“Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008. Paisley became a Protestant evangelical minister in 1946 and remained one for the rest of his life. In 1951 he co-founded the Reformed fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and was its leader until 2008. Paisley became known for his fiery sermons and regularly preached anti-Catholicism, anti-ecumenism and against homosexuality.” – Quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Paisley

The Testimony Of The Book Of Revelation To End Time Fulfilments Of Prophecy

Transcription

Lift up the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures, which you will find in the pew before you. Turn to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and let us read chapter nine. Chapter nine, verse one of the book of the Revelation:

Revelation 9:1  ¶And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12  One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13  ¶And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14  Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17  And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18  By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19  For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

And God shall stamp with his own divine seal of approval and blessing this reading from his very own infallibility.

We look tonight at the last book of the Bible, the book of the Revelation. Last Lord’s Day evening, we were examining the book of Daniel, which is the great prophetic book of the Old Testament. Tonight we come to the book of the Revelation, which is the great prophetic book of the New Testament, and the final word of all prophecy. In its fulfillment, we will come to know its true and accurate interpretation. It is only when prophecy is fulfilled that we can really know its final and its accurate fulfillment and what it really was saying.

Could I remind you that the prophecies of the cross, the prophecies of the resurrection, seem to be covered over with a maze or with a cloud to the disciples. But it was only as those great prophecies were fulfilled, many of them in a period of six hours, that man came to know the truthfulness of what was said in the Old Testament scriptures about the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is true of all prophecy. We shall know the truth in its fullness when these things actually come about.

We noticed last week two little horns, one in Daniel 7 and one in Daniel 8. I said on that occasion these were only explained to man as prophecy rolled out the scroll of fulfillment, and what was said about these two little horns was fulfilled before the face of the whole world.

The first little horn, it is clear, is the papacy, a little horn with no armies, no dominion, no kingdom, but a loud voice that changed the whole history of Europe, making decrees and calling truth the lie, and calling the lie the truth.

And then when we turned to chapter 8, we saw another little horn. And it came forth and it was different. It was Mohammedanism, the Antichrist of the East, as the little horn in chapter 7 was the Antichrist of the West.

Now we come to the ninth chapter of the book of the Revelation. But could I say again, and I couldn’t emphasize this enough, as the scroll of prophecy is rolled out and their fulfillment throws its breaking light on the sacred page, then it comes in the experience of the onlooker to be convinced that this Bible is what it claims to be, a more sure word of prophecy. Things hard to be understood in the scripture soon become as plain as the midday sun.

The two great forces which have sought to destroy the Christian Church on earth are Popery and Islam. And take the both of them together as they are seen in Daniel 7 and 8. And history records for us their opposition to biblical Christianity, their warring and continual confrontation with biblical Christianity, and the intervention of God in delivering the world from their curse through the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now what is stated by Daniel is more clearly stated in the book of the Revelation in this final book of prophecy. Two faithful witnesses bear testimony to that, and they pour it unto martyrdom itself. A force is abroad, says the book of Revelation, that is opposed to everything that the true Church believes.

And we open the book of Revelation of the seventeenth chapter, and we see this system, the beast. We see astride the beast, the woman. We have the clear direction of the Holy Spirit that this woman is none other than the city of Rome. And the whole Roman system is exposed to what is corrupted, apostate, anti-Christ religion. No wonder the reformers thundered so hard against it.

And it is a sad day for this nation of ours that over Christmas, the head of the Church of England, Her Majesty the Queen, has now invited the head of the Roman Catholic Church to spend Christmas with her, and to preach in the so-called Protestant Church of England at Sandringham in Yorkshire. It is a sad day. What about the coronation oath? What about the revolution settlement? What about the statement that says, if a queen or king enters into communication with Rome, they cease to exercise their power and forfeit their right to reign over this United Kingdom? All of these things are despised and rejected by both the government and the palace.

And we discover the downgraded giving momentum as we hurry towards that great day when the true King shall come, He who is King of kings and Lord of lords. When the papacy shall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming and by the sword from Israel. And when all shall be forced to acknowledge that Jesus alone is Lord to the glory of God.

But we not only have in this book of Revelation, revealed to us in Revelation 17, this evil and accursed system of the papacy, but we have revealed in the book of the Revelation another evil system here in this ninth chapter of Revelation. And it tells us clearly, and we will see to this as we come to, that this system is going to destroy a third of the people.

Now we have to open the history book, and we have to ask the question of history. Has there been in Europe, in the prophetic earth which surrounds Europe, has there been such a slaughter of mankind? And when we ask that question, history tells us, yes. Could I just say to you tonight that both these systems, please note it well, have their origin in the bottomless pit. Turn to chapter 17. And in chapter 17 you will read there of the beast on which the woman sits.

Verse 8 of chapter 17. The beast that thou sawest is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition.

What is the origination of the papacy? Its origination is from the bottomless pit. That’s what the book says. Ascent of evil from the bottomless pit.

Turn over to chapter 9 and we find the opening of this bottomless pit. And we find in this chapter this other force that is at war.

He opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke.

That’s the plea and teaching of God’s word. Not very popular to say that today in this day of velvet-tongued and kid-gloved preachers. But some preacher must stand up for God’s truth and preach it as it is.

As the days unfold, these prophecies will become more and more clear, and we look further into the book, we will discover that these two great evil forces running in history in parallel are the combined forces of satanic opposition to all that is revealed in Holy Scripture about the true gospel and about the true Church of Jesus Christ.

But we do have a word here which gives us a pointer, and it is verse 15, and it says that this evil force is to slay the third part of men. And as I have said, can we open the history book and see a system that did that?

Muhammad was born at Mecca in A.D. 570. He fled to Medina in 622, and there he died in 632. Not a long time, but in the last ten years to the end of his life, he subdued all Arabia, he invaded Syria, he extended his way into the Red Sea and to the Euphrates River. In 637, five years after his death, Islam conquered Damascus and Jerusalem and then went on to conquer Syria. In 638, Alexandria was taken and Egypt was subdued.

In twenty years from the death of Mohammad, the Euphrates had been crossed and other places had been annexed to the empire of Islam. Persia was vanquished. In the period 640 to 710, Africa was subdued. In three or four years more, Spain was overrun by Islam. In 721, the invaders penetrated into France as far as the city of Orleans. Thus, within a century, the sway of the Saracens, the forces of Islam, was extended from the Indus to the Atlantic.

In 732, they were repulsed by Charles Martel and driven back beyond the Pyrenees Mountains. In 763, Baghdad was founded as the capital of the Islamic forces on the river Tigris, which may be regarded as a branch of the river Euphrates. In 846, they approached Rome. They plundered the suburbs of Rome and were defeated by Pope Leo IV. But in the 11th century, having been driven from Italy and Sicily by the Normans, they still continued their conquering power.

The Arabs became divided. The Turks, having sworn and adopted Islam, set them aside and they seized power in Baghdad. During their supremacy, the Crusades took place from 1096 to 1270. And at length, Mohammed II took Constantinople in 1458 to the grief and sorrow and terror of Europe.

It is claimed that the Euphrates Valley was the seat and center of this empire until Constantinople was taken. Please note what it says here. Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

The Bible has it right and always has it right. Now that short, brief recapting of history shows the extent of the power, the conquering power of Islam. And in that conquering power, the blood flowed and a third of the inhabitants and the armies of the inhabitants of Europe were slaughtered. The Bible said they would deal with a third of the inhabitants. And there is only one force in history, running parallel with the development of the people, that did that awful deed. And that is the power of Islam.

Please notice that they had crowns like gold. There you have the turban, the turban of Islam. Please notice, too, they were long-haired warriors, per se. They had hair as the hair of women. The Bible is absolutely accurate in these matters. But as I say, we can only understand them when they are fulfilled before our eyes.

Notice the vast army which they had, and with which they killed a third part of the men belonging to the Roman Empire. The army was made up of horsemen, so that they were not bound to suppose that they were foot soldiers, because they fought on horseback. And there is a description here which might have been written by a person writing the history of the bloodletting made by Islam as they took over Europe, and took over the Middle East, and Africa, and further beyond the Euphrates River.

It says here, if you look at it, “I saw the horses in the vision, and the brass plates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone.” There we have them there, the great horsemen of the Islamic forces. The colors that are mentioned here reflect the very colors under which they fought.

You will notice also that there was something strange about their warfare. It was warfare, verse 17, of fire, smoke, and brimstone. At the beginning of the crusade of Islam, those European forces that stood in their way, and tried to block their way, had a very devastating weapon of war. It was known as Greek fire. It was a new artificial flame, which had been brought from Syria by one of the leaders of Syria, who had forsworn the Islamic religion, and joined up with the emperor of the Eastern European nation. That weapon was very effective against the Islamic power for a time.

But the secret was eventually found out by the Islamic forces, and they turned it to great advantage. And when they attacked Constantinople, from which they had been driven back on two occasions, with this new weapon of war consisting of fire, smoke, and brimstone, they could not be repelled, and the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire was taken and destroyed.

It is interesting to note in this portion of Scripture that we’re looking at, that the final part of it tells us of the rest of the men. Who were the rest of the men? They were those that were not killed by the Islamic forces. But did they change course? Did they forsake the papacy? Did they cease to worship devils? Did they cease to worship idols of gold? Did they cease to worship idols of silver? Did they cease to worship idols of brass? Did they cease to worship idols of stone? Did they cease to worship idols of wood? No! And God says here, these gods cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot walk. But the European nations wedded to the papacy, and wedded to the illusion and delusion of, and all her idolatry, kept on in the pathway of idolatry. And this scourge of Islam left two-thirds of Europe still handcuffed to the papacy, and still under the control and under the poison of all of the papacy.

So here we have, in the Bible, a most interesting revelation. That these two great forces will come. I was thinking about this weapon. Perhaps we’re going to have that repeated again. Perhaps the nuclear deterrent is going to be in the hands of the European Islamic power. Perhaps this war that people can be thankful has come quickly to an end as it were, will be renewed in another way. We do not know what the Islamic nations have, or what they possess. History may well repeat itself. And a weapon that was not originally theirs may be caught by them and used by them in days past to continue their havoc, and to continue the desolation of this world in which we live.

But you can be very sure that everything that is written in this book will be fulfilled to the letter. And you can be very sure of this, that Rome will go on down the path in which she has been treading for many years, the dark path of apostasy.

And you can be very sure that Islam, by spreading its power across those nations that once were strongly Protestant, and now have been corrupted by ecumenism, that they have no truth left in their system, or no resistance to anti-Christianity, or the falsehoods of Islam or the papacy. That those nations will be under the weapons and the scourge both of the papacy and of Islam.

How blessed it is to know that Jesus reigns tonight. How happy to lift our eyes towards the heavens and know that Jesus Christ who came and lived for us, and died for us, and shed his blood for us, and rose again for us, and ascended to heaven for us, is coming again.

We are singing tonight when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more. We are coming nearer to the day of the Lord’s trumpet. We are coming nearer to the day when all prophetic scriptures will be fulfilled. We are coming nearer to the day when Christ will tell that great archangel that holds the trumpet in his hand to blow the grand finale of the whole age of grace.

When the trumpet sounds, the dead in Jesus will descend, and every eye shall see him, and they shall mourn because of him. Jesus is coming again.

And the hope for peace in the Middle East is not in Camp David, but it is in the Prince of the House of David who is coming again. He is the only one that will bring peace to this storm.

The days will be dark. The opposition will be great. The power of evil will be in the ascendancy. The martyr role of the church will increase, as God has told us it will. The church shall be sore pressed.

But let us remember that it was in the midst of this terrible power of Mohammedanism that God sent the great Protestant Reformation. And all the Reformers bore great testimony. Read the works of Luther. Read the works of Calvin. They not only exposed the papacy, but they exposed Islam. And if in their day God could do such a work of the Reformation, in our day, God can give us a great revival of biblical truth and gospel truth. And we can see an engathering of souls. And we can see a reestablishment of the faith. And we can see a day of God’s as it was in the days of the Reformation. So it can be in our day and generation.

And so it beholds us all to dedicate all we have and are to the cause of the Savior. To be faithful in our prayers. To be loyal to the truth of the scripture. To be strong in our witness. Unapologetic in our militant attitude to evil and to evil things. And as we stand and are faithful, God will honor those that honor Him. And we shall see a day of God’s reign.

The book of Revelation has one great truth. The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. And He reigns today. And He has reigned. He is reigning. And will reign forevermore. That is the anchor of our faith. That is where we rest.

On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Make sure you are on the solid ground of Jesus Christ.