1 00:00:03,950 --> 00:00:08,730 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:08,730 --> 00:00:13,449 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And 3 00:00:13,449 --> 00:00:20,410 today, a very important biblical issue, what does Satan and the beast of revelation have to do with 4 00:00:20,410 --> 00:00:26,210 you as a believer now, today? And it might be more than you might think at first, if you've 5 00:00:26,210 --> 00:00:31,710 been following with us over the last few weeks, you know, we've been making a case that the book 6 00:00:31,710 --> 00:00:38,149 of Revelation, from which the devil and the dragon and the beast derive in our discussion today. 7 00:00:38,469 --> 00:00:45,590 The book of Revelation was composed by the Apostle John in An Apocalypse, which means revelation of 8 00:00:45,590 --> 00:00:51,609 Jesus Christ. And it was intended to show what? To show what must someday take place, two millennia 9 00:00:51,609 --> 00:00:55,590 hence, when the mark of the beast can be barcode strips and microchips and locusts are really 10 00:00:55,590 --> 00:00:59,630 helicopters and satellite TV can broadcast the second coming so that every eye will see him. 11 00:00:59,630 --> 00:01:07,390 Is that what John intended to encode? No. I would suggest to you the revelation of Jesus Christ, 12 00:01:07,510 --> 00:01:13,109 which God gave him to show to his servants, as John says, the things that must soon take place. 13 00:01:13,450 --> 00:01:19,170 He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John. And he goes on to say that the time 14 00:01:19,170 --> 00:01:24,290 is near. These words are trustworthy and true, he says, in the conclusion of the book. And the Lord, 15 00:01:24,390 --> 00:01:28,629 the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon 16 00:01:28,629 --> 00:01:33,590 take place. Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near, 17 00:01:33,769 --> 00:01:39,269 John says, constantly, time and again. We must understand that this book was for John's first 18 00:01:39,269 --> 00:01:44,689 audience in the first century. Now, some try to qualify this by smuggling in and understanding 19 00:01:44,689 --> 00:01:48,849 that's not there. That, for example, when the signs are right, all these things will take place. 20 00:01:49,310 --> 00:01:53,310 Or another alternative is that when these things begin to happen, they'll happen swiftly. 21 00:01:53,310 --> 00:01:58,109 But these are not exegetically tenable, I suggest to you, dear listener. 22 00:01:58,950 --> 00:02:03,510 What John writes took place soon after his composition, for the time was near, the time 23 00:02:03,510 --> 00:02:09,849 was near then, in the first century. Well, does that mean that revelation is irrelevant to us? 24 00:02:10,069 --> 00:02:15,990 That it has no application for us anymore? And I would say, au contraire. No, no, no. It has 25 00:02:15,990 --> 00:02:21,889 application to us. The book of Revelation. Precisely because the devil is still active on the earth 26 00:02:21,889 --> 00:02:28,150 in the same manner, shape, and form he was in the first century. And he's still working through 27 00:02:28,150 --> 00:02:33,229 earthly agents, that is, the beast. Such was it at the beginning, and so shall it be to the end. 28 00:02:33,750 --> 00:02:40,990 The trick is, for us, to discern these things with John, which he notes, as well, calls for wisdom. 29 00:02:41,949 --> 00:02:46,389 You have to put your head on straight, dear listener. You have to put your biblical interpretive 30 00:02:46,389 --> 00:02:51,669 cap on, so to speak, straight. Well, how do we know this? How do we know that it has application to us? 31 00:02:51,669 --> 00:02:56,949 How do we know, indeed, that the beast is still active on earth, working through his earthly 32 00:02:56,949 --> 00:03:02,550 agents, the beast? Well, let me note with you several things. First of all, Satan, the adversary, 33 00:03:02,729 --> 00:03:09,150 has attempted to establish his worldwide tyranny from the very beginning. It's nothing new. It's 34 00:03:09,150 --> 00:03:14,590 nothing that's going to happen exclusively in some imagined great tribulation. It's been going on from 35 00:03:14,590 --> 00:03:21,729 the beginning, because in a parody of and in competition with the kingdom of God, which he 36 00:03:21,729 --> 00:03:27,689 bestows upon Christ and his co-heirs, God does, Satan also seeks a kingdom, and he bestows it to whom 37 00:03:27,689 --> 00:03:34,689 he will. Remember, when he tempted Jesus, the devil took him up, that is, Jesus up, Luke says, and showed him 38 00:03:34,689 --> 00:03:40,370 all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority 39 00:03:40,370 --> 00:03:46,530 and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will 40 00:03:46,530 --> 00:03:53,370 worship me, it will all be yours. Oh, this has been the promise, the temptation to kings and all those 41 00:03:53,370 --> 00:04:00,370 who rule and are in authority all through history, dear listeners. The apostle John portrays this very 42 00:04:00,370 --> 00:04:07,849 graphically in Revelation 12, where the devil and Satan, Revelation 12 tells us, is given us as a great 43 00:04:07,849 --> 00:04:15,449 red dragon, the very epitome of evil. This dragon constituted with the emblems of a kingdom, that is, 44 00:04:15,530 --> 00:04:21,889 seven heads adorned with seven crowns, symbols of kingly power and leadership, and then also with 45 00:04:21,889 --> 00:04:29,350 ten horns, horns, of course, being symbol of royal power and strength. David talks about the horn of his 46 00:04:29,350 --> 00:04:35,329 power, does he not? The Lord has exalted his horn. He and his kingdom then, Satan and his kingdom in 47 00:04:35,329 --> 00:04:42,689 Revelation 12, try to devour the child of the woman, which is, of course, Christ, when he is born, when the 48 00:04:42,689 --> 00:04:48,550 woman is delivered of him. And here, Satan is pictured in Revelation chapter 12 as a king in 49 00:04:48,550 --> 00:04:54,889 competition to and mortal combat with God himself in an attempt to destroy the seed of the woman, that is 50 00:04:54,889 --> 00:05:01,930 Jesus Christ. Here in Revelation chapter 12, John is clearly drawing upon the first promise of the gospel 51 00:05:01,930 --> 00:05:07,970 all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, where God says there to the snake, to the serpent, to Satan, 52 00:05:08,290 --> 00:05:13,970 he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring or seed and her 53 00:05:13,970 --> 00:05:19,790 offspring or seed. He, that is the child born, will bruise your head, that is, kill you, destroy you, 54 00:05:19,790 --> 00:05:26,490 and you shall bruise his heel, that is, wound or temporarily hurt him. In Revelation 12, then we 55 00:05:26,490 --> 00:05:32,170 see that offspring is born that would crush the serpent's head, that is, the male child who would 56 00:05:32,170 --> 00:05:37,189 rule the nations with a rod of iron, and he is caught up to heaven, Revelation 12 tells us, from 57 00:05:37,189 --> 00:05:42,449 once he shall return when finished building his kingdom. But in the meantime, these kingdoms remain 58 00:05:42,449 --> 00:05:49,149 in conflict, dear listener, Satan's kingdom versus God's kingdom. It is not all future. It is not all for a 59 00:05:49,149 --> 00:05:55,689 time after the rapture when a supposed seven-year tribulation will transpire. No, John is drawing upon 60 00:05:55,689 --> 00:06:00,850 a rich history of kingdoms in conflict from the beginning. Do you think that the devil will only 61 00:06:00,850 --> 00:06:06,949 try to grasp for worldwide tyranny after a supposed rapture and the fictitious commencement of the 62 00:06:06,949 --> 00:06:12,970 seven-year great tribulation? Oh, he has been grasping, Satan has, after complete worldwide tyranny 63 00:06:12,970 --> 00:06:18,730 from the very beginning and getting at the very first progenitors of God's kingdom, and he wanted them 64 00:06:18,730 --> 00:06:24,129 for his own, that is, Adam and Eve, and he got them, did he not, in the garden? He also attempted, 65 00:06:24,269 --> 00:06:30,389 Satan did, to co-opt God's kingdom, that is, the woman's seed, by intermingling the demonic seed of 66 00:06:30,389 --> 00:06:36,990 fallen angels, euphemistically called the sons of God in Genesis chapter 6. He tried, indeed, to 67 00:06:36,990 --> 00:06:42,329 intermingle that demonic seed with the seed of the woman, and he was initially very successful in this 68 00:06:42,329 --> 00:06:48,009 venture, such that, as chapter 6 of Genesis tells us, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was 69 00:06:48,009 --> 00:06:52,209 great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, 70 00:06:52,569 --> 00:06:57,449 unquote. And had this process continued the intermingling of demonic seed with the seed of 71 00:06:57,449 --> 00:07:02,250 the woman, well, then the seed of the woman would have been so corrupted that no true seed of woman 72 00:07:02,250 --> 00:07:08,449 would have survived, but only that of the bastardized Nephilim. The devil would have successfully 73 00:07:08,449 --> 00:07:16,149 co-opted, taken over the genetic line of the woman, Eve. In fact, the earth was corrupt in God's sight, 74 00:07:16,490 --> 00:07:23,089 Genesis 6 tells us, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. So much so did this happen, 75 00:07:23,149 --> 00:07:29,910 that God destroyed the world in a worldwide flood, did he not? Satan's grasp for worldwide dominion in 76 00:07:29,910 --> 00:07:35,949 Revelation is nothing new. After the flood as well, dear listener, the devil once more tried to impose 77 00:07:35,949 --> 00:07:41,250 his worldwide tyranny on Noah's descendants at the Tower of Babel. The whole earth had one language, 78 00:07:41,350 --> 00:07:45,689 the Bible tells us. Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, 79 00:07:45,829 --> 00:07:51,889 and let us make a name for ourselves, in competition with God, that is. Behold, they are one people, 80 00:07:52,050 --> 00:07:55,990 God said, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. 81 00:07:56,470 --> 00:08:01,870 Nothing that they propose will now be impossible for them. So God confused their language, dispersed 82 00:08:01,870 --> 00:08:07,730 them all over the face of the earth. Satan's grasp for worldwide dominion in Revelation is nothing new. 83 00:08:08,610 --> 00:08:15,709 Satan, as well, has had no more long-standing success story than the 3,000-year-plus dynasties 84 00:08:15,709 --> 00:08:22,670 of Egypt. Take these as an example. We see these things resonating down to our own age. Our oldest 85 00:08:22,670 --> 00:08:29,329 heritage of Luciferian magic, for example, stems from Egypt. That is the Egyptian order of the Golden 86 00:08:29,329 --> 00:08:37,149 Dawn. And even that magic system is enjoying a revival today, courtesy of Aleister Crowley, who revived 87 00:08:37,149 --> 00:08:44,789 this ancient Egyptian order of the Golden Dawn. In Egypt, the 10 plagues imposed by God through Moses 88 00:08:44,789 --> 00:08:50,330 each corresponded to one of the demonic deities in the Egyptian panoply of gods, culminating in 89 00:08:50,330 --> 00:08:58,350 Helios, Lucifer himself. We have so much from Egypt that still resonates today, the Eye of Horus, 90 00:08:58,350 --> 00:09:04,090 Blood Ritual, Child Sacrifice, and Child Sacrifice goes on in this world. Dear listener, you're naive 91 00:09:04,090 --> 00:09:10,330 if you think it doesn't. The Abelisk, the Sundisk, the Scarab, dozens of other occult symbols have 92 00:09:10,330 --> 00:09:15,789 their origins in Satan's utter monopoly over the souls of Egypt for more than three millennia. 93 00:09:16,549 --> 00:09:22,029 Satan's grasp for worldwide dominion in Revelation is nothing new, dear listener. Wake up! 94 00:09:24,279 --> 00:09:29,799 Known for her sorceries, even today, Babylon now. Babylon also became a metaphor for the corrupt, 95 00:09:30,179 --> 00:09:35,039 debauched rule of the demonic. The world empire that brought Judah into captivity, 96 00:09:35,779 --> 00:09:42,179 Babylon took over and perfected the Luciferian rites of Egypt and made them her own. Babylon's 97 00:09:42,179 --> 00:09:47,899 gods were also very appealing and powerful to the average man, seducing many spirits into their worship. 98 00:09:48,539 --> 00:09:54,440 And so willing were most Jews to abdicate to them from Yahweh, a process in the Old Testament 99 00:09:54,440 --> 00:10:01,799 called prostitution, equated with prostitution, that John could call her name, that is Babylon, 100 00:10:02,019 --> 00:10:07,259 written upon her forehead, Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. 101 00:10:07,259 --> 00:10:14,700 In Revelation 17, Satan's dominion was complete in Babylon. Satan's grasp for worldwide dominion 102 00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:20,700 in Revelation, I submit to you, is nothing new. Also, Greece, personified in Alexander the Great 103 00:10:20,700 --> 00:10:26,379 as a beast, dear listener. A goat he was in Daniel, conquered the known world swiftly, did he not, 104 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:31,919 in the brief lifespan of Alexander the Great? Greek historians saw in it a supernatural force, 105 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:36,759 and they were right. The will and testament of the gods, as one Greek historian put it. 106 00:10:37,220 --> 00:10:42,179 The goat, as well as a favorite representation of Lucifer, for many reasons. The display of his head, 107 00:10:42,179 --> 00:10:47,399 for example, forms a perfect pentagram, the goat head pentagram. The gods of Greece ruled the minds 108 00:10:47,399 --> 00:10:51,919 and hearts of men for centuries afterward and fused the culture of the West, even, into our own day. 109 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:56,539 Everything from our poetry to architecture is decorated with them, even if we do not formally 110 00:10:56,539 --> 00:11:02,159 worship the gods of Greece. Satan's dominion was complete in Greece. His grasp for worldwide 111 00:11:02,159 --> 00:11:07,500 dominion, I submit to you, is nothing new in Revelation by the time we come to it. And here we come 112 00:11:07,500 --> 00:11:15,899 for Rome. Rome, in the Roman Empire, we come now to the contemporary expression of Satan's dominion 113 00:11:15,899 --> 00:11:21,980 for John's own audience. For them, for John's first audience in the church, the beast from the sea 114 00:11:21,980 --> 00:11:27,879 was the Roman Empire. The beast from the land was the Roman emperor's wicked as they were. And the 115 00:11:27,879 --> 00:11:33,559 great harlot who sat astride the beast was indeed the syncretistic religious system we now know as the 116 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:38,659 emperor cult. All of these references were not in the future. All of these references John's 117 00:11:38,659 --> 00:11:43,240 congregation would have understood. They would have related to in their own day. They would have 118 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:48,559 gotten this. And to ignore all of this and run roughshod over the original context of Revelation 119 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:53,200 by saying that the apostle John is only and exclusively envisioning the grasp of the dragon 120 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:58,059 for worldwide dominion in the far distant future, achieved fully only in some imagined seven-year 121 00:11:58,059 --> 00:12:04,100 great tribulation trivializes the Bible and the vast spectrum as well of meaning that John was 122 00:12:04,100 --> 00:12:09,519 intending to communicate to us. All of history is the stage for this epic struggle, dear listener, 123 00:12:09,639 --> 00:12:15,919 not just some narrow seven-year period which can be safely isolated in a box, not to be opened until 124 00:12:15,919 --> 00:12:22,299 after the rapture. Dear listener, please listen with me. Satan has labored since Rome to achieve 125 00:12:22,299 --> 00:12:28,759 worldwide dominion too. He has not stopped nor relented. Now in time, we will recount for you some 126 00:12:28,759 --> 00:12:34,120 historical examples of these satanically inspired dominions. But my point is that he is bringing 127 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:40,220 all things to consummation now. Satan is working through human governments now. He is working 128 00:12:40,220 --> 00:12:45,460 through particular world leaders recognized and unrecognized by the general public. He's working 129 00:12:45,460 --> 00:12:52,740 through them now. This is Satan's modus operandi. This is how he has worked and will work right up 130 00:12:52,740 --> 00:12:59,679 until the end. Note with me as well, not only has Satan been alive and well working in the world, but the 131 00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:06,200 devil still works through human and earthly agents like the beast to establish his kingdom. The devil still 132 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:13,200 works through human and earthly agents like the beast in Revelation. He still does this through human 133 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:19,860 and earthly agents to build his kingdom because in a parody of and in competition with God's use of 134 00:13:19,860 --> 00:13:26,539 intermediaries like the mediator Jesus Christ, and the Bible says there is one mediator between God and 135 00:13:26,539 --> 00:13:31,879 man, the man Jesus Christ, while in competition with him and mocking him, the devil has always employed 136 00:13:31,879 --> 00:13:38,759 and still uses human and earthly agents to achieve his kingdom and his tyranny. Revelation is in a long 137 00:13:38,759 --> 00:13:46,159 tradition of portraying this truth of using beasts and intermediaries. For example, the satanic inspired 138 00:13:46,159 --> 00:13:52,059 beast first appears in the garden. This motif runs from Genesis to Revelation, literally. What does our 139 00:13:52,059 --> 00:13:58,860 text say? Now the serpent, Genesis 3 says, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which 140 00:13:58,860 --> 00:14:04,559 the Lord God had made. The serpent, a beast as given in Genesis 3, is not some garden snake we know of 141 00:14:04,559 --> 00:14:10,200 today. All the serpents we're familiar with are of the post-fall, belly-crawling, dust-eating variety. 142 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:16,559 The pre-fall serpent walked upright. He manifests skill and wisdom and was wondrous to behold in his 143 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:21,320 beauty and attractiveness. But he was a creature, nevertheless a beast. However attractive and 144 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:27,940 winsome he may have been, Satan has inhabited and inspired beasts from the get-go. We also see in the 145 00:14:27,940 --> 00:14:34,539 pre-flood generation, the Nephilim, these were bestial, serpentine in nature. As Genesis 6 succinctly 146 00:14:34,539 --> 00:14:39,919 recounts for us, the fallen angels of Satan mated with our first mothers, the daughters of men as 147 00:14:39,919 --> 00:14:45,139 they're called. We see in Genesis chapter 6, when man began to multiply in the face of the land and 148 00:14:45,139 --> 00:14:50,000 daughters were born to them, the sons of God, that is the fallen angels, saw that the daughters of man 149 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,179 were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, my spirit shall not 150 00:14:55,179 --> 00:15:01,820 abide in man forever, for he is flesh, his days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim, the Bible says, 151 00:15:01,820 --> 00:15:06,399 the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the 152 00:15:06,399 --> 00:15:10,600 daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men 153 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:17,179 of renown. Now, if God had not intervened to destroy this monstrous bestial race, but had allowed 154 00:15:17,179 --> 00:15:22,679 them to continue to multiply on the face of the earth, then Satan would have successfully established a 155 00:15:22,679 --> 00:15:29,500 bastard race of serpentine creatures, no longer men. Thus, the program of God in which I will put enmity 156 00:15:29,500 --> 00:15:35,460 between you, he says, and the woman and between your offspring or seed and her offspring, her seed. He shall 157 00:15:35,460 --> 00:15:40,220 bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This program would have failed utterly and the serpent 158 00:15:40,220 --> 00:15:47,139 would have achieved complete dominion over God's creation. My point is that Satan was laboring even here 159 00:15:47,139 --> 00:15:54,100 through beasts. We even refer to iterations of the Nephilim today as reptilians, do we not? He was laboring, 160 00:15:54,259 --> 00:15:59,919 Satan was, through beasts to consummate his kingdom. Now, to put all of this in the future, as if this were all 161 00:15:59,919 --> 00:16:05,580 that Revelation is talking about, is not only eisegesis of the most egregious kind, it is also dangerous because 162 00:16:05,580 --> 00:16:13,500 it ignores what Satan is doing now, today, and it puts Christians who should be fighting asleep. Because as then, 163 00:16:13,500 --> 00:16:20,620 so now, Sauron, if I can borrow an image from the towers, if I can borrow an image from the trilogy of 164 00:16:20,620 --> 00:16:25,940 Tolkien, the return of the king and so forth, Sauron is on the move. He's building his kingdom now, 165 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:32,620 laboring through the beast now, deceiving even well-intentioned Christians now. Satan's grasp for 166 00:16:32,620 --> 00:16:39,980 worldwide dominion is nothing new by the time we get to Revelation. In earlier lessons too, I highlighted 167 00:16:39,980 --> 00:16:48,039 this historical fact of satanic inspiration of kings and kingdoms. Rahab the beast was with Egypt. 168 00:16:48,340 --> 00:16:54,659 Leviathan the beast indeed was identified with Babylon. Even Daniel's vision of the beasts from 169 00:16:54,659 --> 00:17:00,700 the sea in chapter 7 of Daniel is historically forecasting the tyranny of the great king Antiochus 170 00:17:00,700 --> 00:17:07,279 Antiochus Epiphanes that indeed transpired in his own day, not some antichrist of a future tribulation. 171 00:17:08,059 --> 00:17:12,740 Historically, Antiochus Epiphanes is the little horn that uproots the three others of the ten, 172 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:19,299 which is precisely what Antiochus Epiphanes did in his rise to power. Antiochus Epiphanes is indeed 173 00:17:19,299 --> 00:17:24,420 the very same one who commits the abomination that causes desolation. In chapter 9 of Daniel, 174 00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:29,299 when he slaughtered a pig on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem, not some far-off future 175 00:17:29,299 --> 00:17:35,579 antichrist of a future great tribulation. Even the greatest of the Babylonian kings was a beast, 176 00:17:35,700 --> 00:17:41,660 Nebuchadnezzar, remember, who presided over the exile of Judah. He's caricatured as a beast when he 177 00:17:41,660 --> 00:17:47,579 prided himself as his own god by saying, is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power 178 00:17:47,579 --> 00:17:53,019 as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty. Ha! A braggart just like all power men, 179 00:17:53,319 --> 00:17:59,279 power-hungry men. Well, God humiliated him by subjecting him to seven years of this state 180 00:17:59,299 --> 00:18:03,359 of being, dear listener. The Bible goes on to say, while the words were still in the king's mouth, 181 00:18:03,799 --> 00:18:07,920 there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken. The kingdom 182 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:12,720 has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with 183 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:18,220 the beasts of the field. Indeed, the dew fell on him, his nails grew, his hair grew, he scratched 184 00:18:18,220 --> 00:18:24,700 around on the ground, snarling like a beast. Behold, O listener, the modus operandi of the dragon. 185 00:18:24,700 --> 00:18:32,180 He is identified in Revelation 12 as a sign in heaven, a great red dragon. He's been doing this 186 00:18:32,180 --> 00:18:38,299 from the beginning. None other than, as John says, that ancient serpent who is called the devil in 187 00:18:38,299 --> 00:18:44,339 Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, unquote. So much of our own world is revealed here in this 188 00:18:44,339 --> 00:18:50,440 chapter, Revelation chapter 12, dear listener, as well as that of the past, and not reserved for 189 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:56,619 some future great tribulation. Do not let the deceiver deceive you. For example, the dragon was 190 00:18:56,619 --> 00:19:02,319 a stock metaphor in the ancient world. This creature symbolized three characteristics. That 191 00:19:02,319 --> 00:19:10,180 is, if I can use this alliteration, the dragon personified lust, loot, and lordship. The dragon 192 00:19:10,180 --> 00:19:16,960 personified sexual lust. The phallic serpentine image of the dragon stood for its sexual corruption 193 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:23,279 in all the ancient myths. And that included incest and rape and adultery. You'll find these especially 194 00:19:23,279 --> 00:19:29,119 in the Canaanite religions. This is implicit even here in Revelation 12 as the dragon broods around 195 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:36,519 the woman waiting for her to give birth to a male child. Secondly, not only lust, sexual lust, but also 196 00:19:36,519 --> 00:19:42,740 loot. Dragons are notorious for their greed. Their lairs are piled with treasure. Take, for example, 197 00:19:42,740 --> 00:19:48,980 the lair of Smoag in Tolkien's The Hobbit. Their appetite for wealth can never be satisfied. The 198 00:19:48,980 --> 00:19:53,519 proverb, what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, never suited any creature better than the 199 00:19:53,519 --> 00:19:58,519 dragon. While there is not only lust and loot, but there is also lordship, the grasping after power. 200 00:19:59,059 --> 00:20:05,619 Dragons, wherever they appear, strike first at those in power and authority. Kings in their castles, 201 00:20:05,859 --> 00:20:10,859 lords in their manners, knights in their fighting retinue. These are always the targets of the dragon's 202 00:20:10,859 --> 00:20:18,700 predations as he struggles to reign unopposed. This relentless accumulation of power then. This 203 00:20:18,700 --> 00:20:25,940 relentless accumulation of power is evident here in Revelation 12 as the red dragon sweeps the stars 204 00:20:25,940 --> 00:20:32,960 from the heavens and the seven crowns that it wears upon its head. So for all of its fearsome ways and 205 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:38,480 power, what does the dragon leave in his wake? What are the products of the dragon? Well, the red color 206 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:44,359 of our dragon here in Revelation 12 is symbolic of its fiery nature and indicates what lies in its path 207 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:51,920 as it passes by, that is ashes and chaos and death, destruction, misery, and tyranny. In the Garden of 208 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:59,400 Eden, the serpent dragon offers Adam and Eve a shortcut to perfection and paradise, but leaves in its wake 209 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:05,480 only death and curse. The Nephilim create a bastard, mongrel race of beings to the earth. Egypt 210 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:12,359 personified as the sea serpent Rahab brings slavery to the people of God. Egypt did, did it not? Babylon 211 00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:17,740 personified as the bestial Leviathan brings destruction and exile to the Holy Land. And then 212 00:21:17,740 --> 00:21:23,579 here in Revelation, Rome personified as the beasts from the sea brings tyranny and persecution to the 213 00:21:23,579 --> 00:21:29,920 apostle John and his church at that day for that audience, not some future one in some great seven 214 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:36,799 near tribulation. Operating in and through each of these beasts is the dragon, that ancient serpent 215 00:21:36,799 --> 00:21:41,940 who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, John says. It is the dragon who 216 00:21:41,940 --> 00:21:47,779 animates. It is the dragon who inspires. It is the dragon who beguiles and deceives with visions of 217 00:21:47,779 --> 00:21:54,359 grandeur, pleasure, and paradise, but leaving in his fiery wake only chaos, destruction, and death. 218 00:21:54,359 --> 00:22:00,279 It is this red dragon who inhabits the soul of Washington DC, dear listener, the power nexus for 219 00:22:00,279 --> 00:22:04,559 the world power of the United States. It is the red dragon who inhabits the soul of Brussels, 220 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:10,200 Belgium, the power nexus for the corrupt European Union. It is the red dragon who inhabits the soul 221 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:15,420 of Moscow, Russia, the power nexus for the old Soviet Union. It is the red dragon who inhabits the 222 00:22:15,420 --> 00:22:22,940 soul of Beijing, the power nexus for the world power China. This dragon, this ancient serpent who is 223 00:22:22,940 --> 00:22:28,539 called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, still uses his bestial intermediaries 224 00:22:28,539 --> 00:22:34,920 to accomplish his purposes, dear listener. For example, if I can use several metaphors for 225 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:41,599 beast myself here today, let me outline for you lust, loot, and lordship active today in our own 226 00:22:41,599 --> 00:22:48,680 Washington, D.C. For example, the chaste Madonna of classical art is now the whore Madonna of rock 227 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:55,160 and roll. If I can use this metaphor for a moment, it is no coincidence that Louise Ciccone adopted the 228 00:22:55,160 --> 00:23:01,559 stage name Madonna as a performer. Her corrupt and debauched sexual persona has led many a young girl 229 00:23:01,559 --> 00:23:08,140 into a sexually debased lifestyle as a woman. She is emblematic Madonna, emblematic of the lustful nature 230 00:23:08,140 --> 00:23:14,359 of the dragon, and is an apt persona for the beast that Americans aspire to become. For example, in 231 00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:19,099 Washington, D.C., there are now more escort services, private gentlemen's clubs, and exclusive 232 00:23:19,099 --> 00:23:26,339 massage parlors per capita in Washington, D.C. than in any other American city. Indeed, right now, 233 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:32,740 today, the dragon has inspired the debauched beast of the American Madonna. She is an apt, satanically 234 00:23:32,740 --> 00:23:39,319 inspired beast for our first L, that is lust. Secondly, the majestic American eagle, if I can use 235 00:23:39,319 --> 00:23:44,359 another metaphor, another image, the majestic American eagle has morphed into the scavenging 236 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:51,099 federal vulture. This beast, dear listener, the federal vulture is busy greedily piling up the 237 00:23:51,099 --> 00:23:56,299 treasure of the world in our second L, that is loot. Eight of the ten wealthiest counties in the 238 00:23:56,299 --> 00:24:01,380 United States now surround Washington, D.C. The federal government has sucked the American people 239 00:24:01,380 --> 00:24:07,559 dry through the economic theft of taxes, inflation, and debt. The super-rich manipulate our branches of 240 00:24:07,559 --> 00:24:12,539 government through campaign contributions, bribery, corporate lobbies, revolving door jobs in government 241 00:24:12,539 --> 00:24:16,720 and business, so-called foundations like the Clinton Foundation that are little more than 242 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,220 influence-peddling, and the granddaddy of them all, the Federal Reserve, which is neither federal, 243 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:26,460 it is actually a government-sanctioned monopoly of six private banks, nor does the Federal Reserve 244 00:24:26,460 --> 00:24:32,299 reserve anything. Rather, it creates profligate debt by entering numbers on its ledger in its own name, 245 00:24:32,299 --> 00:24:38,700 which debt then it foists on the American people. Indeed, right now, today, the dragon has inspired the 246 00:24:38,700 --> 00:24:45,500 scavenging beast of the American vulture. Thirdly, then, Uncle Sam, in our third L, Uncle Sam has transformed 247 00:24:45,500 --> 00:24:51,279 himself into Big Brother. Uncle Sam is now Big Brother. Big Brother is, of course, the name of the ubiquitous 248 00:24:51,279 --> 00:24:58,920 tyrant in George Orwell's novel 1984. He has become the Western metaphor for our third L, lordship. This beast, 249 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:03,759 Big Brother, our federal government is busy accumulating all the reins of power unto itself. 250 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:09,400 Others have chronicled this meticulously, and you, no doubt, are well aware of it. But my question to you 251 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:15,019 is, do you see the old hand, the ever-present hand, of the red dragon of history at work in it? He has 252 00:25:15,019 --> 00:25:20,160 grasped for power through beasts since the Garden in Genesis, and he'll continue to do so, ever-widening 253 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:27,079 scope through the world until his end in Revelation, dear listener. I suggest to you that you no longer 254 00:25:27,079 --> 00:25:32,359 possess a constitutional republic here in the United States. It has rather become the possession 255 00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:38,619 of the dragon via the mediation of these beasts. In future lessons, we'll unpack how and why our 256 00:25:38,619 --> 00:25:44,579 constitutional republic on paper exists now as a mere outward shell and show for you, the average 257 00:25:44,579 --> 00:25:51,400 voter, and what we can and must do to redeem it. This is why I caution you, dear listener, in projecting 258 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:56,259 Revelation and other biblical texts into the future, because John, here in Revelation, gives us 259 00:25:56,259 --> 00:26:02,740 a model, a biblical template for Satan's modus operandi throughout time until his final defeat 260 00:26:02,740 --> 00:26:08,220 at the glorious return of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our ultimate consolation, 261 00:26:08,460 --> 00:26:14,259 when, as Paul says, the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, 262 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:19,599 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among those who have 263 00:26:19,599 --> 00:26:24,400 believed, unquote. This is our hope. This is our consolation to this we look forward, 264 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:29,339 brothers and sisters. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 265 00:26:29,819 --> 00:26:34,819 We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 266 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,940 Call us at 523-0196.