Religious Babylon Rev, 17:1-18

Let's take a look at first, before we go into our passage here, just kind of get our bearings. We had taken an intentional detour into Matthew, the end of chapter 23, and into Matthew 24. And then a couple of questions arose during that time, and so I want to make sure we address that before we move on into our passage here in Revelation 17. The first question, Matthew 24, 40 through 41, reads, then there will be two men in the field, one will be taken and one left. Two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left. Now a lot of people have read those verses and assumed that that's talking about the rapture. Okay? How many of you have run across that idea? You heard that? Okay. A number of you have.

We want to make clear here, although we spilled some things out when we talked about it, just to make clear What this is referring to it's in the context. He's giving an example of Noah's flood. It's in the context of judgment Okay, so this is not referring to rapture, but being taken away in judgment The other thing is that it's specifically a very Jewish passage it talks about the Sabbath it talks about you know Running, you know running from Jerusalem things of that sort And so it is not addressed to the church. It's specifically a Jewish passage. So anyway, just to kind of correct any possible misunderstanding there.

The other question that came up, Matthew 24.30 describes Christ coming. Does it describe it as being on a moonless, cloudy night?

If we look at the prior verse, Matthew 24.29, it reads But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. So the coming of our Lord, the second coming in judgment, and to establish His kingdom on earth will be more extraordinary than simply a moonless, cloudy night.

More extraordinary than that. The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. It's not like it just happens to be nighttime. The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. Stars will fall from the sky. So it's going to be an extraordinary night, not just an ordinary, moonless, cloudy night.

The other thing is, he'll be coming not through the clouds, but with the clouds. See the difference there? Not through them, but with them. So what's going to happen it will be a time, it perhaps could even be cloudless, so that the clouds accompanying His coming are all the more prominent. But the idea is that it's an extraordinary time and not an ordinary time.

Now, we complete our examination of the passage in Matthew, and now we're going to turn to chapter 17 in Revelation. And we need to take a careful look at this for three reasons. One reason is that even conservative scholars, those who believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and take scripture literally, have come to some different conclusions regarding the identity of this Babylon and the whore of Babylon. The second point is that now we have two chapters, it's a significant block of the book of Revelation, and immediately following is the second coming of Christ. And so it must be significant by its mass and by its location immediately prior to the second coming of Christ. And then the third thing is that this Babylonian culture starts way early in the book of Genesis, right after the flood, and continues on all the way here, because here's the last mention of Babylon in the book of Revelation, with threads connected to Babylon in between. Babylon is mentioned some 300 times in the Bible, so I'd have to say it's significant.

And so, as we approach this, it's not a nominal minor subject. If you want to characterize it, you would say John is giving a grand finale to the end. He's bringing a focus on it, because here's a subject that's been brought up again and again and again and again in Scripture, and now he's zeroing in. Folks, this is the end, and it's a big one.

Let's start by taking a look at the overview of Babylon here. The first thing is what you see in this red arrow. This is the city of Babylon, but in fact, while that's just the city, Babylonianism is connected all throughout this region, and actually even extends far beyond what's shown in this map. One of the things we see is the influence of Babylon, And this influence of Babylon starts early in scripture. We have the flood of Noah's time, and it starts right thereafter. All of a sudden we see chapters 10 and 11 of Genesis. We see Nimrod and the culture that got started there.

We see Babel, an attempt at basically making a concentration of and then spreading humanism. This is the philosophy of Babylon, the approach of Babylon, if you will. The influence of Babylon goes beyond that in spreading the Babylonian religion to all these areas, not just language and humanism. It's basically a religious structure that's being spread there. One of the things that Babylon did is they established these ziggurats, which we see in the Power of Babel's description. In truth, because there are so many of these over the Middle East, We can't tell you exactly which one was the Tower of Babel because they kept building them even after the Tower of Babel incident where the languages were dispersed.

They kept producing more of them. This is another example. They put lots of effort into putting all these, and you can see this is just a small sampling of the number of bricks it takes to put this thing together. They put huge amounts of effort into putting this thing together.

Now, the Babylonians didn't just leave us with these ziggurats, these high points or mounds, they left us with a lot of other things too. Our system of angular measurement, for example, that's used in a lot of areas of technology. Oh boy. That system of angular measurement that we use now is actually based on the Babylonian system of angular measurement. Isn't that amazing? We got that from centuries and centuries back. And now we use it for everything technological. Here is a Babylonian clay tablet dating from 87 BC.

It actually records the appearance of what is now called Halley's Comet. They kept watching the stars and watching to see what was taking place. Even if we read in Matthew 2, remember reading about the Magi? The Magi, we aren't given lots of detail in the background, but what we can study of it, the Magi were some that were involved in studying the stars and carrying on kind of the Babylonian tradition.

Here's a Babylonian map from about 600 BC. And now I should tell you, there is an advantage to this kind of a map. If you have this kind of a map, actually, It's far advanced beyond our maps, and here's the respect in which it's advanced. You never have to worry how to refold it. But be careful about having somebody toss you a map. You just don't want to do that. It's heavy. Anyway, they had mapping, they had medicine, they had various arts. They even imported and transported various kinds of music and musical instruments, often from hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

But while they had systems of learning, the other thing that they introduced, and it spread everywhere, was their religious system. They had a pantheon of gods, and these same gods were carried over into other Mediterranean area cultures. Those of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures basically had the same gods, just with different names. It was basically the Babylonian system that they carried over. Even other, more remote areas of the world seemed to reflect a lot of this Babylonian religious influence. These gods were intended to be a replacement for the true God who had created the universe, the true God who had brought this flood judgment upon the earth. Plus, these new gods that the Babylonians introduced were morally repulsive, and they were ingrained in a system of religion that caused people to be immoral and to worship idols. Then there was a system of commerce that surrounded that immoral and idolatrous culture.

Now, there's something else that's interesting as we look at this passage. Aside from the fact that we've got this amazing history surrounding the culture of Babylon, We also have a history of the understanding of what does this passage mean. Irenaeus, who, how would you say, is the spiritual grandson of John the Apostle, John the Apostle discipled Polycarp, Polycarp discipled Irenaeus, he was convinced basically it was just the city of Babylon. Babylon was still, it was kind of not as prominent, but still in existence at that point in time. Here's a fascinating thing. The idea that this Whore of Babylon was the Roman Catholic Church, this I'm glad you're sitting down for, was introduced by the Roman Catholic Franciscan Order back around the year 1200. They were the ones who came up with it. So this isn't my idea, but this was carried on through a number of centuries.

But what in fact has happened as people have come to a place of understanding, you know, I need to take the Bible literally and to begin to study it more carefully, more and more Bible scholars came to the conclusion, no, that doesn't quite fit. That doesn't quite fit. And so you'll see a movement away from that. But I think it's valuable as we take a look at this just to realize that this is a prominent feature in people's understanding of Scripture, especially the book of Revelation. And it has gone through some change here, and the change that's been more recently introduced is actually coming back to some of the original understanding and veering away from just simply making the application that it's the Catholic Church.

There are some different views now, and I present some of those views as well as the proponents of those views. But I guess the question that comes before us is that since we have conservative Bible-believing scholars who arrive at these three different primary views, how are we to take this? How can we confidently arrive at a conclusion? Now, would you like a complicated answer or a simple one? Let's offer a simple one, okay? Let's try that. While many have written whole volumes on this subject, who is this poor Babylon?

What's the identification here? One principle that we've already come across in our study is there are some things that are to take place during the tribulation period where we cannot positively make an identification. And the most careful scholarship will lead us to the conclusion that we shouldn't say so if we don't know. So what we're going to do here is as we look at this, I think we kind of track back. Remember, we talked about the two witnesses and various scholars have argued over who are they? And what we concluded was it's better off to conclude it doesn't say.

But those living during the tribulation period will know certainly who they are, won't they? They'll read it. They'll say, all right, here's who it is. And they'll be able to identify it because all the evidence will be in. Same thing with the identification of the Antichrist.

I'm sure that a great many of you have heard, and perhaps numerous times, people trying to identify now the Antichrist. All sorts of talk and yak has gone into that. The point being, however, that trying to identify the Antichrist preliminarily or prematurely is a mistake. And in fact, what needs to happen is we need to back off and say, This is what we know, and we simply don't have all the evidence because the Antichrist is not set forward yet. And there will come a time when those living during the Tribulation period will be quite certain of who the Antichrist is, based on not just the full evidence of Scripture, but the full evidence of facts before them.

The same thing applies here. An attempt to jump to an identification is probably going to lead us into a wrong identification all too easily, because the facts are not all laid out yet. It will become very clear who this is as time proceeds. So, let's move into the passage recognizing that we're going to look at it, we're going to see what can be known and made clear and certain, and we're going to leave aside those things that can't be. Okay, let's take a look at it here. Start with verse 1.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality." Now we've looked at these seven angels before, these ones who had the seven bowls of judgment, and John is now listening to one of these seven angels. and the angel invites John, offering to show him the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. The word translated harlot here, or whore in some translations, is the Greek word pornos, strongly implying sexual sins. If we have any doubt about what sitting on the many waters means, all we have to do is glance down to verse 15, because it says exactly what it means. And he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

This is an example of where the Bible interprets itself. And so it just tells you, that's what it is. The book of Revelation does that in a number of places and this is one of them. But notice, one of the things we've seen before is this peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues That phrase and phrases very similar to it are pointing out the global character of what this is talking about. This isn't just something having to do with Israel. This is talking about the whole world.

The Greek word here translated immorality is the Greek word pornea. It's where we get our word pornography. So there's no question about the insidious nature of what he's talking about. The Old Testament frequently uses Sexual immorality is a vivid picture of religious apostasy.

So it's clear from all those Old Testament scriptures what direction both the angel and John are taking this. Next, John uses the phrase, those who dwell on the earth. Notice that except for one instance where it was promised to believers that they wouldn't be included along with those who dwell on the earth, and subject to the tribulation, this phrase, with that exception, shows up only during the tribulation period.

That's a tribulation-specific phrase. Now, what's interesting here is the Greek word for drunk, methuselah, is in the passive voice. That is, they were made drunk forcibly. How about that? These tribulation period earth-dwellers were force-fed immorality. Force-fed immorality. They were made to be drunk. But they didn't just fall into it. This immorality, this spiritual adultery was shoved down their throats. Our own culture seems to be heading in that direction, doesn't it? Have you noticed that? Our own culture is heading in that direction, being force-fed spiritual adultery. Let's look at verses 3-6.

And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly."

This woman, who represents this false religious system, is sitting on top of the beast. Archaeologists have found a number of images, reliefs, and clay impressions in and around the area of Babylon that show the goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, riding upon or ruling or dominating a beast, and this is one example. Typically it's shown as a lion because they worshiped lions as well. So this is just one kind of drawing based on one of the clay images. The color scarlet that we see described here, the color scarlet was worn by royalty. This communicates with this color exalted position.

John then writes of blasphemous names, the names of false gods and goddesses, blaspheming the true God for centuries. The time of the Tribulation will simply be the apex. Notice here, full of blasphemous names, defiant of and confronting God's character, an insult to God. Now you know that whenever mankind cooks up religion, so as to be supposedly acceptable to God, God finds that repulsive too. Religion on man's terms is not going to be any match with or assistance to salvation of Jesus Christ. The gross word picture that John has laid out for us here tells us how God sees this man-made religion.

So there's a tendency on people's part to look at spirituality as just sort of, it's all neutral. It's all kind of on the same plane. Anything spiritual is pretty much equal, right? Not the picture you get here, is it? There's definitely a sharp dividing line between man-made spirituality and spirituality that comes from God alone. Now, every piece of her adornment and communication her adornment and clothing communicates her opulence and personal exaltation, it's dripping with moral and spiritual filth.

Do you get that picture? Verse 5 tells us what is written across the woman's forehead. Now one of the things we have to note is that prostitutes in the Greek and Roman culture frequently had their names tattooed across their forehead. So all he's doing is giving one more picture here. to identify this is the character and name of this prostitute. This woman, however, is a gross spiritual prostitute, not just a physical prostitute. The spiritual and moral filthiness of this woman, this picture of this world system that John's painting, is so prominent that you can see it on her face.

Let's take a look at what Jeremiah 51.7 has for us here. Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are going mad." This was written centuries before Christ, and now in this time to come, it will simply culminate. It will reach its maximum. The focus in verse 6 is the martyrdom of the saints of the Lord. They've been killed by man-made world religious systems of all times. Man-made religion isn't nice. It's filthy and it slaughters the saints. Man-made religion hates grace, hates absolute truth, and hates exclusive truth.

One of the things that's real interesting is that we're seeing a growing move towards tolerance of anything. Except for Christianity. Why? This very thing. Because we say that there is absolute truth. We say that there is exclusive truth. Christ is not a way, he is the only way. God's word is spelling out the truth. God himself has laid out the truth and revealed the truth.

And to call that exclusive, the world can't tolerate. This man-made religion, this world system, is like oil and water. It doesn't mix with the truth of Scripture. This martyrdom that we read about will come to its peak during the Tribulation period.

Something else we note here, it says, John wondered greatly. Think about that. John wondered greatly. John didn't just say, okay, next page. Instead, he looks at this and says, wow. This really got his attention. He marveled to hear that this ancient kingdom, which still had some presence during his time, would have such a prominent place in this time to come. Amazed John was at this.

Verse 7 says this, And the angel said to me, Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. Notice, the angel immediately recognizes John's shock, doesn't he? The angel looks at John and says, hey, this guy's wondering. He sees it right off.

At this point we should recognize the distinction between man-made religion and God's revelation in scripture. Man-made religion tries to keep people under its power by claiming to have some unique mystery. Man-made religion keeps things under wraps of mystery. Come to this group, come to this particular building, because we have this mystery here that we're still keeping control of.

And if you really want to take part in it, we've got it. But one of the things that becomes clear in the New Testament is the word mystery is not meant to keep something shrouded in a fog, shrouded in uncertainty. a mystery is to reveal a truth that's previously unknown. And that's exactly what's happening here. This is a revealed truth.

He's wanting to make plain what is now apparently somewhat shocking and clouded in John's mind. So the angel is going to make things more clear to John. Let's look at verse 8-13. And the beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction.

And those who dwell on the earth, those whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast that he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings, five have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come. But when he comes he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.

The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast." Now at first you read that and you might think, wow!

What on earth is he talking about? Here we have verse 8 speaks twice of this beast as being the one who was and is not and is to come. He says it will go to destruction. And then he talks about those whose names are not in the book of life who dwell upon the earth are those not saved, the tribulation period lost.

So let's take a look. I developed kind of a timeline overhead which I hope will give us some insight into what this verse is talking about here. As we look at this, there have been five kingdoms that have come and gone during this period of time. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece. So these are five that are no more.

One is. Here is Rome. One is. And is right now. So he's talking to John, who's living during that time. And then he says, when he comes, must remain a little while. There's this future kingdom that's coming. This global tribulation rule, this tribulation empire. It's this tribulation period empire that's composed of the ten nations, the revived Roman Empire. This is why you see the reference in this passage to the ten. So when you look at the, there's seven and now there's five and all that, he's basically pointing out this sequence here that we see in front of us. Verse 13 makes it clear what is the focus of power in the tribulation period.

All is centered upon giving the Antichrist power and increasing it, growing his power. Even those who are leading these nations of the revived Roman Empire are there to zero in and direct their power towards the Antichrist. He's the focal point of power, so they're going to support him.

And that's why it says in verse 14, these, that is, these leaders of the ten nations, and the Antichrist, will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful. Now, he's actually kind of giving us insight, because the actual description of that battle and that coming isn't until the 19th chapter. So he's kind of jumping ahead, but he's wanting to give us a time perspective of what will take place. It's this last kingdom here that's being focused on for the tribulation period, and Christ's second coming right at the end of that time will be the termination, that's the going to destruction for this kingdom. The rulers of the revived Roman Empire will support the Antichrist. they will stand in joint opposition to our Lord the Lamb when he comes.

It's not that it'll do them any good, but they're going to do it anyway. You need to know that. It says that the Lamb will overcome them. It's not that the Lamb might overcome them, or that the Lamb probably will overcome them. It's not that we surely hope that the Lamb will overcome them. It simply says that the Lamb will overcome them. Notice, however, the reason why the Lamb will overcome them.

It is because of who He is. He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. We're also told that those who are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. And who are these that are called and chosen and faithful? Who are they? It's us, alright? That's us. We will be with Him. It says right here. We will be with Him. How do I know that we will be with the Lord.

For starters, here's what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4.17. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air so that we shall always be with the Lord.

Always. Including this time. The Lord isn't going to say, hey folks, you guys just stick around, hang around a while, I'm going to be gone for a thousand years, and I'll see you when I come back. No. He says we're always going to be with Him. This time included.

Now, verse 15, And he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw in the beast, these will hate the harlot, and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose, and giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman with whom you saw as the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth."

Now, in this passage, the angel has explained a lot of things to John, hasn't he? In some ways, however, it's like how our Lord would take the disciples aside and explain some of the parables. He's kind of done that with John here. He says, John, this is this, this is this, this is this, just so you get those parts clear. He's explaining the details here.

The waters are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, as we pointed out before. We've seen a similar phrase throughout the Book of Revelation describing masses of people living during the Tribulation period, and this is not the last time that we'll hear of them. This same phrase has shown up in numerous times as we've looked at the Book of Revelation. This is now the last, the very last. It's a tribulation-specific phrase.

Now, what verse 16 tells us is that the woman, the false world religious system that has held the world captive for centuries, is not acceptable, and this is almost a laugh if it weren't so sad, it's not acceptable even to the Antichrist. How about that? It's not acceptable to him. Why? It doesn't direct enough attention to him.

The leaders of the ten-nation confederacy of this revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist whom they support will seek to obliterate the woman in order to direct all control to the Antichrist and his alliances. These will move to eliminate the competition from the woman. This is spiritual capitalism, if you will. Eliminate the competition. The harlot of Babylon.

Verse 17 is something we have seen the Lord do over time. He is even able to use and influence the hearts of those who oppose him for his purposes. Isn't that what he did in the case of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus? Isn't that what he did in the case of the Hivites, as was told to us in Joshua? That's exactly what he's doing here. We already know that the Lord works all things together for good for those that love him, right? God has this amazing sovereignty where he can take someone whose heart and intent is not to glorify the Lord, and the Lord says, I'm going to sovereignly use those people anyway for my purposes.

That's amazing, isn't it? Verse 18 we are told, actually reaffirmed, that Babylonianism reigns over the earth even now. The Greek word translated reign is a present active participle preceded with a definite article. Vern, what are you talking about? It means this. So the Greek in verse 18 carries this significance. The woman whom you saw is the great city which is the one right now reigning over the kings of the earth. See that? The woman whom you saw is the great city which is the one right now reigning over the kings of the earth.

Babylon is not just a future issue for some later point in time. It's a present issue for here and now. It was in John's day and it is now. Right in the world where you and I live. At this very moment, the world is trying to squeeze you into its mold. The world impresses upon us, attempts to anyway, its values. The world attempts to impress upon us its hopes.

But the Lord had Paul write this instead, Romans 12.2 Do not be conformed to this world, even this world's religious system, I would insert, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Notice that Paul didn't leave other options here. There's two. Either you will be squeezed into this world's mold. You will be made to conform. How do you like being made to conform? That's what the world will seek to do.

He says it's that or being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Do you want to know what God's first and primary will is in your life? Many of us would dearly like to have that information. And he spells it out right here. This is it. The world's conforming process is not God's will. He wants us to be transformed by beholding the Lord of Glory. It's that being transformed that He has in mind. That's His will. That will bring about His will in our lives. Let's pray.

Lord, we give You thanks. As we look at this passage, certainly there's a great deal in it. But as we see this massive pressure that the world has for centuries been under to conform conformed to something that is not pleasing to you. We just find that we must turn to you to be anything other than conformed to this world. And we do that now, Lord. And we just, we pray that you would grow us and teach us as we behold you, rather than what this world has to offer. And we just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.