The Beast System - Revelation 13 (Part 1)

Revelation 13 and the Beast System

Let's open to Revelation chapter 13, Revelation 13, and the title of this lesson is the beast system. Okay, the beast system. We call it that because the beast is mentioned in Revelation 13. We know him as the Antichrist.

So this is sort of the world system, the beast system, or the kingdom of Antichrist that will exist during the tribulation. So the idea of a beast in the Bible, typically this symbolizes a government or some sort of kingdom.

We'll probably be looking next week because this chapter covers the beast and the false prophet. We'll probably get to the false prophet in the implementation of the mark of the beast in the next lesson next Wednesday, but here we're going to just cover the first 10 verses.

So the beast system, let's start reading Revelation 13, one through 10, John writes, then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns and on his horns, 10 crowns and on his heads, a blasphemous name.

Now the beast, which I saw was like a leopard. His feet were like the feet of a bear in his mouth, like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power, his throne and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed.

And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying who is like the beast, who is able to make war with him.

And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven.

And it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. And here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

One World Government, One World Religion, and One World Economic System

Okay, so the beast system, the kingdom of the antichrist. It's also called Babylon here in the book of Revelation. And this is where you get that idea of what we call a one world government. There's different terms you're hearing these days for this.

The new world order is sort of like a new popular term for this idea that's been around a long time, but it's come into the mainstream probably in the last four years or so. But this is something that's coming upon the earth, a one world government, one world religion and a one world economic system.

You've heard me talk about this before, right? And if somebody were to say, well, where do you get that idea from the Bible? Well, you get it mainly. There's multiple places where you could find it, but mainly it's from Revelation 13.

Why? Because the beast has authority over every nation. That's a one world government. And the people of the earth, it says all of the people that weren't in the book of life, they're all worshiping him.

So that's a one world religion. And then once you get to the mark of the beast where nobody can buy or sell unless they have the mark, that's where you get the one world economic system. So I realized that if you were to talk to your average person today about this kind of thing, they would chalk this stuff up as what?

Conspiracy theory. But as we've seen, not all conspiracy theories are actually wrong. But remember, this isn't happening now, or someone could argue that it is, but we're talking about what's going to happen in the tribulation in the end time.

So it will happen in the future. So this first section, verses one through 10, it deals with the beast also known as the antichrist and his world system. The second section is verses 11 through 15 that deals with his false prophet.

So we'll cover that next week, along with the final verses 16 through 18, which talks about the implementation of the mark of the beast. So if you were coming tonight hoping to hear about the mark of the beast, you're just going to have to wait until next week.

Just to review though, what's got us up until this point, and I know I do this most every week kind of review what we've talked about, but that really helps us to all remember the events of Revelation, one thing after another after another.

The more you hear it, the more you'll just have it memorized. Basically, we believe the rapture happened somewhere around chapter four, and the rapture triggers the day of the Lord, or the tribulation.

And the tribulation starts in chapter six. So the tribulation begins probably with World War III. I mean, in theory, it could be World War IV or V, but probably World War III. So that's warfare, famine, disease, all the things that come from war, widespread death.

So in chapter six, the tribulation starts. You have the seal judgments, which are bad, but then you move to the trumpet judgments, which are much, much worse. And that's really when the wrath of God starts with the trumpet judgments in chapter eight.

But in chapter seven, that's sort of parenthetical outside of the overall timeline. In chapter seven, we saw the ministry of the 144 ,000. So there's good things happening alongside of the turmoil. So chapter eight begins the supernatural trumpet judgments.

God's wrath is being poured out upon the earth. Chapters 10 and 11 brought us up until the midpoint of the seven years. That's where the Antichrist walks into the Jerusalem temple, the rebuilt Jerusalem temple.

In chapter 11, it talks about that, the temple. And he's going to go in there and he's going to declare himself to be God. And the Jews are not going to worship him. So because they don't worship him, he then persecutes the children of Israel.

And we saw that last week in chapter 12. So this brings us up to chapter 13, where John now is focusing on these two men, the beast and the false prophet. So again, tonight we're looking at the beast, aka the Antichrist.

Any questions so far? Okay. Now, just to clear up any confusion, I think that the term beast can refer to both the man and his empire. So we're calling it the beast system. I don't know if any of you can see this picture or not.

Might look a little blurry from the back, but basically you have this monster that comes out of the sea with seven heads. And in the background, you see a dragon there that represents Satan. And you see he's poking his head around what looks like the Vatican, I think.

But this is just something I typed up. Now, see, now I saw somebody there like, oh, no. Like, where are we going with this? Here's the thing. And I know this might offend people and it might be politically incorrect to say it.

But this is the historic Protestant viewpoint that in the end times, it's very likely that the Catholic Church will be part of this one world system. Remember, we're not talking about what's happening right now.

So this is no reflection upon your Roman Catholic neighbor or co-worker. We're talking about something that's happening in the future. So in the future, Rome is going to be the headquarters of either this political system or this false one world religion.

And the harlot of Babylon, remember it came up last week. You can go search for it, check it out. It is the Protestant position, it has been ever since the days of Martin Luther that the Roman church is the whore of Babylon and the papacy is the seat of Antichrist.

So this is by no means unique to me. This has been taught and believed for about 500 years or so. You say, well, I've never heard that. Well, that's because it gets suppressed and the people don't talk about it because it's politically incorrect.

But I've made a decision not to worry about that stuff years ago and I'm not gonna worry about it now. So I'm convinced it's what the Bible teaches. So the beast, it refers to both the man and it refers to his empire.

The Revived Roman Empire and the Beast Rising from the Sea

Now, most commentators, if you read like the Left Behind series, and I know that's not like an authoritative source for doctrine necessarily. But among end time scholars, if you read any of those books, it's generally accepted by just about everybody that the beast system, the kingdom of Antichrist, is going to be the revived Roman Empire.

Who's heard of this before? Yeah, the revived Roman Empire. So we're gonna see that later on, especially in chapters 17 and 18. So the beast here, one of the beasts, seems to be a reference to revived Rome.

So let's go over these verses. Chapter 13 begins with verse 1. John says, I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw the beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

So I'd just like to read what John MacArthur says about verse 1. I mean, I could try to quote him, but I'll just read it. He says the beast literally means a monster, which describes a vicious killing animal.

In this context, the term beast represents both a person, the Antichrist, and his system, which is the world system. The final satanic world empire will be inseparable from the demon-possessed man who leads it, which is the Antichrist.

For a discussion of Antichrist, see his notes on 2 Thessalonians 2. He also says a look at Daniel chapter 7, cuz if you remember in the book of Daniel, there's the, first, there's the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw, and then there's the beast in the book of Daniel.

Marcus? Yeah, I wanted, when you said the Roman empire and the ten nation thing, it does seem clear from Daniel's vision. I mean, Babylon is a historical fact, and we have Persia, these are historical facts.

Greece, Rome, these are all historical facts, that they were one world governments. Right. And Daniel's vision, the feet and the ten toes are iron mixed with clay, so that seems fairly reasonable to assume that it's gonna be something like that.

Right. You haven't mentioned the World Health Organization yet.

Yes, I have not. Or the United Nations. I have not mentioned the United Nations at all, not yet. But yeah, Daniel's, well, it's not Daniel's vision, but that statue, it's unquestionable that the head represents Babylon.

Yeah, you know, Persia, Greece, and then Rome, and then the feet, the iron, which is Rome, mixed with clay, this. Again, almost everybody agrees it represents the revived Roman Empire. That's the kingdom of the Antichrist.

This statement, rising up out of the sea. The sea represents the abyss or pit. There's some people who say that the sea represents the nations, or maybe even the Mediterranean. And if you look at the Mediterranean, what's in the middle?

Israel. Well, Rome is in the middle. I mean, you have Italy, and Rome was the power in his day. John MacArthur, though, says that the sea represents the abyss or the pit. The haunt of demons. The picture is of Satan summoning a powerful demon from the abyss, who then activates and controls the beast, Antichrist, and his empire.

The seven heads and ten horns. I think this is one reason why people, when they read Revelation, they're just like, I'm not gonna bother studying this cuz it's too difficult. How can I know what this means?

A beast with seven heads. Well, if you compare scripture with scripture, you can find out the meaning. So he says, the seven heads and ten horns, this description is like that of Satan in chapter 12, verse 3.

The heads may represent successive world empires, or as Marcus said, like one world governments, like they were the main controlling force in the world. Such as Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

And MacArthur says, the final kingdom of Antichrist, the final one is made up of all the kingdoms represented by the horns. Ten is a number that symbolizes the totality of human military and political power assisting the beast, or Antichrist, as he controls the world.

Horns always represent power, as in the animal kingdom, both offensive power, attack, and defensive power, protection. Daniel shows that the human Antichrist will rise up from these ten kings. And he picks up the numerical imagery of Daniel 2, which refers to the ten toes on the statue of clay and iron.

The feet mixed with clay and iron. The apostle sees the beast as the final world government. The Antichrist, anti-God coalition, headed by a revived Roman Empire. Having the strengths of all the previous empires, but it also has some weakness, that's the mixture with the clay.

And therefore, because of the weakness, it will be crushed. Long story short, he's saying that this is the revived Roman Empire. So that's the symbolism. So based on all that, we know that from Genesis chapter three, after the fall, the world belongs to God, right?

That's true. He's the creator. But after the fall, since then, up until now, and up until the end times, the world is under the sway of who? The wicked one. Right, 1 John 519, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

So the devil, he's having his way in the world, sometimes more so than others. But here in the tribulation, I mean, he really has, if not full control, I mean, pretty close to it. And he's going to be ruling from, most likely, Rome.

The Mortal Wound, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Papacy

Verse three is probably a reference, let's see. John says, and I saw one of his heads as it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. I remember, I think it was last week, Marcus asked about this, about the Antichrist being killed and maybe resurrected.

Now remember, the term beast refers to both the man, the Antichrist, and it refers to his kingdom. So which one has the mortal wound that was healed, the man or the empire? Going back to MacArthur's comment from verse one, it's a common understanding that this would be the Roman Empire, which fell.

But now it's back, it's healed. So at the very least, we would say that the head here is Rome. Rome fell, disappeared for the most part, even though it really didn't disappear. I'll explain that in a moment.

But now the Roman Empire is back. I think it's worth pointing out, though. Do you know what happened when the Roman Empire fell? Did it just cease to exist? And then it went from that to Europe the way it is today, with Germany and Switzerland and all of the nations.

Is that what happened? No. When the Roman Empire fell, just as Rome wasn't built in a day, I mean, Rome didn't fall in a day either. So the Roman Empire fell, and what came out of that is what is called the Holy Roman Empire.

So who's heard of the Holy Roman Empire? Right, so the Holy Roman Empire was different. The emperor didn't have the power anymore, like the Caesars did. But who had the power in the Holy Roman Empire?

The pope, right, the pope had the authority. And really, if you look at it, the Roman Catholic Church was the glue that held the remains of the empire together. So that's the way it was for about 1 ,000 years, right up until the Protestant Reformation.

Once the Reformation happened, then Europe was splintered. And what you had left of the Holy Roman Empire by the 1800s is what you call the Papal States. And then those dissolved, and today it's just the nation of Italy.

Rome is the capital. It's the capital city. But within Rome is the smallest nation on Earth, which is... Vatican City. We call it Vatican City, but the official name for this nation is the Holy See. So you have the smallest kingdom on Earth, it's the Holy See.

And here's the interesting part, what I think will tie into the beast system in the end times. The pope is not only the head of a religion known as Catholicism, he is also the king of this nation, the Holy See.

So the Antichrist, when he does rise to power, he is both a political leader and the object of veneration in this one world religion. So it's interesting to point that out. Most people don't know this today that the pope is one of the last true monarchs in the world today.

Most countries that have kings, you think of England, right? They have a king. A lot of countries in Europe have kings, but they're just a figurehead. They don't actually hold power. But the pope actually does have absolute power and authority.

And I talked about this in the message at the apologetics conference, that during the Holy Roman Empire, the pope was considered king of kings, because he was the one who crowned kings. He had that type of supremacy.

And when we get to Revelation chapter 17, we're gonna see that Rome still is going to play a part in world affairs. So I'm just saying, keep that in mind, keep your eye on that, because again, this is the historic Protestant position.

Is this the way it is now? Like, we're not in the end times, right? Is there a one world system right now? No. Is there an antichrist today? Technically, no. We're still waiting for all that to develop.

But what will he use? Well, he's gonna have to use something to gain political power. That's where people think the United Nations may play a role in that. It may or it may not. But religiously, it's likely that the Catholic Church will play a role.

But remember, it's in the future, so it may take a different form. Okay, any questions on that? No? All right, so, but moving on, the deadly wound was healed. This is verse three, probably a reference to the revived Roman Empire.

But since the beast represents both the empire and the person, it's possible that the antichrist actually is attacked, assassinated, and he either dies and is resurrected. Or he may appear as though he died and they staged some sort of false resurrection event.

Who's heard this theory? Yeah, why would he do that? First of all, think of what the antichrist is. Antichrist doesn't mean someone who's against Christ, although he is that. It actually, the term technically means an imitation Christ, an imposter.

So how long did Jesus minister for? His ministry was three and a half years, right? What's another term for that? 42 months? Well, look at verse five. How long does the antichrist reign? 42 months. I mean, that's not a coincidence.

Jesus died, and he rose from the dead. So it's likely the antichrist will die, and instead of being raised by the power of the Holy Spirit, he will be raised by the power of Satan. It looks like he actually may be possessed or indwelt by Satan himself.

So when the world sees this, they're gonna marvel. This should have happened when Jesus came. Really, it should have been that the whole world believes on him. He rose from the dead. Everybody should have believed, but Jesus talked about that.

I come in the name of the Father, and you don't believe. Another one will come in his own name, him you will believe. So when the antichrist comes, and this happens to him, and he's doing the same things Jesus did, but like false signs and wonders.

The whole world will believe in him. It says they marvel, and that they follow the beast. Verse four, so they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast?

Who is able to make war with him? So notice, what are they doing with him? They're worshiping him, and they're worshiping not just him, they're worshiping the power behind him, who is Satan. And then add to the two of them, the false prophet, and this is where you have what is called the satanic trinity.

Who's heard this? Yeah, just as, again, it's an imitation. So the true God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The satanic trinity is the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. So everything Jesus does, or maybe not literally everything, but he's going to imitate this.

Jesus had his prophet, right, John the Baptist, who pointed everybody to him. Well, the beast has his guy, the false prophet, who's gonna point the world to him. Now, here's the thing. It says that everyone's gonna worship him in the end times.

And please forgive me, I know this is obvious, but when the Antichrist rises to power, he's not actually gonna call himself the beast, or the Antichrist, right? This is what God, this is what the Lord is calling him.

This is what John is writing about him. He's not gonna say that about himself, right? This is obvious. The false prophet, when he shows up, he's not gonna say, hey, everybody, I'm the false prophet. That'd be like, don't listen to anything I say.

They never do that. No false prophet has ever admitted they're a false prophet. So likely, almost certainly, when it says that the whole world is gonna be worshiping the dragon, the Bible's saying the whole world's gonna be worshiping Satan, is that the way they see it?

Yeah, the people of this world are not gonna be like, yes, we're all devil worshipers now. That's not what they're gonna do. Instead, to them, God is the devil, and the devil is God. Like, everything is reversed.

Christ, the true Christ, will be, in their minds, a false prophet. Their Antichrist will be the true Christ. Their God is Satan, so everything is upside down. And of course, that's kind of the way it already is today, right?

Everything's upside down. Good is called evil, and evil is called good. So the people of this world are gonna be, I mean, what's the idea about God today? What is the people of the world, if they acknowledge anything about God, what is God like?

He's loving, he's tolerant, he's accepting of everything, right? So, well, at least everything that they like. Well, it's that way right now, so it's just gonna be this way, but magnified. I mean, if you go on social media and you say that God is love and God accepts everybody and everything, most people are gonna wanna click thumbs up on that.

If you go and post a verse from Leviticus or Romans of what God says about, that's hateful. That's their God, not mine. So I mean, I would already argue that this is happening to some degree. This is why I say about the end times, the Bible says, the coming of Christ is at hand, it's imminent, it's at the door.

The stage really is set, because to some degree, all of this stuff is sort of already happening to a degree. Okay, 2 Thessalonians, add on top of this, 2 Thessalonians 2 .11 says that God, in the last days, he will send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie, okay, so look at verse 5, the beast, he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.

And he was given authority to continue for 42 months. So the first 3 .5 years of the tribulation is gonna be his rise to power. The second 3 .5 years, he's gonna have the stranglehold on power. It says in verse 6, then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.

Now, I wouldn't state my reputation on this, but I think verse 6 is just another verse that supports a pre-tribulational rapture. Although I guess it would work for a mid-trib rapture, too. But what is he doing?

He's speaking against, he's speaking blasphemies against God and against those who dwell in heaven. Well, who dwells in heaven? Separate from God. Yeah, the church, the saints. So the Antichrist seems to be speaking against Christians who are in heaven.

Why would he do that? Well, if we really believe that this is how it's gonna go down, once the rapture takes place, the world is just gonna spiral into chaos. I suspect believers somehow are gonna get the blame here.

I don't know what the spin will be. People say, cuz in the last year or two, the government has acknowledged the existence of UFOs. Who's seen this on the, see, I don't even need to get into conspiracy stuff, cuz it's just on the news these days.

But some people say, well, see, they're doing that, because when Christians are raptured, that's gonna be what they say. I don't know if that's gonna be the case or not. I don't know what their explanation is gonna be.

Here's what I know for sure. Christians are gonna be pinned for all the blame. See, the way believers are viewed right now in the world, we are the ones holding back progress. So we're the ones slowing, they have these plans for a one world utopia.

And the way they want things, we're the ones holding it back. So if we're gone, then they can have their way. So as soon as, this is just my theory, once believers are raptured, they'll probably say, see, God took care of all the troublemakers.

God destroyed them. God just annihilated them. In reality, we were taken to heaven. But remember, their God is who? Satan, so again, I don't know that that's the case. It's speculation, but it says that the Antichrist will blaspheme those in heaven.

Tribulation Saints, Martyrdom, and the One World Economy

Okay, verse seven, we're almost done, getting there. It was granted to him, the beast, to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Now you say, wait a second, you just said that the saints were raptured and are in heaven.

How can he make war with the saints then?

The saints.

Right, you gotta go back to chapter seven with the 144 ,000. God saves 144 ,000 Israelites who act as sort of like evangelists and missionaries, and they go out and they get untold number of people saved.

So there are saved people on the earth during the tribulation. Millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions maybe. So the beast will persecute them. Now, we don't call them, we call them tribulation saints, but I mean, they are believers in Christ.

So he's going to make war with them, and it says it's granted that he do that and that he overcome them. So this will kind of tie into that last verse in verse 10 where, yeah, it will be appointed for some people to die.

I mean, that's true. God's gonna protect the nation of Israel. They have a place in the wilderness. God is going to protect a lot of his people, but it will be appointed to some during the tribulation to lose their lives.

But it's all part of the plan. And really, that's what Jesus did, right? He laid down his life. The disciples laid down their lives. I mean, this is part of being a follower of Christ that, if God forbid it ever comes to that, that you are willing.

So some in the tribulation will die. And then it says, an authority was given to him, the beast, over what? Verse seven, over every tribe, tongue, and nation. Okay, so this is where you get into the idea of a one world government.

Now, like I said, since 2020 especially, the term that has now gone mainstream is new world order. But just to be clear, we don't know when all this is gonna happen. It could be right around the corner in the next few years.

It could be 100 years away. It could be 500 years away. So we don't know that the things that are happening now have any connection. But one thing I do know for certain, there will be a one world government.

And that's based on the fact that the Bible says that he has authority over all the earth. And where's the one world religion? That's verse eight. The Antichrist will be worshipped. And it said, John writes, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life, of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

So the Antichrist is not just a king. He's not just a political ruler. He is the head, basically, of this one world religion. And this is why I went back to the papacy, because he is the only man who fits this description.

So I'm not saying that the Pope is the Antichrist. I'm not saying that. Although, if you do read the left behind novels, I think the Pope is the false prophet, right? Let's see, is that, hey, those books are in the library.

I didn't put them there. But that's the type of figure that the Antichrist will be. People have speculated, the Antichrist is this guy, or who are some of the people throughout history? Some people said Hitler was the Antichrist, right?

Yeah, Trump is the Antichrist. There's no way Trump can be the Antichrist, because he's despised. He's the most hated man in the world. The world is going to love the Antichrist. So he will be a man who is seen as a great man, a man of peace, a man who can lead a political movement, but he's also the head of a religion.

So again, I'm just saying that's the type of figure that the Antichrist will be. So it says all, verse eight, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life.

So if your name's written in the book of life, you're a Christian, right? You're saved. But it says, all whose names are not written are worshiping him. So there's really no middle ground. Today, maybe you could argue there's people that they're not really with the world, but they're not really with Jesus.

Okay, but there's no middle ground during this time. I mean, you are either with him or you're with Christ, and it's one or the other. Now, it's interesting this term foundation of the world, or Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This is just from God's perspective. I mean, he knows the end from the beginning. So if your name is in the book, God knows. Verses nine and ten, if anyone has an ear to hear, this is sort of reminiscent of chapters two and three.

The warnings given to the seven churches. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. So let me just, because we talked about verse ten. I mean, there are going to be some people who are destined to give their lives.

And I think verse ten would say that because there's some people today, they're known as preppers, which I have nothing against preppers. There's a lot of people that are post-trib, and they think I'm going to be here for the tribulation.

So I'm going to stockpile food, I'm going to stockpile guns and ammo. And hey, if you want to do that, great. But here's the thing, Christians are not supposed to lead some revolt against the Antichrist, okay?

We wait for God's deliverance. We're not supposed to fight back. And if anyone tries fighting against the beast system, guess what? Bad news for it, you're going to lose. So we just need, people during this time just need to trust God.

And if it's appointed for them to die, then they'll die for the Lord's sake and they'll go straight to heaven. And they'll be rewarded for it, and they'll reign in the millennium. But just going back to verse nine, closing on this point.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. I really believe that there is sort of like a, going back to that verse from Thessalonians, a strong delusion. To me, this stuff, the way it's being set up, the things that are happening in the world today, to me at least, it is so clear.

All of this makes perfect sense. It's in line with what's going on. It's in line with what people are saying. So if you're hearing the book of Revelation and you're looking at the world and you think, this is crazy, this is fairy tales, there's no way this could be real.

I mean, you might be under that delusion, because God has told us clearly what's going to happen. Yeah, I'll end by saying this. There's a lot of stuff in Revelation we can't be absolutely certain about.

But the overall story in general and what's gonna happen, it's very, very clear. And just imagine if this were to all take place soon. We were warned. Or the person listening to this who's thinking, I don't believe any of this.

You were warned. This is what's gonna happen. God told us. And yeah, you can disagree with some of the interpretations of Revelation, but we know the big picture. We know the future. But you can go home with a smile on your face, because there's deliverance for God's people.

We know God wins. And in the end, the beast and the antichrist, him, the false prophet, and the devil, they're all gonna be cast where? Into the lake of fire. So their time is short. But the saints shall rule and reign for 1 ,000 years.

And then just going on through eternity. So that makes me happy. I don't know about you. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you shared this with us. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That because we are your friends, you tell us what you're going to do. And it's all laid out. And Father, I just pray that you would really light a fire under people to desire this truth and to seek this truth and to know what's going to happen before it happens.

Help us to be encouraged, knowing that you're gonna be successful. The church is gonna be successful in the end. So we thank you for the deliverance we have in Jesus. We thank you for your protection and your blessing.

And Lord, give us opportunities to share these things with others, because I do believe there is a hunger. The people want to know. There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion in the world today.

And Lord, we have the answers. So help us to recognize those chances, to share them with others. We pray it all in Jesus' name, amen.