Globalism: Our Greatest Threat

‘Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

‘But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel–because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth’ (Genesis 11:1-9).

May we pray?

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we acknowledge that holy Scripture alone is what is to be proclaimed in the Church and laid on the people of God. Lord, I pray as I attempt to take Scripture tonight and connect some dots together that you would give me to do so with moderation, with carefulness, with a firm commitment that Scripture alone is the standard of truth and, Lord, as I would share thoughts and applications of these passages of Scripture tonight, I pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, impress these things on our hearts; not that we would lose heart, but that we would gain heart and look up for our redemption draws near. Come, Holy Spirit. Help me to open the Scriptures clearly and succinctly and profitably for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Tower of Babel

Well, we have here the story of the tower of Babel. And this is the beginning of Babylonian civilization. If you turn back to chapter 10 of Genesis you have a bit more information. In verse eight: “Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty [hunter] on the earth...that is why it is said, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.’ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city” (Genesis 10:8-12).

So we find here information, as we look at Genesis 10 and Genesis 11, of the beginning of empire, the beginning of the conquest of the world with a central authority. This is a great theme that runs throughout Scripture. And it is not a good theme. It is a very bad theme. Genesis chapter 10, Nimrod comes from the line of Cush. Cush is a descendant Ham. This is a bad line. And this is a bad man. Nimrod is the great ruler of the post-diluvian world (diluvian, meaning flood). We’ll use a five-dollar word.

After the Genesis flood humankind begins again in the three sons of Noah–Ham, Shem and Japheth–and in their descendants. And so here we have the beginning of civilization again.

I want you to see something in Scripture and that is the concept of the city is not a good concept. The concept of the city is not a good concept. It is a place where people attempt to do things they cannot do otherwise and the ideal, in the Old Testament, is not the city, but the country. The ideal in the Old Testament is a kind of agrarian society. And what you find in Nimrod is not simply the beginning of the city, but the beginning of a unified, uniform and–we might add–totalitarian civilization; civilization coming from the Latin word for city which is civitas. We get the civilization from the Latin word civitas.

So the beginning of civilization, the beginning of rule and authority and of one man dominating and ruling other men is found here in Genesis chapters 10 and 11. Genesis 10: Nimrod. The story continues in Genesis chapter 11.

We notice that we are often apt to miss the import of this and think of it just as the tower of Babel, the beginning of a tower. But it isn’t so much building a skyscraper that’s what’s in view. It’s something else. And what it is, is in the form of brick and mortar; it is an extension of what Adam did in Genesis three.

What Is the purpose of the Tower of Babel?

What is the purpose of the building of the tower? The purpose of the building of the tower is to unite humankind in an assault on Heaven. Genesis 10 and Genesis 11–Nimrod, the mighty hunter of Genesis 10, the tower of Babel of Genesis 11–is a continuation of a theme that goes back to Genesis three. So turn back there with me, if you will, for a moment . . . Genesis chapter three.

‘Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”’ (Genesis 3:1-5).

There’s the key thought. What is wrong with eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Well, aside from the fact that God said, “Don’t do it,” the crux of it is what? It is man reaching out to be as God. It is man, instead of in a position of humility and dependence on God; it is man in defiance of God, seeking to be on a par with God.

“You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). That’s the essence of the sin. It isn’t that it’s some kind of special fruit or that the fruit, in and of itself, has power. It is what the fruit represents. In reaching out to take that which God says, “Don’t do,” man is reaching out to be equal with God, to put himself up, to exalt himself.

Now, I submit to you that what we have in the form of Adam and Eve reaching up to take that fruit to be as God, we have in Nimrod thousands of years later over in Genesis chapter 11. In Genesis chapter 11–not with a tree, but with bricks and mortar, with stone and mortar–we have a man reaching out to be as God. That’s really the thrust of it.

Verse three of Genesis 11: “They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole [world]’” (Genesis 11:3-4).

So here is a theme: Man, attempting to exalt himself, to make a name for himself and not to be scattered. It is the beginning of empire. It is the beginning of the attempt, under one central authority, to rule the world and to rule the world and do for humankind what we need God to do for us. Instead of being dependant on God in humility, we exert our own rights, we use our own power and we attempt to create on earth our own paradise. That’s the essence of the tower of Babel.

Now, you see this exalting oneself: “Let us make a name for ourselves. Let us not be scattered.” We see God’s reaction to it. Verse five: “The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were [making].”

Now, notice God’s comment. Verse six: “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (Genesis 11:6). I want you to see that God’s view of the tower of Babel is not a positive view. God views this as evil.

Now, let’s stop and think about it. If we dismiss the Genesis themes here, if we dismiss the divine commentary, this doesn’t seem like a bad thing. What’s wrong with building a tower? What’s wrong with an exaltation of our name? What’s wrong with not being scattered? What’s wrong with being unified?

But notice that God views this as a particularly dangerous thing. Notice what he says in this last....his conclusion is in verse six, he says: “Then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (Genesis 11:6).

What do they plan to do? What do they plan to do? It is a centralized government, independent of God dominating the world. That’s what the tower of Babel represents. It is a centralized government, independent of God and taking the place of God, and God views it as particularly evil.

Genesis 11 as the Continuation of Genesis 3

So I submit to you that Genesis 11 is a continuation of a theme that begins in Genesis three. In Genesis three it is a human couple–our first parents, Adam and Eve–saying, “We don’t need God. We can act in independence of God. Indeed, we have divinity within us. We can be as God.”

And, again, what is Satan’s word to Eve? “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).

How will you be like God? “Knowing [for yourselves] good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

Now, a bit of knowledge of the Hebrew language at this point: For the Jews the word yada, which is the word “to know,” is not merely some intellectual knowledge. For the Jews knowledge is an intimate thing and a determinative thing–two concepts here in this Hebrew word yada. It is an intimate thing. It is experience. And we get that concept kind of running through the Bible that the Jews used, in the Hebrew Bible, this word to describe the relationship between a man and a woman when they become married and have physical relations. “So-and-so knew his wife and she conceived and bore a son.” So there’s this concept of intimacy in it. There’s a concept of experience.

And listen to what Satan is saying to Eve in Genesis three? “You will, by your own experience, experience good and evil. You will be able to decide for yourself. Try it and see.”

So, you see, there’s this concept not of an intellectual, detached analysis of good and evil. It is, “Try it. Experience it. Test it and see for yourself by experience.” So yada–knowledge in Hebrew, what Satan is saying to Eve is–“Experience good and evil. Evaluate it after you try it.” We hear that all the time.

It’s, you know, “How can you say this is wrong unless you’ve done this? How can you say this movie is a bad movie unless you’ve seen it? How can you say this book is a bad book unless you’ve read it? How can you say that consuming this substance is dangerous unless you’ve tried it?” It’s that ancient appeal of Satan once again. “Try it. See for yourself.” So it’s experience.

And, secondly, in Genesis three, “You will be [as] God [yada] knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). There’s the concept of determination within the knowledge of God. We see that in the overall working out of what we call foreknowledge. Foreknowledge, on the part of God, is not that God looks into some kind of cosmic telescope and looks at the future and says, “Wow! They’re going to do this. And, wow! They’re going to do that. And, oh, my!” And it’s that God is detached from this and not determining it. Foreknowledge in Scripture has an element of determination in it. It is determining the future. It’s not simply being passive. When Scripture speaks of God foreknowing, it doesn’t mean that he sits there detached like you might be if you were in the back seat of a bus and there was a protection between the driver and you, and you couldn’t get up there, and the bus driver has a heart attack and is gasping for breath as the bus is going all over the road, and you’re sitting back there, and you see what’s happening. That’s not the picture of God in history, that God in time looked back . . . God in eternity looked at the future and said, “Oh, my!” You know, that’s not the picture. There’s sovereignty within the concept of knowledge in Hebrew and the Hebrew language–yada.

So, “You will be as Gods.” In other words, “You will determine for yourselves good and evil, right and wrong.” Nobody has the right to tell me what to think. Nobody has the right to tell me what to do. I’m independent. This is an assertion of my own authority. We would speak of that philosophically as an assertion of autonomy. “I have the right to decide what’s right and wrong for me.”

But God says, on both those concepts with this Hebrew word yada, “Don’t experience evil. It will affect you terribly. It will have such an impact on you that you will lose your ability to reason; your mind will become darkened and foolish. And, secondly, don’t think for yourself. Think my thoughts after me. I will protect you. I love you. I want to take care of you. I want to protect you from evil. So I will tell you what good is and I will tell you what evil is. Don’t decide for yourself. Accept my word. Do what I tell you, and you will be blessed. If you reject what I tell you and decide on your own authority, what’s right for you and wrong for you, then you’re going to come under judgment.”

So in Genesis 11 we have this continuation of original sin. “You will be as God.” Man reaching up to be as God. You see that reaching up to the tree to get that fruit is a reaching up in defiance of God. In a real way it’s a fist thrown in the face of God. When Eve reaches that hand up to take that fruit, it’s really a fist in the face of God. And what I want you to see is that in Genesis 11, with the building of the tower of Babel, it is not just one woman or one man with a fist reached up to be as God; it is a group of people under a one world government leader named Nimrod, reaching up to be as God. That’s what Genesis 11 is all about. It’s man, as a group under a central authority in a person by the name of Nimrod, reaching up to defy God. That’s what the tower of Babel is all about.

There’s nothing wrong with building a skyscraper, as such. There’s nothing wrong with having a nice high steeple on a church. The reason this is wrong is that–just as there’s nothing wrong with putting your hand in the air–but when you put your hand in the air to take down God from his throne and exalt yourself–which is what Genesis three is about–then that’s wrong. And so the problem in Genesis chapter 11 is this unification of mankind under a central authority to rule the entire human race. And that’s the essence of it. And God’s response to it–Genesis chapter 11–is that this is bad.

Verse six, again, Genesis 11:6: “The LORD said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them’” (Genesis 11:6). What’s the essence of what they plan to do? They want to create Heaven on earth without God and with man in the place of God. That’s what it is. They want Heaven on earth without God and man in the place of God. That’s the goal. So we see it there.

So then God goes down, and he says in verse seven, “Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other” (Genesis 11:7). That’s the purpose. The purpose is what? God wants to thwart their plan to create a unified, totalitarian society. And his method of thwarting that is to do what? God does a miracle. And it’s a profound miracle. God, in a moment of time, rewires everybody’s brain. And there they are. I remember seeing a motion picture years ago that came out–it was produced, I believe, in 1966, called The Bible. And it’s actually quite a nice film in many ways. I can remember the workers on the tower of Babel and as they’re talking with each other doing this thing. All of a sudden the guy hands a guy a brick and he says to him–they’ve been speaking in the same language. And all of a sudden he turns to him and says, “Quasimodo funga dengo ranga dinga,” whatever.

And the guy looks at him and says, “Polly wolly doodle,” you know, or whatever. I’m just making up syllables here.

But the point is that this is an amazing, miraculous event in history. It’s as great a miracle as the parting of the Red Sea. It’s as great a miracle as raising Lazarus from the dead. But, if you want to speak of it this way it’s an anti-miracle miracle. It’s a curse. It’s a judgment. And the judgment is divide so that man will not conquer. God divides the human race at the tower of Babel so that mankind will not be successful in building his one world government under a central authority and a central rule.

Babylon as the Fountainhead of Evil

Now, it’s interesting: Babel, Babylon, because if you turn over and think of Nimrod again in Genesis 10. Turn over with me, if you will, to Revelation chapter 17. We have this word about Babylon–Babel, the tower of Babel, the land of Shinar. This is where civilization begins. It doesn’t begin in Egypt. It goes to Egypt. But this is the foundation of all civilization, the fertile crescent, Mesopotamia–the land between the rivers, the land between the rivers–potamos–river; meso–middle of–the land between the rivers: Tigris and Euphrates. This is where civilization–Latin word civitas, city. This is the beginning of the city, as not the City of God, but the city of man; the city where man exerts himself and exalts himself to be as God.

And what do we read? And this is Revelation chapter 17 and this is the scarlet woman. We’ll pick it up at verse four: “The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. [Verse six:] I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus” (Revelation 17:4-6).

What is it about this? What it is, is this: Babylon, Nimrod, the beginning of world civilization, the beginning of an attempt to unify the entire human race under a central authority, a central way of doing, a central way of speaking, a central way of thinking and a central way of worship, is here referred to in the last book of the Bible as “MYSTERY BABYLON . . . THE MOTHER OF [HARLOTS] AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:5). What’s that mean? It means that everything that is evil–religiously speaking–everything that is false–religiously speaking–has its genesis in Genesis 11, Genesis 10. Nimrod, chapter 10, the mighty hunter. I mean, this guy is incredible. This man has an incredible ability to found cities. I mean, it’s city after city after city this man founds. That’s why he’s called the mighty hunter. What did he hunt for? He hunted people down. He hunted people down to exalt himself, to exalt his name, to exalt his way of life.

Now, some of what I’m about to say is conjectural, based on history but not history that we can prove absolutely and accept absolutely. But, according to many sources, Nimrod has a wife by the name of Semiramis. And it is in the worship and exaltation of the goddess Semiramis that the fountain of ancient religion begins. So what I want us to understand when we think of the tower of Babel: It isn’t just that some guys out in Mesopotamia decided to get together and see how high they could build a tower. That’s really not the essence of it. The essence of it is that the tower reaching up is a group of people reaching up, instead of with one hand, to take that which God says, “Don’t take.” It is a group of people in concert, acting in unity, acting in defiance of God to take that which God says, “Don’t take.” And so God curses this. The human race is divided.

Empire of Daniel 7 and 8 as a Continuation of Genesis 11

Fast forward with me, if you will, in time, to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter eight. And I won’t go into an elaborate detail with this, except if we look at Daniel 8:9. I’ll just give you the high points because I don’t want to get into an elaborate study of the book of Daniel. But Daniel chapter eight and verse nine speaks about a little horn. Now this little horn is not the same as the little horn of Daniel seven. The little horn of Daniel seven is an end time figure. But the little horn of Daniel eight is a figure who, while future to Daniel, has already come and gone on the scene of world history. Now, we know that because if we go back to Daniel eight, verse one, we’re told about this vision during the time of Belshazzar’s reign, Daniel has this vision–Daniel 8:1–and he looks up, in verse three, and he sees before him, “...a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. I watched the ram as he charged towards the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him, and none could rescue from his power” (Daniel 8:3-4).

And so who is this ram? Well, Daniel gets the interpretation. This ram represents the Persian Empire. Why does it have two horns? Because the Persian Empire actually begins as an empire of the Medes–a people group in ancient Iran–it begins as the Empire of the Medes, but in the course of time, they merge with the Persians. And it’s interesting that what begins as a Medo-Persian Empire–with the emphasis on the Medes and a little mention of the Persians–in time becomes really a Persian Empire. So there are two horns. One is short and long and then the other one comes up and gets bigger. That’s the Persians.

And so this ram is the Persian Empire. But then he tells us about a goat in verse five. “As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west” (Daniel 8:5). Now, where would that be? Coming from the west means that it comes–if you think about a map–it’s coming from Greece. And that’s exactly what we have here is a prophecy of the Hellenistic Empire.

“As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. He came towards the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at him in great rage. I saw him attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him; the goat knocked him to the ground and trampled on him, and none could rescue the ram from his power. The goat became very great, but at the height of his power his large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up towards the four winds of heaven” (Daniel 8:5-8).

Now, a little knowledge of history...we know exactly who we are talking about here. This goat coming out of the west is the Greek Empire. And it has one big horn. And who was the big horned ruler? Alexander the Great, who wasn’t even a Greek. He was a Macedonian. So you have this one horned goat, comes charging with great rage against Persia. Why? Well, the Persians had attempted to conquer Greece and had been stalemated and the Athenians lost many lives and so on. You can see in these battles that went on between the Greeks and the Persians. There was great rage by the Greeks. The Greeks finally rise up with Great rage under Alexander the Great and they defeat and destroy–around the year 331 BC–they destroy the Persian Empire.

But, here’s Alexander the Great, one of the greatest men–I want you to understand this–One of the greatest men in history. But he was a very bad man.

Remember this about great men in history. The overwhelming majority of the great men in history are very, very immoral, godless, ruthless, tyrants. Alexander the Great was not a nice man. Alexander the Great, you would not want your sister dating. Alexander the Great, you would not want for a son-in-law or a father-in-law. Alexander the Great was a very bad man. But he was a very great man because he was ruthless in his power. And so at the height of his power–while still a young man–he dies. Where does Alexander die? Does anyone know?

He’s buried in Egypt, but that’s not where he died. He’s buried in Alexandria, Egypt. Where does he die? He dies in Babylon. He dies in Babylon–how appropriate! And in his place, Daniel says, “Four horns come up in the place of one.” Those four horns represent the four basic divisions of Alexander’s kingdom.

Now, why are we doing this? You’ll see in a moment. The four horns represent the four basic divisions of Alexander’s kingdom that came in the wake of his death. His kingdom is divided by his generals, and the guys that end up on top–you know, there’s always a little fighting goes on–but there are four guys that come out on top: Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy and then Seleucus. Seleucus ends up having his headquarters in modern day Syria. Ptolemy has his headquarters in modern day Egypt–what we would call Egypt today. And Cassander and Lysimachus are over there in the rest of, for example, in Europe. And, so anyhow, the two that are really of concern to the Scripture are Seleucus, the king in the north, and Ptolemy, the king in the south.

The Foreshadowing of the Man of Sin Introduced

Now, what’s the significance of Greece? And why have I gone into this? Well, if you want to understand what’s going to happen in the future, you have to understand the Greek Empire. And the reason I can tell you this is that–notice in verse nine–Daniel 8:9–out of one of these four horns a little horn starts to grow. Now, the little horn that starts to grow here, we know from history is a man by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. Notice, this is one horn out of four horns. Antiochus Epiphanes was a Seleucid ruler–that means he ruled in Syria, that he’s the king of the north–and he ruled over the Jews in the Promised Land out of the north. And I’m going to read to you about him in the moment. But he’s a terrible man. He’s a tyrant. And if you go back to Daniel chapter seven you find something else interesting.

Notice in Daniel chapter seven we don’t have two animals–a ram and a goat–but what we have in Daniel seven are four animals. Look at Daniel seven for a moment and you can always listen to this if I lose you because this is very important about the number one threat that we face today–Daniel chapter seven, verse one: “The first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream” (Daniel 7:1). And he sees this in verse two he sees, “the four winds of heaven churning up” (Daniel 7:2). Verse three: “Four great beasts, each different” (Daniel 7:3). Verse four–and I’m just going to give you, and you can research this later, and I’ve written on this on my website. But Daniel 7:4: “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it” (Daniel 7:4). What’s that? That’s Babylon. And why is the heart of a man given to it? That’s an indication of what happened to king Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar had a change of heart in Daniel chapter four. God sent him into madness and then when he restored his sanity, God gave him a new heart at the end of Daniel four.

So in Daniel chapter seven, verse four, we’re talking about the Babylonian Empire. The next empire that affects the Jews is that of Persia. Daniel chapter seven, verse five, the second beast is like a bear. We go on further and we see in Daniel chapter seven, verse six the next empire is represented this time as a leopard. But what’s interesting about this leopard is that this leopard has an emphasis on four things. On its back it had–look at the second sentence of verse six: “On its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule” (Daniel 7:6).

Rome as a Continuation

Now, what’s that a reference to? This is a four headed empire: Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemy–the four fold division of the Hellenistic Empire. But notice the Greek Empire is not the last empire to affect the Jewish people.

Verse seven: “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast-terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns” (Daniel 7:7). Notice the difference in Daniel seven and Daniel eight. In Daniel eight you have a beast with four horns and a little horn comes out of one of the four. In Daniel chapter seven you have a beast with 10 horns and a little horn comes out. What is the beast of Daniel chapter seven?

Well, here it is. And, again, I’m giving you a condensation of messages I’ve taught before, but I’m trying to hit the high points and take you along with me on a rapid journey. What you have in Daniel seven with the fourth beast is the Roman Empire. And the thing that I want you to understand is that the Roman Empire never comes to an end.

Now, you’ll see some Bible scholars will tell you that in the last time there will be a revival of an empire. That’s nonsense. The Roman Empire has never ceased to exist. If you look at an old dime, what do you see on it? You see the same thing on an old dime that you’ll see in the US House of Representatives in Congress. And what is it that you see there? You see a bundle of sticks with an axe coming out. What is that? What is that bundle of sticks with an axe head coming out, tied up? It’s carried by a group of guys called lictors. What was it that the lictors carried? We get the word fascist from it. It’s a fasces. We get the word fascist from it. Why do we get the word fascist from it? Because Mussolini was trying to bring the power of the Roman Empire back to Italy.

But my point is this: The United States of America is just as much a continuation of the Roman Empire as any country 2000 years ago in the Mediterranean section of the world was part of it. The United States of America’s laws are based on the laws of ancient Rome. Our government is based on the government of ancient Rome. What do we call the aristocratic branch of our government? The Senate. We have the Senate. The Romans had a Senate. They also had a less aristocratic branch of the legislature. And that is representative of the people. And we call that the House of Representatives.

But you have to understand that our language, our culture, our laws, our alphabet all are a continuation of this. Canada is a continuation of the Roman Empire. All of the nations south of us from Mexico down to the tip of South America are a continuation of this ancient empire. All of the nations of Europe are a continuation of this ancient empire with their laws and so on.

So, out of this ancient Roman Empire that continues on today, when Rome fell in the year AD 476 in the west, the capitol simply continued on for another 1000 years in the East until Constantinople fell to the Islamic terrorists, the Ottoman Turks. And they conquered it, and they took over the most beautiful and grandest ancient church of Christendom and turned it into a mosque. What we call the capitol of Russia at that point, Moscow, was called the third Rome. Rome continues.

The Foreshadowing of the Man of Sin Examined

Now, I don’t want to get off on that. My point is simply to say this: If you want to understand what the future holds, with an antichrist figure, with a man of sin who is described in Daniel seven, you’ll see that the author–who, ultimately is the Holy Spirit–is drawing a parallel between that man in the future, who hasn’t yet come, and a real historical figure in Daniel eight–Antiochus Epiphanes.

Now, I probably have lost you with this fast survey, and I ask you, if you get interested in this–if you’re concerned about the future, which you ought to be because I think the future’s pretty clear in terms of where we’re headed–you ought to study this more thoroughly. If you want to understand where the world’s going, you’ve got to look back to Babylon. And Babylon is about what? A one world government attempting to do good without God; a one world government attempting to do good without God. “You will be as God, determining for yourselves good and evil.”

Now, let’s read a little bit about–and I will read to you from a book called First Maccabees–which is in the New Oxford Annotated Bible. But these are not books that I believe should be accepted as part of our Bible. But they are, nevertheless, very useful in filling in historical gaps between the Old Testament and the New. Listen to this for a moment. This is 1 Maccabees chapter one, and I’m starting at verse 10:

“From them came forth a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king; he had been a hostage in Rome. He began to reign in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks” (1 Maccabees 1:10). And that means about 175 years before Christ. “In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, “Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us. This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king. He authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom” (1 Maccabees 1:10-14).

Now, the Greek word for “gymnasium” literally means, “a place of nakedness.” In the concept of the Greeks, of the Greek games, men performed nude. And so the gymnasium is a place where both Jew and Gentile–this Jerusalem gymnasium–would perform. They would do athletic things. And this becomes very significant when we read on–verse 15: “and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil” (1 Maccabees 1:15).

What’s the point? We often celebrate Greek civilization. Much of our civilization goes back to the Greeks. We appreciate the Greek arts, and we appreciate the Greek science. And we appreciate the Greek philosophy, and we appreciate the Greek language because our civilization and our language is ultimately determined by the Greeks. The Romans really didn’t do much with culture. They simply copied the Greek culture and shoved it down everybody else’s throat.

Are you aware, by the way, one of the historical blunders in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, is that he has these Roman soldiers speaking in Latin. Roman soldiers didn’t speak in Latin except in and around the city of Rome. The Roman Empire, the armies of the Roman Empire were, by and large, not Roman people. They were subject people who became assimilated into the empire. What language did they speak in the rest of the empire? The same language that Jesus spoke when he wanted to talk to anybody but a Jew. And what language was that? Greek.

Now, why is it that everybody was speaking Greek at the time of Christ, even though the Greek Empire had been conquered by the Romans? Because the Greeks–now we’re getting the tie in to the tower of Babel–the Greeks were all about an imposition of a one world government on everybody. The Greeks knew they couldn’t have world peace as long as they had different religions, different philosophies, different languages, different ways of doing things. See what am I trying to say? And I’ve taken us to the book of Daniel, and I probably have lost you. And let me see if I can get you back with this.

The Dream of Alexander as a Continuation of Genesis 3 and 11

Genesis three: “You’ll be as gods, reaching out to take that fruit, reaching out to take the place of God.”

Genesis 10: Nimrod, the conqueror sets up all these cities. In chapter 11 he’s overseeing the building of the tower of Babel. What’s he doing? It’s Nimrod–as a new Adam–reaching out to take the place of God in a one world government with one language, one culture, one civilization, one set of laws, one army to enforce it on everybody. We’ll have world peace. There will be prosperity. We’ll rule the world.

That’s what the Greeks are doing. It’s a dream of the Greeks. Alexander the Great was a religious fanatic, but his religion was anti-God, anti-Bible. And why is it that we have Hanukkah today among the Jews? The Jews celebrate what? The throwing off of the yoke of the Greeks because the Greeks came after the Jews like nobody in history. Why did the Greeks attack the Jews so mercilessly? Why...you know that they actually took people...sometimes they took people and they fried them in frying pans alive. Why did they do things like that? Why were these noble Greeks so brutal in their persecution of the Jews? Because the Jews represented an exception. “We’re not going to do it your way. We’re going to do it God’s way.”

And so the Greeks attacked the Jews mercilessly. One of the issues was circumcision. Why was circumcision so important in terms of the Greeks and their hatred of the Jews over it? Why? Because when a Jewish parent circumcised their male child, they were putting the mark of God’s ownership on this child. This child doesn’t belong to the government. This child belongs to God. It doesn’t mean that they’re actually saved, though it points to a new heart. But it means: “This child has been dedicated to God.” We’re going to raise this child. We’re not going to let the government raise this child. That’s what circumcision’s all about.

So notice that the Greeks, the Greeks in their great “democratic move” set up these gymnasia, these places where men exercise and compete in athletic games in the nude. And then it becomes immediately obvious: this person’s a Jew. This person’s different than us. This person worships a different God. This person answers to a different authority in life than the state. And so the Jews actually came up with surgical methods to try to make themselves look like the Greeks. That’s what we read there in 1 Maccabees 1:15. They “...removed the marks of circumcision” (1 Maccabees 1:15). Why did they do that? That was a way of abandoning the holy covenant to join with the Gentiles.

I want you to understand that Alexander the Great is one of the worst tyrants in history. He’s worse than Joe Stalin. He’s worse that Mao Zedong. He’s worse than Adolf Hitler because what he was doing was–in the eyes of people–imposing a wonderful civilization, a wonderful culture, a wonderful language; he wanted to unite the entire world. Why did he try to conquer the world? Was it an ego trip for him? No. He was serving his fellow human beings in his mind. He’s going to bring peace. He’s going to engage in nation building.

Do you understand that’s what he’s doing? Alexander the Great, as he stretches out his empire from Europe into Africa, into the Middle East and as far away as India, he’s about what? Building those nations, not as independent sovereign states with their own unique cultures, but into a one world empire where people think alike, worship alike and speak alike. And he was incredibly successful, even though he dies early and his empire is split into four parts–Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemy–these four generals continue to have Alexander’s religious fanatical zeal. That’s why people understood Greek in Nazareth. That’s why people understood Greek in Rome. That’s why people understood Greek in Jerusalem. That’s why people understood Greek in North Africa. In time Latin comes hundreds of years later, more and more particularly in Western Europe to be a dominant language. But the best of Latin is borrowed from the Greeks.

The point I want you to see is that the empire builders of the ancient world are about uniting the human race in defiance of God to be as God.

Man as the Measure of All Things

Turn with me, if you will, to the last book of the Bible–Revelation, chapter 13. And we’ll just read at the very end here; and verse 16: “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666” (Revelation 13:16-18).

Now, I can tell you absolutely, definitively and without fear of contradiction: I know who that is. I’ve calculated the name and I know exactly who it is. And here it is. Are you ready? There have been many candidates in history. You can rearrange the letters and make it spell almost anything because remember that our number system is not based on the Latin alphabet. But ancient alphabets were used for the number system. Greek was. Latin was. Hebrew was. So you have a numerical equivalent. But our alphabet didn’t come from the Greeks or the Hebrews or the Romans. I mean, excuse me, our number system didn’t come from the Greeks, the Hebrews or the Romans. Where did our number system come from?

Arabic. We have an Arabic number system. Thanks Mohammed. Those Arabs were good at math. And our number system is based on the Arabic number system. But you have got to understand that for ancient peoples, they always could take a number value for a letter and so on. For example, the first nine letters of the Hebrew alphabet represent the first nine numbers and then you get the yodh, the tenth letter, and it represents a 10 and so on. Kaph, the next letter is a 20 and so on. But is it that confused if you add this up and you can come up with a Greek word lateinos–which means Latin kingdom. You can take the word for Nero–the emperor of Rome, Nero Caesar–and write it in Hebrew letters, and it adds up to 666.

Is that what it is? Did God the Holy Spirit give us a puzzle to sit and try to figure out like a crossword puzzle on a Saturday afternoon in a rainy day? What did he give us? He gives us the answer right here. He tells us the key to understanding the number. It’s right here. In verse 18 he tells us the answer. What is the number? What does 666 represent? It’s the number of man. What? You mean it’s that simple? It’s man’s number?

Yes. And in the Scripture, you see how, if you want to say something in a multiplied way, you see, he’s saying, “It’s six.” That’s man number. Man’s created on the six day. It’s one short of perfection which is seven.” It’s the number of man. It’s man’s number. But it’s man’s number to the nth degree.

So you want to know what the last great world ruler in the world is going to be like? He’s going to be very human, very humanistic, very kind. Wasn’t Alexander very kind? Sure he was to those who went along with him. But if you resist and you say, “Wait a minute. You can’t educate my children. They’re my God given responsibility. Wait a minute. You can’t tell us how to worship in our church. We believe in one God the Father almighty, maker of Heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We can’t go along with your way. Hey, wait a minute. You’re saying that we can’t preach anymore that Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life?”

So what I want you to understand is: this benevolent, this benign, this kind, this humanistic man who is the measure of all things–666–if you look at the first part of Revelation 13, you see what...the way it is, as God shows it to us: “And the dragon [that’s Satan] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. He had ten horns [takes us back to Daniel] and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name” (Revelation 13:1). Verse two: “The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like those of a lion” (Revelation 13:2).

What is this? The last great empire in the world is going to be a composite of all the empires that have gone before. And it’s ferocious. It’s terrible. And it’s anti-Christ. It’s anti-God. But it comes in the guise of doing good. It comes in the guise of solving our problems, bringing peace in the world. It is a kinder and gentler way of government.

But, in reality, man without God will always be a beast. He will always be ferocious.

Where in the World Are We Now?

You know, it’s interesting. About six weeks ago–once in a while–I have a program that I can call up on my computer, and it shows me where people have gotten my website from. In other words, on the Internet you get places by searching, and some people link. It’s interesting, I find myself quoted here and there on the Internet. What I discovered one day that something I had written is in Mandarin Chinese. And I was astounded. Someone took one of the articles I had written and translated it into Mandarin Chinese.

What I want you to understand is this: Where are we? The clock’s ticking. The calendar is turning so fast. Where are we in world history?

Dear ones, where we are in world history is that we are at a new Babylon. It’s interesting. There’s a program on the Internet called Babelfish. And if you type in anything–it’s not perfect yet–but if you type in anything, you select the language it’s in, and then you ask it to translate it into another language. It will do it. There are these incredible programs that will translate what you’re reading into your language, if it’s written in French, if it’s written in Spanish, and now into Chinese. And what I’m getting at is this: Man has finally succeeded in the twenty-first century–where man attempted and failed thousands of years before Christ on the plains of Shinar–to create a one world order, where everybody understands everybody else and where there will be peace. But the peace, the price of this peace is an absolutely totalitarian uniformity. That’s the trouble with Alexander and his empire. If you don’t go along with Alexander, he’s going to wipe you out. He will torture you.

Listen, what did he do? You read the history of that period. Antiochus Epiphanes–this great Greek ruler–when a woman had her baby boy circumcised, what did he do? He tied the baby around her neck and killed it and hung her, nailed her there with her dead baby, hanging around her neck because she had had her baby dedicated to the God of Israel.

See, that’s–you’ve got to understand–behind the kinder and gentler government that’s coming on the scene of world history. It is a tyrannical, totalitarian, extremist thing. And where in the world is religion in this? If you look at Revelation 13, who is it that initiates this as a religious institution? There are two beasts in the book of Revelation 13. The first is a political beast in the first half of chapter 13. And the second is a religious beast called the false prophet.

What’s in store for us, dear ones? I submit to you that in the very, very near future the dream of Babylon–of Genesis 11, with a united world under a united law under a united culture and–for all practical purposes–a united way of communicating–a united language, for all practical purposes, because it’s a united way of communicating–is only a short time away. Now what you understand is this: global terrorism is one issue; pirating CDs, movies, DVDs, another issue. We can have something in patents that are recognized all over the world except in certain countries. We have, already, a one-world economy. And where you have a one-world economy, you have to have a one-world law. Right now in order to compete in the world, here’s how it works.

I’ll wrap this up. This isn’t a rabbit trail. A year ago, I read a very interesting book of Thomas Friedman a New York Times reporter entitled The World is Flat. And it’s a fascinating description of how things have been moving. For example, if you go to Walmart tomorrow, and you buy a pair of large, red socks with green polka-dots on it, and you go and pay for it, and they have the scanning device–and remember, those things haven’t been around that long. I remember George Herbert Walker Bush–one of the things that cost him the election was that he decided to get out of the White House and kind of mix with the people, and he went into a supermarket and he saw them use a scanner. And, remember, George Herbert Walker Bush was president from 1989 to early 1993, and he’s in there during the campaign in ‘92, and he asked the clerk, “What’s that?” So that’s kind of a little time frame to remember that scanners were not out in the grocery stores four years before that. They are today. Everybody has scanners.

So you take your red and green polka-dot socks–large size men’s socks–at the local Walmart and what happens? As that bar code is scanned, not only does it ring up on the cash register what you bought, but that local store has a record that they are now needing an extra pair of those. Bentonville, Arkansas now has an immediate...that fast–faster than that–record of the fact that in the store in Alexandria, Louisiana they had that. And that record is also transmitted–instantly, via the Internet–to mainland China, to a factory in Shanghai that makes those socks.

Now, how is it that Walmart can put other people out of business? Because they’ve eliminated the need for a big inventory. So what happens is: Let’s suppose all of a sudden for some bizarre reason–like some movie star is wearing these kind of socks in a movie–all of a sudden at Walmarts all over the United States a bunch of guys are buying these kinds of socks because Tom Cruise wore these socks in such and such a movie, and women were fawning all over him because of his fancy red and green polka-dot socks. I’m being silly.

The point is that these trends are instantly analyzed by way of computer and transmitted from local stores to Bentonville, Arkansas, and not just to there but to the factory in Shanghai, China. So suddenly they say, “Man, across America we’re doing this.” So suddenly instead of making boxer shorts that are plain white in that factory in Shanghai, China, they switch the machines to start producing more of those red and green polka-dot socks. Are you following me? That’s going on now. That’s going on now.

Where We Have a Global Economy, We Have to Have Global Law and Global Law Enforcement

What I want you to understand is that where you have a global economy, you have to have global governance and global law. Now, let me say what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that it’s a sin to buy socks at Walmart. And I’m not saying that a company is in sin to make use of modern technology. What I am saying to you is this: There is a certain inevitability in history that we need to understand, that from the time of Genesis three man has been reaching out his hand to be as God without God. And in Genesis 10 and 11, with Nimrod and the building of the tower of Babel, man attempts to do this through means of a one-world government, with one law, with one system of law enforcement and with one military power. And that’s been man’s quest.

And God says, “This isn’t any good. I’m going to stop these rascals because if they can communicate that way, there’s no telling what evil, in effect, they can do.”

I’m telling you that that’s the whole thrust of history. And all of these great empire builders of the past that we sometimes celebrate, “Oh, look the Greeks: they gave us this, they gave us that.” They gave us a whole lot more, a lot that we don’t want if you had been living there then. That’s where history’s going.

And what I’m telling you is this: Never in the history of the human race–since the tower of Babel was stopped by God confusing human language–has the human race been so poised to rebuild the tower of Babel, as it were. The essence of the tower of Babel, humankind is involved in building today.

So what’s the number one threat facing the church today? It’s something you and I can’t do much about except to pray and to teach our kids that they don’t belong to the government. They belong to Jesus. And what is it? It isn’t the homosexual agenda; though that is going to be one of the tools the enemy is going to use to silence churches. It isn’t the abortion issue that goes back to Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Religion as the Servant of the State

What is it? It’s a move for a global government and world peace without God. Why is that such a threat? Because religion has a place in that one world empire, but religion’s place in that is to be the servant of the state.

Let me give you one last example of what I mean there, and then I’ll see if there are any questions and then we’ll close in prayer. What is one of the big issues facing the US military right now if you’re a United States chaplain–particularly with some Navy chaplains? Anyone know what’s going on?

Terry?

[off mic voice]

“Restricting their ability to pray in Jesus’ name.”

Why are chaplains being muzzled in their public expression of praying in Jesus’ name?

“Well, we’re not saying that you can’t pray in Jesus’ name in your little private deal, but when you participate in a big service–you can’t pray in Jesus’ name.”

Why is that? Because it’s offensive.

I want you to understand that our country has been stripped of its Christian roots, its Christian values, its Christian distinctiveness for really the last half of the twentieth century.

Now what I want you to see is this: tyrannical government loves religious support. Sometimes you find exceptions to that like Communism. But, by and large throughout history, these tyrants love a religious organization to give credibility to them and to honor them and to tell the people to obey their laws and follow their directions, but nothing that is going to undermine the central thrust of the government which is: one world government.

Distinctive Religions as Terrible Evil

So it isn’t that the homosexual issue by itself is that bad. It is bad. But there’s a bigger issue. And the bigger issue goes back to the Greek dream under Alexander the Great. And it is to suppress everything that is religiously distinctive because that hinders the quest of the unity of the human race. What your news media in America tells you today is this–God is my witness. This is the truth: There’s no fundamental difference between good Christians, good Muslims, good Jews, good Hindus, good Buddhists. All religions, essentially, are one, if you extract out of them the “good” element.

That is a demonic lie from the pit of Hell.

Christianity is a religion, not about your performance, but resting on the performance of Christ. It is very different from other religions. Are there moral similarities? Yes. But you need to understand something. Islamicist terrorists are good Muslims. They are.

Now, your government and your news media like to tell you they’re bad Muslims. But I want you to understand something: Osama Bin Laden and the insurgency in Iraq are following the precepts of Mohammed.

How do you think Mohammed conquered the Christian world to a substantial degree? He did it by terrorism.

Now, my point is this: You are being told–constantly through the news, through the government–that all religions essentially are one. We need to be spiritual people. But the moment someone like me stands up and says, “Please, so-and-so,” and this happens locally, “You know. I have a scruple. When I pray, if you’re going to ask me to pray, I’m going to pray in Jesus’ name. I don’t mean to offend you. I’m not trying to assault you with my faith. But when I come to God I come through Jesus.”

See, I’m a bad guy.

And you need to understand that now the United States government–and I’ll say this controversial statement to close with–though they may slow down on one side of the aisle versus the other, fundamentally, for all practical purposes, both major political parties are in this same drive together. And you want to be distinctively Christian, you have much to fear from your government in the future. That’s what I wanted to share with you because our government wants world peace without God. It wants a united culture, a united order and a united global commerce. And for that to happen, then that which is distinctive has to be suppressed.

And that’s why, as I look at Revelation 13, I see that the future is not so far in the distance–what we see there–coming about again in history, as it did in the first century. And that is, a government under the guise of being kind and benign, humanistic and benevolent–will crush with iron claws and iron teeth anything that stands as a distinctive, just as Alexander the Great’s Empire crushed the Jews, tortured the Jews, persecuted the Jews, to try to make them become like the Gentiles.

Anyone have a comment or a question before I close us in prayer?

[Off Mic Voice]

Yes.

[Off Mic Voice]

That is exactly correct, Ann. That’s true. I forget the name of the movie, but it received a PG-13 rating because it’s warning parents that your child may be religiously indoctrinated here because they mention Jesus that way. Interesting thought.

Dr. Brown?

[Off Mic Voice]

Absolutely. Absolutely. And what I want to say is, I don’t mean that everybody that helped to set up the United Nations after World War II was an evil person, anymore than I think after World War I, when Woodrow Wilson, who was the son of an outstanding Presbyterian minister–in fact, the first General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church was held in Woodrow Wilson’s Daddy’s church in Augusta, Georgia. He was a good man. He was a noble man. But you have to understand that people like Woodrow Wilson–going back to the League of Nations–he wanted to see man, by man’s efforts, end war. I mean, war is horrible. War is horrible. Sherman was right–William Tecumseh Sherman. “War is Hell.” But the problem is that man attempting to do this is exactly what Nimrod was attempting to do in Genesis 11. And so the United Nations is not your friend. It is your enemy. And UNICEF is not your friend. It is your enemy. Do they do a lot of good? Of course, they do. But the point I want to make is what? Just as Alexander the Great with his juggernaut, conquering the world, was attempting much good, but if you don’t go along with it, if you want to be unique, you’re going to be crushed.

Why is it that in modern day America there’s a case before the US Supreme Court going back to school in California where for nine weeks kids acted like they were Muslims. And that’s been challenged. Now the US Supreme Court is saying, “This is an egregious violation of the very thing that we were concerned about in the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

How can they get away with that, yet you or I try to go in there and get people to adopt Christianity even temporarily–well, there’s no quarter.

You need to understand that the leadership of this country–and I’m not . . . by that don’t think that I’m talking about George Bush or somebody. When I say the leadership of the country I mean both politically, culturally, in terms of the media, the elitist forces that are within our government–and one man–let’s say George Bush were the greatest Christian in the history of the world–one man–and I don’t think that he necessarily is–so I’m not . . . I’m just trying to avoid getting on that. I’m simply saying: one man, to resist this elitist move, has very little power, that your State Department is riddled with this, that your other government bureaucracies are riddled with this, and it’s fundamentally anti-Christian and it’s fundamentally globalist.

You want to make money? Invest . . . Sandy and I had a free dinner last week and a free night, and we were looking at a mutual fund: “Well, now, you know, you can invest in China with this.” We’re in a global economy.

Am I saying that all of that’s evil? No. What I want you to . . . I leave you with this thought. It isn’t that any of these things necessarily is evil. It is that they are part of a trend that I see is irresistible. We’ve got to have a global government in order to enforce global law. Why do we need global law? Because we have a global economy. You’ve got a global economy. You’ve got it now, now. So you’ve got to have global law. And in order to have global law, you have to have global government.

So this dream is becoming a reality. And I’m telling you: It’s later than we think.

Norma Jean?

[Off Mic Voice]

Well, I don’t think I’m alone, certainly, in saying this. I think other people are pointing this out.

[Off Mic Voice]

I will just leave you with this thought: The time to play at being a Christian is soon coming to an end. It’s hard for me to believe–born in the 40s and being married in the 60s and that Sandy and I were being house parents in the 60s–to recognize the world we’re in now. I mean, would you have thought that in 2003 in Lawrence et al vs. Texas that the Supreme Court of the United States would tell a state that its laws pertaining to human sexuality were unconstitutional. No. You wouldn’t have believed that. Would you have believed that a decree would come down under a man who professes to be a Christian in a Republican administration muzzling Christian chaplains regarding mentioning the name of Jesus. Would you have thought that?

My point is that there is this juggernaut that’s moving with great, steady momentum, and we’re not yet being persecuted. But I read a news story in a British newspaper over the weekend. The Church of England is concerned about a piece of legislation before the Parliament in Britain regarding gender that clergymen in the Church of England will–if this goes through, they’re concerned–be prosecuted if they–out of conscience–refuse to bless two homosexuals’ union.

Now, what I’m telling you is that this is all part of a package deal. And it’s not that any human being has put it together. It is that Satan is putting it together. The dragon–Revelation 13:1–is behind the whole thing. All I’m saying to you is: If there were ever a time for Christians to pray, to evangelize and to keep your kids out from under pernicious influences and to indoctrinate them in the basics of Christianity, it’s now because we now have freedom. But I don’t see that freedom–the trend of history that I see is that I don’t see that lasting a whole lot longer.

Let’s pray.

Lord, I pray that this burden that I feel as I look at history, as I look at Scripture, I pray, Lord, that you would wake us up to be people who are vigilant, who watch. Lord, you tell us in the Word of God to obey the government, but you never tell us in the Word of God to trust the government. Indeed, Lord, everything that we see in the Bible from Genesis 10 with Nimrod and Genesis 11 and his effort to build this one world government to Revelation chapter 13 is that government is something to be very much afraid of, very cautious about and especially when government attempts to do what man has been attempting to do without God from Genesis three on; to be as God, to dethrone God. Lord, we pray that you would deliver us. Deliver our Supreme Court justices from interpreting our own United States Constitution in light of the constitutions of other countries, as certain justices have begun to do. Lord, deliver us in our quest to defend ourselves with our military from attempting to become an empire of our own and play into the hands of the enemy. And, Lord, while we are certainly appreciative of the material prosperity of free trade, we pray that you would deliver us from uniting Mexico and Canada with the United States in a kind of initial common government.

Lord, we’re not racists in praying that. We’re simply aware that the human effort to bring prosperity and peace without God is as old as Genesis three and old as Genesis 11 with that infamous tower. Lord, deliver us we pray and give us to keep looking up for our redemption draws near–in Jesus’ name. Amen.