North New South Wales Conference

America and the End

Justin Torossian

01 From Tyranny to Liberty

Did God have his hand over the founding of America?

Was it a bastion of freedom or a center for slavery?

What were Sunday Blue Laws and how are they connected to the mark and the image of the beast?

How can believers stand faithful to God in the events to come?

Join us for answers to these questions and more as we trace America's role in Bible prophecy from its beginnings all the way down till just before Jesus comes again.

102 passengers and about 25 ship crew, the open waters ahead, and no land in sight.

The sway of the ship and the salty spray of Atlantic Ocean waves would likely lose their novelty in the weeks to come.

But for now, excitement filled every heart.

Why were they so desperately launching out into a new world?

And believing the customs of the English church to be corrupted with idolatry, a group of separatist Christians knew that not joining in worship as part of the state-approved church, they would face imprisonment, exile, and death.

They found refuge on the friendly shores of the Dutch Republic.

But After a decade or so, persecution from England managed to reach them even there.

Their hope of a land of religious freedom?

Finally, after 66 days, a massive storm nearly wiping them out with waves over 30 meters – that's 100 feet high – on September 20, they saw land.

They were hundreds of miles off course, but it didn't matter.

Hoping to create their new home on the wild shores of the Hudson River, the group docked in Plymouth Bay instead.

This would become the Plymouth Bay Colony, if they survived.

It was just the start of winter, and 1 of the 87 pilgrims aboard wrote about this new land.

He said, it's a hideous and desolate wilderness filled with wild beasts and wild men.

Within the first 4 months of that brutal winter, 45 out of 102 colonists died.

The pilgrims didn't know if they could even make it to spring.

But late that winter, out of the wilderness, walking straight into the colony, some unlikely saviors found their way.

2 Native American men and 1 of them spoke in English.

An Abenaki Native American named Samoset had learned English from some of the English fishing camps off the coast of Maine.

Soon he came back with his friend Squanto, who spoke amazing English.

Squanto had been taken to Spain as a slave, eventually made his way to England, and finally came back home in 1619, just a year earlier.

Squanto lived with the pilgrims for 20 months, teaching them to fish, and since the seeds that they had brought over from England mostly failed, he helped them to plant and cultivate food as well.

These pilgrims developed very friendly relationships with the Native American tribes, trading and interacting together in positive ways.

1 of the pilgrim women, pregnant when they left England, ended up giving birth as they were docked in Cape Cod.

The first pilgrim baby was born into the new world, Peregrine White.

It just so happens that my mother's great-great-grandfather was named James White and he and his parents traced their lineage back to the first pilgrim baby Peregrine White.

About 35 million people around the world today have descended from those Plymouth pilgrims.

1 historian named Bancroft wrote, They were content to earn a bare subsistence by a life of frugality and toil.

They asked nothing from the soil but the reasonable returns of their own labor.

They patiently endured the privations of the wilderness, watering the Tree of Liberty with their tears and with the sweat of their brow, till it took deep root in the land.

After they had survived that first winter and harvested their first crop of fruit and vegetables.

The pilgrims, along with the Native Americans that they had befriended, sat down together to thank God for bringing them through.

This was the first Thanksgiving meal, and it would become a great American holiday.

Every single year since 1621, it's been celebrated, and not just in America.

This past November, my wife, Charissa, and I got to go over to our co-presenter, Lyle Southwell's home, And with he and his wife, Shel, who happens to be American, we enjoyed a massive, delicious meal.

Family, friends, faith, and fantastic food have characterized Thanksgiving for nearly 400 years.

By the way, next year marks exactly 400 years since the first Thanksgiving.

And it all began with those Plymouth Pilgrims.

But these weren't the first English settlers on America's shore.

13 years earlier in 1607, a ship from London, funded by a group of British entrepreneurs who were seeking gold, silver, and a passage to the Orient, landed on the coast of Virginia, founding Jamestown, named, of course, after the English king.

This was the first successful British settlement, but its beginnings could hardly be called a success.

With the proud English gentlemen being too civilized to get their hands dirty in farming, 62 out of the 100 of them died within the first winter.

If it wasn't for the kindness of a Native American tribe who shared their corn, they all likely would have died.

The year quickly passed and the second winter was no better.

Sadly, due to Native American attacks, disease, and the worst famine in 800 years, of the now 500 settlers in Jamestown, 440 died.

Eventually, treaties with the local Powhatan tribe would enable them to make it by, and the settlement really took off when they discovered tobacco.

It became all the crades back in London and Jamestown began farming and exporting it across the sea.

This fattened the wallets of the colonists but at a very high cost.

2 main groups of English settlers first came to the New World.

They came within 13 years of each other and both struggled with a rough crossing, hunger, disease and difficulty, various setbacks in their settlements.

But neither of them thought that they would shape the future of a nation.

But the huge difference that they left was their legacy.

Because of their motives for going, Jamestown was a money-making investment, But Plymouth was about seeking religious freedom.

The Jamestown colony became successful by planting tobacco in 1619.

And the legacy passed down to us today is this.

The deadly effects of tobacco use, slavery due to the need for farm workers and racism that comes along with slavery.

By and large, they killed off the Native Americans around them, starting with the very ones that saved their lives after they arrived.

But On the other hand, those pilgrims of Plymouth, we see from them a heritage of religious freedoms and education.

In order that ministers could spread the gospel, Harvard was founded nearby in 1636.

And today, nearly 40 colleges and universities are within 1 hour of Boston.

Instead of killing the natives to steal their food like the Jamestown group, in contrast with the love of Jesus, these pilgrims sat down at the Thanksgiving dinner table with the Native Americans whom they had come to know and love.

2 small groups that left huge legacies, both without realizing the lasting impact that they would make.

All because 1 existed for selfish gain and the other for selfless service.

Besides Jamestown in the south and the Plymouth pilgrims up north though, soon there arrived others in search of a new life.

English Puritans arrived in Massachusetts.

And while some were kind and godly people, their staunch beliefs of predeterminism made most of them dogmatic and harsh, eventually even creating a climate that led to innocent people dying in the Salem witch trials.

Mencken have said, puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

We know they must have had some fun though, because we have historical records of them having archery competitions and other sports competitions together.

The Puritans tried to make people holy though, by legislating morality.

In some of the laws they passed forbade the use of using dice or playing cards, and some even governed the way that people dressed.

1 law forbade women from wearing lace, And another stated the acceptable length and width of a lady's sleeve.

Dresses had to be long enough to drag on the floor because surely no self-respecting woman would ever show any ankle.

There were also laws forbidding swearing in public.

And interestingly enough, most of these old laws still sit in America's law books today.

Just earlier this year, Virginia legislators finally repealed a centuries-old law against cursing in public.

Every once in a while, there are stories like Timothy Boomer, who became known in 1999 as the cussing canoeist.

After his canoe hit a rock and he tipped out into Michigan's Rifle River he let out a string of curse words in an angry tirade.

A police officer was patrolling the river gave him a fine and he was charged for swearing in front of children.

He could have spent 90 days in jail, but instead the judge threw the case out.

I mean sadly, children can hear swearing if they get on the wrong YouTube video on their parents' phone.

Now while these mandates from the 16 and 1700s seem to us today to be nothing more than laughable laws, the punishments were no joke.

In Maryland in 1723, There was a law that anyone caught swearing, speaking blasphemy or cursing God, would, and I quote, for the first offense, be bored through the tongue and fined 20 pounds sterling.

Lyle Southwell

02 Birth of a Superpower

When the United States came into being, it was an enigma to the world.

After having broken free from the British Empire, how could George Washington not proclaim himself king and start a dynasty?

Never before had the great powers seen a head of state serve a couple of terms and then retire.

And to imagine that the position was not passed to his grandson, it was simply beyond comprehension.

A nation ruled for the people, by the people?

Certainly it was a system that could never last.

And so Europe sat back with their popcorn to watch it all disintegrate in a few short years.

And as they watched, it grew into a power that came to dominate them all.

And merely by its success, without firing a single shot, it toppled every monarchy in Europe.

So where did the United States come from and how did this nation come to be such a superpower and where does it fit into Bible prophecy?

The United States can only be understood as a reaction to medieval Europe.

And when the Bible begins to unpack the story of America, It starts by giving background history of the forces in Europe that came together to form the United States.

Simply put, the story of medieval Europe is the story of religion.

Religion dominated every aspect of European politics and history, and in Western Europe there was just 1 church that dominated the world in much the same way that the US dominates the world today.

It is with the history of the Church of the Dark Ages that the Bible begins to unpack the story of the United States.

Let's take a moment to look at what it says.

In Revelation 13 and verse 1 we find this passage, I stood on the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and upon his horns 10 crowns, and upon his heads the name of Blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, his mouth like the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, his seat and great authority.

Clearly we have described to us here a symbolic creature.

I am absolutely confident that none of you have ever seen 1 of these either in the wild or in the zoo.

And so if we have a symbolic prophecy we need to look at the various symbols contained within this prophecy to be able to understand it and find out What does the Bible say that these symbols symbolize?

We don't have time to look at every aspect of this symbolic creature, and so we will leave the discussion of the composition of this beast along with its 7 heads to the discussion that comes after this presentation.

However, there are some key aspects we must consider and these are, first of all, the beast, second, the water it comes from, third, its 10 horns, fourth, the crowns and finally the source of its power.

What does a beast symbolize in Bible prophecy?

Well at this particular point we could sit here and scratch our heads and think really hard and say, you know, I think it symbolizes this.

In that case we would come up with an opinion.

However, if we go over to Daniel chapter 7 and verse 17, we find a concept that we are very familiar with today, and that a beast is simply an animal in Bible prophecy is simply a symbol of a nation.

You know, we think of Australia, it is symbolized by the kangaroo and the emu.

We go to New Zealand and our friends over there, they're symbolized by a kiwi bird.

The United States, of course, is symbolized by an eagle and so we could go around the world and of course these are modern symbols for these nations.

If we go to Daniel chapter 7 and verse 17, speaking about 4 great animals in this prophecy back here, the Bible says these great beasts which are 4, are 4 kingdoms which will arise out of the earth.

And so we find that in Bible prophecy, much like today, nations are symbolized by animals.

An animal or a beast in Bible prophecy is a symbol of a nation.

This 1 is going to be the dominant nation during the Dark Ages.

Now the second thing that we notice about this beast is that it rises out of the water.

Once again, we ask the question, what does the water symbolize?

And we're going to look for a Bible definition, because when you know what the Bible says you know that you are not speculating, you're not simply making things up, you are allowing the Bible to interpret itself.

So let's find a Bible definition for what water is when it is used in symbolic prophecy and symbolic language.

Revelation chapter 17 this time we will go to, and right here in verse 15 the Bible said, He said to me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

And so very simply what you have depicted in Revelation 13 is a nation that is rising to power and it's coming up amongst a heavily populated area of the earth where there are multitudes and people and nations and tongues." A little bit further on, going back to this prophecy, we find that this beast has 10 horns when it comes to power.

And when you go to the beginning of medieval Europe you'll find that Western Europe was dominated initially by 10 separate nations.

They were the Anglo-Saxons, the Burgundians, the Alamanni, the Franks, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Heruli, Lombards and Suwai.

7 of those nations are the foundational nations of Western Europe.

And in this scene, we can see that the crowns, rather than being on the beast itself, not on the head of the beast, are on the horns themselves, indicating that the Roman Empire has collapsed and sovereignty has moved from the beast to the independent nations.

Once again, Daniel 7, shed some light on this.

Let's go back there very quickly And note what it says in verse 24, where the Bible says the 10 horns out of this kingdom are 10 kingdoms that shall arise.

And initially, medieval Europe started off with 10 separate nations.

But we're going to dig a little bit further into that.

If we go back to Revelation chapter 12, we find that there was a beast that preceded this 1 that came from the sea that looks like a leopard.

Revelation chapter 12 is where we will go to next.

And I want you to notice with me the language that is used in verse 4 and 5.

The Bible says, she brought forth, sorry, verse 4, His child drew the third part of the stars of heaven, threw them to the earth.

The dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born.

The 1 in chapter 13 looks like a leopard, this 1 looks like a dragon.

But this 1 also, the Bible describes in verse 3, having 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns on his heads.

You notice here a couple of key differences.

Here, It's still got 7 heads and 10 horns.

The nations, the foundational nations of Western Europe are still there.

But the sovereignty this time, the crowns are on the beast.

And you'll say, no, no, no, that's Satan.

But it is Satan who works through earthly powers.

And so this is Satan working through an earthly power, the Roman Empire, and we know that for sure.

When we notice verse 4, where the Bible says, He stood before the woman to devour her child as soon as it was born.

She brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

You simply ask the question, who was it that tried to destroy Jesus at the time of His birth, and that was the Roman Empire.

So here we have, in chapter 13, the rise of a nation coming from a heavily populated region of the world based on 10 independent nations, The crowns on the horns, with the source of its power being the Roman Empire.

This nation goes on to become a world superpower during the Dark Ages.

The Bible is stating that, "...power was given unto him over all kindreds and tongues and nations." Now, there was only 1 dominant power stretching over the independent nations of Europe during the Middle Ages, and that was the Church of Rome.

But what I want you to notice is just how specific the prophecy becomes about the Vatican state during that time.

First, you will notice the emphasis on worship.

In verse 4 the Bible states they worship the beast, and then in verse 8 the Bible says all the world worships the beast during this era.

This is not just an ordinary nation, this is a nation that is also a religion.

But we must ask, how and when did the Vatican receive such universal power?

And once again, in incredible clarity, the Bible has the answer with 3 specific requirements that were exactly fulfilled.

The end of verse 2, the Bible says, The dragon, we mentioned the dragon, Imperial Rome, gave to him his power, his seat, and great authority.

So we ask the question, did that actually happen?

Well, Let's think about the Church of the Middle Ages.

Because it has the seat, the capital city, of the Roman Empire.

There are 3 of them, his power, his seat, and his authority.

And to understand that, we need to go back in history to a time period when the seat of the Roman Empire was moved from Rome to Constantinople and the emperors of Rome, the political emperors of Rome in the year 538.

03 American Empire

Join us for answers to these questions and more as we trace America's role in Bible prophecy from its beginnings, all the way down till just before Jesus comes again.

In early 1797, General Napoleon Bonaparte was camped in northern Italy, seeking a pathway into the Austrian heartland.

He had spent the last 2 years subduing the Papal States and fending off repeated assaults from a coalition of Italian and Austrian forces, while laying siege to 18, 000 coalition forces he had trapped in Mantua.

Some years previously, in 1793, the French government had passed a resolution calling for an end to the Papal States and the Papal Government.

Having conquered and annexed the Papal States and signed a peace treaty with the Vatican, Napoleon was reticent to exert himself to capture the Pope and fully abolish the papal government.

It was a distraction from the real threat, which was Austria.

And in February 1797, Pius VI was deathly ill.

All Napoleon had to do was wait for him to die and it would be easy to simply interrupt the election of a new Pope and proclaim a Roman Republic in place of the Holy See.

So why exert oneself needlessly when the Austrians were a lethal threat that were constantly harassing his forces?

To accomplish his purpose of bringing an end to the Papal Government, Napoleon had stationed a small deployment of French troops under Brigadier-General Marthurian Leonard Dufault and his older brother, Ambassador Joseph Bonaparte, in Rome.

Dufault was engaged to Joseph Bonaparte's sister-in-law, and the day before the wedding, the 28th of December 1797, a riot broke out in Rome when Dufault and Joseph hosted a revolutionary celebration.

Many of the rioters were calling for an end of the papal government, some even basing their claims on the end of the 42-month prophecy of Revelation 13 that was due to be fulfilled the following year with the end of Vatican political power.

This was a calculation that had been made by a significant number of Bible scholars from the 16th century onwards and was seemingly well known.

Dufault led a small contingent of French troops to put down the riot, which then clashed with Papal troops.

In the Mali, Dufault was shot dead a day before his wedding and becoming a part of the Bonaparte family.

This was an incitement that Napoleon could not ignore.

And on the 10th of February 1798, Napoleon's General Berthier marched into Rome.

He was met with no resistance as the majority of the population saw him as a liberator.

Pius VI was taken prisoner and sent into France, held captive by a Huguenot regiment where he died in exile.

Now why was this important and what does it have to do with the rise to power of the United States?

Well to understand that question we must go back to events that took place in the city of Rome 1, 260 years previously, the 42 months of the prophecy of Revelation 13.

For decades leading up to this, both the Church and the Roman Empire had been riven by division and strife.

Constantine had moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to the city of Constantinople, leaving a political power vacuum in Europe.

The bishops of Rome, Carthage, Constantinople and others had been quarrelling over who was the preeminent bishop.

Justinian was the ruling emperor and he devised a strategy to restore the unity of the empire once and for all.

He would proclaim the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of the entire world, and bestow on him the political powers that have been held by the emperors in the West.

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