Religious Babylon - Revelation 17:1-18

Alright, we're shifting into a couple of chapters. There are a pair of chapters that have a common theme and yet a difference between them. Revelation chapter 17 is about religious Babylon. Revelation chapter 18 is about commercial Babylon. So they're both about two aspects of the same thing. And They're not necessarily something interposed as to time. It's one of those instances where John's got so many things to write about, he can't put them all on the same page on top of one another. So what we'll see here is something that shows the end of Babylon in the religious aspect and in the commercial aspect.

It's superimposed in time on the other events that we just completed here in chapter 16. Here's a list of slides I'd like to have us go through just to kind of get a visual orientation. Here we are as we proceed through the book of Revelation, the judgment of Babylon, chapter 17 and 18. So next week we'll continue on with commercial Babylon in chapter 18.

And then in terms of the alteration Between the heavenly scene and earthly scene, this will be the earthly scene, continuing with the earthly scene through the end of chapter 18. Then it will go to the heavenly scene afterwards. Okay, now... We're through with the judgments in terms of addressing the detail.

What I would say though is that Babylon is judged in these judgments, especially the last ones, that terminate Babylon. So what we're seeing is kind of a zoom lens on Babylon, looking at Babylon as we look at chapters 17 and 18. These three sets of seven judgments are completed with the termination of Babylon. Babylon, here's Babylon right there, basically in the middle of the nation Iraq that we're currently involved in militarily.

So here it is, it's been partially reconstructed under Saddam Hussein, that was one of his glorious projects. And here is one of the many towers in the Middle East, many of them in Iraq, not all of them. There are towers and pyramids, truncated pyramids that are capped at the top, things of that sort, all throughout the Middle East. Why do I bring that up? Because that's one of them, and there's a group called the Associates for Biblical Research out of Pennsylvania. that says that they feel that they've identified the base of the Tower of Babel. And these are professional archaeologists, not amateurs. Here is another one of the towers, pyramids that they had there in the Middle East.

Something else, as we look at Babylon, we have from the Babylonians our system of angles and degrees. that there are 360 degrees in a full circle is Babylonian. That's the Babylonian system. We use it today. The Babylonians were the ones who developed it and all we've done is to refine it and to put more precise measurements. But interestingly enough, we've just adopted the Babylonian system.

Here is a Babylonian clay tablet dating from 87 BC. So that is 87 BC, that was just before the Romans came in and took over Israel. 87 BC was less than a century before Christ was born. It was basically within a long lifetime of when Christ was born.

This particular tablet records the appearance of what is now called Halley's or Halley's Comet. Interestingly enough, that's not what they called it, but nonetheless that's what it records. And that was the timing of the comet going over the Earth and coming close and being visible then.

What you see on the right is a Babylonian map. Now I will tell you there is one respect in which the Babylonians were miles, and I mean miles ahead of where our maps are. And can you tell me what the advantage is to these maps, these Babylonian maps?

No folding. You do not have to fold them. That's right. Once you're done with them, you just put them back in the glove box. Hopefully you don't have too many because they're heavy. And no folding, no puzzling, you know, catastrophe or trauma. Just throw it back in the glove box and you're done.

One of the other things we're going to run into twice in this chapter, starting off here in verse 2, is this tribulation-specific phrase, those who dwell on the earth. It is the last time it shows up. And one of the things we pointed out, it's a, those who dwell on the earth is a phrase used only during the tribulation period, except once. We pointed out here in chapter 3, where the church is promised not to go through that. Using that phrase, those who dwell on the earth. The church will not be with the rest of those who dwell on the earth during that time.

So it's another one of the things that points to, and it's only one, but it's another one that points to a clear teaching of the pre-tribulation raptures. Then another thing, you ever hear of the seven wonders of the ancient world? One of those seven wonders was the Hain Gardens of Babylon. The Hain Gardens of Babylon are only written about. We don't have anything even partially reconstructed to have any idea what it looked like. So this is an artist's rendering of the Hain Gardens of Babylon.

Okay. With that, let's move into the handout here. Comments or questions so far? Everybody with me? Or what's passed out? Okay, good. I wonder. Yeah? One of the principal things with Babylon was the confusion through languages. Yes. And will that continue? Languages persist or will they be dissolved? This is very interesting. Art asked the question, will languages continue as a plurality of languages, I think you're talking about, or will that somehow be resolved? Really good question.

I don't know that scripture explicitly answers it. Perhaps we can suggest an answer and I think it probably should stop there. but a suggestion, and that is that since the confusion of languages was done basically to deal with man's sin, not to solve it, but to deal with it, since man's sin was originally the issue, I would suggest, I don't know this, I would suggest that perhaps that points to a resolution into one language again.

And I don't know, would that take place in the millennium? Would it take place in the new heavens, new earth? I don't know. And one reason I don't know is because, as I say, I think that's probably speculation. It needs to stay there. But that would be, I think, a reasonable thing to take place. If it doesn't, I think the Lord has some other good answer for it. But it's a good question. I wish I had a really good answer. Yeah, it is a good question.

What you see recorded multiple times, we've seen it in Revelation. There are four kind of waves of singing of these 24 elders. And by the way, that's us, right? So here's these four syncopations, including the 24 elders singing, kind of in four waves through the heavenly scene.

And in the midst of that, I met believers twice earlier this year who were from Uganda. I know they're believers. We had some come over here. And while the language that Ida and Winnie spoke when they were in our house, we had no idea what they were saying.

So what is it like when we all are before the Lord and begin to sing? Good question. I'm not so sure how the Lord's going to resolve that. I doubt somehow we'll be terribly confused, but I'm still not sure how he resolves that. Maybe it'll be like it was in the Book of Acts that everyone heard in their own tongue.

Perhaps so. And it may even be something miraculous. Where if you listen carefully, you say, I don't understand what that guy's saying, but then you kind of back up and listen to the whole. Suddenly it makes sense. I don't know. It's very interesting. It's again one of those areas where you can imagine the problem and yet the Lord has a solution that's not been revealed. Real interesting. When we come to this chapter and the next one, we come to an interesting problem, if you will.

We did the end of Matthew 23 and chapter 24 last week. That was a quick tour, I'd admit. But now as we begin chapter 17, we need to kind of stand back for a little bit and take a careful look at these chapters. And I'd suggest to you at least three reasons why we need to take a careful look. Even conservative scholars, I'm talking people who have a regard for Scripture, and I think in general do a good job of understanding what scripture says.

I've come to a few different conclusions regarding the identity of Babylon in these chapters. We'll talk about that in a minute here. Second reason, John brings up Babylon and its destruction for two chapters, so this is fairly major, as the last topic before the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to conquer his enemies and to reign. So this is like, he's got to fit this in and it's two chapters long. That's significant. We probably ought to take a careful look at it.

And number three, the original culture and or nation of Babylon is a thread that is woven through the pages of scripture. As Art pointed out and as we saw in the slides, the Tower of Babel is the initial point where Babylon is pointed out, and it continues. Isn't it interesting? Here you are in the 10th and 11th chapters, basically where you see that origin of Babylon, start of Genesis, and here we are just several chapters away from the end of Revelation, and now we see the end of Babylon. Very interesting, isn't it? It is a thread that's continued through Scripture from the first book to the last book. It's mentioned in scripture some 300 times, and its continuity and longevity in scripture are implying importance. Let's take a quick look at the history of Babylon. We've seen some of it in the slides here.

It began as a humanistic culture in the area of what is now the Middle East. Genesis 10 tells us that a man named Nimrod established a kingdom there not long after the flood of Noah's time. By Genesis 11, we're hearing about the Tower of Babel where the Lord confused the languages because men were diligently seeking the exaltation of human beings rather than the Lord himself.

This Babylonian culture had an interesting set of contrasts. On the one hand, it was a place of establishing a tremendous system of mathematics and geometry. And we mentioned the fact we still get our 360 degrees from the Babylonian measurement system for angular measurement. The Magi, or wise men, likely came out of both the region and ultimately the culture of Babylon. The prophet Daniel was no doubt trained. The descriptions that we have indicate clearly that he was, but to what degree we're not sure, but no doubt trained. under the Babylonian systems of learning.

The Babylonians developed systems of mapping. Previously that was pretty rough, but the Babylonians seemed to actually have that down. There's one way in which the Babylonian clay maps were far ahead of our own. You didn't have to figure out how to fold them again. You just had to be careful about asking somebody to toss you a map, because they were heavy.

Everything was on clay tablets. The Babylonians also founded legal systems and established studies in medicine and the arts. By the way, the Babylonians also used papyrus, but what's the problem with papyrus? It degrades easily and so we have a whole lot of clay tablets and not many papyrus documents from that era.

Okay. So, on the one hand, they had these high points of culture, but on the other hand, they also had some evil things. The Lord found things of the Babylonians that were evil to be vile and repulsive, warned the Jews to stay away from them. The Babylonians had a pantheon of gods. That pantheon of gods is what ultimately got adapted and adopted by the Greeks and the Romans. Matter of fact, at some places I've seen charts where here's the Babylonian Pantheon and here's the Greek Pantheon and here is the Roman Pantheon.

And we even have some of those names carried over from the Assyrian and Babylonian system, even into some of our names and even into biblical names. Ishtar, for example, one of the deities. And we have the modern name coming out of the Bible, Esther. And we could come up with other examples there.

They were not something that went alongside the God of Scripture. They were instead a pantheon of gods to replace the God of Scripture, a complete substitute for the God of Scripture. There's one other thing about the pantheon of the Babylonians and the consequent pantheons from Greek and Roman culture, and that is the gods were not all-knowing, they were not unchanging, and one of the things that the humans liked about that is that you might be able to manipulate the gods.

And that was one of the problems here too. As the Jews began to carry that over and adopt that thinking that I can manipulate God, it became a big problem. That's one of the reasons why they were warned about it. And in fact, Christians today can get sucked into that same idea. The idea that we can manipulate God. It's tempting for Christians today, for example, to get mad at God. Why? Because they want God to do this and that. And they're frustrated. How come I can't manipulate God? Well, guess what? You never could. Get over it. Right? So, here we get to the question on page 2 at the top.

What's the identity of the Whore of Babylon? This is a fascinating piece of the puzzle in this history of the identity of the harlot or the whore of Babylon as described in these two chapters. Irenaeus, who was a man who lived about one or two lifetimes after the death of the Apostle John, said it was literally the city of Babylon, what we showed on the map there. In fact, I'll turn to it. He said it was literally the city of Babylon. In his day, it was still a place where the city existed. The city is now broken down and only been partially reconstructed. But that was his understanding. The Franciscan Order, about 1200 AD, said it was the Roman Catholic Church. Isn't that interesting? By the way, the Franciscans, what's their umbrella. What are they under? Who are they under?

The Roman Catholic Church. So it's very interesting that they said that the Whore of Babylon is their own Catholic Church itself. It's interesting to have that and have them be accepted. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist group of churches, was another one who says the Roman Catholic Church. John Darby, who was the one who did some of the original thinking under the Brethren Church, also says their own Catholic Church.

William Newell, who was associated with Moody Bible Institute, died when I was four years old, so I never met the guy. World System was his idea, not specifically their own Catholic Church, but a world system. He made some connection to the literal city of Babylon, but that wasn't something abundantly clear and prominent in his teaching.

So now we bring out the fact that there are three main views presented by conservative scholars as to who this woman in Revelation 17 is, who rides the beast. The first idea is that this woman is the Roman Catholic Church, the whore of Babylon, or the woman.

And some of the proponents of that, Dave Hunt, I've met him, spent a couple of hours in the airport with him. John Walvoord, he's home with the Lord now. I've spent a couple of days in his house. Hampton Keithley, I only emailed with. He's another one. I think Mike Doyle might have talked to him over the phone. Maybe even met him. Nonetheless, Roman Catholic Church is held by those guys. An empire centered on a rebuilt city of Babylon. So this is looking at this particular location being rebuilt.

Charles Dyer, I've never met him. Thomas Ice, one of my professors. Joseph Chambers, I've met him. I don't know him. All false religion of all time. A world system. proponent of that, Robert L. Thomas, I saw him about 10 years ago, Grant Richeson, and William Newell again.

So those three views have been presented with proponents who take scripture seriously, and in many cases we would say these are good references, but since they are not able to resolve it and end up with different conclusions, what are we going to do? We throw up our hands and give up and say that's it.

What's that? Come up with a fourth one. There we go. Yes. Excellent idea. Let's not do it though. I think there's actually a simple answer. People have written volumes about this one whole question. Matter of fact, I wrote a paper on it. But, here are some points I think to start with. These are points we've made before.

We don't really know who the two witnesses will be, do we? Scripture gives some information, but not enough to say exactly ahead of time who these guys are. Second point, we really don't know who the Antichrist, this beast, will be. Who's the Antichrist?

People have been guessing for decades and centuries, incorrectly. Somebody had asked me about that this last week, sent me an email, somebody not in this class, because they'd encountered some claim. I, over the years, the Franciscans, you know, they had their identification that not only said that the whore of Babylon was the Roman Catholic Church, but they claimed that the Pope, I don't know why they get accepted into the Roman Catholic Church, but anyway, they claimed that the Pope was the Antichrist. Martin Luther said that the Pope was the Antichrist during his time. We have had during my lifetime.

It's getting to be longer during my lifetime I've heard several presidents Named as the antichrist matter of fact the email I got was about the current president I have heard that the Pope has some kind of number inside this funny little fish hat I don't know and the reality is nobody knows and all those claims are a wild shot in the dark The reality is we don't know and we will probably not know in our lifetimes who the Antichrist is. The point being here, we don't know who this woman is either.

All these things will become quite clear to those who are living during the Tribulation Period. They will have this, they will have clear signals As to, okay, it started, they will know that the rapture has taken place, they will know that the Antichrist has initiated by making a treaty with Israel, that will all be very clear. All these things will be answered clearly during the tribulation period. For us to try to answer them now is without all the facts.

That's one of the reasons why good, solid scholars look at this thing real seriously, and they take Scripture as something that ought to be considered carefully, but by grabbing ahead of time, they end up putting us on different pages. And I think the point is, just like I was careful earlier about the question of what's going to happen with the languages, Scripture does not provide the information. We will know when the time comes. Same thing here. I think the identity, just like the identity of who's the antichrist, who are the two witnesses, who is this woman, it will become very clear to those living during the tribulation period. And not something we ought to try to nail down now. What about the type? Pardon? What about not the specific, but maybe general inclusion? I think what you can look at is, you can look at this and say, what does it say?

But trying to jump at making an identification when the facts are not all in evidence, that's the problem. So what we'll do is something that is valid, and that is to lay out what does it say. But in terms of jumping at an identification, we're going to stop short of doing that. Because we're not in the middle of tribulation yet. And so the error that people have made for centuries is to grab at something. We're going to look and say, when the tribulation comes, here is the passage they're going to look at, and they're going to be able to identify with certainty who is the Whore of Babylon. But it may not be even apparent right now. Okay, let's take a look at verse 1.

And then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me. Now, remember the seven bowls? That's the last of these seven bowl judgments here. And there were seven angels that had the seven bowls, and he's saying one of them. So, interestingly, he recognized them as those specific angels.

Says, 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, here's that phrase again, tribulation specific phrase, except for the promise to the church not to go through the tribulation. It is only used during the tribulation period of those who lived during that time. Those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. So we've looked previously at these seven angels and the seven bowls, and we've seen them represented there at the bottom row of the chart there. This word for harlot is pornos. It's the feminine form, strongly implying sexual sin.

If we have any doubt about what sitting on many waters means, we can glance down in verse 15, which tells us exactly what many waters means. One of the points that we made very early in our study is we said, really, Revelation is a piece of cake to interpret. And we told you why. People get all mixed up because they don't keep these points clear. But one of the reasons is something we'll see right here, and that is repeatedly throughout the book of Revelation, John explains what things mean.

And he does that here. If you're wondering what many waters are, look at verse 15. And he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. So what are the waters? Peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. When you see that plurality, especially that word nations, the Greek is ethnos, or we get our word ethnic or ethnicity, right?

You're talking about the whole Gentile world. The whole Gentile world. So this is global domination John's writing about. He speaks of the kings of the earth committing immorality with her. The English word translated immorality is the Greek word pornea. We get a word pornography from that.

Yes? Hasn't that been the goal ever since the beginning of mankind? who controlled the known world then through Babylon. Then you had each and every one of the empires like Nebuchadnezzar who basically controlled that part of the region. And then you had Darius and Cyrus who did the same thing. Then you had the Roman Empire that controlled that area. And if you get in our period of time you have Mussolini and Hitler who tried to these fallen rulers, right, to control the world. This control the world idea is one that has continually menaced the people of the earth over centuries and millennia. And it continues to be a problem. It reminds me of what my son always says. This cartoon they used to have about Pinky and something or another. Pinky and the Brain. What are you going to do today, Pinky? Take over the world. Yeah, same thing.

And interestingly enough, many of the titles given to some of these rulers are basically based on the term Caesar. Remember, what was the German term? Kaiser. What was the Russian term? The Tsar. This is from the Caesar, right? How many Tsars have we got today?

Well, and that whole mindset, people wanted to recreate Rome. Here's this empire that lasted for half a millennium. So yeah, that whole thing just fascinates the mind of men. Unfortunately, all it takes is one to end up putting the rest of the world in misery. Our big one this last century was Hitler. Europe seems to be kind of, well that was the imperialistic country for a long time, where England tried to imperialize the whole world, and now it seems that whoever can take over Europe. Well, that's where Hitler got stalled, right? With Chamberlain and, not Chamberlain, but what's his name, Churchill. And so they stopped him. And that's where the Roman Catholic Church is too, isn't it?

It's in Europe. This has been a chronic problem for the entire Earth. And it's centered in Europe, but it just seems like it never ends. And if it isn't one, it's another. People grabbing power. Let's try to pull this thing together and now we've got the Euro and the common market and things like that. All this thing to try to pull something together and let's all get control of this thing. We have this phrase, those who dwell on the earth. We showed that slide there.

What's interesting here is that the Greek word for drunk, methusko, is in the passive voice. It means to be made drunk. Not to make oneself drunk. That would be like middle voice. This is passive voice. To be made drunk. They are made drunk as an act outside themselves.

They didn't just fall into it. This immorality was shoved down their throats. Isn't that what's happening in our culture? Immorality is being shoved down our throats? Hey, let's watch some TV. Maybe not, you know? The immorality gets shoved down our throats. So let's look at verses 3 and 6.

I think Paul would probably say that it's feeding the flesh and taking people away from the spiritual aspect of their lives. It's not necessarily forcing it upon us, but it's feeding the fallen part of our nature. Well, here's the interesting thing. What we have happening is we personally, as human beings, have a problem with feeding the sin nature. And the unbeliever really has no choice as to what brand of sin nature do you want. But the other part is the world, and I think that's what this is talking about. Really, the flesh is a problem, but the other problem is the world, and it's the world here that we're talking about, this world system, that forces it down our throats.

Well, Satan's in charge of that, because he promised to give it to Christ. And notice, Scripture's consistent, the three enemies of the believer are the world, the flesh, and the devil. And so what you see here is this is focusing on the world part of it. That's what you see here. The Antichrist and that satanic trinity, that's the Satan part of it. Here's the world part of it.

What John has already made multiple references to is the sin nature part of it where people are carrying out their sorceries and murders and thefts. So those are the three enemies and you see all three of them expressed here. in the book of Revelation. Let's look at verse 3 through 6 there.

And he carried me away in the spirit into a 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 morality. And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

When I saw her, I wondered greatly." I wondered greatly. He's going, wow! What's that? It's not just that he was awestruck, but he says, oh, I understand what that is. He was thinking about it and he just kind of dazed, wow, this is, I don't get it. I mean, I kind of do, but wow.

This woman, this false religious system is described as sitting on top of the beast. Archaeologists have found numerous images, reliefs and clay impressions in and around the region of Babylon that show the goddess Inanna or Ishtar, again that's the source of her name Esther, riding upon or at least dominating a beast, typically a lion. The Babylonian cylinder seal drawing to the left is an example. What I mean by cylinder seal is they would have a seal that they would use on typically clay or sometimes heated wax. And it's a cylinder that when you roll it out makes a picture. And that's what this is here. This is the picture made from that cylinder with the impressions on it so that when you're all done you get this picture. And the Babylonian cylinders drawing on the left there shows the goddess Inanna dominating a lion. The lion is leeched and under control.

The color scarlet was worn by royalty and the reason is because making things scarlet in those days was a very expensive proposition. There were two primary ways of doing it and both of them took a lot of work. One of them was to take a particular kind of shell that was in the eastern Mediterranean, collect that, and in order to make a small amount of red dye, you'd require many thousands of shells to be ground up and processed, such that the red dye cost more per weight than gold. Really expensive stuff. That's why scarlet was a picture of wealth and on into the New Testament. Remember Lydia was a purveyor, a seller of scarlet goods. So here you have, it's a reference to the color scarlet conveys wealth and exalted position.

John then writes of blasphemous names. The names of false gods and goddesses of blaspheming the true God for centuries. The time of the tribulation will simply be the apex of blasphemy. The height of blasphemy. John writes full of blasphemous names. This is a defiance of and a confrontation of God's character. Why does he say full of blasphemous names?

When something is full, like let's say a cup of water. Say water is all there is in here. So when he says full, it doesn't mean there's a little bit of blasphemy here and there. It's just full to the top. That's all it is. Yeah. Didn't it say someplace, is it in Judges, where it talks about the cup of the Canaanites was full? And that's when judgment came on that nation. Yeah, that fullness is a picture, I think, to look at, it's at the top. It's at the max. That's all there is. And so that's, yeah, another biblical picture, this idea of something being full.

That's why, here's the urging of Paul, be filled by means of the Spirit, see? This whole picture here is full, not full of the Spirit, but full of blasphemous names. Just overflowing with blasphemy. Religion on man's terms is not going to be any match with or assistance to salvation through Christ. but they'll set aside salvation through Christ and instead settle for a cup full of blasphemous memes. This gross word picture tells us how God sees man-made religion. Hey, I think I'll concoct religion of my own making. I'll make up my own. Man-made religion.

Every piece of her clothing and adornment communicates her opulence and personal exaltation, dripping with moral and spiritual filth. That's a pretty awesome picture, isn't it? Dripping with moral and spiritual filth. Exalted? Wealthy? Oh, fabulously so. Filthy and vile? Deeply so. Dripping with filth.

Verse 5 tells us what is written across the woman's forehead. Prostitutes in the Greek and Roman cultures would often have their names written across their foreheads. So this woman is a spiritual prostitute, gross in every regard. Opulence, wealth, steeped in sexual sin. The spiritual and moral filthiness of this woman, this picture of the world system, is so prominent you can see it on her face.

Look at what Jeremiah 51.7 says of Babylon and Jeremiah's own day. Babylon has a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk her wine, therefore the nations are going mad.

So the focus in verse 6 is the martyrdom of the saints of the Lord. They've been killed by the man-made world religious system of all times. Man-made religion isn't nice. It's filthy and it slaughters the saints. This martyrdom will come to its peak in the tribulation period. Let's turn to page 5 here. Page 5 is one where there's a chart that we'll take a look at shortly at the bottom.

John wondered greatly. He marveled to hear that this ancient kingdom also had a part in the character and key events of the end times. So here's John, he says, well wait a minute, Babylon, that nation's been kind of pressed down and dominated by other empires. So here he is amazed that this nation would have this persistence and come up again here at the end times.

So verse 7, And the angel said to me, Why do you wonder? Apparently John's wondering is just visible. You can see it on his face. I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns." Now, what does the word mystery mean in scripture? Previously unknown, but about to be revealed. Yeah, yeah, previously unknown and now revealed, and that's true here just as well. He says, I'll tell you the mystery. Now, as you're wondering, let me tell you. Let me make it clear. I'm going to reveal that to you right now.

At this point, you can imagine, here's the angel recognizing John's shock. At this point, we should recognize the distinction between man-made religion and God's revelation of scripture. Man-made religion tries to keep people under its power by claiming to be the unique source of some ongoing mystery, the only channel. Notice that man-made religion has mystery that continues, and it claims a uniqueness in itself, but it doesn't like the uniqueness of Christ. But the mystery remains a mystery.

The New Testament, however, uses the word mystery as something previously unknown or unclear that is now being revealed. Colossians 126 is an excellent verse because it uses the word mystery and then defines it as something that's not been known but is now known and revealed. The angel is about to make things more clear to John. Verse 8-13, 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, there's that phrase again, 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 that, by the way, is one of the ways that Dave Hunt identifies the city of Rome, because it's the city of seven hills, right? Okay. That's where he comes up, Rome and the Roman Empire.

And there are seven kings, five have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not is himself also an eight 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 the kingdom, but they received authority as kings and with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, they give their power and authority to the beast. As you look at this, is your head swimming? Okay, here's a part of what's going on.

This thing about the kings and the seven and the ten and the horns and all that, that's straight out of the book of Daniel. And so John has spent a lifetime studying the book of Daniel. We looked at in Matthew 24, Jesus made reference to the book of Daniel, the abomination of desolation. So what to us looks like, wow, what's he talking about?

The Jews, they've looked at this thing left and right and up and down. They already are quite familiar with it. So that's a part of what we need to look at. Remember what we said? Revelation is 70% out of the Old Testament, right? This is no exception. This is out of the book of Daniel. Now, let's see if we can piece our way through it, although I have to admit we will go through quickly. Verse 8 speaks twice of the beast as being the one who was and is not and is to come. It says he will go to destruction.

Those whose names are not in the book of life and who dwell upon the earth are those not saved. The tribulation period lost. Those who dwell on the earth does not include tribulation saints. Those who dwell on the earth are the tribulation period lost. So let's take a look at the chart on the left to help us make sense of these verses.

There have been five major world empires that have come and gone up to the time of John's writing. They are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. By the time John is writing, Rome is presently an empire. and was still in the first half of its time, but for a short period of time, the revived Roman Empire of the Antichrist will hold sway. That's the revived Roman Empire will have ten nations, this is all told about in Daniel chapter 7. That's what this you know, seven and ten kings, all that, there'll be ten nations and their leaders with its power is the power of the Antichrist. 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. More and more and more power. Give him more power. Give him more. Give him more.

These verse 14, 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. So the rulers of the revived Roman Empire will support the Antichrist.

And you made the point, it always seems to center around Europe. That's where it will come from. They will stand in joint opposition to our Lord the Lamb, It's not that it will do them any good, but they will try nonetheless. It says the Lamb will overcome. Notice this, make great point. It's not that the Lamb might overcome them. It's not that the Lamb will probably overcome them. It's not that we surely hope that the Lamb will overcome them, but it simply says that the Lamb will overcome. Okay? Certainty.

Notice, however, the reason given why the Lamb will overcome them is because of who He is. See, the Antichrist is what he tries to be. The Lord will overcome them because of who He is. He genuinely and eternally 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. Who are these that are called and chosen and faithful? Who are they? It's us. We'll be with Him. How do we know we're going to be with the Lord?

Here's 1 Thessalonians 4.17. I think the men are doing a study of 1 Thessalonians on Tuesdays.

1 Thessalonians 4.17, when we who are alive and remain, we meaning those of the church, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall always be with the Lord. Always. The last several verses, verse 15 through 18.

And he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. This is again one of those interpretive verses. And the ten horns which you saw in the beast, these hate the harlot, and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and burn her up with fire.

Wow! For God has put 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 whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. Wow! So the angel explains some things to John. It is in some ways like when our Lord explains some parables to his disciples. It makes understanding things more clear. So the waters are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

We've seen a similar phrase throughout the book of Revelation. Describing the masses of people living during the tribulation period. Substantially in reference to the Gentiles. It's the last time we're going to see this phrase. The tribulation period is almost over, but when John is telling us that the whole world is dominated by this false world system.

And finally on page 7 there, 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 even to the Antichrist. It's in this way, it's in his way rather. The leaders of the ten-nation confederacy of the revived Roman Empire and the Antichrists whom they support will seek to obliterate the women in order to direct all control to the Antichrist and his alliances. See, people will see the system as an alternate to the Antichrist, and the Antichrist must have all power. These will move to eliminate the competition from the woman, the harlot of Babylon.

Verse 17 is something we have seen the Lord do over time. He is evenly able to use and influence the hearts of those who oppose Him for His purposes. He did that with Pharaoh in the case of the Exodus. He did that in the case of the Hibites, as you look at the book of Joshua, and that's what He's doing here. We already know that the Lord works all things together for good for those who love Him.

In verse 18 we're told, reaffirmed actually, that Babylonianism reigns over the earth. So the Greek verse of 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. Babylon is not just a future issue for a later time, Babylon is a present issue for right here and now, right in the world where you and I live. At this moment, the world is trying to squeeze you into its mold. Remember, Babylon is the world system. Of the three enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil, Babylon is the world.

The world seeks to impress its values on you. The world is telling you, and you'll see it on the television commercials, this is valuable. This is important. This will make you deeply satisfied. Just buy our stuff and we'll give it to you Practically for free. We won't charge interest until into the next millennia, right? I mean, you won't even see a bill.

The Lord had Paul write this in Romans 12-2, "...and to not be conformed to this world, 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 did not leave us any other options.

Either we will be squeezed into this world's mold, contrary to our position in Christ, or we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds, which comes as a work of the Holy Spirit, as we behold Christ in His written Word. You want to know what the primary will of God for your life is? That's it. The world's conforming process is not God's will. He wants us to be being transformed by beholding the Lord of Glory and walking in fellowship with Him. Okay, I think we actually got through it, which is somewhat unusual. Questions, comments, exasperations, inspirations?

On this chart here, this little insert on the nations, are you saying that Rome is six and seven? What I'm looking at here is, remember this says one is, and during John's time, the one that is, is Rome, right? But what the book of Daniel points out, this is the statue, the image, And the Tentos is a revived Roman Empire, a reconstituted Roman Empire.

So you're saying seven then is the one world order? When he comes must remain a little while. That's the new world order. That's seven. Right. And so then eight, you're saying, would be the rule of the Antichrist? Yes. Yep. himself an 8th, and one of the seven.

In other words, he comes from the same ten nations of the reconstituted Roman Empire, and so he calls him an 8th, and he starts off as part of the seven and ends up grabbing control of the entire group. now because there's really no world domination until the One World Order is established, right? The other has not yet come. Which is the Revived Roman Empire. Which is the Revived Roman Empire. And so now we're in a period of time when there isn't. And now we're in this hiatus, in this parenthesis if you will, between the Roman Empire and this Revived Roman Empire.

We live in a time that's an insertion. Remember last week we brought up this point that had the Jews accepted Christ as their king, the church would not have come into existence. That's all hypothetical now, but yeah. Okay, so then the church age is between six and seven. That's correct. You got that right. Yes. Those that hold a premarital, postmillennial, active Oh, you mean mid-trib? Mid-tribulation? Yeah, that's something Nancy and I were talking about on the way here.

The mid-tribulation view has a number of different problems, including what we saw twice in this morning's passage, and that is, those who dwell on the earth, the church has promised not to be a part of it, and yet, that phrase, those who dwell on the earth, where does the phrase show up?

The very first chapter of the tribulation period all the way to the end, here in chapter 17. And it's distributed throughout. And how can the church be promised not to be a part of that? It doesn't fit. So the mid-tribulation period or post-tribulation rapture, neither of those fit the facts. And this is only just one test.

We better let the folks come in and pray quickly. Thank you, Lord, for what you've laid out. Thank you for the comfort that we can take in your knowledge of these things and your sovereignty over them. Thank you for the promise to be kept from the wrath to come. We just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.