Sunday Night Bible Study - Revelation Part 17 - Chapter 18

It is of my opinion that this is not a city that is in its current state right now in 2021.

Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Joe Sia Shipley of Witten Baptist Church.

This will be a relatively short video. This is Revelation part 17. We are on chapter 18.

We are almost done with this book study and we can move on to something else. I have greatly enjoyed doing this but I am almost all

Revelation now. We are on chapter 18. So without further ado, let's cover chapter 18, we are on part 17, chapter 18.

This is the fall of Babylon. We spoke some about this in chapter 17 because they connect together.

Remember, chapter 17 and 18 are a specific look at what happened in chapter 16 with the seven bowls of wrath.

Okay, what do we know about Babylon? Well, we know that Babylon the Great in chapter 17 verse 18 is a great city.

I tend to think it is a literal city. I don't have anything saying that it's not.

Some people look at it as a country or a nation. I look at it as a great city. Let's look at some possible identities for this future city.

Well, first off, as we read in verse 11 of chapter 18,

So on and so forth. It says, Verse 17,

Okay, here's what we know about this city. First off, remember from chapter 17, the one who destroys the city is the

Antichrist and his kingdom of 10 nations, which will grow into a worldwide empire after the fall of Babylon the

Great, the great city. It is of my opinion that this is not a city that is in its current state right now in 2021.

Now, I know a lot of people disagree with me. Now, we've talked about the preterists, the ones who believe this has already happened.

I don't see that. Since we spoke about the seven hills, which are also seven kings, that leads a ton of people to think that this city is

Rome, particularly the Vatican. I'm not saying there's no room for that.

However, Rome is an awesome tourism city, but the way this chapter lays out

Babylon the Great makes it sound as if it is the economic powerhouse of the world. That is certainly not

Rome, at least not right now. I mean, all the merchants, you know, gold, silver, that just doesn't seem to be

Rome to me. At least not right now. It can't be Jerusalem. It has to be some type of coastal city that doesn't limit down very many cities, but we know it's not

Denver, okay, or Atlanta. Now, keep in mind, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, there are the ruins of the real ancient

Babylon, the city Babylon. We found the ruins. They are about 50 miles south of Baghdad. Certainly it's a bunch of rubble and an archaeological site there, but if we as a world ever decided to rebuild it, that would get my attention, but it would have a long way to go before it reached the economic powerhouse of the world.

So, long story short, I don't know, and neither does anyone else really know the exact identity of Babylon the

Great. It will be a great city, which is known for impurity, for persecution of Christians, but it will be the economic powerhouse of the world.

The seafaring men will wail as they watch from the sea as it is set on fire.

It will have done great evil to the people of God, and it will be destroyed. God will judge it using the

Antichrist. Remember, God uses hardened hearts to carry out his purpose. He did it with Egypt. He did it with Assyria.

He did it with Babylon, Medo -Persia, Greece, Rome, the Antichrist, and its ten kings.

He uses hardened hearts to carry out his purpose, and he will use the Antichrist and its ten kings to destroy

Babylon. After that, the Antichrist will become a world power, but not for long. And why not for long?

Because remember that Jesus will be coming to destroy the Antichrist with the breath of his mouth according to 2

Thessalonians chapter 1, chapter 2 maybe. That's the gist of chapter 18.

It is the destruction of Babylon the Great. God will destroy it.

Now, we keep reading for in a single hour, verse 10, in a single hour, verse 17.

But we've seen how that hour can refer to the whole tribulation period, the seven year tribulation or maybe specifically the second three and a half years.

So that's probably what's more on mind here when it says in a single hour it's destroyed. I guess it could be a literal hour, but elsewhere in Revelation, I think it's chapter 3, verse 10, we have the hour referring to the whole tribulation period.

Verse 21, a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, threw it into the sea, saying,

So will Babylon the Great, the great city, be thrown down with violence and be found no more. I think this is going to be going on during the bowls of wrath.

God will put it, according to chapter 17, verse 17, in the heart of them to carry out this purpose of being one mind and handing over the royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.

So the Antichrist and his ten horns, verse 16, will be the one to kill the great whore, the prostitute, which is

Babylon the Great. Because God will use their hardened hearts to carry out his judgment.

Because the world will be in love with sin, they will wail at the destruction of this great city.

But it will be the judgment of God, because this great city will have done great evil and harm and killed the martyrs, the apostles, well, not the apostles, the messengers of Christ, the missionaries, the

Christians. There'll be severe persecution during that time, as we have already read time and time before.

And that will be happening in chapter 18. Okay? Okay. Very good.

Now, I know that was a really short video, but that's chapter 18, the Church and Babylon on the

Gate. Great. Chapter 19, we finally have some awesome news. We have the return of Jesus Christ.

We have the marriage ceremony of the bridegroom and the bride of Christ, the marriage supper of the

Lamb. Then we have the return of Jesus, which we've already read about. We'll cover that next week.

Remember, the Battle of Armageddon in chapter 19, we have already seen in chapter 14 and 17.

Instead of the Battle of Armageddon, we should probably call it the Execution of Armageddon because it's not much of a battle.

Jesus wins. Guys, as always, always remember,

Jesus wins. No matter how dark things get, there will always be a remnant. Remember Romans 9?

Excuse me. I guess it's Romans 11. God says,

I have reserved for myself, quoting the Old Testament, 7 ,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

God has reserved for himself a remnant. In every nation, every tribe, every language that will not bow the knee to Baal, there will always be a remnant, even one day when it has to be underground.

In the end, Jesus wins. We win in the eternal battle. Guys, I love you.

I hope these are somewhat of a blessing, encouragement to you. They should be because we know the end of the story.

People always say, what's the world coming to? It's coming to an end because God said so. Guys, understand that the plan of God is still the plan it was from before he said, let there be.

He has never changed his plan one time. Not one time. He's still on plan A. He's still on plan

A. His plan will come to fruition. Nothing and no one can thwart his plan. Not things on heaven or on earth or under the earth.

No spirit, no demon, no antichrist. No person can thwart the plan of God.

As Nebuchadnezzar said, who can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? Nobody. Jesus wins.

Love you guys very much. Tune in next week for chapter 19. God bless and I will talk to you then.