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It Is Written

Which Way, America?

Eric Flickinger

01 The Rise and Fall of World Empires

You are listening to Which Way America, presented by Pastor Eric Flickinger and brought to you by It Is Written.

Our topic tonight is the rise and fall of world empires.

Thomas Dewey was the governor of New York.

Now, President Truman's approval rating was pretty abysmal.

And so going into this election, everybody knew That Dewey had it in the bag.

It was just a matter of time until the votes bore that out In fact 1 newspaper the Chicago Daily Tribune knew without a doubt that Dewey was going to win and So they wanted to get ahead of their competitors, ahead of their opponents, and they went to the presses to announce Dewey's election.

It ended up when all the votes had come in that Truman actually won.

But Truman got a hold of 1 of those copies of the Chicago Daily Tribune and with great glee held it up to show how wrong they had been.

He was indeed the re-elected President of the United States.

You know, the future is very difficult to predict, And the future of American politics, notoriously difficult to predict.

How many of you have been surprised in the last several years the way things have gone 1 way or the other?

So what about the future of this world and specifically what about the future of this country?

We find that the United States is involved in many different activities around the world.

We find our military engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Currently we are supplying arms to Ukraine.

We'll have to wait and see exactly how that all pans out.

But the United States is involved in different places and some places that you and I don't even know about.

But we are involved all over the world, if not militarily, then diplomatically.

And there are challenges that come with that.

We also face challenges in the area of, well, natural disasters.

What does the future of the United States look like from that perspective?

Down in the south and the east, we deal with hurricanes.

How many of you remember the tornado on Easter Sunday a few years ago?

Came right through here and destroyed a lot of homes, caused a lot of damage.

If you happen to live in the western part of the country, it's droughts, it's wildfires, it's earthquakes.

What does the future hold for our country when we take all that into consideration.

How many of you remember seeing this picture before?

Well fortunately since that took place, things have gotten a whole lot better here in the US, right?

Oh, we look at Virginia Tech, we look at Sandy Hook, we look at the nightclub down in Orlando, the list grows on and on and on it's almost gotten to the point where we go Oh, did you hear of that other shooting that just took place?

I mean it used to be that we didn't hear about these things.

They've almost become commonplace today People are not treating 1 another with the kindness and love and understanding that Jesus would teach us to treat 1 another with.

So things are going in an interesting direction here in this country.

But when it comes to predicting the future, there's really only 1 place that we can go that can forecast the future with absolute certainty.

The Bible helps us to understand what the future looks like, and it hasn't been wrong yet.

So we're going to take a look at some prophecies of the Bible, when they were given, how they were fulfilled, and see whether it is indeed accurate.

Now, there is 1 great book in the Bible in the New Testament that is often associated with or linked with prophecy.

So I'm going to invite you to go over to the book of Revelation with me this evening and we're going to take a brief look at the book of Revelation because we want to be able to understand it or understand how we can understand it so that we don't get confused by it There are a lot of misconceptions about the book of Revelation You go to the book and you find that there are all these different beasts and symbols.

There are angels and there are plagues and there's all kinds of things that cause a lot of people a lot of fear and consternation.

And many people don't even want to open the book of Revelation.

In fact, there are some people that teach that Revelation is a closed book and that you shouldn't even open it and try to understand it.

Well, let's take a look at what the book of Revelation says about itself.

We're going to turn to Revelation 1 verse 1.

Revelation chapter 1 verse 1 begins with these words.

Now I'm going to pause right there for just a moment.

It says this is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

To show or to open or to explain or something along those lines.

The opposite of reveal would be conceal or hide.

So if I were to tell you this evening that I was going to reveal to you how old my wife is, what would you expect me to do?

But if I was going to reveal to you how old she is I would maybe tell you the year she was born, how many years she's lived, or something along those lines.

But this is not the concealing of Jesus Christ.

This is the revelation or the revealing of Jesus Christ.

So it says the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly take place.

And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John.

Verse number 3 says this, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near or the King James says the time is at hand.

So verse 3 says blessed is he who reads those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things which are written in it.

In other words the book of Revelation tells us that if we read it, hear it, keep it, we will receive a what?

How many of you, regardless of however many blessings you already may have from God, how many of you would be open to receiving an additional blessing from God?

All right, he says, I wanna give you a blessing.

He says, blessed is he who does 3 things.

Reads those who hear the words of this prophecy.

And keep those things which are written in it.

So if we want to receive a blessing from God, we go to the book of Revelation, we read it, that means read it, We hear it, in other words we listen to what it has to say, not just reading for the sake of checking it off and moving on to the next thing we have to do in life that day.

02 Prophecy’s Final One-World Power

Our topic tonight is prophecy's final 1 world power.

You know, when you take a look at American politics, the political system, it is a fascinating process.

How many of you have been interested in that from time to time, frequently around election time?

Over the years, different parties and candidates have tried to impress you, the voter, that they know what is best for this country and that they are the ones who can take this country in a better direction than the person who was doing it before.

So in doing that, they come up with slogans to try to encourage you to vote for them.

So I'll share with you a few interesting presidential slogans or campaign slogans from presidential candidates over the years.

He figured most people wanted farms back in those days, and if you voted for him, he could help you get a farm.

I don't know how many people would be excited about that today, maybe some of them would, but he figured that would get him the votes that he wanted.

Now not every vote or not every slogan was a an encouraging slogan.

I'll put it this way, mudslinging is nothing new.

This is the slogan in 1884 for Grover Cleveland.

Blaine and here's his presidential campaign slogan he said Blaine Blaine James G.

Blaine the continental liar from the state of Maine.

So that's how he felt about his opponent and how he wanted the voters to feel about the opponent his opponent as well.

James Blaine had been accused of some underhanded dealings with the railroad industry and he wanted everybody to know about that.

Well not to be outdone James Blaine also had a campaign slogan, and his referred, not surprisingly, to Grover Cleveland.

Here's what Blaine's campaign slogan was, Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?

Now why did he choose that for his campaign slogan?

Well it was because Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock.

And back in those days, that was scandalous.

And so he wanted everybody to know what Cleveland was really like.

Interesting when you look back at history what you learn.

I'm gonna test your knowledge or your memory just a little bit and see if you can tell me which presidential candidate had these slogans back in 1960, whose campaign slogan was, for the future.

Nixon, that was Richard Nixon, very good.

Let's come down a little closer to the present.

1996, the better man for a better America.

All right, let's break into the 2000s here 2004 let America be America again Let America be America again.

Very very good from somewhere back in that neighborhood.

We've got some folks who know these presidential slogans, campaign slogans.

You notice these increase by fours each time?

Oh, everybody seems to know who that is, Donald Trump.

As you look at many of these campaign slogans, see if you can detect a trend for the future.

03 The United States in Bible Prophecy

Our topic tonight is the United States in Bible prophecy.

On September 16, 1620, a group of 101 pilgrims set sail from Plymouth, England, for the shores of the New World, America.

The tiny vessel finally dropped anchor in what would later be known as Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts.

It was a long and grueling journey, and it was December 21st when they finally landed.

That winter was a terrible 1, and it ultimately claimed the lives of half of the pilgrims who came over.

The following spring the captain of the Mayflower announced that he was going to return home to England and he offered free passage home to anyone who wanted to go.

But not a single 1 of them wanted to go home.

Because they had found a land of liberty.

They had found a land of freedom, a place where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.

And really deep inside the heart of every human being is that desire.

And this new world offered them that freedom.

In fact, the United States has as its undergirding principles that of freedom.

In fact, if you take a look at the Declaration of Independence, these are the words that you'll find there.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created what?

Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, what else?

If you take a look at New York Harbor, you'll find right in the middle of it the Statue of Liberty.

She stands there with her torch held aloft, inviting people from around the world to come and experience the liberty and the freedoms that we have here in the United States.

This image has welcomed millions over the years and continues to welcome people to this day.

If you were to visit the Statue of Liberty, you would find engraved upon its base the words of a very powerful poem.

Here's what it says, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.

I lift up my lamp beside the golden door." Millions of people have come to this country to make it great.

People from different cultures, different backgrounds, different belief systems have all come to this country to make it what it is, to make it 1 of the most or perhaps the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

We say God bless America and I believe God has blessed this country.

And if you take a look at every bill in your wallet and coin in your pocket, you will find 4 words on those pieces of coin.

And this nation, this kingdom, this country that we live in today, has welcomed people from all over the world.

And it has, as I mentioned, undergirding it, principles that come from the Bible.

And those principles have helped this nation to be great.

Now, if the United States is so powerful today and so influential today and has its influence spreading around the globe today, Is it possible that somewhere in the Bible God has mentioned this great country?

We know that God does mention, sometimes even by name, great kingdoms or countries or empires.

When we came together on our first night, we saw that there was an image from Daniel chapter 2 that King Nebuchadnezzar had in a dream.

Let's remind ourselves, let's refresh ourselves what this image was about because this image, this prophecy, this dream in Daniel chapter 2 really lays the foundation for a great many other prophecies or understanding many other prophecies in the Bible.

So in this image the head was made of what metal?

And each of those different metals represented a different what?

The head of gold represented the kingdom of Babylon.

What nation or kingdom did that represent?

Represents Medo-Persia, the joint nation or the joint kingdom of the Medes and the Persians.

What about the belly and thighs of brass or bronze?

And then the legs of iron represented the kingdom of?

Then we had those feet and toes of iron and clay, and what did those represent?

And there were 10 different divisions of the Roman Empire, 7 of which are still in existence today, and 3 of which are no longer in existence.

And I mentioned when we looked at this a couple of nights ago, that that's going to help us tomorrow night when we identify the Antichrist.

We're going to be looking at the rise of the Antichrist tomorrow night, so you don't want to miss that 1.

So it looks like God has very clearly identified all these different nations or different kingdoms.

But if he's identified all of them, could he also identify the United States?

Is it mentioned somewhere in the pages of Scripture?

Let's go over to the book of Revelation and we're going to spend a little bit of time there this evening.

Now as we're turning over there, I'll give you a little overview of Revelation chapter 13.

In Revelation chapter 13 verses 1 through 10 describe kind of a leopard-like beast, a composite-looking beast.

We're going to look a little bit more at that 1 tomorrow evening.

But then verses 11 through 17 describe a 2 horn lamb-like beast and we're going to take a look at this 1 in a little more detail this evening.

But let's begin by just going through Revelation chapter 13 verses 1 through 4.

John is writing and he says, Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.

The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.

And I saw 1 of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was what healed and all the world marveled and followed the beast so they worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worship the beast saying who is like the beast Who is able to make war with him?

So very interesting word picture here of a beast, some sort of an animal, a composite of a variety of different animals.

Here's 1 artist's representation of what that beast may have looked like.

Now let me ask you, how many of you have seen this creature over at the Chattanooga Zoo?

No, I don't think any of us have seen this creature over there.

Would it be safe to say that perhaps this beast was symbolic rather than literal?

Sure, we're looking at a symbolic beast here.

This is not a literal creature that is running around the earth right now, but the question is, what is it symbolic of?

Now, when we talk about what things in the Bible symbolize, there are a couple different ways that we can approach this.

We can just guess and speculate and stick identities and identifications to whatever we feel like, or we can follow some Bible principles to help us do it safely and correctly.

04 Rise of the Antichrist

Our topic this evening is rise of the Antichrist.

September 11, 2001 dawned very much like any other day here in the United States of America.

But before the morning grew very old, something very tragic happened.

News stations began to show pictures, videos, of a very tall building with smoke billowing out of it.

How many of you remember where you were and what you were doing when you first saw those images.

I remember exactly where I was, what the room looked like that I was sitting in, what I was eating for breakfast when I first saw those images.

Terrible, terrible images of smoke billowing out of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

And then, it wasn't just 1 plane that had hit, a second 1 hit.

And by then, people began to realize this was not an accident.

Then you had another plane that hit the Pentagon, another plane that fell into a field in Pennsylvania.

And everything came to a standstill here in the United States as people tried to figure out what was going on.

It wasn't long before fingers began to point at a man named Osama bin Laden and a group called Al-Qaeda, that they were the ones responsible for this.

And so a hunt began to try to bring to justice those who had been accused of this heinous act.

But it also didn't take very long for some other theories to pop up.

That maybe it wasn't actually Osama bin Laden who was responsible.

Some groups began to kind of look at slow motion video and the trajectory of planes and smoke and fire billows and things along those lines.

They said, not everything seems to fit together with this narrative that most of the world has picked up on.

And a theory began to float around that it was not Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda that had been responsible for that, but that it was actually the work of the US government itself.

How many of you have heard that theory before?

Now what do we call that kind of a theory we call it a what kind of theory a Conspiracy theory now conspiracy theories are nothing new in fact Americans love conspiracy theories and we've loved them for hundreds of years.

This was certainly not the very first conspiracy theory.

In fact, you go all the way back to Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated in Ford Theater up there in the balcony and the conventional wisdom was that he was assassinated by a man named John Wilkes Booth and that ultimately John Wilkes Booth was killed and so forth.

But Some people said, well, I don't know if that's the whole story.

Maybe and if you pull these pieces together and look at this and that and the other thing in the history and so forth, maybe there was another nefarious organization who was behind that assassination.

How many of you have heard something to that effect?

Then we come down a few more years to John F.

Down there in Texas and the gunman firing from the book depository window and people saw a terrible thing and then some other people said yeah but if you take a look at the the trajectories of the bullets and the splatter and the this and the that it looks like if you look really carefully there must have been another gunman firing from the grassy knoll.

So these conspiracy theories have been around for a long long time and we're not going to delve into them here in this seminar, because you could spend a lifetime digging into these things and probably still not know all the answers to all of the questions.

But I do wanna take a look at something this evening that I think there has indeed been a cover-up on.

And that is the identity of the Antichrist.

Because when you take a look, or when you ask many Christians about the identity of the Antichrist, you get a lot of different answers.

So we're going to take a look this evening at the identity of the Antichrist from the pages of Scripture and see what we can learn.

To begin, I'm going to invite you to turn to Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation chapter 14, and when you get there do put a marker there.

We'll be in and out of this area much this evening.

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Series

Which Way, America?

05 The Dismantling of America

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Parent Series

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Recorded

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Satan’s Twofold Attack on the Creator’s Masterpiece

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20 The Judgment Continues

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21 The Final Phase of the Judgment

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