What will the world start to look like as we near the end of earths history.

<p>What will the world start to look like as we near the end of earths history.</p>

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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Anthony Baca

The Final Conflict

And so the subject I want to present on today is to me a very relevant subject because of the circumstances and things that are taking place today.

But it's not just relevant because of present day circumstances, as in the fact of why we're all meeting through the internet today.

It's relevant because of the time in Earth's history that we live in, and that's what I mean by our present-day circumstance.

Not so much just, again, the current situation, but the fact that we live in a unique time in Earth's history.

1 studies Bible prophecy, a person can see that when you study the prophecies of Daniel and the rise and falls of these kingdoms, as we've been doing over this last quarter, you see that we are at the, as it were, the toenails of time.

We are in those closing scenes of, as it were, Earth's history.

And when we see that, regardless again of the actual situation of the exact day today, on this day, the generation in which we live in Earth's history makes this topic, I believe, of such relevance.

Because when we look back at human history, 1 thing that we notice with human history is that wars and challenges have always plagued, as it were, humanity.

Ever since Adam and Eve committed that sin and ate of that fruit and brought sin and destruction into this world.

It brought a plethora of chaos and destruction.

And even to the present day, wars continue to ensue, challenges continue to perplex, destruction continues to happen.

And this is again, the result of that sin and how sin brought sin, excuse me, brought death, pain and suffering into our present world.

And not just war, but even just unrest and uncertainty and the anxiety and the stresses that can come from the different circumstances of the day, whether in politics, whether in the financial world, whatever it may be.

As we all know, the present day circumstances today, with the disease and pestilences that we are told in scripture that will exist and plague humanity until the new, the earth is made new and these things are done away with.

And it's easy when these different things happen, whether it's wars, whether it's diseases, whether it's famines, whether it's political unrest and civil unrest, to really have an uncertainty of the future, to really experience, as it were, an anxiety and a sadness and a genuine concern of what is actually going to happen.

And this is where we have to remember that we are blessed with scripture.

We are blessed with the word of God because we don't have to have a level of uncertainty of what's happening as it were today in principle or what the future will hold.

Because we know that though we live in this present-day world now and these things will come and go as it were, you know, again, wars and rumors of wars, pestilence, famines, diseases and things will come and go on this world However, we know that this world is not our home And 1 day we know that this world will be made new But what will it look like as we near the end?

I know that's that's a question a lot of people have, what is the final conflict?

And so I decided to take a look at scripture this morning and to look at what is the final conflict really all about when it comes to this situation on planet earth that we are in?

What will the last days, last day events of earth's history really look like?

In order to do that, we have to begin with an overview of the book of Revelation.

We have to kind of understand the structure of the book and to know which portion of it we're going to study and why.

And so when you look at the structure of the book of Revelation, you see the macro picture, big picture.

You have, at least how I divide them, chapter 1 through 11, for us today, and this obviously wasn't always the case, but for us today, these chapters are predominantly historical chapters.

We know when you study them that every vision culminates with the second coming of Jesus, and so it's not to say that it's entirely historical however the bulk of the vision is historical yet it concludes with the second coming of Jesus and predominantly historical then concludes with the second coming of Jesus giving us a framework in which to study that path, those passages.

The latter half of the book, though, there's a transition in chapter 11, verse 19 of the book of Revelation, a most holy place transition.

And from chapter 12 to chapter 22, what you notice is that the visions are predominantly future.

Again, I'm speaking to us in our present day circumstance today.

Now, obviously in chapter 12, as we're gonna see, there are historical accounts mentioned.

However, the bulk of the visions are referring to events that have not yet transpired.

And so when looking to the future, these chapters are more, I guess, essential for us today in that sense.

However, we don't wanna neglect chapter 1 through 11, they're powerful and we learn amazing truths of God's leading in history that helps us to then have confidence, hope, and faith and prepare for those future things that have not yet occurred.

And so that's the basic structure of the big picture of the book of Revelation.

Now when you dive into that second half of the book of Revelation it breaks into really 3 categories in my mind.

The first 1 is chapter 12 through 14 and in chapter 12 through 14 you have the entire conflict between Christ and Satan from the very beginning really to the end delineated.

I mean from the war in heaven until the second coming the the conflict is right there chapter 12 through 14 and so here you're gonna see that final that conflict from beginning to end.

Chapter 15 through 18, you're gonna see the consequences on spiritual Babylon.

You're gonna see in chapter 15 the introduction of the 7 last plagues.

Chapter 16, you're gonna see the pouring of the 7 last plagues.

Chapter 17 is a detailed study or you know detailed vision of the sixth plague and then chapter 18 you have the final overthrow of Babylon as a result of these plagues.

So really 15 through 18 in there in its entirety is the plagues and the consequences on the nation of Babylon.

And then chapter 19 to 22 you have the final executive judgment of God and judgment is not a bad thing in its nature.

It is a good thing because God's people are judged and they inherit the new earth and I'm sure we're all going to be excited for that great day.

And then the wicked are also judged and so everyone experiences final judgment.

Chapter 20, the millennium with the books open and the destruction of the wicked.

Chapter 21, you have the earth made new and then chapter 2 just kind of closes it up and gives us hope for the soon coming of Christ.

And so when you see the the book of Revelation you again you have the historical predominantly historical to us today in the predominantly future to us today and then in the predominantly future section you have these 3 subcategories chapter 12 through 14 the conflict 15 through 18 the consequences 19 to 22 the closing judgment.

Now we can go even deeper now, let's zoom in a little bit more and we're gonna zoom in on the structure of chapter 12 through 14 because ultimately that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

And so when we look at chapter 12 through 14, what we see is in chapter 12, the great controversy is kind of introduced to us.

This cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan.

We're going to look at some verses that we're going to go over this.

And we see how it kind of starts in heaven and it ends up on earth and transitions to God's people fleeing into the wilderness.

But then you get to chapter 13 and 13 is fascinating because chapter 13 you see Satan's final work of deception.

I should say Satan's right there in the beginning.

And so you have again, chapter 12, there's a great contrast between Christ and Satan.

But then chapter 13 is specific to now describing Satan's, as it were, last day push, is his final work of deception, his final attack as it were on this world.

And then you have chapter 14, which is God's final message.

It's as if you get the last 2 says of each group here at the very end in chapter 13 and 14.

Chapter 12, there's a great controversy that started in heaven and ended on earth, ended up on earth.

Chapter 13, at the end, this is what Satan is gonna do.

And in chapter 14, and this is God's final declaration, his final message of mercy, his final push, and his final attack, which culminates in both becoming right, both groups becoming fully mature, and the second coming of Jesus occurring at the end of chapter 14.

And so, I mean, exciting stuff to study, exciting to see, because really the premise of this, this concept right here, this little section of Revelation is really the theme of the entire Bible.

It's the theme of the entire Bible because what you see from Genesis to Revelation is there is this great controversy this cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan and Really, that's what the entire Bible is gonna center on and again, where did it all start?

The Bible tells us and there was war in heaven That this is where the war that began all wars first started.

Revelation chapter 12 verse 7 and 8 says, and war broke out in heaven.

And I remember the first time I read this I was so fascinated because heaven you think of as streets of gold, angels walking around, you think of mangoes from the tree of life that you know know no sourness and so you know you think of just perfection.

But here you see that war broke out in heaven And then it says Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought.

And so you see there were 2 sides in this war.

Michael, which represents Christ, is describing Jesus, and the dragon, which is Satan.

And you notice that both groups have angels.

And so it goes on to say, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

Satan the dragon made war with Christ and his angels and what ended up occurring is Satan and his angels were no longer permitted to stay in heaven any longer.

And so it goes on to say, so the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.

And so we see this again, this war that took place in heaven, this division of, you know, of sides, as it were Satan and his angels, God and his angels.

But that made me think and wonder, how did Satan get angels?

I mean, if you think about it, God created the angels.

So wouldn't it make sense that the angels would be, as it were on God's side, 100%.

So how did Satan, to me, and to me, this, it was, it was, it's important to understand because I don't want to end up on the wrong side.

And so I want to know how did Satan end up getting these angels on that, on his side?

And Revelation tells us, it gives us a clue, it gives us a hint.

It says here in Revelation 12 verse 9 and 4 that his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and Threw them to the earth.

So here we see that Satan did something in heaven.

It says here that he pretty much gathered up the stars by his tail.

Now, again, revelation is predominantly symbolic in its language.

And out of the 404 verses in the book of Revelation, the majority of those verses are direct quotations or allusions from the Old Testament.

And so often in and when you're studying Revelation, you want to go back and track, you know, the Old Testament stories, because once you understand the Old Testament stories you get the principle of what's happening in the book of Revelation.

When you study the 7 churches we see references to Balaam and Balak which would take us back to Numbers chapter 22.

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The Final Conflict

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