FORERUNNER CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP – MIKE BICKLE

KNOWING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Transcript: 11/07/09

Session 6 Sign Events and Trends in Gentile Nations

Please refer to the teaching notes for this message.

INTRODUCTION
Turn to Daniel 7. Tonight we’re looking at session six in a six-part series on Knowing the Signs of the Times.
This session we’ll look at the sign events and the sign trends related to the Gentile nations.

In our last session we looked at the sign events—which are the prophetic events—and the sign trends—the
prophetic trends related to the nation of Israel; but tonight we’ll look at it as it relates to the Gentile nations.
There are quite a few of them, and I’m not covering them all but I’m giving you the foundational sign events so
that you can go from here and begin to research it on your own.

Now in just repetition or review of what I covered in the last session, Jesus gave these prophetic signs, these
sign events. He gave these trends. He gave them to indicate the generation of His return. He didn’t give them
just for the fun of it; He didn’t give them so that our curiosity would be stirred, but rather to indicate the time,
the generation of His return, so that we could respond specifically to the Spirit in the ways that those signs and
trends imply. He gave them so that we would know the generation and respond in a very specific way. Every
event and every trend, positive and negative, whether to the Jews or to the Gentiles, has a specific response now
and a specific response that will increase as we approach the events coming to their fullness.

In this session we’ll look at five events: not that this is the whole list, but it’s a good foundation; and we’ll look
at five trends.

Now again, a trend is something that happens over time and builds in momentum. An event happens at a
specific date. It’s an actual event.

THE RISE OF A DYNAMIC REGIONAL AND GLOBAL LEADER

OK, the first event. Now, this isn’t the first one that will appear chronologically; meaning it’s not the next one
on the divine calendar, but it’s the biggest one in terms of political development in the Gentile nations. It’s the
biggest, and the most significant, and it has implications for us today as well. That’s the rise of a world leader;
we know that that world leader is the Antichrist, and he’s received in two different stages. I’m not as concerned
tonight about his final stage on the world level as the leader of the nations. We obviously know not to receive
that, but he begins as a regional leader in Europe and or the Middle East. He starts off as a regional, political
leader, and he emerges to global prominence over time.

Now the last thing we want to do is start trying to figure out ahead of time who that man is. A lot of folks do
that. I don’t see the point in that, because when he commits the Abomination of Desolation, when he goes into
the temple in Jerusalem and says, “Put my statue in the holy place and worship me,” then we know for sure,
without a question. There will be no question about it. But for three and a half years before he does that, he’s a
regional leader with very unusual diplomatic skills, and he establishes peace in the Middle East.

Now when a leader emerges that has an unusual ability to bring unity, you don’t label everyone with an ability
to unify people as the Antichrist, but he actually brings peace in the Middle East. It happens. It doesn’t just
almost happen; it actually happens. That’s the first time we can have certainty that we can understand who this

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man is. I’m not concerned; it will be obvious before we need to know. It will be absolutely obvious if we know
just the fundamentals from the Scripture that describe him.

The reason I’m putting this as the first sign is because the fact that there will be a world leader over the Gentile
nations—well, and Israel will join in, too—is itself the result of a new desire in the nations. Meaning 100 years
ago or 1,000 years ago there were different leaders that wanted to be the world leader, but the world didn’t want
them. There have been a number of leaders who had that ambition. Adolf Hitler wanted to lead the world. The
world didn’t want him to lead them. There have been others throughout history, but this is the first time related
to the Antichrist that the nations will actually want him to be the leader of all the nations.

The thing that strikes our attention in this hour of history is that that desire for a world leader is already in the
hearts of millions around the world. I don’t believe it’s in the hearts of most the people in the world, but it’s in
the hearts of millions. As crises continue to unfold, more people are concluding that we need a world leader.
This is a new development in history, that millions of people are even thinking this direction. That in itself is a
sign of the times, because again, 1,000 years ago, 100 years ago, even fifty years ago, there wasn’t a thought in
the nations in terms of a growing sentiment that we want one man to lead us. They always wanted their own
nation to be led independently of other nations, but for the first time, because of globalization, because the
problems that are happening are of a global nature, there’s a cry beginning to go forth in the nations. And again,
in our next session we’ll look at the whole issue of globalization and how it relates to the signs of the times, but
even some top leaders are beginning to say, “Maybe we should consider everyone doing it together under one
leader.”

Again, there have been leaders in history who wanted to be that guy, but the nations didn’t want them. Now, for
the first time ever, the nations are asking the question and beginning to ponder, “What would it look like?” That
very question, desire, and cry has never been raised before. It’s happening. Again, I believe it’s in the millions;
it’s not the majority of the earth, but it’s growing. It will grow intensely in the next ten, twenty, and thirty years;
I believe this cry will come to a crescendo: “Give us a strong leader who can solve the global terrorist and
economic crises,” and there are even more issues that we’ll get into in a few minutes.

So the reason we want to know about the Antichrist and the reason it affects us today in 2009 is because that
interest, that cry, and that question happening in the nations for the first time in world history is telling us that
circumstances have developed over time, over the history of the nations. They’re coming to a head right now in
this very hour of history to the point where that could become a reality for the first time. That’s a sign of the
times.

And I don’t want to talk so much about the Antichrist tonight, because we have sessions where we break down
what the Bible says about him. The Bible says a lot about him—not just a little, a lot. He starts off as a regional
leader (Dan. 7:8). Daniel 7 is one of the premier chapters about the Antichrist. When you first read it, it might
confuse you a little. But really, there are only two or three symbols, and once you get them clear (and they’re
quite simple), then the message becomes very straightforward in Daniel 7. I want to encourage you to make
Daniel 7 a chapter that you wrestle with; of which you say, “Hey, I want to learn this. This might unfold in my
lifetime. I want to see what the angel told Daniel, or what Daniel saw in the open visions.”

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TEN KINGS WILL COME TOGETHER IN UNITY WITH THE ANTICHRIST

In Daniel 7:8, Daniel is looking at these ten horns. Clearly they’re the ten kings that are going to form an
association, a coalition together. This hasn’t happened; it’s yet in the future. There will be ten kings over
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Ten kings are going to come together in unity with the Antichrist. These
ten kings have been shown to Daniel and to John the apostle in the book of Revelation, and they’re most
commonly pictured as ten horns, because biblically a horn is a symbol of authority.

So it’s ten horns of authority. It’s ten positions. It’s ten people who have authority in the nations. So you want to
get that clear. That’s pretty simple; it’s pretty straightforward. Daniel says this a number of times, and John the
apostle sees the ten horns in the book of Revelation.

So it’s easy. It’s ten kings. They’re working together and they’re working with the Antichrist. They’re not in
place yet. They’ll come into place in the days ahead, but they’re called horns.

A LITTLE HORN IS GIVEN SUDDEN AND UNPRECEDENTED POWER

In Daniel 7:8, Daniel says he’s considering these ten horns. In other words, “I’m thinking about them. I’m
thinking, ‘What do they mean?’”

Well, the angel explains in a few moments. They mean ten kings. At first he isn’t sure what they mean, but
here’s the point I’m making: suddenly, in the midst of these ten horns, there’s another horn (Dan. 7:8b). It’s a
little horn. That’s the Antichrist.

You say, “Why is he a little horn? I thought he was the big horn. Isn’t he the most powerful political leader in
history?”

Yes.

“Why is he a little horn?”

Because he starts off in a little position of authority as a regional leader; he starts off as a little political leader
with a small amount of responsibility, and then he takes over the ten. He doesn’t start as the main leader; he
starts as a junior among them and then he takes them over.

So when I think about the Antichrist, the first man that comes to my mind is Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler had no
authority in Germany. He was a nobody on the political scene. No one took him seriously. He came out of
nowhere. He was a near-crazy man who, just five years before his election, received only 2 percent of the
German vote. He didn’t even make it in the top ten. No one even gave him a thought. That’s a picture of a little
regional leader with a little following; suddenly, overnight, he became the leader of the nation, and that same
sort of thing is going to happen with the Antichrist.

We’re talking now about the ten nations. We’re talking about the ten kings, the ten horns. Remember, a horn
speaks of authority, and these are ten men who have authority in the nations in a very substantial way. They
come together, and they form what many have called a “super-state.” In other words, it won’t just be a country;
it will be more than a country. It’s a coalition, but it’s more than just ten nations being buddies. It’s much more

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than that. They’re deeply integrated together in terms of their military, in terms of their resource. They become
like a major nation.

Now in the 1970s people were watching the European Common Market and saying, “Oh no, the ten nations of
Europe!” and now everyone threw that away because the European Union has—I don’t know how many nations
now, but it’s twenty-five or thirty. There’s a huge amount of nations. I guess I have to stay up-to-date on that,
but Europe, I believe, is one of the ten nations. I don’t believe it is the ten; it’s only one of the ten. There are
nine more nations besides the EU. Nine other nations and the EU will be operating together. It’s a massive
political base.

The Antichrist starts off as a little guy; he’s a junior among these ten world leaders, and, as I’ll explain in a
moment, he kills three of them. He kills them, and he terrifies the other seven, and they say, “This guy has a lot
of energy!” and suddenly there’s an instant reversal, and this junior leader has the boldness, the nerve, the
ability to take out three of their primary leaders. He eliminates the three most powerful leaders, and the other
seven, rather than saying, “Let’s get rid of him,” say, “Yes, sir!”

Well, there’s going to be a European, Middle East, and African super-state.

It’s more than Europe, because sometimes people will say the Antichrist is coming from Europe. It’s bigger
than that. It’s the Middle East and Africa. So watch! Right now you can see the early stirrings of this, and the
common thread is Islam. Many Bible and prophecy teachers believe that all ten nations will be predominantly
Islamic, and I believe that’s possible. I’m not positive that’s true, but it’s probable, likely, and believable.

So as we’re looking at the world news or the world scene, the Bible makes it clear that ten nations will come
together in that area. You can already see the movement in that direction. Europe is becoming Islamic. In
Northern African and of course the Middle East there’s lots of Islamic activity, and there will be a coalition of
ten of these nations coming together. You can’t quite know which are which, although the Bible gives some of
them really clearly and a few of them it describes with cryptic, ancient names, so you’re not sure which are
which, and I have those names in the notes here.

Key to Bible prophecy is the idea of the ten-nation confederation, the ten-nation super-state. I’ve said
confederation over the years, but it’s more than ten guys in an agreement. They’re deeply connected together,
and right now you can see the stirrings of that. I guess fifty years ago, seventy year ago, back in 1939, it looked
like Hitler might be it, because Europe was being galvanized and brought together against its will by one world
leader. But these leaders are actually going to choose this leader. They won’t be forced; they’ll actually be
seduced by this leader, lured into an allegiance to him by deception. This leader, the Antichrist, will deceive
them, but they’ll choose to join him. So you keep your eye on that.

FOUR MAJOR POWERS AND A CONFEDERATION OF TEN NATIONS

Now this passage in Daniel 7 is talking about these ten nations. It’s important that you understand Daniel 7 at
least a little. You don’t have to be an expert on it, but the vision contains just a few components. If you get this
vision, you’ll understand this end-time super-state of ten nations from Europe and the Middle East and Africa—
northern and eastern Africa.

Now I’m not going through this passage. It’s Daniel 7:7-8, 20-28. I’ve spelled it out really simply in the notes,
and I’ll leave you to read that on your own. It only takes a few minutes to become acquainted with it, but

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basically there are four nations and they’re all described as a beast. There are four different beasts, and these
four beasts are four nations from history, and they’re beastly. They’re cruel, and one of the key traits of each
nation is this: they were all anti-Semitic. There were all against Israel and they all had a cruel spirit about them.
We’re talking about four successive world empires—four in a row. First, Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar; then
Persia under Cyrus the Great. After that, Alexander the Great, and then the Roman Empire.

Daniel saw these four empires by vision ahead of time. He saw them as beasts, and the fourth empire, the
Roman Empire, the fourth beast, had a little different dimension, because it had a double fulfillment. It was the
Roman Empire, the ancient Roman Empire, but it also spoke of the empire of the Antichrist at the end of the
age.

So there are four beasts: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome; and the fourth beast had a double application, first
to the ancient Roman Empire, but also to the empire of the Antichrist at the end of the age. There were ten more
horns, ten more nations that joined in to make it the most powerful empire in human history, until of course
Jesus comes and destroys it and sets in place a far more powerful empire.

So that’s basically what’s going on in Daniel 7. The reason I want you to understand this is that if you
understand even just the things that I’ve just told you, you’ll understand when John in the book of Revelation
talks about these ten horns. You’ll know they’re the ten kings; you’ll know they’re going to form a super-state,
and then as you look over Europe and the Middle East and Africa, you can see the early stirrings even now. So
you can read that on your own.

We won’t go into this, but those who are interested can read the notes and get a bit more detail. We have the
notes on the Internet. Ezekiel 38 reveals eight of the ten nations using their ancient names. Again, it’s Europe,
the Middle East, Africa, and part of Russia. I’m putting that next-door to Europe.

THE PEOPLE OF THE PRINCE WHO IS TO COME SHALL DESTROY JERUSALEM

Now this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel, and Gabriel tells Daniel what nation the Antichrist is going to be from,
or what empire. But he tells him in a cryptic way, in a bit of a riddle, but it’s quite simple to understand. Now
this is Gabriel speaking, and he says in Daniel 9:26 that the “people of the prince who is to come” shall destroy
the city of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:26).

What? Well, it’s actually quite simple, but if it’s the first time you’ve heard that verse, it might throw you off a
bit. So Gabriel is talking about the Antichrist, and he says that the people of the prince who is to come shall
destroy the city of Jerusalem.

Now I have this written on the notes if you’re having a really hard time grasping the dates and staying with it.
The city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, and the people who destroyed Jerusalem were the Romans. So
the prince who is to come will come from the people who destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the
Romans. So we know that the Antichrist will emerge from the geographic area of the ancient Roman Empire.

So again, you’re looking at the Middle East and parts of Africa and Europe. So it’s the same area, the same
empire, as the people who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD—the Roman Empire. Gabriel says that out of that
same geographic area the Antichrist will come. The prince who is to come is the Antichrist.

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Now we don’t know where precisely he will come from. Some people like to pick the country. I would stay
away from that. It’s somewhere over there. He will be very obvious when he emerges, when he is revealed at
last. There will be no question about who he is, and we don’t need to guess ahead of time. We don’t need to
avoid him between now and then, because he’s a little guy; he’s a junior leader, so you don’t need to worry
about it. You don’t want to get into speculation and curiosity. This isn’t about biblical debate and speculation;
this is about getting our hearts engaged with Jesus with earnestness, with a spirit of revelation. It isn’t about
Bible jeopardy; it isn’t about finding out who is who ahead of time. Some people do that, and I think it’s a
complete waste of time, and people send me emails to try and tip me off, and I just delete them. I say, “I’m not
interested!” He’s a little guy between now and then. He isn’t going to cause any problems until he arrives on the
world stage. Then it will be obvious to everyone in the world who’s paying attention, to everyone who wants to
know. So don’t send me emails when you figure out who it is.

THERE WILL BE A CRY IN THE NATIONS FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Now the issue the Antichrist will be grappling with is the same issue the leaders of the earth are grappling with;
but again, for the first time, the worldwide leaders are grappling with international issues together: the issue of
global warming, the war on terror, the global financial crisis, famine, disease, pestilence especially—there will
be international diseases with global implications. I think of the Avian bird flu; there will be diseases like that,
but far more intense than what we’re experiencing now. But the leaders will have to sit around the table and say,
“Hey! Only together can we solve this crisis.”

So the growing issue of these crises is changing the political atmosphere of the earth, because it’s raising the cry
for global governance, for a team of people who govern the whole globe together. That’s far more attractive,
because that’s the only way to answer some of these problems. So for the first time, that discussion is in the air,
and for the last twelve months it’s been in front of everyone, and in the next decade, I believe—and I’m saying
this by observation, not by prophecy, but I’m guessing that within ten years it will become a common idea. It
won’t even be a radical idea that the nations are trying to form one structure to solve a lot of problems. I don’t
believe we will have a world government in ten years, but I believe there’s more and more power being given to
global committees and groups like the Untied Nations. They’ll have a legal authority with military backing and
political clout and economic authority to actually put laws into place. In ten years from now it will become so
commonplace, it won’t even be a big deal.

It should be a big deal to us in this regard, because the Bible said it was going to happen and it has never
happened in history until now, and that’s supposed to grab our attention. It’s meant to provoke a response in our
spirit to Jesus. We’re supposed to say, “Jesus, I want to do what You want me to do in regard to this trend, and I
want to say the right things. I want to live the right way and I’m to have more boldness about the fact that we’re
really nearing the day of Your appearing.”

It’s really real. The nations are crying out for one strong, skillful leader. Again, it’s only a whisper right now,
but that whisper wasn’t even on the radar just a few years ago. That whisper is in the hearts and on the lips of
millions—not yet billions, but that whisper is growing in the earth. There’s a deliberate move towards a one-
world government. The United Nations calls this the “New World Order,” obviously. Here’s the goal, though;
this is their agenda: to minimize national boundaries, and to establish one world currency, one world military,
and one world political process.

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I think one of the areas that will be at the top of the list is the issue of legislation involving hate crimes. Again,
I’m not prophesying; I’m just watching the news, but people are becoming more easily united over the question
of what a hate crime is. They say, “Let’s not join our armies together just yet, and let’s not pool all of our
money together, but we can agree about who we’re against”—and it will come down to prophetic believers who
are taking a stand against the things of darkness. The nations will unify around that. It will be one of the first
things that brings them together in global legislation, but it will end up bringing purity to the Church because it
will test the Church because the Church will have to stand for what it believes and pay the price for it. There
will be a real price for it.

SIGN EVENT NUMBER THREE: THREE OF THE TEN WILL BE SUBDUED AND KILLED
The third sign event. Again, I’m not giving them in the order in which they occur. Ten nations are going to form
a super-state, but there will be three top leaders among the ten, and that’s typically how life goes. When you
have ten leaders in a room working together on a long-term project, there are typically two or three who are
really leading the ten. Well, that’s how it will be, and the Antichrist is going to subdue them (Dan. 7:24). Now
that doesn’t mean he wins an argument. These aren’t the kind of guys where you win an argument and then it’s
over. It says in one of the other places in Daniel 7 that they’re plucked up by the roots (Dan. 7:8c). In other
words they’re removed off the scene. They’re killed. He takes them out. This is really nervy, that he takes this
thing on, but he does and the other seven say, “Wow!”

Instead of taking the Antichrist out, at the moment of decision, they will decide to go with him. But the Bible
warns us ahead of time. Now these three leaders won’t read the Bible or believe the Bible, and they’re not going
to think they’re the people being described here, but we will see this happening. When these ten rulers arise and
three of them are taken out in a dramatic way, we will look at each other and say, “That’s another event! We’re
getting closer and closer. It’s still not yet the end, but for some reason the Lord wanted us to know this.”

Daniel says this three different times. This isn’t an insignificant point. He wants us to know it. Why? So that
people who study the Bible and study end-time prophecy are really emboldened with confidence that they’re
living in that hour, which means the promises of that hour are going to be released, but that the challenges of
that hour will be before us as well.

SIGN EVENT NUMBER FOUR: A ONE-WORLD RELIGION

Sign event number four is the one-world religion. Now the one-world religion also happens in two stages. The
obvious one-world religion is the Antichrist’s religion. That’s the final one-world religion before Jesus comes
and drives it off the planet. I’m talking about the nations officially joining this religion.

In the midst of this one-world religion, the truth faith will be exploding, being preached in power to every
nation. The Body of Christ will be far more powerful, but our faith will not be part of the legal code of the
nations. Actually, the nations will accept this religion as part of their legal code. It’s the Antichrist’s religion,
which is Satan’s religion. Satan will be worshiped all over the earth, but again, so will Jesus. The end times,
when it’s all said and done, is a confrontation between two houses of prayer. At the end of the day, the battle of
the end times is a battle between two houses of prayer. There’s a Satan house of prayer that the Antichrist is
running, and there’s a Jesus house of prayer that the Holy Spirit is running, and the two houses of prayer collide
and the winner rules the earth forever with a Jewish king who lives in Jerusalem.

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So we know who the winners are, but that’s really what is happening. It’s the “house of prayer” movement, and
I mean far beyond our version of it. Our version is just a whisper, and that’s fine! I like our little whisper, but
the movement itself is like a mighty, rushing river with a voice of many waters and the tongues of all the
nations under Jesus. I mean, it’s massive. That prayer movement will come to such maturity, but the devil
prayer-and-worship movement is also coming to fullness, and they will collide, and the winner rules the earth
forever. And of course, we know who the winner is.

The point is this: it’s a house of prayer movement, it’s a worship movement, but Satan’s plan has two stages,
and the final stage is the Antichrist worship movement.

We understand that. It’s so straightforward in the book of Revelation, but the first stage is the harlot Babylon
religion. Now the early stages of that are happening on the earth right now. It will be an actual, official religion
that people join. It won’t just be kind of a value system, which means no values. It will be more formal than
that. People will actually partake of it in a specific way. They won’t just go with the flow of immorality; it will
be an actual religion across the earth. People will join it, and this religion will officially persecute the saints.
They will kill the saints, and they will have legal backing to kill the saints. I’m talking about the harlot Babylon.
This is the world religion that only appears for a moment on the world scene; then the devil throws it away and
pulls out part two, which is the Antichrist religion.

So this harlot Babylon doesn’t exist today, as an institution but the early stirrings of it are all over the earth right
now. It will begin as a unifying of all the religions of the earth, and the way that all the religions of the earth are
unified is by removing the absolutes. There’s no definition of salvation. There’s no definition of Jesus as God.
There’s no definition of morality; whatever you want works. All paths lead to God. Everyone is right. It’s
getting rid of the absolutes, and you can see that religion already filling the land. You see it in the talk shows,
you see it in the political leaders, in the rock stars, because it’s a unity religion based on no absolutes. So it’s
unifying around the value, “We get to do what we want and still go to heaven and be right, and actually we can
be God and still do what we want.”

It’s profoundly evil and dark and filthy and it’s birthed out of hell but it feels like liberty and unity and the thing
that will make it deceptive is that it will be a justice movement. It will be a humanitarian movement as well.
So it will be a unity and justice humanitarian movement that everyone is right and everyone is honored but the
book of Revelation says it’s filthy and it’s perverse and that religion is in its early stirrings right now. That’s in
Revelation 17; I have it in the notes.

Again, it’s the first time in history that on a global basis liberal Christians, moderate Muslims, liberal Jews,
Buddhists, and Hindus—they’re saying, “Hey, count us in!” and moving in that direction—are dialoguing in a
really serious, intentional way about doing this together. It’s a sign of the times, and again when you put all
these signs together—which I will, in the eighth session—all the positive and negative, Israel, the Jews,
technology, globalization, it’s compelling how many things are happening right now, and how many things
aren’t happening quite yet, but the early stirrings are clearly there. There are things that indicate that those
events are only moments down the road, and again, moments to me might mean a decade or two, but it’s just a
moment either way.

So we look around and we know there’s going to be a one-world religion. It’s the harlot Babylon. Soon, that
religion will be replaced. The devil will employ it as the first step in his program, and then he will throw it

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away, because the harlot Babylon religion will tempt all the world religions to leave their religious heritage and
join the “everyone is right” religion. Then, when they join the “everyone is right” religion, they will turn their
backs on their religious heritage and it will defile their conscience. Now they can’t go back, because they’ve
renounced their faith.

So after they’ve joined the “everyone is right” religion, as I call it, they’re all together and they say, “Well,
we’ve already burned that bridge.” There are millions of Muslims who will say, “Well, it’s hard to go back to
the rigorous faith that we had in our childhood.” The Jews, the Christians, people of all religions, once they join
this religion, they will burn the bridges of their own religious heritage. Some of that heritage will be mixed up
in the soup, of course. They’ll use the name Jesus, they’ll use the name Allah, Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha,
Moses; they’ll use every name in the soup in the “everyone is right” religion.

So the world gets sucked into this. Their conscience is defiled. They’ve denied their religious heritage, because
this religion is free. It’s immoral, it’s occult, it’s filled with greed, although it has the air of being a
compassionate, humanitarian movement. That will be the rhetoric, and to some degree it will even be true. So
they’ll feel good about their immorality and their godlessness, because they’re helping mankind and that will
kind of balance the equation and make them feel good about it.

Then the devil will say, “Throw that religion away, that ‘everyone is right’ religion!” and now that everyone is
in the room he locks the door and says, “Guess what? Now you have to worship the Antichrist as god.” It’s full-
on Satan worship.

They’ll say, “Well, I wasn’t really into that.”

“But it’s too late now. You can only go forward. We have you all in the room; you’ve burned the bridges on
your past. You’re all going in one direction; now you have no option but to worship the Antichrist as god.”

So they go into full-on Satan worship. So it’s a two-pronged strategy, because the devil knows if he asks a
carnal Christian to just leave their Christianity and worship Satan, that’s too big of a step! They have to hang
out in the neutral for a while and drink deeply of immorality and drunkenness and occult activity, and then
they’ll be ready for Satan worship, especially when they have no other options.

And this trend is actually emerging in the earth right now. Many believers are actually moving in that direction.
Everyone is right, and they’re redefining the grace of God where they can do anything they want and call it
grace and continue to live in their sin. There’s no need to repent, because grace enables us to repent of our sin
and have a brand-new beginning. We get a new beginning instantly, that day, if we’re sincere in our repentance.
The true grace message doesn’t give us the right to keep on sinning and to feel good while we’re sinning. It
gives us the opportunity, the power to repent, and the knowledge that we have total forgiveness and a brand-
new start every time we repent, but we actually do repent. That’s the true grace message.

SIGN EVENT NUMBER FIVE: THE REBUILDING OF THE CITY OF BABYLON

OK, let’s go to the fifth sign event: the rebuilding of the city of Babylon. Now Babylon is described in the
prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isa. 13-14; Jer. 50-51), and in the book of Revelation. Now a lot of people
make these prophecies wholly symbolic. They talk about the spirit of Babylon, which I appreciate. They’re
referring to a dark, immoral, occult spirit, the spirit of Babylon.

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I think that’s an accurate use of the term, but Babylon is more than just an influence. It will be an actual city.
The ancient city of Babylon, which exists today, is about fifty miles south of Bagdad. One of Saddam Hussein’s
missions was to rebuild it. You might have heard about that in the news.

HISTORY IS AN ESCALATING WAR BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND BABYLON

Currently Babylon only has about 5,000 people, but that town is going to become a global city, just like
Jerusalem did. I mean, if someone had told you 100 years ago that Jerusalem would be a world city, you would
have said, “Not a chance!” If someone had told you in 1940 that Israel would be a global city—“Not a chance!”
Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, the city came into its rightful ownership under the Jewish people, and
suddenly Jerusalem is at the center of world news.

So it will be with Babylon. A lot of people say, “Nah, that’s not literal!” It’s literal. The city of Babylon will be
restored, and it will be a headquarters for the Antichrist, and it will be destroyed. And by the way, if you look
on the Internet right now, it’s not a majority by any means, but there are a lot of folks in the Middle East who
feel tremendous energy about building that city. My guess is—it’s a pure guess, but an educated one—that
they’ll discover oil in connection with this city, and suddenly you’ll have a Dubai-type situation. You’ll have a
world-class city spring up overnight, because history has always been a collision of Babylon and Jerusalem, and
both of them lay desolate and dormant for centuries, and both of them will rise up at the end and take their place
in the end-time drama.

You can read in the notes about the details, but when that city is restored, it will have an evil, negative purpose,
but the fact is that people right now are working to restore it. Businessmen and politicians are asking, “How can
we see this restored?” There’s a lot of interest in this city today, but I don’t know how much interest there was
100 years ago, because I have no way of knowing. My guess is, none, but there’s a lot of interest now, and that
in itself is a sign of the times. But just do a little research on the Internet and you’ll be surprised by how much
information is out there on the restoration of the physical city of Babylon. I feel strongly, and I’m convinced
that it’s an actual city, because the prophecies that Jeremiah gave regarding its destruction have yet to be
fulfilled. They were partially fulfilled back in 539 BC, but not in the way that Jeremiah prophesied. And that’s
too big for our topic tonight, but the prophecies of the destruction of Babylon have only been partially fulfilled.
According to Jeremiah’s prophecy, many more bad things will happen to that city before those prophecies are
completely fulfilled.

So we’re going to see the rebuilding of that city. It will probably involve more than just the Iraqis. My guess is,
there will be a group of nations that are seeking to build the next modern, global, Dubai-style city, and they say,
“Hey, there’s nothing to tear down or throw away, because it’s only a little town of 5,000. We can build on it.”
It isn’t like building a major city in the midst of a metropolis; which is very complicated. I mean, if you wanted
to rebuild London or Rome or Tokyo or New York City, there are a whole lot of problems in the way, called
buildings, plus a lot of other issues. But this is just like, “There it is.” The city is right there with nearly nothing
on it. It will be rebuilt.

OK. I have five trends. Four of them I’ll say really quickly, and I’ll take a moment on the one about Asia.

TREND NUMBER ONE: WORLD ECONOMY AND WORLD GOVERNMENT

Trend number one: a move to a world economy and a world government. You can just read that on your own.

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TREND NUMBER TWO: A CRY FOR WORLD PEACE

Trend number two: there’s a cry for world peace. Now there has always been a cry for world peace. I mean,
1,000 years ago people wanted world peace, but there’s a desperation for it now because the nations are so
connected to each other because of globalization. You’ve heard the saying that when the economy has a cough
in one part of the world, the other part of the world catches a cold. We’re all connected. We’re all connected.
I’ve heard it said a dozen ways: when the economy in Asia gets a cough, you catch a cold in Europe; or you can
say it the other way around.

There’s a cry for world peace because the terrorism is going to get worse, the economics are going to get worse,
the ethnic strife is going to get worse, pestilence is going to develop in far greater ways, and the nations are
going to say, “We have to have peace!” And we hear their cry already.

Now the nations always want peace, but there’s a desperation throughout the earth, a feeling that we’re all in
this together, and we need to work towards a common solution. That’s a sign of the times.

TREND NUMBER THREE: THE RISE OF ASIA

Trend number three: the rise of Asia. I’m only going to take two minutes on this. You can read the notes, but
there’s so much on the Internet on this, and I just want to alert you to it. Revelation 16:12 describes the kings of
the east, the Asian leaders. There will be a coalition of Asian nations, and that coalition is already moving, and I
have some stuff in the notes about that. There are a number of nations related to the former Soviet Union that
are in the Asian part of that territory. They’re working right now, having meetings and aggressively working out
ways to connect and interface with their technology, with their economics, and even in their politics in some
measure, but they’re rapidly moving towards one another.

In Revelation 16:12, these Asian nations, the kings of the east, are the only block of nations identified, and this
doesn’t happen until the very end of the tribulation. I mean, it’s just weeks before the Antichrist is thrown into
the lake of fire—just days and weeks before it’s all over and Jesus walks into Jerusalem. Even this late in the
story, the kings of the east still haven’t submitted to the Antichrist. It’s become such a problem that he has to go
over there on a special mission to seduce them with miracles.

Now the negative part of the passage is that they actually say yes at the final moment, at the very end. The
positive part is that for years they’ve resisted the threats and the seductions of the Antichrist. The question is,
“What is happening in Asia that gives them the caliber to resist the Antichrist to the very final moment?” When
many of the nations of the world, both in the West and elsewhere, are being seduced by promises or coerced by
threats, Asia says, “No. We’re strong enough militarily. We’re strong enough economically. We’re strong
enough spiritually. No!” And the Antichrist is mad at them for a long time, but he can’t get them to kneel.
There’s a power that’s going to emerge in Asia, economically, militarily, but also spiritually, because they don’t
kneel; so my question is, “Why are they not kneeling?” There’s a prayer movement exploding in Asia with the
Lord’s provision and economic blessing. They hold off to the end, and this is the only block of nations
mentioned in the Bible that resists until the end. So it implies spiritual, economic, military, and political
strength.

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Now this was nearly 2,000 years ago. When John first saw this 2,000 years ago, it might have appeared that
Asia would be among the first ones to yield. They would have thought, “They’re the ones not yielding? What’s
going to happen?”

Well, just in the last few decades the prayer movement, the economic growth of the Asian countries, and all the
political developments are taking the world by surprise, but John saw the kings of the east resisting to the very
end. In other words, there’s strength; there’s stature; there’s a coalition. He saw this ahead of time. Again, if you
had asked someone fifty to 100 years ago, they would have said, “No way is that going to happen! They
wouldn’t stand together against darkness with that kind of unity, with that kind of strength and resolve.”

They only yield at the very last moment, and by the way, that’s after the Church is raptured. The Church is
raptured and Jesus is on His way into Jerusalem with the saints, and that’s when the devil gets Asia in. I mean,
the saints are now gone. The prayer movement is now over for a moment there. They’ll get revved up again
really quickly in a moment.

TREND NUMBER FOUR: A MIGHTY PRAYER MOVEMENT IN THE LAND OF EGYPT

Next I have to mention trend number four: what’s happening in Egypt. We don’t have time to go into it right
now, but Egypt is not a coalition of nations. Asia is the only coalition of nations described as resisting the
Antichrist and having the strength and stature spiritually, economically, and politically to do it, but there’s more
on Egypt in end-time prophecy than any other Gentile nation, and they’re oppressed. The Antichrist comes after
them. They resist the Antichrist. They attack him.

Now you think Egypt is an Islamic nation, and they would just jump in. They say, “No.”

You think, “Wow, what’s going on in Egypt?” Why are they saying no? They’re right next door to him!”

They say, “No.”

“Well, come on. We’re all Islamic brothers. Let’s do this together!”

“No.”

Then there’s a prayer movement, a spirit of revival that touches five cities in Egypt before the second coming.
There’s a prayer movement, and it’s crying out for deliverance in Egypt before Jesus returns. There’s a mighty
prayer movement in the land of Egypt. So watch Egypt. Watch for five cities to emerge there with the spirit of
revival. Watch for a national prayer movement to come to maturity. Watch Asia. Watch these developments,
and I know we didn’t get into very much detail; we’re out of time, but I wanted to give you a little hint, a
beginning point.

There are signs, events, and sign trends in the Gentile nations, and this is just a beginning, but we want to know
it because it’s Jesus speaking to us through the Word. I mean, He’s the living Word and the expression of the
written Word, and I want to know what Jesus thinks about Asia and Egypt and the worship movement. I want to
know what He thinks about this super-state that’s emerging, and about the Church in the midst of that super-
state, because that super-state is evil, but the Church will prosper, empowered in the midst of this trouble. I
mean, the saints in that part of the world are saying, “Wow!” but hey! “Greater is He who is in you than He who

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is in the world” (1 Jn. 4:4, paraphrased). We don’t fully know the areas where the persecution will be most
intense, but if there’s multiplied evil in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, there will be a sufficiency of grace
upon the people of God. There will be a victory. There will be a manifestation of power. So those people who
live in that area don’t say, “Oh no!” It isn’t big Antichrist, little Jesus; it’s little Antichrist, big Jesus.

Amen. Let’s stand.

MINISTRY TIME
Well, if this is new to you, you might be thinking, “OK, I don’t know. I know there’s stuff I had better learn, but
I don’t know exactly what it all is.”

But I want to urge you: take this session as a little advertisement for these chapters, and go search them out.
Say, “Lord, I want to know these things. I want to know Daniel 7. I want to get this. I can get it.”

You can get it. You can know this stuff. You’re meant to know it. The Lord wants you to know it. It’s to
awaken strength in you and a response to the Holy Spirit even in these different areas. There’s a response to the
Spirit in every one of the trends, in every one of these events that we’re to respond now, and even then as those
trends come to fullness.

Let us pray.

Father, we ask You just to bless us now. Lord, I ask for a spirit of understanding. I ask for a spirit of faith.

I ask for people to say yes if it’s Jesus in the words speaking. “I want to know his heart. Yes.” I invite you in
your heart right now just to say yes. I don’t mean you have to speak out loud if you don’t want, but just in your
heart say, “Yes. I will get this. I won’t cast this off. It isn’t for someone else; It’s for me to get it. I will get it.”

And again, just like we prayed last night, if you’re saying, “I do connect with this, but I feel like it’s kind of
hitting me and then bouncing off,” it’s normal in the beginning for a person to feel that way.

When I first started studying this, I thought, “Now what? Who are the beats and what are the horns and who is
the little horn and what is the deal?” But it will come in just a moment. The fog lifts and it comes. It isn’t so
hard.

But if you’re saying, “I really want a greater connectedness to this. I’m adamant. This is for me and I won’t let
go of it until I get it,” and you would like prayer, I want to invite you to come up.

As you’re coming up we’ll have the worship team just lead us in worship. And again, you can say it from your
chair; you don’t have to come up, but you’re saying, “No, I want someone to lay hands on me. I want a
breakthrough. I want to connect with this.”

Again, take these notes and study and read the verses later on your own. Get in discussion groups. Get a few
friends and challenge it. Say, “Let us figure out if Mike was wrong on some of this.”

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