Episode Transcript
Are you ready to embark on a thought provoking journey of discovery? Curious to explore an alternative narrative that challenges the theory of evolution? What impact has the war in heaven had on our planet? And what are the implications for humanity? What can we learn from this epic battle that is unfolding between good and evil? Here is your opportunity to unlock a treasure trove of spiritual insights from the Bible that will answer these and many other pressing questions, illuminating the path to eternal life, which lies just a choice away. Here is Bill Gates presenting from the exodus to babylonian captivity. This presentation is called the big picture, part three, and it takes us on another Bible journey as we explore the battle between God and the devil, between good and evil, each seeking control of this planet.
God deserves to own this planet, for he made it. But he has a usurper called the devil trying to gain control. And so I asked a question last time.
What did God's enemy, Satan, do to try and get God's people to come over to his side? Well, going back to the time of the Jews and their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Satan worked through corrupt religious leaders, and there were three of them, Korah, Abiram and Dathan. And encouraged these guys to challenge the authority of Moses to be the leader of the jewish nation. So what happened then? Moses explained that if he was not God's appointed leader, then these rebels would simply die a natural death.
But if they died in an unusual way, then all would know that God had indeed appointed Moses to be his leader. And no sooner had Moses spoken those words when God stepped in. And numbers 16, verses 30 to 32 tells us what God did.
He arranged for the earth to be opened up by a giant earthquake. The rebels are swallowed up, never to be seen again. This was an act of God's justice and testified to the fact that Moses was indeed God's appointed leader.
Those people who were destroyed were in rebellion against God. And when God makes something plain, it is always dangerous to go against what he says. For the people had ample evidence that God was working through Moses.
And it was Moses who gave us the first five books of the Holy Bible, which, among other things, tells us about the origins of life. As a result, we can now ask a very important question. The seven day week, where did it come from? It's an arbitrary period of time that can only be explained by the word of God in the book of Genesis, chapters one and two.
And here we have it on the screen. Day one, God made the earth, space, time and light. Day two, God made the atmosphere.
Day three, he gave us the dry land and plants. Day four, he produced the sun, moon and stars of our solar system. Day five, he introduced the sea and flying creatures, the birds.
And day six, the land animals and man. These creation days were not millions of years. Each.
They were 24 hours in length, as our next Bible slide says. And the evening and the morning were the first day. How do you make the evening and the morning more than 24 hours long? For that's the time it takes planet earth to respin on its axis.
But then God created one more day, the 7th day, giving us our seven day week. The first six days, God worked. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
We call that secular time. But then he made the 7th day a holy day, being the day that he rested from the work that he had done on the previous six days. And so the Sabbath, the 7th day, he called the Sabbath.
So that's the seven day week. And that's where it came from. But for the people who do not know where the seven day week came from, their week can sometimes look like this.
This is for people who do not know God. Their week would be sin day, mourn day, tears day, waste day, thirst day, fight day, shatter day. And so for them, seven days without God makes one week.
Notice the play on words. So the children of Israel accepted that Moses was indeed the true leader. But after a while, God's people got tired of being different from the heathen nations around them.
God had chosen a people to come out from among the heathen nations and to be his special treasure. Think about that. You see, God already had the companionship of holy angels, but he wanted humans to love him and be his special treasure.
Sadly, the nation of Israel didn't appreciate being special. And so they wanted to have a king like the heathen nations around them. And after all that God had done for them, this was surely an insult to the leading of God in their lives, because he was the king of kings and lord of lords.
We know that God is the source of our power. He is the one who provides all that we need. Here it is that promises to fight the battles for us.
And many a Christian can testify of how God has helped them. But God is also the source of infinite wisdom. And he recognised that his chosen people would need to discover for themselves what it would be like to have a human king as their leader, instead of a divine king.
So he arranged for Samuel the prophet to anoint the first king. And that man was named Saul. But notice the problem.
The nation of Israel did not like being different. This is something we need to be aware of, too. I know that when I decided to become a committed Christian, I had this strange feeling that I don't really want anybody knowing.
Was almost as if I was ashamed. But now I'm very happy to declare my complete faith and trust in God and Jesus Christ. Some of God's people today struggle with being different to the secular people that surround us.
But as the apostle Paul said in the New Testament, Romans one, verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Sadly, King Saul in the Old Testament lost his hold on God again by the acts of disobedience. And eventually, instead of asking God for directions, he goes and consults a witch of endor.
But this is strictly against the teachings of God. As our next slide shows. Leviticus 19, verse 31 says, regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them.
I am the Lord your God. Now, if you think that this problem was just an old Testament problem, think again. People today are infatuated with Harry Potter, yet Harry Potter is a wizard.
This is dangerous, for the Bible teaches that spiritualists, familiar spirits, necromancers and wizards are all spirits of the devil. And so after King Saul's death, God then arranges for Samuel the prophet to anoint God, a shepherd boy, to be the next king of Israel. David had been the musician who was called to calm down King Saul, who often had bad tantrums when his mind was troubled.
Here is an artist's painting of the anointing scene. I think most farmers would agree that shepherds need to be patient, calm, yet strong to deal with attacking rustless and wild animals. And David was just such a man, even though he was young and he was deadly with a slingshot as a young man.
And before he became Israel's king, David became incensed that the armies of the Israelites were cowering before the might of the Philistine armies, who had a giant called Goliath. So David goes back to King Saul and says that he will deal with this giant. And when King Saul suggested that David was too young to face the Philistine army, David told the king of his exploits against marauding lions, who set out to kill his sheep, and how God had given him the victory every time against the marauding animals.
Here is the Bible text, one Samuel 17, verse 37. David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the poor of the lion and out of the poor of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, go, and the Lord be with thee.
So King Saul finally allows David to face the giant. But do notice something important. He is young, he is strong.
Yet he states that the Lord is the one who will deliver him from the hand of Goliath. This shows that David had a great faith. And this is a faith that we can have as well.
But it only comes to us when we spend time in the Bible and in prayer and doing things for God. So how much time do we spend talking to God as you would talk to a friend? How much time do we spend reading the Bible? How much time do we spend doing things for God by doing kind things to others? So David heads off to the battle. He arrives at the battle scene and prays to God.
And then he fires off 1 st in his slingshot. And Goliath falls dead in front of the startled armies. God gave David the victory, but God got the glory.
But the Bible says something very interesting. Says in one Samuel 17, verse 40. And he took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook.
Why five smooth stones? He knew God was going to give him the victory. He had already told King Saul that God was going to do this for him. Well, the Bible tells us that Goliath had four giant relatives and David was prepared to take them all on if necessary.
We find this in two Samuel 21, verses 16 and 17. And Ishbibanob. This is the name of one of the giants, which was of the sons of the giant.
The men of David Smote and killed him. And verse 18, they also slew Sath the name of another giant. And he was also of the sons of the giant.
So David, having disposed of the giant Goliath, then disposes of Isbibanob and Sath according to these scriptures, but with the help of his friends. Then we go to verse 19. And now we come across two more giants.
But this time they don't have names. They slew the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And verse 20, another man who we don't know his name.
A man of great stature that had on every hand six fingers and on every foot six toes. And he also was born to the giant. And the brother of David slew him.
So here is recorded the fact that David and his friends also killed Goliath's brother. Another of Goliath's sons, plus the two sons mentioned previous, plus Goliath himself five giants dead as dodos. Five smooth stones.
And they were all going to do their job in the hands of David if necessary, but with the help of his family and friends. He didn't need to use them, but they were there in case. The moral of this story is simple.
One man, David, stood tall for God against the best that the Philistine army could put up. And we can stand tall for God also when challenged by Satan and his evil ones. But David, at a later stage, did some terrible things.
He lusted after his neighbor's wife called Bathsheba, and he ends up committing adultery with her. But he does something even worse. He then arranges with his army general for her husband, Uriah, to be placed in the very front of the battle lines.
And of course, Uriah gets killed, paving the way for David to marry Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. SO David is recorded as being an adulterer and a murderer, so he will not be found in heaven. Is that correct? No, it's not correct, because he genuinely repented of his sins at a later date.
And you and I, no matter what we've done wrong, can do exactly the same. For the sinners who eventually arrive at God's paradise called the third heaven, are there because they repented of their sins and allowed God to make them into saints. The people who do not get to the third heaven were likewise sinners, but they were too proud to repent and allow God to make them into saints.
And so they miss out purely because they made bad choices. Being too proud to admit to being a sinner is a mistake we can ill afford to make, for it is the sincerely repentant sinners that go to heaven. And you know when you go to heaven, you're going to live in a perfect body, doing perfect and wonderful things and doing it forever and ever.
You will know your friends who are there. They will know you. And you will have two houses to live in, one that jesus is building for you now and one that you will build in the country, according to the book of IsAIAH.
And your homes will be made out of jewels, not out of bricks and boards. So the plan of salvation is exciting and it's really simple to understand but hard to accept if pride gets in the way. So please think carefully about your eternal future.
Eventually, King David passes on the king's sceptre to his son Solomon. And then King David dies, assured of a place in heaven. When we repent of our sins and allow God to change us into saints, we too can have assurance of salvation and so Solomon becomes the new king of Israel and he does a wonderful thing.
At the beginning, he prays to God and asks God for wisdom to rule the nation wisely. And in the fear of the Lord, God answers that prayer. And in the first few years, Solomon ruled with great wisdom.
He organised the building of a very fine temple for God, using the supplies that his father, King David had assembled. Solomon was endowed with wonderful wisdom, but the attractions of the world gradually drew him away from God. And this is always a danger for us too.
This is evidenced by the fact that he eventually became infatuated with the egyptian pharaoh's pagan daughter and he ends up marrying her. Now that was not very wise, was it? Because Solomon soon fell into the trap of worshipping the pagan gods that she adored. After the death of King Solomon, it does not take many years before the nation of Israel falls into false worship, practises again.
In fact, it was about a hundred years after the death of King Solomon that Satan seduced more of the leaders of the northern tribes of Israel into false worship. Practises under the reign of king Ahab and his queen called Jezebel. So what would God do to fix this problem? The Bible tells us that God began to send messages to his people via a prophet called Elijah.
So Elijah does what God tells him and he visits Ahab, the king of the northern tribes of Israel, and gives him this message. There would be no rain for three and a half years. Let us read of this in one king 17, verse one.
There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And so the only way that Elijah could say that to Ahab is because God had told him of the whole plan. And Elijah did not do this task for God in a timid way.
He was a giant in the faith. And after telling Ahab what was coming, God instructed his prophet. And these are the messages that are in the book of first kings, chapter 17, verse two.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook, cherith, that is before Jordan, and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook. And I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So Ahab and Jezebel and the false prophets and the priests and the ordinary people were going to suffer great famine as a result of no rain for three and a half years.
But they brought it on themselves. Instead of worshipping the God that gave them the very air they breathe, who gave them the sun to warm their backs and gave them the rain that made their gardens grow. They turned their back on the creator God and worshipped pagan man made gods, so they bought it on themselves.
But God promised to provide for Elijah, just as he will provide for his people today when they are loyal to his assignments. Here is an artist's impression of that marvellous miracle. And true to his word, the rain did not fall for three and a half years on Israel.
But Elijah had food and water to drink for the whole time that he resided at the brook Cherith in Jordan. The Israelites'prayers to the false gods could not undo what the real God said would happen. But we will now fast forward the story to the end of the three and a half years.
Elijah the prophet returns to give another message from God to King Ahab. We find this in one kings, chapter 18, verse 19. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Bale, 450 and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table.
So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. So the false prophets and the false priests, plus all of the israelite lay people, gathered as was commanded. That's a lot of people, isn't it, when you haven't had rain for three and a half years.
I guess even the king was not going to argue. And so he did what the prophet Elijah said. Here is a modern picture of Mount Carmel.
But let's recap. Jezebel, a pagan, marries king Ahab, the king of the northern tribes of God's people in Israel. She influences the king, who influences the religious leaders, to teach the people to worship a pagan God called Baal on this mountain that you see before you, and in the groves that they built amongst the trees that were on the top of that mountain.
To counter this evil, Elijah the good prophet is advised by God on what to do. He is to build two altars, one for Ahab's pagan God called Baal, and one for Elijah's God called Jehovah. Then put a bullock sacrifice on the altars, and the one that God consumes with fire from heaven will demonstrate to the people who the real God is.
And so once a people had assembled, Elijah then makes this appeal to both the pagans and to the children of Israel. And this is what he said in one kings 18, verse 21. How long will you waver between two decisions? And the Bible says that the people answered Elijah, not a word.
They were silent. So the altar was prepared, and the pagans prayed and cut themselves appealing at the same time to their pagan God Baal, to send down fire from heaven and consume their sacrifice, thus showing to the Israelites that the pagans worshipped the true God. Our next Bible reading confirms this.
First kings, 1826. And they took the bullock which was given them and called on the name of Bale from morning even until noon, saying, o bale, hear us. They did this until the time of the evening sacrifice.
But there was no voice and no fire from heaven. The prayers of 850 false prophets could not get fire to come down from heaven. So now it's Elijah's turn.
And after preparing the altar and pouring water over the sacrifice into the trenches three times, Elijah gets down on his knees and he prays the simple but pious prayer found in one kings 18, verses 37 and 38. And it says in verse 37, hear me, o Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God. Verse 38.
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice. God instantly answered Elijah's prayer. No yelling, no dancing around the altar, no cutting of yourselves like the 850 false prophets were doing.
That was not necessary. And when fire came down from heaven and consumed Elijah's offering, then the people knew who was the true God. And just look on this picture at the horror on the pagan priest's faces.
A great victory was won that day for Jehovah God, as our next Bible verse says in one kings 18, verse 39. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, he is the God. The Lord, he is the God.
And then the rains came after a drought of three and a half years, just as God had said through Elijah, the true prophet. The false prophets, however, were to be totally destroyed. And they were, as verse 40 tells us.
And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of bale. Let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook kidron and slew them there.
Not one of the false prophets survived. But first kings 19, verses one to three tells us of an amazing experience that took place within hours of all the drama recorded in kings, first kings. It happened on Mount Carmel.
The evil queen Jezebel promises to kill Elijah. Let us see what the Bible says. First kings 19, verse one.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and also how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And when Elijah hears of this death threat, his knees begin to tremble. And then he flees from this one woman after having strongly stood up against 850 false prophets and priests.
And as he flees, Elijah is visited again by an angel this time. First kings 19 seven. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for you.
And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat. That's an old english word for food. 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God.
Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are the names given to the same mountain. We have that in New Zealand. This is a picture of Mount Egmont, which is the english name for a mountain in New Zealand, which is also known as Mount Taranaki by the Maori native people.
So here is a close up of the cave on Mount Sinai just below the summit where it is believed that the prophet Elijah lived in for about three years. You know, Bible stories often have a primary and a secondary application. Let us see what happens when we try and apply a secondary application of this story to the people living in the last days of earth's history.
We have here a picture of the first king, Ahab, an apostate king who led his people into false worship. Practises the counterpart to that is in the near future world government leaders will be urged by false religious leaders to force the world's population to enter into false worship. Practises on this time we have a picture number two, Queen Jezebel, a pagan woman who led her husband to get God's people into false worship.
In Old Testament times and the New Testament book Revelation 17 verse three talks about a scarlet woman sitting on a beast, a corrupt woman that gets the state to pass laws that lead to false worship. Practises in New Testament times. Now in the Bible a woman represents a church, she is sitting on a beast, which in Bible symbolism represents governments and kingly powers.
Now the third one we have the prophet Elijah, God's true prophet, who in his day opposed all false gods and all false worship. Practises on behalf of the true creator God. The Bible in the New Testament, Revelation 1217 and Revelation 1910 has a church, the last branch of true Christianity that will oppose all false worship, teachings and practises in our day.
Now Jezebel issued a death decree against Elijah. And the book of Revelation in chapter 13 tells us that world governments will issue a death decree against 7th day Sabbath keepers because they want to keep the pagan Sunday just as Ahab and Jezebel did. Mighty things are going to happen in the future and these Bible readings help us to understand what's coming.
God's true prophet hid, Elijah hid in a cave for a while. And God's true and obedient followers will likewise need to live in solitary places for a while in the future when this death decree is issued. And even before then, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel's false prophets and priests were slain.
And so all of the world's population who follow false prophets and priests will also be slain. When Christ returns the second time. It will also happen again to those who disobey God in our day as a result of refusing to honour him by obeying his appointed 7th day Sabbath along with the other nine commandments.
And Elijah upheld the true God's teachings and the ten commandments which were being ignored by literal Israel who were supposed to be God's people. And so will the remnant church of Bible prophecy, the 7th day adventist church, do the same in our day, right up until the close of human probation arrives at the outpouring of the seven last plagues. These warning messages are given in love, because just as a parent has a child that goes astray, that parent tries to counsel with the child and help them.
We're trying to do exactly the same. Elijah was rewarded. He was taken up to heaven for being a faithful follower of the creator God.
And those who are faithful to God at the last days when Christ returns will be able to ascend to heaven with Jesus and enjoy their eternal reward. That's the good news. It is important to realise that only those who are loyal to God will be found in God's kingdom of glory.
So everything about our future depends on our relationship with Christ, who was God on earth but concealed in a human body. And that's because sinners cannot live in the presence of a holy God. But he was also the only man in the entire world who ever lived, who never sinned, and therefore he is able to be our ransom because he was killed when he didn't deserve to be killed.
Now many people have stated, as Winston Churchill once stated, those who forget history are destined to repeat its mistakes. And so the spirit of prophecy, writings which illuminates the scriptures says in life sketches, page one, nine, six, we have nothing to fear for the future, except we forget the way the Lord has led us and his teachings in our past history. And so as we read our Bibles, we discover that once again the devil led God's people astray into false worship.
Not only did he promote a false Sabbath day by getting the people to worship on Sunday instead of Saturday, but he got them to worship idols. And later he got God's people to worship the sun. But God saw what was going on, and he spoke to Ezekiel, another prophet of God, as follows.
Ezekiel eight, verses twelve to 16. Then said he unto me, son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the chambers of his imagery. For they say, the Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth.
And he said also unto me, turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me near to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the north. And behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Here is a picture of the ladies worshipping Tammuz, a pagan God. And here is a picture of God's leaders worshipping a pagan idol. These actions were to lead to disaster for Israel.
So who was Tammuz? Well, Tammuz was a pagan deity worshipped by the Babylonians. And this pagan worship involved both son worship and mother and child worship. But the creator God made the son and gave life to the mother and the child God therefore, is the life giver and creator, and as such is the only one worthy of worship.
But worse was to come, according to Ezekiel, the prophet, it's coming out here in Ezekiel eight, verse 16. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house. And behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord were 25 men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces to the east.
And they worship the sun toward the east. So there is a picture of God's leaders. 7th day Sabbath keepers bowing down to the rising sun.
God made the sun and they should be worshipping the creator God, not something that he created. Now another prophet by the name of Jeremiah also warned the israelite nation against this false form of worship. And Jeremiah knew that the creator God of the universe, way back in that very first week in the garden of Eden, had set aside sunset Friday to sunset Saturday for congregational honouring of the creator God.
He also knew that worshipping the sun or following pagan rites was a recipe for disaster, that there would be a day of reckoning. Let us learn from the mistakes of the past. Don't repeat the problems of the past.
You see, many christians today are often devout and worshipping God as a congregation, publicly and reverently. On Sundays. They do not worship the sun, but they are disobeying and therefore sinning against an express command of God by doing it on a day God never made holy.
Some Sunday keepers will argue that they worship God every day and that is good, but they are confusing the issue. 7th day Sabbath keepers also worship God on the other six secular days of the week. But the private daily acts of worship by both groups of christians does not make those secular days into holy days.
It took a holy God to make a holy day, and the holy day is sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. To worship God as a congregation in the right way and on the right day is a good stepping stone to know that you are pleasing God. For as our next slide says, John 15 verse 14, you are my friends if you do what I command you.
That's how we can have assurance of salvation when you know you're doing what God asks you to do. That assurance, though, does not give us licence to carry on sinning. Now the Bible teaches in Exodus 20 verse 15 that it is a sin to steal, and we all accept that.
We don't argue over that 8th commandment and so most of the people don't steal. But people do argue over the fourth commandment. Now if God says it is a sin to steal and a sin to break the holy Sabbath day, then it is a smart and intelligent person who accepts that and then chooses to change their day of worship in order to please God.
After all, as I said before, he's the one who gives us the air we breathe, the sun to warm our backs, and the rain that gives us the vital water we need. And he gives it to us all free of charge. So please remember this question of the day that we worship God is a sin question.
Because if people don't change, they will find that they are breaking the Bible's fourth commandment, found in Exodus 20, verses eight to eleven. It's not a salvation question, just as it's not a salvation question to steal. It's not a salvation question to commit adultery.
It's not a salvation question to break the fourth commandment. It is a sin question. And so when you realise that you are sinning by not doing what God asks, then the only way to come out of that dilemma is to come to Jesus, who said he will save his people from their sins.
But I've had people say to me, nowhere in the New Testament does God say we are to keep the 7th day Sabbath. Now that is either a blatant lie or they are spiritually blind, as the next few New Testament Bible readings from Hebrews shows. Hebrews chapter four, verses one to eleven shows the falsity of that statement.
Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us, of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it. That's Hebrews four, verse one.
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he spoke in a certain place of the first day of the week. Is that what it says? No.
The 7th day on this wise, and God did rest on the 7th day from all his works. So the rest day being referred to here is the 7th day Sabbath that God set up in the garden of Eden 2200 years before there was a jew on the planet. So to those christian leaders who say that nowhere in the New Testament does it say where to keep the 7th day, please read Hebrews chapter four, verses one to eleven.
Now we will look forward in time from the cross, not backwards. And what do we find? Hebrews four, verse nine. There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God.
The english word rest mentioned in this verse comes from the greek word sabatismos, meaning the 7th day Sabbath, for the Greeks had a different word for the first day of the week called Sunday. Now, Hebrews 411. Here's the counsel from the Lord.
Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Hebrews 411. That perhaps will explain to you why there are 20,000,007th day Adventists around the world doing this to please God.
It is not salvation by works. And so the counsel of God in this verse was to make every effort to keep God's true Sabbath, lest any person fall after the same example of unbelief. So there are New Testament verses that tell us that we are required to enter into God's Sabbath rest, and we sin if we don't.
So let us not be guilty of having a blind faith. Go to the Bible and read for yourself. Don't listen to any minister of religion who tries to talk you out of the need to keep all ten commandments.
Why do I recommend that? Because revelation 20 214 says, blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. Who goes through the gates into the holy city? Those who love God and show that love by obeying the ten commandments, not the nine commandments. So keeping the fourth commandment has vital consequences.
Now, this slide asks the question, will paganism become the main religion of America? Prophecy decrees it will come back again as world religious leaders try and unite all pagan and christian religions into a one world religious organisation. But this one world religion will be very dangerous, for it will be dressed in the garb of love and unity, but trashes the truths of the Bible. This uniting of pagan religions with a judaic christian religion will end up the same way that happened in Elijah's day and Jeremiah's day about two and a half thousand years ago.
Daniel one, verse one. And Jeremiah 25, verse twelve, tell us that God permitted the babylonian army to come down, ransack the city of Jerusalem and capture the Israelites. This was because the Israelites were worshipping idols on Sunday instead of the creator God on Saturday.
And that is poetic justice. For in Babylon there were plenty of idols that they could worship. This picture depicts the scattering of Judah and Jerusalem.
And they stayed in Babylon for 70 years as Jeremiah prophesied. I will come back to this shortly, but we need to know something else first. In all wars, the key to success is often due to who has the best intelligence information on the plans of the enemy.
During the second World War, the british spies spent time trying to decipher the plans of the Germans, which had been written in code. And this is one of the machines they used to break down the codes using secret files that they stole from the Germans. The project was called the Enigma files.
The enigma machines were a series of electromechanical rotor cypher machines developed and used in the early to mid 20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic and military communication, and is the forerunner to our modern computers of today. God has codes in the Bible too. As I said before, God and Satan are in a spiritual war.
And the true Bible contains the codes that enable us to understand what God has done and will do to bring about the utter defeat of Satan and his evil angels, and thus end up with a clean universe. A clean universe that you can join if you choose, in the spiritual war. Satan understands the full plan of salvation, but he cannot change its outcome.
Humans, however, struggle at times to understand the plan of salvation because they've never understood the construct of the Bible. So here is knowledge that will help us appreciate the magnificent mind of God as we look at the way the Bible has been composed. And by the way, I make no apology for saying that.
In my opinion, the King James Bible is a fabulous Bible to read because it is based on the eastern manuscripts and not the corrupted western manuscripts. Now the Bible is not just one book, so you can't pick up the Bible and read it like a novel. It is 66 books written over 2000 years by inspired writers from God.
Now, the Bible can be read in two ways. Devotional reading where you just read any passage you want to read and you will be blessed when you do that. But you won't pick up the topical threads that are in the 66 books, and so one needs to read it topically.
Now, you can't do that without somebody teaching you. As Jesus said to his disciples, go teach, baptise in that order. So if you want to know what the Bible says about the future destiny of this world, we will need a teacher who can show us where the teachings concerning the future destiny of this world are amongst the 66 books of the Bible.
This is when the scales fall off our eyes and we really learn God's message for us. Online Bible studies such as is found on Hope Channel, amazing Facts websites, amazing discoveries websites, three ABN International websites are all excellent sources for topical Bible studies. The Bible has also been written in a way that includes literal language, symbolic language, historical facts, prophecies, parables, poetry and mathematics.
With this in mind, it helps to have a teacher who really knows the Bible. I would not be able to stand before you today and share God's word with you, but for the faithful Bible teacher who taught me 46 years ago. As Jesus said, go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that comes to us from Matthew 28, verse 19.
You were never expected to understand the Bible without the help of a spirit filled teacher. In our next presentation, we will see just how accurate the maths are in a very long Bible prophecy spanning 2300 years ending in 1844. So don't miss it.
You've been listening to spiritual treasure chest with Bill Gates, brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio. For more resources like this, visit the YouTube page Bill Gates spiritual treasure chest.
