His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Next on His Perfect Love, we're getting to know the Antichrist, who he is, and what he's going to do. A warm welcome to you. This is His Perfect Love, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore, where our teacher Matt Vanderwiel serves as pastor. As we head back to Revelation chapter 13, we'll hear more about the authority and popularity of the Antichrist. He is a blasphemer who speaks against God and everything he stands for. But the world will be deceived into following him, and Satan will be behind his every move. Here's pastor Matt with more.

Matt Vanderwiel: So, this blasphemer, that's what we really would call the Antichrist, is really more of an accurate character than the name Antichrist. Antichrist means instead of, right? Uh but blasphemer is really more an accurate description of who he's going to be and what he's going to do for this end time beast. Uh he's a man who speaks against God and everything God stands for, his his name, his tabernacle, and all those who dwell in heaven. And that's exactly where his attacks his attacks are going to come from. Um did you ever know that some of the Roman emperors um blaspheme God this way as well?

They were types of what we call lowercase in the book of John, Antichrists. But they didn't fulfill these prophecies, even if they were the prefigure of this fulfillment. The point is as we've seen this historically on the scene before, right? Just go back a couple thousand years, Rome. What does the beast blaspheme? Those who dwell in heaven, right? I believe this is speaking to the fact that he's no longer again can go to and fro in heaven. He can't go up there himself anymore. Remember, Satan's been kicked out. We read about that already. So, now he is enraged.

So, he's bringing his judgment against the Jewish people that are fleeing for their lives in Petra, Jerusalem, outside of Jerusalem. But he's also then cursing from Earth all those that are in heaven. That means you and I, we're in heaven. But guess what? His words mean nothing to us and can do nothing to us because we're with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We're with the righteous, holy, conquering king. You see, we're taken away from the rapture. So, we're out of his reach, and he can't stand that. He can't stand that.

He can't get to us. And he's given authority to continue for 42 months, and then the beast continues without restraint by God for this period. Now, verse 7 and 8, it was granted him to make war with the saints. And this is hard for us to understand and to overcome them. That's really difficult for us to read here this morning. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation, the whole world. And all who dwell on the Earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Now, so it's it's the Antichrist he's been it's and Satan it's been granted him to make war with the saints. This is one of those ones that we have to pause and be honest and say I don't understand. God, why would you allow this? But God has a plan and purpose. God's never wrong. He doesn't do anything for an ill reason, right? He doesn't lie. He can't sin. There's some reason he's allowing this, and I truly believe it's so that he, by forcing these issues and forcing these things and and this oppression on the Christians that get saved at that time, what I believe it happens, and it's happened throughout history, is it creates a multiplication effect.

If you go back through the early centuries of the church, and I I loved my some of my favorite studies and readings are back from the time of Jesus ascended into heaven. We have our certainly our New Testament scriptures, but then even the first 100 years after that, we have the early church fathers' writings all the way up to really 300 years after that. And we have so much of their writings that we can read back, and some of them are very personal about their own difficulties, struggles, things they were going through. And what they began to describe for us, if you take the ethereal, if you take it all as a collection, we see a multiplication of the church in a way that quite frankly we haven't seen since that time.

I mean, we've seen revivals, we've seen great awakenings, we've seen things. But when the Roman emperors demanded emperor worship and were putting people to death and witnesses of Christ were dying left and right, it did something to the surrounding people that were watching this that saying this doesn't make any sense. Who would be willing to die for something that isn't real? Who You know, this isn't just an ideology, this isn't a club, this isn't something that these people that men, women, children, families are being exterminated for their trust and belief in Jesus Christ, which by the way they're what we know about them is they're paid.

They they pay their taxes. They're good citizens of Rome. They don't cause problems and they're you know, they're the kind of people you want in your communities, you know. The the the whole of Rome could see that about the Christians. That's why they even allowed them to sort of exist in that area because they would at least pay their tribute. They would do those things. However, when it came to emperor worship where you had to acknowledge Caesar as Lord, obviously the Christian we we can't do that, right? We're told specifically in in scripture we can't bow our knee that way.

There there's the line. The line was drawn at that point, right? Because that's idolatry. And so many of a Christian, thousands if not multiple millions through those 300 years gave their life up as a witness to the truth of the gospel. And because of that faithfulness, triple that or quadruple that, we have the data that says even the historians write about people were coming to Christ left and right because they said there's something to this. When it costs them something, they respond with their lives. It is something it's it's a simple thing we understand. If I offer you something and I say oh it's free, it's here, how much value do you place in that?

But if I offer you something and I says this is going to cost you a whole lot, like you're going to have to sign on the dotted line, you know, you're going to be giving your you know, your blood, you know, the whole thing, right? It's going to cost you a lot. Don't you want to take care of that thing or or whatever it might be? Of course you do because you are invested in it. It's cost you a lot. You put a what? A value. You put an assign of value to it. It's business 101, right?

Business economics 101. You assign a value to something. And when you can attribute a value, people will pay all kinds of things, even when it's worth more or less. It's it's the psychology of the mind. Well, when people were alive in those days and they were seeing people murdered before their eyes, I think of women like Perpetua and others who gave a witness her husband was put into the Colosseum. He was murdered first by the lions. She literally had a baby was nursing you. Some of you have heard me share this testimony. She literally turned around.

She was lactating. Excuse me. I don't mean to be graphic. I don't have any other words for it. Literally dripping at that moment. And they sent her into the Colosseum. And people watched this. But it even with Rome, and Rome had all kinds of you know, sporting events, gladiators, different things like that that most of us would be incredibly turned off and and and rightfully so. Uh it was for sport. And even with this one, when she was brought out because she had had child, her parents begged her please just deny Jesus. We'll let you go from prison.

They'll let you have the baby. You can then raise the baby. You know, certainly it's got to be worth it. And she said no, I had a dream and I saw something that reminds me of Jacob's ladder. And I saw my husband climbing the ladder first and made his way up. And there were angels that were holding his hands as he would bring him up. And then I saw myself coming next and I began to climb the ladder and I made my way up the ladder and I began to look around. And I had this amazing experience of peace and joy.

And all these things seem very distant and faint. And my child my child will be with me because my child will come up the ladder someday soon. So, I didn't have to worry. So, when they asked me I told my parents I'm sorry, I cannot deny the name of Jesus Christ, no matter how much you beg me. They said do you not realize that this is our last attempt? They've allowed us to come in. We've given money to the guards. We've bought our way in. We They were people of influence. We were able to get in and even have this last time with you.

This is the last. And she says I know that it I'm going to serve my Lord. And shortly thereafter she left the child. She gave uh a goodbye kiss to the child. She was then brought into the Colosseum. They released the animals. And before they did that because she again was pregnant, they would strip you naked. They It was terrible. And they'd put you right in the Colosseum like that for sport. And she began to lactate. And even the people in Rome at that point turned away. They began booing. For one of the few times they turned away and they were so grossed because they realized what they were actually doing.

Here was a woman, a young woman who's with child, lactating. And the animals mauled her, killed her. And it's just as she saw her husband was killed first, went up to heaven and she followed right after. It's just what God had given her. The Lord will do that, often meet you in those moments when you think what would I do? You know, so many of us have thought what if something ever happens and somebody puts a gun to my head? I know we all think that way. We always think of the worst case scenario. What would we do?

The answer is we don't really know. Until we're in that moment, we all like to think we'd say oh yeah, Lord, I'm going to but we really don't know. But what's interesting is she did. She was willing to count the cost. And there's been testimonies and stories that have come from that of how many people in the prison got in line and said we'll go next. And the church began to multiply and multiply and multiply. And so, friends, I'm not I don't want to speculate, but I really believe that's exactly why God is allowing this in the great tribulation because people are going to be looking around.

Things are already going to seem hopeless with 4 billion people out of 8 billion people if this was the same amount of people alive today. If they're going to you know, it's going to look like it's hopeless on the Earth at that point. And they're going to see these people that are tribulation saints. They're going to get saved and they're going to be willing to be martyred for their faith. And I think that's going to really speak to the people that are alive. It's going to make them consider what do they believe and why do they believe it?

They've been following this Antichrist and it's all these promises been these blasphemies haven't led to anything that's made their lives improve. Once again, a false promise. And we know we know something a little bit about that, right? Remember 30 years ago how technology was going to transform all of the things that we do today, how we're going to be more efficient and So, just so you know, we've already been conditioned for that kind of stuff. Every desk was going to have a computer and that was going to make us way more efficient. A computer is nothing more than a expensive pencil.

Technology is only as good as what you and how you apply the technology you use. And there's nothing and no one that's going to change that, nor AI or anything else. So, he was granted this ability to make war to overcome them. And authority was given to every tribe, tongue, and nation. So, he is going to have world dominance. And to overcome them means exactly what it it sounds like. It means they can be overcome physically, but it does not mean in any way he's going to overcome their faith. And that's the point here. Their faith will not be overcome, but he can overcome the physical, right?

Of the saints. He can destroy their physical lives and by all appearances defeat them because they are people of God. They can never be defeated just like you. So, since again I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, the saints are God's people who come to Christ after the church has been raptured. I can't put the church in here at this point. And again, we read all those that live on this Earth are going to dwell. They're going to worship him whose name has not been written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

I think Revelation 12 for us described a broad phenomenon, satanic persecution during the tribulation period. I think we already kind of understood that because Satan says I know I only got 3 and 1/2 years. I'm getting after it. And he is going to be the main instrument of the persecution. The government of the beast will persecute and kill all those who do not bow and worship the beast. I just want us all to hear that one more time. The government and those alive at that time I don't know if somebody will hear this, if somehow this tape or this audio somehow will make it to somebody during that time that the government and the Antichrist is going to persecute you and kill you if you do not worship him.

If if that is the scenario on the table, you are in the great tribulation. And you need to give your life to Jesus Christ. And those that are sitting here this morning, you have a choice to do that before even getting to the great tribulation. See, the Antichrist is going to demand to be receive worship from the whole Earth. But they're going to pay the price because their names are no longer going to be in the Lamb's book of life, right? I know we're not going to be here. So, who's going to worship him? That tells us something that even during the worst time on the Earth, there are still people that are going to come to Christ.

It just shows you the power of salvation, power of the word of God, power of the gospel. Did you know um when you go back and we were talking about Roman emperors in the days of the early church, there we can look to some historical narratives about this that talk about the early church when all residents in the empire required to burn a pinch of incense before the statue of Caesar. Did anybody ever hear that? Did you guys know that was something that happened? And when they took this incense and almost every citizen was required to do it, reason I'm bringing it up is because it's coming back.

It's going to come back is the point. And they're going to have to take this pinch or there's going to be this incense. They're going to take a pinch of it and they're going to be required to repeat, which was what they had to say, Caesar is Lord. And then they would take and offer the incense. It's hard to believe just 2,000 years ago that was happening after the time Jesus Christ walked the Earth. Now, Christians that refused to do this were persecuted because of it. And the Roman saw it as an act of political allegiance.

That's what happened once already and that's what will happen during the great tribulation. It will be seen as a political allegiance to the one world government. But the Christians clearly saw it as an act of worship. So, that's how Rome got away with it. Rome didn't say it was a religious activity. They said it was a political activity. But the Christians clearly knew what Rome was doing. In his commentary on the book of Revelation, James Allen I just want to quote him because I was reading it. It was interesting. He found some fascinating historical background on the situation of the church of Smyrna at the time, a situation which seems to have uh a lot of Christians around the world when you think of 2025.

Beyond the nominal adherence to the usual deities paganism, the city subscribed enthusiastically to the cult of emperor worship. He goes on to say as early as 196 BC, an altar had been erected to Dea Roma. This goddess was deification of the spirit of Rome. Over a century later, an altar was built to Tiberius Caesar. He points out the worship of the emperor was compulsory. Each year Roman citizen had to burn a pinch of incense on the altar and to acknowledge publicly that Caesar was the supreme Lord. And under demission, that would be 81 to 96 AD, in the book of Revelation we read right before us, okay?

So, this was going on right at the time in which this was being written by the apostle John through the Holy Spirit. Emperor worship was compulsory for every Roman citizen. Did you know that? Emperor worship was was compulsory for every Roman citizen. At the very time God is writing his plan of what's going to happen, there many were bowing a knee and taking this pinch and saying Caesar is Lord. So, there's none of us here that can say we're living in such a time where you know, it's overwhelming and we can't handle it and what's going to happen and oh my, no no.

They were living at the time with the greatest oppression other than outside of the great tribulation. And they were unwilling to bend the knee as this was being given to the apostle John and this was being written right at the time where you had the basically a typology of what's going to come in the great tribulation. I love how God works, you know. He's literally writing something about what will be and he gives them an actual historical event right before their our very eyes. And it's going to go oh by the way it kind of looks like this.

It's just going to be on steroids. Can you imagine the people like they didn't have any problems going like we do today? Oh, this can't, you know, or even unbelievers today. Oh no, pastor, this can't. I mean, come on. We're we're we're evolved. We are evolved. We have humanism. We don't need a God. We have so we're so much smarter than they were 2,000 years ago. Our technology, our our you know, our sociology, our laws, our policy, clearly we're not going to fall for the same thing over and over again. That's exactly what Satan wants you to think.

But God gave them an actual historical account right before their eyes that when this book was read for the first time, there's not a single person when they got to chapter 13 and they saw how they're going to worship the Antichrist, there wasn't a Christian or a person that was even hearing this that went that's not possible. Everyone went that's very probable, even the unbelievers. Even the pagans would have known because they would have said yeah, that's what's happening in Rome right now. That's not like far-fetched. I think sometimes 2,000 years removed we come at it and we're like oh, can it really be like this?

It was. Just not during the great tribulation, but these things historically happened. So, not only did you one you did this pinch of incense, it was also recorded that they would give you a what? Now, we are we talked about it last week. We've moved to a digital society, a digital and next week I have a lot of data. I can't wait to share with you. I pulled up a website from the UN from just New York's meeting in September of 2024. And you look at some of the things that are are specifically called out that came out of that direct meeting technologically around the world of what the plan is put in place for as we talk about a digital society, AI is in there.

How AI needs to be governed and who are the people that are on this council that are going to determine that. So, we understand it's going to be used for control. So, this isn't our lifetime. Like this is you know, this is our lifetime. We're going to see this. It it's going to happen. I I believe these things are going to happen before we're raptured out. But we will all see this in our lifetime. I I I really believe that. If I'm wrong, God forgive me. But but the reason I say is because if I go back in history, before this the even further the persecution came, when this emperor worship began, the Christians were still there.

Most of them hadn't been completely murdered. It started and they thought it was a political move. And then they once once they realized it was really no, it was more religious than what they were trying to do. It just spun as a political move. What started to kind of tee them off on this was they started getting certificates. Rome started issuing a certificate that said you went and gave your annual allegiance. And without the certificate, you had a hard time conducting business because Rome said you don't have the proper authority or certificate. You haven't gone and sworn your allegiance politically to Rome.

And when they didn't do this And oh by the way, the certificate had to be renewed annually. It was on paper. Now, 2,000 years later, we're moving to a digital model where he's showing us like this is what it looked like 2,000 years ago. It more than likely it's going to be similar to this. We know that because as we continue reading, we know they're not going to be able to buy, sell, and trade because the mark of the beast. We know those that are living are going to need to obviously have some type of renewal on that I just explained to you.

Even I have to go in as a dual citizen and go into my the the consulate and renew certain information and update that and do all that. And that's all digital now. I mean, it don't I don't have to go down to Philly like I used to, only when I want to pick up my passport, but that's it. I mean, it it's amazing. We're living in a time where some of the things that are the precursors to what this is going to be like are already here. We already have a time where we can we can use tariffs, we can use things to turn on and off global initiatives.

We have a World Bank and we have the centralization of the World Bank's in a committee, right? In another part of the country not our country, but another you know, part of Europe that already control and influence so much of the global markets. There is no such thing is I mean, so much of the balance sheet I was listening to a lady that uh was interesting. She was talking a little bit about balance sheets and she's you know, investing is interesting because there's certain government agencies that aren't required because of their spending and what they're doing.

They're not required to keep that on the balance sheet. Well, if I can't look at a balance sheet and know exactly where the injections and leakages are, how can I make an informed decision? I really don't know what you're doing as a business. And if you get you've been given some type of protection against that, in other words you you're you're you can't be prosecuted by that. I mean, did did were we alive during the time of COVID, most of us here? Yeah. And did we not see uh uh the government turn around and bail out so many uh banks and all these things that happened?

And yet nobody was uh you know, um arrested, nobody for for different What about the mortgage scandal and how mortgages were being given out and just people and it was literally leading to a high bankruptcy rate and all these things? Like we're seeing it. And all these things needs be because the more you can do those kind of things that show the what's what I like to call chaos theory, the more you can show those kind of things, the more people will beg you for it. They will beg you for the technology that's going to need to be put in place so you could establish proper policy.

Instead of you forcing it down people's throats, they're going to come to you and ask you for it because we have a worldwide problem. We have uh uh an insecurity of food, clothing, all these things around the world. So, we clearly need something where we have to have renewable resources or energy efficiency. So, we need to go through and we need to govern or put governors on resource utilities like uh electricity and everything else. And there are people that are already begging for that. The only problem is we don't have a grid that can support it.

Right? Let's turn off all the fossil fuels. Let's do all that. The problem is even with solar, your backbone infrastructure grid if you if anybody's here electrical or your electrical scientist or electrical engineer, I know we have one right in the back over there in our sound booth is electrical engineer. He understands what I'm saying. We don't have a grid that can support that because you have to have a backbone unless everybody has a uh uh you know, a stack of batteries in their in their house or garage. Guess what? All the solar is doing is what?

Backfeeding to the grid. You're using it, but it doesn't increase the the the size of the pipe if I can say it there. I'm dumb I'm simplifying it, excuse me. It doesn't increase the size of the pipe. You you still can't pull if everybody starts utilizing more of one kind of utility resource, electricity. That's why you have more brownouts. That why you have more of these issues. That's why we have more insecurity within our electrical systems. That's why it's more on the attack spectrum from foreign invaders.

Matt VanderVen: Pastor Matt Vanderwiel on His Perfect Love. Thanks for taking part in today's study of Revelation, a book that comes with a blessing attached to those that read and study it. If you were blessed and encouraged by the Lord, we'd like to know. Email us while it's fresh on your mind. They're at our website, hisperfectlove.org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. Also at our website, you'll find an archive of these studies in Revelation, making it easy to replay a message you enjoy or catch what you miss on the radio. Again, we're at hisperfectlove.org and now at oneplace.com as well.

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