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 and because 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 Revelation
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 because 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 going 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 because 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 and Rev 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 and 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
Ge 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,
and his son's-Shem, Ham, and Japheth and 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.
Ge 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…
Ge 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…
Ge 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.”
Ge 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 because 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 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 and HARLOTRY as a symbol of
spiritual infidelity…
Jas 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 and it becomes PERVERTED.
So is Babylon in Revelation 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 and 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 (Ed:
These notes were written before Sadam Hussein was overthrown and a new
government established in Iraq!). 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 can never
be rebuilt
because it was destroyed. In Isaiah 13:20, 21, 22 the prophecy describing the
destruction of Babylon states that it would never be inhabited again.
While Babylon has been largely in ruins over the past 2000+ years, it has
never been totally uninhabited and thus God's prophecy through Isaiah has
not yet been fulfilled. A day is coming when this
prophecy will be literally fulfilled, at which time Babylon will be full
and finally destroyed. And all heaven will rejoice...
Rev 19:1 After these things I heard, as
it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; 2 BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS
ARE TRUE
AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the
great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS
AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." 3 And a second time they
said, "Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER."
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 and 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!
