Collision With Prophecy

Collision With Prophecy #8:
Big Words. Little Horn

Introduction

Welcome. Our last meeting took a very interesting look at A Mark for God's People, a prophetic view of the sealing. Tonight's topic is a challenging one. But unless we identify the first beast of Revelation 13:1-10, we cannot proceed. How can we determine what the "mark of the beast" is, if we don't first learn who the beast imposing the mark is? There are issues in Scripture that make us uncomfortable. There are truths that aren't PC (politically-correct). But that doesn't change historical realities.

What I need to share tonight is something that I want to share carefully. I want to share it in love. In the Bible is a prophecy that in the last days, "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn their ears away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4:3-4). In such times, one who would be a faithful preacher is urged simply and straightforwardly: "Preach the word" (2 Timothy 4:2).

Perhaps not all of you, but some of you, "will be offended this night." But the Bible is plain. Paul asks, "do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10). Be assured friends; I will only share what I am about to because I have no Scriptural choice but to preach the Word instead of pleasing men. I hope you'll stay by. I hope you'll listen. I pray that you'll compare what is said with the Bible. This is all I ask.

We are studying Bible prophecy. And so it falls to us this night, to identify the beast of Revelation 13:1-10.

Am I About to Commit a "Hate Crime"?

Let's pause for a moment at one last point. I'm sure that you are aware that the current politically-correct thinking insists that no one group or teaching is superior to any other. Indeed, today it is insisted that such views be labeled as "bias," "bigotry," "prejudice," or even as a special new-breed of "crime" deserving of the greatest contempt and hostility of all: a "hate crime." Well, depending on how one defines it, in the next few moments I am about to commit one. You see, I am about to identify, by means of Bible prophecies written long before my birth, the beast of Revelation 13.

I want you to notice in our text that the Bible here accuses (and without apology), it accuses a historical, religio-political entity, of bearing the name of blasphemy, of connection with and control by Satan, of speaking blasphemies, and of compelling worship of itself through the use of force. You might say that the Bible here makes a hostile expression against this religious entity.

It is important that we pause here and make clear what we are about to say. We are about to identify the historical entity responsible for fighting a war against God and His people--not a war limited to the past, but a war still boiling, presently occurring, yet still raging. I will show you from the Scriptures that we are discussing, not simply an individual antichrist, but antichrist as a system. The entity we will see clearly presented in Scripture, is in fact, a church system exercising enormous power in the past, and enormous power this very moment. Doubtless, some of you here present are members of this church. Some of you may wsell be offended this night.

Let me try to clarify something. I am not here tonight to preach or inveigh against any particular person or group. We're not here to spread hate. We are here to share truth. But truth has a way of revealing untruth. No one's figured out how to get around that yet. Most of you here tonight have been present at several of our previous meetings. You know that our purpose very simply has been to share the teaching of God's Word--to make possible an understanding of the biblical facts surrounding the mark of the beast. I hope that no one has detected any malice or malignity in our work here. We have no quarrel with any sincerely religious person anywhere. We do have the mandate of the Word of God to share truth. So we'll do so in the most rational, non-prejudicial manner that we can. But no matter what we do, we can't launder the unpalatable wrinkles out of the clothe of truth. It won't come out; it's built in. You can go home when the meeting is over tonight counting me as a hard-hearted "hate" crime person for what I am about to share. That's your right. But according to the constitution of this country, the expression even of unpopular beliefs, is protected. And anyway, even if what I am about to say were not constitutionally protected, it would still be Bible truth. I would share it with you anyway.

We will all, in the end, answer to our Maker. We must obey God rather than men (Galatians 1:10). And I shall here make no apology for doing so.

A Quick Review

And so we begin. But let us briefly review of what we have already learned about prophetic fulfillment. We don't want to take any wrong turns here.

Remember what we learned when we covered what we called "God's Day-Planner." What did we find there? That God has everything under control, and that He tells His servants the prophets what He's going to do beforehand, so that when it happens, His faithful will have been forewarned. He fills-out the prophetic record step-by-step, down through time. He does not do everything all at once in some lump in the past, nor in some final lump, conveniently spliced-off somewhere into the future. The fulfillments are steady, measured, predicted, and premeditated. God is in control.

Remember now. What we saw there in Daniel was continuous, steady fulfillment down through time--the Bible's own method of prophetic interpretation. This means that there can be no tucking away here or covering up there. Actual religious entities that existed and exist in history will be marching through our chronological frame of reference. We can paint smiley-faces on them and try to avoid the truth. Or we can tell the truth with every Christian kindness, realizing that it will put people's fur up. And all that we can do is answer as did Martin Luther: "Here I stand. I can do none other; may God help me. Amen." (Great Controversy, p. 160). So. You have your Bibles with you? Good! Let's begin.

Identifying the Beast

Turn to the last book of your Bible, chapter 13 please. This section of Scripture has three blocks in it. The first block is verses 1-2, which describe the beast. The second block is verses 3- 4, which deal with the wound and healing of the beast, and the reaction of its worshipers to those events. The last block--verses 5-10--explores its war against God and His people. We will take these sections in their order and explain them by this and other Scriptures. Let's just refresh our minds with the actual text of our passage:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The first thing we notice is that John sees a beast rise up "out of the sea." So we must ask why does it rise up out of the sea? Could water have a symbolic meaning in prophecy? Yes it does. Keep your thumb right there at Revelation 13, but now flip a few pages forward in your Bibles to Revelation 17:15. And there we read what? "And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."

See how clear that is? Scripture interprets Scripture. John saw a beast rise up "out of the sea" in Revelation 13:1, and in Revelation 17:15 an angel gave him the interpretation of it. Water, in apocalyptic Bible prophecy is representative of "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues." The beast then, is something that would arise among the nations of an established civilization.

But next we have the description of the beast: it has in it the combined likenesses of a lion, a leopard, a bear? Now remember--those prophecies in the book of Daniel, are companion prophecies to these in Revelation. They are the same type or style of prophecy (apocalyptic). Like the prophecies in Revelation, they too are highly symbolic. And most intriguingly, careful study reveals that many of these prophetic descriptions are chronologically parallel; i.e., they cover the same religious entities in the time periods. I hope you've already spent time studying the prophecies of Daniel. If so, you should already be starting to see something--that the beast of Revelation 13:1-10 is a composite beast composed of the animals in Daniel 7:1-6. Let's turn there together. Daniel 7:1-6 . . .

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

See how these three beasts in Daniel seven are the very same ones that John in Revelation 13 describes combined together into one beast? Very interesting! We are letting Scripture interpret itself. Don't forget the methodology that we discussed the first night. Our world, friends, is on a collision-course with prophecy, and the Scriptures are given so that we may be taught right doctrine, reproved when we are off God's course, corrected when we have unwittingly deviated from His path for us, and instructed in righteousness--shown how we can live His way. The result is "that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). By searching the Scriptures--by going back into their inspired pages and letting the that which God has carefully placed in the books preceding Revelation provide our a foundation--we begin arriving at His interpretation of His Word rather than our interpretation of His Word.

In Revelation, John saw the same sea that Daniel did in the vision granted to him. But Daniel saw four beasts come up, while John only saw one come up that incorporated the description of all those beasts. In Daniel 7:2 "winds" are also mentioned blowing on the sea. In prophecy, what do winds represent? Jeremiah 51:1 helps us with the answer:

Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind."

The passage goes on to tell how God would use other war-capable powers to bring-down the nation of Babylon. Wind means strife or war. Water, as we saw, means peoples. So what about the beasts which arose among the troubled peoples? Our answer is supplied by God's Word in Daniel 7:17:

These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.

Daniel's lion-like, leopard-like, and bear-like beasts, and the "dreadful and terrible" fourth beast, are four great "kings," or nations, that would arise "out of the earth." Notice, they arise "out of the sea" in the earth, which as we have seen means a location where there are "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." God uses these beasts to represent nations. Very much as we symbolically represent the United States as an eagle. God often represents the nations of history in a similar manner.

So. Who are the these four nations symbolized by the beasts of Daniel? Verse 23 shows us: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth." So if the fourth beast is the fourth kingdom, then by parity of reasoning the first three beasts would represent the first three kingdoms. Now there have been various kingdoms and civilizations down through time, but there are four that heaven has highlighted and particularly emphasized in apocalyptic prophecy. These four are the especially noted world-kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Let's make sure of this:

The first beast is described as being like a lion and having eagles wings. Have you ever seen a picture like this? [Picture of Babylonian cherubim--golden lion with eagles wings on blue background] This is the well known symbol of the kingdom of Babylon. It was placed on the walls of Babylon. In Daniel 2 that nation is represented by the head of gold.

Babylon was, in her day, probably the wealthiest and grandest nation there was. She rose to power rapidly, a fact probably symbolized by the wings (consider hints like Jeremiah 50:44). After ruling from 606 to 538 B. C., heaven allowed a change. The second beast that Daniel saw had the appearance of a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth. The next kingdom was the combined Medo-Persian empire. The Persians were stronger than the Medes. This power rose into prominence in 538 B. C. We understand the three ribs to symbolize the three provinces of the kingdom: Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon. But by 331 B. C. the third beast arose. It was portrayed as a leopard with not two, but four wings on its back. The next kingdom following the Medo-Persian empire was, as you may know, Greece.

It had a "great king," a man historians today call "Alexander the Great." In the tiny space of a decade, he took his army and swept eastward, conquering everything in his path. Since the wings represent speed, as we already noted, here the presence of an extra set of wings is indicative of exceptional speed. After all, who else can you think of that in just a few years conquered completely the foremost powers of the civilization of his day? Unfortunately for Alexander, after one of his drunken sprees, he contracted pneumonia and died. He was al of 33 years old. After his death, the kingdom was split between his four main generals: Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus (Daniel 7:6). The glory days of Greece were over, and she continued her decline until 168 B. C. Then it was time for the fourth kingdom to arise . . .

The fourth beast now, noted in Daniel 7:23, is called "the fourth kingdom upon the earth." This kingdom, Scripture says, "shall be diverse from all kingdoms." In the seventh verse, it is described as "a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and break in pieces, and stamped upon the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns."

Here is symbolized the fourth great empire, the iron monarchy of Rome. It is described as having ten horns. This is clarified in Daniel 7:24 where we discover that "the ten horns of this kingdom are ten kings which shall arise." In 476 A. D. the tribes of northern Europe swept down over the Western Roman Empire and divided it into ten parts. These parts are the ten we've already mentioned--the originating forms of the modern nations of Europe (Angle-Saxons, Huns, Heruli, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visogoths, Suevi, Lombards, Burgundians, and Franks). Seven of the ten remain, while history testifies that three were rooted up. This brings us now to the important eighth verse:

I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

This power, friends, we will now discover, is the great antichrist power of history! We dare not make a mistake in its identification. If we misplace her in time or space, we will be blind-sided by her when she exercises her power. Remember, the Bible darkly and surely predicts that she will use her might so "that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:17).

What we are going to do right now, is follow out the prophecy and, using eight clear, biblically-supplied points of identification, identify the beast of Revelation 13:1-10.

Eight Clear Points of Identification

Let's move right into our very first point . . .

First Point of Identification: The little horn came up "among the ten;" this places it geographically in Western Europe.

This "little horn" came up among the other ten. The other ten were in western Europe. Therefore we know that it came up in western Europe. Very interesting.

Second Point of Identification: It came up after the ten arose

We know that this power came up after the ten because it came up among them. The ten arose in A. D. 476. The little horn would have to begin to reign after this date.

Third Point of Identification: It would uproot three of the ten tribes

This "little horn" would uproot three of the ten tribes. Don't forget Daniel 7:8, which says that "I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots."

Fourth Point of Identification: He shall be diverse from the first horns

Daniel 7:24 says that this power will be "diverse from the first" horns. The little horn would be a different kind of power from the political kingdoms preceding it. Remember, it would "speak great words against the most High" (Daniel 7:25). This power would be religious in contrast to political.

We can pause right here, because even before going through the last four of the eight points, we now have enough information to clearly identify the power represented here--the little horn, the antichrist of Bible prophecy. There is only one power that this can possibly be. The little horn here in Daniel is none other than the Roman Catholic Church. Consider the evidence of history:

The Papacy arose in Rome among the ten. She came up and began to rule as a church-state power in 538 A. D.,--after the rise of the ten. Because of their opposition to the Papacy, three of the ten tribes were completely uprooted by the armies of Rome: by 493 the Heruli were destroyed; by 534, the Vandals, and by 538 A. D., the Ostrogoths. The final uprooting of the Ostrogoths signaled a completed confirmation of the Papacy's power. Besides this, the prophetic specification that this power be "diverse" from all the others before it was fulfilled by the unparalleled blend of church-and-state manifest in it.

Let's go ahead and get the fifth thru eighth points now as well.

Fifth Point of Identification: He shall speak great word against the most High

In the first part of Daniel 7:25 this point is given: "And he shall speak great words against the most High." Revelation 13:5 says "great words and blasphemies." We ought to take a moment here and make sure that we have a Bible-definition of blasphemy.

In John 10:30-33, Jesus was about to be stoned for claiming to be one with the Father. He asked them for what good works they were going to stone Him, to which they replied, "For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a Man, makest Thyself God." This text shows us that it was understood to be blasphemy for a mere man to be given the position or place of a God. Mark 2:7 gives us another component helping to round-out a biblical definition of blasphemy. Jesus forgave a man his sins, and the response of the onlookers was, "Why doth this Man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?" Of course, we all know that Jesus is God. For Him to forgive sins, or "make Himself God" is not a problem at all. He was and is God.

Now that we are clear about what blasphemy is, we need to ask, can the Roman Catholic Church be accused of this? Unfortunately, we must report that this religious entity has always said that it has the power to forgive sins. This is blasphemy. Surely to claim to have the authority to forgive sins and to thus blaspheme is to speak great words against the most High! But there are considerably more "great words" that have been spoken. Consider some of these:

"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." Pope Leo XIII, in an Encyclical Letter, dated June 20, 1894.

"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." "The Catholic National," July 1895.

"We define that the Holy Apostolic See [the Vatican] and the Roman Pontiff holds the primacy over the whole world." A Decree of the Council of Trent, quoted in Philippe Labbe and Gabriel Cossart, "The Most Holy Councils," vol. 13, col. 1167.

If you study the careers of the various beasts/nations arising before the little horn, you find that they expand and conquer horizontally; their warfare is primarily of a military and political nature. But when it comes to the little horn, it is a vertical conflict. The conflict is between this blasphemous power and the God of heaven. It is primarily religious. Unfortunately, unless we want to bend the facts, the only thing that we can conclude is that the Papacy also completely fulfills this specification.

Sixth Point of Identification: He shall wear out the saints of the most High

Again, from Daniel 7:25, we read this specification: He (the "little horn") "shall wear out the saints of the most High." This point leaves us in no question about the nature of this power. It will be a persecuting power. If you know any history of the dark ages (this period is now called "the middle ages," in harmony with the politically-correct, no right-or-wrong valuation now assigned to it), then you know that this church was responsible for the persecution of millions and millions of those who refused to submit to her. Listen to these lines taken from a book published with the Roman Catholic Churches seal of approval:

The Catholic Church has a horror of blood. Nevertheless, when confronted by heresy . . . she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture. She creates tribunals like the Inquisition, she calls the laws of the state to her aid . . . especially did she thus act in the 16 th century with regard to Protestants . . . In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics" The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism, pp. 182-184.

Here are some statements:

The inquisition is, in its very nature, good, mild, and preservative. It is the universal, indelible character of every ecclesiastical institution; you see it in Rome, and you can see it wherever the true Church has power." Comte Le Maistre, in 1815, Letters on the Spanish Inquisition, (Boston, 1843), p. 22.

"We hear that you forbid torture as contrary to the laws of your land. But no state law can override [the Church's] canon law, our law. Therefore I command you at once to submit those men to torture." Letter of Pope Clement V rebuking England's King Edward II, cited in Will Durant's The Story of Civilization, vol. 4, p. 680.

"Exterminate the Hussites . . . Burn, massacre, make deserts everywhere . . ." From letter of Pope Martin V to King of Poland in A. D. 1429, citation by Cormenin in R. W. Thompson, The Papacy and the Civil Power, (New York, 1876), p. 533.

"The Catholic Church has a ponderous structure, but when we move, we'll smash anyone beneath us." Bishop Sinesio Bohn, Charisma, May 1994.

By the way, does the Inquisition still exist? You might be surprised to know that indeed it does. they just changed the name. In 1967 They changed its name to "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." Its present leader is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

It is true, by the way, that there were also occasions in which Protestants treated others quite similarly. But these incidents, horrible and unjustifiable as they are, were never carried out on anything approaching the magnitude or the scale of the actions of Papal Rome. Indeed, during this time, Rome was the "Walmart" of torturers. Present in practically every town, she engaged herself thoroughly in stamping out those Bible-believers who resisted her and persisted in obeying their conscience. She labeled them heretics and consumed as many as she could in the flames.

Seventh Point of Identification: He shall think to change times and laws

Daniel 7:25 goes further. It tells us that the little horn would "think to change times and laws." Did you know that the Catholic Church has a variation on the Ten Commandments? It's true! The Catholic version of the ten Commandments drops out the second commandment and then splits the tenth into two commandments. Do you know what the second commandment forbids? Would anyone like to try a guess? It is images. The second commandment forbids the making or bowing down to/worshiping of images (Exodus 20:4-5). Catholic Churches are well known for the presence of various images and shrines. Even though they've cut this commandment out of God's law, they still refuse to call their religious practice worship. Very interesting. Perhaps the conscience objects?

Peeling away the second commandment left only nine, so the Tenth Commandment prohibiting coveting was split into two commandments against the same thing (coveting), (Exodus 20:17).

Friends, if I were going to change anything without God's permission, I don't think it would be His law. But the facts stand before us. And in another meeting, I'll share the most shocking change of all in God's law. But this is enough to show us that "great words against the most High" are certainly spoken by this power, different and diverse from all the others given in the holy Scriptures.

Eighth Point of Identification: The length of his reign

Finally tonight, the eighth identifying mark shows us exactly how long the "little horn" would exercise power on the earth. Revelation 12:14 says that the time period during which the persecuting power would especially persecute the woman (the church, as we'll see in our next message) for a period of "a time and times and half a time." But the sixth verse says that the period is "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." Both of these verses speak of the same event (the feeding of the woman in the wilderness for 1260 years), but use different descriptions of the time. What's interesting is that the period is the same period! "A time (1 year) and times (2 years), and a half a time" (a half-year) means 1+2+.5, which equals three and a half years. But how long is 1260 days? Divide 1260 by 300 days, the Bible month, and you up with 42 months, exactly three and a half years! But 1260 days means 1260 prophetic years. And as we've already seen, when we look for a 1260 year period bounded by significant events for the Roman Catholic Church, we cannot help but discover the A.D. 538 to A.D. 1798 period. In our next meeting, we'll share in detail how the Papacy received the deadly wound prophesied (Revelation 13:3) in 1798 when the Pope was taken captive, The Papacy was shut down by Napolean, and the pontiff died in captivity. When did that situtation develop? Exactly 1260 years after A. D. 538! Surprise.

So there we are. No other religious body even begins to come close--no other body can even be mistaken for being this one. Eight clear points of identification have, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, and letting history speak--given us a crucial anchor. Now we can begin to really pin down the latter part of Revelation 13, as we know just which worldwide, religio-political power will come into special prominence in the end-time as the image beast moves to promote the worship of the beast, the "little horn" of Daniel seven.

Conclusion and Preview

I hope friends, that tonight we're interested in what we've seen. It may be a whole lot more creative to try to find figures more current and contemporary to whom to apply the designation, "little horn," or "antichrist." But we are constrained to be true to the plain teaching of the Word of God. Our intent has not been to paste every vicious thing onto an entity that (it may seem to its own members) historically has seemed to get the punching-bag treatment. "Just the facts, ma'am" has really been our modus operandi. Make no mistake; heaven will be populated in large part (I believe), by sincere persons with Catholic backgrounds. But friends, here I stand. I can do no other.

It fell to us this night to identify the "little horn"-- to identify the beast of Revelation 13:1-10. She is, I say with no malice nor apology, the Roman Catholic Church system. She meets all of the specifications of Bible prophecy. God wrote it out this way. Tonight we just followed along with Him. And we've made good progress toward our goal: sharing the biblical facts about the mark of the beast. However, in closing I must make this warning: if you might think, after hearing tonight's message, that Protestantism is going to get off easy, you are quite mistaken. Before we finish, it will become clear that a name won't save us, even if it is the name "Protestant." Friends, there are other entities in Bible prophecy remaining to be identified. And we will identify them.

But in our next meeting, we'll turn our attention to the journey of God's people down through the ages from the past to our own day. These people are our spiritual fathers and mothers. In our next meeting we'll walk closely through the chapter of Revelation 12. We'll understand the 1260 year prophecy (it's much simpler than the time prophecies we've already covered). We'll gather in yet more evidence for what we spoke of tonight. Join us for Church in the Wilderness and the Great Controversy.

So friends, let's turn to prayer and close. We've identified the beast. (And if you'll be pleased to examine the historical documents, you'll find we've done it with considerably less venom than Mr. Luther!) It is the truth of God.

Larry Kirkpatrick, 30 October 2000