Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 27 Nov 2011
To view the 2011 version click HERE.
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Happy New Year! Does anyone know why I would wish you a happy New Year today? Today is the beginning of Advent. In traditional liturgical churches, advent is the beginning of the church year where we celebrate the first coming of Christ and celebrate the hope that is in his anticipated return. Now often at New Year there are all kinds of year-end quizzes; so I thought that I would put a little tongue-in-cheek quiz together for us based on our text today.
What do these dates have in common: 8:00 AM October 19, 1533; April 5, 1534; March 21 and October 22, 1844; Sept. 10, 1979; Dec. 31, 1981; Sept 11 -13, 1988; March 31, 1991; October 20, 1997; December 12, 2012?
A: They are various people’s predictions for the end of world date.
What do these people have in common: Nero, the Pope, Mikhail Gorbachev, Prince Charles, the US President (elect), David Hasselhoff?[1]
A. They were/ are various people’s predictions for the arch-anti-Christ.
Now this next question is a good one. It is a riddle –you’ll have to pay attention. Someone has figured out a way to ‘out’ the beast of Revelation and solve the riddle of ‘666’ – let’s see together of we can solve the riddle and figure out who is the beast of John’s Apocalypse?
Given that 666 is the number of the Beast, First we must break that number down into its component parts in such away that when we add them back together, they will total 666.
I’ll give you this part: 100. 5. 5. 50. 500 .1 .5
Let’s do the math to prove we are right: so we have 100 + 5 =105 + 5 = 110 + 50 = 160+500=660+5+1= 666
So then mathematically proving as we did that these are the component parts of the number of the beast, we will need to translate them into Roman numerals as that was what they wrote with back then: So, does anyone know the symbol for:
100 = C
5 = V
5 = V
50 = L
500 = D
1 = I
5 = V
CV VL DIV
Now if we expand this using new web-based lettering for reassembling fragmented texts, we get the following:
CVT PVRPL DINSVR
Accounting for the fact that Roman lettering had no U and used a V instead and adding the missing vowels, we find out from this the one that the number points to as the beast…it is…
A CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR; and we all know who the cute purple dinosaur who is leading children astray… Barney the dinosaur! “I love you; you love me!’
This tongue-in-cheek mathematical proof was published in Science Askew in 2001. (see appendix 1)
This is silly right…we all know that an imaginary purple dinosaur is not the Anti-Christ…anymore than David Hasselhoff or the mayor of Tisdale, or whomever.
About the end of times too, our text today (Mark 13:24-37) says clearly in verses 32 and 33: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come….”
The question is then instead of just hoping and getting ready for Christ’s return, why do so many people waste our time with this end-of-time stuff? I don’t think that I have ever gone an entire year without hearing someone thinking that they are smarter than God incarnate, Jesus, and telling the whole part of the world that they are able to reach that they have solved the puzzle about the end of time.
Not too long ago, I heard an American preacher being played on the local Christian station (Lighthouse FM) going on and on about how the current leader of Syria is the anti-Christ who will usher in the end of times at such and such a date. Before the US invasion of Iraq, I heard of a number of these so-called ‘Christian preachers’ tell people that they know the unknowable day and hour and that Saddam, as their country’s contemporary adversary must be the antichrist. Dante, himself, located many prominent churchmen of his day in Hell, as did some Reformers and Counter-Reformers in the Reformation and Catholics and Orthodox at the time of the East-West Schism…
Why do people profess to know what they do not know? Why do they pretend to know what the Bible records that we cannot know?[2]
I don’t know. After all, of course, we all know from 1 John 2:18ff that we should not be led astray by this kind of talk and John says that there are many antichrists and that anyone who denies Jesus as Lord is an antichrist who must and will be overcome (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3) and 2 John 2:1-7 says this:
[There are] Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
Anyone, anyone who does not continue in the faith but rather teaches against it is an antichrist, John says. And Jesus says about this end of times: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come….”
This is important: I think we often get distracted by adiaphorons,[3] which are matters of indifference really.[4] We get distracted by what Timothy refers to as a ‘vain jangling’ (KJV) or ‘meaningless talk’ (1 Timothy 1:3-8, NIV, NRSV). We really shouldn’t worry about who is an arch-end-of-times-antichrist (should there even be one) or on what date and at what time the world may end (Matt 6:25ff; Luke 12:22ff; cf. Matt 10:19, 13:11; Luke 12:11, 21:14; cf. also, in contrast, Philippians 4:4; cf. Matt 5:12; Luke 6:23; John 16:22; Ro 5; Philippians 2:17-18, 3:1; 1 Pet 4:13) we really must remember that ‘no one knows the time or the hour’ and we must instead just put our hope in the return of Christ and make sure that we are ready for it (Mark 13:22).
Actually as I say this I am reminded of a person I know on the west coast, Michael Collins; he is quite an evangelist. He is a Salvationist and he has a love for the Lord and a passion for souls. He actually does have a rather long spiel where he states the he does know when Jesus is coming back. As part of his spiel he tells us how much he has studied eschatology, the end of times, and that he is convinced that he knows when Jesus is coming back based right in the scriptures (Mt 24:32-35,36-51; 25:1-13, 14-30; Mark 13:28-37,…) He says without a doubt Jesus is coming back and he knows when - He says Jesus is coming back ….. soon. And this is true.
We know this to be true. Jesus will come back like a thief in the night (Matt 24:33; 1 Thess 5:2); he will come back when no one expects him, and he is coming back soon (Mark 13:22;Matt 24:43,44; 25:1-13). And this is the truth of our text today – Jesus says he is coming back and he is coming back soon. Our hope comes from Jesus and our hope will be realised as it is in him; as this is the case, are we ready?
I had mentioned that today is indeed the Christian New Year and New Years is often a time to look forward in hopes of a better world and to reflect upon what has transpired in the year before; As our hope is in Jesus, are we ready for his return?
Do we believe that tomorrow really Jesus might just come back, that the world and/or my life here might end tomorrow? If we did know this for sure would we, would I do anything different?
As our hope is in Christ, we know that if we deny Jesus, he will deny us (Matt 10:33); so looking back today, as we embark on this Christian New Year, how have we done in this past year at being bold for the gospel (Philippians 1)?[5] Have we shown that we have hope in Jesus? And in this New Year ahead how can we show that we have this hope in Jesus? If Jesus comes back this afternoon, are we ready? Will we go with him off to eternal life?
In John, Chapter 3, as we read last week, the Pharisee, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus. Jesus tells him that if he hopes to see the Kingdom of God then he must be born again (of the Spirit) and truly believe in God’s son. (Cf. also John 5, 6, 12, 17:1b-4; Acts 13; Gal 6:8; 1 Tim 1,6; Titus; 1 John.) This past year have we given any reasons for someone to believe that we may have indeed been born again? Are we any different than anyone else? Do we rely on God’s Spirit? And in this year ahead how can we show this hope we have in Jesus?
In Luke 10, someone also asks Jesus what he must do to fulfil the hope of eternal life. Jesus affirms that we must “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’” (Cf. 1 John 3:15). As an example of loving ones neighbour, Jesus tells the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ where one puts his life and finances on the line for a stranger when no one else will help him (Luke 10:25-37). This past year how have we done at loving God and loving our neighbours in this way? Have we, in Jesus’ name, put ourselves on the line for others? Do we have this hope in Jesus? In this upcoming Christian year how do we resolve to show this hope we have in Jesus?
Matthew records the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt 25:31ff.). In this parable two groups of people bow before the Lord as King. One goes off to eternal salvation and the other to eternal damnation; the difference…The one group, whose hopes were realised, served the Lord by, when someone was hungry giving them me something to eat, when one was thirsty giving them something to drink, when someone was a stranger inviting them in, when someone needed clothes clothing them, when someone was sick looking after them, when one was in prison coming to visit him. For we serve the Lord by serving each other in this way. Have we shown that we have this hope in Christ? Let us resolve to serve the Lord this year and that indeed we do have our hope in Christ.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record that a rich man asks Jesus this same question about what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers here as well, that among other things, we must love our neighbour. The man replies that he has kept all the commandments and loved his neighbour –what else is there he asks, what else? Jesus replies, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Those who have sacrificed, those who have left their families, possessions, and very lives because of Jesus are indeed the ones whose hope is in the Lord;[6] they are the ones who believe in the Lord; they are the ones who will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:13-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18).
Have we been willing to, as it says in Matthew 19:29, leave our houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for Jesus’ sake so that we will inherit eternal life. Are we willing to?
How do we show the love for and the hope we have in Jesus?
This is the beginning of the New Year so let’s make a resolution, we know that Jesus is coming back soon; so let us resolve to be ready to meet him by indeed loving him more than ourselves, our earthly families, or our possessions. Let us indeed place our hope in Christ Alone.
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APENDIX 1
Is Barney the Anti-Christ?
Given: Barney is a CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR
Prove: Barney is satanic
The Romans had no letter 'U', and used 'V' instead for
printing, meaning the Roman representation would for
Barney would be: CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR
CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR
Extracting the Roman numerals, we have:
C. V. V. L. D. I. V.
And their decimal equivalents are:
100. 5. 5. 50. 500 .1 .5
Adding those numbers produces: 666.
666 is the number of the Beast.
Proved: BARNEY IS SATAN! – (2001 book Science Askew)
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[1] Cf: End of time predictions: http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm David Hasselhoff: http://www.esquilax.com/baywatch/ Barney the dinosaur: http://www.comedycorner.org/20.html Gorbachev: Robert Faid 1988 http://www.scatteredsheep.com/perilous_times/antichrist/antichrist.htm Prince Charles, Pope JP II
[2] Whenever I hear someone say that the world will end on this day or that day or so-and –so is the anti-Christ, I wonder if they themselves by intentionally saying what the Bible expresses is not true - sometimes I wonder if indeed these people may indeed be antichrists themselves…at the very least they are very confused.
[3] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. 1 Corinthians 7 21-24:Don’t Worry, Be Happy; It’s Just Adiaphoron. Sermon presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on August 31, 2008. Available on-line at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/08/1-corinthians-7-21-24dont-worry-be.html
[4] For example the seemingly endless discussions on ‘pre-trib’, ‘post-trib’, and ‘amillennialism.’
[5] We know that as Jesus says, if we love him we will obey his commands (John 15; cf. Rom 2:7; Jude 1:21)? This includes loving God, loving our neighbour, and laying down our lives for Jesus? How have we done this past year laying down our lives for others and for Jesus? How well have we done at listening to and obeying God’s commands rather then just man’s or our own whims and personal values?
[6]Of all that we have, we are merely managers / stewards anyway; everything of ours ultimately belongs to God.
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