What Do We Need to Look for in Prophecy?

Living in momentous and important times in the United States, and indeed in the world. The re-election of President Barack Obama certainly seems to have some great significance on the direction of the future of the country. And I say it seems to because we all feel that it does, but then we ask the question, well, in what way? And I want to see if we can look at some of that. But we understand that this country represents the modern descendants of the children of Israel.

And so the prophecies that name Israel can be applied and usually do apply specifically to our nation, to the United States and Britain. So that means that many of us are looking at what's happening and we're wondering, well, what does this mean prophetically? Is there something in Scripture that we can look at? Or, as we've seen many times before, we could ask the question, just where are we now in prophecy? It's an easy question to ask and one we're interested in, but not as easy to answer. When we ask that question, we all usually also mean, when will Christ return?

And of course, how will we know when that time is near? Now, at least we're in good company when we ask those questions. The Christ disciples asked Him exactly the same thing. And let's turn there for 1st Scripture in Matthew 24 and verse 3. Now, of course, well, I can... yeah, in verse 3, He sat on the Mount of Olives, and the disciples came to Him, that is to Jesus, privately and said, when will these things be?

He'd been talking about the Temple being overthrown and Jerusalem, all kinds of things like that. They said, when will these things be? What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age? Well, we want to know those things. We want to know, are we getting close? And if so, does it matter who won the election?

It seems like it should. And considering what's going on in the world and the state of things, you know, we hear the news in the Middle East. We see things going on in Europe, and it seems like the end should be near. And I thought, it's funny, I wrote an ink this morning as I was looking at this, and I don't want to discredit anything I'm going to say later, but I would say that in 1939, it looked like the end was very near. The thing... the prophecies were fitting together, so we asked the question, how can we be sure? What do we need to watch for?

And that's what I want to focus on, sort of the big picture of what to watch for. Because over the years, as a kid in the church, I've heard a lot of sermons that I like to call news clipping sermons. Not service, but sermons where a minister will be talking about how we're speeding up, and our society's decaying, and they would pull out a newspaper, one newspaper clipping after another. And I'm not putting that down at all. That's not a bad way to help us to focus on what's going on in the world. That's just not that much of my style, so I'm not going to be doing that kind of sermon.

Partly because, as I look... you know, I want to ground this specifically in Scripture, and there are no end-time prophecies that say specifically which political party will be in power before Christ returns. None of them say that when the abortion rate reaches X million a year, then it's all done. Now, there's no prophecy that says when the divorce rate reaches a certain percent. That's when Christ will come. None say when pollution reaches a certain level, or when the public debt, or when illegal immigration reaches a certain level. Now, that's not to say that those things are not important, or that they don't have prophetic significance.

I think that they do. It's just, as I said, there's not a specific Scripture that says when this happens, this is what it implies, or where it leads to. So we'll do well, I think, to focus a little bit on how Jesus himself answered that question. When the Apostle said, when are you coming? What are going to be the signs? Let's look at what he said. And first, it'll be interesting to see that he didn't necessarily tell them what to look for right off.

First of all, he told them what doesn't mean that he's coming. Let's look there. Let's continue in Matthew 24, starting in verse 5. Well, as a matter of fact, we can back up a little bit to verse 4, because he said, Take heed that no one deceives you. Don't be fooled. And you can say, because of this, Many will come in my name, saying, I'm the Christ, will deceive many.

You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled. All these things must come to pass. The end's not yet. So people are going to become teaching Christ. That doesn't mean it's it. The wars and rumors of wars. He says, for, or you could say, because, Nation is going to rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places. These are the beginning of sorrows. So we could see, this is Jesus telling his disciples what would not be signs of the end of the world. These things, false religion, war, disease, famine, not to mention earthquakes. They're sorrowful things that really have been, more or less, the state of what mankind has endured throughout his history. Hundreds of years.

I'll mention that we can see a parallel of what he described in these verses in Revelation chapter 6, primarily describing what we call the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We're going to go to Revelation later, but I'm not going to go through recounting the horsemen.

Now, one thing I'll mention, I've heard this in the church a lot of times, and I don't disagree with it. But I don't want to put too much emphasis on it. A lot of people said, well, this is the state of things, but as Christ's return gets nearer, we'll see it happen more often and with greater intensity. I think that's probably true, but Jesus didn't actually say it. He didn't say all these things, and when it starts happening more and more and more, then that's the end.

As I said, I think there's good cause for thinking that it will happen more and with greater intensity.

But let's not put too much on that. I shouldn't say, let's not teach it as though the Bible says it when it doesn't. Now, I want to make a contrast, though. Here are several things that He says, this has gone on through history, it's going to keep going on. Now, let's look at a contrast of what shows it's the end. Go ahead to verse 21, same chapter, Matthew 24 and verse 21.

Then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world, until this time known or ever shall be. Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, no flesh saved alive. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.

Okay, what the contrast I'm making is, okay, there's these terrible things that go on and they always have, and now at the other extreme, it's the worst time that's ever been, and everybody's going to be obliterated if Christ doesn't step in. We'll probably recognize that when it's here.

We won't have to be looking for signs saying, well, do you think Christ is coming? Well, we're all about to die if He doesn't. So what I want to say is, can we find some in-between things? Some signs that say, okay, it's getting close, and even though it's not yet, it's going to be pretty near. Can we watch for those? Now, I believe there are some. I think Jesus gave us some good indications and will tie what He says to some other prophecies. But let's look at a couple other things that I think fit with the beginning of sorrows, even though He mentioned it afterwards.

Here, still in Matthew 24, backing up to verse 9, He says, They'll deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. You'll be hated by all nations for My name's sake. Now, this is one of those things that can't be a common state of mankind prophecy because it didn't happen before Christ's time. But we know it's not unique to the end of the age. When He says, they're going to deliver you up and you'll be hated, you know, there's going to be persecution. That didn't... We don't have to wait until just before Christ returns for that to happen to Christians. It started happening to the men who literally heard Him say those words in their own ears. You can... If you want to put a finger in Matthew 24, we'll come back. But if you go forward to Acts chapter 5, let's just review quickly to see that this prophecy that He gave was fulfilled, as I said, in the lifetimes of the men who heard it, and actually resulted in the end of some of those who heard it.

Matthew 5 and verse 40, one of the first instances, I'm coming in out of context, this is a case where some of the apostles were teaching in the temple and were taken by the authorities, and it says, they agreed with them...

The Sanhedrin agreed amongst themselves. When they called for the apostles...

When they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and then let them go. So that's partly a fulfillment of that prophecy, I think. They were taken in by the authorities and beaten. Let's move ahead to chapter 7.

Acts 7, beginning in verse 57. This is near the end of the chapter that describes the great sermon given by Stephen. Now he's commonly known as Stephen the martyr because of what we're about to read.

So then they cried out... That's the people hearing the sermon with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord. They cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They stoned Stephen, even as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my soul, or receive my spirit. Let's go to Acts chapter 12. Acts 12 in the first verse. Now about this time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And we've covered that in the in-home Bible study. Here's one of the men that were there listening to Jesus. Herod killed him. And he saw that it pleased the Jews, so he proceeded to seize Peter. And it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And I'm not going to continue on, but if we did a study of history, we could show that over the centuries Christians have been persecuted and sometimes killed for their beliefs. And I would say both those who understand the true teaching of the Bible and those who think they did, but perhaps believe differently than we did, but were sincere and were killed for it. Now there are prophecies that show that it's going to happen again shortly before the time of Christ's return. And prophecies in Revelation symbolically show some who are about to be martyred or are martyred saying, you know, Lord, when are you going to revenge us? And he says, well, we've got to wait until others are sealed and suffer the same as you. But if it starts happening, well, we know it's the last time. That's why I'm saying is I'm not sure that's one of the signs to look for that says it's the end, because we could start being martyred and persecuted and be in the same boat as those that had it happen to them in the Middle Ages. Let's go back to Matthew 24. I was just going to say, you might want to keep a finger and axe, but I was a little late. Luckily, they're not far apart. Matthew 24 in verse 10, many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. I read that I wanted to comment on separately because I thought, well, that's that seems to that fits with the prophecies about the tribulation, but it also seems to fit very well with the state of God's church right now. And we've seen it for the last several years. We've got splits, accusations, controversies, competition. It seems to be worse now than ever in my memory. But how well can we know what it was like during all those years when the church was small and scattered, when they were on the fringes of the Roman Empire and thereafter, living in the mountains and secluded, perhaps not even knowing about others, or perhaps knowing and being distrustful, perhaps turning each other in? We know at least it happened in the first century because of what we read in Acts 20. If you want to go there, you still could keep a finger in Matthew 24. We'll be coming back in a moment. But Acts 20... I want to just cover this, and then we'll shift gears to look at things that are signs of Christ's coming, I think. But just to show that, as I said, this persecution and people turning against each other in the church is something that's happened throughout the ages. Here is during Paul's journeys, and he was on his way back to Jerusalem. But he wanted to talk with the elders of Ephesus first. We'll see in verse 17.

From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. Now let's move ahead to verse 28. Once the elders arrive, he's having a talk with them, and he says, Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. So it happened within that first century. Jesus, you could say, warned it. Now I'm not sure if this was a direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Matthew 24.10, but certainly that seems to apply to people being offended and turning against one another. Well, if that's just another bad thing that doesn't necessarily mean Christ's return is very soon, again, are there some signs that it is near? You know, at least signs before the fact that the sky is opening up and we see the white horse and the heavenly signs. I think so. Let's look again to Matthew. Matthew 24, beginning in verse 11. Then many false prophets will arise up and deceive many, and because of alllessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold, but he who endures to the end shall be saved.

I read this and I partly say, well, how is that different than over in verse 5, where he said, many will come in my name saying I'm Christ and deceive many? Both false teaching. It could be hard to say for sure, but for one thing, here in verse 13, Christ talked about enduring to the end. That's one indication, but I want to lay this aside a prophecy in Revelation that I think shows us that this could be different about this false teaching. Revelation 13 and verse 11.

I'm going to in some ways summarize a lot of what's in Revelation 13, because you might remember it was earlier this summer I did a full sermon on the beast of Revelation 13 and went through to prove and show what we think that represents. In that sermon, I mentioned the second beast, but not as much. And I'll once again not go through all the proofs to show why we interpret it as we do, but I'll refer to those. Revelation 13 and verse 11, after that beast that we interpret to be the revival of the Roman Empire, he says, Now that's a little different than false teachers.

He performs signs, makes fire come down from heaven.

And of course, he deceives those who dwell on the earth. Now that fits with what Christ said. He deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was granted to do in the side of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on the right hand and on their foreheads. No one may buy or sell, except one who has the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Now, it's a lot, but I wanted to run that to go through that and then come back. As I said, we understand the first beast to be a revival of the Roman Empire.

It makes sense, and we can go through the proofs, which we've done other occasions, that the second beast represents the great false church. We commonly refer to it as the Roman Catholic Church. Some people, if we look back, as I said, I'm talking about this church and people doing miracles. There have been claims of miracles. I'm reminded there was a lot of news coverage about the drive to make Pope John Paul II have him officially declared a saint, and that's when I first learned, because I hadn't studied a lot into the doctrine, that the Catholic Church, for them to declare someone a saint, they have to have some record of him having performed miracles.

So they discussed possible healings or things like that, and apparently it's such for most of the saints that go through this process. But some of the things I heard described maybe say, yeah, really? They seem kind of wishy-washy as far as calling it a miracle. Here in Revelation, we read of someone calling fire down from heaven in the sight of everyone, working great signs. That's the kind of miracle we can look for. None of those saints in the past have done that, but apparently someone is going to. Someone that's a part of this church, perhaps the very leader. Now there's a reference to the mark of the beast. We've seen that there's good evidence that that refers to Sunday keeping, that it's been enforced in the past, but never with such thoroughness as we seem to see described here. No one's even going to be able to make a living or buy or sell unless they conform.

This would seem to be giving us something to watch for that is a sign. You know, a false church or a leader within it, working miracles, witnessed by many people. And that church now collaborating with a government to force acceptance of that mark of the beast so that no one will be able to do commerce on the Sabbath, or nobody will be able to do commerce on Sundays, but probably be forced to do so on the Sabbath. Now that'd be a pretty big change from our current conditions in the world, and certainly in Europe. In Europe now there's no thought, you know, Sunday is just another day. It's become a very, very secular society. And I should mention, of course, the flow of the narrative I was following. I wanted to connect from Jesus Christ talking about false teaching to go here to show an end-time example of false teaching deceiving with miracles. So I sort of blurred past the first beast, but let's come back and talk about that a little bit. And the first beast, most of Revelation 13, is about this beast that John sees. And we can go through the studies and show how it connects to Daniel 2 and the image that he saw. And it comes down to saying that this beast represents the Roman Empire. Now, of course, anybody that's a student of history would say, oh, wait a minute, Roman Empire? That was a long time ago. Rome fell in 476 AD. But we also know it's been revived many times, and prophecies indicate that that would happen. Prophecy indicates that it would be revived ten times. So if we compare Daniel 2 and see that that revival, that last revival, corresponds somewhat with Revelation 17.

And as I said, I'm summarizing here because I don't want to re-give a sermon I gave fairly recently, but putting those prophecies together tells us that this last revival of the Roman Empire is going to consist of some type of federation of ten separate nations or political entities. And it will be in their time that Jesus Christ returns. I've got to remember, putting so many pieces together, that's one of the reasons we want to talk about it. When it occurs that tenth revival consisting of ten nations, it's going to be during their time that Christ returns. We know that partly because of that prophecy in Daniel 2. Remember that prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed this great image, that a head of gold that represented the Babylonian Empire, shoulders and arms of silver that represented the Medo-Persian, the belly and thighs of brass representing the Greek, then the legs of iron representing the Roman Empire.

But down at the end, those ten toes, the feet were iron mixed with clay, which don't bind together. But it was during that time that the image would be destroyed by a stone that was carved out without hands representing God's kingdom. It didn't strike the image on the head or in the chest, it hit on the feet. And I wanted to mention that because now let's go to Revelation 17. We believe that the ten toes on that image correspond to the ten horns that are on the beast in Revelation 17.

And those represent ten rulers or leaders. Revelation 17 in verse 12.

The ten horns which you saw are ten kings. Now I'll say in modern day we do have kings, but I think when it says king here, it might mean a prime minister or a president. It could mean a literal king. I'm not discounting that, but I don't think we have to bind ourselves to say unless, you know, they're an actual inherited monarchy. They can't qualify. But the ten horns are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet. They receive authority for one hour. Prophetically speaking, that's a brief time with the beast. These are of one mind. They give their power and authority to the beast, and they'll make war with the lamb. They're going to make war with the lamb who we know is Jesus Christ. The lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those who are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. And he said to me, that's the angel said to John, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. The ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot. And we believe the harlot represents, again, that great false church that will collaborate with this revival of the Roman Empire, but eventually it will turn against it. The Roman Empire will turn against the church. For God has put it in their hearts to fulfill his purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, till the words of God are fulfilled.

To me, some of the things we read here correspond with the idea of the stone striking the image on its toes. These kings will fight against the lamb. They'll be in place when Christ returns, and it'll be to fulfill God's purpose. So that means it's happening at the end of the age.

So that's a long way of getting to saying, I think there's two things that we see here that will show us that the time is coming near, even though it's not on us yet. Number one is that there will be that 10th revival of the Roman Empire. And of course, that'll be located in Europe where the Roman Empire has always been. It'll consist of a federation of 10 different different nations or kingdoms. And I'm hedging, I'm being amorphous or abstract there because we want to remember political boundaries have changed over the years. So when it says 10, is it going to be 10 defined by our modern political boundaries or some earlier ones?

Because what's now the nation of Germany, and my memory used to be two Germanys. So should that count as two or as one? And you go back to the 1800s, it was dozens of Germanys. Italy's similar. I could look at a map and quickly mark off where it used to be five separate countries. And what I'm saying is it's going to be 10 that will come together.

I'm not sure how to define those 10, but it's going to happen. And our understanding of history, if we've counted correctly, there have been nine revivals of the Roman Empire. So when it comes together again, we think it'll be the last. Okay, so that was number one. We look for that revival. Number two, we look for a Roman Catholic Church that begins working miracles, and at the same time starts collaborating with the political government to enforce Sunday keeping so that people won't be able to buy or sell or won't be able to make a living unless they comply.

Now, when we look back at history, the Catholic Church has waxed and waned in its power. Sometimes it's been very powerful and influential, sometimes not so much. And I think through a lot of modern history, it's been not so much, especially during and after World War II. But in most of our memories, if we go back a few decades, we remember Pope John Paul II coming on the scene, a relatively young, charismatic, dynamic leader.

He was in place and took a hand in the fall of the Iron Curtain. Suddenly, the Catholic Church gained in prestige quite a bit and influence. It started seeming possible that it could become a major power player. Now, currently it seems to have dropped back somewhat. Pope Benedict isn't quite so captivating a personality. And, of course, the modern, the revelations of pedophilia among some of the priests and such has lowered the church and some people's esteem.

But we've seen how quickly that could change. It's changed before quickly. It could happen again. Now, these two signs that I'm referring to, that we're looking for a revival of that Roman Empire in Europe and we're looking for a resurgence of the Catholic Church, that's, I think, explains a lot about what we put on our TV program and in our magazines. There have been times I thought, man, we're always talking about Europe. Europe, Europe, Europe. Well, we're looking for those signs. We know that its events there could show us time is about done.

And, yeah, it's worth noting, sorry, I'm catching up on my notes, that the state of the European Union, it's progressed from the European Coal and Steel Community to the European Union to, well, no, the, yeah, to the Eurozone. And now it's at this place where it could turn into a new type of political union fairly quickly.

You know, the pieces are in place. They could reach an agreement, have a new constitution put in place, or have some type of coup. So where it wouldn't surprise me to wake up in the morning and see headlines, there's a new order in Europe. And, yeah, I don't know exactly how that could happen, but, as I said, we know that these things happen.

And we also know that our politics here in the United States affects what they do in Europe. I want to come back to that thought a little bit later. Likewise, you know, the Catholic Church seems to be staying status quo, but we could find out tomorrow or tonight that Pope Benedict has passed on and the College of Cardinals is coming together to elect a new leader. It could be a dynamic and exciting leader who's been given special powers.

What if a new European Union consolidated power at the same time as a new pope came on the scene, one who was able to work miracles? What if that church and the latest Holy Roman Empire formed an alliance, started working towards common goals? If those things happen, we'd find ourselves, I think, at a distinct place in the course of prophetic fulfillment. It could be a place that's very near to Christ's return.

And, as I said, these things could fall into place very quickly. The preliminaries seem to be in place like a house of cards, someone you pulled just the right one out suddenly. Of course, I'm talking about building up, so that's not a good analogy. It's always better when I think about them and write them down on paper than this.

But I want to put in place those two things with the potential for the fulfillment of another prophecy that seems to show clearly that the end is about here. If you want to go back to Matthew 24, something else Christ said in His warnings that the end was very close. Matthew 24 will begin in verse 15.

After all the things we've already read so far, He said, then therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, and Matthew says, whoever reads this, let him understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let him who's on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes, woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days and pray that you're fight not be in the winter on the Sabbath. And here He proceeds into what we've already read, it's going to be great tribulation, the worst time ever. So this idea of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies says, okay, it started, we're right there at the end. But that leaves us a question, of course, what is the abomination that makes desolate? People have been studying and asking that question for years and years, and there are various answers that I think are appropriate. And of course, I've always heard this tied to Antiochus Epiphanes going into the temple and slaughtering a pig on the altar and certainly made it desolate, and people refer to other things. Let's look to Luke chapter 21, though, to see one obvious answer that we shouldn't overlook. Luke 21, beginning in verse 23, this is a parallel account, Luke giving his rendition of the Olivet prophecy. He was, you know, he talked to people who were there and wrote this account. And it says almost the same exact thing, except one thing is worded a bit different. Well, a couple things are, but one that we want to focus on here. Here, Jesus says, beginning in verse 20, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that the desolation there, that its desolation is near. We talked about an abomination that makes desolate. Here he talks about an army surrounding it, and its desolation is near. And then he continues with the language that sounds just like what we already read. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart and not those who are in the country enter her. These are days of vengeance. What are those who are pregnant? Those who are nursing babies in those days. There will be great distress in the land and wrath upon these people.

And reading these two accounts, we could say that the abomination of desolation, for the sake of this prophecy, means armies around Jerusalem, poised to devastation and destruction.

Now, looking back in history, Jerusalem has been surrounded by armies many times, even within the lifetime of some people here. Probably most of us here. I'm trying to think of the last time during the 50s war, the Yom Kippur War. I don't think they got surrounded. Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. But how do we know if it's surrounded by armies again? How do we know if it's the last time? Well, the case might be which armies are surrounding and why. And that's going to lead us to a prophecy in Daniel. Let's go to Daniel 11. Daniel 11 will begin in verse 40. Remember, Matthew said, talked about the abomination of desolation mentioned in Daniel. So let's go to Daniel and see if that gives us an indication. I think that it does. Daniel 11 is often referred to as the longest continuous prophecy in the Bible. It starts way back in Daniel's time and comes forward to the time of the end. And that's where we want to break in and not read the whole thing. But starting in verse 40, what's going to happen at the time of the end? Well, it says, at the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him. That is the king of the north, because it says it'll attack him and the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind. Chariots, horsemen, and many ships. That sounds like an army. And he'll enter the countries and overwhelm them and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land. This is the land where Jerusalem is located. And many countries shall be overthrown. These shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He'll stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. And it goes on from there, but that to me sums up what we need to take out of this. Who is this king of the north? If it's his army surrounding Jerusalem that we need to look for, well, we've got a good reason to think that it's, once again, that same 10th revival of the Roman Empire we've already been looking for. Now, it doesn't say that here, so why would I say that? Well, one thing we consider the Roman Empire in Europe is in a northerly direction from Jerusalem. It's not exactly directly north, though. Some people have argued for Russia or the USSR, but if we tie into history, we can get a clearer explanation of why I think it's that revival of the Roman Empire. As I said, Daniel 11 goes back, traces this history, and it picks out the conquest worked out by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world. Again, he was that third of the four ruling empires, but he died without an heir. Alexander died, and so his four leading generals divided up the empire, north, south, east, and west. And the two that became the most prominent were north and south. The northern one was ruled by King Seleucus, and he centered his rule in Assyria, just directly north from Jerusalem. So that obviously was the king of the north for many years, but it's worth noting 65 BC, that kingdom was conquered by and became part of the Roman Empire. So the Roman Empire absorbed that king of the north and could lay claim to that title. Now, who is the king of the south?

This whole all started in verse 40 saying the king of the south will attack, or I believe the old King James version says will push him, and then the king of the north would react.

Well, when Alexander's empire was broken up and the empire divided, the southern kingdom was ruled by General Ptolemy, and it was based in Egypt. Based in Egypt. So should we conclude that Egypt will be the end time king of the south? Well, for most of our time, most of my time in the church, we said no, we don't think it'll be Egypt, and for various reasons. One is our logic doesn't work, the logic I used earlier doesn't work well both ways. We talked about how Rome conquered Assyria and absorbed it. Eventually, Rome also conquered Egypt and absorbed that. So Rome had a case for claiming the king of the south, but Rome can't be the one that pushes against itself and comes and attacks itself back, so there has to be a separate king of the south.

Mr. Armstrong made a good case. He said that since Egypt later included or conquered Ethiopia, and Ethiopia was never conquered by the Roman Empire, it remained separate and laid claim to that title of king of the south. And Mr. Armstrong, in that conclusion, said he believed that this part in verse 40 and 41, or in verse 40 at least, was fulfilled prior to World War II when Italy under Benito... I'm talking too fast... under Benito Mussolini came down and fought against Ethiopia, but he said then there would be a pause before we would come to the very end time.

That made sense when it was near, and it still might be true. I don't... I want to be the last person that contradicts Mr. Armstrong and says he was wrong, but there are other ways we could look at it and other considerations. As I said, we didn't think of Egypt as being likely, partly because it was absorbed in the Roman Empire, but even more so because from 1979 on, Egypt has been a friend.

In 1979, Egypt and Israel, the modern nation of Israel, signed a peace treaty, and they've gotten along very well. There was no reason to think that Egypt would push against a modern Roman Empire or cause trouble. But that's changed, hasn't it? Now, somewhere before last there was a revolution, and we watched it. I watched it on the news almost every night, rioting in Tahrir Square. The government was overthrown, and now there's a president of Egypt who's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. And the rioting spread. There's been violence and rioting. Libya's government's been overthrown. Iran is already a militant Islamic government. Seems to be the danger of the same thing happening in Syria. I'm losing the place of where I was, but... So it makes us think maybe Egypt could end up being the king of the south. Certainly would have been a position to provoke the northern kingdom. We could say, could it be some modern Islamic empire? A combination of these. The big nation I left out that is certainly south of Jerusalem that has not had a fundamentalist Islamic government, but could, would be Saudi Arabia. What if, as I said, it's one of those or a combination of several? And I'm not being specific there, but one thing we can be specific about. There will be some power that will be powerful enough and have enough nerve to provoke a United States of Europe into an armed response. So that's something we should look for. That'll be a sign. Some of you might be saying, well, wait a minute. That's already been the case for a while now. We've got nations that are powerful enough and have enough nerve to do that. Things might further develop in the Middle East, but as I said, we could wake up to headlines tomorrow saying there's a new order in the Middle East and they've, you know, they've formed an alliance or new government's taken over and they're putting in an oil embargo. You remember the oil embargo from the 1970s? I should say both oil embargoes. That turned our country upside down and it was not easy on Europe. Europe's on the verge of financial collapse. Might they, if something like that happens, say we're not putting up with it. We're coming down and taking charge. I'm speculating while, you know, not wildly, but I'm just saying things could happen more quickly than we think.

What does seem to be missing, as I said, there are several candidates that might fit that role of king of the south. What we're still missing is that king of the north because we believe it's going to be the ten nation modern revival of the Roman Empire. Hmm. Okay, I've got to take pause. I'm nearing a change point here. Because you might be looking at us saying, okay, we're looking for this, but we're looking overseas all the time.

Something's missing. The focus of the Bible isn't just about all that. What about us? I made a statement without backing it up and proving it, and I'm not going to do it now because, again, I did it earlier and we have books that prove it, or that at least make the academic case. We believe that we represent the children of Israel now and that when prophecies say Israel, it means the two tribes that Jacob crossed his hands and said, let my name be named on them, Ephraim and Manasseh.

And we believe that the United States and the British nations are those. And that's part of the reason we're thinking this ties into prophecy. We're looking at our nations and seeing social decay. We're seeing skyrocketing public debt. We're seeing, you know, this election that just happened. It has to be significant in some way or another, doesn't it?

Well, it still hasn't shown up. We've been reading some in Revelation, and we haven't read all of it, but if you read Revelation and read all of Matthew 24, you don't see Israel playing a prominent role. Why not? I made a case, and earlier, once again, I'm referring to my old sermons, but I should have checked the dates on those.

They might be older than I thought, but one case could be that by the time those events are happening, the United States and Britain will no longer be major players on the world scene. Maybe our power will be so diminished that it won't matter. Now, I don't want to say, when we don't exist anymore, that's a sign the end is coming near, but maybe events that are leading to that could be major events. God did give a lot of prophecies about Israel, so even though it's not mentioned in Matthew 24 and not much in Revelation, there's a lot we can look at, and I'm just going to skim the surface of some of them.

Let's go to Ezekiel 33. I spent a lot more time in the book of Ezekiel this week than I was initially thinking when I started working on this sermon. Ezekiel 33 in verse 7. God is speaking to Ezekiel and he says, So you, son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel. I underlined several times in my Bible here. It says, House of Israel. Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for me. This gives us an idea.

A lot of the book of Ezekiel is directed to the House of Israel. I want to make a case that it's to the descendants of Israel, not necessarily Israel of Ezekiel's day. Now, part of the reason I'll say that, Ezekiel, remember, never lived in the nation of Israel. He was a Levi. So he was, you know, Levitical. He lived in the nation of Judah until he was taken captive.

And we'll see that if we go to the first chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 1 will notice that he was not amongst the people of Israel, or at least of those that went by that name. Remember, we had, after Solomon died, the kingdoms divided, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. He wasn't in that northern kingdom.

Instead, we find that he was in captivity, held as a bond server. Ezekiel 1, verse 1. It came to pass in the thirtieth year and the first fourth month of the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Kebar, that the heavens were open and I saw visions of God on the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiakim's captivity.

Now, this is referring to, it's explaining to us, that Ezekiel was among those early captives. When Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies earlier, conquering territories, before he came and leveled Jerusalem and took away just about everybody, in a first round, he took away some of the elite of the kingdom, the skilled craftsmen and the people with money. He took away Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and apparently Ezekiel. And so Ezekiel was there with those captives.

But, while I'm saying this, this happened. Judah was being besieged and would go into captivity.

What about the nation that went by the name Israel? It had fallen 130 years earlier to the Assyrian Empire. So, Israel had already fallen, had been punished for its sins, you could say, by God.

Yet, Ezekiel was given prophecies to the house of Israel. Let's go to chapter 2.

Ezekiel 2 and verse 1 said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet and I'll speak to you. Then the Spirit entered me when he spoke to me, and he set me on my feet, and I heard him who spoke to me, and he said, Son of man, I'm sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that's rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. We'll see that term, house of Israel, several times here, starting in verse 4, chapter 3.

He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, speak with my words to them. You're not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech in a hard language, but to the house of Israel. Not to a people of unfamiliar speech in a hard language, those whose words you can't understand. Surely I've sent you to them, or if I had sent you to them, they would have listened. So if I'd sent you to some strangers, they might have listened. In verse 7, he says, But the house of Israel will not listen. And because they won't listen for all that part, because they will not listen to me, for they are all the house of Israel are imputed and hard-hearted. Says that house of Israel a lot of times for somebody who's of the nation of Judah. And as far as we know, never got to go visit the people of Israel. Let's drop down to verse 15.

After seeing this vision, Ezekiel says, I came to the captives at Tel Aviv, so he's still in captivity, that dwelt by the river Kebar, and I sat where they sat, and I remained there astonished seven days.

He's sitting there just dumbfounded, like, wow, what did I see?

And it came to pass, you know, at the end of seven days, the word of the Eternal came to me, and said, Son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, hear a word from my mouth, and give them warning for me. I keep emphasizing this point, because, as I said, Ezekiel heard this, and he was dumbfounded, and he wrote it down, but there's no indication in this book, or anywhere in the Bible, or in history, that he ever got to leave captivity, and go to the people for whom he was supposed to have this warning. You know, they'd already been punished. They were far away. And even if he did, he kept right.

He... we're going to... we're going to read prophecies of punishment to come upon Israel.

And yet, there's indication that, by the time Ezekiel was given this message, Israel had been punished. So, his message seems to be of prophecies for a future punishment. And I would say a distant future at that.

To get an idea, just a brief review, we're going to come back to Ezekiel, but if you want to turn with me back to Leviticus 26, or if you don't want to turn, I'm just going to read one verse. And so, you can let me read it to you and remind you. We covered this also in the sermon I gave about the modern identity of the children of Israel. Leviticus 26 and verse 18. Now, Leviticus 26, along with Deuteronomy 28, are what we call the blessings and cursings chapter. And God, before bringing them into the Promised Land, said, you do this, you'll be blessed. You know, you obey me, be my people. If you break my law, you're going to be cursed. And He gives some very specific terms of the punishment to come on them in Leviticus 26. In verse 18, He says, And after all this, if you do not obey me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

We've seen that seven times, usually times, refers to a year. And we've interpreted, said, well, seven times, it doesn't seem to be intensity. You can make a case that seven times, if you apply the day-for-a-year principle that comes out in the book of Numbers when the spies went and traveled 40 days and then Israel was punished for 40 years. Similarly, Ezekiel, he had to act out something a day for a year. Well, if they're punished a day for a year for seven years, and prophetically, their calendar then gave 360-day years, it comes out to 2520 days. No, years. 2520 days that you have a day for a year. If we start counting from when Israel went into captivity, 721 BC, I bet AD were in my notes. I didn't see that this morning. In case I use these notes again sometime.

Count for that 2520 years. You come right to the beginning of the 19th century, about 800 AD. And I'm saying about because the 721 date is the one that you could argue back and forth. It happened a long time ago. But that's right when Great Britain, the United States, began this miraculous rise to power and influence and wealth. And they've not been punished since then. Since that time, about the beginning of the 19th century, the modern people of Israel haven't been punished. They've been victorious. They've gained power and influence. And when Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, Israel was probably early on fulfilling the first of, you know, early on in the stage of those 2520 years. It was about 130 years into over 2000. And yet, the words of Ezekiel talked about punishment. Let's go look at some of them. Because if they're sure prophecies, and we believe God's word can't be broken, then these words that they haven't been fulfilled yet, they must be going to be fulfilled. Ezekiel 6, verse 1. Now the word of the Eternal came to me, saying, Son of man, set your face towards the mountains of Israel. Now in prophecy, often mountains refers to nations. So it's using the plural, maybe speaking of mountains, the nations of Israel, like the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand. Say to the mountains, say, Oh, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills and the ravines and the valleys, I indeed, I even will bring a sword against you. Notice that's future tense. I will bring a sword, not I did 130 years ago. And I will destroy your high places. Your altars will be desolate. Your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain before you. I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols. And verse six, in your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste. That shall be.

Are we looking at nations who are, we have the expectations of our cities being laid waste. We have the means now, technologically, to have cities laid waste. So we're looking at future prophecies. Verse 11, Thus says the Lord God, pound your fists and stamp your feet and say, Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. I wanted to bring that out. Sword, famine, and pestilence, that's three out of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The only thing he didn't mention there was false religion or earthquakes, but they didn't get their own force. Let's go to chapter seven, I'm sorry.

Just to pick up the beginning of that, Ezekiel chapter seven, verse one, Moreover the word of the eternal came to me, saying, You son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, an end. The end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end has come upon you.

Now, this is speaking to people who were taken into captivity more than a century earlier. There must be a future prophecy. I'll send my anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will repay you for all your abominations. Chapter, verse six, turning page.

An end has come, the end has come, it has dawned on you. Behold, it has come. Doom has come to you, you who dwell on this land. The time has come and a day of trouble is near. This is pretty grim stuff. As a matter of fact, I thought when I finished the sermon this morning, Mr. Howe was leading songs. He said, we're going to have to ask Mr. D'Unco to bring some good news next time he comes. So, I'll mention there is good news at the end of all this, but it doesn't start as so good. Let's look at verse 19. Verse 19 says, they will throw their silver into the streets. Their gold will be like refuse. Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. That day of the wrath of the Lord. We see the phrase, day of the Lord, and sometimes day of the wrath of the Lord a number of times. It says it's going to be a time when having gold or silver isn't going to help you, which is one of the times I've resisted the temptation of all those commercials I keep hearing on the radio saying, buy gold, buy gold. Not that there's anything wrong with buying gold. I wish I'd done it 10 years ago, and it'd be worth an awful lot now. But when these prophecies are fulfilled, gold and silver aren't going to be what you need. They're not going to help. But let's see a connection of this with some other verses. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 13. We're talking about the day of the wrath of the Lord, or the day of the Lord.

And let's make sure we're clear that this is talking about the end of this age, the end of this order, the end of the time that we live in now. Isaiah 13 in verse 9.

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate. He'll destroy its sinners from it, for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened and it's going forth. The moon will not cause its light to shine. These are specific things to mention and unusual prophecies. They correspond exactly with the heavenly signs. Jesus described in Matthew 24 verse 29. I'm not going to turn there, but also in Revelation 6 and verse 12. There's a time when we use the term heavenly signs. Suddenly the moon and the stars will go dark. The sun won't shine anymore. It has its place in this course of fulfillment of prophecy. We know that the day of the Lord then is only going to happen one time.

So when we know events that are shortly prior to it, there are things we can look for.

Let's go to Zephaniah chapter 1. I wanted to tie this in because it's a good parallel to these.

If you're like me, every time you look for Zephaniah, you find Zechariah because they look similar. But all you got to do is go back a few pages. It's just before Haggai.

Zephaniah 1, starting at verse 14, we'll read something similar to what we've read.

That great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hastens quickly. One's going to phrase, Day of the Lord. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter, and there the mighty men shall cry out. That day of wrath, the day of the wrath of the Lord. Day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation, desolation, darkness, gloominess, clouds and thick darkness. We used to have a song that our hymnal did. It was a matter of fact, I think they took it out because it was such a happy tune to put to these words. It didn't seem to correspond. But if you go down to verse 18, Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath.

Once again, we're talking these correspond to that same time when gold and silver, not that they're bad, but they're not going to be able to deliver you.

What all this means is that these prophecies of Ezekiel are mostly end-time prophecies, and we believe they are for the modern descendants of the children of Israel, which we believe are US and Britain primarily. Now, it's worth pointing out. I've got a note here just because some people will want to look and see anything and everything in Ezekiel and interpret it as an end-time prophecy. But there are parts of Ezekiel aimed at other peoples or groups. Ezekiel 16 is addressed specifically to Jerusalem. Ezekiel 28 is addressed to the Prince of Tyre. Ezekiel 31 says it's to the Pharaoh of Egypt. And Ezekiel 39 is to Gog. None of those being Israel. Well, Jerusalem overlaps Israel, so I don't want to discount that. But Ezekiel 16 is a wonderfully written analogy of a sad story.

But many of Ezekiel's prophecies are addressed to Israel and are of the end of the age. And it shows where we fit. As I said, what are we looking for? We're looking for that rise of the revival of the Roman Empire, resurgent Roman Catholic Church, a power that will be the king of the south that could provoke an armed response. And where are we in that? Well, either early in those times or before, we've had this stuff start happening to us. Let's go back to Ezekiel one more time to verse 11.

This happened to me this morning. I look at the clock and say, oh, I'm running out of time.

Ezekiel 11 and verse 5.

Then the Spirit of the Eternal fell on me and said, Speak! Thus says the Eternal, You have said, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind. You've multiplied your slain in the city. You filled its streets with the slain. Mr. Evans made reference to that, that our crime rates are soaring, our murder rates, and our abortion levels are ridiculous. We're multiplying our slain in our cities now. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Your slain whom you've laid in its midst are meat, and the city's the culprit. I'll bring you out of the midst of it. You have feared the sword. I'll bring the sword on you, says the Lord God. I'll bring you out of its midst and deliver you into the hand of strangers and execute judgment on you. You shall fall by the sword. I'll judge you at the border of Israel, and you'll know that I am the Eternal. This city shall not, shall not be your cauldron, nor you its meat in its midst. I'll judge you at the border of Israel, and you'll know that I am the Eternal. For you have not walked in my statutes or executed my judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles that are all around you.

I'm not further than I intended to, in that. But we see from this and other prophecies that show we're looking at military defeat. Military defeat, and then a small number of survivors being scattered throughout the nations. And all that to happen before this, the end time events. Or as part of it, because I could say how long before?

Well, it doesn't say specifically, but probably not long.

Now, what we just read in Ezekiel indicates that in some descriptions, or what we read in Ezekiel has prophecies that can be lumped in with descriptions of the days of the Lord. See, I'm trying to pack a lot in. Most likely, this captivity of the United States and Britain will be won, or perhaps early on, a chain of irrevocable events leading to the time that we read in Revelation 19 when the heavens open and Christ comes down in a white horse. But we want to be able to identify the signs early on. With that in mind, what are we looking for? Again, the United States is still the most powerful military force in the world. At least we think.

But some people said it'll take decades before that power could be degraded. You know, at least, or maybe even centuries. But recent events seem to show that our power might be more fragile than we thought. Maybe it only takes a big storm to devastate it. You know, we've seen what happened in New Orleans and now in New York and New Jersey. Not the storm itself, but the breakdown of the system and of the utilities leaves our modern people helpless. And I would say, in a way that we wouldn't have been a few decades ago, now we're dependent on electricity in a way we weren't. And large cities have to have massive food deliveries on a daily basis practically. You know, in New York and New Jersey we've seen reports of people coming to blows and pulling guns over who gets in line at the gasoline station. And tragically there's not even a shortage of fuel. It's that the electric motors won't run to pump it up out of the ground. But how many ways could the United States be brought to its knees? Crop failures? Another drought like the one we had this last year or a couple of them could be devastating. Disease epidemics. You know, utility failure. Perhaps caused by a storm and earthquake? What about sabotage? Now Sue and I have been watching that new TV series called Revolution. I don't know if anyone's seen it. It depicts a world where something happens and electricity just doesn't work anymore. And it, you know, it's entertaining and it's meant to be entertaining, but it also makes you stop and think. How close are we? You know, things are taken away.

How easy would it be for us to be destroyed? And I say this, and I'm not meaning to be scary, even though it is a little scary. I guess it's good to be scared a little bit now and then. But when I was a teenager and I'd hear sermons like this, I envisioned armies coming in from Europe and fighting a battle and conquering us. But I don't see that so much anymore. I see us perhaps having our society break down because of something like happened in New Orleans or New York. Perhaps a major civil war breaking out. Look at how close the election we just had was.

You know, I've heard most of my life we live in two Americas and they talk about the haves and the have-nots and it was talking largely about the racial divide then. Now we've got a cultural divide.

You know, we have people who vehemently disagree with each other and perhaps someone willing to come to blows. What if we came to a civil war just plain rioting and nations of Europe came in to take charge to save us from ourselves and just cut charge? Or what if, you know, we're fighting and they take sides with each other? We could be like Vietnam or Korea was with our people's fighting getting supplies from an outside power. That seems far-fetched to think of, but I don't know what the Vietnamese felt like when it was happening to them or the Koreans.

And as I said, and I'm just speculating, different ways things could happen, but whatever way they happen, it does seem that we're already on the verge.

That's an interesting thing to consider. Things are in place to where it could happen quickly.

And that, I'd say that's true regardless of which way the vote goes, you know? If the other guy had been elected on Tuesday, all the things I've said today would still be true. But let's think back on that, though. There are several social and political trends that are not given as specific indicators in Jesus Christ prophecies, but that doesn't mean they won't play a part.

Prophecy doesn't say anything about Democrats or Republicans, but our foreign policy is set by our President. How we relate to other nations means a lot, and we're watching what the other nations do. Are we now implementing policies that promote stability and order in the Middle East?

Or are our policies encouraging the rise of militant radical groups that could become the basis of the King of the South? As I said, the recent election might be more important prophetically than we think. Of course, I keep in the back of my mind saying, but it could also be like 1939.

And I'm not saying that we are, I just, you know, I never want to put myself in a corner and say, I know, you know, I'm not going to say 1975. But just think, our policies set by our leaders, they might make the leaders of what will become this revival of the Roman Empire either friendly towards us or distrustful. Are we now showing that the United States is going to be strong militarily and sound financially? Or are we demonstrating that European countries need to look elsewhere for security and protection? As I just said, this recent election could be more important prophetically than we think. Different policies might make our people strong and independent or weak and susceptible to despondency and conquest. Different policies in our people's reaction to them might make God more or less likely to want to bless us because of our attitudes towards Him. And whenever I think of a gloom and doom scenario like this, I'm also reminded of in ancient Israel Josiah's reign when it had been the worst ever under his father, Manasseh. And then Josiah came and didn't save Israel from ultimate destruction, but put it off quite a while. So we need to be watching for specific signs that prophecy says were definitely coming. The end of the age will come. We need to look for that emergence of a coalition or a strong nation that will be the king of the South, a revival of the Holy Roman Empire made up of 10 nations, a resurgent Catholic Church working miracles. And of course, there's trends that could make those things happen right away. I'm going to skip several pages of my notes.

Because I say there's one area I haven't really looked at is prophecies about the Church. Now, in Matthew and in Revelation, we see just a scant. I'll just mention Jesus Christ again said you'll be delivered up to tribulation, but he also said this message of the gospel will be preached to all the world and then the end will come. Has the gospel message been preached to all the world?

Yeah, it has and it has not, depending on how you want to define it. We certainly were doing our best in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and the World Tomorrow program and the Plain Truth magazine was going to the world. Right now, our program through the internet and through broadcast is reaching the world. You could make a good case that from the time Gutenberg invented the movable type press, when this was translated into all language and distributed to all the world, the gospel has been preached to all the world. That doesn't have to be a barrier. Or I should say, it's not something that we have to look and say, we've got to reach this threshold before the prophecy can be fulfilled. I think where there could happen anytime. Now, the place I was thinking about looking that we don't really have time for is in the prophecies of Revelation 2 and 3. Now, that's been interpreted different ways as some people say, oh, these are just letters to seven congregations in Asia Minor. More churches say, seems to fit to the church through the ages, different eras. If so, and I think that tends to hold a lot of water, the last three eras all indicate that they'll be there when Christ returns. You know, to the church of Sardis, he said, watch! Lest I'm going to come like a thief in the night and you won't be expecting me. So he said to them, watch! But with Philadelphia, he didn't say to watch, apparently because they were already watching. But he said, persevere! Persevere! And we want to persevere. To the church of Laodicea, we focus on the fact that he said that they were lukewarm, but he also said, I'll chasten you, and said, you have to repent, which means there's a chance to repent. As that chance, you know, I look at the church now, it seems like we're being chastened. But then again, I read these prophecies, you know, if we fall under the time of Jacob's trouble and we're not protected, as it seems like the church of Philadelphia would be, there is a chance for chastening and repentance there. And I said I was going to skip over that part, and I didn't.

But what I want to say is, you know, we can interpret those different ways, and they don't tell us exactly what to look for. And that's because of a scripture I do want to turn to. In Matthew 25, we're struggling to see what is the sign. Remember, the apostle said, what's the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And he told him several things to look for. And he said, some of these things are just going to happen, it's not the end. These things are going to happen, and it will be the end. And then he gave him a couple parables, of what they should be doing in the meantime. And in Matthew 25, verse 13, he said, watch therefore, you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. He said, you keep watch, you don't know when I'm coming. Now, he did say watch, and he gave them several signs to watch for. That's what we need to do. Keep watching, and like the Philadelphians, persevere. This comes down to saying, when it comes down to the signs of the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ, we do know to look for some major things. There are many details in other prophecies that I haven't looked at today, and I'm not saying it's not worthwhile, but as I said, I like to look at the big picture most of the time. You can delve down and get to a lot of particular things and say, is this the end time or is it not?

But the things we do know to look for. Well, for one thing, we know God's Church will be here.

No matter what, when the end comes to the Church, we'll be here, and we'll be preaching the Gospel, and we'll be persevering. Now, we might be small, scattered, and chastened. No matter the fact, I'd say it's very likely we will be. But looking out in the world scene beyond ourself, we know. We know the 10th revival of the Roman Empire will occur. It'll consist of 10 nations or political groups. We know that the Great False Church will be on the scene working miracles and collaborating with that Roman Empire. We know that the King of the South will be strong enough to provoke that Roman Empire into an armed retribution. And we know that the United States and Great Britain is going to be vulnerable to destruction, and that before Christ returns, that destruction will occur. You know, our people are going to be decimated and a remnant taken captive. So we need to watch. Three main areas that I'm boiling it down and boiling it down. Three things that we watch for. The decline of the United States and Britain, which many people would say that went a long ways on Tuesday. Other people would say not. But I'm saying when we watch for the decline, we watch for the rise of Europe and the Catholic Church. And we watch for the rise, probably in the Middle East, of some power that will play the role of the King of the South.

And we need to keep in mind, most of what we're watching for is in place. It just needs a catalyst to push it over the edge. While you're here in Matthew, if you want to turn a few pages to Luke chapter 21. I didn't read this this morning, and after Mr. Howell's comments, I thought, you know, I should mention a couple things. Now, Jesus Christ put this in a little bit different, but in Luke 21 verse 28, He said, when these things begin to happen, look up. Lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. Let's remember what happens at the end of it. It's going to be pretty bad, but remember, and I don't remember if He said it a lot of times, but I've got a distinct memory. I think that the Feast of Tabernacles was watching on video, and Mr. Armstrong was kind of old then, but he said, I've read the end of the book, and we win! We should remember that. Our redemption is going to draw near, no matter all this other bad stuff, and we do need to watch. We're commanded to, but at the end, Jesus Christ will establish the Kingdom of God. Every good sermon we heard at the Feast of Tabernacles was getting us excited about that time. We want to keep in mind, because that's the thing we're looking for. It's going to come. So we need to watch. All of us hold fast your crown, so that when Christ comes for all of us, He'll say, well done, good and faithful servant. He'll find us so doing.