Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
The Antichrist which makes war with the Lord Jesus Christ at his second coming will be defeated. The church age saints will return to the earth with the Lord. Prior to this, however, kingdoms upon the earth will reach new levels of evil. The Antichrist will rule over the western powers and these 10 nations he rules over are depicted as ten kings, ten toes on the image Daniel saw in Dan.2.40-45.
Each of the ten toes, here called ten kings; each one will represent a puppet king from the European Common Market, a group of European countries who were formed under the Treaty of Rome in 1957. They will become ten nations which have other weaker nations mingled in with them by the middle of the tribulation period. This is noted by the Old Testament prophet, Daniel as he saw the Revived Roman Empire as the last description of the mighty persecutors of Israel. Daniel saw the image of a man, and the last portion he saw was the feet of this image. The feet had ten toes wherein they were made up of steel and clay, strong nations and weaker nations mixed together forming the power the Antichrist will harness during his short reign on this earth. When Jesus Christ returns he will crush this Western power and the other three evil world powers. The kings of the east, the north and the south will be crushed along with the king of the west, the Antichrist.
This verse will be prophetically fulfilled as noted in Rev.19:11-16. We born-again believers of the Church age will return with our Lord at his second coming. We will all be glorified by this time and we who qualified for rewards will be wearing our Bema Seat citations which represent Jesus Christ’s reward to us for our faithful service on earth.
v.15
The angel goes on to explain to John that the waters the harlot church sits upon are the people who live all over the world. Her religious influence is universal because she says only through her is the path of salvation. Jesus Christ said he was the way, the truth and the life not a religious organization or denomination. This apostate Christian harlot church says through her, not the Gospel news, is salvation. That salvation runs through Rome, not Calvary. That whosoever will may come, but not through the cross alone, but through the teachings and administrations ordained by the Papacy. Brethren it appears to this preacher that the time for our Lord’s return is gearing up rapidly, not just in the political, economic world, but most importantly in the religious world. It is not through money or politics that the Antichrist gains the favor of the world, it will be through organized religion. When organized religion is universal then the hearts of men will follow the political and economic ideals and wishes of the Antichrist. Please again remember he is called the Antichrist, not the Antibuddha or the Antimuhammad.
v.16
At the mid-tribulation period the Antichrist and his ten puppet kings with their kingdoms, they will hate [Future Active Indicative verb from miseo meaning to detest, to despise] they will hate, and despise the religious system. These kings along with the Antichrist will turn on the apostate Christian church who rides them and they will devour this religious Babylon.
You might ask, “What motivates them to do this? The formation of Church and State seemed to have a good thing going scratching each others back.
v.17
The answer is that The God, [Ho gar Theos], put [Aorist Active Indicative verb]; God alone put in their vile hearts, to fulfill his will, the will to destroy this religion system once and for all.
We must remember, the harlot church and the Antichrist could carry on this church/state false theocracy facade for decades as long as both are getting what they want, but God is working on a seven year timetable, so he will push his initiatives forward. Of course God cannot create evil or sin, but he can steer it to serve his purposes as the Bible demonstrates in both Testaments.
The hearts of the ten kings will give all the resources of their kingdoms to the Antichrist. These along with the evil leadership of the Antichrist will have the military needed to crush this powerful apostate Church.
v.18
This woman is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. Rome is the great city, the home of that religious harlot at the time of tribulation period. The seven mountains of Rev.17:9 are not only descriptive of the seven empires which will have dominated Gentile rule over Israel up to the end of the tribulation period, these seven mountains also represent historically the city of Rome Italy, the place where a religious empire has ruled from for the past 1,700 years. Not all of its people are bad, but its system is.
The Papacy may have turned down its volume of supremacy over the world for a few hundred years because men have risen up against it, but it will have a wide open audience when true believers are gone, and wickedness and demonic powers influence it during the tribulation period.
“Pope Gregory VII of the eleventh century said: “It is laid down that the Roman Pontiff is universal bishop, that his name is the only one of its kind in the world.
To him alone it belongs to depose or reconcile bishops. He alone may use the ensigns [military officers] of empire; all princes [political rulers] are bound to kiss his feet; he has the right to depose emperors, and to absolve subjects from their allegiance. He holds in his hands the supreme mediation in questions of war and peace, and he alone may adjudge [decide] contested successions of kingdoms - all kingdoms are held as fiefs under Peter... The Roman church has never erred... The Pope is above all judgment.” Phillips, p.220.
Such a statement will no doubt find its way to the forefront of the pope’s mind during the tribulation period. Just four weeks ago Pope Benedict the XVI approved a document that reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church that it provided the only path to salvation, and all other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.”
Roanoke. Times Wed. July 11, 2007.
The path the R.C.C offers is one of a lifetime of doubt where ones eternal relationship with God is subject to their Church approval and individual subjugation. It is a life time of fear and anxiety. This is not true Christian doctrine. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved for all eternity. The Bible does not teach an opportunity for salvation after death. No where does the Bible sponsor paying blackmail money to buy sinners out of hell.
The R.C.C is not the word of God. The word of God stands alone upon its own authority.
Should we not wonder why this religious Babylon will be hated and turned on?