Book of Revelation - Ch. 17 (10/05/2014)

The Lord’s Blessing Before Studying Revelation 17

I think they're still fiddling around back and to back with the system. So we're waiting anyhow. That was Christy you were talking about? That was Christy you were talking about? She's gone to her trip now?

Okay. Well, we miss her. Tell her we miss her when you see her. Put some shame on her for not being here. We are, we're going to wind up today in Revelation 17. But before we begin, I think we need to stop and ask the Lord to bless this study.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us a place to come together to worship you in the spirit to guide us and to point us to things that you want us to know. And thank you for giving us each a personal guide that will take us through those things that we read, those things that we study, and apply the significance that they have to us, for us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

The Chronology of the Tribulation and the Return of Christ

Before we go to Revelation 17 though, I'd like to backtrack a little bit to Revelation 11, 15, just to get some chronology, because we're going to jump out of chronology today. Revelation 11, 15, it's just one verse, it says,.

And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord God, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.

And the reason I wanted to go there is because the seventh trumpet has sounded. And then go on to Revelation 12, 12, 12, and you see a really significant event. We spent a couple of weeks on this passage right here.

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and a half time.

That's the famous three and a half years of Daniel. That she may fly into the wilderness from the face of the serpent. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels, and prevailed not.

Neither was there a place found anymore in heaven. So at this point, Satan no longer has access to the heavenlies. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.

He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. So there's where we are, or that's where we were in chapter 12. The twelfth trumpet has sounded, the rapture has occurred, and the great tribulation has begun.

In the weeks that passed, as we worked our way through the chapters, we looked at the details of the tribulations that were experienced by the earth dwellers during those three and a half years, the great tribulation.

We saw the emergence of the two beasts. We saw their empowerment by Satan. We saw the sealing of the 144 ,000. We saw Satan's imitation of that sealing in his mark of the beast applied to the non-elect.

We saw the seven vial judgments begin, and now we have approached the very end. The seventh and final vial has been poured out. That was poured out in Revelation 16, verse 17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done.

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. And the men blasphemed God, because the plague of the hail, and for the plague thereof, was exceedingly great.

And so only one event remains, and that's the return of Jesus. He'll return in chapter 19, verse 11. And I saw the heavens opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon them was called Faithful and True.

And in righteousness he does judge and make war. Now, if you want to go through that, you're going to have to come back in a couple of weeks, because we're not going to go there. Chapter 17 and chapter 18 are stuck right here in this verse, and they interrupt the flow of chronology.

This is out of time. The pouring out of the seventh seal is actually followed immediately in time by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to end the great battle at Armageddon. But chapter 17 and 18 digress to look not at God's specific judgments, but at what is being judged.

These two chapters go back to the beginning of the Great Tribulation. That's why I wanted to go back and pick up the beginning of the Great Tribulation, the last three and a half years of Daniel. And in fact, lead us all the way back to Genesis.

So we're going to go way back to Genesis to start today. To describe the world system, led by Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet, before recording its destruction in the seventh vial. So that's what John did, inspired by the Holy Scripture, and that's what we're going to do.

So what's going on in the intervening two and a half chapters is the detailing of one aspect of the Tribulation period. So let's jump right in. Revelation 16, 19 says,. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.

And great Babylon came in to remember us before God, to give unto her the cup of wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And I had asked you a question a couple of weeks ago, why do you think that Babylon gets all of this special attention?

Anybody have a comment? Why it is that Babylon gets this special attention? He talked about two great cities, the great city that was divided into three parts, and that, Ron, was Jerusalem, and that was God's special city, but they didn't get all this attention that Babylon got.

Babylon's going to get two and a half chapters. Well actually, Babylon's going to get two chapters, and then there's going to be a rest from that before we go back into the chronology. But why Babylon?

And I think Clarence hit on part of it. Go ahead and finish that up, please. Okay, so there's going to be kind of a double representation of this term Babylon. There's going to be a world system, and there's going to be an actual physical city.

And sometimes he's going to be talking about the actual physical city, and sometimes he's going to be talking about, I said physical city, didn't I? Sometimes he's going to be talking about the world system.

I didn't want to say the same thing twice. A little background though first from Babylon. Go back to Genesis 9 verse 18, and we're going to look at a little genealogy. That's always fun. There's a lot of different, especially conservative scholars, that tie Babylon very closely to the Catholic church.

Now my particular thought is this. The Catholic church is included, but it's not the only church that's included. The Baptist church, the apostate Baptist churches are included too. The apostate, Brother David, what do we call ourselves now?

Okay, so since we're anti-apostate, we're not in this bunch. Thank you, sir. But I don't want to be, I don't want to point, yeah, anti-apostate, and we can do it. The AP church. I don't think so. I think the new Babylon is right there where the old Babylon is going to be.

As a matter of fact, Saddam Hussein was rebuilding before we interrupted him. But that doesn't mean that we stopped it. I kind of expect the Caliphdom that's coming down, the Isis Caliphdom, to take Babylon and finish the job is kind of what I expect.

But that may be just me. Certainly that's just me. We need to always remember Acts 17, 11. What I tell you, accept, but check it out. Okay, we're in Genesis 9, 18, just a little bit of a genealogy, and the sons of Noah that went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, Japheth.

And Ham is the father of Cana. And then down to verse 10, because I'm just doing the, I'm not going to do all of the genealogy, and 10 it says, and the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Cana. And then in verse 8 through 10 it says, it's the same chapter, Cush begot Nimrod.

And he began to be a mighty one in the earth, and he was a mighty hunter before God. And by the way, that before God is better translated against God, or in the face of God. Wherefore we just say it, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord.

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Aritch, Achad, Chalna, in the land of Shinar. Now as I was researching this, I found this passage in the Blue Letter Bible. Any of you know about the Blue Letter Bible?

You can just type into your computer, Google search, Blue Letter Bible, and it will take you to a website that has an interactive Bible, and it's got commentaries, it's got a lot of good stuff with it, and it's got a, what is it called, a Greek or Hebrew concordance with it.

And, you know, it can save you several hundred dollars. It's not as good as what you can buy, but it's pretty good. Anyhow, this particular passage was by a guy by the name of Chuck Smith. I don't know whether any of you have heard of him.

He is a Calvary Chapel pastor. He's kind of a charismatic, but he is a solid, conservative, charismatic, if there can be such a thing. And I think they can. Here's what he said. And, Brother David, I thought of you when I read this passage in one of the sermons that you did.

I just picked up in the middle, suffice it to say that in ancient Babylon, there was a worship of Nimrod, also called Tammuz, and his mother Semiramis, also known as Astarte. They were a mother and a child.

He was supposedly born by a virgin. She was supposedly a virgin, and he was born by virgin birth. Now, this is a little awkward because this is a printing of a sermon, not a commentary, so it kind of floats around.

He was worshiped by the people. He was a mighty hunter opposed to God, according to the Scriptures, called the mighty hunter before the Lord. According to the stories, while hunting, he was gored by a boar and died.

And his body lay out there for three days, and he resurrected. Thus the people began to celebrate his resurrection by coloring eggs and by the worship of the rabbit, which, of course, is known for its productivity.

And they had a great celebration that they called Astarte, which we call Easter, in which they worshiped his coming to life with colored eggs and all. And it was a celebration year by year known as Astarte, from which, of course, we get our word Easter.

It is interesting that we have adopted the custom of coloring eggs. One might think that that was the influence of Satan in God's church. There is nothing wrong with coloring Easter eggs, I don't think, but there is something wrong when you bring it into the church.

That is, again, my opinion. He was supposedly born in December. What day do you think? The 25th. And his birthday was celebrated by decorating trees and bringing them into your house and decorating them with silver and gold and different decorations, because the tree, the evergreen tree, the symbol of life.

And he said, of course, we don't have anything like that in the church, but we can liken to that today. So that was what he mentioned. The Madonna and child with the halo around them, that kind of art existed thousands of years before Jesus.

There are pictures of Astarte with the mother and the child and the halo that have nothing to do with Jesus. That's an art form picked up by the church. Okay, so there we go. Let's go to chapter 17. I told you we'd get to chapter 17, and we actually did it before halfway point.

So that's like a... You talked pretty fast. Yeah, I did. I went fast. Chapter 17, verse 1, and there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, and I will show thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon the many waters.

And you can go back and study the commentators, and there's hours and hours and books and books that try to figure out which one of the angels he's talking to. I said, why would you even care? But anyhow, it's one of the seven, and so what's our first task?

To determine who this great whore is. Well, who do you think it is? Sits on many waters. Well, the many waters, the sea is oftentimes referred to as large numbers of people. And so what it is, is she sitteth upon many people.

And to save dancing around too much, let's just peek ahead four verses. Look at verse 5, and there'll be no doubt about who it is. Because it's going to tell us that on her forehead was a name written.

Well, I say there's no problem. Look at that. First word, mystery. Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and the abominations of the earth. That's a big bunch of words. But we may not be to the worst, but we may not be to the worst of the offenders.

The worst of the offenders may just be now blooming.

Well, as far as we know, yes.

Yes, and they're crucifying them, and they're crucifying them, and they're beheading them. Who was the ISIS? So I'm not sure that the Catholic Church's position as being the chief persecutor of Protestants is not about to be overtaken.

Yeah. Yeah, I think. See, I think the Catholic Church today and the apostate Protestant churches today, I think their contribution is not actual physical slaughter, but it is a creating of a condition where that can take place.

Soul slaughter. Uh-huh. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And that's worse. Mm-hmm. It is certainly one of the players and one of the big players from here back. Mm-hmm. Mystery Babylon. I'm going to save that because I'm going to address a reasonably long segment on what mystery is.

But before I do that, well, I'll just go ahead and start to do that now. I'll move some stuff around, and I'm out of the order that I thought I was in. So let's just go down through what I've got. So we picked ahead at verse 5, and it says,.

And upon her forehead was the great name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. And so then it says in verse 2,. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So whoever or whatever is being described here is allied with the world's political leaders. We know that. But the alliance will expand to include all the inhabitants of the earth. And what sin is that that they're in alliance with?

What's the sin that they're committing? It says fornication, but that's not really what it is. What is it? It's idolatry. It's the worship of false gods. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit on the scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

So who's the beast? The beast, the scarlet-colored beast, that would be the Antichrist. And for the time being, he will support and use the false religious system, the woman, to affect world unity. And her position riding the beast indicates that right now, at this point in the vision, she apparently has the upper hand.

She is in control of the beast, but that's going to change. And by the way, one of the... So, look ahead at 16. The ten horns which thou sawest on the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

But that's for later, that's not for now. For now, she is in control. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications.

Purple and scarlet are the colors of nobility and great wealth. So, right now, she's greatly wealthy and she is noble. Yes. Okay, I think I agree. And I think it's all going to blend together, but I don't think it's going to be the Catholic Church at the very end time.

I think it's going to be a new church in control of the second beast that is an amalgamation of the Catholic Church and of apostate Protestant churches and of all other false religions, including Islam.

But you're saying this is 16. What you read in 16, you're saying later.

Later on, later on, the Antichrist is going to do away with all of that false church stuff. Yeah. And he is going to demand they worship him. Right.

Right. And so, but I was just meaning, like, when you referenced 16, this is later on, looking back.

Yeah, it is, but they also will hate that entire false religion. He will no longer have a false religion that's made up of this amalgamation of things. He will demand worship of himself. Sure. Yes. And she has all the appearance of being in control, and that unifies the whole world.

Yeah. Those are, as we say, those are under the train.

Yes. You just don't see it. No.

The Pope, there was an assassination attempt on his life. Remember him? No. The reason it failed is, at the same, about the same time the assassin fired the bullet, a little girl was down, and she was showing him a miracle that had happened involving, it was effectively related to the Islam, Muhammad's daughter, Thalamo or something.

Fatima. Fatima. And so, when he looked down and he saw that, he took that to be his own miracle, and so at that point they started reaching out to the Muslim faith. And that was like 15 or so years ago, and I've forgotten the details of it, but that's something worth looking into.

John. John Paul? Yeah. John Paul and Fatima. Okay, let's look at verse 5. We're back to verse 5. We skipped ahead to it. And upon her forehead was written, Now I want to look at the last two things first.

Mystery of Babylon. The seat of Satan. Where Satan's seat is. The mother of all false religions and of all abominations of the earth, would be a better way of translating that, instead of saying the mother of harlots, the mother of all false religions and of all abominations of the earth.

The world order. A false religion that started in Babel and spread throughout the world. That's why Babylon gets special attention. The story of Babylon begins with Babel and the rebellion led by Nimrod, by which man tried to make his own way to heaven, through the Tower of Babel.

And what that says is, man, inspired by Satan, attempted to set up his own religion, apart and independent of God. So what they want is a religion that doesn't have God in it. That doesn't have the real God in it.

It can have Mohammed in it, it can have humanism in it, it can have anything in the world in it, but it can't have God in it. Because Satan is inspiring it. It's a demonic thing. One could consider Babylon to be the original seat of Satan.

The original place where he first focused his attention on man, and introduced two things. False religion and this great abomination. And so Babylon is where it began. And again, I'm going to inject some conjecture, so keep Acts 17 and 11 in mind.

I suspect that the seat of Satan moved from Babel to Sodom and Gomorrah. Think about it, and think about why it would be that Sodom and Gomorrah would have been called out. They're known for two things.

A false religion. They worshipped the moon god, which was worshipped by all the early Canaanites. Later called Baal. Now called Allah. And the great abomination. And what was that? Well, false religion is one thing, and the great abomination is something else.

It's the one aspect of Sodom and Gomorrah's sin that's called out. Homosexuality. Now what's interesting is you read the current studies on Sodom and Gomorrah. You know what it's now considered in the humanistic view?

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? Inhospitality. Rudeness. The ones that were partners of the great abomination. Yeah, that was before we went to the inhospitality. Inhospitable? Yeah. Now we know that he didn't leave his seat there.

And we know where it went next, or we know where it went later. We know it moved to Pergamos. We know that because John tells us that in Revelation 2. And to the angel of the church of Pergamos write,.

Now does that mean that Satan forgot Babylon? No, he just shifted his focus. He shifted his focus to Asia Minor, and he's getting ready to shift his focus at this time to Europe. Most conservative Bible scholars believe it moved to Rome, where it became entwined with the Roman Catholic Church, and where it would remain into the tribulation period.

And in fact most of these scholars identify the great whore as the Roman Catholic Church. Here's a quote from one of them. In John's day, Rome epitomized all the antagonism and opposition to Christian faith.

That was Robert Muncy. And in some ways, the city of Rome was the clearest fulfillment of the mystery of Babylon, the world system, the world humanistic system that is the mystery of Babylon. Not the physical city, but the world order.

So I got a question. If you had to pick a city today that you think most closely exemplifies the world system that was introduced by Satan, what city would you choose? Washington, of course. Well, you say, of course, but I could pick one.

You would say, of course, I believe that one too. What about Los Angeles? What about San Francisco? What about the United Nations? New Orleans? I mean, we could pick hundreds of cities that have this mystery Babylon nature to them.

But consider this. And I want to get through with this today. Turn to Zechariah, chapter 5, verse 5. This is a very obscure and strange passage. And since I like obscure and strange, that's where I went.

A 5 -5, Zechariah 5 -5. While you're looking for it, I'll start reading. Because it will take a few minutes to get to what I want to see. Then the angel that talked with me went forth and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what it is that goeth forth.

And I said, What is it? And he said, It is an ephod that goeth forth. And he said, Moreover, this is their resemblance through all the earth. And, behold, there was lifted up a talon of lead. And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephod.

And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephod. And he cast away the lead upon the mouth thereof. And then lifted I mine eyes and looked. And, behold, there came two women.

And the wind was in their wings. For they had wings like the wings of a stork. And they lifted up the ephod between the earth and the heavens. And then I said unto the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephod?

And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar. And it shall be established there and set there upon her base. Now you know where the land of Shinar is. That's Babylon. So, here's what I think.

I think the seed of Satan started at Babylon. And I think it spread. And I think it spent its time in Sodom and Gomorrah. And it spent its time in Pergamos. And it spent its time in Rome. And it's spending some time now in Los Angeles and Washington and San Francisco.

And many of the world cities. But I think it will be brought back to its original site. So I think eventually it's going to return to Babylon. Throughout history, Babylon has been an important center of false religion.

In the end times, I believe, the false religion will come back to where it started. And the devil who deceived the people at Babel and from there launched a false religion all over the world will once again deceive the world with its headquarters being located in Babylon.

Yes. That would certainly qualify as wickedness being transported back to where it began, wouldn't it? I'm kind of with you. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration, so why is he amazed? Why is he amazed? He's amazed because this isn't the kind of pagan persecution that he experienced. John and the people of his day were not hounded by a religious system, a false religious system.

They were hounded only by pagans who... That's how they treated everybody. I mean, you weren't special. You weren't crucified because you were a Christian. That wasn't just special to you. That's the way they treated all of them.

That's the way they treated their slaves that rebelled. They crucified them. And sometimes they lit their bodies with tar and used them to light the streets. It was just... But what Paul is amazed about is this is a false religion.

This is a pseudo church thirsty for the blood of the saints. And Vaudeville said false religion is always the worst enemy of true religion. We're talking about truly saved people, God's children, and what they face in the religious persecution.

False religion has killed millions of believers over the centuries. And they won't be nearly so bad as the last one. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? And I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns.

The mystery is not that Babylon is a false system. The mystery is that the beast will fully support her and that together they will influence the whole world. The beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition.

And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. And when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. So who is that?

The beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. That's the Antichrist. That's the Antichrist. Remember, he ascended. He was thought to be dead. And he resurrected.

He was and is not. Both the king and his kingdom. After the resurrection, the Antichrist will be indwelt by Satan. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.

Now, a lot of scholars use that to be a direct connection to Rome because Rome is known as the city built on the seven hills. And maybe that's so. I'm not going to argue with that. Well, he would have been in a great minority of Protestant scholars at that point.

But I think Proverbs is right. I can tell you what Dr. MacArthur says about it. You need to look. Let me say what he says first. He says, and while it's true that the final worldwide system of false religion will include Rome, it's not necessarily limited to Rome.

But what it's specifically referring to with the seven mountains is the seven kingdoms. And they're kings. And you can see that as you go through the rest of this passage. And there are seven kings. Five are fallen.

And one is. And the other has not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue for a short space. I didn't put this in, but one of the arguments of the scholars that say it's Rome is, who are these seven kings?

Well, these are like five rulers before the one that's ruling now, and the one that's ruling now, and the one that's going to rule later. That's how they score it. Are they talking about who? No, they're talking about emperors of Rome.

If it's Rome, you're right. You could be talking about the church.

You could be talking about popes. No, I was just asking the question.

Anyhow, the representative world empires that have gone before and have fallen at this time when John is writing are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, the Medo-Persian Empire, Greece, and Rome, and the Antichrist.

Now, five of those have already fallen. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and the Greek empires. They've gone out of existence. They don't exist anymore. Rome still existed. That's the one that is.

And the Antichrist empire had not yet come. So those are the seven mountains referred to, the seven kingdoms, the five that have come before and have passed, Rome, which was in power at the time and kind of continues on, the Antichrist empire.

And then look at this next passage. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seventh and goes into perdition. What in the world does that mean? How can he be the seventh and the eighth?

He claimed to die and was resurrected. Before he died, he was the seventh kingdom, the seventh king, and after he died, he was the eighth. Before he died, or claimed he died, what was the world religion?

The world religion of the dragon, the great false religion. After he died and was resurrected, what did he do? He's God now. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings when I was the beast.

They're part of the kingdom of the Antichrist. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. They're sub-rulers under the Antichrist. Their empire is apparently divided into ten districts.

Because they have not been identified as given a kingdom, they cannot be identified with any historical figure. They have not yet got their power, and they will not have gotten their power until midway through, until after the Antichrist is resurrected.

And they shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And they that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. And He said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, are people and multitudes and nations and tongues.

That's why I knew that the waters were people. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

So after using the false religious system to unify the world, the Antichrist will demand that they worship Him instead. For God hath put into their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled.

So why are they doing all that they are doing? Because of the power of God, and because God instructed them to do it. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

That would be Babylon, the capital of the Antichrist's empire. Now, that's the end of chapter 17. And I went really fast because I wanted to get all the way through to the end. Any other questions or comments?

We'll be running into Brother David's time. Yes? I think the beast is the Antichrist. But again, I want to refer you, I think you came in late. When I tell you I think something, what that means is you need to check it out to make sure that I'm right or you're right.

There are things that I don't know. And there are things that we all don't know. And the worst thing we can do is to take someone and say, okay, this is what I used to think, but now I know this because you told me.