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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jonathan Zirkle

Our Time  in the Time of the End

I've been attending here for about 6 years now, I think, and it's been quite a journey, And it's just a humbling experience for me to be here today.

Dear Lord, I just ask that you Send your Holy Spirit to be here with with us today Lord, and I just asked that you would use me to say what you would have me to say and Not what I want to say Lord, but what you would we ask all this in Jesus name.

Amen I did have the opportunity to go on the Great Controversy Tour, and I was asked to speak a little bit about that, and I've tried to put something together here today that talks about that.

But I'm not going to be talking so much about the Reformation, but things that I learned and have studied and believe have great effect for us today.

I'm going to be spending some time in Peter and so I'd ask you to turn to the book of Peter, 1 of those little books there at the end of the Bible.

You know, I think 1 of the things that struck me as I've read the Bible is that we often gloss so quickly over the introductions to these, and so I'd like to introduce my talk the same way Peter introduces his letter.

So I say to the saints, The saints in Loma Linda and scattered abroad, saints according to grace and love of our resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ.

I like to see just a little bit of a description that he gives.

If you look at 1 Peter 1 verse 5 and it says, the saints who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We get 2 concepts out of this that I think are really important.

And so let's get ready and learn something.

First Peter 1 verse 13 says, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, "'be sober and hope to the end for the grace "'that is brought unto you "'at the revelation of Jesus Christ.'" So, gird up your mind and let's learn some things.

Okay, we're living in the time of the end.

And I think that we all know that, we see that, we feel that.

And The classic text on that is Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4.

1 of the habits that I have when I'm studying my Bible is once in a while I find a text and I think, wow, they're writing prophecy and wow, I'm sort of this, this applies to me right here, right now.

And it applies to everyone here in this room.

Daniel 12, verse 4, but thou O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.

You know, when I first read that, I thought many shall run to and fro and I thought of all the travels that we do here and knowledge being increased I mean wow we've got knowledge being increased and as I studied more and more it was very interesting because as my knowledge became increased I realized that that what this text is really talking about the running to and fro is slang, Hebrew slang, for running through the pages of the Bible, actually the scrolls, and knowledge being increased, spiritual knowledge.

And that's what we see going on in this world today.

We have both the obvious surface fulfillment of people running to and fro and knowledge being increased, but we also have spiritual knowledge being increased.

And I think that that's really important and we all need to take responsibility for increasing our own spiritual knowledge.

So I'd like to now point out some things.

I want to point out some symbols that I want to be talking about just a little bit today.

These are all things that you have heard before.

But I'd just like to drive them home again before I start to show you a few things about the Great Controversy Tour and my main message.

So let's go to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9.

I love to hear the rustle of the pages of those Bibles.

Revelation 12 and verse 9, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.

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

That is a real plain statement of a symbol, a dragon.

Of all the symbols, I mean, we have many.

This 1 I would categorize as a plain, clear, clear symbol.

Now, I want to show you 1 more symbol before we continue on, and I'd like you to look now at Revelation 18.

Revelation 18, this is the proclamation, the great angel is coming in power to proclaim.

And this is really a repetition of the third angel's message.

It's really a repetition of the second and third angel's message, and we know that this is really an end time message.

So let's look at this, Revelation 18, And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine and the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies." I want to draw your attention to 1 important phrase in this, and that is Babylon has become the habitation of devils and a hold of every foul spirit, and here, listen to this, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

Now, I've studied the unclean and hateful bird, and there's not a lot of things that I can, at least that I know, and I'm not saying that someone else couldn't study this out and find out much more depth than I have.

There's not a lot about the unclean and hateful bird, but it's plain here.

It's a plain mark of Babylon, and I'd like you to keep that in mind.

Now, before I go any further, I need to make a little disclaimer.

I'm going to be showing you pictures of things at the Vatican, and I want to make it absolutely clear, I'm not anti- Catholic.

I took some of my most important secular education in a Catholic institution.

However, you'll see that I'm no great friend of the papacy.

So, anyway, let's take a few, a look at some pictures.

This is outside the Vatican Museum, and this is where most people will start to see the Vatican when they go there.

And I'd just like to point out 1 thing that we'll be looking at a bit here.

If you look right here, This is the insignia of 1 of the popes.

And you can tell it's a papal insignia because you have the triple crown here and the keys.

That is the typical emblems of papal power.

The keys being, according to their tradition, the keys of Saint Peter.

And what I'd like to point out to you right here is a bird.

If you read in the Old Testament, you'll know that birds of prey were considered unclean birds.

And anyway, but I won't waste a lot of time on this.

We can keep the lights down for a second.

When you go into the Vatican Museum, everybody goes into this courtyard and you wait before you can actually get into what you really wanna go see.

But I had fun looking around there and I had a little bit of a long lens.

And if you look right up here, I'm gonna zoom in on that.

We have a dragon overlooking us as we're ready to go in.

Now, if this was just 1 thing, I would probably pass it off and not worry about it, but let's keep looking.

We go inside and I see this everywhere inside the Vatican.

What you have here is a papal insignia with The Triple Crown, the Keys, the Bird of Prey, and the Dragon.

We don't have the Triple Crown, but we've got the Keys, and we've got the dragon.

And moving, this is in the staircase now to leave the museum and we go by the dragon.

Now I'm not showing you multiple shots of the same thing, and I know that I could have shown you more pictures of that.

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Our Time in the Time of the End

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