So, we have wireless at church now. Yes, I am a geek, but I brought my laptop to work on church database stuff. Here’s an experiment: the sermon notes. Pretty interesting stuff, considering the news:
Personal God and the Middle East
Why prophecy? Partly for our own protection and security – to not be deceived
Making decisions for Christ when you realize there are sides to choose.
Sea – Might be Mediterranean – around that Babylon region for Daniel
Four consecutive Gentile empires
Daniel 7:1-28
1st beast – Lion with wings – Babylonian Empire – archaeologists uncovered winged lion statues and artwork – Nebuchadnezzar – Hanging Gardens – walled city where you could race chariots on the top
2nd beast – Medo-persian empire – pictured as a bear – raised on one side to show imbalance between medes and persians – unwieldy mobs of untrained soldiers – overwhelm through sheer numbers – 3 ribs – babylon, lydia, egypt – devoured
3rd beast – leopard Greece – Alexander conquered Greece – speed in conquering – 4 wings, 4 heads – leopards take on bigger beasts – outmaneuvered – 4 heads – alexander died and empire divided into 4 parts -
Daniel predicts 300 years before Greek empire
4th beast – Roman empire – trampled others – no known creature could represent it – different from others before it – 10 horns – 10 people groups? – or is it a prediction – 10 horns haven’t happened yet? – revived similarities to roman empire – 10 seats of power – nothing in history matched it yet – little horn rises up – antichrist still future -
dan 7 the little horn/ dan 11 the willful king/2 thess 2 son of destruction/man of lawlessness/ rev 13 the beast
the antithesis of christ – great boasts – people prefer a lie – horn rewriting laws/revisionist history
Revelation 13:1-19
10 horns show up again
beast – swiftness of greece – feet power of medo-persian – mouth of lion with Babylon’s majesty – reign 42 months – 3 1/2 years
a time to know who your God is
3 1/2 years – peace in middle east with Israel – walk into rebuilt Temple and call himself God – that’s the sign to get out
most americans (according to USA Today) 60% say Jesus will return – embedded in us
past parts of prophecy confirmed – pretty good chance future stuff will happen, too
Josephus records – Alexander marched on Tyre in Lebanon and marched through – High Priest in Jerusalem showed him the prophecies – he skipped Jerusalem and went to Egypt to destroy itcyrus raised up – during that time resources given to rebuild jerusalem – God is sovereign – was alexander truly that smart to conquer the known world? dominion was given to the beast – Greek language prevalency helped spread the new testament
on earth as it is in heaven
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