The Ten Crowns under the Antichrist

RV215-01

I listened to a tape by Larry Burkett, an outstanding Christian financial adviser. I'm going to have to listen to it again, because he has brought together such an impact of information. The scariest thing about what he said was when he kept dropping years like 1995 and 1996. That's about as far as he went. He said the economic collapse of the United States is well-known in the halls of Congress. Panic reigns there as the people in government try to keep people from panicking, but know that there is no solution. We are a nation which has prostituted its spiritual heritage, and which has now destroyed itself economically. Larry Burkett is highly respected. He is no fool. He has called plays right on the target, and he knows what he's talking about. But it was interesting to me, to remind me once more, that there isn't any future for us. The future is now. Now is the time to realize the conditions that exist in our world, and the circumstances that surround us. The impact that we make, we make now, or we will not make it at all.

I thought, "What better book for us to be studying here at Berean Church than the book of the Revelation?" That is the book, which is now bringing us to those final days in which we are now living; which we're going to bring together; and, which Christians need to be prepared for. And if we understand, it will help us to know how to set the things that are important in our lives, and to realize the terrible price that we will pay if we do not get with it.

All of this began at the Tower of Babel, when Nimrod chose to begin what exists to this very day – a system to wean people away from subjection to the Creator God and His will, and to bring about a tyrannical government, and a system of destruction of the family and of the basis of all morality. Nimrod, following the Noahic flood, put together a religious system of idolatry brought and refined from the mind of Satan. From Babel, the religion of worshiping idols spread around the world, and exists to this very day. Every nation developed a set of gods which were portrayed visually in animal or human form.

Greek and Roman Mythology

It is important to remember that this was not a powerless system. You would make a great mistake to say, "Well, Nimrod and the people who followed him, and the people who follow this religion today are really ridiculous because there's no power, and there's no significance." You would be quite wrong. One of the things to realize is that behind the religion of Nimrod was the power of Satan, and behind the idols that they worshiped was the power of the demonic world.

On one occasion, the apostle Paul pointed this out to us in 1 Corinthians 10:16-22. Here, Paul is speaking about the need for Christian separation, particularly separation at the Lord's table. Following this chapter, he goes into 1 Corinthians 11, where he gives some detail about the Lord's Supper, and how we should conduct ourselves. The Corinthians, because they were such a carnal congregation, were doing horrible things at the Lord's Supper meeting as an act of worshiping God, including getting drunk before they came to the meeting, and then acting accordingly within the Lord's Supper meeting. And the apostle Paul prepares what he's going to say in chapter 11 with this section about Christian separation in connection with the Lord's Supper. You separate yourself from that world system.

So, in 1 Corinthians 10:16, Paul says, "Is not the cup of blessing (the wine) which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?" These symbols are declaring our relationship to Christ in terms of the body which was broken and the blood which was shed for the payment of our sins: "Since there is one bread, we who are many are of one body, for we will all partake of the one bread." He points out that there is among us as Christians a unity. We were all one loaf in Christ:

"Look at the nation Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?" In the Old Testament, he said that that union between God and the worshiper was there, just as there is a union between the Christian when he participates in the Lord's Supper with God. At the Old Testament sacrificial altar, the person who brought the sacrifice would be part of the sacrifice, and thus have a direct union in joining with God.

Verse 19: "What do I mean then?" Furthermore, part of this background is the question of buying meat at the local butcher shop, which was hanging on these hooks which had been taken from the altars of sacrifice in the local temple. Paul says, "What do I mean then – that things sacrificed to idols are anything, or that the idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers in demons."

Paul says, "That idol is a dumb creature. Those images that men make that they fall down before to worship are nothing." But he says, "I do not tell you that they are powerless, for behind every idol is a demon. That demon is sometimes, as in the East (in Japan), where they worship the ancestors. Those are the demons that they are worshiping. It's all part of Nimrod's system. It's all part of the idolatry of Babylonianism.

In verse 21, it comes to the point: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons." There must be a separation: "Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?" What a question to have to put to a Christian! Do you think that you're stronger than God? Do you think that you're going to buck God? Do you think that you're going to resist Him? Do you think that you can sit and be instructed in the Word of God, and then thumb your nose at the instruction? Do you really think that you can provoke God like that? You'd have to be omnipotent to do so.

So, the point here is that this religion of idol worship is not without its power. That's why idol worshipers indeed are able to accomplish things, and do have power, and the worship of Satan and of demons gives individuals tremendous capacity.

However, the Bible declares that the Creator God is alive, and He is supreme above all the idol gods representing the demons. It seems that we shouldn't even have to remind ourselves of that. Yet, it is surprising how regularly through the Scripture, to the people of God, the Spirit of God says, "I want to remind you one more time that there's only one God. He's the living Creator God, and He's in charge. He is not a fool, and you cannot treat him as such. The reason for that is because you've got all this idolatry that you can fall back upon. And that idolatry does not have to be some little image that you put on your dresser, and that you genuflect before. Yes, it can be your bankbook. It can be your bank account. It can be your business. It can be that goal that you have set for yourself in life. It can be all of the things that preoccupy your primary strength and capacity. So, we do need to be reminded that there is a Creator God out there.

As I reminded our parents at the open house Friday night, God holds them responsible for misleading their children, as He holds everybody responsible for misleading a child, and should have a millstone put about his neck and drown. But God also, I told them, has given you this child only on loan. He is on loan to you from God, so that you may rear him into adulthood, such that he is capable of performing the mission for which God brought him into this world.

What a tragedy that so many children are contaminated with falsehood, and misguided such that, when they come to their adulthood, they don't know how to act as Christian adults. They don't know how to live as decent, civilized humanity. And they don't know how to be in touch with the mission of God for their lives. They're just wandering, lost creatures. Their parents failed them completely. So, they muck along through life, doing their jobs; being a little religious; and, mostly having no idea what on earth God has called them to do.

So, the Creator God is out there, and He has a plan. Your plan may come from your idol worship, or it may come from the God who is the Creator. This was true even for the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 10:17. Here, Moses is writing his last will and testament to them before he dies. He takes trouble to remind them once more that God is the Creator in charge: "For the Lord your God is the God of Gods, the Lord of Lords, the Great, the Mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe."

Move over to Daniel 2:47. Nebuchadnezzar got the picture: "The king answered Daniel and said, 'Surely your God is a God of Gods, and a Lord of Kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.'" Have you noticed the repetition of that description of this Creator God as God of Gods and Lord of Lords?

1 Timothy 6:15: "Which He will bring about at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords."

How about Revelation 19:16? "And on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords." So, it is quite clear that we have a technical phrase here. "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" is a phrase for the Creator God. He is the one who makes the rules; the one who calls the plays; and, the one who is the living God, in contrast to Nimrod's idol gods empowered by Satan.

Christianity and Hinduism

There is the difference. With Judeo-Christianity, you have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. With Hinduism, you have stupidity of stupidity and dumbness of dumbness. This is the creation of man over against the creation of God. Judeo-Christianity worships the Living Creator God. This God has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. In the Old Testament, Israel is portrayed as the wife of "Yahweh," and in the New Testament, the church (the virgin bride) is portrayed as the bride of Christ. Hinduism worships dead idols empowered by demons, and it views man as a potential god.

This is the Babylonianism of the harlot religion that we've been studying. The religion of Babel is compared by God to a harlot woman, because it is a religion which is unfaithful to the spiritual truth to be found in Scripture. It has been transmitted, we have learned, from Babel by six world empires: from Egypt to Assyria; to Babylon; to Medo-Persia; to Greece; to Rome, which was in existence when John wrote. Then John said that that empire of his day was going to be no more for a while, and then would come a seventh empire. This seventh empire is going to be the restored, revived Roman Empire of the tribulation era. That's why the beast that the harlot rides has these seven heads, representing these seven transmitters of the idolatry religion of Babylon. For a while there, will be an eighth, in the last three-and-a-half years of the tribulation, which will take over the transmission of Nimrod's religion. It will be the worldwide worship of the antichrist as the ultimate God.

Ten Crowns

So, in Revelation 17:14, we read that: "These will wage war against the Lamb." The word "these" refers to the people in verse 12, the ten horns, which are the ten kings which are part of the antichrist's kingdom. These people are going to wage war against the Lamb. The phrase "wage war" is a military term, obviously. It's part of the angelic conflict. It's in the future, at the end of the tribulation, and it is actively done by these ten nations that will be formed in this confederacy. They are going to perform an act of war. Specifically, that act will culminate in the final battle on the field of Armageddon. They're going to have an act of war against the Lamb (against the "arnion"). The "arnion" refers here, of course, to Jesus Christ, as in John 1:29, He is referred to as the Lamb of God.

There is the picture. These people, at the end time, will now rule the world. Everything that is being done by every government in the world today is moving toward that end. Tomorrow at the American White House, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization will be signing a treaty of peace and recognition, and the first step will have been made toward the end times covenant. Do you realize that? Do you realize what you're going to see tomorrow on the news? It will be the first step toward the covenant that the antichrist will make for the protection of Israel. This is the first foundation stone upon which that covenant will be built, so that Israel will have a basis for thinking that she can exist as a nation. We are alive to see that happen.

The result is going to be that this madness will cause these people to be willing to fight the Lord Jesus Christ. What a tender thing that He is the Lamb of God, with all that a lamb generally stands for, in its meekness and in its tenderness. Several times in the book of the Revelation, we have had Jesus Christ referred to as the Lamb of God. I want to remind you of those. Revelations 5:9-10: "They sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the book and to break its seals, for You were slain, and did purchase for God with Your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And You have made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. That's one group of people that have come under the great result of the death of that Lamb for their sins. And they praise Him.

The time has come to break the seals – the seals that are going to reveal what Daniel says that you must keep secret until the end time, near the time of fulfillment. Now, we have the book of the Revelation explaining those seals to us. This Lamb has made it possible for you and me to be a kingdom. That means that we're royalty, and we're priests of our God. We are our own priests. Roman Catholicism is a great lie, in part because it has a separate priesthood from the laity. And we of that priesthood are going to reign upon this earth forever and ever. That is all because of the Lamb. And these guys are going to fight this wonderful person?

There is another group in verses 11-12: "And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels now, around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousand, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.'" Somebody ought to take those words and put them into a song. Can you imagine what Handel must have felt when he looked at that as he wrote The Messiah, and he read those words, and they leaped off the page at him, and that melody rang in his ears, where these words are thrust out? Here is the loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb."

The antichrist and his confederacy (these foul men which now rule the governments of the world) are going to fight this worthy Lamb?

Another group is in verses 13-14: "And every created thing which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, 'To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion, forever and ever.' And the four living creatures kept saying, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." Here again, once more, the Lamb is praised – the one whom they're going to go to war with against.

Move over to chapter 7, verse 9 and 10. This is another praise to the Lamb: "After these things, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count (a multitude of born-again believers), from every nation and all tribes and all peoples and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed in white robes. And palm branches were in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Move over to chapter 15, verses 2 and 3. Here is another expression of praise: "And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding the harps of God." The tribulation martyrs are standing before the throne of God: "And they sang the song of Moses, the bond servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 'Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Righteous and truth are Your ways, You King of the nation."

This Lamb has great and marvelous works. This Lamb is the Lord God Almighty. This Lamb is righteous and true in all that He does. This Lamb is the king of the nations. This Lamb is who these nations are going to come and worship someday. This is the person that they are going to make war against?

Well, the war against Jesus Christ will, of course, be the final folly of the antichrist and his confederacy. The consequences and the outcome of that war you may read for yourself in Revelation 19:11-21. In that, you will find that Jesus Christ appears, and Revelation 19:16 tells us that on His robe He bears the name "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." So, it connects Him with the highest authority of heaven – with deity itself. And the result is that the beast and the false prophet are seized; they are put to death along with everybody who took his mark; and, are thrown into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. And all the armies that have gathered for this war, verse 21 tells us, are killed, and they are spread out on the field of battle, along with all of the debris of their equipment. And the birds and the animals come and have a feast day on the corpses of these who are going to make war against the Lamb.

Why would they want to make war against the Lamb? One purpose, undoubtedly, will be to retaliate against Him for the seal; the trumpet; and, the bowl judgments. If you've been with us over the study of those judgments, you can understand why that gradual shredding of their environment, and of all the surroundings of their life would enrage them, because the environment has come to be the key for imposing socialism on the nations of the world.

One of the leaders, a woman from Sweden, was at the Rio de Janeiro conference that our vice president played such a prominent role in on the environment. That woman stood up and said that the environment is the vehicle for bringing social justice through socialism to the nations of the world. She came right out and said it. But did Brokaw or Jennings tell you that on the nightly news. He never made the connection for you. Whatever you hear about the environment, understand that it's a codeword for "world government."

So, they're going to come against Jesus Christ, and try to get back at Him for these judgments. Secondly, of course, their ultimate purpose would be dethrone and to destroy Jesus, and to exalt and to enthrone the antichrist as the Supreme Being. All of the policies of the antichrist and of his allies are always anti-God because they're driven by the idolatry religion of Babel. The driving passion of the antichrist and the confederacy is going to be simply to defy the Lamb of God. That's why they hate the Lamb, and that's why they're going to make war against Him. They're driven by this insane hatred of Christ to an unrelenting crusade of vilification and destruction of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

The entertainment industry loathes Him. You cannot go to almost any kind of entertainment without hearing the name of Christ blasphemed, in curse words constantly in the most horrendous, obscene way. These are trivial, empty human beings who will spend eternity in the lake of fire, who are cursing the name of Christ because they hate Him so.

Tribulation humanity and its king are going to be raging against the Creator God and His Son, Jesus Christ, as they go about worshiping their idol gods, including the image of the antichrist. This is why Psalm 2 is such an amazing psalm, and so hard to believe that such a thing would take place. Psalm 2:1-6 speak about this final time in world history: "Why are the nations in an uproar and the people devising a vain thing?" What's the vain thing? They plan to bring Christ down. They are going to make war against Him, and defeat Him, and cut him off at the knees: "The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together." They do that on the field of Armageddon: "Against the Lord, and against His anointed." They are against "Yahweh" (the Creator God), and against His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the same thing. They will make war against the Lamb. Here's what they say: "Let us tear their fetters apart, and cast away their cords." We're going to break the controls of the Creator God on us. We are not going to listen to Him:

"He who sits in the heavens laughs." God looks down over His desk and say, "Boy, this is a riot. Just look at these people. They're going to fight Me, and they're going to fight the Lamb." How spiritually insane can you be? And the Lord scoffs at them: "Then He will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in His fury. But as for me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain." That is what is coming. They're going to fight the Lamb.

Let me tell you something that's really ironic about this. When they finally make this move to go to war against Jesus Christ, and when they finally see Him coming, and they say, "Now we can come to grips with Him," they're actually going to fight against the Lamb who has died to pay for their sins to satisfy the justice of God against them. They're going to support the evil empire of the antichrist by fighting against the true Christ who died to pay for their sins. Christ has covered all of their sins, so that their sins are no longer an issue with God.

Please notice 1 Timothy 2:6, to give you a feel for how revolting and mad this action is on the part of the antichrist and his confederacy: "Who gave Himself (Jesus) as a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time." Jesus Christ gave Himself as a ransom for every human being.

Hebrews 2:9 says, "But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels (namely Jesus), because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God, He may face death for everyone." The antichrist; the ten kings; their armies; all of their citizens; and, all these who will have risen up to make war against the Lamb.

Unlimited Atonement

While the death of Christ on the cross is sufficient for the sins of the whole world, it is only efficient for that one human being, one person at-a-time, who accepts Christ as personal Savior. That's the relationship. The death of Christ on the cross is sufficient for the sin of all mankind, so the issue of sin is out of the picture. But it is efficient in taking you into heaven only in the case where the individual has believed the gospel, and thus trusted in Christ to be saved. Then the total sufficiency of God for the whole world becomes efficient for you as an individual.

They Hated Christ without a Cause

That's exactly what you have here in Revelation. These people are going to war against Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who has paid for them the wages of their sin, and without any reason in Christ, they hate Him, and want to destroy Him. That is true today.

They Hate us also

Why do people do that? Because this is a disease in the sin nature. When a Christian permits the sin nature to run his life, that is one of the diseases that very quickly comes to the surface. These gentile nations and their leaders and the antichrist have no problem whatsoever in letting that disease factor come to the surface, because there's nothing in them to hold it back at all, and they're eager to confront Jesus Christ at His Second Coming at the end of the tribulation. They're eager to make war with Him.

Jesus Christ is Lord

This is used of one who is carrying great authority in some way over others. It is used of Jesus Christ in terms of deity. So, that makes Him superior to all the earthly human lords that are on this earth and in society in one way or another. "Kurios," when it is used in the New Testament of Jesus Christ, carries the connotation of deity. The disciple Thomas (old "doubting Thomas") made the connection between Jesus Christ, the human being and His deity when he saw the mortal wound in the living body of Jesus Christ. You remember on that occasion, in John 20:28, Thomas answered when he saw the mortal wound in the living body of Jesus Christ. He said, "My Lord and My God." What was he saying? "My divine one. I'm looking upon You as a human being."

Look upon anybody in this room, and put yourself in his place, such that you would look at this person, a human being that you know is a human being. What if you were say to him, "My divine one, my lord, and you are my God? You are my sovereign, my Lord, and my God." And Thomas realized that Jesus Christ was something more than just a human being. He was a God-man. He had great authority over others.

In Acts 2:36, we have that principle of authority: "Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." The very Christ that they crucified, Peter says, "He is the Lord." These Jews understood that he was telling them that: "Here is someone that was a human being who is actually God, and you killed Him. You killed Him in his humanity," of course, not His deity.

Acts 10:36 says, "The Word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all." There is nobody higher than Jesus Christ. This lamb, who is now also the Lord, because He is deity, and has that omnipotence of deity, is the reason He's going to smash the army of the antichrist and his allies.

There's something else that's true of the Lamb. He not only wins because he is Lord of all Lords, but because He is king of kings. He is the "basileus." This word "basileus" in the Greek means somebody who exercised royal power. The word to attach to this is "sovereignty." Jesus Christ is the sovereign of all the universe who, as the God-man, is the preeminent one in His creation. As the divine king, therefore, Jesus Christ is invincible. So, all the kings of this earth are going to be forced to be in subjection to Him. When we say "kings," of course, we're talking about political rulers in whatever title they exist in various nations.

Romans 14:11 says, "For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, 'Every show shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.'" This is quoting from Isaiah 45:23, and it is here being applied to Jesus Christ. God Himself says, "Everybody's going to be subject to Me. Everybody eventually is going to bow to Me." Now, they're bowing to all those idols of the idolatry of Nimrod: "But the time is coming when tongue is no longer going to curse, but they're going to praise Me."

This is picked up by the apostle Paul in Philippians 2:10-11: "That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, those who are in heaven, on the earth, under the earth (in Hades), and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." So, Jesus Christ is going to win the war with the antichrist and the nations because He is the superior one as Lord (deity), and He is the supreme sovereign as King of the universe. The antichrist, of course, himself is going to think that he's the greatest man in history as all the world worships him. But Satan's power, which indeed he does give to the antichrist, is going to prove to be no match for that of the God-man Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings by divine appointment.

In Matthew 28:18, Jesus says, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and in earth." That's true. He has the supreme authority. What madness; what moral degeneracy; and, what spiritual blindness to even consider to going to war with such an adversary as the Lamb who is King of kings and Lord of Lords! All those snide remarks about Jesus Christ and His followers will now come back to haunt the liberal minds of the antichrist and his kings.

I want you to remember that about yourself today. You get that snide remark: "You Christians; you fundamentalists." All of the garbage is heaped upon us. Those words are going to come ringing back into the ears of these people who thought themselves so mighty, and who thought themselves so capable of solving all the horrendous problems that the sin nature creates in human society, only to discover that the very people they were hating without a cause are the people who had the answers. Isn't that going to be a can of worms? They will find that the people that they held in contempt are the ones who had the answers?

Yes, there is now afoot in Congress a move to bring churches under taxation. They're scraping every place they can to bring taxes, because Larry Burkett is right. The collapse is imminent. There's no way to back out of what this nation has done to itself economically. The rage will be everywhere when it comes. What better people to hit than those Christians and those churches, because it'll drive them out of business, and it'll shut them down. They can barely make it now unless they're playing Satan's game. If they're charismatics, promoting a false doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and thus destroying the lives of Christians, they'll have plenty of money. If they're Roman Catholics, teaching a false doctrine of salvation by works, that is marching people into hell, they'll have plenty of money. Satan is very generous. It is Christians that are not quite so generous that make us beg on our knees to help them to say, "Put it up there where you can keep it forever."

The antichrist thinks that he is the greatest, and he will come across the stage of human history, and the kings that have joined him are going to discover that they made a fatal choice in pledging their allegiance to the antichrist instead of to the Lord Jesus Christ. The ten kings think that their confederacy is the crowning achievement of the diplomacy of the antichrist. But God Himself is the one who drove them into that confederacy to serve his purpose. When the antichrist falls, the federated kings go down with him.

So, take care who it is with whom you cast your lot. On the divine side, with God or with Satan; and, on the human side, with people, both unbelievers and even Christians (and even within our midst). Take care who it is that you cast your lot with, because if they are out of the plan of God, and if they are indeed the enemies of God, and you cast your lot with them when they come down (as they will), then you will come down with them. This is a very good principle to remember.

Yes, Scripture says, "He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world." We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us, but not if you let the sin nature move into control because you're sloppy about your feeding upon the Word of God, and you're sloppy about being here to be instructed in doctrine or principles and given perspective upon your life. You will come down; your children will come down; your husband will come down; your wife will come down; and, everybody associated will come down. You will pay the terrible price.

Take a lesson from the kings, and cast your lot with the winners. The winners are on God's side, and the winning principle is knowing doctrine, and operating under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the circle of temporal fellowship.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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