Here in Matthew chapter 24, and the name of the sermon is
The End Times Implications of Oneness Heresy.
And so last week I talked about how the myth of ancient polytheism
and how the way people always believed in God is in general of this world.
They believed in a monotheistic God but it had weird interpretations.
Many of them believe in all of these manifestations of God
and it's always been like that and it always will be like that.
And that is going to tie into when the Antichrist comes and deceives people.
So what we believe in this church is we do not believe in a pre-trib rapture
like a lot of people believe.
We believe in a post-tribulational rapture, okay?
We believe that the Antichrist will come and basically midway through the tribulation
or midway through the seven weeks or seven years, right?
And he's going to persecute us and then there's going to be great tribulation
that the world has never seen before or worse tribulation
and then if those days were not shortened we would all be killed.
No flesh would be saved but we will be raptured, we're still alive,
the dead in Christ shall rise first and we which are alive will remain in the becoming of the Lord
and then God will pour out his wrath on this world.
But Christians will be in heaven at that point.
So we do not go through the wrath of God but we go through the tribulation of the devil
and the persecution that is out there, okay?
Now quite honestly I've been to many churches that were pre-trib and you know I like those churches.
I didn't have a problem with them and honestly at my church it wasn't a major issue
but many people have been in churches where if you're not pre-trib you are like the biggest enemy at the church, right?
It's like they hate you more than the pedophile of the church, right?
And it's like what in the world, right?
But it's like a major, major issue and look I believe all things in the Bible are important
but you know I've been solely with people that are pre-trib that got people saved.
You know the pastor was very good at preaching the gospel and he was pre-trib
and I didn't have a problem with that church.
It just amazes me though how at some churches if you're post-trib you're like a bad person to them.
And you become an outcast of that church, okay?
And so the end times implications of oneness heresy.
Now before my wife and I were married you know we talked about the rapture a lot
and this was like our biggest fight before we were married is honestly the end times.
I got her to watch after the tribulation twice and she was still pre-trib.
And so to me it was like you know you're either going to believe what the Bible says or not, right?
And the reason why she told me afterwards she said yeah she was secretly questioning her position
but she didn't really want to let me know that but she was confused.
And many people in these churches they are just confused.
They read Revelation and they're like this is Mandarin Chinese.
This is Calculus 4 I don't understand it.
You know the Bible says the beginning of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
God is revealing what has taken place.
And quite honestly most of Revelation is actually pretty simple.
It's just kind of straightforward and tells you what's going to happen.
If all we had was the Old Testament it would be confusing, right?
The book of Daniel without the New Testament to clarify but actually Revelation reveals to us what the Bible teaches.
So obviously we went through the book of Revelation.
It's been a while though so I wanted to preach a sermon on this.
And point number one I want you to realize is this.
Religions around the world are looking for a return.
Every religion has an eschatology or end times that they believe in.
They're looking for a return.
And you know we as Christians we also are looking for the return of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 24 verse 29.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.
And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.
And this is obviously talking about the return of Jesus Christ.
It talks about the gathering together of the elect from the four winds.
The four winds are north, south, east, west.
Pretty much every direction is what the Bible is trying to say.
And it says it's immediately after the tribulation in verse 29.
So it's really not that complicated when this is going to take place.
It says the sun's going to be darkened, the moon's not going to give her light, the stars are going to fall from heaven.
Basically everybody's going to be aware of what is taking place.
I mean the sun doesn't become dark that often.
But it's going to be dark and everyone's going to be like, man, what is going on?
And they're going to know that it's the return of Jesus Christ.
And the unsaved world, they don't believe in it, but when they see that, it's like, oh, whoops, we were on the wrong side.
Now this is not very complicated, but what people that are pretty trivial do to argue this, they'll say, well, there's two comings.
There's not just one coming, there's two comings.
Well the problem with that is they said, what is the sign of thy coming at the beginning of this chapter?
There's no indication of multiple comings.
It says thy coming.
I mean just recently we got this new YouTube troll, and I'm excited about it, right?
It's like, sure, just share our sermons to mock me, maybe more Baptists will start agreeing with this stuff, right?
And it started because of a pre-trib or end times video that I made, and then he just started stalking our channel.
And this guy is without knowledge.
I mean I made a video about soul-witting tips, about how you should memorize the soul-witting verses.
And he basically said it's arrogant to memorize the soul-witting verses, and you should not do that.
I'm like, I've never even heard anybody use such a dumb argument.
It's like, who would say it's wrong, and I mean we do a lot of memorization around here, right?
We're trying to get you to memorize all of 1 John, you're so arrogant.
I mean it's like, what in the world?
But this guy was like obsessed with the end times, and in one of the videos he said, well, there's two comings.
Well the Bible says thy coming.
One coming.
And they ask him, hey, what's the sign of thy coming?
Here's the thing.
Let's say they were two comings.
Wouldn't it make sense for Jesus to talk about the first before the second?
Because they say, well, this is the second one.
He's only speaking to the Jews, and yet he wasn't just speaking to people that had Jewish ethnicity, okay?
But anyways, it's just very clear it says after the tribulation.
Now verse 32, notice this.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree.
When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.
So likewise, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Verily I say in you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Verse 36, but of that day and hour knoweth no man.
Know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Now this verse is often quoted by those that believe in a preacher of rapture to say it can happen at any moment.
Now this is complete hypocrisy though.
Because they believe in two comings, and they'll apply verse 36 to the first coming,
even though they say Matthew 24 is about the second coming.
Like after the first coming that's going to come in the future.
It's like, well then you can't use verse 36.
I mean if you're saying Matthew 24 is about basically the end, not his first one, but his second of the two future comings,
then how can you use Matthew 24 verse 36 and apply it to the first of the two future comings?
It's hypocrisy. It doesn't make any sense. I mean it contradicts itself. It makes no sense.
Look, the context of that day and hour links back to immediately after the tribulation.
And there is no sign of multiple comings. The sign of thy coming.
So look, if you just take the Bible literally and you have not been brainwashed in Baptist churches,
you're going to look at this and say, well it's a post-trib rapture. It's really not that confusing.
But see, we're not the only religion looking for a return.
Every religion has eschatology or end time stuff that they talk about.
In Hinduism, this is what they say. After the defeat and destruction of evil on earth, the Satya Yuga dawns.
Kalki will bring forth a golden age. And Kalki is like the ninth or tenth avatar of Vishnu.
Kalki will divide the earth into kingdoms among his generals. Sumati and Vishnu Yasha, his parents,
will then travel to the holy place of Badrikashram where they will live.
They have no death. They will go to Vaikuntha with Kalki, having finished his mission of restoring peace.
Kalki will rule. So notice how it talks about restoring peace. And that's always linked with all these returns.
This messiah that they believe in is going to bring about peace. That's kind of the big thing.
They're waiting for someone to bring world peace. Okay?
And then it says this with Islam. So that's Hinduism. I don't want to get ahead of myself.
In Islam, the Day of Judgment is preceded by the appearance of al-Masih al-Dajjal,
and followed by the descending of Isa or Jesus.
Isa will triumph over the false messiah or the antichrist, which will lead to a sequence of events
that will end with the sun rising from the west in the beginning of the Qiyamah Judgment Day.
Look, I know I'm mispronouncing stuff. Okay? I don't speak 20 languages. I'm doing my best. Okay?
But they believe in an antichrist before the return of Jesus. Muslims. Okay?
Other religions, pretty much all of them believe that there's going to be an antichrist or a bad guy coming.
And usually they believe that precedes the return of their messiah, whether it's Jesus, like Muslims mention,
the Jesus returning. But here's the thing. In the Bible, the Bible is actually very clear
about the things that the antichrist will do. It's not just that this bad guy comes and gets rid of peace,
and then all of a sudden the messiah comes and brings peace. No, there's actually specific things about the antichrist
when he does come. Okay? In Buddhism, Maitreya or Matea is regarded as a future Buddha of this world
in Buddhist eschatology. Now, let me just say this, because in Buddhism you don't have to necessarily believe in God.
Okay? But they believe in end times. I don't understand how that works together,
but they say that when you reach nirvana, you become omniscient. So I guess the people that reached nirvana
just spread the future truth, because they are all knowing. So basically, they don't believe in God,
but you can become God, because you can become omniscient. And they're looking for Maitreya or Matea to come back.
In some Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, the being is referred to as Ajita.
According to Buddhist tradition, Maitreya is a bodhisattva who will appear on earth in the future,
achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma. The prophecy of the arrival of Maitreya
refers to a time in the future when the Dharma will have been forgotten by most on the terrestrial world.
And one other religion I'll mention here, because it is actually pretty hard to find the end times beliefs
of all these religions, so I had to dig and then take the best parts. I mean, it's kind of hard.
Caoda. Who knows the religion Caoda? Who's heard of that religion? It's a religion in Vietnam,
and it's like their homegrown religion. It's similar to Sikhism. What that is to India is Caoda in Vietnam.
And if you ever see the inside of their church buildings, they have lots of pillars, and they're wrapped in these giant snakes.
And they've got the all-seeing eye. So basically, they have the all-seeing eye in front, which is like a satanic Illuminati symbol.
Well, that's right. They've got snakes, and they've got the all-seeing eye. Man, that's a great religion you've got there.
And this is one of the 20 biggest religions, if you look at statistics. They've got 3 million-plus followers.
What they basically teach is all religions are the same. They worship the same God.
Just like Hinduism and a lot of these religions, we're all worshipping God in different ways,
and why can't we just have peace with one another? It's okay if you believe in Jesus, but let him believe in Buddha.
Let him believe in Muhammad. Let him believe in whatever, right?
What it says here is the divine messages here were delivered by God at the start of the previous century.
God came to us just before the tragic world war in order to warn us of the imminent disaster.
He also aimed to teach us the truth of the Tao and the universe. So they mix in Taoism in every religion into their religion.
Secrets revealed in this book should help instill the Holy Spirit in each of us
so we are awakened to the delusional progress of the materialistic civilization.
The end time is coming as humanity continues to head towards ignorance and lack of faith.
On the other hand, the multiplicity of religions is also causing discord among different groups of faith.
All of these religions are causing fights with one another, and that's true because we believe different things.
It's kind of hard as a Bible-believing Christian to fully get along with a Muslim when you believe in different ways to get to heaven.
That will always exist. I mean, if everybody agreed that Jesus was the way to get to heaven, I have nothing to fight about.
But the problem is people don't believe that. And it says here, God would like to unite us all this time into one family of the same Father.
Because God's a God of unity in the Bible. Is that true? God's a God of division in the Bible.
But they're saying we worship the same Father. The world will become one under his guidance where we will be blessed with lasting peace and happiness.
And this is what you always hear about religion. Why can't we just all have peace with one another?
Peace and peace. Okay, go to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
So how do we know then, with all these religions having different beliefs but they believe in eschatology, how do we know we're right?
Well, the Bible's very clear about the specific things that are going to take place, okay, before Jesus comes back.
And in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1, let's look at this. Because we as Christians, we are looking for the return of Jesus Christ.
Now we do not believe it can happen at any moment, but we are looking for the return of Jesus Christ.
There are just certain things that need to take place first. And in 2 Thessalonians 2 is a great example of a very specific thing that must take place first.
Verse 1, now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him.
So the coming of Jesus is linked to the gathering together unto him, which is the rapture, okay?
Once again, no indication of multiple comings. The coming indicates there's one coming, right?
Jesus Christ will come back, he's going to rapture us and pour out his wrath.
He's not going to come back, he's not going to rapture us and then just kind of hang out in heaven for a while and then several years later come back and pour out his wrath.
It's not the way it's going to work. And let me help with people that are confused in this preacher rapture.
If all of us just got raptured up to heaven, who would the Antichrist be persecuting on earth if all the Christians are gone?
Is he persecuting atheists? Is he persecuting the pedophile? It doesn't make any sense.
And not only that, if all the Christians are raptured up to heaven, who's going to preach the gospel to the unsaved people?
Well, I don't doubt God's power.
Well, God was very specific on things that have to take place for someone to get saved.
And they need a soul winner and if there are no soul winners, nobody's going to get saved.
So it just doesn't make any sense.
But it says in verse 2, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as the day of Christ is at hand.
Now it's important for us to understand what it means to be at hand.
At hand means about to take place.
It does not mean that it's already taken place.
It means it's about to take place.
For example, if it's 9.58 in the morning, you'd say church service is at hand.
It's about to take place.
And the reason why that's important is what he's telling them in the book of the Church of Thessalonica,
he's saying don't let anyone deceive you that it could happen at any moment.
He's not saying don't let anybody convince you that it's already happened.
Look, if you're saved, then you're going to know it hasn't happened because if it did happen, you'd be in heaven.
We're not going to be deceived on that. That doesn't make any sense.
I mean the confusion is not did it already happen because here's the thing, I know I'm saved.
And when you're saved, you know you're saved 100%.
And so if you didn't get raptured, then what didn't happen?
And here's the thing, nobody's vanished.
So it's not like the Church of Thessalonica is like, man, we lost half our members.
Did the rapture take place?
No, what Paul's saying is don't let somebody deceive you that it's about to happen.
Don't let anybody deceive you in basically a preacher of rapture.
You know why he mentions that?
Because there's people that were teaching a preacher of rapture back then.
There are people teaching, there's nothing new under the sun.
There's people teaching a false doctrine back then.
He's like don't let anybody deceive you about this because it cannot take place yet.
It wasn't the Spirit. It wasn't the Word of God.
It's not like we wrote you a letter as saying that the day of Christ is at hand.
He's like I never told you it can happen at any moment.
I mean literally this verse is saying don't let somebody deceive you with a preacher of rapture.
You say why does he say this?
Well, verse 3, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
So he says don't let anybody deceive you.
Don't let anybody trick you that cannot come unless the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, the antichrist.
What does reveal mean?
It means make it known.
Let me ask you a question.
Who's the antichrist?
Do you know?
Do I know?
No.
You know why?
It hasn't been revealed.
And what that means is Jesus can't come back because nobody knows the antichrist.
So look, until the antichrist reveals himself, guess what?
Jesus can't come back.
That's what the Bible is saying.
It's going to be revealed.
It's not like we're going to be here and just not be aware of man.
Maybe it's this guy. Maybe it's this guy.
No, midway through Daniel's 70th week, midway through those seven years, in the midst of it,
he is going to reveal himself as the antichrist.
Now here's the thing.
He's not going to stand up and say, you know what? I'm the antichrist.
Because then nobody would fall for it.
What's he going to do?
Well, what does it say in verse 4?
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped,
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
He will claim to be God.
Now look, he's not going to stand up, though, and say the God of the Bible is false.
That's not what's going to happen.
He's just going to say he's God.
And by declaring yourself to be God, you are opposing yourself against the God of the Bible.
You're exalting yourself at the level of God, and you're opposing the God of the Bible.
But he's not going to just openly say, hey, the God of Christians is false.
The God of Muslims is false.
He's just going to say that he's God.
And here's the thing.
Since most Christians teach a pre-trib rapture, there's going to be a lot of unsaved Christians
that are going to get confused.
And they're going to think, yeah, you know what, this is Jesus Christ.
Because he's going to stand up and declare himself to be God,
and all of these religions are looking for this oneness God, and they're going to think this is it.
Look, Christians are doing a disservice to this world by saying Jesus can come back at any moment.
Because unfortunately, a lot of the unsaved Christians that are out there,
those that think they're saved but they're not because they believe in a work of salvation,
they are going to be deceived.
Now, if you're saved, you're not going to be deceived.
See, when this event takes place, all of the saved people that are teaching a pre-trib rapture,
they're going to be like, whoops, we were wrong.
Unfortunately, the people they've been deceiving, if they're not saved,
they can easily take the mark of the beast.
We don't believe that the Baptists that are teaching a preacher rapture are going to fall for this forever.
They're eventually going to figure it out, but you know what, it's going to be kind of too late.
Because now you're in the midst of great tribulation and you weren't prepared for this at all.
Because you've been teaching people Jesus can come back at any moment,
and yet the Bible is very clear the Antichrist must reveal himself first.
And nobody knows who the Antichrist is.
How are we going to notice the Antichrist?
Well, when somebody declares himself to be God in the temple of God over in Jerusalem,
then all of a sudden it's like, oh, wait a minute, this is what the Bible was talking about.
And forces you to take the mark of the beast, you're going to know it's the Antichrist.
Now, some people, they know the end times are coming, but they don't necessarily know all the details.
So they're like, man, this vaccine is the mark of the beast.
It's not the mark of the beast.
The mark of the beast is when you're going to openly worship the devil and reject the God of the Bible.
You're not going to be tricked into taking the mark of the beast.
You don't have to worry about that.
It's when you openly worship the devil.
No saved person is going to take it anyway.
But unfortunately, many unsaved people will.
Not all unsaved, but many unsaved will take the mark of the beast.
And you know what, they're going to damn their souls to hell, basically be a reprobate.
Verse 5, remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
Paul's like, don't let anybody deceive you.
I already told you this.
I already made it clear that Jesus can't come back now.
Now, look, sometimes what people do is they'll look at terminology from Paul or other people and they say,
well, see, they seem to think that it might happen in their lifetime.
Yeah, some of them thought it might happen in their lifetime,
but it didn't mean that they thought that it could come at any moment, though.
Just because you think it might happen in your lifetime doesn't mean you think it can happen at any moment.
I think it could happen in my lifetime,
but that doesn't mean that I believe it can happen tomorrow, though.
Of course, we don't know the day or the hour,
but that doesn't mean that we don't know anything about what's going to take place,
that it could just happen at any moment.
Every eye is going to see him, the Bible says,
and the Bible says it's after the tribulation.
Now, I don't know the exact day.
I don't know the hour.
I'm not saying it's March 7th,
at March 7th, 2029, at 4.08 p.m., like some false teachers.
I'm not saying that. I'm just saying it's after the tribulation.
We don't know the day or the hour.
Go to Daniel 8, Daniel 8.
Daniel 8.
I mean, Christians in this world are preparing people for the Antichrist.
They're telling people it can happen at any moment,
and they're convincing people of this.
People are waiting for the return of Jesus,
and you know what's actually coming?
The Antichrist.
I remember going soul-winding with my friend a long time ago,
Pastor Jason Robinson in West Virginia,
and we were talking to this Muslim at the door,
and I was the silent partner, and Jason was speaking,
and all of a sudden this guy started talking about the end times for whatever reason.
This was a long time ago,
and he's describing the return of the Messiah, like their Messiah,
and we looked over at each other shocked, like this is the Antichrist.
That's what we told him.
It's like this man's going to come and bring peace to the world and everything.
We're like, that's the Antichrist.
And look, all these religions, they're looking for peace,
and that's actually point number two.
They're not only looking for a return.
They're looking for peace.
They're looking for someone to restore peace in this world,
and what's going to happen is before peace is going to be chaos.
Everything's going to be in chaos,
and this man will come and bring peace,
and they'll say, well, surely he's the Savior, right?
I remember when I was a kid.
You're in Daniel 8, but I remember when I was a kid.
My mom used to watch the Miss Universe pageants and stuff like that,
and look, I wouldn't recommend you watching that.
I don't watch beauty pageants,
but when I was a kid, my mom would watch them and everything,
and they have questions for the women at the end.
I don't know if they still do this or whatever,
but what do you think is the most important thing that could happen to this world?
And the textbook answer is always world peace,
and it's a great answer.
World peace.
Every single time that is what they would say, right?
It's like world peace would be the answer,
and everyone's like, man, she's so wise,
so much wisdom and everything,
and everybody is looking for world peace,
and I hate to break your heart,
but the two recent Filipinas that won Miss Universe Pageant,
both of them are hardcore LGBT supporters.
I don't know if you're aware of that.
Katriana Gray and whatever the name of the other one was a few years before that.
They would hate our church.
They would hate you if you got to know, oh, man, I'm so obsessed.
Yeah, get ready for the patriotism sermon next week
and the false philosophies for your Independence Day celebration,
the patriotism sermon, because you know what?
People around this world are far too patriotic
when they should be loyal to their brothers and sisters in Christ,
which are part of the same church family, right?
But everybody's looking for world peace.
What does the Bible say in Daniel 8, verse 25?
And through his policy also he shall cause crap to prosper in his hand,
and he shall magnify himself in his heart.
Basically, he lifts himself up inside of his heart,
and by peace shall destroy many.
The method the Antichrist is going to use to destroy is peace,
because he's going to come and say, I'm going to bring peace,
and he's actually going to use that to destroy people.
Okay? Go to Daniel chapter 11.
Daniel 11.
Daniel chapter 11.
And you know what?
You know what the reality is around this world?
And countries especially say,
Brother Succy, how dare you preach against patriotism?
Look, I preach against the U.S. all the time.
And I don't live in the U.S. I live in the Philippines.
But you know what?
I'll still preach against the U.S. or any wicked country.
But you know what?
The U.S. is famous for is causing their own disaster
and then providing peace afterwards.
It's like, well, you caused it.
And everyone's like, thank you so much, government.
They're the ones who did it.
And countries around the world do this.
I should have looked this up.
I can't remember, but like Adolf Hitler was famous for this
because when he took power, you know,
there was other people that were contending with him,
and they burned down something famous.
I don't know if Brother Mateus knows what I'm talking about.
I'll have to ask him after the service.
But basically they caused the disaster,
and then people blame the other side,
which they make it look like it was the other side attacking them.
And then all of a sudden that causes people to love them.
The U.S. does this all the time.
They cause a disaster, and then they bring about the peace.
It's like, well, it's easy to make the peace
and cause the war to begin with.
And it's like, this is what the Antichrist method is going to be,
and history repeats itself.
This always takes place, okay?
And it says here in Daniel 11, verse 21,
And in his estate shall stand up a vile person
to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom,
but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him
and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant,
and after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully.
For he shall come up and shall become strong with the small people.
He shall enter peaceably, okay?
Peace is a technique the Antichrist is going to use.
Go to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation 6. Revelation chapter 6.
You say, Brother Sucky, are you saying peace is a bad thing?
I think peace is a great thing.
Here's the thing, though.
I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
My words are actually very peaceable,
because when you actually install God's commandments,
that will give us peace during the millennial reign.
But it's funny. You've got a bunch of pedophiles out there,
and you preach against that. You're so hateful.
Why can't you just have peace?
Hey, if they weren't molesting little children,
I wouldn't have to preach against it.
It's like they're the ones doing it, all these wicked people,
and then you stand up and preach against it.
You're so hateful. No peace.
I mean, is the world insane? Literally.
I mean, it's like the average IQ of people must be like 11 or something.
Right? It's just like they do all...
I mean, you've got all these abortion doctors murdering a bunch of innocent babies.
You preach against abortion. Man, why can't you just let us have peace?
It's like, why are you so hateful?
It's like they're murdering innocent kids.
But I'm the one who's not for peace?
It's like you put the murderer to death, and it's like, man, that's so hateful.
Why can't you just give him peace?
I mean, literally, there was this murderer just a few years ago in Sacramento.
I mean, he had murdered decades ago,
but he just got caught, the Golden State Killer.
There was talks of psychopath reprobates part two.
It's like, we got a famous serial killer in Sacramento, California.
I mean, he's right in Sacramento, California,
and he was like the most famous serial killer that wasn't caught.
Right? After we started talking about this,
we were like, man, we're kind of hesitant knocking door to door, right?
Because this guy had been doing it for like a decade and a half,
and he started off with robberies, and then he raped like 70 women,
and then he killed, I think it was confirmed, like 20-some people and everything.
And then all of a sudden, this guy, he gets arrested and everything.
And he gets caught because, you know, in our modern day,
it's a lot easier with DNA and stuff they weren't able to get,
trace things as easily, and they figured out who the guy was.
And the guy just pretends to be like really old and decrepit
and everything like that.
But you look at the comments, and people are like, you know what?
You know, we shouldn't do the death penalty.
There's already been so much violence and everything.
And it's just like, are people insane?
It's like he killed 25 people and raped like 70 women,
but let's just give him another chance.
Maybe it was an accident.
Maybe if he could do it over again, no, he's just a wicked, evil person.
And that's why God does have the death penalty in the Bible.
And many of these people, these serial killers that get caught,
they get caught at a young age, like molesting a child that's like 12 years old.
They're like 19 or 20 or whatever.
And you know what?
Basically, they go to jail for like a year and a half.
They get out, and then all of a sudden they murder like 25 people later on.
It's like, well, you know what?
Why don't you just do the laws of the Bible, and that will give us peace.
Strong laws actually give peace to those that are actually obedient to God's laws.
Of course, it's not very peaceful if you're a wicked person.
I mean, if you're a murderer, I'm sure you don't want the death penalty for murder.
But I'm not a murderer, so I don't have to worry about that.
God's laws actually will give us peace if we apply them.
Because of the fact, you need to understand,
purity always comes before peace in the Bible.
First pure, then peaceable, the Bible says.
Or in Matthew 5 in the Beatitudes, it mentions,
blessed are the pure in heart, and then it talks about the peacemakers,
I think, in the next verse, verses 8 and 9.
So you see purity before peace.
So God's laws of holiness and purity come before peace.
I am all for peace if we first do purity.
But you can't say peace when this world is wicked and there's no purity.
It's like, God, you drown the world.
You're not peaceful at all.
It's like, well, the Bible says God's a god of division.
And we are all for peace as long as God's laws are being instilled,
because purity and holiness precedes peace.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Revelation 6, verse 4.
And when he had opened the second seal,
I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
And there went out another horse that was red,
and power was given to him that sat there on,
to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another,
and there was given unto him a great sword.
So you see, the world's going to be in chaos
during the beginning of Daniel's 70th week.
No peace.
And then just a little bit later on, the Antichrist is going to bring peace.
And so he's going to bring peace when there's all of this chaos.
But here's the thing.
It's not going to be peace for us.
You say, why?
Because the Antichrist is going to declare himself to be God.
And you must take the mark of the beast.
So here's the thing.
If you refuse to take the mark of the beast,
you're the one who's not letting us have peace.
And this has happened in communist countries throughout history.
It happened in communist, you know, the USSR and everything like that,
where basically you're the one not giving us peace
because you won't follow what the government says.
1 Thessalonians 5. Go to 1 Thessalonians 5.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
Now look, when it comes to the end times,
there are a lot of confusing things with the prophetic books,
especially in the Old Testament.
I mean, I'll agree with that.
The book of Daniel, the first half of Daniel is pretty simple.
The second half is pretty confusing.
Zechariah, all 14 chapters.
Like, what in the world?
The book of Isaiah has some pretty confusing parts.
The book of Ezekiel, it's like,
you know, we used to play this Bible trivia game in college.
And if we didn't know the answer, we'd always just be like, Ezekiel, right?
When you get to pick a book, it's like it's a long book
and we don't really know what's going on there.
So look, there's some confusing things in the Bible.
But you know, the timing of the rapture is not actually confusing.
A lot of it's not very confusing.
1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren,
ye have no need that I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night.
Now, this was a famous documentary or movie.
I haven't watched it. I really should
because it's like the most famous pre-trib one before Left Behind.
It's like a movie from the 70s or something with really bad graphics.
But it's like the thief in the night is what it's called.
And basically what they say is, well, it can come at any moment.
The thief's going to come when you least expect it, right?
It can come at any single moment.
You don't know when, like a thief in the night, okay?
And what they're doing is trying to teach the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
But all you have to do is just look at the context of this verse.
For when they shall say peace and safety.
Now, who's the they? The unsaved world?
Those that don't believe on Jesus Christ?
And isn't this exactly what you see in Revelation chapter 6?
Things are going well and then all of a sudden it's like, whoops.
The sun got dark. The moon became his blood.
And then all of a sudden it's like following us and hide us.
Because they know exactly what's going on.
All of a sudden they said peace and safety and then boom.
Whoops, we picked the wrong side, right?
And it says for when they shall say peace and safety
then sudden destruction cometh upon them
as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.
Verse 4, but ye brethren.
You see the distinction? Verse 3, unsaved people. Verse 4, saved people.
But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.
So the Bible is saying you're not in darkness, that it can just come when you don't expect it.
Now to the unsaved world, this is going to come when they don't expect it.
They're going to say peace and safety and then boom, they were wrong.
For us though, well we know the Antichrist reveals himself midway through Daniel's 70th week.
And look, you know, I'm sure we're going to lose track of days.
You know, things are going to be chaos in the world.
I don't believe we're going to be meeting for church during the great tribulation.
I'll be honest with you.
I think we're going to be running for our lives and just preaching the gospel whenever we get a chance
and trusting in God to provide us with food and water.
To be honest, the last in time, okay?
But basically it's not going to overtake us as a thief.
Now I want you to think about this because the Bible talks about the days of Lot and the days of Noah.
And here's the thing, with Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed, I don't think Lot was confused.
I think he was well aware of what was about to take place.
But what about everybody else in Sodom and Gomorrah?
Well they didn't see that coming, did they?
But see, God spoke to Lot and told him.
What about in the days of Noah?
In the days of Noah.
Yeah, you know what?
The world was really confused with what was about to take place.
Guess who wasn't?
Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, their wives.
Because God spoke to Noah.
So look, there's many reasons why it talks about the days of Lot and the days of Noah.
Many applications you can make to the end times.
But look, they were aware of what was going to take place.
And we will be aware when Jesus comes back and the unsaved world will not be aware.
But I also like the terminology God gives because he uses phrases for a reason.
I thought about this phrase, the thief of the night.
Thief in the night, right?
A thief comes into your house when you don't expect it, right?
Do they do that during the day or at nighttime usually?
At nighttime.
That's the best time to do it, okay?
See, to the unsaved world, it's basically midnight.
They're asleep and a thief comes in and they don't expect it.
And it's in darkness to them.
We're not in darkness.
For us, it's going to be like it's midnight, the lights are on, and we have a shotgun pointed at the door waiting.
Because it's not going to overtake us as a thief.
We know the thief is coming and it's like, well, you know what, I got a shotgun.
You better have something better.
Because you don't bring a knife to a gunfight, right?
And so look, that's the terminology the Bible is giving because here's the thing.
Thieves come when you don't expect it.
But what about if you're ready for it?
It's like, well, the thief's the one that's in trouble, right?
And so look, we are going to be aware of this.
The unsaved world will not be aware because they're in darkness in terms of this.
We're not going to be confused about it, though.
Because all these things are taking place.
And look, we went through Revelation for like 40 weeks.
We spent many weeks in some of the chapters and we covered in great detail the events that are going to take place.
The Bible is just very clear about this, okay?
Go to 2 Thessalonians 2.
2 Thessalonians 2.
And look, I get that people are confused about this.
And I think one thing that makes a preacher of people mad is like when you believe in a poster of rapture,
you basically are saying, you know what, I understand the book of Revelation and it's not complicated.
How dare you say it's not complicated, right?
They think like you're arrogant for saying you understand it.
But it's like it's not actually that complicated.
There's like a joke for the Baptists in the U.S. and it's an annoying joke.
But I've heard so many Baptists say this to try to give you a slight jab or whatever.
And they're like, well, some people believe in pre-trib.
Some people believe in mid-trib.
Some believe in post-trib.
But you know what, I believe in pan-trib.
And it's not talking about pan-dessile, okay?
This is the U.S.
And then they want you to say, well, what's that?
But I've heard the joke a million times.
It's like, well, I don't know what's going to take place,
but it's all going to pan out in the end.
And it's like it's their way of saying.
And I've heard other pastors say, you know what,
if we had a preacher-people person come in and preach pre-trib,
you would convert to pre-trib.
If somebody came in and preached mid-trib, you'd convert to mid-trib.
And then somebody came in, it's like, no, I wouldn't.
Because the Bible is very clear about this.
It's really not complicated to us.
And quite honestly, a lot of pre-trib people get offended by that
because they are confused when they read the book of Revelation.
And we come in and say, actually, it's pretty clear.
This is going to take place and this.
And they get very mad at you because they don't have verses
to support what they believe.
Point number one, religions are looking for a return.
Point two, they're looking for peace,
and it's the Antichrist that is going to bring that peace.
Point three, the Antichrist, when he comes,
he's going to have this oneness belief, okay?
And I'll briefly talk about what oneness is
at the end of the sermon.
I talked about it last week.
But basically, he's not going to come in here and say,
well, Islam's wrong or Hinduism's wrong or Buddhism's wrong.
He's going to basically say that he's God
and all these religions are going to believe it
because what he's going to be is a manifestation of God
with a belief of what we would call oneness.
See, what we believe about God is that God is a trinity,
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, okay?
He's always been three persons.
He always will be three persons.
He cannot be two.
He can't be four.
He is, by his nature, three.
That's what the Bible teaches.
But other religions believe that you can have various manifestations.
Even in the Baptist realm, there have been oneness people
that have come up and say, basically,
God can manifest himself in different ways.
Look, that's a movie.
It's like a science fiction movie, okay?
That's like what Hinduism teaches,
that God basically has manifested himself
just tons and tons and tons of different ways.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
But see, when the Antichrist comes back,
he's going to be basically a manifestation of God
during this present time.
That's what people are going to believe, okay?
Now, it says here in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4,
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God
or that is worshiped, so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God.
So he is going to declare himself to be God.
Now, I remember I used to be a little bit confused about this,
even when I was post-Trib, because I was thinking,
if he's declaring himself to be God,
is he declaring the Christian God wrong?
No, it's a oneness type of belief,
where basically God is just manifesting himself as God,
saying, I am God.
I'm a manifestation. I'm God.
And you know what? Over in various countries,
back in Greece and over in India all the time,
there will be living people that will say
that they're a manifestation of God in this location
for this present time.
I mean, we've got that in this country, too, right?
And it's just like, they'll say,
well, I'm a manifestation of God in this specific location,
and you know what? People are fine with that.
Well, that is a rejection of the Trinity.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
But that's what the Antichrist is going to teach,
and he's opposing himself against what the Bible stands for,
even though he's not just going to say,
well, the God of the Bible is false, Jesus is wicked.
He's not going to say that.
He's just going to be a manifestation of God.
That's what he's going to portray himself to be,
and he's going to believe it.
Go to Mark 13. Mark 13.
Mark chapter 13.
Mark 13. Notice what it says in verse 19.
Mark 13, verse 19.
And look, I'm not claiming I know everything
about how it's going to happen.
All these religions are going to come together.
I have a vague idea of it, because he's going to be
a oneness God that's going to be able to bring them together.
He's not going to stand up and say,
well, Islam's false, and this is false.
He's basically just going to be like,
oh, there's God in our present time,
and it's going to bring them together.
I'm not claiming I have a perfect understanding,
because in the book of Daniel, there's a lot of chaos.
Sides are at war with one another.
We don't know what those countries are.
We know the general part of the world,
but we know every country that's involved
is pretty dark, but we have the general idea,
and we know that the Antichrist will reveal himself,
and then at that point,
if we're not aware of it before,
we're going to know for sure
that we're in the end times.
I mean, over the last year and a half,
you've probably had coworkers that have asked you,
hey, do you think we're in the end times?
Well, I mean, the only real clear answer
would be like, well, once the Antichrist
reveals himself, we know for sure.
Now, I can pretty much guarantee
we're not in the end times, though,
because it really doesn't fit everything that says.
I mean, the world's becoming in chaos,
but it's going to be a lot worse
during those first three and a half years, to be honest.
Okay, at least from my perspective,
when I'm reading about pestilences, plural,
not just one, and famines,
of course, you see that to some degree,
but you've also seen that for 2,000 years.
There's famines in countries and things like that.
Of course, this could help kickstart everything.
I don't personally think it is, but you know what?
Obviously, we're getting closer than we were a year ago,
we're always getting closer, right?
You're never getting further away, okay?
Unless you believe in some weird scientific time warp thing.
We're always getting closer, okay?
Mark 13, verse 19.
And Mark 13 is a parallel passage with Matthew 24.
It's also talking about the end times.
What's the sign of thy coming?
Mark 13, verse 19.
For in those days shall be afflictions such as
was not from the beginning of the creation
which God created unto this time
neither shall be.
So the Bible's saying this is going to be the greatest
tribulation and persecution and affliction
the world has ever seen.
Now, the indication is before the flood,
there was a big persecution against God's people,
and that makes sense for the days of Noah.
The days of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah
in that location specifically, there was a big persecution.
This is going to be the biggest persecution
in the world that we've ever seen, though,
and it's going to be against Christians.
Verse 20.
And except that the Lord had shortened those days,
no flesh should be saved.
But for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen,
he hath shortened the days.
So when it's saying the days are shortened,
it's saying the days of great tribulation,
meaning if God allowed the great tribulation
to go on forever,
every one of us would be killed.
Right.
But the rapture's going to take place
cutting those days of the great tribulation short.
And so some flesh
will be shortened,
so some flesh will be physically saved,
flesh, right, not spiritual,
but flesh,
and we won't die
because we'll be raptured.
We're going to be alive.
Now, if it were to happen during our lifetime,
probably some of us would survive it
and some wouldn't.
You might get martyred.
You might not.
Right.
And so it says if the days were not shortened,
though, everybody would be killed.
And then if any man shall say to you,
lo, here is Christ, or lo, here is there,
he is there, believe him not.
So basically, don't believe it
if during the great tribulation someone says,
well, I'm Christ.
Now, why does he say that?
Well, in verse 22,
for false Christs and false prophets shall rise
and shall show signs and wonders to seduce
if it were possible even the elect.
Now, when you cross-reference,
this is taking place before the three and a half years
and after as well.
The context of this verse is after
the abomination of desolation.
It's after the mark of the beast.
Now, I'll be honest with you,
I'm not 100% for sure how this is going to work,
but this is taking place
after the abomination of desolation.
My opinion is that around the world,
people will say that
they're a manifestation of God as well
or a manifestation of
what we know as the Antichrist
in various locations,
and those would be the false Christs
and the false prophets.
I'm not 100% for sure on that,
but what I do know is the Bible speaks about false Christs
and false prophets
after the Antichrist reveals himself,
and it says don't be deceived by that
during that 75 days of persecution.
And if you're a Bible-believing Christian,
whoso readeth, let him understand.
You're going to know it's not Christ.
But the indication
is that some say
people might be very confused
on what's going on in the end times,
and they might be wrong on some stuff.
They might not be aware, right?
Now, I'm not claiming to have a perfect understanding,
but verse 22 is during
the great tribulation,
and it's going to rise up even more false Christs
and more false prophets,
and if it were possible, they would deceive
even the very elect,
or someone might think that they're a false Christ.
If you're a Bible-believing Christian,
you should know that you know what?
You've got basically around 75 days,
and there's going to be persecution,
and there's going to be return.
Now, one thing to realize is this.
Not every unsaved person
is going to take the mark of the beast.
There are going to be Christians
that are not saved,
but don't take the mark of the beast,
and they're still looking for the return of Jesus,
but they're going to be very confused
on what's taking place.
Now, I don't know how many of them there are,
but not every unsaved person
will take the mark of the beast,
and so for us, this is very clear
that we're going to see him,
but for some Christians that are not saved
but don't take the mark of the beast,
well, this is going to be very pertinent to them
because they could be very confused
on what's going on, okay?
Verse 23,
But take ye heed, behold,
I have foretold you all things.
So he says, I've already told you this, okay?
So point number one is this.
Religions are looking for a return.
Point number two,
they're also looking for peace,
and logically, it tells you the antichrist
is going to bring about peace,
and that's what the Bible teaches.
Point three, the antichrist is going to have
a oneness type of belief,
and point four,
we will be the enemy.
We're going to be the bad guy.
Even though you never murder,
even though you're not committing adultery,
even though you're not drinking,
you're like the most evil person in the world.
We're going to be the enemy to them.
Mark 13, verse 9.
But take heed to yourselves,
for they shall deliver you up to councils
and in the synagogues.
Ye shall be beaten, verse 9,
and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings
for my sake, for a testimony against them.
And so this is going to take place
before the abomination of desolation,
but it's going to be more intense afterwards.
If you remember as we preached
through the book of Revelation,
we showed that the Bible teaches
that you must take the mark of the beast
before the abomination of desolation,
but it's going to be even worse
during the Great Tribulation
after you must take the mark of the beast
if you're going to buy yourself.
And it says they're going to deliver you up
to councils, and you're going to be beaten.
And it mentions synagogues,
and that is a religious institution.
And I want you to realize
we will be beaten, especially largely,
not only by the government,
but also by religious leaders.
They're going to consider us the enemy.
And quite honestly, our biggest enemies
are kind of two in this world.
It's basically the LGBT
and its religious leaders.
Very religious people
and the LGBT are kind of the two.
Right.
And religious people hate us.
What's a shame is when
saved people don't like you
for actually standing up for the things of God,
but you know what? Most religious people aren't saved.
And you're going to be considered the bad guy
because you're not allowing peace
to come in this world.
That's what they're going to say.
Verse 10, and the gospel
must first be published among all nations.
Now I firmly believe that
there are saved people in every country
except Vatican City, which is not a country.
Right. It's Vatican City, not Vatican country.
Okay.
But, that's a very small.
There's like a couple hundred people there.
Okay, it's not, how can you be a country
if there's like a few hundred people living somewhere?
Right. I mean, if there's two hundred people living in the Philippines,
would you call it a country?
No. Right. I mean, that's even smaller than a city.
But there's saved people everywhere,
but you can't really say that the gospel
is just freely open everywhere.
And what I believe is the gospel
will become open everywhere, even in places
like North Korea where they really censor
the content, there will be
an opportunity to hear the gospel
and the word of God to be proclaimed.
It says it's going to happen in all the world.
I don't know how it's going to take place,
but it's going to actually open up some doors
of preaching the gospel.
And it's going to be chaos to this world,
but actually a lot of people might rise up
and say, man, I've never had a chance to preach the gospel.
Here's my opportunity. Okay.
Verse 11.
But when they shall lead you and deliver you up,
take no thought beforehand what you shall speak.
Neither do you premeditate.
But whatsoever shall be given
you in that hour, that speak ye,
for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
Now the brother shall betray the brother
or the son.
And children shall rise up against their parents
and shall cause them to be put to death.
And the Bible talks about your own
family turning on you.
Now, this really
shows that, you know what,
when it comes to your number one family,
it's really your spiritual family.
Your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And honestly, you know,
as you start serving God and going sowing in,
you're going to start feeling more kinship with those
that are your spiritual brothers in Christ
than your physical ones oftentimes.
Now I'm thankful that, you know what,
I do have a lot of family that I stay very much
in contact with and everything.
But the truth is, I have more in common
with my brothers and sisters in Christ
than I do
my relatives in the flesh.
And praise the Lord if you can have both.
Right?
Praise the Lord if you have relatives that really love God
and you know it's worth putting in the time and effort
to try to get them saved and things like that.
But the reality is, the Bible speaks of a time
when you're going to betray brother to death
and the father of the son.
And it shouldn't necessarily be shocking
because even in Genesis 4, Cain kills Abel.
He doesn't just deliver him to death.
He says, I'll do it myself.
I will invent murder.
Right?
And he's like the first murderer in the Bible.
Right?
And so I want you to realize,
this has happened in other countries around the world.
I mean, it happened in the Soviet Union
where relatives basically,
they're going to turn you in to be put to death.
And that's going to happen very much
during the end times.
Verse 13,
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
But he that shall endure unto the end,
the same shall be saved.
Now that is a very, very, very, very,
very confusing Scripture
unless you believe in a poster of Rapture.
If you believe in a preacher of Rapture,
good luck with interpreting that.
Good luck believing in salvation
by grace through faith and interpreting
He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved.
This is mentioned three times in the Bible.
And it's all in reference to the end times.
You say, what is it talking about?
Was the context spiritual or physical salvation?
It talks about people delivering you up to death.
That's physical death.
When it's saying,
He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Or here in this specific verse,
it says, He that shall endure unto the end.
What is that saying?
It's saying if you endure through the tribulation,
you're going to be physically saved
in a poster of Rapture.
If God did not shorten those days,
no flesh should be saved,
but for the elect's sake,
He hath shortened those days.
Doesn't everything just fit together like a puzzle
when you believe in a poster of Rapture?
Because otherwise, how do you interpret this verse?
Now you're believing in perseverance of the saints.
I mean, literally,
if you believe in a preacher of Rapture,
you have to believe in perseverance of the saints
because you've got to endure through the end
because they don't realize,
if you endure to enduring through the tribulation,
you're going to be Raptured.
You're going to be physically saved.
Now go to 1 John 5.
One last place.
I don't want to be here all day.
I'm already right around the time.
I know we're hungry.
1 John 5.
Now the main focus in this sermon
is about the nature
of who the Antichrist
is going to proclaim himself to be.
Because I've preached in the end times before
and you can preach a multitude of different sermons.
The main focus I'm trying to do
which I talked about last week
is this belief in oneness.
And what oneness teaches
in the Christian realm is this.
That basically at the beginning was God.
Not God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost.
Now of course we believe in one God
and we're going to look at that in a second.
But at the beginning was God
and God chose to manifest himself in three different ways.
The choice that God made.
But that's not what we believe.
Because we believe that God's very nature
is three in one.
We don't believe it's a choice he made.
We believe that is actually who God is.
And it is confusing, but here's the thing.
God made things so we could comprehend this
and you are made with a
body, soul, and spirit.
Now of course that can be confusing.
Because the Bible talks of the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit
and your soul and spirit are very
close to one another.
In many ways you're just like,
man, I don't always understand the difference.
That's a whole sermon in and of itself.
The soul versus the spirit.
Now I did talk about in the earlier sermon
about how preaching to the spirits in prison
doesn't really make sense
because it would be the souls in prison.
But I certainly see how people get confused
with the soul and the spirit.
Because it's your soul that goes to heaven or hell
but it's spiritual life.
It's confusing.
And I'll be honest, I go soul-winding
and sometimes people say spirit instead of soul.
I don't interrupt them or try to correct them
because that doesn't affect the gospel presentation.
These terminologies are confusing.
And you want the soul versus the body is kind of confusing.
Because sometimes those are interchangeable.
And sometimes you see the word soul
but it's really referencing just your flesh.
And look,
obviously God's nature is going to be
confusing because you see the Trinity
working together.
It's not like they're enemies with one another.
You see God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost working together.
You can find verses that talk about
all of them resurrecting Jesus from the dead
and obviously they're working together
but we don't have a perfect understanding of it.
And that is okay.
You don't have to understand everything perfectly
in your human flesh
because you wouldn't expect the creation
to understand the Creator.
Of course
you're not going to fully grasp
the Creator
because you're the creation.
He didn't create you to be as smart as Him.
He didn't create you all knowing.
He created us
inside of time.
And think about this.
With kids,
kids when they're born,
they don't really comprehend death.
When kids are growing up,
and sometimes they'll have a pet that dies
and I'm glad we've never had to experience
a close relative or someone that dies
they wouldn't understand that.
And I've started to talk to my son about some of these things
like I was showing him videos
of like tsunamis and stuff
about how it can hurt people
and he's starting to slowly grasp that
and you can see the concern in his eyes
about that just for people and everything.
But they don't fully grasp it.
We're created
inside of time and quite honestly
I learned when I had a close friend who died
when I was in college, actually
I don't think we ever fully grasp it.
I mean it's a complicated deep thing
because we're created inside of time
and yet we talk about living forever
and it's like
a lot of these things are complicated.
You don't have to understand everything
in the Bible perfectly like a math problem
you just have to believe what you read and say
you know what if there's something I don't fully comprehend
I'll just believe what the Bible says.
1 John 5 verse 7
this is like a sneak peek
of the book of 1 John.
It's a deep confusing book
1 John 5 verse 7 this is the best verse
in the Trinity and
by the way if you don't have this verse
in your Bible
or if it's severely changed
you got the wrong Bible
because in a lot of versions
they try to take this out.
1 John 5 verse 7
For there are three that bear record in heaven
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost
and these three are one.
So the Bible talks about three that are bearing record.
Now see with oneness
and bearing record because it would be basically like
I'm dressed as like a preacher
or as an evangelist
not as a pastor
but as an evangelist
I'll probably dress the same way as a pastor
but as an evangelist. Now look if I took off these clothes
and put on shorts and a t-shirt
because you know what I like to work out
I don't work out
I don't know if you realize this
I don't work out in these clothes
when I work out I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt
or something like that
and basically declared myself a witness
for a murder trial
well there's one witness
I couldn't change my clothes to shorts and a t-shirt
and then witness again
it's like it's still you
Matthew Stuckey
but see that's what oneness believes
and so they don't believe in three bearing record
because they believe it's the exact same
they basically believe God was here and he's dressed in a suit
and then he just takes it off
now he's got shorts and a t-shirt on
then he takes that off
God is three by nature
and there are three that bear record in heaven
okay the Father, the Word
the Word's referring to the Son of God
Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost
and he's always been like this
it's not like well God became the Son
at the virgin birth
no no no
Jesus Christ has always been existing
he's always the Son of God
but it's not only that he's always the Son of God
he's also always been God
because notice what it says in verse 20
it says in verse 20
first on 5 verse 20
and we know that the Son of God is come
okay now
unless you live in Davao you know that's Jesus Christ
right
and we know that the Son of God is come
and hath given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true
and we are in him that is true
even in his Son Jesus Christ
now I was just talking about the Son of God
now I was talking about his Son Jesus Christ
this is the true God in eternal life
I mean this is a mind bender
because Jesus Christ
is the Son of God but he's also
the true God in eternal life
and look when Jesus Christ rose again
he proved that he was a true God
he proved he was a living God
you say brother Stuckey this is a new doctrine
that the Catholics taught you you know a long time ago
well here's the thing
when Jesus was alive they stoned him
because they said he was blaspheming
claiming to be God
and Jesus Christ always accepted worship
you say why?
because he was God
there's none good but one
that is God
the only one that's good is God
was Jesus Christ good?
he's perfect
doesn't get much better than that right
that means he's God
you say brother Stuckey
I don't fully grasp this
and see this is the reason why the Antichrist is going to be so deceptive
one of the reasons
because this is some deep stuff
and you know what?
obviously we know out of 2.4 billion Christians
most of them aren't actually Christians
most aren't saved
and so it's not really surprising
that many of them are going to be very deceived
by the Antichrist when he comes
now I don't believe that everybody
when the Antichrist comes is going to take the mark of the beast
I don't believe that
I believe there's many people that you know what
they don't take the mark of the beast
because during that last final push
I don't believe we're just trying to survive
I believe we're trying to survive
in order to preach the gospel
for those last 75 days
and you know
we're going to be traveling around
just trying to get food wherever we can come
just trusting in God
but you know here's the thing
you say brother Stuckey how does that work?
well I don't know how it works
but I just know that Elijah was just basically by the side of the river
and just food was brought to him every day
and maybe I'm just a simpleton
maybe I'm ignorant
but I'm the last person God would want to go
if you're sowing until your dying day
I believe God would want you around
and I believe God can give you food
now look I'm not saying
that you're going to eat at the spiral buffet
in where is that? Makati or Passai or wherever
that's like
what is it? 4,000 pesos per person
it's like my goodness
it's like I'm not a Baptist pastor
I can't afford that
I'm not saying you're going to eat the fanciest meals
during the time
they might be very simple stuff
but I believe God is going to help
and of course some of us could be martyred
that doesn't mean that you're a bad person
some of us will be martyred
but I do believe that the people God wants around
are people that are soul winners
I'll tell you what it's better to train to be a soul winner
during that last push
those last couple months
that's not the time to go on our YouTube channel
and start watching the soul winning tapes
what's tip number one?
have a plan
out soul winning
have a plan
memorize the verse
at that point it's too late my friend
you better figure out those things now
because it could happen in five years
it could happen in ten years
one of the saddest things
I've seen as a soul winner
because of course
the number one person somebody's
concerned about getting saved
is like a close family member
either a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter
a father, a mother
a cousin, something like that
I've had people send me text messages
not here in the Philippines but in the US
and it's like my dad is on his deathbed
can you tell me how to preach him the gospel?
and the reality is if I was honest
I would say it's probably too late
right
now I don't say that to them
because I try to give them encouragement
I try my best to help them out
and we try to get you to go soul winning for years
it's too late
you need to start serving God now
who so readeth let him understand
you should be reading the Bible now
so you understand this stuff
you're not going to figure out the book of Daniel
and the book of Revelation in the last couple months
that takes reading the Bible through
cover to cover several times a year
year after year
and you know what happens is
you learn certain things and then you hear sermons
and you're like oh that makes sense
your whole life you're getting more and more
puzzle pieces put in together
including me
I listen to sermons and I'm like oh man that's a good point
I never learned that
I never realized that
but you need to start serving God now
because if you try to start just once
chaos comes and oh man the antichrist is revealed
it's too late for you to figure everything out
that's reality
but you know what when the antichrist comes
he's basically going to be a oneness type God
and all these religions are going to fall for it
if he's saved we know that's happening
midway through Daniel's 70th week
three and a half years
in the temple of God
he's going to declare himself to be God
a new president comes in the US and people are always like
do you believe Joe Biden is the antichrist
do you believe Barack Obama is the antichrist
I believe they're in antichrist
not the antichrist
or a new pope comes
do you believe this is the antichrist
well I believe he's in antichrist
but I don't believe he's the antichrist
when he comes
we're going to be well aware of it as Christians
because the Bible is very very clear
on the specific things that he's going to do
and we're going to know for sure
dear heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here today
and getting to see your word on this topic
and help us to know all topics
obviously we don't preach on the end times all the time
but help us to be aware of the end times as well
and it will help us understand what's going on in our world
and what might come later on in our lives
and even if it doesn't happen in our lives
we want to prepare the next generation
and of course we know the world is just going to become more and more wicked
so we need to be prepared for these things
God help us to understand this
in Jesus' name we pray, Amen