HomeARC ML 2205
MATTHEW 24 & 2ND THESSALONIANS 2! 6/85 DO 2205 ET #58
1. AMEN, LORD, DO BLESS THIS CLASS & BLESS THY WORD, & bless these Thy children, Thy students, all of us students, Lord, waiting to be taught of Thee to show us what these things mean. Remind us what they mean, Lord, so we can be prepared, in Jesus' name! TYL! PTL!
2. WE'RE NOW BEGINNING OUR NEW TESTAMENT STUDY OF BIBLE PROPHECIES REGARDING OUR MAIN SUBJECT TODAY, THE ANTICHRIST & HIS KINGDOM. We've been studying lots before about Jesus & His Kingdom & you're getting lots of Posters about it. You probably know more about Jesus & His Kingdom than any church people or preachers, & have a better idea of what it's going to be like from our Posters & Poster Stories & all of our former teaching. We've studied a lot about that & I like to emphasise the positive, accentuate the positive & keep our minds on good things, but we're not to be ignorant of the Enemy's devices! (2Cor.2:11)
MATTHEW 24:15,16--IMAGE ON TEMPLE GROUNDS!
3. WHEN JESUS' DISCIPLES ASKED HIM, "WHEN IS THE END GOING TO BE? WHAT IS GOING TO BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING?", He went into quite a bit of detail to try to explain to them & prepare them for what was coming. He told them a whole long list of events which would be sort of signs of the times & the days, all the things that were going to happen for the next 2,000 years before He came--earthquakes, pestilences, wars & rumours of wars, strife & all kinds of things. He said, "But the end is not yet!"--That's not the end.--Although it may feel like it, sound like it & look like it sometimes when you hear of some of these terrible catastrophes etc.
4. SO THE LORD IN THE 24TH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW WAS GIVING ALL THESE SIGNS ETC., terrible things that were going to happen, all these disasters, wars etc. What is the first prophecy in the New Testament about the Antichrist? Can you name the Verse? It's right in the 24th Chapter of Matthew. (Fam: Verse 15.)--Exactly!
5. "WHEN YE THEREFORE SHALL SEE THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION SPOKEN OF BY DANIEL THE PROPHET STAND IN THE HOLY PLACE, WHOSO READETH, LET HIM UNDERSTAND." Daniel didn't understand, people hadn't understood for generations. But Jesus was starting to preach then, "You'd better start understanding!" But there are still some people for the last 2,000 years, church people, preachers & theologians who still don't understand! Isn't that pitiful? He said, "You'd better understand it!"
6. IN ANOTHER PLACE IT SAYS THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION IS "SET UP" (DAN. 12:11,) & JESUS SAYS IT STANDS THERE. What does that sound like? (Fam: An Idol, the Image of the Beast.)--Obviously. I don't see how it could be anything else. In fact, I don't think it means anything else, I think that's exactly what it means. You can leave out that little reference "spoken of by Daniel the Prophet" & read it: "When ye shall see the Abomination of Desolation stand in the holy place"--when you see it stand there, what advice does He give to the Jews?--If there were any Christian Jews, & there were a few, like us. What does He say?
7. (VERSE 16:) "THEN LET THEM WHICH BE IN JUDAEA FLEE INTO THE MOUNTAINS!" Why does He particularly specify Judaea here? Where is this place where the Abomination of Desolation is going to stand? (Fam: Jerusalem.) Jerusalem in the Holy Place. What's the Holy Place in Jerusalem? (Fam: The Temple.) The Temple area.
8. SOME OF OUR WRITERS KEEP PUTTING THE IMAGE INSIDE THE TEMPLE & I KEEP TAKING IT OUT AGAIN! Because we don't know whether it's going to be inside or out. I'm more inclined to think that if it's going to have the glory & admiration & worship & adoration of millions of people, it's going to have to be standing outside someplace where it could be seen, not in that little rinky-dinky Temple where only a few hundred people can get in.
9. TEMPLES WERE VERY SMALL, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, you just go back & read the measurements. The Temple building itself was very small, only a few hundred people could even get in. The Temple grounds were very large & thousands of people could stand outside in the outer courts. There was an inner court & outer court & even the Temple inside was divided into the holy place & the unholy place!--The place where the people could go & the place where only the priests could go. There was an inner court & then there was an outer court, & the Gentiles who were believers were only allowed to be in the outer court. The Jews reserved the inner court for themselves, & of course only special people got inside the Temple itself.
10. ONLY THE HIGH PRIEST, & THAT ONLY ONCE A YEAR, WENT BEHIND THE VEIL TO SEE THE ARK OF THE COVENANT & MAKE SURE IT WAS STILL THERE. They tied a rope to his ankle so that they could pull him out in case God was displeased or he did something wrong or God was angry with the people & struck him dead when he appeared before the Lord once a year bearing the people's sins! If the burden of sin was big enough & God struck him dead, they couldn't go in there to fish him out, he could lie there forever & start stinking & smelling up the place! So they had a rope tied to his ankle by which they could pull him out. Think of that! Grandpa really tells some funny stories! But that's true, it's in the Bible, you can read it!
11. SO THE TEMPLE WASN'T VERY BIG, & I DON'T SEE HOW THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE MUCH ROOM FOR THE IDOL THERE. They'll want the Idol outside, I'm sure, where it can be seen by the whole World & worshipped by millions, like the Muslims do the Kaaba.
MOHAMMED & ISLAM!
12. I DON'T KNOW IF THEY PRONOUNCE IT KAA'BA OR KAABA', BUT ANYHOW, IT'S PRETTY MUCH "BAH" ALL THE WAY AROUND! Tens of thousands get out there & mill around in that big pinwheel of humanity that keeps going around & around & around that building.
13. THEY ABOLISHED IDOLATRY, they threw out & smashed the idols of the heathen, the pagans that preceded them, out of what was a pagan Temple, the Kaaba.--A big black monolith standing there in the middle of that huge Temple square, actually a circle, that huge mosque there in Mecca. Every year, especially during the month of Ramadan, millions & millions of Muslim pilgrims go there. If you're a good Muslim you're supposed to try to go there at least once in your life.
14. I BELIEVE MOHAMMED WAS A PROPHET OF GOD, EVEN IF HE WAS A FALSE PROPHET, BUT MOSTLY HE WAS A TRUE PROPHET. He really taught people a lot of true things & things from the Bible & Bible stories & about Jesus & Mary & the works. He just didn't get it all quite straight. He did it all from memory, he couldn't even read & write, so he did the best he could. He had visited the Holy Land & a monk there had taught him Bible & Gospel, but apparently the monk didn't know the Bible too well either, being the idolatrous Catholic that he was with all those idols in their temples.
15. SO MOHAMMED CAME BACK WITH A KIND OF MISCONCEIVED IDEA OF CHRISTIANITY & disillusioned with the existent so-called Christianity of the day full of idolatry. But he did come back & try to teach his people the Bible & Bible stories & about Jesus & Mary etc., believe it or not, & good laws for living & health laws for clean living & good laws for society & families & all the rest. The Koran itself is full of very good literature and good rules for society and good laws for worshipping God and all kinds of things.
16. THE EARLY MUSLIMS WENT IN THAT PAGAN TEMPLE, THE KAABA, TOSSED OUT THE IDOLS & SMASHED THEM UP! Mohammed was right, they were just going to worship God now & not those graven images. So now they go over there & they walk around & around & worship the building instead! That's what it amounts to. They adore the building, they revere the building. Call it what you will, it's building-worship just as bad as the Christians or any other religions that worship a building.--And it's just as much idolatry as worshipping idols, such as Christians who worship their buildings.
17. AND THE CHRISTIANS DO WORSHIP THEIR BUILDINGS, LET'S FACE IT! They go there every Sunday to worship'm! They admire them, they love them, they sacrifice for them, they give for them, they work hard for them! They love the building more than anything else! They claim to love God, but how can they say they love the Lord when they do not the things that He asks? How can they say, "I love God", & then build a building instead? You see how horrible it is, how evil it is?
STATUE OF CONFUCIUS!
18. ANYWAY, THERE'S NOT MUCH ROOM & THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY ROOM INSIDE THE TEMPLE FOR MUCH OF AN IDOL IF IT'S GOING TO BE REALLY SOMETHING MAGNIFICENT. I heard just recently that they wanted to build a statue of Confucius on the highest hill in Taiwan at the total cost in the long run of several million Dollars. The statue was to be something like 300 feet tall on top of an 800-foot hill, so that the total height of the top of the statue would be 1000 feet high! It seems like men always want to build statues & images & things like that of their gods.
19. CONFUCIUS WAS MERELY A TEACHER, A PHILOSOPHER, HE DIDN'T INTEND IT TO BE A RELIGION! He just taught a code of ethics, a code of behaviour, a code of laws of how to be polite to your mother & how to treat your neighbour right, all very good. In fact, some people are convinced that it is a mimicry of Christianity, although he lived actually centuries before Christ. But it was the Devil's own imitation! The Devil knew Christ was coming & he was trying to pre-empt the Gospel with Confucianism.
20. IT'S ONE OF THE BETTER ORIENTAL RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, enjoining good behaviour & politeness & courtesy & brotherly love & concern for your neighbours & all that sort of thing. But he never expected it to be a religion, he never expected to be worshipped as God. He was a philosopher, a teacher, sort of like me. For God's sake, don't ever worship me! Some people love me so much they almost worship me! Don't! I love you too. But when John fell down & started to worship this Saint, he said, "Don't worship me! Get up! Worship the Lord!" PTL! He said, "I'm just a brother in the same business you're in." (Rev.19:10)
21. SO NOW THEY'RE TRYING TO BUILD IDOLS, STATUES TO CONFUCIUS. If that isn't idolatry, I don't know what is. Well, thank God the government said, "No, we can't afford it, & besides, sticking up there so high it would be an air hazard to airplanes!" So some of them suggested, "Well, we could put a light up on top of it." And the others said, "No, Confucius wouldn't like that, that would desecrate the image to put a revolving warning red light on top of the image. Confucius doesn't want that thing on top of his head."--Ha! How funny & how ridiculous people can get! So they kind of shelved the idea for awhile.
MATTHEW 24:15, 16, 21 & 22!
22. SO THERE'S YOUR FIRST MENTION OF THE ANTICHRIST IN MATTHEW 24:15. You say, "Well, it doesn't mention the Antichrist, Grandpa, it just says Abomination of Desolation!" Well, you know enough about the Antichrist by this time from all those Daniel studies to know that his prophet sets it up, so he's gotta be here!--Right? And the Lord tells them to flee.
23. WHY DOES HE ESPECIALLY SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE IN JUDAEA?--BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE IT'S GOING TO BE, IN JERUSALEM! I can imagine it in front of the rebuilt Temple. The Antichrist himself is going to be inside the Temple, sometimes or part time, & we're going to read that Scripture later, declaring that he's god. (2Th.2:4) But I think they're going to want the World to see it standing there. It's probably going to be something beautiful, maybe made of gold or glass or crystal or who knows? It doesn't say. But some of us believe that it's going to be computerised because it's going to be able to talk!
24. ANYHOW, HE SAYS THEY'D BETTER RUN IF THEY'RE IN JUDAEA. Brother, I sure wouldn't want to be in Jewry, to be in Israel when that happens! He tells them to run, head for the hills, flee to the mountains!
25. (VERSE 21:) "FOR THEN SHALL BE GREAT TRIBULATION SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THIS TIME, NO, NOR EVER SHALL BE." That begins what? (Fam: The Great Tribulation. (Verse 22:) "And except those days should be shortened"--how short? Only 1260 days, 3-1/2 years, 42 months. That's a pretty short time for a World Emperor that has power over most of the Earth to rule. "Except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved." Man would destroy the Earth & destroy everybody, this is what the scientists are afraid of. "But for the elect's sake"--who are the elect?--The select!--The selected ones, the chosen ones, the separated ones, the saved ones. For your sake "those days shall be shortened."
26. THERE'S MORE HERE ABOUT THE COMING OF THE LORD ETC., BUT WE'RE NOT GOING TO GO INTO THAT. We're studying about the time of the Antichrist. What's the next mention of the Antichrist in the New Testament? (Fam: 2 Thessalonians 2.) That's the next one I can remember, anyway.
2ND THESSALONIANS 2!
27. (VERSE 1:) "NOW WE BESEECH YOU BRE THREN BY THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST." What is he talking about? (Fam: The Rapture.)--The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Rapture, right! How do you know it's the Rapture & not the Battle of Armageddon? "The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ & by our gathering together unto Him." That can't be anything but the Rapture.
28. (VERSE 2:) "THAT YE BE NOT SOON SHAKEN IN MIND, OR BE TROUBLED, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." What's this day of Christ? (Fam: The Rapture.) Just what he's talking about, of course! The Scofieldites try to separate this & say it doesn't mean the same thing, blah blah. Isn't that ridiculous? It's exactly what He's talking about!
29. HE SAYS, "DON'T GET ALL SHOOK UP TO THINK THAT THE LORD'S JUST ABOUT TO COME!" A lot of people were probably saying, "The Lord's going to come any moment! Any moment!" This is exactly what the Christians are preaching today. The Evangelicals, Fundamentalists & Pentecostalists are preaching the "any moment" doctrine, that Christ could come at any moment, right now! No, He can't, because He won't!--Because all the prophecies haven't been fulfilled yet. The World hasn't gotten bad enough yet, its cup of iniquity is not filled. You think it's bad now? Wait till the Antichrist comes! You think conditions are bad? Wait till the Tribulation! Things are not done yet.
30. (VERSE 3:) "LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS"--like Scofield has deceived'm! Think of it, how horrible that Scofield Bible is! What a damnable deceit of doctrines of the Devil to deceive the church to think they're going to escape the Tribulation, caught out before anything happens!
31. HE SAYS, "THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME"--the day of Christ, the day of the Lord's coming & our gathering together to Him--"it shall not come except there come a falling away first"--that's a growing cold, lukewarm like the Christians today--"& that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." Jesus is not going to come until after the Antichrist is revealed first.
32. (VERSE 4:) "WHO OPPOSETH & EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD OR THAT IS WORSHIPPED, so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God!" How can he do that unless it's rebuilt? "Showing himself that he is God!" What a blasphemy! What a sacrilege, what an abomination of desolation!
33. (VERSES 5 & 6:) "REMEMBER YE NOT THAT WHEN I WAS YET WITH YOU I TOLD YOU THESE THINGS? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time." Who? (Fam: The Antichrist.) It's talking about the Antichrist, talking about him being revealed. Isn't that the term he used back in the 3rd Verse, "man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition". What's perdition? You Catholics ought to know what perdition is, I think you call it that sometimes. (Fam: Hell.)--Hell!--The fiery Hell, the Lake of Fire!--The bad Hell! Not just the grave or sheol or paradise or limbo, but Hell, our usual conception of Hell! He is the son of Hell! That even sounds worse than the son of the Devil, doesn't it?
34. (VERSE 7:) "FOR THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY DOTH ALREADY WORK." Already! You mean clear back there in Paul's time this mystery of iniquity was already working?--Yes, there were still lots of Jews, thousands of Jews, maybe millions who still refused to receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour & therefore immediately became antichrists! Even then, as John says later, there are already many antichrists. We'll study that verse later. (1Jn.2:18)
35. "ONLY HE WHO NOW LETTETH"--you can say "alloweth" if you want to, but the real meaning here is preventeth, holds back the flood of iniquity--"will let, until he be taken out of the way."--The Lord! Who is holding the Antichrist from appearing until we get this job done? Who's keeping the flood of iniquity, the Devil's lies, from engulfing the World, holding him back until we get this done?--The Lord! "Until he be taken out of the way." Until God allows Jesus to stand back & let'r rip!--Let the World go to Hell! They want Hell, let them have Hell & Hell's own son, the Antichrist! God's finally going to tell Jesus to stand back, "Let the flood of iniquity go! Take the dam away & let the flood engulf the World!"
36. (VERSE 8:) "AND THEN SHALL THAT WICKED BE REVEALED." You notice "Wicked" is capitalised in most Bibles? It means that Wicked One. Again it's talking the third time about revealed, he's going to be revealed then. How else is he going to have an Image, how else is he going to sit in the Temple unless he's revealed? He's certainly going to be revealed by that time & possibly even long before that. We don't know for sure, but that's when we will certainly know. We will know even when this Covenant is signed that he's around, whether it's signed in secret or publicly or whatever. I have a feeling he's going to be revealed then, like maybe in 1986 with the Comet! Who knows? The Lord knows! (Or after the Crash?)
37. "THEN SHALL THAT WICKED BE REVEALED WHOM THE LORD SHALL CONSUME WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH & SHALL DESTROY WITH THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING!" When does the Lord destroy him? (Fam: When He comes at Armageddon.)--Exactly! At this time I don't think the Prophets really knew the difference between the two comings of the Lord. That wasn't made clear until later in John's revelations in Revelation that He was going to come back first and catch His Own out, then come back again later and destroy the Enemy.
38. THEY SAW IT AS SOME CHURCHES STILL DO, & I think this is what the Seventh Day Adventists preach too, that He does it all in the same trip, catches out the Saints & then immediately sets them all on white horses & comes charging back again. Well, I think that's a little far-fetched. I think it's much easier to read it the way John has it. I don't think Paul really knew as much about it at this time as John was going to be shown later. Amen? He didn't have to know all these details. But now that you & I are living in that time we need to know!
39. (VERSE 9:) "EVEN HIM WHOSE COMING IS AFTER THE WORKING OF SATAN, with all power & signs & lying wonders!" He's going to do miracles!
40. (VERSE 10:) "AND WITH ALL DECEIVABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." If there was ever a great deceiver it's going to be this guy! "In them that perish." He's only going to deceive those that perish, at least deceive them to the point of accepting him & getting branded etc.
41. "BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED." Here's another proof it's not talking about the people who have never heard the Gospel & don't know about how to be saved & don't know the Truth. It's talking about people who had the Truth & were given the Truth but rejected it. They're the ones that are going to accept the Antichrist & be branded with his Mark. They had their chance, they heard & they refused, they rejected, they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
42. (VERSE 11:) "AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE!" What lie? (Fam: The Antichrist.)--The Antichrist, he's the big lie, the false messiah! Everything about him is a lie.
43. (VERSE 12:) "THAT THEY ALL MIGHT BE DAMNED WHO BELIEVED NOT THE TRUTH." There you are again. They had a chance to believe the truth but they refused it. It's not talking about people who never heard, it's not talking about the in-betweens who later become the Anti-Antichrists & the people who God spares through both the Tribulation & Wrath of God & Armageddon & allows to live into the Millennium to give them a chance. It's talking about the people who heard but are damned because they believed not the Truth!
PLEASURE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!
44. "BUT HAD PLEASURE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." They enjoyed laughing at us! They enjoyed ridiculing the Bible. They enjoyed acting like the Devil & like Hell in those video musicals. They enjoy looking ugly & like demoniacs, & people enjoy watching them & they're deceiving the youth of today to love Hell & love demons & love the Devil & love his kind of so-called music--I call it noise, Hell noise--to love the things that are ugly, love violence, love cruelty!
45. IT'S ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE SOME OF THE THINGS PEOPLE LIKE TO WATCH IN MOVIES NOWADAYS, actual crimes, the violence committed right before your eyes, chopping up people, shooting people, stabbing people!
46. FIRST OF ALL THERE'S THE MURDER, FIRST VIOLENCE, then there's the mystery, who done it, then they found out & that's the chase, they run to try to catch'm! They've got all kinds of chases now, more kinds of chases than you can think of!--Car chases, foot chases, sky chases, some really funny chases! And then finally when they catch up to them there's the shoot-out, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! Sometimes they get killed & I never saw people drop dead so quick, you really don't die that easy. One shot & bingo, he falls on the floor flat-out dead!
47. OH, I FORGOT THE LAST STAGE, OF COURSE, IF THEY SHOT OUT ALL THEIR BULLETS & still didn't kill him, then they've got to jump on him, fight him, kung-fu him, have a boxing match & wrestle & roll down the hill & the big hand-to-hand fight comes next. Sometimes they pick up a stick of wood or an iron bar & try to fight with that, & when they lose all their weapons they just fight with their fists. And the more violence, the more fighting, the more chases, the more shoot-outs, the more boxing matches they have, the better the World loves it!
48. THEY LOVE VIOLENCE, THEY LOVE WAR OR THESE PICTURES WOULDN'T BE SO POPULAR! So seldom do you get a nice little family-type picture that's just family scenes or romance or love story without a lot of violence in it, it's the rare exception. They're afraid they're going to lose their audience if they don't have enough violence! So anyway, they love violence. They hate the truth, "believed not the truth & had pleasure in unrighteousness", all kinds of unrighteousness, violence, killing mayhem, whatnot!
CLOSING PRAYER!
49. THANK YOU LORD FOR THY WORD, FOR REVEALING THY TRUTH TO US, LORD, all Thy blessings, protecting us, keeping us, feeding us, clothing us, housing us & helping us to do Thy work! Bless us for the rest of the day to get our jobs done, Lord, before it's too late, before that man comes & it may be too late to do very much for some of us.
50. SOME OF US ARE GOING TO KEEP ON GOING RIGHT ON TO YOUR COMING OR THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY RAPTURE! TYL!--Prophets preaching Thy Word to the very End! TYJ!--Witnesses witnessing Thy Love even secretly, if necessary, right to the End, Lord. Help us to learn how to do it now! Already we're getting Antichrist conditions in some countries, Antichrist conditions amongst our enemies. Help us, Lord, to learn how to be selah & how to witness secretly & wherever we have to where we can't be open.
51. BUT LORD, HELP THOSE WHO ARE LIVING IN FREE COUNTRIES, open countries where they have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, help them not to be afraid, Lord! Help them to get out with these Posters & show the World, tell the World!--And help us to make it possible. As we pray Thy prayer: (Prays the Lord's Prayer) Amen! Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL!
52. BLESS & KEEP THESE PRECIOUS CHILDREN SAFELY ALL DAY, help them to be cautious & careful & prayerful in their play & in their work. Keep all of us, Lord, & this house we live in, the grounds & our things. Thank You for how You have protected & kept us! Continue to do so, Lord, until we get the job done, in Jesus' name. Help us in some of these major decisions we need to be making now, Lord, as we confer on the business of Thy work. Help us to be diligent in business & that the king's business sometimes requires haste, as it does in this case, in Jesus' name.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
