♪♪
 Precious Lord, take our hand.
That's our prayer.
We mean it.
So beautifully rendered by
our singers.
Good to have the students back.
We have a few moments left in
worship.
We've been much at worship
already.
Take these moments in Your Word.
Let it be clear.
Hide the noises inside of us
so that the voice
of Jesus' Spirt, we can hear Him
best of all.
We pray in Christ's name.
Amen.
I read an old book this summer,
pulled it off my shelf.
Read it again.
It's Charles Dickens' classic
"A Tale of Two Cities."
Set between London and Paris
during that awful, awful
French Revolution.
Lookit.
I'm preaching to the choir now
for sure, 'cause
you read the book.
I understand that.
I even believe that you remember
the first line --
the opening words
of Dickens' classic.
"It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times."
Let's put that on the screen.
"It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times."
Somebody printed a T-shirt,
probably an English major,
I'm guessing.
Printed a T-shirt with these
words on it.
"I wish you would make up your
mind, Mr. Dickens.
Was it the best of times or the
worst of times?
It could scarcely have been
both."
But as far as the
French Revolution is concerned,
it was both.
The best and the worst.
And as far as America is
concerned right now, it is the
best of times, it is the worst
of times.
And nobody knows
what's coming next.
"Trying to scare me, Dwight?"
No.
Just connecting with you
to assure you we're looking,
watching, listening, praying.
But I want to take a moment with
you and explore that story
of France.
I want us to go back to France,
the French Revolution.
They called it the Red Terror.
The key players in Dickens' book
are trapped in the web between
those two cities.
Not just to relive France's
story, but perhaps so that we
might better know America's
story.
And that we might pray for the
ending that's coming, that it
may not be what we think
it could be.
So let's start with the story of
France.
Back in the late 1700s, that's
when the French Revolution
took place.
They had three classes
in society.
They called them "estates,"
alright?
They had the first estate.
That would be the clergy.
They had the second estate.
That would be the nobility.
They had the third estate.
That would be the bourgeoisie.
And then on down to the peasants
and down to the very bottom of
the rung.
So I got a book in my library
called "Survey of European
Civilization."
Let's put a few words from that
book on the screen here.
"The feudal stratification of
society into three classes" --
back then -- "had become unjust
and illogical by the 18th
century."
So we're talking the late 1700s.
Alright?
"In France, a country with
perhaps 25 million people" --
back then -- "the clergy and
nobility constituted less than
two percent of the population.
Yet they enjoyed the income from
the richest lands of the
kingdom, were exempted from the
most onerous taxes, and occupied
by right of rank the highest and
best paid offices in the
government, the army, and the
Church."
You don't have to be an
economist.
You don't have to be a
sociologist to understand that
with the huge chasm between the
haves and the have-nots, you are
set up for social unrest.
Social unrest to beat the band.
Because you had this -- You had
this bourgeoisie -- that's the
middle class -- and then you go
down from them to the artisans
and the servants and the
peasants, and then you got the
thieves and the vagabonds
on the highway.
To a man and woman, everybody
despised that fiscal system.
I mean, you're taking the
poorest, and you're placing on
their shoulders the burden
of taxation.
You can't do that.
Open your Bible with me
to the book of James.
James chapter 5.
James -- the stepbrother of
Jesus -- who wrote this little
Epistle right after the book of
Hebrews.
It's a little hard to find James
if you're in a hurry.
So it's right after the book
of Hebrews.
I want to go there.
I want to just read a few words
without comment to you.
You got a bright mind.
You wouldn't be here at
Andrews University if you
didn't.
I want to think bout these
words -- James chapter 5.
I'll be in the
New International Version.
This is what I usually preach
out of.
Drop down to verse 3.
Talking about speaking truth to
power.
James is absolutely
unintimidated, and he does.
Here we go.
James 5:3.
"Your gold and silver are
corroded.
Their corrosion will testify
against you and eat your flesh
like fire.
You have hoarded wealth in the
last days."
Come on.
Where is it on the screen?
"In the last days."
He's talking about life where
he's at.
But he's looking ahead.
"You have hoarded wealth
in the last days.
Look!" Verse 4.
"The wages you failed to pay the
workers who mowed your fields
are crying out against you.
The cries of the harvesters have
reached the ears of the
Lord Almighty."
Lord Sabaoth.
Lord of Angel Armies.
Verse 5.
"You have lived on Earth in
luxury and self-indulgence.
You have fattened yourselves in
the day of slaughter.
You have condemned and murdered
the innocent one, who was not
opposing you."
Wow.
It has "French Revolution"
written all over it.
But to be fair, it is also
America on the eve
of who knows what anymore.
The bold American writer
Ellen White took these "speaking
truth to power" words
in James 5, and she says,
Listen up."
I'll put her words
on the screen here.
"The Scriptures" -- James 5 --
"describe the condition of the
world just before" --
You see these two words?
"Just before."
So we just read our picture.
They describe "the world just
before Christ's second coming.
Of the men who by robbery and
extortion are amassing great
riches, colossal fortunes."
She describes it elsewhere in
that same book.
"James the apostle pictures the
greed and oppression that will
prevail.
This is a picture
of what exists" --
What's that last word?
This is a picture of what exists
today on this planet, in this
nation, just like France on the
eve of the French Revolution,
the Red Terror.
[ Chuckles ]
"Now, Dwight, give me a break.
A little bit of hyperbole from
you I can see.
It's not that way."
Are you serious?
It's not that way?
Well, "Rolling Stone"
magazine -- Anybody heard of
that magazine?
Of course you have.
"Rolling Stone" magazine this
month produced a stunning,
withering critique of our own
nation -- the U.S. of A.
This month's copy -- on the
screen right now.
"In the 1950s, marginal tax
rates for the wealthy were 90%."
Wow, they paid that much tax?
They did.
"The salaries of C.E.O.s" --
back then -- "were on average,
just 20 times that of their
mid-management employees.
Today the base pay of those at
the top is commonly 400 times
that of their salaried staff,
with many earning orders of
magnitude more in stock options
and perks.
The elite 1 percent
of Americans" -- today --
control $30 trillion of assets,
while the bottom half" -- of
America -- "have more debt than
assets."
Keep reading.
"The three richest Americans
have more money than the poorest
160 million of their
countrymen."
Keep reading.
"Fully a fifth of American
households have zero or negative
net worth, a figure that rises"
from 20 percent "to 37 percent
for black families."
Keep reading.
"The median wealth of black
households is a tenth that of
whites.
The vast majority of
Americans -- white, black, and
brown -- are two paychecks
removed from bankruptcy."
Keep reading.
"Though living in a nation that
celebrates itself as the
wealthiest in history, most
Americans" today "live on a high
wire, with no safety net to
brace a fall."
Don't you tell me that the eve
of the French Revolution is not
what we're living with today
in America.
What was it that took France
down?
It was that economic system with
its obscene divide between the
haves and the have-nots that
incited the bottom of the
society to band together and
move to anarchy in the streets
of the land.
And they took down the clergy.
They took down the throne.
And they took down the nobility.
Stormed the Bastille.
Red Terror.
They did it through what the
French called
"Madame La Guillotine."
The guillotine.
"A Tale of Two Cities" is a
story of people caught in the
web of that tragic, tragic
moment long ago.
And we thought it was the story
of France, and it feels like the
story of America.
♪ America! 
♪ America! 
♪ God shed His grace on thee 
It's a sad song, isn't it?
And crown thy good
with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea ♪
Mercy.
Question.
Will what brought France down
bring America down?
Answer...
probably not.
It'll be worse.
And yet how pristine America's
storied beginning was.
We can find that beginning right
here in the Apocalypse.
Turn now to the
Book of Revelation --
Revelation chapter 13, middle of
your book.
Revelation chapter 13.
Here it goes.
Just one line.
Revelation 13:11.
"Then I saw a second beast,
coming out of the earth.
It had two horns like a lamb,
but it spoke like a dragon."
Welcome to the apocalyptic world
of scary and weird beasts.
Daniel was full of them.
Revelation is full of them.
But those scary and weird beasts
are apocalyptic symbols designed
to cloak and hide, except for
the careful student of
Holy Scripture.
A nation, a kingdom, a power, an
institution.
So what's this earth beast, as
we call it, 'cause it came out
of the earth.
What is this kingdom?
What is this nation?
What is this power?
Fortunately, there are enough
clues embedded here for us to
come to a conclusion.
Let's just run a few clues by.
Clue number 1.
We've just read it.
It "sprang up."
Well, I didn't read it that way,
but "anabaino," which is the
Greek word that John uses, it's
the same word Matthew uses when
Jesus tells His parable of the
sower, and he threw some seed
down, and the thistle sprang up
overnight and just -- crrr!
That's the word.
So whatever this power is -- we
don't know yet -- but whatever
this power is, it's sudden.
[ Snaps fingers ]
It's on the stage
of human history.
Poom! It sprang up.
Clue number 2.
And it sprang up from the
"earth."
Now that's a key point.
The earth.
Because, you see,
there are two beasts.
There are two beasts here in
Revelation 13.
There's a first beast.
And if you look at the first
verse -- We're gonna have
another study on this, because
America and this beast, they're
tied.
But this beast, ferocious and
roaring, comes dripping out of
the sea.
It comes out of the water.
The second beast comes out of
the earth.
And the angel comes to John, in
the Apocalypse, 17:5, and he
says, "Listen, John.
I need to tell you what the
water represents."
So let's take a look.
You don't even have to
turn there.
"Then the angel said to me, 'The
waters you saw, where the
prostitute sits'" -- we'll meet
her next Sabbath -- "'are
peoples, multitudes, nations,
and languages.'"
Alright?
So water represents the
thoroughfared multitudes,
peopled, peopled crossroads of
the world.
The first beast, the sea beast,
comes from the water.
But the second beast comes not
from the sea from the land.
What's the land.
It's the antithesis.
It's the opposite of sea.
So if the sea is people, people,
people everywhere, the land
would be no people.
Where is everybody?
No thoroughfare of Europe.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's just earth and wilderness,
and, yeah, that's where
it comes from.
So what do we know so far.
Well, what we know is that there
is this earth beast.
It springs up into existence --
whoa -- and then it springs up
where everybody isn't.
Not the people of Europe, not in
the crossroads of those years.
Oh, there's a third clue.
Let's put it on.
Clue number 3.
"Then I saw a second beast
coming out of the earth."
That word "then" is an important
word, because when you see the
word "then," what do you know
immediately?
There's something before it.
There has to be.
Because there's some kind of
sequence going on here.
First, there was the sea beast.
Then there was the earth beast.
Now, we need to find out what's
happening just before the word
"then."
And if you go back to verse 9.
This is Revelation 13.
Just go back to verse 9.
"Whoever has ears, let them
hear."
Verse 10 -- "If anyone is to go
into captivity, into captivity
they will go.
If anyone is to be killed
with the sword, with the sword
they will be killed.
This calls for patient endurance
and faithfulness on the part of
God's people."
So, what's happened just before
this earth beast springs into
existence?
Well, there was power that was
taking people into captivity,
and suddenly that power is taken
into captivity.
There was some power was
wielding the sword and, with
blood flowing, eliminating
opposition.
And now that power is mortally
wounded by the sword.
So, what's going on here?
Scholars -- Bible scholars --
are quite agreed that the sea
beast's power is the power that
ruled the crossroads, the
peopled thoroughfares of the
Western World back then
of Europe.
For over a millennium, that
power during the Dark and
Middle Ages wielded crushing
power.
Here's the endurance of those
who survived.
And that power suddenly,
according to this, that we just
read, that power that decimated
God's faithful, who were
willing, at the supreme price of
their own life, to stand in the
face of that power and say, "I
will not yield to your command."
God bless them.
That power got wounded.
Wouldn't you know it?
Napoleon Bonaparte, a product of
the French Revolution, gave the
orders to wound that power, only
he didn't know he was wounding
the power.
He took the Pope captive.
Scholars believe that at that
time, mm-hmm, at the end of the
1700s -- 1798, in fact, is when
the Pope was taken captive -- at
the end of the 1700s, then not
only did I see a sea beast, I
now see an earth beast that
sprang up out of nowhere
at that time.
So what do we know now?
We know that it sprang up.
We know that it came out of
nowhere.
It's a desolate land somewhere.
A few people on it.
We know...
that it came into existence far
from the thoroughfares -- the
crowded thoroughfares of Europe.
And we know that it did it at
the end of the 1700s.
Come on. Who is this?
Well, there's one more clue.
Let's find out.
One more clue.
Number 4.
And it -- this earth beast --
"had two horns like a lamb."
Now everybody knows that reads
the Apocalypse, that the Lamb is
a Hero -- capital "H" -- Hero of
Revelation.
You know who the Lamb is?
Of course you do.
The Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world.
"The Lamb that was slain from
the foundation of the world."
That line appears three lines
before what we are reading
right now.
The Lamb that was slain.
Who is it?
That's our king.
That's King Jesus.
That's the Savior
of the human race.
That's the Lamb.
And isn't this amazing?
Now, lookit.
Let's put that back on the
screen for a moment, please.
I want to see number 4
on the screen.
That this earth beast's power
looks like a lamb.
It has two horns, like a lamb.
It's young, 'cause only lambies
have those horns.
So it's a young lamb.
It's a gentle lamb.
It reflects the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the
world.
It embraces the Judeo-Christian
values.
It embraces it.
It looks like -- You could
almost say it's a Christian
nation.
Wow, what's going on here?
The apocalyptic classic
"The Great Controversy."
If you don't have that book in
your library, go to amazon.com,
have it sent to you.
In a couple days,
you'll have it.
That book is worth reading at
this time in the journey of this
planet, alright?
The apocalyptic classic
"The Great Controversy."
Let's go to that
and share a few lines from it.
"As the tidings spread through
the countries of Europe, of a
land where every man might enjoy
the fruit of his own labor and
obey the convictions of his own
conscience, thousands flocked to
the shores of the" --
What are these two words
here?
The New World.
What's the New World?
Everybody knows what the
New World is.
And they were flocking by the
thousands, leaving the old
thoroughfares -- the crowded
thoroughfares -- of Europe
behind.
Where are they going?
Let's keep reading here.
"The Bible" -- in that
earth beast land -- was hailed
as the foundation of faith, the
source of wisdom, and the
charter of liberty."
Oh, wow. Keep reading.
"Its principles were diligently
taught in the home, in the
school, and in the church, and
its fruits were manifest in
thrift, in intelligence,
in purity, and temperance."
Now, I kind of put the emphasis
on this one.
"It was demonstrated" -- by this
earth beast land -- "that the
principles of the Bible are
the surest safeguards of
national greatness."
You want to make America
great again?
There you go.
That's it.
That's how you do it.
You go back to a book that once
was the foundation.
Our Declaration of Independence
and our Constitution are not
based on the Bible, but they
have taken the Christian-Judeo
values, and they've embraced
that.
Wow.
Bible scholars agree that this
earth beast nation power that
sprang up in the late 1700s, far
away from Europe, with an
openness to the great
Judeo-Christian principles of
the Holy Scripture.
Many are agreed that only one
power in history could possibly
claim that identity.
The United States of America.
Hands down.
♪ God bless America 
How does that go?
I have to look at my notes to
figure out.
♪ Land that I love 
Mm-hmm.
Stand beside her and guide her,
through the night with the light
from above.
Isn't that something?
The song that loves to be,
particularly post-9/11,
the America's...
Some people said, "This ought to
be the new national anthem."
It's all about God blessing
America.
Guess what. He did.
The writer of
"The Great Controversy," in
another place, wrote this one
line, and I want you to see it
right here.
"The Lord has done more for the
United States than for any other
country upon which the sun
shines."
I understand to whom I am
speaking.
I understand that there are
people here from every nation on
Earth, practically.
Certainly from every continent.
I understand that, but the point
is, you're here.
You're here for a reason.
There was something here that
you wanted.
More than any other nation on
the planet, God has poured out
His Blessings
on the United States of America.
Ah, not so quick.
There is Jesus' divine principle
of judgment that cannot be
avoided.
"To whom much is given."
What's that next line?
"Much will be required."
You can't avoid it.
And on the Judgment Day,
God Almighty is gonna call the
nations of earth forward, and
he's gonna say, "America, come,
stand before me right now.
I want to ask you.
What did you do with all those
gifts?
More than any nation upon which
the sun has shined, I blessed
you.
What have you done with what I
gave you?"
And what shall we answer Him
then?
What shall we say?
The wealth of the ages in
American hands right now.
Oh, wow.
This is the breeding ground of
the French Revolution all over
again.
Let me run them by you
as bullet points now from
"Rolling Stone" magazine
this month.
Here we go.
Bullet number 1 -- "The elite
one percent of Americans control
$30 trillion of assets, while
the bottom half" -- of
America -- "have more debt
than assets."
Bullet number 2 -- "The three
richest Americans have more
money than the poorest 160
million of their countrymen."
Bullet number 3 -- "Fully a
fifth of American households
have zero or negative net worth,
a figure that rises" from 20
percent "to 37 percent for black
families."
Bullet number 4 -- "The median
wealth of black households is a
tenth of that of whites."
Bullet number 5 -- "The vast
majority of Americans -- white,
black, brown -- are two
paychecks removed from
bankruptcy.
Though living in a nation that
celebrates itself as the
wealthiest in history, most
Americans live on a high wire,
with no safety net to
brace the fall."
May I ask you, how can God go on
blessing this nation with
numbers like these?
You tell me.
Don't you cluck your tongue and
say, "Well, that's just the
breaks, and I got the breaks."
[ Scoffs ]
All the blessings He's poured
out on this nation, and they end
up in a relatively few hands?
You know what?
That's a recipe for anger,
anarchy, rebellion, and revolt.
And now all the talk we are
hearing about the iron fist
of law and order will not heal
the moral sickness of America.
You cannot force healing.
You cannot force America
to be saved.
We have been given much.
And we who have now shut the
rest of the world out and hoard
our riches for our own pleasure
and profit, while inside our
closed-off borders, there are
the poor, there are the needy,
who hunger, just like France
before the Revolution.
The haves keep having more and
more until the downtrodden
rise up and storm the Bastille.
I'm just saying...
you don't need to be a rocket
scientist now.
Watch.
Listen.
Pray.
There's only one moral solution.
There's another solution.
It's political.
I'll talk about that in a split
second.
But there is a moral solution.
This is the one I would choose.
And the moral solution is for
this nation to turn back to the
creator God that super-intended
its founding 250 years ago.
Turn back.
What do we have
in the land today?
What George McCready Price
calls the anti-Genesis apostasy
has turned our schools into
godless institutions from
kindergarten to graduate school.
No more God, no more creator, no
more tolerance of scripture.
That was precisely the fruit of
the French Revolution.
No more God, no more creator,
no more tolerance of Scripture.
And what's the result?
In France, during the
Revolution, marriage was reduced
to a civil covenant between
anybody.
What's the result in America
today?
A civil covenant between
anybody.
In France, the guillotine ran
red with the slaughter of
innocent lives.
Why should atheism care?
It doesn't care.
Why not?
In America, millions of innocent
children, before birth, are
snuffed out.
Some after birth, tragically.
Why should atheism care?
"It's just a growth.
Get rid of it."
What happens to a country when,
like France, it embraces
atheism, is tragic to recall.
That's where we are.
No more God.
No more Creator.
No more tolerance of Scripture.
Something has happened to the
soul of America, and it is not
good, friends.
It is not good.
I read Jon Meacham's book
"The Soul of America,"
subtitled "The Battle for
Our Better Angels."
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
that he is, he chronicles our
struggle with the bad angels.
Something has happened to
America, and it is not good.
Read it again.
Verse 11.
"Then I saw a second beast,
coming out of the earth.
It had two horns like a lamb,
and it spoke like a dragon."
That little conjunction there --
"and" -- represents 250 years.
The earth beast is lamb-like for
250 years, and then it's
dragon-like.
Dragon-like?
The only solution for America --
moral, spiritual solution -- is
for America to return to God.
You can't just tell America to
return to God.
Here's what you do.
You tell every Christian that
loves Jesus to turn to their
neighbors and begin to love on
them like you have never loved
on them before.
America is running out of time.
Do you understand?
It's running out of time.
You got people living next door
to you.
When's the last time you said
boo to them?
Tell America.
That's the only way America can
be saved.
There's no fiat from Washington
that will save America.
Too late.
But they can be loved back.
They can be loved back.
For the first time, be loved
to the Lamb...
that died to free them.
There are only two solutions.
One is moral.
The other one is political.
Let this pandemic continue.
Let the unrest in the streets of
America grow, and the political
solution already hinted at will
be initiated -- the iron boot of
lethal enforcement.
"You will or else."
Don't believe it can happen to
America?
Just keep reading.
Verse 11 again.
"Then I saw a second beast,
coming out of the earth.
It had two horns like a lamb,
and it spoke like a dragon."
Verse 12.
"And it exercised all the
authority of the first beast on
its behalf, and made the
earth" -- the entire planet --
this must be a global
superpower we're talking
about -- It "made the earth and
its inhabitants worship the
first beast, whose fatal wound
had been healed."
Now drop down to verse 15.
"The second beast" -- that would
be the earth beast -- "was given
power to give breath to the
image of the first beast, so
that the image could speak and
cause all who refused to worship
the image to be killed."
"You will or else."
The iron boot of lethal power
and enforcement.
Don't think it can happen here?
Watch.
Listen.
Are you listening?
Pray.
And get on your neighbors.
Love on your neighbors as you
have never loved on them
before."
Oh, how Jesus loves America.
"If I be lifted up," Jesus said,
"I'll draw all people to me."
330 million of them.
Are you kidding?
"I died for America.
I died for North America.
I died for this planet.
If I am lifted up, I will draw
all people to me."
How's He gonna get lifted up
in front of America?
We go on television? No.
We go next door.
We can't let the media -- We
can't let social media do what
we can only do -- the love of
Christ with flesh on it.
It doesn't matter the color of
your flesh.
Just love on them.
It doesn't matter the color of
their flesh.
Just love on them.
It's all we have left, folks.
And the clock is running.
America is running out of time.
♪ America! 
♪ America! 
♪ God shed His grace on thee 
♪ And crown thy good 
♪ With brotherhood 
♪ From sea to shining sea 
That's America's last hope.
God's grace.
Through you...
right now.
Let us pray.
Oh, God...
forgive us for thinking this was
only about a pandemic and
all of us worried about masks
and COVID-19.
And, of course, we're concerned.
But it's just like the dragon
to distract us in one corner,
so that what he's doing in the
other corner can't be seen until
it's too late.
But you gave us this halogen
light of this prophecy.
And we are not unwarned, and we
are not in the dark, for the
light dwells with you.
Oh, God, shine your light on our
minds so that our hearts
determine to love on those
around us while there is time.
Please, God, save America.
Amen.
 I want to take an extra
moment to thank you for joining
us in worship today.
It's by the continued support
from viewers like you that we're
able to bring you this program.
Today I want to invite you,
though, to share with us how
this ministry has blessed you.
I get inspiring notes, e-mails
from viewers literally all over
the world telling me "why God
has been blessing me this way,"
"He's been doing this."
I would love to hear from you,
as well.
Just visit our website -- you
know it -- newperceptions.tv.
And click on the "contact" link
at the top of the page.
Send me a note.
Let me know what God has been
doing right now in your life.
Once again, thank you for being
with us today.
I hope you'll join us right here
next time.
And until then, may the
God of Grace journey with you
every step of the way.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
