The End of World Religion, Part 3

Revelation 17 is where we are. If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn there with me as we look once again at the key chapter for the Christian in today's world. We talked in our last time together about the woman explained. And we talked about the fact of her name in verse number five: that there was written the mystery. Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. She's called Babylon. Why? Because all false religious systems fall. Into one. They come.

They stemmed from Genesis chapter 11, the Tower of Babel, there in the land of Shin, which is Babylon. She's called the mother of harlots, referring to her idolatry. The same Satan that spawned them in the beginning will spawn them in the end and gather them all together. What Satan wanted to accomplish in Genesis chapter 11 and was unable to do because God came down and scattered the people so that they went all over the world. They took that false religious system with them all over the world. Now, God is going to allow Satan to bring them all back to mother so they can all be one together.

Satan wanted a one world religion in Genesis 11. God said no, because it wasn't time. But in Revelation 17, as he wants to wonder religion, he will be granted that because God says, now it's time.

It's called the abomination of the earth because nothing offends God more than idolatry. Nothing offends God more than false religion. He hates it. He despises it. And it is, above all things, the supreme blasphemy in the world. And so this religious system. Unites the world. That was under point number one.

The woman explained the fact that she was a mystery. Why is she a mystery? It's because she has not totally been revealed yet. We have an idea. We can gather information from the text, but she's still a mystery. But we've given you some of the characteristics of that mystery by looking at the fact that she was a mother. And why is she called a mother? It is because she birth all false religion. And the characteristics that was birthed. Way back in Genesis chapter 11 are the characteristics that have pervaded false religion from that time until this very day.

And so Satan will bring them all together in the end. Then we looked at the woman exhibited or the woman exposed. We begin by looking at verse number one.

And it says, And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, and I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot. Why is the angel, one of the angels who poured one of the seven bowls, going to show John the judgment of the great harlot? The reason being is because we know the harlot is destroyed. As a result of the seventh bowl. The point being is that John needs to be able to see the components of that harlot. What made her what she was? How powerful she was.

And God, through the inspiration of Scripture, has given us Christians today an understanding of false religion. Through the understanding of Revelation chapter 17, that we might be aware of what's happening in the world around us with the ecumenical movement of bringing all these churches together under one roof. That somehow the world might come together to ultimately worship a false deity. And so we looked at point number two, the woman exhibited, and we began by looking primarily number one.

At her power. And we notice that she was great. She was great. She was mega. Why? Because she was all-en. We notice also that this woman, this harlot, sits on many waters.

The word sits is a mark of distinction. It is a distinctive posture of deity. And symbolizes rule, and she sits on many waters. And we said, What are those waters? If you want to know what the waters are, go down to verse number 15. It says, And he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. So we see the power of this woman by looking at Her authority, and her authority is seen in the fact that she sits in the posture of deity and she rules the peoples and nations of the world.

We move from her power to her pro. From her power to her prosperity. Go back up with me to verse Number four. And the woman was clothed in purple. This describes her prosperity. Purple refers to royalty, wealth, nobility. She is a high-class prostitute. Read Ezekiel 16 describes that prostitutes were people who were adorned in purple, in luxury. And this woman, this false religious system, helps us understand how prosperous she is. She wears purple. And scarlet. Listen carefully. Scarlet always is used by p and cardinals.

It was Pope Paul II who made it illegal for anyone but the Cardinal to wear a scarlet hat. 300 years ago, Marcellus, a Roman archbishop, dictated that the dress of popes and cardinals must all be scarlet, and they all include a vest of pearls and precious stones. What's the next phrase? It says, purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and what? And pearls. The parallels, as we have talked about in the last few weeks, between what is described here in Revelation 17 and the Roman Catholic Church are identical.

Absolutely identical. It does not mean that the Roman Catholic Church is the false prophet. It does not mean that inside the Roman Catholic Church, the leader of that, the Pope, is the false prophet. But you've got to be able to see the parallels. And if you've been with us for the last two weeks, you have seen from the very beginning, Genesis chapter 11, to where we are today and into the future, you see the parallels unmistakably. But read on. It goes on and says this. It says that in her hand was what?

A golden cup. A golden cup. The harlot, before making love to a victim, would always bring out the cup to get him drunk. The harlot needs to make the victims drunk with the wine of her immorality. And Satan is slowly but surely getting the world to drink of it. And during the tribulation time, he will have. So much control, so much power that he will easily get them to drink of this cup. And they'll fall for it. And so we move from her p to her prosperity to number three, her passion.

And it says that this cup In verse number four, was full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. This woman has a passion. This passion is to speak out against God, the true God. Her passion is to draw a man away to herself. That she would be looked at as God. And then you move to point number four: her persecution. It says In verse number 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. 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. This is her persecution. Her indictment is that she is drunk with the blood of saints and witnesses. I don't necessarily believe that there's a distinction between the two. The point being is that this harlot is a murderer. Listen carefully. False religion has always been the murderer. Of true religion. In Haley's Bible Handbook, he details a section. On the Inquisition and talks about the Roman brutality. Listen to what he says. The Inquisition was the main agency in the papacy's effort to crush the Reformation.

It is stated that in the thirty years between 1540 and 1570, no fewer than 900,000 Protestants were put to death. Think of the monks and priests directing, with heartless cruelty and inhuman brutality, the work of torturing and burning alive innocent men and women, and doing it in the name of Christ. by the direct order of the vicar of Christ. The Inquisition is the most infamous thing in history. It was devised by the popes and used by them for five hundred years To maintain their power. He goes on to describe the fact that true religion has always been murdered by false religion.

The people who live for the truth, who speak the truth, are now slaughtered because of the truth. This woman, this harlot, is a persecutor. She's a murderer. And she will kill all those who don't buy into her religious System. And John says, I was shocked. I was astonished. I wondered greatly. And truth be told, all of us. Wonder at how all this is going to take place and what exactly is going to happen. All we know is that it's going to happen because God said so. And that moves us to our third main point.

The woman explained point number one, the woman exhibited point number two, the woman examined point number three.

And two things I want you to see: the cause for wonder and the call for wisdom. The first one, the cause for wonder.

John says, I wondered greatly. Look what it says in verse number seven. Look first of all at the question and then the distinction.

It says, And the angel said to me, Why do you wonder? And then says, I shall tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. Isn that good? The angel says, I'm going to explain it all to you, John. I will explain everything to you so that you are not left in the dark any longer. Let me give you the distinction.

The question comes, and then comes the distinction. Now, this is very interesting because what the angel says is that I'm going to tell you, John, about this woman who rides this beast, and then goes into a long discourse about the beast. It doesn't come back to the harlot until verse number 15 down through verse number 18. So let me take you all the way to verse number 18, all the way to the end of Revelation 17, to help you understand the harlot and her relationship.

To the beast. It says, and the woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. Now, listen, we are examining the harlot. Now he tells us who the harlot is. The harlot is what? The harlot is the great city. Question comes: is it a literal city? Well, if you take the safest literal grammatical historical interpretation of the text, you come up with one answer. It is a literal city. Say, wait a minute. The woman's a city? The harlot is a city? What does that mean? Stay with me.

It's important to understand. That there are many people who believe that Babylon is going to be a rebuilt city in the future. But understand this: it's more than just a city, it is a system. It's a city and a system. A worldwide system of satanic rule. A worldwide system of false religion. The system began where? Genesis 11 began in a city. Began in Babel. That's where it began. So it would lead you to believe that if it began there and they all come home to Mama, then they must come home to the city, which would be Babylon.

And all of us know that Sud Saddam Hussein has been in the process of rebuilding Babylon. But notice this: if you read Revelation 18:10, Revelation:, and Revelation:, you see that there is a real city in view in the destruction of Babylon.

If you were to read Isaiah 13, Isaiah 14, Jeremiah 50, and Jeremiah 51, the Old Testament prophets spoke of the final destruction of Babylon. They spoke of a little city. What they predicted, listen very carefully, only partially happen in history, past. Some of what they predicted took place when the Medo-Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire. And then there was a slow, gradual decline of Babylon in the centuries that followed, but all the aspects of prophecy against Babylon have not been fulfilled.

Because of that, there is reason to assume that a literal city will exist again in order that the final predictions may come to pass. Like many Old Testament prophets, every time they gave a prophecy, there was a near fulfillment and a future fulfillment. Listen to what Henry Morris says. Concerning this aspect of Babylon. Babylon indeed will be permanently destroyed as recorded in the very next chapter, Revelation 18:2. But this has not happened yet. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah also refer to this future destruction, not merely to Babylon's present-day condition, as is evident from the following considerations, among others.

Number one. The destruction will take place in the time that the stars and sun are darkened. Isaiah 13. The city will become as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah, burned completely with no remains whatsoever. Isaiah 13, Jeremiah 50. It shall become, number three, desolate forever, with neither man nor beast entering it anymore.

That's Isaiah 13:20 and Jeremiah:. It will be a time of judgment not only for Babylon, but for all the nations. Number five, its destruction will be followed by universal rest and peace. That's recorded in Isaiah 14. And number six, its destruction is directly associated also with the casting of Lucifer into She. Isaiah 14, verses. 12 to 15. Babylon stones, number 7, will never be used in future construction elsewhere, whereas the present-day ruins of Babylon have been frequently plundered and reused in later Construction.

The point being is that there is vis there will be a future city called Babylon. That will house the system of the harlot, the system of false religion. There is prophetic reason for a rebuilt and finally destroyed Babylon.

In fact, it's being rebuilt today. It's the greatest place. Listen very carefully. Babylon, the land of Shinar, is the greatest place on the globe to build a city, to rule the world. It's located strategically near the world's richest oil fields. It's near the geographic center of Earth's land masses. It's located strategically at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa. It has an immense water supply, and the famed historian Arnold Toyn proclaimed to his students that Babylon would be the ideal site For an important political and cultural metropolis.

So, the world religious system will somehow be connected with a great city. Babylon, which will be, in a sense, a capital city of a false religious system ent Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlot and of the Abominations of the Earth. In fact, if you go back to verse number 15, and he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Now, listen.

That means that this city is the place where the people, the multitudes, and nations, and tongues, the people from all around the world come to. Why? Because that's where the harlot sits. She sits in a location in a strategic area, a very strategic area, to rule the world. And all the world comes home to Mama. All the religious systems go back to one. Central location ruled by the false prophet, a worldwide religion empire. A city, a system becomes a place where the whole world traffics together.

Now, go back to verse number 8. The beast that you saw was and is not, that is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. There's a distinction here. There's a distinction, listen very carefully, between the woman, the harlot, in the city she's located, and this beast. The angel says, The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to Destruction. My time is really limited. So let me give this to you as quick as possible, and hopefully next week I'll be able to pick up on it because this is very important.

Let me say it to you this way. The beast that was and is not is about to come up out of the abyss. Remember Revel 13? The beast received a fatal wound. The beast that was received a fatal wound and is not. But now is about to come up out of the abyss and do what? Go to destruction. Let me simplify this for you as best I can.

This beast, as we saw in Revel 13, receives a fatal wound, a mortal wound. If you were with us in our study in Revelation 13, you know that that was a fabricated death. And resurrection. Why? Satan doesn't have the power to raise the dead. So somehow, this Antichrist Conjures up this plan to make the world believe he dies and rises again. Why? He does so because remember Revelation chapter 6? There's a rider on a white horse. He comes in peace. He comes in peace because he draws the world together.

This Antichrist at the beginning of the tribulation is a political, military giant. He's the one who brings the world together. Remember, he has a bow, but no arrows. So he wins a war without ever fighting a war because he comes in peace. And the white horse represents peace. And for the first three and a half years, he comes alongside the woman.

Because the woman, you see, has religious power. And the woman is able to convince the world why all these people, these Christians, have all of a sudden disappeared, is able to convince the world as to why they are still here and those other ones are gone. Because there has to be something that unites the world. It's not political. It's not military. It's religious in nature. The false prophet's able to do that. So this beast. Allows a false prophet to ride him. They coexist together. They ride together.

They come alongside one another. They stand next to each other. They are presented before the people together. But the Antichrist wants it all. In order to get it all, he must prove himself to be supernatural. To prove himself to be supernatural, he fabricates his death. So the world thinks he dies. He rises again. So people think he is God. He's got to get him to believe he's God. I believe he rises again at a very strategic time, according to Revelation chapter 11, because it's the Antichrist who kills who.

The two witnesses in Revelation 11. Nobody kills the two witnesses except the Antichrist because nobody can. And the Antichrist is able to do that. Not only does he die and rise again, he goes into the streets of Jerusalem and kills the two witnesses. And Revelation 11 tells us that the whole world has the greatest celebration in the history of the universe. Why? Because now there is a God. There's a God who kills these two witnesses who kill everybody else. The one that died, the one that was. And is not, he died, and is now again, he rose again.

But the text says, he goes to what? He goes to destruction. He goes to destruction. And when you read Revelation 13, what do we read? The whole world worships him. They bow down before him. Who is like the beast? Who? Who can do what the beast does? He is the greatest. He is the most superb individual. He is God. And they bow before him and worship him. And the Antichrist has exactly what he wants. You see, the Antichrist, according to Revelation chapter 18, verse number 16, he devours the woman.

What's it say? It says, and the ten horns which you saw, and 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. He's got to have it all. How does he do that? He destroys the false prophet system, sets himself up as God, and now everybody worships him. Now he has what he's always wanted. Self-deification. Satan rules through the Antichrist. He finally has what he wants.

But the text says what? He goes to destruction. He goes to destruction. Listen very carefully. The text also says this: Here is the mind which has wisdom. I'm sorry, excuse me. Back in verse 8, he goes to destruction, and those who dwell on the earth will wonder in amazement. Listen very carefully, 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. What makes the world worship him? He rose from the dead.

And all those, it's the rare time in the Bible that gives you eternal security. It's a rare way of expressing the fact that it's the non-elect who worship the beast, telling you that the elect will never worship the beast. Those people whose names have been written, who have not been written in the book of life, those are the ones who wonder. The non-elect, they worship the beast. The elect The elect, they don't worship him. Why? Because they know the true God. Takes you back to Matthew 24, doesn't it?

That if God didn't shorten the days, even the elect would be deceived. But God shortens them. Why? Because God preserves his own. Isn't that interesting? God is so good. I'm sure you got lots of questions. We'll answer them next week for you, I promise. Let's pray.