Revelation: Part 51

When anyone anywhere responds to this knowledge by having a desire to know this God, God will move heaven and earth to get the message to them.

The book of Revelation is about a seven-year period of history. It’s a seven-year period that immediately precedes the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And it tells us what’s going to happen in the world during those fateful seven years. And this is not a number of years that was just plucked out of random thinking.

God predicted an allotment of time for his people, Israel. And he allotted them through the prophet Daniel, 490 years. He predicted that at the exact end of 483 years, he would stop his time clock with that allotment on it with seven years left on it because that would be the time they would reject Jesus as the Messiah. On the exact 173,880th day, which was 483 biblical lunar years, on that exact day was the day Jesus for the first time allowed himself to be proclaimed the Messiah as he rode a donkey into Jerusalem.

And that clock still has seven years allotted to them. Now, the book of Revelation tells us how that seven years is going to be started again and how it’s going to unfold and what’s going to happen in the world during that time. But we’re in Revelation 18, and if you would please turn to that, I’m going to read quite a few Scriptures here tonight. There’s no way for me to cover this whole chapter tonight.

I will give you some things that I hope you will have time to read this week because it will give you a way to grasp the magnitude of what’s predicted here. And you’ll remember that in chapter 17, we saw a great deal about how the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation predicts the great Gentile world empires that would rise. How they would succeed one after another. And we saw that the last stage of Gentile power is going to be a revived Roman Empire.

I call it Roman Empire, phase two. It predicted with precision all of these empires in the past, and the only one that it didn’t predict would be destroyed was the Roman Empire. It just predicted that it would fade away and go into a mystery form. It would cease to be a physical empire, but it would continue to have a mystery religious form.

And so Revelation 17 especially pinpointed what would be the religious form of this revived Roman Empire. And we saw how it talked about mystery Babylon, the great mother of harlots, in verse 5 of Revelation 17. And upon her forehead, a name was written, a mystery, “Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of the adominations of the earth.” And then it talks about who this woman is that’s called mystery Babylon.

At verse 18, it says, the woman whom you saw is the great city, which literally is reigning over the kings of the earth. What city, when John wrote the book of Revelation, was reigning over the kings of the earth? All right. So the woman is a figure or a symbol of Rome.

And the fact that the woman is called a harlot and Babylon the great, those are figures of speech that are used consistently in the Bible to depict false religious systems. And so when it calls this woman mystery Babylon the great, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, it’s talking about this religious system that’s a mystery because it actually started in ancient Babylon and it continued to be passed from one Gentile empire to another and until this religious system became identified with the city. And the city was Rome. Follow me?

All right. Now, let’s go to Revelation 18. Revelation 18 gives us another dimension of this revised Roman Empire and the form it takes. How it relates to this woman that is a false religious system.

All right. I’m going to begin to read. I’m reading from the new American standard Bible, and I’m going to read down to verse 7 and then I’m going to read some prophecies from the Old Testament that relate to this. And I want you to get the references down so that you can study these later this week.

Okay, here we go. After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice saying, “fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” Now, here’s where we see that the religious system was tied in with the economic system and is going to become a very close relationship, especially in this future time, which is not far from now. I believe we’re talking about the European Union, at least part of it, that this Antichrist is going to use as his power base to gain power over the world. But chapter 18 brings in the economic business side of this system.

So it says that, verse 4, I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, “I sit as a queen and I’m not a widow, and I will never see mourning.” All right, now, remember I told you that if you’re going to study the Bible, especially the book of Revelation, your most important tool is what?

A concordance, that’s right. Because all of these terms that the apostle John under the inspiration of God’s spirit uses, all of these terms are figures of speech that are explained somewhere else in the Bible or they’re amplified somewhere else in the Bible. So a concordance is something that is really, really important. I’ll give you another study tool.

If you have a computer, type in biblegateway. One word. Lower case, biblegateway.com. And then just click on, and a Bible study system will come up.

It doesn’t cost you anything. Now, people contribute to it because they’re blessed by it, but it didn’t — they don’t pay anything for it. Now, that will come up, and up at the top, it’ll say you want some Scripture or if you want a word traced or something like that, you just type it in, click on it, and it’ll look it up. But you can type in like Revelation 18, and then you look to the next, it’s a little band that goes across, you look to the next thing, it’ll have — it automatically comes up with a new international version of the Bible.

But you click on the little arrow next to it, and it will give you about 35 different versions of the Bible, including german and so forth. Also, it has three different versions of the Greek text. If you go to that, always use westcott and hort. It’s the best.

The best version to get is the new American standard Bible because it has letters in parentheses next to different words in the text, and you click on that, and it’ll come down to references at the bottom of the page. And you click on that, whether it’s a or ab or whatever, you click on that, and it will bring up all of the Scriptures that have that word or that idea in it right away. Well, I want you to remember that, because that will — you will have more blessing and fun doing that than you ever thought possible. Now, here’s what I did.

I clicked on it. Of course, I have other ways of doing it, but I said, I’m going to see how this works so that you can do it. So when I got down to here, I sit as a queen, and I’m not a widow and will never see mourning. Now, this is the whore of Babylon, mystery Babylon, talking here, okay?

And in my mind, I’ve read the Bible through several times, so I remember some places I didn’t know the address, but I remember there were places in the Old Testament where it said, I sit as a queen. I remember isiah, and I can find it. I just clicked on the reference and here’s what it brought up. Isiah chapter 47:1 first.

And I’m going to read from that. You don’t have to turn there if you don’t want, but write down isiah 47:1-13. This is what it says. Come down and sit in the dust, o virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, o daughter of the chaldeans.

You see, the chaldeans were in this land before the Babylonians. And the chaldeans became a special caste of astrological priests. And they were the ones that were big in the early empires. They were used as advisors to the kings and so forth.

It says, o daughter, in verse 1 again, for you shall no longer be called tender and delicate. Sit silently and go into darkness, o daughter of the chaldeans; for you will no longer be called, what? The queen of the kingdoms. You see, there’s where it begins to tie in.

I was angry with my people, God says, and I profaned my heritage, and gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, on the aged you made your yoke very heavy. That’s when God disciplined his people, but he disciplined those who treated them badly. Yet you said, verse 7, “I will be a queen forever.”

These things you did not consider, nor remember the outcome of them. Now, then, hear this, you sensual one, who dwells securely, who says in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow, nor know loss of children.” But these two things will come on you

You see, what’s he doing? He is predicting that it is actually through this religious system that mysteriously survived the Roman Empire phase one, it survived the political. It collapsed near the end of the fourth century. But spiritually, mystically, the power continued.

And it shows how that this religious power has always been wrapped up with politics and economy. And it’s really going to be used to get a grip on the economy as this comes up. And I believe it’s no accident that the European Union has formed. I remember back in 1956 when I first studied all of this and I said, there’s going to be a United States of Europe.

People wanted to lock me up for being a crazy man. Everybody said, that’s impossible. There will never be a European Union. But I saw in prophecy that it had to be.

There had to be ten nations emerge out of the ruins of the old Roman culture and people, and they would have to be a contiguous people, and Rome would have to be the capital. And now, all of these things have come. Now there are associate memberships to the European Union. But do you know it’s the only ones that are full members, as I’ve said this before, is the western European Union, which is composed of the original ten.

And I believe that’s going to be the base that the Antichrist is going to come in and use. But it’s going to be the religious power system that will help bring all these things together. And that’s what this is talking to us about. Because Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, is that religious system.

And so by the way, you remember what I told you last week? There’s a difference between the people in the system and the system. Because there are a lot of people in the system that are born again. But there’s a system that says, perverted is that strain that came right down from the plains of shinar.

Now, let’s read on. And slaves and human lives, actually human souls, in other words, this thing, the worst thing that happens is that it captures the souls of men and women. Verse 14, the fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them. The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, and 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; for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!”

And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance, and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, “what city is like the great city?” 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!” Rejoice over her, o heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. Now, here’s a critical turning point in all of this I’m reading.

God is judging this system first and foremost for what they have done to true believers. That’s why it says here, God is going to judge her for you. What this system has done to you.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary, and he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been. For the Church and for the nation.