Letters to the Churches Part 17

It's a running joke now We know all about your intentions, sir

Yeah, and by the way, we're you know, we're celebrating his birthday today. Although it's a little early so Yeah So, how old are you now 67 58 90, you know, what are you again?

Yeah, I'm bad at math All right,

Stephen Elliott's wishes you a happy birthday, sir And there is a sermon question from the

Sylvester family. Awesome. We love questions regarding the sermon So we'll take a look at that before we get into our study

Okay, we're gonna pray and then we will get started to be a slightly shorter Bible student just due to the fact that I have a hard commitment to serve a different congregation

And their service starts at one, but let's pray Lord as we open up your word We ask again for your

Holy Spirit to open our hearts and our minds Bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives of love joy. Peace patience kindness

Gentleness and self -control and made the spirit of truth guide us into all truth So we may rightly believe what you have revealed regarding your nature and our salvation we ask in Jesus name.

Amen All right, we're gonna start with a sermon related to the question This comes from the

Sylvester family and I believe the Sylvester's are in, New Mexico So, let's take a look here sermon question for pastor

So if God deemed it not good that man should be alone Then how do we reconcile the statement of Paul saying it's actually better to be alone as a believer

Is it just that sin cancels out original design for men or women and ought to always pair up because now our spouses can become

Idols kind of complicated question. Yeah, it is actually and the references 1st

Corinthians 7 Verse 38, let's take a look at that text real quick So we make sure we understand what is going on in the context there.

Hold on a second here I'm gonna duplicate this and we are looking for 1 Corinthians 7 verse 38

So if anyone thinks he's not behaving properly towards his betrothed, so here's our context

Some guy and a girl, you know, you know how the story goes guy meets girl Girl meets guy they fall in love

You know, and they like they go eat Chinese food together and they go to the movies And they have coffee and they like look at each other and they're all stupid, you know, yeah

Yeah Mom and I ate at Chili's but that's a It's kind of the same idea, right?

Okay, so if you're not behaving properly for your betrothed if his passions are strong and it has to be let him do as he

Wishes let them marry. It's no sin Whoever is firmly established in his heart being under no necessity

But having his desire under control is determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed

He will do well so then he who marries his betrothed does well he who refrains from marriage will do even better and I'm gonna back up a little farther into the context because there's something here that I think

I want you to be free from anxieties And the unmarried man is anxious about the things of the

Lord how to please the Lord but the married man is anxious about worldly things and how to please his wife and Married men need to have anxiety about that.

So Just amen Maryland says amen and his interests that are divided the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the

Lord how to be Holy and body and spirit, but the married woman is anxious about worldly things how to please her husband

I say this for your own benefit not to lay any restraint on you But to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the

Lord so the idea here is that Paul is talking in regards to the idea that If you want to get married get married if you if you have

Being single and the celibate life is kind of a gift and a rare one at that and it's it's one that makes it so that your your

Focus is undivided And so the idea here it doesn't undo what what

God says. It's not man It's not good that man should be alone and you're right since the fall

Let's just say things are complicated is the best way to put it and At the end of the day, we're all broken

But it here's the important bit is that even if you're single It's not good that you're alone in the sense of isolating yourself and things like this people people actually kind of go weird

When when they isolate themselves, it's it's not a good thing So, you know, this is part of the reason why you know church is a good thing.

We come together This is why having family is important even if you want to kill, you know

They have people who live under the same roof with you. That's okay murderous thoughts. You confess them and you're forgiven, you know

You know, but you get the idea but total isolation Actually results in people being kind of squirrely in the head, you know talking to volleyballs naming him

Wilson and things like that It's just it's not a good thing. So So Early on So in the church's history

Virginity of pastors was considered to be a Positive thing and this was a text that was used along those lines

But it wasn't until was it the 12th century when Rome made it absolutely mandatory 9th

Okay, 950 So they have to keep reforming monasticism

So in a monastery named Clooney in central France around 950 any relation to George Okay Were the first to really include the idea of mandatory celibacy, okay as a way to fix the sexual immorality

Rampant in the church at the time This is one of those times where like the Archbishop of Canterbury the head of the church in England had like three mistresses and ten kids

So something needed to be done and then they they threw the baby out with the bath water, right?

Yes, yeah and then 950 it became kind of universal Okay, got it, okay, so and then you know and then there were some

There were some priests in I believe in the in you know, what we is now modern -day

Germany who were forced to to Not divorce their wives, but be separated from their wives

You know it kind of like, you know under threat of the fires of hell, you know, yeah

No, that's that's that's totally contrary to Scripture. So Yeah.

Yep, sir Best intentions, right? Yeah, Bruce is raising his hand

Okay All right, let's take a look at it

Isaiah 56 three to five

All right So let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say

Yahweh will surely separate me from his people and let not the eunuchs Say behold, I am a dry tree

For thus says Yahweh the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths Who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant?

I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name Better than sons and daughters and I will give them everlasting name that shall not be cut off and you know,

I've never read that in the in relation to the concept of Celibacy, you know for Christians, but you know, that is an interesting text

And so I don't recall in my reading of the church fathers this being invoked, but it wouldn't be surprised if it had been

Because again in the early church Celibacy was was very well valued

And and then there were always guys that came up who feigned celibacy who weren't

You know because they liked the status, but they they didn't like the actual practice

Yeah The cornerstone yeah, and our salvation and adoption through Christ is of such surpassing value

That even those who choose to be live a celibate lifestyle. Yep, you know

The reward is so great. They're not really Right and then and this would stand also then in country distinction to put passages in the

Torah that the eunuchs or people with crushed text testicles were Kept outside.

So this is kind of a scandalous text and when you consider in light of those particular concepts, so Well, that's kind of the point is is that what you see in the types and shadows

You know, especially as it relates to like things that are considered clean or unclean And then people who are considered clean or unclean based upon different, you know rashes or Discharges and things like this that that's all a picture of sin that Christ has come and that he he's the one who cleanses us

Ultimately, so what happens in the types and shadows is that yeah, there's there's real pain suffering and separation these people experience

But then Christ shows up and he touches them. He heals them He's the one who you know, it takes the the outcast the one who's been by the law, you know cast out

Which is what the law is supposed to do is supposed to condemn you and then he's the one who absolves forgives and then heals

Which is a picture always again and of our of our salvation. It's a great a greater picture of what's going on.

So Elizabeth Beasley says the practicalities of being single for Paul involved the traveling factor having to leave your spouse for a long period of time and Harshness of travel in those days.

So so for Paul it was best you'll note that Paul is also one who invokes the fact that Peter when he traveled he brought his spouse with him and so You know and which is always

I whenever I see that text I was like pointing out that's got to be awkward for the Roman Catholics because the first Pope was married.

So Yeah They always they they do this funny little song and dance and you know

Kind of tap around this the subject and never address the substance. It's it's actually Very unsatisfying is the best way

I can put it Yeah. Yes, Marilyn Yeah, okay, so So you the call extends to the man who's placed in the office and it's the

Holy Spirit who calls I would point you to Acts 20 on that but the requirements for you know, as far as how he manages his household and and and that you know

You know a one a one woman man is the way the Greek reads You know that he's not sexually immoral married and then his kids are not open to the charge of debauchery and insubordination

You know how he how he manages his household comes into play so if you're thinking about calling a pastor and he and his spouse are

At odds with each other or they're separated or something like that And there's and there's conflict and his kids are completely a mess.

We sit there and go wait. There's something wrong here There's something something's not mesh not not matching up.

So Yeah, but it's but the wife, you know, it's funny that you say because you know

Why is she not called because she actually has such a vital role That that's one that I think other pastors wives would like to debate with you

You know it is it is always a blessing when a pastor's wife can be intimately involved

In some cases one of the congregations. I was a member of decades ago the pastor's wife

She for her own sanity's sake stayed completely out of anything to do with the church with the church with the exception of showing up for the divine service and and that had to do a lot with the condition of the church when that pastor arrived and the toxic politics of that place and And she was really really really abused by some of the people who were there originally and then after a while They they ended up leaving and things turned around but she she always kept her distance for fear of of Being put through the ringer and being abused again by some of the people in the congregation

So if you talk to different pastors wives, and I've heard them talk amongst each other They a lot of them have real horror stories

You know that even though the the husband was the one who's called to the pastoral office as soon as they show up She's just Burdened with all this other stuff, you know

It's expected that she's gonna be the organist or she's gonna run the Sunday school and all this kind of stuff and that's never discussed

Ahead of time. It's always like oh now that you're here Ta -da, you know, so Right Yeah, right, how's your organ going honey you doing really okay

Play organ music now anyway, so all right All right.

Let's see here. So you can you be a cat lady for Christ? Foresee a child of mine turning out this way

Okay So Generally speaking the if I if I understand the the type correctly the cat lady is a woman who's like completely socially cut herself off from human beings and is breaking the law regarding as to how many cats she can have in her house and And seems to be obsessed with that Person Yeah So in that particular case

Cat ladies, I think are a ministry field, you know an opportunity for loving your neighbor and helping so Let's just say that you should have neighbors for Christ for cat ladies,

I think Yeah Yeah, all right anyway

I just I'd never I never could understand. I really do not understand the proclivity towards hoarding cats

Okay, that just makes no sense Okay Yeah Okay.

All right Let's take a look at the book of Revelation in the time that we have left the last time we were in the book of Revelation we were looking at specifically the connection between the imagery of what's described here in the book of Revelation as the whore of Babylon and We look and we looked in the types and shadows with the two particular

Old Testament characters One is Jezebel and the other is her daughter Athaliah and when you when you see the connection in the types and shadows it makes it easy to kind of see what's going on because if you want to if you want a picture of the apostasy of the end times

Then you look in that portion of the Old Testament 2nd Kings 2nd

Chronicles book of Jeremiah Even parts of Isaiah hint at it, but Jeremiah very specifically and overtly deals with these concepts but in 2nd

Kings you have this and really also in 1st Kings 1st Kings and 2nd Kings you have the story of Jezebel and we noted then it is it is an incorrect thing that the

Charismatics do when they talk about how the spirit of Jezebel has plans to attack America and she's at work in America right now

Everything is always related to spirits. Yeah, have you ever noticed that? The the remnant radio guy said

I have a spirit of criticism a spirit of mockery You know, you know and so, you know, everything's related to spirits

I remember when Barb and I were in the charismatic movement we had the You know that they they they insisted on a ministry called deliverance where if you were struggling with the sin there was always a demon behind it and behind that is a denial that we as Christians still have a sinful nature and So, you know if you're if you're struggling with, you know

Petty theft when you're at Walmart and you're thieving you don't have a spirit of thievery You you you you're your sinful flesh desires to steal and you need to repent you see

I see that hand Bruce and Yes, sir Oh good question, okay

Okay Claiming the

Holy Spirit Right Okay, so the question is kind of twofold

First what is what is right understanding of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because charismatics pull that card out all the time

In fact, if you look on one of the comments on my rebuttal video to the remnant radio guys

I was rebuked and told that I was getting dangerously close to committing the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit and It's like, you know Yeah, and which is really really crazy when you think about it, but that that's always

That's always like the the card that people pull out the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit card if you ever seen the

John wick movies, you know, they talk about John wick is Baba Yaga and Just invoking

Baba Yaga everyone goes. Oh, it's probably a guy, you know like this So, you know the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit card kind of plays the same role as the mythos of Baba Yaga You know, you just invoke it at everyone all of a sudden there they come to attention and they shudder appropriately, but the the the

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not what they say it is So let's let's kind of get that out on the table.

And by the way There's somebody who had their hand up and I saw that and I wanted

I wanted to know You have the be as your is your icon? If you want to type your question, you can do that if you you know, that would probably be helpful but Let's take a look at what what is really this all about and I'm gonna go to a different text than the than the mark text because I think

I Think the clearest passage on this is in Matthew 12

So one of the things I love about the Gospel of Matthew is you have a better sense of how

Jesus's early ministry went before he started preaching in parables and in Matthew chapter 12 you have

Jesus up to this point teaching clearly teaching unambiguously teaching out in the open and Healing people casting out demons and then we read in verse 22 a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute

So he can't talk he can't see I mean if you know if he was deaf also

I mean, he's dangerously close to like, you know, Helen Keller and so he was brought to Jesus and Jesus healed him so that the man spoke and he saw and all the people

And all the people were amazed and said can this be the Son of David But when the

Pharisees heard it They said it is only by Beelzebul the Prince of the demons that this man casts out the demons

And so this is going to be a real context this is this is the presenting issue when it comes to Christ talking about the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit and The people who have committed it here are the Pharisees and what have they done in this context?

They they cannot deny that Christ has performed this miracle You have a demoniac who's freed from demons you have not only is he freed from demons?

He is now able to see he's now able to speak. It's an unmistakable miracle from God and The people have made the correct connection and their connection is is that they see that this is this is this has got to be the

Son of David this is the Messiah and The Pharisees know full well that Christ is fulfilling the prophecies regarding Messiah and that he's operating under the power of God and They said no, no, no, no, no, no that he's doing this by Beelzebub the

Prince of the demons It's when you have closed yourself off and so hard -heartedly and you undeniably have

God working in your midst In this way and you ascribe the power of God to the devil.

That's what we're talking about So, you know, it's something it's something far beyond this

And so, you know so when somebody says I'm in danger of committing the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit after I've tested a false prophet like Troy black or I've challenged some of the false teachings of the charismatic movement

They always pull that card out saying that I'm in danger because I'm ascribing to the you know

That the falsehood saying this isn't God what they believe is from God So they're in the right category but the thing is is that they're not rightly understanding that scripture demands commands us to Test where the spirits are coming from and by what power and by what but that people are speaking and acting so you know the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit is one that is intentional it is Unmistakable, you know,

God is working and you refuse to acknowledge it and not only that you ascribe evil to it That that's that's that's what we're talking about here and is this is the presenting problem so James No, not actually, it's that's a that's a that's a misappropriation

And so it would and this was early on. This is one of the points that I was making So the charismatic movement was claiming and they have been claiming that the the kovat 19 pandemic is from the devil

But scripture is clear that when it comes to pandemics and plagues of this These are the prerogative of God and So what they what they did is they blustered and blowed and they bloviated and did all kinds of nonsense

Kovat 19 I blew Right and and and all of this, you know, basically posturing for the purpose of Making it look like they were confronting the devil and all of this kind of stuff, but a careful reading of Scripture It's clear that these types of things pandemics bonafide pandemics are judgments of God Think book of Revelation and the purpose of them is men's repentance

This is one of the consequences of our fall into sin. And as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ You we should expect more and even more severe and more deadly types of pandemics and and the thing that we should recognize then is that God is the one who's allowed these and God is the one who've sent these

For the purpose of waking man up that they would repent and see this as a consequence of their sin

So when the church is out there Shadow boxing with the devil claiming the devil is the one who sent kovat 19

They're not in step with what Scripture teaches us regarding the purpose of these pandemics and the message that the church is giving is a false one and you know the the message of the church has to be in the face of disasters like this repent and I would point to Christ when you know people talked about the fact that there were these

Galileans whose blood was mixed with the sacrifices and you can tell the people who asked

Jesus the question really wanted Jesus to weigh in and kind of choose one side or the other or talk about just how evil pilot was and Jesus didn't give him that answer.

His answer was do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than than anybody else?

And he said unless you like unless you repent you will all likewise perish So the this gives us the understanding then that when there are disasters

There's tsunamis and volcanoes and earthquakes and and things like this and pandemics

We see this as the consequence of sin and this is a clarion call to each and every one of us to repent so Now Bruce did

I did I write answer your question because I answered part one of it You know, what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Yep, and so now the second part of the question is how do we talk with charismatics and And so the idea then is is that we talk to charismatics the way we talk to anybody who is holding on to beliefs that are contrary to scripture and At the end of the day

You know every fighting for the faith faith podcast in every video there there's a there's a methodology behind this that is consistent and the consistency is that I Try to facilitate the collision between God's Word and What people are being taught that's false

And so when I say I'm we're comparing what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God Over and again, this this is really what we're doing is and this is the effective technique then

So if you really want to reach out to somebody who's caught up in in in some really bizarre beliefs

Then the way you do it is you first understand what it is that they believe do your research and make sure that you rightly

Understand what it is that they are being taught what they are holding to so you don't misrepresent their position

And so start there and then you know always and again I look for those collision points where it can be

Demonstrated that the person they're listening to the prophet or the prophetess or the Apostle or apostolate that what they're being taught either contradicts the scripture or exceeds the scripture and adds to it at or that this person can you can apply a test biblically that shows that they're not really a sound teacher or there are true prophet or prophetess and You spend your time then with the person and what you do is you then say, you know

I you know, so such and such a person. This is the doctrine that they've teaching it. Do you believe this to be true?

Yes Then you pull out the scriptures and you read the scriptures that overtly contradict that and then you ask a single question

How do you reconcile the contradiction? That's the most effective way and then when you ask the question, how do you reconcile the contradiction?

Don't say anything Anything make them do the work So that that's the effective way of doing it which you're gonna note then that's going to require you to patiently learn correctly understand somebody's position

One of the reasons why the remnant radio guys that their their criticism of me failed is they didn't properly represent my position at all

So they beat up a straw man pretty well, too I mean that was some valiant straw man defeating but because they didn't properly

Understand my position or what the ALC teaches That left their criticism wanting so always and again make sure that you

Correctly understand and ask those clarifying questions if I if I understand correctly This person teaches this is this am

I understanding it correctly start there with the clarification to make sure you understood it properly Before you even bring in the biblical text.

So yeah now Don I saw your hand That meant that's one of the takeaways

Yeah is I'm not gonna say you're wrong and so Don says that that to one of the reasons why the pandemic may have happened because this is kind of sometimes hindsight is 2020 is is that it's it it forced everybody to find creative ways to use technologies for the purpose of meeting as a church and And Don believes that it's

That's this is preparation for what's coming So as we as as persecution is being being more and more overt in different parts of the world

Christians may be driven away from being able to meet publicly like this and Online may be the only way they may be able to do it.

So That's it. And so if anything the pandemic kind of Forced everybody on to zoom so I'm kind of bummed

I didn't have stock in zoom before, you know, but the pandemic yeah, you know Yes, David I'm not gonna disagree with you.

So I would say kind of in the order of things is that if you have the ability to attend a faithful Congregation and be a part of a faithful church

Then that is to be preferred over zoom if you are in a situation where the closest faithful Congregation is two three four hours away

Zoom is better than nothing Yeah, especially with these gas prices.

Yeah, so yeah Yeah, that's kind of the other bit of it, you know

So aside from the fact that you know, we were dealing with the disease and people were dying We also

I if you if you don't think that governments can act in a Authoritarian totalitarian ways pay attention to what just happened so And I would note that the fact that we're we're all able to meet here right now

There's some states that still this is not this is not Happening, you know, so let's keep that in mind as well.

All right coming back then to Revelation 17 So as we read this section out again, we noted that in Revelation 13

There were two beasts that the devil conjured up from you know that for the purpose of waging war against the

Saints One was a political beast and the other was a religious beast The religious beast is false is no false forms of Christianity apostate

Christianity that wage war against the Saints So in Revelation 17, then we see one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came to me and said come

I will show you the judgment the great prostitute. This is that second beast that we saw in the book of Revelation 7 at 13

Who is seated on many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality? With the vine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk and He carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads ten horns and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with golden jewels and Pearls holding in her hand a golden cup full of the abomination full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality

Yuck, and on her forehead was written the name of mystery name of mystery

Babylon the great mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations and this is where we have to recognize that the

Old Testament imagery of idolatry is in play here So this since this is the religious beast when you when you read

Jeremiah when you read some of the more bawdy Ezekiel Yeah, I have to you always be careful when reading

Ezekiel That when when you read some of these Old Testament prophets you have a very very explicit language that describes idolatry and the worship of false deities as a form of Prostitution and whoring yourself and things like this

And so this is this is the this is the idea then you have that same imagery now being put on to this this second beast the the whore of Babylon that's riding the other one now and Babylon the great mother of prostitutes of and end of the earth's abominations and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the

Saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus and this is what I Think is fascinating here is that you can see that false forms of Christianity work in tandem with The the first beast the political beast and it results in actual

Christians being martyred and and and so you'll note the whore of Babylon is drunk with the blood of the

Saints and So it's always and again, you know false forms of Christianity that will lead the charge against Christians and it's into this context that I would remind people that when

Islam first appeared many people thought of it as a Cult of kind of like Mormonism a sect of Christianity It was clearly it clearly had in its roots and origins such contact with Christianity that it was a weird

Form of it and that's you know Mohammedans were considered like, you know, like Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses now it's its own religion, but in its earlier manifestations people oftentimes thought of it as a as an apostate form

Demonic form of Christianity so kind of a fascinating thing. So then I saw her

I marveled greatly But the angel said to me why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast with the seven heads the ten horns that carries her the beast that you saw was is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and then go to destruction and The dwellers of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life and the foundation of the world

They will marvel to see the beast because it was and is not and is to come So this calls for a mind with wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.

So here the the traditional interpretation and You I think you have to pay attention this bit here because there's some coded language

Here that's basically talking about how this beast was is not and then will be again the seven mountains here

For two millennia the church has understood. This is probably a reference to the city of Rome Rome is a city that's built on seven hills and as a result of it when you kind of piece it together it's the first manifestation of the political beast then is

The Roman Empire in its persecution and martyrdom of Christians and The idea then is is that that's the form that it took early on and it keeps rising again where you know throughout human history where it'll have its it'll have its final manifestation where you know the political system of the world or whatever is

You know in that same hatred and in and contempt for Christianity You know outlawing

Christianity finding Christians who refuse to worship the the head of that state the false the whore of Babylon working to get everybody to worship that beast and And then anybody who doesn't there, you know, they're martyred.

That's that's kind of the idea so you have to overlay just a little bit of early Roman history here in their

Martyring of Christian Christian saints to kind of get the gist of what's going on here because the seven mountains is

Traditionally understood as referencing back to Rome So Rome has some some thought, you know some connector back into this and it's the ultimate conglomeration of Church and state for the purpose of waging war against the states that Against the

Saints the two come together here in the United States the thing that is make it making it so that Christians have a little bit more of a free hand at preaching the gospel and making disciples is the the decide decision on the part of our founders to Separate church and state that the the state cannot, you know

Affirm one religion or one denomination or one sect over another it has to stay out of these things but what's being prophesied here is

Is like the ultimate mega weapon is the complete melding together of church and state for the purpose of waging war against the

Saints and I would argue that a version of that would definitely be Sharia law in Islam There is no separation of church and state the two go hand in hand and you can you can't separate them

That's that's just not how that works All right so there are also seven kings five of whom have fallen one is

The other has not yet come and when he does come he must remain only a little while As for the beast that was and is not and is it is an eighth

But it belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction and the ten horns that you saw are Ten kings who have not yet received royal power

But they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast These are of one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the beast and they will make war on the lamb

And the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called the chosen and The faithful so you'll note that that here we see that despite the the devil's the foolish decision to wage war against the

Saints and against Christ and the lamb that Christ will conquer and Those who are called with him are the chosen and the faithful and so we we know the outcome of the war

It's it's not going to go well for Satan All right now real quick here

Elizabeth did okay Can't last thing you'd be saying the false signs and wonders are from God to know

Okay So Elizabeth the question was can blaspheming be saying that the false signs and wonders are of are from God Yeah, actually that can be blasphemy

But it's not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit so when somebody is is under a deception is being deceived and And wrongly believing that a false sign or false wonder is from God it is blasphemy because They they haven't rightly tested according to Scripture But that's a forgivable form of blasphemy

The only blasphemy that isn't forgivable is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and that one That one's a little hard to commit.

You have to really apply yourself to committing that one. Okay Jen says they had more feelings in their response

Yes, they did a lot of feelings and a lot of rhetoric not a lot of fact, so Not a lot of scripture either.

That was kind of their undoing. All right Revelation 17 15 so the angel said to me the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages

Interesting. I find it fascinating that the the waters are Multitudes of people's nations and languages because when you look at planet

Earth now Because we know we have the globe. All right. What do you see a lot of oceans and seas and stuff like that?

so, you know, you always get these wonderful illusions in the scripture that kind of point to a the cosmology that we that we know today because we were able to send satellites up and People into space and things like that So, you know,

I know the flat earthers are not happy when I say things like this, but that not too worried about upsetting them.

So Humanist languages

Oh Wow Kind of like what the photographers set out to do

I Had never even heard of that Yeah, all right

Hindenburg part two Marilyn you had a comment Yeah, and that's kind of the point and the thing is is there's so much in the book of Revelation that relates to us now

And relates to the Christians 2 ,000 years ago Okay with with the idea that this idea that it was is not and then it will be again

I Really like the way that Lewis Brighton really takes that theme and says this thing keeps coming back to life

It's like it's like a zombie and so it's wrong to look at just Rome and then the final iteration of whatever

This is before the return of Christ Instead you look at Rome you look at you know,

Soviet Union you look at China you look at Muslim states and things like this all of the different iterations where politics and religion come together for the purpose of Squashing the gospel and waging war against the

Saints every iteration of that is a form of it and then the final form that it takes that's

That's a terrifying thing when you consider it, but you know, we don't have to worry about it I always like to keep pointing to people that you know when you die, it's the end of the world for you

So, you know, it's not you don't have much longer than to wait. So just buckle up. Hang on Yeah Yeah Okay Continuing on so the ten horns that you saw they and the

Beast will hate the prostitute and this is Keep coming back to the comment. You made the last time you're here

Bruce that From the Lord of the Rings, you know That you know about how you know, he doesn't share power, you know

You know there Yeah, it's yeah Yeah, and so the idea here is is that once the prostitute has served her function, you know

She's uh, you know this false form of religion it all and then this false forms

It serves its purpose and then they hate it and then they will make her desolate and naked and then will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire

For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over the royal power to the

Beast until the words of God are fulfilled and the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth

So that's yeah So you get the idea all of these now and I made this point yesterday in the women's

Bible study when you read the book of Revelation it is chalk full of Word pictures and paintings and there's enigmatic characters and symbols that require you to kind of go back through the text and work them and And I made the analogy there.

I forget the name of the guy who has the channel that he solves puzzles But there's this this is youtuber and he's a magician for a living

But he you know he shows videos where people send him these complex puzzles and he'll spend time solving them and And he has particular techniques that he applies to them and he always enjoys it one that takes him a long long time to figure out or where he asked to actually phone the

Creators and ask for a hint because he's gotten to this part and he can't figure out how to get any farther But when we look at the book of Revelation these different word pictures are similar to that It requires you to to go into the biblical texts throughout the scriptures and Keep working those things until you find the parts that will fit so that you can properly understand it

The Bible always kind of hyperlinks to itself in that regard. And so you get the idea coming then into chapter 18

After this I saw another angel come down from heaven having great authority and the earth was made bright

With his glory and he called out with a mighty voice fallen fallen is Babylon the great she has become a dwelling place for demons a haunt for every unclean spirit a haunt for every unclean bird a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast for all the nations have drunk the wine of her of the passion of her sexual immorality and the kings of the earth have

Committed immorality with her and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious

Living now real quick Babylon. Why Babylon?

Why not Egypt? No, that's bad. The Tower of Babel is different. Why Babylon?

It was big. Okay How was that?

Okay, how did Babylon treat Israel Egypt enslaved

Israel Captivity Okay, so captivity.

So when Babylon is invoked, you'll note that there in the Old Testament. They're primarily two big empires that are held up as like pictures of Of the demonic if you would the reign of the devil the one is

Egypt With the Pharaoh who wears a crown that looks like a serpent's head

Right, but the other is Babylon where where the children of Israel are in captivity for 70 years and they are they are kept out of the

Promised Land and they are held in captivity and you read like the book of Daniel in this regard and it and you read the book of Esther in this regard as well and What you when you kind of consider that here it's talking about Babylon again

Babylon's being invoked the whore of Babylon It's being invoked for a reason because all of the imagery then of the captivity comes into play

What are we to expect as Christians if we were to think that the normal Christian life?

reflects the life of Esther Mordecai and Daniel and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Always on the edge of destruction, right?

And and that's really kind of the themes. So when you read Daniel, you know They're taken into captivity and you know at first they've they're they're tempted to compromise

Regarding their diet and they end up eating vegetables and God delivers them

Through their vegetable eating as opposed to eating all the things that they're not supposed to eat as you know as courtiers of Nebuchadnezzar, then you have the account of of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar has and he he demands an interpretation of it and everyone's gonna die if they don't tell him what the dream is and And they're on the on the edge of destruction.

They're gonna they're gonna be put to death for something They they haven't even done wrong. And what do they have to do?

They pray they pray fervently Lord delivers help us to know what his dream was

They give him the interpretation of the dream and then in the next chapter he builds this this ginormous golden idol and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego are told that they have to worship that thing or they're gonna be thrown into the fiery furnace and Then after that, you know you you know it

Daniel in the lion's den and and and then you look at the story of Esther and Mordecai and the and the people of Israel and at that time always and again

They are just on the brink of utter disaster And what gets them through prayer and faith, right?

Mm -hmm That's true Yeah in the 400 year history of the enslavement of Israel There was not a presenting issue of them being forbidden from worshiping

Yahweh That was not that was not an issue until it became that Yahweh had specific demands that they worship him

You know outside of Goshen then that became the issue But in So when we take a look at the

Babylonian captivity and the themes and why is it the book of Revelation is invoking these things?

I always find it fascinating when when somebody does a Bible study on the book of Esther and Their takeaway is well, you know

Mordecai says to Esther you were born for such a time as this So that's the takeaway. I was born for such a time as this that's missing the whole point

Okay, and you'll note that the book of Esther it's the only book that doesn't mention the name of God It doesn't mention

God's name at all And as a result of it some people didn't and what what do you make of a book in the

Bible that doesn't even? Mention the name of God What do you do with that book?

Well, the whole point of it here is that Revelation teaches us to see like I pointed out that Daniel The persecutions that they face always being on the brink of disaster

Esther and Mordecai the persecutions and difficulties they face always being on the brink of disaster and Always being delivered by how humbly praying crying out to God and God miraculously delivering them

That's the point that in the types and shadows Daniel and Esther point us to Where we are now and as Christians we're now in the quote

Babylonian captivity We're being tempted to bow down and worship

Nebuchadnezzar's idol All right We're being tempted to you know give up the faith or to worship a false beast or to listen to whatever and the consequences for not complying are

Fatal this is the normal Christ Christian life

So Babylon being invoked here should dredge this all up and you ask the question why

Babylon? Because those texts teach us in line with what we see in the book of Revelation here the

Persecution that we're suffering note the the whore of Babylon's drunk with the blood of the Saints that you know that always kind of being on the knife edge and And God having to deliver and doing so as a result of prayer.

That's That's today that's now that's all of us in the present and I'm gonna stop

There today just because I have to watch my time because if I if I'm late then that would be bad form

So, all right, we're going to finish up there and I don't see any other questions. So Lord, if anyone has the jessie spirit

Paula white does okay Thanks a lot. So yeah, that's funny. All right, PC brothers and sisters