The Coming of a False Peace – John MacArthur

 

Good sermon by John MacArthur. He hasn’t figured out all of it perfectly right; the bit that I am particularly interested in occurs between 6:28–24:03 minutes into the video, where he talks about the globalists trying to create a One World Government, and the biblical parallels to it. He has got that bit right. Here is the transcript of the relevant part of the sermon:

“Now this is a very popular desire: world peace. I think we know that. We are all aware of the fact that people have been talking about global unity, One World Government, for a long time; and there are many conspiracy theories about people secretly moving everything in that direction. But there are also realities which are anything but secret; and are not theories, but are certainly actions being taken by globalists to move the world toward One World Government. This is escalating among the elitist, power-hungry people who control the levers of culture and society; they want One World Government. And why do they want that?

“Well they give several reasons: one is what they call equity, so that they can redistribute all the assets, and all the wealth, and all the possessions equally across the planet to everyone. Another one is because of currency; they have a desire for a singular currency, global currency; and they would like that to be crypto currency, electronic currency, so they can control all finances, and all spending by everyone. And then another one of their motivating desires is environment; they want equal commitment upon every nation of the world, all people of the world, to the environmental plan. Right now many nations are supposedly doing what they can to achieve environmental goals; while many other nations pay no attention. Another one of their goals is taxation: they want global taxation so that no one, no corporation, can escape to some location where the taxation is lower.

“Another reason for their desire for a global One World Government is immigration; they want to eliminate immigration altogether; they want to eliminate it by simply saying, anybody can go anywhere they want to go, anytime, any way—free movement of everyone. Another one of their goals in having a One World Government is what they call crisis response, which was illustrated during the lockdown and the pandemic with Covid. They want to make sure the whole world responds the way the World Health Organization thinks they should respond; they want control over the responses to any kind of disease, any kind of pandemic; and they want uniformity. And then of course, a big one: war; because nations fight each other; and this seems to go on all the time. They want to eliminate nations, so that there are no national wars. And the goal of all of this: if they can create equity, common currency, control of the environment, universal taxation, eliminate borders so there’s no illegal immigration, control all crises, and end all wars—will bring about world peace.

“I don’t know if you know this, but they already have a flag, it is called the One World Flag. It is the flag of humanity and the unity of the nations. Part of it is green for the earth, humanity, human progress and unity, agriculture, and life; part of it is blue for the United Nations, hope, water, atmosphere we breathe, and sky; part of it is black for the darkness of space, hardship that humanity will overcome, and the last frontier of human exploration, and settlement of the solar system and beyond. And it has 13 stars because they have divided the globe into 13 regions—One World Government.

They are serious about this; this is one of the reasons I told you months ago that they have a problem with America, because of the emphasis here on nationalism. That is a threat to their efforts to remove national identity.

“Is this a good idea? Is this a reasonable idea? We can find that out very easily by going all the way back to the book of Genesis; so turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 11. One World System is not a new idea, it is a very old idea—and by the way, a very Satanic idea—an old idea. When I say that, I mean Genesis chapter 11. Not long after God had destroyed the the entire world in the flood, leaving only eight people to reconstitute humanity again; soon after that we come to chapter 11; and this is what we read in verse one: the whole earth used the same language, and the same words; so there was every reason to assume that they could rather easily pull off one world government—since they all spoke the same language—that would eliminate one formidable barrier. And it came about in verse 2, that as they journeyed east, that they found a plane in the land of Shinar—that, by the way, is the Mesopotamian valley between the Tigers and the Euphrates, where the Garden of Eden once was—and they settled there.

“Now that sounds innocent enough, but the problem with that is that wasn’t God’s design. Back in Genesis 1—and they knew this, this was the creation mandate—verse 28: after God made man in his own image, after he created him male and female, verse 28 of Genesis 1, God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it’. Part of the creation mandate was to spread over the whole earth. They had done that, God drowned that evil society, and they were to start all over again with the descendants of Noah. But they didn’t want to do that; they wanted to settle in one place. So they said in verse 3 to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, burn them thoroughly’—that is to say, so that they would be strong; and they used brick for stone, and they used tar for Mortar—and they said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven; and let us make for ourselves a name; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth’.

“They knew they were supposed to be scattered over the face of the whole earth. That was the creation mandate. That was God’s order to them, in the original creation. But they were rebels against God; they did not want to do that. They wanted to stay together; and so they decided that they would build a city, and they would build a tower, and they would make a name for themselves. The Lord came down, verse 5, to see the city, and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language, and this is what they began to do; and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech’. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. And by the way, the scattering is described in chapter 10; chapter 10 gives you the scattering, in chapter 11 gives you the reason. God wanted them scattered over the whole earth.

“What is going on here? Well, first of all man says, ‘Come, let us,’ ‘Come, let us’—same language, same words—literally in Hebrew, one lip, and one set of words. We are all unified. They were all descendants of Noah. They realized that they were in power; and they wanted to concentrate that power; and concentrated power concentrates and exacerbates evil—a unified force of sinners with no restraints, as the Lord says in verse 6: ‘They will do anything they purpose to do, nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them’—there are no restraints. This is concentrated power of evil people. One evil ruler could corrupt the whole world. Nations provide restraint; and the power of sinners is diffused, and spread out. World Unity is an absolute disaster; it puts too much power into too few Sinners—and maybe too much power in even one sinner. World Unity is a complete disaster; it is what Satan wants; it is what God does not want—at least until he releases Satan to accomplish his purpose. Satan wants, and showed his hand in Genesis 11, a One World Government led by a coterie of sinners who can function without any restraint. This is a picture of Antichrist—a dictator who will rule the world, who will consolidate evil across the entire face of the earth. This is Satan’s desire.

“Now looking a little deeper, there was a leader in Genesis—go back to chapter 10, in verse 8, and you see there the name Nimrod. He was from the line of Ham—Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. Nimrod was from the line of Ham. It says in verse 8, he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter—literally the word means warrior, or killer. He was not a killer of animals, he was a killer of people—in other words, he ascended to power by killing people. It is as if that he was next to the Lord—he had assumed such power. It was even said commonly, Nimrod is a mighty killer before the Lord, meaning he is a rival in a sense to God himself, he has so much power; and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.

“So here we have some very interesting things; this is the first time the word kingdom appears in scripture. This is the first time there is a kingdom, it is the first time there is a king. He is a fascinating figure. In verses 8 and 9, three times he is called ‘mighty’—mighty in an evil sense. He is a killer. He is the great grandson of Noah, the grandson of righteous Ham. He wielded deadly power; he was ruthless in the Euphrates valley; no doubt establishing his kingdom by the means of death—and having established that, he literally could perpetuate his own evil through the entire population of the world, because there were no other powers to stop him. But God identified it as Babel because he wouldn’t allow it to happen. It becomes known as the Tower of Babel, because God changes their language, and all that comes out of that effort is confusion; and then in verse 9, the Lord scatters them abroad over the whole earth.

“So Nimrod, rebelling against the creation mandate of God—evil Nimrod, murderous Nimrod, rebelled. Idolatrous Nimrod wanted to build a city; and why a city? because a city is concentrated humanity; and that of course is you have the greatest concentration and expression of sin and iniquity. We know that from how cities function even today. And then a tower, essentially a ziggurat, as it was called in ancient times. At the base would be some kind of idolatry, some kind of worship; and the tower ascending as far into heaven as they could build it, as in a sense a figure of their desire to reach the gods. And then having achieved the greatness of a city, and such a tower that penetrates even to the heavens and touches deity, they would have made a name for themselves.

“There was no concern for God, there was no interest in his will or his purpose; it was all about what they could accomplish. This is clearly Satanic. As a result God—and you can see it in verse 7—says, ‘Let us go down’. Verse 4 they said, ‘Let us build’. In response God said, ‘Let us go down, and confuse their languages’—very effective by the way, very effective. Chaos breaks out, the city plan is shattered, the religion is splintered into bits and pieces, they don’t make a name for themselves, and then the Lord scatters them all over the Earth. And you can see just where, as you read chapter 10. Human pride, human ambition, power, designing One World Government is thwarted by God. It gives too much power to too few people, without balance, without restraint. It is the worst of all possible human government.”

I like the man, I think he is a good guy! He is still saddled with the heresy of Calvinism; but that is okay. As long as his heart is in the right place, he can still be saved! 😄

Catholics and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary

 

I came across the above video in which Trent Horn, a Catholic apologist from the Catholic Answers, is discussing and defending the Catholic doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, against arguments to the contrary—in this case by James White. I am no fan of Protestantism. I have a lot more respect for Catholicism than for Protestantism. So my aim here is not to defend Protestantism against Catholicism. But the Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary is evidently unbiblical and incorrect, and needs to be refuted. The best way to refute it, however, is to start at something more fundamental than that. The Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary has a more foundational theological basis—and that is the basic Catholic idea that virginity and abstinence from sex is somehow morally superior to having legitimate sexual relationships within the bonds of lawful marriage. That is the justification for enforced priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church; and having monasteries filled with celibate monks and nuns! That is the real foundation for the Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary. She would be viewed as somehow less pure and holy if she had legitimate sexual relations with her lawful and legally married husband. That is the real, more foundational issue with Catholic theology and doctrine.

That doctrine, however, is undoubtedly unbiblical and incorrect. The first thing that God said after he had created Adam was, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). The Catholic Church says the opposite: it says, “It is good for man to be alone!” When God says one thing, and the Catholic Church says the opposite, it is a no-brainer which one is right and which one is wrong. And what it says in that scripture about “man” is equally applicable to “woman”. It is not “good” for either of them to be “alone”. So that is one obvious contradiction, but there is more:

The first great commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve after they were created was to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28). He did not qualify that statement by adding, “But if you remain celibate, you will be more holy!” That again is in direct contradiction to the Catholic dogma and doctrine. In Catholicism, being celibate is more holy! Again, when God says one thing, and the Catholic Church says the opposite, it is a no-brainer which is the right one. Examples abound, one more example will be sufficient:

The greatest blessing that God gave to Abraham (and his descendants) was that he would multiply his seed as the “stars of heaven” for multitude, and as the “sand which is upon the sea shore;” and that through him and his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:15-19; see also Genesis 24:59-61; 28:13-14). God didn’t qualify that statement by adding, “But if you remain celibate, you will be more holy!” The Catholic Church says the exact opposite, and therefore it cannot be of God.

That is the real source and origin of the Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary. She would be seen somehow as less pure and holy if she had continued to have sexual relations with her legally and lawfully wedded husband, after she had given birth to Jesus—which contradicts everything that the Bible has said. So the best way to refute that false dogma of Catholicism is to start at a more fundamental level, than just by quoting the obvious biblical verses (Matthew 1:24–25; Mark 6:3; John 2:12; 7:5-10) that do indeed contradict that doctrine, as James has pointed out.