Joe Reeves

GYC 2025: Seeing the Invisible

Religious Liberty Teetering on the Edge

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

02 Are Adventists Wrong about Revelation 13?

Heavenly Father, thank you that we can assemble this morning.

And we are getting ready to ask tough questions from Revelation 13, which are so important for us today.

Please give us open minds, open hearts, understanding, and willingness to follow where you lead.

So, are Adventists wrong about Revelation 13?

I submitted my titles a few months ago, But I think a friend of mine just sent me this text message.

There's a lot of antagonism sometimes, in some places, against our prophetic messages.

Now, Adventists have been saying The same thing, which I will show you in this presentation, about America for 170 years.

Since 1851, we've been saying the same thing about America.

Some Adventists, or ex-Adventists, or Adventists on the edge, I don't know what to call them.

He said, I was an Adventist minister for 43 years.

I have come to the conclusion that most of our prophetic interpretations are false.

We keep saying all these things will happen.

Ellen White said this would take place but it has been more than 100 years since her death.

Will it take another hundred years for this to take place?

What matters is what happens today, not tomorrow.

So I fiercely disagree with this comment and I'll show you why in this presentation.

I believe that our prophetic interpretations are more relevant today than when they were written and that we need to understand them more now than the previous generation and that they speak profoundly to what is happening now.

I believe that many prophecies have not been fulfilled because God is merciful and He's been kind to us.

And as I study these prophecies and I just, you know, read a comment like this on social media, it makes me really want to be open to what the Lord has to say and to follow and not be stubborn because I think that we are circling in this world for quite a few years because we're not ready.

So I hope 2026 is a year where you fatten up your devotional life, your commitment to God is more robust than ever before, that you have calm nerves, clear head, and responding to all kinds of craziness that will happen this year.

There's gonna be some surprises this year, too So you don't know when you wake up in the morning what's gonna happen that day in your own life or in the country what's gonna be said or anything And I think that Adventists have been caught sideways a lot of times in getting caught up with the rhetoric of the day, the responses, the passions of the day and responding to different events.

Are Adventists wrong about Revelation 13?

Well, I have some verses on the screen, but not all perhaps.

So you might want to be opening your Bibles to Revelation 13.

Now, Adventists are not the only ones that are going to the book of Revelation to get answers about what's happening in America today.

More and more as you tune into the podcast, the radios, whatever it be, you hear preachers quoting from Revelation, particularly Revelation 13.

Actually John Rich was on his show a few weeks ago again talking about prophecy.

I haven't listened to his most recent episode.

I haven't had time but I did listen to the 1 last year John Rich is a country singer from Tennessee and he he wrote a song a country song called revelation had a lot of amazing graphics and he put it on YouTube and views just went up to the millions and so Tucker had him on the show to get some country singer prophetic interpretations and John Rich told Tucker Carlson well, you know the in the Bible says you're not going to be able to buy or sell.

It actually says in the Bible, you're not going to be able to buy or sell.

And his mind was blown Because in a day, in an age of digital currency and digital everything, digital life, it's not easy to imagine how easy it'll be for governments or people in power to control the markets and control buying or selling.

Doesn't take hardly any imagination at all.

And so when you see the development of technology, and people say, whoa, this is it.

And, but something I've noticed is that not only with John Rich but other podcasts I've listened to, they quote the end of Revelation 13, no buying or selling, and they don't quote the verses before.

I'm like, okay, are they gonna quote the verses before?

Nope, they don't do it Because if you interpret the verses before it it it gives the on-ramp to the mark of the beast scenario So all the Christians are talking about the mark of the beast, but they're ignoring what it says about the image to the beast and how the mark of the beast is implemented or how it leads up to the mark of the beast.

And so we have to interpret the whole passage because that's the only way that we're going to understand the important issues at play.

There's 2 beasts in Revelation 13 and the first beast comes in verse 1 comes up out of the sea, caused the whole world to worship to follow that beast which was in power for 1260 years before it received a deadly wound.

And for over 1000 years in Europe the state church controlled everything almost and there was not religious freedom.

And so when we came to America, we said, well, we need a new form of government.

We need to do something different over here.

And so we agree with other Protestants in identifying the first beast that came up out of the sea as the papacy and The Union of Church and State that happened at the Vatican with a crown is the leader the Pope and the second beast comes up with 2 horns, no crowns, and it comes up out of the earth.

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon.

And a beast in Bible prophecy represents what?

It represents a kingdom or a nation and we don't make this up.

We get this from the Bible Daniel 7 23 4th beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth And we also know what water represents in Bible prophecy.

The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

So this beast that comes up out of the earth is in a relatively less populated area of the world than the old world and that's what happened when America was born and it has 2 horns.

Deuteronomy 33 17 says, His glory is like a firstborn bull and his horns like the horns of the wild ox together with them he shall push the people." So horns is power, it's pushing, it's force, it's drive.

Ezekiel 34 21 says, because you have pushed with side and shoulder butted all the weak ones with your horns and scattered them abroad.

Now in previous beasts in Revelation they they had crowns on them.

This 1 has 2 horns without crowns because America no king no Pope we had a nation without a king and a church without a Pope and so that resulted in civil liberties and religious liberties which we are very thankful for but it continues because it says that it was like a lamb but it also spoke like a dragon.

So it means that this beast had some hypocrisy.

In other parts of Revelation, this beast is called a false prophet.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

So this beast looks lamb-like, but ultimately it belongs to the same family of beasts as the previous 2 beasts.

And so that's important for us to understand.

Then it says, he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

So, what happened before is going to happen again.

What happened in Europe during the 1260 will happen again.

He's going to exercise that same kind of power and he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." So great signs.

In the Gospel of John, when he uses signs, he's describing the miracles of Jesus.

It was a sign when he healed the eyes of the blind and it was a sign when he raised the dead.

Now this group works great mighty miracles so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth and the side of men.

Can you think of any stories in the Bible where fire came down from heaven?

It was a contest over the second commandment, particularly idolatry.

He was calling the nation to account at the top of Mount Carmel.

InVerse 1st Quarter 2026: Apologetics

Sebastien Braxton

Paul Samuel

Jonathan Walter

Hope Channel

06 Jesus and Buddhism

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Joe Reeves, with Inverse.

Hello, my name is Joe and welcome to Inverse.

Glad to be here together to discuss some things.

We've been looking at apologetics this quarter.

You can find all of our Bible study written out.

You can go deeper than what we have time to on the program if you go to inversebible.org.

There's past studies there, but our current 1 is apologetics.

And we are looking at the reasons for Christianity, the reasons to believe.

And you can see all of our programs at hopetv.org forward slash inverse.

So we're glad to continue our discussion of world religions, of Christianity and why I should believe, what are the reasons?

We're looking at another story of Jesus, but we will begin with prayer as always.

We want the Holy spirit to guide us today.

Heavenly father, we thank you that you are the God who created the universe and yet cares about us individually everyone, and that you are willing to reveal yourself to us as we step into faith.

And so I pray that you will increase and strengthen our faith, that you will open our hearts and minds to understand your word, and you will speak to us, not just here, but those listening and watching wherever they are.

We have considered during this season of Inverse as we've studied apologetics, that all the different religions of the world wrestle with the same or similar questions, questions about suffering, about destiny, about origin, and there's different answers offered by different teachers.

Today's episode is Jesus and Buddhism, and we are looking at a story of Jesus from the Gospel of John, Chapter 9, where these questions are addressed about suffering, about origin, many of the same questions that Buddha wrestled with some centuries before.

Maybe before you read the passage, Sebastian.

You can tell us about Buddha and his palace and his struggles.

So Siddhartha Buddha, or Guatemala was actually his name.

But Siddhartha Guatemala was basically living in a palace.

He was a prince, he was very comfortable.

And there was a sort of, not like a prophecy, but basically saying you have to keep him from anything outside the palace.

So life, pleasure, money, comfort, food, he had everything.

And 1 day he ends up actually going out into the world and he encounters suffering.

And from that moment in time, he basically saw no meaning in his palace life.

And he essentially went on a journey to figure out how to end suffering.

And through that process, he came up with things of self-discipline, of compassion, et cetera, et cetera, which became like the dharma, the way that it goes.

And essentially, to summarize there at the end, he gets the title Buddha, which means the awakened 1.

So there's a problem, the problem is suffering.

He's on a journey, he's searching for enlightenment.

Well, how to figure out how to get rid of suffering and his solution without letting too much out of the bag is That you need to detach from caring about the things of this world So meanwhile Jesus enters this world.

There's the same problems there's problems of suffering and pain and other teachers Buddha was before Jesus some centuries before, and attempting to offer certain answers.

Jesus is here on earth in John chapter 9.

And let's see what we discover in this story from John chapter 9.

Now, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva.

And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

And he said to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated, scent.

So he went and washed and came back seeing.

Now we need to know that the worldview of these people in this story, these Jewish people, is very similar to some of the Hindu thinking.

They also thought that if a man is born blind, that it must be because Either he sinned or his parents sinned.

And so he is suffering maybe a karma, so to speak.

And they want Jesus to affirm this worldview.

Jesus is not ascribing guilt to any previous birth, to any previous existence.

For instance, I'll read to you from Hindu scriptures, which the Buddha used.

It says, accordingly, those who are of pleasant conduct here the prospect is indeed that they will enter a pleasant womb, either the womb of a Brahman, the priestly class, or the womb of a Kshatriya, the warrior class or the royal class, or the womb of a Vaisya, which is a professional business class person.

But those who are of stinking conduct here, the prospect is indeed that they will enter a stinking womb of a dog or the womb of a swine or a womb of an outcast.

And when The way Jesus responds to the question, did this man sin, did his parents sin?

Jesus refuses to ascribe any inherited guilt.

Jesus says, this is so that God will be glorified in this person.

Diametrically different from either the Jewish worldview or the prevailing Buddhist or Hindu worldview at the time.

Where does this man's blindness come from?

01 What Will Cause the Next Civil War?

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for safe travels to Orlando and that we can assemble here.

We want to seek Jesus and that our hearts would be open for you to speak into our minds, to reflect your character, to have your perspectives on the things that are troubling the world and perhaps even troubling the church and that you would anoint our minds and that we would be united together and moving forward together with the challenges that we face today.

The title for my first presentation is, What Will Cause the Next Civil War?

Now in America things are getting a little challenging Christians in America are Panicking a little bit because they feel like we're losing control in America and we've become a minority Perhaps later.

I'll show you on the screen that Recent surveys have shown that Christians in America are now, only 47% of Americans are church members.

And so we're feeling a little bit panicky because we're adjusting to becoming more of a minority and that is creating a wounded Christianity in America and As you hear the tone of American preachers They're becoming more and more angry and more and more desperate to reclaim something that we feel that we've lost and to regain our footing.

And so things are shaky in America and perhaps we feel like this snowboarder.

I have to throw this in you know because even though I live in Maryland I'm from Washington State and so this is from Mountain Baker.

All right yes I was born in Washington raised north of Spokane And are you a snowboarder or a skier?

And watch very closely what he sees as he's snowboarding through the trees.

So he tries to climb back up, but if you've ever been on a steep mountain with 6 or 8 feet of snow, you know how hard it is to climb.

And so he tries the sidestep, he eventually takes his skis off, and he tries desperately.

He's worn out by the time he gets back up to this snowboard.

I can hear some of you are stressed out already.

We're both going to catch our breath for a sec, and I'll dig you out, okay?

The guy with the yellow gloves is a snow skier.

By the way, he was a snow skier who saved a snowboarder's life.

And Ian was boarding along, and a bunch of snow collapsed behind him.

And just as the snow collapsed behind him, he fell back.

And just like that, his face was under 6 feet of snow, instantly.

And the more he tried to dig out, the deeper he went.

And he said he just resigned himself, that was it.

And you can last, you can breathe a little bit down there not very much you can last about 15 minutes and so he he knew that there was hope he felt Ian or Francis grabbed his board and so this is them right here on the left the snow skier and Ian on the right that was saved.

Well I think that represents a little bit Christians in America right now or maybe all Americans we're feeling snowed in and like we're in a hole, but perhaps the more we try to dig out, the deeper we get.

And that's the concern with the way Christians in America are framing themselves right now.

So we are looking at this topic of what will cause the next civil war.

Why would we ask this kind of a question?

We're asking this kind of a question because people in the world are asking this kind of a question.

Because Adventists need to know how to have a perspective on it.

And Adventists that have been in places of civil war have often been divided and fighting against each other.

That's happened in multiple places around the world.

In the last American Civil War, Adventists were solidly, we were just, Our church was established in 1863.

Our greatest criticisms of the North was that they compromised with the South too much.

We really didn't have any Adventists in the South at that time, or hardly any.

But things could look very different for Adventists if there's never civil war and Adventists falling on both sides.

The Bible speaks to wars in the last days and to some of the ways that we should relate it.

Prophecy points to certain parts of history and identifies ways that we should, or gives us lessons that we can learn from those chapters of history where there has been a civil war before.

So Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 24 and the disciples came to Jesus and they saw the reflections of the sunlight on the white marble of the temple and their heart just Surged with pride as they looked at the temple just like my heart does when I go down to Washington DC I live near Washington DC.

I'm in Maryland and so I take people friends or family down there to see the Capitol sometimes and I have a sense of awe when I when I see the white marble of Capitol building and others there and And maybe that's not even as much as what the disciples sensed with that temple it represented their national pride their history their culture and their religion and their faith the hope for Jerusalem and You know Jesus would have loved to I mean would that be nice if all Jesus ever talked about was beautiful marble?

By the way, do you think that's true for the marble in Washington, D.C.?

Do you think the time is coming when not 1 stone will be left upon another.

Do you think the time's coming when not 1 stone will be left upon another?

And so there's rough water ahead and the disciples asked Jesus, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming?

Jesus answered and said, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet.

So it's 1 of the characteristics of the last days that there will be war, rumors of wars, the spirit of war will be spreading throughout the world.

Was there a lot of spirit of war in the world in 2025?

Just all you have to do is read the news 1 evening.

For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places.

So there's going to be fierce conflict between the nations.

We see it today, but perhaps we haven't seen nothing yet compared to what we will see in the future.

And when there are famines, it's worse when it's during war.

05 Jesus and Hinduism

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, Welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

My name is Joe and we at Inverse study the Bible with friends at a table and with you.

And we're so excited that you've joined us today.

We're very glad to have you here, Felicia.

And we've been studying apologetics this season.

We've been learning as we've prepared for this, and these programs aren't scripted, but we do study and prepare, and then we have a great conversation and so apologetics what we've done for this is episode number 5 what what have you learned so far.

1 that apologetics does not mean you're apologizing for anything, but it means making a defense, giving answers as to why you believe what you believe, but knowing how to communicate in such a way with other people who have never heard the gospel, have never heard the name of Jesus, and knowing how to share that in a way that resonates with them, that is not in a dogmatic kind of way, but an attractive thing.

And so that's 1 thing that we've covered about apologetics.

It's also paying attention to getting an interest in the ideas out there, the beliefs of other people out there, knowing a little bit about the fears and hopes and desires of people, And that helps us respond with the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the medicine where the need is.

Uh-huh, and in episode 2, we looked at a story of Paul doing that when he was in Athens and he perceived their thoughts, their beliefs, and he addressed them.

He even quoted from some of their own authors.

Anything else you're picking up this season?

Back to Menu

Presenter

Joe Reeves

All Recordings

02 Are Adventists Wrong about Revelation 13?

55m

06 Jesus and Buddhism

29m

01 What Will Cause the Next Civil War?

57m

05 Jesus and Hinduism

29m

04 The Problem of Evil

29m

03 Divine Design

29m

02 Climbing Mars Hill

29m

01 Why Apologetics?

28m

13 Justice and Mercy in the Conquest

29m

How to Make Disciples?

53m

10 A Place of Refuge

28m

09 Caleb’s Inheritance

29m

Sound Doctrine