Since some would rather have a hard copy, I went ahead and typed the FULL transcript of “The Hal Lindsey Report” of Dec. 5, 2014, because this is so important to be aware of, given what’s going on today with the pope’s call for unity of various religions! UNITY AT ANY COST? In the 11th century, more specifically in 1054, there occurred a great splitting of the Orthodox “Christian” church. In fact, it is called The Great Schism and refers to the breaking away of the Western Church headquartered in Rome from the Eastern Church located in Constantinople. Today we refer to those churches as the Roman Catholic Church based in Vatican City and led by Pope Francis, and the Eastern Orthodox Church of Istanbul, Turkey led by Bartholomew 1, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. For almost 1000 years relationships between these two churches have been strained at best and quite bitter at worst. However, in recent months Pope Francis has been actively seeking to end the millennium old estrangement between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. He wants to bring them back into full communion. He has stated that the intensifying conflicts across the world and the increasing persecution of Christians make unity between the churches even more urgent. “The cry of the victims of conflict urges us to move with haste along the path of reconciliation and communion between Catholic and Orthodox. Indeed, how can we credibly proclaim the message of peace which comes from Christ if there continues to be rivalry and disagreement between us.” – Pope Francis Pope Francis recently traveled to Istanbul where he prayed for unity with Bartholomew at the Orthodox Cathedral of St. George. The two leaders then signed a joint declaration of unity between the two churches. One of the most important prophetic signs that the end of our age is right at the door is the merging of all institutional churches under one leader. I wrote about this really important prophetic sign in 1969 in the last chapter of my book “The Late Great Planet Earth.” In a related matter I also reported on this program earlier about the astounding predictions of an Irish bishop, St. Malachy. In 1139 while visiting the Vatican, he experienced a vision of future popes. According to the traditional account, Malachy recorded the list as a sequence of cryptic phrases. In Malachy’s vision the last pope will be the one who brings all churches under his control. This pope will not be the antichrist, but he WILL furnish the platform for the antichrist to take world power, and then to work with him. Now, here is what I wrote concerning these things in the year 1969: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- {{“In the institutional church, composed of professing Christians who are in many cases not Christian, look for many things to happen: With increasing frequency the leadership of the denominations will be captured by those who completely reject the historic truths of the Bible and deny doctrines, which according to Christ himself are crucial to believe in order to be a Christian. In some of the largest Protestant denominations this is already taking place. The few remaining institutions, which are not yet dominated by the disbelievers, will go downhill in the same manner. There will be unprecedented mergers of denominations into ‘Religious conglomerates.’ This will occur for two reasons: first, most denominations were formed because of deep convictions about spiritual truths. As more of these truths are discarded as irrelevant because of unbelief in biblical authority, there will be no reason to be divided. Unity is certainly important to have, but never, according to the teachings of Christ, at the expense of the crucial truths of Christianity. Secondly, as ministers depart from the truths of the Bible, they lose the authority and power that it has to meet real human needs, and as many ministers are not truly born spiritually themselves and are consequently without the illumination of God’s spirit, they no longer will be able to hold their present congregations, much less attract others. So they will resort to ‘social action gimmicks,’ super-organization, and elaborate programs as a substitute. As Paul predicted concerning these ministers in the last days: ‘holding to a form of godliness (literally, religion), and although they have denied its power…” And again he says, “…they are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.*” --- Hal Lindsey, “The Late Great Planet Earth” (2 Timothy 3: 5-7). Later in that same chapter I wrote, “There will be an ever-widening gap between the true believers in Christ and those who masquerade as ‘ministers of righteousness.’ I believe that open persecution will soon break out upon the ‘real Christians,’ and it will come from the powerful hierarchy of unbelieving leaders within the denominations. Christians who believe in the final authority of the Bible, salvation through the substitutionary atonement of Christ alone, the deity of Jesus Christ, etc., will be branded as prime hindrances to ‘the brotherhood’ of all men and the ‘universal Fatherhood of God’ teaching, which is so basic to the ‘ecumaniacs’ who don’t believe in the very heart of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus taught that God is the Creator of all, but the Father of only those who believe in Him.’” --- Hal Lindsey, “The Late Great Planet Earth”}} -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jesus said to unbelieving rabbis who disputed with him, “You are of your father the Devil, and the desires of your father you want to do…” (John 8:44). {{Also from the 1969 book: “Because of the persecution of true believers, there will grow a true underground church of a believing remnant of people.” }} Everything I wrote about in “The Late Great Planet Earth” in 1969 is now coming true. I have said many times that the two remaining major prophetic signs that I’ve been looking for -- the key that I’m looking at the very door of the start of the Tribulation, the two major signs: One of them is that the United States had to lose its power and cease to be a number one political power. That is happening in the last couple of years. The second most important sign that I’ve been looking for is the fact that the churches would begin to merge together again – and ESPECIALLY the pope would be the one pulling them together and would very shortly become the head of all the churches. Now let’s just think for a minute how many people we’re talking about here. According to latest estimates the Roman Catholic Church has 1.2 billion members across the world. The Orthodox, which is out of Istanbul, has an estimated 300 million plus members, and the Protestant denominations are estimated as a little over 800 million members. So when you put all this together it’s 2.3 billion people. That’s a lot of people. And it’s very important in the passages of the Scripture. Let me read to you some of the major Scripture that has influenced me in my thinking the most: In Daniel 9 we find out where the antichrist has to come from. Now, that’s going to be important in putting all this together. Daniel 9:26 is one of the most important prophecies in the whole Bible. It predicts several major things. First of all in verse 26 it starts out by talking about the Messiah coming, and if I had time I could go through this and show you that the day Jesus would publicly announce that he is the Messiah was predicted to the day when he would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. “Then after the sixty-two weeks (of years) the Messiah will be cut off (put to death) and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. (That happened in 70 A.D.) And its end (we go into a great parentheses here) will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined” (Daniel 9:26). Of course since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. there’s been nothing but war with Israel being scattered all over the world. And every move around that area has been with trouble for the Israelites. We see a lot of it growing today. And so, it jumps a long place (period of time) and then the last figuring of time that’s used in this prophecy where there was one week of years remaining to be fulfilled – that week of years is soon to start. It says, “And he (referring to the prince who is to come) will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction…” (Daniel 9:27). Now, the important thing here is that “the prince who is to come” comes just at the beginning of the last seven years we call the Tribulation, the time of great conflict and war. It says that the one who comes – the coming prince – has to be of the same people that destroyed Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. Who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.? – the people of the prince –Titus was the one who led the Roman 10th Legion to destroy it. He was of the Roman people. So, this coming prince who is the antichrist – where’s he going to come from? Out of the Roman people. So that solves that right away. Going to another passage that is important to understand how this falls together, Revelation 13, where it predicts the coming of the antichrist, it says, “And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names” (Revelation 13:1). Then he names some of the great powers of the past that had come, and he says that this man will come up out of these several great empires that ruled the world. “And the beast which I saw was like a leopard (Greece), and his feet were like those of a bear (Persia), and his mouth like the mouth of a lion (Babylonians)” (Revelation 13:2a). “And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority” (Revelation 13:2b). “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast…” (Revelation 13:3). Now, in this prophecy in the Book of Revelation about the coming of the antichrist, it’s important to realize he is talking about the individual person who is going to come as the antichrist. And the way he is going to be superimposed onto history in a flash is when he receives a deadly head wound and is raised up again to life. That’s going to be the way he is launched. We have to look at Revelation 17 to get a grip on why these two prophecies I’ve been looking for so long are approaching. In chapter 17 there is a prophecy about the religious aspects of the old Roman Empire. It says, “…I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality” (Revelation 17:8). There are two factors going here. The antichrist comes and he resurrects the old Roman Empire “politically,” but the great harlot is the one who resurrects from what has been a latent form of the coming empire in the Tribulation, the “religious” aspect. “And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the Earth.’ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, ‘Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her…” (Revelation 13:3-7). Note that this is a figure of a religious system that will come clear in a minute. The important thing to note is that she is riding the scarlet-colored beast. The beast -- talking about the long line of political power over the world from God’s point of view. God gives us an interpretation of what these symbols mean: “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast…” (Revelation 17:8). “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits…” (Revelation 17:9). The beast is something that existed before. In the present time of the Apostle John when he wrote the Book of Revelation in 100 A.D. , it was not. And then he says and yet ‘it will come up again.’ So, he says, “And they also (in other words this symbol of the beast having seven heads and seven mountains), “They also “…are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes he must remain a little while” (Revelation 17:10). Now, first of all it says the symbol of the seven heads and seven mountains on which the woman sits – this refers to the physical locale of where this power rests. The church of the seven hills and the place of the seven hills from ancient times has always meant Rome. Rome sat originally on the seven hills that was called Rome. He says that the woman sits on this. So that tells us right away that the woman about whom this mystery is concerned is a religious system. And it says that it is sitting right then on the seven mountains on which the woman sits. “They are seven kings (or kingdoms); five have fallen; one is, the other has not come; and when he comes he must remain a little while” (Revelation 17:10). What are these? Well, you look at all the kingdoms on which the religions spawned by Babylon (Babylonia), these were false religions and were spawned over seven empires. The first five had already fallen in John’s time. Now, who would that be? They are the great powers that ruled over Israel: (1) Egypt (2) Assyria (3) Babylon (4) Media-Persia (5) Greece (under Alexander’s foundation). Those five had already come, and they had experienced the kinds of false religions that came out of Babylon. They had come and already fallen. And then he says, “one is” – that’s number six. What great empire was ruling the earth at that time as far as God was concerned? It was the Roman Empire. I call it “Roman Empire Phase 1.” And then he says “and the other has not yet come.” The one who is to come is going to be the resurrection of political and spiritual Rome again. And I call it “Roman Empire Phase 2,” because the Roman Empire was never completely destroyed. The political empire ceased to exist at the end of the fourth century A.D. But it still remained in a secret form religiously. Now, what religion is that? The Roman Empire out of Rome continued to exist as a religiously-controlled empire. And religiously for centuries it controlled the western world. And it says “that one has not yet come.” But he says “it will come when he comes.” “He” is referring to one individual “…when he comes…” – that is the antichrist who will come out of Rome. It says “he must remain a little while.” In other words he will begin to gain control over the whole world, and he will come for a little while. Then it says, “The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction” (Revelation 17:11). The beast is number eight. In other words, it’s still Roman Empire Phase 2, but this individual represents an eighth form of that same empire. That one is about to come. Folks, I haven’t been able to get all of it in this message, but next week I promise I’ll come back and finish all of these things that I believe are still left unsaid. God bless you, and God willing I’ll see you next week. Hal Lindsey Hals reports can be viewed at hallindsey/
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:56:54 +0000
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