BABYLON'S INSISTENCE FOR GLORY MAN'S VIEW--THE NEW WORLD ORDER FOR ETERNAL RULE SEARCH AND SHARE MINISTRY www.searchshareministry.com Overview: In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar gathered the whole earth to worship the work of his hands, the golden image. He compelled all the people to bow down before an idol. The Babylonians believed that if they will not worship this golden image that represents their gods, they would bring great calamities to the nation. As a result of not cooperating with the universal decree, the peace, prosperity, unity, and the perpetuation of reign of Babylon over the world will not be achieved. Their gods will be displeased and will bring unto them universal calamities. For them it was better to force everybody to obedience in order to avoid crisis. Those who will not worship according to the dictate of their religion and the state must be put to death, rather than having a divided empire. But for God's people, obedience to human decrees which goes against God's law will bring greater crisis than the death penalty human can impose. It is better to obey God than man. This history is the type of what is coming in the last days. I. THE SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE GOLDEN IMAGE Dan. 3:12, 14, 18 comp. v. 24; 2:38, 39 1. The Symbol of the Empire of Babylon. Everybody is considered god in their own right. 2. The Symbol of the King. The king believed to be a god, the representative of the gods. 3. The Symbol of their chief god, the sun-god, is the one who represents other gods of the kingdom. These are the man-made or appointed gods. 4. The symbol of their opposition to God. Creator, worship your creation! Note: The symbolical representation of the image reflects on how man ventures to covet the authority of God which is in Christ. The golden image represents the idols of the kingdom which are the channels of their self-worship, the worship to the empire and the king. As the image represents the king, it depicts on how the king claims to be the vicar of their gods. As they worship the image, they show how they recognize their fellow creatures and the work of their hands as gods and as symbols of themselves. As the makers of the idol were compelled to bow down and worship to what they had made signifies the philosophy and demand of the anti-christ system that the Creator must worship the creatures (See Isa. 2:8 Jer. 1:16). Note: When Satan gave his last temptation to the Son of God (his Creator) He demanded him to worship him (as creature) as if he owns the whole earth. See Matthew 4:8-10.
II. THE SYSTEM OF WORSHIP IN BABYLON THE CHANNELS OF WORSIP 1. They Worship their chief god through other gods. 2. They Worship their gods by worshiping their king or priests. 3. They Worship their gods through images. 4. They Worship their gods through their champions, heroes, famous persons and saints. 5. They Worship the kingdom through their king or heroes and idols. 6. They Worship their dead ancestors through the spirits Note: The polytheistic (pantheistic) religion designates a god as they wish, like the heroes of faith or of war. Everything and everybody can be a god for all is claimed as gods and can be a channel of worship. III. THE GOLDEN IMAGE A BLASPHEMOUS PHILOSOPHY 1. To show that Babylon is an eternal kingdom. 2. To show that the kingdom is worthy of worship. Note: The king built the golden image in the plain of Dura far from the threat of the falling rocks described by his dream in Daniel 2, and to make the idol the center of attraction to the world. The huge golden image is the show of wealth, glory, and ingenuity of its Babylon and its builders. PK504 "Pleased with the flattering suggestion, he determined to carry it out, and to go even farther. Instead of reproducing the image as he had seen it, he would excel the original. His image should not deteriorate in value from the head to the feet, but should be entirely of gold-- symbolic throughout of Babylon as an eternal, indestructible, all-powerful kingdom, which should break in pieces all other kingdoms and stand forever." IV. THE GOLDEN IMAGE--LAWS OF THE MAN OF SIN The golden image is a planned system to put human ingenuity, the man made law above God's law. To establish a worlwide system that will take full control over the world and to exterminate the dissenters and God's people. They will set aside the dividing line. The anti-christ system, through its work of usurpation of the prerogative of God represented by Christ as stated in the Ten Commandments, will claim their authority to change and to sanction it on their subjects. The prophecy foretold that they will enforce the false Sabbath as a sign of their claim of authority in enforcing religious laws with regards to worship specifically the laws that deals with the first four of the Ten Commandments. God's authority was enforced by kings or its leaders of Israel who were under the God s direct
supervision (1 Chron. 29:23). But this system of Babylon will be under Satan s supervision masquerading as Christ. Israel s theocratic system was abolished by God because of apostasy. It will be restored later when Christ will come in the New Jerusalem (Ez. 21:25-27; Matt. 25:31). The kingdoms on earth are not of Christ s. It belongs to human government and under deception of Satan (Matt. 27-11; Jn 18:36; Matt. 26:52, 53; Rev. 13 & 17). God gave the earthly government the authority to enforce the commandments written on the second tablets of stone which deals about human relationship and not with the commandments that deals with worship (Rom. 13:7-10). Man must recognize the dividing line between the prerogative of God and the authority entrusted to them. 4BC1169 (MS 24,1891) "By many, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is made void, being treated as a thing of naught; while the spurious sabbath, the child of the papacy, is exalted. In the place of God's laws, are elevated the laws of the man of sin,--laws that are to be received and regarded as the wonderful golden image of Nebuchadnezzar was by the Babylonians. Forming this great image, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that it should receive universal homage from all, both great and small, high and low, rich and poor." V. THE UNIVERSAL PLAN OF BABYLON Plan: To build a Neo-Cosmic Empire, the Novus Ordo Seclorum (Ltn.)--The "New Order of the Ages" (See a U.S. dollar bill). Goals and Strategies: 1. To subdue and unite all kingdoms, religions, and all existing systems by economic, religious (infiltration), and military might. This is to glorify the sun-god (Dan. 1:2). 2. To convert the whole world into one religion under the name of their sun-god (Dan. 1:7; 4:8). 3. To educate wise men to the Babylonian culture and religion, specializing in the areas of interpretation, mythology, and spiritualism (Dan. 1:4,20; 2:2,27). 4. The graduates will serve the kings court, especially the elite group which will help to plan and rule the future global role of the kingdom, to make Babylon an eternal kingdom (Dan. 2:1-6). Malachi Martin, The Keys of this Blood, (New York: Simon and Schuster; 1990) p.15: "Willing or not, ready or not, we are all involved in all-out, no holds barred, three-way global competition. Most of us are not competitors, however, we are the stakes. For the competition is about who will establish the first one-world system of government that has ever existed in the society of
nations. It is about who will hold and wield the dual power of authority and control over each of us as individuals and over all of us together as a community; over the entire six billion people expected by demographers to inhabit the earth by early in the third millennium." "The competition is all-out because, now (that) it has started, there is no way it can be reversed or called off." "No holds are barred because, once the competition has been decided, the world and all that's in it--our way of life as individuals and as citizens of the nations; our families and our jobs; our trade and commerce and money; our educational systems and our religions and our cultures; even the badges of our national identity, which most of us have always taken for granted--all will have been powerfully and radically altered forever. No one can be exempted from its effects. No sector of our lives will remain untouched." VI. BABYLON WILL ACCOMPLISH HER PLAN IN THE LAST DAYS Dan. 2:34, 35 She is the composite image that will stand in the last days. Dan. 3 She is represented as the golden image, a symbol of her passion to rule the whole earth. Dan. 7:26 She will have dominion over the earth before her end. Dan. 8:9-11 She will wax exceeding great over the earth. Dan. 11:36, 45 She will establish her religio-political power over the (seas) people before the end, her end. Rev. 13:4, 7, 8 She will take control over the world, and they will worship her. Rev. 13:14-16 She will take control over the world through her right arm, the United States of America. (See the study about the Babylon's Right hand Rev. 13:11-18). Rev. 17:15, 17 She will become the kings over the kingdoms of the earth. (See the study of Rev. 13 about the Composite Beast: GC580,581, the plan of Rome to take supremacy over America through Sunday exaltation). Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 141. "Never did this message apply with greater force than it applies today. More and more the world is setting at naught the claims of God. Men have become bold in transgression. The wickedness of the inhabitants of the world has almost filled up the measure of their iniquity. This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation, by merely human authority, of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath, is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. He will arise in His majesty
to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." VII. THE DILEMMA OF THE BABYLONIAN PROPHETS (FALSE PROPHETS AND PROPHECY). Dan. 2:1-6 They were unable to know the hidden dream. Dan. 2:7-12 Their gods could not reveal it unto them the dream. Matt. 24:24-27 Many false prophets rises and deceives many. Matt. 7:22-23 They are doing miracles in the name of Christ. 1Thes. 5:3 They are predicting falsely about the future. They are predicting the world s conversion will lead to peace and prosperity in the coming millennium. They lead the whole world into the greatest slaughter at the coming of Christ. GC.588-589 "The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church members love what the world loves and are ready to join with them, and Satan determines to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium." VIII. CRISIS IN THE LAST DAYS: THE DEATH PENALTY Dan. 3:1-6 The worship of the golden image is an act of recognition of the Babylonian power as the world power. It is a sign of acceptance to the human law and the rejection of God s law. The decree is universal and death penalty if not followed. Dan. 3:7, 10 The worship was preceded with music as a call to worship the image (now it is rock or "celebration" music which prepares the whole world to worship the new world system). Dan. 3:6, 11 The worship compels the conscience. Forced obedience is required. Dan. 3:12 The institution of the law of the man of sin above God's law signals the persecution of the saints. They will be branded as the government's enemy. Dan.3:13-23 God's people will be penalized with death because of their faith. GC615 "As the Sabbath has become the special point of controversy throughout Christendom, and religious and secular authorities have combined to enforce the observance of the Sunday, the
persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand will make them objects of universal execration. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the state ought not to be tolerated; that it is better for them to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness. The same argument eighteen hundred years ago was brought against Christ by the "rulers of the people." "It is expedient for us," said the wily Caiaphas, "that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." John 11:50. This argument will appear conclusive; and a decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment and giving" 5T524 "Through every century of this world's history evil workers have been treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath; and when the time fully comes that iniquity shall have reached the stated boundary of God's mercy, His forbearance will cease. When the accumulated figures in heaven's record books shall mark the sum of transgression complete, wrath will come, unmixed with mercy, and then it will be seen what a tremendous thing it is to have worn out the divine patience. This crisis will be reached when the nations shall unite in making void God's law." IX. MICHAEL SHALL STAND FOR HIS PEOPLE Dan. 12:1 Michael will stand for His people in the great time of trouble. Dan. 3:25 The Son of God stood with His faithful Jews in the burning furnace. The Jews were saved unscathed. Dan. 3:25-30 Christ will share persecution with them but will bring salvation from impending death. Isa. 49:14-16 God will never forget His children, especially in the time of the greatest crisis. GC629 "The people of God will not be free from suffering; but while persecuted and distressed, while they endure privation and suffer for want of food they will not be left to perish." GC631 "The heavenly sentinels, faithful to their trust, continue their watch. Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages; but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war." X. THE APPEAL FOR GOD'S PEOPLE We need the true relationship with Christ in order to stand in the final conflict. Jesus invites us to rest in Him. And how do we do this? By falling fully in love with Him. He says, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." He told His disciples, "He who has My commandments and
keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him" John 14:21. It is imperative that we fully understand our great need to experience this most precious relationship with Jesus in order to prepare for the crisis that is now approaching. Jesus is calling us to accept Him as our only Lord and Savior, and be a faithful defender of His law of love. If we fail to heed His call to us, we place ourselves in jeopardy of gaining salvation for our souls. This will result in placing ourselves in great crisis of disobedience to His will. So the call is either Christ or crisis. Our answer should be CHRIST FOR CRISIS! Let's choose Christ and all that He freely offers to us out of His love for us. Let's become fortified with the truth of His word that we may be able to stand in the time of crisis and boldly resist the worldwide system of apostasy that will seek to destroy His own. Jesus is coming very soon. Will you be found ready to meet Him? Even so, amen.