Mark Finley

HopeLives365

The Bible Predicted the Future 2,500 Years Ago

As we look around the world tonight, it's obvious that our world hangs on a slender thread.

And the signs of the times all around us seem to be fulfilling Bible prophecy.

Tonight, we're going to look at the Middle East.

We're going to look at an amazing prophecy that takes us down 2, 500 years of time.

We're going to see how the Bible predicted accurately the 4 nations that would ever rule the world.

We're going to see how the Bible predicted the fate of Europe today.

Tonight we're going to see how the Bible predicted where our world is right now.

We're going to look at the stream of history tonight and see what the end game of this is all about.

The Bible predicted that this Tower of Babel would be destroyed.

The city of Babylon was built on the site of the Tower of Babel.

But there, in the Bible, Jesus is speaking about the end times.

He's speaking about events in the Middle East.

Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand.

Jesus said, you want the key to the Middle East?

You want the key to what's going to happen in our world in the future?

You want to understand the divine drama and the destiny of the nations?

1 night, King Nebuchadnezzar went to sleep.

He woke up the next morning and he couldn't remember his dream.

How many of you ever went to sleep 1 night, you woke up the next morning, and you're wiping the sleep out of your eyes, and you said, I had a dream, but I can't remember it.

I'm sure that you maybe were eating a little too much pizza the night before.

And maybe we shouldn't eat so much before we go to bed.

Maybe we wouldn't have any of those bad dreams.

But I can guarantee you, Nebuchadnezzar wasn't eating pepperoni pizza in Chicago.

He went to sleep that night and as he did, he said, Daniel chapter 2, verse 1, now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.

That night in that ancient king's bedroom, 605 years before Christ, God gave to Nebuchadnezzar a dream that outlined the history of the world, that described the rise of Babylon, that outlined the history of the Middle East, that will tell you exactly why Saddam Hussein failed in his attempt to rebuild Babylon, which he did, which I'll show you tonight.

But it takes you far beyond ancient Babylon.

It takes you right down to our day and the events that are unfolding all around us today.

And this prophecy that we're going to study tonight has been accurate for the last 2, 500 years.

The king went to bed and As he woke up the next morning, he couldn't remember his dream.

So he called in astrologers, he called in psychic seers, he called in his Chaldeans, his educated elite, he called in his fortune tellers.

And he said to them, tell me, what did I dream last night and what does it mean?

They said, oh King, you tell us what you dreamt last night and we'll tell you what it means.

He said, look if you can't tell me what I dreamt 24 hours ago, How can you tell me what's going to happen in a hundred years from now, 200 years, or 300 years?

You see, the king knew that if he told them what he dreamt, and God took it from his mind so he couldn't remember it, but the king knew that if he told them they could make up any interpretation.

And so God took it from his mind and said, okay look, if you don't tell me what I dreamt, I've been paying you good money as astrologers, as fortune tellers.

I've been paying you good money and you can't tell me anything about the future.

I'll tell you what, if you don't tell me what I dreamt last night, I'm going to chop off your arms, I'm going to chop off your legs, I'm going to slit your throat, and I'm going to cut up your body, and then you will be in trouble.

There was a young man by the name of Daniel.

When Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, he brought Daniel back to Babylon.

And this young Jew came in before the king and he said, now king, look, I'm not like the rest of your astrologers or psychics.

And I know that you've threatened the lives of all the educated elite.

King, give me some time and let me go and pray.

So Daniel went and knelt down and began to pray.

And as he did, God revealed this dream to Daniel.

A dream that takes us down 2, 500 years of history.

Have you ever had some problem in your life?

There is a place to come in the challenges of life.

There's a place to come in the heartaches of life.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea, God is a refuge in strength.

He says, come unto me all you that are burdened and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

So Daniel came and prayed, and he discovered the meaning of the dream and he came in before the king and he said to the king, Daniel 2 verse 28, let's read it together from the screen, reading together.

But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and he's made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Notice what Daniel says, there is a God in heaven, not maybe there's a God up there, not perhaps there's a God up there, not I think there's a God up there, not it's highly likely there is a God up there.

There is a God in heaven and what does this God in heaven do everybody?

Reveals secrets because he makes known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in what days.

So the dream begins in Nebuchadnezzar's day, but it takes us down the stream of time through successive generations.

The history of the world is not a mere kaleidoscope of events.

It's not merely a mishmash of confusing happenings.

The history of this world is in the hands of the living God.

And history has been following God's plan like a blueprint.

The Bible says, Daniel 2, verse 31, You, O King, were watching, and behold, a great image.

This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you.

The image's head was of gold, his chest and arms of silver, his belly and thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

Prophecies of Hope

Gary Gibbs

Pennsylvania Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

22 Revelation’s Two Women

I'm studying with Dee Casper and Christy Rodriguez.

Well, we've gone through some really heavy topics, haven't we?

The Beast, Mark of the Beast, American Bible Prophecy.

It's something that is really interesting.

I'm always concerned it may be overload for people.

Well, this is why it's nice that you give them the handouts and why many people are watching this in a study format where they've got other people with them.

You can talk through it, you can ask questions, You can ask us questions if that's what needs to happen.

So there's a place to process and further explore.

It doesn't end at the end of when the video's over.

And I think that really was helpful whenever I was going through this journey of, okay, I've never heard that before, thought about that before.

I need to study it for myself, see if it's there, and then kind of begin that process of asking further questions.

And with that, it makes it a lot easier to process.

And it's so important to study it yourself.

And I hope you are doing the study guides, because it's all about your personal walk and journey with God as you study it.

You study the word of God, look up the Bible texts in the word, read the surrounding scriptures and have those discussions.

I know when I learned this, it was radically life-changing in a great way for me.

It was like, aha, you know, it was like, this makes sense.

And I believe there are probably lots of people having those moments.

And then there are other people having an aha, but, oh no, how do I incorporate it into my life?

I think it's beautiful that we all come from different perspectives.

I was raised hearing these types of things, but going over it again, I'm like, whoa, like, never saw it from that perspective.

I never understood that, but I just kind of believed it, because people told me it was true.

Yeah, to personalize it and make it our own.

And today we're going to look at what I call Revelations to Women, because this study gets to the point of why are there so many different Christian churches?

You know, we have 1 Bible and 1 Lord, and the Bible says even 1 faith, and yet we have so many brands of this and radically different brands of it.

And then we just recently studied about the first beast of Revelation 13 and the development of the medieval Roman church and all of that and you go, okay, and we talked about this before but it probably didn't really sink in until more recently for many people, is that the church, the Christian church has been through some really tumultuous times, hasn't it?

It really has, and like the identity of the church has shifted quite dramatically.

You know, if you're reading the trajectory of the church on what's going on and how it operate in the book of Acts, and then you see kind of what happened in church history and where we are today, it's quite different.

And so that's, I think, kind of the purpose of today's study.

And we're even seeing that in our own lifetime, such a radical shift in the Christian church.

You know, the church is made up of people who are influenced by their environment, the society and the context that we live in, and that's shaping us as well, and that's coming into the church as well.

So church looks way different than it did in my parents, in my childhood, in my parents' generation.

It's way different today and its influence is different.

So that raises a lot of questions about religion, about the Christian church, about our own life and relationship to the church.

And before we do it, why don't we start with prayer?

Christy, would you do us the honor of leading us in prayer?

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this Bible study.

Thank you, Lord, that we're able to open your word and just discover these precious truths.

I pray that you make us aware of the Holy Spirit as we go through the study and the Bible.

And I pray all these blessings in Jesus' name, amen.

So we're going to jump around in a bunch of texts today and look at just this whole topic of the Christian church and what God's will is for the church.

We're gonna work our way to Revelation and there are 2 women mentioned in Revelation.

1 is the pure woman dressed in white and then there's the harlot woman who's dressed as a harlot in purple and other colors and jewelry and all that stuff.

And so John sees these 2 women and they're symbolic of the Christian church in 2 different kind of phases and contexts.

Let's start in John 17 and read Jesus' desire for the church.

I think it's really important to not just accept what we've come to, you know, accept in our own lives, our own societies, but to look at it from God's perspective and see what He wants the Christian church to be.

We're looking at John chapter 17, and why don't we read verses 20 and 21, John 17, 20 and 21.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be 1 as you Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be 1 in us and that the world may believe that you sent me." So Jesus is praying for us, right?

To ensure that all of us are unified, that we're all 1 as He is in Jesus and Jesus is in Him, that we all may be 1 in Him.

So He doesn't want hundreds and maybe even thousands of Christian denominations and independent churches.

And he tells us that oneness, that unity, has a convincing power on those who don't believe.

That's right, that the world may believe that you sent me.

So that the unity that's expressed in God's people will be a witness to the world that God sent Jesus.

But unfortunately, that's not what we have today.

So it was united in the beginning when the Christian church was founded, but it's not today.

We have hundreds and well over a thousand denominations and churches, different independent belief systems.

So how did we get from there in Jesus' day to where we are today?

The Bible actually says how that was going to happen.

Go to Acts chapter 20, and the apostle Paul talks about this in Acts chapter 20.

And I think That's right after the Gospels.

I was gonna ask Dee for you to give us directions, but I think probably most people know where to find Acts at this point.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Acts 20.

He's in Ephesus, and he's exhorting the elders.

He's sharing with them some real concerns on his heart.

And in verses 28 through 30, he makes a pretty amazing and radical prediction of what's going to happen.

And it's really based on his understanding of Bible prophecy.

Christy, would you read that for us, Acts 20, 28-30?

ASI South West 2025: We Shall Behold Him

Seminars

Endi Stojanovic

ASI Southwest

Beholding Christ in Service: Reflecting His Character in Our Work

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the blessings you shower upon us each and every day.

You give us so many good things and we aren't worthy of them, but we are grateful for them.

I pray, Lord, now as we open up your Word and as we seek to understand what You have in store for us today, help us to hear Your still small voice.

Help us to hear that gentle knock on the door of our hearts.

Help us to open the door and to let You in.

May we not only know what we should do, but may You strengthen us to actually do that which we know we should do.

And may all the glory and all the honor and everything that we are able to achieve in our lives be because of Your glory and because of what you have done, for you alone deserve that.

All right, I've entitled my presentation, The Way You Know.

And I'm getting this from a very important text which is familiar to us, particularly the first 3 verses which we often go to, and that's found in the Gospel of John chapter 14.

So if you turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 14, we're gonna read some of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture.

We're going to unpack it a little bit more.

He begins here, John speaking in chapter 14.

Oh, you know the verse well, which is not surprising.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." And notice these next words that Jesus says, and where I go you know, and the way you know.

Now this is significant for many reasons.

There's a lot of beautiful things in this passage.

Not only are those first few words so wonderful, I mean all of them are wonderful but let not your heart be troubled.

Now what is happening immediately before chapter 14 in John?

Just turn to the beginning of chapter 13.

They're having their communion, their last supper together, right?

He's going to be tried unjustly via the night, then he's going to be tried before Pilate during the day, right?

In less than 24 hours, Jesus will be no more for the disciples as they're eating this meal and as they're going out and Jesus is speaking with them.

Now at this point, are their hearts very troubled just after the communion service?

Not particularly because they don't really believe Jesus is going to die.

You remember when Jesus mentioned that and He told them many times because He wanted to prepare them for what was happening, they simply said, oh no, no, no, that's never going to happen to you, right?

Because their conception of what the Messiah should be compared to what he actually came to do was somehow in disagreement, right?

That happens to us sometimes too, where we think we know what we should know, but in reality we didn't know and we make a mistake or whatever it might be.

So Jesus, what I find so beautiful about this is not only that the words are seriously comforting, let not your heart be troubled, but Jesus is anticipating what's going to happen in just a few hours.

And He's telling them ahead of time, look, you're going to witness a whole bunch of things.

I'm going to be arrested, I'm going to be flogged and beaten, I'm going to be tried, I'm going to go through, they're going to scourge me.

Again, not only will the Jews scourge me, but the Romans will scourge me.

I mean, he hasn't told them all of these things, but he's anticipating.

His disciples are going to see Him go through all these things, and finally He's going to be led to the cross, and He's going to be hung up, and He's going to stay there until He breathes His last.

And with that in mind, that's going to happen in less than 24 hours, Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled.

Like a parent wanting their child to know something bad is going to happen, but do not worry, you're going to make it through it.

You believe in God, it says, believe also in me.

Now, Another thing we have to consider in this passage, especially in verse 4 here, when it says, where I am going, you know, and the way you know, where is he going?

What has he been talking about in verses 1 through 3?

But in terms of His special location where He lives, we know He lives on Mount Zion, right?

We can hardly wait for Jesus to come because He's going to take us and we will go and live with God there for the thousand years.

And then the beautiful thing is that God comes and lives with us.

Forever, not just for a thousand years, but forever.

And here he's saying in my father's house are many mansions.

Now, I know we love the translation mansions, but to be honest, the more accurate translation there is really rooms.

It's indicating kind of like how the temple had many rooms in the temple, in the sanctuary, particularly the 1 which Solomon built, and later on which Nehemiah and Ezra helped build and helped form and then Herod put an enlargement on that and there were many rooms.

This is the context in which Jesus is saying it.

Basically there is plenty of room for you to have a home in my house.

Now you think of our homes typically what do we have like 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, you have a bigger house you might have a 5 bedroom, rarely you know 6 bedroom.

I was reading something the other day like some I forget who it was now whether it was Bill Gates or something has a house with over 80 bedrooms.

I'm like, hey, he must know a lot of people or something and they must be coming over a lot that he might has to need 80 bedrooms to keep that many like, I don't know, to me personally that's overkill, right?

But God can even exceed Bill Gates or whoever this person was, right?

He has many, many rooms, many, many places.

He doesn't want you to have your own place somewhere out there alone, And we will have once the new earth is made new, we'll have our own place.

But he wants us to be like it's more intimate, to have a bedroom, to have a room in his house.

Not to have another house that's next door.

That's exactly what Jesus is trying to highlight here.

He's saying there are many rooms, mansions.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Bible Predicted the Future 2,500 Years Ago

38m

22 Revelation’s Two Women

1h 9m

Beholding Christ in Service: Reflecting His Character in Our Work

1h 1m

How to Witness the Bible to Others

1h 19m

09 In the Psalms Part 2

23m

09 The Altar Life of Jesus, Part 2

29m

21 America in Prophecy

1h 4m

Your Problem Solved

1h 2m

A Testimony to God’s Patience and Grace

51m

The March of Death

28m

The Law and the Lamb, Pt. 2

28m

09 In the Psalms, Part 2

28m

Sound Doctrine