The Watchman’s Call

Voiceover: Standing at the intersection of the word and the world, there is a clear sound for uncertain times. Welcome to The Watchman's Call. Join us as we stand on the ramparts of scripture to examine the intersection of biblical prophecy and modern culture. The headlines are changing, but the blueprint has already been written. Listen as Pastor Andy Woods uncovers the prophetic significance of the world we live in. The Watchman's Call starts now.

Dr. Andy Woods: And we are continuing on with our series, One Second After the Rapture. What's going to happen for the believer? Three things: reunion, resurrection, and reward. Well, what's going to happen for unsaved humanity left behind? A perverted explanation for the missing will be offered. There will be a dramatic change in God's program from the church to Israel, and there will be a change in the workings of the Holy Spirit at that point. Although the Holy Spirit will still be present on the earth, the world will know exactly who the Antichrist is, and Satan's project of complete and total global governance will be accomplished.

Now, something else will happen for the unsaved world one second after the Rapture. Humanity will be quickly ushered into one-world religion. We find a description of this in the book of Revelation, Chapter 17 and verse 15. It says, "The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues." Harlotry in scripture, when it's used as a symbol, invariably refers to false religion. And then when it mentions the influence of this harlot, it portrays her, personifies her, sitting on waters which are identified as peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

When you track those four nouns throughout the book of Revelation, like in Revelation Chapter 5, verse 9, for example, they always refer to the totality of humanity. So, what is this predicting? This is predicting a global one-world religious system that will exist in the events of the tribulation period under the Antichrist himself. Now, I believe that the tapestry for this one-world religion is already being constructed through something called ecumenism, which is the urge to merge—the desire amongst professing Christians to merge with belief systems that are hostile or alien theologically to their own belief system.

I remember the movement in the 1980s and the 1990s entitled "Evangelicals and Catholics Together," ECT. And the idea was let's forget any differences that we as Protestants have with the Roman Catholic Church, although there are some profound differences, and let's all come together as one and not evangelize one another's sheepfolds. That's an example of ecumenism. And as bad as that was, it paved the way to something called Chrislam. Chrislam is the idea that we're going to take the principles of Christianity and the principles of Islam and call them common Abrahamic faiths.

We then act like we're all one big happy family and say things like, "Well, Muslims are really Christians, but they just don't know it yet," ignoring texts like Acts Chapter 4, verse 12, which indicate there is one name under heaven by which we must be saved: the name Christ Jesus. Jesus said in John 14, verse 6, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." 1 Timothy Chapter 2, verse 5 says, "There is one man and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."

Yet, in spite of these differences, there is a move within Christianity to merge together with Muslims and with Roman Catholics and to make it sound like we're all one big happy family. This is something called ecumenism. Here's something that I found recently in print. It says, "On Maundy Thursday, Jesus knelt and washed the feet of many of those who would abandon him. His humble action was a token of his love that knew no bounds or boundaries and is central to the Christian belief. The love he showed when he walked on the earth reflected the Jewish ethic of caring for the stranger and those in need, a deep human instinct echoed in Islam and other traditions and in the hearts of all those who seek the good of others."

What is that kind of a statement? That's an ecumenical statement. Ecumenism is defined as the urge to merge, sort of coming together in one common spiritual tapestry with movements or groups that have beliefs that are contrary and in many cases hostile to the Bible. And it's interesting when you look at Chrislam and you look at "Evangelicals and Catholics Together"—those movements—how things are being moved in this direction of one-world religion. Those movements are accomplishing great feats in terms of their accomplishment with Bible-believing Christians present.

Bible-believing Christians are being confused and deceived and going along with these movements. And if these movements can have progress with Bible-believing Christians in a state of deception present, can you imagine how they will accelerate dramatically with all of the Bible-believing Christians gone through the Rapture? This is why one-worldism, one-world religionism, will accelerate and reach its zenith one second after the Rapture. The ecumenical movement that we see today, with the opposition completely and totally removed, will be put on steroids, and humanity will quickly move into one-world religiosity one second after the Rapture.

But in addition to that, there's something else that's coming upon the human race one second after the Rapture, and it has to do with the signs and wonders movement. There is a counterfeit signs and wonders movement on the horizon one second after the Rapture, the likes of which humanity has never seen before. We see it described in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 and verse 9, as Paul is talking about Satan's man of the hour, the coming Antichrist. He says, "The one whose coming is in accordance with the activity of Satan with all power, signs, and wonders."

In other words, when this Antichrist comes, he's coming with all power, signs, and wonders. Now, the Greek word for "powers" there is "dunamis." The Greek word for "signs" there is "semeion," and the Greek word for "wonders" there is "teras." What you'll see is those are the exact same three terms that are used to describe the ministry of Jesus Christ himself. "Powers" or "dunamis" is used of Christ's ministry in Matthew 11, verse 20. "Signs," or "semeion," is used of Christ's ministry in John 20, verse 30. And "teras," or "wonders," is used of Christ's ministry in Acts 2, verse 22.

I bring this to your attention simply to show us that the signs and wonders movement, the signs and wonders that the Antichrist will orchestrate, will be just as valid, just as real, and just as authentic as were the signs and wonders brought forth by none other than and through Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. So, this is not fake hokum signs and wonders. This is not magic tricks. These are real signs and wonders that will be unleashed through the Antichrist once the restrainer is removed. You have to understand something about Satan. Satan can perform miracles.

Now, he doesn't have the same reservoir of miracle-working ability as does God, but he has a very powerful ability to work miracles along with his demons. Countless passages of scripture talk about this. One is found in Exodus Chapters 7 and 8, where Pharaoh's magicians could imitate the miracles of Moses and Aaron up to a point. They couldn't reverse divine miracles brought forth by Moses and Aaron, but they could imitate at least two of them. I believe it was the Nile being changed to blood and also the multiplication of the frogs.

But when it came to changing the dirt into gnats, which is something that God did, they said, "This is the finger of God. We can't reproduce this." So, they could multiply life, they could multiply inanimate or change inanimate objects like the Nile River, but when it came to moving from dirt to gnats—non-life to life—they couldn't do that. They couldn't replicate that. And so they said, "This is the finger of God." But make no mistake about it, the satanic miracle-working powers of Satan, although not as powerful as God, are very, very real.

Here are some verses that teach this. I wish we had time to get into every one of them, but you can look up Deuteronomy 13, verses 1 through 3, and you'll see it. Job 1, verses 12 through 19, and Job 2, verses 7 and 8, and you'll see it. 1 Samuel Chapter 28, and you'll see it. Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23, you'll see it. Matthew 24, verse 24, you'll see it. Acts 8, verse 9, with Simon the Sorcerer wowing an entire area there—Samaria, I believe it was—with his miracle-working power. Acts 8, verse 9.

You'll see a slave girl under the power of a demon in the city of Philippi with a capacity to predict the future, making much money for her owner. Acts 16, verse 16. You'll see it in Galatians 1, verses 6 through 9. You see it in the passage we're looking at here, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9. And then read Revelation 13, and you'll see constant references to Satan's miracle-working power. Revelation 13, verse 3, verse 13, and verse 15. In fact, Satan, under powers orchestrated through demons, will gather all of the nations to Armageddon one day in the events of the tribulation period. Revelation 16, verses 13 and 14.

So, the truth of the matter is this miracle-working power of Satan exists. And once the restrainer is gone and Satan is allowed to release his man of the hour, the world will see a display of miracles perhaps like it's never seen before since the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we are told over and over again in scripture not to evaluate truth by an experience. If you're evaluating truth, whether something is true or not true, by an experience, you're a sitting duck for the Antichrist, because Satan and the Antichrist will give all kinds of experiences.

One of the things that will happen is the false prophet, under satanic powers, will call down fire from heaven in the full view of men, just like Elijah did in the Old Testament. You see a description of that also in Revelation Chapter 13. So, Christian, I would encourage you very strongly to not accept things as true based on experiences because the devil and the Antichrist can give experiences. Paul warned about this in the book of Galatians, Chapter 1, verses 6 through 9. He says, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ."

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As I have said before, so I say again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed." What Paul is saying to the Galatians is look, if an angel shows up at your bedside tonight, a beautiful angel, but that angel speaks words contrary to what we apostles have taught, then you are to dismiss that experience as satanic. You are to dismiss anything as satanic that contradicts God's revealed word.

It is impossible for God to lie, Hebrews 6, verse 18 tells us. God can't say one thing on Monday and something completely different on Tuesday. That's an impossibility for God. And so we have 66 books of the Bible where God has spoken, and that's how we evaluate truth. Does it harmonize with scripture or does it violate or contradict scripture? That's the standard. It doesn't matter how popular someone is, how beautiful someone is, how miraculous someone is, what kind of signs and wonders they bring forth. Those things are irrelevant since Satan can produce all of those things.

The issue is does their doctrine line up with God's revealed truth? We're living in a society today that is being conditioned to believe that something is true because there's an experience that accompanied it. I'm not here to doubt people's experiences. What I'm here to question is have you tested the experience to determine if it's really from God or not? Joseph Smith got a series of doctrines from an angel named Moroni, and he gave us the doctrines of Mormonism which contradict the Bible. Muhammad, from an angel named Gabriel, got a source of doctrines that we call the religion of Islam which contradicts the Bible.

I'm not here to question the experiences of Joseph Smith or question whether Muhammad really had experiences. I'm assuming that they did. What I'm saying is those experiences could have been satanic, and in fact were satanic, because the doctrines that came forth from those encounters contradict the word of God. As long as we are evaluating things based on experiences, the world is being set up to absorb the doctrines of the Antichrist because he will give very authentic, real, counterfeit signs and wonders. What can humanity expect to happen one second after the Rapture? A signs and wonders movement the likes of which probably has never been known, going all the way back to the time of Christ.

What else can the world expect to experience one second after the Rapture? This takes us to number seven on our list of eight. One second after the Rapture, the world will see the immediate demise of the United States of America. We're coming up on our 250th birthday here this month, celebrating our nation's birth and origin, and we're wondering what has made America great. The book of Proverbs tells us in Proverbs 14, verse 34, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Psalm 33, verse 12 says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."

So, it's not tax rates and keeping inflation under control and these kinds of things that make a country great. What makes a country great is the righteousness of its people and the righteousness of its leaders and citizens. America certainly is not a perfect country, but there's no doubt that our country was started on a Christian foundation. In fact, here is a quote from Justice David Josiah Brewer in a famous case going back to 1892, a Supreme Court case entitled "The Church of the Holy Trinity vs. the United States of America." This in essence was a case that dealt with a pastor coming from across the Atlantic to serve as a pastor in the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York.

This arrangement ran afoul of our immigration laws, and so he was prevented from making that trip and coming into our country. This is a case that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the obvious intent of that immigration law was not to stop a Christian pastor from doing his job, because we all know that America was founded as a Christian nation. So, it wouldn't make any sense to interpret that law in a way that violated Christianity. Justice David Josiah Brewer, writing for the unanimous majority, cited 87 historical precedents, which are pure facts, showing us that America was started as a Christian nation.

Brewer says, "This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation. These are not the sayings and declarations of private persons, they are organic utterances, they speak the voice of the entire people. These and many other matters which might be noticed at a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." He started with Christopher Columbus. Columbus reveals why he came to this country in his book called "The Book of Prophecies." He felt the reason he came to this country was to evangelize the lost, and he wanted to do that fast because he believed that the second coming was imminent.

Columbus believed that he was actually fulfilling prophecies in the book of Isaiah when he made that voyage in 1492. Columbus sailed across the ocean blue. That's where Justice David Josiah Brewer starts in this Supreme Court case and goes from there, 87 historical precedents leading to the conclusion this is a Christian nation and therefore interpreting the immigration law in a way that goes against a pastor doing his work could not be the true intent of the legislature. This is our history. And today we have within our country a very sizeable population of Christians.

America is different than most countries of the world. In our country, a Christian can rise to the highest level in any sphere of society. They can rise to the highest level in business, economics, academia, politics, athletics—you name it, a Christian can rise to the highest level. Now, that's not true in most countries of the world. In most countries of the world, let's take China, for example, a communist country, Christians are at the lowest level of society. They're street sweepers, societally considered to be nothings.

Since this is true of America, you can imagine the impact that the Rapture would have on our country where people at the highest level suddenly disappear and are taken to heaven to be with the Lord. I mean, people at the highest levels of economics or business or marketing or politics instantaneously disappear. We talk a lot about the brain drain. Think about the brain drain that this would have on our country. I believe this becomes one of the reasons perhaps why the United States of America is not found in the pages of Bible prophecy.

Many countries are listed, whether it's Rosh or Russia, Magog or Central Asia, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer or Togarmah, otherwise known as Turkey. Persia or Iran is mentioned. Cush or the Sudan is mentioned. Put or Libya is mentioned. Sheba and Dedan, modern-day Saudi Arabia, is mentioned. The merchants of Tarshish, which we believe is Spain, is mentioned, but there's no mention in any prophetic text of the United States of America. What happened to the United States of America? One possibility is that America simply became a third-rate power because she went back on the reason she became great—righteousness exalts a nation. That's a more of a pessimistic view of it.

But there's another possibility that maybe the Rapture of the church, taking the leaders of society out of the way instantaneously, had a detrimental impact on the United States of America. If that latter theory holds true, then this becomes one of the reasons why America does not figure prominently—in fact, it does not figure at all—in the last days scenario. I think what the world will experience one second after the Rapture will be the instantaneous decline of the United States of America. These are all things that will happen one second after the Rapture, and we will wrap this up in one more episode that we want to share with you.

There's one more thing that the world will experience one second after the Rapture, and that's the wrath of God. We will be explaining that and then we will move into the last little part of our outline: the "so what" question. How does all of this apply to daily life? Thank you for tracking with us, for listening, and for becoming aware of the signs of the times, which we talk about frequently here on The Watchman's Call broadcast as we seek to equip the body of Christ so we can become knowledgeable about these end-time things. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time right here on The Watchman's Call. God bless you.

Voiceover: You've been listening to The Watchman's Call, exploring the intersection of prophecy and culture. This program is a ministry of Sugarland Bible Church, a place where the Bible is taught and the times are discerned. Visit this Sunday in person or connect with them anytime at slbc.org. That's slbc.org. Until next time, may the Lord give you a spirit of discernment in the week ahead.