WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:29.200 This is one of the oldest, most revered churches in the world, and yet they try to bomb it. 00:29.200 --> 00:33.240 I'm standing in what for centuries has been the prime church in Rome, for that matter 00:33.240 --> 00:38.240 in all of Western Christendom, St John Lateran. 00:38.240 --> 00:42.960 This church was founded by Constantine the Great in the year 314. 00:42.960 --> 00:47.040 It had been standing open for more than 16 centuries. 00:47.040 --> 00:55.160 Then in 1993, in our decade, a bomb went off, heavily damaging this ancient church, a bomb 00:55.160 --> 00:59.080 planted by terrorists. 00:59.080 --> 01:07.760 I'm Edmund Perdom, and for the next hour, we will be exploring the connection between 01:07.760 --> 01:14.800 world events and the seven signs of Christ's return, as found in the Old and New Testaments 01:14.800 --> 01:18.440 of the Bible. 01:18.440 --> 01:22.240 We are nearing the end of a 2000 year countdown. 01:22.240 --> 01:26.400 Many people bound to the Gregorian calendar see a relationship between the horrendous 01:26.400 --> 01:33.840 events of the 90s and the new millennium, which is just a few New Year's Eve's away. 01:33.840 --> 01:39.200 Millions of churchgoers see the terrorism, the moral decay, and the natural disasters 01:39.200 --> 01:46.000 that so characterize this decade as conditions pointing to the second coming of Jesus Christ. 01:46.000 --> 01:53.200 They're asking, is ours the generation that the prophets were pointing their fingers at? 01:53.200 --> 01:58.600 Are the end times at hand? 01:58.600 --> 02:03.640 Millions believe that there are several events that must take place before Christ returns 02:03.640 --> 02:05.600 to this world. 02:05.600 --> 02:15.120 The Bible foretells of seven momentous events that will herald the second coming of Christ. 02:15.120 --> 02:21.000 I'm not a theologian, of course, but I can recognize that one of these events is contemporary 02:21.000 --> 02:28.240 history, and another event is history in the making. 02:28.240 --> 02:34.280 The first event, or sign, is the greatest homecoming in human history and the bloodiest, 02:34.280 --> 02:38.960 the return to the Holy Land of the Jewish people, a biblical promise fulfilled in our 02:38.960 --> 02:43.400 century. 02:43.400 --> 02:48.400 The second is the welding of Western Europe into an unprecedented superpower, a union 02:48.400 --> 02:53.400 being forged in this very hour. 02:53.400 --> 03:01.280 The third, the rise of a dictator whose monstrosities could dwarf even those of Adolf Hitler. 03:01.280 --> 03:07.680 The fourth, the worldwide dominance of a new religion, whose godhead will be Satan, the 03:07.680 --> 03:13.720 Antichrist, and the false prophet, the unholy Trinity. 03:13.720 --> 03:19.200 The fifth is the building of the third temple of Jerusalem, on a site where one of the holiest 03:19.200 --> 03:25.520 shrines of Islam now stands, a site that many Muslims have promised to shed their blood 03:25.520 --> 03:27.840 to defend. 03:27.840 --> 03:33.320 The sixth, an invasion of Israel by ruthless armies from the north who will not be defeated 03:33.320 --> 03:39.400 by military force, but by the catastrophic forces of nature, of a magnitude never before 03:39.400 --> 03:41.640 known. 03:41.640 --> 03:47.120 And finally, the bloodiest, most destructive battle ever to be fought by human beings, 03:47.120 --> 03:49.120 Armageddon. 03:49.120 --> 03:58.600 These are the seven signs of Christ's return. 03:58.600 --> 04:12.560 A thousand years before they planted their bomb, St. John Lateran's was the Pope's Church. 04:12.560 --> 04:19.880 On New Year's Eve of the year 999, Pope Sylvester II sent Mass here for a congregation clad 04:19.880 --> 04:24.800 in sackcloth and ashes, the trappings of penance for one's sins. 04:24.800 --> 04:28.480 Many of the rich in the congregation had given away their lands. 04:28.480 --> 04:31.200 Others had freed their bondsmen. 04:31.200 --> 04:38.040 Now in fear and dread, they waited for the church bells to usher in a new millennium, 04:38.040 --> 04:47.640 and the second coming of Jesus Christ. 04:47.640 --> 04:50.400 The bells rang out. 04:50.400 --> 05:02.080 It was now the year 1000, but Christ did not appear. 05:02.080 --> 05:14.800 Without events, the sun rose on that first day of a new millennium. 05:14.800 --> 05:22.400 Today the millennium which began in the year 1000 is grinding to a halt. 05:22.400 --> 05:28.880 There are those who feel certain that the bell that ushers in the year 2000 will herald 05:28.880 --> 05:32.800 the return of Jesus Christ. 05:32.800 --> 05:39.280 People are searching for signs, for explanations for the mounting tragedies of the 90s, sudden 05:39.280 --> 05:42.280 earthquakes. 05:42.280 --> 05:48.800 Volcanoes exploding in cyclonic winds of ash and pitch. 05:48.800 --> 05:51.800 Darkness at noon. 05:51.800 --> 05:55.680 Hurricanes fierce and frequent. 05:55.680 --> 05:56.680 Assassinations. 05:56.680 --> 06:02.480 Terrorism, before which the world's most powerful governments seem helpless. 06:02.480 --> 06:06.680 The carnage of war and the spectre of AIDS. 06:06.680 --> 06:13.240 Is our earth like a toy top in its final spin? 06:13.240 --> 06:17.200 People want answers. 06:17.200 --> 06:22.680 Some seek them in a haze of auras in the properties of crystals. 06:22.680 --> 06:25.600 In tarot cards. 06:25.600 --> 06:29.820 In astrological chartings of the heavens. 06:29.820 --> 06:34.880 Many Christians argue that there's no need for stargazing. 06:34.880 --> 06:40.120 They claim to see clear-cut signs of Christ's imminent return, though they admit that they 06:40.120 --> 06:43.600 don't know exactly when this will take place. 06:43.600 --> 06:49.080 They don't claim to be God's mind-readers. 06:49.080 --> 06:54.280 This book which occupies a draw in most hotel rooms has been translated into just about 06:54.280 --> 06:58.160 every language on earth. 06:58.160 --> 07:02.920 About 25% of all that's written in the Bible is prophecy. 07:02.920 --> 07:07.720 There are dozens of prophecies dealing with Christ's coming into this world, but there 07:07.720 --> 07:14.080 are hundreds of promises related to Christ's second coming. 07:14.080 --> 07:17.160 Some prophecies describe the times we live in. 07:17.160 --> 07:21.760 Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. 07:21.760 --> 07:27.400 There will be great earthquakes, famine and pestilence, and fearful events and great signs 07:27.400 --> 07:33.280 from heaven. 07:33.280 --> 07:37.200 Many of the Bible's prophecies were fulfilled centuries ago. 07:37.200 --> 07:39.960 Some are being fulfilled now, in our lifetime. 07:39.960 --> 07:45.800 And there are others, like God's wrath pouring down over the earth, that we hope will be 07:45.800 --> 07:50.000 in the far distant future. 07:50.000 --> 07:54.920 With the approach of the new millennium, many Christians are asking, can it be that these 07:54.920 --> 07:58.560 prophecies will converge in our lifetime? 07:58.560 --> 08:01.840 Let us delve deeply into these prophecies. 08:01.840 --> 08:07.720 We will learn that like the seven candles of a menorah, they light the seven signs signaling 08:07.720 --> 08:14.320 the return of Jesus Christ. 08:14.320 --> 08:21.680 We discover the first sign, Israel restored. 08:21.680 --> 08:24.000 The prophecies are crystal clear. 08:24.000 --> 08:28.440 Christ will not return to this world until after the restoration of the Jewish people 08:28.440 --> 08:30.960 to nationhood. 08:30.960 --> 08:36.520 On that New Year's Day of the year 1000, there was no need for Christians to panic at the 08:36.520 --> 08:40.940 time the Jewish people were scattered over the globe. 08:40.940 --> 08:47.600 As we approach the year 2000, Jews can celebrate their return to the land that their God had 08:47.600 --> 08:49.240 promised them. 08:49.240 --> 08:53.280 And what a land they've made of it. 08:53.280 --> 08:57.560 The dry dead bones of the past sprang to life. 08:57.560 --> 09:02.680 Thousands upon thousands of trees were planted, desert was turned into orchards. 09:02.680 --> 09:13.440 The modern Israelis have made themselves worthy of an ancient promise, but not without bloodshed. 09:13.440 --> 09:20.240 The Jewish people as a nation began when the patriarch Abraham obeyed his God's command. 09:20.240 --> 09:27.040 Save your country and go to the land I will show you. 09:27.040 --> 09:33.380 This is the land his God promised him, a crossroads between Asia and Europe at the heart of where 09:33.380 --> 09:40.160 civilization began, a land of wild hills and salt encrusted shores. 09:40.160 --> 09:48.040 Geographically, the ancient Jews were wedged in between the superpowers of Egypt and Assyria 09:48.040 --> 09:53.000 and surrounded by peoples determined to drive them out of the land they believed God had 09:53.000 --> 09:55.560 assigned to them. 09:55.560 --> 10:01.280 Then as now, the promised land was plagued by constant warfare. 10:01.280 --> 10:05.560 In time, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. 10:05.560 --> 10:09.240 Its 10 tribes are lost to history. 10:09.240 --> 10:17.100 Later, the southern kingdom of Judah was overwhelmed by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar and its people 10:17.100 --> 10:20.580 carried off to Babylon in chains. 10:20.580 --> 10:25.800 When the Persians crushed Babylon, Abraham's descendants were free to go back to the promised 10:25.800 --> 10:29.040 land. 10:29.040 --> 10:33.600 Then the promised land was occupied by Rome. 10:33.600 --> 10:40.320 Rome built cities, Rome built baths, Rome built amphitheaters, and Rome brought in her 10:40.320 --> 10:41.320 gods. 10:41.320 --> 10:45.240 The Roman yoke had become more than Jews could bear. 10:45.240 --> 10:51.560 They revolted and it was a rebellion that took mighty Rome almost four years to crush. 10:51.560 --> 10:55.600 Now the wrath of Rome came down upon Israel in full fury. 10:55.600 --> 11:02.120 There was an explosion of fleeing Jews that reached every known part of the globe. 11:02.120 --> 11:08.640 In their exile, they were sustained by the promise as set down by their prophets. 11:08.640 --> 11:11.320 This is what the Lord Almighty says. 11:11.320 --> 11:16.360 I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. 11:16.360 --> 11:20.280 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem. 11:20.280 --> 11:24.080 They will be my people. 11:24.080 --> 11:29.160 But Jerusalem fell into the hands of Muslim powers that Islamized it. 11:29.160 --> 11:34.880 For centuries, the land called Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire until 11:34.880 --> 11:38.280 the Turks were defeated in World War I. 11:38.280 --> 11:43.240 This permitted a trickle of Jews to return to the homeland. 11:43.240 --> 11:50.320 Then in the 1930s, from Nazi Germany came shockwaves of Jew-hating that tailed the persecutions 11:50.320 --> 11:52.320 of the past. 11:52.320 --> 11:55.000 Jews were marked with yellow stars. 11:55.000 --> 11:57.520 Jewish storefronts were smashed. 11:57.520 --> 12:02.060 Synagogues were burnt down, sometimes with their congregations in sign. 12:02.060 --> 12:06.800 By the millions, Jews were shipped to concentration camps in a program designed to annihilate 12:06.800 --> 12:10.560 the Jewish people once and for all. 12:10.560 --> 12:12.960 World War II erupted. 12:12.960 --> 12:18.200 After Germany's defeat, Jewish survivors of the Holocaust sailed to the shores of their 12:18.200 --> 12:21.720 ancient homeland only to be turned back. 12:21.720 --> 12:26.560 Then after nine months of debate, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into 12:26.560 --> 12:29.200 an Arab and a Jewish state. 12:29.200 --> 12:34.320 On the 14th of May of 1948, the new state of Israel was born. 12:34.320 --> 12:41.040 And with it, the first sign pointing to Christ's return. 12:41.040 --> 12:47.560 People danced in the streets. 12:47.560 --> 12:51.160 They came singing. 12:51.160 --> 12:55.320 Jews as different from each other as Morocco is from Manhattan. 12:55.320 --> 13:00.880 Jews from the Kazbas and the Sooks, from New York's garment district. 13:00.880 --> 13:06.160 From hiding places in Amsterdam, from England and Switzerland. 13:06.160 --> 13:09.560 From refuge in Sweden. 13:09.560 --> 13:11.520 From India and Ethiopia. 13:11.520 --> 13:14.480 From Yemen and Detroit. 13:14.480 --> 13:21.000 Theirs was a biblical bonding to a land that most of them had never seen. 13:21.000 --> 13:27.440 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have 13:27.440 --> 13:28.960 given them. 13:28.960 --> 13:34.520 These words of the prophet Amos were spoken some 2700 years ago. 13:34.520 --> 13:37.200 Israel restored. 13:37.200 --> 13:41.720 To the world it seemed like the impossible dream, yet one by one the barriers that made 13:41.720 --> 13:43.920 it so were removed. 13:43.920 --> 13:49.080 Many believe by the hand of God. 13:49.080 --> 13:54.080 This sign has come in our lifetime. 13:54.080 --> 14:05.000 How many more will follow? 14:05.000 --> 14:11.040 The second sign, Europe united. 14:11.040 --> 14:18.520 Then said the king, surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer 14:18.520 --> 14:26.320 of mysteries. 14:26.320 --> 14:31.640 Once this city of Rome was the greatest capital in the western world. 14:31.640 --> 14:35.440 Today Rome is still a capital. 14:35.440 --> 14:40.040 The capital of one of several western European nations that have formed a confederation known 14:40.040 --> 14:46.440 as the European Union or more commonly the EU. 14:46.440 --> 14:48.440 The EU is dynamic. 14:48.440 --> 14:54.000 It upholds the ideal of a united Europe by integrating its member nations economically 14:54.000 --> 14:55.720 and politically. 14:55.720 --> 15:00.680 It adheres to common policies in trade, in agriculture. 15:00.680 --> 15:07.120 It fosters a single European monetary system for all of the member nations. 15:07.120 --> 15:11.640 It supports a multinational parliament. 15:11.640 --> 15:17.560 Should the EU decide to build a united Europe army, it will emerge as the Roman Empire of 15:17.560 --> 15:20.760 the 21st century. 15:20.760 --> 15:28.160 Remarkably the whole EU operation was foreseen some 2600 years ago. 15:28.160 --> 15:34.960 It happened in Babylon, the fabled Babylon of the hanging gardens. 15:34.960 --> 15:40.320 King Nebuchadnezzar was tortured by a dream he had and he sent for a Jewish visionary 15:40.320 --> 15:43.760 named Daniel to put him at peace. 15:43.760 --> 15:50.920 Daniel told him, Oh king, your mind turned to things to come. 15:50.920 --> 15:57.440 He went on to describe an enormous statue of four metals of varying degrees of hardness 15:57.440 --> 16:03.040 depicting great empires of the ancient world. 16:03.040 --> 16:07.720 The golden head, Babylon. 16:07.720 --> 16:11.440 The silver chest and arms, the Persian Empire. 16:11.440 --> 16:19.600 And the bronze midsection, the conquering Greeks. 16:19.600 --> 16:25.520 The triumph of Rome over the others is represented by the statue's iron legs. 16:25.520 --> 16:29.880 Of particular interest are the feet of iron and clay. 16:29.880 --> 16:39.640 The ten toes symbolizing ten nations that will yield their sovereignty to Rome. 16:39.640 --> 16:42.320 Daniel had his own vision of the future. 16:42.320 --> 16:43.320 It was nightmarish. 16:43.320 --> 16:49.080 He saw four terrible beasts rising up out of the sea. 16:49.080 --> 16:52.680 The first, the winged lion of Babylon. 16:52.680 --> 16:56.840 The second, a bear symbolizing the Persian Empire. 16:56.840 --> 17:01.760 The third, a leopard symbolizing Alexander the Great and his empire. 17:01.760 --> 17:08.880 The fourth beast, most terrifying of all, Rome, which devoured the other three. 17:08.880 --> 17:11.160 It had large iron teeth. 17:11.160 --> 17:14.200 It crushed and devoured its victims. 17:14.200 --> 17:17.400 It had ten horns. 17:17.400 --> 17:23.320 The prophet goes on to say that only after this Roman superpower is destroyed will Christ 17:23.320 --> 17:31.800 return to earth and establish a kingdom that will not pass away. 17:31.800 --> 17:35.800 But the idea of imperial Rome never really died. 17:35.800 --> 17:43.120 The ghosts of the Caesars have always loomed behind European leadership. 17:43.120 --> 17:49.440 In the eighth century, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 17:49.440 --> 17:55.880 The Holy Roman Empire reached its zenith during the Renaissance under Charles V. 17:55.880 --> 18:03.880 Napoleon so craved Roman imperial power that he crowned himself emperor. 18:03.880 --> 18:10.080 Rome reached well into the 20th century with a Tsar Nicholas and a Kaiser Wilhelm. 18:10.080 --> 18:16.440 The titles Tsar and Kaiser mean Caesar. 18:16.440 --> 18:23.360 Benito Mussolini strutted through his 21-year dictatorship of Italy as a Caesar. 18:23.360 --> 18:30.800 With wild enthusiasm, the people hailed him, il duce, duce, meaning our leader, our leader. 18:30.800 --> 18:37.120 He restored the old Roman name for the Mediterranean, mare nostrum, our sea. 18:37.120 --> 18:43.560 The emblem of his iron-fisted rule was the fasces, a bound bundle of rods displayed in 18:43.560 --> 18:46.800 ancient Rome as a symbol of authority. 18:46.800 --> 18:52.320 While he ruled, he was pompous proof that even in the 20th century, the notion of imperial 18:52.320 --> 18:59.480 Rome is far from dead. 18:59.480 --> 19:04.480 Today the flags of the European Union are flying over many of the ancient empire's 19:04.480 --> 19:06.600 territories. 19:06.600 --> 19:10.120 The United States of Europe. 19:10.120 --> 19:15.680 This was a post-war dream of Winston Churchill and of Conrad Adenauer, the first German Chancellor 19:15.680 --> 19:18.360 after the Nazi surrender. 19:18.360 --> 19:24.000 To this end in 1958, Europe's leaders met on Rome's Capitoline Hill and established 19:24.000 --> 19:30.800 the European Common Market, which grew to become the European Union we know today. 19:30.800 --> 19:37.840 If the EU is indeed the coalition of ten nations, foreseen by the prophet Daniel, it will become 19:37.840 --> 19:39.640 a political superpower. 19:39.640 --> 19:45.080 Industrially, it will be one of the most productive powers on earth. 19:45.080 --> 19:53.080 It will support a huge multinational army with the most sophisticated weapons. 19:53.080 --> 20:02.160 As says the prophet, it will enforce one credo, one religious yoke on all within its sphere. 20:02.160 --> 20:05.240 Who will be the master of this political powerhouse? 20:05.240 --> 20:07.700 This economic giant? 20:07.700 --> 20:23.560 This military colossus? 20:23.560 --> 20:30.120 The third sign is the coming of the Antichrist. 20:30.120 --> 20:35.640 There before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them, and three of 20:35.640 --> 20:39.560 the first horns were uprooted before it. 20:39.560 --> 20:50.480 This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 20:50.480 --> 20:56.160 The prophet Daniel foresaw the rise of a dictator of a ten-nation confederation headquartered 20:56.160 --> 20:58.400 in Rome. 20:58.400 --> 21:03.500 He will set himself up against Christ in the last days before the second coming. 21:03.500 --> 21:09.860 He foresaw a man who uproots all who oppose him in his rise to absolute power. 21:09.860 --> 21:15.800 His eyes, the eyes of a man, show a keen intelligence. 21:15.800 --> 21:22.460 And his mouth that spoke boastfully foretells of a speaker of great authority, a charismatic 21:22.460 --> 21:28.140 orator who mesmerizes masses of followers. 21:28.140 --> 21:34.200 To him the people surrender all, their will, their loyalty, their love, their freedom, 21:34.200 --> 21:37.440 their very souls. 21:37.440 --> 21:41.320 They are convinced he is a savior. 21:41.320 --> 21:46.040 In a world bleeding from wars, he promises peace. 21:46.040 --> 21:51.200 In a world reeling from terrorism, he establishes order. 21:51.200 --> 21:55.000 He stabilizes shaky economies. 21:55.000 --> 21:58.800 He unites his followers in a new world order. 21:58.800 --> 22:05.160 To this suffering world, our world, he will appear heaven-sent. 22:05.160 --> 22:09.300 Nothing could be further from the truth. 22:09.300 --> 22:21.600 He is the antichrist sent by Satan, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, who will succeed 22:21.600 --> 22:26.000 in whatever he does. 22:26.000 --> 22:32.320 If prophecy rings true, it is possible that the antichrist is already among us. 22:32.320 --> 22:38.400 And there is every reason to believe that he will be a European. 22:38.400 --> 22:44.680 You or I may have brushed past him on a city street. 22:44.680 --> 22:48.760 Or sat next to him on an airliner. 22:48.760 --> 22:54.160 Or shared a bench with him in a Paris park. 22:54.160 --> 22:59.760 To millions of Christians, he is the enemy. 22:59.760 --> 23:04.480 In his scrabble to power, he will stack up more and more popular support. 23:04.480 --> 23:05.840 And why not? 23:05.840 --> 23:13.760 To the secularized multitudes of the West who are weary of endless, overlapping wars. 23:13.760 --> 23:17.880 Of tribal rivalries and slaughter. 23:17.880 --> 23:20.440 Weary of ethnic cleansings. 23:20.440 --> 23:22.440 Of the plague of narcotics. 23:22.440 --> 23:24.600 Of rampant terrorism. 23:24.600 --> 23:28.160 Weary of the seeming purposelessness of life. 23:28.160 --> 23:36.640 A latch-key generation of youth will fix on him for an ideal for discipline. 23:36.640 --> 23:40.400 Longing to be told what to live for. 23:40.400 --> 23:42.440 And what to die for. 23:42.440 --> 23:48.400 Believers are certain that he will achieve absolute power over every man, woman and child 23:48.400 --> 23:53.520 within the Ten Nation Confederation from cradle to grave. 23:53.520 --> 24:00.000 He will determine who shall be born and who shall be aborted. 24:00.000 --> 24:05.880 Who shall be educated and who simply shall be cannon fodder. 24:05.880 --> 24:12.800 For his Ballyhooed Peace Platform will one day become a springboard into war. 24:12.800 --> 24:19.360 He will determine who among the aged should be done away with after outliving their usefulness. 24:19.360 --> 24:25.640 And he will tolerate no dissension, no debate. 24:25.640 --> 24:31.600 To grasp the appeal and the awesome power of the Antichrist, we can reach back into 24:31.600 --> 24:36.560 the past to the blighted first half of the 20th century. 24:36.560 --> 24:41.760 Adolf Hitler offers a realistic insight into what we can expect from the Antichrist. 24:41.760 --> 24:51.360 Indeed, when Hitler was in power, there were those who believed that he truly was the Antichrist. 24:51.360 --> 24:55.240 This is understandable from a study of Hitler's face. 24:55.240 --> 25:01.760 It is obviously that of the stern-faced king foreseen by the prophet Daniel. 25:01.760 --> 25:10.720 Hitler was certainly a master of intrigue and the eyes, cunning, keenly intelligent. 25:10.720 --> 25:16.040 As for Daniel's foreseeing a dictator with a mouth that spoke boastfully, Hitler was 25:16.040 --> 25:20.840 a spellbinder. 25:20.840 --> 25:26.680 Through a series of calculated street brawls and his own hypnotic oratory, Hitler became 25:26.680 --> 25:29.400 Germany's supreme leader. 25:29.400 --> 25:34.240 He claimed he wanted only to restore Germany's rightful place among the nations of the world 25:34.240 --> 25:37.240 peacefully. 25:37.240 --> 25:40.120 A peace candidate. 25:40.120 --> 25:47.920 Christians believe this is how the Antichrist will present himself in his rise to power. 25:47.920 --> 25:52.800 By incorporating Europe into his Third Reich, Hitler was master of nearly all of the Roman 25:52.800 --> 25:56.560 Empire's most important European colonies. 25:56.560 --> 26:02.400 It seemed only a matter of moving his capital from Berlin to Rome itself. 26:02.400 --> 26:07.760 But Britannia, Britain, held out and fought him off. 26:07.760 --> 26:14.080 As World War II turned against him, it seemed less likely that Hitler was the Antichrist 26:14.080 --> 26:16.800 of prophecy. 26:16.800 --> 26:21.200 But Adolf Hitler is the closest we can come to understanding the Christian vision of the 26:21.200 --> 26:23.200 Antichrist. 26:23.200 --> 26:30.120 Like Hitler, he will mesmerize the masses so that he can enslave them. 26:30.120 --> 26:34.280 Hitler's thousand-year Reich lasted less than 12 years. 26:34.280 --> 26:39.160 During those years, however, the control that Hitler exercised over peoples and nations 26:39.160 --> 26:42.280 was awesome. 26:42.280 --> 26:47.320 Yet by today's standards, the tools that he had with which to control them were primitive. 26:47.320 --> 26:51.240 There were no electronics as we know them. 26:51.240 --> 26:56.840 The prophesied dictator, the Antichrist, will be an updated Hitler. 26:56.840 --> 27:03.720 But unlike Hitler, all of the astounding advances in electronic technology will be at his disposal. 27:03.720 --> 27:10.020 Vast media networks and mind-control electronics will serve his ends. 27:10.020 --> 27:14.440 The most destructive weaponry will be his to command. 27:14.440 --> 27:30.920 And he will program humankind to do his bidding. 27:30.920 --> 27:32.480 The Fourth Sign. 27:32.480 --> 27:38.320 A New Worldwide Religion. 27:38.320 --> 27:42.640 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound. 27:42.640 --> 27:48.640 But the fatal wound had been healed. 27:48.640 --> 27:54.240 The final decades of this millennium have seen more than their share of assassins and, 27:54.240 --> 27:57.900 would-be assassins, of heads of state. 27:57.900 --> 28:00.840 There was the attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan. 28:00.840 --> 28:05.880 The wounded president survived, but attempts on other leaders were more successful. 28:05.880 --> 28:08.920 Egyptian Premier Anwar Sadat. 28:08.920 --> 28:12.520 Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India. 28:12.520 --> 28:17.320 Israel Yitzhak Rabin. 28:17.320 --> 28:22.280 Christians are confounded by the assassination of the Antichrist, alluded to in the final 28:22.280 --> 28:30.280 book of the Bible, Revelations or the Apocalypse. 28:30.280 --> 28:31.280 He will be wounded. 28:31.280 --> 28:33.680 This is what prophecy tells us. 28:33.680 --> 28:34.680 Fatally wounded. 28:34.680 --> 28:38.200 And then, as if by a miracle, he is healed. 28:38.200 --> 28:41.280 In a sense, he overcomes death. 28:41.280 --> 28:46.480 Perhaps in blatant mockery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 28:46.480 --> 28:54.240 The scriptures tell us, the whole world was astounded and followed the beast. 28:54.240 --> 29:02.200 Then this dictator, the Antichrist, will enthrone himself as a living god. 29:02.200 --> 29:06.720 The world has seen this before. 29:06.720 --> 29:12.480 We recall that in July of 1944, several high-ranking officers of the German army conspired to kill 29:12.480 --> 29:14.440 Hitler with a concealed bomb. 29:14.440 --> 29:19.880 A deadly bomb. 29:19.880 --> 29:23.860 Miraculously, Hitler suffered only minor injuries. 29:23.860 --> 29:30.280 To his loyal followers, Hitler had not only thwarted treason, he had supernaturally triumphed 29:30.280 --> 29:31.280 over death. 29:31.280 --> 29:38.600 Again, we turn to this demonic dictator to better understand the Antichrist to come. 29:38.600 --> 29:44.920 While he held the world in his iron grip, Hitler tried to edge God off his throne. 29:44.920 --> 30:10.760 While Hitler replaced God be with you as a greeting. 30:10.760 --> 30:17.200 Christian rituals were overwhelmed, if not replaced, by pagan pageantry. 30:17.200 --> 30:21.560 The honored place of the holy scriptures was taken over by Hitler's autobiographical 30:21.560 --> 30:25.080 Mein Kampf. 30:25.080 --> 30:31.160 Hitler worship reached its depths in the fervor of the SS, the Fuhrer's military elite. 30:31.160 --> 30:38.280 SS units carried out their inhuman orders under the sign of the Death Head. 30:38.280 --> 30:43.960 The infant child of an SS member was given its name in a ceremony that blatantly mocked 30:43.960 --> 30:46.400 the Christian rite of baptism. 30:46.400 --> 30:52.900 Swaddled in a shawl of swastikas, the infant was given its name at an altar which held 30:52.900 --> 30:57.320 a portrait of Hitler in place of a cross. 30:57.320 --> 31:03.320 As British writer Clive James observes, not many of us in a secular age are willing to 31:03.320 --> 31:10.840 conceive that in the form of Hitler, Satan visited the earth and recruited an army of 31:10.840 --> 31:15.240 sinners. 31:15.240 --> 31:19.160 Then I saw another beast coming out of the earth. 31:19.160 --> 31:23.920 He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. 31:23.920 --> 31:29.520 He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf and made the earth and 31:29.520 --> 31:39.560 its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 31:39.560 --> 31:45.480 The coming of another is prophesied, a false prophet who will rally all peoples to the 31:45.480 --> 31:53.120 worship of the world dictator. 31:53.120 --> 31:58.080 The Bible tells us that he will cause fire to come down from heaven, yet he will not 31:58.080 --> 32:01.800 make himself an object of worship. 32:01.800 --> 32:07.240 Rather he will direct the people's adoration to the dictator, the antichrist. 32:07.240 --> 32:12.080 He will make the antichrist's lies sound like truth. 32:12.080 --> 32:17.960 And so this dictator, economically and militarily the most powerful the world will ever know, 32:17.960 --> 32:21.840 will deem himself divine. 32:21.840 --> 32:28.160 He will strive to duplicate Christ's earthly miracles, where Jesus gave sight to the blind, 32:28.160 --> 32:34.280 he will employ perhaps as yet undiscovered medical treatments for blindness. 32:34.280 --> 32:40.080 Where Jesus made the lame to walk, he might restore dead-end nerves and atrophied muscle 32:40.080 --> 32:43.040 electronically and chemically. 32:43.040 --> 32:49.140 Where Jesus raised a gyrus daughter from the dead, he may Frankenstein-like use astounding 32:49.140 --> 32:53.200 new technologies to try and match the miracle. 32:53.200 --> 33:01.240 Or with satanic powers, he may harness the genuinely supernatural in his miracle workings. 33:01.240 --> 33:09.120 Because the Bible says it is Satan who is fueling this duo of antichrist and false prophet. 33:09.120 --> 33:15.200 As from the beginning, Satan, the adversary, the deceiver, is determined to seduce mankind 33:15.200 --> 33:17.640 away from God. 33:17.640 --> 33:21.840 The end times will see the greatest deception of all. 33:21.840 --> 33:30.200 Satan as the father, antichrist as the son, and the false prophet as the Holy Spirit, 33:30.200 --> 33:35.600 man worshipping an unholy trinity. 33:35.600 --> 33:40.280 Our times might welcome such a takeover. 33:40.280 --> 33:43.600 Our western world is ripped by spiritual confusion. 33:43.600 --> 33:46.680 Petty prophets spring up everywhere. 33:46.680 --> 33:52.360 Many truth seekers are seduced into the ranks of bizarre cults. 33:52.360 --> 33:57.960 In Jonestown in Guyana, a false prophet commands his followers to commit mass suicide by swallowing 33:57.960 --> 34:01.280 a kool-aid laced with cyanide. 34:01.280 --> 34:05.040 Eight hundred men, women, and children go to their deaths. 34:05.040 --> 34:12.100 In following a false messiah, whole families perish in a Waco, Texas shootout. 34:12.100 --> 34:16.920 In Switzerland and in Canada, more than half a hundred members of the Order of the Solar 34:16.920 --> 34:22.440 Temple, vested in ceremonial robes, either take their own lives or are shot to death 34:22.440 --> 34:27.560 by fellow cultists. 34:27.560 --> 34:32.280 The followers of another false prophet, a self-proclaimed reincarnation of Christ and 34:32.280 --> 34:38.080 Buddha, release a lethal gas in a Tokyo subway at rush hour. 34:38.080 --> 34:42.480 Millions of commuters are hospitalized, some die. 34:42.480 --> 34:45.920 Violence fueled by religious fervor. 34:45.920 --> 34:56.240 Indeed, the worship of an unholy trinity may not be far off. 34:56.240 --> 35:07.560 The fifth sign, the rebuilding of the temple. 35:07.560 --> 35:14.720 I was given a read like a measuring rod and was told, go and measure the temple of God 35:14.720 --> 35:20.000 and the altar and count the worshippers there. 35:20.000 --> 35:28.000 Jerusalem, the Golden, the City of God. 35:28.000 --> 35:34.600 Its pavements worn smooth by the boots of conquerors, Assyrians and Babylonians, Greeks 35:34.600 --> 35:38.840 and Romans, Saracens and Ottomans. 35:38.840 --> 35:45.760 Its gates, the holy portals of pilgrims, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. 35:45.760 --> 35:48.840 Its name means peace. 35:48.840 --> 35:51.200 Its history spells conflict. 35:51.200 --> 36:02.720 Yet it is the city for which almost every human soul feels a homesickness. 36:02.720 --> 36:09.000 This is Jerusalem's Golden Gate, silent amid sundering prophecy. 36:09.000 --> 36:13.120 Both Jews and Christians keep an eye on this gate. 36:13.120 --> 36:18.400 To Jews, it is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem and restore Israel 36:18.400 --> 36:20.480 to its former glory. 36:20.480 --> 36:27.520 To Christians, it is the gate through which Jesus Christ will re-enter his city. 36:27.520 --> 36:34.160 Unschooled in these prophecies, the Muslim Ottomans sealed the gate in 1530. 36:34.160 --> 36:39.360 And knowing that the Messiah as a Jewish high priest is forbidden to cross a cemetery, they 36:39.360 --> 36:44.600 fronted the gate with a broad graveyard. 36:44.600 --> 36:51.960 This is Jerusalem's crown, the Temple Mount, the biblical Mount Moriah and the heart of 36:51.960 --> 36:53.840 the Jewish faith. 36:53.840 --> 37:03.200 Though it covers only 35 acres, it is the most fought over piece of land on earth. 37:03.200 --> 37:09.320 It was here, as seen in this model, that King Solomon built the first temple of Jerusalem 37:09.320 --> 37:11.720 with the cedars of Lebanon. 37:11.720 --> 37:19.160 But it was destroyed in 586 BC by Babylonian invaders. 37:19.160 --> 37:24.600 By 26 BC, King Herod the Great completed the building of the second temple. 37:24.600 --> 37:29.240 It was his greatest achievement. 37:29.240 --> 37:36.240 To this temple, its white marble facade shimmering with golden ornament, Jews from every province 37:36.240 --> 37:41.240 of the Roman Empire made Passover pilgrimages. 37:41.240 --> 37:46.240 It was here in the Court of Gentiles that Jesus, in his fury, cleansed the temple of 37:46.240 --> 37:50.480 money changers and hawkers. 37:50.480 --> 37:55.840 The Emperor Caligula's attempt to install his graven image in the temple so riled the 37:55.840 --> 37:58.760 Jews that they revolted against Rome. 37:58.760 --> 38:01.440 At first, they were successful. 38:01.440 --> 38:07.320 But in 70 AD, Roman forces captured the city, burnt down the temple and carried the sacred 38:07.320 --> 38:16.320 temple vessels back to Rome as booty. 38:16.320 --> 38:23.120 All that remains today of Jerusalem's temples is a retaining wall of massive stone blocks 38:23.120 --> 38:29.600 rising to a height of 50 feet, called Ha Kotel, or the Western Wall. 38:29.600 --> 38:38.000 In all of Jewish civilization, this is the holiest place. 38:38.000 --> 38:45.200 What crowns the Temple Mount today is a marvel of Muslim architecture, the Kubet es Sakra, 38:45.200 --> 38:46.880 or Dome of the Rock. 38:46.880 --> 38:52.500 It is as sacred to the followers of Mohammed as the temple was to the children of Israel. 38:52.500 --> 38:58.580 It shelters a rock upon which it is said, the patriarch Abraham prepared to sacrifice 38:58.580 --> 39:01.480 his son Isaac. 39:01.480 --> 39:09.560 It is also the rock from which Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven. 39:09.560 --> 39:15.400 Christians and Jews are forbidden from praying at the Dome or at the lovely Al Aqsa Mosque 39:15.400 --> 39:19.120 which stands nearby. 39:19.120 --> 39:25.120 Yet the Mount is the only site upon which the Jews may build a new, a third temple of 39:25.120 --> 39:33.680 Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple is foremost in the minds of most religious Jews. 39:33.680 --> 39:39.520 The Temple Mount, both Jews and Muslims claim it as their own. 39:39.520 --> 39:45.320 A former deputy mayor of Jerusalem called these conflicting claims a time bomb of apocalyptic 39:45.320 --> 39:52.560 dimensions. 39:52.560 --> 39:58.240 By 691 AD, the Muslims had completed building the Dome of the Rock. 39:58.240 --> 40:01.520 It has dominated the Temple Mount for 13 centuries. 40:01.520 --> 40:07.800 They're not about to see it razed to make way for a third and final Jewish temple. 40:07.800 --> 40:10.320 Many Jews pray for a miracle. 40:10.320 --> 40:15.200 The temple will come from heaven, they say, but there are zealots plotting to take the 40:15.200 --> 40:17.560 Temple Mount by force. 40:17.560 --> 40:22.440 One temple activist, a former soldier in the Israeli army, has attracted thousands of followers 40:22.440 --> 40:23.440 to the Temple Mount. 40:23.440 --> 40:27.920 Our vision, he explains, is to move the mosque, to move the Dome of the Rock and to have them 40:27.920 --> 40:32.600 rebuilt in Mecca. 40:32.600 --> 40:38.400 A group known as the Temple Institute is already preparing for a revived Jewish priesthood. 40:38.400 --> 40:41.960 Ritual instruments of sacrifice are being made. 40:41.960 --> 40:44.600 Ritual vestments are being sewn. 40:44.600 --> 40:49.600 In the shadow of the Western Wall, there are Talmudic schools where eager students are 40:49.600 --> 40:54.080 trained to perform the ancient rituals of the Jewish priests. 40:54.080 --> 40:58.480 A scale model of the third temple has already been constructed. 40:58.480 --> 41:02.360 Yet the Muslims hold fast to the Temple Mount. 41:02.360 --> 41:13.160 In 1990, a riot erupted when a group of Jews tried to lay a cornerstone for the new temple. 41:13.160 --> 41:19.520 Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ will not return to this world until the third 41:19.520 --> 41:23.960 temple of Jerusalem is built. 41:23.960 --> 41:30.640 How is it possible with this tinderbox situation between Muslim and Jew? 41:30.640 --> 41:39.520 He was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 41:39.520 --> 41:43.200 The ten-nation dictator will intervene. 41:43.200 --> 41:45.320 He will come as a peacemaker. 41:45.320 --> 41:49.080 If possible, he will deceive even the elect. 41:49.080 --> 41:52.600 Once and for all, he will settle the conflict over the Temple Mount. 41:52.600 --> 41:55.040 There will be no further dispute. 41:55.040 --> 41:58.240 The Temple will be rebuilt. 41:58.240 --> 42:01.640 And the children of Israel will rejoice. 42:01.640 --> 42:05.120 He has done more than settle a dispute, they'll say. 42:05.120 --> 42:09.000 He has fulfilled the covenant that the Lord God made with Abraham. 42:09.000 --> 42:13.880 But the celebrated dictator has other covenants to establish. 42:13.880 --> 42:19.000 He enters into an agreement in which he restores Palestine to the Israelites. 42:19.000 --> 42:24.120 This covenant marks the beginning of a seven-year period of tribulation, which will end only 42:24.120 --> 42:27.720 with the second coming of Christ. 42:27.720 --> 42:32.920 He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword 42:32.920 --> 42:35.040 and yet lived. 42:35.040 --> 42:42.360 Now, the false prophet that head and spine of power enthrones the dictator Antichrist 42:42.360 --> 42:45.960 in the new Temple of Jerusalem. 42:45.960 --> 42:51.880 All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written 42:51.880 --> 42:54.200 in the Book of Life. 42:54.200 --> 42:58.560 His image is to be worshipped, adored, prayed to. 42:58.560 --> 43:05.000 All who refuse will be killed. 43:05.000 --> 43:10.440 The betrayed Israelites respond as their ancestors had when the Emperor Caligula tried to install 43:10.440 --> 43:12.440 his image in their Temple. 43:12.440 --> 43:13.840 They revolt. 43:13.840 --> 43:16.520 They fight. 43:16.520 --> 43:34.160 And the dictator retaliates with such bloodletting that it pales the Holocaust of Hitler. 43:34.160 --> 43:42.720 The sixth sign, an invasion of Israel from the north. 43:42.720 --> 43:48.760 You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you. 43:48.760 --> 43:58.320 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that comes over the land. 43:58.320 --> 44:03.800 As the times were straining towards this last decade of the century, the seemingly unreachable 44:03.800 --> 44:09.120 Berlin Wall simply crumbled. 44:09.120 --> 44:12.800 The mighty Soviet Union disintegrated. 44:12.800 --> 44:16.240 The world reeled from the shockwaves. 44:16.240 --> 44:24.720 Biblical prophecy shed some light on what this could mean in the new millennium. 44:24.720 --> 44:30.160 Despite the dictator's spurned godhood, Israel as a nation rests prosperous and secure in 44:30.160 --> 44:34.200 its covenant with the federated states of Europe. 44:34.200 --> 44:38.880 But the thwarted Arab nations search hastily for allies. 44:38.880 --> 44:42.720 Students of biblical prophecy are inclined to believe that a nation of the north will 44:42.720 --> 44:46.000 do battle for them. 44:46.000 --> 44:49.080 The word of the Lord came to me. 44:49.080 --> 44:55.240 Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Messech 44:55.240 --> 44:56.240 and Tubal. 44:56.240 --> 45:06.640 Persia, Put and Kush will be with them, also Gomorrah with all his troops. 45:06.640 --> 45:13.200 The prophet Ezekiel foresees a new coalition, the nations of Persia and Ethiopia, Put and 45:13.200 --> 45:19.840 Gomorrah under the leadership of Gog of Magog to rival the federated states of Europe. 45:19.840 --> 45:23.960 Biblical scholars have pored over the names in this prophecy. 45:23.960 --> 45:27.800 There is unanimous agreement on some and disagreement on others. 45:27.800 --> 45:36.040 Gog means end time ruler and Magog, a nation that is both powerful and terrifying. 45:36.040 --> 45:42.240 Some see Moscow in the word Messech, others disagree. 45:42.240 --> 45:47.160 Before the events of 1989, it was easy to judge the atheistic Soviet Union to be the 45:47.160 --> 45:50.200 Gog of Magog of the scriptures. 45:50.200 --> 45:56.360 After the breakup of the Soviet Union, judgments have been reassessed and the old forces are 45:56.360 --> 45:57.360 stirring. 45:57.360 --> 46:01.320 Reunion is possible. 46:01.320 --> 46:04.880 Scholars are certain that the invasion will come from the north. 46:04.880 --> 46:10.560 For thousands of years, the land of Israel has always been invaded from the north, though 46:10.560 --> 46:16.040 north is not necessarily the location of every invader's homeland. 46:16.040 --> 46:21.000 The identity of the member states of this coalition is quite clear. 46:21.000 --> 46:24.520 Persia, which is present day Iran, is one. 46:24.520 --> 46:28.800 Ethiopia, once allied with the former Soviet Union, is another. 46:28.800 --> 46:33.000 Put is the biblical name for what today is Libya. 46:33.000 --> 46:36.360 Only the nation called Gomorrah is controversial. 46:36.360 --> 46:40.360 For decades, Gomorrah was believed to be communist East Germany. 46:40.360 --> 46:46.400 Without that East and West Germany have been united, there are doubts. 46:46.400 --> 46:52.360 Significantly, the names of these states go back to the first book of the Bible, to Japheth, 46:52.360 --> 46:54.320 the son of Noah. 46:54.320 --> 46:59.160 After the great flood, the sons of Japheth went north to the land of Rosh. 46:59.160 --> 47:02.000 Rosh sounds like Russia. 47:02.000 --> 47:06.520 As some biblical scholars prudently point out, the name Russia, derived from the Rus' 47:06.520 --> 47:11.600 Vikings, who founded the Kingdom of Kiev, did not come into existence until the 9th 47:11.600 --> 47:13.760 century AD. 47:13.760 --> 47:19.360 It is not clear why the federated states of Europe do not repel the Gog of Magog and his 47:19.360 --> 47:21.200 coalition. 47:21.200 --> 47:26.720 What is clear is that while Israel sleeps in the security of its new covenant, Gog and 47:26.720 --> 47:33.680 his allies attack like a cloud covering the land. 47:33.680 --> 48:03.320 The 48:03.320 --> 48:06.960 invasion is successful. 48:06.960 --> 48:12.480 However, the invaders are overly confident. 48:12.480 --> 48:24.880 They presume ownership of Israel's resources before winning them. 48:24.880 --> 48:31.480 Now the Lord God himself shows his face on the side of his chosen. 48:31.480 --> 48:37.880 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that 48:37.880 --> 48:43.240 moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth, will tremble at 48:43.240 --> 48:44.920 my presence. 48:44.920 --> 48:50.040 The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble, and every wall will fall to 48:50.040 --> 48:57.040 the ground. 48:57.040 --> 49:10.880 Gog and his coalition are destroyed. 49:10.880 --> 49:15.840 So great is the devastation that it takes seven months to bury all of the dead, and 49:15.840 --> 49:19.960 seven years to dispose of the horrid debris. 49:19.960 --> 49:28.040 But this war is a mere prelude to what is to come. 49:28.040 --> 49:34.400 Zechariah of the Old Testament prophesies that all the nations will descend upon the 49:34.400 --> 49:39.360 land of Israel to do battle at Armageddon. 49:39.360 --> 49:48.280 In 1942, December the 2nd, at the site of the University of Chicago, the atom was first 49:48.280 --> 49:51.960 split. 49:51.960 --> 49:58.240 In the split second of that first atomic flash, a new age came into being, the age of nuclear 49:58.240 --> 50:00.760 energy and of nuclear war. 50:00.760 --> 50:09.120 If the battle of Armageddon is inevitable, it will be a holocaust of nuclear firepower. 50:09.120 --> 50:14.000 If this comes to pass, one could say the battle had its origins at this spot, where Henry 50:14.000 --> 50:22.720 Moir's commemorative sculpture now stands. 50:22.720 --> 50:29.640 The seventh sign, the battle of Armageddon. 50:29.640 --> 50:39.640 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it. 50:39.640 --> 50:44.760 Zechariah of the Old Testament prophesies that all the nations will descend upon the 50:44.760 --> 50:47.520 land of Israel to do battle. 50:47.520 --> 50:52.520 He foresees a battle in which a goodly part of the human race will perish. 50:52.520 --> 51:00.600 The name of the place where this battle will be fought strikes terror into the heart. 51:00.600 --> 51:02.840 Armageddon. 51:02.840 --> 51:08.240 Many Christians believe that the whole of Jewish history is a chronicle of Satan's 51:08.240 --> 51:16.720 efforts to destroy God's chosen people and to upset God's plan of redemption for mankind. 51:16.720 --> 51:22.560 The time is coming when this adversary of God makes a great final effort to achieve 51:22.560 --> 51:32.720 his ends. 51:32.720 --> 51:36.440 Megiddo is peaceful now. 51:36.440 --> 51:42.040 In the ancient world, this was a vital crossroads for trade. 51:42.040 --> 51:48.240 Below the ruins of the city you now see lie buried 20 other Megiddo's, one on top of 51:48.240 --> 51:49.720 the other. 51:49.720 --> 51:55.120 The city has been rebuilt 20 times. 51:55.120 --> 52:01.040 The valley of Megiddo stretches from the Mediterranean across northern Israel. 52:01.040 --> 52:06.920 When Napoleon visited, his military assessment was that in the Megiddo plain, nature had 52:06.920 --> 52:11.640 made her greatest battlefield. 52:11.640 --> 52:20.440 We know Megiddo better by its other name, Armageddon. 52:20.440 --> 52:25.760 Through the offices of the dictator of the federated states of Europe and his false prophet, 52:25.760 --> 52:32.560 Megiddo's adversary draws the armies of the world to do battle in this broad valley. 52:32.560 --> 52:39.080 It will be the last battle human beings ever fight. 52:39.080 --> 52:42.160 They march from every point of the compass. 52:42.160 --> 52:45.120 More armies sweep down from the north. 52:45.120 --> 52:47.600 Other armies will invade from the south. 52:47.600 --> 52:52.160 Under the God of War, the only God that the Antichrist will acknowledge other than himself, 52:52.160 --> 52:57.560 the federated states of Europe dispatch frac troops from the west, troops with superior 52:57.560 --> 52:58.560 weapons. 52:58.560 --> 53:05.240 But an army of vastly superior numbers pours in from the east, east of the Euphrates. 53:05.240 --> 53:11.800 Since this army is prophesied to be 200 million strong, one suspects a coalition of Asian 53:11.800 --> 53:14.600 nations headed by China. 53:14.600 --> 53:33.000 From north, south, east and west they come, and they clash here. 53:33.000 --> 53:38.760 Butowe now recognises the 53:38.760 --> 53:57.800 strategy used by XIăng kicks off their move. 54:57.800 --> 55:14.360 I saw heaven open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful 55:14.360 --> 55:16.600 and True. 55:16.600 --> 55:25.520 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. 55:25.520 --> 55:31.560 Christ who has returned in glory judges the godless nations. 55:31.560 --> 55:41.080 From his holy city, Jerusalem, he will reign triumphant, and his kingdom will become eternal. 55:41.080 --> 55:43.920 The unholy trinity is crushed. 55:43.920 --> 55:49.400 Satan is forever banished. 55:49.400 --> 56:07.380 The redeemed of humankind live in the bliss of God's unchallenged reign over the universe. 56:07.380 --> 56:13.440 To those outside the fold, the prophesied future may seem very gloomy. 56:13.440 --> 56:19.280 The believers try to see through the chaos to Christ's coming. 56:19.280 --> 56:25.800 They claim that the message of prophecy is not fearful, it is charged with hope. 56:25.800 --> 56:32.040 And they take comfort in the advice given by Jesus when he foresaw these events. 56:32.040 --> 56:39.240 When these things come to pass, look up and lift your head. 56:39.240 --> 56:43.520 Behold, I am coming soon. 56:43.520 --> 56:50.720 My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 56:50.720 --> 57:15.160 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.