Globalism and Prophecy

[Gary Petty] Has the last couple of years changed your life and left you in confusion? Today we'll be looking at the impact of globalism on all of us and how it's unraveling. The Bible tells us how to trust in God and survive because if you aren't prepared, these events are just going to sweep you away.

If you're like most of us, you've experienced more than a few confusing mindboggling changes in your life over the last few years. Changes driven by the Covid pandemic, inflation, culture wars that have pundits predicting the collapse of democracy, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, concerns over climate change. And there are new phrases even in our vocabulary like, supply chain or COVID fog, wokeness, quiet quitting.

Now the cause of some of these changes may be something you've never actually thought about. We're experiencing the unraveling of globalism. You're already experiencing some of the effects of this trend like groceries, utilities and transportation cost keep rising and falling. You have fewer buying options, fresh fruits and vegetables year round which we're used to depends largely on imports. The unraveling of world globalism leads to less trade between nations. Many products that you've taken for granted are becoming unaffordable or even unavailable. Paul showed that because of so many negative trends happening in this country and around the world, many people in the United States think that their best days are behind them.

Now we have some good news about how you can have hope in the future, but first we need to talk about globalism and the part it plays in biblical prophecy. Okay, what is globalism and what does it have to do with your life, your everyday life, actually a lot. And what part does it play in biblical prophecy? Now the simplest way to explain globalism is an attempt to eliminate the national barriers to trade, communication and technology, promote freedom of travel, the sharing of cultures. It's the foundation of organizations like United Nations. And for many the idea of creating a global economy seemed like the answer to erasing worldwide hunger, poverty, promoting democracy itself and since everyone would get a benefit from all this, it would be a deterrent to war. Well the reality is that while globalization benefited many people, billions still live in poverty. And now because of the COVID pandemic contraction of the world, major countries, the economies in most major countries, supply chain problems, severe agricultural issues caused by war and natural disasters. It's all coming apart.

The world that we knew, just three years ago, is coming apart and this is going to have dire effects on developing nations. I mean, poor nations will find it more difficult to acquire necessities like food and medicines because the larger countries won't be able to give it to them. People in third world countries depend on jobs created by the bigger countries and joblessness and poverty will lead to more political instability and violence. Less access to medical facilities is going to cause a rise in disease epidemics. And these things are already affecting your life. I mean, these trends have a devastating effect also, or will have a devastating effect on your future.

We need to look at what the Bible says and what you need to know to prepare for these coming events. The Book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into a future, when the nations and peoples of the earth will experience the devastation and chaos beyond almost imagination before the return of Jesus Christ. And part of the prophetic imagery explaining these global trends is commonly called, and we've probably all heard of this, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This prophecy was given by God to the Apostle John and recorded in the book of Revelation. Now, here's what I want to look at, here is the description of these four horsemen and these four horses and what that means. This is what John saw. This is the prophecy that he was given, the image. “When I saw the Lamb,” which is Jesus Christ, “opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures,” these are angels, “saying with a voice like thunder, Come and see. And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out” to conquer and to conquer. “Out conquering and to conquer.” Now how can we know what this white horse means? Who is the rider? And of course, how does it apply to globalism?

We have now an understanding of what globalism is, but what does this mean? How does this apply to that? To understand the white horse we need to know about another white horse and rider in the book of Revelation. It's a white horse ridden by Jesus Christ as He comes to earth to gather the saints and establish God's Kingdom on the earth. The white horse of the four horsemen is a counterfeit of Jesus Christ and His white horse. Now this is important because if you claim to be a Christian, you need to watch and understand so that you are not deceived by this counterfeit Christianity. To further understand the imagery of the white horse, we need to go to another prophecy. This prophecy is given by Jesus Christ and it is in Matthew 24. What this is, is that the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, what's it going to be like? What's it going to be like before you return? Okay? And here's what He said. He said, "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and will deceive many."

Okay what we have here is that Jesus comes along and says that before I come back, there's going to be a counterfeit Christianity. Now this is important because what we're looking at is how these two prophecies come together. To understand Revelation you have to understand what Jesus says here in Matthew. They come together. So He says this is going to happen, that there's going to be others who say “I am the Christ and will deceive many.” This false religion will conquer other peoples, it says, and be conquering other religions. Now the result of this attempt to merge religions will profoundly affect everything in the world. Okay. Now He then continues this, "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Now this is real important. The end is not yet.” He's talking about the beginning of what's going to happen. "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There'll be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of sorrows." The beginning of sorrows.

You know the Olivet Prophecy that Jesus gave, covers two chapters in the book of Matthew. This is just the beginning. It ends, it culminates with the return of Jesus Christ. So this is the beginning of sorrows and what we're looking at in the four horsemen of the apocalypse is the beginning of sorrows. Now notice what He predicted, what I just read. Old political alliances are shattered. Food production is hampered. Medical facilities break down, trade and global supply chains are broken. The collapse of the global economy. Imagine what it's like to survive in a bleak, apocalyptic environment caused by the collapse of the global economy. You and I have lived in it, our whole lives. We have no idea what would happen with the collapse of the global economy. We live, we have what we because of it. What you have in your life right now, what you're experiencing, is an understanding of how fragile the global economy is and how it will eventually unravel. This unraveling is what these prophecies are predicting.

Now let's go back to Revelation and look at what the second horseman is all about. "He opened the second seal and I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that all the people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword." You know globalism has always promised that it would stop war. Human history shows that eventually all empires, nations and tribes fight each other. A few years ago it was believed that cooperation between the United States and China would create an economic brotherhood where each nation would benefit from the trade with each other. And you know it seemed to work for a while. How many things have you bought over the years made in China? And you got it cheap, right? So this globalization seem to be helping everyone. But you know right now these two countries are facing each other with difficulties because why? Both economies are suffering and it could cause war and the state of hostility between the US and China is tearing apart old alliances throughout the Far East. It's destabilizing the whole world and this is the opposite of what globalization is supposed to achieve. See, we're watching it unravel. Now the Bible predicts that the global economy will eventually collapse and then something else will happen.

Now let's look at the next of the four horsemen. "And He opened the third seal, and I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.” John said, “So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” Here what we have is a description of high prices because of the food is scarce. You know let's face it, it's really difficulty for us in this audience and most of you watching to actually understand famine. I mean we get upset over rising food prices or maybe the occasional shortage of our favorite cereal, breakfast cereal, in the store. But you know our stores are still stocked with food and the gruesome reality of starvation is unimaginable. But it doesn't take much to start the dominoes to fall. I mean just look how the Russian invasion of Ukraine stopped grain shipments to countries all around the world. Droughts in some isolated places right now are causing food shortages half way around the globe. In some ways globalism has created the very problems it was supposed to solve. Now an event in one region of the world can have devastating consequences in a faraway region of the world because everything's so connected.

Now the bad news, the four horsemen of the apocalypse continues, "When He opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ And behold a pale horse and the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades and it followed him." Death and Hades. You know it's interesting here, the Greek word translated "pale" in the New King James literally is a sort of a yellow green color. The color of a sick person's skin who is dying. Now remember what Jesus said about the beginning of sorrows, which is what we're talking about here. He said, "And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places." Pestilence, disease epidemics. You know, COVID showed us how one virus outbreak becomes a pandemic. And suddenly entire nations are in lockdown, disrupting education, work and relationships. Travel becomes almost impossible. Manufacturers are unable to get parts or materials to create things. Medical facilities are overwhelmed. The Four Horsemen along with Jesus' Olivet Prophecy, we're comparing the two, shows that there's going to come a time when religious and political power struggles, wars, famines, disease epidemics, and natural disasters, they come together in a terrifying way. Here's how the description of Revelation totally defines the four horseman. "And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill them with sword, with hunger, with death and by the beasts of the earth." Can you imagine what that would be like? One out of every four persons on the earth will die. Entire cities will be depopulated and haunted by scavengers, both animal and human. Nations will be involved in a perpetual state of war, fighting over dwindling resources. And some places, people will be jobless and scrounging for just enough food to survive one more day. Can you imagine a time when the entire world is collapsing into chaos until one fourth of the world dies? It's beyond comprehension, yet the Bible predicts it will happen.

What Revelation shows us is that in the midst of this catastrophic destabilization of all nations, one global economic system will fall and another global economic system will rise. And this new globalism combines both a political religious system and a powerful military into an empire. John sees a vision of this empire and calls it the beast. That alone tells you the nature of this empire. It's described in Revelation 13. This beast will arise when everyone will be looking for a savior. Someone to enforce peace, put food in the mouths of the children, control the pandemics. Out of this chaos comes this power. And we read in Revelation 13 is that this power attempts through total control to create a new globalism, but it's only going to last 42 months. Bible says only last three and a half years.

So what I want to do is jump ahead now, I want to jump ahead to the end of the fall of this beast power. We see how it's going to happen, the fall of globalism, and we've got a little taste of that because we've been watching globalism unravel. Okay? You can imagine what that would happen if it kept going until 25% of the world died. People would accept almost anything just to live. When it falls, when that power finally falls, here's what it says. In Revelation, "The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise." Now notice the political leaders mourn, but notice who mourns just as much, the merchants who have rebuilt this globalization and begin to solve problems. It talks about how gold and silver, all kinds of luxury items, we can't sell them anymore. It even goes on and talks about how food items, food items will be disappearing. We can't sell our food anymore, we can't grow our food anymore. The whole system breaks down, everything breaks down. And then there's one part in here that talks about how we can't even sell bodies and people anymore. Human trafficking will be normal. Oh, they're rebuilding the whole globalization. They'll rebuild that and it will fail.

You know we can't predict exactly when these events will take place. What we do know, from Jesus in the book of Revelation, that before Christ returned the entire world will unravel. Religious conflict, war, famine, disease epidemics and the collapse of the global economy. And then an attempt to recreate the global economy will rise again. Through the power of an oppressive beast as it's called. And then this empire will collapse after only three and a half years. Now all of this seems really bleak. At the beginning of the program I said that we would talk about hope. This hope is based in the prophecy of a fifth horseman. There's a fifth horseman in the book of Revelation and here's what John wrote. "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like the flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Him. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and His name is called The Word of God." This is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is coming back.

You know Jesus Christ told His disciples that He would return and He's returning to save humanity from total destruction. And this is the hope that we have. This is the hope. Okay, so what does that mean to you today? The image of prophetic horses, pestilence, beast powers. It all seems frightening and maybe a little bit unreal but you know it's real. You know, once again, no one knows exactly when this is going to happen. But if you believe the Bible, it is going to happen. So as a Christian, should you, how should you face every day with the knowledge that someday the world is going to go crazy. I have known Christians who just see the future as bleak all the time and that's not the way we should look at things.

I know a woman one time who one day realized she was going to die. You know someday. She was healthy but she realized someday she was going to die and it affected her so much that every day she got up and the first thing in her mind was, is today the day? And she lived the last decades of her life in absolute emotional, mental devastation. She didn't enjoy her family, her friends, all the joy of life, the good things of life. Nothing, because all she knew is someday I'm going to die. Well, if we look at prophecy that way, someday it gets bad. We're missing the point. The purpose of prophecy that God gives to us is so that we will dedicate our lives to Him as our Creator.

Jesus talks about back in the Sermon on the Mount how it's normal for us to suffer anxiety about the future. I mean you worry about your health, right? You worry about who's going to pay the bills, you worry about the increase in crime, the family squabbles, how you're going to get the car fixed, right? This goes on and on. And now I've added globalism and the four horsemen to your list of worries, okay? You can put that on your list. Now Jesus tells us that the way to deal with anxiety is to focus on a simple, very, very simple concept. I want you to read this with me, I don't care if it's even out loud, if you're watching you can read this out loud. Just read it. "Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." God knows what you need. God's involved in your life if you've turned to God. Now, if you haven't turned to God, this is meaningless. Understand that, this is meaningless. But if you've turned to God, God knows so "but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." It's a simple concept.

Now Jesus never taught the "health and wealth" gospel, but He did teach that when we spend our lives seeking God, seeking His way, seeking His Kingdom, His love, His power, so that our thoughts and our actions are guided by His goodness, then our life will have a focus and a purpose and a joy that goes way beyond all the stuff happening around us. In fact it's the only way to survive what's happening around us or we'll collapse in our minds and our hearts.

As a Christian, do you know the real Jesus Christ and what He taught? Do you obey the 10 commandments? Do you have a sort of a vague faith? Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? You know if you're just a cultural Christian, you will be deceived by the events that are going to happen and you will accept the counterfeit Christ. So what should you do right now, right now that you are not taken by surprise by future events? Well first of all, cry out to God to draw you to Him in humility and repentance. Ask God to give you a clear vision of His kingdom, His way of life. Ask Him for deep understanding of how the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His resurrection makes it possible for you to be God's child. Focus on God and you're going to have His safety and His hope and His future in a world that's going to offer little safety or hope. You can find peace, hope, and purpose in the vision of God's answer to the human condition. And His answer is that He will be personally, He will be personally, involved in taking care of your life, in spite of the chaos of the world around you.

The vision of what God wants to do in your life will help you experience peace, hope, and purpose. The prophecies in the Bible help us follow the old adage, “Live each day as if it is your last and prepare for the future as if you're going to live for a hundred years.” When you're focused on God there's little time for being overwhelmed by the anxiety and worry over what's going on around us. Now we still do, but we can get control of that because we are focused on God. You focus on everything happening around you and you will find someday you're going to wake up and say, I can't get out of bed. I have no purpose. I have no meaning. Or like that woman I talked about, life has no meaning. Life has no meaning because I'm going to die someday. Life has no meaning because someday the world gets bad. No, God fixes it and God will be involved in your life right now, right now. But you have to turn to God.

Now to understand the temporary harsh reality of what Jesus calls the beginning of sorrows and find hope in the peace of God to send Jesus Christ back to rule this earth, get your free study guide, The Horsemen of Revelation. This study guide will help you see the meaning of each of the four horsemen and their riders, false religion, war, famine, and disease. The last chapter in this study guide centers on the fifth horseman of Revelation, the return of Jesus Christ. The future God has for humanity is actually workable globalism. One world government, one world religion, one economic system that is equitable for everyone. And there will be real peace and no disease and no famines. The Horsemen of Revelation. To get your free copy call the number on your screen or go to beyondtoday.tv to read or download a copy. And if you go to beyondtoday.tv look up some of the programs we've produced about biblical end time prophecy because we've covered this from a lot of different angles. The Bible predicts a short-term bleak future for humanity. We also have the promise from Jesus that He's returning. This time not as a baby in the stable, but as we read earlier, as the King of kings. He's returning to save humanity and he wants you to be prepared to see Him. And this is His message to you. Respond to His call. Make Him your Lord and master and He will prepare you for His second coming, even during the bleak times that are ahead.

When you're fearful of the future, remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember? "Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." That's a promise. God has given you this promise. Seek Him and yes, as things unravel and as things unravel in the future, you will be okay in your relationship with God. And you will find something to live for every day. You will find joy in every day. You will find some peace in every day regardless of the pressures and the problems and the things that are happening to you, because God is with you. This is the best news you've heard all day. Get your free copy of The Horsemen of Revelation and join us next time on Beyond Today.

[Narrator] Call now for the free booklet, The Horsemen of Revelation. The book of Revelation contains a prophecy which has gripped human imagination for almost 2000 years. The ride of the four horsemen. Why will this happen and how should we respond? God does not want you to live in fear of the future. The Bible shows how to experience peace and stand firm in troubled times and gives hope for the future. Order now, call toll free 1-888-886-8632 or write to the address shown on your screen. The Book of Revelation is a personal message from Christ to His faithful and a warning to the world. When the horsemen ride, will you be prepared? When you order this free study aid, we'll also send you a complimentary one year subscription to Beyond Today Magazine. Six times a year, you'll read about current world events in the light of Bible prophecy, as well as, practical knowledge to improve your marriage and family. Call today to receive your free booklet, The Horsemen of Revelation and you're free one year subscription to Beyond Today Magazine. 1-888-886-8632 or go online to beyond today.tv.

[Gary Petty] Hi, I'm Gary Petty, a pastor with the United Church of God. If you're looking for a church that encourages living what the word of God really teaches, you found the right place, visit ucg.org to find a church near you. We're looking forward to meeting you soon.