<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dustin Pestlin Weekend

Dustin Pestlin

How to be Victorious in God’s End-Time Judgment

Dear God, as we open Your Holy Word this morning, Father, help us to be anticipating how You will lead us and guide us this morning.

Let this not just be another message, Father, but let us view this as You speaking to us the words of life.

And Father, be with me as I speak, and we pray You would let Your Holy Spirit guide us to a true understanding of what we encounter in this message.

Alright, it's wonderful to be here in California and as Carissa mentioned this was kind of the slide in case anyone would like to kind of connect with me, get involved in some way or another.

It's just a simple way to be a part of our ministry.

And not here, but at the other venue last night.

We're also gonna be at that same venue tonight at 4.

Last night, we were reminded that every period of history has a present truth.

It has a special message that God has given to His people for that particular time.

We know that in the days of Noah, what was present truth in the days of Noah?

What about during the days of John the Baptist?

What about Martin Luther and the reformers?

We are saved by grace alone through faith and not of works.

Those of us who are living in the final days of Earth's history.

What is the special message or mission that God has given to us?

In fact, last night we reviewed and we saw, and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.

The 3 angels' message, God's final warning to the world.

This is present truth for God's people today.

We can see that this is an urgent message.

We can see that it is a worldwide message.

And it is none other than the same everlasting Gospel that is seen throughout the Bible.

From Genesis to Matthew, all throughout Scripture.

Last night we considered God's seal, the Sabbath, and how keeping the Sabbath holy is the sign that we belong to God.

We also discussed how many people are good at remembering the Sabbath day, but many people struggle with keeping it holy.

We have to remember, and we have to keep it holy.

What else is contained in this message from this first angel of Revelation 14?

Please turn in your Bibles, if you have it, to Revelation 14.

I'll also have the Scriptures on the screen today.

And we read in Revelation 14, 7, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come.

The first angel's message is also a call to repentance.

A call to get right with God because His judgment is here.

But does the Bible actually teach that we will be judged?

Much of the Christian world has doubts about that.

The Bible says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." And when would this judgment take place?

We know for sure that the judgment would take place in the last days.

It's part of the 3 angels' message that says His judgment is here.

The Bible is even more specific about when this judgment would take place.

And I'm sure all of you are familiar with this verse.

If you'd like to read it with me, please join me.

And He said unto me, unto 2, 300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

And this morning we will not explore this prophecy in depth in terms of all the dates and the times, but that's very important for you to be able to do.

We know that this prophecy concluded in 1844 and this is so critical that we understand how to explain this prophecy.

There was a soldier in World War II and he approached his commanding officer And he said, can I have the Sabbath off?

And the officer said, wait a second, Adventist, I know about you.

I attended a prophecy series back in the States years ago.

And I'll never forget a message about the 2, 300 days.

He said, yeah, I'll give you your Sabbath off under 1 condition.

I want you to draw me a chart of the 2, 300 days with all the trimmings.

He said all the trimmings, all the dates and events and all that.

And so it's important that we have an answer for our faith.

And friends, don't let anyone shake you from this doctrine of our church.

So whose cases will be determined in this pre-advent judgment?

We know that it will take place before the return of Christ to determine who will be saved or lost.

We read in 1 Peter, for the time has come that judgment must begin where?

Yes, it will be the professed people of God who will have their cases examined during the judgments.

What will be the benchmark that is used to test all people in this judgment?

So speaking and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

It is the 10 Commandment law of God that will be the standard in this final judgment.

The topic of the investigative judgment is also quite controversial.

In fact, did you know that it is really the only distinctive doctrine that we have as a church?

There's other churches that keep the Sabbath.

There's other churches that believe that the dead know nothing.

But it's really the only distinctive doctrine that we hold.

It also separates us as God's true end-time church, because it will be God's remnants who will be preaching the 3 angels' messages, including the judgment hour.

Our church has gone through many different extremes when it comes to the investigative judgment.

In times past, it was often viewed as a very doom and gloom situation, where God was just ready to strike those who did not meet up to His standard.

But you know, friends, something interesting has happened because over the years, the pendulum, if you will, has swung to the other side.

And many now view the judgment as something that's no big deal, that it's just good news for everyone.

Third Angels’ Message: Preparation for the Mark of the Beast

Father God, we thank you so much for this holy, sacred Sabbath day and for the fellowship that we have had 1 with the other.

And Lord, as we once again open your word, Lord, we pray that you would touch our hearts like never before and that you would reveal new insights that we have never quite understood in their full understanding before, Father.

And help us to leave this place changed with a better sense of our duty and a greater love for You.

And let Your Holy Spirit guide us through this message tonight.

Alright, well, this has been a blessing to be here with you all and I wish I could stay longer.

And just in case anybody, there was a, in case anyone missed this, some people were asking me about this this morning, if you wanted to just stay connected with Hope Through Prophecy in some way, even if it's just receiving email updates of our testimonies from viewers, or if you wanted to be involved in some way of supporting us in any way, this is a great way to do it if you just text the word PARTNER to 50597.

Well, this week we have talked about the 3 angels' messages of Revelation 14, and I don't think there could be a better topic for us to talk about.

And I want to remind you of a quote that we read.

This has kind of become our theme for the weekend.

And it says, To them has been entrusted, speaking of God's people in the last days, to them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world.

They have been given a work of the most solemn import, the proclamation of the first, second and third angels' messages.

There is no other work of so great importance.

They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

And I've read that all 3 nights for a reason.

Nothing else should absorb our attention.

And so this evening we will cover the third angel's message, but we're not going to focus so much on who is the beast and what is the mark, we are going to cover those things.

I'm going to try to move quickly through those items.

We're going to start with identifying the beast and the mark as well as the seal and what it looks like to receive the mark.

There's confusion even within our church of what it looks like to actually receive the mark.

And also most importantly I believe for us this evening is how can we prepare, how can we be prepared for the mark of the beast.

We don't want to just know it, we want to be ready.

And we don't want to be fearful as we approach that day.

I'm going to assume that you all are familiar with these things, so I'm going to use kind of a fast speed.

We know that the devil has worked through various institutions throughout history.

Pagan Rome was 1 that he worked very aggressively through.

Ancient Egypt with teachings such as spiritualism, the non-immortality of the soul, of course Babylon with all its heathen teaching and doctrines.

But then we see that even pagan Rome, the devil would work through pagan Rome to try to destroy Christ as a baby.

And of course, to actually destroy Christ himself with a crucifixion, that was their attempt.

And that working of the devil would continue even through papal Rome.

And we can know from Bible prophecy that the devil would infiltrate this church and that this would actually become the beast power of Revelation 13.

It meets all the identifying characteristics.

And It's always important for us to point out, however, that when we identify the beast of Revelation, we are not talking about the people within that church.

We are talking about a false system that opposes the self against God.

There's many loving, beautiful, wonderful, Catholic people of faith, and the actual system is what we are talking about.

And as we briefly go through the identifying points, we're going to look at Revelation 13 and the identifying points.

And we know that this beast power would arise out of a heavily populated area, and we know that to be true because the papacy, it started, it had its headquarters in Rome, and that was really the center of the civilized world at that time, So it meets that point perfectly.

We also saw that it would receive its seat, receive its power, its authority from pagan Rome.

And any historian can tell you that that was exactly the case.

The Caesars of Rome became the bishops of Papal Rome.

And in fact, Rome moved its capital, which was Constantinople, it sent it east, and so that allowed the papacy, which was headquartered in Rome, to really dominate Western Europe.

Okay, so that couldn't be fulfilled better by the papacy.

And we know that this beast would receive a deadly wound.

Does anybody know when that deadly wound was received the year?

1798, we know that the general of Napoleon Berthier actually took the Pope captive.

The Pope, I think about a year later, died in captivity.

It showed that the papacy was vulnerable, that it no longer had that dominant power that it did for hundreds of years in Europe.

And we also know that the beast, the papacy, would heal from this wound.

And we know that that also has been fulfilled.

Many people think that it had at least a partial fulfillment in, I believe it was 1929 when Mussolini made a pact with Rome and they reunited.

But we can just look in the news today, we can see that the papacy is no longer considered something that we should protest against.

In fact, we have the ecumenical movement, we have many efforts to reunite with Rome.

And they are being very successful in that effort.

If you've heard of Laudato Si by the Pope, it's care for our common home.

A part of Laudato Si is actually saying that we need to rest, and we're going to talk about that more when we talk about the beast.

But he's basically inviting the Protestant churches to be a part of that.

And so that prophecy has been fulfilled very well.

And just once again, the influence of the church is really widespread, different leaders are just embracing the papacy.

We also know that this beast power would rule over the Saints for 1260 years.

That's a time period repeated 7 times in Bible prophecy and we know that the papacy came to supremacy in 538 AD after the 3 horns were uprooted, the Heruli, the Vandals, and anybody know the third 1?

So 538, the papacy finally had a clean slate, they had absolute power.

Emperor Justinian's decree could now be carried out to full effect that it would be the Holy Roman Empire.

We know that it would be guilty of blasphemy and the Bible defines blasphemy as claiming to forgive sin and also claiming to be God himself.

And we read in the Catholic Nationalist, the Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ himself hidden under the veil of flesh.

And they believe that the Pope is the vicar of Christ or the representative of Christ on earth.

And that's just a very accepted belief that he has the same power of Christ on earth.

And in terms of the ability to forgive sins, the whole Catholic system of actually confession, confessing your sins to a priest is actually another fulfillment of them being a blasphemous power because claiming to forgive sins belongs only to God himself.

The next identifying point with that, the papacy would make war with the saints.

And we know this was fulfilled in the Middle Ages.

It's estimated that the church shed the blood of over 50 million.

Conservative estimates say over 50 million people lost their lives over matters of faith.

And I believe that it's John Huss there at the stake.

And you just have so many of the reformers and martyrs through the years have shed their blood.

I love how the great controversy says the blood of the martyrs was the seed that watered the Reformation.

And just so powerful, their deaths even inspired God's people and inspired people who were Catholic to say there is something special about this faith.

They would receive worship as a religious power.

The little horn power spoken of Daniel 7 or the Antichrist in Revelation 13, 1 and the same, it would be unique in that it would be not only a political but a religious power, it'd be different from the other beasts or nations.

And we know that to be true of the papacy.

It's the only country in the world, Vatican, that as you know, it's not only a country, but it's a church.

And it's the smallest country in the world.

I found out that it's 20% the size of Central Park in New York City.

And so a teeny tiny country, but an immense power.

1 of the most influential on the entire globe.

Back to Menu

Series

Dustin Pestlin Weekend

How to be Victorious in God’s End-Time Judgment

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

How to be Victorious in God’s End-Time Judgment

47m

Third Angels’ Message: Preparation for the Mark of the Beast

55m

Sound Doctrine