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GALACTIC NEWS FROM THREE ANGELS #18
WATERGATE CODES
The clues were hiding, silently lurking, on tapes in
the basement of the big white house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They
showed obstruction of justice. A coverup. Crimes by the President of the
United States. And 28 years ago, the puzzle pieces suddenly came out into
the open.
I don’t know why, but August 9, seems to always trigger in my mind the
sad conclusion to the Watergate scandal. We’ve had others since then,
certainly. But somehow, every time August 9 comes around, I remember Richard
Nixon making his final speech to the staff of the White House. Everybody
crying. Then that long walk on the red carpet out to the helicopter which
would carry the 37th President to California and private life.
Of course, all of us remember the speech from the Oval Office the night
before.
I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed
is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President I must put
the interests of America first. America needs a full-time President, and
a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face
at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for
my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention
of both the President and the Congress during a period when our entire
focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without
inflation at home. Therefore I shall resign the Presidency effective at
noon tomorrow.
Well, it was a sad moment. And I don’t bring it up just because it’s August
9 and it happened to come into our minds here 28 years later. I want for
us to think again about the hidden clues that just sat there on those
spools of reel-to-reel tape. The June 23, 1972 conversation between Nixon
and Haldeman which spelled certain disaster. It was all there, just waiting
for someone to come along and find out the truth.
Here in our study of the book of Revelation, we’ve pretty much stayed
away from a “sort out the clues” philosophy. Good Christians everywhere
disagree about what these ancient dreams mean, what the images and beasts
and numbers are all about. At the same time, as we discussed yesterday,
when one of God’s mighty Angels warns us that Babylon is fallen, and that
we should get out, and that those who worship “the Beast” will share in
its eventual fate, its doom, we do want to know whatever God does see
fit to reveal to us. Don’t you agree? And we praise God for the plain
things He does share . . . that worshiping the God of heaven as our Creator
is a safe protection against dragons and beasts — whatever they represent.
So today, for just these few minutes, I’d like for you to join me as we
carefully adopt a bit of Woodward and Bernstein role: looking for the
clues. What does the Bible say about this enemy of heaven, the Beast?
Besides the fact that it’s going to taste the full measure of God’s holy
anger in the end?
You really have to go back to chapter 13 — we’re in Revelation fourteen,
remember — to pick up on any details about the beast power. My NIV Bible,
by the way, as it describes what Revelation personifies as “Babylon,”
makes this point:
“Ancient Babylon in Mesopotamia was the political,
commercial and religious center of a world empire. It was noted for its
luxury and moral decadence. The title ‘Babylon the Great’ is taken from
Daniel 4:30. According to some, it is used in Revelation for Rome as the
center of opposition to God and His people.”
Well, that’s interpretation. But I think there’s truth
here. In Daniel’s day, Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar’s anti-God kingdom.
He was its center; he sought glory for himself. He was willing to coerce
worship, to demand it. He tried to pull Daniel and his friends away from
worshiping God, and force their worship of him. So this description in
the NIV is accurate: “The center of opposition to God and His people.”
All right. Here in chapter 13, we find that the Dragon — that very clearly
is Satan — gives this beast its power. And a throne. And great authority.
One of its heads seems to have a fatal wound, and then is miraculously
healed. Verse three:
“The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.”
“The world wondered after the beast,” says the King James.
As we continue into verse five, we find that this religious
power, this anti-God entity, blasphemes God. Just like in original Babylon,
where Nebuchadnezzar claimed, by force, worship that only God should receive.
Here it happens again. No wonder this beast is a kind of Babylon Part
Two!
Then an interesting number. The beast “exercises authority,” the Bible
says, for forty-two months. It blasphemes God, slanders the saints, and
actually makes war against God’s people . . . for 42 months. By the time
we get to verse eight, we find that this beast power is being worshiped
on a global level, except for those who belong to the Lamb.
Now let’s go back just one chapter earlier, to Revelation 12. Here’s the
dragon mentioned as well: remember, that is a clear reference to the devil.
A woman — generally symbolizing a church in prophetic literature — is
about to give birth to a Son. The dragon is poised to devour it as soon
as it’s born. But, verse five, “her child was snatched up to God and to
His throne.” My NIV text notes say:
“[This is] the ascension of Christ.”
Which makes sense. The baby Jesus, and the boy Jesus, and the Messiah
Jesus, were always the prime targets of Lucifer’s rage. The New Testament
makes that abundantly plain. But now notice this in verse six:
“The woman [that’s the pure Church, remember] fled
into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be
taken care of for 1,260 days.”
A great many Bible students, and I tend to see it their
way on this point, subscribe to a interpretation that a day — here it
says 1,260 days — represents a year. Which would make this 1,260 years.
We can leave that issue to the side for now, but a bit of interesting
math comes to our minds. Earlier we find that this beast power persecutes
God’s people for 42 months. How many days in a month? Thirty. Thirty times
42 is exactly 1,260. Following the resurrection of Jesus, the woman, the
church, hides in the desert while the beast power tries to persecute her
for 1,260 days. Or years, if you accept that day-year interpretation.
So there’s a perfect match regarding this beast power’s reign of terror
against those who are trying to worship God.
But just one more number, if you will. Go with me clear back to the Old
Testament, to the ancient book of Daniel. Also a prophetic book. Also
filled with mysterious beasts and vivid metaphors. Written, by the way,
hundreds of years before John the Revelator, the disciple of Jesus, penned
the visions of Revelation on the island of Patmos. Two books, two authors,
who never met or knew each other. But here in chapter seven of Daniel,
lurking in the presidential tapes and transcripts of the first Babylon,
we find the original smoking gun. (To borrow that Woodward/Bernstein metaphor.)
Here is a dreadful fourth beast in Daniel’s dream, representing pagan
Rome. Iron teeth. Bronze claws. Ten horns. And lo and behold, a new horn
comes up, uprooting three of the other horns. And this 11th horn has eyes
and a mouth. The mouth blasphemes — just like the beast in Revelation
13. It wages war against the saints — just like the beast in Revelation
13. It “oppresses the saints,” verse 25 says. One more clue: It will try
to change, or think to change, the King James says, “times and laws.”
Not only does this power, this little horn, try to persecute God’s people,
and subvert their worship of Him, but it actually tries to change the
Law of God. It tampers with His commandments.
And now this intriguing expression:
“The saints will be handed over to him for a time,
times, and half a time.”
In the King James, it’s “time, times, and the dividing
of time.” What’s it mean? Again, we take to a bit of interpretation, but
many good scholars read it like this: “A year, two years, and half a year.”
That would be three-and-a-half years, or, if you accept the ancient Jewish
reckoning of three hundred sixty days in a year, a total of . . . exactly
1,260 days again. In Revelation: 1,260 days – or years. And here in Daniel:
1,260 days – or years. A prophetic period of time where this beast, or
little horn, would blaspheme God, persecute His people, try to draw worship
to himself instead of God, and even try to change God’s laws.
In our final moments here, what’s it mean for us, friend? Simply this:
in these last days, stay with God. Worship Him. Worship only Him. Worship
Him who created the world, and all of us in it. Beware of any invitation
which would draw away your worship. Beware of any spiritual invitation
that carries the political taint of “coalition coercion.” Beware of any
invitation that hints or suggests that God’s Law, which never changes,
can be changed or ignored. If these prophetic words are true, those deceptive
invitations have been around for a great many centuries, and are going
to be revived or “healed,” here in the final generations.
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