Armageddon Countdown

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to night number three of this memorable satellite seminar that indeed is being called, "the most amazing prophecies." You are gonna be so glad that you came tonight because the fascinating topic that Doug Batchelor is about to take us into is armageddon countdown. And if there is one conversation that is held particularly in religious circles around this nation, it is the issue of armageddon. Tonight we move into the very heart of that fascinating subject. Delighted to have all of you here in our Michigan site. Did we have a good day weather-wise or what? God is good.

I don't know how it was in the other 23 time zones, but we have come out of a Sunday now and we're moving into 90 minutes of, as we call it here, high octane spiritual journey into holy Scripture. I know that the Spirit of Christ is going to richly bless you in the study we're about to begin together. I think it's time to sing that theme song. And so I want to invite Pastor John to come out. Let's sing, "give me the Bible," and move into this 90 minute journey.

Let's all stand together as we sing our theme song together. And as you sing, smile, join us from wherever you are, give me the Bible... And please remain standing as tonight heather knight offers our opening prayer. Let's bow together. Dear Father in Heaven, we thank you, Lord, for this wonderful night.

We thank you for all of your children gathered together to learn more about you and Your Word and your amazing prophecies. Please, continue to bless us here tonight and give us a double portion, Lord, of your special blessing so that we can continue to learn and continue to know how to emulate your life. Thank you again, for Christ's sake, amen. You may be seated. You have some Bible questions in here? I've got a whole pocket full of these.

And these, you're gonna recognize. Many of these come from this site. We're gonna take the others that come in by web as well. And, folks, if your question doesn't get covered, it's because we're already growing a collection of these. We'll try to pick ones that represent the others.

And let me just fly these by you, Pastor Doug. "You confirmed, Pastor Doug, that Jesus is divine. According to Matthew, Jesus' Name is Hebrew is yeshua." As this person writes it. "Does it mean that Jesus and God The Father are the same person?" Well, they must be two separate individuals. A lot of the names are shared by Jesus and The Father because they are one in purpose.

A husband and wife might share a name and be two separate persons. But when Jesus is being baptized, you've got God The Father in Heaven saying, "this is my son." So either Jesus is a ventriloquist or they're two separate persons. And so I think the Bible is very clear that they are two separate persons. God so loved the world, he gave his son. God, The Father, gave his son.

It's very clear in the language. Okay, here's another question. "Doesn't Jesus come for each person when he or she dies?" Well, in a sense that their--if a Christian dies, their next conscious thought is the resurrection of the righteous. The dead in Christ will rise when the Lord descends. We're talking a little about that tonight, so yes that would be true.

But there is a time when he comes for the world as well. This world is not gonna go on indefinitely with Jesus just coming for people when they die. There is a date when he comes. Here's somebody that wants more of your life story. I hope you're ready to share it.

Here's the question, "who left the Bible in the cave?" You know, a lot of things we're gonna learn when we get to heaven and that's a question that I'll have to ask when I get there. The Bible I found up there had a prayer written in the front of it that said something to the effect, "I hope whoever finds this finds the same peace and joy and new birth I found." I wish I could remember. I didn't think it was such an important thing. I found it back then. That Bible fell in the creek and swelled up where I couldn't use it anymore.

You know when your book gets wet you just--and I don't know what happened to it. I wish I still had it. But I don't know where it came from. I know the angels put it there. You know what? That could be but assuming that it was a human that left it, can you imagine if that human one day spends eternity with Christ and that person discovers that the Bible I left in the cave was found by doug bachelor who God then used to lead hundreds of thousands of people to Christ.

I mean that person's gonna sing to Jesus for eternity. Amen. I gotta just say one more thing on that. You want to hear something funny? I had somebody ask me one time, "was it a gideon Bible? Did the gideons put it there?" You know, they do all the hotel rooms and then they hit the caves. Yeah, right.

Gideon Bible ministry, hallelujah. Okay. Here's another from on site on the back of an offering envelope. "How do we explain the differences in Jesus genealogy between Matthew and Luke?" Well, there's a quick answer would be that the genealogy in one is tracing it through mary. Remember I said last night, they're both from the house of David.

The genealogy of other talks about The Father of Joseph, which is really The Father-in-law. It's tracing it through Joseph one time, mary one time, but they both come back together life tree branches. By the way, last night's presentation. That was just dynamite. You presented it in such a clear way, and I'm sitting on the front row taking notes.

Here is a connection to what you said last night when you described the mount of transfiguration. You remember Moses and Elijah coming down. So the questioner is asking, "on the mount of transfiguration," Moses and Elijah, of course, are there. "Why wasn't Enoch present who was also translated without seeing death like Elijah was?" Well, that's a good question. Someone's observed that, of course, Moses was resurrected by Michael in the book of Jude verse 9.

Elijah went to heaven in the fiery chariot, 2 Kings 2. Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him. So if you've got these two special resurrections and translations, why was Enoch left out? Well, Moses and Elijah, as I said last night, they really represent the Word of God. Moses is the epitome of the law. Elijah the prophets and they're last prophets in the old testament.

Remember the law of Moses, "my servant, which I gave unto him in mount horeb for all Israel with its statutes and judgments. Behold I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord." "Remember the law of Moses, behold I send you Elijah." Then last, Malachi 4 get to the new testament and Moses and Elijah appear. They point to Jesus and say, "he's the one," in essence. So they--it was a different function than Enoch. The person goes on to ask and I think I'm gonna go ahead and insert this.

"Are these three men, Moses, Elijah and Enoch part of the 4 and 20 elders in Revelation 4-5?" Right. When you read there in Revelation 4-5, it talks about these 24 elders around the throne. They could be among that group. It could also be comprised of those who are in the special resurrection that you find in Matthew 28 when there was this earthquake and the grave's open. All right.

Here is a good question. "In Daniel 2:43-44, this question notes that you mention the millennial kingdom will be on earth or will it be in heaven after the rapture? We drove 600 miles to be here." You better answer this. No, I added the, "you better answer this." But it really did say, "we drove 600 miles to be here." Bless their hearts. We're meeting people that have come a long way. I met somebody last night who said, "I've come from australia," I think melbourne, "just for this series.

" I thought, "man, there must not be much happening in australia right now, but bless their hearts to come all that way." What was the question? I forget. No, it's about the yeah, yeah. Well, you know, Jesus said, "blessed are the meek. They shall inherit the earth." Ultimately, the new Jerusalem, Revelation 21, we have a study on this, comes down from heaven to earth. But when Jesus comes back, we're going up.

He says, "I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, receive you. You will be where I am." So we go up, at the end of the millennium, the new Jerusalem comes down. We come down. God creates a new heaven and earth.

We have a study on that, so that's all I'm gonna say. Plus you're gonna get into that thousand year period tonight, are you not? They're gonna talk a little about the second coming tonight, but not the millennium. We have another night just on the millennium. All right. Okay, here's a good one.

On the back of one of our little envelopes. "Pastor Doug, you know Scripture." This person signs it but I won't read his name. "Pastor Doug, you know Scripture. Please, how can I also make God's Word a part of my being as you have?" Well, bless your heart. First let me say before I answer that question, I don't know Scripture a fraction as well as I want to.

You heard mention to j.n. Andrews. Someone asked him one time if he had memorized the whole Bible. He said, "no, but if the new testament was destroyed, I could reproduce it." I don't know Scripture, friends. As a matter of fact, someone came up to me last night and they said, "Pastor Doug, you answered a question wrong.

" Someone had sent in a question about world without end. And I said, "well, that's not in the Bible, it's in a hymn." It actually is in the Bible in king James translation. Most other translation's realize that's not that accurate and they redo it. But see, it's in Isaiah and it's in Ephesians. Ephesians 3:20, 19-20.

Pastor dwight reads his Bible through the beginning of every year, first month in the year? I try to. This pastor knows his Bible. But if you want to make the Bible a bigger part of your life, just saturate yourself with it. Christ is the word. Read it every day.

I go to sleep at night. I've got one of these pocket palm pilots. I put it by my bed. I turn it on and it reads the Bible to me as I go to sleep and turns itself off. I wake up in the morning, I read my Bible on my computer.

I put it into the tape of my car. And, you know, I forget so I've just gotta be reading it all the time 'cause I forget just like everybody else. Beautiful, and I think a model for all of us to emulate. Okay, here's another. Oh, this interesting.

We'll see what you do with this one, doug. "Can satan manipulate nature to be destructive?" Good question. You know you see examples in the Bible where God sends a flood and people--the insurance companies call these natural disasters what? Acts of God. That's really not fair because the devil can also cause these disasters. Look in the book of job and it says that satan went out from the presence of the Lord and among the plagues he sent to job, fire came out of the sky in one case, probably lightening.

Another case it says a tornado brought down the house that killed his children. And so yes, the devil can manipulate the elements somehow to cause these disasters. But ultimately, satan is under the authority of God himself. He can only do what God gives him permission to do. God has to reel out his leash.

He's only allowed to go so far. Because it's a delicate matter. I was just down in new orleans three weeks ago to preach down there. And to say to those people, "you know, we know who caused the hurricane that took your city out." You don't want to get into that corner and have to say, "well, either this was God or satan." It's just a--good answer. There's a verse in Ecclesiastes.

I don't know where I'm going with that, but it is a delicate matter and God and satan both can be involved, of course. Okay, let's go one more. "How do we know Daniel lived before the prophecies were fulfilled in Daniel?" Well, good question. First of all, Jesus quotes Daniel and he refers to him, Matthew 24, he says, "as written by Daniel, the prophet." Jesus refers to Daniel as a prophet. We know he lived before the time of Christ.

We know from the dead sea scrolls that actually-- I think they're predating Christ's time a little bit. Yes, they are. And the fulfillment of the fall of the roman empire we talked about. That happened hundreds of years after the time of Christ. So you can just see a number of examples where it points to Daniel as living before the prophecies were given or fulfilled anyway.

Thank you, Pastor Doug. You have questions from tonight's lecture or last night's, just jot it down on the back of your envelope. We'll hope to get to it tomorrow night. Amen. Our study tonight is dealing with the subject of armageddon countdown.

These lessons are called storacles of prophecy. I wrote them back in 1998 and 1999 with a pastor named bill may. And these studies--a storacle is a combination between a story and an oracle. And a lot of these stories in the Bible help us unlock prophecy. This one is called, "the coming king.

" And it's a great study that will complement our presentation tonight dealing with the subject of armageddon. And this is very important. I'd like to encourage you to be praying both with and for me as I present the information tonight. I have a lot of very current, relevant, important things to share with you that deals with the imminence of Jesus coming. A number of years ago when alexander the great was going forward with his conquest and he was Marching his armies the thousands of miles that he did, going through the khyber pass.

He had reached a point in his conquest where he was essentially Marching off the map. Because up to that time, they had no charts or maps that showed the lands that he was entering. You know, back in the ancient times when these cartographers would make the maps, when they'd get into territory that had not been explored yet, they would put dragons out there. And I don't suppose that would help encourage exploration if you saw you March past here and there's dragons. One roman general had Marched to a point where he had basically Marched off the map and he sent back orders and said, "you know we've Marched off the map, now what do you want us to do?" Christopher columbus when he went sailing out into the atlantic, when it got to a certain point, it was just blank and they had sea monsters there sailing off the map.

When you look at what's happening in history now, this generation has entered an era with what we see happening in the different fields of technology and war. We have Marched off the map. And people are wondering, "does this mean that armageddon is at our doors?" Actually, you know, that's a quote from general douglas macarthur. He said, "if we don't find some better way to resolve our disputes, armageddon will be at our doors." And many people have assumed that means armageddon is some titanic battle. Now I would like to have you, if you have your Bibles, go to your Bibles and we're gonna be reading from Revelation 16.

And some of you at home will see it on your screen. You'll also see it here. But I'm gonna just read to you, the word "armageddon" appears in the context of the seven last plagues. It's happening after the sixth plague. Verse 12 Revelation 16.

I'm glad to hear our pages rustling here at the pioneer memorial church. You've got them well-trained, pastor dwight. "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on that great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the Kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet." We'll touch more on those characters another night. "For they are the Spirits of demons performing miracles which go out to the Kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God almighty.

" Now notice here the mention of the battle, "this great battle of God almighty." It pauses after it says that and says, "behold I'm coming as a thief. Now wait a second here. I want you to think. I'm gonna read on in a second, but I just want you to think. Many people believe that the plagues happen after the rapture.

They believe the battle of armageddon is only for those who are left behind. But here it's telling us that the battle hasn't happened yet and Jesus hasn't come yet, and this is after the sixth plague. That ought to make you sit up and think. We're gonna be talking a little about the sequence of the battle and the second coming in our study tonight... Now that word is an enigma for many Bible scholars, and there's almost no limit to the number of interpretations of what that might mean.

And I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring tonight. First, I'll tell you what we do know. The word "har" or "ar" means hill or mountain of. And they believe the word "maggedon" there comes from megiddo or valley of megiddo. Now one thing I think you can safely believe is it's pointing us back to this territory in ancient Israel that was the crossroads of the caravans intersecting continents.

The valley of megiddo is adjoining the valley of jezreel. There is no mountain of megiddo in the Bible. So it's a little confusing that it calls it har-magedon. Now, if you go to moffat's translation of the Bible, he believes that--and he draws this from Judges 7, verse 2 verse 4, verse 5 and verse 7 all in Judges 7, there was a phrase where it says, "the Lord said to gideon. the Lord said to gideon.

" It's worded there just those four times in that one chapter. By the way, gideon is on his way to a tremendous battle in the valley of megiddo where a three-fold alliance of the amalekites and the midianites and the people of the east, just like we read the three-fold alliance of the beast, the dragon, the false prophet, are allied against God's people. And moffat thinks that there's a connection there between the word "challenge." Where it says, "the Lord said," that can be translated challenge. Gideon is ghid-ohn. And you put those together and you get something that's very close which is aw-mar-ghid-ohn.

And he thinks that it's referring us back to this battle where God fought for his people. So question number one... Well, you know, of course, they put a movie out called "armageddon" and they say it's a meteor or an asteroid or some comet that's gonna strike the earth. Others have surmised that it's a titanic battle that's going to happen. I went on a tour--I've been to the promised land a couple of times.

The second time I went with a group of ministers from all different denominations. And as they went from one locations to another, they'd ask some of the different ministers to do a devotional at the different places, the garden tomb, the valley of megiddo. And when we got to megiddo, they asked a charismatic brother if he would do the devotion there. And he stood before all these pastors from all these different denominations an he said, "soon all of the armies of china and russia are gonna gather in this valley and the blood is gonna run as deep as a horse's bridle. And me and a presbyterian friend kind of looked at each other.

We didn't buy into that. We don't think that's what it is. First of all, those who said that russia was going to come against Israel are playing that down now because russia has really lost a lot of real estate. They don't have the same kind of muscle they had. Their politics have changed.

That doesn't look very likely that they're gonna suddenly rally against Israel. And then others are saying, "armageddon is some plague that's gonna sweep--it's the avian flu. There's all these different ideas about what the battle of armageddon is. Is it gonna be an asteroid hitting the water causing a tidal wave? Is it gonna be from starvation? What is armageddon? People use it to describe something that is ominous, destructive, apocalyptic in nature. Well, very quickly, I'll tell you what I believe it is and then I'm gonna show you from the Bible.

Armageddon is the last battle. Notice what happens here when it talks about armageddon? It's the end of the sixth plague. The seventh plague is Jesus coming. Armageddon is happening in the midst of the seven last plagues. It's the final battle where those who worship the beast and his image try to exterminate those who worship God.

That's the battle of armageddon. Let's look at some verses. Revelation 12:17, we'll find out about that war and the dragon. Who is that? Oh, by the way, in our study tomorrow night, it's talking about the dragon and the woman. We're gonna going into this a little deeper.

.. The dragon makes war with God's people that obey him. Go to Revelation 13:7. This is the chapter that's got the Mark of the beast in it. And it says.

.. There again, the devil making war with the saints. Revelation 17:13-14... So who is the dragon making war with? Those who've--the saints and with the lamb, Christ and his people. Isn't that clear? We're not done yet.

Revelation 19:19... So do we need to guess what this battle of armageddon is? It is not a political battle. Jesus said in Matthew 24, "there's gonna be wars and rumors of wars." He said, "that's not it. There have been wars ever since the time--" I read somewhere that from 3,600 b.c. To the present, there have been 214 years of peace and every other year has been a year of war, that 4,500,000,000 people have died in these wars.

I mean there's been wars all along. The final war is not gonna be man against man. It's not gonna be nation against nation or kingdom against kingdom. It's the Kingdom of the devil against the Kingdom of Christ. It's those who worship the beast against those who worship God.

That's the final battle. That's the battle of armageddon. And God will fight for us then the way he fought for gideon. There was another battle in the valley of megiddo where barak was completely outnumbered and deborah and God fought for them again. It's telling us God will fight for his people when it looks hopeless.

Three hundred with gideon overpowered an army of a million 'cause God fought for them. By the way, and don't ever forget this, you and the Lord are a majority. It doesn't matter what the enemy has. And when you're tempted, remember, you and Jesus are majority. Number two.

.. There's a lot of them we're gonna give you here and so you might make notes of some of these and I'll try and give you as many Scriptures as possible. I think the best resource to go to, to find out what are the signs of this final battle in the second coming of Christ. Is it clear to everybody that the battle of armageddon is the final battle where Jesus rides with his horse and he ultimately comes? He's pictured, of course, riding a horse. I don't know that's he galloping on a clydesdale when he comes.

It's just one of the visual images we see in Revelation. He's also got a sword coming out of his mouth in these pictures. So you realize, they're symbolic. That means the word coming out of his mouth. So when Christ comes and he fights to deliver his people, that is the battle of armageddon.

The disciples came to Jesus one day. You find this in Matthew 24:2, after one of his episodes teaching in the temple. They were just reveling in the beauty of this building, the icon of the Jewish nation. And Jesus had to catch them because they're basically into building worship, showing them all the beautiful stones and he said... And that absolutely blew them away.

As a matter of fact, that could be interpreted as treason. This was the greatest building in the Jewish nation, and to say that it was gonna be destroyed, demolished. So they waited until they were alone with Jesus and horrified by that statement. "As he sat on the mount of olives," verse 3... Now they asked him several questions here.

What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? They're asking signs of your coming and the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem. When is the temple going to be destroyed? Jesus does not dissect his answer into different categories. He sort of gives it all in one discourse. And you can find out how to divide it by comparing Scripture with Scripture. First thing Jesus said, he warned them.

Speaking of his second coming, he said, "beware of false Christs and false prophets." By the way, I'm going to quickly go through these answers for you. I hope when you go home, you'll read Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 17, Luke 21. These are some of the best concentrated signs that Jesus gives regarding his second coming. Beware of false Christs and false prophets. You know one reason that's so important? When Jesus came the first time, were his people, the Jewish people, did they have Bibles? Did they have the Scriptures back then? Did they have Scriptures that had prophecies about his coming? Were they ready for him when he came? Did they have a lot of misinterpretations and a lot of traditions they were following that just were not right? Even the disciples who were spirit-filled were confused.

They didn't understand. They kept thinking the Messiah was gonna come and he was gonna just sit on the throne of David and overthrow the Romans and they'd be a world empire. They had all these very appealing ideas, but they were not true. Could that happen again at the second coming? Are there a lot of people that think that, "we're just gonna get zapped away and not have any trouble when Jesus comes?" There's a lot of--and when you say false Christs and false prophets, they may be some lovely people out there, but they're giving false prophecies. Their teaching is wrong.

Dwight was kind enough to refer to the national geographic interview the other night when he introduced me. Really, that sort of was a--that was a dud if you want to know. They interviewed me for 3 hours and showed 60 seconds. Now in the international broadcast, they're gonna show more, but they took out 15 minutes for commercials in North America and they took out me. I guess they cut the stuff that isn't worth much is what they do.

But they were talking about all these different ideas about the second coming. And many of the scholars say these popular notions about left behind are really fantasy. They're not in the Bible. So we've got to be careful to find out what does the Bible really say? And, of course, there are also then the deranged false prophets that are out there. There's no shortage of kooks out there that say that, "I am Jesus.

" But you know, I'm not so much worried about the jim jones and the David koresh and the moons. I'll tell you who I'm worry about is when satan seeks to impersonate Christ. The masterpiece of deception before Jesus comes back is where satan is gonna say, "I'm gonna really do a first-class job and do signs and wonders." Didn't we read there in Revelation 16, "these unclean spirits that come of the mouth of the beast, the dragon, the false prophet. They go forth to the Kings of the earth and perform signs and miracles to deceive them." There's gonna be a lot of miracles, but they are diabolical miracles. So you've got to be careful to base your conclusions on what the Bible says 'cause if you're basing it on signs and wonders, the devil can counterfeit those, can't he? You remember when pharaoh had Moses come before him and Moses said, "I'm from the Lord," and he threw down his rod and it turned into a serpent and pharaoh called his magicians.

They were able to counterfeit some of those miracles, weren't they? So the devil has some power. We must not be deceived by that. How do we know how to tell the true from the false? The Bible. We've got to know what the word of Jesus said. Secondly, Christ goes on in his answer and he said, "there will be wars and rumors of wars.

" Well, we've already talked about that. There have been wars all through history. Now are there still rumors of wars today? And not only are we all tied up in iraq and that was very close to my heart because we have a daughter that was in the army, a son that just got of the marines. He was in iraq and very proud of our soldiers that are serving in those contests but they're talking about if something else could evolve in iran. What's next? For a while there, north korea was testing missiles and we thought, "oops, is that where we're going next?" Rumors of wars, not just wars.

A few years ago, you probably read the article that was printed by pravda, out of the 2,400 nuclear weapons that the u.s.--The soviet union had when they disintegrated, they can now only account for 2,200, 200 are missing. And they had some very strong alliances with these middle eastern countries because of the oil exchange. It makes you shudder. Not to mention, we haven't forgotten about the potential of chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare. Then pollution is another sign that we're getting closer to armageddon.

That's a sign that I think is very current for us today because we're now living in an age where man has the capacity to destroy the earth. Do you know that's in Revelation? Revelation 11:18, listen to this. It says... Now you know for the first 6,000 years of man's history the most devastating thing that man could do to the planet is they could shoot bows and arrows and throw spears and lob cannonballs when they became more sophisticated. Our pollution was banana peels and coconut shells.

We just really couldn't destroy the earth back then. But we are now in a generation that with our weapons and with our chemicals and our pollutants, do we now have the capacity to destroy the earth? That is one sign. People say, "oh, Pastor Doug, people have talked about signs of Christ coming for 2,000 years now. What makes you think things are different now?" They are different now. This generation is a different generation that we're living in.

I think we're living in the last generation. As a matter of fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24:22... That word "flesh" there doesn't just mean people. It means nothing would survive. If Jesus doesn't come to deliver his people, man will self-destruct.

The planet will be destroyed. And I don't know if that means there'll be some involvement of chemical or nuclear or biological. Well, what do you see when you look at the seven last plagues? You just read through them there. And you're talking about catastrophe on a major level. But no, you don't need to worry about that.

You're saying, "Pastor Doug, wait a second here. You're making me nervous." I've always believed and when I first became a Christian, I worshiped with a fellowship that believed in what we call the secret rapture. I'll talk more about that later. But I worshipped with a group that believed that the tribulation happened after the church was taken away. And so they felt great comfort in that.

"You're making us nervous, Pastor Doug, saying that we're gonna be here when the seven last plagues fall." Well, I want to go by what the Bible says, friends. As appealing as it might be to think that Jesus is gonna come and whisk us away and then things get ugly down here, but we don't have to worry about it 'cause we're not here. That's not what the Bible teaches. The seven last plagues that you find in Revelation 15-16 are parallels of the ten plagues that fell on ancient Egypt. Here's my question for you, here's the million dollar question.

When the plagues fell on ancient Egypt, were the Israelites in Egypt? Were God's people there? Did God preserve them through the plagues? Do we need to fear the plagues? "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand. It will not come nigh thee. Only with your eyes will you see and behold the destruction of the wicked. No plague with come near your dwelling." I'm paraphrasing psalm 91. Why? Because we trust in the Lord.

He'll take care of his people. Did job go through trial? Did God save Joseph from his trials or did he make him great through his trials? Did God save Noah from the flood or through the flood? Was Daniel saved from the lion's den or through it? Shadrach, meshech, abednego. Were they saved from the fiery furnace or did God go through it with them? Where in the Bible do we get the idea that God is gonna just poof us away when the plagues begin? My Bible tells me, God's people shine the brightest when it's the darkest. "It is through much tribulation," Paul said, "we enter the Kingdom of heaven." Church is gonna be here. So there's no question about that, but you don't need to worry.

Well, you need to worry if you don't have Christ. I hope you're uncomfortable. That's a pastor's job. Comfort those who are uncomfortable and to make those that are too comfortable uncomfortable. Isn't that the balance that you fight with all the time? Yeah, there's a balance you have to strike there.

There's natural disasters. Jesus talked about earthquakes which is a natural disaster. We'll get to that in just a minute, but that would include storms. Have we seen that on an unprecedented scale? A couple of years ago, what was that 2004, December 26th, not even two years ago yet, we had the biggest earthquake in recorded history. Two hundred and fifty thousand lives were snuffed out.

Someone wondered, "is that in the Bible?" Well, some have wondered if Jesus was referring to that when you go to Luke 21 parallel passage when he talks about that. He says... You know the number one cause of death is heart disease. But I think it's also more than that. They also say that stress is the number one cause of death now in the world.

People are all stressed out. The sea and the waves roaring and there could be other events. Someone has tried to calculate what would happen if there was an atlantic tsunami to the eastern seaboard of the United States. It would be absolutely catastrophic to New York, to boston, Washington, d.c. Don't want to think about it.

I think God's angels are holding back the winds of strife right now. You read about that in Revelation 7. There is a volcano of plagues and tribulation ready to burst upon this earth and God has his angels holding it back because he is not willing that any should perish. He's wanting to save as many as he can and he's wanting them to be sealed in their hearts with the Holy Spirit. We'll talk about the seal another night.

We talked in that previous verse in Luke 21, "men's hearts failing them for fear." What is terrorism? What is the weapon of terrorism? Is it plastic explosives or is it fear? And all these changes that we've had and these freedoms that we've lost, why? Because we're afraid. It bothers me that I'm not allowed to take my chapstick on the airplane anymore. I'm ready to cancel some flights now. That's a nervous habit. They make me take everything out of my pockets when I preach, but I take my chapstick with me everywhere I go.

Do you want to torture me? You know what to do now. It made me mad that i--we're losing our freedoms. Why? 'Cause we're afraid. "Men's hearts failing for fear." "Famine," Jesus said, "in different places." Do we still have famine in the world? They had an earthquake in pakistan, 73,000 people died in the earthquake. But the aftermath was almost as bad because the roads in were closed, winter set in and the people were starving.

Famine isn't just because of crops. It's often because of war, catastrophes. Ten thousand people per day are dying from either malnutrition or starvation. And that's only being accentuated by the next factor which is overpopulation. I took the family to china, what was that about a year ago? You probably already knew this, but there's a whole lot of people there.

Went to india a few years ago, we're going again in November, 1.3 billion people in china, they say. I asked our guide, he said, "oh, no. There's a lot more than that." You know, they have regulations on how big your families are so the people don't report how many children they have, especially once they get to the outlying communities. He said, "we're probably 1.4, 1.5 billion." That's what our guide told us. India, about a billion now.

First-world countries, some populations are going down. But the third-world countries are making up for it very quickly. Now think about this. It took roughly 5,800 years to get the first billion people in the world, 1804 is when we got the first billion. We reached that landmark of one billion.

It only took 123 years to double it. In 1960, we got to 3 billion, '74, 4 billion. Now we've got 6.5 billion people. How many of you live in a spot that used to be in the country and now you're in the city, and you never moved? That's the scary thing, you didn't move. Just sprawl everywhere.

Beijing, I couldn't believe it. It's just a series of circles that have just expanded. Jesus has to come soon. We're just gonna have too many people. Sickness, Jesus talked about plagues.

There are new diseases now. Pestilence is what he called it. They don't have a cure for, things like sars, various strains of diseases that are virulent and resistant to antibiotics. And we've heard, in the news, about the possibility of some other pandemic. They've got these birds, the avian flu they call it, influenza where evidently these birds carry a virus that can then be caught by a pig who mutates it and then passes it on to a human.

And I don't know if you know this but right after world war i, they had the flu epidemic of 1918. It killed a lot more people than world war i. In 1 year, somewhere between 25 and 35 million people died in 1 year from a flu. And they're saying, "they just don't have any way to prepare a vaccination for it," because they don't know what it is yet. the Lord is holding back those angels right now 'cause he wants people to come to him.

Earthquakes. I talked a second about the one in pakistan. It was an earthquake that caused the tsunami. I printed this off the national earthquake information website. Anybody can go there.

Want to hear about the earthquakes today? And, of course, they're not done come in when I printed this off. Columbia, 4.5, the coral islands are 4.6 on the richter scale. Mozambique channel 5.0. That's pretty good. Central California, 2.

9. We have those all the time. That's nothing. San juan, argentina, 6.1. This is today.

Hawaii 2.5, of course it's a volcano. It shakes all the time. You don't want to go to Alaska. There were about eight earthquakes in Alaska today. And I could go on.

Argentina, japan, Mexico, Oregon, today. The u.s. Geological organization said that there is a notable spike in the number of earthquakes. It's not because we are able to measure them better. They know that in the last ten years, there is more seismic activity.

If you don't think that's true--let me show you something else here while we're talking about this. If you don't think it's true, then talk to the people in indonesia. This is just from last month. It's a cover that says, "hilary clinton, love her hate her?" I'm hoping there's a third option. But that's not what I want to talk about.

In that magazine, it says--we're already knee deep in religion. We're not getting into politics. "Floods, tornados, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, why we don't prepare?" And it just goes on to say that it's just a matter of time and there's no place you can go. It's just a map of the u.s. There's something everywhere.

And I thought that would be something interesting to think about. Violence, Jesus said, "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days that preceed the coming of The Son of man." What was it like back in the days of Noah? The Bible tells us that the thoughts of men's hearts were only evil continually, violence still bland. You know I understand that in 1, 24-hour period, more people will be murdered in New York city, Washington, d.c. And los angeles than in iraq from soldiers dying in the conflict there. But what do you hear in the news? I mean you're not gonna hear about what's happening in our cities every day.

You'll hear about the war. There are fewer people dying in the war than dying in our cities from violence. The media has a habit of accentuating what they want people to think about. And Jesus said, "as it was in the days of lot--" I don't have a slide on this, but it just came to me. What was it like in the days of lot? It says, "sodom and gomorrah in the cities, gave themselves over to sexual perversion.

" Well, are we in that age? Are things different now? Are there any people who are here that remember a time when what is blatantly paraded before us today as acceptable would have been considered immoral and inappropriate when they were growing up? But we're all being dogged that we must accept these things. People living together before marriage, not only immorality, homosexuality. All different kinds of alternate lifestyles. Jesus said, "as it was in the days of lot, so shall it be in the days when The Son of man appears." I think we're in those days. One of the signs that excites me the most that makes this generation different is the increase in knowledge.

Now I'm jumping from the signs that Jesus gives to something that Daniel says in the last book of his prophecy. Daniel 12:4, "but thou, o Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end. Many shall run and to and fro." Notice that, running to and fro. "And knowledge shall increase." I like that picture. We threw it in there because even as we speak, space shuttle has undocked from the international space station.

Even when I was going up, that was science fiction. I was born before we made it to the moon. Some of you remember before we made it to space. And now we're building this elaborate space station up there. Wow, I'd love to go up there.

I love some of the blessings of technology. But just think about how things have changed. People running to-and-fro. This year, July, national geographic... People running to-and-fro.

That prophecy also is talking about people running to-and-fro in the word finding truth, finding knowledge more than ever before. I've got so much knowledge at my fingertips because of the computer, what used to take me hours to thumb through a concordance, I find with a click now. It's amazing how much information is there. Look at the inventions in just the last hundred years, the automobile, airplane. There are people sitting here who used to still ride horses in their youth to get from place to place.

I don't know if you mind showing your hands. You remember when there was no tv? Some people remember when there was no television, no videotapes, no electric hair dryers. Airplanes, subway. That's not talking about the sandwich. Air-conditioning, plastic, frozen food, electric clock, dial telephone, foam rubber, jet engine, hearing aid, nuclear bomb, television, transistor radio, cable tv, computer, photoelectric cell, laser, pacemaker, dna.

Some of these things we're very thankful for. Space satellite, moon flight, video cassette, space telescope, internet, fiber optics. I could go on. You know, I understand now they're talking about nanotechnology and nanobots. You know what a nanometer is? A meter is about 39 inches.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. And they're talking about making robots now, they can inject into a human body that will just search out cancer cells and destroy them. Wouldn't that be nice? They've already invented a little robot pill that you take and it goes through your body and takes pictures on its way. I don't think it's something you'd want to invite your friends over to look at, but it's still amazing what they can do. Global evangelism, this is another sign that really gets me excited that's different from ever--what's happening here? As Jesus said, "this prophecy is being fulfilled in your hearing.

" Jesus said, Matthew 24:14, "and the Gospel of this kingdom will be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then the end," might come? Could come? May come? What does Jesus say? "Then the end will come." And he didn't say the Gospel will be believed by everybody. He said, "the Gospel is gonna be proclaimed everywhere and then the end will come." And now through satellite television, through the printed page, through the computer, through tapes, missionaries, the Gospel is going into all the world, through radio. I mean right now, I don't know a place I have been off in the jungles in the south pacific. And I see people with their huts and they've got a tv and they're watching Bible videos. Everybody's gathered around with a generator running, don't even have electricity.

In the middle east, I've seen tents and they had tv antenna sticking up out of the tent. Goats coming in and out of the tent, and they got a tv antenna. Now based on the signs, how many of you believe Jesus is coming soon? Amen. Now I think we need to talk a little bit about knowing something about how he is coming. Question number three, because there are a lot of misunderstandings.

There was misunderstandings when he came the first time. There are gonna be misunderstandings again. It is not going to be a secret. The Bible tells us that people are gonna know. Now, of course, there's a lot of dear people that believe in the secret rapture.

There are two prominent views among which, one is, of course, the secret rapture that has been championed by tim lahaye and hal lindsey and others. But even tim lahaye admits in his book, "no fear of the storm," there's no single verse specifically that states Christ will come before the tribulation. See, I think that Jesus comes at the end of the tribulation. And he admits, there's really no verse that says that. It's become a very popular teaching that's appealing, that is fanciful and colorful, but it's not biblical.

They say, "oh, but the Bible says Jesus is coming as a thief." Yeah, let's read the whole thing. When it says, "Jesus is coming as a thief," what does that mean? Oh, maybe some night I'll tell you more about my testimony. Before I was a Christian, I was a thief. I mean I was a thief. I broke into houses and stole things.

And praise the Lord, he saved me from that before I got killed doing it. Listen to this, 2 Peter 3:10, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," and a lot of people stop right there. It doesn't stop there notice. "In which--" what happens in the day when he comes as a thief? What's happening on that day when he comes like a thief? "In which the heavens pass away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are in it are burned up.

" Does it sound to you like life goes on for another seven years after Jesus comes as a thief? No, that's it. When it says, "he's coming as a thief," it means it's a surprise. That's why Jesus said, "in such an hour as you think not The Son of man comes." A thief does not send out an announcement. "I'll be coming. I hope that you won't be home.

Leave the alarm off." No, it's a surprise. Again, is the coming of the Lord quiet? Psalms 50:3, "our God shall come and shall--" what does it say? "Shall not keep silent." It's not a secret. It shall be very tempestuous about him." It's not going to be people walking down the street and going poof, disappearing. The Bible doesn't teach that. "Oh, Pastor Doug, what about two women grinding at the mill, two men sleeping in a bed, two men working in the field.

" Write it down. Someone e-mail that one to me. Pastor dwight and I will do that tomorrow. Again, 1 Thessalonians 4:16... This is one of the noisiest chapters in the Bible, noisiest passages.

It's not a secret, voice of an angel, trumpet of God. Jeremiah 25:30 says that the Lord is gonna come and he'll be roaring like a lion. He's going to roar from his holy habitation. See, that's what the devil did. There are two comings of Christ, principle comings to our world, before sin is dealt with.

One, he comes like a lion. One, he comes like a lamb. The devil swapped 'em. The devil told the Jewish nation, "yeah, he's coming like a lion, the first time, to conquer the Romans." And that's what they wanted to believe. Now he's telling the church, "yeah, he's coming like a lamb the second time to secretly rapture away of the church.

" He swapped them. And the church, God's people, are not prepared for the real event. And there are dear--they're spirit-filled people. I think the Lord's gonna save a lot of these people who are confused, but they're being mistaught. And I'll tell you what, my belief is safer anyway, not only 'cause it's biblical.

I'd rather be ready and if I get raptured up and I meet you there, I'll say, "well, I guess I was wrong." Praise the Lord. But if you're not ready and we're going through the plagues, you go, "how come we didn't know about this?" I'll say, "well, I told you." Right? This is the safer belief. Put your belt on. Don't say, "we're only going five mile miles an hour." Put it on anyway. Someone else might be going 50 and hit you, right? Number three.

.. I think you all know the answer to that. Revelation 1:7, behold he is coming with the clouds and how many eyes? Every eye will see him. That means every eye of everybody alive in the world. Matthew 24:30.

.. Is it a secret? Do people just disappear? Is this what Jesus said? Number four, "who's gonna be coming with Jesus?" He's not alone either. "With his coming and why?" Who's coming with him and why are they coming? Matthew 25:31... How many? How many angels are there? Well, there's 6 1/2 billion people. And if everyone's got a guardian angel, maybe you've got a guardian and a recording angel.

That'd be 12 billion. And there's more people being born so he's gotta have some on standby. So, you know, you've got oh, conservatively 20 billion angels. You think that someone's gonna say, "did you read it in the paper? Jesus came with 20 billion angels yesterday." Matthew 24:31... They're not gonna be invisible.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 tells us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels--" and let's see if it's a secret. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God. Friends, I hope you know the Lord. That's eternal life to know Jesus. But he's coming with his angels and flaming fire.

It's not a secret. One angel was there at the resurrection, 100 roman soldiers guarding the tomb. They absolutely fell down and went into shock. They looked like they were dead from the terror of one angel. Imagine when he comes with 20 billion angels? Number five.

.. Answer, he says in John 14:3, you know this beautiful promise... Why is Jesus coming? For you. He's coming for his people. He's coming for his bride.

Will a groom pay for a wedding and then forget about the bride? Jesus, didn't he pay? He's paid a lot for you. He paid a big dowry for you with his own blood. Is he gonna forget to come back? Does the groom get all dressed up and say, "now I'm dressed up with nowhere to go. Why am i--" no, he's not gonna forget about the bride, is he? Revelation 22:12, he's coming to give rewards... When he comes, there's not another seven years for the tribulation.

Rewards are dispensed when he comes. Number six... Answer, 1 Thessalonians 4:16. We touched on this already... When he comes, there's a resurrection.

Is that a secret? Again, 1 Corinthians 15:52-53... And that's what happens in a twinkling of an eye. It doesn't mean that you're gonna twinkle your eye and all of a sudden people are gonna disappear. The change that the saved receive is a twinkling of an eye. They go from mortal to immortal bodies.

That's what happens instantly... That's the rapture, when we are caught up. The word "rapture" means we are caught up. Nothing wrong with that word even though it's not in the Bible as you find it here. It means to be caught up to meet the Lord and that's when it's gonna happen.

But is it a secret? Trumpet, resurrection, earthquake, all these things happening at the same time? Number seven... They're being told they got seven more years to work it out. They get a second chance. Oh, no, the devil loves this false teaching because it makes people complacent. I've met folks before that have said to me, verbatim, "well, Pastor Doug, you know the things you're preaching, they could be true but, you know, my wife's told me about the rapture.

And if she disappears, she's a believer, then I'll know it's true and then I'll get ready." A lot of people think that way. I mean how many of you wait until the last day or two to pay your taxes? Show me your hands. Yeah, that's human nature. 2 Thessalonians 2:8, what's gonna happen to the wicked? It tells us... The brightness, the glory of Christ's second coming.

It's gonna be good news for the saved and bad news for the lost. And then again, Revelation 6:15. Now this is a troubling verse but you want the prophecies, don't you... This is the battle of armageddon when Jesus comes to rescue. There's only two sides.

Jesus said, "there's a war. You're either with me or you're against me. You're either with me or you're with the enemy." He's either gonna be the one we look for and say, "this is our God. We've waited for him and he will save us," or we're gonna run from the wrath of the lamb. There's no middle ground.

Number eight... The whole planet's in great upheaval. Revelation 16:18... Now I don't know those hailstones that guy's holding there, they're bigger than golf balls. They're quite like a--not softball.

But that's hail that actually fell somewhere. I heard the biggest hail was in pakistan, softball-size hail. But someone recorded one hailstone that was as big as a big pumpkin. Every now and then one cluster will come down that just breaks all the records. Can you imagine? You know what a talent is? I don't know what you've heard, pastor dwight, but I've heard them say everything from 56-75 pounds for talent.

All these different--it doesn't matter if they're 56 pounds or 70 pounds, we're in trouble if you're not ready, right? I mean are you gonna say, "oh, I'm not worried, that's only 56-pound hail. I'm waiting until the 70-pound hail begins to fall." Number seven... Now I'm gonna tiptoe on some delicate line here. I think you need to be guarded against anyone who gives a date or time or tries to set a date for the second coming. But we can know when the time is near.

I just want you to note that the Bible teaches there are approximately 2,000 years from creation unto Abraham. Creation if you use bishop usher's chronology, 4004 b.c. 2,000 Years will take you to 2004. Then there are 2,000 years from Abraham to Christ's first coming. Jesus was born actually 4 b.

c. Ask me about a.d. B.c. Now we are past 2,000 years from Christ's first coming. "Pastor Doug, that blows your theory.

That means Jesus is late." No, we're right on schedule because you know what Jesus said in Matthew 24? He closes his discourse on signs of the second coming and he says, "if that wicked servant says in his heart, "my Lord delays his coming," he's late. the Lord will come on a day that servant's not waiting for him. When Moses went up the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, they said, "when Moses delayed." He looked like he was late coming back. The church got into trouble. They lost faith.

Samuel told king Saul to wait for him. He said, "Saul--Saul got impatient. Samuel was late." And right when he began to disobey, Samuel came. The ten virgins went to sleep, why? The bridegroom seemed to be late. Isn't that what it said in the parable, Matthew 25? Right after Jesus gives the signs of his second coming, he gives his parable about the ten virgins where it says it's gonna look like he's late.

Habakkuk says, "though it appears to tarry, it will not tarry. It will surely come." If for anything the Lord has delayed his coming 'cause he wants to save as many as he can. He's coming very soon, friends. I think we're at the borders. Number ten--say, "amen.

" Thank you. I just want folks at home to know you're there... 2 Peter 3:3-4... Do we have that today? People say, "oh, second coming. Yeah, they've also said that.

It's not gonna happen." 1 Timothy 4:1... And doctrines of devils. Talking about spiritualism. 'Cause everyone's preoccupied with the occult and "harry potter" and everything's spiritualistic. I don't think disney can put out a cartoon unless it's got spiritualism in it.

It's everywhere. How do we react when we see these signs... When I look at the signs of the second coming, it gets me excited. It mobilizes me. God have mercy on the church when they cease to be excited about the blessed hope.

We ought to be inspired by the imminence of Jesus coming, the disciples were and they lived 1,900 years ago. Number 12... Answer, Matthew 24:26... Remember what I said? Satan is going to create great delusions. They'll be apparent miracles.

I'm not talking about these flimflam preachers out there that say, "I healed their sore back and their bad eyesight." There's gonna be some very impressive miracles that are gonna deceive people. Jesus said, "don't even go forth." If you hear that someone claiming to be Jesus is on tv, don't even turn it on. Tv's a great medium to hypnotize, has the optic and auditory nerves. Matthew 24:27, no question about the prominence of his coming... That's why we put that on our backdrop to try and emphasize that things are about to happen, friends.

It's not gonna be a secret. Be like lightening flashing from one horizon to the other. Nobody needs to elbow you even if your eyes are closed, you'll see it. You ever close your eyes when there's a lightening storm? You can still see the flash. So how do we avoid being deceived? Isaiah 8:20, "to the law and the testimony.

" That's means the law and the prophets, the Word of God. If they speak not according to tHis Word, it's because there is no light in them. They might have elements of truth, but every false religion has elements of truth, am I right? If they speak not according to tHis Word. Now look at what we've discovered. The coming of Jesus is not gonna be a secret.

It's telling us that it's gonna be literal, personal, visible, audible, physical, vitalizing, a resurrection takes place, glorious, climatic. Nobody's gonna read about it in the papers the next day and say, "you know the rapture took place and we were left behind." That's not what the Bible teaches. We're living in the last generation, friends. We've living in a generation where man can destroy the earth, where the Gospel can go into all the world, when knowledge is increased and yet man has not bent his knowledge to love his fellow man but we bend it to destroy each other. Number 13.

.. That's why we do these seminars. Do you know that by now? We want you to be ready. Jesus promises in John 6:37... Come to Jesus.

Just come to him. You can come to him tonight. Again, John 1:12... He'll give you power to live a new life. You'll be a new creature with a new heart.

Come to Jesus. He'll re-create you. Number 14, what dangers does the Lord warn against, solemnly warn against in connection with the seconds coming? And I already talked about this... As soon as you run into someone that starts setting dates, I'd go the other way. Be very careful about that person.

Jesus went out of his way to warn us about that. Secondly Matthew 24:44... Jesus said, "as it was in the days of Noah and lot," life was going on. They were building and eating and drinking and then the flood came and then the fire came. So don't be thinking that it's gonna be in the headlines, "Jesus comes tomorrow," and you're gonna have time like preparing for your taxes.

Be ready, amen? Furthermore, Revelation 22:12 he says... Friends, we've seen that there are environmental signs. There are religious signs. There are scientific signs, spiritual signs, political signs, moral signs, social signs. What do we do when we see all these signs are near? It says, "lift up your head for your redemption is near.

" It's at the doors. I believe the coming of Jesus is at the door, friends. What about you? You know I'm a pilot. I like to fly. My father was in the aviation business and we just grew up flying.

And I'm sure thankful for gps. You know what gps is, it's the global positioning system. And gps are fascinating because it's taking the information from, oh, in this hemisphere about 25 satellites that were built for the military. It's been released to the public now that can help you very precisely locate yourself. I can know where my little airplane is to within about three feet on the runway when I lock in enough satellites.

Now when I first turn on the gps now they got them in the cars, right? New cars which is great. It keeps you from getting lost. When you first turn on the gps, it says, "acquiring satellites." You don't know where you are until you start--one satellite doesn't tell you a whole lot. One satellite can't give you a fix on your location. Two satellites really can't help you.

It's better. You needs at least three satellites in the testimony of two or three witnesses. And when you decide what truth is, Jesus says, "don't build a doctrine on one verse in the mouth of two or three witnesses." Compare Scripture with Scripture and that's how you discover truth. It's really nice when I'm flying somewhere and I'm wondering, "am I at the right place?" I'll switch the screen on my gps and it will say, "you've got seven satellites." I think, "I know where I am." I not only know where I am on the map. I know my elevation is accurate if I get enough satellites.

It helps you know where you are. God in the prophecies has given us signs. He's given us indicators. These satellites are telling us where we are. Do you know where we are in history? You're not going to--i mean the signs are around us all the time.

But yet, some people think that you know, there's just an endless future and Jesus is never gonna come. Oh, he is gonna come. "Oh, Pastor Doug, preachers have been saying that for hundreds of years, thousands of years." That's right and one of these days, one of us is gonna be right. He is gonna come again. The question is, are you ready for Jesus to come? You can be ready tonight.

I'd like to invite John to come and to sing this familiar song to us and then I'd like to have prayer with you. So please be still 'cause I'd like to ask you a question. [Music] the theme of the Bible is Jesus and how he came to save man. And the plan of salvation assures us he's coming back again. Are you ready for Jesus to come? Are you faithful in all that you do? Have you fought a good fight and have you stood for the right? Have others seen Jesus in you? Are you ready to stand in your place? And are you ready to look on his face? Can you look up and say that this is my God? Are you ready for Jesus? Are you ready for Jesus? Are you ready for Jesus to come? Amen.

Boy, that is a perfect message in song for tonight's message. The theme of the Bible is Jesus, friends. This life is temporary. God has granted us some probationary time. The purpose of the life--of our lives is to know God and his love and then to share God and his love.

One thing you all know, we have a temporary amount of time. I don't want to depress you, but we're all terminal. Isn't that right? We are all terminal. We don't like to think about it. In this life, but Jesus has come to give us an opportunity.

He came the first time to give us an opportunity to have everlasting life. First, he would like to come into your heart. You can be a citizen of his spiritual kingdom by inviting him into your heart right now. That kingdom can begin right now. Jesus can come into your heart right now if you open your heart and say, Lord, I don't know what's gonna happen in one minute.

You obviously know all eternity. Take control. I don't know where I'm going but I know that you've got the gps. Amen? Take my life. I want to ride with you, Lord, and you can have the wheel.

Amen? Is that your desire? Let him into your heart. And then he is coming again, not just into the hearts of people. He is coming to this world. There is a limited amount of time. This whole creation groans and travails right now waiting to be delivered.

And if Jesus does not come soon, no flesh would be saved. Jesus is coming soon. That's why it's so important for you to be at these meetings. We are gonna still be talking about some of the most amazing prophecies that we can consider. Tomorrow night we're gonna be talking about the dragon and the woman, this battle between the devil and God's people.

And you're involved in that battle somewhere, so you need to come. Those of you who are watching at your church locations and your venues around the world, please bring your friends. Invite Jesus into your heart. He's coming back. We need to help get other people ready, amen? He said, "go unto all the world.

Preach the Gospel in all the world for a witness and then the end will come." That our mandate. That why we're doing these programs. Tonight before we close, I wanted to ask you, would you like to be sure that you come to Jesus and that he comes into your heart so you can be ready when he comes for the world? Is that your prayer, friends? Let's ask him now. Father in Heaven, Lord, I sense your presence is here. I know that you're with the people who are watching, who are listening and that you have a plan for our lives.

You love us desperately. You're holding back those winds of strife right now so that people can be sealed with your spirit and your name written in their foreheads. We want to be among those people, Lord. Come into our hearts. Forgive us of our sins.

Give us the gift of repentance. Fill us with your spirit. And then, Lord, I pray that you'll create within us new hearts, help us to be new creatures, live new lives and go forth and tell the good news. Continue to pour your spirit out on these meetings. Bless everybody who is participating.

And I pray that you'll bring us back together again to study Your Word and get ready for Jesus to come. It's in his blessed name we pray. Amen.