Six Six Six - Part B

During the tribulation period people are going to be so vulnerable.

Have you ever considered that? People are dying all over the earth. There's plague after plague, destruction after destruction. They're going to be looking for answers in any way shape or form because of the multitude of disasters that are coming upon the earth. Jesus said there will be distress of nations with perplexity. Today on Connect with Skip, Pastor Skip concludes his message 666 and looks at why the Antichrist will be able to lead so many astray.

But first here's a resource that will give you assurance that God's plan for Israel is already in action and will never fail. How have conflicts and wars in the Middle East set the stage for a future apocalypse? That's the question Ron Rhodes takes head-on in his new book.

Listen to this. What do you see coming in the next five or six years that might do injury to the church? And without hesitation I said I really feel like we're going to see an explosion of subjectivism, experientialism and mysticism along with occultism and some paganism. How conflicts and wars in the Middle East have set the stage for the end times. This new book by Ron Rhodes addresses issues such as understanding Islam, rebuilding the temple and the annihilation campaign from the Antichrist.

Here's Ron Rhodes commenting on Middle East events. Did you know that in Revelation 2 and 3 we read about the church 19 times and then in the discussion on the tribulation in chapters 4 through 18 you don't see the church a single time. It is gone. In 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10 we are told that the church is to be delivered from the wrath to come. That word delivered literally means snatched, snatched away from.

We are to be snatched away from the wrath to come which is a reference to the tribulation period. With your gift of $50 or more to connect with Skip Heitzig you'll receive a copy of this new book from Ron Rhodes. Your gift will support the production and expansion of the Connect with Skip broadcast. Call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com with your donation and we'll thank you with a copy of Ron Rhodes' new book How Conflicts and Wars in the Middle East have set the stage for the end times.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com. All right, ready to go? Then let's turn to Revelation 13 and see what Skip has for us today. We talked about the separation of church and state, right? Can I just push this on pause for a moment and just tell you what that does not mean and what it does mean? When you hear people talk about separation of church and state it does not mean that Christians don't have a right to speak into the public forum. It does not mean that.

It was never intended for that. What it means, what it meant is the government can't intrude into the church. That's what the separation of church and state was and is all about. In the tribulation period this guy is going to marry church and state. There will be the full integration of religion and politics.

You say, well how is that even possible? What we read in 2 Thessalonians, God will send them strong delusion and they will believe the lie. So Revelation 13 introduces this false prophet, this second beast, that he causes the world to worship the first beast. He sounds good but it's a worship system that he brings and by the time we get to Revelation chapter 17 we get the name of it, Mystery Babylon, a worldwide religious system. He is also a spiritual deceiver. That's also on his agenda.

It has to be. Look at verse 13. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and he deceives all those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

What we just read, what has sounded crazy 2,000 years ago, 200 years ago, we read these words today and it sounds very plausible. An image coming to life. You know, when I was a kid, I went to Disneyland. You know what the big attraction in Disneyland was? Mr. Lincoln. An animatronic Mr. Lincoln.

They didn't even have that anymore. But as a kid, I just thought it was so cool to see Abraham Lincoln. It was just an animatronic thing. But he was seated and then he stood up and he walked forward and he addressed the crowd and he gave his Gettysburg address.

Gettysburg address. Then Disneyland came out with something much classier than Mr. Lincoln, more believable, and that was the Haunted Mansion. Beware of hitchhiking ghosts.

Suddenly, these ghosts that you can see through were appearing in different places. How did they do that, I wondered? That was 30, 40 years ago. Today, we have a thing called AI, artificial intelligence. You've seen it on posts. They can make old paintings and old photos appear realistic where eyes are blinking, lips are moving, people are talking.

It's very, very animated. And we're still talking about that kind of technology. Just the other week, Sam Altman, who is the CEO of the group called OpenAI, was just in Israel and spoke to the Israeli leaders. But what got my attention is he spoke his vision of the future, predicting that AI, artificial intelligence, will soon cure all disease and rid the world of poverty. What a promise. Cure all disease, rid the world of poverty.

Everybody wants that. In the article that I read, it said, Altman sees himself and his company as the creators of a kind of digital Messiah, which will remedy humanity's educational and material ills. That's happening now, now, right now. Whenever this happens in the tribulation period, the false prophet, the second beast, will erect an idol in Jerusalem, commission some gigantic sculpture to honor the beast, and then he'll animate it. It'll look like it comes to life.

Notice it says it was granted to give breath to the image. So can you imagine a statue? And I just saw a video the other day on something called The Impossible Statue. It was made out of a printer, a large lifelike statue, beautiful.

But it was all done with artificial intelligence. Imagine just a dormant statue suddenly breathing and seeming to come to life. Now, I don't know that he's actually going to come to life because it just says that it was granted power to give breath to the image.

And the word is pneuma, not zoe or bios. It's not the word for life, it's the word for breath. I don't think Satan can give life, as I mentioned last week. I think it can only appear to do so. Just like pharaohs, magicians, remember when Moses was performing all his tricks and pharaohs, magicians could mimic what Moses was doing. So all of this will be part of that event we've been telling you about, the abomination of desolation, where this image is placed in the Jewish temple that will be built in Jerusalem. But notice, and we really kind of skipped over it because the animated statue takes up most of our interest, but notice in verse 13, he performs great signs that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth. You remember somebody in the Old Testament who did that? Elijah the prophet, right?

On Mount Carmel, he called fire down from heaven like lightning, came and struck the altar, the animal licked up all the water in the trough against the prophets of Baal. Well, the Bible predicts in the book of Malachi, last book in the Old Testament, chapter 4, just the last few words, God said, Behold, I send you Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the heart of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children, lest I come and smite the earth with the curse. So it could be that the false prophet is going to try to mimic Elijah and fulfill in Jewish minds that prophecy.

By the way, and I'm just throwing out information at this point, I wanted to insert this, but just by way of passing. Did you know that in Islamic theology, Muslim theology, Muslims have an eschatology, I don't know if you know this or not, but they are anticipating the coming of a leader they call the Mahdi, the Mahdi. Now, I know Islam is divided into Sunni and Shia, so the Shia Muslims believe in the coming of the 12th Imam called the Mahdi. The Mahdi, they say, is a leader who will take control, listen, of the world system. And then, not only will the Mahdi come, but Jesus Christ will return.

I had the crown prince of Saudi Arabia said, we believe Jesus is coming. But, according to Islamic theology, Jesus will return as a radical Muslim and tell the Christians they were wrong and force the world, lead the world to worship the Mahdi and institute Sharia law. Finally, after him, the Dajjal will come. The Dajjal is the false Christ.

The Dajjal is a deceiver who will attempt to stop the Mahdi and he will be killed. And I bring that up because if you were to put both of those together, the Bible and Islamic teachings, you discover the Bible's anti-Christ is Islam's savior. And the Bible's false prophet is Islam's Jesus Christ. And the Bible's returning Christ is Islam's anti-Christ. It's in the very least noteworthy and sobering.

How that's going to pan out in the end, I couldn't be certain. But I do know this. The major role of Satan, and it's seen here in the false prophet, the major role of Satan is and always has been deception. He is the father of lies, Jesus said. He's the father of lies. He is all about deceiving people from the truth. He's doing it right now, today.

He's always been doing it, but boy is he doing it today in spades. We have confusion over gender. People are killing babies, talking about that as a health care privilege. We are extolling in our culture homosexuality as normal and good. Isn't it amazing that our veterans who die for this nation are celebrated on one day, Veteran's Day?

Pride gets a month, and that's just the beginning. That kind of deception, that kind of vileness is working its way into churches. I just got it this week.

You probably saw it, too. A progressive Lutheran church that changed the Apostles' Creed. You know the Apostles' Creed. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.

They changed it to read this. I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of glorious diversity.

That was just this week. So mark my words, as time marches forward toward that day of the tribulation, the world will escalate in satanic deception. Matthew 24, Jesus said, many will come in my name saying I am Christ and will deceive many. Many false prophets will come and they will and they are here. But culminating in the future will be the false prophet who forces the world to worship the beast, the Antichrist. So that's his mention, his mediator. Let's look at the final characteristic, a little detail that I told you, and that is his mark.

Verse 16, he causes all. All means all. Good. That's good.

You're with it. All. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads that no one may buy or sell. Except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666. Now this verse has been the seed bed, the source of much speculation, theories, conspiracies. They run rampant and 666 is such a creepy number to us in our culture.

Again, whether you've heard a sermon on it, whether you've read the Bible, you know that. 666. Many people, because they just get weird about these things, try to eliminate the sequence of 666 from being on a phone number or a license plate or a home address. Little known fact, there's a home in Bel Air, California, and the address was 666.

It was Ronald Reagan's home after he left the White House. See, he went, ooh. He's like, that number matters. And so the authorities changed the number of the address, just gave it a whole different number. Stay away from 666. Authorities will renumber highways that are given the designation 666. They'll just say, no, no, no, don't do that.

Yeah, you can get your kicks on Route 66, but not on Route 666. Just get rid of that. They've changed it. So it's an unsettling number, sort of like the number 13. You know that many hotels and businesses will just eliminate the 13th floor completely, even though it might be there. They don't register it in the elevator.

They don't want to have a 13th floor. This beast, moreover, the false prophet, false prophet, and many Christians sort of Skip over this part, it's not the anti-Christ that's going to force people to take a number. It's the false prophet that's going to force people to take a number in allegiance to the anti-Christ. And this false prophet is going to require some kind of identifying mark that signifies a loyalty, adherence, affinity, worship, some kind of mark, some kind of branding even.

If you were reading this 2,000 years ago, this was not uncommon. Slaves were branded like cattle in ancient times with the owner's name. Soldiers were many times branded by the company they were in in the army. Mystical religions like the religion of Sibelius would give a special tattoo to its members of that religion.

But notice something about this mark. Verse 17, no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. It's going to be required for commerce, public and private commerce. So you can't shop at the mall without it. You can't go to the grocery store without it. You can't get a prescription for medication filled without it. You can't go into a restaurant and order food without it. You can't fill up your car with gas without it or charge it without it. You can't pay your utility bills without it. You can't pay your rent or your mortgage without it. You need the mark to survive in the market.

To survive in this world. Remember a couple years ago? Remember that little thing that happened in the world?

I think it was called COVID something, right? You weren't allowed to go in a restaurant. You weren't allowed to get on an airplane. You couldn't attend a public meeting unless you showed what? A vaccination card. Proof that you had adhered. Then you were given admittance. Now that was just a precursor.

That is not the mark of the beast. But it was worldwide. It did affect everyone and it allowed universal government overreach in culture after culture. Governments during that time were labeling groups as essential and non-essential. Among those regarded as non-essential were us, the church. And you were told you must comply or you don't love anybody. Now for 2,000 years this idea of forcing people to take a mark to do anything in life like buy or sell was just not plausible. It's so plausible now.

It's already in place. You have a barcode on the back of your credit card, do you not? You know how much information about you is there? You put that in an ATM on the other side of the country and it says, hello Skip Heitzig.

What would you like? I mean it's like, whoa! It's all in a barcode. Every item you buy has a barcode that is attached to the barcode that you purchase it with. So the information in the computer is there. This is just the next step. Now the big question for most people is what is 666? And it would seem like, well we should know because here it says, here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beasts. And boy have there been book after book written of calculations of what this means.

Ad infinitum ad nauseum. People have guessed what this is. We really don't know what this is but I guarantee you in the tribulation period they'll know what this is.

And that's the reference I think. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beasts. At that time people are definitely going to know what this is.

Now let me just take this down a notch in closing. And I'm not going to give you, I'm not going to even drag you through the mud of all the conspiracies. It could be this, could be that. And maybe after church you'll say, oh Skip it could be this or could be that.

Because I get this all the time. It could be this simple. It could simply represent humanity in general. 666. The Bible often connects the number six with humanity, with mankind. Humans were created on the sixth day. We were told to work for six days. Hebrew slavery was limited to six years. Whereas that's true. Also it is true that God is associated with seven because seven is the number of completeness.

I know we like to say perfection but it's it's complete. There are seven notes on a diatonic scale. There are seven colors in the color spectrum. There are seven days in a week. The feasts of God in Leviticus 23 were seven feasts. And the number seven appears over 30 times in the book of Revelation.

It's a complete number. Man at his best is a six. God is a seven.

Man always falls short. His government is a six. His laws are a six. His system is a six.

Man can never reach perfection on his own. So it could be a lot of different things. I'm not going to speculate what it is. But let 666 remind us that without God something is missing from every life. Your life is a six. It could be a seven. But it can only be a seven with God. Let me close with a fun little story.

True story. You've heard of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He had kids and he taught the music and the thing that drove Johann Sebastian Bach nuts and his kids knew it so they did it all the time is they would play a musical score and then they would end and leave off the final chord or the final note that resolves the measure. So they would play play play and then leave it off and walk away from the piano. This drove Bach nuts.

Even if he was upstairs in bed falling asleep and he heard that he would get up from bed walk downstairs go to the piano and play the stinking chord. Because it has to be resolved. It has to be finished. It has to have the final note. Satan is a six. God will play a seven. He'll play the final note when Jesus returns from heaven to the earth at his second coming. That's when the second coming.

That's when the da-na goes off. Antichrist. False prophet. Six. Six. Six. Jesus comes along.

It's a seven happily. That's Skip Heitig. With a message from his series The End is Near find the full message as well as books booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. We share these messages to help you connect to God through his word and grow in your relationship with him through intentional study of scripture. And when you give to support this ministry, you keep these teachings you love available to you and to so many others around the world so they too can grow and connect with God. Just call 800-922-1888 to give a gift today. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate.

That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Join us tomorrow as Skip takes a look at the battle to end all battles. Armageddon. So Armageddon has been and is on the minds of many leaders.

But did you know something very interesting? You could look in a concordance from Genesis to Revelation. You will never once find the phrase battle of Armageddon. That phrase is not in the Bible. The concept is... Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.