This year promises to be a difficult year if the last twelve months are any indication. It doesn’t appear that there’s going to be any let up in some of the catastrophic events that have been occurring.
The message that God gave ancient Israel through Hosea resonates very well for Christians today. It is a message that makes it quite easy to make a comparison between what ancient Israel was being told then and what we see around us today.
Hosea gets a little specific, but very apropos for what we read and hear about every day: “Hear the word of the Lord, You children of Israel, For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ‘There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, Killing and stealing and committing adultery, They break all restraint, With bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away . . .’My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, The more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame'” (Hosea 4:1–3,6-7).
Israel lacked the knowledge because they rejected God. And we are seeing a growing rejection of God in what was once known as a religious nation. God is taking a back seat. The fastest growing religion in the United States is the “Nones”, no belief in God. Just couldn’t be caring any more about whether God is there, or not. God says judgement is coming.
“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns. . . . You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked prowl on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men (Psalm 12:5, 7-8). God is there, He is in charge. No matter what it looks like from the physical vantage point.
The stage is being set for a new world order, but it’s not the new world order that one might immediately think of, given all the conspiracy theories that are floating around. It’s not going to be a new world order built by Bill Gates. The stage setting that is going to continue revolves around the moral decay that the Bible is clear about. The moral decay of the English-speaking people, predominantly the United States and the United Kingdom, will open the door to the acceptance of a new world order.
Setting conspiracy theories aside, what will the new world order look like in biblical terms?
Revelation 13:1–2: ” Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.”
The Beast has a blasphemous name and Satan gives it power and authority,
Revelation 13:3–5: “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” 5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.”
All the world followed the beast, however he only has power for 42 month, a fairly short-lived new world order. But it’s a new world order that this world has not seen the likes of in its human history.
Revelation 13:6–10: “Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”
It will be a difficult time for God’s people, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12).
This Beast power is headed up by a man on a throne who will be the focal point of this particular power.
Daniel 2:31-33; 7:17-22 gives clarity to the image in Revelation 13. They are four successive, world-ruling kingdoms. The various kingdoms are Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman. This beast power, the fourth power, is the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was to continue in various forms and political powers through history until the return of Christ.
When this final empire comes it will usher in a new world order. The beast power is a political power, but it will act in conjunction with a religious power: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth—by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
“He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,” (Revelation 13:11-16).
The political Beast exercises all the authority of the Roman Empire. This Beast, along with the second beast, represents itself as Christ’s Kingdom, with a leader of a religion that deceives those who dwell on the earth. The human leader performs miracles which deceives many. And it deceives people into accepting the beast power who diminishes God, speaks against God, speaks against anything to do with God. The political power will do the bidding of the religious power as far as killing people is concerned.
Why do people accept something that is so blatant in its opposition and hostility to the Creator God? It’s about deception (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).
Paul elaborates about the man of sin: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I (Paul) was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,” (2 Thessalonians 2:3–11).
Daniel 7:7-8 and Daniel 11:32-36 give more insight into what is going to happen.
The environment from which the new world order arises is one of decay, and a decline into moral corruption, the modern descendants of Israel leading that decline. Paul warned Timothy of this moral decline in the “last days”: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,” (2 Timothy 3:1–4).
The love of self will become stronger and, as it does, a spiritual ‘no man’s land’ develops. The love of self does not produce fulfillment or happiness. Man will become so dispirited that when someone comes along and offers a spiritual and a cultural renewal, the human mentality will “go for it”.
Revelation 18: 9-11,15-19 describes the prosperity the beast power brings, nevertheless, it is a short-lived power. “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
“And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: . . . The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like this great city?’ They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’”
The world will look to the coming beast and religious power to save them. That will not be the case. The future world order is God’s Kingdom and it is going to totally take away and decimate all the kingdoms of men that are built into that last and final fourth beast.
Brian Orchard