The Religion of the Nations, Part 1

Follow me in a moment of prayer, please. Father, thank you for today and Father, thank you that you truly are our Father who is in heaven and thank you Lord that we can come to you and we can bring our petitions before you because you care for us more than we can ever imagine. And Lord we know that you have a plan. It's a perfect plan and you have mapped out the future and you've let us know the things you want us to learn in your word. You've given it to us and I pray Lord that you'd help us to understand the truth of your word this evening. We pray in your name, Amen.

Did you know that the Bible contains 30% prophecy? 30% of our Bible is about prophecy, what's going to take place in the future? Did you also know that the cults, the religions of the world don't have books that relate specifically to prophecy? For example, the Book of Mormon has no prophecy in it, does not speak of the future and tell of the future. The speakings and sayings of Buddha or Confucius have no topic on prophecy. The Quran says nothing about prophecy.

Interesting to note that as you begin to look at what other religions say they don't talk about the future because they don't know the future. Our Lord is the future. He inspired the future. He inspires the present and so our Lord has mapped out for us those things he wants us to learn and to know so that we will be well equipped to face tomorrow.

You know by understanding how to face today we can effectually face tomorrow but our Lord doesn't want us to be in the dark about tomorrow and so he has told us, he tells us "take no thought of tomorrow because each day is enough trouble of its own" but on the other hand he explains to us the future to let us know that he is in complete control of everything, everything, so that nothing happens without God overseeing it or directly making it happen. He has a perfect plan and the future has been perfectly mapped out for people like you and me to read and to understand.

So we're looking at the future, we're looking at the coming of the King, the return of Jesus Christ our Lord to this earth and in the looking at his return we looked at what the Lord is going to do with the church in the future, what the Lord is going to do with Israel in the future and now we're looking at what God is going to do with the nations in the future. So we looked at the times of the nations and then we looked at the ruler of the nations and I know that it was a lot of information last week and I know that maybe some of you are in the dark.

I tried to condense what I did a number of years ago in three weeks into one week. That doesn't always work real well sometimes and so tonight what I'm going to do is take what I did in four weeks and condense it into two weeks mainly because we have information in the book of Revelation that will help you understand some of the things we're going to talk about this evening. In fact if you were to get the CDs on Revelation 17 it will help you understand more of what we're going to introduce to you tonight.

But the point is that God has outlined the future of the nations for us and so tonight we'll look at the religion of the nations. The religion of the nations and as we do we will see how the ruler of the nations coincides with the religion of the nations and through our study we will see some very important truths.

Karl Marx said it well a number of years ago that religion is the opium of the people. Religion is the opium of the people. Man was created to be a worshiper and every man worships someone, something, somewhere, in some way. Every man does. We were created that way. In fact the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3 that eternity has been set in the heart of man. So there is a longing to know deity. A longing for our Creator. There's that inner pulse that moves man to understand his maker. That's how God designed us.

Naturally and inevitably man will bow to a shrine. He will bow in subjection to a God. It will either be the God of the revelation of Scripture or it will be the God of his own invention. Romans 1 speaks to us about that. Verses 18 and following. You can read that on your own if you like but it talks about how man by nature is a worshiper.

But man's problem is that he wants to worship a God that does not hold him accountable for his sin. Because way back in Genesis 3 when man fell his nature was corrupted. His nature became sinful and therefore his worship became twisted. And no longer does he seek after the true God because the Bible says in Romans chapter 3 verse 11 that no man seeks after God. And Jesus would go on to say in John chapter 6 verse number 44 that "the man that comes after me comes because he has been drawn by my father who is in heaven." So the father draws man to himself. And because of sin man has become extremely twisted in his desire to know his Creator. His built-in longing for God has been corrupted.

Well Satan is the energizer of false gods and he truly wants man to worship him. That has always been Satan's plan ever since Isaiah chapter 14 when he fell. He wanted to be like the Most High God because he wanted to be worshipped. He wanted to be adored. He wanted to be honored. He didn't want to give his honor to the God of the universe. And so Satan sets out to get people to worship him. And God in His grace and God in His mercy, His wonderful love goes after man like he did with Adam in the garden. When Adam sinned against him he went looking for Adam. Adam didn't go looking for him. And God in His love and mercy goes after man.

But Satan the angel of light, he disguises himself as that, the angel of light. Satan is the father of lies. He gets man to worship a false god, not the true God. He gets him to believe that somehow he can make it to heaven by his own works, by his own methods, by his own self-righteousness, by something that he can devise in his own mind to make him feel good about his eternal destiny. And Satan is a master deceiver. And so he sets out to get man to turn away from the true God and worship Him. That's always been his plan.

And one day that plan will come to fruition. He will get the world to worship him. Something he's always wanted he will finally get. It will be for a brief time, but he will get what he has always wanted. And God will allow that to happen. Under his purpose, under his decree, under his plan, God allows Satan to be worshipped by the world, by those who dwell upon the earth. And the Bible tells us about that. It tells us about it in the book of Revelation extensively, particularly Revelation chapter 17.

In Revelation chapter 17 we have what is commonly called the one world religion of the nations. And it talks to us about how it all comes together. Satan has a plan, a plan he's always wanted to see happen. And in Revelation 17 it comes to fruition. And as you look at Revelation chapter 17, you realize that it follows Revelation chapter 16, which is a record of the seven bowls of judgment poured out upon the earth. In Revelation chapter 16 when the seventh bowl is poured, the king returns. But in the Bible the king doesn't come to Revelation chapter 19.

Why? Because in Revelation 17 and in Revelation chapter 18, God explains to John exactly what the Messiah is going to destroy when he returns. And so John is let in on the religion of the world. Revelation chapter 17 talks about, talks about the religion of the nations and talks about it in a sense that it speaks of Babylon in a spiritual sense. And in Revelation 18 it speaks of Babylon in a material sense. So when you read Revelation 17, Babylon is depicted as a mother. When you read Revelation 18, Babylon is depicted as a monster. But God destroys them all.

In fact, in Revelation chapter 17, verse number 5, we are given the biblical name of the world's religion. It's Mystery Babylon the Great. The mother of harlots. The abominations of the earth. Now that's not what it's going to be called in the tribulation. That's what God calls it. So those in the tribulation are not going to be driving down the road and see on the marquee above Satan's church, "Mystery Babylon the Great. Mother of harlots. Abomination in all the earth." That's not what's going to be read. That's the biblical name for it. That's how the Lord God describes it.

So what we want to do is understand it. We want to look at its conception. We want to look at the conception of false religion. And then we want to look at the complexion of that false religion. And then we want to look at the construction of that false religion. And then the consummation of that false religion. That's where we're going to go this week and next week. And so we want to be able to explain those things to you.

The name Mystery Babylon the Great, mother of harlots, is a very significant name. It is a biblical name that describes for us Antichrist's religion. The little horn's religion. The king of fierce countenance. His religion. And how it is he comes to power and uses that religion.

Now John is told in the book of Revelation that Babylon will be destroyed. It says in Revelation chapter 14 these words. Revelation 14 verse number 8: "And another angel, a second one, followed saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great. She who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.'" So John has heard that. And then in chapter 16 verse number 19 with the pouring of the seventh bowl it says, "And the great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon the Great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath."

And then of course over in Revelation 19 verse number 2 it says, "Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God 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 bondservants on her." So in chapter 14 and in chapter 16 John has heard about the destruction of Babylon. In chapter 19 the hallelujah chorus begins to ring and again it speaks about the destruction of Babylon. The king returns in Revelation 19 and Babylon is completely destroyed.

Now the question comes, what is this? The Bible says in Revelation 17 verse number 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.'" So Revelation 17 is about the judgment of the harlot. John knows it's going to be judged and now he sees how it's going to be judged with the arrival of the king in Revelation 19. So we want to begin this evening by looking at religion's conception. How did this false religion begin? And how did it begin? Where did it begin? We want to begin to answer those questions for you this evening.

Notice two things about its conception. First of all it's a mystery. Mystery, Babylon, the great. That's important. Why? Because as soon as you mention Babylon people automatically begin to think of the Babylon on the Euphrates River and Saddam Hussein. Remember when he was alive and he began to rebuild Babylon? All the books that were written and all the magazine articles that were written about wow, it looks like Revelation 17 is soon going to come. And I'll caution you again not to look at today's events to interpret the scripture. Saddam Hussein is dead. Okay? He was unable to build or rebuild Babylon.

It's called the mystery because Babylon is not so much a city as it is a system. Please understand that. It's not so much about a location as it is about an infection. It's an infectious disease. And so you need to understand that. We tend to think of Babylon and think of a city being rebuilt. And maybe there will be some kind of city in the future that is built as Antichrist's headquarters. I'm not so sure it's going to be a city. But I am positive it's going to be a system. A system of satanic religion. This is a mystery. So it goes a lot deeper and a lot broader than a location on a map. Because it's a system that infects the whole world. That's important.

In fact when John wrote the book of Revelation there was a church in a city called Babylon according to 1 Peter 5 verse number 13 which housed some Jewish believers who were committed to the Christ. This is not that Babylon in Revelation chapter 17. In the future there will be a rebuilt Babylon. But I'm not so much sure it's a city as much as it is a system that is rebuilt. It will play a significant role in the regime of the Antichrist and his rulership. But it says very specifically that it is a mystery. Something that has not yet been revealed but now for the first time is beginning to be revealed to those who read Revelation 17.

Now when you look at prophecy and you understand the book of Revelation not everything that's going to happen in the future is spelled out in Revelation. But those who live in the tribulation if they were able to get a hold of a Bible and read the book of Revelation they would begin to see how everything fits together just perfectly. We know it does. We just don't know how all the events surrounding, all the nuances surrounding it come together. But it does tell us it is a mystery.

Babylon is the head of all worldly resistance to God. You must understand that. It is the Babylon of idolatry. Eschatological system of Satan. A worldwide deception of the world. It's called great. It's mega. It's massive. It's bigger than large. It's huge. It's worldwide. That's why it's Babylon the great. Whenever people turned to other gods it was called harlotry. And so that leads us into this next phrase. Not only is it a mystery but it's a mother. It's a mother.

Now that's important because if it's a mother then all the harlots, all the abominations in the world are spawned out of this Babylon. Whatever this Babylon is all the abominations, all the harlotry are spawned out of this system. Now when you read in the Bible when people turn to other gods rather than the true God it's called spiritual adultery or spiritual fornication or spiritual harlotry. As you recall the nation of Israel was accused of spiritual adultery. You can read about it in the book of Jeremiah. You can read about it in the book of Ezekiel. Hosea was the whole book about how Hosea was a representative of God to the people because his wife Gomer played the harlot.

And she symbolized what Israel did. And so there's a whole book about how a man, a prophet would portray God to his people by continually going after his wife, paying all of her bills, following behind her so that one day he could buy her back out of the slave market. A picture to us what God does when he saves our soul. But she was the one who played the harlot. Babylon the Great is the mother of all false religions. The Babylon of which John writes is the very Babylon that once gave birth to all spiritual prostitution. All forms of religion that turned away from the true God came from this mother and at the end will all go back to this mother. That's important. She, this mother, gave birth to all false religion. Babylon the Great spawns all manner of harlots, which are a form of any idolatry that man might commit. This is the source of Earth's false religions.

Now, whether it's Islam, whether it's materialism, spiritism, mysticism, Taoism, animism, astrology, or any other ism that's out there, it all came from a source. It all came from one source. And it all came from one place. And in the end, it will all go back to that same place. That's important to understand. There is a one world religion that's going to come. It's inevitable. People today talk about the ecumenical movement and moving people together and erasing all dogma and those things that divide us so that we can all get along and be one together. Oneness is the cry of ecumenicalism. We've got to be one. We've got to be unified.

How can we bring everybody together? And people like you and me and the church are those that keep that from happening. But when we're gone, when the rapture happens, there's no one left to stand on the soapbox and stand strong on truth. And the Antichrist will be free to bring the world together under one system, the system called Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, the abominations in the earth. And there will be a need for that. I mean, when you look at the seals, the seals being broken, the trumpets being blown, the bowls being poured, people are in a desperate need for something. You know, go back to 9-11 and how churches began to fill up after 9-11. Remember that? And people were going to church. I mean, when there's a tragedy, people tend to look for God. Right?

And so, when the devastation of the world comes, people are looking for answers. They're looking for some semblance of hope. Where do they go? Well, someone will have the answer for them. It won't be the Lord God of the universe. It will be the Antichrist, the anti-Messiah. He will have the so-called answers for the world. And they'll come running to someone who will bring them together and unify them as one, so much so that He will convince them that they are fighting against the true God, who He will claim is the false God. And He's the true God. And His deception will be so great that the world will buy His deception.

So the question comes, why Babylon? How is Babylon a mother? Well, to answer that, we have to go back to the future. The book of Revelation is a book that goes back to the future. You go back to the Isle of Patmos, where John is, in order to see the future. Well, in order for us to understand Babylon and why Babylon is called a mother, the mother of harlots, we have to go back in order to see the future. And that back is all the way to Genesis chapter 11.

So turn with me in your Bible to Genesis chapter 11. This will help you understand the mystery. This will help you understand the mother, the conception of false religion, where it all began. And it will help you begin to piece together what will take place in the future in Revelation chapter 17. Now, what I'm going to give you, I will not give you as much as I did when we did the book of Revelation. You can get the CDs on that and get a lot more information than what I'm going to give you this evening. But I will at least whet your appetite to help you understand this mother, this mystery that spawned all false religion.

Now, Genesis 11 verse number 1 says this: "Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. Then it came about as they journeyed east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar." You just put a circle around the land of Shinar. "And settled there. 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. And they said, 'come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven. And let us make for ourselves a name.'"

People think that this whole gospel of self-esteem and loving yourself is the way to go. It's root is in Genesis 11 in Babylon. "Let us make for ourselves a name." We need to become somebody. We need to become great. So they set out to make for themselves a name. "'Lest we be scattered and brought over the face of the whole earth.'" Well, God told Noah, his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth that they were to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Well, in Genesis 11 the people say, "no, we don't want to be scattered. We want to come together. We want to be, we want to be one. We want to be unified." The cry of ecumenicalism was way back in Genesis chapter 11.

"And the Lord came down to see the city," verse 5, "and the tower which the sons of men had built. 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 purposed to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth. And they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth."

Now, you need to understand that people just don't get together and decide to do something unless somebody leads them. Right? Well, they had a leader. His name was Nimrod. You say, "well, I didn't read anything about Nimrod in Genesis chapter 11." Well, that's because he's in Genesis chapter 10. So, look at Genesis 10, verse number 8. "Now, Cush became the father of Nimrod. Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah. With me so far? He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it is said, 'like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.' And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel in the land of Shinar."

Now, listen carefully. You read that, you think, "well, okay, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. His name was Nimrod. Yada, yada, yada." But, Nimrod's name means revolt or rebel. In Hebrew, the text reads this way: "He became the chief one on the earth." And then it says, "he was a chief one against God," not before God. Okay? So, he was the first, listen carefully, anti-god man. Not that he was a god man, but he was anti-god. He was the first man who was anti-god. He was the first man who began to spread a religion around the world. And the religion spawned about having themselves a name. They wanted to be important. They wanted to be popular. The name of God wasn't good enough. They had to have a name.

The word Babel means "gate of God." "Gate of God." So, the chief one who was against God was going to rally the people to make a gate to God. In order, a way to God. Man's way to God. We know from archeological evidence that this was a ziggurat. We also know that the top of a ziggurat was a zodiac. And the priest of those days would use the zodiac to read the stars and the sun to determine the future of people's lives.

So, those who get the LA Times and they read their horoscope, all that was rooted in Genesis chapter 11 by a man by the name of Nimrod who revolted and rebelled against God as the chief one on the earth to lead people to find a way to God. That's Genesis chapter 11. Nimrod was the first apostate of the patriarchal age. He would turn people not to God but away from God.

So, what God did was confuse their languages and scatter them all around the world. And when he did that, God scattered all false religion around the world. God did that. He confused their languages and so the gate of God became, as the text says, a place of confusion because false religion only confuses you as to the real way to God. It doesn't give you a clear way to God. It just confuses you on how to get to God. And so, God scattered them all around the world.

Now, what is it that God scattered all around the world? Well, it's false religion. What was that religion? Well, that's why you're here. We're going to tell you what that religion is. There are many, many ancient documents that tell us about this religion. Nimrod had a wife. Her name was Semiramis. She was the queen. She was the first queen of idolatry. Her name is Semiramis. You can read this in any ancient document and I'm going to show you where it's all in Scripture. Okay?

Semiramis said that she conceived a son without a man, by a sunbeam, thus incorporating the zodiac aspect of her religious beliefs. That she conceived a son by a sunbeam. And that son was born. His name was Tammuz. Tammuz. And Tammuz was born to be a deliverer of people. Tammuz lived to around 40 years of age. He was attacked by a wild boar and died. I'm sorry, not 40, but when he was older he was attacked by a wild boar and died. His mother, Semiramis, would weep for 40 days. After the 40th day of her weeping, Tammuz was resurrected from the dead.

So you have in the Babylonian religion of Genesis chapter 11, a woman who's a virgin, who conceived a male child that was born, died and rose again. You see, Satan began to falsify the plan of God in Genesis chapter 11. He began to put his spin on it in order to get the world to buy into a false system. Very important to understand. He knew the plan of God. And so when that religion was spread all over the world, it literally became something of value to all those people in Babylon that day in Genesis 11, that it carried over to the entire world.

In Assyria, her name is Semiramis. Son's name is Tammuz. In Nineveh, the woman's name is Ishtar. The son was still Tammuz. Tammuz had an affinity for the egg. He believed the egg was mysteriously symbolic of the resurrection. So his mother, Ishtar, gave eggs to people to celebrate the resurrection of her son. They were called Ishtar eggs. I'm not so sure they had an Ishtar hunt, but she gave Ishtar eggs.

Interesting to note that ancient documents tell us that Tammuz had also an affinity for the evergreen tree. And so they would erect an evergreen tree in his honor for his birth. And as the story goes, they would erect that evergreen tree in honor of his birth, light a yule log, and sing songs. But I'll let you figure that one out yourself.

In Phoenicia, the woman's name was Ashtaroth. The child's name was Baal. And when you read about the Old Testament and begin to understand Baal worship, you begin to put two and two together with Genesis chapter 11 and begin to understand what took place. In Egypt, the woman's name was Isis. The son's name was Horus. In Greece, the woman's name was Aphrodite. The boy's name was Eros. In Rome, the woman's name was Venus. The son's name was Cupid.

Why do I tell you that? Because the cult that the Babylonian religion of Genesis 11 spawned was the mother-child cult. The mother-child cult began to spread all around the world when God confused their languages and began to move them out because they had rebelled against him. Ancient documents prove that there were pictures of Semiramis. And under that picture, she was called the Queen of Heaven. She would hold in her arms the newborn Tammuz and proclaim him to be the deliverer of man from his sins. All of this out of Genesis chapter 11 through the ancient documents that tell us what took place at those ziggurats, what was happening with the Zodiac, and all about Nimrod, his wife Semiramis, and the false religion that spawned from Genesis chapter 11. Very important.

Why? Because though they spread, and each of those countries and each of those sections of people developed their own style of religion, some of the characteristics of their religion were the same. For instance, there were priests in all those religions. With the priests, there was always an offering of a wafer to the Queen of Heaven. There was the sprinkling of holy water upon people. There was the order of virgins dedicated to the woman, Semiramis, and her child, Tammuz. There was the teaching of purgatory. And there was the salvation available through the keeping of countless sacraments. All of that was the same across the board in the mother-child cult that was spawned out of Genesis chapter 11.

Now, while you can read that in many of the ancient documents that record all that's taken place, the Bible speaks of people who would worship the Queen of Heaven. That's found in the book of Jeremiah, the 44th chapter, the 15th verse. Listen to what it says. "Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah saying, listen carefully, 'as for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen.'"

Now, can you imagine going to the prophet Jeremiah and say, "we know what God has said." These are the men whose wives are sacrificing to idol worship. "Well, we know what the word says, but if you knew my wife, boy, you wouldn't tell her what to do." No, they're going to do, "we're not going to do what God's word said." Many men like that today, right? Their wives just kind of go off and do what they want to do. They don't, they don't say anything. They don't say anything. We're not going to tell them what to do. We're not going to obey God. Why would we do that?

Listen to this. This is so important. "But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths by burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings, and our princesses did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine."

"And said the women, 'when we were burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and were pouring out libations to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out libations to her?'" In other words, Jeremiah is talking to those people who were worshiping Semiramis, the Queen of Heaven. And they said, "look, when we did it God's way, we were hungry. We lived without. If we don't do it God's way, we lived in plenty. You think we're going to go back to God? Not on your life."

You find people like that today, right? They serve God and boy, all hell breaks loose in their life. And they say, "I'm going back to do something else because when I wasn't serving God, I was a lot happier. When I committed my life to Christ, boy, things got bad, real bad. I'm going back the other way." It's exactly what they did here in Jeremiah's day. We are offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven is a pagan, idolatrous individual. That's who she is.

And so when you turn over to the book of Ezekiel, God says to Ezekiel, "you," verse 13, "will see still greater abominations, which they are committing." In other words, he had an opportunity to go into the temple and the men were hiding underneath and they were burning incense and they were scribbling all kinds of idols on the walls of the temple. And God says, "you haven't seen anything yet, Ezekiel. Wait to what I'm going to show you now."

"And it says that he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north. And behold, women were sitting there weeping for who?" Tammuz. "What? They were weeping for Tammuz. What were they doing? They were doing what Semiramis did for 40 days that her son was dead and then rose after those 40 days." They were weeping for Tammuz. Do you know where Lent came from? Right here. The 40 days of weeping by Semiramis. Next time somebody asks you, "what do you do for Lent?" Say, "I don't do anything for Lent. That's under a pagan idol named Semiramis. I had nothing to do with that."

And this is what they were doing. They were weeping for Tammuz. "And he said to me, 'do you see this son of man? Yet you will still, you will see still greater abominations than these.'" So here your Ezekiel is thinking, "there's more, there's worse abomination than this."

"Then he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house and behold at the entrance of the temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun." They were worshiping the sun God. That's what they were doing.

"And he said to me, 'do you see this son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose.'" In other words, they're mocking me. They're mocking me. "Therefore I indeed shall deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor shall I spare. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I shall not listen to them." Harsh words by the Lord.

But you see the Babylonian cult of Genesis 11 spread throughout the entire world. And the mother-child cult began to be the heartbeat of false religion all around the world. Babylon kept spreading like an energizer bunny all around the world. It moved to Pergamon, Revelation chapter 2. It's a place where Satan dwells, Christ says. So during the writing of Revelation, it was still a dominated influence. But it finally moved to Rome.

It was brought there by Julius Caesar because he knew, listen carefully, he knew that the only way to obtain worldwide power, he would have to have not just military power but religious influence. He knew that. And so because the popularity of the mother-child cult spawned out of Genesis 11 that had spread all throughout the world, he was bound and determined to bring it to Rome. And thus Babylon has been linked to Rome ever since.

Furthermore, the priests in Julius Caesar's day wore crowns. And on those crowns was the phrase, "the keeper of the bridge." Those priests were the ones who kept the bridge between God and the people open and available. The priestly function was to be that bridge between man and God. The Roman equivalent was "Pontifex Maximus," which means "the supreme bridge." Julius Caesar took that title. The emperors of his day took that title. Today there's only one person who has that title. He's the pope. So now you begin to understand how the Babylonian cult made its way to Rome.

Having said that, go back with me to Revelation chapter 17. False religion spawned out of a mother, the mother of harlots. Harlotry, prostitution in a spiritual sense is an abomination to God. And it began in Genesis chapter 11 and a man by the name of Nimrod, who was a mighty force against God, a chief one in the land against God, the first anti-God, the first man who was anti-God, the first man who began to spread a religion around the world. And the religion spawned about having themselves a name. They wanted to be important. They wanted to be popular. The name of God wasn't good enough. They had to have a name.

And what Satan tried to do in Genesis chapter 11, he will finally be able to do in Revelation chapter 17. What he wanted to accomplish in Genesis 11 was to have a one-world religion around a false God that looked like what the true God was going to do, but it was all man-made and man-centered. That somehow man could have the gateway to God through the anti-God Nimrod, who developed a religious system called the Babylonian religion that spread worldwide across the country and is still in operation today. And so once Julius Caesar moved it to Rome, it has never left. And all those religions will now come back to mother in Revelation chapter 17. Everybody comes back to mama. Everybody comes back to the one that spawned them. And that's what Revelation 17 is about. That's its conception.

Now it's complexion. I have eight minutes, so we're going to go quick. "And one of the seven angels who had seven bowls came and spoke to me saying, 'come here and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot.'" Now look at Revelation 21:9 with me for a second. Look at this. "And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls," same thing as Revelation 17:1, "full of the seven last plagues came and spoke to me saying, 'come here I shall show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.'" So maybe it's the same angel. I don't know. But it says, "you come and I'm going to show you the harlot. I'm going to show you the false system. I'm going to show you the idolatrous system. And I'm going to show you how it's going to be judged."

That may be the same angel came in Revelation 21:9 says, "now I want to show you the true God. I want to show you the true bride. I want to show you the true lamb. I want you to see the real thing. This is the false thing in Revelation 21." "'I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.'" Let me begin by talking to you, number one, about the authority of this, of this harlot, her authority.

Look what it says. First of all, she's great, mega, large, huge. Over in Nahum 3, verse number one, Nineveh was described as a harlot city. Isaiah 23, Tyre was described as a harlot city. Jerusalem in Isaiah 1, verse number 21, was described as a harlot city. Any city that has prostituted itself, committing spiritual fornication, is a harlot city. Los Angeles is a harlot city. New York is a harlot city. They've turned away from the trueness of God and the worship of the true God.

And it says that she sits. That's a mark of distinction. That's a mark of authority. It symbolizes sovereignty and symbolizes rule. And she sits on many waters. What does that mean? So she sits on the water. We'll go down to verse number 15. It says, "and he said to me, 'the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.'" Talk about authority. She has authority over the entire world, over the multitudes of people. And it says, she sits on the many waters. Her authority is great.

But I also want you to notice her associates. It says, "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." Wow. The kings of the earth, the presidents, the emperors, the prime ministers, the sovereign rulers. Not only does she have authority over the multitudes of the peoples of every tribe and every tongue, she had an association with all the kings of the earth. That's power. This is, this is a woman. This is a harlot. This is a system that has authority over the entire world. It's one world religion.

She has authority over the kings who, who commit acts of immorality and those who dwell on the earth. That's the phrase used over 10 times in the book of Revelation to speak of those who are unbelievers, not believers. They are earth dwellers. They are consumed with what happens on the earth. That's all they care about is the earth and what's happening around them. They're called earth dwellers. They are the unbelievers.

And they were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. Oh, they, they bought her religious system, hook, line, and sinker. They dived right into that system. They drank that spiritual immorality. They drank of that spiritual fornication. They wanted to be all involved in the worship of idolatry. Why? Because there was a great need. There was a need. I mean, all hell was breaking loose around them and the earth was crumbling and all of a sudden there was wars and there was rumors of wars. There was earthquakes and pestilence and, and people dying and people were in a need for something. And this woman provided what they needed, provided what they wanted, an escape. And they gladly drank or were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.

But notice this, verse number three: "and he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. 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. And upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witness of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly."

Now John has seen the beast before. He saw the beast in Revelation 13, but he never wondered. Here he wonders. You see the authority of this harlot. You see the associates of this harlot. There were the kings of the earth. There were those who dwelt upon the earth. And then there was the association she had with this beast, this Antichrist, this little horn.

And she sits on the beast. She's riding the beast. Does that mean that the woman is in control of the Antichrist? Does that mean that the woman is ruling the beast? Answer, yes, for a time. That's exactly what she's doing. She's in charge. The religion of the nations rules over all military power, all socialistic power, all materialistic power, the realm of the supernatural always reigns supreme in the mind of man. And this woman had authority over the world, the kings of the earth, those who dwelt upon the earth. Her authority was so vast, so great, so deep, she rode the beast. She rode the Antichrist to power. And she was the great harlot.

She was adorned, this is her apparel, clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. I mean, she had it all. Signs of prosperity, signs of nobility, signs of wealth. She had everything. She had the riches of the world, which made her so appealing to people, so people would be drawn to her because of the beauty she portrayed. And false religion does portray a semblance of beauty to those who buy into it. And John says, "I wondered, I wondered greatly." He had a question, a question like we do, that we will answer next week.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for tonight, a chance to look into your Word and the opportunity we have to examine what your Word says. Our prayer, Father, is to truly understand all that John wondered about. And Lord, you are so good to explain to him what it is he saw, so that he would live without question as to what you would do in the future. We know the world goes toward religion. In fact, the world will become more religious than ever after we leave. And yet, Lord, it's not the true religion of the Scriptures.

We pray that our lives will be committed to the Christ, to tell people that Jesus, yes, He's coming again. We pray in your precious name. Amen.