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Lawrenceburg SDA Church

Norman McNulty

American Politics and Adventism

Good morning and happy Sabbath, everyone.

It's good to be with you this morning again.

Before we get into our message for the morning, I would just ask that we would bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the Sabbath day.

We thank you for the privilege of coming and worshiping you today.

And I just pray now that as I speak that you would give me the words that you would want to be spoken and may each 1 of us hear your voice through the message that is given today.

Well for those of us who are Americans, which I believe would be all of us, we've seen some very interesting things happen this past week.

We saw a president reelected, and some may be unhappy, some may be happy.

And what I wanted to talk about today is what should be our perspective as Seventh-day Adventists with respect to political questions, to political issues.

So that's where we're going today And we'll just follow along with some interesting points.

But what I wanted to do, because we not only happen to be Seventh-day Adventists, we happen to be Americans, and in the Bible, we do have a clear picture, in the Bible, of what is going to happen here in the United States of America.

And when we look at the United States of America From that perspective it should give us some clarity of thinking as to what our role should be as Seventh-day Adventists today.

And I want to start off with a quote from Great Controversy page 592 which shows us where we are going.

And this quote includes our scripture reading for today from Revelation 12, verse 17.

Great Controversy page 592, "'Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth, and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance.

Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected.

In the soon coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words, The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." So, here you see the quote from Revelation 12.17, that a time is coming again when the dragon, Satan, is going to be enraged, or wrath for the woman, and will go to make war with that woman who is described as the remnant of God's seed.

And specifically that remnant is described as those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Based on the context of the statement that I just read, that final attack on God's commandment-keeping people has to do with civil legislation in this country that will require religious observance that goes contrary to the law of God.

So when we look at things, perhaps through a political lens maybe we should step back and say, okay, what should we be most concerned about as Adventists, as Christians, as Americans?

What is the role of this country, and what is our role as God's people?

Now, based on that statement I want to go now to Scripture, to Revelation chapter 13, because at the end of Revelation chapter 12 we see that the devil makes a final attack against God's people?

And unless you're wondering where did Ellen White come up with that idea about legislation for Sunday observance?

The answer is found in Revelation chapter 13.

And I'm going to show you from the Bible how we find this very thing happening.

When you look at the book of Revelation, you have 2 halves, and Revelation 12 is right in the middle.

The first half describes Satan's attacks against God's people in the 7 churches, the 7 seals, and the 7 trumpets.

Revelation 12 shows you the great controversy.

And right after you see the great controversy in Revelation 12 the very first thing you see after the great controversy is described in chapter 12 you see Satan's final attack against the remnant.

And then in the following chapter Revelation 14 you see the 144, 000, the 3 angels' messages and the great harvest because Revelation 13 shows what Satan's plan is to destroy the remnant.

But Revelation 14 shows us what God's plan is to preserve the remnant.

Now we're going to look briefly at what Satan tries to do to destroy the remnant here in Revelation 13.

And this should be a familiar chapter, but it's good to go over these things every so often.

Revelation 13, starting in verse 1, And I stood upon 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 head the name of blasphemy." Now, briefly, if you study Daniel 7 you find that a beast describes a kingdom.

So, you have a kingdom coming up out of the sea, and Revelation 17.15 shows us that the sea represents a populated area in the world.

So, you have a beast coming up out of a populated area of the world, and we see, or a kingdom coming out of a populated area of the world, and we see in verse 2 a greater description of who this kingdom is.

Verse 2, And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.

Now, those of you who have studied prophecy, what does this remind you of?

Daniel chapter 7, where you have in order a lion, a bear, a leopard, and then a dreadful, terrible beast.

So, this beast in Revelation 13 is a composite of the beast in Daniel chapter 7.

And it's interesting, notice this beast has the mouth of a lion.

Now, historically who do we understand the lion represented in Daniel 7?

So, when you look at this beast in Revelation chapter 13, he has characteristics of all of the beasts, but specifically this beast has the mouth of a lion, which is the kingdom of Babylon.

And when someone speaks, Where is the speech coming from?

Well, I'll tell you, it's from the inferior left frontal lobe known as Broca's area.

So, what we can say is that this beast is described as Babylon.

He has the mouth of a lion, and notice this, at the end of verse 2, and The dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority.

Here you have a beast, a kingdom, and who is the dragon by the way?

Satan, and you see that in Revelation 12, just from the Bible.

Here you have a kingdom who has been given power by Satan to rule here on this earth.

And this kingdom is a composite of the beast that we saw in Daniel 7, the lion, the bear, the leopard, but he speaks like Babylon because he has the mouth of a lion.

Now, in verse 3, I saw 1 of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast.

I'm going to skip over that at this point.

I want to go on to verse 5 where it says, And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue 40 and 2 months.

So, here you have this power, this kingdom who rules for forty-two months, and specifically he has a mouth, which by the way this is the mouth of the lion, who speaks great blasphemies.

Now, it's interesting when you go back to Daniel 7, do you hear anything in Daniel 7 of great words being spoken?

Daniel 7, If you look, starting in verse 4 you have the first beast of the lion, in verse 5 the beast of the bear, verse 6 the beast of the leopard, verse 7 the dreadful, terrible beast with iron teeth, and then in verse 8 you have a little horn that comes up, and specifically this little horn has a mouth speaking great things.

You see the comparison to Revelation 13 where you have a lion that has a mouth that speaks great things?

And then in verse 11 of Daniel chapter 7, again Daniel sees, I beheld them because of the voice of the great words which the little horn spake.

And again you see further on down in verse 25, speaking of this little horn, He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand, until a time and times and the dividing of times." So, notice these great words that this little horn power is speaking.

And By the way, when you follow the scope of history, the lion is Babylon, the bear is Medo-Persia, the leopard is Greece, the dreadful, terrible beast is pagan Rome, and the little horn is papal Rome.

And papal Rome speaks great words against the God of Heaven, and he tries to change times and laws, and he persecutes the saints for a time, times, and the dividing of time, which is the same as the 42 months in Revelation 13, which was 1, 260 years.

Now, When you then look at Revelation 13, you can see that this beast, this composite beast, is the same thing as the little horn of Daniel chapter 7.

But it's interesting, The first beast of Revelation chapter 13 is not the only beast described in Revelation 13, is that right?

There's another beast that comes after this first beast, and we see that starting in verse 11.

Notice what verse 11 says, and I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth.

Now right there you see the difference between the first beast and the second beast.

The first beast comes out of the sea, the second beast comes out of the earth.

And notice this, he had 2 horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon.

Now, in order for us to understand who this second beast is, we understand from the scope of history that you have the Lion of Babylon, that's 605-539, the Bear of Medo-Persia is 539-331, the Leopard of Greece is 331-168, Pagan Rome is 168 BC to 476 AD, and Papal Rome is 538-1798 when it received the deadly wound.

Therefore, the second beast must come up from the earth around the time that the first beast receives the deadly wound.

And was there a political kingdom that came into existence at the very time that papal Rome was losing its preeminence in Europe.

And we know absolutely from history in an unpopulated area of this world, the great nation of the United States of America rose up into existence.

And it had 2 horns like a lamb, which we have historically believed represent the civil and religious liberty that the United States has offered to us as citizens of this great nation, which is why we can worship here today with freedom of conscience to worship God as we choose.

We still have the freedom to come and worship God today as we choose.

But notice, it's not always going to be that way.

It has 2 horns like a lamb, but it says he spake as a dragon.

A kingdom speaks through the enactment of laws, right?

And when this beast speaks like a dragon, can you have some understanding of what it's going to be like?

Does the Bible tell us how the dragon speaks?

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American Politics and Adventism

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