The coming events prophesied in Revelation can be seen to those who know and understand the Bible scriptures. Soon church and state will unite and our religious freedom will fade away. Though these events may seem scary and overwhelming all hope is not lost. The ultimate triumph of God’s people will come at the second coming of Jesus. Join Pastor Mark Finley as he studies the word of God.

<p>The coming events prophesied in Revelation can be seen to those who know and understand the Bible scriptures. Soon church and state will unite and our religious freedom will fade away. Though these events may seem scary and overwhelming all hope is not lost. The ultimate triumph of God’s people will come at the second coming of Jesus. Join Pastor Mark Finley as he studies the word of God.</p>

<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>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Pagan Christianity Fulfilling Prophecy

3 square-sailed ships were blown by Atlantic breezes on a storm-toward sea.

Now at times the journey was rough, and these sailors wondered whether they would make it to their destination or they would perish at the sea.

For 5 weeks, these small vessels, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria traveled in unknown, uncharted sea.

But the captain was sure the voyage would be successful because it was a well-used Bible in the captain's cabin that he had read and it guided his spiritual life on this epic journey.

The captain's name, you guessed it, Christopher Columbus.

Now in his journal, Columbus wrote these words, It was the Lord who put it into my mind.

The fact that it would be possible to sail from here, that's Spain, to the Indies.

All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me.

There is no question that the inspiration from the Holy Spirit because he comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.

Now he said here's my reasons why I left Spain and headed for what he believed to be India.

Now he bumped into a continent on the way called, that was eventually named, America.

He thought he landed in India, so he called the people here what?

I hold alone to the sacred scriptures and holy script, the sacred and holy scriptures, and to the interpretation of prophecy given by certain devout persons.

And the book of Daniel really intrigued Columbus.

As he studied the book of Daniel, particularly prophecies like Daniel chapter 2 that talked about Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, Columbus compared those prophecies to history.

He saw that the European nations were divided and he recognized that the stone was going to smite the image.

And so he then as he compared Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, Daniel 8, he believed that Christ was coming and was going to come soon.

And he came to the conclusion that as he read Matthew 24, 14, that this gospel of the kingdom would be preached to all the nations as a witness, then the end would come.

And so Columbus thought, if there are those in the world that don't know about the coming of Jesus and have never accepted Christ, that delays Christ's coming.

So he set out on a journey because he had heard of India that had not yet heard of the gospel, he understood, He knew it was a Hindu nation, so he set out.

Little did he know that the American continent would become a beacon of religious liberty.

His journey to the new world opened up an entire continent that would be a bastion of religious and political freedom.

It would become a government for the people, by the people, and of the people.

It would have the ideal of liberty and justice.

Although America has not always lived up to that ideal, that ideal has been part of its founding, as part of the very foundation of this society.

The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor with her beacon of light held high states it well in the words of Emma Lazarus when she writes give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these homeless tempest-tossed to me, I lift up my hand beside the golden door." So America has been fueled by the desire to be a nation that championed political and religious freedom.

Religious liberty has been called America's first liberty because freedom of the mind is logically and philosophically prior to all other freedoms protected by the Constitution.

I remember a number of years ago, I was holding evangelistic meetings in the Olympic Stadium in Moscow just after Billy Graham had held his meetings.

And during that time the Russian Parliament voted about 219 to 14 to restrict religious freedom.

There was a meeting of all the churches in Russia, the Baptists, the Pentecostals, the Adventists, the Orthodox did not participate in that meeting because the idea was to be Russian was to be orthodox.

And so in that meeting, the Baptists were really concerned.

And they said, look, if this proposal that has been voted in Parliament passes, we will be severely restricted.

So the churches in Russia came to the Adventists and they said, Pastor Finley is here, we want him to go on national television and debate the sponsor of this bill, who's a brilliant congressman that they would call in their parliament.

I did not want to enter into that debate at all, but we did over national television.

And I will never forget his opening line.

He came on loaded, I mean he was loaded and he looked at me and he said, you're from the United States aren't you?

I said but you need to know I don't represent the United States I represent Jesus and there are more Adventists in other parts of the world than there are in America but he said you and your country don't have freedom he said there are only 5 basic human rights we have them all and you don't have any number 1 the right to housing you have homeless people we have none in this country the government provides homeless secondly the right to health care you charge people we don't we give it to him free third the right to education We give all of our people education, free.

We have nobody that's hungry here because we provide the food for them.

But we provide all those for our people, so don't talk to me about freedom.

I said, that's an interesting approach and I would agree with you that governments have responsibility to provide for their people, so we have no argument there.

Freedom of the mind, freedom of the soul.

And the difference, sir, between you and me is this.

You think the Russian people are ignorant and I think they're intelligent.

I said, you believe that the government has to make all the rights for their religion.

I believe that God has given every human being the freedom and they can either choose to be religious or not choose and the government has no right to legislate that.

When Columbus discovered America, he had no idea that this nation would be a nation of religious freedom.

In fact, religious liberty, freedom of the mind, is logically and philosophically the foundation for all other freedoms.

Because if you take away the freedom of mind and thought, you take away other freedoms.

Now, religious liberty, how do you define that?

It's the freedom to believe and exercise or act upon religious convictions without interference from the government.

Just as religious liberty involves the freedom to practice religion, it also involves the freedom not to practice religion, because if you can't say no, your yes is meaningless.

Now the guiding principles to support this definition are found in Article 6 of the Constitution and the opening words of the First Amendment.

Article 6 of the Constitution concludes with these words, no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

See, with this 1 bold stroke, the framers of the Constitution preserved religious freedom.

And of course the First Amendment's religious liberty cause that that concludes with, or that begins with, Congress shall make no law, you know it, respecting an establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof.

Now taken together these 2 clauses, Congress shall make no law that respects the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof, those 2 clauses actually protect religious freedom.

These principles of religious liberty are woven into the very fabric, the very fabric of American life.

They've guided us from our very inception, but it leads us to ask some very thought-provoking questions, some very serious questions.

1, will liberty in this country ever fade away like a fading sunset?

Will church and state ever unite in America?

Will they ever unite to enforce religious tenets of 1 set of beliefs over another.

Will civil unrest lead to the restriction of some of our First Amendment rights?

The First Amendment allows peaceable assembly, But what if peaceable assembly turns to riots in Portland, Oregon?

What if it turns to riots in Seattle, Washington?

Might those First Amendment rights of peaceable assembly because of the abuse of that be restricted?

Will hate speech, which all Christians reject and condemn, be so narrowly defined that it restricts prophetic proclamation that identifies the beast power in Revelation 13.

Could that be considered by some as hate speech?

Could it be possible that at a time of natural disasters, economic upheaval, civil unrest, political divisiveness and international uncertainty, that religious leaders unite to save society from impending disaster and to preserve the social order and a common day of rest, namely Sunday, becomes the vehicle for unity, just like it was in the days of the ancient Roman Empire.

If this society is headed down a course where church and state unite to restrict religious freedom, don't you think that that would be outlined in Scripture?

And don't you think it would be wise for God's people to understand what's coming and prepare for it?

The book of Revelation has 11 chapters that describe the coming crisis.

The first chapter of the book of Revelation reveals Jesus in all his fullness and beauty.

Chapters 2 to chapter 11 in Revelation describe the march of the church and the opposition against it down through the centuries.

But when you come to chapter 12, from chapter 12 to chapter 22, 11 chapters in the book of Revelation, you have a discussion by John of the visions that God gave to him.

They talk about final events in earth's history.

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Pagan Christianity Fulfilling Prophecy

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