecution is going to come upon not just the spiritual church, but upon the physical remnant of Israel. Because verse 17 tells us that the dragon is enraged with the woman. Satan has been enraged with all of those whom God has called and worked with down through the ages. To have identified yourself through time with the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, whether you were a first-born Jew, a Jewish boy, at the time Jesus was born, and you just happened to be born at the wrong time, on the wrong street. And you lost your life before you even knew you had a life. Or if you were an Israelite in the mud fields of Egypt, and you were descended from Jacob, and your people were thought to be proliferating too much, and you lost your life then, and you were identified with the wrong God. Satan has attacked God, his plan, his people, and those who stand for his plan all through time, all through history. And when we see that he is enraged at this point in the future, just before the return of Christ, the consummation of this age, he's going to be enraged. He is going to be white, hot, angry with anyone who is representing the God of Israel. Get your gods right. We're not talking about everybody else's God and who they think might be God, the God they worship at Christmas, the God they worship at Easter. Those are different gods, different mountains. So get your God right. Those people who worship the true God are going to have war made upon them.

He went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and that have the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is a future holocaust. And it will not just be against Jews, but it will be against those who are looked at, can I say, brethren, as spiritual Jews?

I was called a Jew when one of my friends in my neighborhood found out I didn't keep Christmas.

I was called a Jew and I went to the Feast of Tabernacles and had to come back to school and give the teacher my pink slip. And written on there was I was gone for 10 days because I was keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. And she said, I didn't know you were a Jew. And she kind of spit it out. Mrs. Domits, and her name fit at times, but she was an interesting lady. And she kind of looked at it. She ruled study hall. And she looked at me and she said, I didn't know you were a Jew. I said, I'm not. Just kept the Feast. Had a good time. Thank you. Sign it and let me get out of here. But when you keep the Holy Days, when you keep God's Sabbath, you are identified with a different God in the mind of people who worship the God of this world and His false ways and all that He has perpetrated upon this world. And these are the ones who are going to be attacked in this way. Here is described at a time when those who do obey God, and it is the Church of God, they will be persecuted in another Holocaust that is far different.

You know, funerals have taken on a different cast in the Church of God.

They've always been an opportunity to console the bereaved with the truth of the Scriptures.

And it's always an opportunity to expose people who have never heard the truth of the Scriptures and the resurrection to what the Bible says. But in recent years, funerals also have become a gathering place. I call them ecumenical events within the Church of God community.

And they're far more than just the family of the deceased, non-Church member families. They are all of the scattered individuals who have at one time or the other been a part of the Church of God experience. We had one of those last Sunday, as we all know. And I found in recent years it's interesting to just watch the reactions of people in the audience when I speak the truth, and I refer to the truth. I've moved far beyond trying to convince people of where the truth is. I just read what the Bible says and explain that. But it's interesting to note the expressions. And some people do not like to hear the truth referred to anymore. You can see it in their eyes. You see it when they walk by you and won't even look at you. You can also see some who shake their head when they hear it again. As I say, they're interesting experiences that we have when we gather for these things today. There's going to come a time, brethren, when your adherence to God's truth could cost you your life. It will cost the life of some who are just those who are the offspring here, the rest of the offspring. And let's not try to figure out who they are. Let's not try to label people with anything beyond that. Let's just take it for what it is, and let's look at our life, and let's look at what we need to understand, what we need to learn. Because when we see events that crop up in the news and people who want to deny that six million people were murdered because they were a part of an ethnic group, that should send a signal to us that this world really does hate God. And as Paul said in the first chapter of Romans, they did not want to retain God in their knowledge, and they pushed Him out. When you see anti-Semitism, in whatever form, you're seeing a hatred of God being manifested because people don't want to be reminded of the law of God. And the God that thundered that law from Mount Sinai. And it gets attached to the one ethnic group of people, the one current remnant in this world today, the tribe of Israel who still has an identity, albeit besmirched and a bit muddied at times from that period. And they take the brunt of it and have it in our modern world. But there's going to come a time when that wrath that Satan has, and he engenders through human beings, will be turned upon the offspring of this woman and the people of God. Whoever that will be and whenever that will be at the time, we certainly pray that they will die in the faith. Brethren, as we look at that, it tells us a lesson. It tells us to heed the whole lesson of the message of God to the churches, not just in chapters two and three of Revelation, but throughout the entire book. It says, he will make offspring with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Well, the commandments of God are pretty obvious. The testimony of Jesus Christ, where Revelation 19 verse 10 tells us that the testimony of Christ is the spirit of prophecy, which shows that prophecy is something to stay abreast of and to understand. Stay close to God, because when Christ returns, the whole creation's groaning and prevailing is going to end.

The Kingdom of God will bring about a different world. A lot of things to go through between now and then. The things that we see taking place in the headlines of our world should serve to be a warning to us to examine ourselves and make sure that we are holding fast and we understand the truth and we are obeying that truth and we are staying close to the testimony of Christ and to the commandments of God.