Light on the Hill

Guest (Female): Next on Light on the Hill, hear what can happen to a world when a totalitarian ruler is in charge and Christians are no longer around.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. The first four seals of the book of Revelation are very telling. They give us insight into the destructive effects of totalitarian rule and even warn us of what happens when the Antichrist is allowed to walk completely unchecked. What we learn today will be eye-opening and powerful. Here's Pastor James to begin.

James Kaddis: Revelation chapter 6, we're going to start in verse 1. I want to say this because there is and always has been a bit of an infatuation and almost a very notable desire that people have had throughout the years, actually throughout the tenure of human history, to want to know what's going to be in the future. It's interesting because the only reliable source that we have ever had to tell us what to expect in the future has been the word of God.

One of the things that's really interesting we learn about the future is that if you are a believer, your future looks exceptional. Make no mistake about it. What you're going to witness, what you're going to experience, and what you're going to be a part of is absolutely thrilling and exciting. You might have a bit of a bumpy ride getting there, especially on this earth, understanding how heavily persecuted Christians are becoming and how much more they're going to become, especially in this country.

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that things are absolutely getting darker, but we have a lot to hope for because we know what the Bible says to expect for our future. If you're a believer, you have everything to be excited about. But if you're not a believer, you better get used to the time that you have on this earth and enjoy it, because it will undoubtedly be the closest thing to heaven you'll ever experience, because hell awaits.

The beginning of the gateway into that hell will be after the church is raptured because if you are here and you are not a believer when that happens, get ready because all hell is going to be unleashed on earth. It is not going to be a fun period of time. What is very interesting, and what I believe keeps the world from just completely imploding the way that it seems to be beginning to do right now, centers around the fact that Christians are here.

This is what the Bible tells us as a preserving influence in this world. The Bible has always made that clear, that as Christians, we are those that stand as the preserving influence. We are the people that are the restraining force. So, things have not become as markedly evil as they can become because of the existence of believers who are filled with the spirit of God. This variable is a really important thing for us to recognize.

Once we begin to dig into what it's going to look like when Christians are actually gone, the picture that we see is actually grim. It's really bad. There's a couple of things that I should note immediately. It's very important because we know this. John tells us this. There's a lot of people that talk to us about this, and it's really important to understand. The spirit of Antichrist has been here forever. We know that.

For thousands of years, we have seen the spirit of Antichrist around us. Understand, anti does not mean against; anti means instead of. So, when we talk about the spirit of Antichrist, understand there has been a spirit that has floated around mankind that has desired to replace God and remove the collective consciousness of God by actually assuming the role of God, which we're seeing that happening in government right now.

We're seeing that happen all over the world in many different ways and different places. We're seeing it happen in society. I don't know how many times I have to focus on people like Yuval Harari, who continue to say that we are basically greater than the God of his fathers because we're producing AI, and it's just such a newer and more powerful platform than God could ever do, which is really funny because if you think about it, AI is a counterfeit picture of what God has already produced in the human brain.

It's really funny when you think about it. If people who have human minds are producing AI, then that means AI, for all intents and purposes, has less of a complexity associated with it than the very mind that created it. There's a reason why it's called artificial intelligence. So, when we talk about the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist is exactly that. It is a mentality that exists in this world that basically says we are going to replace God.

As we replace God by assuming his role, that will help us to remove our collective consciousness of God, which is something that we see. By the way, this happens all the time in government takeovers. When totalitarian rulers come into play, that is exactly what they seek to do. They seek to replace the true and living God. They assume and demand the worship of that true and living God, and in doing so in the name of some type of revolution, they instill within the people that they claim to be protecting and helping a certain fear that never belonged to them.

In the assumption of that specific fear, they begin to take on with this sort of totalitarian mindset, a whole pathway of destruction that destroys lives. What it does going down the road is spectacularly ugly. I think that this is really important to understand this because when we look at the final Antichrist, when we look at the person who does what he ends up doing, you need to understand that he is going to be the most destructive human being that has ever lived on the face of the earth.

What's really unique about what he does and what happens with him is the fact that when he does it, he will be doing it in a time where he will be unchecked because Christians will not be alive on this earth. In other words, we will have been raptured. The funny thing is we have had many Antichrists in the past. Many people that have embodied the spirit of Antichrist and very well could have been used by the devil to become the Antichrist.

But of course, God's timing is always perfect. We've had many of them show their ugly faces throughout the tenure of human history. In every context in which they show their ugly faces, because of the presence and existence of Christians, they have never been able to reach their full potential. Some of you might say that's kind of scary if you think about it because when you look at some of the rulers that existed during the time of World War II, to think about how they were so able to effectively kill and take so many lives, it's very hard to think about it getting a lot worse.

Well, it can, and it actually will. When you look at an example of somebody who I think the devil was preparing to become the Antichrist, Hitler would have been a great example of that. If you understand, if you go back and start to really examine the history of totalitarian rulers, the ones that were the most effective, the most damaging, the most life-threatening, the most evil of the rulers, an overwhelming majority of them come out of the Western European area.

The devil over the years has tried to raise individuals up that would be the perfect candidate to be possessed by him and to function as that final Antichrist, knowing full well that all of that is subject to God's timeline and subject to God's schedule. It's also important to understand that so long as Christians are here on this earth doing the job that they're supposed to be doing because they're filled with the spirit of God and they're standing against unrighteousness, then we know that evil will never come into its complete fruition because we act as that restraining force. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 tells us that, and it's something that we cannot discount.

When we get into chapter 6, what we are going to see is we are going to see the introduction of the Antichrist to us, which is very interesting. The Antichrist is referred to with all kinds of different titles in the Bible. Believe it or not, when we talk about this guy, Antichrist is the most common name used for him, yet he is the least common referred-to name in the Bible. Antichrist is not the most common title given to this guy. We see all kinds of other titles being given to him, the Beast and all kinds of other things.

Those titles, even though they're more common than the title of Antichrist, Antichrist seems to be the one that has resonated with so many people and happens to be the one that is referred to the most, which I think is an important distinction to remember and to understand. I think God allowed that for a reason and for a very distinct purpose, understanding what the full role of this final Antichrist would be.

The other thing that I want you to understand is very important. Revelation chapter 6 is an amazing example of why I say this all the time. When it comes to geopolitics, when it comes to government structures, when it comes to the different types of rulers that pop up, when it comes to history of governments, when it comes to anything socially based like this, Christians should be the best in their understanding of all of these infrastructures.

Pastors should be the foremost experts in geopolitics, whether it be the regional geopolitics of the Middle East or whether it be the geopolitics that surround the whole world as it relates to Bible prophecy. Pastors should be the most knowledgeable in that area. They should be the most gifted. They should be the ones that understand and know more than anybody else in this area. If they know the Bible and they understand what the Bible says about the future, they are going to clearly understand everything that is involved in the geopolitics of the region of the Bible.

They are undoubtedly going to understand the way government infrastructures work. If you do study Bible prophecy and you know what the Bible says concerning these things, then if you are effective at doing it as a pastor, you will undoubtedly be labeled a conspiracy theorist. They will call you that. They call me that all the time. Quite frankly, I think it's an honor because it means they're publicly acknowledging the fact that I speak about it well before everybody else does.

You're typically a conspiracy theorist until it's proven to be true, and then all of a sudden you move on to something else. It is really interesting when you think of the phrase "conspiracy theorist." That was actually a phrase that was created by a series of clandestine operators in order to make the general population think that certain people were crazy for actually telling the truth as they saw it.

If you are effective at what you're doing as a pastor because you're teaching Bible prophecy, you understand the full implications of what happens in government because you study the government examples that you see in the Bible, then you will be the first to lead the charge in speaking against all of these things that are evil, especially within this context. You will be the best in geopolitical analysis. You will be the best in understanding how politics work and you will be the best at analyzing the politics, especially the politics that surround human life, which is all politics.

You'll also understand that politics for the most part emanates from the pulpit, and a lot of people don't recognize that. It is the pulpits that are around the world that formulate the politics of the region, or at least allow it or disallow it. In their allowance of it or disallowance of it, they mold it and they shape it. So, if you know the Bible, you study the Bible, and you understand passages like Revelation chapter 6, then you will hate totalitarianism.

If you understand the full implications of totalitarianism, then you will fight it to the core and you will recognize that that is your job as a Christian. For example, right now in the United States of America, make no mistake about it, we are under a group of totalitarian rulers. You look at the current President of the United States, he is being controlled and handled by a group of people who understand that the only way they can accomplish their goals is to put into effect a certain level of totalitarian rule.

The absolutism in which they begin to function is something that is uniquely remarkable in being able to understand biblical patterns because the Bible already tells us that these things would happen and we should not be surprised with them. Totalitarian rule, for example, often times we see it wrapped up in communism, we see it wrapped up in what people would call socialism, whatever you might want to call it.

Throughout the tenure of human history, let's not even talk about human history, how about we just talk about the last hundred years? Throughout the last hundred years, maybe slightly north of a hundred years, let's just say throughout the last 150 years to be safe. The death toll that has arisen from totalitarian rule alone is floating somewhere around 300 million. You could probably, if you wanted to be super ultra-conservative and deny some of the fringe numbers that get out there, you could probably say 100 million.

In reality, the real number is close to 300 million deaths as a result of totalitarianism in the last 150 years. By the way, just to give you a picture of what that actually looks like, if you took virtually all of the American population, all of the people that live in the United States of America, that is almost all of America. Think about this. That is literally 30 million more than the number that I just gave you. It would be like all of America just dying all of a sudden.

That is the result of totalitarian rule. Here's the thing you have to understand. That is totalitarian rule when kept in check by Christians. That's totalitarian rule when Christians are on this earth and doing their job because they're filled with the spirit. But what we're about to find out is the result of totalitarian rule when Christians are taken off of this earth will amount to not 300 million lives lost in 150 years, but it will amount to what may be anywhere from three to four billion people lost at the snap of a finger.

Almost immediately, not over a hundred years, not over 150 years. Think about that. That's how much of a difference Christians make in standing up and fighting for the truth. When we read these first four seals in the book of Revelation, because that's all we're going to cover, what they call the horsemen of the apocalypse, when we read about these four horsemen, I want you to understand this because it's really important that you recognize this.

They stand as a pattern for what totalitarian rule has always looked like throughout the tenure of human history. They have always stood for that. Everything that happens happens as a result of the initiation of totalitarian rule and its destructive force is remarkable. We're going to learn about the white horse, the rider of the white horse. We're going to learn about the rider of the red horse. He comes next.

Then we're going to learn about the rider of the black horse, which comes next. Then we're going to learn about the rider of the pale horse. Each of them represents something unique. The white horse represents the totalitarian ruler. He is the ultimate totalitarian ruler, by the way. He is Satan. He is the Antichrist. That's what we're talking about. That person will physically be here on this earth. Quite frankly, he might be living on this earth right now; we just haven't met him and he has not been revealed to us.

But it's very likely he's alive on this earth right now. You have a totalitarian ruler that comes in, that's the rider of the white horse. Then what happens immediately after a totalitarian ruler comes into play and puts into effect these policies? What does he bring to the table? He brings war to the table. That's the rider of the red horse. You think war, you think blood. Well, the rider of the red horse brings war.

After he brings war, you've got the rider of the black horse, and that brings famine, economic failure, a whole plethora of insane things. Once that comes into its full fruition, you get the rider of the pale horse, and that is death. In this case, 25 percent of the world's population expires, dies immediately. We need to be thinking about the brevity of that. In every single totalitarian ruler in their regime, you see that pattern being established.

When totalitarianism comes into play, what do they do? They bring war into the picture. You could learn about this from Hitler, Stalin, all these other people that we have studied over the years that were totalitarian rulers. They immediately bring war into the picture. It's the immediate effect. Right after that is when you begin to see economic failure and destruction. Then, of course, right after that, that's when you begin to see massive amounts of death. It's ugly.

When Christians aren't around, when they've been pulled, when they've been removed, understand how dark things are going to be. Do you think that it's a coincidence that the devil tried to shut the church down in the United States of America just before a totalitarian ruler would come into play? When the church is put out of commission, then this insanity happens. People look at the United States of America right now.

How many of you would look at the state of the country it's in right now and say it's happened rapidly? Not only has it happened rapidly, but the amount of wickedness that we see in our country is completely out of control, beyond anything you've ever seen before. Virtually the whole room's raising their hand. But how many of you would also recognize that the church has been virtually extinguished in the United States of America?

They shut down virtually all of the churches. Only 20 percent of all of those churches that shut down have come back online, and even then, they are not functioning the way that they used to function. Think about how insane that is. The church was taken out of commission and it was something that was done by the enemy. Now, the church at this point is raptured. We're gone. The church isn't even on the earth. I would be scared to death to look at what an earth looked like that didn't have Christians on it. It would be scary. It is something to be feared. It's insane, the thought of what the world will be like without any Christians, but we're about to get a glimpse into it.

Guest (Male): We sure will, and we'll have a quick look into that here in just a moment as Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis continues. To hear this message again, visit LightOnTheHillRadio.com or 1Place.com. It's also available through the Light on the Hill app. Light on the Hill is made possible through the generosity of our listeners. If the Lord is leading you to support this ministry, please visit LightOnTheHillRadio.com to donate, or you can give through the Light on the Hill app.

I also want to mention the new book written by Pastor James. It's entitled "The Last Book: A Guide to Revelation Part 1." As the world heads toward its final chapter, the Bible has already revealed every detail. The book of Revelation is God's message of warning, hope, and promise to prepare us for what's coming. In "The Last Book," Pastor James takes us through Revelation chapters 1 through 10 and shows us why we must live wholeheartedly for God, anchored in truth, and awake to the times. You can order a copy today at LightOnTheHillRadio.com or Amazon.

If you hunger for more Bible prophecy, you may want to seek out Pastor James's videos, live or on demand. Many of them relate to current events and Bible prophecy. You can access them at JamesKaddis.com. You can also send us your questions about Revelation and Bible prophecy through the website LightOnTheHillRadio.com. We hope to hear from you soon. Now let's get into the first verse of Revelation chapter 6 with Pastor James.

James Kaddis: Look at what it says in verse 1 of Revelation chapter 6. It says, "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals." By the way, these were the seals that we talked about last week. If you don't remember that, I would highly recommend you go over the Bible study that I went through; it's free and available online. But he opens up one of the seals and John heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, "Come and see."

It's interesting to think about the dynamic that's taking place right now that John is watching. He sees this very first beast that says, "Come on, take a look." He says, "And I saw, and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer." By the way, it is interesting because he oftentimes is conflated with the white horse that exists at the end of Revelation, and this is not the same rider.

The rider of the white horse here is the devil, in essence. This is the Antichrist. Understand, this is the person who is going to live on this earth and be possessed by the devil to do the most demonic work that has ever existed in human history and will ever exist. So we are talking about the Antichrist. This is a person who is seeking to replace God. He is looking at removing any reference of God in the minds and the hearts of the people around him and he himself to become God. We find out that eventually that's true in Revelation 13 where he sets himself up in the temple and he actually demands to be worshipped.

So much so that in Revelation chapter 14, we have angels that are begging the people that are on the earth, "Do not take this mark. If you take the mark, you have no hope; you're gone." And yet people are in line still to take the mark. It's kind of a scary thing when you think about it. Not scary for us because we won't even be around when that actually happens.

Guest (Female): We'll learn more about this coming final Antichrist next time on Light on the Hill as Pastor James Kaddis continues through the book of Revelation. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.