Conspiracy of the Ages (Part 2)

VI. ISA 14:14 shows that Lucifer (Satan) desires to be “like the most High.” A survey of some of the attributes of God sheds light on that to which Satan aspires. A. God owns and distributes all wealth at His pleasure. 1CH 29:11-12. B. God is the only Potentate (a person endowed with independent power) and Distributer of power. 1TI 6:14-15; 1CH 29:12. C. God's will is always done in heaven and earth. DAN 4:35; 2CH 20:6. D. God requires unique and universal worship. MAT 4:10; ISA 45:22-23 c/w 2TH 2:3-7. E. God has absolute power over life and death. DEU 32:39. F. God is the Governor among the nations. PSA 22:28. G. God is clearly the Absolute Master of all spirits, men, nations, wealth, commerce, events, etc. His government is total and unchallengeable. 1. All such government is now in the hand of Jesus Christ. EPH 1:20-23; 1PE 3:22. 2. As a false christ and ape of God, Satan must convince men that he is the true Christ. 3. Does Christ rule over the whole world? Then Satan will concoct a counterfeit world rule that will be totalitarian. REV 13:11-18. 4. This is a world empire (supreme and extensive political dominion) by definition. 5. The prerequisite to world government is worship of Satan (LUK 4:5-7) which is exactly what Satan is looking for: a reclaiming of dominion lost because of the resurrection of Christ so that he can be declared God Who alone is to be worshipped. VII. Scripture recognizes eight viable world empires / beast governments. REV 17:7-11. A. By the measure of LUK 4:5-7 each of these empires would be sold out to Satan. B. At the time of the writing of Revelation, the Roman Empire was in power. It would have been the sixth “king” of REV 17:10. Two others would follow. C. Scripture identifies the first five as being Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. VIII. The prototype of Satan's program was Old Babylon (GEN 11). An examination of Nimrod's kingdom reveals some interesting facts: A. GEN 10:8-10. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel. B. GEN 11:1-9. Nimrod's kingdom was founded on a premise which directly violated the desire of God. v.4 c/w GEN 9:1. 1. As a protective measure for their own good to restrain them from the full capacity of their evil hearts (GEN 8:21), God confounded their language. vs.6-9. 2. Mark that God's measure against a world empire is diversification of language. Any movement, therefore, which would promote the opposite is obviously not of God and is not in the best interests of humanity. C. God obviously intends that there should be boundaries to separate mankind (DEU 32:8; ACT 17:26). These boundaries are not necessarily racial but they are national. D. A trait of empires is to break down these barriers by mixing and mingling peoples. 2KI 17:6, 24 c/w ISA 10:13. IX. Up to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the government of mankind was commonly in the hands of one world empire after another, culminating in the iron-clad empire which was Rome. A. Subsequent to the coming of Christ, that pattern changed. B. The Pax Romana endured for a while but the Roman Empire eventually declined and fell and another empire did not step into its shoes. The machinery of Satan's world empire system had a monkey-wrench thrown into it. All the kings' horses and all the kings' men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again. C. Post-Rome history has been one wherein Satan has worked to restore his system of human government and install the seventh and eighth world empires of REV 17:10-11. X. This brings us to a portion of Scripture which is oft-quoted in our day. REV 20:1-3; 7-9. A. In dealing with the book of Revelation, it must be remembered that this book is primarily written in signification. REV 1:1. 1. Signify: “To be a sign or symbol of; to represent, betoken, mean.” 2. Signification of necessity is a symbolic representation of its subject. JOH 12:32-33; HEB 9:8. 3. Caution is therefore especially needed in Revelation since its language is obviously meant to often speak of something other than its symbol. B. Prophecy or symbolic language must be reconciled to the plainer passages of Scripture by comparative study. 1CO 2:13; ROM 12:6. 1. The O.T. revelation was much characterized by dark utterances such as parables, proverbs and figurative prophetic language. PSA 78:2; PRO 1:6; EZE 17:2; HOS 12:10. a. Similitude: “A person or thing resembling, or having the likeness of, some other person or thing; a counterpart or equal; †a similarity.” b. Prophetic figures are just that: figures, symbols or tokens of something else. 2. The N.T. is a clearer, brighter light, a “more sure word of prophecy” which came from the same Spirit that spoke to the O.T. prophets, and is in complete harmony with what had been revealed of old. 2PE 1:19-21; 1JO 4:6. a. It is by comparison, “great plainness of speech” (2CO 3:12-13). b. Plainness facilitates certainty. JOH 16:16-30. 3. Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture by this method of comparative study wherein the plain (light) gives the proper understanding of the parabolic (dark) portions. a. Interpretations of dark utterances (such as are common to prophecy) without or contrary to Scripture's own plain statements are mere speculations. b. Such interpretations essentially fall under the censure of such texts as DEU 13:1-3; ISA 8:20; JER 23:31.