A mouth will be given to this horn that arises and displaces three others and as he becomes the spokesman and the leading figure in this global kingdom. It is not even that the systems that he rules over are inherently bad or evil; it is that they were designed to entrap mankind into reliance on them, taking advantage of the human tendency since the days of Adam and Eve to want to provide for themselves and to protect themselves. When man sinned, the eyes of his soul were opened and he began to take charge of his destiny. What he did not realize—that he was lured into this decision and what he thought was his crowning achievement: his ability to function apart from God—actually is the thing that positions him in this deadly condition where he has to supply himself and he has to protect himself. And along comes the enemy and he offers him the ability to protect himself and provide for himself and his offer is based in these “systems,” what you could do to take care of yourself.

Probably the single greatest observation that I have made about the condition of the church today is the fact that people—church people—for the most part have great difficulty trusting God. Yes they will say, “I trust God for my daily bread.” But put their daily bread—how they make their daily bread—in jeopardy and you will see even very mature—people you would assume to be very mature Christians—squawking and screaming and becoming completely nervous and wanting security above everything else. The enemy always knew that man was like this, and unless the Lord puts you through the requisite conditioning, everyone is going to be subject to this kind of response.

The blasphemy that is spoken by the little horn that comes up and overthrows three others is no different from the blasphemy he spoke in the garden. When he came there he sounded quite reasonable… reasonable enough to draw Eve into the web of deception, seducing her from her loyalty and conviction, faith in God, to trusting in what she could do. If he, at that time, was as powerful as he was and over the centuries has gained more and more insights into the ways and thinking of human beings, you can only imagine when he rolls out these systems how utterly blasphemous his pronouncements will be, but at the same time how imminently reasonable his pronouncements also will be. He will be imminently reasonable… reason beyond the pale of question, and but for those people who truly know their God, the reasonableness with which he speaks his blasphemous thoughts will seem the very essence of wisdom. That is why Jesus said to us, “See to it that no one deceives you.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Jesus answered: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you.’” – Matthew 24:4)

This speaker who comes will not advertise himself just as a speaker, just as a politician. No. He advertises himself as the return of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He will say that he is the true Messiah. He will deceive the nations into believing that that’s correct. He will deceive the people who follow the doctrines and teachings of Islam into thinking that he is the Mahdi—he is the Mahdi who has come. To those of the Hindu and Buddhist points of view, he will convince them that he is the Incarnated One—the ascended master who has returned. For the Jew, he will convince them that he is the Messiah for whom they have longed. And for the Christian, he will convince them that he is Jesus, having returned. He will have, as you might expect, the greatest difficulty with the Christians, convincing them that he is the Lord, returned.

There will be lies and deceptions of the kind that says, “Well he is the Messiah who has come for the first time to the Jews, and he is the Lord, returned to the non-Jews (Christians who are not Jews). This will be a flattering but deadly lie because it will promise a foundation for the unification of these two as one. How will he pull it off? He will… he will succeed in deceiving all but the very elect. “If it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived.” (Inserted – actual verse—“For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible.” – Mark 13:22)

How will he pull it off? He will have great help. You see, when that horn comes up, when that king arises on the head that it comes up on…as we said earlier, we have ten horns, seven heads. That means if you place one horn on each of seven heads you still have three left over. The horn that comes up displaces three horns. Because the detail added to us in the Revelation, of the seven heads, we have a vital piece of information because a horn cannot come up on one head and displace a horn on another head because the limitation of the one head limits what it does to the head upon which the horn arises. The fact that it will overthrow three horns means that originally there are four horns on that one head. So you have six heads with one horn each (or six heads and six horns); that allows for four remaining horns.

There is a seventh head—there are seven heads and ten horns—one head will contain four horns and the other six will contain one each. (Inserted – actual verse—“And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.” – Revelation 13:1) This head with four horns is the religious head. This beast will have its own religion. It will be the religion of the brotherhood of man. It will be the religious compromises that are even now being worked out among the religions of the world. They are being worked out in the interest of promoting global peace… in the interest of causing a cessation of one of the major causes of war: religious wars. In the interest of causing a cessation to that cause of war, we are beginning to see changes within all of the major religions to permit and to accommodate to commonalities. The watchword in religion today is: tolerance. That is the guiding principle.

In various religions—major world religions—there is great internal strife and conflict because in each of these religions are true believers in the principles of that religion (and they are called radicals) and the others who are born into this religion, who have some of the convictions of this religion but [are] not willing to take these convictions to the extremes ordered by, or purported by these religions. You have what are called the fanatics or the true believers of these religions and you have the more nominal ones. Islam is a classic example of that today. All over the world Islam has been presented by the Mujahadin, the warriors of Islam who are willing to kill, maim, murder and otherwise create mayhem in defense or in advocacy of the principles of Islam as they perceive it to be—as they perceive these principles. They are clear that they are the true believers in the principles of Islam.

The communications of Osama Bin Laden, for example, are communications in which he decries the rulership of most Islamic states that are not willing to adopt his view of Islam and the spread of it. But in Islam, with its 1.2 or 1.3 billion adherents, only a relatively tiny percentage are willing to go the route of an Osama Bin Laden or Abu Musab al Zakari or some of these leading figures…only a tiny, tiny fraction. But all of Islam is being presented—the face of it is being presented—in these radical extremes. You can begin to see how these groups are going to react because the more sedate, the less confrontational of these people are going to see that the nations that they live in and the governments that many of them operate are being ground to a halt by the continuing spate of violence.

We are watching the model of this evolve right before our eyes in a place that used to be known as Babylon, in Iraq. We are watching how an Islamic population will have to distance itself from the truest of the believers in the principles of Islam. We will watch how a religion evolves to isolate that element that embarrasses and hinders the desire for prosperity, peace and stability and the like. It is not a small thought or it is not an uncommon perspective in the world of Christianity today. You have totally secular people who are just born into a religion and people who are willing—on the other hand—to bomb abortion clinics in advocacy of their point of view of the sanctity of life. The same very falling out, shaking out is occurring.

As religions—and all of the world’s religions, the Hindus have their fanatics and militants and so do Buddhists, and the whole bit. What is happening is: you will find these elements that agitate for some sort of transcendent belief becoming increasingly isolated as the goals of peace and prosperity and brotherhood and harmony are elevated as the dominant goals and principle callings of these religions. As this happens, the one fly-in-the-ointment so to speak will be that the majority of Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that He went away 2000 years ago, and He is coming back.

If it is said that this horn who speaks blasphemes—and part of the blasphemy that he will speak is that he is the Lord, returned—this will be a relatively tough sell for the Christian population as a whole but they will have help. The Christian leader who emerges, will convince the Christians that this little horn, and what he says, qualifies him to be the Lord, returned. He—in Scriptural designation—is the false prophet, and it will be a Christian leader because the Christians will not accept someone who is not a known leader. He will speak for Christianity on its broadest of terms and he will speak the gospel that has become the anthem of this new age.

The gospel that used to center upon the return of the Lord Jesus Christ; the uniqueness of his death on the cross; his resurrection, and so on; and that He is the only way to the Father—that gospel will be changed to quotes from Jesus on the subject of brotherhood, humanity, peace in the world, prosperity, sharing the wealth, caring for the planet, and so on… taking care of the less fortunate. By the way, we are already there among the majority of those who have a faith in Jesus as Messiah. The majority of “Christians” in the world have already accepted this as the dominant theme of Christianity.

So the false prophet will finish the job as it were [and] will convince all but those who are led by the Spirit of God that the false Messiah is in fact the true Messiah. That is how the deal will be done. For all of the rest of the world’s great religions, this doctrine, this gospel already works and it is the cry right now of Islam. Islam is being brought into this present fold this way and in the end of the matter the one who comes will come in his own name. Jesus prophesied that in the days leading up to his return many will come saying that he is the Christ, but they will add things that will deceive many. (Inserted – actual verse—“For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” – Matthew 24:5) It literally is the case where the many will lead to the one. When the many are operating they will create the environment in which the thinking of the church historically will change. The compromises that may even still be farfetched—we wouldn’t think that Christians would make these compromises—in the environment that is now present and will increase, it will become easier and easier for the deceptions to find willing followers.

Consider this: groups such as the Episcopalians just a few short years ago would not dream of ordaining a homosexual as a priest because they remember the teaching of Scripture concerning homosexuality. They wouldn’t dream of such a thing. Today you have a bishop—one of their highest officials of that organization—and the whole of the church is in an uproar over this. But you know what is actually taking place in that church? And it just shows you how this deception is going to run. They say: Unity above truth… unity above truth. That is the watchword that holds the Episcopalian church together today and there are some in it that are saying, “That is ridiculous. If you don’t have truth, what are you unified on? What is the basis of your unity?” But they have long felt that truth is really not absolute anyway and the reality of differing views is what the communion is about (what is known as the Anglican communion). So their point of view is: Let’s maintain the communion; truth is subject to that and whatever truth you come up with is really of lesser importance than unity.

You will begin to see themes like these—blasphemous themes like these I might add dominate the landscape of discussion. And what will be the watchword? Tolerance… we must be tolerant. You see it is long been lost to the church that truth is not merely “ideas” or “opinions,” that in fact, truth is a person—the one who said, “I am the way and the truth.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” – John 14:6) But that is lost, and once that is lost then what is truth? And how important is truth to unity? Because the more of us who are unified the more we can do in the name of the person of truth, for the benefit of humanity. These are the kinds of blasphemous things that are already deeply imbedded in the fabric of what calls itself the church, and what is considered Christian today.

We have watched how the Roman Catholic Church has drawn up its ranks to protect itself. A few priests have been prosecuted and some dollars have been paid but what are the actual changes that have been made? Well the heart of the matter is the doctrine of celibacy of course. You take away from men—by religious doctrines—the natural things God created a man to be, the desires of the human male for sexual exchange—and that properly pursued in the boundaries of marriage—you create an imposed celibacy. I have nothing against celibacy; one may choose to be celibate, but to make it a condition of the priesthood is unbiblical and an abomination because it requires a fundamental altering of the human nature. That’s what is wrong with it. Until you address that you can’t solve the problem; you can only manage the present consequences. But who cares about what the truth is if it offends the religious setting?

So the point is: tolerance will become the order of the day; all of these kings in the religious world—the recognized international heads of these great religions of the world—will in fact bow down to the one who speaks blasphemous things because they will not recognize these things as blasphemous against the Most High… no more than they recognize them today. That is the point. No more than those leaders recognize the blasphemies—and this is about the strongest term to indicate religious error—the blasphemies against the Most High today. They are changing the truth into a lie and soon enough a generation will arise that never really knew any other doctrine or teaching other than the very changes that are being brought in now.

One of the four will stand with the antichrist; he will be the false prophet and together they will launch: first a program of convincing all but the elect. “If it were possible even the very elect would be deceived of these things.” Whoever is not convinced by these things will find himself or herself now the subject to a virulent persecution intent upon exterminating them because the plan of the evil one was to make sure that all of God’s interests were either subverted by these blasphemous things or exterminated, failing in the attempt to subvert them. So the times that are ahead for the Christian will be, what the Bible describes as: perilous times… perilous times, such as had never been seen since the world began. (Inserted – actual verse—“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” – II Timothy 3:1 KJV)

There are those who say, “Well all of that may be so, but I won’t be here when this happens. I’m going to be raptured. I will be taken out. I’m a believer; the righteous will not suffer with the wicked. We will not suffer the wrath of God, so according to the Scriptures we have the promise that we will be rescued. We won’t be here.” Well I’m not opposed to the idea of avoiding difficult times. Personally, given the choice, I would choose to avoid difficult things as opposed to embracing them but we are not given a choice. We are going to be here. We must walk through all of this.

In the next broadcast I want for us to look at the fact that we are going to be here. The rapture will not be until the very return of the Lord, and at that point you have gone through everything. I want to look at that in the Scriptures. Furthermore, I want to look at how does the enemy gather up all of his influence in his war against the saints? So I hope that you will join me as we continue this discussion. God bless you and I’ll see you next time. This is Sam Soleyn.

Scripture References :

Matthew 24:14
Mark 13:22
Revelation 13:1
Matthew 24:5
John 14:6
II Timothy 3:1