Tonight, I want to preach on the subject of the New World Order. This is a term that a lot of people have heard but they don't quite know what it means. "New World Order." When we talk about the New World Order, what we're talking about is a one world government, a one world religion, and a one world financial system or one world currency. Now the reason that it's called the "New World Order" is because in the current world order, the way things are right now, we have a multitude of nations, we have 200 or so different, separate nations that are sovereign, they have authority and autonomy over their own affairs. We have right now a whole bunch of different religions throughout the world. We have Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, all these various different religions, and then also we have all different types of currency.
Even if we were to just cross over New Mexico, we wouldn't be using dollars, we'd be using Pesos or if we were to go to Europe, we'd be using the Euro. If we would be going into China or Japan, we'd be on the Yuan or the Yen, but there's coming a New World Order where there will be a one world government, a one world religion, and a one world currency. Now the bible tells to prove all things, so in order for me to get up here and make this kind of a claim that the bible predicts that there's going to be this New World Order, then I should be able to show you these things in the bible, and the place where all 3 of these elements are found is right here in Revelation 13, so look down at your bible first of all in verse 7, I'm going to show you one world government in the bible.
In Revelation 13:7, speaking of the Antichrist, it says, "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." That is a one world government. When you have one man who has power over all kindreds, all tongues, and all nations, that's a one world government. Look at verse number 8 for a one world religion. The bible says, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him." When everybody on the earth is worshipping one person, that's a one world religion. That's uniting of even the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Muslims, "Everybody that's on the earth," the bible says, "Shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Jump down to verse 16 and I'll show you this one world monetary system. Verse 16, the bible reads "He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six or 666," so here we see that no one can buy or sell outside of this system that's going to be a mark that is put in your right hand or in your forehead. That's a one world monetary system.
It's not just that you cross the border into Mexico and that no longer applies or we get on a plane and go to Europe and we're using a totally different money. No, all men, free, bond, poor, rich, everybody is going to have to use a mark in their right hand or forehead in order to buy or sell world wide, that is different than what we have today. That is a New World Order, that is a one world financial system, so all 3 of these elements are right here in scripture yet there are people out there who when you talk about the New World Order or things of this nature, they say "Ah, you're a conspiracy theorist. You're some kind of a nut. You're paranoid," but wait a minute, can you really be a bible believing Christian and just ignore Revelation 13 when it predicts that these exact things are going to come to pass?
In order to understand the New World Order, we have to understand the subject of Babylon in the bible. Now go back to Genesis chapter 11 because it's often helpful when we're studying any subject in the bible to go back to the first time something is mentioned. Go back to the beginning, and it's so interesting how the book of Genesis is the origin of so many biblical doctrines, so many biblical doctrines, we go all the way back to Genesis and sort of see that subject introduced and then follow it throughout the bible, and so Genesis chapter 11 is our introduction to Babylon because it tells us of a place called "Babel" and that is where Babylon derives its name. It's actually the same place. Babel later becomes Babylon. Genesis chapter number 11, but before we read chapter 11, look at chapter 10 verse 32.
The bible reads, "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood," so the bible's telling us here that after the flood, nations were divided, they were divided into nations. It's God's will that there be separate nations on this earth. It is not his will that there be a one world government, that all nations unite. Now in Revelation 13, when we saw that united nations, when we saw that united religion, that was all of the devil. The dragon was the one that put them into power. This is God's work in Genesis 10:32, dividing nations, okay?
Now look if you would at chapter 11 verse 1. "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech," which makes perfect sense because obviously, everybody who was on Noah's Ark all spoke the same language. This is only 100 years later that the languages are confounded, so obviously they all speak the same language, so the bible says in verse 2, "It came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city," so notice that statement, "Let's build us a city," and that city is going to later become Babylon, okay?
It says here, "Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one." A lot of people in today's world, because they're being sort of brainwashed into this New World Order and being taught that this is a good thing, when they see the same, "Oh, the people is one." They all have one language. Most people in today's world would look at that and say, "Well, that sounds great. They're all one, they're all united. One language. Sounds great," but it's not God's will. It's not biblical.
God wanted them spread out over the face of the whole earth. God wanted them divided after the flood, and so it says here in verse number 6, "And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."
Why do we have separate nations? Why do we have all these different languages in the world? It's because God divided mankind into nations and caused us to speak various languages. When you look at the languages of the world today, a lot of them group together. For example, if we think of Spanish, French, Romanian, Italian, we would look at those as the Roman's languages or Latin based languages. Why? Because all they are is just forms of Latin that have changed over time. They all came from one ancestor language, Latin, right? Then if we looked at languages like Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, Deutsche, Icelandic, and English, those are Germanic language because they all kind of go back to the same root language and then they spread out and changed over time.
If we were to go to India where they have hundreds of languages and they even have 22 major languages that are spoken by lots of people that are recognized by the government as official languages of India, 22 languages, but you could see how they actually divide into 2 categories because the northern Indian languages are all related and then the southern Indian languages are all related, but they're extremely different from one another, so obviously, when God divided their languages, he divided them into some very different languages from one another and then over time, it got even more divided as time went on, but think about how they're working on the tower and just from one moment to the next, they weren't able to understand each other.
Here they are, they're friends, they're getting along, they're working together, they're doing something, and then all of a sudden, one of them wants to reach over and get a hammer from his buddy or whatever, and he's like [foreign language 00:09:32], and they go "Woah, what are you doing? What's going on?" They just couldn't understand each other because you can't learn a new language that fast. Anybody who's learned a foreign language after you're already an adult knows that it takes years. It takes literally hundreds of hours of study, even thousands, and it takes a lot of work to learn a language, so therefore, they could not live together anymore, they had to split up and it forced them to scatter abroad. They wanted to be united in opposition to God but he scattered them. He divided them in the earth.
Now let's fast forward to Daniel, the book of Daniel. That's Babel, now let's fast forward to the city of Babylon later on in history, and we're going to go to Daniel chapter 2. Let me just bring you up to speed in the story here. This is the story where King Nebuchadnezzar, who is the king of Babylon, he has had a dream and he has forgotten what the dream is, but the dream really bothered him, it really upset him, it's given him a lot of anxiety so he wants to know what this dream means, but the problem is he can't even remember what the dream was let alone what it means, so he brings in all the astrologers and sorcerers and suit sayers and the psychic 1-900 number, celebrity psychic reader and whatever, and he brings them all in and he asked them to interpret the dream for him and they say, "Okay, tell us the dream, we'll give you the interpretation."
He says "Well, the thing is gone from me. I forgot." They say, "Well, how can we interpret it?" Basically, he accuses them of being a fraud and says "If you supposedly have all these magical powers and all these psychic abilities, you should be able to tell me what the dream was and the interpretation, otherwise you're a fraud and I'm going to have you all put to death because you've been just ripping me off. Look at my phone bill, all the money I spent on it." Finally, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they pray unto the Lord and he actually gives them the dream and the interpretation, he reveals it unto them, so Daniel goes before the king and he's going to tell him what his dream was, okay? Look at verse 31 of chapter 2.
"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory." Now watch this key verse in verse 38. "And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold," so this great image or what we would call a statue, in the bible it's called "A graven image" or "A molten image," this great image has a head of gold, arms and breast of silver, and then the thighs of brass and then the legs of iron down below, this great image, first of all, the golden head represents Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom which, watch this, is a world wide kingdom, is it not? He just said, "Hey, wheresoever the children of men dwell, you're ruling over them."
He has this world empire, which is the Babylonian empire, which is based in Babylon. That's where this is taking place, that's where this conversation is happening, and Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. Look what the bible says next in verse 39. "And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise."
Now we have the luxury sitting here in 2015 to know exactly what he's talking about because we have the hindsight that's 2020 where we see, "Okay, of course, the golden head, that's the Babylonian empire, that's Nebuchadnezzar, and then that kingdom that came after that was inferior, that's the Medo Persian Empire," and if you remember, we read about that in the bible where the Medes and the Persians take over that Babylonian Empire, we would know the story of King Darius and Daniel and the lion's den, right? Well King Darius was the king of the Medo Persian Empire, the one that followed Babylon but it wasn't as strong as the Babylonian Empire. It was not a gold empire, it was a silver empire, and it's interesting they chose that part of the body with the arms to represent it because it's the Medo Persian, Medes and Persians, so it's a 2 pronged deal.
After that empire, the Medo Persian Empire, which was a world empire, then you have the Greek world empire which would be Alexander the Great and his conquest, okay? Then following that Greek Empire, what do we have next? That iron empire that crushed and break in pieces and subdued, what do we have? The Roman Empire, right? Then it talked about, in the original dream, how there was going to be this stone that was cut out without hands that was going to destroy all of it, that was going to break that image to pieces because he saw that image with the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and then that stone that was cut out without hands smashed it and filled the whole earth and became that everlasting kingdom. We know that stone of course to be the Lord Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation, Jesus.
It was prophesied of him. The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner, that chief cornerstone that would break in pieces everything else. Now Jesus Christ came to this earth for the first time during that Roman Empire. Do you remember when you read that Christmas story, it says that in those days, Caesar Augustus made a decree that all the world should be taxed? Everybody's heard that scripture around Christmas time, Luke chapter 2, and then of course they go and the manger and everything else, so the bottomline is that Jesus Christ was that stone and he spiritually destroyed the power of Satan, the power of death when he came to this earth, died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again, and that happened during that fourth empire that's being prophesied here in the book of Daniel.
Now if you would flip, over to Daniel chapter 7. I hope everyone follows so far. I'm trying to break this down and make it easy to understand, but there's this vision in Babylon of a great image, and notice, it's one image but it just has these different sections. We've got Babylon and that world empire, Medes and the Persians, their world empire, Greeks and their world empire, Rome and its world empire, and then we have the coming of Jesus Christ, right? Everybody follow? Look at Daniel chapter 7 because we have a similar vision. This time it's not Nebuchadnezzar having the dream, this time it's Daniel himself having the dream. Look at Daniel chapter number 7 and we'll begin reading in verse number 1.
"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea." Now pay close attention to this. "Four great beasts came up from the sea," do you see that in verse 3? Make a note of that. "Diverse one from another," meaning they're different from one another. Look at verse 4. "The first was like a lion," so if you have a pen and you're marking your bible, just underline that word "Lion" right there. The first beast was like a lion.
The bible says, "And had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear," so maybe underline that word "Bear." The first beast was a lion, the second is a bear. "And it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh." Verse 6. "After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard," so the third beast, if you want to underline the word "Leopard," "Which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth."
Does that iron sound familiar? "Great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces." Sound familiar? "And stamped the residue with the feet of it." It's all the same as Daniel's original vision. Instead of 4 sections of that image, now it's being represented by 4 beasts. Beasts are what? Animals. It's the old word for animals. That first beast, the lion. Why? The lion's the king of the jungle. That's like that head of gold, and then of course after that, we have the bear, then the leopard, and then finally, we have this diverse beast, and what it means by diverse, it means that it's different than any beast he's ever seen, so he doesn't have a comparison like "It looks like a lion" or "That looks like a bear or a leopard." He just says, "Well this was diverse from any beast I've ever seen, but it had these iron teeth, brake in pieces," it's the same language as of the iron in the image.
Look at the end of verse 7. "It was diverse from all the beasts that were before it;" and this is key, "And it had ten horns." All right, everybody got this so far? Now with that in mind, let's go to Revelation 13, and remember, Revelation 13 is the chapter where we found the New World Order laid out. We found out one world government in Revelation 13, we found the one world religion in Revelation 13, we found a one world monetary system in Revelation 13. Now that we've gotten some understanding from the book of Daniel, let's go back to Revelation 13, let's start at the beginning of the chapter and let's get the context here.
Verse 1. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns." Does that sound familiar? "Ten horns" sound familiar? Keep reading. "And upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." Now do you not see that these are the exact 4 comparisons that we had in Daniel chapter 7, just in reverse order. We have the dreadful beast of the ten horns, then we have mentioned the leopard, the bear, and the lion. Do you see the connection? Do you see why we were in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 now? Because these things fit together perfectly, don't they? Now let's keep reading.
It says "The dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority," so it's the devil who's putting this beast in power, and just to help you understand, the beast here is referring to both the king and the kingdom. In the Old Testament, in Daniel, the same metaphors were used for both the king and the kingdom. He told Nebuchadnezzar, "Thou art that head of gold," and that head of gold also represented his kingdom. The silver portion represented the king of the Medo Persian but also the kingdom itself, so the beast here, we're talking about the Antichrist, it says in verse 3, "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," so remember, what's the sermon about? The New World Order, and in order to understand that, we went back to the origin of that idea.
What did they have in the tower of Babel that upset God? They had basically a one world government, one world religion, they were all united, one world language, one world money, everything was united, that's what they had. That idea goes back to the tower of Babel. It's not a new idea, it goes back to the tower of Babel. In the Nation of Babylon, don't we see that same idea? "Conquer the whole world, rule over the whole world, one world kingdom." That's what we see in Babylon, same idea. Same thing with the Medes and the Persians, same thing with Alexander the Great, same thing with the Roman Empire. There's a continuity here of this idea. It's of the devil, it goes back to the tower of Babel, and notice though that the geography changes but the spirit is the same. We have Babel, we have Babylon, but then we have the Medo Persian Empire no longer based in Babylon.
Now the spirit of globalism, the spirit of world government, the spirit of world domination, it no longer resides in Babylon but it resides in Shushan, the head of the Persian Empire. Later it's going to reside with the Greeks, later it's going to reside in Rome, Italy, and Rome, Italy will sort of be the headquarters for this global system, but then go to Revelation chapter 17. We see in the end times this same beast, don't we? Same beast, and notice, the end times beast is not just the Rome beast because if it was just the Rome beast, there would have been no mention of the bear, no mention of the leopard, no mention of the lion. It's a beast that basically is a composite of all of these. Now look down, if you would, at Revelation chapter 17 verse 1.
The bible reads, "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy," watch this, "Having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is," watch verse 9. "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth."
Now when he says "Here's the mind which hath wisdom," what he's basically saying is "Here is the thinking man, somebody who's paying attention, can basically have a little hint here to figure out what I'm talking about." He said, "Here's a hint for somebody who's smart enough to understand it. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth." Now when I was in elementary school, I just went to a public school, and in history class, there was a chapter in our history book called "Rome, the city on seven hills." I was just in a public school. That was just the name of the chapter on Rome because it's a known fact that Rome is a city that was built upon seven hills. Rome, city of seven hills.
Now it makes perfect sense when you think about the fact that the book of Revelation is being written at a time when who is the global power? Rome. This is written when the Roman Empire is still around, so it makes perfect sense in the book of Daniel that the emphasis will be on Babylon, but here in John's day, it's Rome. That's why he even brings out the fact that it's a city that is seated upon seven hills. Now if you would, jump down a little bit, the bible says in verse 12, "The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."
Now can you imagine 10 kings or 10 world leaders having one mind, in the sense that they all agree? Usually, there's a lot of disagreement, isn't there, when these world leaders get together? Think about these summits that they have where the most important world leaders get together and talk about things. The G-10, the G-20, the G-5, the G-13, whatever, they get together and they talk about issues and they make decisions and so forth. What the bible is teaching is that one day, there's going to be like a G-10 summit here where these 10 leaders of the world, these 10 kings, as the bible calls them, are going to get together and they're going to decide to basically just hand all the power over the Antichrist, just hand it all over to one guy. Now let's keep reading.
It says in verse 14, "These shall make war with the Lamb," meaning they're going to make war with Jesus, "And the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."
Now, if you would, flip over to Revelation 18, just one page to the right in your bible, and let me break down for you what we've seen so far. First of all, we've seen that this spirit of global government, one world system, everyone united goes all the way back to the tower of Babel, which is why this system is known throughout the bible as Babylon. Later, there would be a literal, physical city called "Babylon that would rule over the earth under Nebuchadnezzar. That Babylonian Empire was followed by the Medo Persian Empire, was followed by the Greek Empire, was followed by the Roman Empire, and each of these empires are all part of the same system. It's one image that Jesus crush to pieces spiritually the first time he came, but he will crush it physically the second time he comes.
He will actually physically destroy this system, destroy the Antichrist and his kingdom when he comes the second time, but notice how the geography kept changing like we talked about earlier, so let me ask you this. If between Daniel's time and the time of our Lord Jesus Christ, the geography changed multiple times, Babylon, Shushan, Greece, Rome, Italy, wouldn't it make sense that over the last 2000 years, it could have changed also, or should we just be stuck in this thing of "Well, you know what? It's just the city of seven hells is just Rome." No, because just as it moved geographically over the years leading up to Christ's first coming, it can move geographically up to the second coming because the geography is not really the issue, it's the spirit. It's the idea of this global conquest that we're talking about. It's not limited to a certain geography.
Now let's ask ourselves this question. Is Rome, Italy today ruling over the world? Is that really the seat of governess in this world? Now some people would say "Well, yeah, it's the Roman Catholic church. The Vatican city, Rome, they're running everything." Now there are people out there who have this belief that the Catholic church is running this world and they have all the power and the Jesuits and the Black Pope and this and that, but I'll be honest with you, they're wrong. It's that simple. The Catholic church did use to have that kind of power. In the middle ages, they did have that power, but honestly, today they don't have the same power that they once had in the dark ages.
Now if you were reading this scripture during the dark ages and you're living in Europe and you said, "Well, I'm reading about Babylon. I'm reading Revelation 17, I'm reading Revelation 18, and I say it's the Roman Catholic church," you know what? You would have been right. Why? Because Catholic means universal. It's the same global idea, same tower of Babel type globalism in the universal church, that's what the word "Catholic" literally means, so here's the thing. If we follow the progression here, we go from Greece to Rome, but then after the fall of the Roman Empire, you have a globalist type system still out of Rome, which is the Roman Catholic church, and they had this thing that they even called "The Holy Roman Empire" and they were the one who crown the kings of Europe for many years.
They were that king of kings where they would put the crown on their head and decide who rules and who doesn't, and in fact, it was a great turning point in human history when Napoleon actually took the crown out of the Pope's hand. When the Pope came to crown him, he took it out of his hand, put it on his own head, basically showing him, "I'm in charge, not you." The bottomline is that was a decline in the power of the Catholic church and we've continued to see a decline in their power and influence as far as global affairs go, so depending on when we're talking in human history, the geography's going to be different.
If you're in Daniel's day, it's Babylon. If you're in John the apostle's day, it's Rome. If you're living in the dark ages, you're going to point again to Rome and say it's the Catholic church, for crying out loud, so the question is where is the seat of globalist power today? Where is the center today, where is the capital city of this idea of a world government, of this idea of uniting the world's nations, religions, and financial systems? Well that would be none other than in United States of America. It doesn't really take a genius to understand that the United Nations, hello, the United Nations is based where? New York city. Where is the seat of financial power? New York city. The United Nations itself which is an embryonic world government is based in the United Nations, which is based in New York city, which is the United States.
Now look down at your bible in Revelation chapter 18, as we see another chapter about Babylon, but this chapter about Babylon is about the destruction of Babylon. Actually, literally, physically being destroyed so we're talking now in the future. This would be the final geographic location of that Babylon spirit. Now you say, "Well Pastor Anderson, how do you know we're not talking about the literal city of Babylon?" The literal city of Babylon no longer exists. It ceased to exist even before the time of Christ, so when they talked about the city of Babylon, it's not a literal city of Babylon, that is spiritually what it's being called. Why? Because it's that same Babylon spirit, that same tower of Babel spirit that we see in all these different geographic empires.
Look down at your bible there in Revelation chapter 18 verse 10 when the bible talks about the physical destruction of Babylon, and it says, "Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more." Now let me ask you this. Who would have to be destroyed in order for it to be said "No man buyeth our merchandise anymore." Think about all the merchandise that's made in China, Vietnam, that's made in Japan, that's made in Germany, that's made all over the world. Who is the greatest consumer of this world? What's the great consumer nation where if they stopped buying your stuff, you'd say "Who's going to buy all this stuff?" Who is it? The United States, hello.
Where does all the made in China stuff ... To Walmart, right? It's going to United States. The United States is buying all the merchandise from all over the world more than anyone else to where if we were to look in 2015 and say "Who does this verse apply to, Revelation 18:10 and 11, where if they were destroyed, people would say 'Oh, man, they're weeping, they're crying,'" and they're not crying like, "The loss of life, the humanity, the people dying." It says they're weeping and mourning repeatedly, it says, because nobody's buying their junk. "What am I going to do with all this stuff? The Dollar Tree is not there anymore." There's no dollar tree, no Walmart, no Americans just buy stuff and throw it away, so therefore, this fits perfectly with the United States when we look at this in Revelation 18, and just honestly, who's the runner up here?
There's one superpower in the world right now. It's the United States. The United Nations, the globalist government is based in one place, New York city. It's run by the US. People say "Get us out of the United Nations." I've seen the bumper sticker. It really would be "Get the United Nations out of us." They're inside of us, they're inside the United States. We finance the thing, we run the thing. Hello. Now there's another theory out there that says Jerusalem. They'll say "The new Babylon, the new capital city of this system, the new geographical location would be Jerusalem," and when you look at scriptures on Babylon in Revelation, they'll say "That's Jerusalem." You look at Revelation 17, they'll identify that as Jerusalem. When you look at Revelation 18, they'll identify that as Jerusalem. Let's test that with scripture and see if that theory holds up, okay?
First of all, number one, it can't be Jerusalem because if Jerusalem were destroyed, no merchants would be saying what they said there. "Nobody's going to buy our stuff anymore." They'd just we like, "All right, flip the boat and reverse and we're heading for the US," any shipments that were going into Jerusalem. It's not like Jerusalem is just this great consumer of all of these goods, all this merchandise where when they go under, it's like "What do we do with all this stuff?" That's number 1, but number 2 is that we already saw Babylon defined as Rome in Daniel, because they'll try to say "Oh, well, Jerusalem's on seven hills, kind of," but here's the thing about that, though. Rome was clearly described in Daniel, so we're not moving the goal post here.
In Daniel, he said, "It's going to be these kingdoms and that when Christ came, this global kingdom would be ruling," which is the Roman Empire, the Iron Empire, and so clearly, if it's Rome and Daniel, it's going to still be Rome in the book of Revelation from John's perspective, living at that time, and if the torch is passed from Babylon to the Medes and Persians, that makes sense. Why? Both globalist empires. Going to the Greeks, the Romans, the Catholics, and then to the United States, it all makes sense. They all are one with another, whereas Jerusalem would not fit that bill. Jerusalem is not the capital city of any world empire. You say, "Well yeah, but the Jews are controlling things and behind the scene," but wait a minute. They're not doing it from Jerusalem. The Jews today reside in New York more than in Jerusalem.
If you look at the population of Jews in the world today, there are about 15 million Jews today, so called Jews. About 7 million of them live in the US and about 7 of them live in Israel. They're just as many or even slightly more living in the US than there are living in the nation of Israel today, and then just a measly 1 million scattered throughout the whole rest of the world combined. It's like 7 million here, 7 million in Israel, and then 1 million everywhere else, and these are approximate numbers, I'm simplifying it for the sake of the sermon, but honestly, there are just as many Jews here, and whenever you run into Jews, you notice that a lot of them have a New York accent. Why? That's the center of financial power. Jews predominantly live in Los Angeles, Hollywood, and New York, Wall Street as just a fact.
That's another reason why Jerusalem does not fit the bill, but here's a major reason. Go back to Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah chapter 51 is a prophecy about the physical destruction of the original Babylon, literal Babylon. The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylon of Belshazzar, the literal city being destroyed. Look what the bible says in Jeremiah chapter 51 beginning in verse number 60.
"So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah."
Get the picture here. Seraiah the scribe is sent by Jeremiah with the book of Jeremiah to read it in Babylon, to read it to the Babylonians, to warn them, and Seraiah is told to read the warning and to tell them of the evil that God's going to bring upon them. Then as soon as he's done reading, he takes the book that he's reading, he ties it to a great stone and throws it in the river, and they say "Wait, I wanted to read that one more time." "No." It goes into the river and he says "Thus shall Babylon sink," and what did he say? It's never going to be inhabited. It's never going to be a nation again. It's never coming back. Does everybody get that? Now go to Revelation 18 with that in mind, and we'll see the spiritual Babylon in Revelation 18, and see if you can find the similarity here. Look at Revelation 18 verse 21.
"And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone," sound familiar? "And cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." Let me ask you this. Could that really be said of Jerusalem, that Jerusalem's going to be destroyed and found no more at all, no one's going to inhabit it ever again." Absolutely not because Jesus Christ's going to reign from Jerusalem, so for people to say, "Oh, Babylon in Revelation 18, that's Jerusalem" doesn't fit because of the fact that Jerusalem is going to be inhabited and reigned from for a thousand years. Some people say "Oh, it's the new Jerusalem," but remember, the new Jerusalem descends down from God after the millennium. That's Revelation 21, that's a thousand years later, okay?
To sit there and say, "Oh, Jerusalem's going to be wiped out and never lived in again," that would not be accurate of Jerusalem, but wait a minute. Whoever Babylon is, that's true of them. You know what I mean? Let's say, "Okay, United States fits the bill. That's the seat of global power. That's the one world, New World Order headquarters. The United States, the tip of the spear of this thing and they're the ones who buy up all the merchandise," then it would be that when God destroys the United States someday that no one would ever live in it again. That's what the bible's saying here, but it would be like Babylon in that regard. Here's another reason. Go to Luke chapter 21. The other reason why Babylon cannot be the city of Jerusalem is that the city of Jerusalem is judged actually at the midpoint of the seven years.
At the midpoint, at the abomination of desolation, God brings judgement upon Jerusalem, so it wouldn't really make sense for God to bring judgement on Jerusalem at the midpoint and then at the very end of the week for him to say "Oh, then Babylon came and remember it's before God to give unto the cup of the wine and the fierceness of his wrath if the cup of the fierceness of a wrath that are already been given halfway through the week." See what I'm saying? Well if you don't see, look down to the bible and see. Luke chapter 21 lays it out here, beginning in verse 20.
This is the famous passage that we know as all about discourse. Usually, we read it from Matthew 24 just because we've all read Matthew a million times because, "I'm going to read the New Testament." We start in Matthew and then a lot of people, that's as far as they get, so Matthew is the book that's most familiar to the most people, but the same thing is found in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 with just subtle differences where we can compare the 3 and get a full picture, but those of you who know Matthew 24 well, this will make perfect sense to you. Look down at your bible in verse 20.
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto." Now if you know Matthew 24 real well, the words that you're thinking in your mind are "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," right? Because these words are found in Matthew 24 at that point in the story, aren't they? "Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains."
He says next here, and this is a key verse, verse 22, "For these be the days of vengeance, when all things which are written may be fulfilled," and I wouldn't really make a lot of sense if the major judgment on Jerusalem's not coming for another 3 and a half years. Wouldn't really make sense to say "Well, these are the days of vengeance, when all things are being fulfilled." Now let's keep reading. It says, "But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people." He's talking about upon the Jewish people because he says "Upon this people, there's going to be God's wrath on them," and by the way, the Jewish people are not under the blessing of the Lord.
Why? Because the bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 that "We also have suffered like things of our own countryman even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus," get this, "The Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." "The wrath has come upon them the uttermost," and here, it says "There shall be great wrath on these people," meaning the Jewish people, wrath upon them.
Talking about the physical Jews according to the flesh, Israel after the flesh, not spiritual Israel, those who are in Christ, but the Bible says here, "Wrath upon this people," verse 24, "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," we have that in Revelation 11, "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh," so let me ask you this. Is Jerusalem getting what's coming to it at the midpoint before the rapture or way after the rapture, at the very end? It's clearly at the midpoint, and guess when Babylon gets what's coming to it. At the very end. We're talking around the timeline of the seventh vile being poured out. Totally different time, so it wouldn't really make any sense for God to make a big deal about Jerusalem being punished, "These are the days of vengeance. This is when everything's being fulfilled at the midpoint," if that was not the main event. That is the main event for the judgement of Jerusalem. Babylon's destruction comes later. He says it as an afterthought at the very end of God pouring out his wrath, this is the very beginning of God pouring out his wrath.
Let's go back, if you would, with that in mind to Revelation chapter number 1. Again, just a quick review, we've got the New World Order. We started out by defining it. What is the New World Order? Well it's one world system. It's Babel. That's where it started. It's Babylon. It's all these world empires that led up to what we have today, a world empire where the United States and the United Nations are attempting to bring the whole world under that subjection, and the whole world will one day be fully united under the Antichrist when those 10 leaders, that G-10 summit of 10 kings put him in power, but how is Babylon today in 2015? It's not Rome, Italy. It certainly isn't Babylon, a city that has ceased to exist. It's not Jerusalem. I don't see Jerusalem ruling the world. I see the United States with military bases and 153 nations.
We see the seat of globalist power, and some people get really hung up on "Well but it's a city." No, no, no. Symbolically, it's the city of Babylon. Not literally the city of Babylon, symbolic, so don't get too hung up on "Well, it's got to be a ... " If you want to pick a city, pick New York city, but it's the United States in general that is Babylon today, and we could go through in Jeremiah 50 and 51 and Revelation 18 and see other similarities and other evidence to point to the United States, but it can't be Jerusalem, that doesn't fit the narrative in Daniel. It can't be Jerusalem because their judged at the midpoint. It can't be Jerusalem because they don't buy all the merchandise.
It can't be Jerusalem because Babylon's going to cease to exist while Jerusalem can't cease to exist because that's where Jesus is going to reign from, that's where the 12 disciples are going to be reigning from and judging the 12 tribes of Israel during the millennial reign of Christ, a thousand years before the new Jerusalem comes down. "Yeah, but Jews run everything," yeah, but they're not running it from Jerusalem. They're running it from United States, they're running it from New York. They've infiltrated the financial institutions, the government, et cetera, et cetera, so what's the moral of all of this? The bible said that when the Antichrist comes, when this New World Order's in place, that he will make war on the saints, didn't it?
Now a lot of people have this mistake and idea that the saints are going to be gone. Well, no. The saints will be here, it's not a preacher of rapture, it's a post tribulation rapture, and so they say "Oh, we're going to be gone." No, the Antichrist is going to make war with the saints, and it's not saying he's making war with somebody that the Catholic's made a painting of with a halo over their head or something and said "Oh, Saint so and so." No, the bible teaches that all of us are saints. If you're saved, you're a saint. We're sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ once and for all. He said, "All the saints are those who call upon the name of the Lord everywhere for salvation," and if you look up the word "Saint" throughout the New Testament, that's very clear, so who is the Antichrist making war with, believers? Who's he making war with, the saved?
It says that he will overcome them in the sense that we're not going to be able to fight back and win, but then of course when Jesus returns and when he actually does battle with the Antichrist and his armies, then the lamb shall overcome them, so we can't overcome the devil but Jesus can, all right? We win in the end because we're on his side, but look if you would at Revelation chapter number 1. You say "Why does any of this matter? Why are you teaching us about the New World Order? Why do you want to talk about a one world government? Why do I even care about politics or anything that's going on in the world?"
Well because the bible says that we should not sleep as do others, but we should watch and be sober, and the bible often uses not knowing what is going to happen in the end times as being asleep, he uses that term, and then those who are awake are the people who understand scripture and they know what's coming. Now what does the bible say in Revelation 1 verse 3? "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." It's a blessing for us to hear the words of Revelation and to understand them and to comprehend them, to understand Revelation 13, to understand Revelation 17, 18, all the other chapters is a blessing and God says "The time is at hand," and we today see the technology in place for purchasing things with your right hand or forehead.
You could easily picture going to the grocery store, checking out ... It's very easy to imagine. 200 years ago, they might have wondered, "How are we going to do a one world currency?" Today, it's just "Duh," piece of cake. Easy. It's around the corner. Really, it could start happening right away and it wouldn't really be that big. We don't know. It could happen beyond our lifetime. Maybe it's going to be ... People on their 70s and 80s thought, "It's happening." We don't really know when it is. We don't know the time, we don't know the day or the hour.
There are those who set dates, and whenever someone sets a date, I'll just mark that date up on the calendar and say why no, it's not on that day because it says "It's such an hour as you think not the son of man cometh," so whenever I see somebody say "It's on this day, I know for sure. I calculated it from the bible," then I just tell myself, "Then that's one day that he won't come," because otherwise that guy would be like "I told you," and it's like it's a coincidence. Everybody's predicting at every date, somebody's going to be right, so we don't know when it's going to be.
We have no clue, but when we look at the signs of the times, it's very likely that it could be in our lifetime, and we would do well to study and understand these things because of the fact that going into this, you don't want to just be in the dark because then you're going to be confused, you're going to be confounded, you're going to be perplexed, people are going to be just freaking out because they don't know what's happening and easily deceived because they don't know what the truth is, whereas those of us who study the bible real well and we know the scriptures, we know what Jesus taught, we know what Revelation teaches, as we see these things happen, we're going to understand what's happening.
I love what Pastor Jimenez preached on last night for those that weren't here because he talked about the fact that biblically, the tribulation is going to be a time when many people will be saved because God's people always do the most soul winning when they're being persecuted the most, and he brought up that story back in Exodus about the children of Israel multiplying in the land of Egypt, and the verse says "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew," and in the book of Acts, when they were persecuted, they did more soul winning, and I was thinking about his sermon as he preached that, and I was thinking about myself, you know what?
If you're a soul winning Christian and you start seeing these things happen and you know this is not a drill, when you get to the point where things are so clearly happening that we know it's the end, you're going to be thinking the end is really close and you're probably going to make it a great priority to just serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and all your soul, and you're going to say to yourself, "We only have a little time left. Let's win as many people to Christ as we can. This thing is nigh at hand. This is at the door. People talk about they're going to go hide out somewhere in a cave somewhere. Think about this, and I know I'm kind of stealing your sermon, brother Jimenez, but I just want to expound on your sermon because it was a great point.
Think about it. What's the point if you know you're in the tribulation, you see World War 3 and then you see the temple being built and you see this guy being declared God and you see the nations united and the religions of the world united and you see all that happening, what's the point of going and hankering down somewhere just so that you can just survive, just be alive and make it to the rapture and you could just be alive from here? The dead and Christ shall rise first. If you die, you just get to rise sooner, so what? What's the difference? You're still close to the end anyway. If it's God's will that you perish, then you perish.
If it's God's will that you survive, you survive, and I believe that many people will survive, and the bible says "Pray that you will," but the bottomline is though, if you only have a little time left, wouldn't you want to just earn some more rewards, earn some crowns, win some souls, so it's like "Where is the hideout? Where's the underground bunker? Where's the food supply? Where's the emergency equipment?" No. Where's the bible? Where's the soul winning? Where's my voice to make known the mystery of the gospel? That's what we ought to be thinking about. It's a weird attitude going into the tribulation of how can we hanker down and hide and avoid everything. No. How can we go out with a bang spiritually?
I've said before, I'm either going to be one of the first ones killed or I'm making it all the way to the end, because if God's going to protect me, he's going to protect me, but I'm not going to go hide somewhere. I'd rather go soul winning. We only got a little time left anyway. We got whole eternity to be in comfort with Christ, let's go out with a bang. I love that sermon. It's such a great point because often, we talk about the facts of bible prophecy but it's good to get a little bit of the philosophy behind it of how should we even approach the subject or how do we even go into those times?
I remember a long time ago, long before Pastor Jimenez was even a pastor and he was newer to this subject, this is a long ... He and I have known each other since he was a teenager, and this subject was real new to him and when he first learned about how it was post tribulation pre-wrath rapture a long, long time ago, I remember him saying, "Man, what do you we do? How do we handle it?" He said, "I'm just going to slap a '93 rock sticker on my car and just drive to Phoenix and see what you're doing." That was going to be like his cover. I'm sure he's embarrassed about that. That's going to be his cover, like "Yeah, then they're not going to think I'm a Christian if I got the '93 rock sticker.
That was a great joke, but the bottomline is he's growing in the Lord over the past, I don't know, 10 years or whatever, 15 years since he said that, and it's not about slapping the '93 rock sticker and heading for the hills now. I'm preaching a sermon and say, "Hey, I'm not hiding anywhere. I'm going to preach the gospel and get people saved." That's what it's all about.
Why do we need to know these things? Why do we need to understand these things? First of all, we need to understand that the United States is not always just this good guy that never does anything wrong because we're going into a period where the United States is no longer going to be based on the constitution, it's going to go into this global system, which is not a good system. We need to be aware of that and we need to be on our guard about that and just understand that "Wait a minute, this isn't your grandfather's United States," right? Then of course we need to be just spiritually in the know and prepared for these things. Thank God for the book of Revelation to guide us through these times. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this church and opportunity to get together here at Word of Truth Baptist Church and have this time of preaching and fellowship and be edified, and Lord, I pray that everyone would go away from this meeting having heard from Pastor Berzins and Pastor Jimenez and myself that they would go away more knowledgeable, more equipped, just understanding the subject and ready to study more in the bible and ready to do great exploits during these last days, Lord, and Lord, help us to get the practice now. Help us not to start soul winning when everything begins to go down. Help us to start sharpening up the sword now and getting warmed up now, Lord, so that we can be used of you in a marvelous way during this glorious time if we're privileged enough to be alive when it happens. Even so, come Lord Jesus, amen.
