Chris Buttery

Sacramento Central SDA Church

The United States in Bible Prophecy

Particularly we're going to be looking here at the prophecy in Revelation chapter 13 and of course this morning's subject is the United States in Bible prophecy and so we're going to get right into our study here this morning It was July 2, 1776 and there was a major vote taking place and yet the vote was deadlocked.

What was going on was whether a band of colonies should declare their independence from Mother England or stay connected by a political umbilical cord so they debated all day but there was there was there were deadlocked but there was a way to break the tie the Delaware delegation had 3 votes And there were 2 delegates present that particular day.

1 voted for independence, 1 voted against independence.

And the other Delaware delegate was marooned back at home because of some severe rainstorms and thunder and lightning and the rest.

But rumor had it that the Congress was deadlocked and his vote might be the deciding factor for this particular fledgling nation and so on horseback the story goes he rode all night through the mud through the rain and he's as he did he came to that Continental Congress to cast the deciding vote.

Now as legend has it there was a little boy that was looking through the keyhole in the door watching those delegates And his grandpa had assigned him to do this particular task.

And grandpa was standing there with a great rope, next to, in the bell tower, waiting, ready to ring the bell, if independence was declared.

If that continental congress passed the declaration for freedom, would become the declaration of independence.

Grandpa was quite nervous, and he was pacing back and forth saying they'll never sign it They'll never sign it and as the lad looked through the door, he noticed some commotion He saw quill pens moving from hand to hand and finally the boy realized that the Declaration of Independence was being signed.

He knew what he had to do and so with excitement in his eyes he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and at the top of his lungs he cried out, Grandpa, Grandpa, ring, ring for liberty.

And so today we call these the United States of America.

1 nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

This great nation was founded on the basis of freedom and quickly it became a refuge for many from every part of this globe.

This was the nation where the dream could be realized of having a church without a pope and a state without a king.

And the Declaration of Independence contains these words, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even the currency we have today makes that wonderful statement, in God we trust.

God has blessed America, And through this country, He has blessed the entire world.

Surely, surely God was responsible for the founding of America.

Lady Liberty stands in the New York Harbor.

Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send them the homeless tempest-tossed to me.

I lift up my lamp beside the golden door." And you would expect that with America having such a profound influence in the world today, you would expect that the Bible would talk about the United States.

Now understand that the Bible doesn't talk about every nation on planet Earth, it doesn't talk about New Zealand, but it does talk about Australia because Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.

The Bible doesn't talk about Brazil or it doesn't talk about Argentina or about Nairobi, Kenya or any other place, those types of places.

Why does the Bible talk about nations, some nations and not other nations?

The Bible brings into view those nations that impact or have impacted God's people.

So way back at the beginning there in the Garden of Eden, and it's not a country, but it is a geographical location, it's mentioned because that's where the ball got rolling, this whole thing started, you understand.

And then of course you have the Ur of the Chaldees or Mesopotamia mentioned because that's where Abraham came out of, God blessed him and the line came through Abraham.

Then you've got Egypt, that's also mentioned, that nation from which Israel was born and that would be a problem to Israel throughout her history.

And then there was Babylon, who under Nebuchadnezzar besieged and destroyed Jerusalem.

Daniel the prophet and Ezekiel the prophet lived there.

You also have Medo-Persia who let the children of captivity go to go back to Jerusalem so they could rebuild and re-establish their city and their nation.

Greece was mentioned because they ruled over that region and greatly affected in some way, influenced God's people to embrace certain erroneous beliefs.

And then Rome, Rome ruled during the time of Christ.

You remember Christ was nailed to a Roman cross.

And then later you've got Asia Minor, Turkey and then Europe with the spreading of the gospel.

These were all brought to light because these countries, these nations impacted God's people in a significant way and thinking about it in this particular way, it wouldn't be surprising if the Bible...

It would be surprising if the Bible did not mention the United States this is the first time in the history of the world that a nation was founded on a republic on the principles of civil and religious liberty and today the United States is the sole world superpower.

Writing in the Sydney Herald, individuals said Americans should admit the truth and face up to their responsibilities as the undisputed masters of the world.

The fact is no country has been as dominant culturally, economically, technologically, and militarily in the history of the world since the Roman Empire.

More than 1 person has described the United States as being the New Rome.

So down here at the close of time the question of liberty looms large and we asked this morning and the Bible gives us a response will the US Down here at the close of time still be letting freedom ring You know, you've got John the Revelator and I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 13 John the Revelator He's the same man who wrote the gospel of John and the 3 epistles before the book of Revelation that bear his name, he was a prisoner under house arrest on that little island of Patmos.

It was really a pile of rocks in the midst of the beautiful clear waters of the Aegean Sea and he wrote from his vantage point on the isle of Patmos and we read in Revelation chapter 13 verses 1 & 2 and I stood upon the sand of the sea and I 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 unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great or authority You understand this power that the Bible speaks of is is not just a beast power, it's a nation.

In Bible prophecy a beast represents a kingdom or a nation.

It's not a bad word, it's not a derogatory remark and certainly isn't referring to your mother-in-law, it just references a nation you understand, which we've been looking at from night to night.

And this small nation here in Revelation chapter 13 verse 1 we see the Bible represents as Vatican City, the Holy See.

The Bible said that this small nation would be given power, seat, and great authority.

And how is it possible that this nation achieved that?

Well as the Vatican said herself, and meekly stepping to the throne of Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages.

And so when Constantine left Rome and relocated the seat of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, Istanbul known today, there was a power vacuum left down there in Rome and authority was given to the Church of Rome and they stepped into this breach, thus they became a very powerful nation if we could put it that way.

We read in verse 10, just jump down there, we're in Revelation 13 still, verse 10, it says, He that leads into captivity, shall what friends?

He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.

This is the prediction of the deadly wound that we read about in verse 3 that occurred in the year 1798.

In 1798 General Berthier, Napoleon's general, went down to Vatican City and he took the Pope captive.

The Pope was put into exile, sadly died a couple of years later, but in essence the Vatican was stripped away, the power was stripped away from them in that particular year.

This is the prophecy in which the papacy received the deadly wound.

Now we see a beast coming up onto the prophetic picture in verse 11.

By the way, in verse 10 we read about this power being a persecuting power certainly it led people captive, certainly it killed with the sword and now it would be led captive and it would be killed by the sword.

As it's going down there in 1798, verse 11 tells us there's another beast that's coming up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon.

Remember in Bible prophecy a beast represents a nation that's exactly right so the question we're going to be asking here this morning is who is this second beast we can know something about this nation by the identifying features that we get right here in Revelation chapter 13 and verse 11.

Now what we do know right now is that this beast power, this nation, would arise around the year 1798 as the papacy received his deadly wound when Berthier took the Pope captive and basically took away, stripped the power away from the church that around that time around that year this new nation would rise to power and we read in verse 11 I beheld another beast coming up out of the what friends the earth that's exactly right how do we understand this We're told that the other nations come up out of water.

We read that in verse 1, we read that about the beasts in Daniel chapter 7.

They come up out of the water and water in Bible prophecy represents multitudes, peoples, nations, a heavy populated area.

So this nation in fact would then come up in a comparatively unpopulated area in comparison to where these other nations rose up.

There would not be masses and masses of people where this second nation would come up.

Now it also says in verse 11 that it came up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb.

Now generally when you read about a lamb in Revelation, you think of Jesus, but in this case, it's not necessarily the case.

This particular power would be perhaps lamb-like, Christ-like, Jesus-like, you understand.

The other nations had horns, and we read in verse 1 of Revelation 13 that it had crowns on its horns.

This particular beast has horns but it does not have any any crowns on them.

So whenever we see a crown that just represents a monarchy, a king residing you understand.

So this nation that would come up out of the earth has no crowns therefore we can understand that there would be no monarchy, no king you understand or queen so to speak.

And unlike the beasts in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7, these beasts were beasts of prey that we read.

This particular animal is not a beast of prey.

It did not subjugate other great world powers on its way to prominence.

It did not conquer any other nations, great nations that were ruling.

So it came to power somewhat peacefully when compared to how these other nations arose there would be no worldwide conflict of any type so what we're looking at here this morning we must be convinced from what the Bible tells us that there is only 1 nation on planet earth that could possibly meet these 4 identifying characteristics.

I would say based upon what the Bible says geographically, religiously, politically this nation can be none other than the United States of America.

And when it arose, it arose and was known as the New World.

It was a haven for people seeking a brand new life, people who were escaping religious intolerance and persecution and was founded, as I mentioned before, on the great principles of civil and religious liberty.

But between then and now, a great change has taken place in this wonderful country.

I'm not telling you this isn't a great nation, still it certainly is, but this nation is not what it used to be.

Not what it used to be, the nation that George Washington left behind, or that James Madison left behind, or that Thomas Jefferson left behind.

There's been a strange change in this nation and I'm sure that you are seeing it as clearly as I am.

You see the nation, this nation stands for freedom and with freedom comes responsibility.

You may know of an individual who flies a plane or perhaps you do yourself, you have the freedom to get a license to fly a plane but with freedom comes responsibility, you don't have the freedom to fly that plane into a building we have the freedom with our iPhones and to take photos and that type of thing but what we don't have...

With freedom brings responsibility we don't have the the right to just go ahead and take some images and vile images of that and circulate them all around the world so people can see them you understand?

In this country you're free to do certain things but with that freedom comes responsibility.

This nation was for those who wanted to worship God and now it is turning into a paradise for those who do not want to worship God.

Furthermore, these same individuals want to get in the way and oppose those who do want to worship God.

You see, there has been a change taking place.

Forces directly opposed to the gospel have infiltrated every level of society.

Today's society is corrupted by immorality and immorality gets you notoriety and notoriety gets you on television and it makes you rich even if you are morally bankrupt you are rewarded today.

Anything goes on TV just as long as it doesn't get in the way of the ratings and the fault simply doesn't lie with Hollywood and with the network.

You see there is a nation of individuals who consume this and they do not react to these things like they did long ago when these things would have been seen as scandalous you see there is a change that has taken place popular music which makes its way to the top of the charts glorifies immorality and murder and this is a tragic age in which we live People seem to have no shame anymore.

Anil Kanda

Ceres SDA Church

Esther & End Time Events

Today's message is entitled Esther and end time events Esther and end time events How many people were here last week raise your hand?

Okay last week We began a study in the book of Esther today We'll conclude this two-part series in the book of Esther and we're gonna be taking a look at end time events and the book of Esther Why don't we bow our heads for a word of prayer and thank the Lord for those showers of blessings?

We want to thank you for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Lord this last Wednesday we were learning about the early rain and our need of it, as well as the latter rain.

God, you said, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.

We need what only you can truly give that you may be glorified through our weak lives.

All right, make sure you have your Bibles for today.

Many of you guys know that I take a few classes at Stan State and I had to take a class this semester It's required for my major.

It's called gender and sexuality with reference to The Middle East I didn't want to take the class.

And so I ended up having to take the class unfortunately this semester.

And so I took the class and it was so interesting.

He is somebody who does not believe in God and he lets people know that.

He also is somebody that's been on the Bill Meyer show.

Maybe it's still the same name, but he is somebody who's an atheist as well Okay, and so this teacher is actually well known He's considered 1 of the most foremost authorities on the Middle East still to this day and he teaches at Stan State of all places And so anyways, he asked a question yesterday, yesterday, and this was his question.

He says, today I'm going to be talking about Islam.

And he said, I'm going to be discussing how in Islam and not just Islam, Christianity and Judaism, how the male picture of God found in these religions encourages the sexism that is still present today.

And he said, what do you think about that?

And it's at these moments that I just start praying and I put my head down and I said, Lord, guard my mouth right now.

And I sit way in the back like a bad student, okay?

I sit way in the back and I'm like, it's better for me not to talk, okay?

Now imagine if a teacher said that to you and you were in that class and he says, I want you to talk about how the maleness of God encourages the sexism that is present today.

Now before you answer, many of the students immediately raised their hands and said, that's absolutely right.

Many people said 1 of the reasons why there is sexism today, there is a gender bias, That's why males are considered greater than females in our current society why they're suppressed is because of religion And they begin to go after this religion and that religion in this religion and they begin to go after Christian religion and it's that moment that I'm sitting in the back I'm like And I'm listening to this and finally I raised my hand I said, okay, I'm gonna raise my hand now I can't hold anymore Open my mouth and I would say Lord be with my mouth and I said these words I said, you know, it's very interesting when you actually study out the Old Testament, you find there are actually female attributes that are given to God.

And I said, regardless of the Attributes that have been given to God found in Scripture people have chosen to emphasize solely the male attributes of God To encourage sexism and I said I do agree with that part unfortunately people take Characteristics of God without taking the whole picture of God and they can use it sometimes in a very very negative way And then I give them another example.

They have female goddesses Female gods and yet sexism is still takes place there.

It's how people are interpreting the data and then what they're choosing to emphasize on.

And so as soon as I finished with my long tirade, everyone was looking at me, I was like, this is so awkward right now.

He's like, everyone wants to come out with their feminist Christianity version of the Bible.

And then somebody raises their hands, okay.

They raise their hand and they say yeah, I don't agree with that You and you actually take a good look at what the Bible says The Bible says God says I will make a helper for Adam Eve came out of the rib of Adam Showing that God really promotes sexism and I was like only in the English It says help me.

Okay, and I started raising my hand and I said, did you know when you read that word helper in?

The book of Genesis when God says I will make a helper for Adam 16 times that's appears in the Old Testament as military aid.

And then he, the teacher said, well where else do you see these female characteristics of God?

When you read Genesis chapter 1, what does the Bible say?

Male and female, he made them in the image of God, he made them, right?

In fact, when you actually study out the Holy Spirit, there is in the Hebrew certain words that have more of a female attribute.

And so I was sharing this, and then somebody raises their hand and they said, yeah, when you read 1 Corinthians, it says that women should not be able to teach.

And then the teacher turned to me and says, what do you think about that?

And I made this kind of smirk remark I said I feel like I'm in a Bible class and everyone started laughing.

So anyways so at that moment I said well when you take a good look at holy writings any holy writings It is incorrect hermeneutics to take a verse and make it a doctrinal teaching.

I said anybody who studies out the Bible understands this concept.

You don't just take a verse and say this is now a doctrinal teaching of the church well it went back and forth and finally I did something I really believe the Lord led in here led in this moment I took out this book That we have been required to read it's called guests of the sheik and it describes an American woman that lived in an Iraqi village and what she encounters she encounters some of the same prejudices and norms and Dynamics in that society that are that were present probably during the time of Christ as well.

And so I said, when you take a look at this book, even Jesus in his uplifting of women probably violated the dynamics that are in this Middle Eastern culture.

I said, when you take a good look at the life of Jesus, notice how he interacted with women.

He did so many things to uplift women from the way current society taught how they regarded women.

Think about the woman that was about to be stoned.

I said in that culture, where was the male who was caught in adultery?

I said you think about Mary Magdalene when 1 of his own disciples rebuked her Because she decided to spend her wealth on honoring Jesus And I brought up these very very examples and it's that moment that the teacher stopped talking about Christianity You know and I realized something, you know Unfortunately, we do have to deal when we're defending the name of Christ.

We do have to deal with a lot of medieval Christianity that's mixed in to Christianity of the Bible, right and Sometimes we always have to just navigate and say no that's not what the Bible teaches this is the truth but when you begin to present the picture of Jesus amen you present the picture of Jesus he is the ultimate example and that's what I told him I said look when you want to look at the founder of Christianity look at him and he would have violated the norms even in this book and I want you to understand something this is so amazing we follow somebody Who set the example and that's Jesus Christ.

Why am I bringing this up because it was very relevant when I came across this quote that I shared last week This is what Ellen White says right here Daughters of God in ancient times the Lord worked in a wonderful way through what?

Consecrated women who united in his work with men who he had chosen to stand as representatives.

Women to gain great and decisive victories more than once and in times of emergencies.

Front and worked through them for the salvation of many lives.

Through Esther the Queen the Lord accomplished a mighty what?

And women can you say amen to that it should be louder from the women by the way in that class I forgot to mention this 0.1 of the other students who happen to be either a Muslim or Christian, I'm not sure, towards the end, and she says, she kind of brings it up, it was kind of irrelevant at the moment, we were talking about something else, and she says, oh, and by the way, did you know that God created Eve last because she was to be the best and part of creation?

And I was like, oh, I accept, I'll work with that, you know, she's on my side, you know, anyways.

But here's the thing, sometimes there's a time to keep shut And sometimes there's a time to open your mouth.

Especially when the name of the Lord is at stake, right?

Now we're going to continue with our message today again.

It's called Esther and end time events here we see how God used a woman like Esther.

Remember last week we learned 2 important facts about the book of Esther.

Number 1 the word God is not mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther.

And number 2 we learned that Esther is the most widely mentioned female in all of scripture.

Number 1, no mention of God in the book of Esther.

Number 2, Esther is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other female.

And so when we go to the book of Esther, We begin to see what God is really doing Sometimes God works in a very noisy loud way and then sometimes God works in the shadows behind the scenes God is an unsung hero and he is changing and guiding events to take place and so when you're reading the book of Esther you see this remarkable providence over and over and over again and what we're going to be doing is we're going to be taking a good look on how the book of Esther is symbolic and parallels end time events and what that means to us.

Xerxes and ER Room

Today's sermon is entitled Xerxes and the ER Room.

Now right off the bat, I'm going to tell you, we're going to be taking a good look at the book of Esther today.

So in order to take a good look at the book of Esther, you need to have a Bible, okay?

So we're going to be going into the Bible into the Word of God today now It's a You know before we jump into this sermon, I really gotta say I'm going to really miss Timmy and Shaheen, aren't you?

They have been wonderful instruments of the Lord now where is she he right now.

Now I actually meant she he when I was going to school up north.

And he was actually a friend who I didn't want to be a friend to in the beginning.

I actually tried avoiding this guy when I first met him.

And so Shaheen has been a very faithful brother.

He's somebody who's willing to minister and go all out for anybody who needs help.

And I appreciate Timmy and his involvement.

He's gonna be going back to Walla Walla to finish up his studies.

But the reason why I brought Shaheen up here is because Shaheen has a talent that a lot of people don't know.

And that is this Shaheen loves to whistle.

Now you may think to yourself, oh come on, whistling, what's the big deal?

You have not heard whistling until you have heard Shaheen whistle.

And Shaheen, I think now would be a good time to demonstrate that talent.

Can we turn this mic on really, really loud?

When you're as old as me and I'm older, you can whistle as well as I can.

I heard some people attempting to harmonizing.

But anyways, sorry, no offense, but I appreciate the talents and gifts that God gives to us.

I mean, it's wonderful when you're driving with that guy and he just starts whistling like that.

Alright, why don't we start with a word of prayer.

Let's ask God to bless us with the Spirit right now.

Father in heaven, thank you so much again for the Holy Spirit.

Lord, thank you so much for the promise of the latter rain.

And God, we are praying hearts would be open to what your Spirit wants to say.

Lord, we pray that we may understand deep things of the Word of God May you revive our hearts again Lord.

We need revival personal revival in each 1 of our lives Thank you so much for hearing our prayer in the name of Jesus.

Amen Again, the name of the sermon is called Xerxes and the ER Room.

I'm gonna share a little bit about my adventure that I had a few weeks ago.

Some of you know, many of you know that I got really, really sick.

I actually, during the summer, had different events that were going on I had you know, we had that Patterson evangelistic series that was taking place and we had VBS and then we had camp meeting and so there was a lot of planning that was involved and You know sometimes when you're going from event to event to event without really having time to reflect, to think, to rest, your body, which is composed of so many different kinds of intricate systems, can be affected.

Do you guys know what the word autonomic means?

And we have so many systems that don't require conscious thought, right?

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The United States in Bible Prophecy

52m

Esther & End Time Events

46m

Xerxes and ER Room

45m

The Pope’s Visit

14m

ISIS, Islam, and the End Times

1h 18m

Gospel of Ashley Madison

30m

How Family Life Began

27m

Praying with Praise

34m

Congruence to Influence

26m

Casting Your Net

53m

Freedumb

50m

From Everest to His Rest

37m

Sound Doctrine