Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17 & 18)

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All right, let's turn to the book of Revelation chapter 17. Hopefully tonight we're gonna get through 17 and 18, but we're gonna be looking at the identity of Babylon and then mystery
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Babylon. So when a Jewish person in the first century would hear about Babylon automatically, they knew and understood
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Babylon was that great enemy of God's people. Babylon had conquered the nation of Judah, destroyed the temple of God, taken away the people into captivity for 70 years.
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And trust me, they had not forgotten about that in the first century. I'm sure many of them, even to this day, haven't forgotten.
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But when we're talking about Babylon in the book of Revelation, it's not that empire that existed back in Old Testament times.
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This is hundreds of years later, and this is Babylon. You might say spiritually
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Babylon, or it's the same name, but it's talking about something else.
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So we have to identify who or what is Babylon in the book of Revelation.
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So we'll get to that, but let's first read Revelation chapter 17. We'll begin in verse one.
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It says, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, come and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
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So he carried me away in the spirit, into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 10 horns.
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The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
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And on her forehead, a name was written, mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.
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And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
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And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement, but the angel said to me, why did you marvel?
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I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the 10 horns.
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The beast that you saw was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition.
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And those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is.
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And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
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And we're gonna stop here, but there's the clue. John is wondering about this.
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You know, who is Babylon? What is Babylon? What is mystery Babylon? And the angel says,
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I'll explain it. But I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and the clue, the way to identify her is that she sits on seven mountains.
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Now, if you remember back in chapter 13, a beast represents a government or an empire.
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And we talked about the final one world government or that final empire.
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It's what? The revived Roman empire.
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So the woman, she's sitting on seven mountains or seven hills.
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And there's a long list. I looked this up. There's so many different cities that are built on seven hills or seven mountains.
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One of them was Albany, New York. I think we can rule that out. It's probably not what he's talking about.
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Another one is Jerusalem. Apparently Jerusalem has seven mountains in and around the city.
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And that's one of the major theories that Babylon or mystery Babylon, wherever, you know, the woman's the false religion of the end times.
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That final one world religion, that corrupt apostate church.
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Some people say she is located or headquartered in Jerusalem. That's a major theory.
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And if the temple is rebuilt, and if that's the throne of the beast and the antichrist,
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I mean, that makes a lot of sense that it would be Jerusalem. That's not how
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I understand this. I believe that the seven hills is a reference to what?
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I mean, what are we talking about? The revived Roman empire. All you have to do is look at history.
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Rome historically has been known as the city on seven hills. You just look that up.
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It's a fact of history. Now the other theory. So we have Jerusalem as a possibility.
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Rome is the main position. Most people tend to think it's Rome. Some people say that Babylon, the ancient city will be rebuilt.
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If you ever read, it's been a long time since I've read, you know, the left behind novels.
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Not that they're authoritative by any sense, but I think they said in some of those books that Babylon was gonna be rebuilt.
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But according to Jeremiah 50, 39, that prophecy seems to indicate that once Babylon was destroyed, it will never again be rebuilt.
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So I'm fairly well convinced that he's talking about Rome. It's the revived
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Roman empire. The woman, that false church is located. She is seated in Rome.
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And that perfectly lines up with what we see in the book of Daniel with that image and Nebuchadnezzar, right?
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Babylon, Medo -Persia, Greece, Rome, revived Rome with the feet and the toes, iron mixed with clay.
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So if that's the case, then the final, so Babylon, let's identify
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Babylon. Babylon is the corrupt world system. So Babylon is that final empire of the
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Antichrist, the revived Roman empire, that's Babylon. Mystery Babylon is like the religious arm of that one world government.
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So mystery Babylon speaks of the religion, that one world religion of the end time.
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So if it's located in Rome, I mean, you know, all you kind of have to do is add two and two and you're already starting to figure out a few things.
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So somebody might say, well, how do you know that? How do you know the woman represents a religion or a church?
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Well, there's a contrast in the book of Revelation. The true church is depicted as the bride, right?
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The bride of Christ who is faithful. So the false church is the unfaithful harlot, right?
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That's what John sees. So this apostate church is the harlot, the harlot of Babylon.
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And how John describes her, so she's headquartered in Rome. She has worked together with the kings of the earth, committed fornication with them.
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So world rulers are in kind of cahoots with this apostate unfaithful church.
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It seems that this church or maybe it's clergy is arrayed, according to John in red and purple.
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They have great wealth. At the center of their worship is a golden cup full of wine.
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And as I'm reading these descriptions from Revelation 17, I mean, what's coming to mind? You know, but nobody wants to say it because it's politically incorrect to state the obvious.
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If this is not describing the Roman Catholic church, I don't know what it could be describing.
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Now, again, that's politically incorrect. You're not supposed to say that today, but I'm gonna show you, you can look at commentators throughout history.
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This is not my opinion. This is the standard historic
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Protestant evangelical viewpoint that people like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley, Charles Haddon Spurgeon right up until today with John MacArthur, like they almost all have the same viewpoint or a variation of it that John is describing the
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Roman Catholic church or at least the Catholic church in the end times. Now, I wanna be clear about something.
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This is not to be anti -Catholic, right? We love our neighbors.
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If your neighbor is agnostic, you love your neighbor as yourself.
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You know, you wanna be kind to people. We're not against anybody, but we are against the doctrines of an apostate religion.
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And here's the thing, in the end times, what's gonna happen? We've been talking about this, that really during the tribulation period, all religions basically come together.
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So technically, I don't even think it's gonna be the Catholic church only. They're probably gonna unite with many of the apostate
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Protestants and sects of Islam and Buddhism, like all the religions of the world are gonna come together.
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So not to single out one church, but it's hard not to notice the similarities when we read a
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Revelation chapter 17. Also, according to verse six, the woman, the apostate religion, the false church, has shed the blood of the saints.
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According to Haley's Bible Handbook, who has a copy of Haley's Bible Handbook. It used to be pretty popular back in the day.
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According to Haley's Bible Handbook, the Roman Catholic church throughout their history has reportedly been responsible for the death of over 50 million
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Christians. I mean, even during the Reformation, there was basically a mark on all of the reformers that they would be killed with the wars that were going on.
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But like I said, this has kind of fallen out of favor in the days we live in, starting in the 60s and 70s.
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There's kind of a shift where the popular evangelical Protestant ministries are kind of the seeker -sensitive megachurches, right?
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The market -driven churches, where they don't wanna say anything that's gonna offend people. And admittedly, this type of thing, to single out another religion, this is offensive.
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So this is why you don't really hear about it these days. But again, to be fair, all religions are gonna come together as one in the end times.
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Any comments or questions on this? And listen, if you disagree with that, it's up to you.
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And I'd be interested to hear how you interpret this later on. We can talk about that.
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Albert Barnes, a well -known commentator, he wrote this about Revelation 17.
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He said, the interpretation has led us to believe all along that Revelation 17, he says, refers to papal
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Rome. Also in Gill's exposition of the entire Bible, he wrote the same thing, that it refers to papal
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Rome. Here's what Matthew Henry wrote. He's one of the most respected commentators in church history.
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Matthew Henry wrote this for Revelation 17, one through six. He says, papal Rome has obtained and kept her rule over kings and nations.
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The golden cup represents the allurements and delusions by which this mystical
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Babylon has obtained and kept her influence and seduced others to join her abominations.
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She is named from her infamous practices, a mother of harlots, training them up to idolatry and all sorts of wickedness.
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She filled herself with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus. She intoxicated herself with it.
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And it was so pleasant to her that she never was satisfied. We cannot but wonder at the oceans of Christian blood shed by men who are called
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Christians. Yet when we consider these prophecies, these awful deeds testify to the truth of the gospel.
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And then he goes on. So why is it called mystery Babylon? So again,
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Babylon is the final one world government, the empire led by the
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Antichrist. Mystery Babylon is the religious arm of that empire, the false religion.
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Why mystery Babylon? Well, if you go back and look at Babylonian religion, it's known as Babylonian mystery religion.
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One of the things they worshiped or one of the deities was the queen of heaven. If you read the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah talked about how even the
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Jews fell into the worship of the queen of heaven and it made the Lord very angry. Well, the queen of heaven, what do you think of that today?
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Unfortunately, the Catholic church, this is what they do when they go into an area, they kind of adopt the practices and traditions of that region.
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And they kind of mash it all together with a blending of Catholicism, Bible Christianity, and paganism or Babylonian mystery religion.
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So basically they just take pagan practices and put a Christian label on it. So let's worship the queen of heaven, but we're gonna call her
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Mary. So that sort of Christianizes it. That's what they've done. Let's just say, hypothetically, the tribulation starts a hundred years from now, maybe it's not the
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Catholic church as we know it today. The Catholic church has changed a lot just in the last 70 years.
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So they might come together with the world council of churches. And like I said, Islam and Hinduism.
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Remember, there was a talk about Chrislam 20 years ago or 15 years ago, where people were trying to merge
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Christianity and Islam. And this is the push with the world. You can see it in the coexist bumper sticker in the back of people's car.
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They want a one world religion where you can have your traditions, your beliefs, but we're gonna merge it together into one system.
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And that will be accomplished during the tribulation. So that's basically what John is talking about.
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I think it's pretty clear what he's saying. There's a one world religion, one world government.
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There's gonna be the one world economic system. Back in chapter 13 with the mark of the beast, you cannot buy or sell unless you have the mark.
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So I think that's all pretty clear, but you do get an unclear statement in verse 10.
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Look at verse 10. It says, there are also seven kings. Five have fallen.
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One is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.
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And that verse always perplexed me. Like what is being said here?
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I just wanna read you what John MacArthur wrote about this passage. He said the seven kings are representative of the seven great world empires.
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So that would be Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo -Persia,
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Greece, Rome, and then revived Rome. Okay, so that's seven.
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He wrote the five, well, the apostle John wrote about five being fallen.
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So as of the days where John wrote Revelation, five of those empires did not exist, right?
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One currently existed in 90 AD when John was writing, that was the
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Roman empire. And there's one yet to come, which is revived
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Rome. And he says, when this does come about, revived
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Rome, it's gonna be brief. The Roman empire, I don't know how long the Roman empire lasted.
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Does anyone know? I mean, centuries, centuries and centuries. The - 700 years.
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Yeah. It was a lot. How long is the revived Roman empire gonna last?
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Like we're talking three and a half years, like seven total maybe, but more like three and a half years.
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So, and it'll end in destruction. You have something? Study somewhere that claims that the
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United States is the revived Roman empire. Yeah, I mean, you're gonna get, yeah.
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Some people do believe that Babylon is the United States. There's something,
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I forget the verses. I don't agree with this interpretation. There's something about a lion and a young lion, and they say it's
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Great Britain and the United States or something. So you're gonna find all sorts of different theories, but most commentators, most sound commentators point to Rome and revived
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Rome. So, you know, does the United States fit that bill? There's some things you could point to and say, yeah,
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I can see how this could be the US, but the United States is not the center of Bible prophecy.
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I know a lot of people want it to be, it's just not. Okay, it's really all about Israel. And I think this is pointing to Rome's.
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I just don't think. People wonder, well, we're the most powerful nation on earth, we have to fit into this equation somehow.
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Well, let's say it doesn't happen for another 100 years. I mean, we might not be around.
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I mean, you just don't know. But I don't see any evidence that it's the United States.
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Okay, one more statement about verse 11. The beast, well, it says the beast was not, and, excuse me, the beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven and is going to perdition.
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That's another one of those verses you're like, yeah. You get a migraine, headache reading it.
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Here's what MacArthur says about, I'm just gonna throw this to MacArthur, okay? Because this is the best explanation
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I've seen. He says the Antichrist kingdom is said to be both the seventh and the eighth kingdoms because of his supposed demise and resurrection.
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He is the seventh king before, okay, and then the eighth king after he's resurrected.
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So remember, we think because he is, the Antichrist is an imposter, he's a false
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Christ. So he's going to imitate what Jesus did. So it looks like he might die.
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Maybe he really does, maybe he doesn't, and there'll be a false resurrection event. So he's the king, he's the seventh, and then he dies, and then he comes back, and he's also the eighth.
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That's what he's saying here. But then, once he comes back and he has full control, he will use this apostate church to gain power, but once he has power, then he dissolves or destroys that church.
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He destroys that religion because he wants to be the object of worship. He doesn't want a religion that has devotions to other things.
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He wants to be the one worshiped. Okay, so he will likely use this worldwide platform of the
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Catholic church to take power, and once he does, he's gonna have help with the 10 kings.
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The 10 kings may be 10 rulers in Europe, some believe that maybe the world will be divided up into 10 regions, and each one will have power over their region.
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We're not exactly sure, but look at verse 12. The 10 horns, which you saw, are 10 kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
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These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
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These will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them, for he is
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Lord of lords and king of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.
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Verse 15, then he said to me, the waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
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So in other words, this false religion is worldwide. It's in every nation all over the earth, and that's what the word
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Catholic means. It means universal, it's everywhere, okay.
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And by the way, they are headed right now towards what is called universalism, and you've heard me talk about that before.
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Universalism basically is the idea that everybody goes to heaven. That's what the current pope sometimes, that it really does sound like that's what he believes.
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Whether you're Hindu, Jewish, reject Jesus, Muslim, Buddhist, hey, as long as you're sincere, as long as you're doing the best you can, and you believe in something, some higher power, and you're a good person, however they judge that, you'll probably be okay.
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That's where the religion is headed, and that's gonna be what the End Times Church is all about.
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It doesn't matter what tradition you come from. Hey, as long as you worship the
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Antichrist, you'll be okay. As long as you accept his mark. But it's gonna embrace all sorts of different religious traditions, and we're already headed in that direction.
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Any questions on that? I mean, I don't think someone can deny that. If they look at the state, even the
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Protestants are like that today, many of them. Many of the mainline churches are already teaching universalism.
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Matter of fact, if you're a church like ours, you say, no, you need to accept Jesus as your personal
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Lord and Savior. Like, Jesus is the only way of salvation. You're seen as, well,
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I mean, that's a radical idea, but it really, it's just, I mean, every religion thought their way was the right way.
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I mean, it's really not radical for a religion to think, hey, we have the truth, but it goes against the spirit of the age, for sure.
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Look at, yes. My question is, may I make a comment? Sure. As we're talking about nations,
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I'd like to talk just a little bit about Israel and the United States, as far as current events go.
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Because what we're talking about here now is likely after, or it's my opinion that this is happening during the
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Great Tribulation. And I bet you no one in this room is gonna be around during that time.
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But nowadays, with Israel in the position that it is in, and the
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United States in the position that it is in, I just would point out the voices that God said he would bless those that bless
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Israel, and he would curse those that curse Israel. So those of you that do have satellite or cable
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TV or those things, you keep watching what Washington, D .C. does in regards to what is happening in the nation
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Israel. And I don't see the United States in scripture.
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Now, the 10 toes, a lot of people surmise, and I love surmising.
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I've been doing it for decades. I've been surmising. I figure I'm in the generation that will be taken up.
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But the 10 toes, people say perhaps the European Union.
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But the way, and the queen of heaven, and all this gender issues, the
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United States is in real trouble, is my, that's my comment. Yeah, I mean, just to kind of follow what
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I think you're getting at, if the belief is if the United States stops supporting
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Israel, then we would be. Yeah, see what happened to the
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Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Philistines, the Ammonites. The reality is though, you see this in the book of Zechariah all nations are gonna come together against Israel and against Jerusalem.
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So the United States would be one of them or whatever form we're in when this takes place.
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But let's just continue on because I wanna get into chapter 18, verse 17.
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Actually, let's go back to 16. It says, then the 10 horns, which you saw on the B, so the 10 kings, it says they will hate the harlot.
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So who's the harlot? Well, it's the false church, headquartered in Rome.
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So once they take power, they're going to despise the religion.
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They're going to make her desolate. So like I said, it seems like they dissolve the church or destroy it, it says they burn her with fire.
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Verse 17, so they have no more use for the church once they have their power and they're gonna demand worship for themselves.
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Verse 18, for God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose, to be of one mind and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.
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And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
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And again, it's a reference to Rome. Rome ruled in John's day.
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During the Roman empire, the popes ruled over the kings of Europe during what was called the
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Holy Roman empire. That was the situation. The pope was sort of like the king of kings.
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You assert the role of Christ and I submit he's still doing that today when he claims titles like Holy Father, Vicar of Christ and what's the other one?
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Altar Christus, he's ordained as another Christ. So he takes titles of the
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Trinity and he applies them to himself. And that's only going to get worse in the future.
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So all the kings of the earth, they're all gonna give their power and you already have nations talking about this of giving up their national sovereignty and giving it to maybe the
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UN or another entity. But that's what's gonna happen during the tribulation. These nations are gonna give up their power to the beast or to the
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Antichrist and his false prophet. Okay, so if all this is true and Rome truly is
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Babylon, I mean, it's the one world empire, the final world system, but if it's really talking about Rome, why is it called
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Babylon? Why not just say Rome? Any ideas?
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Well, one thing, if it said Rome, then you could say it's like a self -fulfilling prophecy if that were the case.
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But if you think about Babylon, where did Babylon begin? Where are the origins of Babylon?
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Yeah, it goes back to Genesis chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel. What did they do?
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They came to get, God said, spread out over the face of the earth. And they said, no, we're gonna stick together.
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We're gonna make a name for ourselves. They wanted to build a one world system and they built a tower reaching to the heavens.
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I mean, basically it was thumbing their nose that God, we're like that. We're gonna do what we want, make a name for ourselves.
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So that spirit of a one world system developed Babel, developed into Babylon.
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And yes, Babylon was destroyed by the Medes and the
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Persians. But that spirit of a one world system that opposes God, bring everyone together, that spirit lives on.
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And it lived on with Daniel's, the image in Daniel chapter two went from Medo -Persia,
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Greece, Rome, revived Rome. So it's just that name Babylon became the archetypical enemy of God's people.
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That just kind of carried, that name carries over. And the Jews would have understood that. Besides, if John did write
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Rome, when the Roman authorities saw the book of Revelation, they would have seen the book probably as a piece of propaganda.
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And you don't wanna bring that kind of heat. So we're not gonna identify Rome in our book.
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We're gonna call it Babylon that way. There's a lot of different theories of why it's called
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Babylon, but that's part of it. All right, let's finish up the time we have left. Revelation chapter 18.
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This is the fall of Babylon the Great. So the final one world government is going to be destroyed by God.
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The bold judgments that we looked at last week are probably gonna pretty much do it in.
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And this, the false church is destroyed by the leaders of the empire.
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They do that themselves. Revelation 18 verse one. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority in the earth was illuminated with his glory.
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If you remember the fifth bold judgment, remember the judgment was darkness over the kingdom of the beast.
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So it's like the world is in darkness and all of a sudden this glorious angel appears in heaven.
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And it just draws the attention of the world to this angel who announces
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Babylon's doom. Verse two, and he cried mightily with a loud voice saying
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Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.
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For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.
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So the false one world religion, the corrupt world system, I mean, it has a great allure.
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It offers people pleasure, great wealth. And this is how people are seduced.
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I mean, this is the language they're used. People are seduced through covetousness and all the things the world system has.
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And this is still true even right now, there is a world system. And Bible talks about Satan as the
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God of this world and how does Satan keep people imprisoned in his system through sex and drugs and money and the pursuit of power and all the things the world has to offer.
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So Babylon's gonna be destroyed and the call for God, verse four, or the call from God, John says,
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I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues.
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For her sins have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.
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So the call of God is to come out, come out of this world system.
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Be different, don't go down that road. Be like everyone, don't be like everyone else.
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We're gonna come back to verse four. Look at verse six, rendered her, that is
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Babylon, just as she rendered to you and repay her double according to her works.
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In the cup that she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure, give her torment and sorrow.
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For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen and am no widow and will not see sorrow.
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You know, what do we need God for? I'm all set, we have everything we need, we don't need
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God. Verse eight, therefore her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned with fire for strong is the
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Lord God who judges her. So the final one world system that spits in God's face, you know,
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Psalm chapter two, the kings of the earth, they conspire together against the Lord and against his anointed.
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This is what we see even in our own nation. The people in power don't want
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God telling them what to do. We're gonna do our own thing. We're gonna spit in God's face and because people do that, what's
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God gonna do? Okay, you were living the high life and we're gonna basically, you know, give you double in return in judgment.
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So how quickly is this destruction? How quick does it come?
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What does it say? One day? Okay, compare that to the
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Roman empire, which fell, I mean, some people were living in the Roman empire for decades, they didn't even realize it fell.
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You had to have a historian kind of look back in history to kind of figure out the date of when things ended.
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It's sort of like, this is kind of how I feel. It's like, what happened to the United States? You know, when did things go wrong?
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Well, maybe in the future, a historian can target a certain point in time, but that's not the way it is with the fall of Babylon.
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They really do, they are destroyed in I think a day because the judgment is cataclysmic.
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Verse nine, we're almost done. It's titled, the world mourns Babylon's fall, the kings of the earth, verse nine, who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her, will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas, that great city,
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Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour, your judgment has come.
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So here it's one hour. And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her for no one buys their merchandise anymore.
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Merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple silk and scarlet.
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And it goes on to describe the way, you know, people make money, buying and selling, but verse 14 even mentions what?
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The selling of bodies and the souls of men. This is probably a reference to how the rulers and maybe even below them, but people are so evil, they made their wealth through slavery and maybe even sex trafficking.
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So the bodies and souls of men. And this is what you have to keep in mind.
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You remember there's this song back in the, when was it? The 60s, you know, sympathy for the devil, right?
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I don't know what, you know, I don't know what the song's about. I never really cared for it myself, but some people have sympathy for the devil in the sense that you can have
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Christians reading this and it seems like it's just a little extreme, the judgment, why would
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God do this? Well, you have to realize how evil, how wicked this system is.
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And this is why God, I said this last week and I think it's probably a better way to describe it.
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God is out of options. I mean, they're not gonna change. They're not gonna repent. They're gonna keep on doing this.
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They're gonna keep on killing people. They're gonna keep on abusing people. They're gonna keep on, and God has to put an end to it.
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And he will, and this is what happens. So for the sake of time, skip to verse 17. For in one hour, such great riches came to nothing.
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Every ship master, all who traveled by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, what is like this great city?
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And they threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth.
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For in one hour, she is made desolate. So in verse 20, we see a contrast.
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The people of the world are weeping and moaning, because now they can't make money anymore.
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They're not all that worried about the people who are killed and abused. They're just worrying about their wallet.
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So the people of the earth are mourning, but heaven is rejoicing. Verse 20, it says, "'Rejoice over her,
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O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her.'"
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Remember, this world system, this world system is the one, right? The Roman empire did what to the son of God.
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Yeah, I mean, the Roman empire ultimately was the one Pontius Pilate who gave the order that Jesus be killed.
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And all of the prophets, all of the apostles, Jesus, they were all killed by this world system, and now it's payback.
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So let's just finish on this point. What does God say? What's the takeaway here?
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If we had one thing to say based on all of this, what do we tell people? It's this message, come out of her.
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So if there's anybody, and I don't know, depending on someone's theology, you can say that God has his elect people in some of these false churches, and the gospel needs to go out, and they need to be saved.
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Or maybe there's already saved people in false churches, or there's saved people that are just living worldly.
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Either way, however you understand this call, God is telling people, come out. So this world system, you're living for the world, you're living in the world, you're not walking with Christ, come out of the world and follow
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Christ. If you're in one of these religious systems where they're not preaching the true gospel, maybe they're preaching universalism, maybe it's something else, some sort of mystery, religion, whatever it is, come out.
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So this is our message, this is God's message. People need to come out of the world, come out of false religion, and they need to put their faith in Christ.
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Because if they don't, what's the message? Come out of her, my people, lest you what?
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Share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues. So this isn't anything about being against anyone or against anything, we're for God, and we are for his people, and we are for people being saved.
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So we need to preach the good news, we need to preach the good parts of the
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Bible, that make people smile and make them happy, and we also need to preach the parts about judgment.
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But this is a, remember, from heaven's perspective, this is a wonderful event, because it's
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God finally stepping in and destroying slavery, the sex trade, the people, pharmakia, right?
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They deceive the world through sorcery and the use of drugs and all sorts of different ways to control people and to harm people.
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God is going to get justice, and I don't know about you, but it can't come soon enough.