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Sacramento Central SDA Church

Chris Buttery

The United States in Bible Prophecy

Particularly we're going to be looking here at the prophecy in Revelation chapter 13 and of course this morning's subject is the United States in Bible prophecy and so we're going to get right into our study here this morning It was July 2, 1776 and there was a major vote taking place and yet the vote was deadlocked.

What was going on was whether a band of colonies should declare their independence from Mother England or stay connected by a political umbilical cord so they debated all day but there was there was there were deadlocked but there was a way to break the tie the Delaware delegation had 3 votes And there were 2 delegates present that particular day.

1 voted for independence, 1 voted against independence.

And the other Delaware delegate was marooned back at home because of some severe rainstorms and thunder and lightning and the rest.

But rumor had it that the Congress was deadlocked and his vote might be the deciding factor for this particular fledgling nation and so on horseback the story goes he rode all night through the mud through the rain and he's as he did he came to that Continental Congress to cast the deciding vote.

Now as legend has it there was a little boy that was looking through the keyhole in the door watching those delegates And his grandpa had assigned him to do this particular task.

And grandpa was standing there with a great rope, next to, in the bell tower, waiting, ready to ring the bell, if independence was declared.

If that continental congress passed the declaration for freedom, would become the declaration of independence.

Grandpa was quite nervous, and he was pacing back and forth saying they'll never sign it They'll never sign it and as the lad looked through the door, he noticed some commotion He saw quill pens moving from hand to hand and finally the boy realized that the Declaration of Independence was being signed.

He knew what he had to do and so with excitement in his eyes he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and at the top of his lungs he cried out, Grandpa, Grandpa, ring, ring for liberty.

And so today we call these the United States of America.

1 nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

This great nation was founded on the basis of freedom and quickly it became a refuge for many from every part of this globe.

This was the nation where the dream could be realized of having a church without a pope and a state without a king.

And the Declaration of Independence contains these words, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even the currency we have today makes that wonderful statement, in God we trust.

God has blessed America, And through this country, He has blessed the entire world.

Surely, surely God was responsible for the founding of America.

Lady Liberty stands in the New York Harbor.

Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send them the homeless tempest-tossed to me.

I lift up my lamp beside the golden door." And you would expect that with America having such a profound influence in the world today, you would expect that the Bible would talk about the United States.

Now understand that the Bible doesn't talk about every nation on planet Earth, it doesn't talk about New Zealand, but it does talk about Australia because Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.

The Bible doesn't talk about Brazil or it doesn't talk about Argentina or about Nairobi, Kenya or any other place, those types of places.

Why does the Bible talk about nations, some nations and not other nations?

The Bible brings into view those nations that impact or have impacted God's people.

So way back at the beginning there in the Garden of Eden, and it's not a country, but it is a geographical location, it's mentioned because that's where the ball got rolling, this whole thing started, you understand.

And then of course you have the Ur of the Chaldees or Mesopotamia mentioned because that's where Abraham came out of, God blessed him and the line came through Abraham.

Then you've got Egypt, that's also mentioned, that nation from which Israel was born and that would be a problem to Israel throughout her history.

And then there was Babylon, who under Nebuchadnezzar besieged and destroyed Jerusalem.

Daniel the prophet and Ezekiel the prophet lived there.

You also have Medo-Persia who let the children of captivity go to go back to Jerusalem so they could rebuild and re-establish their city and their nation.

Greece was mentioned because they ruled over that region and greatly affected in some way, influenced God's people to embrace certain erroneous beliefs.

And then Rome, Rome ruled during the time of Christ.

You remember Christ was nailed to a Roman cross.

And then later you've got Asia Minor, Turkey and then Europe with the spreading of the gospel.

These were all brought to light because these countries, these nations impacted God's people in a significant way and thinking about it in this particular way, it wouldn't be surprising if the Bible...

It would be surprising if the Bible did not mention the United States this is the first time in the history of the world that a nation was founded on a republic on the principles of civil and religious liberty and today the United States is the sole world superpower.

Writing in the Sydney Herald, individuals said Americans should admit the truth and face up to their responsibilities as the undisputed masters of the world.

The fact is no country has been as dominant culturally, economically, technologically, and militarily in the history of the world since the Roman Empire.

More than 1 person has described the United States as being the New Rome.

So down here at the close of time the question of liberty looms large and we asked this morning and the Bible gives us a response will the US Down here at the close of time still be letting freedom ring You know, you've got John the Revelator and I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 13 John the Revelator He's the same man who wrote the gospel of John and the 3 epistles before the book of Revelation that bear his name, he was a prisoner under house arrest on that little island of Patmos.

It was really a pile of rocks in the midst of the beautiful clear waters of the Aegean Sea and he wrote from his vantage point on the isle of Patmos and we read in Revelation chapter 13 verses 1 & 2 and I stood upon the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea having 7 heads and 10 horns and upon his horns 10 crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy and the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great or authority You understand this power that the Bible speaks of is is not just a beast power, it's a nation.

In Bible prophecy a beast represents a kingdom or a nation.

It's not a bad word, it's not a derogatory remark and certainly isn't referring to your mother-in-law, it just references a nation you understand, which we've been looking at from night to night.

And this small nation here in Revelation chapter 13 verse 1 we see the Bible represents as Vatican City, the Holy See.

The Bible said that this small nation would be given power, seat, and great authority.

And how is it possible that this nation achieved that?

Well as the Vatican said herself, and meekly stepping to the throne of Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages.

And so when Constantine left Rome and relocated the seat of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, Istanbul known today, there was a power vacuum left down there in Rome and authority was given to the Church of Rome and they stepped into this breach, thus they became a very powerful nation if we could put it that way.

We read in verse 10, just jump down there, we're in Revelation 13 still, verse 10, it says, He that leads into captivity, shall what friends?

He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.

This is the prediction of the deadly wound that we read about in verse 3 that occurred in the year 1798.

In 1798 General Berthier, Napoleon's general, went down to Vatican City and he took the Pope captive.

The Pope was put into exile, sadly died a couple of years later, but in essence the Vatican was stripped away, the power was stripped away from them in that particular year.

This is the prophecy in which the papacy received the deadly wound.

Now we see a beast coming up onto the prophetic picture in verse 11.

By the way, in verse 10 we read about this power being a persecuting power certainly it led people captive, certainly it killed with the sword and now it would be led captive and it would be killed by the sword.

As it's going down there in 1798, verse 11 tells us there's another beast that's coming up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon.

Remember in Bible prophecy a beast represents a nation that's exactly right so the question we're going to be asking here this morning is who is this second beast we can know something about this nation by the identifying features that we get right here in Revelation chapter 13 and verse 11.

Now what we do know right now is that this beast power, this nation, would arise around the year 1798 as the papacy received his deadly wound when Berthier took the Pope captive and basically took away, stripped the power away from the church that around that time around that year this new nation would rise to power and we read in verse 11 I beheld another beast coming up out of the what friends the earth that's exactly right how do we understand this We're told that the other nations come up out of water.

We read that in verse 1, we read that about the beasts in Daniel chapter 7.

They come up out of the water and water in Bible prophecy represents multitudes, peoples, nations, a heavy populated area.

So this nation in fact would then come up in a comparatively unpopulated area in comparison to where these other nations rose up.

There would not be masses and masses of people where this second nation would come up.

Now it also says in verse 11 that it came up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb.

Now generally when you read about a lamb in Revelation, you think of Jesus, but in this case, it's not necessarily the case.

This particular power would be perhaps lamb-like, Christ-like, Jesus-like, you understand.

The other nations had horns, and we read in verse 1 of Revelation 13 that it had crowns on its horns.

This particular beast has horns but it does not have any any crowns on them.

So whenever we see a crown that just represents a monarchy, a king residing you understand.

So this nation that would come up out of the earth has no crowns therefore we can understand that there would be no monarchy, no king you understand or queen so to speak.

And unlike the beasts in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7, these beasts were beasts of prey that we read.

This particular animal is not a beast of prey.

It did not subjugate other great world powers on its way to prominence.

It did not conquer any other nations, great nations that were ruling.

So it came to power somewhat peacefully when compared to how these other nations arose there would be no worldwide conflict of any type so what we're looking at here this morning we must be convinced from what the Bible tells us that there is only 1 nation on planet earth that could possibly meet these 4 identifying characteristics.

I would say based upon what the Bible says geographically, religiously, politically this nation can be none other than the United States of America.

And when it arose, it arose and was known as the New World.

It was a haven for people seeking a brand new life, people who were escaping religious intolerance and persecution and was founded, as I mentioned before, on the great principles of civil and religious liberty.

But between then and now, a great change has taken place in this wonderful country.

I'm not telling you this isn't a great nation, still it certainly is, but this nation is not what it used to be.

Not what it used to be, the nation that George Washington left behind, or that James Madison left behind, or that Thomas Jefferson left behind.

There's been a strange change in this nation and I'm sure that you are seeing it as clearly as I am.

You see the nation, this nation stands for freedom and with freedom comes responsibility.

You may know of an individual who flies a plane or perhaps you do yourself, you have the freedom to get a license to fly a plane but with freedom comes responsibility, you don't have the freedom to fly that plane into a building we have the freedom with our iPhones and to take photos and that type of thing but what we don't have...

With freedom brings responsibility we don't have the the right to just go ahead and take some images and vile images of that and circulate them all around the world so people can see them you understand?

In this country you're free to do certain things but with that freedom comes responsibility.

This nation was for those who wanted to worship God and now it is turning into a paradise for those who do not want to worship God.

Furthermore, these same individuals want to get in the way and oppose those who do want to worship God.

You see, there has been a change taking place.

Forces directly opposed to the gospel have infiltrated every level of society.

Today's society is corrupted by immorality and immorality gets you notoriety and notoriety gets you on television and it makes you rich even if you are morally bankrupt you are rewarded today.

Anything goes on TV just as long as it doesn't get in the way of the ratings and the fault simply doesn't lie with Hollywood and with the network.

You see there is a nation of individuals who consume this and they do not react to these things like they did long ago when these things would have been seen as scandalous you see there is a change that has taken place popular music which makes its way to the top of the charts glorifies immorality and murder and this is a tragic age in which we live People seem to have no shame anymore.

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The United States in Bible Prophecy

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