Let's
allow Scripture to interpret Scripture…the woman is the great city:
|
Rev
17:1 And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and
spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I shall show you the
judgment of the
great harlot who sits on
many waters,2 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.”3
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a
woman sitting on a scarlet beast, (note ''she'' is NOT
scarlet herself!) full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten
horns.4 And 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,5 and upon her
forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER
OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”6 And I saw the
woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.
(Indeed many since this writing have wondered greatly who this harlot
is.)7 And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I shall tell you the
mystery of the woman
(one mystery) and of the beast
(the other mystery we discussed last week) that carries her, which has the
seven heads and the ten horns… 18 “And the
woman whom you saw is
the great city, which
reigns over the kings of the earth.” |
In
conclusion…BABYLON is a CITY, a city
of GREAT INFLUENCE that reigns over the kings of the earth.
Whenever you see this woman
mentioned in Scripture, she is either a CITY or a KINGDOM
and the city/capital of that kingdom is called
Babylon.
|
Revelation 18
THE FALL OF THE GREAT CITY |
|
Rev
18:1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from
heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his
glory.2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is
Babylon the great!
…10 standing at a distance because of the fear of her (Babylon's) torment,
saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great
city, Babylon,
the strong city! For
in one hour your judgment has come….16 saying, ‘Woe, woe,
the great city, she who
was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold
and precious stones and pearls;17 for in one hour such great wealth has
been laid waste!’ (Babylon is a city of great wealth.) …18 and were crying
out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What city is like the
great
city?’19 “And they threw
dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying,
‘Woe, woe, the great city,
in which all who had ships at sea became rich by
her wealth, for in one hour
she has been laid waste!’ (This city caused the ships of
the earth to be made wealthy by the cargo that they carried for her.) …21
And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it
into the sea, saying, “Thus will
Babylon, the great city,
be thrown down with violence, and will
not be found any longer.
(once this great city is destroyed, it will cease to exist.) |
When John wrote Revelation,
Babylon was in existence
and had a good-sized Jewish contingency. In fact the Babylonian Talmud
was completed 500 years after Christ's death, burial and resurrection
documenting that Jews were in Babylon at that time. Babylon is in the
process of being rebuilt (Dyer's The Rise of Babylon), and is
located in modern Iraq.
were
believers at Babylon
IN THE FIRST CENTURY?
|
1 Pet
5:13
She (some
manuscripts say ''church'' instead of ''she'') who is in Babylon,
chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark. |
WILL
BELIEVERS BE IN BABYLON AT THE END?
|
Rev
18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out
of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that
you may not receive of her plagues;5 for her sins have piled up as high as
heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. |
God always remembers iniquities
unless the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you from all your sins and
He then buries them in the deepest ocean and as Corrie Ten Boom used to
say ''He puts up a 'No Fishing Allowed' sign'', and He
remembers them no more. So God is going to remember the iniquities of
Babylon & bc He is righteous and holy He will judge her. So in these last
days we know that there will be
believers in this city of Babylon and God is telling them to COME
OUT of her my people. Remember that the reason is because HER SINS HAVE
PILED AS HIGH AS HEAVEN
|
Characteristics of Babylon |
1).
babylon is a City of influence
at the time of
the end, Daniel's 70th Week which begins with a treaty.
|
Dan 9:26
“Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have
nothing, and the people (ROMAN EMPIRE) of the prince who is to come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood;
even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27“And he
(who comes out of the 4th Beast with 10 horns) will make a firm
covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will
put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; (to be made in the REBUILT
Jewish Temple) and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes
desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is
poured out on the one who makes desolate.” |
Remember that this man who makes this FIRM COVENANT is part of the BEAST
and the woman is riding on (sitting on) the BEAST, who ''was, is not and
is about to come out of the abyss and to go to destruction.'' Dan
9:27 also says this one will go to a ''complete destruction.''
|
Rev
17:8 “The beast that
you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go
to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose name
has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,
when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. |
Those that interpret
Rev
17
as the ECCLESIASTICAL BABYLON, go on to likened it to the Roman
Catholic church because the beast has 7 heads and 7
mountains. They then assume that the world at the time of John's
writing knew that Rome set on 7 mountains. These commentators
looked at the decadence in the Roman Catholic Church (as there has been in
all denominations) and they interpreted these Scriptures HISTORICALLY,
instead of letting the Scriptures speak for themselves. Now all the parts
did not fit together but they still held to this interpretation. They said
that this WOMAN sits on 7 mountains in Rome and thus in
Rev
17 you
have an ecclesiastical system, personified in the Roman Catholic
Church. But they were wrong bc they failed to let Scripture
interpret Scripture.
|
Rev
17:9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom. (this mind never takes
SCRIPTURE OUT OF CONTEXT) The 7 heads are seven mountains on which the
woman sits,10 and they are 7 kings; (not the 7 hills of Rome!)
5 have
fallen, (did 5 hills of Rome fall? No!) one is, (Was only one hill of Rome
existing at that time? No!) the other has not yet come; (Was another hill
literally to come? No!) and when he comes, (Was the ''mountain'' a ''he''?
No!) he must remain a little while." |
So the problem was they looked
at the Scriptures HISTORICALLY rather than simply waiting
for those things to be fulfilled. So Rev 17 does not say Babylon is an
ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM but that it is a GREAT CITY, A CITY THAT REIGNS!
2). Babylon is a city
that is connected with the BEAST.
3).
babylon is a city of great influence. It is a city that has influence in that it is the ''MOTHER OF
HARLOTS'' so the realm of it's influence is that is has in a sense given
birth to HARLOTRY.
4).
babylon is a city of ABOMINATIONS.
So in Babylon one will see harlotry, immorality, abominations…it will be
''Sin City.'' Some have said AMERICA is the city Babylon bc of our sin.
But AMERICA is not Babylon and for that interpretation we go to the
Scriptures, and we see Babylon has always been and it sets in Iraq and not
in the U.S.
5). There is a
political liaison between the city of Babylon and the
Beast (''sits on the beast'').
6).
babylon is a city that is drunk with the blood of the martyrs, so we know Babylon is the site of great persecution and that
believers who hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ have been put to
death there.
|
Rev 17:6
And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with
the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
greatly. |
Kay wonders if the ''SAINTS''
here might be JEWS because ever since Nebuchadnezzar came down after the battle
of Carchemish and conquered Jerusalem and started leading Jews captive
back to Babylon, there have been Jews in Babylon. So Kay thinks this verse
could refer to both Jews and Christians
Considering that
Babylon is the
mother of harlots, who
is the Father of lies?
John 8:44 describes the Devil as ''a liar and a murderer from the
beginning and he is the father
of lies.'' So if we go back to the Garden of Eden we find the
Serpent (we know this
individual is the Devil from Rev 12:9 & 20:2) lying to Adam and Eve. And
EVERY LIE after that time the Serpent is the ''father'' of because
he is the one who gave birth to those lies. As Satan is the FATHER OF
LIES, so Babylon is the MOTHER OF HARLOTS and of the ABOMINATIONS OF THE
EARTH. So just as we must go to
Genesis to trace the ''father of lies'' so to we must do to
trace the ''mother of harlots''.
As you have in Daniel's 70th
Week a focus on the Temple of Jerusalem, we see
another city in a sense
opposed to Jerusalem, the city of Babylon. So in Revelation, we see
several ''opposites'' contrasted:
CONTRASTS
IN REVELATION |
|
Christ |
Antichrist |
|
Trinity |
Unholy
trinity |
|
Jerusalem, the holy city |
Babylon, the unholy city |
Bride of Christ, the church
(New Jerusalem) |
The
harlot
Babylon |
|
BABYLON
THE GENESIS CONNECTION |
|
Gen
10:1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood. |
CONTEXT: God creates heaven and earth, Adam & Eve eat of the fruit of
the tree and sin enters the world and death by sin. So MANKIND is living
now in a state of sin.
|
Ro 5:12 Therefore, just as through
one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all
men, because all sinned =>
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin my
mother conceived me. |
So men
after Adam and Eve when born were
born into SIN. In Gen 6
God looks at His creation and is grieved that He has made man
|
Gen 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the
wickedness of
man was
great on the earth, and
that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil
continually.6 And the Lord
was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His
heart.7 And the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from
the face of the land, …8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. |
God brought a FLOOD and
destroyed everyone in the flood except the animals and the 8 SOULS (Noah,
& his son's-Shem, Ham, and Japheth & the
''mrs's'') who were in the ARK. AFTER the FLOOD, God
takes Shem, Ham, and Japheth and populates the WHOLE WORLD through these 3
men and thus we can all trace our genealogy to one of these 3 men.
|
Gen
10:7 And the sons of Cush were Seba …8 Now Cush became the father of
Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.9 He was a
mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty
hunter before the Lord.” (Some feel that ''before'' here means that in a
sense Nimrod was against or opposed to the Lord). 10 And the beginning of
his kingdom was Babel
and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in
the land of Shinar.
(modern day Iraq is where Babel was founded by Nimrod, a mighty hunter.)
|
In
Genesis 10 God gives a
''broad sweep'' and then in Gen 11 He goes back and explains it all and fills in the
details…
|
Gen
11:1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same
words. (Shem, Ham, and Japheth when they got off the Ark spoke one
language) 2 And it came about as they journeyed east, that they found a
plain in the land of Shinar
and settled there. |
But the
problem is that they not settling where God told them….they were to
FILL THE EARTH…
|
Gen 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth….7 “And as
for you, be fruitful and multiply;
populate (Hebrew word
literally means to SWARM in the earth) the earth abundantly and multiply
in it.” |
Gen
11:3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and
burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar
for mortar.4 And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves (not
for God but for themselves) a
city, and a tower whose
top will reach into heaven,
(What is piled as ''high as heaven'' in Babylon? Iniquities so this
tower in a sense is like a picture of the sins of rebellion that are piled
as high as heaven.) and let us make for ourselves a name;
lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
God had told them to FILL THE
WHOLE EARTH…Nimrod is behind this rebellion against God bc he is building
for himself his own kingdom in his own way…a direct rebellion against the
command of the Lord God.
Gen
11:5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which
the sons of men had built.6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one
people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began
to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for
them. (Why? Because man made God in His image and man is a brilliant
entity. Men today are proving that he can do most anything…from a man on
the moon to bringing life in an artificial setting of an ovum & and a
sperm.) 7 “Come, let Us go down and there
confuse (the Hebrew
word, balal, is similar to Babel) their language, that they
may not understand one another’s speech.”8 So the Lord scattered them
abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped
building the city.
So here we have the story of a
CITY that was built in REBELLION against God, and which was
CENTERED IN ''SELF''. Some believe that on the top of the tower in Babel
was the Zodiac, a perversion of the truth that God had written in
Ps 19:1 that the heavens declared the glory of God and night after night
bear witness to the truths of God. But men came up with ASTROLOGY
so that instead of consulting God, they consulted the stars. So back in
post-flood Genesis, we see a MOTHER, BABYLON, giving birth to all the
abominations of the earth.
7).
Babylon is a MOTHER who is committing HARLOTRY.
Throughout
God's Word, He uses IMMORALITY & HARLOTRY as a symbol of
spiritual infidelity…
Js 4:4 You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is
hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.
So this city of Babylon is composed of a people in
rebellion against God and who are committing
spiritual
adultery/harlotry. Why?
Because they knew the TRUTH. They knew that God existed and that He was in
control and that He had power over man? How did they know? Shem, Ham, and
Japheth had seen it! So you start off with TRUTH & it becomes PERVERTED.
So is Babylon in
Rev
17 an
ecclesiastical Babylon? No. It is a CITY that religiously is in REBELLION
AGAINST GOD. It is a CITY that through all the ages of mankind has been in
REBELLION against God, against His word, against His commandments. So
BABYLON is not ONE CHURCH
as some have said equating ''Babylon'' with the Catholic Church but it is
ANY CHURCH, any religion, that is CONTRARY TO the clear teaching
of what THE WORD OF GOD HAS TO SAY. Nimrod deified himself (from
extra-biblical historical writings), calling himself first the CHIEF
PRIEST and later the CHIEF GOD OF BABYLON, whose name was MARDUK
(or MERODACH).
So Babylon was a city that
would NOT LISTEN TO GOD, a city that wanted to WALK IN ITS OWN WAY. This
is the very ESSENCE or ROOT OF ALL SIN…INDEPENDENCE FROM GOD, NOT
LISTENING TO GOD…Isaiah 53:6 says ''All of us like sheep have gone
astray, each of us has turned to his own way…''.
You find some elements of TRUTH
in Babylon, but it PERVERTS what truth it does have. You can study the
historical writings but be careful if you read and always be a Berean,
examining what you read or hear with what God's Word states. Nimrod had a
queen, Semiramis, who had a virgin birth. In the Zodiac you find a virgin
having a child, because the whole heavens declare the glory of God & we
even find the gospel written on the stars.
8).
Babylon is a city that
sits on many waters
Rev
17:1 …
the great harlot who sits on
many waters, 15 And he *said to me, “The
waters which you saw
where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
If you study the old Roman Empire, you see it extended
even into what is modern day
Iraq. So many want to take the center of the Revived Roman
Empire and move it to Rome. But if this harlot is connected with the beast
and is the city that reigns on the face of the earth, where does it move
the balance of power to? Toward the Middle East where you find
TWO CITIES in CONFLICT. But you say ''Jerusalem is a city that
is full of harlotry.'' Right but let's see what God is going to do…
THE EPHAH IN ZECHARIAH 5
CONTEXT: The prophet sees a FLYING SCROLL with a curse on the scroll.
Remember that Zechariah is a POST-EXILIC BOOK, written after the
Babylonian captivity (as is the book of Haggai) and the Jews are in the
process of re-building the Temple.
| Zech
5:5 Then the angel who was speaking with me went out, and said to
me, “Lift up now your eyes, and see what this is, going forth.”6 And I
said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah (a bushel or basket
used as a household measure) going forth.” Again he said, “This is their
appearance in all the land 7 (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and
this is a woman sitting inside the
ephah.”8 Then he said,
“This is Wickedness!” (What had God seen back in Gen 6? All the wickedness
of the earth…and now in this basket is wickedness.) And he threw her down
into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening.9
Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out
with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a
stork, and they lifted up the
ephah between the earth and the heavens.10 And I said to the
angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the
ephah?” (Filled with
what? Wickedness.) 11 Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in
the land of Shinar; and
when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal. |
Babylon is not yet re-built but Kay believes that we will
see the power center of the world move toward Babylon. Out of the
Revived Roman Empire is going to come an ANTICHRIST who is in league with
this city who will eventually be destroyed. A TEMPLE has to be
prepared for Babylon even as a Temple is prepared for the Jews. It could
be that when this EPHAH is lifted up it is a picture of all that
wickedness being lifted up from Jerusalem, the land of the Jews and being
transported and consolidated right here in Babylon.
Some say that
Babylon cannot be rebuilt
because it was destroyed. In
Isaiah 13 the prophecy describing the
destruction of Babylon and saying that it would never be inhabited again
has NOT been fulfilled. But there is a day coming when this
prophecy will be fulfilled and when Babylon is destroyed, shouts will go
up into heaven:
''Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Babylon is destroyed because she is the Mother of Harlots and all the
abominations of the earth have come because men have lived in REBELLION TO
GOD. All the false religions have come from her because men have walked
and lived and believed in rebellion to God and now it is being
consolidated and that Babylon will be in league with the ANTICHRIST until
one day he looks at her and hates her and says we are going to destroy
her. Why? Because he and he alone declares himself to be God and he will
not tolerate any others in conflict with him.
And when the Beast burns
Babylon all the merchants of the earth will begin to wail because this was
the city of wealth. But what is the LOVE OF MONEY but the ROOT OF
ALL EVIL? It has destroyed government after government after government.
And where did it all start? It all began with MYSTERY BABYLON, the MOTHER
OF HARLOTS & of all the ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
|
GOD'S
MESSAGE
FOR YOU AND FOR ME
|
And what is God saying to you
and me? He is saying COME OUT FROM HER! HAVE A PURE RELIGION. Don't
love money. Love God. Be willing to forsake all and to follow Him. Why?
Because He is coming soon and when He comes He is going to destroy those
who destroyed the earth with a great judgment. You and I are the BRIDE and
we are to prepare our garments and we are to be walking in righteousness
not in wickedness.
Babylon is a city and in her is
all the iniquity of the earth, in every religious form, in every
economical form, in every political form, and it is INIQUITY because it is
REBELLION AGAINST GOD.
DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO
WITH BABYLON
THE MOTHER OF ALL ABOMINATIONS!
