Welcome again to the approaching Storm series. This is the third presentation in a series of seven on last day events. In this presentation, we will take a detailed look at a key prophetic end time event in the book of Revelation that will separate the entire world into two groups, those who worship God and give glory to him and those who worship the beast and his image. Let's begin this study with prayer. God in heaven during this presentation, open our eyes that we may know how to commit ourselves to you now that we will be faithful when the storm comes. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. There are a growing number of Seventh-day Adventists who are questioning the traditional Adventist interpretation of last day events. They question whether there will one day be a Sunday law enforced in this country and around the world. It is difficult for some to believe that the United States could be anything other than the religious liberty stronghold that it has been since our founding days, but there is evidence even now that the wall separating church and state is much weaker than it used to be. We begin this presentation by looking at just one example of current behind the scenes forces that are desiring to bring overtly religious laws to the forefront of American politics and policy. I believe there is strong evidence to support the Seventh-day Adventist belief that in the future the United States will legislate a day of rest and enforce it upon the world, and the wall separating church and state is much closer to collapsing than many may realize. Project 2025 was a movement in this country before the last presidential election and was supported by over a hundred respected organizations in the United States. It was not an underground or secret movement in any way. In fact, their flagship publication, a book entitled Mandate for Leadership, the Conservative Promise was made available to read online for free and is still available for download today. The book is a product of more than 400 scholars and policy experts from around the country in chapter 18 entitled the Department of Labor and Related Agencies. On page 589, there is a recommendation by the author of that chapter, Jonathan Berry. He recommends that the United States Congress should be involved in encouraging a communal day of rest and should create laws that regulate compensation for those who do have to work on that day. The author states that the Sabbath would default to Sunday even though there should be flexibility for employers who might want to choose a different day of rest. I wanna make something clear here. This is not from my reading of the chapter, A recommendation to enact a Sunday law in the exact form that we will be discussing in the rest of this presentation. I'm sharing this information with you to simply bring to your attention that there are at the present time very powerful and influential individuals and groups who are not afraid to blur the lines between church and state. Some of these individuals are currently elected or appointed US government officials, including the author of this chapter, Jonathan Berry, who was appointed October 7th, 2025 as the solicitor of the United States Department of Labor. It may be those who were directly involved with Project 2025, who will be the key players to dismantle religious liberty in this country as we know it today, or it may be others in the future. We don't know. What we do know from Bible prophecy is that religious liberty will disappear in the United States. The main framework of how that will happen and the choice you will have to make at that time is clearly portrayed in Revelation chapters 13 and 14. Before we take a closer look in Revelation, it's important that we understand the rules on how to interpret Bible prophecy. The first method in figuring out what a prophetic passage means is to do a quick reading of the entire prophecy and look for clues, words or phrases, storylines that point you to other places in Scripture that help to provide the prophetic keys for interpretation. Sometimes those keys to unlock the meaning of a prophecy will be found in nearby texts. This happens in the Book of Revelation in several places, but let's look at just one. Most Seventh-day Adventists are familiar with this well-known example of how Scripture interprets Scripture as found in Revelation 17 verse one and 15. Revelation 17, one says then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. Then towards the end of the chapter, the angel gives the interpretation of what waters means in the prophecy. Then he said to me, the waters, which you saw, where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. The keys to unlock Bible prophecy are found in the Bible itself. Waters are a symbol for peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. Once we have the key, we are able to safely apply that understanding to other passages of prophecy where that word or phrase is used. Another example is Revelation 18 verse 21 in a passage describing the fall of spiritual Babylon. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, thus with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore. Why did the angel phrase it that way? Was it just a poetic way of making a point that in time Babylon, the great evil power of revelation was going to be destroyed and rise no more? I don't think so. I believe it was stated this way so that the reader who was well versed in the Old Testament would make a connection to another passage where a stone was thrown into the water with almost the exact same prediction being made. Look at this in Jeremiah 51 and Jeremiah said to Seraiah, when you arrive in Babylon and see it and read all these words, then you shall say, oh Lord, you have spoken against this place to cut it off so that none shall remain in it. Neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever. Now it shall be when you have finished reading this book that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. Then you shall say, thus, Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. Incredible, almost the exact same language as used in revelation. Don't miss this one small phrase or word in revelation can become a signpost pointing you to another place in the Bible that will help explain what you are reading in Revelation. Revelation 1821 points us to Jeremiah's prophecy about the fall and destruction of ancient Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51. These two chapters in Jeremiah help us to interpret the prophecies of revelation. There are many direct references in Jeremiah to themes found in Revelation, God calling people to come out of Babylon, plagues on Babylon, a golden cup that Babylon uses to make the nations drunk and horses like locusts. All of these are found both in Jeremiah and in Revelation. The fall of ancient Babylon gives us great insight into the fall of end time Babylon. Here's the point. This is the same method of interpretation that we are going to use during this presentation to understand future end time events as found in Revelation 13 and 14. In Revelation 13, we find many words and phrases that point us back to the Old Testament. In fact, the outline of Revelation 13 mirrors almost exactly an entire story in the Old Testament, so here is one quiz question for those of you who know your Bibles well. What story in the Old Testament matches these facts found in Revelation 13? There is a political power that makes an image. Everyone is commanded to worship the image. Those who refuse to worship the image are threatened with death. If you answered the story of the three Hebrews and the fiery furnace as found in Daniel chapter three, you are correct. There is an amazing similarity between Daniel three and Revelation 13. First, there is a political power that makes an image. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon and then in Revelation 1314, and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the side of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. Secondly, everyone is commanded to worship the image. Daniel three, then a herald cried aloud to you. It is commanded O peoples, nations and languages that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Revelation 1315, he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Thirdly, those who disobey are threatened with death and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Revelation 1315, he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Here is something very interesting. The number six is connected directly to false worship. Nebuchadnezzar, the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Revelation 1318. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man. His number is 666. Lastly, there is a small remnant who remains loyal to God. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, let it be known to you O king that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Then in Revelation 12, verse 17, which is right at the end of chapter 12, right before chapter 13 begins, and the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Do you see how God put signposts in and around Revelation 13 to point the Bible student back to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. From that story, we can know what happens in the future from what happened in the past, so let's dig a bit deeper. What was the contest on the plain of Dura really about what were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego asked to do bow down and worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up Correct. Why didn't they bow? Because the King's command was directly against the second of the 10 commandments. The battle on the plain of Dura revolved entirely around whether to obey the commandments of God or to obey the commandments of men. It will be no different In the last great conflict depicted in Revelation 13, the last battle will be a fight over loyalties and obedience. In comparing Revelation and Daniel, we see that the last conflict will revolve around obedience having to do with worship. We know this because of how many times the word worship or a form of it is used In Revelation 13 and 14, it is the main theme of these two chapters. We don't have time to read through them all, but here are the references to the word worship or a form of it in these chapters. Revelation 13, five, it's used twice, worshiped, worshiped. Revelation 13, eight, worship. Revelation 13, 12 worship. Revelation 13, 15, worship. Revelation 14, seven, worship. Revelation 14, nine worships. Revelation 13 and 14 portray a clear picture of the last great worship war. Revelation 13 highlights the activities of the three antagonists of God, the dragon, the first beast and the second beast. Revelation 14 highlights the activities of the three angels of God, the first, second, and third angel. The evil trio use their voices to blaspheme, deceive and coerce the inhabitants of the earth to worship in the manner they dictate. The angelic trio uses their loud voices to praise God than to invite and warn the inhabitants of the earth to worship God in the way he desires to be worshiped. It is important at this point to define what the Greek word worship means. This is from my favorite Bible app. The blue letter Bible, worship, to kiss the hand toward one in token of reverence, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence, in the New Testament by kneeling or prostration to do homage to one or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication the center of the last great worship war is about loyalty, submission, service and obedience. Every human being will have to decide who they are going to worship. Here is where this gets very interesting. There are some pretty powerful clues in Revelation chapters 12 through 14 that point to the fact that the battle over worship also includes a battle over a worship day. Time doesn't allow us to fully unpack this, but there are many Bible studies and evangelistic presentations that go into depth on this and I encourage you to watch those or listen to those, but I wanna show you the path of logic followed by Seventh-day Adventists to believe that the Sabbath as God's day of worship will be the center focus of the last worship battle. First is we have already seen from the connection between Revelation 13 and Daniel three, the final conflict will be about whether to obey the commandments of men or obey the commandments of God. This is supported by two texts on both sides of Revelation 13, one in Revelation 12 and the other in Revelation 14. We read one of them earlier. It was Revelation 12 verse 17, and the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Then Revelation 1412, here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. It seems clear from these texts that obedience to God's commandments is central in the last fight for loyalty with the implication that the wicked during that time are not keeping God's commandments in some way and the saints are. There are two other texts that strongly support the belief that the fourth commandment about the Sabbath will be the main focus of attack in the last days. Both texts are found in Revelation 14. The first text is found in the first angel's message in Revelation 14, six and seven. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. Biblical linguists will tell you that this phrasing to worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water is the closest phrase in revelation to an almost exact phrase in the Old Testament. Remember our interpreting rule about signposts? This is one of them. Where in the Old Testament do we find this phrase pointing to? To the fourth commandment in Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11, specifically verse 11. This commandment is the one which deals exclusively with the day that God made as a day of worship for all mankind. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Using the same method for interpretation, it would appear that in the midst of the final worship war, the first angel is holding high a signpost saying, go look at the fourth commandment. There you will find how to worship God and to worship him his way on his day. There is another interesting clue. We find a few verses later in Revelation 14 verse 11 that gives some indication that the last fight may be over a day of rest. Look at what the third angel says about those who worship the beast and his image and receives his mark on their forehead or on their hand. Let's read Revelation 14, verse 11, and they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. The Greek word here for rest is anapausis, which means intermission or cessation of any motion, business or labor, and here's the clincher. It is the word used consistently in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for Sabbath rest. It is the word the Apostle John chose to make the point that those who worship the beast and his image have no Sabbath rest, and then in the very next verse, it points readers back to those who worship God the proper way by saying, here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. I hope it has become clear that Seventh-day Adventists have a strong scriptural foundation for believing that the Sabbath will be at the center of the last great worship war. Many of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, especially Ellen White, wrote extensively about a future time when there would no longer be religious freedom in the United States. I wanna share some of those descriptions by Ellen White of what will be taking place in the United States and around the world during the time period of Revelation 13 and 14. I will be reading quite a few quotes without much commentary. I want to let her writing speak for itself. We begin with what will take place in the United States. A time is coming when the law of God is in a special sense to be made void in our land. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments enforce the Sunday law and thus God's people be brought into great peril. When our nation and its legislative councils shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh day Sabbath. The law of God will, to all intents and purposes be made void in our land and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin. What sets the stage for the Sunday law? Through the two great errors the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness. Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism, they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome and trampling on the rights of conscience. Why will the United States government create a national Sunday law? There are two main causes. When the leading churches of the United States uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions. Then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result. Pressure by the leading churches on the government will be the first cause, and there will be a second reason where Satan will be directly involved. Even now, he is at work in accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempest floods, cyclones, tidal waves and earthquakes in every place. And in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. The earth mourneth and fadeth away. The haughty people do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of heaven will charge all of their troubles upon those whose obedience to God's commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday Sabbath. That this sin has brought calamities, which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday are troublers of the people preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. Will the Sunday law only happen in the United States? As America, the land of religious liberty shall unite with the papacy in enforcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false Sabbath. The people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example. The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented by the beast with lamb-like horns shall cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the papacy, there symbolized by the beast like the leopard. The beast with two horns is also to say to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast. And furthermore, it is to command all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive the mark of the beast. It has been shown that the United States is the power represented by the beast with lamb-like horns and that this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance, which Rome claims as the special acknowledgement of her supremacy. The Sunday law will be the event that separates the world into two classes, those for or against the government of heaven. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation by merely human authority of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal himself. He will arise in his majesty to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity. The great conflict that Satan created in the heavenly courts is soon, very soon to be forever decided. Soon all the inhabitants of the earth will have taken sides either for or against the government of heaven. Now, as never before, Satan is exercising his deceiving power to mislead, and to every unguarded soul we are called upon to arouse the people to prepare for the great issues before them, we must give warning to those who are standing on the very brink of ruin. God's people are to put forth every power in combating Satan's falsehoods and pulling down his strongholds. To every human being in the wide world who will give heed. We are to make plain the principles at stake in the Great Controversy, principles upon which hangs the eternal destiny of the soul. To the people far and near we are to bring home the question, are you following the great apostate in disobedience to God's law? Or are you following the son of God who declared, I have kept my Father's commandments? Will the Sunday law take place before or after the close of probation? The image of the beast will be formed before probation closes for it is to be the great test for the people of God by which their eternal destiny will be decided. This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who prove their loyalty to God by observing his law and refusing to accept a spurious Sabbath will rank under the banner of the Lord God, Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath will receive the mark of the beast, the seal or the mark. Everyone on earth will receive one or the other. Are you willing like those three young Hebrew men to choose loyalty to God no matter what the consequences? They made the decision to be loyal and to obey the truth at any cost and Jesus honored their commitment even showing up in the midst of the fiery furnace to miraculously protect them from the very real time of trouble they were in. That same test of loyalty is coming soon. We read the first day of the week, a common working day possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as the golden image at Babylon. All nations and tongues and peoples will be commanded to worship this spurious Sabbath. This is Satan's plan to make of no account the day instituted by God and given to the world as a memorial of creation. The decree enforcing the worship of this day is to go forth to all the world. Trial and persecution will come to all who in obedience to the word of God refuse to worship this false Sabbath. Force is the last resort of every false religion. We need the same spirit that was manifested by God's servants in the conflict with paganism. Truth is to be obeyed at any cost, even though gaping prisons, chain gangs and banishment stare us in the face. If you are loyal and true, that God who walked with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, who protected Daniel in the lion's den, who manifested himself to John on the lonely isle of Patmos will go with you wherever you go. His abiding presence will comfort and sustain you. As we close this presentation, I want you to imagine that you and your family are standing with the three Hebrew worthies on the plain of Dura with a towering image before you and the smoke of a great furnace billowing into the sky. You have just heard the king say, but if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? May your answer be the same as those three young men. We don't need to think about our answer. The God we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand, oh king, but if not, we still won't worship your gods and we will not worship the gold image you have set up. I wanna pray for you and your families, oh God in heaven. I ask that you give us the faith like these three young men that we will learn to trust you now so that whatever comes in the future, Lord, we will remain faithful for you. Lord bless each of our families. Keep our hearts bound with yours. Lord, we trust you and thank you for being our Savior. In the name of Jesus, amen.