Worldwide Apostasy — Bill Randles

Book of Genesis chapter 10. Praise the Lord. I have a testimony too. I found something yesterday. I was at a basketball tournament and it was held at a school down in Kelowna. I hadn't been in a school in a long time and I'm walking down the hall to find a restroom and there's a bank of lockers and they're about two, three feet high, little tiny lockers and I kept hearing a little rap like that and I didn't know what it was.

I looked around, I didn't see anything, kept walking and came back and heard this look around, couldn't find anything and then I went to move on and I felt the spirit nudge me, go back and in the end locker I just saw the door slightly go like this and I couldn't figure out the latch so I literally reached in and bent the door back and there's a little boy in there like sitting on this, sitting at the bottom of the locker all like this looking up at me and we got someone to figure out how to open the stupid thing you know and got him out and he said, he points at the little girl he says, she told me to hide in here.

The Table of Nations and God's Purpose for Separate Peoples

Be careful what little girls you listen to boys. Genesis 10. These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth and unto them were sons born after the flood. Noah's like Adam because everyone here is a direct descendant of him but then Genesis 10 tells us, takes us to the table of nations.

It splits off into three ways. Everyone here is a direct descendant of one of these three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth okay and then he names the sons you know and he gives 70 names. These are the original nations that were on the face of the earth.

That's why in the Bible the number 70 represents the nations okay because originally there were 70 nations and he names them all because every one of them is important to God. Every nation is important to God.

They're not numbers, they're names and he tracks down the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now I want to talk for a minute about the nations and why this table is important. It's not just the genealogy.

This is a real priceless thing here, this Genesis 10. It's fantastic and it's very accurate and I wish we had time to just go into that but it is the family tree of the human race post-flood of course.

Every one of these nations were ordained by God to be nations. Not to be one but to be separate nations. All ordained by God. In fact if you turn to Deuteronomy with me for a minute. We'll go back to Genesis 10 but look at Deuteronomy 32.

God ordained that the nations be established. Deuteronomy 32 verse 7 and 8. Moses says by the Spirit, Remember the days of old? Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he will show thee thy elders and they'll tell you when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance.

God gave every one of these nations a specific inheritance. When he separated the sons of Adam, that's right, he broke them up. He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

Well when Israel went into Egypt there were 70 children of Israel so that's what he's referring to there. Look at the book of Acts chapter 17. Why are there nations? Acts 17. Paul tells us in a sermon he preached on Mars Hill.

Acts chapter 17. Now nations come and go. A lot of those nations in Genesis 10 are gone, long gone, long forgotten. A lot of them still exist to this day even as nations like Elam. The modern name for it is Iran.

He says in Acts chapter 17 verse let's see 24 I believe it is. God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwells not in temples made with hands neither is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things.

And look at verse 26 he made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. That's why I don't believe there is such a thing as races. The idea of races is a false doctrine.

It's evolutionary. God made us all of one blood. You go back far enough we all go back to the same person. He made of one blood every nation. There are no races. There's only one race, the human race made in the image of God.

Amen? But there are distinct nations. He made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and he determined the times before appointed. Now the Lord can determine the time for the American nation.

That time has a beginning and an end. I believe that with all my heart. All nations have a beginning and an end just like people do and it's all determined by God. He determined the time and not only that he determined the boundaries.

The boundaries of their habitations. God sets the limits on nations. When Hitler took enough land God said no no more. When America tried to invade Canada did you know we did that one time? No we couldn't do it.

It was a disaster. Why? God makes boundaries. God set the boundaries of the nations. Why? Why did he do that? Verse 27 that they should seek the Lord. I want you to think about that. Why did God make these nations and give them boundaries and separate them from one another so they could seek the Lord?

Well that doesn't make sense. How is that going to enable us to seek the Lord? Wouldn't we be able to seek the Lord better if we were all together? That's what Genesis 10 and 11 teaches us. No it works the other way around.

It very much reminds me of when I first started school. My little friend across the street Carl Heil. The teachers right away could see that we thought alike. Too much alike and so they made sure we were separate classes everywhere we went.

Why? So we could learn. They knew that we weren't going to learn if we were together. We thought too much alike. Therefore we devote all our energies to our own mischief. And that's true. That's literally true.

God separated the nations so that they could seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after him and find him. Though he be not far from every one of us. See I believe that when it becomes impossible to seek the Lord as a nation, that's the end of that nation.

He just breaks it up. He breaks it. You look at the map of the world like especially the Middle East and you see these boundaries that are like squares. That's not natural. What happened? Well the Lord wanted to give the Muslim people a chance to seek the Lord so he let him come under the power of the British after World War I.

And they just said they made up a new nation. Here's Iraq and here's a lot of these are fabrications made by. But as a consequence of the British and the European. Yeah people became open where they couldn't be before for a short time.

I mean it's not all great. Not all romantic. But what God does with nations is so that they can seek the Lord. And he allows things to happen. If happily they might feel after him and find him. Though he be not far from every one of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being. As certain also of your own poets have said. For we also are his offspring. So go back to Genesis. It's the table of nations. You look at some of these like verse two.

The sons of Japheth. Gomer and Magog. Wait a minute. I've seen that name before. Here it is at the very dawn of time. But you'll see it again at the end. Especially if you read Ezekiel 38. And even Revelation.

Magog shows up there. And Madi and Javan. That's the Greeks. And Tubal and Meshach. There they are again. See God knows. And God remembers. And God keeps track. And what he talked about at the beginning ends up showing up at the end.

I wish I could go into all these. But I want you to focus specifically on Genesis 10. One of the sons of Ham is a man with a unique name. Genesis chapter 10 verse 8. And Cush begat Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth.

Nimrod, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Government

Now Nimrod is a unique name because here's what it means. Let us rebel. Let us rebel. What could he be? Who would name their son let us rebel? Well, we can only speculate. So I won't do that. But you got to think according to what ended up happening is that it's a name.

Let us rebel against God. Nimrod's great uncle had been cursed. His name was Canaan. So maybe that's all. It's a rebellion. Resistance to the curse. But it says he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

Well a mighty one there is a powerful one. See if you remember before the flood there was no human government. That's why it was so chaotic. It was all anarchy. After the flood God ordained human government.

When he said whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed. That automatically implies courts, investigation, governments and authorities. Now the first problem with governments and courts and politics is that it's sometimes the bad ones that go right to the top.

Here we have a man whose name is let us rebel and he becomes the first world leader. The first world ruler. Let us rebel. It says in the next verse there that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now many people don't understand this either.

It doesn't mean he got his quota of deer every year. Okay. He's a hunter, a seeker out, a plunderer of men. And before the Lord is the idea of in the face of God or in defiance of God or even occupying the place of God.

Thou shall have no other gods but before me radically separate from God. Opposed to God. Nimrod shows up at the end too in the person of the antichrist. It's wherefore it is said it even became proverbial even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord became like a proverb.

The men admired this. Wow. Now here's a man that stands up to God. Here's a self-defined man. Here's a man that can shake his fist at God. So they create this proverb of admiration even as Nimrod the mighty hunter in the face of God who is like the beast, right?

The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Eric and Akad and Kalna in the land of Shinar. The land of Shinar. Shinar means he who throws down the land of violence. Shinar is significant to us because we have sons and daughters over there right now in the land of Shinar.

Shinar itself shows up in the last days. That's Iraq. That's the place where our kids are right now is in the land of Shinar. And you go to Genesis 11 because like all of Genesis, you know, Genesis 10 gives you the big picture.

You got all these separate nations but Genesis 11 focuses on wait a minute. How do these nations get separated? What happened? And so it gives a more focused look. And right after the flood in the days of Nimrod there really was only one nation.

Only one because it was artificially composed but there was one nation. The whole world was one. The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. Everyone spoke the same and everyone thought the same.

It came to pass as they journeyed from the east. The they there is the people of the world journeying from the east of where the ark landed. Remember what God said? Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth.

And so they journey from the east and they come to the plain of Shinar which the Shinar is not that far from Mount Ararat. And instead of going and doing what God said to fill the whole earth and spread out, they stayed right there and said no.

We're not going to do that. We're going to build a city and stay together. We don't want to be separated. We want to be together. They said to one another, go too. Let's make brick and burn them thoroughly.

And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. They began to do a project together. Nothing brings unity like a big project, a building project. And they don't have stone so much as bricks.

They have to make bricks out of clay. There's not much there but a lot of clay so they make all these bricks. And you know even bricks in the Bible have a symbolic meaning because you know the temple is made out of stones.

Bricks, Stones, and the World's Demand for Conformity

And the thing is you look at that temple, no two of those stones are the same size. You've got a great big one and then you've got a little gap filled in with a little one and a great big one. And they shape them all together and it fits together.

But it's not like you look at a brick wall and just see all these bricks. What were the children of Israel doing when they were in bondage in Egypt? What was their job? Making bricks. But the difference between the bricks and the temple is the difference between many sizes and shapes and colors of stones and all just the same.

Conformity. Remember the song, Just Another Brick in the Wall? That's what the world will do. It'll just bring about a conformity, you know, get everyone the same. What do you think the public schools are trying to do?

Make everyone just the same, you know, easier to control. Okay, God says you are the temple of God and God shapes each stone. There's some big stones and some little stones and some stones that fill in this gap and some stones that do this function.

That's God's way, right? The world's way is bricks. Stamp the same image. Conformity. Nothing. Slavery. In the name of unity. Let's make some bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar.

What they're using for mortar is the same stuff Noah used to cover the ark. It's like a false ark. And they say, come now, let us build us a city. Now, I think I mentioned this earlier in Genesis. See, Genesis is the beginning of everything and the beginning of cities.

Why did Cain build a city? Because God told him to wander and be a fugitive. That's why he built a city. So, the beginning of cities is in defiance to God. God says, you are going to wander. Cain says, no, I'm not.

I'm going to build a city. But what is a city full of? Wanderers. Restlessness. Now, here's the second city. See, Genesis has three cities that it's concerned with. It's the city Cain built, it's this city, and then the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Okay. So, cities are usually expressions of defiance and rebellions against God. After all, you pool all these people together. It's just like me and my little friend. I mean, you get them together, man, it's bad.

All right. You pool all these people together and you don't get something good, you get something bad. You get pooled rebellion, pooled defiance, and pooled sin. It intensifies. Country people aren't any better than city people, but cities are concentrated areas where people...

I look at the internet. I look at Facebook and stuff like that. A place where people, young people, can just pool. Some of it's good, but a lot of it's bad because they can feel free to express themselves and they pool all their, you know, irreverence, some lust, defiance.

The Tower of Babel and the Desire to Make a Name

Come now, let's build us a city, he says in verse 4. And a tower, and we'll talk about that in a minute, the building of this tower, whose top may reach into heaven, and let's make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth.

So, at the foundation of the city, the primary motive for this city is threefold. Let's make us a name. Let us make ourselves a name. Now, what does it mean to make yourself a name? Well, you know, there's two ways to have a name, okay?

There's God's name that He gives you, okay? This is who you are. Nothing more, nothing less. You're man made in the image of God, okay? But if you get tired of that and don't want to live in the confines of that, that's the idea here.

You could be self-defined. That's what humanism is all about, self-definition. Who says that marriage has to be between a man and a woman? Let's make up our own. Who says that a woman has to be subservient to a man?

Who said that? God? Well, I don't believe in God. Let's decide ourselves what the roles should be. Who says that a family should be a man, a woman, and children? Who said? See, everything that God stamps on us, He assigns us roles.

In the new humanistic city, man says, no, let's make our own name. A defiance to God. Let us make our name. It's humanism and self-glorification. And then the second motive is so that we won't be scattered.

It's resistance to the divine ordinance. Be fruitful, fill the earth. No, they say no. We're going to stay together and build a city. In Genesis, anytime man wants to rebel against God, he builds a city.

If the walls maybe can fortify him, it's unity. As many people believe this myth, that the more people do it, the more people think it, the more people come together and practice it, you can overthrow the old morality.

You can overthrow the old laws. You can, you know, we can all come together. Book of Proverbs disabuses people of that notion. For it says in the Book of Proverbs, though hands go in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.

And then the third motive, let's build a tower to heaven. Well, people look at this and crayon book mentality. They go, wow, they actually thought they could get a stairway all the way up to heaven. Oh, no, this is not what this is about.

It's a brand new religion. Let's build a religion. Yes, a tower was built, but they never thought that they could even get up to the clouds. Are you joking? They weren't stupid back then. You couldn't, we couldn't build what they built.

We could not come up with pyramids the way they came up with them, especially with the tools they had to work with. We could not do that. These people were not stupid. Don't think Flintstones, all right?

These people were very advanced. Let's build a tower to heaven. What that is, is a pyramid. Why do you have pyramids in South America, in Egypt, in Greece, in Babylon, everywhere in the world, there's some kind of a pyramid thing.

Even in Zimbabwe, they have pyramids down there. What's it all mean? Oh, it's a new religion. And it's a pyramid or the tower or whatever is a symbol and the place where you can go up and commune with the evil spirits through astrology.

See, the thing is, Genesis 11 tells us not only why there's different nations and different languages, Genesis 11 tells us why there are so many religions, okay? You go to Revelation, it says, Babylon the great, the mother of all abominations and harlotries that are in the world.

In other words, every false religion has its Genesis in Genesis 11. Let's do this. Let's define ourselves. All false religion is, is a rejection of God. People that have false religions, it's not like they're sincere.

Oh, you got to admire those Muslims. They pray five times a day. Oh, those Jehovah's Witnesses are out there knocking on doors. I wish we were that dedicated. That's stupid to make that comparison. That's apples and oranges.

False religions, all of them are a rejection of the grace of God. They're a rebellion against God. They are the defiance of the Holy God. You can't grant them sincerity. As God says in Roman chapter three, there's none that seeketh after God.

The whole time I was a Catholic, I didn't seek God. I didn't care about God because I had it covered. The priest did my praying for me and everything. I never started seeking after God until I read the Sermon on the Mount and God started knocking on my door.

That's when I began to seek after God. Before that, I had it covered. I was part of the system. It's a system. Like Al said, I don't give you religion. It's a living relationship. You know, people would prefer the system, really.

Most people prefer a system to a real relationship with God because the system doesn't talk back. And if you go by the rules, then you won't get hassled. But the God that we worship, He looks right through your heart.

He sees the thoughts and intents of the heart. He searches us. He brings up uncomfortable questions. He calls us to account. The systems, they can be played. Let's build a tower to the heavens. And it's kind of like astrology.

It is astrology, in fact. This is the beginning of the Zodiac and the astrology. When these planets are here in this alignment and this happens and this happens, then you can, you know, then we figure out what's going to happen and then we can control our own destiny.

So they wanted to name themselves. They wanted to be independent. They want to be definitively separate from the Holy God. The God of the Bible? Well, in their case, the God of the flood. Wow, man, we better figure out a way to get some distance between us and Him.

And Nimrod, man, he was like their great hero. And I don't have time, but I mean, a lot of these early worship, Nimrod presents himself as the seed of the woman. The symbol of Nimrod worship is a mother holding a little baby.

Does that sound familiar to anyone? The mother is the queen of heaven. We used to pray to her, Hail, Holy Queen of heaven, mother of mercy. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. This is a deep, deep, deep abomination to God.

It's all part of this tower. Resistance to God's ordinance, a new religion, humanistic self-glory. They said, let go. Come now, let us build us a city and a tower. No, this is let us, let us, let us.

Whose child may reach into heaven, let us make us a name. It's all about us. This is even the new Christianity. The new pseudo Christianity is all about making a name. It's about the self. It's not about humble brokenness before the holy God.

It's not about the need for substitution, the shed blood of the lamb, without which there is no remission of sins. They've formulated a new bloodless Protestantism, a new bloodless cross and a new bloodless Christ.

Beware of it. It's the most insidious of all. Now, hold your finger to Genesis 11. This was nothing less. See, Genesis 11 is a shattering story. We'll go right back to it. It's nothing less than a entire worldwide apostasy.

The whole world's in agreement. Second Thessalonians chapter two. Paul warns us it's going to come again. A worldwide apostasy, a religious test about to break forth. Already Christians are being, through stuff like Greek war and purpose drivel, Christians are being programmed to not pass this test.

It's huge. Second Thessalonians two verse one. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, our epicynagogue, we're going to be taken to be with the Lord in the rapture.

That ye be not soon shaken, and mine are troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come, except there come a falling away first.

There's coming a huge apostasy. And the man, that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. The word sin there is the word lawlessness. The man of lawlessness is coming. What was Nimrod's name? Let us rebel.

He's the son of perdition, the son of damnation and hell. He opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Well, the one thing I bring out about verse 4, self above God. That's the principle that's already deeply ingrained even in the evangelical and protestant world. Self first, self first. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things and now you know that what withholds that he might be revealed in his time.

Well, he can't be revealed until the time. For the mystery of lawlessness is what that literally says. The mystery of lawlessness is already working. Only he who now hinders will hinder until he be taken out of the way.

There's a mystery of lawlessness that's been going on ever since Genesis 11, but it comes to its apex in the end. But the apex can't come together until something restraining it is removed. You see what I'm saying?

And what do we mean by the mystery of lawlessness? See, Revelations is Babylon is mystery, mystery Babylon, the secret mystery, the secret teaching of lawlessness. What do we mean by that? We mean a spiritual principle.

The Mystery of Godliness and the Incarnation of Christ

See, even behind the true religion, our religion is a secret principle of mystery not revealed to everyone. Jesus said to Peter, flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my father. What's the mystery of our religion or what's the core secret teaching of our religion?

Not secret in the mystical and occult sense, but secret that's hidden from those whom the God of this age has blinded. What is the mystery that underlines believers in grace and the evangelical world?

It's this, that God came down from heaven and became a man. Nobody built a tower to heaven. Heaven had to come down to us. That's the mystery. That's the mystery. If you let it get a hold of you, will it even deliver you from all sin?

Because what is the root of sin but pride itself? Amen. Why did God have to come down from heaven? Why is the mystery? He says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.

Why did he have to come down to save us? Because we're so bankrupt, we can't save ourselves. Is anybody here? So he came down and we bless his holy name. Amen. He came down to us, down to our level, and he descended, like Paul said, even lower than the form of a servant and even humbled himself to the death of the cross.

He came down. That's the mystery of godliness. If you ever really let that get a hold of you, we can never be the same. We can never be the same. It's not just a theological dusty doctrine. It's a living reality that my God in heaven that's exalted came down and became a man to save me.

All that that implies is the core of my morality and the core of my spirituality. But what is the opposing mystery? It's a deep truth too. It's a mystery I don't even believe. Underneath it is something called the lie.

It's a mystery that sets itself in opposition to the true, but it's much more appealing to the masses of people. The mystery of iniquity is no, no, no, no, no. God doesn't have to come down. You can rise up through steps.

I think the Tower of Babylon was something like a ziggurat, where you go up one step, and another step, and another step, and another step, and another step, and another step, and another step, and another step.

We're rising up. We're going places. We're coming up. We're getting better and better all the time. Anybody here? It sounds like evolution to me. It's the 33rd degree, Mason. All steps. And what's at the top?

Well, you can be as God. See, Genesis 11 is just a replay of Genesis 3, only internationally. What happens in the last days? The same thing. What do you think the UN is? What do you think the European Union is?

You know what the symbol for the European Union is? The Tower of Babel. They have a building in Brussels that's the headquarters for the European Union that's modeled to look like an unfinished tower, literally.

They had posters out with an old medieval picture of the Tower of Babylon saying, we are overcoming the Babel effect, the unfinished tower. He says, the mystery of iniquity is already working. Only he who now hinders will hinder until he be taken out of the way.

Then will that wicked be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth and will destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and science and lying wonders.

Nimrod was a mighty man in the earth, a great man. He had a lot of power. With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that are perishing, what it literally says, verse 10, those who are damned, those who follow Nimrod, the Antichrist, what happened to them?

Why were they sucked in? I know people that don't give God two seconds, but they say, I'll tell you one thing, I'll never take the mark on my hand or my forehead. Before the mark is just any kind of tattoo.

It's a spiritual thing, a state of mind, a lifestyle. So you wouldn't even need a tattoo to go to hell. What am I saying? Most people already have the mark of the beast. And if you let this culture get to you and your children, then they'll get the mark of the beast too, because they'll begin to think like it and they'll begin to act like it.

It's powerful and subtle. You see what I'm saying? And so he says that they will be, they will be destroyed. Verse 10, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that are perishing because they receive not the love of the truth.

You've got to love the truth. And some people say, well, I don't want to take a side. I don't know either way. A non-decision is a decision. If you don't receive the love of the truth, you will believe the lies, what it says literally.

Verse 10, that they might, they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved for this cause. God will send them strong delusion that they should believe literally the lie. The lie is that you don't need to wait for God to come down and save you.

That you don't need to humble yourself in your religion and you need no substitute and you don't need all this repentance. It's not about the law. It's about relationships. This is the lie that's being foisted by the false religion, that they should believe the lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This is a divine warning from God, you know, this test that's coming. People will believe the lie because it's much more pleasurable. People get tired of the old religion. Go back to Genesis. I won't take too much more time but they want to name themselves.

They want to be self-defined. They definitely want to put distance between them and the holy God. They'd much rather you work with bricks than stones, huh? They want to build a tower to heaven. They want to make a new religion in a new way.

A religion that's more amenable and much more easy to control. And they want to make their own name and they don't want to be scattered. These are the defiance against the original ordinances of God. You go back to Genesis 1 through 11.

Now you see the foundation of human society and humanity and the ordinances set by God, right? But you get to Genesis 11 and every one of them is being resisted. Now you think about this because the same thing's happening today.

Resisting the Ordinances of God

Every one of these Genesis 1 through 11 foundations are being totally resisted. I'll give you an example. I'm holding the concept of the Sabbath. No, I'm not a Seventh-day Adventist and no, I'm not a legalist.

But there should be one day out of the week that you worship God. It doesn't matter what day. But Sunday is just like any other day. The concept of the headship of the man over the woman. Openly defied.

Completely. The concept of the institution of marriage. They are going at its core. Why do you think homosexuals want marriage? They don't want marriage. They're promiscuous. Then why do they lobby for marriage?

They don't want marriage but they want to destroy marriage because marriage is a reproach to them. People want to bring marriage down because it is about them and because it is greater and holier. They would bring it down and wipe their feet on it.