Why are the 10 Nations of Europe Moving Toward a Military?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say, time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to see you all in again today. And again, we want to always thank you folks for taking the time to come in and be a part of our production. And we always know that others are watching the program when they come up and tell our people, well, I saw you on television. So just be aware that you are part and parcel of it. And when we go to other states for our seminars and everything, they say, well, you know, those people that we see on there every day, we just feel like we know them as well as we know you. So just take that to account that you're all a part of it with us. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 3, you know, we are all in God's building. And that's all part of being in the body of Christ. Again, we like to remind our television audience that we're just an informal Bible study. And we find we are, I think, succeeding by virtue of the work of the Holy Spirit to get people to read and study the Bible on their own. I never want someone to say, well, this is what Les said. I want people to be able to say, but this is what the Word of God says. And hopefully we're succeeding. It just seems as though so many tell us wherever we go, that for the first time in their life, they're studying their Bible and they're understanding it. And of course, the secret is to divide and separate God's dealing with Israel and His dealing with the Church. Now, of course, we always like to remind our television audience, because every day phone calls come in, do we have books or do we have tapes? So yes, we have the little booklets, which are a composite of 12 programs. And those same 12 programs then are on the corresponding videotape and the audio cassette tape. And they start in Genesis and they followed us all the way up through to where we are presently in Ephesians. So if you're interested in any of those, you just give us a call and the girls will fill you in on the detail. Okay, we want to use every moment we possibly can. So we're going to, at least for starters, so that we'll know what program we're in and what Scripture. We're going to have you turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25. We closed our last program, you'll remember, up there in verse 23 and 24, where Paul has reminded us now that as a result of our salvation, believing the Gospel, that we have a new man. We have been created and we have a new creation living within us, which of course overcomes and hopefully the old nature, and the two then become a battleground. And it behooves us to feed the new nature with the things of the Spirit, because the old nature feeds on the things of the flesh. Now there again, it just comes to mind, you know we had that as a beautiful picture when Noah first let the raven out of the ark and it didn't come back, because it could feed on the old creation. But when he let the dove out, which is a picture I think of a new life, the Spirit life, the dove couldn't feed on the old creation, so it came back to the ark. And then of course when he let it out seven days later, I think it was, and it finally came back with an olive leaf, which showed that there was new life. Well it's the same way today. Once we become a believer, we don't feed on the old life, but we feed rather on the things of the Spirit that enhance the new life. Now I've been debating all the way up to Tulsa this morning, whether I should do this or not, but I think in light of the fact we have so many people constantly calling and writing, well what about this deal in Kosovo with regard to prophecy. And of course the first thing I always say is that we are not living in a time of prophecy being fulfilled. That won't happen until the tribulation begins, but we are living in days where the end times are certainly coming to pass, not in fulfillment of prophecy, but to set the stage for prophecy, which I feel will begin when the Antichrist signs that seven year treaty in the Middle East. And always remember my definition of prophecy is when things are foretold within a time frame. And so the church age is not in a time frame. Nobody knows when it'll end, and so consequently it is not an area of true prophecy. But certainly things are happening that are setting the stage for when prophecy will kick in, and that is when the Antichrist signs his treaty. I just read a couple interesting things. First a gentleman sent me some articles from the news magazine called Europe, which is strictly a magazine to report the events in Europe. And out of that I picked up something that I had totally missed, and if I missed it I feel a lot of other people missed it. And that is that beginning in the late 50's and through the 60's we had those original ten nations of Western Europe, which for the longest time the world referred to as the ten. And I remember reading about it in the various news magazines all the way up through the 70's, and they were always referred to as the ten. And so when I taught back there a couple or three years ago from Revelation and Daniel, I naturally referred to the ten then as what I thought was the revived Roman Empire. And it fits so beautifully to Daniel and Revelation that I was very comfortable with that. And then all of a sudden the ten expanded to eleven, and twelve, and thirteen, fourteen, and I guess one of the later times that I taught Revelation I just explained to my classes, well maybe it will go on up to fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, but rest assured by the time the Antichrist is ready to appear and sign the seven year treaty and prophecy will begin, it will drop back to ten. Well now I learned from this magazine Europe, that there are two separate organizations in Western Europe. The one is the original ten, and for those of you on our television audience I'll put it on the board. And the ten as we've known it ever since like I said the 60's, is equal to the Western European Union. And so it is usually referred to now in abbreviated form as the WEU, and it is still the ten. But the organization that we've been hearing the most about, especially now during this fracas in Kosovo, is the European Union. Without the Western on it, it's just the European Union. But the interesting thing is that within the European Union are the original ten, but the European Union last I read is now up to nineteen. So I'm still on solid ground because the ten are still intact, they are a separate organization from these nineteen nations, and so they can still be the revived Roman Empire out of which the Antichrist will come. Well when we left Indiana Monday, somebody gave me the Sunday edition of the New York Times, and I was looking at that early this morning, and one of the front page articles was that this organization, the ten, the Western European Union, are frantically getting their own military established so that the next time something comes up, they won't have to depend on the American military for their power. And I just sat there and I can't believe my eyes. And so they have already set a timetable, not this, not the nineteen, but the ten according to that article have met just now in the last week or two, and they are frantically hoping to have a real czar, a real chairman of the board, who by sometime in the year 2000 will be in total control of their military, their security, and they hope to have as strong a military force as we now have with the United States involved as well, because they want to be able to do what we've done in consort, they want to be able to do it by themselves. So that just tells me again that we are getting so close, so close to the time when out of that ten nation complex, which will be the real revived Roman Empire, out of it will come then the Antichrist. So these are just interesting little tidbits, and all I wanted to bring out of that is, Kosovo in itself I don't think has a real direct implication on all this. But indirectly now because of the Kosovo deal, the Western European Union suddenly realized that they are inept militarily for such another fracas. So they're going to have to really speed things up and get ready in case something else comes along and not have to depend on America. Well you know when I taught prophecy, what did I tell you? There are going to be three major areas of military power by the time we get to the Tribulation, and that will be Western Europe, China or the Orient, and Africa. I feel that Russia and the United States will somehow meet their demise and will no longer be a factor in the events of the Tribulation period. Well, that's just something for you to chew on and lay awake at night and think about. Don't worry about it, but as I told my folks in the seminars in Indiana, the reason I don't spend as much time in prophecy as I do, is because why in the world should Christians be all concerned about what's going to happen during the Tribulation? We're not going to be here anyway. But how much more important it is to know what God wants us to know today, how we can know that we won't be here when it all happens, and that is of course to have the Gospel. So that's one reason I spend as much time in Paul's epistles in which there is no prophecy, and so we continue to just simply teach that which people need today. I'll let the prophecy people take care of what's going to happen after we're gone. But some of these things I think are appropriate, because it tells us how close we are to the sudden coming of the Antichrist, before which I feel we have to leave. Now I suppose our half hour is half gone, so we'll come back a minute to Ephesians chapter 4, and pick up where we left off after our last program, down at verse 25. I guess I should just for a little quick review go all the way back to verse 12 in this chapter, where Paul has told us that God is leaving three different kinds of men to carry on the work of the Body of Christ. And that was up there in verse 11 of this same chapter, and that is that there would be evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And then the next verse told us the purpose for their being given, for the perfecting, or the maturing of the saints, and the work of the ministry for edifying the Body of Christ. Now I think I made the point when we taught those verses, that there's nothing said there about winning the lost. Was it because Paul's not concerned about the lost? No, not at all. But when the Body of Christ is matured and edified, they're going to win the lost. And that's the whole concept I think of Paul's teaching, that if we can prepare the members of the Body of Christ, prepare the believer, and make him skilled in the use of Scriptures, we're going to accomplish more on a one-on-one basis than any huge evangelistic rally could ever hope to do. And this is what I'm hoping, that people will just simply talk to their loved ones, their people at work, their neighbors, and be prepared to one-on-one share the Scriptures, because people are hungry. But they don't want to be approached by somebody that doesn't know what they're talking about. And that's understandable, I wouldn't either. I wouldn't want to waste my time with somebody trying to tell me about something that I knew he didn't know anything about. But if somebody approaches me with whatever subject it is, and he's skilled at it, hey, I'll listen. I think you would too. Well, it's the same way with this book. We've got to be skilled and be ready, as Paul says in another place, to share these things with those who ask why we have such hope. And so all the way through these intervening verses then, he is preparing us for this outreach to those, of course, who have never yet understood. Now then, verse 25. Well, let's read verse 24, our last lessons verse. And he says, "...that ye put on the new man," that is that new creation that happens the moment we're saved, "...that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." In other words, that newborn, new nature that is in opposition to our old sin nature. All right, so now then, since we have the new nature, we're a child of God, we're in the Body of Christ, what's the next word? Wherefore. That means we're going to be different from the world around us. Like I said in the last program, not oddball different, not peculiar where the world says, Oh, I wouldn't want to be like them. They're a bunch of kooks. No, that's not what God says. But Paul's converts, even in the midst of those idolatrous cities, weren't something that made fools of themselves. They were the kind of people that just made such an impact on their pagan friends and relatives, that this is the reason it turned the Roman Empire upside down. Now you know that would have never happened if those new believers would have acted so kooky and queer that people would have just said, Well, what's the matter with those people? They haven't got it all together. No, they did have it all together. They knew what they believed. They knew what God had done for them. And of course that's where we're to be today. All right, so now then the next word in that next verse is, Wherefore, because of what God has done in our lives, we are to put away lying, and we're to speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Now I had a bell rung when I read this verse. Now I've seen this before. Now you know I spend quite a little time in the Old Testament, and sure enough, there is a verse in the Old Testament under law that almost says the same thing. So even though we're not under law, yet many of the attributes of the law are still applicable. Okay, turn back with me to Zechariah, all the way back to Zechariah, the last book in the Old Testament. Just go back to Matthew, go back through Malachi, and go to Zechariah 8, verse 16. Now this is under the law. This is in a book of prophecy, really, because that's what Zechariah almost totally is prophecy. And yet as Zechariah wrote to the Jewish people, he says almost the same thing that Paul says to us. Okay, Zechariah 8, verse 16, "...these are the things that ye shall do, speaking every man the truth to his neighbor." Isn't that something? Now that's under the law, granted. But now flip back to where we were in Ephesians, and what does Paul say? Almost the same thing. See? And we're not under law, we're under grace. But the same God, and this is what I always try to stress when I say we're not under law, we're under grace. Yes, all the things that God hated in the lives of Israel, He still hates today. God hasn't changed His mind about these things, but we're under a different set of circumstances. Now Paul, the apostle of grace, can tell us the same thing, but it isn't under the heavy hand of the law, it's under the freedom of grace. But he says the same thing. Wherefore? "...putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor." See how plain that is? "...for we are members of one another." And now then, as everyday experiences, especially in the household of faith, we are to constantly be truthful with one another, because after all, we're all in this together, we're all in the same body. As he said in I Corinthians, we are members of the same building. So consequently verse 26, we can be angry. Man, that's one of the human parts of our nature, and we're going to get angry, but we don't have to lose control of it. And so the admonition is, be angry and sin not. In other words, don't let it become something of your nature that is uncontrollable. In fact, someone asked me just while we were gone last week, what I thought of someone who claims to be a believer, but has just uncontrollable temper tantrums. Uncontrollable! Well, I have to wonder, because after all, we're all human and we can all get angry, but we certainly can control it. And so if there's something that basically wrong that it's uncontrolled anger, then I have to wonder if God has done a work of redemption. So here we are, we have this certain amount of freedom that we can be upset by things, but not to the place where it becomes sinful, or that it has an effect on our family and loved ones or coworkers or whatever. And for goodness sakes, if you want to keep your health, you don't go to bed with it, because there's nothing that will ruin your health quicker than to have these bugs just literally churn in your stomach with anger and what have you. And you know, that's the way you can get. You know, ulcers used to be a malady of people who were constantly upset. Well, the Scripture gives the reason for it. If you're going to get angry, no one good. Don't let it get the best of you or anybody else, and then certainly don't hang on to it until the next day. Now the next verse. I probably should have tried to stretch it out and cover this in the next half hour, so if I don't finish it in this one, well you'll have to bear with me, because I want to spend some time on this verse. You say, well there's nothing there. Well there's a lot there. Verse 27. Not only are we to avoid lying, neither are we to avoid uncontrolled anger, neither give place to the devil, Satan. Now when you really stop to think about it, how much print does Paul give to Satan, in general terms? A little or a lot? Very little. He'll just make a statement here and there, and we're going to look at a couple of them here, and maybe we should do that first before I comment. Turn with me to II Corinthians chapter 4, verse 3. Now these aren't the only two instances, but this is the way it usually pops up. He doesn't make a long dissertation about Satan, and the reason I want to take time to do this, because we see so much lately of where the so-called Christian community is being admonished to war against Satan, we've got to fight against Satan, we have to do this, and we have to do this against Satan. Paul doesn't teach that. Paul recognizes his power. Paul recognizes what he can do, but he doesn't spend long verses at a time telling us how to fight a war against Satan. Now we'll see a little bit, of course, in chapter 6, but all he does is let us know that he's there. But you see, Paul's emphasis is not Satan. Paul's emphasis is the Christ of glory, and when Christ rules our life and when He's in control, Satan can't touch us, and we don't have to worry all that much about fighting against Satan. We center on Christ and His work of the cross, and I think for this reason Paul doesn't give a lot of, like I said a moment ago, he doesn't give a lot of ink to Satan, but you do have periodically places. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, verses that we've used before. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, "...if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost, in whom..." That is the lost of this world. "...in whom the God of this world has blinded them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." Now goodness sakes, who's the God of this world? Well Satan is. See how subtly Paul puts this in here? He could have just come right out and said that Satan had done it, but he doesn't. He gives him another term, "...the God of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe not." All right, still in 2 Corinthians, turn over to chapter 11. 2 Corinthians 11, let's drop in at verse 13. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, you all there? "...for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." Hear that once in a while, don't you? Someone claims to be an apostle. Well, I have my doubts. "...and no marvel," don't let this surprise you, "...for," here it comes now, "...for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of," what? "...light." See? Oh, he's the God of this world back here in the earliest verse, and he keeps people blind from the truth, but many times he blinds people with his light, and it's a counterfeit light, and people are so gullible that they say, oh, that must be the work of the Spirit. It isn't. It's the work of the evil spirit. It's the work of Satan, the counterfeit, the imposter, the deceitful individual. And so keep these things in mind, that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Now look at verse 15. "...therefore," since Satan can do this, and we know he does, "...therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also," now those are human beings, see, that he's using, "...so it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of," what? "...righteousness." That's what they try to tell people, that they're the ministers of righteousness, but Paul tells us they're emissaries of Satan. And so again, what do we have to know? The truth from the false. And the only way we can do that is just keep our nose in the book. It's the only way we can do it. And when we do that, then the Holy Spirit will certainly do His part to be able to keep us discerning truth from error. You know, I pointed out in Indiana the other day, you always want to remember, I don't care what it is, if you're aiming a rifle at the target, or if you're going to try and put a fishing fly in a particular little spot, how far do you have to miss to miss everything? Just a little ways. Now I was a marksman in the military, I could hit that bullseye at 500 yards when I was young, and one thing I know for sure, that if you're off just a little bit on the windage, or anything else, you're going to miss the whole target. Well same way with fly fishing. I've watched some of these fly fishermen, I mean they can put that little bug in the exact right spot. But if the wind catches their fly and it flips over, they don't get anything. Well it's the same way with Scripture. These people can come in, and they can come close, but so far as the end result is concerned, they can just totally drive people into a lost eternity with their false teaching. And I've noticed this over the years. I've listened to them on the radio, and at the time you think, this old boy is right on. And then after you listen for a little while, there's about 5-10% error, and he takes you clear off in the left field. Well there's only one way we can avoid that, and that is to just keep in the Word, and be able to discern. Are these men, oh they may be under all the right auspices, and they may seemingly have the right format, but if they're coming out with deceptive teachings that are not Scriptural, then Paul tells us what it is. They are emissaries of Satan, they are counterfeit. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.