[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. Internal content places this sermon in late January 2002, after the September 11, 2001 attacks.]
Today is a beautiful day — like spring outside. You wonder what happened to winter this year. The winter is almost over at the end of January; the problem is that we don't know what will happen in February. Some people say the winter we didn't get will come back with full frost in February. We never know what the future holds.
We need to have more than curiosity about this subject. Is it really important for us? I only like to talk about important things. But some subjects don't feel important because we don't have a need. If you have a very good life — your income is good, your work is satisfying, and you have things to look forward to in this life — then if Jesus comes, it ruins all your life plans. You are just about to get your doctoral diploma, and all of a sudden you are gone. Nobody is going to call you doctor anymore. So who wants to talk about the coming of Jesus? Let's forget it.
I think those displaced people from the Three Gorges Dam would be quite happy if Jesus came. Over one million people will be displaced by the rising waters. There are generations who lived in those homes — it may not be much, but it is their home. The government gives them money and says: go find yourself somewhere else to live. Many of them are left wandering around China, some going to Beijing, some to Guangzhou, looking for jobs and somewhere to live. They have something to look forward to.
But what about you? Right now, in this wonderful life in Canada — we don't need Jesus to come. No, thank you very much. If Jesus has to come, give me another thirty years. When I am old and ready to go, then you come. This message about Jesus' coming in the New Testament is for the suffering, for the persecuted — but not for the well-to-do. But let me tell you something else about prophecy. All this is going to change in Canada. These good times will suddenly disappear.
A foretaste of that we already got on September the 11th. Two big planes hit the two buildings in New York. One hit the Pentagon, which doesn't bother us very much. And over four months later, the stock market still cannot get back to normal. If you invested your money in stocks, you know how long it has been trying to recover. It was just two planes hitting two buildings — and why does the whole economy come down? Think of something on a bigger scale than that. The whole standard of living comes down. It doesn't take very much to bring this whole system down.
One of those planes was designed to hit the White House and kill the President. Four planes — none of them even armed passenger planes — could bring this kind of chaos to a nation. And how many planes went out to bomb Europe in the Second World War from the United Kingdom? In one flight, hundreds of planes would go out to bomb. And here we have four planes that could bring this kind of chaos. My dear ones — you don't think you need Jesus to come now. I agree. Who needs Jesus to come when your health is good and your future is bright? But as I say again, the Bible tells us that all this is going to change.
Now I want to mention two principles about prophecy so that we can understand how it works. The first thing we need to understand is that the prophet is describing the indescribable. The prophet is looking at something in the far future which he himself cannot even understand. He doesn't know what he is looking at, and then he has to describe the indescribable to somebody who doesn't have a clue what you are talking about.
Let me give you an example. Suppose you go into the jungle and you meet some people who live at the stone age level. You say to them: there is a thing that flies in the air, a metal box, very hard and heavy. It flies in the air and carries 300 people, and flies halfway around the world. He looks at you and thinks: this man is crazy. No metal can ever get in the air. And now you're telling me 300 people sit in this thing and fly halfway around the world? I can't even get across the river. Now suppose this same man goes to the next village and says: there is something out there that flies in the air. Can you imagine what they think of him?
Now suppose we are talking about a prophet 2,000 years ago. He is shown this metal box in the air with 300 people in it, and he looks at it and says: what is this? He has never had a clue what an aeroplane is. He has to describe it to somebody who also has no clue. That is the first principle of prophecy. When you look at the book of Revelation, you see a prophet trying to describe something in the future that he himself does not understand, and the hearer understands even less. And this means we must be very careful how we interpret prophecy. The only way to know for certain that a prophecy has been fulfilled is when you actually see it — then you say: ah, this is it. This is what the man was talking about. Now I understand.
The second principle is what we can call the principle of indeterminacy or uncertainty. Those who know physics will know I am using a term from quantum mechanics — Heisenberg in 1927. This principle is very disturbing to scientists because they cannot predict with certainty the outcome of something. And in more recent times, we have what is called chaos theory — things that cannot be absolutely predicted because they will not repeat in the same way as before.
But the God who created the world and its physics is the same God who gives us prophecy. And that means it is a mistake to try to predict, for example, the exact date when Jesus returns, as though it is fixed and absolutely certain. We cannot say the Lord is certainly going to come in the year 2005. We can say maybe approximately around that time.
In the Bible you will find this principle of indeterminacy very clearly. The Lord Jesus spoke about it in Matthew 23:32 — fill up the measure of sin, fill up the measure. There is a measure of sin and wickedness. God's judgment comes when that measure has reached a certain level — then comes the judgment. It is like boiling water. When it reaches boiling point, the water will boil. But if somebody turns down the fire, the temperature drops without reaching boiling point.
In Genesis 15:16, it speaks about the sin of the Amorites. God is going to judge the Amorites — but not yet. He waits until the measure has reached the boiling point. And later on, the scripture says the judgment of the Amorites came. They had reached the level of boiling point and the judgment came. A very well-known example, of course, is the case of Jonah and Nineveh. The judgment was going to come upon that city. But what happened? The people of Nineveh repented in dust and ashes. The boiling point was about to be reached — and then they turned off the fire.
Jonah was so upset, because he wanted to see the judgment come, and they went and repented of all things and spoiled his prophecy. That is also what happened after September 11th. After that event, the churches were full. Everybody went and prayed to the Lord. There was an outpouring of repentance. The temperature was rising to boiling point and then it came down. If you are a prophet, you are frustrated — when is the Lord going to come at this rate if they keep repenting?
There is where the servant of God is caught between two extremes. On the one hand he would like Jesus to come — he has the slogan Maranatha, Lord, come back. But on the other hand, he also wants people to repent. And these two affect each other in such a way as to delay the Lord's coming. That is also why those who said Jesus may be coming next year or in two years' time will likely be proved wrong, just as Jonah was wrong. And now you know why Jonah ran away when the Lord said: go and tell Nineveh to repent. He said: I don't want them to repent. I want them to perish. Nineveh was the nation that had persecuted Israel to near-extinction. He wanted to see justice done to the enemies of God's people. The problem is that God is always too merciful.
The September 11th event helps us to understand things that we did not understand before. Let me give you the first example. In the book of Revelation it says that in the last days, everybody will receive a mark — either in the forehead or in the hand — and if you don't have that mark, you cannot even buy food. In the past, this didn't make a lot of sense. We could imagine maybe some circumstances where it might, but it was very hard to imagine. But after September 11th, the picture becomes quite easy to understand.
Now there is a war against terrorism, and there is a realization that you need only a handful of terrorists to cause worldwide chaos. How are you going to identify a terrorist? There is only one way: absolute identification of every individual. A terrorist can only function if his identity is disguised. He slips through security with false identification, even changing his face through surgery. The only way to stop this is to have complete identification of every person. For your security, you will be told: you need to have a very specific identification. Not a piece of paper — because a piece of paper can be stolen and falsified. Instead, a small microchip is inserted in your skin painlessly. Every detail about you is in that microchip.
They will require you to have a microchip put in your skin so that you cannot change your identity when you cross a border. Every First World country will likely use this technology, because it already exists — it is just waiting to be implemented. In fact, in the long term, it will be very convenient. You don't even have to carry a credit card. Everything is in the microchip. If you buy something, the scanner reads the chip automatically. If you are diabetic and are taken to hospital, they know all your medical history right away.
But now you can see what the potential for such a thing is. The microchip can also contain information about where you stand politically — if you have spent years in a labor camp, it will all be there. Now you can see what the potential for such a system is. And yet it will be inevitable, because there is no other way to control terrorism. Only in this way can every person crossing a border be checked. Present technology will be made redundant. In the book of Revelation chapter 13 verses 16 and 17, it speaks about the mark, and the mark is referred to many times in Revelation. It took 2,000 years for us even to begin to understand what the mark is about. It is amazing that the Apostle John 2,000 years ago said the day is coming when this will happen — and at that time it made no sense whatever. But now, especially after September 11th, we begin to see not only that the technology is possible and already exists, but why it needs to be done.
# How to Understand the Prophecies Concerning the End Times (Part B) — Plagues, Biological Warfare, the 200 Million, and the Danger of Religious War
[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. This is the continuation of EC010a, a January 2002 sermon on understanding end-times prophecy in the post-September 11 context.]
Another thing quickly — a second example. The book of Revelation says a lot of things about plagues killing a large part of mankind — sometimes one third. In Revelation 16:2, it speaks about this kind of plague in a very specific way: it speaks about ugly, painful sores breaking out on people who had the mark of the beast. People say the prophecy is very vague and you can interpret it any way you like — not so. The book of Revelation is very specific.
Now, all of this again would have been very hard to understand until September 11th. Because strangely enough, you heard about the anthrax scare that came up shortly after. People actually died of it. But anthrax is not the most dangerous of the biological agents available today. What we now understand is that the war of terrorism will involve biological warfare — using plagues to kill the enemy, as they think. The chief target of all these things is North America. You and I living here, if we are still here, will be the object of this kind of attack. Revelation has already been talking about biological attacks of this kind. And life can become pretty unbearable when that happens.
In many of these cases in Revelation, one third of mankind is affected. We are talking about two billion people being affected. And the chief target — most of that one third — would be North America. Do you think I was exaggerating when I said everything is going to change? There are those who would like to change it for you, I can tell you. With an attack of chemical and biological weapons of who knows what kind, in this kind of war, the whole health system will collapse. There is no way to deal with hundreds of thousands of people affected by these agents.
The prophecy tells us that things like September the 11th are just small early indicators of what is yet to come. We come quickly now to the last point, the last example. In Revelation 9:16, it speaks about an invasion from the east — an invasion of two hundred million so-called horsemen. The text reads: the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard their number. It is a very strange description — from the east, and these horses have lion's heads. The prophet is trying to describe something indescribable. He doesn't know how to describe what he is looking at. What kind of a horse is this? All we can say is that a horse with a lion's head must look very frightening and very fierce. A horse is a symbol of strength and speed. So all he is saying is that from the east will come an attack of enormous proportion, with great speed and ferocity. But until that thing actually happens, we have no way to say for certainty what it refers to.
I have a little booklet in my hands — you can see the star on the cover. It says China and Prophecy, written by a Dr. Tatchford. This was printed in 1968 — thirty-three years ago. When I first read it, I thought: this is ridiculous. Because what it identifies here — and here you see the danger of premature identification — is that this 200 million refers to China. It said that only China has enough people to produce an army of 200 million. And presumably, to match the prophecy, you would also need to see China breeding 200 million horses. What I particularly disliked about this suggestion is not only its logic but its racial implications.
And do you know where Dr. Tatchford suggested the Chinese people would be going? They were going to Africa. Think of that. Why would 200 million Chinese people want to wade across two continents to go to Africa? His astonishing logic was that the Chinese people go to Africa to find food. It seems to me there is a lot more food in China than in Africa. Which part of Africa are they going to plant food — in the jungle? In the Sahara desert? I am sorry to be so rude to this honorable gentleman. I don't intend to be rude. But I want to show you that to make identification of this kind, you really make a fool of yourself. You can picture to yourself 200 million Chinese riding on horses going to Africa — this kind of interpretation degrades, in my view, the prophecy of Revelation.
But September 11th gives us a much better clue. After September 11th, we can more clearly understand what this might refer to. Do you know what kind of clue? Two hundred million Muslims in raids coming westward. That is much more like a possibility. Because from September 11th we realized — as Mr. Bin Laden declared — it is a war of Muslims against Christians. Could the Muslims raise 200 million people? No problem. They have over one and a half billion people. Two hundred million is not a problem, with young and middle-aged people combined. And this time, we do have a motive.
The conflict between Islam and Christianity of course goes back a long way — all the way back to the Crusades, eight or nine hundred years ago. In those fierce battles, the Christians came from the west and the Muslims came from the east, and they met in what is today Israel, and fought it out over many battles. Before September 11th, this scenario never even crossed my mind. Now, you say: up to now it involves only a small group of extremists. That is right. But extremism can rise for many reasons, just as it did in the time of the Crusades. Watch the future and see, with gradually the Muslims becoming more and more extreme, especially under a charismatic leader.
Like Bin Laden, for example. He can stir the people up. You remember Hitler? You would never have imagined that Germans could behave the way they did in the Second World War. They were such nice, cultured, polite people. You couldn't imagine that these people could behave the way they did. But just have one person like Hitler to stir the whole nation up, and they all go crazy. I was with my German friends, and when we talk today he is very nice. But if you look at the history — are these the same people who went to fight at Stalingrad, who attacked England, France? You need only one charismatic leader to change the whole situation.
Right now, there are many nice Muslim people — just like the nice Germans. But human nature is such that it takes very little to change things. I don't want to say anything against our Muslim friends. I don't want to stir up feelings of an anti-religious kind. Unfortunately, when we look at the facts: is it not true that almost every major terrorist act in the last twenty years was performed by Muslims? The bombing of Pan Am over Scotland, killing a whole plane load of people. Even the Pope — they tried to assassinate him, shot him with three bullets right through his stomach. And then, most recently, the September 11th event.
These are extremists — we call them extremists, rightly so. All I am saying is: watch out, because anyone can become an extremist under certain circumstances — including you and me; we should watch ourselves. If there were a massive invasion attacking Christians, and there was a call to arms to resist them, would you rise? Would you take up your weapons and say: we can't let them walk over us, we'll stop them? I wouldn't be surprised that millions of Christians will take up their M16s and go out to fight. And what would we have? A world war. Religion is a very dangerous thing. The power of religion is very frightening.
The Communist Party in China is well aware of that. The Communist Party as an ideology has collapsed, but religion gets stronger and stronger. It will wipe out communism as it has already largely done in the west. That is the power of religion. And it is a very dangerous thing. The only thing that matters is a living relationship with God — I am not interested in religion. I only want to know Jesus. But if you are carried away with religion, one of these days you will pick up your M16 and go to fight the communists or the Muslims with their AK-47s, and the whole world will be torn apart. Hundreds of thousands — maybe millions — will die.
The Muslims talk about jihad, holy war, all the time. They have been indoctrinated with the idea that to die as a martyr is glorious. And as it happens, Christianity also believes that martyrdom is a way of glory. Now you have two religions that both believe in absolute readiness to die. You can imagine what would be the outcome of that. I say to you: I believe in Jesus. I don't fight for religion. You say, in that case there would be defeatism. But I believe in a God who can turn back the forces of attack of any kind.
Our time is more than gone. We have to stop here. I just pray that this message will cause you to ponder carefully what kind of person we should be in these last days — and that you will realize that God's word never fails. Jesus said: heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. I have studied the Bible all my life, and the more I study, the more amazed I am that indeed it is true — his words never fail. Things we could not understand before, we begin to understand now. At the time of his return, he is drawing nearer. Are we ready to meet with him? Let us pray.