Scripture talks a lot about oppression by the rich.  One thing I’m so thankful for is your faithfulness, all of your giving over these years for our Africa missions.  I was talking to some pastors last time I was over there, and said, “One thing that I just want to give God all the glory for is that we’ve not taken one dime out of Kenya.  I’ve not personally taken one cent out of Africa.  None of our men have.  Our people, their vision, the faithfulness to the ministry at home have provided everything that’s here.  We’ve given, we haven’t taken.”  It’s very foreign to them.  This particular individual I was speaking to was actually astounded.

This relates to how the great whore will be arrayed.  We see what one of the focal points of this last day is one of the tenets of pagan thought.  Paul speaks to it very clearly to the Ephesian Church, when he says that you and I should have nothing to do with those who preach the message that gain is godliness.  In other words, “As you’re prospering, that’s God’s favor on you; and if you’re not prospering, you must be doing something wrong, and you need to change your doctrine to come over here, so you can be blessed like me.”  And this is what’s going to bring a great influence in much of the world in this day that we’re living in.  And it’s not just the impoverished nations.  It’s also a danger to a nation like ours where people are drunk with covetousness.  It’s something that we need to take heed to ourselves, and I speak to myself, very frequently, this one great message that Jesus taught: it’s difficult for a rich man to get to heaven.  The problem is not many of us will reckon ourselves as rich.  We really are rich.  We are a rich people.  I’m talking about monetarily; I’m not just talking about rich in the things that really count.  A number of thirty-somethings in here make more money than I do.  And I see myself for what I truly am, and it scares me, it keeps me on guard to check my heart constantly as it pertains to that doctrine of covetousness.

We see the great whore arrayed in all of this glory and monetary power.  Midway through the tribulation, Antichrist will turn on this apostate religious system.  What’s taking place in the religious realm in Chapter 17, is followed by what’s going to happen in the economic and political systems in Chapter 18.  As the apostate religious system, who is the entity that’s helping push this individual Antichrist into power, begins to assert too much influence, trying to take unto itself too much power, Revelation 18:16 says, “and the ten horns which thou sawest upon this beast [the Antichrist], these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”  So, Antichrist will turn on the apostate religious system and try to overcome the true church.  But God.