Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Man's rebellion against God will reach its peak when a future ruler arises. His name, the Antichrist. His doom, certain. He will arise out of a reunited Europe.
His rule over Earth will be total. Today, what the Bible says about the future world dictator. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Erwin Lutzer is in a series on seven signs of Christ's return.
Today we turn to sign number three: the rise of a world dictator. Pastor, do you believe this future dictator is already alive and waiting? Dave, I'm sure that there are many people who are asking that question, but I think it's best if we hold off and say that we really don't know. But this much I want to assert, and that is that he may be alive. We don't know who he is, but when you read the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation, it is so clear that that beast accepts worship from all over the world.
Scary. As a matter of fact, it says, "All who dwell upon the face of the earth shall worship him." So, even as we navigate life, it is important for us to recognize that we are really going somewhere. History is being wrapped up. And that's why I'm so excited that we are making available to you a resource entitled "When Jesus Returns." Now I want you to understand that amid the chaos, God has a plan, and so this book is not written in order for you to have fear in your heart, but rather confidence that despite what happens, God is working. For those who know Jesus Christ as Savior, we have a blessed hope.
For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Here's what you do: go to rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven.
Now, let us go to the pulpit of Moody Church, and following the message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info one more time. In the Hofburg Library in Vienna, there is a spear believed by some to be the spear that was used to pierce Christ's side.
Now, you need to understand that in this library of the Imperial Treasury, there are many different rooms. As a matter of fact, my wife and I were there several years ago, and we saw this spear. When Hitler was a student in Vienna, and actually he was a student, but also doing some painting along the side. At the age of twenty, he lived in Vienna for four years. When he was there, he would go into the Hofburg, and he overheard a tour guide say that whoever unlocks the mystery of this spear will rule the world.
Hitler says that that changed his entire life. He began to study the spear, and he discovered that there are forty-three spears that claim to be the one that was used to pierce Christ's side. But he concluded that this one was authentic. And according to observers, he would stand in front of the spear, inviting its spirit to possess him. A man by the name of Doctor Stein, who was a friend of Hitler, oftentimes stood beside him, and he said that the Adolf Hitler, as he stood there, he was filled with ghostly experiences and sometimes engulfed in ectoplasmic light.
When Hitler left Vienna, of course, he was a runner in World War One, and then after Germany lost World War One, he became a member of the Thule Society, seeking a way to make Germany great again. And it was there that he was taken through the deepest levels of alcohol transformation. Dietrich Eckart, one of his mentors, said regarding Hitler: "Follow Hitler, for he shall dance. But it is I who have written the tune, because I have introduced him to the powers. I shall have influenced German history more than any other German.
Of course, you know that he became der Führer, and later on, Austria was annexed." He was able to go into Vienna, and that night before he slept in the Imperial Hotel, and when he was there, in the age of twenty to twenty-four in Vienna, he used to shovel snow to get a little bit of money in front of the Imperial Hotel.
Now he went there as conqueror as king, and that night apparently he went into the Hofburg, took that spear and held it to his bosom, and said it was as if he was holding the world in his hands. I mention Hitler because I believe that he is a kind of prototype of the Antichrist. For several reasons. First of all, he began a program of peace and prosperity at a time when the economy was in bad shape. People were willing to work up to twenty hours a day.
They were so obsessed with the revival of German nationalism and the greatness of Germany. And Hitler used to say, "Peace is all I want. Peace, peace, peace. That's all that I desire." There's a second reason, and that is because he became an enemy of the Jews. His final solution, the intention was, of course, to finally take care of the Jewish question and to blot out the Jews from Germany and hopefully the world.
A final reason is because there's no doubt that he was the pawn of the devil. Those who knew him well said that his body was but the shell for the spirit that inhabited him. And so there he was, as the leader of the world, hoping to bring about a thousand year Reich. Perhaps some of you know I've written a book about Hitler, and I was amazed to see the parallels that he always had between himself and Jesus. At the age of thirty, he began his call and his greatness as Der Führer, and he made associations in his own speeches between him and Christ.
If anything, of course, anti Christ.
Now, the Bible says that there is going to be a ruler who is going to arise at the end of time. As you know, this is a series of messages titled "Seven Signs of Christ's Return," and today we get to message number three: the rise, the rise of a worldwide dictator.
Now, many of you might know that when we talk about these things, there is, of course, a difference of opinion. For example, many of us believe that we will not be here when Antichrist actually arises. When some of the events that we are reading about today, and we are going to read many scriptural passages today, some of us think that the rapture of the church will already have happened, and we are going to be in heaven. And it is after that period of time that Antichrist arises. It is somewhat after that period of time that the seven-year tribulation begins, and then Jesus comes in glory at the end of that time.
So there are really two. Two aspects to His coming: a coming for His church, a coming for His saints, and then a return in glory with His saints. Of course, not everybody believes that. There are those who believe that the church will go through this period of tribulation. And then there are those who don't believe that there's a specific period of tribulation at all.
They look at Antichrist either symbolically, or they see him as the culmination of various nations. And the scriptural references to him are otherwise explained.
Well, I'm convinced that the Bible teaches the rise of Antichrist. I believe that there is a man who is going to come from the European Confederacy, as we shall see in just a moment, who eventually is going to receive the worship of the entire world, and what a day that is going to be!
Now I'm going to tell you how we're going to proceed. This is going to be very simple. We're going to talk about the Antichrist's career, and I'm going to ask you to turn to passages of Scripture, and we shall read them, and I shall make some comments, and in this way we will sketch what he is about to do or will be doing when he appears on the scene, and it will help us hopefully to put all of this into some kind of perspective. I invite you to begin with the Book of Daniel. Daniel chapter seven actually, Daniel has many visions.
Now, if you were with us last time, you know that Daniel talked about the vision that Nebuchadnezzar had and the interpretation of that vision. You remember the head of gold was, of course, Babylon. Then you had Medo-Persia. Then you had Greece, and then you had Rome. And Daniel receives now personally a similar vision, except that more details are added.
In chapter seven, he talks about four beasts that come out of the sea, and the beasts actually parallel the figure that we spoke about last time. For example, it says in verse four, the first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. Verse five, there was a second beast which looked like a bear. Verse six, I looked and behold, there was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. Verse seven, after that, in my vision at night, I looked and behold, before me was a fourth.
Terrifying, frightening, and very powerful. It had large iron teeth. It crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. While I was thinking about the horns before me, there was another horn, a little horn, which came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it.
This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man, and has a mouth that spoke boastfully. And as I looked, thrones were set in place, and the ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow. His hair was white like wool. His throne was Flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
And what you have here is the coming of Jesus Christ to establish His kingdom. See, one of the questions that you might ask is, why is it that you go into the Book of Daniel? Why is it that you go into the Book of Revelation and you read all these passages as prophecy?
Well, the answer, my friend, is that the context in which they are given is the context of the return of Jesus Christ. It's during the days you see when this little horn, and you remember in Daniel's vision there were ten toes.
Now we have similar truth conveyed, but it happens to be ten horns. It is during that period of time that the ancient of days comes and establishes his kingdom. That's why we know that this is prophetic, and it has not yet happened. Daniel is very troubled by this by this experience. In fact, he says in verse nineteen, "I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws.
The beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up." Before which three of them fell. The horn that looked more imposing than the others, that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. And as I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High. Daniel says, "I'm trying to figure this out." And if you're a new Christian, or if you've been a Christian for many, many years, and prophecy is very difficult for you, as it is for all of us, myself included, we too would like to know more.
We say, God, teach us more, and so. God comes and gives Daniel an interpretation in verse 23. He gave me this explanation. This is the deal.
Now, the fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth. This is Rome, as we learned last time. It will be different from all of the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them, another king will arise, different from the earlier ones.
He will subdue three of these kings. He will speak out against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and a half a time. That's three and a half years. But the court will sit and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever.
Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the rulers will worship and obey him. This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale. But I kept the matter to myself.
This is a reference to the fact that Antichrist is going to subdue three of those ten kings that we talked about last time, and that are represented here. And so, the first stage of Antichrist is this: as we look very briefly at his career, number one, he will emerge from a ten-nation confederacy, which I believe is going to be the revived Roman Empire, and he will emerge speaking words of peace. He'll be a peace candidate. We know this because in the next chapter Daniel predicts Antiochus Epiphanes coming, and Antiochus actually prefigures Antichrist as well. And it says, "Through peace he shall destroy many." Or another translation says, "While people are at ease, he will destroy them." He's going to be a peace candidate.
I believe that Antichrist is going to sign a covenant with Israel that will be a peace covenant. Israel is weary with war. It is. Tired of the battles and its hassles, and so you could imagine a tremendous power developing in Europe, and a man arising who is beginning to have authority over all of the other kingdoms and the countries of Europe. And he is the one who can guarantee the security of Israel.
He can guarantee the fact that if there is war, this European Union will stick up with Israel and finally impose some kind of a peace on the Middle East, which has been so racked by war and terrorism throughout. These many many decades.
So he's going to begin with peace. Can't imagine that he's going to begin talking about war, and so the doves of peace will fly, and the whole idea will be that now that there is going to be a union, we can finally come together and we can solve our problems. That's step number one. He emerges from the ten nation confederacy speaking words of peace. Second step in his career, he will become an enemy of the Jews, an enemy of the Jews.
Take your Bibles now and turn. To Daniel chapter nine, and you understand once again that we cannot go into the context and discuss every single verse. But in Daniel chapter nine, it talks about the covenant that he makes in verse twenty-seven. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven.
Some Bibles say for a week because in Hebrew the word week is seven. It really means for seven years. In the middle of the seven. He will put an end to sacrifice and offering. I take it that by that time you will have a temple in Jerusalem, and sacrifices will be offered, and he will be there, and he will come and proclaim himself to be God.
Paul says in Second Thessalonians chapter two. And on the wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. What is that abomination that causes desolation? I believe it is the image that. Puts up there, expecting all of the Jews now to bow down and to worship this image, to break the first commandment with himself being declared to be God, and so he's going to turn against the Jews.
In the book of Revelation, it talks about the fact that unless God were to hide Israel in the desert, symbolically speaking, all of the Jews would be destroyed because the same hatred that Hitler had, the same desire to exterminate. The Jewish people, as has existed from time to time throughout the last seasons of history, will finally be culminated in a man who hates the Jews and desires their destruction. He will become an enemy of the Jews. Thirdly, he will begin worldwide worship. Worldwide worship.
For this, take your Bible now and turn to Revelation chapter thirteen. Revelation chapter thirteen. I believe that God gave to John a vision that again recapitulates some of the same information that Daniel received. But here we have an interesting story, an interesting vision as to how the Antichrist is going to do his work. It says that John saw a beast coming out of the sea.
And essentially, this beast has similarities to Daniel's beast. In fact, the animals are even the same, even though they are in a different order. Because Daniel is looking at them as future, and it's as if John is looking at them at the past. But you'll notice that it says, "But he had the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion." I'm reading now in verse two. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
I need to pause here and say a few things. It has always been the devil's intention to duplicate the work of Jesus to mimic God. Of course, you know that when Lucifer fell, he fell because he said, "I will be like the Most High." Well, in what sense can he be like the Most High? Not in the sense that he is omnipotent and omnipresent. He knows that he cannot be like God in that regard.
But he said, "I want to be like God in this—that I will be independent and make my own rules." But of course, the universe cannot handle two gods. And so, what the devil would like to do is to duplicate the religion that is found in the scriptures, and in so duplicating it, so that he can dupe people to believe that he is the true God, he is the one who is supposed to be worshipped. That's the agenda.
Now, think this through. If that's what the devil wants to do, it only makes sense that he would have a trinity, just like there is the trinity that God has—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What you find in Revelation thirteen now is a trinity as well. Let's look at the text. Let's find the three personalities that try to take over at the end of time.
I already read it there a moment ago in verse two, the last part of the verse. The dragon gave the beast his power. There's two of them. The dragon is the devil. He is the one who is also worshipped here, as we shall see in a moment.
And he gives power to the beast. The beast is Antichrist, and you'll notice it says, verse three, one of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. I don't think it's supposition to suggest that what's really happening here is Antichrist would like to duplicate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so it appears as if he's been killed. In fact, later on, it talks about the wound that was made with the sword. It looks as if he's dead, and lo and behold, the whole world wanders after this and is concerned about it and is astonished because this person who appeared to be dead is raised again.
You'll notice it says the whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast, and who can make war against him?" And they worship both the father, as it were, the dragon, which is Satan, and they worship the antichrist, who stands in the place of Jesus. They worship both of them, just like we worship God the Father and we worship God the Son. In the very same way, people worship this unholy Trinity.
Now notice in verse five, the beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies. To exercise his authority for forty-two months, he opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander His name and His dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them, and he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Wow! And all the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast.
All those whose names have not been written in the book of life, belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. Awesome. The worship during that period of time is so important that that's why the next message that I preach is going to be simply on end time religion and the kind of religion that will operate during that period of time. It's too important to simply deal with in passing. But I want you to notice that the authority of the beast is absolutely overwhelming, and all worship him.
Now I believe that there will be saints during the tribulation period because they will be converted sovereignly by God, and the everlasting gospel will be preached, and so forth. And that's why you have saints that appear here, even though many of us think that we ourselves are going to be snatched away and already in heaven. But I want you to notice the authority that he has. Men and women throughout the whole world worshiping him. Finally, at last, the religions of the world will be unified.
Except that there are some God's people who do not worship the beast, and as a result of that, as we shall see in a moment, they are in terrible, terrible difficulty. This is Pastor Luther. I want you to visualize that you are at a prophecy conference, and various speakers speak on different aspects of prophecy, reminding us that in God's mind and heart, and even in the Bible, these events are predicted for our good. They're predicted not to satisfy our curiosity, but rather. To prepare us to live in this world with faith, with purity, and with the anticipation that this is not the end.
As a matter of fact, the end for believers is going to be glorious. For a gift of any amount, we're making available for you a book entitled "When Jesus Returns." Here's what you do: go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. You've heard me say this before, but when I think of running to win, I visualize thousands of people gathered together, hand in hand, running toward the finish line. Our desire here is to get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world, and that's why I repeatedly thank you from the bottom of my heart for being partners in this ministry.
Here is what you do: go to rtwoffer dot com. The title of the book when Jesus returns. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Erwin Lutzer with Part One of the Rise of a World Dictator, the third sign in a series on seven signs of Christ's return.
Next time, more on why people will welcome the Antichrist with open arms. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
