What do you do when the Civil Powers turn evil?
Is resistance to these powers really Biblical? Or will God Himself take the out when He is ready? A Biblical example is instructive.
An audio lesson.
Listen to this audio lesson here, or click on the Audio Player to download as an MP3 file.
There is more about God’s relationship with the Civil Powers, and the basics of how Bible prophecy works is discussed in detail in Prophecy Principles. Available from your bookseller.
PART of God’s Plans are through the Civil Powers which exist.
There is no authority except from God, and those powers which exist were established by God, Rom 13:1-2. So how do these things work out on the ground? Some Bible examples are instructive.
An audio lesson.
There is more information about God’s relationship with the Civil Powers, and the basics of how Bible prophecy works is discussed in detail in Prophecy Principles. Available from your bookseller.
In truth many things in history are astonishing. Who, ahead of time, would have ever believed that the tiny Greek army at Marathon, could ever have defeated the giant Persian army which was meeting them. The Athenian army numbered a mere 11,000 men. The Persian army is estimated to have been as much as 65,000 men. In normal military terms three to one odds means you will almost automatically lose. Six to one odds? It is almost unbelievable that you could win. And this is verified history. Astonishing!
Or take the Russo-Finnish War at the beginning of World War II. Who would have ever believed that tiny Finland could fight mighty Russia to a standstill? Where other small countries were smashed beneath Russian boots, Finland was able to come out of the war, not conquered, but with a negotiated peace. In ordinary human terms, and in ordinary historical terms, that was an impossibility. However, it happened, and that is verifiable history.
Also, both of these examples are astonishing things happening in history, and in theory, without the influence of an All Powerful God intervening! Or were they? Remember Scripture says,
“The
horse is prepared for the day of battle;
But victory is with
Yahweh.”
Prov 21:31 WEB
Actually astonishing things happen happen all the time, and we hear or see of them in news, but it only if it linked to an Almighty God that we are not supposed to believe it.
So Scripture again and again uses symbolism, and parallels to teach about things we would otherwise have difficulty understanding or believing. How do you describe God when He literally comes to see us in the flesh! They were told He would be like Moses in many ways, like David, like Solomon, like a passover lamb, and so forth.
How do you communicate what “she” is like, and how “she” operates?
“She” is like ancient Babylon, she is like the merchant empire of Tyre in Old Testament times. She is like ancient Rome. She is a rich and nasty whore. She is said to be a mystery religion, with which the ancients were well acquainted. (See previous posts on the mystery religions.) She foments conflicts and wars in order to make more money, and all the blood shed on the earth is in her, Rev 18:24.
He will be like the Caesars, like King Ahab of Israel, like Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Selucid Empire. He will be like a living/corpse idol.
It will be like it was the days of Noah. It will be like just before Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed. It will be like the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (read Josephus accounts of this war).
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901
“1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2 You lust, and don’t have. You kill, covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.”
Jas 4:1-3 WEB
“12 merchandise of gold, silver, precious
stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive
wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood,
and of brass, and iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon, incense,
perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, sheep,
horses, chariots, bodies, and people’s souls.”
Rev 13:12-13
WEB
“The woman whom you saw is the great city, which
reigns over the kings of the earth.”
Rev 17:18 WEB
Wars and conflicts are about money, about “ … You kill, covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. …” Jas 4:2 WEB. The popular accounts act as if the billions or trillions of dollars spent on a war just disappear … but they don’t. The trillions of dollars are “made”/“earned” by businesses that make the things needed for war. The money is still around … out of the taxpayers hands, the ones who do the suffering and dying.
Mystery Babylon’s purpose seem to be to make money. Then an astonishing statement is made about Mystery Babylon.
“In her was found the blood of prophets and of
saints, and of ALL who have been slain on the earth.”
Rev
18:24 WEB emphasis added.
That would almost seem to be impossible. Let’s think it through. Here is a religio-commercial entity, a secret or semisecret religion, which seems to facilitate international trade and dominate it. (See the posts on Mystery Religions.) She rules over kings. She seems to stir up conflicts to make money. She is the source of all sorts of immorality and luxury. It almost seems as if she plants many of animosities which cause men to kill each other. She is the source of every sort of vile and nasty sex.
But there is the statement. God is the one who “says” Rev 18:24. Are you really willing to say that it could not be?
Also notice that what is talked about is too big to be ancient Rome. The statement made is broader than the influence ancient Rome ever had.
Also Revelation points to Babylon the Great as being destroyed just before the end of this present universe.
“4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
“Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her
sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, 5 for her sins
have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities. ”
Rev
18:4-5 WEB
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901
Sometimes we have the most naive views of how things work. The media often portrays wars or revolutions or great political movements as spontaneously arising out of nowhere. Movements of the “will of the people,” is a phrase we often hear. The truth is that very little is spontaneous in either war or the political world, in “democracies,” or under kings or dictators.
Where does food come from for your family? And clothes? And medical care when it is needed. It does cost money, and at times, a great deal of money. Still at times we may think as if a guerrilla movement of several thousand men can just happen. Or several hundred apparently unemployed men can make a “sit-in” for days or weeks, months, and it can just happen.
Start with a squad of say twelve men. Price uniforms for them, and boots and socks and underwear. Then automatic weapons for all twelve. Then figure out how many bullets and hand grenades they will need for six months of combat, and how to buy all of that. Then figure out what it will cost to feed twelve hungry and active young men for six months. That is just a start. Then multiply those figures by an army, and you are beginning to understand the most elementary of costs for even a small war.
The truth is that wars or revolutions cost too much money, and require too much organization and planning for them to ever happen “by accident.” They have to be carefully planned and financed, or they will soon fall apart.
At their height Hitler had millions of such unemployed men in uniform. Just take a million such unemployed men. What do you think it would cost to merely put them into uniform (remember, one million men), and pay them at least a token amount so they will make the time to march and train, and then street fight together. Then you have an idea of how much money Hitler had behind him, and you are beginning to think of how much money mass political movements cost anywhere in the world.
Some organizations, like churches, are able to be very influential long term, especially if their members all tithe (10%) as is often promoted. Even then, most of that money goes for local maintenance and expenses, and paying local workers, with generally lesser amounts be devoted to slow-going mission works in far off places.
Jeb Bush, if I remember right, raised over 100 million dollars for a disastrous presidential primary bid. We are talking here about temporary pushes just to win a primary election.
Such must come from the productive activities of men, or businesses, or the printing of money.
These are basics to understand our
world,
and what prophecy tells us about our world.